Everest Cale & Stone Cold Fox - Live Photos from Show at Pianos, Jan. 4, 2013

Last Friday, Brooklyn band Everest Cale premiered the video for their song "Beast" (title track from the band's latest EP) and followed this with a full live set. I reviewed "Beast" last year and compared the band's roots-rock sound to artists like Kevn Kinney and Connor Oberst but the band hits much harder when playing live. While Everest Cale haven't abandoned their core country-blues sound, their live interpretation is closer to Crazy Horse than either of the artists that I mentioned earlier. I was speaking to bassist Aaron Nystrup after the show and he said that the songs on "Beast" date back a number of years and the band is going into the studio early this year to record some of these harder-edged numbers.



My one regret of the evening is that I only brought a still camera and left my video camera at home but there will be other nights - Everest Cale is playing next at Tammany Hall (152 Orchard St) on Saturday, Jan. 19th.





Stone Cold Fox also has a fuller live sound than their new EP, "The Young", would suggest. When reviewing their disc, I compared them to Radiohead and The Walkmen - thinking their sound leaned toward Radiohead - but, live, Stone Cold Fox is closer in sound to The Walkmen and/or later period Replacements.



Check out the indie-pop side of Stone Cold Fox with this stripped-down studio performance of "Give Up The Kids".



Stone Cold Fox is playing next at The Paper Box (in East Williamsburg/Bushwick) on Sat., Jan. 19th. Also on the bill are Nightmare River Band, Watermelon, Rich Mahogany, D. Gookin and Aotearoa. Tickets are $10 and doors are at 7PM.

Links:
Everest Cale
Stone Cold Fox

Everest Cale & Stone Cold Fox Plays Pianos on January 4th

Brooklyn roots-root band Everest Cale is celebrating the release of their "Beast" video with a show at Pianos on January 4th. I reviewed the band's debut EP a few months back (link) and thought the band's sound was comparable to artists like Kevn Kinney and Connor Oberst.

“Beast,” the titular single from the band’s debut EP, is a dark love song with a cinematic video to match. Shot in and around lead singer Brett Treacy’s Williamsburg, Brooklyn apartment, produced by Treetop Pictures, directed by Chris Sandas and starring NY-based actress Marisol Sacramento, the video paints a picture of deception and heartbreak matching the mood of the song.

On this note, the blog MusicUnderFire noted that the song’s opening lyric “‘Cut the apple from your eye before she takes a bite,’ is more than enough to assure that you’ve stumbled upon greatness. Love is brutal and Everest Cale is explicitly descriptive of the torture."



Also on the bill is the fabulous indie-rock band Stone Cold Fox (another local band whose sound brings to mind post Brit-Pop acts like Radiohead and Coldplay) who are also touring behind their debut EP, "The Young" (link to review).



Tickets are $10 and the full lineup for the night is Basement Batman (8PM), Everest Cale (9PM), Stone Cold Fox (10PM) and Moon Furies (12AM).

Links:
Everest Cale

Stone Cold Fox - 'The Young' EP CD Review / Show at Bowery Electric on Dec. 7th

Stone Cold Fox formed last year but the band has an immediately recognizable sound that is rooted in the post Brit-Pop sound of the bands of the late-90’s. Vocalist Kevin Olken has a distinctive and emotive voice and the band plays intricate and atmospheric indie-pop, which easily leads to comparisons to bands like Coldplay, The Walkmen and early Radiohead.

Stone Cold Fox’ was formed last year by Kevin Olken and Ariel Loh and the duo’s acoustic bedroom project morphed into a full band group. The band’s debut EP, “The Young”, was released earlier this year and the disc has a mature sound (especially for being a debut disc) so you could easily convince your friends that Stone Cold Fox was a contemporary of the aforementioned bands. It is with good reason that Filter Magazine called the band “the new band that you all should know”.

The disc starts with the melancholy “Pictures” which is carried by Olken’s vocals for the first minute of the song before the full band kicks in and drives the song toward its big melodic chorus, which include strong vocals harmonies. The next cut, “American”, is a more upbeat number with a faster tempo and this song could be a big radio hit if this disc hits the right ears. “Father Spirit” is another standout cut with its repeating guitar riff and strong rhythm section pushing the song forward. The disc ends with the chill-out number “Wild Cats”, which prominently features Olken’s vocals with minimalist instrumentation (which sounds to include strings).

In an interview with Pop’stache, Kevin describes the lyrical themes of the disc as an “album…about coming of age. ”American” does place that theme in America specifically, but the other songs are really more about nostalgia for a loss of home. I wrote these songs in my last year of college and that is really the “coming of age” period I was thinking of. I think the “graduating college period” is a really important stage in development that I wanted to dive into. You feel you can’t go back home but you don’t have a new home to go to.”



Stone Cold Fox premiered some new songs live last month and the band is heading back into the studio later this month to start recording this new material. Below is a (presumably) new song, “Graduation”, from the band’s CMJ show at Trash Bar.



Stone Cold Fox plays Bowery Electric on December 7th along with At The Moment, Alex Vans and These Animals. Advance tickets are $8 and doors are at 6:30PM.

Links:
Stone Cold Fox