Phoneboy, call home
New music: Indie rock in several flavors, Speed The Plough and Tom Waits revisited
PHONEBOY – Heartbreak Designer (Diamond City)
Formed at Hoboken’s Stevens Institute of Technology as a trio in 2018, Phoneboy quickly put the Garden State in their rearview mirror and hit the road (they’re currently on a national headlining tour that culminates at NYC’s Irving Plaza on June 14.) If 2023’s “Moving Out,” their sophomore album, represented indie-rock kids transitioning from college to adulthood, their third, “Heartbreak Designer” finds them (now a quartet with the addition of keyboardist Jordan Torres) rocking out with the confidence and expertise of polished professionals.
The addition of Jordan’s female vocals, alternating leads or harmonizing with the vocals of guitarists Ricky Dana and Wyn Barnum, bring an extra zing, and miraculously, upgrading the production with handclaps, processed vocals, and a bigger, richer sound hasn’t resulted in the band sounding slick, facile, or phony. Yes, these songs sound great (and would probably sound even better on the radio,) but they still connect with a post-adolescent like those Warped Tour warriors of the Nineties or, more recently, NJ’s Front Bottoms.
Phoneboy were always more pop than punk, but their approach seamlessly incorporates a nostalgia for third-wave emo, Nineties grunge, power-pop, and even an occasional and unexpected lick of ska. It’s exciting-yet-familiar-yet-new, and everybody wants to dance to it. That’s a Design that going to lead to big things, not Heartbreak.
SPEED THE PLOUGH - “Songs With Anna” (Bandcamp)
John and Toni Baumgartner have been guiding Speed The Plough since the band evolved from a Feelies sideproject, the Trypes, back in the Eighties. On this EP, they collaborate with harpsichordist Anna Clemente, with contributions from members of the Feelies as well as several offspring from this extended family of friends and musicians (and by family, we mean the grown children of three members.)
The genesis of this EP began when John received a note from Clemente (a well-known Italian harpsichordist and Conservatory professor) asking if he had written The Trypes’ “A Plan, Revised,” which she had loved for years. (How an Italian musician discovered a track released on a tiny, long defunct indie label is a question for another day.) They began a correspondence which turned into a friendship, which ultimately resulted in this collaboration, new versions of three chamber-pop originals from the STP catalog and one new song, “Poison Dart.”
Speed The Plough has long created orchestral folk music with a Renaissance Fair flair, more medieval madrigals than contemporary indie rock. On “A Saint, Restored, Clemente’s harpsichord replaces John Baumgartner’s signature accordion, although the track primarily serves as a showcase for Toni’s flute and Brenda Sauter’s vocal. The harpsichord features more prominently on “Poison Dart,” with a mysterious, baroque melody and some lovely harmony vocals. There’s a churchlike quality to harpsichord here; the undulating melody and multi-tracked vocals evoke images of dark cathedrals and secret rituals. “A Plan, Revised,” the song that inspired this collaboration, has always been the keystone to unlock the Trypes/Speed The Plough conundrum to me, with its passing references to “the undertow” and its whispered secrets, transporting the listener to a different time and place. The subtle flute that reinforces the vocal melody and then plays over whispered words has only one word to describe it: magic.
IDLE CREATURES - “Witty Fool/Foolish Wit” EP (Self-released)
Jose Ahumada is the Jersey City schoolteacher behind Idle Creatures, one of those one musician-and-a-computer bands that has a live incarnation ready to take the stage should the opportunity present itself. (hint hint) J
“Hyperbole” kicks things off with a melodic rock tune whose complex arrangement, emphatic chorus, processed vocals, changing tempos and dynamics, and clobbering drums immediately impresses. “Tired” slows things down and add more of a pop element, with gorgeous Beach Boys harmonies and ringing guitars, while “It’s So Simple” and especially “Orders of Restraint” take us a ride up the Coast Highway for the mellow sounds of Laurel Canyon. All aboard for the Yacht Rock of “Say What You Said,” sailing on sparking seas under blue skies, then buckle your seat belt for the rocking finish of “Oceans,” with drums that threaten to gallop away from the melody, until everything swells up in an orchestral crescendo, until you’re start imagining that Queen has hijacked the track. This is an ambitious pop record for listeners who are looking for complexity with their sugar high.
MAXCITO - “Bright Day” (maxcito.com)
Another single from Jersey City’s Max Biaggio, who as Maxcito has been gracing us with a new song every month, accompanied by lead guitarist Vick LeCar, drummer Jimmy Riveros, and bassist Aleks Dolgy. On one level, “Bright Day” jumps at you with an infectious Latin dance beat. Good luck sitting still listening, this is music that makes you want to get in the groove and move. But listen to the lyrics and it’s clear that Maxcito isn’t celebrating; he’s upset, specifically about the brainless pap he’s being fed on TV and the fact that everyone around him either isn’t paying attention of doesn’t care. That tension fuels the song, with stinging guitar lines and percolating percussion but Maxcito’s strained and pleading vocal. Good pop music makes you dance and think. At least it does here.
EDDIE SKULLER - “Broken Bicycles” (eddieskuller.com)
A few weeks ago, I chatted with Eddie Skuller about his new cabaret show interpreting the music of Tom Waits, and now we get to hear the first of Eddie’s recordings of those tunes (produced by his son Jack.) “Broken Bicyles” seems like a perfect starting point: Waits released the track in 1982, when his voice hadn’t entirely gone to wreck and ruin; it’s delivered with a bare bones piano accompaniment, the rusted wreck of a bicycle serving as a metaphor for broken dreams and a half-forgotten romance. On Skuller’s version, Joe McGinty plays the piano, with subtle undertones from Jeremy Chatzky’s standup bass. Skuller’s vocal proves even more evocative than Waits’, richer and more fluid, sung in the styule of a cabaret chanteuse like Edith Piaf. It’s intimate and nostalgic and beautifully sad.
RICKY ROCHELLE – “The Rose Window” (Rochelles Records)
Long Island isn’t in NJ and Ricky Rochelle never played Maxwell’s, but his new single deserves mention. After catchy but sentimental paeans to Joey and Dee Dee Ramone, Long Beach’s pop-punk songster Ricky Rochelle graces us with this curveball, a song that eschews his usual Ramonescore for an evocative romantic ballad. The track starts with a dramatic, spoken intro, then breaks into an uptempo chorus that’s quite unlike what we’ve come to expect from Mr. Rochelle. Psychedelic? Almost, which means Ricky’s either trying some new drugs or he’s found his dad’s old Syd Barrett records. Either way, it’s a brave change of pace from his usual pop-punk and has me even more curious about the album he’ll be releasing soon.