One of the frustrating things -- and there are many -- about closely following the local music scene is that there is immeasurable music that you've hear which will only be heard for a limited time ... perhaps even only once. Bands at this level are very volatile, with only a few surviving long enough to get their music put down in a recording and preserved. Much of the time, music is a collaborative effort between two more more people, and an unpleasant separation means much of that collaboration gets buried and never played again. Still other times a song is inherited by another band and becomes something else ... not better or worse ... just different. Perhaps this adds to the "specialness" of the elder version, or perhaps it just contributes to that growing sense we all have that "things just aren't the same anymore."Spanking Shakespeare is part of that great melange of songs and players that are passed around the local scene like ingredients in a soup that's always being stirred. In their short time together, they've produced some great music, some memorable moments, and revisited a few songs from the respective members catalogs, making them their own. The debut of their first album, The Fix, is meant not only to be a tribute to those things, but also an introduction to a new, more ambitious way of putting out music at this level. An ambitious experiment by two seasoned veterans at the top of their game? An audacious attempt to get one's voice heard above a din of other great players around town? An attempt to more tightly integrate music, visual art, and marketing? That's up for the fans to decide, I suppose. Today, we're just focusing on some great music and the personalities that created it.Links referenced in the show:
Spanking Shakespeare can be found here: | | |
Guitarist/songwriter Brandon/Benamin Cannon -- who bares a striking resemblance to -- was formerly with the bands and .
Singer/songwrite Matt Janz is best known as the guy behin .
They are joined by on saxophone, Bradley D. Moore (ex ) on keys, Lyndsay Huddleston of on Cello (Lyndsay's playing can be heard with an embryonic version of that band on ), and on vocals.
Martian Cigarettes is a reference to the from the lost Red Album, a favorite LP from my youth that to date has never been released on CD. It is also the name of the cover band I've not yet formed.
The Fix, Spanking Shakespeare's first album, was recorded at and , and is available on their page.
The phycial version features photography from , proprietor of .
