Many is the tune inspired by little more than an image, emotion or moment in time that was forever etched into its creator’s noggin. When it comes to the curious case of journeyman musician Brandon Patton (brandonpatton.com) and the title track for his seventh studio offering—How I Allegedly Bit A Man In Gloucestershire—however, such details are not just a little gray. In fact, by the artist’s own admission, he was in full blackout.
“It’s a true story of how I got into life-threatening mischief one drunken night in the U.K.,” Patton explains. “I believe it to be true, but the details are eyewitness reports. I don’t remember a thing.”
Luckily for fans—and as evidenced by the disc—Patton hasn’t forgotten his knack for penning infectious toe-tappers (“Mixed Up Modern Family,” “That’s All I Need”), punked-up rockers (“My Girlfriend Was Kidnapped By Aliens,” “Big In Japan,”) and dalliances with electronica (“Would You Take A Bullet For Me?”).
It’s precisely this level of sonic craftsmanship that has aided the multi-instrumentalist in having several of his previous works featured on television shows ranging from Monster Garage to That ’70s Show and The Real World.
On the lyrical side, well, the current New Haven, Conn. resident unabashedly admits that he is the posterboy for “over-sharing.”
“[My songs range from] perverted anthems, sure to embarrass you if they come up randomly on your mp3 player when you have guests over, to the usual admission I feel compelled to share, much to the horror of my family and former girlfriends,” he notes.
Sometimes these lyrical flights of fancy elicit lighthearted chuckles, as when Patton puts on his best Paul Simon to deliver lines like “We could fly into forbidden airspace/ just to see all the fighter planes come near/ take off our shirts and press our nipples to the window/ watch the pilots laugh, and give us the all-clear” in “Private Jet.”
Other times, say, for example, if one were attempting to listen to the disc during his lunch break, as the Crawler did a couple of weeks back, lyrical choices like those found in “Munching the Cooch” could prompt the listener to discard a perfectly good roast beef sandwich.
In related news, while Patton will not be participating in the closest local play for alt-rock pioneers They Might Be Giants (Sept. 9 at the Mahaiwe Theater in Great Barrington), he says that he will be assuming bass duties for opener Jonathan Coulton on the Sept. 13-30 leg of the tour.
*
Similarly celebrating new product are reggae-rockers Danny Pease & The Regulators (dprsound.com), an occasion they will mark on Friday, Sept. 9 at Maximum Capacity in Chicopee with a release party proper, on a bill that will also contain genre-melding amigos Fear Nuttin Band and Wolfman Conspiracy.
Though technically the disc is only an EP, Pease himself hopes the Zing Studios-recorded project will not only appease the masses until the next full-length, but give a taste of the flavors new members Matt Penza and Jeff Katz bring to the audio bouillabaisse.
“Most of the songs on it were written with the original lineup,” he admits, “but Penza and Katz really stepped up to fill their shoes, and each time we play these songs—as we will Sept. 9—we get a little more comfortable and are able to define and hone the sound.”
Last but not least, Enfield-based singer Liv Gaines gained some new fans—most notably Marshall Tucker Band singer Doug Gray—during a recent performance at the Taste of Enfield. Gaines’ father Bill had asked his daughter to come up and sing a song with his band, show openers Johnny Sixgun. As the story goes, Gray heard the performance and promptly asked the local siren to join Marshall Tucker for their iconic “Can’t You See?”
“My jaw dropped when he asked me, and I just kept looking out from the stage in amazement at the sea of people,” Gaines recalls. “Everything about this experience will remain in my heart and mind as an incredible memory.”
Send correspondence to Nightcrawler, PO Box 427, Somers, CT 06071; fax to (860) 394-4262 or email Garycarra@aol.com.
