Oklahoma-based singer-songwriter John Moreland stops by Noho’s Parlor Room this Friday, Nov. 13, in support of his latest sonic labor of love.
The new disc is called High on Tulsa Heat, and its arrival earlier this year was eagerly anticipated thanks in great part to a previous high-profile small screen affiliation and at least one hell of a shoutout.
“If the American music business made any sense, guys like John Moreland would be household names,” declared MSNBC/former Valley a.m. radio jock Rachel Maddow on Twitter after listening to Tulsa Heat’s predecessor, In The Throes. Four more Moreland tracks — including “Gospel” and “Your Spell,” appeared on FX’s Sons of Anarchy series later that same year, 2013. Tix are $12 before and $15 at the door. This show has a 7:30 p.m. start time.
Last week the Crawler mentioned that Shadow’s Fall’s Matt Bachand had resurfaced with a new band and a local tour date. The project is called Act of Defiance and features former members of Megadeth. The area premiere is slated for this Saturday, Nov. 14, at Holyoke’s Waterfront Tavern.
This week, Bachand checked in via phone just prior to his Salt Lake City gig to provide a few updates.
Crawler: Thanks for taking the time Matt. And the biggest thing everyone is asking is: How did you fall into this fold on bass? As all the Shadows Fall fans know you are quite the guitarist, too.
Matt Bachand: I’ve known these guys for a while, and they were familiar with my basswork because they knew about Kobra Kai, another side project in which I was the bassist.
Crawler: So you have just released the disc and hit the road. How’s it all coming together?
MB: Well it’s interesting, because we all recorded our parts in different places and sent it in. We had a few rehearsals of course, but for the most part, this tour has been our first chance to really get together and get it all to gel live. By the time we get to Holyoke, it should be real tight.
Crawler: Any surprises for the local show? Guests? Megadeth or Shadows Fall covers?
MB: Nope. It’s the disc, top to bottom. Straight up metal.
Crawler: Speaking of … how does the writing process go with this band? Did you all have a hand in it?
MB: For this record, Chris [Broderick] and Shawn [Drover] did all of the song and lyric writing. I wrote my own bass lines, but the songs were written. Looking ahead, however, this is a band and we will all be contributing to future discs.
Tix for this show are $15 and available online at truentertainmentandpromotions.com.
Last up, after more than two decades of “Dancin’ on the Ceiling” and making some decent “Money, Money” performing several nights a week at countless clubs, colleges and even the occasional cruise ship, the Valley’s own Orange Crush has found the live grind to be less and less appealing.
“The band business is so different than when we first started, and let’s face it, I’m not going to change the world playing ‘Whip It,’” explains drummer Thomas Kielbania Jr. “Playing in the band has certainly become more of a routine than a passion and we have decided to take some well-deserved time off for a while.”
For his part, Kielbania says he intends to fill his newfound freetime by focusing on his “International Festival” — a supersized, ethnically-expanded version of the Kielbasa Festival he helped resurrect in his hometown of Chicopee a couple years ago — and dusting off his “pre-Apocalytptic acoustic core” project Dead Man’s Revolution.•
Send correspondence to Nightcrawler, P.O. box 427, Somers, CT 06071; fax to (860) 394-4262 or email garycarra@aol.com.
