By JENNIFER LEVESQUE
For the Advocate
Oozie’s first full length album, “No Lie to the Wild Eye,” was released in July. The multi-genre mix of their sound can appeal to all kinds of music enthusiasts.
Years ago, the late musician Ted Pratt made a Facebook post stating he wanted to start a thrash band and call it “Uzi Jacuzzi.” Intrigued, vocalist and guitarist Tristan Jorud reached out to Pratt and the two got together that same day.
Once Uzi was born, the two soon brought on Wes Welch as the drummer. They never ended up becoming “thrash,” but they found a unique sound they all fell in love with.
Pratt passed away a couple years after the band was formed.
“We really loved Ted and his passion for music and goofiness was mesmerizing. It was hard to think of what we could even do without him,” Jorud said. “Wes and I made the choice to keep the band going in memory of Ted.”
After multiple personnel changes, and Welch moving to Florida, Jorud added Adam “Slim” Ciufo on drums and later on Michael Cooper on bass.
“This was the inlet to Uzi Jacuzzi. Coop came over and we started to get to work. After a couple of months of toying around with different names and changing ideas … we reformed as Oozie,” Jorud explained.
Their first full length album, “No Lie to the Wild Eye,” was released in July. The multi-genre mix of their sound can appeal to all kinds of music enthusiasts.
The opening track, “Opportunity,” starts heavy and slowly becomes a colorful sound landscape, mixing in reggae and ska with strong alternative rock beats. It’s like grabbing a bag of skittles and instead of eating each flavor individually, dumping the whole bag in your mouth for a flavor explosion. That flavorful sound mixture flows through the album all the way to the end.
The band’s unique sound comes from the musical influences of the three members. Though they try not to mix too many styles together, they all share a soft spot for reggae.
“With Oozie we wanted to push creativity in an approachable way, using vocals that are goofy but catchy and melodic, ” Jorud explained. “Coop’s like a lead guitarist but a bassist, always shredding, Adam is solid – solid — all the time.”
Produced at Sonelab in Easthampton with the help of Mark Allan Miller, the recording process was one of the band’s favorite moments to date.
“Cooper working through his bass riffs on ‘Upbeatnoname’ during the reggae parts really stood out to me. Adam did one take for his drums on almost every song,” Jorud said. “Hearing your mixes for the first time through bumping speakers is radical.”
You can check them out live and at The Divine Theater at Gateway City Arts at 7 p.m. on Sept. 9th as part of Meat for Tea Cirque. The cover charge is a sliding scale, $5 to $10. Films by Wishbone Zoe and performance from Outro are also on the bill. Oozie will also perform at the Marigold Theater in Easthampton on Oct. 14th along with Stop the Presses, Public Serpents and Green St. Fiends.
For more info on the band, check them out on Instagram: @official_oozieband
Supergroup VIDEORENTAL, which features members of Neon Fauna and Yucky Octopus, released their latest album “Remote Island” this summer. It’s a psychedelic trip that sucks you into a wormhole from the first note.
Supergroup VIDEORENTAL, which features members of Neon Fauna and Yucky Octopus, released their latest album “Remote Island” this summer. It’s a psychedelic trip that sucks you into a wormhole from the first note.
The electronic beats and screaming electric guitar, mixed with eerie distorted vocals, could be a soundtrack to a fast-paced ’80s sci-fi or horror film. The band says the music they make is inspired by their shared love of b-list horror and cult films.
Keyboardist Chris Couchon has a huge collection of mostly VHS horror movies that he, vocalist Anthony DeNucce and guitarist Adam Finne regularly get together to watch and talk about music.
“I think of each song we make as being its own movie in somebody’s obsessive collection,” DeNucce said.
If you’re a fan of those types of movies, you should check out the band’s Instagram page, @videorental_. There you will find plenty of posts with some cinematic gems from Couchon’s collection that could inspire your own movie night. Consider playing “Remote Island” in the background.
“It’s the lofi quality of VHS that’s appealing,” DeNucce said. “The tape itself lends its own voice to the experience. It can totally amplify the horror and suspense … I think that’s what we are trying to capture in our music.”
The album’s 17 tracks are an endless rollercoaster ride; fast-paced and exhilarating.
Unfortunately, VIDEORENTAL will never be a live experience. They say the way they create the songs makes it impossible to perform them live.
“Each song is composed of musical pieces edited together like a sonic collage,” DeNucce said, “much like scenes of a film cut and edited together.”
“I wrote over 100 songs, including some of my best songs, during that time,” Means said about her COVID quarantine. “Every single track on the acoustic record, ‘Plainfield,’ is from that period.”
Back in April, jazz singer/songwriter/guitarist Pamela Means saw a couple of musician friends post videos for a TikTok challenge with the hashtag #100songs100days. After getting a rundown on what it meant, she jumped on the bandwagon and joined in on the challenge.
“Instinctively, I thought it would be a great way to push and challenge myself and to be held to the task by saying it out loud, quite publicly,” Means said. “The 100 songs could, and for me would, be mostly covers, which was a lot less anxiety provoking than writing a new song every day.”
During COVID quarantine, Means did something similar where she and two of her friends each wrote a new song every week, then sent it to each other every Tuesday.
“I wrote over 100 songs, including some of my best songs, during that time,” Means said. “Every single track on the acoustic record, ‘Plainfield,’ is from that period.”
Another bonus, she said, was that it forced her to learn new skills. “Along the way, I also became more proficient with basic audio and video editing. Fade ins and fade outs, adding text on the screen, exploring filters, etc.,” she explained.
The 100 songs videos are a huge collection to dive into for anyone who is a fan of Means’ artistry, and also a wonderful way for new listeners to get an array of different genres that she has covered.
In most of the videos, you see her fingers dance across the fretboard in what appears to be her living room. Other videos are recorded at live shows.
“Because I always needed songs to post, I started filming most of my gigs.”
As her library of videos grows, so does her band.
“Last summer the Pamela Means Jazz Project grew from a quartet into a quintet,” Means said. “Playing with the band presents fantastic opportunities for me to stretch out. Documenting the quintet, and smaller combos when all five cannot be present, has been practical and valuable content-wise, but it also gives me the chance to be a viewer and to appreciate and admire the stellar musicians that I work with when I’m not in the actual moment of creating music with them.”
You can check out her repertoire of videos on Instagram (@pamelameansmusic) and YouTube. Pamela Means Jazz Project has a residency at Luthier’s Co-op in Easthampton, every third Thursday of the month at 7 p.m.
Means will also play a solo acoustic show playing The Beatles’ “Abbey Road” at Hawks & Reed Performing Arts Center in Greenfield on Sept. 23.
