A benefit for an injured colleague and a blues rock gig bookend a busy week for the Valley’s Hot and Heavy.The fledgling foursome is also putting the wraps on a freshly recorded 11-tune studio effort.
“We checked out Easybaby live and followed them on social media prior to the accident,” HNH guitarist John Reynolds says. As a result, his band plans to join the multi-group benefit for Easybaby bassist Max Ce Lavie at Black Eyed Sally’s in Hartford on Nov. 16. Others on the bill include Coffee Grinders, Last Ditch Effort, Blues Deluxe and the Gil Correia Band. Recently, Ce Lacie was riding his motorcycle when he got into a head-on collission with a girl who was reportedly texting and driving. No cover will be charged foe the show. Rather, donations will be accepted throughout the day to help defray Ce Lavie’s mounting medical expenses.
The following Friday, Nov. 21, finds the Heavies holding court at Crossroads in Palmer for a blues rock set that will include standouts from the band’s new full-length disc, freshly recorded at Spirithouse in Northampton.
In other news … the Crawler emerged from the recent Rubblebucket show at the Shea Theater in Turners Fall with an exclusive interview.
Founding member/frontperson Kalmia Traver spoke candidly about everything from cutting the Brooklyn indie-dance band’s latest studio effort to their recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Here’s some of what went down:
Crawler : So you’re making the rounds in support of your seventh studio effort, Survival Sounds . Can you tell me more about the process?
Kalmia Traver: It was great to have space away from the road to let our minds and ears wander — and then the universe stepped in and I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in May, and spent the summer getting surgeries and chemo. I’m all healed now. The experience was permanently life-altering for me and all of us and spurred a lot of soul-searching that ended up comprising most of the lyrics of this record — hence Survival Sounds!
A lot of critics are saying things like, “If you thought they wouldn’t last, this album is proof to the contrary.” What do you think of the assessment?
This is funny — I haven’t heard any of this talk. We kind of jokingly hinted at the end of 2013 that we’d be taking a major hiatus, but we didn’t know how true that would actually be. We probably would have released this album sooner if I hadn’t gotten sick, but why even speculate?
I have to ask about the Jimmy Kimmel experience. What was that like?
Jimmy was awesome. He’s a clarinet player himself, so he really enjoyed our horn element. We also met his mom — apparently she attends all of his tapings and she loved us! The whole experience was a trip. We were all on zero sleep and I was the most nervous I’ve ever been for a performance.
To listen to samples or purchase Soul Survivor, kindly point your browser to rubblebucket.com.
Last but not least, and semi-related a la Rubblebucket, Elephant Wrecking Ball — coming to the Pearl Street Clubroom Nov. 15 — boasts former members of reggae-rock notables John Brown’s Body.
“We’ve played to some really great crowds in Northampton before at Bishop’s Lounge — real responsive music lovers — so we’re excited about coming back there,” says Elephant’s Dan Africano.
“Barren Serenade is our first studio recording and we couldn’t be happier with all the positive feedback we have been getting from our friends in Northampton,” says Elephant Wrecking Ball trombonist Scott Flynn.•
Send correspondence to Nightcrawler, P.O. box 427, Somers, CT 06071; fax to (860) 394-4262 or email garycarra@aol.com.
