Working Breed celebrated the release of Hieroglyphica, the art-rock group's first full-length album, with a release party at Thunderbird Café & Music Hall on Saturday. Weaving together jazz, surf-rock, and even spoken word, Hieroglyphica features an electric mix of instrumentation and sound samples, like the trombone, trumpet, musical saw, ancient Chinese sheng, cicada samples, and even synthetic whispered speech layered on top of a recording of the magnetic fields of a Mimosa Pudica plant.
"I’ve always been drawn to unusual sources of sound, particularly those that are historical or come from nature,” explained frontwoman Erika June Christina Laing on Bandcamp.
Gator Shakes - Gator Shakes
Gator Shakes describes themselves as "loud, fast metal outta' Western PA." Which is pretty accurate - the gritty, high-pitched shouting of frontman Jake Morgan will leave your ears ringing and your body energized, in a good way. The new self-titled record was released last Saturday with a show at Cattivo.
Mark Browning - Out of Nowhere
Out of Nowhere made its rounds online a month ago, but on Saturday, Mark Browning held a CD release party for it at Club Cafe. A founding member of Pittsburgh-based band Sandoz, Browning's songs feature local musicians and singers, including Eric Defade on sax and flute (from Billy Price's band), Bill Maruca (Sandoz) on keyboards, Read Connolly on pedal steel, Rich Stanley on guitar, Patrick Coyle on drums, Ryan Kantner on bass, Daryl Shawn on nylon string guitar, and jazz singers Bethany James and Laura Ferguson.
ICYMI
The Stapletons - Thieves and Dreamers
The Commonheart - Pressure
Wifecam - Wifecam
Wave Trails - Flesh Plant - Demo
