joel nanos

Artists on Trial: Admiral of the Red

(Photo by Roshelle Hudson)

In its short time together, Admiral of the Red has quickly evolved from a blues-based garage rock duo into a fully realized, dynamic rock band. The raw roots rock approach of guitarist Matt Hurst and drummer Tom Hudson, coupled with MB Hurst’s visceral vocals and a low-end punch from bassist Chris Reed creates the band’s primal, driving sound, reminiscent of The Dead Weather and Queens of the Stone Age. We talk more with Hudson about the group and what they have coming up.

The Deli: Down and dirty: one sentence to describe your music.

Hudson: Rock and roll with a hint of blues and a tinge of soul. At least that's what we like to think.

The Deli: Give me some background info on the band.

Hudson: Matt [Hurst] and I met in 2012 and shared the same appreciation for the blues/roots rock sound that Jack White, The Black Keys, and Queens Of The Stone Age do so well. Particularly the sound of The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather—we really wanted to capture that big raw sound. We originally planned to maintain the band as a two-piece, but when Matt's sister MB showed up at a practice and started singing, it was pretty much a no-brainer to have her take on the lead vocalist role. After spending a good portion of 2013 coming up with a set list and writing songs, we decided we wanted to make a demo. After a 30-minute phone conversation with Joel Nanos at Element Recording, the demo became an EP and we went into the studio in August 2013 to record it, essentially putting out an album before ever playing a show. Over the last year, we have had some great times and have played great shows. About 6 months ago we decided to bring in a bass player to fill out the sound of the band since our songwriting was moving in a direction that needed it. Since then, we've been working on tightening up as a band, playing good shows, and just having fun.

The Deli: What have been your greatest accomplishments as a band?

Hudson: Well, we've been playing together for about 18 months and even recorded an EP together. While we all have our disagreements at times, we do not hate each other... yet. When you put opinionated people together in one band, it's a big accomplishment to stick together, grow, and better yourselves as musicians.

The Deli: What can we expect from your EP, Almost Free? Do you plan to record again soon?

Hudson: As mentioned above, Almost Free originally was only supposed to be a demo. The goal was to just have something in our hands to give to promoters, friends, and fellow musicians to get the word out and book shows. However, we're really glad that we decided to make an EP instead. The feedback on the album has been positive and we're really happy with the way it turned out. Joel did an outstanding job and provided insight that turned out to be extremely valuable as we started to play shows. Even though it's been over a year now, it is still a good representation of our sound. As for a new album, the plan is to start recording a full-length by the end of this year. We're close to having enough new material for it and can't wait to get back in the studio again.

The Deli: What does supporting local music mean to you?

Hudson: Going to shows, supporting, helping your fellow musicians better themselves. Sort of preaching to the choir here, since the reason our music scene is so great is because so many people already do that.

The Deli: Who are your favorite local musicians right now?

Hudson: This is probably the hardest question to answer. From the more established groups to the newer bands around, there is so much great music happening in KC right now. However, some highlights would definitely be Drop A Grand, The Conquerors, and Katy Guillen and the Girls.

The Deli: Who are your favorite non-local musicians right now?

Hudson: Tok and Bruiser Queen from St. Louis are doing great things these days. We opened up for Leopold and His Fiction from Austin the other night and were just blown away by their live show. Another great Austin band is Not In The Face; they write and play some great rock and roll. Definitely recommend catching any of these guys the next time they come through town.

The Deli: What is your ultimate fantasy concert bill to play on?

Hudson: Queens Of The Stone Age, The Dead Weather, and The Kills.

The Deli: A music-themed Mount Rushmore. What four faces are you putting up there and why?

Hudson: Jack White, Dave Grohl, Josh Homme, and Britt Daniel. Each one of them has a great respect for the history of rock and roll, and do a great job carrying the torch.

The Deli: What other goals does Admiral of the Red have for 2014?

Hudson: We'll be opening for Outsides on Saturday, September 13 at recordBar. This will be our last show for a bit, as we write some new material and get ready to record. Look for us to play again, hopefully with some new material in November/December.

The Deli: Where can we find you on the web?

Hudson: https://www.facebook.com/admiralofthered

https://admiralofthered.bandcamp.com/

The Deli: Always go out on a high note. Any last words of wisdom for the Deli audience?

Hudson: Go to shows, go to shows, go to shows! As mentioned earlier, we have a great scene here and the way that scene thrives is by supporting each other. Also, spread the word to others who may not play. I feel there are A LOT of people in this city that don't quite understand how much talent resides here and would really take notice if they were just made aware. Tell co-workers, friends, family, their friends, and so on. We are our biggest supporter, but that sometimes doesn't work when we're all playing different shows on a Saturday night. The mentality should be that there are never enough people listening. Spread the word, but most of all have fun!

You can catch Admiral of the Red this Saturday, September 13, where they will be playing with Outsides and Is Paris Burning at recordBar. The show will be presented by 96.5 The Buzz. Facebook event page.

--Michelle Bacon

Michelle Bacon is editor of The Deli KC and plays in bands.

Published: September 11, 2014 |

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Album review: Jorge Arana Trio - OSO (EP)

In some way, cognizant or not, we all have a sense of rhythm and melody. A sense of timing and movement. Syncopated patterns and angular guitar lines run amok on the latest release by Jorge Arana Trio, OSO. The rhythms and melodies are complex while still maintaining a sense of empathy. I find myself dissecting each song, counting and searching for the root, which inevitably changes right when I think I've found it.

While you might not find this trio in the more frequented jazz houses of Kansas City, you will find them in every other venue—including house parties and DIY clubs, maintaining a level of energy and expertise leading whatever room they occupy.

OSO opens with a wacky, groovy, psychedelic track called "Foredoom" that illustrates the extent to which the trio can roam. "Kallisto" reminds me of music I might hear at a late-night club in the basement of an abandoned building. Aggressive, but still retains a sense of true jazz musicianship and syncopation. On this track, the trio locks into some deep grooves. It's short and sweet and gets right to the point.

"Crime of Passion Fruit" amazes me how it rolls over half step variations and moves in quick succession. Let the reverb reign!

"Old Bamboo" keeps the energy rolling with surfesque lead lines by Arana, while drummer Josh Enyart and bassist Jason Nash tear through patterns and rhythms without missing a beat (literally).

"Banished to Siberia" is my favorite of the five-track EP. This song, to me, exemplifies the trio's expertise in experimental/psychedelic/jazz rock. If this song where a dish, it would be some kind of unique soup that has healing powers only served to the bravest of eaters. I feel cleansed of all things boring and/or monotonous after hearing this track.

Jorge Arana Trio has proven through relentless live shows, and most recently on OSO, that experimentation and writing outside the box is something we can all relate to. Please indulge in this release. You will not be disappointed and will surely expand your groovy senses.

OSO was engineered by Joel Nanos and Vincent Lawhon, and mixed/mastered by Nanos at Element Recording. The album has been released by Haymaker Records.

Make sure to show some love by attending their record release show this Saturday, July 19, at recordBar with David Hasselhoff on Acid, In the Shadow, and High Magic. Facebook event page.

--Josh Simcosky

Josh is a KC native that loves anything meat- or tube-driven related. He also plays guitar for Leering Heathens and Sharp Weapons.

&lt;a href="http://jorgearanatrio.bandcamp.com/album/oso"&gt;Oso by Jorge Arana Trio&lt;/a&gt;

Published: July 17, 2014 |

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Radkey's rapid ascent to success

A little over three years ago, Dee, Isaiah, and Solomon Radke were regular teenage brothers from St. Joseph who indulged in video games, movies, comics—stuff that most teenage boys enjoy.

Fast-forward to the not-so-distant future. Radkey has amassed a giant resume, from playing its first live show with Fishbone to recording “Cat and Mouse” (also the title of its debut album) at Adrian Grenier’s Wreckroom in Brooklyn to rocking the Download Fest in England earlier this year to recently completing its first full-scale tour to releasing its second EP Devil Fruit on Little Man Records AND undertaking a European tour this October. And… they still enjoy the same things as before.

“Quite a bit has changed,” said bassist Isaiah Radke, “but we’re still just a bunch of dorks hanging out at home whenever we’re not off doing the music thing.”

Modest, considering their rise from the St. Joe-KC music scene to international heights. But having had several off-the-record conversations with all three of the guys and their father/manager Matt Radke, a large key to their success has been in their ability to continue to hone their craft, remain humble, and stay involved in local music. Though Radkey has enjoyed accolades around the country and across the pond, it hasn’t been uncommon to see them on a KC or Lawrence stage with other local acts.

They kicked off their very first US tour to a full house at Czar with Naam last month, and played the KC Live stage with Silversun Pickups a couple weeks before that. A couple weeks ago they played Riot Fest in Chicago. This weekend, they’ll be one of the main acts at Beach Ball, alongside Cage The Elephant, AWOLNATION, Alt-J, and more. Despite all the huge bills they’ve already played on, the boys had never done a real tour before. So, why not?

Isaiah explains. “You can practice every single day—which we have done—and get pretty good, but you can only get so good. Playing lots of shows makes you a better musician and it also improves your live show. We finally hit the wall where touring is the only way to become better musicians, so we finally had the opportunity to break that wall by playing live every day.”

Since my first observation of a Radkey live show a couple of years ago, their onstage confidence has steadily grown with their musical cohesiveness and audience interactions, both crucial for success. That’s not to say they were lackluster in either department before, but at each performance, Dee’s monstrous voice becomes a bit more menacing and intimidating (in a good way); Isaiah’s banter with the crowd becomes a bit more sophisticated; Solomon’s drum patterns become a bit more complicated and precise.

“Because they are so young they will inevitably evolve and change, but there is something magical about the raw energy and earnestness of who they are right now,” said Joel Nanos, owner of Element Recording Studios.

Nanos also recorded tracks off Devil Fruit—the first single “Romance Dawn” was released in August, and “Overwhelmed” was released last week on NME. He calls the tracks fast, raw, and real. The brothers announce themselves to the world with a youthful immediacy backed by production that captures them at their purest and most formidable. Already, the songs are receiving a notable amount of attention on reputable music sources, and the album hasn’t even dropped yet.

But all for good reason. In spite of their quick strides from being three homeschooled kids to self-taught musicians with a steady local following to a buzz band getting radio play on the other side of the globe, the Radke brothers haven’t taken any of this for granted.

“I dunno; I mean, we practiced every day, and did our best to write songs that we loved. Plus, our dad was a great manager so that helped,” said Isaiah. “We pretty much worked very hard and had some percentage of luck on our side. We’re pretty thankful for that.”

They’ve also maintained support from the local music community, many of whom recognize their dedication to creating music and spreading the kick-in-your-teeth gospel of rock ‘n roll. Nanos sums it up best: “Those kids are just super cool, definitely beyond their years in maturity and knowledge; they have a great sense of self-awareness. They are the ones teaching me about cool stuff.”

You only have one more chance to see Radkey before they head out on their month-long European tour; they’ll be on the main stage at Beach Ball this Friday, September 27 at Berkley Riverfront Park. They’ll be touring the UK with Drenge, plus Germany and Holland, and return to the US in November to tour with Black Joe Lewis. Devil Fruit will be released October 15. And here's a link to the NME exclusive of their super-cool video for "Romance Dawn."

--Michelle Bacon

Michelle is editor of The Deli Magazine - Kansas City, and also plays drums Drew Black & Dirty Electric and bass in Dolls on Fire and The Philistines. She once gave Isaiah a button from her old band and he might still wear it. She will eventually be one of those people who says, "I knew them way back when... AND gave one of them a shiny button."

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Published: September 25, 2013 |

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Album review: Vi Tran Band - American Heroine

You have a dream. You work hard for it. You make many sacrifices. You find friends who share your passion. You create something. You hope for success through hard work and determination and talent. It’s a classic storyline—America loves when good things happen to people who work hard, and Vietmanese-born Vi Tran is second to none in personifying that American dream. He’s an actor, a musician, a tireless voice for and supporter of the arts community, and a pretty decent card player to boot. Above all, his singing, songwriting, and storytelling have been heard around Kansas City through his shows with Hot Caution, a lively cover band featuring a rotating lineup, and his 2010 EP Goodbye, Summer. Hearing him at Czar Bar or the Kill Devil Club or any of the other venues he plays, however, cannot properly prepare you for what you will hear with his debut full-length release, American Heroine. It’s an album that is less about singles and radio play and more about musical theatre and song craft. Tran’s professional Facebook page tells of the literary inspiration he called upon to help create Heroine’s sonic grandeur; it’s a projection that is tied in with the album artwork, which hearkens to the golden days of Hollywood and all the magic that art was and is capable of.

He is fond of saying that he is “part wheat fields, part sea salt,” and this is his Wheat album, a tribute to authors such as Hemingway, Steinbeck, and Fitzgerald—authors whose protagonists have dealt with struggles and challenges that mirror those of Tran’s family as they struggled with the challenges of being refugees in a new world. Those stories have been with him for the better part of a decade, waiting for the right time to be shared. When he felt that time had come, and he had amassed the strongest overall support staff possible, he threw himself completely into the project with the intent to make American Heroine look and sound like a well-worn paperback novel.

What you get, and what is instantly discernable from the opening typewriter solo in the intro, is an album that is less indie and more musical theatre—less “make it radio-ready” and more “knock ‘em dead, kid.” The earnestness and sincerity in his vocals grabs the listener from the first measures of the title track, where the aforementioned literary tribute takes on a literal tone as the protagonist leans on his inspirations for storytelling (“You are the most precious pearl / You are an archetypal Steinbeckian girl … If this were Hemingway, you’d meet your end in a hospital tent / And I’d watch it happening, wouldn’t be able to do a thing”).

“The Charmer” finds Tran trying to woo his way into a lucky lady’s heart in spite of his growing sense of self-doubt and timidity; as Ben Byard’s bass nimbly skips and encircles the twosome as they eventually connect … or do they? The next two tracks, “All the Time in the World” and “Goodbye, Summer” are revisited from his earlier EP, and the three years that have passed since their initial appearance have been good to the songs as they (along with the rest of American Heroine) find added depth and strength from the added instrumentation, along with the benefit of more life experience which Tran’s vocals bring forth with focus and solidity. “The Killing Rain” brings the strings to the fore, as Christine Grossman, Christine Gross, and Sean Hogge all offer virtuoso performances, matching the fragility of Tran’s lyrics and delivery (“I shake and shudder / crack and break / my leaves, my litter / my small mistakes”) with beautifully delicate skill. To me, this is perhaps the most instrumentally stunning track of all …

… which makes it all the more effective as a lead-in to what I think is American Heroine’s tour de force: if this truly was a soundtrack to a Broadway musical, “Waterlily” would surely bring the house down on a nightly basis. You know how it is when you observe someone doing what they do, knowing that they’re at the top of their game, and it’s a beautiful thing to see and/or hear? That’s what “Waterlily” represents to me, as every bit of it—vocals, instruments, performance, and production (brilliantly mastered by Joel Nanos at Element Recording Studios)—is awe-inspiringly on point. It starts gently, but when all the players come in about ninety seconds into the song, it’s pretty much as good as any music moment could possibly get, and that sense of top-level execution continues to the end. Jerod Rivers’ percussion feeds the intensity and energy of the song, and though the vocal collaboration of Tran and Katie Gilchrist can be heard throughout the album, here they simultaneously challenge each other, lean on one another, and lift each other higher and higher. “Waterlily” is simply staggering in its majesty and bravado.

And this brings us to the final chapter of this narrative, one with which many of Tran’s legion of admirers may be unfamiliar. He usually keeps “The Code” under wraps (along with “The Killing Rain”) because, in his words, “they aren’t well-suited to noisy bar gigs. They tend to be ignored outside an intimate storytellers’ setting. I knew they'd reach their full potential on the album.” The trumpet and piano of Hermon Mehari and Mark Lowrey respectively lead the way into a tale of a man searching for just the right time—and the right way—to make his feelings known to the object of his desire (“Sometimes it’s easier to shoulder the whole world / Than to muster up the courage to admit that you’re in love”). Tran closes the album by laying his soul bare, leaving no emotion unspoken—and no tale untold.

To briefly return to the title track, Tran emotes: “I should have learned my lesson well / From these great literary cautionary tales.” It’s a lesson that he has not only learned well, but one he now teaches the listener—and does so with grace and courage. There’s a commonly used phrase in the world of poker: “all-in,” which is what it’s called when you put every one of your chips at risk. Sometimes it’s an act of desperation, when you’re almost out of the game and you want to take one last shot at a big payoff so you can keep playing … but other times it shows supreme confidence, a sense of invulnerability, when the player is so sure of what he has that he dares anyone to challenge him. Vi Tran knows he’s put everything he has—emotionally, mentally, financially, and every-other-ally you can think of—into his new album …

… and I think American Heroine is a winning hand.

Vi Tran Band is:

Vi Tran: vocals, guitar, typewriter

Katie Gilchrist: vocals

Sean Hogge: guitar

Jerod Rivers: drums, percussion, lap steel, vocals

Ben Byard: bass, vocals

*****

American Heroine was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Joel Nanos at Element Recording, © 2013 SeaWheat Songs. Album collaborators include Eryn Bates (string arrangements), Mark Lowrey (piano, organ), Hermon Mehari (trumpet), Rachel Gaither (violin), Christine Grossman (viola), and Christine Gross (cello). Album cover art direction, design, and layout by Vi Tran, Eric Lindquist (Lindquist Press), Matthew Naquin, and Mackenzie Goodwin. Photography by Forester Michael.

The album will be released on October 8, but you can attend the release party next Friday, October 4 at Kill Devil Club at 7:00 pm. Special guests include Mark Lowrey, David George & A Crooked Mile, and Jessica Paige. Vi Tran Band will be performing with the American Heroine Orchestra. Ticket link.

--Michael Byars

Michael Byars is still chuckling silently to himself over his hidden Beatles reference he snuck in there. He thinks he’s just so damn clever. Good job, Michael. Way to go.

*clap … clap … clap … clap …*

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Published: September 24, 2013 |

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The Deli Magazine was born in NYC's Attorney Street in 2004, in the shape of a print issue with a then unknown band on its cover, called Grizzly Bear. Ths NYC blog came in 2005, then the SF one in 2006, and then 9 more in the following years. The Deli is focused on the coverage of emerging bands and solo artists with a 100% local focus - no exceptions!