This week, Makin Waves shares streams and briefs on Cook Thugless, The Moms, Silent Stereo, Mr. Flannery and His Feelings, plus the latest about Hub City Sounds: ROCK New Brunswick, The Waffle Stompers, Bobby Mahoney & the Seventh Son, and Colossal Street Jam.
Cook Thugless have two sweet gigs this weekend. On Aug. 18, they’ll play a stacked show at Scarlet Pub, New Brunswick, with The Vaughns and Original Text, a side project of members of Lowlight. One of the most visual bands to call New Jersey home, the jazzadelic hip-hop ensemble then will celebrate the release of their latest of many videos. This time, the clip is for “Wekkabakka” from their amazing concept album, “Money,” so far, the best indie Jersey album of the year. The party will be Aug. 19 at The Delancey in New York City …
Cook Thugless also will be among nine acts who will play Hub City Sounds: ROCK New Brunswick 2017 on Sept. 10 in Boyd Park. Appearing on the main stage with them will be Hub City Stompers, Sharief in Burgundy, Silent Knight & The Band Called FUSE, The Anderson Council, Nalani & Sarina, and Killer Shrimp. Also providing entertainment will be aerial acrobats Vertical Fixation, DJ Don Dazzo of Whirling Dervishes and Everlounge, and buskers who will help raise funds for the Elijah’s Promise food justice and empowerment programs.
Expanded this year with the help of the 18-member NJ Music Media Partnership, the fourth annual main event in Boyd Park also will include for the first time ever food trucks, a DIY Market with more than 25 vendors, and creative and eco-minded community workshops. This year, ROCK New Brunswick also will feature a New Brunswick Music Scene Archive panel discussion on Sept. 8 at Rutgers University’s Alexander Library with legendary Smithereens drummer Dennis Diken; Sharief in Burgundy namesake Sharief Hobley, who has recorded and/or toured with Kanye West, John Legend and Alicia Keys; Audrey Roseof The Wichts and formerly the Blueberry Shire show house; Andrew Spina of Spina Records, Hub City’s only record store, and lil’ ol’ me. Two all-ages warmup parties will take place Sept. 9 at NJ Skateshop with Neighborhood Watch and Volume IV with Mr. Payday, Spowder, Glazer and Schwervon!from Kansas. And an after party will close things on Sept. 10 at Scarlet Pub with Speed Queen, Experiment 34, The Turnbucklers, and The Clydes …
The New Brunswick ska band The Waffle Stompers will release their full-length debut, “Therapy Songs,” on Aug. 19 at The Stanhope House. The 11-song collection is a long-awaited follow-up to the 2012 debut EP, “Words with Enemies.” The Waffle Stompers also will play Sept. 2 at Midway Café in Boston, and Sept. 29 at the first of two nights of Stage Fest, a benefit to build a stage at DeCicco’s Tavern in Raritan Borough that will feature 12 bands over the two nights, including Visenya …
The North Jersey punk trio The Moms have released their second record for the Hoboken-based Bar-None indie, and it’s rather unusual. While five years of touring the country have inspired much of their own catalog, “Song from the Road” is a collection of tunes originally done by their favorite bands with whom they shared bills. They include Baltimore’s Trashkanistan, Arkansas’ Half Raptor, Michigan’s Cheapshow, and The Front Bottoms, a fellow North Jersey act once on Bar-None. The Moms now are on a tour with Asbury ambient two-piece Brick + Mortar that will bring them up the Southeastern coast on Aug. 19 to DC9, Washington, D.C; Aug. 20, Milkboy, Philadelphia; Aug. 24, Asbury Park Brewery (without Brick + Mortar); Aug. 25, Once Ballroom, Somerville, Mass., and Aug. 26, Sunnyvale, Brooklyn, N.Y. The Moms also will play the second annual North Jersey Indie Rock Fest on Sept. 23 at Cathedral Hall in Jersey City with label mates, as well as acts on Sniffling Indie Kids, Mint 400, Little Dickman and Killing Horse. Stay tuned for more details about that …
Silent Stereo Records is a small Jersey City record company and studio that has been operating over a decade underground with little to no media exposure or social media presence. Yet, music from the tiny studio has been featured in international advertisements for companies, such as Nike and Motorola, as well as on HBO, Showtime, ABC, FOX, USA, and MTV, as well as with Stella McCartney and Focus Features. The label recently released a 21-song compilation that covers a 10-plus years of output. The collection will be followed by releases from The New Rags and Fascinations Grand Chorus …
Jersey City-based Mr. Flannery and His Feelings has released a video for “Embers of Dead Fires” from his Rhyme and Reason debut, “Try Your Hardest.” Mike Flannery of brief One Track Mike & Little T fame will perform Aug. 22 at Pet Shop Bar in Jersey City with RandR label mate Glenn Morrow, also the head of Bar-None, and Jim Testa, also the longtime “Jersey Beat” scribe of indie rock …
Well, here’s a stacked local show if there ever was one: East Brunswick-based Bobby Mahoney & the Seventh Son, Springfield’s The Vaughns, Parsippany-based A Boy Named John, and North Jersey’s Deaf Rhino, Aug. 31 at House of Independents in Asbury Park. And not a one from Asbury. The show coincides with Mahoney’s forthcoming single, “Empty Passengers Seats” b/w “Another Deadbeat Summer” …
You know you’re a great band when both the Chris Robinson Brotherhood and the New York City Marathon both want you to play for them. Colossal Street Jam will bring the evening of Aug. 18 to a fun close on the inside stage of the Stone Pony in Asbury Park after the former Black Crowes front man’s new band plays on the Summerstage with Donavon Frankenreiter. For the Nov. 5 marathon, CSJ will perform at 10 a.m. at the Willis Avenue Bridge. In between they will rock on Sept. 16 at The Stone Pony with Sandy Mack & Friends, Secret Sound, Karen Phillips, Mad Kings and special guests to raise funds to help house promoter Kyle Brendle pay out-of-pocket medical expenses for back surgery and physical therapy. And the next CSJ & Friends at Teak in Red Bank will be Sept. 20.
Bob Makin is the reporter for www.MyCentralJersey.com/entertainment and a former managing editor and still a contributor to The Aquarian Weekly, which launched this column in 1988. Contact him at [email protected]. Like Makin Waves at www.facebook.com/makinwavescolumn.
