BONZAI! Descends on Rochester

Look up in the sky! BONZAI! is about to descend onto Rochester once again! This annual music event brings together over a half dozen groups as they perform alternative rock, post grunge and more. The event will be held at the Riverside Festival Grounds on Sunday August 1st. Here’s a sample of recent CDs from three of the groups scheduled to appear:

Cage The Elephant

(RCA/Jive Records)

2005: A southern roots/alternative rock band is born in Kentucky. 2007: A music industry showcase at the influential South By Southwest event in Austin, Texas leads to a recording contract. 2008/2009: They move to the UK, hook up with producer Jay Joyce, collect eleven songs and hit us with their debut CD.

The self-titled CD from Cage the Elephant has addictive strains of southern blues, alternative rock, punk blues and garage punk. The group is true to the dirty roots of southern blues while still keeping an eye on the sound and style of Detroit groups such as The Stooges and MC5. Lead singer Matthew Shultz is both aggressive and defiant and consistently keeps things in a nasty groove. “In One Ear” opens the CD with a blast of heat while the first single, “Ain’t No Rest For the Wicked” is a jumpy, edgy blues slider that grabs chords from pre-World War II blues masters as well as from the Stones. Although often infected with a cynical view on just about everything, Cage the Elephant deliver the messages with clever insightfulness and an occasional wink.

I’d like to nominate them for “Worst CD Cover” (hell, and for “Worst Band Name” for that matter), but word has it that they make up for everything by delivering intense, memorable live shows, so here’s hoping they’ll win the award…”Best Live Performance.” With this CD as an advance calling card, I believe.

Sick Puppies

Tri Polar

(Virgin Records)

The first two songs are called “War” and “I Hate You.” The group quickly spits out lyrics such as “Fight! Fight!/ Lock and load/ Rock and Roll Bitch it’s all over you’re going down” and “When I find you on the floor/I know you think you hate me/ But I will always hate you more” as Sick Puppies slap you in the face and sneer at you. This alterative rock unit (influenced by groups such as Silverchair) mutated from a high school garage band in Australia in 1997. In 2006, they had an amazing 50 million plus web views of the song “All The Same.” They certainly caught the attention of a lot of people!

Tri Polar, as the title indicates, is CD Number Three for this Aussie trio. Although many of the themes have been done to death (no pun intended,) Sick Puppies grab their bass, guitar and drums and deliver the songs with conviction. Many of the songs are short bursts of barroom brawl energy as the trio keeps things moving with steamroller momentum. While still aggressive, the CD’s closing number, “White Balloons” has a satisfyingly rich texture and may be a welcome signpost toward another possible direction for the band.

Flyleaf

Memento Mori

(A & M Records)

The definitions are varied. Some people have called them a Christian Rock band (you’ll often find them listed on those charts), while the band prefers to say they are “Christians who play in a rock band.” Flyleaf has been together since the early 2000’s and had platinum sales success with their 2005 CD and hit song “I’m So Sick.” On Memento Mori (roughly translated to ‘being aware of death’ or ‘to remember that you will eventually pass’), lead vocalist Lacey Mosley is at times desperate and despondent and at other times ethereal and elevated. There are “reaching for the sky” moments that border on arena rock as the band lifts her up from her quieter moments with powerhouse rock sounds. Spend time with the lyrics and you’ll hear inspirational thoughts for a chaotic world. “Again” is the lead single.