I begin what I hope will be a slew of band profiles and a few updates from old favorites with something that should warm the hearts of any fans of early Bowie and Roxy Music, Kate Bush and Laurie Anderson, Marc Bolan and T.Rex, ’70s glam and theatrical, symphonic pop.

The Irrespressibles are a 10-piece orchestral ensemble led by creative director, conceptual artist, composer, lead vocalist and choreographer Jamie McDermott, whose beautifully gliding and soaring, operatic voice brings to mind another brilliant entertainer and huge favorite, Klaus Nomi. Based in England (no surprise there), they’ve been performing for rapt audiences all over Europe for seven years, though have only just last year released their debut studio album, Mirror Mirror, which had its U.S. digital release this past summer, with a special edition coming out October 25 that features exclusive remixes from Röyksopp, Hercules & Love Affair and Zero 7 amongst others.

McDermott is a deeply personal confessional songwriter, exploring love, anger, lust and loss with kitsch and tenderness, explosive histrionics and gut-wrenching vulnerability. His upbringing in North Yorkshire, England, with its heady mix of rugged seaside landscape, Roman Catholic schooling, and rich history of bawdy Victorian carnivals and penny arcades obviously had a strong influence on his creativity (as did growing up gay in this setting).

Musically, he is beautifully accompanied by like-minded souls, classically-trained and pop musicians turned performance artists: Jordan Hunt on violin/costume direction, Charlie Stock on viola, Nicole Robson on cello, Sophie Li on double bass, Craig White on oboe, Sarah Kershaw on piano/keyboards, Amy Kelly on vibraphone and orchestral percussion, and actor Anna Westlake on clarinet.

Their name, The Irrepressibles, was borne out of a rebellion against the artificial and superficial world of today’s manufactured pop music. Their mission is to bring artistry and heartfelt emotion back into the genre, and to incorporate the various artistic disciplines into their quest for self expression. It is all about “truthful emotional connection” and “creating a landscape of expressive abandon.”

Mystical and theatrical, their live performances are highly choreographed, multimedia extravaganzas featuring conceptual sets that combine their dramatic music with dance, film, avant-garde costumes and make-up. They’ve graced the stages of some unique and impressive settings – a Roman amphitheatre in Barcelona, a 17th Century villa in Sicily, the historic Hackney Empire, and two shows at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

To my knowledge, they’ve never performed in the U.S., and I will be keeping a close lookout for them in the future. If anyone in their camp is reading this, Boston would warmly welcome you – please come over!

official site | facebook | youtube | twitter

Coming out of their previous incarnation as Death To Anders, in Autumn 2009 Nicholas Ceglio (guitar, vocals) and Peter DiBiasio (bass) joined forces with a “mysterious Bay Area drifter,” drummer Nathan Kondor, to become George Glass. They released their debut self-titled EP in October 2010, and performed around Silver Lake and Echo Park, Los Angeles. This is their debut music video from their self-titled EP released in October of last year. The Buster Keaton-style video features the effervescent Sarah Negadhari of The Happy Hollows.

I’m not feeling terribly clever today, so I’ll just say that I first came across these guys as Death to Anders, in the midst of my Silver Lake Awakening a few years ago, and mentioned their George Glass rebirth back in February of last year, when Web in Front first streamed their demo “Call it Whatever.” Since their self-titled debut, they also released a 3-track EP called Sunshine.

“Sunshine” is notable for being noisy and clamorous and also rather psychedelic and hypnotic, and that’s in the same song. “Lil Wiz” is also something you can most definitely dance to.. and then suddenly you most definitely cannot (or maybe some sort of odd modern dance movement done in a vat of swirling molasses). What is it they say about trying to write about music?

facebook | twitter | bandcamp | soundcloud

(clockwise from top left): Anna Rose, The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, and Kim Boekbinder (photo by Shami Kiely)

Presented by Morgan’s Hotel Group, The MuseBox and DigBoston

There’s an exciting new showcase for up-and-coming bands, a free music series called The Ames Sessions, taking place on three consecutive Tuesday evenings in Woodward Park at Boston’s Ames Hotel. Not to be confused with The Ames Sessions that were in collaboration with WFNX (which was indoors, very limited capacity, and you had to win tickets), this one is completely free and open to the public. The performances are September 20th (this coming Tuesday) with Anna Rose and Leo Blais, September 27th with The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players and Supercute, and October 4th with Kim Boekbinder and Audrey Ryan. In addition to hearing some fine music in an intimate setting, there will be specials and prizes to coincide with each event.

It seems the Ames Hotel is requesting that people R.S.V.P. for the shows they’d like to attend. This is probably because Woodward Park is actually the outdoor patio area of their Woodward Tavern (meaning, it’s *very* small and intimate). It looks like an amazing setting for live music.

This series unites the efforts of three Boston-area businesses. There’s Morgan’s Hotel Group, which specializes in upscale boutique hotels in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, and elsewhere (The Ames Hotel in Boston is, I must say, one classy establishment). DigBoston (formerly The Weekly Dig) should be well-known to Bostonians, as their weekly magazine focuses on the local arts and entertainment scene. MuseBox is a public relations and marketing agency, catering to a wide variety of bands and musicians, providing contacts in both underground and mainstream cultures, in the U.S. and internationally. The artists they’ve chosen for this series are especially known for their audience engagement and unique live performance.

Tuesday, September 20th ~ Anna Rose

Supporting Anna Rose will be Leo Blais

Listening to classic and alternative rock in the 90s, more recently getting into blues, soul, some funk and NYC punk, hip-hop and house music, singer-songwriter, pianist and guitarist Anna Rose (daughter of musical theatre and film composer/pianist Alan Menken) has a wide variety of influences to inform her songwriting. She has what sounds like a classically-trained, disciplined voice, but isn’t afraid to try something a bit different. Her cover of Arcade Fire’s “My Body Is A Cage” is sung as a soft, stripped-down ballad, and it helped attract international attention to her music. She’s currently in the studio recording the follow-up to her 2010 album Nomad.

official site | facebook | twitter | recent interview

Tuesday, September 27th ~ The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players

Supporting The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players will be Supercute (daughter Rachel’s band)

All I had to do was watch the video for “The Complicated Life,” and I was instantly sold on these guys. Calling themselves “indie-vaudeville conceptual art-rock pop”, The Trachtenberg Family Slideshow Players actually are a family. There’s father Jason on guitar, piano and vocals, mother Tina Piña on slide projector (yes, there really is a slideshow as well) and backing vocals, and daughter Rachel on drums and vocals. What started with a chance “find” at an estate sale while dog walking – an old slide projector and a box of slides from a 1959 family trip to Japan – turned into musical inspiration and a unique stage show. In their performances, a slideshow is projected while they play and sing about things that occurred in the places shown in the slides. Released in July of this year on Tummy Touch Records was Lost and Found, a collection of old and new songs plus bonus tracks from the family’s various side projects.

official site | facebook | myspace | wikipedia

Tuesday, October 4th ~ Kim Boekbinder

Supporting Kim Boekbinder will be Boston artist Audrey Ryan.

Performer, composer, musician and visual artist Kim Boekbinder has a clear, honest vocal style, and accompanies herself on guitar, ukulele, and keyboard/piano. She released her first solo album, The Impossible Girl late last year. After a highly successful preorder campaign that raised $20,000, she was able to record with legendary Boston producer, Sean Slade (Radiohead, Dresden Dolls) and engineer Benny Grotto. She first came to his attention when her previous band (a folk-cabaret duo with her sister Zoe called Vermillion Lies) opened for Amanda Palmer. In fact, she and Amanda recently released a song they performed together (”Such Great Heights” by The Postal Service) as a “split single” (backed with a song of Kim’s). A big believer in Kickerstarter campaigns, she also pre-sells her performances with various packages for different $ levels (great idea!).

official site | facebook | blog | twitter | wikipedia

Sun Boxes vacationing at the Vineyard.

Here’s something nice for your yoga or meditation hour: Sun Boxes, a solar-powered sound installation by Craig Colorusso. Peaceful, dreamy, and eco-friendly. What more could you ask for? Here’s the nuts & bolts of the operation, as described on his blog:

“Sun Boxes are an environment to enter and exit at will. It’s comprised of twenty speakers operating independently, each powered by the sun via solar panels. There is a different loop set to play a guitar note in each box continuously. These guitar notes collectively make a Bb chord. Because the loops are different in length, once the piece begins they continually overlap and the piece slowly evolves over time.”

The Sun Boxes will be “performing” at Artscape in Baltimore, Maryland July 15-17, and at deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, Mass. on Saturday, August 6.

official site | youtube | WCAX.com interview

Alec Mapes-Frances, a 16-year-old from Newton, Mass. who goes by the name of [spaceless], clearly had a lifetime in the 60s and liked it so much, he decided to come right back and have another go with some better technology. He combines synth pads, ambient samples, and tribal field recordings to create trippy, trance-inducing music.

Us by [spaceless]

It isn’t easy for an indie band to keep going through the stresses of a small-scale self release, DIY efforts at band management and tour booking, while trying to maintain interpersonal relationships and general sanity. So it is a fortunate thing for us that The Calm Blue Sea is back together again after a 1-1/2 year hiatus.

Their gorgeous, emotionally stirring 2008 debut is set to be re-released on Modern Outsider Records on August 2 (available for preorder). This reissue has been remastered and features two unreleased bonus tracks. It was recorded at Austin’s Cacophony Recorders with acclaimed engineer Erik Wofford (The Black Angels, Explosions in the Sky), and will be released digitally and on CD, and also on 12-inch vinyl.

Listen to “Literal” on NPR. It starts dreamily and slowly builds into epic grandeur a la Pink Floyd or Explosions In The Sky. Elegant, explosive, and truly majestic.

This is the sort of music that cries out to be seen and heard live, so it’s good news that a U.S. tour is in the works to coincide with the album’s release. There will also be a video for “Literal,” produced by Cliff Wildman of Pitch Productions and animated/directed by Paul Beck (”Waking Life”, “A Scanner Darkly”). For now, if you’re in Texas, you can see them on 7/29 at The Parish in Austin, 8/6 at The Mink in Houston, and 8/19 at Emo’s in Austin. They’ll also be performing on Austin radio station KUT (90.5FM) on 7/28. And listen to their “Siegfried” film score below.

official site | facebook | twitter

photo by Jesse Turnquist

official site | facebook | twitter

Occasionally accompanied by friends, his most recent release is the In Comforting 2-track single, featuring backing vocals, bass and percussion. Other recordings this year include SPPLIT, a 6-song split EP with friends and collaborators The Widowers; and After The Warmth.

facebook | bandcamp | twitter