Now’s the time that we need to share…(new EP’s from three 2012 RecommNeds picks)
Zeus: Cover Me
Zeus is a band I am constantly trying to turn people on to, cuz… they’re awesome. Maybe this will convince you: as part of the “deluxe edition” to last year’s fantastic Busting Visions album, they’ve added an all-covers EP. This includes a killer studio version of their live-concert staple cover of Genesis’ That’s All, but also gotta-hear takes on the Flaming Lips, Michael Jackson, R. Kelly and more. Have fun figuring out which is your favorite!
In a year rife with amazing psych-rock albums, perhaps the lava lamp gods have saved the best for last with Mmoss’s debut album. This one is for the jam-lovers, with lots of drawn out passages that bristle with out-of-body energy. These moments have a just-let-the-tape-roll feel, like a bunch of guys turned in towards each other zoned in on the droning groove. Can only imagine what they’re like live… looking forward to finding out someday.
The influential NYC-Freaks e-mail list – which has helped launch the careers of Robert Randolph, The Duo and the American Babies, among others – will celebrate 11 years of connecting friends, sharing information and tastemaking at Freaks Ball XI on February 4th. This year’s Freaks Ball will be held at Brooklyn Bowl, aka our staff’s favorite NYC venue, and boasts a lineup featuring post-rock duo El Ten Eleven, Hendrix tribute act Some Cat From Japan, DJ Cochon de Lait and instrumental guitar trio Wolf!.
Gutiarist Scott Metzger makes his ninth straight appearance at the Freaks Ball in 2011 and appears with two acts – Some Cat and Wolf!. Scott raved about Wolf! during his interview with me for a recent Relix Man At Work article, saying the band has a “’60s boogaloo kind of feel to it,” while the guest-laden Some Cat From Japan set on Jam Cruise was among the best of the trip.
NYC-Freaks founder Aaron Stein describes El Ten Eleven as “the perfect Freaks Ball band — you can get up front and move to it, hang back, sip your drink and bob your head to it, stand there in awe with a ‘how the F do they do that?’ to it or just let it float through the background of your party.”
Fittingly, tickets for Freaks Ball XI cost $11 and will be available soon.
