On Stage: King Parrot plays it heavy

By Denny Dyroff, Staff Writer, The Times

Music fans heading to Kung Fu Necktie (1248 North Front Street, Philadelphia, 215-291-4919, www.kungfunecktie.com) on June 30 know what to expect sonically — music that is loud and aggressive…and very much on the heavy side. Lyrically, the music will be in a similar vein.

One of the acts on the bill has a new album that features song titles such as “Home Is Where the Gutter Is,” “Sick in the Head” and “Like a Rat.” The other headline act also has a new album that has songs such as “Feed Me Septic Dreams,” “Vermin Mentality” and “Into the Disease.”

The show at Kung Fu Necktie has King Parrot at the top of the bill along with Child Bite — two bands that share the same record label, Housecore Records. They started their North American tour in early May with Voivod as the headliner.

King Parrot — Matthew “Youngy” Young (vocals), Ari “Mr. White” White (guitar), Andrew “Squiz” Livingstone-Squires (guitar), Matthew “Slatts” Slattery (bass), guitar and Todd “Toddy” Hansen (drums).

“Voivod finished last week and we moved into their spot,” said Young, during a phone interview Wednesday afternoon as the band travelled from a tour stop in New England to a gig in New York City. “Their final show on the tour was Amnesia Rockfest, this really huge festival in Canada.”

King Parrot, which is based in Melbourne, Australia, has released one EO and two albums.

“We’ve been doing this for about five years,” said Young. “We’ve been touring North America for two years. This is out eighth tour on the North American continent. We love doing it. We love travelling and performing as much as we can.

“We recorded our new album ‘Dead Set’ in January 2015. We recorded it with Phil Anselmo down in Louisiana at his studio Nosferatu’s Lair. Phil had sent us an e-mail when our first album came out and said he liked our band. It was a really good recording experience to work with him. We spent a few weeks down there — away from civilization and isolated from everything. We turned it around pretty quick.

“We had been building up songs for a little while. Then, we took some time off to do some writing in a barn in the woods at a friend’s house in Vermont. It helps to be able to isolate ourselves and just focus on the music

“For us, songwriting is a pretty organic process. We all build the songs together and I do all the vocals. Having the opportunity to do extreme vocals on the new album was fun. It’s always fun to incorporate new vocal styles.”

King Parrots are birds native to Australia. Many of the birds have four types of cone in their retina, (compared to only three in humans) and see into the ultraviolet wavelengths.

It might seem unusual for a band as intense, heavy and aggressive as King Parrot to take its name from a pretty little bird. Not surprisingly, the bird never even entered the picture.

“In Australian slang, ‘parrot’ means ‘an annoying asshole’ and that’s where we got our name,” said Young.

“The new album is by far the heaviest music we’ve made. It’s a pretty brutal record — and it has evil production. We hope to have a new album out next year. Our next album will have a new set of ideas — but it won’t get any easier to digest.”

Video link for King Parrot — https://youtu.be/tWt_Eh_JGM4.

Child Bite — Shawn Knight (vocals), Sean Clancy (bass), Brandon Sczomak (guitar) and Jeff Kraus (drums) — also plays heavy music but the band’s sound is less dense and more diverse than that of King Parrot.

“What genre are we in — we don’t even know,” said Knight, during a phone interview Wednesday afternoon from a tour bus en route from Boston to New York City. “We’ll go out on tour with anybody. That’s the cool thing with this band — being able to blur lines and mix genres.”

Child Bite is touring in support of its new album “Negative Noise,” which came out on April 1.

“We recorded the album about a year ago,” said Knight. “We did the album down at Phil Anselmo’s place in Louisiana. It took awhile because we’ve been touring so much. Our previous album was ‘The Living Breathing Organ Summer LP’ in 2010.

“In between albums, we’ve been doing EPs and splits (split singles with other bands) until it was time to make an album. We wrote most of the songs right before we went into the studio. We’ve been writing all along but we used other songs for the EPs and singles. With the new album, everything happened in four months.

“The current line-up has been together for awhile. Jeff is the newest member and he’s been with us three years. Brandon has been in the band six years and Sean has been around pretty much since the beginning.

“For us, writing is a full-on collaborative thing. No-one comes in with a fully completed song. We have parts and we bounce ideas off each other. Everyone contributes to every song.”

Child Bite took a different path when making “Negative Noise.”

“We did a pre-production demo — which we had never done before,” said Knight. “We wanted to give Phil (Anselmo) and idea of what we were bringing so he could get familiar with the songs.

“We never worked with a producer before. Phil said come on down to our place and we did. One thing led to another and he offered to produce the album for us. We were all familiar with his work and really loved what he had done. I’m glad we were able to work with him.

“On this tour, we’re playing mostly songs from the new album. But, we’re also doing some songs from ‘Strange Waste,’ which was an EP we recorded in 2014.”

Video link for Child Bite — https://youtu.be/aH6o51p-6Ns.

The show at Kung Fu Necktie, which also features Organ Dealer, will start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $14.

Other upcoming shows at the venue in Philly’s Fishtown section are Upheaval, Supine, The Wayward, Radiation Blackbody, and Coastal Plain on July 1; Funebrarum, Putrisect, and SCORCHED on July 2; Dragged Into Sunlight, primitive man, Cult Leader, and Hivelords on July 3; International Noise Conference: Philadelphia 2016 with Laundry Room Squelchers, Jordan Graw & Jared Burak Thesmophoria, Scott Verrastro + Mark Feehan,  Drums Like Machine Guns, Christian Mirande, American recess, Heavy Medical, Ghost In Salad, Dave Smolen, People SKills, Andy Borsz, Gene Pick, Roped Off, Wipe Hour, Lead Pipe, Hatchers, Unguent, Stroker, Scant, LXV, and fun on July 4; James, Justin Graham, Miyachi, and Thai Lee on July 5; and The Respirators, Breaklite, Symptoms, Teenage Bigfoot on July 6.

On July 1, Philadelphia’s Mercury Girls will play a hometown holiday weekend show at Johnny Brenda’s (1201 North Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia, 215-739-9684,

www.johnnybrendas.com).

Mercury Girls features Sarah Schimineck, Kevin Attics, Andrew Hagiwara, Chris Schackerman, and Kevin O’Halloran. The members of the group all have previous experience in bands, including Schimineck (Pet Milk), Attics (Literature, Pitchfork Media) and O’Halloran (Little Big League).

The band released its debut single “Ariana” on May 20 and will have its debut album out on Slumberland Records in the fall. Mercury Girls’ sound has been described as “indiepop with bits of shoegaze, post-punk and DIY punk.”

According to Mercury Girls’ Facebook page, the band was founded on June 12, 2014

“I’ve know Kevin for more than 10 years,” said Schimineck, during a phone interview Tuesday afternoon. “I used to sing in a band called Pet Milk. Later, he asked me to sing in his band. That was three years ago.”

Attics, a native of Austin, Texas, said, “I also play in a band called literature. When the rest of that band went back to Austin, I stayed in Philly. I started working with my friend Adrienne Gold but she didn’t want to be in a band.

“I had all these shows booked already and I didn’t want to not play them. So, I called Sarah. I also called Kevin O. and asked him to play.”

Schimineck, whose main occupation is social work in North Philadelphia,  said, “We all got along pretty well. We have a lot of the same music tastes — and we all have our different choices too. I really like Bjork and other strong female leads.”

After a few practices, pursuing Mercury Girls as a working band became a viable option.

“Within a month, we were playing shows,” said Attics. “Actually, we played together two weeks and then played our first show. It was at Comet Ping Pong in Washington, D.C. It was good crowd. We had a great show. About a month later, we went in and recorded ourselves live to make a demo tape”

Schimineck, who grew up in the Lehigh Valley and graduated from Bethlehem Liberty High, said, “It’s all been happening really fast. We’re now practicing two nights a week and we have a show about every other week. It’s definitely become one of the more uplifting things in my life.”

Mercury Girls are now ready to take it to the next level.

“We’re working on a record,” said Atticks. “And, we’re about to leave on a long tour. We’re doing the record with producer Jeff Ziegler at Uniform Recording in Philadelphia. We should finish it later this year. We’re about halfway there.”

Schimineck said, “We have around 15 or 16 songs we can play in our live show.  And, we like to experiment.”

Video link for Mercury Girls — https://youtu.be/-mYRWP_OujI.

The show at Johnny Brenda’s, which also features Fear of Men and Puro Instinct, will start at 9 p.m. Tickets are $12.

Other shows at Johnny Brenda’s over the next week are Grimace Federation, Agent Moosehead, Air Is Human, and Fishtown Beats on June 30; Ron Gallo, Acid Dad, and Louds on July 2; and REMINISCE! A 90’s Inspired Party on July 3.

It’s not uncommon in the world of rock music to find solo artists who opt to record and perform using band names rather than their given names — acts such as Trent Reznor’s Nine Inch Nails and Conor Oberst’s Bright Eyes.

You can add another name to the list. The musician’s name is Garett van der Spek. The band name he uses is Prism Tats.

On July 5, Prism Tats will visit the area for a show at Boot and Saddle (1131 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, 215-639-4528, www.bootandsaddlephilly.com). The self-titled debut album from Prism Tats was just released on Anti- Records.

“Prism Tats” was written and recorded in its entirety by van der Spek, featuring his own vocals, guitar, drum machine, and bass synth work. In the studio, the South African multi-instrumentalist is definitely a one-man band — and a very good band.

“I started playing music on a guitar when I was really little,” said van der Spek, during a phone interview Wednesday morning from a tour stop in Rhode Island. “I always had a guitar — starting with a toy guitar.

“I was born in Pretoria and moved to Durban when I was seven. I started my own band when I was around 13. Back then, I was listening to my dad’s record collection — Beatles, Black Sabbath, Bowie, Hendrix, Kinks. From there, I listened to what every other teen listens to.

“I was in a band that put out an album in South Africa and then played in another South African band that had a few records. When I got to the states, I made a couple albums and self-released them.”

Van der Spek originally came to the states not as a musician but as a student.

“I moved to the states in 2008,” said van der Spek. “I was 23 and an exchange student at the University of Washington. I met my wife (Laura van der Crimp) there and we stayed in Seattle.

“We actually played in a band together. It was called Koko and the Sweetmeats. She played drums, I played guitar and we had a friend play sax. The music was similar to Prism Tats but bluesier than now.

“Then, we moved to L.A. We were ready for a change. She got accepted to UCLA to study interior architecture. She’s finishing school this year and we’re living in East Hollywood.”

While van der Crimp moved on to the world of drawing boards and engineering scales, van der Spek remained in the world of soundboards and musical scales — and the new world of Prism Tats.

“I had the name ready to go before I even started the project,” said van der Spek. “I wrote and recorded five songs when I was house-sitting in L.A. in 2013. Then, I went back to Seattle to work on the album. I released it song-by-song on Bandcamp.

“I did everything on the album by myself and had it finished by the end of 2014. Now that I’m on tour, I have a band with me. It’s a three-piece with drums, bass and me on guitar and vocals.”

Video link for Prism Tats — https://youtu.be/gcUqFh0cDiA.

The show at Boot and Saddle, which also features Straw Hats and Dear Friend, will start at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $12.

Other upcoming shows at Boot and Saddle are Silver Snakes, Night Verses, and Rich People on June 30; Sonny Knockout, The Soaks, and The Up Up Ups on July 1; and Lightning Jones and  Civil Holdup on July 2.

This seems to be a week for aggressive music acts to play shows in Philadelphia.

On July 6, Swans will ring their unique brand of aggressive music to Union Transfer (1026 Spring Garden Street, Philadelphia, 215-232-2100, www.utphilly.com).

Swans is Michael Gira’s avant garde/experimental rock band — a band from New York  City that has had many incarnations.

Swans are sonically aggressive — but not in the way that heavy metal bands are with screamed vocals, hyper-fast drumming and dense guitar work. Swans are known for brutal and repetitive onslaughts of sound, extreme volume levels, and the shouts and growls of Gira.

Formed by Gira in 1982, Swans employed a shifting lineup of musicians until their dissolution in 1997. Besides Gira, the only other constant members were keyboardist/vocalist/songwriter Jarboe from 1984-1997, and guitarist Norman Westberg, who is still a member.

In 2010, Gira reactivated Swans and released the studio album “My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky.”

At the time, Gira wrote a message on his website — “THIS IS NOT A REUNION. It’s not some dumb-ass nostalgia act. It is not repeating the past. After five Angels of Light albums, I needed a way to move FORWARD, in a new direction, and it just so happens that revivifying the idea of Swans is allowing me to do that.”

The current Swans lineup features Michael Norman Westberg, Christoph Hahn,  Phil Puleo, Chris Pravdica, Paul Walfisch and Gira.

“The Seer,” a double -CD studio set came out in 2012 and was celebrated by a year-long tour as well. The two-year cycle for album releases continued with “To Be Kind” in 201 and “The Glowing Man” in 2016.

On June 17, Swans released “The Glowing Man,” the final studio album from this line-up since the reactivation in 2010. The album was produced by Gira, performed by the touring line-up, and recorded by John Congleton at Sonic Ranch in Texas. Additional recording was done at John’s Elmwood Studio in Dallas and Studio Litho in Seattle. It was mixed at two studios in Berlin, Germany.

 “A good half the material was developed live over 16 months including ‘Cloud of Forgetting,’ ‘Cloud of Unknowing,’ ‘Frankie M,’ and ‘The Glowing Man,’” said Gira, during a phone interview Wednesday morning from a rehearsal space in New York. “Others, I had written over the same period on acoustic guitar.”

With Swans, the standard procedure of write songs, record an album and then tour that album is nowhere to be found.

In an interview last March, Gira said, “I start a piece with a basic shape and that shape is going to shift constantly from show to show. It shifts gradually. From the start of the tour until now, the songs have changed quite a bit. It’s a way of writing now.

“What we do — we’ll start with something — rhythm and a few words — and it will grow. Songs just morph on their own and then we’ll record them after the tour. Most of what we’re playing now hasn’t been recorded yet. There is a point when a song congeals. That moment is what we’re trying to achieve — when music is playing us and we’re not playing it.”

Swans fans knew that what they heard on the 2105 tour would appear in recorded form sometime in the future and then, most probably, never be heard again in a live context.

“In the studio, we’re playing a particular way now,” said Gira. “I know how the songs sounded live and how I want to change them in the studio. I also have ideas for orchestration.

“The songs that you hear us playing onstage now are the foundation of the next album which we’ll be recording in September. They’ll be recognizable to people who have heard them live but not in the same shape.”

Now, Swans are embarking on a world tour that will last form 16-18 months with the first show set for Philly this weekend.

“We’re going to play three from the current album — trying to shift them into different terrains,” said Gira this week. “The live show is ranges from two to two-and-a-half hours. It just follows where it goes.

“There is a song from ‘To Be Kind’ and there is some unrecorded material. I don’t know what’s going to happen with them. We’ll do what the music wants. I’m hoping the songs evolve quite a bit.

“This configuration of Swans is coming to an end after this tour. After that, I don’t know what. I’ll continue to make music under the name Swans with a revolving cast of collaborators but I won’t be touring as much.”

Video link for Swans — https://youtu.be/t_h1i-WxVUs.

The show at Union Transfer, which has Okkyung Lee as the opening act, will start at 8 p.m. Tickets for the show are $20. On July 2, Union Transfer will host the “Kill The Noise Alt Classic Tour” along with Wuki on July 2.

If your desire for “agro” music is more in the hardcore/heavy metal vein, there is another concert in Philly on July 6 that should be of interest to you — a show by Withered at Boot and Saddle (1131 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, 215-639-4528, www.bootandsaddlephilly.com).

According to a brief bio on the group’s bandcamp site, Withered is “tortured blackened doom/death metallers from Atlanta, Ga. established in 2003 to focus on masochistic introspection while traversing many sub-genres of extreme metal.”

Withered — Mike Thompson (guitars, vocals), Beau Brandon (drums), Colin Marston (bass) and Ethan McCarthy (guitars, vocals) — is currently touring the states in support of its new album “Grief Relic,” which was released on May 27 on Season of Mist Records.
Billed as “an imposing slab of discordant death — a masterful stroke of uniquely American blackened death,” the new album is Withered’s first since “Dualitas,” which was released by Prosthetic Records in 2010.

“There was a six-year gap between albums for several reasons,” said Thompson, during a phone interview Monday from his home in Atlanta. “There was a lot of regrouping going on. It was pretty wild. We pretty much started writing after the last touring cycle ended in 2013. Six months later, our bass player left.

“Then, we parted ways with Prosthetic. Half the album was done. We finished it in 2013 and decided we wanted to do it on our own. We were tired of dealing with the business people. Once they were gone, we had a much more fun time.

“We decided to produce the record ourselves and finish it before we did anything else. By the end of 2014, we had almost everything tracked. Ethan joined the band in 2013. He lives in Denver so it took a few months to get that together. Same with Colin, who joined in 2014, it took awhile to get everything together. It took more than a year. Then, we looked for a label and we signed with Season of Mist in March 2015. The album finally came out in May of this year.”

“Grief Relic” is crushing and dense — so dense that it seems as if it might become a sonic equivalent of a black hole deep in space.

“When we were making the album, we wanted to let things develop organically,” said Thompson. “And, we wanted the heavy riffs to be as heavy as they can be. We wanted a really heavyweight album.

“In the past, we felt like we had something to prove and tried to put too much into each record. This time, we wanted to be more focused stylistically. We want people to broaden their horizons. This is our version of death metal.”

Video link for Withered — https://youtu.be/KTocEe8I0Ro.

The show at Boot and Saddle, which also features Inter Arma and Strange Nights, will start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $12.

Kennett Flash (102 Sycamore Alley, Kennett Square, 484-732-8295, http://www.kennettflash.org) will present an Open Mic with guest hosts Elliott & Andrew from Vinyl Artifacts on July 3.

Chaplin’s (66 North Main Street, Spring City, 610-792-4110, http://chaplinslive.com) will host Sapphire Band Musicale and CD release party for “Earth Machine” by Michael Redwise on July 1 and Ryan Cohen, Michael LaBella, and Kelly & Justin on July 2.

The Ardmore Music Hall (23 East Lancaster Avenue, Ardmore, 610-649-8389, www.ardmoremusic.com) will present Danny Beissel and Brian Quinn: A Storytelling Rock Show and John McNutt Band on June 30; followed by “Dead, White & Blue: 3 Nights of Grateful Dead for Independence Day” featuring Splintered Sunlight (Grateful Dead Tribute), Kitchen Dwellers, and Shakedown on July 1; Splintered Sunlight, The Wallace Brothers Band, and Shakedown on July 2; and Splintered Sunlight. Whiskeyhickon Boys and Shakedown on July 3.

Doc Watson’s Public House (150 North Pottstown Pike, Exton, 610-524-2424, docwatsonspublichouse.com) will host Jeff & the Fraction on July 1 and Habaneros Salsa on July 2.

Valley Forge Casino (1160 First Avenue, King Of Prussia, 610-354-8118, www.vfcasino.com) will have Natasha Leggero at The Venue on July 2 and, on the same night, will host The FM Band at Valley Beach.

The Sellersville Theater (24 West Temple Avenue, Sellersville, 215-257-5808, www.st94.com) is presenting The Explorers Club, Brett Harris, and Jay Gonzalez (of Drive By Truckers) on June 30; Warchild (Jethro Tull Tribute) on July 1; Stephen Kellogg and Hailey Steele on July 2; and The Smithereens on July 3.

World Café Live at the Queen (500 North Market Street, Wilmington, 302- 994-1400, www.queen.worldcafelive.com) will host The Mellowells with The Year End and Magnetic North on June 30.

World Café Live (3025 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, 215-222-1400, philly.worldcafelive.com) will host M’oudswing and Ustad Shafaat Khan on July 1; The Hype ! Presents Lovefest on July 2; and the Philadelphia Moth Storyslam on July 6.

The Trocadero (10th and Arch streets, Philadelphia, 215-922-6888, www.thetroc.com) will present “Guitar Legends Tribute Night – JIMI / ERIC / DUANE — Live At The Fillmore, Live Cream, Kiss the Sky “HENDRIX TRIBUTE” on June 30; The English Beat and Soul Asylum on July 2; and Stephen “Ragga” Marley — “The Fruit of Life Summer Tour” with Jo Mersa Marley, Rica Newell, Ranoy Gordon, Rochelle Bradshaw, Nicholas Laraque, and Squidly Cole on July 3.

Fillmore Philadelphia (1100 Canal Street, Philadelphia, 215-309-0150, www.thefillmorephilly.com) will have Civil Twilight and Heather Maloney at The Foundry on June 30.

Tin Angel (20 South Second Street, Philadelphia, 215-928-0770, http://www.tinangel.com) will host The 1940’s on June 30.

Fire (412 West Girard Avenue, Philadelphia, 267-671-9298, thefirephilly.com) will have Scribbler and Magnet School on June 30; Us & Them, Above the Mendoza, The Jumping Juvies, Nuaudio, Dispersions, and Violent Island on July 1; and Native Maze, Grey Matter and Solar Circuit on July 3.

Bourbon and Branch (705 North Second Street, Philadelphia, 215-238-0660, bourbonandbranchphilly.com) will host Allan Moor, Playkold, Ron and the Band, and DJ Pound on June 30; Red Means Run, The Sparklers, Midwestern Exposure, and June Star on July 1; Cape Wrath, Usti Waya, and Little Strike on July 2; and The Jersey Corn Pickers, Renshaw Davies, and Butter Queen Sister on July 6.

MilkBoy Philly (1100 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, 215- 925-6455, www.milkboyphilly.com) will have John Byrne Band and Red Cedar Strings on June 30;

Museyroom, Surf Rock Is Dead, Coastgaard, and all boy/all girl on July 1; and Perilune, Robes, and Los Kingdom on July 2.

The American Music Theatre (2425 Lincoln Highway East, Lancaster, 800-0 648-4102, www.AMTshows.com) will present Maks & Val Live On Tour: Our Way” on July 5.

The Rainbow Comedy Theatre (3065 Lincoln Highway East, Paradise, 800-292-4301, http://www.rainbowcomedy.com) is presenting “Perfect Wedding” now through August 13.Matinee performances are every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and selected Saturdays with an 11:30 a.m. lunch and a 1 p.m. curtain.

Evening performances are every Friday, Saturday and selected Thursdays with dinner at 6:30 p.m. and show at 8 p.m. There will also be “Twilight Performances” on selected Sundays with dinner at 2:30 p.m. and the show at 4 p.m. Ticket prices range from $30-$55.