#thalia zedek

[jt1674]

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[bandcampsnoop]

11/4/25.

I kind of wish I lived in upstate New York so I could go to the Avalon Lounge and overhear Chris Brokaw and Al (Dromedary Records) just chatting. Apparently, the two were there chatting over drinks and Brokaw mentioned that Via was Thalia Zedek's (Live Skull, Come) best band. Brokaw's "best band" statement included Via member Jerry di Rienzo (Cell, Nuclear Theater). Other band members had played in bands with Zedek and di Rienzo in the 1980s.

Via (Boston, Massachusetts) had recorded songs in 1987 but these were never released until now. Dromedary dusted these off, spruced them up and now we get to hear what I think is a great slice of 1980s East coast indie rock. This sounds like it should have been part of the Homestead Records stable of bands. Brokaw mentions in the liner notes that Via bears some resemblance to Sonic Youth, "but the songs are way more raw, primal, seething, coiled – inexorable."

[vyva-melinkolya]

“Your god hates me, he can’t feel my flesh, he leaves me panting like a dog at the edge of your bed”

[courseyoulovemeyoudontknowme]

A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004, Shainee Gabel)

23/08/2024

[dustedmagazine]

E — Living Waters (Silver Rocket)

E’s fifth full length packs a wallop, thanks to new drummer Ernie Kim, a Boston area veteran of bands including Tristan da Cunha. Not that the trio—the other two members are Thalia Zedek and Jason Sanford—has ever been especially quiet. Still no question that the intensity ratcheted up another notch this time in lurching, lumbering rhythms that shake the floors like a brontosaurus passing.  

It all starts in “(Fully) Remote” with its thrusting, heavy industrial cadence that comes down hard at the beginning of every four beat measure, swings back, then hammers home again. And while superlatively heavy, E’s music has a twitchy, paranoiac empty space embedded between assaults. Sanford mutters ominously about how “the information, it comes from inside,” while Zedek picks up the end of a verse in a feral, vibrating howl. A trebly violence of guitar skreetches over the monstrous beat, like napalm fire catching.

E has never had a full-time bass player. Typically Zedek plays a conventional guitar, while Sanford goes at his home-made instruments, some of which look like cubist reimaginings of a guitar, drawn in thick lines with air where the body usually goes. For this album, however, Zedek, too, experimented with her instrument, adjusting it so that it could produce both guitar and bass-like sounds. The low-end girds the band’s customary antic, always-in-motion onslaught, giving the sound more force and resonance. And yet, it’s the drums, always the drums, that shock and roil these songs, their stick-shattering thwacks turning uneasy fever dreams like “Names Upon a List” into firefights.

A couple of these tracks lean way into this assaultive aesthetic, stripping away the poetry and melodic color to reveal the animal beneath. “Deep Swerve” bounces wavering, dopplering sounds off the hardest beat you can imagine, and “Ash” reprises the woozy foundation, adding flares of guitars and voices to its giant footed procession.

But it’s the epic title track that puts the pieces together, its ritual beat, its slow-chiming guitars, its gut-wrenching vocals all conjoining in triumph. Zedek sings, primarily, holding the long notes over a tumult of percussion and guitar sound, as if withstanding, once again, all the difficulties of the last few years. It’s nine minutes plus of persistence and resilience, playing out in a way that will make the hairs on your wrists stand up. E is full of power, now more than ever.  

Jennifer Kelly

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

The Dream Syndicate - Crystal Ballroom, Somerville, Massachusetts, September 18, 2022

There's a very expanded edition of The Days of Wine and Roses coming out in June — and it looks very cool, chock full of rarities and live jams. While we wait for that, let's listen to this: Daniel Bourque's fantastic tape of the reunited/reconfigured band in Somerville last year. A generous, two-set affair with one half devoted to new material and the other presenting a complete Wine and Roses run-through. Killer from start to finish (and with a very special guest towards the end) ...

Here are Dan's notes:

This was the fourth time I've had a chance to see The Dream Syndicate and it was great night all around. The band played two sets with a break and no opener: one of recent material and the second a full performance of The Days of Wine and Roses. The show took place at the Crystal Ballroom in Somerville with the band in great spirits as Steve Wynn bantered with the audience and reminisced about playing in and around Boston over the years. While the shows on this tour were meant to celebrate the 40th anniversary of The Days of Wine and Roses, the opening set is just as strong as the second, and the whole performance really rocks.

During the first set the band play songs exclusively from their post reunion records, leaning heavily on the recently released Ultraviolet Battle Hymns and Confessions. After "Out Of My Head" Steve asks if anyone in the audience saw Roxy Music the night before in Boston (I was there) and confesses to feeling jealous before introducing the other musicians. "We're of course the opening band," says Steve referring to the two-set structure of the show "we're going to blow them off the stage — we saw their set, they're playing a bunch of old songs so we can wipe the floor with them!"

Once the set is done there's a short break before the band return to play The Days of Wine and Roses in full with a guest vocal from Thalia Zedek on "Too Little, Too Late" filling in for Kendra Smith. As an encore the band play a loose jam called "Open Hour" incorporating bits of "John Coltrane Stereo Blues," "The Regulator" (from The Universe Inside) and "Morning Dew," an often-covered folk ballad.

[iknowthesugarplumfairy]

Milkmoney at the Knitting Factory NYC, circa 1995 opening for Come.

[pear-pies]

Melody Maker - April 11, 1992