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[dustedmagazine]

Joel Cusumano — Waxworld (Dandy Boy)

You might not recognize the name, but Joel Cusumano has been in a long list of Bay Area power pop bands, including Sob Stories, R.E. Seraphin and Body Double. This is his very first solo album, after an extended career as a sideman, and it’s a good one, brash and self-revealing, rocking out with windmill chords and pinch squalls, but beckoning with melody.

“Two Arrows,” for instance, dives headfirst into the maelstrom, on rocketing drums (that’s Phillip Lantz from Neutrals) and careening guitars. It’s a look askance at romantic love, a recognition that those arrows will likely hurt when they hit, or as Cusumano observes, “The gods will slice the membrane, just for their entertainment.”

Interviews suggest that Cusumano wrote these songs in a difficult period, just after he’d been hospitalized for OCD and during a painful breakup. However, the music is ebullient and energized, uplifting even, any darkness confined to the lyrics. “Push Push,” for instance, works Elvis Costello’s trick of mordant verses and kicking hooks. There’s a tug of war in these stanzas between lurid imagery and upbeat “push push” payoff, for instance: “Itinerant sons of benighted scum/Push push oh ooh ooh/See the most vile at the top of the pile/Push push oh ooh ooh.” 

Not all the songs bang that hard, and a few reveal a TVP-into-Cleaners-From-Venus cracked vulnerability. “Oh, Zoë” is full of regret and fondness, an organ tootling mournfully as Cusumano recounts long-over relationship, and “Mary Katherine” is unabashedly smitten with a nice Catholic girl. And indeed, the Catholic songs, especially “The Sheep and the Goats” are a bit of a hard go, for me at least. Everyone should write and sing about what they want, but that doesn’t mean I (and maybe you) won’t take a pass.

But skips are allowed, and there’s lots to like here, as Joel Cusumano makes a much belated trip to center stage.

Jennifer Kelly

[everydaybeyoubeme-blog]

Carving down to expose shellac burn detail in places. I use so many different carving tools - and I’m always on the hunt for new interesting mark-makers to add to my collection of scrapers... I’m absolutely not above yoinking an interesting cutlery item or dental tool. I mean, I’m not admitting to anything, but I’m definitely not above it. 🤷‍♀️😏🍴🥄🥢✍️🤫😉 #studiosecrets #hideyourspoons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . #texturetuesday #waxworld #stlouisart #stlouisartist #stlart #stlartist #stlwaxworks #leahmerriman #howdoyouart #justkeeppainting #inmystudio #cylcollective #artforinteriors #waxart #encausticartist #encausticart #artadvisory #contemporaryartcurator #artagency #artagent #donttakeyourselftooseriously #creativehappylife #sayyestoart #sayyestoartstl #upcomingshow #upcomingartist #artforinteriors #artforthehome (at St. Louis Wax Works) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bvex23rBIVX/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1nppturgdiw1i

[canna4life-blog1]

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[unnecessarydecisions]

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[chico30079]

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