City Belt

ALL EARS: MEAT: THE CLEAVERS

Meat: The Cleavers
When Wheels Were Square
By Jon Whiten

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Over the past half-year, as I've thrown myself into being the de facto "music editor" here, I've been more than pleasantly surprised at how alive and interesting the independent music scene all over the state really is. Jersey Beat's Jim Testa recently noted, in Tris McCall's 2006 Critic's Poll, that the "Most Welcome Surprise" for him last year was "the resurgence of New Brunswick's underground music scene." Judging by the songs and bands I've heard coming out of the Hub City and surrounding areas, I'm inclined to agree with him. And what's more, this isn't your older cousin's New Brunswick scene -- all variations on the theme of Lifetime -- the range of bands and musical styles coming out of the central Jersey area is impressively vast.

Meat: The Cleavers is a part of that resurgence, if by nothing other than the virtue of geography. The band is essentially the solo project of New Brunswick's Chris Caccavale. His is a common story -- he had a bunch of songs, so he went ahead and recorded them, turning the songs into two releases (The Emmit Brown EP and Evacuate the Village). Now Caccavale's got a full-length (six songs, about 41 minutes) that's about to be released, When Wheels Were Square.

ALL EARS: AMERICAN WATERCOLOR MOVEMENT

Photo by Tone

American Watercolor Movement
It Takes Fifteen To Tango In My Book, What Book Do You Read?
By Vincent Berrini 

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Editors' note: Yeah, we're a little late with this one, considering it came out a little over three months ago. But better late than never, right? We're also happy to welcome yet another writer to the mix today, and also to refocus the All Ears column to reviews of New Jersey artists. If you're interested in contributing reviews, or want your CD/DVD/smoke signal reviewed, shoot us an e-mail.

There's a groove, and American Watercolor Movement is working it.

It's akin to the groove Sonic Youth worked on Bad Moon Rising with which Kim Gordon called on us to use the word fuck. It's akin to the one John Lydon and Jah Wobble worked with Public Image Ltd on Metal Box. It is a groove which is frightening and calming all at once -- it is a strange groove, because it somehow inspires both movement and paralysis. Movement because the rhythm is so intoxicating, and paralysis because of the feeling that some major shit is going down and all you can do is stand back and watch.

ALL EARS: THE CHANGES

The Changes
Today is Tonight

City Belt is always looking for new music reviewers. If you are interested, please e-mail us.

I remember the first time I saw The Changes, a few winters ago – all I knew was that a friend of mine from high school was the drummer. So I set off to the Mercury Lounge to check them out. I don’t remember much about their set specifically, but I do remember that I was less than impressed.

ALL EARS: CURSIVE

Cursive
Happy Hollow

Photo by Bill Sitzmann

Editors' note: All Ears is a new column that will feature ocassional music reviews. If you are interested in writing music reviews, please e-mail us.

Without getting into any of the bullshit faux-existential “What is emo?” conversations that you’ll find in lots of interviews with certain bands that came out of the mid-to-late 90s Midwestern scene, let me just say: From the first time I heard Cursive, driving around in a bleary Illinois winter, listening to The Storms of Early Summer, I’ve always thought they exemplified the term. Tim Kasher’s vocals were of course incredibly heart-on-sleeve, as were many other vocalists’, but Kasher had the benefit, in my mind, of being able to truly encapsulate sarcasm, anger and passive-agressiveness.