Tag: Concept album

Beyond the Sea — Desmond Jones Shares Sci-Fi Tale of Alien Mollusks on “Squids” Album

From left: Isaac Berkowitz, Chris Bota, George Falk, John Nowak, and Taylor Watson of Desmond Jones.

Ten years ago, Isaac Berkowitz and George Falk developed a fascination with squids.

The Desmond Jones bandmates sought inspiration from the mollusks after Berkowitz watched a documentary on them.

“When we lived in East Lansing, Isaac watched a six-hour-long Nova special on squids and called me to start writing something on that subject,” said Falk, who performs with Berkowitz in the Grand Rapids, Michigan jam band.

“We started with the title, mashed District 9 together with The Abyss, mixed in all the PBS [shows] that I watched as a child, and started writing guitar parts.”

Not long after that, Falk (saxophone, vocals) and Berkowitz (guitar, drums, vocals) penned several squid-themed songs with Desmond Jones’ Christ Bota (guitar, vocals). The trio then shared the songs with bassist Taylor Watson and drummer-vocalist-guitarist John Nowak.

“Once we started writing and playing the first song, we started adding to it pretty quickly,” Falk said. “We have a strong tendency to link our songs together anyhow … and we enjoy the idea of a concept album—the sillier, the better.”

What resulted is a fun, quirky concept album called Squids, which features a sci-fi storyline about alien squids wanting to leave Earth and return home to space.

The otherworldly creatures spend eons living in the oceans and question their purpose while adapting to life on Earth. Over time, the alien squids become weary of terrestrial life and prefer a more peaceful existence in the stars.

“Seeing super-sophisticated behavior out of something that bears so little resemblance to ourselves is fun to think about, especially with some of the bigger octopus species,” Falk said. “They’re up there with the most intelligent species on the planet, but their bodies and lives are very strange to our eyes.”

The album’s five tracks explore the alien squids’ journey through storied lyrics and spirited instrumentation. Infectious elements of prog rock, experimental pop, ambient music, and jazz sonically shift listeners from one track to the next.

To learn more, I spoke with Falk and Nowak about Squids ahead of a February 7 show at The Blind Pig in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Continue reading “Beyond the Sea — Desmond Jones Shares Sci-Fi Tale of Alien Mollusks on “Squids” Album” →

Carnival of Lost Souls – KDC Guild Confronts Hype Culture on ‘Cise Pavilion’ Concept Album

20200926052248_IMG_0563
KDC Guild’s David Brescia-Weiler and Kristopher Charles “KC” Malone spent two years bringing their “Cise Pavilion” album to life. Photo – Kenneth Walker

Two years ago, Kristopher Charles “KC” Malone experienced a transformative dream.

The Washington, D.C. producer entered a spooky carnival pavilion filled with existential challenges and lessons. After waking up, he shared the lucid dream with longtime friend and collaborator David Brescia-Weiler.

“It was a crazy, trippy dream. I was in this carnival, and people didn’t recognize me. I wanted to express what it was like, so I called David, and said ‘Hey man, would you want to make an album?’” Malone said. “I had never done anything like that and neither had David. It was a broad ambition that came from COVID and being inside … this was super lockdown time.”

Despite being in lockdown, Malone and Brescia-Weiler turned that life-changing dream into a vivid, musical reality. The duo formed a new creative collaboration called KDC Guild and embarked on an ambitious journey to develop and executive produce Cise Pavilion, a hip-hop, audio-narrative concept album filled with a global cast of 60-plus artists, musicians, audio engineers, actors and comedians.

“We weren’t necessarily trying to start a company; we just wanted to work on a project together. We were like, ‘We need to do this,’ because everybody was jumping on board and getting excited,” said Brescia-Weiler, who’s also based in D.C.

“We couldn’t have predicted people from Vegas, Berlin and LA would have suddenly said, ‘Yeah, I’ll go. Send me the contract, and I’ll do it.’ We grew with the process as well.”

KDC Guild’s Cise Pavilion vision quickly grew into a classic hero’s journey brimming with 11 valuable lessons (or tracks) along the way. The insightful album thoughtfully explores the concept of “cise,” a D.C.-based term for “hype,” through protagonist Malone’s personal experiences and interactions with others in a carnival-themed world.

Compelling “cise” metaphors for jealousy, greed, peer pressure, hyperbole and vanity sprout from the digital sphere and overflow into everyday life. With Cise Pavilion, KDC Guild advocates abandoning these toxic behaviors and creating a harmonious environment that promotes acceptance and authenticity.

“Part of the point of Cise Pavilion as a project and something we all grapple with is … that temptation (of ‘cise’) is always there. As much as I’d like to say I don’t need other people’s validations, I might get excited when I get a lot of Instagram likes versus more than I normally do,” said Brescia-Weiler.

“I think that’s an internal struggle that we all have, and it’s been a fun exploration, not just for KC and me, but we get to have an ongoing discussion with each person that’s part of the project. It’s given us a lot of time to think about it … because we’re in a social media age where do you have to puff out your chest and hype yourself up a little bit or try to get on the latest TikTok trend to be seen.”

Continue reading “Carnival of Lost Souls – KDC Guild Confronts Hype Culture on ‘Cise Pavilion’ Concept Album“ →

Root System – Tree No Leaves Plants Lush Conceptual World on ‘The Eyes of Xylem’ Album

Tree No Leaves plants a vivid, lush conceptual world that challenges widely held notions about the cycle of life on “The Eyes of Xylem.” Artwork – Andy Thomas of Ando Illustration

Last year, Dustin Galish instantly took root in a new adventure.

The Bowling Green, Ohio-based Tree No Leaves vocalist and multi-instrumentalist planted a vivid, lush conceptual world that challenges widely held notions about the cycle of life.

“I had a dream one night, and there was a narrative that showed up and made sense. I wrote it down in the morning and went into work that day, but continued to scribble on this piece of paper that was very small and kept cramming everything on it,” he said.

Galish showed his initial scribbles to artist Andy Thomas of Ando Illustration, and the two carefully cultivated an alternate universe for Tree No Leaves’ new thought-provoking concept album, graphic novel and multimedia experience, The Eyes of Xylem.

“The real raw theme is perception and the cycle of life. At the end of the day, all of us have a very different perception of what that cycle of life is, and it can be religious, spiritual or atheistic. We all deal with that cycle of life, and we’re all trying to come to terms with what it is. Some of us have a very cool explanation for it while others have a sad, barbaric or magical one,” Galish said.

Along with Tree No Leaves bandmates Steven Guerrero (bass, f/x, EBow), Garrett Tanner (sax, recorder), J.P. Stebal IV (drums, electronics) and Billy Gruber (congas, percussion), Galish magically chronicles a condensed life cycle across eight compelling, multi-genre tracks on The Eyes of Xylem, which is now available via all streaming platforms.

Also available as a four-track, clear 7-inch vinyl on Bandcamp, the insightful concept album lyrically and visually depicts the story of anthropomorphic tree characters, Willow and Elder, who rapidly experience a series of life-changing situations in a haunted town. Each track features an accompanying mystical illustration by Thomas that sets the scene for listeners as they join The Eyes of Xylem journey.

“My goal is to have two characters that experience the full cycle of life and death in a short period of time, but in an amazing way. They’re both experiencing things simultaneously while their perspectives of what they’re experiencing are different,” Galish said.

“I researched symbolism relative to trees and what they represented in different cultures. Willow and Elder represent the duality of the world in any place and in anything that exists. I think it’s important to understand people’s perspectives and how we’re all different, but we’re experiencing things together as part of the same cycle. ”

Continue reading “Root System – Tree No Leaves Plants Lush Conceptual World on ‘The Eyes of Xylem’ Album” →