Tag: Hazel Park

Hungry Like the Bear — Ursa Day Embraces Hearty Appetite for Music on ‘Hyperphagia’ EP

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Ursa Day’s Matt Drew, Cormac Egan, Ryan Haley, and Ryan Drew. Photo courtesy of Ursa Day

When it comes to music, Ursa Day has an insatiable appetite.

The Hazel Park, Michigan indie-rock quartet is eager to write, record, and release a growing catalog of new material, including their latest EP, Hyperphagia.

“The big thing that we had as a direction concept-wise for the record was Hyperphagia being a state of hunger. What we learned in the name selection process, and we picked this name quite a while ago, is that it happens to bears right before they go into hibernation,” said Ryan Haley, Ursa Day’s vocalist-guitarist.

“After we came out of Habitat, we were excited by that process … and we were hungry to share more projects with everybody else. That direction, whether it was musically or artistically, was a strong driving force behind a lot of the lyrics and what we can do to pepper the feeling of those lyrics throughout a tune.”

Haley and his bandmates Matt Drew (guitar, engineering, production), Ryan Drew (bass), and Cormac Egan (drums) effortlessly achieve that goal on Hyperphagia. The EP’s profound lyrics, fantasy-versus-reality themes, and mighty blues rock-inspired instrumentation entice listeners with six savory tracks and leave them wanting more.

“We’re all different people, and our musical influences are varied. Ryan has a strong allegiance to the pop bass player; he likes James Jamerson and has a feel similar to those happy, melodic solo-ish basslines. Matt is eclectic and has a wealth of knowledge about the indie scene,” said Haley, who’s influenced by Peter Green, Jeff Beck, and Larry Carlton.

“He mixes well with the influence that I have with the British guitar players and Ryan’s pop influence to put us on more of a unique, alternative-based sound. Cormac is one of the most interesting musicians I have ever met as far as tastes go. When I walk into a rehearsal and ask Cormac what he’s been listening to, he’ll talk to you about movie scores and large, elaborate instrumentation … and then he’ll be playing Metallica double-kick-style drums really well.”

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Jazzy Impressions – Blank Tape Tax Reinvigorates Minor Threat’s Punky ‘Filler’

Blank Tape Tax reinterprets Minor Threat’s “Filler” as a timeless, feverish tribute to modal jazz.

Blank Tape Tax eloquently unearths the jazzy side of hardcore punk.

The Detroit experimental sextet of Ben Yost (drums, vocals), Emily Parrish (vocals), Michael King (upright bass), William Marshall Bennett (piano), Mark Royzenblat (guitar) and Issac Burgess (guitar) beautifully reinterprets Minor Threat’s “Filler” as a timeless, feverish tribute to modal jazz.

“I was practicing a lot of up-tempo swing and double-time swing, and I was listening to a lot of John Coltrane. The way I was going about practicing involved listening to a song in my mind. I’d hum along to the song, ‘Impressions,’ by Coltrane, and I would play and imagine the song, and every now and then, I would hum ‘Filler’ by Minor Threat. That’s how it started,” Yost said.

That coincidental fusion sparked the melodic, glistening frenzy of Blank Tape Tax’s refreshing rendition of “Filler,” out today via all streaming platforms. Frantic upright bass, thunderous drums, crashing cymbals, sleek piano and swirling electric guitars seamlessly blend two divergent genres into a magnetic, holistic sound.

Backed by lush, intelligent instrumentation throughout “Filler,” Parrish soulfully sings, “Your brain is clay/What’s going on? You picked up a bible/And now you’re gone/You call it religion/You’re full of shit/Filler.”

“I think there are similarities between certain types of hardcore, like 7 Seconds, Minor Threat and Better Than a Thousand, and modal jazz, like Coltrane and Wayne Shorter, especially in up-tempo stuff. The pulse is really similar between the D-beat and up-tempo swing,” Yost said.

“I had written a piano score for it, and I gave it to William, and he read it down. If I write a song, then I’ll bring it to the band, and I’ll just say, ‘This is kind of how it goes.’ And then they’ll kind of just do their own thing, and whatever they come up with is awesome. I’m totally happy with it, and there’s not a whole lot of talking back and forth, like ‘Oh, you should do this,’ or ‘No, you should change that.’ Everyone already knows what to do, and it just falls into place. I’ve never had that in other bands.”

Along with his bandmates, Yost recorded “Filler,” originally a 1984 track written and recorded by Minor Threat, during a live performance for the Hazel Park-based podcast, “Broadcast from Cow Haus,” in March. While the podcast episode’s release has been pushed back, Tom Skill and Joshua Young, co-hosts of “Broadcast from Cow Haus” and members of Detroit ska band CbJ, encouraged Blank Tape Tax to put out the track.

“We did four songs, and there’s a video of all of it. They do their show in season blocks, and they are two episodes short of a season right now. They need to wait to get those two new episodes filmed before they can put everything out,” said Yost, whose band name comes from a levy that was placed on purchasing blank tapes.

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