Stuffed in the Basement: Seal Club

The night Seal Club was born, its lead singer severed off a piece of his left index finger while making a puppet. Sitting in the third floor lounge of Rutgers’ Demarest Hall, Connor Walsh snipped away just enough for a nice trip to the hospital. “It took eight men to stop the bleeding,” guitarist Ed Vasconcellos III said. Returning to the dorm that evening with a finger full of stitches, Walsh jumped in front of his piano instead of calling it a night. “To this day I have a strange feeling on the side of it,” Walsh said, “and there’s a stain on the wall in the lounge.”

A year later, the whimsical yet gory circumstances surrounding the group’s formation continue to be a running theme through the music of Seal Club. A self-described “pop” group, the band’s eclectic assortment of instrumental know-how, mutli-genre influences and combination of anxious lyrics with upbeat melodies create a parade of fun at every show. “We play what’s nice and we make it nicer,” Vasconcellos said.

Walsh, who previously wrote most of the songs prior to entering college, has a tendency to trade in his keyboard for an accordion or glockenspiel to accompany his vocals. “I recorded a lot of the songs in my room during a depressed time in my life,” he said, “but they have taken on so much life now that I play them with my crew.”

Rhythm guitarist James Brehm has a constantly growing collection of FX pedals and instruments, ranging from whistles and harmonicas to singing saws. “When he plays the saw, it’s delectable,” Walsh said. “The harmonica…not so much.”

For bassist Thomas VonHalle, the group decided that though it would mean a lot of heavy lifting, an upright bass was essential to their sound. “I had previous experience playing with Tom back in high school, and I knew what I was looking for,” Walsh said, speaking of his work with ska group The Skautopsies. “It has a robust sound and I thought it would mesh well with my vocal melodies and Ed’s ‘unique’ rock sound.”

“I play the rock,” Vasconcellos added. “Well, I call it ‘the rock’...”

Rounding out the group is drummer Michael Pechter and the Club’s resident chanteuse, Nneka. “If we were being attacked by a lion, she could put it to sleep,” Vasconcellos said.

Though the Club spent the past year formulating a solid set list in basements and garages around the city, they have no plans to record anytime soon. “The thought hasn’t crossed our minds,” Walsh said. “We’re into not caring and throwing a good party.”

Walsh and VonHalle, current residents of Meat Town USA, are not worried about their lack of an actual album affecting their popularity as a live band.

“We’ve tried having bad shows. We’ve even tried not publicizing, but people still show up,” VonHalle said.

“We don’t have the power to play bad,” Walsh added.

Make sure to check out their amazing infallibility Nov. 14 at Meat Town USA, featuring Quiet Hooves, and the epic return of Screaming Females.

Stuffed in the Basement: Little Lungs

Squirming in their blood and filth, newborns tighten little fingers into little fists, kick their little legs and release bloodcurdling wails from little lungs. In the Spring of 2008, three drummers from three very different bands came together to give birth to New Brunswick’s own pair of Little Lungs. Their bloody little baby, though, seems to be growing up real fast.

It has been less than six months since Angie Boylan, of New York pop punk group Cheeky, and Jacki Sullivan, of now defunct Hub City drone rockers Tin Kitchen, began collaborating on songs fit for a separate group. In the new configuration, Boylan trades her sticks for guitar strings, Sullivan returns to bass and both trade off on vocals. “If one of us sings it, we probably wrote it,” Sullivan said. Along with current Helloids punk percussionist Josh Wolpert, who also has a hand in writing lyrics, Little Lungs successfully blend their styles and create an indefinable sound primed for New Brunswick basements.

Sullivan admits the group has a tendency to name certain parts according to their influences (“Oh, that’s the Jawbreaker part” or “Deerhoof part”) but pride themselves on keeping their music from being compartmentalized. “It keeps people from hitting their full potential,” Sullivan said, adding how their separate influences should allow them to have a constantly evolving song. “It’s going to get weirder.”

Compared to the amount of time they have actually been making music, Little Lungs are receiving the attention usually reserved for more seasoned acts. It was only July that they convened in the basement bedroom of Small Arms Dealer/Latterman member Phil Douglas to record their first seven song demo and have it picked up for distribution a month later by Detroit based label Salinas Records.

Even though their number of performances can easily fit on one hand, exciting news came late September when No Idea Records invited Little Lungs to join the 250+ bands playing at The Fest 7, located in Gainesville, Fla. The three-day Halloween weekend festival will feature well known acts as Atom and his Package, Bouncing Souls and Ghost Mice while also including New Brunswick staples Screaming Females and The Ergs. It seems that Boylan will have to pull double duty since Cheeky are also making the trek down.

“I’m surprised…not scared,” Sullivan said, “…and grateful.”
Make sure to check out Little Lungs October 10th at Courtlandt-land, along with Sea Creature, Pregnant, and Baby Guts.

Ya know, why not?

I've been "using" this "blog" as just a place to post clippings from my Rutgers Review articles, but really, I know enough musicians to be able to use this as a place to give much needed props to those ladies and gents.

GoodNightOllie Reboot, coming soon.