Best Video Performance Space

THIS SATURDAY NIGHT!! The dynamic art-punk-mod whirlwinds Perennial with Cussing from New Jersey!

Perennial and CUSSING share the bill at Best Video Performance Space on Sat., July 11. The show starts at 7 PM and the cover is $10.

Perennial is an art punk three-piece from New England. The band’s sound – built from the sharp minimalism of guitar, electric organ, and drums – is a kinetic collage of mod pop, 90s post-hardcore, post-bop jazz and 60s soul. The band’s ferocious live show – quick and electrifying – has already become the stuff of DIY legend, short bursts of manic energy with barely a moment to catch your breath: not to be missed. Perennial’s new album, Art History is available everywhere that chic modernist punk is sold.

CUSSING is an indie pop/rock duo from Asbury Park, NJ. With just a guitar, vocals, and a drum machine, CUSSING puts on high energy rock shows with catchy hooks. Their debut album, GIRL EXPLODED is out now via Mint 400 Records with an EP to follow this August.

Perennial on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7oLhWWqX188fvNQ6aqxLz3
Perennial on Bandcamp: https://perennialtheband.bandcamp.com/
Perennial on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/perennialtheband/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Perennialtheband/

CUSSING on Bandcamp: https://cussingmusic.bandcamp.com/
CUSSING on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/47U0p9SyO2KP7gZ9oTOPO5?si=jJML4zGmQXCA-hH25YiWVA&nd=1&dlsi=0c6e3f83c0fe423a
CUSSING on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cussing.nj/
CUSSING on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/

CUSSING Noise pop from Asbury Park, NJ. Debut album GIRL EXPLODED out now on Mint 400 Records.

THIS *** SATURDAY *** NIGHT !!!

Jellyshirts get the audience dancing in the aisles when they play Best Video. They return to Best Video Performance Space this Sat., June 6. The show starts at 7 PM and the cover is $10. This is a not-to-be-missed rock show!

Looking for a frame of reference for Jellyshirts’ music? Try the Velvet Underground and the Byrds. But—and this may throw you off—they also get jam band fans dancing to their music as though it was the Fillmore West in 1970. The band–led by guitarist/vocalist Bret Logan for over 30 years, ably joined by drummer Scott McDonald and bass player Nick Appleby–has a sound determinedly their own.

From the band’s press packet: “Letting the wash of live sound influence each song, without anybody thinking ‘jazz’ or ‘improvisation.’ Never doing covers of our songs. Trying to get you to levitate about one-and-a-half feet off your chair (willingly, of course).”

The short version: They’re loud (but not crazy loud) and they play bars with a mystical need to reach the audience.

From a 2009 Shoreline Times article by late musician and WPLR Local Bands radio show host James Velvet: “The band has been held in awe by its fans over the years for its sometimes soaring, sometimes droning sound, always played with intensity and skill. A good example is the current lead tune on their MySpace page, a recent live recording of a song they first performed 15 years ago, ‘Disinclined.’ Ten minutes of dynamic live jamming. ‘Pick and soar’ is how their longtime champion Gary Vollono of IndepenDisc.com describes the sound. To which I would add, ‘…and feedback sometimes.’”

JAZZ *** ORGAN *** TRIO *** TONIGHT !!!

The Paradox Organ Alliance plays a jazz show at Best Video Performance Space tonight Sat., May 30. The show starts 7 PM and the cover is $10.

The Paradox Organ Alliance is dedicated to preserving and continuing the great 70-plus-year tradition of Hammond organ, guitar and drum set trios. From blues to bebop, latin, funky boogaloo to the Great American Songbook, each Alliance set explores a musical journey through time. Whenever possible, guest soloists are featured.

The founding members, Dr. Gary Grippo, Dr. Gary Novick and John McGuire, have performed together for several years. Dr. Grippo has been a well-known member of the Connecticut and New Haven jazz scene for over 20 years. A music major at Rutgers, he has studied with Bucky Pizzarelli and Harry Leahey, among others. While at Rutgers, he performed with jazz legends Gerry Mulligan, Louie Bellson, and Clark Terry. He currently host a weekly jazz radio show on WNHU.

Dr. Novick, a newcomer to the Connecticut jazz scene, has studied with Noah Baerman and Ben Patterson. A life-long keyboardist, he is now dedicating himself to digging deeply into the Hammond idiom, channeling the techniques of the masters of the B-3.

John McGuire has been performing in various musical idioms for over 40 years. He has studied privately with Ed Soph, Gary Chaffee and the great Joe Morello and has performed with such Jazz stalwarts as Lew Soloff, Joe Roccisano, Archie Shepp and Shelton Lester.

TONIGHT !!!

Faculty Lounge and The Sandy Clams share the bill at Best Video Performance Space tonight Fri., May 29. The show starts at 7 PM and the cover is $10.

Faculty Lounge is a fun, high-energy punk, blues, and rock ‘n’ roll band from New Haven, CT, featuring Rob Irwin (vocals, harmonica, acoustic guitar), John Holland (guitar), Dustin Kreidler (guitar), Lisa Tonner (drums), and Joe Freer (bass). The band has played at Cafe Nine, The Cellar, Best Video, the Stratford Apple Festival, breweries, and at private parties. Faculty Lounge is available as a cover band (with a list of danceable rock, punk, and blues songs) or as an all original band. Their first EP “Ghost Word” will be released in May.

The Sandy Clams are a noise-punk trio from Hartford, making noise by the seat of their pants since 2020.

TONIGHT *** AT *** BEST *** VIDEO !!!

Kath Bloom and David Shapiro share a fantastic Saturday night bill at Best Video Performance Space with Mountain Movers tonight, May 16. The show starts at 7 PM and the cover is $10.

Kath Bloom is some kind of legend. She comes from a special place where country, blues and folk are made beautifully translucent and emotive. Highly regarded but a bit of a mystery. The Connecticut based singer/songwriter has a special gift - her almost supernaturally beautiful, wavering soprano is one that has to be heard, she has a clear transparent moonlight tone combined with an earthly raw quality that can silence a room.

Kath made some very very limited edition albums in the 70’s and 80’s with the amazing (and equally dreamlike) guitarist Loren Mazzacane Connors, full of songs that float and melt into the ether. Impossibly beautiful. However, music was put on the back burner as life changed and she raised a family, trained ‘problem horses’ and taught special music programs to kids. Just as she was starting to write and release CDs again, Richard Linklater decided to use her song ‘Come Here’ in his 1995 film ‘Before Sunrise’. Life altered - not much - but the public consciousness was rightfully tweaked. Slowly her old recordings and new material have been seeping back into the world. This includes a special tribute album by artists such as Josephine Foster, Bill Callahan, Devendra Banhart, Meg Baird and Scout Nibblet. Since 2017 she has been recording and performing with New Haven, CT based guitarist David Shapiro.

The current lineup of New Haven’s long running Mountain Movers (guitarist/vocalist Dan Greene, bassist Rick Omonte, guitarist Kryssi Battalene, & drummer Ross Menze) have been playing together for over a decade now, making their recorded debut on a slew of singles released from 2011-2013, but it wasn’t until 2015’s “Death Magic” (released on New Haven label Safety Meeting) that the potential of that iteration of the group became clear; Mountain Movers are a force of nature.

The camaraderie & sensitivity to each others playing has only grown over time, crystallizing on the group’s trio of albums for Trouble In Mind; 2015’s eponymous “Mountain Movers” served as a reintroduction of the group to a larger audience, while 2018’s “Pink Skies” raged like a group confident in its strengths, and 2020’s prescient “World What World”, written & recorded before the world shut down slightly shifted focus away from the jams & back toward the weight of guitarist/songwriter Dan Greene’s poetic tales of magical realism. The band’s ninth album “Walking After Dark” finds a happy medium between both aspects of the band’s strengths; Greene’s lyrical compositions and the group’s long-form improvised jams.