Catching up

Freakshow, the Agents, Room 18, and more

by Bob Gulla

Ray Mason Band

It seems that, despite our best efforts to provide web-like music coverage across the entire state, we here at "Local Anesthesia" have allowed a few noteworthy releases to slip through the cracks virtually unheralded. Apologies to the bands we've neglected. We'll try hard not to let it happen again.

Freakshow: Mood Swings (Headchunk Records)

Part emo-core ramblers, part solid melodic punks, part Sonic Youth experimenters, Freakshow has a lot goin' on across its debut. Mood Swings is 14 songs of primal scream, a cathartic wail of a record just barely contained by melody and performance. Songs like "Josephine" and "Backlash" whip around like a hammerhead on a fishing line, while other tracks take a more scenic route to get to their sonic destination.

The artistry is raw and emotive, and the performances -- by vocalists Jason Reddington and Mike Hamel, guitarist Troy Sequeira, bassist Mike Charpentier, and drummer John Reddington -- emerge from the heart with enough bluster and diehard energy to fill a large room. The band is fond of the rock soft/rock hard dynamic that, frankly, is a bit overused, but Freakshow compensates by investing themselves wholly in what comes out of the speakers.

Produced by Joe Moody at Danger, Mood Swings sounds to me like the first few confident steps in a long and utterly ambitious journey.

Frakshow will be at the Met Cafe on Tuesday, November 21 with Unified Theory and Goudie.

The Agents: 401 (Radical Records)

The Agents' new album, 401, is more of the great ska, reggae, swing fusion the band's nearly patented. Singer Jay DaLomba, sax player Frank Moniz, trumpeter Dawn Hamel form the band's explosive core, with drummer Kris Branco and bassist Jay Medeiros, and guitarist Jesse Blair comprising the steadfast rhythm section.

While the prospect of success in this genre seems, quite honestly, more remote by the day, the Agents don't seem too deterred by that fact, especially on tracks like the frenetic "Sally Brown," the dancehall-sounding "Good Foot," and the super-funky crowd fave, "Comin' To Get Ya." The latter features some sweet 'n' nasty guitar work from Blair, who proves to be a skilled and versatile roots reggae player. Not all of 401 is super-hyper ska 'n' roll. A song called "420" has a courageous R&B horn line from the Stax catalog and a vocal track worthy of a Jamaican toastmaster.

There isn't a lame entry on the disc. You'll just have to determine if you'd like to spend your hard-earned scratch on something you may have heard a handful of times before. Still, it's good stuff and deserves your attention.

Room 18 (Self-released CD)

Another band we've neglected is Room 18, who put their supremely heavy and majestically melodic debut out a few months ago. Led by Pier Black on vocals and keys, Rob Marshall on guitar, Marlon Fernandes on bass and drummer Dino Iacobo, the band veers through a variety of vaguely gothic hard rock and metal, recalling bands as diverse as Motorhead, Nirvana, early Maiden, and Type O Negative. Marshall is a pretty sharp riffmeister, especially on the blazing "Colorado," the menacing "City Life," and the Godsmack-styled "The New."

Though the band self-produced the album, they had Russ Martin over at Viscount Records in Cranston do the recording, mixing, and mastering. The result is a good-sounding final product, heavy on the guitar and vocals, not quite so effective in the drum area. Nonetheless, Room 18 is clearly a talented bunch. Time will only tell if they believe in themselves enough to keep at it.

Ray Mason Band: When the Clown's Work Is Over (Captivating Music, www.raymason.com)

It's always nice to hear from western Massachusetts songwriter and guitarist Ray Mason. He's been pounding at the door of the music business for so long with no one answering that you'd think he'd turn off the amp, put down his guitar and find another hobby. Fortunately for us, he hasn't. His latest album, When the Clown's Work Is Over, rates among his very best, with lots of tasteful playing, impeccable songwriting and professional, heartfelt performance.

From the opening notes of "Harold's Been Feeling Down" you get the feeling you're in for a treat. Mason never takes a song where you expect it to go, and this one's no exception, veering from a silly intro-chorus to a delicate arpeggio and lapsing into a rocking coda before wigging into a guitar solo. It might sound disjointed, but it works convincingly. The mood shifts on the classy vintage pop of "I Own the Ending," a nifty John Sebastian/ Lovin' Spoonful scoop of delightfully upbeat songcraft. The title cut follows with its acoustic echoes of early Neil Young, and "Up But So Loose" resonates with the songwriting finesse of Paul Westerberg. Clearly, Mason has great taste in Song, drawing inspiration from a spectrum of acclaimed writers, absorbing their influences and spewing it back with his own distinct spin.

Regional rock and roll doesn't get much better than this. If only Mason could figure out how to take it national!

The Come Ons (Sympathy for the Record Industry)

OK, so they're not local. Fact is, they come all the way from Deee-troit. But they're showing up at the Century Lounge for a big show tonight (Thursday the 16th) with the Embrooks from the UK, and they're an absolute hoot to watch, evidence of which can be found on their debut disc made for acclaimed garage punk imprint Sympathy for the Record Industry. The Come Ons mix up garage, soul, and nasty R&B, with the sound of Ko Melina Zydeco's Hammond (don't you just love the Hammond in a rock band?) blasting through beautifully.

Maybe it's the Motown bloodline of the band members, maybe it's luck, but the Come Ons have the kind of soul you just don't find in today's rock, or in today's soul music for that matter. Not only will they sweat up the house, but you're guaranteed to feel that undeniable dance-music twitch as well.

WANDERING EYE. Christine Lavin will return to Stone Soup on Saturday, November 18 over at Slater Mill on Roosevelt Avenue in Pawtucket. The show starts at 8 o'clock and it costs $15. If you need to know more, perhaps it'll pique your curiosity to know that Lavin has been for the last five or six years one of the most popular artists on the American folk circuit. She's smart and funny and talented and an amazing entertainer. The title of her latest recording [her twelfth] is Getting In Touch with My Inner Bitch. If you can relate -- c'mon, you know you can -- be there Saturday and say hello to Richard. You can't miss him.

Bob Gulla can be reached at b_gulla@yahoo.com.