Eliza and the Organix + Out of System Transfer Video Release Party + Comic Tales of Tragic Heartbreak @ The Way Station

8pm- Eliza and the Organix
Genre: gritty jazz rock
For fans of: Cake, Morphine, Beck, The Dresden Dolls

Eliza and the Organix is an experimental Brooklyn-based rock group centered around the songwriting of vocalist and guitarist Eliza Waldman. E&O deals in deep grooves, quirky humor, and high octane playing, drawing from a broad sonic canvas that remains focused in storytelling and soulful sound.

“...A deliciously dark and exuberantly hook-filled sound...”-Peter Hay - Twin Vision

“Led by singer-songwriter/guitarist Eliza Waldman, the group [Eliza and the Organix] integrates madness and irony, providing on off-beat, crazy, and intense vibe that is also fun and inspiring.”-Andrew McDonald - Living Free NYC

“The music showcases a powerful vocal dripping with charisma – Eliza’s chief instrument, attracting a serious suite of talented jazz musicians...Whether Eliza continues to find her fun lyrically, or instead opts to marshal that idiosyncrasy through complex song construction a la “freak folk” standout Tune-Yards..., E&O will remain a band to watch.”-Jim Pembry - NYC Indie Music Live

“...Excellent...” -Tom Robinson, Fresh On The Net

“Harkens back to the old No-Wave Movement of the late 70s, early 1980s.”

Mike Taylor - Amazing Radio
elizaandtheorganix.bandcamp.com
(ATTN: “Let Me Have This”, “Cold Comfort”)

9pm- Out of System Transfer Video Release Party
Genre: folk-punk
For fans of: World/Inferno, The Band, Defiance OH, Against Me, Crass

New York City’s skyrocketing rents have increasingly scattered middle and working class people widely across the boroughs, making hour-plus rides on the subway and bus a way of life. This has inspired folks to explore so much more of this great city and all it has to offer, but on the other hand, it fucking sucks to spend 2 hours on the subway every day. Out of System Transfer’s “New Train Blues” shifts between earnestly celebrating the exploration and sarcastically bemoaning the schlep.

The video, directed and filmed by George Silvertooth, captures our love-hate relationship with public transit and layers on an additional story. Out of System Transfer are whooping it up on the beach with their instruments and beers when they are caught by a bumbling police officer played by UCB performer Dave Murray. In an homage to classic slapstick comedy, “Officer Buzzkill” chases the band all over the boroughs through the subway system, failing to apprehend them at every turn.

It’s modern and classic, joyous and radical, and pure NYC.

Out of System Transfer comes from Brooklyn, and plays high-energy, semi-acoustic folk-punk. With songs that are fun and danceable with a message of social justice and rebellion, their music has been described as “perfectly crazy and political without being po-faced or didactic.” Live shows with Out of System Transfer are an engaging mix of jangly punk, punchy brass, and crisp vocal harmonies, enjoyable for all who like dancing, yelling, and mayhem. On top of playing some of New York’s coolest indie venues like the Delancey, the Silent Barn, and Goodbye Blue Monday, they perform at events supporting activist groups like SolidarityNYC and the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls.
http://www.facebook.com/outofsystemtransfer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQ8MTvOSLC0

10pm- Comic Tales of Tragic Heartbreak
“You must not try to make love definite. It is the divine accident of life.”

So said Sherwood Anderson in his great book, Winesburg, Ohio. Comic Tales of Tragic Heartbreak knows all about accidents. Of birth. Of place and strange times. Of music heard through screen windows in summer, of lonely faces in discos while blizzards raged outside in the Northern night.

What’s a young criminal to do? Read every book he can get his hands on, obsess over record club 45s, play the theme song to MASH over and over on a rented trumpet, lose a thousand fistfights till he finally wins one. Ride a stolen bike, a bus, a train, get out.

Years later, redemption at last. Robert Whaley is just about where he should be. Compared to everyone from David Byrne to Leonard Cohen, he’s been welcoming audiences into a private world of enchantment and debauchery, and oh the influences are clear: Anderson (words and emotions), Fossee (dance and controlled hysteria), poetry (Artaud and O’Hara).

Whaley had a lot of practice riding the line between rock n’ roll, performance art, and stand up comedy as the front man for The Niagaras, a legendary force of Manhattan’s live music scene of 80s and 90s, when a wild front man could dance on bar tops and swing from the rafters without getting banned, except for when he was:

“Lunacy? Spectacle? And music too??”- Rene Chun, New York Times

No wonder the attraction included a “celebrity” following – everyone from Ethan Hawke to Kevin Spacey to Gwyneth Paltrow to the good people in Anthrax.

As a songwriter, Whaley has covered a lot of ground and has shown range through a number of outlets. He cowrote and recorded the original score for the feature film, Joe the King, starring Val Kilmer, and has also written for the stage –his rock musical Wrong Way Up ran off-Broadway at NYC’s Zipper Theater. He is currently working with playwright Matthew Freeman on a musical adaptation of the great 1908 novel, Buried Alive – now titled Selling Sacred Objects.

Meat Market Lullaby, the second album from Comic Tales of Tragic Heartbreak, reflects an obsession with pre-1974 soul, filled with nuance and tender bitter sweetness. Jazz pianist Mara Rosenbloom sets the tone with her loose/attacking, touch on grand piano and Rhodes. Pete O’Connell lends a sophisticated sense of drive and counterpoint as both bassist and co-arranger. Whaley’s long-time collaborator, lead guitarist and singer, Tony Grimaldi, shines with masterful harmonies and chunky guitar lines. Chris Schultz, percussionist with Blue Man Group, shimmers, cascades and of course, rocks.

Recorded live in the studio with a minimum of overdubs, a maximum of misfit charm, and this: “Only the few know the sweetness of the twisted apples.” (Sherwood Anderson, again.)

www.comictalesoftragicheartbreak.com