T.C. Costello + The Seventh Word + Comic Tales of Tragic Heartbreak @ The Way Station

8pm- T.C. Costello

Genre: Celtic Gypsy Punk
For fans of: Gogol Bordello, Dropkick Murphys, Dreseden Dolls, The Pogues, Golem!

Equal parts punk rock and world music, T.C. Costello has been delighting and terrorizing audiences the world over for the past few years. His shows encourage audience participation on nearly every song and feature many instruments such as the accordion, the obscure 1920s marxophone, and the khaen, the national folk instrument of Laos. His repertoire of traditional songs feature everything from a 2,000-year old Korean love song to a rebellious English sea chanty. His original songs, based on world music, but with punk intensity, are often humorous, sometimes political, and without exception, his songs go well with beer.

“T.C. Costello’s cheeky Irish folk-punk is filled with energy and shout-along choruses reminiscent of the Dropkick Murphys, but with a more refined vibe. Beneath the bluster is a barroom Balkan-Weimar swing like Tom Waits getting his Gogol Bordello on.” - Charleston City Paper (Apr 26, 2014)

“To the tune of an accordion, guitar and some light chimes, you stop reading and start going on the journey with our author. From the meth labs of Indiana, to the southern US, to Russia, to the middle of the ocean you are with our songwriter. On this voyage you witness human rights abuses, lechery, theft, and homicide. You’re laughing the entire time, though. An intriguing part about this adventure is getting to see the horrific traumas that are sung about and being able to chuckle at the circumstances that surround them.” - Ando Ehlers, Sepiachord (Apr 15, 2014)

“T.C. Costello Twenty-First Century Scum Accordion punk? Accordion punk! Costello’s cantankerous tunes are dark, dirty and humorous: See “F#!k Off, My Fellow Man”; “Yuppiemandias.” - Patrick Wall, The Free Times (Dec 18, 2012)

“The Sun Never Shines in Vancouver” in Charleston, SC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGUq8HIn1NY
“Liver Let Die Part II” in Moscow, Russia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAQlcVDOS9Y
“Flying Fish Sailor” in Leicester, England
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRpU1Wlrl5M

9pm- The Seventh Word

Genre: Rock and Roll
For fans of: Neil Young, Velvet Underground, Meat Puppets, White Stripes

In their current formation as a power trio, Brooklyn’s The Seventh Word toes the line between dirty, distorted, distinctly American rock and sticky, cynical pop, with unexpected melodies supporting wistful lyrics regarding the complexities of lost love, memory, and imaginary mathematics. Singer/guitarist/pianist Isaiah Singer studied poetry with Ishmael Reed, and is a former member of Genesis P-Orridge’s Psychic TV and Bryin Dall’s 4th Sign of the Apocalypse.

www.seventhword.com
https://soundcloud.com/the-seventh-word

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