Tag: Lauren Ruth Ward

RSVP HERE: The Fantastic Plastics Live Stream Via Twitch + More

Welcome to our weekly show recommendation column RSVP HERE. Due to live show cancellations we will be covering virtual live music events and festivals.

Photo by Angelyn Toncray

This week marks the one-month anniversary of most COVID-19 lock downs in the US and everything that came along with that. Mass amounts of tour cancellations have ushered in a new world of consistent live streaming on social media. While most bands are still adapting to this new quarantined way of being, NYC-based synth dance punk duo The Fantastic Plastics are about to celebrate their one year anniversary of live streaming on Twitch. Self-described as “the future of the future,” the Fantastic Plastics are heavily influenced by Orwell and sci-fi movies, so maybe they knew this particular dystopian fate was coming all along. Their visually stimulating live show includes matching outfits, backing projections, Moog synths and a theremin and is guaranteed to captivate your attention, whether in person or from the comfort of your phone screen.

The Fantastic Plastics’ interactive Twitch stream is tonight goes live every Wednesday and Friday at 9pm EST, with occasional bonus shows on Sundays and Mondays – your next opportunity to tune in is tonight, April 17th! We chatted with The Fantastic Plastics about some of their live stream effects, their sci-fi movie favorites and their advice for starting your own Twitch channel.

AF: You were in the live streaming boat far before quarantine started. Coming up on your one year anniversary on Twitch, how has your performance style grown over the year? How has your fan base changed?

FP: Our performance style over the last year on Twitch has evolved to become more interactive with our audience. Before we started live streaming, we were accustomed to jumping on stage to play a quick 30-45 minute set and then tearing our stuff down off of the stage as quickly as possible. Now with streaming, we stretch our performance out over 3-4 hours with lots of chatting with our audience between songs. Our fan base has changed in that we spent years touring and trying to find our audience, whereas with live streaming, most of our audience has found us instead. We are also able to reach people in parts of the country and world that we’ve never toured.

AF: What goals do you have for streaming in the year to come?

FP: Streaming more often, making our stream more interactive, and branching out with a variety of content.

AF: Have you noticed a change in your audience since the quarantine began? Has the quarantine affected your creative process in any way?

FP: Since the quarantine began we have noticed that our audience, as well that of many other musicians on Twitch, has grown quite a bit as people are searching for new ways to see live music. As far as our creative process goes, we’ve been putting more energy into ways to make the stream more interactive and visually stimulating, and of course there’s always the pressure to keep writing new music.

AF: How do you make your outfits change pattern during your set?

FP: We are misusing the chroma key effect, haha! We actually used this same effect in a music video we filmed for our song “Teleport” in 2017 and thought it could work really well with our video projection show in the background on Twitch.

AF: What are your favorite sci-fi movies? What movies have had the most influence on your sound?

FP: Most sci-fi movies that we like, such as Barbarella, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Blade Runner, influence more of our aesthetic vs. our sound. Musically and lyrically, we have always been really inspired by William Gibson novels and of course 1984 by George Orwell.

AF: How do you think an extended quarantine is going to affect musicians’ (and humans’ in general) relationship with technology and live music?

FP: There has definitely been a shift and more of an appreciation for watching live music performances via streaming, and it seems like people are making a switch from passively watching Netflix to enjoying the chance to have more interaction with the musicians and bands they like via streaming. Hopefully after things start opening up again, this will be beneficial for both streaming and live, in-person gigs as we know everyone really misses the energy of being in live concert venues and is looking forward to seeing those rescheduled concerts.

AF: What advice would you give someone starting their twitch channel?

FP: The best thing to do if you are thinking about starting a Twitch channel is to just watch as many other streamers on Twitch music as you can – most importantly to learn the culture. Once you start streaming, just be consistent, and don’t give up.

AF: What are your plans for the rest of 2020 & beyond?

FP: We have a remix album, MLFNCTN, coming out at the end of the Spring/early Summer this year, and we just plan to keep writing new music, releasing more videos on our YouTube channel and streaming on Twitch as much as we can.

RSVP HERE for The Fantastic Plastics live stream on Twitch 4/17 9pm est. 

More great live streams this week…

4/17 Zola Jesus via Saint Vitus Instagram. 8pm est, RSVP HERE

4/17  Jeff Tweedy via Recording Academy’s Facebook page, Amazon Music’s Twitch page, and Pickathon’s YouTube page. 1 p.m. pst, RSVP HERE

4/17 Mima Good via Baby’s TV. 10pm est, RSVP HERE

4/18 Air Waves, Juan Wauters via Baby’s TV. 3pm, RSVP HERE

4/18 Lauren Ruth Ward, Veronica Bianqui & More via Youtube – Couch LA. 6pm est. RSVP HERE

4/18 Global Citizens Fest feat. Alanis Morissette, Paul McCartney, Lizzo, Lady Gaga + More via Youtube. 8pm est RSVP HERE

4/19 Erykah Badu via Instagram. 8pm est, RSVP HERE

4/20 Weedmaps “Higher Together: Sessions from Home,” featuring Wiz Khalifa, Billy Ray Cyrus, and more. 12 p.m PST, RSVP HERE

RSVP HERE: Shadow Monster live streams via The Footlight + MORE

Welcome to our weekly show recommendation column RSVP HERE. Due to live show cancellations we will be covering virtual live music events and festivals.

Photo Credit: Michelle LoBianco / @brooklynelitist

Shadow Monster is the solo project of Gillian Visco, a staple of the Brooklyn music scene since 2007, having  played in bands including Photon Dynamo and the Shiny Pieces and The Glitch. Since 2012 Gillian has played solo under the Shadow Monster moniker, writing introspective tunes until she paired up with drummer John Swanson (also of Sic Tic and The Glitch) in 2017, evolving their sound to heavier, moody (yet minimal) grunge. Shadow Monster is an exercise in exploring your shadow side and exorcising inner demons through songwriting. Their debut record Punching Bag was released in October 2019 via Dadstache Records, they played a ton of shows in 2019, and had plans to tour to SXSW this year (which were unfortunately canceled due to Covid-19). You can still see Gillian of Shadow Monster from the comfort of your quarantine on Saturday, playing a solo set live streamed from The Footlight Instagram alongside sets by Nathan Xander, and Kiril of Bears. We chatted with Gillian about her quarantine routine, the effects of isolation on her creative process, and what to expect from her live stream performance.

AF: You’ve been in NYC since 2007, and I’m sure have seen it change a lot. Have the changes in NYC affected how you’ve written music and performed over the years?

SM: It’s true – New York is always morphing and venues that I thought would be here forever are already gone. I tend to be a nostalgia-hoarder, so the art of letting go has been the most valuable lesson I’ve learned while living and playing music here. When you strangle the past like it’s the best thing that’s ever going to happen to you, you leave no room for the unexpected. The years I played solo I wrote quiet fingerpicking songs, and now I thrash around onstage and scream. But the root of it remains the same. I think an artist’s entire career is like chasing after something you remember vaguely from a dream. Maybe we never get it perfect – but perhaps the value lies in the passion for going after it at all. New York has taught me that patient joy in reveling in the rollercoaster and allowing myself to evolve into the most authentic version of the artist I am at this moment in time.

AF: What was the process for writing and recording your debut album Punching Bag?

SM: The songs on Punching Bag were written over a two year period while I was dealing with a bad breakup. I lost myself in a cave of turmoil and felt completely disconnected to the world around me. John Swanson started playing drums with me in the summer of 2017. Playing shows and arranging these songs with John was the main thing that pulled me out of the dark place I was writing them from. In March of 2018 I lost my job and we decided to spend every day working on getting our best seven songs recorded. We recorded everything on our own in John’s room and once finished, we brought the tracks to Brian Speaker at Speakersonic where they were mixed and mastered.

AF: Do you have a quarantine routine? What albums, movies, and shows have you been getting into?

SM: The first thing I do every morning since I’ve been in quarantine is try to get out of bed. This usually takes around an hour… It’s a habit I’m going to break… next week. So after I climb that mountain, I start my day by having a coffee, watching some news, drinking lemon water and meditating. I meditate before bed too. I find it’s a really great way to bookend the day, especially during times of high stress and anxiety. I’m a Virgo so naturally I have an ongoing list of things I’d like to accomplish during this time at home. Something that has stuck is a quarantine art series I’ve been posting on Instagram featuring a character I call NoName. I normally never have much time to devote to visual art so I’m just diving in head first now. Drawing is great for anxiety.

Shows I’m watching: Tiger King, Sex Education, High Fidelity, Preacher, 30 Rock

Shows on my list: The Sopranos, Sons of Anarchy, Dexter

AF: Has being in quarantine helped or hindered your creative process?

SM: Being in quarantine has been interesting to navigate creatively. There’s a whole aspect of my personality that loves being locked in my room, working for hours on a song, writing poetry, playing records, lighting candles, enjoying my space. But then there’s this other half of me that loves people and music and loud bars and dancing and staying out too late and escaping the confines of my mind. I’m figuring out how to adapt. We have essentially lost our social life so everything feels a bit off-balance to me. But feeling off is a great place to make art from. It’s the cabin in the woods trip I always talk about taking. And I don’t even need to pack.

AF: What’s your livestream set going to be like?

SM: I’m super excited to do a livestream show on Saturday through The Footlight’s Instagram page. I’ve done a couple of livestream sets over the past two weeks, (000ze.digital, Left Bank Magazine, Bands Do BK) but this one is going to be a longer set. I plan to give a couple brand new songs a shot that I’ve written during quarantine. I’ll play some songs from our album, and I’m working on a cover. I’m implementing a drinking game in the set too. Get your quarantine drink of choice ready and bring your pets.

AF: What is the first thing you’d like to do if and when everything goes back to normal?

SM: I WANNA GO TO A SHOW. So bad. So so bad.

RSVP HERE for Gillian of Shadow Monster, Nathan Xander, and Kiril of Bears livestream on The Footlight’s Instagram 8PM EST. Every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday tune into to their page for an hour long show. Donations accepted through the link in their bio to help support the artists and the staff of The Footlight. 

More great live streams this week…

4/3 Big Freedia via Facebook. 9pm est, RSVP HERE

4/3  Rick from Pile via Instagram. 8pm est, RSVP HERE

4/3 Francie Moon, Moon Bandits, Tejon Street Corner Thieves live stream via Coping with Dystopia Instagram. 6pm EST RSVP HERE

4/4 Cam Tony (Mac Demarco) via BABYtv. 8-10pm EST $5-50 RSVP HERE

 

4/4 25 Hour Comedy Fest via Socially Distant Improv Instagram. 11am EST RSVP HERE

4/5 Carrie Anne Murphy of Clapperclaw, Huh, Bad Credit No Credit, and The Sundae Fantastique show will be live streaming every night at midnight EST. RSVP HERE

4/5 Sunday Silent Film: Salome w/ live accordion music via YouTube. 2:30pm EST RSVP HERE

4/8 Sondre Lerche via Facebook. noon est RSVP HERE

4/9 Dolly Parton bedtime story live stream via YouTube. 7pm est, RSVP HERE

Daily: Lauren Ruth Ward coffee chat via Instagram. noon-3pm pst, RSVP HERE

REVIEW: Lauren Ruth Ward Burns Hot on Vol. II

Photo Credit: Carly Valentine

Lauren Ruth Ward spits fire. She always has. Her vocal lashes are cut from a Janis Joplin cloth, and her configurations are nearly as gutsy, raw, and unruly. Ward’s second album, Vol. II, is a real soul-shocker of a collection ─ she douses musical gasoline all over the place, lights a match, and lets it all go up in flames. The trail she blazes is personal, hyper-political, and indebted to queer womanhood.

But who the fuck is Lauren Ruth Ward?

She’s a reckless rabble-rouser who scavenges humanity’s stunning misery and collects the damages as trinkets. Her work to-date ─ including 2016’s self-titled EP and 2018’s Well, Hell ─ shoots from the hip with an Annie Oakley precision, a western drawn that makes her tough as nails and seemingly unconquerable.

A Los Angeles transplant, by way of Baltimore, Ward smacks away any conventions and all expectations. Her 2018 release led to signing with Weekday Records, under the Sony umbrella, but when the indie label folded in late 2018, she was left with three songs in her arsenal, among them her punky “Valhalla” opener. It’s a bespeckled setpiece that strains past traumas out of her bone marrow. “I ate shit on the walk of fame,” she chews and spits onto hardened rock chords.

 

Her endurance as a storyteller shows up in delightful and bright spades, and she transports the listener into a purgatory filtered through an enlightened state of being. “Most times, I feel like a bat out of hell / They refer to me as a firecracker / I’m living in my personal hell / I don’t need your ammunition,” she splits her tongue with “Water Sign.” She doesn’t need your pity or senseless descriptors; rather, she welcomes your understanding and empathy.

“Real Life for the Most Part” spills from her lips as a psych-rock wonderland, and her vocal, blissfully hypnotic and savage, sparkles as one of her crown jewels. She snapshots our inescapably catastrophic existence: “Don’t blame me, I’m a bastard / Baby-Boomer plastic / You know I’ve never asked for this / To be born so tragic.”

Ward swerves unexpectedly with back-to-back campfire confessionals. “Friendly Fire” crackles with glowing embers, eventually dying out, and “Goddess” worms through the greying charcoal and ash to rediscover life. “A true shine like when Vali speaks her mind / You’re the goddess in my shrine, divine,” she whispers on the latter, a striking work of beauty. Drums pitter-patter in fanciful routines, and when the song cracks open, her voice slowly rising into the heavens, there remains an earthy, mystical quality.

With Vol. II, Ward ropes together a superstar lineup of collaborators. She penned every poison-laced lyric, and musician Eduardo Riviera composed and arranged the guitar parts. Together, they co-produced the entire record, alongside producing contributions from David Davis, Claire Morison, Andrew Martin, Matt Linesch. You’d expected the many hands in the pot to result in an uneven, drastically varied collection, but that is simply not the case. The album feels whole, and each part grinds as cogs in a machine, pushing forward to a common creative goal.

“Must Be Nice” is Ward’s artistic pinnacle here, an apt closer to leave the listener in absolute awe. Her fangs are newly-sharpened, and she chomps hard on an epic takedown of the patriarchy. Clocking in just under five minutes, she sums up the annoyance, the rage, and the hurt that stems from straight white men giving little concern for anyone else outside of limp platitudes. “Must be nice to be able to choose what is best for me and more importantly what’s best for you,” she sings, aiming her throaty vocal cords right at the serpent’s head.

She leans forward even more, and her gaze grows increasingly penetrating with each brimstone stanza. “I said, it must be nice to be assured and calm / You walk right into the room / Everybody takes a seat in your palm / Not me, babe.”

Everything boils over and leads to this knockout covenant: “Female is the future.”

Lauren Ruth Ward is the voice we need in 2020. Vol. II confirms her willingness to confront not only herself but the world ─ slicing through archaic beliefs and traditions, past traumas, and the current sociopolitical hellscape to honor the marginalized and bestow upon the most tired her own tremendous strength.