On Stage (Extra): Zmeds keeping the Everly Bros. sound alive

Sixth annual 717 Fest in Lancaster, Sunday

By Denny DyroffStaff Writer, The Times

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The Birddogs

The Everly Brothers made pop music that was truly timeless. The brothers — Don and Phil Everly — had their own style of country-influenced rock that featured the kind of tight harmonies that only brothers can produce.

The Everly Brothers made their last recording as a duo in 1998. On January 3, 2014, Phil Everly died of lung cancer — 16 days before his 75th birthday.

Fortunately, there is another pair of brothers intent on keeping the Everly Brothers’ music alive — Dylan and Zachary Zmed. Using the name Bird Dogs, the Zmed Brothers are on the road constantly — touring with their “Everly Brothers Experience” show.

The tour will bring them to the area on September 17 for a show at the Sellersville Theater (24 West Temple Avenue, Sellersville, 215-257-5808, www.st94.com).

Theater fans may recognize the name Zmed. The boys’ father is Adrian Zmed, a noted movie, television and stage actor. He is most known for playing Danny Zuko in “Grease” — on Broadway and on several National Tours.

“My brother and I grew up together and we always sang with each other,” said Dylan Zmed, during a phone interview Thursday afternoon.

“My dad was an actor. With ‘Grease,’ we got exposed to that era of music. At a young age, we got very moved by it. Six years ago, we started singing as a duo and trying to figure out which music would be best for brothers’ harmony.

“We thought about Simon and Garfunkel and the Beatles and then realized they all had the Everly Brothers as their big influence. We realized there was something special about the Everly Brothers.

“Another reason we wanted to do the Everly Brothers — we’re in our late 20s and most people our age don’t know who the Everly Brothers are. But, if you play them a song by the Everly Brothers, they recognize it. We feel a sense of responsibility to keep the music alive.”

The young Zmeds are old rock-and-rollers at heart.

“Both our mom and our dad were always into the era  of music — the Everly Brothers, Eddic Cochran, Bill Haley & the Comets, Little Richard, Chuck Berry,” said Dylan Zmed, who grew up with is family in the Los Angeles area.

“My brother had a band and I joined right after I got out of college. About three years ago, we started focusing on super harmonies. We played tons of bistros, wineries and bars.

“Last year, we ended the band. We realized that no-one who was young was doing an Everly Brothers tribute. We started doing this project at the beginning of this year at Suncoast Casino in Vegas.

“Researching the Everly Brothers is a never-ending process. We’re submersing ourselves in their history — lots or archive performance and interview footage. We have about 35 of their songs down. We have their big hits — and we go to the deep cuts.”

Video link for Bird Dogs — https://youtu.be/PGNiMy4qWBw.

The Bird Dogs’ “Everly Brothers Experience” show at the Sellersville Theater will start at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $29.50 and $40.

Freakwater

Freakwater

On July 20, the Sellersville Theater will host another interesting band with country and rock in its DNA — Freakwater.

Freakwater is an alternative country band that had its start in Louisville, Kentucky. In 1989, Janet Beveridge Bean and Catherine Irwin founded the band, and they have been supported by bassist David Wayne Gay since the early days.

“We’ve been playing together since we were little tots,” said Bean, during a phone interview Thursday afternoon.

“And, we both got kicked out of the same school,” said Irwin.

Bean said, “In the early days, we go to Catherine’s apartment and sing songs together. There was a punk rock venue that had an open mic night and we did that.”

“Then, we made a four-track recording,” said Irwin. “Eventually, we made up a name. Then, we went into the studio for our first record. That’s where we met Dave Gay. He’s been our third member ever since.”

The band’s self-title debut album came out on Amoeba Records in 1989.

“With the whole punk rock thing, people didn’t know how to play their instruments and just tried to sound like that,” said Irwin. “With us, I’d write songs that I felt were regular country songs.”

Bean said. “When we were starting out, we were just playing covers of country artist like Tammy Wynette and George Jones. Then, we decided to write our own songs so people couldn’t figure out if we were screwing up.

“We always had connections that allowed us to get our own music out there. We just played — went out there and did it.”

From 2006 to 2013, Bean and Irwin worked on other projects. But, Freakwater is still alive and well in 2016 — and touring the states in support of “Scheherazade,” which was released on Bloodshot Records on February 5.

In 2014, Irwin and Bean (along with longtime collaborator Jim Elkington) convened for a mini-tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of their landmark album “Feels Like The Third Time.”

Inspired by a rekindled musical spark, the two wrote songs throughout that summer and in the fall got together for two months of rehearsing and six days of recording. “Scheherazade” was recorded and mixed at LaLa Land Studio in Louisville, Kentucky with Kevin Ratterman, My Morning Jacket’s longtime engineer.

It was the first time in the band’s long career that they recorded an album outside of Chicago. The slower pace of Louisville – what Bean calls the “Kentucky crawl” – and an extended cast of talented local musicians proved perfect elements for developing their new songs.

Freakwater began an exhaustive tour after the release of “Scheherazade” — a tour that brought them to Philly for a show at Boot & Saddle.

“It was a long tour — but we did make it home,” said Bean. “Since then, I’ve been catching up on TV and tending my garden. Neither of us wanted to leave again for awhile but we’re going on the road again.

“We haven’t done any writing. We’re still working this record so nothing new. We’re touring with a six-piece band. This tour runs until the end of July and includes the Newport Folk Festival. Then, we’ll be home until September when we leave for a European tour.”

Freakwater’s current live show contains a lot of songs from “Scheherazade” — but the songs may sound different than they do on the album.

“Freakwater is theonly band in existence where the songs get slower as we play them on tour,” said Bean. “But, the live versions have gotten really tight.

 “We came from a punk rock background but we didn’t really just play punk rock. We just played our music and hoped that people would like it. Now, 30 years have gone by. I didn’t expect to be still alive after 30 years let alone still making music with Freakwater.”

Video link for Freakwater — https://youtu.be/2gmAn4FRDoE.

 The show at the Sellersville Theater will start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $19.50 and $29.50.

717 festWhen the Breakout Tour hits Lancaster on July 17, it will be a “show within a show.” The Breakout Tour, which features The Machinist, Gladiators and The Blessing of This Curse, will provide three of 14 acts slated for the Sixth Annual 717 Fest at Freedom Hall at the Lancaster County Convention Center (25 South Queen Street, Lancaster, http://www.cirecords.com, 866- 503-3786).

The Breakout Tour features several of the hottest young heavy metal and rock bands from New York (The Machinist), New Jersey (The Blessing of This Curse) and Pennsylvania (Gladiators). For Gladiators, the show will be a homecoming.

Gladiators

Gladiators

Gladiators — Mike Hart, vocals; Josh Krantz, guitar; Bernard Stabley, bass; Caleb Stoltzfus, drums; Scott Toebe, guitar — has established itself a promising progressive metal band from Lancaster. The band works tirelessly to set itself apart and establish a new frontier in the genre with a fresh perspective.

“Three of us are from Lancaster,” said Krantz, during a phone interview Tuesday morning from a tour stop in Poughkeepsie, New York. “Bernard and I are from Manheim and Caleb is from Pequea Valley. Mike is the only one who isn’t local. He’s from Philadelphia.

“Bernard and Caleb were playing in a band from Parkesburg. I graduated from college and my old band broke up. I moved to Lancaster and got a call from Bernard. That was the start of it.”

It didn’t take long for Gladiators to start booking bands and making records.

“We’ve released two full-lengths so far,” said Krantz. “In 2014, we recorded ‘One Tooth at a Time.’

“Our second album ‘Plexus,’ which is on CI Records, came out this year. We had written a decent amount of the songs for ‘Plexus’ before we went in the studio. But, we hadn’t played any of the songs live before we recorded them.

“Our first album was more what we wanted to hear. Our new album is more audience-centric — something to catch the audience. It’s metal/hardcore — like Every Time I Die, Periphery and Architect. It’s cleaner — but different. It still has a lot of heavy music but we focused more on the song structure.”

Video link for Gladiators — https://youtu.be/oOzSrwFgHJM.

The Machinist

The Machinist

The Machinist — Amanda Gjelaj, Josh Gomez, Steven Ciorciari, Toby Osiene — is a four-piece metal band from Queens, New York. The band’s music features catchy riffs, grooving breakdowns and heavy doses of all-out shred. The Machinist’s debut release, “The Machinist EP,” was recorded at Westfall Studios with Anthony Lopardo and released on July 8.

“We just played a hometown show for the CD release,” said Gomez, during a phone interview Tuesday morning from a tour stop in Poughkeepsie, New York.

“There are all different styles of metal in New York City. Having to answer the question what style are we is the hardest thing. When someone asks me what genre we’re in, I usually just say we’re a metal band.”

With metal music, there are “clean” vocals and “dirty” vocals — and it has nothing to do with lyrical content. “Clean” is just what it sounds like — normal singing. “Dirty,” meanwhile, is a vocal style characterized by deep, guttural screaming.

The Machinist’s Amanda Gjelaj is a dirty vocalist whose singing, at times, sounds like a grizzly bear with its paw caught in a vice trap. Watching and listening to her, it’s hard to believe such sounds are actually coming from a relatively small young woman.

“A lot of people are amazed when they hear Amanda sing,” said Gomez. “I had corresponded with her when we were young — around 17. We finally met in November 2012. We met through mutual friends and hit it off right away.

“The minute I heard her, I knew I had to make music with her. There are very few female-fronted metal bands. We’re one of them and we have one of the best front women in the world. The only original members of The Machinist are Amanda and me.

“New York is a very different scene. We wanted to make music that was fresh and exciting. So, we made the album with Anthony Lopardo and had Ray Marte as the mixer. We started making the CD at the beginning of this year and we wrapped up production in late February

“Everything was done by March. We waited to release it because we wanted to get a video done for the song ‘Wake Up.’ Instead of looking for a label, we decided to release it ourselves. We’re all live wire and we like to have fun making music.

“With this record, we wanted to make something that was enjoyable for fans of all metal sub-genres — something for everybody with breakdowns and solo parts. It’s not something that’s been done a million times. We’re always experimenting and pushing boundaries.”

Video link for The Machinist — https://youtu.be/L22PRAwOsqw.

The Sixth Annual 717 Fest has Forevermore and Kingdom Of Giants as the headliners. The line-up also features Darkness Divided, Dear Desolate, Advent Ascent, Oshian, Tomorrow Awaits, The Art of Deception, SOS, Ember’s Fall and Had Matter. Doors will open at 3 p.m. and tickets are priced at $10.

The Temperance Movement

The Temperance Movement

Last winter, the Temperance Movement followed its critically-acclaimed 2013 self-titled debut album with “White Bear,” a powerful disc featuring 10 new blues-rock anthems. The band spent the early part of 2016 extensively touring around the U.K. and Europe, especially Scandinavia and Germany.

Now, the Temperance Movement has brought its tour to North America — a tour that touches down locally on July 20 at Underground Arts (1200 Callowhill Street, Philadelphia, http://undergroundarts.org).

A British hard rock, blues, and R&B band formed in 2011, the Temperance Movement features lead singer Phil Campbell, guitarists Luke Potashnick and Paul Sayer, bassist Nick Fyffe, and drummer Damon Wilson.

The group’s powerful live shows garnered them a solid fan base, and they signed with metal label Earache Records. The band released an EP, “Pride,” in 2012 and followed in fall 2013 with a self-titled full-length (which included the five tracks from the EP plus seven new tracks).

After touring extensively for two years — including a support slot for the Rolling Stones — the quintet  headed back into the studio to make its sophomore album, “White Bear,” which was released in late 2015.

“We’ve been together for five years now,” said Campbell, during a phone interview Tuesday afternoon from a tour stop in Denver, Colorado. “We got together and started writing songs. We were absolutely dedicated. We started playing gigs at the end of 2011 — and we’ve already played the Albert Hall.

“I’m from Scotland and Damon is from Australia. The other three are from England. Paul is from London, Nick from Reading and Luke is from Barnsley. We all met in London. When we made ‘Pride,’ we printed 5,000 just to put something out. It was a great sign. Putting out an EP said that we don’t care about putting out an album.

“We later put the EP tracks on the first album but we didn’t re-mix them. We toured for two-and-a-half years on our first album. There was a drive to write. We were on a headline tour of Europe and worked on new songs during our sound checks.”

Eventually, an album started to take shape.

“We actually went in the studio at the end of 2014,” said Campbell, a fan of Glasgow’s storied football (soccer) team Celtic F.C.. “A lot of it was done at Rockfield Studios (legendary studio in Wales with a history dating back to the 1960s).

“The last parts were done before our North American tour last year. The last session was at Angelic Studios in Oxford. We enjoyed making that last part. And, we really liked the studio.

“The biggest difference between our first album and this one is personality. ‘White Bear’ is us as a band. We played better because we knew each other better. We were much more comfortable in the studio. You can hear everything we do better.

“In our live shows, we play all the stuff — stuff from the first album and EP and stuff from the new album. We play half and half in our set — a more diverse set. Some of the early songs have become showpieces. And, we have these long extended pieces because we know the songs so well.”

Video link for the Temperance Movement — https://youtu.be/ktLTPfl4Kss.

The show in the Black Box at Underground Arts, which also features the Stone Foxes, will start at 9 p.m. Tickets are $15 in advance and $18 at the door.

The Yawpers

The Yawpers

The Yawpers performed last December at MilkBoy Philly and the show was a complete success. The band liked the venue. The audience liked the band. And, the club liked everything about the show.

It was so nice — they decided to do it twice.

On July 19, the Yawpers will have a return engagement at MilkBoy Philly (1100 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, 215- 925-6455, www.milkboyphilly.com).

The Yawpers are a three-piece band from Denver — a band that rocks hard while playing acoustic instruments. The trio features Nate Cook on lead vocals and guitar, Jesse Parmet on slide guitar and harmonies, and Noah Shomberg on drums.

“It’s been pretty constant touring for the last seven months,” said Cook, during a phone interview Tuesday from a tour stop in Columbus, Ohio.

“We’ve been living on the road. We’ve done a lot of headline tours back and forth across the country. Right now, we have a six-week tour of the East Coast and we’ll start a West Coast tour in October.”

The Colorado-based threesome had a self-released album called “Capon Crusade” in 2012 and then  released its major label debut “American Man” last year on Bloodshot Records.

“I had a residency as a solo artist in Boulder,” said Cook. “Jesse and I had been in bands together prior to that. So, we started playing together again.

“The Yawpers came into existence at the end of 2011. Since then, we’ve had four members who are no longer in the band. This incarnation has been together for two years. The music has progressed from a folk sound to a more progressive punk-influenced sound. But, we’re still all acoustic.”

At the SXSW Festival in Austin, Bloodshot Records heard a set by the Yawpers and was so impressed that it immediately offered the band a recording contract.

According to the record company’s press release, “The Yawpers roar over the roofs of a world filled with the ruined and the forgotten, where big dreams and small towns are pitched to the collective curb, and lost men and con men roam the gutters and pulpits. ‘American Man’ taps into the disparate, murky pools of the American musical lexicon; dark country to kinetic punk, acid blues to flared jeans boogie, low-brow backdrops pitted against high-minded literary references. It’s an edgy, engrossing trip.

“Shimmering against blacktop fever dreams and Elvis’s ghostly sneer are the anarchic impulses of the MC5 and psychedelic muscle of Leslie West’s Mountain and Blue Cheer. Raw and melodic, infectious and irreverent, ‘American Man’ is an update on the Springsteen tramp’s dream of getting out while you’re young, this time played for the inhalants generation. It’s the suicide rap played out in the desert, without velvet rims or everlasting kisses, the tramp as much a drifter as a romantic.”

Cook said, “Most of the songs on ‘American Man’ had been around for quite awhile. That allowed us to record live in the studio. We knew it would be our first real foray into the national consciousness. So, it was important to be honest. We record the whole album analog and almost everything on the record was the second or third take.

“We’ll be going back into the studio in September — to Hi-Style Studio in Chicago. It’s the same studio J.D. McPherson uses. They primarily do 1950s-theme records and we wanted to see what it would be like to make a punk record in that studio. I think we’re going to self-produce it. I’d say we’re about 10 deep into a 13-14 song LP. We do all the arrangements together. We’re taking August off to prepare for the recording.

“In our live show, we’re doing mostly songs from ‘American Man’—probably 80 per cent. But, we still do an occasional old song or a cover. The songs are always in flux.  We haven’t played any of the new stuff.

“We won’t introduce any new stuff into the live set until we’ve actually recorded the songs. I do all the songwriting — all the lyrics. And, I came up with the name for the band.”

The band got its name from Verse 52 of a poem by Walt Whitman called “Song of Myself”—“I too am not a bit tamed—I too am untranslatable; I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.”

“ I’m a huge Walt Whitman fan,” said Cook, who was delighted to learn that Philadelphia had a bridge named the “Walt Whitman Bridge” and that there was a Walt Whitman House Museum in nearby Camden, New Jersey. “We’re staying in New Jersey so hopefully I’ll get a chance to visit the house. And, we may even drive across the Walt Whitman Bridge.”

Video link for the Yawpers — https://youtu.be/ReIZ7tS8PXM.

The show at MilkBoy Philly will start at 8 p.m. with opening act The Snails. Tickets are  $10 in advance and $12 at the door.

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