New Music Alert: BIIANCO's "Teeth Bared"

 

 

BIIANCO is out with a new song called "Teeth Bared." I've followed BIIANCO's career since the start. And before that via Smoke Season. Her current iteration of electronica aligned with interpretative dancing is like a Vulcan mind meld.   

Though the video does not feature the artist, the two actors in the video show off their dance skills, but that comes later in the video. The video opens with a boyfriend coming in a  home with flowers. The girlfriend confronts saying that the flowers just don't fix their relationship issues. The two then enter into an android like dance. It is sensual, but then there are just moments of hatred and rejection. In the end, the whole relationship is over.   

In a Instagram post, BIIACO states the following: ‘teeth bared’ is a song about grief, rage and wreckage and what you do with it. You meet it with your teeth bared 👄 out everywhere now 🥀

Photo taken at School Night

Online Quarantine Sets: Version 102

I'm not sure this has ever happened on at School Night (online or live), but I previously saw all three bands / musicians that were scheduled on this particular Wednesday night. I was excited to watch this one online, because of the three on the schedule.

Up first was X. Ari who I first saw on WFNM Instagram Live. For her WFNM online set, she had some technical difficulties and so I was eager to catch another set. This set was pre-recorded at what looked to be the Resident in the Art District of Los Angeles. She had a pop - rock sound that would fit perfectly on the Sunset Strip. She bounced around that stage like there was a full on party going on. At points, her vocals hit so high that I'm sure the classic breaking of glass was happening. One other thing I noticed was that the drummer was slamming his set like he had waited 15 months to do so. 

X. Ari

Up next was Rituals of Mine. I previous saw them at The Echo where they opened for Y La Bamba. What a contrast, which is why I so remember this band. Y La Bamba has a folk sound while I say Rituals of Mine had a doom punk sound. I will say that for School Night they appeared to take down their sound just a notch. Their set had a mix of hard core punk and poetry, especially as she sang out, "Stay in my lane." I loved how they had brief breaks between songs where their band name popped up on screen that conveyed a Matrix feel. 

 

Rituals of Mine

Closing it out was BIIANCO. Well, I've seen BIIANCO plenty of times and for years in prior iterations. I just can't get enough of those interpretive dance moves and projected visuals. What I loved about the video? I loved how at times it was just a touch out of focus as the camera worked on regaining focus. I can't wait to see BIIANCO live again.

BIIANCO

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 67

BIIANCO played a Instagram Live set on Korg. This is my third time catching an Instagram Live set of BIIANCO. Am I a super fan? I guess so. Her online sets are just so similar to her live sets. A lot of artists have to do their sets mostly acoustic and sitting on their sofa or bed. BIIANCO; however, has her keys and drum kit set up and she just goes from one to the other just like she does during her live sets. Her interpretative dancing and background video imagery are always there. When it comes to the drum kit, she swings the drum sticks just like she always does. I swear I wish I could see those online sets live so that I could take photos to my heart's content.

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 25

It was Grant Owen's birthday celebration on WFNM's Instagram Live.

Opening up the night was Revenge Wife. That would be Elizabeth from Holy Child. She was playing from North Carolina. This really has me wondering. I've watched a number of online sets via WFNM. More than a handful are musicians who were living in Los Angeles, but have now returned to their home states/cities. Will these individuals ever return to Los Angeles, especially considering that local music venues probably aren't going to re-open until sometime in 2021. And by sometime in 2021, I doubt that means January 2021. It might take years for the Los Angeles music scene to return to where it was pre-COVID-19.

Revenge Wife

But for now, let me not be so negative. Her set was spent plucking her ukulele strings in rapid fashion or playing her Casio keyboard that she was able to purchase via Patreon donations. One song she played was so new that she didn't have the lyrics memorized and sang them from a notebook. It was a casual set where she played her set on her couch along with her keyboard. And at times, one could hear the crickets in the North Carolina night.

Her vocals can take you into unexpected directions. My thoughts during the set were, "Jess Joy and Revenge Wife should really team up for a duet."

Janelle Kroll was a folk rocking in shades. She made the most of her limited stage. Some of her set was spent sitting on her couch. Other parts of the set had her kneeling on the floor, inches from her phone. I think she must rock during a live set at a venue -- got to add at a venue there.

Janelle Kroll

Chaz Cardigan had that cheerful rock music going. He did a call out to all those who joined the set early. I got a call out.

Chaz Cardigan

Alt Bloom, like Revenge Wife, was playing out of state. He was playing his set from Montana. He was playing out on the patio of his house. His backyard was stunning. Trees and grass. Just lovely. And his vocals were great. It would have been awesome to be out there in that backyard listening to his music and taking photos.

Alt Bloom

Closing out the night was a favorite, BIIANCO. Transcendent electronic music and interpretive dancing. Some of those dance moves had me thinking of "I Dream of Jeannie" '60s moves. Like Alt Bloom, she played her set in her backyard. But this backyard was in Los Angeles.

BIIANCO

  

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 14

Tuesday was an excellent day of music. Suzanne Santo hit up The Boot's Facebook page at 1 p.m.while BIIANCO took over Culture Collide's Instagram page at 6 p.m. I've followed Suzanne Santo for a number of years via Honey Honey. Honey Honey has gone into hiatus, I guess. The last time I ran into the band, they were playing backup for another band in 2017. So, yeah, a long time since I've seen Honey Honey. It was great seeing Suzanne Santo playing live. Her love of music comes through so clearly. I'm putting her down on my short list of artists I definitely need to see play live and photograph when music venues open up again.

Suzanne Santo

BIIANCO took her electronic-synth beats into the evening hours. A contrast to the more country-folk sounds of Suzanne Santo. Like Suzanne Santo, I've followed BIIANCO for years via Smoke Season. The one thing I wished was far better in this world of online sets: I wish technology was good enough so that I could capture solid photos of her slamming her synths and doing her artistic dance moves. Stinks that I can no longer capture on camera what I used to be able to capture so cleanly at a live show.

BIIANCO

WFNM on Wednesday's has recently featured some artists that I just love. The prior Wednesday, it was Disco Shrine. This week they had The Mowgli's. This is a band you want to catch during this period of social isolation/stay at home orders. They'll infuse you with positive thinking and if you're feeling down, they ask for you to reach out and say hello.

The Mowgli's

Jasmine Crowe came on with a light show going on in her living room. And her dog Wolfgang singing (barking) backup. She came prepared to put on a show. Rett Madison put on that Southern accent and charmed us all. Liam Ross started his set with the lights on low. Then we all learned that WFNM forgot to mute their sound. So we heard them talking about how his lights were too low. Hearing that, Liam brought in more lights. His music brought that chamber choir sound where there is just a touch of echo that came through his microphone and home studio instruments. Just perfect.

Jasmine Crowe

Rett Madison

Liam Ross

Sam DeRosa sang about former lovers, but with a smile on her face to show she wasn't holding any long-term grudges. She closed out her song with the catchy "Pill for That." The night ended with the pop cheer of Alke. The lead singer mentioned that this was the first time she put on make-up and gotten dressed for two months. I have to admit that I haven't combed my hair for around the same time frame.

Sam DeRosa

Alke

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 1

I can't go out to catch live music due to COVID-19 so it was off to catching online sets. My camera had been set aside for way to long so I started doing the lame thing of taking photos of my computer screen.

First up came Thursday, March 19th, when I caught parts of TOKiMONSTA's live streaming of her new album. I watched most of it, but as it was in the middle of the day and I needed to continue my work at home job duties. Also, I did step away for a few moments to go out and do some social distance walking. I had been cooped up in my apartment for so long that I just needed to go outside and stretch the legs for a few minutes. She was sitting with a friend, listening to her album and just talking and getting drunk. Her music was a lovely mix of genres and I would most love to catch a live set.

TOKiMONSTA

The Saturday and Sunday was spent catching some live sets from an online festival called Alone Together Fest. I got to catch a handful of bands/artists that I'd never seen before: Ness Lake, Pronoun, Sunsleep and I'm Glad It's You. Pronoun and Sunsleep really stood out to me. Too bad both aren't located in Los Angeles. I'm Glad It's You had cool fog machine effects. Ness Lake played the guitar with tender loving care. The reason I tuned into the festival was because talker was up on Saturday and Dan Sadin was playing Sunday. Talker really killed it with her acoustic set.

Ness Lake

Pronoun

talker

Sunsleep

 

Dan Saden 

I'm Glad It's You

Prior to tuning into the festival on Sunday, I caught BIIANCO. Earlier, she had broken her hand and it had healed. After her set, she mentioned on Instagram she felts she broke it again during her set. That tells you how much energy she put into her online set.

BIAANCO

July 2019: Chinatown Summer Nights

It was obvious. The Chinatown Summer Nights' crowd came to catch BIIANCO (Gabby of Smoke Season). I've follow Gabby since 2012. I have to say that BIIANCO is special and unique. There are still significant borrowing from Smoke Season. Her stage presence and synths are still there. During the set, she climbed atop and jumped off both the bass drum (unused for her set) and light truss. She switched off from the synth to electric drum set with ease. And her interpretive dance moves were evident. Those are all taken from Smoke Season. The difference is the sound. The soul sounds of Smoke Season are replaced by full on electronic dance. The sounds pop at just the right moment. The vocals are refined by years of singing. Those vocals soar at just the right moment and stay at those levels for just the right amount of time. I do believe this is her second set ever. The first was at School Night. The news of that set's success must have gotten out, because as the minutes ticked towards her set time, the crowd size grew and grew.

BIIANCO

Though I think BIIANCO stole the night that doesn't mean the line-up for Chinatown Summer Nights was just a BIIANCO night. Weslee is an import from London. The duo is now hanging out in Los Angeles. The RnB groves definitely caught the crowd's attention as the fence at the beer garden was lined with listeners. Okay, so nothing can separate folks from their beer, not even some music groves.

Weslee

Mmmonika was a surprise. They definitely had a fan base show up. A group of female fans bought blown up face photos of the various members of the bands. I think they were too shy to actually wave them around during the set though. The band is led by the breezy vocals of their lead singer, Ryan. With a 6 pm set time, it was some wonderful golden hour music.

What I noticed: the band did a group meeting on stage, run by Ryan. I couldn't hear everything that was discussed, but there were definitely pointers being given out about what they wanted to accomplish for specific songs. And in the end, I believe I heard, "Let's remember to have fun out there."

Mmmonika

I also happened to catch a couple bands that I've seen in the past. Beauty Queen opened up the day. I caught about half the set. Lead singer Katie cheerful personality is infectious.

Beauty Queen

SPELLES is a band I first came across at Echo Park Rising in 2017. I also caught a couple songs in late 2018. The band vocals are deep and rooted in Southern blues. The songs to me that really stood out were "Teach Me How To Pray" and "Down To The River."

SPELLES

School Night: BIIANCO with LA Force, Jesse Ruben and MADI

Gabby from Smoke Season has created a solo project called BIIANCO. I got to catch her set at School Night and it was a thrill. I wasn't the only one thrilled by the set. Throughout the 30 minutes, people were screaming out: Gabby! Gabby! Gabby! As her backing instruments, she had a keyboard and electronic drum set. Occasionally, she'd play both at the same time. Those electronic sounds was layered with controlled vocals that floated just above the beats. Adding to it all were Gabby's artsy dance moves and visuals on a large screen TV.

She was joined on stage by MetronOhm's Annabelle on violin for a song and Tolliver on vocals for another.

BIIANCO

Opening the night was Jesse Ruben with a singer-songwriter set. He mentioned how he had to take 3 years off from performing and writing due to Lyme disease. After taking so much time off from performing and writing, he was thrilled when he returned to writing, "I still got it." He also joked about how the other three performers all got to say this was their Los Angeles debut. Unfortunately for him, he had once performed at Hotel Cafe and didn't qualify for that label.

Jesse Ruben

La Force came on stage next. La Force is Ariel Engle of Broken Social Scene. She was back by her husband. From what I can tell from social media, Broken Social Scene tore it up for 3 days at the Fonda starting a couple days after this set. On this night, she brought some indie pop sounds to the School Night audience. She sprinkled in short comments such as when she told her mother she was pregnant, her mother responded, "You'll never be alone again."

La Force

MADI closed out the night. Her set started a few minutes late as her drummer was dealing with technical difficulties. During those times, I couldn't help but notice the amusing side eyes she gave the sound guy as he attempted to figure out what the issue was. After it got worked out, she closed the night out with some grooving dance sounds.

MADI