THE INSIDIOUS RAYS - MORE SONGS ABOUT SEX, LOVE, DEATH AND SEX

• insidious rays: more songs about sex, love, death & sex
      (2003, cd, usa, insidious music)

Matt Juknevic's Insidious Rays recorded their first album in 2003. The band was based in Bethlehem, PA, and featured David Johnson on bass, who at the time was also playing Frank Zappa's music with Project/Object.
Special guest on lead guitar on one of the tracks on "More Songs About..." is none other than Robbie 'Seahag' Mangano, who was also part of Project/Object...

The band recorded a second album in 2005 and released another album (with another line-up)  in 2015.

I don't know when the below clip got recorded, but it looks like the band also had Frank Zappa's 'Magic Fingers' on their setlist.

INSIDIOUS RAYS

Robbie 'Seahag' Mangano is featured on the 2003 Insidious Rays album, entitled "More Songs About Sex, Love, Death & Sex".

Album cover has been added to the Robbie Mangano discography over at the United Mutations Archives.

THE SOUND OF URCHIN - THE DIAMOND

• the sound of urchin: the diamond
      (2005, cd, usa, hybrid recordings hy20042)

Privately released in 2003 and re-released on the Hybrid Recordings record label, "The Diamond" was the second album by Brooklyn-based The Sound Of Urchin.
At the time, the band featured Robbie 'Seahag' Mangano on guitar and vocals.
Apparently, one of Seahag's bandmates in Project/Object, Jordan Shapiro, joined the band on a regular basis for concerts.

Straight-forward, alternative rock music.

Here's the title track :

ROBBIE SEAHAG MANGANO - BUMBLEWEENIE

• robbie 'seahag' mangano: bumbleweenie
      (2016, cd, usa, private release)

Robbie Mangano's latest album is called "Bumbleweenie". It's a collection of 10 songs that Robbie wrote somewhere between 2004 and 2016. They got recorded, mixed and mastered in September 2016.

Despite what you might expect from Robbie's stunt exploits with The Banned From Utopia, "Bumbleweenie" shows a more modest musician.
The EP presents 10 guitar-oriented pop/rock songs, 10 beautifully crafted pop/rock songs.

Housed in an impressive package, with excellent liner nots, the album was availabe during recent Banned From Utopia gigs. I'm pretty sure that Robbie will make it available for mail-order very soon.

Nice. Very nice.
Highly recommended.

Here's Robbie playing the guitar solo in David Bronson's 'Song Of Life' :

And here's Invisible Familiars, featuring Jared Samuel, vocal, bass guitar; Jordyn Blakely, vocal, drums; Robbie "Seahag" Mangano, guitar; Tim Kuhl, percussion

THE BANNED FROM UTOPIA

The Banned From Utopia recently toured Yurrip.
They rocked.

• Ray White : vocals, guitar
• Robert Martin : vocals, keyboards, saxophone, harmonica
• Tom Fowler : bass
• Albert Wing : saxophones, EWI
• Joel Taylor : drums
• Robbie 'Seahag' Mangano : guitar, vocals

Highlights : Ray White and Robert Martin singing in harmony, Tom Fowler's great bass lines, Albert Wing's 'outside' solos on the Electric Wind Instrument, Joel Taylor's drum sole, and Robbie 'Seahag' Mangano's adventurous guitar lines.
I loved it.

I saw the band three times and they just got better every time. It was good to see Ray playing a couple of guitar solos as well. I really dig his playing. The thing that I enjoyed the most, except for the fact that they played some superb music, were the solos by Albert and by Robbie. Different every night. There was even a section where they threw licks at one another. Amazing.

A couple of audio recordings turned up at Zappateers. And there's some video snippets to be found on Youtube as well.

01 - Heavy Duty Judy
02 - Easy Meat
03 - Cosmik Debris
04 - Let's Move To Cleveland
05 - Advance Romance
06 - Pound For A Brown
07 - Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy
08 - Dupree's Paradise
09 - Pick Me, I'm Clean
10 - Willie The Pimp
11 - Marque-Son's Chicken
12 - I Ain't Got No Heart
13 - Inca Roads
14 - Keep It Greasy

encores
15 - Andy
16 - Whipping Post

second encore
17 - Sofa No.2

I was told that the band finished mixing some recordings from their latest (2015) tour. Recordings that were made by Germand national radio. The mix was ready to be pressed on CD, but unfortunately too late to be ready for the tour.
Let's hope they still decide to release it.
One show from the 2015 series was (multi-)video-taped. Below snippet might be from that recording...

ZAPPA UNION

Tonight, at the "Zappa Union" Festival in Oslo

Banned From Utopia & Lisa Popeil

Det Skandaløse Orkester + Denny Walley

THE BANNED FROM UTOPIA

Yep, I was one of those happy freaks that saw the BFU a couple of times the last few weeks.
Amazing concerts.

So go see them at the 'Markthalle' in Hamburg tonight, 26/10
or
at the 'Nefertiti Jazz Club' in Göteburg the day after tomorrow, 28/10
or maybe
at the Zappa Union Festival in Oslo on 29/10.

You won't be sorry.

SEAHAG - WE'LL GOT TO BE ABOUT DA BIDNUS

• seahag: we'll got to be about da bidnus
      (2002, cd, usa, mabitchess music)

Somewhere last year, after a Band From Utopia show, I brought home Robbie 'Seahag' Mangano's "Full Moon Fever", a superb release !
Looking for data for Robbie's discography, I took note of his "We'll Got To Be About Da Bidnus", an album that he had released in 2002.

As it happens, thanks to the inimitable patterns of the internet, I recently found a copy of "We'll Got To Be About...".
The album presents 22 tracks: original (lo-fi) music (plus some sampled voices), with influences that vary from 70's rock music to experimental guitar stuff.
Nice. Very nice.

All this to say that The Band From Utopia is touring again.
In Europe.
Go see them.
And take home Robbie's latest release : "Bumbleweenie".
He might still have a couple of copies of "Full Moon Fever", so buy one of these as well.

For a digital download copy of "Full Moon Fever", try
http://treb-c-moon.wixsite.com/fullmoonfever

And while you're at it, check out "We'll Got To Be About Da Bidnus" on iTunes .

Here's a snippet of Robbie with the Band From Utopia.
Recorded in 2012.

JULIE SLICK - TERROIR

• julie slick: terroir
      (2012, cd, usa, slick sound 04)

February 24, the Adrian Belew Trio played a fabulous show at the Paradox club in Tilburg (NL).
Next to Adrian, the band featured Julie Slick on bass and Tobias Ralph on drums and they rocked.

After the concert, I picked up Julie Slick's "Terroir" album. To be honest, I didn't even know that Julie had released a solo album. Anyway, I'm glad that I brought a copy home. Actually, I'm very glad that I brought a copy home.
The album is a sort of compilation of different tracks in different settings. Almost every track has a completely different line-up. The nice thing about this is that you get a lot of variety. It's not just different pieces, there's also the different guests adding their own particular sound to the compositions.

"Terroir" is a fine album and the title is well chosen. You get an insight into Julie Slick's musical world (and it's a beautiful one).
The list of the musicians that participated to "Terroir" is quite exceptional: David Torn, Pat Mastelotto, Eric Slick, Robbie 'Seahag' Mangano, Marco Minnemann, Adrian Belew, ...

Instrumental, contemporary progressive rock.
I love it.
Essential food for melomaniacs !!

"Terroir" is Julie's second solo album.
More info can be found on Julie's Bandcamp page :
https://julieslick.bandcamp.com/