Have you taken notice of my appetite for the new and fun yet?  I get enough of the everyday by turning on an FM radio or weeding through my recent playlist. To me, Pandora Radio and the such are one of the greatest inventions of today. It’s true, few things in this world stop me in my tracks than having to know what this new song or band is should it pluck the right chord in my ear. It’s bad too, I’ve actually found slick ways to pause service to a customer for a moment, activate the Shazam app on my phone and place it near a speaker before a song ends. Sleight of hand means if you didn’t see it, it didn’t happen.
    It’s a little more on the rare side that new bands just show up in the middle of October and collaborate to throw a multi-band festival downtown. With a random Saturday night off and a list of bands I had never heard before, I stopped everything to go check it out.
    To clear up the name of this band (and continue my mission to destroy the English language), the word cacophony is actually 4 syllables that is pronounced like ku-kaw-fun-e and its meaning is basically a chaos of sound.  It was clear that the band’s specialty was bringing some sort of order to the chaos and the result was a very pleasant harmonic 3-piece.
    The two core members that started this band are Tim Sutton (guitar/vox) and Joe Sanchez (bass). There is an ever shifting cast of members whose locations vary from all over Maryland and New York. I had a look at this list and there’s about 20 of them somehow all on the same page with the primary writer that is Tim.
    Tim Sutton has been heavily influenced musically and methodically by what he calls “do it yourself” bands. A perfect example of this would be The Violent Femmes. As it states you depend on no one for writing, booking or even shoving their opinion at you of how they think things should be done. They’re truly unconcerned with any conventional ways of thinking, creating and marketing their art. A refreshing attitude in an industry where everyone likes to tell you why it is you aren’t famous. Anything resembling focus is purely on the music and the people that are contributing.
    What I heard when I entered the Pour House last Saturday was definitely best described as “folk punk;” a genre that I didn’t even know existed until that night. A basic 3-piece with a full sound that is a direct reflection of a guitar and bassist who have obviously been playing together a long time. Saturday’s lineup included Kevin Styles on flute and Steve Szybowski (also a multi-talented guitar/vocalist) on drums, and they offered no shortage of harmonies and energy. Tons of energy in fact. The type of band that when you see them, there is no doubt that they’re having fun just being there.
    My first encounter with the young Mr. Sutton was about 6 years ago at an acoustic open mic in Salisbury. The plan was to hammer down a beer, a couple songs and head back east. That quickly changed when he and Joe got a party started with a college kid’s enthusiasm and room full of friends. It was soon clear that everybody in the joint was there to see them.  As was I, though I didn’t realize it until the third song.
    Right now Tim and crew are busy doing everything including a whole bunch of nothing when the whim strikes. Always playing, creating and lighting up a room. Their only gig on the schedule is at the Double L bar on November 9th in Rehoboth but be assured that a Rainy Day/Phantom Limb show is on the table for the fall. There’s no way I could possibly let our friends miss these dudes a second time. Until I get that arranged there’s plenty of songs, videos, funny ass pictures and good stories all over the facebook and youtube universe so peck away at the search engine and check ‘em out. Nothing compares to the live experience so I’m gonna do the unusual and make a promise: There WILL be Rainy Day Cacophony in Ocean City soon. Til then peeps…  Rock on!