themorningcall.com: Lehigh Valley Music Blog

by Len Righi

Angela Winter Means has spent most of her adult life working for New Zealand's premier indie record label, Flying Nun, managing tours for the likes of Peaches and Stephen Malkamus & the Jicks and booking indie-rock bands such as Sunn0))) and Bright Black Morning Light.

Now the 35-year-old New Zealand native is taking a crack at presenting indie music in Bethlehem, where she has lived since Septmeber 2007.

On Friday, Means will present a terrific bill at The Funhouse, 5 E. Fourth St., headlined by neo-psychedelic bands Dead Man (from Sweden) and Radio Moscow (from Iowa).

Dead Man (above right) comes from Orebro, a city of 100,000 about two hours west of Stockholm, and launched its first-ever U.S. tour on Feb. 5 in Brooklyn. The quartet's new album, "Euphoria," and its brand of pastoral psychedelia was highly touted by Spin online in December. "Dead Man favor Led Zeppelin's mystical/acoustic era, but there's also a tinge of sun-drenched hippie folk that will surely set Deadheads a-noodlin'," according to writer Peter Gaston.

Radio Moscow's psychedelia is far more rough-hewn and blues-based -- one writer described the Story City power trio's Hendrix/Cream/Blue Cheer-influenced music as "crustier than a bad case of psoriasis and greasier than a chicken fried steak." And Parker Griggs is emerging as a new guitar hero.

On March 6, Means has assembled an equally impressive freak-folk bill at The Hard Bean Cafe, 201 E. Third St. The headliner is James Blackshaw, an experimental 12-string guitarist fom the U.K., who is credited with advancing the legacy of John Fahey and Leo Kottke into the 21st century with his brooding, intense hypnotic playing and ambient drones.

Rounding out the evening will be Meg Baird of Philadelphia psych-folk collective Espers, who has released her first solo album, and Fursaxa, a.k.a. Tara Burke of Kutztown, whose music has been compared to Nico's solo work.

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