RAGGY MONSTER & LAVOLA
Raggy Monster
Two bands, Raggy Monster and Lavola, seem to have found a rhythm with each other – both dropping new albums, honing in their sound, and solidifying their lineups to round out their 2014 year.
Raggy Monster has spent the last three months in and out of Tony Bongiovi’s Power Station Recording Studio in Pompano compiling their sophomore album “As the Thorn Lures the Widow’s Lip, it Seeks No Wisdom from the Wicker Flies” due to drop December 16. “We found our sound with the second album” says Billy Schmidt, founding member of Raggy. Working long hours with wife and longtime bandmate Rachel DuVall, they together wrote the foundation for the new album. “A lot of times it was really late nights of he and I writing. He would write the music, I would write the lyrics, and I would be like, “Oh dude this is so good!” and next thing we know it’s seven am and we’re walking out of our rehearsal studio” says Rachel.
Billy is anxious to get the band on the road with the new album, with loose plans for a Florida tour early 2015, and perhaps crossing state lines later in the year. “It honestly seems like the bigger the show the better we sound. We need that big feeling. We need the grand, you know… I don’t use the word “epic” very often, but we need that epic feeling to go with the music” says Billy.
Raggy is packing an impressive classically trained arsenal of Monsters to back that “epic” up with substance beyond their disarming stage personas. Billy trained on keys with a Masters in Music Business in the works, and front woman Rachel DuVall has a background in opera. The album was recorded with their new drummer Sage Duvall (Leading The Heroes), and they have since picked up guitarist Mike Guido (The Flyers) and bassist Oren Gross (Fireside Prophets).
Lavola
Personal pride in their most recent release This Book is My Cowardice, and in response to a demand from fans over the years, Lavola is releasing a 12” vinyl in tandem with Raggy Monster’s new album release.
Julian Cires (founder of Lavola) has watched his share of what he identifies as “a revolving cast of musicians and friends” pass through his project. TBIMC is the first installment featuring Cires’ girlfriend Emily Dwyer on violin and in a vital collaborative role alongside Cires. “With this album I wanted to push it more towards what I thought Lavola was… elements of it have matured and evolved in different directions and I think this album as a whole sounds a lot more mature.” Deviating from his usual solo-effort in composing Lavola’s sound, Cires admits this is the first time he has opened the door to his creative process. Crediting the success and growth with the new album to this collaboration, Julian says it has “made it into something I could not have done by myself.”
The Raggy Monster album release and Lavola vinyl release show takes place December 20 at Respectable Street with Johnny Raincloud & the Downers and The Psymatics. RSVP
~Danielle Romanowski
