The members of the Claremont-based band Phrogs think of themselves as a punk band, to one degree or another. Members of punk bands aren’t famous for being agreeable, I’ve heard.
But a lot of Phrogs’ work is melodic and a bit haunted, more in the vein of bands like Bauhaus than, say, Dead Kennedys. The band’s eight records range from psychedelic rock that sounds a little like Nick Cave to short grubby songs that take a page from The Replacements’ playbook. (If you’re under the age of 50 and haven’t heard of any of the bands in this paragraph, you’re in for a series of treats.)
The band’s unusual breadth made Phrogs a good candidate to play alongside Friday evening’s screening of “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,” a landmark 1920 silent film, at JAM (Junction Arts & Media) in White River Junction. The film starts at 7 p.m., and tickets are $5-$20 on a sliding scale.
JAM reached out to the band last fall. “I think they had an idea of what our musical outfit could do with a score,” Loren Howard, the band’s drummer, said in a phone interview this week.
Friday’s screening is an element of a serendipitous spate on Upper Valley screens of movies either with live accompaniment or about musicians and music-making.
“The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” is considered one of the first horror films. It tells the story of a crazed hypnotist who deploys one of his sleepwalking subjects as a murderer. It’s probably available for free on the internet, since it’s old enough to be in the public domain.
Phrogs’ sound — also available free on the internet, via Bandcamp — fits the film’s dark theme. “For a while I was pitching us as a gothic punk mariachi band,” Howard said.
The band is made up of singer and songwriter Edd Ferland, bassist Jake Ford, trombone and trumpet player Riley Dickinson, and Howard on drums, with additional contributions from Davis McGraw on guitar and keyboards. As Howard’s description suggests, some of their songs are in Spanish.
The “Caligari” screening is a preview of WRiF, the White River Indie Film Festival, which is set for the first week of March.
The Upper Valley has long been a good place to catch a film from the silent era with live accompaniment. The Hopkins Center and the related Dartmouth Film Society regularly screen silent movies, sometimes with guest artists. South Pomfret resident Bob Merrill has often played piano with silent films at the Hop. Both of those phenomena are on view in the coming days.
Merrill will play piano to accompany a screening of “The Cameraman,” a Buster Keaton classic from 1928, the waning days of the silent era, at 7 p.m. next Thursday, Feb. 12, in Lebanon Opera House (free).
Next week is a big one for Keaton in the Upper Valley. The Hop screens “The General,” from 1926, at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 15, in Spaulding Auditorium at Dartmouth in Hanover, with live music accompaniment from pianist and composer Donald Sosin and singer and percussionist Joanna Seaton (tickets $9).
The Hop performance is part of a Dartmouth Film Society slate titled “Music and the Movies.” The Film Society consists mainly of students and chooses films based on a theme each term. Usually there’s a new movie or two that fits the theme, and the rest of the slate is built around what the society can get from archives or studios.
One of the more intriguing programs this term takes place this weekend. “Omoiyari: A Song Film by Kishi Bashi” screens at 7 p.m. Friday in Loew Auditorium, with the artist, full name Kaoru Ishibashi, present for a discussion after the screening (tickets $12). The film is an exploration of the World War II Japanese internment camps, an era of ethnic segregation all too similar to what we’re seeing today.
Kishi Bashi, an indie-rock musician and multi-instrumentalist, performs in Spaulding Auditorium the following night at 7:30 (tickets $30).
What we now think of as the silent movie era ended around a century ago. If anything, the screenings with live music coming up in the next week show us the staying power of culture that’s well made.
First Friday in WRJ
Phrogs are playing as part of the monthly First Friday art walk in White River Junction. Galleries and shops are open, usually starting at 5 or 6, and host artist receptions or musicians.
For example, The Y Lie and The Pilgrims, two bands associated with the Windsor-based What Doth Life collective, are playing from 6 to 8 p.m. at Rue & Ren, a vintage clothing store on South Main Street.
Come on, Pilgrim
And if you can’t get enough of The Pilgrims, perhaps the Upper Valley’s preeminent rock band, they’ll be at Windsor Station on Saturday night. Faux in Love opens; music starts at 9:30.
More music
Funky Flats, local exponents of 1970s funk, play Saturday night at Tunbridge Town Hall, one of the winter Shindigs that have run for years now. The show starts at 7 and the cover is $15 at the door.
The popularity of the Grateful Dead has always been a bit of mystery to me, but the recent death of Bob Weir has hit the band’s fan base pretty hard. Zach Nugent has made a career of paying homage to the Dead. The Chandler Center for the Arts in Randolph hosts a Nugent tribute to Weir on April 4. I’m telling you now because it will sell out pretty quickly, partly because there’s nothing to sell. Tickets are free, though donations will be accepted through the ticket portal and at the door to benefit the Vermont ACLU, the Randolph Area Food Shelf and Chandler’s free community youth and family programming.