March 30, 2008 - April 5, 2008

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Haale: Rediscovering fire

Filed under: Concert Review

Haale
Cedar Cultural Center
April 2, 2008
Review by Jeff Shaw
Photos by James Tran

When Jimi Hendrix was in Army jump school, he was mesmerized by the sounds around him. Surrounded by aural sensations, the legendary guitarist couldn't wait to get back onto solid ground to re-create them with his guitar.

Last night during Haale's show at the Cedar, we heard a similar attempt. The Persian singer-songwriter explained how the story about Hendrix had inspired her to write "Floating Down," a track where the airplane-motor thrum of Brent Arnold's cello intro mimics what Jimi might have heard in his head. Hendrix is a fitting muse, too, for Haale's blend of psychedelic rock music fused with Persian mysticism. There might not be guitar gymnastics happening, but the trio's innovative music makes fuzzy guitars and 800-year-old poetry mix like peanut butter and chocolate.

Haale on guitar. More photos by James Tran.

Then there is Haale's voice. Thinner while speaking her explanatory notes, the words bubble out of her rich and smoky when she begins to sing. She uses the speaking voice to recite between-song poems from Persian mystics like Rumi or French mystics like Pierre de Teilhard de Chardin ("They all say pretty much the same thing -- 'let's get this love thing on,'" she says). She uses the singing voice to create a trance-like warmth that surrounds listeners like the sound of Hendrix's airplane enveloped him.

If Haale's voice is the wind-swept sound surrounding the wings, then Matt Kilmer's percussion is the plane's engine. Using judicious layers of sound, Kilmer's rhythms are interesting without becoming too busy. He drums with just his hands and feet, but the sounds are intricate, which is most apparent during interludes absent guitar or cello.

Haale's is a very literary show. Besides speaking poems as occasional bookends to songs, she also quotes Kurt Vonnegut Jr. during an explanation of "Chenan Mastam." Taken together the phrase roughly means "I am so intoxicated with wonder" -- or, in Vonnegut's phrase describing the experience of children, so "smashed on the Great Big Everything."

In the robust mix of tracks like opener "Navayee" or CD title track "No Ceiling," the cello risks being lost. But this is also part of what makes the group's latest studio release one of the most interesting and sexiest discs of the year -- sounds combine into one elegant groove that sweeps the listener up in it. And there are quiet respites, too. During songs where the guitar is gentler, like "Off-Duty Fortune Teller," Arnold's cello comes through more.

"No Ceiling" is a CD where it's easy to lose yourself in the music. Live, Haale's song explanations add to the experience. She describes writing "Town on the Sea," a tune about an island off the coast of Marseilles where the band played. The place used to be a colony for bubonic plague victims. But in describing its architecture, the concentric circles and broken columns reminiscent of ancient Greece, Haale made it sound lovely.

When a singer can make a sensual song about a plague colony, you know you've found a special talent.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at April 3, 2008 6:22 AM | Comments (0)

 

Standing Your Ground: Cecile Cloutier interviews Treehouse Records owner Mark Trehus

Filed under: Local Music

Interview by Cecile Cloutier

Mark Trehus has been working at the corner of 26th Street and Lyndale Avenue for nearly 25 years, first as manager of Oarfolkjokeopus, and later buying the store and changing the name to Treehouse in 2001. It’s been a hard decade for record stores, but Treehouse managed to stick around and even catch a bit of a sales wave with the recent vinyl revival.

Treehouse Records has always reflected Trehus’s strong political beliefs: For years, there was a “Say No to War with Iraq” sign posted in the store’s window, and in 2004, Trehus teamed up with the Dillinger Four for a cover of “Masters of War” with the proceeds going to Iraqi refugee relief. This year, the store’s seventh annual anniversary benefit is dedicated to Common Ground Relief, an organization rebuilding New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward. The benefit show is this Friday, April 4, at the Turf Club.

City Pages: How did you get involved with Common Ground Relief?

Mark Trehus: Well, as you know New Orleans is near and dear to me. Ever since I set foot in that city I just, always, always, always felt a special connection and that I would someday want to live there. After [Hurricane Katrina], I was devastated and heartbroken. I have probably more friends in New Orleans than I do anywhere outside of the Twin Cities. Most of them haven’t been able to return due to various reasons, mostly financial.

CP: Now have you been back since Katrina?

MT: Yeah, I went back one time. It was for the Jazz and Heritage Festival last year.

CP: What was it like? I know you talked about your feelings after Katrina but what was it like to actually experience it?

MT: Alex Chilton drove me back there. The first couple of days I was there, it was “it looks like things are recovering”. Then he took me back [to the inner city] and I had this rotten, horrible, ugly feeling in my stomach. It must have been 15 minutes that I just …couldn’t… talk. One family, on the outside of their house they had spray-painted simply, “This was our home”. And there was nothing left but one wall, the foundation ... You do not get a sense looking at pictures of how vast the devastation is. It’s just mile after mile of utter devastation. Occasionally there will be somebody who’s braved it, who’s fixed up their home, who’s got a generator for their electricity and bottled water. It’s hard to believe it’s America. Two years on, the people who see [news items] on TV about the Superbowl or they’re watching Cops or something and seeing Bourbon Street, they think that New Orleans is back. It’s not.

CP: So why Common Ground Relief instead of another relief organization?

MT: I had heard of Common Ground and people going down there to volunteer. But until I saw [journalist Greg Palast’s film Big Easy to Big Empty] three months ago, I hadn’t really seen what the organization had done. When Alex had taken me to tour back there [last year], I had seen the Common Ground headquarters in the lower 9th Ward. It was the one place that was [still] standing in this [destroyed] area, but by no means in great shape. It’s this building that holds the volunteers and they’re sleeping 30 people to a room down there. So when I saw the video, I decided then and there that this was going to be my charity of choice until it ceases to be …

CP: Until they don’t need it any more.

MT: Which, sad to say, may never be. Or because they [Common Ground] burn out. God forbid: I hope they don’t. They are doing a wonderful grassroots job down there. They are building houses specifically for the poor people of New Orleans who can’t afford to move back. I think they definitely need more volunteers down there and they sure could use some more money. After seeing that film I decided I wanted to do something and I immediately wrote out a check for $1000. It’s not like I have a lot of extra money floating around, but compared to what these people have lost?

CP: This is the first year?

MT: This is it. I just started doing this because I want to think of Treehouse as more than just a record store, as a place where you’re making a political choice to shop there or work there, and in my case make some decisions in life based on politics and social conscience. As long as Treehouse is in business, every year there’s going to be a benefit for Common Ground.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at April 2, 2008 5:15 AM | Comments (0)

 

Former "Plumber" aims to plug ethical leaks

Filed under: 3 Questions

In 2001, former Nixon 'Plumber' Egil 'Bud' Krogh sent a memo the President Bush's staff warning them about upholding the law, even when pressured not to. They didn't listen. He's hoping others will.

Egil “Bud” Krogh knows the risks of blindly following orders. As one of Richard Nixon's “Plumbers,” Krogh's job was to prevent high-level government leaks, which often had him doing unethical things. He was indicted for his actions and spent four and a half months in jail after pleading guilty to depriving a person of civil rights. In 2001, he sent a memo the President Bush's staff warning them about upholding the law, even when pressured not to. They didn't listen. He's hoping others will. Recently he wrote Integrity: Good People, Bad Choices, and Life Lessons from the White House, and he'll participate in the discussion “Watergate Revisited: The Ethics of the Lawyers” at the University of St. Thomas.

City Pages: During your time in the White House, you acted unethically, but claimed at the time that you were justified in what you did. Now, however, you openly admit you were wrong. Tell me about your epiphany.
Egil Krogh: I was involved in the Nixon staff as the co-director of the unit tasked with investigating Daniel Ellsberg who had released the top secret Pentagon Papers to The New York Times. And the president described this as a national security crisis and assigned me and David Young to the job of finding out everything we could about why those documents were released, and what could be done to keep him from becoming this an anti-war hero. For almost two years, I participated in a covert operation that was undertaken in 1971 into the office of Dr. Lewis Fielding, Ellsberg's psychiatrist, as a national security imperative; something we had to do because of how the president described the nature of the threat. I believed that for two years. It was two years after this covert operation--or burglary--had occurred, that I had an epiphany. I was with my family for Thanksgiving, and I was under indictment yet free to travel, free to associate with whom I wanted, to say whatever I wanted to a reporter, to go to the church of my choice. The question became, how can I enjoy all of these rights and then defend that conduct that stripped away the 4th Amendment right of another American citizen without being a hypocrite? Approving that break-in; that operation struck at the heart of what this government was established to protect against. I concluded that my defense was something I couldn't live with any longer, and I needed to plead guilty to depriving Dr. Fielding of his right to be free from an unreasonable, unwarranted search.

CP: Why do you think that while you openly admit that what you did was wrong, others from the administration, the president himself and G. Gordon Liddy, for example, never did that?
EK:I don't know that answer to that. I think the others had more experience in the world of counterespionage and national security. I know Liddy had worked for the FBI for years, E. Howard Hunt had worked for the CIA, and I think they felt that under circumstances that the president defines as a national security crisis, that they could do certain things outside the law, and it would be justifiable. It gets down to what you think a president is authorized to do under crisis conditions, and I didn't feel that the president or those working on his behalf could set aside the law with impunity as they saw fit. I know others didn't agree with me. And I'm not telling you I'm right. I'm just telling you what I felt was right for me under those circumstances. I felt a huge sense of relief when I was finally able to plead guilty.

CP:How would you describe the ethics of the Bush White House?
EK:I think the ethics in the Bush White House have left something to be desired, particularly in how they have evaluated the proper response to the terrorist attacks of September 11. I think that they have taken positions, particularly in how they defined torture and the authority of the commander-in-chief in a particular legal memorandum that is so far afield of what torture means and what authority the commander-in-chief can exercise. They defined it to give them the ability to carryout very difficult and I think very cruel interrogations at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. And the conduct that occurred in Abu Ghraib obviously was criminal conduct on the part of those who were engaged in it, and some of them have gone to prison for it. But I think the unethical part of it is the legal memoranda farther up the chain (of command) that define torture as so extreme that it sent the message that you could carryout very cruel and inhumane interrogations with impunity. And that to me was wrong, and I identify that in my book. I also think they went afield when deciding that they could authorize through the National Security Agency the wiretapping of U.S. citizens talking with suspected members of terrorist organizations abroad without getting statutory authority. I think they've gotten it recently, but their initial response was to do it themselves. I'm a deep believer in giving each body, the legislative, executive and judicial, its role to play in matters of national emergency and crisis. I think we should have gotten the authority of congress first before undertaking that kind of eavesdropping program.

CP:You write in your book that pleading guilty to your crimes was key in restoring a certain level of your integrity. What's the best way to prevent current young bureaucrats from making the same mistakes you made?
EK:One of the reasons I wrote the book was to offer some guidance for how to stay safe in these situations where there is enormous pressure to get results. I wrote the book that I wished I could have read almost 39 years ago when I was sworn into my position. What I tried to do is point out that when you get these positions, you're basically sworn to uphold the constitution, that's your primary responsibility. You have to have loyalty to the people in the organization for which you work, but you have to temper that with your loyalty to what our founding document requires of you. And I just didn't do that. I was willing to do what I thought Richard Nixon wanted me to do and that trumped everything else. And what I try to point out in the book is that you have to have balanced loyalties. You're not going to get a job in a political organization without being loyal to a candidate and to the values he espouses. But you also have to realize that he too is subject to constitutional limitations, and you have to be able and willing to adhere to those even though you might displease you superiors. So I try to describe through the 'integrity zone' concept at the end of my book, what are the questions that can keep young bureaucrats safe. I pose those questions that I didn't ask in 1971, and they're simplistic questions, but you have to apply them to wherever you are, no matter what job it might be. For me, I had to plead guilty, and it's wasn't an altogether pleasant experience to plead guilty and be disbarred, but I was finally able to see where the thinking went wrong, and it really came back to my personal integrity, and not to let you it slip through your fingers. Maintain it at all costs.

CP:Do you ever worry that you'll never be free from the Nixon stigma?
EK:Sure, but I feel that, at least since I've come back to the practice of law and have been teaching and training, there's been a recognition from many people that I've done the best I could without trying to justify or excuse anything. Which is what I think you’ve got to do when you make a mistake like that. We're all going to make mistakes, maybe not as large as that one, but it's really what do you do afterwards and how to you try to rectify it that I think is really the issue. Richard Nixon never did, he was never able to face the fact that he had committed a crime. We would have been a lot better off if he had pleaded guilty to it and demonstrated the point that no man is above the law, including the president. Today, I feel that it is incumbent on me, because I had learned these lessons, to come forward and offer them to people who grapple with these issues every day.

CP:You've apologized to Daniel Ellsberg and Lewis Fielding, tell me about that. Did they forgive you?
EK:Right after I got out of prison, I felt I had to apologize to Lewis Fielding because when we carried out that covert operation in 1971 we didn't even see him as a potential victim of government misconduct. So while I can plead guilty and go to prison, that doesn’t complete what I have to do to show how wrong I thought that conduct was. He welcomed me to his office, and we talked for about 20 minutes. He did not exactly forgive me. He said, “I understand why you're here, and I appreciate your coming.” Later, I was on a platform at Dominica College just north of San Francisco, and Dan Ellsberg was there too. I told Dan how deeply I regretted it. He told me he thought he understood it. Now, since that time, Dan and I have become pretty good friends, he's written the foreword to my book, which is really quite extraordinary when you think about it, having the leaker and the plumber together between the covers of my book.

Hear Krogh discuss ethics along with two Watergate prosecutors and Nixon lawyer John Dean today at 4 p.m. at the University of St. Thomas School of Law building in downtown Minneapolis. Tickets are $25, call 651.962.4888 for more information.

Posted by Ben Palosaari at April 1, 2008 12:59 PM | Comments (0)

 

No Faking: Peter S. Scholtes reviews the Mekons with Greil Marcus

Filed under: Concert Review

The Mekons, Greil Marcus
March 28, 2008
Fitzgerald Theater
Review by Peter S. Scholtes
Photos by Daniel Corrigan

The Mekons take up dozens of pages in Greil Marcus books on punk, and even shelf space among my CDs and records, but I couldn't have hummed you one of their tunes until Friday night. The Mekons were always a great sound first -- kind of a hootenanny version of "All Tomorrow's Parties" -- with songs that seemed worth the trouble once I got around to the lyric sheet at some future date. I've withheld judgment because I'm an admirer of Greil Marcus, whom (full disclosure) I know slightly, and who made me a Sex Pistols fan 18 years ago at a Hungry Mind reading of his book Lipstick Traces.

Both Marcus (of the Bay Area) and the Mekons (of Leeds, Chicago, and elsewhere) have ties to the Twin Cities: Marcus through family and former City Pages staff, the Mekons through their former record label Twin/Tone. So it's no fluke that an onstage get-together of band and rock critic should occur here, at the Fitzgerald, hosted by radio star Maria Lucia and taped for her talk music program The Current Fakebook on 89.3 the Current, coinciding with Mekon Jon Langford's art opening the same night at Rogue Buddha in Northeast.

The Mekons: punk rock roots and Twin City connections. More photos by Daniel Corrigan.

Marcus introduced the Mekons with a quote from another writer whose name he has apparently never tracked down, describing the band in the 1970s: "Those who couldn't play tried to learn and those who could tried to forget." But that line seemed to apply less to the band that took the stage than did Marcus's later, eloquent defense of some '70s punk band reunions (the Avengers, Gang of Four) as rediscoveries rather than retreads. The Mekons, who have been around in one form or another for 31 years, don't just look like the middle-aged people I want to be (or be with) -- singer-guitarist Langford all unembarrassed tummy with shirt open and white fuzz on top, singer Sally Timms spark-away blonde and Exene-hot. The four-plus singing voices are all throat--even Timms, whose softness luxuriates between edges. And their sit-down septet in a circle (of banjo, fiddle, percussion, vocals, accordion, bass, and guitar, along with other switched-out instruments) never neglects frenetic texture for jamming. What sets them apart from so many Prairie Home Companion roots bands that have entertained from the same spot onstage is that the songs physically seize these guys. The Mekons play like punks not because they forget their skills, but because they remember what punk taught them about how to feel.

After a few Mekons numbers, with more to come, Marcus and Lucia took the stage to do the interview thing, which was nearly as good. Lucia makes this look easy -- I'm never disappointed by where her armchair interviews go, and they almost never go where I expect them to. Sometimes this is the result of comic self-insertion: At one point Lucia basically asked Marcus what he thought of David Bowie, and admitted she was a fan to the point of not being able to imagine Bowie doing something mundane like plunging a toilet. But when she asked Marcus if there were any artists about whom he felt that way, he was anything but ungenerous with his "no," taking the opportunity to give the audience what it wanted -- something to react to. Marcus said that other people -- not he -- might feel that way about some artists: Lucinda Williams, for instance. He called Williams a "complete fraud": "I have never heard a word out of her mouth that didn't seem self-conscious, that didn't seem intended to be praised."

Mary Lucia interviews Greil Marcus. More photos by Daniel Corrigan.

While probably familiar to Marcus fans, this old attack on a Current favorite set in motion the night's only running gag: When Marcus and Lucia returned to the stage after an intermission with Timms and Langford to have another sit-down, Timms got Langford to admit that Lucinda Williams had recently bought some of Langford's art. When a microphone suddenly popped and crackled, Lucia (I think it was her) joked that Williams must be in the audience, and Langford pantomimed that he'd just been shot. Williams fans, meanwhile, could take some comfort in the fact that Marcus probably lost the other half of the room with his breathless praise of Jakob Dylan. (Really? Jakob Dylan? Again, I'll withhold judgment.)

The Williams bit was Marcus's way of being gregarious. And he was as enthusiastic, thoughtful, and social in his other responses -- his writing can be infuriating when you disagree, a model of holding nothing back (to the point of seeming to make a show of holding nothing back), but no one will ever accuse him of being too cool for the room. This match of disposition and position was good to be reminded about, as the natural inclination of most critics who are also human beings is to want to be liked by both artists and readers, and this desire can stifle. Talking to Lucia, who among other things talks to artists for a living, Marcus said without apology that he'd never once interviewed Bob Dylan, about whom he's spilled millions of words as a critic, and that he never found himself wanting to know more about the lives of the writers he admired or worked with.

The wisdom here is one I've tried to drill into every young critic who asks my advice: Be a journalist of your own reactions first, and don't let anything keep you from being honest about them. That said, there's no denying that journalism (not to mention sociability) of other kinds informs the work of "pure" critics: Marcus couldn't have written what he has about Dylan were it not for the interviews and reporting of many others. I'd include here the mediated live experiences of television and film, not to mention the opinions of friends, or the collective (if not communal) experience that concerts always are. Last year's Mekons album Natural (Touch and Go) seemed all right before the show, but I liked the band a lot more for seeing them live, hearing them talk, hearing others' reactions, and seeing Marcus look so grateful for them. Mesmerized by the Timms numbers, I found myself liking not just the Mekons but Minneapolis-St. Paul a bit more by association, though I've admittedly been won over for 18 years.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at March 31, 2008 10:02 AM | Comments (3)

 

Another Voice May Speak: Mary Oliver

Filed under: Readings/Lectures

In Mary Oliver's world, prayers are made of grass.

The legendary poet read from her new work, Red Bird, at the State Theatre on Sunday. Because we are, in Oliver's parlance, on the shoulder of two seasons, many of the poems chosen were spring-themed. This is not a stretch for the Pulitzer Prize-winner: she has a poem entitled "Spring" in every book, a cyclical renewal where form mirrors content.

That's where the grass comes in. It is more than a metaphor in her well-loved poem "Mindful"; green fields and rich meadows are the places where communion is reached. Oliver's primary influences are the 19th century masters, especially Walt Whitman, who had his own relationship with grass. This influence shows in her technical proficiency, but also the poet's gentle fusion of nature with the spiritual.

Mary Oliver. Photo by Rachel Giese Brown.

This is usually explicit. In "Gethsemane," the lines about Jesus flow right into a line concerning a cricket. Or in
"Praying," a mantra-like poem which celebrates attention to small things. Even in the Percy poems, verses scripted in honor of Oliver's six-year-old Bichon Frise, we see a series of relationships with the transcendent.

These poems also highlight the distinction between reading Oliver and having her present, voicing the lines. The humor comes out more, both in subtle lines about having more than one copy of the Bhagavad Gita available and in the over-the-top jibes at Donald Rumsfeld. It's one thing to enjoy the poems quietly on your own, and quite another to share Oliver's cleverness communally with hundreds of others.

Another pleasure gifted to audience members was "Thinking of Swirler," an Oliver poem that has not yet been collected into any book. The bittersweet poem about a deer with one bad leg who is taken by a bowhunter is both lovely and heartbreaking.

But the heart must be broken sometimes. It is necessary. This is another Oliverian principle expressed most poignantly in the poem "Lead":

I tell you this
to break your heart,
by which I mean only
that it break open and never close again
to the rest of the world.

In response to a query from the crowd, Oliver declared that her poems "absolutely" are meant as prayers. Prayers made of grass, and loons, and iris, and keenly gathered words.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at March 31, 2008 6:53 AM | Comments (0)

 

Fashionably dancing: Carl Atiya Swanson reviews the ARENA Bikini fundraiser

Filed under: Dance/Performance

ARENA Bikini fundraiser
March 29, 2008
Review by Carl Atiya Swanson

Dance is sexy. Bikinis are sexy. Put the two together and you have ARENA Bikini, a Macy's sponsored fundraiser for ARENA Dances, one of the Twin Cities' premier dance companies. This first-time event, held at the 414 Sound Bar in the warehouse district, was designed to promote ARENA’s upcoming show waterBRIDGE at the Southern Theatre, and to pay their dancers -- something that is always appreciated.

The dances were a wonderful display of physicality and elegance, demonstrating the skill that has made ARENA founder and artistic director Mathew Janczewski one of the most prominent choreographers in Minneapolis and a rising star in the national dance world. Choreography reminiscent of dance-line and Charles Atlas body building poses flitted together as the projectors overhead played clips of Rio de Janeiro and beach parties, with thumping club music tying the whole event together. The dancers interacted with the models, at one point dancing in the corners, acting like guys on the beach trying desperate pick-up lines. The well-heeled patrons cat-called and cheered, many of them wearing leis indicating that they had made additional contributions that night.

The ARENA bikini fashion show went swimmingly. More photographs by Daniel Corrigan.

Janczewski noted in his after-show thank-yous that it was very strange to go from works commissioned by the Walker Art Center (2007’s Ugly) to a swimwear show. However, fashion and art are not so strange bedfellows. Fashionistas have increasingly turned to dancers to enliven their runway shows. Conceptual designers Viktor & Rolf featured tap dancers as part of their 2000 haute-couture line and artist Vanessa Beecroft paired with Gucci in 1998 to display models in bikinis designed by Tom Ford for her 1998 installations.

In its 12th year, Janczewski wanted the company to expand from one show a year to two, requiring a lot more financial and administrative support. “Small arts organizations will only survive if they have a dedicated board to help drive the mission,” said Paul Kaminski, chair of ARENA’s board of directors. “Job number one for any board is to raise money. Job two is to create and nurture a mission and vision, along with staff of the company, to guide the organization into the future. We have done all of that with ARENA through a strategic planning process.” Furthering that mission meant finding new ways to draw in support and expand the audience for dance in a competitive market.

The collaboration with Macy’s came about almost by chance. ARENA had turned to Jeff Turner, a “brain for hire,” to help them find new ways to increase exposure. Turner had worked for a number of years with Marshall Fields/Dayton’s and still had connections with Laura Schara, Macy’s trend consultant and the brains behind the Glamorama charity event. “We approached Macy’s to see about getting some help and costuming from them and they turned around and one-upped us, offering to sponsor the event,” explained Janczewski in a telephone conversation. Still, he said, the collaboration between Macy’s and ARENA has been loose. “We’ll basically get together and see what happens.”

What happened was a mix of short athletic dances and a traditional runway show with models displaying 2008 swimwear lines. Using the walkway of Sound Bar’s main lounge as a catwalk, ARENA’s dancers performed three excerpts in between the models’ walks. Betsey Johnson’s lingerie-inspired, black lace trimmed line went first, followed by Jessica Simpson’s All-American basic print line.

Despite these high-profile turns, there was still some trepidation at the prospect of the event, and Janzcewski said that the worry of “selling out” had crossed his mind.

Still, Sarah Thompson, the ARENA board vice-chair and head of the benefits committee was extremely pleased with the way the event turned out and was already looking ahead to next year. “I would love to see more of the short dance excerpts. I think it is a great way to show off the work and get people involved with ARENA.”

ARENA has always been a collaborative dance company and is already planning future work with other artists. Their fall ’08 show will feature nationally lauded string quartet ETHEL performing live onstage with dances choreographed by Janczewski. “They are basically the rock stars of the classical world, and I was choreographing to their music and just thought, what the hell, lets see if we can’t get them here to play with us.” With that kind of drive to collaborate for new works and their support structure, expect to see new and exciting works from ARENA for a long time to come. -- Carl Atiya Swanson

waterBRIDGE opens at the Southern Theatre Thursday May 8. For more information, see www.arena-dances.org

Posted by Jeff Shaw at March 31, 2008 5:48 AM | Comments (0)

 

Release the Dance: Jordan Selbo reviews Thunder & Lightning

Filed under: Concert Review

Lightning & Thunder CD Release Show
March 28, 2008
The Varsity Theater
Review by Jordan Selbo

Better Than: Another rap show trying to look tougher and/or more hardcore than the next dude

The reggaetón/dancehall/hip hop/whatever you wanna call it ass-shaking revolution has officially arrived in the Twin Cities. With a core group of talented local artists co-opting, reinventing and reshaping the various mash-ups that are possible when musical roots plant in Caribbean soil, the relatively young scene is nevertheless already solid and diverse, as plainly evidenced by the recently unveiled CD comp "Lightning & Thunder" and its release party Friday. The disc, full of infectious and incessant jams featuring a slew of established vocalists alternately rapping, crooning and chanting in English, Spanish and Spanglish translated even better live, as the "Lightning & Thunder" band owned its grooves and blasted wicked stylee all night. The obvious sense of community felt amongst the artists and most fans of the small but vital scene solidified the night's electricity and hinted at the potential for something even bigger and better to come.

Mercilessly, a handful of opening acts, a few turntable wizards and an affable host allowed the night's energy to simmer at a manageable level for a few hours before the main band got on. Truthmaze, Prince Jabba and Maria Isa all ran through some of their solo stuff at a relaxed but engaging pace. Jabba's dancehall lovers rock contrasted nicely with the uber-talented Isa's amazing energy and verbal dexterity (aka the ability to sound dope just shit-talking over a classic break beat), until the band quickly assembled like Voltron and immediately kick-started things properly with the album opener. What essentially makes the disc special (and the live show even more so) is rather than being just a lazy assemblage of area artists' reggaetón work, its a carefully crafted and live-instrument-based exercise in cohesion and freshness, as Highstylekyle and his Leroy Smokes cohorts produced all the music themselves and then hand-picked a select group of lyricists to run ape shit all over them. The result is not just a sampler that hints at what's out there, but an actual product in itself, perhaps the crowning achievement in this still burgeoning movement already full of highlights.

Forgetting all the talk of movements and communities and blowing the fuck up on a national level (sooner than later), in the end Friday was all about the music, and that music is all about the groove. The supreme, all-knowing, all-powerful GROOVE. A groove that slides seductively in and out of the smoke-filled air, creeping through dusty dub corners and around menacing dark alleys, allowing heads and asses to lose themselves in the thump and trance; the groove that speaks of resistance or escapism or rebellion or celebration, oh yes the groove that talks and yells and whispers sweetly in your ear.

Sped up and hyphy or dragged through molasses, the smooth boom of a liquid bass and crisp drum snap of the Caribbean experiment will always be most intoxicating live, pulsing, throbbing and plucking. The band comprised a tight little unit with delicious flourishes and embellishments provided by the back-up singers and mini-horn section, as the guitarist weaseled endless and righteous licks out of his ax, while an impressive slew of vocal guests popped in and out of the unending and unalterable groove effortlessly, adding even more to the mix, with particular highlights coming from the aforementioned Maria Isa as well as St. Paul Slim and The Kamillion. They ran through the disc's gamut, enhancing each track through live interpretation, and that gamut eventually bled together like running water colors; and although some of the grooves (those raunchy, incessant, flirtatious and just plain spaced out grooves) ran on a little too long, most were so full of crisp and focused energy that the crowd couldn't help but bounce and gyrate mindlessly, with one ear always on the message. This is music to live love and laugh to, and I like all three of those.

Critic's Notebook
Personal Bias: Even though rap music, like reggaetón and similar styles represented tonight, can be traced directly back to Caribbean traditions of dub platters and toasting, I've always been more of a lyrics man than a beat junkie. So occasionally the heavy patois of reggaetón gets too hypnotic and I have trouble separating and hearing the words from the music. It's the same as my difficulty deciphering white music (rock?)--I guess I just have a hard time understanding lyrics if they aren't rapped.

Random Detail: At first I welcomed the plush and ample couches at the Varsity, but combined with the soothing pound of a live reggaetón band, sinking into soft cushions managed to make me feel more cozy than crunk, and subsequently I failed to get my groove on even after three cups of coffee. Damn you, comfortable seating at a concert.

By the way: The "Lightning & Thunder" disc and its accompanying release party really do constitute an exciting and genuinely substantive reggaetón movement in the Twin Cities. If you have any interest at all in Caribbean grooves (or just shaking your shit for an hour), I suggest you seek out the compilation and join the bandwagon soon, lest you have to make up stories for your grandkids when they ask you about the first great TC musical renaissance of the 21st century. Prevent having to lie about seeing Isa live before she goes big time forever. -- Jordan Selbo

Posted by Jeff Shaw at March 30, 2008 8:35 AM | Comments (2)

 

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