Music

Minnesota Pride: White Iron Band celebrates 10th birthday

Filed under: Music

Five years ago this week I accompanied the White Iron Band on a trip to Duluth. The resulting article, "Beer-Busted Bladders & Honky Tonk Highs," chronicled 24 hours of inebriation and debauchery. Some of the band members, particularly singer Matt Pudas, were not appreciative of my journalistic efforts. Apparently the WIB frontman had been on parole for some bit of scofflaw-ery and the promotion of his substance abuse habits in a widely distributed weekly newspaper was not a welcome development. Word on the street (or at least from Jack K. Sparks) was that he wished to kick my ass.

But apparently after five years the fatwa has expired, because when I spoke with Pudas on the phone the other day he was in a convivial mood. "Just another day, another dollar for this guy," he laughed.

Tomorrow night at the Cabooze the White Iron Band will celebrate an unlikely milestone: 10 years of existence. It will also mark the release of their third album, Devil's Sweet Revenge. On the band's web site, they've catalogued this decade in numbers: 9,600 Grain Belt Premium Beers, 3,400 whiskey shots, 190 bars, 10 years, 7 children, 6 bass players, and 4 wives. "Those numbers are too low," Pudas conceded, "especially about the beer and the whiskey shots."

Bass player number six (whose name Pudas isn't sure how to spell) has been around for about a year, which historically has meant that his days are numbered. One former bass player departed after getting into a fistfight with Pudas on the side of I-35 near Ely. Another was dropped after he was caught stealing the band's gear and selling it at area pawn shops.

The White Iron Band has its roots at Eden Prarie High School, where Pudas, guitarist Sam Weyandt, and keyboardist Ed Juntunen all went to school. They played their first actual gig at a house party on the shores of White Iron Lake, hence the band's name. "It was pretty fun from what I remember of it," Pudas recalled. The group has often drifted in jam-band circles, but their music tends more towards outlaw boogie blues. The Allman Brothers and Waylon Jennings are seminal influences. Their signature anthem is "Minnesota Pride," an infectious tribute to ice fishing, ice hockey, and Grain Belt beer.

The White Iron Band has earned the enmity of more than a few bar owners over the years owing to their drunken shenanigans. "All the Duluth trips are hard to remember," Pudas said. "St. Cloud--we just don't go there anymore. They fell out of love with the White Iron Band."

But the Cabooze has been booking the band regularly ever since they were old enough to drink legally. "They're just the most charming, lovable fuck-ups ever," says James "Taco" Martin, who books the West Bank club. "There's something just contagious about their PG-13 fun."

Download the White Iron Band's latest single here.

Posted by Paul Demko at April 24, 2008 2:49 PM | Comments (4)

 

Elvis at the Northrop, 1981

Filed under: Music

There's a new Elvis Costello record out today. It's not "another goddamn reissue"--it's twelve new songs on an album called Momofuku and you can only buy it on vinyl or download it online. Good night compact disc--into the the sweet dark of sleep for you.

We're celebrating the new by ignoring it. No review, no streaming tracks--just another installment of our Unearthed series, where we rifle around in the City Pages archives and post what we find. This time, we have scraps from an Elvis Costello show at the Northrop on January 16, 1981. Squeeze was the opener.

A funny thing: Costello was already in the business of B-sides and previously unreleased matter back in '81. He was touring on Get Happy!, but he had just released Taking Liberties, a long out-of-print compilation of cast-offs.

In our listing of the Costello concert, we hyped it as "The rock 'n roll show in January."

Here is some 8mm footage of the show from YouTube:

Here he's covering Elvis Presley's "Little Sister" into "Watching the Detectives":

And here he's doing Allison into a super-fast Pump It Up:

Here's what our reviewer, a rather stiff Martian Colour, had to say about the show:

Costello turned in a tedious hour-long set last week at the Northrup after Squeeze had impressively stirred up a nearly full house. Although Elvis was friendlier--announcing songs and actually making chit-chat with the crowd--his performance seemed tired until the end. With a pumped-up encore, Costello and the Attractions finally pulled the stops out. Among the few surprises that night, EC covered Presley's "Little Sister" and an old Sonny Boy Williams blues, among newer songs from a forthcoming LP mixed in with the old. Costello is also looking paunchier these days. Martian suggests plenty of interviews with the press, a diet of grapefruit and mineral water and lots of bed exercise...just ask James Brown.

And here's the ad:

Posted by Jeff Severns Guntzel at April 22, 2008 11:26 AM | Comments (0)

 

Akon: Konvicted Liar

Filed under: Music , Music

The Smoking Gun usually gives readers a heads-up on the circumstances under which a celebrity has been arrested and/or sent to jail. But their breaking story on Akon is a bit different: apparently the R&B singer, best known for his criminal background as detailed in prison weepie "Locked Up," actually exaggerated his jail time.

Fabricating a gangsta/street image can be a tricky thing: to successfully overcome a relatively ordinary upbringing, you need to fabricate details, but not over-do it -- something Ice Cube understood and Vanilla Ice didn't. Akon forgot this rule, or at least pushed it out of his brain to make room for vocoder instructions. His faux-criminal backstory has some major tells:

--He claimed to be the leader of an auto theft ring/chop shop. That's... kind of credible. But specializing in Porsches, Lamborghinis and Mercedes-Benzes? Really? Is there that huge a market for stolen exotic auto parts? The most successful chop shops specialize in Toyotas and Hondas and other makes that have millions of models on the streets, not some supercar with a six-figure price tag.

--On top of this, said chop shop allegedly catered not only to a criminal element, but to "celebrities." So apparently if Jay Leno's Gallardo threw a rod, Akon was his man.

--Akon's arrest came not from some tactical screwup or any sort of police work, but due to ungrateful underlings who ratted on him because they felt they weren't getting paid enough. This is the sort of thing you find in David Simon's wastebasket.

--Three years for leading a notorious auto theft ring? Three?

--Apparently, despite the fact that he weighed only 150 pounds, Akon eventually developed the ability to beat up any fellow prisoner who challenged him: "I knew where to hit you to knock you out, so I didn't fear you," he's claimed. So he's Maindrian Pace, Avon Barksdale and a skinnier version of Ving Rhames in Undisputed.

As it turns out, Akon did serve three years for a felony -- but the felony was gun possession, and the three years were probation. And his "auto theft ring" was a single stolen BMW for which he was never officially convicted.

Since this information inevitably would have come out, why take the risk? The discrepancy between the number of murders in "N.Y. State of Mind," "9mm Goes Bang," and "Peel Their Caps Back" and the number of people actually killed by Nas, KRS-One, and Ice-T is a pretty huge gulf (by which I mean the latter number is zero), but they didn't feel compelled to claim all their lyrics came from personal experiences. If Akon had just said "yeah I've been arrested a couple times, and I know people who've done time," and still recorded the same songs with the same "man, prison is hard" themes, would his career be any less healthy?

As it is, I'm already wondering if the dude he chucked off the stage last year was a trained professional wrestler.

Posted by Nate Patrin at April 17, 2008 3:02 PM | Comments (0)

 

Dental hygiene and pop music with Loren Depping

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This Minnesota Monitor item from a few days back rounds up local news about dental hygienists. Surprisingly, there's a lot of it.

What there aren't a lot of is songs about dental hygienists, so there's no chance of finding a list of five. But there is this gem, a pop confection so sweet your dentist might object to the listening. It's a track by Loren Depping called, fittingly, "Dental Hygienist."

Depping is an Oregon-based singer songwriter with a love for guitar pop, but his roots lie in Americana. His solo discs are populated with story-songs reminiscent of Emmylou Harris, quirky ditties and dreamy, Pernice Brothers-style vocals. This song's light touch isn't an indication that Depping's simply a silly songster. He can do the serious stuff, too. But how endearing is a song about love and tooth care?

Depping is touring here this summer. "Dental Hygienist" is on his latest CD, Go By Train, and you can also download it here.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at April 15, 2008 10:17 AM | Comments (0)

 

Another acolade for that one guy from Hibbing

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Throw your hands in the air Hibbing, your Bobby Zimmerman won the Pulitzer. Network news, cue the video montage! We've got our own montage here--it's better than the others, we assure you. And it's a little strange at times, we confess.

Here's Bob in the Nashville Skyline era with (a too-cool-for-school) Johnny Cash doing One Too Many Mornings:

Doing Hava Nagila with Peter Himmelman and Harry Dean Stanton for a Chabad Lubavitch telethon in the '80s:

Here's Bob doing Jokerman on Letterman with L.A. punks The Plugz backing him:

Singing and speaking to the Pope in 1997 (fast forward to about the six minute mark to see Bob ascend the stairs to a waiting Pope, remove his cowboy hat, and have a few words):

Starring in a Cadillac Escalade commercial, for some reason. Listening to my favorite Smog song, for some reason:

Co-starring in a Victoria's Secret commercial:

On the Rolling Thunder Revue tour in 1976, from an NBC TV special. Doing a kind of insane Maggie's Farm. And yeah, that's Mick Ronson on guitar:

Posted by Jeff Severns Guntzel at April 8, 2008 12:39 PM | Comments (0)

 

Tupac lives! was killed by Diddy?

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A con man hornswoggled the LA Times into believing that Sean "Puff P Diddy Daddy Whatever" Combs was involved in the shooting death of Tupac Shakur.

This is a fascinating tale of a man with a rich fantasy life, a guy who willed himself into believing he associated with hip-hop luminaries -- and forged FBI documents to "prove" it. The scintillating element that makes your jaw drop is this: that a team of top-tier journalists actually bought this story for one second.

Casting aside the often arcane nature of rap beefs in the first place, what possible motive would Sean Combs have had? Was Diddy a hip-hop version of the power-less superhero from The Incredibles, bent on killing superheroes with actual powers? Did he take out Biggie, too, in a plot to sell more "Vote or Die" t-shirts?

And look, I'm not trying to call Puffy soft or anything, but if he would have tried anything like this, Tupac would have caught the bullet like Ozymandias from Watchmen and thrown it back at him. Maybe with his teeth.

Besides, everyone knows if Diddy woulda done it (say that four times fast) he would have had 'Pac run over by a Diet Pepsi truck. Young MC was actually the triggerman. Mark my words.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at March 26, 2008 2:24 PM | Comments (2)

 

Haale: Fields of clover and tantric sex

Filed under: Music

Today marks the beginning of Nowruz, Persian New Year. While the Iranian-American parents of Brooklyn-born songwriter Haale are putting out traditional decorations like hyacinths and goldfish, the singer has already celebrated by releasing a new CD this week on her own label, Channel A Music.

The album, her first full-length effort, is one of the most memorable albums of the young year -- whether you're talking Western year or Persian. Haale's tour in support of the release brings her to the Cedar Cultural Center in two weeks.

Musically, the psychedelic trance rock of "No Ceiling" incorporates Sufi music into swirling American guitar sounds. Lyrically, it draws on the works of mystical poets Rumi, Hafiz and Attar. Like the two five-song EPs she put out in 2007, the singing is a mixture of English and Persian.

This offers the listener different entry points. When the lyrics are in English, you can relate to the words -- Haale holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in poetry. When they're in Persian, non-speakers of that language can get lost in the sound and multi-layered rhythms that owe as much to Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix as they do to any type of world music.

"No Ceiling" uses the skills of producer Matt Kilmer on percussion, resulting in a fuller and more textured sound. The result is a deeply sensual release, powered by the groove and Haale's smoky, honey-thick voice.

"If there's a good groove, there's a lot you can access there," she says. "As a poet, you're speaking through your senses." We spoke with her by phone on Wednesday.

City Pages: Your new record, “No Ceiling,” just came out on March 18. I'm interested in what you think the differences are between your first two EPs and the full-length album.

Haale: We did about 90 shows in 2007, and we got to play the songs that were on the EP, and we got to compose some songs while we were on the road. So basically "No Ceiling" came out of our first year of touring, and the sound got a chance to settle, I think, and mature a bit. I think "No Ceiling" as an album has a cohesiveness, though I think every song is quite different, like a little city on its own.

The EPs came out really in a period of exploration. I was trying different things. We probably recorded about 20 songs and the other ten we never released -- I'll probably release them at some point. But I wanted to just give a little taste of what we were up to.

CP: You have an MFA in poetry. How does that background inform your music?

H: A lot of times songs start with the lyrics for me. The lyrics are really my anchor in the song, and I love poetry. I love to read poetry. Poetry is something that you know you can meet it at any point in your life and it has meaning. It has enough ambiguity and dimension to intrigue me after repeated readings or listenings, so I really respect what you can do with language and I try on my own to do something interesting with it. It's very important to me. When I listen to music, I'm always listening for the lyrics.

CP: Lyrically, you draw on a lot of Sufi poetry.

H:. For the Persian songs, yeah. These are Sufi inspired poems with mystical themes and nature-based themes and themes of unity and transformation. And I am also very influenced by poets writing English, like Allen Ginsberg and H.D. and Muriel Rukeyser, and then poets like Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell as well. So I am definitely coming from a background of a lot of poetry swirling in my head.

[The Sufi poems are] mostly speaking about love and unity and transforming the self. Getting through emotions like anger and fear. This what the mystics are often talking about. And finding peace. So I would say it's very very pragmatic, secular, and beautiful themes that run through the poetry.

CP: Did you grow up listening to Sufi music?

H: I definitely heard the music as I grew up but it was just kind of like wallpaper -- like always in the background and I didn’t really pay much attention to it. I mostly felt like an American kid, and I was listening to American music, and then there was a certain point in my life when I got older and I was like, "Wow, I've got this heritage behind me." I always had dreams of singing in Persian. Once I started doing that it seemed natural, and I said "Well, what if I try and bring the languages together ..."

I wanted to somehow bring it together which is just a more honest way of me expressing myself. When I was just singing in English it wasn't really the full picture.

CP: What's the experience of performing live like for you? Are you trying to engender a particular emotive response from the audience? Or are you just hoping they'll come and enjoy the music?

H: I guess I can't really say I want anything out of the audience. I hope people dig it, and feel it. I like sometimes hearing people's responses. I've heard a very, very wide variety of things. A lot of times people note that there's a hypnotic trance thing happening, that they sort of get swept away and have a kind of tranced-out experience.

One woman once came up to me and said she had a flashback of one of the most beautiful moments in her life when we were playing -- of her child when she was about 3 years old falling backwards in a field of clover and laughing hysterically. And she hadn't remembered that moment for like 10 years.

And then another couple said to me, "I hope you take this as a compliment, but we practice tantric sex and we do it to your CDs." And I said, “Awesome.” Another woman said to me, "you know, I watch your shows, it makes me want to go out and have sex."

There is an aspect of something being released in people that seems positive, and an embracing of life, I think.

Haale's "No Ceiling" is available now. She plays at the Cedar Cultural Center on April 2.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at March 20, 2008 6:41 AM | Comments (1)

 

Darondo at SXSW

Filed under: SXSW , SXSW

Minnesota's own indie radio station the Current has schlepped gear, support staff, and DJs down to SXSW to put on a live broadcast for all three days. On Friday afternoon, I caught lost '70s funk treasure Darondo performing with Nino Moschella. Back in the day, Darondo may have been a pimp, or he may just have been a regular guy with a white Rolls Royce and a wardrobe which relied heavily on snakeskin. But he dropped out of sight as middle age approached-- got married and worked as a physical therapist. No problem--he got back on that funky groove like it was a bike he'd just ridden yesterday.

I missed the She and Him performance, which was apparently so crowded they were turning people away. Later, Carbon/Silicon performed for a large audience, although the new band of former Clash guitarist Mick Jones didn't pack 'em in the way She and Him apparently had. What gives? Well, the "She" in She and Him (kind of a subliterate name, right?) is Zooey Deschanel. Even at SXSW, starlets provoke more curious gawking than rock legends. Who would you rather be stuck in a street pizza line with, Zooey or Lou Reed (he's here, too)?

Posted by Sarah Askari at March 15, 2008 1:49 PM | Comments (0)

 

Into the Foreground

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For the past several months, one local upstart rap crew has been spending a lot of time and work establishing their name around town. Background Noise Crew is an assemblage of some of the Twin Cities’ up-and-coming producers and MCs – Egypto Knuckles, ToneKrusher Smith, Phingaz & TQD (who work as the duo Green Sketch), Analyrical and Status Reign – who combine a classicist indie-rap D.I.Y. ethos with a tireless hustle and a lot of inter-crew brainstorming. So far their efforts have given us Green Sketch’s debut EP So Long for Now, but there’s plenty more to come later this year. This e-mail interview with the crew outlines who they are, what they’re about and where they're headed.

Listen to Background Noise Crew's "Turn It Up" here.

What sets Background Noise Crew apart from some (or all) of the other crews that are working around the Twin Cities area?

EGYPTO KNUCKLES: Our relationship with crews and the scene as a whole represents our drive to show off the diverse scene and the many different styles that are represented within the scene. My whole production ethic is built from such forefathers as DJ Premier, Pete Rock, El-P, and Madlib. I want to be at that point where every song I make is somewhat poignant and reflective of the thoughts of the specific songwriter at that time. The way a rapper utilizes onomatopoeia or syllabic structure has always been a thing for me, and I certainly want to bring that out of an artist. One thing I regret is not using my DJ muscle to scratch records within my tracks, but that will slowly change within time.

TONEKRUSHER SMITH: The Frugalis McSpiteful album coming out on April 1 is going to be different because the whole album is sick. Literally. The beats are as dirty as the lyrics. The album will make you laugh or wince with uncomfortability.

PHINGAZ: My production methods are unorthodox and I don't fear new territories or sounds. The Green Sketch EP doesn't show that as much as I would have liked it to, but there are sprinkled moments here and there. Looking back on my previous projects I feel like I've pushed myself each time in new creative ways to write music. So of course I will continue to do that with Green Sketch and the rest of the Background Noise Crew. TQD is a little more known for his quieter (pun intended), darker, softer side, while I usually come off as a fool. With time and some growth our vocal and lyrical play can turn into a dual sided mash-up, me tipping the scales toward a more carefree fun loving side, while TQD can keep us grounded in emotions and feelings we all have.

TQD: Since anything can be labeled, I'm sure you can find a pigeonhole for each member of Background Noise, but I think you'd be hard pressed to lump us together as "all sounding the same". Individually, we all make music that sounds a little different from each other, but what ultimately bonds us is the fact that we respect those differences, and occasionally find ourselves somewhere in the middle.

ANALYRICAL: I think Background Noise is the first crew in a while to be extremely innovative and unique with our promotional tools and our live performances. When we put on a show, it involves so much more than grabbing a mic and rapping to a crowd. We support each other so much and really try to make things interactive for the audience. We have sketches, we have props, we have live guitar remixes of songs, and the list could go on and will continue to grow as we get more comfortable and experienced as a crew.

STATUS REIGN: I think the biggest difference between Background noise crew and most other cliques in Minneap right now is that everything that we do is done by committee, and then once a decision is made it undergoes trial by fire. With so many individuals focused in on the "for the good of the team" mentality, more often than not we have very solid plans and directions no matter what the project is, but more importantly we have a group of individuals willing to sacrifice for the success of others.

Could each of you give a brief summary/breakdown of your personality and what you bring to the group?

EGYPTO KNUCKLES: I started out producing the Beat Box on 770 Radio K, and then hosted the show for 7 more years. Aside from that I’ve been working at large, building different friendships within the scene and trying to help network with folks on a daily basis to help the scene build more of a unity. With my production style, I bring more a sense of the good feel of the Golden Era of Hip Hop, which is between 1987-1996 as a whole, where the beats and samples were rugged and overflowed with mood and presence.

TONEKRUSHER SMITH: Egypto Knuckles and I came up with the character Frugalis McSpiteful together. We thought it would be funny to make an album about an anti-hero. Hip hop now is about how fly I am, how fly my girl or car is, so we thought about making an album that was to the contrary.

PHINGAZ: I've been a part of many projects (Sinthesis [just released our 3rd Full Length!], The Mixed-Up Tape, Vividend, Capaciti), they all vary quite a bit from one another. I'm constantly pushing myself to find new and interesting ways to make/write music and to promote it and share it with people. I don't really feel comfortable referring to much of my music as a certain 'genre' because I don't try to write music for any particular one. It all gets blended together into a large melting pot that demands quite a bit from the listener, but it’s usually worth the journey. I'm one of Background Noise's 'in house' producers and I run the studio. I record all the music and mix it. I'm usually joking, but often take things way too serious at the same time. If you get me and Frugalis in a room together, we will rarely say anything worth writing down. Or believing for that matter. Good ish.

TQD: I am probably the most serious of the crew members, personally and musically speaking. I tend to gravitate towards things that are dark and I think that provides a balance to some of the other members of Background Noise who may come with a lighter sound of music and/or personality. I think it's fair to say that regardless of who we all were before forming Background Noise, we've managed to rub off on each other. I also bring record keeping skills to the crew. I serve as the secretary of Background Noise, so I plan our meetings, update everyone on news, and make sure I'm keeping what we discuss and plan to do well documented.

ANALYRICAL: I think I bring a positive sensibility to Background Noise. I love and respect the origins of hip-hop and thankfully Egytpo Knuckles has really helped me tap into my love for the history and cultural relevance. As the rest of the crew would tell you, I wear my heart on my sleeve. There's no doubt about it. I'm a pretty passionate guy and it is reflected in my music and the way I carry myself. Lyrically, I am still wavering in between straightforward honesty and philosophical wordplay. I sometimes just say exactly what is on my mind, then on another song I will bring up questions and ideas, and leave it to the listener to decide for themselves. It's fun and thought-provoking to explore both routes.

STATUS REIGN: As far as my personality goes, I'm a big fan of finding the devil in the details. I really try and be the best at everything I do, and whether or not that ends up being the case, I think my end products show the markings of working toward something specific. I'd much rather cut down from 100 tracks to find 15 good ones than make 20 and keep them all for an album. Right now Case Of The Mondays (consisting of myself and Analyrical) is working on our album for release in mid July. It’s gonna be a collection of jazzy and fun music that goes over well for live shows, mixed with some more serious introspective tunes that shed light on who we are as people. Following that, the release of my solo album Brutally Honest which is more or less self explanatory in terms of content is slated for Nevruary of 2018... proving further more how much I'd like to put into it before I consider it finished.

What's the weirdest thing about you?

EGYPTO KNUCKLES: The weirdest thing about me, sometimes it’s the samples I use and sometimes it’s the way I utilize the samples to my advantage. People in the crew found out recently that I chop everything manually, which earned me a crazy look. That and I probably claim permanent residency at Yafa off 41st and Central.

TONEKRUSHER SMITH: I have a hole in the crotch of almost all of my underwear. I don't know. I've been trying to figure that one out for years.

PHINGAZ: Although I have no relation to Wisconsin, I love cheese.

TQD: For someone who doesn't say a whole lot, I'm rather opinionated.

ANALYRICAL: The weirdest thing about me I can think of is my meticulous cleanliness and organization. My apartment has no posters or anything on the walls. I separate pens and markers. Everything is lined up in a linear fashion. I have all my socks facing the same way in my drawer. I don't know how weird it is to me personally, but every time a person who has never been over before sees my place there is always a comment or two about it.

STATUS REIGN: When I'm on a video game playing kick my basic necessities are narrowed to Vault soda, pizza, profanity and cigarettes.

The Background Noise Crew perform Saturday, March 15 at the Dinkytowner. Doors open at 9pm.

Posted by Nate Patrin at March 12, 2008 1:01 PM | Comments (2)

 

Misc. Stuff From the Music Editor's Desk

Filed under: Music

Is Prince getting hip replacement surgery? This rumor swirled around the tabloids and internet a few years ago, and it's made a reappearance in the wake of his recent Oscars afterparty. I personally don't believe it. But just in case, please join me in pledging to make only the very gentlest of love to Prince from now on.

Is Canada negligent in its winter road maintenance? We printed a blurb recommending people check out the PWRFL Power show at Big V's on Saturday March 1. But the tour van slid on black ice IN CANADA and it's totaled and neither PWRFL Power nor tourmates Capillary Action will make the show. The new line-up at V's that night: Self-Evident, Group Icky Rats (Chris from STNNNG), and the Yoleus.

Do you want to be in a music video? Cloud Cult are shooting one for the "Everybody Here is a Cloud" single off their upcoming April release, Feel Good Ghosts. They need a crowd of extras, so show up Sunday March 2 at Como Park in St. Paul. Deets are here. You freeze your ass off and you don't get paid. But what do you care, hey remember you're a cloud.

Posted by Sarah Askari at February 28, 2008 6:25 PM | Comments (0)

 

Free Times New Viking Show Tonight Feb. 14

Filed under: Music

Times New Viking are in town to perform with the Super Furry Animals tomorrow night at the Varsity Theater, but tonight they're playing a gig where they'll have the spotlight all to themselves. Not literally, though--it's an in-store performance at Treehouse Records, and I don't think they have actual stage lighting there. The show starts at 7 (as long as the band rolls into town on sked), and it's free, though would it kill you to buy something? I've read that TNV are pretty incredible live, and I've also read that you're pretty broke, so maybe this is a match worthy of Cupid, eh? Treehouse Records is located at 2557 Lyndale Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612.872.7400.

Posted by Sarah Askari at February 14, 2008 4:05 PM | Comments (0)

 

Local-Connections Grammy Roll Call!

Filed under: Music

I kinda think the Grammys are like Katherine Kersten -- as objectionable as they are, giving them any attention (including negative) will only encourage their existence. The only proper response is to completely ignore them. But sometimes I just like sharing in our common cultural experiences. So I watched the Gramcast. Of course, Herbie Hancock's big win for River: The Joni Letters in the Album of the Year category was a forgone conclusion. I mean, after one of the songs from River appeared in an iPhone commercial, and another of the songs from River was played during an episode of The Hills, downloading sales went through the roof, and you couldn't go anywhere in 2007 without hearing that one track off of River: The Joni Letters. So!

Let's move on to the local Grammy roll call!

Prince: Won for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for "Future Baby Mama." Showed up right at the beginning looking crisp in scarlet and white, unnecessarily sunglass-ed.

The Time: Performed "Jungle Love," received audience love, looked a bit stiff, the sound was kind of dampened and muffled. Everyone keeps saying they haven't played together in 18 years. What does that mean, exactly? That Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis were not accompanying "Morris Day and the Time" at Taste of Minnesota last summer? Why did they all reform now to do this weird medley with Rihanna? Oh-ee oh-ee oh!/Ella ella ella/Oh-ee oh-ee oh!

Jessy Greene: After two hours of on-and-off nonsense from this beastly show, I turn away for a second and miss Minneapolis' own violin-playing Gasthoff's-waitressin' every-damn-local-band collaborating Ukrainian-blooded beauty Jessy Greene up on stage with the Foo Fighters. She's been touring with them for awhile now, and apparently Dave Grohl even said her name as he was in the hyper thank-you-name-string phase of accepting their award for Best Rock Album. Everybody in town knows Ms. Greene, and this is a cool and exciting development. Damn. You got to me, Grammys.

Posted by Sarah Askari at February 10, 2008 11:43 PM | Comments (0)

 

B-Mould in Spin: I Got Good Advice from Burroughs

Filed under: Music

Bob Mould released a new album, District Line, yesterday, and Steve Kandell interviewed him for Spin magazine. I'd like to point out the interesting parts but maybe every self-respecting Minnesota music dork will just be annoyed with me for not already knowing that Mould wrote the theme for The Daily Show or that he used to write scripts for professional wrestling? Okay, but did you know that Mould claims not to know why Husker Du songs are not available for download? "Grant Hart's lawyer was in charge of the estate." Also, he's never listened to The Living End. He lives in D.C. now, "in a box," he says, meaning that he doesn't really leave the perimeter of his own neighborhood. And conversations with old po' bizness dudes William Burroughs and John Giorno helped him put his whole legacy into perspective. Mould keeps a personal blog here. He'll be playing First Ave on March 5th.

Posted by Sarah Askari at February 6, 2008 6:00 PM | Comments (0)

 

This is What a Dan Deacon Show Looks Like

Filed under: Music , Music

Dan Deacon was at First Avenue last night. Trying to explain Deacon is a futile exercise. And listening to Deacon isn't enough. You have to show him. This is what a Dan Deacon show (at First Avenue) looks like...

And if had been warmer, it would have looked something like this:

To review:

Photo from the Flickr page of user Never To Cool For School. More about this photo here.

Posted by Jeff Severns Guntzel at January 25, 2008 8:26 AM | Comments (0)

 

Free Twee for Me and Thee (MP3)

Filed under: Music

Waaah Records was a British indie label that put out lovely twee/cuddlecore pop music some years back. Now, the entire canon is online for free download, along with zines and other remnants. There are dozens of great songs here, and the label owner has helpfully placed a photograph of a kitten next to his favorites.

There are bands here that I've loved for years, like the unabashedly warm-hearted Vancouver group Cub -- and I don't love 'em just because Neko Case punched some dick in the face to undermine their cutesy image, either. There is also a metric ton of music from bands that I've never heard of, some with sublime names like Dalek Beach Party and Les Poissons Solubles. Then there is The Field Mice. The shimmering, forlorn sounds of Trembling Blue Stars have been recent favorites of mine, so it's cool to hear an earlier iteration of that band.

Most of all, I'm excited for twee covers of the entire Sound of Music soundtrack.

Look for the kitten by the sound files. If you like what you hear, more info about all of these bands can be found at TweeNet.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at January 22, 2008 10:11 AM | Comments (0)

 

mnSpin: More Music for mnArtists.org

Filed under: Music

It’s been a little over three years since mnartists.org launched in late 2004. Since then, the McKnight and Walker Art Center-developed website has sought to bring artists of all facets together on one handy website. Though at times the site can feel a little visual art-heavy, musicians can become more involved now thanks to mnSpin.

This January it kicked off its quarterly music contest for local musicians, and now those interested can submit up to three works to be listened to by a panel of guest judges. This go-round, judges included local rapper Dessa and MPR’s Chris Roberts.

Interested? Take a listen to the January winners, Alison Rae, the Sexy Bang, and Stacy K, or read up on entry rules here. Winners eventually make it onto a compilation CD to be released later this year. Not ready to submit? MnSpin will also be hosting a variety of industry workshops, the first one in late March at the Summit Brewing in St. Paul. A beer party follows the workshop, of course.

Posted by Jessica Armbruster at January 15, 2008 1:23 PM | Comments (0)

 

RIAA Defendant Loses Lawyer

Filed under: Music

"Jammie Thomas is going to have to sell a lot more thongs," snickers CNet as it reports that the woman who lost the first filesharing jury trial has also lost her lawyer. Thomas will have to seek out pro bono representation to continue her appeal after attorney Brian Toder formally withdrew.

Posted by Sarah Askari at January 11, 2008 4:02 PM | Comments (0)

 

Classic Stoner Behavior

Filed under: Music

Like the Beethoven? You may just be a degenerate dope fiend, if a study published in the journal Philosophy and Music (via the BBC) is to be believed. And apparently, the bands you like say a lot about the choices you make.

Okay, "degenerate dope fiend" is a bit much. The British study, which surveyed more than 2500 people, found that one in every four classical music fans have tried cannabis. This is apparently because you need to take the edge off Brahms (although with Stravinsky, that's actually understandable.

According to University of Leicester researchers, they were able to get fairly accurate predictors of lifestyle choices based solely on musical factors. "It was shown that [behaviours] had nothing to do with [participants] ethnic backgrounds," said lead researcher Adrian North. "The behaviour was linked purely to musical taste in its own right." The abstract of the study says they "concluded that participants' musical preferences provided a meaningful way of distinguishing different lifestyle choices."

So, what were the major findings?

* People who liked musicals took the least amount of drugs and committed the fewest criminal acts. Also, they drink less and are near the top in charity work performed. Note to self: listen to more showtunes to embrace the better angels of one's nature.

* Fans of hip hop and dance music are likely to have had multiple sex partners and were top-ranked in terms of drugs taken. Or bottom-ranked, depending on one's perspective. Point being: "It comes out in the study that, in these types of music, fans score worse in various behaviours, such as criminality, sexual promiscuity and drug use," said Dr. North.

* In the classic forbidden fruit model, though, hip-hop fans were also the most likely to have attended a fee-paying school (what we in the states would call "private school").

* There is a direct correlation between emo music and twee pop with interest in Ultimate Fighting. Strangely, fans of Belle and Sebastian were rated most likely to commit random physical violence, and of the 200 Plain White Tees fans surveyed, 179 planned to pursue a career in mixed martial arts. (Note: yes, this part is made up. But it is the only part of this post that is made up. Really.)

If they had only broken down more specifically what kind of drugs were taken byfans of what music genre, we might have had some interesting results. Pure speculation: metal = meth. Techno? Ecstacy. Radiohead? Nyquil and ketamine.

I know, Radiohead's not a genre. But when they do the next study (where researchers plan to survey 10,000 people), they should make it one.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at January 11, 2008 3:23 PM | Comments (0)

 

My Top 10 albums of 2007

Filed under: Music

Let's get one thing straight right out the gate: these are my favorite releases from 2007. The list below reflects nothing more than personal taste.

My feeling is, if you try to represent that your list makes up the quote, "Best Music of 2007," unquote, then you end up with problematic entities like the Onion AV Club's list or the amalgam of NPR lists, which purport to be objective but fall victim to the same vagaries of individual preference that every other list does.

(Onion people, are you seriously trying to tell America that not a single hip-hop record is among the Top 25 Best CDs of 2007? See, this is the problem with flagging a list as "Best Of" anything. Music's subjective, and that's fine. This is Stuff You Like. If you're a lily-white indie rock nerd, you're probably not digging on UGK. If you're a devotee of Norse black metal, you probably don't see the big deal about Radiohead. So it goes.)

None of that "objectivity" here. Other than the overarching this-is-stuff-I-like rule, I had a few other guidelines. First, only music actually released for the first time in 2007 is eligible. Charles Mingus is still really great and Sonic Youth's "Daydream Nation" is a classic landmark that listens well even today. Those are old records that were re-released, so they don't make the list. Also, I'm not going to make you endure my thoughts on any obscure free jazz or Japanese noise bands I was listening to just to show you that see, I listen to music you've never heard of. No one cares, not even me.

A bunch of my favorite bands (Wilco, The Weakerthans) released material that just missed this list. Why? In terms of Wilco's "Sky Blue Sky," I liked but didn't love it, and found it less interesting than the group's more experimental releases. The Weakerthans' "Reunion Tour" came out late in the year, and just hasn't had time to grow on me, as John K. Samson's story-songs inevitably do. I also feel plain awful leaving Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings off this list, but I didn't know where to slot, them, so ... I'll just say "you should really buy that record." You won't be sorry.

These are the releases that have already crawled their way inside my skin.

10. Busdriver, "Roadkill Overcoat"

The post-rap whiz kid is back with the most innovative, genre-busting record of the year. Okay, that title might well be applied to the M.I.A. record, but Busdriver's album is the most innovative, genre-busting record that actually sounds good. Less immediately accessible than "Temporary Forever" and "Fear of a Black Tangent," "Roadkill Overcoat" is more sonically adventurous than either.

9. Andrew Bird, "Armchair Apocrypha"

Just when you thought indie pop's boundaries had been stretched far enough that any further expansion would result in its metaphorical bursting, along comes a new Andrew Bird album. OK, maybe you didn't think that about indie pop, but I did. "Heretics" is one of the year's most intriguing and challenging songs, and -- this is a high compliment -- it is impossible to be bored listening to this album.

8. Okkervil River

Will Sheff writes songs that are more like stories, which is especially evident on the Okkervil's older effort “Black Sheep Boy.” So it's no surprise to see him turn the band into a literary conceit for “The Stage Names,” and it's almost expected that literary allusions will creep into the tunes. In a way, this makes him a slightly gentler Craig Finn, since both men have even written songs about John Berryman (“John Allyn Smith Sails” is an exquisite offering from Sheff). This album marks a step forward for Okkervil, making songs more tuneful and upbeat while maintaining the captivating lyrical qualities evident in albums past.

7. New Pornographers, "Challengers"

There's something for everyone on this record – four vocalists are on display, including the inimitable Neko Case – and though that same quality might engender a too-many-cooks feel if the members were less talented, that doesn't happen here. Also, Pitchfork didn't like it, so you know it's awesome.

6. Aesop Rock, "None Shall Pass"

Remarkably, isn't making any best-of lists, hip-hop or otherwise. Why? Because people that hated the too-far-out-there "Bazooka Tooth" continue to sleep on the new disc? Because nerd rap has found other darlings? How about because the world has gone insane, that is why. Because a world where the Mountain Goats' John Darnielle collaborating with one of rap's most interesting lyricists does not immediately catapult a release into the top 25 is a world of madness.

5. Of Montreal, "Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?"

One of my close friends saw Of Montreal tour behind this record, and says that show was a disaster. Kevin Barnes was more concerned with playing David Bowie via costume changes than he was with singing, and the year in Norway seemed to have driven him (even more) batty. That's unfortunate, because this is a tremendous album, catchy and light with a dark edge. “Hissing Fauna” proves you can rock with a high voice and a drum machine, and sing lyrics like “I spent the year on a verge of a total breakdown while living in Norway” while people hum along. It also includes possibly the year's hookiest pop song, "Heimdalsgate as a Promethean Curse," which you may know not by that silly, overwrought name, but as "that Chemic-uh-oh-oalls" song. If you don't know it, here, and you're welcome:

[Also: Best. Video. Ever. Never lose the costumes, Kevin.]

4. Brother Ali, "The Undisputed Truth."

Look, I'm not going to go all KEXP-of-Seattle on you and just start kissing local butt. If this record was bad, I'd say so. If it was mediocre, I'd leave it off the list. But this is an explosive record, at turns emotional, introspective, full of anger and hope, with technically masterful rhymes and expertly-tailored beats. Confessional, political and eminently listenable. On repeat.

[Back on that KEXP note: look, I've lived on the West Coast most of my life. I like the Blue Scholars a lot. I like Lifesavas a bit, too. Unless you're Geologic's mom or drove Vursatyl's school bus growing up or something, Top 10 Hip-Hop Records of the Year territory is a bit much. Actually, a lot much. And yeah yeah yeah, there are two MSP bands on this list, so I'm almost as much a homer. KEXP can sue me if they want. I've got a good lawyer.]

3. Saul Williams: “The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust”

A lot of people hate on this record. Do not listen to those people. We have a word in English for them: "wrong." Yeah, the title is a sophomoric play on words. Sure, you may prefer Saul's spoken word or Trent Reznor (who helped produce) in Nine Inch Nails. You may even think it's unacceptable to cover "Sunday Bloody Sunday." Do yourself a favor and put that aside, because I think if you just listen to this two or three times, you will hear that rarest of qualities: the truly unexpected.

2. Stars, "In Our Bedroom After the War."

If you bought this record expecting "Set Yourself on Fire," you might have been disappointed. If you viewed this disc on its own merits, you were likely blown away. Incredible vocal work from Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan here, and while the album might or might not be as strong top-to-bottom as Stars' previous triumph (apples, oranges, cross-apply above analysis), the high points of this disc are among 2007's finest musical moments. This includes my favorite song of the year, the title track. The choral last minute, where the strings hit, is utterly transcendent and represents one of the reasons I listen to music at all.

1. Cloud Cult, "The Meaning of 8"

That's right, it's a local band. Regret it? Nope. Said it? Yep. The songs are stellar, surrounding you with cello, trumpet and flute to accompany the traditional rock instruments. Craig Minowa's unique voice is the perfect vehicle to deliver lyrics that are at times simple -- but often it is this quality that lends them their potency, as with the single “Chemicals Collide”. Thematically organized and replete with peculiar characters (the deaf girl; the Alien Christ), “The Meaning of 8” rewards repeated listens. That's why it's No. 1, and that's why it's glued inside my iPod with authority.

There's one man's opinion. What's yours?

Posted by Jeff Shaw at December 28, 2007 12:00 PM | Comments (10)

 

Ike Turner Dies

Filed under: Music

Derided and scorned by the larger culture since I, Tina, Ike Turner's reputation as a wife-beater has eclipsed his legacy as a rock'n'roll pioneer. But even though "Hey relax, Ike!" has become shorthand for "Oooh, don't hit me, man," Turner, who died this morning at age 76, still has his place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And on the "Best of Tim Meadows" Saturday Night Live DVD.

Posted by Sarah Askari at December 12, 2007 4:19 PM | Comments (0)

 

I'm Givin' You a Beyonce-gasm

Filed under: Music

Check out this transcendent YouTube video, The 10 Most Ridiculous Things About the Beyonce Experience.

Posted by Sarah Askari at December 11, 2007 3:19 PM | Comments (0)

 

What's In Nellie McKay's Mind

Filed under: Music

Nellie McKay has one of those timeless voices. It's how she chooses to use it that differentiates her from the jazz divas and torch singers the singer-songwriter counts as influences.

Nellie McKay: Music to Go Vegan By

McKay (it's pronounced "McEye") is capable of delivering a silky-smooth piano number, sure, but you'd best expect biting social commentary along with that. An eclectic talent, the East Coast artist has produced cabaret-style tunes about topics like animal rights ("Columbia is Bleeding") and gay marriage ("Cupcake") that are as catchy as they are subversive. This isn't dry, pedantic music by any means: McKay's often hilarious, spinning anger into scathingly funny moments ("Sammy, oh let me put away the kettle/Oh, no honey, your arrogance is what makes you special") during songs like the countrified feminist ditty "It's A Pose".

And all the while she uses that voice, uses it to sing, to speak, to laugh and to scream, sometimes seemingly all at once.

McKay hits Minneapolis next week while touring behind her new album, Obligatory Villagers, but that's not all that's in the works. Current projects include a musical film now in pre-production called “The Amazing True Story of a Teenage Single Mom” that's based on a graphic novel by Katherine Arnoldi ("I'm sure we're going to fuck it up in the movie; it's just too perfect already,” McKay says). She's also working on a musical about a tenant's organization she hopes will be done in the early part of next year.

While speaking with her by phone just after she had stopped for lunch in Perry, Utah, I found that she has both the breathy, dulcet speaking voice one expects of a singer and the wicked sense of humor her songs suggest.

City Pages: How would you compare Obligatory Villagers to your previous two releases?

Nellie McKay: They don't sound much like each other – they're kind of all over the place. Other than that, this one is shorter.

CP: Was that a conscious decision? It's interesting that you would release a shorter album after the much-publicized fight with a record label where you wanted the longer version of your work released.

NM: Usually, I kind of feel pressure from myself to put everything on there, because who knows when your next album is going to come out? But It's all about the song mixture. It should be less about length, and more about how the various songs complement each other.

CP: On each of your albums, there are overtly political songs. Were you an activist before you were a musician, or vice versa?

NM: You have a lot of I think that an activist is anyone who sees something they consider unjust and does something about it – and it can be a very small thing. If you complain about something to someone in a position of power and that person does something about it, then you're an activist, so I guess that came first. But I always loved music.

CP: There's a new song on your website that's not on the new album, "A Christmas Dirge." It's a different kind of holiday tune, one that urges people not to cut Christmas trees. How did that song come to you? And people who download the song are asked to donate to the "Nellie McKay Disaster Fund." Can you tell us about that?

NM: Well, we're not making any money, that's how the disaster fund came up. And I am a walking disaster, so that fits too. [Laughs]

I've always considered it very sad that, the day after Christmas, you'll see the sidewalks littered with these Christmas trees that have just been thrown out. It just seems such a waste. I've also written a more upbeat Christmas song, too. I'll be performing that in Minneapolis, and that's called “Take Me Away.”

CP: Your songs are diverse musically. When you compose a song that combines genres – like "Sari", which incorporates hip-hop elements – do you set out to try to combine styles in a certain way, like “Hey, maybe I'll shout here, maybe I'll put a quiet piano part here”?

NM: I have no idea. [Pauses, laughs] With "Sari," basically nobody in the studio had any experience producing hip-hop, so we were wandering around the studio randomly asking people “is this funky? Does this sound funky to you?” But it is nice to always have fresh things.

CP: What's one fresh thing you can tell us about yourself that people ought to know, but don't?

NM: [long pause] I'm secretly a Republican.

CP: It's obvious. So, when should we invade Iran? Tomorrow, or next week?

NM: We should've invaded them last week. Motherfuckers. I hope we continue our militaristic, capitalistic, fascist domination of the planet until it finally buckles under our iron grasp.

Nellie McKay plays with Aimee Mann at the Guthrie Dec. 10. Hear her last answer in this interview as an MP3.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at December 6, 2007 10:54 AM | Comments (0)

 

Tori Amos: Pantheons and Pianos

Filed under: Music

Cleveland Scene:Of the American Doll Posse characters, which
is least like you?
Tori Amos:"Well, it depends which day you catch me on. The least
like me, the way I've known me all these years, would be Santa. That one
was difficult, just because they're all patterned after ancient female
archetypes. She was patterned after Aphrodite. I use the Greek pantheon,
as opposed to another one, because I thought people would be more
familiar with it. Having to open myself up for Aphrodite's myth and
story, I had to do a lot of homework. And my impressions were not right:
I thought she was a tart. After really immersing myself in her story, I
began to see how she would use her sexuality, and how she was really
comfortable with her body. She didn't live a life of guilt where men
decided how she felt about her physicality."

CS:Was The Beekeeper [2005] more a character or concept?
TA:"I didn't see it as a character. It was more about the
structure of the garden, and I like the idea that songs were coming from
an expression in nature. And we developed each song coming from a
specific garden. And I liked that, especially since our Biblical story
starts in a garden. And that's why the tour was the original Sinsuality
tour. And so this was a different take on the whole almost parallel
plane from where we've come from. As a minister's daughter, I don't
accept that their read of history is the accurate read. So The
Beekeeper was really about another viewpoint of the feminine coming
from the garden."

CS:And Scarlet's Walk [2002] was more of an overt alter-ego?
TA:"Scarlet was personified thread, the blood of the land. And it
was a journey through America, post 9/11, trying to go back and cross
the country. But not from a map you would pick up in a local store. But
more following it through trying to find ancient sacred sites as a
Native American, the spiritual vortexes that they have held secret and
sacred. And this was inspired because when I was touring Strange
Little Girls: A medicine woman came to see me, and she talked to me
about another invasion that had happened that America didn't want to
look at, which is when our forefathers and foremothers came over and
took the land of the Native Americans. And so Scarlet is a woman, but
she is a thread that is weaving across the country, trying to remember
the story of the real keepers of this land, who had been practically
erased from our history."

CS:In the cover-songs album Strange Little Girls [2001],
each song was a character-driven narrative. Did you feel particularly
close to any of them?
TA:"They called were the name of the song, because they were the
anima. The idea here was the men were the mother-creators of the song -
all of the songs were composed by men. I chose to look at them from the
point of view of the anima of the song itself. And that way, as a woman,
I could give a viewpoint.

CS:Did you relate to any in particular?
TA:"Sure. All of them, or I wouldn't have [recorded] them. Some of
them were... It's not that I related to some of them more than others. I
think some were starkly powerful. I think the [Eminem's] ''97 Bonnie and
Clyde' read was powerful, because the song itself -you have a woman
murdered in the back, I took the point of view that she wasn't quite yet
dead. And all men have to remember: When their wives aren't quite yet
dead, that's the most dangerous five minutes. And so the song is from a
woman that' s not quite yet dead, hearing what he is saying to her
daughter, and that's the last thing she hears before she dies."

CS:To Venus and Back [1999] had some abstract lyrics, but
was it pretty much Tori?
TA:"Yeah. You had a double album of the live show and a collection
of songs that had accumulated for many years for the live side of the
disc, and then you had the future as we were approaching the millennium.
It seem to me that the Earth, as it was approaching the millennium,
needed a girlfriend. And so Venus seemed to me a friend for her to
have."

CS:From the Choirgirl Hotel [1998] had some very obviously
personal songs like "Spark," but did "Playboy Mommy" or "Jackie's
Strength" represent a character?
TA:"In a way, as you're composing, the songs are their own
entities. And they don't have arms and legs, but they do have
consciousness. They approach me, even in a two-bar phrase. I have to
somehow have had some kind of experience in order to translate them -
but they're their own being. And there are moments, like in 'Spark,'
that I can feel with every cell, and I'm actually in the place where
that song is expressing itself, so I might be living the experience in
that moment. And others, I may have lived the experience before, and as
I translate the song, I'm able to go back in time. Or I'm able, as a
composer, to contain the song and write it and translate it. Because you
shape-shift. I make it as a half-decent playwright: Characters can
embody you. They come and they visit."

CS:Boys for Pele [1996] was based on some of your
experiences beyond the average every-day world. Where were you for that
album?
TA:"That album, I was stepping into, in a big way, the
confrontational side of the psyche. And having spent some time in Hawaii
with Pele herself, I was in a place where I began to question the
authority of the male [or] the male-god authority, in such a way that it
wasn't just musings; it was direct confrontations. And the abuse of
power. So, in a way, I think there was a bit of Boudica, the great
warrior woman that stepped up."

CS:Under the Pink [1994] was departure form very direct,
very literal Little Earthquakes. Did you see songs like "Past the
Mission" as more of a creative narrative?
TA:"I was spending some time in New Mexico, and I was studying the
history of the Spanish and the conquistadors came in and set up the
missions, and subjugated the native people to Christianity, because
their beliefs were thought of as something of the devil, blasphemous.
And, of course, that justified all [the Conquistadors'] killing,
slavery, and abuse. So I guess as a minister's daughter, I'm made up of
many characters - we all are. Any good writer, I think, maybe just
allows themselves a little more freedom to let different aspects out."

CS:Was Little Earthquakes [1992], as it seems, straight-up
you?
TA:"It's a diary form, I would say - a journal. But you really can
only write your journal once, in my opinion. I think you can maybe write
it twice. But you need to have a lot of time lapse before you write the
second one."

CS:When you look back at Y Kant Tori Read [1988], can you
relate to that girl, all these years later?
TA:"What I understand about that is: When you get rejected as a
composer for so many years that, if you are a capable composer, you can
pretty much compose anything. And my natural inclination as a writer was
not going to be thwarted by the record companies, and I couldn't sing in
another bar for much longer; I'd done it for 11 years. So everybody has
a different breaking point. I guess mine was seven years. And I
realized: Unless I would write something that they felt they would sign,
I was never gonna get out. So, of course, I chose to give them what I
thought was a contemporary sound at the time, a pop-rock record. And I
guess when you shop at Retail Slut one too many times, that's what
that's what it's going to look like."

Tori Amos performs Wednesday November 7 at Northrop Auditorium. - D.X.
Ferris

Posted by Jeff Shaw at November 6, 2007 3:34 PM | Comments (0)

 

Afrika Bambaataa Review by Geoff Cannon

Filed under: Music

Foundation's Saturday night crowd got a chance to hear a hip-hop luminary spin. Afrika Bambaataa, the man behind the deathless electro-funk of Planet Rock, did a set as part of the standing "Party and Bullshit" night in the basement club. Those with visions of the costumed Soulsonic Force shows of yesteryear in their heads might have been a little disappointed: Bam eschewed the Mad Max tribal gear in favor of an unassuming red t-shirt, and perched above the crowd behind a Mac. This being Halloween, however, there was plenty of costumery around. And this being a downtown nightclub, plenty of the "sexy [service occupation]" theme. (I wear my "sexy freelancer" getup 24/7.)

Bam's selection was primarily funk and soul, tipped more towards beat-heavy '70s classicism than '80s futurism, with an occasional nod to Jamaica. This was more of a trip down his memory lane than ours. Truth be told, it sounded like just another old-school hip-hop night, but it was a charge hearing it spun by a guy who was in on the ground floor, who lifted from "funky German boys" Kraftwerk when "miscegenation" wasn't a music-blogger buzzword, and dressed like a post-nuke warlord in a time when swathes of NYC really did look like they'd been bombed.

No matter what else, it's always a pleasure to hear bass through Foundation's soundsystem. It's funny to think that something as elemental to American life as the head-nodding hip-hop beat had to be invented and refined. It's a well-worn saw now, thirty years later, but let's say it again: out of bits and pieces of dancehall, funk, synth-pop and disco, artists in tough circumstances came up with something new. If you squinted your ears and tried to forget that you and the "sexy cop" next to you had heard the "Funky Drummer" break a bajillion times, you could almost hear how it happened.

Posted by Sarah Askari at October 30, 2007 3:32 PM | Comments (0)

 

Please buy Clay Eals' wonderful Steve Goodman biography

Filed under: Music

In honor of the Chicago Cubs (undoubtedly shortlived) presence in the playoffs, Illinois Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn has declared it Steve Goodman Day. The diminutive Chicago folkie, who penned the best damn baseball song ever written in "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request" (listen to it here), died 23 years ago from leukemia at the not-so-ripe age of 36. (The Wrigley faithful naturally prefer Goodman's much sunnier "Go Cubs Go," which apparently is enjoying a Renaissance of sorts this season.)

Goodman's best known for penning "City of New Orleans," which Arlo Guthrie scored a hit with in 1972. Renditions by Judy Collins, John Denver, Willie Nelson, and a slew of others followed. He also wrote "Banana Republics," an acid-tongued paean to American ex-pats living in the Caribbean that's generally associated Jimmy Buffet.

But Goodman was also a virtuoso guitarist (remarkable considering his 5' 2" frame) and a comic imp who could win over the most retractable of audiences. How many folkies, after all, could've survived opening for Steve Martin during the height of the wild-and-crazy-guy years? Armed with a passel of what he dubbed schtick-kicking songs, Goodman disarmed jackasses with arrows in their heads for years.

His studio albums never quite captured Goodman's peculiar genius. Probably the best of the bunch is Somebody Else's Troubles, his second album, which features Bob Dylan on piano on one track. There's also been a slew of swell posthumous live releases. But easily the best means by which to get acquainted with Goodman's music is through No Big Surprise: The Steve Goodman Anthology. Released in 1994, it includes one disc of studio material and another of live cuts. From the lovely spiritual "I'll Fly Away" to the outrageously crass nuclear holocaust number "Watchin' Joey Glow," it's a knee-bucklingly good collection.

All of which is a rather roundabout way of getting to the point of this post: Clay Eals' excellent, exhaustive Goodman biography Facing the Music. Released in May by ECW Press, it's roughly the size of a phone book for a mid-sized American city. Eals interviewed more than 1,000 people in researching the book, from Hillary Clinton (a classmate at Maine East high school in suburban Chicago) to David Allen Coe, the outlaw country singer who scored a hit with "You Never Even Call Me By My Name," the goofy country parody that Goodman wrote with frequent crony John Prine. Adorned with hundreds of photographs from throughout his life, the volume is a sweet valentine.

Eals is particularly adept at describing the burgeoning Chicago folk scene of the 70s that propelled Goodman and Prine to national renown. My favorite anecdote is a late-night gathering at the swank Palmer House hotel in Chicago that involves the unlikely assemblage of Kris Kristofferson, Paul Anka, Donnie Fritts, Lola Falana, Melvin Van Peebles, and a 22-year-old Goodman. The night ends with Anka offering to fly Goodman out to New York and set him up with a recording contract.

This heady start never quite developed into the commercial success that Goodman craved. His albums pretty much bombed. He drew succor from the road, gigging relentlessly even as leukemia sucked the life out of him. And he never lost his wit, dubbing himself Cool Hand Leuk right down to his last days. Eals recounts all of this with intelligence and compassion.

Posted by Paul Demko at October 5, 2007 1:41 PM | Comments (0)

 

Viva Third Ear

Filed under: Music

This week's CP contains an elegy for Third Ear Recording Studio, which is slated to shut down at the end of this month. As longtime proprietor Tom Herbers cleans house, he's been posting photos taken at the studio over the years on Third Ear's web site. Here's a favorite featuring Joanna James and Chris Koza from 2004:

Posted by Paul Demko at September 26, 2007 1:23 PM | Comments (0)

 

Super-Extended MC/VL Interview Transcript

Filed under: Music

Mighty Clyde, The Vicious Lee, Professor BX, and Steve McPherson for City Pages discuss fast food, honor among music thieves, and their place in the local scene.

Vicious Lee: This has pickle and onion, so these ones are yours. The blue ones are mine, and let's just make sure they didn't fuck it up. And you'll be interested to know, White Castle uses the highest grade ingredients of all fast food chains.

City Pages: Really? Where does that come from?

VL: It comes from this guy that told me this thing. He also told me that Parliaments were created so World War II machine gunners could bite down.

Mighty Clyde: And we all know how true that was.

CP: So does this guy have any cred?

VL: None. I'm just saying this is just something I overheard at a bar somewhere and I just decided to adopt it as the truth.

CP: Now, I've had—

MC: I said cheeseburger, dammit.

VL: No cheese?

MC: No! I'll be right back ... uh, I didn't get charged for the cheese.

VL: Then you got no beef, man.

MC:[Gesturing to burger] I've got this very small amount of beef.

CP: So, I've had the frozen kind.

MC: That's a totally different thing.

CP: OK. Now, I was talking to David about this: Onion comes in a ring shape. Chicken does not.

VL: There's definitely some real work that has to be done.

CP: Now, are we sure it's not chicken butt?

[laughs]

VL: Wait, didn't you get any honey mustard for the man?

MC: No man, I roll with ketchup.

VL [disgusted]: We have to wine and dine this man!

CP: So, you guys seem to know a lot about fast food.

VL: It's basically our life's passion.

CP: Because I heard recommendations about [national chain of Southern-style fast food restaurants] and [national chain of Mexican-style fast food restaurants].

Professor BX: Actually, I can tell you [national chain of Mexican-style fast food restaurants]: No.

CP: [National chain of Mexican-style fast food restaurants] is a no for you?

BX: My