The Big Boom is about to blow, and you plus a friend could be walking in for free. TVD is looking to line your pockets with a pair of tickets to this musical extravaganza.
Windian Records is excited to announce that the label has its arm jammed deep into the vaults this Summer and is reissuing a series of seminal 7″ singles on the DC label’s own imprint—and they’re kicking the reissues off withThe Penetrators’Gotta Have Her b/w Baby, Dontcha Tell Me.
The Penetrators | Baby, Dontcha Tell Me
This Penetrators single is the one that started it all—the single that launched Fred Records.Released in 1976, the A-side “Gotta Have Her” is a sleek groover, kidnapped from the Rolling Stones and beaten savagely by Nuggets-era bashers. The B-side’s “Baby, Dontcha Tell Me” posseses all the cocksure swagger sound of early rock and roll that The Penetrators nailed.
Windian is giving away one of just ten test pressings of the 7″ to TVD readers and fans of infallible rock and roll—and all you have to do is leave a comment by Friday, 7/1. Let us know why the single should find a home on your shelves and the most convincing of the lot will find this gem in his or her mailbox. And we’re mailing this one everywhere—so don’t be afraid to pipe up, international fans!
Also, in case this wasn’t on your sassy little DC-centric radar, there’s a Windian Records Showcase, Thursday 6/30 at the Velvet Lounge. $8 / 9PM START
Their relationship started as casual aquaintences at a local DC bar where Akbar was working the late-night door and Rex had a monthly DJ gig. The two later linked up while collaborating with the local musical powerhouse, Thunderball.
Nappy Riddem | Rastar (Ursula 1000 Remix)
They soon learned that they both have a passion for hip hop, funky bass, and “whatever feels good,” they say. In addition, they share a mutual desire to be socially conscious, truthful, and honest. Together, in conjunction with third party Ashish “Hash” Vyas (who rocks a live bass), the movement is owning a new sound.
They openly encourage their crowd to, “free up, be you, and accept the music,” says Akbar. “We have these mantras, I’ll say them to the crowd … ‘Free-up, free-up’ and ‘Keep it nappy, baby!'” They just want their crowd to be comfortable and to have a good time. Rex adds that the better the crowd is feeling, the better their performance.
Fact: You need to be at U St. Music Hall this Sunday, July 3rd. Rex will be DJing and Akbar will be joining up with Fort Knox Five to provide vocals.
To tide you over until Sunday, Fort Knox Recordings is offering an exclusive free download of “Rastar (Ursula 1000 Remix)” to TVD Readers. Give it a listen above, and download it below. You will find this no where else!
If you think DC lacks a decent music scene, you might be a feckless automaton religiously working a soul sucking 9-5 routine with a bad habit of jacking off to OK Cupid profiles. Or you’re just fucking lazy.
If you’ve hearing The Giftreferenced for the first time in this post, and you have a propensity for music with a twist of riot grrl, a dash of grunge and a punch in your face (for not knowing sooner), then should probably check out The Gift with Lady Piss and Suns of Guns TONIGHT at the Black Cat on the backstage.
It’s $8, all ages, and doors are at 8:30pm. The Gift will be releasing their Mostly in Sickness LP, which comes in color and trash vinyl for those who care (and you should). Oh and hey, also vocalist Beck Levy is one of the prettiest girls in DC.
THE GIFT (DC)
Local funeral grunge. Release show for Mostly in Sickness LP out on Amor y Lucha.
LADY PISS (Baltimore)
Noise rock. Members of Dactyl, The Wayward, Fight Amp, Flowers in the Attic, Triac…
There’s nothing I appreciate more than music that makes me want to move and is delivered in a way that is different from the norm. Los Angeles’ Gina and The Eastern Block do just that. Their sound is a combination of heavy guitars, funky beats and fierce vocals that is very refreshing in the era of software only generated dance music. Industrial, tribal, 80‘s synth, glam rock and funk are channeled and give this band a sound larger than you could ever imagine.
Vocalist Gina Katon is my pop singer dream girl. Her vocals are raw and edgy, a nod to her rock and roll upbringing. Sure, she’s got the looks and the choreography down thanks to her dance roots, but don’t let the pop facade fool you. The girl can belt out a song better than most and she’ll shake her hips while lyrically flipping you off at the same time.
And then there’s the band. Drummer Marc Jordan and guitarist Todd Weinstock back Katon and bring the sound that will blow you out of the room. Nothing gets the rocker girl in me more excited than hearing heavy distorted guitar riffs being played along side killer beats made by a real drum kit. Blend in the electronic sounds and few backup dancers and what you get is a live performance that is sure to make your body move.
Gina and The Eastern Block have the potential of making a real mark in the electronica / indie / dance scene. They released their debut album “Little Villains” back in 2010, but I look forward to more from this electro- funkadelic trio. This is a band to keep an eye on and make room for on the dancefloor.
Gina and The Eastern Block finish their month long residency at The Roxy’s On The Rox this Thursday, June 30th.
Gina And The Eastern Block | Boom Boom On The Dancefloor
TVD is offering a little free therapy. Our recommendation? Experimental hypnosis; allowing yourself to fall under the spell of Animal Collective. They will be performing at Merriweather Post Pavillion, along with Black Dice and Deradoorian, next weekend, Saturday, July 9th. It is the perfect remedy to remind everyone that summer is all about fun, and we are giving away a pair of lawn tickets to the show.
You have to respect four best friends from Baltimore that love to have a good time, and make a living off of it. Animal Collective is everything their name suggests: partiers with the freedom and power to pretty much do whatever they want, which definitely shows in their music with their unique, exploratory sound.
Therefore, it only makes sense that the uncompromising Black Dice would be one of the openers to give the audience a taste of their very own brand of bizarre.
Angel Deradoorian, the multi-instrumentalist and vocalist of Dirty Projectors, will be gracing the stage as well, dosing the audience with some indie sizzle.
So let your hair down, sway to the music, and get a little wild. With your girl.
I don’t mean To seem like I care about material things, Like our social status, I just want Four walls and adobe slabs For my girls.
For a chance to win your pair of tickets, just tell us, in the comment box below, your favorite song about a girl(s). I am going to have to call the obvious, Mötley Crüe’s “Girls, Girls, Girls” and the less obvious, (RIP) MJ’s “Billie Jean.”
SaraBeth Tucek will be releasing her album Get Well Soon tonight Wednesday, June 29th at the Bootleg Theater.
Working with producer Luther Russell (Richmond Fontaine, Noah & The Whale), and having shared the stage with such greats as Bob Dylan, Jim James of My Morning Jacket and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Tucek’s star is definitely rising.
There is nothing like the energy of a record release show, so if you’d like to check her out, tonight’s show is definitely not one to miss. Here are the details and the title track off her album:
Wednesday, June 29th | Bootleg Theater | 2220 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles, CA | 10:30pm| $10 | 21+
“It features moments of true beguilement, and referencing the greats – a bit of Feist here, Throwing Muses there, along with touches of Karen Dalton, Cat Power and Linda Perhacs – together with a musical menu of Neil Young, The Velvet Underground and even a dash of Big Star, helps to make Get Well Soon a marvel.” —Ian Wade, BBC Music
“The title track is a gorgeous acoustic ballad about death and loss, while heavier moments such as Wooden evoke Crazy Horse-era Neil Young. A dignified, record, bound together by grief.” —The Times
“It’s a magnificent album from start to finish from an artist who effortlessly demonstrates that music still has the power to move and inspire, despite what the pop charts may tell you.” —BBC 6Music
Britney Spears is coming to town tonight on her Femme Fatale Tour and I thought I would give her some love considering I feel like we go way back. I must preface this short history with the fact that I have attended a large variety of concerts, including the painfully pop ones that are more like seeing a magic or circus show. I grew up with an older sister who used to shed tears at Nsync concerts if that helps explain anything.
My first concert I ever attended was Britney Spears at the Gorge, which in retrospect is interesting in itself because she seems a bit out of place at an outdoor amphitheater in eastern Washington. Anyway, mostly I remember the drive being really long.
Time passed and every time she came to Seattle I felt like I was at different milestones in my life: “I can’t believe we can actually drive ourselves to the concert,” and “I can’t believe I’m allowed to drink beer at a Britney Spears concert.” Now it has been more than ten years since that first concert, and I just can’t believe she’s still going!
Britney Spears – “Hold It Against Me”
Please don’t “Hold It Against Me,” but tonight I’ll be at the Tacoma Dome with my partner in pop crime, my older sister, where we will see the princess herself once again. I imagine we will be singing more than she will be, and that the show will be just as bizarre as the video above (I’m secretly hoping there will be glitter involved). Wish me luck!
The Seattle-based folk rock outfit visited SoCal for their second time ever. First, performing two back-to-back shows in LA with an intimate set at Origami Vinyl in Echo Park and then KCRW One Colorado Listener Event in Pasadena. Motopony’s self-titled debut record, which was released this past month, charted at #1 on KCRW and the top 200 on the CMJ Chart. In support of the album and new music video for “King of Diamonds,” the band has officially kicked off their summer tour and will be back in LA on July 29. In celebration of Southwest Airlines 40th anniversary, Motopony is performing at four airports, from coast to coast, all in one day. The guys are set to perform at the Southwest Airlines terminals in Baltimore, St. Louis, Dallas and Los Angeles. Starting at the Baltimore Washington Airport this morning, here is the band performing their signature track “King of Diamonds.”
Here’s a recap of the last few days for the band:
Wednesday, June 28th |We found ourselves in San Diego without much hassle. After two hours of sleep in Bakersfield, we killed the rest of the leg from SF by 4pm. Something about the air in this low cal city puts your feet on the ground a little softer. It’s just chill, like a way back kind of chill. As soon as we hit the Motel 6 it was like OK to let our guards down and be as tired as we felt from the trip. I dream-floated for a half hour on my magic carpet of a hotel bed while I waited for some friends to take me to get a hamburger. Soon after, we found the venue around the corner.
The Casbah is like the best of Seattle’s bars and clubs rolled into one easy-uppy spliff. Like the basement cool of the chacha and the smoking courtyard of lindas. The low stage makes you feel closer to the people like the sunset tavern in Ballard and the sound was crisp without being sharp. Our bartender didn’t blink when I got a nice beer with my ticket. Actually, the staff was some of the mellowest dudes I think I’ve ever encountered in the industry. Totally awake but just not aggressive like I’m used to. Maybe they had a case of the Mondays. The show was well attended for the first act…but being “mondaimatory,” it thinned out hard by the time we played. This kind of show is important to me. The people still there are there because they like you enough to show up to work a little hungover on Tuesday morning. They aren’t many, but they are there and that means something to me. One scruffy ruffian high-fived me before the show and said he had hitched a ride to see us from a few hundred miles away. No line at the merch table, sparse claps twixt songs, and no girls jumping on stage to dance tonight, boys. This is the show that matters to me because I want the music to mean something even if I’m not the king of the universe in that moment.
We met this rad band from SF called The Ian Fays. We promised each other shows in our respected towns and laughed when we realized we were in the same hotel. Our hotel is literally around the corner from the airport. What a town, man.
Baltimore: We landed in a Baltimore rainstorm no problem. This climate is like pretty much inside out from Seattle. Outside the temperature and humidity is exactly how I keep my apartment, but inside all the constant A/C makes me want to wear a coat. Much like cool summer nights on our beaches. Odd. I’m in my hotel now. I have to wake up in five hours and play seven shows on planes and in airports all across the USA. Happy birthday Southwest, and many more. -DB
“My dad is not just a music lover, but a person who experiences music on a very special level and has shared his memories and his vast collection with me from when I was very little. In our front room, underneath a now extinct silver tape/record/radio player, was a cabinet full of vinyl recordings of everyone from Dolly Parton to Michael Jackson.
I remember two records I wanted my dad to play for me constantly were Harry Nilsson’s The Point! and Prokofiev’s Peter and The Wolf. I can listen to “Me and My Arrow” or the theme of the Grandfather on bassoon on these same vinyl recordings, and it takes right back to tiny me dancing for hours in that front room.
I loved the very first scratches the vinyl made, how that outer rim of that spinning plate created an anticipation for the sounds which were sure to come as the needle was carried further and further toward the center. It is an unforgettable memory.” —Emily
Pearl and the Beard | Sweetness
“While I think I had a couple of childrens’ records, the most memorable record I remember first came from a collection of comic strips called “Bloom County” by Berkley Breathed. It was called “Billy and the Boingers Bootleg.” I took it out of the book and it was in the shape of a square. It was amazing to put it on my record player for the first time, because I didn’t think it would work since it was so thin AND square and came from a book, but it did, and it was amazing.” —Jeremy
“Well, my first memory of vinyl is actually similar to Mirah’s (cited in her guest blog here.) Carol King’s musical interpretation of Maurice Sendak’s “Really Rosie” was definitely the first record I loved and played on repeat as a child. My dad had heard it when he was 18 years old, and bought it with the intention of playing it for his future children.
If I had let the interview with John Paul Keith go on another fifteen minutes, I would have been asking him questions to solve my personal problems: he is just that wise, kind, and zen-like. I sat down with Keith for a cup of coffee after listening to his new album over the course of a week, a week which included a road trip across the state of Tennessee to the Knoxville-area, which ironically, is where both Keith and I grew up (though I never met or followed him before now) and it made the five and a half hour drive a short and fun one. The Man That Time Forgot (Big Legal Mess, 2011), recorded with his band, the One Four Fives, is very retro-inspired with sounds of rockabilly, 60’s pop and soul, and a dash of classic country. It reminded me of better days, made I-40 feel like Route 66, and left me craving a milkshake with two straws served by a soda jerk. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it was soft, it was tight and it rocked hard, but in an uplifting way. I felt (and understood) every word he was saying. I dare someone not to like this album, or John Paul Keith for that matter.
My favorite song on the album is “Someone Should Write a Song About You.” It stands out amongst the other songs because of the different sound and I wasn’t sure how to describe it. It turns out to have an interesting story. Keith said that it was inspired by 60’s adult pop and soul, but was unsure of exactly of how to tag it in a genre. It was also a song that was added to the album at the last minute.
“The song took two weeks to write…that was one of the songs that if it went the wrong way in either direction by a degree, a fraction of an inch, it would suck. I had been listening to a lot of Tyrone Davis when I wrote it and had never done anything quite like that. I told the band, ‘This one will send the Goner dudes running and screaming,’” Keith said laughingly.
Taking a gamble on music and trying new situations are not new to Keith. His career is peppered with many hits and near misses which were all navigated by his truth, perseverance, and unwillingness to compromise his art form as mandated by the industry. Before his tenure in Memphis, Keith had found success with The Viceroys, which began in Knoxville and ended in Nashville.
“I spent five years in Nashville which is a complete opposite culture, it is the complete opposite of Memphis in every single way. I found that my direction and my songwriting really suffered when I was in Nashville. It just was not a good fit for me. Nashville did teach me things about being a professional which is something that Memphis can use a little more of from time to time [laughing]. Be on time. Be in tune,” Keith said.
After his disillusionment with Nashville, he moved to Birmingham, Alabama where he lived until the band that he was with at the time broke up and at his sister’s urging, moved to Memphis where she lived. It was not his intention to play music again; however the music muse of Memphis had other plans for John Paul Keith. It began with his becoming a self-described “nerd” about the guitar and “falling in love” with the instrument again.
“I got into guitar: practicing it, tinkering with them, taking them apart and putting them back together, swapping them for different ones. I got back into that in a way I hadn’t since I was eleven or twelve years old and from that I started hanging out with these guys and playing on Beale Street for some extra cash and that woke me up to why I like music and got me thinking about songs and things. I also started hanging out with Mark [Stuart ] and John [Argroves]. They owned Taylor’s guitars and I met them there.”
Keith formed John Paul Keith and The One Four Fives along with Stuart, Argroves, and Al Gamble . Keith also began listening to the music that made him embrace music as a teenager such as Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash.
“When I got to Memphis, all I would do was listen to that old stuff, I didn’t make any pretense of being interested in anything current. That’s what I like, that old stuff and that’s why my stuff sounds like that.”
After that he began to write songs again. Make no bones about it, above all else, Keith is a songwriter. While discussing songwriting, his method or just the art form of songwriting generally, his face lights up and his speech quickens.
“It’s hard work writing songs. Some people write songs because they feel a certain way, it’s like therapy for them. It’s never been that way for me. I mean, I have feelings too, but songwriting has always been a craft for me. Just because I feel it, doesn’t mean it’s going to be a good song. Playing with Jack Oblivian has been a real cool thing for me. Seeing how he writes songs and his process. People think of him as a garage punk guy but he’s a damn songwriter and there’s a lot of work that goes into his stuff, a lot of work goes into making it sound like no work went into it,” Keith says with a grin.
To weed out prospective songs he uses his audience, and they are growing. Keith says he has not seen such a turn out since being with the Viceroys. He is loving the recognition and the success of having a following.
“Having that audience, the audience is what influenced the songs on the first record more than anything else. We had been playing long shows of covers at the Buccaneer and started writing songs that sounded like the covers that had gone over well with the audience. That’s been a huge source of how we’ve developed: be reactive to how people react to us. Having a sizable audience is a really cool thing and I don’t take it for granted.”
The new album, The Man That Time Forgot, is available online for purchase as well as on vinyl at record stores such as Shangri-la Records and Goner Records. John Paul Keith will has a number of upcoming shows in various cities throughout the South this summer.
Earlierthismonth, a musical adaptation of Dan Baum’s amazing book Nine Lives was performed live in Washington, DC. The book, which is the story of nine individuals in NewOrleans during the time period between HurricanesBetsy and Katrina in 1965 and 2005, respectively, has been recreated and released in musical form by Paul Sanchez and Coleman deKay and a huge cast of New Orleans musicians.
Clark Newman of TVD Washington DC caught up with Sanchez. Here is his interview in its entirety.
Many people (including myself) were born after Hurricane Betsy or were otherwise minimally unaware of the event. Thanks to the 24 hour news cycle everyone was painfully aware of Katrina, but can you enlighten us to the parallels and differences between the two events? Did it seem like history was repeating itself in a way that should have been preventable?
I was a boy when Betsy hit and while in both instances the levees breached in the Lower Ninth Ward and flooding was catastrophic. My Uncle Andrew lived in Arabi, which is south of the Lower Nine. He had a boat and went through his neighborhood rescuing people from their roof tops just like you heard about in the flooding of 2005. Well, in 1965 Walter Cronkite was like Google and Huntley-Brinkley were like Facebook. We didn’t have 24-hour news or access, but those voices were the voices from the mountain, and folks listened so the country knew. I think television has gotten more efficient at combining the news with what is being sold on the commercials between the news, so the stories and drama are amped up, but it’s just business for the news shows.
Folks died in attics and in the flooding during Betsy and just because it wasn’t as great a number of people or because less folks saw it, doesn’t make the dying any less real for those gone or any less painful for the ones left behind.
In the instance of Katrina, the flooding was far worse and the reasons are many. For one, there was far more land mass between New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico in 1965. In the last twenty five years alone, Louisiana has been steadily losing the equivalent of one football field every fifteen minutes, so what used to be miles and miles of wetlands between here and the Gulf is now gone, and the Gulf of Mexico is lapping at our shores.
It was/is preventable in that the wetlands can be restored but time is running out [and] another big storm, a direct hit in New Orleans will rewrite history and geography. The levee system was poorly built by the Army Corps of Engineers and needs to be fixed. The countless canals built by the oil companies between New Orleans and the mouth of the Mississippi River have allowed for intrusion from the Gulf and the erosion of the wetlands, and without the annual flooding of the river into those areas, which occurred naturally before the storm, the wetlands will continue to erode.
Actually, it is in the best interest of Big Oil and the federal government to get a handle on this because the oil companies have billions invested in oil rigs from New Orleans to the Gulf, and if those companies invested along with the government in controlled flooding of the river south of New Orleans, they would be helping rebuild wetlands in areas they still have working oil rigs.
I am from Houston and remember vividly the thousands of people who fled there (only to face Hurricane Rita soon thereafter). Many were forced to stay because they simply do not have the means to return. This fundamentally changed the demographics of both Houston and New Orleans moving forward. What are your thoughts on what this means to New Orleans and New Orleans music?
The same thing happened after the flood of 1927, and it changed the nation demographically. Farm workers had to move to cities to look for jobs, southern folks headed north and west. Out of it came the evolution of jazz as it spread from New Orleans to Chicago, New York, and finally west to Los Angeles.
After the flood, I feared for the evolution of New Orleans music and encouraged John Boutte to write his own material about his life growing up in the Tremé because I thought it important that folks hear about it. I’ve watched as younger talent like Shamarr Allen begin to reinvent what people think of as New Orleans music. I’ve watched Glen David Andrews take the traditions of brass band and gospel as he turns every stage into splinters with his intensity. The flooding and the wanderings it’s aftermath has caused have created what we love most in New Orleans, a mix or gumbo if you will, with a new flavor. A few new spices to use, but the music lives in our hearts, minds, souls, and in the very land we walk on and are buried under.
The immediate emotional reaction to hearing about the hard times New Orleans has gone through is that of sadness and frustration. However I imagine people who lived in it and through it bring a quite different outlook on their own experience. What are your thoughts on looking out from inside versus looking in from the outside?
It was incredibly difficult times, we became the symbol of despair to the entire world, and the frustration we lived through day-to-day life was nearly unendurable. The fact is, we got used to living with less, we looked past the debris and saw poetry in the music, we saw past the tears into hearts filled with hope for a better tomorrow. We needed to, in order to make it through the day.
In the six years since, things have changed. Other parts of the country and the world have endured immense disasters and tragedies of their own, and when they lift their heads from their own sadness and despair, New Orleans has now become a symbol of recovery, rebuilding, renewing. It is a noble and special place to be, and we are a people who embrace the thought of music and community lifting others.
It’s clear that the role of music is vital to the beating heart of New Orleans, so the choice of a musical about the stories of the lives of the people who lived through both is obvious. However, over the span of forty years styles of music have changed significantly as trends evolve. How does your work handle such a breadth of time and viewpoints?
Those forty years happen to coincide with my conscious awareness on the planet as a person and an artist. The characters were clearly drawn in the book by Dan Baum, and we stayed true to his work and their words. Musically we researched decades and styles on YouTube. What that character might have been listening to or playing while they lived their lives.
I was six when Hurricane Betsy hit, my father died that same year. In 2005, my mother died and Katrina hit. Dan had chosen the two dramatic bookends of my life as his dramatic bookends for Nine Lives and the fact that it was other peoples’ lives I was writing songs about freed me to deal with my forty-something years on the planet honestly, tearfully, defiantly, and safely through the eyes and lives of the characters from the book.
It was a thrilling challenge as I strolled, metaphorically, through the New Orleans of my youth, reconstructing all I had lost in the flood in the way I know best: songwriting.
If this act is indeed brought to and portrayed on Broadway, have you thought about what lies beyond, and do you have goals for this piece that lie apart from critical/popular success?
I think Dan Baum told a compelling story. I dig the songs Colman deKay and I wrote for it. Where it goes from here and what incarnations it will take, I honestly think are limitless creatively; only finances can change that arc. I think it could be abstract theater, a Broadway musical, a film, a ballet. I don’t wish to limit Nine Lives or it’s future, so I say simply that it will be.
When boiling a biography’s volume of voices down to 24 songs adapted for live performance, you must have had to make some difficult choices in what aspects to emphasize. Do you feel like there’s any unfinished business with any of the stories told? What do you wish you could give more time to, if it were available?
There is a Volume Two being recorded in January 2012. Another 14 songs to fill out the story arc. We would have recorded them on this release but finances dictated that we choose 24 songs. We chose the songs that we felt best told the story of the characters but also could stand on their own away from the piece because Colman and I knew 24 songs was not the finished piece. It is a lovely representation or musical adaptation in this case.
We will deal with fleshing out the stories of Wilbert Rawlins Jr., Belinda, Joann Guidos and Billy Grace on Volume Two. Since I am already hearing it finished and whole in my mind, there is no unfinished business for me. I do understand that there will be unfinished business for fans of the record but I consider that a good thing and plan to make a record that answers a lot of questions and fills in some blank spaces in the story.
I have had to give much of my time over to Nine Lives in the last two years and probably will for years to come, but I am summing up New Orleans and my life there and it seems worth the doing.
On Saturday, June 25th, Haley Bonar graced the downstairs “stage” at the Sixth & I Historic Synagoguealong with Daniel Martin Moore and Holcombe Waller on The Waiting for Lightning to Strike Tour. I quote the word “stage” because other than a slight step in the ground, it was about as intimate as a living room jam session. No more than fifty people sat in chairs around cocktail tables and in sofas (yes, sofas) all focused towards the corner stage with minimal trimmings.
Ms. Bonar is touring following the release of her latest album Golder and showcased a few tunes from it. It was a welcome detour from the ear-plug-requiring dance-floor-packing shows I’m used to covering. Haley Bonar sports a very unique voice that is simultaneously sweet and strong, innocent and powerful.
For the record, I departed a day-long barbecue where the energy was more in line with what I’m used to reviewing, so I had to change emotional gears quickly when I stepped into the space. That is not to say I was bored with the new energy. Bonar’s songwriting and tone straddles the fine line between slow, emotional folk music and rousing folk-rock, including “Candy Machine Gun,” which was featured as KEXP’s Song of the Day last week. The foot was tapped and the head was bobbed, indeed.
GOSSIP: Bonar is preg-preg! She was precious as a peach with a guitar draped over her knee-length white dress, which was also draped over her belly. She transitioned from guitar to electric piano, while her band featured soft drumming, and for the last number, “Softly and Tenderly,” a cello melody.
In all, her set was very enjoyable, and a strong opening to songwriters Daniel Martin Moore and Holcombe Waller. Moore plays like a veteran (and his credentials touring with bands such as Iron & Wine, My Morning Jacket, and Swell Season can second that), moving through an impressive array of tones within his folk style. He is touring to promote his latest album In the Cool of the Day—with a title track that is a gorgeous rendition of the Christian revival song I remember once singing in the choir.
Holcombe Waller has a haunting, exquisite voice and very highly-crafted songs that made me glad I was sitting down to really absorb the music. He plays intricate guitar rhythms with beautiful backup, while his delicate, Idol-quality voice dances wild melodies above. He is an artist I will definitely look for in the future.
Dan Boeckner, of recently-on-hiatus Wolf Parade and theHandsome Furs, is a punk at heart. His strength stems from quick detonations of feeling—blasted to the limit by his flailing guitar and impassioned lyrics—that leave both Boeckner and listeners exhilaratingly drained. On his latest release with bandmate and wife Alexei Perry,Sound Kapital, he continues to follow a slow arc from fiery guitar rock towards an electronic pulse, and the result is an album of ominous—yet catchy—synth-heavy melodies. But a cluster of overlong songs and the dampening of Boeckner’s guitar dilute his trademark urgency. While Sound Kapital is enjoyable, it loses its way in thickets of drum machines and synthesizers.
On the Furs’ previous album, Face Control, Boeckner melded his punk spirit with dancier beats to produce music that compelled hip movement while also delivering grim statements about love and disillusionment. Face Control was both danceable and blisteringly profound, and it rarely lagged.
In contrast, Sound Kapital has a pacing problem. Too many songs shoot past four minutes, and all the short songs but one are packed at the front end, risking single-mindedness on the first half of the album and making the second half slow going. Face Control showed that Boeckner can pull off longer songs—the fantastically apocalyptic “Radio K”—but he is best working off a shorter platform, e.g., “Talking Hotel Arbat Blues.” Some of the beats on Sound Kapital are excellent: “When I Get Back” builds around attractive synth stabs, “Memories of The Future” sends keyboards stuttering on top of a low throb. But “Bury Me Standing” sounds too similar in tone and structure to these two songs. “Serve The People” has a ponderous stomp. The next two tracks (both released in advance), “What About Us” and “Repatriated” are uninteresting, leaving a vacuum in the second half of the album.
Boeckner has always used simple repetition to increase the power of his vocals. But combining this songwriting preference for reiteration with repeating synth codas can also strip phrases of their meaning. On “What About Us” or “No Feelings,” excessive repetition (both songs are more than five minutes) desensitizes, and words lose importance. “Damage” avoids this, pulling you on a fiery ride buoyed by Boeckner’s gruff howl, a skittering drum, and two synth notes played over and over (it even uses a rare momentary lapse of synths to increase its visceral kick). When he says “Do the right thing, baby” I feel guilty for jaywalking this morning.
The incendiary guitar work I expect on Boeckner creations appears more sparingly in his new material. On Sound Kapital, the fuller beats don’t provide clear background for the guitar to shine, and Boeckner often buries riffs, using them more to emphasize hooks and add a sense of menace than to anchor songs. “Cheap Music” is an exception: waves of guitar gallop next to synths and engulf from the get-go, and by the time Boeckner starts singing, you’re already carried away by the tune. Album ender “No Feelings” (performing at Maxwell’s in 2010, Boeckner dedicated it to the recently deceased Jay Reatard) is also largely guitar driven—but it drags on, as if Boeckner hopes to bludgeon his audience into losing their feelings as well.
I took a train from DC to Philly to see the Furs in April, as they didn’t stop in my hometown. The couple in front of me at the show spent the entire time grinding, so it’s clear that the group is doing something right. But I found myself wishing that Boeckner would unleash his guitar in all that danciness.
Holy shit, Soundgarden fans mean business. Last year when the “Hunted Down/Nothing to Say” 7 inch was released on Record Store Day, it was one of the first records to leave the shelves atCrooked Beat. Seminal grunge frontrunners Soundgarden toured for the first time in twelve years in 2010. If you missed them then, here’s your chance to get it right.
And whether you went through a Mars Voltaphase like I did (I should play catch up and explore past their first two albums), or have stayed true to the Grammy Award-winning Texas band and are eagerly awaiting their sixth album, you’ll get to see them live, because Mars Volta are opening for Soundgarden at the Patriot Center on July 12th, and we have a pair of tickets to give away.
Just tell us your favorite grunge song from the ’90s below, and we’ll choose the winner Thursday (6/30) at noon.
Besides “Black Hole Sun,” our pick is Mudhoney’s “Fix Me.”
