Monthly Archives: September 2014

Emil Amos is a productive fellow. Figuring in various bands, the multi-instrumentalist’s most enduring artistic outlet is the solo songwriting venture Holy Sons, though only a portion of his reportedly 1,000 tunes have been offered for public consumption. 11 of them can be found on The Fact Facer, the project’s latest and Amos’ first for the Thrill Jockey label.

I’ll admit that upon first glance, the cover of Holy Sons’ new one, a discomfiting and precise rendering of a well-dressed hanged man framed inside a larger noose, inspired thoughts of the frequently lurid and seedy Italian genre cinema called Giallo. In fact, if perusing through the bins without prior knowledge of the numerous activities of Holy Sons founder Emil Amos, I fairly certainly would’ve surmised that this album was a soundtrack to a skuzzy, creatively dubbed crime-horror hybrid.

And to be sure, if I happened upon a shabby second-hand VHS tape of a movie named The Fact Facer, the temptation to provide it with an at least temporary new home would be considerable, particularly if the box featured the images described and prominently displayed above. To some all this might read as tangential to the task at hand, specifically assessing the selections assembled herein, but I’m frankly not so positive I’m digressing.

For instance, the sleeve of Holy Sons 2010 LP Survivalist Tales! riffed rather excellently upon the artwork attached to Jack London-inspired wilderness adventurer pulp paperbacks of a century ago. Furthermore, a substantial number of The Fact Facer’s song titles would seem proper subject matter for the twisted filmic journeys of Bava, Fulci, or Argento: “Doomed Myself,” “Transparent Powers,” “Selfish Thoughts,” “Wax Gets in Your Eyes,” “No Self Respect,” “Back Down to the Tombs.”

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KIM CLASSEN FOR TVD | Baltimore’s one and only rock ‘n’ roll music festival, The Shindig Festival is scheduled for this Saturday, September 27 and we’ve got tickets for you and a friend to check it out. Alt-rock legends Jane’s Addiction (performing their classic LP Nothing’s Shocking in its entirety), and punk rock favorites Rise Against will be headlining this daylong rock festival in the heart of Charm City’s Historic Pigtown.

But wait, it gets better! This year’s lineup also includes Gogol Bordello, Clutch, Fishbone, Halestorm, Lucero, J Roddy Walston & The Business, Larry and His Flask, The Mahones, The Bots, Charm City Devils and Bad Seed Rising. Plus, Shindig’s bringing you all of this on two main stages with NO OVERLAPPING SETS of music. I’m already sold! How about you?

“I was born and raised in Baltimore and creating a festival and vibe we’ve never seen was my goal,” says The Shindig Festival’s curator, longtime Maryland independent concert promoter, Paul Manna at 24-7 Entertainment. “As a fan of every artist playing, I just know that thousands of live music lovers will truly appreciate this lineup as much as I do. Seeing Perry Farrell and Jane’s Addiction, one of my all-time favorite bands, perform in Pigtown will certainly be the icing on the cake.”

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The term “renaissance man” is one that isn’t utilized a whole lot these days. In the case of Colonel J.D. Wilkes, the term fits like a glove. A bonafide Kentucky Colonel, Wilkes has been the enigmatic frontman for the Legendary Shack Shakers, a high-energy amalgam of blues, gypsy, twang, and just about anything else that they can fit in, for going on twenty years now. More recently, he partnered up with his wife Jessica in the Dirt Daubers, a more back-to-basics blues and rockabilly unit.

These two bands that Wilkes is most well-known for only scratch the surface of the man himself. Artist. Author. Musician. Filmmaker. He is doing it all in the name of preserving artistic elements of the South and keeping musical traditions alive and well. This is a man who is deeply proud of where he is from, and rather than yell “Yeehaw!” and rant about the War of Northern Aggression, he demonstrates the rich beauty and time-honored heritage of the unsung musicians who helped shape country and bluegrass music of today. Wilkes was a pleasure to speak with, and he could barely contain his passion for the music that is in his heart and soul.

How did the Shack Shakers decide to start back up again?

Well, our drummer had some heart issues that he got squared away. He got a pacemaker put in. I think it just came down to, the material was there, the desire was there, the health was there…the financial need was there. It was just a lot of things coming together at the same time, all those elements coming together. There’s also been offers for festivals and things. Europe’s come’a callin’. The demand is there. Timing, supply and demand, that’s what it’s all about. It’s a band, it’s a brand, it’s a product, and sometimes you have to go away before people can appreciate you.

Oh, yeah. “Absence makes the heart grow fonder,” and all of that.

That is exactly right.

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Debby Schwartz is properly appraised as a veteran musician, a singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist combining broader than usual range with a fairly low profile. As part of the small but potent roster of the NYC/Connecticut-based Twin Lakes Records that might change; her new LP A Garden of My Own offers 11 strong selections in a contemporary electric folk vein.

I was familiar with the output of Debby Schwartz long before recognizing her by name, having crossed paths with her band The Aquanettas roughly a quarter century ago. Flaunting a handle reminiscent of the B-52s, their first and sole full-length Love with a Proper Stranger sported a sound comparable to the Bangles if they’d been from Hoboken and didn’t hit the big time; appearing in early 1990, it was a thorough byproduct of the decade prior.

As issued by Nettwerk/I.R.S. Records the disc never found an appropriate audience. My exposure to The Aquanettas came through a casual acquaintance rather than a personal copy, and after giving it a fresh spin via the resources of the internet I’m bluntly kinda bummed I didn’t pick it up, though I don’t recall ever seeing it in the racks back then.

If I never stumbled across Love with a Proper Stranger, until very recently I didn’t even know Schwartz’s Wrongs of Passage existed. Released in ’98 on Joan Osborne’s Womanly Hips label, it seems to have fallen through the cracks, and I still haven’t heard it. I do know her bass and vocal work in Patrick Gubler’s post-Tower Recordings outfit P.G. Six however; it sets the table for A Garden of My Own quite nicely.

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Venice Beach troubadour Joe Con seamlessly blends folk, pop, and hip hop with a deft touch for melodic poetry. His newest EP, “I Choose You” shows a more tender side of Con’s versatile and prolific catalogue.

There is little left unsaid on the EP’s first single “Said and Done” which finds Con in a reflective mood, crooning over a snappy beat laced with acoustic guitar and harmonica. Couplet after couplet, the laid-back songwriter details the romantic highs and lows of diehard love while managing to fit the entire history of the relationship into the soothing four-minute single. It is a well-executed lullaby of a song which is aided by a bouncy chord progression, sweeping strings, and Con’s honey coated Kentucky drawl.

“I Choose You” is an assured work that buzzes with catchy grooves and broad pop sensibilities. A combination that is sure to please various walks of life from hip hop heads to folkies. Joe’s aesthetic, which has often included searing blues and braggadocio rhyme slinging, has become more and more aimed toward Top 40—with an unabashed flair for pop hooks. A sugary tablespoon of beach rock with clever arrangements and cool delivery.

Back when pop music had real prestige, The Turtles were one of its finest practitioners. Their success was due in no small part to a DIY approach to music and their collective ear for a great song. The band first hit the charts with a version of Bob Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me Babe” in 1965. From there, they covered songs from bands like The Byrds and recorded tunes from songwriters like Warren Zevon and the mostly forgotten—yet incredibly prolific—Alan Gordon, who co-wrote their signature song, “Happy Together.”

Despite numerous personnel changes, Mark Volman never fully abandoned the idea of The Turtles. He and Turtles bandmate Howard Kaylan departed from the band for a time and joined Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention, calling themselves Flo (Mark) & Eddie (Howard). They continued to tour and record as Flo & Eddie (separate from Zappa) through the ’80s until they regained control of The Turtles’ name. Today, Volman and Kaylan bill themselves “The Turtles Featuring Flo & Eddie” and gig around the world with fellow ’60s and ’70s pop acts on their popular Happy Together Tour.

Volman has thrived in the music industry for the better part of fifty years. His incredibly varied career has included work as a backup singer, record producer, screenwriter, and college professor. When he’s not touring with The Turtles, Volman chairs the Entertainment Industry Studies Department at Belmont University in Nashville.

Volman most recently oversaw the creation of a Turtles box set containing newly remastered 45RPM vinyl singles (out now), a perfect tribute for one of the most beloved pop bands of the ’60s. Our conversation with him last week makes it clear why his students have voted him “Outstanding Professor” and why The Turtles’ music endures in 2014. 

I remember really liking “Happy Together” as a kid because it was this upbeat song in a minor key, and so it kind of stuck in my mind…

[Laughs] Well, I think that the effervescent minor key to major key was a big part of The Turtles. Ultimately, it shaped the sound of our songs. I think that “Happy Together” certainly is a good demonstration of that; “Elenore” was probably the one that was more famous by kind of the fact that we were lampooning ourselves. Again, I think in the beginning, we had no idea that it was going to end up doing what it did!

Your big hits came in such a brief period of time, and they’re so well-crafted—almost like Rodgers and Hammerstein type story-songs. Is that what you set out to do when you got into music?

Well, we were experimenting with a lot of different [things], and we were fortunate. We came along when songwriting was still thought of as the most important thing. From our standpoint, we never really worried about what material we were doing, whether we were writing it or not; the most important thing was that we had a piece of music we felt we could stand behind. Because our live show played such an integral part of our survival in that era, we wanted to make sure that the music we were performing on record was something we could do on stage. I think sometimes you take for granted the fact that so much of the music that came out of Southern California—The Mamas & The Papas, The Beach Boys…there was a whole slew of artists who were making records, but not playing on their records.

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Press Play is our Monday morning recap of the new tracks received last week—provided here to inform your vinyl purchasing power. Click, preview, download, purchase.

DZ Deathrays – Fixations (AL-P of MSTRKRFT Remix)
Sam Smith – Stay With Me (Bender Remix)
Wise Girl – So Broken
The High Learys – I’m A Fool For You
Anabot – Candy-Eyed
Grammar – New World
Douglas Francis – Hedonic Treadmill
Lookas – LOKO (Dani Deahl Remix)
Cassorla – The Right Way
Anushka – Atom Bombs

TVD SINGLE OF THE WEEK:
Sillyboy – Do it Again

Clockwork Radio – Sitting Bull
Selena Garcia – Brother
Nite Fields – Vacation
Negativland – Right Might
Ennui – Summer of Love
Mary J. Blige – Just Fine (GAMPER & DADONI x Mingo Starr Remix)
Double Plus Good – Never The Same
Dream Boat – The Rose Explodes
Baby Baby – Turnip
Gwyneth Moreland – Pine Box Sailor

3 more FREE TRACKS on side B!

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