Record Store Day 2011: Ashley Brooke Toussant and Shivering Timbers

Record Store Day was not the buy-a-palooza for me this year that it was last year. The one album I was really interested in this year – the reissue of Vanguard’s Skip James Today! – was unlikely to be available at any of my record stores, and having just lost my day job Friday, spending money on a piece of vinyl I can’t play right now anyway (I have four turntables, and none of them are working properly) didn’t feel like a priority.

What was a priority was getting down to Square Records in Akron to catch in-store performances from Ashley Brooke Toussant and Shivering Timbers.

(Don’t feel bad for me. While I didn’t get the Skip James vinyl, I did pick up the Godfathers’ Birth, School, Work, Death on vinyl for a song. And I met Square Records’ resident cat, Kali. Record store cats are aces. So much less haughty than book store cats.)

Ashley Brooke Toussant

It’s difficult to think of a description of Toussant that does not include the word “adorable”. But while she is a wee thing with a cherubic face and big, blue peepers (two people remarked that she looks like she’s 12 years old – she’s actually in her mid-20s), her sweet voice is strong and her songwriting is beautifully sophisticated.

Accompanied by Chris Wise on electric bass and Joe Linstrum on acoustic guitar, Toussant played a set that mixed songs from her EP All Songs in English with songs from her upcoming full-length album Sweetheart. While she appeared quiet and shy between songs, Toussant was perfectly at ease within her music, singing out loud and clear. Much of her repertoire is of the ethereally folky variety, recalling the mason-jars-and-sepia-toned-photographs sound of some of Over the Rhine’s early catalogue, but Toussant’s sound is touched with influences from around the world and throughout time. Linstrum’s accompaniment often added a Spanish flavor with Wise’s bass providing modern-day weight.

Toussant’s talent is instantly winning, and she was encouraged by enthusiastic listeners to play just one more song at the end of her set, which she did with a characteristically charming smile.

There are five days left in the IndieGoGo fundraising campaign for Sweetheart where you can contribute and help the album release be a great one. Toussant’s whimsical official website is also a recommended visit.

Shivering Timbers

After a taking a break for a snack and a drink and doing some record browsing, I found myself too far removed by Shivering Timbers’ supporters to take any good photos, but I can assure you that they are still just as attractive as they were in January.

Having seen Shivering Timbers just twice now, I feel confident in saying that every show of theirs feels like a celebration with friends. Though the post-song applause started out light as the band warmed us up slowly, favorites like “Noble Duke of York” and “Crooked Old Man” quickly brought out the clapping and whooping from the crowd packed into the now-steamy record store. The biggest reaction came in appreciation of the band’s usual show closer, the bring-the-house-down “Evening Prayer”. But they had a surprise left for us with a new closing song, a calming lullaby to see us out.

Shivering Timbers are adding more and more shows to their schedule all the time, including a gig with Neutral Uke Hotel at the Grog Shop in Cleveland this Friday. This is definitely a band to catch live.

Postcards from the Pit: The Pogues

The Pogues’ last tour, which I caught as they rolled through New York during St. Patrick’s Day (really St. Patrick’s Week, or Month), was titled “A Parting Glass” and meant to be the last one. For a lot of reasons, I hope that’s not actually true. Not least because St. Patrick’s Day in New York will not ever be the same without them. These shots are actually from March 16, the second night of a three day run at T5.

I didn’t stay in the pit very long, a combination of it being a school night and the pit being a little bit rough. I actually did the most dancing of the evening once I had retreated upstairs to the couches near the bar, where I twirled through a couple of measures of Dirty Old Town with a stranger. Though if this was their last go-round, I’ll hoard that memory as a fine send-off.

IMG_8031

IMG_8041

IMG_8049

IMG_8051

IMG_8056

IMG_8064

IMG_8074

IMG_8093

Exploding Lies/Hacienda/The Greenhornes at the Beachland Ballroom, Cleveland, OH, 4.1.11

Exploding Lies

 

Exploding Lies

 

The night kicked off (and that is the appropriate way to describe it – this night did not do something meek like “begin” or “start”) with Cleveland’s own Exploding Lies, a blues-inflected rock band with emphasis on low and heavy vibes. So dedicated to that low and heavy end are this band that they sometimes step into the Black Sabbath end of the spectrum with impressive results. While the band seems a little hesitant on stage, there is a lot of potential there, and once they are comfortable enough to own the stage, they will move from good to great.

(And they already have one of the most entertaining-to-watch drummers I’ve seen.)

 

Hacienda

 

Hacienda

 

My second time seeing this south Texas foursome was even better than the first. Perhaps it’s the family dynamic – the band being made up of the brothers Villanueva (Abraham on keys, Rene on bass and Jaime on drums) and cousin Dante Schwebel on guitar – but this band is tight. And it’s that tightness in musicianship that allows them to throw out perfectly loose grooves. So in sync are they that they can go all out, shake-the-rafters rockin’ without ever going off the rails. Mixing up a set list of tracks from their two albums (a third will be recorded in Nashville this summer), kept up a feel-good energy throughout their set until they closed it up with a blow-the-roof-off, if-you-don’t-dance-to-this-you-might-be-dead jam on “Mama’s Cookin'”.

I can’t say enough good things about this band. As a whole and individually, these guys are impressive. They all play far above baseline expectations, always showing audacious skill but never being flashy for flashiness’ sake, always serving the groove. And you can hear their south Texas home in their music. This is the music of warm nights, barefoot girls and barbecue-chomping boys, relaxing with beers and friends. And no band I’ve ever seen live has made me dance more than Hacienda. (And they rival the Gories for best soundcheck around.)

Speaking between songs, Dante said Ohio has become like a second home to the band (no doubt bolstered through their continued relationship with Dan Auerbach), and I, for one, would be happy to claim these guys as our own.

 

Hacienda

 

The Greenhornes

 

The Greenhornes

 

Speaking of Ohio’s own… I wasn’t sure how I would feel about the Greenhornes, coming late to the Cincinnati band’s material and being ambivalent about what I’d heard around the internet.

That ambivalence lasted about two seconds into Friday night’s set. From Jack Lawrence’s lead-in to the final blast of their nearly-11-minute cover of James Brown’s “I’ll Go Crazy”, I was rooting for the home team. The Greenhornes know just where to hit on the body to render maximum devastation, pumping adrenaline-soaked bullets into the audience’s major arteries from beginning to end. By the end, I was hooting and hollering just as loudly as those who were smart enough to get on board with the Greenhornes long before I did.

It’s easy to see why Jack White keeps tapping Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler to fill his rhythm section needs with their strong sense of rock rhythm and groove, adding just enough funk to get you hustling. And while I had seen complaints about singer/guitarist Craig Fox’s stage demeanor in the lead-up to the show from people taken aback by his mostly stock-still posture, Fox didn’t need to bounce around with all the energy he generated from his Gibson SG.

 


Video by AdamBionic22.

 

So, call me a convert. The Greenhornes were deadly and made this show a pretty-much-perfect night of rock and roll. And by the end, you could almost hear buttons popping off of shirt fronts as our collective Ohio chest swelled with pride.

 

Jack Lawrence

 

James Leg at the Happy Dog, Cleveland, OH, 3.17.11

James Leg and Andrew Jody look like they belong in two different bands. Leg, long and lean with big boots, big rings and wallet chain, is the very picture of a Southern blues rocker while Jody, skinny in a striped shirt, sporting a mod haircut, looks like he would have fit comfortably in any number of ’70s garage bands. And, technically, they belong to a number of different bands, with Leg being one half of the Black Diamond Heavies as well as having been/being a member of the Immortal Lee County Killers and the Cut in the Hill Gang and Jody’s list of credits including The Long Gones, Oxford Cotton, Pearlene, Barrence Whitfield and The Savages and more. But when they come together, they form a synergistic unit, their energies equally matched.

Kicking off with an amped up cover of Junior Kimbrough’s “Sad Days and Lonely Nights”, Leg hit the keys and growled lustily into his mic while Jody’s attack on the drums was solidly timed as well as impressively creative. In an interview, Leg’s Black Diamond Heavies partner Van Campbell said he believed one could see the effects of the spiritual warfare Leg contended with as the son of a strict Baptist preacher working themselves out when Leg played, and it didn’t take long to see what Campbell meant. From the get-go, Leg’s right foot was stomping the floor while his long, dark hair flew in all directions, obscuring Leg’s face for almost the entire set.

While Leg remained pretty quiet between songs, when he called to the bar for a whiskey mid-set and was asked if Black Velvet was okay, someone in the audience began to sing the Alannah Myles song of the same name. Leg responded with, “Now don’t start that shit.”

Leg sprinkled tracks from his forthcoming album, Solitary Pleasure, throughout the set, following up the Kimbrough cover with the sexy “Do How You Wanna” and later including “Nobody’s Fault”, “No License (Song for the Caged Bird)”, “Drinking Too Much” (a Kill Devil Hills cover), “Georgia”, “Drowning in Fire” (which benefitted from an extended intro as Leg tried to recall the words to a song he hadn’t played since he recorded it), “Have to Get It On” and choosing his Link Wray cover, “Fire and Brimstone”, as an inspired closing number.

In between, Leg and Jody inserted a couple of Black Diamond Heavies songs, a couple of Jerry McCain covers (with one, “A Cutie Named Judy”, sung by Jody), and even when they supposedly brought the energy down for an awesome Jody-led cover of the Velvet Underground’s “Oh! Sweet Nuthin'”, they were still more intense than many other high-energy bands at their high points. It was easy to get caught up in the ferocity, reminding me a couple of times of a conversation I had with Leg before the show about the similarity between religious fervor and the feeling produced by a good rock show. The intensity Leg and Jody were able to put out to what ended up being a relatively small crowd after the St. Patrick’s Day amateur drinkers set left the bar to puke and pass out made me wonder how much more fierce the show might have been had it taken place in a full room with a crowd giving as good as they got.

Here’s a short clip of “Georgia” to show you what I’m talking about.

This shit is not for the faint of heart.

Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog: Love Crushed Velvet

 

We are crazy with the interviews here all of sudden. Today, Jennifer talks to A.L.X., singer of Love Crushed Velvet.


IMG_7623A.L.X. and Love Crushed Velvet at Crash Mansion

Love Crushed Velvet, last seen on NTSIB participating in the Beatles Complete on the Ukulele event, will be putting out a new record in the middle of April. Recently, I sat down with lead singer A.L.X. to discuss a variety of musical topics:

During the Beatles Complete on the Ukulele event I thought I heard someone say you were from Austria. That’s since been cleared up – you were born in East Germany and later moved to the United States – but in the process of straightening that out, you dropped a tantalizing reference to having briefly been a cult celebrity in Austria. What was that all about, because it sounds like a good story.

It was one of those weird things about being in the right place in the right time. I ended up living there back in the ’90s – I was actually a student at the time.  Even though I was born in Europe, have European parents and was used to going over there to visit, I wasn’t used to actually living abroad.  It’s a big difference between staying with your family for several weeks versus someone just throwing you – 18 years old, 19 years old – into the middle of a European city.

During the first couple of weeks I was just checking out all of the music clubs and ended up falling into a circle that – unbeknownst to me at the time – included some of the top rock musicians in the country. And when you go there as a young American singer from New York – and I only realized this in retrospect –you don’t have to be great, all you have to be is half-decent and have attitude. Just the fact that you’re American, they will embrace you. So being American, being from the New York area, and being a rock singer – the kind of doors that opened were just unimaginable to me as a young kid.

So within 2-3 months I ended up having a band with a bunch of guys who were quite well known – Falco’s guitar player, Peter Kruder (one of the Kruder and Dorfmeister founders) played with us for a bit – and it was great fun.  It didn’t last very long – in retrospect, it felt like five minutes–but it opened up a lot of doors to me over there. That was an important period in my life because it gave me a sense of affirmation that, “hey, I can do this!” Even though it’s now a distant memory, and what I’m doing now musically really doesn’t relate much to that period, it was still a great thing to experience when you’re an 18 or 19 year old.  If only I’d realized how much harder it would be every step of the way since then–because you just assume that it’s going to be so much easier everywhere else you go from that point. And then you get back to New York and no one gives a shit who you were when you were somewhere else, and it hits you:  “Damn, this is gonna be hard!”

So now, this new band you have going, Love Crushed Velvet, how did that start?

I’d been playing with a couple of great musicians in one of my solo projects, and we’d become good friends. Thommy Price, who was the drummer for Joan Jett and the Black Hearts, and with Billy Idol right before that, and Jimi Bones who was with Blondie and also with Joan Jett at one point – had been playing in support of a solo album that I’d cut a few years earlier.  We’d been playing the music from that A.L.X record for about a year, and it eventually morphed into a completely different sound. The songs changed – as songs often do anyway.  You can play a song with 30 different musicians and it’ll feel like 30 different songs.

The direction of the music took on a very interesting feel. Thommy’s drumming has a very crisp and powerful–but not heavy-handed–snare delivery.  Listen to the Billy Idol records from the mid-’80s, you can really hear that in there, and as we started playing we found a sound that was really very different from a lot of rock you hear nowadays, which is often either big radio cockrock or really indie and alternative. I love a lot of the alternative music out there, but there wasn’t that much of it that had that combination of being big and muscular yet had an alternative feel to it at the same time. So that’s kind of the birth of Love Crushed Velvet.

I’d started writing around the sound of this band and everything just fell into place very easily, really from the first studio sessions. I’m too close to the record to tell whether it’s good or not, and it certainly took a long time to record.  But it wasn’t a difficult album to make. The songs, the vibe, everything fell into place very easily. So I’m hoping it’s the start of a good thing and a long thing.

I’ve listened to the record a couple of time now, and in the song, Love Crushed Velvet, the “love crushed velvet” that you’re looking for – what is that? What does that mean?

If you look at the lyrics, not surprisingly, the song is about sex and how so many of us mask our sexual identity as something else. Because our sexuality is really the core of who we are, our essence as people.  It’s not in our heads, it’s in our hearts. And that song really just explores the whole concept of chasing who we really are from that perspective. Just allowing ourselves to be free on that level. And the video we made of the song played with that idea, with the concept of having multiple masked identities.

Okay. So your next big gig in New York is Earth Day?

The next one that’s firmly booked is Earth Day. Between now and then, we will probably end up doing three or four Love Crushed Velvet shows. The other thing I’m doing is I’m traveling around a fair amount doing an unplugged tour—solo–and taking the Love Crushed Velvet songs and stripping them down on an acoustic guitar. I’ve done five or six of those shows already. Between the Love Crushed Velvet band shows there’s sometimes time and space to kill and we still want to get the music out there – this is just a different way of doing it; a more intimate way of presenting it.

All right. Now, Google tells me you also run a chemical company?

Running is a big word. It’s essentially a green technology company and is something I fell into.  I’ve kind of grown up around it, it was a family business that I was involved with it one way or another since I’ve been a kid. I’ve never seen myself as a person who could do just one thing, and I love the yin and the yang aspect of having two different lives.  Being a musician can be a very esoteric thing. The business side of music is a disciplinary, regimented thing, but I’ve always hated the music business and want as little to do with the business side of it as possible. But this other business, I find it really interesting. I travel for both worlds, so I can play music on the road and do the other business at the same time. It’s a nice balance against being too free-form as an artist, which I fall into far too easily.

I had a stray thought about lacquers for guitars –

We do that too. Those are my favorite trips! Yeah, you get with the guitar companies and you talk about the lacquers, but basically you sit around all day playing the guitar.

That sounds like the best business trip ever.

It’s amazing. So, what kind of music do you like?

Big drums and dirty bass lines.

Well, that could be a lot of things. What was your transformative song? The one that really woke you up?

It was Beat It. I remember being in the kitchen, and hearing it on the radio for the first time – I was really young, obviously – but that opening guitar riff came out, and I remember really distinctly reaching out to turn it up. And I’ve never been much of a Michael Jackson fan beyond that, but that opening riff, I have an almost automatic Yesssssssss!, punch the air with both fists response.

Fall Out Boy did a cover of it, and when I was at Bamboozle a couple of years ago – this was before he [Michael Jackson] died, they don’t play it now that he’s dead – they played it. I was in the back of the pit, being squashed by the crowd, and they launched into it right as I was deciding to get out, and as I’m walking past the security dudes, I’m waving my arms in the air.

And then – I didn’t realize until I was getting out – but in order to get out you had to walk towards the stage, through the line of security dudes. And I had to really focus on not stopping and staring at them on the stage, so I didn’t get in trouble. But as I got towards the front, where I could see the kids with their faces turned up towards the stage and bathed in the light and the guys really focused on what they were playing, and Patrick Stump’s voice soaring over us, I thought This is where it is, this is where the magic happens.

Also, uh, Welcome to the Jungle, because I’m predictable that way. And Dr. Feelgood. Anyway, that’s a good question. What was your transformative song?

I’ve had a few of them. The one that woke me up was, ironically, a Billy Idol song. It’s from before I had ever heard of him or Generation X: It was the last Gen X single, Dancing With Myself.  This was god knows how long since they’d been broken up already.

I was living in the suburbs at the time, and you couldn’t hear anything like that on the radio there.  But one night I came across this alternative station that would play older punk and new punk, that wasn’t Bruce Springsteen, that wasn’t the Eagles, all the kind of stuff that didn’t move me musically when I was, I don’t know, fourteen or something like that.  And I remember there was this radio show that used to come on at 10 o’clock at night, and as soon as the show started – b-tchk b-tchk bnar nar nar came out of my radio and I was like, “Fuck!” It had a simple rhythm and incredibly simple guitar line, yet just felt like it was going to explode out of the speakers, it just had so much energy.

And finally now, after having made a number of records, I can figure out how they created that, how they gave that much energy in the studio. But at the time it really opened me up to punk and all those punk bands. And fortunately–or unfortunately–I was a generation removed from it already, so I was really too young to be in that scene. So what I had to tap into were really the later generation of post-punk bands coming up around New York at the time. But that Gen X song opened my eyes to a different, more simple, more energetic kind of music. It was a jolt to my central nervous system at the time. That really woke me up to the accessibility of it, it just had two or three simple notes that could make people dance and go crazy.

 

IMG_6355A.L.X. and Love Crushed Velvet at Brooklyn Bowl

 

So this is always a fun question. What was the first show you went to?

The first show was the Kinks. I had a friend who was a couple years older than I was – I was thirteen or fourteen – who was a big Kinks fan, and this was the late ’80s so by that point, in retrospect, the Kinks were sort of on their downhill slide. They probably hadn’t been relevant for six or seven years, but they were still great. The two things I remember were how often Ray Davies changed his jacket, and how much pot smoke there could be in a big place. But it was cool. There was something I loved about the Kinks–they were dirty, but were still sophisticated.

I got to know more about them over time, and learned about Ray Davies. He’s a pretty interesting cat, very literate, very smart, very thoughtful guy. But at the time, it was all about simple riff rock with a lot of pot smoke and a lot of different jackets. It made an impression as my first show.  I think it was at Roseland, so being at a smaller place like that, with a great band and that kind of atmosphere, was quite different than being at an arena show.  The world that I was exposed to attracted me and scared me at the same time.

My first show was Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, in an arena, and Lenny Kravitz opened.

Wow.

Yeah. And I was also, like, fourteen, and had no idea that openers existed, so I was like, Who is that? That’s not Tom Petty! And this was – ’89, Full Moon Fever – so he was on his up-tick again.

He’s brilliant, Tom Petty. He’s such an underappreciated songwriter. It’s funny, when I was younger, I never cared for his voice, it wasn’t appealing to me. And if I don’t like the way the singer sounds, I just can’t get past it.   I now like his voice, I appreciate it for its distinctness, and looking at Tom Petty as a songwriter, god he’s good.

I went out after that and acquired his back catalogue at Tower Records. Which took some doing, in 1989, since everything was still on tape. Which actually brings me to my next question: What was the first album that you bought – record or tape or CD or whatever?

Led Zeppelin IV.

Interesting. Yeah, mine were Born in the USA and Nervous Night. I think I used my birthday money – I was 11.

Led Zeppelin IV was a record that I got turned on to it by older friends. And Zep, just like that Kinks concert, was enticing but scary. When you’re a kid of thirteen and you listen to Led Zepplin for the first time, you’re not quite sure what to make of it.  Having been around it for thirty-some odd years, we’re now all so used to it, it’s a part of our vernacular, it’s almost like it’s in our bloodstream, but hearing that for the first time – especially Black Dog– you can see why people thought they were Devil worshippers way back in their era.  Because it’s scary but it’s sexy. It’s all those things rock and roll is supposed to be, really, and at the highest level. So that was my first record.

What was the last one that you bought?

Record record?

It doesn’t have to be a record record. Album. Collection of music! I haven’t – oh wait, I have bought a record record. Not on purpose, though – it was part of a larger band package. I don’t even own a record player! I do have a walkman, though. It’s kind of beat to shit, but I’ve got it.

I’ve kept my old records, but I don’t store them in my apartment. They’re somewhere in the basement of my mother’s house because if you live in Manhattan, you need a certain amount of space for record players.  It’s not like CD players, which you can just stick in any corner. Record players, you have to be able to open them up and move around them. You need accompanying square and cubic footage around record players.

But the last CD I bought, it’s this cool band, I’m not sure where they’re from, called Diamond Rings, and I bought them about a month ago when I was in Houston. There’s a great record store there called Cactus Music, it’s just fantastic. There are no record stores left anymore, so this is now one of the great record stores in America.  It’s relatively small, but they do live bands and showcases in there, and is everything a modern, relevant record store should be. They were playing Diamond Rings when I was in there, and I was like, cool record!

Circling back a little bit – I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the Beatles Complete on the Ukulele event, since my normal Beatles tolerance is . . . somewhat limited.

That show was mostly about bands interpreting the Beatles, and interpreting the Beatles, it’s an education.  Look at their choice of chords, their choice of structures, their choice of melodies.  When I grew up I was the same way–I was never really moved by the Beatles, I didn’t find them dirty or sexy or edgy enough.

My objection is that they’re, like, really irritating wallpaper after a while.

Yeah, well, they’ve also been overplayed.

Yes, they play the same five songs all the time, and then I’m like, Enough now.

But, I thought the Beatles thing last week – it’s interesting to hear the songs played by someone other than the Beatles, because they become new songs, in and of themselves. And I remember standing at the bar with my bandmates and we were just chatting, and then hearing Hey Jude, having someone else play it –

On the accordion, no less!

– yeah, and it’s just such a fucking good song. It just gets bigger and bigger and bigger – as a songwriter that song is a masterpiece, it’s just so well done.

But the dirge-like pace at which the Beatles played it is excruciating after a while. I have to say I developed a whole new appreciation for I Am the Walrus. I think it was Black Bells – they were the first ones up after the Uke mob – and I’m pretty sure they did I Am the Walrus because they really stomped through it, and I was like, This is a great song! . . . wait a minute.

When I heard the original version of Hey Bulldog, one of the ones we covered, I wasn’t excited by it – am still not. I don’t care for the way it’s mixed, I just don’t respond to it.  But when we got together and broke it down, suddenly you’re like, hey, this is a cool song. Taking that James Bond-y guitar line that George Harrison’s playing and making it your own…

A lot of their music is like that. When you strip it down to it’s core essentials, just as writers, their sense of melody, they’re just an amazing creation. They’re so strong, there’s not a lot of weakness in their catalog.  You can argue with how it was performed – but they also did so many different renditions of their songs.  If you go back to collections of the Beatles outtakes, some of the songs have four or five or six different versions of them. In a few cases they were all released in some form or the other.

So how did you get involved in the Beatles Complete on the Ukulele thing? Do you get invited to that?

I got invited by Roger Greenawalt–he and I have known each other for a while and have done a few different projects together over the last ten-twelve years.  He was the first producer I met when I moved to New York.  I cut some demos with him, back, hmm, right at the tail end of the ’90s? And Roger produced four songs on the Love Crushed Velvet record.

While we were cutting the Love Crushed Velvet tracks, he was conceptualizing the Beatles on the Ukulele thing.  Two months later, he did his first Beatles event at Spike Hill [a bar in Brooklyn] which was much smaller, much funkier, not the quasi-spectacle it is now. I ended up getting up and doing a couple of songs, and he’s invited me and the band to come back in subsequent years, so this is actually the third time doing it. I was there when it started!

From the beginning!

Thank God not on video, that first time.

Apparently he’s doing Led Zeppelin on the ukulele next? Is that what I hear?

Yeah, he’s been talking about it for a while. I haven’t gotten invited yet – I’m hoping that means it hasn’t happened yet.

I’m actually terribly intrigued by the prospect of Led Zepplin on the ukulele. I think Immigrant Song with ukulele might be quite dramatic.

If you think about it, Zeppelin on the ukulele makes more sense in some ways than the Beatles on the ukulele, because Jimmy Page used nonstandard tunings on most of his songs.  They had mandolin, a lot of other things going through their records. A lot of Zeppelin has that sonic frequency of the ukulele underneath it.  Even if it might not have been the ukulele per se, it might have been a mandolin instead, but they give a similar effect. I can see it working.

Maybe he can try the Rolling Stones on the ukulele next.

That one I’d be a little bit more careful with.

That might be awkward.

You can’t ukulele-ify the entire world.

That’s true. Still. It would be funny. I would be entertained by the Rolling Stones on the ukulele.

I would be entertained by Nine Inch Nails on the ukulele.

[cackling with glee] That would be PERFECT. [manages to contain laughter] Anyway, that’s about all I had, so, in conclusion, thank you so much for meeting with me today, and for letting us put one of your songs up for people to download.
—-

Song: Problem Child

I like it because: It’s a gleeful bad-boy anthem, and also an interesting bookend to He’s Not a Boy, which is a “You can’t change a bad boy, you just have to love him as he is, and really, would you have him any other way?” song by The Like. The two bands are very different, musically, I just enjoy the way these two tunes “talk” to each other.

Listen to the record streaming at bandcamp: Love Crushed Velvet

 

— Jennifer

Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog: Biffy Clyro and Moving Mountains

So, the night before I witnessed loud music performed by men in suits, so did Jennifer. And then she witnessed loud music performed by half-naked men. Sounds like a good night to me.


IMG_7218

This is Moving Mountains; they are from Purchase, New York, and, while they might be wearing suits and grandpa sweaters, their music is like an oncoming freight train. I seriously was not expecting the periodic bursts of James Hetfield-style ogre roar that I heard Saturday evening, but I assure you I enjoyed them tremendously. Also they sound very different live then they do on MySpace, much heavier, and the drums and bass combine into a tidal wave of percussive power. If you aren’t headbanging during their set, I think you might be dead inside.

IMG_7285

And this is Biffy Clyro, of Kilmarnock, Scotland. They’ve been around since 2000, but I only learned about them this year, via the unlikely agency of UK TV show The X Factor, when contestant Matt Cardle covered their song Many of Horror and won, and the UK portion of my Internet got very cranky. Having now heard the song live, I can see why. It’s a little bit like if someone on American Idol decided to cover Patience and somehow contrived to make it sound like disposable elevator music, and then renamed it and sold it as a single.

IMG_7273

Simon Neil

Note: Biffy Clyro sounds absolutely nothing like Guns n’ Roses, but the song is a gem of a hard rock ballad, the kind of thing audiences can (and did) sing back to the band. All I can say is, I’m glad no-one involved with televised talent shows has yet gotten their hands on one of Biffy Clyro’s other slower songs, the spare and lovely Folding Stars, which they also played on Saturday. (Equivalents in emotional punch: Wake Me Up When September Ends, Green Day and Helena, My Chemical Romance.)

IMG_7343

James Johnston

Anyway, naturally after that I had to know more, so when their name floated up on one of my concert alerts, I made plans to go. I also did some digging into their back catalog, though I only got as far as Puzzle (2007) and their more recent Only Revolutions. So I went into the show not quite cold, but not quite totally up to speed, either.

I can now tell you that going to that show was among my finer decisions, in terms of random acts of concert-attendance. Like Moving Mountains, Biffy Clyro are heavier live than on the internet, and they are not like anything else I have heard recently. Especially notable is the way their drums and bass have complex conversations that sound like the oncoming apocalypse, and that their ballads are distinctly lacking in excessive sentiment and schmaltz. Their back catalog is deep and I recommend you explore it.

Meanwhile, their tour with Moving Mountains is slowly wending its way west. Looking at the schedule they seem to be stopping mainly in smaller clubs – the Gramercy Theatre is tiny – and while it may be a function of them being less known here than at home, it’s also truly a treat for anyone who is able to see them.

— Jennifer

Rainy Day Saints/Frosting/The Godfathers at the Grog Shop, Cleveland, OH, 2.13.11

Rainy Day Saints

When I had previously seen Rainy Day Saints, their sound mix was muddy, making it difficult to gauge anything but a beat. Sad to say, this night was more of the same. Even sitting at the bar situated at the back of the Grog Shop, the sound seemed to be mixed for some point 20 feet behind the back wall. They might be a great band, but if they don’t gauge their sound mix down a little, it’s going to be hard to tell.

Frosting

“This song’s on capo 1, everybody.”

Chicago band Frosting have a full complement of women and bald dudes and a good sense of humor. The group, led by a singer/guitarist who is not bald or a woman but does sort of look like a mashup of Doug Fieger and Mark Arm, powered through an upbeat set of guitar pop. A post-song comment from the singer gives a good idea of their sound: “I tried to sell that song to Matthew Sweet. He said, ‘No fucking way.'” An enjoyable set from a solid band with good stage presence and some nice harmonies.

The Godfathers

The fucking Godfathers, people.

As I’ve noted before, the Godfathers’ album Birth, School, Work, Death has been a staple for me since youth. In that previous post, I mentioned that I had never become a big enough fan of the group to pursue any of their other albums (which, in Ohio in the late ’80s/early ’90s, would have taken a good amount of effort), but seeing them Sunday night for their first show on American soil in over 20 years has changed that.

From the moment the Godfathers – singer Peter Coyne, guitarist Del Bartle, drummer Grant Nichols and a bassist whose name I did not catch, filling in for Chris Coyne who was detained in the UK as he’s apparently a threat to national security or something – stepped on stage, it was clear that there would be no fucking around. Peter Coyne still seems pretty pissed off, and the Godfathers’ music still carries the same intense energy. Still sharp in their pinstripes, the band delivered a punishing set spanning back to the Sid Presley Experience (the band from which the Godfathers formed in 1985) all the way up to brand new song “Back into the Future”, hitting some amazing high points in between: “‘Cause I Said So”, “Walking Talking Johnny Cash Blues”, “When Am I Coming Down”, “This Damn Nation” and on.

Coyne cuts as imposing a figure as ever, gripping the microphone like he’s going to shoot you with it, spitting lyrics with as much vengeance as he did 20 years ago, grazing the audience with his blue-eyed, hard-edge stare between snarls – though he was never anything less than gracious to the appreciative audience. “It’s been too long,” he told Cleveland at one point.

Almost as a counterpoint to Coyne’s ever-serious demeanor, Nichols’ drumming was almost gleeful, backing the songs with on-point propulsion. Bartle’s guitar playing is so precise you wouldn’t know he hadn’t written the lines himself (he played in the Sid Presley Experience and joined the Godfathers in 2008). And the low end was more than competently held down by the bass player.

It was a gratifying show on a number of levels, not least of which was being able to shout along to “Birth, School, Work, Death” and have it feel just as vital now as it did when I first heard it 20-some years ago. This is no nostalgia act. This is goddamn rock ‘n’ roll.

(And while I don’t usually do this, I feel so strongly that you should see the Godfathers live, here’s a list of their remaining U.S. dates:

Feb. 15: Maxwell’s, Hoboken, NJ
Feb. 16: Johnny D’s, Somerville, MA
Feb. 18: Black Cat, Washington, D.C.
Feb. 19: Frankie’s Inner City, Toledo, OH
Feb. 20: Double Door, Chicago, IL
Feb. 21: Club Garibaldi, Milwaukee, WI
Feb. 22: Off Broadway, St. Louis, MO)

Benjamin Riley Band/Cassie Morgan and the Lonely Pine/Patrick Sweany at Off Broadway, St. Louis, MO, 2.10.11

To continue Patrick Sweany Month here at NTSIB, we are pleased to have a guest review of Patrick’s recent CD release show in St. Louis by our friend Nate Burrell, along with some wonderful photos by Nate and another talented photographer, Kate McDaniel.


On a cold and icy Thursday evening in south city St. Louis, music fans braved the elements to go out and see an absolutely stellar 3-band bill at Off Broadway – our city’s premier music venue. With the stage lights beaming down, headliner, Nashville-based rhythm and soul rock-n-roller, Patrick Sweany grabbed his pale green guitar, stepped to the mic and shouted out “All right, St. Louis, how ya doin’?” and immediately started into a hot set that melted the stage and unthawed the ears of anyone unfamiliar with his signature sound. Backed by an extremely tight bassist and a drummer with metronome like precision, Sweany burned through a few numbers from early in his catalogue before unleashing live versions of tracks from his recently released 5th album That Old Southern Drag. Showcasing his commanding guitar work and his beautifully raspy, soul-filled voice, Patrick stomped, shredded, and howled out tune after tune for 75+ minutes, leaving the crowd wanting more. With an applause that could be heard three blocks down, Sweany played one last song before stepping off of the stage and into the masses, where he began handshaking, talking eye-to-eye with every approaching fan, and thanking the out-of-town crowd that he had just won over.

Opening the evening and warming up the stage were St. Louis-based indie folk darlings Cassie Morgan and the Lonely Pine. Morgan, whose song craft is as brilliant as anyone in the industry today, and her band mate, the endlessly talented Beth Bombara, played a delightfully beautiful set of original tunes that held the room at a captivated stand-still. With songs formed around Morgan’s eerily delicate vocals and outstanding use of space in her guitar playing, while Bombara sang in deliciously on-point harmony as she laid down layer after layer of percussive accompaniments, these two multi-instrumentalists were able to let their uniquely organic sound breathe a melodic breath, that was warmly welcomed by their appreciative hometown crowd.

Rounding out the evening was the ever-energetic Benjamin Riley. With a five-piece band backing him, Riley took control of the center stage and absolutely let loose. Belting out a series of upbeat songs, Benjamin let his gritty soul-soaked vocals do the rolling, while he and his band did the rocking. At one point, Riley and bassist Kit Hamon were so into the moment that they were literally stomping and playing in unison – completely awesome to see. Just as they did for the Sweany, Morgan and Bombara, the crowd showed their appreciation and respect to this up-and-coming St. Louis band.

Three bands. Lots of people. One kick-ass venue. All coming together for an excellent night of live music.

St Louis music photographers Nate Burrell and Kate McDaniel were in the front row capturing it all as it went down. See the show as they saw it – both in black & white and color. And when you are done with the visual stimulation, go get the sounds of each band at their website. You’re sure to be a fan when it’s all said and done. Rock on!

Links:
Bands
www.patricksweany.com
www.cassiemorgan.com
www.benjaminrileymusic.com

Photographers
www.flickr.com/natebnate or www.beforetheblink.com
www.flickr.com/kate_pequeno

Who Kate and Nate often shoot for:
www.kdhx.org

Venue:
www.offbroadwaystl.com

Label:
www.ninemilerecords.com

Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog: Iron and Wine with Edie Brickell

This week, Jennifer visits with a couple of old friends, watches Sam Beam rock out (and get Dylan’d for his trouble) and has some choice words for the monkeys at the circus.


Occasionally my adventures in modern music appreciation feel a bit like being at a big party with a lot of pleasant strangers, where I’m half wandering between intriguing conversations and half hiding behind a potted palm with a cocktail thinking Who are these people and what is going on here? And then the crowd parts and a familiar but rarely-seen face appears, and I feel a surge of relief and affection and want to stop and chat and see what they’ve been up to all this time.

One of these moments occurred last Saturday night, when Edie Brickell & friends (including Charlie Sexton!) took the stage at Radio City Music Hall:

IMG_6787

In case you are now squinting your screen thinking Edie who?: she had a big hit with What I Am in 1988, and then in 1992 married Paul Simon (MTV nation emitted a collective WHAT? at the time) and essentially fell out of pop-cultural memory. She did not, however, stop making music, and now it looks like she’s come back with a new band The Gaddabouts . Also I am pleased to tell you that her voice is as clear and sweet and true as ever, and she sounds comfortable – settled in herself – and best of all, like she is having the most possible fun she could be having on stage. If you’d like to hear more, she’ll be on WFUV this coming Friday night, along with Iron & Wine.

IMG_6844

Iron & Wine were also next up at Radio City. If you haven’t heard of them before, they normally specialize in somewhat mellow folk. Their average tempo is somewhere between gentle swaying and spinny hippie dancing. I say “normally” because that is what they did for the first half of their set: glided pleasantly through tunes like He Lays in the Reins, from In the Reins the album they made with Calexico, and Naked as We Came from Our Endless Numbered Days.

Then the horn section and the drummer came out –

IMG_6856

– Sam Beam plugged his guitar in and SHAZZAMO! Iron & Wine became a rock band and proceeded to stomp through Lion’s Mane like roadhouse veterans and give House By the Sea some jazzy calypso swing. The songs that followed were similarly rearranged and reimagined, and I have never before been as simultaneously baffled and pleased at a show. Though I do have to say it was the kind of reinvention that rewards people who pay attention to lyrics, because there was really no other musical cues to go by to figure out which song they were playing.

While I felt the evening was a success, musically, some of my fellow audience members were less excited. Several people left and one person yelled Judas! at him (Sam Beam: “But Judas was Jesus’ favorite!”) But really the biggest irritant of the night were the people hollering out requests. Ladies. Gentlemen. You are at Radio City Music Hall. The person on the stage 1) can’t hear you and 2) isn’t a jukebox and also 3) please can we all at least pretend to be adults who know how to behave? And really, where-ever you are, unless the artist actually says, “So, what do you all want to hear today?” be quiet and let the artist work whatever magic they feel like working.

— Jennifer

Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog: The Beatles Complete on the Ukulele

The Beatles catalogue gets refreshed on… the ukulele? It’s true! And Jennifer was there to experience it.


The Beatles Complete on the Ukulele 2011, producer Roger Greenawalt’s annual weekend-long celebration of the Beatles’ entire catalog / fundraiser – this year’s recipient is Mark Zuckerberg – took place this past Saturday and Sunday at the Brooklyn Bowl.

This actually marks the second concert I have attended in a bowling alley. The first a all-star Cure cover-band (The Love Cats) at Asbury Lanes, and, well, I love all aspects of Asbury Park, Asbury Lanes included, but in terms of style, Brooklyn Bowl is a cut above. It is, in fact, possibly the fanciest bowling alley I have ever attended. Also, the food is delicious.

IMG_6183

The “Uke Mob”, performing Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?


The first two songs of the evening were performed by a “Uke Mob” made up of enthusiastic amateurs. After that, a wide variety of bands took the stage to celebrate the Beatles, and were accompanied by Greenawalt on the ukulele. The following are some of my favorite moments:

IMG_6245

The Zambonis, their mascot, and Greenawalt

I promise I am not making this up: The Zambonis are normally dedicated solely to songs celebrating hockey. I took this particular picture when their mascot, Sir Hockey Monkey, joined them on stage for a rousing rendition of Everybody’s Got Something To Hide But Me And My Monkey.

IMG_6322

The Wild ConFabulations singing When I’m 64 through a traffic cone.

In addition to inventive appropriation of non-musical objects, the Wild ConFabulations gave the proceedings some swing. And some tap; for their songs, percussion was provided by the shoes of Lorinne Lampert, the talented lady on the far right.

IMG_6383

A.L.X. of Love Crushed Velvet and Greenawalt, powering through Back in the U.S.S.R.

A.L.X. made an interesting point when introducing the song: the USSR as a concept is starting to fade from pop-cultural (if not historical) memory. The song is as catchy as ever, though. (By which I mean: the chorus is still stuck in my head.)

IMG_6418

Nat Wolff (left) and friends, making Here Comes the Sun bearable.


All I am going to say is that I once had an alarm clock that played cheesy synthed-out version of Here Comes the Sun; I still kind of want to throw something across the room when I hear it. The Wolff brothers and friends performed a far superior interpretation of the tune.

IMG_6555

Starting the Magical Mystery Tour with The Jingle Punks


Intriguing discovery: the Jingle Punks are both a band and a music licensing company! If you are a musician and want to get your work on tv or in movies, etc, you probably want to check them out.

— Jennifer