The classics, Dammit

Here

The Dammit — that’s two Ms, no N — are a “swamp boogie” band who remember that music should be fun first. The veterans of several bands over the past 15 years are now celebrating the release of their first full-length album, playing Cahoots Saturday night with a promise of “free beer (while supplies last) when The Dammit starts their set!!” The evening begins at 9 p.m. Singer/guitarist Brian Leonard discusses their “ass-kickin’, boot-stompin’ good time” music with LEO.

LEO: The band calls its sound “swamp boogie.” What does that mean to you?
Brian Leonard: It’s like regular boogie but dirtier. You know what a Speckled Alabamian Sissy snake looks like? That’s what we sound like.

LEO: What have you all learned from past bands?
BL: Keep it simple. Over-thinking ruins everything. It twists things around, makes you worry, and makes everything seem a lot worse than it really is. Age and bourbon has helped us a great deal with that.

LEO: How does The Dammit fit into the modern music world?
BL: We have a tremendous amount of respect for modern bands and how hard they work for their success, but no one is really doing what we’re doing. We don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing; it’s just what we do. We were raised on the classics — artists like Waylon Jennings, R.L. Burnside, ZZ Top, Prince, and Hank Jr., to name just a few. I think the best way for us to contribute is to remind the modern music world how great the classic sounds make you feel.

LEO: What can Louisville expect from your live show?
BL: Our shows are typically a haze by the next day. We remember people dancing and screaming, but everything else gets lost in the fog. We just do what we love, and people tend to join in. We’re a four-person party with an open invitation.

Read your invitation at reverbnation.com/thedammit.

c. 2012 LEO Weekly

JC Brooks brings the sound

Here

JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound are rising stars of the soul-rock revival movement that has also seen Alabama Shakes, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, and Fitz and the Tantrums find a home on NPR stations across the nation. So it’s fitting they return to Louisville, only four months since appearing as openers at Headliners, to headline this year’s inaugural “Waterfront Wednesday,” public radio station WFPK’s summer concert series.

“I’m really looking forward to ‘Waterfront Wednesday,’” Brooks told LEO last month. “I’m gonna cross my fingers, ‘Please don’t rain …’”

The band visited here in January for what Brooks called “a really great show” opening for JJ Grey & Mofro, and the frontman received an unexpected surprise. “I ran into an old friend from college that I didn’t even know was living down there. We had soundchecked and went to this little bar/restaurant near the venue, and she was actually eating there. She said, ‘Holy shit! I’m coming to see your show,’” mimicked Brooks, a theater-trained actor, in a high-pitched voice. “‘You cut your hair!’ You know, I guess you gotta expect people to change a little bit in 10 years.”

The Uptown Sound first became known not only for their dynamic ’60’s-style live show, but also for highlighting previously undetected flavor in Wilco’s “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart,” a cover which earned them a friendly relationship with that other Chicago-based band.

Though Brooks’ spirited vocals and the band’s sharp suits quickly define them as heirs to the Chicago soul throne, Brooks is quick to defer such labels. When asked if they feel more compatible with soul, garage rock or other mid-’60’s sounds, Brooks replied, “Because of the way we’re written up, I think that we’re all forced to identify with the soul scene; the word ‘soul’ dominates a lot of the conversations that we have about the band. But we all identify with a lot of different things — our influences are so varied.

“I don’t want to say that we don’t identify with the Chicago soul scene, but I also think that we’re a lot more than that. We’re trying to push the boundaries of what we do, just so as to not get mired in one genre.”

Brooks continued, “It’s not like we’re trying to write soul music. It’s just that that’s where we started, and we tend to slide into that groove, that pocket, but there’s also a lot of new stuff we’re doing that’s different. Hopefully, people will be pleasantly surprised,” he laughed, “as opposed to appalled when they hear it.”

So, how’s the live show?

“Umm … I don’t know … it’s a sweaty black dude that screams at you for an hour or so,” he laughed, clearly joking. “It’s kind of like watching ‘A Time to Kill: The Musical.’ Write it up like that! ‘A Time to Kill: The Musical,’ starring JC Brooks as Sam Jackson.

“No, no, no, it’s a lot of fun. All we wanna do is make people dance and then have a good time. I like connecting with crowds. I have a lot of fun doing my thing, and part of the fun is — don’t get me wrong, I love when the crowd is into it and comes out ready to dance and party and play — but part of the fun is actually trying to get a crowd that might be a little more reserved engaged. That’s the challenge … that’s where I actually have to work. The rest of it is just fun. I’m living the dream, dude.”

WFPK’s “Waterfront Wednesday” with JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound, Sugar & the Hi-Lows, The Tunesmiths
Waterfront Park
wfpk.org
Free; 6 p.m.
c. 2012 LEO Weekly

‘Real Housewife’ gambles for a good cause

Here

The Kentucky Derby has always attracted celebrities, though not some of the culture-defining figures one might expect. While fans of New York’s sports teams can depend on seeing Adam Sandler or Lady Gaga on an average day, and the Coachella music festival attracts hip movie stars, Derby has, historically, been most attractive to reality TV personalities, lesser-known rappers, fratboy chef Guy Fieri, and the like.

Vicki Gunvalson is a reality star visiting, and though she hasn’t had a career to rival Gaga’s, she has thrived over seven seasons with Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Orange County,” the only original “cast member” left. Gunvalson has also distinguished herself as an insurance company owner, successful and self-sufficient regardless of the men in her life. She’s probably also the only “Housewife” open to speaking with a snarky alt-weekly in service of promoting her charitable work.

Vicki Gunvalson: You’re stationed in Louisville?
LEO: Yes.
VG: Wonderful. I love that city. It was the first time I had been there, last year, so I’m really excited to be coming back.

LEO: This poker tournament is a fundraiser for Blessings in a Backpack. How did you get involved with them?
VG: It’s a great charity, to be able to give these children an opportunity — so many children in the United States are missing out on so many things, and we’re always worried about other countries instead of taking care of our kids right here. I was part of this charity last year, and it just really struck a chord with me; I want to be part of it every year from now on. It’s a great way to see how it’s affecting people in real life, not just giving to a charity where you don’t know where it’s going. It’s helping these kids who are very vulnerable to their environment, and they can’t change it.

LEO: How good of a poker player are you?
VG: I am not good at all! I lasted two rounds of celebrity poker last year, and Nate from Boyz II Men was trying to help me (laughs), and it didn’t go too good. He had a real serious face on, and I said, “I don’t know, I’ll hit!” He said, “This isn’t blackjack.” At the end of the day, it’s about having fun …

That’s my take, especially after exposing my life on a reality TV show … you can’t take life too serious anymore, when the editing comes back and they do things that you never thought they would do … I just focus on giving back to others, and blessing others along the way in life is what we all should be doing. That’s my goal. And do a little “woo-hoo” along the way, right?

LEO: Did you interact with any other celebrities at Derby last year?
VG: You know what, it was actually quite funny — Prince Albert (of Monaco) had come up to me, in the midst of me just talking to other people, and he said to me, “I just really admire you and I love your show.” So I said, “Oh, thank you! Do you want a picture?” I didn’t know who he was (laughs). He says, “I’d love a picture.” … Anybody could come up to me, other than the country music artists, and I wouldn’t know ’em.

LEO: Do you follow the horses?
VG: No (laughs), are you kidding me? I just follow the outfits! It’s all about the outfits and who’s wearing what. That’s what I’m about.

The Derby Poker Championship takes place Thursday, May 3, at the Seelbach Hilton. For more info, go to derbypokerchampionship.com.

Photo by Michael Rosenthal

c. 2012 LEO Weekly

D-Trix — From dance to domination

Now entering its seventh season, MTV’s street-dance competition, “America’s Best Dance Crew,” has kept a mostly stable cast, with host Mario Lopez and regular judges J.C. Chasez, the former ’N Sync singer, and Lil Mama, the young rapper, in place from the beginning. Now in his second season on the judging panel, dancer Dominic “D-Trix” Sandoval has an especially unique perspective on what it takes to win, having earned the title three years ago with his group, Quest Crew.

“It’s something I take very seriously, because I come from that same world,” he tells LEO. “I care a lot about all the dancers; seeing them onstage reminds me of when I used to be on there, and how much it meant to me to win the show ... At the same time, I have a lot of fun with it.”

D-Trix, whose outgoing, goofy personality works well for television, has also competed on Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance,” standing out for his flirtatious banter with host Cat Deely. It was only after he began entering TV competitions that D-Trix, self-taught as a hip-hop-inspired b-boy dancer, realized his ambitions went beyond being merely the coolest guy in the streets.

“I took b-boying seriously until ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ — that’s what changed my mind. I wanted to be an overall dancer. With that, I trained a lot, both as an individual and with a crew, and I just fell in love with dance in general. I think that’s really helped me get to where I’m at today, being able to judge dancers, ’cause I’ve studied. By being a street dancer, I can vouch for people on the show, and it’s all gone hand-in-hand. I never thought I’d be at this point.”

He continues to take classes in various forms of dance, going back to explore the roots of each style, while also expanding his performing skills on the YouTube channel YTF. The YTF group, a collective of comedians, singers and dancers who met after becoming YouTube mini-stars, is what D-Trix today calls his main job.

“We’re a bunch of friends, just hanging out, making dumb videos, and we’ve created a fan base online. With that, we want to spread the message of what YTF means to us, by touring and continuing to put out content. YTF is a group of friends who love being nerds online,” he laughs. “I think over the last year and a half, I haven’t really danced at all. I’ve been mostly just creating for YouTube, and, for me, my future is online.”

D-Trix acknowledges that a show like “Dance Crew,” which predominantly features young African-American and Asian-American street dancers, is a harder sell to mainstream America than a more traditional, faux-celebrity-driven dance program on a bigger network.

“It’s a sad thing. It’s probably because of the network, and who they cast on the show. It’s mostly an urban audience, and kids and teenagers, and it’s a very positive thing. It’s good for crews all over the world, and we stay off of the streets because we have crews and we dance. If people can understand that, they can appreciate it a little bit more.”

Dance crew Fanny Pak, a favorite from last year, is returning this season, the first defeated crew allowed to try again. “It’s amazing!” says D-Trix. “They want it really bad, and that’s the main reason why they did come back, they felt — and a lot of people felt — that they went home too early, and they’re back for redemption.”

So who will win?

“That’s a tough one. I don’t really have that answer yet ... It seems like a choreography team will win this. It might not be a crew that has crazy stunts, because, the first night, choreography alone was the most memorable. I think that’s a good thing — I think America needs to know that dancing isn’t always a double back-flip off the stage. And I’m a tricker, so for me to say that — I believe in crazy, dope stunts and crazy moments, but if you can blow people away with your choreography, that’s saying something else.

“But, that could change next week. You never know. That’s what’s amazing about this season is, you don’t know.”

‘America’s Best Dance Crew’
MTV. Wednesdays, 10 p.m.

c. 2012 LEO Weekly

Homemade by Woods

“I haven’t been to Louisville in years,” says Jarvis Taveniere, multi-instrumentalist for Woods. “I don’t think Woods has ever played there, actually. Me and Jeremy had an old band that played in a house ... I remember a café with a cow in front or something.”

Vocalist/guitarist Jeremy Earl founded Woods in 2005 and has evolved the band from a lo-fi project to a full-fledged folk-ish band, quickly picking up plenty of critical praise, including numerous comparisons to the Grateful Dead reborn as an indie rock band. A new split EP with Amps For Christ was released on April 17.

The Shrimper label, known for their collaborative pairings, released some of Woods’ early recordings and is also releasing the new split, though Earl also runs his own established label, Woodsist.

“We recorded a bunch of stuff last year for our last record that just didn’t really fit,” explains Taveniere. “We were looking for a home for it ... so we thought we could do something with this batch of songs.”

The split features some of Woods’ more abstract, collage-style sounds, “more acoustic, meditative,” says Taveniere, more appropriate when paired with Amps’ Henry Barnes. “I think Jeremy really relates to him … not touring, not playing a lot of shows, just making these cool records. That homemade quality; he does his own artwork ...

“That’s why it was so freeing to start Woods — just do everything ourselves, make the records we wanted to listen to. They tend to be the ones that cover a little bit more ground. We didn’t really work toward it, it was just something we knew we wanted.”

LEO: It seems that you’re in a very secure place now, especially putting out your own records —
JT: Yeah, we do what we want (laughs). I mean, I partially assume that that’s what everyone does. Maybe that’s naive of me, but I couldn’t imagine doing things I didn’t want to do. Outside of just compromising with my friends and bandmates for the greater good.

LEO: Some bands do ...
JT: Maybe if there was more money at stake, or I was a younger man, I could get in a situation like that ...
I try to treat every project with that innocence, like it’s the first time. The fact that Jeremy and me are still friends and really enjoy getting together and playing music, after this long, I think says something. Might not work for everybody, but it’s how we’re doing it.

LEO: How do you keep that as you get older?
JT: You find little glimpses of it. Definitely, making records in a home environment, I still feel that same ... I don’t know, it just feels right ... You’re listening back to something on a 4-track, and you’re like, “Let’s start working on some cover art!” I’d love to retain that innocence and excitement.

LEO: Hand-stuffing the records?
JT: Ugh, yeah, no more of that. But everything else.

WOODS WITH MMOSS AND GANGLY YOUTH
Sunday, April 22
Zanzabar
2100 S. Preston St. • 635-9227
zanzabarlouisville.com • $10; 9 p.m.

c. 2012 LEO Weekly

Bear In Heaven’s dizzy dance days

Bear In Heaven’s members live in New York now, but all grew up in the South. Drummer Joe Stickney grew up in Alabama — he’s so Southern, his mom was in a book club with Jimmy Buffett’s mom. LEO spoke with him from the band’s rehearsal space in New York on the eve of their current tour.

Bear In Heaven’s third album, I Love You, It’s Cool, was released two weeks ago to positive reviews, part of an organic evolution the band has gone through from an arty rock group to a more overtly dance-based electro-pop group. The band also gained attention for how they previewed the album online, slowing it down 400,000 percent for streaming — the intended pop heard as 2,700 nonstop hours of drone — that played out between December and early April, as a “comment on the current state of album promotion, hype cycles, countdowns and all the marketing ploys that we accept as a reality of existing within an Internet age.”

LEO: The new album has a very 1980s European feel, and you told someone that you weren’t “feeling as testosterone-y” this time out.
Joe Stickney: Yeah, yeah! I think we all would agree with that. We’re not, like, a bunch of super testosterone-y dudes; I mean, we like college football, but we’re not aggro people. I think the last record definitely had a lot of heavier, cathartic … this one is coming from a more low-key place.

LEO: In terms of subject matter, or musically? Musically, it’s pretty upbeat.
JS: I just mean, like, low-key emotionally. It’s not coming out of a tempest of crazy emotions. I feel like it’s pretty calm. It’s upbeat, for sure, but I think it’s calm in the overall emotional content.

LEO: More calm because you’re more successful now, as a band?
JS: Well, that has yet to become easy (laughs). I think it definitely comes from where we’re at, at this point. We all came to better terms with everybody’s roles in the band, how we can make things work more smoothly. We’re all working together as a good team at this point, and it’s pretty smooth — you hit snags, but it’s pretty smooth sailing so far. I think that definitely is going to influence the kind of stuff you’re doing.

LEO: How’s the live show going to look this time out?
JS: We’re trying to amp up the whole synesthetic experience, have the lights and the music play off the way — where they create a greater whole than the sum of their parts. You know the end of (the movie) “2001: A Space Odyssey”? If you just listen to the music, it’s great; if you just look at the visuals, it’s great. The combination of that is, “Holy shit!” Your mind’s blowing. We’re hopefully going to be able to achieve something like that … Hopefully everything works together to make an experience that you can’t get just from the record. That’s the idea — the live show should be something different, but equally stimulating to the record. If you just get up there and play the songs exactly like the record, it’s like, “OK, well, that was louder than my stereo can play … and I got to watch the people doin’ it. Other than that, it’s not very interesting.” We want to try and bring a little bit more.

LEO: Speaking of visuals, the video you guys did for the new song “The Reflection of You” made me dizzy.
JS: A lot of people have that reaction! Personally, it doesn’t really affect me in that way, but I’ve got pretty solid equilibrium, I think (laughs) … I think it’s great. I love hearing people’s reactions to it, too, because the reactions are definitely extreme, in both directions. There’s not a lot of people who feel lukewarm about it. I’ll take that.

BEAR IN HEAVEN
WITH DOLDRUMS AND BLOUSE
Friday, April 20
Zanzabar
2100 S. Preston St. • 635-9227
zanzabarlouisville.com
$10; 9 p.m.

Photo by Shawn Brackbill

c. 2012 LEO Weekly

album review: Seluah

A Spiderland for a new generation, Seluah’s long-gestating first full-length album is nothing short of a masterpiece. A hypothetical soundtrack for a chilling, sexed-up Nicholas Ray film noir filled with double-crossings, misbegotten sex and stolen money, Red Parole is a precise, sensual overload of cutting riffs, floating rhythms and haunting vocals. While the well-sequenced album progresses with a steady tone, close inspection reveals that every note has been carefully placed and executed. Some songs begin slowly, building up steam until they explode with just the right amount of ferocity; “Hell and Back,” with its galloping, rockabilly-in-the-Old-West pace, is the most obvious exception to what could be called Seluah’s formula, while some (especially closer “Elysian Fields”) will haunt you for a long, beautiful time. If you only trust LEO once this year, this is that time.

c. 2012 LEO Weekly

album review: Joel Henderson

Joel Henderson
Locked Doors & Pretty Fences
TROUBLECURE



In popular music, the awkward years come between 35 and 50 — too young to be a grizzled vet, too old to be hungry and fresh-eyed, just right to begin the Dad Rock years. Thankfully, Joel Henderson does a surprisingly lively variation on the genre, employing skilled accompanists to support his confident, engaged performance. While Henderson’s themes are universal and time-proven (relationships, growing up, etc. — y’know, Springsteen without the social justice), his blending of middle-aged folk and youthful pop-rock, a la Ron Sexsmith, often works. Heidi Gluck’s backing vocals especially help keep it interesting, and Mick Sullivan (banjo) and Bill Mallers (keyboards) outshine the rest of the band, alumns of John Prine, Buddy Miller, Over the Rhine, and The Lemonheads. This record was years in the making; it’s not quite Woodford Reserve, but this collection aged well.

c. 2012 LEO Weekly

Red Baraat’s culture club

The nine-piece Brooklyn-based “dhol ’n’ brass” band Red Baraat has turned heads in their four years together, fusing traditional sounds from India with inner-city funk rhythms, utilizing only brass and percussion instruments. Their second studio album, Shruggy Ji, will be released later this year. LEO asks dholi Sunny Jain about how they operate.

LEO: Kentucky audiences might recognize some of your formula from New Orleans jazz or marching bands, or Latin salsa dance bands; Red Baraat fuses this with some traditional Indian sounds, Bollywood riffs as well as dining favorites. How much of this fusion was calculated to bring in a larger audience, as opposed to focusing on one genre and appealing to just that audience?

Sunny Jain: Yes, you’ll definitely hear some of what you described, but the truth is, having seen brass bands in the streets of India during childhood visits, I wanted to meld those sounds with the American sounds of funk, jazz, go-go, hip-hop, rock. Red Baraat was really something that was a natural progression in my creative process. For me, music serves as a bridge for the two cultures I grew up with — the Indian culture and American culture. Growing up, I had always had difficulty balancing or intertwining these two cultures, and music has always served as my expression and attempt to deal with that.

So while I was leading a jazz quartet as a drum-set player for the past 10 years, I found myself gravitating toward the dhol drum. In the fall of 2008, I started up Red Baraat with the intention of creating a large, acoustic band that brought a powerful, primal sound. As I started thinking of instrumentation, I also knew I wanted a wide variety of musical voices, and to make up the sound of Red Baraat with no electrified instruments — just drums and horns. It’s the guys in the band that collectively make up the sound of Red Baraat.

Regardless of musical background, one will find something to connect with in our sound. It’s a real musical collection reflecting global unity, which is not only found in the make-up of the band, but also in our fans.

LEO: For those not yet familiar with words like “dhol,” can you explain it and how it helps define your sound?

SJ: The dhol is a barrel-shaped wooden shell drum with two heads: one high and one low. It slings over my shoulder and hangs about waist-high. I play the drum with two sticks. The high side is played with a very thin bamboo stick, and the low side with a thick, curved stick. The dhol is synonymous with Punjabi culture and Bhangra music. It’s a loud, festive, outdoor drum, and it dates back to the 15th century in India. The dhol drum is the signature sound of the band.

LEO: You made a very good album in a studio, then went back and put some of those same songs on a live album that does a better job of capturing the true live essence of the band. Now you’ve raised money through Kickstarter for a second studio album. Why did you decide to record again in a studio?

SJ: Recording live and in a studio are two different animals, and I think we’ll continue to do both. I enjoy recording in the studio because it allows us to experiment with a composition. It then also gives me that great opportunity to experiment with the music in post-production, which sometimes leads to new ways in approaching a song. Recording in the studio is much more of a project and process that requires more time and thought dedicated to what I want the “original” version to sound like.

A live recording is different in that we are much more focused on playing the show and, typically, we are playing songs that we have already learned, as opposed to experimenting with the arrangement, like in the studio … Now, that’s not to say that a live recording isn’t given proper attention or isn’t as important. That’s definitely not the case. It’s just that there are different focuses with either approach. Another key difference is that since improvisation is a key component to our music, we will typically stretch out our songs a bit more during a live show.

Red Baraat
Thursday, April 12
Kentucky Center for the Arts
501 W. Main St. • 584-7777
kentuckycenter.org
$22.50; 8 p.m.

Photo by Amy Touchette

c. 2012 LEO Weekly

Joan Shelley, Brides maiden

Having performed with singer-songwriters Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore, and with vocal folkies Maiden Radio, and after starting a new relationship and a new band of her own, singer-songwriter and guitarist/banjoist Joan Shelley is in a much different space now than when she released her first solo album in 2010. Shelley welcomes the release of her second album, Ginko, a more experienced and assured follow-up, with her band, the June Brides, at the Rud on Saturday.

LEO: How have you grown from the first to second albums?

Joan Shelley: When I recorded the first record, I had only recently moved back to town and was just starting to meet the people I know now. While finishing up that record, I started playing the banjo more with the girls in Maiden Radio. I then met (guitarists) Joe Manning and Nathan Salsburg, and shared the stage a few times with Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore. After two years, I’d gotten to marinate in some of the rich musical talent of this city, watching and listening to my friends and their music — original music and record collections.

When we recorded the second album, a lot of those friends came in to work on these songs with me. Their influence has been a crucial change in the sound of the albums. Then, my songwriting style is always changing alongside that.

LEO: This album was recorded more than a year ago. What took so long?

JS: The recording was completed over the course of two months. Once we finished it, there was the question of how to find enough support to release the record in a way we thought it deserved. The record labels I knew before were not biting. And it was jarring to leave the recording world, where we worked hard to make something graceful and beautiful, and then try to be the salesman for it. Some people are really good at that. I hope to improve. The happy ending to our story is that the record found a nice place on Daniel Martin Moore’s new label, Ol Kentuck. It’s small and new, but he’s sharp, and I trust him and like to work with him. I consider those the most crucial points in any arrangement like this, especially when the focus is creativity in music or any art form.

LEO: Do you still feel as connected to these songs?

JS: I am, very much so. Playing them with the June Brides has made these songs new creatures. Now we get to focus on the arrangements and instrumentation. Then I’ll stumble back upon the lyrics and their meanings. It’s interesting.

LEO: Your boyfriend (Joe Manning, a LEO columnist) is also a songwriter, singer and guitarist. How competitive, or cooperative, is that for you both?

JS: I can be competitive, but not so much with him. We don’t approach creative tasks the same way; his style is much different — his approach to songwriting, his guitar playing. We’re bound to have strong opinions about the same things. But, thankfully, we’re pretty adaptable and complementary to each other. He’s my No. 1 when I need a second opinion. Now he’s joined the June Brides once again, and it’s really filled out the band in just the perfect way — we’re all so glad to have him. We do group high-fives all the time. Or, at least, the sentiment is there.

Joan Shelley and the June Brides with Catherine Irwin and The Hollows
Saturday, April 14
The Rudyard Kipling
422 W. Oak St. • 636-1311
therudyardkipling.com
$8; 8 p.m.

Seluah returns to the dark side

Noir-inspired, ethereal rock band Seluah broke up early in the Bush era, leaving only one popular EP behind. They reunited in 2010, and, after an almost Axl Rose-esque wait, Seluah has finally delivered their debut full-length album, Red Parole, through local label Karate Body Records. It’s about as far from Chinese Democracy as one could ask: smart, intense, moving, full of memorable riffs and grooves, and well worth the wait. They celebrate with a Friday performance at WFPK’s “Live Lunch,” at U of L’s Red Barn, and with a nighttime show at Zanzabar on Sunday. LEO caught up with guitarist Andrew Killmeier.

LEO: The EP was released in October 2002. What have the guys been doing since then?

Andrew Killmeier: We split up when I moved to Los Angeles in 2004. I was there for six years working in the film industry, not playing any music. I moved back to Louisville a year and a half ago after the economy went to hell, and we just started playing together again without even really discussing it — just picked up where we left off, so to speak.

LEO: Reviews of the first EP often cite trip-hop, shoegaze and similar aspects, but the new album has more heavy guitar riffs. How has the sound shifted, and what inspired those changes?

AK: The simplest explanation is that I used to play a lot more keyboard and sampler in the old Seluah. When we got back together, I basically told the other guys to shove the synth up their asses; I was going back to the guitar with a vengeance. I still play both guitar and keys, but the balance has certainly shifted toward the dark side of the six-string. I’m older and more ornery than I used to be.

LEO: The band is notably cinematic in sound and scope. How have movies influenced the music?

AK: We all love fine cinema — and some lousy cinema as well. We’ve always paid attention to great scores and composers of film music — in particular, Angelo Badalamenti, Bernard Hermann, Cliff Martinez and Ennio Morricone. Sometimes a narrative element is necessary in music, and Red Parole is certainly a noir album. If I had to think about it, I’d say we approach our work from an atmospheric element, as opposed to setting out to “write a song,” though we aren’t particularly deliberate in anything we do. Everything is permitted.

LEO: For several years, many considered Seluah to be Louisville’s great lost band. Were the members aware of their legacy?

AK: I’ve always thought we were a good band — an original and soulful band. But I never thought much about any legacy. The small number of people who happened to see us play back in the day and the people who bought our old EP have always been very supportive and vocal about their appreciation. Sometimes I wonder about those six lost years, what could’ve been had we stayed together, but I listen to what we’ve done on Red Parole, I hear how intense it is, and I believe all our crooked respective paths were necessary to get us to this destination. And I don’t wish to be anywhere else.

Seluah with Sea Hero
Sunday, April 15
Zanzabar
2100 S. Preston St. • 635-9227
zanzabarlouisville.com
$8; 9 p.m.

X love

Scott Shuffitt is known as a co-founder of Lebowski Fest, but he’s also a filmmaker. His documentary about the struggles faced by ear X-tacy and other record stores in the digital age, “Brick and Mortar and Love,” premieres at the Louisville Science Center on Friday, April 7, at 7 p.m.

LEO: How has ear X-tacy influenced your life?

Scott Shuffitt: The first time I went into ear X-tacy, I was totally blown away. I had never seen anything like it — there was so much cool stuff to take in. I used to consign T-shirts there in my 20s. It’s where I learned about Elvis Costello and the Budos Band, and I miss it.

LEO: How much was (owner) John Timmons willing to open up about the struggles as they were ongoing?

SS: I feel he was very open to me; even when he was getting nailed with comments on the Internet and a lot of people would have taken shelter, he still let me in. I can’t think of one time when he denied me access or didn’t answer a question during an interview.

LEO: Did employees fully know what was happening? Or did they just talk to you about their feelings about ear X-tacy and record stores in general?

SS: Just like with any business, some employees knew more than others, but most of my questions were about how they felt, and what they thought the future would look like for the store and what they were doing to work out this situation.

LEO: What do you think is the future of record stores? How will they look in 10 years?

SS: This is a question I asked a lot of folks while filming, and I don’t know if I ever got the answer I wanted. For some record stores, things aren’t going to change much. There will certainly be more really great shops that will close, but, at the same time, new shops are opening and bringing new and fresh ideas. Old or new, they have to be on their A-game if they are going to stay open.

Visit brickandmortarandlove.com for more information.

c. 2012 LEO Weekly

album review: Mark Lanegan

If tears were liquor, I’d’ve drunk myself sick, Lanegan sings in “St. Louis Elegy,” and such a worldview does a pretty good job summing up this album. For all who love Johnny Cash, Tom Waits or Nick Cave, Mark Lanegan is a name you should know by now. The great singer has made another great album, his first solo effort in eight years, and, while still soaked in the same whiskey and heroin that fed earlier work, this collection is a fine introduction to his various stages: killing floor blues, Leonard Cohen folk, dance-floor industrial textures, and his hometown grunge psychedelia. It’s no wonder that influential figures like Kurt Cobain, Josh Homme and PJ Harvey have worked to impress him. Blues Funeral is a welcome return from an artist who has, thankfully, survived 25 years of following his own pretty/ugly muse.

c. 2012 LEO Weekly