Weird pals

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Underground music weekend continues to surprise

For its third year, the annual Cropped Out festival of underground music and culture has added some star power. Well, if you consider Jandek, Neil Hamburger, Lil B, Eugene Chadbourne, Chain and the Gang, David Liebe Hart, or R. Stevie Moore to be “stars.”

And they are indeed stars to a small but fiercely dedicated group of fans of new sounds and ideas. That group includes festival founders James Ardery and Ryan Davis, musicians and concert bookers who have been friends since second grade in Louisville. The pair decided to apply their collective knowledge — earned here, on the road, and through Ardery’s time in Brooklyn — toward organizing their dream line-up.

“I can’t say how surprised I am that we got all these people on the same bill,” Ardery says.

It’s an unruly collection of noise guitarists, young punks and weird old folk, one especially unique rapper, and a popular anti-comedian. And much more.

They named their operation to represent the bands, and the fans, “to turn heads toward the talents of those often omitted, overlooked, or cropped out of ‘the big picture,’” as their manifesto states.

“The whole idea with Cropped Out isn’t simply to just weird people out. That’s definitely part of the aesthetic, and part of the fun,” Davis says.

They see it as a chance to introduce music fans to some new favorites — acts you might love, who haven’t yet had the same degree of promotion or distribution as some of your other favorites. It’s a diverse line-up, and while not all are easy to digest, there’s something for many.

Cropped Out uses Facebook, Twitter and other such sites for promotion, but also goes door-to-door, passing out flyers and explaining themselves to interested parties. They’ve sold the idea to bands and fans they’ve met in other cities while on tour, and even popped up with a table at NuLu’s Flea Off Market.

The duo hope to continue establishing Cropped Out as “a brand name that people can trust,” Davis notes, “so that when someone buys a ticket for one of our shows, he or she may not necessarily be familiar with the music, but is just as excited about rolling the dice and embracing something both fresh and foreign.”

Both agree that Merchandise, a dream-pop band from Tampa, and Guerilla Toss, a punky yet oddly funky band from Boston, are two of the bands to seek out this weekend.

When asked how they explain the focus of the festival to those otherwise unfamiliar with the acts featured, Ardery replies, “I’ve actually thought long and hard about this. I think that when people describe the festival as ‘weird,’ that’s true and accurate. But I think the festival embodies being a platform for people to hear bands they’ve never heard of before.”

Davis says, “While most festivals book bigger-name bands in hopes of catering to crowds of people with a preconceived desire to see them, we tend to book musicians whom a lot of people probably don’t know, but to whom we think more people should be exposed.”

Ardery sees people look at their fliers and turn away from “a bunch of names they don’t recognize.” He is confident, though, that word of mouth will continue to deliver more converts to their flock. “Typically, what I hear is ‘There were a lot of bands I didn’t know about … but the show was really good.’”

Cropped Out Festival
Sep. 28-30
American Turners
3125 River Road
croppedoutmusic.com
Various prices and times

Pictured: Merchandise

c. 2012 LEO Weekly

Chamber maids

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JC Denison formed what became the sprawling, 15-piece modern classical band known as Another 7 Astronauts as a way to explore composing music he enjoyed but didn’t often get to play.

As a drummer with Lucky Pineapple, Invaders, and Cheyenne Marie Mize, Denison earned a strong reputation for his percussive prowess. Now, in collaboration with another former Pineapple, trombonist Dan Moore, it’s led to a new album from A7A titled The Golden Autumn & the Afternoon.

“I usually will try to write the rhythmic idea first,” Denison says. “Getting into a lot of the modern classic stuff I’ve been into, a lot of it is very propulsive — that Phillip Glass/Steve Reich stuff is really energetic, and a lot of it’s fast. A lot of it moves. It’s minimal music, so it moves to get to a point.”

The collection is a loose concept album tied together by ideas about movement. It’s an idea that has, on a parallel track, led Denison to make his own travel plans — he will move to Chicago next month. First, though, there’s a record release show for The Golden Autumn Thursday at The Mammoth.

The album was recorded over a three-day period in December 2010 at Kevin Ratterman’s Funeral Home studio. The easiest part was keeping the musicians occupied, says Denison. “We did most of it live with everybody. There were points where we were stretched between three different floors of the Funeral Home — that was pretty amazing.

“That was why it worked. We knew we had a limited amount of time to get a lot of people in a small place to record … It was a challenge, (and) it was fun. We got a keg of beer and a bunch of food, just so nobody had the urge to leave before we got it down,” he laughs. “I think that worked out well. We had a great time. It was one of the more memorable weekends of my life, for sure.”

Photo by Michael C. Powell

c. 2012 LEO Weekly

album review: Interstates

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Interstates
3=4
(SELF-RELEASED)

Dig, if you will, a picture. Because not only is that all an all-instrumental band can provide, but that’s precisely the intent of such soundscape specialists like Interstates. 3=4 is a conceptual work, it seems: the first three pieces are set in autumn; four and five in winter; spring lasts from six through eight; and, finally, we spend the last seven minutes in summertime (always feels longer, though, doesn’t it?). Bandleader/drummer/railroad conductor Alex O’Nan (ex-Of Asaph, The Shining Path) knows his percussive sounds well, as anyone with such a percussive day job should, and the guitars/bass/drums band is augmented here with delicate keyboards, twinkling bells and helpful horns. As these bands go, Interstates has evolved into a welcome successor to The Photographic’s cinematic, climactic shoes, and 3=4 is one to seek out.

c. 2012 LEO Weekly

Edward Sharpe and the 10 Amgios

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It was hard to miss “Home” a couple of years ago, as the hit single from Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros’ first album, Up From Below, penetrated pop and public radio airwaves as well as TV commercials and soundtracks. The Up With People-meets-Manson Family vibe of the sprawling band has charmed many, though some critics have doubted the sincerity of their sunny perspective.

A collective that probably could only have begun in Los Angeles, the band was formed by Alex Ebert, who had previously sought dance-rock stardom with Ima Robot. After beating his youthful demons, Ebert met Jade Castrinos, whose powerful vocals propelled “Home.” They brought together another dozen or so rotating collaborators, and a musical family was born.

One of those SoCal collaborators was Nora Kirkpatrick, an actress who met the pair at Burning Man. A co-star of ABC Family’s “Greek” and the web series “Dorm Life,” Kirkpatrick joined the band on accordion, though she lacked experience on the instrument at the time. She now also adds keyboards, harmonica, tambourine and backing vocals, and has begun writing scores and songs for films as a third job.

LEO spoke with her recently, as she pulled her bicycle over to the side of the road, to discuss the band’s mellower second album, Here, its more upbeat follow-up, and the lasting virtues of the comedy film “Three Amigos!”

LEO: Between your acting work and the people you’ve mentioned in previous interviews, you seem to love comedy and improv.

Nora Kirkpatrick: Yeah, that’s been all my training. I try to get back to that whenever I can ... “Dorm Life” was a bit of that, though “Greek” was all scripted.

LEO: Does that training help when you’re in a band with a dozen people?

NK: Yeah, it does. I think there’s a lot of real-world applications in acting training. It can come in really handy to communicate with different people, even though you’re not acting in real life.

LEO: I read that “Three Amigos!” was a big influence on you and your comedy.

NK: Oh, yeah! Totally! I think that Dorothy Gish monologue that Martin Short gives was probably the first thing I ever memorized. I told my parents I needed to show them something, and I sat them down and performed the monologue. That’s when I told them I was interested in theater.

LEO: So that’s when you came out to them as an actor?

NK: (laughs) Yeah, exactly … I was 7, I think.

LEO: You joined the band after you met Alex and Jade, because you’d just graduated from UCLA and were figuring out what to do next, right?

NK: Yeah, that’s basically right. That was about five years ago, and we’ve been touring and recording ever since.

LEO: The new album is mellower, more serious than the first.

NK: Yeah, we recorded 40 songs and ended up splitting them up over two albums. They seem more mellow, but they’re not the only kinds of songs we recorded. We have an album coming out in early 2013 that’s a bit more rambunctious.

LEO: How’s the live show?

NK: Amazing. Exciting. Because we have so many people on stage, there’s a great light show happening, the new songs are great — we’re playing songs from all three albums, so you’ll hear songs you’ve never heard before.

Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Wednesday, Sept. 26
Iroquois Amphitheater
1080 Amphitheater Road
iroquoisamphitheater.com
$30; 8 p.m.

Photo by Laure Vincent Bouleau

c. 2012 LEO Weekly

Catherine Irwin’s time comes

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Catherine Irwin is nothing if not patient. Her songs are leisurely and deliberate, seductive in their Southern Gothic charms for those who let them take over. They parallel her solo career itself. Her new solo album, Little Heater, is her second, following 2002’s Cut Yourself a Switch.

Best known for co-leading the influential country/folk band Freakwater since the late 1980s — a band that has released only one album in the 21st century so far — Irwin has shown she can write faster when required. Neko Case’s singing partner, Kelly Hogan, commissioned a song for her recent solo album, which Irwin quickly crafted. (Case, Jolie Holland and Califone have also sung her songs.)

“I guess I’m just real slow,” Irwin laughs. “I don’t have any good reason … I don’t think it’s any better, necessarily, because I took 10 years to make it.”

Irwin had written a couple albums of material during that time but didn’t consider it up to her standards. “But I don’t think that’s the best way to proceed … If someone else was in charge, rather than me, I might’ve made several records.

“I need structure — I went to the Brown School! I was trained to need structure by an institution lacking in structure.”

She did not thrive at that school, getting thrown out for “chronic truancy.” Ironically, another Brown School student (a graduate) was Will Oldham, who has been releasing approximately one album per year for the past 20 years. Oldham sings on two songs on Little Heater, “Mockingbird” and “To Break Your Heart.”

Irwin’s songs are beautiful but dark, tinged with a pinch of humor and a pound of lonesome, full of what her bio brags as “loss, despair, self-destruction and delusion,” and her country has more in common with Hank Sr. or Hazel Dickens than modern pop stars like Blake Shelton. Irwin attributes that to her roots.

“My father was from Northern Ireland. That explains a lot, I think, about what’s wrong with me,” she says, breaking into another laugh.

“Basically — the gloom. I’m not sure, really, what that explains, but there was a lot of Clancy Brothers going on in the house, a lot of bagpipe music.”

Her musical education was also formed at the “hippie schools” she attended (“when I did go to school”), where folk musicians like Pete Seeger and John Jacob Niles were taught to unassuming school kids.

Another Irish-American Louisville native, Tara Jane O’Neil, produced and performs on Irwin’s latest album; steel guitarist Marc Orleans and members of Ida add parts; and Irwin recorded songs by both of this week’s concert’s opening acts, fellow Kentuckians Wooden Wand and Brett Ralph.

Enlisting O’Neil as a producer worked well for Irwin. “She records herself and makes these beautiful-sounding records in her house, and I’d been trying to do recording on the computer. It turns out I’m not very well-suited for that.”

O’Neil “… has many skills, and some of them are quite practical. Little things like getting everybody in the room at the same time … It was pretty great. I don’t think I’d ever had a pleasant experience recording anything before. I was listening back to this record the other day and I thought, ‘Oh! That’s nice! I remember that and Tara hopping around in a kimono, there was a little dog there ...’

“I’ve never listened back to a record before and felt anything but some sense of dread. Like, ‘Oh, that was where somebody lost their mind and had to be taken out of the room,” she laughs. “’That’s where somebody had a tantrum. I remember that part now.’”

They recorded the album in a studio in Woodstock, N.Y., one year ago. Irwin felt at home in the musically active hippie town. “There are some people who look a lot like the people here. Like the kind of Civil War re-enactor people you see walking around here … It’s like that, but with tie-dye. Really nice people were bringing us kelp sandwiches.”

Catherine Irwin with Wooden Wand and Brett Ralph’s Kentucky Chrome Review
Saturday, Sept. 22
The Rudyard Kipling
422 W. Oak St.
therudyardkipling.com
$10; 8 p.m.

Photo by Sarah Lyon c. 2012 LEO Weekly

Blues clues

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The Bad Reeds launch their second full-length album on Friday at Headliners, and they’re bringing some friends. Hunter Embry caught us up.

LEO: Solid rock is having another moment now, and your new album sounds very in synch with the new ZZ Top, who are perpetually hip. How do you feel about blues-inspired rock’s place in the commercial world?

Hunter Embry: Blues is the roots, everything else is the fruits. It’s a warm, comfy feeling for us. We started what would eventually be The Bad Reeds in high school (seven or eight years go), and the style of music was in response to everything else that was around at the time. What we were doing wasn’t hip and was better suited for our parents and their friends. It’s nice to hear music of a similar style on the radio now.

LEO: You had some local rock stars help produce this. How did that happen?

HE: Scott Carney and Peter Searcy are two of my good friends. I have the utmost respect for what they’ve done throughout their musical careers, thus far, and feel that they have a completely different “ear” than I do (different from each other, as well). I reached out to Peter because I felt he was very good at taking any style of music and making it pop. On the other hand, I wanted Scott to help broaden the sonic landscape of our songs, space it up a bit, as he does so very well.

LEO: How long has this line-up been together? Since the 1970s?

HE: Three of us — Dane, Brantley and I — got together when we were teenagers. John Clay Burchett is beating the skins for us now (Friday’s release will be his second show). Steve Sturgill will also be joining us on keys, and Rachel Hagan on backup vocals. And we may have some friends join us as well (hint, hint).

John McCutcheon’s everyday people

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Storytelling folkie sings for a good cause

One of the last great classic folk singers, John McCutcheon has carved out a life as a singer of songs, a storyteller and, often, a comedian. He’s also noteworthy as a hammer dulcimer player. As a singer, he’s in the folk tradition of Woody Guthrie, singing both to adults about injustice and to children about critters.

After spending time in the early 1970s developing his skills in Eastern Kentucky, McCutcheon’s first album was the third release by Whitesburg’s June Appal Recordings. His fifth album, 1983’s Howjadoo, was his first for a children’s audience, sending him on an unexpected path that helped give his career extra diversity, enabling him to play shows for very different audiences.

McCutcheon comes to Louisville for a benefit for Choices Inc., which offers transitional housing for homeless women and children.

LEO: How did you get involved with this benefit?

John McCutcheon: I do a lot of events around the country — around the world, in fact — that tie to ongoing things in communities. So it’s not simply a guy coming in and just doing a gig. A lot of the things I write about, a lot of the things I’ve always been interested in, have been things that go on every day. I guess it’s my little way of lending a hand to a lot of people who don’t get standing ovations (laughs).

LEO: You’re part of a long tradition of folk singers and activists trying to make a difference. It seems like that tradition’s getting lost in popular culture.

JM: Yeah. The conversation has turned so much into ideology that it’s really toxic. Given the opportunity to really solve difficult, complicated stuff or just blindly adhering to the ideology — it seems like the discussion, at least on the front pages, are all about people who want to appeal to their base. A friend of mine recently described a great analogy: It’s like two buses that meet on a one-lane bridge. And the drivers of the buses are only talking to people on their bus. But neither can get across the bridge unless the (people on the) buses talk to one another.

One of the great things I’ve always loved about music is that it can — if it’s done wisely and well — create a ground in which people can meet and view some of the same questions from their respective ... umm, perspectives. “Respective perspectives,” there’s a tongue twister. And maybe come out the other side feeling like they’ve experienced something different from what they know ... and hopefully you’re not quite the same person at the other end of the experience.

LEO: Many folk singers you came up with got discouraged along the way, got tired of the struggle.

JM: The empirical evidence will always be on the side of the pessimist. But that’s a hell of a way to live your life. I’ve always been buoyed by the people who seem to bear an amazing optimism and keep going up against things that are so much bigger than they are. It’s the stuff that our traditional lore is made of, whether it be Casey Jones or John Henry. These are the people memorialized in songs, and we keep singing them; our parents sang them to us, and hopefully we pass those stories on.

LEO: It’s interesting that you’re someone who talks about optimism yet works in the music business.

JM: (laughs) Yeah, talk about rage against the machine! Well, you know ... I’ve operated in what is essentially a sub-industrial part of the music world. Back in the 1960s, folk music was discovered by the machine, and they discovered they could make a bunch of money doing it. So they chewed it up and spit it out, and went on to the next thing ... I feel really lucky that I never had a record company that was wanting me to make a hit. I’ve had some pretty good-selling records, but the record company never said, “Give us five more like the last one.” They’ve said, “We trust you.” Almost every artist I know who’s really an artist would trade that kind of artistic freedom for a million-dollar advance … My audience isn’t in the thousands, it’s in the hundreds. But I can be real with my audience, and talk with them afterwards.

‘Choices Inc. Benefit’ with John McCutcheon
Sunday, Sept. 16
Crescent Hill Baptist Church
2800 Frankfort Ave.
chbcky.org
$18 adv., $20 DOS (includes pre-show picnic); 7 p.m.

c. 2012 LEO Weekly

David Wax Museum’s nose-to-tail music

Here

“When you’re an artist, you always feel like your current work is the best,” says Suz Slezak, “because you’re the oldest and most mature that you’ve ever been — hopefully, most mature,” she laughs. “So I think there is a sense that we’ve really gotten our stride now.”

Slezak is the fiddle player, a vocalist, and she also plays a quijada (donkey jawbone) in the David Wax Museum. The band — also including Wax, who sings and plays a Mexican guitar called a jarana, and multi-instrumentalist Greg Glassman — has been earning attention for their mixture of indie rock, Americana and traditional Mexican influences since their third album was released last year.

“Everything Is Saved was our first record to get attention nationally, even though we made two before it, so it kind of feels like our first ... it was the first time we were really experimenting with these Mexican sounds. We’re all Americans, we grew up listening to country and bluegrass and folk music … we’ve been trying to blend, getting these sounds together in a way that’s unique and new and fresh.”

Their fourth, Knock Knock Get Up, was released last week and adds African and Caribbean influences to their blend. LEO spoke with Slezak that day as the band traveled to the first show of their tour.

LEO: How’s the tour going so far?

Suz Slezak: We’re en route from Massachusetts to Denver, and stopping because our tires are bald. So we’re getting new tires and dealing with the logistics of touring.

LEO: Congratulations, otherwise, on a big day.

SS: Thank you, it is! It’s funny, we’ve been waiting for this day, and ... here it is (laughs).

LEO: I was going to ask how you were celebrating, but obviously your working life is getting in the way of your partying.

SS: (laughs) Yeah, it’s true. I think Thursday (in Denver) will feel exciting, ’cause it’s the first show ... We’ve got a new percussionist with us who’s absolutely phenomenal.

LEO: I imagine the new percussionist is bringing some offbeat instruments in. What’s being added?

SS: He’s done a blend, as you might imagine — that’s what we do. He is bringing a small drum kit, a traditional kit, and then he’s also bringing a cajón, which is the box that’s used throughout Latin America. It’s a percussive wooden box, and he has all these other bells and whistles, including goat hooves! Have you ever heard those played? It’s a really awesome, hollow, clackity-thumping sound. I love that we have a drummer/farm animal part of our band (laughs).

LEO: But that’s not even your only animal.

SS: Yeah, that brings it up to two, after the donkey jawbone!

LEO: When you’re driving on the road, do you ever see animals and think, “I wonder what we could use out of that”?

SS: I don’t want to admit that, but ... yes! (laughs) Actually, my little brother’s a farmer, and he tells this story: He killed a pig and buried its carcass. The next day, the carcass was dug up by some animal at night. So he re-buried it. The next day, it was dug up again — this time, not all of it, just the jawbone of the pig. And so he thought, “Man, I think this is a sign, I have to give this to Suz.” So he presented me with this pig jawbone that doesn’t actually rattle like the donkey jawbone, but we have it as a mascot in front of our van. Vegans beware! (laughs)

David Wax Museum
Friday, Sept. 14
Uncle Slayton’s
1017 E. Broadway
uncleslaytons.com
$10; 9 p.m.

c. 2012 LEO Weekly

Guitar Trio, Louisville

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For two decades, the California Guitar Trio has traveled around the world, dazzling audiences with their intricate instrumental music. Their path shifted 12 years ago, almost to this day (Sept. 17), when Louisvillian Tyler Trotter booked them to play at the Rudyard Kipling. The successful show led to a successful relationship with Trotter, who soon became their live soundman.

CGT member Paul Richards tells LEO how Trotter built their bridge to Louisville. “We invited Tyler to come on the road with us, which he did for about six years,” Richards says. “During that time, he did a lot of his investigating for his (Louisville) Beer Store and Holy Grale. He was going to all these different breweries all over the U.S. and Belgium, taking notes and learning about what he’s doing now.”

Trotter left the band to open the Beer Store, and then Holy Grale, with partner Lori Rae Beck. The duo brings the Trio back for a special performance at Holy Grale on Friday evening.

Paul Richards: Tyler introduced us to Kevin Ratterman. We recorded two of our albums there at his place. I understand he’s got a new studio in town, we’ll have to check that out while we’re there. We had Will Oldham come and sing on a couple tracks on one of our albums, at Kevin’s place. Those guys also introduced us to Mat (Herron) and Joe (Seidt) from Karate Body, and we released our Andromeda album on vinyl through them.

So, yeah, we’ve had a great history with folks there in Louisville and continue to have really good shows. We’ve played quite a few different venues there: We played at the Clifton Center, we did the rooftop concert at Glassworks, and this will be our first time playing at Holy Grale.

LEO: I imagine you were sad to lose him.

PR: Yeah, the years he was with us, he had a very good, positive influence on what we were doing at that time. It was a struggle to do without him … A lot of the techniques he used, we incorporated into our sound — analog delays, filtering. He had lots of good suggestions, musically.

For ticket information, go to holygralelouisville.com/events. Photo by Paolo Aizza c. 2012 LEO Weekly