Super fuzz

Weird Girl was never a girl. The band first popped up on the online music site Bandcamp, where, as a guitars-and-drums duo, they released a series of singles and EPs last fall, available for free downloading. The band, now a trio, is finishing work on their first full-length album, Bad Friends. They sat down with LEO for their first interview.

“We liked the idea of a two-piece, it was a lot of fun,” says singer/guitarist Ryan Hater, “but adding Brady (McAfee) as a permanent member on the bass, it was for the best, definitely.”

Hater and drummer Basil Connor Martin had played in bands together, but they call Weird Girl their first serious band. They waited a few months before playing their first show, having previously booked shows and then written songs to play on a deadline. This time, they wanted to do it right.

So they learned from doing it the hard way, eh? “We learned from doing it the stupid way,” laughs Martin.

Adding McAfee has changed their direction a bit, too, from the first seven songs heard on Bandcamp.

“They’re all songs that we’re still proud of, that we really like,” says Hater, but the band is progressing.

The full-length features 10 songs. “There’s not a whole lot in town that sounds like it,” Hater says. “I’m not sure it fits into a scene,” though they do identify as “Post-Skull Alley kids.”

“My ambition for it is that it will be a bunch of songs that will make kids want to drive around town listening to it,” Hater says. “That’s what we did in high school.”

Martin cites ’70s rock and ’80s New Wave as influences, naming The Go-Gos and The Cars. “Really poppy, easily accessible. But also, we’re a rock ’n’ roll band.”

“We don’t just want to be a grunge band, or a fuzz band, or just a pop band,” Hater adds. “We want to put it all together as much as we can.”

Listen at weirdgirl.bandcamp.com.

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c. 2013 LEO Weekly

Time traveling man

My Morning Jacket leader Jim James steps out on his own

"Music has always come to me through a friend or through a film, and I just want to receive that invitation. I follow it as far as I can through the wormhole until I receive another invitation that I want to follow more.”

James Edward Olliges Jr. was born in Louisville on April 27, 1978. By the fourth grade, he had already made some of his life’s strongest friendships, including future drummers Dave Givan and Patrick Hallahan. By his teens, Olliges was playing with friends in bands, such as Month of Sundays, Two Shotguns and Hotel Roy, forgotten to all but Louisville music scene veterans and superfans.

Along the way, he took the stage name Jim James. The new handle reflected his absurdist sense of humor, as well as the fact that many people were unable to pronounce his given name. He also liked that it sounded like the name of a gunslinger.

In the late ’90s, while an art student at the University of Kentucky, he submitted a demo of songs to a handful of record labels, including a small indie in California called Darla. When Darla’s owners heard James’ demo, sent under the name My Morning Jacket, even though it was only James at that point, Darla offered a deal. The Tennessee Fire, the first full-length album by My Morning Jacket, was released in 1999.

After an even more highly acclaimed second album with Darla, At Dawn, in 2001, the band signed to a major label, the RCA-owned ATO Records. Since then, My Morning Jacket has released four more studio albums and become one of the most popular live bands in the world, appearing on “Saturday Night Live” and becoming animated in an “American Dad!” episode inspired by and starring the band.

They’ve performed in movies, been featured on magazine covers, and become such a big music festival attraction that when they play at Tennessee’s massive Bonnaroo Festival, it’s expected that they will play at last three hours, Springsteen-style; anything less would disappoint.

My Morning Jacket closed out 2012 in the style they wrap up every year these days: three nights in New York, followed by a New Year’s Eve concert in Boston. On Jan. 2, they played a Hurricane Sandy benefit in Asbury Park, N.J. James spoke with LEO over the next two days, beginning with a phone conversation from the Newark airport and continuing later in Louisville.

The official occasion for these discussions was James’ first full-length solo album, Regions of Light and Sound of God, which will be released Feb. 5. The album often departs sonically from the guitar-based sound he’s known for with My Morning Jacket. Its source of inspiration was also surprising.

While working on My Morning Jacket’s album Evil Urges, released in 2008, a friend gave him a copy of a book called “Gods’ Man.” It would spark a creative epiphany.

Created by Lynd Ward and published in 1929, “Gods’ Man” uses woodcut images rather than words to tell the story of an artist’s struggles. Upon the book’s release, New York World newspaper wrote, “The emotional effect of this book is tremendous … It will make a novel and exciting gift for a friend who is sick to death of meaningless words.”

James, who opened My Morning Jacket’s 2005 album Z with a song called “Wordless Chorus,” says, “I was really struck by the book, and I started scoring it in the hopes that it would become a film, in some form.”

Over the next four years, what began as a hypothetical film score evolved into the songs that became Regions of Light and Sound of God. During that time, James says, “Thoughts started creeping in … that had more to do with my life than the book — although some of the lyrics have to do with the book. Probably about half-and-half.”

The songs came out in chunks, he says, but they all wanted to be together. He began composing his score on an iPad, because the screen-flipping effect made it feel more cinematic. James hadn’t planned on making a solo album, but over the years he had built a home studio. When he’d get off the road, he’d work on more songs.

Previously, before making My Morning Jacket records, James would work on demos at home “to try and figure out what I want(ed) the record to be.” But in the 2007 sessions for Evil Urges, producer Joe Chiccarelli pointed out how James’ elaborate pre-production work, what James calls “super-duper intense demos, almost like a record themselves,” was affecting his creative energy.

“I put all this shit in there like keyboards, drum machines, and made the record before we even made the record. And several times throughout the sessions, I found myself butting up against a wall, where I couldn’t beat the demo I had made.”

Now James fights the urge to make demos. “I’ll just record an idea on the voice memo on my phone so I won’t forget it, but I’ll wait until I’m with the guys to turn it into a real song. That’s what we did for (2011’s) Circuital, and it worked out a lot better. We had a lot more fun with it.”

The songs that became Regions of Light and Sound of God “started popping out,” he says, and he invited lifelong friend Givan to play drums on most of the album. Emily Hagihara added percussion, and other friends joined in on strings: frequent collaborator Ben Sollee on cello, fellow Louisvillian Scott Moore on violin and viola, and New Yorker Adriana Molello, also on violin. “Everything besides that, I played myself,” James says.

Though he worked on most of Regions of Light at home, he moved to a room in local recording engineer Kevin Ratterman’s studio for a month to finish it.

“I just got this crazy kind of déjà vu when I saw (“Gods’ Man”), when I held it,” James says. “My friend gave me one of the original pressings of it. It was all yellow and crazy looking. When I held it for the first time, it totally smacked me in the face. I felt like I had known it from back then, from whatever life I lived back then. I knew it and loved it somehow. So when I saw it again, it’s like I already knew it.”

He loved the art deco presentation of the book, as he loves many cultural artifacts from that 1920s/’30s era. “Holding an original pressing from that time in my hand … there’s just something about the pattern of it that echoes, resonates really deep in my brain.”

For James, the idea of time travel appeals to him, “… just being a huge music nerd, always looking to be turned on to something new from whenever or wherever. The world’s just such a giant place. The span of recorded-music time that we can travel to is so short in the span of how long music has been around.”

“I don’t know, I’m just fascinated with it,” he adds. “I want to learn as much as I can about … everything. I’m always searching for new things.”

Since last May, James has been co-hosting, with Givan, a weekly program that can only be heard on local public radio station 91.9 WFPK or streaming online as it airs. “Sir Microcosm,” which airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m., has a time traveling theme, as the pair bounce around from music by Hank Williams to David Bowie, Dirty Projectors to Count Basie, Harry Belafonte to Frank Ocean.

Even as kids, for James and his friends, music was everything.

“I think it started as an escape … because you can travel into these different worlds in your mind. For me, it’s always fleeting glimpses or fleeting flashes — you’ll go see a movie set in the ’20s, and you’ll catch a little piece of music that you like, and you’ll want to explore that more.”

James is very close to his family and friends back home, despite spending a lot of time on the road. “I don’t know, I guess you could take it back to the time travel thing. I like slipping into different portals and slipping down different wormholes and different worlds.”

But it’s all about finding a balance: If he’s home for too long, he gets antsy. If he doesn’t have time to create, he gets antsy. If he’s on the road too long, he wants to be home.

“The one frustrating thing about the way I live life is so much of my life is planned so far in advance,” he says. “You’re planning New Year’s Eve in the summer, and you’re planning summer on New Year’s Eve.

“By the time you get to those points in time, sometimes you’re ready for what you planned and sometimes you’re not. You have no way of knowing how you’re going to feel six months into the future when you have to commit to it now.”

Still, he’s working on plans for a tour, where his band will include Givan on drums, Ratterman on samples and percussion, and a pair he met through Sollee, pianist Dan Dorf and bassist Alana Rocklin. “So I’ve got a band formed. We haven’t played yet, but we’re gonna do that soon and see if we can figure out how to … get it all figured out.”

He confirms Louisville as a destination on the tour. “Oh, yeah. We’ll definitely play a show here.” On Monday, James announced details of the show, which will be April 17 at the Brown Theatre. Tickets go on sale Feb. 1 for $31, with $1 of each ticket sold going to the cancer research and treatment hospital City of Hope.

Though a crucial element, the story of “Gods’ Man” did not inspire all of Regions of Light and Sound of God. The opener, “State of the Art (A.E.I.O.U.),” came from James’ conflicted feelings about technology. “I love technology, and I love working in technology. If you’re in music nowadays, most of the innovation that happens is inside the computer,” he says. “If you’re not using the computer, you’re not on the cutting edge of what is happening.”

At the same time, he sees “a really cool thing happening right now in the world.” One of his sisters has an organic farm, where her family grows their own food. Another is a midwife, helping women deliver children in their own homes. James thinks such a movement has come up as a response to technology; he fears a future in which even a business like Kroger can’t maintain a physical presence, “because you can print out your groceries from your computer.”

The computers are going to gobble up the world, he says. “That’s kind of the moral of the song — have siblings who can grow food so you can live after the end of the world,” he laughs.

The second song, “Know Til Now,” was the first song released online to get fans excited about the album. James wrote it “musically, thematically, to be the sound of progress in ‘Gods’ Man.’ The sound of The Artist making his way into the city, advancing up the ranks, climbing up the ladder.”

“The song is mostly one-half of that, then there’s an ending that’s completely different … The Artist is at the reception for his show that’s super-successful. High society is there, toasting him and cheering him.”

On a more personal level, it’s also about how we all do things that make sense at the time, but “… you look back on it now, it’s the stupidest thing you ever did. But back then, you didn’t know any better.”

It’s a theme that also ties into one of the last songs on the album, “All Is Forgiven,” a topic that’s been weighing on James. About the song, he says, “Lyrically, at least from the way I looked at it, it was just … that everything can be forgiven.

“That’s something I think about a lot, for any time I’ve hurt somebody, or done something that I shouldn’t have done … I think, if you hurt a person, you pray for forgiveness and hope that the world, or that person, can find a way to forgive you.”

He has a “pretty clear” conscience, “But I’ve hurt a lot of people I didn’t even know I was hurting, and I feel like that’s what happened to The Artist in the end of the book. He didn’t even know what he was getting into until it was too late. So he’s hoping for that forgiveness.”

His most colorful description of a passage from the book comes when relaying his inspiration for the song “Actress.”

“She becomes his muse — there’s this really amazing scene where he’s painting her portrait, she’s nude, and he looks closer and sees a dollar bill tattooed on her shoulder and realizes she’s a whore who’s just been conning him the whole time,” James laughs. “He realizes he’s been duped and he’s running all over the city, trying to seek refuge … fucking crazy, you’ve got to look at this book.

“He runs to the church to seek refuge there, but the priest is fucking the girl; he runs to the park, and the girl’s fucking the cop. Everywhere he goes, he sees this girl’s face on every girl, everywhere, in all these places where you’re supposed to seek help. So that was meant to go with that. It isn’t personally written about anyone that I know.”

Though lauded for his guitar playing, James downplays the instrument on his solo record, focusing more on sensual keyboards and strings, reflections of his love for 1970s soul and funk music. It isn’t until the third song, “Dear One,” that a guitar is featured viscerally.

“I get to play guitar so much in My Morning Jacket, I really didn’t feel a need to play it as much in this,” James says. “I mean, there is guitar on the record, but not in the normal way. I wanted it to be more subliminal. Or, like in ‘Dear One,’ I wanted it to be hyper-realized, like a computer was beating the guitar.”

For James, the occasion to write a “computer beating a guitar” song came from a love story. It was written for a passage in the book when The Artist has fallen off a cliff and landed in a field. A woman finds him, and they fall in love.

“There’s a beautiful scene in this big field at night, stars are shining, it’s just a beautiful point in the book,” he says. “‘Dear One’ was written to be the music for those scenes, where they’re falling in love, and it was written from my point of view. We’re all trying to fall in love, and … just how important that is, that feeling is.”

The next song, “A New Life,” reflects the consummation of that love. The Artist and the woman have a child and are now a family, running through the fields together. It’s the happiest point in the book. About those lyrics, James says, “Everything is echoing from my life, too, things that were going on back then — but I didn’t have a child.”

In his mind, James has a map of his intended score for the book. For the purposes of his album, however, it’s not a literal retelling of the story from beginning to end. “I looked at this record in two ways. I wanted this record to be itself and be in an order I wanted it to be, independent of ‘Gods’ Man.’ And if ‘Gods’ Man’ does ever get turned into a film, then there’ll be a soundtrack that goes with that. Maybe some of these songs will be on it.”

But past experience in the film world has made James cautious about that process. “I’ve worked on two different film scores now that I got fired from,” he says with a laugh, “(because) they were too weird. The movies, I always end up being incredibly frustrated that I can’t control (them).”

He collaborated on two scores with composer Brian Reitzell, who has worked frequently with director Sofia Coppola. The first was for “The Beaver,” the what-were-they-thinking movie by Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster about a man who communicates with a hand puppet. After scoring the entire film, the pair was replaced.

“It was ‘too weird,’ and they realized the film was gonna tank,” James says now, still bruised by the experience. “I’m really glad it happened, because the film is horrible. They just needed more blatantly obvious music. It’s the kind of thing, too, where it’s like a break-up — maybe they just hated the music we wrote and it’s horrible. But I think it’s awesome. Me and Brian really believe in it, and someday we’ll do something with it.”

The other movie was an indie called “Goats,” which, according to James, also turned out horrible. “And I say that because I have a right to say that, because I feel like both of those could have turned out good. I feel like they were both cases of directors letting Hollywood tell them what to do with their art and fucking themselves. If they would have listened to themselves and listened to their conscience and listened to their gut, they could’ve made a really great film.”

It’s another preoccupation for James — instinct. “I really believe in intuition and in your gut. We all have this force inside of us that, if we just listen to it, it would always set us on the right path. But a lot of times we don’t listen to it … I think that’s the biggest gift we were given.”

Despite the setbacks, James values his experience in the film world, which also includes two attempts to work with The Muppets. It felt natural, but losing control was frustrating. “I think everybody needs to have control over their art. That’s the problem when art and commerce start to mix. If you don’t spell things out pretty clearly, you can quickly lose control.”

Over the years, James has counted on the support of family, friends and fans, but he’s still a work in progress. “I may be confident musically, but I’m definitely not confident in other areas, that’s for sure.” Musically, he has the self-assurance to command thousands of people in a crowd at once and ignore the many opinions directed at his stage persona.

“Performing is such a weird thing. It’s almost like you have to put a different brain in your head, because it’s just so different than how I live in a day-to-day way. It’s a whole different world,” he says. “You have to be open to putting yourself out there, both in being criticized and being enjoyed.”

The moral of his story, according to James, is that “it doesn’t fucking matter.” He tells this to anyone who wants to make a record but is scared, or to bands 10 years in who are afraid to try something new. You’re always going to get the same response: Some will praise you, others will damn you.

“It’s kind of freeing, in a way. It’s like this great equalizer.”

And even when you know it’s completely out of your control, he says, “It all still fucks with you.”

“I try to not read press, but people email me shit. It still hurts when people say it sucks, and it fucks with your ego when people say it’s great. But you hear so much of both, you have to just be happy with what you’re doing. That’s where I find solace — at the end of the day, I’m in love with what I’m doing, and I’m having a really great time doing it.”

Photo by Frankie Steele

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c. 2013 LEO Weekly

Palace brothers

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Futuristic hip-hop arrives from Seattle

Ishmael Butler is soft-spoken and friendly in conversation, but the music he’s making now might keep you up at night.

When the first Shabazz Palaces EP was self-released in 2009, there was little information available about the group, yet word spread quickly in their native Seattle that their minimal, paranoid and futuristic-sounding hip-hop was something special. At first, interviews were declined, and Butler, performing as Palaceer Lazaro, disguised himself during concerts with scarves and sunglasses.

“Early on, it wasn’t about mystery, necessarily, although I do like that,” Butler says. “I like mystery in music because … when you look back, a lot of people would associate Funkadelic with George Clinton. But you’re talking about groups that had 13, 14 cats in there playing. There’s music, and nobody really knows these guys.”

Butler had a past he was trying to keep separate from his current project. It’s a rich past he’s proud of, as a member of the groundbreaking and Grammy-winning trio Digable Planets, but he’d been around long enough to see how eager some people were to focus on surfaces, rather than the music. And having this new music heard on its own merits was important to him.

“It started to be, like, where people started to talk more about the back story, the anecdotes, the personalities of artists more than their music,” he says. “I understood that as a selling point, but I didn’t like it that much for myself.

“It’s not really true, these attaching personalities to these artifices, so my thing was (to) separate from the Digable thing and to concentrate on the music while I just make the music and put it out as-is. Wherever the music goes, it takes the people, rather than people taking the music someplace.”

Shabazz Palaces, whose core members are Butler and percussionist Tendai Maraire, signed with the powerful and locally based label Sub Pop, which released their first full-length, Black Up, in 2011 to ecstatic reviews. Butler says it’s been a healthy relationship between two partners who have both seen the best and worst of the music game and have come out wiser for it. Both sides listen to the other’s ideas.

“They’re experts, and they’re purveyors of fine music for a long time,” he says, “so to not listen to them would make us stupid. So we didn’t do that … It’s good to be with people who love the music and understand business being a necessary part of expanding it.”

Shabazz Palaces found another supportive group in My Morning Jacket, who brought them on tour last summer. It was a success both musically and personally.

“Jim (James), I love this guy, he and the whole band,” Butler says. “Patrick (Hallahan), man, he’s a Steelers fan. I gotta give my guys a shout-out, can’t wait to see them.”

Their current tour finds them going on before another act signed to Sub Pop, the Portland-based atmospheric-rock duo The Helio Sequence, about whom Butler exclaims, “They’re the OGs, man.” He’s been a fan for several years, faithfully seeing every show he could. “So supporting them is somewhat of a dream come true, really, for me.”

For Shabazz Palaces’ performances, Butler says, “The live show is related to the album. The music is the place we take off from, but it goes down up into different realms.” He laughs in the middle of describing it as “a pretty energetic and spontaneous presentation of music.”

“It’s not like we just stand up there, rapping from our tracks and shit like that. Not that anything’s wrong with that, but it’s a little bit different. We appreciate performing, and you can tell.”

Butler’s hope is that people coming to the show — whether they’ve heard their music before or not — will listen and then decide if they like it based on nothing else. He’s been to the mountaintop and back down. Along the way, he’s seen that it’s only the music that matters. He’s fine with you knowing that he was on the classic “Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat),” but that’s just not where he’s at today.

“I get why it happens,” he acknowledges, “but it’s just kind of lazy and a little bit monotonous for me. The people that I roll with, we like to keep it fresh.”

Shabazz Palaces with The Helio Sequence and Bus Hus
Tuesday, Jan. 29
Zanzabar
2100 S. Preston St.
zanzabarlouisville.ticketfly.com
$12; 9 p.m.

Photo by David Belisle & Leif Podhajsky

c. 2013 LEO Weekly

R ’n’ R ’n’ R

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Troubadour Justin Paul Lewis has been working hard for several years now, honing his craft one gig at a time. His latest performance will be at Uncle Slayton’s on Thursday.

For his newest collection, a four-song EP, Lewis teamed with Ben Sollee to take his ideas to a different level.

LEO: Who is Ben Sollee?

Justin Paul Lewis: The producer of my new album Rinse, Repeat, Rewind, a cello-playing madman, a father, and a very dear friend.

LEO: You began working on this EP in 2011. What took so long?

JL: Day-to-day life really got in the way of getting these songs out sooner. Ben and I were on the road together for a bit, then Ben was out solo, then the home and family called for me to take care of some things. So we took our time. We recorded bits and pieces of each song from then until now, letting them bake for a while. Each time we would go back, we would realize that our ears had matured to each song, and new ideas would just plow into them. I really made a lot of strides as a performer during that time, too. I often think back about what the record would sound like if we recorded it today.

LEO: How would you guess your 2013 will look one year from today?

JL: At this point, there are handfuls of possibilities. There is no doubt 2013 is going to be a busy one. I have had a lot of great “music folks” reach out about the song “Salt” and the new record — it’s been very encouraging to keep trucking on and keep writing. I will definitely be doing some touring and some well-needed sitting. I think I may start a basketball league, too. Any takers?

LEO: Where is the hardest place to fall?

JL: The Back Door is more of a stumbling place, so I would say that damn skate park.

LEO: F/marry/kill: Dawne Gee, Lynn Winter, Kimmet Cantwell?

JL: I would invite them to Vietnam Kitchen to talk it over. Kimmet can sit next to me.

Photo by Mickie Winters.

c. 2013 LEO Weekly

album review: Kirk Kiefer

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Kirk Kiefer has played in a bunch of bands around Louisville, including the recently retired dust-kickers Yardsale, and the Health and Happiness Family Gospel Band, an all-star collective of old-timey lovers. Now he steps out with a solo statement more in debt to Big Star than the Stones. Aided by pros like Joan Shelley, Todd Hildreth and members of the 23 String Band, Kiefer sounds confident and happy romping through power-pop should-be-hits like “Calling Home” and “Like a Black Hole” like the Cheap Trick ’70s are only starting to bleed into the college rock ’80s, twang lessened somewhat. Horns perk up here and there, adding a New Orleansian flavor to selections like “Lust From Afar,” whose subject material might indicate that it is truly for contemporary adults — a world away from today’s Top 40, sadly.

c. 2013 LEO Weekly

Mountain Heart is not a bluegrass band

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“This past year was inarguably our most successful, as a band, and that’s a great thing to say when you’ve had success like we’ve had through the years,” says Mountain Heart fiddler Jim Van Cleve. “But this past year, we’ve reached … I couldn’t even wager a guess. I’m gonna say probably hundreds of thousands of new people.”

Van Cleve co-founded Mountain Heart in 1998 with banjoist Barry Abernathy, mandolinist Adam Steffey, and vocalist Steve Gulley. Five others came and went through 2006. Then Gulley departed, beginning a new chapter in Mountain Heart’s career.

“We decided to rock the boat pretty substantially and we changed lead singers, which can be a giant leap of faith,” Van Cleve says. “We knew it was one we were ready for. We felt real confident in the move. It was the right time.”

What Mountain Heart’s core members wanted was more ambitious than what Gulley wanted. It wasn’t personal, Van Cleve asserts. “Out of absolutely no disrespect to anybody who’s been here, we made that move, and that was the biggest change that we’ve made.”

Gulley’s successor, Josh Shilling, stood out for all the ways he wasn’t like many bluegrass singers. His ability to sing in rock, blues and country styles matched up with Mountain Heart’s new vision. Additionally, he brought skills on guitar and numerous keyboards.

“We knew we had material and musical ideas that we wanted to push the envelope with. We’d become known already, but we’d hit a glass ceiling and become stale,” Van Cleve reflects. “We jumped off of that cliff and (it) turned out it wasn’t actually a cliff — it was a green pasture.”

Van Cleve is no purist and is almost as familiar with marketing concepts as he is with his fiddle. “We knew we had a certain product we wanted to be able to put on stage — that product would be exciting, and it would be fresh and young, and not a bluegrass band.”

Though he proudly declares they can still go there, “where our roots are planted,” the band didn’t want to be “put up in that little cubbyhole and locked away forever. The greater good would never hear any of the musical ideas we were getting into. So we set out to try to shake things up pretty good. And I think we’ve succeeded pretty effectively,” he laughs.

In the past year, the band appeared on an episode of PBS’ new music showcase “Bluegrass Underground,” filmed in Tennessee’s Cumberland Caverns. Van Cleve calls it “the new ‘Austin City Limits,’” though it’s too soon to tell about that. After the show, Van Cleve says, their website, Facebook profile, sales, bookings — “everything just went to a whole new level. It wasn’t necessarily overnight, but we’ve seen a decided upswing in everything.”

They signed with New Frontier Touring, the booking agency that also represents the Avett Brothers, shortly after the episode aired. “So we’re more well-aligned with, say, Avett Brothers/Mumford & Sons now then anything else we’d ever been easily categorized in.”

The best thing about Mountain Heart, says Van Cleve, is their collective musicianship. He left college to play with Doyle Lawson and has since accompanied Carrie Underwood, Sara Evans and many more, and won a Grammy for his 2007 solo album.

Each new band-hire was “handpicked, so they were calculated moves. Each one of those moves has really brought our show performance to a whole new, more dynamic and entertaining level. This band is top-notch session players. Each one of these guys, on their own, has been sought after to play on all kind of stuff … we’ve (now) got Aaron Ramsey (mandolin, guitar and dobro), who literally can play any kind of instrument as well as anybody in the band, just about (laughs), except for fiddle, actually, so my job’s secure! Then we’ve got a 19-year-old guitar player (Seth Taylor) who is just a freak of nature (laughs).

“Seth joined us a year ago, and he’s been able to see the world; 19 years old, he’d never been on a plane … now he’s a seasoned vet.”

You should come on out, he urges. “The spontaneity of our show, it is a free-for-all; we have no clue who’s gonna play what next sometimes, and we love that.”

Mountain Heart
Friday, Jan. 18
IU Southeast (Ogle Center)
4201 Grant Line Road, New Albany
ius.edu/oglecenter
$26.50; 7:30 p.m.

c. 2013 LEO Weekly

Fun times for Father John Misty

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Josh Tillman had a creative breakthrough in 2011. After years of releasing critically acclaimed, low-selling solo albums, he joined a band called Fleet Foxes as they quickly rose from Seattle buzz to international popularity. But it was just a job, and, approaching 30, Tillman knew he had more to give.

Depressed but more financially fit, Tillman quit the band and moved to Los Angeles, where he tried to write a novel. Surrounded by the carefree 21st century hippie musicians of Laurel Canyon, Tillman changed musical directions, letting the sun shine in and dropping his (musical) pants.

Reborn as the character Father John Misty, Tillman’s new band is free to try on 1970s styles from Randy Newman-esque pop to Gram Parsons-y outlaw country with a modern attitude, equally inspired by today’s L.A. comedy scene (“Parks and Recreation”’s Aubrey Plaza stars in the band’s first video, for the song “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings”).

So, it must feel weird to jump from obscurity to the drum seat to the center of attention, right?

“I hate to say it, but it really didn’t take much adjustment whatsoever,” Tillman laughs. “I’m a nightmare behind the microphone.”

He says he never saw the “artistic merit” behind the showmanship usually unveiled by those on the big stage, but he’s now old enough to be himself and not worry as much about potentially looking foolish.

Now 31, Tillman says, “I think, like any person in their early 20s, I very much wanted to be taken seriously … The J. Tillman (solo) albums, I stand by them. (But) at this stage in the game, I have to distance myself from them for my own creative purposes. I had to, like, prepare the sacrificial lamb for the slaughter and drink its blood,” he laughs, “in order to move on.”

Citing the search for truth and honesty as his mission, Tillman allows, “Your definition of that changes over time.”

His earlier work isn’t too dissimilar from Father John Misty’s album Fear Fun, which was released by Sub Pop last May, but there’s a lightness and a joy now that he had previously tried to suppress. He knew he had that in him all along, but just like Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz,” he had to take the long journey to find where it was.

“I had a moment of illumination when I realized, ‘This shit is so hard because you refuse to use the skills that you have.’”

Tillman says he knows he’s not the first, that some people learn that they’ve been too close to their own personalities and taking themselves for granted for years, only discovering later what was always staring back at them. The insight was, for him, simple but life-changing: “The melancholy and introspection is still there, but what I was leaving out was my ability to laugh.”

He doesn’t stop before the punchline anymore. It’s earned him a new group of fans. “Comedians really respond to this music in a way that makes me proud,” he notes. Backstage after a recent performance on “Conan,” fellow guest Sarah Silverman recognized Tillman’s girlfriend from one of the band’s videos.

A similar thread Tillman sees is that comedians have to go a long way with their craft to be taken seriously, like he has. He calls his current approach to songwriting akin to a magic trick, infusing serious songs with enough humor to make it go down easier. “It’s funny in some respects, but it’s got some dignity.”

He agrees that such an approach is not trendy now, and probably never has been, but people always like it when they hear it. “I think a lot of music at this point is just made under the premise of, ‘Just don’t fuck up!’ (My music) is like navigating a landmine of potential uncool choices.”

When he first arrived in L.A., he went to some comedy open-mics “as a voyeur” but quickly learned he was not built to be a traditional stand-up. He likes his humor best “when it’s totally inappropriate. In that respect, I’m really in the perfect position.”

“In some ways, I fit the bill for ‘white, male, acoustic guitar-playing singer-songwriter’ archetype. A lot of the shit I say on stage is wildly inappropriate, given that archetype. In that way, it’s more enjoyable for me.”

Father John Misty with Magic Trick
Wednesday, Jan. 9
Headliners Music Hall
1386 Lexington Road
headlinersmusichall.com
$12; 9 p.m.

c. 2013 LEO Weekly

Going backstage with ‘Yo Gabba Gabba!’

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The latest tour starring characters from the popular Nick Jr. TV program “Yo Gabba Gabba!” is called “Get the Sillies Out.” It’s their third tour, and if you’ve seen either of the first two tours, this one promises to bring the most popular elements of both together in addition to some new material.

The first threw everything together, maybe a little too much for young audiences. The second was more storytelling-based. Along the way, the producers learned the kids really wanted to hear their favorite songs. Cannons and bubbles remain, but the kids have had their say.

The 80-minute show has an intermission built in to ensure that the shorter half of the audience won’t grow restless or wear themselves out from smiling and dancing. Show creators Christian Jacobs and Scott Schultz both came from rock band backgrounds and are happily mindful that, for many present, it will be their first concert experience.

DJ Lance Rock (played by musician Lance Robertson) hosts the program, joined by cast members Muno, Foofa, Brobee, Toodee, Plex, and two other humans — gem sweater-wearing online celebrity Leslie Hall (also known for her novelty hit record "Gold Pants") and old-school hip-hop icon Biz Markie.

The TV show, now in its fourth season, has earned many adult fans, from parents relieved to have a kids’ show that doesn’t insult anyone’s intelligence to music fans who delight in seeing acts like Biz and co-star Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo, and guests ranging from the Shins to the Roots (and comedy fans who appreciate the Pee Wee-level of silliness, with appearances by comic actors like Amy Sedaris, Jack McBrayer and more).

Still, some adults are surprised to learn about such a hip level of love for this show aimed at preschoolers. Schultz says both Lance and Biz were perfect fits for the show, even before it became a reality, because both have kept in touch with their child within and delight in having fun with the little ones. Biz, Schultz notes, did earn his rep back in the day with songs like “Pickin’ Boogers,” so it shouldn’t seem like such a stretch. “He’s great, we’re just excited to have him.”

In addition to showcasing beloved songs like “Party in My Tummy,” another special aspect of the live show is the post-show meet-and-greet backstage, where delighted (though sometimes confused or scared) children can meet the characters, which appear much bigger in person than many children expect. Schultz says that lines often form for each character, revealing who is more popular. “I thought Tootie would be the one who’s the least popular, but she has a lot of fans … Obviously, Brobee and Foofa — Foofa’s probably the most popular.”

Some parents try to get closer — too close — to the charming DJ Lance, which explains why he has a bodyguard nearby for these events. Like many things about “Yo Gabba Gabba!,” this show has plenty for adults to look at, too.

For those wanting more “Yo,” Schultz says a movie is planned, as well as specials in 2013 — one of which will visit, for the first time, Lance’s room. (But not in that way.)

‘Yo Gabba Gabba! Live’
Sunday, Jan. 13
Palace Theater
625 S. Fourth St.
louisvillepalace.com
$25-$45; 2 & 5 p.m.

c. 2013 LEO Weekly

Hello, LEOs! Ronald Jenkees returns

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South End resident captivates YouTube audiences with trance-inducing jams

South End resident Ronald Jenkees has been making instrumental music with keyboards and computer programs — “massively popular trance-inducing jams,” says Gawker — for almost a decade now. While his name may not be familiar, his homemade videos, which begin with his trademark “Hello, Youtubes!” greeting, have been on seen on YouTube many millions of times.

Early fans included Katy Perry and ESPN’s Bill Simmons, who has used a Jenkees piece for his podcast’s theme music. Jenkees’ third album, Days Away, was released last month, and LEO caught up with the human meme to learn more.

LEO: It’s been a few long years since your last album. What have you been up to?

Ronald Jenkees: I took some time to just write new stuff and let that be my focus. On this new album, I really branched out on what sounds I was using. I tried to be more patient with the tracks and let them evolve over the course of weeks, months … I also tried to cram more good stuff on the CD — 15 tracks this time!

LEO: This record reminds me of a lot of great ’80s soundtrack music, from John Carpenter films to Jan Hammer’s “Miami Vice” score. Is that influence in your mind?

RJ: “Speaker 1, Speaker 1” was definitely influenced by that time period. I was worried at first that it would be compared to the “Knight Rider” theme, with that driving arpeggio synth throughout.

LEO: What sort of programs and equipment do you make everything on? Do you do all the mixing and mastering as well?

RJ: I use FL Studio for just about everything. I have an old Korg Triton LE and a Yamaha Motif XS8 that I use for some “live” playing on the tracks, and a USB midi keyboard to control FL Studio. I’m starting to use VSTs a lot more often these days, so the USB keyboard is getting more and more use.

LEO: How has your relationship with YouTube changed, if at all, through the years?

RJ: There’s a bit more pressure to release the “in-your-face” stuff. Each new video generates a lot of work for me in emails and random inquiries. I guess that’s why I took some time away from it, to focus on making music without that pressure and workload, but I’m working my way back into it. It’s always a rush to upload something you know thousands or millions of people might see — 99 percent of people are nice and appreciate new and original stuff. I’m still super thankful for that, it’s amazing.

LEO: Who are some current artists you’d like to produce for?

RJ: I think anyone would love to produce for Jay-Z. He’s just a beast. I think Kid Cudi would be interesting to work with also. His music isn’t very typical.

LEO: Have you done any rapping lately, publicly or otherwise?

RJ: Ha! I haven’t. I did it in the past just to be humorous, and I think it was judged as if I was really trying. I guess that makes it all the more funny.

LEO: Do you wear a hat in the shower or to bed?

RJ: No, but I do plan on getting a speaker put in my shower soon so I can listen to NPR or bluegrass on Pandora. That might be TMI, though.

LEO: What are some other ways you enjoy being goofy or funny?

RJ: I stole this from a friend, but sometimes when I’m at the cash register at the grocery store, I tell them I may or may not be able to pay for all this stuff. It works every time.

LEO: Is the live RJ experience coming anytime soon?

RJ: That’s not in the immediate plans, but I’m not ruling it out for way down the road. I understand there is fun to be had there and probably way more money to be made, but I’m afraid it would get addicting and I’d end up spending too much time on the road and away from family. Not to mention, I don’t see how it wouldn’t affect you creating new stuff. I always want new stuff to be on my front burners. It’s more fun for me to create new than it is to play old stuff.

Find Ronald Jenkees online at youtube.com/ronaldjenkees.

c. 2013 LEO Weekly