Pleased to squeeze me: Accordion/banjo/tuba/drums quartet returns for more fun

One of those bands who demand the use of non-words like “funnest,” the satirically avant-garde Squeeze-bot are releasing their second studio album, Sweet Dreams Are Made of Squeeze, featuring versions of songs by Charles Mingus, The Beatles, Rufus Wainwright and more, as well as the theme for “The Price is Right.” LEO asked accordion-playing leader Todd Hildreth for some quasi-answers.

LEO: The first Squeeze-bot album came out five years ago. Why did you make fans wait?

Todd Hildreth: We have this perfectionism in the studio. Take after take, we record. No one can screw up, or we all do it over again. It took us three weeks just to lay the Jew’s harp part down on “Funky Town.” Then came the overdubs and numerous computer crashes due to information overload. Once, the power went out in the whole block as we were doubling the accordion solo on “White Rabbit” six octaves below middle C. Fires erupted in the neighborhood without explanation. A “punishment box” was designed for those who couldn’t get their part down quickly enough, followed by a staff therapist to undo the damage of having to go into the box.

The empty pizza boxes piled up to the point where we couldn’t see each other any more. Then, one night … well, let me just say that the answer to “What does this button do?” is best left rhetorical. We lost it all. Finally, someone suggested we just pretend it’s a live show and set up some mics and play like we always do. It seemed dumb at first, but it actually kind of worked well.

LEO: All of the songs on this collection are covers. Have any band members wanted, or tried, to write originals?

TH: So far, our interest has been in reinterpretation or, more specifically, playing tunes the way they should have been played in the first place but weren’t due to the original performer’s lack of accordion, banjo, tuba and tiny drum skills. There are just too many songs out there that just don’t sound right due to the insistence on electric guitars and synthesizers. And don’t get me started on vocals … The entire catalog of pop, rock and jazz has been sorely misrepresented. There’s a whole generation out there who seem to think a whammy bar is cooler than a bellow shake. It’s sad, really.

LEO: With a vast and diverse amount of songs from which to choose, how did you decide on these?

TH: Many times in the process of recording, someone would just put down their instrument and stop playing because they had to go to the bathroom or wanted another piece of pizza or something like that. Texting was a big problem as well. There were, however, about 11 takes that, for some reason, we were all able to stay in position from beginning to end. It was generally agreed upon that these 11 would best suit the needs of the album.

LEO: What does each member add to the musical chemistry? Will the sound, or vibe, change much with a new tuba man?

TH: The accordion takes the lead (as it should) on most parts, and the banjo takes the lead (as it should) on the others. We let the tuba and drums have solos sometimes, but they tend to get more applause than ours, which totally isn’t cool. So, I would look for less tuba and drum solos in the future.

Feb. 22: Meat
1076 E. Washington St.
Free; 11 p.m.

Feb. 24: Nachbar
969 Charles St.
Free; 8 p.m.

Photo by Andrew Raitz

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c. 2013 LEO Weekly

album review: Discount Guns

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Discount Guns
Odessa
(SELF-RELEASED)

Frequently sounding like they’re in a hurry to beat back the other revival-rock bands in the region, Discount Guns can be credited with doing a fine job of breathing new life into not-unfamiliar sounds. As in debt to early ’70’s classic-rock groove bands as they are to today’s Black Keys and friends, the two men who make up Discount Guns issue a thick yet clear fog of riffs, defying anyone within earshot to not shake that ass. The occasional female backing vocal adds to the ambiance, as the DeadBird Studios team’s solid, steady production keeps this collection focused and crisp. Sounding familiar and occasionally provocative, Discount Guns are damn good at what they do, and that’s a surprisingly hard quality to find. So, guys, what’s next?

c. 2013 LEO Weekly

album review: Gabe Close

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Gabe Close
Sounds for an Old Soul
(SELF-RELEASED)

For many people, the music they discover as teens stays with them throughout life, continuing to inform and reinforce their taste and musical decision-making. Though it’s hard to tell when Gabe Close grew up, the imprint of the heartland songwriters of the 1980s continually soaks the songs on the seriously titled Sounds for an Old Soul, recalling the earnest approaches of Bryan Adams or acoustic, sensitive Bon Jovi. Close seems disinterested in the evolution of singer-songwriters over the past 25 years, as songs like “Ain’t No Blues in Heaven” and “It’s Gonna Rain Tonight” merely bring to mind latter-day Henley or Seger. While Close’s instrumental skills on guitar are fine, and contributors such as vocalist Molly Greer and stringman Steve Cooley add lovely textures, this Old Soul could benefit from a less old-fashioned approach.

c. 2013 LEO Weekly

album review: Dawn McCarthy & Bonnie “Prince” Billy

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Dawn McCarthy & Bonnie “Prince” Billy
What the Brothers Sang
(DRAG CITY)

Here’s title No. 161 for the BPB completist to add to his library. It’s ostensibly a collection of Everly Brothers songs, though Everly fans looking for classics like “All I Have to Do is Dream” will have to dream on, as most of the songs here are more obscure. This won’t matter to younger fans, and both Bonnie and McCarthy’s vocals are, as usual, worth the price of admission; if you can find a better duo today, I’ll burn my Dolly & Kenny records. For Bonnie fans, there’s also the factor that he has, once again, hired skilled Nashville studio hands, so if you’re like me and prefer his rag-tag groups of indie rockers who sound like they just learned the songs earlier this morning, this band may leave you feeling too dry. Essential? No. Fun? Overall, yes.

c. 2013 LEO Weekly

Nerves Junior: The Sequel

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Local buzz band realigns, returns for another shot

Nerves Junior’s 2011 debut album, As Bright As Your Night Light, hit a sweet spot with bloggers, bookers and fans around the country, earning the young Louisville band a spot at New York’s CMJ festival. But problems inside the band were starting to tear them apart, and within a year, half the band was gone.

Then-drummer Zack O’Renick says, “We weren’t making the best decisions” after the first album was finished, when the band was still getting to know each other, “and (since-departed members Stuart Phelps and Cory Wayne) weren’t able to start making better decisions … The decisions (guitarist) Chris (Snow) and I made allowed us to continue playing music, and to be reliable to each other.”

“Whatever specific thing you’re doing outside of the band doesn’t matter,” Snow says, “as long as you’re focused on band stuff. And the focus went away — not showing up for band practice, not calling your friends to tell them you won’t be at band practice …”

In 2012, O’Renick and Snow faced some tough choices: whether to keep the band going, keep the same name or start over, and whether they could find new members who might share their passion. It was a lot to consider, especially as Nerves Junior was already booked for some festival dates, which were coming up soon.

Now in early 2013, Nerves Junior has “reorganized,” as they call it, with new members Brey McCoy (drums) and Brennon Staples (bass), both friends of O’Renick’s since high school. They have a new three-song EP, Craters. The songs came from a period the founding pair spent writing in the month leading up to their date at the Forecastle Festival last July. They worked on the songs all night, every day, after work, to have enough new material for a half-hour set.

“We wanted to record with (engineer) Kevin (Ratterman) again,” Snow says, “but we didn’t have a huge budget like we did for the first record.”

“We didn’t really want a huge budget,” interjects O’Renick, who has moved from drums to vocals.

“Yeah, that’s more money that’s on your shoulders in the first place,” Snow continues. Because it had been a while since the band had released any new music, and they were still adjusting to writing with the new members, they decided to release a smaller EP to put their name back out there, something focused and efficient.

O’Renick says, “(The songs were) three things that were fairly relevant to us, and we just took a swing at it. They’re all about the idea of overcoming something, being in a moment of realization where you do overcome something — super-relevant to us in the last year.”

Now they’re gearing up to play at the huge SXSW festival in Austin for the first time, where they won’t have to worry about past associations.

“We’ve always been into the darker side of things (musically),” says Snow, but reflecting on the newfound momentum “just seemed appropriate at the time.” If they had worked on the same songs three months earlier, they would have come out sounding more downtrodden. But now, “It seemed what was natural was a dark melody, but with just a little twinge of ‘It’s gonna be all right.’”

Nerves Junior
with Jalin Roze, Introvert and Montego
Friday, Feb. 15
Zanzabar
2100 S. Preston St.
zanzabarlouisville.ticketfly.com
$8; 9 p.m.

Photo by Joey Flispart

c. 2013 LEO Weekly

New adults on the block

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Neighbor is a heavy band with some heavy thoughts on their mind. They celebrate the release of their first full-length album, Neighbor, with a release show at Zanzabar on Friday. LEO asked guitarist Sean Gardner about the new record, which was produced by Trip Barriger at Treehouse Audio.

LEO: Who writes what? What inspires the songwriting?

Sean Gardner: I find the term “inspiration” problematic. Writing is a matter of work, not divine revelation. In our case, the labor is collective — beginning with a small idea for a single instrument and expanding with rapport among the band.

LEO: I detect a somewhat militaristic sound at times, at least on “Hordes.” Is this intentional?

SG: “Hordes,” especially, is organized around violent sounds — scratches, alarms, explosions. The marching call-and-response that begins that song is intended to evoke something like an imminent social violence. And what we mean to express is an anxiety that underlies and spews from such a violence.

LEO: How has playing in Neighbor been different for you from playing in Bu Hao Ting or Twenty First Century Fox?

SG: There are plenty of technical and conceptual disparities between those three bands. But it’s the result of more than a dozen rather unique individuals engaged in a common, collaborative process. Neighbor may be dynamically aggressive, BHT primitive and atonal, or TFCF melodically infectious, but these qualities are results of the same procedure — sharing ideas among friends.

LEO: When someone discovers this record in 80 years, what would you want them to think about it?

SG: Nothing. We just want to incite arousal.

Listen at neighborusa.bandcamp.com.

c. 2013 LEO Weekly