Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Safe space is the place for Broken Bells



When James Mercer’s band The Shins became popular, and the songwriter and musician was finally making good money, he thought about moving to Kentucky. Lexington, no less. The Albuquerque, N.M. native was 32 at the time.

“I liked the way it looked. I liked the way it felt,” Mercer recalls. “I was in a position in my life, for the first time, that I really didn’t have to worry about getting a (day) job. It was, like, ‘You can live anywhere,’ and it felt right when I was there.”

When it’s pointed out that a college-town environment might have hindered his anonymity, Mercer laughs. “Yeah, maybe you’re right.” The well-traveled son of an Air Force officer decided instead to relocate to the musician-heavy Portland, Ore., where he already had several friends, including Louisville native Greg Brown. Shortly after the move, Brown co-directed a Shins video, “The Past and Pending”. On visits to Portland before the move, Mercer notes, “It was never raining when we came up,” which seemed like a good omen.

Since then, Mercer has also started another band, Broken Bells, with Brian Burton aka Danger Mouse. Their fusion of organic pop and electronic, studio-based creations means their touring lineup this summer will include several instrumentalists; Burton moves around from drums to keyboards and string instruments, and Mercer is spending less time behind his guitar, adding keyboards or merely crooning. “It’s been really fun, this whole new set up, especially the visual aspects of this tour,” he says.

They’ve teamed with a Montreal company to create lights and other design elements. “They’re just such wonderful artists, really creative people … so, really, it’s on them. They designed it and we just approved it,” Mercer laughs. “It’s interesting how it changes the vibe onstage. There’s so much to look at that has nothing to do with us — it reduces the amount of pressure on you. Which is really strange to think about, but you feel more loose and free up there onstage.” He laughs again. “You know that there’s a lot of shit that has nothing to do with you. For Brian and I, our personalities, that really helps us.”

Parts of the two men want the spotlight, he agrees, but they’re not totally comfortable in it when they get it. After a decade or more of renown, how have they not yet learned how to balance their shy sides and their show-offy sides? “Man, I don’t know,” Mercer says. “I think, certain nights, it’s getting the right amount of whiskey!”

He also says he’s been surprised to learn over the past several months of touring how much better his singing comes through when he’s not also playing guitar. “It goes back to confidence — because you can concentrate on just one thing, you can do it really well; and when you do it really well, you’re bolstered by that, so now you’re confident, more comfortable onstage … so it’s really a different world,” he says. “If you’re playing an instrument and singing — at least for me, I’m self-taught, I’m not a natural at it — it’s really nice to be able to focus on one thing.”

The live show ties in to the futurist theme of their latest album, After the Disco, which has extended to their videos and even to 3-D printed models. Part of the proceeds from this tour have gone to the B612 Foundation, which — no joke — is working to keep Earth safe from asteroids.

After six hit albums with two bands, what else does he hope to accomplish? Sounding like a Woody Allen character, Mercer’s somewhat surprising answer is, “I’d like to make a really killer record … I’d like to make something I’m really proud of. I think I always end every project feeling that way, but then I feel, like, ‘Oh, I should have done more of this’, or ‘It could have been stronger in this way or that way’ … I can’t help it, but I just look forward to the future, and the prospect of making something great, you know? I don’t know that I’ve done that yet.”

I thought you would have said something like “Astronaut,” I say. The married-with-kids rock star, now 43, laughs and says, “I think I’m more pragmatic than that.“

Broken Bells with Elf Power
Friday, June 20
Iroquois Amphitheater
1080 Amphitheater Road
iroquoisamphitheater.com
$30.50; 8 p.m.


photo by James Minchin

Here
c. 2014 LEO Weekly



WEB EXCLUSIVE:


In this week’s issue, LEO Weekly has my profile of James Mercer and his current tour with Broken Bells. During our conversation, I also asked him about another current topic in his life – the use of a Shins song in Wish I Was Here, a new movie written and directed by Zach Braff, whose 2004 movie Garden State did much to change that band’s life a decade ago #natalieportman.

LEO: If this had been a year ago, I would never have asked you about Zach Braff. But… (we both laugh) because the trailer for his new movie has one of your songs -

James Mercer: Yeah.

LEO: Obviously, you would have to approve that.

JM: Yeah. So, Zach called me up and asked to do a song for his new movie, basically. And his music supervisor came out — this lady Mary (Ramos), who’s awesome — she came and showed me the movie, and I liked it. I guess it was a rough edit of the film? But it was really touching, and it was about having kids and all this stuff, which I can relate to now. And I set about trying … at first, I was trying to … they had in there, they had some songs they liked, but they wanted me to make something better, so they could replace it. I couldn’t handle that pressure (laughs), so I called him up and just asked him, “Man, can I just try and come up with something that, to me, feels like the movie?” And he was, like, “Sure, do it, go for it,” you know? “There’s a spot at the end of the picture when that would work.” So I set about writing lyrics about what the movie was about, and kind of came up with a song for the film. Which I haven’t done a lot – it was a real challenge to do that, you know? To just be, like, “OK, do something awesome — now! (laughs) And it can’t be about the shit you want to write about!” But it worked, and I am really stoked with the song. I think it’s one of my better songs. I can’t get enough of listening to it, actually. I’ve been enjoying it lately.

LEO: I can only imagine how many times people have asked you about Garden State. I bet Zach Braff doesn’t get asked about the Shins every single time he’s interviewed.

JM: Right? Yeah, I guess, yeah. It’s cool – for me, it’s like one of those things where … it’s always difficult when something is such a big deal that happens to you or the band. But looking back on it now, I just realize it was such a good thing for us! It’s something that will be always there, and I mean, in 20 years, I guarantee you my children aren’t going to be complaining about it (laughs)! Having too much spotlight on the Shins back in 2004. It’s just been a wonderful thing for us, and I feel like I owe Zach so much for it. I’m so grateful.

LEO: And what’s so interesting is, 10 years ago, you were both younger guys trying to find love, and now you’re both — I don’t know him personally, but at least in the movie and in your real life, there’s marriage and dealing with kids —

JM: Yeah, exactly.

LEO: So maybe 10 years from now, you guys can check in again —

JM: Right (laughs)!

Here
c. 2014 LEO Weekly

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

I wanna be Adore: Life is a party for really real drag queen



The past decade of reality TV has seen some highs and some very low lows, and Danny Noriega has seen it all. First achieving notice in 2008 as an “American Idol” semi-finalist, his sassy teen attitude made him a regular punchline for Joel McHale on “The Soup.” After a brief phase as YouTube personality Angel Baby, the singer, now 24, has become better known and more beloved as drag queen Adore Delano, a runner-up on the recent season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”

“They still say, ‘Angel Baby’ and ‘YouTube’ and stuff like that, but it’s mostly ‘Adore,’” when he encounters fans these days. “Like, I had kids in Party City the other day that were crying, and I was so uncomfortable and scared. Like, it was so awesome these 13-year-old little girls were excited to meet Adore. What the fuck?” laughs Noriega.

The mother-loving native of Azusa, Calif., has been on the road lately, satiating Adore fans with nightclub gigs like next week’s stop at Play. Life on tour has been an adjustment for the surprisingly reclusive queen known for shouting out “Party!” in any situation. “I do love to party and I love being around crowds, but when I’m not working, I just wanna be by myself, with a fucking box of pizza, and that’s my party time,” he says. “I love my alone time.”

His current persona was born after seeing earlier “Drag Race” contestant Raven perform at a West Hollywood club three years ago. After performing at various southern California clubs, including a stint hosting a weekly Friday night show called “Sour Puss,” Adore Delano finally made it back onto the hot reality competition series of the moment. While seeming unlikely to win at first, for a handful of reasons including an inability to sew, Adore finally got on track, impressing the judges and fans with other skills — including singing, rapping and comedy — and an unexpectedly charming side.

Though not the winner, Adore has made the most of the experience for Noriega: In addition to finally making good money touring, an Adore Delano album — Till Death Do Us Party — was released last week, featuring sure-to-be hits like “DTF,” “I Look Fuckin’ Cool” and “Party.” Sewing is an art not yet mastered, though, he says: “No, but I got a fuckin’ bomb-ass glue gun!”

Adore also gets to inspire those 13-year-olds, living as the kind of role model he didn’t have a decade ago. “When I was 12, I looked up to Marilyn Manson, shit like that. I loved him. I loved people that pushed boundaries, like Anna Nicole Smith and Freddie Mercury, people like that. I wasn’t really, like, ‘Ooh, Good Charlotte!,’ or the bands that were popular … I was more focused on kind of what people made history in pop culture, for different reasons — like, why people were so attracted to Queen in the ’80s and why Freddie Mercury was a fucking lyrical genius. I was clearly obsessed with him when I was a kid, and I love Marilyn Manson so much.”

He has a theory on why young kids can look up to him and other queens. “They’re powerful, they’re fun, they’re almost like double personality superhero anime characters. That’s the awesome thing about (“RuPaul’s Drag Race”), though, is they’re putting drag in a different light, kind of pushing it almost mainstream.”

Fans don’t see everything that happens on set, though. He says his friend Laganja Estranja’s epic meltdown was even more epic, and that viewers only got to see a snippet of what went on for hours. It happened, he says, because the queen decided to change her persona shortly before filming began, becoming unfocused and confusing the producers who had cast her for what they had seen in the clubs. “If you don’t go into the competition with a fully developed character, you are completely fucked,” says Noriega. “She wasn’t aware that it was coming off phony bologna because she hadn’t done it for a while.”

Adore Delano isn’t much different than Danny Noriega, and that authenticity got her — and him — this far. The Louisville appearance will be “a fucking party,” because he likes the flyover states. “I feel like there’s a different appreciation of drag and I … do you guys have Whataburger? Oh, fuck, man, it’s so good.”

‘Hard Candy’ with Adore Delano
Wednesday, June 18
Play Dance Bar
1101 E. Washington St.
playdancebar.com
$10-$15; 9 p.m.


Photo by Mathu Andersen

Here
c. 2014 LEO Weekly

Wednesday, June 04, 2014

A country for young men: Art exhibition explores both old and new cultures


detail from "Cry Now" by Patrick Jilbert

Patrick Jilbert moved from Louisville to Santa Cruz, Calif., a few years ago for a job at Consolidated Skateboards. He met a fellow artist while out West, Sid Enck Jr. The pair became fast friends and remained in each other’s lives even after Jilbert moved back to Louisville.

Enck has visited Louisville twice since, so while organizing an art tour for this summer, showing alongside his friend made Jilbert’s city a perfect stop. It’s their first proper show together.

“We both got into art because of skateboarding, and we both started off making really morbid art,” Jilbert says. “As time progressed, I got more into language-inspired work, and he has moved into Native American-inspired work. But we are still able to collaborate on things together well somehow.”

Enck, “passionate for creating and driven to share,” has shown often in California, but this time he’s traveling across the country showing at a variety of venues with different partners in each location. Louisville is the first stop, to be followed by Macon, Ga., and Chicago. Jilbert rejoins the show in Chicago. The intention of the tour, they say, is “to get their creations noticed beyond the boundaries of their local area and to promote the talent of other phenomenal artists.” Enck will be chronicling the adventures online at fromcanvastocountry.tumblr.com.

While the tour is a big leap forward for Enck, he has already spent time traveling, fueling his art with inspiration found primarily from two sources: American Indian culture and found objects. His mixed-media work often blurs lines between the two, mixing animal bones, vintage clothing parts, black-and-white photos and new, hand-drawn or cut details. One important connecting theme is using recycling creatively, honoring every part that might help complete a new creation. Enck notes that he takes “great pride” in using recycled materials that are all American made, adding that showing the importance of sustainability is an important part of his process.

Trained as a woodworker and craftsman, and also experienced as a photographer, Enck mostly paints directly on hand-cut wood, putting a lot of sweat into his already complicated pieces. Cutting, sanding, printing and painting is only the beginning, as some works then require further detailing and ornamentation. It’s a kind of labor often lacking in art assemblage, but making the viewer see how much work and attention to detail has gone into each inch is perhaps the main point Enck wants to make — to pay attention, to not take this planet for granted.

If Enck’s work is based in the natural world, Jilbert’s is seemingly in contrast, as his very modern, urban perspective is influenced by city life, primarily its slang and music. Self-taught, Jilbert has already served as an artist-in-residence at the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, and spreads his street style through paintings, posters and shirts. What the pair share is a love for documenting the effects of industrialization — native culture affected by the material world, and the detritus created by that collision. Both have preserved cultural moments that will keep that energy alive, even after its time has passed.

An opening reception will be held Saturday, June 7, from 5-9 p.m. at Ultra Pop.

‘From Canvas to Country’
Art by Sid Enck Jr. & Patrick Jilbert
June 7-30
Ultra Pop
960 Barret Ave.
ultra-pop.com


Here
c. 2014 LEO Weekly