Wax Fang 2.0: This time it’s personal

Here

One day recently, Wax Fang’s Scott Carney glanced at a poster for the release show for his band’s most recent album, La La Land. The date was Nov. 17, 2007.

From the start, it was all too easy. Wax Fang’s first gigs in late 2005, before they even had a name, drew big crowds. The buzz spread quickly about the band led by a little-known singer/guitarist who wrote catchy but weird and glorious art-rock songs, supported by the powerhouse drummer who had toured the world with Elliott and the supple bassist who had recently left the popular Cabin.

They toured with My Morning Jacket, who mentioned them in The New York Times. Pavement invited them to play the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in England. They signed with indie label Absolutely Kosher. And then … not much happened.

Between real life situations (jobs, relationships, family issues, band dynamics) and music business situations, Wax Fang’s momentum began to stall.

“I started to feel like my soul and essence was being pulled in all these different directions,” Carney says.

A new EP, Mirror Mirror, was released last month, but beyond fulfilling promotional duties, the EP hasn’t been on Carney’s mind much. “My girlfriend texted me (that) morning, ‘Happy release day!’ and I didn’t know what she meant. I wrote back, ‘What’s release day?’ ‘Your EP, you idiot!’”

The songs were written in 2009 and ’10, mixing and mastering was finished several months ago, and the band is currently mastering their next record. “That project is, like, two projects behind at this point.”

Some of the frustrations he was dealing with at the time came out in the song “Dawn of the Dead of the Night of the Hunter,” which he jokingly calls “a jolly jingle — about zombies!”

The closing number, “In Memory,” was written after being present as his grandmother died, seeing her take her last breath.

Carney is ready now to begin the second phase of what will hopefully be a long life for Wax Fang. Drummer Kevin Ratterman left last year, busy running his successful recording studio, but bassist Jake Heustis remains, and the duo have been working with various drummers as they search for the next permanent member.

“We were literally playing the same set for, like, four years,” Carney notes, as the founding trio struggled to find time to work together. Carney and Heustis have enjoyed the casual nature of having musician friends sit in, and this week’s show will add former Cabin drummer Dave Chale and Jeremy Perry of the Deloreans on guitar and keyboards.

What’s next is the remainder of the “Astronaut” trilogy. The first song — a 17-minute journey into sonic space — was released in 2010. Carney was drawn to the concept by “the challenge of it. Just one simple idea, drawn out to … some giant monstrosity.”

It was also an inventive way to keep the band moving forward when they needed something to be excited about.

“At the time, when we finished part one, it was kind of a joke: ‘Yeah, maybe we’ll write a part two someday!’ The next thing you know, that’s what we were doing.” The story will be completed with two remaining songs added on the upcoming collection that Carney calls “a 40-something-minute concept prog-rock album.”

“Part two is probably the most similar to part one. And its length and scope probably takes it to the next level … if you can imagine that,” he says, sounding giddy at the prospect.

“Part one requires a lot of patience, I think, in places, like when you have a six-minute abstract section right in the middle of your song — where, in part two, there’s more momentum, it just keeps moving.

“Part three — there’s a lot more electronic influence in it. I went in a very different direction with that one … It’s got a lot of synthesizer and drum machines, electro-drum overdub things that are very ’80s, for sure, but it’s still, like, guitar/bass/drums. But it’s poppy, for us, as of late.”

It was also a way to expand the possibilities of what Wax Fang can be, he says, folding elements of other genres into their rock trio format. “Space has no boundaries, so why should I?”

WAX FANG WITH OLD BABY AND ANWAR SADAT
Saturday, Nov. 17
Headliners Music Hall
1386 Lexington Road
headlinerslouisville.com
$10; 9 p.m.

c. 2012 LEO Weekly

Jerry Douglas takes a vacation

Here

Jerry Douglas has made a lot of friends after 40 years in the music business. The 56-year-old, called the world’s greatest dobro (resonator guitar) player, has earned 13 Grammys after performing on something near 2,000 recordings, when he’s not at his day job as a pivotal member of Alison Krauss & Union Station.

The Nashville resident released Traveler, his 13th solo album, in June, his first with an outside producer and the first to feature his vocals. He also plays lap steel and slide guitar on it. The album features appearances by Eric Clapton, Dr. John, Keb Mo’, Marc Cohn, Sam Bush, Bela Fleck, Del McCoury — and on his cover of Paul Simon’s “The Boxer,” not just Simon himself, but also Mumford & Sons.

“Those guys have been friends of mine for a few years,” he says. “We’d been planning on recording together at some point.” He stayed over in London after a Union Station tour to record with the then-rising band. When he thought it was finished, Douglas played it for Simon. “He wanted to play on it, too! My band opened for him a few years ago, and every night, Paul and I would end the whole show with ‘The Boxer,’” Douglas says. “So it’s sort of a mish-mashed version of his version and Emmylou Harris’ version, I’d say. Because the Mumfords knew it from Emmylou.”

Simon approved but wanted the recording to end the way he’d ended it with Douglas onstage. The recording also appears on the deluxe edition of Mumford & Sons’ hugely popular Babel, released in September.

Douglas says he doesn’t care about how that might affect him financially. “It’s more about friendship than dollars and cents … it’s music.”

He’s seen the occasional windfall before, like when the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack sold millions a decade ago. “Everybody’s ready for something honest, and they certainly are that.”

It’s been “a long time,” he says, since he’s played a solo show in Louisville. (Union Station’s 2002 Live album was recorded at the Louisville Palace.) He used to come back every year for the IBMAs, the bluegrass awards, until they moved to Nashville. “It’s a fickle bunch,” he laments. “Nashville’s actually the perfect place, I think, but I think it’s too expensive for a lot of the folks … it’s country music, and a lot of them just don’t like the big city.”

When LEO spoke with Douglas in October, he was in the Florida panhandle vacationing with his family and celebrating his 25th wedding anniversary before starting his current tour, which brings his quartet to the KCD Theater this weekend. “I’m on the beach — I’m actually in the water!” he said, sounding like a man who’s figured out how to make even a work phone call obligation into something fun.

“I’m on my first and last vacation of the year,” says Douglas. “Oh, man, it’s great, it’s 75 or 80 degrees here now. The water’s warm in the gulf. I’m watching schools of fish go by. It’s nice.”

On his vacation, he’s discovered a band who play Sundays at a seafood joint on the beach. Even off the job, he can’t help but sit in with another band.

“It’s a really great place to retire and start an empire,” he notes.

So, in your mind, retiring also involves a chance to do more work?

“Yeah! I’ll just have a revolving band I can play with — play what I want to.”

Jerry Douglas with Ashleigh Flynn
Saturday, Nov. 17
KCD Theater
4100 Springdale Road
kcd.org/theater
$35-$42; 8 p.m.

Photo by Jim McGuire

c. 2012 LEO Weekly

album review: Karass

Here

There’s something about the deliberate approach of most instrumental post-rock bands that is reminiscent of U2 guitarist The Edge. As the beginning chords of the opening track slowly begin to reveal themselves, stealthily approaching from some unseen vista far, far away, the clean, stuttering tone becomes engorged on the structure of all the rock music that’s come before it. The riffs become massive as the rest of the band — always a bassist, drummer and either a keyboardist and/or another guitarist — announce themselves to the world, wet as an otter. Those that don’t vary from the format don’t survive, roadkill, while the best — like Karass — turn the formula on its head, transmogrifying from the expected model to an interstellar, post-John Carpenter soundtrack immersion. Also, no Bono, often a bonus.

c. 2012 LEO Weekly

Punk President

Here

Anwar El Sadat was born in 1918 and served as the president of Egypt between 1970 and 1981. He won a Nobel Peace Prize for his role in achieving the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty, an act that led to his assassination.

Punk rock was developed in the United States, England and Australia in the mid-1970s. Led by notable acts such as the Ramones and the Clash, it is an oft-political form of music created in reaction to mainstream conventions.

The band Anwar Sadat is currently one of the most viscerally thrilling bands in Louisville. After touring last month, they will open for Wax Fang at Headliners on Nov. 17.

Vocalist/bassist Shane Wesley answered LEO’s very important questions.

LEO: What do you tell older relatives your band sounds like?

Shane Wesley: “Punk.” They know what that is, at least. I don’t think any of our relatives are too far removed from popular culture.

LEO: How did the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty influence your decision to form a band?

SW: It didn’t. We seriously just looked at the name, imagined it on a T-shirt, and decided that this was it.

LEO: If cassettes become “cool” again to folks like Pearl Jam and Urban Outfitters, would you still want to release cassettes?

SW: I don’t think whether something is “cool” or not factored into the decision of releasing a cassette. It’s mostly just really cheap to produce, and we needed something to sell on tour since we sold out of 7”s.

LEO: How do you feel about Wax Fang?

SW: Cool dudes who are very good at what they do.

LEO: If death is no vacation, then what is it?

SW: The last great unknown.

Listen to the music at anwarsadat.bandcamp.com.

Photo by Bryan Volz

c. 2012 LEO Weekly

Amigos del art

Here

Louisville artists Jeral Tidwell and Justin Kamerer have become known well beyond these borders for their dark-tinged artwork, full of fast cars, interesting women, kooky characters, tattoos, decay and beauty. This week, they celebrate the release of their new book, “Amigos de los Muertos” (made in collaboration with fellow artists Roberto Jaras Lira and David Lozeau), and its inspiration, Mexico’s Day of the Dead holiday.

The holiday honors those who have died, and in tribute to the traditional practice of building sugar skulls to be used as part of altars, sugar cookies are planned for the signing at Ultra Pop.

The book began when Tidwell and Kamerer, partners in Crackhead Press, were in Northern California on a business trip. Facebook called them into their headquarters to make some art last spring, and, on a side trip, they stopped into the headquarters of Last Gasp Publishing, a leader in underground comics and books since 1970.

Though the Louisvillians have published their own “Ink Alchemy” book series with another publisher, they were excited to work with Last Gasp, who have also published legends in the field from R. Crumb to Mark Ryden. Ryden’s 2003 book “Blood” offered a template, from its size to its structure.

Kamerer designed the book, which includes a faux leather cover, gold foil stamping, gilded edges and a purple ribbon tucked inside. Having access to Last Gasp’s printing facilities helped produce the high quality publication, which he modeled after “Bible-y stuff.”

“I wanted it to look, at first glance, like it was actually a mini-Bible. Originally, we were going to have it in the tiny pocket ones that they give out on campuses. But then we realized that our art shrunk down that tiny would be a big, blobby mess.”

The Day of the Dead theme also offered a chance to do some drawing in the style of Mexican artist Jose Guadelupe Posada, known for his satirical work with skeletons. Religious imagery runs throughout the four sections of the book, along with the grim reaper, skulls, beasts and other animals.

The locals met Jaras, who lives in Santiago, Chile, when he came to Louisville to visit a cousin. A fellow artist at the UnFair recommended him to Tidwell, and he has returned to work with them. He will be in attendance at the signing on Friday, which will also feature deluxe editions of the book.

“It was cool watching him learn really quickly, watching his skills enhance with us pestering the crap out of him,” Kamerer says.

As a Chilean, Jaras is quick to point out that the Day of the Dead holiday is as foreign to him as it is to Americans. Still, it’s a fun theme for art.

“I’m pretty sure that all four of us are in love with religious iconography, in general,” Kamerer says. “So that’s fun to do.”

Death has always been appealing to Jaras because it’s an integral part of life. “For some reason, unfortunately, Judeo-Christian culture has given it a different twist,” he says. “My intention was to bring some of the cheerfulness and goofiness that permeates both life and death. We’ve become too scared of death, and like my grandfather used to say, we should be worried about the variables, not the constant,” he notes. “It’s the ending of one thing, but the beginning of a new life. That’s the whole purpose behind these flowers coming out of skulls — life coming out of death.”

‘Amigos de los Muertos’
Friday, Nov. 2
Ultra Pop
1414 Bardstown Road
ultra-pop.com
Free; 6 p.m.

c. 2012 LEO Weekly

The Pass moves on up

Here

The Pass have been taking a shot at surpassing VHS or Beta’s ability to fill up venues with ’80s-style arena-sized hooks, grooves and beats for two and a half years, and now find themselves at the edge of glory. They’ve toured around the country, made popular videos and been heard on a half-dozen TV shows — but can they take it to the next level?

Their second and latest full-length album, Melt, will be released officially on Nov. 6 (though copies will be available at their 18+ Headliners show). It took a couple of years to get here. They wrote 30 songs, recorded 20, then picked 11 favorites.

Bassist Will Roberts is especially proud of singer Kyle Peters’ lyrics this time around. “The lyrics are cool and really original. That’s one of the things that makes us a weird band, I guess; our songs are kind of poppy, but you’ll never hear a lyric like an Ooh baby baby type thing. The lyrics are really deep. I’ve asked (Kyle) before, ‘Dude, what’s going on here?’ He explains them, and I’m like, ‘Oh, man!’” exclaims the impressed New Jersey native. “… ‘I’m not just saying that because you’re my roommate and my good friend. That’s sick!’”

“Psycho” is a song on the new album that Roberts, who wrote the music, points out for Peters’ contribution. The singer came up with a story about a long-term relationship ending, leaving the protagonist in a fragile state. Roberts says the second verse is his favorite on the album: You’ll want to be ready, when the voices start to call your name. / And you’ll try try to ignore, but it’ll fall like rain when you’re trying to stay dry. / And it’ll test your patience, it’ll test your mind.

At first, he hated what he heard coming from Peters’ voice. “Sometimes you can’t tell what he’s saying when he’s singing, that’s just the way he sings … a lot of people have trouble understanding him sometimes, the way he phrases stuff.” When he read what his singer had written, though, Roberts was “amazed.”

Growth has been a focus for The Pass this year. For their first year and a half together, they were happy to just play “straight-up, loud, raucous dance music.” But, Roberts says, “We got better at writing songs.”

They didn’t want to completely change styles, but “you can only do so much, trying to play a four-on-the-floor dance beat and write music to it. We’re sick of it a little bit. We still want to do dance music, but I think that’s why there’s more quote-unquote rock tunes on this album. More song-oriented.”

The band has begun seeing some early success in unexpected places.

“We get random comments on Facebook, like from Arizona. ‘Hey, we heard you in The Gap!’” he laughs. “That’s the coolest thing in the world. I just saw the royalties lately — we’re getting checks for, like, $2,000 from The Limited or something. Like, ‘what?’”

And so far, the biggest challenge they’ve faced is deciding what to be called. “Naming bands is the hardest thing ever. It’s just such an important thing, and everything you think of, you find a reason not to like it. It’s like naming a kid, I imagine — although kids have their own names. You can’t name a band ‘John,’” Roberts laughs. “I guess you could, that would be original.”

The Pass with The Deloreans and Skyscraper Stereo
Friday, Nov. 2
Headliners Music Hall
1386 Lexington Road
headlinerslouisville.com
$10; 9 p.m.

c. 2012 LEO Weekly

album review: The Coal Porters

Here

The Coal Porters
Find the One
PRIMA

They call it “alternative bluegrass,” but all that is alt about their ’grass is that the Coal Porters don’t let the genre’s limitations hold them back from adding new flavors to their plate. Also, they’re based in London. Leader Sid Griffin was raised in the bluegrass state, in the Southern town named for King Louis XVI, and his ragtag group features three lead singers, members older and younger, American and British, male and otherwise, plus, a guest solo here from Richard Thompson; it’s that grab-bag approach that distinguishes the Coal Porters. The band celebrates Americans who play like Bill Monroe, the Scotch-Irish who originated a form of this music, and throws in crowd-pleasing versions of two modern British standards (Bowie’s “Heroes” and the Stones’ “Paint It, Black”), which sound pretty gosh darn good reconstituted as ballads and barn-burners.

c. 2012 LEO Weekly

The Big Band Theory

Here

Saxophonist Drew Miller might have looked normal enough on the outside, but for a few years, he was carrying around an atypical idea for a band. “The inspiration behind the band’s inception came primarily from Tortoise, Jaga Jazzist, Zappa, Orchestre National de Jazz, The Sun Ra Arkestra, my time playing with Lucky Pineapple and Another7Astronauts, and as an outlet for me to write and arrange for a larger ensemble.”

His dream band, D’Arkestra, is now releasing their first album, Ghost Town, with a release show at the Tim Faulkner Gallery on Halloween. Miller likes the location because “it is a non-traditional type of venue with great atmosphere, especially the performance space that we will be using,” he says. “So we want to put on a relaxed, informal performance, and a really fun hang.” The $3 all-ages event starts at 9 p.m.

Miller says he realized his creativity hadn’t been fully satisfied merely playing others’ music. He started writing and arranging. “As I got deeper into the process, I was really energized by the endless possibilities that the instrumentation and size of the group presented in terms of texture, ‘arkestration,’ and ways to use the instruments.”

He collected some favorite colleagues to add sax, trumpet, trombone, keyboards, guitar, bass, drums, and other effects, and two songs on Ghost Town feature vocalist Dane Waters.

Miller realized early on that being focused on one form would never satisfy his musical impulses. He put himself into many different settings, from rock to jazz to experimental music, and approached even being an audience member as a form of research.

“I decided a long time ago that, to be viable and relevant, I needed to gain as much perspective as possible … If you are proficient on your instrument and are hungry to make music and be creative, you will feel at home no matter what style or genre.”

To hear the music, go to darkestra.bandcamp.com.

Photo by Ashley Stinson

c. 2012 LEO Weekly

Taking shots with Watt from Pedro

Here

To many who came up in the ’80s punk scene or ’90s alt-rock explosion, Mike Watt remains a folk hero. His influential bass playing, with The Minutemen and Firehose, inspired countless bands from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Fugazi, and his avuncular blue-collar hipster persona helped send others, like Sonic Youth and Nirvana, into Econoline vans to find their kindred spirits.

Watt is currently taking a break from playing alongside Iggy Pop in The Stooges to tour with his solo band. The famously productive 54-year-old recently participated in four different collaborative albums and a Firehose reunion; his second book, “On and Off Bass,” a collection of photos, poems and prose, was released in May.

The book was inspired by his early morning routine: Seven days a week, he’s pedaling his bicycle around his lifelong home of San Pedro, Calif., or paddling a kayak. “I like the early morning, when no one else is out: ‘Wow, this all belongs to me.’ But I also like the potential — what is to come?”

LEO: How did this book happen?
Mike Watt: The first thing was digital cameras. When these things came along, yeah, you just deleted the lame ones (laughs) and went for it. The other thing was, I started to ride a bike again, after 22 years. Some cat was moving, sold me a 10-speed for $5. I remember seeing these in people’s pads growing up, not using them, just using ’em like fuckin’ clothes racks. I figured, “I’m not gonna let that happen, I’m gonna peddle again.”

My town is Pedro, San Pedro, it’s the harbor of Los Angeles. So we got a weird mix of nature and industry. Early in the morning, when I rode, not as many people would see me fall down — which I did a lot at first — but I also learned to look and listen. It started hurting my knees, so a few years in, I started kayaking to break it up. I was born with bad knees and shit.

The trippy thing about the pictures is, in both situations, you can’t really put together the shots. They just come to you; you’re lucky enough to capture them. You learn to wait. All this stuff that’s much different from riding in the car, being in your own world, a lot of control over your own environment.

Last year, there was an art show, in Santa Monica at Track 16, where they picked 35 of my thousands of pictures to put up there. I’d never seen them printed. Soon after that show, Three Rooms publishing in New York asked to put a book out.

They picked out 30 other pictures and then some diary — because I write diaries on tour. They’re impossible to re-read, ’cause they’re embarrassing as hell. But it gives me focus when I’m doing them, in the moment. I told them, “You pick some.”

So that’s what the book is. The editor picking little spiels, and then Track 16 picking these pictures. They’re all my works, but they kinda, I don’t know, distilled them according to their … journey of life (laughs).

Obviously, I love sunrises and pelicans! (laughs) When I told Ig (Iggy Pop) about it, he laughed. But it’s genuine. What do I call them? ... “eye gifts,” you know? It’s like when you’re a boy and you just play to play. You’re just out there to see what happens, while you’re piddling and peddling.

It’s being connected, where in other ways we’re not so connected, through devices and machinery, social paradigms, you know? It’s just being there and witnessing. I love it! I don’t think it’s better, it’s just part of the whole … thing. Whatever my journey is.

And music remains at the forefront of Watt’s journey. “I’m into my trios, playing with two guys live, like the Minutemen. There’s always going to be that for me, that same, familiar thing. That old power-trio thing. And traveling around in the boat (his slang for the tour van), working the towns … I like that part, too. But then there’s the parts I didn’t do as a younger man, like wild collaborations. I was more afraid then (laughs). I was a lot more (afraid).”

Mike Watt + the Missing Men with Old Baby
Tuesday, Oct. 23
Zanzabar
2100 S. Preston St.
zanzabarlouisville.com
$12; 9 p.m.

c. 2012 LEO Weekly

Laura Marling's American detour

Here

Laura Marling is a rising star back home in England and in larger American cities, but when the java lover walks into Sunergos Coffee before her show at Zanzabar, chances are she won’t be recognized. At 22, the prodigy has already released three albums of Joni Mitchell-esque folk/pop, earning acclaim but not yet breaking through commercially.

Though her low-register voice and classy accent hide her youth somewhat, she still has plenty to see and experience. Her fall tour takes her through some lesser-known parts of this country.

LEO: Was this tour your idea?

Laura Marling: Yeah, it was my excuse to come to those places. I’ve wanted to see them all for a very long time. I’m doing it in a simple way, just a guitar and a rental car.

LEO: Did you pick out the itinerary?

LM: Yeah, I did. I put pins on a map and sent it to the powers that be.

LEO: How did you pick Louisville?

LM: I have a friend from Louisville, Morgan, who told me a bunch of magical stories about it, and Kentucky is a place I always wanted to see.

LEO: How did you meet him?

LM: Through music.

LEO: Is he a performer?

LM: No, he’s an ... interested party.

LEO: A superfan?

LM: (laughs) A superfan. You can say that.

LEO: We have some well-known musicians from here, like Bonnie Prince Billy —

LM: Yes!

LEO: Have you met him?

LM: No, I haven’t. I’ve seen him play many, many times. But no, I’ve never met him.

LEO: He’s been around lately, maybe he’ll come out to see you here.

LM: Oh, god, that’d be terrifying! (laughs). In a great way.

LEO: What are some of the other parts of America that interest you?

LM: I’m very much looking forward to New Orleans. I’ve never been that far south. I saw a lot of the West Coast last time I was here. That drive, in particular, the 101 … I’m a slightly romanticized tourist, I suppose.

LEO: That’s the fun of it, right? The escape and the fantasy of it?

LM: Yeah, exactly. I think I deserve to get lost for a little while.

LEO: Have you been feeling the pressures of the business?

LM: Yeah, I mean, the main idea behind this is to remind me of how simple it can be, if you put your mind up to it. You don’t need anything other than a bit of transport and a guitar.

LEO: The Woody Guthrie ideal.

LM: Yes, yes, I’m the female rambler! (laughs)

LEO: Have you been writing new songs?

LM: Yeah, I actually just finished the fourth album. So that’s been really nice. That’s coming out in February, I think.

LEO: How did you approach recording this time? Any differently?

LM: Yeah, I’ve done this album, just me and Ethan (Johns), who produced my last two albums. Just me and him in the studio, really. He’s a very good percussionist and instrumentalist. Between me and him, we’ve done what we can to orchestrate it in a way that doesn’t sound like a band. It doesn’t sound like a group of us sitting down and playing live-to-tape. It sounds like instrumentation on top of songwriting.

LEO: What inspired the songs for this collection?

LM: Umm … that’s an interesting question. I don’t think I’m far enough removed from it yet to know. I think … whatever I’ve been doing in the last year. Whatever’s been occupying my mind. I think a continuing theme from the last album would be natural morality. But at the same time, it’s very, very different from the last album. It’s more of a story, this one. There’s characters in it. Yeah … I couldn’t really answer that question.

LEO: Is there a concept running throughout it?

LM: Yeah, I mean, I haven’t listened to it back yet. Kind of consciously. When I hear the mixes and the master, those shall be the only two times I’ll listen to it back. And then I’ll kind of realize the themes or the characters within it, because I’ve had a bit of space from it. But I haven’t had that yet.

Laura Marling
with Bro. Stephen
Saturday, Oct. 20
Zanzabar
2100 S. Preston St.
zanzabarlouisville.com
$15; 8 p.m.

c. 2012 LEO Weekly

Trampled By Turtles: dads rock

Here

When Trampled By Turtles hit the road, they make it work. The Minnesotans return to Louisville after less than five months away, and this year has seen them play everywhere from “Letterman” to CNN to SXSW. Their sound is flexible enough to get them booked at many festivals. “You name one, we’re probably playing it,” agrees mandolinist Erik Berry.

“We did a 21-day tour that had 19 or 20 actual performances, contracted gigs,” earlier this year. “And we did an additional 12 appearances or recording projects: in-studios, in-stores, radio station appearances. Something like 30 appearances in 21 days,” Berry summarizes.

A couple of the members are family men now, and they’ve instructed their management to send them on the road for shorter but more intensive periods. “Time home is important, so when we’re out, we’re like, ‘Work us.’”

One way Berry has managed to balance work and family is “I went and turned my oldest into a fan of the band. That helps a lot,” he laughs about his 5-year-old. “The only other record (of ours) I listen to with any regularity is Palomino, and that’s because that’s the one my son likes so much.

“There’s tricky stuff I have to deal with, like him wanting to hear ‘Wait So Long’ 10 times in a row in the car, but … As opposed to him being like, ‘Why do you have to go out on the road again?’ He gets it.”

Stars and Satellites, the sixth full-length album for the bluegrass-inspired quintet, was released in April on their own BanjoDad label and debuted at No. 32 on the Billboard charts. They had recorded it near their Duluth homes, focusing on getting it right fairly quickly so they could see their families at the end of each day. The collection features some slower, more somber songs than the band has previously tackled.

“It was the batch of songs that (singer/guitarist) Dave (Simonett) had for us,” Berry says. “About six songs into the project, we were like, ‘Well, this is gonna be a little bit slower than other ones. Are we OK with that?’ But we were enjoying the tunes so much that it seemed like, ‘What are we going to say? This isn’t any good? This isn’t fun’? We liked it.”

Simonett was one of the new dads, contributing to his altered state of mind. Additionally, various friends and members of the band members’ families passed away between albums. “Grandpas got lost. Stuff like that,” says Berry. “I know that was going into his head.”

Though the band would surely be glad to have a big radio hit, or find some other way to spend less time touring, they can’t say they’re not glad to return to Louisville. “We’ve recorded a couple of our videos down there,” Berry recalls. “The live footage for ‘Where Is My Mind?’ was shot at Headliners, and then both ‘Victory’ and ‘Wait So Long’ were shot in Louisville.”

“We didn’t know what the deal was, but a few years ago, outside of Minneapolis and Duluth, our strongest retail was Portland (Ore.) and Louisville, Ky.!”

TRAMPLED BY TURTLES
WITH HONEYHONEY
Thursday, Oct. 18
Headliners Music Hall
1386 Lexington Road
headlinerslouisville.com
$18 adv., $20 DOS; 8 p.m.

Photo by Pieter van Hattem

c. 2012 LEO Weekly

Fiddle sticks

Here

Fiddler Rayna Gellert of Asheville, N.C., has had a prolific career playing with everyone from Bela Fleck to Robyn Hitchcock, and now steps out with a new solo album. She plays at Please & Thank You on Wednesday, Oct. 17, at 7 p.m.

LEO: Can you tell me about working with Kentucky boys Nathan Salsburg and Ben Sollee?
Rayna Gellert: I love Kentucky boys! Excuse me: Kentucky men. Both of those fellas are an absolute joy to play with. Ben is such a fun musician. We met because Otis Taylor threw us in the studio together to play on his record, and as soon as we started playing, Otis was like, “Are you two related?” It just clicked. And I’m so indebted to Nathan — he was involved with my album from the get-go and brought so much musicality and thoughtfulness to the whole process. He’s a dear friend and deeply knowledgeable musician. And we love all the same dead guys!

LEO: Is it harder to step out front and be the singer/bandleader, or to be part of an ensemble?
RG: Right now, I’d definitely say stepping out front to be the singer and bandleader, because that’s what’s new and challenging for me. I’m excited to learn how to do it, though. And I still have plenty of opportunity to be a sideman, which I love. These days, I’m mostly getting that fix from playing with Scott Miller, who’s a great inspiration for me as a songwriter.

LEO: How do you balance playing traditionally inspired music in the modern era? How do you keep it sounding fresh and new?
RG: Good traditional music always sounds fresh to me — I don’t think anything needs to be done to keep it that way. My current musical adventure isn’t about sounding “new” so much as it’s an attempt to follow my own creative vision in a way I haven’t previously. One aspect of this is writing songs, and another is treating traditional songs differently than I have before.

Learn more at raynagellert.com.

album review: Dark Dark Dark

Here

Who Needs Who is not just the latest Dark Dark Dark album, it’s also the latest great album that should be taught in schools and known by all citizens. The gypsy folkers, now sprawled from Minneapolis to New Orleans, suffered from some Fleetwood Mac-style drama; after making loving fun, they wisely stayed together instead of going their own ways and, as with Mac’s Rumours, have produced a stunning collection of songs. A description of their various parts — goth, indie, folk, with dashes of European horns and accordions, propelled by the unsurpassable vocals of pianist Nona Marie Invie — might not sound like an obvious crowd-pleaser, but fans of Feist, Bat for Lashes, or even Adele should be won over. And those Adele people need a second record to buy this year, right? It is October already.

c. 2012 LEO Weekly

Weird Al — A life in the arts, examined

Here

What can be said about Weird Al Yankovic? If you don’t know by now, you’re probably a child and/or a terrorist. So, because there’s only so much room here, and we don’t get many chances to chat with the musical satire star and subject of the new book “Weird Al: The Book,” here are some highlights from LEO’s interview.

LEO: Do you ever think about your legacy when you’re in the shower or clipping your toenails?
Weird Al Yankovic: (laughs) You know, putting together my coffee table book, I gave it a whole lot of thought. It was kind of a daunting experience to look over your entire life and try to make sense of it all.

LEO: Did you make sense of it?
WAY: It’s an ongoing process.

LEO: Putting together a retrospective package, did it feel like “How much more do I have left to give?” or “I’m halfway there”?
WAY: All of the above. I’m not quite done yet. I still enjoy what I do, and people seem to have not gotten completely sick of me yet, so I’d like to continue with my career. But it has been three decades worth of stuff, and there’s a lot of stuff that’s gone down, and once you look at everything, in its entirety, it’s pretty overwhelming. For me, at least.

LEO: You’ve lasted this long without any serious competition and survived huge changes in the music industry, and MTV, so you seem to be here to stay.
WAY: I guess there’s nobody that’s doing it, specifically what I do, at the level I’m doing it at, but there’s 100,000 people on YouTube doing song parodies. The market is a little more crowded these days. But I keep on and hope that people will still appreciate what I do. I’m perhaps not as unique as I was in the ’80s and ’90s.

LEO: That may be true, but who else can fill up a 3,000-seat theater, charge $25 or whatever, and people will be happy to be there?
WAY: (laughs) That’s probably true.

LEO: The book — how big is it? What kind of stuff is in it? Were the literati clamoring for the Weird Al book?
WAY: Well, I don’t know about the entire literati, but Abrams Books thought it was a good idea. I was happy to be involved with it, but I didn’t really feel like writing an autobiography. It didn’t seem like a pleasant job. Also, it didn’t feel right for me; it’s not like I was trying to get my story out there. It seems like I’ve been talking about myself nonstop for 30 years. I don’t think there’s anything I haven’t said about myself in various interviews and podcasts over the years.

I felt like for a fresh perspective, I should have somebody else tell the story. So I had them hire Nathan Rabin, who’s the head writer of The Onion’s A/V Club. He did all the heavy lifting of going through the details of my life and trying to make it interesting, have it make sense.

LEO: Did he go back to Lynnwood and talk to old teachers and old girlfriends?
WAY: I don’t think he talked to old teachers, but he talked to various people in my life: the band, Dr. Demento, managers — the people who have had an effect on me. Then he put it all together.

LEO: What can you tell people who haven’t seen your live show about why they should come out?
WAY: It’s a high-energy, rock and comedy multimedia extravaganza. I’m on the stage with the same band I’ve had since the beginning of recorded history, and we’re playing a lot of stuff from the Alpocalypse album, all the greatest hits and a few surprises here and there, costume changes, film clips … it’s never a dull moment onstage.

LEO: What’s the worst thing about your show?
WAY: When’s it over, there’s an overwhelming feeling of depression among the crowd (laughs).

LEO: Is there anything you haven’t done that you’d like to do?
WAY: I’ve been thinking possibly about writing a musical, but I don’t know.

LEO: Can you tell me one thing about yourself that you’ve never told anyone before?
WAY: Uhh, I am currently wearing plaid underwear.

Weird Al Yankovic
Sunday, Oct. 14
Palace Theater
625 S. Fourth St.
louisvillepalace.com
$19.50-$75; 7 p.m.

c. 2012 LEO Weekly

Dance party USA

Here

pictured: Java Jews

KlezmerFest returns to Temple Shalom on Sunday, Oct. 14, at 1 p.m. with three bands: Iowa’s Java Jews, Indianapolis’ INDYKLEZ, and Louisville’s Lost Tribe. Founder Kathy Karr takes us behind the music.

LEO: How do you explain klezmer to the hundreds of thousands of locals who might have not even heard of it, let alone heard it played?

Kathy Karr: Klezmer music has gypsy, Romanian, East European, jazz, and Dixieland influences. Klezmer music is dance music and soulful music.

LEO: How did this fest get started?

KK: I envisioned a music festival of klezmer music in 2009. I had purchased a bunch of klezmer music CDs and listened to them so much in my car that I actually wore out a few CDs! I fell in love with the upbeat, energetic music that really touched my soul. I looked forward to getting in my car to drive somewhere so I could listen to klezmer music and escape my crazy, hectic world.

When I took over as fundraising vice president of Temple Shalom, I was mulling over some ideas, and then it hit me: organize a music festival to feature several klezmer bands and share with the entire community the music I loved, and make some much-needed funds for Temple Shalom.

My hard-working, passionate committee spent a year organizing the festival, and in May 2010, Temple Shalom’s first KlezmerFest happened. We were planning an outdoor event, but it ended up being a rainy, cold day. But we were prepared for rain or shine, and moved indoors. I never expected the huge crowd that attended! Young children, students, congregants, community members, musicians, senior citizens flocked to Temple Shalom in spite of the rainy day to hear our three featured bands.

Learn more at templeshalomky.org.

c. 2012 LEO Weekly

Getting involved with Ben Sollee

Here

Ben Sollee doesn’t just comb his hair, throw on a tie, and head out to the club. An average night for him is a unique event for everyone else.

Known for riding his bicycle (with cello onboard) to concerts, Sollee encourages fans to bike, walk or use public transport to get to his show. (“There will even be bike valet at some of the shows,” he notes.) Those who do will receive a $5 voucher toward his merchandise, “on the honor system.”

Sollee plans to “change up” Headliners a bit for his shows, adding seating options and different lighting.

Oh, and there’s also the music. He’s playing an octave mandolin on this tour, joined by bassist Luke Reynolds and percussionist Jordon Ellis … and a special guest or 12. (The serial collaborator joined numerous acts onstage at this summer’s My Morning Jacket-curated Forecastle Festival.)

The Lexington native has spent a lot of time in Louisville and has the fan base to show for it, as his two-night stand here proves. The most popular pop-R&B-classical-folk-rock singer-cellist in the world has just released his third full-length solo album, Half-Made Man, and buzz continues to build for Sollee. From Kentucky to NPR to Hollywood, it seems like a good time to be in the Ben Sollee business.

“That’s a wonderful hope, and expectation, to have,” Sollee says. “There’s no way to guarantee that, but I think if you go out and play a good show, and you connect with the community in those towns, there’s no way to not grow.”

Half-Made Man’s title song, in particular, reflects his ongoing growth process. Sollee thinks a lot about community and the role his work plays in it. A short film called “Wooden Box,” focusing on his school workshops, debuts at the Louisville International Festival of Film on Saturday afternoon.

The album was funded in less than 48 hours by 410 donations sourced through the Pledge Music site, many from Louisville (with some of the funds raised beyond the goal amount being donated to Oxfam America).

Having performed much of his earlier albums alone with multiple overdubs, Sollee this time spent two weeks in Louisville with a group of musicians at Kevin Ratterman’s studio, playing live-to-tape.

He’s pragmatic about the financial realities of his field, allowing that he, the artist, is also a “product.” Currently attempting to manage his business himself, the 28-year-old husband and father oversees every detail.

It’s not his first time around the track, and Sollee says he began learning how he wanted to make the industry work for him while touring with the successful Sparrow Quartet, alongside Bela Fleck, Abigail Washburn and Casey Drieesen, between 2005 and 2008. Too much time spent in airplanes (“lots of all-over-the-placeness”) led him to seek a slower, more sustainable path — though the game still occasionally requires, as it did last month, that he travel between places like Los Angeles, New York and Kentucky all within one week to publicize the new album.

Sollee attributes some of his insight to his work as a teen stagehand on Lexington’s “Woodsongs Old-Time Radio Hour,” where he was able to learn from hundreds of artists.

“I came into this industry having a really solid idea of what it meant to get involved in this … I had very realistic expectations when I came in. However, learning how to bend and manipulate yourself as quickly as the industry is changing is really, really tricky.”

Fans will note that his first solo album was titled Learning to Bend.

One artist he learned from was legendary singer and civil rights icon Odetta. They talked about stage presence, as well as social issues. “The impression she left on me was, you just have to tell your story and let folks get involved with it.”

If there’s any doubt left about what his story is, his Pledge Music profile describes him as “Cellist, Singer, Cyclist, Dad, Human.”

When you invest in his music, Sollee says, “I want people to know that it’s a locally made product that’s socially conscious, that has some ethics to it.”

Ben Sollee with Luke Reynolds
Oct. 5-6
Headliners Music Hall
1386 Lexington Road
headlinerslouisville.com
$20-$35; 8:30 p.m.

c. 2012 LEO Weekly

Make time for Alabama Shakes

Here

Small-town band enters a whirlwind of success

“Are there questions you’re sick of being asked?” LEO asks.

If there are questions Brittany Howard doesn’t want to be asked anymore, it’s questions such as How does it feel to go from a small town to stardom in a year? Has it been a whirlwind?

The 24-year-old singer for the breakout rock band of the year, Alabama Shakes, might be on the young side, but she’s a sharp character. Though willing to play the game to get her band’s music heard, she’s happier to talk about more everyday concerns.

Guessing as much, LEO asks if there are some questions she’d rather answer. Howard suggests, “What are your favorite foods?” “Who’s the best driver?” “Who snores the loudest?” and “Who got paid the most in their old job?”

When LEO spoke with her recently, she had been back home in Athens, Ala. (population: 20,000), for approximately one week. “I have no perception of time anymore,” laughs the former postal carrier, as she runs errands in her time between world tours.

Her band’s modernized fusion of soul and classic rock has won them fans like Adele, Jack White and Robert Plant; sold 300,000 copies of debut album Boys & Girls since April; and led to sold-out shows in numerous cities. “I think today’s Thursday, but I’m probably wrong. No, today’s Wednesday! I was close.”

Howard can walk around Athens relatively peacefully, but “it’s really hard to go grocery shopping … Any place where people congregate, you’re gonna get noticed.”

Surprisingly, people have been leaving her alone at bars, but “when you want to go to Wal-Mart and buy some toilet paper …” she laughs. “I’m usually taking photos of people who work there. I’m a curiosity when I go in there, I guess. People want to know, ‘What’s your world like?’ Pretty normal, I don’t know.”

Other popular questions: How did you guys get together? (They met in the Athens music scene). Why are you named Alabama Shakes? (They came up with the name “The Shakes,” then added their home to it when they realized another band had the same name.)

LEO: What are your favorite foods?
Brittany Howard: The best place to eat in Athens, it’s called Burrito Bus. It’s just a little Mexican lady in a bus who makes the best tortas. It seems, generally, we eat a lot of Mexican food on the road.

LEO: Who’s the best driver in the band?
BH: It’s probably gonna be Heath Fogg, our guitar player. Oh, my goodness! Heath Fogg is the most responsible driver … I don’t see good at night. (Drummer) Steve (Johnson) drives too fast. One time, we were going down this mountain and he was going 90 miles an hour. I went, “Dude! This is freaking me out.” I was in the front seat.

LEO: Who snores the loudest?
BH: (Bassist) Zach (Cockrell), for sure. Sometimes you get no sleep.

LEO: Who got paid more at their old job?
BH: Probably Steve. He made the most money. He worked at a nuclear power plant. He had to go through a lot of tests. It’s not easy to get a security clearance to work at a nuclear power plant! (laughs) It’s funny, a rock ’n’ roll drummer with security clearance.

Alabama Shakes with Fly Golden Eagle and Riley Downing
Monday, Oct. 8
Brown Theatre
315 W. Broadway
kentuckycenter.org
$25; 8 p.m.

c. 2012 LEO Weekly

album review: Rayna Gellert

Rayna Gellert
Old Light
STORYSOUND

Fiddler Rayna Gellert is known for her playing with the modern old-timey group Uncle Earl (which also included Abigail Washburn, and whose last record was produced by Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones; both remain fans and collaborators of hers), and for work with Scott Miller, Sara Watkins and Robyn Hitchcock. On Old Light, subtitled Songs From My Childhood & Other Gone Worlds, Gellert takes all she’s learned to date (including inspiration from musical parents) to turn out a world-class collection. Louisville’s own Nathan Salsburg helped arrange much of the album, and it balances old traditions with new energy and freshness. Like Gillian Welch and friends in Tennessee, Gellert’s North Carolina-based crew brings beauty and sadness, simplicity and widescreen sonic effects, together in a way that should — but sadly, doesn’t — define modern American music.

c. 2012 LEO Weekly

Weird pals

Here

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

Here

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

Here

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

Here

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

Here

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

Here

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

Here

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

Here

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

Dan Deacon’s new American sounds

Here

Dan Deacon is having a moment. The Baltimore-based composer/provocateur is unveiling a few connected projects this fall that have already raised the profile of the unlikely beat-making star.

His new album, a conceptual piece titled America, was released this week, arriving under an avalanche of hype from NPR, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, et al., proclaiming it a “must-hear.” He’s co-directed his first video, for the single “True Thrush,” which has also been passed around online, and yesterday — his birthday — Deacon unveiled a free app meant to change the way concertgoers experience live performances. If it works.

A fan of site-specific performances, Deacon’s live show here, presented by the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, is scheduled to take place outside the museum. Deacon’s goal is to make every concert unique, and his free app allows him to synchronize all the smartphones in the room, utilizing them as both light and sound sources. He says it should work without using any wi-fi or data from the phones. “It creates a really unique sound environment and light environment that doesn’t really currently exist. We’re encouraging everyone who’s going to the shows to download the app, because we use it in the show.”

Sounds can shift based on how attendees hold their phones. “There’s going to be times when the only sound in the room is coming out of everyone in the audience’s phones.” Phones will also shift colors. Then again, it might not work at all. He’s only been using it since last week.

Deacon is an activist at heart, and his America is not quite the same as Lee Greenwood’s. While parts of his new album sound poppier and more accessible than some of his earlier work, Deacon continues to employ dissonance and thrives on challenging his audience. The second half of the album is a four-part suite taking up 22 minutes.

“When I started, I didn’t think of my music as inaccessible at all,” he says now, almost a decade later. “I came from writing for, like, five bassoons making squeak noises. But then when I started playing shows, I was, like, ‘Oh, this is weird to people!’”

Deacon feels stuck between different worlds at times. Indie rock fans see him as a DJ, while dance clubgoers think he’s a rocker. When he performs avant-garde work in New York, he is received as a serious composer — but when he goes back to warehouse parties, they write him off as being too pop. In Hollywood, he’s now being seen as a film composer, having scored Francis Ford Coppola’s “Twixt.”

“I like that spot. I’m comfortable being the weird nerd loser who was also the prom king and vice president of the student body. Not fitting into a niche, but not disenfranchising at the same time.”

Deacon’s been given opportunities that he never expected, like the film score, and commissions for orchestras and experimental music festivals, and sees how the work has led to what he’s accomplished with America. “All that really changed the way I felt about my music. It changed the way I wrote music, because I was writing for different contexts and different people. I was writing for humans — and that’s very different.

“I know how to communicate exactly what I mean to the computer, with the software I’m used to,” he continues. “But even though I went to school, notation is a language; if you don’t use it, it starts to fade … If I’m trying to convey a complex musical idea, I know where to put the rhythm down, where the pitch is, but in the articulation and the nuance, I was so utterly rusty. Working in those other environments brought nuance back into my mindset.”

Right now, Deacon is at the beginning of a tour meant to get his ideas out to as large a crowd as possible. He thinks it just might be working.

“I’m into it!,” he says, laughing. “But I don’t want to overanalyze it. I don’t want to change the way I interpret reality. People seem to like the record, and that makes me … happy.”

Dan Deacon
with Height With Friends, Chester Endersby Gwazda, Alan Resnick, and Tomasynaha
Monday, Sept. 3
Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft
715 W. Main St.
kentuckyarts.org
$15; 4 p.m.

Photo by Josh Sisk

c. 2012 LEO Weekly

Tift time

Here

Tift Merritt was labeled an “alt-country” rising star when she emerged around the turn of the century, but it’s a label that hasn’t fit her well as her music has evolved. Though she first gained attention singing with her fellow North Carolinians in the honky-tonk band Two Dollar Pistols, she quickly earned a solo deal and moved to New York.

Traveling Alone, due in October, is her fifth studio album. While her inspiration from forerunners like Emmylou Harris and Loretta Lynn is still in the mix, she has also absorbed aspects of rock ’n’ roll, soul and folk music, and writes like a novelist. High-profile collaborators like singer Andrew Bird, guitarist Marc Ribot, and Calexico drummer John Convertino helped her on this leg of her journey. The first album for home state label Yep Roc, it was written when she found herself adrift between managers and labels.

She defines traveling on this album as “a place so huge … often best talked about through the concrete metaphors of physical life. Outer life.” At 37, Merritt has crossed over from rookie to mid-career veteran and can reflect on her path.

She’s not an easy fit on country, folk or rock stations, and lacks the melodrama of Adele, though her songs fit comfortably next to the popular rootsy bands like Alabama Shakes or Mumford & Sons who currently keep public radio listeners happy. Which, naturally, makes her a perfect fit for WFPK’s Waterfront Wednesday concert series.

Merritt has some ties with local favorite sons My Morning Jacket, too. Album producer Tucker Martine also produced that band’s latest, singer Jim James appeared on Merritt’s previous album, and drummer Patrick Hallahan took her and her band out drinking last time they were here.

About Traveling, she continues, “I really thought about it in terms of chapters, or … like a cowboy’s journey, almost. Like different towns that you come to, and you have an experience. Yet, at the same time, I think this record is very much about that journey on the inside, rather than on the outside. It’s about the places you get pushed to, and where you find your line in the sand.

“All my work is about this, but (it’s about) the power of the individual. Being an outsider … strength comes not from ‘There are no rules, there is no meaning,’ but, ‘This is how I do it. This is meaningful to me.’ Differentiating that from what the rest of the world told you — I think that is a very interesting moment. Does that make sense, or is that a load of crap?”

She has changed, and so, too, has the business she’s chosen. “I’ve been doing this for long enough to know that the best place for my expectations is in my work … my canvas. I can’t ever predict how it affects other people. I’m certainly not somebody who plays the music business game with a smile on my face.” A big laugh comes up from somewhere deep inside and takes her over.

WFPK’s Waterfront Wednesday
with Jukebox the Ghost, Tift Merritt and Whistle Peak
Wednesday, Aug. 29
Waterfront Park, Big Four Lawn
wfpk.org
Free; 6 p.m.

Photo by Taylor Pemberton

c. 2012 LEO Weekly

Bienvenidos a World Fest

Here

“We are a global city. We celebrate our differences, and that’s what makes us a unique city,” says Mayor Greg Fischer. It’s time again for what might be his favorite annual event, World Fest, a celebration of multiculturalism meant to welcome newcomers into Louisville’s socio-economic fabric.

For a music-loving mayor, it’s a good excuse to look official and shake hands with the people while gettin’ funky to some spicy salsa, Bollywood beats and raucous reggae. Veteran booker Ken Clay has assembled dozens of acts from here to Asia and back again, in addition to offering up food, art, education and civic programs.

LEO: What do you think is the most important aspect of the entire weekend?
Greg Fischer: I think the message I want people to realize is, “Wow! We are an international city.” We’re increasingly international, global, so they visually see it, they smell it, they taste it, they hear it at World Fest. Hopefully, what it is is an outlook. We should be one of the great international cities in the country, and World Fest brings it all together — for those who are in the middle of it, or those who are just discovering it for the first time.

LEO: What can you do to interest people who might not otherwise think it sounds like fun for them?
GF: That’s where I think music comes into play. It’s interesting — when I go to some of the stages (in recent years), you’ll see some people you see around at different music events who are really plugged in and know what’s going on. They say it’s outstanding, they feel like they’ve discovered something. So, to get that message out to the broader group of musicphiles in the city, so they understand what’s happening — they might think, “Oh, that’s just a festival on the Belvedere,” as opposed to a great, free, three-day music festival.

I think, as we get that out there, they see the food and everything else that’s going on, they’ll reflect on the globalized city we’re becoming and how important it is for us to be competitive in the world. If you’re not a global city, you’re not going to be relevant much longer.

LEO: There’s probably some people who, with the economy still struggling, are concerned about competing for jobs. What do you say to them?
GF: There’s a higher rate of entrepreneurship with internationals and immigrants. They create jobs, and they help grow the economy and make it bigger; they provide customers, as well. People who are best prepared are gonna win. So, I wouldn’t have a scarcity mentality looking at it that way. It’s making the pot bigger, and, certainly, growing our international community does that.

LEO: What’s your favorite part of the weekend — the music, the food, the people?
GF: Yeah, the people. You see the wonderment in people’s eyes, whether it be multi-generational Louisvillians who are proud to see their city internationalizing, or it’s that first generation or immigrant that’s appreciative and excited to be recognized and acknowledged as American citizens and Louisvillians, and are proud to be part of the team. You get it on both sides and put that together, and it’s a magic atmosphere for the festival. It’s a lot of fun, people are proud to be there.

World Fest
Aug. 31-Sept. 2
The Belvedere
485 W. Main St.
worldfestlouisville.com
Free; 11 a.m.

c. 2012 LEO Weekly