An enduring commitment to the written word
The book center has long been a haven for artists and writers of all shades. This Friday, Woodland Pattern celebrates 30 years devoted to the art of literature.
Nov 18th, 2010
Art on Film
Renown for experimental film, UWM hosts innovative student work at the inaugural Film Graduate Student's Exhibition, closing tonight.
Aug 27th, 2010
Spiritualized @ Turner Hall, 9/9/2008
Spiritualized @ The 2008 Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago About a decade ago, Spiritualized all but tore down The Rave with an evening of musical pummeling and a head-shearing light show. The several dozen other fans in attendance will back me up. Anyone at Tuesday night’s show realizes how fortunate we are that Jason Pierce and band came back to Milwaukee. Emerging from the fog, Pierce — along with his four bandmates and two backup gospel singers — set the stage with a riveting, heavy version of “Amazing Grace”. With that they set the controls for the dark side of Turner Hall as the band’s modus operandi built on chaotic, driving crescendos and walls of sound only to bring songs back down to stark vocal arrangements. Even the sound man played the board like another instrument. There have been few musical nights like this since the U.S. Government took codeine off the shelves. Touring in support of the album Songs in A&E, whose back story might have been Pierce’s brush with the reaper during a nasty bout of double pneumonia, except the material was writ beforehand. Thus tunes like “Death Take Your Fiddle” (which sounded like an ancient Appalachian ballad) or “Soul on Fire” (which could rival anything on the modern hipster radio stations) already fit like a glove. And incandescent wailing vocals at the end of “Come Together” sounded less like a wake than a Baptist revival meeting down by the river. In the beginning (well, the ’80s at least) there was Spacemen 3, a Rugby, England band that pillaged the best of American music (Velvets, Elevators, Bo Diddley, Suicide, MC5, Sun Ra, Red Krayola), dipped it in morphine and created a quiet storm. Following an acrimonious/not acrimonious split (take your pick) with co-leader Sonic Boom, Jason Pierce (aka J Spaceman) formed Spiritualized in order to take the next logical steps. These days, Pierce’s voice has weathered to a fine, weary patina, reminiscent of Peter Perrett of the Only Ones, a fellow traveler familiar with the power of a script. Never straying far from the twin towers of spiritual transcendence and escapism, at Turner Spiritualized’s take on “Lay Back in the Sun” (“Good dope and good fun”) – something of an homage to Brian Wilson and Beach Boys — made groups like The Jesus and Mary Chain and The Raveonettes seem like kids who just got a fuzzbox for Christmas. “Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space” was transformed in to an elegiac waltz that segued into just Pierce and the gospel voices singing a stunning last verse of Elvis’ “I Can’t Help Falling in Love With You”. Thought it’s doubtful that many from the religious right were in attendance, Pierce’s affinity for blending rock and religious themes was well represented on “Lord Can you Hear Me,” as well as Spacemen 3’s “Walking With Jesus” and “Take Me to the Other Side.” All good things must come to an end as the evening’s finale built to a maelstrom […]
Sep 10th, 2008
The Beat goes on
In a music career that has come full circle, Dave Wakeling has been on the right path from the very beginning. As a young man, he and his collaborators realized there was something magical in the “feet, hearts and mind” formula that came to define his group The English Beat. At the band’s apex they were surrounded by the royalty of the UK punk-era ska scene: The Selecter, Madness, The Specials and Elvis Costello. Originally dubbed The Beat, the band added the word “English” to their name stateside to avoid confusion with American power pop group the Paul Collins Beat. Signing to then-prestigious I.R.S. Records in 1981, Wakeling’s band found a measure of success in America with three solid albums and a string of wildly infectious dance floor-friendly singles. But before the roller-coaster ride really took off, Wakeling and his Birmingham buddies had already learned some valuable lessons. “We used to run parties with punk and ska DJs,” he said. “Each DJ alone would tire the dancers out, but the mix of punk and reggae equaled a full night of energy. What if you could get the both into the same songs? It was our punk-y reggae party. Boy George, members of UB40, the Au Pairs and Dexy’s Midnight Runners all came to the parties. Birmingham was going through one of its musical renaissances.” Falling under the spell of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath in their early 20s, Wakeling and Andy Cox (English Beat guitarist) both “were fierce music fans” and “very lucky in terms of time and geography.” Live shows were a priority, and Wakeling reels off a list of defining music moments that includes two Bob Marley concerts, seeing Van Morrison, the death of Tim Buckley and seeing the Buzzcocks. “The songs were catchy, two-and-a-half or three minutes long. [It was] the same for the Undertones and Wire, who used the hook and the art-form of the pop song.” The music made a lasting impression on them, but ultimately The Beat made their mark with their own hybrid of ska, punk, soul, reggae and Nigerian highlife. According to Wakeling, “After you’d been dancing awhile the lyrics hit even harder – it was like your mind was more open. We paired the beat with lyrics that were somewhat heavy. Life is ambiguous. It’s not all happy or sad.” In a lineup notable for both its racial integration and near mash-up style influences, the original six member band consisted of Dave Wakeling on vocals and guitar, Andy Cox on guitar, David Steele on bass, Everett Morton on drums, Ranking Roger on vocals and toasting and ska sax legend Papa Saxa. The Beat sound was born, but it needed to be heard. “Our bass player, said ‘One gig is worth a thousand rehearsals.’” Armed with a half dozen original tunes and a few covers, the band knocked out its first gig, opening for the Dum Dum Boys. It was shortly after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident and the band was […]
Feb 1st, 2008
Richard and Linda Thompson
Richard Thompson is a hardly a household name these days, but back in 1975 he was a true cult artist.
Dec 1st, 2007
James Luther Dickinson
As producer and musician, Jim Dickinson has had a hand in masterpieces by Aretha Franklin, The Rolling Stones, The Flamin’ Groovies, Big Star/Alex Chilton, Ry Cooder, The Replacements and Bob Dylan – not to mention raising his sons, The North Mississippi All Stars. As a solo artist, Dickinson released his debut in 1972 (the classic Dixie Fried) and waited thirty years before following it up. Reminds me of a joke my grandpa used to tell about “a long time between drinks.” Dickinson has picked up the pace significantly since; Killers From Space is his third album since 2002. His choice in material and the very way he inhabits a tune go a long way to defining that particularly indefinable brand of Memphis strange. Ranging from Tin Pan Alley to blues to gospel to all-out rockers, Dickinson’s weathered vocals put the listener front-row-center to characters that may be down and out, but have more soul than they can handle. “I Need You” reveals menace that in lesser hands would be camp. Here its wheezy harmonica and piano interplay suggests the last gasp of Jay Hawkins at St. James Infirmary. Dickinson is a national treasure; he should be on a postage stamp.
Nov 1st, 2007
Dan Kaufman/Barbez
There’s something undeniably mysterious about the sounds coming from Dan Kaufman/Barbez’s album Force of Light. Developed over the span of three years, Force of Light is a requiem to Holocaust survivor and poet Paul Celan. Scattered throughout the album are lines from Celan’s poetic discourse read by Fiona Templeton, a theatre director and renowned Scottish poet in her own right. Paul Celan remains one of the major poets of the post-World War II era. The death of his parents and his experience with the Holocaust are two central themes in his works. After receiving word of his parents tragic death in the camps, Paul writes, “And can you bear, Mother, as once on a time,/the gentle, the German, the pain-laden rhyme?” Just as his poetry is rich with feeling, Kaufman/Barbez’s works on Force of Light are on par with Celan’s devices. The opening track begins with a slow finger-picked chord progression on a nylon stringed guitar — dark and captivating, the climate catapults the listener into the realm of introspection. The music is accompanied by Fiona’s eloquent reading of Celan’s poem Shibboleth: “Together with my stones/grown big with weeping/behind the bars/they dragged me out into the market/that place/where the flag unfurls to which/I swore no kind of allegiance.” As the words of the poem take shape, chimed instruments are thrown into the mix, creating an overall eerie air. The track draws visions of shadowed figures in pantomime. Kaufman spent years working on this album, including a month in Berlin in solitude beneath images of the Holocaust. The result is an album that not only covers a wide musical terrain, but touches a collective human quality. From clarinets to theremin, to marimbas and violin, Force of Light is a lush auditory feast. The arrangement of sounds, along with Fiona’s reading of Celan’s poetry, is a perfect mesh that keeps the listener in limbo and often teetering on feelings of hopelessness and despair.
Oct 1st, 2007
The Saltshakers
Local four-piece outfit The Saltshakers unload some serious crunch on their new album, Up All Night. It’s catchy, poppy, laced with power-riffs and may indeed keep you Up All Night. The opening track, “Believe,” is your standard pop-rock catch tune that will get a foot shakin’ and a head bobbin’, starting with just a single guitar power-chord progression—momentous though not overly driven — then laced with the accompanying rim shots and tambourine. Lead singer Chad Curtis has plenty of room to wail on top of the back-up vocals and furious chomp roaring from the amps. “Whiskeytown,” a tribute to Ryan Adams, has an alt-country vibe to it, with a really great, semi call-and-response hook: “I said ‘hey, you, what do you say?’ I think your fine-ass self should step my way and we’ll walk hand-in-hand all the way to whiskeytown.” The second verse is stripped down a bit, with less emphasis on the guitar, and more on the beat — what sounds like hands clapping. It’s fun, interactive and catchy. The rest of the album showcases the band’s musical range. “Happy Now?” has a heavier beat with a more progressive-rock feel and metal guitar lead riffs. But The Saltshakers always come back to their power-pop roots. Up All Night, though playing on several genres, stands on its own and is chock-full of raw guitar energy.
Oct 1st, 2007
Charles Mingus
*Cornell 1964 was released in July, but we think it’s worth a listen — and Blaine is here to tell you why. Maybe it is no surprise that a spirit as indomitable as Charles Mingus survives 28 years after ALS shuffled his body off this mortal coil. The bassist/bandleader/writer’s legacy has grown in no small part due to efforts by his wife (and former Milwaukeean) Sue Mingus. Her discovery of this recording, much like recently unearthed live sets by John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk, serves as another chance to pull the image in the rear view mirror up close and marvel at the music created by this great band. With three tunes clocking at over fifteen minutes and another pair sprawling into the half-hour range it becomes obvious these musicians are seriously at work. There is no endless noodling, only tight full-band sections, spotlight solos and some great improvising. Clifford Jordan and Eric Dolphy’s horn playing throughout the two discs sounds like a conversation – squeezing out sparks as the ideas ebb and flow. Mingus once wrote a letter to Downbeat Magazine decrying the free jazzers’ new definitions of musicality, but Dolphy and Jordan’s playing makes use of all the bases within Mingus’s nearly Baroque themes and folk-forms with solos just on the edge of squawking and crying, all held down by the ESP rhythm section of Mingus’s bass and longtime campadre Dannie Richmond’s drumming. Cornell’s version of Mingus’s “Fables of Faubus” would be a great place for any new listener to dive in and the group’s arrangement of Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn’s “Take the “A” Train” offers a look at Mingus’s fearlessness and reverence in dealing with a mentor. It is obvious just how much joy these musicians have with these tunes. Shortly after this gig the band toured Europe; Dolphy died at age 36 due to complications from diabetes. As a frozen moment, this recording is more than document. It is a new highlight in the Mingus discography.
Sep 24th, 2007
20 Years in The Life
In a city quickly becoming known for both the abundance and quality of its film festivals, he LGBT Film Festival is one of Milwaukee’s longest running. Once housed solely in the UWM film department and programmed in conjunction with Great Lakes Film and Video (no longer in existence), the festival has grown over time and now incorporates the efforts of the Peck School of the Arts – UWM’s visual arts, dance and theatre department. Now in its 20th year, the LGBT Film Festival is no longer just a community tradition; it has become a showcase for some of the finest films and videos from and about the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities. The LGBT Film Festival started in 1987 to address the lack of representation of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people on screen. Its growth in popularity can be attributed in part to the boom of the independent film market and a greater general awareness of the LBGT community. But its long-running success has been achieved through consistently providing a well-run event offering an excellent balance of thought-provoking and entertaining films. The process of putting on an 11-day film festival takes planning – weeding through film submissions, making contacts and solicitations, researching and attending other gay and lesbian film festivals and reviewing old films. And while the festival itself has gotten bigger, making it happen still falls, as it has for the last decade, upon one man: Carl Bogner. As an undergraduate student in the film department at UWM in the mid ‘90s, Carl ran the Union Theater. After receiving his film degree, he was asked by Dick Blau, then Chair of the UWM Film Department, to take over the festival. Now in his 10th year with the event, Carl has seen the festival grow to hit more notes on the cinematic scale. It has become a textured body, striking a perfect balance of audience-pleasing films and more challenging and academic works. Carl sees the growth of the LGBT Film Festival, and the gay community in general, from a generational perspective. The younger gay and lesbian demographic are “just cooler.” He continues, “I don’t mean to say they have it easier, but it’s a wonderfully different attitude associated with identity than, say, people my age.” One factor is the lack of labels or cultural taboos that many of the younger generation of gay and lesbians associate with, most notable being the trauma of “coming out,” which has been, until recently, a staple of gay and lesbian film festivals. “For younger people, gays and lesbian film festival have a different kind of weight and interest. I don’t think they feel like they don’t have access to gay and lesbian images the way early generations did,” Carl explains. Finding the one perfect film for opening night that serves the diverse LGBT community can be a challenge. This year’s festival will open on September 6 at the Oriental Theater with Nina’s Heavenly Delights, from pioneering filmmaker and scholar Pratibha Parmar. Described […]
Sep 1st, 2007
Coventry Jones
A fixture at Summerfest’s lake path stage or busking around town, Coventry Jones has finally released another album of original tunes. Sure he can hack out requests for covers with the best of the weekend warriors, but on the 10-track Time Stands Still Jones takes a few strides away from the ever-smiling Summer of Love persona with which he’s been tagged. Bolstered by Gregg Slavik’s drums and producer Scott Finch’s killer piano “John Glenn & I” rocks like a Chuck Berry nugget until it hits a woozy psychedelic breakdown before cranking it up again and “Delta Queen” mixes Jones’ wailing harmonica and slide guitar with Mike Woods’ sax for a particularly thick swampy gumbo. “Standing at the Station” finds a hapless Jones trying to get bailed out by his family, his lawyer, hell even Perry Mason – Wood’s soprano sax lends a music hall vibe that would not be out of place on them dodgy ‘70s concept albums by The Kinks. Utilizing a different lineup of acoustic players (mandolinist Bob McDermott, John Banshaw on banjo and upright bassist Jeff Coulliard) Jones taps into his British Isle roots on traditional tunes “Wild Rover” and “Whiskey in the Jar” – not exactly Thin Lizzy but a nice move away from patchouli pathways. Then again, if you just can’t live without a money shot, the opening track “Elissa” finds Jones back in mellowed out Allman Brothers territory, singing about a wooden ship on the water. VS Coventry Jones Time Stands Still CD Release Party is Friday July 27 from 7 p.m. – Midnight at Rip Tide Seafood & Grill, 649 E. Erie Street. 414-271-8433
Aug 1st, 2007
Jim Ford
Odds are you have never heard of Jim Ford. But Ford, as they say, is the man. Don’t take my word for it. Those who cite him as an influence or collaborator include Nick Lowe and Bobbie Gentry. It is a short list of musicians who qualify as Deluxe Cracker: white guys brimming with such soulfulness that their music transcends race and easy shorthand musical genres. The Band, Tony Joe White, Joe South, Delaney Bramlett and Eddie Hinton are a few of that exclusive club, and among them Ford’s recorded output remains the most meager. A single album, Harlan County, and a few 45s scattered among small record labels back in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s is all there is in Ford’s name. Leave it to German label Bear Family to revive the Gospel According to Jim Ford. The Sounds of Our Time compiles Harlan County with scattered singles and previously unreleased tracks. And the story the liner notes tell of tracking down Ford could be a movie for its twists and turns. Yet it is Ford’s music that draws the listener in. Reflecting on his hardscrabble upbringing in Kentucky where he trekked over to neighbor Loretta Lynn’s house to listen to the radio, to a stretch living rough in New Orleans where that city’s sound got under his skin, to ending up in Hollywood where he tried his hand at the music biz to largely deaf ears, The Sounds of Our Time takes the listener on an epic journey. The crossroads of country and R&B is Ford’s home turf. While some of the songs seem autobiographical (“Harlan County,” “Working My Way to L.A.” ), Ford also invests himself fully in tunes that point to a social conscience without ever dipping into the maudlin. Ford’s original “36 Inches High” – later covered by Nick Lowe – is here, but what we don’t get is equally intriguing. Lowe’s old group, Brinsley Schwarz, recorded Ford’s epic “I’ll Be Ahead If I Can Quit While I’m Behind” and Ford is also the uncredited author of Bobbie Gentry’s Southern-noir classic “Ode to Billie Joe.” Neither of these gems are included. But the liner notes allude to boxes of unreleased material by Ford at his trailer park home in rural northern California. Let’s hope for a second volume. VS
Aug 1st, 2007
Jenna Leskela and Michelle Scifers of Blam!Blam!
Photo by Nikki McGuinnis Just shy of its first anniversary, Jenna Leskela and Michelle Scifers’ Blam!Blam! erotica is already hitting bedside tables from sea to shining sea, with distribution in Toronto, San Diego, San Fransisco, Berkley, Baltimore, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Chicago, New Jersey and, of course, Milwaukee. It caters to the intelligent, artistic woman, offering interviews with erotic artists, an advice column, comics and, of course, steamy erotic fiction. As the ladies pack up for the big move to Seattle, VITAL sits down to talk about their time in Milwaukee. To learn more about Blam! Blam!, visit blam-blam.com or myspace.com/blamblam69. What’s the difference between Blam! Blam! and more mainstream erotic magazines? Jenna: Well, we have a lot of erotic fiction in there, which is different than a lot of other publications. We cover a lot of erotic artists [and] aphrodisiac recipes which you don’t really find [elsewhere], versus just, like, a money shot. Michelle: We do themes too with each issue. We try to be more general in terms of women’s issues regarding sex and sexuality, and also to have the erotic stuff to turn women on. What place does the magazine fit in the Milwaukee scene? Jenna: If you look at the sex toy shops like A Woman’s Touch – it was created like ten years ago in Madison, and they just started a store here a couple years ago. Then you look at the Tool Shed, which is another female-friendly sex store, and you can kinda feel the momentum of things building toward this idea. Or even with the Passion Parties – women are starting to have sex toy parties in their homes like it was Tupperware – I kinda feel like we fit into that whole scenario. Who do you collaborate with? Jenna: It’s just Michelle and I that do this and it’s a ton of work; we have to pull together so many people, but we’re really good at that. Whatever we need we try to pull from the pool of people that we know, so it’s predominately people in Milwaukee, but it has also been friends in San Francisco, some designers in Minneapolis. It’s really the internet that makes things happen. You find people with the same interests and ask them if they want to be a part of it. Where can you pick up the magazine in Milwaukee? Michelle: Broad Vocabulary, Tool Shed, A Woman’s Touch, Atomic Records, at blam-blam.com. Our website is being revamped right now. We are going to have videos on there of things we’ve done, places we’ve traveled… Jenna: We found that we just got ourselves into all these wild situations. For this issue I had to hose this guy down with a paint gun and he was totally buck naked –and we were like, ‘Could you have ever imagined that your life would take you to this point?’ And we were laughing and thinking we need to document this stuff, ‘cause its a great story. What else would you like […]
Aug 1st, 2007
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
Though revered as rising stars on the jam band circuit, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals are far from the archetypal jam band. At only 24, Potter’s voice is a blend of soul, R&B, jazz and country, and her music blends rock & roll, alt-country and straight-up rootsy Americana on the Nocturnals’ latest album, This is Somewhere. “Ah Mary,” with its churning vocals and languid lyrics sets the stage for the rest of the album. Not only is Potter in complete control of her vocal range, her prowess also shines through on the Hammond B3 organ. Heartfelt and honest, This is Somewhere stirs up images of a moving American landscape mixed with love, memory, loss and celebration. Filled with emotive lyrics, the ambiance of such tracks as “Apologies” creates the feeling of longing through replayed memories. “He said it’s crazy/ how love stays with me/ you know and it hurts me/ cause I don’t want to fight this war,” Potter croons atop of a down-tempo rhythm section, sparse piano and acoustic guitar. This is Somewhere is, by turns, fierce with its raw-muddy guitar riffs and mellow beneath a backdrop of acoustics and reflective lyrics. The grittiness is comparable to Lucinda Williams, and the themes find their roots in such lyrical mechanics as Neil Young (its title is actually a reference to Young’s Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere). Rich with passion and power, This is Somewhere will really get you on your feet. VS
Aug 1st, 2007
The limitless as limitation
Creativity has no limits. The freedom to express, within any given medium, is a liberating process and brothers John and David Jenson not only understand this process but are taking it a step further. What started as an idea in 2005, or rather a bouncing of ideas, later grew into what is now Soar Studios, an art-studio space that allows the freedom of expression to transcend across various mediums. Soar Studios encourages people from all walks of life to collaborate in the creative process while utilizing such diverse tools as screen-printing, digital media, sound, photography, illustration, carpentry – really anything that you can get your hands on. Their philosophy is kinetic, collective and maximizes freedom through exploring without limitation. With collaborations from such local studios as Lucky Star and Donebestdone, John and David’s idea for Soar is piloting the sky. So, ladies and gentleman, fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a hell of a ride. John and David were born in Edgerton, WI. After a few short years their father, Hugh, relocated the family to Eau Claire where he found work as an insurance agent. It was around 1976 when the family decided to move back to Central Wisconsin, first to Mukwonago then finally settling in Oconomowoc. Their mother, Kathleen, became the proprietor of a vintage clothing store and from the back-stock of all her threads was able to fashion purses and other garments to sell at local farmers markets. Undoubtedly, her creative endeavors were the first exposure the young brothers had to the creative mind. After graduating UW-Madison with a degree in industrial engineering, David improbably found work in New York as a proofreader/editor translating Russian text for scientific journals. Back home, brother John was freelancing as a designer and doing commercial art. The brothers kept in touch, bouncing creative ideas off each other that eventually hatched a plan. “Hey, why don’t we go into business together? We’re brothers,” John recollects asking David one day after a particularly lively exchange. So David moved back to Wisconsin and the two landed work for GMR Marketing, a local company that handles design work for such companies as Nintendo, MGD and Airwalk Shoes. “It was a team effort for GMR,” David says. “We collaborated on flyers and marketing tools for promotion.” Shortly after, the experience with GMR segued into graphic design work in the publications industry. However, disenchanted with commercial art and the various filters it goes through, the two brothers grew a craving for a broader form of artistic expression. So they branched off on their own and started the design team, Designaholix. Designaholix was really the fodder for what would later become Soar Studios. With the initial start up, Designaholix generated enough income through freelance projects to purchase new equipment and prepare for the launch of Soar Studios. The intended purpose was to allow a space for collective creativity to evolve where each step influences the next and opens doors to fresh artistic outlooks and experiences. The artistic […]
Jul 1st, 2007
Huey Crowley
Photo by Erin Landry Looking at the studio of Huey Crowley, one can’t help but wonder about the visual landscapes he visits in his mind. “Yeah, it’s a little messy,” he says with humility. There’s a huge canvas lying against the wall; paints, oils, acrylics, books and finished art pieces are scattered on the floor. He hands me a pile of little square cardboard art pieces that he’s been selling on the streets for $20 a pop to buy groceries. For being 20 years old, Huey is no amateur in the art scene. In just two years he’s done illustrations for Stuck magazine and done deck art for Toy Machine Skateboards. He is also a skater and currently a student at MIAD. To see more of Huey’s work, visit hueycrowleypaintings.deviantart.com and myspace.com/hueythebutt. How would you describe your art? Lately I’ve been working on a lot of pieces that are influenced by abstract expressionism, but I don’t want to consider myself just an abstract expressionist. I believe that abstract expressionism is one of the purest ways to capture a feeling as far as painting goes. With these paintings, I am trying to develop a language through my mark-making, to recreate a certain point in my life. When it comes to your paintings, what is your main source of inspiration? I keep reverting back to my childhood. But as far as things that inspire me go, sometimes just walking down the street looking at buildings in Milwaukee, there are different variations of light which I find quite beautiful. I’m also inspired by the objects themselves – the bricks, the old paint, the worn-off advertisements, the painted-over graffiti. The other day I saw some windows in a building that were completely covered with dust. There were about 50 windows where dust had been cleaned off from the inside, each one by a different hand and in a unique way. I get a lot out of stuff like that. I am also inspired by Willem De Kooning, among many other abstract expressionist artists, and the graffiti artist Jean Michel Basquiat. My dad inspires me as well. How would you describe your process of creating? Painting feels sort of like a game of chess. Sometimes I will just sit for an hour or so and look at the painting, trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t. Paint has a life of its own. I’m just trying to help it along to a finished point. Before I start, I’m never really sure what my painting is going to look like. I don’t sketch it out beforehand. When I am satisfied with the result, I will know, but I don’t believe that there can ever be a set end-point to a painting, or a feeling for that matter. What do you feel is your goal or message as an artist? If I wanted to, I could portray something literally, a story or a feeling. I could draw it, I could film it, I could write […]
Jul 1st, 2007
Patti Smith
The word “mulatto” jumps from Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” the National Anthem for the blanker than blank generation. And until all the kids memorized the lyrics and drove Kurt Cobain over the edge it was that one word that hung like cool, moist ground fog on a hot summer night. But before Nirvana there was Big Joe Turner. In fact before just about everything there was Big Joe Turner. One might even argue plausibly that Big Joe was the real nirvana when it came to rock & roll. In his book Where Dead Voices Gather Nick Tosches writes: But enough of color. I tire of every race. I shall, however, here glance for a moment in this context of color and auditory evidence and speculation, to the bellowed words of Big Joe Turner’s “Tell Me, Pretty Baby” of 1948: They say brown-skinned women are evil. And yellow girls are worse. I got myself a mulatta, boy; I’m playin’ it safety first. Or is there no comma intended between the penultimate and ultimate words of the third line of this quatrain? – I got myself a mulatta boy Has the question of a solitary punctuation mark…, ever before or since presented an ambiguity of momentousness such as this? Get thee, then, a mulatto, regardless of gender, punctuation or pronunciation; and proceed, then, behind me, together as one. While the Cobain saga proves once again, sadly, that rock & roll eats its young, what is more vexing is just how many generations it took for mulatto to resurface in a lyric. Twelve, then, is Patti Smith’s twelfth album. (Longtime collaborators Lenny Kaye and Jay Dee Daugherty are still riding shotgun.) It is an album of cover tunes. She has earned the right to coast, pay tribute, have fun – whatever the explanation of this album may be. She is the ultimate case of the fan who made the leap of faith to the stage. (She behaved admirably when she was recently inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame because her late husband Fred Sonic requested she do so.) Twelve gives us an even dozen snapshots paying tribute to The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, the folky Neil Young, Jefferson Airplane and The Doors. Paul Simon and Stevie Wonder, too. The most interesting tune is an odd old- timey take on “Smells Like Teen Spirit” itself, with playwright Sam Shepherd on banjo. We may never know Smith’s reason for covering Gregg Allman’s “Midnight Rider,” but Tears For Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” always sounded to me like it was writ for Muzak from the gitgo. Friends, we are currently living in modern times. Some Old Testament types may even vehemently suggest the end is near. So what better time to sidestep the laws of The Man and track down bootleg recordings of Patti Smith’s real covers. Her first single was turning “Hey Joe” into a heavy liquid ballad, and along the way she’s covered The Velvet […]
May 1st, 2007
Garrett Burton
Photo by Erin Landry Garrett Burton is somewhat of a rare breed. Not only is he a guitarist in the outfit General Jive and the Souldiers, but he is also a luthier; he builds and repairs guitars and he’s been hard at work at it for the past three years. After being certified in 2004, he moved back to Milwaukee where he found work restoring classical stringed instruments such as violins, cellos and violas. From there, he went on to work as a guitar technician for local guitar shops while opening his own shop in the process. Currently, he is doing repair work at Gearheadz Music while also restoring guitars out of his home. To hear more from Burton, check out myspace.com/milwaukeeguitarrepair or myspace.com/generaljiveandthesouldiers. 1. When did you know you wanted to build guitars? I took a couple of woodworking classes in high school and in physics class my teacher was really into sound and making his own speakers. So that’s when I thought about the two different worlds: one of science and one of wood-working. Being a guitar player, the two just merged together for me. I didn’t know what I wanted to study in college, so I decided to go school for luthrie at Bryan Galloup’s School of Luthrie in Big Rapids, Michigan. That’s where I developed an interest in the acoustic properties of instruments. 2. How has Milwaukee’s guitar luthier scene been? There’s definitely been appreciation for my work around here. Presently, I’m over at my friend Benny’s music store, Gearheadz Music, on National Avenue. I like the vibe of his shop; Benny’s super cool, and being a musician, he understands other musician’s interests in instruments. 3. How much has music influenced your life? Well, considering my occupation, it has completely altered my life, or kept it on its path. It has given me many tools to express my feelings. I remember the first time music hit me: shivers. This was junior high. I got the White Album and I needed to put a band together immediately. That’s when I knew I wanted to play music. I’ve been playing ever since. 4. How has building guitars deepened your understanding of guitar music? If you look at the timeline of the invention of different types of guitars, you can see [a relationship to] how the sound of the music changes, and the style being played. For instance, surf rock most likely wouldn’t exist without the Fender Stratocaster and some mad reverb, dig? But classical guitars brought my ear to Brazilian music. Arch-top guitars drew me to early jazz. Flat-tops introduced me to ragtime, country blues and country music. 5. What’s one of your favorite things about repairing guitars? The look on the customer’s faces when they play their fixed instrument and it plays the way they want it to play; they’re happy. I also really like to experience working on all sorts of stringed instruments, especially older ones. They tend to have more craftsmanship and detail or thought […]
May 1st, 2007
Cheryl Pawelski
Photo by Audrey Bilger Some people make mix tapes for fun, but Milwaukee native Cheryl Pawelski can list that on her resume. As far as music fans go, Pawelski’s 17 years beat most people’s lifetime of participation. As a young music maven she worked at the old downtown Radio Doctors learning record distribution. She moved to California and in 1990 began a 12-year run at Capitol Records, and in 2005 moved over to Concord Records to run their catalog development. In January of this year she began what many consider a dream job, heading up A&R at Rhino Records. Though music is what pays her bills, she remains a devoted fan. In her words, the whole trip “…only took 17 years. I’d do it all again, too – it’s been a ball.” 1. What is your dream project? Well, I’ve been fortunate enough to work on a couple dream projects. In fact, at this point, I’d have to say I’m working on my dream project in that I’m heading up A&R at Rhino and the catalogs under the Rhino umbrella are some of my favorites. That having been said, I would indeed drop everything to go and work as Bruce Springsteen’s archivist and special project producer. 2. Is there any Milwaukee-related artist or project you’d like to work on? Yes. For years I’ve wanted to cut out enough time to put together a double CD release I’d like to call The Real Happy Days. It’s not a single artist anthology but a Wisconsin-based one. I’ve long been a fan of the single and by that I mean the 45 rpm or 7” vinyl slab. I started collecting records on local labels from the ‘50s and ‘60s a long time ago – Cuca and Raymond among others. I would like to pull together a nice collection of those but just haven’t had the time. 3. What project so far do you think reflects your own personality? The Band box set, A Musical Journey, certainly reflects my detail-oriented, “everything must be right” kind of work ethic. The rockabilly box, Rockin’ Bones, is four discs of really fun and sometimes surprisingly absurd early rock & roll and there’s an earlier compilation I did at Capitol called Rebels & Outlaws, which is basically filled with all kinds of songs about carryin’ on and makin’ a racket, so those all collectively add up to something. I guess sometimes projects can be an extension of a personality but only a small fraction, and at that, the fraction may be based in fantasy or wishful thinking. 4. What do you like best about California? I like everything in California between about Big Sur and Point Reyes (just north of San Francisco). LA for me has been something that I put up with as a trade for getting to do what I do. The best parts of LA seem to be hidden and certainly not advertised – so uncovering the history of LA is a lot of fun. […]
Apr 1st, 2007
The Fall
The mid- to late ‘70s was a time of musical change. If the ’60s “free love” culture, though hopeful, was not enough to transform mass awareness, then the “fuck you” attitude of punk and post-punk was the necessary conduit for change. Though The Ramones and The Sex Pistols captured the spotlight, no other band was quite as prolific and influential as The Fall. Throughout their history, which spans 30+ years, 50-some lineups and over 20 records, The Fall remain true to their roots. The Fall approach each release with a freshness orchestrated by stoic frontman Mark E. Smith and Post-TLC Reformation!, is no exception. The first track, “Over, Over,” begins with a menacing laugh and segues into, “I think it’s over now/I think it’s ending/I think it’s over now/I think it’s beginning.” Accompanied by a droned-out bass, a simple guitar progression and ambient sounds, “Over, Over” is an homage to cycles. This album is raw and some tracks sound improvised. “Insult Song” is a narrative, almost abrasive recounting of past show experiences interlaced with dark imagery and a satirical, intermittent chuckle from Smith. The beat is steady and syncopated, with a slap bass progression and melodic guitar solos. The overall effect complements the development of the story it tells. Post-TLC Reformation! is dark, but not depressing. The vocal style is consistently dreary, but the upbeat bass and uncompromising guitar riffs create a harmonizing juxtaposition that never lets the listener get too far down to get back up again. It’s groovy. VS
Apr 1st, 2007
