2006-01 Vital Source Mag – January 2006
Madonna
By Jon M. Gilbertson When music industry observers can refer to an album that �only� went platinum as a serious failure, then it�s clear they�re talking about an artist who�s redefined the concept of success. In the last 25 years, that could only be Madonna, whose 2003 work, American Life, sold over a million copies without one Top Ten single. Hence Confessions on a Dance Floor, which revisits the clubs that first played her. Musically, it�s clearly a throwback; the tracks run together like the set of a particularly adroit DJ who knows her listeners don�t want to hear a single moment of silence to break their absorbed movement. Although �Future Lovers� touches upon the multiple harmonies of psychedelic-era Beatles, and �Hung Up� leads off the album as a genuine single, this is less a pop album to be heard than an extended mix of beats to feel as the lights flash and the drugs and alcohol do their things internally, and the sweat and sexual energy do their things externally. Lyrically, Confessions is mostly as empty as Madonna�s bank account is not, although that doesn�t prevent one or two musings, notably �Let It Will Be,� on the price of fame. Yet the combination of self-importance and everyday cliché�plus the use of the word �dork� as a rhyming lynchpin in the East Coast solipsism of �I Love New York��are in this context as beside the point as Esther, her Kabbalah name. The album is all about rhythm and motion, even if both point to the past rather than to the future, where Madonna supposedly was once leading the rest of us. VS
Jan 1st, 2006 by Vital Archives
The Reigning Sound
By It�s a cold November night when Greg Cartwright and his group The Reigning Sound take the Mad Planet stage. Cartwright clears his throat and apologizes for his hoarseness. But that�s not a problem, he sounds somewhere between Bobby �Blue� Bland and Paul Westerberg. In that perfect parallel universe, Cartwright�s songs are hits and writers don�t drop obscure references. A white artist hasn�t exhibited this much soul since Charlie Rich exited the planet, and as a young man Cartwright should have plenty of years ahead. With The Oblivions and later The Compulsive Gamblers, Cartwright helped pilot Memphis projects of chaos, blues, punk and Gospel. The Reigning Sound albums took a decided turn toward melody, featuring Alex Greene�s proto-soul keyboards and slowed tempos. While still wholeheartedly a mix of garage and R&B, lyrically Cartwright wears his heart on his sleeve and backs the whole thing up with hooks that refuse to leave your head. Outtakes, different arrangements, an odds & sods compilation: call Home For Orphans what you will, but this band�s crumbs are better than most groups� top-shelf material. �Funny Thing,� as close to a perfect song as you might hear, adds uncredited pedal steel to notch the melancholy factor. Much like Roy Orbison, �What Could I Do� frames what could be a short novel or black and white movie based around the interactions of three people, and leaves the listener intensely curious about the outcome. Chicago�s Green and vintage Brian Wilson come to mind throughout the album as The Reigning Sound work from solid, tried and true song structures, guitar or Hammond organ solos that build off the tune�s melody, and la-la-la vocal choruses. Nothing you haven�t heard before, but rare to hear it done so well in this day and age. And just when you fear it�s getting a bit introspective, the album�s finale is a live blast through �Don�t Send Me No Flowers I Ain�t Dead Yet.� Maxwell�s is a blurred snapshot. Recorded on a weeknight at the legendary New Jersey club, The Reigning Sound blast through a set that includes covers of Sam Cooke and Sam & Dave as well as a blitz through �Stormy Weather.� Not entirely breakneck, but when Cartwright asks the audience to bear with his guitar playing, �I�m down to three strings,� you know these guys will stop at nothing to get the music across. VS
Jan 1st, 2006 by Vital Archives
John Cale
By Eric Lewin Postmodern music sure is ironic. �Progressive� bands such as Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Warlocks and the rest of the MySpace-endorsed shoegazers generally make their way by rethreading Velvet Underground�s effects and hypnotic hum, some pulling it off more ably than others. Even more ironic is that John Cale, Velvets� second-in-command behind Lou Reed, refuses to overtly borrow from his old band. Black Acetate has its influences, to be sure, but none of them hung out with Andy Warhol. Acetate plays like a Frank Zappa record in that it relies heavily on eerie effects, creepy voices and funked-out Mothers of Invention-style bass lines. A well-lit room is recommended during the spooky �Brotherman;� when Cale groans that he writes �reams of this shit every day� in a Leonard Cohen grunt, it�s downright terrifying. For better or worse, Acetate doesn�t dwell in the horrific for too long. Hell, it doesn�t dwell anywhere for too long. Cuts like �Gravel Drive� and �Satisfied� are undeniably beautiful, not to mention flavorful, when positioned next to rockers �Sold-Motel� and �Perfect,� which border on danceable. Trying to outrun a monster legacy like Velvet Underground at all costs is an impossible task that Cale doesn�t attempt. While Acetate contains minimal elements of White Light/White Heat, it comes filtered through Velvet-inspired records such as Love and Rockets� Earth Sun Moon. A musician being influenced by musicians that he himself influenced? All this post-modernity is confusing, but it sure is fun. VS
Jan 1st, 2006 by Vital Archives
Inner Space
By Eric Francis Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) Is there a room in your house suitable as a movie theater? I think there is, even if it’s a modest digital theater. This is the year of the Aquarius Odeon, to which the whole neighborhood can be invited regularly. It’s the spirit that counts more than anything, and the quality of what you present – make it weird, intellectual, retro and neo all at once. Given that your whole life has taken on this cinematic quality, Hollywood is the perfect decorating theme. This will help keep the dramas where they belong, on the screen rather than acted out in real life – unless you’ve been planning to audition for something, which I do recommend. Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) Weird has been your middle name for a couple of years now, and you love it. You have the license to invent whatever you want and call it beautiful; if Andy Warhol got away with it, so can you. The essence is experimentation, fast changes and keeping what works. Going international would spark your imagination, and for some reason, African comes to mind. Dark colors, reds and browns – or pure white, not the usual blues and purples you’ve always loved so much. Keep it deep, and remember that all wealth comes from the Earth. Aries (March 20-April 19) You’re not the type to collect stuff, or even be particularly interested in it; but suddenly the material world means a lot more to you: material as in the textures of fabrics and colors of cloth that come to life in your fingers. This developing inner sensitivity seems to have become a passion, as if you’re seeing dark reds and browns for the first time in your life. Or like you never noticed the luxury of mahogany. Or food that you cook at home all afternoon. Will you ever go back to glass and chrome? Or Chinese take away? Let’s not ask. Taurus (April 19-May 20) Most of your renovation and redecoration is going to be psychological, so we might ask what constitutes the design equivalent of therapy. The answer starts with art, which needs to reflect the inner landscapes that have become so familiar recently. Choose pieces that represent who you are becoming, and images that depict feelings or settings you would like to make real. You’ve worked out your stuff’ enough to be feeling an unusual degree of dedication, passion and spiritual fire rising up. Keep it in sight, and look at it often. Gemini (May 20-June 21) For Gemini, the emphasis this year is on water, and a little goes a long way. You don’t want too much; it’s possible to use water for inspiration, or to drown emotionally. Balance is key. An aquarium would make a great addition to your home (invest in the best lighting you can get, so the plants will thrive), which will remind you of what the world of feelings is really about. At the same time, […]
Jan 1st, 2006 by Vital Archives
Amy X Neuburg
By Paul Snyder The audience at the Milwaukee Art Museum on January 7 will probably have no idea what to expect of Amy X Neuburg�s performance. That�s okay. She doesn�t either. �I�m very nervous,� she says. �But I thrive on that.� That evening, �The Metaphor,� a piece written by Neuburg for chamber ensemble, voice and live looping electronics, and commissioned and performed by Present Music, will have its national debut. The technology and looping, of course, pose no fears in the author. After all, she�s made a name for herself in the electronic music genre (though she prefers to call her stylings �avant-cabaret� ). Her solo live performances feature Neuburg and a stack of computers, building voice layer upon voice layer to create fully dimensional songs. The challenge with �The Metaphor� is going to be implementing this solo predilection for looping into an ensemble act. Now on top of countless loops of Neuburg, there will be countless loops of each individual player in the ensemble as well. Daunting as it sounds, she�s up for it. �It�s something new for me,� she says. �And I like that. I always want to challenge myself, and the ensemble asked me to compose this piece for them. There�s going to be a lot of high-tech sounds in addition to solo live-looping, but the thing with this is to get everyone looped simultaneously. When you can achieve that, six players end up sounding completely different. It�s immense.� It also demands a lot of precision. Neuburg says that she likes to let people know what�s going on in her shows, so she constructs her songs piece by piece on stage, which requires starting and stopping loops at exact moments, lest the entire song fall apart on the spot. This aspect is again made a bit more challenging by the addition of an ensemble, but Neuburg thanks her musical background for helping her work through it. �I notate everything,� she says. �Which is difficult sometimes, because I majored in voice, not composition, but you have to be so precise for the benefit of the other musicians. It�s not just a matter of starting a loop and stopping it � I write out exactly what I�m going to be doing.� A classically trained singer with a near four-octave vocal range, Neuburg received undergraduate degrees from Oberlin Conservatory (voice) and Oberlin College (linguistics), and an M.F.A. in Electronic Music from Mills College CCM. She started her professional music career as a member of the musical-theater group MAP, and then moved on to drumming for Amy X Neuburg & Men. Her last solo release, 2004�s Residue (Other Minds), received positive critical response. While Neuburg will incorporate some of her solo material into the show on the 7th, she says her new kick is working as a collaborator again, composing for ensembles. In addition to the Milwaukee performance, Neuburg also ventured to New York in December for a performance with three cellists. In March, she�ll take the spotlight at the San […]
Jan 1st, 2006 by Vital Archives
Is this a dream?
By Nathan Norfolk Restaurateurs know there is money to be made at the bar, especially when it comes to wine. If you�ve ever noticed that the bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon you buy for fifteen dollars at the store goes for forty five dollars on a restaurant�s wine list, this is already clear to you. Do you get angry and storm off, left to curb your hunger by your own devices? No, you just don�t buy wine there. Maybe you think to yourself that everything about this dining experience is an elaborately designed scam. In truth, the majority of restaurants mark up wine about three times cost. But there is hope for wine lovers who want to imbibe while dining out. For the last few years, a trend has been growing on the coasts for restaurants to restructure their wine programs towards retail pricing, meaning that a bottle of wine in a restaurant costs roughly what you would pay for it in the store. But you don�t have to fly to L.A. to catch this wave. Dream Dance restaurant at Potawatomi Bingo Casino quietly began employing this retail pricing method to their wine list of over 300 selections more than a year ago. From the modest Joel Gott Sauvignon Blanc at $12 to the hedonistic 1999 Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon for $115, the wine list is filled with great buys. General Manager Christian Damiano notes their pricing policy has been �highly successful.� He was also happy to say that even bottles in the $1,000 range are subject to the same markup. At Dream Dance, Krug Grand Cuvee non-vintage Champagne costs $125 a bottle. That doesn�t sound like much of a deal, but the same champagne costs $220 at another restaurant in the city. What inspired the change? Damiano says, �People are just so much more wine savvy than they ever have been. Guests are going out to California, they�re visiting vineyards. They know what they are paying for when they buy directly from the vineyard. They know what they are paying when they buy from retailers.� He also points out that restaurants in Manhattan have been doing this for years with notable success. If it works in New York, shouldn�t it work in Milwaukee? Incrementally, the best savings come from some of the lower and mid-priced wines. Keegan Russian River Valley Pinot Noir sells for $30 at Dream Dance, which is slightly above the retail price of $25 but nowhere near the $54 which another restaurant was charging. Bartender Seth Bauer says guests of the restaurant �are excited before they even order a bottle, as opposed to just settling for something because the price in restaurants is normally too high. Now they can get into a bottle that they have always wanted to try and it�s at a price that they are more than happy paying.� Dream Dance delivers when it comes to unique wine. This is where they really deserve credit. Of course they have the Californian staples and some […]
Jan 1st, 2006 by Vital Archives
The Letting Go lesson
Dear Readers, I’ve been living on my own for more than two decades now, and over time I’ve moved slowly, inevitably, towards a more structured existence. Sometimes I get a little misty thinking about the good old days of scoring sofas from the curbs of better neighborhoods and organizing my social life around whose car had gas or what clubs were on the bus line. Other days, I revel in my ability to make a cake without running to the store for eggs and usually having a pen and paper handy when I need to make a list. But one thing about my life has never changed. I don’t send holiday cards or annual family letters. I just don’t like the idea of buying boxes of someone else’s pictures and words, agonizing over personal notes to all the people to whom I wish I’d been a better friend or relative over the past year and clogging the U.S. mail and landfills around the country with another five pounds of paper waste. And family letters are a trap. Too optimistic comes off as false; too pessimistic is a real downer. Needless to say, I no longer receive many holiday missives, and the stack gets shorter every year. At this rate, I estimate I’ll be completely free from them by 2008, except for a few holdouts who never trim their list to exclude non-participants. Wish me luck. That having been said, and never having been one to deny my own hypocrisy, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the past year at Vital. One year ago, things were looking pretty bleak. Within two weeks, I lost my managing editor and ended an often-rocky relationship with my art director. The same month, my much-loved administrator/sales assistant/ad designer decided she needed to leave to focus on her last year of grad school. Already stretched paper-thin, I picked up the slack as best I could, which wasn’t very well. Subsequently, ad revenues fell off as I spent more time doing other things (I also used to be the sales staff) and we fell behind with some bills. By February, the wolves were at the door. At our birthday party that month, I wandered around in a state of self-indulgent melancholy, drinking a little too much and silently thinking “goodbye” to everyone who came out to celebrate with us. Afterwards, I hid in my home office for three days, wrapped in my bathrobe, not even able to get it up to take a shower or answer my phone. Mehrdad and I had a few incredibly depressing conversations about the nature and implications of failure. In the meantime, though, we felt we had to keep putting out Vital until we had a plan. So we did, and I’m here to tell you that the experience was one of the most valuable of my life. It totally sucked to operate through the emotional filter that our beloved publication was in hospice; so much so, in fact, that we […]
Jan 1st, 2006 by Jon Anne Willow
These hands were made to heal
Imagine the first blizzard of the year, a city choked in snow, a night filled with cars spinning lazy 540’s through crowded intersections. Now imagine choosing to spend such a treacherous evening driving to Potawatomi Casino to check out Drew Carey and the Improv All-Stars at the lovely Northern Lights Theater. What follows, dear readers, is the absolutely true account of just such an evening. Accompanying me on this recent laugh-o-licious night out was the editor of this fine monthly, Jon Anne Willow. It’s a story filled with raunchy comedy, unembarrassed laughter, and poor driving conditions. And, unsurprisingly, it’s also a story that involves me touching a strange man’s thighs. After braving the elements and arriving in one piece, Jon Anne and I are ushered to our sweet-as-hell front booth seats complete with panoramic view of the stage and proximity that allows us to count the pores on Drew Carey’s face. The strains of an electric piano and drum machine signal that either we’ve time-warped to a 1987 L.A. comedy club or that the show is about to begin. The cast includes Drew Carey, Kathy Kinney and Greg Proops, whose thighs I will soon be softly caressing. The show is done in the style of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” and proves to be unabashedly funny: a 90-minute, completely improvised high-wire act that’s both hilarious and a wee bit nerve-wracking. Among the highlights: a mock Jeopardy episode (a crowd member suggests the answer “Strawberries,” to which comedian Jeff Davis replies, “What’s between a scarecrow’s legs?”), a ridiculous soul ballad improvised around the life of a rather repulsed-looking audience member (in fairness, if I was a 25-year-old mother of four married to a guy with a job at the phone company, I might lose my sense of humor, too), a few completely non-sequitur lines (“These hands were made for healing!”), and plenty of gags involving George W. Bush and Dick Cheney spooning. Jon Anne and I are laughing like idiots and eating up every second. At one point we turn to each other and shake hands. This is good. Then Mr. Proops (the joy I feel every time I type “Proops” is indescribable) asks for the help of an audience member who’s both had a few and not afraid to look like an idiot on stage. I, of course, volunteer. The gods of casino-based entertainment smile upon me and before I know it I’m climbing on stage and shaking Drew Carey’s hand. Here’s where the absurdity level really starts to rise; I mean, what the hell am I doing at Potawatomi on a Saturday night in front of hundreds of people, being told the rules of a game? Shouldn’t I be at home, preparing for my band’s show at the Cactus Club later that night? Or at the very least, drinking alone in a dark corner of my closet? What exactly is going on here, and why am I suddenly feeling strangely attracted to Greg Proops? My ears are ringing, my […]
Jan 1st, 2006 by Matt Wild
Needles and Pins
By Evan Solochek The ballroom of Turner Hall is filled to capacity. Patrons can barely squeeze past one another to reach the next vendor’s table. The temperature outside is in the low teens, lower with wind-chill, a shockingly cold day even for mid-November 2005. It is the sort of bone-shattering weather that keeps people bundled up at home, unwilling to bear the elements for any reason. And yet, the ballroom of Turner Hall is filled to capacity – a testament to the resolve of people or, more specifically, to the people’s love of crafts. Art vs. Craft is one of Milwaukee’s premiere craft fairs, featuring over 100 artists from Milwaukee and beyond. Inspired by such fairs as I Heart Rummage in Seattle, Bazaar Bizarre in Boston and Chicago’s D.I.Y. Trunk Show, Milwaukee is riding the national independent design wave. All across America, as price-slashing megastores choke off the locally owned and operated businesses, an underground collective of artisans is taking a stand. With knitting needles and fabric swatches clenched in their fists, these crafters are refusing to succumb to the sterility of Big Retail and are, instead, embracing a world of consumer goods where each individual item is made with personal affection. “I think that the popularity of handmade hip goods has created an alternative to mass marketed goods and that has encouraged many creative types to get involved locally and nationally,” says Faythe Levine, founder and co-coordinator of Art vs. Craft, co-owner of Paper Boat Boutique & Gallery in Bay View and sole proprietor of Flying Fish Designs. “Art vs. Craft provides Milwaukee with a chance to view many different kinds of work. It also creates an exciting space for networking and sales, which in turn stimulates the arts community in a positive, fun way.” One-of-a-kind fun Fun is a key component of the scene. The personal touch of the designer makes each item unique, and that is precisely what drives most craft shoppers. Silk-screened and stenciled clothing, embroidered bags, reconstituted vintage wares and kitschy knickknacks when you buy from an independent designer you are not getting a mass-produced product. Having an item no one else owns fosters a truer, more individualized sense of ownership that also appeals to many. “Younger people are really concerned that their individuality will be swallowed up by mass consumerism,” says Amy Schoenecker, who sells reconstructed vintage clothing through her label Softly, Fiercely. “As a designer, I emphasize with that fear, and make pieces that are one-of-a-kind in order to revolt against the notion of a herd of sheep or mere followers.” The idea that these creations are functional works of art also allows the consumer to take pride in what he or she chooses to buy and wear, a rare thing today. There is something to be said for buying a one-of-a-kind piece you know was labored over with love, as opposed to pulling your size off the rack. At that point, what one buys becomes much more than just an […]
Jan 1st, 2006 by Vital Archives
