2007-01 Vital Source Mag – January 2007
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
By Blaine Schultz It’s all there in black and white – Neil Young’s black Gibson Les Paul and Danny Whitten’s white Gretsch ( well maybe he played the orange one that night). This album is about guitars. While bootlegs of both early and late Fillmore shows have circulated for years, it is great that Neil decided to give this recording a legitimate release. After Young hijacked three members of the Rockets and renamed them Crazy Horse they quickly went into a studio and cut the album Everybody Knows This is Nowhere. That record’s visceral aesthetic was not going to get it confused with any of the Woodstock hippy hangover music clogging radio’s arteries back in 1969. Live at the Fillmore East is the first volume of Young’s long-awaited archive series. While the Fillmore album does not include Nowhere’s “Cinnamon Girl” (the closest tune to a solo hit Young would have until “Heart of Gold” broke the bank in 72), it does add “Winterlong” and “Wondering.” The former would surface on the collection Decade and the latter would not see the light of day until Young’s rockabilly vacation with the Shocking Pinks in 1983 – regardless of how he introduces the tune here. Fillmore also adds Jack Nitzsche’s watery Wurlitzer electric piano to the lineup. At its core Crazy Horse was (and still is) a rhythm section, creating a huge warm hypnotizing pocket for Young’s guitar playing. Meanwhile, back at the Fillmore, the doomed guitarist Danny Whitten (equal parts Georgia hillbilly and California surfer) spurred Young’s playing to dogfight levels that rock & roll would not hear again until a group called Television inhabited the same Fillmore neighborhoods and sonic airspace a decade and a half later. In fact, if you listen close, Whitten’s singing and playing is nipping at Neil’s heels like a young pup – alternate bootleg mixes of officially released songs seem to bear this out. Seems if Whitten hadn’t checked out early because of an overdose he could have been a real contender. He would later be an inspiration for Young’s arguably greatest album Tonight’s The Night. Ironically on Fillmore Whitten sings the rave-up “C’mon Baby Let’s Go Downtown,” a tune about copping and paranoia. But for the real crackerjacks take a listen to the pair’s tremulous singing on the chorus of “Winterlong.” Now tell me, what could cause this terror that makes them sound like Robert Johnson turning the tables and finally chasing the hellhound on his trail? Peace and love with Nixon and Manson waiting down the hall. Which brings us to the twin towers of dread and shred, “Down By the River” and “Cowgirl in the Sand,” two rock & roll epics that sit real nice on the same shelf with Dylan getting rearranged by Hendrix. Could it have been something in the air – Miles Davis was also on the bill at the Fillmore – because Neil Young and Crazy Horse stretch rock & roll’s time/space equation into something that Davis and John […]
Jan 1st, 2007 by Vital Archives
Of Montreal
The eccentric title, packaging and track listing initially intimidate, but Of Montreal’s latest is actually quite accessible. It kick-starts as a lively, logical continuation of 2005’s The Sunlandic Twins, then capriciously plunges, only to rocket straight back to the skies. All the while, Kevin Barnes, currently Of Montreal’s lone orchestrator, delivers downtrodden narratives almost sociopathically. He holds a pep rally for controlled substances (“come on, chemicals!” ) and sets “spending the winter on the verge of a total breakdown” against a roller rink jam. Listeners are held, mesmerized “particles in motion,” through his impulses to arrange catfights, cling to seclusion and vandalize property. A sinister sound hits on “The Past Is A Grotesque Animal,” a 12-minute climb of perpetual guitar, dense tremolo and what I can only hope is a pterodactyl. Conversely, “Bunny Ain’t No Kind Of Rider” and “She’s A Rejector” are sing-along singles, exhilarating enough to allow a mere cheek turn at the blatant Prince-riff rip-off on “Labyrinthian Pomp.” Though Barnes’ voice is unarguably more pleasant in a lower register, the record’s best moments are when his singing is utilized as a gadget in its own right, no different from a drum machine or synthesizer. Even better is that, despite the hardships he reveals lyrically, Barnes doesn’t take himself too seriously. “Let’s just have some fun,” he decrees; and who shuns fun? Hissing Fauna is sure to captivate adventurous pop fans of any genre. VS
Jan 1st, 2007 by Amber Herzog
Jayk
By Evan Solochek + Photo by Dan Kocka With Robert Smith hair and a smooth yet commanding baritone that evokes a maturity and polish beyond his young age, Jayk is poised for big things. His debut album, everything ever, will be released any minute now, and yet Jayk has already landed a sponsorship deal with DC Shoes, toured the country from coast to coast and appeared on MTV2 and Fuel TV; not bad for a 22-year-old kid from West Bend. To hear more from Jayk, check out www.myspace.com/thatjaykwhosings. 1. What are your musical influences? I’ve always really appreciated the bands that I thought were great at writing lyrically as well as musically: Death Cab for Cutie, Rachael Yamagata, Tegan and Sara, City & Colour, Decibully… Most recently, Imogen Heap has really struck a chord with me. There is a side of me that still loves metal and hardcore too. 2. What was your earliest experience with music? Both my parents were involved with the church choir when I was very young; my father played the guitar and my mother sang. My dad was very much a jazz/blues guy, but he definitely had a lot of great classic rock albums. The first album I ever got into was a Yes album my dad kept in his collection. I remember being about 5 years old and I would sit in front of the record player and listen to “Roundabout” over and over. 3. What has been the most memorable moment of your career so far? The first real show I did was opening for Since By Man and Misery Signals. Apparently the original opener dropped off, and I was really worried that no one would like me. These were hardcore bands, for Christ’s sake, and I’m pretty much the furthest thing from it. I played like 5 songs and got the shakes really bad, but I got through it and with a very good response from the crowd. 4. How would you describe your music to someone who has never heard it? I’ve heard myself compared to many things I like (Jeff Buckley, City & Colour) and many things I dislike (Jason Mraz, Howie Day, even Ryan Cabrera). I like to let everyone make their own assumptions about what they think they hear. I play guitar and I sing. To me, I sound like me. 5. Where were you a year ago, and where do you see yourself this time next year? A year ago I was a struggling, inexperienced kid chasing what seemed like the impossible – no job and barely a roof over my head. Although I am now making giant steps in my career, it will always be a struggle to consistently create great music and keep everybody’s ears tuned in. By next year I hope to have settled with a record label that I am comfortable with, and be writing and recording more than I currently am; I’ve got a lot yet to say. VS
Jan 1st, 2007 by Vital Archives
Just like real life?
By “Life here is painless, that’s what they choose,” the old Receiver of Memories tells Jonas in Lois Lowry’s book The Giver, awarded a Newberry Medal in 1994 yet remaining on many lists of banned books. And yet today, 13 years since its first publication, The Giver is still creating controversy. First Stage Children’s Theater made a bold choice to produce Eric Coble’s adaptation, opening January 26. Because of the provocative material contained in the book and script, Jeff Frank, artistic director for First Stage, is encouraging parents and teens to read the book before attending the play and to then discuss them both as questions arise. Frank believes, “It’s incumbent on us as a theater to present plays that promote challenging discussion in the schools, and for families.” The Giver provides “a richness of idea and thought,” continues Frank, “that will resonate deeply with everyone.” For Lowry’s book presents a future world without any pain. “Sameness” pervades this world, represented by dull gray in the production and the book. There is no color, no choice; climate control contains the snow, wind and rain. At 12, adolescents are awarded their “assignment,” or occupation, in life after careful evaluation of their talents by the governing group of elders. Adults petition for a spouse, also chosen by the elders, and for the “two children each family unit is allowed.” Adults over a certain age are confined in “The House of the Old” and celebrated, “released,” at a certain time. Above all, Jonas, the protagonist in Lowry’s world, is without love. For love is considered imprecise language, without a clearly understood meaning, obsolete. Love is seen as a dangerous way to live. For love involves choice, sorrow and risk. The Giver’s world is perfect, without sadness, only similitude. That leaves love and pleasure as remnants of an antiquated way of life, recorded by the “Receiver of Memory,” who stores all the memories of the past in case they are needed by future generations and whom Jonas has been selected to succeed. A world without pain is appealing at first, seducing the reader into thinking that without suffering life would be wonderful. “It is easy to be seduced into thinking a perfect world, sameness, would be better,” Lowry says. “I created the book to be seductive in the beginning.” Why wouldn’t society choose to be free from war, illness, uncertainty and even snow? But would giving up all choice be worth a perfect world? A world without even the simplest of diversity? Imagine a world of continual grey, not only in the skies, but people’s faces, clothing, everything. Jonas realizes the “perfect world” in which he lives is empty and shallow, a world created by Lowry to be both utopian and nightmarish. This imagined loss of color in the book is visualized, translated to the stage as a constant theme. The set, scenery, costumes and skin tones are all shades of grey. Only The Giver will have a touch of color as he retains […]
Jan 1st, 2007 by Vital Archives
January 2007
By Erin Wolf January 2 Carly Simon Into White Columbia January 9 Blinded Colony Bedtime Prayers Pivotal Recordings Ty Herndon Right About Now Titan/Pyramid/Universal Lang Lang Dragon Songs Deutsche Grammophon Lil Jon Crunk Rock TVT Erin McKeown Sing You Sinners Nettwerk Rich Schroder Your Kind Words Anova Recording Company Kenny Wayne Shepherd 10 Days Out: Blues From the Backroad Reprise Ron Sexsmith Time Being Ironworks Music Sloan Never Hear the End of It Yep Roc Sqad-Up We Here Now Emergent/92E Trashlight Vision Alibis and Ammunition EVO John Waite Downtown: Journey of a Heart Rounder Yo-Yo Ma Between Friends: A Romantic Journey for Cello Sony Classics January 16 America Here & Now Burgundy/Sony The Holmes Brothers State of Grace Alligator Coco Montoya Dirty Deal Alligator Diana Ross I Love You Manhattan Stars of Track & Field Centuries Before Love and War Wind-up Wanda Sykes Sick & Tired Image January 23 Get Set Go Selling Out & Going Home TSR Kristin Hersh Learn to Sing Like a Star Yep Roc Dustin Kensrue Please Come Home Equal Vision The Affair Yes Yes to You Absolutely Kosher Blackfield Blackfield II Atlantic Doyle Bramhall Foodland Yep Roc The Chemical Brothers title TBA Astralwerks Deerhoof title TBA Kill Rock Stars John Mellencamp Freedom’s Road Universal moe. The Conch Fatboy Pretty Ricky Late Night Special Blue Star Entertainment International/ Atlantic Ken Navarro The Meeting Place Positive Music Only Crime Virulence Fat Wreck Chords Xavier Rudd Food in the Belly Anti-/Epitaph Saliva Blood Stained Love Story Island The Shins Wincing the Night Away Sub Pop You Am I Convicts Yep Roc January 30 Lily Allen Alright, Still Capitol Everlife title TBA Buena Vista/Hollywood Clinic Visitations Domino Harry Connick Jr. Oh My NOLA Columbia Crime Mob Hated On Mostly BME/Reprise Art Garfunkel Some Enchanted Evening Atco Norah Jones Not Too Late Blue Note Hella There’s No 666 in Outerspace Ipecac Dave Koz At the Movies Capitol Permanent Me After the Room Clears Stolen Transmission The Smithereens Meet the Smithereens! Koch 2XL Neighborhood Rapstar Monopoly/Tommy Boy Youth Group Casino Twilight Dogs Epitaph
Jan 1st, 2007 by Vital Archives
Clinic
For those with a taste for the peculiar in music, Clinic has always been a safe bet. But since their startling introduction with 2000’s Internal Wrangler, Clinic prefer to play as they please, enjoying their own melodica-infused weirdness and keeping things at their initial level with a menacing blend of garage, punk, hip-hop and world music. After the disappointing slide backwards of Winchester Cathedral (2002), Clinic fans may almost dread the arrival of the newest addition to the land of curious and curiouser. Although Visitations freefalls into the land of the weird, it is a good drop right into the environs of a mental hospital: vocalist Ade Blackburn singing within the confines of a straightjacket, his vocal chords strapped in for the ride, straining at the words with his stifled snarl. Drummer Carl Turney faces a dark corner with his kick-drum pounding out a steady beat, much like a forgotten and bored toddler pounds the bars of his crib. Visitations is thick with references to farming and harvesting – not in a joyful, abundant sense – but calling to mind images of the grim reaper swinging through town. “Harvest (Within You)” advises citizens to “batten down and button up.” In “Children of Kellogg,” the intensity of a one-two fever beat segues into a dreamy clarinet waltz, with the sound of a saw working away at lord knows what in the background. The album displays a strained ferocity, drifting in and out of its bi-polarity to slow down with “Visitations” and “Paradise,” only to snap its jaws with “Family” and “Tusk,” sweating out the meds and nightmares. Although undeniably unsettling in sound, Visitations instigates a need to hit the dance floor, recalling Clinic’s dance and hip-hop foundations and rolling fluidly from one song to the next, incorporating the brashness of punk and adding Eastern elements such as finger cymbals. It’s an album full of hidden moments, built into their strange supports that will satisfy the Clinic fan who likes them to be nothing short of comfortably bizarre. VS
Jan 1st, 2007 by Erin Wolf
