2008-01 Vital Source Mag – January 2008
Human Bell
Nathan Bell (Lungfish,Television Hill) and Dave Heumann (Arbouretum,Bonnie “Prince” Billy) could be the musical equivalent of Civil War re-enactors. Their conspired effort, Human Bell, creates an atmosphere akin to that of an organic battlefield – a dirge-y sweep of chaos, simultaneously cold as metal and mellow as a field of grass droning with insects. Recorded by Paul Oldham and mixed by John McEntire, the guitar strings sound as though they reverberate into a tin cup while the crash cymbals and brushes fight to be the main percussive attraction. Add lots of meandering fuzz to the steady progression of songs, and they grow and change just by standing still. Bell and Heumann give us a Tortoise-like bite to chew on – a veritable novel for an audience accustomed to short stories. Through wave after wave of this seemingly cathartic sonic expedition, songs alternate between the quiet, such as “Ephaphatha (Be Opened),” swaying in a brassy swaddling of horns, and the forceful, calculated twitchiness of “The Singing Trees.” Human Bell’s self-titled release is a test in endurance, but should be savored for its meditative qualities. The duo lives up to their name (an uncanny combination of the musician’s surnames), their music widely resonating even during their live shows, when two skeleton guitars must manipulate the body of their recorded music. (On their album, Bell and Heumann host guests such as Matt Riley, Michael Turner, Pete Townshend and Ryan Rapsys.) Human Bell encapsulates a quiet beauty that is at once reflective, progressive and sparklingly macabre.
Jan 1st, 2008 by Erin Wolf
Open to interpretation
By Joe White “We’ll all have walkie talkies, and I’ll pretty much be like the quarterback,” says Kevin Stalheim. Such a statement might seem unusual coming from a member of a classical music ensemble, but when the ensemble in question is Present Music – a gaggle of adventurous virtuosi who have trained their fans to expect the unpredictable – the imagery seems in character. On January 12, Present Music stages “Art, Architecture and Music” at the Milwaukee Art Museum, using the entire Museum as a canvas for a concert. “We’ve been there for a long time, and we always go in there and do a concert where people sit down,” says Stalheim, who serves as the ensemble’s artistic director. “I thought that someday I’d like to do something where we’re moving around the galleries.” Before the performance, UWM students and professional video artists will display their work in Windhover Hall while models from Fashion Ninja pose around the museum. After a talk between Alex Mincek and MAM chief curator Joe Ketner about the dialogue between art and music, the action will move to Windhover for the world premiere of Mincek’s “Portraits and Repetitions,” as well as “In White” by longtime Present Music collaborator Kamran Ince and “Women at an Exhibition” by Randall Woolf. After the performance, concertgoers will split into groups and disperse to different sections of the Museum for music and recontextualized art. Roughly every 20 minutes, the groups will switch places. “What I’m imagining is people walking around in these groups [in] a very quiet way, in a contemplative way, the way someone might in a cathedral or a library,” says Stalheim. “The music will be happening, but people can feel free to move around.” Afterward, guests can enjoy an after-party with access to the Martin Ramirez exhibition, an impromptu runway show by Fashion Ninja and a presentation by multimedia ensemble donebestdone. While the works of Randall Woolf, Alex Mincek and Kamran Ince comprise the traditional sit-down-and-listen section of the evening, they are anything but stereotypical “serious” musicians. Those imagining composers of classical music to be crusty, gray and near-death will have their prejudices particularly challenged by Randall Woolf, who played in garage rock bands in high school and did not have an interest in classical music until college. “I do modern classical music – modern in the sense that it has sounds, ideas, videos and other elements that you would be familiar with in our world, like electric guitar, turntables and drum machines,” Woolf says. His resume includes Harvard and Tanglewood (perhaps conforming more to the “I don’t own a television and never smile” stereotype of serious composers), but his MySpace page includes PJ Harvey and Bubba Sparxx, and his music reflects as wide a range of styles. Woolf wrote “Women at an Exhibition” on commission from the Akron Symphony Orchestra and the Akron Art Museum and premiered the work in 2004. The piece incorporates recordings of women speaking and singing and is played in tandem with […]
Jan 1st, 2008 by Vital Archives
Reverend Organdrum
The Reverend Horton Heat (specifically, band leader Jim Heath) is pretty much a brand name with the best of‘em. For over twenty years, the Rev has built quite a church on the strengths of his electrically – charged, vaguely psychotic musical sermons, with admirers in a wide spectrum of music appreciation, from the purists to the curious. Hi-Fi Stereo, a collection of entirely instrumental covers (save “Ain’t That a Kick in the Head”), falls more on the purist end. Though Reverend Organdrum (I’m betting the moniker brainstorming sessions took three seconds, tops) is quite a pairing, with Asleep At The Wheel’s Tim Alexander providing the organ, there is more miss than hit here. While expertly played and arranged, this disc leaves nothing to the listener’s imagination. From song selection to production to performance, nothing even remotely transports the listener. The lack of anything compelling tells me this was done in pure fun, and probably knocked off with little engaged energy. “Experiment in Terror” is worthy, with some nice atmospheric touches; “James Bond Theme” and “Theme to Route 66” are underlined with a bit of cool. But sadly, those are the only highlights worth mentioning (or even remembering). In a career that has been nothing but success — artistically, commercially, and critically — this project can only be heard as a disappointment.
Jan 1st, 2008 by Vital Archives
Bullet For My Valentine
In the 1980s, it was demanded that metalheads swear allegiance to one subgenre and stick with it. Thrashers risked ridicule for owning a Poison album, and hairmetal kids couldn’t fathom the appeal of music so heavy that Aqua Net girls didn’t like it. So it’s amusing to listen to metal in the 21st century and hear Maiden-esque power metal, Sebastian Bach-caliber vocals and death metal growls in one band. Perhaps the emergence of grunge and indie in the ’90s convinced the metalheads that they’d better stick together. If that’s the case, then Bullet For My Valentine is tailor-made to appeal to every last one of them, be they clad in denim, leather or spandex. Scream Aim Fire, the band’s second album, is a nonstop barrage of British riffage, music school-bred twin guitar leads, and all-attack-no-decay double-kick percussion, held together with sugary power-pop vocals that could have been lifted from Skid Row’s debut (note: this is not a bad thing, indie rockers, and no, this isn’t irony talking), were it not for the occasional, and unfortunate, dive into cliché Cookie Monster metalcore. It feels like a calculated choice that will definitely sell records, but hearing Matthew Tuck’s voice soar into Rob Halford terrain would have been much more satisfying. Still, while they may be hurting in the originality department, Bullet For My Valentine is a breath of fresh harmony and — what’s this? Songwriting? — in a musical climate where headbangers seem content with mindless guitar wankery and tuneless vocals. Take the standout “Hearts Burst Into Fire,” a not-quite power ballad about (get this) life on the road, of all things. The riffage may be all Iron Maiden, but the lyrics are vintage Jovi Crüe. VS
Jan 1st, 2008 by DJ Hostettler
Resolution
Let’s pretend this column is being written during the first yawning hours of 2008, and not during the first snow-spewing, snot-freezing, soul-sucking weeks of December. Let’s also pretend that contrary to all hard-won common sense and cynical sensibility, the simple arrival of a new year can truly bring forgiveness, absolution and a newfound sense of purpose. Finally, let’s pretend that the rather dubious phenomenon known as “The New Year’s Resolution” isn’t just another hollow, self-defeating ritual designed to give lazy monthly columnists something cheap and easy to write about. Instead, let’s pretend that resolutions really do mean something, and that if we sincerely follow through on them, they can make us better people, and maybe even get us laid. For an extra kick, let’s pretend the following resolutions are your own, and not the aforementioned lazy columnist’s, whose only goal for 2008 is to finally relinquish his post as Vice President of the Mr. Belvedere Fun Club. Here, then, are four things you should do – nay, must do! – in 2008. (Note: I’m keeping these solely Milwaukee-related, and trying to avoid the typical “Quit smoking and drinking so goddamned much” resolutions we’ve all grown so tired of.) 1. Quit smoking and drinking so goddamned much Jesus, you’ve been hitting the sauce a little hard lately, haven’t you? Remember that one night you passed out in the back of your bass player’s pickup truck, got covered in nearly an inch-and-a-half of snow, and almost lost two of the fingers on your left hand to frostbite? How about that night after Thanksgiving when you went out to a bar with a video camera and kept sticking the thing in everyone’s face? Christ, you were annoying that night. And what’s up with the copious cigarette consumption? It used to be you only bummed from your friends when you were bored or wasted, but now you’re blowing precious hip-replacement money on a few packs a week. Seriously, if you need any more reason to cut down on both of these vices, just remember what happened to you last month: completely loaded, you quickly swung your hand to your mouth, thinking you were holding a cigarette. Unfortunately, you were holding a beer bottle, and your front tooth was smashed to dozens of jagged pieces as a result. 2. Finally see the Brewcity Bruisers OK, so the whole roller derby thing initially bugged the living shit out of you. Fake names? Cheerleaders? Endless cover stories? Christ! But hey, like the latter-day Monkees said: that was then, this is now. Your irrational anger has subsided, and you’re finally ready to jump aboard the bandwagon before the whole thing falls apart and everyone starts putting together burlesque acts again. Sure, you’re still a little leery of the weird pro-wrestling vibe the whole thing gives off, and the downright baffling rules always remind you of that roller derby episode of King of the Hill. (LUCKY: See, your blockers stop the other team’s jammers. The pivots can block, jam, […]
Jan 1st, 2008 by Matt Wild
Naked is a state of mind
2007 was quite a year. It’s a true and complete summary, and pretty much expresses the one universal aspect of the passage of the twelve month period we’ve culturally agreed spans a calendar cycle. The events themselves were for me,as for you, momentous in ways, predictable in others. Periods of unbelievable chaos intermingled with bouts of monotony and fits of restlessness. And like you, I grew in ways and probably shrank in others. Also like you, I learned a few things and remembered a few I’d forgotten (to my detriment) and which, like thousands of other unimaginative columnists and bloggers reflecting on the old year and projecting for the new, I will share with you now in list form. Living on your own terms is better than lots of money. It truly is, unless money alone is how you set the terms. When you’re happy and you know it, then your face will really show it. People respond to positive vibrations, of course they do. Strangers smile at you, old men chat you up at the hardware store, kids and dogs climb all over you (but not cats – they’re consistently drawn to whoever doesn’t like them). Don’t fake it, though. That’s creepy and easy to identify. Speak your mind when you have the chance. I learned this one the hard way, with a now-former dear friend. By the time I was honest about my fears for her, it was too late. I was already irrelevant. Save your change. A lot of people already know this, but I came late to the game. Naked is a state of mind. This is possibly the most interesting thing I learned this year, when we published last month’s holiday cover featuring a beautiful young woman clad only in snow and a big red ribbon. Most folks loved the playfulness of it, though a few were concerned that we were objectifying women (Incidentally, we’re almost all women over here). Some mused (including two other publishers – go figure!) that we might have done it to sell more ads: a crazy idea, as anything vaguely risqué in Milwaukee tends to scare away more advertisers than it attracts. I’ve taken the liberty of showing, through a sloppy application of Photoshop, that she’s actually less naked than if she were wearing a bikini. We got almost halfway through the month before the crazies started weighing in, but I guess it was inevitable. The one below is my favorite. Needless to say, fisher8624 never wrote back. I’ll leave you with it, as well as my response. VS —–Original Message—– From: fisher8624@yahoo.com Subject: Your Nude Cover FYI – a whole army of good upright people are taking stacks of your magazine with the nude cover and throwing them in the nearest trash can. STOP SPREADING PORN !!! We do not live in the backwoods of Africa where people run around with nothing on !! Your cover people may have such uncivilized tendencies but most of our society is civilized […]
Jan 1st, 2008 by Jon Anne Willow
Have a heart
Maxie’s Southern Comfort 6732 W. Fairview Avenue 414-292-3969 maxies.com Save yourself a trip to N’awlins: Take I94 to 68th. Head north one block north and pull into Maxie’s Southern Comfort. With snow piled high as corn in July, Maxie’s is a hot spot that has already been discovered after eight months in business. Executive Chef Joe Muench puts the South in yo’ mouth with every bite of Southern specialty from barbecued shrimp and ribs to fried green tomatoes and succotash to blackened catfish. Is it any different from what you’d have south of the Mason-Dixon? Yes: it’s a whole lot better here. Muench opened Maxie’s for owners Dan Sidner and Chick Evens as a sister bistro to Evens’ Maxie’s Supper Club in Ithaca, New York. Their broad take on Southern cookery is reflected in the French, Spanish, German and African accents to the cuisine. The atmosphere is warmed with cayenne-colored walls, sparkling little chandeliers and red drapes roped together with massive gold tassels. The chef’s diverse culinary education and experience is evident on every plate. A notable special: the large grilled scallops served over sweet potato hash with frisee lettuce and a poached egg that bursts open to enrich the light butter sauce is mighty fine for anybody hankering to “grab a root” (have dinner). The suggested wine pairing is a rich, smoky pinot noir that tangles nicely on the taste buds with the hickory bacon in the hash. Just as enticing are the seared tenderloin filets drenched in a bourbon glaze, with barely steamed fresh spinach and crunchy corn succotash. Though the chef personally eschews fried food, the creamy potato croquettes and the lacey onion rings are evidence that he’s mastered the art. Using them as accents rather than focal points keeps the diner out of the heart attack zone. Slow your pulse even more with a Scarlet O’Hara, a tot of Southern Comfort, cranberry juice and bitters that, like its namesake, is sweet, sassy and surprisingly potent. Chef Muench learned his trade right here in Milwaukee, starting at his grandmother’s table. “How many kids come home to boiled heart for dinner?” he wants to know. “My grandmother lived with us for six years and it was like Thanksgiving every day. She made bread, applesauce and rhubarb and we ate a lot of unconventional foods like oxtail soup, beef tongue and liver and onions. Coming through the hardships of war, she used everything. That exposure piqued my interest in cooking: helping her, watching her and just eating.” Though Muench has never lived or worked outside the state, family visits to Louisiana gave him a bank of food memories to tap in his current employment. “Southern cooking was always on my radar. Southern has the largest cumulative style – barbecue to game to fish.” Muench tried college but was impatient with the pace. MATC’s culinary arts program gave him the opportunity to work in his field while he was getting his degree. “I could see the rewards of working sooner. […]
Jan 1st, 2008 by Cate Miller
A part of the solution
In the auditorium of the John C. Cudahy YMCA, the basketball hoop blocks the view of the stage. Kendall tells the lanky teens shooting hoops to go upstairs for a while so Scott can set up his tripods, flashes and umbrellas. This is the only YMCA in the country built specifically to accommodate the arts. Set on 55 acres of wooded land – formerly John C. Cudahy’s farmstead – and home to a “safe place” where teens can study, use computers and play sports and video games, it’s a far cry from the popular image of the Y as a fitness club, a place to play racquetball and run laps on the track. Kendall Hayes, now 20, joined AmeriCorps right out of high school. He’d been working so many hours at the branch’s front desk as part of STEP-UP (a career development program for high school students run by the county’s Private Industry Council) that a friend suggested he might as well earn volunteer hours and collect an education award as a full-fledged AmeriCorps member. Now he’s in his second year of service at the YMCA, where he helps students in the teen program with everything from homework and test preparation to setting up bank accounts and working creatively. “[I try] to get kids to stay active, to get them to expand their horizons and open them up to new things,” he says, “not just coming here to play basketball every day, but getting them to do something artsy, or getting them to go back and help their community.” Right now, Kendall is working on developing an art guild for the teens that would incorporate creative writing, music and visual art. AmeriCorps members can serve a maximum of two terms and qualify for the education award, and when his term is up, Kendall plans to go to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, maybe to study recording arts and psychology. “I’m the type of person that likes to do everything, [and] AmeriCorps has offered new possibilities for me … We’ve [done everything from] helping inner city youth to working on Philadelphia Community Farm to disaster relief training,” he says. “[But] going back to school is a whole different section of my life.” Still, he says, “I do wish that I could stay longer. There’re a lot of different opportunities and I don’t feel that I’ve experienced it all. And I’m always willing to lend a helping hand.” Kendall’s commitment to public service is unadorned, stunningly simple. In our interview, he speaks gracefully about what service can do for communities – and what community service gives to those who serve. The organization In 1993, then-President Bill Clinton established AmeriCorps as the country’s flagship service initiative. It’s often assumed to be a single program, like the domestic version of the PeaceCorps, but AmeriCorps is actually a network of organizations, a bear hug that encompasses four primary programs: AmeriCorps*State and AmeriCorps*National, which provide funding and volunteer resources to statewide and national organizations; the National Civilian […]
Jan 1st, 2008 by Amy Elliott
Pat Graham
Music and media pop and move. We are digital and online. Genres slide into each other, constantly bounding forward. That’s why Pat Graham’s new photography book, Silent Pictures, is so important: it’s an anchor to link us to the past. Silent Pictures is his first book, showcasing underground rock at its finest through the past two decades. The collection features bands as diverse as Modest Mouse, Outkast, Elliot Smith, Fugazi, Thievery Corporation, Built To Spill and The Shins, on the road and backstage, in a mode that is raw, dirty, lonely, triumphant, gritty and real. Graham, a Milwaukee native, spoke to VITAL from his London gallery, 96 Gillespie, to discuss Silent Pictures, being on the road with Modest Mouse and future projects. For more information, visit 96gillespie.com or modestmouse.com/photoblog. Define Silent Pictures – what’s its attitude? It’s a photography book, plain and simple. It’s about the images, and hopefully it’ll help expose the road life of bands. We put a lot of thought into the editing, assembling the book like a record to balance quiet and explosive moments. We want to grab attention and get people to stop flipping, to really engage them and get them to inspect interesting photos. With digital photos, we flip to quick. With this book, we want you to stop in your tracks. Describe your evolution as a photographer in the rock world. I was born in Milwaukee and kicked around a bit. I started shooting photos at Café Voltaire in Milwaukee around age 17 and studied photography at UWM. Soon after school, I moved to Washington DC. I had a friend that was in bands out there. That’s what kickstarted my photography at shows. I really got into the scene. Shot a lot of Fugazi in ‘91-‘92. It was around that time I started touring with Modest Mouse. It was me with the three guys and a van. It was bare bones, man. I’d do merch, drive a lot, move gear in and out of shows; shooting the whole time. I still tour with them regularly and post photos on their tour blog. I’ve also had the good fortune to have work printed in major European and U.S. music publications like Rolling Stone. What is your greatest accomplishment as an artist? Doing exhibitions with my wife Melanie Standage – it’s the process of setting them up and seeing things on the wall. Our shows “Past Perfect” or “Wildebeest” were fun to do. The book is a great thing to do and have done but there’s something about showcasing the real prints that always exciting. Also, the Experience Music Project in Seattle purchased a number of my prints for their collection which is a great feeling, too. What’s up in the UK? I founded 96 Gillespie with my wife. It’s a London gallery that features a lot of American artists. It’s a place to start a dialogue between UK and US artists. Describe your evolution as a photographer in the rock music world. Where do […]
Jan 1st, 2008 by Howie Goldklang
The road goes on forever
As work on the Marquette interchange reconstruction project nears completion, I find myself impressed by the enormity of the project as well as with the relative lack of inconvenience it’s caused. Sure, there were occasional delays, as well as closed exits and lanes that added minutes to commutes, but overall, the level of congestion and other problems never seemed to exceed tolerable levels. After all, if you choose to live in an urban area, a certain degree of crowding and waiting is part of life. In a way, it’s too bad. Anyone who feels that we are overreliant on the automobile knows that the only time most people will consider alternative options to driving is when there are significant costs associated with cars. In other words: no pain, no gain. Of course, Americans are notoriously attached to their cars. Even skyrocketing gas prices don’t seem to make a dent in our dependence on the automobile. Here in Milwaukee, we are fortunate to have it pretty easy when it comes to getting around. Driving from one side of town to the other rarely seems to take more than twenty minutes. The rush hour traffic reports usually sound like we live in some kind of Pleasantville with clear roads and minimal delays. People who grumble about traffic or the cost of parking clearly haven’t traveled much. Drivers in Chicago, New York and Boston face extreme traffic congestion, as well as expensive parking costs that encourage alternatives. Not surprisingly, all three cities have extensive subway systems. The one place where there is gridlock here in Southeastern Wisconsin is on the road to funding new or expanded mass transit options. The proposed extension of Chicago’s Metra system from its terminus in Kenosha to Racine and Milwaukee, known as the KRM line, gets a lot of support – that is, until the subject of dedicated local funding comes up. Under pressure The proposed increase in the tax on rental cars to support the KRM didn’t survive the state budget, leaving advocates for the line hoping they can build support for a referendum on a regional sales tax increase. Good luck with that. In addition, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and County Executive Scott Walker are at odds over proposals to improve the local transit system, continuing an impasse that goes back more than ten years and leaves about $100 million in federal funding on the table. Sigh. It’s yet another example of a pressing public issue crying out for leadership and regional cooperation. Which brings us back to the Marquette interchange project and the efficient, though costly, road construction program. Why is it that road construction barrels on while so many other needs struggle for funds? To adapt a popular bumper sticker, perhaps one day schools will have dedicated funding and road planners will hold bake sales. But that won’t happen anytime soon. With the Marquette project wrapping up, the state has ambitious plans to expand Interstate 94 down to the Illinois border at a cost […]
Jan 1st, 2008 by Ted Bobrow
