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Rock Art Rock
The Decemberists
September 19, 2009
Terminal 5, New York, NY
By Amanda Hatfield "The Decemberists played a special one night 'lottery show,' where the songs played were picked at random by a master of ceremonies, played by John Wesley Harding..."
Ra Ra Riot
April 4, 2009
Webster Hall, New York City, NY
By Amanda Hatfield "This show was, at the time, the biggest one Ra Ra Riot had sold out as headliners, and it was clear to me after watching it that the band is destined for even bigger and better things..."
Florence and the Machine
October 28, 2009
Bowery Ballroom, New York City, NY
By Amanda Hatfield "Florence Welsh and her backing band delighted and mesmerized a sold-out crowd at Bowery in her first official NY headlining show..."
Dirty Projectors
July 19, 2009
Williamsburg Waterfront (Brooklyn, NY)
By Amanda Hatfield "I was skeptical about how well Dirty Projectors' gorgeous, complex vocal harmonies would carry over outdoors, standing under hot sunshine..."
See more in the Rock Art Rock gallery.
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Bonnaroo: June 11-14, Manchester, TN
When June reels around every year, I hear the siren call of Tennessee’s mega-music bacchanal, and despite the rabid heat, grungy camping, and general hassles involved, I’ve made the ’Roo pilgrimage the last four years in a row, including this one.
Bonnaroo stands outside the hamlet of Manchester, TN, on a 700-acre farm, an hour south of Music City. Every summer, Bonnaroo becomes Tennessee’s sixth largest city, and the festival even publishes its own daily newspaper, the Beacon. This isn’t the little hippie-fest-that-could anymore; though jam bands are still well-represented, it’s become something else: America’s arguably biggest, most musically diverse, and probably best music festival. It’s the Woodstock for the digital age.
I arrived this year on Friday morning; though it technically starts on Thursday, few bands play that evening. I spent that night in Nashville on honky tonk row, getting in shape for the upcoming events. It’s a good thing too, because thunderstorms soaked the area all evening.
Questions and Answers with Patterson Hood
Here in the Smoke-Filled Room, we often find ourselves bemoaning the dearth of political activists on the scene these days. Not today. Today we extend our heartfelt birthday wishes to a man who has largely shaped our very concept of the protest singer. That man, of course, is the incomparable Pete Seeger, who recently celebrated his 90th birthday in high style with a star-studded concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Not surprisingly, all the proceeds from the event went to a good cause—the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, a non-profit organization created to defend and restore the Hudson River. Among the dozens of A-listers who showed up to pay tribute to Seeger were Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews, and a good friend of the Smoke-Filled Room, Ani DiFranco. Most importantly, for our purposes, was the involvement of Patterson Hood. Hood, who is best-known for leading the powerhouse Southern rock group Drive-By Truckers, is a formidable activist in his own right, and his new solo record, the delightfully titled Murdering Oscar (And Other Love Songs), is due out later this month. We caught up with Hood to talk about sharing a stage with the Boss, what to expect from Obama, and the cause closest to his heart.
Crawdaddy!: First of all, congratulations on the release of your new album, which comes out next month and will mark the end of a very long process of writing and recording. Are you relieved? Sorry to see the end of it?
Patterson Hood: Very relieved. It’s been an extremely long process. I’m very proud of the album and have wanted to see it come out for a long time. It also clears the way for me to do other things, too.
Your Handy Guide to the Month in Music
Yo, is it me, or was March completely awesome? Over the past 31 days, I made insanely delicious steak sandwiches with chipotle mayo, discovered my new favorite coffee (which I now make every morning in my Keurig single-serve coffee maker—recommended!), listened to Cat Power’s “Colors and the Kids” over and over again for hours and somehow managed to be remain happy in spite of it, got a new pair of jeans, caught up on the new season of Big Love, discovered a new local bar that has $3 Budweiser every Thursday, AND I attended a Girl Scout Cookie tasting party where everyone had to rank eight different flavors in order from best to worst. Tell me about your month in the comments, please. Or, just read about all the stuff that happened in the music world, then get back to work or whatever.
This Month’s Most Notable News Stories
“Dark Was the Night” Concert Coming to Radio City
Bryce and Aaron Dessner of the National took the reins on a compilation that was released in conjunction with the good people at AIDS awareness advocacy group the Red Hot Organization, and now they’re putting on an all-star show at Radio City Music Hall on May 3rd. The bill features Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, My Brightest Diamond, Feist, and a number of other artists who contributed tracks to the disc. Considering the kind of company the boys in the National tend to keep, you should expect an awful lot of top-tier special guests.
Redd Volkaert
Redd Volkaert
Reddhead
(Telehog, 2008)
Redd Volkaert is a master of the Telecaster with an impressive resume that includes fronting the superstar hillbilly band the Twangbangers with Bill Kirchen and Dallas Wayne, lead guitar duties for Merle Haggard, Lucky Tomblin, Heybale!, and Brad Paisley, and a Grammy nomination for Best Country Instrumental performance for “Spaghetti Western Swing” from Brad Paisley’s 2003 album, Mud on the Tires.
Volkaert was born in British Columbia and, in his words, “started noodling” on guitar at the age of 10. He grew up playing in rock cover bands, but at home listened only to his country and blues albums. He migrated to Nashville via Santa Cruz and LA, where he played country, blues, rockabilly, swing, and jazz while helping other artists make demos. He spent the ’90s in Nashville playing in bands and doing sessions until Haggard called him in 1997 to fill in for the departing Roy Nichols. He moved to Austin, Texas in 2000, attracted by the city’s eclectic music scene. When he’s not on the road with Hag, he plays the town’s clubs with his own band, jetting back to do Nashville sessions on occasion with folks like Dolly Parton, Tom Russell, Allison Krauss, George Jones, Hank III, and countless others.
When people talk about guitar heroes, rockers get all the props, but many country pickers (not to mention bluesmen) can play rings around your average rock guitar god. Volkaert’s jaw-dropping technique should have made him a legend by now; instead he puts out gems like this one on his own label. On Reddhead, Volkaert’s joined by his bandmates Chris Gilson on drums, Nate Rowe on bass, Rich Harney on keyboards, and Buzz Evans on steel guitar for 14 tracks that smoke from start to finish.
“Reddline Fever” kicks things off with a scorching ode to truck driving. Volkaert’s lightning-fast solo is hot enough to strip the chrome off a semi’s fender and his growling vocal brings to mind the matter of fact drawl of his boss, Merle Haggard. “Is Anything Alright” is a fine bit of Texas swing with jazzy solos from Harney’s piano and Volkaert’s guitar. Volkaert delivers the ironic lyric with a panache worthy of Bob Wills. “I Know How I’d Feel” is about infidelity, but it’s a song with a heart that avoids the “I know it’s wrong but let’s do it anyway” ethos of most cheatin’ songs. He’s about to bed his one night stand, when he stops to consider his wife’s feelings. His solo is full of stuttering, hesitant notes that underscore the feelings of the lyric. “I know how I’d feel, if she were doing this to me.” Buzz Evans adds some beautiful, mournful pedal steel to the mix. “End of the Line” is a Bob Wills tune that Volkaert and his band deliver with the carefree bounce that made His Texas Playboys legends. “Send It Back”, a swinging instrumental, is a showcase for Volkaert’s relaxed cowboy jazz technique. The album’s other instrumental, “Raisin’ the Dickens”, brings to mind the work of Les Paul. Volkaert’s solo has hints of pop, Latin, jazz, and country, and Harney’s piano keeps up with his boss’ frantic fretwork.
“Call the Pound” is a dark, tongue-in-cheek blues about infidelity with Volkaert playing a gritty country-meets-Memphis solo full of bent notes and slide frills, while “Just Because I Don’t Care” is a flat out rocker. The hook that recalls the wordplay country music songwriters used to be so adept at—“I’m not an idiot, I’m not a child, I’m an educated man. Just ’cause I don’t care, doesn’t mean I don’t understand.”
When artists cover a well-known tune, they take a big risk. Old songs are often so well embedded in our psyches that we tend to play the original in our minds and find the cover lacking. Not so with Volkaert. He takes the Box Tops hit “The Letter” and reinvents it as a slow, country blues with a slow stompin’ Waylon Jennings beat. Jennings’ “Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line” gets a twangy Americana remake and the Merle Haggard prison song “I’ll Break Out Again Tonight” gets a somber reading with Volkaert playing fills that pay tribute to the style of Hag’s long time lead guitarist Roy Nichols.
All the tunes here—Volkaert originals and covers—are short, sweet and to the point, and his songwriting is on the same level as his guitar playing. It’s a shame that country radio doesn’t play more country music these days, ‘cause a lot of these tunes sound like they could be hits. Still, his tunes give him plenty of room to show off his finely honed chops, and that’s what Reddhead is really all about.
Listen: Various Tracks [at myspace.com]
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Loudon Wainwright III
Loudon Wainwright III
Recovery
(Yep Roc, 2008)
After almost 40 years in the music industry, Loudon Wainwright III is having something of a career revival. While he never paused in his songwriting and recording during the four decades since his emergence on the live music scene in the late ’60s, he did fall slightly out of the mainstream for a while, playing consistently to older fans and acting every so often in small, easily forgotten TV and film roles.
Luckily for Wainwright, retro is currently in fashion, and one of those small roles—the father of an awkward college freshman in Judd Apatow’s short-lived series Undeclared—put him on the radar of the king of modern comedy. Apatow remembered Wainwright when he was making his huge hit Knocked Up, and brought the singer-songwriter on to create the soundtrack. Strange Weirdos: Music From and Inspired by the Film Knocked Up carried Wainwright’s music into the youth lexicon and also kicked off a strong working relationship with producer Joe Henry, who was the inspiration for Wainwright’s newest release, Recovery.
Silver Jews: The Shock and Awe of Being Alive
The Silver Jews’ sixth and latest album, Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea, exuberantly captures David Berman’s wonder with existence, most notably his own. In the words of his own lyricism, Berman has seen God’s shadow on the world. After a heavily publicized bout with addiction and depression, which ultimately culminated in a suicide attempt, Berman is back from the brink. The once reticent musician has been quite candid in recent years. He’s seen both sides, the light and the dark, and he speaks on behalf of both.
In a 2005 interview with Fader magazine Berman went on the record describing his former lifestyle, a profane and brutal one. He lived on a diet that consisted of nothing but crack and Xanax, with the methodical intent not to live at all. Lucky for us, rehab and God intervened. Now a devout Jew, he’s more alive then ever.
In regards to the highly publicized interview, Berman says, “It was a conscious decision. It’s fun for me to tell the truth in wild places. There are so many things musicians are hiding that journalists don’t go after out of respect or wanting to get along. That’s a kind of energy you have to play with carefully, but it keeps the publicity part high-concept enough to keep me interested. But, overall, it seems no lie can shock like the truth.”
Whether regarded as a former addict, a songwriter, or a poet (his 2001 collection of poetry, Actual Air, has garnered positive reviews in literary circles), Berman has always been cast in the role of misanthrope. Beyond his previous life experiences it’s easy to see why. His writing is strewn with loners and cynics with a deadpan delivery that only reinforces perpetual despondency. However, that reputation is only partially accurate. Underneath his weary words lies something decidedly human and life affirming, and oftentimes humorous.
The Hold Steady
The Hold Steady
Stay Positive
(2008, Vagrant)
“In the five years since forming, the guys in the band have gone through a bunch of typical thirtysomething stuff,” writes the Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn of his apparently aging colleagues. “[B]abies born, family members dying, relationships started, relationships ended, health problems, joy, struggle, life, etc.” But on the band’s new album, the excellent Stay Positive arriving in stores via Vagrant, it’s not just the bandmembers facing the challenges of growing up and getting older. Indeed, on Stay Positive, Finn’s protagonists suffer largely the same fate—progressing from the usual Springsteen-esque tales of suburban misbehavior and excess to markedly darker territory. Take “One for the Cutters”, an expansive rocker that starts out innocently enough but ends up as a class-conscious narrative of lies and violent crime. It’s the type of tale that pervades the record—sad and discouraging but highly relatable.
Stay Positive’s not all doom and gloom of course; there’s plenty of mischievous fun to be had in “Sequestered in Memphis” and the anthemic sing-a-long chorus of the title track. But one gets the feeling that Finn’s creations may be beginning to reap what they’ve sown, with stories that often veer off into the farthest reaches of despondency and despair. And while the record’s title belies its general mood, it starts out hopefully enough and with the best of intentions on “Construction Summer”, wherein our heroes boldly declare, “We’re gonna build something this summer.” But things turn south in a hurry, as Finn and his compatriots are moved to “Raise a toast to Saint Joe Strummer / I think he might have been our only decent teacher.”
The Jayhawks: Sound of Lies
The Jayhawks
Sound of Lies
(American Recordings, 1997)
My 1998 college spring break in Berkeley, California expanded my horizons exponentially, and not just because I was popping LSD like Now and Laters. Much of it had to do with getting my hands on the Jayhawks’ genre-defying album Sound of Lies.
As a Minnesota native, I had long been hip to Minneapolis’ the Jayhawks, who had won over critics and a devoted fanbase with three albums of brooding-yet-accessible roots rock that were highlighted by acoustic guitars, harmonicas, twang, and sweet harmonies. Albums like Hollywood Town Hall and Tomorrow the Green Grass established them as a powerhouse in the ascendant alt-country scene, a community that took pride in looking backwards and had no problem with lyrics as black as pitch. From their near-hit, “Blue”: “Always thought I was someone / Turned out I was wrong / But you brought me through / And you made me feel so / Blue.”
Drive-By Truckers: Whiskey, Tears, and Dixie-fried
Not every band with alt-country/rock roots successfully defies expectations to the extent that the Drive-By Truckers do. For eight records now, this Georgia-based outfit has chugged their way through career crises that would have derailed a lesser band.
With the release of Brighter Than Creation’s Dark, the Truckers have yet again dealt with internal turmoil and regrouped to record this sprawling epic. Most bands are lucky to have one gifted songwriter on board, but these guys have three strong contributors. They wrote and recorded over 50 songs for Creation’s Dark, eventually whittling them down to 19 for the disc.
Creation’s Dark touches on all of the band’s familiar themes, from subverting Southern stereotypes, exploring blue-collar, character-driven song-stories, to juggling their three-guitar attack. Their self-deprecating lyrics often underscore what it means to grow up in the South and still retain that identity through adulthood. The trick is they do this without resorting to the easy platitudes of Southern pride that would only demean their home region beneath the Mason Dixon line. The songs range between rave-up boogies, country soul numbers, and gutbucket balladry.
Rock Art Rock: Issue 3.18b
Drive-by Truckers
Bourbon Street Ballroom, Baltimore, MD
June 3, 2009
By Kevin Ruppenthal
This was a shockingly free gig for a new venue in Baltimore. DbT are a phenomenal live band, and the chance to shoot them was one I could not resist. Here is Patterson Hood, raising the devil horns as he sings ‘but I sure saw AC/DC, with Bon Scott singing ‘Let There Be Rock’ in their tune, ‘Let There Be Rock.’’ Am so thankful to have captured this moment—it’s a highlight of their sets.
Check out Kevin Ruppenthal at his music site
published: September 8, 2009 in column: Rock Art Rock
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