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Fresh
Pop
WOW Hall hosts two great shows this week, starting with Great Big Sea on the 20th. The quintet hailing from St. Johns, Newfoundland began in March of 1993 as a means of employment after Sea's members graduated from college. They have since played and toured relentlessly, first throughout Canada (where they've sold more than a million albums) and later the U.S. They have just released their latest, Something Beautiful, on the Zoë/Rounder label. Beautiful includes 10 new originals along with poppier versions of traditional tunes, including "John Barbour," "Chafe's Celidh" and "Beat the Drum." Members Alan Doyle, Bob Hallet, Sean McCann, Murray Foster (replacing Darrell Power on bass) and Kris MacFarlane imbue their music with a lightness of heart, weaving the threads of the centuries-old music of their homeland with today's roots rock sensibilities into a thoroughly modern tapestry. The band's rich vocal harmonies are an instant appeal, as is the high energy they pour into each show. In addition to Something Beautiful, their latest project is a career-spanning DVD that showcases the band at a packed house in Ottawa and features interviews and backstage highlights. All 14 of the band's videos have also been compiled on the DVD. The next show to add to your calendar is Taarka and Albino! at WOW Hall on Friday. Berkeley's 14-piece Afro-beat ensemble Albino! draws inspiration from the legendary Nigerian Afro-jazz musician Fela Kuti and features a member of his band, native Nigerian percussionist Friday Jumbo. Jumbo played in Kuti's historic Africa 70 ensemble, and Albino! vocalist Geoffrey Omadhebo is known for his work with greats Sonny Okosun and O.J. Ekemode. Keyboardist Bob Crawford lists Spearhead on his resumé. Other Albino! members include drummer Michael Pinkham (Superbacana), guitarist Cal Reichenbach (Starvin Like Marvin), bassist Kevin Blair, percussionist/ dancers Kim Agnew and Robyn Smith. The four horn players Nathan Endsley (Hamsa Lila), trumpeter Clyde Sutliff (Eek-A-Mouse, Michael Rose, Charlie Hunter, Joshua Redmon) Mike Davis and Kevin Brunetti complete the all-star lineup. Co-billed on that show is Taarka, featuring Hanuman's Jarrod Kaplan on percussion, ThaMuseMeant's David Tiller on mandolins, acoustic bassist Jason Flores and violinist Enion Pelta. Taarka, based in Portland, crafts what's been called "Seismic Gypsy Hypno Jazz." The band unites a world of influences creating a textural blend of bluegrass, Eastern European melodies, jazz, African beats, and freestyle funk. Kaplan immerses himself in his instrumentation, surrounding himself with djembe drums, dumbeks and hand cymbals, while on his left ankle he wears silkworm cocoons and Guinean seed pods and on his right ankle, Pakistani bells. Pelta's luscious violin anchors the band's distinctive sound, while the mandolin and versatile bass highlight multifaceted rhythms. The band will play music from the recent release, Even Odd Bird. Spend your weekend at the Willamette Valley Folk Festival, which features a diverse and intriguing lineup of local and regional acts plus nationally recognized names. The weekend kicks off Friday at 4 pm with Indian tabla drumming and encompasses 40 acts on five different stages. With acts as varied as Eugene's only all-girl glam rockers, The Ovulators, to folk songstress Laura Kemp, from Obo Addy's Ghanaian music to spoken word poetry, there's something for every age and every taste. Eugene's Abandon Ship is celebrating its second release, Happy Endings, with a CD release party at Luckey's this Friday, along with Yeltsin. The Ship trio, brothers Nathan (drums), Damian (bass) and Gabriel (guitar), who all sing, formed here in 2001. Growing up, the brothers visited Eugene many times as camp counselors, though they lived elsewhere. Damian married a camp co-worker and settled here, enticing Nathen to leave his life in Maui and Gabriel to depart from Big Bear (a snowboard spot in California). The brothers yearned to have a band, and Eugene became home base. While the songs for Happy Endings were written about the same time as those for their 2002 debut, this CD showcases more complex melodies, more distortion and a thicker sound while still retaining their fresh pop feel. "We definitely experimented with Happy Endings," says Nathen. The brothers "got more of a bare bones, spacier sound" their first time in the studio. "The second album was more aggressive because we'd taken the more atmospheric songs already," Nathen explains. The band also had an external producer the second time around, which brought out the band's untapped moods and allowed an edgier aspect to come through. Songs for a third CD are already written. Says Nathen, "We'd like to do an album a year. We're pretty prolific songwriters." This fruitful approach to writing has also enmeshed Nathen and the band into the Eugene poetry slam scene, where they find appreciable support for their intelligent, observant lyrics. Next, head to the McDonald on the 25th for a fantastic line-up of Sleater-Kinney and Quasi. Carrie Brownstein, Corin Tucker and Janet Weiss are three of the most talked about women in rock, and deservedly so — the music they make as Sleater-Kinney is the polar opposite of the lyrically bland, prefab music that saturates today's pop world. The band came together in Olympia, Wash. in 1994 and captivated a nation with an unpredictable brand of musical bravado. Tucker's warbling vocals can be thrilling, earnest and accusatory all in the same phrase. Weiss and Brownstein contribute a forceful undercurrent that can pull a song in many different directions at once. Throw in lyrical vehemence and momentum that builds and breaks like a flash flood and you've got one threatening package. Brownstein, a.k.a. Carrie Kinney, was still in Excuse 17 when she joined S-K (named for a local road in Washington), while Tucker was formerly one half of duo Heavens to Betsy. Weiss does double-duty as drummer for Quasi, along with her ex-husband Sam Coomes (who once played with Elliott Smith). Coomes is a loveable grouch whose laconic style and fatalistic outlook makes us feel better about ourselves, and Weiss is his perfect foil. I would not miss this show.
Rainer
Maria, Anyone in Love with You (Already Knows), I'd hoped Anyone in Love with You would be an all-out winner. The Midwestern emo (Dashboard Confessional, Modest Mouse, At the Drive-In, etc.) trio had wowed me with their previous two albums, Look Now, Look Again and Long Knives Out. The first was a study of volume dynamics and intelligent lyrics (the first track borrows from a botany text), defining a soft side of emo. On the latter, a more refined Maria channeled the punk origins of emo and produced uneven results but still a solid album. These high points are a cause of slight disappointment in this live CD/DVD combo. The atmosphere of some of Rainer Maria's greatest songs (e.g. "Rise") is lost when translated to live performance, and on some tracks recording quality is a concern, particularly on "Mystery & Misery" and "Rise," which are included even though the tracks are culled from audience mic-recordings. Other tracks do better, coming from soundboard matrix mixes. Sound and ambience issues aside, the audio CD is worthwhile due to the great power of the vocal performance and lyrical depth of Caithlin De Marrais. Nowhere is this more visible (literally) than on the included DVD. A full recording of a 2003 show in Carrboro, N. Carolina, the small room packed with heartbroken emo boys and girls, surges with raw emotion. Ranging from the elated liberation of "Long Knives" to the dejected requiem of "Broken Radio," the crowd is putty in the hands of these three heroes. As a premature greatest-hits collection or short introduction to Rainer Maria, Anyone in Love with You excels, but it should never replace the studio works.
John
Vanderslice, Cellar Door, John Vanderslice's albums are just that — cohesive works, rather than your common, sloppy amalgamation of tunes. Cellar Door is no exception. On Time Travel is Lonely, Vanderslice's second solo album, he created a character who's trapped in Antarctica and loses communication with the outside world. On Cellar Door, the protagonist's plight is less clear as he sings about war, family and drugs, drawing a web of connections among the three. Vanderslice records at Tiny Telephone, his own studio in San Francisco, and he knows all the tricks. At first listen, my musician-boyfriend marveled, "He always has such great drum sounds," while I notice the beautiful sincere weirdness of the lyrics. No need to choose one or the other. They intertwine for a satisfying whole.
15-60-75
(The Numbers), Jimmy Bell's Still In Town, It's time to move, brothers and sisters. Climb in your car and travel back to mid-1970s Cleveland, Ohio, courtesy of blues innovators The Numbers. Shadow the sidewalk-dealers and boozers, sleep in the all-night movie theaters, peel off the greenbacks and jiggle your loose change. Jimmy Bell's Still In Town is urban Robert Kidney's gritty yet abstract expression of street-lit vitality and finger-snapping determination. Propelled by unflagging guitar and drum, swaggering vocals, blues harp, plenty of straight-ahead sax and maracas, the momentum builds throughout the album and peaks on the 11-minute track, "Jimmy Bell." The Numbers' big sound makes for driving-music par excellence and the pace is at times furious, but always under control. Pure, unbeatable rock-n-roll, both otherworldly and forthright, without pause or pretense. The spiritual dimension of Kidney's story is best exemplified by his confrontation with a heroin pusher on "Thief." Boiled down, the Numbers' message is this: Those who keep moving persevere. David Thomas of Pere Ubu called Jimmy Bell's Still In Town "one of the great moments of our culture." Recorded live in 1975.
Sigur
Ros, (), This album is full of beautiful string and keyboard arrangements, topped off by just the right amount of made-up "Hopelandic" lyrics, crooned by falsetto Jon Thor Birigisson. Titled only as (), the album gave me a sense of déjà vu, until I realized that Sigur Ros' second album, A Good Beginning, was one of Radiohead's major influences. Since 1994, this Icelandic quartet has put out three albums, and () provides eight refreshing tracks that are New Age without ever being garish. Although those with shorter attention spans may need to skip over track seven — at nearly 13 minutes — this album is definitely one to play in the background anytime.
The
Flaming Lips, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Members of the Flaming Lips knew they had already released their masterpiece, The Soft Bulletin, in 1999. So as they recorded their next LP, they proceeded as any band would: cautiously. On their 2002 release, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, the Lips still take plenty of their well-known musical risks, such as seamlessly combing delicate acoustic guitar with fuzzy, uncut synth bursts. Yet Yoshimi does not inspire and impress the way Bulletin did. The songs, while still well crafted, are more withheld, as if lead singer and captain-at-arms Wayne Coyne thought twice about spilling his guts on two consecutive albums. The Lips still take us on an epic voyage from an intimate café-style gig to a futuristic, Japanese sci-fi movie theater to a lush, symphonic outdoor concert. Songs such as the upbeat, electric waltz "In The Morning of the Magicians" and the space-pop ballad "Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell" are sure to please both new and old fans with their funky, driving bass lines and Coyne's roundabout storytelling. The single "Do You Realize??" is the closest the Lips gets to the limitless genre-mixing that was the genius of Bulletin. Dealing with subjects like morality and love, "Do You Realize??" is a slow, flourishing, symphonic piece with the signature synth melodies, electric guitar additions and deafening, distorted, drum resonance for which they have become well known. Overall, Yoshimi is a solid, thoughtful accomplishment, employing everything from the Lips' humorous roots to unrepentant emotions. It may look small standing in the shadow of Bulletin, but then again, what wouldn't?
BEANERY BLACK FOREST CAFE PARADISO CLUB ROCK COFFEE GROVE COOPERATIVE COZMIC PIZZA@THE STRAND All
Ages DIABLO'S
THE DIVE DOWNTOWN LOUNGE DUCK INN EARLY RISE CAFE EL REY MEXICAN REST. EMBERS SUPPER CLUB GOOD TIMES INDIGO DISTRICT JIMMY MAC'S OVERTIME GRILL JOE'S BAR & GRILLE JO FEDERIGO'S JOGGER'S BAR & GRILL
JOHN HENRY'S JUANITA'S HIDEAWAY THE JUNGLE KELYNSKI'S SPORTS PUB LAVELLE'S WINE BAR & BISTRO LONE STAR BAR AND GRILL LUCKEY'S CLUB CIGAR
LUNA MAC'S AT THE VET'S CLUB MAX'S TAVERN
MCDONALD THEATRE MORNING GLORY CAFE THE O BAR OREGON ELECTRIC STATION PEABODY'S PERUGINO PLANET GOLOKA QUACKER'S RAMADA INN SAM BOND'S GARAGE SAMURAI DUCK STACY'S COVERED BRIDGE SWEETWATER'S TAP 'N' KEG TINY TAVERN THE WONDERLAND WOODSMAN GRILL WETLANDS WOW HALL All Ages YUKON JACK'S
CORVALLIS BEANERY FOX 'N' FIRKIN MURPHY'S PLATINUM
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