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A
Reputation for Rock
You're a party-hardy rock group from Chicago with a year of favorable reviews from the likes of Rolling Stone and Spin under your belt when your bass player says he has to quit the band. Then your label, which was once a cutting-edge indie powerhouse, decides it won't be footing the recording bills for any of its artists. What's a successful rock band with a fierce female lead singer to do? "We're touring because that's what we like to do," says Elizabeth Elmore, vocalist, songwriter and guitarist for The Reputation. "It reminds us what we're really about." Last summer, Joel Root had to quit the band and move home to the jewel of the universe, Eugene, leaving The Reputation without a bass player. But don't think there is any ill will. "We'll probably be staying with Joel," says Elmore, on the road with the band somewhere between Kansas City and Memphis. "His mom has one of my two favorite places to sleep when we're on tour." Besides traveling the country on their annual two-month spring tour, Elmore and her bandmates, Greg Mytych, Sean Hulet and Steve Van Horn, have been writing music, despite not having a label to pay for it yet. "We have to get the label situation taken care of. It's nice to have someone actually pay for your studio time," says Elmore. The Reputation's new music, which they're featuring on this tour, explores the issues the band has been dealing with since last summer. "[The songs] are more intricate. There's more going on in them," says Elmore. But don't think Elmore and the band are feeling the least bit melancholy. "We have a good time at shows. We like our beer," she says.
Jammin'
Jamaican Style Norma Fraser could live anywhere, New York, Los Angeles, maybe even Japan, where people love her Jamaican reggae sound. But this popular singer who has traveled the world chooses Eugene. "I can relax here, it's wholesome, it's clean, people are nice, people are respectful. " Fraser said. "I feel honored and fortunate to be here"
Fraser recorded several songs at Jamaica's legendary Studio One with Bob Marley and the Wailers, Ken Booth, The Skatalites, Delroy Wilson and others, including her first record We'll Be Lovers with Lord Creator of Trinidad in 1961. Her second record, First Cut is the Deepest, was an even bigger hit. After a 20-year hiatus from the music biz, Fraser returned to recording and released C'mon Baby independently in 2001. Fraser is once again working with Studio One on a new album she's recently begun. The long-time owner of Studio One, Coxsone Dodd, had sent Fraser some tracks before he died last year. Now, his wife, also named Norma, is running the Studio, and wants Fraser to finish the songs. "I was supposed to come down and do an album before, but it didn't work out because he died," Fraser explained. "But I told his wife that I had all these tracks he gave me and she said, 'Wow, let's do it!'" Right now, those songs are "in bits and pieces," and Fraser hasn't been able to work on them for several days because she's battling a nagging cold. But as soon as the music is done she'll be flying to New York for a recording session. Some of the songs are a throwback to the earliest days of reggae. "I would say pre-roots, way back," Fraser said. "Real rootsy, but before roots. But the music, as far as I am concerned, is going to be pretty eclectic," Fraser said. "Because I draw from just about every, every medium musically. I love all forms of music, not just reggae." Another song Norma Dodd chose for Fraser is a bebop tune by an American blues singer. Studio One will send Fraser on a two-month European tour set to start in May or June of this year. Fellow Jamaican artist Reggae Katt will perform at Fraser's upcoming show, and the band backing her up is Portland's Roots Revolution, also all Jamaican. "It should be a fun, Jamaican rootsy show!" said Fraser.
Vox
Humana One the most primary of human urges is the compulsion to make music. While many of us think of music as something created with instruments, more elemental still is simply opening one's mouth and singing, unadorned and pure. When someone sings alone, the result can seem plaintive and lonely, but when that voice lures other voices into concert, the connection is deep and primal.
That connection is readily heard when listening to Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Hearing them at their folk tradition best is to hear the generations of singers who came before them. In the case of the current line-up, you can literally hear the progression of generations. Since LBM's formation in 1964, many of the group's original members have retired, their places filled by a new generation intending to carry on the tradition. Most of LBM's style is borrowed from a type of music called Isicathamiya (Is-cot-a-me-ya), a tradition born in the mines of South Africa. Young black workers, far from home and displaced, found solace by forming singing groups. After a hard week's work the only real entertainment left to them was to sing. In 1964, LBM's founder and leader Joseph Shabalala tapped into the style and added some touches of his own in forming LBM. The group signed a record contract in 1970, and did fairly well in their homeland, but it wasn't until Paul Simon picked them as his back-up for Graceland that the group hit full stride. Today, LBM members are considered unofficial ambassadors for South Africa. They've performed with a veritable "Who's Who" of musicians, and their latest CD, Long Walk to Freedom, features guest appearances by Melissa Etheridge, Emmylou Harris, Natalie Merchant and Sarah McLachlan.
Bending Notes and Genres
You're in for a long night if you're trying to pigeonhole Carlos del Junco into a particular genre. He plays the harmonica, that's a given. And he won gold medals in both the blues and jazz categories at the 1993 Hohner World Harmonica Championships in Germany. To confuse matters more, this "tin sandwich" virtuoso won the 1996 Blues Musician of the Year award from, you guessed it, Jazz Report magazine. "The blues police say I'm not really blues and the jazz police say I'm not really jazz," del Junco says from Canada. "I've never been able to do a straight-ahead blues record. It's just how I hear it." Del Junco doesn't stop with jazz and blues, oh no. His latest album, Blues Mongrel, treats listeners to tracks infused with Latin rhythms, rockabilly and ska, while reinventing some classic blues records. "I like to make the joke, 'This is like a best of … of all the genres,'" del Junco, a Cuban-born Canadian, says. As well as enlivening his music with twists other harmonica players shy away from, del Junco employs an "overblow" technique, allowing him the sound of the more popular diatonic harmonica and the range of the more complicated chromatic harmonica. "Not too many people are willing to go there. It's difficult to master," he says. Difficult to master, yes, but also difficult to pigeonhole. Bend your schedule to see del Junco and his band the Blues Mongrels, 9 pm Friday, March 24 at Cozmic Pizza. $15. — Tim O'Rourke
Mmmm, Candy … It's refreshing to hear Hypatia Lake vocalist Lance Watkins talk about today's new music. He says there are entertainers and then there are artists but that his band tries to mix the two together. "We try to lend an aesthetic quality to it that is lasting beyond fashion," he says. "I think a lot of the entertaining music is entertaining because people are familiar with the style from the '80s and high school, but as far as actually adding something to the collective push forward, it's not really doing that. It's just sort of rehashing things." Hypatia Lake's new album, And We Shall Call Him Joseph, continues a story that began during its 2003 release, Your Universe, Your Mind. Joseph Bigsby is a candy factory worker whose troubled life experiences lead to him blowing up the factory. The album plays like a movie soundtrack with instrumental songs intertwined with peaceful experimental rock. Songs like "The Paradigm of the Introvert" add more rockin' guitar sections that support dramatic scenes and backing keyboard and electronics add a creepy, barren effect during others. "We're not one of those bands that wants to tell people about our relationships with our girlfriends or what kind of car to drive," Watkins says. "It has a lot do to with the atmosphere and the mood that is created by the sounds. It's more about trying to create a story." The story of Joseph Bigsby is one that most people, Americans especially, can relate to in some way. Repetitiveness and uniformity compel the tragic end to his hardworking but unfulfilling life. "Packaging candy is fucking boring," Watkins says, laughing. "It doesn't matter what it is that you get forced into doing. Any monotony would drive you insane." If you need further convincing to catch Hypatia Lake at Luckey's Friday, think Radiohead and The Flaming Lips locked in a candy factory with no candy. The show starts at 8 pm. $3-$5. — Danny Cross
Higher Than Cloud Nine You may as well call Portland the new Seattle when it comes to indie music nowadays. The sheer number of bands rising out of the underground scene has come as a shock to many, including High Violets guitarist Clint Sargent.
"I think [Portland] stands out nowadays due to the sheer per capita amount of people who play music," he says. "Bands in Seattle are conceding that as well … it's just crazy, we have 16-year-olds and then 40-year-olds who love our songs equally." Indeed, the High Violets have capitalized on the indie rise in Portland better than most. Their debut album, 44 Down, received massive acclaim and last month they dropped their sophomore effort, To Where You Are. The album itself is a dreamy trip carried by singer Kaitlyn ni Donavan's childish voice echoing in your head. Songs like "Love is Blinding," by far the strongest offering on the new release, feature her voice carrying the entire melody backed by a slow crescendo of guitars and a straight drum beat. The album isn't terribly unique instrumentally, but it's a solid work to daydream to and let time fly by. The band's Reverb Records companions Lab Partners will also be showing off their more unchained space-rock sound at the show here, so in the end, you'll probably leave wondering if what you saw was all in your head. The High Violets play with Lab Partners, Yeltsin, A Northern Chorus and Hypatia Lake (see previous story) at 8 pm Friday, March 24 at Luckey's. $3-$5. — Dan Hoyt
Laid-Back Grooves of Generations Past In a region experiencing its most tragic period in history, music often communicates to those affected by the disaster far better than any other medium. In New Orleans this past January, hometown favorites The Subdudes were there to provide inspiration to the people with their emotional, soul-powered sound of decades past.
"We had a CD release party for our new record [Behind the Levee] and started the big tour in New Orleans," says bassist/percussionist Tim Cook, "and the people were so gracious that we were there. We had a big party with them." It's not just soul that The Subdudes play, either — it's impossible to define them according to one sound. On the most recent album, songs like "Next to Me" and "Social Aid and Pleasure Club" reflect the soul and funk sounds of Motown, while "No Vacancy" and "One Word (Peace)" sound more like Beatles-influenced rock. The band broke up several years back after nearly a decade of recording, but then reunited with a much more laid-back attitude that has won the hearts of fans nationwide. You can find a much larger context in their music or just mellow out to it. It doesn't really matter to them. The Subdudes play at 7 pm Thursday, March 30 at Taboo. $13 adv./$15 dos. — Dan Hoyt
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