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Still
Rocking After All These Years
Bands do not simply reform after a 20 year absence to release a critically lauded, completely infallible new album. It's even more inconceivable for a band to follow that record with an equally brilliant one only a few years later. Despite their age, and despite two decades of artistic distance, the guys from Mission of Burma pulled off the impossible: They burst forth from the past like an enraged revenant, shocking the rock world with the same impetuous genius that elevated them to cult status in the early '80s. Until the band's reunion in 2002, the legacy of Mission of Burma was essentially one of myth and legend. With only two studio releases — the 1981 EP Signals, Calls and Marches and the 1982 LP Vs. — fans and neophytes alike had only a small library of songs to digest. Those who were lucky enough to attend a live MoB show between 1979 and 1983 (the band's initial lifespan) passed on fabled tales of these sonically raucous, ear-splitting concerts. Indie rock cognoscenti, past and present, treasured with a feral passion the few memories and mementos they had of their precious post punk saviors. 1979, the year guitarist Roger Miller, bassist Clint Conley and drummer Peter Prescott founded Mission of Burma, brought about another crest in the post punk landscape. The group's bold fusion of intellectualism and punk rock ferocity distinguished it from the other art-punk bands at the time. While the work of groups like Pere Ubu sometimes seemed sterile and distant, MoB's music impressed as both smart and intuitive. Miller and Conley, the group's primary songwriters, were both trained musicians who coupled their love for punk with their background in musical composition. With the addition of engineer and tape loop effects specialist Martin Swope, MoB developed into a veritable avant-garde punk outfit, incorporating shifting rhythms, unconventional time signatures and experimental tape effects. In his recent book Rip it Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984, music journalist Simon Reynolds actually refers to the band as prog-punk due to their "combination of visceral and cerebral, pain-threshold volumes and crypto-prog structural weirdness." Roger Miller's worsening tinnitus was the primary reason for the band's 1985 breakup. Beyond that, everything ended amicably, free of petty squabbles and artistic disagreements. Their 2002 reunion, which included all original members sans Swope (who gracefully declined to participate), culminated in the release of the band's first record since Vs., the exceptional ONoffON. MoB followed that up this past May with their third full length, Obliterati. Praised for its timelessness (as was every previous MoB record) Obliterati's success proves that Miller, Prescott and Conley are not only post punk prophets but also prolific. Don't miss out on this rare opportunity to witness the fierceness and intensity of a live Mission of Burma performance. It will be a mournful day when the group decides to call it quits for good. No
Hyphens Please In these trying times of press packs so heavy they require extra postage just to support the weight of all the genres spanned by an artist, Leon Russell provides a refreshing reprieve. Here is a performer who bent the boundaries of musical categories long before Dave Matthews could even begin to say "jazzy-psycha-blues-a-billy," and without making a federal case out of it. Known as "pop music's most anonymous superstar," Russell, with his quietly arresting lyrics and not-so-quiet keyboards, has unassumingly influenced pop, rock, jazz, country and R&B music for more than 40 years.
Russell's prodigious ivory-tickling caught the ear of Jerry Lee Lewis in an Oklahoma nightclub where Russell was a backup musician at the tender age of 14. Lewis took the young man on the road with him, launching his career as an elite studio keyboard and guitar player for names such as Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra, Ike and Tina Turner, The Rolling Stones, The Byrds, B.B. King, Wayne Newton, Sam Cooke and Johnny Mathis. His songwriting also remains embedded in music history, with Joe Cocker's cover of "Delta Lady" and Ray Charles' "A Song for You" maintaining their radio staying power on the FM dial. As rare as Russell's prolific musical talent was his ability to keep his head of cascading gold hair on his shoulders and remain focused on the never-ending possibilities over the musical horizon. He paved the way for one of the most successful artistic marriages of our time, country and rock, forming a professional partnership with Willie Nelson that spanned numerous tours and launched the hippie-redneck-fusion-fest, Willie's 4th of July Picnic. While still a major touring force in his own right, Russell engineered his own studio and production companies and continued to combine forces with newer acts, expanding into bluegrass and gospel music and increasingly exploring his spiritual side through song. The concert footage of Russell's participation in George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh provides a visual metaphor for his ability to seamlessly juggle the spotlight and the wings. One minute he's up there pounding the keys on his own performance of "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and a few tracks later he's backing Bob Dylan on "Just Like a Woman." Forty years into his career, Russell remains a versatile if somewhat enigmatic character. He is distinctive in his ability to be chameleon-like. His words and his music support the talents of others, yet his own career has achieved longevity untouched by more attention or ego-driven stars. He rarely consents to interviews, but his snowy white mane and stately presence communicate volumes about the long and soulful road this man has traveled.
Classical
Crossings
Fareed Haque must drive record store clerks crazy. Where do you put his CDs? The guitar sorceror's name and Pakistani/Chilean ancestry suggest the "world music" bin, and he's played in Latin bands as well as studied various South Asian musical forms. His band members have also played Brazilian music and Afropop. But you could also file him under jazz: He's released albums on the esteemed Blue Note label, worked with jazzers from Dave Holland to Joe Henderson and even holds a professorship in jazz studies at Northern Illinois University. But that teaching job also includes classical guitar (which he studied in college along with jazz), and he's played all the major classical guitar concertos and worked with classical figures like the early music authority Stephen Stubbs, the Vermeer Quartet and many symphony orchestras. And thanks to his work with his band Garaj Mahal, Medeski, Martin and Wood and others, he's a major player on the jam band scene. So that's at least four possible categories, and, like the most interesting artists, Haque transcends them all. You can hear all the above influences in his music, but his Fareed Haque Group's sound should especially appeal to jazz fans who fondly recall the '70s fusion heyday of Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock. But its tabla player and DJ bring Pakistani/Indian inflections and hip hop rhythms to the mix as well. The group (which also includes members with extensive jazz and classical experience) can swing from ethereal to funky to grooving in the same set. And Haque's fretboard virtuosity should draw plenty of guitar worshippers. So, if you're wondering whether you should go see Fareed Haque Group at the WOW Hall on Sept. 24, the answer is yes. Eugene has its own jazz/classical professor/performer. Last year, the UO music school added saxophone professor Idit Shner to the faculty. Like Haque, Shner has studied, played and taught both jazz and classical music. She's performed many of the classical saxophone standards with symphony orchestras in Israel and also commissioned and performed contemporary post-classical music for smaller ensembles. Her dry-toned agility on the alto, as well as her probing, thoughtful compositions, reminds me a bit of Lee Konitz's work, with a modern perspective. Shner's quartet performs her compositions and other modern jazz at Luna on Sept. 16. Another classical hybrid alights when the Alan Parsons Live Project, augmented by members of the Eugene Symphony, plays the Cuthbert Amphitheater on Sept. 15. Parsons was best known as a recording engineer with The Beatles, Paul McCartney, The Hollies and Pink Floyd before forming his own group, which specialized in lushly orchestrated conceptual art rock in the 1970s and '80s. He even created the Chicago Bulls' theme song. The Eugene Symphony performs without aging art rockers on Sept. 28, opening its 2006-2007 season at the Hult Center with one of the all-time most performed classical works, Felix Mendelssohn's second Violin Concerto, with its haunting opening theme, and Gus Mahler's first symphony, probably his most accessible work for fans of earlier Romantic and classical music. Music fans have a lot to look forward to at Portland's Time Based Art Festival this month, but that's not the only Portland source of exploratory music in September. Fans of Too Much Coffee Man, the award-winning comic that runs each week in EW, will want to check out the opera based on Shannon Wheeler's twisted vision. It's running Sept. 22-23 and 29-30 at Brunish Hall in the Portland Center for the Performing Arts. The music was devised by Daniel Steven Crafts, an Emmy-award winning contemporary composer (and old friend of Wheeler's) and features veteran opera and musical theater performers. The plot, such as it is, follows TMCM's quest to win the love of his beloved Barista, despite the machinations of the evil Espresso Guy. OK, we've seen classical music fused with rock, jazz, world music and even comic books. How about electronica? Electronic music fans will want to head north for the eighth annual festival of electro-acoustic music at Doug Fir Lounge. Presented by the New West Electro-Acoustic Music Organization, founded by UO alum and former Eugenean Joseph Waters, this year's festival explores the African influences in electronic music and features five bands (Masonic & MarsBassMan, Swarmius, White Rainbow, Maxime de la Rochefoucauld and Hybrid Groove Project) whose influences range from classical to hip hop, IDM, drum & bass, electro pop and more. And yet another classical music hybrid, Portland's Ensemble East West, performs impressionistic new music by Marjorie Rusch (Arctic Voyager for flute, string trio and koto), Bongani Ndodana-Breen's pointillistic trio, "Apologia at Umzimvubu" (inspired by South African Xhosa dance culture) and music by Astor Piazzolla, Albert Roussel and more. They're performing at Portland's Central Library on Sept. 17.
Bears, Boulders, Birds & Butterflies Laura Veirs' fifth album, Year of Meteors, is the kind of musical composition that inspires illogical descriptions: It's spare and lush, simple and involving, melodic and conversational. Though electric guitar lines, organs and harmonies overlay the basic guitar and vocal melodies, you could strip these songs bare and they would retain their inherent grace — as evidenced by "Magnetized," a melancholic song that begins with only Veirs' voice and acoustic guitar, adding piano and keyboard sounds as it weaves to its lovely end.
Year of Meteors is the result of the collaboration between the Seattle (by way of Colorado) singer-songwriter and her band, The Tortured Souls. On earlier albums, Veirs would record her vocal and guitar parts first, adding the rest of the band later, but the process was reversed this time, creating a more band-centric album. Viola player Eyvind Kang, who appears on just three tracks, adds a particularly rich note, especially with the dancing melody that opens "Parisian Dreams" and leads the song into each verse. Veirs' sound is a subtle, thoughtful variation on a straightforward indie rock sound, full of clear guitars and catchy choruses laden with image-heavy, scene-capturing lyrics. At times, the closest comparison seems the similarly vulnerable but never fragile songs of Death Cab for Cutie. Veirs, though, tends to mysterious lines that wouldn't sound out of place in a Bjork song. On "Galaxies," she sings, "When we kiss, when we kiss / bears and boulders vibrate / gravity is dead you see / no gravity!" This idea turns up again on "Where Gravity is Dead," and Veirs mentions butterflies and birds, waves and wings, with great frequency, her precise observations showing a certain fascination with movement, and with the sprawling open spaces of sky and sea. Laura Veirs and the Tortured Souls play with Karl Blau and Your Heart Breaks at 6:30 pm Thursday, Sept. 14 at John Henry's. 21+ show. $10. — Molly Templeton
Boppin' By Bicycle
When you're trekking across the country by bike, checking your email and making phone calls takes a back seat to survival. Days of my best efforts had failed to result in an interview with The Ditty Bops' guitarist/vocalist Abby DeWald or mandolin/washboard/dulcimer player Amanda Barrett. Finally, I was half an hour away from talking with them only to find out that their publicist (who was to phone them for me) had cut her foot on glass and was taken to the hospital. Hours later, I finally caught up with DeWald, who spoke about their cross-country bike tour. The women were in New York enjoying a few days' rest after biking 4,502.75 miles from L.A. over the course of three months. DeWald and Barrett both ride bikes every day around their homes near the Hollywood Hills, but embarking on this bike tour was an idea brought on by rising gas prices and a desire to promote alternative fuels. With keyboard player Greg Rutledge following behind them in a biodiesel car carrying their instruments and gear, DeWald said they were never scared. "But we got chased by dogs a lot, which was not very much fun and which I didn't expect," she said. "And it was difficult to deal with the heat, but the excitement was based around the overall ride, and not one ride in particular." Audiences never know what to expect at a Ditty Bops show. The duo might juggle bowling pins, perform a shadow puppet show, stage a mock sword fight or entertain with a cops and robbers theme. "It's always different," said DeWald. "Hopefully people will be entertained!" Their music is all over the map, incorporating elements of ragtime piano, Western swing and vaudeville-era musical theater. "I enjoy early 20th century music as well as music from all kinds of eras," she said. "It's all in there." The Ditty Bops play with Datri Bean at 9 pm Friday, Sept. 15 at John Henry's. 21+ show. $10 adv., $12 door. — Vanessa Salvia
Get Cozy with Kelly Joe Much has been written about Kelly Joe Phelps' guitar virtuosity, his gentle vocals and his songwriting skills, but perhaps what has been forgotten is a description of what it all adds up to.
On his 2004 CD, Tap the Red Cane Whirlwind, a collection of live recordings, and his new CD, Tunesmith Retrofit, I think the quality that shines through best is intimacy. Whether sitting in front of an audience being recorded live or reaching out from the cold depths of the studio, Phelps achieves the same tone, very intimate and direct. The comparison that came to mind was that it was like having a few friends over to the apartment. Among them, tagging along with another friend, is this guy you've never met before. Kind of shy, he picks up your guitar and proceeds to knock you over with his unexpected talent, playing as if he has no idea how good he is. You feel lucky to have this personal command performance. A master of fingerstyle guitar, Phelps can certainly let the notes fly at will, but his songs and arrangements are simple and clean. When I interviewed him in February, Phelps compared his music to a filtration process — lots and lots of writing in notebooks, winnowing, reworking, pushing words around in the hopes that they will grow up and become a lyric. The music comes later, as Phelps plays his guitar to the rhythm of the words. For Tunesmith, Phelps seems to have distilled his process even more. The mini sagas of Tap have given way to more conventional songs, perhaps a bit more songcraft than storytelling. There are even a couple of instrumentals thrown into the CD, showcasing Phelps' skill on the banjo. It's a solid effort from a talented artist. Kelly Joe Phelps gets cozy at 8 pm Saturday, Sept. 16 at the Majestic Theater, Corvallis. Walker T. Ryan opens. $17.50 adv, $20 door. — John Ginn
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