Search Results for: vision festival

In The News: Dirty Projectors, My Morning Jacket, Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Jónsi, Liars, The Magnetic Fields, Gogol Bordello And Free MP3s

February 7, 2010

Dirty Projectors will perform their 2005 album The Getty Address in its entirety for two shows: one in New York on February 19, another in Los Angeles on February 27. They will be accompanied by Alarm Will Sound Orchestra, conducted by Alan Piersen with an arrangement by Matt Marks … My Morning Jacket will tour the Southeast with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band for several dates this spring, including a performance at the New Orleans Jazzfest … Joining the ranks of bands doing good for Haiti is Arcade Fire (pictured), which has teamed up with Partners In Health, the NFL, Merge Records and Bank Robber Music for a charity Super Bowl licensing of “Wake Up,” from 2004’s Funeral. All proceeds from the song’s airing will go to Partners In Health’s Stand With Haiti relief efforts … After a five-year hiatus, Broken Social Scene is finally back with a new, as-yet-untitled album, which will be out on May 4 … Sigur Rós frontman Jon Thor Birgisson (a.k.a. Jónsi) has gone solo and will release his debut album, Go (XL Recordings), April 6, then embark on a North American tour, which promises to feature a dazzling stage show created with the help of 59 productions … Xiu Xiu and Deerhoof have joined forces to perform Joy Division’s debut album, Unknown Pleasures, on April 29 at Donaufestival, which will take place April 28-May 8 in Krems, Austria … Sisterworld is the new album from Liars, and it will be released on March 9 as a two-CD version, the second disc featuring reinterpretations of each track by guest artists including Thom Yorke, Devendra Banhart, Melvins, Alan Vega, Tunde Abedimpe, Atlas Sound and Carter Tutti. Liars will also be supporting Sisterworld on a North American tour with Fol Chen this spring. Download “Scissor” … The Magnetic Fields are releasing a boxed set of their 1999 concept album 69 Love Songs on limited-edition 10-inch vinyl (plus MP3 download coupon) on April 20. Download “The Book Of Love” … Gogol Bordello will release fifth studio album Transcontinental Hustle this spring and will celebrate with The Casa Gogol Tour. The tour will take the gypsy-punk band all over Australia, North America and Europe, featuring appearances by DeVotchKa, Matt & Kim, Tres Leches After Party Sound Crew and others … Ceremony: A New Order Tribute is out on March 9 as a two-disc deluxe package, featuring 32 New Order covers by various artists including New Order/Joy Division bassist Peter Hook, Detachments, Rabbit In The Moon, John Ralston, Sunbears!, the Cloud Room and others. The album will benefit a children’s charity in memory of Factory Records founder Tony Wilson … 2010 marks the 30th anniversary of Bad Religion. The punk rockers will celebrate all year long with performances at the House Of Blues in L.A., Anaheim, San Diego and Las Vegas. The band plans to release its 15th studio album of new material this fall … TargetCancer (a non-profit organization devoted to helping fund research into rare and lesser-known cancers) has launched a download series called “The Right Track: Tunes To TargetCancer,” which features exclusive downloads of new and little-known music from Weezer, Ween, the Donnas, Dean & Britta, Drug Rug, Cowboy Junkies and others. “The Right Track” will sponsor a series of concert and events, with proceeds going to research funding … On March 2, Peter Gabriel will release Scratch My Back, which features reinterpretations of songs by Radiohead, David Bowie, Neil Young, Arcade Fire, Lou Reed, Talking Heads, Bon Iver and many more … February 26 would have been the late Johnny Cash’s 78th birthday, so to celebrate, his final studio album, American VI: Ain’t No Grave, will be released. Fans are also being asked to wear black that day and post pictures of themselves in their mourning garb online; in doing so, they will be eligible to win a copy of the new album and Cash’s five-CD boxed set, Unearthed … The Cribs and the Thermals are teaming up for a limited-edition split seven-inch for Record Store Day, which is April 17 … Longtime PJ Harvey collaborator John Parish will be featured on the soundtrack for She, A Chinese, which will be released digitally worldwide on March 16 … Sweden’s the Soundtrack Of Our Lives have just issued a digital EP featuring three new tracks and announced a U.S. tour with Nico Vega this month. Double-CD Communion is out now … Fall Hard is a digital EP featuring three new songs from Shout Out Louds, and it’s available via the Merge Records store. Fans can pre-order upcoming full-length Work and see the band on its U.S. tour in May. Download “Walls”

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In The News: Johnny Cash, Kings Of Convenience, Dr. Dog, Alec Ounsworth, The Low Anthem, The Wedding Present, Dirty Projectors And Free MP3s

January 17, 2010

drdog10

The Munich electro-rockers in Lali Puna have announced the release of their first new album in five years, Faking The Books, via Morr Music … The second annual Harvest Of Hope Fest has announced its lineup, with stellar guests including Billy Bragg, Dr. Dog, the Mountain Goats, the Delta Spirit and Kimya Dawson. The festival will take place March 12-14 … The much-beloved Roy Orbison will finally receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on January 29. The golden-voiced singer, who passed away in 1988, will be celebrated by fans and musician friends alike … American VI: Ain’t No Grave, the sixth and final installment of Johnny Cash’s American Recordings album series, will be released through American/Lost Highway Records. Guests include Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench from Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers as well as Matt Sweeney (Chavez), Jonny Polonsky, Smokey Hormel and the Avett Brothers‘ Scott and Seth … Rhino Handmade will be releasing a six-disc Wilson Pickett boxed set, Funky Midnight Mover: The Atlantic Studio Recordings (1962-1978), later this month … Norwegian popsters Kings Of Convenience have announced their first North American tour in five years. Dates have been scheduled February 12-20, with stops including Boston, Brooklyn and Philadelphia … Sad news from These Arms Are Snakes, as the Seattle experimental rockers have announced their breakup … Philadelphia’s Dr. Dog (pictured) has announced the release of its Anti- Records debut, out April 6. The band has described Shame, Shame as having “a darker tone” with “themes of doubt, confusion and unanswered questions” … Dr. Dog isn’t the only Anti- artist from Philly delivering some good news this year. Alec Ounsworth, of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, has announced his first solo headlining tour in support of his highly praised new albums, Mo Beauty and Skin And Bones (credited to Flashy Python), from January 22 to February 25. Download “That Is Not My Home (After Bruegel)” … January 12 marked the first-ever digital release of Billy Bragg’s solo catalog (via Yep Roc), complete with bonus tracks and b-sides … Having just made its network-TV debut on Letterman as well as earning the number-one spot on MAGNET’s list of the 20 best albums of 2009, Rhode Island trio the Low Anthem will be doing an extensive headlining tour and playing dates with the Avett Brothers. Download “Charlie Darwin” … Gil Scott-Heron, one of the most influential American singer/songwriters, will release his first new album in 15 years, I’m New Here (XL), this week … Fans of the Rat Pack (which, hopefully, includes just about everyone) should be pleased with a deluxe reissue of Frank Sinatra’s 1966 classic, Strangers In The Night (Concord), on January 26 … Iconic British indie band the Wedding Present is returning with a tour this April in celebration of the 21st anniversary of Bizarro, its major-label debut … Experience Hendrix and Sony Music will issue 12 previously unreleased Jimi Hendrix studio recordings; Valley Of Neptune is in stores March 9 … Coming off a very good year, Dirty Projectors are celebrating 2010 with a limited-edition seven-inch called “Ascending Melody,” available now through Domino Records—or for free on the band’s website … This year marks the fifth anniversary of Turtle Records, and the label is celebrating with a free mp3 sampler, available here and featuring music from Chilli, Ohayo Samba and Amycanbe … Dream-pop duo Damon And Naomi has launched a new website, naomivision, where Naomi Yang will be posting new videos, photos and more.

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The Green Pajamas And Boatclub Tour Diary, Part 3

December 30, 2009

Touring the U.S. in the chill of December is always problematical, unless you’ve decided to play only in Florida and California and have access to dad’s Learjet to get from the land of orange juice to the Golden State. You’d think MAGNET’s Jud Cost, a grizzled veteran of the music wars, would have figured that out before he volunteered to accompany his old friends in the Green Pajamas and boatclub on a short Portland-to-Seattle jaunt and write about what went down. But with visions of Tom Wolfe and Ken Kesey shepherding the Grateful Dead in 1965 flashing in his head, the lure may have been irresistible. Formed in 1982 by Jeff Kelly and Joe Ross when they discovered a mutual love of the Beatles’ “Rain,” the Green Pajamas have been on the scene longer than any current Seattle band. Their admirable endurance can be credited both to a steady stream of fine albums created mainly by Kelly and the fact they play out only a handful of times each year. Oakland’s boatclub features both guitarists from ’80s Paisley Underground stalwarts Rain Parade, Matt Piucci and John Thoman. They also boast an excellent third stringbender, Mark Hanley, who formerly accompanied onetime Quicksilver Messenger Service vocalist Dino Valenti, as well as drummer Stephan Junca, who (like Piucci) occasionally plays with Crazy Horse bassist Billy Talbot. Read Cost’s recent Green Pajamas Q&A.

The Green Pajamas’ ”Wild Pony” (download):

Saturday December 5
Music Millennium, a wonderful two-story independent record shop and a fine example of something that’s becoming a vanishing species on the American landscape, is our next stop for a 1:00 pm instore by both bands. Playing from a second-floor stage, they turn down the volume with a pair of superb, semi-acoustic sets. The most touching moment of every boatclub performance on tour has to be when Matt asks his brother Steve to join the band on keyboards for a pair of Rain Parade chestnuts: “This Can’t Be Today” and “Blue.” It’s also good to see former Bay Area resident Tim Hinely drop by with his button-cute two-year-old daughter, Sophia, in tow. I tell Hinely (who still publishes his own mag, Dagger, as well as contributes to MAGNET and Blurt) about the time I dragged my daughter to a 1978 San Jose instore to meet the Ramones as they signed copies of Ramones Leave Home. And now it’s time for boatclub to leave the comfortable home of Steve and “Auntie Mel” and hit the bricks to Seattle, 170 miles to the north. I’m staying with the Kellys—Jeff, Susanne, Jane and Tess—out in the U District (close to the University of Washington), but the rest are booked into Joe Ross’ guest house in West Seattle. I’ve logged plenty of time in West Seattle (interviews with McCaughey, True West and Fleet Foxes) and thought I knew my way around. Hanley and I soon spot Luna Park Cafe about two blocks from Ross’ place, but due to flawed directions from air traffic control, we somehow wind up back on the West Seattle Bridge, going the wrong way. The first off-ramp, instead of sending us under the bridge back in the right direction, shoots us due north on the 99 expressway instead, and we can’t get off. As Safeco Field (home of the Mariners), Qwest Field (home of the Seahawks) and finally Pioneer Square in downtown Seattle zip by in a blur, Hanley and I start laughing so hard the tears are rolling. Elapsed time to find Ross’ guest house must be a West Seattle record of 90 minutes. I finally arrive mumbling at the Kelly’s place, normally a very sleepy neighborhood, after getting stuck in post-UW Huskies vs. California Golden Bears football traffic. Just time for two beers, a few smokes and we’re off to the gig at The Lo-Fi Performance Gallery. Having recommended the venue to Ross, Bumbershoot artistic director Chris Porter is here tonight and seems open to a possible future date by both the Pajamas and boatclub at the esteemed Seattle festival. A surprise guest is none other than Pat Thomas, erstwhile guru of S.F.’s Heyday Records, onetime home to such lauded indie rockers as Chris Cacavas, Barbara Manning, Chuck Prophet and former Rain Paraders Piucci and Steven Roback. Thomas pulled up stakes recently to get his bachelor’s degree in nearby OIympia in order to become an English teacher. In spite of a semi-obnoxious, well-oiled heckler who insists on performing tumbling routines well beyond his modest capabilities while young girls continue to bring him drinks, the show goes flawlessly tonight, wrapping up with both bands joining forces for a 20-minute version of the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine staple “It’s All Too Much.” And it almost is … but not quite.

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Normal History Vol. 21: The Art Of David Lester

August 15, 2009

Every Saturday, we’ll be posting a new illustration by David Lester. The Mecca Normal guitarist is visually documenting people, places and events from his band’s 25-year run, with text by vocalist Jean Smith.

Howard Zinn is from Lester’s Inspired Agitators poster series. The song below, “This Is My Summer Vacation,” mentions Malcolm Lowry, author of Under The Volcano. The author drank himself to death near where the annual Under The Volcano Festival is held.

I saw Howard Zinn on TV a couple of years ago when we were in a motel room in Anacortes, Wash., for What The Heck Festival. I felt like jumping up and down on the bed listening to Zinn, whose opinion seemed to be that progressive social change will occur through a new social movement of small groups working independently and overlapping here and there. In a question-and-answer session, a young woman came up to the microphone to ask, in a frustrated tone, “How do I find these groups? Where do I find a group to work with? How do I begin?” This was a sentiment that resonated with me on August 10, National Prison Justice Day in Canada, when I attended a small rally in Vancouver. On this day, prisoners take action—not working, not eating—to protest prison conditions and to mark the lives of those who have died inside Canada’s prisons. Speakers talked about their work with prisoners and about specific situations: a mother-and-baby program has been cancelled at a regional facility. It used to be that if a woman delivered her baby while incarcerated, she could keep the baby with her. Now, if a woman delivers during her sentence—even if it’s only a month-long sentence—the baby is apprehended by social services. This situation is not good for the mother, the baby or society at large. It can take a lot of time and legal attention for the mother to get her baby back once she is released. Being released, I learned, can be very problematic. One speaker told a story about the release of a prisoner for whom he was an advocate. Basically the guy was let out the back door of the facility with four cardboard boxes of his stuff dumped beside him. No services were provided to assist him in any part of whatever was to happen next. Even with the advocate’s assistance, it was extremely difficult to find the guy a place to stay. Social services on the outside were no help; they required that he have a fixed address before they would become involved, and it was assistance in finding a fixed address that he required. The advocate ended up dropping the guy at a hotel one block from Hastings and Main on Vancouver’s infamous downtown eastside, Canada’s poorest neighborhood, rife with property crime and drug use: exactly where the guy requested he not be placed, to be tempted into negative behaviors that could propel him back to prison. Another speaker, a woman who works with prisoners in a legal capacity, pointed out that prison is the punishment. Having liberty taken away is the punishment. Prisoners are not there to be further punished by guards, wardens and administrators. I wanted to understand how we, as Canadians, as humans, tolerate cruelty in prisons. Like Zinn, I believe prisons should be abolished, but that is a less popular vision. I wanted to know how I could contribute to the process of reinstating the mother-and-baby program. I signed a petition and walked home at dusk, stopping at a gas station to buy a rice-crispy square. I was cold and damp after sitting outside for two hours listening to activists speak. I felt sort of useless. I could join a group or visit women in prison, but most likely I’ll write a song or a story. I walked home thinking I’d gone out for song ideas in the same way another person might go out for milk—not a particularly noble feeling. Mecca Normal had, the day before, performed at Under The Volcano, a political festival where I suspected my online-dating songs were deemed not political. I could defend my writing by saying, “The personal is political, man,” or I could illuminate class and gender issues within the lyrics. My songs seem imperfect at such events. I want to say everything the right way, to make a difference, to be seen as useful, but I feel like an interloper whose activities don’t measure up. This can be a debilitating position to work from. Because I don’t gravitate to collectives and roadblocks, I sometimes feel like I’m not political enough, but I accommodate this feeling by including inadequacy in my creative process—I don’t expect anything to be anything other than entirely uncomfortable. Howard Zinn’s comment gave me an impression that what I do might be of value, that we can respond in many ways and this is how progressive social change occurs. Perhaps it is his intention to encourage participation rather than thwart it by expressing the inadequacy of idiosyncratic activities. I can express enough inadequacy all on my own. Inventing methods to stay—or become—involved in is the challenge. At the very least, can we be less critical of individual attempts at political and cultural activism?

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Jazz Notes: Vision Festival, Day 6

June 16, 2009

This week, MAGNET’s Mitch Myers reports from the Vision Festival, the avant-garde jazz event in New York City.

As the 14th Vision Festival winds down, I’m struck by the array of artists whose creative work is considered avant-garde. A number of great musicians were hanging around this week, and the programming for Sunday night’s show was full of amazing talent. Trombonist/composer Steve Swell presented his trio Planet Dream for a matinee performance of utopian chamber jazz, showcasing an intimate collaboration between himself, saxophonist Rob Brown and Daniel Levin on cello. Swell’s compositions were smart and imaginative, but it was the gentle improvisatory aspects of this group that really came across.

Chicago free-jazz patriarch Fred Anderson (pictured) made a memorable, early-evening appearance, supported by his longtime associates and Vision Fest mainstays Hamid Drake and William Parker. Anderson is 80 years old, and his history with Chicago’s avant-garde community goes all the way back to the very first concert given by the AACM in the mid-’60s. On Sunday, Anderson found his way onto the stage, put his tenor saxophone to his lips and didn’t move again for the length of his segment. Behind Anderson, Drake shifted from hand drum to full kit while Parker dabbled with Eastern instruments before settling on his upright bass. This was highly emotive free jazz, echoing the spiritual works of John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, and the amazing set ended far too quickly. I guess that’s how you cater to geriatric jazzmen—keep their sets short and the audience wanting more.

Michele Rosewoman has kept Quintessence—an ever-shifting performance collective—together for more than 20 years, and she presented two new compositions. Straddling the line between modern classical and jazz, Rosewoman is a talented pianist/composer, and she surrounded herself with a band of ace musicians including bassist Brad Jones, trombonist Vincent Gardner and alto saxophonist Loren Stillman. Toward the end of their highly arranged set, Quintessence broke into a funky groove with Rosewoman playing an electric keyboard in the style of Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters.

The wholly improvisational trio of Whit Dickey (drums), Eri Yamomoto (piano) and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter started out slowly but gained momentum, especially as Carter switched from flute to trumpet to clarinet to saxophone. Dickey’s drumming was flowing and Yamomoto’s piano work cerebral, but Carter demanded the audience’s full attention as he put on a bold display of spontaneous improvisation. Carter deserves more of a spotlight, and Vision Fest programmers would be wise to bring him back next year in a greater capacity.

Finally, much to the chagrin of the weak-hearted jazz fans, German saxophonist Peter Brötzmann closed the evening with his group, Full Blast. A virtual power trio with Brötzmann, electric bassist Mariano Pliakas and drummer Michael Wertmüller, Full Blast lived up to its loud/fast moniker with a thundering racket that sent some of the Vision Fest faithful scurrying for the exits. Brötzmann’s brain-frying tenor screeds were imposing, the rhythm section pounding, and despite an occasional melodic interlude, his set was one full force gale and louder than love—the perfect way to finish up an evening of wild, diverse jazz performances.

With just one more night to go, I’m putting my dashiki and skullcap back in the closet and mourning the end of the 14th Vision Festival.

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Jazz Notes: Vision Festival, Day 4

June 13, 2009

charlesgayle400i This week, MAGNET’s Mitch Myers reports from the Vision Festival, the avant-garde jazz event in New York City.

As the week wears on, I’ve noticed one thing about the (14th) Vision Festival—that is, it’s a lot of the same people. Every night, it’s the same staff, the same vendors, as well as much the same audience and, often, the same musicians. Not that there is anything wrong with that—a number of music fans came from points abroad (Germany, Japan, etc.) just to see William Parker and company stroll out the representative best of their free-jazz subculture.

Things seemed a little off-kilter on Friday, and although the music started late and was subsequently rushed throughout the evening, there were still plenty of fascinating musical moments. Miriam Parker’s Corridor combined her interpretative dance routine with the atmospheric sounds of Jason Kao Hwang’s violin and Joseph Daley’s tuba. Parker was elegant, agile and lovely, while Hwang and Daley provided the perfect avant-garde ambience to compliment her performance.

The Charles Gayle Trio was an appropriate choice for the Vision Festival, and Gayle (pictured) was absolutely commanding on alto and tenor saxophone. He is a humble, expressive musician who has overcome some imposing obstacles in his life (including homelessness), and although his noted saxophone style is still intense, his overall sound is kinder and gentler these days. With bassist Lisle Ellis and drummer Michael Wimberly, Gayle gave an amazing performance and finished up the set on piano. Let’s all pay more attention to Charles Gayle!

The Ayler Project is a quartet devoted to the music and memory of late saxophonist Albert Ayler, who provided a guiding light to many during the free-jazz explosion of the 1960s. Trumpeter Roy Campbell is the leader here, but saxophonist Joe McPhee, drummer Warren Smith and bassist William Parker all contribute equally. The band’s first performance in America was all it could be with a spoken invocation from “Music Is The Healing Force Of The Universe” followed by hymns, marches, meditative chants and expressive blaring. Those familiar with the Ayler songbook were thrilled, except for certain nitpickers (i.e., me) who wanted to hear the composition “Ghosts.” Maybe next time.

The evening concluded with a segment featuring critically acclaimed saxophonist Zim Ngqawana, who hails from South Africa, supported by Vision Fest all-stars such as pianist Matthew Shipp, drummer Nasheet Waits and bassist Parker. I missed the show, but it was supposed to be a big deal and the place was packed when I left. Maybe I can ask some of those same people about it when I return to the Vision Festival tomorrow.

—Mitch Myers

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Jazz Notes: Vision Festival, Day 2

June 11, 2009

This week, MAGNET’s Mitch Myers reports from the Vision Festival, the avant-garde jazz event in New York City.

Things are starting to heat up at the Vision Festival, with Wednesday night being dedicated to the lifetime achievement of 85-year-old Marshall Allen (pictured), multi-instrumentalist and current bandleader of the Sun Ra Arkestra. One of the more distinctive alto saxophone players for the last 50 years (he began playing with Ra in 1958), Allen has kept the fabled Arkestra going since Sun Ra left this planet for the cosmos in 1993.

The evening began with Allen and aggregate Vision Fest all-stars—tenor player Kidd Jordan, drummer Hamid Drake and two powerful bassists, William Parker and Henry Grimes. Allen immediately set the controls for outer space, playing an electronic valve gizmo that echoed and manipulated synth-like phrases. The band was a killing machine with Drake at the center—flanked by Parker and Grimes, who plucked and bowed at will. Kidd Jordan, no spring chicken at 74, blew long, hard lines of tenor madness, echoing the spirit of Allen’s old Arkestra partner, John Gilmore. Allen duly summoned his ferocious alto to match the intensity of his amazing bandmates.

Bill Cole’s Untempered Ensemble was something of a letdown after the Allen band’s set, but the group persevered and converted some new fans with its indigenous world jazz. Cole plays Eastern-sounding double reeds as well as the didgeridoo. His daughter Althea’s singing voice wasn’t as strong as the musicianship on the stage, especially with Warren Smith on drums, but Cole’s insistent melodies interlaced with Joe Daley’s tuba and Smith’s drumming blended nicely with Atticus Cole’s percussion.

All of this led up to a rousing performance by the Sun Ra Arkestra under Allen’s direction. There were at least 20 people onstage, all wearing some small amount of glittering apparel. While not exactly resplendent in his sparkling red poncho and matching hat, Allen led the band with humble authority. Part of the Arkestra’s appeal has always been its organic amalgamation of spaced-out, avant-garde sounds, ancient-to-future philosophy and classic jazz traditions. Besides Allen, several other Sun Ra veterans were onstage, including saxophonists Charles Davis and Danny Thompson and bassists John Ore and Juini Booth.

The Ra set consisted of wild instrumental interludes, raucous big-band arrangements, ragtag singing and dancing and reconstructed jazz standards. Of course, one had to miss Sun Ra’s physical presence at a gig like this but his spirit was certainly everywhere. Personally, I was dismayed to note the absence of the Ancient Egyptian Infinity Drum. Still, the finale was big and nostalgia ran high, and the Vision Festival even presented Allen with an envelope containing some money. Hooray for our side!

Stay tuned for more Vision Fest adventures, as free-jazz medicine men Sunny Murray, William Hooker, Charles Gayle and Fred Anderson all wait in the wings.

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Jazz Notes: Vision Festival, Day 1

June 10, 2009

This week, MAGNET’s Mitch Myers reports from the Vision Festival, the avant-garde jazz event in New York City.

billybang320 It has been said, as well as disputed, that Manhattan is ground zero of the jazz universe. The city has always done quite well providing the opportunity for diverse live jazz performances. With the long-running JVC Jazz Festival (formerly the Newport Jazz Fest) being cancelled this year—a grim sign of the times—the fact that a large, well-organized avant-garde jazz festival can still happen is something to be celebrated. On Tuesday night, down on the Lower East Side at the Abrons Arts Center, the 14th edition of the Vision Festival kicked off in suitably regal fashion. Percussionist Hamid Drake, singer/dancer Patricia Nicholson-Parker and the festival’s founder, bassist William Parker, provided an invocation for the event, revealing an earnest, retro-beatnik spirituality that will undoubtedly pervade the week’s festivities. Parker played an unusual-looking homemade electric bass while his wife danced and recited poetry and Drake supplied intricate waves of rhythm on a large hand drum. Parker later switched to an Eastern-made reed instrument, and Drake added his own voice to the plaintive invocation.

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Live Review: The Shins, Philadelphia, PA, May 16, 2009

May 20, 2009

shinslive550b A concert venue featuring crooning indie-rock superstars the Shins was the perfect environs for serial-monogamist hipsters to bring their girlfriend/boyfriend of the moment. You could almost hear some of them squealing, “That’s our song!” when the band played “New Slang.” The newly revamped Shins—longtime members Marty Crandall and Jesse Sandoval have been replaced by Ron Lewis (Grand Archives, Fruit Bats) and Joe Plummer (Modest Mouse)—performed an alternately poppy and mellow set that suited the implicit date-night atmosphere at Philadelphia’s Electric Factory. Sentimentality poured from the speakers and riveted the audience, as giddy teens and balding boomers alike contemplated their sunset-and-margaritas-swilling trip down the shore two years ago.

Singer/guitarist James Mercer’s multi-faceted, octave-hopping voice penetrated bone marrow as the Shins segued from the jangly, carbonated “Know Your Onion!” to the musical NyQuil of “Weird Divide,” which gave me an urge to trudge to the lounge area and fight for a futon inside the cabanas at the back of the Factory. Listening to the cerebral lyrics of past albums such as 2001’s Oh, Inverted World and 2007’s Wincing The Night Away, I’d envisioned each group member sporting a James Lipton goatee and smoking a well-hewn pipe. While only Mercer had a beard, the band’s witty onstage banter and brown corduroys made me feel like I was in a debate-club meeting at Dartmouth College.

The Shins provided plenty of non-offensive tweaks and surprises, from a funky, Bonnaroo Festival version of “Sea Legs” to new material that sounded like a Shins-ified Austin Powers theme song. Even though you’d be hard-pressed to interpret any of Mercer’s lyrics as romantically inclined, the Shins sear an emotional brand into your brain that makes favorable associations inevitable. Those hipsters definitely knew what they were doing when they took their significant others to the show.

—Maureen Coulter

“Know Your Onion!” (download):

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Q&A With David Lowery

May 4, 2009

crackerb550 David Lowery has, for the past decade or so, maintained a healthy career as a split musical personality. When he isn’t playing laconic, country-tinged pop with his band of 25 years, Camper Van Beethoven, he’s thrashing away at his guitar as the frontman for Cracker, the rock outfit that’s releasing its 10th studio album, Sunrise In The Land Of Milk And Honey, this week. MAGNET chatted with Lowery about the new album, his advice for any wannabe musicians and his take on the state of the music industry. Lowery will add another line to his resume this week as he guest edits magnetmagazine.com.

“Tune In Turn On Drop Out”:

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SXSW Report: Keep Austin Wavy

March 17, 2009

MAGNET’s Mitch Myers reports from the SXSW Film Conference And Festival, where his viewing schedule included Made In China, The Overbrook Brothers, Wake Up and … a Wavy Gravy documentary.

Despite the fratboy vibe that pervades SXSW, it was great to see the original hippie clown prince, Wavy Gravy, hustling his tie-dyed documentary, Saint Misbehavin’: The Wavy Gravy Movie. Of course, it took filmmaker Michele Esrick 10 years to complete the movie, but now you can learn how beatnik storyteller Hugh Romney evolved into the outspoken commune leader, social activist and ice-cream flavor Wavy Gravy. From his early Greenwich Village days sharing a performance bill with Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane to leading humanitarian efforts at the original Woodstock, Wavy has lived long enough to become a counterculture icon. And now you can send your children up to Camp Winnarainbow, where Wavy teaches the performance arts and how to be a clown (in a good way).

Speaking of novelty items, Made In China is a small, sweet film about a naive young man who travels across the globe to find a manufacturer for his innovation in comic personal hygiene. Eager to follow in the footsteps of the inventors of the Pet Rock, sneezing powder, fake vomit, the joy buzzer, Groucho glasses and the Slinky, our inexperienced hero gets taken for a ride but never loses his entrepreneurial spirit.

The Overbrook Brothers is an amusing, Austin-made movie tracing the competitive contempt between two brothers who find out they are both adopted and hit the road to find out about their respective birth parents. Their one-upmanship has no limits, and neither of these guys knows how to walk away.

One of the most unusual films I’ve seen is Wake Up, a powerful documentary about Jonas Elrod, a twentysomething who, after the tragic death of a close friend, begins to see spirits, demons, angels and other cosmic presences. These visions are disturbing to Jonas, disrupting his simple life as well as putting a cramp in his relationship with his girlfriend. Although he’s an unwilling candidate for spiritual enlightenment, Jonas seeks out a variety of doctors, monks, priests and shamans in effort to deal with his unique situation. Ironically, the answers are right in front of him, which is the one thing he has trouble seeing. Repeat: This is a documentary, not fiction. Check it out.

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George Jefferson: World’s Biggest Gong Fan?

March 5, 2009

This is one of the most mind-blowingly weird anecdotes MAGNET has ever published. Ten years ago, writer Mitch Myers profiled prog-rock legend Daevid Allen (Soft Machine, Gong), who told us of his strange encounter with actor Sherman Hemsley (a.k.a. George Jefferson). Here is the story of Hemsley’s obsession with flying teapots and his alleged den of iniquity that housed an LSD lab, a harem of naked girls and crack/freebase depots on every floor.

In 1999, I interviewed musician Daevid Allen for MAGNET at a small recording studio in San Francisco. Allen was an odd sort, with plenty of old stories to tell. Back in the 1960s, he was a founding member of wonderfully creative British band Soft Machine. But Aleen didn’t stay with the Soft Machine for long and ended up forming another psychedelic rock group called Gong.

“Movin’ On Up” (The Jeffersons theme):

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Harvest Of Hope Fest To Feature Against Me!, The National, Deerhunter, Girl Talk, Bad Brains

February 14, 2009

againstme540 This spring’s first annual Harvest Of Hope Fest keeps getting bigger. A whole slew of bands, musicians and DJs have just been added to the three-day festival’s already-packed lineup, headlined by Against Me! (pictured), Propagandhi, the National, Girl Talk and Bad Brains. Among the recently confirmed acts are GZA, Diplo, the Mountain Goats, Deerhunter, Black Kids, Tilly And The Wall, Kool Keith, After The Fall, Religious As Fuck, Towers Of Hanoi and Mexican pop/punk band División Minúscula. The festival will be held March 6-8 at the St. John’s County Fairgrounds in St. Augustine, Fla. In addition to more than 100 performances on three outdoor stages, the festival will also include film screenings, art displays and, of course, camping. A $49.50 three-day pass can be purchased guilt-free—all proceeds benefit the nonprofit organization Harvest Of Hope, which provides aid to migrant farm workers and their families. Full lineup after the jump.

Against Me!’s “Thrash Unreal” from 2007’s New Wave:

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SXSW Confirms More Bands, Some Of Them Good

January 11, 2009

p_brien_c1 South By Southwest, scheduled this year for March 18-22, added to its initial list of bands confirmed to play the annual Austin festival. The highlights of the new additions are (alphabetically): Akron/Family, Dave Alvin, the Bar-Kays, Amanda Blank, Explosions In The Sky, Ben Kweller, Peter Bjorn & John, Port O’Brien (pictured), St. Vincent and the Sonics. This year’s keynote speaker will be Quincy Jones. (Yawn.) Speaking of music in Austin, Okkervil River was great doing “Pop Lie” on Letterman last week; check out Will Sheff and Co.’s performance here. List of all confirmed SXSW bands after the jump.

Port O’Brien’s “I Woke Up Today” from 2008’s All We Could Do Was Sing:

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Ray Davies: Imaginary Man

June 1, 2008

Kinks leader Ray Davies has been banned from America, bored of the 20th century and, at times, bigger than the Beatles. Davies may not be like anybody else—his songbook is one of rock’s greatest treasures—but he’s finally figuring out who he is. Interview by Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan

At one point during MAGNET’s interview with Ray Davies, the great songwriter stopped mid-sentence to peer out the window of the Dream Hotel overlooking 55th Street in Manhattan at dusk. Something had caught his eye.

“Isn’t that light out there like Edward Hopper lighting? Is that Edward Hopper time or not?”

Observing light, life and human nature with superhuman focus is Davies’ stock-in-trade. His best songs feel photorealistic and sound suspended in time. They are sometimes nostalgic and beautiful, and other times they are cynical and brutal. Davies himself is just as contradictory: combative and sensitive, a shy, self-examining middle-class hero from north London who’s had no problem indulging in rock ’n’ roll excess and showmanship. He’s often called a creative genius and a control freak, which are both compatible and necessary traits for the life he’s led.

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The Whigs: Rebel Vibrations

May 28, 2008

With big guitars and hard-hitting drums, the Southern-bred road warriors in the Whigs are on a mission to restore the rock trio to ragged glory. By Steve Klinge

“The phone was actually on my body and I didn’t hear it. That’s how asleep I was. It’s rather embarrassing.” Parker Gispert, the 25-year-old songwriter, vocalist and guitarist of Athens, Ga., trio the Whigs, is apologizing for missing several calls for a scheduled interview. Drummer Julian Dorio finally had to wake him in the back of the tour van.

Although it’s early afternoon, Gispert can be forgiven for his exhaustion. He’s somewhere between Cleveland and Chicago, in the middle of a tour that has the Whigs criss-crossing the Midwest. The buzz for the band’s second album, Mission Control (ATO), is growing quickly, adding to the whirlwind. A few weeks ago, they played Letterman; the following week, they’ll do Conan. The New York Times gave Mission Control a glowing review, and last year Esquire named Dorio “best drummer” in its annual Esky Music Awards.

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Mudhoney: Superfuzzy Memories (An Oral History)

May 20, 2008

Twenty years ago, Mudhoney made Superfuzz Bigmuff, the landmark recording that launched grunge and put Seattle on the musical map. Here’s what really happened.

Who’s Who In the Mudhoney Story: Jeff Ament (Mother Love Bone bassist); Mark Arm (Mudhoney singer/guitarist); Nils Bernstein (journalist, record store owner); Jennie Boddy (Sub Pop publicist); Ed Fotheringham (illustrator, Thrown Ups singer); Stone Gossard (Mother Love Bone Guitarist); Jay Hinman (journalist, fan); Steve Manning (fan); Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth singer/guitarist); Bruce Pavitt (Sub Pop co-owner); Dan Peters (Mudhoney drummer); Charles Peterson (photographer); Jonathan Poneman (Sub Pop co-owner); Bettina Richards (Atlantic Records A&R person); Steve Turner (Mudhoney guitarist)

Before everybody loved them and everybody loved their town, the guys in Mudhoney were just another group of Seattle music-scene misfits and castoffs. At the beginning of 1988, the phrase “Seattle music scene” didn’t have quite the same meaning as it does now. Singer/guitarist Mark Arm, guitarist Steve Turner, drummer Dan Peters and bassist Matt Lukin ushered in the grunge era with the August ’88 release of “Touch Me I’m Sick,” Mudhoney’s debut single. The snotty, motorized garage-rock blast wasn’t exactly a shot heard ’round the world, but it was heard by the right people, and the subsequent Superfuzz Bigmuff EP, issued two months later, cemented the gloriously sloppy sound and beer-goggled vision that would make some other people in Seattle (Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam) very famous.

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Q&A With Robert Pollard

October 24, 2007

To nobody’s surprise, neither age nor the dissolution of Guided By Voices has slowed the prolific output of Ohio’s most famous schoolteacher-turned-songwriter. Robert Pollard has simultaneously issued two new solo albums, Coast To Coast Carpet Of Love and Standard Gargoyle Decisions (both on Merge), with help from producer and collaborator Todd Tobias. He’s also putting the finishing touches on a coffee-table book of lyrics and collage artwork titled Town Of Mirrors: The Reassembled Imagery Of Robert Pollard (due out next year) and recently staged an exhibit of his visual art at Studio Dante, Sopranos star Michael Imperioli’s New York City theater.

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Sound Check: Guilty Pleasures

September 27, 2007

Chomping your way through a Big Grab of Doritos. Compulsive viewing of The OC. A deep, abiding love of chick lit. These are the guilty pleasures we take pains to keep secret, the embarrassing little indulgences to which we treat ourselves when we think no one is paying attention. Music is no exception: For all of your carefully selected stacks of rare vinyl or devotion to Sonic Youth’s obscure Japanese imports, you also have to admit you own a copy of Rush’s Moving Pictures. The following represent the best of rock and pop’s guilty pleasures from the last three decades—not in that hipster, irony-laced, sure-I-dig-Neil-Diamond kind of way, but albums that stubbornly remain in rotation despite all critical evidence suggesting otherwise.

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Battles: Life During Wartime

September 17, 2007

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Pretension, prog and the politics of dancing. Forward-thinking New York quartet Battles overcomes all obstacles to deliver 21st-century fight songs. By Michael Barclay

“Make me believe!”

The plea comes from the back of the audience at the sweltering-hot Lee’s Palace, the Toronto venue where Battles are midway through a set during their summer tour. The band is awkwardly attempting to fix a blown speaker cabinet that’s derailed the show, ending a weekend of Friday the 13th curses that also plagued Battles’ set at the Pitchfork Music Festival two nights ago, in front of 17,000 people. But since the May release of debut full-length Mirrored (Warp), very little else has slowed down the New York quartet. And the legions of believers are growing.

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My Morning Jacket: Line Of Duty

September 1, 2007

Many are called, but few are chosen. After four albums of classic new songs and another summer of onstage heroics, My Morning Jacket has become America’s best live rock ’n’ roll band. By Noah Bonaparte Pais

“You are putting your life in danger.”
It’s well past midnight on the third and final night of Lollapalooza 2007, and the only things missing from Jim James’ Almost Famous moment are a suburban swimming pool and a plastic cup of acid-spiked Kool-Aid. On the Kennedy Expressway, one of several primary traffic arteries feeding Chicago’s downtown Loop, a white limousine carrying James’ My Morning Jacket crew is speeding away from the city. Tonight, along with the usual suspects—MMJ drummer Patrick Hallahan, keyboardist Bo Koster, guitarist Carl Broemel and bassist Tom “Two-Tone Tommy” Blankenship—the band’s entourage has expanded to include a few new faces: Craig Pfunder (frontman of Louisville, Ky., homeboys VHS Or Beta), Peter Bauer (organist for New York City rockers the Walkmen) and MAGNET (packed like a sardine between the bear-sized Hallahan and his exceedingly gracious wife, Brigid).

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Dappled Cities: Cultural Learnings

July 1, 2007

dappled-citiescr2

If Eddie Murphy has taught us anything, it’s that coming to America can be a scary, satisfying ride. In a one-week span, Sydney, Australia’s Dappled Cities have been spanked by Amazonian women at a roller derby in Austin, Texas, and hassled by residents of the housing projects of Chicago. On top of that, after co-frontmen Tim Derricourt and Dave Rennick were mistaken for Wayne Coyne’s backing vocalists during a visit to a television studio, they wound up performing with the Flaming Lips singer. To be fair, Derricourt blames his beanie (“with a tiny stuffed bear stitched to the front”) for attracting the attention in the Windy City, and the two other events occurred during Austin’s annual South By Southwest music festival, a veritable celebration of the anything-goes attitude. And to clarify further, this isn’t the first time the five lads in Dappled Cities have turned up Stateside.

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Spoon: Fortress Of Solitude

June 1, 2007

Spoon is America’s most unsinkable rock band, a juggernaut of near-flawless albums and iron-clad hooks. Behind it all is singer/guitarist Britt Daniel, alone with his broken heart, self-doubt and relentless pursuit of perfection. By Corey duBrowa

Why am I down here dicking around with my pedals? I shouldn’t be doing this. I’m killing the moment.

Britt Daniel genuflects before 2,500 or so fans, mere moments away from one of the most important sets his band has ever played. As he adjusts his guitar knobs in a last-minute effort to get the sound right, this is the thought roaming through his head. That and, “Are my father and stepmother comfortable?” (They’re out there somewhere in the frothy, capacity-plus crowd.)

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Wheat: Don’t Look Back

May 22, 2007

wheat-black390 Wheat’s failure to launch on a major label resulted in four years of silence, a re-examination of the rock ‘n’ roll dream and a new vision for its soft-focus harmonic pop. By Matthew Fritch

In some ways, it’s not much of a return when Wheat appears onstage at a bar in Cambridge, Mass., around midnight. It’s not like the Pixies reunion. Hell, it’s not even the second coming of Buffalo Tom. Wheat’s first show in three years occurs at TT the Bear’s Place, not at the larger venue around the corner, the Middle East, which the Afrobeat group Antibalas has sold out tonight. Wheat didn’t get the cover story in the local alt-weekly, but the band scored a nice feature on the inside pages. And TT the Bear’s is pretty close to capacity, assisting the typical college-aged Boston crowd in its weekend ritual of getting blitzed.

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What Made Milwaukee Famous: Austin’s Most Fortunate Sons

February 20, 2007

wmwf4951 Some bands seem to emerge overnight. Others, such as What Made Milwaukee Famous, take the better part of a weekend. In September 2005, the unsigned Austin, Texas, band was on tour, likely with the intention of escaping the maelstrom of hype and hangovers accompanying the annual Austin City Limits Music Festival. Instead, What Made Milwaukee Famous turned 15 minutes of television fame into a record deal with Barsuk, a reissue of its self-released debut and a 15-month flurry of dreamlike good fortune.

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The Walkmen: The Long And Winding Road

August 1, 2006

walkmen_couch510 In order to deliver the best album of their career, the Walkmen had to grow up, get lost and gain perspective. By David Daley

Consider, for a moment, the aging hipster. There’s nothing sadder, Lenny Bruce famously observed. But what if he was wrong? What if for every dorky record-store clerk in a Nick Hornby novel, there’s a Jon Stewart: someone who only comes into his own after 15 years on the road, balancing a sublime standup act with the payday of Death To Smoochy?

Think about the Walkmen and the delights of trying to keep a rock band—even a pretty successful one—healthy on the cusp of 30. New York rents start pushing bandmates to Philadelphia. Friends start buying houses and pricing life-insurance policies. Wives and a child or two make five guys, a van and a Tuesday night in a Red Roof Inn outside Chapel Hill seem a little less romantic. Instruments you’ve been playing for a couple decades seem so boring that two of you decide to switch. Columbia University, where you spent a lot of tuition money ages ago, is buying the building that houses your Harlem recording studio.

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Antony And The Johnsons: Let It Come Down

December 7, 2005

The broken-hearted people living in the world agree: Antony And The Johnsons have become a profound voice of hope and sorrow. A story of divine tragedy, avant-garde androgyny and plenty of soul. By Matthew Fritch

It’s the grayest New York day I can remember. The weather doesn’t even deliver a heavy downpour or a single rumble of thunder; there’s just a light, no-umbrella mist and a low-lying fog that covers everything above the fifth floor of the buildings along Sixth Avenue. It’s Sunday. Somewhere, the Giants and Jets are losing football games. In Penn Station, soldiers stand around in camouflage fatigues with their M-16 rifles at chest level, their muzzles pointed straight at the ground. Bored-sounding announcements are issued to passengers over the station’s PA system: Do not leave your luggage unattended. Promptly report suspicious activity. In terror-alert parlance, perhaps it’s the most yellowish-orange New York day I can remember.

Antony Hegarty and I can’t even think of anything to do. After a quiet brunch, we shake off some of the lethargy and finally decide on a real plan of action: We’re going shopping for socks. Or maybe we’ll go to the pet store and stare at the caged puppies. But Antony needs black crew socks for an upcoming tour, so we begin trudging toward the fluorescent lights of Old Navy when we happen upon an outdoor flea market.

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Power Pop: Big Star, All The Way From Memphis

September 8, 2002

It’s a mighty long way down rock ‘n’ roll, and you look like a star but you’re still on the dole: The true story of Big Star, Alex Chilton’s rematch with musical glory.

Paul Westerberg once proudly proclaimed that he’d “never travel far without a little Big Star.” Teenage Fanclub owes any career momentum it was ever able to attain to the style codified on Big Star’s #1 Record and Radio City, the first of which was released 30 years ago. The Fanclub’s fetishistic obsession was deep enough to inspire the naming of its third album in honor of a favorite Big Star track (“Thirteen”), a song upon which Elliott Smith would later put his own wounded imprint. Cheap Trick—a band that clearly cribbed a move or two from the Big Star playbook—recently resurrected its career from irrelevance by re-recording Big Star’s “In The Street” as “That ‘70s Song,” the opening theme to Fox’s retro sitcom That ‘70s Show. (The original’s “Wish we had/A joint so bad” couplet has, of course, been surgically removed for the TV version.)

Musicians from all over the alt-rock kingdom have chased down Big Star’s producers, John Fry and Jim Dickinson, in an attempt to tap into the vein of beautiful loserdom they so perfectly captured on tape—the Afghan Whigs, Replacements, Primal Scream and Mudhoney foremost among them. Despite Herculean efforts, none has really ever gotten it quite right.

The Memphians known as Big Star forged the template for the genre that would come to be known as power pop: a mash-note mélange of sweet and sour that would be emulated by nearly every band that ever attempted to write a love song for the radio. If you ever sat in your car transfixed as 3:35 of jingle-jangle guitars, wobbly harmonies and lyrics putting a face to teenage confusion poured out of your speakers and down your spine in a cascade of chills, you have Alex Chilton, Chris Bell, Jody Stephens and Andy Hummel to thank for it.

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Power Pop: The ’90s, Attack Of The Clones

September 5, 2002

matthew-sweet360 By the dawn of the ‘90s, the U.S. music scene felt like something out of Blade Runner. With the lockstep forces of rap and grunge assuming total control of hip tastebuds (and record sales)—and clattering indie-rock helicopters crisscrossing the landscape looking for stragglers—the few remaining pockets of power-pop resistance seemed a mere footnote to the obituary of a genre in hiding. Then, without warning, came the distant rumble of a pair of retaliatory shots: the Posies’ harmony-laced 1990 album Dear 23 and Matthew Sweet’s heart-wrenchingly majestic Girlfriend a year later. Was the pendulum about to change directions?

A Lincoln, Neb., native, Sweet (pictured) cut his musical teeth in the bubbling hotbed of Athens, Ga., in the early ‘80s, first as guitarist for Oh-OK, a jangly outfit co-helmed by singers Linda Hopper and Lynda Stipe (Michael’s sister), then with his own similar combo Buzz Of Delight. The precocious Sweet signed a solo deal with Columbia in 1985, provoking resentment from local scenesters who pointed to the grassroots path R.E.M. had followed to stardom. “I was young and didn’t know what I was doing,” Sweet told me in 1993, “and I was hated for it.”

Still trying to find his sea legs after two uneven major-label albums—1986’s Inside and 1989’s Earth—Sweet knew immediately Girlfriend was the one. “I always felt I’d been getting away with murder,” he admits, laughing like a nervous school kid. “I never thought my records would make it with a major label. But I had a sense that something special was happening with Girlfriend. I had this real breaking-free, fuck-you kind of attitude. I didn’t care if the label didn’t like it. I was doing it for me.”

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Ryan Adams: Saving Private Ryan

December 1, 2001

Is Ryan Adams one of the greatest singer/songwriters of his generation? Or will he emerge as another in a long line of pretenders to the Dylan throne? If only you could ask him, he’d surely set you straight. By Corey duBrowa

“Time let me play and be/Golden in the mercy of his means.”
—Dylan Thomas, “Fern Hill”

The Legend Of Ryan Adams has taken on the outsized dimensions of urban folklore. The myth has become so preposterous—we’re talking Bob Dylan-sized footprints here; the only thing missing is the invented motorcycle accident—that it’s remotely possible Adams himself is now embarrassed by some of the brushstrokes that have been applied to his impressionist portrait. Sorting out the truth from fiction takes a little doing.

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Nick Cave: Let There Be Light

September 1, 2001

Once a holy terror trespassing on hallowed ground, Nick Cave has given over to tender mercies and spiritual hymns. He’s still got the devil inside him, only these days he’s feeling closer to God. By Jonathan Valania

He was born like this, he had no choice. Nick Cave was born with the gift of a golden voice. He asked Leonard Cohen, “How lonely does it get?” Leonard Cohen hasn’t answered yet. But Nick Cave hears him coughing all night long, a couple floors above him in the Tower Of Song.

In the beginning, there was the Birthday Party. And it was good. Rock ‘n’ roll as sonic aneurysm: screeching, cataclysmic and cruel. The Birthday Party was scary. Not in the silly Count Chocula way of the misguided goths who would follow in its steps, but, like, Exorcist scary. Danger was the Birthday Party’s business, and in the early ‘80s, business was good. Nick Cave was the human cannonball at the microphone, and the band would light the fuse and run for cover. When the audience demanded blood, Cave could open up and bleed with the best of them. When he got bored with that, he would jump into the crowd for a good punch-up or maybe just drop-kick the head of any audience member who dared to stand in the front row. There was much weeping and gnashing of teeth. The Birthday Party nicknamed one tour the “Oops, I’ve Got Blood On The Tip Of My Boot” tour.

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