Friday, April 30, 2010
Rock / Roots Indiana Americana: New Jethro Easyfields album
Posted by Rob Nichols on Fri, Apr 30, 2010 at 11:55 PM
As are his Facebook postings. Friend him, and join in the fun. Plus he has a new album, Bloodletting, apparently on the way, judging from a Friday night post- reprinted below. Rock on, my brother.
FROM JETHRO EASYFIELDS ON FACEBOOK
"Jethro Easyfields is making a sequence of mixes of his new album "Bloodletting" on cassette tape...yes a mix tape folks...remember tape? I purchased some old mix tapes from Goodwill that looked in good shape to record over. Although this Sony High Bias UX 90 says "the Kingston Trio" it contained some classical music with a political spoken word over the music about taxes...spooky. Now my tracks have a suspicious ghost underneath the rough mixes. Although I might have kept the "trio" if it existed on there."
Thanks Jethro. Amen, over and out.
Howlin' Mad - live version of Elixer cut
Punk & Metal On a more positive note...
Posted by Nick Selm on Fri, Apr 30, 2010 at 3:26 PM
In my last blog, I discussed problems within the local music scene that ultimately stem from personal snobbery and adherence to musical cliques. The feedback I received was mostly positive, but a few commenters criticized me for the futility of criticizing the negative aspects of the local scene.
When I first started writing for NUVO a few years ago, I made a valiant effort to put everything in a positive light. Every venue, every show. I can’t count how many times that I wrote positive pieces about various elements in the music scene.
For a while, I just wanted to keep it that way. If I didn’t have something nice to say, I simply wouldn’t say it. I thought that the problems would simply work themselves out. But then I got to a point where I couldn’t let the problems go unaddressed any longer.
I would love to focus only on the positive, but that would be like a French newspaper in 1940 ignoring the the looming German invasion and running a puff piece about cheese and wine production on the front page. Okay, I’ll admit that that last metaphor was a little intense, but you get the idea.
- Transpanther: Dan looks pretty positive
But in light of recent negativity, I feel like I should mention some of the positive aspects of this town’s music scene. The Dojo, for starters, is the best thing happening in local music right now and the upcoming Last Friday At The DojoThe Halloween House, Moria AND The 1511 may be closing their doors this summer, but new houses are opening their doors to bands and music lovers alike. Promoters like Transpanther, A Squared and MOKB are doing a great job bringing larger bands to the city while at the same time supporting local artists.
So there, I said some nice things. Now I can get back to complaining.
Roots An eye-opening experience with the IUPUI Guitar Ensemble
Posted by Danielle Look on Fri, Apr 30, 2010 at 1:49 PM
Taking the advice of Mr. Nick Selm, last night I decided to step outside my normal range of live music listening and check out something a little more toned down than the typical bar or club performance. Already on the IUPUI campus and dismissed early from my weekly Thursday evening class, I was able to stop at the IT building for The Department of Music and Arts Technology’s version of a final exam: The IUPUI Guitar Ensemble in concert.
Although not necessarily comprised of more or less skill than a traditional rock’n’roll band, the talent on display during the concert was of a completely different breed than what I’ve grown accustomed to. It quickly became apparent that these students of classical guitar were showcasing the fundamental concepts and techniques that any serious instrumentalist should be trained in before attempting a career in music.
After just a few minutes of observation, I was simply in awe. Without a backing band, every single note was audible, every single change in tempo detectable, and all attention focused on the lone player. Removed from the bar atmosphere and placed inside a cozy auditorium, the lights were bright and the performers' facial expressions were clearly observable. As I listened to a pleasant hodgepodge of brief solos, duets, and trios, I discovered a new-found appreciation for classically trained musicians. Indeed, the hour-long concert was an eye-opening experience.
The IUPUI Guitar Ensemble (under the direction of John Alvarado) includes Brendon Riha, David James Berling, Deronne Gossage, Chris Mahurin, and Jack Meils- a handsome group of clean-cut and formally dressed young men. I noticed, however, that four of the five had long hair of varying lengths that suggested a rock star lie dormant within each of them. If not already a part of rock and jam band side projects, they surely will be in due time. Without a doubt, it is the musical education they have internalized at IUPUI that will fuel the success of said future bands.
Comedy Weekend live comedy preview
Posted by Andrew Roberts on Fri, Apr 30, 2010 at 8:42 AM
It's a standard week in Indianapolis comedy, with two well-seasoned professionals at the Crackers locations, an unproven local boy at Morty's and some quality sketch material at Comedysportz.
This Friday night at 10 pm is the final performance of $3 Bill Comedy's "Pre-existing Conditions." This local sketch group is the best homegrown comedy act that Indianapolis has to offer.
Auggie Smith headlines Crackers downtown for what seems like the eight millionth time. They must keep inviting him back for a reason though. He has a very natural and professional demeanor and he's a safe bet for a fun night out.
Tom Rhodes, of slightly more fame, takes top honors at the Broad Ripple stage. He's a well-traveled comedian of moderate success, and also makes for "safe" value.
Local boy Troy Davis is headlining at Morty's. From his description he appears to be your everyday middle-aged white male comedian, spinning tales of divorce and fatherhood and everything else that young people can't relate to, while an audience of a similar disposition to him falls in love with it.
Weekend Lineup:
Price listed is the lowest available, and all shows are Friday and Saturday, unless otherwise noted. Most also have Weds, Thurs., and Sunday shows; check their website for more info.
Crackers Downtown- Auggie Smith, 8 and 10:30 pm, $15. www.crackerscomedy.com
Crackers Broadripple- Tom Rhodes, 8 and 10:30 pm, $15. www.crackerscomedy.com
Morty’s Comedy Joint- Troy Davis, 7:30 and 10:00 pm, $10. www.mortyscomedy.com
ComedySportz- Improv, 7:30 pm, (and 10:00 on Sat.), $12, www.indycomedysportz.com
Comedysportz- Three Dollar Bill Sketch Comedy, “Pre-existing Conditions.” 10:00 pm, $12. Friday only. www.indycomedysportz.com
Funny Bone (Bloomington) — Chris Hardwick, 7 and 9:30 pm, $15. www.funnybonebtown.com
Great upcoming shows
Keith McGill: May 12 — 15 (Crackers Downtown)
More than most forms of entertainment, stand-up comedy lineups are subject to last-minute changes, as well as unexpected sell-outs. Please be sure to check the website of the venue (or call and reserve tickets) before heading out, and make sure to be aware of any updated times, prices, availability or performers.
If you are aware of any upcoming events or venues that are not included here, please feel free to comment them below or email aroberts@nuvo.net!
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Rock / Roots Late Night Music: Max out at Conan? Stones in with Jimmy Fallon
Posted by Rob Nichols on Thu, Apr 29, 2010 at 9:41 AM
According to legendary keyboardist (and reknowned for being in the right place at the right time) Al Kooper, he says Max Weinberg is out as the drummer and bandleader for the new Conan O'Brien Show. No official, word, but a couple links on the web seem to be pretty sure there will be a change.
"They let him go. This is a big transition, and they’re all signing new contracts and everything so they replaced him, as far as I know," Kooper said. "That’s the only change. But I mean, there was a lotta conflict because of Springsteen. So now he can play with Springsteen whenever he wants."
Kooper shares some bandmembers with Max, so would seem to be a good source. And Max wasn't playing in the YouTube videos I saw from the recent Conan O'Brien concert tour, when Eddie Vedder played on stage with the band.
read more and investigate on your own...
Late Night With Jimmy Fallon is devoting the week of May 10 to special shows saluting the Rolling Stones' iconic album Exile On Main Street. The album will be reissued on May 18 with 10 previously unreleased tracks from the original recording sessions. Leading up to the release, a number of major acts will perform covers of songs from Exile on Fallon's show, and the Friday, May 14 episode will feature the premiere of a new documentary about the album's creation, called Stones In Exile.
Green Day has now been confirmed — via Roots drummer ?uestlove's Twitter — to kick it off on May 10. Keith Urban, Sheryl Crow and Phish are already set to each play a different song from the album throughout the week. This, according to Billboard.
It is my favorite Stones album. Deep rock and roll, blues and high-on-stuff brilliance. It's one remastering and re-release that makes sense in an ocean of retread music that labels ship out, tending to drown out the worthy candidates, like this, that deserve their due...
see Stones in Exile trailer
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Punk & Metal If the scene is united, it will never be divided.
Posted by Nick Selm on Wed, Apr 28, 2010 at 8:39 PM
This weekend is a huge weekend for music...if you live in Cincinnati. Despite it’s puny ranking as 57th largest city in the United States (Indianapolis must’ve paid a judge to score that hefty 14th place standing), Cincinnati has an extremely healthy music scene. While I’ve already gushed about Cincy in a previous post, it bears repeating that every layer of their music scene is heathy and lively. From the arenas and theaters down to the dirty basements, Cincy has a lot going on.
This weekend, ‘Porkopolis’ is launching into it’s 3rd annual Hands Across Basements festival. The festival unites the various house venues in the city for a weekend festival of epic proportions. This year, four houses are participating: The Hungry House, The Bike Haus, The Loud House and The Hot Tub House. Hands Across Basements is just proof of how well the various elements of the Cincinnati music scene work together.
- Hands Across Basements 2009: Rowdiness at The Glendora House
No why the hell can’t we have that kind of a positive scene here in Indianapolis. Since we somehow managed to get listed at the 14th biggest city in the United States, we should have no problem getting any number of our 800,000-odd inhabitants out to a concert, right? Wrong.
If you’re a huge, top-40 recording artist, then you’ll have no problem selling out, say, Conseco Field House, but the average Indianapolitan doesn’t seem all that interested in discovering new music. Bands usually don’t get much attention here unless they are simply too big to ignore. Most up-and-coming bands simply avoid Indianapolis all together until they have reached a high level of national saturation (or they only play Bloomington).
This is a problem for bigger shows (say, The Emerson and bigger), but even the smaller punk/hardcore/indie rock scenes have fatal divisions in them that keep them from pulling together something like Hands Across Basements. While the Hardcore scene (focused at The 1511) is fairly large, there is little crossover into other scenes. The same goes for the Indie Rock crowd. There are only a handful of people that I would see at both The 1511 and The Empty Bucket (the main Indie Rock house). I know that if you don’t like a certain kind of music then there’s no sense in forcing yourself to like it, but most of the divisions in this city’s music scene are based not on musical palettes, but on cliquey stratifications. I am by no means free of this sin, (hello E.S. Jungle) but I am working on it. I think that some more cross-pollination would definitely be good for the music scene... and for our souls.
I encourage all of you to force yourselves to go to at least one show that you normally wouldn't go to. Maybe it won't be that bad, maybe you'll even like it. If you've been sticking to Indy Rock, then I suggest you attend Last Friday At The Dojo (that's this Friday), and if you're into punk or hardcore, then a trip to Locals Only for Free Music Thursdays (which is tomorrow, and every other Thursday until the end of time) should be in your near future. So expand your musical horizons and help unify the music scene! Maybe one day, we'll have a Hands Across Basements of our own...
DJ & Dance The Juxtapoze Opportunity Cost
Posted by Danielle Look on Wed, Apr 28, 2010 at 2:07 PM
Strategically arriving to Juxtapoze at 10:57 last night (ladies free until 11!), I discovered DJ Manic and Dave Owen tag-teaming on stage. Examining the set-up, I observed the super-tall and slender Manic hunched over a short fold-up table that left his body bent in a nearly permanent 90 degree angle. He seemed oblivious to the physical hindrance though, steadily rocking his body to the beats and stepping back occasionally to enjoy the powerful drops with visible emotion.
Tha Doc, scheduled to dish up a healthy serving of dubstep on last night’s Juxtapoze buffet, offered an appetizer of plain ‘ole hip hop first. The change of pace was well-received and a relaxed precursor to the heavy wobble he would inevitably deliver before the set concluded.
The climax of the April 27th edition of Juxtapoze came when Rudy Kizer (host and producer of the weekly radio show Hit The Decks) took control of the sound. Kizer is well-connected in the world of electronic music and stays mentally active producing his weekly radio show, as well as contributing regularly to Nuvo.net. As one would expect, this well-rounded collection of music knowledge shines through in his live performances. The most widely appealing set of the night approached mash-up status with a wicked rendition of “Mr. Crowley”, yet inexplicably managed to be so much cooler than any mash-up I’ve ever heard before.
I almost didn’t make it out to The Melody Inn last night; the temptation to crawl into bed at 10:30 p.m. was strong. Evaluating my decision to suck up my sleepiness and go anyways, I considered the opportunity cost of, for lack of a better term, wimping out. As I sit behind my computer at work on less than four hours of sleep today, I can confirm that seeing familiar faces, being introduced to new friends, supporting local talent, and dancing like a fool far exceed the benefits of a few measly hours of rest. Consider this realization next time you’re on the fence about a weeknight event in Indianapolis: it may be hard to find the motivation to go, but once you’re there… you won’t regret it.
Next week, swing by The Mel to see what Juxtapoze is all about. It's a great pit-stop on your way downtown for Let Go! at The Lockerbie. Start the mental preparation now; Tuesday is the new Saturday, you know.
- Juxtapoze schedule for May 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Rock / Roots Bobbie Lancaster previews cut from upcoming album
Posted by Rob Nichols on Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 11:59 PM
Lancaster has one of the great Americana voices in Indiana and this debut solo album sounds like it will be terrific. This is a tasty acoustic version of the title cut.
Punk & Metal Adolescent Memories of The Vogue
Posted by Nick Selm on Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 7:27 PM
Regardless of whatever challenges our small music scene faces, at least we can always count on The Vogue. While less-profitable all-ages venues can barely stay open for a year, since its re-opening in the late 70’s, the Vogue has been the best place to catch bigger, up-and-coming (or, down-and-out) national, touring acts before they blow up (or fizzle-out).
Over the years, The Vogue has been host to such legendary punk and metal bands as The Ramones(1983), Joan Jett(1983), GBH(1985), Toots and the Maytals(1982), Fishbone(1994), Weezer(1994) and Motorhead(2003), just to name a few. A Weird Al Yankovich show in 1984, however, is a head-scratcher; I don’t really imagine Weird Al pulling that large of a 21+ crowd. I saw him two years ago and the crowd was composed of either grade-school kids or the parents that escorted them (and myself).
Growing up near Broad Ripple, I always resented The Vogue for being 21+. I remember standing outside of the box office with my Dad to look at the poster for The Ramones Adios Amigos tour when I was in 6th grade. That would be the last time The Ramones would play Indianapolis before breaking up later that year (1996), and I was still six years shy of even being able to walk through the door.
- Those ghastly dinosaurios still haunt me to this day...
Later, when I was in high school, I remember hearing that the bastardized reincarnation of The Misfits had announced a show in the city. I crossed my fingers in hopes of an all-ages show, but to my dismay, it was booked at The Vogue. As it turned out, the show was later cancelled. And looking back, I wondered why I had ever wanted to see Michael Graves stomping around in face paint, pretending to be Glen Danzig in the first place?
But now that I’m 26, the anger of missing shows at The Vogue during my adolescence has subsided... but I will never forget how it felt. I can appreciate the Broad Ripple venue for it’s diversity of shows (most of which I wouldn’t want to go to, but still..) and its place as a fixture in the local music scene. This Friday’s Mastodon show will be the biggest Metal show of the year and a huge deal for both The Vogue and A Squared Industries (who booked the show). Let’s just hope that The Vogue soldiers on for years and years to come and that diverse promoters continue to utilize its perfect size and location...
- Mastodon: with Baroness, Valient Thorr and Between The Buried & Me, this Friday at The Vogue
DJ & Dance King Britt - hip hop and house music's jazzy maestro
Posted by Rudy Kizer on Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 2:41 PM
With the splintering of dance music into so many esoteric genres, it’s hard to believe that at one time, hip hop and house music were brethren sounds in a developing underground urban music scene. New York and Chicago artists in the early 90s found common ground, fusing elements of hip hop and house music to broaden the horizon of both art forms. Of the many artists that experimented with both sounds, Philadelphia native King Britt has an enviable pedigree in both. The son of musical parents, King has won a Grammy award with Digable Planets, founded seminal underground dance label Ovum Recordings with Josh Wink, and released a ton of remixes and original material under his Sylk 130 and Scuba aliases. His latest release on Nervous Records, The Intricate Beauty, is a lovely 11-track excursion into jazz-house fusion. King is currently touring behind the album, billed as his last conventional dance album, and will make a stop in Indianapolis this Thursday at BLU Lounge’s “Keepin’ It Deep” party. What follows is an unabridged, broad-range discussion with an artist at the foundations of both hip hop and house music, covering the past, present and future of his illustrious career.
RK: You were the DJ for Digable Planets, you and Josh Wink founded Ovum Records; you've done remix work for tons of artists including Tori Amos, Donna Lewis;collaborations on your latest album, The Intricate Beauty, include Kim English and Byron Stingily. It's been quite a ride for you, hasn't it?
KB: Yeah, it has, man. It's funny because I grew up in Philadelphia, and I still live here. I grew up in the 70s and 80s. So, Philadelphia was such an amazing place due to Gamble and Huff and the whole disco sound. Just incredible songwriting, great radio... And then moving into the 80s we had a lot of amazing 80s new wave groups come out of here like Pretty Poison, the Hooters, and more of the alternative rock scene. We had the best of both worlds growing up, as far as listening to music.
It wasn't until the late 80s when I was working at Tower Records - I made all these connections in the music business with a lot of house labels that were just coming into inception. Nervous Records which, ironically, the new album is on, now, but I've been friends with all of those guys since the beginning, which was in '89, and Strictly Rhythm, so I quickly got a deal with Strictly Rhythm in 1990 for a demo I sent. At the same time I met Josh Wink, so I was like "Josh, I got this deal - Strictly Rhythm, let's do it together - you can do the beats or whatever. We did it, and had a really tight bond as far as DJing, producing, that sort of thing. In '94 we started a label after I got off tour with Digable Planets, which is a whole 'nother story...
RK: A little label you may have heard of, Ovum Recordings…
KB: (laughs) Yeah!
RK: It's been an amazing ride and it leads me into this: both of us are in that same age ballpark. You have your roots in jazz, obviously, and that big Philly sound. You were coming into the industry when hip hop and house music were side-by-side as urban art forms...
KB: Yeah, it was great!
RK: It was an amazing time. Hip hop records and house music records were being played in the same sets at some of the big warehouse parties in Chicago where I cut my teeth…
KB: Oh yeah, man! You were there.
RK: How has that background - the whole amalgam of hip-hop and house music - how has that affected your creative process and the way you approach making music?
KB: You know, it's funny. In high school, which was '82-86, I was collecting keyboards, drum machines - that sort of thing - because of my love for Trevor Horn and the Art of Noise, Kraftwerk and Mantronix. Getting into production at that time, when hip hop was in it's infancy, people were experimenting with the new samplers that were coming out, like the SK-1 which was a really cheap sampler that everyone could afford, but then moving up to the Emulator. So technology has always played an interesting role in production, but the whole rebellious attitude that went along with hip hop and house music was definitely non-mainstream. That also goes into the way you produce. You have a different energy when you go into the studio and you're working on that, or you're DJing. The rave scene - a lot of those things were just illegal spaces and there's a certain excitement that goes along with that that really comes out in the music, and the process of making that sound. You know you're making something that's going to change history, and that's what went into it. (pauses) Same with Digable Planets - taking the jazz elements and then taking it into each one (hip hop and house music).
RK: (Digable Planets was) one of the first groups to really embrace that. You think Digable Planets, Gang Starr, and then everybody else.
KB: Yeah - Guru rest in peace.
RK: That news hurt my heart…
KB: yeah…
RK: But on a lighter note - you mentioned technology, and the latest album, The Intricate Beauty, out right now on Nervous, and it's been described as a jigsaw affair with all of these individual pieces and parts of music that you stitched together in different ways using different forms and methods to put the tracks together.
KB: That's correct.
RK: There's a rumor that you're going to release the album stems as a producer pack.
KB: Yes - it may happen. If it does happen, it'll be in the early part of next year, because we have remixes coming out and I don't want the pieces out yet.
RK: You don't want to fight with yourself.
KB: Yeah - exactly! (laughs) Because once they're out, you have NO control over what happens.
RK: Getting back to the history, you seem to be a real student of the history of music, particularly of the Philadelphia sound. Listening to the new album, you definitely hear Philadelphia coming through the speakers. As a youngster growing up in Philadelphia, what kind of music were you exposed to, and what specific tracks became special to you or hold a special place in your heart?
KB: Wow, that's really a kind of difficult because there were so many amazing sounds that I was exposed to. I will say that growing up in a household where my mom was strictly jazz, and my dad was strictly funk - that was my foundation, so Sun-Ra was number one in our household. Growing up listening to Sun-Ra and my mom taking me to shows and going to his house really influenced what I do now. I'm doing a project with my fiancé called "Saturn Never Sleeps" which is paying homage to the free jazz movement but bringing it into an electronic atmosphere. So Sun-Ra "Space is the Place" of course. The Philadelphia sound which Gamble and Huff - who I've had the honor of working with, remixing "For The Love Of Money" a few years back and should be coming out soon. Anything by Phyllis Hyman. Lou Rawls "You'll Never Find". These are songs that will be with me forever. Each song has a memory, you know? Like, "oh wow - where were we when THIS was on the radio?"
RK: Certainly. They capture those perfect moments in time and every time you hear that song, at least a little bit of that memory comes flooding back, and that's one of the wonderful things about music.
KB: Oh yeah.
RK: And for you it has to be really special, to have all of those memories, and then to be able to take those tracks that are so near and dear to you and to work your own magic on them and put your fingerprints on them a little bit.
KB: oh, man… it's incredible. and then all of that history, growing up and listening to all of that stuff subconsciously goes into the music you produce. It can even be a techno record but it's still going to have soul.
RK: The history you have with music - it's funny because we both come from that same time period and when you try to explain it to the younger guys that there was no such thing as a hip hop club or a house club - it was just the dance club that you went to - people seem to have a hard time getting their heads around that.
KB: I think that if you look at what the Clash was doing - they went to New York and did Magnificent Dance, Magnificent Seven. There was this cross-pollinization: Blondie doing her stuff with Fab Five Freddy…
RK: All of the punk stuff at CBGB's and the hip hop and dance scenes cross-pollinating there…
KB: …and then house and hip hop - Jungle Brothers "I'll House You", Queen Latifah, Monie Love… The BPMs were higher in hip-hop and it went hand-in-hand. Things have really been separated now and it's kind of a shame. Hopefully that'll come back.
RK: You've billed "The Intricate Beauty" as the last conventional dance album you're ever going to release…
KB: Well, when I say "conventional" I mean in the sense of four-on-the-floor. I just need to push boundaries and move forward.
RK: A lot of the stuff on the new album takes me back to my youth and those great Strictly Rhythm records and the energy that drew me into dance music and house music in particular. What's the next evolution for King Britt? Where is this going to take you?
KB: Well, as I said, I'm doing this project "Saturn Never Sleeps" with my fiancé, and we're really experimenting with sounds and pushing, not just dance music, but music in general into the future. If you go to saturnneversleeps.com, there are podcasts, live shows that we've just done in Berlin, it'll give you a blueprint of what is to come.
RK: You're performing in Indianapolis on April 29th at BLU lounge downtown. Have you been out touring behind "The Intricate Beauty"?
KB: Yeah, I just got back from Dallas. Houston, which was amazing. Next week, I'm playing with Francois Kervorkian at CIELO in New York - we're doing a special party on Thursday with all the singers on the album. Philadelphia is Friday, and Saturday is North Carolina - Charlotte, which is interesting. I'm hitting everywhere - I'm actually going everywhere and then overseas.
RK: What can we expect from a King Britt show?
KB: The music that I'm playing, relating to this record, is really intimate and seductive. This isn't the live show, it's a DJ performance, but you're going to hear some AMAZING things, man. (laughs) Things that aren't out yet…
RK: I'm sure you've got a few secret weapons tucked away in your record bag…
KB: Yeah, for sure.
RK: Have you ever played Indy?
KB: Oh, yeah! I've had many "rave memories" from the rave days, man - some really amazing parties.
King Britt will be creating more rave memories at BLU lounge on Thursday, April 29, along with Slater Hogan, Kyle Hodges, Dave Owen and Tyler Stewart. Pre-sale tickets are still available for $5 at http://keepinitdeep.myevent.com.
Rudy Kizer is the host and producer of "Hit The Decks" on X103.
