It’s easy to judge a festival by its headliners in the same way that you’d judge a book by its cover. That bold face, large-size print hits you in the face and begs all of your attention. Resist! We’re of the notion that the best part of festivals is inviting new bands to take up residence on your list of favorite aural fixations.
Here’s our top ten list of bands to see at Bunbury Music Festival this weekend. Some of these bands you’ve probably heard of, some are local favorites, and we admit, one is a verifiable cast of all-stars. Regardless, they’re all must-sees, and we anticipate these are the names you’ll be reading in bold face very soon. You might as well get ahead of the curve and hear them now, when you can get up close and intimate at their shows, right?
Beginning the Bunbury experience at 2pm on Friday is The Mitchells, a group of Cincinnati siblings that double as skilled songsmiths, whose alternative folk sound is grabbing a lot of attention from the local crowd.
North Carolina natives Delta Rae take the Main Stage at 4:15. This sextet, comprising siblings Ian, Eric and Brittany Holljes, as well as Elizabeth Hopkins, Mike McKee, and Grant Emerson, could win you over with their vocal harmonies alone. Factor in the percussive elements of their sound that recalls old Southern music, and you’re theirs—hook, line and sinker. Read More »
“What is it about vinyl records? It’s everything isn’t it; the nostalgia alone is enough to never want to let them go.”
“There was a brief moment at some point in the 80s when the CD was introduced you had a feeling that was the end of proper records, but somehow they are still very much with us and simply will not go away. Why is that? Anyone who still enjoys vinyl already knows that they sound better than any other format, they look and feel better, they have a smell and alive-ness, they look awesome on a well stacked shelf of titles and they provide a life long collecting fascination.
No other musical format gets close to vinyl in any of those ways. The crackle, hum, and whir as the needle drops onto the grooves, in anticipation you turn up the volume and feel the warmth and the bass boom rumble through your speakers, it’s untouchable.
As every record enthusiast knows, you can never have too many records. Most collectors will travel in search of elusive vinyl grails, rummaging through decades of dust in hope of making that one big score.
That’s what makes a record show so attractive: the sorting and hunting has been done for you. All you have to do is show up and start plowing through the bins. Thus, I thought you should know about a brand-new record show launching in Anniston, Alabama on July 20th.
The Anniston Record and CD Show is the brainchild of Travis Atkins, longtime Birmingham record dealer and Larry May, owner of the CD Cellar in Anniston. The show will include dealers from AL, TN, GA, and FL with specialists in Jazz and Funk and a Beatles specialist from FL (feel free to look them up and make a gratuitous “Octopus’s Garden” joke.)
Travis and Larry are doing a healthy amount of radio, print, and television advertising in addition to the usual social media push, so it looks like they’ll have a nice turnout.
Through all stages of their career, the defining quality of Wire has been that they consistently thwart expectations; forever changing and challenging their approach and always delivering amazing recordings, even if they still manage to sound like total surprises to their fans.
For their most recent effort, Change Becomes Us, the band went back to the clutch of songs readied for their fourth album in 1980, one that was never recorded, as the band ceased operations. By the time they were working together again in 1985, they had moved on to newer explorations. What was left behind of that forgotten period were performance recordings of the songs still being developed, and it seemed that would be all that there would ever be—a minor footnote at best.
But a sequence of events caused the band to take a fresh view on that material, and suddenly here they were tearing at the compositions until they quickly became an entirely new beast. What was, in some ways, simply an experiment in de- and re-construction, has formed one of the strongest albums in a discography packed with brilliance. That they have done it 36 years after their debut is simply staggering, and a testament to the band’s vigorous need to constantly be evolving. The fact that it comes at a time when a rather large tome has been published attempting to encapsulate their entire career further goes to show you that Wire is a band that you simply can’t keep pace with creatively.
I managed to at least catch Colin Newman for a conversation as they were on the way to the opening date of their U.S. tour. We celebrated their stubborn nature, discussed the addition of guitarist Matt Simms, went over their elaborate festival style launch for the record, hinted about exciting events in the very near future, and balanced overlooking the entire city of Rome with having fans hand you their desired set list after shows.
Let’s get right to it—this is a crazy premise for making an album! Even with the history of recycling content in the band, who in the world would return to the entire batch of songs created just before the premature pause of the first iteration of the band, yet not even re-record them, but rather use them as a launch pad and re-work them entirely to the point that they have new titles as well? It’s maybe the ultimate Wire exercise. How did you guys end up at this point?
Well, it was a project, as you realized, it was a kind of “what would it be like if we were to” and it had kind of a long history to it where we specifically worked up certain songs years ago and looked at those and then delved further. The important part is that the museum of Wire has no artifices in it. There are no exhibits in the museum of Wire. None that were put there by us any way. So we just got interested in, and began engaging in it, almost as if it were new material, using the methodology we have evolved over the years and the whole thing felt kind of crazy and it felt like it could end up being a very expensive mistake.
I think there is always a reward in the process, even if it didn’t turn out as successfully as it did. Luckily, for all of us, it turned out well enough that we all get to hear the results.
In some ways that is kind of sheer pigheadedness—it’s like you are just going to make it work.
The drummer Terence Higgins has been very busy since leaving the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. He has released a new Swampgrease record and is touring with the Warren Haynes Band, Ani DiFranco, and Tab Benoit. He is leading this all-star band Saturday night at the Maple Leaf Bar.
I am most excited to hear Nigel Hallon keys and vocals. He is the most recent member of the national music scene to relocate to New Orleans. Check out the video of him doing a solo acoustic version of a song that appeared on a Soulive album.
His credentials are deep. He played with Higgins in the John Scofield R&B band and co-produced Higgins’ new album, which is called Rage ‘Til Sunrise.
It’s not a great secret, but the spicy story of Eskew Reeder Jr., better known to the world as Esquerita, still requires a periodic retelling, the tale relating to newcomers that Richard Wayne Penniman aka Little Richard wasn’t the only wildly flamboyant piano rocker to inhabit the supposedly squaresville decade of the 1950s. But if that was the only reason to keep Esquerita’s name alive he would’ve been forgotten long ago. Fact is the man rocked with reckless abandon and his stuff holds up gloriously.
The life of the man known as Esquerita holds quite a few chapters, all of them interesting if too many fraught with darkness, desperation and (worst of all) an unhappy ending to ever translate into a big screen biopic, for the feel-good stuff all happens early and there’s no late in life redemption. The chronicle of this South Carolina native hits its highpoint with his one real chance for commercial success, the opportunity coming amidst the wild atmosphere of the decade from whence rock ‘n’ roll was born (or if you prefer was finally bequeathed with a name).
Due to the influence of Gene Vincent, Esquerita ended up signed to Capitol Records, where the label obviously hoped to repeat the same pattern of copycat success against Little Richard that they’d scored via Vincent’s Blue Caps in reaction to the retail juggernaut that was Elvis Presley. Obviously Esquerita came nowhere close to scoring a hit single, though Capitol can’t be said to have given up on him without trying. They even released a self-titled LP in 1959 and tossed on an exclamation point after this manic maestro’s name in hopes of stirring up some excitement in the marketplace. No dice sadly; the man was destined to be a solid if enduring underground figure.
“Throughout my childhood and teenage years, I was lucky enough to be raised on some of the best music ever made which made me into the musician I am today. My first date with each of these records was pretty special, and although I’m now probably on my thousandth date with each of them, they’re still just as special to me.”
“Revolver by the Beatles. It’s a record that just keeps on giving! Klaus Voorman’s artwork is a masterpiece in itself. I have it framed next to my bed! What I love so much about this record is everything about it is so perfect. The playing, the songs, the production, everything! A real stand out gem is “And Your Bird Can Sing.” The bass playing is awesome, just one example of how underrated Paul McCartney is as a bass player.
Fire and Water by Free. A criminally under rated band—this was a really important record for me when I was starting to play in bands and write songs. Free were like no other band. They had it all, soul, blues, funk, raw, and rocking. I’m gunna mention the bass playing again, as Andy Fraser for me is the best bass player of all time. He was about 16 when they made this record and he’s doing things no one has been able to imitate since. Check out the bass solo on “Mr. Big.” Phwoar!
Chances are you may have heard of Unkle Bob before, and if not, we’re sure you’ve heard a track or two at least. With their song “Swans” being featured on Grey’s Anatomy and their previous releases being highly praised in the UK press, Unkle Bob have built a strong and loyal fan base.
Now Unkle Bob are ready to release a new EP “Songs For Others” and this time, Rick Webster has plugged in his guitars and has been experimenting with distortion pedals and loops.
For a usually acoustic Unkle Bob, Rick is taking his influences (Nick Cave, early R.E.M, and Grizzly Bear) and honing Unkle Bob’s new sound into something wonderfully melodic and soulful.
Most twenty-somethings who sling on guitars and pick up drumsticks are after two things: free beer and babes. We know all about that noise. We’ve seen our fair share of “bands” like that. The first time we heard Oberhofer at the House of Blues in Cleveland however, we knew that wasn’t what was going on here. This group of twenty-somethings–consisting of former music composition student Brad Oberhofer, Dylan Trevelen, and Ben Roth, two of his friends from high school, and New Yorkers Matt Scheiner and Pete Sustarsic—is something else.
Brad Oberhofer composes music that is near-orchestral, well thought-out indie rock. It has whimsical elements of vaudeville and all the beauty of classical, juxtaposed with heavy moments that simply rock out. It just comes natural to the Brooklyn transplant.
“I don’t really draw my inspiration from anything specific,” says Oberhofer. “It’s bits and pieces that come just from everyday life. Things that make me happy and things that make me sad, things that make me feel other things. I wouldn’t say there are any specific musical influences, though.”
We recently woke up Oberhofer to discuss his move cross country for school and some of the antics he’s pulled since taking the music world on his journey.
When you first moved from Tacoma to New York, was there a huge culture shock?
No, there really wasn’t, actually.
You just felt like you fit in?
I don’t think I was assessing whether or not I fit in, I think everyone fits in everywhere because you are the same person wherever you go. When I came to New York, I didn’t really feel different or feel like the environment accepted me or didn’t accept me, I just felt like I was in a new place with a lot of new things to do.
That’s a good way to look at it. I feel like a lot of people get confused when they go somewhere new and they change. It’s good to hear that you were still yourself.
I think a lot of people do change when they find themselves in new environments.
It may be mid July in the Crescent City but that doesn’t mean nothing’s happening. Saturday there are two big events that celebrate our city’s connection with the Old World.
Beginning bright and early on Saturday morning “the only in New Orleans” version of the Running of the Bulls, which has been a tradition in the Spanish city of Pamplona for decades, begins at 8 AM. The party continues throughout the day with music and a fair at the Sugar Mill.
There are no actual bulls involved, and the roller girls who chase people through the streets of Warehouse District aren’t as dangerous as those giant beasts that occasionally gore and kill people in Spain, it’s just as fun.
The collecting of Free Jazz vinyl is commonly an expensive consumer habit, but the Cien Fuegos label has returned to print one of the key documents from the late-‘60s avant-garde improv scene with Manfred Schoof’sEuropean Echoes. To be clear, this kind of racket ain’t for everybody, but those with a love of the form have the swell opportunity to possess a once elusive, and highly worthwhile object, and they definitely shouldn’t pass it up.
While Free Jazz has come to be accepted by most as a legit and vital element in whole improvisational discourse, there was a time when the topic was quite the divisive one. Those dead-set against the movement mainly saw Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler as charlatans, sized-up the later works of John Coltrane as a man who’d lost his bearings, tagged Cecil Taylor as a non-swinging interloper, dismissed Archie Shepp as an agitator low on technique, identified Anthony Braxton as being stained by his academic background, and gave Sun Ra short shrift as the leader of an oft-cacophonous spectacle.
If the records of these historical heavyweights caught all sorts of flack, then the material produced by their lower-profile followers was frequently assessed by the anti-avant-garde brigade as being beneath contempt; thusly, the LPs of these lesser-known figures (say, Noah Howard, Marzette Watts, Clifford Thornton, and Rev. Frank Wright, to name just four) became the makings of a dynamically rich free jazz underground.
“After three or four albums, Lynyrd Skynyrd transcended the Southern-rock tag. They became one of the greatest rock & roll bands in history. They feared no one. On their very first national tour, they opened for the Who. And got encores!” says Al Kooper for Rolling Stone‘s 2013 “100 Greatest Artists of All Time” countdown.
After the devastating plane crash of 1977 that killed three of Lynryd Skynryd’s members, the world wasn’t sure if the band could continue on. Thirty-six years later, and they are as rowdy as ever, drawing crowds young and old alike.
Also, they’ve apparently been buddying up with the Pawn Stars, because we all couldn’t escape that promo commercial playing on repeat on History Channel, right?
Names like Leonard Cohen, Lee Hazelwood, and Scott Walker are hardly among the more common musical reference points in DC’s indie rock and underground music scenes, but those are exactly the artists that Teething Veils calls to mind on its ambitious debut album, Velorio, out today on Etxe Records.
Over the course of the album, Teething Veils’ singer/ songwriter Greg Svitil examines the shattered pieces of past relationships, tracing the hidden contours of heartbreak, memory, longing, and obsession through an unavoidably personal lens.
The track “Cobblestone” is one of many album highlights, built around little more than sparse guitar and Svitil’s voice—the type of intimate performance that has long been the hallmark of Teething Veils live shows. The vocal contribution of Christin Durham elevates the song to another level of exquisite beauty.
Six closely bonded friends—Jonathan Howard, Richard Howard, Drew Hagelin, Ben Brown, Evan Napala, and Johnny Ward—released their full length album Gush this past March, which premiered here at TVD.
Gush is the band’s first full-length album; however, you won’t hear the same seven songs on rotation. New songs are often played, and older gems you might only hear once bring an element of mystery to their live show.
It’s easy to judge a festival by its headliners in the same way that you’d judge a book by its cover. That bold face, large-size print hits you in the face and begs all of your attention. Resist! We’re of the notion that the best part of festivals is inviting new bands to take up residence on your list of favorite aural fixations.
