The secret's out, Vancouver's Kelly Haigh just released a fantastic album/book package.
For an exceptionally gifted multi-disciplinary artist like Vancouver's Kelly Haigh – who alternately uses paint, ink and guitar strings to create her enjoyably skewed narrative portraits – neither a conventional album package nor a coffee table art book could come close to capturing the twisted totality of her unique take on the human condition.
Leave it to Kelly to dream up a sweet yet somewhat Frankenstienian solution to the dilemma of documenting her prolific and disparate creative output. The 168-page book-bound Post Apocalyptic Valentines (Northern Electric) cleverly combines her latest set of collaborative home recordings with her creepy cool paintings, similarly dark short fiction and song poems which are offset by seemingly random snapshots featuring her trusty sidekick Frances the Singing Dog, hilarious hair salon anecdotes, between-song stage banter and a few life lessons thrown in for good measure. It's essentially everything Kelly does well neatly wrapped between two shiny black covers. Or as she'd likely point out: just about everything – ba-dum-tss!
No doubt there will be some clueless critics who see the rare quality of her brush work and assume that the CD is merely a bonus disc, included as an afterthought by a painter with Opry star delusions. But after just a cursory listen it should become clear that the musical component of Post Apocalyptic Valentines is not some misguided vanity project – it's all a part of a continuum of expression just using different media. Although the songs were obviously recorded on a minimal budget, her seemingly cute and whimsical way of delivering a deeply troubling message perfectly mirrors all the other work on display.
Much more a collaborative operation than her Country Western Star (Darling Music) debut from 2010, Post Apocalyptic Valentines benefits greatly from the vocal and instrumental support of her musician friends. However, the thoughtful contributions of Carolyn Mark, Paul Rigby, Skip Heller and Charlie Hase like the well-chosen covers of tunes by Jack Clement, Floyd Tillman, Darius Greene and June Webb don't obfuscate Haigh's role in the recording process, they simply serve to underscore what makes her voice so very unique and resonant. You'll be haunted by Haigh's softly intoned threats for years to come. Post Apocalyptic Valentines could easily work as a stand alone album without the unsettling paintings, prose and off-beat humour but of course, that wouldn't be Kelly. Grab a copy while you can – it's certain to be the most fascinating album/books you'll see/hear this year.
Certain to be a highlight of SXSW 2015's film component, Sir Doug & The Genuine Texas Cosmic Groove tells the story of Doug Sahm, the wild man musicians' musician and unsung hero of Texas music. A country music child prodigy and teenage rhythm & blues dynamo who caused a riot at his San Antonio high school, Sahm emerged as an international rock star leading the Sir Douglas Quintet. He landed in San Francisco just in time for the Summer of Love in 1967. He returned to Texas as the cowboy hippie rocker who built a burgeoning music scene in Austin before forming the Tex-Mex super group The Texas Tornados. A kinetic, quirky character with a solid sense of place as well as an innate wanderlust, Doug Sahm’s story is the story of Texas music.
The project is a collaboration between Texas writer/director Joe Nick Patoski (who first interviewed Sahm in 1973) and the film company Arts+Labor with the assistance of the Society for the Preservation of Texas Music, a non-profit organization formed in November 2013. The SPTM's Board of Directors include Austin Chronicle and SXSW co-founder Louis Black (credited as one of the film's executive producers), record exec Bill Bentley, attorney Tom Mason, and Arts+Labor executive producer Craig Parks.
Following the premiere presentation of Sir Doug & the Genuine Texas Cosmic Groove at Austin's venerable Parmount Theatre on Thursday (March 19) – see details below – the film will subsequently screen on Friday (March 20) at Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar and Saturday (March 21) at the Austin Convention Center’s Vimeo Theater.
Also on Saturday night, SXSW will stage a Sir Doug Sahm Tribute Concert at the Paramount featuring Marcia Ball's reunited 70s band Freda & The Firedogs in addition to performances by the Texas Tornados, Terry Allen, Joe "King" Carrasco, Julie Christensen, Rosie Floresand the West Side Horns, Charlie Sexton, Steve Earle and C.C. Adcock. SXSW delegates w/badges and wristbands will get preferred admission with some tickets for the concert being made available at the Paramount's online box office.
Sir Doug and the Genuine Texas Cosmic Groove Paramount Theatre (713 Congress Ave) Austin, Texas
Thursday (March 19)
7:30PM - 8:52PM Tickets for the film screening are available here.
Although it's not widely known to the portion of Robert Earl Keen's following who like to shout along with brew raised on high to the "the party never ends" refrain during concert performances of The Road Goes On Forever, the Houston-born singer/songwriter got his start in music playing bluegrass. That's right, bluegrass.
So Keen's release of an album called Happy Prisoner: The Bluegrass Sessions is not nearly as unusual as it might initially appear, however, I can't confirm or deny any time spent in the hoosegow. Let's not be so quick to judge.
“I've had a lifelong love of bluegrass,” confesses Keen. “I've always had an affinity for music that I felt like you'd listen to in your living room. Music that felt real. My mom liked the old hillbilly music, and as a kid, I used to fall asleep listening to an 8-track tape of Jimmie Rodgers' greatest hits.
"When I was in 9th grade, one of my first dates was taking a girl to a bluegrass festival. That sounds crazy for someone in Texas. But I was fascinated with that music, even though it wasn't part of the gulf coast at all. When I started playing, my first guitar hero was Norman Blake. In college, I had a bluegrass band called the Front Porch Boys, went to fiddle contests, learned a jillion fiddle and old-timey songs. My whole education in music started with bluegrass.
“And that's partly where the album title comes from,” he continues. “I've been listening to it forever, I love it, and so I feel like I'm something of a happy prisoner of bluegrass."
You see, a completely reasonable explanation. And for anyone concerned about a 180-degree stylistic turn into the high lonesome sound, Keen's choice of collaborators and tune-selection should help clear up any misconceptions. The fact that his chosen singing partners are Lyle Lovett, Peter Rowan and Natalie Maines and not say, Ralph Stanley, James King and Del McCoury should confirm his agenda is more of a folk/traditional homage to the music he loves rather than a full-on bluegrass immersion. That said, it's a good bet that he's been enjoying the performances of McCoury and sons since he covers Richard Thompson's 1952 Vincent Black Lightning using a strikingly similar arrangement to the McCoury's show stopper.
As might be expected from the noted storyteller, Keen consistently chooses material built on a strong narrative component (The Old Home Place, Long Black Veil, Wayfaring Stranger, Poor Ellen Smith) rather than popular instrumentals which often rely on speed and flash to put across. While Keen is a competent guitar picker for a singer/songwriter who earns his living as an entertainer, he doesn't possess the sort of fleet-fingered skills commonly known as "bluegrass chops." So if he's going to tackle a tune associated with Bill Monroe as a nod to the late great patriarch of the form, it makes sense that he'd go for something like Footprints In The Snow rather than an end-to-end burner like Fire On The Mountain that would require a degree of string-bending virtuosity well beyond the reach of an entry level player. And wisely enough, Keen has bolstered his core band with a few ringers like Nickel Creek fiddler Sara Watkins, Greencards mandolinist Kym Warner and Bad Livers banjo boss Danny Barnes to ensure that everything sounds sufficiently bluegrassy – at least enough to impress his sizable college campus following.
Robert Earl Keen's Happy Prisoner: The Bluegrass Sessions is available now from Dualtone Records as a limited edition double LP on 180 gram gold vinyl with five extra songs (see track listing below) not available on the CD version.
Track List:
Side A:
1. Hot Corn, Cold Corn
2. 52 Vincent Black Lightning
3. Footprints in the Snow
4. 99 Years For One Dark Day (feat. Peter Rowan)
5. East Virginia Blues
Side B:
1. Poor Ellen Smith
2. Long Black Veil
3. This World Is Not My Home
4. T For Texas (feat. Lyle Lovett)
Side C:
1. Peter Rowan Intro
2. Walls Of Time
3. White Dove
4. Old Home Place
5. Twisted Laurel
6. Wayfaring Stranger (feat. Natalie Maines)
Side D: (five extra songs not available on the CD)
1. Little Log Cabin Home On The Hill
2. Dark As A Dungeon
3. I'm Troubled, I'm Troubled
4. 14 Carat Mind
5. Steam Powered Aeroplane
Here's the Go-Betweens' performance in Wellington, New Zealand on February 12, 1985.
Set List 01. Cattle And Cane 02. Part Company 03. Unkind & Unwise 04. On My Block 05. Right For Him 06. Bachelor Kisses 07. Rare Breed 08. Five Words 09. In The Core Of A Flame 10. Draining The Pool For You 11. That Way 12. People Say 13. A Bad Debt Follows You 14. Man O'Sand To Girl O'Sea 15. I Need Two Heads 16. Hammer The Hammer 17. River Of Money
METZ II is out on May 5 after their Lee's Palace shows May 1 & 2. Watch Travis Millard's tasty Acetate clip.
METZ on tour
Feb. 21—Air & Style Los Angeles—Pasadena, California Feb. 28—NRMAL Festival—Mexico City, Mexico March 3—100 Club—London, United Kingdom March 5—Point Ephemere—Paris, France March 16-20—SXSW—Austin, Texas April 15—Mohawk Place—Buffalo, New York * April 16—Double Happiness—Columbus, Ohio * April 17—Beachland Ballroom—Cleveland, Ohio * April 18—The Loving Touch—Ferndale, Michigan * May 1 & 2 —Lee’s Palace—Toronto, Ontario ^ (pre-sale tickets available now with code: "spityouout") May 8—Levitation—Austin, Texas May 9—Shaky Knees Festival—Atlanta, Georgia May 11—State Theatre—St. Petersburg, Florida ** May 12—The Social—Orlando, Florida ** May 13—Work Play—Birmingham, Alabama ** May 14—Mercy Lounge—Nashville, Tennessee ** May 19—The Firebird—St. Louis, Missouri ** May 20—Lincoln Hall—Chicago, Illinois May 21-22—7th Street Entry—Minneapolis, Minnesota ** May 23—High Noon Saloon—Madison, Wisconsin ** May 26—Bowery Ballroom—New York, New York ** May 27—Music Hall Of Williamsburg—Brooklyn, New York ** May 28—9:30 Club—Washington, D.C. ** May 29—Union Transfer—Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ** May 30—Paradise—Boston, Massachusetts ** June 16—Underworld—London, United Kingdom June 17—Botanique—Brussels, Belgium June 19—Best Kept Secret Festival—Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands June 20—Hurricane Festival—Scheesel, Germany June 21—Southside Festival—Neuhausen Ob Eck, Germany June 22—Taubchenthal—Leipzig, Germany June 24—Cassiopeia—Berlin, Germany June 25—MTC—Cologne, Germany July 24-26—WayHome Music & Arts Festival—Oro-Medonte, Ontario * with Lightning Bolt ^ with Protomartyr ** with Fidlar
After three LPs and a clutch of 45s, Southern Indiana's Apache Dropout – known throughout the tri-state area as Sonny "Blood" Alexander, Nathan Warrick and Seth Mahernas – have loosened an adherence to the divine mono sound and forged a scaly stereo technique for Heavy Window. This is a deeper, blown out swagger of peer-less rock ‘n’ roll filtered through a lush three-dimensional spectrum.
These 11 songs hoist Sonny Blood as one of today’s finest guitarist/songwriters stewed in the melodic tonic of Sir Winston & The Commons and his own fug’ed ‘n’ frenzied, black-out solos. Overdubbed and bounced between tracks until saturation set in, Sonny’s fuzz drenches the caveman rhythms into a timeless sound poetry smacking onto our suffering, circumstance and flesh. Yet this trio’s songs about conspiracies, revolutionaries and paranoia remain maverick, compact pop songs tethered to a chorus and groove.
Just as their self-titled debut snapped heads back, Apache Dropout has proven again they can rescore the garage rock aesthetic and remain undisputed purveyors of true lysergic North American boogie.
Formed in 2008, Apache Dropout have toured the sub-U.S. underground insistently while chaste to their uncompromising, out-of-step vision. After previous full-lengths on Trouble In Mind and Family Vineyard, Apache Dropout return to Magnetic South – the imprint of their debut single and the publishing arm of their analogue studio – for Heavy Window recorded by John Dawson during the fall of 2013. Check out the lead off track "Sittin' Around" performed at the Heavy Window release party.
From the moment David Byrne was announced as the curator of Meltdown 2015, there has been wide-ranging speculation about which artists the Talking Heads founder will feature at London's prestigious week-long arts festival taking place at the Southbank Centre from August 17 to 28.
While some seem to think the multi-disciplinary explorer will play it safe by flipping through his rolodex to select a few reliable collaborators from a hefty file that includes Brian Eno, Arcade Fire, Caetano Veloso, St. Vincent, Fatboy Slim, Dirty Projectors, Paul Simon and others, Byrne is far too wary about his programming being perceived as predictable not to try throwing in at least a few wild cards.
It's a safe bet that William Onyeabor is near the top of Byrne's wish list. But knowing that the enigmatic Nigerian Afro-disco legend has never performed his music in public – even before becoming a born-again Christian – the notion of convincing Onyeabor to make his stage debut at Meltdown seems like a long shot. Also an exceedingly remote possibility is a Talking Heads reunion. We all know that loads of people would love to see a top to bottom reprise of Talking Heads '77 – echoing Patti Smith's triumphant tear through Horses at Meltdown 2005 – but Byrne has never shown much interest in retracing his steps. Even if the group's impending 40th anniversary (they first opened for The Ramones at CBGBs on June 20, 1975) makes the timing look right, the long-standing issues between Byrne and "The Heads" cast serious doubt on any jovial stroll through the oldies for Meltdown.
Perhaps the one move that no one is anticipating is for Byrne to salute his boyhood home of Hamilton, Ontario by selecting a slate of artists from the Steel City and surrounding area. However unlikely, the "Hammer Homage" concept could significantly bolster Byrne's carefully cultivated rep as a visionary talent spotter while giving some overseas exposure to Hamilton's finest. Here are a few suggestions:
Iconic Hamilton space-rock blasters Simply Saucer would add a devastating wallop to any Meltdown line-up like few participants have done before. Check out what Edgar Breau and crew were doing with aspiring local producers Daniel and Bob Lanois back in 1974. And yes, they've still got it.
Reckless punk upstarts The Dirty Nil could be counted on to shake the sit-down crowd at the artsy extravaganza out of their seats. Here's a recent live clip which ends abruptly when the cameraman gets knocked over in the mosh pit.
Juno-nominated jazz chanteuse Diana Panton would add a quiet elegance to the proceedings with a repertoire that ranges from deftly delivered American songbook standards and French chanson gems to Brazilian classics. Check out her sweet sweep through Samba Saravah off To Brazil With Love.
Of course, you'd need a bit of marquee magic to sell some advance tickets and that's where Grant Avenue ace Daniel Lanois and Dundas overachiever Dan "Caribou" Snaith come in. Meltdown would provide Lanois with the right environment for the atmospheric sounds of his Flesh and Machine album (see below) and give Snaith the perfect platform to undertake a larger orchestral production.
Check out "One Of Us, One Of Us..." from the forthcoming album Traité de Guitarres Triolectiques.
After collaborations with Robert Wyatt and PJ Harvey amongst others, multi-instrumentalist Pascal Comelade teams up with fellow countrymen, the delightfully demented Les Limiñanas. The resulting album, Traité de Guitarres Triolectiques, will be released by Because Music as a limited run LP with CD included on February 23.
Traité de Guitarres Triolectiques Tracklist:
CD // 1. Stella Star / 2. Carnival of Souls / 3. The-Nothing Twist / 4. (They Call Me) Black Sabata
5. You’re Never Alone With A Schizo / 6. Why Are We Sleeping / 7. El Vici Birra Crucis 8. Green Fuz / 9. T.B.Jerk +++ / 10. Wunderbar / 11. A Wall Of Perrukes 12. One Of Us, One Of Us, One Of Us… / 13. Dick Dale N’était Pas De Bompas / 14. Ramblin’ Roose 15. Yesterday Man / 16. I’m Dead
VINYL // A1. Stella Star / A2. Carnival of Souls / A3. The-Nothing Twist A4. (They Call Me) Black Sabata / A5. You’re Never Alone With A Schizo / A6. Why Are We Sleeping A7. El Vici Birra Crucis B1. Green Fuz / B2. T.B.Jerk +++ / B3. Wunderbar / B4. A Wall Of Perrukes B5. One Of Us, One Of Us, One Of Us… / B6. Dick Dale N’était Pas De Bompas B7. Lord of Flashington
DJ and record collector Fredrik Lavik – the man behind Soundway's Kenya Special compilation and Jazz Aggression's Quintonal retrospective – appears on the World Skip The Beat podcast to share some choice selections from his 20000+ collection of Kenyan 7" records. He is currently in Canada for a mini-tour that begins at Montreal's Canicule Tropicale on Friday (February 6) and continues in Toronto on Saturday (February 7) where he'll play a set at A Man Called Warwick's popular Turning Point party at The Garrison (1197 Dundas St. West).
Buena Vista Social Club "Lost and Found" (World Circuit)
Almost two decades after the release of the original, Grammy winning album, the romance of the Buena Vista Social Club continues with Lost and Found, a collection of previously unreleased tracks, some recorded at the first legendary sessions in Havana and others during the extraordinarily rich outpouring of music that followed.
The original Buena Vista Social Club album was recorded for World Circuit Records over seven days in Havana in 1996, bringing together many of the great names of the golden age of Cuban music in the 1950s, several of whom were coaxed out of retirement for the sessions by Eliades Ochoa and Juan de Marcos Gonzalez. The album became a surprise international best-seller and the most successful album in the history of Cuban music.
At the time, nobody had any idea that the record was merely the start of a musical phenomenon. In the years that followed the Buena Vista veterans toured the world to ecstatic audiences and were the subject of a celebrated feature film directed by Wim Wenders. Further acclaimed recordings followed, including solo releases by the singers Ibrahim Ferrer and Omara Portuondo, virtuoso pianist Rubén González and bassist Cachaíto López and a celebratory live album recorded at a triumphant concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Buena Vista Social Club had become a household name. A core band featuring several of the original musicians continue to sell out shows world-wide as Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club. They embark on their farewell ‘Adios’ tour in 2015.
"Over the years we were often asked what unreleased material was left in the vaults,” says World Circuit’s Nick Gold. “We knew of some gems, favourites amongst the musicians, but we were always too busy working on the next project to go back and see what else we had. When we eventually found the time, we were astonished at how much wonderful music there was.”
All the studio tracks were recorded for World Circuit at the Egrem studio in Havana during the rich and prolific period of creativity that followed the recording of the original album and stretched into the early 2000s. Spiced with live recordings from the same fertile period, there’s a tremendous and sometimes surprising variety to the material heard on Lost and Found. But there is a unifying thread built around a core collective of legendary musicians expressing an esprit de corps which everyone who was ever enchanted by Buena Vista Social Club will recognize and enjoy.
