So the focus of our inaugural content, the White Rabbits, has been signed to TBD Records. They are now label-mates with a little band called Radiohead. Congrats to the guys.
We will be checking in with them in a few weeks before they hit the area on their latest tour with Spoon and the Walkmen. Man these guys keep good company.
In the meantime, check out our interview with lead singer and keyboardist Steve Patterson as well of our reviews of their last show with the Walkmen at the Ottobar.
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Saturday, March 15, 2008
The White Rabbits swap labels to TBD Records
Friday, March 14, 2008
Roky Erickson + Okkervil River = Bliss in Austin at SXSW
I knew I should've gone to Austin. Psychedelic 60's icon Roky Erickson pairs with Okkervil River for one of his signature tracks? Sign me the fuck up. Check the video here at spin.com.
And for those unfamiliar, here's the full MP3 from a Roky anthology. Song should be familiar to those of you who love John Cusack's High Fidelity.
"You're Gonna Miss Me Baby" (MP3)
Another vid of merely Okkervil after the jump. And if you're lucky, by the end of the weekend, I'll compose and post a psych-influenced mix.
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Gah.
I can't find anything remotely interesting going on this weekend. I guess I'm resigning myself to sitting on my couch and watching the ACC basketball tournament. I might be okay with that.
But did I miss something? Is there anything going on this weekend? Post suggestions here so I can go get drunk and embarrass myself among perfect strangers (after my alma mater UNC takes it all).
I've been looking around, and here's a list of things that I can't get exited about:
Reaction at Sidebar on Friday night. Come on, it's drizzling outside.
Buying a Wham City-Box-o-crap at Atomic Books... even if it is heralded by the Whitney Museum.
Watching the intentionally shocking and emotionally deadening Funny Games at the Charles. (By the way, did anyone else hate No Country for Old Men?)
Getting help with preparing my taxes at Enoch Pratt on Saturday.
Yep... I guess it's basketball for me.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Brother Ali @ The Ottobar
Writing about Brother Ali presents a problem. On the one hand I feel dwelling on his background undercuts his music; he even feared this, being so reluctant early on to discuss his race that some mistakenly reported him as African-American.
But on the other hand, an MC isn’t exactly a detached writer striving for Negative Capability. And as his career has progressed, Ali has been increasingly vocal about his Midwestern roots and what the region's artists have to offer compared to coastal hip-hop, as well as his race and background.
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So, quickly here are the Brother Ali factoids. He is a white Mid Westerner that raps, and by white I mean very white. In fact, Brother Ali is an albino, and legally blind as albinos tend to be. He is also a Muslim. I could speculate all day long how these factors may contribute to knowledge of outsider status and thus lyrics that are deeply introspective at times, but also full of braggadocio and ego.
Instead, let's look at his music. Ali's penchant for the "golden age" of hip-hop flavors his music with sound similar to oft-cited influence KRS-One and now-defunct and heavily old-school influenced Jurassic 5. He has a distinct, timeless-quality to his flow, a strong voice and great sense of lyrical timing.
His politically charged track "Uncle Sam Goddamn" has generated a flurry of press, including being featured as the August 2007 "Hip-Hop Quotable." The song has been opposed and criticized by many including the recording industry and most notably a cell-phone company that withdrew sponsorship, shortening part of Ali's tour.
The single "Take me home" has been received with less controversy, resulting in a music video in rotation at MTV. But how do I truly resolve the issue of Brother Ali’s music versus his press sheet bio? In the end, I’ll take the cop-out, and decide after his March 25 show at the Ottobar.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Desperate for Evil Urges from My Morning Jacket?
If you are anything like me, you are absolutely foaming at the mouth with anticipation for My Morning Jacket's upcoming release Evil Urges, salvation comes in the form of a YouTube-like stream of videos live from their recent stop in Houston.
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I'm Amazed
Highly Suspicious
Thank You Too
Sec Walkin
Aluminum Park
Smokin from Shootin
Touch Me I'm Going to Scream Part 2
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Album Review: Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing
OK kids, get your giggles out. Yes, this duo from the UK, comprised of one Andrew Hung and one Benjamin John Power, is called Fuck Buttons (Wiki). Ludicrous name. But to the matter at hand. This week, a copy of their debut full-length called "Street Horrrsing" dropped in my mailbox and I popped it in for a listen.
If you aren't ready to be immersed and engulfed by sound, or despise repetition and noise, please turn this review off now.
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For those of you who stuck around, Fuck Buttons' debut album is 50 minutes of experimental aural immersion. It's like watching the sunrise at the end of the world perched on a precipice in some exotic mountain-range...or just running around the city on little-to-no sleep.
Their music combines abrasive and aggressive elements (muted-screech-and-scream vocals, driving tribal percussion) with the mesmerizing and soothing elements of looped synths or fuzzed-out static noise and drone. Often the effect is an odd, serene beauty laden with tension and dark undertones, as if a steady dirge in anticipation of the death of some unknown aspect of humanity.
Described as electro-psych-drone, Fuck Buttons deliver tracks that are well-metered and absolutely mesmerizing. But this is not music for the impatient. There are only 6 tracks on the album, with 5 clocking in at-or-above 8 minutes in length. Not so easily digested, the tracks individually don't necessarily blow you away. But when you sit and listen to the album in its entirety, the effect is profound.
The twinkling keys that begin the album on lead track "Sweet Love for Planet Earth" are a gentle, innocent introduction into Fuck Buttons' dystopic album and world. Their patent drone enters aligned with the keys, but eventually taking it over as the lead musical voice (one of their most effective techniques, blending drone). Wailing vocals lend a sense of turmoil beneath the swirling mix of drone and keys.
The simplest, shortest track "Ribs Out" is one of the most haunting I've heard in ages. It recalls some demonic ritual in the depths of an unknown rainforest with reverbing primal yelps and screams set upon a tribal beat that sounds like chattering bones are being used for drum sticks.
The much previewed and lauded first single "Bright Tomorrow" presents probably the most uplifting moments thanks to the bright keyboard line and major key drone that enters near the 3 minute mark. But eventually the track turns to a darker, more crushing drone that provides a perfect leads into the final track, "Colours Move." My personal favorite, this final track absolutely soars and destroys. The couplet of the last two tracks reminds me very much of Danny Boyle's 2007 film Sunshine, where a group of astronauts 50 years in the future attempts to re-ignite our dying sun.
And I couldn't think of a more appropriate parallel; Fuck Buttons very well may reignite the power of experimental and noise music for many and stand as a shining example of its versatility and viability. Fuck Buttons open for fellow noise-nik Caribou (Wiki) on March 21st when they hit Rock and Roll Hotel in DC. Their debut LP, Street Horrrsing drops in the States on March 18th.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Caverns Interview (w/ Kevin Hilliard)
Guitarist Kevin Hilliard, one-third of DC's hard-rocking instrumentalists Caverns took some time out to chat about their music and other miscellaneous topics like the role of vocals in metal. And check out our previous coverage of Caverns here.
Below are a smattering of streamed tracks for you to enjoy while reading the interview after the jump. Don't forget to catch them when they lay down the gauntlet with fellow DC-kids Imperial China, next to Baltimore's own Moscow Telephone and UK crunchy-pop-punk from Buck Brothers on March 21st at Lo-Fi.
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Aural States: So give me a little background, where you guys are from, how you guys formed.
Kevin Hilliard: We all grew up in Montgomery County, we’re all from the Bethesda/Rockville area. We went to high school together. I played in the jazz band together with Pat who’s the piano player in high school. When we got back from college I wanted to play with him in something different. He was more on the classical/jazz side whereas I grew up listening to and playing rock and roll. I wanted to see how the two things sounded together.
We started jamming in 2004, but we didn’t really do anything serious until the drummer Ross moved back to DC. After he graduated college, he lived a couple other places before he came back. He was looking to play with some people so we just came together, a little over 2 years ago.
AS- Just out of curiousity, as a fellow Maryland native, where’d you guys goto high school?
KH- Georgetown Prep.
AS- You said initially you were interested in just seeing how the sounds meshed together. How did things go, how did things sound at first?
KH- Well it started…Pat had a lot of experience working and doing producing work for hip-hop groups. He was also doing remixes. He had a lot of experience with music editing programs like Pro Tools. I always envisioned this band as having crazy guitar offset with more straight-forward and melodic piano, but also, I was at one time a little more interested in doing something along the lines of Mogwai (Wiki). You know how Mogwai will incorporate a lot of electronic elements into their sound like backing loops and sort of play along with it. The initial concept was more like that.
But we decided computers were more problematic than it was worth. We had the worst luck with every computer configuration. And with only the two of us, it just didn’t work. Some bands can do it and it’s awesome, but for us it was such a headache. It just so happened Ross was moving back to town around that time.
When he joined the band, I think that amped us up a little bit more, took us to another level of intensity. When he plays drums, he can be sort of aggressive and loud. We just kind of became what we were. We just started messing around. I would bring in ideas for songs, Pat and me would sort of develop them and they became just a lot heavier than I thought it was going to be. But we were all into it because we thought it wasn’t like anything we’d heard before.
None of us could sing, but we didn’t necessarily set out to be an instrumental band. None of us really wanted to sing. And really, I felt like the piano started acting like a vocalist in a way. So we just decided to develop it that way. Because a lot of the music we listened to and still listen to now, is more instrumental driven where the vocals are either buried, lower in the mix or kind of atmospheric rather than on the top.
I think that was just something we were more interested in exploring. We had all done stuff before that was more traditional. The crux was almost always finding a good vocalist or dealing with that aspect. And we just figured, none of us is a vocalist so let’s just be what we are.
AS- So you never dabbled with vocalists at all?
KH- Nah, after we’d developed enough songs to play a set live, we were comfortable and confident enough in them working as instrumentals. We got really psyched about presenting it as this full musical, almost like classical, vibe. Especially since the piano, the way Pat plays it in the context of our songs, has a very classical sound to it. I was really excited about it being this weird, sort of hyper-aggressive classical music. I don’t know if that’s what it really ended up being but…the idea was attractive.
AS- The piano definitely lends your music a symphonic or classical feel like you said. The closest sound I can even think of is symphonic metal without the ridiculous vocals of a hoarse screamer or some wailing 80s-hair metal vocalist.
KH- Yeah, like I read your review and I really respect like Dream Theater (Wiki), for example. I think John Petrucci (Wiki) is one of the greatest guitarists who’s ever picked it up. But there’s a certain element that always has alienated me from it. There’s this sort of drama club element to it. It’s a sort of overwrought-ness to it that, no matter how technical we get in this music, I always want it to be completely immediate. Not have a theatrical thing going on.
It has that classical element but it’s very much in your face like Converge (Wiki) and Dillinger Escape Plan (Wiki). And I agree, so many times, the worst part about a heavy band whether it’s total cooke-monster shit or super-theatrical like the band Nevermore (Wiki)…insanely good musicians but the second the guy opens his mouth you just laugh. It sounds so dated and preposterous.
AS- The other thing that you seem to excel at is keeping things in balance. Not letting any one member just go off and destroy the flow of a song. So many bands like that can just go off on tangents that wreck a song.
KH- Definitely, like I said, we want everything to be immediate. Bands I’ve seen like Mars Volta (Wiki), go into these long…impressive…but really long-winded instrumental, show-offy things…We’re not about that at all. We just want to get it done and present it. So many bands, instrumental bands, make this mistake…or maybe it’s not a mistake and we’re making a mistake I dunno…but do something in 5 minutes that they could have done in 30 seconds. It’s this weird sense that everything has to be developed to death, almost as an apology for the fact that there are no vocals. We never let ourselves feel that way.
AS- Is there anybody in charge of arranging your songs on the whole, keeping the balance and things like that? Or does everybody write and control their own stuff?
KH- As far as writing the overall structure, the framework of the song, I probably take the lead. But the good thing about working with Pat is that, even though we’ve known each other for a long time, we have almost no common musical interests or tastes. I could list 30 bands that people think Caverns sounds like and he might be able to name 2 of them. He has no history in this scene, he comes from a classical, jazz, R&B, hip-hop vibe. I feel like I present what I have to him and he gives me his thoughts and that does help shape the songs and we make some changes. Once that’s done, Ross will come in and apply a rhythm and make some changes. Especially with Pat’s left hand, which acts kind of like our bassist. But usually I come in with the basic structure, ideas and the general way the songs will go. Pat finishes it in a sense and Ross puts a rhythmic cherry on top I guess.
AS- Are most of your songs born as jams or do you bring concepts in more often than not?
KH- It depends on what we’re doing. The more aggressive, fast and heavy a song is, the more likely it was something I brought to the table. The more loose, mid-tempo and atmospheric songs, we play a longer slow jam in the middle of our sets, that is an example of a song we sat down and took more time together on, shaping as a band rather than me sitting down alone and workshopping prior to introducing it to the band. But they aren’t Caverns songs until the other two guys have had their say.
AS- Since you mentioned 30 or so bands people think Caverns sounds like, name some.
KH- Haha, well the sort of one-sentence, elevator pitch for what our band sounds like…I’d say it’s like Mogwai and Dillinger Escape Plan had a lovechild. We combine some of the harmonic vocabulary that Dillinger or Converge does, some diminished, some whole scale stuff, some super discordant half-step or seventh harmonies. But also looking from an instrumental perspective, using the piano and the way we develop some of our ideas is more inspired by a band like Mogwai or Dan Caballero.
Or even bands like Battles or Holy Fuck.
When I was really young, the first bands that really blew my mind were like Fugazi or Rage Against the Machine. Bands that in the early 90s were really revolutionary to me. Some of the first bass lines I learned were to Fugazi or RATM songs. That’s sort of where I got that punk flavor or element from.
Ornette Coleman you know, and the whole free jazz thing. That really changed my definition of music. It’s one of those things that walks the line between genius and crap the whole time. That’s the thing. Playing music like we play, that’s kinda wild and out there, the lesson that taught me is that you have to make up, in a way for it being some out of the ordinary by being a really good player. Really knowing what you’re doing even if it doesn’t sound like it. One person might go “oh it’s just noise” but another might dig deeper and go “oh this guy knows what he’s doing.”
AS- How do you approach live shows? It sounds that you are all very into and proud of being individual instrumentalists. Does it become just an open jam session or are things more organized?
KH- I don’t think so, each song sort of just exists. The only person who really improvs is probably Pat. The way the piano operates in our songs is that it is kind of above the other things, even though there is balance. But especially the melodic stuff, he has more room to improv.
But since I’m playing a weird dual-role of lead guitarist and also a weird mix between bassist and rhythm guitarist, I have to wear a lot of hats so I don’t have a lot of time or places to deviate too much. Which is why I try to really write runs that interest me. I think that’s part of this attitude that this is our moment, our half-hour or 45 minutes or whatever, to just go out there and kill it. Put every ounce of energy and passion into this.
I just want to go out there and have people remember us.
AS- With that in mind, what are your priorities right now?
KH- We just went through a first-run pressing of our first EP Sing Along that we recorded a little over a year ago with J Robbins in Baltimore. It was like a mission statement. A lot of songs on it were a little older, things we wanted to get out. We had a lot of ideas and those were the songs we had started playing. We're kind of at the end since we sold our last CD of that pressing at the Black Cat show.
Basically, our record Silk Scorpion that we are going to record starting in May is already written. So we're kind of in pre-production for that now. We're on Lujo Records, based out of Louisiana. This is probably, not right now, like a full-time thing for us. But basically every second we're not working we're putting into this band so I feel like our commitment is pretty high. We're trying to do a tour at the end of the year. Our record is probably gonna come out in January.
Show Review: Justice at Sonar, Baltimore MD, take two...
Baltimore tried its hardest to become Ibiza or Miami with last night’s Justice show. Walking into the show mid-set for DJ Mehdi (pictured right), we saw a densely-packed main room with arms flailing high above heads in the flicker of stage lights and strobes, bass-heavy beats pounding you into the ground. I had to double-check the date to make sure I wasn’t at a Buzz event in now-defunct DC nightclub Nation circa 2000. Mehdi established what would be the theme of excellence for the night: flow.
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Flow is normally used when referring to a skilled lyricist, especially rappers and hip-hop artists. But I use it to describe the progression and pacing of the music, not lyrics. And Mehdi knows how to make song transitions flow. But that’s about it. He did a little mixing/EQ work to drop the bass out a few times to mix things up, but by and large, he transitioned tracks and let them play, undisturbed. His skill in transitioning songs was phenomenally smooth and some of the best I’ve ever heard. But that only makes him an excellent dance night DJ, not an excellent DJ. Still, as Bez quoted me, I hope the Taxlo kids take note. Their inter-song flow has been less-than-stellar in the past year or so.By contrast, Justice's entire set flowed as one big river of carnal goodness (probably a variety of red wine). Justice truly did blow the roof off Sonar, playing a phenomenal set with few words exchanged. None were needed. The flow took care of everything, smooth, steady, excellent pacing. Like a skilled lover, Justice manipulates the crowd with musical fingers and lips, working every trick they had and driving the crowd mad. Probably the most effective technique was interspersing brief samples of the upcoming song at the end of each preceding one. This built some phenomenal tension and anticipation which was only heightened by the prolonged waits for the distinctive bass lines to kick in for tracks like set-and-album opener “Genesis.” But the highlight of the night, for me, was the unexpected sampling of Metallica track “Master of Puppets.” Fantastic; how you can visualize a dance-able beat in that song is beyond me, but leave it to the Parisians to do it. Kudos.
Copious sampling of “We are your friends” threatened to become tiresome, but that’s about the only nit-picking critique I can give. Even that was done so tastefully and effectively that it didn’t really grow old, even after 4-6 call-and-returns. Justice sure do know how to show a guy a good time.
Photo credit: Josh Sisk (Flickr)
Show Review: Aural Justice for Bmore at Sonar
It was about a year or two ago when French electronic duo Justice was making it’s first US tour. Philly was the closest they were coming to Baltimore, and The Rapture was the opener for that night to boot. I never made it to that show, and I’ve since been wondering what I missed that night.
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Sure, I knew Justice would come around again, but that special aura of being one of the relative few in the know about the newest Parisian kids making dance music would be gone. Since that time my interest in Justice has waned a little. It was a brief, and intense affair with a hot young thing, but after the Alive 2007 tour I realized my true French love was still the veteran Daft Punk. But isn’t it French custom to keep a mistress?
Though my passion for Justice cooled, the media hype around the group has grown. Fueled by a very successful myspace page, some MTV spots, and a music press core that foams at the mouth over any combination of hip young Parisians, funky analog synth techno/electro, and a killer live show. Not to say the group doesn’t deserve the attention, just that those factors don’t hurt.
Sunday night was going to be my chance to finally get to see if Justice lives up to the hype. It was also the first time in about a year that I went back to Sonar.
I got off work late, so I was only able to catch the final 20 minutes of DJ Mehdi’s set. He’s an Ed Banger labelmate of Justice. His production and remixing skills are solid, but from what I saw of his set, his mixing is so-so. But take my assessment with a grain of salt. Usually when I’m judging DJs I’m looking for the so-called DJ’s DJ, something of a purist. Someone for whom technical proficiency and record selection come first and foremost, and the waving of hands in the air and other “crowd interaction” moves are simply not done because the DJ is too busy mixing. I guess Richie Hawtin would be the prime example. DJ Mehdi spent much of his time away from the mixer dancing around stage. Don’t get me wrong; he was a very good dancer. I wish I could move like that, but that’s time that could have been spent EQing the track, or filtering it for effect. Another Aural States staffer made the very good observation that Mehdi would make a great dance night DJ—“I hope the Taxlo guys are taking note,” he said.
The crowd seemed to enjoy the shtick though. They went crazy when Mehdi dropped a Bloc Party track coming out of a breakdown of a women moaning preceded by some acid tinged techno. Someone held a Tunisian flag aloft. Though born in Paris, Mehdi’s ethnic background is of that Northern African country. Mehdi took the red flag with white crescent moon and draped it over the table supporting his equipment. I had the quick thought that being black and/or Muslim in France must suck. But being black and French in most other countries, especially America, means you’re instantly cool without even trying. Apparently Uffie’s sister, Fafi, agrees as she is dating Mehdi.
After DJ Mehdi’s last track stagehands quickly set up a large bank of equipment center stage flanked by Marshall stacks. Smoke began to fill in from behind stage. The lights cut out save for blue light behind the stage. Gaspard Auge and Xavier de Rosnay took the stage and began a grinding, gritty, distorted synth build up. When it peaked, when the audience was ready, the beat dropped. Yellow flood lights behind stage flared, and the fabric draped over the table supporting all the equipment was pulled away revealing a bank of analog hardware and Justice’s trademark cross sitting in the center.
Here I want to pause and discuss Justice’s adopted symbol. I’ve never heard an explanation why a cross was chosen, but it really works. I mean everyone already knows what it is, and to have a room full of people facing a flashing cross with arms in air, palms toward heaven lost in a moment of ecstasy sends a pretty strong message. For some reason electronic music, especially rave, abounds in spiritual/religious components. You’re overwhelmed with the DJ-as-savior metaphor. I think all those trance DJs of the late 90s and early 00s who thought of themselves as gods, but they never actually put a cross onstage (by the way what’s the difference between God and Oakenfold? God doesn’t think he is Oakenfold.) I’m sure Justice is using the cross in a very ironic tongue-in-cheek way (not usual for the French), but still the intended message is clear. It is also interesting when you factor in that the opener Mehdi is a alternate spelling of Mahdi, the Sufi and Shia Muslim messianic figure.
Justice’s set was phenomenal. Their sense of pacing, the tension and release created between tracks was spot on. It’s such a cliché to talk about music as a journey (I think of that sample at the beginning of Coldcut’s 70 Minutes of Madness—“This is a journey”—said in British accent), but it was clear Gaspard and Xavier knew where they wanted to take the crowd, and how to get there. This is the sign of skilled DJs; they have the arrogant confidence that they can reach the crowd on an almost psychic level and toy with them. They get the crowd to do what they want.
But one of the disappointments of the night was that you couldn’t actually see what Justice was doing. I guess you can’t really call it a DJ set, as I assume they weren’t playing vinyl or CDs. The equipment set up was analog, but the effects being applied were obviously digital. I think I spotted a laptop sitting behind the cross. Sound synthesized on hardware and sequenced with software? I wish I knew for certain. It was in another interview on this website that someone said that when seeing an electronic music performance you take it on faith that the performer isn’t just pushing play.
It was also in an untapped segment of that interview that the Chemical Brothers were brought up at length. And I actually thought of the Chemical Brothers during the Justice set. The crowd was actually a hodgepodge of all types, but most, and I’m generalizing, most didn’t seem to fall into either the hipster set, or the techno head faction. I saw a lot of watered down styles and trends, not the original. Not a value judgment, just an observation. There were a fair number of guys that while may not technically be in frats, definitely seemed to enjoy beer, visors, and collared shirts. Again, not to say people like that can’t appreciate Justice’s music. But those were the same types of people in the 90s going to Chemical Brothers shows. I get the distinct feeling that those types weren’t at that show in Philly I never made it to, the one I still regret not seeing.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
This is why I'm not much of a journalist
I drink too much.
I'm confessing here, under the expand button. I had fully planned on doing a show review of the Cadence Weapon/Born Ruffians show... but it didn't happen like that.
I got real drunk at the Ottobar Wednesday night during the show (if you need proof, just check out the quality of the picture).
There were very few people in the Ottobar, probably less than 100. The poor attendance was pretty bothersome to me and after a couple+ beers, one thought permeated my mind: "I'll show Cadence that Baltimore appreciates him!".
I noticed Rollie Pemberton (Cadence Weapon) had been drinking Pilsner Urquill and it was almost empty during his set. So, I went up to the bar like "THREE Natty Bohs... Please!" I should mention that I'm not a total cheap ass, I'm just really poor. I take the extra Boh, after distributing the other two between my boyfriend and my stomach, and go put it next to Rollie's pilsner on stage. Anyway, he finishes his beer, finishes his set, and grabs the Natty Boh and walks off stage.
(My boyfriend is like "What are you doing???" the whole time).
And I see him take a sip of it (Yes!!) and then he looks all grossed out (NO!) and walks back out on stage, grabs the mic and says "Listen, I grabbed someone else's beer by accident, sorry". And he sort of carefully and gently sets it back down in the exact spot he picked it up from, like it never happened.
This is all very obvious to the other 60 people in the Ottobar because I'm not very sneaky about the whole thing - in fact I'm pretty awkward. I don't know what the hell I was thinking (I wasn't.) So, I stand around for a while and eventually we left half way during Born Ruffian's set because it wasn't very good. It was about 12:30 and I was sleepy. I went home, sent a bunch of weird messages to people that I barely know on Facebook, ate two tacos and went to bed.
I'm a force to be reckoned with..
Your metal spring in Baltimore
Okay, okay.
I'll be upfront - I know next to nothing about Metal. My boyfriend likes a bit of metal, so I can only recall names of CDs I see on our collective shelf. I can tell you what I like, but not really why. My credentials are next to none: I've seen Mastodon a handful of times. That's it.
Anyway, from what little I know, early May is going to be pretty big for Metal lovers in Baltimore.
Meshuggah (Sweden) , Ministry (Chicago, Illinois) , Hemlock
April 26th
Rams Head Live
Baroness (Savannah, Georgia), Converge (one of my personal favorites --A.S.), Genghis Tron, and The Red Chord
May 1st
Ottobar
Pelican (Chicago/LA), Circa Survive, Thrice
May 6th
Rams Head Live
(videos and such after the jump)
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Meshuggah - New Millenium Cynide Christ (the boyfriend's fav. Meshuggah song)
The whole song, with a youtube fanboy video can be seen/heard here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZvPM9D4hws
Ministry - Jesus Built My HotRod
Baroness - Wanderlust
Pelican's Last.fm website with lots of streaming MP3s (no videos)
This is what happened in 2003 when Converge played the Ottobar:
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Music from DC's Caverns and an old favorite, Snapcase
The instrumental rockers in DC's Caverns have been nice enough to provide us with MP3's to stream.
And to boot, Jeff the Taper has recordings of a live set at RnR Hotel in DC. Check out the track streams after the jump, or check out Jeff's live recording here at Beatbots A/V Club.
Also, just for kicks, I included some old tracks from a defunct hardcore band called Snapcase (Wiki) whose music I enjoyed immensely. The three tracks are off their album Designs for Automotion (2000). I recommend picking up that and their earlier album Progression Through Unlearning (1997).
Stay tuned for our exclusive interview with Caverns coming up in the next week; stream this music to rock out while you are waiting. Enjoy the weekend, and join some of the AS staff at the sure-to-be-excellent Justice show on Sunday (despite its association with Myspace).
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Thursday, March 6, 2008
Interview w/ Lafayette Gilchrist: Piano man speaks his mind
I recently talked to Baltimore jazz pianist Lafayette Gilchrist over a cup of coffee at a small lunch place on Cathedral Street.
If asked to pick the jazz musician out of a lineup, you'd pick Lafayette. He puts out a vibe of intense creativity on a level that is rare even among artists and musicians, and might not necessarily come across in the transcript.
Going along with that, he also has strong opinions on a broad range of issues, not just jazz music, so the interview is formatted a little bit looser, the questions a little more general on purpose. With that said, even the most mundane opinion can sound like sage wisdom when voiced by a veteran jazz performer of some repute.
Be sure to check out pianist/ academically trained economist and historian/ boxer/ thinker of thoughts Lafayette Gilchrist and his band The New Volcanoes at Joe Squared on March 22.
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Aural States- I recently saw a poster for one of your performances and I thought, “Man, this guy’s name keeps turning up everywhere I look. He’s taking over Baltimore.”
Lafayette Gilchrist- Oh man. I hope that’s not the case, because there are a lot of wonderful and talented musicians here…I mean I hope there is room for all of us. Don’t have to be one cat, just one cat.
AS- You’ve kind of become the piano man of Baltimore, but I was just wondering if you have met Baltimore’s other preeminent pianist, have you met Leon Fleischer?
LG- Yes. I spent an afternoon with Leon Fleischer. John Lewis, who writes for Baltimore Magazine—he does the music articles, the music critic rather for the magazine. He did an article a couple years ago with me and Leon Fleischer actually sitting down and having a conversation. Yea, we did that. He’s a nice man, a very nice man. He lives over there off of…he lives in those nice houses. If I bought a house, I’d buy one in an area like that.
AS- Give a short introduction to what motivates you to make music.
LG- Oh, man. Well what motivates me…I don’t think about it so much these days, but I guess if I had to, I’d still say it’s the sense of adventure, and journey into the unknown that still keeps me motivated. Knowing that each time you play something, you know it’s different from any other time that you played it before, or play it after. Sometimes just that knowledge is stimulation enough. You know, sometimes I can’t wait to wake up, just to play and see what I sound like on that particular day. And I’ve never been disappointed, as everyday it’s a little bit different. I may play the same piece for three weeks in a row, or something, and each time it is a little different. So, I guess to sum it up, music is endless discovery.
You know when you’re on that journey some things are very beautiful, and some things are very painful, and some things fall in between all of that. Ecstasy, agony, you know. Everything between those two extremes is a trip within itself. So music is like life, it’s endless. It transcends human life. It connects you to something else, something else that comes from before the beginning. I don’t know. That’s what it feels like to me anyway.
With art it’s really more about how it feels, than how it is, you know. How it feels has to do with how it’s perceived, how it’s perceived has to do with what angle it is approached from. So if you look at it like that, and you experience it like that, then music is this endless thing that keeps drawing you to it, at least that’s what it is for me.
Like a moth to a flame, that’s how music always drew me, and it still does. I can’t resist it. It calls me. It's like even when you’re exhausted, and you’re just ready to go down. You just had a long night, a long gig, you get in at three or four o’clock in the morning. You just hauled your keyboard up three flights of stairs, but you can’t wait to get that keyboard set backup again. Mine is set up in my bedroom, right next to my bed. I can’t wait to put that thing back together, because no matter how exhausted I am after a gig, I always hear something new, especially if I am playing with the New Volcanoes.
With the Volcanoes I always hear something I hadn’t heard before. Probably something Nate does with the drums, or maybe a figure that Blue might play with the bass, or maybe a snippet of Gabriel Ware’s saxophone solo. I just start playing with it, those little ideas. Those kernels if you will, swimming around. You start chasing them. You get in the water and swim around with them, and before you know it the Sun is up and it’s another day.
That used to be constant. Now that’s not so constant, but it still visits me quit often. Those particular moods still visit me.
AS- Why is it not as constant?
LG- Well I’m starting to travel more, and I’m working more, more material to keep track of…The mundane details of life are starting to crowd in, you know. You can’t practice because you have to be here to do this, or you’ve got to take this person there. You know, just the things of life. It’s more of a fight to keep that at bay, at least long enough were I can create. I guess it’s just a natural process of being a grownup.
But you know artistic people are never trying to be grownups. That’s like the last thing we want to be. We feel defeated when we have to behave like grownups. It’s like “Aw man, I got into this business so I wouldn’t have to do grownup shit. Have someone else do grownup shit for me.” Naw, I’m just kidding.
But still we never really want to be adults totally, because that stuff weighs you down. And when stuff weighs you down, that affects your imagination, you know. That’s just part of being in the world.
Sometimes I think that human lives are like batteries. When you get to a certain point, which is not necessarily a function of age, it’s just a function of living—you know, the pace of it. When you get to a certain point you realize that your batteries may need to be recharged, replaced, or may just run out. Depends on what kind of deal you can work out.
AS- You never played the piano until age 17. What happened in that moment, at age 17, when you first laid fingers on the keys?
LG- It was around ’85 or ’86. It was my freshman year, and I had to take some, what do you call them, buffer classes, or what have you…I had to take some classes over the summer before the fall semester started. So, I got there and registered early. This English class I had to take happened to be in the fine arts building. I happened to wonder into the recital hall one afternoon, where there was a nine-foot Steinway grand piano on the stage.
I started by walking up to it, and approaching it. It seemed like it was just sitting there, waiting on me. So, I sat down to it, and I remember putting my foot on the sustain pedal and just pretending I could play. Then I noticed when I would play something if I laid on the pedal too long the tones started to overlap and mud. So then I learned how to come up off of the pedal, and when to press the pedal and when not to, to make it sound musical, to make it sound full. I was able to figure that out inside of an hour of just sitting down and noodling on the thing.
A friend of mine wanders by, and hears me in there, and says to me “Oh, I didn’t know you played man. You sound good,” and walks back out. I didn’t think nothing of it at the time really. I just came back every day. There was something really therapeutic about the experience. There was a losing of one’s self. It was like I could quit my life for a minute. I could suspend time, and I could suspend having to function socially in a way that felt less than real. So music kind of gave me an escape from all of that.
Slowly I began to meet people in the music department, beginning to become interested in taking music classes, but my mother and my stepfather didn’t see it that way at the time. They really opposed it. So I ended up just kind of doing it in secret. It was like I had discovered something.
For about two years I took music classes whenever I could. I would bug by friends, two of which are in my band. That’s where I had first met Freddie Dunn, and Michael Cerri. I met John Dierker a little bit later. I met John about a year or two later after I had met Freddie and Mike.
Freddie and Mike, around the time that I met them I was attempting to write music out. But I was writing it out all wrong. So they would take it and play through it, and I’d be like “Oh is that what I wrote?” And they would say “Well play for us what you had in mind,” and they would help me with correcting the notation and what not. Slowly I began to learn how to write. I got books out of the library. I would have been a good music student, if I had been able to major in music because I was pretty motivated. I went out and got the books myself.
You can learn anything you want with books and apprenticeship really. And that’s how I really learn to play, from getting music books and seeking out people like Carl Grubbs.
I met Carl in the early ‘90s. I started coming to his house and just playing together. He would teach me things, and have me play through things. I was pretty awful in those days.
Another guy that helped me out a lot was Witt Williams. Witt is like a saxophone legend in these parts, all the cats know him. He’s real tight with Jimmy Heath, you know, all the old school Bebop guys. Witt is coming from the Dexter Gordon, Wayne Shorter kind of approach. Carl is coming more from the Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, Albert Ayler…those people have a little bit more weight with his thing. So I’ve got a nice section of the best of the music from the 50s and the 60s. And then somewhere along the way I fell in love with Thelonious Monk, and Bud Powell, and Horace Silver…all the great Hard Bop pianists—Bobby Timmons, Cedar Walton. Then later I became interested in McCoy Tyner, and some of the lesser known heroes like Randy Weston, Andrew Hill, Horace Tapscott, Cecil Taylor, Don Pullen, John Hicks, of course David Murray…David is probably the biggest impact on my music at this point, because in the last record I put out, 3, I was really able to expand myself compositionally and also learned how fire and energy can be integral parts of my technique. David’s stuff has been really influential in helping me integrate that into my language. It is rooted in Bebop and Hard Bop, but it’s constantly evolving.
That’s the shame about this music called “jazz” in a way, because a lot of that individual development and refinement is ignored. The jazz press has become just like the general press and the media. They are seeking out what they can make into the most sensationalized and hyped stuff without really investigating the substance there. I don’t know why that is. I guess they are trying to sell magazines, man. That rule of journalism--if it bleeds it ledes, if it thinks, it stinks—applies to the jazz press too, which is bad.
AS- Is this true for you? How do you see yourself in that situation?
LG- Yes, I have been really fortunate in terms of media attention, but I don’t credit that to the institutions themselves, as much as the individuals in the institutions who want to seek something else out. I’ve been very fortunate on that front, but in terms of like a larger media break through, or something like that, I feel I would have to dumb down the music and/or tone down the more militant aspects of what I do. Both of which I refuse to do.
AS- What would be these militant aspects?
LG- The rhythmic structure. I am not interested, not interested at all, in using music as some kind of soapbox from which to preach some set of political ideas from.
The militancy comes through an examination of objective conditions and the natural responses to them, and a refusal to ignore them and sweep them under the rug so the people can have nice pretty music. To me that is empty art. To tell the truth, if it’s ugly, then it is what it is. If it’s beautiful, then it’s both at the same time.
AS- You recently played in Europe. Was there a difference in how your performances were received by European audiences compared to an American audience?
LG- There’s not really a difference man. I mean a handclap is a handclap. The audiences are really not that much more different. It’s just that in Europe you have various governments…support of the arts is an integral part of their governments. It’s budgeted better than it is here. That’s the only thing. And what you spend money on, you have to sell; in terms of selling the fact that it is valued, to your population. Europe has always had a stronger tradition of that than America, because it is older. So the cultural environment is a little different with respect to the arts. But that’s because of the leadership in their government, not because of anything peculiar in the population.
AS- About a month ago I went to a lecture at Peabody on a non-Western, non-classical form of music. The person giving the talk kept trying to make it clear to the students that viewing all music through the lens of classical music is myopic. A lot of the students were adamantly against the speaker’s grouping of jazz with Western art music, almost indignant.
LG- Well that’s a problem. If you talk about that, well the root of that is really racial. Not to call the individuals racist, but that’s the institution’s stance in regard to it. And that’s the thing that impresses the Europeans the least about America. That’s the way they look at America. And I’ll be even more blunt, when I talk to Europeans, that’s the way they look at white Americans. They don’t look at me the way. They look at white Americans as European wannabes from a cultural prospective. They look at black Americans as the only original shit coming out of America. Both of which are probably distortions, but that attitude you witnessed at Peabody doesn’t help.
AS-I got the sense that the guy giving the talk really picked up on that feeling.
LG- That’s rough. That’s a rough crowd…But that’s actually part of the conversation that Leon Fleischer and I had. I said “Leon, classical musicians work less than jazz musicians. What are you setting them up for at Peabody? I mean all they are going to be able to do is teach. Maybe some of them will get jobs with an orchestra.” I mean they can’t go out and get any gigs, because they’ve only learned how to do this one thing. If you’re going to work as a musician, you have to be able to do several things. The language that is spoken in American popular music, whether you talking about rock, folk…I mean I’ve done all kind of gigs. I even did a bluegrass gig once. Most the time the music is communicated on paper through what is called a lead sheet. I remembered I played with these bluegrass guys in Arbutus, and I had never played that music before, but they had lead sheets.
When I sit down with classically trained musicians, a lot of them don’t even know what a chord is. If I say “play me an A flat minor and 7, play me a D flat minor 7," they don’t even know what it is. Which throws them out of the loop right there. They can’t read a lead sheet, they can’t swing, they can’t play no other type of music. They can’t swing, they can’t rock, they can’t funk. They’re left with a very, very small thing.
I get very disappointed with the jazz academia guys, because it’s like “Is that what y’all want for jazz? I mean is that what you want for jazz, pushing this great American art form, is that what y’all want? You want what happened to classical music to happen to jazz? For it to be strangled, held? I mean you can only play this little amount of material for which there is little demand.
What are these kids paying to go to Peabody, 30, 40 grand? I’d be goddamned if I would send any of my kid to a music conservatory and paying 30, 40 g’s and all they can play is some damn Flight of the Bumblebee. I mean how are you going to pay that money back?
Some of them will land a nice job in an orchestra, but the orchestras are cutting back. I mean it not just the Meyerhoff, it’s all the major symphony orchestras in all the major cities are having major problems—they are not putting butts in the seats. People are not coming out to hear that music. Part of the reason is they keep playing music that is three or four hundred years old, and they are not mixing it with any contemporary works. They don’t make room for any modern…I mean they barely play 20th century music in most of these orchestras, and we’re well into the 21st century. Where is the growth there?
Part of the problem is that the only people who support classical music are these narrow-minded aficionados that really think they know something, but they know nothing, hardly. They’ve got their own little set of people that they like, and the same thing goes on in jazz radio. The same bullshit goes on in jazz radio. You get this group of elite aficionados that have their favorites, and they have their corporate play list that is submitted to them. And very often what gets on this play list is what is seen as reliable product. And it’s usually some big name that goes along with this reliable product, some big name artist, who watered his shit down 20 years ago. You know everyone loves him or her.
One of the problems with the European scene is that because they had more of an appreciation historically, they were the first to recognize jazz. They recognized its value way before the Americans did. So because of that they feel entitled to comment and weigh in on American jazz and society and how it’s going. They make a lot of good points, but I’m not really sure they know what the hell they are talking about.
When you’re coming from a place like Europe, you’re that much further away from the source, because the source of the so called jazz music…then you’re talking about black Americans as a group from the turn of the 19th century on up to present. Then your talking about a people and a culture with another, almost held captive within a larger people and culture. I don’t want to say it’s a subculture, because that is a bit of a loaded term. I don’t use that term. But it was a really specific culture that existed, and it’s a real inside thing, especially when you get into jazz.
That was a really, really high achievement for blacks. When you think about what black Americans had to go through in this country around in turn of the century, in the 1920’s, in the 1940’s, through the 50s and the 60s, the music was not thought of in the way it is thought of today. When I talk to older people, like my family, like my grandmother…she would go hear Count Basie or Duke Ellington and she said “Oh yea, because that made life bearable. It made us freer, inside.”
And that energy just doesn’t stay inside, it moves. Now it’s different, we’re in a different period. It’s not a segregated society anymore. My generation, and the generation after me, we never knew the outward things of segregation. We came up in a different era were stuff is a lot more out in the open, especially with this election year. Stuff is starting to push out into the open, and I’m sure it will push out more if Barak or even Hillary gets the nomination.
I like Obama. I think that he has tapped into something that I’ve been looking for awhile. For a while I’ve been looking to see who could do it, who could pick up on the energy that’s out there. When I listen to him and Hillary talk about their campaigns, to me that’s the biggest difference between the two of them.
The biggest difference is their campaigns, and the nature of them and how they are run. Hillary sounds in the 20th century, Barak sounds in the 21st century. I mean forget about the race and gender shit, that’s just fodder for people to write about—“Hehehehe…This is historical!” It’s not historical motherfucker; it’s about damn time! I mean what the fuck is so unreasonable about having a woman or any person of color as president…we’ve been having that for over 200 years.
We’ve had great presidents, but my contentions is that you can only pull from one part of the gene pool for so much, before you come up empty and have to give someone else a chance. They might have some answers that you haven’t thought about, some perspectives to add to the thing. And we’re starting to see it like that. I’d like to think, and we’ll see, that a lot of whites are starting to see it like that. Like “Wait a minute, let’s spread it around a little bit.” I mean it can’t be the same guys election after election after election.
If Hillary gets it, it will be disappointing for me man, not because I’m against her or nothing. I think she is excellent, I think she is great. But it’s like we’ve had the papa Bush, the baby Bush, the husband Clinton, and the wife Clinton. No man, we’re in the new century. We need a clean break. Let Obama make his mistakes, he’s going to make mistakes…even Kennedy made mistakes. But the important thing is that the mantle has to be passed.
Even the old Civil Rights guard, who were the hardest guys to get because they were all pro Hillary and didn’t really like Obama that much. But I saw in the news the other day that John Lewis, the representative from Georgia, says, like “I love the Clintons, but my district man, its all Obama. What can I do?” He’s got to come out and endorse Obama at this point.
AS- In addition to touring heavily, and recording new material, you also teach. How does that factor in to the situation?
LG- The thing I’ve having the most fun doing is teaching the children, my kid students. I started teaching students about three or four years ago. I found that the kids, because they ask the simple questions, they really make you think. It caused me to do two things. To take the way I approach music apart and really analyze it and look at it, because I had to.
There I have to communicate this to another person. You can’t say, “Oh man, c’mon you know what I’m saying.” You can’t say that to a seven-year-old kid, because he doesn’t know. So that challenges you to really understand what you are doing from a different perspective, a different angle. Something like as simple as fingering a major scale, I know that. But how do I show a kid to do that, who has never used those muscles to make sounds. You have to start from scratch.
But the biggest thing that you have to communicate to kids is that you love music. To me that is the single message I have to get through to those kids. If kids know that you love music then you’re like the pied piper, you got them. They’re there because they want to know what it’s about anyway. So the challenge is to explain music in a way that is fun, and get them doing things that they didn’t think that they could do. Things that looked so amazing to them when I did it. And they come in not believing that they can do it, and to be able to show them that they can do it, that is a big rush. I love that. I feel that not only am I learning, but I am contributing something really concrete to society.
When you sit up in front of somebody’s kid that’s no joke. They are bringing their most important thing to you. Like “here’s my child, spend half and hour with him once a week.” That’s nothing to play with, that’s serious. So that’s what I’ve been able to do.
--Bez
Carl Grubbs with Lafayette Gilchrist: Exploring the Jazz Traditions
Supported by a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, Carl Grubbs (saxophones, far left) and Lafayette Gilchrist (piano, left) explore oral tradition in jazz, live at An Die Musik.
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Carl Grubbs comes from the John Coltrane school of bebop saxophone. By that I mean that he literally studied under Coltrane. They were so close, in fact, that Coltrane later married Grubbs' cousin, Naima, who would later be immortalized on Giant Steps. You can hear Coltrane's influence in Grubb's composition and playing; he makes frequent use of the Coltrane matrix of descending major thirds and uses sheets of sound techniques for texture. On this date, Carl led the duo with his angry sounding sax while Lafayette was more reserved on keys.
At 8:20 pm, they opened things up with a blues to get the juices flowing. Grubbs' alto sound is reedy and very aggressive at times, but can also be dynamic in the style of Stan Getz. After several choruses, Grubbs handed the tune over to Gilchrist for solo piano. My first impressions of Gilchrist's playing are that he is a very precise player with a style all his own. Some of his pet licks are beginning to develop into a very signature style.
Next the trio played Body and Soul, as arranged by John Coltrane and Joy Spring with the addition of min IV, maj III progression (the theme of the night). It was at this point when sweat was beginning to form on Carl Grubb's brow that I began to get more of a feel for Lafayette's style. Taking the second solo and having some harmonic freedom, he made noteworthy use of building and releasing musical tension in a conversational way. Some of this voice leading on this tune reminded me of the style of Keith Jarrett without all the flash.
On the whole it was a great show that really represented what jazz oral tradition was about. I'm excited to hear Lafayette continue to grow as a musician and as a creative mind. Now that he's back in the U.S.A., I look forward to seeing him in a trio setting in and around Baltimore. Watch for him!
Show Review: Say Hi/Caverns @ the Black Cat, DC
There isn't much more to be said about Say Hi. Eric Elbogen is an excellent songsmith. You will never find anything too technically complex or musically challenging to listen to. What you will find, is carefully crafted and enjoyable indie-pop.
The value of his live show, other than the promise of another live member or two to fill out the band, is that he adds another dimension to the music and provides a heightened sense of immediacy to every song. So much so that each song feels like a musical kamikaze-run that starts with often timid beginnings, crescendoing over the course of the song into near-explosive whirls of Eric's guitar hook of choice, loaded with tension. Highlights of the night included a soaring performance of "Snowcones and Puppies," "Toil and Trouble," and the endearing, set-closing rally-cry for the shy kid in all of us "Let's Talk About Spaceships."
But the best part of the night for me was the discovery of DC's Caverns. Now I must preface this with some disclosure: I have an affinity for progressive metal, post-hardcore, hardcore, metalcore, all those sub-genres with oft-screaming vocalists and blistering instrumental work. Damn if I don't love a good breakdown. Too bad that more often than not, talented and creative musicians are undercut by a vocalist with a cookie-monster scream/growl that just ruins everything.
Caverns seemed to read my mind on that point, forgoing vocals and just steaming straight ahead with instrumental breakdown tracks. Drummer, shred-and-chug math-guitarist, electronics guy and pianist. Guitar work trudges all around the hard rock gamut, at times having the chug of metalcore, then switching over to prog/math mode with runs that melt your face. Their balance places the piano to the fore giving their sound a more dramatic, operatic feel.
Most direct influences seem to be Converge (a few tracks probably could have fit right on a Converge album) and Dillinger Escape Plan, or basically any math-core band. I'm pretty sure I heard a re-tuned Deftones riff in there somewhere and I'd like to think King Diamond and Dream Theater informed their sound a bit too.
More to come on them in the future...they play Lo-Fi on March 21 with Imperial China. Not to be missed.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
LO MOdA Live @ Creative Alliance
Part 2 of our exclusive recordings from the Wye Oak/LO MOdA show at Creative Alliance this past Saturday (courtesy of Jeff the Baltimore Taper). LO MOdA opened for Wye Oak with a fantastic set.
Their music is like the sinister and brooding lovechild of Fugazi, Q and Not U, Talking Heads, !!!. Kinetic bass, angular guitar work and definition-of-urgency vocals all laid atop a lush, exotic foundation poured by the drums and viola.
And at the Patterson, this provided the perfect soundtrack to the spliced clips from Turkish Star Wars projected onto the back wall.
Stream the set after the jump or download the MP3 or FLAC files. Thanks again to Jeff for excellent work.
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LO MOdA - The Plagiarist, Live @ C.A.
BSO 2008-09 schedule: yawn.
When Marin Alsop took over from Yuri Temirkanov as music director of the BSO this past season, there was a huge ruckus. She was bringing in huge names in modern classical like John Adams, Tan Dun, and fairly renowned fiddler/composer Mark O'Connor (who delivered a hell of a performance for the America program a few weeks ago).
It seemed like Alsop had a very clear vision for programming which has been lauded in some circles, and vilified in others. They played some titans of the genre like Mahler's Symphony No. 10, and Beethoven's Fifth while also embracing more modern classics like the Americana classic Copland's Appalachian Spring. Nonetheless, I had faith in her strategy. But with the 2008-2009 season, I wonder if the Alsop engine has lost some of its steam.
In my opinion, classical has reached a critical stage. Overall, aging audiences call for canon while younger listeners yearn for wider exposure to modern works; but you gotta go where the money is, and that's in canon. There is a stifling pall of stagnation that hangs over the genre, and the schism between the two camps of listeners is huge. Classical needs to reassert its relevance and vitality. The perfect way to do this is to pair works of past giants with those of modern composers, showcasing both classical's impressive past and its vibrant present/future.
The press release for the 2008-09 season hit my inbox, I was giddy. Then I started reading. Yo-yo Ma. OK, big name, opening weekend, I get it even if I don't like it. Holst's Planets. Quality, nothing edgy, but good stuff. Mahler's Titan follows. Not my favorite by far, but Mahler is Mahler...
Mozart Violin Conc. No. 11 and Schubert No. 4...OK. Maybe an off week.
Bernstein's Mass...ummm...OK, I love Bernstein as a conductor, but compositions not so much. Then a pattern emerges. Unfortunately, it is one of predictability.
The season degenerates into a sea of many less notable compositions from standard names: Dukas, Dvorak, Mozart, Mahler, Tchaikovsky and Brahms. Compared to her inaugural season, the upcoming one is a let-down, with few, if any, modern names represented. In fact, with the appearance of multiple Mahler pieces, the Copland Americana focus and multiple Messiahs on the calendar, things feel really similar to the current season.
Don't get me wrong...there are some interesting spots such as the return of Yuri Temirkanov, Leonard Slatkin's guest conducting for a weekend and the relative rarity in current times of a professional brass ensemble performance (from the Canadian Brass). But this season lacks any punch for my classical palate.
And now, I wonder, what exactly is Alsop aiming for? Or if there are other influences impacting the season's direction. Hopefully, we'll be getting some time to sit down and talk about next season's programming. In the meantime, view the season here.
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