Acoustic Metal vs. the Unthank Sisters

Yeah! Wouldn't that be a sight to see! Hurdy gurdy, fiddle and gaida vs. minor vocal harmonies on depressing folk songs.

No really, I'm checking out the recent acoustic metal disc from my Swiss faves Eluveitie and have a little news to report (and comment on) from the Cedar's favorite pair of Geordie sisters.

Well, the first thing that comes to mind upon hearing the phrase "Acoustic Metal" is some really bad ballads. Remember in the early days of XM satellite radio they had a show called "Ballad Salad" which was plugged as something like "a tasty mix of ballads by your favorite hair metal bands." OK, and I am so running screaming from the room...

Eluveitie's new disc is none of that. Certainly nothing I would call a metal ballad. Even in their loud metal form they really had this Celt thing going, and Evocation 1: The Arcane Dominion is an unplugged extension of what they were doing with their previous disc, Slania. What you get is more of band leader Christian "Chrigel" Glanzmann's fascination with the ancient Helvitii tribe and the their Gaulish language. Most of the lyrics are in Gaulish, from the tiny bits of it that survive on artifacts. They don't give any translations, commenting that any translation would be probably somewhat inaccurate, but give us a few ideas about what's probably going on in order to set a mood.

The Helvetii won this battle over the Romans > > >

Does it work? More importantly does it rock?

Well, yes and no.

To anybody with a nodding aquaintance with Celtic folk music, some of the ground covered is pretty familiar. The arrangements are a little pedestrian, mostly in common time and major keys. The result is less dark and moody and more, say ... triumphant? That's not quite it either, hmmmm. On the positive side, fiddler Meri Tadic and hurdy player Anna Murphy do most of the singing, and they both have decent voices. The one time the guys try to sing in this acoustic setting it is just pretty painful. Of course on the one track where the gals try to get freaky vocally, it just sounds a little like Veruca Salt.

Here's the "Omnos" vid, in which Tadic and Murphy spend some time in around a cool graveyard.


I listened to a couple of my favorite "heavy folk" discs afterwords to see how this measures up. You know, nothing can really hold a candle to Hedningarna's classic Tra (if you follow this link, scroll down to "most helpful review" - it's a doozy), although Żywiołak's Nowa ex-Tradycja gives it a whole hearted attempt. These discs do use some electric instruments and effects in a mostly acoustic lineup, but they sure rock a lot harder! The arrangements are just so much more complex and interesting.

This is not to say that instrumental chops are not present on the disc. The guitar playing is plenty complex without all the usual metal amplification and effects, but it does make me wonder about some of the production choices. It's recorded in such a way that you can hear the cranking and clicking of the hurdy, the indrawn breath of the flute player and the guitarist's fingers sliding on the strings. I really wonder why would they do this. And why are the drums and bass so far down in all the mixes?

I'm making it sound worse than it is; tracks like "Brictom" and "Memento" are good, high energy fun and I think the live versions would work well, especially preceding a full metal set as they plan to do on their fall tour. No word yet if they are coming stateside. Plus they do get big concept points for doing a whole album in a dead language about a long vanished culture. Maybe the sound's just not what I wanted it to be, and therein lies the disappointment.

* * * * genre shift warning! * * * *

Now, here's what the Unthank gang has to tell us. Their press release is the white text, all the comments in red and highlighting are mine.

The Unthanks are preparing to risk it all with another audacious step sideways.

While the abbreviated name reflects the long-established reality that the band is co-fronted by Rachel Unthank's sister Becky Unthank, the real development sees an extended line-up that includes string quartet, brass, percussion, tuned percussion, bass, and The Unthank's producer Adrian McNally taking on piano responsibilities from Stef Conner who returns to a PHD. Winterset key member Niopha Keegan continues on violin. [NO way! A string quartet?? Brass? Percussion? Please don't overdo it! One of the best things about The Bairns is all the "white space."]

New album Here's The Tender Coming will be released in September, ahead of a 42 date UK tour that begins on October 10th, [There are really 42 different places to play just in England? Yes, smart ass, look at the schedule on their MySpace.] followed by overseas tours early next year. [Um, ahem, Main Figurehead.] The album title is taken from a track on the album, in which the tender coming is the boat coming to press men into war, but the title also serves as a metaphor for the shift in mood from The Unthanks.

Here's The Tender Coming is a calmer, melancholic, warmer colour of sad than the intense bleakness of its predecessor; The Bairns, [But I liked the intense bleakness!] nominated for the Uncut Music Prize and Mercury Music Prize as one of the top ten British albums of the year.

Here's The Tender Coming is a hugely different album to The Bairns, though hopefully no less intimate and minimal for all the extended arrangement ethic. It is the sound of a creative team with no interest in resting on the laurels of a critically and commercially successful formula. [Well then. If you say so. Can't wait for the stateside release!]

You know, this reprinting press releases and making comments to them thing could make blogging so easy...oh, wait, isn't that what the mainstream media is for?

Clearly I am wicked, lame *and* blogging with myself...

Video for some of my mix CD artists

There's an awesome clip on youtube of the AStronauts in a 1963 Surf movie, but the blog couldn't accept a "movie clip." Ugh.

The Barracudas


Don Walser (R.I.P.)

Summer Mix CD for the kids in the car

At the end of school this year I made a Summer music mix for my small kids. I want them to hear all types of music, and it's so fun to see what catches their attention.
It Must Be Summer - Fountains of Wayne
Drive My Car -Beatles
Drivin’ My Car - Ralph Covert
813 Mile Car Trip - They Might Be Giants
Highway Café of the Damned - Austin Lounge Lizards
Car Trouble - Music For Aardvarks (David Weinstone)
Car Hop - Los Straitjackets
Devil in My Car - B-52s
Our Car Club - The Astronauts (60s SURF BAND from Colorado!!!) *see below video
Rock Lobster - B-52s
Moonlight Drive -Doors
Driver 8 - REM
Cruel Summer - Bananarama
Summer Fun - The Barracudas
7 Days of the Week - They Might Be giants
The Elements - Tom Lehrer (let's throw in something educational!)
New England - Jonathan Richman
John Deere Tractor - Don Walser
Road Trip - Ellis Paul
Conjunction Junction - Schoolhouse Rocks
Mama Look a Boo Boo - Harry Belafonte
Senor el Gato - Kelly Hogan (from The Bottle Let Me down comp.)
Cheesecake Truck - King Missile
Don’t Wipe Your Face on your Shirt -Cornell Hurd Band (also from The Bottle…compilation)
You Are My Sunshine - Ellis Paul

If you are a parent and would like to try some music that will not rot your brain, I highly recommend the They Might Be Giant DVDs (ABCs and 123s), David Weinstone, and the new Ellis Paul Children's CD The Dragonfly Races, And the compilation The Bottle Let Me Down on Bloodshot Records.

Personalities and Musicians

We all have music heroes. Some fall from grace because of perceived "artistic differences." For example, I used to be a huge fan of early Genesis, even sticking with them for an album or two after Peter Gabriel's departure (in fact I would still list A Trick of the Tail among my top twenty favorite albums of all time). And I still think that Phil Collins was a great drummer and solid singer. But they lost me in the 80's. Mind you, that's when both the band and Mr. Collins enjoyed even greater successes, so clearly there are many millions of people out there who do not share my opinion. And that's fine.

The harder thing is when your musical heroes show real signs of having unattractive or difficult personality issues. An obvious example would be Keith Jarrett, one of my former heroes, and undeniably one of the most brilliant pianists of our time who pioneered the art of solo improvisational piano concerts. But he is almost equally famous for his intolerance, and, well, dickish-ness (mostly for audience noise and recording devices of all kinds during his performances). It would be hard even for a hardcore fan to enjoy any concert when the headline musician comes on stage and opens the evening with something like this:



(Yes, ironic that this was captured on video, probably a cell phone, and lives forever on YouTube).

Over the past few weeks some of my concert experiences have been effected in both directions by personalities. The first was not positive: the vaunted, sold out Fountains of Wayne show here at The Cedar. Now, I'm well aware that we're a bit spoiled here... being a relatively small venue means we don't book many artists that have had to deal with the trappings of fame and success. So in the grand scheme of things, FOW's attitude and actions were by no means over the top.

But by Cedar standards, there was way too much of that prima donna Rock Stars thing going on with them, and it made the entire staff's experiences with the band less than pleasant, pretty much killing the enjoyable aspects of the music and their set. (Also I must say that it did not help that their sound tech was obviously more accustomed to big arena rock shows, and gave us what I call a "tinnitus mix:" much too loud with way too much high-end, a mix that only someone with tinnitus would like... which pretty much took away the real opportunity of an intimate "acoustic" show).

How many times have you seen a band that you only knew through recordings, only to be put off by personality or attitude? Maybe the lead singer was too much the poser, for example?

On the other hand, it can also go the other way. Last weekend I attended the fabulous Winnipeg Folk Festival, and one of the bands I looked forward to seeing there the most was Iron and Wine. Initially I was a bit disappointed when it became evident that it was not going to be a full-band performance, but rather just a solo acoustic set by Samuel Beam. But he seemed to be sincerely amazed that over 10,000 people would come to an outdoor festival to hear "folk music," and managed to charm me with his basic modesty. It only drew me in more, and I ended up with an even greater appreciation for his singing and his songs.

Speaking of Winnipeg, one of the highlights came during the set by Cedar regulars, Punch Brothers. A rain and wind storm had rolled in during their set, but we were rewarded for enduring when the sun came back out and a brilliant rainbow appeared framing the arch of the stage...














Love those magical moments...

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GLOBAL ROOTS DAY TWO

Previously on this blog I announced the opening night of the Global Roots Festival, September 24-27, 2009 at The Cedar with the South African group BLK JKS. Now it's on to Friday night the 25th... which will open with the hot "Tango Electronico" ensemble from Argentina and Uruguay, Bajofondo:



...followed by another great Tuareg electric guitar quartet, Terakaft:



Should be a great evening! This show will also be an open-floor affair.

Global Roots Festival tickets will go on sale July 31.

Summer in the City

Folks, I am pleased to tell you that my favorite summer event begins in just three days. Every year, as the complacency of everyday July starts to sink in, Summer Music & Movies comes along and gives me something to look forward to every week. (Well, besides looking forward to free music at The Cedar every Thursday night. But Cedar Outdoors is still new; I'm still getting used to having that to look forward too).

For anyone who has not yet attended Music & Movies, you are in for a treat. Twin Citians of all kinds walk, bike, and drive (not recommended due to the tricky parking situation) to Loring Park every Monday night, for a free concert and movie screening. This summer, all the films feature Paul Newman (see the above link for the full calendar listing of films and musical performers).

It also just so happens that the musical performances tend to be local favorites. While I have yet to be disappointed by any of the selected acts, I'm particularly excited to see Roma di Luna, Halloween, Alaska on the bill this year.

That's about all you're going to get out of me this week. I just realized that I have a picnic to plan, and I only have three days!

Pretty tempted to make this cake...and these sandwiches.

Would anyone like to join me?

Know Your Know-It-All

It's been five weeks and the feedback cards and letters have been voluminous. As most of them seem to comprise music blogger-cred litmus tests, I thought I'd trot out a sampling and answer 'em:

Q. Dear Veronica: What is the greatest piece of music ever written?
A. Beethoven's 9th Symphony.

Q. What musical instrument would you gladly live out the rest of your life without ever hearing again?
A. The cowbell. I don't know of its origins as percussive embellishment, but I'll just bet PDQ Bach was behind it. (It should be noted, however, that Talking Heads' 'Crosseyed and Painless' is the exception that proves the rule.)

Q. Pull a random 45 out of your collection. What is it and why do you have it?
A. 'Into the Mystic' by Johnny Rivers. I have it because I like it (of course) but also because I have never found the single edit of the track on CD. This would make for a fun Q&A segment on its own ('What songs sound better to you in their 'edited for radio' form than in their original cut?'), but let's travel in a different direction:
Everyone has their musical guilty pleasures. I have dozens; I can still happily listen to Karen Carpenter, 'My Fair Lady,' and all six sides of 'Yessongs' (that's 272MB at 256kbps VBR for some). But what of the other side of the coin? What seemingly universally loved artists have you never taken a shine to?
My number one example is Van Morrison. Sacrilege, yes. In different times I'd have had my skin flayed for such an admission. I won't go into the whys and wherefores; it's a matter of taste and my apparent lack of same. Let's just say I've been waiting 40 years for him to make 'Astral Weeks' again.
But this doesn't mean the man can't write a great song. 'Into the Mystic' is a beauty. And I love what Johnny Rivers did with it.

Q. What do you find the most challenging aspect of music exploration in the age of the Internet?
A. Some labels and artists seem to require a goodly bit of hoop-jumping from their potential listeners. I am a big believer in one-stop shopping; I have my list of wanna-hears and want to find as many as possible without site-hopping. This was Tower Records' calling card for awhile; they were as close as one could get back in the days when a retailer could squeeze most of recorded musical history within the walls of one building.
I beat the drum for on-demand streaming services. It is simply the easiest way to audition music. But I know if I'm reading reviews and, say, a Drag City label release looks interesting, I'll have to pass it by because it won't be there. It's not laziness on my part; I consider myself pretty intrepid. But there is SO MUCH good new music to be found that I can readily cut bait on some.
There is no right or wrong here. Drag City has its philosophy. I have mine: I'm a speed-dater. At the outset it's all about triage.

Q. Who is your favorite living male vocalist?
A. Toss-up. Sometimes I'd say Mark Lanegan. Since the end of his Screaming Trees days I have purchased every solo and collaboration release of his, and I have never been disappointed.
But today I'll go with David Eugene Edwards, formerly of 16 Horsepower and now fronting Woven Hand. If you aren't familiar, his is a country Gothic sound. I'm out of my depth the moment I touch on any matters spiritual, but he seems to have a Pentecostal, Old Testament vibe. A precursor might be some of the Violent Femmes' more Appalachian-themed folk music. Nick Cave lovers: take note.
Here we have Edwards and Woven Hand performing 'Your Russia.'　

When you inherit that insect collection...

...you might want to think twice before you share it and the accompanying travel journals with the local prog/punk/metal/brass/klezmer band. Read the following true story and see why.

Remember when cds first came out and they were going to be indestructable? Like after nuclear warfare it was supposed to be the cockroaches and the cds left hanging around. WhatEVER. That myth didn't last long, did it?

So here I am looking sadly at my Alamaailman Vasarat - Huuro Kolkko disc that got about 2 plays on a real stereo with speakers before it got stuck in my car disc player and injured in the rescue attempt. Yeah, it's on the computer and I can burn another copy, but I guess I'm old school enough to be a little bummed. Sheesh. And the copy won't have the image of Huuro Kolkko's insect collection on it.


Guess it's a bit what happened to old Huuro Kolkko himself, he was somewhat damaged in the attempt. As the A.V. website explains "A Finnish explorer from the early 1900's, Huuro Kolkko was never recognized by his fellow scientists but nevertheless rambled many continents on his own without any official funding or promise of fame among public let alone his peers. During his travels, he made extensive studies of local cultures, drew maps of areas never visited by man and collected specimens of insects, flora and wild life....Sadly, Huuro Kolkko was lost somewhere in Morocco during the First World War, believed dead and gone. But his legacy will not be forgotten. "

So these crazy Finns who like to keep almost everything in the bass clef scored an album about various events they imagine took place in the explorer's life, based on what they read in his journals. Thus it's difficult to listen to the disc without imagining it as a film soundtrack. What's happening now to poor Kolkko now? What's going on in this tune here? Luckily the website provides a track by track guide from his first crazed dreams of exploring the world to his funeral afterparty. This is the first time I've been able to listen to the disc and read the liner notes simultaneously, and it's great fun to see if what I imagined was what the composers were thinking.

Not only do I love the concept, (who does concept albums like this?!) I totally love the tunes. Well, OK, the opening track is a little like heavy circus music, but get past that and it's a swashbuckling, swaggering soundtrack to adventure. I really don't know how these guys get all those low end instruments to sound so light-footed and frisky, but nobody else does it like they do. In anybody else's hands, two cellos, a trombone, a pump organ, and various saxes ranging from sopranino to the contra bass E flatTubax would plod and thud, but they never do here. In occasional forays into higher registers they actually play melody lines on their theremin, rather than just using it to make scary noises in the background the way most bands do.

This is wonderful, crazed, unclassifiable music. Should I let the band describe it? On their Myspace they comment,

"In the Alamaailman Vasarat music you can find traces of tango, klezmer, jazz, psychobilly, cabaret, circus music, new age, progressive avant-garde and heaviest of heavy metal. It is fairly typical to hear the band sail between creepy “Christmas-songs-for-the-poor”-type melancholic Finnish melodies and hot desert mirages of Ancient Persia. Journey might take you head-banging through the deepest mosh-pits of trashy dish factories of modern India, maybe ending up chilling out in a long-lost jazz dive of 20’s Harlem.

" For countless occasions, Alamaailman Vasarat have proved that old wood and brass can really beat the shiz out of any modern day instruments. It is just a matter of attitude and clever arrangements and compositions. But do not mistake the band to be just a master of Wall of Sound – it is just as important to play Silent. According to loyal fans, the most breath-taking moments are in fact those creepiest bars when the band plays so quiet and so petite you can almost hear the dead moaning six feet under! And when the distorted cellos kick in once again…

Since we're all writing about breaking down those "World Music" categorizations anyway here, I'll just tell you to listen for yourself at their MySpace. I recommend "Tujuhuju"(attempting to explore a haunted mountain) and "Lautturin Viivat"(at the funeral afterparty.)

One more weird A.V. tidbit. A few years ago they did a full length soundtrack to the 1932 film Vampyr and you can watch it in 10 minutes chunks on YouTube. This is pretty great, too, although fans of the film are hating it in the comment section.

* * * * * * * *

And in the "We have to be extra Minnesota nice to these guys" section, I was reading Watcha Clan's blog about their adventures in Chicago and Madison last weekend. Poor kids. Lost luggage in Chicago, kicked out of a hotel in Madison for smoking in their room and the event organizers there did not have the proper power converters so they didn't really get a sound check...seems like they had good shows nonetheless. They were also amazed at how many of the big cars they drove past had only one person in them.

Not to sound like John Kerry in 2004, but WE (as in the Cedar) CAN DO BETTER! I hope so anyway...since W.Clan is closing down Global Roots this fall for us on September 27.

You know you're a music head when...

...while watching a television show (name left unmentioned due to writer's tendency to get embarrassed) with a friend you realize that you are more interested that one of the main characters is listening to Tuvan throat singing and Cambodian music in his car than what was occurring in the program.

At least I wasn't alone. Friend's reaction at the conclusion of the episode: "I don't get it."

Inexplicable Love

Further to dancing about architecture: never harbored a desire to be a music critic, myself. Every time I tried I felt a form of cognitive dissonance: why am I trying to translate visceral reactions into words? Perhaps this is an outgrowth from youthful scars; e.g. a time a college girlfriend was trying to get me to talk about my feelings or some such crap. I recall opening one response with, 'I think I feel...' and she interrupted with an outburst of laughter over the absurdity of the juxtaposition.

But the music critic's job is an important one; we explorers need all the direction we can get, even if the destinations are sometimes cul de sacs. A couple of people I trust are Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic, and Jack Rabid, publisher of The Big Takeover. Also, a website that has been climbing my chart is the one operated by Other Music, a small specialty retailer in Greenwich Village. Subscribe to their weekly email update, which never fails to uncover releases worthy of investigation.

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Q. So, Veronica, got an example of music for which you have an unexplainable love?

A. OK, hozzabot this: Sun Kil Moon's most recent album. The songs are long, monochromatic, with litttle dynamic range and a vocal style that can be difficult for the uninitiated. This album, April, might be my favorite from the past twelve months. I don't get it, and I sure can't explain it. Here is a sample:



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Presumably these pages will soon feature some Fountains of Wayne afterglow and smoke-rings blown to the ceiling. Great band, great songwriting. Co-founder Adam Schlesinger first caught my attention with his songwriting for the Tom Hanks' movie, 'That Thing You Do,' including the title track. His beat out Dwight Twilley's effort, which says a lot right there.

Anyway, as the new kid who acts as if the beginning of time were June 11 of this year, I get to post this terrific Robbie Fulks novelty tune while blissfully unaware that everyone has heard it multiple times. To recap: Robbie sings in the role of a frustrated songwriter who has hit a wall on a new track he is working on. So he turns to the only songwriters' service he can trust:

The Fountains of Wayne Hotline. (Click on the little player at the end of the three paragraph editorial)

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An irregular Thursday feature will be my choices for the sounds I'd like to hear wafting through the floorboards and down into my secret Cedar cellar, if tour itineraries, bankability, and diva demands weren't factors in scheduling.

Today I'd pick Pink Mountaintops. They're a side project for Black Mountain's Stephen McBean. They fall somewhere in the psychedelic folk category, which has been big in this household ever since Espers came along. The following is from an intimate live setting, and while the vocals are rather lost in the mix, their vibe comes through nicely:



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To Mama E Dub, re Tell No Lies: keep working on it. Worth it.

Why I Still Love Georges Collinet

Well, I was going to finally get around to reviewing that amazing new Alamaailman Vasarat disc this week, just in time for them to be rocking all the Hammerheads at Roskilde. You know they have a rule that musician can't cross the border to leave Finland unless they demonstrate amazing instrumental and compositional chops? No, really.

Finnish band fights to play the lowest notes

Then I was just going to write about some of the summer music that is sounding so good to me right now.

But before I do any of that, I have to give another big shout out to the amazing Georges Collinet and his Afro-Pop Worldwide crew. You see, I've been doing a rather tedious project at my day job all week, so I've been plugged in to the pod all day long and catching up on some podcasts. I did an Afropop Worldwide marathon this morning of shows from earlier this summer, checking out recent shows on summer tours for 2009 (Orchestra Baobab is on tour and they are supposed to be in Minneapolis August 4!) Aaaaagh!!! I will be in Maine. You all have to go and enjoy these Senegalese legends for me, OK?) and oldies from their archives (Georges' "you are there" account of Cesaria Evora's New York City debut in the early 1990's.)

The guy is so even handed and enthusiastic about all the genres he promotes and he's always sneaking in the cultural history. An interview snippet from Hilda Tloubatla of the Mahotella Queens about the day Nelson Mandela was released from prison? C'mon, what other podcast is going to have such gems? He was loving him some BLK JKS on an episode from a couple of weeks ago...lucky us as they're coming to the Cedar for Global Roots this fall!

Good stuff, people. I've plugged his show before and it still matters. Good podcast, wish one of our public radio stations would pick up the whole show from PRI and broadcast it every week because I can't sit still long enough to stream it, and the podcast is just a quick teaser for each week's show. We do have our own local version, though, with Salif and Charlie doing their African Rhythms show every Thursday afternoon on KFAI. Those guys do a great job of promoting African and Latin music at the Cedar and all over town.

As for that summer listening, Nomo's Ghost Rock is in heavy rotation. I'm trying to like their new one, Invisible Cities, but it's just not as good. More wanking, fewer grooves or something. I don't know, Ghost Rock just cruises along with this incredible energy and drive. Great horns, cool samples, great percussion...pretty good for the crew from Ann Arbor. A shout out to the amazing Angel of Rock for turning me on to these guys.

Michigan kids made good

I've also been giving Justin Adams and Juldeh Camara's Soul Science a lot of plays this week. The folks who put together the European World Music charts love their collaborations and I finally decided to check their stuff out. I'm always a little leary of those Anglo-African collaborations, but much of this one works. The electric guitar and spike fiddle combo jams, baby, except when Adams sings. Don't do that. Even though that "Hand Jive" tune ("Ta Ya Kaaya") is a little hinky, the fiddle just burns the solo. Just grabbed their new one, Tell No Lies, which I'm not sure I like as well. Initially it feels like the energy has been dilluted somehow, but I need to listen more.

That blasted Finnish disc is stuck in my car's cd player. Luckily I uploaded it to pod the minute I got it, but annoying anyway. Not like the poster who lost a bunch of her hard drive...OUCH! My sympathies! But really, I'll review it next week. I had to leave this global music behind and dance to Lady Sovereign and Santogold all afternoon. Sometimes you just gotta.


If you get the urge to drive south this weekend, I hear Watcha Clan is playing at a Bastille day festival in Madison, a mere 250 miles away. I would SO be there but for a family reunion. Mom vs. Watcha Clan? Mom wins.

It Always Used to Be Better

Picking up on yesterday's Angel of Rock post, with the idea that arts criticism is somehow in a state of crisis and quickly deteriorating...

Unfortunately, the full text of the article from the Columbia Journalism Review can no longer be viewed by non-subscribers, but the subtitle "Can arts critics survive the poison pill of consumerism?" and the quoted complaint by a critic that the world of rock music criticism is victimized by a high-school level competition to stay cool, is indicative of the concern being expressed. This feels to me like yet another one of the many, tired complaints being spurred by new developments (usually spurred by technology) by the "old guard" that (fill in the blank) is now going to hell in a handbasket (see "text messaging is killing interpersonal communications," "music downloads are ending musical creativity," "the designated hitter is destroying baseball," etc.).

In one of my former lives, I aspired to be a popular music critic. I even designed my own college-study program towards this goal: taking courses in journalism and music history and theory at the same time at Boston University. One of my professors at B.U. connected me with Steve Morse of the Boston Globe. Steve was passionate about music, and willing to speak his mind even when he was going against the prevailing "cool." But back in 1978, the Globe was one of only a handful of influential daily newspapers, and few of them had critics of his caliber covering pop music. Back then, even with pop magazines like Rolling Stone (Spin didn't even come on the scene until 1985), you could count the number of intelligent voices in the field of popular music criticism on two hands (with valid arguments about the last few fingers), and very few of us had access to more than two or three at any given time.

While it's true today that even stalwart publications like The Boston Globe are fighting for their own survival, and arts critics in such publications are being laid off left and right, what has emerged with the internet is access to many more voices. Now, some argue that this tends to drown out the "virtuosos" like Steve Morse (and I can just hear Steve laughing at being referred to that way), but at the end of the day, I prefer having more voices. I can use my own filtering system and seek out the voices that I personally find the most valid... just give me access to those voices, please.

At the heart of this argument is whether we are better served with a small handful of "arts critics" who are paid by a theoretically neutral media outlet, which is the old model, or an unlimited number of "amateur" critics who write or blog freelance for little or no money, but may be beholden to commercial interests or other pressures (such as the need to be "cool"). It should be no surprise which side of the argument a non-compensated blogger such as myself will come down on!

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Miss Hell has already waxed eloquently on this blog about the powerhouse pop of Fountains of Wayne, but in preparation of Tuesday's Cedar gig, I'm going to leave you with a YouTube preview from another recent acoustic show of a great song from their latest album "Traffic and Weather" with typically clever lyrics:

Music Criticism Crisis

I recently read an essay by David Hajdu, a music critic for The New Republic and an associate professor at Columbia's graduate journalism school.

The essay was not specific to music, but rather to arts criticism. A critique of criticism of sorts, but also a speculation of where arts criticism may be headed. You can read it here, but here is one highlight:

Quoting an anonymous critic: "The world of music writing is becoming a lot like high school. Writers do not write about music so much anymore. Their job is to look cool and to align themselves with the right albums at the right time so that they're not belittled or kicked out of the cool club. I think that has really become a problem. People are afraid. There's this fear that you could hurt your career or your image if you go out on a limb and say, 'I don't like The Hold Steady or Arcade Fire.' So, for various reasons, people have decided to focus on the positive and be of good service to the readers."

Unnerving. But it seems about right, doesn't it? Of course one of the most popular sources of music criticism these days is Pitchfork, known for scathing remarks and dolling out few album reviews that score above a 7. And according to an article in Slate magazine, the site is provoking on purpose. Check it out here.

Going by Hajdu's rubric though, it doesn't seem like Pitchfork provides criticism any more real than these others. They are simply creating a new cool club.

In other news, I have a new favorite Brazilian artist (a favorite among many): Marcio Local

His new album Marcio Local Says Don Day Don Dree Don Don is worth a listen just for the opportunity to say the title. But if you need another reason,

He who doesn't like samba isn't a good guy.

He's rotten in the head or sick in the feet.

-Dorival Caymmi

A to Z

Still digging out from a hard drive crash that took 40% of my working music library with it. So you gotta sit still for the predictable preaching: music liberated from hard media can be ephemeral. Defrag. Back up. Backup your backup. That is all. See you next week.

Eh? More? Really? Sheesh, what does it take to earn that six-pack of Yoo-Hoo around here? Okay, but my head is spinning like a cat in a tumble dryer.

A recent post by Mr. Figurehead (with whom I hope to someday have a close enough working relationship to refer to by his first name) brought a smile of deep satisfaction. The subject was the demise of 'genre' and the resultant liberating effect. And yes, Waterloo in Austin was ahead of the curve. I never talked to the shop's owner about that philosophy, but it always seemed like a practical matter: fewer time-wasting backroom arguments about where to file an artist.

Dance music, for instance, was always susceptible to micro-categorizing, which seemed to be done more with the record store section owner in mind than the non-DJ customer. Here's a bit of a hoot: have a look at this All Music page that lists known Electronica sub-categories.

This reporter once spent a bit of time on an Americana advisory board that convened in Nashville. The board's charter was to heighten awareness of this 'genre.' The whole time, it was never clear what 'Americana' actually was. In general, it seemed to comprise roots music with twang but without Billy Sherill strings. Or something like that. Best I could figure, the prevailing attitude was that Americana is to country what alternative is to rock.

Still, even as 'genre' fades, more are invented. Their propagation seems mostly intended as placeholders for reviewers who can't bear to write one more 'if you like Explosions in the Sky, you should try If These Trees Could Talk.'

'Post rock.' Still don't have that one figured out. Oh, the sound falls within the grouping, generally, but the origins and meaning of the term are a mystery. 'Post-punk.' Eh? I'm still grappling with 'emo,' although it does come in handy as a way of avoiding over-wrought vocalists.

And yet...and yet...I do seek out certain placeholders myself. Two, in particular, that never fail to grab my attention are the related 'shoegaze' and 'dream pop.' The former had its heyday in the first half of the 90s. The latter seems an acceptable way of referencing its louder predecessor. (Oh, yes. Loud. Saw Curve at the I-Beam in SF in '92 and am still awaiting the resultant tinnitus).

'Dream pop' seems to have these characteristics in common: a simple melody with a reliable hook, gauzy vocals (often with a Brian Wilson influence), and a widescreen arrangement. And it is likely that every dream popper listened carefully to My Bloody Valentine.

My favorite practitioner is a Rhode Island band called The Brother Kite. Coming up we have a song from their 2006 release, 'Waiting For the Time To Be Right.' Next is Engineers out of London, who have a new album releasing next month. The track below, 'Come in Out of the Rain,' is from their eponymous 2005 release. And finally, Maps, a 'band' comprising of an English gentleman named James Chapman. His sound falls more on the electropop end of the dream pop spectrum...and I'm going to stop here before I do even more to prove Mr. Figurehead's point.







Fave recent Onion headline: Sixty-Year-Old Hippie Pitied by Forty-Year-Old Punk.' Cheers.

Old Guitar Tourturers Never Die..

...they just have Fender create customized guitars to their specs!

No really, I read the other day that this being the 30th year since Sonic Youth started gigging, Fender is creating a custom Thurston Moore guitar and a Lee Ronaldo version, all tricked out to their specs. Ignoring the irony of custom Fenders for guys who started their career abusing pawn shop guitars with screwdrivers on stage, reading this just took me back.

A long way back, say about 20 some years ago when I thought Sonic Youth's Bad Moon Rising was the coolest album in the world. It was back in that era discussed in the blog recently when people bought music based on cover art. Then it was so exciting to get home from Iowa City or Minneapolis or wherever we'd road tripped to a big record store and see what it actually sounded like.

Once of my housemates at the time was a little punk alterna-guy and our other three were very, very mainstream. After one play of Bad Moon Rising up in my attic bedroom, the cool housemate and I looked and each other and went "Whoa!!" or something similar. The other housemates yelled up from downstairs "Who's being killed up there? What the hell our you two listening to?"

You need to understand, even though we were in a band together, a band that covered a Sonic Youth song and a Joy Division song, it wasn't a very good band, and the punk scene in Cedar Falls, Iowa wasn't much of a scene.

The punks from Iowa City were just so much cooler. They had bigger hair, sharper jewlery, more holes in their clothes, the names of bands we'd never heard of spray painted across their t-shirts and actual Doctor Martens, back when they were really orthopedic looking. Cedar Falls punks just had army boots.

They also had their underground shows at a place called "the Church" a funky old church sans pews that could be rented really cheaply. We had our shows at Dean's Parkade Lounge, a ratty bar downtown that had a long room on the side where people had wedding dances.

So when I saw one of the Iowa City punks had on an actual store-bought Sonic Youth t-shirt I had to ask. They had played at "the church" a few months ago. She described it as "A religious experience."

The next time they came through the Midwest, it was at First Avenue so a carload of us roadtripped up after classes. Of course we got there at 8:00 and the show didn't start for hours. The thrill of the night was when Kim Gordon walked past our table with her bags of shopping in downtown Mpls. The place was empty, Sonic Youth seemed grumpy about that and the show wasn't really that good. I wasn't really into their next album, Evol, and never really into Sonic Youth after that, although of course the rest of the world was, soon enough.

And that Iowa City punks vs. Cedar Falls punks thing? I can't think of any of the Iowa City bands of the mid-1980's who ever made it very far. From Cedar Falls, of course, came the mighty House of Large Sizes, who definitely played around for over a decade. They still do a few reunion shows every year. (Remember, OK, this was all pre-Slipknot, and they were from Des Moines, anyway.) No custom Fenders for Dave and Barb of HOLS, but I did run into them last summer in Cedar Falls. Raising a son, living out in the country, growing vegetables and running their vintage shop.

Sounds just about right to this old Iowa punk.

THE CEDAR OUTDOORS begins this week!!!

This Thursday, July 2nd is the first Cedar Outdoors concert on our lovely outdoor patio. The Cedar will feature 9 concerts every Thursday in July and August. The event is free and open to the public of all ages. The night begins at 6pm and ends at 10pm with music starting at 7pm. Each week we will feature a different local beer or wine on special.

Kicking off the series will be Twin Cities septet, THE POOR NOBODYS.
The 'Pornos' as the band is often referred (amazing, I know) has released their debut record that is heavy on ensemble playing. Mandolin, Wurlitzer, violin, guitars, bass, percussion, accordion and vocals all shine separately but still support each other. What I like about the group the most is the dark side to their compositions. The music is best described as 'old world' but still has modern touches with occasional distorted electric guitar. Below is a clip of a recent performance at the 331 Club in Minneapolis.

We'll see you on the patio. Live outdoor music on the West Bank lives!

Fountains of Wayne Acoustic show

This is my first post to the blog, blush, blush. I'm trying to be witty when actually I AM PISSED OFF (which isn't pretty, ask Drew Miller, then buy him a beer and he'll tell you stories). What am I angry about? That after living in Minneapolis for 12 years, I move back to Massachusetts (to breed little Red Sox fans) and *then* there are rock/pop shows at the Cedar I would give my eye teeth for. ARGGGGH! It really is torture to see that Fountains of Wayne will be doing an acoustic gig, and if you are free, and not 2000 miles away you MUST go. If only to torture me about it afterward (I really am easy to tease, and most people find it amusing).



Okay, FOW -- come on these guys are Music Heads for Music Heads. Their albums are like scrapbooks of all the music they love and music fans love too. They digest every snap, crackle & pop of pop music and throw it into their own mix. And much like the best of smart pop, IMHO, Elvis Costello, their lyrics are dark, smart and funny. And Jon Auer of the Posies -- I mean could anyone get us closer to a Chris Bell/Big Star reincarnation?



Okay, that's it from Miss Hell, as I have to confiscate the Lego catapult from my children in the tub. Tell me all about the shows, please.

The End of World Music

World Music began on June 29, 1987. That is to say, the term "world music" was codified that day by a group of interested music professionals who gathered in London to try to solve the problem of how to better market a certain kind of music that had previous to then been called a number of different things ("Ethnic Music," "International Music," "World Beat," etc.). The primary motivating factor was to enable record stores to have a single, more palatable genre for the creation of a section in stores, with properly coded bin cards and organization, to compete on a more level playing field with "Rock & Pop," "Jazz," "Urban," "Children's," etc. etc.

(At this moment I would like to send kudos to the magnificent and truly independent record store Waterloo Records in Austin, TX, one of the only record retailers in the U.S. that never bought into the segregation of musical genres, and always stocked their general catalog alphabetically by artist, from A to Z. As a music enthusiast and retail customer, I always found this to be profoundly in synch with the real universe).

With the decline (and some feel inevitable demise) of record retail, and certainly the elimination of any clout that sector now has in the driving force of marketing music, it is becoming apparent that the entire structure of music genres is quickly becoming obsolete. This is actually a great, liberating development. Now the internet is the driving force of marketing music, so the artist's name is the only relevant category (hmmm... kind of like shopping at Waterloo, isn't it?). Isn't that really the way it should be? Shouldn't the only real category for Paul Simon's music be "Paul Simon?"

In the case of World Music, while originally designed in 1987 to liberate and modernize a genre that most people had come to associate with rather staid field recordings by old white guys of non-white (or at least non-western) "traditional" music in far off parts of the world...



...some would say that the creation of the "World Music" genre mostly made it marketable, even hip, for white musicians to take such sounds and techniques, and just make it more accessible to a mostly-white, more mainstream audience...



The marketing problem for something like this, even with the "World Music" identification, and creation of a section in every Tower Records (or wherever) to better place and sell this stuff, is that it was always too much of a challenge to find the actual CDs in record stores. Would this be (properly) filed under "Africa" in the World Music section? Would they go so far as to have a further sub-section for Cameroon? Did you need to remember that it was pygmie mysic from Cameroon? Because one thing was almost certain, unless you were going to be shopping at Waterloo, remembering the band's name, Baka Beyond, was definitely not guaranteed to help you find their CD, whether the store had it in stock or not!

Now, of course, just type the artist's name into Google, and the chances are extremely high that you can find lots of information, music and video samples of the artists work, and links to purchasing a CD or music downloads.

This means that now we really don't need to worry about whether something like this is "World Music" or not:



And with that I proudly announce that this band, BLK JKS from South Africa, will kick off the inaugural Global Roots Festival, on September 24, 2009 at The Cedar. This show is being co-presented by our friends at Walker Art Center.

Perhaps if there's one thing I'd like to accomplish with this and the other artists planned for the Global Roots Festival, it's to move folks away from the idea of "World Music" as a category with borders. Our full roster for the festival will follow in my blog next week.

And you know what the best thing is about the end of the "World Music" genre? There will be no meeting of "interested music professionals" to decide what comes next. Actual music consumers have already determined that.

Open letter from The Cedar’s air conditioner

Hello, I’m The Cedar’s air conditioner. You probably haven’t seen a lot of me, but there’s a reason for that. I’ve been trying in vain to keep this building cool, but the demands of 2009 are much greater than those of the 40s. Everyone complains about the poor polar bears being affected by global warming, but it’s affecting me too.

I have a lot to be proud of. I’ve been cooling this building since before some of you were born. Back then it was a movie theater, you know.

In my old age, I’m no longer able to function properly when temperatures reach the 80s and 90s. When it gets to be that hot, everyone should be at the beach anyway! The Cedar staff keeps me around for my good looks, though. You youngsters have never seen such a find piece of machinery.

Anyway, when I face the facts I know that my time at The Cedar is running out. I am 60 years old after all. I’m comfortable retiring early. This means, however, that The Cedar will be looking for my replacement. Finding an appliance of this caliber is not going to be cheap. These are hard vents to fill.

Kids these days are so reliant on air conditioning, or AC as they call it, and we want to keep you cool at The Cedar, even in the summertime. Your support will help fill the void left in my absence. They tell me you can even donate on the World Wide Web at www.thecedar.org/donate although I’m not quite sure what that is.

Thank you for your time,

Swampy C.

Labels

The term 'record label' still has currency, oddly, even as its importance has been in steady decline for 25 years.

In popular vinyl's heyday, an LP or 45's label was part of the package artwork. It added an identifying characteristic: this is an Epic album, a Deram single. It could even bring its own cachet: the double-sided Apple label, for example, is one of the coolest ever. One could even read a label's track listing as an LP was meandering around at thirty-three and a third. (For some of us, in fact, such an activity sometimes took on an unaccountably outsized importance.)

The label started to lose its value as soon as playback became a private matter to be carried out in a sealed compartment at 500 or so RPM. Even having one of those see-through players meant little: the novelty wore off quickly, and trying to read a label on a disc whizzing around at that rate was sorta like attempting a diary entry in a centrifuge.

And now? A 'label' is a word or two of information accompanying release date and bit rate data on a download interface. Yet right this minute every basement glitchmeister in creation is dreaming up a name for her very own label.

Which active independent labels still have celebrity outside of specific microcultures? Even if you're a decades-long music nut who keeps up, drawing up a lengthy list is tough...sorta like trying to come up with more than 20 catchers who belong in the Hall of Fame. You can tick off a dozen or fifteen pretty quickly, and then the steam starts to run out.

One indie already enshrined in Cooperstown is ECM, founded 40 years ago in Munich by Manfred Eicher.

Way too many of my college library hours were spent poring over back issues of Downbeat. Through wallet-draining trial-and-error exercises (yep, as Main Figurehead reminded us, that was our only choice back then), I came to learn that I wasn't yet ready for Sun Ra and was too snooty for Bob James. But ECM struck a chord that still resonates today. That label's catalog of genre-agnostic introspective exploration sounds as fresh as ever, from top to bottom.

Here we have back-to-back-to-back samples of ECM through the years. First up is John Abercrombie and Ralph Towner from their 1976 collaboration, 'Sargasso Sea.' Next is a track from Minneapolis' own Steve Tibbetts and his 1987 release, 'Exploded View.' And we finish up with a live snippet from Nik Bartsch, a pianist whose band is a sterling example of ECM's modern-day vitality.








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One final note about labels: another type that has gone the way of the buggy-whip is the fruit crate label. For most of the first half of the 20th century, farmers affixed these carefully-designed labels to the boxes of produce they hauled to market in order to personalize their wares and encourage customer loyalty. Now? A label is just a word or two of information accompanying harvest date and net weight data as your fruit cocktail streams its way through the internet's series of tubes. Which can get really icky without proper maintenance.

West Bank Love

While walking back up Cedar Avenue after the Sierra Leone Refugee All-Stars show the other night, I poked my head into Palmer's to check out some of Charlie Parr's set. He's played at the Cedar a number of times and does what I might call dark, aggressive old time and blues. Like rockin' banjo? Charlie had Mikkel Beckmen from the Brass Kings playing some washboard with him and a guy I did not know doing some serious-looking harmonica. Unfortunately, you couldn't hear a thing either of those two were doing. Too bad, because Charlie was rocking the house and it would've surely taken it up another notch. The sound made me want to stomp really loudly and let loose some hollers, but I didn't because I was wearing Teva sandals and the floor was really sticky. Not so some of the other patrons, who seemed to average about three shades more drunk than your typical Cedar-goer. It is a little surrealistic to go from bar to bar that way, because the scene, the mood, the vibe - whatever really varies along with the sound.

Now I'm gonna brag and say the Cedar has the best sound on the West Bank. Sorry, we just do. Our crew and our new speakers and 48 channel board...we just do. "It ain't braggin' if it's true," was supposedly said by Cassius Clay once upon a time. So give Chris , Eric and Ray some love next time you see them back there at the sound board.

All that's not to say that wandering up and down Cedar Ave checking out live music in a bunch of different locations would not be a fun thing. There are quirky things going on all over Cedar Avenue, not to mention the occasional bit of free food.

Starting at the bridge and walking south, you could hit the Red Sea, which sometimes features DJs but often has hip hop, Latin or world music artists. Head down the block and across the street to Acadia Cafe with their awesome yummy beer selection and eclectic selection of artists who play original music (and fit on a tiny stage.) Run kitty corner across Cedar and Riverside to catch alterna-rock or alt country at the 400 Bar, a West Bank institution. (Sorry their website URL goes right to Ticketweb, so no link, OK.)

Jog back across the street to the Cedar, or keep on the left side and check out what's up at the Nomad World pub, usually local artists on weekends but goodies like Monday night trivia contests, reggae on Tuesdays and dub on Wednesdays. Don't forget their double patio double whammy.

Palmer's is just across the patio from the Cedar, back on the west side of the avenue, and they also have that "have to fit on the small stage" rule. Their Sunday night Cadillac vs. Cornbread nights are becoming a Minneapolis barhopping must-see, according to Cedar Operations manager Dave Paulson. They also have a big spread of food in there fairly often; I'm not sure waht this is about or what the schedule is for the chow.

Pop around the corner to the Bedlam Theatre, which has a really ecletic selection of live and dj'ed music, as well as cabarets and performance art, not to mention the Dreamland Faces on Wednesdays in case you need your musical saw fix. Come on, who else has a Purim party with live music in spring? But do they really still have the "Polish-fusion" cuisine? Not sure their web site is up to the minute...

Ready for more? Change into black clothing, jog down a block and cross back over to hit the Triple Rock. Free bacon on Wednesdays and Surly specials on Thursdays. What else do you need? Well, OK, lots of metal, punk, garage, grunge and those padded-looking walls. The bar side is a classic old long bar (the Old Blondie's building) with lots of booths and nice happy hour specials.

Ready to sober up and walk a couple of blocks? Keep going south until you see the bright light of the Whiskey Junction. Their live shows are generally in the blues and jam band genres, and they serve slices of pizza from a walk up window. Supposedly they also have two-for-one Jack Daniels shots over the lunch hour. (!!) After those rows of motorcycles (look but don't touch!), you'll find yourself at another West Bank institution, the Cabooze. Live music ranges from big outdoor reggae parties to ...well, big outdoor Gogol Bordello parties. Not to mention their usual run of blues and alt-country and local artists.

OK, so that's how many live music venues within about six blocks? Ten, right? If you're too tired to walk down to the Junction and the Cabooze, that's eight live music spots in a four block range.

Makes a person wonder why all those people wander around the Warehouse District barhopping, when there are only two or three live music clubs down there.

Also makes a person wonder when the West Bank Clubs will band together and have West Bank bracelets or wristband nights or something that will count as a cover charge in all the clubs that night. Of course, it couldn't work for the Cedar on a night when we have a sold out show or something really expensive, but for some of our nights, like maybe a 416 club, it would be just right. Maybe a once a month West Bank promo night for everybody? What do you think neighbors?

Trust

I've been thinking a lot about that quote in Veronica Fever's last post from a modern-day music consumer, "...we're in a day when nobody buys music unless they hear it first. Because we don't trust anyone, really." Now context is everything when it comes to quotes, and since this is from the book Ripped, which examines how the record industry killed itself, there's no question that trust remains a big factor in that entire story (although, really, it is largely going in the other direction: the industry's lack of trust in its own customers).

But in the context of music discovery in the modern age, I have to respectfully disagree. The reason why most of us don't buy music anymore unless we've heard it first is, well, because we can. Before the internet, most of us were willing to take the $ leap directly from recommendation (or intuition) to buying an album. If you were lucky, you were actually able to hear something first. But it just wasn't very easy to hear things before buying. Believe me, many of us have large collections of mostly unplayed CDs because of this!

Now virtually every musical artist in the world has a MySpace page with streaming audio, so sampling anyone's music recommendation is just an internet connection away (which most of us now have in our homes and at our workplaces- in other words, what, 90% of the time?). So, these days, why would you NOT listen to music before you buy it?

Further, it's a bit ironic that this idea was presented in a music blog. I feel that music blogs are one of the most important new ways that folks seek out "gatekeepers" that they actually trust to lead them to new music discovery. I trust the folks at NPR Music, but that does not mean I'm going to love (or buy) everything they recommend. But I visit their blogs and download their podcasts because they've earned a level of credibility that can accurately be described as having built my trust.

Really, when you think about it, the only sensible way to discover music is through listening. So, you could say that we just have more appropriate tools now as music consumers than we used to, and trust has nothing to do with it.

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Last night we were fortunate to celebrate World Refugee Day (which is today, June 20), with a great dance concert by Sierra Leone's Refugee All-Stars. Their story is extraordinary, if you are not familiar with it check out the DVD of a documentary film about them. Here's the trailer:



So it's a good time to remember that so many of us are here in the U.S. because of a former refugee plight of parents, grandparents, or great grandparents. My own four grandparents fled from Russia around the turn of the last century. Last night's show was sponsored by The American Refugee Committee. They do great work, and if you'd like to know more about how you can help with the many worldwide refugee crises currently in need, this is a good place to start.

Weekend To Do List

To Do 6/19 - 6/21:

-Review  6-10 CDs for an international music radio show

-Listen to more of The Low Anthem

-Work at Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars concert

-Introduce a friend to the music of Patti Smith

-Listen to two sets of demos/rough mixes for friends who have mistaken me for their band manager

-Attend CD release for friend of a friend's band (mostly interested in taking photo booth pictures at this one...shhh.)

-Assist with international music radio show

And the one I am most excited about:

-Assist in a multi-disc mix CD to accompany a cross-country road trip

Is making mix CDs (or mix tapes for that matter) something that a person is supposed to outgrow? That's always sort of been my impression, especially when the process consumed my life during high school. But I still find it to be the most personal and most enjoyable way to share music with people. While I do love music blogs (cough, like this one, cough), and while the flash drive is a popular choice to share a song with a coworker or friend, I find it harder to show that I put thought into a gift for someone through those media. 

"Here, I made this for you," doesn't have quite the same effect when it's followed by handing over a piece of plastic shaped like a stick of gum.

One solution I found: Tiny Mix Tapes

Cute and smart. If only we all could be so lucky.

Traction

Nice title for Angel of Rock's latest post: 'So Much Music, So Little Time.' Many music lovers despair of 'keeping up.' But what does that mean?

For some, it's tracking what's popular, which provides conversational currency with au courant offspring or at social gatherings, but doesn't offer much in actual listening pleasure. For others, it's getting a handle on what's out there in the music atmosphere, which is deep, seemingly endless, and daunting.

To me, there is no 'keeping up.' There is only pushing forward. Rewards abound for the intrepid explorer, now more than ever. Consider this timeline:

Monday: Read review of Low Anthem's 'Oh My God, Charlie Darwin'.
Tuesday: Streamed album on Rhapsody. Liked it.
Wednesday: Purchased album. Loved it.
Thursday: Initiated viral publicity process (or VPP):

　
This versatile trio offers a variety of rustic atmospherics that should appeal to followers of Ray LaMontagne, Fleet Foxes, or, at times, Tom Waits. Oh, and the review that started this? Saw it in the New York Times. Yep, analog media that will only be pried from my cold, dead, ink-stained hands.

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Another bit I particularly liked in Angel's post was her excitement over discovering PJ Harvey. As one who has a framed photo of Polly Jean hanging on the wall to his left, I surely understand. But it's also just plain fun to happen upon and explore any artist with a long and diverse CV.

My most recent such experience was with Porcupine Tree. If, under duress, I were forced to hang a two-syllable summary on 'em I'd croak out 'Prog-lite' and hate myself for it because their sound runs sweet / bitter, digestible / complex gamuts and oops, you probably already know this. Yep. Latecomer.

Anyway, I came to Porcupine Tree via No-Man, as the two bands share the same guitarist, the multi-talented Steven Wilson. No-Man's sound often features a wistful reflectiveness, and I'm a sucker for it:

　
So. A years-long interest in No-Man led to Porcupine Tree and Steven Wilson. The point is clear: the more you hear, the more you want to hear.

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Not yet finished with 'Ripped,' but I love this quote from a modern-day music consumer: "...we're in a day when nobody buys music unless they hear it first. Because we don't trust anyone, really."

Perhaps the week's most exciting new release is Justin Adams and Juldeh Camara's 'Tell No Lies.' The one track I've heard is a Saharan blues with a Bo Diddley beat. I'm in. Cheers!

It's Nice Up There at Nisswa

So KFAI Fubar Omniverse host and Nordic Roots fan extraordinaire Blanche finally convinced me to head north with her for the Nisswa-stämman, which is a small festival of traditional Scandinavian music which is held on a lovely Saturday each June at the Pioneer Village in the little town of Nisswa, up in the Brainerd Lakes area.


It's a sweet little festival, with all the traditional food and customs someone who loves their Nordic heritage could ever wish for. My ancestors were of the more Celtic persuasion, but I did chow several servings of that Norwegian rice pudding! As one of the tireless organizers pointed out, all the Americans are the ones running around in traditional outfits and the European musicians are just there in their jeans, or as he said "the ones who look like rock stars."

Cedar pals Esko Jarvella and Tuomas Logren, who we know from their many appearances with Frigg, held up their end of the rock star deal and really stole the show, as far as this fan was concerned. They cranked out a number of complex and speedy polskas and waltzes, mostly from Esko's Master's degree cd project, which he just completed over at the the Sibelius Academy department of Folk Music over there in Helsinki.

All the sets at Nisswa are short, about half an hour, but most of the artists play at several different stages during the day. There are some super-intimate performances and workshops in the little log cabins there at the Pioneer Village, too. We caught an acapella set during a brief rainstorm by Finnish expats Saana, five women who now make their home in the Twin Cities and do traditional singing together. About 20 people squeezed into the folding chairs in the "Summer Kitchen" cabin, with about that many on the porch trying to listen and stay dry. Beautiful harmonies on old hymns had me referring to the building as "that little church" the rest of the day. A very timeless feel, perfect with a little thunder outside. They closed it up with a spritely version of an old Varttina song, I think from Aitara, so it was fun to sing along.

You betcha, it looks just like this.

It's that kind of little festival, lots of teaching of tunes and fiddling in corners under the tall pines, and some singing along thrown in. Nothing too edgy, lots of tradition. Lots of big lags (groups of musicians) up from the Cities, featuring Hardingfeles, Nyckelharpas and all those traditional wool outfits. In true small town Minnesota fashion, the festival ends with a Saturday night dance at the local American Legion hall, with each band playing for about half an hour. That was the perfect juxtaposition of two cultural worlds, past and present, old country and new. A huge circle of dancers swirled on the floor to the calling of a petite Danish fiddler while we wall flowers drank our beers under the stern gaze of the photos of generations of Legion and and Auxiliary members.

And no matter what Blanche tells you, it's really only about a two and a half hour drive up there.

The New Cool

There are a lot of mash-ups happening in music these days, and here is one that I'm surprised has not been tried before:



The band is Caravan Palace from France, and they take French swing and combine it with dance-floor electronics. Could this be the first signs of the next swing revival? Or just one really fun band to see live? Here's to landing an early 2010 Cedar gig with these guys.

Meanwhile, here's a unique mash-up already on the caledar (September 12, 2009):



This one's called Chicha Libre; CHICHA is the name of a corn-based liquor favored by the Incas in pre-colombian days. Chicha is also the name of a South American music craze which started out in the late 70's in the Peruvian Amazon. Cumbias amazonicas, as they were first called, were loosely inspired by Colombian accordion-driven cumbias but soon incorporated the distinctive sounds of Andean melodies, some Cuban son, and the psychedelic sounds of surf guitars, farfisa organs and moog synthesizers. Check out more tunes on their MySpace page.

This is the new cool, folks.