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Crossing

by Rudy Zapf

the River

This is the third of four articles about living and working for the arts in the St. Louis area. This month’s focus is the arts community in Edwardsville.

The bridges spanning the Mississippi River are not conduits. They are dividing lines separating us from them. We (meaning typical St. Louisans) cannot fathom why anyone would want to live over there in the wilds of Illinois. It is assumed that they have nothing comparable to the Fox, the Sheldon, Powell Hall, or, as ultimate proof of uncivilized existence, Starbucks or St. Louis Bread Co. Given the spiderweb of highways and exits scrawling into a Pythagorean knot, plus local views tainted with prejudice, even the thought of driving over there brings tremors of unease. “What if the car breaks down? What language do they speak? Will I be surrounded by torn dungarees, shotguns, and pitchforks while the opening notes of “Dueling Banjos” deliver unto me an acute awareness than I am now in their territory?”

And yet…

Over there in Edwardsville, there are about a hundred artists living and making art. Functional pieces, sculptural pieces, paintings, drawings, printmaking, and, yes, even public art. There are an estimated additional hundred in Alton and the surrounding area. These are merely the ones that are actually known to be producing; possibly there are hundreds more that are making art but have neither the confidence nor business acumen to get it into the public eye. That’s a large number of artists for a backwater. And then there’s ArtEAST. Last October, this major studio/exhibit tour showcased the work of 110 artists. EAST is an acronym for Edwardsville Alton Studio Tour, and it included 15 studios which were opened to the public as well as group exhibits in locations around both towns. (The next ArtEAST will occur in October 2003, though final dates are not set.)

Susan Bostwick and Kathryn Nahorski are the organizing dynamos that manage to coordinate this major event. The scale of production is unbelievable. To compare planning ArtEAST with coordinating a single gallery exhibit, a person would have to imagine the difference between preparing Babette’s feast to fixing a sim

ple dinner for a few friends. Bostwick and Nahorski corralled artists of Alton and Edwardsville into single or group shows, collected sponsors, found nontraditional exhibition venues, and contacted sources for media coverage. As Bostwick admits, it’s a year-round project. As soon as the event is over, she’s writing grant reports to send to sponsors and donors. She volunteers for this time-consuming job because she is keenly aware of the lack of exhibition opportunities for east-of-the river artists. Considering the strong number of artists that Alton/Edwardsville boasts, the want of private galleries is glaring.

The gallery at SIU-E is reserved mostly for students, art professors, and alumni, which allows little time to show work by other local artists. There is the Towata Gallery in Alton, but at 20 miles north of Edwardsville, it’s no closer than St. Louis. Choices are narrow to nil for those who would like artistic autonomy. Artists and art lovers must drive elsewhere in order to see or show art. They come here much more than we go there. The gist is that ArtEAST is an essential event for Illinois artists. They receive exposure, commissions are contracted, and the public becomes cognizant of treasures to be found within their own neighborhoods.

In addition to a thousand other responsibilities involved with organizing such a large event, Bostwick and Nahorski produce a comprehensive catalog of participants. Each artist may submit an artist’s vitae/statement and one photo of representative works. The size of the binder is ponderous, and poring through it makes one aware of the diversity of talent that can be found just across the river. Bostwick, besides being an organizer extraordinaire, is an artist of some fame in her own right. Her clay works have been shown in Ceramics Monthly, American Craft, and The 1st International Miniature Sculpture Exhibition (Taiwan, 2002). She shows work at Xen gallery in the West End and LillStreet Gallery in Chicago. Earthy fecundity heavily influences her drawings and ceramics, which is not out of character for an artist whose medium is earth itself. Tubers sending out fingery roots, squinting at viewers with blind eyes. Pears seducing with smooth young skin, while hoary potatoes sprout chin whiskers. All things that grow have their own personalities. Surface textures telling life stories. Bostwick is attuned to the tales they have to offer.

Besides Bostwick, all artists presenting works in last year’s ArtEAST are worth noting. A few of the names are Nahorski, William Harroff, and Shawntá Ray. Nahorski, the other half of the event’s engine, is also a board member of the Madison County Arts Council. She specializes in drawing and painting. Her textured pastel drawing of a river bend is universal. It is a river, any river; it is the curve of the Mississippi as it elbows past St. Louis; it is the Danube wending its way to Budapest. Harroff focuses on book/digital arts, and his input to the art world is decidedly techno-savvy. With sponsorship from the Lewis & Clark Library System, he hosted an international e-book collection. Ray (metal and fiber) displays a range of proficiency from ephemeral baskets to steel and glass furniture. Her baskets grow upward, reaching through dense underbrush toward the light, intensely alive with the complexity of nature. A welded table resembles a lattice of leafy twigs. The irony of strong baskets composed of wispy materials and welded steel forms appearing to be as insubstantial as moving shadows—only a sculptor with incredible knowledge of her raw materials could draw such unexpected results from them.

It is an epiphany for the ignorant. The depth of emotions and intellect that dive into processes, transforming these basic ingredients into museumquality works of art, come from artists that have chosen to live in the west of Illinois. Their collective existence germinates abundant fields of creation. Who would have guessed?

Defined by the River

Susan Bostwick and Kathryn Nahorski

Play by Play

sextet Ilya utilize in order to create their unique aural soundscapes. A fiery trip-hop opus indeed, their debut, Poise Is the Greater Architect, serves up a concoction of jazz, classical, experimental, rock, noise, and urban ideals.

Taking the best of each genre, Ilya masterfully blend thick backbeats, swirling guitars, forceful bass, dripping keyboards, and sultry vocals

into ten songs that are as enchanting as they are tantalizing. “BPD” chants about slowly pushing you away and makes you feel the pain infusing the lyrics, where “Isola,” Ilya’s signature track, grinds with seduction.

Perhaps the most impressive element of the band’s sound is its dynamics. While playing music that rises, falls, starts, stops, speeds, and slows, Ilya manages to keep each person’s role simple yet integral, thus eliminating the effect of a soloist. This puts their entire sound into the forefront as a mature entity and doesn’t have the “stepping-ontoes” effect where everyone in the band is striving for the listeners’ attention. Such a developed element of tact and talent gives definite validity to the slew of awards that Ilya has won, naming them one of today’s hottest independent artists.

Released independently in 2002, Poise will be rereleased by Second Nature Recordings on June 17. Visit www.ilyamusic.com. —Rev. Mike Tomko

THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS: ELECTRIC VERSION (Matador)

As any hipster worth his glasses would be quick to tell you, the 2000 debut of the New Pornographers, a profoundly catchy disc of unrelenting power pop called Mass Romantic, was one of the greatest indie rock finds of recent years. It was released on the Canadian label Mint Records and had just enough pseudo-rockers like Neko Case and Carl Newman (of the Sub Pop band Zumpano) attached to get at least a little interest stirred up from the outset. A few months after its release, it was next to impossible to find, as the unexpected demand for the disc put most distributors into deep back-order hell. While everyone was still scrambling to pick up Mass Romantic and discover just how intimidatingly brilliant it is, the Pornographers recorded their follow-up, this time for Matador, entitled Electric Version. It must have been ulcer-inducing for TNP to try to come up with a reasonable followup, but regardless of the trials that may or may not have gone into making the album, it is here, and awaiting the rabid consumption by the Pornographers’ many waiting followers.

As one would assume (it would be unreasonable to expect otherwise, really), Electric Version is not as good as Mass Romantic. I would even go so far as to say that it isn’t anywhere near as good as Mass Romantic. However, speaking relatively to every other CD released ever, Electric Versionis a fantastic disc that will surely bring the band more followers. Furthermore, I doubt that most people will be disappointed with it in any way, shape, or form. The only thing that prevents Electric from achieving the level of Romantic is that the debut had two kinds of songs: unbelievable rockers like the title track or “Letter From an Occupant” (the latter being my pick for the best out-and-out rock song of the new millennium) and songs that on any other album would have been amazing but got lost in the milieu of incredibility, such as “The Body Says No.”

Electric Version also has two types of songs: unbelievable rockers like the title track and “The Laws Have Changed” and songs that are pretty good but don’t quite stand up to the rest of the Pornographers’ back catalog, such as “From Blown Speakers” and “Miss Teen Wordpower.” Also, TNP created the band to allow for the maximum number of vocalists possible, and Mass Romantic seamlessly meshed them all together, whereas Electric Version’s good songs pretty much always have Case doing the howling (the aforementioned “Electric Version” and “The Laws Have Changed,” as well as the third best song on the CD, “All for Swinging You Around,” are all at least partially Case’s).

Even so, the structure of the band seems infallible, as it allows for nonstop action—they are always mixing things up and keeping it interesting with different chemistry between vocalists and freakishly addictive hooks in practically every song. It seems almost unfair that the band can hold such a monopoly on power pop, but then, after listening to how inexplicably good both of their CDs are, it seems unfair to care. —Pete Timmermann

NOTHINGFACE: SKELETONS (TVT)

Nothingface’s new album is more than just the bare bones of metal; it would be hard to classify the group into one particular section of metal music. At one moment on the album, it could be all-out chaos, like “Here Comes the Butchers” which is mostly all screaming. Then along comes a song like “Patricide,” which features a lot of singing by frontman Matt Holt.

Like much of the music today, Nothingface does not shy away from letting their opinions be known. “Ether” is aimed at President Bush. It was surprising to see a metal band incorporate politics into its music, and Nothingface pulls it off nicely. Holt is the leader and best musician in the band. His ferocious vocals carry the album and make him one of the better vocalists in metal

from page 19 today. Of course, it takes a good band to complement a good vocalist.

Unlike the band’s last album, Violence, Skeletons does not lose the listener’s interest. While their debut was a good metal record, it was just not very interesting to listen to. Skeletons is just the opposite because it is not just all metal; it goes from slow melodic openings to all-out thrash metal in a matter of seconds. Metal fans should be prepared: with Nothingface touring Ozzfest this summer, things can only get better for a band that stands out lyrically and musically from all other metal bands in the industry today. —Jeremy Housewright

SERENGETI: DIRTY FLAMINGO (F5)

On the chorus to the title track of Dirty Flamingo , the debut LP from Chicago MC Serengeti, the rapper wearily exclaims, “I’m the dirtiest man alive,” in a tone that is part admission of guilt, part exasperated plea for forgiveness for the atrocities committed by his uncontrollable monster side a lá Jekyll and Hyde. Though Cage and Kool Keith, among others, might dispute the “dirtiest man” title, Serengeti gives evidence to back his claim throughout the album on songs such as “Busty Women” and “Ms. Nipple Queen,” a heartbreaking tale of love gone wrong. With a flow reminiscent of Del the Funkee Homosapien, Ser spits about drinkin’, women, travellin’, and livin’ in a way that conjures up visual images. Each line produces a series of quick portraits that, when strung together, form a verse showing the bigger picture.

D.J. Crucial (Russell Simmons of the Lou), the in-house F5 superproducer, is straight on point with the beats on this album. Diverse and funky yet magnetically cohesive, it has the feeling of a singularly produced album as opposed to a random collection of beats. The samples are also perfectly selected and positioned. In a nod to both rapper and producer, this album would be an interesting listen as either a capella or instrumental.

There are several standout tracks. “Black Giraffes” serves up a bouncy piano riff over some laidback boom bap drums. “Serve as a Canvas” is a song that plays like a late night PBS travel show hosted by a giddy rap group on tour for the first time. On “Dirty Flames,” Ser describes his style as “Jean Michel Basquait Rap” and drops the line “to make friends I’ll write a book called Supertrends.” “Chuck Norris” features an extremely ill bass line and the hook “I’ll be Bruce Lee and you be Chuck Norris, together we can move to Rome and write a rap chorus.” The final cut on the album (there are 24 tracks in all, but only 19 listed) is a feel-good rock ’n’ roll jam that closes things nicely.

In addition to the 24 tracks, there are “secret” tracks featuring a roster of F5 all-stars scattered throughout the album. The best of these came continued on next page

Play by Play

from local conscious heads Altered St8’s and two cats I’ve never heard before, Capo and Fiasco, who sound a lot like Mobb Deep.

In summation: Good beats? Yes. Good rhymes? Yes. Dirtiest man alive? No. Dirtiest Flamingo? Hands-down. —Mike Zapf

SPRING CLOCK WONDER: THE GREAT PURIFICATION (self-released)

I’m always somewhat surprised when a self-released local CD sounds…well, notlocal, and not self-released. It’s not that St. Louis doesn’t have a slew of extremely talented bands—if we didn’t believe that, we wouldn’t have started this magazine. It’s just that local, unsigned bands are on such a tight budget that the listener’s expectations of quality are reduced even before listening.

This is just the first thing that reeled me in with Spring Clock Wonder’s first CD, The Great Purification. Beyond that, the songwriting and musical style—modern rock, to be sure, with dashes of British art-pop and psychedelia—are solidly respectable. Ian Baird’s vocals remind me of a softer, throatier Mike Edwards of Jesus Jones fame. There are even traces of Sunny Day Real Estate and Caroline’s Spine.

“I Haven’t Much to Tell You” begins gently before exploding into a U2- like guitar riff; if “Evereal” is a heavier, darker number, “Number for a Name” is downright hard rock. “Sand Swallows Earth” is a floaty, ethereal song, with Baird’s breathy voice reaching across guitar landscapes. “Drive the River” will be a radio single if there’s any justice (and just think how well it would work as a theme song of sorts for FM 101.1 the River, yes?), as it has all the necessary elements—catchy beat, memorable hooks, and words to sing along: “Leave your baggage at the door/’cause you can come just as you are/there’s no religion within here at all.” “Out in Dawn” sounds like a British rock song (though Baird’s Greenville is nowhere near the U.K.).

On “Ghost,” Baird gives us a lovely falsetto; the title track, meanwhile, is majestically rocking and very, very British (honestly…how do they do that?). “See You at the Show” slows the pace with fret-heavy strumming and a gentle beat. The dreamy “Arjuna’s Conversation,” the disc’s closer, is where the art-pop comes in; more soundscape than rock song, this dreamy track lays gifts at our feet that sound as if they were crafted of exotic stringed instruments—and not just six guitar parts recorded on an old eight-track cassette machine. This is one of the best local releases of 2003.

The Great Purification is available locally at CD Warehouse, Vintage Vinyl, and Slackers or online at www.springclockwonder.com. —Laura Hamlett

from previous page

GILLIAN WELCH : SOUL JOURNEY (Acony Records)

Gillian Welch is a folk crooner. She is that rare songwriter that combines vivid storytelling with a vocal style as unique as the Chairman of the Board himself. While breaking the girl-plus-guitar singer/songwriter mold, Welch takes her storytelling to a new level on Soul Journey.

The album opens with the sweet, sultry “Look at Miss Ohio,” a tale of a woman living her life “runnin’ around with a ragtop down.” Welch fleshes out Miss Ohio’s conflict as she growls, “She says I wanna do right/But not right now.” Here Welch shares songwriting credits with producer David Rawlings, as she does on seven of the album’s ten songs.

A talented ensemble adds to the strengths Welch and Rawlings brought to 2001’s Time (The Revelator). On “One Monkey,” a full band builds steam behind Welch’s voice as she chants, “One monkey don’t stop the show.” Greg Leisz’s dobro, Jim Boquist’s bass, and Ketcham Secor’s fiddle provide coal for the fire. “So get on board,” Welch calls. “Here comes the freight train.”

Before Soul Journey, Welch never released anything featuring just her unaccompanied voice and guitar. The stark “One Little Song” and traditional blues number “Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor” prove to be good companions to the album’s sonically broader numbers. Still, experiments are rarely complete successes; the traditional song “I Had a Real Good Mother and Father” falls short of the bar set by the rest of the album.

Welch’s talent is a gift, and Rawlings’ production always seems to put her in the right package. Soul Journey proves once again that a voice and a story can take an artist a long way, but people can go to greater heights when surrounded by talented friends. —Ross Todd

THE YARDBIRDS: BIRDLAND (Favored Nations)

You probably think you’re about to read a review of a remastered counterculture favorite, but this is incorrect. No, friends, this is about the new Yardbirds album, Birdland. Having been unaware of certain musical goingson of the past decade or so, I concede I was skeptical when I heard there was a brand new Yardbirds disc coming out. But while 8 of the 15 cuts here are reworkings of tunes recorded in their heyday, this is no cynical stroll down Memory Lane.

A little background: the Yardbirds, as all legitimate rock historians know, spawned three guitar legends: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin were initially called the New Yardbirds). Beck is the only one to appear here, and he’s only on one track, the crunching, Bo Diddleyesque “My Blind Life.” However, the current lineup—original members Chris Dreja and Jim McCarty plus newer recruits Gypie Mayo, Alan Glen, and John Idan—attack this set with obvious relish. The plethora of guests, including Steve Vai, Slash, Brian May, and Joe Satriani, add plenty of spice without allowing the proceedings to degenerate into a musical wankoff.

Birdland, which is on Vai’s Favored Nations label, is sumptuous proof that the band which released its previous album of new material during LBJ’s presidency has plenty of gas left three and a half decades on. “Mister, You’re a Better Man Than I,” “Happenings Ten Years Ago,” “Shapes of Things,” and “Over, Under, Sideways, Down” are some of the best new takes on old numbers, but don’t overlook such cool new compositions as “Crying Out for Love,” “Dream Within a Dream,” and “An Original Man.” Birdland’s greatest triumph involves proving once and for all that the Yardbirds aren’t strictly a blues outfit; their sound has always featured healthy doses of psychedelia and Middle Eastern music.

On hearing this album, my reaction was, “I’d love to check these guys out live,” and I’m betting several pizzas that yours will be similar. —Jon McSweeney

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