Needle Magazine September 2010 by Gary Hammerschlag

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Pedal Power

A Danish blogger is helping the planet re-embrace cycling one bike at a time / by Jess Harvell

ost of us are looking for reasons to drive less, even if it’s just to free

up a little cash in tighter-than-tight times. So, why do most American commuters choose to drive, or take public transportation, rather than invest in a bicycle? Perhaps because many people still think of bikes less as a mode of transportation and more as a hobby, a way to get some fresh air and exercise on the weekends. ¶ Americans are told that biking will help the environment, but they’re often unaware of the practical (and financial) benefits it might have on their daily lives. And while many city roads have bike lanes, many more do not. Navigating rush hour traffic, surrounded by jittery drivers encased in two-ton hunks of steel, is not a calming thought first thing in the morning. Mikael Colville-Andersen wants to change the way the great mass of world commuters thinks about bikes. “I used to race when young, but I’m not interested in cycling,” he says “I’m interested in people on bicycles—the anthropological and societal aspects of having large numbers of citizen cyclists on bicycles, and how that strengthens the social fabric of a city.” It might be odd to hear Colville-Andersen claim he’s not “interested in cycling” considering he runs copenhagencyclechic.com and copenhagenize.com, two bicycle blogs with an international readership, based out of (you guessed it) Copenhagen, Denmark. But his work as a bike advocate has very little to do with cycling as a sport, a recreational activity or a subculture. Instead, it’s designed to spread the world about a sea change in his home city’s attitude about two-wheeled transportation. Copenhagen, with more than 2.5 million inhabitants in the greater metro area, is a city where more than a quarter of the population rides a bike, every day. “Here in Copenhagen, our urban planning experienced a paradigm shift in the 1950s,” ColvilleAndersen says. After World War II, much as with 6

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the rest of the world, city planners began to reshape Copenhagen’s streets to make way for more cars. Bicycle use dwindled, as it did in America. “It took the grassroots movement around the oil crisis in the 1970s to start our journey towards reestablishing the bicycle on our streets. We started rebuilding safe, separated [road] infrastructure [for bicyclists] in the 1980s and haven’t looked back.” Both of Colville-Andersen’s blogs document this low-key revolution, one that’s literally changed the face of Copenhagen over the last 30-plus years. The city’s residents have slowly abandoned the automobile, en masse, in favor of the bicycle, with modern city planners re-reshaping the streets to make way for new, and safer, bike lanes. These Copenhagenites aren’t necessarily bike obsessives or sustainability activists. They’re regular folks looking for that cheaper, cleaner and, most importantly, easier alternative to the automobile. “The bicycle is like the vacuum cleaner to us,” Colville-Andersen says. “It’s just a practical, efficient tool for making our daily lives easier. We don’t identify ourselves as ‘cyclists.’ We just happen to use the bicycle to get around. On any given day in greater Copenhagen, there are 500,000 people on bicycles going to work, school, the cinema, the supermarket.

Actually, Copenhagen removes two to three percent of our car parking [spaces] each year.” That figure might be a bit hard for Americans to get their heads around. After all, this is a land where street parking is viewed as right rather than a privilege. US cyclists may wonder if it’s even possible to “Copenhagenize” their own cities. But if they’re committed to improving bike culture in their local area, all they have to do is get involved. Obviously “making the bicycle the quickest way around a city”—and making those new city-wide bike routes safe—isn’t something that “citizen cyclists,” to borrow Colville-Andersen’s phrase, can do entirely on their own. But they can keep tabs on bike-friendly politicians, the ones who will vote to allocate funding to expand and improve bike lanes. And cyclists can get the word out via the internet and the local news media about important elections, Thirty-seven percent of commuters choose the bike in the City of Copenhagen, city council votes and town hall meetings that afand that number rises to 55 percent in the city center. And [that’s] in one of the fect a city’s bike culture. Cyclists need to let local world’s richest countries.” officials know that they support pro-bike legislation, Colville-Andersen has been invited around the world to speak about Copen- and vote appropriately. hagen’s bike culture, and how its strategies might be adopted in other countries. Cyclists also have to find new ways to make bikes But he found his way into the world of bike activism almost by accident. “I took appeal to the general population, and that’s where one photo one day on my way to work—I was doing a blogs come into the picture. lot of street photography—of an elegant Copenhagener Focus on biking as part of on a bicycle,” Colville-Andersen says of Cycle Chic’s an overall lifestyle in your origins. “I didn’t notice the bicycle; I saw the light and city, and you’ll reach those the scene.” who might not know what But the photo began to attract attention on the in“fixed gear” means. It’s up ternet. That elegant cyclist happened to be wearing a to cyclists to make biking seem inclusive; even on fashionable skirt rather than, say, your standard pair of a one-on-one level, if you spandex bike shorts. By connecting biking to “fashion and attractive urban living,” Colville-Andersen realized a talk about bikes as tools blog could attract a whole new audience. Cycle Chic has for living, interest will folsince helped to market bikes in Copenhagen by making low. Part-time cyclists in bike culture look practical and stylish. “Out of the blue, terested in doing more can [the blog] brought the bicycle back to the public conjoin a bike club or bike adsciousness and made it sexy and cool all over again.” — Mikael Colville-Andersen vocacy group. The League Whatever method’s being used to of American Bicyclists has get the word out about bikes, it’s hard to argue with the re- a searchable nationwide database of local bike clubs sults in the city itself: lower pollution, less road congestion, in your area at bikeleague.org. less money spent on fuel, a healthier population. And through Colville-Andersen cities Barcelona, Dublin, Colville-Andersen’s regular photo-and-fact-heavy updates Paris and Seville as cities where bike culture has to his blogs, cyclists around the world have been inspired to recently blossomed. They’re cities as different from follow Copenhagen’s lead. (It certainly helps that both of the each other as Boston is from L.A. Adapting a city’s blogs are available in English.) Colville-Andersen says most unique landscape to make it more bike-friendly of his daily readers come from outside Denmark. takes time, and that’s why it’s important to rememCopenhagen’s retransformation into a bicyclist’s haven ber that it took close to four decades for Copenhagen and a “livable city designed for people, rather than machines” to become such a bike-centric culture. Copenhagenwasn’t entirely without its bumps. “There was some resis- izing your own city won’t be an overnight process, tance back in the day,” Colville-Andersen says. “And even to- but there are plenty of ways for U.S. cyclists to get day motorists complain about parking spots being reclaimed things rolling now. for bicycle infrastructure. But it is, by and large, accepted. According to Colville-Anderson, the photo on the left— part of a series taken on Nørrebrogade, “the busiest bicycle street in the Western world”—is “Quintessential Copenhagen.”

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The bicycle is like the vacuum cleaner to us. It’s just a practical, efficient tool for making our daily lives easier.”

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Mose Def

A Philly prog-metal band runs on veggie oil / By Jacob Lambert

or the average band, touring is a difficult proposition:

still has half-hour of pumping the grease into a the rush to and from cities, the endless gear-schlep- processing tank; two hours of warming in a water ping, the loss of proper sleep. All that makes West heater; an overnight cool down to separate water and particulates; and a final, hour-long run through Philadelphia’s Mose Giganticus all the more notable: a series of filters. Only then can they spread their The prog-metal quartet, currently in the thick of a maps, shoot to the next town and thrash through cross-country tour, runs its bus on vegetable oil—a songs about science, technology and escape. Though the conversion was borne from high gas process that, according to lead singer Matt Garfield, “inprices, its benefits exceed monetary savings. In creases significantly the work that you’re already doing” conversation, Garfield’s affection for the project while out on the road. comes through. “We’ll absolutely stick with it,” he For Garfield, who created Mose Giganticus as a solo project in 1999, the says. “It’s like a job that we can take with us when veggie-car concept sprung from necessity. Before embarking on a 100-date we’re on the road.” He does offer a “disclaimer” to 2008 tour—with gas prices peaking—he and his mates realized prospective tourmates: “Everything there was no way they could make it work with their current you bring on this tour, it’s going to budget. Garfield contacted David Rosenstraus of Braddock, have a fine coating of oil on it,” he PA’s Fossil Free Fuel, a company that specializes in vegetable laughs. “It takes a certain type of oil conversions, and within weeks, the white Mose minibus mentality.” was smelling like a fry cook. And that mentality might be But running on recycled oil isn’t always easy. The band must catching on—the veggie bus has seek out fuel “pretty much anywhere we are when we need,” become a conversation starter explains Garfield. “We’re flying by the seat of our pants whenwith fellow musicians on the road. “Other bands see the opportunity ever we roll into town.” When the group is lucky, they’ve made and the advantage that this reparrangements with a restaurant beforehand. If not, a lengthy resents,” says Garfield. “It sparks search is possible. their interest.” Once they’ve scavenged a usable amount of oil—often in the bleary post-show hours—the work has just begun. The band —Matt Garfield

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We’re flying by the seat of our pants whenever we roll into town.”

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Joyful Noise

Robert Plant mines his musical roots for Band of Joy / by Steve Netsky

hy is it that we’re still hanging on every word

Robert Plant sings? Why are his recordings so eagerly anticipated over 40 years into his career in pop music? Two reasons stand out above all others.

Plant continued to expand his horizons with 2007’s Raising Sand, a collaboration with Alison Krauss. Produced by T Bone Burnett, the album’s unlikely but magnificent blend earned innumerable critical raves as well as six Grammy® Awards, including Album of the Year First: his voice. Surely the predominant element and Record of the Year (for “Please Read the Letter,” a Plant/Page song). in reaching listeners, in making a connection with For Band of Joy, Plant enlisted his Raising Sand bandmate Buddy Miller as each individual, is a compelling voice. Plant’s vocals co-producer. “I approached Buddy Miller because he had been lighting every are compelling in spades: the tone, capable of every- room that I played in when I was with Alison—and his knowledge and his gaze; thing from heartbreaking tenderness to a trademark he’s like a curator of a rock and roll museum packed away in three or four guitar edginess, the phrasing that lends a distinct urgency, cases and you could take these guitars out and tune them accordingly...and and, perhaps most importantly, the sense of poetry, create some juju.” of mystery. Why give the album the name of one of his earliest bands? “In the Band of The second reason for Plant’s enduring ability Joy, when I was seventeen, I was playing everybody else’s stuff and moving it to draw us in is that through all of these years, he’s around, and it’s kind of…time to reinvoke that attitude and sentiment.” remained curious—really curious. Not content Plant’s overwhelming impulse was to make the music his own. “I wanted to reconstruct one of the most successful bands to bring my personality to other people’s songs and kick the door open a little in the history of rock or even to stay with a parbit…or edge it open with my hips. I mean…basically I sing the way I sing and ticular sound for too long, Plant seems to have an to attack those songs in that particular way, I can only do them Plant-like, so I was thinking about Zeppelin III, I was thinking about the mixture of acoustic unquenchable thirst for music that moves him— and powerful electric.” whether it is to be found in Northern Africa or deepest Appalachia. The band—Darrell Scott (acoustic guitar, mandolin, octave mandolin, banjo, Robert Plant made his first commercial recordaccordion, pedal steel and lap steel guitar), Byron House (bass), Marco Giovino ings in 1966. In 1967, he had also (drums and percussion), and Miller (electric guitar, baritone, formed a group called the Band of 6-string bass, mandoguitar)—goes right to work, providing an Joy, with drummer John Bonham. irresistible groove for the opening track, Los Lobos’ “Angel Soon, Bonham, Plant, guitarist Dance.” The Middle Eastern melody that accompanies the Jimmy Page, and bassist John chorus is a reminder of Plant’s far-flung influences. Richard Paul Jones assembled to become Thompson’s “House of Cards” follows and updates the folkThe New Yardbirds which became rock sound of British bands like Fairport Convention and PenLed Zeppelin. tangle. Plant calls Thompson “Another music nut,” and proThe Led Zeppelin era ended in nounces the song “so good and so finite; the lyric is superb.” 1980 when John Bonham died. “Central Two-O-Nine” by Plant and Miller is an acoustic Since that time, Plant has put his tune with a chant-like chorus. “It’s a bit like “Hats Off To wide-ranging musical fascination Harper” on Led Zeppelin III—it’s a throwaway of every great to good use on solo albums, with blues line I could think of at the time.” Jimmy Page, and in recordings “Silver Rider” and “Monkey” from the husband/wife group with bands like The HoneydripLow are the closest this album comes to replicating the ethepers, Priory of Brion, and Strange real blend of Raising Sand. This time Plant’s partner is Patty Sensation. His performances have Griffin, whose voice meets his with a tone he describes as reflected his embrace of West Coast “something between This Mortal Coil and the Shangri-Las.” psychedelic rock, roots blues, AfriWhatever it is, it works, as Plant and Griffin use these two can music, and traditional folk. —Robert plant songs to create a delicate, enigmatic mood.

I wanted to bring my personality to other people’s songs and kick the door open a little bit…or edge it open with my hips.”

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Plant found Barbara Lynn’s recording of “You Can’t Buy My Love” on a giveaway CD from the Oxford magazine compilation “and it was just cute. It is a pop song. So I just pushed in a kind of little ‘ooh ooh’ bridge and Patty just got her personality around it and we kicked ass. It comes out of a cupboard that your uncle might have closed up in 1963; you open the door and it comes roaring out.” The same era gives us “I’m Falling in Love Again,” originally recorded by The Kelly Brothers. “I don’t know whether it was the Anglo-Saxon aspect in the room but it moved into a Honeydrippers country cousins song…and the thing that it does probably best of all is it brings in other voices. I really wanted this record to be A Band of Joy—you hear voices all around my voice. I’ve been spoiled I think in the past with Stuart Duncan and Buddy singing and Alison… I’ve gotten really used to hearing voices around the voice.” The voices around the voice here (Buddy Miller and Darrell Scott) sound like a Southern Gospel quartet and give the track a classic country feel. “The Only Sound That Matters” has an easygoing feeling, but that doesn’t diminish how important its theme is to Robert Plant. “I think that the thrill of hearing people ‘mean it’ is one of the greatest gifts, just to be arrested by somebody, by some group of people who really, really mean it…you hear a great lyric and you go wow, (‘the only sound that matters,’ is what you need)…and the theory behind the lyric is great.”

Plant and Miller based their version of the classic folk song “Cindy I’ll Marry You Someday” on a recording by folklorist Bascom Lamar Lunsford. The song may be the most basic folk song on the album, but it played a pivotal role in achievRobert Plant’s ing the right sound. “…We all Band of found our common world, Joy arrives September 14 three hours into the session. I from Rounder mean we started off probably in Records the toughest place by starting off with ‘Cindy I’ll Marry You Someday’…I had to bring Me into the performance, but at the same time I had to find out where the band might take it to… what might happen. So, once we were on a roll the personality and the character of the combination of musicians got stronger and stronger…” Plant interprets Townes Van Zant’s reflective “Harm’s Swift Way” as an almost anthemic rock song. “I heard the version that Townes recorded and it was kinda like a demo. And again the lyric is dumbfounding—it just wipes you out completely. His delivery was quite disturbing, if you like. It was like the last demo you make before you put the guitar down and never pick it up again, ever. Was just like the end of everything. And it was very mournful and dirge-like and I just thought well there may be another way of doing this because the lyric is strong and maybe we can turn it into something that actually is, not a monument to him, but just another reflection of his work.” To close out the album, the very spare arrangement and pleading vocal of the old-time country song “Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down” is followed by a driving, almost psychedelic version of a mid-19th century poem “Even This Shall Pass Away.” The two songs harken back—or should I say forward—to Robert Plant’s astonishing musical legacy. It’s 2010 and we’re hanging on every word. needle

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Miles Ahead

Miles Davis’ classic Bitches Brew gets the full Legacy Edition treatment / by Robert Lawson

he year was 1969 and Miles Davis was preparing to

for texture before he makes a mad dash unleash a new electric statement that, like many of his displaying the blinding speed he has become known for. Unlike Miles, Wayne genre-shattering major movements, would influence and Shorter lets his agile sax solo flow with the rhythmic under current of the track, inspire generations of listeners and fellow musicians. not against it. Instructed by Miles to only Bitches Brew was a double album (rare at that play soprano at the sessions, Shorter’s solo is one of the more traditional voices time for jazz) onslaught that changed everything. It on this cut (on the tour he played both soprano and tenor). arrived as America was still reeling in the aftermath For the album’s 40th anniversary, Sony has issued a 2 CD/1 DVD Legacy of Vietnam and a series of high profile and tragic Edition. This music has been available on CD before, just not presented with assassinations. The country was also invigorated this much respect. The original Columbia Jazz Masterpieces set had a muddy by the music of Sly And The Family Stone and Jimi sound. The 1999 remaster was actually also a remix so had some sonic differHendrix. All of these factors played a part during the ences from the original vinyl. The last CD of the original mix was the 1997 Japathree hot sessions in August 1969 (the same week as nese version. The 1998 Complete Bitches Brew Sessions 4-CD box set contained Woodstock!) that produced the album that changed a lot of music not actually from the August ‘69 recording dates, making the title all the rules. at best confusing and at worst just plain incorrect. The new Legacy Edition restores the album’s original mix, adds previously Actually, Miles didn’t just change the rules of the game, he tore up the playbook, spat on it and prob- unreleased alternate takes of “Spanish Key” and “John McLaughlin” plus single ably used some colourful language while burying it edits of four songs that were sent to radio stations and have never been issued in the graveyard of traditional jazz. on CD before (except for a rare promo sampler from ‘98). Bitches Brew flowed freely, a potent Molotov The real bonus of the Legacy Edition however is the DVD of a previously cocktail of multiple exploratory electric keyboards, unreleased concert from Copenhagen on November 4, 1969. This tour is one two freewheeling drummers, two bassists, hard of the most heavily documented in Miles’ long career. Numerous shows were angular guitar, a rumbling bass clarinet and sharp either broadcast on radio or shown on European television. stabs of soprano saxophone. Amongst the seemingly The original Danish TV showing of the Copenhagen show was missing the chaotic din came bright blasts of golden trumpet first two songs (although the radio broadcast version was complete). For the from Miles himself, cutting through like rays of sunDVD those missing songs have been restored and the picture and sound have light during a violent storm. But unlike most jazz been given beautiful, sharp upgrades, making this the best footage available recordings up to that time, Bitches Brew isn’t just from the historic 1969 tour. The band are playing at an almost telepathic level, the result of incredible musicians improvising live feeling and reacting to the subtle movements in sound and energy between in the studio with each other. Miles and longtime them. This footage shows an extremely confident band roaring through an excitproducer Teo Macero did extensive post production ing set performed at an almost unrelenting level of intensity. Watch “Agitation” editing via additional effects added to the tracks where Miles solos for two minutes straight and as soon as he finishes, Shorter such as reverb, tape delay and echo. Hell, even the grabs the ball and continues on an increasingly fluid soprano sax for over four cover artwork’s mix of psychedelic and African imminutes. Once he’s done, Chick Corea jumps in on electric piano at full flight. ages was groundbreaking for a jazz sleeve. Having a strong firecracker like Jack De Johnette fueling the engine will lead One of the key tracks on Bitches Brew is undoubt- to that kind of seamless interplay. It makes for an astounding viewing and lisedly “Miles Runs The Voodoo Down.” Over a simtening experience. mering groove pushed forward by some propulsive, These additional ingredients make the Legacy Edition funky electric bass (courtesy of two electric bass of Bitches Brew the definitive version. guitars and a bass clarinet, now there’s some botThe impact of this powerful music is obvious when tom!) keyboardists Joe Zawinul and Chick Corea you consider that it practically spawned the entire fusion add big blocks of colour. Then Miles solos with movement of the 70’s. After all, musicians in such imporas bright and round a tone as he has ever had. He tant fusion groups such as Lifetime, Return To Forever, throws dramatic shapes into the air high above the Mwandishi / Headhunters and Mahavishnu Orchestra all Bitches Brew casual rumble beneath him (Miles is a little higher appear on Bitches Brew. And Miles is the one who got them Edition is in the mix than the other soloists). John McLaugh- Legacy all together on one of the greatest jazz albums of all time. available now from So there. lin’s solo begins with some almost tentative notes Columbia/Legacy. 14

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Confession Is Good for the Soul Of Montreal visit a science fiction dance party on False Priest

by Brian Baker

n this age of unsavory stories regarding predatory men of the cloth, it’s

the opportunity, wheneasy to read a darker meaning into the title of the latest Of Montreal album. ever we’re off the road, whenever I have a free Though Kevin Barnes, the band’s primary creative spark, says he came up moment at the piano, with the title during a moment of free association, he admits that he’s had I’m thinking about somefun with the imagery conjured up by the phrase False Priest. ¶ “I’ve said that thing new to create.” At the same time, the ‘false priest’ is the voice inside of everybody that misleads you, and sends Barnes’ publicist conyou to darker places you shouldn’t go to, and sabotages you, in a way,” he says. tacted pop wunderkind Whatever’s behind the title, musically False Priest is the next evolutionary step and star producer Jon Brion, who had been comfor Of Montreal, which began life as a gloriously lo-fi and giddily complex indie- plimentary about Of Montreal in interviews. An pop band, initially helping to anchor the neo-psychedelic Elephant 6 collective initial (long) phone conversation led to Brion and in the ’90s. In the new millennium, however, Barnes has slowly transformed the Barnes sharing the bill at a one-off show in L.A. band into an eclectic and flamboyant funk and soul revue. “Marvin Gaye has been last year. Finally, Brion offered to assist on the next a huge influence,” he says. “And of course, George Clinton and his whole scene; OM project. Funkadelic and Parliament and Bootsy Collins and all those guys.” “It was his idea, really,” Barnes says. “He’d become Like every other Of Montreal album, False Priest began with Barnes in his familiar with our stuff, and he knew the story of how Athens, GA home studio, crafting sounds and beats and applying lyrics from I made records—doing everything myself and workvarious journals to these sonic fragments until songs took shape. ing in my home studio, one track at a time. He could “I started working right away,” he says. “Once [Of Montreal’s 2008 album] tell there were some limitations [to my approach]. Skeletal Lamping was over, whenever I had free time, I would start writing From being in the industry for so long, he’s learned again. I never put six months aside for writing; it’s always just whenever I have a lot, and he wanted to impart that knowledge to me. 16

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It was almost a charitable thing. He didn’t get that much out of it—definitely financially he didn’t. It was more a labor of love.” By the time Brion came onboard, Barnes was already deep in the material that would become False Priest, steered by those classic ’70s funk and soul records. “With Skeletal Lamping, I had this vision where I wanted everything to be schizophrenic and fragmented, and experiment with song structure,” he says. “[For False Priest] I was thinking more about trying to create really well-crafted, unpredictable pop songs, but also infusing it with this new funk influence. I really wanted that to come through, especially vocally. I wanted to have a bit more attitude and swagger.” Going deeper in soul, Barnes was drawn to the Wondaland Arts Society, an Atlanta collective founded by singer Janelle Monae. Through Monae, he met Solange Knowles, sister of the impossibly famous Beyoncé, and both Solange and Monae would eventually add their voices to False Priest. “It’s a real eclectic group,” says Barnes of the Wondaland Arts Society. “I met them after a show on the Skeletal Lamping tour; we were just hanging out. In Athens, we live in a bubble. There are a lot of talented bands and artists, but there aren’t a lot of people doing what we’re interested in doing right now, which is a freak funk, theatrical, dance-y project. With Janelle Monae and Wondaland, we discovered we had so much in common, and it became this great motivator. I would write songs to send to them and feed off the energy they would give back to me. It was like finding a new best friend; it just clicks right away.” Barnes also met Monae collaborator Chuck Lightning through the WAS, a fellow literary aficionado who introduced Barnes to science fiction and the gritty majesty of the late Philip K. Dick. Under Dick’s influence, Barnes wrote “Enemy Gene,” arguably the only dance jam in history to address particle wave duality. “I always felt like science fiction was a bit nerdy, like comic books,” Barnes says. “But Philip K. Dick’s sci-fi is very cutting edge, and very psychologically advanced. It takes you places. It almost hurts your brain, the way you jump from different dimensions and realities. How free he is, creatively, was really inspiring to me.” Eventually, Barnes took the False Priest tapes to Los Angeles. He was amazed at the way Brion was able to expand his sound, including the first discernible instance of true bottom-end to appear on an Of Montreal album. “That was definitely Jon’s influence,” Barnes says. “The things I sent him sounded, as far as the fidelity, like Skeletal Lamping. And that’s what he was talking about helping me improve upon: more present, punchy, powerful lowend, as well as a higher ceiling and broader sides. And because I don’t have a lot of money or equipment, I use what I have. A lot of times I’ll use a software version of some vintage keyboard. He would have that vintage keyboard. Instead of using a Mellotron or Chamberlin plug-in, we’d use a real Chamberlin. But we were conscious of not wanting to try to make this thing too slick for no real reason. We wanted to make it hi-fi, but in a cool way.” As a result of Barnes’ happy accidents and Brion’s know-how, False Priest is an extraordinary document driven by the songwriter’s reverence for Sly and the Family Stone, along with his longstanding love of glam and pop. Each song seems to call up a different fantasy collaboration. “Godly Intersex” and “Casualty of You” sound like Hunky Dory-era David Bowie after binging on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack; “Coquet Coquette” offers up a mash-up of Marc Bolan and Jeff Lynne; “Like a Tourist” brings together Prince and 10cc; “Famine Affair” shivers and shakes with the intensity of Robert Smith contracting a virulent case of dance fever. —Kevin Barnes

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“I wanted to make a funky record that’s not necessarily about love or romance or sex or dancing,” Barnes says. “I can’t write an R&B sex jam. It just wouldn’t work for me. Before I went to California to work with Jon, I was doing everything myself, so it was extremely challenging to create something that feels like [Sly and the Family Stone’s] There’s a Riot Goin’ On with just one person. The challenge was: How can I put so much energy and emotion into this thing that it gives you the same feeling as Stevie Wonder records? Stevie actually did things like that, so he shows you that it’s possible. You have to have the right spirit.” In fact, it was footage of Sly and the Family Stone at Woodstock that pushed Barnes out of his longtime mode of learning how to play his home-crafted albums by rote memorization without actually investing False Priest anything in the performance. hits stores Barnes was inspired at the sight September 14 from Polyvinyl. of Sly in full, freewheeling live flight, playing with a combination of abandon and precision. “We’ve been relying on backing tracks, and it became a bit oppressive because it was always the same,” Barnes says. “The computer told us when to start and stop, and there was no room for spontaneity. We became a solid band, but it became boring. A big thing was watching how fucking incredible Sly and the Family Stone were, with everybody nailing their parts and grooving so hard and being so emotionally connected to every song. It made me realize I’d been standing on the back of my feet, not really getting into it. I’ve made this funky record. If we’re going to bring it to the people, we really have to bring it—and not just for their sake, but for our own.”

We’ve been relying on backing tracks and it became a bit oppressive because it was always the same. The computer told us when to start and stop, and there was no room for spontaneity. ”

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The Remedy

Aloe Blacc’s seductive sound takes aim at social ills on Good Things / by Sean L. Maloney

was just trying to pick which genre would come first.

It could have been hip-hop or dancehall or salsa or R& B, but I guess the opportunity presented itself to make a soul album.” ¶ Multi-instrumentalist, singer and producer Aloe Blacc is on the phone from L.A., talking about the genesis of Good Things, his sophomore release for legendary independent label Stones Throw. And while it’s clear from half a continent away that Blacc’s thoughtfulness and humility are genuine, they also seriously undersell his skills. “Stones Throw suggested I work with [production team] Truth and Soul, and it works. It’s one solid soul album all the way through.” Again with the understatement: Good Things isn’t just a “solid” soul album. It’s quite possibly the best—and certainly one of the most fully realized—examples of the genre this century has yet to produce. Simmered in the volatile social climate of Obama’s America, Good Things, the follow up to Blacc’s 2006 alt-gospel/salsa-hop solo debut Shine Through, is the rare contemporary soul record that actually engages with the present day. And it’s this embrace (and critique) of the culture of 2010 that elevates Good Things above Blacc’s flogging-a-funkhorse peers, content to rest on the laurels of musicians from an era they’re too young to remember From album opener “I Need a Dollar”—a.k.a. the theme song to HBO’s short-lived series How to Make It in America—to the fuzzed-up guitar and Sgt. Pepper’s-worthy horns on the fade out of “Politician (Reprise),” Good Things is full of richly drawn characters, the down-and-out of the 21st century. The protagonist of “Dollar” isn’t just a victim of the current economic downturn, and he definitely isn’t one of the aspirational hipsters that made up the cast of How to Make It in America. He’s a truly tragic figure, someone who’d be as much at home in a Steinbeck novel as he is in a piano-and-horndriven soul song. The families on the street in “Life Is So Hard” could be casualties of the foreclosure crisis, but are likely the collateral damage of basic institutional 18

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inequality, a system where haves get more and the have-nots barely scrape by. A wonderfully deep piece of funk that highlights Truth and Soul’s mastery of Memphis-style string arrangements and Blacc’s vocals at their world-weary best, “Take Me Back” is also a graduate-level discourse on morality in the face of economic desperation, where being S.O.L. is one of the great sins of capitalism. But at the same time, these aren’t chest-thumping rants or partisan party jams. These are very human stories, unflinching but empathetic. They’re also a departure from the Bushera fire-spewing of Blacc’s work with stalwart indie hip-hop producer Exile in the group Emanon. “On a song like ‘I Need a Dollar,’ I think the socio-political rhetoric is still there, but it’s just a little more blended into a personal tale,” Blacc says. “I capture it in the scenario of one individual’s plight. But in a song like ‘Life Is So Hard’ or ‘Politician,’ I pretty much make a direct statement and attack full-on, attack social conditions and politics.” Good Things is more than just righteous anger and Great Recession handwringing, though. If there’s any greater tribute to the simple pleasures that make life bearable than “Green Lights”—“Something special happened today / I got green lights all the way / With no big red sign to stop me / No traffic jam delay”—you’ll be hard pressed to find it. And when it comes to breezy postbreak-up kiss-offs, few are better than “Good Things”: “Ever since you been gone / There’s been a lot of good things going my way / What can I say / The clouds done rolled away.” And then there’s “Mama Hold My Hand” a masterful tale of growing up, growing old and the way a person’s relationship with their parents changes over the course of a lifetime. A tearjerker of the highest order—think Bill Withers at his most tender—the raw emotion of “Mama” is enough to make even the most grizzled listener misty by the second verse. Therein lies the appeal of Good Things: In an era when so much pop music is about self-promotion, securing commercial endorsements and pandering to the unpredictable whims of preteens, Blacc chooses the heart over the wallet. It helps that he’s the sort of wildly talented musician who can lay claim to any genre he wants—hip-hop, dancehall, salsa or even straight Top 40 if he so desired—and deliver it with the same level mastery demanded of the biggest stars. Good Things Instead he cuts his own path, trying to unknot the tangle of is available September 28 life as experienced today. And for all of us on the listener’s from Stones side, that’s a very good thing. Throw. photo by dan monick

In an era when so much pop music is about

self-promotion, securing commercial

endorsements and pandering to the

unpredictable whims of preteens, Blacc chooses the heart over the wallet.

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The Magic Hour

Roots duo Cotton Jones hymn their hometown on their new album / by Nick Green

all Hours in the Glowstream, the latest full-length from Cotton Jones, is reminiscent of the kind of records that get vinyl collectors’ hearts racing: blues 45s on Chess Records; singles from the Staples Singers; recordings laid down in the studios of Muscle Shoals; the Carter Family’s deep roots; Dusty Springfield’s fateful trip to Memphis. Tall Hours in the Glowstream is positively out of step with the musical trends of 2010. ¶ Cotton Jones founder Michael Nau is flattered by these associations, but his own tastes run towards the otherworldly approach of modern folk-rock exemplars like Neutral Milk Hotel and Danielson Famile. “We’re not trying to make vintage-sounding records,” he says. “We listen to all kinds of music. Things always seem to work out better when we’re not totally in control of what we’re doing… So, the way things sound with Cotton Jones is really just a reflection of our own limited knowledge of recording techniques.”

Unlike past Cotton Jones recordings, Tall Hours in the Glowstream is tethered to a specific time and place—the duo’s former hometown of Cumberland, a sleepy community in the Appalachian Valley in the western part of Maryland. The record’s title is a coy reference to “a stream that rolls to a dead end by the train tracks” in downtown Cumberland, while the gorgeous centerpiece “Somehow to Keep It Going” features a velvety callTall Hours in the Glowstream is a direct continuation of 2009’s Paranoid and-response harmony between Nau and McGraw Cocoon. Nau and co-conspirator Whitney McGraw are still laying the music that evokes a slow ride rolling down the river. down in bedrooms and still utilizing the same 8-track recorder they shared in “It’s the first time, to my recollection, that speciftheir pre-CJ folk collective Page France. The duo’s new moniker—shortened ics have ever made their way into a Cotton Jones from the Cotton Jones Basket Ride to ease confusion—has apparently stuck. But song,” Nau says, explaining the record’s multiple Nau now envisions Cotton Jones as an “open-door process.” Tall Hours in the references to Cumberland landmarks. “But we’ve Glowstream includes contributions from most of Nau and McGraw’s always moved around during those times former Page France bandmates. that we weren’t playing music on the road. That open-door approach is in stark contrast to the duo’s process Ultimately, it doesn’t matter because on Paranoid Cocoon, where Nau and McGraw kept things between ‘home’ is where the people and places themselves until the final mixing stages. “We’re touring musicians,” dearest to me are.” Tall Hours in the GlowNau says. “We don’t make a lot of money. And right now, all of our stream suggests that Nau and McGraw stuff is in storage and both of us are essentially homeless. So, we’re might be feeling a little separation anxithankful for the time each person invested [in the album], out of the ety from their hometown. “Well, it’s nosTall Hours in the kindness of their hearts, for a few cooked meals and some fellowship. talgic for feelings and, I suppose, physical Glowstream is in It freshened up the process with new positivity, and hopefully the places,” he laughs. “But everything else is stores now from Suicide Squeeze. end result as well.” purely coincidental.” 20

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Dubstep

A bass-heavy UK genre transforms itself into the 21st century’s most unpredictable club sound / by Jess Harvell

for the producers who wanted the kids, ladies and dilettantes ing. They’re the low-end freaks who think Jah Wobble was the real out of the clubs. Yet now, alhero in Public Image Ltd. The kids who sink their college funds most 10 years later, dubstep into new speakers for hand-me-down junkers, because hip-hop is beloved by music geeks evsounds best behind the wheel, but only with a booming system. erywhere. Indie bands like the They’re also the true believers who’ve turned dubstep into an in- XX and Foals—and pop stars from Britney Spears to Eve, La ternational near-religion over the last decade. Roux to M.I.A.—have borrowed Dubstep began life as a wholly local phenomenon, restricted its vocabulary. Dubstep may have never crossed over, at least in to a handful of South London producers and DJs. Dubstep’s roots America, but in terms of influence it’s been some of the most cruwere in UK garage, which recycled the basic elements of drum and cial music of the early 21st century. bass, the deep reggae-derived bass and crazily chopped-up hipThe reason is simple. Dubstep had to branch out, eventually, or hop breaks. Then it slowed things down (to house music tempo), it would have died at the hands of the same five or six South Lonwhile also glitzing them up (via R&B influences). doners whose bunker mentality brought it into existence. Once One summer, garage was the tight-lipped secret of those who the outsiders came in, dubstep’s sound began to open up, taking bought 12-inch vinyl singles. A year later it was blaring from the on styles beyond “bludgeoning the listener with bass.” stage of Top of the Pops. What was being lost in the transition, For instance, Mala’s “Alicia,” available on YouTube and worth some producers and DJs felt, was the roughness of hip-hop, an seeking out immediately, is a bootleg remix of an Alicia Keys song edge of urban menace. But they especially missed the bass, which that crafts a dreamlike oxymoron: futuristic retro-soul. But 16bit’s became less essential as garage went from music for clubs to mu“Chainsaw Calligraphy” barely sounds like music, let alone anysic for British MTV. And so: dubstep. thing funky, offering a coarse blast of videogame noise to sand Dubstep took a few years to find its feet, both sonically and down the wrinkles on your brain. culturally. The earliest examples, from 2003 and 2004, are like From kissing-cousin hookups with minimal techno produca robot trying to get its head around the all-too-human sound of ers to détentes with guitar bands, dubstep’s current range would reggae. A bluntly syncopated beat, a grainy sample from an old likely shock its early partisans. Despite naysayers’ predictions dancehall song, and then boom. You couldn’t call them “basslines” of a swift demise, dubstep has thrived. And like all genres driven per se; they were more like wobbling walls that crashed down by equal parts novelty and innovation, tradition and fad, dubstep upon you at the whim of the DJ. produces a staggering quantity of records every year. Here are six Sparse and antagonistic, this early dubstep was greeted with key moments from its short but densely packed history. shrugs outside the scene, which of course was the whole point 22

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ass: For some people, it’s more than a sound. It’s a reason for liv-

The Roots

Various Artists, The Roots of Dubstep / Tempa (2006) Released by Tempa, a label that specialized in “dark garage” singles before dubstep even had its own rack in the store, The Roots of Dubstep offers exactly what the title advertises. Beginning with the pinpoint avant R&B beats of garage legend Steve Gurley and ending

THE CLASSICS

US). There’s nary a rapper to be found on Grime or Grime 2, but the sound is certainly grimy. This is early dubstep at its starkest, and it’s tempting to say it’s of historical interest only. (Both comps feature artists who’d go on to both scene prominence and better records.)

But there’s also something undeniably compelling about the dread these producers conjure up, especially Plasticman’s electro-dubstep, breakdance music for a world where b-boys latched onto Throbbing Gristle rather than the Art of Noise.

tion of non-DJs for an hour. But mostly Burial became dubstep’s first big name because of his sound: an eerie, after-midnight atmosphere that evokes walking home from a club in the rain more than the rave itself, with synth melodies and vocal samples that glow like white highway arc lamps. If anything

defines Burial’s music, it’s the voices—samples from old soul records distressed until they sound like static-y bursts of radio, voices full of longing— that also makes Burial one of the most emotionally affecting electronic records of the decade.

Burial, Burial / Hyperdub (2006) 2006’s Burial is the album that broke dubstep to a wider audience, for several reasons. One, Burial was a shadowy Londoner who made Thomas Pynchon look like an Access Hollywood gadabout, always a good hook for journalists. Two, Burial was the first dubstep album that could actually hold the atten-

THE FUTURE

bined the friskiness of garage rhythms with a glowering reggae vibe. Horsepower, in particular, are three of the most undersung producers of the 21st century, with the kind of luscious bass tones that almost feel like hooks.

Various Artists, Grime and Grime 2 / Rephlex (2004, 2005) Now these are two of the most misleading titles in dubstep history. “Grime” is actually a wholly different garage offshoot, where young British MCs used garage beats to make their own brand of homegrown hip-hop (Dizzee Rascal still being the most famous in the

THE CROSSOVER

with the party-killing gloom of Digital Mystikz’s “Pathways,” Roots demonstrates how this music went from bubbly to bruising in just a few years. Most notable are inclusions from El-B and Horsepower Productions, two early Tempa producers whose records com-

Zomby, One Foot in Front of the Other / Ramp (2009) Kode9, DJ Kicks / K!7 (2010)

The final few years of the decade saw dubstep explode: new audiences, new producers and most importantly, a plethora of new sounds. Plenty of dubstep records still favor football hooligan hardness over pop seduction, but even the rough stuff is getting way stranger. Zomby’s One Foot in Front of the Other is evidence of the DNA-level damage video games have done to under30s. Along with producers like

Rusty and Joker, Zomby is remaking old-school Nintendo music in dubstep’s image, bright as the 8-bit era’s 256color palette and buzzing with psychedelic overtones more “last scene in 2001” than Animal Collective. Meanwhile longtime scene fixture (and Grime 2 contributor) Kode9 almost captures dubstep’s modern breadth in just an hour on his 2010 installment of the DJ Kicks

series. As with his label, Hyperdub, Kode9 is no purist; the mix ranges into other genres, like hip-hop and dancehall, which will keep dubstep newbies from burning out. But it also manages to make disparate dubstep sounds, from Ikonika’s light and twinkling techno to Grievous Angel’s Jamaica-indebted retro, sound natural only a few tracks apart. As an intro, it really can’t be beat.

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/music

(Extended) Family Affair Phil Selway puts his drums in storage and makes some new friends for his first solo album / by Jess Harvell

ike those pro athletes who ditch the sport that made them famous

to try their hand at a whole new game, you worry a bit when a virtuoso musician sets down their chosen instrument to record a solo album. For Phil Selway—also known as Radiohead’s drummer, meaning he came up with the booming “Airbag” break for starters—it meant ditching the drum kit entirely. There are no beats on Familial, Selway’s first release under his own name, unless you count a smattering of small moments where it sounds like someone’s drumming on the guitar case. That’s the potentially scary news. The good news is that Familial is another Radiohead side project that succeeds because it sounds very little like the World’s Biggest Art-Rock Band. Like Thom Yorke’s solo Eraser and Jonny Greenwood’s soundtrack work, there are echoes of Radiohead on Familial, especially the band’s gentler acoustic moments, but it also recalls the drowsy, drifting, late-night quality you’ll find on records by the Blue Nile and David Sylvian. As a singer-songwriter with a rather exquisite ear for atmosphere, Selway has both listened hard, and found a voice of his own. It took some time to locate that voice, of course. Selway first picked up a guitar when he was a teenager, in tandem with the drums, and continued to play throughout his tenure in Radiohead, though “in a very private way, very much in the confines of my own room, very much under the radar. Nobody really heard it, apart from my wife from time to time.” It wasn’t until he was drafted several years ago by Neil Finn to take part in Seven Worlds Collide, a benefit project for anti-poverty group Oxfam, that he wrote Familial’s “The Ties That Bind” and met future collaborators Lisa Germano, Sebastian Steinberg, and Wilco members Glenn Kotche and Pat Sansone. The foursome “really brought my songs to life, and opened up possibilities for me. But it was a very natural process.” He laughs. “Neil 24

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Finn had done all the hard work for me.” Selway returned to England, and on breaks from Radiohead, he kept at the guitar, “chipping away” at songs and fired by the “intense creativity” of the Seven Worlds Collide sessions. Eventually it became hard to ignore that these low-key, home-brewed tunes, not quite right for the Brit-prog grandeur of his regular gig, seemed to be building to an album. He began working with producer Ian Davenport who “helped me find my singing voice” and the two began a long process of demo-ing and refining. “It felt like a new process,” he says. “I hadn’t written anything since I was a teenager, and so coming to the process as some—Phil Selway one who was turning 40, you have to find something that’s appropriate to that, and that reflects that.” For lyrical inspiration, he didn’t have to look much further than his own house, and his own his-

“

You turn 40, and hopefully you’ve got a much more developed sense of yourself. And although there’s a lot going on in your life, it isn’t necessarily the stuff you think of as being very ‘rock and roll.’”

photo by lucas hardison

fect is magnified on even cheap headphones; you might as well be sitting opposite the band. “There were also records that were touchstones for me as well, things like Master and Everyone, the Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy record,” he says. “Those records, you get feel for the time and place of the recording, that sense of everything that’s going on in tory. The title is a bit of a tip-off, but Familial is Selway taking stock of the the room at the time. The fact that you can hear picks relationships that formed him, and drawing on a married father’s day-to-day. scraping or strings buzzing, I think it draws you in “I wouldn’t be ready to write these lyrics any time before turning 40,” Selway much closer to the whole recording.” says. “You turn 40, and hopefully you’ve got a much more developed sense of But despite the sounds of ambient life bleeding yourself. And although there’s a lot going on in your life, it isn’t necessarily the through, Familial was also carefully edited. “The stuff you think of as being very ‘rock and roll.’ But there’s just a huge richness more obvious things, where you have somebody in it, a huge richness in commonplace stuff. That’s where I’ve always felt the dropping a pile of plates in the background, those heartbeat of my life is, really.” aren’t the kind of things you want in there, so you There was, of course, a not inconsiderable final hurdle before inviting his new cut those out,” he says. “But there are things like the bandmates to England: This was the first time Selway had stepped in front of occasional door slamming, which suddenly sounds a microphone in a nearly 20-year career as a professional musician. “I made like part of the song itself. And that can really lend a compilation CD for myself when I started, more as a kind of guide towards something to the recording.” how to sing,” he says. Selway’s voice has the appealing fragility of a first-time Selway doesn’t dismiss the idea of a second solo singer who’s still a bit tentative about his talent, but his hushed restraint also album, but he also notes that “the way that we work feels more like a choice than a necessity. as Radiohead, that kind of determines everything “There are always those singers that have a very distinctive approach, but else, as it should. We have our ‘Radiohead Time,’ reyou’re just drawn into them, really,” he says of his how-to-sing CD-R, which ally, where we work for these certain periods which included artists like Juana Molina and Beth Gibbons. “There’s someare very intensive, trying to get a lot done thing so intimate about how they put a song across. It’s not about in that time. But we’ve also realized that making these great statements; it’s just drawing you in. I like that the way we work also benefits from havkind of intimacy.” ing some time away.” And as for the longFamilial really is an eerily intimate recording, where the atmoawaited eighth Radiohead album, the folsphere of the room—the coughs and chairs shifting and rustling of low-up to 2007’s “gave it away for free and clothes—becomes another instrumental color in the mix. Though it still sold a zillion copies” In Rainbows? Selway often sings only a notch above a whisper, it feels as if he’s Selway says the band is no rush to get prodhovering right by your ear, and the microphones sound like they were uct to market. “We work in leap years,” he Familial is available in placed centimeters from the guitars, so close that you can hear the laughs. “We work on a four-year cycle. And stores now from squeak and hum of fingers brushing strings. Needless to say, the efit’s a nice way of working.” Nonesuch. needle

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Everythingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Ruin-ed Les Savy Favâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Tim Harrington offers a little peek behind his not-quite-hinged onstage persona / by Michaelangelo Matos

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ome bands get angry when their new albums leak. That’s perfectly

understandable. Musicians work hard to put out good work, and they’d prefer it be presented in the manner, and on the timetable, of their choosing. And of course there’s also the not-so-small consideration of lost sales. Sometimes lawsuits are initiated. ¶ As usual, Brooklyn art-punks Les Savy Fav had a different idea. When Root for Ruin—the band’s fifth full-length and, along with 2001’s Go Forth and 2007’s Let’s Stay Friends, their third great album in a row—hit the internet in July, two months ahead of schedule, they took action in their own way. “OK, so you got our leaked record,” read the notice on a special page of the band’s website. Under the heading “I ‘Stole’ Root for Ruin,” the message went on: “At least now you know how awesome it is. We’re sure you really just are desperate for a way to pay us for the thing. Here—donate some cash to us and be free of guilt—for the record. Pay extra and your [sic] also forgiven for sex sins and stuff and we’ll tell Jesus to send you cookies.” A PayPal button was conveniently placed at the bottom of the page to expedite the cookie-sending process. This is a typical move for the quintet—wild-man singer Tim Harrington, guitarists Seth Jabour and Andrew Reuland, bassist Syd Butler and drummer Harrison Haynes—whose incredible live show typically features Harrington climbing on anything that will support him while the band grinds out kinetic riffs. For one memorable gig at Seattle’s Capitol Hill Block Party, for instance, Harrington spent most of the performance atop the Pike Street sign. Critic Robert Christgau once typified the Replacements as “a band whose idea of inspiration was crashing into a snowbank and coming out with a six-pack,” and that phrase describes Les Savy Fav’s kind of mayhem to a T. Reached by phone as he heads to Central Park on a steaming July afternoon shortly after Root for Ruin’s leak, Harrington looks for the bright side. “The whole lead-up to the record coming out [has to] be fun and cool and interesting,” he says. “Of course, we’re off the hook. We don’t have to do anything now!” Few rock musicians see the Zen angle to the world going to hell in a handbasket the way Harrington does. At one point, he says, “Any time you’re out until the sun comes up is an epiphany moment.” It’s a manifesto that works for him, and it feeds the band as well. Les Savy Fav, as he points

out, were hardly raking in the cash even before their latest music made its way into cyberspace’s free-sharing clutches. “The band has never been a main job for any of us,” he says. “It’s never been in a place where we’ve had to rely on it. I always describe our band as completely unprofessional—as a pride point. I think all of us come from [a place] where the idea of a band [as] something that constitutes a paid job seems absurd. All these years later, that’s not what it’s about. Everyone did it because, ‘Hey, we can get paid gas money and have a place to stay and go to shows all over the country—and be playing in them?’ [That] was the main motivator. We had ‘mission accomplished’ in 1996. Since then, everything’s kind of just sugar.” Les Savy Fav met at the Rhode Island School of Design, an art college famous for incubating bands like Talking Heads and noise acts Black Dice and Lightning Bolt. When Go Forth came out in 2001, bassist Butler told me that he’d “hated Tim for the majority of RISD life, and I think he hated me.” “I was super-eccentric,” Har—Tim Harrington rington explains now. “When I first started school, it was a 24hours-a-day our-live-show situation, which, to most people who are normal, was completely annoying. I basically, somehow, even though we were at art school together, thought [Butler] was a frat-boy jock. I had never actually met a real one, so it was hard for me to gauge. I’ve since met real ones, and he’s a complete hippie by comparison.” Was there a moment, or an event, when Harrington and Butler finally clicked? “I’m waiting for

“

I always describe our band as completely unprofessional—as a pride point.”

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it still,” Harrington says with a laugh. That sharp wit is all over Root for Ruin. Harrington takes his lyrics seriously without bashing you over the head—that’s the music’s job. “I really like the idea of burying some kind of concrete meanings or specific analogies or references into a song in a way that, if somebody wants to get down and listen to it, there’s meat on it,” he says. “You’re singing along, and you stop for a second sometimes and analyze what you’re singing along to, and realize it’s a little bit fucked up. Like, ‘Don’t pay attention to us.’ But if and when you do, I’d like people to be surprised by the amount of density there is. I get really into lyrics. I had a hard time, for a really long time, liking Led Zeppelin at all, in spite of how awesome they are, because the lyrics are so bad.” The title Root for Ruin, he says, comes from the idea of “cheerleading for the Armageddon. That kind of idea of some level of acceptance of the world, and any person’s position in it, and to say it is what it is. You can try and spend your whole life with your foot on the brakes, or you can just gas it and hope you either get someplace better, or at least enjoy the ride.” On “Excess Energies,” Harrington sings, “I am only 17 / Someone kick me in the teeth,” before jumping to lines about the highs and lows of being 21 and 35. “Those points of time [in my life] aren’t alien to me,” he says. “But that idea of lyrics as a personal catharsis somehow is not where I operate from. I was really moved once by a professor back in school talking about someone who had come in with a piece of emotional painting, attributed to heavy-duty high school stuff. The professor said, ‘You shouldn’t use your art to work out your emotions, especially if they’re negative, ’cause you’ll end up needing more negative emotions to make more art.’ I took that to heart, always.” Besides, he says, “In that song, I intended to hit all the same years as Frank Sinatra’s ‘It Was a Very Good Year’: When I was 17 ...” Harrington has found inspiration in far odder places. “You know that movie Happiness?” he asks, referring to director Todd Solondz’s epic 1998 bummer. “I remember [one] Christmas Day, I insisted that my whole family also sit down and watch this movie. It wasn’t a good idea. I’ve basically never lived it down. But the scene when the son is talk30

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ing to his dad, when his dad is about to go to jail for being a pedophile. It’s such a strangely, completely twisted set-up: The kid wants to know, ‘Dad, do you love me?’ It comes through this totally bizarre, insane route.” That scene helped trigger “Adopduction,” Go Forth’s searing highlight. It’s a song whose narrator is kidnapped by “a guy with a mustache and a chick with an eye patch” who wind up taking better care of their abductee than his actual parents, who never even bother ponying up the ransom to get their son back. “It really amazed me—the idea of a complicated relationship with a kid who ends up with his kidnappers for so long that they kind of have some love for him. Like Patty Hearst: You end up coming to love your kidnappers or your torturers.” Harrington courts a different sort of danger in his go-for-broke live performances. Has he ever felt truly endangered onstage? “I would say no, but I also think I have a somewhat false sense of security. I have a huge amount of trust in the audience as helpers and protectors. That hasn’t been violated. I’ve lucked out.” The main exception, Harrington says, took place in L.A., when a handicapped kid stood onstage spanking him with a wooden cane: “I started to turn toward him and he pulled it way back, as if he was about to [hit me], so I instinctively popped him.” The kid wound up with a nosebleed, but according to the Harrington, “Five seconds later I got up and we mouth-kissed as a sign that we were peace. I wouldn’t want to revisit it. Luckily in the end, though, the bad vibe was cheered by my make-out session with him.” Given his audience participation tactics, I asked if anyone ever approached Harrington on the street and said, “Hey, you sat on my head at a show in Pittsburgh.” “Yeah, all the time,” he says. “It’s always funny telling them, ‘Look, kid, I’ve sat on a lot of people’s heads.’” Recently, Les Savy Fav played a free show for Jabour’s bachelor party. “Only ladies were allowed in,” Harrington says. “Everybody had a good time. I also got completely wasted, which I don’t normally do before we play. [Afterwards], I was saying, ‘We should have played this song,’ and everyone was like, ‘We did.’ I was like, ‘What about this one?’ ‘We played that one, too.’ I’m scared maybe, like, I murdered somebody.” Root for Ruin Surely the feedback from an all-female audience differs will be available (legally) on from that of a typical Les Savy Fav crowd? “To be totally September 14 honest, it was about 50-50,” he says. “Some dudes snuck in. from French Kiss. There were some trannies. It was cool. It seemed about the same vibe, but somehow there was no mosh pit.”

Everyday Hustle

Indie jazz musicians make it happen D.I.Y. style

by Phil Freeman

eing an independent musician, in any genre, in

arcy James Argue may have laid more obstacles Darcy James Argue 2010 is an uphill battle at best. You work a crap job in his own path than any to make enough money to produce a CD, then you musician in contemporary do everything possible to sell it. (Tour, promote it jazz. A pianist born in British Columbia, he studied through various social media, attempt to get any at the New England Conservatory before moving press you can.) And all this is just in the hope that to Brooklyn and assembling the Secret Society, an you’ll make enough money to go through the whole process 18-piece big band that sounds like nothing you’ve again the next year. ¶ The worst part might be contend- ever heard. There’s some of the heavy, yet graceful swing of Duke Ellington in the band’s horn-heavy ing with the perception-twisting factor of even minor cult compositions, but electric guitar gives it a post-rock fame. Seeing your name on a screen or a printed page can sting, and the music’s more expansive, spacious inbe a thrill, but press doesn’t equal record sales, and blog terludes and occasionally dubby production techhype doesn’t equal gig opportunities. And when you’re niques could easily appeal to fans of Tortoise or Explosions in the Sky. playing jazz, a wildly amorphous and The 35-year-old Argue hard-to-define music (everything from doesn’t record standards. EvKenny G to Peter Brötzmann), a genre ery note of the Secret Society’s that makes up barely more than one music is original, and composThe time it takes to ing for big band is no small task. percent of all CDs sold in a given year, time it takes to generate you’ve got real trouble. Unless you’re generate a minute of “The a minute of music is so insane some kind of ultra-driven entrepremusic is so insane for this band, I don’t know what neur who can and does devote as much was thinking, other than the for this band, I don’t Isound energy to salesmanship and the search of that many musicians for new revenue streams as you do to know what I was playing together got really, really for me,” he confesses writing, rehearsing and playing your thinking, other than addictive with a laugh. “When we have a music, that is. ¶ Fortunately for jazz really great gig, it gets into my the sound of that and its fans, there’s a whole generation veins and I just can’t stop. If I many musicians of young musicians—“young” in jazz, as looked at it rationally, there’s in literature, is anybody under 50—who no way I could defend anything playing together that I’ve done, the choices I’ve are straight-up hustlers. They know got really, really made about how to make music their music is a tough sell, so they take and where to play it and who to addictive for me. it upon themselves to make that sale any play it for. But it just became this way they can. —Darcy James Argue irresistible urge.”

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/music Secret Society gigged around New York for three years before making a record, concentrating on alternative venues like CBGBs, Bell House and Union Hall rather than the city’s jazz clubs. “I like playing for standing room crowds. I like playing for a slightly younger demographic—they’re a lot more responsive,” Argue says. But he’s trying to balance these “crossover” gigs with exposure to the mainstream jazz audience, since they’re the ones who still buy jazz records. “There are people who are gonna have a lot more fun standing around for three hours and hearing three progressive-minded big bands and having beer spilled on their feet. And there are other people who are not gonna be able to hang with that. And being able to play out in a bunch of different venues and build audiences, and meet them halfway as far as the kind of environment they want to be in, is a big part of trying to figure out how to make this absurdly large ensemble viable.” The group’s first studio album, Infernal Machines, was recorded in three days in December 2008 and mixed over the course of two months, with funding provided by fans and Argue’s credit cards. Rather than approach a traditional jazz label and sign a standard deal, he enlisted the adventurous classical/art-pop imprint New Amsterdam in a partnership, which “helps me reach some people outside the jazz world [who are] into interesting notated music that sounds like it has something to do with

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the present day.” He owns his own masters, and runs his career how he likes, including offering free downloads of every Secret Society gig at the band’s blog (secretsociety.typepad.com).

eattle-based trumpeter Jason Parker is making exactly the kind of music that mainstream jazz labels released in prior decades—melodic, swinging hard bop that’ll hit all the pleasure buttons of a listener raised on Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard or ’50s Miles Davis. The Jason Parker Quartet’s self-titled 2007 debut and 2010’s No More, No Less (both released on the Broken Time label) each offer a mix of standards, originals and surprises. Tunes by Davis, Wayne Shorter, George and Ira Gershwin, and Cole Porter are all part of the band’s repertoire, but so is Nick Drake’s “Three Hours.” His website, jasonparkermusic.com, features official gig announcements, while the less formal oneworkingmusician.com offers blog entries from a recent tour, YouTube videos and the music from both albums available for download on a name-your-price basis, in 320kbps MP3 and even lossless formats. As a mostly local indie artist, though, Parker’s primary source of income is live performance. And in that realm, he’s got a strategy that’s working quite well for him: Parker and his keyboardist, Josh Rawlings, run J&J Music, an agency that books bands for weddings and corporate events.

The Jason Parker Quartet

photo by Darrah Parker

“The weddings come easier,” he says, “because there’s an infrastructure that’s built up to market to brides and wedding consultants. The corporate gigs have really just developed over time through word of mouth. We’ve developed contacts with some of the bigger entities here in town like Microsoft, Starbucks and Amazon, and over time we’ve played so many of these things that the word gets around. People will start asking around about bands and our name often comes up in the first conversation, which is pretty cool.” The idea of being a wedding band may not sound particularly hip, but it’s helped Parker keep a working group together—keyboardist Rawlings, bassist Evan Flory-Barnes and drummer D’Vonne Lewis, plus frequent guest saxophonist Cynthia Mullins. The frequent gigs (they play almost every weekend in the summer months) allow their instrumental interplay to deepen. This, in turn, fuels the band’s studio work and their other, more traditional live gigs, at which Parker takes the same pay-what-youwant approach he’s employed to sell digital music. “I think the traditional jazz club model is not particularly friendly for a younger audience,” he says. “Even 15, 20 dollars is too much to charge for a ticket here, if you want young people to come. The most successful gigs I’ve had in the last year and a half, both financially and as far as size and demographic breadth, have been at a club that never charges a cover charge. It’s free to walk in the door seven nights a week. So, throughout the show I will say, ‘Glad you’re digging it—there’s a tip jar right here.’ Or, ‘There’s a box at the door; we’d love for you to show your financial love for us in some way.’” According to Parker, this voluntary pricing model winds up drawing more people, and earning more money from each person, on average, than a fixed door fee would.

axophonist and composer Ken Vandermark hustles for gigs on an international scale. He’s a veteran of the Chicago jazz scene, having released fistfuls of albums on labels like Okka Disk and Atavistic. In recent years, though, he’s been focusing his efforts on building musical and business relationships in Europe, particularly Scandinavia. Many of his recent releases have been collaborations with Swedish players like drummer Paal Nilssen-Love or saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, and he’s built up a strong sub-catalog on Scandinavian label Smalltown Superjazz. Vandermark now spends, by his estimation, up to eight months a year playing in Europe, simply because for a free jazz saxophonist, that’s where the gigs are—and they’re more rewarding even on a non-monetary level, frequently including food and lodging for the artists, which doesn’t happen in the States. photo by joel wanek

In 1999, Vandermark got a once-in-a-lifetime boost when he received a $265,000 MacArthur “GeKen Vandermark and nius Grant” Fellowship. He immediately pumped the Vandermark 5 the money into supporting his primary bands, the DKV Trio and the Vandermark 5. “When I had the MacArthur, I was subsidizing tours with that money from ’99 to about 2005, and after that money was gone, it was really impossible to tour in North America the way I wanted to.” Though he’s originally from Boston, Vandermark credits the self-determination of the Chicago scene, and the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in particular, as a major inspiration to him and others. “Over the years, there’s been a cultivation of a wide variety of places to play. There’s a venue every night of the week presenting uncommercial improvised music. Some nights there’s more than one thing happening. And it took a long time for that to develop. “In a lot of other cities, just to find someone with an art gallery or a storefront who’ll say, ‘Yeah, you can put your weird music here,’ it’s like starting from the ground up,” Vandermark continues. In Chicago, by contrast, the community spirit is a source of inspiration and reinforcement for independent jazz and improvising musicians. And that’s the larger lesson, one young jazz musicians increasingly seem to be taking to heart—booking their own gigs, funding their own recording sessions and using Facebook, Twitter and blogs to hype releases — Jason Parker and gigs and communicate directly with fans their own age. “When you see someone do it, you say, ‘Shit, I could do that, too,’” says Vandermark. “That makes it a lot more seemingly viable.”

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I think the traditional jazz club model is not particularly friendly for a younger audience. Even 15, 20 dollars is too much to charge for a ticket here, if you want young people to come.”

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Truth Cult

20 years of orbiting the underworld with Daniel Higgs / by Joe Gross

A wall of distortion, a banjo pluck, tattoos everywhere. A beard, a rant, two pair of pants. “Put our heads together, stick our heads together”

y first image of Daniel Higgs—poet,

visual artist, wearer of hats and suits and epic facial hair when it’s way too warm, former (once and future?) singer for the Baltimore rock band Lungfish—is still my favorite: Head thrown back, arms bent in front of the microphone, shadows set to make him look like an imposing animal that somehow wandered on stage, rearing its head back before it howls. It’s the photo on the cover of the first Lungfish EP, 1990’s Necklace of Heads, but it’s also shrunk down to fit the insert to Wedge, the first compilation EP released by Simple Machines Records. The other songs on the comp are the Hated’s cover of Paul Simon’s “I Am a Rock,” (which has to be some sort of emo apotheosis), Geek’s “Herasure” (feminist college rock somewhere between Ignition and Throwing Muses) and Edsel’s “Feeder” (about as heavy as they got). Then there’s Lungfish’s

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“Nothing Is Easy.” Compared to what came later for the band, it’s a fairly traditional rock song—verse chorus verse, 4/4 time, chords and a riff. Anthemic and righteous, romantic and Romantic, it made Baltimore seem like the mystical place—as American Catholicism’s first landing, as the home of activist Philip Berrigan—it deserved to be. Lungfish ran parallel to DC’s post-hardcore ground zero—in the scene, sort of, but not of it. Lungfish’s early records—Heads, 1992’s Talking Songs for Walking, 1993’s Rainbows From Atoms—are post-hardcore triumphs that sound triumphant. Emo, as it were, in the best possible way. All of them refine the Lungfish sound: Asa Osborne’s impossibly simple chords, woven like rough cloth of primitive pattern; drummer Mitchell Feldstein’s weird triplets, used as if that’s the only sound he could make; and bassist John Chriest, widening and deepening the sound. Producer Ian MacKaye, who adored them, gave them a thick, broad sound, while Higgs’ lyrics folded together technology and biology,

sex and meditations, history and nature. Perhaps my single favorite line from this period, from “Abraham Lincoln,” on Rainbows: “What’s gonna free you to see / What you were always free to see through?” Your move, Gertrude Stein. There’s a band photo on the inner sleeve for Talking Songs for Walking wherein Higgs is wearing one pair of pants over another. On anyone else, you’d think, maybe it’s just cold outside. On him? My pals and I speculated over and over: What must he have to contain, lest it destroy us all? Pass and Stow, reissued on remastered LP on Sept. 13 on Dischord—all but the last few of Lungfish’s 12 LPs and EPs are out of print, except digitally—felt like a leap forward. Their sound scaled up, dramatically. On the opener “Cleaner Than Your Surroundings,” a few seconds of silence, then Osborne’s enormous guitar—what was once revolution-summer sublime is now a crashing wave, dense with harmonics, easily the equal of any shoegazer. Then Higgs, intoning like a pagan muezzin: “If. You. Were. To. Be-come. Cleaner than your surroundings / If you WERE to be-COMMME cleaner than your surroundings!” Not a bad summation of punk’s ambition. Higgs’ lyrics become increasingly abstract: “Telling lies, apologizing / For our love of country / Dirt and tree bug river / Blue jay chair leg / Parking meter pinwheel sport coat / Rudder bucket TELESCOPIC!” Song to song, Pass and Stow moves from strength to strength, from the humming, instrumental “At Liberty to Say” to the thunderous “Computer” (“On the one hand you’ve got the law / On the other hand you’ve got the law”) to the loping closer “Terminal Crush” with the somehow deeply disturbing chorus: “Hands they shake, swollen with pills.” Nothing sounded like them then, nothing sounds like them now. Is there higher praise? Should there be? The band continued, with odd breaks here and there, and tiny variations in their sound, mostly getting slower and more deliberate. Repetition, repetition, repetition. Transcendence someday. Or everyday. Their final album was the excellent Feral Hymns in 2005. No way of really knowing if this most recent break is permanent, but it sure feels like it, if for no other reason than Higgs has surged ahead with his solo work, releasing a string of largely acoustic albums of psychedelic ramble that make him the ultimate new weird American. He is Dylan to Devendra Banhart’s Donovan. Higgs, probably in his mid-40s, already seems about 300 years old. If we found out tomorrow that he actually took one of those two pictures of Robert Johnson, or meditated with the Carter Family, or traveled with Woody Guthrie, or co-wrote the goddamn “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” I don’t think his fans would even blink.

Favoring banjo and accordion and Jew’s harp, Higgs’ most recent solo album is the double LP Say God (Thrill Jockey), produced with welcome restraint by TV on the Radio’s David Andrew Sitek. In some ways, Higgs’ M.O. hasn’t changed too much—lots of spirituality that scans as vaguely Christian, but seems more generally Gnostic, Jesus and the Bible as icons of faith rather than something to literally believe in—backed by minimalist drones that reduce the song about as far as it can go while still seeming, well, catchy. (Another album is due in the fall, a collaboration with electronic artist Twig Harper.) I saw Higgs play solo earlier this year. He got lost and was late to the gig, which was in a chapel in Austin. Nobody really minded; everyone was a fanatic. Even more so when the dude bounded up the stairs, walked in, tested the acoustics by shouting, declined amplification, sat down and started to play within two minutes of arriving. It was like seeing an MC roll into a hiphop gig at 2 a.m., grab the mic as he leaves the limo and just start dropping science, like whatever. Amazing. On Say God, “Hoofprints on the Ceilings of Your Mind” alternates between repeating that phrase and repeating the phrase “Holy Bible time,” before Higgs breaks the fourth wall with a monologue explaining the song: “I’ve been making a big deal about [the song] everywhere I go... I feel like a pitch salesman... we’ll skip the pitch and I will unveil the product... inspect this song and see if it lives up to your own standards of song quality.” This goes on for about 12 minutes, the accordion breathing in and out. “Root & Bough” goes on and on in virtually the same breath—for 17 minutes this time—while the solo banjo instrumental “Song for Azariah” provides a little color, like going from black and white to sepia. “Christ Among Us” feels more like one half of a sing-song conversation than anything else. Banjo here and there, mostly a cappella. A little exhausting maybe, but never boring. Or is it a little boring, but never exhausting? Can I even tell anymore? Repetition, repetition, repetition. Transcendence someday. Or everyday. Get familiar.

What must he have to contain, lest it destroy us all?

Say God is available in stores now from Thrill Jockey.

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The Lifers

Superchunk return after nearly a decade with their best album yet / by Jess Harvell

espite the best efforts of the nostalgia industry’s revisionist his-

torians, take it from someone who was there: the early ’90s were not a great time for mainstream rock. Critics and A&R men blathered breathlessly about the alt-rock boom, about young and innovative bands storming the major label system, something they’d been promising since Seymour Stein first went to CBGB’s. In reality, as always, things quickly devolved to business as usual: well-paid professionals playing turgid hard rock, with baggy denim and Manic Panic replacing leather trousers and crimping irons. You still had to go underground to find the good stuff. Twenty-one years ago, Superchunk released their first single on Merge, the label co-owned by members Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan. By the time the band hit their stride in the early ’90s, grunge was D.O.A., a slog through soggy cock rock clichés. Superchunk brought the speed and taut pop smarts of punk, with Ballance’s bass and perpetually underrated drummer Jon Wurster providing pedal-down propulsion as McCaughan and guitarist Jim Wilbur spun buzzsaw melodies. Yes, melodies: Underneath the cranked-up distortion, you could hear a band with the same innate knack for hooks that launched fellow fuzz fiends Hüsker Dü and Dinosaur Jr. They were songs that sounded just as catchy when it was just McCaughan and an acoustic guitar. Superchunk’s records also felt like they came from the real world, or at least the same world as the people who bought them. The band hailed from Chapel Hill, NC—hardly a small town, but also worlds away from the alien urbanite hipness of New York or L.A. Superchunk’s subjects

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were instantly understood by suburban kids desperate for something to do: stumbling home drunk from bad parties at dawn; fumbling through unrequited crushes; playing in a band. Their 1994 classic Foolish made the stuff of twentysomething life—bad breakups, looming adulthood, finding ways to strike out on your own—sound dramatic, without getting melodramatic about it. Superchunk’s records had the spark of something special, but they were made by four people who didn’t act like they were really doing anything special, just working hard, writing songs, playing shows. It wasn’t that you wanted to be them, the way you once dreamed of being Diamond Dave or Axl or any other stretch-limo casualty, because you were probably a lot like them already. They were regular folks; that was part of the draw. That makes the band’s albums sound like period pieces, or at least something best enjoyed when you’re young. Not so. The early ’90s underground was full of punks-gone-tuneful, but few have endured like Superchunk. The band re-

leased eight albums between 1990 and 2001. Over the decade, as indie and its audience changed around them, Superchunk’s music evolved along with its members. McCaughan grew more relaxed as a songwriter with each release, easing into slower tempos, even as later, looser songs like 1999’s “Pink Clouds” still centered around his everyman’s take on romance. As the new millennium rolled around, the band was incorporating classic Brill Building string arrangements and jazz-tinged brass harmonies without abandoning a sense of do-it-yourself accessibility. Until they went on hiatus in 2002, it seemed like Superchunk might turn into a perennial, reliably delivering a new, excellent and slightly different album every few years. The band offered a model for indie rock as a lifelong pursuit, rather than a hobby or a fleeting collegiate fancy. Merge offered its own model for indie self-sufficiency, the still-potent idea that doing small things on your own terms was better (and saner) than becoming the victim of a major label’s fickle accounting. Time has proved McCaughan and Ballance right in this regard; in the band’s downtime, the label has thrived. “At this point, it’s a large beast that needs to be photos by Jason Arthurs

fed,” Ballance says. “We have 11 employees, and they’re part of why we do it, too. And all the bands are part of why we do it—they’re the main reason we do it. All of these bands are relying on us to do a good job representing them. And we feel a personal responsibility to them.” Now, in 2010, it’s a lot harder to claim that indie labels always offer an idealistic alternative to majors. Indie culture is littered with rip-off artists, failed get-richquick schemes and shady entrepreneurs. But outside of Dischord, it’s tough to think of another label that’s stuck to its ideals as fiercely as Merge. And Dischord’s never had a record hit the Top Ten.

Merge is now a most successful label; the current roster includes both the Arcade Fire and Spoon, two bands who have become unexpected mainstream darlings as the goalposts for success have radically shifted. This is a pretty unprecedented state of affairs, especially since Merge still functions on the scale of a resolutely indie operation. Merge does not chase hits; McCaughan and Ballance still sign bands because they love them. If they happen to cross over, great. If not, Merge can at least offer them the same safe haven they’ve built for Superchunk. “I think our independence has been instrumental in our longevity [as a band],”

“

All of these bands are relying on us to do a good job representing them. And we feel a personal responsibility to them.”

—Laura Ballance needle

/music Ballance says. “I think being in a position where the label we’re on is steady—and to toot Merge’s own horn, Merge doesn’t put any pressure on bands to sound a certain way, or have any artistic input into what a band does—being on our own label has been a great way to eliminate outside pressures. And I hope Merge can also play that role for the other bands on the label. We try to be very low pressure, and not stress bands out. The only thing we do that probably does stress them out is that we’re very thrifty. But in the end, that’s less stressful, because you don’t wind up in a position where you’re suddenly in the hole.”

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That independence has also allowed Superchunk to work at their own pace, a luxury in a trend-conscious scene where memories are short and three-year gaps between albums can land you in the “where are they now” file. Superchunk have finally released their ninth album, Majesty Shredding, after a nine-year absence. It is not a reunion record. Superchunk never broke up; they took a break. There’s no pretense on the band’s part that Majesty Shredding is an “event,” because that’d be antithetical to their unassuming just-a-band M.O. But fans should still take note, even those suspicious of albums released after long

hiatuses. Superchunk sound revitalized here. Song for song, Majesty Shredding might just be their best album yet.

New Century Dream

The thing is: Superchunk hadn’t planned on taking a break after 2001’s Here’s to Shutting Up. It only seemed necessary after a grueling tour in support of the album, which happened to be released just a week after 9/11. Needless to say, spirits weren’t particular high in the aftermath. “[Shutting Up] came out on a really bad day, and the touring that we did after it was really hard on all of us,” Ballance

says. “They way we toured, too—we tried to do it all in a really tight schedule, cover Japan, Europe and the United States in a short period of time. We basically killed ourselves. And because of September 11… it’s amazing what it did to people, all over the world. It just knocked the wind out of everybody. Even the people who came to shows, nobody was having a good time. Everyone was just shocked. And so much of what helps bands get through a tour is the energy they get back from people when they play. It just wasn’t there.” Life was intervening, too. There were now children and spouses and the less

rock-friendly pleasures of home to conding] really prevented us from getting too sider. As the band got caught up in the deep into the process, to the point where currents of family responsibility, their you’re sick of the songs. I think there’s a proposed short break began to stretch nice sense of spontaneity to it.” from months to years. There were always McCaughan began demo-ing new Suoutside projects as well: Merge crested perchunk songs, and found himself moving into the 21st century; Wurster moved to away from the ornate pop constructions of New York and began to play with a number the band’s pre-hiatus albums. “I think that of bands, notably the Mountain Goats; and doing a few shows every year, and having a McCaughan, always lot of fun doing them, made me think that an inveterate homerecorder, bore down on this record should be Portastatic, the genrematerial that we really hopping “side project” like to play live,” Mcwhose discography Caughan says. “That’s now rivals Supercfun to play live. And hunk’s own for size and to me, a lot of that is consistent quality. more upbeat mateThe band stoked rial, where you don’t Superchunk, kept need a keyboard and a their momentum from lot of other stuff going burning out entirely, by on. You can just have playing live here and a distortion box, and there: benefits, festithe songs will sound val appearances, onelike they sound on the night-only club stands. record.” “Once you start taking “Like it or not, playtime off, it’s pretty easy ing live is a big part for it just to stay that of what you’re doing way,” Ballance says. as a band,” Ballance “We played the occasays. “If you’re going sional show, and it was —Laura ballance to go play live shows, always fun, especially it’s a lot more fun to doing a one-off and not play songs that come having to do a whole string of dates where across well when you’re playing them live, you drive yourself 600 miles and then that aren’t hard-to-nearly-impossible to play another show.” Majesty Shredding present in a live setting. So, I do think grew out of these intermittent gigs in the [Majesty Shredding] is simpler in those most organic way; Ballance laughs about terms, and a little bit more rock ‘n’ roll.” the band realizing that “it would be nice It’s hard to guess what a first-time listo have some new songs to play, because tener might make of 1990’s Superchunk tojust playing these old ones over and over day. Heard with modern ears, when Merge gets boring.” artists like the Arcade Fire draw compariWith members now in different cities, sons to the epic sweep of U2, Superchunk’s it wasn’t possible for everyone to crowd debut album is more like an enthusiastic into a practice space for two weeks and first-draft than a fussed-over final prodwork out the fine details of the arrange- uct ready to compete with the classic rock ments, as they had on 1999’s Come Pick canon. It doesn’t sound much like hardMe Up and Here’s to Shutting Up. McCa- core, but it shares hardcore’s get-it-done ughan, at least, saw the band’s new longurgency. You can hear the band’s roots in distance setup as an opportunity to get ’80s D.I.Y., a world where bands sold justaway from over-thinking in the studio. recorded cassettes out of their vans before “In some ways I think we kinda worked house shows. the life out of some of those songs because Few people talk about the sound of Suwe had played them so many times,” he perchunk records. They talk about the says. “I think [recording Majesty Shredquality of the songs, or the energy of the

I think that doing a few shows every year, and having a lot of fun doing them, made me think that this record should be material that we really like to play live.”

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/music performances. There’s this strange lingering idea that Superchunk deliver livein-one-take albums. But even in the early ’90s, the high point of cheap-on-purpose indie rock recordings, Superchunk chose their producers carefully, working with some of the most recognizable names of the era. The driving pop-punk of 1991’s No Pocky for Kitty was given extra bass-drum boom and feedback snarl thanks to Steve Albini’s usual biases. Two years later, On the Mouth was shaped by the rackety garage band vibe brought in by John “Rocket From the Crypt” Reis. The spacious atmosphere and crisp, clanging guitars of Foolish can be traced directly to the mood Brian Paulson crafted on Slint’s Spiderland. Late in the decade, they drafted Jim O’Rourke for 1999’s Come Pick Me Up, who added the smoothed-out jazz tinge of Chicago post-rock. And now Scott Solter has given Superchunk’s new songs a bright and punchy power-pop shine, as if the Buzzcocks had been able to afford ELO’s production values. “I think that you can look at all our records, and the people we’ve worked with, like Brian Paulson and Jim O’Rourke and Albini—these were all people where we were fans of records that they had worked on,” McCaughan says. “And so again with Scott, Jon had worked with him already, but I also really liked the way his records sounded—Mountain Goats records, Court and Spark records, Jon Vanderslice records, stuff like that.” Majesty Shredding is more “rock ‘n’ roll” for sure, but Solter and the band’s attention to craft means it’s no on-the-cheap punk record. It has all the hi-def polish of Here’s to Shutting Up, its more genteel predecessor, but the songs pop like the Superchunk of 15 years ago, back when the barnburners outweighed the ballads. Opener “Digging for Something” all but perfects one of the band’s best tricks—mid-tempo verses that go careening into full-throttle choruses, with McCaughan’s voice leaping out at you—and songs like “Crossed Wires” sound like the band had 10 years of pent-up excitement they were forced to unload in three minutes. Especially at a time when a host of younger bands (Wavves, Male Bonding) seem steeped in Superchunk’s 40

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We’re definitely making [Majesty Shredding] for our old fans. But I’m really curious, actually, how this record will go over, if we’ll be dismissed as some old band that’s made a reunion record, or if there will be new people that actually take us up.” —Laura ballance

legacy, this is both unexpected and welcome, in a “let’s show these kids how it’s done” sorta way. McCaughan and Ballance both wonder how indie’s current college age audience— kids “who weren’t born, frighteningly enough, when we made our first record,” as McCaughan says—will take to the album. “We’re definitely making [Majesty Shredding] for our old fans,” Ballance says. “But I’m really curious, actually, how this record will go over, if we’ll be dismissed as some old band that’s made a reunion record, or if there will be new people that actually take us up.” All long-running bands with a devoted fan base eventually run into this problem. There’s a point at which a band “perfects” their sound in the eyes of certain listeners; everything after that can be ignored. Much as Merge gives them the latitude to do what they want, business-wise, Superchunk, to their credit, still seem more interested in pursuing whatever sound they feel like at the moment. But they’re aware of the weight of 20-plus years’ worth of fan expectations. “For me, a lot of bands that have been around for a long time, without fail at a certain point they lose me,” Ballance

says. “I’m sure there are a lot of people who feel that way about us, and I guess for that reason you need new fans. But I hope that we’re not in peoples’ heads as this worn-out band still doing the dogand-pony show... Then there’s a band like Yo La Tengo who’ve just been going, and they’ve never stopped, and I don’t think people see them that way at all.” She laughs. “I mean, I don’t want to hear anything from Billy Corgan ever again. But Yo La Tengo? Yes.”

The Question is How Fast

There are few sure ways left to attract a new audience, except touring, exhaustively, in a manner not exactly conducive to parenthood. Majesty Shredding fulfills McCaughan and Balance’s hopes: It sounds like it would kill on stage. But there are less than a dozen shows scheduled in support (as of press time). Is the widescale, country-storming, ocean-crossing tour a thing of the past for the new, domesticated Superchunk? “Yes,” Ballance says with a sigh of relief. “The longest thing we’ve done is this past winter we went to Japan and did five shows. I wound up bringing my family with me, because I didn’t want to be away from them for seven or eight days, and I thought it would be an adventure. We’re still going to tour; we just won’t be doing six-week-long tours. Which I am happy to do without, because they’re brutal.” “We still get to travel,” McCaughan says. “We got to go to Barcelona to play the Primavera Festival. Those kinds of shows are still great, and it’s fun to get to see people and other bands you wouldn’t get to see otherwise. But the being away from home part is the bummer, really.” There’s also not the not inconsiderable responsibility of Merge. The label’s success, welcome as it is, requires more-thanfull-time attention. The guiding philosophy, however, remains the same as when Merge was a bedroom operation putting out small-run vinyl singles: Keep things manageable. “We’ve always, from the beginning, operated in a pretty conservative way, and in a practical way,” McCaughan says. “We weren’t doing that out of some ideology. It was more like, ‘This is how we will pre-

WORLD RENOWNED HEROES AND MUSIC BUSINESS FIELD LEADERS THE HIVES WERE CAUGHT RED HANDED TODAY CHEATING? AUTHORITIES SAY THE BAND WERE SHAMELESSLY PLAYING THE SONGS OF OTHER ARTISTS NOT PRESENT TO DEFEND THEMSELVES. NEW TAPES HAVE SURFACED REVEALING AN EP’S WORTH OF “STOLEN” MATERIAL. IS IT A DESPERATE ACT OF IDOL WORSHIP, OR ARE WE WITNESSING THE FRUIT OF LAME WORK ETHIC AND LAZINESS? HARDLY THE LATTER! HOWEVER THE BLACKAND-WHITE-CLAD BANDITS MADE OFF WITH THREE OF THE MUSIC WORLD’S BIGGEST AND BRIGHTEST SHINING JEWELS: CIVILIZATION’S DYING ALSO KNOWN AS “THE HOOSIER STATE SAPPHIRE”, EARLY MORNING WAKE UP CALL ALSO

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/music vent ourselves from going out of business.’ There was never a time when we had to say, ‘We’re going to put all of our money down on this album. And if it pays off, then we’re all good. And if not, we’re done.’ There was never an option, or a desire, to work in that way.” That baseline practicality has helped Merge become a model for success in the midst of mass layoffs at major labels and big box stores dumping their CD departments. Success may offer a new sense of stability, but it hasn’t turned McCaughan and Ballance into gamblers. Merge is still viable because it’s never hoped to sell a million records, whatever it takes; it’s never been the indie that secretly wants to be a major. That attitude has helped McCaughan and Ballance weather the early years of the digital era, as majors realize, to their horror, that they’re selling fewer records than some indies. “There’s this weird thing of independent bands, whether they’re on Merge or Domino or whoever, becoming more and more ‘mainstream’ in terms of people’s awareness, but at the same time, [we’re] looking at the music industry becoming more of a niche thing,” McCaughan says. “But we’ve always, just by the nature of what kind of label we are, had to have pretty conservative ideas about how many records we’re going to sell. That’s not a new position for us to take, though it’s probably a new position for the music industry as a whole.” Those values—fiscal conservatism, realistic expectations, disdain for biz indulgences—have paid off for Superchunk as well. Their longevity is proof. But then again, Superchunk came of age when you could still get 30,000 people to buy a seven-inch by semi-obscure band. Today’s hype bands—the ones with the whisperdown-the-lane blog buzz and blanket goodwill from a shrinking music press corps and publicity blitzes that would make some TMZ stars blush—struggle to break the 3K mark for a digital release. It’s tempting (if depressing) to wonder if bands like Superchunk actually represent the end of an era. “I guess we won’t know whether that kind of longevity is possible until 2032 and we see whether Wavves is still a band or whatever,” McCaughan says. “I don’t 42

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think the act of writing songs and making to pack it in now. Their pride in Majesty music has changed much. So, if people are Shredding is the best proof that Supercdriven to do that now, I don’t know why hunk are alive and well, but you may still they wouldn’t be doing it in 30 years. They want to catch them on this go-round, just may not be making a living at it, but when in case. we started the band we didn’t plan on mak“Even though we do stuff at longer ining a living at it, either.” tervals than we did for the first 13 years of Few musicians (or music biz pundits) our existence, I don’t think we would have are willing to guess what the landscape bothered to put so much work into the new might look like in 2032, whethrecord, and playing shows this er it’ll be a dystopian free-forfall, if we were at the same time all or a world where people are saying, ‘we’re done,’” McCaughan once again (grudgingly) paying says. “When we do play our last for records. Neither McCaughan show, I don’t think we’ll know nor Ballance seems much interit’s our last show. It’s not really ested in playing psychic; there’s our kind of way of doing things to enough on their plates to keep make a big deal about it.” them focused on the present. Majesty Shredding will After all, they’ve got a band, and be released a (short) tour booked, and an September 14 from Merge. album they worked too hard on

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/music / the_checklist

this month’s best new releases

Let the Wolf Howl

Nick Cave’s latest only suffers in comparison to his own best work / by J. Bennett

s latter-day rock musicians go, Nick Cave’s output has been canonized and mythologized,

exalted and occasionally derided, but hardly ever ignored. Those unfamiliar with his vast and sumptuous musical output may yet be familiar with the name from his work (screenplay and soundtrack) on the Great Acid Western of 2005, The Proposition. He’s written novels, too, including 1989’s brilliantly biblical and bravely verbose And the Ass Saw the Angel and 2009’s darkly comic (and Irvine Welsh-esque) The Death of Bunny Munro.

Despite all his extracurricular activities, Cave continues to bestride the stereo field like a colossus. His most recent album with the Bad Seeds, released in 2008 and appropriately titled Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, reasserted his supremacy among mere mortals in the rock idiom. It gave fresh voice—and new life, like Lazarus, not that Cave needed it—to the Bad Seeds, who had already mastered their own finelytuned balladry on 2004’s double-album apotheosis, Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus.

There are those who doubt Cave’s genius, and they are destined to live less fulfilling lives because of it. Of course, some of his albums are better than others, but to listen to Nick Cave is also, on a slightly sardonic but no less visceral level, to have a greater understanding of one’s fellow man. It’s a vision of man as mired in his own faults and shortcomings, his prurience and vice, but also his glory. For Nick Cave is nothing if not “one of us,” no matter how superhuman he occasionally seems.

Grinderman Grinderman 2 [Anti]

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Exhibit A: Grinderman, Cave’s side project collaboration with Bad Seeds Warren Ellis (guitar, organ and about a half dozen et ceteras), Martyn Casey (bass) and the almost-seven-foot Jim Sclavunos (drums). Much was written about how Grinderman were staking out separate territory vis-à-vis the Bad Seeds on the former’s self-titled debut back in 2007. All of it was a thousand percent true and a thousand percent bullshit. Sadly, most of Grinderman 2 does not hold a flickering candle to its predecessor. That’s the bad news. The good news is that its predecessor was such an unbridled monster of rarefied cacophony and lyrical wit that nobody could reasonably expect any follow-up to come close. Grinderman 2’s comparative lack of substantive oomph is partly down to the glaring absence of an immediate face-grabber/ squeezer/ripper like “No Pussy Blues” or the wry, semi-tropical “Go Tell the Women.” And yet opener “Mickey Mouse and the Goodbye Man” almost does an excellent job of capturing the Grinderman spirit, at least musically. “Mickey Mouse” is all wolfman howl, randy bass buildup and car-crash guitar squall, an ascension that takes the listener higher and higher with the promise of a payoff that never quite pays off. Cave’s lyrics seem mindlessly off-the-cuff—maybe that’s the idea—and the song drags on for way too long. But the Grinder Men make up for this misstep almost instantly on “Worm Tamer,” one of the album’s shortest and most satisfying cuts. “I guess I’ve loved you for too long,” Cave intones over a swirling miasma of backing “oohs” and a ’70s black-magic groove. “Far too long.” It’s sinister and serpentine and highly effective. At nearly seven minutes, “When My Baby Comes” is the album’s gyrating centerpiece, the kind of deceptively coiled freakout that most self-styled “jam” bands would ruin almost instantly with some runaway improvisation. It’s also the preamble to the super-charged motel sermon of “Evil,” in which Cave demands, “Who needs a TV? You are my TV! Who needs a record player? You are my record player!’” But from there, the decline is steep. “Kitchenette” takes a long, boozy stroll at the expense of the Stooges’ trademark guitar tone while Cave howls and moans lasciviously about biscuit jars and gingerbread men. It’s funny if you’re reading along with the lyrics, boring as hell if you’re not. “Bellringer Blues” brings the Stooges tone back, fuses it with George Harrison’s back-masked sitar moves and ends up sounding like a way less satisfying version of the Bad Seeds’ 1996 version of “Stagger Lee.” Like most of the album, it’s not bad, but it’s not great, either. And it probably only seems that way because Grinderman set their own bar so impossibly high.

Abe Vigoda Crush [PPM]

Abe Vigoda’s new album shakes and twitches with the same nervous energy that’s carried them through four full-lengths in less than five years. What’s unexpected about Crush is how gorgeous it turned out to be. Like many of their young, scruffy L.A. contemporaries—the playfully confrontational Mika Miko, the hardcore-indebted No Age—Abe Vigoda are deeply influenced by ’80s punk and post-punk. Yet rather than recreating the friendly fury of Hüsker Dü (like No Age) or the sleazy attack of the Germs (like Mika Miko), Abe Vigoda now swoon like a first-wave 4AD act, with gloomy goth melodies and swirling proto-shoegaze guitars shaken up by jittery new wave and African rhythms. Imagine the Cure, say, if they merged Three Imaginary Boys with Disintegration. Not that it’s as good as Disintegration, mind you. That’s a towering, unrepeatable document, the apex of the Cure’s career, the very sound of teenage ennui pressed into a petroleum disc. Abe Vigoda, on the other hand, are still finding their own voice. They’re magpies—elements swiped from ABC and New Order, Simple Minds and My Bloody Valentine make their way onto Crush—but damn if their swipes aren’t tied together seamlessly. Even singer Michael Vidal’s ache-weighted croon sounds straight out of Manchester. If you’re enough of an Anglophile to rip off the damn accent, well, you’ve got to own it, and if nothing else, Crush is a testament Abe Vigoda’s shamelessness. It sounds less like a new album than a forgotten classic from the depths of 1985. —Jess Harvell

Swans

My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky [ Young God]

The first Swans album in 14 years announces itself with the clang of church bells. That’s apt. Like an initiation into some religious cult, Swans’ music has always been designed to test both your faith and your endurance. Protoindustrial ’80s albums like Cop and Filth are holy dirges, their excruciating rhythms hammered out with a true believer’s maniacal mix of intensity and restraint. Gira’s lyrics stared into the abyss so unblinkingly that they moved past “transgressive” shtick and into something legitimately frightening. And while time may have tempered Swans’ music—incorporating once-unthinkable elements like acoustic guitars, oceanic keyboard washes, vocal harmonies—the band’s onstage volume is still punishing to the point where buying a ticket might constitute self-harm. On My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky, Gira still sounds like he’d rather remove a literal pound of flesh than mellow out, even if the days of screaming, bellowing and fire-belching seem to be behind him. In their place, his voice has taken on the sour, dusty twang of hellfire country. It fits this music perfectly. Compared to the cosmic post-rock of Swans’ last album, 1996’s Soundtracks for the Blind, the apocalyptic blues of My Father sounds as if crawled out of an unreleased Jodorowsky western. The highlights are the bruisers— rumbling opener “No Words/No Thoughts,” the sinister glam of “My Birth” and Gira’s desperate vocal on “Eden Prison” (where was this when von Trier was soundtracking Anti-Christ?)—but some of My Father is gentle enough to woo those long put-off by Swans’ (well-deserved) rep. —Jess Harvell

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/movies Werner Herzog on the set of The Bad Lieutenant Port Call of New Orleans.

Werner’s World

A user’s guide to a legendarily prolific German director

/ by Bret McCabe

bout a year ago, the trailer for Werner Herzog’s My Son, My Son, What

Have Ye Done? started cropping up online, and it made the movie look like the kind of generic thriller that heavily airs on basic cable. A detective (Willem Dafoe) tools around San Diego in an unmarked sedan. An ominous voice-over teases some nonsense about an “unexpected crime” on a “quiet street.” A corpse lies on a suburban living room floor. Soon, the faces of dependable character actors—Michael Shannon, Michael Peña, Chloe Sevigny, Udo Kier—flash by. By the time the title cards “inspired by a true story” and “David Lynch presents” appear in quick succession, it’s not only difficult to take the movie seriously, but you’re wondering when Herzog, now in his late 60s, turned into just another Hollywood hack. It’s such a boilerplate trailer that it’s easy to understand why My Son never received even a limited theatrical American release, and why it’s appearing straight-to-DVD this month. But to discount it entirely is to flatly reject one of cinema’s most idiosyncratic active auteurs. My Son is Herzog’s 18th feature film in a career that also includes more than 20 documentaries (for film and television), fictional and documentary shorts, acting and stage works. Herzog’s unmistakable authorial mark is the lone constant that runs through this career, but that’s an imprint that remains critically fugitive. It’s near impossible to define what, specifically, makes a Herzog movie a Herzog movie. But like pornography, you know it when you see it. He emerged out of 1960s West Germany among a cohort of filmmakers dubbed New German Cinema, a group of directors that shared a desire to break with the past—as many of their peers born during the World War II years wanted—but not a unified notion as to how they would do that. Rainer Werner Fassbinder became the movement’s life/art-blurring enfant terrible. Wim Wenders slowly unfurled his Catholic humanism through his sobering melodramas. Alexander Kluge opted for intellectually observant films that married a vérité style to political themes. As for Herzog, well, even from the beginning he didn’t fit into any particular group. His 1970 film Even Dwarfs Started Small, only his third feature outing, takes place at some sort of rural institution where, for reasons never quite ex46

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plained, everyone is a dwarf/midget. And over the course of its 96 minutes, the social order of this self-contained society of little people slowly boils into bedlam. Dwarfs has earned a cult reputation as a sterling example of genuinely bizarre filmmaking, but only to appreciate its weirdness discounts so much of what it shares with Herzog’s oeuvre. Like the New German Cinema directors, Herzog was trying to find different stories to tell, but he was also more interested in incorporating different people and ideas into his process. Cinema would be a laboratory through which Herzog the director/investigator would explore states of existence. He had his cast hypnotized for 1976’s Heart of Glass, a drama about the decline of an 18th century glass factory. For 1974’s The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, Herzog cast Bruno S., not only an untrained actor, but a virtual adult foundling that spent most of his youth institutionalized, much like Hauser, the early 19th century figure who claimed to live his young life in isolation. In Herzog’s onscreen universe, fact would inform fiction and his fictions would look factually ordinary. Even in a movie as effectively bizarre as Dwarfs, its insanity is the re-

1997’s Little Dieter Needs to Fly recounts the story of Dieter Dengler, a Gersult of everyday people, animals and places. It’s only man-born man who wanted to become a pilot after he witnessed Allied forces when seeing them combined in Herzog’s compositions—a chicken pulling the feathers off another bombing his hometown during WWII. He eventually emigrated to America and dead chicken, a crucified monkey, a midget cackling became a Navy fighter pilot during the Vietnam War. In 1966 he was shot down at a camel—that they skyrocket into the surreal. over Laos, taken prisoner and then survived torture, starvation and 23 days in The ’70s also began Herzog’s collaboration with the jungle before being rescued. For the documentary Herzog escorts Dengler actor Klaus Kinski, a partnership that would not back to Southeast Asia, creating a haunting portrait of one man’s dream to fly only last nearly 20 years, but rival such teams as and will to survive. Martin Scorsese/Robert De Niro, Akira Kurosawa/ Herzog explores a very different will in 2005’s Grizzly Man, his documentary Toshiro Mifune and Federico Fellini/Marcello Masabout self-appointed grizzly bear naturalist Timothy Treadwell, who lived in troianni for bulletproof brilliance. Herzog and Kin- Alaskan bear country for 13 summers before being killed and partially eaten ski would make seven movies together, including by a bear in 2003. Mixing Treadwell’s personal videos with interviews with two that remain high water marks in both of their Treadwell’s parents and associates, and the people who discovered his remains careers. For 1972’s Aguirre, the Wrath of God, Herand investigated the incident, Grizzly Man becomes a portrait of a haunted zog recreated 16th century Spanish conquistador soul, a man who felt so out of place among people he happily put himself in an Lope de Aguirre’s (Kinski) quest for a mythical city environment that led to his death. of gold up the Amazon River. To do so, Herzog outIt’s these sorts of people, men who feel out of society’s step, that inform fitted his cast in heavy, clumsy conquistador garb, Herzog’s most recent feature films, which can look like Hollywood sellouts supplied them with facsimiles of 16th century tools compared to Aguirre. His 2006 Rescue Dawn was the and weapons, and then set them into the jungle on MGM-produced, Christian Bale-starring dramatization of Chloe Sevigny in foot and cobbled-together rafts. Dengler’s story. His 2009 Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New My Son, My Son, The result is an arrestingly arduous and someOrleans was less a remake of Abel Ferrara’s unforgettable What Have Ye Done? how breathtaking metaphorical road to ruin, a par- 1992 flick than a wholesale re-imagining of the tale of one able of ostensible civilization hitting the brick wall corrupt, drug-addicted, of nature that Herzog and Kinksi would experience amoral cop’s (Nicolas themselves in 1982’s Fitzcarraldo. Based on another Cage doing a damn good historical figure, Kinski plays the titular early 20th job channeling Kinski’s century eccentric, an opera-adoring Irishman living intensity) increasingly in Peru who wants to build an opera house there. tenuous grip on his life To raise the money, he gets into the rubber busi- in a city collectively ness, but to reach his rubber-rich land, he needs to hanging onto reality by move a giant steamer from one river tributary to a thread. And in My Son, Herzog has the Cro-Maanother—over a steep, muddy embankment using nothing but hired labor. gnon-skulled Michael To dramatize this folly, Herzog moves a giant Shannon inhabit Mark steamer from one river tributary to another—over a Yarkovsky, the 34-yearsteep, muddy embankment using nothing but hired old theater grad student labor. A fictional act of insanity is achieved via an who, in 1979, killed his actual act of insanity, and while Fitzcarraldo runs mother with a sword—re-enacting a scene from Orestes, the Greek tragedy in which he was then starring. well over two hours and takes its time about it, the very sight of an ocean vessel being pulled over a hill Herzog’s My Son, expectedly, isn’t the train wreck that its B-movie trailer permanently brands itself into the brain, and the suggests. Shannon is rivetingly and charismatically disturbed, and Herzog’s movie becomes one of the most indelible gift for mundane surrealism—flamingos? ostriches?—remains as popieces of madness ever set to cinema. tent as ever. And as the movie unwinds, a disquieting sense of unease “Madness” is a word often associated sinks under the skin. Is it as powerful as Fitzcarraldo? Of course not; with Herzog’s work, be it by reputation of few things are. But considered alongside Rescue and Lieutenant, My his method (Les Blank’s Burden of Dreams Son feels less like a veer into crass commercialism and more like andocumentary of the making of Fitzcarraldo other experiment, Herzog’s attempt to explore the nether regions of certainly captures a set on sanity’s edge), the the human soul in the rigid film language of mainstream movies. It may historical figures he turns to (Fitzcarraldo, not be as satisfying as his early work, but 40 years after having midgAguirre, Hauser), the performers he uses ets crucify a monkey, Werner Herzog continues to realize cinematic (Kinksi, Bruno S.) or his documentary sub- My Son, My dream worlds that most filmmakers would never even considered in What Have jects. Madness through Herzog’s cinematic Son, the first place. Ye Done? is eye, though, looks less like abnormality than available on DVD 14 a mere veering off from the societal norm September from First Look into obsession. Studios. needle

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Looney Toons

Rock and Rule’s future is now retro, but it’s still way out there / by Sean L. Maloney

n aging rock star kidnaps a budding starlet and uses her to summon a demon

that will help him get back on top of the game. It doesn’t really seem that farfetched given the current state of the music industry, right? Okay, it sounds completely preposterous, but nobody ever said that Rock and Rule, 1983’s oddest animated sci-fi feature, was ripped from the headlines of Billboard.

Rock and Rule follows the lives of anthropomorphic animal couple Omar and Angel, aspiring musicians in the dystopian burg of Ohmtown. International “super-rockerrr” and mad scientist Mok Swagger—voiced by Don Francks, known to students of ’80s toy-tie-in cartoons as a regular on Inspector Gadget and The Ewoks and Droids Adventure Hour—uses a “supercomputer” to track down Angel so he can manipulate her voice to open a star-shaped gate to hell and bring out the aforementioned demon. The whole thing is epically over-thetop, and therein lies the fun. Directed by Clive A. Smith, the man behind the holiday-themed pseudoclassic Intergalactic Thanksgiving, and produced by those responsible for the infamously schlocky Star Wars Holiday Special, Rock and Rule is part of that small, strange cult of adult-oriented, rock-themed animated films that always sound brilliant on paper but never seem to click with mass audiences. Talking animals? Check. Spaceships? Check. Laser beams? Check. Debbie Harry, Cheap Trick, Lou Reed and Earth Wind and Fire on the soundtrack? Quadruple check. One would think that, in bringing together the mind-expanding properties of both animation and rock music, you’d find yourself with an unstoppable combination, a cultural juggernaut that could dominate the entertainment landscape like, say, a mad rock scientist with a flying car, supercomputer and demonic hellspawn at his disposal. But these films have been alienating audiences ever since the Beatles’ 1968 Yellow Submarine. (Beloved today, but not released on VHS until 1999, mostly because it’s so damned odd.) Through its awkward adolescence with ’70s films like Flo and Eddie’s Down and Dirty Duck or the Harry Nilsson-scored The Point, the grown-up rock-cartoon has aimed for greatness, but landed firmly on the side of weirdness. The style sputtered out in the early ’80s with commercial duds, including Ralph Bakshi’s innocuous but ultimately un- Rock and Rule satisfying American Pop and the ham-fisted adaptation of the comes to Blu-ray 28 classic comic anthology Heavy Metal, before finally crawl- September from Unearthed ing into an unmarked grave with Rock and Rule. (Though Films. 48

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it should be noted that the coke dealer singing “Night Moves” in American Pop is one of the funniest things ever committed to film. It isn’t meant to be, but it is.) For all the cutting-edge cultural cache they may have had upon their release, these films have long been consigned to the dustbin of home video history. Yet strangely, here’s Rock and Rule, again, on DVD. And despite the gentle ribbing and critical dismissals the film received upon release, it’s tough to watch and not think to yourself, Oh yeah, this rules!

The set and background designs are cool in a very Euro-punk/futurist way, definitely influenced by cartoonists like Heavy Metal mainstay Moebius and the 2000 A.D. Crew. And the soundtrack is, in fact, quite rockin’. (Well, at least if you ignore “My Name is Mok,” possibly the worst song that Lou Reed has ever recorded. And that’s saying something.) The characters will never be held up as examples of screenwriting brilliance, but there’s always the epic climax, perhaps best described as King Kong versus the Phantom of the Opera versus Howard the Duck. With that blow-out ending, Rock and Rule still manages to bring a bit of kitschy sci-fi fun to our own dystopian present.

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/movies Downfall be a better movie if audiences could indentify more closely with Hitler?) But even if there is some validity to such viewer/ character bonding, there is also a limit beyond which audiences will not go. Winterbottom, a perceptive and gifted filmmaker, should know. In Welcome To Sarajevo and In This World, for example, he created two excruciating, gripping human dramas whose emotional heat audiences found too intense to approach. There are no Buzz Lightyears in essay by a Michael Winterbottom movie. Stan Michna Choosing to adapt a Jim Thompson novel is a dicey proposition for any filmmaker. No writer ever populated his books with more psychosexual killers, brutal sadists, cunning sociopaths and lowbrow grifters than Thompson—and those are his protagonists, otherwise called “heroes” in conventional novels. His peripatetic existence in the sun-scorched American southwest in the 1920s and ‘30s, where as a youth he struggled to support his parents and siblings after his embezzler/lawman father skedaddled to Mexico, became his writer’s palette. By the time he was 20, Thompson—already on the road to the alcoholism that would ultimately kill him—was well acquainted with the low-rent criminal world of thieves, con artists, pimps, whores, hopheads and small-town corruption. This was Thompson’s America. That’s why trying to sympathize or identify with a Thompson character— unless one resembles a Thompson character—is hopeless. You distance yourself emotionally from the vipers squirming in his characters’ brains, and thank God they’re not in yours. The need to stand back (albeit in fascinated revulsion) perhaps explains why the best adaptations of Thompson’s works were directed by non-Americans: Bernard Tavernier’s Coup De Torchon (from Population 1280), and Winterbottom’s English compatriot Stephen Frears’s The Grifters. Even crazy old Sam Peckinpah, in his The Getaway, couldn’t bear to film the nasty second half of the book. In Thompson’s world, there are no happy endings. Ever. There sure isn’t in The Killer Inside Me, either, a film featuring murder, sadistic sex, and two of the most vicious, gut-wrenching beatings ever shown on screen. (And, oddly enough, a lit cigar stubbed out on a hand—just like in The Grifters.) Above all, there is Casey Affleck’s deputy sheriff Lou Ford, all aw-shucks politeness, and sing-song crackly adolescent voice on the surface, all terrifying, intelligent, sociopathic sadistic killer underneath. It is an astonishing and—as it should be—unreal performance. There is no perceptible emotion in it whatsoever, even when his murderous “sickness” comes upon him. It’s as though Affleck’s Lou Ford is as removed from his monstrous instincts as the viewer is. It’s only after watching the film and letting it stew for a few days—and it stews for more than a few days, believe me—that you realize two things: what a sneakily sensational actor Casey Affleck has become; and how sneakily Michael Winterbottom has infused your subconscious with Jim Thompson. God knows you don’t identify with—or understand—Affleck’s character. But you’re with him all the time, watching, flinching and maybe, from time to time, even envying. And that’s what’s most terrifying of all.

Killer Stuff

When director Michael Winterbottom’s film adaptation of Jim Thompson’s creepy 1952 pulp novel, The Killer Inside Me, received its theatrical North American release earlier this summer, queasy critics delivered a split decision. Those who admired the film usually cited its authentic 1950s small-town, American southwest look (it was shot in Oklahoma), and the performances by Casey Affleck and Jessica Alba. But they were also appalled and perplexed by the outbursts of graphic violence and a murderous sociopath who is both protagonist and first-person, voice-over narrator. So they closed their eyes, clicked their heels three times, and repeated neo-noir modern classic over and over again. Those who disliked the film fell into two camps, the first proclaiming its visceral loathing by composing sentences that invariably (but rarely creatively) incorporated words like “misogynistic” and “garbage.” The second camp, although in almost total agreement with The Killer Inside Me’s admirers, seemed to need a reason to dislike the film, and so chose the old pointy-headed standby: the viewer’s inability to engage emotionally with the film’s characters. In other words, if the audience can’t in some way identify with or empathize with those on screen, then a film is a failure. But critical standards can be funny. Toy Story 3, for example, was released theatrically the very same day as The Killer Inside Me, and critics immediately began tripping over themselves—like Scarlett O’Hara’s smitten suitors—to outdo their rivals in professing their love for Toy Story 3. Yet if emotional engagement with a character is crucial to a film’s appeal, no one has yet answered the obvious question: With which plastic toy—Woody? Ken? Mr. Potato Head?—did audiences form the deepest emotional bond? Here’s the thing: Suggesting a film’s worth depends upon an audience’s identifying with its central character is, of course, mostly hooey. (Would 50

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The Killer Inside Me will be released September 28 from MPI Home Video.

Questions or comments? Email stan@sunriserecords.com

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Voodoo Vile Hatchet brings throwback horror to America’s sleaziest tourist trap / by Bret McCabe

utside the real-life fright

of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and horror have always made odd bedfellows in movies, despite appearing perfectly suited for each other. The city is dusted with a patina of the otherworldly. It’s the place where the dead are buried above ground, where Haitian, African and Creole cultures created their own voodoos, and where (shudder) the French ruled. Sure, it’s been the seat of some unseemly events in parts of certain movies—Angel Heart and Paul Schrader’s Cat People immediately come to mind—but it’s never really been the single site of an old-school horror flick. Perhaps that’s because, since the ’70s rise of slasher flicks, New Orleans has also had a reputation for women flashing for beads, lowest common denominator jazz tourism of the “When the Saints Go Marching In” sort and knuckle-draggers flocking there for Mardi Gras. Opening with a pretty rad dismemberment—a victim almost comically screaming “Help me!” as he gets pulled apart like string cheese—writer/director Adam Green’s Hatchet brings New Orleans’ creepy side in contact with its party-as-a-verb contingent and makes a funny, gory, chopped tourist salad in the process. The recently dumped Ben (Joel Moore) and his mates head down to Mardi Gras to drink ’til they puke while collecting beads, but Ben soon grows bored. So Ben and his pal Marcus (Deon Richmond) decide to check out a haunted swamp tour, wander into Marie Laveau’s House of Voodoo and learn about the myth of Victor Crowley, a deformed bayou dweller who supposedly haunts the swamps. And then, well, what usually happens when yokels wander off the well-trod path? In a movie titled Hatchet, do you even have to ask? Fortunately, Green has a playful, comic touch, and isn’t afraid to indulge in throwaway funny moments and lines. (Comic goldmine Marcus hits on a woman blowing chunks on the sidewalk, and later tells one she looks like she’s been molested by wolves.) Best of all, he possesses a contagious appreciation for horror’s clichés. So, while Hatchet might not deliver Evil Dead 2 levels of entertainment, it does supply a steady stream of camp colliding with the bloodand-guts basics, and Green’s game cast knows how to balance the silly with the scary. Mercedes McNab plays Misty as cross between a Girl Gone Wild and the common sense-challenged blonde she so indelibly created in Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Harmony. And the doe-eyed Moore gets to put his lanky frame in some52

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Hatchet will be

available on Bluthing like the Final Girl role. ray September 7 After its breast-obsessed from Anchor Bay. first half-hour, though, Hatchet is all about the killing. When the swamp tour boat begins to sink, Ben and Marcus have to try to walk out into the wild, making them perfect targets for any axe- or shovel-swinging psychopath who happens to be in the area. And being an old-school horror fan, Green prefers his effects to be of the ickyspurting-fluids-and-prosthetic-stump variety, and his deaths to be bluntly creative. Bandsaw to the mouth? Sure. Hatchet eventually arrives at the only place it can: where a limited number of survivors crash into a twist-y ending that leaves just enough wiggle room for a sequel. But it goes there with a genuine sense of fun and frequent moments of visual flair. And really now, it’s hard to imagine any Crescent City native objecting too strongly to some kind of bayou-born golem thinning the yahoo crowd every now and again.

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SEPTEMBER 7

4 Film Favorite: Clint Eastwood Comedy American Cowslip Angel Wishes: Journey of a Spiritual Healer Annie Hall Apocalypse Art of the Left Hand Being Michael Madsen Beneath Clouds Best Little Whorehouse in Texas Big Fat Liar Blood Into Wine Bluegreen Bobby Moore: Hero Boredoms: 88 Boadrum Boy Meets World: The Complete First Season Boy Meets World: The Complete Second Season Boy Meets World: The Complete Third Season Brahms and the Little Singing Girls Britain by Jove British Tanks of the Second World War 1939-45 Brutal Truth Bugs Bunny’s Howl-oween Special By the Will of Genghis Khan Call Girl Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam Caravaggio Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That: Wings and Things Cause of Death Chet Baker at Le Dreher 1980 Christmas Dinosaur Chuck: The Complete Third Season Classic Family Adventures Clatterford: The Complete Season Three Colony Convict 762 Cosmic Tech: Eye in the Sky Coyote Ragtime Show: Complete Collection Criminal Minds: Season 5 Curse of the Swastika Dark Planet Dave Davies Kronikles: Mystical Journey Dennis Brown: Living Legends – Live in Concert Detroit: Remember When – The Jewish Community Diamond Dawgs Dig Dig Doog Vol. 3 Dirty Jobs Collection 6 Do the Right Thing Doc West Doctor Who: Episode 106 – Creature From the Pit Doctor Who: Planet of Fire Doctor Who: The King’s Demons Ed Sullivan Presents the Beatles: 4 Complete Shows Electric Horseman Exploding Girl Family Ties Father Figure Fistful of Trinity: Four Film Collection Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi For a Fistful of Diamonds Full Metal Panic! Complete Collection

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Genshiken Season 2: Premium Collection George Lopez: Tall, Dark and Chicano/America’s Mexican Goosebumps: Go Eat Worms Goosebumps: The Blob That Ate Everyone Growth Guardian: The Second Season Hansel and Gretel Headhunter: Assessment Weekend Heights of Danger Hidden Gems: Black Irish/Inside/ December Ends Hidden Gems: Hell on Heels – The Battle of Mary Kay/His and Hers/ Adopt a Sailor Hidden Gems: Lonely Street/ Unbeatable Harold/Route 30 Hoboken Hollow Hugs Ikki Tousen: Premium Box Il Medaglione Insanguinato In From the Cold: The World of Richard Burton Interceptor Jackie Chan: Kung Fu Master John Rabe Journey: The Absolution Jungle Boy Jurassic Park III Kevin Pollak: The Littlest Suspect Killers King of Fighters K-Pax L.A. Ink Vol. 1 Season 2 Laghology Last of the Summer Wine: Vintage 1985 Leslie Jordan: My Trip Down the Pink Carpet Leslie, My Name Is Evil Less Than Perfect Season One List Little People Big World Vol. 1 Season 3 L’Origine Loss of a Teardrop Diamond Love in the Nick of Tyme Macgruber Magic Knight Rayearth 2: TV Series Season 2 Mailman Margaret Leng Tan: She Herself Alone – The Art of the Toy Piano 2 Megadeth: Rust in Peace – Live Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Road Rally Mike Epps: Live From the Club Nokia Morgan Heritage & Luciano: Living Legends – Live in Concert Mr. Right Now Mutant X: The Complete First Season My Baby Bird My Bride Is a Mermaid Part 2 Natalie Cole With the Mormon Tabernacle Choir: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year: Live in Concert National Geographic Explorer: Inside the DEA NFL: Dallas Cowboys Heroes NFL: History of the Miami Dolphins Nico the Unicorn Night Before Christmas: A Mouse Tale Norm Show: The Complete Series

Sep 7 THX 1138: The

George Lucas Director’s Cut

Directed by George Lucas Few phrases strike fear into the hearts of modern moviegoers quite like “George Lucas Director’s Cut.” The man is a menace, to no one so much as himself, like one of those people who pile on the plastic surgeries in the name of perfection until their face resembles a clump of clay. (Or Charo.) Yes, the “Director’s Cut” of THX 1138 features extra, intrusive, not-in-theoriginal CGI bits that stand out like a moustache painted on your masterpiece of choice. Pretty sure the original is outof-print, so you’re kind of S.O.L. if this is your first viewing, but there’s nothing here as atrocious as the Star Wars reboots. Warner Home Video

Office: Season Six Paranormal: Haunts and Horrors Parsifal Paul Gilbert Presents: Shred Alert Paul McCartney Really Is Dead Phantom Playing for Time Porky’s Prima Princessa Presents: The Nutcracker Prime Suspect: The Complete Collection Prophet’s Game Question of Trust Red Riding 1974 Red Riding 1980 Red Riding 1983 Reggae’s Vintage Superstars Road Ends Scotland Revealed Shaun the Sheep: Party Animals Shooting Star(s) Simple Wish Skins Vol. 3 Sleeping and Waking Slovenka Smallville: The Complete Ninth Season

Snow Blind Solitary Man Sonic Underground: Band on the Run Sorry, Thanks Sortilegio Sparkle Speeches That Changed the World Spicy Mac Project T.M.A. TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection: Gangsters TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection: Gangsters – James Cagney TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection: Gangsters – Prohibition Era TCM Greatest Classic Films Collecton: Hammer Horror That Evening Sun Thomas & Friends: Misty Island Rescue To Live and Die in Amerikkka Tons of Love: Romantic Comedy Trapped Troy Alves: Resurrection Ultimate Fighting Championship Presents: The Best of WEC Urban Terrorist Very Little Time When Justice Fails Wild Hunt Wonders of the Solar System You’re So Cupid SEPTEMBER 14

2010: A Wrinkle in Time 2501 Migrants: A Journey 4192: The Crowning of the Hit King Adventures in Booga Booga Land Vol. 1 Adventures of Robin Hood Afterschool Against a Crooked Sky All Men Are Brothers: Blood of the Leopard America vs. Japan: Bloody War in the Pacific America: The Story of Us American Frontier Classics: Baker’s Hawk American Frontier Classics: Pony Express Rider American Frontier Classics: Seven Alone Amish Grace Amityville Horror (2005) Amor en Fin Ausentes B-52’s: Live in Germany 1983 Bali: Mystical Paradise Barbie: A Fashion Fairytale Barney: A-Counting We Will Go Big Bang Theory: The Complete Third Season Bill Maher: But I’m Not Wrong Black Cauldron Blade of the Immortal: Complete Collection Blood Shadow Bloodwood Cannibals Blue Drop: The Complete Collection Boogie Woogie Brain That Wouldn’t Die Bring It On: Cheertastic 3-Movie Pack Broken Lizard: Stands Up Carrie Collection Cartel: Parte II Cat Ladies Children of USSR Child’s Play Child’s Play/The Howling Circle of Fury Classic Artists: Jimi Hendrix – The Guitar Hero Closet Space Come On Let’s Go Conquest of Everest

Corpse Princess Part One Corpse Princess Part Two Costa Rica: A Tropical Paradise Cramps: Live Craziest Christmas Collection Dalziel & Pascoe Season 2 Dark Moon & Vampire Werewolf Collection Dark Moon Thriller Dead or Alive Western Collection Dive Olly Dive: Super Sub Dolemite Collection Donnell Rawlings: From Ashy to Classy Dora the Explorer: Dora’s Slumber Party Dragonball Z Kai: Seas. One, Part 2 Dragonball Z: Dragon Box Vol. 4 Electric Light Orchestra: Live in London 1976 Eric Clapton: Crossroads Guitar Festival 2007 Everly Brothers: Reunion Concert Live From the Royal Albert Hall Female Space Invaders Four in the Morning Fraggle Rock: Scared Silly Franny’s Feet: Animal Adventures Fringe: The Complete Second Season Ghost Hound Collection 1 Glee Season 1 Vol. 2: Road to Regionals Glee: The Complete First Season Golden Compass Golgo 13: Collection 2 Good Wife: The First Season Grey’s Anatomy: The Complete Sixth Season Hallelujah Broadway Hannibal Lecter Triple Feature Happiness Hawaii: Island Paradise Held Hostage Hetalia: Season 01 Hollywood Bombshells Home for Christmas Hoot Hostage Hot Dance Mix Howling/The Howling II Hurray for Huckle: A Pickle of a Pickle in Busytown Indestructible Many Inkheart Intangible Asset #82 Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 5 James & The Giant Peach Janeane Garofalo: If You Will – Live in Seattle Johnny Journey to the Center of the Earth Judge John Deed; Season 2 Just Wright Kenny vs. Spenny Season 6 Kidz Bop Dance Moves Kitten Party Lafayette: The Lost Hero Lark Rise to Candleford: The Complete Season Three League: The Complete First Season Leave It to Beaver: The Complete Fourth Season Letters to Juliet Lonesome Dove Collection Looking for Eric Lost in the Barrens Lovebirds Mad Ron’s Previews From Hell Madchen in Uniform Mafia Kingpin Collection Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2 Misery Misery/The Silence of the Lambs Mrs. Washington Goes to Smith National Geographic Explorer: 24 Hours After Hiroshima

Sep 7 Mars Attacks

Directed by Tim Burton Is this the last great film Tim Burton was involved with? A quick scan of Wikipedia suggests: Yes. Hell, yes. At least his career went out with a bang. Mars Attacks is one of those squeeze-as-manyjokes-in-as-possible movies— half the cast looks and dresses like they were drawn by Mad Magazine’s Mort Drucker in anticipation of the inevitable parody—featuring one of the most ridiculously overstuffed, mismatched casts of all time. (Joe Don Baker and Pam Grier and Danny DeVito—together at last.) It’s also the best film to come out of the “remake pop culture from the ’60s” bonanza that plagued the ’90s, though allow me to tip my hat to Cloris Leachman in The Beverly Hillbillies while saying so. Warner Home Video

Necromentia Neverending Story Next Hit NFL Greatest Rivalries: Cowboys Defeat Redskins NFL Greatest Rivalries: Redskins Defeat Cowboys NFL: History of the Minnesota Vikings Night of the Zombies Collection Nurat Fateh Ali Khan & Qawwali Party: Live in Concert One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Nest Orchid Island Out of Europe Outlaw Western Collection Outrage Ozzy Osbourne: Blizzard of Ozz – Diary of a Madman Tour 1982 Pastor Jones Season 1 Penitent Man Pepe & Santo vs. America: Mexican Dream Pirates of Penzance Point of View: Good Fortune Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Princess Kaiulani Private Practice: The Complete Third Season Project

Puppy Party Pyramid of Cheops Raging Phoenix Randolph Scott Western Collection Red Fury Return of the 5 Deadly Venoms Return of the Living Dead Robin Hood: The Complete Series Rock Prophecies Roger Corman Creature Collection Roger Corman Drive-In Collection Roger Corman Horror Collection Vol. 2 Rory Gallagher: Ghost Blues Rugged Gold Rules of Engagement: The Complete Third Season Sagwan Scooby-Doo: Camp Scare Scorpion King Action Pack Sesame Street: Preschool Is Cool – Counting With Elmo Sherlock Holmes 1964-1965 Sherlock Holmes Faces Death/ Sherlock Holmes in Washington Shiloh/Saving Shiloh Shorts Sid the Science Kid: Gizmos and Gadgets Silence of the Lambs Silver Screen Cowboys Spaghetti Western Collection Species Spirit of the Forest Spongebob Squarepants: 10 Happiest Moments Stiffs Stigmata/Wicker Party Submarine Alert Taroko National Park Terminal Island Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! Season 4 Trastorno Tropical Paradise Twenty Two Tickets to Paradise UFC 116 Under Still Waters Urzi Case: UFO Mystery in the Skies Wall: A World Divided War: Weapons of War VOl. 1 When Worlds Collide Where the Red Fern Grows Who Is Clark Rockefeller Wild Asia: At the Edge Woods of Terror: Nightmare in the Woods/Zombie Village Wordworld: Dancing Dog World War II Commando WWE Summerslam 2010 SEPTEMBER 21

30 Rock: Season 3 4Troops: Live From the Intrepid Actuality Dramas of Allan King Akira Kurosawa’s Samurai 7: The Complete Series Alien Autopsy All Hell Broke Loose All in a Day’s Play Alpha Incident America: Live at the Ventura Theater American Astronaut Auras and Chakras: Prepare to Be Energized Battlefield Russia: The Eastern Front Being Human: Season 2 Bored to Death: The Complete First Season Born Under a Bad Sign Calvin Marshall Carmen Castle: The Complete Second Season Chasin’ Gus’ Ghost Chelsea on the Rocks Cinderella Story/Another Cinderella Story

Claang the Game Community: Season 1 Critters Collection: 4 Film Favorites Daniel and the Lions Date for Hire Defiled Designing Women: The Complete Fourth Season Desperate Housewives: The Complete Sixth Season Directors: Life Behind the Camera Dragonball GT: The Complete Series Eccentricities of a Blonde Electric Chair Eric Clapton: The 1960s Review Eric Sardinas and Big Motor: Live Experiment Exterminators of the Year 3000 Faces of Schlock Fantomas Collection Fast Lanes Festival of Fright Films of Nikita Mikhalkov Vol. 1 Final Destination Collection: 4 Film Favorites Free Willy Collection: 4 Film Fav Gamera vs. Guiron/Gamera vs. Jiger Gamera vs. Gyaos/Gamera vs. Viras Ghost Hunt: The Complete Series Glamourpuss: The Lady Gaga Story Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle/Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay He’s Your Dog, Charlie Brown Homewrecker Horror Collector Set Human Target: The Complete First Season Hunger: The Taste of Terror Imogen Heap: Everything InBetween: The Story of Ellipse Indestructible Man Initial D; First Stage Part 1 Jim Carrey Collection: 4 Film Favorites Kandahar Break Keeping Up With the Kardashians: The Complete Third Season Kevin K: The Successful Loser Kings & Queens Law & Order: Special Victims Unit – Year Eleven Legend of Bruce Lee Leon Blum: For All Mankind Little Train of the Caipira Mad About You Collection Make Me Young: Youth Knows No Pain Max & Ruby: Everybunny Loves Winter Mentalist: The Complete Second Season Minority Modern Family: The Complete First Season Mr. Palfrey of Westminster My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done? Mythbusters Collection 6 National Geographic: Collapse Oliver Stone Collection: 4 Film Favorites Ondine Opeth: Live in Concert at the Royal Albert Hall Out on the Floor: Story of a Dancer Pearl Jam: Under Review Petty Blue Power of Myth: Vols. 1-6 Racing Dreams Reincarnation Robin Hood (2010) Rope Ladder to the Moon: An Introduction to Jack Bruce Sacre Du Printemps Sandra Bullock Comedy Collection: 4 Film Favorites Saturday Night Live: The Best of ‘09/’10

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Secret of Moonacre Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 1&2 Soul Walker Spartacus: Blood and Sand – The Complete First Season Stallion Collection Steve McQueen Collection: 4 Film Favorites Stomp the Yard: Homecoming Stripped Naked Suspense Collection: 4 Film Favorites Symphonie Fantastique Taggert Set 3 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Collection: 4 Film Favorites Thomas & Friends: Thomas’ Halloween Adventures/Percy’s Ghostly Trick Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue TNA Wrestling: The Best of the Asylum Years Vol. 1 Tom and Jerry’s Greatest Chases Vol. 5 Trekking the World Triple Dog Two and a Half Men: The Complete Seventh Season Vampire Sisters Van Der Graaf Generator: Live at the Paradiso April 2007 Venus 5 Wall Street Watermelon Slim: Live at Ground Zero Blues Club Wild Things Box Set Xam’d: Lost Memories Collection 1 SEPTEMBER 28

2010 Wimbledon Official Film 7 Days 8213: Gacy House Adelheid/The White Dove All Boys All in a Day’s Play American Streetballers Andy Mann: Street Tapes & Cable Access Arcimboldo, 1926-1593: Nature and Fantasy Art of Acoustic Blues Guitar: Early Roots Astonishing X-Men: Gifted Babies Bear Bigfoot Is Real! From Sasquatch to the Abominable Snowman Bikes From Hell Biography: Beverly Hills 90210 Biography: Bill Cosby Biography: Bob Saget Biography: Bono Biography: Jon Stewart Biography: Meryl Streep Biography: Rachael Ray Biography: Sarah Jessica Parker Biography: Tony Danza Black Balloon Breaking the Code: Behind the Walls of Chris Jericho Brothel Bruriah Butterfly: A Grimm Love Story Carcasses Cat City Celebrity Sweat V01 Chainsaw Sally Show: Season One Chasing 3000

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Chesty Puller: The Marine’s Marine Chief Cleveland Show: The Complete Season One Complete Secret Agent AKA Danger Man: The Complete Collection Conceiving Ada Coppelia CSI Crime Scene Investiation: The Tenth Season Dairugger Collection 3 Dark House Dark Night of the Scarecrow Dark Woods Designing Women Vol. 1 Devil May Cry: Complete Box Set Distant Shore: African Americans of D-Day Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus Eden of the East: The Complete Series Ellery Queen Mysteries Essential Games of the Seattle Mariners Family Guys: Partial Terms of Endearment Fangoria FrightFest: The Tomb Forbidden Lie$ Fragile From Dawn Till Dracula Frozen Full Metal Panic Fumoffu: The Complete Collection Fullmetal Alchemist: The Complete First Season Gateway to Faerie German Fighter Aircraft Get Him to the Greek G-Force Girl From Cortina Good Goth Box Great Epochs of European Art Gridiron Generals: A Hard-Hitting History of College Football Grim Gunslingers Halloween Stories Collection Harlow Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars Helen Hell Girl: Three Vessels Collection 1 Hist. of Oklahoma Football Part 1:B Hoopdogz: Stealing’s Uncool Episode 2 House of the Wolf Man Hunger I Want Your Girl I’m Gonna Explode Iron Bodyguard Iron Man 2 Jane Eyre Kid Chamaco Killer Inside Me Knock on Wood Laurie Berkner Band: Let’s Hear It for the Laurie Berkner Band Law Le Petomane: The Fart Film Legend of Seeker: The Complete Second Season Littles: Christmas Special Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries: Set Two Lost Broadcasts Lotschberg Railway Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals Man, Moment, Machine: Saddam Hussein and the Nerve Gas Atrocity

Sep 14 The Third Man

Directed by Carol Reed This is an unimpeachable movie. There is not a thing wrong with it. Not one performance that’s misjudged by even a line-reading. Not one note out-of-place on the so-wrong-it’s-right soundtrack. (Nothing says intrigue and suspense like a jaunty zither. Or at least nothing did until The Third Man.) That doesn’t necessarily make it the Best Film of All Time, but if we were drafting a list, it’d be way, way up there. Joseph Cotten is the perfect schlemiel; Orson Welles plays his growing presence, both physical and vocal, for all it’s worth in one rumored-tobe-improvised scene; writer Graham Greene turns out the best of his “entertainments”; and director Carol Reed proves himself such a master of film noir composition that for years people (sadly) were giving Welles all the credit. Lions Gate

Max & Morris: Everyone’s After the Loot Mayan Prophecies and Crop Circles Mercy Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence Midsomer Murders: Set 16 Mighty Machines: Winter Blast Mind Control Mirella Freni: A Live Devoted to Opera Misfortunates Modern Marvels: Money Modern Marvels: Motorcycles Modern Marvels: The Real Natinoal Treasure Mouse and the Motorcycle Collection My Favorite Spy Nabari No Ou: The Complete Series NBA: Z Bloopers NFL Greatest Rivalries: Bears Defeat Packers

NFL Greatest Rivalries: Packers Defeat Bears Nightmares in Red, White and Blue No-Do Not Now Darling Oath Once Is Not Enough Paintball Paranormal State: The Complete Season Four Party Down Season Two Perrier’s Bounty Pig Hunt Placido Domingo: My Greatest Roles Vol.3 – French Opera Prankster Prehistoric Park Pride Fighting Championships: Bushido Vols. 7-10 Pride Fighting Championships: Grand Prix 2006 Primal Grill 3 Private Eyes Ralph S. Mouse Real Ghosts UK: Ghosts Aren’t Real – Think Again Red Hot Zorro Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles – Resolution Rhoda, Vol. 1 Rich Man, Poor Man: The Complete Collection Road Kill Robert Motherwell and the New York School – Storming the Citadel Saturday Night Live: Best of Adam Sandler Saturday Night Live: Best of Eddie Murphy Scarf Jack: Complete Series Scrubs: The Complete Collection Scrubs: The Complete Ninth and Final Season Secrets of the Aegean Apocalypse She-Ra: Princess of Power – Season 1 Volume 1 She-Ra: The Complete series Shiver of the Vampires Sid and Mary Krofft’s Greatest Saturday Morning Hits Smooth Witnesses Son of the Beach: Back to the Beach Soundtrack for a Revolution South Park: A Little Box of Butters Still Life Suck Super Size Me: Anniversary Edition Superman/Batman: Apocalypse Swamp Thing: The Legend Continues Sweet William Swordsmen in Double Flag Town/ Journey to the Western Xia Empire Tales of the Dead: Grim Stories of Curses, Horror and Gore Taming the Wild West: The Legend of Jedediah Smith Technology of Lewis & Clark That’s Impossible: Eternal Life That’s Impossible: Invisibility Cloaks That’s Impossible: Real Terminators There’s Nothing Out There Thin Red Line TNA Vol. 1: Best of Asylum Years Todd P. Goes to Austin Top Gear: The Complete Season 13 Tripping Forward U.S. Open 2001 Women’s Final: S. Williams vs. V. Williams U.S. Open 2002 Men’s Final: Sampras vs. Agassi Until the Light Takes Us Vampire Knight Vol. 2 Videocracy W. Eugene Smith: Photography Made Difficult Wake the Witch

/movies

Spartacus: Blood and Sand

Betrayed by the Romans. Forced into slavery. Reborn as a Gladiator. To survive, he must become a legend.

The world of gladiators comes to life as the Roman Republic’s most brutal fighters clash in the ultimate arena. Spartacus: Blood and Sand is an entirely new vision of the ancient legend—a bold, sensual re-imagining of those epic times. Intense, heartstopping action captured in cutting-edge graphic novel style, coupled with elegant, sexy drama and devious political intrigue make Spartacus: Blood and Sand gripping, addictive TV. Spartacus (Andy Whitfield), a Thracian warrior captured by Romans, is enslaved into a gladiator training Ludus owned by Batiatus (John Hannah) and his wife Lucretia (Lucy Lawless). He is forced to fight daily for his life against deadly foes. Against all odds, Spartacus’ rebellious instincts, his intense love for his wife Sura (Erin Cummings) and his powerful fighting skills drive him to win a series of near-impossible battles. Facing financial ruin, Batiatus sees Spartacus’ crowd-pleasing fighting spirit as a way to please his adored wife Lucretia and to claw back their social standing. Lucretia, meanwhile, is making her own plans, seeking the favor of Ilithyia (Viva Bianca), the wealthy senator’s daughter who is married to Spartacus’ nemesis, the legate Claudius Glaber (Craig Parker). Not to mention the sexual favors she extracts from Crixus (Manu Bennett), her husband’s prized gladiator champion.

Spartacus must endure harsh training under the legendary gladiator master Doctore (Peter Mensah), the ruthless and ambitious Crixus and an ensemble of brutes, including Batiatus’ personal bodyguard and hit man Barca (Antonio Te Maioha), the Ludus’ bookie and general fixer Ashur (Nick E. Tarabay) and Varro (Jai Courtney), who sold himself into slavery to pay off gambling debts and who becomes Spartacus’ only friend. Offsetting the violence is the sex. In keeping with the relaxed morals of the time, Spartacus: Blood and Sand bares all in the bedroom in complex relationships, affairs and passions that cross all boundaries of social status, power and gender. Once the series was greenlit, the producers mounted a worldwide search for the lead actor, which culminated in the selection of Andy Whitfield, a Welshman who has been living in Australia for the past 10 years. Although he only saw selected scenes while he was auditioning, Whitfield says he thought: “Spartacus, man. This is my dream role—the fighting, the sandals, the blood, the legend. Then when the scripts came through, I was just blown away by the writing. It’s the greatest script I’ve ever read. I mean, I’m reading and I’m like: ‘Wow! That’s amazing. That’s heartbreaking.’ And you go through this whole journey—the characters are just put through hell. It’s a unique combination of real hard edge, heart, passion and power.” Lucy Lawless relishes the complexity of her character Lucretia: “There are a lot of very interesting women politics in this. Lucretia doesn’t simply hate Ilithyia and want to use her from the outset; she does because it’s a matter of survival to get her patronage. But actually what she wants is to be her friend. She wants to have that reflected glory from this very pretty, rich, glamorous Roman woman. Lucretia wants a little bit of that for herself, but she’s already peaked, so she’s getting needy, hence her extramarital relationships. She’s one part very tough, very scheming and one part very needy, very vulnerable.” Executive Producer and Writer Steven S. DeKnight concludes by calling attention to the ground-breaking special effects used in the show: “We’re trying something very different and new with the blood. We’re doing 3D blood. It’s not a digital blood effect. We shoot high-speed, slow-motion blood shots Spartacus: Blood and Sand—The Complete on green screen, and then we comp them First Season, will into the action. When I saw the first test, be available on it was like nothing I’ve ever seen before, Blu-Ray™ and DVD September 21 which I thought was very exciting.” from Anchor Bay Entertainment.

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/music /new_releases SEPTEMBER 7

The Acorn No Ghost Anberlin Dark Is the Way Fred Anderson Qt Darkday + Live Angelfire Angelfire Antlantean Kodex The Pnakotic Demos Arp Soft Wave B Uhuru/Sly & Robbie Chicago 84 Blackout Birgade Death and Dishonesty Blue Sky Black Death Third Party Paul Booth No Looking Back Boston Spaceships Our Cubehouse Still Rocks Glenn Branca Symphony #8 & #10 Eden Brent Ain’t Got No Troubles Buggirl Dirt in the Skirt Dec Burke Destroy All Monsters Stan Bush Dream the Dream David Byron Band On the Rocks Cassette Jam Cassette Jam Eric Chenaux Warm Weather With Ry Stanley Clarke Modern Man/I Wanna Play for You Cloudland Canyon Fin Eaves Cold River Lady Better Late Than Never Natalie Cole With the Mormon Tabernacle Choir The Most Wonderful Time of the Year The Colourphonics The Colourphonics Crack the Sky Machine The Cramps The Cramps Jukebox Dick Dale The Very Best of Dick Dale Darkness Conclusion & Revival Darkness Defenders of Justice De Van Planet Botox Death in Custody Infected With Rage Devil Rides Out The Heart and the Crown Divination Age of Man Nate Dogg G-Funk Mix Dorrough Get Big Ken Emerson Slack & Key Estranged Subliminal Man Estun-Bah From Where the Sun Rises Factory Factory Fingerprints Dream Life Mike Finnigan Mike Finnigan Freakangel The Faults of Humanity Garotal Suecas Escaldante Banda Gasoline Silver Gasoline Silver Gnaw Their Tongues L’Arrivee De La Terne Mort Triomphante Golem Orion Awakes Great Big Sea Turn Tony Guerrero Blue Room Helmet Seeing Eye Dog Matt Hill On the Floor P Howell, JFerdinando Tomorrow Come Sunday Hurricane Liquifury Hytest Dishing Out the Goodtimes Interpol Interpol Intersphere terspheres><Atmospheres Atta Isaacs Innovative Slack Key Master Michael Jackson Do You Remember Julien Jacob Sel Steevi Jaimz My Private Hell Brendan James Brendan James Jay Street Tasty George Jones Sacred Songs Jukebox the Ghost Everything Under the Sun Lady Saw My Way Tim Lapthorn Seventh Sense Chris Laurence New View Leaether Strip Mental Slavery Jerry Lee Lewis Mean Old Man Lez Zeppelin Lez Zeppellin I Lil Flip We Got Next: The Mixtape Ludo Prepare the Preparation Barbara Lynn It Aint’ No Good to Be Good Macondo Macondo Mandala Soul Crusade Gerry McAvoy Can’t Win ‘em All Paul McCandless All the Mornings Bring Sarah McLawler Under My Hat Megadeth Rust in Peace Live Glen Moore Introducing Glen Moore Mother’s Finest Mother’s Finest Mr. B’s Joybox Exp Qt Live

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Naefus Naevus Neon Neon Bastard Neurosis Neurosis Nine Below Zero Nine Ways to Win Nurse With Wound Chris O’Leary Band Oval Persephone’s Dream Playhouse Disney Sam Prekop Press Psyche Quill Rayvon Rehab Riff Raff Riley Smokey Robinson Robyn Rococo Rick Ross Rubettes ft. Bill Hurd Samiam Siskiyou Solaram Sole/Ravi Zupa Chris Spedding Candi Staton Steeldrivers Storys Suicidal Tendencies Superbees Tere Melos The Thermals Jesse Thomas Rob Thompson Andreya Triana Two Hours Traffic Until December Vandermark 5 Vandermark 5 Various Artists Various Artists Various Artists Various Artists Peter Walker Wetton/Downes S Wilk & The Walls Winter Gloves Zapp & Roger

Relatively Close to the Sea Silent Life Here to There Meikhaus Enemy of the Sun Live at Roadburn 2007 Chilled/Refrigerator Nine Ways to Win Second Pirate Session Mr. Used to Be O Pan Let’s Dance Old Punch Card Complete Press 1984-1994 RE-Membering Dwayne Quill Rayvon Welcome Home Vinyl Futures Grandma’s Roadhouse The Solo Albums Body Talk Pt. 2 Run From the Wildfire Da Bottom 17 21st Century Orphan Works Siskiyou Love & The Sweet Divine Pyre Just Plug Him In Canti Staton Reckless Luck No Mercy Fool Top of the Rocks Patagonian Rats Personal Life Hazel EP Dust Lost Where I Belong Territory 415 Sessions Acoustic Machine Burn the Incline Califia: The Songs of Lee Hazlewood Philly Re-Groovedt Roots of the Rolling Stones Sounds of Rhythm and Blues Rainy Day Raga Icon Scott Wilk & The Walls All Red Double Dose of Funk

SEPTEMBER 14

What Did You Think Was Going to Happen? 47.5 Warm Sea Mario Abney Spiritual Perception The Absence Enemy Unbound Accept Blood of the Nations Addicted to Pain Addicted to Pain The Afters Light Up the Sky Mose Allison Back Country Suite/Local Color Amazing Blondel England/Blondel Amely Hello World Amusement Parks ... Road Eyes Trey Anastasio Band Tab at the Tab A Rose / Humanwine Split Olof Arnalds Innundir Skinni Atrocity After the Storm Scott Attrill Noize Azure Ray Drawing Down the Moon Bad Cop Harvest the Beast The Bad Plus Never Stop Baha Men 10 Great Songs Dale Baker Canary in the Coal Mine Banner Pilot Resignation Day Barlowgirl Our Journey… So Far Richard Barone Glow Bathory Under the Sign of the Black S Bechet & B Clayton In Concert at the Brussels Fair 1958 Richie Beirach, Dave Liebman, Jim McNee Quest for Freedom Mbilia Bel Bel Canto: The Genidia 2AM Club

Sam Prekop sep 7

Old Punch Card The first two Sam Prekop albums—1999’s self-titled offering and 2004’s Who’s Your New Professor?—are lovely, lush, lithe things, the closest Chicago post-rock ever came to pop songs. As with the Sea and Cake, his “better known” band—if you know about the Sea and Cake, you’ve probably bought both of Prekop’s solo LPs already—Prekop’s perpetually drowsy voice is half the charm. That’s why it’s a bit distressing that the first Sam Prekop album in six years is being touted as entirely instrumental; though if it’s anything like the electronic miniatures on those late ’90s Sea and Cake albums, it’ll still be worth picking up. Thrill Jockey

Years Archie Bell & Drells Dance Your Troubles Away Shye Ben-Tzur Shoshan Big B Good Times & Bad Advice James Bignon The Masterpeace Black Milk Album of the Year Black Mountain Wilderness Heart The Black Pacific The Black Pacific Blonde Redhead Penny Sparkle Blood, Sweat & Tears Mirror Image/New City Frankie Bones Scene Starter Boot Campaign When They Come Back Boss Hogg Outlawz Present J-Dawg Boss Hogg Outlawz Present J-Dawg Terry Brock Diamond Blue Brokedowns Species Bender Dave Brubeck Live in Portland 1959 Ed Bruce In Jesus’s Eyes Brutal Truth Need to Control Redux Buck$ Buckwild Buke & Gass Riposte Johnny Burnette The Ballads of Johnny Burnette Clare Burson Silver and Ash Charlie Byrd Byrd in the Wind/Blues for Night People Donald Byrd Byrd in Hand/Davis Cup Caligula Divine Madness Cam’ron & Vado Gunz n’ Butta Keith Canisius This Time It’s Our High Cap 1 Amerika’s Nightmare Eric Carmen Eric Carmen/Boats Against the Current Casanova One Night Stand Mark Chadwick All the Pieces Jacky Chalard Je Sus Vivant/Mais J’ai Chanticleer Chanticleer Christmas The Chapin Sisters Two The Charlatans UK Who We Touch Jules Chaz Toppings Chocolate Genius Inc Swansongs Chromeo Business Casual Willie Clayton Sings the #1s Cloud Cult Light Chasers Leonard Cohen Songs From the Road Ornette Coleman Reunion 1990 John Coltrane Complete 1962 Copenhagen Concert

Robyn Sep 7

Body Talk: Part 2 In 2005, when she reinvented herself with the homemade electro whimsy of Robyn, this spunky Swede couldn’t catch a break in America, a country where she’d had a couple of Top 10 hits in the ’90s. It took three years for Robyn to get a stateside release, and by then, she’d been adopted by a new audience of indie rock fans and championed by cutting-edge dance producers. Now Robyn’s probably the most talked about pop-star-who’s-notactually-famous, but she deserves to be. For one thing, her music offers all the supercharged beats of today’s Billboard faves, but Robyn sounds, despite her playful robot image, like a human being, for the nine people on planet Earth who still care about those. Cherrytree/ Interscope

Lush Life Fluorescent Youth Son of Man Act I Live From L.A. Vol. 2 Celtic Seas Sleep Forever Loop Over Latitudes Greatest Ballads Genocide Chapters Relentless Retribution Kill Maim Burn Nine Inches of God Horseshoes & Handgrenades District 97 Hybrid Child DJ Dan DJ Dan Presents Future Retro Bonnie Dobson Vive La Canadienne Eric Dolphy Complete Last Recordings in Hilversum Denise Donatelli When Lights Are Low Chris Donnelly Solo Doro Fear No Evil Will Downing Lust, Love & Lies Dr. Tequila Dr. Tequila Dragonforce Twilight Denentia Drums Drums Dryft Ventricle Dungen Skit I Allt Justin Townes Earle Harlem River Blues Jimmy Edgar XXX Edguy The Legacy (Gold Edition) El Guincho Pop Negro Roy Eldridge Little Jazz Trumpet Giant Electric Sunset Electric Sunset Duke Ellington Playlist: The Very Best of Duke Ellington Herb Ellis Nothing But the Blues Eluvium Leaves Eclipse the Light Sully Erna Avalon Bill Evans Live in Koblenz 1979 Fat Freddy’s Drop Live at Roundhouse First Signal This City First State Changing Lanes John Coltrane Conditions Kenneth Cope Beverly Crawford James Crisp Crocodiles Dalot Miles Davis Dawn of Ashes Death Angel Debauchery Deep Switch Disciple

Ella Fitzgerald Twelve Nights Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong Greatest Hits The Fleshtones Hexbreaker/Speed Connection Flotsam & Jetsam The Cold Brandon Flowers Flamingo Anat Fort Trio And If Connie Francis Sings Jewish Favorites/ Sings Irish Favorites Frenzy In the Blood Slim Gaillard Laughing in Rhythm Rory Gallagher Beat Club Sessions Gel-Sol K8ema Stan Getz At the Shrine L Goldings & H Allen When Larry Met Harry Chilly Gonzales Ivory Tower Benny Goodman Happy Session The Gracious Few The Gracious Few Grace Griffith Sailing Grinderman Grinderman 2 Jimmy Guiffre Jimmy Guiffre Clarinet Cas Haley Connection Thurston Harris Little Bitty Pretty One Deborah Harry Rockbird/Debravation Herra Terra Quiet Geist Bill Hicks The Essential Collection Walter Horton Blues Harmonica Giant Houston Houston Marques Houston Mattress Music Huey Redemption David Hull David Hull Infantree Would Work Jack Goes Boating Jack Goes Boating Jericho Road Day of Rest Tom Jobim My Soul Sings Joey + Rory Album Number Two Jamey Johnson The Guitar Song Justin Jones Little Fox EP Jordanaires Songs of Inspiration J-Soul Real Junip Fields Laura Kaczor Love Enough Kamelot Poetry for the Poisoned Johnny Kask Luten Anstalt Blues Enoch Kent Take a Trip With Me Kickhunter All In King Britt Baby Loves Disco King Crimson The Collectible King Crimson Vol. 5 The Greg Koch Trio From the Attic Kottonmouth Kings Present X Pistols Shoot to Kill Liv Kristine Skintight Danny Krivit Edits by Mr. K VOl. 2 Krizz Kaliko Shock Treatment Fela Kuti Opposite People/Sorrow Tears and Blood Fela Kuti Shuffering & Shmiling/No Agreement Fela Kuti Stalemate/Fear Not for Man Fela Kuti Upside Down/Music of Many Colors Fela Kuti V.I.P./Authority Stealing Fela Kuti Zombie Lefty Dizz Ain’t It Nice to Be Loved M Legrand & M Davis Le Grand Jazz Les Savy Fav Root for Ruin Ramsey Lewis Movie Album/Dancing in the Street Lil Cuete Dia De Los Muertos Mix Lil Ronnie L.N.I.C> Pt. 2 Linkin Park A Thousand Suns Little Richard 40 Original Hits & Rarities Charles Lloyd Mirror Locco Evolution Lonely Drifter Karen Fall of Spring The Lonely Forest Arrows Lordi Babez for Breakfast Majure TImespan Mambo Kurt King of Heimorgel Mar de Grises Strams Inwards Masters of Reality Pine/Cross Dvoer Percy Mayfield Nightless Lover Maylay Sparks FLaskworthy Megafaun Heretofore Meltgsnow Black Penance Memphis Slim Legend of the Blues Volumes 1 & 2 MF Doom Expektoration… Live Feat.

Big Benn Klin What It Means to Be LeftHanded Charles Mingus Playlist: The Very Best of Charles MIngus Miss Lady Pinks Tell It Like It Is B Mitchell / Toppers Rack ‘Em Back Thelonious Monk Brilliant Corners Thelonious Monk Playlist: The Very Best of Thelonious Monk Bill Monroe Bill Monroe & Friends The Moondoggies Tidelands Gerry Mulligan Rare & Unissued 1955-56 Broadcasts Kenny Neal Hooked on Your Love Jonathan Nelson Better Days The New Czars Doomsday Revolution Stevie Nimmo The Wynds of Life James Nixon Live in Europe Pieter Nooten Here Is Why John Norum Play Yard Blues Now Sleepyhead Nocturne M O’Brien & R Moore Saints ;& Sinners Oceansize Self Preserved While the Bodies Float Up Of Montreal False Priest The O’Jays Christmas With the O’Jays Junko Onishi Baroque Roy Orbison From the Beginning: 8 Rarities Orgone Killion Vaults Otargos No God, No Satan James Otto Shake What God Gave Ya Pantera Cowboys From Hell (Deluxe) The Parlotones Stardust Galaxies Stephen Pearcy Fueler John Pearse The Lost 1966 Waldeck Audition People’s Potential... Family Album Robert Plant Band of Joy Porcupine Tree Recordings Prince Rama Shadow Temple Putumayo Presents Yoga Queensryche Empire: 20th Anniversary Edition Quicksilver Messenger Service Happy Trails Qwel & Maker Owl The Rat Pack Christmas With the Rat Pack Rufus Reid Out Front Django Reinhard Quintessential Resin Hits How to Cut a Rock Stephen Rhodes Ultimate Collection Kim Richey Wreck Your Wheels Robbie Rivera Juicy Ibiza 2010 Robin Rogers Back in the Fire Sonny Rollins Saxophone Colossus Savage Republic Procession: An Aural History Boz Scaggs Boz Scaggs & Band (Deluxe Edition) Boz Scaggs My Time (Deluxe Edition) Scarlet Grey Fancy Blood Bishop Leonard Scott My Worship Experience Section 25 Retrofit Seven the Hardway Seven the Hardway Nina Simone At Town Hall Nina Simone Very Best of Nina Simone Chris Sligh The Anatomy of Broken Soundtrack Third Man Mavis Staples You Are Not Alone Duane Stephenson Black Gold Helen Sung Going Express Superchunk Majesty Shredding Syndaesia Turbulence System Divide The Conscious Sedation System F Champions ATatum & R Eldridge Art Tatum-Roy Eldridge Quartet Keepers of the Faith Terror These Are They Disposing of Betrayers Teddy Thompson Bella Tides of Man Dreamhouse Torture Squad Aequilibrium Trae Can’t Ban the Truth Ike & Tina Turner Come Together/Workin’ Together Judie Tzuke Road Noise Underworld Barking Mice Parade

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/music /new_releases SEPTEMBER 28

Mirage History of Saints Wish I’d Kept a Scrapbook: A Tribute to Tullycraft The Vaselines Sex With an X Vitamin String Qt VSQ Performs Lady Gaga Charles Walker Soul Stirring Thing The Walkmen Lisbon Cedar Walton Animation/Soundscapes Watchmen Wu-Tang Management Presents: Watchmen Muddy Waters They Called Me Muddy Waters/Live at Mist Waybuloo World of Musical Happiness Weather Report Playlist: The Very Best of Weather Report Jimmy Webb Ten Easy Pieces + Six B Webster & A Tatum Ben Webster-Art Tatum Quartet Weezer Hurley Kenny Wheeler / John Dankworth Orchestra Windmill Tilter: The Story of Don Quixote Josh White Achor Matt White It’s the Good Crazy Ken Whitely Another Day’s Journey Chuck Willis Rockin’ With the Sheik of the Blues Norma Winstone Stories Yet to Tell With Life in Mind Grievances Elisabeth Withers No Regrets Raphael Wressnig Party Factor SEPTEMBER 21

R Abbasi Acoustic Qt Natural Selection Marc Antoine My Classical Way Talibah Begay Navajo Songs for Children Jane Birkin Di Doo Dah Black Country Comm. Black Country Community Black Twig Pickers Ironto Special Erin Bode Photograph Brass Bed Melt White James Brown The Singles Vol. 9 Zac Brown Band You Get What You Give Chris & Kyle / True... Heal Me Clockcleaner Auf Wiedersehen Copy Hard Dream Matt Costa Mobile Chateau Crippled Black Phoen. I, Vigilante Amelia Curran Hunter, Hunter Billy Currington Enjoy Yourself Dawnbringer Nucleus Dearly & Denny Love Hurts Dude DJ Nate Da Trak Genious LDoucet / White Fal... Steel City Trawler Eat Me While I’m Hot xAlbumx Taylor Eigsti Daylight at Midnight Fake Problems Real Ghosts Caught on Tape Jose Feliciano All Time Great Performances M Franti & Spearhead The Sound of Sunshine The Giving Tree Band The Joke, The Threat & The Obvious Group 1 Crew Outta Space Love Darren Hanlon I Will Love You at All Hot Toddy Late Night Boogie Randy Houser They Call Me Cadillac Hundred in the Hands The Hundred in the Hands Imagination Movers In a Big Warehouse Jakko M. Jakszyk The Bruised Romantic Glee Club Stevie Joe ‘80s Baby K2 Black Garden King Curtis Soul Time Leadbelly All Time Greatest John Legend / Roots Wake Up Mackintosh Braun Where We Are Margot / Nuclear So... Buzzard Maroon 5 Hands All Over Johnny Mathis Let It Be Me: Mathis in Nashville Maximum Balloon Maximum Balloon MC5 Purity Accuracy J McNeil/B McHenry Chill Morn He Climb Henny

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Psychedelic Sounds Of The 88 Crush In the Absence of Light Baba Mo Tunde X2 (A Thousand Different Ways/Measure of a Man Rahim Alhaj Little Earth Dave Allen Colour Blind Coffey Anderson Coffey Anderson August Burns Red Home Autopsy Dark Crusades Bad Religion The Dissent of Man Chet Baker Chet Baker Sings Buju Banton Before the Dawn Barenaked Ladies Barenaked for the Holidays Aloe Blacc Good Things Black Anvil Triumvirate Blues Image Ride Captain Ride: Anthology of Classics Bolt Thrower In Battle There Is No Law David Bowie Station to Station B-Real The Harvest Vol. 1 Breathe Owl Breathe Magic Central Lincoln Brewster Real Life Paul Brown Love You Found Me Brown Study Brown Study Joe Budden The Great Escape Cinema Red and Blue Cinema Red and Blue Clutch Robot Hive/Exodus Avishai Cohen Introducing Triveni Phil Collins Going Back James Cotton Giant Jason Crabb Because It’s Christmas Cradle of Filth Principle of Evil Made Flesh Cradle of Filth Vempire Beverly Crawford Choo Choo-Beverly’s Testimony Crème Anglaise Crème Anglaise The Dance Party Touch Miles Davis/S Rollins Dig John De Kadt Rhythms of the Infinite Dead Voices on Air From Afar All Stars Spark & Glee Deerhunter Halcyon Digest Eli Degibri Israeli Song R Dillard/Dillard Band I Wish Life Was Like Mayberry The Doobie Brothers World Gone Crazy Dope X2 (Felons and Revolutionaries/Life) Paquito D’Rivera Tango Jazz: Live at Jazz at Lincoln Center Duran Duran Big Thing Duran Duran Notorious Edisun Edisun Kerry Ellis Anthems Enslaved Axioma Ethica Odini Bill Evans Trio Waltz for Deby Fabulous Ginn Sisters You Can’t Take a Bad Girl Home Fences Fences Flesh Consumed Ecliptic Dimensions Floored by Four Floored by Four Red Foley Hillbilly Fever Tennessee Ernie Ford Old Time Religion Four Year Strong Enemy of the World Frames Mosaik Fred Who’s Ready to Party Free Moral Agents Control This Furnaze No Stairway to Heaven Peter Gabriel Peter Gabriel 1: Car Peter Gabriel Peter Gabriel 2: Scratch Peter Gabriel Peter Gabriel 3: Melt Peter Gabriel Peter Gabriel 4: Security Peter Gabriel So Peter Gabriel U Peter Gabriel Up Bill & Gloria Gaither Count Your Blessings Bill & Gloria Gaither Giving Thanks Gallows End Nemesis Divine Gin Blossoms No Chocolate Cake Glasser Ring Good Charlotte X2 (Good Charlotte/ Chronicles of Life and Death) Grand Magus Grand Magus Grand Magus The Monument 13th Floor Elevators The 88 Abe Vigoda Abigail Williams King Sunny Ade Clay Aiken

Armin Van Buuren Vanisher Various Artists

The Walkmen Sep 14 Lisbon

Don’t let the whimsical leadoff single fool you; the Walkmen can still rock when they feel like it. Is anything on Lisbon as fierce and desperate-sounding as “The Rat”? Of course not, but it’s unfair to dismiss a band because they can’t (or won’t) recreate their own best record. Produced by genius studio whiz John Congleton, Lisbon is sweet even when it’s storming. That aforementioned first single, “Stranded,” sounds like a Bobby Darin ballad worked over Brian Wilson in his fat-and-bearded era, but thanks to Congleton’s absolutely immense drum sound, those Dick Dale snare rolls on “Angela Surf City” sound less like ’60s kitsch and more like a wave crashing down on your head. Fat Possum

Meligrove Band Shimmering Light Methods of Mayhem A Public Disservice Announcement Mini Mansions Mini Mansions Jane Monheit Home Munly / Lupercalians Petr & The Wulf Mutemath Armistice Live (CD/DVD) My Darkest Days My Darkest Days Natacha Atlas Moungaliba Nekrasov Extinction Nobunny First Blood Opeth In Live Concert at the Royal Albert Hall Otem Rellik Elephant Graveyard Randall Paskemin Goodnight Sweet Dreams I Love You Lee “Scratch” Perry The Mighty Upsetter Phineas & Ferb Christmas Is Starting Pochill Discipline The Quemists Spirit in the System R Manuva Meets... Duppy Writer Frankie Rose / Outs Frankie Rose & The Outs Justin Rutledge The Early Widows Laetitia Sadier Trip Santana Guitar Heaven Selena Gomez/Scene A Year Without Rain Shakespeare’s Sister Songs From the Red Room (Deluxe) Shit Robot From the Cradle to the Rave Kay Starr / Les Paul Performances Steel Magnolia Steel Magnolia Swans My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky Tank Now or Never Serj Tankian Imperfect Harmonies Torche Songs for Singles Travis & Fripp Live at Coventry Cathedral U.S. Christmas Run Thick in the Night UB40 Labour of Love IV Various Artists Imaginational Anth 4 Various Artists Metal Xmas Rhonda Vincent Taken White Noise Sound White Noise Sound Johnny Winter Beginnings 1960-1967 The Wonder Years The Upsides (Deluxe Edition)

Rockets on the Balcony Pesebre Welcome to My Battleship Static Impulse Rehab Phantasmagoria The Great Unknown Keep on Giving: Acoustic Brotherhood Live Lovehandles Lovehandles Lunch at Allens More Lunch at Allens Simon McBride Since Then Paul McCartney Band on the Run (CD/DVD) Nellie McKay Home Sweet Mobile Home Migrant Travels in Lowland The Miller Sisters Got You On My Mind Liza Minnelli Confessions Mojado Skizo Wes Montgomery Boss Guitar Mswhite Squares Mushroomhead Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children Nails Unsilent Death Neon Indian Mind Ctrl: Psychic Chasms Possessed New Medicine Race You to the Bottom Night Ranger Authorized Bootleg No Age Everything in Between Bebo Norman Ocean North Point Music North Point Christmas Nymph Nymph Hugh O’Conner For the First Time October Tide A Thin Shell OMD History of Modern The Once The Once Oregon IN Stride Original Cast Recording Clear Blue Tuesday Oscar G Live From NYC OSI Office of Strategic Influence Ozric Tentacles Strangitude Paleo A View of the Sky Parlour Simulacrenfield Paul & The Patients To the Lions Pedro Del Mar Playa Del Lounge Lucky Peterson You Can Always Turn Around Enrico Pieranunzi Latin Jazz Quintet Live at Birdland Richard Pinhas Metl/Crystal Point of Grace Home for the Holidays The Posies Blood/Candy Powerglove Saturday Morning Apocalypse Queensryche Empire: 20th Anniversary Edition The Rat Pack Christmas With the Rat Pack Refried Ice Cream Witness to the Storm Lou Reid & Carolina Sounds Like Heaven to Me Rend Collective Experiment Organic Family Hymnal M. Ronson Record Collection Runner Runner Runner Runner Rush 2112 + Moving Pictures The Scenic Bipolaroid TheSchool of Worship Christ in Me The Secret Solve et Coagula Seven Kingdoms Seven Kingdoms Kenny Wayne Shepherd Live! In Chicago Skillz Hip Hop Confessions The Sleeping Big Dep Sly & Robbie and Scatana The Best Supporting Acts Sly & Robbie and the Family Taxi One Pop Reggae Michael W. Smith Wonder Snarky Puppy Tell Your Friends Joan Soriano El Duqe de la Bachata Soundgarden Telephant Spock’s Beard X Stand United Anherence Andy Stanley An Invitation to Christmas Adam Haworth Stephens We Live on Cliffs Sweet Cobra Mercy Tangerine Dream Ocean Waves Collection Omer Klein Axel Krygier La Querelle James Labrie Lecrae Limbonic Art Logan Los Lonely Boys

Mark Ronson and Business International sep 28

Record Collection Mark Ronson didn’t take the loss of his world-famous muse, Amy Winehouse, lying down. Instead, the multi-instrumentalist and retro-soul wunderkind called in every favor he was owed; the guest list for Record Collection is probably the most schizophrenic of the year. Ronson managed to coax near-hermit D’Angelo out of his silence an achievement in itself, but then Ronson also went and drafted Simon Le Bon and Boy George. In case the presence of those two New Romantic titans didn’t tip you off, Record Collection isn’t a Back to Black style attempt at recreating the sound of 1965. Ronson also flashes enough electro, disco and old-school hip-hop influences to make the album seem strangely up-to-date given the sound of pop radio in 2010. RCA

Everlasting The Grave Digger Live Like You Wanna Live Unknown Angels Gifted Unlimited Rhymes Universal Gucci Mane The Appeal: Georgia’s Most Wanted Half-Handed Cloud As Stowaways in Cabinets of Surf, We Live Charlie Hall The Rising Jesse Harris Cosmo Hell Razah Heaven Razah Hi Power Ent Prsnts America’s Gangland Hi Power Ent Prsnts Notorious Gangsters Hidden Orchestra Night Walks Highlife Best Bless Kristian Hoffman Fop Home Away From Home The Blank Tapes The Hoppers 2 for 1: Great Day/Power Alexis Houston Speak Love-Life Lessons Tim Hughes Happy Day I Was a King Old Friends Ice Cube I Am the West Incubus S.C.I.E.N.C.E./A Crow Left of the Murder Ingram Hill Look Your Best The Isaacs Christmas Christopher Jackson In the Name of Love Mahalia Jackson Come to Jesus Jeremy Plays Guitar Use Your Words Jimmy Eat World Invented Alain Johannes Spark Donell Jones Lyrics Juke Kartel Levolution Kane & Abel Back on Money Keb Darge & Little Edith’s Legendary Rockin’ R&B Kellerman Clour Kings of Modesty Hell or Highwater Grandchildren Grave Digger Greenskeepers Tony Grey Group Home

OMD Sep 28

History of Modern Yes, it’s that OMD. The band who wrote “If You Leave.” Yet those who know them only for Pretty in Pink only know a tiny fraction of OMD’s story (or sound). Like so many early ’80s UK bands who had one shining moment of America-conquering glory—from Madness to Dexys Midnight Runners— OMD’s catalog is deeper than Yanks might think. Early albums like 1981’s Architecture and Morality and 1983’s Dazzle Ships were, in case their grandiose titles didn’t tip you off, a kind of epic synth-prog. OMD were art-rockers who just happened to dress like Adam Ant. Bright Antenna Silver Siren Collection Winter in Hiroshima The Inevitable Past Is the Future Forgot Thug Lordz Thug Money Tired Pony The Place We Ran From Today Is the Day In the Eyes of God Tom Tom Club Genius of Live Tomandandy Resident Evil: Afterlife Martina Topley Bird Some Place Simple Evelyn Turrentine-Agee There’s Gonna Be a Meeting Twin Shadow Forget UFO The Best of a Decade Ultra Dolphins Alien Baby Unearthly Trance V Univers Zero Heresie Uz Jsme Doma Caves Various Artists A Song for the King Various Artists Deep Ska Various Artists Fania Essential Recordings: Salsa Explosion Various Artists Hi-Grade Ganja Anthems Various Artists Hittin’ on All Six: A History of Jazz Guitar Various Artists It’s All About the Blues Various Artists Louisiana Cajun + Creole Various Artists Matador at 21 Various Artists Songs of Mary Various Artists The Doors Jukebox Various Artists The Music of DC Comics Various Artists Winter Songs Joe Louis Walker Blues Conspiracy: :Live on the Legendary Mike Westbrook Fine ‘N’ Yellow Tony Joe White The Shine Widespread Panic Live in the Classic CeCe Winans For Always: The Best of CeCe Winans Women Public Strain Ronnie Wood I Feel Like Praying Lizz Wright Fellowship Yaz Reconnected Live Pete Yorn Pete Yorn You, Me and Everyone We Know Some Things Don’t Wash Out Young Jeezy TM 103 Rob Zombie Hellbilly Deluxe 2 (CD/DVD) John Zorn Ipsissimus Tangerine Dream Tangerine Dream Three Mile Pilot

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