Update: MusicfestNW Day 2 (Love Language; Houndstooth)

At these festivals, there's decisions decisions decisions to be made. Do I see the old favorite I've seen many times or go check out a new band?

Well I am very glad I stayed out late enough last night to see a band I'd not heard before, Love Language. I can't say enough about how great their set was. As my friend Farnum turned and said to me maybe 3 songs in: "It's great and so rare to see an indie rock band that actually, um, rocks."

And yes, Love Language from Chapel Hill, North Carolina rocked the Bunk Bar in Portland Thursday night. It would be hard to describe their sound - 2, sometimes 3 guitars; keyboards; terrific lead singer; excellent use of harmony vocals; steady and aggressive drummer; high energy and sense of urgency; strong compositions with big pop hooks but involved instrumentation. More than anything, they were a true band, a collective with a defined and individual sound. I could hear some elements that sounded like influences, but they were so all over the map that in writing they sound nearly ridiculous - My Morning Jacket, The Shirelles, New Order, The Stooges.

Of course our founder and CEO here at WYMA, John Hyland, is always a step ahead of me and reviewed Love Language's latest CD Ruby Red earlier here.

Here's "Calm Down" from their latest record:

One more, "Still Life" that shows the soaring pop they are capable of:

Expect The Love Language's new CD Ruby Red to appear in our best of 2013. And they are a tremendous live band who simply killed it last night.

Playing right before Love Language was Houndstooth from Portland by way of Austin TX. Singer Katie Bernstein has a compelling mesmerizing voice, and guitarist John Gnorski creates rich, bluesy Southern influenced, nearly Gothic sounds, reminding me at times of Mazzy Star, but harder.  They were terrific, hypnotic, addictive. I really like this track "Canary Island" audio here. Here's a video of "Beach Bummer":

Artist web pages:
The Love Language
Houndstooth Facebook page

REVIEW: Mount Moriah - Miracle Temple

Mount Moriah is Heather McEntire (vocals and guitar), Jenks Miller (guitar) and Casey Toll (bass). Their new album is Miracle Temple - and it is deep, soulful, gorgeous and completely arresting. It demands and rewards your full attention. At the outset, I feel a need to mention that, though they're not credited as band members, the album would certainly not be as full without the contributions of James Wallace on drums, piano and organ, Daniel Hart on violin and Allyn Love on pedal steel. At various points throughout the album, Wallace's drumming, Love's pedal steel or Hart's sweet strings supply absolutely essential transitions.

But of course the core of the band is McEntire, Miller and Toll - there are other players involved, but these three are the songwriters, and the overriding components of Mount Moriah's sound are McEntire's vocals and Miller's guitars. They've hit on what is, to my ears at least, an unbeatable combination: an evocative, memorable voice that sounds as if it was born to sing country songs and some of the best Southern rock guitar licks outside of an Allmans or Crazy Horse record.

This is a joyful, at times achingly beautiful record - it is almost overwhelming in places, it's so good. You'll find yourself bobbing your head in time, swaying along with McEntire's singing and leaning in to follow Miller through a guitar line that goes to familiar, yet unexpected places - for example, I absolutely love the echoes of Dickey Betts' playing on "Blue Sky" that kick in about 3:00 into "Eureka Springs"... though it seems unfair to single out one such moment on an album that is absolutely bursting with them. I mentioned Hart's violin - check out "I Built a Town" - the guitar is a bit understated, and this has the effect of allowing the strings to ramp up the emotion, into another heart-tugging McEntire vocal. On "White Sands", the guitars are just ragged enough to contrast with her light, beautiful singing (and Indigo Girl Amy Ray's gospel-tinged backing vocals).

Here is opening track "Younger Days" - a great start, and an apt example of the way McEntire's crystal-clear phrasing and Miller's guitar tones intertwine:



And here's "Bright Light" - a glorious Southern rock song with some wonderful piano from the aforementioned James Wallace:



The record is out February 26 on Merge. If this is not in my top five at the end of 2013, it will have been a year like no other. And if you have ever liked Southern rock, you are gonna want this thing.

REVIEW: Chris Stamey - Lovesick Blues

Chris Stamey has long been one of my favorites -- a gifted songwriter, performer, producer and tastemaker -- in my view every bit as significant a musical beacon as T-Bone Burnett or Don Was. But Stamey opted for a lower profile decades ago when he left the bright lights / big city of New York City for Chapel Hill NC. Since then, Stamey has made his own records, while on the production side worked mainly with local artists, playing a large role in the artistic and commercial development of fellow Tar Heels Ryan Adams and Tift Merritt. Of course Stamey is best known as a founding member of The dBs, whose reunion record Falling Off the Sky topped my best of 2012 list.  

Lovesick Blues is not a sort of dBs solo record, as few of these songs would have fit in with the power pop, bar band vibe there.  This is a sophisticated art-pop affair, with help from the North Carolina Symphony and many others. It's a modern day Phil Spector or Brian Wilson record - carefully crafted, richly textured, whip-smart and gorgeous sounding.

Let's listen to the opening track "Skin":

XTC's like-minded pop avatar Andy Partridge consulted with Stamey on the record, and served as an inspiration for one of my favorite songs here "You n Me n XTC" about a long road trip where XTC held forth on the car stereo.

Honoring Picasso, Dean Smith or both? 

Another standout is "Anyway", which channels a latter day R.E.M. song like "At My Most Beautiful" channeling Big Star channeling Brian Wilson. The search for the perfect pop sound goes on....

Stamey's bio says: “I wanted to make a record that could make you feel less alone, like someone else has been there before you. I was thinking about records like The Ballad of Todd Rundgren and Nick Drake’s Bryter Layter and Robert Wyatt’s “At Last I Am Free” and Richard Thompson’s Small Town Romance. Those are all records that were a source of comfort to me at various points in my life. They were records that seemed to speak one-on-one, records that weren’t trying to sell you anything."

And Stamey achieved that intimacy and emotional connection throughout, but particularly on the title track "Lovesick Blues", equally beautiful and bittersweet. This title track is a very moving song that Stamey says is dedicated to his friend, the late Sam Moss, a North Carolina guitarist:

Every song on this record will reveal itself more to you with repeated listenings. Stamey put a tremendous amount of careful thought and high craft into Lovesick Blues, and any work that the listener puts into this record will be rewarded.  

Artist web page: chrisstamey.com  

REVIEW: Michael Rank and Stag - Kin

File under better late than never. This CD was released last February but I only recently discovered it when it started popping up on Best of 2012 lists. Not a surprise that I would like it as I was a huge fan of Michael Rank's notorious Snatches of Pink who ruled the roost in Chapel Hill NC when I moved there in 1988. In fact, Snatches of Pink were one of the very first bands I ever wrote about way back when I first started writing for a weekly there. They continued to play and make records intermittently from then on until recently. 

Kin, while Rank's first solo record, isn't a radical departure from Snatches of Pink, unless you consider "Country Honk" or "Dead Flowers" a huge detour for the Stones. Rank has a great feel for the swagger and grease of the best rock'n'roll and it's all here.  

This is my favorite from the record, "On the Bleed":

Stag is an all star cast of Tar Heels musicians - including two of my favorite drummers John Howie Jr. (Two Dollar Pistols) and Sara Romweber (Flat Duo Jets).  And as with anything Rank has ever done, there is a lot of guitar and drums here, but also fiddle and lap steel and some real nice country rock vibe.

The emotional vibe is not nice. The songs bleed with bitterness over the end of a relationship, again the stuff of great country rock. There is an immediacy to the writing and playing here that serves the songs well - it just spills out on the floor and grabs you by the collar demanding that you listen.

The title track:

 
Really good stuff. If you don't know of Michael Rank, but are a fan of Keith Richards or WYMA favorites Kurt Vile or The War on Drugs, you'll like it.

"Bing Crosby", a special Christmas song

What is an element of Christmas more essential than Bing Crosby? Well there are not many, but certainly one is helping out the less fortunate. Combine those two, add some great musicians and talented young singers, and you have something special.

The Chorus Project "Bing Crosby":

And this gets extra points for actually being a new and original Christmas song and a fine one at that. Produced by the great Chris Stamey, whose latest effort with the dBs will sit high among my best of 2012 list, due to be posted here in early January.

The Chorus Project is a group of 25 high school age singers from the Chapel Hill, NC area. All proceeds from the sale of this single, the Chorus Project's first release, go to support programs and the scholarship fund for Community Chorus Project, as well as to KidZNotes, a music program for low-income children in Durham, NC.

Available for purchase for just $1 at Bandcamp:  http://thechorusproject.bandcamp.com/.

Merry Christmas from WYMA.

REVIEW: Museum Mouth -- Sexy But Not Happy

One of my favorite places in the world is Southport, NC, a small fishing village at the mouth of the Cape Fear River. It’s still a working seaport, but during my lifetime it has become known more for catering to tourists. In fact, Southport became so successful that the rest of Brunswick County got jealous, and fifteen or so years ago they stripped it of its county seat status. Now the county seat is a town of about 150 people called Bolivia, which I think was named by Mike Tyson.

Southport has a lot to brag about, including a great 4^th of July festival, shrimp burgers and coldbeers on the dock at the Provision Company, and, pertinent to this post, being home to a very fine rock and roll band called Museum Mouth. Drummer-vocalist Karl Kuehn and bandmates Kory Urban and Graham High will make you think of No Age with a little more pop and a little less dissonance (which, by the way, does not mean less loud). Their new album, Sexy But Not Happy, is one of my early favorites of 2012. Check out the title track below and see if you don’t want to play it about 15 times in a row:

And the tune below, “Blood Mountain”, is not the missing title track from a Mastodon album, but is no less awesome for it.

The album was released a couple of weeks ago, and is available for free download at the Museum Mouth bandcamp page. So grab the record and repay the band by spreading the word. For good measure, here’s the pensive album closer, “Kitchen Floor”, serving as a soundtrack for a nice home movie montage of the band.

Museum Mouth on Tumblr, and at Beartrap PR.

REVIEW: Acrasia - Acrasia

I try to be really careful about classifications when I start talking about subgenres of heavy metal music. This is because there's always some smartass nearby itching to correct me -- usually because I need to be corrected. When it's stuff I don't spend a ton of time listening to, I can get particularly facile in my categorizations. For example, when I hear guttural, horrorshow vocals or screams like someone who's just been clubbed in the nards and likes it, I generally think, 'oh, death metal.'

Such vocals are an acquired taste, to put it lightly, and that's fine, because it's an aesthetic choice. By this I mean that I can say with some certainty that these guys don't go home after a show and speak to their mothers in that tone of voice. It's cultivated. They are speaking to a very large and rabidly devoted community of music fans who are all in -- for them, the vocals are an indispensable part of the music experience.

I've never been dismissive of death metal because more often than not the music behind the vocals is intensely interesting. Nowhere will you find as many folks who actually have studied music theory and even composition than in this little corner of the rock and roll world. Ultimately, even if you can't get used to the singing (I generally can), the musicianship more than makes up for it.

So I'm probably not being as careful as I should be when I apply that term -- death metal -- to a very exciting band out of Raleigh called Acrasia. I throw that term out there because most of the time, vocalist Michael Rumple's singing sounds like the bellows of hell. Again, it's an aesthetic choice -- at several points during their self-titled full length, Rumple actually sings, revealing a powerful and far-ranging voice.

But is it death metal when you listen to the band winding through these complex and beautifully played songs and think that you could just as easily envision them putting out their next album on an old prog label like Relativity or the now-defunct E.G. Records as you could see them signing to Metal Blade or The End? I don't want to create an impression by saying they play art rock that their music is not apocalyptic and bonecrunching. It most certainly is both of those things. Check out album opener "Pulse", which will put any such concern to rest.



Here's the second song, "Waves Within", which will remind you of some of your favorite Isis tunes, albeit with much showier guitar work from Zach Dresher and Devin Janus (never a bad thing), and an aggressive foundation laid by bassist Blake Privette and drummer Alex Finn. Again, you can hear the band's progressive leanings burrowing in and out of the song. It's prog like Mastodon, but it's also prog like early 70s King Crimson.



The album is exceptionally strong from front to back, with superb production by Jesse Clark. Take a look at their bandcamp page and listen to "Contextual Relevance", which features a fascinatingly unforced saxophone part right in the middle of a cyclone of noise.



Then buy the whole danged album. It's cheap, it's great, and they deserve it.

REVIEW: Fan Modine - Gratitude for the Shipper

Fan Modine, based in Carrboro NC (adjacent to Chapel Hill), is singer-songwriter-guitarist-keyboardist Gordon Zacharias and an all-star cast of mostly local Tarheel musicians including ace guitar player Ash Bowie (Polvo).

Gratitude for the Shipper, Fan Modine's first new release in 6 yrs, is a lush pop joyride. It doesn't hurt to have the help of the Southern pop hall of famers - Chris Stamey producing and arranging the strings and horns, Mitch Easter helping out on guitars, and Peter Holsapple on steel guitar. For extra measure in regard to the Southern jangle pop history, the closing song "Waiting for the Distant Light" honors Big Star and the recently deceased Alex Chilton ("the star that shines so bright will reach us first").

This record should appeal strongly to the regular readers of WYMA's Scottish pop band series, although there is nothing low-fi going on here, as Gratitude for the Shipper is big, baroque pop in line with Belle & Sebastian and the Teenage Fanclub.

Every time it appears to be veering into territory a bit too er, twee, for my tastes, in come the great horn lines and big string arrangements, which give the songs a much more compelling sound and rich texture. And the big pop hooks are offset by Zacharias' sometimes dark and always interesting lyrical story lines.

You can listen to the entire release here, but I'd suggest starting with songs 2 ("Juju Road"), 6 ("Wormwood Scrubbs"), 8 ("Another Eventail") and especially the finale "Waiting for Distant Light", a compelling closer to a great pop record.



Band web page: http://fanmodine.com/1/

Fucked Up -- Live @ King's - Raleigh - 6/28

I like pulling for the good guys. I swear that as a kid, when a western would be on TV, I'd pull for the Indians. Sure, this made me a loser, but it was formative as well, so stay with me. I never drafted Albert Belle or Barry Bonds on any of my fantasy baseball teams. If I ever were to have the choice forced on me of drafting Barry Bonds or Wil Cordero, I would ask, respectfully, if Chad Curtis was still available. Chad Curtis was better than Wil Cordero anyway.

I remember when I was a lot younger I once went out on a date with a beautiful girl. Because I was not good at talking about much else, the conversation drifted to music. My date, in a rapturous voice, related to me the time she had front row seats to see Billy Idol. The highlight for her, at least to hear her tell it, was when Billy Idol hawked up a big loog and spat on her. I may be making up the loogie part of it; it may have been a Roberto Alomar special, but the point stands that Billy Idol considered it acceptable behavior, as a soon to be forgotten overrated leaking bag o'douche, to expectorate on this fetching young lass. My thought was that if this had happened to me, I'd have jumped up on that stage and killed his scrawny ass. The salient point for me, though, was that I didn't want to go out anymore with this person. Understand, good reader, that at that age I was too naive and innocent to ponder the possibilities inherent in dating a person for whom being spat upon was -- just a second please while someone redirects the narrative.

You know, Fucked Up is about the least fucked up looking band you could imagine. They almost all have collared shirts, for goodness sakes, and until Damian Abraham removed his shirt before the third or fourth song of the set, there was not a tattoo to be seen. And yet, these are the people responsible for some of the most powerful and abrasive critically acclaimed music to hit the scene in the past half decade. "The Chemistry of Common Life", released in 2008, was at the top of most of the credible 'best of year' lists, as well as some less credible, including being number one on my own 2008 list.



The recently released follow-up, "David Comes to Life", is a self-proclaimed rock opera. I must admit that after several times through, I haven't yet picked up the thematic aspects, but that might be because I'm too caught up in its overall brilliance to even care. The album's 18 songs stand on their own. The layered guitars are dense, beautiful and loud, such that I’m still hearing new things weeks after buying the album. The production is excellent (maybe a little more drum noise) but, again, it's the songs themselves that really put this on a level with some of the timeless albums we keep going back to. It's almost like they know it, too. The beginning of "Ship of Fools", sounds like a dead-on nod to "Pride" from Husker Du's "Zen Arcade". Check it out:



And I actually had a point with those first paragraphs. This band is the good guys. I knew before going that the group included a bunch of serious-minded, thoughtful folks. Damian, who has been taken to task for citing Ian Stuart of Skrewdriver as an influence, recently offered a convincing and impressively antiquarian explanation of the roots and extent of that influence. The guy's clearly put a lot of thought and passion into his creative efforts, and yet, when you walk up the stairs at Kings, there he is greeting everyone with a huge smile, as if he's surprised anyone even showed up.

Their set was about 75 minutes long, and included significant chunks of the current and last albums, but also a nice window into the past. The band was incredibly tight, and although the mix was not perfect, in the songs I knew I could pretty much hear most of the guitar parts. Not that that mattered in the larger scheme of whether it was a great show. It certainly was, and the playing was excellent. The drummer, Jonah Falco, was incendiary.

Damian, who hasn't the most subtle delivery, led the charge, with forays into the audience and even a full trip to the back of the club, where he climbed on top of the bar and screamed his lungs out (not to be distinguished from his other efforts) while the rest of the band dutifully kicked out the jams from 40 feet away. On the way to the bar, he hugged or high-fived pretty much every person in the place (I confess some misgivings at being happy that I was only high-fived). His repartee with the audience was both incredibly humble (a thousand thank yous) and hilarious (noting North Carolina's status as the home of Ric Flair, he concluded by saying, 'fuck irony, I love wrestling'). Here's another tune off the new album, which you need to buy.



I'll mention the opener, Double Negative, a hardcore band from Raleigh, only to say that I'll need to do a separate post about them because they were unreal. Think 7 Seconds with some speedmetal thrown in. This ought to do for now:



Folks, take a good, long listen to Fucked Up, because they're going to be cited as a major influence by the best bands twenty years from now.

Here's one of the best songs off "The Chemistry of Common Life".



Fucked Up myspace page

Double Negative myspace page

In praise of the Flat Duo Jets

This blog has been a big booster of the Black Keys, White Stripes, Raveonettes and much of that primitive bluesy rock'n'roll, as we should should since it's great stuff.

But let's go back shall we, not all the way to the deserving original bluesmen, but to the immediate forebears.

I lived in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in the late 80's-early 90's, which was a great time to be there as Superchunk, Archers of Loaf, Polvo, Metal Flake Mother and many more created a vibrant and exciting local scene. But as one of my favorite all time men's room graffiti declared at the time: "Dexter rules this town, albeit with a shaky hand."

Dexter being the legendary Dexter Romweber, head rooster in the Flat Duo Jets - a possessed wild man with a incredible guitar sound and a singing voice to die for. His drummer Crow was the best, and the two of them were all you needed. The two cooked up more soul and rock than most people could digest. Along the way, they sometimes added a bass player or another instrument but it wasn't needed.

Dex is still kicking around, in fact coming to the West Coast later this summer. Which is what got me thinking about the great Flat Duo Jets.

If you know of them, you know what I'm talking about and will enjoy this trip. If you are uninitiated, check them out:

Just to make matters worse for the night / We destroyed everything in our sight. . . . -- CENTRO – MATIC - 6/25/11 @ Local 506, Chapel Hill

We did fine.

There are two types of people in this world – those who love Centro-Matic with all their soul, and those who, for reasons that may be excusable, just haven’t listened to them enough. Anyone who’s clicked on this site more than a couple of times knows the love is deep ‘round these parts. I think part of the shared orthodoxy on this band is that, as good as they sound on record, they’re even better live. Part of that is that you just won’t find a more likeable group of guys out there (bassist Mark Hedman, pulling merch table duty Saturday night, spent 5 minutes trying to make sure I got the right size shirt for my 9 year old). Of course, the main reason is that they turn it up and flat out rock onstage.

Let me tell you, there’s no artifice employed to get Will Johnson’s voice to sound as perfect as it does on their recordings. Given its proper place in the live mix, just above the roiling guitars and pounding rhythm section (and Glen and the Local 506 crew had it perfect Saturday) his voice can be an overpowering force. And multi-instrumentalist Scott Danbom’s backing harmonies might be that secret ingredient that makes it all work as well as it does. But that’s all true on their recordings too. The thing that makes them so good live is that all that stuff has to be cranked up to be heard over the drums and bass. I’m not a drummer, and I don’t know if Matt Pence gets mentioned when a bunch of dipshits gather together to talk about great drummers. But all you have to do is listen to the second song in the set, Distance and Clime’s “Fountains of Fire”, to know he’s an uncommon talent. He can do the really cool complicated fills and the tasteful understatement (and he does both in that song). So even though they don’t do songs like “Repellant Feed” anymore, Matt and Mark still will happily put a hurting on those eardrums.

Speaking of songs, the set featured a lot of the well-worn mainstays they’ve been playing on most of their last few tours, leaning heavily on Love You Just the Same and Fort Recovery and working in four tunes off the excellent new record, Candidate Waltz. The new songs sound great live, working great with the older stuff. I’d have to say the only disappointment was that I can’t think of a song in the set from their fantastic last record Dual Hawks (but it was hotter than hell’s front doorknob in there, and I for damn sure wasn’t keeping a list). Highlights, though, were many, including “Patience for the Ride”, “Mighty Midshipman”, “All the Talkers” and the always breathtaking “Supercar”. (I saw them open for the National at the National Theater in Richmond a couple of years ago, and in my Joe Spectator view, “Supercar”, played through that venue’s wonderful PA system, punched an audience full of unsuspecting National fans right in the gut.) They finished with “Only in my Double Mind” from the new album.

David Bazan, who our visionary leader (that would be John) tells me toured with Will Johnson last year, played a terrific set interspersed with unassuming, yet hilarious stage banter after the Centro-Matic set. It was a fortuitous, one-time pairing, and Centro-Matic will go back to headlining from here out, with fellow Dentonite (Dentonian? Dentonese?) Sarah Jaffe opening. Go see them, and get there early. Sarah’s voice is heartbreakingly beautiful, and definitely not something you’re going to hear every day.

Seriously, what the hell is wrong with you? Go see them. I’ll even help out with dates (and throw on a couple of videos below):

Tuesday 06/28 – North Star Bar – Philadelphia, PA
Wednesday 06/29 – Great Scott – Cambridge, MA
Thursday 06/30 – The Mercury Lounge – New York, NY
Friday 07/01 – Mohawk Place – Buffalo, NY
Saturday 07/02 – Beachland Tavern – Cleveland, OH
Sunday 07/03 – Schubas – Chicago, IL
Tuesday 07/05 – Euclid Records – St. Louis, MO @ 5pm (Will Johnson solo)
Tuesday 07/05 – Off Broadway – St. Louis, MO
Thursday 07/07 – Dan’s Silverleaf – Denton, TX
Friday 07/08 – Fitzgerald’s – Houston, TX
Saturday 07/09 – Cactus Records @ 1pm (Will Johnson solo)
Sunday 07/10 – Waterloo Records @ 5pm (full band)
Sunday 07/10 – The Mohawk – Austin, TX

Here's a nicely recorded version of "Flashes and Cables" with only 350 views for some reason:

And here's a video for "Call the Legion in Tonight" from 2000's All the Falsest Hearts Can Try (learn the handclaps -- that's important):

Lost in the Trees

My favorite piece of music is not, as I may have expressed in a less guarded moment, Mclusky's 'whiteliberalonwhiteliberalaction.' My favorite musical composition is, rather, much more refined and civilized -- too civilized, in fact, for the likes of this damned place. Believe it or not, after a few beers the other night, I dialed up a version of it on youtube and almost -- almost -- posted it. I didn't, though, on the theory that if a friend lets you move into their apartment after you've just won your commitment hearing, you don't automatically rearrange the furniture, despite that such would, objectively, class up the place.

Anyway, that favorite musical composition is 'Fantasia on a Theme By Thomas Tallis', by Ralph Vaughan Williams. It's a breathtakingly powerful piece of late romantic classical music. Vaughan Williams is among my favorite composers in great part because he was obsessed with his native country's folk music, and his music was infused with it in very much the same way Yeats's poetry was an expression of his own obsession with what he perceived to be a vanishing Irish literary tradition. For both Williams and Yeats, the traditions they sought to preserve were largely unwritten, but rather passed orally from generation to generation. Williams, thankfully, took many trips into the English countryside to "collect" his country's folksongs by transcribing them. Many of these found their way into some of the most beautiful orchestral compositions of the twentieth century, including "Norfolk Rhapsody No. 1", "A Lark Ascending", "In a Fen Country", and his "Fantasia on 'Greensleeves'". His symphonies are crammed full of folk music, most notably, to me at least, his 5th ("Pastoral").

I really love classical music, but when I take a step back and think of my favorite composers, they seem to be the ones who are infatuated with their native music traditions. These include Bedrich Smetana, the "father" of Czech music, Mahler, Sibelius, Borodin, and even 'post-modernists' like the recently departed Henryk Gorecki. Of the Americans who borrowed heavily from native folk music, the most accomplished (to me) are Charles Ives and, of course, Aaron Copland. The Ives 2d Symphony is quintessentially American music, as are "Central Park in the Dark" and the later "Three Places in New England." Really, the only reason these works aren't regularly cited on blogs such as this is that the arrangements are for orchestral players. But make no mistake, those players performing Ives are truly kicking out the jams. They also are mining and thereby enriching our indigenous music traditions in very much the same way as a Cass McCombs or Titus Andronicus are -- and I'd argue just as unselfconsciously.

Well, that was supposed to be a much shorter and less didactic lead-in to a note about a very exciting band out of Chapel Hill called Lost in the Trees. The band is a collective (there are 7 of them right now, I think) of classically trained musicians who passionately play orchestral instruments in arrangements of the band's own rural folk songs. To be sure, there are also acoustic guitars, accordions, and other noises you don't hear at the symphony, all mixed in with frontman Ari Picker's beautiful, eerie yet unaffected vocals. There's also a certain gothic tinge to some of the songs, bringing to mind things like "Country Death Song" by the Violent Femmes. Check out the stunning video for the title track of their 2010 album on Anti- Records, "All Alone in an Empty House" and I imagine you'll agree. Ari Picker, by the way, is the dude watching events unfold from the chimney, and the ethereal backing vocal is by Emma Nadeau (I think). Just a fantastic song.



Much of the dark subject matter that permeates LITT's music flows from some gut-wrenching personal tragedy Picker has endured. To his credit, he's not afraid to talk about it, but to the band's credit, the songs certainly stand on their own musically and lyrically. A quick google search will find all that stuff. What am I, your waiter or something? Check out another really pro video for another great song -- "Walk Around the Lake".



The intrepid Chapel Hill label Trekky Records put out the original iteration of "All Alone in an Empty House", and the band's earlier EP "Time Taunts Me", so here's to them and their vision. Lost in the Trees is on the road (playing in Seattle as I write). Go say hello to them and buy their records.



Lost in the Trees website

Trekky Records website

Friday Old Stuff -- Archers of Loaf / C.O.C.

Despite, or maybe because of, a healthy crop of new bands emerging from the Chapel Hill - Raleigh - Durham scene the past few years, we've also had a bit of a renaissance in these parts, with brilliant recent albums from area titans Superchunk and a reunited Polvo. Hell, there even have been multiple sightings of the great 90s punk band Pipe. Still, I think most of us were shocked a few weeks ago to read in the music press that Archers of Loaf had made an unannounced reappearance, playing a set at the Cat's Cradle as the opener for Raleigh's The Love Language.

Even so, there wasn't a whole lot of reason to believe it might be a full-blown "we're getting the band back together" sort of thing. Eric Bachmann has quieted down (some may say "matured"), and gone on to create a beautiful, separate music legacy with his Crooked Fingers project. In fact, the last I had heard, he had moved away from Chatham County and was living out west somewhere -- probably with a bunch of damned hippies or something. Then last week it was announced that AoL will be playing a nationwide tour this summer. So is it too much to begin hoping that this will be more than a nostalgia trip, and that we'll be seeing some new material making its way into their sets? Go see them and find out.

I think my favorite Archers song is "The Lowest Part is Free" from the EP "Vs. the Greatest of All Time." It's a pretty acerbic take on the music industry circa 1995 ("got nothing to say and you say it anyway").



And here's "Might", from "Icky Mettle". Can one, in two minutes, better capture the sound of the Chapel Hill scene in '94 than this?



It's coming on 30 years since a hardcore punk band called Corrosion of Conformity played its first shows as a band at the old Fallout Shelter at 2 S. West Street here in Raleigh. A lot has changed. The Fallout Shelter was replaced by a neighborhood gay bar in the mid-90s (I know the owners and they're great folks), and Woody Weatherman's parents' jewelry store a half mile up Hillsborough Street closed a couple of years ago and is now a Loco-Pops. Some things haven't changed. The Roast Grill is still across the street, and still has the old Coca-cola sign with the big block letters advertising "HOT WEINERS"-- all the more amusing given the "new" tenant across the way.

And COC changed as well. These changes were not only in the lineup (and there were many of those), but also in musical direction, as they seamlessly became one of the better metal bands in the 1990s. With "Blind", "Deliverance" and "Wiseblood", COC could point to a five year output of groundbreaking music that has been matched only rarely in any decade. I don't know that it's accurate to say COC ever "broke up", but last year they began playing shows as a trio again for the first time since the 80s. The lineup of Woody Weatherman, Mike Dean and Reed Mullin last played together in support of the 1985 album "Animosity", but are back in the studio recording an album of new material. They are also back on the road, playing last week in Holland at the Roadburn Festival (curated by Sunn O)))) (yes I spent some time wondering what to do about closing that previous parenthetical).

Here they are last week playing "Holier" from "Animosity".



Here's the classic "Big Problems" from the "Clerks" soundtrack.



This is a good live clip of "Wise Blood" from a show in Spain. Woody can really shred.

Ryan Gustafson, "Let Go"

One of my favorite musicians here in NC is Durham's Ryan Gustafson, who put out a terrific album in 2009 known as the "Donkey" LP (there's a picture of a donkey on the cover). He's got an earthy, forlorn vocal delivery and an Americana guitar vibe. Mainstays in his live band include the excellent guitarist Carter Gaj, who is the frontman for the more pop-sounding Max Indian, and a gentleman whose name I don't know, but who sings wonderful harmonies that leave you thinking of Scott Danbom.

Here's a recording of them playing at Chapel Hill landmark Local 506. It's a little grainy, but the vocals and lap steel guitar will still have you wiping the corner of your eye. On the CD, this track has a beautiful violin overlay that makes it even sadder.



Website: Ryan Gustafson Myspace