King Wilkie's New Material

Last night I saw King Wilkie on their mini-tour in support of their new CD Low Country Suite. They've just moved to Rounder Records from Rebel, and seem to be taking the ambitious move as a time to reach out beyond the bounds of bluegrass into country-tinged pop balladry.

I've seen this done before, and I've never seen it work. I'm reminded of Salamander Crossing who were a promising bluegrass band who put out an album of Gram Parsons influenced country rock called Bottleneck Dreams and promptly died.

"So," you are probably asking, "Are King Wilkie, one of the finest young bluegrass outfits in the country (if not the world) about to die the death of the inconsistent?" Well, bluegrass fans do like their bluegrass pure, and boy, is the new material I heard last night outside the box. But some of the songs were extremely pretty (as are them boys), and they're fine musicians, and their front man has some charisma. But what's the market for bluegrass bands that don't play bluegrass? I liked most of what I heard last night, but I was really longing for some uptempo material by the end of the night.

I think they're in for an uphill slog.

Jandek

I have been listening to a lot of Jandek recently. I find him intriguing. On one level, you kinda have to think "The boy must have $$$ to throw away" because he's done so many lps and CDs (50 releases in 29 years), and they're all so obtuse. I like obtuse. I got my eyes on the new live one. He's playing synth and the guitarist is Loren Connors. I haven't heaerd as much of LMC's music as I have of Jandek's, but I have heard a few things: very compatible with Jandek. There's also a rhythm section, so I'm most interested to hear what I imagine will be some very psychedelic music.

Of the 14 Cds I have, there's a whole bunch of the early ones, and a couple of the later ones (I love Khartoum). I have nothing from the nineties, and I'm feelinging the lack. I try to buy them at Twisted Village Records in Harvard Square (great store!), and they carry what's current and the early classics, but of that "middle" period, I have only seen one of the spoken word ones in there Put My Dream On This Planet and that was not one I was all that interested in. I keep hoping they'll get Glad To Get Away or White Box Reqiuem, but not to date.

I think Jandek's music is spooky, mysterious, timeless, primal. It's little-boy naive, it's old as the hills. It's blues, it's country, it's noise, it's a kind of subconsious diary...

I don't know how long this current fascination will last: I've had a few little bouts with this music before, but they kinda go away. But I feel like I'm hearing it on a new level now, I'm catching more of the lyrics (which are quite good) and hearing what he's doing with the guitar more distictly now, too.

So, maybe I'll be listening a bunch more? We'll see.

Noisettes

I had to let you know about this new band called the Noisettes. Their April 2007 CD is called What's the Time Mr. Wolf? and it is classic rock 'n' roll. Singer and bassist Shingai Shoniwa (pictured below) is one of the best rock singers I have ever heard. Impassioned, technically brilliant, expressive, she goes from a purr to a scream in nothing flat, and hits the emotional notes with the same jujitsu she hits the pitch with. And the rest of the band is just as killer. They remind me of the early Police a little bit, if the Police had had a lot more range of styles than just the 2, and if Sting had been a better singer.



Photo is from mookychick.co.uk

This is a widget from last.fm that shows my recent listening habits.

Recording Others.

As I may have said previously, my passion is music. The recent channel for that passion, for the last 18 months or so, as I may also have said previously, is macidol.com. Making music and posting it at macidol has been a great pleasure and an interesting experience. There is a community there in the forums that I feel pretty strongly attached to. All but one of the blog links on the right side of this page currently goes to a macidoler.

One aspect of this style of musicmaking is that it is somewhat masturbatory. But so is solo folksinging, which I've also done for years.

But let me tell ya a secret about me. I used to be in bands, and in those days couldn't imagine making music any other way.

I used to wanna play fast & loud. I still do in a way, but I have developed into an acoustic musician. That's what I like & what I do. I do not own an electric guitar. I would like to at some point, but for now, I have a small collection of cheap folk instruments and as my ethic as a recordist is decidedly lofi, I do pretty well with that. I will brag just enough to say that I think I have a couple of good tunes. But not many of them are in any way collaborative. Collaborating is hard. You have to give ego space up enough that you can let someone else's ideas in.

I am not the best at this. But I'm trying to get better at it. I've done it a few times and it sure isn't easy. Everybody brings expectations to these things. Me, too. But I try to have an open mind and can usually (not always) accomplish it. In my younger days, when bands were what I wanted to do with my passion, I could be pretty hardnosed. And that is something no musician deals with well. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I understand that people get an idea of what they want from a collaborative experience. In a band, that could change over time. A band can evolve its memberships' expectations, and to some extent their expectations can be met. Makes me wonder what it's like to be in a totally democratic band like R. E. M. that is still sharing all writing credits, and still almost all the same people since 1982 (they lost drummer Bill Berry in 1997).

I have managed a few things, though, and some of them are in my jamroom, some are in other's jamrooms (look for "Greyhound Run") and some ain't nowhere.

Nature of the game I guess.