The News Review:
- Folk revival
- Cream of the musical crop for ‘06
- A Fast Start to the New Year
Folk revival
salon.com – Dec 30, 2006
30 2006 | “Well you’re in Greenwich Village now where people come to get away from America. It’s not jazz around here anymore — it’s folk music. Jazz is high-hat and aging. Young people have gone mad over ballads blues guitar playin’ and banjo pickin’. ” That’s musicologist Alan Lomax addressing the camera from his West Third Street digs in the old hootenanny film “Blues Ballads and Bluegrass. ” Lomax looks as self-satisfied as a missionary who has just gotten the natives to use a plow — and with good reason… But this new revival is less a mighty wind than a subtle global climate change. Too dispersed across the range of pop culture to fit in Lomax’s apartment its purveyors wouldn’t even necessarily want to be seen in the same room: young string bands weaned on ” Brother Where Art Thou” folk-punks drawn to the declamatory spirit of Billy Bragg the new generation of acoustic Anglophiles and psychedelicists who’ve been lumped under the problematic heading “freak-folk” rockers gone rustic reenergized established folkies and too many similar currents to chart much less list. Though Springsteen’s 62-date “Seeger Sessions” tour was lightly attended in the United States its arena-scale expansion of union hall music was unprecedented. Between the four rhythm guitarists and the highest-amped accordion in history all that was missing was a flame-throwing harmonica to detonate a giant effigy of Joseph McCarthy. But on the album Seeger seems to have revived Springsteen as much as vice versa. “We Shall vercome: The Seeger Sessions” may have been meant to summon foot-stomping early-revival populism but the spirit that showed up was one from Springsteen’s personal past: the group exaltation of the early E Street Band.
Cream of the musical crop for ‘06
Edmonton Sun – Dec 30, 2006
Claude Vonstroke – Beware of the Bird (Dirtybird): San Francisco DJ and producer Barclay Crenshaw has a truly silly alias and thanks to an inspired video has basically made a guy in a bird suit his public face. But his beats have taken the dance world by storm. If you dig on Daft Punk and MSTRKRFT then you’ll flock to Beware of the Bird. Dark and moody synth-pop with vocals and beats that cut like diamonds – or a really sharp Knife I guess. It’s a delight – immaculately produced – but obviously a true studio creation that has difficulty being translated live… But on In a Space utta Sound he goes back to his West Indies roots to produce a lush melodic and sun-drenched collection of the best dub this side of King Tubby. Album comes with rolling papers – truly. The Remote – Too Low to Miss (GU Music): The U. Sam Roberts – Chemical City (Universal): Catching the Sam Roberts Band at the Starlite Room this year was like watching the semi-fictional Stillwater brought to life from Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous flick. Nothing fancy here just straight-up classic-sounding and good ol’ rock ‘n’ roll.
A Fast Start to the New Year
Washington Post – Dec 30, 2006
To help get things going we offer the handy n the Go New Year agenda– all of the concerts performances and talks already in our datebook:Jan. 6: What better way to catch "Consume" the current show at Flashpoint gallery (with video paintings mixed-media and porn. Yeah we said it: Porn) than when it closes with "Look + Listen "– a fancy way of saying "party + good music. " Signed up to play: Joe Lally and DJ Name Names (none other than Ian Svenonius). Also performing is dancer Jane Jerardi… ) The problem: The Japanese-rooted NYC punks-turned- shoegazers in Asobi Seksu are at the Rock & Roll Hotel the same night. Lucky for us we’re crazy enough to try to make both. ($12; $10 in advance.