The News Review:
- Living in | Clinton Hill Brooklyn Elegance Is Abundant; Groceries…
- UPTONES GET DOWN
- … Garchik – Miguel Zenón – Adam Kolker – John Ellis – Music -…
- At home in the music
- South by Southwest Austin Texas – the Sunday Times review
- Music debate deserves one more mention – really
- RvB’s After Images: URGH! A Music War (1981)
Living in | Clinton Hill Brooklyn Elegance Is Abundant; Groceries…
New York Times – Mar 23, 2008
The area is known for churches like Queen of All Saints a French Gothic structure on Vanderbilt Avenue. And the local branch of the Brooklyn Public Library is on Washington Avenue. Fort Greene Park — next door to Clinton Hill — is beloved by many residents. And Brooklyn Flea a new market showcasing local vendors will start on April 6 and continue each Sunday at Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School a block away in Fort Greene.
UPTONES GET DOWN
San Francisco Chronicle – Mar 23, 2008
Ska began in Jamaica in the late ’50s long before the advent of reggae the music’s more modern cousin. Unlike reggae often known for social and political content ska is dance music plain and simple. When the music spread to England in the mid-’60s it was adopted by Mod youth of the day and reprised in the ’80s New Wave era by 2-Tone record label bands such as Madness the English Beat and the Specials. The English as they always do translated the musical style into a fashion complete with requisite dance steps haircuts and wardrobes. It was after attending a concert by the English Beat at the San Francisco Civic Auditorium in November 1981 that these three Berkeley High School students vowed to form a ska band. Within six months their nine-piece band was packing clubs such as Berkeley’s La Pe?nd opening concerts for hot out-of-town acts including the Go Go’s and Billy Idol. Local radio stations were playing the band’s demo tape “Out to Sea” all while keyboardist Jackson was still too young to get a driver’s license… “It was like a school” he says. The Uptones may have folded when Ronald Reagan was still president but ska never went away. Absorbed into the punk-rock culture the Jamaican rhythms took on new life in the hands of young musicians such as the Uptones disciples in Rancid and Long Beach’s million-selling punk-ska band Sublime. No Doubt the multiplatinum Orange County band that produced Gwen Stefani started life as a ska band (although “it didn’t sound like ska to me” says Jackson who co-wrote songs and played keyboards on the first three Rancid albums). Meanwhile the three original Uptones experienced life as an alternative indie rock band with all the attendant indignities such as a Clear Lake gig where the audience was so small and quiet the band could hear the crickets chirping outside between numbers. But they always kept a practice hall and they kept making music together. “There was always a gig” Dinwiddie says.
… Garchik – Miguel Zenón – Adam Kolker – John Ellis – Music -…
New York Times – Mar 23, 2008
He grew up in North Carolina now lives in New York but he spent four years working in New Orleans. He wrote all the warm sweet humorous songs here and plays with an easy flow but careful control over his tone; the arrangements are tamped down around the edges a severely edited kind of party music. 2 Foot YardFrom the San Francisco Bay area 2 Foot Yard is a group with violin cello drums and voices; it incorporates classical technique and punk roughness. It can go all over the place: toward tango or dark theatrical pop or vague African and Eastern-isms. Its compass seems to be set by Carla Kihlstedt the trio’s singer and violinist. Her musical persona is playful but dark and sometimes witheringly intense; she sings by howling or exhaling and puts all her concentrated energy into even the quietest double-stopped violin chord. There are a few too many guest musicians on “Borrowed Arms” their new album but that only becomes a problem because the group itself is so smart and focused… ) Jacob Garchik“Romance” (Yestereve) an odd and excellent new record by the young jazz trombonist Jacob Garchik is taut with paradox. This music sounds free-improvised until you make out the tightly woven written parts inside it which doesn’t take long. The subversion of roles further throws you off: sometimes the piano accompanying the trombone solo is both wilder and quieter than the trombone solo. Sometimes the rhythm is rumbling and repetitious while the melody is soft and lovely. It’s a weirdly proportioned little band with Mr. Garchik on trombone Jacob Sacks on piano and Dan Weiss on drums; Judith Berkson comes in twice singing tense duets with the trombone in slow and beautiful art songs.
At home in the music
Columbia Daily Tribune – Mar 23, 2008
By JOHN KOSIK of The Associated PressPublished. "When I heard Bridget playing the fiddle it brought out a lot of feelings in me" King said through a bright and friendly Irish brogue during a recent phone interview with The Associated Press. "I wanted to take that feeling and go back home – not physically of course… He eventually carved out a niche and found modest success in various hard-rock bands. But something was missing. "Everything that you’re involved in no matter what it is growing up and playing music – hopefully the good bits stick" King said of his influences. "I think it all happened for a reason. "Over time Flogging Molly’s sound took shape. With a seven-piece group of multi-instrumentalists – the current lineup also features Dennis Casey Matt Hensley Nathan Maxwell Bob Schmidt and George Schwindt – Flogging Molly honed their chops at famed L.
South by Southwest Austin Texas – the Sunday Times review
Times Online – Mar 23, 2008
The most common complaint about the city’s annual South bySouthwest (SXSW) music festival is that you can make all the plans you likebut just try getting in to see one of the bands on your list. The queues seemed longer than ever – a situation you expect at the eveningshows but not one that is welcome during the day which in past years wasthe spontaneous counterweight to the endless fractious lines snaking roundcorners come dusk. Yet complaining about a five-day music event held in March in averagetemperatures of 27C in a city noted for its easy-going inhabitants andgood-time vibe seems churlish if not perverse. To survive the experience -and it’s hardly an ordeal despite what many bloggers would have you believe- requires calm acceptance that you’ll miss as much as you’ll see. Austin’s crow-like grackles have it about right either hovering imperviouslyabove the fray or swooping to steal choice morsels from the bars clubs andopen-air barbecues below. Some festivalgoers on the other hand had aharder time of it. All around were people anxiously punching messages intotheir mobiles or reading a text telling them they were missing the gig of alifetime three blocks away… High points included Neil Finn’s son Liam; the Red Romance who are born fromthe ashes of the much-missed Ambulance Ltd; and the Lemonheads runningthrough their classic 1992 album It’s a Shame About Ray. Noah and the Whalewowed a sunny afternoon barbecue with 5 Years Time – a Come on Eileen-likeglobal hit in the making? – and Ice Cube dug deep into the NWA vaults for athunderous Auditorium Shores set on Saturday night. Best discoveries? Three: the Brooklyn band Team Robespierre whose performanceto about 15 people on Friday evening made the case for their bizarre shoutymash-up of synth-punk and Beastie Boys; A Place to Bury Strangers also fromBrooklyn who meld the Jesus and Mary Chain and New Order to explosive andthrilling effect; and Mr Brown & Dubkids who played dubreggae-meets-Steely Dan at a wee-small-hours house party in the Austinsuburbs on the final night and stole my heart. How could there be?.
Music debate deserves one more mention – really
mlive.com – Mar 23, 2008
In four days I got to see 47 shows by 41 bands most of them totally new to my ears. Among the best: Dark Meat an 18-member collective from Athens Ga. who take Frank Zappa’s freakouts turn them up to 11 and somehow add hooks and melody; Fatal Flying Guilloteens a Houston punk rock six-piece who rock out with such abandon it’s amazing they’re not on crutches; and Justin Townes Earle the son of country-rock legend Steve Earle who’s a lot more bluegrassy and twangy than his dad but right up there as a lyricist.
RvB’s After Images: URGH! A Music War (1981)
Cinematical – Mar 23, 2008
And yet it’s clear why this film failed. As a business scheme URGH seems in 2008 hindsight a uniquely quick way to burn a fortune. The film documents second-wave punk and New Wave bands playing from LA to London editing them together without any particular zeitgeisty event like a music festival. So: play it a little under a real kiss-of-death title and then wait to be deafened by the wails of bands managers and lawyers zooming in to fight over the non-existant money. The Police were the headliners opening and closing the film. They wrap up the film too; you can see drummer Miles Copeland wearing an URGH! T-shirt. Is this perhaps all he was paid for this film? There are mostly cinematic performances here and we see how much was lost by the fact that the Industry couldn’t figure out a way to use their talents in the movies.