Monday, February 27, 2006  

Washington Post, Sunday, February 19, 2006; Page N09

RABBIT FUR COAT

Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins

Jenny Lewis sings, "I was born secular and inconsolable" on "Born Secular." She was also born Jewish, but Lewis borrows from Christian gospel on her fantastic new CD, her first away from indie rockers Rilo Kiley.

The Watson twins, Chandra and Leigh, get co-billing because their churchy harmonies help give "Rabbit Fur Coat" its distinctive sound, which also nods toward the early country-folk of Loretta Lynn and the white-girl soul of Dusty Springfield's "Dusty in Memphis" and Laura Nyro and LaBelle's "Gonna Take a Miracle." Even the heavenly harmonized "Run Devil Run" sounds ripped from a hymnal, but it's a Lewis original. (The lone cover is a tight power-pop take on the Traveling Wilburys' "Handle With Care," with M. Ward, Bright Eyes's Conor Oberst and Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard singing the parts made famous by Bob Dylan and Co.)

But don't think "Rabbit Fur Coat" is a pro-religion album. On the classic-countryish "The Big Guns," Lewis sings, "I've won hundreds at the track/But I'm not betting on the afterlife." The religious ruminations continue on the twangy "Charging Sky" when Lewis coos, "It's a sure-fire bet I'm gonna die/So I'm taking up praying on Sunday nights/It's not that I believe in Your all might/But as I might as well/As insurance or bail." It's no wonder that Elvis Costello called her Rilo Kiley work "the best lyric writing I've heard in many a day."

It's not a postmodern gimmick for a nonbeliever to adopt the sounds of religious music; Lewis truly inhabits the gorgeous sacred sounds on "Rabbit Fur Coat." Just don't ask her to sing during services. --Christopher Porter
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Download 11 of the 12 tracks free & legally from the label. How that works, I dunno.

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Saturday, February 25, 2006  

Vijay Iyer & Rudresh Mahanthappa

Vijay Iyer: At Length and in Depth

Washington Post, Saturday, February 25, 2006; Page C07

A woman sitting at the table next to me looked shocked when pianist Vijay Iyer announced that the second song would run "45 to 50 minutes." The Kennedy Center's KC Jazz Club series normally features mainstream instrumental and vocal jazz, not the experimental music Iyer brought to the Terrace Gallery on Thursday.

The pianist and his group -- alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, bassist Stephan Crump and drummer Marcus Gilmore -- had just finished playing a long version of "Trident" when Iyer broke the news about tune No. 2: The almost hour-long follow-up was a new seven-part suite, "Tragicomic." The one lady notwithstanding, a packed house seemed happy that Iyer followed his muse.

Iyer received an interdisciplinary PhD in music and cognitive science from the University of California at Berkeley in 1998, turning in a dissertation titled "Microstructures of Feel, Macrostructures of Sound: Embodied Cognition in West African and African-American Musics." No surprise then that the pianist's music is rigorously intellectual. His compositions are often constructed around rhythmic cells that shift, condense and expand in unexpected ways, informed as much by South Indian Carnatic music as African and African American forms, including hip-hop. Iyer's harmonic sense usually supports his rhythmic urges, not the other way around, and he has mediated his influences to come up with a style that touches on the work of Steve Coleman and Cecil Taylor, yet is decidedly his own.

All those elements were displayed during the moody and floating "Tragicomic," whose individual sections were linked by group improvisations. Iyer and Mahanthappa smoothly interacted on the melody instruments, answering and complementing each other's lines in a way that comes from having played together for a decade. But the bulk of the heavy lifting seemed to rest on the shoulders of Crump and especially Gilmore -- grandson of bebop-drumming legend Roy Haynes. While Gilmore sounds nothing like his granddad (at least in this context), his ability to navigate Iyer's difficult, rhythmically jagged compositions showed that he has his relative's great musical sense. --Christopher Porter
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Iyer MP3s right here.
Mahanthappa MP3s right here and here.

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Wednesday, February 15, 2006  

Train
For Me, It You
(Columbia)

Washington Post, Wednesday, February 15, 2006; Style, Page C05

Call it professional emo -- or "pro-mo" -- because other than the advanced average age of Train's musicians, and their willingness to play at mid-tempo, there's little that separates the neo-classic rock group from the poppy "emotional punk" bands that are all the rage among the Warped Tour kids.

Like those video-ready mascara boys, Train singer and lyricist Patrick Monahan wants to remind you that really good-looking guys, even those additionally blessed with a strong voice and a successful rock band, can still hurt, feel loneliness and experience doubt. On Train's fourth studio album, "For Me, It's You," Monahan sings of being "the only cab on the road" ("Cab"), pines for a dead friend ("Always Remember") and asks, "How many times must I feel so blue?" ("All I Hear"). But amid all the self-doubt, sadness and longing, Monahan and his bandmates don't forget to write massively catchy radio-ready tunes -- even if few stations still play this sort of adult-contemporary rock.

Like the smash "Drops of Jupiter," the CD-opening "All I Ever Wanted" uses a bouncy piano riff that's sweetened with strings for maximum anthemness. "Am I Reaching You Now" begins with a Crosby, Stills & Nash-like acoustic-guitar riff and cozies up to electric power chords in the chorus. The Gin Blossoms and Counting Crows -- pro-mo progenitors par excellence -- are evoked on the hard-driving "Get Out" and a straightforward cover of Sugar's alt-rock radio staple "If I Can't Change Your Mind."

But Train's polished sound, musical professionalism and roots-rock look will be lost on the suburban punks who embrace My Chemical Romance and Good Charlotte -- even though all these groups are almost the same. Perhaps Monahan should don some eyeliner. --Christopher Porter

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Tuesday, February 14, 2006  

"Valentine, I'll wait out in the rain for you."

Lilys
"February Fourteenth"
"February Fourteenth"/"Threw a Day" 7-inch single
(Slumberland, 1991)

Kurt Heasley has been running Lilys since 1989 -- a numeral that also represents the number of musicians who have passed through his band. He's never had a distinct voice as a songwriter, having traversed intense My Bloody Valentine and Kinks phases that were more remarkable for their mimicry than their art. He's long been the Rich Little of indie rock, but like any good impressionist, when a bit works, it works (i.e., Frank Caliendo's John Madden, Dick Cheney's Ted Nugent).

Lilys debuted with the fantastic "February Fourteenth" single at the height of My Bloody Valentine devotion. It's a lost shoegaze classic.

It wasn't just that all of us indie-rockers worshiped MBV; we also wanted to re-create the group's sonic trickery in our own bands, and simply hammering the whammy bar and loading up on distortion pedals wasn't cutting it. There was something about MBV that went beyond our skill level and we were never able to properly ape the band's signature sound. Not Kurt Heasley: From the dream-state vocal inflections to the screaming guitars (more Isn't Anything than Loveless), he nailed MBV. (There's some Dinosaur Jr. up in there, too.)

I met Kurt at the Lotsa Pop Losers festival in 1991, and he was a gangly, chubby, socially awkward kid who hid behind bowl-cut bangs. (I have pictures; if only I had a scanner). Everyone called him "Wally"; I don't remember why, but I know he hated it. I still think of him as Wally to this day, even though I haven't seen him for about 13 years. (And he's outgrown his baby fat; see photo above.)

Kurt seemed like a remarkably talented, completely unfocused goofball who didn't fit in with the Dischord-centric D.C. scene, so I'm not surprised he eventually high-tailed it to Pennsylvania (first in Lancaster to be near the SpinArt Records guys, and later onto Philly).

Lilys have a new CD out, Everything Wrong Is Imaginary; you can hear a few songs from it at MySpace and Fluxblog. The music is fine, but I'm sticking with "February Fourteenth." It's already brought me 15 years of fab Valentine wishes, so I'm not gonna break up with it now. Love, y'all.

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Monday, February 13, 2006  

Fort Minor

Washington Post, Monday, February 13, 2006; Page C05

It took only one song for Fort Minor's Mike Shinoda to ask the crowd at Nation on Friday to put their hands up and wave them from side to side. The rapper-songwriter, also a member of Linkin Park, later had a contest to see which side of the club's audience was louder and asked to see fans' lighters and cell phones during a ballad-rap. It was all so comforting.

But when Shinoda wasn't engaging in every hip-hop performance cliche in the book, he and his crew brought the noise. And what a crew it was: two violinists, a cellist, a drummer, three backup singers, singer Holly Brook, DJ Cheapshot and Styles of Beyond's rappers Ryu and Tak.

While the string section was little more than decoration, the rest of the group played off one another in an appealingly loose fashion. It was the last night of Fort Minor's first U.S. tour, and Shinoda, fresh from performing with Linkin Park, Jay-Z and Paul McCartney at the Grammy Awards, was ready to celebrate. He also was about to turn 29 the next day, so a birthday singalong and a big shot of Crown Royal helped.

Over the course of 15 songs, Fort Minor played hip-hop like a rock band, with a firm sense of dynamics and flow. Unlike so many rap performances, where microphones bleed from the manic vocal abuse heaped upon them, Shinoda, Ryu and Tak always sounded tight and audible.

Most of the tunes came from Fort Minor's debut, "The Rising Tied," including "Remember the Name," "Feels Like Home" and "Where'd You Go," which Shinoda dedicated to recently deceased hip-hop producer Jay Dee (aka J Dilla). But the band also performed Linkin Park's "In the End" and dipped into its "We Major" mix tape for "There They Go," "Bleach" and "Dolla," which is built on a massive Led Zeppelin riff from "The Ocean."

Before the last tune, "Petrified," Shinoda said, "This is either a complete train wreck or the best show of all time." It was neither, but it was a lot of fun. --Christopher Porter
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Outtakes:

Why do artists think it's OK to spit water on their fans? Maybe because said fans open their pieholes and wait for the goober fluid to come flying like dolphins at feeding time. Seriously, dudes & dudesses, that's disgusting, and I don't care home much Listerine and whiskey Mike Shinoda gargled before he loogied on you, he still LOOGIED ON YOU. And you loved it. Germophobia is not an illness, people. Catch it!

Download the not-bad-at-all We Major mixtape for free right here.

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Saturday, February 11, 2006  

Ladysmith Black Mambazo

Washington Post, Saturday, February 11, 2006; Page C03

You don't go to a Ladysmith Black Mambazo show for innovation; you go to be reminded that the human voice is the most beautiful sound on Earth. Nearly 2,000 people had that thought confirmed when South Africa's premier vocal-harmony group performed at sold-out Strathmore on Thursday.

Deeply religious bandleader Joseph Shabalala formed the first version of Ladysmith in 1964 after having a dream about combining Heaven-sent harmonies with isicathamiya, the South African singing and dance style that developed in the country's mines during apartheid. Because of the band's singular devotion to Shabalala's vision, Ladysmith performances are heavily scripted: from the rehearsed song intros and the matching outfits (African shirts, black pants, red socks, white tennis shoes) to the vaudevillian shtick and staged banter among the singers. But no matter how many times you see Ladysmith in concert, if you close your eyes and just listen to the music, the gorgeousness of their collective voices override the deja vu.

Seven of the 13 songs Ladysmith performed were from "Long Walk to Freedom," a collection of rerecorded greatest hits featuring guest stars such as Melissa Etheridge and Natalie Merchant. It's been 20 years since Paul Simon introduced Ladysmith to the world with his album "Graceland," and on the new CD and in concert the band revisited Simon and Shabalala's "Homeless." While the song is still lovely after all these years, it was condensed by Ladysmith concert standards; the live versions of "Nomathemba," "Hello My Baby," "Rain Rain Beautiful Rain" and "Long Walk to Freedom" each ran well over six minutes.

Many of the tunes climaxed with the group repeating a phrase or two from the lyrics as Shabalala riffed through numerous themes and variations on the melody. When not using guttural noises, joyous whoops and Zulu-language clicks, Shabalala would complement the other seven vocalists' harmonies with ghostly tenor phrases just off mike. Be glad that the dream still haunts him. --Christopher Porter

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Monday, February 06, 2006  

RJD2
Double dipping with the Dead Ringer....

Washington Post, Monday, February 6, 2006; Page C05
"This is easily the biggest show I've ever headlined," a giddy RJD2 told the sold-out 9:30 club crowd on Saturday. The attentive audience stared at the DJ hero born Ramble Jon Krohn and whooped it up whenever the fans recognized a banger off 2002's "Dead Ringer" or 2004's "Since We Last Spoke." But save for a video screen showing random images -- a break dancer on crutches, a performance by the District's Ian Svenonius, urban decay, cows -- there wasn't much to look at: just a clean-cut and stripe-shirted RJD2, a sampling drum machine, four turntables and a microphone. For beat nuts, that was enough.

RJD2's name has been on the lips of underground hip-hop and turntable fans since the mostly instrumental "Dead Ringer" picked up where DJ Shadow's 1996 classic cut-'em-up "Endtroducing . . ." left off: big beats layered with found sounds and soul samples to create first-rate collage music. After opening with a mash-up of classic rock, soul and hip-hop beats that neatly summed RJD2's eclectic aesthetic, the DJ ventured into his own tunes, like the rainy-day trip-hopper "Smoke and Mirrors" and the garage-guitar cruncher "Exotic Talk." On the latter, RJD2 recalled the electro-rock energy of the Chemical Brothers; on the former, it was the laid-back melancholy of Portishead. In between those extremes were the sorts of musical blends that have made RJD2's productions favorites among indie rappers and sample-spotting fan boys (and girls): "1976" reveled in bongo-flavored cop-funk, "The Horror" mixed a "Mission: Impossible"-type melody with scary-movie voices, and '70s-prog synths and dub Melodica shook hands over "Iced Lightning."

After 70 minutes of turntable trickery that finished with the raucous "Good Times Roll Part 2" -- which features the audience call-and-response "Are you ready? Do you want to hear it?" -- RJD2 came back for a one-song encore. But rather than return to the vinyl, the DJ morphed into a folk singer: He picked up an acoustic guitar and, in a shaky voice, sang his sensitive ballad "Making Days Longer." Top-class instrumentalist DJs have feelings, too. --Christopher Porter

Washington City Paper, City Lights, February 3-12
It's been nearly 10 years since DJ Shadow dropped Endtroducing..., one of the finest cut-and-paste DJ albums ever. Considering Shadow hasn't done all that much since, the field's been wide open for someone to step into his place. Hello, RJD2. After a few well-received productions for MCs, RJD2 made his official solo debut in 2002 with Dead Ringer, which was hailed as an instrumental-hiphop classic. His follow-up, 2004's Since We Last Spoke, introduced a wider variety of influences and sounds, though sometimes to the detriment of the album's cohesiveness. But RJD2 hasn't looked back -- he's been spreading his vinyl wings ever since. He scored the graffiti-tag video game Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure. And he produced Magnificent City for rapper Aceyalone (due out Tuesday) and collaborated with Blueprint for Soul Position's Things Go Better With RJ & Al, which drops later this year. Get your head-nod on when RJD2 performs with Sharkey at 10 p.m. at the 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW. $15. (202) 393-0930. (Christopher Porter)

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