Forty-some odd years ago, Liverpool was at the center of a rock ‘n’ roll revolution, and people praised the British Invasion for bringing rock ‘n’ roll back to basics. Now, The Idles are hoping to put Liverpool at the forefront of another rock ‘n’ roll revolution. Are these guys a bunch of Merseybeat revivalists? Hell no. The Idles lay down the kind of raw, badass sound that you might find yourself rockin’ out to in a crowded pub on a Friday night; Dirty Rock ‘n’ Roll is the title of their four-song demo, and dirty rock ‘n’ roll it is. But like many great Liverpool bands of the past, The Idles grab hold of rock ‘n’ roll and whittle it back down to its basic essence. Driving guitars, rolling basslines, spastic drumming, hoarse vocals. Songs that say what they need to say in just a few short minutes—and with no tempo changes, complex chord sequences, or flowery lyrics. But don’t mistake The Idles for a band whose range of talent encompasses the mastery of three chords and the ability to scream like a banshee. These guys know how to play, how to sing, and how to write songs that draw upon their strengths. The crude sound of their demo might provoke some to label them a garage rock band, while their finger-in-the-air attitude (guess which finger) might cause others to call them punks. In reality, The Idles don’t fit into any category but rock ‘n’ roll, pure and simple. Each track on their demo has its own appeal, from the Idles-as-idols “Rock ‘n’ Roll Room Service” to the soulful, melancholy “Rescue Me” and the high-octane shout fest “Wasted.” But “I Don’t Really Think So” is the standout by far, its propulsive rhythm and instantly memorable refrains making it a hit waiting to happen. Or, more appropriately, dirty rock ‘n’ roll at its finest.
For more information and to hear The Idles: http://www.myspace.com/theidlesrocknroll
Copyright © 2008 S.J. Dibai. All rights reserved.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Album Review: Swimming Into Trees
“When she comes out, she causes accidents in the street…”
Whether you bake them into a pie, stir fry them, or serve them raw with a zesty salsa, eating your words is never easy. But when I found myself asking for a review copy of The Swimmers’ debut album Fighting Trees, deep down inside I suspected that I’d have to do just that: eat my words. After all, why would I have asked for a review copy unless I thought I’d like it? And yet, just a few weeks ago in my writeup of a MAD Dragon Records concert, I said that the Philadelphia-based indie pop quartet’s “energy on stage was incredible,” but “having heard a few recordings of theirs, I can say that the recordings don’t do the band justice.” Indeed, the highest compliment that I could bestow upon the band’s recordings was the phrase “smile-inducing ear candy.” Smile....inducing....ear....candy. So now I sit here at the dinner table, my napkin tucked into my collar, my words resting upon a bed of Basmati rice and drizzled in a spicy curry sauce. And the specters of guitarist/frontman Steve Yutzy-Burkey, his keyboard-playing wife Krista, bassist Rick Sieber, and drummer Scott French all staring me in the face saying, “Bon appetit, SJ.”
So how about this: The Swimmers sound different on record than they do in person. In person, you have all four of them playing and singing, sometimes switching between instruments during the course of one song, and they get happily caught up in each musical moment, singing with gusto and playing with (you guessed it) an incredible energy while still remaining tight and focused. The sound on the self-produced Fighting Trees is more calculated. The arrangements are complex and sophisticated, the productions multi-layered and carefully crafted. Scott focuses more on his amazing technical virtuosity than the livewire presence he maintains on stage, while Steve (who wrote and sings lead on all but one song) employs a breathy, even whispered vocal approach throughout. Since The Swimmers are a pop band, and a skilled one at that, they manage to make this restraint and precision work in their favor, giving the sound of these recordings a sense of purpose. In particular, the breathy vocal technique is very much in vogue in indie music these days, and thus it gives a decidedly contemporary personality to an album that contains numerous unabashedly retro elements: the crunchy power-pop guitars and lush sunshine pop harmonies heard on most of the album, the ‘50s rock ‘n’ roll triplets on “All The New Sounds,” the almost new-wavey arrangement of “St. Cecilia” (I said almost), the fab Beatlesque production of “Heaven,” the dirty cool Duane Eddy-styled guitar runs on “Pocket Full Of Gold,” and so on. Not content to simply do what’s already been done and not content to simply do what everyone else is currently doing, The Swimmers recall the past with today’s attitude, creating an intriguing sound in the process.
The lyrics are often mysterious and subject to much interpretation on the part of the listener, but one thing is certain: whether the songs are, as I interpret them, tongue-in-cheek (“It’s Time They Knew,” quoted at the top; “Goodbye”), wistful (“Heaven”), or philosophical (“We Love To Build”), they all end up bursting with good cheer thanks to the band’s spirited playing and vivid harmonies. Even “Home,” with such bleak lines as “I close my eyes, the ceiling drops/I fall asleep, my heart stops” brings a smile to this angry young man’s face. “Pocket Full Of Gold” is a true gem, its blue collar sentiments and dense sound conjuring up images of Springsteen as an indie kid. “St. Cecilia” is totally out of left field; written and sung by Scott, it pairs a downright unorthodox structure with off-the-wall lyrics and is highlighted by Krista’s atypically hyperactive keyboarding. It’s a divergence, but a welcome one. A more curious change of pace is the title track, a folky ballad which is not really suited to Steve’s voice, but hipsters will probably tell me that his fractured vocal brings a lot more pathos out of the song than a pristine performance would. Not having an ounce of hipster credibility, I’ll just take their word for it and enjoy the Beach Boys-influenced harmonies.
Fighting Trees is not a mind-blowing, earth-shattering album. Few pop albums are, and that’s part of the appeal of pop music: it’s fun, it’s easy to take, and it makes you feel good. Fighting Trees is an album for pop lovers who are looking for something a little outside of the mainstream to complement their spring and summer days or warm up their fall and winter nights. The Swimmers are currently touring behind the album’s national release, and if you have a chance to see them, please do. A good time is almost certainly guaranteed.
For music and more information: http://www.theswimmers.com
http://www.myspace.com/helloswimmers
Copyright © 2008 S.J. Dibai. All rights reserved.
Whether you bake them into a pie, stir fry them, or serve them raw with a zesty salsa, eating your words is never easy. But when I found myself asking for a review copy of The Swimmers’ debut album Fighting Trees, deep down inside I suspected that I’d have to do just that: eat my words. After all, why would I have asked for a review copy unless I thought I’d like it? And yet, just a few weeks ago in my writeup of a MAD Dragon Records concert, I said that the Philadelphia-based indie pop quartet’s “energy on stage was incredible,” but “having heard a few recordings of theirs, I can say that the recordings don’t do the band justice.” Indeed, the highest compliment that I could bestow upon the band’s recordings was the phrase “smile-inducing ear candy.” Smile....inducing....ear....candy. So now I sit here at the dinner table, my napkin tucked into my collar, my words resting upon a bed of Basmati rice and drizzled in a spicy curry sauce. And the specters of guitarist/frontman Steve Yutzy-Burkey, his keyboard-playing wife Krista, bassist Rick Sieber, and drummer Scott French all staring me in the face saying, “Bon appetit, SJ.”
So how about this: The Swimmers sound different on record than they do in person. In person, you have all four of them playing and singing, sometimes switching between instruments during the course of one song, and they get happily caught up in each musical moment, singing with gusto and playing with (you guessed it) an incredible energy while still remaining tight and focused. The sound on the self-produced Fighting Trees is more calculated. The arrangements are complex and sophisticated, the productions multi-layered and carefully crafted. Scott focuses more on his amazing technical virtuosity than the livewire presence he maintains on stage, while Steve (who wrote and sings lead on all but one song) employs a breathy, even whispered vocal approach throughout. Since The Swimmers are a pop band, and a skilled one at that, they manage to make this restraint and precision work in their favor, giving the sound of these recordings a sense of purpose. In particular, the breathy vocal technique is very much in vogue in indie music these days, and thus it gives a decidedly contemporary personality to an album that contains numerous unabashedly retro elements: the crunchy power-pop guitars and lush sunshine pop harmonies heard on most of the album, the ‘50s rock ‘n’ roll triplets on “All The New Sounds,” the almost new-wavey arrangement of “St. Cecilia” (I said almost), the fab Beatlesque production of “Heaven,” the dirty cool Duane Eddy-styled guitar runs on “Pocket Full Of Gold,” and so on. Not content to simply do what’s already been done and not content to simply do what everyone else is currently doing, The Swimmers recall the past with today’s attitude, creating an intriguing sound in the process.
The lyrics are often mysterious and subject to much interpretation on the part of the listener, but one thing is certain: whether the songs are, as I interpret them, tongue-in-cheek (“It’s Time They Knew,” quoted at the top; “Goodbye”), wistful (“Heaven”), or philosophical (“We Love To Build”), they all end up bursting with good cheer thanks to the band’s spirited playing and vivid harmonies. Even “Home,” with such bleak lines as “I close my eyes, the ceiling drops/I fall asleep, my heart stops” brings a smile to this angry young man’s face. “Pocket Full Of Gold” is a true gem, its blue collar sentiments and dense sound conjuring up images of Springsteen as an indie kid. “St. Cecilia” is totally out of left field; written and sung by Scott, it pairs a downright unorthodox structure with off-the-wall lyrics and is highlighted by Krista’s atypically hyperactive keyboarding. It’s a divergence, but a welcome one. A more curious change of pace is the title track, a folky ballad which is not really suited to Steve’s voice, but hipsters will probably tell me that his fractured vocal brings a lot more pathos out of the song than a pristine performance would. Not having an ounce of hipster credibility, I’ll just take their word for it and enjoy the Beach Boys-influenced harmonies.
Fighting Trees is not a mind-blowing, earth-shattering album. Few pop albums are, and that’s part of the appeal of pop music: it’s fun, it’s easy to take, and it makes you feel good. Fighting Trees is an album for pop lovers who are looking for something a little outside of the mainstream to complement their spring and summer days or warm up their fall and winter nights. The Swimmers are currently touring behind the album’s national release, and if you have a chance to see them, please do. A good time is almost certainly guaranteed.
For music and more information: http://www.theswimmers.com
http://www.myspace.com/helloswimmers
Copyright © 2008 S.J. Dibai. All rights reserved.
Monday, February 11, 2008
The Music-Breathing Dragon
I need not recuse myself.
Sure, MAD Dragon Records is Drexel University’s innovative student-run, faculty-supervised record label. And I like most of what MAD Dragon puts out.....and I went to Drexel. But I am not unfairly biased towards MAD Dragon because it’s associated with my alma mater. If that line of reasoning were true, I’d own every book written by my former professors (I haven’t even read most of those books) and I’d attend every remotely interesting event on Drexel’s campus (I’ve attended only two events on campus in the past year—both MAD Dragon concert showcases). MAD Dragon just so happens to have a knack for spotting and nurturing talent. The label’s initial release, the first in the Unleashed compilation series, came out a few months before I graduated. Though I was a history major who had taken a grand total of two music courses at Drexel, I was nevertheless intrigued enough to buy the CD, a respectable compilation of Drexel artists. I watched as the label expanded beyond Drexel acts, snagged a national distribution deal with Ryko, and garnered all sorts of positive attention in the press. Before long, I found myself writing about the label’s artists. Having met some of the devoted faculty and many of the impressively driven students who make the MAD Dragon breathe its musical fire, I know that this label has the potential for greatness. Maybe it’s already reaching that potential; the MAD Dragon Concert Showcase which took place at Drexel’s Mandell Theater on February 8th was one of the best shows I’ve ever attended. So good, in fact, that I feel compelled to write about it. Now, anyone who knows my work knows that I don’t write concert reviews. But this is not a concert review; this is a document of a cutting-edge label whose latest live showcase proved how much it has on the ball.
While concertgoers waited in the lobby for the doors to open, unannounced guests Hoots and Hellmouth offered some acoustic entertainment. Their American roots style is grounded in folk and bluegrass with rock elements sprinkled in. I’d been familiar with this band for quite some time and I’d never denied their talent, but I’d never felt that their music fit my tastes, either. That said, I was impressed as these guys jammed before the show and again between acts during the show. They handled their instruments effortlessly and raised their voices in harmonious glee, filling large rooms without any apparent amplification. Besides, it’s no longer common to see someone rockin’ out on an upright bass, and it’s never been common to see someone rockin’ out on a mandolin!
The show got underway in earnest with “special guests”—i.e., not MAD Dragon artists—The Takeover UK. The Pittsburgh pop-punk band played a brief, lively set and had an amiable stage presence, making for a decent, albeit unexceptional, opening act. But let’s not dwell on a band that’s not even on the label.
Kicking the show into high gear was guitar-slinging singer/songwriter Andrew Lipke, a One Note Ahead favorite over the past year. Andrew appeared with his under-acknowledged band, “Bandrew,” featuring Dave Perrin on drums, Joe Divita on bass, Joe Vasile on guitar, and Krista Nielsen (my hopeless rockstar crush) on cello. Andrew had promised me a mix of older songs and newer songs and he sure delivered. Hearing classics—you know, songs released a whole year ago—like “Untitled Song #1” and “Green Street” was a powerful experience. Andrew’s music has such a cathartic quality to it that you can heal many wounds by letting yourself get lost in his songs. I got to chat with him after the show about two newer songs I particularly enjoyed: the arrangement on “Get It Over With” had blossomed beautifully over the course of several performances, while the mood-shifting “Mind Games” contained an eerie, “Stairway To Heaven”-ish passage which still haunts me as I write this. In person, Andrew’s voice is so otherworldly that one must ask, “What IS that sound and where is it coming from???” My one minor complaint is that ever since Andrew and Bandrew played at a Sgt. Pepper tribute concert last June, they’ve been fond of performing a supercharged “Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!” as a live novelty. They do an excellent job on it, but as a rare Revolver man in a world of Sgt. Pepper-ists, I wonder who else is up for an Andrew Lipke cover of “I’m Only Sleeping”....ahh, I can hear Krista’s cello now.... Anyway, Andrew’s currently working on a new album, and his MAD Dragon debut The Way Home… is readily available.
Andrew Lipke and Bandrew in the official video for "Untitled Song #1" (2007):
The Swimmers graced the stage with their distinctly 21st century take on new wave and power pop. This was my second time seeing The Swimmers, and their energy on stage was incredible both times. Having heard a few recordings of theirs, I can say that the recordings don’t do the band justice. To be fair, the same can be said about a lot of artists, including several that I’ve previously written about. Capturing that live energy in the studio is next to impossible without that give-and-take between the band and the audience, and of course a performer might be less inclined towards free-spiritedness when the performance is being fixed in perpetuity as an auditory representation of their work! That said, the best of the Swimmers tracks I've had the opportunity to listen to are smile-inducing ear candy, and I suspect that their forthcoming MAD Dragon album Fighting Trees will be a favorite among indie pop collectors. What I know for sure, however, is that The Swimmers are a wonderful live act with a great ability to make people feel good. They still have some growing to do, but they also have a lot of potential and I think they are better equipped to live up to it than much of the competition. Additionally, it was a joy to meet the band’s frontman Steve Yutzy-Burkey and learn that one of their best-known songs, “St. Cecilia,” is at least in part about pipe organs.
[March 4, 2008 update: Watch me eat my words about The Swimmers here.]
The Swimmers performing "St. Cecilia" at The Khyber in Philadelphia, 2006. Slightly glitched, but it will do until a better, more recent clip of this song is made available:
Andrew Lipke on One Note Ahead: http://onenoteahead.blogspot.com/2007/02/album-review-lipke-goes-home.html
Original text copyright © 2008 S.J. Dibai. All rights reserved.
Sure, MAD Dragon Records is Drexel University’s innovative student-run, faculty-supervised record label. And I like most of what MAD Dragon puts out.....and I went to Drexel. But I am not unfairly biased towards MAD Dragon because it’s associated with my alma mater. If that line of reasoning were true, I’d own every book written by my former professors (I haven’t even read most of those books) and I’d attend every remotely interesting event on Drexel’s campus (I’ve attended only two events on campus in the past year—both MAD Dragon concert showcases). MAD Dragon just so happens to have a knack for spotting and nurturing talent. The label’s initial release, the first in the Unleashed compilation series, came out a few months before I graduated. Though I was a history major who had taken a grand total of two music courses at Drexel, I was nevertheless intrigued enough to buy the CD, a respectable compilation of Drexel artists. I watched as the label expanded beyond Drexel acts, snagged a national distribution deal with Ryko, and garnered all sorts of positive attention in the press. Before long, I found myself writing about the label’s artists. Having met some of the devoted faculty and many of the impressively driven students who make the MAD Dragon breathe its musical fire, I know that this label has the potential for greatness. Maybe it’s already reaching that potential; the MAD Dragon Concert Showcase which took place at Drexel’s Mandell Theater on February 8th was one of the best shows I’ve ever attended. So good, in fact, that I feel compelled to write about it. Now, anyone who knows my work knows that I don’t write concert reviews. But this is not a concert review; this is a document of a cutting-edge label whose latest live showcase proved how much it has on the ball.
While concertgoers waited in the lobby for the doors to open, unannounced guests Hoots and Hellmouth offered some acoustic entertainment. Their American roots style is grounded in folk and bluegrass with rock elements sprinkled in. I’d been familiar with this band for quite some time and I’d never denied their talent, but I’d never felt that their music fit my tastes, either. That said, I was impressed as these guys jammed before the show and again between acts during the show. They handled their instruments effortlessly and raised their voices in harmonious glee, filling large rooms without any apparent amplification. Besides, it’s no longer common to see someone rockin’ out on an upright bass, and it’s never been common to see someone rockin’ out on a mandolin!
The show got underway in earnest with “special guests”—i.e., not MAD Dragon artists—The Takeover UK. The Pittsburgh pop-punk band played a brief, lively set and had an amiable stage presence, making for a decent, albeit unexceptional, opening act. But let’s not dwell on a band that’s not even on the label.
Kicking the show into high gear was guitar-slinging singer/songwriter Andrew Lipke, a One Note Ahead favorite over the past year. Andrew appeared with his under-acknowledged band, “Bandrew,” featuring Dave Perrin on drums, Joe Divita on bass, Joe Vasile on guitar, and Krista Nielsen (my hopeless rockstar crush) on cello. Andrew had promised me a mix of older songs and newer songs and he sure delivered. Hearing classics—you know, songs released a whole year ago—like “Untitled Song #1” and “Green Street” was a powerful experience. Andrew’s music has such a cathartic quality to it that you can heal many wounds by letting yourself get lost in his songs. I got to chat with him after the show about two newer songs I particularly enjoyed: the arrangement on “Get It Over With” had blossomed beautifully over the course of several performances, while the mood-shifting “Mind Games” contained an eerie, “Stairway To Heaven”-ish passage which still haunts me as I write this. In person, Andrew’s voice is so otherworldly that one must ask, “What IS that sound and where is it coming from???” My one minor complaint is that ever since Andrew and Bandrew played at a Sgt. Pepper tribute concert last June, they’ve been fond of performing a supercharged “Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!” as a live novelty. They do an excellent job on it, but as a rare Revolver man in a world of Sgt. Pepper-ists, I wonder who else is up for an Andrew Lipke cover of “I’m Only Sleeping”....ahh, I can hear Krista’s cello now.... Anyway, Andrew’s currently working on a new album, and his MAD Dragon debut The Way Home… is readily available.
Andrew Lipke and Bandrew in the official video for "Untitled Song #1" (2007):
The Swimmers graced the stage with their distinctly 21st century take on new wave and power pop. This was my second time seeing The Swimmers, and their energy on stage was incredible both times. Having heard a few recordings of theirs, I can say that the recordings don’t do the band justice. To be fair, the same can be said about a lot of artists, including several that I’ve previously written about. Capturing that live energy in the studio is next to impossible without that give-and-take between the band and the audience, and of course a performer might be less inclined towards free-spiritedness when the performance is being fixed in perpetuity as an auditory representation of their work! That said, the best of the Swimmers tracks I've had the opportunity to listen to are smile-inducing ear candy, and I suspect that their forthcoming MAD Dragon album Fighting Trees will be a favorite among indie pop collectors. What I know for sure, however, is that The Swimmers are a wonderful live act with a great ability to make people feel good. They still have some growing to do, but they also have a lot of potential and I think they are better equipped to live up to it than much of the competition. Additionally, it was a joy to meet the band’s frontman Steve Yutzy-Burkey and learn that one of their best-known songs, “St. Cecilia,” is at least in part about pipe organs.
[March 4, 2008 update: Watch me eat my words about The Swimmers here.]
The Swimmers performing "St. Cecilia" at The Khyber in Philadelphia, 2006. Slightly glitched, but it will do until a better, more recent clip of this song is made available:
Next up was one of the very first artists featured on One Note Ahead, singer/songwriter Matt Duke. It was good to see that Matt is still working with bassist Dane Klein and drummer Nate Barnett—together, the three of them have a sound. Matt was his usual self, which is to say that I had no idea what he was going to do, say, or play next. He had his mellow moments, his silly moments, his frighteningly intense moments (those are always the most rewarding), and those seemingly inevitable Murphy’s Law moments which he handled with a typically ridiculous sense of humor. But the most intriguing aspect of the night’s set was the actual music. Instead of playing it safe, Matt laid down a bunch of newer, less familiar tunes. That meant no “Oysters,” no “Weeping Winds,” no “Tidal Waves,” no “Yellow Lights,” nothing from the XYX compilation or the Winter Child album. It would have been too much to ask him to play “Don’t Ask (For Too Much).” What he gave us was a host of fantastic-sounding songs whose lyrics I’ll need several more listens to totally absorb and whose titles I either don’t know or can’t remember yet—typical Matt Duke fare!—plus the strangely atmospheric “Love Buried” (featured last year on the label’s worthy Unleashed 3), which afforded Matt the opportunity for a Hendrix-style guitar freakout. He announced that his next album will be out in June. I’m already tired of waiting.
Closing out the night were The Redwalls, the only non-Philly act among the actual MAD Dragon artists who performed in this showcase. The Chicago band’s story is well-publicized, but the long and short of it is that Capitol Records had put out one album by the guys, who recorded a follow-up album only to get dropped by the withering major before the damn thing was released. Unusually, Capitol let The Redwalls keep the follow-up, which found a sympathetic home at MAD Dragon. Released last October, The Redwalls is a strong effort, building on the band’s Beatles and Kinks influences with doses of neo-psychedelia, orchestral rock, power pop, and American roots music. But in person, the four-man outfit in the tight-fitting clothes played an exciting fusion style combining the aggressiveness of rock with the feel-good energy of roll. Or, as I told the band’s product manager and their street team leader after the show, “The Redwalls are amazing!!!!” All the complex arrangements on the records were reduced to two guitars (one a Rickenbacker, no less), bass, drums, and three voices. This lean, mean sound called for each Redwall to play his part to the hilt, and all of the guys rose to the challenge. The harmonies were impeccable and the energy they gave to the audience was infectious. I was particularly impressed by the dreamlike “Each And Every Night,” which was surprisingly effective without the mock Phil Spector production of the album version, and the stripped-down treatment of “Build A Bridge,” a Capitol-era song recently featured on an AT&T/Cingular commercial. Of course, not everyone shared my positive sentiments. On my way out, I ran into someone I’d been chatting with before The Redwalls’ set. I said, “Hey, man! What’d you think of The Redwalls?” He smirked and replied, “They played how many different songs tonight? Two, right?” I simply paused to mull that over and groaned, “I didn’t find THAT funny. I’ll see ya ‘round.” And I walked away.
MAD Dragon gets inside The Redwalls' heads at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia, 2007:
For more information: http://www.maddragonrecords.com/ http://www.myspace.com/maddragonrecords
Andrew Lipke on One Note Ahead: http://onenoteahead.blogspot.com/2007/02/album-review-lipke-goes-home.html
Original text copyright © 2008 S.J. Dibai. All rights reserved.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Play That Folky Music
“Above this snowy grid, the land turns cracked and broken, so much like my resolve to keep you far from me/Like each river and each creek that snakes a path beneath, you are water in a rock determined to break free…”
So goes “Mind’s Eye,” an impressively haunting, poetic masterpiece by the guitar-and-mandolin-wielding duo Folk By Association—Karen and Jill to those of us who know them. These ladies have carved an underground niche for themselves in the Mid-Atlantic United States and beyond, doing it all through their own hard work and persistence, and with no record label or outside management. No image consultants, either: Karen and Jill are all about the music. With a basis in folk and an openness to elements of other genres, their sound truly is “Folk By Association,” and one listen to their current album As We Travel will prove that in spades. True, the deliberately-strummed mandolin and airy flutes of “Seconds Soaring” could have been borrowed from Ye Olde Renaissance Faire. But the playful “Letter To Myself” evokes images of a casual jam session at a jazz club, while “Mind’s Eye” keeps one foot dipped in indie folk-rock and the other in pure pop sensibility. “I’m Not Sorry” is prime Lilith Fair material—albeit nearly ten years too late!—tinged with alt-rock motifs and set apart by its sharp-tounged lyrics: “Now you’re on the phone/And suddenly I remember why I want to be alone […] I won’t say I’m sorry, I’m not sorry that you’re gone!” As is the case with their live performances, the duo’s harmonies on As We Travel are impeccable, two soaring voices sounding as if they were plucked from the highest mountain range. Though there is still room for growth and development, the best offerings on the album have an effect that is powerful yet understated, low-key and at the same time compelling. If Karen and Jill continue to build on their strengths and embrace a diverse array of influences, they will just get better and better as time marches on.
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing the ladies about their music and career. Upon careful consideration of their responses, I found them to be two intelligent, determined individuals whose story holds much insight and many lessons for everyone in (or interested in) the music industry. The highlights are published below:
SJ: Explain the name "Folk By Association."
Karen: We had been looking for a name for a little while, and I was discussing this problem with a friend of mine. I was thinking out loud about how I thought it was surprising that the style that seemed to manifest between Jill and me was much different than my solo work’s style. The phrase “folk by association” slipped out, and initially reflected the nature of our partnership. However, since our sound was definitely not strictly folk, we both felt that an added second bonus of the name was that it was a good catch-all. We are influenced by many different genres, but accept that most would likely refer to us as folk artists.
Jill: "Folk By Association" was supposed to be rather self-explanatory. It also has the added benefit that if someone searches "folk" on say, MySpace, our name comes up pretty close to the top of the list. Unplanned, but useful.
SJ: The songs are mostly written by Karen, while the vocal arrangements are mostly by Jill. Is this a deliberate division of labor or did it just come about naturally?
Karen: Well, Jill typically does the harmony-arrangement, meaning that I often will have a song basically finished and will bring it to the table to see what she can “hear” as her part. Every now and then I’ll have some concept or vague outline of what I might like her to do, but by and large she’ll listen to what I’ve composed and find the harmony that’s to her liking. This does seem to be the natural way of our collaboration, though we do write together on occasion.
Jill: Karen is a very prolific songwriter so from day one she brought a lot of material to the table, although I also write separately and we will sometimes write together. I ended up doing a lot of the vocal arrangements because it's really easy for me to hear harmonies. We don't really have set jobs. That's just how things usually go down.
SJ: How did the songs evolve from the acoustic duo arrangements to the full-band arrangements on As We Travel? Have you ever played live with a full band?
Karen: The arrangements were challenging. While some songs had a clearer picture of where they needed to go, others were really more like fumbling down a dark hallway. We put in a lot a time with our two percussionists before going into the studio to record, just trying things out and seeing what felt right.
We did two CD release parties with the line-up from the CD, but due to financial and logistical restrictions, we’re really only able to perform as a duo right now.
Jill: We had been playing most of the songs on As We Travel out for some time before they found their way into the studio, so it was logistically and artistically challenging to alter them while keeping their basic feel intact. “Mind's Eye” REALLY did not want to be put to a steady beat of any kind. We played it to a click and it didn't even sound like the same song. The bass tracks had to be recorded at a different studio and then brought back and tacked on to the existing songs. The sax track on “Letter to Myself” is actually a combination of four different tracks pieced together because we only had Jon [Thompson] in the studio for one day. He played over the song four times and we took what we liked best.
For me the best part of the recording process was finally getting to add third and fourth harmonies to the songs. […] I had a great time taking the two main vocals home on a disc and adding all sorts of additional parts.
SJ: Talk a bit about your home base and primary markets. Where did you start out and how did you branch out into other territories?
Karen: It’s been a slow, painful process! We’ve put in over seven years now, and feel like, if nothing else, we’ve certainly paid our dues. We started around the Jersey Shore, and gradually shifted west as we both separately relocated multiple times. We always intended to be more than a local act. We occasionally traveled out of the area for gigs from early on, but we both had day jobs and were still finding our footing as performers. At about the five-year point, I “hit the wall,” quit my other jobs, decided that I would seriously manage us, and dove into researching and contacting places for gigs. I was tired of having the same conversation over and over with Jill that “wouldn’t it be great if someone would…” and “we need someone to…” It’s not like there’s any easy path to sustainability. We just play a lot—some shows are great, but others can be demoralizing. It’s really hard, but we need to do this and the progress is there.
It’s funny how other artists often ask us how to book shows and what the “trick” is. The “trick” is spending a ridiculous amount of time and energy and still only getting about 10% of what you go after. After a while you start to know your targets a bit better, so you can avoid some dead ends. Nowadays we are fortunate that venues and people that want to hire us sometimes approach us, but it’s mostly about being proactive.
Oh, and go on tour to places where you have friends and family to crash with!
Jill: We are lucky in that we seem to have fans across a broad range of ages, genders and walks of life, but marketing ourselves has always been a bit of a conundrum for that very reason. We don't have a demographic, or even an easily defined genre. We're folky but we don't play traditional folk songs. We use bluegrass instruments, but we aren't bluegrass. We are singer/songwriters but most singer/songwriters are solo performers. We aren't, but we aren't a full band either. That is one of the reasons that self-management is a good fit for us. I don't know that even a well-intentioned outsider [would] be able to anticipate our needs artistically or on the business end better than we do ourselves because we don't fit neatly into any of the existing categories. We're always metaphorically checking the "other" box, and the way things are progressing I think we'll be getting more "other" in the future rather than less.
SJ: Your MySpace contains the following statement: “We strongly admire independent musicians, especially women, who creatively and boldly redefine success in this industry as not necessarily having anything to do with major labels, mass-media, and the lowest common denominator.” I wonder if you could elaborate on the sentiments behind that statement.
Karen: It’s not that we set out to be guerilla musicians! Mostly it just was the available path—do it yourself or nothing gets done. But there’s a great freedom in that, too, and after a while you see a lot of the upsides. But Jill and I did have in common from the beginning that we didn’t like the ideas of Image and Brand, and also had a great deal of stage fright and camera-shyness. The thought of mass media terrified us. We agreed from day one that we just wanted to make a living doing what we loved. These days there are more possibilities outside the mainstream than ever.
Jill: I know a fair number of musicians who have relationships with labels, production companies, and outside booking and management. There are a lot of horror stories. In order for us to trust our "baby" as it were to anyone else, they would have to be pretty spectacular, and we aren't going to sit around waiting for them to ride up on a white horse. I also know that neither one of us could tolerate being told what to write or what to wear or that we have to fix our teeth or something. That isn't acceptable.
SJ: You obviously feel strongly about being independent artists and operating outside of the established infrastructure of the music industry. But do [you] ever wonder whether this is truly the right approach? For example, do you ever think, "If we sold our music through iTunes or if we had outside management, we might be doing better?"
Karen: Honestly, we just haven’t gotten around to iTunes! Sad, right? And if someone else can get us more and better gigs, they can go right ahead. But they better not try and tell us what to do.
Jill: There's always a lot more to do, and we are open to getting help, but only if we can maintain control of our own destiny.
Many thanks to Karen and Jill for the interview and for jumping over the logistical hurdles with me!
For streaming audio, shows, and purchasing information: http://www.myspace.com/folkbyassociation
Copyright © 2007 S.J. Dibai. All rights reserved.
So goes “Mind’s Eye,” an impressively haunting, poetic masterpiece by the guitar-and-mandolin-wielding duo Folk By Association—Karen and Jill to those of us who know them. These ladies have carved an underground niche for themselves in the Mid-Atlantic United States and beyond, doing it all through their own hard work and persistence, and with no record label or outside management. No image consultants, either: Karen and Jill are all about the music. With a basis in folk and an openness to elements of other genres, their sound truly is “Folk By Association,” and one listen to their current album As We Travel will prove that in spades. True, the deliberately-strummed mandolin and airy flutes of “Seconds Soaring” could have been borrowed from Ye Olde Renaissance Faire. But the playful “Letter To Myself” evokes images of a casual jam session at a jazz club, while “Mind’s Eye” keeps one foot dipped in indie folk-rock and the other in pure pop sensibility. “I’m Not Sorry” is prime Lilith Fair material—albeit nearly ten years too late!—tinged with alt-rock motifs and set apart by its sharp-tounged lyrics: “Now you’re on the phone/And suddenly I remember why I want to be alone […] I won’t say I’m sorry, I’m not sorry that you’re gone!” As is the case with their live performances, the duo’s harmonies on As We Travel are impeccable, two soaring voices sounding as if they were plucked from the highest mountain range. Though there is still room for growth and development, the best offerings on the album have an effect that is powerful yet understated, low-key and at the same time compelling. If Karen and Jill continue to build on their strengths and embrace a diverse array of influences, they will just get better and better as time marches on.
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing the ladies about their music and career. Upon careful consideration of their responses, I found them to be two intelligent, determined individuals whose story holds much insight and many lessons for everyone in (or interested in) the music industry. The highlights are published below:
SJ: Explain the name "Folk By Association."
Karen: We had been looking for a name for a little while, and I was discussing this problem with a friend of mine. I was thinking out loud about how I thought it was surprising that the style that seemed to manifest between Jill and me was much different than my solo work’s style. The phrase “folk by association” slipped out, and initially reflected the nature of our partnership. However, since our sound was definitely not strictly folk, we both felt that an added second bonus of the name was that it was a good catch-all. We are influenced by many different genres, but accept that most would likely refer to us as folk artists.
Jill: "Folk By Association" was supposed to be rather self-explanatory. It also has the added benefit that if someone searches "folk" on say, MySpace, our name comes up pretty close to the top of the list. Unplanned, but useful.
SJ: The songs are mostly written by Karen, while the vocal arrangements are mostly by Jill. Is this a deliberate division of labor or did it just come about naturally?
Karen: Well, Jill typically does the harmony-arrangement, meaning that I often will have a song basically finished and will bring it to the table to see what she can “hear” as her part. Every now and then I’ll have some concept or vague outline of what I might like her to do, but by and large she’ll listen to what I’ve composed and find the harmony that’s to her liking. This does seem to be the natural way of our collaboration, though we do write together on occasion.
Jill: Karen is a very prolific songwriter so from day one she brought a lot of material to the table, although I also write separately and we will sometimes write together. I ended up doing a lot of the vocal arrangements because it's really easy for me to hear harmonies. We don't really have set jobs. That's just how things usually go down.
SJ: How did the songs evolve from the acoustic duo arrangements to the full-band arrangements on As We Travel? Have you ever played live with a full band?
Karen: The arrangements were challenging. While some songs had a clearer picture of where they needed to go, others were really more like fumbling down a dark hallway. We put in a lot a time with our two percussionists before going into the studio to record, just trying things out and seeing what felt right.
We did two CD release parties with the line-up from the CD, but due to financial and logistical restrictions, we’re really only able to perform as a duo right now.
Jill: We had been playing most of the songs on As We Travel out for some time before they found their way into the studio, so it was logistically and artistically challenging to alter them while keeping their basic feel intact. “Mind's Eye” REALLY did not want to be put to a steady beat of any kind. We played it to a click and it didn't even sound like the same song. The bass tracks had to be recorded at a different studio and then brought back and tacked on to the existing songs. The sax track on “Letter to Myself” is actually a combination of four different tracks pieced together because we only had Jon [Thompson] in the studio for one day. He played over the song four times and we took what we liked best.
For me the best part of the recording process was finally getting to add third and fourth harmonies to the songs. […] I had a great time taking the two main vocals home on a disc and adding all sorts of additional parts.
SJ: Talk a bit about your home base and primary markets. Where did you start out and how did you branch out into other territories?
Karen: It’s been a slow, painful process! We’ve put in over seven years now, and feel like, if nothing else, we’ve certainly paid our dues. We started around the Jersey Shore, and gradually shifted west as we both separately relocated multiple times. We always intended to be more than a local act. We occasionally traveled out of the area for gigs from early on, but we both had day jobs and were still finding our footing as performers. At about the five-year point, I “hit the wall,” quit my other jobs, decided that I would seriously manage us, and dove into researching and contacting places for gigs. I was tired of having the same conversation over and over with Jill that “wouldn’t it be great if someone would…” and “we need someone to…” It’s not like there’s any easy path to sustainability. We just play a lot—some shows are great, but others can be demoralizing. It’s really hard, but we need to do this and the progress is there.
It’s funny how other artists often ask us how to book shows and what the “trick” is. The “trick” is spending a ridiculous amount of time and energy and still only getting about 10% of what you go after. After a while you start to know your targets a bit better, so you can avoid some dead ends. Nowadays we are fortunate that venues and people that want to hire us sometimes approach us, but it’s mostly about being proactive.
Oh, and go on tour to places where you have friends and family to crash with!
Jill: We are lucky in that we seem to have fans across a broad range of ages, genders and walks of life, but marketing ourselves has always been a bit of a conundrum for that very reason. We don't have a demographic, or even an easily defined genre. We're folky but we don't play traditional folk songs. We use bluegrass instruments, but we aren't bluegrass. We are singer/songwriters but most singer/songwriters are solo performers. We aren't, but we aren't a full band either. That is one of the reasons that self-management is a good fit for us. I don't know that even a well-intentioned outsider [would] be able to anticipate our needs artistically or on the business end better than we do ourselves because we don't fit neatly into any of the existing categories. We're always metaphorically checking the "other" box, and the way things are progressing I think we'll be getting more "other" in the future rather than less.
SJ: Your MySpace contains the following statement: “We strongly admire independent musicians, especially women, who creatively and boldly redefine success in this industry as not necessarily having anything to do with major labels, mass-media, and the lowest common denominator.” I wonder if you could elaborate on the sentiments behind that statement.
Karen: It’s not that we set out to be guerilla musicians! Mostly it just was the available path—do it yourself or nothing gets done. But there’s a great freedom in that, too, and after a while you see a lot of the upsides. But Jill and I did have in common from the beginning that we didn’t like the ideas of Image and Brand, and also had a great deal of stage fright and camera-shyness. The thought of mass media terrified us. We agreed from day one that we just wanted to make a living doing what we loved. These days there are more possibilities outside the mainstream than ever.
Jill: I know a fair number of musicians who have relationships with labels, production companies, and outside booking and management. There are a lot of horror stories. In order for us to trust our "baby" as it were to anyone else, they would have to be pretty spectacular, and we aren't going to sit around waiting for them to ride up on a white horse. I also know that neither one of us could tolerate being told what to write or what to wear or that we have to fix our teeth or something. That isn't acceptable.
SJ: You obviously feel strongly about being independent artists and operating outside of the established infrastructure of the music industry. But do [you] ever wonder whether this is truly the right approach? For example, do you ever think, "If we sold our music through iTunes or if we had outside management, we might be doing better?"
Karen: Honestly, we just haven’t gotten around to iTunes! Sad, right? And if someone else can get us more and better gigs, they can go right ahead. But they better not try and tell us what to do.
Jill: There's always a lot more to do, and we are open to getting help, but only if we can maintain control of our own destiny.
Many thanks to Karen and Jill for the interview and for jumping over the logistical hurdles with me!
For streaming audio, shows, and purchasing information: http://www.myspace.com/folkbyassociation
Copyright © 2007 S.J. Dibai. All rights reserved.
Friday, November 23, 2007
One Note Ahead Live!
One Note Ahead's readership spans the globe. Most of the artists I write about have recordings that are available worldwide, so I usually don't need to worry that my readers won't be able to hear the music I want them to check out. But what about seeing these artists? Many of them are local favorites here in the Philadelphia area and haven't played much (or at all) elsewhere; others play in regions or countries that are foreign to me and therefore I've never seen them in person, which in turn means that many of my readers are in the same boat. So that we may all have a fuller appreciation of these artists, I've scoured YouTube and other sites and posted my favorite live performance clips of some of the artists I've written about. (Sadly, I couldn't find any live videos of Andrew James, Andrew Lipke, or Mindy Rhodes.) The artists' names are hyperlinked to their respective One Note Ahead features. Enjoy.
Downtown Harvest, "Four Hundo" at The Trocadero in Philadelphia:
Laura Cheadle, "Midst Of Your Mystery" at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia (I was there!):
Half of SuperJimenez, "Faye" on Balcony TV:
Lovers Electric, "Is It Over?" on This Month In Music TV:
Ed Rambeau, "You'll Never Find (Another Love Like Mine)" on a Carnival Cruise Ship:
Matt Duke, "Weeping Winds" at The Knitting Factory in New York City:
Stay tuned.....
For more information, see One Note Ahead's Quick Takes and One Note Ahead: One Year Later.
Downtown Harvest, "Four Hundo" at The Trocadero in Philadelphia:
Laura Cheadle, "Midst Of Your Mystery" at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia (I was there!):
Half of SuperJimenez, "Faye" on Balcony TV:
Lovers Electric, "Is It Over?" on This Month In Music TV:
Ed Rambeau, "You'll Never Find (Another Love Like Mine)" on a Carnival Cruise Ship:
Matt Duke, "Weeping Winds" at The Knitting Factory in New York City:
Stay tuned.....
For more information, see One Note Ahead's Quick Takes and One Note Ahead: One Year Later.
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