Album Review: Tobacco - Fucked Up Friends

Originally published October 7, 2008 in Soundcheck Magazine.
Direct link to article

Tobacco
Fucked Up Friends
Anticon. Records

In high school, my idea of multi-tasking was doing homework while simultaneously watching TV, listening to the radio and talking on the phone. Tobacco’s Fucked Up Friends is kind of like that. Sounds travel in all directions and frequencies, mystically making sense.

Tobacco’s instrumental songs are more cryptic than his work in Black Moth Super Rainbow, but still powerfully demand attention. Gripping hip-hop beats add the feel of dusty vinyl and fuzzy analog synths set the listener’s brain on coast. With guest vocals from Aesop Rock on “Dirt”, Tobacco proves that he is making friends with the right people.

Album Review: Pretty & Nice - Get Young

Originally published October 7, 2008 in Soundcheck Magazine.
Direct link to article

Pretty & Nice
Get Young
Hardly Art

The sophomore album from Boston’s Pretty & Nice, out on Sub Pop’s Hardly Art label, brings bands like Hot Hot Heat, The Futureheads, and, at times, The Hives to mind. However, don’t be fooled by the hard-hitting opening of “Piranha”: there is hardly anything garage rock about Get Young. The album, recorded in the band’s basement, is theatrical pop with its frantic and hyper jingle and jangle of percussion and synth. The band’s exuberance is mod but fun. Yet, it is hard to tell if they can offer anything that will set them apart from others.

Album Review: Woodhands - Heart Attack

Originally published September 26, 2008 in Soundcheck Magazine.
Direct link to article

Woodhands
Heart Attack
Paper Bag Records

Before superstar athletes such as Michael Phelps hit Beijing for the Olympics, Toronto-based electro duo Woodhands chalked one up for Canada. Woodhands’ Chinese debut in May made a splash with two electrifying performances that reached energy levels of Olympic proportions. Without skipping a beat, Woodhands backs up the well-received performances with its sophomore release, Heart Attack.

Heart Attack is the first Woodhands album on Toronto’s independent label, Paper Bag Records, home to Broken Social Scene and Tokyo Police Club’s back catalog. Staying true to the label’s dynamic roster, Woodhands opts out from the laptop route of making electronic music and instead records and performs with more conventional instruments. Woodhands is composed of Dan Werb on vocals, keytar, synthesizers, and drum machines and Paul Banwatt on drums and vocals. The outcome is a loud mix of piercing beats and punchy sounds that rival the high spirits of other 2008 dance records such as Hot Chip’s Made in the Dark and Girl Talk’s Feed the Animals.

Not only do Werb and Banwatt create songs that can fuel a dance party well into the night, but they also add an element of surprise to each track. “In the Woods” begins with gritty synthesizers and pounding bass, but it ends with the organic sound of hand drums. Banwatt’s drumming really stands out and is refreshing against the synthesizers and loops.

Other surprise treats include guest vocals by fellow Canadian and Henri Fabergé and The Adorables member Maylee Todd on “Dancer”. Todd’s voice on the track is graceful and wistful; unfortunately, Werb tries to add contrast with brash vocoder shouts, which end up sounding a little too harsh and distracting. Werb alters his voice on quite a few occasions, but he sounds best when his less-abrasive and natural voice is tweaked to sound spacey and robotic.

Heart Attack ends on an elegant note with the softer “Straighten the Curtain” and “Sailboats” signaling the end of the dance party but leaving the listener with anticipation for the next one.

Album Review: Pop Levi - Never Never Love

Originally published September 26, 2008 in Soundcheck Magazine.
Direct link to article

Pop Levi
Never Never Love
Counter Records

Pop Levi makes music for the alter ego in all of us. One moment he is exuberant and confident, and the next he is shy and vulnerable. Levi is a complicated man, but one thing is for sure: if you opened his brain, lavish amounts of bright colors, geometric shapes, and sonic passion would burst out.

Nothing other than passion should be expected from an album recorded at Quincy Jones’ old studio, Westlake, the same place where Michael Jackson recorded Thriller and Off the Wall. The studio’s history can be clearly heard on Levi’s sophomore release, Never Never Love, but there is also something futuristic in its sound. Levi (who was born in London but now resides in Los Angeles) takes notes from Prince and Bob Dylan and puts them through a time warp to the future and back.

The “futuristic” element in Levi’s euphoric pop songs may be credited to his time spent as Ladytron’s touring bassist. The first half of Never Never Love is filled with an array of gadgets, handclaps, and colorful beats. The title track sounds like a toy factory where knobs are pulled, paint is slapped on, and characters are wound up like a Jack-in-the-box surprise. Levi’s voice is radiant and attention-grabbing, while gritty guitars and funky baselines keep the music from becoming a joke.

The album stays strong through the eccentric-folk “Semi-Babe” and the bizarre but charming “Mai’s Space”. However, Levi loses momentum on the second half of the album when he channels what seems to be his more reflective alter ego. By softening the loud guitars and adding a gentle piano, Levi showcases his soothing vocals: he remains flamboyant, but sometimes too over-the-top. “Everything & Finally” is the closest Levi comes to singing a tribute to Prince, but gets a little carried away. On a few parts, Levi sounds like he is stuck in a room filled with helium.

Levi likes experimenting with his voice and has diverse music tastes, but Never Never Love lacks balance. The album presents Levi at a fork in the road. Without a more narrow focus, he can become the token oddball troubadour, whereas, songs like the swaggering “Dita Dimoné”, make Levi a credible musician without sacrificing his zest. For the sake of variety in pop music, let’s hope he continues with the latter.

Artist Feature: Tilly and the Wall

Originally published in the Summer 2008 issue of Redefine.
Buy a copy here

Omaha's Tilly and the Wall has one piece of advice -- watch your step.

The emerging band, which has been stomping its way into the hearts of music lovers since its formation in 2001, just released its third album. The album illustrates the nurturing and delicate relationship that Tilly and the Wall has with music. One clumsy step can shatter all of the hard work that tap dancer and percussionist Jamie Pressnall, vocalist and guitarist Derek Pressnall, keyboardist Nick White, and vocalists Kianna Alarid and Neely Jenkins have poured into the music.

Tilly and the Wall cultivated the album's vision with tender care and will not let anyone stunt its growth -- a sentiment that is explained in the song "Blood Flowers."

"I waited for something to grow and flourish with time/ I counted each hopeful raindrop as it poured to its death/ I dusted the mournful frost and warmed it with my breath/ You better watch where you're walking, there might be somebody's blood flower growing/ You better watch what you're doing, don't go fucking around in the garden."

From music to the cover art, Tilly and he Wall has carefully developed an album that creates a unique experience for listeners, says Alarid. The album is technically untitled but is affectionately referred to as O because its cover is an oval-shaped frame that can be filled with anything a listener chooses to fill it with.

However, if nothing comes to minds of the listeners, they will have artwork to choose from. The band rallied numerous artist friends and had each of them design handmade prints for the album. Each cover has a limited run of 1,000 copies. In addition, each member of the band created a cover of his or her own, and they ran only 250 copies of those particular pieces.

To ensure that each cover has its own distinctive vibe, band members gave the designers very little guidance.

"Some of them would call and say 'I want to talk about the record,'" Alarid recalls, "but we would say, 'Nope.'"

The various covers are not the only things fans can look forward to; the latest release has a great amount of confidence and finesse.

While the band's debut Wild Like Children had some memorable tracks, its overall effort was subtle. Two years later, Bottom of Barrels was released and led to opportunity; the band was given the chance to play gigs at notable music festivals, such as, the Reading/Leeds Festival and Coachella.

But O is edgy and scorching with passion. Alarid credits the band's musical progression via touring and, to put it simply: time. The band has worked on learning about each other's songwriting techniques, and each member contributes to the process.

Members of Tilly and the Wall have used their abundant songwriting skills their advantage. It would be easy for a band from such a musically-inclined city to sound identical to the handful of successful Omaha bands like Cursive and Bright Eyes, but Tilly and the Wall has managed to create a lovely coherent sound of its own.

"When you have five different songwriters, it kind of makes a unique sound because you have to make five people's sound fit together," Alarid says.

Tilly and the Wall may not sound like most bands in Omaha, but the band does have strong connections with the city's music scene. Jenkins and Jamie Pressnall used to be in Park Ave. with Conor Oberst before his Bright Eyes fame. Years later, Tilly and the Wall was Oberst's first signing to his Team Love record label, a Saddle Creek affiliate.

Oberst also had a hand in production for Wild Like Children, but for O, Tilly and the Wall turned to another Nebraskan, Mike Mogis.

Mogis, who owns his own state-of-the-art studio and has worked with a lot of staple indie artists, such as, Bright Eyes, Rilo Kiley, and M. Ward, brought a lot of ideas to the table and allowed the band members to carry out various ideas that they previously did not have the resources to do so. Mogis suggested an array of instruments and different micing techniques for the band.

"His brain is always going a thousand miles an hour," Alarid says.

The band always wanted to included a tap dance troupe on a recording, and the vision was made into a reality on the track "Pot Kettle Black." A 10-person stomp troupe was recorded in an elementary school gym specifically for the song. The track is a powerful, tongue-in-cheek message about trash-talking; it shows Tilly and the Wall's hidden fierceness. The vocals reveal the appealing intensity of Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O and Pretty Girls Make Graves' Andrea Zollo.

However, listeners should not be alarmed by the forceful passion of O. Tilly and the Wall's gleeful group chants and hand claps are still very prominent. Songs like "Jumbler" and "Poor Man's Ice Cream" feature infectious thumping rhythms and trade-off vocals between the female and male vocalists.

The cheery attitude that is the essence of Tilly and the Wall has even caught the attention of Sesame Street. The band recorded a video for their rendition of the "ABC Song," which will be featured on the show's 39th season this fall.

As for Sesame Street characters, Alarid chooses Grover as her favorite.

"Having a monster that is insecure is so cute."

Before catching Tilly and the Wall on national television, fans can experience the band's exuberant passion all over the United States this summer. Just be sure not to trample on any thriving flowers.

Summer tours conquer road

Originally published May 21, 2008 in The Orion.
Direct link to article

On part of Chico punk group Gruk's 2007 summer tour, audiences heard guitarist Scribles simultaneously play guitar and bass. He did not perform a contortionist trick, but when the band's bassist unexpectedly left the tour, Scribles covered by playing through both a bass and guitar amp.

Band members leaving midway through a tour is one example of the sudden adventures that bands face while on tour, said Rachel Loveless, Gruk vocalist. In order to have a successful tour, band members have to think on their feet and quickly come up with creative solutions.

But unforeseen problems are not stopping Gruk and other Chico bands from travelling the United States this summer.

Gruk, which also includes drummer Sean "Hipmo" Cummins and new bassist Logan "Ziptie" Keyser, have been on five national tours but will visit cities this summer they have never played, Cummins said. The band will grace Knoxville, Tenn., and Waco, Texas, with its fast and gritty punk music for the first time.

Loveless and Cummins booked all the dates themselves and are excited to spend time with friends across the country that they rarely see, Cummins said.

While Gruk's tour will reach the East Coast, The Shimmies and Social Concern plan to stay west for their summer tours.

Social Concern, which includes bassist Ami Rose, guitarist and vocalist Sarah Shintaku and drummer Bryan Lyon, is taking its punk rock sounds up the West Coast, but will venture out to Montana, Idaho and Utah.

Dreamy indie-rockers The Shimmies, is comprised of Jack Gingerich on drums and brothers Jimmy and Sean Galloway on guitar and vocals and Stephen Galloway on bass. The band will travel to Seattle and down to Los Angeles, said Sean Galloway. With the help of a friend, band members also booked the tour themselves.

This summer marks The Shimmies' first tour, but Sean Galloway did not have trouble booking shows in other cities, he said. Band members have made friends with touring bands that play in Chico, and when members of The Shimmies decided to go on tour they called upon their friends.

Gruk used the same strategy, but the booking process was a little harder than most tours because the band plays a lot of house and basement shows, Loveless said. It's hard to get in contact with people because they move or no longer host shows.

Social Concern had similar booking issues with venues and also discovered dates fill up fast because so many bands plan summer tours, Shintaku said.

While booking shows may be time consuming and frustrating, there are benefits to touring during the summer.

Attendance at Gruk shows is higher during the summer because students do not have to worry about school, Loveless said.

Members of The Shimmies are looking forward to escaping the Chico heat, Sean Galloway said.

Selling band merchandise also helps cover tour expenses, said Jimmy Galloway. All three bands will be selling T-shirts and CDs.

The bands are committed to reaching out to other cities, but Chico musicians will miss some things.

Both Loveless and Scribles miss taco trucks, friends and inexpensive beer, they said.

Members of The Shimmies miss the laid-back Chico atmosphere, Jimmy Galloway said.

"The stress level is higher in some cities, and I start thinking how people in Chico are napping."

Album Review: Xiu Xiu - Women As Lovers

Originally published May 14, 2008 in The Orion

Xiu Xiu
Women As Lovers
Kill Rock Stars, 2008
3/5 stars

Listeners who are not prepared for the dark and chaotic sounds of Oakland's Xiu Xiu may question the band's sanity.

After several listens, music lovers can appreciate the quirkiness of the dissonant sounds and find honesty.

The band is known for its avant-garde spin on indie rock and an array of instruments that seem to crash into each other. The opening track, "I Do What I Want, When I Want," seems innocent with sweet touches of xylophone and whistles, but loud bursts of saxophone interrupt the peace.

Songwriter Jamie Stewart alternates from haunting vocals to sincere whispers. Stewart is able to portray every emotion in his voice. In "In Lust You Can Hear the Axe Fall," he cries out lyrics, making listeners feel his pain. "No Friend Oh!" is a more delicate tune with piano lines and gentle vocals.

"Women As Lovers" is out of the ordinary and may not be for everyone, but those who have the patience to listen to it more than once will dig Xiu Xiu's creativity.

Mario gets a political makeover with Ayres exhibit

Originally published May 14, 2008 in The Orion.
Direct link to article

For two weeks, Chico State had its own arcade with classic Nintendo games.

Groups of people wandered into Ayres Hall to scope out the games as senior Ryan Fitzpatrick hosted the reception for his bachelor of fine arts culminating exhibition Thursday. The exhibition, called "Eeprompaganda," included three well-known Nintendo games with a political twist.

Fitzpatrick reprogrammed the beloved "Super Mario Brothers" and turned it into "Super Democracy Brothers: The Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism." Instead of Mario and Luigi hopping over pipes and fighting creepy creatures, players were able to choose from President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney to fight Iraqi men.

The two men run around the desert, encounter men in turbans and hop over oil bins with Exxon Mobil labels. Every time Bush acquires a token, he grows taller and becomes a cowboy. The detail on the game is impeccable. The blocks the players jump on are decorated with U.S. flags.

Senior Ama Stewart had trouble picking a favorite video game, but ultimately chose "Super Democracy Brothers" because the war in Iraq is an important and timely issue, she said.

"It's a great way to get people who aren't political to see our country in a different way," Stewart said.

Republicans were not the only political party portrayed in the exhibit.

Another game in the Mario series dealt with universal health care. "Dr. Mario" was transformed into "Doctor Democrat." The words "Hillary Care" stretched across the top of the screen and players became Dr. Hillary Clinton. The object of the game was to arrange pills into a medicine container, similarly to "Tetris."

The third game in the exhibit was called "Minuteman Civil Defense Headquarters Presents: Border Stampede," inspired by the "Millipede" video game. As the game began, the words "use your binoculars to stop the invasion," flashed on the screen.

The issue in this game was immigration, and players were presented with two lands. On top, the screen was covered with desert land and cacti. The lower half was a bright green land. Scorpions, snakes and little brown men scurried down the screen and shuffled around the cacti. The player received points for every shot. If the player was unsuccessful, the game ended with the statement, "the border has been overrun."

The war in Iraq, health care and immigration are all controversial, but the games were created in good taste. The games did not show a preference for one political party, but they hinted toward changing the state of affairs.

Fitzpatrick was afraid people would miss the comical aspect of the exhibit and find the games offensive, he said. He made sure his exhibit statement was visible so people could read about his intent. In the statement, he wrote about his curiosity with American culture symbols and the influence they have on thinking.

He came up with the idea of using video games as a way to deliver his message after discovering the game Fitzpatrick said. The U.S. Army uses the game as a recruitment tool, and it is available free online.

Fitzpatrick was also influenced by political talk shows on AM radio, he said. Instead of focusing on content, hosts work to elicit responses from listeners.

"They dumb down the issues to a ridiculous level," he said.

Depicting issues through video games is a way to mock the simplification used on radio shows, he said.

However, the process of reprogramming the games was not simple, Fitzpatrick, said. The name of the exhibit is a combination of the acronym EEPROM and the word propaganda. The acronym stands for "electrically erasable programmable read-only memory." Fitzpatrick spent a year altering the memory chips of Nintendo games. The game system ran the games as if they were the originals.

The altered games had the nostalgic feeling and entertainment factor of the original games. Gallery viewers were not hesitant to play the games.

Senior Tamara Webb attended the reception and played all three video games, she said. She admired the way the games contained context regarding political issues.

"I've never seen a gallery so full at all times."

Album Review: Foals - Antidotes

Originally published May 07, 2008 in The Orion

Foals
Antidotes
Sub Pop Records, 2008
3/5 stars

Foals' debut album plays out like a sad tale on the dance floor.

The band from Oxford England, follows the lead of Bloc Party and Arctic Monkeys with a subtle yet powerful dance-punk sound. The instrumentation is sleek and bright, but the album has an alarming sense of nostalgia. Lead singer and guitarist Yannis Philippakis adds tension with exerted and alert vocals.

Despite the melancholy mood, "Antidotes" is undoubtedly dance party material with screeching guitars, stirring bass lines, spacey keyboards and chipping cymbals. The sporadic use of trumpet, trombone and saxophone stretches out songs to give them a lot of breathing room and allow listeners to indulge in the music.

While songs such as "Cassius" are exciting and catchy, most songs on "Antidotes" sound solitary.

Foals is off to a great start, but needs to add more personality.

Jazz X-Press to groove for benefit at Nick's Night Club

Originally published May 07, 2008 in The Orion.
Direct link to article

Graffiti is welcome in few places on campus, but associate professor Rocky Winslow proudly displays his decorated office walls, tagged by distinguished jazz musicians including Bobby Shew and Lori Bell.

Winslow is the director of the jazz studies program and the student ensemble Jazz X-Press. Since joining the music faculty in 2002, Winslow has helped bring big-name performers to Chico, allowing students to learn from the jazz veterans. However, Jazz X-Press will go directly to the action in June, traveling to Telluride, Colo., for the Telluride Jazz Celebration.

Jazz X-Press will be the only university-affiliated group sharing the stage with artists such as The Neville Brothers, McCoy Tyner and Joe Lovano, Winslow said. Winslow has played the festival on other occasions, but the executive director of the festival, Paul Machado, invited Jazz X-Press to perform after watching a video of the ensemble on YouTube.

One perk of playing the festival is backstage passes, which will allow students to interact with all the festival performers, Winslow said. Before the students get there, they need to raise about $16,000 to cover bus, housing and food expenses for the 25-member ensemble.

The university has been a big supporter, but the group has held performances and sought help from the community, he said. Jazz X-Press will be playing a benefit show Saturday at Nick's Night Club.

The benefit show proves Winslow is not the only person with connections because it was organized by one of the students.

Tino Marrufo, grad student in ethnomusicology, plays percussion for Jazz X-Press, but is also a member of various rock bands including Mute Witness, he said. He has worked on several rock shows with Katie Perry, founder of Chico's Devil Kat Rock Productions and booking agent for Nick's Night Club, so it was natural for him to reach out to her on behalf of Jazz X-Press.

"That's what's cool about the Chico music scene, we build relationships," he said.

The show will be a new experience for both Jazz X-Press and Nick's Night Club, Marrufo said. Jazz X-Press is used to playing venues on campus such as Harlen Adams Theatre, while Nick's Night Club usually hosts punk and metal shows. Marrufo thinks it will be a great experience and add diversity to the music scene.

Winslow sees the show as a road test, he said. The Nick's Night Club stage is much smaller than the Harlen Adams Theatre stage, so the ensemble will have to learn to adjust. The situation is much like touring, where bands usually do not know what to expect from one club to the next.

"It's going to have a big education factor," Winslow said.

Learning to be flexible will be helpful when the ensemble performs at the Telluride Jazz Celebration, which has a diverse audience, he said. Jazz X-Press is scheduled to play more than one set at the four-day festival, and Winslow hopes the group will get a chance to play a variety of compositions.

Watching how other musicians work also serves as a learning experience, because with backstage passes students will be able to talk to other musicians, Marrufo said. Jazz is known for its roots in oral tradition, and students will have the opportunity to hear stories from many of the artists that they learn about in their classes.

"The experience will be educational, spiritual and social," he said.

With such a large ensemble, good social skills are a necessity.

Tanner Johns, a senior music education major, plays lead alto saxophone for Jazz X-Press and depends on his band members to add to the learning experience, Johns said.

In order for the group to sound professional, all the members have to be committed, he said.

"You just can't miss class," Johns said.

An experienced director is also a big factor in the educational experience, he said. Johns hopes to go into teaching and is learning rehearsal techniques from Winslow. He appreciates Winslow's balance between constructive criticism and encouragement.

Spending so much time with each other creates a strong bond among the group and makes performing fun, Johns said.

"Every day is an adventure," he said.

Winslow sees the trip to Telluride as a big adventure, but the accomplishment reflects well on the university, he said.

"It's a feather in the cap for the whole college."