The Spin, Nashville Scene: Lambchop at Cheekwood Nights 6/3/11

(photo: Steve Cross)

When The Spin arrived at 9 on the dime to see Lambchop perform at Cheekwood's inaugural Cheekwood Nights show, a ritual inspection of our sonic sanctuary revealed welcoming bathrooms and expertly set up bars. Dignified urinations and prompt libations often elude The Spin, so with a capital A-OK, we traversed the sizable lawn to realize we should've brought a blanket. Yes, the cicadas were abuzz, but a brook's babble drowned their drone, and the atmospheric din of nature rather suited the affair. Cheekwood Nights is like if Bonnaroo got into Harvard.

Lambchop — endearingly but inaccurately introduced by Cheekwood president and CEO Jane Offenbach as "The Lambchops" — already immortalized their song "Give It" as the grand finale for Merge Records' 20th anniversary a couple years back. But they opened with it Friday, thus pumping up The Spin. But debut songs dominated the night, such as "Kinda," with flourishes of spritely sci-fi keyboards, and "Gone Tomorrow," a soulful rock ditty that was steadily rollin' on the river with a blistering psychedelic outro.

The Spin dug "Nice Without Mercy," a post-rock lullaby, and relished "The Good Life Is Wasted on Me," when Lambchop finally hopped on their horses, firing off some serious Seger bullets. Next came "Sharing a Gibson With Martin Luther King Jr.," a choo-choo of a song that rolls on the drums, toots friendly keys and sparkles with guitar licks: a sublime product of soulful mechanics. True, this analogy might have something to do with the gigantic outdoor toy-train exhibit at Cheekwood right now.

Bugs of various scientific names misted the light show, and before launching into "If Not I'll Die," Lambchop frontman Kurt Wagner quipped "the beetles love me," his facetious braggadocio making for a funny pun. (Not to mention — The Spin thinks — a credible hypothetical were George and John still with us.) After the trumpet-accompanied "Mr. Met," Wagner cracked, "How we doin' on that Belle Meade egg timer?" teasing the tranquil crowd that we might actually be terrorizing the manor. The 'Chop then launched into another of their finest flock, "National Talk Like a Pirate Day" a solid piano-rock jam that might have moved The Spin to dance in less exalted environs.

Egg timer running low, Wagner & Co. debuted "Buttons," a slower number of Motown motivation. The Spin seems to remember Wagner saying that the song laments a girl from his past who dated his buddy — "a real prick." "Of course," he said, "I couldn't help her because so was I at the time." Feeling decidedly not prickly thanks to Lambchop, the Spin abandoned the Gatsby-esque environment with its "consoling proximity of millionaires" by 11 p.m. Now that's what The Spin calls a first-class Friday (in the traditional sense).

Nashville Cream: American Masters: LENNONNYC and Nashville's Steve Marcantonio

There are many good reasons to watch American Masters: LENNONNYC tonight, two of which involve American pride and Steve Marcantonio. If the first rationale is confusing, well, Lennon loved New York City, wistfully wishing he had been born there, and if the second explanation fails, then allow me to elaborate.

According to an NPT interview with Marcantonio celebrating the documentary, Nashville resident Steve Marcantonio is the 2010 recipient of the Academy of Country Music's Engineer of the Year Award and has worked for mega-stars such as George Strait, Brooks & Dunn and Reba McEntire. However, Marcantiano's most impressive recording arguably went to tape 30 years ago, when he worked for the Record Plant in New York City. There, he and John Lennon spent a week in December 1980 mixing Yoko Ono's "Walking on Thin Ice," a tropical and New Wave ditty, the sound of which evinced Lennon's recent sailing trip to Bermuda. Bermuda also inspired Lennon to name his and Yoko's Double Fantasy (a flower that, to Lennon, symbolized the artists’ relationship). Marcantonio would have worked full-time on Double Fantasy had his workload not been tyrannized by obligations pertaining to the Blues Brothers Soundtrack.

During their time together, Lennon and Marcantonio engaged in recreational activities such as walking and air-guitaring. Lennon was so interested in a device described by Marcantonio that produced artificial clapping noises (the Clap Track), that he put two Benjamins in Marcantonio’s hand so that he might procure it for future — perhaps New Wave — uses. When Lennon was shot, his hand clutched the final mix of “Walking on Thin Ice,” put there by Marcantonio hours earlier.

American Masters: LENNONNYC, about Lennon's life in NYC beginning a year after The Beatles' 1970 breakup, airs tonight at 8 p.m. CST on NPT.

Nashville Cream: South By Southwest Does Nashville at The Basement

Pre-party for SXSW (that stands for South By Southwest in case you forgot) at The Basement March 13 and 14 by catching some Austin-bound acts. Next, skip the Actual Event because that's what you did in college before the overrated frat parties. Didn't go to college? You cannot skip because you're actually playing the festival! (Kidding.) Partake in this easily justifiable opportunity to see high-caliber bands of relative anonymity (like at the SXSW of yore) by catching 'em on their way to Austin and beyond. ... There is an alternative to traveling 750 miles to join a pungent, muy caliente sardine-can crowd whose smell is part Queens of the Stone Age fan, part Duran Duran fan. (Kidding again; you'll have a great time.) To hear proof that these bands are up to snuff and a pinch above it, check out some choice tracks below and go to The Basement for the full schedule.

Sunday, March 13
Elephant Stone: who tactfully take more than just their name from the Stone Roses. Check out the Jackie Wilson bass line introducing the paisley gem "I Am Blind."

Beware the Dangers of a Ghost Scorpion: who, like Man ... or Astroman? before them (and the Spotnicks before them), play full-throttle surf rock with a science fiction and horror shtick. You can listen to their latest album for free.

Monday, March 14
Reptar: whose excellently named — not to mention significantly catchy — dance-rock track "Houseboat Babies" was produced by Ben H. Allen (Animal Collective, Gnarls Barkley, Bad Boys).

High Dials: whose imminently polished mod-meets-psychedelic rock opened up a Brian Jonestown Massacre tour (bet they have some good stories) and is driven by The Dears' ex-drummer. (Grimey loves the Dears, for what it's worth.) Here's a song: "I'm Over You (I Hope It's True)"

Nashville Cream: Pitchfork Reviews KORT and Jessica Lea Mayfield Today 2/11/11

Pitchfork writer and Tennessee native Stephen M. Deusner reviews KORT's Invariable Heartache and Jessica Lea Mayfield's Tell Me today, and the results are a 7.6 and 7.7, respectively; in other words, three-quarters as good as fellow country music-tinged Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Not bad.

Deusner appreciates Mayfield's "eloquently analytical love songs," observing that Tell Me is "as musically assured as it is romantically conflicted," which is a recipe for great music, am I right? Deusner mentions The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach twice, once for producing the album's "snappy immediacy" and also for his guitar work, which "crashes brutally against Mayfield's delicate vocals" — a ravishing affair, not unlike when Zeus, disguised as a bull, raped Europa. Anyways, Auerbach's guitar work is noteworthy on Tell Me, flipping the channel from his usual Junior Kimbrough station to the Chris Isaak network. I know this because I listened to it for free.

Deusner takes a biographical approach to reviewing Invariable Heartache; his first two paragraphs explore the history between Chart Records and Connie Eaton (Cortney Tidwell's mother), a story with which we are all very familiar. Deusner describes Kurt Wagner's voice as an "eccentric take on a cowboy croon," whereas Tidwell performs "a robust, breathy version of a traditional starlet," and the author reverently reduces the effort to "one of Lambchop's more countrified albums." Dude also name-checks Grimey's and The Basement, the former because its crates might be the last sanctuary for Chart Records' original output and the latter because that's where Tidwell and Wagner first sang together (an impromptu cover of Don Williams' "I Believe in You").

P.S. Remember Pitchfork 10 years ago? I do. They used to give out some high scores to some mediocre bands. Incubus' S.C.I.E.N.C.E received an 8.7 and Save Ferris' It Means Everything received a 9.5. Any other hilarious hindsight you'd care to share?

Kurt Vile Preview for the Nashville Scene 4/9/11

“Yeah.” It’s an important word in rock ’n’ roll. Ask Lou Reed, Eric Burdon and, more recently, Kurt Vile, perhaps this generation’s finest Yeah-sayer, whose languid yet amber enunciation of the word embodies cool detachment. But Vile (his actual surname) is also an American guitar genius, strumming out clear guitar strokes and layering riffs intricately until his multi-faceted composition cycles kinetically like electronic music, yet is as rooted in our American heartland as Springsteen’s Nebraska. Written off as too alien initially, Kurt Vile’s career orbit has gained proximity to his audience with each album. In 2009 he released Childhood Prodigy, which oscillates between the clean-riffed, ad infinitum motorik-boogie of “Freak Train,” to the pensive and cyclical acoustic ruminations on “Blackberry.” This year Vile released Smoke Ring for my Halo, which scraps the previously prevalent effects pedals for deeper and more organic roots. Do I think Vile shouldn’t be missed? Yeah.

— William Hooker

Live Review for American Songwriter: Beach House @ Mercy Lounge, Nashville, 4/28/10

By William Hooker May 5th, 2010 at 8:53 am

Victoria Legrand at The Mercy Lounge (L) [credit: Steve Cross] and the show poster (R)
In 2007, a crowd of two dozen attended Nashville’s last Beach House show where the up and coming buzz band opened the Basement for the Clientele. At the time, the group’s belt barely bolstered a self-titled debut. So it’s praiseworthy that the Baltimore band’s latest jaunt to Music City attracted maximum capacity to the Mercy Lounge. Beach House deserves this credit which is based on the strengths of two subsequent, stronger releases, Devotion and Teen Dream. On the other hand, good for Nashville youth filling the venue, however, at times, watching the audience seemed like witnessing an audition for lead roles in the movie version of Alexander and the Terrible, No Good, Very Bad, Day. Then again, a 6’4” 230 lb audience member attempting to maneuver his self closer to the stage past scrawny, bed-headed shoe gazers inevitably provokes dejected demeanors. C’est la vie…

Speaking of size, the main attraction, French-born female lead singer Victoria Legrand and Baltimore native Alex Scally (joined by a touring drummer), loomed large in front of a fitting set design: four three-foot, tinfoil-tiered octahedrons that reflected magenta and turquoise light, not unlike the set of an Ed Wood alien arena, especially since they wobbled on pole bases at a measly 5 RPM. Beach House remained mostly backlit and Legrand’s viscous, slow-creeping melodies were pretty well personified by these eerie geometries that served as the stage’s primary light source. The band opened with “Walk In The Park,” one of the finer moments on Teen Dream and evidence of Scally’s penchant for sped-down New Order riffs, and reinforced by Legrand’s simple synth poundings. After a few more songs, including “Better Times” and “Norway,” it was becoming increasingly evident that Legrand was winning the dance-off between herself and the audience. Her curly, frizzed hair and head-banging Cousin It impersonation easily outmatched the typical indie-rock crowd posture that is less like Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah and more like Cross My Arms and Say No Thank You.

Beach House’s unique combination of lush, funereal organ and morose, sultry guitar licks converts well to the stage, and detectable was a sense of professional momentum. Where will Nashville’s next Beach House unfold? The Ryman could do a lot worse…

Album Review for American Songwriter: TORO Y MOI > Causers Of This

By William Hooker February 2nd, 2010 at 11:06 am

TORO Y MOI
Causers Of This
(CARPARK)
Rating:
Toro y Moi is the moniker for Columbia, South Carolina-born Chaz Bundick, an African-Fillipino electronic rock musician whose penchant for woozy and amiable synths married to an innocuous although captivating hip hop beat packs his debut: Causers of This. If recent, dizzy-to-the-core songs by artists like Animal Collective, Beach House, Neon Indian or Washed Out don’t eventually make you more spew-likely than sitting bitch in Wayne and Garth’s “Mirth Mobile,” then the swirliness of this release promises to add more welcome glow to your cerebrospinal fluid.

Sonically, the concept behind Toro y Moi is similar to the visual appeal of a Polaroid photograph: by blurring the details, an otherwise mundane scenario can portend meaning, authenticity, and nostalgia; no track in recent memory demonstrates this concept more than first track “Blessa.” Part J-Dilla, part My Bloody Valentine, “Blessa” starts with an intriguing introductory guitar and vocal loop, a casual and experimental warm up with subtle momentum. After an impeccable half-second total fade-out (like a split second of airplane turbulence) the song is reborn concisely with a tight, digital beat and a diamond of a guitar riff: simple, precise, and elegant. Fans of the Polaroid formula might enjoy Causers in its entirety despite Bundick’s inability to glorify the whole chill formula with more than one dose; queasier listeners needn’t listen past the first track.