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PHOTO BY SEAN MtDEVITT
WHO: Elf Power,
Sateen Duralux
WHERE 40 Watt Club
WHEN. Friday, March 5
HOW MUCH: $5
outside of town," Rieger recalls with a satisfied
grin. "We actually only left the house twice in two
weeks. We were totally isolated."
Also living in Fredonia was producer Dave
Fridmann, who has worked with Mercury Rev and
The Flaming Lips. "He had lots of cool toys — lots
of organs and keyboards and slide guitars and
stuff," Rieger says. "The Flaming Lips had left a
bunch of their stuff there so we used a lot of that
We would record every day from noon until mid
night and then Dave would go home. Sometimes
he would leave the machines going so we'd record
until like five o'clock in the morning."
The environment seems to have helped. Where
Elf Power's first CD When The Red King Comes laid
the groundwork for their psychedelic wanderings,
a house just outside of
ICI C J Fredonia where Bengal tigers
parade past the bedroom doors, portals to a dis
tant utopia can be found in the kitchen and giant
birds with chocolate-bar heads perch on the backs
of chairs. It's a house just south of Lake Erie in
New York, but don't bother trying to see any of
this if you're there. You aren't Andrew Rieger,
singer and guitarist for the local fantasy troupe Elf
Power. You'd probably just see some secluded
structure and complain about the cold. Rieger, on
the other hand, saw the perfect place to lay down
the tracks for Elf Power's upcoming release A
Dream in Sound.
"It was this little place out in the middle of
nowhere, down this little dirt road about 10 miles
A Dream In Sound finds the band
more cohesive and comfortable than
they have been in the past While not
adhering to a specific theme like Red
King, the new songs piece together a
kaleidoscope of dream images that is
sweet to the ear in its own peculiar
right Like Red King, though, this
record is more a carefully crafted
group of delicacies than the rollicking
punk of an Elf Power live show.
"It's not particularly rocking,"
Rieger says. "There's some more
upbeat numbers I guess, but our
recordings tend to be more mellow
and more subtle. When you play live
sometimes it's fun to rock out and
play a punk rock song. But when
you're recording, stepping on the dis
tortion pedal isn't as much fun. There
aren't as many possibilities."
This may be a disappointment to
some, but the band has a treat for
those who don't have the attention
span to sift through the nuances of
some of the slower stuff.
"We're also doing this EP of cover
songs and that's definitely got some
rock on it. We did a T Rex song... a
Jesus and Mary Chain song and Sonic
Youth's 'Cotton Crown.' There's a
techno remix of one of our older
songs too that Dan (Donahue) did on
his computer. I guess we can't really take credit
for that one, but it sounds pretty good."
This EP will only be available at the band's
shows. The sonic tour of Fredonia, A Dream in
Sound, will be in stores March 23.
Travis Nichols
T1 QQC after s P en( i in 9 intensive
•Lll 1-/0 time studying guitar with
King Crimson founder and six string technical
wiz Robert Fnpp, Breathlanes guitarist John
Miley changed his tune.
Or tuning, rather Fnpp discovered a sort of
new musical continent with his low-C empha
sized tuning CGDAEG. More importantly, the
tuning creates what Miley describes as a "beau
tiful cello-like tone."
It's this tuning and the doors it's opened that
have led to Miley s solo tape-loop projects, his
duo work with drummer Jaime DeRevere'and his
current project Breathlanes, a group containing
DeReveie. vocalist Elissa Hadley and often,
bassist Dave Domizi horn The Fuzzy Sprouts. The
four create space and rely not so much on meter,
but on group interplay, to create a sound at
once ethereal and modally dramatic.
Ehssa's voice and suggestive lyricism, the
elasticity of DeRevere's drumming and Miley s
guitar work — in which the busy, cold and tur
bulent head of Fnpp is applied to a more open-
ended, heartfelt calm — create less of a down
beat-influenced pounce and more of a sense of
rhythms implied, rhythms feigned.
Needless to say, it sounds not quite like any
thing else happening in town. Much of their
non-A/4 habit can be attributed to De Revere, a
drummer Miley descnbes as "completely into free
jazz, a good listener and very dynamic. He can
pat his kit or make it roar — and he rarely plays
on the downbeat, but around it."
But it's also EUssa's vocals — boundless in
range, but extremely comfortable with the
Frippian modal emphasi r — that cap off the cur
rent sound. She met Miley when he opened for
Tori Amos some years ago at the Fme Arts
Auditorium. Amazed with his playing, she tried,
unsuccessfully, to find out who he- was. Later,
she described the great guitarist she saw to
Miley.
"Thanks," he said. From there, it seemed nat
ural that she join Miley and DeRevere on stage.
The loose collective morphed into a trio about
three and a half years ago. For the last year, as
often as porsible, they've fattened into a quartet
with Domizi — a situation both Miley and
Hadley admit has spoiled them.
For the past year or so, Breathlanes perfor
mances have also been accompanied by the work
of local filmmaker Coleman McCord. His visuals
can be seen enhancing the music at any of the
bands' performances upstairs at The Globe.
As often as the Breathlanes have been
described as breathy, calm, or sleep-inducng
(positively), there is another side to the band.
Because of Miley and DeRevere's interest in
improvisation and effects, the desire to plunge
unto full d’storto-thrust can and does propel
them into choppier waters. Their upcoming CD,
as well as any of their gigs, bears this out. Look
for their appearance at the Athens-Clarke Co.
Library this Sunday, March 7, followed by the
next night's appearance (with Domizi) at Tasty
World. To witness McCord's filmed visual addi
tions, check out the group's next Globe perfor
mance on March 20.
Bruce Miller
WHO: Breathlanes,
Sjarah's Greatest Fan, -Eli •. 5
WHERE Tasty World
WHEN Monday, March 8.
HOW MUCH Call
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MARCH 3, 1999