Newspaper Page Text
JONATHAN WEINER PHOTOGRAPHY
I
MUSIC NEWS AND GOSSIP
Quiet in Front: Andrew Rieger and Laura
Carter, each of Elf Power, will join Scott
Spillane (The Gerbils) as an acoustic trio for
a handful of dates next month opening for
Jeff Mangum (Neutral Milk Hotel). The trio
is performing Elf Power and Gerbils songs
on these dates, which are among the most
highly anticipated shows of the past decade.
They'll play Vermont, Montreal and two shows
in Toronto—all in early August—and then
Elf Power will join the Elephant 6 Holiday
Surprise at the Jeff Mangum-curated All
Tomorrow's Parties in Minehead, Somerset,
England in December. For more information,
please see www.elfpower.com.
I Only Came Here to Eat Grapefruit: The Olivia
Tremor Control dusted off several years of
semi-retirement a couple of weeks ago when it
was announced the psychedelic-pop masters
were not only working on material for a new
album but also touring. The 16-date tour runs
from Aug. 29-September and will hit New
Orleans, Austin, San Francisco, Los Angeles
(FYF Festival), Portland, Seattle, Columbus,
Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, Chicago, Toronto,
Philadelphia, Allston, MA and Durham, NC.
All dates except New Orleans are with The
Music Tapes. Both The Olivia Tremor Control
and Music Tapes will be onstage at the afore
mentioned, and jaw-dropping, All Tomorrow's
Parties with Elf Power and the rest of the
Elephant 6 gang. If you need to remember
when these tour dates are, you can head to
www.oliviatremorcontrol.com and see a list of
them, and only them, there.
Sunday Booking Sunday: Patrick Morales
(The Viking Progress) is in charge of booking
Sunday night shows at the Highwire Lounge
(269 N Hull St.), and he has dubbed these
events "The Evening Service" which, I think,
is a pretty good name. Anyway, this is a new
thing happening at Highwire and it seems to
be going swimmingly. Thus far, all shows have
been free, but this may change in the future.
The space features a small, seven-channel PA
system and three vocal mics. but the room
also doesn't require very much power, so that's
not a bad thing. Sunday nights are fairly bare-
bones in Athens for live music-, so put this
on your radar. If you're a performer or a band
looking to play out and this sounds right for
you, drop a line to Morales via highwirebook-
ing@gmail.com. Keep in mind that not every
type of band will be appropriate for this type
of place (i.e., pretty clean and newly built)
and this size room (i.e., pretty small and oddly
shaped). How about walking down there and
taking a look at it? Sounds like a good idea,
right? Right.
Y Keeping the Hate Flame Burning: Longtime
Athens barnburners Music Hates You have
signed with Los Angeles label Crowded Head
Records. The band has a new album coming
out Aug. 9 titled Where Did All This Dirt Come
From—that's right, no question mark—and
you can preview a bit of it, and preorder it,
too, over at www.crowdedhead-
records.com. There are also songs,
videos and more info covering the
recording sessions over at www.face-
book.com/MusicHatesYou. This band
has gone through at least one major
lineup change over the past several
years, managed to reorganize itself
into a pretty equally powerful band
and has, seemingly, come out on
top. Go give 'em a listen.
Go to the Head of the Class: The
Young Alumni Board of the Terry
College of Business will host a ben
efit concert for The Music Business
Program at UGA at Atlanta's
Buckhead Theatre Friday, Aug. 5.
Featured acts are Athens' Southern
rockers John King Band and
Nashville's super famous Diamond
Rio. This is the first concert under
taking by the Young Alumni Board,
and they hope that future events
will incorporate help from students
of the music business program
itself. Regular tickets are $25 and
VIP tickets—which include a recep
tion before the show, cocktails and
food, a meet-'n'-greet with Diamond
Rio (!) and exclusive VIP seating—
are $100. Tickets are available through the
Buckhead Theatre box office, Ticketmaster and
at www.terry.uga.edu/alumni/terryrocks.
Listen Closer: Athens musician Joe Kubler
has completed his mini-album of what he
describes as "experimental electronic ambi
ence" and, actually, that's right on the mark.
Significantly, though, the record (titled
Loose Muse and credited to Sleeping Friends
Present: Elan Vital) isn't simply a wash of
sound that necessarily settles immediately in
the background. Allowing that ambient sounds
are not automatically quiet or simple, Kubler
uses loops, field recordings, found sounds,
muffled, barely audible vocals and more on
this record. I'd recommend first listening to
this alone at home, then taking it in the car,
and then putting it in the stereo or your por
table player. See how many different ways you
can hear these sounds. I'm still trying them
on, myself. You can, too, over at www.sleep-
ingfriends.bandcamp.com. The whole album
is streaming there and can be purchased for a
mere $4.
Gordon Lamb threatsandpromises@flagpole com
Music Hates You
en Vandermark and Chicago are very
much two of a kind. The city itself is
both historically tough and musically
historic; Vandermark, for his part,
speaks knowledgeably regarding all strains of
sound with the calm severity of an off-duty
drill sergeant. His music is no less deliberate.
Since the early '90s, the composer/saxophon
ist/clarinetist has been forcibly melding all
manners of jazz, modern classical and funk,
all with an attitude and precision that might
typically be associated with the post-punks
Chicago is also known for.
When Flagpole contacted Vandermark, he'd
just wrapped up a week of work on the sound
track to the forthcoming film Parallax Sounds,
a love letter to the Chicago music community
by Italian director Augusto Contento. Asked
about a specific "Chicago sound" and whether
or not improvisers of a single community
work within a singular style, he says, "I think
there's some validity to that idea, because the
people working in a certain city are going to
run into each other and play with each other
and be influenced by each other. But I would
also say that things are defined more by indi
viduals. So, I don't think there's a Chicago
sound so to speak; there's too much diversity."
The twin themes of individuality and diver
sity run thick through Vandermark's catalogue.
Even within a single album—for instance,
Clements of Style... Exercises in Surprise, his
2004 release with his epochal group the
Vandermark Five—his compositions, while
always tight and utterly controlled, careen
between JB's-style groove, confident post
bop and alternately spasmodic/grim extended
technique, often within the same number. It's
not even that limited in scope, but it is all
significantly unique: each song is an instant
announcement of Vandermark's presence.
For this relatively intimate appearance
in Athens, Vandermark will be joined by the
drummer featured on that aforementioned
album, Tim Daisy. Like one of his heroes,
Sonny Rollins, Vandermark emphasizes rhyth
mic inventiveness and, thus, highly values the
role of a drummer in any scenario.
"The drummer in a group is the pivotal
figure in the band for me, whether it's in a
duo context or a 10-piece ensemble," he says.
A fellow Chicagoan, Daisy's individualistic
approach has led to an extensive running col
laboration between the two.
"Because he has a very personal way
of playing the drums, [that] helps define
the choices I make when we've improvising
together," Vandermark says. "And because we
know each other really well, communication
is at a very high level. So, once we arrive
at things that work, we tend to push them
really far and try to take chances with it and
push things to an edge. Sometimes they fail
because we push them so hard, but that's
what the music's about: taking chances, deal
ing with the issues of risk and surprise. And
Tim gets that 100 percent."
As a fellow composer with a background
that focuses on both traditional and "out" jazz
as well as the more radical ideas represented
in contemporary classical music, Daisy is well-
paired with Vandermark's aesthetic.
The two-week tour that brings Vandermark
and Daisy to Athens is a rare set of dates, in
that they all remain within the same national
borders; his more typical workweek keeps
him in far-flung territory. "I'm probably on
tour seven months a year, maybe more,"
Vandermark says. "I'm not 100 percent sure
because I don't really keep track of it specifi
cally, but I'm in Europe probably seven months
out of the year, and I work in the States as
well. And things are just constantly overlap
ping and piling up."
Just last month, for example, Vandermark
went from touring in Portugal with artists
from all over the world, then back to Chicago
to briefly work on the soundtrack—all before
a European tour with Dutch punk act The Ex.
"There is stuff going on all the time, so
it's pretty hard for me to keep track of exactly
how many concerts or exactly [what consti
tutes] the typical thing. The typical thing is
hyper-busy," he says. "Which is great—it's a
fantastic thing to be able to work in a field
of music and art that is uncommercial and is
based on trying to do creative work, and to
make a living at it is unbelievably fortunate.
I work hard, but all the people I know work
really hard, too, so the fact that I can pay my
rent and do the work I really want to do and
nothing else is unbelievable. I'm always very
thankful for it."
Jeff Tobias
( V
WHO: Ken Vandermark Duo,
Pocketful of Claptonite
WHERE: Cine
WHEN: Friday, July 29,8:30 p.m.
HOW MUCH: $7
V. )
12 FLAGPOLE.COM-JULY 27. 2011
BETTINA ESCAURIZA
