Filed under: Chicago, Magazine, Music, Review, SHEER | Tags: Carl Newman, Chicago, Concert, Dan Bejar, Destroyer, Kathryn Calder, Magazine, Music, Neko Case, Review, SHEER, The Immaculate Machine, The New Pornographers
Date: 2005.10.20
Artists: The New Pornographers | Destroyer | The Immaculate Machine
Venue: Metro
Location: 3730 N. Clark St. | Chicago, Illinois
Time: Doors: 8:00 P.M. | Show: 9:00 P.M.
Type: 18+
Anybody who either 1) has been to more than a few shows in Chicago that are not meant for ‘all ages,’ or 2) enjoys somewhat disturbing, off-the-wall poetry probably knows who Thax Douglas is. And anybody who knows who Thax Douglas is knows that when he opens a show, it will be a good show.
The aging poet from Chicago took to the Metro stage on Thursday night to introduce Dan Bejar’s group, Destroyer, to scattered applause and glances of confusion from the Twin Cinema crowd. You know them; they were the ones singing “Float On” at the last Modest Mouse concert and nothing else.
A still sober Bejar led his group through a powerful set that was second in the New Pornographers marathon event. The indie-rock triad The Immaculate Machine set the bar for the night by playing first, but when lead singer and keyboardist Kathryn Calder — who also happens to be the niece of Carl Newman — joined Bejar with six other members of the cult-family style Canadian supergroup that bar was easily surpassed.
Opening with “Twin Cinema,” the first single from their third LP, and “The Bones Of An Idol” it looked as though the band was set to play through their latest track list but, with much support from fans from the 2000 debut Mass Romantic, Carl Newman and Neko Case led the team through old favorites “Slow Descent Into Alcoholism,” “Letter From An Occupant,” and others.
Newman suggested that audience members suggest songs they wanted to hear but then mocked them when those with audible voices recommended the famous hits; You wouldn’t go to an R.E.M. concert and tell them to play “Losing My Religion,” he said. By the end of the night, predetermined set list or not, everyone was satisfied and all of the major radio hits had been covered as well as the more obscure fan favorites.
There has been much debate as to who is the figurehead of the group: Neko Case or Carl Newman. Both have recorded what is now recognized solo work and both have played with groups outside of The New Pornographers: The Sadies and Zumpano. Either way, the crowd loved both. They also loved the now plastered Dan Bejar that stumbled onstage for his signature pieces. They loved everything, really, all the way up through the end of the second encore set.
- Originally published: SHEER 2005.10.21
Filed under: Chicago, Magazine, Music, Northwestern University, PLAY | Tags: Black Earth Strings, Chicago, David Boykin Expanse, Douglas R. Ewart, Jason Ajemian, Jazz, Josh Abrams, Marcus Evans, Mike Corsa, Music, Nicole Mitchell, Northwestern University, WNUR
I believe that music has the power to inspire, nurture and transform one’s perspective, and that’s what I try to do with my music,” says Nicole Mitchell, one of the artists to grace this year’s WNUR Chicago Sounds Jazzfest. “Music is a spiritual path towards self-actualization.”
Mitchell, a Chicago native and internationally celebrated jazz flutist, played with the David Boykin Expanse at the festival in 2001 and again last year with the Nicole Mitchell Trio – Josh Abrams and Marcus Evans made up the other parts of the group.
“I’m honored to be invited again to the festival,” Mitchell writes in an e-mail interview. “And this year I will bring my group Black Earth Strings.”
Many musicians believe there is a correlation between their music, personal expression and identity. Mike Corsa, a Weinberg senior and the general manager for WNUR, presented the best explanation for this relationship.
“Improvised music is, in its essence, about spontaneously transforming one’s personal, private emotions into sounds emitted from one’s instrument – and communicating feelings to the listener through these sounds that could be presented no other way,” Corsa says. “No other kind of music is more perfect for this task than improvised music, since the performer doesn’t have to be confined or restricted by a pre-composed score. Everything that the listener hears is coming straight from the musician’s soul.”
WNUR is one of the only places in the area and one of few across the country that tries to bring this creative force to the people on a mass scale. It’s no secret that the campus radio station, on the whole, has the goal of exposing its audience to original music that’s otherwise unable to get time on the air.
“WNUR has a great relationship with local musicians. There aren’t enough radio stations or festivals that regularly support creative music,” says Mitchell, who has performed at the Moscow Jazz Festival, the Nouve Forme Festival in Verona, Italy, and other high-profile events. The jazz show at WNUR, in particular, “is extremely devoted to the Chicago jazz community,” Corsa says. “We play the music, we announce the shows, we do interviews, we have live performances, we give away tickets and CDs, we do whatever we can to support and promote the music we love so much.”
While the jazz show places special emphasis on local artists, Swiss native Charlotte Hug, the opening act for Mitchell, will play in Chicago for the first time. In an e-mail interview Hug writes, “For the Chicago scene I am enormously curious.”
Knowing she wanted to make music for the rest of her life, Hug took 10 years of viola lessons from her grandfather as a child and has since grown to become a celebrated jazz musician who has also studied visual art. Combining her interests, Hug says she finds inspiration for her artistic work by “being awake and curious – by reading literature, seeing films (and) being in nature: in the mountains or in different urban or emotional spaces.”
Hug embodies the free spirit that others involved in the festival associate with jazz. One example is her pursuit of abnormal locations to record and perform that “are distinct from the conventional concert hall” and enhance her music by adding visual, acoustic and emotional elements that are not present otherwise.
Hug’s previous performances have taken place in the caverns of the Rhone Glacier, the source of the river of the same name, located in the Gletsch valley of Switzerland; a claustrophobic sado-masochistic torture chamber in the red light district of Zurich; and in the underground passageways of a 250-year-old prison in London.
Other musicians on the line-up have not, to the best of my knowledge, performed in subterranean dungeons in foreign countries, but they are creative and distinguished artists nonetheless.
The headlining act, Douglas R. Ewart, though born and raised in Jamaica, has become a major force in Chicago music. As former president of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and teacher for the organization, Ewart is a renowned instructor who has taught workshops at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Contemporary Art Center in New Orleans and numerous other renowned institutions. He says the instruction he provides his students “reaffirms their belief in themselves.
Opening act Jason Ajemian writes off his influence on the local scene with a shrug: “If they think I’m hip, that’s cool I guess.”
The fifth annual Chicago Sounds Jazzfest, hosted by Northwestern’s own WNUR-FM (89.3), will be held this Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Wallis Theatre. Tickets cost $8 for the public, with a $3 discount for students.
Filed under: Interview, Magazine, Music, SHEER | Tags: Anthony David, Elliott Smith, Expunged Records, Interview, Josh Hodges, Magazine, Music, Pitchfork Media, Portland, SHEER
NICHOLAS JACKSON: Anthony, first off, let me thank you for taking some time out of your schedule to answer a few questions for me concerning both your label, Expunged Records, and your upcoming tribute release for Elliott Smith. To begin, I don’t know much about Expunged Records but noticed that Pitchfork Media labeled you ‘fledgling.’ I figured this would be a good time for your own plug and for me to ask, what exactly does fledgling mean and did you ever get a chance to work with Smith before his death two years ago?
ANTHONY DAVIS: Expunged released one other album last year, Josh Hodges’ Sexton Blake. The album got a great critical response but isn’t known very well outside of Portland. It’s available through CD Baby (www.cdbaby.com/cd/joshhodges). I’m a music attorney, and I got Josh’s demo from a friend, and loved it so much I started the label just to put it out. It’s an amazing album. Josh actually gets compared to Elliott Smith a lot, although I’m not sure that’s a particularly accurate comparison. Josh’s band, Sexton Blake, will probably come out with another album this Spring, and hopefully they’ll play enough outside of the Northwest to get a bit more national attention. I never worked with Elliott before his death, the label started about 10 months after.
NJ: What made you want to release a tribute album and can you name any tribute albums that actually turned out fairly decent? My mind keeps wandering to downfalls such as Here, There & Everywhere, London Burning, and Return Of The Grievous Angel. It never seems as if the artists who want to rerecord the music of their predecessors and inspiration can live up to the challenge.
AD: Elliott is my favorite singer/songwriter. We went to high school in the same district. We have a lot of mutual friends. He had already moved away by the time I moved back to Portland, so I never got to hang out with him. But I have always admired him. One of the reasons his songs appeal to me are the constant references to Portland (which is where I was born and raised). The thought of a tribute came to me one day when I was talking to Josh Hodges about maybe doing a cover on his album. I couldn’t believe that no one was doing a tribute album to Elliott. He has so much amazing material. It seemed fitting for the tribute to come from his home town. Plus Portland has so many amazing bands. It all just made sense.
NJ: Speaking of which, most of the bands on this compilation don’t usually give credit to Smith as inspiration but rather are simply bands from the same area and whose music slightly resembles that of their superior. How did the process of choosing the bands for this compilation work?
AD: I picked people whom I thought would do tributes befitting Elliott Smith. Many of the people who worked on the album knew Elliott. A few played with him on tour or in other bands. Tony Lash (who’s mastering) was in Heatmiser with Elliott. I just tried to pick people who would do a great job, and everyone has. The album is completely amazing. I’m very proud of it.
NJ: If this compilation fails, after already receiving some coverage from Billboard and indie-music heavy-hitter Pitchfork, your label will go under some scrutiny for letting down the fans of who is oft considered the figurehead of indie-rock. How do you anticipate the public’s acceptance of this compilation?
AD: I’m one of his biggest fans, and I’ve been listening to the roughs for a month straight. I can’t imagine how anyone would be disappointed in the tribute. I think it’s frighteningly good. I hope everyone likes it, but it would be worth it to me just to have my own copy. Everyone does Elliott proud. Everyone does Portland proud. I spoke with Jennifer Chiba, Elliott’s girlfriend, and let her listen to a few tracks. She said she thought Elliott would be honored, and would be really excited that Sean was doing the unreleased track. That’s all I really needed to hear. The rest is gravy.
NJ: I think everyone is most looking forward to hearing Elliott’s old roommate, Sean Croghan’s version of “High Times,” a previously unreleased Smith song. Can you speak a bit about that piece and anything else you feel is special about this album?
AD: Sean is doing an amazing job on that track. He’s still working on it to make it perfect. He really cares a lot about the track. It will be everyone’s first chance to hear the song. Sean was one of Elliott’s best friends, and so his track is particularly special. It’s hard to pick the standouts. Everything is great. I think everyone will love the Decemberists’ version of “Clementine.” A few ones that vary greatly from the originals are Dolorean’s version of “The Biggest Lie” and, of course, Lifesavas’ version of “Happiness.” But I like every song. I couldn’t be more proud of the project.
NJ: How much direct involvement did you have with this project?
AD: I had a bit of direct involvement. I’m sure some of the artists would say too much. But for the most part I gave the artist’s free reign. I hand picked the bands, and suggested some songs that I thought would be fitting, but left it up to them. The general design for the artwork was my idea too. I worked with a local artist, Ryan Dobrowski, who did a great job materializing my vision.
NJ: Did the remaining family and friends of Elliott have any input? If so, who was involved and in what ways?
AD: I spoke with Jennifer Chiba to get her opinion, and have been in contact with Elliott’s estate, but they didn’t have any real input. I also spoke a lot with Alex Steininger, who was a friend of Elliott’s and has his own label, about who he thought would be good and let Alex and Sean listen to tracks as they came in to get their opinion.
NJ: Because Expunged Records is still an up-and-coming record label that doesn’t have much experience with either Smith or indie-rock I imagine some critics will write this effort off as a perfect example of the nationwide tradition to buy in to American capitalist society. What do you have to say to those who feel this is simply a way for your company to make it into the public eye and gain exposure by exploiting the deceased?
AD: I am doing this as a passion project. I love Elliott. I love Portland. I’m giving 10% of the proceeds to charity. I’m giving the artists a 50/50 deal. I’m paying full mechanicals on the album, so the Estate benefits as much as possible. It would be great if the artists who worked so hard, and created a great album, got something on the backend, but that’s neither their goal nor my goal. I don’t expect to pay the bills being an indie record label. I’m a music lawyer — that’s what keeps the lights on. I’m doing the label because it’s personally satisfying.
NJ: Finally, can you give my readers some idea as to Expunged Records future plans?
AD: Just depends. I would like to put out another Sexton Blake album this Spring, if they are into it and can tour. If I hear someone that I really want to be heard by more people, I may sign them. I don’t really plan to make the record label thing my main pursuit. If something is appealing I’ll consider it. If this tribute album is Expunged Records’ last release, I’ll be completely happy. I’ll have released two amazing albums. We’ll have went out on top, and had a lot of fun doing it.
- Originally published: SHEER 2005.10.12
