Songlines Podcast: Neko Case
Wednesday February 25th 2009, 2:59 pm
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MelanieNeko Case returns triumphantly with her sixth album, Middle Cyclone, which hits stores next week. A bit of a nomad, Case has lived in Vancouver, Chicago, the Seattle area, Tucson, and Vermont, and the players she’s assembled here are a testimony to the ease with which she’s befriended like-minded individuals in those locations. Her regular band features vocalist Kelly Hogan, multi-instrumentalist Jon Rauhouse, guitarist Paul Rigby, bassist Tom V. Ray, and drummer Barry Mirochnick; M. Ward, Garth Hudson, Sarah Harmer, members of The New Pornographers, Los Lobos, Calexico, The Sadies, Visqueen, The Lilys, and Giant Sand also guest here. Julia Clarke will bring you up to speed on the album’s sonic landscape in this Songlines podcast.
Neko Case podcast [4:56m]:
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New York Times Magazine did a fantastic feature on Case recently that really captures her spirit. Check it out; it’s well worth the time.
The Naming of Things
Thursday February 12th 2009, 5:30 pm
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JuliaAndrew Bird at Carnegie Hall: classically trained violin prodigy meets former home of the New York Philharmonic, famed for its acoustics and architectural beauty. Perhaps this performer’s perceptible wonderment at arriving on such a celebrated stage seems a little farfetched? But then again, Bird’s 15-year journey here has not taken him through the recital halls and orchestra pits usually forecast by a Northwestern performance degree; rather, he’s bent his branches toward more eclectic tendencies and venues — colorful New Orleans jazz clubs, kids’ shows on educational TV networks, and Austin BBQ joints during SXSW. Indeed, the warm-up sessions for his current tour in support of the new album Noble Beast were held in a working-class bar in the industrial section of his hometown of Chicago.
And perhaps that’s why, in the plush and ornate setting of Carnegie Hall, Bird cannot resist taking the first seven minutes of his set to guide us on a solo improvisational exploration of violin, vocals, and whistling with his faithful looping machine before unleashing the finished sample on us through two whirling, orange gramophone-shaped speakers. (I know no name for them but suspect Bird would create a fancifully creative one. Siamese gramophone?) In a manner befitting a Carnegie Hall patron, he politely thanks us for indulging him, and then, in a manner befitting Andrew Bird, he goes on to prove that everything — whether it be pop, jazz, opera and Appalachian folk — sounds good in Carnegie Hall.
Bird’s cheer on stage is as palpable as it is surprising to those who have listened to Noble Beast, in which heady themes of destruction prevail through ecological references, mathematical equations, and dexterous wordplay. Physically gaunt and quiet by nature when not performing, you get the feeling that a sense of impending doom is innate in Bird. But you also get the impression of scholarliness, as if perhaps he sat down and read a biology textbook and The Merriam-Webster English Dictionary before writing this album (words like “plecostomus,” “radiolarians,” and “nomenclature” abound). That’s not to say Bird is laboriously reciting ecosystems and food chains. He recently told the New York Times that he’s more compelled by the sounds of words than by their meanings, and tonight he explains: “I’m not interested in science. Well, I am interested in science. Just not exact science.â€
Once the band (Martin Dosh, Michael Lewis and Jeremy Ylvisaker) steps on stage, they launch into a magnificent set which covers almost the entire album (sole exception: “Privateersâ€) beginning with the apocalyptic “Natural Disaster,†which finds Bird confronting environmental devastation (kittens with pleurisy, wolves with lung cancer) with a trademark delicacy that mirrors the perceived fragility of planet earth. Oddly, the opulent setting only emphasizes the portentous imagery which continues for the next three songs: “Masterswarm,†a swirly dreamscape that explores his fascination with early jazz, and covers yet more disaster involving fossils and extraordinary parasites; the postmortem arrangements he establishes for himself in “Effigyâ€; and “Tenuousness,†in which Bird outlines the questionable and indifferent nature of society itself (procreate and pay your taxes).Bird seems to have struck the perfect balance between the mild precision of performing as a solo multi-instrumentalist and the grandiosity of having a full band. Dosh and company fill out each composition with percussion, guitar, bass and sax, allowing Bird the freedom to flit between violin, guitar, glockenspiel, almost operatic singing and unparalleled whistling with a deftness that leads my friend to describe him as “a human Swiss Army knife.” The second half of the set becomes a little less fire-and-brimstone with “Not a Robot, But a Ghost” (a breakup song that isn’t really a breakup song), “Nomenclature,†a study on the deterioration of language, and “Fitz and the Dizzyspells,†which actually gets folks to their feet to dance (something I suspect doesn’t happen every night here).
By the end, humanity prevails over science. Bird shares that his parents are in attendance, and mines his pastoral roots, revealing that the line “wild parsnips, they still scald my lungs†from “Souverian†was borne of a childhood image of his father riding a tractor in rural Illinois. (Apparently, plowing into a patch of wild parsnips and inhaling the dust can indeed induce respiratory discomfort.) For his encore, the metropolitan setting truly gives way to the rustic, with a transmutation of the Shelton Brooks standard “Some of These Days†into an acoustic Appalachian dream.
–Julia Clarke
**Shining Heads Poll 2008-Results!**
Happy 2009! Happy Obama! We know that you all share in our hopes for progress and stability in the coming year, and we’re glad to be working with all of you to make our little corner of the world a better place to live and work in.
As always, it’s been loads of fun to read everyone’s response to the annual Shining Heads Poll. Thanks again to all who took the time to fill it out, and to those who made suggestions for future improvements. We hope you have a great time digging into this summary of results. Profuse apologies for taking so long to get this one posted — I actually finished the write-up the day before I moved to Pittsburgh, but some technical difficulties led to it getting erased. I tackled it again as soon as I got settled here, and hope that what we have to offer meets your standards for viewing pleasure.
Below, you’ll find a link that’ll take you to the complete results for each question, with eye-catching graphs and charts where appropriate. We do recommend that you take a look at the link; you’ll get dozens of tips about great books your peers read this year, blogs to add to your RSS, and get to see the complete list of suggestions for names for my baby, which are hilarious. And of course, you don’t want to miss out on the chance to find out whether anyone wants to sleep with you. But first, we’ll sum up some highlights here.
A whopping 17 of us were hoping to see Michael Franti & Spearhead play at the Inauguration festivities, while Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Stevie Wonder, TV on the Radio, and U2 also got lots of votes. Other inspired choices included Grandmaster Flash, Ben Sollee, Gil Scott-Heron, James McMurtry, Mavis Staples, The Hold Steady, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, and Sir Mix-a-Lot. Most respondents elected to bring along their significant others or their kids for the historic day, but some had other ideas: William Ayers, Sarah Palin, “my coke dealer,” Tina Fey, “a bulletproof vest,” and Maureen Dowd (bow-chicka-bow-ow). And by the way, fifty-nine percent of us cried on election night. Incidentally, Jen Daunt, Julia Clarke and Keith Coes finished in almost a dead heat to make the best White House bartender for Obama. At least for these three, it appears that future employment prospects are secure despite the ever-present uncertainty in our industry.
The fill-in-the-blank: “In the yearbook of life, you’ll be most likely to…” yielded some terrific responses. Some of our favorites were:
…ignore my guidance counselor and go into radio!
…do whatever the fuck I want.
…have seen it coming.
…be omitted?
…not win the lottery.
…go bald.
…please.
…show up.
…give a shit.
…land on my feet, without spilling my drink.
…make you a mixtape.
…sleep with a rock star.
…host the best, least-listened-to specialty show on the planet!
Fifteen of you correctly predicted that the Pittsburgh Steelers would win this year’s Super Bowl, and you’re all my new best friends. Only the New York Giants got more votes, with 17. Let this be a warning not to fall for next year’s inevitable “the NFC East is the toughest division in football” season-long hype. Incidentally, only one respondent was brave enough to select the runner-up Arizona Cardinals to win the big game.
The “Triple A Trivia” questions were popular, and stumped many. James Evans and Chris Herrmann were the real college roommates, a fact which was correctly sussed by 26% of you. However, all the other potential pairings fooled at least 14% of the voting public, with Nick Bedding and Nic Harcourt checking in as the least likely to have worked out a sock-on-the-door system. Norm Winer and Ray Gmeiner are indeed not cousins, which 56% of you got right, but the three other pairs of blood relatives (Rob Lipshutz and Phil Roy, Sean Coakley and Matt Hickey, and Jeff Raspe and Jesse Malin) hornswoggled the other 44% of you. It’s true that Joe Mauer went to Dan Connelly’s high school, which seemed most probable to 38 respondents, while 53 poll-takers were fooled by one of the other choices. And though Dave Herold does not work at the Mustang Ranch on weekends — which was most commonly guessed — almost as many of you couldn’t believe that Sean Coakley had spent two months in the Swat Valley in Pakistan, or that Mark Abuzzahab is an ordained minister and married Julia Clarke’s parents, both of which are 100% true.
A whopping 67% of you still think that stovetop cooking is ideal for bacon, while only 10% have discovered the joys of the oven. Throw it on a cooking rack for 15 minutes at 350, people. Your patience will be rewarded.
While most of you get your exercise in one of the ways we suggested, others followed more creative pursuits. Many offered up some variation of “sex” or “with a bottle of baby oil and porn,” while others manage to work it in on the job, burning calories while “running to the control room to fix the equipment,” “standing at shows and bobbing my head,” “responding to bullshit emails,” “running to the phone to talk to Julia,” and “verbally sparring with Sean.” A few lucky ducks even got to pick things like “snowboarding” and “running all over Austin at SXSW!” You major-market and Colorado Triple As are the envy of us all.
Here were some funny Facebook groups that a few of you joined this year:
I Have More Foreign Policy Experience Than Sarah Palin
When I Was Your Age, Pluto Was a Planet
Detroit Can Kick Your Ass
If 500 People Join This Group I Will Get a Mohawk
U2 topped the list of musical heroes expected to return to form with a mind-blowing masterpiece this year. Others anticipated great new albums by Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson, Los Lobos, Marshall Crenshaw, Dave Matthews Band, Pearl Jam, David Bowie, and Prince. Some jokers less popular than Heath Ledger thought they might hear stunning comebacks by Bobby Brown, Foghat, Donny and Marie Osmond, MC Hammer, Meat Loaf, Jimi Hendrix, and El DeBarge.
It’s no surprise that this loyal group of radio devotees chose NPR most often as a top source for news. Cable news channels, The Daily Show, and The New York Times were also popular.
The highest number of you counted the Songlines podcast as your favorite (thanks!), with This American Life coming in at a close second. Other podcasts that more than one of your colleagues recommended were Sound Opinions, The Current’s Musicheads, Wait Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me!, and WNRN’s C-ville podcast.
When we asked about your most unusual desert island disc selections, many people selected records they’d want to sing along with at the top of their lungs, and scads of others opted for albums over which they felt a sense of “ownership” (we all love those great records that no one else seems to know about). Here’s a smattering of some other interesting responses:
*The worst Miles Davis record, whatever it may be. I just don’t get his music. He’s in my aesthetic blind spot, but with enough time, surely I’d come around.
*Glenn Miller Band Swing Hits. It reminds me of my parents; my father was a big band drummer.
*If I were actually stuck on a desert island I would want the blue cassette of Peanuts/Flashdance-related songs I had when I was 8. It was called FlashBeagle, and it would probably make me feel better about my being stuck/islanded.
*My best of 2003 mix. I just re-discovered it, and it’s awesome!
*Pooh Sticks, The Great White Wonder, because it is a near perfect pop record despite the fact that it sold about 14 copies worldwide!
*Peter Gabriel, Secret World Live, because I can act out the whole production on stage at the same time.
*I’d have to have John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme with me. If I was stranded on a desert island, this would definitely chill me out about the whole fucked up situation.
*Barbara Keith’s solo release. She made one record for Reprise in 1972 and disappeared for a few decades until Elmore Leonard brought her back as the house band (Stone Coyotes) in his Shorty series. This record featured members of Little Feat and other great session players; it will always be one of my favorite albums of all time.
*An Ultra-Lounge compilation, because it would go excellently well with the smuggled bottle of rum I’d be drinking from half-coconuts.
Alejandro Escovedo and My Morning Jacket tied for most responses in the “best album 2008″ category. Other albums from this year that got multiple mentions for topping top 10 lists were those by Fleet Foxes, TV on the Radio, Bon Iver, Vampire Weekend, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Death Cab for Cutie, Jessica Lea Mayfield, Raconteurs, The Wood Brothers, Coldplay, Radiohead, James McMurtry, Kings of Leon, Amos Lee, and Jenny Lewis.
And finally, here were our favorite photo captions:
“Hard to believe it’s the Wednesday evening cocktail party.”
“We’re going to pout until God gives Nick his pupils back.”
“Auditions for Zoolander 2″ / “Blue Steel in Action” / “Zoolander: SVU”
“Would you look at my lips from kissing all this ass?”
“The Baldwin Brothers celebrate 30 Rock’s Golden Globe nomination.”
“The few. The proud. The genetically superior tongue twirlers…”
“Only 12% of all promotions people can do this.”
“What happens in the port-a-potty stays in the port-a-potty . . . unless of course you have a camera.”
“Dammit, is this guy my angel or my devil?”
“Too much herb for the Rev makes him think that someone is looking over his shoulder.”
“Doctors just told us they can perform the operation after we’ve been alcohol-free for twelve months!”
“The Obama/Biden postage stamp, circa 2035.”
“I put on a gruff exterior when he makes these puppy-dog eyes at me, but on the inside, I’m melting.”
“I’m not that kind of Reverend.”
Here’s the link to the complete results, where you’ll find pie charts for the pick ‘ems, all responses for fill-in-the-blanks, and much, much more…
–Melanie Shrawder
