Lightning Bolt
Words | 13/04/2004 at 14:01:28
Read my review of their recent, awesome ICA show at <a href="http://www.drownedinsound.com/articles/9380">Drowned in Sound</a>.
Jackie-O Motherfucker
Words | 13/04/2004 at 14:01:14
Jackie-O Motherfucker, live at the ICA 24/03/04. Read my review at
<a href="http://www.angryape.com/reviews/306">AngryApe</a>.
22/03/04 - Hella. Needles.
Words | 26/03/2004 at 15:35:44
I grew up in Southern California. It used to bother me that Northern Cali was considered the cultural half of our state and that somehow we were inferior - the embarrassing relative that somehow made too much money, so that you couldn't ignore it exactly, but you sure wished it would shut up. I felt pride in where I lived and where I was from. Dammit. I loved LA. And I loathed kids from the Bay Area and beyond on principle. Too cool for school. And their slang killed me. Especially the word 'hella'. "Wow, that's hella cool!" "Man, that guy was hella fine!" "Shit, it's hella cold out!" It used to drive me mad when I heard it. AARGH. That kind of mad. And just when I thought I was reformed and that, nearly 4 years now living in London, I could forget my old beef - here come two guys from Sacremento. A band called Hella. Those mother bitches. And you know what? Their gig on Monday night just blew me away.
Now, in this post-White Stripes world we live in, even my dad embraces the idea that a guitarist and a drummer can make a complete band. It doesn't seem too crazy or anything. But this band IS crazy. You see, Hella are a two-piece metal band. A relentless, technically superb, quick-as-lightning, two-piece metal band. Seriously. You have never seen musicians this accomplished. Zach Hill is probably the best drummer you'll ever have the chance to watch. His playing is so tight and so fast it is literally breathtaking. It's actually hard to believe that a human being can play with such speed and precision. The same can be said for Spencer Seim's guitar playing - these kids have practiced long and hard to get this good and this together. And structurally, they complement each other absolutely perfectly. Zach's machine-gun fills and rolls support Spencer's schizophrenic guitar breakdowns. And then they switch over and the guitarist's chugging riffs lay the groundwork for the stuttering, manic drums.
Hella are rather like Lightning Bolt, except less straightforwardly melodic. Their songs twist and turn away from the obvious - they hit a groove and then screw it up and hit another groove and then smash it to bits. It's incredibly powerful stuff and the strength of their work ensures that this band is more than just a showcase for their technical talent. The gig at Needles - a weird basement wine bar with all the style and ambiance of a Bella Pasta - was Hella's first UK show. They'll be back in 4 months, playing bigger shows than this I hope, and your asses better be there.
Mini Eggs and Sunshine...
Photos | 26/03/2004 at 14:01:28
...spring is here at last!
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy Sings Greatest Palace Hits
Words | 26/03/2004 at 14:01:18
Anyone who has seen Will Oldham perform live will know that he likes to screw around with his songs. In fact, it's a rare thing to get a live interpretation that sounds as it does on record. In the same way that he evades a set identity personally, having recorded under a variety of names over the past decade, his songs are never confined to the arrangements put down on tape - they slip and slide away from the audience, surprising and confounding your expectations of the man and his work each time he plays them.
So on his newest release, Will has Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - his current alias - re-interpreting his earlier 'Palace' material. Most of the tracks are lifted from 3 releases from the mid-90s: 'Viva Last Blues', 'Lost Blues & Other Songs' or 'Days in the Wake'. It was hard to know what to expect from this greatest hits package and quite how Will would...well...sing from his own songbook.
The opener, 'New Partner', is incredible - all sparkling electric guitars, pedal steel and sweet, sweet backing vocals. I mean, it sounds like 'Sweetheart of the Rodeo'! The arrangement is, in fact, so incredibly lush that it is hard to believe that Mark Nevers, who produced the spartan 'Master & Everyone' and who produces and plays in the quieter than quiet Lambchop, could be responsible for something so FULL.
A veritable army of musicians worked on this recording and it certainly sounds like it - Will's brothers Ned and Paul as well as a vast array of Nashville session musicians, including Hargus "Pig" Robbins, a veteran pianist who's played with everyone from Dolly Parton to Bob Dylan. The list of names is almost overwhelming and I rather imagine them all being crammed into the studio two by two until they couldn't shut the doors. In fact, 'New Partner' is such a sugary Nashville confection, that by the time the horn section (yes!) drew out it last notes, I felt kind of sated already. And hoped that the next track would be something a little more delicate.
It wasn't. 'Ohio River Boat Song' is somewhat shockingly revamped as a rollicking quickstep. The chiming guitars and resonant pauses have gone and given way to something you could do-si-do your partner to - the sadness and strength stripped from it completely.
'Gulf Shores' isn't quite as dramatic a departure, but the loping piano fill and the pace make it feel like the sort of AOR that you might find on a Natalie Merchant record rather than on a Bonnie Billy one. Punk rock this ain't. The backing vocals intertwine prettily enough with Will's at the chorus, but it's a tiring experience having to get used to all of these voices on tracks where one was once enough. By the time the cheesy sax solo kicks in, I had to skip to the next track.
But the overkill continues, a far too fleshy 'You Will Miss Me While I Burn' is followed by a slick 'Brute Choir' - too much saxophone, too much pedal steel, too many vocals. It begins to feel like the record was willfully over-produced. And rather as if he was perhaps trying to distance himself from his audience and the cult of personality built around him and his songs, that maybe he was trying to shove as much sound between him and us as he possibly could.
The recurring problem with the record is the production and the distance it puts between the listener and Oldham's voice. Even though it is incredibly high in the mix compared to the whispered, austere vocals on 'Master & Everyone', they feel a million miles away. None of it howls. None of it cuts to the bone. 'Riding', for example, has changed from a powerful internal monologue on sin and god and fucking to an external conversation - a male backing voice posing many of the questions and Will responding in unison with a female vocalist. The interplay lends nothing to the track and the lyric "God is what I make of him", shared by two voices instead of one lone voice, is far less thunderous and insubordinate.
A jaunty and frankly irritating 'I am a Cinematographer' closes out the album, and its last line - amended from the original - seems to point towards the meaning of it all: "You can walk away from Louisville". And I guess that's what Will's done. He's not clutching onto his recorded past, he's let it go. And maybe that's what we're supposed to do too. How dare we be so precious? After all, these tracks belong to him. The trouble is, I couldn't let go. And I'm sure many of his fans will have exactly the same problem.