February 2007 - Antigravity Magazine

Transcription

vol.4 no.4 feb.‘07
your new orleans music and culture alternative
QUINTRON
& THE NINTH WARD MARCHING
BAND ARE OUT TO HAVE FUN
ALSO: EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY
HELEN HILL AND DINERRAL SHAVERS
WET CONFETTI I MARDI GRAS BEADS?
www.antigravitymagazine.com
FREE!
PHOTO BY MANTARAY PHOTOGRAPHY
vol.4 no.4 feb.‘07
your table of contents
ON THE COVER:
Quintron_page 17
The bandleader talks up the Ninth Ward Marching Band
FEATURES:
Don t Stop The Music_page 10
Lisa Haviland investigates how the murders of Helen Hill
and Dinerral Shavers affected those around them
DON T STOP THE MUSIC, PAGE 10
Explosions In The Sky_page 13
If you drive a Cadillac, read this interview
COLUMNS/DEPARTMENTS:
Freefloating Ramblings_page 4
Leo s hairless again
ANTI-News_page 5
EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY, PAGE 13
Some of the news that s fit to print
NOLA Stalkin _page 5
A Rose Is A Rose tattles on the infamous
Live New Orleans_page 6
Antenna Inn and show notes
The Column_page 7
Single in New Orleans̶what a life
Sound Advice_page 9
Legalese from AG
Paginations_page 21
Mosquito
Illustrations_page 22
How To Be Happy, Qomix, The K Chronicles
Snap Judgments_page 23
Pirates Of Coney Island
Projections_page 25
American Hardcore
Revolutions_page 26
Wet Confetti, Dear + Glorious Physician, Sondre Lerche
Premonitions_page 28
Event listings and show previews
WET CONFETTI, PAGE 10
FREEFLOATING RAMBLINGS
SEND HATEMAIL TO: [email protected] OR: P.O. BOX 24584, NEW ORLEANS, LA 70184
Your Crack Staff:
Publisher/Editor-in-Chief:
Leo McGovern
[email protected]
Senior Editor:
Noah Bonaparte
[email protected]
Associate Editor:
Patrick Strange
[email protected]
I’ve got Super Bowl hangover—not from the actual Super Bowl itself, partly because I couldn’t care less about the Bears/Colts
match-up, partly because this is being written while the big game is still a few days away, but mostly because the Saints aren’t one
of the teams in it. Rather than harp on the NFC Championship game, I’d rather focus on this issue, if you don’t mind. We’ve got
one of Marty Garner’s favorite bands, Explosions In The Sky, an in-depth interview with Quintron about the Ninth Ward Marching
Band and a look at how the tragic deaths of filmmaker Helen Hill and Hot 8 Brass Brand drummer Dinerral Shavers affected the
multitudes of people who loved them both. By the way, it’s Mardi Gras time, and while we at AG don’t generally cover much to do
with Carnival, there are tons of great shows coming around since bands use Mardi Gras as a reason to come to town (or, for some
bands, come back home). Check out our Premonitions for more, and chances are we’ll see you out! —Leo McGovern, Publisher
Senior Writer:
PLAY THE “WHY DID LEO SHAVE?” GAME!
Contributing Writers:
WITH BEARD
Dan Fox
[email protected]
Henry Alpert
[email protected]
Sarah Andert
[email protected]
Liz Countryman
[email protected]
Jenelle Davis
[email protected]
Marty Garner
[email protected]
Lisa Haviland
[email protected]
Carolyn Heneghan
[email protected]
Jared Kraminitz
[email protected]
Joseph Larkin
[email protected]
Dakota M
[email protected]
Darren O Brien
[email protected]
Jason Songe
[email protected]
J.W. Spitalny
[email protected]
AG editor Leo McGovern usually has facial hair,
and that’s the way he likes it. He is very rarely
clean shaven. Why did Leo shave? The first person
that selects the correct answer and e-mails it to
[email protected] will receive a choice
stack of CDs! Your choices:
Leo is beardless because:
A) He committed a heinous crime of some sort, is
on the run from the law and shaved to throw off the
authorities.
B) With no baby on hand, he wanted to see what a
baby’s bottom really felt like.
SANS BEARD
Advertising Associate:
C) A bird had nested in it.
D) While trimming his beard with a pair of electric
clippers, he made the clasic mistake of taking the
guard off the clippers to clean up an area and mistakenly ran the guardless clippers over his cheek, ruining
his entire beard.
Steve Garafono
[email protected]
We like stuff! Send it to:
PO Box 24584
New Orleans, La 70184
ANTIGRAVITY is a free publication
released monthly (around the 1st, like
a gub ment check) in New Orleans and
Baton Rouge, as well as online.
E) He was preparing for Mardi Gras and didn’t want
King Cake crumbs to build up around his chin.
ANTIGRAVITY is a publication of
ANTIGRAVITY, INC.
F) He’s not beardless, the photo to the lower left is a
Photoshopped fake.
Resources:
www.antigravitymagazine.com
MySpace:
www.myspace.com/antigravitymagazine
Let the entries fly!
This Month s Guest Judge:
Mardi Gras Beads
Throw me something!
You know that s just plastic, right?
04_antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative
a rose is a rose is...
NOTABLE UPCOMING SHOWS
3/17: VAST, Howlin’ Wolf
3/17: Diplo, Bonde Do Role, Republic
3/18: The Walkmen, The Parish @ House Of Blues
3/19: RJD2, The Parish @ House Of Blues
4/7: TV On The Radio, The Noisettes, One Eyed Jacks
4/12: Sebadoh, TBA
4/24: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Republic
5/5: Mono, Grails, World’s End Girlfriend, Spanish Moon
GAS FOOD & LODGING BEGINS TO SHAPE UP
The lineup of Gas Food & Lodging, the Baton Rouge-based sister event to South By
Southwest, is beginning to take form. The Spanish Moon has released their slate of shows,
which begins March 10th with Colour Revolt and Terror Of The Sea. Other GF&L shows at
Spanish Moon shows include:
2/12: Silversun Pickups, The Rosebuds
2/13: Pelican, Daughters, Russian Circles
2/14: Asobi Seksu
2/15: Astranautalis, Ballzack, Club Of Sons
2/17: Jason Isbell (Drive-By Truckers)
2/19: Hella, The Dirty Projectors
2/20: Apes, Six Parts Seven, Antelopes
2/21: Say Hi To Your Mom, Bishop Allen
FRUIT VENDOR REAPPEARS
AG readers and Other Planets fans remember the mention of New Orleans fruit vendor
Arthur Robertson in our December interview with Anthony Cuccia—Robertson’s easilyrecognized voice, usually projected by a megaphone attached to his truck, is the first thing
you hear on the Other Planets’ new record, Eightballs In Anglola—and how Robertson has
been missing from the streets of New Orleans since Katrina. In early January, Robertson
was sighted by at least two people who say that the fruit vendor is finally back and making
his pre-K rounds.
BIG EASY ROLLERGIRLS MATCH RESCHEDULED, TRYOUTS NEAR
The Big Easy Rollergirls have rescheduled their cancelled January bout against Las Vegas’
Sin City Rollergirls, which was to be BERG’s first home-field inter-league match, has been
rescheduled for May 19, 2007. The Rollergirls travel to Philly on March 18 for an interleague bout before returning to the Big Easy for a doubleheader on March 24 against the
Green Country Rollergirls of Tulsa, OK and The East Texas Bombers of Tyler, TX. In other
BERG news, the club will entertain girls who want to showcase their skating ability and
perhaps become one of the newest Rollergirls. E-mail tryouts(at)bigeasyrollergirls.com for
more info.
AG TO APPEAR AT AUSTIN, TX EXPO
If AG’s Alternative Media Expo has kinship with any
show, it’s Austin, TX’s STAPLE!: The Independent
Media Expo. AG is planning a drive to Austin for
STAPLE! ’07, and you can grab our March issue (after it
hits the streets in New Orleans, of course) and other
swag we may have with us. STAPLE! ‘07 guests include
Dean Haspiel (The Quitter, American Splendor), Viper
Entertainment (Dead @ 17, The Middleman) and Top
Shelf (Lost Girls, Blankets). For more info, go to stapleaustin.org.
DOMINO
SOUND
RECORD
SHACK
OPENING
Longtime DJ and reggae fan Prince Pauper is taking the
plunge and opening Domino Sound Record Shack, a
music shop specializing in the rarer and more visceral
genres like African, Punk, Soul, and, of course, Reggae.
Lots and lots of reggae. Also, the shack will be a haven
for those knights of the turn table who still like their
tunes thick and crackly, stocking tons of vinyl and the equipment to play it on. The shack
is at 2557 Bayou Road at Broad St. Maybe we can finally find some of that Arabic Hip-Hop
we’ve been looking for all these years. Saturday, February 3rd will be the grand opening and
Soul Sister, Dub Insurgent, and Brice Nice will be warming up the inventory. Support your
local business and find out what social justice music is all about. In analog, mon.
Mayor C. Ray Nagin, the
offensively blasé, sleepy-eyed local
civic leader, materialized briefly at the
coffee shop in the Convention Center
Blvd. Marriott on the morning of
Friday, January 5. Customers in search
of their daily helping of caffeine and
day-old bagels stood in utter shock
as the mayor, always equipped with
impeccable taste and timing, joked
with a friend about the rising murder
rate in New Orleans. Only days before
the march on City Hall in protest of
the rampant violence in the city, Nagin
had the presence of mind to ask his
companion in the crowded room,
“So, what are we gonna do about all
these murders?” Although the query
was posed with that sarcastic chuckle
inherent in a George W. delivery, those
who overheard the question given by
the one person who should actually
have the answers did not find it
amusing, “puking up their lattes as they
realized that charm doesn’t really take
the place of competency.”
Pudgy grandpa and parish-wide dictator Sheriff Harry Lee was holding court at the
Common Grounds restaurant in Old Gretna on Friday, January 12. In anticipation for the
Saints-Eagles playoff game, Lee wore an oversized Joe Horn jersey that wafted in the air as he
made his procession through the dining room at the popular West Bank eatery. Commoners
reportedly “swooned with awe” as the chief settled down for a greasy sandwich and a large
order of fries, which the big guy digested with much “deliberation and care; similar to how he
conducts his police work.” One by one, customers took an audience with Lee and gave praise
and sometimes aired grievances, such as one fisherman who offered his “first born son” in
return for “extra victuals for his family.” At the sound of such obstinacy, Lee reportedly
“banished the man to the East Bank, closing the gates of the CCC on him forever.”
Saints quarterback and regional savior Drew Brees was ogled
at the Uptown Whole Foods Market on Tuesday, January 23.
Perusing the nut aisle with his lovely wife Brittany, Drew looked
“radiant under the supermarket’s soft fluorescent glow, known
to make even the poorest Uptowners look appropriately rich.”
After several minutes of loitering behind the couple as they
discussed the culinary value of overpriced organic Korean pine
nuts, the stalker approached Brees to thank him for a “wonderful
season.” According to eyewitnesses, Brees was the epitome of
graciousness and charm, breaking from his conversation with
his wife to acknowledge the adoring fan. After walking away, the
stalker writes that the “couple promptly resumed discussion
over seeds and almond substitutes.”
New Orleans native and “Sweatin to the
Oldies” guru Richard Simmons was
caught leading a herd of white-haired
secretaries and fanny-packed Metairie
mommas on a “wellness walk” around East
Jefferson General Hospital on Thursday,
January 25.The Brother Martin graduate was
back home to help kick-off the American
Heart Association’s Start Program and assault
the public-at-large with high-pitch shrills and
nauseating instructional phrases.Wearing his
patented red pinstriped running shorts and
net tank-top, an aging Simmons showed that
he could still “bend, squat and bounce” with
the best of them as he implored the group
of nearly 500 people to “shake those hips
until they felt the burn.”
05
antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative_
T
he local rock scene seems to have been caught in a daydream as of late, so it was nice
to see Antenna Inn come out of nowhere to art-rock the pants off everyone at One
Eyed Jacks in January. The seven-piece (including several vibe players and two drummers)
showcased well-arranged songs that stretched out noise and abstraction just short of
annoyance. The music included unforeseen meter and personality changes. Steely Dan-ish
jazz met with a cappella chanting, atmospheric guitar transmissions, and noise free-for-alls. It
was wonderful, and I’m going to see The Black Rose Band for the first time on January 27th,
which will hopefully only strengthen my hope for the future of rock in New Orleans.
By the time you read
this, I’ll also have seen
Jeff Tweedy on Friday the
26th. A Ghost is Born is a
modern classic, along with
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. It’ll be
interesting to see whether
Wilco can roll a turkey
with their May release,
Sky Blue Sky. Radiohead
and the Flaming Lips both
attempted to continue
their streak of critical and
consumer acclaim with
their recent albums, but
they failed. Radiohead was trying for four-in-a-row with Hail to the Thief, which seemed more
like an anxious, forced breath than anything, while the Lips were reaching for their third
masterpiece with At War With The Mystics, which wasn’t a consistent or complete thought
like their previous two. But, don’t get me wrong. I like both Thief and Mystics, but they’re no
Amnesiac or Soft Bulletin. Of course, I’m assuming we’re all on the same page regarding Kid
A, which we’re probably not. Regardless of whether it was or wasn’t a big middle finger to
everyone’s expectations, it still works, and I still like it.
I guess the only reason it’s interesting to me whether these bands succeed is because
they seem to be the only large rock bands around that are taking chances. They’re the
only established bands that will probably do a 180 to create unexpected music that is both
original and good. Of course, nothing is truly original, but there are some right combinations,
or meetings of sub-sub-sub genres, that haven’t yet been attempted. People are always
attempting wrong combinations. That’s not difficult at all.
Opening for Tweedy is Scott McCaughey, a pop rocker that formed the Young Fresh Fellows
and The Minus Five and also toured as an extra musician for R.E.M. “Aw Shit Man,” off the
latest Minus Five release, is a worrisome yet freewheeling punk-paced song and the reason
iTunes was invented.The chances of me buying the M5 record aren’t great, but the chances of
me buying that one song and rocking along with it as I put up posters are pretty darn good.
“Aw Shit Man” is careless yet concerned, which I can really relate to, for some reason. It’s the
feeling that even though you’re too lazy to change your flaws, you can still take the time to
sit back and feel bad for what you’re doing.
Playing drums with McCaughey will be Junior League leader and Bipolaroid drummer Joe
Adragna. Adragna has been working in Michael Blum’s home studio finishing the follow-up
to Catchy. Also in the studio, this one in The Fountainbleau, is The Public, who are eager for
people to hear their new album. I got a listen, and I was impressed. The songs are less trashy
and more propelled than the old ones. It seems a lot of time was put into making song
structures more interesting.
BEATLES VS. STONES
I listened to the first two Rolling Stones albums today, and it seems like The Beatles were
more creative with their first batch of original songs than The Stones. I couldn’t tell the
difference between the covers and the originals on the first two Stones albums, but I think I
could discern what was a Beatles song and what was a cover from the first Beatles albums.
And not just because I’m more familiar with the Beatles material than the Stones’.The Stones
songs eventually became more involved, but it seems like The Beatles had their talent from
moment one. The Beatles became themselves quicker than The Stones.
This is what Electrical Spectacle keyboardist and all-around Moog maestro Anton Gussoni had
to say about the subject: “The Beatles were something so extraordinary and exceptional that
it is hard to put another band as comparison.The Stones were great. In fact, the Stones made
great records for a long period then the Beatles. But, the Beatles were able to fill those few years
with so much creativity and expression. It is sometimes hard to say if they helped
bring some of the changes or caught the wave and went with it. Well, that is my
opinion. The Stones could not write ‘Because’. Of course, the Beatles could not write
‘Sympathy for the Devil’.”
RECOMMENDED
1. Robert Greenfield’s book Exile on Main Street: A Season in Hell with The Rolling Stones
2. Doug Stanhope’s comedy album Something to Take The Edge Off
3. Jackass Number Two
the
by
patrick
strange
Going to Extremes
For Reagan
In no other place in America does the question “Why are you here?” require
such painfully honest answers:
Skip the job talk. Ignore the obvious. Tell me your deepest darkest secrets.
The typical explanations for why we continue on here just don’t cut it anymore.
If anything, people in New Orleans know bull shit when they smell it, and know
that the “I-just-love-the-pace-of-the-city” routine is not only passé, but a complete
departure from reality. Life is tough here, and has been long before any hurricane
came and made things worse. And it doesn’t matter if you’re a college student
boozing it up at the Balcony or a single mother of three making ends meet in a
combustible government trailer, odds are that life would be easier for most of us
in some other city in some other circumstances.
I know that.You know that. Then why keep bringing it up?
I’ve never in my whole life formed such fast and intense relationships with
complete strangers. At the bar or in the grocery aisle or riding in the elevator—
still, after a year and a half—informal conversations turn plaintive without cause
or warning. What used to be talk about last night’s movie is now talk about grief
and guilt and loyalty and co-dependence and new suburban therapists. It’s not that
any of this is new since the big washout; it’s just that it keeps going on and on. It’s
like collecting strangers in a line-up for the most fucked-up—and it’s my face on
every one of them.
And so we talk and we talk. Within the time it takes to criticize the mayor and
the (lower-case “p”) president, I’m having heart-to-hearts with that guy who rides
the funny bicycle with the big ole front tire or that old lady who’s always dressed as
if she’s going to a funeral on a really cold day. I guess the constant pressure to make
decisions that matter and to figure out once and for all if I’m a winner or loser in
all this has its consequences.
Hell, we’re all on the same page here—dealing with the day to day in a city we
love until our hearts break—and I guess we get to know where we stand by talking
it out, and getting to know each other over and over…and over.
(And by the way, being 28 and single in this town doesn’t really help matters
either. I’m falling in love with reckless abandon, and opening emotional trapdoors
that would better reserved for pillow talk rather than over a Bloody Mary at the
track.)
And all of this is not to say that there isn’t something exhilarating about being
here right now, because there most certainly is. There’s a more-than-common
feeling about sharing such a pleasant burden with so many people—the same
feeling I get when I hear people singing in unison or see a crowd march on City
Hall. The same feeling when I actually do something that might make a difference; if
only a very small one for a very short time.
I mean—to be immediately attached to those we meet is therapeutic, if not
redeeming, and may be the greatest benefit in having a this “big” shared experience.
But you know, sometimes I just want to get away from here and the people that
remind me of what we’re dealing with and how crazy we all must be for doing it.
Damn, I love being loved, but sometimes I miss the freedom to tramp around and
run into strangers that stay that way.
Which brings me to this as the carnival season approaches: In a city where our
most intimate fears and desires have become all but required information when
forming even the most casual acquaintances, this year’s Mardi Gras hopefully will
not only be a distraction but bring a needed dose of that good-old fashioned
anonymity.
So, I’m putting on a mask and wearing it for as long as I can. If last year’s carnival
was about converging from across the country to sustain the traditions that have
made New Orleans the sexiest damn city on this side of the Atlantic, then I say this
year is about covering up and taking a break from all the exposure. And maybe a
little costuming can change the world or at least change the feeling that we can’t
flee unless we move to Portland or Austin or the greatest land of constant selfdelusion, “I’m-not-who-I-say-I-am” Los Angeles, Ca.
Maybe, just maybe, if I dress up as a Cajun centaur or a pugilist for a couple of
days I’ll get the reprieve I need to sustain me, and make even a temporary stay far
away from here—and far away from all of me—delightfully unnecessary.
07
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SOUND ADVICE
ENTERTAINMENT AND MEDIA LEGAL TIPS
BY ANDREW BIZER, ESQ
Dear Andrew,
I’m in a band and we want to get signed. We just finished a great sounding demo and we’re going
to send it to record labels. Is there anything we need to include in the package?
Thanks,
Gary G.
Gary,
Congratulations on finishing your demo. Unfortunately, most record labels will not even
bother listening to it. The major labels and most independent labels won’t even open your
package. They will either throw it away or return it to you unopened. There are two main
reasons why many record labels do not accept unsolicited demos. First, record labels still
get hundreds of submissions per week and they simply don’t have the manpower to open
all the packages and listen to every demo. Second, record labels are sick of getting sued
for copyright infringement by people who claim that their artists stole songs from a demo
they sent in. The record labels figure that they can’t get accused of stealing a song they
never listened to.
But don’t worry, if you want to get signed, there is a lot you can do without sending
out a bunch of demos in the mail. To begin with, I strongly urge you to focus on your
songwriting. You can have the greatest gear and the most unique sound, but if the songs
aren’t there, no one will care. It always amazes me when I see a guy using 20 guitar pedals
to play a crappy song. The best bands have the best songs. That Line 6 Liqua-Flange guitar
pedal may sound cool (well, that’s debatable), but it won’t make your songs better.
Now that I have gotten that off my chest, one way you can get your demo in the hands of
record labels is by getting to know everybody in the local music business. The more people
you know, the better your chances of getting noticed are. If you have a gig, talk to the
person at the club who booked the show. Tell him or her how much you like playing their
club. Tell them you’d like to be considered when a nationally touring band needs a local
opening slot. Be persistent. Talk to the other bands on the bill. Maybe they have a manager
and if so, talk to their manager. Give him or her your demo and ask him or her what they
think. Talk to the doorman and the bartenders. Give them your demo. The odds are, the
bartenders and the man or woman at the door are better connected than you and your
bandmates are. And if they like your demo, they’ll pass it along to their musician friends.
And no, you don’t need to move to New York to get noticed. Plenty of bands from
towns like Albequerque (the Shins), Dayton (Guided by Voices), and Oklahoma City
(Flaming Lips) have “made it”. Tour as much as you can. Befriend bands in Baton Rouge,
Austin, and Memphis. Set up shows for them in New Orleans and have them set up shows
for you in their city. The more places you go, the better your chances are of getting
noticed by the right people.
Here’s my best advice-- don’t wait for a record label to come to you. If you are happy
with the sound of your demo, press up a few hundred CDs, call it an EP and sell it for
five bucks. That’s all it takes to start your own record label. Send a copy to the editors
at Antigravity, the Gambit, and the Times-Picayune as well as WTUL and WWOZ. If its
good, and you’ve been talking to musicians around town, you’ll get noticed. And if nobody
reacts, you haven’t wasted your time waiting for the phone to ring. You will have already
put out your debut CD and you’ll have learned from your mistakes so that your second
self-released CD will be that much better.
Good luck,
Andrew Bizer
Andrew Bizer, Esq. is an attorney admitted to practice in Louisiana and New York. He
previously served as the Manager of Legal and Business Affairs at EMI Music Publishing and
has worked in the legal department at both Matador and Universal/Motown Records. When he
was an undergrad at Tulane, Mr. Bizer was the Music Director at WTUL. This column is to be
used as a reference tool. The answers given to these questions are short and are not intended to
constitute full and complete legal advice. The answers given here do not constitute an attorney/
client relationship. Mr. Bizer is not your attorney. But if you want him to be your attorney, feel free
to contact him at [email protected]. Or, just email him a question and he’ll answer it in next
month’s ANTIGRAVITY.
09
DON’T
STOP
THE
MUSIC
A LOOK AT HOW TWO MURDERS MOVED A COMMUNITY
A
fter Dinerral Shavers’ death,
the old band room, number
314, at Rabouin High School
served as a shrine of sorts for the
students’ band leader, teacher
and friend; his desk was taped off
because they didn’t want any other
teacher sitting there for a while,
explains Rabouin’s social worker,
Glenis Scott.
As we walk down hallways and up stairs, we pass poster
after poster commemorating Dinerral, though many have been
taken down now that a month has passed. Dinerral began
his one-semester tenure at Rabouin as a substitute French
teacher in late September, became a daily sub and, as a young
man of twenty-five, stirred interest and enthusiasm among his
students as well as his coworkers. Dinerral had been featured
in the December issue of the school’s newsletter, The ‘R’ Report,
with students later cutting out the article and taping it to their
shirts to symbolize their support and respect for the man who,
in addition to being the Hot 8 Brass Band’s snare drummer
since its 1996 formation, was the man to bring music to the
Rabouin campus.
“When he first started working, he said that he was a
member of the Hot 8 and was I interested in starting a band,”
says Kevin George, the school’s principal. “Rabouin never had a
band program—we didn’t have the facilities, the instruments. He
would ask two and three times a week and I would rebuff him.
Eventually, he started coming to me with a plan. I told him to put
it on paper and he brought me something the next day.”
Aided by instrument donations from the Tipitina’s
Foundation and filmmaker Spike Lee, Dinerral assembled
eighty-five students spread across four
grades and had them begin practicing, sans
instruments, before school, after school and
during their lunch periods, with the group’s
first assignment being to learn how to read
music. Flags and majorettes joined the
fledgling musicians and enthusiasm for the
endeavor grew as the semester proceeded.
The instruments were due in after the
holiday break and arrived as expected,
though the celebration paled in the wake of
gunfire one Thursday afternoon on St. Philip
Street.
“The first thing I saw when I came back to
school was band uniforms and equipment,”
remembers George, “and it hit me that he
was gone.”
Just as Dinerral made music more
accessible to his students, Helen Hill,
filmmaker, animator and co-founder of
the New Orleans Film Collective, strived
to extend the art of filmmaking to the
community at large by holding filmmaking
bees at the Mid-City home she shared with
her husband, Dr. Paul Gailiunas, who headed
The Troublemakers, as well as a solo act,
Ukulele and the Machine.
“Her guests would have tea and work
on each other’s – literal - film strips and
talk,” explains Rene Broussard, founder and
curator of the Zeitgeist Theater. “It was
filmmaking as a social activity.”
Broussard cites his 2004 nomination of
Helen for the Rockefeller Media Fellowship,
which she received for her film-in-progress,
The Florestine Collection, as his proudest
curatorial achievement. This unfinished
work was inspired by Helen’s discovery of
clothing patterns made by a blind, 90-year-
BY LISA HAVILAND
old African American woman and discarded in the street after
her death, with the film centering on her sense of connection
to this woman via the dresses. Helen is perhaps best known
for Mouseholes, a tribute to her “Pop,” who died when she was
a young girl, and for films like Scratch and Crow, The World’s
Smallest Fair and Madame Winger Makes a Film: A Survival Guide
for the 21st Century in which she laments that she is unable to
achieve her goal of making a vegan film because all film stock
utilizes animal products.
“Her films are brilliantly simple,” says Jeremy Campbell,
documentary filmmaker and founder of New Orleans’ Flicker
Film Festival. “They achieve what so many filmmakers are afraid
to attempt: to speak to the audience, not at them.”
“She was like a pied piper in a way; she just brought with
her a breath of fresh air,” Broussard says. “This is an artistic
community with a lot of eccentric people—yet, everyone
would meet her and Paul and say, ‘Are they for real?’”
Wendy Treat, keyboardist and backing vocalist for the
Troublemakers and front woman for Treatus, the precursor to
Glorybee, echoes this sentiment.
“The first time I met Helen was at this Dafa Fungus jam
comic book meeting. She and Dr. Paul were so enthusiastic,
so excited and so happy about everything. I thought that they
were the fakest people I had ever met,” Treat remembers. “It
turned out that they were actually like that.When my mom met
Helen for the first time, we were at a party or an art gathering
or something like that, and Helen showed her around and over
to the refreshments. My mom helped herself to a big helping of
tofu ice cream and it was the grossest stuff she’d ever tasted.
We laugh about that still.”
On January 18, the new band room at Rabouin, number 102,
is abuzz, a cacophony of horns, drums and shouts that later
streamline under the watchful eye of a Nightline camera.
“For a beginning band, we’re doing pretty good,” the new
band director, Darryl Person, tells me. “This is a band director’s
dream; we’re playing with brand new horns and drums.”
The band’s song list is comprised of I Want to Know, Neck!,
Stuntin’ like my Daddy, Can You Feel It?, Stay, Morris Brown and
Missing You, which is Darryl’s favorite because it is specifically
dedicated to Dinerral.
The Hot 8 have performed at Rabouin twice since December
28, first at the January 9 basketball pep rally and then for the
January 12 “Day of Memories” ceremony honoring Dinerral.
The Truth Brass Band also played and choir director Damon
Williams sang, with students Jamika Barnes, Quincy Bridges and
Thea Daniels reading original poems written for the occasion.
“He was like a brother to me,” says Harry “Swamp Thing”
Jones, bass drummer for the Hot 8. “That was my right hand
man on the back row, on the drums.”
When asked how she would like Dinerral to be remembered,
majorette choreographer Jamika Saul instinctively replies, “As a
man who loved children and one who had the children’s best
interests at heart.”
There is sadness, there is disbelief, too, encircling those
interviewed, those called upon to highlight life over death.
“He worked so hard for this. He had this vision and he
wasn’t able to see it through,” says Kevin George.
“It’s just impossible to imagine her being the victim of
violence,” says Rene Broussard, who, like the Hot 8 and
Rabouin, will honor his friend and colleague, specifically with a
Zeitgeist tea party featuring Helen’s trademark peppermint tea
and cotton candy on Sunday, February 4, at 3:30.
In “Get Up,” a song Dinerral penned for the Hot 8’s latest
CD, “Rock with the Hot 8,” one of the victim’s lyrical laments
lives in the refrain, “My people, keep the peace, keep the
murder rate down.”
When I come home from a long walk one day, having left
my stereo on and The Troublemakers in rotation, I enter my
apartment to Dr. Paul singing,“You’ll never be alone, you’ll never
be alone, you’ll never be alone” and can’t help but wonder.
EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY
BY MARTY GARNER
I
think it’s safe to say that we are a region equally accustomed to both tragedy and comedy. We have
shown the rest of the country that it’s okay to laugh when you cry, that we are more than King
George’s Court Jester.We are inherently self-obsessed, forever wary of outsiders (except those named
Drew or Reggie) but always ready to accommodate. We are a city of paradoxes, a tragedy of sometimesShakespearean proportions ready to make any heart quake, but a ribbon of victory runs through our
collective garment.We celebrate ourselves despite ourselves. Because no matter how thick the lake mud
gets, there’s always a Crescent City Water Meter underneath it.
Maybe that’s why I like Explosions in the Sky so much. The Austin post-rock group’s newest record, All
of a Sudden I Miss Everyone, is forty-five minutes of absolutely terrifying noise bowling in some of the most
beautiful, emotional, and affirming music being made. All without saying a word.
The four-piece (guitarists Michael James, Munaf Rayani, and Mark T. Smith along with drummer Chris
Hrasky) have been specializing in a sort of new Romanticism within the admittedly depressing post-rock
scene since 1999. 2003’s gorgeous and heartbreaking The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place made fans out
of the film industry (EITS scored the high school football film Friday Night Lights) and Madison Avenue
(who used “Your Hand in Mine” and “Six Days at the Bottom of the Ocean” to sell Cadillacs). The band
previously found themselves in the national spotlight following the release of 2001’s Those Who Tell the
Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever. The album, which came out in late August of that
year, bore several strange similarities to the following month’s terrorist attacks, including album art that
showed a plane captioned with “This plane will crash tomorrow.”
13
Make no mistake about it. All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone
is by all means a sad record. But among the sadness, there’s
a sense of majesty. There’s beauty. There’s a spirit of triumph
working its way through each song, sometimes so quietly that
you have to listen closer than you otherwise would to hear it.
Under the noise of three guitars feeding back, a piano twinkles
a prayer. The patter of a floor tom, the raising of the eyes.
And sometimes the majesty screams at you, direct and in the
front of the mix, the three guitars now holding hands around
a maypole, twisting and turning not out of agony but out of a
love for the sheer weightiness of being. It’s always there. Beauty
rests among the sadness. It’s everywhere. This is exactly the
record that we all need. It’s always great to be alive.
ANTIGRAVITY: What does the songwriting
process look like for Explosions in the Sky?
Chris Hrasky: It’s basically just sort of a trial and error. Usually,
someone will come in with something they thought up at home,
some little part or phrase. Basically it’s just us screwing around
until something comes of it; or, more often than not, nothing
comes of it. It’s really just kind of sitting around and talking
and playing over and over again. It usually takes us a while to
actually complete anything. But it’s mostly just trial and error;
that’s probably why we’re not as prolific as we’d like to be.
AG: “Six Days at the Bottom of the Ocean” (from
The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place) is about the
Russian submarine that sank a few years back. Are
any of your other songs about specific events?
CH: Not very many of them, actually. I think sometimes if we’re
having trouble finishing a song we’ll think up a storyline or
even just a phrase, or a one-sentence story to guide us to
figure out how we want to finish the song or whatever. It’s
not too often, but with you calling from New Orleans, I should
mention that there’s a song on the new record like that. While
we were working on it was right in the middle of Katrina and
the aftermath of all that and I think that it sort of influenced
one of those songs for sure.
AG: Is it “What Do You Go Home To?”
CH: Actually, it’s “It’s Natural to be Afraid,” although “What
Do You Go Home To?” makes sense title-wise. Of course, the
artwork, obviously. A lot of people have made mention or have
asked us, “Is this a Katrina reference?” It’s strange because the
artwork wasn’t really intentionally like that. We sort of had
some of these ideas before it happened, but I think afterwards
it was like, “Well, you know, we’re going to get questions about
it. You know, there’s a flooded city on the front; people are
going to make assumptions about that.” I think we felt pretty
okay with that considering one of the songs was influenced by
that, or it was something that was going through our minds
when we were working on it.
AG: That’s strange, considering the controversy
that you guys had with album art after September
11th.
CH: Yeah, we get all of the US disasters. Our artwork parallels
all of that. [Laughs]
AG: That’s one of the things that I like about
your music, though, is the ambiguity of it. When I
hear the rainy piano and the thundering drums on
“What Do You Go Home To?” and I look at that
album cover, all I can think about is hurricanes and
rooftop helicopter rescues, but some dude in Iowa
or Wisconsin may think of something completely
different.
CH: Yeah, and that’s why we hesitate when people do ask us
what our songs are supposed to be about. Rarely do we have
a moment where we say, “Oh, this song is about this,” or “This
guitar line means this,” or whatever, but we do like the idea of
people personalizing it. That’s always been real interesting to
us. There’s some message board where some kids have posted
that All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone is a soundtrack to Catcher in
the Rye. They went through it point by point as to why. It’s not,
of course. But I like to see stuff like that. It’s pretty cool that
somehow they’re engaging in it in some way.
AG: Catcher in the Rye, though?
CH: [Laughs] Yeah, it was pretty strange. They were like, “Well,
the first song is called ‘The Birth and Death of the Day,’ and,
in a way, Holden Caulfield is reborn…” I really do appreciate
that, though.
AG: Well, you must have a series of weird moments
now, what with the Friday Night Lights soundtrack
and the Cadillac commercial and all.
CH: Yeah, they’re pretty surreal. The Cadillac commercial isn’t
really surreal; I guess I would say it’s a bit uncomfortable.
AG: Really?
CH: [Pauses] Well, yeah. Not really uncomfortable but it’s just
kind of…to be perfectly honest, we’re not real proud of having
our music in that. I will readily admit that. Completely honestly,
the only reason that we did that was for money. As horrible
as that sounds, it’s the truth. So it’s the kind of thing where,
like, my parents will call and say, “Hey, we just saw the Cadillac
commercial!” and I just say, [Sarcastically] “Great!” Because to a
parent, that’s like the ultimate goal, that sort of deal. But to us
it’s more of an embarrassment, I guess. We don’t feel that way
about Friday Night Lights but, Cadillac, yeah.
AG: Yeah, there was this really weird moment
this fall when LSU was playing Auburn in football
and it was a really intense game and we’re all
sitting around screaming at the TV, and they cut
to commercial so we fall silent for about fifteen
seconds, then the Cadillac ad comes on and
everyone starts screaming again and phones are
ringing off the hook because all of our friends are
calling.
CH: Yeah, it’s pretty strange. I honestly thought we’d get more
of a backlash or resentment for it. I don’t think that that’s
unwarranted either. When I see a band that I like’s music in
a commercial, I can’t help it, I’m kind of bummed out a little
bit. But it’s weird that that really didn’t happen. Mostly it was
people congratulating us. I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad
sign. [Laughs]
AG: Yeah, and of Montreal played here last
weekend and when they started playing their
song that’s in the…
CH: Yeah, the Outback Steakhouse song? I think a lot of it is
just these music supervisors who work for these ad agencies
and all that sort of thing are all guys in their 20s and 30s who
listen to that kind of music so they’re putting it into their
commercials. There’s definitely this weird sort of shift in the
last four or five years. I mean, I’ve seen Modest Mouse songs in
like four or five different commercials.
AG: What inspires you guys to write?
CH: It’s something that we love to do, so we just keep doing
it, you know what I mean? It’s not really like something will
happen in our lives that will move us to write a song about it.
All four of us have played music for so long that it’s become
something we actually do for a living. It’s kind of a weird shift.
We just all love playing music and I think that the four of us just
really seem to like playing music together.
AG: When you guys write, do you think with an
album theme in mind, or are you writing track by
track?
CH:We try to always keep it by album. As we’re writing a song,
we just look at it as a specific song but we also look at it in
terms of “Where can this go in an album?” So if we write one
song and then another similar song, we want them to sort of
fit in the vision of an album. We basically work on songs until
they’re done and once it’s done we’re pretty certain that it
will go on the album. We never have like, eight songs and have
to choose the best six to go on the album. We’ll be writing
and once we have six songs it’s like, “Well, there’s the album.
We’re done. That’s enough, that’s enough songs. We don’t need
any more than that.” But we always look at it as an album. We
spend a lot of time figuring out where songs should be placed.
AG: How closely did you work with Esteban Rey
on the album art?
CH: Oh, real closely. He’s one of our best friends. He lives with
Michael and stuff. It was a daily struggle. You know, we would
just beat him on a regular basis. He’s an amazing artist but he’s
got some procrastination problems, so we’d have to abuse him
and whip him into shape. It’s always been that way with us.
We’ll have these ideas – and he’ll come up with ideas, too – and
he’ll work on stuff and he’ll show it to us and usually it’s like,
“No, just start over again,” and so on and so on. So it’s a pretty
torturous process for him. Ultimately, he loves doing it. Once
it’s done, anyway. We spend a lot of time on that stuff. We feel
like it’s as important as the music. We know that it’s not really
the way things are these days, with people downloading stuff,
but the artwork is part of the package of the album. There’s
the music, artwork, and titles. We spend a lot of time and get
frustrated working on the artwork.
AG: Where did the title for the new record come
from?
CH: I can’t remember which one of us even came up with it
but we were talking about what we wanted the album to be
about, this real loose theme or whatever, and it was this idea
of someone just kind of going about their life and then all of a
sudden, well, missing everyone, coming to this realization that
they’ve isolated themselves and lost touch with the people
they’ve loved. I don’t know why that was the theme. So the
artwork is this guy out adrift in this flood, floating around
in these small little memories of things he misses, people he
misses.That’s basically it. I’m not sure why we always have such
melodramatic and depressing themes, but that’s always how it
kind of turns out. [Laughs]
AG: Well, all of the interviews and reviews of the
new record that I’ve read mention how depressing
this album is, how it’s your darkest record and
all, but I hear a spirit of triumph
beneath it all that I feel sort of wins
in the end, especially compared to
something like (the considerably
darker) Those Who Tell the Truth
Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth
Shall Live Forever.
CH:Yeah, and Those Who Tell the Truth just feels
so long ago now. The last record is one that
got us known and it’s the one that people
always talk about.This record definitely feels a
lot darker than that record. But, I don’t know!
I say that, but there are some bright moments
on the new record! I don’t know. It seemed
like it was darker, but I don’t know that it
necessarily is. There are parts that are.
AG: How do you avoid being
repetitive, particularly in a genre
that seems prone to repetition?
CH: Hopefully we have gotten out of that trap.
I know that some people who have heard the
record think we have, but we’ve also heard
people say that it’s more of the same, that
we’re doing the same thing over and over
again. I guess that’s valid but I don’t personally
agree with that. Again, though, it’s just trial and
error. We spent a lot of time working on [the
“We’re not real proud of having
our music in (the Cadillac TV
commercial). I will readily admit
that.”
songs on] this record and we threw a bunch of songs away
because they kind of seemed like it wasn’t anything particularly
exciting or interesting. Everything sounded like stuff that could
be on the Friday Night Lights soundtrack. All kind of pleasant
to listen to, but there wasn’t really anything else going on. I
think we really wanted to not do that. It’s really just working
on things until we thought that they were unique enough. And
like I said, some people think that they are and some people
think that we’re just treading water. But there are people who
think that all four of our records basically sound the same. I
don’t agree, but, you know, I’m also biased. I also feel like this
record has a bit more of a … well, there are rock parts on all
of the records but I feel like this is the most, like, traditional
rock record that we’ve made. This is going to sound ridiculous,
but we joked that this record sounds like AC/DC, even though
it doesn’t. But there are moments with big chords and more
traditional rock chords as opposed to what we’ve previously
done. And that was intentional; we wanted this one to be
more of a rock record. I think it’s different, but I’ve also been
analyzing it every day for the last year.
AG: It took you guys two years to write it, right?
CH: Well, basically, we toured through all of 2004 and did the
Friday Night Lights stuff, so we took early 2005 off and started
writing around May of 2005. We worked on stuff for several
months and didn’t get anywhere. I don’t think we started
getting anything for this record until about a year ago. For
several months we were just throwing stuff away and sitting
there in despair, thinking that we were doomed. We seem to
have gone through that phase with every record, like, “Well, it
was fun while it lasted, guys.”
AG: I saw you guys in Houston about a year ago and
when you got to the climax of “The Only Moment
We Were Alone,” people started screaming and
maybe losing control of themselves in really
bizarre ways, throwing themselves around.
CH: (chuckles) Yeah.
AG: Why do you think your music strikes such a
deep, emotional chord with people?
CH: I don’t know! We love that that is the reaction some people
have. We used to talk about it, but we’ve stopped because we
don’t know how or why this is happening or why people are
responding to it that way. I really don’t know. Sometimes I
think that people realize that this music means everything to
us and that it’s something we truly are passionate about, but
I don’t know if that’s something that would cause that. I don’t
know, I guess they just like it. I mean, it’s weird because that is
the intended effect. We want to make music that people can
lose themselves in and hold close to their heart. Luckily, so far
we’ve been able to accomplish that. Our goal is to always be
able to do that. We should try to figure it out so we can crank
one out every year. [Laughs]
AG: Is it hard for you guys to put that much
emotion into playing every night?
CH: Sometimes. That Houston show was easy because we
hadn’t been playing live much. Once you’re touring a lot there
are times when you start to get real robotic about it. You’ll be
playing and you realize that you’re starting to think about what’s
for dinner or praying that the hotel has something awesome
on HBO. I would say most of the time we’re able to get lost in
it, especially if it seems like the people watching are getting lost
in it. It’s an amazing feeling when the people watching seem like
they’re rooting for you.
AG: You guys are a bit more positive than some
of the bands that you get compared to often. You
don’t really have the dark side that a band like
Godspeed or Mogwai has.
CH: We don’t want to make music that would be just sort of
one emotion.We’d rather have a song that is more emotionally
complex.We try to have a song that sounds like someone falling
in love and ten seconds later it sounds like a guy with a gun in
his mouth. We try to have a broad spectrum. I feel like music
that’s always dark and depressing has its place. Godspeed gets
that a lot, but there are also Godspeed songs that are really
beautiful and lush.
AG: Who do you consider to be your musical peers?
CH: I don’t know, I guess it’s hard to say. I guess people will
say that it’s bands like Mogwai and Godspeed. We listen to so
many bands and when you tour a lot you kind of run into so
many bands. I guess our peers would be anybody making music.
That’s too hard of a question for me. [Laughs]
AG: Was there any one moment when you guys
realized the, I don’t know, to put it in some sort
of cheesy superhero way, the power that you guys
hold in your hands when you play?
CH: [Laughs] There have definitely been moments like that, but
it’s hard to me to remember any specific ones. I know that
there was one time when we played this festival in Belgium
and we were doing “The Only Moment We Were Alone.” We
were in a tent and there were something like 3,000 people
there and up to that point that was the most people we’d ever
played in front of. We were doing the part where it’s only the
bass drum and a little bit of guitar and the whole place started
clapping along. It was the first time that anything like that had
ever happened. That was the first time on a large scale. That
freaked us out. In a good way. But even playing shows in the
early days for five people and someone coming up afterwards
to tell us that they started crying during the show, that was so
meaningful to us. I like the notion of being a superhero, though.
We are now superheroes.
AG: What is your proudest musical moment?
CH: Up to this point, it’s probably this newest record. In terms
of actual music we’ve done, this is what I’m most proud of.This
is the first one that when it was done and mixed we’ve been
unanimously excited about. The others took a bit more time.
We’re all really happy with this one. I don’t know, maybe we’re
deluding ourselves.
Thursday, 3/8
Explosions In The Sky
Republic, 828 S. Peters St., (504) 528-8282
www.republicnola.com
For more info on Explosions In The Sky, go to:
www.explosionsinthesky.com
15
MR. QUINTRON
TALKS THE NINTH WARD MARCHING BAND
BY LEO MCGOVERN
T
o say that Quintron is unlike most
New Orleans-based artists would
be a g r and under statement.
His live shows draw quite a crowd, yet he doesn’t overbook himself, which makes his few
shows (generally with partner and puppeteer Miss Pussycat) extra special. He’s the odd
N.O.-based alt artist who tours successfully, but he maintains an air of credibility in the local
scene. No one would dare brand him a sell-out and he garners respect like it’s going out
of style—people who know him say he’s a “master organizer” and the “brains behind” the
Ninth Ward Marching Band. It’s the Marching Band that brings ANTIGRAVITY to St. Claude
Ave. and the Spellcaster Lodge on a cold, dreary late-January evening. When AG enters the
Spellcaster, the Marching Band is wrapping up practice. With at least fifty musicians in the
Lodge, a number that includes members of local bands like Egg Yolk Jubilee, the Buttons,Triple
Delight and the Morning 40 Federation, it becomes clear that the Ninth Ward Marching Band
is, in effect, the New Orleans rock scene’s preeminent supergroup even though you wouldn’t
hear the Marching Band’s music at any of those aforementioned bands’ shows.After speaking
to several attendees, one simple thing is certain—every member has a passion for being a
part, no matter how big or small that part is, of the Ninth Ward Marching Band.
Over its decade-plus existence, things have generally been simple for the Marching
Band; play marching versions of classic rock songs (‘06’s repertoire included “Rock You
Like A Hurricane,” “Love Is Like Oxygen” and “House Of The Rising Sun”) and march in a
parade or two (the group has become a fixture in Muses and traditionally marches, in the
early morning after the Maritime Ball, from the Spellcaster to Mimi’s in the Marigny) while
looking snappy and, above all, having fun.
After Katrina, doors opened for the Marching Band.With many students still absent from
the area and high school bands at a premium, krewes had rare open slots. Proteus, a parade
that not only shares the group’s colors but, because of its old-school status and attitude, is
respected immensely by Quintron, hired the Marching Band. The added exposure plus the
national media attention given to the first post-Katrina Mardi Gras didn’t always work in
the band’s favor, however. The New York Times published a “Mardi Gras Diary” entry that
alluded to the Marching Band, and the simple fact that its members are almost all white,
as a “telltale sign” that New Orleans was undergoing a “cruel demographic shift.” Was the
notion a shrewd deduction or a complete misunderstanding and ignorance of the Ninth
Ward Marching Band’s history?
ANTIGRAVITY talked to Quintron not only to set the record straight regarding that
N.Y. Times article but also to get some of his history with New Orleans and what the
Marching Band means to him.
17
AG: Why did you move to New Orleans?
Quintron: I was touring with my original Quintron, One Man
Band thing, and in 1994 I played at Pussycat Caverns, which is
the club that Miss Pussycat ran at Piety and Burgundy. I met
her, and I was just literally passing through town. I basically
came here for a girl.
AG: How did the Ninth Ward Marching Band
come together?
Quintron: I’ve always been blown away by high school marching
bands. That genre or mode of creating music is the ultimate
way to make music, ever. Creativity and individual artistry
is taken out of the picture and it’s about getting a hundred
people to do the same thing at the same time, to show up, play
the same lines the same way and no one is really expressing
themselves or soloing or doing anything like that. But when
you put it all together…you know the feeling when a marching
band passes you by and you see the level of playing is widely
varied from virtuoso players to people who can hardly play,
but they’re playing the same thing at the same time and they’re
playing together…it makes the hair on the back of your neck
stand up. It’s the most beautiful example of collaboration.
AG: Do you think marching bands here are
different than those in other cities?
Quintron: In other cities, it’s like marching bands are doing
their homework, but here people are playing with guts and
soul. They want to be a marching band, they want to be First
Trumpet and they want to play their ass off and walk down
the street with their friends cheering them on and following
them down the street. Second lines start with high school
marching bands, which are the shit. They make me cry…
they’re the best. There are a million that are great. They’re
not expressing themselves individually, necessarily. That
group-wide monster pride is amazing. I wanted to make that
with adults, with us freaky, rock ‘n’ roll, wacky people who
don’t have jobs and aren’t in high school or the military, but
make us do the same thing (those marching bands do). Forget
your rock band, forget your composition masterpiece, we’re
going to play these stupid classic rock songs, and we’re going
to play these songs in unison and the power’s going to be in
that we can actually do it. I think that works. The fact that
we got it together enough to do it and no one’s jamming or
being an individual, and they’re wearing a uniform and it’s clean
and tight and looks good…it’s powerful, a symbol of unity,
of people coming together and agreeing to do something
together and achieving it. The sound represents that.
AG: How do you think the Marching band is tied
to the Ninth Ward?
Quintron: Loosely. The drum corps is mostly from the Ninth
Ward, and if you’re talking about whether they’re from New
Orleans or not, probably close to seventy-five percent was
born and raised in the city. The Marching Band itself has nothing
to do with the Ninth Ward. Originally it had to do with our
neighborhood, people who had moved into the white Ninth
Ward art scene, which featured people who moved here from
other places because rent is cheap, houses were cheap, and
this was the East Village in New Orleans. The genesis of the
“Forget your rock band, forget your
composition masterpiece, we’re going to
play these stupid classic rock songs, and
we’re going to play these songs in unison
and the power’s going to be in that we can
actually do it.”
marching band was those people. I’d say that the drum corps
and a couple of the girl groups are still rooted in that original
neighborhood group of people.
AG: How many members of the marching band
are from or live in the Ninth Ward?
Quintron: All the drummers are from the neighborhood.
Everyone else is from Metairie, the Northshore, all over the
place. The residency of the band has nothing to do with the
Ninth Ward. That’s just the name. To cop out and make it the
“New Orleans Marching Band” or the “Mardi Gras Marching
Band…” It was originally called the Ninth Ward Marching
Band…it looks cool, the cat logo looks cool. I mean, none
of the Metairie guys care that it’s called the Ninth Ward
Marching Band. They’re not, “What about Old Metairie or
the Mandeville Marching Band?” For people to nitpick at that,
like critics or media people…to answer the media or whine
against them, it’s fruitless.
AG: Did your admiration for marching bands exist
before you came to New Orleans?
Quintron: It came totally from New Orleans.
AG: Were you in a marching band when you were
a kid?
Quintron: I was never in a marching band when I was a kid, but
I studied military snare for years and years, just rudiments and
stuff like that, just marching stuff.
AG: Why are all the songs the marching band
plays classic rock?
Quintron: Mostly so that no one has sole ownership of the
music. If I were to write the music, some quick Quintron
songs, it would make it like I want them to help me do my
thing. I could make it as democratic as could be, but it’d still
be the “Quintron Marching Band,” and I don’t want it to be
like that at all. I want it to be this dumb, learning, rote…no
one owns it, no one’s getting all the glory for the creation of
the actual music. A bigger reason is because there are so many
people in the band—if you’re playing material that’s familiar
to a certain age group, and classic rock is the one genre that
spans the widest age group, more than hip-hop or even oldies.
The right classic rock songs, Little Gregory has heard them,
and forty-year-old Jeff the tuba player has heard them…it sets
something in your head in advance that allows us to, in a month
and a half, to put this shit together; it gives people a head start,
they know the melodies, you know when the chorus is coming
because you’ve heard it a million times. And for the girl groups
who are doing the dances, they can get their dances together
before we get the music to them. It’s a crutch that allows it to
be achieved, and if it were an original composition by me, no
one would know what it was, it wouldn’t have that memory
attached to it.
AG: How does the composition of the songs come
about?
Quintron: We take the song and simplify it, pull out the
elements, dumb it down to marching tempo. The best marching
songs have distinct bass lines with overlaying melody parts that
work well with each other. The classic rock bands that are all
nerdy about music, like Styx or ELO, are great for marching
bands because they really composed their music. You never
think about classic rock that much until you start arranging it
for marching band, but there’s a reason why certain bands are
popular with marching bands—it’s because the bass lines are
really distinct, they’re easy to arrange and the chords are really
thick and you can do cool things with the chorus. We start
by choosing the stuff that way, and then I get together with
Eric from Egg Yolk Jubilee. He’s the chord arranging genius,
and we figure out all that stuff. The drummers are working
separately.
AG: How does one get selected for the Marching
Band?
Quintron: It’s not a selection. People think it’s this elite thing.
There are people I hear about second-hand who think, “Why
don’t I get picked for Marching Band?” It’s like, “Maybe because
you play guitar, you don’t read music or play a horn or play
drums.” It’s not this totally democratic thing that’s open to
everybody. The band’s got a twelve-year history. The drum
corps has been basically the same corps since day one, with
one or two additions or subtractions over the years. And the
gun girls too, and the baton girls. I mean, it’s kind of random
how people get added. A bass drummer dropped out this year,
and this guy walked up to me on Frenchmen St. because he’s a
friend of a friend of a friend of one of the other bass drummers.
He said, “I’ve seen your band before, and I really love it, and
I’ve got the time and I really want to do it.” Right there, I said,
“Give me your phone number.” It was early enough in the
process that he could learn the material. We’re a lot more
likely to take great horn players late in the game, as long as
they can read music. There’s a whole new trend of hippier,
rock marching bands around the country that are kind of like
drum jam bands. Over 75% of the people here have marched
in high school; they know that you start the one on your left
foot…that’s why we’re good. If it was just drums and a few
wankers pretending to play some songs, it would suck. It takes
those dudes who played at Rummel, you know, being good.
The more horns the better. You add too many drums and it’s
a mess. I’d take a hundred good horn players, though.
AG: What numbers would the marching band top
out at?
Quintron: This year we have eighty-five members, and if it
gets too much bigger than that it’s a hassle. Whenever we
have to cancel band practice or something like that I have to
personally call eighty-five people, and that could take all day.
AG: What was it like for the Marching Band last
year, marching in the first post-Katrina Mardi
Gras?
Quintron: We marched with Proteus and Muses, and the
regular parade after the Maritime Ball. Of course, the national
media was down here and the N.Y. Times wrote something
about the Ninth Ward Marching Band…
AG: We should say that that was Adam Nossiter
(N.Y. Times, Feb. 25th, 2006), and he said, “Another
group styled itself the Ninth Ward Marching
Band, but it was almost all-white — clearly
commemorative, rather than representative, of
what had been a black neighborhood, now gone.
The band members wore military-style helmets
with “9” on them. The once-obscure Ninth Ward
is now a world-famous war zone.”
Quintron: He said that we were “a telltale sign” of what the
Ninth Ward would become—mostly white. We’ve been
around for twelve years, and have always been, while not being
all white, majority white. That was really annoying, but to be
expected. Now I feel a little weird about the fact that we’re
called the Ninth Ward Marching Band and that in the last year
and a half the Ninth Ward has gotten all this publicity and
been the symbol of the black victims of Katrina. That’s true,
but anyone who lives here knows about the Upper-Nine, the
Lower-Nine and the Bywater, that the Ninth Ward in the‘70s
was all white and eventually became Chalmette. You wouldn’t
expect the national media to understand that, but now I feel
like “What are people seeing when they see us marching down
the street with a banner that says ‘Ninth Ward Marching
Band?’” In a way, I don’t even want to address it, because it’s
like, we are what we are, we have been what we have been,
and if you don’t know, you don’t fucking need to know. It’s
still a weird issue.
AG: The guy who wrote that article is actually from
New Orleans, and an odd thing is that Thinknola.
com just called him out for his N.Y. Times piece
on the recent crime march to City Hall. Thinknola
posted links to four stories, and while the other
three talked about creating accountability in the
New Orleans government, his was about race and
how most of the people in the march were white.
Race seems to be at the forefront for him.
Quintron: That’s bullshit. I hate it, and I hate that the national
media is making everything about race, like it’s us versus them,
white against black, with white people being the evil race and
black people being the victim, and that’s bad for both sides.
For him to turn our band into a beacon representation of the
downfall, the white-ization of New Orleans is really offensive
to me. My immediate reaction was that I wanted to tell the
world the way it is, but I kind of don’t feel that right now.
AG: Would you ever change the name of the
Marching Band?
Quintron: I’ve never thought, “Oh, we should change our
name,” but I know we’re going to get shit, even more than last
year. We’re not going to change our name. The real question
is, “Why aren’t there more black people in our Ninth Ward
Marching Band?” The answer is that it just started from a
neighborhood of friends who hang out and collaborate and
communicate with each other. Why aren’t more of my true
brothers in New Orleans black people? If there were, they’d
be in this band. I’m not saying I’m a racist, but that’s a question
for everyone right now. The racism thing in New Orleans
is weird. I think it’s actually one of the least racist places in
America. I think black people and white people understand
each other fundamentally in a way that’s above and beyond
most other places in the U.S. At the same time, our hardcore
communities don’t mix, and everyone kind of likes it that way.
You know Little Gregory, right? He’s in the band because he’s
got guts. Associating with older people, and white people…he
insists on being a part of all this crazy stuff that we’re doing,
19
and there’s open-minded people and people crazy enough in our scene that accept
that and we’re true friends now. Why can’t that happen more? Those are things
that people who aren’t from here can never understand. They don’t know race
relations in New Orleans, and they never will. Us shouting “Ninth Ward,” or
whatever, was a way of bonding in this little art community that we’ve got, in the
same way that other groups of people in the city do, whether it’s Uptown or St.
Thomas or whatever. The cool thing about neighborhood pride existing on such
a minute local level that you’re actually talking about ten square blocks. It’s so
ridiculous and beautiful that that was part of the original Ninth Ward “thing” for
us. In a way it’s New Orleans pride, but it didn’t become this touchy racial issue
until Katrina, which turned everything into a touchy racial issue, which sucks.
AG: How did you get involved with Proteus?
Quintron: Proteus paraded a long time ago, and then stopped and started parading
again. I used to be an electrician for Proteus, and I love their floats. Really oldschool. Foil leaf, flower petal style, kind of like Rex but even more flowery and
beautiful, the big giant wagon wheels and stuff. For years and years, the Ninth
Ward Marching Band only did their own parades from the Spellcaster to the
French Quarter and we were like this renegade thing. My mission the whole time
was, New Orleans can be decadent and weird enough, but I never wanted to be
anti-Mardi Gras or anti-New Orleans, I want to be in the real shit. Being in a real
parade is as important as being this late-night, freak parade. I want to march down
Canal St. and St. Charles Ave. Our first ever parade was with Shangri-La when it
was in Chalmette. It was fun, a total country-style parade. Then we marched with
Muses for a couple years, and after the hurricane, I had an opportunity to step it
up. All these krewes needed marching bands because so many dissipated. I knew
I didn’t want to march with Rex, and Zulu would be weird and controversial, and
the super-krewes take too long, they stop forever and have a bunch of celebrities.
I wanted to march with Proteus, the snarkiest, most old-line, Uptown, beautiful
parade that exists, in my opinion. We even share their colors, red and white. I
got their number and called them, and they were into it. It has nothing to do
with sharing politics with them, I don’t even want to get into that. Joining up with
them was about being in a high-profile Lundi Gras, classy parade and being able
to march down St. Charles Ave. for tons and tons of people, little old ladies and
little kids and high school students. Proteus is up there with Rex and Zulu as the
best and most traditional.
AG: I was talking with Lefty (member of the Marching Band, owner
of the Circle Bar) the other day, and he talked about this feeling
that some people who move to New Orleans have. Almost that
some people who grew up here don’t respect transplants, that
people who move here can never become “real” New Orleanians.
Obviously, some people are kind of “adopted” by the city (Archie
Manning was born in Mississippi but is widely considered a “New
Orleanian,” for example), but what do you think about that
attitude?
Quintron: I will never be born and raised here. I will never be born and bred New
Orleans. There’s something about you guys that will always and forever separate
you from us. I don’t have a problem with that, but too many outsiders who move
here get hung up on wanting to be born and raised here. There’s something in
the water that makes y’all a certain way, that you have something over us, a magic
power that people who were born and raised here have. What makes the city
work, and function, and is beautiful about New Orleans is that it is a melting pot
and accepts outsiders. I’m here for a reason, and I wouldn’t live anyplace else. I
consider this my hometown, and I’m a military brat and I’ve lived here longer than
I’ve lived anywhere, so in a way it is my hometown. But I’m not Jude Matthews.
AG: Who else could be Jude Matthews?
Quintron: Nobody, and that’s the point. I worship and respect that, to the Nth
degree. I don’t know what to say about that. I’m not hung up on it. I’ll tell anyone
that I’m not born and raised here. But if you have disrespect for me just because
I’m not born and raised here, then you’re an idiot because I was a little baby, how
could I have a choice? We’re all citizens of the world. And there are people born
and raised here who are fucking idiots, that are narrow-minded and racist and
useless, and there are genius and amazing people who are born and raised here,
and there are genius and amazing people who move here. It’s almost easier for
the outsiders that are here to stick it out as it is for you to seek greener pastures
because it ain’t romantic for you like it is for people who are from somewhere
else. For people who are coming here now from Portland, Oregon or New York,
the liberation of New Orleans is this new beautiful thing. If you’re from here and
your grandparents are from here, you see this whole cycle of horribleness that’s
a part of the city and it’s easy to say, “Fuck this, I can make a lot more money in
L.A. being a smart, creative person.” Honestly, it takes a lot of guts to stay in New
Orleans. I have a lot of respect for the people who were born and raised here and
haven’t left. There are a lot of reasons to leave. The reasons that you have not,
that Jude has not, that Rik Slave has not, that Mike Joseph has not, are the same
reasons that I’m here—forever and ever.”
Thursday, 2/15; Monday, 2/19
Ninth Ward Marching Band
Marches in Muses and Proteus Parades.
Check your Mardi Gras guides for details.
For more info on the Marching Band, go to:
www.quintronandmisspussycat.com/marchingband
PAGINATIONS
Mosquito
Alex Lemon
(Tin House)
without succumbing to the strong emotion just barely held in
check. In “MRI,” the speaker endures seeing the tumor inside
him by keeping his eyes open and his mental associations
humorously unsettled:
I’m half-
Alex Lemon’s Mosquito is
a book of poems born out
of the experience of illness,
and for that reason, you
might open it up with a
certain set of assumptions.
You might expect, for
instance, to find a lot of
plainly stated autobiographical detail—possibly flavored with
self-pity—and not much sex, and probably not much in the
way of experimentation with language and form. Sick people
have more immediate concerns, right? Fortunately, the 28
year-old Lemon has written a book that successfully defies the
entire schema we sometimes bring to the poetry of illness,
and manages to be inspirational in a much broader way.
In Mosquito, hope comes through the words themselves,
which carry such blunt oddness that they don’t just paint
a picture—they force our brains to start working in weird
ways; they effectively put us in the position of taking nothing
around us for granted.
The experience of reading Lemon’s poetry is rewarding
for the same reason it is uncomfortable: while every sense is
turned up to its most intense level, the voice in the poems
is also an objective one, focusing on both the physical
experience of pain and the tossing and turning of the mind
naked, shivery with chicken skin,
napkin-gowned. But I don’t laugh
because I think the veined cobweb
looks like Abraham Lincoln’s profile on the penny.
So let’s pretend I’m not sick at all.
I’m filled with golden tumors—
love for the nurse who feeds me
to the machine.
The poems in Mosquito that deal directly with Lemon’s
experiences as a patient are, fittingly, the most pressurized.
But the physical and emotional pain is not communicated
directly; instead, it hits us by way of the quality of the language,
which seems to grow tougher and more brutally opaque as the
experiences grow more difficult. In “Last Body,” a catalogue
of examples assembled so that “others / Might understand”
quickly dissolves into chaos, as Lemon poetically bangs his
head against a wall confronting the futility of that effort:
For example, the oak vamping de-limbed
In winter, or how each pair of tennis shoes is
Unwound from the power line. But none of this
Shines like a rain of thumbtacks. For a mouth
Open is no different than frostbite or a bucket of bolts
Slopping into the sun’s bath.
Not all of Mosquito moves with meaningful difficulty. As the
book develops, the voice seems to relax just a bit, and the
poems take on other subjects besides illness without losing
their bite. “Love Is a Very Small Tsunami,” which opens the
book’s second section, is just as frenetic as “Last Body,” but
here, the underlying emotion is joy. And while the freewheeling
motion of “Love” provides a welcome contrast to the tension
of some of the earlier poems, Lemon’s depiction of love is
no less conventional than his handling of pain. Resisting
direct narrative, he instead creates excitement through
a rush of associations that spills down the page: “I race to
the lake / where bodies drown in algae and the mind / flexes
everything naked.” Even in moments of outright eroticism,
Lemon maintains an awareness of his own solitude. In “Plum,”
although the lover is near to him in space (“your wetness
stuck, cried, like a mouse / in a glue trap”), the poet keeps an
observer’s stance, and so accepting is Lemon of that distance
that at times he lets his scope slide fully to the panoramic: “I
could see the patch of hair you’d missed shaving / glow on
your calf like a gold brick in an Iowa cornfield.”
Wisdom doesn’t occur in Mosquito in the same way you
might find it elsewhere: almost nowhere in Lemon’s collection
can you hear the ring of a lesson being imparted. But his
poems are wise by example; they place us inside a mind doing
the hard work of constantly remembering how fragile and
coincidental life is. It’s the pressure of that knowledge that
makes his work so vital and real—and such an inspiring feat
for a writer who’s still so young. —Liz Countryman
21
ILLUSTRATIONS
Pirates Of Coney
Island #1-3
Rick Spears, Vasilis Lolos
(Image)
P
irates of Coney Island is
the natural inheritor
of the title “best angry
anti-establishment
youth
comic” from Rick Spears’
previous effort, Teenagers
From Mars. Spears brings
together a gritty, realistic look at the life of young juvenile
delinquents, but he flavors it with heavy doses of crazy
characters, outrageous car chases and style that most real
young punks probably can’t muster. Spears’ wild ideas have
already found a natural mate in the anarchic art of Rob G.,
but Vasilis Lolos is just as simpatico, with an edgy punk look
reminiscent of Becky Cloonan and Amazing Joy Buzzards‘
Dan Hipp and flashy, gorgeous colors that remind me of
the work of Supermarket’s Kristian. Pirates of Coney Island is
a burst of pure pop entertainment with a darkly compelling
and violent mean streak underlying it.
The pacing on Pirates of Coney Island can be a bit offputting at first, as the entire first issue goes by without
even introducing the titular characters. Instead, our pointof-view character, a runaway new to the New York area,
has a nasty run-in with rival female gang The Cherries, and
it isn’t until issue two that he joins up with the Pirates. It’s a
questionable pacing choice, but by the time issue two rolls
in and Spears and Lolos are introducing us to the Pirates,
or issue three features a kickass act of roadway piracy, all
is forgiven. Pirates may start rolling a little slow, but once
it gets going, it doesn’t let up. It’s also clear that everything
introduced in the first issue, from the Cherries to the
mysterious enforcer driving a “Cadillacula,” will show up
again before the miniseries is done.
From the start, I fell in love with the artwork on this
book. Vasilis Lolos has a great storytelling style, making
terrific use of long horizontal panels, several pages of 8-10
panels to cram a lot of small moments into one page and
then busting out a big two-panel page that serves as almost
a splash for effect. He doesn’t use
full- or two-page splash panels at
all in the first three issues, and
the result is room for a whole
lot of story and action. Lolos
also does the kind of thing you
see more often in manga and
European comics, tossing in
panels of background detail that give a good sense of place,
like the “slow pan” over Coney Island in mid-issue one, the
atmospheric opening page of issue two or a shot of street
signs in issue three.
Beyond just a good sense of storytelling, Lolos has a
compelling visual style. His characters have exaggerated
faces, big eyes and teeth that allow them to really stand
out as characters as well as show key emotion, even if
they’re not given any dialogue. The burning anger and slow
acceptance of our point of view character, and the glee that
Black Jack, Tats and Knievel show in the driving sequence
of two or the pirate sequence of three are just a couple of
examples. There’s also a lot of bright, occasionally almost
day-glo, color used by Lolos and colorist Nick Filardi,
which works very similarly to the unusual color palette of
last year’s Supermarket. Lolos also fetishizes the important
elements of the book, from the characters’ clothes and
affectations to the beauty of the cars that the Pirates hunt.
Oh, and there are sound effects… great, glorious, old
school sound effects, rendered in big, loud, postmodern
fashion.
The book’s got a great visual hook, but there’s substance
beneath the hood. Spears presents a world that at first
seems to be something of a gritty look at the life of a teen
runaway, where one day the wrong word to the wrong girl
gets your eye cut out and another you’re picking pockets
and getting chased by cops. By the second issue, though,
it becomes clear that Pirates of Coney Island embraces the
upside of anti-social behavior in a way that is part Scorsese,
part Tarantino and Rodriguez and part Tony Scott, with
maybe a little Blues Brothers thrown in for good measure.
Pirates of Coney
Island is a celebration
of the outlaw way of
life, but the aggressive
behavior and criminal
acts of the Pirates
are
presented
in
such an over-thetop and entertaining
manner that it’s hard
not to crack a smile
and go along for the
ride. There’s a sheer
anarchic joy to be
found when Black Jack,
leader of the Pirates,
proudly tells the new
kid that their van has
“three fucking gears
of reverse” as their
crazy driver Knievel
races them through
a backwards chase
with the cops. Same
goes for issue three,
when the Pirates pull
up on a ‘66 Pontiac
GTO and, like modern
pirates, board it and
cart it away. It’s insane,
outright
criminal
behavior, but you can’t
help but root for the
free-spirited Pirates,
who look and act like
they’re having the time
of their lives.
antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative
_23
PROJECTIONS
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American Hardcore
Paul Rachman
(Sony Classics)
Watching Paul Rachman’s
documentary
American
Hardcore: The History of
American Punk Rock 19801986, I couldn’t shake Mike
Muir’s indignant refrain from
Suicidal Tendencies’ “I Want
More.” While showcasing an
impressive array of artists and
performance videos from the era, the film fails to hold interest
for anyone but the most fervent hardcore devotee.
Based on the Steven Blush book “American Hardcore: A
Tribal History,” the film follows the emergence of American
hardcore punk as a reaction to the Reagan presidency in
1980. Energetic shows by black D.C. hardcore pioneers the
Bad Brains highlight the film, and their influence speaks to
disaffected mostly white suburban teens countrywide. With
a little nurturing from the Bad Brains, Ian MacKaye launches
Minor Threat. Interviews with MacKaye, Black Flag
vocalist Henry Rollins and H.R. from the Bad Brains
are promising, but the message and overall impact
gets diluted by the filmmakers inclusion of almost
anyone willing to add a sound bite. Sometimes less
is more in film, and by including so many voices in
the story, the omission of major hardcore players
like the Dead Kennedys and Suicidal Tendencies
except in passing, American Hardcore seems like the
movement itself to be little more than a missed
opportunity.
American Hardcore plays out no differently than
when an old friend pointed out a nondescript Camp
Street building where he saw Black Flag perform:
here’s a band, here’s a place they once played and
mayhem ensued. While the Do-It-Yourself aesthetic
of the bands is admirable, larger issues of why youths
acting out against Reagan-era politics amount to
little more than repeated fan on fan violence with a
soundtrack remain largely unexplored. For all their
acting out against normalcy, some twenty years later
almost all the interviewees seem, well, normal.
In the end, Reagan wins re-election, the Bad
Brains go reggae and the movement dies. I want
more. —J.W. Spitalny
25
REVOLUTIONS
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Wet Confetti
Laughing Gasping
(Pampelmoose)
After five years of honing their
musical skills and a lot of doit-yourself hard work, Wet
Confetti will release a new
album, Laughing Gasping, during the first week of February.
Produced in collaboration with Dave Allen from the influential
English post-punk group Gang of Four, Laughing Gasping is the
band’s first album to be backed by a third-party label—Allen’s
own Pampelmoose. A trio of aspiring creeps from Portland,
Oregon, Wet Confetti has worked hard to get their music out
and to confuse everyone. Due to a mixture of dark humor,
calculated sheepishness and front woman Alberta Poon’s
sassy, upbeat bubblegum attitude, the band’s sound has been
interpreted by a broad audience in every which way possible.
Most conveniently akin to something like Blonde Redhead,
Wet Confetti nevertheless evades easy classification with their
jangling, pretty, punky noise and colorful indifference. But
while everyone else is busy trying to figure out what the group
sounds like and why anyone should listen to Laughing Gasping,
Wet Confetti’s been getting their shit together and making
themselves known. Having left industry-driven Seattle because
they felt stifled by its ‘who-you-know’ vibe, they’ve landed in
Portland where everyone knows them and no one tells them
what to do. Instead, they do what they want—when and how
they want. Right now that means getting on a label, putting
out an album and above all, trying to book a U.S. tour. And
as lead singer Alberta Poon details in her conversation with
ANTIGRAVITY, getting the pieces to fall into place is never
that easy.
ANTIGRAVITY: Wet Confetti has been together
since 2001 and produced two early albums on
its own. Has the band changed a lot since then,
particularly with the release of Laughing Gasping?
Alberta Poon: When we first started playing we were a very
different band. Dan did all the singing and now I do all the
singing. I did not grow up playing music or have any influence
from family members who played music, so I was mortified
of singing my whole life—I wouldn’t even sing happy birthday
when people would sing. At one point we were both kind of
singing, but the boys really wanted me to start so at some point
Dan stopped and I took over. We’ve changed a lot but it’s been
a very gradual change from the beginning until now—we’re a
completely different band.
AG: Who does most of the songwriting? Do you
generate most of the material or is it a collaborative
thing?
AP: It’s very, very collaborative with our band—a lot of songs
come from jamming. We’ll just start jamming and if something
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cool comes of it, usually I take it home and structure it and
write words. Sometimes it’s just me who writes a song or
it’s just Dan who writes a song. We write in every different
way but a lot of it comes from jamming.
AG: Were there any particular artists that were
really influential in the creation of the new
album?
AP: As for songwriting, there wasn’t a real influence other
than what we do and what we want to do. As for how
the album sounds—this is an insult to the album—but
what we really wanted to sound like was a Heart album.
I can’t remember the main Heart album we were aiming
for, but Heart’s production value was some of the best in
history. And we were like, “we want it to sound like this”
but there’s no way unless you go back in time and go into
the same studio they recorded it…only pretend and strive
for it to sound like that.
AG: So Laughing Gasping is the band’s third
album and was produced with Dave Allen from
Gang of Four. How did he get involved with Wet
Confetti?
AP: We recorded Laughing Gasping ourselves two and
a half years ago. We love it but there are a few songs
that should’ve been out in 2005. They’re just going to be
coming out now and we wrote them that long ago. The
boys are more involved in the recording process, while I do
everything else, so they obsessed over the album. Because
we recorded it ourselves and had no one to answer to…
they just kept tweaking and working on it and fixing it and
adding this, to the point where the album didn’t even sound
like us and it was just a mess. By the time we were done
with it, we were all like, “What are we doing? Are we
putting this out?” And we gave it to one of our friends and
he actually gave it to Dave Allen. He heard it and agreed it
needed a lot of work and there was potential in the album
and that’s when he approached us.
AG: Did working with Dave Allen change the
band’s output on this album in a way that differs
from your previous work?
AP: I think working with him didn’t necessarily change the
outcome of our album much. I’d say the only thing that
would have been different from us working alone versus
with him, is that the album is definitely higher production
than anything we’ve ever done. Everything we’ve ever done
is pretty, you know, low production I guess. It’s definitely
more polished than anything else. He helped produce it, and
Mike Cozzi was also a producer, but the band had a lot of
say as to how the album sounds.
AG: Any aspect of the album that you were
particularly satisfied with? Any favorite tracks?
AP: We definitely have our favorites but we’re also writing
so much new stuff right now. I think a lot of bands are like
this—by the time an album comes out they have all this
new written material and they just want to be playing that.
But we have to fight that because our album’s not even out.
We have all of this new material and we want to record it
and put it out, but we need to sit and wait on the new stuff.
But I’m very happy with the new album. I love the track
“Sorry Dinosaur” where Dave actually played a little bit of
bass on that. It’s a catchy, cute little tune the way it all came
together.
AG: Your vocals have been described in a variety
of ways, from sexy, pretty and whispered to
strung-out, caterwauling and urgent. What
do you think of the way listeners and critics
respond to your music?
AP: Not just with my voice but with our music, it’s so across
the board what people think of our band. People love us.
People hate us. I think we’re a really hard band to classify
and I think when writers can’t pigeonhole a band they tend
to over-criticize the band. Reviews for our band are pretty
all over the place. A writer recently said something about
our unlikely matching of innocent and evil and I thought that
was really clever because we do have this definite dark side
to the music but it’s also very innocent too. And to hear
a writer say that, I was like, “wow, she wrapped it up.” I
thought that was really insightful.
AG: How do you feel about touring? I know you
have some dates scheduled for California, any
plans to broaden the tour?
AP: There are bands that love touring and there are bands
that hate it. I think we’re definitely on the side of liking it,
but we also haven’t toured a lot. We’ve only done little
West Coast and Midwest tours but we haven’t done a
full U.S. so we haven’t had the chance to completely hate
each other yet…We’re going to do a bigger West Coast
tour with The Thermals in April and that’ll be really good,
but booking a U.S. tour is a lot of work unless you have
someone helping you. But booking agents are hard to come
by, especially good ones…it’s easier to get signed than it is
to get a booking agent. It’s the hardest thing you can come
by, at least a good one, because there’s only a handful of
really good ones. All the good, bigger Indie rock acts are on
like ten booking agents. There are more labels than booking
agents. It’s either do it yourself or get on one of these.
AG: It seems like everyone’s looking forward
to an impressive list of new releases from a lot
of big bands this spring. Aside from Laughing
Gasping obviously, is there anything you’ve
been really into lately?
AP: Actually, on Monday we went and saw Menomena. I
think they’re the new ‘it’ band for sure. They’ll probably
take off huge this year. They’re a local Portland band and
they got a lot of hype for their album and their live show is
amazing. I didn’t know what it would be like because their
new album has a lot of layers and a lot of things going on.
They had a 22-piece choir singing with them and they’re a
rock band; it was really interesting and really, really good.
They’re gonna be huge. —Sarah Andert
ANTIGRAVITY IS A PROUD SPONSOR OF
Dear + Glorious
Physician
Self-Titled
(New Granada)
D
ear and Glorious Physician
are the Westfalls, four
blond-haired siblings from
Gainesville, Florida. Their self-titled debut album is exactly
what they claim it is, heavily influenced by bands like the Pixies,
the Talking Heads and Fugazi. The band’s name, also influenced
by earlier work, comes from a 1958 historical novel about
the life of Luke the Evangelist. (If you aren’t familiar, Luke
wrote the Gospel according to himself, as well as the book of
Acts, both included in the New Testament. However, he was
primarily a physician and never actually a disciple.)
That said, taking the history of this moniker into account
one could perhaps say that the group’s new album serves as
their own version of a rock gospel, the Gospel of the Pixies
According to Dear and Glorious Physician. While the group
has been proselytizing its way throughout Florida over the
past year or so, they have collected an ever-increasing number
of followers, earning a significant reputation within their local
scene. What they deliver is a refreshing interpretation of the
Pixies’ style plus a little Dead Meadow- still edgy, yet younger
and softer. Charles and Jillian exhibit a vocal rapport like that
of Black Francis and Kim Deal while their ‘start and stop’ guitar
riffs are certainly reminiscent of the Pixies’ Joey Santiago.
However, at times they lack the jagged abrasiveness of
the 90’s and therefore the effect is something slightly more
subdued and less impressionable. On the other hand, while they
may follow in the Pixies’ footsteps they aren’t just disciples;
what they have produced is far more than a reminder of what
was going on twenty years ago. While their work maintains a
rock mission similar to the Pixies, they have departed from
an unforgiving hardness which makes their work easier to
swallow. Their evangelizing then is perfectly suited for their
time and their audience. So really, their album is a gospel
according to themselves and likewise, it’s something I don’t
mind listening to. —Sarah Andert
Sondre Lerche
Phantom Punch
(Astralwerks)
Aw man, he’s huge in Norway
they say. A baby-faced, skinny
and scruffy young man by the
name of Sondre Lerche writes
and sings these power pop songs that move along nicely from
one to the next on “Phantom Punch” and close crisply after
three minutes or so, often rushing to get to the end. (By the
way, I had a Norwegian friend pronounce the last name which
to me sounded something like “Lerrrkye,” so I’m just going
to keep saying “Lersh.”) His band, playing the standard rock
instruments of guitar, bass, and drums, is well-integrated into
the songwriting so that the album indeed feels like the work of
a band, not a solo artist. The title track sports a spiffy, jangly riff
building up to a catchy chorus. The other punchy tracks distantly
recall some Brazilian tropicalismo, or maybe the Pixies, maybe
the Strokes. But perhaps unfairly, I keep wanting to compare
Lerche to his fellow Scandinavian, the Swede Jens Lekman.
Lekman’s songs are less busy, allowing his melodies to shine
through and quickly sink into your head. And Lekman’s lyrics
reveal his sly, melancholic sense of humor and feature clever
word-play. Lerche’s lyrics on the other hand don’t add up to
much, just as his music feels cobbled together from aspects
of his favorite bands. Ambitious singers in the biz build their
popularity on their distinctive personalities and visions as much
as any musical ability, but Lerche’s presence is amorphous. It’s
as if his musical career got this far because family and friends
recognized his talent and encouraged him to develop it, but he
doesn’t really know what to do with it. —Henry Alpert
27
PREMONITIONS
NEW ORLEANS
The Big Top
1638 Clio St., (504) 569-2700
www.3ringcircusproductions.com
Cafe Brasil
2100 Chartres St., (504) 947-9386
Carrollton Station
8140 Willow St., (504) 865-9190
www.carrolltonstation.com
Checkpoint Charlie’s
501 Esplanade Ave., (504) 947-0979
Chickie Wah Wah
2828 Canal St., (504) 304-4714
www.circlebar.net
Circle Bar
1032 St. Charles Ave., (504) 588-2616
www.circlebar.net
Coach’s Haus
616 N. Solomon
D.B.A.
618 Frenchmen St., (504) 942-373
www.drinkgoodstuff.com/no
Goldmine Saloon
701 Dauphine St., (504) 586-0745
Green Space
2831 Marais
Hot Iron Press
1420 Kentucky
The High Ground
3612 Hessmer Ave., Metairie, (504) 5250377
www.thehighgroundvenue.com
Hi-Ho Lounge
2239 St. Claude Ave. (504) 723-3113
House Of Blues / The Parish
225 Decatur, (504)310-4999
www.hob.com/neworleans
The Howlin’ Wolf
907 S. Peters, (504) 522-WOLF
www.thehowlinwolf.com
Le Bon Temps Roule
4801 Magazine St., (504) 895-8117
Maple Leaf
8316 Oak St., (504) 866-9359
Marlene’s Place
3715 Tchoupitoulas, (504) 897-3415
www.myspace.com/marlenesplace
One Eyed Jacks
615 Toulouse St., (504) 569-8361
www.oneeyedjacks.net
Republic
828 S. Peters St., (504) 528-8282
www.republicnola.com
Sip Wine Market
3119 Magazine St., (504) 894-7071
www.sipwinenola.com
Tipitina’s
(Uptown) 501 Napoleon Ave., (504) 8958477 (Downtown) 233 N. Peters
www.tipitinas.com
BATON ROUGE
Chelsea’s Cafe
2857 Perkins Rd., (225) 387-3679
www.chelseascafe.com
The Darkroom
10450 Florida Blvd., (225) 274-1111
www.darkroombatonrouge.com
North Gate Tavern
136 W. Chimes St.
www.northgatetavern.com
Red Star Bar
222 Laurel St., (225) 346-8454
www.redstarbar.com
Rotolos (All-Ages)
808 Pettit Blvd.
www.myspace.com/rotolosallages
The Spanish Moon
1109 Highland Rd., (225) 383-MOON
www.thespanishmoon.com
The Varsity
3353 Highland Rd., (225)383-7018
www.varsitytheatre.com
Friday, 2/2
The Upstairs Divine, Julie Odell, Analog
Theatre, One Warmer Blue, Smiles In
the Key Of Death, Darkroom, 7pm, $10
Zydepunks, N.O.madic Belly Dancers,
American Graveyard, Dragon’s Den,
10pm
Despite The Fall, Siever’s Drive, Kill
Romeo, High Groundi, 7pm, $6
Midlake, Rotary Downs,
Republic, 10pm
A Screening of Iraq In Fragments,
Zeitgeist, 7:30pm
Falry Ball, One Eyed Jacks
Monty Are I, Over It, The Summer
Obsession, House Of Blues
Stand Up For Kids Benefit w/ National
Comedy Co., Neal Stastny, Red Star Bar
Shamarr Allen, Elliot Cohn’s C.S.S., Le
Bon Temps Roule, 11pm
Roberto And Lissa, Checkpoint Charlie’s,
7pm
Slewfoot, Checkpoint Charlie’s, 11pm
Andy Wagner, Steve Eck, Fly By Nights,
Hi Ho Lounge, 10pm
Saturday, 2/3
Mod Dance Party, Circle Bar, 10pm
The Armoury, In Memory Of, In Fear Of
The Fall, Rest A While, Infinite Hours,
Darkroom, 7pm, $10
Krieu Du Vieux After Party, Hosted by
Gravity A, Dragon’s Den, 10pm
The Sticky Bandits, Skanomatopoeia,
The Shots, High Ground, 7pm, $6
Morning 40 Federations, Big
Blue Marble, The Transmission,
Howlin’ Wolf, 10pm
A Screening of Iraq In Fragments,
Zeitgeist, 7:30pm
Country Fried, Le Poisson
Rouge, Luke Allen Band, One
Eyed Jacks
Dance Fever, Red Star Bar
Palo Viejo, Spanish Moon
Domenic, Checkpoint Charlie’s, 7pm
Mike Darby Band, Checkpoint Charlie’s,
11pm
Greg Vendetti, Hi Ho Lounge, 10pm
Sunday, 2/4
DJ Pasta, Circle Bar, 10pm
The Other Planets, Dragon’s
Den, 10pm
Three-legged Dog, Checkpoint Charlie’s,
7pm
Monday, 2/5
Sista Otis, Almost Rhonda, Dragon’s Den
Orangeburg Massacre, Something Fierce,
Tamerlane, Green Space, 7pm, $5
AFI, Sick Of It All, House Of Blues
Patient Zero, Checkpoint Charlie’s, 7pm
The Fens, Checkpoint Charlie’s, 10pm
Bluegrass Pickin’ Party, Hi Ho Lounge,
8pm
Tuesday, 2/6
Sip ‘N’ Spin, ANTIGRAVITY
Edition, Sip Wine Market, 6:30pm
Drop, Presented by DJ Proppa Bear,
Dragon’s Den, 10pm
Steel Pulse, House Of Blues
LiveNewOrleans.com Presents:
The Lemonheads, Vietnam, The
Parish @ House Of Blues
Acoustic Open Mic w/ Jim Smith,
Checkpoint Charlie’s, 10pm
Wednesday, 2/7
Alex McMurray, Circle Bar, 10pm
DJ T-Roy, Dragon’s Den, 10pm
Washboard Chaz Trio, Le Bon Temps
Roule, 10pm
Kenny Holiday & The Rolling Blackouts,
Teresa Storch, Checkpoint Charlie’s, 7pm
Kenny H., Checkpoint Charlie’s, 10:30pm
Thursday, 2/8
DJ Bomshell Boogie, Dragon’s Den, 10pm
Eyehategod, Arson Anthem, Rise Above,
Howlin’ Wolf, 10pm, $2
Soul Rebels, Le Bon Temps Roule, 11pm
American Cheese Trio, Checkpoint
Charlie’s, 10pm
Fast Times ‘80s Dance Night, One Eyed
Jacks
Lips & The Trips, Checkpoint Charlie’s,
7pm
Trickbag, Checkpoint Charlie’s, 11pm
Sunday, 2/11
Guitar Lightning, Kitty Lynn, DJ
Pasta, Circle Bar, 10pm
The Panorama Jazz Band, Dragon’s Den,
10pm
Reverend Spooky LeStrange and Her
Billion Dollar Baby Dolls, Tarantula Arms
(209 Decatur St.), 9pm, $5
The Wailers, House Of Blues
New Orleans Craft Mafia Presents:
Crescent City Craft Market, The Big Top,
2pm, FREE
7pm
Monday, 2/12
Suburban Legends, MC Lars, Patent
Pending, High Ground, 7pm, $8
Destruction, Sadus, One Eyed Jacks,
10pm
Reckless Kelly, House Of Blues
Monday, 2/12
Friday, 2/9
Zydepunks, Goodman County, Circle
Bar, 10pm
Sender Receiver, Secretary, Cattle
Drive!, Hyacinth, Darkroom, 7pm, $10
Wativ, N.O.madic Belly Dancers,
MV/EE, Hi Ho Lounge, 10pm
Roses Are Red, Rookie Of The Year,
Four Letter Lie, Scenes From A Movie,
High Ground, 7pm, $8
Dick Dale, Howlin’ Wolf, 10pm
Gal Holiday & The Honky Tonk Revue,
Red Star Bar
Eames Era CD Release Party,
Harlan, Spanish Moon
Sol Fiya, Le Bon Temps Roule, 11pm
7pm
Lara Price, Checkpoint Charlie’s, 11pm
Matt Valentine, Erika Elder, Hi Ho
Lounge, 10pm
Saturday, 2/10
Fracture, Below C Level, Dragon’s Den,
10pm
Chin Up, Meriwether, The Robinsons,
Trash Trash Trash, Green Space, 7pm, $5
Sworn Enemy, Kataklysm, As Blood
Runs Black, Too Pure To Die, High
Ground, 7pm, $12
The Bingo Show, Spanish Moon, 10pm
Big Sam’s Funky Nation, Le Bon Temps
Roule, 11pm
Metronome The City, The Good
Guys, Dragon’s Den, 10pm
W
ouldn’t it be great to be a tourist in
town for Mardi Gras and accidentally
stumble into the Dragon’s Den during
Metronome The City’s set? Chances are
you’d already be in a very “accepting” state
of mind and your whole life might change in
the smoky red haze of the Den. You might
start to wonder whose character you are and
hyperventilate. Gulp down some fresh air on
the balcony then head back in to your life’s
new chapter... —Dan Fox
Bluegrass Pickin’ Party, Hi Ho Lounge, 8p
Tuesday, 2/13
Drop, Presented By DJ Proppa Bear
w/ White Colla Crimes, Dragon’s Den,
10pm
Everclear, Jonny Lives!, The Alternate
Routes, House Of Blues
Sip ‘N’ Spin, Sip Wine Market, 6:30pm
Friday, 2/16
Wednesday, 2/14
Alex McMurray, Circle Bar, 10pm
Boys Like Girls, Cartel, Cobra Starship,
Permanent Me, The Parish @ House Of
Blues
Largely Ironic Karaoke, Red Star Bar
Henry butler, George Porter, Johnny
Vidacovich, Le Bon Temps Roule, 10pm
Groove Sect, Le Bon Temps Roule, 2am
Thursday, 2/15
Bounce Nite, Circle Bar, 10pm
The Bombshelter w/ DJ Bomshell
Boogie, Dragon’s Den, 10pm
Better Than Ezra, House Of Blues
Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band, Tipitina’s
(Uptown)
White Ghost Shiver, Dimestore
Troubadours, Red Star Bar
Ross Halen & The Hellbenders,
Charlie’s, 10pm
The Happy Talk Band, Kitty
Lynn, Hi Ho Lounge, 10pm
Jacks
Friday, 2/16
Punk Rock Mardi Gras, w/ Zydepunks,
Fatter Than Albert, The Flaming
Tsunamis, The Brunt Of It, The Can
Kickers, Big Top, 6pm, $5
The Detonations, Viva
L’American Death Ray Music,
Circle Bar, 10pm
Landmines, Baby!, Rose To My Dear, In
Dystopia, The Fight Between Frames,
Darkroom, 7pm, $10
Chocolate Kitty II: A Celebration Of
NOLA’s Female DJs w/ Soul Sister,
Beverly Skills, Bomshell Boogie, Dragon’s
Den, 10pm
Rebirth Brass Band, Soul Rebels, Howlin’
Wolf, Midnight, FREE
Morning 40 Federation, One Eyed Jacks,
10pm
Better Than Ezra, House Of Blues
Scarlet Speedster, Red Star Bar
Bones, Shark Attack Mardi Gras Ball,
Spanish Moon
Roule, 10pm
Papa Mali CD Release Party, Le Bon
Temps Roule, 2am
Slewfoot, Carie B., Checkpoint Charlie’s,
1pm
Teeth Of The Hydra, Checkpoint
Charlie’s, 7pm
Sour Vein, Checkpoint Charlie’s, 11pm
Fay Wray, Hi Ho Lounge, 11pm
Sunday, 2/18
Punk Rock Mardia Gras w/ The
Zydepunks, Fatter Than Albert, The
Flaming Tsunamis, The Brunt Of It,
The Can Kickers, The Big Top
ometimes that cultural music-meets-punk
thing can seem intimidating, but rather than
create some kind of “fusion,” The Zydepunks
seem to grasp a common thread between
genres and create some really incredible,
organic music. The rhythm section is soundly
rock and roll/punk and sets the mood for the
violins, accordions, and harmonicas to really
go crazy. This entire show will be like an
instrument convention: Fatter than Albert’s
horns, the Can Kicker’s washboards and
various guitars and banjos all add to this sonic
smorgasborg. Bring your stompin’ shoes.
—Dan Fox
S
The Noise Parade, Circle Bar, 6pm
Black Rose Band, Wizzard
Sleeve, River City Tanlines,
Circle Bar, 10pm
New Orleans Klezmer All-Stars, DJ
Wizdum, Dragon’s Den
Mardi Gras All-Stars, Howlin’ Wolf,
Midnight, FREE
Johnny Sketch & The Dirty Notes,
Maple Leaf, 10pm
Papa Mali, One Eyed Jacks, 10pm
Old Crow Medicine Show, House Of
Blues
Wild Magnolias, Le Bon Temps Roule,
10am
Papa Gros Funk, Le Bon Temps Roule,
10pm
Bon Temps Roule, 2am
7pm
Ross Halen & The Hellbenders,
7pm
Anders Osborne, Le Bon Temps Roule,
10pm
Brotherhood Of Groove, Le Bon Temps
Roule, 2am
7pm
Creatures Of Habit, Checkpoint Charlie’s,
11pm
Jimmy Cousins, Little Howlin’ Wolf, Hi
Ho Lounge
Saturday, 2/17
Hazard County Girls, Circle Bar,
10pm
My Doppleganger’s Casket, St.
Valentine’s Day Massacre, Purity
Undone, Darkroom, 7pm, $10
Zydepunks, The Can Kickers, The Pine
Hill Haints, Dragon’s Den, 10pm
Rebirth Brass Band, Papa Grows Funk,
Howlin’ Wolf, Midnight, FREE
Bingo!, DJ Joey Buttons, One Eyed Jacks,
10pm
Cowboy Mouth, House Of Blues
Little Brazil, Wilderness Pangs, Spanish
Moon
Morning 40 Federation, Le Bon Temps
29
MC Trachiotomy, Hi Ho Lounge, 11pm
Monday, 2/19
Die Rotzz, Carbonas, Circle Bar, 10pm
Ratty Scurvics, Burlesque
Review, Six Pack, Dragon’s Den,
10pm
Ligeia, Burn In Silence, The Handshake
Murders, Apiary, High Ground, 7pm, $2
Bag Of Donuts, Howlin’ Wolf, Noon, FREE
George Porter Jr. & His Runnin’
Pardners, Bonerama, Howlin’ Wolf,
Midnight, FREE
Mad Happy, Dragon’s Den
Billy Iuso’s Restless Natives, Le Bon
Temps Roule, 2am
Gill Landry, Checkpoint Charlie’s, 4pm
The Can Kickers, Zydepunks, Checkpoint
Charlie’s, 10pm
Tchoupchupacabra, Brain Rex, Amateur
Egg Fight, Hi Ho Lounge, 10pm
Monday, 2/19
Kajun SS, The Poots, Die Rotzz,
Circle Bar
F
inding yourself at the Circle Bar on Lundi
Gras will certainly put you in the fabled
catbird seat; it’s the perfect launch point for
either heading back uptown to catch beads
with your kids or downtown to catch hell
in the post apocalyptic wasteland that will
be the CBD & French Quarter. The Poots
play rock and roll for your genitals and Die
Rotz will give you some easy one-liners to
battle all the Mardi Gras zombies: “I ain’t
got no change for you / you are completely
screwed!!!” The Kajun SS regroups on this
eve of all eves to round out this incredible
line-up. —Dan Fox
Tuesday, 2/20
Mardi Gras Throwdown w/ Gov’t Majik
and guest DJs, Dragon’s Den, 10pm
Against All Authority, Whole Wheat
Bread, Angry Banana, High Ground, 7pm, $8
Suplecs, Checkpoint Charlie’s,
5pm
Morning 40 Federation, Checkpoint
Charlie’s, 10pm
Wednesday, 2/21
Largely Ironic Karaoke, Red Star Bar
Thursday, 2/22
The Bombshelter w/ DJ Bomshell
Boogie, Dragon’s Den, 10pm
Charlie’s, 10pm
Jacks
Friday, 2/23
Lady Doom’s Hip Hop Revue, Dragon’s
Den
One Ring Zero, Red Star Bar
Subtle, Dose One, Jel, Spanish Moon
Absinthe Minded, Le Bon Temps Roule,
11pm
7pm
I Tell You What, Checkpoint Charlie’s,
11pm
Saturday, 2/24
Louisiana Drum ‘N’ Bass Party, Dragon’s
Den, 10pm
Barr, Marnie Stern, Peppermint Pony,
Dummy Dumpster, Ratzinger, Green
Space, 7pm, $5 (Stag) or $7 (Couple)
Royal Sinners Ball w/ The Polecats, One
Eyed Jacks, 10pm
Red Sparowes, Dead Child, Spanish
Moon, 10pm, $8
Red Sparowes, Planes Mistaken For
Stars, Spanish Moon
T-Bone Stone & The Lazy Boys,
Hi-Five, Checkpoint Charlie’s, 11pm
Fish: A Celebration Of Pisces In House,
Hi Ho Lounge, 9pm
Thursday, 3/1
Sunday, 2/25
James Singleton & Friends, Dragon’s Den,
10pm
Southern Culture On The Skids, The
Parish @ House Of Blues
7pm
One Ring Zero, Hi Ho Lounge, 10pm
Monday, 2/26
Outlaw Nation, Fuego, Demolition,
A Johnny Cash Birthday Celebration w/
Happy Talk Band, Gal Holiday & Her
Honky Tonk Revue, Country Fried, The
Honky Tonk Disciples, Howlin’ Wolf,
10pm
Bluegrass Pickin’ Party, Hi Ho Lounge,
8pm
Tuesday, 2/27
Drop, Presented by DJ
Proppa Bear, Dragon’s Den,
10pm
Lions, The Wayhighmen,
Thou, Spanish Moon
Acoustic Open Mic w/ Jim
Smith, Checkpoint Charlie’s,
10pm
Sip ‘N’ Spin, Sip Wine Market,
6:30pm
Wednesday, 2/28
Alex McMurray, Circle Bar,
10pm
Largely Ironic Karaoke, Red
Star Bar
Groove Sect, Le Bon Temps
Roule, 10pm
Kenny Holiday & The Rolling
Blackouts, Checkpoint Charlie’s,
9pm
Thursday, 3/1
Grizzly Bear, Papercuts,
Chelsea’s
Fast Times ‘80s Dance Night,
One Eyed Jacks
ANTIGRAVITY PRESENTS: Dr. Dog,
The Teeth, What Made Milwaukee
Famous, The Parish @ House Of Blues
Previously in AG: Dr. Dog
W
hile it’s possible that Dr. Dog might be
a bit too un-ironic for the hipper-thanthou crowd, there’s no doubting the sheer
joy to be found in its music. We All Belong
continues down Easy Beat’s shambolic, Beatlesborrowing path, toning down the psychedlia
while ramping up the sound quality and adding
a few seriously expansive arrangements to the
mix. —Noah Bonaparte
31

February 2007 - Antigravity Magazine

Transcription

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