BoDeans - Stay On

Life throws you all kinds of curveballs. Case in point: Go Slow Down was a really strange album for the BoDeans to break through to the mainstream with. It would be a bit of a stretch to call this an album of love songs… more like an album of songs about love… or, in some cases, the act of love. Okay, let's face it -- in at least two instances, this disc sounds like an attempt to write a soundtrack album for The Joy Of Sex… not that there's anything wrong with that.
Ironically, this earthy, somewhat anti-commercial fifth disc from the Wisconson, roots-rocking band built around singer-songwriter duo Kurt Neumann and Sam Llanas also contains their one smash hit single, the buoyant rocker "Closer To Free." In a twist of fate worthy of the Rembrandts, the producers of one-time uber-youth-soap  Party Of Five decided "CTF" sounded like great opening-credits music. Well, yeah. It cooks along like a born classic, fueled by Michael Ramos's soaring organ and accordion work and the heavy backbeat laid down by bassist Bob Griffin and guest drummer Kenny Aaronoff.
Truth be told, there are some very sweet and thoughtful tunes here, full of a kind of weary optimism, and decorated brightly with Llanas and Neumann's fine acoustic/electric guitar and mandolin work. "Idaho" is a (by turns) lyrical and philosophical little rocker about perspective. The upbeat "Save A Little" is equally appealing, and "Cold Winter's Day" is masterful in capturing a more somber mood, a vibrant mixture of nostalgia and camaraderie. Another number of note, "Stay On," is a kind of self-directed inspirational speech for struggling musicians.
But the title track… man, oh man. It's really funny to me what's considered obscene these days, because "Go Slow Down" and "Feed The Fire" are a thousand times sexier than anything you may or may not have seen on last year's Super Bowl halftime show, and there's not a parental advisory in sight. No expletives, nothing graphic -- just the essence of lusty sensuality, captured in words and music. Listen to these songs with someone you love.
Go Slow Down marked the commercial high-water mark of the BoDeans' career to date. Since the follow-up to Go Slow Down, 1996's fine Blend, they've recorded and toured intermittently. They're one of those low-profile bands who deserve more attention, but have never craved it enough to compromise their musical integrity. And Go Slow Down is an excellent album precisely because it's uncompromising -- honest, raw and beautiful, it's my pick for their best.  From: https://dailyvault.com/toc.php5?review=2652

Gaate - Hamløypar

Even if Gåte dates back its inception to 1999, would you mind recalling to our readers how this musical adventure started?

It all started with my brother Sveinung and me singing and playing music together. We grew up with parents who were deeply interested in Norwegian folk music which became a natural part of our musical upbringing. Our parents taught us traditional fiddle playing, and gradually I started to learn to kvede (a traditional Norwegian way of singing.)
During his teens, Sveinung become interested in modern music and started to play with synthesizers and musical programming. One time the Swedish folk rock band Garmarna asked me to warm up for them, I brought Sveinung with me. And we had the first performance where we did a fusion of traditional folk songs, musical programming, and synth. That was a performance with some key people in the hall, who soon became very important for Gåte‘s future. Their presence would help Gåte become a band with a clear path. A band that would tour and rapidly grasp the attention of a broad audience.

Your EP “Til Nord” dates back to 2021; that followed the full-length “Nord” released in December via Indie Recordings. What can you share about the production of “Til Nord?” And which is the connection that the EP shares with “Nord?”

We never planned to do an entire album within this more acoustic soundscape. Our original plan was to set up a series of acoustic concerts featuring cleaner and simpler versions of some of our songs. With the full-scale Gåte, we need a big production around us to make the concerts possible. For this occasion, our idea was to scale things down. And make it easier for us to travel with small-scale production. By giving us the freedom to play more shows and deliver more intimate performances. We should have gone on tour with this setup in spring 2020. But we only managed to do one concert before the pandemic hit. We had to cancel the entire tour.
Luckily, this acoustic production was a corona-friendly concert; it allowed us to perform several gigs. Initially, it was intended as a small side-project. Then it got a life of its own with a much longer lifespan than we had ever planned. The project allowed us to delve further into and explore our acoustic possibilities. And we soon became happier and happier doing these concerts. The reception of our down-scaled version of Gåte was also positive, which motivated us to make a record. The exploring process of their live potential before recording them was also a very positive one. And I believe it has put it’s mark on the record.

Indeed, “Nord”‘s release was at the beginning of December. It concludes an era for the band; what do you mean by that and why?

As previously mentioned, “Nord” was meant just as a side-project for us and not the beginning of something new. However, when Nord was released, we felt the album release finalized the project and marked a natural end. But Nord being Nord, it keeps on living a life of its own. And our statement might not be as conclusive as we felt it back in December. Its acoustic soundscape made an impact, and it will continue to be part of Gåte in some way or another. In addition to all the other aspects of our music that we seek to explore and develop.

From what I recall, the last full-length “Svevn” dates back to 2017. If compared with “Nord”, what your previous album is different from?

Gåte is deeply rooted in folk music and folklore. It is in our DNA and has paved the way for all our musical outputs. We call ourselves folklorists and see ourselves as vanguards of folklore. Gåte‘s goal is to convey and further this often-forgotten folk tradition. And showcase the beauty and strength hidden in its stories, songs, ballads, legends, myths, etc. Our music has always been innovative, groundbreaking, and different. It is rooted in cultural heritage and our musical tradition, without following the traditional rules and formulas. With “Nord”, Gåte became a creator in this tradition.
Together with the acoustic expression and through a cleaner and simpler soundscape, we have tried to create something we hope seems even more authentic. And beckoning people to join us in this journey back to the very roots of the vast Nordic folk tradition. Through this approach, Gåte also opened new doors and helped us see the music from a different stance. We felt we got even closer to defining our musical DNA and dared to expose ourselves and our instruments. Gåte has always been a force – using all means possible, maximizing the esthetics, and exaggerating everything. For this occasion, we wanted to peel everything down to the core. And see what lay beneath all the extravagance: “Nord” is the result of this process.

Every record produced and released brings a lesson learned. Musically and personally, what is the most fundamental life lesson Gåte has gained from “Nord?”

It has been a great learning experience. We have learned that we can afford to be more open to the music and the directions it takes us. Our essence and DNA will prevail and shine through regardless of which path our music leads to. Or what genre we choose to explore.

One of Gåte‘s traditions is to lyrically dive into the vast traditional Norwegian musical repertoire by offering captivating and emotional recondition. What can you tell me about the lyrics featured on “Nord”?

Most of Gåte’s songs are our take on traditional Norwegian folk songs; this is also the case with “Nord”. The themes vary, but some of them we often find is the agony of forbidden and lost love, life and death, and old myths and legends. The album booklet also features a text about each song – a little gift to all our fans who buy physical products.

Despite the pandemic, what is in the pipeline? Which is the thing that you are looking forward to? And which are your plans?

We are hoping to do tours and concerts outside of Norway again. And looking forward to working with new music and towards a new album.

From: https://www.femmemetalwebzine.net/interviews/gate-an-interview-with-gunnhild-sundli/

2 Foot Yard - Seven Houses

The San Francisco-based trio 2 Foot Yard is known for its daring and pioneering way with classical sounds: when violinist/vocalist Carla Kihlstedt, percussionist/guitarist Shahzad Ismaily, and cellist/vocalist Marika Hughes are not fusing them with visceral, pounding rock or energetic pop, they're exploring compositional boundaries by hitching e.e. cummings poems or other unorthodox works to their brief avant-garde pieces. Kihlstedt is the most visible member of the outfit for her prior collaborations with the equally fearless John Zorn and her part in another San Francisco outfit, the all-acoustic Tin Hat Trio. But the résumés of Hughes and Ismaily don't skimp on notable credits, either. Hughes plays in the art-funk trio Red Pocket and sings in the a cappella trio Charming Hostess, both of which have released discs on Zorn's respected Tzadik label, and Ismaily, an American of Pakistani descent, has composed for film and live theater and worked with Laurie Anderson. Together, their music in 2 Foot Yard -- the name is a nod to an organic gardening plot within city confines -- is swaggering and adventurous, artful but rarely inaccessible.  From: https://www.iheart.com/artist/2-foot-yard-41753932/

Planxty - Live Dublin 1972 / Come West Along the Road 1973 / Live on Aisling Ghael Special 1979

 Planxty - Live Dublin 1972

 

 Planxty - Come West Along the Road 1973

 

 Planxty - Live on Aisling Ghael Special 1979

 

Planxty’s rebirth was a dream come true for band and fans alike – and the good news is that there’s more to come. Earlier this year trad/folk legends Planxty reconvened for a series of sell-out concerts at Dublin’s Vicar Street. It was first time that the original line-up of Christy Moore, Donal Lunny, Andy Irvine and Liam O’Flynn had appeared on a stage together in over 20 years (apart from a low-key appearance in Ennis the previous October.) The success of the shows exceeded all expectations and then some, with over 10,000 people attending. For those lucky enough to be there it was an unforgettable musical experience and a long overdue reminder of the debt owed to Planxty for the current healthy state of Irish music For those who missed out on the shows, all is not lost as they were recorded and filmed and are now available on CD and DVD while more gigs are planned in December.

Three-quarters of the band are on-hand here to discuss the whole experience. So how does it really feel to be a going concern again after all these years?

Donal Lunny: “Unbelievable. It’s far better than any one of us had expected. Our main misgiving before we got back together was, ‘Will the spark be there like it used to be?’ It turned out it was. We met up for rehearsals last October and did that tiny gig in Clare but that was just a toe in water to see how things would work out. We didn’t realise just how good Vicar Street would be.

“We proved that we could still capture that energy which is so much a part of being in a young band,” says Liam O’Flynn. “Not once during the twelve gigs did it feel like we were going through the motions or on automatic pilot. What worried me initially was the thought that we might be playing to an audience of people of our own age because when you think about it, you’d need to be over 50 to have seen the band in their early days”, says Andy Irvine. “But it wasn’t like that at all. Leagues O’Toole’s documentary had put us in context for a younger generation so there was a good cross section of all ages at the shows.”

The band appeared to be extremely well rehearsed and stuck to a fairly rigid set-list for most of the shows. Clearly they had done a lot of preparation leading up to the gigs?

Donal Lunny: “Probably even more so than when we started. Christy complimented me on my punctuality, which wasn’t my best quality in the early days. Actually, if anybody drove the notion of us getting back together and doing it properly it was Christy.”

Andy Irvine: “We’d rehearsed quite a bit but you can rehearse until you’re blue in the face – when you get up on a stage it’s a different matter. The venue helped hugely – Vicar Street is the best gig of that size in town. I remember the first night before we went on and Christy was looking through the curtains at the audience and he said ‘Jaysus it’s like a big folk club out there.”

Liam O’Flynn: “It’s a lovely cross between a concert hall and a club. The welcome we got when we got out onstage just blew me away. It was unbelievable. I think it’s great that a band can play music and get an audience like that.”

The audience reaction was overwhelmingly positive, as was the press coverage. Were they surprised at how much they seemed to be missed by everyone?

Donal Lunny: “The thing is the early audiences spanned every generation – there were kids, old aged pensioners, hippies, rockers but they were all lovely to us. The new audience was the same with people of all ages out there.”

Liam O’Flynn: “I think I heard one woman saying she’d die happy. People had come from Australia, America, and all over Europe specifically for the shows. We certainly didn’t expect that.”

Andy Irvine: “I thought a lot of the reviews didn’t reflect the audience reaction – one journalist called us four grumpy old men. But there was a man who was encountered in the toilet who wiped his eyes and said ‘Jesus Christ I’ll have to emigrate again!”

Donal Lunny: “Davy Hammond, that great man from Belfast, said to me ‘You’re putting people back in touch with their lives’. Part of it is nostalgia. The times that we were in existence before are like islands to people and music is one of the things that evokes memories.

Was it always the intention to record and film the reunion shows for subsequent release?

Donal Lunny: “I don’t remember there being any great urgency about recording them in the early stages. It probably would’ve made us too nervous knowing that we were taping the shows. But it made sense in the end. And we knew we were in good hands with Philip King. When it comes to filming something like this he is the best there is. He just knows how to record music without disturbing what’s happening onstage. In fact we didn’t even notice the cameras in the venue. It was all set up and we just got out there and did the gig.”

Andy Irvine: “There were cameras there? I don’t remember seeing any cameras at all.”

Others have been involved in Planxty over the years, including people like Bill Whelan or Paul Brady. Was there any suggestion that they would join them onstage for some of the shows?

Donal Lunny: “No, that never came up. It was the simplest thing to do it with just the four of us. There were practicalities of us getting back together and we didn’t want to bite off more than we could chew. What made it easier was the fact that the four of us got together on a social basis once a year for the last six or seven years, just to meet up and have the craic. It was out of that, that the notion of doing something came together.”

Liam O’Flynn: “I feel that most people regard the original Planxty line-up as the best. I know I do myself.”

What about the future? Are there any more gigs planned and is there a chance Planxty might record some new material?

Donal Lunny: “We have time set aside at the end of the year and the door is open but we’re not going to put ourselves under pressure.”

Liam O’Flynn: “It’s so easy to find yourself under pressure. If you open the door it comes flying through and a lot of people want a piece of you. Then suddenly other things take over and that’s the end of it.”

Andy Irvine: “We’ve no plans for an album but we’re not totally dismissing it. The whole attitude of the band is to take one step at a time. December is the next step. And we’ve put in motion the rehearsal of new material by then. A couple of the pieces are from the Planxty repertoire – things we haven’t recorded and there might be something new – who knows?”

From: https://andyirvinenews.wordpress.com/2017/07/13/archive-2004-hotpress-interview-with-planxty/

 

i Häxa

i Häxa, taken from the Swedish term for “witch”, is a project comprised of vocalist Rebecca Need-Menear (Anavae) and producer/instrumentalist Peter Miles (highlights include producer for Architects and co-producer on Tesseract’s War of Being) and blends art rock, trip-hop, ambient, industrial, and dark folk influences together into one heady brew. Originally conceived as a single flowing suite, but released as four EPs, and now fused into a single album, there’s a few different ways to listen to the full i Häxa. Everything flows but there are recognisable song formations, distinct quarterings within that flow—at the same time, it makes little sense to listen to, for example, “The Well” without listening to “Fog of War” because the two are parts of a seamless whole.
Swollen layers of synths and pulsating backbeats, graceful piano and lamenting strings form the instrumental backbone of i Häxa with Need-Menear’s sinuous, high-toned voice—in timbre, a more powerful, just-going-through-a-phase sister to Magdalena Bay’s Mica Tenenbaum—sojourning from vulnerable (“Circle”) to threnodic (“The Well”) to boisterous (“Destroy Everything”). Around half the tracks feature spoken word recitations from Need-Menear—the dread monologue of “Fog of War”, the rhythmic poetry that drives “Inferno”, the venomous whispers on “Army”—and her deft ear for enunciation, her oratory range, and paganic lyricism keep the listener hanging on every word. Where spoken word in music all too often falls flat with ropey oration and lazy samples, for i Häxa it’s a vital and astonishingly successful texture.
I could wax lyrical about each track for a while, but suffice it to say that the flow and complexity of the arrangements is pleasing, playing with time signatures (I still can’t work out the beat on “Eight Eyes”), manipulated vocals (“Vessel”, “Sapling”), and reprises (“Circle” builds on a piano melody first explored in “Last at the Table” while repurposing lyrics first heard on “Sapling”). On a song-to-song basis, i Häxa consistently impress, but it’s the interweaving overall structure that sells it, the consistent quartering, the effortless flow, the reprisal of motifs—sometimes familiar, sometimes transformed—all coming together to form something holistic. Despite marrying analogue and digital, i Häxa ultimately feels strangely natural, as though this energy always existed somewhere and Need-Menear and Miles became conduits for its message. That might be a weird metaphor but it’s one of the highest compliments I can pay to music; something that feels less like it was created and more like it always existed in some form and has only just found articulation.  From: https://theprogressivesubway.com/2024/10/28/review-i-haxa-i-haxa/  

The Jayhawks - Waiting for the Sun - Live 1993

The liner notes to the Jayhawks' career-making 1992 album, Hollywood Town Hall, were written by friend-of-the-band Joe Henry, then a struggling musician himself (and now one of the most prolific producers around). In just a few short paragraphs, Henry evokes not so much the music made by the Minneapolis band, but presumably what the music was about: wayward drifters with sad histories who disappeared, hitting the road in search of better times. The Jayhawks were never so down on their luck as their characters, but they were drifters just the same, ostensibly headquartered in the Twin Cities but always traveling to the next show and the next show after that. In the late 1980s and early 90s, they stayed on the road almost constantly, paying their dues and gradually playing to larger and larger audiences. They were alt-country merely by coincidence, gestating in isolation and predating the movement by several years. The band incorporated a wide range of styles and influences into their stately Americana, not just country and certainly not punk, but classic rock, folk, power pop, and lots of feedback from Gary Louris fuzzbox-filtered guitar-- all seemingly absorbed with every mile of road traveled and every city played.
What the Jayhawks never drifted toward was success-- at least not the kind that they and their fans felt the music warranted. Even so, a full 25 years after forming, the Jayhawks don't come across as also-rans, which is itself a minor miracle. Hollywood Town Hall and Tomorrow the Green Grass still live and breathe, and these two new, long-awaited reissues sound like the logical conclusions of a legacy-shaping campaign that began with 2009's career retrospective, Music From the North Country. Neither of these albums was a hit, exactly, but they have endured to become something more impressive. They show the Jayhawks unmoored from any one particular trend or style, devising new ways to combine roots and rock without skimping on either.
Hollywood Town Hall is, appropriately, a good road-trip album, moving from pre-dawn departure ("Waiting for the Sun") to a hard-won destination ("Martin's Song", with its chorus, "I've been working all night, I go long into day"). Louris' guitar cuts elegant swathes through these songs, and the new remaster brings out the rich tones in the instruments themselves, especially Benmont Tench's organ on "Crowded in the Wings". The songs have a greater live feel, but Hollywood Town Hall remains primarily a vocal album, with the harmonies of Louris and Olson at the center. Their approach is based on old-time country sibling acts like the Louvin and Stanley Brothers, yet those tightly intertwined vocals are reset in a dusty, electrified setting, marking perhaps the Jayhawks' greatest innovation.  From: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14940-hollywood-town-hall-expanded-edition-tomorrow-the-green-grass-legacy-edition/

Sarah McLachlan - Into the Fire - Live 1992

Fateful is how Sarah McLachlan describes the night of her first performance as a member of a high school rock band. On that night, she fell in love with the joy of making music for a happy, appreciative audience—and Mark Jowatt, soon to be head of Artists and Repertoire for Nettwerk Records, fell in love with young Sarah’s voice. She declined his offer to travel to Vancouver to record a demo, deciding (at her mum’s insistence) to complete high-school and pursue her dreams of attending art school; but Sarah’s unforgettable voice had made a lasting impression. Two years later, Nettwerk offered a five-record contract and at the age of 19, Sarah recorded her first album, Touch. Her second album, Solace, came in 1991. She completed a world tour in 1994 in support of her third highly acclaimed and best selling album, Fumbling Toward Ecstacy. In conversation, Sarah is as outspoken as she is introspective, and her personality is as down-to-earth as her singing voice is angelic. Muse spoke to Sarah for our premier issue cover story as she waited to catch a flight to Germany from the East Coast.

Was performing on stage and being in the spotlight something you once dreamed about?

I think when I was seventeen, the first time I was up on stage and I was singing and I looked down and people were smiling and dancing… that is probably one of the highlights of my life. I remember that so vividly. And so I do love being up onstage and I love that adulation. I do. (laughing) I’d be stupid to say I didn’t. But at the same time, typically I want to have my cake and eat it too. I want to be able to take that hat off when I walk off stage and just be me again. It doesn’t work like that, and that’s been the wildest thing and the hardest thing to deal with. The more people who know me, or know my music, the less time I have to myself.

When you first started writing songs, were you surprised and impressed at what you could do? Did you say to yourself, “Wow, that’s really good!”?

I think I was more impressed when other people liked them. Because I was still in the place of really needing to be told I was OK. The songs were a part of me, so if the songs were OK, then I was OK, and I needed that. I still do to a certain degree, although now I know much more whether they’re good or not on my own.

Do you practice your chops on the guitar?

Ahh, chops… I don’t really have any chops! (laughs) I have my favorite voicings that I tend to go back to all the time if you can call those chops. I don’t really practice, I just play all the time.

I guess that is practice. And songwriting is such a craft in itself.

Yeah, that’s pretty separate from it. Although— it is and it isn’t. For me, songwriting is just completely instinctual. I just pick up an instrument and go. I’ll play and hum and sing, and things either come out or they don’t.

The album Fumbling Toward Ecstacy is so confident. The songs are very conversational, as though you were talking to a friend or writing a letter.

Well, they’re definitely strong conversations with myself. I think the albums have progressed in the sense that I’ve gotten to know myself a lot better. I think the songs will become stronger because the songs are me. The songs are about me trying to figure out myself to a large degree. Even if it’s putting myself into someone else’s shoes to portray a character, if I’m talking about a situation completely outside of myself, it’s how do I see this emotionally or how does this affect me. Am I saying something really tragic or funny or whatever. You relate everything to your own life first and foremost and then as you’’re dissecting it, you’’re trying to figure it out and relate it to your own past knowledge and understanding or lack of understanding.

I think it’s ironic that the album is called “Fumbling” because there is a real noticeable sense of confidence in everything. Even in the quality of the melodies.

Well, for me the whole album was about losing control; by learning so much control that I could completely lose myself and not be afraid. A lot of the time making the record was spent talking about the head-space that we were in and discussing ideas and just trying to be really strong and happy. When something was bothering us, we’d work through that before we started writing or recording, because we recorded everything basically, whatever came out. Often the first things that came out were the things that ended up on the record, whether it’s the first try at electric guitar or first piano take or first vocal take. In many instances, it’s the first dummy track. So it’s a real learning process for me to let go of editing myself, to let go of pre-thinking what I was doing, or listening to something for the wrong reasons versus the right reasons, and questioning that. So for that, there were a lot of mistakes that were made, but the mistakes were what made it great. You know, I wasn’t being a perfectionist anymore. I think a lot of art is done that way. In photography or whatever… you did the wrong film stop or whatever and the most beautiful picture in the world comes out of that mistake that you thought would be a total disaster.

Is the song sequence on the album something that you talked over with your producer Pierre Marchand?

Yeah. We made a lot of tapes, and did a lot of sequencing experiments, and played through them all to see what fit best. With Pierre and me it’s quite a strong collaborative effort from the beginning. You know, I write the basics of the songs, but I go in with him and they take shape.

You ended the album Solace with “Wear Your Love Like Heaven” It’s such a bright uplifting note.

Yeah, that wasn’t my idea.

Really?

Well, actually, putting it on the end of the record was my idea. Arista wanted it somewhere smack in the middle of the record. I recorded it for another reason altogether as part of a Donovan compilation, but they thought the record needed something hopeful… (laughs) so we compromised and I put it at the end. But I don’t think it makes much sense on the record personally.

It does stand alone in a way.

Yeah, I didn’t like it for that reason, but that’s just my own personal thing of wanting the record to be “this is what it is.” Yeah, it’s depressing, a lot of it, but…

The brightest song on the new album, “Ice Cream,” certainly comes before some pretty heavy songs that leave you feeling a certain way.

Yeah, because “Hold On” is one of the heaviest in my mind, and I had to counterbalance it by putting “Ice Cream” in there. I figured, “Ah, I gotta ease up a little there momentarily”. (laughs) But even “Ice Cream” has its pensive chorus. Like, “this is really amazing, but if we fuck it up, there’s a lot of hell to pay.”

From: https://museinterviews.com/index.php/2018/08/21/sarah-mclachlan-1995/