A selection of photos by John Ellison of Jim James and his band playing live, songs from his luminous new record, “Regions of Light and Sound of God” (ATO Records, 2013), at The Neptune Theatre, 15 May 2013.

Lecture: Brian Eno

TOUR
06/5 - Baltimore, MD - Ottobar
06/06 - Philadelphia, PA - Golden Tea House
06/07 - Brooklyn, NY - St. Vitus Bar
06/08 - Providence, RI - AS220 !
06/09 - Boston, MA - O’Brien’s
06/10 - Cherry Valley, NY - Steve’s Koi Pond
06/11 - Buffalo, NY - Vault Art Space
06/12 - Pittsburgh, PA - Gooski’s
06/13 - Columbus, OH - Ace of Cups
06/14 - Chicago, IL - Ultra Lounge
06/15 - St. Paul, MN - The Turf Club
06/16 - Milwaukee, WI - Quarter’s Rock n Roll
06/17 - Indianapolis, IN - The Sinking Ship #
06/18 - Newport, KY - South Gate Revival House
06/19  -Nashville, TN - The End %
06/20 - Knoxville, TN - The Pilot Light %
6/21 - Raleigh, NC - Slim’s $
6/22 - Richmond, VA - Strange Matter $

! = w/ Elder and Morne
# = w/ Skeletonwitch
% = w/ Generation of Vipers
$ = w/ Inter Arma

A selection of photos by John Ellison of Hanni El-Khatib and his band opening for The Black Angels at The Neptune Theatre in Seattle, 13 May 2013.

pacificUV gets remixed by The Album Leaf

A selection of photos by John Ellison of The Black Angels playing live at The Neptune Theatre in Seattle, 13 May 2013.

Filmage: The Story of the Descendents/All

5/14/13 - Tempe, AZ - Yucca Tap Room

5/16/13 - Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge

5/17/13 - Los Angeles, CA - Lure #+

5/18/13 - Wichita, KS - Lucky’s Everyday

5/21/13 - Little Rock, AK - Stickyz

5/22/13 - Nashville, TN - Anthem

5/23/13 - Cincinnati, OH - MOTR Pub

5/24/13 - Detroit, MI - St. Andrews Hall ^

5/25/13 - Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall ^

5/26/13 - Minneapolis, MN - Triple Rock Social Club ^

5/27/13 - Iowa City, IA - Blue Moose Tap House ^

5/28/13 - St. Louis, MO - The Demo ^

5/30/13 - Lawrence, KS - Jackpot Music Hall ^

5/31/13 - Denver, CO - Marquis Theatre ^

6/01/13 - Salt Lake City, UT - The Shred Shed ^

6/04/13 - Vancouver, BC - Biltmore Cabaret ^

6/06/13 - Seattle, WA - Chop Suey ^

6/07/13 - Portland, OR - Backspace ^

6/09/13 - San Francisco, CA - Rickshaw Shop ^

6/11/13 - Los Angeles, CA - Echoplex ^

# w/ Fred Falke 

+ DJ Set

^ w/ Anamanaguchi

Deathfix on Tour:

• 9/3 Chicago IL - Lincoln Hall
• 9/4 Detroit MI - Magic Stick
• 9/5 Cleveland OH - Grog Shop
• 9/6 Millvale PA - Mr. Smalls
• 9/7 Toronto ON - Lee’s Place
• 9/8 Montreal QC - Cabaret Mile End
• 9/10 Cambridge MA - The Sinclair
• 9/11 Philadelphia PA - Union Transfer
• 9/13 New York, NY - Irving Plaza
• 9/15 Washington DC - 930 Club
• 9/17 Carrboro NC - Cat’s Cradle
• 9/18 Atlanta GA - Terminal West

All dates w/ Pinback

WTF Records would like to respond to the many complaints we’ve received regarding our confusing and unfortunate statement about demo-tape submission by reposting this more appropriately worded translation. We apologize for any upset our first statement might have caused our more sensitive fans, and for women. Those responsible for the previous post have been dealt with by management. This message is from the WTF Pro Team. We hope this translation addresses your concerns. Please keep buying our records.

How does WTF review demo tapes?

So, you have talent! Good for you. You’ve come to the right record label because we at WTF Records are always looking for bright new artists, like you. It is true we have the opportunity to work with many of the industry’s leading musicians, something we never take for granted. But we also love discovering new talent and supporting and nurturing that talent so that people like you can be the stars of tomorrow.

You might even see us around town with some of our artists at one of the many fine local restaurants in this area. Mostly we just love hearing what our young artists are up too, like you, what new musical gear people are trying out on the road. Of course, when we’re not talking shop about the latest technical advances influencing artists, we love talking about ways our artists and our label can work together with the community to help empower young women in the music industry. We know we’ve been given a lot of success by our loyal fans and we want to share it with as many young people as we can, especially young women, like you, if you are one.

The first step in submitting a demo tape, we must consider the following about you:

* You do not have any police record or any outstanding legal issues in the area of copyright or rights to your work (we want every potential artist, like you, joining our family to be ready to take on the world and fully free to dive into their exciting new careers with WTF)

* You have a musical sound that comes from deep within yourself, something cool that’s yours alone, and something you’re ready to share with the world

*  You have a style that you think says something important about who you as an artist, and about who you want to be as a musician

* [We’re not sure what we meant by the final bulleted item.]

We’ve added a highly visible link to our home page called SEND US YOUR DEMO NOW! to our home page, right below the WTF banner, surrounded by flashing neon red lights. That’s the link you need to use to send us your demo, which we want to hear immediately. Just follow the simple instructions (easier than our high-quality digital-download process, which we fixed, too, just for you!). Due to the downturn in the economy, sadly we’ve been forced to cut back on office staff. Therefore, we don’t have a way for our trained staff to greet you in person, or for you to give us your demo tapes directly. We apologize for this inconvenience. We miss being able to see every fan who wants to see us, like you. Hopefully, in the near future, we’ll once again be able to greet fans in person, like you!

Until then, keep practicing and playing your amazing music live as often as you can. We’ll have our highly trained and professional scouts working the local club scene day and night. Especially at night because we’ve done our homework and we know that’s when most bands play, at night, in bars. And that’s when most bars are open, too. We also love those all-ages shows so we can see our younger non-drinking fans, and want to encourage everyone to drink responsibly. We hope we’ll see you very soon.

If you’re eager and talented and hard working, male or female, which we assume you are, we’re sure we’ll see you very soon. We believe in each and every one of you. Finding new talent, like you, is what makes or breaks a record label like ours, WTF. And we don’t want to break. We at WTF Records want to help you make your dreams come true. Please keep buying our records.

Best wishes on your imminent success,

WTF Pro Team

So, you think you want to be a wicked pissa rock star? Retarded! Hey, you came to the right house. We know some greasy sweet rock stars. A slick load of ’em, in fact. We can’t name names on this sheet, but let’s just say that every day of the week we’re either having drinks with slammin’, crash-hot rock stars at some sweetchious bar, or they’re chillin’ with us at our pimptacular pussy palace. Sometimes illmatic rock stars come to our shibby crib and we just sit around and talk about biddies, jiggy bass guitars, or which tube amp is Obama. And we get paid to do that Ebola shit, bitches! Can you believe it? It’s razor to be us. We’re badassical. 

And you want to be “us,” too. That’s understandable. You want to be off the hizzle with WTF in our grill. Naturally. Everyone does! Well, first you got to prove you got what it takes to be off the heezie at the bonzer WTF. Before we can coversate, check this:

• No chim down with the po-po, nothin’ fizzy
• Your sound is in your lunch, un-reechy
• Your style is off the hinges, dookie fresh
• Your goat is shiznot and slammin’

There’s a link someplace on our website. Find it bitches, and send us your gravy locomotive. But don’t call. Don’t write. Don’t come by. Don’t ask. Don’t beg. Don’t plop the squat out front. Don’t even fuckin’ stalk us in the wet hood. Best thing you can do is to become as rancid as you can, on your own, cuz if you’re dickum, you’ll be seen. By our tiztight scouts. Because we’re on the chicky scene. All the damn time. It’s a horrorshow in music right now. If you’re kcoolsweet, if you think you’re packed, if you think your sound is fierce, if you think you got goose, we’ll get on your ass. Fuckin’ A! Keep it real.

A selection of photos by John Ellison of The Cave Singers, playing live at the Showbox Market in Seattle, 4 May 2013.

Nelsonville Music Festival Announces Wilco, Cat Power, Gogol Bordello and John Prine Headlining

There’s a great feeling in listening to music for the first time, to the work of an artist you don’t know, and hearing one random song that speaks right into you, even before you know what the words are really saying, before you may even know who the band is. You only have a feeling to go on, what the song might be about, and still it seems important to you somehow. I think such magic is about an artist’s ability to create something that speaks universally into the unusual, into the “vital,” in melody and words. It’s about saying something about the human spirit, the courage to be different, saying something that hasn’t been said quite that way before. So you dig, you go deeper.

“We the Common (For Valerie Bolden)” by Thao Nguyen & The Get Down Stay Down, on her latest record, “We the Common” (Ribbon, 2013), is just such a song. It just popped for me, first time out, long before I knew that its stark refrain (“Oh, how we/The common/Do cry”) and dedication to Valerie Bolden focuses on the suffering of those serving life sentences in our modern prison system. It’s inspired by Nguyen’s feelings about Bolden in particular. It’s a terrible life, designed to be so, especially for women, for mothers (there are many layers to punishment, some not remotely compassionate or appropriate, some criminal in their own way). The song isn’t about guilt or innocence, it’s not a reflection on crime. It’s about suffering. Nguyen met Bolden at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, California (40 miles north of Fresno), in 2012. Nguyen (quietly) does volunteer work with the California Coalition for Women Prisoners.

It’s chilling to think that Valerie Bolden, as of a story that appeared in the San Francisco Examiner in February this year, has not been allowed to hear “We the Common” because the system forbids CDs from being sent to prisoners. Music is forbidden. I can only assume that the prison officials, by having a policy like this, are afraid of music. This isn’t a song or a record or an artist calling for rebellion. Instead, Nguyen calls for compassion. 

I suppose a record like this makes Nguyen an activist musician in some people’s eyes. I hesitate using the word “activist,” and almost didn’t, because of that word’s potential “turn off” factor. We’re not living in an age when the general public wants to talk about prison reform. There’s a lot of righteous “They wouldn’t be in prison if they weren’t guilty, so they’re getting what they deserve” messages out there. I could argue that any record, any artist who speaks about human suffering in music (or in any way) is an activist. Maybe the real story here is about how words and music, even those about compassion, still frighten those in power. That’s the good news about the opening track on this record, as far as I’m concerned.

I think “We the Common,” the song, is a profoundly sad song that calls for nothing in terms of change. It’s a mother’s song, a statement about living in the fog of ongoing cruelty, and about being ground down by a very mean system. It’s a song that just explores what is. As for the entire record, all 12 songs, there’s nothing preachy here. Nothing maudlin or self-pitying. Just stories and observations about modern life written by an artist who has an eye for sharp images and emotional language. I see an almost playfulness, a sly quality to some of these songs, like “Holy Roller” or “Clouds for Brains,” songs with teasing lyrics that invite multiple interpretations. Musically speaking, these songs are rich and layered, with many textures and instruments woven together, hooky and lively. These are intelligent songs employing a poet’s metaphor. Poets almost always mean trouble for oppressors.

“We the Common,” the record, is a breakthrough moment for Nguyen. Her dedication to the years and the miles on the road touring, honing her stagecraft, along with two of her previous studio records, “We Brave Bee Stings and All” (2008), and “Know Better Learn Faster” (2009), and her interest in human rights have forged her into an artist who has learned fast how to produce energetic, socially charged, yet catchy songs. Also, the duet Nguyen performs with Joanna Newsom seems so natural, like the two artists’ voices have spiraled together on many collaborations.

It seems like everywhere you turn these days you find a banjo, which can be fatiguing. (I’ve never been a huge fan of banjo, but don’t hate it.) However, in addition to banjo, Nguyen’s multi-instrumental skills also extend to piano and guitar. Her most important instrument, though, her voice, sits central to every song. Lyrically speaking, I think Nguyen has been a strong writer from her first record in 2005. So the big changes, with most recent studio release, to my ear, are in the melodies she’s crafted for this latest effort, and her intensified sociopolitical undertones.

This record is the perfect place to meet Thao Nguyen and her band. It’s a new chapter about an artist who will be a big story in music in the years to come. It’s a perfect time to get in on the ground floor. And if you have time, check out the California Coalition for Women Prisoners. They say every civilization should be judged on how it treats the most vulnerable of its citizens. Based on Valerie Bolden’s life in prison, we have a long way to go.

- John Ellison (Indie Street contributor)

A selection of photos by John Ellison of the Duluth, Minnesota-based band, Low, playing live at the Crocodile in Seattle, 6 April 2013.

There’s mystery in music, and in Low’s music especially. The passage of invisible time doesn’t deepen the mystery, but it does add more layers to it. The new record by Low, “The Invisible Way” (Sub Pop, 2013), seems weary to me, a “letting go” kind of record. As if the weight of the passing years is finally pressing down on this band’s output, compressing it into introspection. Doing anything for a couple of decades can begin to weigh heavily, and it can change a person’s outlook, change a person’s self-image. How many miles have Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker logged in service to their art, to their songwriting? How many heartfelt messages have been written down and labored over in the studio, and then sent out into the world? How many nights in dark bars and clubs have they set up their gear and sent out their waves of sound over audiences? It’s been a long journey. Now, here, on this record, the band seems to be saying “We’re hanging on, but something’s different, something’s changing.”

Low is currently on the road supporting their new record. I saw them play at the  Crocodile in Seattle at the beginning of April, and they still have a powerful stage presence for a three-piece veteran touring band doing what they do best. As a band playing live, Low recreates, amplifies, and even intensifies of their studio work. Songs from “The Invisible Way” became living things, the band reading each other and flowing with each other.

The 11 songs on this new record (and the four additional tracks on “The Visible End” CD that accompanies Sub Pop’s “Loser” edition of this LP) all carry a weariness at their centers. Low has always stripped their music down to essentials, allowing their sparse lyrics to sit emotionally at the center of their sound. So even when they’ve been riotously happy, if they’ve ever been riotously happy in any of their songs, their lo-fi style has always made them seem more sombre than most. The result on “The Invisible Way” is a cohesive group of songs that, each in their own way, in spare lyrics and song structures, explores the cost of passing time on human lives.

Listening to this record I thought about William Boyd’s novel Any Human Heart, and something the protagonist, Logan Mountstuart, says as an old man as he reflects on his long life, his successes and his failures: “That’s all your life amounts to in the end: the aggregate of all the good luck and the bad luck you experience.” These 11 songs, when taken together, seem to be saying everything happens by chance, and that everything is always changing, all the time, and you just have to hang on and go with it. These aren’t songs about happy endings, but neither are they saying it isn’t worth it to be here living the life. They’re about accepting what you get the best you can. We might all want transcendence, or miracles, or freedom, but just wanting something won’t make it happen. Nor does getting it make our lives better. Maybe these songs all come down to the nature of desire and its traps.

This could be a formula for a depressing record. But, as I said at the outset, there’s mystery in this music. Songs like “Holy Ghost” speak to how we use faith in invisible forces to find (tenuous, at best) footholds in life. Or “Waiting,” with its admittedly childlike hoping that behind life’s sorrows will be answers, the right answers, yet it’s probably better not to think about what’s really wrong too much. You might not want to know what you want to know. Or perhaps the most directly pleading, “Just Make It Stop,” for whatever it is that’s breaking our hearts or crushing our spirits.

Sparhawk and Parker switch off on lead vocals on songs, and their voices are rich and honest in these introspective stories. There’s a further mystery in the fact that this record was produced by Jeff Tweedy. When I heard that Tweedy was involved, I wondered how his role would change the Low sound. Having listened to this record several times now, and especially when comparing it to Low’s “C’mon” (Sub Pop, 2011), I hear a logical progression in this band’s development rather than a major shift into a new sound. “The Invisible Way” seems more cohesive to me as a set of songs, and perhaps it’s a little quieter, if it’s possible for Low to be developing into quieter. In other words, I think Tweedy did a fine job folding into the band’s natural evolution, and at the same time helped them to develop a richer studio sound. Tweedy did this without his style creating confusion, which makes him the perfect pilot.

So many artists are exploring these times we’re living in, a time of confusion and doubt and fear. If there’s a recovery of any kind happening right now, we’re not all equally sharing in it. The opening track, “Plastic Cup,” says is all. That which is the most pedestrian about modern life, a plastic drinking cup with all its base uses, will likely one day be dug up by archaeologists and be mistaken for a cup of kings. 

Every age probably feels its time is the most mysterious of all, the most in need of a big windfall or shift in energy or faith to turn things around. Maybe the perception of mystery is the biggest mystery of all. This is a brave new record by a brave veteran band. “The Invisible Way” makes it feel like something has changed, if only in music.

- John Ellison (Indie Street contributor)

07/21 + Nashville, TN - Exit In

07/23 + Washington, DC - Black Cat

07/24 + Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg

07/26 + Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer

07/27 + Cambridge, MA - The Sinclair

07/28 + Montreal, QC - Cabaret Mile End

07/29 + Toronto, ON - Lee’s Palace

08/02 + Chicago, IL - Lollapalooza

08/05 + Kansas City, MO - The Riot Room

08/06 + Denver, CO - Bluebird Theater

08/07 + Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge

08/09 + San Francisco, CA – Outside Lands Festival

08/10 + Los Angeles, CA - El Rey Theatre

08/11 + Pomona, CA - The Glass House

08/12 + San Diego, CA - Casbah

08/15 + Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge

08/16 + Seattle, WA - The Crocodile

08/17 + Vancouver, BC - Electric Owl

08/20 + Minneapolis, MN - Varsity Theater

10/04 -10/06 + Austin, TX - Austin City Limits Festival

10/11 - 10/13 + Austin, TX - Austin City Limits Festival