Having trouble getting into the swing of things this week, but here’s a nice way to ease back into it: Ben Sollee, accompanied by Jordan Ellis, playing a session at the Fulton Avenue subway stop in New York for Subway Sessions. Sollee has such a unique way with the strings, and I love the sounds Ellis is getting out of his percussion.
I wonder if we could find a good place to make sessions like this happen in Cleveland…
That’s the sum total of the thesis of this post, y’all: Rob Zombie, I Really Like His Tunes and His Style. My reasons, in video form:
More Human than the Human (1995)
This one is actually from when he was part of White Zombie, and was one of the first songs I heard when I started going clubbing in Glasgow in 1996. I’m not quite sure how I missed it before that, but I did. It was definitely a “What is that and where can I get some more?” moment. When I got home I decamped to Tower Records where – this was the downside of living in suburbia when the Internet was still very young – all they had was the remix album, Supersexy Swingin’ Sounds, which was interesting but not . . . quite . . . what I was after.
Puzzled but not put off, I went back to college; meanwhile, White Zombie broke up and Rob Zombie went solo, and eventually put out Hellbilly Deluxe, in 1998. By then I had jumped across the ocean again (for work, this time) and on weekends I was going to places where they played these two songs a whole lot:
Dragula (1998)
Superbeast (1999)
My favorite part of the video for Dragula is that he seems to be trying to play Grand Theft Auto in a tricked-out Model-T. Anyway, jumping forward in time a few years: when The Sinister Urge came out in 2001, I was back in the U.S. again, in Brooklyn, and had mostly stopped clubbing. I moved again about a year afterwards, and discovered that it’s also a great driving music. Never Gonna Stop (The Red, Red Kroovy) is an especially delicious way to start a long trip. And Feel So Numb is the track I frequently put on in the evenings this past semester as I was walking either to or from class:
Feel So Numb (2001)
As I’ve been putting this together I discovered I missed a record while I was in (cultural) exile: Educated Horses, in 2006 (whoops!), so my next and last favorite song is What? from Hellbilly Deluxe 2, in 2010. I have been dancing around my apartment to it for a while now, and also, because this is what I do in my spare time, dreaming of ways I would make a video for it. When I went to looking for the “official” video, I found that a) there isn’t one and b) two fierce ladies have stepped up and made their own, complete with really amazing dance moves:
http://youtu.be/jUZ8ba1-TZg
“What?” direct by BODYCON, starring BODYCON and Kristina Z (2010)
The last reason I really like Rob Zombie fits under the heading of “style” and is this: when I (finally!) got to see him live a year or so ago, not only did he play all of my favorite songs, he also did something I’d never encountered at a hard rock show before: he called a special ladies’ only pit, scolded the dudes who tried to crash it, and gave the girls hanging on the barrier a chance to mosh.
I couldn’t get in it myself – I was back by the soundboard at the time, since I had come up late, after school, just in time for him to come on – but I appreciated the gesture, and him for making it, because in a very real way, a place in the pit is a place at the table. Thank you, Rob Zombie, for the all of the tunes, and for that moment. I look forward to whatever your next musical adventure may be.
Nina Simone and the song “Sinnerman” go hand-in-hand. If you think of “Sinnerman”, you probably think of Nina’s version, and if you think of Nina, you probably thing of “Sinnerman”. Simone’s version is so authoritative and brilliant that you might not realize that she didn’t write the song. “Sinnerman” (or “Sinner Man”) began life as a traditional spiritual and many other people had a turn at it before Simone made it her own in 1965. For instance, king of exotica Les Baxter did it up with Will Holt on vocals in 1956.
Kind of a shock after Simone’s version. It’s kind of… well… white. (Though not the whitest of the white. For that, check out versions by the Weavers and Tommy Sands.)
Peter Tosh had a long relationship with the song, beginning in 1966 (some sources say 1964 or 1965) when he recorded it with the Wailers. In the ’70s, he changed the name to “Downpressor Man”.
One of the most recent versions was recorded by the Black Diamond Heavies for their 2008 album A Touch of Someone Else’s Class. It clearly draws from Simone’s version, shaping the song out with John Wesley Myers’ distinctive Fender Rhodes sound and ravaged vocals.
Band members (from left to right): Nicklas, Mathias, Jan. Photo courtesy of Bad Man Recording Co.
The Bell are Nicklas Nilsson, Mathias Stromberg and Jan Petterson, from Malmö and Stockholm, Sweden. Last month they released Great Heat, their second record, which they put together with a great deal of help from modern technology. I carried it around with me on my iPod for a week or so, and then, intrigued by their beats, made use of technology myself, and had an email chat with Mathias and his bandmates:
Mathias, I see that you sing, but which instruments do the rest of the band play?
Jan and Nicklas play all instruments, but write most of the songs on guitar and keyboard/piano. They fiddle with the computers and then we record vocals (all of us even though I do lead) and produce/mix everything together the three of us.
Why did you name the band The Bell?
There really is no specific answer to this question, it springs from a lot of things. From “For Whom The Bell Tolls” by Hemingway, which is just such an excellent title – to just sounding neat. We like the singular notion of One Bell, as well. THE Bell. It sounds alarming and like enlightenment.
I checked a map to see just how far apart Malmö and Stockholm are, and it looks like it’s approximately the same distance, as, say, New York City to the tip of Cape Cod, in Massachusetts, or about a six hour drive. I know you managed to record and mix the record while living in the different cities, but how did you all meet in the first place? And also who lives in Malmö and who lives in Stockholm?
Jan and Nicklas are small town boys both geographically and by heart. Jan’s from the north of Sweden originally and Nicklas from the south. I’m from and in Stockholm. Me and Jan go to know each other out on the town, as he used to live here. We realized we were into the same music (and books, films, wine and fonts) so we hung out more and more. Then he moved to Malmö for love.
Fonts? Which ones? Which font do you both appreciate the most, and why?
Today I would have to say old Poster Bodoni. Getting that fifties Italian café vibe …
Did you ever meet in the middle, as it were, to work on things? Or was the entire record made solely with the help of modern technology?
As mentioned earlier, we did most of the groundwork over the web and then met up to do vocals and production, both in our “home studio” in Malmö and rented spaces both in Malmö and Stockholm. So in short: we were creative online and anal producers in studio.
How did you all get interested in this particular kind of dark, drum-propelled synth-pop?
We all got laid for the first time in the eighties. So that’s where our very most primal love lies. For me personally, there was a lot of great synth clubs in Stockholm (and not very much else apart from horrible metal places where you’d get beaten up unless you looked like a muscular transvestite) so when I started to go out in my teens I tended to go to goth caves getting into EBM and electronic stuff. All this sort of evolved over time into more guitar driven stuff such as the Factory and Creation stuff in the late eighties.
The Stockholm club scene sounds like an “it’s all ABBA or Opeth” kind of situation. It is an interesting dichotomy, that “Swedish music”, or at least what Americans know of it, swings between two wildly different extremes of bright, bubbly pop and/or dance music and, well, death-metal.
Well, this it was it used to be like. Nowadays we get a lot of different clubs, ranging from obscure indie and electronica to just plain … well, bad stuff. So although I think these extremes exist (even if the death metal scene really is Norweigan rather than Swedish – here, the long hairs do garage rock or sleaze it seems) it is not as it once was. And for this we’re very thankful. Swedes have always been an extremely open minded people so that narrow mindset does not work for the younger generations.
Which episode of Jersey Shore did your song end up in, and which song was it? Have there been any recent placements that top that one?
Can ANYTHING top Jersey Shore??? No but seriously, checking online the episode was called “The Tanned Triangle” … haha. How great is that? We had a song from our last album in Vampire Diaries last spring and a recent placement in No Ordinary Family and hoping to get a few more in the next few months.
A Jersey Shore appearance is indeed pretty epic, even if I can’t bear to watch that show at all, not even with the sound off.
I would like to be diplomatic and state that “it’s great that they’re doing their thing” but that would be indicating it had some level of artistic integrity.
And then the three that I ask everyone, the modified Proust Questionnaire, if you will:
What was your transformative song – the rock and roll lightning strike?
Matthias: Today I would have to say There is a light that Never Goes Out by The Smiths. It’s when I discovered heart & soul in music. Before that it was all … surface. Obviously, this soundtracked long make-out sessions when I was 14 together with the rest of the tracks on The Queen is Dead. Such a beautiful work of art. After that I realized that the alternative came in different flavours.
Nicklas: I had a friend who had a synthesizer. One evening while he was out in the kitchen eating with his parents I learned to play The Model. I think I was 8 years old at that time. Music became more transparent after that. I suddenly knew I could play the same melodies and harmonies that were actually pressed on vinyl. Strange and shocking. I still sometimes revisit that feeling when using keyboards today.
Jan: Television – Venus
What was your first show (that you attended, not that you played)?
Matthias: Kraftwerk in Stockholm in … 1985, I think. It was fucking excellent.
Nicklas: 1982. A local new romantic band with loads of delay on vocals and guitars. The drummer had a white shirt with lace and very very long sleeves. The volume was so high that I lost my balance every now and then. I can’t remember a single tone they played. But I still want a shirt like that.
Jan: Ian Hunter in my home town of SkellefteÃ¥. I was 10 years old and I desperately tried to copy Ian’s haircut.
What was the first record/tape/etc that you bought? What was the last one?
Matthias: The first of any importance was Yazoos You and Me Both in 1983 and the last … I’m sorry, I’m from Sweden. We don’t really buy records. We subscribe to Spotify. But on that note, I listened to The Crystal Stilts new album just a minute ago and that is awsome!
Nicklas: I bought Tintin Red Rackham’s Treasure. Not much good music on that one. But almost immediately I traded it for Kraftwerk’s Radio-Activity. The last one was a pretty lousy demo by a local band. I can’t mention the band name. I know the guitarist.
Jan: Donny Osmond – Puppy Love and The Maccabees – O.A.V.I.P
An example of their groove: Today, from their new record, Great Heat:
Patrick Sweany should be a household name. I believed that before I saw him live, and that belief grew tenfold last night. Setting up in a little corner of a little restaurant/bar back on his old home turf, accompanied by his dad on washtub bass, Sweany played a three-hour, acoustic show (with a short break in the middle) that drew from almost every one of his five albums as well as including a healthy dose of covers. Weaving in and out of favorites by Joe Tex, Howlin’ Wolf, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Sam Cooke, Guitar Slim, Bob Wills and Willie Nelson, Sweany laid down his own fans’ favorites like “After Awhile”, “Your Man” and “Them Shoes”.
And, of course, as it was the day that would have been the 100th birthday of Robert Johnson, a blues-influenced musician like Sweany wasn’t going to get away without playing a Johnson song. Though instead of echoing the covers of “Cross Road Blues” and “Sweet Home Chicago” that were surely being played in bars throughout the nation, Sweany chose the lesser known “Walking Blues”, treating the crowd to some delicious slide action. Though, I have to say, my favorite cover of the night was Sweany’s take on Howlin’ Wolf’s “Moanin’ at Midnight”.
Early Sweany tracks like “Sleepy Town”, “Bring the Money Home” and “Bad Luck, Bad Luck” nestled seamlessly with the old blues and country covers, showing how artfully he has incorporated his influences while still making it all truly his own. Sweany’s newest, and sweetest – on a number of levels, album That Old Southern Drag was, of course, well-represented with rockers like “Sleeping Bag”, “Heavy Problems (Peavey Rage)”, the bouncy “Shoestring” and the heartfelt “Same Thing”.
The highlight of the evening was probably “More and More”, a song written for and dedicated to Sweany’s soon-to-be-wife Missy. He poured his heart into it, and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a man happier about his upcoming nuptials.
Seeing Patrick Sweany live not only amplifies just how skilled and talented the man is as a vocalist and guitarist – he’s the kind of player who has probably frustrated more than one hopeful young guitar player because he makes it look so damn easy – but shows that his stage presence and charm are equal to his musical gifts, joking with his dad and the audience (ask him about his imaginary dead brother Chip sometime) and making everyone feel like a friend.
Sweany and his pops finished the show with a cover of “Having a Party” that gave truth to the title, and, had there been room for it, there would have been dancing. Instead, the audience used that energy to call Sweany back for an encore that ended with a tour-de-force version of “Smokestacks” that included nods to everything from “Smoke on the Water” to the Rolling Stones and left everyone smiling.
This video for Ready to Go (Get Me Out of My Mind), Panic! at the Disco‘s second single off of their new record Vices & Virtues, just came out yesterday, and, you guys, I really just love it so much. Not only is it a great song (turn it up!), but the video is beautifully shot and lit AND there is fabulous choreography. There are also fun costumes, because the whole thing is a visual tribute to musicals, including Grease, Mary Poppins and Singin’ in the Rain. Oh and also SOMEONE GETS SHOT OUT OF A CANNON. It is just delicious.
![Panic! At The Disco: Ready To Go [OFFICIAL VIDEO]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/0xDf-_8KvGM/0.jpg)
Continuing with the movie theme, this is the lyric video for Arms, from the upcoming lovestrong by Christina Perri, which features words “projected” onto old-fashioned movie screens. I’ve already confessed to typography nerdery; what I especially like about this one is the way the letters shuffle and jump and sometimes arrive as snarled little knots that then expand into words and phrases.
![Christina Perri - Arms [Official Lyric Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/FvbErM6ZTBA/0.jpg)
Next up is music that sounds like it should be in movies, from Industries of the Blind. This video is a teaser trailer for their upcoming record Chapter 1, and so doesn’t contain a full song. It does, however, give you the chance to see all nine (!) of them in action. I haven’t yet had the chance to see them live, but once this semester is over and law school (temporarily) stops interfering with my social life, I’m going to venture out to Brooklyn and catch one of their shows. In the meantime I put it on while I’m working on writing projects, because it is perfect for making all of the other noise in my head settle down so I can focus and concentrate on the task at hand.
And in conclusion, a band that I hope gets their Hollywood ending: that’s right, Empires, the little rock band that could/band of my heart, has made it all the way to Round Three of the Rolling Stone cover contest. If they make it to Round Four, they have a shot at playing a battle-of-the-bands style show with the other finalist at Bonnaroo, and, of course, being on the cover of Rolling Stone. As an enticement to vote for them as often as you can before the contest closes on May 13, I submit TWO new videos for songs written and recorded during the contest, Night is Young and Hard Times. There is also a third song, Hells Heroes, which is available for free from their website. If you join their mailing list while you’re there, you’ll periodically get epistles addressed “Dear Scholars,” which is one of the very many reasons this band is the band of my heart.
Raife Hacking (drums; left), David Jones (vocals, keyboards; right);
not pictured: Glen Nicholls (producer, programmer, keyboardist, crafter of twisty soundscapes, and international man of mystery).
I’m intrigued by your sound. So, tell me more about the band. Who are you, collectively, and what’s your story?
David: Well the band is a trio, myself and Raife Hacking started working with Glen Nicholls, the producer and also third band member in October last year. We are from the Midlands in the UK originally, but now work from Glen’s studio in North London.
We came together through a love of dark pop music, stuff like Depeche Mode, some Bowie stuff, The Cure, Nine Inch Nails (you’ll hear that coming out more in our new stuff). Glen is a producer/remixer and has worked with bands such as White Lies, Prodigy and Unkle amongst others, and I have been songwriting for a few years, inspired by my love of dark uplifting pop songs. I use the word pop loosely, I guess.
We’re aiming for a big powerful live show which we are debuting in May/June in London UK, and are releasing another couple of EPs over the course of the next few months followed by our debut album later this year.
I have a rough idea of where the West Midlands are but, to be honest, almost everything I know about the bits of England that aren’t London I learned from books like Pies and Prejudice and Cider with Roadies by Stuart Maconie, movies like Brassed Off and Billy Elliot and the week I spent in the Lake District before I went up to Glasgow for my junior year abroad. I can look at a map and see you aren’t from those part(s) of England, but: what is your England like? What propelled you down to London?
David: Well, my England was centred around Northampton when I was growing up, which is a large town in the middle of England. I was brought up in a Christian community where everyone shared all of their possessions and lived simply without a television or radio. It meant that I was encouraged to be creative from a very early age. So I’ve been writing songs and playing instruments from about the age of 7.
What brought me down to London was music. I always knew I wanted to pursue a musical career, and London seemed a good place to meet people and go to gigs etc. I also like buzzing places and being part of a city that’s always moving and always vibrant is a great place to be for inspiration.
Was your community akin to the Amish? Was London a whole lot of culture shock, or was the separation between the two types of worlds not as stark as the Amish/”English” division tends to be? (The old order Amish here generally refer to the non-Amish as “English.”)
David: The community I was brought up in has similarities, I guess, to the Amish, but only in the way everyone lives together. We all went to normal schools and interact with ‘normal’ society. They just choose to live a simple and humble life as they believe it is how God would want them to live. They call themselves Charismatic Christians. I think my upbringing has influenced me in a very positive way.
Are Raife and Glen from Northampton too? Did you call decamp to London together, or meet there? What is their England like?
Glen: I’m originally from Leicestershire, not too far from Northampton but moved to London in 1997.
David: Raife is from Northampton, and still lives there. He comes to stay with me in London every week so we can work on the band, though. Raife is the youngster of the band and we love him for his energy and enthusiasm, and also his crafty beats. I guess our collective ‘England’ is quite similar, we are all from relatively small places and have a desire to do something bigger than the confines of where we are from. That isn’t to say that we’re not proud of where we’re from, and I still really enjoy being in Northampton, it’s a great place with lots of creative people around.
Why did you name the band Strangers?
We came up with the name Strangers because firstly we thought it fitted perfectly with our sound and secondly everyone is born a stranger into this world and we really find the concept behind that idea. Also we all interact with Strangers everyday, more so than we ever have, and its a really interesting idea and can be used in loads of different ways.
You mentioned NIN as an influence; is that early NIN or later? Also, is that a violin I hear, on one of the tracks?
Yes, that is a violin in one of the tracks. Our producer is very much into ‘filmic’ sounds, by that I mean epic, huge soundscapes, and so he will often spend days coming up with a string part for one of our songs. I think it really works well for our sound. To be honest I’ve only recently got into Nine Inch Nails. I love ‘Hurt’, Closer, tracks like that. Glen is more of a hardcore fan, and he has turned me onto them.
Oh, okay, Closer and so on, that’s early NIN. Those are some of my favorites, too! Would it be appropriate to read “dark pop” as a synonym for “gothic”? Or at least as being related to certain strains of gothic music?
I guess there are gothic elements to our sound, but Dark Pop sits better with us as a way to describe our sound at the moment. Some of influences definitely have gothic roots; The Cure, Depeche Mode.
![[ Strangers ] - In Chaos](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/WJWcMBiqIao/0.jpg)
Where was the video filmed? It looks very dark and pleasantly creepy, wherever it is. Also, how long did take to do it, using just the iPhones as recording devices?
We filmed the video in Holland Park, which is a national park in West London. They are very strict about what is filmed there, so we had to stealth it a bit, and stay ‘under the radar’. It was raining for most of the filming so we were all standing there drenched, trying to get the right shots, it was an interesting day to say the least! We were there for about 3 hours the first time, and then went back for an hour or so a week later to get a few of the shots we missed. It was all shot using two iPhones, yes, and I think we were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the footage.
What was your transformative song – the rock and roll lightning strike?
David: A guy who I was in a band with a few years ago played me Depeche Mode Enjoy the Silence and it was literally love at first listen. From there I got really into The Cure and bands like that, as well as purchasing the entire Depeche Mode back catalogue.
Glen: Mine would have to be Head Like a Hole, by Nine Inch Nails, literally blew my socks off!! haha!
Raife: Everlong – Foo Fighters. The first time I heard it I wanted to be Taylor Hawkins, just such an entertaining drummer to listen to, and watch, he’s so animated. Also, it’s just a great track, I’ll never grow tired of it.
What was your first show (that you attended, not that you played)?
David: My first show i went to was a local band called Glendon. The guitarist used a food mixer on the fretboard to make some cool sounds, back then that was enough to impress me haha.
Glen: Depeche mode’s ‘Devotion Tour’ in ’93 was the first big concert I went to in London!
Raife: The very first show I went to was to see a Scottish metal band called Mendeed, I was 13 at the time. It was at the forum in Kentish Town, proper battle metal type stuff, there was mohawks and dreadlocks all over the place. Loved it. I really clearly remember just how loud it was, I couldn’t believe PA’s went that loud, pretty sure the ringing in my ears right now is because of that first show I went to.
What was the first record/tape/etc that you bought? What was the last one?
David: I wasn’t allowed to buy tapes when I was a kid, as all other music other than Christian music was considered ‘worldly’ and wrong. I used to go round to my mates house and he would copy me stuff that was in the charts at the time.
Glen: Damn! probably Michael Jackson’s Thriller on vinyl and the last was the Inception movie score by Hans Zimmer.
Raife: Nirvana, Nevermind, the most stereotypical album to be a bought by a teenager. I listened to it over and over, really opened up my musical ears. The last one I bought was Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, full of great hip-hop grooves, some really interesting instrumentation on some tracks, and a cameo perfomance from Chris     Rock at the end of the last track, couldn’t ask for more.
And finally, where will you be playing the live shows?
David: Our first show is May 20th at a new venue called Victory. We are playing this show for Club. The. Mammoth and will be the main support for FOE. Also we are playing at Bull and Gate in Kentish Town, North London for Mybandsbetterthanyours Presents on June 7th.
To hear more from the Strangers, visit them at their Website or on Soundcloud!
Good morning, NTSIBbers. Today we’re going on a virtual field trip to France! We are going to visit with Les Wampas, a punk band that has been around since 1983 but I didn’t know existed until probably about a month ago. And they are fantastic. They have become my go-to comfort music at pretty much all times. They do sing in French, but do not let that put you off. My facility with spoken French is approximately that of a very polite toddler, and I don’t find my lack of proficiency and/or comprehension a barrier to enjoying their music quite thoroughly.
The first song I am going to share is Manu Chao, from Never trust a guy who after having been a punk, is now playing electro (2003). It’s a diss track, but it’s a mild one. The lyrics, loosely translated, are along the lines of “If I had as much money as Manu Chao, I would go on lots of vacations” and Manu Chao is another European rockstar.
It’s the track that floated up on shuffle as I was walking to class one night after visiting the 7-11, trying to balance my cup of tea and umbrella at the same time and thinking something along the lines of “Have I lost my brownie again?” and I really did stop in the middle of the street, circuits jammed with “What is that?“, “Where can I get some more?” and “I need to make it louder right now.”
The next one is Rimini, from Rock’n’Roll No. 9 (2006) and is a memorial song for Marco Pantanni, a Tour de France champion who died in Rimini, Italy, in 2004. The song is masterfully constructed; it starts with just Didier Chapedelaine’s voice accompanied by a simple, delicate guitar line and then, in something like a minute and a half, slowly expands to include another guitar, drums and fuzzy, thudding bass:
Finally, a fan video from a show, filmed in Spain in 2009, so you can see them in action. Didier Chapedelaine is essentially leading the pit in an acoustic performance of Les bottes rouges from Simple et Tendre (1993) . The whole room is singing along, clapping out the beat, and carefully surfing him around all at the same time:
There is much more to listen to on the “Songs” section of their website, and you can also watch some webisodes they made to promote their last record over here. If nothing else the person running around dressed like an ostrich is extremely entertaining.
Exploding Lies
The night kicked off (and that is the appropriate way to describe it – this night did not do something meek like “begin” or “start”) with Cleveland’s own Exploding Lies, a blues-inflected rock band with emphasis on low and heavy vibes. So dedicated to that low and heavy end are this band that they sometimes step into the Black Sabbath end of the spectrum with impressive results. While the band seems a little hesitant on stage, there is a lot of potential there, and once they are comfortable enough to own the stage, they will move from good to great.
(And they already have one of the most entertaining-to-watch drummers I’ve seen.)
Hacienda
My second time seeing this south Texas foursome was even better than the first. Perhaps it’s the family dynamic – the band being made up of the brothers Villanueva (Abraham on keys, Rene on bass and Jaime on drums) and cousin Dante Schwebel on guitar – but this band is tight. And it’s that tightness in musicianship that allows them to throw out perfectly loose grooves. So in sync are they that they can go all out, shake-the-rafters rockin’ without ever going off the rails. Mixing up a set list of tracks from their two albums (a third will be recorded in Nashville this summer), kept up a feel-good energy throughout their set until they closed it up with a blow-the-roof-off, if-you-don’t-dance-to-this-you-might-be-dead jam on “Mama’s Cookin'”.
I can’t say enough good things about this band. As a whole and individually, these guys are impressive. They all play far above baseline expectations, always showing audacious skill but never being flashy for flashiness’ sake, always serving the groove. And you can hear their south Texas home in their music. This is the music of warm nights, barefoot girls and barbecue-chomping boys, relaxing with beers and friends. And no band I’ve ever seen live has made me dance more than Hacienda. (And they rival the Gories for best soundcheck around.)
Speaking between songs, Dante said Ohio has become like a second home to the band (no doubt bolstered through their continued relationship with Dan Auerbach), and I, for one, would be happy to claim these guys as our own.
The Greenhornes
Speaking of Ohio’s own… I wasn’t sure how I would feel about the Greenhornes, coming late to the Cincinnati band’s material and being ambivalent about what I’d heard around the internet.
That ambivalence lasted about two seconds into Friday night’s set. From Jack Lawrence’s lead-in to the final blast of their nearly-11-minute cover of James Brown’s “I’ll Go Crazy”, I was rooting for the home team. The Greenhornes know just where to hit on the body to render maximum devastation, pumping adrenaline-soaked bullets into the audience’s major arteries from beginning to end. By the end, I was hooting and hollering just as loudly as those who were smart enough to get on board with the Greenhornes long before I did.
It’s easy to see why Jack White keeps tapping Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler to fill his rhythm section needs with their strong sense of rock rhythm and groove, adding just enough funk to get you hustling. And while I had seen complaints about singer/guitarist Craig Fox’s stage demeanor in the lead-up to the show from people taken aback by his mostly stock-still posture, Fox didn’t need to bounce around with all the energy he generated from his Gibson SG.
So, call me a convert. The Greenhornes were deadly and made this show a pretty-much-perfect night of rock and roll. And by the end, you could almost hear buttons popping off of shirt fronts as our collective Ohio chest swelled with pride.
