Gowanus Music Club

The Gowanus Music Club Telegram: Vol. 2

2010-01-02T19:06:00.043-05:00

January 2010

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Talkbox

A Letter From GMC's Executive Director

"Trust the outer edge," my friend Andrew said as he sliced perfect "S" curves into the ice. We were at a rink in Boston over New Years, and he was trying to teach me how to be a better skater, a somewhat fruitless task I might add. I eventually received my requisite butt bruise and moved on, but what he said stuck with me.

So much about what we communicate and achieve in life is about trust and our ability to conquer our fears and overcome roadblocks. I remember at a certain juncture in my life as a drummer, I began to trust that my hands (and feet) knew more about where to go on the kit than my brain. Of course, that moment came after many hours of practice and struggle: slowing things down and speeding them up to find the song in the exercises. One can see this "edge" in athletes who are at their peak, virtuoso musicians, master chefs and skilled orators. It represents the pinnacle of personal success in any endeavor, and can be a thrilling and transformational experience.

I'm mentioning this because, given it's a new year, this simple phrase is going to act as my rudder to navigate all the complexities that life may challenge me with in 2010. "Trusting" for me is the easier part. "The edge" is much harder. It is always tempting to stay with what we know and follow through on the easier choices. Risk represents change and the unknown. It is a close relative to possibility and, in turn, reward. When approaching music, we all have our blank slates. Sometimes the best thing we can do is play one long note on our instrument to find our core voice. Trust that voice, and it will lead you eventually to the edge. Find that edge, and you may find your own true self smiling back at you.

On that note, I wanted to tell you about the latest GMC news. We are thrilled to officially open GMC Tribeca, our new location at 67 Hudson Street in downtown Manhattan. We will be hosting band practices at the new space along with intimate performances, workshops and recording sessions. From the shameless self-promotion department, Meredith Deliso wrote a wonderful piece on us in the Brooklyn Courier (check it out!). Also, it's looking like Brooklyn Independent TV is going to do a segment on GMC for their "Neighborhood Beat" show in February. Please reference our website for all upcoming events in Brooklyn and at GMC Tribeca. Our winter semester starts the week of January 24th in both Brooklyn and Manhattan, so if you haven't done so already, please sign up!

In this second issue of the GMC Telegram, you will find Jacob Meade's terrific interview with Michael Farkas from The Wiyos. Michael's band opened up for Bob Dylan this past summer, and Farkas will be leading workshops at GMC in the very near future. We also have my old friend Mike Cumella discussing crank-up phonographs and his special radio show on WFMU. Finally, Will Levith returns with a Big Star concert review.

Enjoy this issue of the Telegram, and, as always, we'd love to get your feedback. Feel free to add to the blog or drop me a line at josh@gowanusmusicclub.com.

—Josh Margolis is the founder and executive director of The Gowanus Music Club

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Discovering Lost Sounds

By Michael Cumella

Maybe you’ve been covering some older songs at the GMC. It's great to listen to old recordings as a way to broaden your musical tastes, but how far can you go back? 50? 75? 100 years or more?

On my radio show, The Antique Phonograph Music Program, I play 78 rpm disc and cylinder recordings from the "acoustic era"—that being, before electricity was used for the recording or playback process. In the early days of recording, the entire band would sit in a room and play music toward a "hole" in the wall. The other side of the hole was actually a machine—powered by weights—that would record the sound directly to a 78 rpm master record. The mix would be determined by how close the players sat to the hole, so the quietest instruments would be close and the loudest farthest away.

My investment in this period's music came from being interested in the history of recording. Thomas Edison invented a way to record sound in 1877, but it wasn't until about 20 years later (in the 1890s) that people could go out and buy records and phonographs for home use. These machines were built quite well, have lasted and continue to bring the joy of music to people more than 100 years after they were made. I bet your iPod won’t work in 100 years!

My radio show is done by having three crank-up phonographs in the studio, and I put microphones in the horns to let people hear what they sound like. I have kept these machines up to the specifications of the period, so they sound like they should. People are fascinated by the old technology and the sound of these beautiful machines. They are also great to look at! I do exhibitions for schools, museums and occasionally DJ, using the crank-up phonographs.

To hear my radio show, follow this link:

http://www.michaelcumella.com/phonographdj/index.html

Open your ears to a whole new world of music. Who knows what you will discover!

—Michael Cumella has hosted WFMU Radio's Antique Phonograph Music Program since 1995.

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Spotlight on Success

An Interview with The Wiyos' Michael Farkas

Michael Farkas is a singer, multi-instrumentalist and member of New York band the Wiyos. The band, which formed in 2002 in the Lower East Side, has built a strong following and recently had the honor of opening for legend Bob Dylan on his '09 summer tour. Drawing inspiration from old-time American genres like country blues and ragtime, the Wiyos make music that merges past and present in dynamic new ways. Michael recently sat down to discuss the band’s latest album Broken Land Bell, file sharing and touring disasters.

Jacob Meade: Tell me about the Wiyos' latest album Broken Land Bell.

Michael Farkas: Joebass [Joseph DeJanette], our bass player, was the engineer, and we all decided that we wanted to have a little more of a pop sensibility with this album. I loved the way the previous two were recorded; the process was a very authentic rendering of us in the room playing our instruments. On this album, we did lay down a lot of the basic tracks live, but then we used digital tools and layered on that, and the approach was to make it sound more postmodern. I think this album would do very well in the pop-chart sense. It's just what people are oriented to hear when they put on the radio. I grew up with pop albums, so I'm more used to the way this album sounds.

J: How have fans reacted?

M: There's definitely some people who want us to maintain a very austere presentation of our material live and through our recordings. But this album's been out since the summer, and I think overall, the response has been very positive, because the songs are good—they just feel appropriate to the way we conceived them.

J: How did the Wiyos form? What sort of "scene" was there in New York in 2002 that allowed you to take off?

M: [Singer/guitarist] Parrish Ellis and I met kind of randomly and both were into Piedmont blues, and we were playing as a duet for a while. After the Coen brothers' movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? came out and won all those awards, there seemed to be more interest in rural mountain music. We used to hang out at this bar called Barbès [in Park Slope, Brooklyn]. I found the best music in the city was going through there—a small, intimate hotbox of great musicians—so I would hang out there and meet people for little jam sessions afterwards. I think we were on the road within a year's time and not in New York City all that much, but then we'd come back, and there'd be more people playing old-time music, more old jazz, more bluegrass. Every time it seemed like it was growing exponentially.

J: What's your primary role in the band? Also, what lesser-known instruments do you like to use?

M: On stage I primarily sing and play harmonica and washboard percussion and kazoo (although there's no kazoo or washboard on the newest album). From a performance standpoint, [those instruments are] awesome, because people get very engaged, and it has a comic element. But on the album, I was using everything from tuned music boxes to bottles. I really am influenced by soundmakers who use whatever it takes to get the sound across. I have a preference for organic things, as opposed to electronics where you can simulate those sounds. I'd rather just, you know…[hits glasses with a spoon]. The soundscape you hear on Broken Land Bell isn't electronically created; it's old spinning 78 records or me hitting found objects. It's a piece of what we've been doing all along, but it's a little more complex. I love anything I can get a sound out of.

J: How was it to open for Bob Dylan last summer?

M: It was extraordinary for all of us and overwhelming. It came about in a very, we thought, authentic way. [Dylan] was looking for an opening act, and someone knew someone who had our album and presented that to Bob's people, and he really dug it. So they gave us a call.

J: Where did the tour take you?

M: It was all across the country in minor league baseball stadiums. [Dylan had] been doing that for a bunch of years with Willy Nelson, and this year, John Mellencamp was involved as well. The tour didn't have video screens or a sophisticated light show; it was very stripped down and about the music. It was awesome.

J: So what's next for the Wiyos?

M: We're definitely toning it down a little bit. We've been road-dogging it for nearly seven years, and we're looking forward to getting a little time with friends and family. I think the music industry is definitely going through a transformative stage. The recorded aspect of it is becoming problematic for a lot of musicians since file sharing is rife. I think the value of the live performance is only going to go up, because it's not reproducible. I'd rather dig my heels into making better, fewer and more interesting live performances. I wish—and so do a lot of musicians—that people were buying albums and understood that when you're sharing it you're stealing. At the same time, there's only so much you can do about it unless you speak up, which I guess I'm doing here.

J: But it's generally thought that before file sharing, labels overcharged fans for CDs. What price range do you think is right if people are looking to buy music?

M: I think the iTunes 99 cents per tune is fair. I mean, some money is better than no money, so if it were 50 cents, I'd be happy with that, too. The artists I admire most have taken all kinds of right and wrong turns, but they've stayed the course of their vision and taken chances. They have to have some kind of support system to do that.

J: What advice would you give kids these days who are interested in a career in music?

M: Shoot from the hips, go with what you care about and put it in your music and practice and listen and open your ears. It's not about virtuosity: There's always going to be players that are a lot better than you, but if you really are able to express yourself through your music, you'll make a connection. And don't be afraid of liking things that no one else likes. I love Glenn Gould, but if I'd said that to some of my buddies growing up listening to classic rock, they'd be like, "Dude…"

J: If you could give everyone under 16 one album to hook them on music, what would it be and why?

M: [long pause] Based on that age group, it's great to imagine albums where young artists were starting to mature and taking chances, so I think that [the Beatles'] Rubber Soul would be the one. It didn't have the full blossom of some of their later albums, but it was getting there, and there's something even more exciting about that.

J: Do you have any funny touring stories?

M: A classic trek we made a few years ago was to Syracuse, New York, in February, and it was like 30 below. We drove six hours to get there from another show, we played the show, and during it, there was a huge snowstorm. We had to be in Savannah, Georgia, the following afternoon for a show, so we drove through the snowstorm all night, through the morning, showed up at whatever time in Savannah, played [the] show, then had to pack up…it was insane! If you want to be a road dog, you have to expect lots of that.

J: Any funny mid-performance disasters?

M: Oh yeah, we were playing a pig roast festival in Georgia—

J: A pig roast festival?

M: Yeah, a barbecue contest. We were playing under a tent, and there was a huge electrical storm, and it shut down everything. The tent started collapsing because of all the heavy rain, so the whole audience moved in. It became smaller and smaller and smaller, and everyone was literally as close to us as they could be without us hitting them, and it was one of the most beautiful shows we ever had.

—Jacob Meade is a music writer based in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

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Rants and Raves: Big Star and Kurt Vile at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple (November 18, 2009)

By Will Levith

When I was a much younger New Yorker, I would spend all of my money and free time journeying to live shows in around town—going to the farthest reaches of the boroughs to seek out the best musical acts. In recent years, I’ve had to cut that down to only a few big shows a year, and Big Star was one that I immediately said, "I have to go see this one."

If you’re not familiar with the greatness that is Big Star, you don't have to go much further than listening to the latest indie rock bands and power pop bands. Big Star influenced many of them. They were "indie" before it was cool to be "indie." They only put out three vintage albums—#1 Record (1972), Radio City (1974) and Third/Sister Lovers (which was not available on CD ‘til 1994)—if you don't count the "reunion" disc they dropped in 2005 (In Space). But their output on those three albums is, in many ways, second to very few in that era. Each song is expertly crafted, hook-filled and paints the picture of a "band on the verge."

But it wasn't to be. Big Star never received the acclaim (and requisite album sales) they should have. So they sort of live on as this stepping-stone band that has fathered others throughout the years.

Anyhow, I was super-excited to see that Big Star was playing in Brooklyn, so I snatched up three tickets: one for me and the other two for my band members. We went to see them together—as a band. Also of interest, my two band members' friend, Kurt Vile, was opening up for Big Star at the same show. So it was a no-miss situation.

We got to the venue, the Brooklyn Masonic Temple, a little early to check it out. The place reminded me of my elementary school on the outside—white/gray stone façade, pretty nondescript. And what do you know? My band member's friend, Kurt Vile, the opening act, was hanging out outside the venue. We talked him up for a little while. Turned out that he was pretty nervous about playing before Big Star—and that he was living the dream of being a rock star signed to a cool indie label (Matador).

A few short hours later, we were right at stage right, watching Kurt Vile sing/scream impassioned tunes through his shoulder-length hair into the mic. I was really impressed with his music—how creative it was. He had a drum machine going for several tunes, as well as a drummer, who was playing on a kit without a high-hat (with Timpani mallets). Also, there was no bassist in the band to be seen; just three electric guitarists (one who played sax at one point).

Then came the main act—Big Star—the ones we'd been waiting for.

I get into this zone when I see artists that I really dig. I was enamored with each and every tune.

Now, it's not as though their exact original lineup is still in place—lead singer Alex Chilton still helms the band, as well as the aforementioned Stephens on the skins. They've rounded out the band with two members of the ‘90s alt-rock power-pop band The Posies, who do a decent part of taking over for the absent (and/or no-longer-living) members of Big Star. They even got the spotlight on a few tunes, but it was really Chilton and Stephens I showed up to see.

Highlights? Well, I really dug the versions of "The Ballad of El Goodo" and (my favorite) "Way Out West," the band did. I wholly enjoyed my second-favorite "When My Baby's Beside Me," which was played on a slack-tuned Fender telecaster, I believe, and I still have yet to figure out what tuning it was in for myself. Oftentimes, if I'm interested in learning a band's song, I'll check them out live in order to see how they play a song. (Seriously, you should try it some time.) I also liked Posies member Jon Auer's rendition of the Chris Bell (deceased guitarist/vocalist from the band) classic "I Am the Cosmos." I would add that record (I Am the Cosmos) as the "fourth" Big Star album, if you want to go above and beyond the call of musical duty. It's got little beautiful nuggets all over it.

Anyhow, I enjoyed the heck out of the show and give it 11 thumbs up. And I just recently picked up some tickets to see another one of my favorite bands, Nada Surf, at GMC-approved-venue The Bell House. Maybe I'll chime in about that experience in the next Telegram.

But for now, take a listen to a few Big Star tracks from the actual concert:

Way Out West (my favorite Big Star song)

The Ballad of El Goodo (another favorite)

Good listening.

—Will Levith is a musician and music writer based in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

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Links and Things

Photos from Summer Camp 2009

Gowanus Music Club's Sign Up Page

GMC Band The Pipes Live on Daily Motion The Kids Music Underground Rolling Stone Tracy Bonham-Fine Joan Osborne Mountain Stage Scholastic Millrose Music Brooklyn Flea Nickelodeon Manhattan JCC Big Beat Hot Lava Hem Ollabelle

The Gowanus Music Club Telegram: Vol. 1

2009-10-21T15:48:00.020-04:00

October 2009

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Talkbox

A Letter From GMC's Executive Director

A big hello to Gowanus Music Club staff, students and parents and the larger NYC community! This has been an exciting year-and-a-half of growth, connection, and fun for all of us here at the GMC.

Starting out in the summer of 2008 with a handful of kids and a few inspired music teachers, GMC has grown into a program educating over 60 students strong. We have also expanded our program to include adult rock bands! Grab your fellow parents, friends, neighbors and sign up for our 12 week spring session. Contact me at josh@gowanusmusicclub.com for more details about adult rock band classes.

We are all looking forward to our concert Sunday, December 20, 2009 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at The Bell House in Brooklyn, which represents the culmination of all the hard work and rehearsals that GMC bands have been doing this fall.

I am also pleased and proud to announce the first edition of our bimonthly GMC e-newsletter, The Telegram. Headed up by the writing team of Will Levith and Jacob Meade, The Telegram will provide an overview of our progress, while also reaching out to the larger NYC community. We will also include music reviews, instrument “how-to’s”, along with photos and links from our past performances. Readers of the Telegram should also feel free to share with us any thoughts, questions or concerns on this blog. Links to documented GMC performances via YouTube or the like are always appreciated as well.

As Executive Director, I feel strongly that Gowanus Music Club represents some of the best aspects of our city. From our wonderfully supportive parents to the dedicated students and the teachers on our staff, our organization has had a strong symbiosis from the start. Please feel free to pass this newsletter on to anyone who might have any interest in Gowanus Music Club, and encourage them to participate. I look forward to all that this year will bring and hope that you all have a wonderful fall season.

—Josh Margolis, Executive Director, Gowanus Music Club

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Master Class

In this section, Gowanus Music Club's guitar and vocals instructor John Brophy gives us a master class on the golden rules of being a musician. If you have any follow-up questions for John, feel free to comment in the comments section below, and we'll make sure to forward it to him.

Learning How to Play Music

In my experience teaching both youngsters and adults on the road toward their musical goals, a few golden rules have emerged, which I would like to share with you. These rules apply to learning on the guitar/bass (or any instrument, really), developing your musical vocabulary, remaining a humble student, and playing with others.

Learning on an instrument is a two-step process: first, getting the information off of the page and into your mind (via guitar tab, musical notation or from a recording/demonstration); and second, training the hands to perform the task by drilling the part, which builds muscle memory.

The first part (understanding and memorizing) should be tackled quickly, but the second part (drilling) should be taken slowly. Drill the part at a tempo slowly enough, so you can play it perfectly. Once the wrinkles are ironed out, playing faster will be easy. Make sure you are patient with this process.

Learn your scales, chords and chord progressions, because these make up the vocabulary that you will use in your musical phrases. When you speak, your mind is not thinking about the spelling of each word, because the spelling of words is understood so deeply. Similarly, your musical vocabulary will eventually be understood at this depth, so your playing becomes a conversation with your fellow musicians.

As you progress, strive to remain the humble student. Some of your colleagues will be more advanced than you, but you’ll be surprised at how much you can learn from them if you treat each musical encounter as a collaborative, educational opportunity. With so many guitarists and other musicians out there, what is really important in the long run (in addition to being able to play your instrument) is being a person that is reliable, easy to get along with and able to collaborate with, so that the creative process can be an experience of building up, not competing and tearing down. Remember, music is not a race but a parade!

So, be patient, develop your musical vocabulary, stay humble and be open to learning. Eventually, you will find music—and the music will find its way to you.

—John Brophy is a guitarist, singer and teacher at Gowanus Music Club.

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Spotlight on Success

An Interview With GMC's Artistic Director (and Recording Artist) Tracy Bonham-Fine By Jacob Meade

Tracy Bonham-Fine is an acclaimed singer-songwriter and musician who teaches at Gowanus Music Club. A classically-trained violinist from Oregon, she first had success in 1996 when her hard-rocking debut The Burdens of Being Upright went gold and garnered two Grammy nominations, on the strength of hit single “Mother Mother.” Since then, Bonham has continued to record and collaborate with musical partners as diverse as Aerosmith and the Blue Man Group. Bonham is putting the finishing touches on her next album, Masts of Manhatta, which comes out early next year. She recently sat down and talked music and life at a coffee shop in Brooklyn.

Jacob Meade: Tell me about the new album you’ve been working on.

Tracy Bonham-Fine: Well, it’s my fourth full-length record—I’ve had some EP’s in between. Right now, I'm completely independent and loving that, loving the freedom and the possibilities of what that means. I have a really really cool band that’s playing on it, with this guy named Smokey Hormel who is just incredible. He’s played with Beck and Tom Waits more recently. It happened that he brought in his Western swing trio that plays around town, and they created this sound for this record that’s really consistent and warm and organic and awesome, and I’m very happy.

JM: Where are you recording?

TB: In Williamsburg. That was where the basics were recorded, and then I took it out to Woodstock where we have this little cottage, and I did overdubs with the violins and the vocals.

JM: On your last album, blink the brightest, you had complete creative control for the first time. How does the new album compare and contrast to that, as well as to your earlier work?

TB: My last record was the first time I co-produced, and it was really fun to have the collaboration with someone and also control. No business people giving you these really weird ideas of what it should be. I’ve been told by an A&R guy, “I don’t hear any songs.” That’s like the worst thing you can say.

JM: He literally said, “I don’t hear any songs?”

TB: Yeah, and of course, it was a record full of songs! But I knew what he meant: He didn’t hear any hits. Anyway, the business side had been plaguing me for years; it was just really confining. So this album I took to another level, where I was the only producer. There’s a spirit that happens when I make demos that usually goes away by the time we get into this big expensive studio—all of a sudden, it’s not as raw or not as creative—and I tried to keep that spirit alive, and I’m positive I succeeded. I had the most fun I’ve ever had.

JM: What are your biggest inspirations for the new record?

TB: Woodstock, New York, because we have our cottage up there, so being in that area really influenced me. It’s really important to get space when you’re living in New York City. I grew up in Oregon where there’s trees and mountains, and this has brought me back to that feeling when I grew up. Another thing is that my husband is a writer and editor for Rolling Stone, so I get to hear what he’s been listening to. A lot of it has been old-time country and old-time western swing, and I can hear it occasionally in my music. You’d never think that that would seep in, but it did.

JM: The new album is called Masts of Manhatta [taken from Walt Whitman’s poem “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”]. Was New York City another inspiration?

TB: It’s the conflict between the city and the country. It’s [about] needing a life where you can hear the birds and see the trees, and also hear the hustle-bustle of the city. But it’s also about my relationship with my husband. And then there’s some weird stepchildren songs, where I’m like, “Where did that come from?” There’s a song about a guy cheating on his girlfriend. I don’t know where that came from. Must be something from the past. [laughs]

JM: Musically, your last album had a lush sound, with a lot of different instruments. Does the new album have that or is it starker?

TB: It’s a little stark. I think that’s one of my complaints about the last album—that we kept everything in, and it’s super glossy. I love my last record; I’m not trying to diss it, but there is something about it that seemed kind of overly produced—my bad. This time I wanted to leave more space.

JM: Your last album was self-financed on a very low budget, so it’s odd that you would now call it "overproduced."

TB: If that one was low budget, this one was subterranean budget. One thing that’s great about the record business taking a dive is that there’s more people willing to do favors; they still want to make music even though they’re not going to get paid. There’s a lot more home studios, there’s a lot more opportunities to just get out there and do it yourself. I’m lucky enough where some people know my name. And then I just had some friends who were really good people who love music and would do it for really dirt cheap, and I’m forever grateful for that.

JM: Do you think the record industry’s demise is good for young people that are trying to break through?

TB: I think it’s probably most positive for the new people starting out. They have no rules so there’s so much opportunity out there if they’re motivated. They can get a Myspace [or] Facebook [page]—and then they can start putting things everywhere. If [young artists] have the energy, they can get out there and play shows and sell records at shows and create their own reality, without anyone giving them some kind of idea based on fear. It’s easy to fall in that trap.

JM: Do you think you did?

TB: I did fall into that trap. Many times I look back and think, “Wow, why did I let them talk me into things?” After my first record did well, I was ready to get started again, but things were put on hold, and my manager said “You might as well go away for a while and not tour and not do anything, because you’re only as big as your last hit.” And I argued but I succumbed and watched my old momentum disappear. It wasn’t an artist-based music industry; it was all about songs.

JM: What do you think now of your earliest recordings? A lot of artists have a big breakthrough, and then they move on; they are kind of embarrassed by it or haven’t made peace with it. Do you have those feelings?

TB: I do have those feelings, and it’s hard. I should just look back and feel good; it was a time of my life. But the hard part is I feel like I’ve changed drastically since, and that stuff doesn’t go away. I worked really hard on it, but I like all kinds of music and I waver—I go through phases. That first record happened to be a phase; I was reacting to music at that time. There was a lot of Courtney Love and a lot of edgy, edgy stuff, but because of my serious music studies, that phase, in retrospect, was me goofing off. It was me throwing caution to the wind going “Ha! I can scream now, isn’t this funny?” And when I wrote [“Mother Mother”], there’s a scream in it. When I first came up with it, I started laughing thinking, “Oh my god, I could never do that, that’s weird.” And it became this joke to me. But then what happened was it just worked; people liked it which was great. I’m so fortunate.

JM: What is your first memory of music?

TB: I can’t think of one exact thing, but my mom was and is a musician, and she was involved in a lot of community musical theater, so from a very young age, I saw her on stage singing and rehearsing, and I just got the bug.

JM: What did you listen to when you were in your early teens?

TB: I thought it was really cool when I listened to The Specials, and I loved The Police. I didn’t realize they were really mass-marketed and popular, so I thought I was super-cool and different. I also have this side of me that loves Manhattan Transfer, 'cause I loved singing local jazz and I loved the harmonies, so I was big into them. That was my first concert ever.

JM: What are your all-time favorite albums and/or artists?

TB: Stevie Wonder, Songs in the Key of Life, for sure. Charlie Parker, always. It kind of brings me back to living on my own in college and studying jazz—it’s always been something that I’ll go to.

JM: What are some new artists you’ve gotten into?

TB: There’s this movement with a lot of indie bands that have vocals that are saturated in reverb. Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver? Oh my god, absolutely gorgeous. I don’t know if it’s just a trend right now, but I’ve always loved vocal harmonies. I’ve always been afraid of [them], because I’m like, “That’s overproducing,” but hearing these bands, their harmonies are just so beautiful—it just takes me to a whole other world. I’m so happy that those bands are out there right now. There was a time back right before the millennium ... that was the worst period, everyone was so angry, and I remember I went to Woodstock '99 when the tower burned down, and I cried because it was so angry. The energy was horrible. I’m really glad we’re way far away from that. I hope that doesn’t come back. [laughs]

JM: That brings up an interesting question: How do you define rock and roll?

TB: [pauses] I think it’s an energy, and it can be different for each person. For some people, it can be [about] rebellion; for some people, it can be a way to let it all out, cathartic. But there’s this fire-like energy that comes from each of those. I think that’s where it starts.

JM: Does your most recent work fall under that definition?

TB: It’s a variation of that. More of a campfire, as opposed to a raging fire that needs to burn down a city block.

JM: If you could give everyone under 16 in New York City one album to try and hook them on music, what album would that be and why?

TB: Oh, that is so difficult; it’s so subjective. [long pause] This is kind of a cliché answer, but I think I would give them a copy—a vinyl and a record player—[laughs] of [The Beatles'] Abbey Road. I would say, “Listen to the songwriting and listen to the way the album is put together as a whole, from front to back.”

JM: What general advice would you give to kids looking to get into music?

TB: Think about music as a way to express yourself and who you are and what you want to say. Yes, there are techniques, yes it [means] practicing and it can [mean] serious practice. But if [aspiring musicians] think of it more like “I’m going to express who I am through music,” then they [will] allow themselves to just be and have that outlet. It’s so hard for kids to do that, because they don’t know who they are yet.

JM: In the long term, what do you want for your music career? Do you still see yourself recording albums in five or ten years?

TB: I do really want to keep making records and teaching. I feel like performing, making records and teaching is kind of my triptych, and I want that to balance. And I’m worried about it because I’m starting a family, so I’m not going to be touring as much. With the business the way it is now, it really depends on touring. I’m constantly thinking about how I can keep myself out there and vital, while continuing my other endeavors. So yeah, I want to keep that going and have a family at the same time.

—Jacob Meade is a music writer based in Brooklyn.

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Rants & Raves

Here's a music review from Will Levith, who has done his share of album reviewing over the past seven years. He's been published in The Hartford Courant newspaper and American Songwriter magazine among others. A multi-instrumentalist himself, Will has a deep knowledge of the ins and outs of music, as well as what's hot and what's not. Take a look at this little hotcake:

Kings of Leon

Only By The Night

RCA Records (2008)

* * * * (four-star review)

Of the rock bands that have emerged in the past years, no other’s star burns brighter, arguably, than Kings of Leon.

Made up of a trio of brothers—Caleb (guitar), Nathan (drums) and Jared Followill (bass)—as well as first cousin Matthew (guitar), the band is a family affair to say the least. And while families mixed with popular music is not a new concept in rock-and-roll history—Oasis’ Gallagher brothers, The Breeders’ Deal sisters and The Kinks’ Davies brothers come to mind—the Kings seem to have spent all their time rocking out, with very little public bickering. In other words, the emphasis has always been on the music. Egos are checked at the door.

New fans, who might only know Kings of Leon by their radio hits, will be happy to find that the band has three previous albums’ worth of songs. But let’s stick with Only By The Night, for now.

Opener “Closer” is dark and mysterious, making good use of syncopated rhythm, a tug-of-war between a metronome-like lead guitar and spacey, psychedelic rhythm guitar; and heavy, tribal drums, which guide the lead vocal. This isn’t the work of amateurs—this is expert, grownup musicianship (mind you, these guys are all under 30).

“Crawl,” on the other hand, is pretty much a bassists’ song—listen to that meaty riff that repeats from the beginning. Yep, that’s a distorted bass. The lead guitar takes a second seat. Take that, lead guitar! This one definitely hints at Achtung Baby-era U2, so if you enjoy your Irish forefathers, you’ll be runnin’ towards this one, not crawlin’.

Of course, what review of this album would be complete without mentioning already megahits like “Use Somebody”? The song is a mountain of catchiness, with its romantic bent, always a popular theme with the masses, especially the young ladies; the guitars, which are simple but memorable (think Bush’s superhit “Glycerine”); and that choir-like “whoa-oh-oh” in the background (a la U2). The driving beat in the pre-chorus and chorus behind all these moving parts makes for the perfect epoxy. Sit back and let yourself be used.

Now, I could go through every single song on this album and tell you what I think about them (“Revelry” is my personal favorite; those dark, dissonant chords make my blood boil with excitement), but I’m not going to do that. If you want the real answers, you’re going to have to go out and pick this one up at iTunes or at your local record store and review the rest for yourself. I’m just here to tell you that it’s awesome.

Go out, get the album, review it for yourself and tell us what you think. Leave a comment after this post. We dare you.

Rock on.

—Will Levith

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Links and Things

Photos from Summer Camp 2009

Gowanus Music Club's Sign Up Page

Press Release Coming Soon!

2008-05-16T10:42:00.000-04:00

Stay tuned...