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Mental explorations and the beautiful man-voice of Father John Misty

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Eric is back – see a few recent posts of his – and this time he’s talking Father John Misty, whose excellent album Fear Fun you can stream below while reading.

It was admittedly only a couple weeks ago when Father John Misty was in the, “Ummm, I’ve heard of him, but I can’t remember in what context” category. Now, it’s hard to imagine a time when we weren’t inseparable, in a very one-sided sort of way. He’s playing in Phoenix on Oct. 10, at Rhythm Room, no less, which is always a plus for me. I learned the other day that I would most likely be attending a rehearsal dinner instead, with only an outside shot at catching his set afterward. Double frowny-face. Don’t get me wrong – I’m gonna fulfill my obligation like a big boy and not pitch a fit, since these are good friends of my girlfriend and people I like, but I juuuust got to the point where I’m like “I haaaave to go see this guy!” Harumph.

I’ll back up. Recently, I was catching up with my brother, who asked me if I had heard of him. I knew I had, but like I alluded to, I was kind of “meh” about it. He brought up the fact that his most recent video featured Parks and Rec show-stealer and personal fave Aubrey Plaza in a flower-eating, makeup- and blood-smearing, tour-de-force music video (apparently those still exist). I’m listening. We watched it, and in addition to enjoying her go legit cray-cray, I realized I had heard the song on KEXP before, had written it down for later listening and never followed up on it.

My brother then brings up the fact that he used to be the drummer for Fleet Foxes, one of our favorite bands. Ahh. Although I had done some serious Fleet Foxes YouTubing like this and this and thisPitchfork, Lollapalooza, in Tucson and in an unforgettable Phoenix-only collabo with Bon Iver. It’s an easy road-trip soundtrack choice, mix CD staple and around-the-house-chillax-mode favorite.

Once I learned about his Fleet Foxes background, I started to try to connect the dots. Wait – I remembered the Fleet Foxes drummer doing some solo albums, but his name was J. Tillman. Standard huge beard, long hair, etc. Hadn’t listened to his stuff, so no opinion one way or the other. My friend had gone to his show at Modified Arts – one of the last indie shows at that venue before it turned back into a full-time art gallery. I can’t even remember if I asked her about it later.

So is this a different dude? Apparently not. He just cut his hair off (as captured in this awesome and very NSFW video with his ladyfriend), did some, ahem, “mental exploration” of sorts, shall we say, to find his narrative voice, quit Fleet Foxes and decided his name was a pretty arbitrary thing anyway.

Anywho, since my brother told me about the esteemed Mr. Father, I’ve been pretty well obsessed. And apparently I’m not the only one: Comedian Duncan Trussell has brought a lot of people his way on the interwebs. Sirius XMU, a friend informed me, “wants to marry him.” Although Pitchfork gave his newest album Fear Fun a good-but-not-great 7.3, his awesomely sarcastic Twitter rampage may have gotten him even more love and attention than a more-glowing review might have in the first place.

It’s always a plus when you get the added dimension of actually liking the musicians you listen to. Suffice it to say this guy is an interesting study. Watch this one about his songwriting process – bonus: a bug happens to fall out of his hair. Kinda gross, but I like that Watch the ease with which he makes friends with strangers(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-H-AYTghBYw). And oh yeah, his new album Fear Fun happens to be pretty dang awesome.

Whether he chooses to evoke the signature Fleet Foxes pastoral folk sound on certain songs or switch it up with more straightforward jangly rock on the album, I’m not gonna front, you guys. Father John Misty has a seriously beautiful man-voice. That haunting, ethereal quality that you couldn’t fake in a studio if you tried. Listening to Fleet Foxes songs now, I can place his specific voice in the middle of all those gorgeous harmonies, and it gives me new respect for his contributions to the band.

Although he’s put out several albums as J. Tillman, having only spent significant time with this Father John Misty, his level of musicianship was impressive to me pretty immediately. Have you ever noticed that ex-drummers seem to make, when attempted, pretty dang good frontmen/solo artists? Forgive me if I’m taking too many liberties with the sort of sports/music crossover sometimes found on this blog by using this analogy, but in the same way that former Major League catchers like Joe Girardi and Mike Scioscia make great baseball managers because they relate well to players, they’ve been there and done that, and have a sense of what works and what doesn’t in terms of the inner workings of the game? To me, drummers-turned-frontmen like Josh Tillman or Dave Grohl seem to do well in their second musical lives in much the same way. They’re musician’s musicians, likable dudes, and they understand the subleties of rhythm and song structure.

Fear Fun is certainly a crazy ride and wonderfully diverse in content and style. Like a Fleet Foxes album that Devendra Banhart would have made, it’s kinda all over the place, and I’m still really new to it. Total cop-out alert – according to him, the album functions as a sort of novel within a novel (I’m told there is also a novel within the actual liner notes), but I haven’t spent quite enough time with it to begin to decode that or all of its crazy lyrical imagery, so I’m not even going to try right this second. Maybe in like a year. I can tell you I’m hooked, though, so stay tuned on that. Since my job and lifestyle don’t include regular spirit journeys, I’ll probably never get it the way some people might. I have, however, found myself a new favorite thing/person/album/YouTube search for a while, which is still quite good.

One last thing – if you can make it to the show, please go. For me. If you get to talk to him after the show, please do it. For you. Here are some possible conversation topics if you’re at a loss:

What kind of shorts you should buy for your trip to Australia?
Who’s playing at Tillmania this year?
Lucid dreams – I assume he has them and am super curious.

arizona, covers, video

Calexico covers Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone”

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Just as my blogging ennui threatened to extend into its third week – my god, have I really not posted since Aug. 27? – it was going to take something pretty special, something different to snap me out of this. Thank you, Calexico.

I’m not sure how a band manages to inject so much earnestness into such ’80s pop cheese, but Calexico has done it here with a cover of Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone” as part of the Onion A.V. Club’s excellent Undercover series. A song that possesses such a cartoonish quality has been transformed into something with a touch of sincerity, and the finishing flourish feels inspiring. It would have been too easy for any band to cover this ironically. Calexico is too damn good for that.

Says frontman Joey Burns when asked if he knew “any of the other lyrics” before tackling this cover: “I didn’t know the lyrics, no. But I had fun learning the lyrics and looking at what I could do to shape ’em. So I just kind of edited out a bunch of lyrics. Then I wound up having fun figuring out a melody I could sing them with. So we kind of went the O Brother, Where Art Thou route.”

Calexico, a band all Arizonans should be proud to call their own, released its new album, Algiers, on Tuesday. The band will be at Crescent Ballroom for a two-night stay Oct. 27-28.

hip-hop, sports

Serengeti with Tobacco: Be a Man

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If you’ve listened to Serengeti, you know he’s a fan of baseball. It’s just not a Serengeti album without a “Hawk Dawson” reference – and tell me another rapper that has name-dropped Jeff Pico.

It’s been a busy year for the Chicago-bred emcee, who talked sports with me back in January. In March, he teamed with Sufjan Stevens and Son Lux on the Beak & Claw EP. In April, he dropped the Kenny Dennis EP, on which he raps as his Windy City superfan alter ego. More recently, Serengeti released C.A.R., another highly personal/vulnerable glimpse into his life (buy this album).

Now we have a new 7-inch for Georgia label Graveface’s charity series. The A-side, “Be a Man,” is a collaboration with Tobacco and the B-side features two tracks with Advance Base (aka Owen Ashworth, formerly known as Casiotone for the Painfully Alone). So how does baseball fit into this? Proceeds of sales of the 7-inch will benefit the R.B.I. (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities) program.

Get a listen to a “Be a Man,” which will be available at digital retailers on Aug. 28. Also: Serengeti supports WHY? at Crescent Ballroom on Monday night. Be there.

arizona, hip-hop, video

Random: Buggin’ (The Metamorphosis)

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Leave it to a former teacher to base a song/video on a literary classic. Phoenix rapper Random (aka MegaRan) left the classroom behind to make the full-time jump into music, but he can’t quite seem to shake the teaching, uh, bug.

Of course, this is the man who earlier this year released an album called Language Arts: Volume One, part of a conceptual multimedia project that was funded by a ridiculously successful Kickstarter campaign.

And that’s the album that brought us “Buggin’ (The Metamorphosis),” inspired by the Franz Kafka novella. The new video (directed by Max Isaacson) finds Ran playing the role of Gregor, waking up to find himself transformed into a vermin. High school English class was never this fun.

And while you’re catching up with Language Arts: Volume One, Random went ahead and dropped Volume Two today. A harder-working rapper would be impossible to find. That said, our TeacherRapperHero is returning home from tour and throwing a show on Saturday at Hidden House.

Below is “Super Move,” an iTunes bonus track off LA: Volume Two featuring some of my favorite emcees (Has-Lo, Open Mike Eagle and Zilla Rocca).

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Incoming: Japandroids, Nov. 7, and new video for The House That Heaven Built

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Sweaty shows. Thrashing fans. Grilling meats whilst shirtless. Drinking Jameson from the bottle. Yes, life for Japandroids is pretty much as I expected.

The new video for “The House That Heaven Built” will do nothing to dissuade our youth from chasing rock glory. Japandroids’ music is all about capturing the moment – remember saying things like we’ll sleep when we’re dead? – and this clip (directed by Jim Larson) does just that, following Brian King and Dave Prowse on the road. It’s all a blur, one big fucking party.

For a band that seems to be riding a Hold Steady-like ascent, this is the video that one of the year’s best deserves – all epic and slow motion (everything is better in slow motion). But as the Vancouver duo embarks on four straight months of touring – FOUR MONTHS! – you have to wonder if the party will ever end.

Here’s hoping they’re still bringing it on Nov. 7, when they stop at Martini Ranch because nothing says punk quite like a show in Scottsdale, Ariz. Stateside Presents has all the info you need.

RELATED:
Japandroids, the Casbah (San Diego), 6/16/12
Japandroids: Heavenward Grand Prix
Japandroids: Younger Us
Japandroids on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic

hip-hop

Incoming: Busdriver, Nocando and Open Mike Eagle, Oct. 24

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Three of Los Angeles’ finest emcees at the forefront of the avant-rap scene – or whatever you wanna call it – are joining up for a fall tour that will stop at Rhythm Room on Oct. 24 (though at this point I’m not sure who is promoting it, so I have little in the way of ticket/age information).

Busdriver, Nocando and Open Mike Eagle are as prolific as they are talented, often showing up as guests on each other’s work, so a collaborative tour makes sense.

In the case of Busdriver and Nocando, they released the album 10 Haters under the Flash Bang Grenada moniker last year. But all three have either released or will release solo material in 2012. Busdriver dropped Beaus$Eros in February; Open Mike Eagle released 4NML HSPTL this summer; and it looks like Nocando is close to unveiling a new album.

In conjunction with the tour announcement, Busdriver premiered a new video for the song “Utilitarian Uses of Love” over at Potholes In My Blog.

I’ve included some more treats below:

hip-hop

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis: Same Love

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Eric took off for Lollapalooza this weekend, but he left us with this post about an important song. Play it loud outside Chick-fil-A.

Macklemore’s subject matter as a rapper is all over the map, whether it’s prescription drug addiction (his own and others’), yoga practice, Irish heritage, the trappings of materialism in the shoe-obsessed Jordan era. Although I’ll admit my personal experience lines up with the yoga and Air Jordans on the brain, no matter the topic, I always find him engaging, thought provoking and inspiring. His straightforward, autobiographical style is something that’s refreshing to me, that “rapper as storyteller” role that I feel like I see much less in today’s hip-hop than when I was growing up.

If you’ve checked out Seattle indie station KEXP at all the last couple of years, you’re sure to have heard Kevin Cole sing his praises at least once or twice, and with good reason. A growing figure in the Seattle music scene, Macklemore, along with collaborator/DJ/producer Ryan Lewis, look to continue their upward trend with the release of The Heist on Oct. 9, the first single from which happens to be one of the bolder, braver choices I’ve seen made in music in awhile.

“Same Love” is a beautiful, impassioned dart thrown directly at critics of marriage equality, a topic we hear politicians addressing from one corner of the ring or the other on a daily basis at this point. Rappers … not so much.

Hip-hop has never had a great track record in the tolerance department. This is not to say that every faction of hip-hop exudes the degree of machismo or misogyny as the gangsta rap of the ’90s, but suffice it to say that its lyrical content, or at the very least the public perception of that content, hasn’t exactly approached a warm and fuzzy approach toward homosexuality. Just as we still, in 2012, have don’t have openly gay athletes in the similarly heterosexual male macho world of professional sports, sexual preference has been a taboo in the world of hip-hop.

Recently, though, there have been signs of a dialogue opening up. Last year, Fat Joe, conspiracy theories aside, was surprisingly candid in encouraging gay rappers to come out, proclaiming that hip-hop is “the greatest gay market in the world.” On July 4, up-and-coming R&B artist Frank Ocean, a member of Odd Future, raised many an eyebrow in the hip-hop community by proclaiming that his first love was with a man.

“Same Love” is an emotional, beautiful track. Bolstered by piano and string arrangements, horns and the soulful voice of Mary Lambert, Macklemore matter-of-factly takes homophobia head-on, examining not only the religious and political agendas that he feels propel hate, but also taking on the perception within the hip-hop community toward gays: “If I was gay, I would think that hip-hop hates me/ Have you read the YouTube comments lately? / ‘Man, that’s gay’ gets dropped on the daily.” Lambert’s soulful voice punctuates his plea for tolerance: “I can’t change/ Even if I tried / Even if I wanted to… / My love, she keeps me warm.” Again, the autobiographical is discussed. While straight himself, Macklemore discusses an early childhood assumption that he was gay for the silliest of preconceived notions, mentions the fact that his uncle is gay and has a longtime partner, calling them collectively “my uncles.”

As a straight person who’s grown up with gay friends and decided long ago that gay marriage makes a lot of sense, I’ll admit I’m easily sold here. He’s preaching to the choir. But my hope is that we’ll see this spirit of inclusion and tolerance in hip-hop become a real trend. MURS recently added another voice in support of gay rights with “Animal Style,” a tragic/powerful song complemented by a video that features the L.A.-based rapper kissing another man.

As part of a partnership with Music for Marriage Equality campaign – seeking to pass a referendum to protect same-sex marriage – Sub Pop has released “Same Love” digitally on iTunes and Amazon and released a 7-inch (limited to 2,000 copies) on Tuesday. All proceeds will benefit marriage equality in Washington state.

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New Sea Wolf: Old Friend

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In September 2008 – about a year before the release of his second album under the Sea Wolf name – Alex Brown Church sounded like a man in need of a change. I got to interview him during his opening run for Okkervil River at the time, when the Los Angeles-based Church was spending half the year in Montreal with his girlfriend. Said Church: “Being here is a really interesting experience because it’s bilingual and different culturally from Los Angeles. I’ve been longing to not be in L.A. for a while but not really knowing where else to go. It’s been a nice break.”

Fast-forward almost four years, and Church has returned to familiar surroundings. Church and his girlfriend moved back to L.A., where he wrote his third album, Old World Romance, due out Sept. 11 on Dangerbird Records.

“Old Friend,” the first single from the new album, is the makeup to the breakup – a sort of apology for leaving but a celebration of returning home: “Old friend come to me / everything I was, I used to be / I went north and I went east / following in the footsteps of some beautiful beast.”

Church obviously had a good reason to go – we all have to go at some point. But you can go home again.

Church told the Los Angeles Times: “It was inspiring to be in another city, but it also felt very alone, other than being with her and her friends. She’s a French Canadian, and all of her friends are French Canadian, so I didn’t have any English friends there. There’s a cultural barrier that goes along with that. Coming home to California was really inspiring. I just felt comfortable.”

Old World Romance track list:
1. Old Friend
2. In Nothing
3. Priscilla
4. Kasper
5. Blue Stockings
6. Saint Catherine St.
7. Changing Seasons
8. Dear Fellow Traveler
9. Miracle Cure
10. Whirlpool

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Ben Gibbard: Ichiro’s Theme

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If it wasn’t totally obvious already, I love when music and sports collide. These are subjects that consume me, personally and professionally. What could be better than a marriage of the two?

So even though I have no loyalties to the Mariners or Ichiro Suzuki (I’m just another miserable Cubs fan), I found it rather endearing that Death Cab for Cutie frontman and devoted Mariners follower Ben Gibbard unveiled an homage to Ichiro via Twitter after the star outfielder was traded to the Yankees on Monday.

Says Gibbard: “I wrote this song a few years ago. Today seems like the best day to share it with you. Thank you so much, Ichiro.”

“Ichiro’s Theme” is undeniably catchy – “Go, go, go, go, Ichiro” – if not a little schmaltzy, but the sentimental power of baseball can inspire grown men in unique ways. Thousands of words were spilled Monday about a 10-time All-Star’s legacy, and thousands more will follow, but a three-minute song seems just as fitting as any tribute.

Ichiro’s Theme by Ben Gibbard:

hip-hop, i used to love h.e.r.

I Used to Love H.E.R.: Harris Pittman (Henry Clay People)

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The 55th installment of I Used to Love H.E.R., a series in which artists/bloggers/writers discuss their most essential or favorite hip-hop albums and songs, comes from Harris Pittman, bassist for the Los Angeles-based Henry Clay People, who are playing Crescent Ballroom on Thursday night in support of their new album Twenty-Five for the Rest of Our Lives, out now on TBD Records.

Pittman dissects a not-so-obvious classic, an album whose much-anticipated follow-up is rumored to be finished with a possible release later this year.

deltron 3030Deltron 3030, self-titled
(75 Ark, 2000)

Picking a favorite hip-hop record is – for me at least – a difficult task. I will spare you the obvious favorites from Run DMC, Public Enemy and A Tribe Called Quest. Picking those groups are like picking The Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Nirvana for me, respectively. The importance of their records are well-known, but my go-to record is more like The Soft Bulletin of hip-hop, Deltron 3030. It’s the work of mastermind Del the Funky Homosapien, Dan the Automator (Dan Nakamura) and Kid Koala, along with contributions from Damon Albarn and others.

Deltron 3030 is Del and Dan the Automator’s concept album of a dystopian society with only one hope: Deltron Zero. Throughout this tale of hip-hop sci-fi set in the year 3030, Del delivers abstract ideas set against Nakamura’s signature production. Deltron 3030 takes the idea of Nakamura’s previous effort, Dr. Octagon (with Kool Keith), and solidifies his vision with more intelligent and digestible rhymes from Del. Nakamura fuses odd samples, like the hook from the 1970 tune “Of Cities and Escapes” by Canadian pop group The Poppy Family on the track “Madness” to my favorite bass line on the album. The list of abstract samples continues further. Ever heard of the 1968’s “No Silver Bird” by Hooterville Trolley? Me neither.

Deltron 3030, released in 2000, really needs to be heard to understand how out of the box this record is to be fully appreciated. While many of the ideas are futuristic and more 1984 than “Fight the Power,” these tracks stand the test of time and will still be relevant for the next 1,018 years. Put any of them against your choice of mainstream hip-hop “hits” of the last twenty years and Deltron Zero will still remain victorious.