FUNK!!!  Go to Funky Daggers and feast your eyes on 10 days (starting yesterday) of Budos Band/Daptone/Funky-Funk-related coverage.  Learn and be merry.  I'll see you on the 16th.

(as originally posted here)





(Full Disclosure: I played baritone saxophone on a song on this album, and I will be reprising that role on the same song at the release party.  But Keeler owes me money, so all good will has been canceled out.)

Mr. Lee Andrew Keeler has been rocking this town for a loooong time, playing in many now defunct and somewhat-defunct bands and spending all disposable income on records.  His latest outfit, the Dolby Fuckers, has turned into a collaborative project that sees him pairing his singing/songwriting with the rock 'n roll gifts of his friends from all over (though a large portion is contributed by his dedicated live band).  After the right amount of live shows and lovingly placed internet hype, the self-titled Dolby Fuckers debut album is seeing a release on Columbus' We Want Action Records.  In a progressive move that seems to fit well with old school rock values and modern-day practicality, the album is being released on cassette with a digital download coupon that will allow purchasers to download the album in MP3 format for free.

The format choice works well for the sounds involved, as many of these rough-hewn tracks sound like they are emanating from an early 90s tape you left in your car until it reached sun-baked perfection.  Somehow from within that aesthetic, however, these 13 originals and two covers (tunes by Sarah Asher and Big Star), manage to cover a fair amount of rock and pop territory.  Though the songwriting is often abstract and sometimes hard-to-follow, the listener can tell that many of these songs deal with the real heartbreaks, annoyances, and simple pleasures that make life what it is.  First and foremost, there are ample raucous rants, replete with noisy guitar and semi-distorted vocals.  Tracks like "Angry Yung Man" and "Vitamin Flintheart" pack some attitude (along with vulnerability to spare).  Otherwise, there are some fuzzily pleasant pop moments, some tough and lovely ballads, and even a surf mostly-instrumental!  "Bucky Kentucky" is one my favorites here, as a wave of gently strummed guitar suddenly transitions to a steady chant-like chorus, complete with hazily angelic background vocals.  Moments like this seem to be enhanced by the fuzzy environment in which they exist, allowing songwriting surprises ("Flourishing The Bottom") and goofy anthems ("Pattern Dykes") to burst from their surroundings.  It may take a few listens for some of the odd edges of Keeler's wit to make (some) sense to you, but the payoff is worth it.

The release of Dolby Fuckers is being celebrated (along with many other things) at Carabar on Friday night, August 3rd.  Lee is moving to Savannah in a month to pursue his film school dreams, so this show will also serve as a "last show" of the current cast of Dolby Fuckers, which includes Jesse Baker on lead guitar, Jen Delfosse on bass, and Zac Szymuzak on drums.  Some of the other folks who helped create the album will also be around to contribute, so be ready for surprises.  This show, which marks the second anniversary of the Carabar, also features Jordan O'Jordan, Grafton, The Lindsay, and the Cheater Slicks.  This will be a tremendous night of local rock jams, so attendance is quite necessary.

MP3: Pattern Dykes

Video: "Vitamin Flintheart"

(as originally posted here)

May 8, 2007 at 10:30 PM, by Andrew Patton

For almost five years now, the music of Dan Melchior (above, center) has been a reliable source of goodness in my somewhat limited "indie rock" meanderings. In that time, many groups/artists have come along with a great album or two or a great live show or two and manage to gain my fandom for a while, only to come around again with something I don't like or just disappear. Despite issues with lineup changes and the fabulous follies of the record industry, Melchior has continued to slap his name on fine singles/LPs/CDs and keep touring (well, maybe not enough for me, but he's doing it).

It all started in the fall of 2002, when I was a recent college grad. In my time as a college radio DJ, I had heard a song or two by these guys (who seem to have fallen into the second of the aforementioned categories of previously thrilling bands) and was intrigued. Their tour came to the "old" High Five, so I dragged my girlfriend of the time to the rock show. The bill was longer than I thought and it was a Monday night so I wasn't able to stay late (missing ILCK and Modey Lemon), but I did get to learn of and see both the Cheater Slicks and Dan Melchior's Broke Revue (the bands were labelmates on In The Red at the time) for the first time. My memories of the show are a bit hazy at this point, but I do remember the Revue rocking my skull in and persuading me to buy the just-released (or not quite released at the time?) Bitterness, Spite, Rage & Scorn CD.

In the months and years afterward, that album became one of my all-time favorites. Melchior's London (England) accent pouring out simple wisdom and abstract observations over some bluesy, garage-y, itchy boogie somehow managed to rock pretty hard, and I was sold. Since then, the never-quite-released (those label troubles) Broke Revue album 'O Clouds, Unfold!' (2004) and the solo Hello, I'm Dan Melchior (2005) have also been great, showcasing a variety of garage-tinged styles and Melchior's bitter-yet-hopeful songwriting. Another solo album, Fire Breathing Clones On Cellular Phones, came out last year (yeah, I just discovered this, will pick it up ASAP), and singles and reissue comps seem to pop out here and there, leaving plenty of material for the ardent fan to track down. The new Das Menace lineup will be releasing the Pink Scream EP soon and hopefully an album after that.

Dan Melchior will be returning to Columbus for the first time since the fall of 2004 (I think?) to play a show at Cafe Bourbon Street Thursday night. In what must be an attempt to help me relive my memories (right?), the bill includes the Cheater Slicks, who just cranked out a new Dead Canary Records LP, Walk Into The Sea, that is itching for your consumption. Rounding out the bill is Psychedelic Horseshit (another band evolving through lineup changes) and Beard of Stars. Thursday is the new Thursday, so get ready to jam!

(as originally posted here)

April 26, 2007 at 7:56 AM, by Andrew Patton

MP3: "I.C.E." by Antibalas

Brooklyn's Antibalas is a dozen piece band that is often described as Afro-beat (funky horn-driven African music originally spearheaded by Nigeria's Fela Kuti) but is always in the process of evolving into something else. They are currently on tour in support of the newly-released Security, their fourth full-length album and first on Anti- Records. In anticipation of their tour stop at the Wexner Center in Columbus on Tuesday (May 1st), I had a chat with tenor saxophone player Stuart Bogie (above, in the red shirt) about the state of things Antibalas.

Andrew Patton (AP): Antibalas has a message of political activism, but many of your songs are instrumental. Without lyrics, do you think that the average person being exposed to your music understands what you're trying to get across?

Stuart Bogie (SB): Yeah, sure. There are many sentiments, many aspects to being a human being that cannot be expressed in words. Situations of struggle, situations of oppression, situations of striving to surpass oppression, to overcome oppression...there's aspects to these issues that cannot be described in words. Being artists, that's our license, and I believe a lot of our music deals with that. You could cite the music of Charles Mingus as a fair example, or Coltrane. Coltrane's more in a spiritual sort of dimension exclusively, I guess, but that's a universal thing so it might not even be exclusive.

The song "I.C.E." (on Security) stands for Ice Covered England. It's kind of a musical discussion of potential climate change. Through music, and different musical references, it could be viewed as discussing tremendous change in the state of civilization that many people are contemplating right now. The interaction of aggressive musical lines with longer lines that sort of embody, overreach, and arc across the whole experience is something that can be seen through history.

AP: Many of Antibalas' vocal tunes are often very outspoken. Do you get big reactions to songs like "Indictment" or "Filibuster XXX?" Do people really get into songs like that?

SB: Absolutely. Live, when we do "Indictment," people feel a sort of rapturous camaraderie in the idea that there are dangerous criminals in power right now. To collectively feel the pulse of the music, and to hear the names of some of these people called out is...the music wraps people together and the words say that we are all right here on the same page, emotionally and intellectually.

And there's also an element of humor in it. Humor is a musical thing. Humor is all about rhythm. So, to put that in there, "OK, who are these guys? Yeah, these guys are really gonna indict Kenneth Lay." Or "These guys are really gonna indict Scooter Libby." We're just cheerleaders for it.

AP: OK, so how do you feel things are progressing in the US right now politically? What are some encouraging signs?

SB: A few guys in the band have been checking out Obama and are very interested in what he has to say. Alberto Gonzales...they nailed him down today! The process of pointing out the extreme right for what it is and pointing out the centrist Democrats for what they are. I see that happening often. Basically, I think the change in the weather is going to sound the alarm for many people. Even Thomas Friedman, the journalist, is speaking very optimistically about green industries. So, there are places to aim hope. But in terms of sizing things up in history, that's beyond us. It depends how we feel that day.

AP: How is the current tour going? Any interesting stories from the road?

SB: Well, we got down with the drummer from My Morning Jacket at our show in Louisville. I love that band. It's been a pretty mellow tour. The action's in the music. Right now, we're discovering new ways of playing. Birthing that sort of collective creativity is often very frustrating and terrifying if you consider that the band is not in its adolescent stage. We still want to grow and develop, we're not satisfied doing the same things over and over again. Yet, what we've accomplished informs how we grade what we're doing now. So, that's a situation where, if you do not keep a good perspective, you can curse your musical child before it's had a chance to develop. As artists, this is what we're struggling with right now. I think it's probably a very interesting time to see the band play.

AP: Any examples of what the band is changing around?

SB: Well, in our performances of "I.C.E.," we're not doing the contrapuntal chorale in the middle. We haven't been. We're sort of just exploring and riding the texture. Now, communicating that to an audience that has just been dancing for an hour is a hell of a challenge. We need to find ways to appeal and to tap into that side of our listeners' psyches. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but we always focus on it. There's certain sorts of psychological devices performers can do to draw attention, to bring out the drama in a performance. We've never had to deal with the ones that are required of us when we're playing some of these new songs. It's a different dance we're learning. The engaging of the audience and each other is all part of it, all of these things kinda flow around in a sort of whirlpool.

AP: The new album was produced by John McIntire (Tortoise). How was that experience? Do you think his involvement changed the band's recording process?

SB: Absolutely. It's a combination of his skills and the fact that what we prepared ourselves to do was a very different record than we'd done in the past. Our first three records and the two EPs were all similar in their recording process. The one with John was different, and we expected that. He didn't sit us down and say, "This is how we're gonna do it," but instead, "OK, how are we going to do this?" And we all figured it out together. But we tried new ways of doing things with him.

AP: OK. To me, the album definitely sounds more focused than your previous recordings. Did you have certain goals in mind when you were recording?

SB: Oh yeah. His aesthetic is very fine. The way he records and mixes songs brings out all these different textures and layers. He's painting with sound. That brought out a whole bunch of things that exist in our music. He brought those aspects out. But he also opened the door for us to try all kinds of new things. "Let me put some hammered dulcimer on this." We were listening to Italian soundtracks with him and tried a few different things [in a] cinematic way.

AP: Are things going well in your relationship with Anti- Records so far?

SB: I believe so. The record industry is in a new state. They're figuring it out. And we're figuring it out. And it's changing! So, it's very difficult right now to predict things or know how to roll with them. It's very difficult and often painful for an artist to try and evaluate what they're doing in terms of business and marketing. In an ideal situation, we're often shielded from those things and allowed to focus on the creative aspects and the refinement of our art. Because the arts has its own disciplines, and things that are very functional. An accountant will balance his ledger. A musician may forget the ledger, but he will practice his scales or edit his compositions or seek out new inspirations. So, while we're very disciplined about that, we like the record label to help us with the business aspect of it.

AP: I'm hearing about a bunch of different strains of the Afro-beat scene from NYC coming out these days, even some of your fellow band members in other projects like Ocote Soul Sounds or DROID. How do you feel about the New York Afro-beat (and Afro-beat related) scene right now?

SB: Well, you can hear it all over the place. You can hear it in TV On The Radio, which I know because a bunch of us played it. There's a band Celebration that we've worked with that's got some great polyrhythmic chord sounds in there. Right now we're trying to let go of the Afro-beat label. It was a subject of study for a long time, it was a springboard, but it's become sort of a straitjacket. Anytime you make a new Myspace friend, it's "Oh, there they are, the new 'King of Afro-beat.'" So we listen to it, and it's the same old shit! God bless them for making their beautiful music, and I know they celebrate it with their friends and their communities, but at the same time, we're interested in a little bit more of an aesthetic relationship to music. We're interested in a certain progress that isn't about recreating things historically and that isn't about playing this "new flavor."

AP: Are you involved in any side projects yourself?

SB: Yeah, I do a great deal of production. I'm producing a blues record right now, and a pop record that's by one of the other guys in the band.

AP: What kind of stuff are you guys listening to these days?

SB: Well, there's Tinariwen, a Malian group...amazing! Neko Case's new record is beautiful. Amy Winehouse is very popular. Some of the guys in the band play on her record. [The aforementioned] Celebration is a band that many of us just adore. It's usually people that we are loosely associated with. That way you sort of check out the music from the inside; we stay pretty occupied with that. I gotta get that new Arcade Fire, I'm curious about what that sounds like. A saxophonist that works with Antibalas a lot is touring with them right now, playing trumpets and clarinets and stuff. The family expands. I also work with a guy from Wilco (Mikael Jorgensen), so I gotta hear their new record; I'm pretty excited about that. He (Jorgensen) and I got to know each other through a bass player named Matt Lux (Isotope) who is going out on tour with Iron & Wine right now. There's that Brightblack Morning Light record, my friend Eli played percussion on it, I think we're gonna play together in a couple weeks. The extended family is deep and wide.

It pains us to feel pigeonholed as world music, but at the same time, there are also people who don't want to listen to anything but that and will listen to us simply because they can deal with us in that way. The artist's struggle to be understood in any way beyond their actual art is bound to be a painful process and is futile really.

AP: Finally, for people that might be checking out Antibalas for the first time, can you give them something to expect from your show?

SB: They can expect intense rhythms. They can expect ecstatic horn solos. They can expect to have their minds, bodies, and spirits elevated and touched, figuratively.

(as originally posted here)

April 16, 2007 at 11:53 PM, by Andrew Patton

Saturday night in Columbus saw the final preliminary battle in local label Dove Ink's Beat Battle series at Skully's. This series has presented a variety of hip-hop producers from around the Midwest showcasing their wares along with quality hip-hop performances, and number 4 was no exception. For the uninitiated, these beat battles start with each producer playing two beats per round and then the crowd and a panel of four judges vote for their favorite. The rounds of competition play out like a basketball tournament, resulting in a final battle for the championship. Performances are often placed between rounds to maintain excitement. On Saturday, there were also artists painting on stage and in the back patio (a large mural on the backs of CDs for the new Illogic/Eyamme mix CD on Dove Ink).

These beat battles are a curious thing. Though it is obvious that there are great amounts of effort and skill involved in crafting these concoctions, it often comes down to the feeling in the room when the beat drops (or gains momentum). Hosts Eyamme and Ginsu presided over the festivities ably and kept the focus on the beats. The first two rounds had some exciting matchups that could have made for solid semi-final battles, like the Kanye-invoking soul-sampling of Chosen versus the hyper club beats of Skills (Skells?) or the funky horns of Kenny Kim against the synth jams of Detroit Beautiful Club. After a varied display of beats, close calls, and comical on-stage posturing, the field of 15 was whittled down to a final four of Chosen (Columbus), K81 (Columbus?), Kenny Kim (Columbus), and Phat Burner (Cleveland).

In the first semi-final, Phat Burner edged out K81 in a close one by virtue of some skillful club tracks. The second match of the round appeared (to me) to have been won by Kenny Kim due to his serviceable joints and Chosen's continued reliance on sped-up soul and a second beat with no actual BEAT. However, the judges appeared to have been let down by both competitors and demanded another beat from each. While Chosen stuck to a tried-and-true soul track, Kenny Kim stuck his neck out there with a Western-flavored track on the cheesy side that fared none too well, setting up a final between Phat Burner and Chosen. In the final, Chosen continued his more-and-more-boring presentation of Kanye 101. On the other hand, Phat Burner's first beat came out of the gates with a crash, but didn't follow up the lightning with any thunder, leaving some doubt in the air. But after a Chosen track that "chipmunked" "Day By Day," Phat Burner's joint started with a bluesy organ, then BANGED into oblivion, leaving no doubt as to the winner.

In a night of instrumental beats, the vocal and turntable performances held their own. After the first round, the hip-hop duo of Othello (MC, Portland) and DJ Manwell? (DJ, Columbus) took the stage. The combination of Othello's energetic, Common-esque flows and Manny's mindbending turntablism made for an entertaining set and kept the crowd's attention. After the second round, Brooklyn by way of Ghana MC Blitz The Ambassador (with Columbus native DJ Sleepyhead on the tables) kept things moving. His stories of personal triumph and hip-hop lessons were enthusiastically placed, as he encouraged the crowd for more energy. Unfortunately, a large portion of the crowd seemed to take a break during his set, but he kept soldiering on. Also, Chicago's DJ Once A Month performed well as the host DJ for the night, providing a bunch of solid hip-hop to get things started and a set of club hits to wrap things up.

Overall, the night was hours of hip-hop fun for a bargain price. The result of the four Beat Battles in the series is four finalists for the May 26th Finale: Phat Burner, Josh Becker, TGP, and the Rhythm Section. That event, to be held at Skully's as well, will also serve as the CD release party for The World Is Ours by Ill Poetic (Cincinnati, Dove Ink), so it will be quite the to-do.

(as posted here)

February 26, 2007 at 09:18 PM, by Andrew Patton

Detroit's SSM rocked my world last year with their self-titled debut LP on Alive Records, even making their way to the #5 spot in my Albums of the Year. The trio of John Szymanski (Hentchmen, ex-Paybacks), Dave Shettler (ex-The Sights), and Marty Morris (Cyril Lords) have done their fair share of battle in the Motor City garage rock combat zones, but the combination of these vets has led to some imaginative reinvention of the genre. Though the boys remain somewhat true to the usual methodology of bangin' and sangin', they incorporate a heap of synth keyboards and other electronic elements here and there to give some of the tunes a "bionic" sound. Along with the tempo and mood, the song topics and lyrics are all over the place, with alien love, candy love, viking love, and apologies for one's lack attention to his comatose girlfriend all taking a turn. Somehow, this whirlwind tour still flows together rather well as the delightfully shaggy tunes meld into one jittery whole. To get a taste of what I'm talking about, check out some of their tunes on their Myspace page.

Come to Little Brothers Tuesday night to hear this otherworldly garage rock brought to life. Opening are Athens' Makebelieves and Columbus' Patsys. I haven't seen the Makebelieves in many moons, so the pleasurable sound of their garage thunder is highly anticipated. The Patsys will get the rock 'n rollicking good times started promptly at 9.

Six months ago today, I lost a good friend.  A fair amount of you reading this probably feel the same way.  Since then, things have been weird.  Bad and good.  I still ask myself a few times a week if you're actually gone.  Really?  It doesn't make sense.  People have been supportive, especially those feeling the same loss I do.  The fall was rough.  Alot of late night parties at the Chateau.  Those were sweet, but life the next day was questionable.  You know, if night goes all night then why worry about the day?  Then of course, when the fun subsided, things got sadder.  Which makes sense for the time when the parties slowed down (not the Chateau's problem, fucking stupid tagging fucking sucks).  Don't wanna work, what do I wanna do?  I don't know.  Things are OK, though.  Life continues.  The next step is always hard, but that's what progress is (this pimp on the Grand Pubahs record sounds like Cosby, dammit).  Like I predicted before, Columbus ain't the same.  Going solo to the occasional show will never feel right again.  Because before, even if I had to go somewhere else, there was a friend, maybe a gi-quila, maybe El Mariachi's, but definitely a friend (or friends) waiting for me.  Not always true anymore (loner tendencies more than anything else), but we'll make it.  Say hi to James Brown and Dilla.  And Rufus Harley, please.

(as posted here)

MP3: The Casualties of Happiness

Over the last six months or so, you may have attended one of the diverse bills that our city is known to offer and stumbled into the bar to see three (or more) costumed dudes lip-synching onstage to weird, cartoony singalongs and skits. Some of the audience was engaged by these goofy merry-makers and their choreographed antics. At the same time, it's likely that there was also a portion of the crowd who couldn't get into it and retreated to get another drink, smoke, etc. What you were witnessing was the polarizing material of Hugs & Kisses, the trio of Columbusites Donny Monaco (lead vocals), Jacoti Sommes (beats), and Phonzie Davis (art, onstage shenanigans).

The album plays out like some sort of depraved after-school special. There are twenty tracks, but many of them are skit-length, sometimes-recurring interludes that help maintain the themes of the overall work. These themes seem to revolve around pursuit of happiness through questionable lifestyles (drugs, debauchery, etc.) and acceptance of who you are and how you've lived your life. The road to these topics is paved with Donny's (and others') exaggerated vocals over Jacoti's fun, yet minimal beats that are often fleshed out with "dum-diggity-dums", "waah-waah-waaahs", and other maniacal helium-ed backing vocals. The title track stands out as a near-perfect synthesis of the different ingredients in the equation at work, as Donny croons about the painful remnants of chemical, criminal, or sexual excesses over Jacoti's technicolor keyboards while the alien chorus pumps out the soul in the background.

The songs get "heavy" at times, but that's basically impossible to notice with the wacky presentation involved. Though tracks like the aforementioned title track, "Alota Drugs," and "Big Brown Eyes" stand up well on their own, this 28-minute opus is best consumed in one ADD-riddled piece that bounces off the walls like a Superball from hell. As I described before, this album (and band) may not be for everyone. But if you can tolerate high amounts of wackiness and have a good sense of humor, the catchy melodies and playful beats will put a smile on your face.

In honor of the release of The Casualties of Happiness, Hugs & Kisses is having a release party on Saturday night at Carabar. Also performing will be Hills, The Unholy Two, Uncle Scratch's Gospel Revival, and Pat Minotaur. This show will also serve as a joint birthday celebration for Brooke and Cara, both of Carabar fame, so there will be much fun to be had.

February 15, 2007 at 01:39 PM, by Andrew Patton

(as posted here)

February 12, 2007 at 09:45 PM, by Andrew Patton

It's 2007, people, so it's time to see if our fair burg is up to the challenge of meeting/passing the amount of quality albums that it released upon the throngs in 2006. Columbus legend Happy Chichester (Royal Crescent Mob, Howlin Maggie, etc.) has answered the call. He has a live solo album under his belt, but he is releasing his long-awaited debut studio solo album, Lovers Come Back, this week.

The title is surely a strong indicator of the over-riding mood of these tunes. Though the tempo does change from time-to-time (the album opener, "Artificial Fanfare (Music in my Head)," is one of the most breathlessly happy songs I've heard in a long time), many of these tracks could be termed "Lovers Rock" (if that wasn't already a reggae subgenre). Which I guess can be a good thing for an album released on Valentine's Day. Though things do get syrupy here and there, Chichester does a good job of switching up styles enough to keep one's attention. There is a fair amount of guitar pop here, but interestingly enough, a handful of the tracks in the middle remind me of the Stereo MCs, with anthemic female backup vocals and electronic-ish beats that are a tad gritty. Also, Chichester's breathy come-ons ride the rock-steady scat groove of "You're Blowin My Mind" to beboppin' heaven. Finally, closer "Dude" seems to find Happy humorously pleading with the drunk idiot at the bar to get his act together and bow out gracefully.

Overall, Lovers Come Back is a strong batch of pop tunes with few missteps. There isn't a great amount of mind-blowing lyrical content here, but the disc could definitely serve well for a late-night get-together. To celebrate the release of the album (and late night get-togethers), Happy Chichester will rock Little Brothers Wednesday night to start a three-concert release party extravaganza that also heads to Cincy and Dayton. As with the other shows, also featured is Shawn Smith and Friends (Regan Hagar, Kevin Wood, and others?), performing songs of their bands Brad and Satchel as well as other Shawn Smith tunes.

MP3: Artificial Fanfare (Music in My Head)

OK people, it's on.  To you, the .324 fans of my music-writing for donewaiting.com and other spots, I say: I'm actually getting internet at home on Monday.  Yes.  Finally.  I bought myself a new, rather swank computer last month, and by the end of this month (please, do some serious finger crossing RIGHT NOW), it will be connected to the rest of the world (and the DVD drive will recognize my CDs)!!!  So, writing shall increase dramatically (or if it doesn't, please come club me in the head).

Love,

Andrew