..



Creative Liberation
ALO return to make the album they've always wanted to make. Guess who broke the curse of the sophomore slump?
by Dean Browell, for MOG.com



ALO's new album Roses & Clover hit the stands and iTunes May 1st from Brushfire records. Their second effort after delivering 2003's Fly Between Falls (with re-release last year adding extra tracks and a revamped favorite), Roses & Clover challenges the second-album blues directly with a sense of poise rarely brought to the table for follow-ups.


I caught up with half of Animal Liberation Orchestra (the name usually shorthanded to ALO) just before a rehearsal for their massive cross-country tour, beginning with a homecoming kick-off of sorts at the Fillmore in San Francisco. At this storied venue ALO would play to eager fans, fresh with listens to the new album out the same week, as well as their own families. Mothers, fathers, brothers, and spouses... they would watch from a special balcony reserved for them. Watch as their family members scampered across the stage below, playing no-doubt familiar tunes with the zeal and musicianship afforded them from years of touring and friendship. The admiration of the performers from their families and vice versa is an important cycle in ALO's magic.


A first listen to Roses & Clover can provide a warm comfort to an established fan, but the lasting effect over repeated listens is one of heightened comfort between the band members and the process of studio production.


I mused aloud to Dave Brogan (drums/vocals) and Steve Adams (bass/vocals) that I can't put my finger on what the difference is in the sound from Roses & Clover and Fly Between Falls. It's so obvious there is one; the songs are so clearly of a higher caliber. I avoid obvious tags like "maturity" but I can't get away from "polish" when it comes to the integrity and fullness of the album's sound. I ask if they think I'm close.


Dave stepped in first to offer, "It's a little more distilled... I think that arrangement wise and the way we recorded it, we did a better job of playing to our strengths and focusing on what we're good at-and so it makes it sound more polished because it's better suited to what we do."


Steve further elaborated and corrected me, "In another way, Fly Between Falls was actually a little more polished because we were still very fresh to each other and we had to do more polishing on all the songs to make it gel on the record; this one has a little less polish and sounds much more together from the start."


So Roses & Clover is more about the gelling of the band, the experience of each other's groove and exposure to sounds. The equation is, basically in this case, the tighter the band, the less need for polish. The song "Lady Loop" proves a great example of this kind of synergy as it pertains to songwriting.


About 2 minutes and 50 seconds into "Lady Loop" you realize you've been nodding your head, tapping your finger or in some way reacting to the near Stevie Wonder-like song structure and execution.


"That song was like tease, a section of a song Dave was working on and he just pulled it out and put it together in a demo, played it for us and we thought it was sweet; we weren't sure in production if we would end up recording it but we jammed on it a bunch and ended up recording it and it actually came together pretty quickly."


Dave added that most of their production has that collaborative feel from the very start, "I had that loop, that jam, and Zach started improvising a melody over that...lyrics came last."


Producer Robert Carranza (Beck, Ozomatli, Eels) stepped in occasionally to keep everyone on track and sounding right, but largely the improvement in the sound isn't as specific as an outside touch or new sonic direction. "He told us at the beginning to, 'make the album that we wanted to make' and he let us do that and checked in to make sure that was what we were doing," Dave recounted.


On Roses & Clover the track "All Alone" has a fast and complicated lyric matched by a layered by a an interesting jazz scamper that keeps up with layers of the boys instruments. I can imagine how "All Alone" would sound if had been on Fly Between Falls- very different. The guys laughed.


But not all of Roses & Clover was born in the studio last December. If you look at most of the promotional material for the album you'll see a reference to "80%" of the material having never been played live before. I'd ask new listeners to forget they ever read that statistic and take the album for what it is. The older songs are nearly indistinguishable from completely new material, and with good reason. Those few songs that returning fans may recognize have been completely rebuilt. Drum layering, complete deconstruction and introspection of the components and a new perspective from the band all led to these tracks having the same new-car smell as those "fresh out of the box." And no, I'm not going to tell you what the older tracks are. But the tracks themselves show how the band has clearly grown in their time together.


Sharing Zach with Jack Johnson has provided another opportunity for growth (Zach "officially" joined Johnson's band in 2005 after years of friendship and some recording). "He brings back good information about different sides of the music business... I feel like I have shared his experience quite a bit," Dave immediately offers.


ALO has been playing, in largely the same core lineup, for ten years. I asked how a song like the fan favorite, "Girl I Wanna Lay You Down" holds up in their eyes through all these years. The song first appeared as a part of an all-ALO soundtrack for the early Matthew J. Powers film "One Size Fits All". Since then it's been recorded for Fly Between Falls, re-recorded with Jack Johnson's guitar and vocal assist, and been played hundreds if not thousands of times. It's old enough that drummer Dave Brogan wasn't at it's beginning


"In some ways it gets more and more fun when we do it because more people know it. There's two sides to it: When we were touring Fly Between Falls we were playing it almost every show. In a sense you get tired of playing it or feel you have to play it. But people know and love that song and come to hear that song and often times singing along and people are responding to it; and that's what keeps it fresh. People are still having an experience with it. It's still new for some and they're seeing the band. It changed too when we started doing it with Dave; it changed too when we added Jack on the recording. The early versions are like 8 minutes long," Steve offered as they both laughed.


The point hit home with Steve as he saw Suzanne Vega in concert recently and she played "Luca" to a tremendous crowd reaction: "I thought, 'I wonder if she gets tired of playing that song?' But when she did it was like a magical moment and everyone responded to it and she seemed to enjoy it."


It's that ten-years of experience that starts to separate the ALO of today from the ALO of yesterday. It's easy to forget that time when you consider that Roses & Clover released on the same day as new albums from Tori Amos and Dinosaur Jr. The time warp is not lost on ALO. ("It's the 90's all over again.")


Festivals also provide all-new experiences for the bands, and they continue to offer sometimes-surreal opportunities.


Steve sees a direct connection between the festival experience and a push for the band to present the best they have. "Oftentimes I think we're all figuring out in which context we each get a little nervous, and it's different for everyone. I know at festivals I get a little nervous because you know that Mars Volta's backstage and setting up gear and listening to you and it's a band you love. For me it turns the flame a little bit, underneath. It also inspires me, being around all the musicians and all the activity and the fans that are so passionate, like we're all there as a team for four days and we have to give it our best."


"Festivals feel kind of experimental to me. You find yourself in a completely different situation than you would normally be in, and I'm really honored to be playing on the same bill with some of these bands-to even be associated. And as a fan it's a chance for me to see a lot of bands and talk to musicians I admire."


Dave continues, the surreal part kicking in: "We did a festival in Portugal and went on after the group The Brazilian Girls [they both laugh] which is this group that we really love and that would NEVER happen in a more traditional show. But for this festival, this is what we're doing and because it's so experimental and more open to possibilities it is a better exercise for us and makes us more adaptable."


"It's almost like a dream you may have had last night where you're in Portugal with the Brazilian Girls...you'd never think it would happen, but there you are."


Any touring is grueling, but the band make an effort to include loved ones. It's important to them that the distinction between the families of friends the band has been cultivating for a decade remains strong. Arrangements are made for special shows, visits during the less frequent stops, and especially when they play festivals. And play festivals they do.


Most famously with this particular interviewer were the opening notes of Bonnaroo 2005. In their set the band would alter the lyrics to the tuneful Fly Between Falls track "Barbeque" (which in so many ways epitomizes the more laid-back, literally relaxed aspects of the band) to call-out to the crowd with, "Welcome to your Bonnaroo!" Obvious? Maybe. But it slayed the already excited crowd. Fans of the band were made.


After two more years of touring and many festivals later, they''ve handed us their second full-length album, Roses & Clover, to solidify their position as one of the most charming bands touring this summer.


More info and ALO tourdates can be found at http://www.alomusic.com.



-db