Aporia and the Funky Sailor at the Alternative Café 12/17/11

By Taylor Jones

            While the stars glimmer in the air tonight, they shine inside the Alternative Café, freshly painted on the deep purple walls of their current art exhibit The Socio-Network. This collection is a display of works from artists around the world, gathered through the means of social networking sites and blogs. I walk past the Christmas tree in the show room to find my seat and casually study a piece by Eugene Plotnikov titled “Alone on the Moon.” The work depicts a disembodied junk figure who is pushing a baby robot in a shopping cart across the moon, looking with remorse toward another moon in the distance. However, not quite as far away as the moon is tonight’s main attraction, the smooth and Latin jazz of the four-piece called Aporia.

            My attention is suddenly drawn to the stage when a familiar face, bass player Heath Proskin of the Something Cool Trio (who I saw perform last month), begins playing his upright bass with a bow. Once Proskin tunes and prepares his instrument, vocalist Julie Capili, drummer Jen Schaff (also in Something Cool), and saxophonist/clarinetist Stu Reynolds join him and begin to play “In a Sentimental Mood” by Duke Ellington. Proskin closes his eyes and travels to his musical zone where he begins to pluck a Latin take of Ellington’s song before transitioning into the calm, original interpretation. In this laid back mood, Reynolds shares his clarinet’s warm tones with the audience.

            Next, the group performs Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good,” in which Reynolds switches to his saxophone and starts to harmonize with Capili, not quiet synching up or blending like it should. Nevertheless, the song really kicks into gear when Schaaf and Proskin lay down a stinky beat that would make Mark Wahlberg’s Funky Bunch weep in shame. When I saw this rhythm section play with Bill Minor in the Something Cool Trio they were still very tight, but relaxed and restrained. Tonight they really come alive playing with Aporia, shown as Schaaf channels a keen sense of intensity in her brush playing and dynamically expresses herself.

            Another form of expression can be observed on the wall about five rows behind me in Max Capacity’s Andy Warhol type pop art. One of my favorite pieces in the exhibit is Capacity’s bright pink Godzilla, instilling fear in the hearts of doomed citizens with its bright orange teeth and piercing green eyes.

            When Aporia breaks into Reynolds’ original song “Samba for Two,” Schaaf makes friends with a pair of maracas and progresses the song by integrating a samba pattern on the snare. Her kick drum sits on the downbeats while the hi-hat clicks on every up beat, giving the song an assertive sense of motion. Then the beat breaks down for a drum feature between Schaaf and Reynolds, who picks up a small, metal drum and rubs it to make a squeaky sound, uncomfortably resembling the cleaning of a window. Alas, the drums naturally fade out and leave Reynolds playing a solo on his bass clarinet, producing a wealth of low tones that carry throughout the café. Inconspicuously, the drums and bass start to merge back into the song as they end with a grand a tempo reprise. Overall, this original arrangement by Reynolds proved very interesting in that it took the audience on an adventure through many different moods.

            Being a jazz musician myself, I know Reynolds tells the truth when he says to the audience “improvisation is at our hearts,” for they really show it in this next exercise. Reynolds says they are going to create a song on the spot and asks for the help of the crowd in constructing the tune. Rhythm is the basis for music, so he asks someone to clap a rhythm, “any rhythm.” Feeling like this is my time to shine as a drummer, I clap a traditional bossa nova pattern, and instantly Schaaf and Proskin start jamming. Next, Reynolds needs a key signature, so someone shouts “G Minor” and he begins to riff away. Not only do they make a melody on the spot, but Capili attempts to improvise some lyrics too, and it’s hard to make lyrics when someone shouts the topic “modern fashion.”

            The group ends with the Thelonious Monk jazz standard “’Round Midnight,” beginning with a traditional interpretation and evolving to a unique Aporia spin of funky grooves. They play through their hip version and fall back into the “swing” of things, ending with a decrescendo that leaves a lone Proskin playing his bass, sounding like a badass funky sailor.

Aporia: defined as “A philosophical puzzle or a seemingly insoluble impasse in an inquiry,” performed in such a way tonight that will indeed leave us all with one question: “when can I see them again?”

Links:

http://www.facebook.com/trudeaupublishing

http://aporiajazz.com/

http://www.thealternativecafe.com/index.php

Stu Reynolds

Heath Proskin and Julie Capili

(Left to right)
Jenn Schaaf, Proskin, and Capili

Reynolds, Schaaf, and Capili

"Alone on the Moon" by Eugen Plotnikov 

"Godzilla" by Max Capacity

           

             

A Close Up Look at Washington D.C.

By Taylor Jones

            Skipping school, meeting kids from all over the country, and visiting Washington D.C. for a week, who wouldn’t want to go on the Close Up trip? But that’s just the half of it. This year the Close Up program provided over two hundred high school students from several states and Puerto Rico with the opportunity to enjoy a hands-on experience of how the United States federal government operates.  We all learned (or in some cases forgot) the names, dates, and legislation taught in the classroom, but a textbook really cannot convey the same sense of tangibility as actually visiting our nation’s capital. Information about Abraham Lincoln can be acquired in school, but ceases to be applied until you really climb the steps of the Lincoln Monument, reach the top, and after a deep breath release a much-deserved “wow.” And that’s not all; we toured the city and received an education that would never be replaced. 

            The seven of us from Pacific Grove High School were grateful for our venture to Washington D.C. and experienced a wealth of opportunities. Among these outings were visits to the presidential monuments, war memorials, the Capitol building, the Library of Congress, Ford’s Theatre, and the Smithsonian Museum. One of my favorite stops was an overnight trip to colonial Williamsburg, where the buildings and atmosphere of the 1700s has been preserved. Here we went inside America’s first governmental body, the House of Burgesses, and developed a greater understanding of how our country began. I thoroughly enjoyed Williamsburg because everyone there is dressed up like a colonist, acts like a colonist, and really makes you feel like you stepped in a time machine and dialed in 1770. By walking down the main drag, you can go inside the authentic stores and learn how the silversmith made their craft, how the printing press operated before industrial machinery, and even taste a sample of spiced hot chocolate or tea in the local tavern. Overall, Williamsburg provided for an educational contrast between the past and present governments of America. 

As warm sunlight glazed the brand new Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial in Washington D.C., I studied his message that “the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” Appropriate for the Civil Rights movement when King made this statement in 1965, his timeless words are entirely applicable to our modern world. Take for example the United States’ seemingly endless debt, fighting for democracy in the Middle East, and an economic downturn that has left roughly ten percent of American’s without jobs in 2011. Each of these issues reflect the words of Dr. King, and as students gathered from across the country on Close Up we learned that our salient responsibility of becoming functioning adults in society is to cooperate and compromise with each other. No one will ever live in their dreamt Utopia, simply because everyone has a different view of what that ideal society should entail. Thus, we need not follow the example of the United States’ current gridlocked Congressmen, but rather set the grounds for compromise like our Founding Fathers before us.  

Ready to Start: TEDx Youth Monterey 11/19/11

by Taylor Jones

Contact: taylorjones9393@gmail.com

What gets a bunch of sleepy teenagers up at 10:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning? The answer is simple: TEDx Youth Monterey. For more than twenty-five years, the TED exhibition has been traversing the globe, hosting TED Talks in which presenters enlighten the audience about their “ideas worth sharing,” ranging from “the myths of ADHD” to “riding New York subways in your underpants.”  Today, hundreds of kids and a scattered handful of adults gather in the World Theatre at California State University of Monterey Bay to experience TEDx Youth Monterey, a special TED event held annually since 2009 in devotion to the young people inspiring the innovations of tomorrow. 

Floating upon billowy clouds projected from theatre lights, I feel a sense of curiosity, determination, and appreciation for higher learning among the audience members as they file into their seats. The first presenter, Johan Khalilian, appropriately fits in the “determination” category. Khalilian grew up in the rougher side of Chicago, which he comically relates to the polar opposite of Disneyland, where Mickey Mouse is a drug dealer and Minnie Mouse is a pregnant teen. He paints a picture of a harsh environment and goes on to talk about how his high school counselor discouraged him from pursuing the University of Chicago, the college of his dreams. However, Khalilian argues that you should always believe in yourself without letting others put you down, because we can choose to be either “a product of our dreams, or a product of our environment.”

As Andrea Blunt steps into the spotlight, she emits a presence like she’s been onstage many times before. In fact, the singer-songwriter has performed with countless artists, playing all kinds of music including classical, hip-hop, punk, and folk to name a few. Today, she plays her original song “Iron Spine,” which blends her variety of musical influences to create her own unique sound. What is also notably unique about Blunt’s solo performance is that she accompanies her vocals with an accordion, giving the song a broad, full sound as she pumps air in and out of the chamber. With the accordion, she shows her classical and folk training by composing an enchanting melody (that would continue playing in my head for days afterwards). Her enticing voice demonstrates her pop elements, belting lyrics such as “losing my head start” and “breaking my own heart” and carries a performance that duly receives a standing ovation.

A student from Robert Lewis Stevenson High School named Richie Senegor rolls his mobile science lab on stage next. In his presentation titled The Science of Science, Senegor speaks out for the importance of science in not only education, but in our everyday lives as well. Realizing the youths’ epidemic of losing interest in science, Senegor determines the main problem being there is simply not enough “discovery” anymore. Kids grow endlessly tired of homework and rote memorization and therefore do not find the subject very engaging. However, Senegor’s proposal promotes a method of teaching in which labs are constructed by giving the students an end result and letting them figure out how to get there themselves. Through this method that Senegor has tested on his classmates, student will experience the frustration of having no idea what to do, experimenting with variables that may help them or divert them, and inherently bring back the “discovery” in science.

Bring Music “Bach,” presented by violinist Iljin Cho, expresses the importance of keeping arts and music alive in schools. He argues that music opens up our minds to more vast fields of thinking, leading to better mental and physical health. As Cho questions, I also ask “why are we cutting music in schools? Why are the arts the first programs to go?” I don’t understand how the arts, the basis for any culture, can be selectively diminished from our school systems. On a bittersweet note, music, art, drama, photography, dance, and other kinds of creative classes are the only things keeping some kids in school. I, for one, know my school life would be much less enthralling without the opportunity to play music and express myself everyday.

After performing in TEDx with my own band, Mozzo Kush, I am so honored to have been a part of such an inspiring event. We played the single “Checked In to Check Out” off of our new album Mozzo Kush and had a blast doing it. I thank CSUMB and the organizers of TEDx for putting the show together, because without them none of this could have happened. Whether or not your dream is to sail across the Pacific Ocean, build your dream house for the homeless, or develop a tri-photo code to encrypt messages, you have a dream—it’s never too late or too early to follow it, so why not start now?

Links:

http://www.facebook.com/trudeaupublishing

http://www.tedxyouthmonterey.org/

Birth of the Cool: The Alternative Café 11/5/11

By Taylor Jones

“So that was during the time I spent in Tennessee when I used to hitchhike across the country,” explains the elderly man next to me sporting a circular, brown-rimmed hat along with what appears to be a green, pinstriped shirt. Yes, it is definitely green. Tonight at the Alternative Café in Seaside, California, the “jazz & beyond” music of the Something Cool Trio evidently attracts an audience with a wealth of life experience, and suitably, since pianist/vocalist Bill Minor has traveled the world and will sing songs in English, Greek, Italian, and Russian. Along with Minor this evening are his band mates Jenn Schaaf on drums and Heath Proskin on upright bass.

Captivated by the current exhibit “Guardians,” featuring work by artists Cory Benhatzel and Matthew Linares, I admire the vivid textures Linares uses in order take the observer to another dimension. I’m looking through a portal into an almost video-game kind of world where objects are floating around with a sense of unsettling ambiguity, yet setting a serene mood through the smooth, shaded color scheme.

After pushing aside the black curtain from backstage, the trio picks up their instruments and starts off their set with a Thelonious Monk standard called “Ask Me Now.” This song demonstrates how the Alternative Café’s acoustics are perfect for a jazz combo, in that you can hear Schaaf playing brushes without needing to mic her snare. Being a drummer, I know one of the hardest parts of jazz drumming is brush technique, and Schaaf gracefully shows the audience just how it’s done by never letting a moment go untouched by the gentle glide of her fluid hands.

An interesting aspect of the Something Cool Trio is Minor’s experiments in combining his original poetry with backing music, which acts as a soundtrack to the story. As he begins to recite his poem “My Father’s Things,” the music appropriately follows. Minor shares a deep emotion from his personal life with the audience as he conveys a story of how his father lost his memory with age, and how he could no longer recognize his own son. Minor moves on with the story, elaborating on how his father never used to sing, but one day when his mother was playing piano, his father miraculously burst into song. Minor knew that his father’s true love for his mother had persisted despite his loss of memory.

While living in communist Russia, illegally listening to black-market jazz records, Minor became fluent in the native language, and brought it back to the Alternative Café for us tonight. Schaaf turns off her snare and hits the drums with mallets as the band kicks off a Russian waltz. This tune shows how Proskin on bass is the glue between the drums and piano. By locking in rhythmically with Schaaf and working out melodic progressions with Minor, Proskin proves that a tight jazz combo operates through individual feats of musicianship as well as a keen sense of communication.

Minor hypes up the next song as “the most beautiful love song ever written,” which is apparently “Creep” by Radiohead, a favorite cover I’ve heard artists such as Yann Brown and Angels In the Alps perform in their own interpretations. Something Cool Trio also took the song and made it their own, keeping the original melancholy energy of the verses, but changing up the chorus drastically. Rather than a rude, distorted guitar bleeding into a belting chorus like Radiohead, a piano pickup leads to an upbeat, swing chorus, in which Minor’s vocals resemble a mixture of Willie Nelson and Randy Newman. Thus, I think we can agree that they made it their own.

After taking the audience on an adventure around the world, reciting a poem in Greek and singing a love song in Italian, Minor takes us south to Brazil by performing the Stan Getz & João Gilberto classic “The Girl From Ipanema.” Schaaf tightens her brushes and once again demonstrates her precise control, turning off the snare to enhance the relaxed, Latin feel of the song. As Proskin drops out on the bass, Minor picks up a small conga drum and begins a percussion feature with Schaaf, coordinating dynamics together to give the duet movement in not only volume, but also intensity. When the torrent of percussive juices is finished and the audience reality checks back in to Seaside, California, the performance is met with a magnanimous applause.

So what is “cool” to you? Does being cool mean being the most popular kid at school? Does being cool mean doing what everybody else is doing? To me, being cool is doing what you want to do and expressing yourself the way you naturally feel. Tonight, the Something Cool Trio was just that, cool. Not only did they express themselves, they expressed themselves in four different languages, in song and poetry, and through an assortment of musical genres that will surely please your ears.

Links:

http://trudeaupublishing.blogspot.com

(All photos by Taylor Jones)

Art by Matthew Linares

Art by Matthew Linares

Something Cool Trio: (left to right) Jenn Schaaf, Heath Proskin, Bill Minor

From Backstage

The audience

Heath Proskin

Drums n' Bass

The Bridge School Benefit Concert: 10/23/11

By Taylor Jones

taylorjones9393@gmail.com

In 1986, legendary folk-rock star Neil Young of Buffalo Springfield, along with his wife Pegi Young, started the Bridge School foundation in order to specially educate children born with severe physical and speech impairments, including their son Ben who has cerebral palsy. Acting in compassion and inspiration, the Young family started an annual concert series to raise funding for the school, its resources, and its international accessibility. Today we gather at the sold-out Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California, to celebrate the twenty-fifth annual Bridge School Benefit Concert.

Upon entering the gates of Shoreline, I find myself immersed in a sea of audience members. They come in all shapes and styles: big, small, short, tall, indie, rocker, punk, hippie, black, white, orange, blue, and all colors of the rainbow, each one just as excited for the day’s musical acts and happy to contribute to such a worthy cause.

Armed with his acoustic guitar and harmonica, Neil Young traditionally opens the show with his song “I Am a Child,” performed in dedication to the students of Bridge School. After he and his wife Pegi welcome the attendees to the festival, Young introduces the first performer of the day, Beck Hansen, better known simply as Beck.

A said apprentice, Beck toured with alongside Young when he was first getting off the ground and learned the ‘tricks of the trade’ through him. Today Beck plays with the band mates he recorded the album Sea Change with for the first time in ten years. Performing a collection of melancholy, yet uplifting melodies, the band blends together very well despite their time apart. The bass player plucks an upright bass in adherence to the all-acoustic event, while Beck coordinates progressions with the piano player. Ending his set, Beck takes us back to Odelay of 2004 and bumps the “jig-saw jazz and the get-fresh flow” of the classic track “Where It’s At.”

A Bridge School veteran Norah Jones takes the stage next. However, this year she has brought a new country-folk sound as opposed to her previous, smooth jazz and soul vibes. Jones being a talented singer, pianist, and guitarist, pulls of her new country act with ease. Accompanied by a drummer, upright bass player, and a guitarist/vocalist, Jones conveys her Western storyline tunes by hitting tight harmonies with the male vocalist. Although this set provides a new reflection of Norah Jones, including a touching rendition of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene,” I would have liked to hear her vary her style, because she only played country and strayed from the warm, relaxed sound of the Norah Jones I fell in love with.

As the day progresses and the grass on the lawn becomes hardly visible, Los Invisibles featuring Carlos Santana and Cindy Blackman strut out on stage. Awing the audience with their Latin flavor and rhythms, Los Invisibles perform an assortment of Santana songs, which feature none other than the infamous Carlos Santana himself. With an array of material dating from early Santana to modern songs like “Smooth,” the band does not cease to impress with their tight arrangements. But of course, no Santana concert can be complete without an uncontrollably skilled drummer, who was Dennis Chambers last time I saw Santana, and is Cindy Blackman today. As the rest of the band cuts out, Blackman forcefully urges the momentum onward with her driving drum solo. Following a few minutes of technical smashing and bashing over independent rhythms, Blackman begins a solid beat to groove on while the band gradually builds the song back up.

Let me put on my jacket and my beanie, for the sun is setting and the night show is about to start. Foo Fighters are the first act under the spotlights and plan to perform “songs that sound good when you play them this way [acoustically],” jokes lead singer Dave Grohl. Going in to the show, I suspected Foo Fighters would play selections from the album Skin & Bones, a live recording of their 2006 show at the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles. Suitably, they do perform many of these songs, including a version of “My Hero” in dedication to Neil Young and his efforts to put on the concert every year. They also play hits such as “Times Like These,” but sometimes can get repetitive by spending too long on jams that are based on one simple riff. Ending their set with a solo performance, Grohl plays an emotionally gripping version of “Everlong,” my favorite Foo song. However, I wish the rest of the band had played the song with Grohl. One reason it is my favorite Foo song is due to the fact that Taylor Hawkins straight up nails every drum fill and displays an incredible amount of endurance to rock so unrelentingly hard. Overall, the Foo Fighters were great but could have been better.

Nobody quite exudes the essence of “suave” as much as jazz singer Tony Bennett when he gets a hold of the mic, and after more than fifty years in the music business, it’s rightfully so. While Beck was learning the ‘tricks of the trade’ from Young, Bennett had written the book and mastered all of them. Bennett warms the hearts of the bay area when he performs his signature song “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.” Playing with musicians including Howard Jones, a favorite drummer of Count Basie, Bennett’s band presents a vintage sound that has blossomed from their decades of experience in jazz. As Bennett spins one last time and accepts his applause from the audience, he clears the stage for the next artist, Dave Matthews.

Accompanied by guitarist Tim Reynolds, Dave Matthews begins his set with an acoustic guitar as well. These two guitarists prove that they can thoroughly jam on a song and give it plenty of movement without needing a rhythm section. Performing the song “You & Me” off the Dave Matthews Band’s latest album Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King, Reynolds demonstrates his unique style of acoustic shredding, in that he can play varied, polyrhythmic melodies like a sitar player. One of the best aspects of the Bridge School Benefit Concert every year is the collaborating between artists, so I love when the duo invites Young onstage to perform the song “Oh, Susanna” with them.

Contributing many of the collaborating artists of the night is Arcade Fire, whose band members take part in multiple songs with other performers. Opening with the song “Intervention” off of Neon Bible, Arcade Fire kicks off their set with a sense of resolution and grandeur that is almost untouchable by their contemporaries. Continuing with the song “Rebellion (Lies),” the entire audience helps chant the lyrics, in addition to the empowering shout-chorus of “Wake Up.” When I saw Arcade Fire at the Outside Lands music festival, they had a larger setup with two drum sets and people moving around everywhere. However, tonight they take it down a notch and provide for a more intimate show using full acoustics, upright bass, a twin piano, and one simplified drum set. In the song “We Used to Wait” off of their latest album The Suburbs, singer Win Butler shares the message that kids today aren’t patient enough to appreciate a song or record as a holistic piece of artwork, and would rather succumb to listening to the popular choruses of whichever songs happened to get radio play. After my second time seeing them, I believe Arcade Fire is truly a treasure of our generation and a quintessential live show.

The Bridge School Benefit Concert and the coming together of musicians symbolizes the power that everyone possesses to help others in need, and to contribute to a cause that really makes a difference. Shown by the sold-out venue, music is the one entity that truly unites us as humankind. On behalf of the audience here at Shoreline Amphitheater tonight, I would like to thank the Young family and the Bridge School foundation for putting on such a fantastic event.

Western Specimens: The Alternative Café 10/8/11

By Taylor Jones

taylorjones9393@gmail.com

            Nearing the shadows of this cold, autumn night, I gratefully enter the warmth of the Alternative Café, a welcoming venue that I feel more and more compelled to attend after every show I see here. As I set my glass of water down on the circular, mosaic table, I start a conversation with tonight’s featured act, Zoe Boekbinder. While we discuss the release of her new album Darling Specimens, she tells me of the success she celebrated at her CD Release Party at Viracocha in San Francisco. Born in a farmhouse in Ontario, Canada, Boekbinder spent parts of her youth in California and became interested in pursuing music during her last year of high school, encouraged by a friend in her theatre group. Starting in 2004, she spent five years touring with her sister in their duo called Vermillion Lies, achieving success with their circus and cabaret theme on stage. In 2009, Boekbinder began to pursue a solo project with a sound she describes as “ragtime pop,” and continues the adventure tonight by performing at the Alternative Café. As we talk, her touring partner Alexander Thompson, playing under the alias The Alexanders, sits down and joins the conversation. Amongst discussing our favorite music and rap artists like Odd Future, Thompson explains to me how he recorded his new album Western Medicine over the past year in his hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Thompson plays guitar, trumpet, and sings, and is preparing to perform his rockabilly folk music tonight. Boekbinder and Thompson met through a similar booking agent when they played a show together in Athens, Georgia, where they exchanged CDs and hit it off, resulting in their current tour together.

            Once again enjoying the comfort of the front row leather couch, I notice the room is filling up earlier than usual and I have a good feeling about the show. Before Boekbinder and The Alexanders are set to go on, an opening rock band from Oakland called Warbler takes the stage. Starting off their set with a chilled-out sound of ambient keyboards and electric guitar plucking, they progress into a heavier, indie rock riff that turns them into a mix of the raw element of Dawes and the electric element of Phoenix. The intro of their next song begins in a similar mood, leaving the drums out in order to sustain the mellow scene. However, the drummer should turn his snare off since vibrations from the amplifiers are causing his drum to rattle and take away from the energy of the performance. As I watch the keyboardist, I admire the clear plastic back of his setup, allowing the audience to look inside and see all of the synthesizers and mechanisms he uses. On one song, he uses these synths in cooperation with various foot pedals to create a soul-powered organ. While the bass player plucks a wild west sounding line on his five-stringed Yamaha, the singer/guitarist stomps his foot pedals for live looping and effects including distortion, reverb and delay, an effect much loved by Brent Smith, the guitarist in my band Mozzo Kush. Warbler has definitely worked on live transitioning in their set, for after the end of the previous song, the drummer starts playing a floor tom and rim pattern that leads into a precise entrance of the other instruments. Although these musicians blend together to create their own sound, that sound often just gets too loud and repetitive. As Scott Grover, owner of the café, once told me, you have to “play to the room,” and in this case that means don’t play so loud that all the sound is going to echo off the walls and feedback directly into the mics. Overall, Warbler has a distinct sound, but does not vary their style enough to keep the audiences’ interest.

            Sitting down on a wooden chair, Alexander Thompson of the one-man-band The Alexanders presents himself in a blue and yellow striped sweater over a collared shirt, looking through hip, dark rimmed glasses that almost scream “indie musician!” Kicking off his set with a song called “Big Boy,” Thompson surprises me with a soothing voice that has some pop influence, with lyrical schemes like Feist and Brit-pop artist Kate Nash, but keeps the music indie by incorporating his folk guitar melodies. On another song called “Gay Friends and Sugar Cookies,” Thompson explains how the title didn’t win him many fans throughout the Midwest, so he’s been more open to playing it in California. After this happy song that displays his soft sound and voice, he changes the mood by playing “Misery,” a tune that reflects the story-telling songwriting style of Paul McCartney. While playing “Jesus Plays Roulette With the Sun,” Thompson plays a bass line on the low E string and strums the rest of the chords to accompany himself like Jimi Hendrix did before Noel Redding joined the band. Thompson owns his folk-pop sound and compliments his touring partner very well.

            When featured act Zoe Boekbinder steps on stage in her rose covered jacket, she debuts not only her new CD, but a wide smile and a welcoming presence that makes the audience temporarily fall in love with her. Boekbinder is well known for her Boss loop machine, which she uses to harmonize with herself as well as to launch drumbeats and other pre-record patterns. In order to do this, she needs two mics, one to record her live loops and another to sing overtop of them. Her “ragtime pop” sound resembles the vibrato of Shenandoah Davis, who coincidentally produced her latest album Darling Specimens. With Davis, Boekbinder searched through her house for objects to hit with drumsticks, including lawn mowers, glass, pianos, and even recorded the crunch of chewing celery. After obtaining these samples they sent them off to various electronic beat makers to produce some very interesting loops, resulting in a song called “Artichoke.” The song “Salt Water” also incorporates a lot of these out-of-the-ordinary sounds for percussion instruments, while Boekbinder plays guitar and sings over them. Although the beats are intricate and innovative ideas, the artificial aspect of the pre-recorded beats interferes with the natural flow of the music at times. She shows on songs like “Just Because” and “Sour Lemons” that when she plays all live, with just vocals and guitar, the songs come out much more gripping. On the next song, which she is yet to title, she explains how she had taught loop machine classes at New Folsom Prison and asked inmates to write words for her melody. As a result, Boekbinder transposed these hip-hop lines to fit her song, a folk adventure with questioning lyrics like “where would I be without my hook and verse?” After leaving the stage temporarily, she teases the encore-pleading audience by waving her hand in and out from backstage. Following this toying, she takes the stage again to end with her own, comical version of “Single Ladies” by Beyoncé. Since she starts the loop really fast, she commits to the beat and tries to sing the song at an incredible pace, engaging the audience in belting the chorus and giving everyone a heartfelt last laugh. Once she finishes, the appreciative spectators line up to buy her new CD Darling Specimens as well as The Alexanders Western Medicine.

Links:

http://trudeaupublishing.blogspot.com/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Alexanders/132830603442993

http://www.zoeboekbinder.com/

*(All Photos by Richard Herbert)

Lights inside keyboard

Warbler

The Alexanders (Alexander Thompson)

The Alexanders (Alexander Thompson)

Zoe Boekbinder

Zoe Boekbinder

           

Simple Living at The Alternative Café: 9/29/11

By Taylor Jones

     Ask yourself one question: “have you ever smelled that oddly comforting, musty air that puffs out from under the cushions when you fall into the warm embrace of a leather couch?” Well if you sat in the front row at the Alternative Café last Thursday to hear folk singer-songwriter Kenny Chung and Texas rocker Daniel Whittington, you most likely would have. As the audience mingles, I sit down and talk amongst new friends, one being Jordan Levine, the sixteen-year-old drummer hired by Daniel Whittington. While we wait for the show to begin we talk about bands we both admire including Neutral Milk Hotel and The Raconteurs, in addition to the unique art that fills the room. Studying the café’s new exhibit “Imaginary Maps of the Real World” by Czechoslovakian street artist, Ales Bask Hostomsky, I find myself entranced by the abstract urban images he uses to depict the clash of social struggles and political propaganda he’s encountered between his life in the Czech Republic and the United States. Leaving my post on the couch for a while, I stroll around the café until the lights dim and I know the show is about to begin.

     Opening the bill tonight is local Pacific Grove artist Kenny Chung, a young singer-songwriter on the rise. Chung kicks off his set with an original folk song called “Talkin’ Early Mornin’ Ramblin’,” displaying his multi-instrumental talents by playing acoustic guitar, harmonica, and singing. In this song, Chung channels the energy of one of his greatest influences, Bob Dylan, narrating a social commentary about how people needlessly fight and argue with each other, because at the end of the day we are all human and we all have far more similarities than differences. After a round of applause from friends and passerby drop-ins, Chung begins to play “My Woman,” a song about unrequited love. This blues shuffle describes how he gives his woman all he has to give, but nevertheless she treats him like an animal, alluded to by such imagery-evoking lyrics like “she makes me sleep in the stables.” The shuffle pattern of this song is driving throughout, and as a drummer I think incorporating a rhythm section would solidify the effect of the beat and make the groove of the song more defined. Next, Chung covers “I Don’t Live In a Dream” by Jackie Greene, another one of his favorite artists whose set we saw together at the Santa Cruz Blues Festival. After studying Greene’s song, Chung didn’t just cover the tune on a whim, he really took the time to capture the intended emotion of the song and put himself in the place of a man recognizing reality. Ending with his newest song “I’m Still Here,” a piece filled with much dynamic movement and a chorus resembling an early Neil Young, Chung demonstrates that his songwriting is improving with every show. After the performance I interview Chung about his music, and he states that his latest song entails how a lot of his friends have moved away to college, and he is “still here,” going through his own kind of schooling making friends and connections while learning about the music world first hand. He says that when people graduate high school, they don’t always keep in contact as much as they’d like to, but it’s only natural because everyone is out starting to live their own individual lives. Appropriately, Chung’s EP titled Simple Living is a collection of songs written during his time in the Monterey Peninsula and can be downloaded via Bandcamp.

     Strapped with his polished acoustic guitar, Daniel Whittington takes the stage for the second act along with his three band mates Marc Davison on guitar, Brett Whittington on bass, and Jordan Levine on drums. Only their third performance with this lineup, the group plays what Whittington describes as “Texas rock,” which sounds a lot like the down-to-earth, easy listening aspects of Ryan Bingham. Obviously comfortable on stage, Whittington demonstrates his southern hospitality and talks to the audience like he’s just playing a show for some old friends. This personal aspect of his performance really enhances the mood of the show. Davison, rocking a FDNY sticker on his Fender, utilizes a plethora of effect pedals to create his own polished, graceful sound like a country/soul version of The Edge from U2. To complement the guitarists of the band, Brett on bass and Levine on drums hold down steady grooves together to support Whittington’s melodies. As Brett plucks a consistent bass line, Levine drifts into a second-line feel on the snare to create a steady blend of rhythm. While introducing his song “Talulah,” Whittington jokes “this song is like one of those ‘choose your own ending’ books” since he felt the lyrics could either be about a baby or a prostitute. As the tune progresses, Davison’s electric guitar adds layers of sweet honey-like tones to complement Whittington’s acoustic performance. Although Whittington’s style is very polished and impressive, his compositions tend to be consistent in slow songs that don’t contain enough elements of movement. As an artist, you have to keep the audience’s interest with frequent musical changes in order for them to maintain interest. After “Talulah” the band starts to pick up the pace of the set and plays some heavier rock songs, which Levine plainly enjoys by changing the beat and thumpin’ those toms. The band ends their show with a song called “Taking You Home,” on another rockin’ note and bids the audience goodnight, telling them about their CDs for sale at the merch table. Whittington’s latest album Private War and additional music is also available via Bandcamp.

     By the end of the show, Kenny Chung’s EP titled Simple Living represents the relaxed folk and blues atmosphere provided by the Alternative Café tonight.

Links:

http://trudeaupublishing.blogspot.com/

http://kennychung.bandcamp.com/

http://music.danielwhittington.com/

(All photos by Taylor Jones)

Ales Bask Hostomsky's art

Kenny Chung

Kenny Chung

(Left to Right) Marc Davison, Daniel Whittington,
Jordan "Riff Raff" Levine, Brett Whittington

Jordan Levine and Brett Whittington

Marc Davison and Jordan Levine

Red Wine and Cheap Beer: The Alternative Café 9/2/11

By Taylor Jones

The room is on fire! — Or perhaps it is simply the caked layers of black, white, and red painted flames that engulf The Alternative Café’s music lounge in Seaside, California. Performing in tonight’s show is headliner Dakota Belle Witt, along with opening artist Shenandoah Davis. As I sit down to meet the owner of the café, Scott Grover, he tells me the inferno style art contributes to their current “hot rod” exhibit, displaying local artwork of classic cars and voluptuous women, both equally seductive to my wandering eyes. While we speak in the main café, Scott fights an outer space battle of the videogame Galaga on the old school two-player Multicade. Among the sight of arcade games, muscle cars, and roadsters resides the accompanying scent of red wine and cigarettes, lingering on audience members’ every breath.

Tonight, the opening artist Shenandoah Davis is performing songs from her latest record, titled The Company We Keep. After passing through the white archway of the café, I step into a room filled with about thirty folding chairs and prepare to enjoy a show in a venue that provides a very personal atmosphere between the musicians and audience. In fact, right when I sit down I meet the members of Davis’ trio, drummer Ethan Demarest and cellist Danah Olivetree. A hearty bunch of musicians from Seattle, they produce an organic sound by blending influences of orchestral and folk music. During one of the first songs called “Oh Captain!” Davis elegantly plays a flowing array of chords on her electric piano. Olivetree, dressed in black and white striped leggings, accompanies her with appropriately slow moving notes on cello. Suddenly, Demarest begins a syncopated, second-line feel drumbeat to drastically change the mood to an upbeat, southern swing halfway through the song. Further into the set, he picks up a small acoustic guitar to add extra flavor to the music. However, his tone is dampened due to poor placement of the mic too far from the guitar. When I was a stagehand at Student Voices last year, our school's talent show, we made sure to place the mic right by the twelfth fret in order to capture the highest quality sound. As they perform my favorite song “Proof,” I close my eyes and the music takes me back in time to an old western saloon, where the audience members transform into a mix of rugged cowboys and dainty women while a pianist in the corner plays a joyful ragtime jig. After their set I venture over to the merchandise table to buy their new vinyl pressing of The Company We Keep, a purchase worth every penny of my fifteen dollars. The album provides a deeper understanding of their vision for music, enhanced by quality recordings of the grand piano, violin, guitar, upright bass, and a choir. Never fear if you don’t have a record player, their album is available on CD as well as iTunes and Bandcamp.

On an opposite end of the musical spectrum lies tonight’s featured artist Dakota Belle Witt, a solo performer fully decked out in mermaid attire. My once “wandering eyes” are now dumbfounded at the sight in front of me, a woman wearing an awkwardly loose sea-shell bra, a turquoise bedazzled dress, and a profuse amount of matching mascara. Needless to say, this is not what I had expected. Witt begins her set by displaying her smooth, soothing vocals and strumming light major chords on her ukulele. However, I cannot get over the agitating “under-the-sea” theme of every one of her songs. Her talented voice is put to waste by this mermaid gimmick, and I urge her to simply get a band to back her up and start playing some more thought out music.

After her last song, Witt announces to the audience that both artists’ CD’s can be found at the merch table. In addition, she claims “Shenandoah Davis makes music to listen to over red wine, while I suggest you listen to mine over a case of cheap beer.” In all honesty, Witt perfectly sums up the comparison of these two artists. While the audience may appreciate Dakota Belle Witt for her humorous antics, I much prefer Shenandoah Davis for her unique blend of classical and folk influences. Tonight the opening act far outshined the feature, and for my money, I’ll take the red wine.

(All photos  taken by Richard Herbert) 

(left to right) Shenandoah Davis, Ethan Demarest, Danah Olivetree 

Olivetree and Davis

 Danah Olivetree

Dakota Belle Witt

Lust for Life - Open Mic at American Burger: 8/19/11

Sitting at my table adorned with nostalgic photos of smiling customers' past, I can smell the scent of American flare bouncing off the walls of American Burger, 738 Lighthouse Ave. Monterey, CA. I am joined in preparation for tonights Open Mic entertainment by the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, and Marilyn Monroe, or rather their famed posters that line the saucy red walls. In fact, there is another Marilyn in the building tonight, Marilyn "Kapua" Gibbons and her bandmate John Brooks are the host musicians of the evening. The duo kicks off the show with a few interpretive Bee Gees songs including "I Started a Joke," Marilyn carrying a sound of  vintage 1950's R&B vocals supported by her electric guitar, and John comping on electric acoustic bass. The concise arrangement turned out unique, however, the music called for a rhythm section to lay down some foundation in order for them to engage a full sound.

Two men, Shane and Matt, aproach the stage to take the second act. Matt starts steady and solid strumming on acoustic guitar to a song which Shane introduces as "something you've all heard before." True to his word, we've all heard the song "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley on the radio thousands of times, so it's refreshing to hear the duo's version put a dark, soulfull spin into it. Shane controls his voice extremely well, singing softly at some parts so he can really emphasize  the importance of the emotional struggle and grip the listener's ears in attention. The contrast between his vocals really make for a great performance. His diverse ability is further displayed when he plugs in his iPod and sings a beautifully fluid song of Spanish opera by The Three Tenors. The song has so much movement that I don't even have to understand the lyrics to understand the ever-changing mood throughout the song. I am truly impressed by the range of both his voice and material.

As the couple on my right play checkers with beer bottle caps, a theme of American soul persists through the night when Matt picks up his guitar again and performs "Give Me One Reason" by Tracy Chapman with a young woman in the house. The vocalist, in the same fashion as Shane, can channel her emotion into the song to really make it sound authentic. She gave off a strong vibe of confidence and belted out a robust chorus like the sound of Christina Aguilera.

Overall, an Open Mic provides a stage for those musicians out there looking to show off some new songs, replay some classics, and jam with some people they've never met before. The Open Mic at American Burger did just that. The last song was performed by the collective group of musicians in the room, a blues chart which incorporated the oldest member of the group, Roy, who spontaneously joined in on a flute solo, swing and hula dancers, ukeleles, and Shane on harmonica. Shane's T-Shirt that says "Lust for Life" promotes the energy emitted by these musicians tonight, they came here not to get paid, not to be famous, merely to have a good time doing something they all love, making music.