The Von Bondies: of Grit and Spark...and the Underground

(playing 2 / 21 at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor)

Chances Are That Crowds Will Grow

~or~

"It was right to leave...(?)"

Interview with the Von Bondies:

(words: milo)

[ed. Motorcityrocks and the Free Press -and--many others, have already featured some q&a with Jason Stollsteimer...since I already had this long spewing rant hammered out, I figured I'd get it out of the way...]

photo: Jim Newberry

It doesn't always have to be about the same ol’ drama with Jason Stollsteimer.

Sometimes it can be about imitation crab meat. Or about the Pussycat Dolls. Or, just maybe, dreaming up tour finales where he wrestles with his longtime friend and other remaining original Von Bondies member, drummer Don Blum, in sumo belts. Or it can be all of this…swirling around in a blurred 2 ½ hour conversation inside a humble rectangular Thai restaurant in the oh-so-quaint downtown of Stollsteimer's hometown of Plymouth, MI.

"I told Don after the last record [Pawn Shoppe Heart, that] every record's our last record," said Stollsteimer, with Blum seated to his right. "Because anything can happen. If Don's gone, I'm gone. At this point, I can't do it all myself. We need each other…to piss each other off…"

Blum nods slowly, "…We survived this next round…"

A soft voice grows in volume from behind us, as the waitress walks up with the bill, "What kind of music do you guys play?"

"It's hard to explain," Stollsteimer quickly responds. "Do you have a CD player?"

I offer the waitress my promo copy of the band's latest Love Hate and Then There's You and she takes it to the back to play a few songs. After she reveals her tastes drift toward Pussycat Dolls, Stollsteimer quickly jokes that he hopes she doesn't throw it in the deep fryer with the crab meat. The music starts booming through ceiling speakers and Stollsteimer admits, "I never tell her what I do for a living – I've been coming here for 3 years now. 'Why you never working at 3pm?' Oh, I'm working! I'm working right now – writing a song about you, spicy!"

Then a pause… "What were we saying?"

I say, "Sumo wrestling…"

"Oh yeah. Every record's our last record – we have to think that way or else we can't keep going…"

The waitress returns, "Do you guys sell a lot?"

"My cape is in the car," Stollsteimer bats back, deadpanned, "My cape and gold teeth. No, no! You see how big I tip…"

Well then… So, how about a new kind of drama. A change of pace. Since every time the singer/guitarist or his band (born from the booming "garage days" of Detroit) gets mentioned, especially around here, a specific kind of drama squeaks in the back of our minds, like sneakers on marble in the a suddenly-fallen-silent auditorium…(ya know, that punching "incident" for which, Stollsteimer said, "the band suffered for something that happened to me"). No, we can move on to new drama – something more suit-and-tie-ish, something less gossipy, less localized – like, contract negotiations!

links: www.majordomorecords.com
Von Bondies

video: "Pale Bride"

Through 2004-2005, the Von Bondies were riding high on the success of their tight, explosive single "C'mon C'mon," a summer anthem for its time – garnering them an opening slot for Sonic Youth and Iggy Pop. They toured the world, playing 1,200 seaters, fielding numerous offers to feature their songs in commercials and soundtracks and wound up hanging out at a Hollywood party with Paris Hilton (albeit the only one they ever attended). And then…at least from our perspective, they stopped.

"The most common question," says Stollsteimer, "is: why did you take off that much time? You got to the biggest point of your career and then you stopped…The band (at that point, with guitarist Marcie Bolan, bassist Carrie Smith) would have broken up instantly if we woulda' kept going much longer. It was a good thing that we took a break. Music has changed. We got out right before garage rock died. We left at a high point, instead of a low point."

"Got out," yes, so it seemed…but now they're back…

The Von Bondies released their breakout record, Pawn Shoppe Heart on Sire Records – which placed them in the stern and eerie Warner Bros family. "At one point we turned in [Love, Hate] and Warner Bros. said "No." They said, "There's some good album tracks," but, "We want you to work with these songwriters." (This is mid 2005). "I went in with a guy who was really nice and I brought songs that were done that they were going to 'fix'…against my will." Hence, on Love Hate's cover, Stollsteimer is pictured at a typewriter, toiling away on his own work while a gun is held to his head – (by Blum) – symbolizing Warner Bros' exasperating demands.

So he brings his songs back and after an attempted "fix" and "one guy at Sire said the words 'It's not Emo enough.' And…it took about 10 seconds to react to that: I want to be off the label." He clarifies there are no hard feelings with Warner Bros., no, it was just "one guy at Sire stopped our record from coming out…"

It took nearly 3 years to get off Sire after that, costing "a shitload of money" as well as a lot of confusion. Some in the public and the press perceived the band as "shopping around" whatever it was that they were working on next through 2006 – but the truth was they weren't allowed to. They had to fight to get it back, first. Because, labels never want to drop a band with an album already done, Stollsteimer said, because if that band puts the record out with another label (which Von Bondies did, just last week with California-based Majordomo) and it does well, then the original label (Sire, in this scenario) is screwed; they look like a heel and people lose jobs over that…

Love Hate was recorded all over, from California to Connecticut, over the span of a few months, throughout the past 3 years or so. This time around, Blum was able to pen a few tunes, which created inevitable stress, both in progress of the record and in their relationship. "[Don and I] got into a bunch of arguments," said Stollsteimer, "about how this song should go onto the record, how many of my songs, how many of his, it was stressful because at the time (through 06) we didn't even see the record coming out. That, no matter how good our songs were, it didn't matter, they might not see the light of day. So [the opener, "Our Perfect Crime"] the lyrics are "We are the spark / We are the underground" that we were never gonna actually see the light of day – it ended up a very anthemic song; which, I don't think I've had since [debut Lack of Communication's] "It Came From Japan."

"A lot of those songs we collaborated on," said Blum, "…if we had had more time to get used to working with each other I'm sure it wouldn't have been as frustrating..." Writing is one thing, but the duo admit they've always had a chemistry for performance. "We've been friends for a long time, a lot of the time was in a band. It's basically, like, working on a business together…"

The duo met at house shows hosted by Stollsteimer at his Ypsilanti house (in the late 90's). Blum played in the headlining band of line ups that often included 4 other bands. Stollsteimer started up his then-blasé band The Baby Killers for the purpose of being the opener – since none of the other 4 bands wanted to go first.

Stollsteimer, "We were terrible…"

Blum, "They were very entertaining…"

These wild parties included Detroit regulars like Dion Fischer of F'ke Blood and Timmy Vulgar of Human Eye – and the occasional naked hump-happy dude.

Ah, humble beginnings. The noisy mess of The Baby Killers eventually adopted Don as a drummer. They practiced a bit and got really comfortable splurging out bluesy rock rippers and cool swaggered glam/punk inspired rock, eventually changing their name to the Von Bondies. Now, they can pay their bills without having to find a day-job and they get to visit Europe, Japan and California every year. Not bad for a couple of kids playing hot-blooded grimy house parties in Ypsi.

Where were we? Ah yes, sumo wrestling…

The band went through line up shifts. During their late 2007 tour it featured guitarists Alicia Gbur and Matt Lannoo (from Detroit's the Nice Device) and bassist Leann Banks (who plays with The Sirens, and came recommended from Zach Shipps and Jim Diamond). Banks has remained but Gbur and Lannoo returned to focus on their main band. Guitarist Christy Hunt came from Minneapolis to round out the quartet in time for tours in 2008, including a summer performance in Detroit, a Halloween show in Pontiac and now, the band will return February 21 – in Ann Arbor for what is, essentially, an album release-show.

"We didn't want any more drama," said Stollsteimer. "And Chrissy doesn't have any." Specifically, Chrissy doesn't have any "local baggage" with Detroit or Michigan. Indeed, Stollsteimer and Blum agreed, early on in the interview, that the city and the state is seen more as a shelter, a base, a place to regroup – not somewhere to reign supreme in some ticker-tape welcome parade every time they set up a show here…For Stollsteimer, it's always been that way. He admits, "Locally, I was a marked man, four years ago…"

But, back to the line up and the chemistry: "Don has always been the musician in the band. The rest of us (back in 01-03), we were entertainers. We entertained the crowd, where don would have to keep the beat or we would be all over the place. I wouldn't consider myself a guitarist, I'm an entertainer who happens to play guitar and sing. I'm not trained, I don't know anything about chord structures…I never took a guitar lesson. This is my first band, since I was 19 this is all I've done."

"This is the best musical line up," said Stollsteimer of Blum, Banks and Hunt, "and, energy line up. Carrie and Marcie had this thing when they were on stage, they were the cooool, they were very NY to me. They never broke a sweat, kinda staring down the audience. Chrissy and Leann are all about crowd participation, if they don't break a sweat it's not a show."

So here we are, with Love, Hate and Then There's You. An extremely tight, hard-hitting, skyscraper-rattling record of big-booming beats, gristly guttural guitar hooks and roaring vocals – all wound up nicely in blends of power-pop and flavors of surf rock (whilst unavoidably tinged with the slightest hints of glammy/garage-rock).
The pain and the gutsy deliver is fitting of that regrettable cliché of "pure passion," with each song going for the jugular in terms of potential live explosiveness. But these songs are more biting than before, darker, brooding-even – it gets your head bobbing and your shoulders rattling with the most irresistible melodies and arresting rhythms then it punches you with square-off-ish lyrical taunts like "Better not fuck with us, whose sorry…" or "You've been talking all this shit, I think it's time for you to quit."

"When I write lyrics," said Stollsteimer, "they just come out. It was therapeutic. I didn't even know what they were about…[but] I find out later, it's like I take a little bit closer look at things. Because of what's happened in the past, it made us who we are now. It made us actually stronger. Most bands would have broken up after that…easily. Most bands break up over the stupidest shit. I think we've lasted longer than most bands that have had 1/10 as many problems. Sometimes bands should break up, but [Love Hate] is our best record. People like Lack of Communication because it's raw and it's straight forward. But, we'd only been a band for like 6 months. For us, it was the most pure record cuz we didn't know what we were doing. But this is our best attempt at making a real record."

So, with these fierce lyrics, is this an angry record?

"Frustrated," Stollsteimer says, quickly, pointedly. "It took us forever to get the record out."

Blum reminds me that I had suggested earlier, that he'd probably already listened back to the record 100 times by now. "I haven't really listened to it, because some of it reminds me of the stresses of working on some of the stuff."

Yes, there's frustration and anger in the songs, Stollsteimer admits. "They're supposed to be uplifting though – it's supposed to be about specific struggle. Not everything's perfect. There is a struggle, there's a constant struggle.
For me and Don, to pay our bills for the last 4 years without having a job has been a struggle…for all of us…everything comes through on the record. We know what's ahead of us. We know that we're going to be on tour for all of February, March and April. Our goal is to be on tour until October."

Indeed. Festival season is coming up in Europe (through July and August). And next month is SXSW in Austin TX. "That's how Majordomo found us," Stollsteimer reveals, "they came to one of our 2 shows (in 2008 – at SXSW). It was the Outdoor Annex one…how big…800?" He pauses to look at Blum, who nods. "It was huge.

It was packed and there was a line outside of people trying to get in."

Two ambitious representatives from Majordomo were stuck outside, peering in…The California-based label has 2 other artists currently on its roster. (Earlier in the interview, Stollsteimer announced that the Von Bondies, while on Majordomo, were just added to 11 radio stations' main rotations. "That's just as much as we got when we were on the major, and they [Sire] were spending millions of dollars…[Majordomo] are human. There's no suits!")

Back at that SXSW show last year, "The fact that we were a band that wasn’t signed, but everyone thought was…we were still legally on Warner Bros. but had a bigger crowd than all the hipster bands…with no record out in 4 years. We didn’t expect that. There was no press leading up to it, but after we did a bunch ‘cuz it was like…’Cinderella Story’ or some crap. And we got a bunch of record labels after that, asking us, a lot of them were scared off because they didn’t want to deal with the red tape.”

I ask them how they feel about last year’s press runs framing them with that “Cinderella Story-crap…”

“Well,” says Stollsteimer, “it’s true.” But adds, “It wasn’t a comeback. We kinda got confused and lost but, I think it was funny that…I’m not jaded at all, I don’t know if…I don’t think Don is about the whole thing. We know how we got where we are now.

Now comes nearly a year’s worth of touring, touting singles of anthemic avowals of being “the spark” and “the underground” and wielding choruses that chant “…don’t care anymore!”

“We know where we stand,” Stollsteimer said. “We don’t really care what everybody else thinks. We know that, especially after the tours we did last, people are dying for some kind of life.” He shakes his head at the overly arty and cutesy state of indie-pop or the esoteric dribble of prog-rock. “We wanted to say something that somebody could actually relate to. I know we did what we wanted to do, but you don’t realize it until after. We don’t pursue that. We’re not breaking any new ground or anything but for us, personally, we definitely did. It doesn’t matter what anybody else says…”

Feb. 21 - Blind Pig (with Lightning Love, Nico Vega)

Von Bondies Myspace

Reviews: Alex Greiner ("Rags"); Anni Rossi ("Rockwell")

A couple of album reviews...

first up, Ann Arbor based singer/songwriter Alex Greiner - "Rags"

(playing The Dreamland Theatre in Ypsilanti, March 6)

www.myspace.com/alexgreiner

And, Chicago-based viola-pop/folk muse Anni Rossi - "Rockwell" (debuting on 4AD)

www.myspace.com/annirossi

~

Alex Greiner – Rags (self)

Ann Arbor singer/songwriter Alex Greiner weaves a hazy, spellbinding folk style on his debut EP "Rags." Six songs, some of them movements, presents a stripped down instrumentation, striking in its delivery that combines the sun plucked delicacy of coffeehouse folk-singers with the weirder, grittier coiling style of more avant-garde, or, as they're calling it these days, "freak-folk." Its brevity (clocking in at just under 15 minutes) is both ideally effectual and irksomely brief – Greiner could easily make a sprawling up-and-over-the-mountain-scoped concept album (ala D. Banhart's Cripple Crow) and his wispy vocals ("A Journey Spent in Telescope") and inventive, sinewy guitar style ("Dans") would still feel welcome by the 16th track.

The self-released "Rags" is warm and fuzzy at times with a swaying breathiness or more subtly churning with a confounding earthy-feeling electricity ("Out of Water") but also chilly and stark, like a gut-punching melancholy or a spacey falsetto that trills curving and crooked around the edges of the song ("Jumping Into Gym"). This warm-n-cozy mixed with spooky-enchantment glows most evidently in center-piece "Afrikaans," with this solemn toned guitar climbing up with Greiners unique airy creaky croon, warmed by a drawing accordion and an electric guitar that follows along, waiting its proper moment to explode, measurably, with an exertive chorus. "Shadow treat me to the show I want to see…"

~

Listen:

Anni Rossi - "Ecology"

Anni Rossi - "Wheelpusher"

Anni Rossi – Rockwell (4AD)

Anni Rossi’s viola-centric quirk-pop is a stimulating listen; wavy whirling string saws, ker-plunkety finger raps upon the wooden body, the snip-snap flitting of energetic plucks and smooth purr and warm growl and coo vocals. Rossi’s a 23-year-old mutli-instrumentalist (also on keys and a fine, fiery singing voice), classically trained since she was 3-years-old. She’s bounced from her home of Minneapolis to Los Angels and finally to Chicago, where she developed her arty, erratic, punching-pop with the recording assistance of Steve Albini, for her 4AD debut.

Here you’ll get soft swaying indie-pop endearment with subtle electro-dance sprinklings (“Ecology”), or the mix-tape ready neo-folk run of “West Coast,” (feel this viola strummed more effectively than some acoustic guitar folkies), or there’s Rossi at her best, the pop-and-lock fluidity and flamboyant stir of “Venice,” the way that aggressive viola burns down a ditch for her throaty growl to strrrrretch its way through and flood it with trilling expressivity, only to have the tempo slows to a stop to make room for this baffling bridge of heightened drama in the viola saw as Rossi charmingly (but slightly abrasively) purses her lips and makes motorboat sounds in song. Make of it what you will – it’ll find a nice home in the folk-leaning indie-pop loving crowds – but add to her endearment the fact that she before her sound got beefed up in a studio, she utilized the viola as her solitary instrument, bringing her fingers on the board or her feet upon the floor as her percussion. The viola and her voice are still the star - though the sprightly-ness of the rest of the album gets muddled in a few darker downbeat ballads.

Farewell Republic - Feb 19 - Magic Stick

(photos: Rob Migrin)

Being that we cover so many local bands, that cliché dribble of "catch them while you can" or "hop on the bandwagon" shit can start to be like hot pokers stabbing into your ear drums - but at least in Ann Arbor quartet Farewell Republic's case, they may be something closer to that shooting-star moment where you might not see them scraping it out on the stage at the Blind Pig much longer. The catalyst for these four lives coming together, four completely-disconnected-from-Detroit lives meeting up, was the campus of the University of Michigan, where Sivan Jacobovitz- (guitar/vocals) coming from D.C. met Ryan Sloan-(bass/keys) who came from Philladelphia. to form a band.

Sloan, who brings more of the electro-leaning tastes, as well as a book of poetry that is often mined for lyrics, found Jacobovitz through a facebook search for a.) guitarists, who were b.)based in Michigan, and c.) dug Radiohead. Drummer Bobby Matson from Philly (who, "knows his shit in terms of jazz") joined through a search ad – while keyboardist Brian Trahan (from Chicago) is the newest addition and already has experimented in writing and additional vocals. All four attend U-M (juniors, 20 and 21-years-old), coalesced from different cities to form a gem of intricate atmospheric prog-rock (with inevitable dashes of pop-hooks) yet no stringent tethering to traditional songwriting practice. Jacobovitz often brings song ideas to the band and the ensemble tinkers from there. "When I write music, I'm not thinking about any other band (or influence), I just sort of write it and that's what comes out. We never think, 'we need a chorus and a bridge,' we just see where the song takes us..."

Farewell Republic - "In The Night"

With no sturdy connections to any of the cliques here, they've already toured the east coast 3 times (with a 4th run coming up this Spring). Plus, they recorded their debut EP "Bridges" in New York at former-Smashing-Pumpkin James Iha's studio, with Grammy winner Gus Oberg. Basically, they're not tethered here in the scene - as much as the scene could benefit from their esoteric-and-atmospheric firey rock contributions.

Farewell Republic unleash a daunting, invigorating, guitar-heavy prog-rock, mixing the atmospheric-obsessive tone-bending of Brian Eno with dashes of punk's raw throat-scratching give-all onslaught, Tortoise-style sideways-and-inside-out indie/jazz hybrids and Philip Glass' palatable neo-classicism."No one has really amalgamated what our generation grew up listening to into something cohesive and fresh," said Jacobovitz, "that's what we are working to accomplish." The band is currently on tour and preparing demos for a future single, as they try to find a label.

They launch their tour from the Magic Stick - Feb. 19th - with the JSB Squad and Satin Peaches

The Weekend in Detroit (...in Posters)

Thursday

Friday

(...in Ann Arbor...)

Saturady

and - Prussia's Album release show for Blessed Be at the Pike Room in Pontiac

The Word Play - How I Became Illustrated

Suburban Sprawl

(words: milo)

You see the ornate cover design, the stark old-world wallpaper usually reserved for mad artists self-secluded into the heat of creation. You read the band name and you wonder if the Detroit based quartet are a bunch of sweater-vest enthusiasts hot from the grammar club meeting in the student union. Then you hear the music and you’re struck at how raw it is – quiet for the first couple seconds with the clattering of drumsticks – then every instrument explodes out the gates.

These briskly acerbic and spastically running guitar lines under a lackadaisical T.Moore/S.Malkmus-esque drawl with a shimmying boardwalk-in-the-sunshine melody, nicely fuzzed, and warbling along with rolling bass and tight elbow cracking percussion (“Out of Excuses”). The sonorous guitar riffs linger with a pretty reverb and hook n sway in a fine display of pop sensibility that rooms in the middle ground of post-punk and college rock (“The Critic Darling”). Transitioning from this song into pop gem “Action” reveals a trend (that continues throughout the 11 songs of this debut) that of the contrasting (and coalescing) vibe of soft and sunny to cutting and rampant. Or there's the trade off between singers: lower-range gruff Kevin McGorey (who leads on fuzzier, grittier, driving-beat of “Critic”) and the downier mid range of Ian Rapnicki (who leads on the arching spasmodic sunnier-toned guitars of “Action”).

Where as we might jump from Pavement style indie-fuzz shuffles (“Excuses”) to Gang of Four’s rickety-locked in rhythms and jerking literate punk (see “Dinner is in Disguise”)…the other variations lead from softer melody-focused tunes like the disarming delicacy of “Nervous Driver” and “You Solved It” to the cutting, yowling freakout explosions like “Cues from a Nervous God.” Either that, or we have songs that balance it all perfectly like the smooth layers and propulsive rhythms of “Three” (mp3 below) or the sweet guitar-glory and existential anthem (is that an oxymoron?) of closer “Tuning Out.”

Listen: "Three"

or, for more - Myspace

and, below - read our totally tubular Personality Quiz, presented by Elle (of Fonts and Detroit Riot fame) - Elle sat down with the boys of the Word Play and got them to share some pretty personal details... See who you are most compatible with...!!

Lost TigerBeat Personality Quiz - featuring: The Word Play (presented by Elle)

D/C Contributor Elle (of Fonts fame and Detroit Riot fame) really got the boys of Detroit's Word Play to open up... Now, it's your chance to see which of the boys (bassist Brent, drummer Brandon, guitarist Ian or guitarist Kevin) you are most compatible with....

Which Word Play Dude Are You Most Compatible With?

What is your favorite color?

A) Green

B) Black, like your soul

C) Blue

D) Earth tones

E) Purple

What is your favorite band?

A) Suicide Machines

B) Phil Collins

C) Crass

D) The Kinks

E) The Word Play

What is your favorite food?

A) Thai food

B) Pizza, eaten six to seven days a week

C) Mustard

D) Honey mustard… chicken… hummus sandwiches

E) Everything gives me heartburn now, I am old.

What kind of car do you like the most?

A) 1995 GMC van

B) Ford Fusion, black, like my soul

C) One with a 6 CD changer, Black leather seats, spoiler, really big speakers

D) Volkswagon

Describe your perfect date:

A) A good conversation, beer, and a close bathroom

B) Marvin's Mechanical Museum, roll of quarters, a bottle of Rum

C) I want the guy to let me decide everything

D) Woody Allen movie… a bottle of wine

E) Going to see a Detroit Tigers game

What is your favorite pizza topping?

A) Pepperoni from The Green Lantern

B) Pepperoni, mushrooms, sausage

C) Crushed red peppers

D) Onions… banana peppers… black olives…

E) HEARTBURN

Which pick up line would you most likely respond to?

A) Are your pants mirrors? Because I can see myself in them.

B) Hey! Don't eat that, it will make your boobs huge! Oh wait, they already are.

C) Where did you get your shoes? How much did they cost?

D) How was your art show?

E) I'm married, I'm not interested in you. Leave me alone.

What is your favorite movie?

A) Wristcutters: a Love Story

B) Repo Man

C) Irish Jam

D) Pineapple Express

E) Arachnaphobia

www.myspace.com/thewordplay

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

Interview: X! Records - Shiftless Decay - Every Thursday Night in February at PJs Lager House

Local punk axis X! Records, sired by Frustrations drummer Scott Dunkerley, will be holding a month long residency of Thursday night performances at PJs Lager House to commemorate the release (CD/LP) of Shiftless Decay: New Sounds of Detroit. The compilation gathers a daunting lineup of Detroit-based bands – all drenched in the guttural grime of noisy, shredding punk – experimental and abrasive, these bands span classic 50’s rock and pop revivalism to early 70’s garage-y psychedelia.

Bands featured on the LP include: Frustrations, Terrible Twos, Fontana, Tyvek, Little Claw, Heroes & Villains, Johnny Ill Band, Human Eye, Odd Clouds, THTX, Tentacle Lizardo, The Mahonies

Throughout February, every Thursday there will be a free show featuring 2 bands, playing 2 sets each night. 2 / 5: Frustrations & Mahones - 2 / 12: Tyvek & Johnny Ill Band - 2 / 19: Human Eye & Heroes and Villains - 2 / 26: Terrible Twos & Fontana.

Playing 2 sets, said Dunkerley, goes back to the 60’s, “how it’d be more regular for bands to do a couple sets. I just figured they could do 2 sets each, to open it up a little more. It helps to with people showing up late for shows, that’s always a bummer. This way, hopefully, everybody who comes that night will at least see both bands, somewhat.”

All 11 of the 12 featured bands committed new & exclusive recordings to Dunkerley’s exposition – which serves as not only a grand sampler for the gang-like/arms-locked-fists-clenched camaraderie of the local label, not only as current forecast from the motorcity, in terms of (just one bit of) its music scene, but also, by name – as a reflection on the state of the city (be it physically in appearance or civically in government or economy).

“I want to try to have [Shiftless Decay] be a big release, to present to people around here, and around the country, overseas, everywhere; just, new sounds coming out of Detroit.” Dunkerley shrugs it off when presented with grandiose “next generation” type suggestions by his compilation mirroring classic collections like the Nuggests series of the 1960’s or perhaps Jack White’s similar Detroit-ala-2001 document Sympathetic Sounds of Detroit. But one suspects he may shrug it off because he sees this as more than just a continued tradition of celebrating music or celebrating camaraderie. It is a culmination of all the work these bands have been putting throughout the last three years as X! Records has blossomed, but, also it’s made “to say something about Detroit,” said Dunkerley. “I’m trying to get it out nationally and overseas, so it’s what’s going on here with music as well as a sort of State of the City, in a way…I think it needed to be addressed.”

Then after a pause, “ya know…mostly, it’s just a record,” then a shy, but cool chuckle.

(The Frustrations: photo - Sam Doyle)

(Human Eye)

Dunkerley's main band, the Frustrations, have been writing diligently throughout 2008 and are currently scoping places to record the follow up to last year’s full-length Glowing Red Pill. The Frustrations will play a 2 week tour that includes playing SXSW in Austin TX as part of a combined label showcase (between X! Records and Vancouver based-Sweet Rot.

More info: www.x-recs.com; myspace.com/xrecordsdetroit

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Interview: Matt Jones - CD Release for "The Black Path" - Feb 7 - Elbow Room (Ypsilanti)

“And all at once the memory dances like a bandy-legged broken throated child …”

DC Interview: Matt Jones

(words: milo)

~

"I started taking piano lessons when I was 8. I had to walk about 3 miles home from my lessons with this nun, Sister Annette. The neighborhood bully lived across the street from me and he would beat the shit out of me every Tuesday as I was walking home. I was always afraid that this prophecy would remain with me forever, in regards to playing music: walk for miles only to get beaten up right in front of the finish line…"

Ann Arbor's folky baroque-pop sage, Matt Jones, pauses… "But I've lightened up since then…"

Matt’s story is almost too dense to cut into…where do you begin? The bloody-nosed kid, stomach first on the sidewalk with his sheet music scattered and a nun standing helpless nearby shaking her head, or the 16-year-old ragtime Scott Joplin-lovin’ player who expounded enthusiastically to his friend that when he got older he wanted to find a community of musicians, to have around him at all times, (quite prophetic considering now he finds himself enmeshed into the spokes of Ann Arbor’s stalwart folk collective), or do we go back to his ancestors – romanticized sepia-toned imagery of Civil War veterans or his traveling circus performing relatives, including a musician grandfather who played baritone, banjo, guitar and mandolin under the big top (not to mention a pappy who “brought a crocodile church”). Or, more contemporarily speaking, we could go through the numerous bands he’s tenured: Delta 88, Barzin, the Great Iron Highway, the Descent of the Holy Ghost Church, Dabenport, the Shy Violets, Kyle Norris…and recording with Dumb and Ugly Club, Emily Bate and many others…

To briefly efface him – Jones is part of an integral quartet of innovative writers and performers in the Ann Arbor scene, (all of whom follow their own solo writing projects but are often aided by one, two, if not all three of their fellow players) – which includes Jones, singer/songwriter, collaborator and engineer Jim Roll, singer/songwriter Misty Lyn Bergeron and singer/songwriter Chris Bathgate. Bathgate and Roll both have a few albums already recorded and released; Bergeron debuted her first full-length For The Dead last month; meanwhile, Jones, who put out an EP Right To Arms, recently finished the feather in his cap, the substantial, string swathed storybook The Black Path.

So I guess we should go back to the 8 year old and the nun. “I hated my lessons, until my teacher gave up on teaching me anything theoretically significant and let me choose my own music. I chose ragtime, and took lessons till I was 20.” He absorbed Joplin, noting his lilting capricious style to be the most important contributing influence to his own writing.

“I love the way [Joplin’s] melodies weave and ramble and you think what you are hearing is this playful little song,…but really, if you listen closer, you can hear the history in it and it haunts you, especially if it gets played slow.” The same can be said for Jones’ own distinctly murky take on Americana and orchestral folk – born from ragtime and a certain whimsy marked by the theatre of the circus.

An ardent nerd for history – he boasts an antique Kalamazoo Guitar, from the 1920’s, inherited from his grandfather, Roy Juday. “I remember as a little kid, dancing around my uncle James and pulling his long hair and beard while he played guitar, because I thought he looked like Jesus. What else would a 5-year-old kid do if he encountered Jesus?”

After the piano, Jones learned the baritone, then the tuba, then the guitar, drums, bass and “everything else.” He joined numerous high-school bands with names like “The Purple Jacksons, The 4 Geniuses, The Trailer Park Wife Swappers and Lightning Tits, etc…”

Listen (mp3s) & Read previous posts at Guilt Free Pleasures

Armed to the teeth with a knowledge both musical and historical (and spurred on by a family rich in tradition and adventure), the young Jones started d contributing flexible instrumentation support (drums, among them) to the numerous Ann Arbor-area folk and alt-country bands named above. He didn’t actually start singing till he was 25; not out of fear, but “I didn’t want to waste my time sounding like shit. I started moaning when I decided that I didn’t want to waste my time being in bands anymore. I started playing more acoustic, writing my own songs, and naturally, I had to sing them. And boy, was I terrible for a period of about 2 years. I mean, I don’t think I’m great now—but back then…

“…I used to do this horrible Jeff Buckley impression…unintentionally of course. I would just hit the vibrato switch and commence breaking glass and fraying ear drums. It was Misty Lyn who finally told me to cut that shit out.”

He notes Misty Lyn, and Bathgate as “my first musical friends. After playing 4 shows as a trio, they decided “we should do shows at our FUCKNIG HOUSES!” So, every other week at his house on the southwest corner of U-M’s campus, they had a different group of people over to play. “I met tons of songwriters that way.”

Going back to that 16-year-old daydreaming of an artist’s community – “Now, I feel like I have that [through Ann Arbor; Bathgate/Bergeron/Roll].” And, even “…if none of us played music, I know I would probably be hitting up misty for free beers at old town, and trashing Bathgate at cribbage, teasing Davey Jones (from Frontier Ruckus) about his moccasins, and tackling Greg McIntosh (Great Lakes Myth Society) outside, or inside, every bar we went to. I would probably still be making an ass of myself on stage, singing Springsteen songs with Carol (Catherine)...sometimes the music doesn't really matter, as long as you can do these kinds of things with people you really love.”

Though he notes that, lately, he can’t get enough of The Boss, he charts other influences, prime among them, Scott Joplin: “I can’t get enough. Sometimes [Joplin’s] music relaxes me, sometimes his music scares the shit out of me. For every lilting melodic line, there is something creepy happening. You can feel the history dripping off of every note and I think of all times and places long dead.” (Again, check Jones own signature tall-tale/goth-folk for mirrored reference.) “Richard Buckner, got me going too,” Jones adds. “He plays guitar with such power sometimes, even when just hitting a few strings, you know he means it.”

Admiringly, on music and history, Jones can start to ramble with a Kerouac-ian “mad-to-live” burn… “I try to think of what my grandparents in the circus would have liked, what my ancestors in the civil war would have liked.” And sometimes the carousel of wordy regaling spins too fast – “Maybe lyrically I write about shit that is happening now, but in my mind is always this historical backdrop…I don’t know what the fuck I’m talking about, do you, Jeff?”

Black Path’s opener, “Threadlines” explodes the rustic vibe with a calamitous rush and a shiver. Tambourines rattle like falling icicles and cellos waft like the dagger winds over the sun-less winter horizon. The rousing acoustic guitar, sternly strummed, starts marching along with the drums and Jones’ high-range coo wraps around and brings you into the cabin – by the fire. The album is so well-dressed (aided by Roll’s work on the boards). Take a song like “One Cotton Shot Short,”- where, on the surface, we’re patted by a chut-n-bounce acoustic riff and Jones angelic voice, but so much swells beneath – a very subtle banjo pick starts to push the door open and soon an organ and cello spread out their solemn poignant saws through the spaces in the chorus. The drums trod in and back-up vocals join Jones, building to one of the most moving crescendos of the album – with violins– and this swaying foggy mountaintop breathe-the-deep-air exuberance and reverie – all packaged in what seems to be a modest folk song.

Black Path drifts from the playfulness of Right to Arms - a wavy limbed stomping march outside the circus tent and into the dark forests ahead – (see the dizzying spindly guitar/organs and building tapped march of “Jugulars, Bones & Blisters”). On Path he balances capricious, playful hooks with a steady burning melancholy that feels comfortable away from the city lights.

“The lyrics themselves aren’t happy, but I try to cover that fact up with the playful music behind the words. It’s kind of like I’m still not comfortable enough to just say things straight…I still need to disguise what I’m saying with music that is totally contradictory to it. [Black Path] is about how memories shape you. And if you have done things to distort your past, whether it be drugs, alcohol, sickness, etc...then imagining a future seems so difficult, if not impossible. Maybe the next record will be called the golden path or something, and it'll be about the future. I dunno…”

Jones raves of two key components to the successful completion of Path. Firstly, his new manager, Laura Schwartz (who helped to motivate Jones and point him in the right direction, supporting him through the mastering period of Path) and secondly, engineer and collaborator Jim Roll: “Maybe i pissed him off every day, but he never let on, and for that, there was no pressure. I really can't say enough about Jim, and how fucking good he is at what he does...of course, he has a total tweaker's knowledge of tech shit, but on top of that, he lets you run with ideas, and he gets just as excited about them as you do.”

Then, looking around at the musicians who aided Path’s completion: “I have never met another musician with bigger balls than Colette Alexander (cellist with Jens Lekman) – she can play any part you give her about 100 times better than anything you had in mind. Carol Gray (violinist, Misty Lyn and the Big Beautiful) is the heart and soul of every band she is in…Serge Vandervoo (upright bass, Orpheum Bell) almost brought me to tears just from the fact that he went home with a demo and came back for the sessions with parts written…actual melodic parts…[inspiring] me to build whole song sections around them. I also had Jeremy Peters (trombonist co-owner of Quite Scientific), Tim Monger (from Great Lakes Myth Society), Meril Hodenfeild (from Orpheum Bell), Misty Lyn (needs no introduction), Ryan Wilson and MC Trashpedal (from Drafted By Minotaurs).” He warmly regales “…having my sister and musical genius Betsy Jones play the euphonium on two tracks – believe it or not, the day she came into the studio was the first time she had ever heard my music. That was insanely special to me.”

On the horizon:

“All I can think about is releasing the record. It’s been [more than a year]-in-the-making, and there’s something really special about finally seeing my own name on a cd that I didn’t have to screen print myself on every disc. I have another entire record written, and arranged in my head right now, so starting work on that is exciting.”

After the release show – February 7th at the Elbow Room – Jones leaves for a month long tour, 36 shows in 35 days.

Also, “I really want to concentrate on Misty Lyn’s band. She is the best songwriter I know. She never lies, or writes anything exaggerated, or even half true. She never writes anything that she or anyone has to question. There is nothing in her lyrics that is verbose, or vague/meaningless for the sake of sounding poetic. i respect that immensely-how efficient she is. So I really want to see her project take off, and i cant wait to be part of that….”

Listen at: myspace.com/mattspainting

/ DC /