Building, B-Sides and the School of Seven Bells

CINCINNATI – It has been quite a trip for Brooklyn’s School of Seven Bells.  Following the September, 2010, departure of keyboardist Claudia, twin sister of lead vocalist Alejandra (Alley) Deheza, the now-duo this year released their third, and arguably strongest, effort to date – Ghostory.  I caught up with Alley and guitarist Benjamin Curtis following School of Seven Bells’ MidPoint Summer Series performance last Friday on Cincinnati’s Fountain Square.

The new album is a pop Janus:  written around a unifying theme, but laden with potential singles.  The underlying story revolves around a girl named Lafaye; a lifetime of unpleasant memories, disappointments, regrets are ghosts which surround her.  One wonders where Lafaye’s sense of loss ends and the band’s begins; somehow, the group has taken a loss and used it as a springboard.   By their own account, things are better this way.

“I think it’s the way that people perceive us – in my mind anyway,” said Deheza.  “The records before [Ghostory] were mainly Ben and I anyways.  We were always the main songwriters, so we were fortunate.  We were already in that habit, instead of having to completely reconfigure what we were doing.  I think it was more having to present it in a different way to the fans and people who had gotten used to seeing . . . “  She paused, looked down at the table, then looked back up – resolved.

Alejandra “Alley” Deheza

“You know there’s something really charming and romantic about siblings in a band, and I totally understand that.  I mean, I’m smitten by it, too,” Deheza smiled.  “So I think for us, it was more presenting it in a way that wouldn’t be as shocking as it probably was to a lot of people.  But as far as creatively, I think the energy in a band is really important.  When everybody’s there that wants to be there, it’s the best thing that could happen to anybody.  Everyone’s happy now, so it’s better than ever.”

I turned to Curtis.  Did he feel there was tension prior to Claudia leaving?

“Obviously,” he said with a wry smile.  “She quit.”  Deheza looked at him and they laughed, maybe a little nervously.  They have clearly moved on from whatever unseen drama came before.

“We’re so happy making music right now,” Curtis said, with Deheza nodding her agreement.  “I think we’ve never really been inspired more to make this thing work and last.  We’ve never had more energy for it than we do right now.  We were writing so much – we’re just trying to find a way to do everything that we can do whenever we want to do it.”

I asked Deheza what that meant.

“Put out music whenever we want, you know, not have to wait for any schedule or anything like that.  I think that’s what we’re trying to figure out, is a way for us to be able to do that ourselves and not have to ask anybody, you know?”

School of Seven Bells’ late efforts have been noticeably engaging.  In the course of producing my radio show and sourcing new tracks, I inevitably share impressions with peers.  A DJ acquaintance, Matt Barker (host of “Totally Wired” on Juice 107.2 FM in Brighton, UK), and I find ourselves largely in agreement:  many of School of Seven Bells’ recent B-side releases have been strong in their own right.  I was flabbergasted that “Love from a Stone,” backing their “Lafaye” single, wasn’t included on the album.  The same might be said of “When She Was Me,” the alternate track on their Record Store Day 2012 Siouxsie and the Banshees cover, “Kiss Them for Me.”  I asked Curtis and Deheza who decides which tracks are released how.

“It’s funny, because we never have songs that we think are going to be a B-side or anything,” intimated Deheza.  “We’re excited to write another one.”

Benjamin Curtis

Curtis half-shrugged and smiled.  “The way we feel about it, in this digital age, every mp3 is just as available as any [other], and they exist forever.  It’s not like a limited pressing.  I feel like every song’s gonna have its day between now and infinity, so we don’t really stress [about] what side of the record it’s going to be on.

“It’s more a function of time,” he said.  “I think the real quality that we have is we really don’t have the energy to finish something we don’t like or something we don’t think is great.”

“Yes.”  Deheza nodded.  “Yes.”

Curtis continued.

“I don’t know how people write songs that they know are not as good as the last song they write.  Our favorite song that we’ve written is always the last song we’ve written, and it’s been that way since we started writing together.”

So their latest favorite song is . . . ?  Deheza and Curtis shared a tentative grin.

“Well, we have a new . . . ,” she trailed.  I have them on the spot.

“There’s a song called ‘Ablaze’ that no one’s heard yet.  We have a bit of a backlog.  It’s gonna be a B-side.”  Curtis looked at Deheza; they giggled.  “It’s headed in that direction.  Lots more B-sides.  It’s gonna be all B-sides from here on out.”

Help for algernon Fund Their Next Album . . . and Get a Song Written Just for You

Earlier this month, Jason Wells (for algernon; GRAINS) was in a serious car accident.  Though he sustained only minor injuries, he lost a few instruments.  An added kick in the pants:  his lousy car insurance provider denied coverage and left him holding a (large) bill.

Jason is, for my part, one of the best singer / songwriters working in the Midwest today.  At the time of the wreck, he was in the process of writing and recording new projects, but the loss of his instruments and daunting financial responsibilities threaten to sideline the work.  Luckily, we live in an age of altruism at the click of a mouse.

Jason launched a Kickstarter campaign yesterday to attempt to regroup and continue recording the new album.  Among the many perks, contributors can receive anything from a thank you in the liner notes and a free song download ($5 level), an exclusive Kickstarter release mp3 download ($25), signed record ($50) to the opportunity to have for algernon write and record a song about a topic, and in a genre, of your choosing ($100+ level).

Personally, I will be asking them to rap about a man with a disturbingly intense love of old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons.  Or maybe a calypso song about a casaba melon who comes to life, earns a doctorate in immunology and invents a vaccine for herpes?  We’ll see.  Either way, I’m going to make them work for it.

Every year, around Christmas time, for algernon puts together a Christmas showcase — a who’s ho ho ho, if you will, of Cincinnati musicians.  It’s a great show — and Jason has told me that it’s his favorite show to play.  I recall George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life — someone who is a quality individual, upstanding and wants others to be happy, who finds himself in a financial pickle.  And I recall, too,  the ending scene, when George Bailey’s friends each give back a little something.  Maybe Christmas can come a little early this year for    Mr. Wells?  He certainly deserves some goodwill.

Jason will be our in-studio guest on Salina Underground on Monday, Aug 13 (7 – 9 pm EDT on wvqc.org / 95.7 FM-LP in Cincinnati) to talk about the campaign and play some live cuts.  We sincerely hope   you’ll join us in supporting him.

If you can’t donate, please share the link with others.  He has 24 days to raise $6,000 . . . and the clock is ticking.

Over the Rhine Brings Love for Over-the-Rhine

CINCINNATI — After months of construction and some controversy, 3CDC last Sunday unveiled the rejuvenated Washington Park in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine district.  The renovation includes a new dancing fountain, underground parking garage, children’s play area and, perhaps most importantly for the Midwest music scene, a brand new stage.  To christen it, one of Cincinnati’s most well-known musical exports (and neighborhood namesake), Over the Rhine, performed to a packed-in crowd numbering in the thousands.

Karin Bergquist, of Over the Rhine.

“It was a no-brainer to play [here],” siren Karin Bergquist advised.    ”Please enjoy the park.  It’s for you.”

While their career was still somewhat nascent, Bergquist and her songwriting partner (now husband), Linford Detweiler, lived on Main Street and they took the name of the neighborhood for their project.

Great Lake Swimmers Drift into Cincinnati This Saturday

Canadian Indie-Folk Artists Extraordinaire to Play at the Taft Theater

 

CINCINNATI – If you’ve heard their 2003 self-titled debut, or Bodies and Minds (2005), you know.  Great Lake Swimmers are masters of crafted, folk lullaby.  Known as much for their music as for their idiosyncratic choices of remote recording locations — abandoned grain silos, empty churches and island castles — on their previous records, their latest album, New Wild Everywhere (now out on Nettwerk) represents a milestone change — they recorded it (gasp!) in a traditional sound studio.

“We had a really great run with the last record,” said Tony Dekker, GLS’ cornerstone and primary songwriter, referring to 2009′s Lost Channels.  “I think we were all suffering after the tour.  We took some time to do a little bit of a healthy break.”

In the meantime, the Swimmers kept busy.  Dekker worked on a project with Canada’s National Parks, and the now-expanded touring band produced an instrumental soundtrack for One in a Thousand, an eBook about Lake Ontario’s Thousand Islands by photographer Ian Coristine and writer Donna Walsh Inglehart.  The

New Wild Everywhere features more layered instrumentation and smooth production — it feels more alt-country and polished than GLS’ earlier releases.  Miranda Mulholland’s violin and backing vocals are brought forward and seamlessly interwoven with Dekker’s high, soothing notes; Greg Millson’s percussion work is more evident.  Producer Andy Magoffin brings a warmer mix.  The songs are generally more uptempo, but there are the expected waltz-time moments inherent to Dekker’s body of work.  For those who have never heard the Swimmers before, it is an imminently accessible, well-crafted indie-folk installment.  For the Olde Guarde (like me), a deluxe edition featuring stripped-down demo versions of most of the new songs satisfies better than Snickers on a Sunday.  Overall, it seems more collaborative, like more fingers are in the compositional pie.

“I still bring finished songs to the band.  I write all my songs for acoustic guitar and vocals.  And then, it sort of undergoes these really wide-ranging transformations when I get them involved with it.  As far as the layering, they do – they have added a lot more,” Dekker explained.  “We were all present the whole time in the studio.  It wasn’t like the bass player [Bret Higgins] comes in and plays his tunes and that’s it.  Everyone was there for the whole process.  So it did feel like there was a more collaborative spirit, at least in the arrangement.”

Hearing Great Lake Swimmers live is an arresting experience — they exhibit a concentrated musicianship uncommon to twentysomething neo-folk bands.  They live in their songs; Dekker seems to be able to go to a place while singing that is mysterious and emotionally excrutiating, and to readily channel that depth of feeling into his singing.  But, as LeVar Burton so aptly pointed out in countless episodes of Reading Rainbow — you don’t have to take my word for it.  They’ll be here.  This Saturday.

“It’s been a while since we played in Ohio and in particular the Cincinnati area,” said Dekker.  “We’re really looking forward to it.”

—-

Upcoming Show:

Great Lake Swimmers, with Daniel Martin Moore

Saturday, 06/23/12, 8 pm door / 9 pm show

Taft Theatre, Cincinnati, Ohio

$10 advance / $13 door

 

Great Lake Swimmers are:

Tony Dekker — Guitar, Lead Vocals

Erik Arensen –Banjo, Guitar

Miranda Mulholland — Backing Vocal, Violin

Bret Higgins — Upright Bass

Greg Millson –Percussion

 

More Info:

www.greatlakeswimmers.com

State Song to Officially Debut New Songs This Saturday

Playing at multi-act 4th Annual Northside Music Festival

It’s true.  Frontman Scot Torres confirmed it last night via the special Salina Underground Artists’ Emergency Hotline.  State Song will be playing an all new set this Saturday night, featuring songs from their forthcoming album — named, but the band is not yet telling — which they hope to release this fall.

“We have demoed forty minutes of new material and are pushing for an hour,” said Torres.  “Cut [the album] to nine or ten songs and offer the B-sides in a small run of 7″ records.”

This Saturday’s gig comes as part of the Northside Music Festival, a three-stage local showcase now in its fourth year, at Northside Tavern.    Admission is free.  Festivities kick off at 7:30 pm on the Patio stage, with Nic Powers (The Sweep), The Old Cermony, Ohio Knife and Magnolia Mountain.  Until 10 pm, the Patio stage show will be all-ages (after 10, the liquor license kicks in – sorry, Johnny Highschool).

Beginning at 9:00 pm in the Front Room, Joan Shelley and the June Brides, Fists of Love and the reconstituted Tongue and Lips will serenade the bar.  The Back Room stage launches at 9:45 pm:  Valley of the Sun, the aforementioned State Song, The Hiders and Cincinnati’s resident electropop mantlewearers, You, You’re Awesome.  DJ Bryan Dilsilzian will spin during the downtime.

“Jason Snell [festival organizer] puts on a great event year after year,” maintained Torres.  “We wanted to do a live run of what we’ve been demo-ing for the last two months.  The Festival provides a great platform for new ears, old friends and new sounds.”

State Song will be announcing weekend road dates and hope to tour more extensively following their fall album release.

More info about the band here.  Like them on Facebook and follow their Twitter feed.

The Harlequins: Ready to Rumble

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by Jonathan Goolsby

COVINGTON, KY – It’s Friday night and I’m in the dingiest, dirtiest, wannabe chucklehut in all of Northern Kentucky.  A natural-fit Australian theme name is curiously spited by faux-Irish decor.  Down basement stairs have I come, past malapropos, stained glass crucifix (sprung, one assumes, from some late cathedral’s demolition auction) into a gaggle of loose ends.

It’s nine o’clock and only a few diehards are in the joint; somehow, somewhere along the way the lone barkeep must have given up on ever again clearing beer bottles from tables.  There’s a large puddle on the floor.  A punker down the old K-hole has her Dachshund with her in the bar.  It pissed the floor.  At least, I assume it was the dog.  More iconography:  the Virgin hangs from the ceiling.  She’s crying.

The Tongue and Lips headline tonight in the one-spot; The Harlequins are supporting on the later run.  NCAA tourney basketball is on a big screen facing the stage.  Everything about this is surreal.  I beer it over.  Why not?  Later I’ll leave the bottle upside down.

Why I Love Southwest Ohio

Have I ever told you how much I love Southwest Ohio? No? Well, allow me to.

When I first came here in January of 2004 as a Pennsylvania resident and potential student at Cedarville University, I thought, “God this place is cold and brown and flat. I don’t know if I can take this for four years.”  One graduation, two apartments, three jobs, eight years, and God-only-knows-how-many shows later, I’ve met a ton of awesome people, tapped into a music community that puts out legitimately quality stuff that will be talked about in generations to come, eaten food from top-notch restaurants, and become a part of a growing craft beer loving fandom. I also found a home.

Dead Throne Tour Review

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December 18th, 2011 at Bogart’s, Cincinnati, OH

Review and photos by Jared William Bowers

I haven’t done a show review in a while (if ever, come to think of it – and I haven’t actually written anything in a while, either).

*Cracks Knuckles*

Like listening to an album, a person’s experience at a show is completely subjective. If you’ve paid for a ticket, you obviously expect to enjoy yourself. Or maybe you’re going with a friend who’s really in to whoever it is that you’re seeing. It’s rare (especially with ticket prices being what they are) that one will set out on a random adventure to a random show. You hope to have a good time, to dance or sing along, and to experience some visceral aspect that’s inherently missing from listening to a band on album. I went to this one full of curiosity. A well-attended show with relatively popular bands at a large-ish venue usually doesn’t appeal to me, but this one had my curiosity piqued in a big way (because I so thoroughly enjoy going to or hosting shows that no one comes to with bands no one’s heard of). I hadn’t been to a big Hardcore/Metal show in a while, I hadn’t been to the venue it was being held at in a while, and I hadn’t covered a show… in a while.

I was invited to check out British post-Hardcore (post-Everything, really) band Enter Shikari on the last night of their tour with The Devil Wears Prada, For Today, and Whitechapel. I was genuinely curious, more than anything, to see how their particular brand of danceable, electronics-tinged breakdown jams would fit in with what can only be described as the preposterously heavy and brutal offerings of the other bands on the tour.