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Tags: Local Music Parreira Shred Amongst The Dead A Plan To Break Frankie Hernand

If you don’t feel like reading this long review, just read the next sentence.  Vermillion Lies is a lot of fun for first graders, college kids, and your parents, though it’s not exactly “family” entertainment.

The Boekbinder sisters describe childhood as a traveling family talent show, and both allegedly spent time in “clown boot camp.”  All grown up now, Zoe and Kim tour with a cast of supporting musicians and dancers under the name Vermillion Lies.  With influences like The Muppets, Tiny Tim, and Tom Waits, their sound is a twisted mixture of vaudevillian pomp, bar stomp, folk, and outright silliness.

I caught Vermillion Lies’ performance at The Black Sheep in Ashland last night.  Believe it or not, at least a dozen first graders were in attendance, not to mention a hundred much bigger kids.

 

Zoe Boekbinder honkin' on a kazoo.  Vermillion Lies @ The Black Sheep. 

            

Sing along, scream along, pick up a steel pot and bang along—VL is all about participation.  Oakland’s VL may be the only living band that tours with chests of barbecue grills, typewriters, costumes, marionettes, plastic lobsters, and so on.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they carry more props than traditional musical gear.  The genius of VL is seeing Zoe and Kim make musical sense of unlikely instruments, always with biting wit and show(wo)manship.

Placed at center stage Wednesday evening was a chest of VL’s various goodies (many of which were rescued from the dump).  Between songs, the audience would yell, “What’s in the box?” 

To which Zoe or Kim would reply:  “A gas can!” or “An egg beater!” or “A thermos!”

What's in the box?  Vermillion Lies @ The Black Sheep. 

 

By the end of the night, the tables in The Black Sheep were strewn with brightly colored scarves, top hats, beads, and lobsters.  I hope the girls got all their stuff back.  Rumor has it a crustacean friend tragically went missing at a show, and things haven’t been quite the same ever since.

Vermillion Lies have toured the world—they’re a hit in Russia and Portugal—and are on their way across the U.S. this spring. They also have a new record out called (surprise!) What’s In the Box?

 

Backup musician Myles Boisen dons a polar bear hat for the song "Global Warming."  Vermillion Lies @ The Black Sheep. 

Tags: Vermillion Lies Music The Black Sheep Local Live Bands Folk

 

I expect certain things from a reggae show.  Real Rastafarians, colorful crowds, and the ever present “fog machine.”  By my standards, Friday night was on point.

Kinky reggae now: Midnite and Prezident Brown rippin’ one at the Ashland Armory.  From the islands of St. Croix and Jamaica, respectively, the boys don’t stop by too often.  Hundreds of fans showed up to welcome them.

Funky dancehall and easy skanking is the way to keep everybody rocking.  The pierced, tough looking sorts danced as hard as the flower kids; even the soccer moms and squares (me) loosened up the hips a bit and got down to it.

  

Prezident Brown @ Ashland Armory

 

Midnite @ Ashland Armory

 

All clichéd reggae quips aside, cheers to Renegade Productions for another awesome show.  Excellent lights and sound, a packed house (and beer garden), and amazing bands from way out of town.

I couldn’t understand a word out of either performer’s mouth, but isn’t that part of the Rastafarian charm?  My faithful concert companion, Meghan, deciphered “judgment” and “revolution”; I caught the words “misery,” “people,” and, of course, “Jah.”

But who cares? It’s good music.  I like how they said whatever they said. 

 

 

Prezident Brown @ Ashland Armory

 

If you missed the show, our friends from Jamaica will be paying us additional spring visits. The Itals will play at the armory on March 29, and The Wailers will play in early April.

LocalsGuide member MattBianca caught the second half of the show.  Check back later for his review of Friday night!

 

 

Midnite @ Ashland Armory 

Tags: Midnite Prezident Brown Ashland Armory Local Music Reggae Live

Tags: Ashland Avengers Diversions Music Mury Paper Mache His Name Shall Breathe

 

Driving home after covering the Ashland Avengers on Saturday night, I passed The Mobius in Ashland.  I knew I’d missed The Hackensaw Boys, but Disco Organica would still be playing.  Naturally, I turned around and stopped by The new Mobius at 140 Lithia Way (where the old Mojo Rising used to be) to snap a few pictures and say hello.

Disco Organica hails from Eugene, and they’re touring the West Coast in support of their full-length disc, Soul Frog.  They’re a tasty cocktail of jazz, R&B, blues, funk, and soul.  

 

So tasty, in fact, that I couldn't help swinging as soon as I stepped inside.  I’m not a big dancer, but these guys are worth showing off my “square” dancing.

I couldn’t stick around long, but I had a nice chat with the proprietor, Jason, about the local scene.  It seems big things are just around the corner, so keep your eyes peeled for a LocalsGuide/Mobius collaboration.

…but I’ve already said too much.

I’ll be around town checking out the tunes and people.  Don’t be shy—come drop some knowledge on me. I’m the one snapping pictures and taking notes, probably wearing black, handing out LG schwag, and picking someone’s brain.

  

            

Tags: Disco Organica The Mobius Local Music Ashland

            Wednesday night at the Mobius was a little surreal.

            “Can we all scoot in?” Glen Phillips asked the crowd. 

I counted ten of us in the audience.  In that moment, I watched the same thought dawn on us all.  Why wouldn’t we want to get up close to the ex-front-man of Toad the Wet Sprocket?

 “Yeah,” we said, and pulled all the folding chairs to the foot of the stage.

“I’m still gonna sing into the mic,” Glen said, but he didn’t bother to amplify his acoustic guitar.  Phillips’ biggest fans sat right next to me: his wife and young son.  Instead of offering anecdotes from behind the fifth wall, Phillips spoke to and listened to audience members.  At times, it seemed less like a concert and more like a seminar, or an old friend, playing guitar around the fireplace.

I learned to play “Walk on the Ocean” and “All I Want” in high school, and I still own a worn cassette tape of Fear.  Toad the Wet Sprocket had their last Top 40 hit thirteen years ago, and the band is somewhat defunct these days.  Lead singer and guitar player Glen Phillips is still performing solo material, sounding a lot like he did in the Toad days, but offering up some oddballs as well.  He sang about a friend promising God he’d never masturbate or get high again if his dad didn’t kill the neighbor’s dog (his dad missed with the shotgun, but he admits he still partakes in both activities).

  

Phillips brought West Coaster Jonathan Kingham along for this national tour.  Kingham dropped a hilarious freestyle rap about the Ashland Pita Pit.  Coincidentally, the Pita Pit driver walked in mid-flow with an armload of pitas and shared a laugh. 

            “The last time I was in Ashland,” Kingham said, “I had a guy say he would not clap for me.  He said it was a waste of energy.”  The guy ‘whooshed’ Kingham instead, which basically meant he said ‘whoosh’ and pushed his palms towards the stage.  “He said that way he’s not wasting energy, he’s just passing it on to me... so I have fine memories of your town.  Do you know that guy?”

            A lady in the front row said, “That’s every guy in Ashland!”

            Whoosh, indeed.

 

 

Tags: Glen Phillips Toad The Wet Sprocket Music Ashland Mobius Jonathan Kingham

Tags: SOU Guitar Quartet Beatles Music Ashland Live Rock

Schröder.  From Left:  Aaron Trigg, Keith Townsend, Justin Herigstad, and Adam Ashe.  Not pictured:  Nick Welsh.

 

By David Moore

 

            The first time I heard Schröder, I was playing a battle of the bands in Medford.  After I was done knocking over microphones, forgetting lyrics, and generally embarrassing myself, a group of guys fresh out of high school got on stage.  I was a little skeptical—no guitars and five teenagers?  Just a viola, violin, keys, bass, drums, and vocals.  Oh boy.

Schröder so thoroughly spanked all the competition that day, I almost turned my own band t-shirt inside out. 

            The Beatles and Counting Crows—sans guitars—are a handy comparison for their sound, considering all the lush orchestras and vocal harmonies.  Surprising, syncopated drum beats and vintage keyboard sounds keep the tunes interesting every time I listen.

I recently spent an hour with Schröder at AmberVu Studios in Central Point.  The guys are recording a new album, which they were gracious enough to share with me. 

 

The oldest member in the band is 21, and everyone else is underage.  I guess that explains why you don’t play many bars around the Rogue Valley.

Aaron Trigg (bass): The last tour we went on, we played in bars.  As soon as we got done playing, they’d kick us out.

Adam Ashe (keys, vocals):  It was kind of like, ‘You guys are all 18, right?  Just don’t tell me.’

Aaron:  I wasn’t eighteen at the time.

Justin Herigstad (violin):  Neither was I.

Aaron:  We went on tour with a band named The Parson Red Heads.  They were always in the bar hanging out.  We had them sell our merch a couple of times because they wouldn’t even allow our merch-girl into the shows.  She was too young at the time, too.

Tell me about the tour.

Adam:  It was 2006.  We went down to LA, and then up to Seattle, and then back down to LA.  We played a bunch of places in between.

Justin:  There were eleven people in a fifteen-passenger van, without air conditioning. 

Adam:  Middle of August—that was awesome.

Aaron:  Three people to a seat.  Sticky, naked…

Adam:  (Pointing at Justin)  They did!  They got naked.  They did.  Sort of.

Justin:  I didn’t get naked.  I got in my underwear.

Adam:  We played at The Plush Café in Fullerton, and we sold like three hundred dollars worth of merch.  But they didn’t pay us because nobody was there to see us.

Aaron:  The deal was, they had to tally up who came to the show.  You know, who’d you come to see?  Apparently, nobody came to see us, but we sold the most merch.

Adam:  The thing that was rigged was they had a spot for people who said, ‘just came for the show.’  Then they had a spot that said, ‘The Plush Café.’  Oh, you just came to the Plush Café to come to the Plush Café?  Check.

Aaron:  Check.

Adam:  Check.  So they got all the money.

Let’s talk about the new record.

Aaron:  Most of these songs we’ve been writing over the past three years, and we finally have enough tracks to put on a full-length record.

Adam:  It’s not like a normal band where you say, “We have ten songs, let’s do a CD.”  We came up with some definite songs we wanted to record, then we filled in the gaps and made it one experience.  A lot of the tracks just roll right into the next.

Aaron:  It’s an album.  It’s put together like an album.

Adam:  People don’t make albums much anymore. They make collections of songs.

Why is everybody passing a legal document around and trying to decipher it, if you don’t mind my asking?

Aaron:  We made it on to a compilation CD for Guitar Center.  We’re signing them permission to put our music on it.  They can’t take any money for it.

Adam:  They’re just giving the CD’s away.

Aaron:  What’s really cool is that The Smashing Pumpkins judged it.  They liked us, apparently.

Justin:  I’m ready to sign.

Aaron:  It looks legit.  They use the word ‘whereas.’  A lot.

Nick Welsh (drums, having just entered with said document, and through a mouthful of taco): Whoa.  That means it is high tech.

Aaron:  It says ‘whereof,’ also.

Tell me about playing without guitars.

Adam:  Guitar is such a format.

Nick:  It’s easy to fall into other styles of music when you use a guitar.  It’s easy to sound like everyone else.

Aaron:  There’s a box, and the guitar is in it.  We don’t like that box.

Adam:  All of us, except for Justin, play guitar. Our main lead instrument is a viola.  Keith (Townsend, viola, who showed up late and did more playing than talking) writes the most guitar-ish leads, I guess you could say.  But when you transfer them to guitar, it doesn’t work.  It’s just a way different approach to writing music.

Justin:  We play the fretless guitar.

Adam:  With a bow.  I think guitars thin out a mix.  Most guitar bands will put a string section in their song.  We have one song where we decided that instead of a string section—since every one uses strings but they’re our lead instrument—we’d put woodwinds in it.

Justin:  We’ve been playing without a guitar since we started, so we’re all used to it.

Adam:  We’re not a guitar band trying to make a record without guitars.  We’re a band without guitars that’s recording.  It’s nothing special to us, really. 

Tags: Music Schroeder Rogue Ambervu Grants Pass

Woven is an ambient/alt rock band from Los Angeles, and Ory Hodis is their singer/guitarist.  I had the pleasure of interviewing Hodis recently.  The following is the interview piece I wrote, portions of which appear in the February 4th issue of The Siskiyou, in a review of their January 31st performance at The Mobius.

1/25/08
A lot can happen to a band in eleven years.  For Los Angeles’ Woven, it was enough time to release a couple major label discs, tour the country, run from police, stockpile an arsenal of vintage musical gear, and convert their diesel guzzling RV into a vegetable oil powered rig.
 

I spoke with singer and guitar player Ory Hodis about life in a five-piece alternative/electronic outfit.
 
You have a lot of gear.
 
We have way too much gear.  My favorite piece right now is a Yamaha PSS-30.  It’s just a junk sampler keyboard, but I went in and rearranged the circuitry so you can record samples and get these really crazy sounds.  It’s wild.  You can take Barbie Karaoke and turn this keyboard into a crazy, oscillating feedback machine.
 
Your guitar player, Steve Abagon, seems to like effects pedals.
 
Oh yeah.  He’s completely inundated with pedals.  It’s interesting watching him play, because he plays the pedals more than he plays the guitar.  He used to skateboard, so he just applied that to hopping around everywhere.  I’m trying to cut down on that, so I can sing more.
 
How much do you take on the road?
 
All of it, including two drum sets.  One full set is just electronic triggers.  If you listen to our music, you’ll notice there’s hybrid sound.  We’ll have a drum kit and an electro kit playing a jungle beat.  We do all that live; there’s absolutely no loops.
 
That sounds like a lot of work onstage.
 
It’s insane.  We work so hard at this, and people think we’re just firing off samples.  I can safely say we’re one of only bands playing electronic music that does not use loops.  We wanted to see if there was a way to use electronics without being a slave to [pre-recorded] sequences.  So we figured out that if we chop the drum loops up into the smallest possible pieces, we can play them on the triggers like an instrument.  We can speed them up, slow them down, make **** ups, do what bands do.
 
Tell me about your experience with major labels.
 
Woven was signed by Interscope, and we got a really great deal.  They asked us what we wanted, and we said a real recording studio.  At that time, we were recording on really ghetto gear.  Now we have a plush studio.  Even though we were dropped by Interscope two years ago, we got to keep the studio.
 
What happened?
 
It just wasn’t working out.  We didn’t want to be on Interscope anymore.  We were promised they’d promote us, but they didn’t do a video or pay for our tour.  It happens a lot.  Most of my friends that were signed to major labels ended up leaving.  The labels invest a lot of money in the band, but they forget to nurture the record.  Luckily, we got two songs on CSI (Crime Scene Investigation, CBS), and that’s how we funded the tour.   It’s the oddest thing, why someone would invest in band but not promote it.  But if you look around the industry, you see these A&R guys running around like chickens without heads, and you realize how mistakes like that can happen.
 
So big record deals can actually hold an artist back?
 
A lot of the bands that were signed at the same time as Woven aren’t even around anymore.  They thought once they got a record deal, they’d arrived somewhere.  It’s actually the beginning of the true test.  When they get no love, the band sinks; their egos are crushed.  It’s painful.  A lot of bands just break up after they get dropped.  For Woven, it was always about the music, never the money.  That’s why we’re still together.
 
What inspired the band to convert your touring RV into a bio-diesel rig?
 
The two things I’m really opposed to are the meat and oil industries.  It’s a lot of energy in, and pollution out.  When we drive from LA to New York, that’s a lot of gasoline.  Plus, we’re all broke.  So it’s a win-win situation.  We also started talking to local farmers, because we really wanted to put out the word about alternative things to eat.  Big corporations are making it too easy to use their services; people are forgetting about smaller farms and businesses.  We need diversity in the world.  I don’t want everything to be a plaza.
 
Any crazy tour stories you care to share?
 
There’s a lot of things I can’t reveal.  One of the best was when Steve got really drunk and decided to hop over a bar to take some wine.  He did it in front of a camera. All of sudden the cops show up, so he locked himself inside his hotel room.  There were all these cops swarming this hotel.  We ended up sneaking out a window and climbing down.  We all booked.  They charged our credit card $2,000, so we were actually the losers.  It was still fun running from the cops.  That’s the tame version of that story, anyway.
 
You can check out Woven at wovenmusic.com.

Tags: Music Alternative Ambient Rock Techno Technology Woven Ory Hodis Mobius

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