Teka Thomas
@ Tattoo
Q:How do you keep your life clean?
A:"Low alcohol intake. I never smoke and I've never done drugs."
ADAM FRANKLIN HAS always sounded reserved, even when his previous band, Swervedriver, was crushing psychedelic riffs that sounded like The Stooges and Hawkwind engaged in a cosmic joy ride.
But with his new solo record, "Spent Bullets" (Second Motion), he's finally nailed his laconic post-Swervedriver voice.
Perhaps it was because Swervedriver's 2008 reunion tour went so well, or that his Magnetic Morning project with Interpol drummer Sam Fogarino was so well received, but Franklin's songwriting on "Spent Bullets" is as confident as it is consistent, presenting 10 mostly midtempo songs that capture his folky, dreamy melodies and quietly soulful voice.
"Various people have said — and I agree — that it's good that the whole album has a consistent sound," Franklin said. "But the songs are from various periods — some of the songs are quite old — but somehow it all kind of all falls into place thematically. ... But you never know quite how it's going to turn out: You start recording and there's one song you think might be the main song, then it falls by the wayside. Then another song that you think is a complete throwaway comes up at the last minute."
When Swervedriver was on hiatus, Franklin started recording and touring under the name Toshack Highway — mostly because he felt odd about being a solo artist.
"When you go out under your own name — it feels a bit strange," Franklin said. "That's partly why I went for Toshack Highway initially, but then I thought people didn't remember the name Toshack Highway. And basically when you're a band on the road, and you're at a truck stop, sitting down getting your coffee, and the waitress comes over and says, 'Hey, are you guys in a band?' And we say, 'Yeah, we're in a band.' And she says, 'What's the name of the band?' And it seems weird to say, 'It's named after him.' Now we can say, 'It's named Bolts of Melody.'
So, you named your backing band based on the fear and loathing you'd receive from truck-stop waitresses?
"I suppose so," Franklin laughed.
Express did manage to get the reserved Franklin to open up a bit with a track-by-track tour of "Bolts of Melody."
Continue Reading "Liner Notes: Adam Franklin, 'Spent Bullets'" »
JOHN SCOFIELD'S INTRICATE guitar playing has accompanied jazz legends such as Chet Baker, Charles Mingus and Miles Davis throughout his more than 30-year-long career. But for his 36th solo album, "Piety Street" (Decca), Scofield had to do something he's not used to: simplify.
"I played simpler because the music requires that," Scofield said. "It's hard to play simple, but it's also been a joy [and] also an eye opener: oh yeah, this deep music doesn't have to have a lot of notes. Also when you play less notes, the shading and the vibrato and the phrasings, they become more important. Those are real subtleties that don't come across in jazz. I love the vocal quality."
It's refreshing to hear Scofield, 57, playing such soulful, natural tones — a stark contrast to his more adventurous fusion work and his traditional bebop. "Piety Street," released last month, is a gospel and blues album at its core, but it's also something Scofield's been working toward his entire career.
"I think all of this is part of something that I've been looking for and part of just my whole career of mixing jazz and blues," he said. "It's been trying to get to something that's natural and vocal-like and there's this great blues guitar tradition that I'm part of that when I play straight-ahead jazz gets tucked away."
IT TOOK AN infuriating incident with United States customs officials for Molotov's sole American band member to spark the concept for the group's most popular song, "Frijolero." During a visit to the U.S., the Michigan-born, New Orleans-raised Randy Ebright had his half-Mexican daughter hassled by immigration officers in Miami.
"It was, like, it was soooo out of the ordinary that an American guy would be with a Mexican woman," says Ebright, drummer for Molotov.
The band is one of Mexico's most beloved, praised for its rapid-fire rap, big volume funk, metal and high-energy performances, as well as its biting tongue-in-cheek explicit bilingual lyrics targeting corruption and social injustice on both sides of the border. "I just couldn't believe they would treat my daughter that way because she wasn't full American."
WE'LL KEEP IT SHORT and sweet: Losing weight, saving money and learning a new language are old hat. This year, resolve to challenge your palate and try something new. We have a handy checklist for adventurous diners to refer to over the course of 2009, with options here for vegetarians as well as carnivores. Happy eating!
MEAT PROTEIN
Zombie Feast: There are brains on the menu at Bistro D'Oc. Sauteed with shallots and capers, the dish-that-was-a-lamb's-cerebrum is available as a special roughly every other week; call ahead if you want to make sure the organ's on the menu.
» 518 10th St. SE; 202-393-5444. (Metro Center)
They Promised Me Tapioca: Black pudding, aka blood sausage, is made from ground meat and filler cooked with blood until it congeals. CommonWealth's version uses oats, bacon, onion and garlic, and served it with their Butcher Breakfast, along with eggs and four other servings of pig.
» 1400 Irving St. NW; 202-265-1400. (Columbia Heights)
Have a Ball: Until Jan. 25, Firefly's serving up Rocky Mountain oysters in celebration of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's "Over the River, a Work in Progress" at the Phillips Collection. The exhibit traces the artists' attempt to suspend fabric panels over the Arkansas River in Colorado. Apparently, this tenuous link to the Rockies isn't enough to get the "oysters" flying off the shelves, says chef Danny Bortnick. "I think people come here with the intention [of ordering it] and then they back out."
» 1310 New Hampshire Ave. NW; 202-861-1310. (Dupont Circle)
Continue Reading "Do Your Dining Right: New Year's Adventures" »
JIM NORTON LIKES water sports — and we don't mean boating.
The funnyman isn't afraid to share his many unique interests with the public, either, whether on the "Opie and Anthony" radio show, as author of the New York Times best-sellers "Happy Endings: The Tales of a Meaty-Breasted Zilch" and "I Hate Your Guts," or as the host of his own HBO show and specials.
All of Norton's addictions, afflictions and peccadilloes are explored with ruthless glee, which makes for amazingly honest, laugh-till-you-cry comedy, but it must be awkward during family get-togethers.
BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE has never been about stability. In fact, it's always been the opposite. The band's lineup can change on any given day based on where it's playing and who's available.
Leslie Feist, Metric's Emily Hanes and Jason Collett are just a few former members. But don't confuse the word "former" with "ex." While none of those three are currently touring with the group, if you turn up to the right show, they could appear — it's part of the Toronto indie-rock band's collective spirit.
At the helm are Brendan Canning and Kevin Drew, who along with drummer Justin Peroff, are the only constants throughout the band's career. After 2005's self-titled album, Canning and Drew took a bit of a break from being a band, focusing instead on solo records. The albums, Drew's "Spirit If ..." and Canning's "Something for All of Us," were released in 2007 and 2008, respectively, under the name "Broken Social Scene Presents ..." Full BSS-backed tours followed and now the band is on the second leg supporting Canning's record.
Express talked to Canning about the band's current tour, the "Broken Social Scene Presents ..." series and the ups and downs of playing in a rotating collective.
Continue Reading "Unified for Now: Broken Social Scene's Brendan Canning" »
WHEN THEY CAME TOGETHER in Austin in the mid-'90s, the Gourds were seeking a unique creole of sound and nonsense. "I wanted to take surrealist poetry and lay it over primitive, old-timey roots music -- simple musical forms," explains Kevin "Shinyribs" Russell.
The country is so broad and so strange that you wouldn't think tagging music as "Americana" would necessarily limit it. But you'd be wrong.
"It was interesting to see how people reacted," Russell says. "A lot of writers were just befuddled by it, and some of them were angered by it. They hated it; it physically turned them off."
A kick-ass live show, however, can go a long way toward dispelling bad press. An opening slot for the Old 97's helped secure a devoted fanbase.
Expect more than a few double-digit Gourdsgoers at the State Theatre on Friday, when the band plays old favorites and previews tunes from next year's "Haymaker!"
And expect some new fans, won over by Russell's emotional directness on 2007's "Noble Creatures." Though he plays mandolin and guitar on the disc, Russell worked up the haunting "Promenade" on the lazy man's ax, the humble uke.
SHOOTER JENNINGS' UPCOMING album has been 12 years in the making. He and his father, Waylon Jennings, began recording songs when Shooter was a teenager more interested in Nine Inch Hails and Pink Floyd than in outlaw country.
In 2006, four years after Waylon's death, a more road-seasoned Shooter re-recorded the backing tracks with his band, the .357s, and placed them alongside his father's vocals.
"It was a really trippy experience," says Shooter of reapproaching the songs. "It felt like I was getting to finish that record for him. He had wanted to put it out, and I felt like I could mix where I am now with where he was then."
SINGER-SONGWRITER BRADDIGAN needs to start adding "activist" to his professional title.
As a member of college rock sensation Dispatch, Braddigan (real name: Brad Corrigan) has helped raise awareness about the dictatorship in Zimbabwe. As a solo artist, he's fighting for the people who live in a trash dump in Managua, Nicaragua.
"It's really hard to continually be connected with people in need," Corrigan said.
But he's trying. And even though he doesn't see his success as much — he does know he's making a difference, he said.
Corrigan has been working to help change things in Managua since 2005, when he was invited to play a benefit concert there. It was then that he saw the squalor that hundreds of people lived in. In 2007, he formed Love Light & Melody to "meet the educational, health, and vocational needs of this trash dump community," according to the group's Web site.
"I used to think Love Light & Melody was about me going in to try and serve and help people who looked like to me who were stuck," Corrigan said. "Now I'm realizing it's just as much for me to set me free from the culture of poverty in our country. The large majority of people are waiting for things we don't have. We live in the weirdest poverty where we have everything we can ask for but we don't think its enough."
WE STARTED THE DAY with a piece about slowness on the Orange Line, now we'll end the day that way, too. Get ready for some delays, commuters.
A "kink" in the rails — a bend created by high temperatures — was discovered at 3:15 this afternoon between East Falls Church and Ballston, Metro says. Orange Line trains are now sharing a track between Ballston and East Falls Church. Metro is also running shuttle buses between Ballston and Vienna, which are "stopping at Ballston-MU, East Falls Church, West Falls Church-VT/UVA, Dunn Loring-Merrifield and Vienna," according to a press release.
Good luck out there.
Photo by Michael Lutzky/The Washington Post
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