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
COVER BANDS HAVE the daunting task of re-creating songs made popular by someone else. Dark Star Orchestra takes it a step further, performing actual concerts The Grateful Dead played during its 30 years of touring.
Recently, DSO has been sharing the bill at festivals with the likes of Phil Lesh & Friends and Bob Weir & Ratdog, the Dead's bassist and rhythm guitarist, respectively. Some cover bands might find it overwhelming to share a bill with those who actually created the music, but not DSO.
"I wouldn't say it's intimidating," lead guitarist John Kadlecik said. "All the guys of The [Grateful Dead] are blazing new trails with what they're doing. And I like to think what we do maybe relieves some of the pressure to do that. There's certain audience pressure to play something that sounds like the Dead. Artistically creating that — they don't want to do that anymore. It's like Bill Monroe moving past bluegrass and deciding to do something else."
Continue Reading "Friends of the Devils: Dark Star Orchestra" »
Josiah Boyer and Kristin Tomasulo look at a tree that fell Wednesday at 9th and K streets NW. Photo by Katherine Frey/The Washington Post. Below right: Virginia Melanson of Chicago seeks shelter from the storms in Annapolis. Photo by Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post
GOOD MORNING, WASHINGTON. If you haven't seen a downed tree limb, power line or other detritus from yesterday's onslaught of powerful stormy weather, you're one of the few.
The violent storms are blamed for one death, and caused so many power outages that Montgomery County and Prince George's County decided to shutter their public schools for the day today, although scheduled graduation ceremonies will go on as planned.
Here's the latest on power outages from The Post's Maria Glod, Debbi Wilgoren and Tom Jackman:
In Northern Virginia, more than 115,000 customers remained without power as of 7:30 a.m. this morning, Dominion Virginia Power reported. Pepco said there were 72,000 homes and businesses without power in Montgomery County, along with nearly 18,000 homes and businesses in Prince George's County and almost 12,000 customers in the District. Baltimore Gas and Electric reported another 7,000 outages in Prince George's, along with 20,000 outages in Anne Arundel County, 5,500 outages in Howard County. And some 6,400 outages remained in Southern Maryland, according to utility officials there.Area utility companies said last night that they will need until late tomorrow to restore service to all their customers.
IN THE PAST YEAR, Ozomatli has played Indonesia, India, Jordan, Egpyt and even Nepal.
But the most unlikely place the band has appeared?
The set of ABC's "Dancing With the Stars."
"Its f---ing weird because I never really watched the show, but it felt like everyone around me does," saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Ulises Bella said. "You work yourself up a lot for two minutes of work and you realize how important those two minutes are because millions of people are watching you. It's a surreal experience."
Ozomatli got the gig because of a familial connection — Justin "El Nino" Poree, who plays percussion and raps, just happens to know the show's orchestra pit guitarist — his dad.
So now that Bella's performed on the show, has he started watching regularly?
WHEN DREW HELLER first went to Africa in 2001, he had a bit of an epiphany.
He was studying guitar with Lamine Soumano, when they started to work on a traditional African love song. When it came time for his solo, Heller asked Soumano what he should play.
"I can't tell you what to play," Soumano replied. "Play what you would play, what would come naturally to you."
Heller realized then it was important for him to be himself, not to pretend to be Malian.
"That moment, or what came from that moment has opened my heart to [West African music] in a different way and drawn me more into West African music than any way I would have imagined," he said.
Later, Heller and his friends Justin Perkins (guitar, kora), Teal Brown (drums) and Luke Quaranta (percussion) — all of whom made trips to Africa — formed Toubab Krewe, a band merging West African and rock 'n' roll influences into one sonic stew. (The group's main members met in Asheville, N.C., while in college and added bassist David Pranksy in 2004.)
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