Winter No More

Salt Lake City Upcoming Concerts: John Vanderslice, the Long Winters, Limbeck

By Brian Staker, 4-05-07

	Staker Pick o' the Week: The Long Winters

Appleseed Cast

What is it with emo labels and the names of trees? In addition to Jade Tree there’s the grandaddy (or, perhaps more properly given the longevity of the genre, older teenage boy who is somehow your uncle in some bizarre family ‘tree’) of ‘em all, Deep Elm. Well, emo was only the seed bed for this Lawrence, KS band who emerged at the birth of emo in the late 90’s and launched into space rock and electronica. By 2003, the band had switched to the far more eclectic and experimental-friendly Tiger Style label for that year’s Two Conversations release.

Unfortunately, Tiger Style didn’t have the staying power, perhaps because it had overextended itself in branching out into the experimental realm. The label’s demise was an enormous loss to indie music fans, who without them wouldn’t have hundreds of releases that pushed the limits of new music. Last year found the Appleseed Cast was back with tracks on Peregrine (Militia Group) This is the sound of a Midwest that has moved far beyond just metal, but then again Lawrence is a college town, the later home of William S. Burroughs, and some of that eccentricity has to rub off.

April 7, In the Venue
Also appearing:
April 6, Denver CO (Marquis Theater)
April 8, Boise ID (The Venue)

John Vanderslice

John Vanderslice has been the poster boy, emblematic figure of the lo-fi, DIY movement, seemingly from everywhere and nowhere. Perhaps that’s not surprising due to the portability of the movement, if you can call it that, based around the four-track cassette recorder, compact enough you could tuck it under your arm and take off. The fact that most purveyors of the medium used it to retreat to the inner worlds of bedroom or basement just gave it that much more impact, that it could give voice to social phobes and introverts everywhere. The reason John Vanderslice has been the pre-eminent prevaricator is that, with his songwriting finesse and instrumental ability--yes, almost using the recording medium itself as an instrument--he has created vistas that are panoramic, and seem expansive rather than just an interior soundtrack.

He is that deft of a songscribbler that he can still be touring on a two-year old album, Pixel Revolt (Barsuk), and have the experience deepen as listeners experience further layers of music and lyrics, the latter collaborated with the Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle. One wonders, given the title, as the cassette recorders are increasingly obsolete in the face of digital recorders, will there be another moment like the four-track phenomenon of the late 90’s and early 2000’s, where anyone could be a rock star in their own rec room, and maybe beyond. One hopes the pixellated world will engender its own innovators and revolt against what coalesces into a status quo.

April 9, Kilby Court
Also appearing:
April 10, Denver CO (Hi-Dive)

Damian Jr. Gong Marley, Stephen Marley

In the first family of reggae music, after patriarch Bob Marley died in 1980, Ziggy was the first of his progeny to take up the musical banner. By the 90’s, the youngest Marley son, Damian “Junior Gong” Marley (only two when his father passed) had added his voice to the mix, even netting a Grammy nomination in 2001 for the album Halfway Tree. Along with Stephen, five years his senior, he has created his own style of hip-hop tinged reggae that appeals to a whole new generation.

April 9, Suede
Also appearing:
April 6, Boulder CO (Boulder Theater)
April 7, Vail CO (8150)
April 8, Aspen CO (Belly Up Aspen)

The Long Winters **Staker’s Pick O’the Week!**

The Long Winters’ John Roderick originally hails from Anchorage, Alaska, where there are some long winters indeed. But then it may be that extra hibernation that provides that time it takes to create the contemplative opus of a Long Winters album. The band’s 2002 debut The Worst You Can Do Is Harm is a masterpiece in the indie rock genre, with guest appearances from members of Built to Spill, the Posies, Sunny Day Real Estate, Death Cab for Cutie, and Harvey Danger, the band Roderick cut his teeth on. He’s no small feat on guitar either.

Last year’s Putting the Days to Bed is even more bittersweet, if that’s possible, and it’s no accident that as with John Vanderslice (see above listing), all this band’s output in on the Barsuk label, the Seattle imprint whose best seller is Death Cab, natch, but their entire lineup always sounds fresh and somehow timeless. For those wondering if ‘indie rock,’ whatever that catch-all designation is worth by now, can survive and indeed thrive on into a second decade, the Long Winters show their rendition of it able to grow and advance.

April 11, Kilby Court
Also appearing:
April 10, Denver CO (Bluebird Theater)

Limbeck

Unlike indie, emo by the early part of the new millenium had found itself largely at a stylistic dead-end, many bands simply turning up the volume to ‘screamo’ range without altering the melodic or lyrical sensibility much. Others took a detour into another stylistic avenue; witness Limbeck . As emo music was all about self-expression, it had ultimately descended into immature self-absorption without much reflection. Whereas a band like Appleseed Cast emerged from their coccoon to explore outer space as antithesis of the inner, Laguna Niguel, California’s Limbeck ventured into the geography of alternative country to find a whole new lexicon of expression much more deeply ingrained in the American consciousness.

In a sense it’s a stripped-down approach, especially compared to the over-the-top exclamations of some of their screaming contemporaries, so much stripped down that this year’s Doghouse Records is self-titled, songs as simply named as “Let Me Come Home” and “Sunset Limited.” Not to say these pieces lack sophistication; on the contrary, they demonstrated an understated yet immediate sound that’s far more engaging than any overemotive artifice.

April 12, Club Sound
Also appearing:
April 11, Denver CO (Marquis Theater)
April 13, Boise ID (The Venue)

Crystal Gayle/Lee Greenwood

What sings America to you? Or maybe I should ask, who? Crystal Gayle has been making ‘brown eyes blue’ for close to three decades now, impossibly long brunette tresses themselves somehow like country-fried teardrops. Lee Greenwood was just one of a crop of moderately popular yet fairly interchangeable country singers until his 1984 hit, “God Bless the USA.” Should vie with Mellencamp’s melody for the new National anthem. They could also have All-American night on American Idol where would-be divas massacre songs of nationalistic pride.

April 12, Abravanel Hall

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