Method Actors and High Scientists

Salt Lake City Upcoming Concerts: Method Man, Rancid, We Are Scientists

By Brian Staker, 10-04-06

	The California Guitar Trio

Method Man, Masta Killa, Inspectah Deck

How many Wu Tangs does it take to make a reunion? Granted, the Clan is still to some degree in mourning over the loss of Ol’ Dirty Bastard in 2004. Of these three, only Method Man was at the forefront of the original nine members of the group, Masta Killa and Inspectah Deck having stayed for the most part in the background during the group’s heyday in the mid-nineties. Even a partial Wu Tang reunion is cause for applause, as their eerie, minimalist technique took the genre of hip-hop into uncharted territory. There has always been a method to his madness, as opposed to ODB’s reckless behavior. Whether portraying a young gangster in the HBO series OZ or teaming up with Redman in a throwaway celluloid comedy like How High?, Method Man has methodically applied his prodigious talents to every effort.

Method isn’t necessarily a good thing, if it isn’t accompanied by inspiration. This year’s Method Man release 4:21… The Day After (Def Jam) featured a posthumous lyric from ODB in addition to samples from the usual suspects. The title refers to the ‘moment of clarity’ after the weed-induced buzz that ‘4:20’ symbolizes, an attempt at deeper profundity. But it’s still a pale echo of the incredible impact and sonic innovation the Wu Tang had on an entire genre of music with their collective energy.

October 4, Suede

Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash, Lee Rocker

These metaphorical male progeny of the Man in Black have some heavy boots to fill. Time after time again we find a band looking back at approximately a decade in existence, a real mile marker in the lifespan of the volatile personalities that typically compose musicians in this or really any era. Mile Markers is the title of their latest release (Emergent, 2005) as well, and on the third try they finally live up to their name. Though they hail from the perhaps unlikely home of San Diego, they essay a California in “The Road to Bakersfield” and “California Sky” that seems part of country music liturgy, parts Old West and rustic Americana in the ironies of the postmodern backdrop.

October 4, The Depot

Also appearing:

October 5: Sparks, NV (Great Basin Brewery)

Rancid, Legendary Shack Shakers/Strung Out

Rancid was one of the hallmark bands of the ‘90s punk rock revival, echoing the old school sound of the Clash, in many ways very similar to at that time Epitaph labelmates Green Day, and that band’s Billie Joe Armstrong played guitar with Rancid at a live show once. Although they have been criticized in a genre that pays strict reverence to authenticity, whatever that really is in a world of musical miscegenation, they do have somewhat more credibility than the totally pop version of a punk rock band that Green Day has become.

2003’s Indestructible on Epitaph subsidiary Hellcat, refines their approach with one slamming song after the other in typically rapid succession, with only a few song sounding by-the-numbers or misbegotten ballad experiments. This genre of band has only a limited range, and they should stick to their strengths. Rancid does what they do very well, while remaining for the most part true to themselves.

October 5-6, In the Venue

Also appearing:

October 4: Boise, ID (Big Easy)
October 7: Las Vegas, NV (House of Blues)

California Guitar Trio **Staker’s Pick of the Week!**

The ‘California’ in their title is ironic, since the members of the the California Guitar Trio reside in Tokyo, Belgium and Salt Lake City, in the case of Paul Richards. This makes the commute to rehearsals a real son of a bitch. But then they met at a workshop by British fretboard master eccentric Robert Fripp, and toured for a while in his League of Crafty Guitarists, so in the process, some of his craftiness rubbed off on them by aural osmosis, and they are crafty enough to pull it off.

If you have ever seen them live, you would say they are crafty indeed. The band has opened for Fripp’s alma mater King Crimson, David Sylvian and one of Hendrix’s heirs in terms of technique, John McLaughlin. That is some impressive company they keep. Another band celebrating the decade milestone (actually a little over), they released CG3 + 2/The First Decade (Inside Out) earlier this year, reprises a career in which they have taken the breadth of repertoire to include everything from Bolero to the Ventures to the theme from Napoleon Dynamite.

October 6, United Church of Christ, Holladay

Also appearing:

October 8: Hamilton, MT (Performing Arts Center)

Mushroomhead, Soil, Autumn Offering

With their black gas mask-looking facial appropriations, Cleveland’s Mushroomhead are nothing if not theatrical. They look like they are preparing for a mushroom cloud. Their musical mixture of metal, hip-hop, goth and techno is such a goulash that it seems they are preparing for some kind of aural apocalypse as well, as if to store every subset of sound in their heads to emerge from underground after everything else on earth had been obliterated.

Another ten-year-er anniversaryizing their album of inception in 1996, this year’s Savior Sorrow is much more compelling than anything else in the refuse bin that is the category of ‘nu-metal’ anything recently at all. It’s because they create a sense of beauty and nuance amidst the horrorshow. Audience members and their own sartorial effects would find it well to do likewise.

October 6, Avalon Theater

Also appearing:

October 5: Denver, CO (Bluebird Theater)
October 7: Boise, ID (Big Easy)

NoMeansNo

What could Canadians possibly know about punk rock? Well, being treated like America’s slower cousin for a couple centuries might have induced a little anger in their Molson-coated veins, eh? And as everyone knows, anger is the breakfast of any of punk rock’s champions. So Victoria, BC’s NoMeansNo has had nearly a quarter of a century to prove their mettle (not metal). On the way, people as in-the-know as Dead Kennedy’s singer and Alternative Tentacles label founder Jello Biafra have provided their stamp of approval, Biafra joining them to sing on one release, one assumes in between his San Francisco mayoral bids.

The band stays one step ahead of staid Stateside cynics by creating a collage of experimental effects in addition to being merely a punk band, with sound samples and cacophony of instrumentation. All Roads Lead to Ausfahrt (AntAcidAudio), this year’s release, is multi-layered as well as multi-lingual. All roads lead out of what? The North American continent? You might not put it past the incredible ingenuity of this innovative combo. Once again, tip of the hat to Burt’s, booking some of the best gigs this year!

October 7, Burt’s Tiki Lounge

We Are Scientists, Art Brut, Spinto Band

Brooklyn-based indie newcomers have become the buzz band of the season, since the guild has left the lily, or whatever, on all the ‘Wolf-‘ name prefix bands of recent note. It reminds me of the late ‘80s, when bands were clamoring onto the bandwagon to include Jesus in their name, yet only one made any novel statement: Jesus & Mary Chain. Did We Are Scientists take their name from the Guided By Voices song “I Am a Scientist?” Of course they aren’t that cagey.

At least their sound has more substance than similar post-new wave groups the Killers and Franz Ferdinand. The Virgin debut With Love and Squalor is danceable and playful, and manages to make the postmodern faux-epic work with actually discarding the ‘faux.’ I’ll still take the original ‘80s purveyors of this stuff, thank you. Swift sales help Sir Branson make another payment or three on his hot air balloon fleet too, doubtless. South London’s Art Brut follows in a more artsy yet still entertaining vein.

October 9, In the Venue

Also appearing:

October 10: Denver, CO (Bluebird Theater)

Ladytron, CSS

With an album a year since 2001, Ladytron have either dialed into something that really works well for them, or riding the cliché train straight to hell with their glam-dance music. They cheat a little bit on this year’s Extended Play (Rykodisc) collection of remixes of singles. But then that’s what dance music is to large degree about: not melodic invention but repetition with minor variations to create subtle changes in the auditory landscape. Their futurism as well as their more hard-edged occasions are here, so in a sense it’s a good place to start for the unfamiliar, but also, any remix album is a viewpoint through a fun house mirror.

October 10, The Depot

Also appearing:

October 9: Denver, CO (Bluebird Theater)

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