Motherlode of Music

Salt Lake City Upcoming Concerts: Richard Buckner, Ice Cube, Step It Up, Type O Negative, Wolfmother

By Brian Staker, 4-12-07

	Staker Pick o' the Week: Richard Buckner

Richard Buckner **Staker’s Pick O’the Week!**

The trouble with country music’s long-standing claim to its trademark as the music of the American working class is, as it evolved into mainstream popularity in the late 70’s/early 80’s and since, its personas and themes have become so manufactured that they are removed from the actual life experience of those it purports to express. The new generation of polished country singers hasn’t really had a Loretta Lynn or George Jones. The response has ironically come from the indie rock world with its alt-country subgenre; ironically because much of the audience for the new music was college students, traditionally not a working class demographic. The music itself, though, in the hands of practitioners of those like Wilco and Son Volt, was virtually irony-free, which made it even more refreshing.

And a little over a decade ago one of the most unique voices of the new alt-country emerged in the form of Richard Buckner, from San Francisco but very much in the Texas maverick mold. His throaty yet lyrical instrument was perfectly pitched to turn pain into poetry, whether opening for Son Volt or on The Hill (2000), interpreting Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology, a touchstone in American literature, itself an evocation of the American experience. Yet his expression is so highly individual and intimate that he can enunciate a word in a way that will make you wince and turn away as in “Souvenir,” from 1998’s Since (MCA) as in many of his mini-epics encapsulating all the rage and sadness at lost love into a package, though not wrapped up tidy but more like a charge, a candle and fuse at all the same time, rough like the cover art printed simply on plain cardboard. His latest, Meadow (Merge), he starts “Are you sitting down?” on “Town,” the set’s opener, and it’s a forewarning of the emotional wreckage he has come to chronicle and fans have come to anticipate for its raw, rough-edged beauty.

It’s just a testament to the travelling power of Buckner’s twist on the country music dialect that after these western US dates he is heading for New Zealand and Australia.

April 12, Velour (Provo)
Also appearing:
April 11, Boise ID (Neurolux)
April 13, Denver CO (Larimer Lounge)

Ice Cube

It’s going to be exciting to have an opportunity to see TV/movie supercelebrity Ice Cube in person in concert, but the question has to come up, can he return to his roots, can he still bring the rap? Not that Salt Lake is ‘coming back to the hood’ where he has to prove anything; although local acts like the Numbs are mad talented I find it somehow humorous to hear someone rappin’ bout ‘the SLC.’ I don’t believe I have to recite his history as a rapper or actor, and since hip-hop is one of the most trend-obsessed musical genres, the question is always ‘what have you done for me lately’ anyway.

Last year saw his solo comeback, Laugh Now, Cry Later (Lench Mob), so the poser is out there, who’s laughing/crying now? Mr. Cube certainly isn’t crying, as the set shows him as raucous, acerbic and edgy as ever, whether acknowledging his (and our) history with “Guns and Drugs,” which notes that a Bush was also in the White House when his career began, and he’s not particularly a fan of I or II. For someone who’s reached the apex of the entertainment industry in many arenas, this is surprisingly direct, not his best work but it’s got bite. A fitting start to his own label.

April 13, The Depot
Also appearing:
April 14, Aspen CO (Belly Up Aspen)
April 15, Englewood CO (Gothic Theatre)

Step It Up 2007

Step It Up is part of April 14’s National Day of Climate Action, organized by long-time environmental activist and proponent of voluntary simplicity Bill McKibben. Salt Lake City (’Salt Lake City?’ shouted incredulously like ‘New York City?’ in the famous salsa ad) planners are set for what they call ‘the grandest Step It Up event in the nation.’ And if you believe in using music to spread a message; if you think once you get peoples’ uh, feet moving their minds will follow, maybe they’ve got a point here. The rallying cry of, “Step it up, Congress! Cut Carbon 80% by 2050,” will be echoed by local groups the Salt Lake Alternative Jazz Orchestra, Brenn Hill, Motherlode Canyon Band, Salty Rootz and Blue Haiku, as well as headliners Los Lobos, long known for their involvement in political causes.

Food and crafts vendors and information booths (and hopefully clement weather) make it a day to hang out, festivate, ‘step it up’ in your own write. With over 1300 events scheduled in every state of the Union, there’s bound to be something near every New West reader.

April 14, Washington Square
Also appearing:
Everywhere

Type O Negative

Get yer Goth on! The gothic metal sounds of Type O Negative, well into their second decade, makes Robert Smith sound positively cheery. But their sense of humor hasn’t always been readily picked up on by listeners, dark though it is, in stuff like album title The Origin of the Feces. This year’s Dead Again (SPV/Steamhammer) with its Rasputin-faced cover art, is a regular Black Sabbath-on of riffage, though slowed down as they typically are to match the near-null pulse of the Goth listener. But damn it looks fun to celebrate Halloween every day of the year, downright sexy in their morose festivities, yet hard to stay in character if you aren’t part of the zoloft set. But then again, these days who isn’t?

April 16, Saltair
Also appearing:
April 15, Denver CO (Ogden Theatre)

Wolfmother

Like Type O Negative, Wolfmotheris another band who has taken Black Sabbath as a sonic influence, in this Australian band’s case, the youthful enthusiasm of a debut album as opposed to Type O’s mannered stage presence. The lanky, swaggering music of Wolfmother plays more with the psychedelic elements of 70’s hard rock. The sheer bravado of debut enthusiasm makes it difficult to augur the promise of a possible follow-up: fandango or flop. But for now, sheer energy can take them a long way, and makes them an entertaining act to catch live.

April 17, In the Venue
Also appearing:
April 18, Denver CO (Fillmore Auditorium)

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