Turnip King and PS I Love You–a Fun Live Show at Pianos


Turnip KIngI had a fun time at the PS I Love You show last night, and also enjoyed hearing Turnip King, a young band from Sea Cliff, Long Island, a 4-piece whose picture I’ll post here with shots from PS I Love You’s set. Guitarist Paul Saulnier later tweeted that he’d been feeling ill, but I didn’t notice during the fun set he played with his drummer bandmate Benjamin Nelson.

I asked the four members of Turnip King how they got their name–thinking that maybe it was an artifact from some LI farming magnate. They told me the phrase was part of an inscription on a historic plaque in their hometown. I like this–an homage to one’s local roots, while also carrying a novel edge. I bet there are interesting stories behind the naming of many bands–after all, it’s part of rock folklore that Jerry Garcia opened an unabridged dictionary and stabbed a finger at the first phrase his eye landed on: Grateful Dead. “Buffalo Springfield” probably derived from the name of a manufacturer of earth-moving equipment. I hope to hear more of Turnip King. This is a link to their bandcamp page with five of their songs. They told me they often play live shows in Brooklyn.

Rural Alberta Advantage, Keeping Live Music Fans Warm on a Cold Night


 

Paul BanwattFun live music show last night with Toronto trio Rural Alberta Advantage in front of a boisterously appreciative full house at the Mercury Lounge on the lower east side of Manhattan. Early on, one of the band members mentioned from the stage that they had last played in NYC about four years ago, and how glad they were to back. Despite that, or even because of it, they sold out an early and a late show last night. I was at the latter set, my first time hearing them, after some years enjoying their music on CBC Radio 3. When I arrived near the end of the opening set by the duo Glasslands, I was glad to see the venue quite crowded already. In this club, with a music room whose walls are clad all in brick and no acoustic buffers installed anywhere, the sound can be brittle and harsh if the room isn’t full of people. On a wintry night with everybody in sweaters and heavy coats, the crowd was the buffer, and the sound was great.

The three members of RAA array themselves across the stage in a level rank–that is, the drummer, Paul, isn’t set up toward the back of the stage, but to the side of his bandmates. The frontman, Nils–a fair, sort of gingery fellow, in a light blue denim shirt and blue jeans, your basic Canadian tuxedo, shown in the tweet I shared from the floor–belts out lyrics in a distinctive vocal and singing style, with lots of shouts and murmurs, more of the former than the latter, all very expressive. He accompanies himself with percussive and propulsive guitar strumming, on an acoustic. He actually broke a string last night, and apparently having no second guitar with him on stage, asked if anyone in the audience could re-string his instrument for him. A confident and competent dude called out from the audience and walked on stage to help out, while Nils moved stepped over to his keyboard for a song. The guitar good samaritan took care of business and finished his task before the next song ended. This little episode made me think of how Neil Young always lauds his longtime guitar tech Larry Cragg, To one side of Nils was raven-haired Amy, on keys, xylophone and backing vocals. Among the musical sounds from her instrumentation, I could tell that she was providing a steady bass thump–since the band doesn’t have a bassist–and she did it really well). Drummer Paul was a fierce warrior on his stool, seated, not behind but to the side of his kit, so that you could really watch him play. It was nice to see a drummer freed from the back row. It’s apt, because he was a big contributor to the band’s sound last night. He happened to be in darkness most of the time, so the only photo of him I got of him happened when he was moving around on stage for a bit. Take my word for it: he’s a seriously great drummer, with a punchy tone to his skins that had the sonic character of an instrument, not beats alone.

RAA has a pleasantly raw, not heavily amplified, sound, reminiscent to me of other Canadian groups I love like Elliott Brood, “death country” trio that features guitar, banjo, and drums; the multi-instrumental duo Sunparlour Players; Cuff the Duke, a 4-piece whose guitar-driven sound ranges from pastoral to edgy and serrated; and ski-bumming, stoke-folk 5-piece Shred Kelly.

Rural Alberta Advantage played for about 75 minutes last night, before coming back for a few encores, capped off by the band’s stroll down from the stage in to the audience, where they stepped up on to a bench against a wall, and led the happy crowd in an acapella finale. Nils announced that following the show they would be hanging out in the bar’s front room for a while and would be eager to meet and say hi. I stuck around and enjoyed introducing myself to and speaking with Paul Banwatt, Amy Cole, and Nils Edenloff. I told them about my blogs and said I looked forward to sharing a report on their show, along with the photos I took during their spirited performance.

Such a fun night of live music. I hope to hear the band again sometime and plan on picking up one or both of their albums down the road. I didn’t buy either last night–being currently without a CD player attached to my Mac–but would love to have their CDs from Paperbag Records, a terrific label that also handles Elliott Brood and Cuff the Duke. Shout-out to Amanda Dameron Pitts of Cobra Camanda who helped me get in to to this sold-out show.
Cross-posted at The Great Gray Bridge.

Forthcoming in March: Album of “Rediscovered” Neil Young Teasures

Announced at the website of Third Man Recordson Exclaim.ca

Third Man Records unearths NEIL YOUNG’s A LETTER HOME

An unheard collection of rediscovered songs from the past recorded on ancient electro-mechanical technology captures and unleashes the essence of something that could have been gone forever. — Homer Grosvenor

And Rolling Stone provides a brief Q&A with Neil himself in which he discusses his fondness for old microphones, his belief that “We’re entering a very good period for recorded sound” and calls the new album, due out in March, “one of the most low tech experiences I’ve ever had.”Neil Young Sonia Recchia:WireImage
Cross-posted at The Great Gray Bridge

PM Harper Spreading Schmaltz All Over Israel

According to a report on tonight’s World at Six on CBC Radio One, Stephen Harper was at a banquet in Jerusalem tonight where he was feted by his obsequious Israeli hosts. He sang “Hey, Jude” off-key and told the hall that his mother–who isn’t Jewish, he added to a laugh–nonetheless would appreciate the honourary doctorate he was given in Israel this week. I found it all obnoxious–Harper all week has been saying only things that Israeli Likudniks want to hear, pandering to them.

I’ve seen US Jewish political pandering and I’ve rarely seen it done more unctuously than Harper is doing it on the overseas trip. It’s politically nauseating. I think he and his advisors see their way to winning the 2015 federal election as appealing to voter groups they’re appealing with the trip. Harper continues to go to school on the history of George W. Bush’s presidency, who earlier tried to merge votes of rural, conservative Christian voters with the more conservative, older Jewish voters. As a US observer of Canada, it all gives me very unpleasant flashbacks to the Bush era.

Early Targeting of Voters by Stephen Harper with His Israel Trip

I detest how Canadian PM Harper often apes George W. Bush and the policies and communications style of the last US administration. This week Harper’s doing it on his trip to Israel, in regard to Middle East policy, with his scarily tight alliance with Netanyahu and the Likud government. He traveled with a 208-person delegation, probably paid for largely by Canadian taxpayers. I see in this an early targeting of voters for the upcoming Canadian federal election, to take place in 2015. I think Harper’s clearly planning to try and appeal to what he and his political team believes are Canadian versions of GW Bush voters. From what I’ve read about the Canadian electorate, I suspect these are rural voters, many of them in western Canada. They are non-urban, non-cosmopolitan, largely church-going voters. As to Jewish-Canadian voters, I don’t think that a wish to appeal is them is driving this primarily–Harper is a sincere and vehement pro-Israel politician. He will be glad to reap conservative Jewish voters, and use them as props, but I think this is planting seeds with his base.

Three Cheers for Torquil Campbell of Stars

New Year’s Eve Live Show I’m Sorry to Miss

Happy 2014 & Fervent Hopes for a Great New Year