For The Good Times
The Bottle Rockets Fire Back With A New Lineup And Fierce New Album
originally published January 24, 2007
The Bottle Rockets
Almost 10 years back, Missouri’s favorite regular-guy rock act The Bottle Rockets released a gloomier-than-usual album called Brand New Year. That was 1999, with a new millennium still on the horizon. And with 2007 off to a fresh start, today’s rejuvenated, reshuffled Bo-Rox are looking more like card-carrying members of a brand-new band.
Though the latest release, last year’s Zoysia, is the first to wholly utilize the Bottle Rockets’ new lineup, settling into this shift in membership has been a long time coming. Founding guitarist Tom Ray left the fold shortly before 2003’s Blue Sky album was completed, leaving the group to carry on as a three-piece. Two years later, bassist Robert Kearns left on good terms to join up with modern country singer Chris Cagle, leaving only singer-guitarist Brian Henneman and drummer Mark Ortmann to soldier on.
Almost five years since the creative reshuffling started, the Bottle Rockets of ‘07 are far from fizzled out. Zoysia, which the band recorded during a highly productive week in Memphis’ hallowed Ardent Studios (recording site of Big Star’s #1 Record/ Radio City and The Cramps’ Songs The Lord Taught Us, among others) with producer Jeff Powell, is arguably the most cohesive and forthright album to bear the band's name yet. The addition of guitarist John Horton and bassist Keith Voegele has allowed the group to step things up a notch, as Zoysia presents a highly confident, much more varied portrait of the band than did its predecessor.
“This was the first time we’d recorded with our new bass player, Keith, and our guitarist, John, who’s really been in the band for a couple years now. Really, it’s damn near a new band,” says Henneman. “As a group, I think we’re leaps and bounds better than ever before. So, the musical end of Zoysia was actually a piece of cake. Having John there as a second lead guitarist was cool, too, because that allowed me to friggin’ concentrate on other things for a while, which was wonderful. Actually, I’m kind of addicted to it at this point!”
“Where I’m from ain’t where I’m from… anymore,” laments Henneman on “Where I’m From,” a mostly acoustic, low-key track from the new album. He could be talking about his band’s recent relocation from its longtime homebase of Festus, MO, to the nearby metropolis of St. Louis. He could also be referring to said band’s new membership or label (the Chicago-based insurgent country indie Bloodshot Records). Whatever the case, as both a lyricist and frontman, Henneman - known for most always delivering his songs from the first-person perspective - hasn’t shied away from getting personal during the near four-year interim between albums.
On the surface, the almost-psychedelic title track pokes fun at a current plague ravaging suburbanite communities: lawn envy. The bulldozing “Middle Man” flips a just finger for any working stiff who’s ever been stuck between unpaid overtime and a pink slip. This isn’t the "Blue Collar TV"-inspired version of reality that many good ol' boys and girls subscribe to these days, but rather snippets from a way of life that more hardworking Americans might actually identify with.
“We went into this with the idea of making an actual album. That’s kind of an odd thing to do in this day and age of MP3s and iPods and the whole bit. With all that out there, the album’s almost become a lost art,” says Henneman. “In the past, we would go in to make an album, but it would be more like recording a bunch of songs that we’d later put together and, there, it’d be done. This time, though, it was more like going for one goal. It was definitely the one I sat down and thought about the hardest, as well as the one that came out pretty damn close to what we were hoping it would. I think the speed of the recording, this time, helped because nothing much on the record is from past the third take. Most of the takes are from the first go.”
Currently, the members of the Bottle Rockets are burning off their newest set of steel-belted radials in support of Zoysia. They’ve got a new double live album - recorded at a 2005 tour stop in Heilbronn, Germany - that’s available at shows and at www.bottlerocketsmusic.com. Henneman also says that several new songs have been penned for the next release. If the guys can manage to get one more studio album under their belts, they might even finally see fit to begin a much-needed reissue campaign.
However, those holding out for a new-and-improved version of the Rockets' self-titled debut, recorded here in Athens during that most challenging blizzard of ’93, might want to invest in a nice long breather right about now. “Let me tell you what, we’ve thought about [reissuing the old] shit for about a million years,” laughs Henneman. “It’s gonna take a really good lawyer to figure it all out, though, because the stuff has gotten so scattered. The Brooklyn Side album is really screwed up because it was on the ESP label, then licensed by Atlantic for seven years. Then, when the license was up, it reverted to back to ESP, which was out of business at that point. The first album we did in Athens with John Keane is a tough one to track down, too. I don’t even have a copy of that. Needless to say, a box set of our stuff is gonna take a whole lot of hunting, wheelin’ and dealin’. We still wanna do it, though, but it’s not going to happen anytime this year - that’s for sure!” Seems like trucking it out to Tasty World this week may be the only salve for anyone eager to hear some of those tunes.
WHO: The Bottle Rockets, The Bearfoot Hookers, Otis Gibbs
WHERE: Tasty World
WHEN: Monday, January 29
HOW MUCH: $7
Sour Mash
(for the Lemonheads)
originally published January 24, 2007
From beany suburban Boston they sprang,
put out a trio of albums on Taang! -
kid stuff, wild oats, hardcore thrash, ‘Mats-meets-Dü,
“Amazing Grace” thrown in w/ hodgepodge & glue.
Fast-and-loud’s a blind alley. Before long
a little melancholy creeps into the songs,
a swaying sense of melody & swoon,
enamored of GP and other bayers at the moon.
Cover songs reveal the roots : “Luka” on Lick,
Lovey’s “Brass Buttons.” Still, though, not much sticks -
everything a little too woozy & canned.
Major-label debut, no real mess of fans -
biding time in that early-'90s anteroom,
pre-Nevermind alternative gold rush & boom,
one of a dozen bands bubbling under.
Dando goes dodo, goes really Down Under,
uses Australia to incubate Shame About Ray,
launches that baby into the sweet light of day -
the Breakthrough Belle of 1992!
Whole thing just felt cooked right, sweetness shot through
w/ lightning & junk, decorated w/ stoner’s proverbs
& enough hooks to send your car into the curb.
The pop album’s promise of all wrongs reversed,
along w/ good looks, sends Evan ascending into the curse
that is fame, or our strange culture’s version of it.
Pinup boy! Alterna-hunk! Reward of bit
part in Reality Bites, his name on the lips
of a million 13-year-old girls, sudden friendships
w/ people so famous they look funny up close.
All the smack & crack a lonely boy’s lungs & nose
& head & heart could hope to stomach. Push the hair
back from your eyes, look around, wonder how & why & where
you are, and by then your time has passed,
gone like a lizard in the summertime grass.
The albums after are as scrambled as you’d expect,
w/ enough moments scattered through them to make you inspect
the heavens for entrance into a firmament
that never existed, but should have : scent
of wildflowers & hard candy in the air,
every footfall on the pavement in time
w/ the next one over, every voice in rhyme
w/ its neighbor. Kurt Cobain’s still alive.
Jangle & stomp rules the radio & all five
known dimensions. There’s still room to move around,
there’s still an America made up of towns
& people who actually know each other.
Kids play the national anthem on steel guitars.
Weirdness preserved, elbow room amongst the spheres -
something along those lines. A few too many beers, here?
Making entirely too much of some pop songs, for God’s sake?
Well, sure. But look at what’s at stake :
everything. And nothing. And the whole traverse between.
How rock’n’roll works - let it get to you in your teens,
really get to you, and your life’s a map
of its promises kept & unkept, its sap
& its seedlings, its litter of three-minute moments.
A whistling break in a song makes no real sense,
but it makes more sense than a lot of other things.
Lemonheads! In town! Saturday night! Let the wires ring.
Southward Expansion
North Carolina's MoRisen Records Looks To Athens For Artists And Audiences
originally published January 24, 2007
If the past few years in music have proved anything at all, it’s that pretty much anyone can start a small record label. But keeping a label running and making it profitable is an entirely different story. Chuck Morrison started Charlotte, NC-based MoRisen Records a few years back and, unlike many other indie newcomers, is actually seeing impressive returns.
The Sammies
The Sammies, perhaps the label's most well-known act, are no stranger to Athens audiences, and this town's own The Pendletons is affiliated with the label; both acts are performing locally this week. The Never, Snatches of Pink and Elevator Action, all MoRisen acts as well, have recently passed through Athens' clubs and plan to continue down that path.
Morrison’s path to music is less conventional (and more comical) than most. He got his start in marketing - more specifically, pushing computer mice made to look like NASCAR autos. While most might scoff at this somewhat ironic venture, Frank Backgammon, keyboardist for The Sammies, says it played a major part in his band’s decision to sign with MoRisen. “The music industry is a business, and marketing is a big part of it, so we liked the fact he was a 'business' man, not just some music fan with money. He had already succeeded, and we felt he had what it takes to do it again,” says Backgammon.
And don’t think this quote is taken out of context; Backgammon is indeed referring directly to Morrison’s success with NASCAR-themed mice. For their part of the small-to-large story, The Sammies started out as just a little indie-rock act from Charlotte. In the past year, they’ve seriously expanded their fanbase and are playing the big industry festivals CMJ and SXSW.
Morrison and Backgammon’s first encounters were based on lies, but they caught Morrison’s attention and forged a union. “We first met Chuck almost three years ago," says Backgammon. "He gave us our first real gig at The Room in Charlotte after we lied and said we'd played frat parties and festivals. His label was still real new then and as he watched us grow, we watched his label grow, too."
In addition to turning a profit on something as ostensibly trivial as NASCAR computer accessories, Morrison quickly proved his business-savvy at his record label digs. He successfully formed a partnership between MoRisen and Lions Gate Films last year, a move that Backgammon says is generating paramount exposure for his band.
“Chuck made the deal with Lions Gate, which we saw as instant publicity. We have since been in several TV shows and in the movie and soundtrack for Employee of the Month with Dane Cook and Jessica Simpson because of that deal,” says Backgammon.
Many musicians dream of the opportunity to provide a soundtrack for Simpson to shake her ass - Morrison made it a reality. Morrison says that his long-term relationships within the film world afforded him the opportunity to help his artists win prime placements. “Film and TV is a right-place-at-the-right-time kind of thing," he says. "The cues are getting better and more frequent.”
The Pendletons
More recently, Morrison has looked to Athens for new talent. The Pendletons were just one of the Athens acts that caught Morrison’s eye. “In terms of the process of signing The Pendletons, I’ve watched them for a while with The Sammies and I think they have a great chance,” says Morrison, “I think Athens is a really important market for us as a label because it's just a few hours down the road. I’m seeing more acts with potential come out of Athens than anywhere else right now.” Morrison says he courted The Pendletons for quite some time before signing them, making sure that the bandmembers' personalities fit with his.
Morrison’s techniques and philosophy are consistent with the intentions of most other indie labels. “I’m in it for the long haul. I like being really artist-friendly,” says Morrison (though so does just about every other indie label employee). “My philosophy is not hitting a bunch of home runs, but making base hits every day. Putting another brick on the foundation each day. I like to accomplish something we’ve never done before at least once a month, and we’ve been successful at doing that.”
Morrison also employs a risky A&R attitude, which has proven to be surprisingly successful. “My A&R guys are the bands. They know me well enough to know what I like and what I don’t like. They’re my best A&R guys out there,” says Morrison.
Backgammon is very clear to point out his reasons for sticking with MoRisen through its period of growth. The Sammies’ popularity has expanded rapidly in recent months; they are without doubt one of the largest indie rock acts in the Charlotte area. Backgammon attributes this to Morrison’s strategic planning and absolute devotion to the bands on his label.
“You can call and actually talk to Chuck - we have face to face meetings often. We didn't run the risk of not being a priority on some bigger label, shoved to the back burner,” says Backgammon. “We really like the semi-romantic idea of us, a Charlotte band, and MoRisen, a Charlotte label, teaming up and putting Charlotte on the musical map. All we can do is continue to both work as hard as we can, and no one can knock us for trying at least. Good things happen every day now, and it is an exciting time for all at MoRisen.”
WHO: Morning State, The Pendletons, Freeze Tag
WHERE: Caledonia Lounge
WHEN: Thursday, January 25
HOW MUCH: $6
WHO: The Sammies, Walcott, Trial By Fire
WHERE: Tasty World
WHEN: Friday, January 26
HOW MUCH: $5
Tishamingo Gets To The Point
The Local Southern Rock Band Readies Its Third Album For The New Year
originally published January 24, 2007
Tishamingo
The two royal families of Southern rock remain the Allman Brothers Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd. It took me years to have an appreciation of either, and even more to begin to claim any particular love for them. I’m glad that happened before I came across Tishamingo a couple of years back.
Prior to my embrace of the classics, I probably would've dismissed Tishamingo as just another Southern jam band without anything to offer me. The fact is, Tishamingo has precious little in common with your typical noodly-guitar-solo, space-case jam band. The group may share some of the same stages, and even some fans, but that’s the way things go sometimes.
Tishamingo’s newest album The Point will see official release on Feb. 20, but the band - Cameron Williams (guitar, vocals), Jess Franklin (guitar, keyboard, vocals), Richard Proctor (drums) and Chuck Thomas (bass) - plays its Athens album release show this week. Produced by John Kurzweg, who's worked on albums by Creed and Jewel, The Point sounds great, particularly in a purely sonic sense. The album, Tishamingo's third, also sees the band expanding its musical palette, veering into new styles. Flagpole spoke with Tishamingo's Cameron Williams recently about the new album and the band's future.
- Flagpole
- How did you come to work with John Kurzweg?
- Cameron Williams
- Really we were just plain lucky and it was good timing. We had known Kurz from years before in Tallahassee, FL. That is where [Tishamingo member] Richard Proctor and I are from, and had worked with Kurz back in '96 with a band [we were in] called Uptown Rudy. Towards the end of the "Rudy sessions" he informed Richard and me that he would not be able to finish the project. It seemed that this other band he had worked with before us called Creed was going to demand all of his time and he thought they were really about to hit the big time.
- Anyway, a few weeks went by and Kurz was right. Creed hit the big time.
- Years had gone by and we continued to stay in touch. I know that John was pretty exhausted. I think that he was ready to sort of take a break from the whole music biz and the whole rock star thing. That's where we came in.
- Last year, we had the opportunity to do a show with Son Volt and The Black Crowes in Phoenix and decided to pay Kurz a visit at his new home in Santa Fe, NM. I could say that we were invited, but I'm not sure that would be the whole truth. Let's just say that Richard told Kurz the dates that we would be pulling up his driveway in Santa Fe to stay a few days, show him some new songs, and give him an opportunity to record in his newly built studio. We showed up and really had a great few days together. After this time together , we knew that we had to record our next album with him, and thank God he agreed to do it.
- Flagpole
- The new album exhibits different styles, or at least more dramatic styling, than the previous two. Notably, "Bad News" is a ZZ Top-style rave-up and "This Time" sounds to me like it could've been a Bill Withers outtake. Is the band becoming more comfortable expanding its sound?
- Cameron Williams
- Man… I hear what you are saying, and you're right, those two songs are very different. However, we feel that this album has more of a cohesive "sound" overall than our other two. While the songs you mentioned are different , we felt like this was our third album and we knew a little more of what we were doing and a little more of how Tishamingo sounds. We heard the difference in the songs and felt like it wasn't too much of a stretch.
- On more of a serious note, one of the main things that has happened in the past few years to our sound is that Jess, our vocalist-guitar player, started playing keys onstage. He started playing the Fender Rhodes onstage a few years ago and it added a whole new dimension to his and our writing and our overall sound. Once the keys came onstage, it was like, “Ah… that is the sound that we have been looking for.”
- I feel like if you listen to the other two albums, the sound of the band is all over the place. Don't get me wrong, I'm very proud of both of those albums, but I feel like we have more of a cohesive overall sound on this album.
- Flagpole
- What was it like on the [Lynyrd Skynyrd sponsored] Gimme Three Days cruise? I looked at the lineup and only liked about a third of the bands, but it sounded like a blast.
- Cameron Williams
- It was a blast. Talk about some fans. We love Lynyrd Skynyrd, but these folks that came on this cruise love Skynyrd. They’re total die-hards. First, I do have to say this, even with only two original Skynyrd members present [Billy Powell and Rickey Medlocke], they brought it. For a band that has been through what Skynyrd has, they've still got "it." I know that without Ronnie [Van Zant, Skynyrd’s original vocalist] they won’t have the genius writing that he brought to the table, but for playing the old Skynyrd songs it was as close as you can get, and it rocked. I got the feeling that Ronnie would tip his hat to the show that I saw on the boat.
- The cruise was sort of our New Year’s party and a great way to kick off 2007. As soon as we got to the Miami airport baggage claim, we ran into Rickey Medlocke and you would have thought that we were old friends. He was as nice and happy as could be. It was nice to see a musician that has been through so much with a smile on his face and excited to be playing music. He asked us about the band and even told us some great Skynyrd stories late at night that really gave me chill bumps. You just can't do shit like they used to… you'll go to jail.
- My favorite part of the boat was getting to meet and play with other musicians also on the boat. We are all touring acts and rarely get to hear each other. There was a great interaction on the boat and it wasn't a competitive thing. In fact, there were a handful of us every night who would meet up at the last bar that was open with a small stage and a little P.A. and we would drink and just play songs every night till the sun came up.
- FP: What are your plans for the coming year and the promotion of the new album?
- Cameron Williams
- It’s back to touring as usual. We've had it pretty easy as far as touring goes since Thanksgiving, and we decided not to play a New Year's show this year to give everyone a little chance to catch their breath. We're rested and ready to start pushing this album and try to take it to a new level. We are very excited about some of the rooms that we are finally getting into… and of course we're very glad that we're doing our first CD release party here in Athens at the 40 Watt.
- The 40 Watt has been great to us and we love to play there. We wanted to do something to go along with this show at Nuçi's Space, but our touring just wouldn't allow us to do a show there around this time. So what we're doing is giving $5 to Nuçi's for every copy of The Point we sell that night. We appreciate Nuçi's and really feel lucky to have a resource like that in our community, and really want to give back. It should be a great night and we're really looking forward to it.
WHO: Tishamingo, Strawberry Flats
WHERE: 40 Watt Club
WHEN: Thursday, January 25
HOW MUCH: $8
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