Sonoi/Judson Claiborne; January 16, 2010; The Project Lodge

I hadn’t been to the Project Lodge since it had changed hands. Just in case they no longer allowed patrons to stop by the charming Cork & Bottle liquor store down the block and bring their own to the show, I figured we had better go have a drink the Caribou prior to show time. I should have known better. The venue hadn’t changed much since the last time I was there, and they were keeping its best feature in place. I’m also not sure why I thought it would actually start at the listed time of 7:30, but all of those factors (plus foolishly not eating dinner) converged, leading to a pretty healthy buzz before the show even started. Even so, I am convinced that I would have been fine if it hadn’t been for the overly large bottle of cherry dopplebock that Michelle proclaimed icky and handed to me.

Openers Judson Claiborne, which like Richmond Fontaine and Milton Mapes isn’t exactly the name of anyone in the band, finally took the stage at 8:30. I figured they held off starting hoping that more people would show up, but even though the room was bare before they came out it magically filled in pretty decently after they took the stage. Lead singer Chris Salveter had contacted me previously about playing at the house. I liked their MySpace stuff, especially their cover of James’s “Ring the Bells” but told them I usually don’t book bands I haven’t seen. I’m not sure how well they would draw, but they would certainly sound good in the basement as they played a pretty, atmospheric set. Percussionist Jamie Topper (girl) shook weird bracelets of wood pieces, tapped a set of congas and struck little metal cowbells while Darrell Greiwe strummed electric guitar and a forlorn banjo. Sad-eyed Salveter in his gigantic bunny fur hat played sweet acoustic melodies and told musical stories with Jamie Carter (boy) keeping time on drums.

I’ve known bass player/keyboardist Ryan Hembrey for a long time, but as much as I adore him as a person, I’ve only been about 50/50 on the bands he’s in. The amount I love Chris Mills is equal to how bored I am by Edith Frost, the degree to which I was enchanted by Can-Ky-Ree proportional to how grating I found Manishevitz. So I was a little worried when I found out that the same Adam Busch who fronted that band and whose voice was my main complaint was also the singer in Sonoi. Turns out that Manishevitz just wasn’t the right band for him, but this is. Huh, turns out he’s better at whispering than yelling, sitting instead of jumping around. In addition to his usual duties on bass, Hembrey also played keyboards and I-Mac. The trio was completed by drummer Pierce Doerr, shaggily handsome boy who was as good a drummer as he was a ping pong player. Though being a little drunk, I’m not sure how good a judge of either I was. I do know he didn’t lose a game all night.

Judson Claiborne








Sonoi

The Hussy/The Midwest Beat/The Zygoteens; January 14, 2010; The Frequency

The Hussy is known as much for their blistering rock as they are for their short sets. It’s a smart move; they knock you out and leave you wanting more. Seems they have the same approach to releasing their music. They have yet to release a full length CD, preferring instead to offer a series of 7” singles split with other local bands. The first of these was with the terrific Sleeping in the Aviary, while tonight’s show celebrated their collaborative effort with the excellently named Milwaukee band the Zygoteens. (In between was the even more unlikely split cassette release with Nashville band Bad Cop.) I had prohibited myself from going out until I finished my CD review that was due the next day, so I missed half of the Zygoteens’ set in addition to Screaming Cyn Cyn’s opening set. What I did hear was some catchy stuff, and I wish I’d heard more.

The last time I’d seen the Hussy at the Frequency they were the sole highlight between disastrous sets from usually dependable bands. It seemed they were destined to fill that role again tonight. The Midwest Beat is a really good band. Their excellent 2009 release At the Gates might have made my best of list had I bought it before the third week of December. Punchy, 60’s style rock with loud guitars and sweet vocals, it’s nothing that hasn’t been done before, but there’s a lot to like. They tried, but they couldn’t quite get it together tonight, and they knew it. Guitarist/vocalists Matt Joyce and Kyle (who replaced original member Ryan Adams) tuned frequently but still never sounded quite right. “I used to love the Mustang,” Joyce laughed, referring to his Fender guitar, “but I’m having a hard time taming her tonight.” At the end of their set, he promised that the Hussy was going to rock our asses because they had just been f’ing up. I declared their set “mostly awful” afterward, though it was an endearing kind of awful.

As predicted, the Hussy saved the night (again). And as usual, they did it in twenty minutes or less. Much of the magic here comes from behind the drum kit. Heather Sawyer bends low over her drums, beating the hell out of her kit, looking much like Dick the Bruiser’s Tony Sellers, screaming vocals in a tug-o-war with guitarist Bobby Wegner. It’s a visceral, garage-y wall of sound; you’d never guess it’s coming from just two people. The song that always gets my attention is the one with the line “Let’s go out and drink tonight,” and it’s destined to become my new theme song. And if it is also the same one that ends “cha cha cha” (the way all songs should end) then I am not sure why I don’t see them every time they play. Perhaps I can only see them when I really need them. Which is kinda cool too.

The Midwest Beat




The Hussy

Loud Guitars & Lemon Bars; January 11, 2010; High Noon Saloon

Benefit concerts are always a good idea. The bands donate all the money they make to a good cause and we all get to see a good show. But pairing a benefit show with a bake sale was an absolute stroke of genius. It’s hard to imagine a better crowd to which to market baked goods, cookies go surprisingly great with beer and the folks who may have been ingesting other less legal substances always need snacks. I made three trips to the two pool tables full of treats as more goodies arrived, and spent nearly twenty bucks on cupcakes, bars, and a couple of adorable stocking hats, one with “lover” knit into the band, the other “supervillain.”

Today’s benefit was to ease the financial burden from medical bills for Jack and Shawn, a music-loving couple with a lot of friends in bands. Judging by Shawn’s sincere and tearful introduction to start the day, this effort was greatly appreciated. The first band on the solid four band bill was Tornadic, a cover band composed of members from two of the other bands playing. Lisa Marine and Julia Zeimer from the Pointy Birds, and Jason Jensen and Bill Borowski from the United Sons of Toil played a short set of well-chosen covers. Most were sung by Borowski, who I’d never really heard sing despite the fact that he is the lead singer of the Arge, and does backing vocals in the Toil. His vocals in those bands consist of more screaming than singing, so it was a very pleasant surprise to find out he can sing. I can also say he looks pretty adorable in an argyle cardigan.

They were followed by the best named band in Madison, the Hemlines. They have been playing pretty much the same set since I first saw them, but it’s always entertaining. It is hard to resist Erika Zar’s earnest vocals and charming songs. They were followed by the Pointy Birds who I was seeing for the second time in a month after having missed all of their previous shows. I still don’t know their songs well enough to tell one from the other but they do sound good. At the end of their set, Pete Kaesburg was called to the stage and he and Zeimer (as the Judge & Julia) covered Neil Young’s “Marlon Brando, Pocahontas, and Me,” a great song well suited to their voices.

The Toil had been taking a bit of a break after an ambitious tour through the Midwest and near-weekly local shows, so it was good to see them back on a stage. I think they missed playing as much as I missed seeing them. Lead singer/guitarist Russell Hall sang and played with fiery conviction while the solid rhythm section unleashed a pummeling behind him. It was pretty awesome. And just like that five hours had gone by. Everyone in the large crowd seemed to have done their part at the bake sale but a surprising amount of goodies still remained, and Shawn encouraged everybody to take what they wanted. I passed since I had already satisfied my appetite for sweets and for music.

Tornadic




The Hemlines


The Pointy Birds




The United Sons of Toil

Ogham; January 9, 2010; Liz's House of Irish Music

Micah Schnabel/ Time Since Western; January 8, 2010; Kiki’s House of Righteous Music

When Two Cow Garage played the High Noon Saloon in August I found out two important things. The first was that bassist Shane Sweeney was going to be a dad (and was pretty excited about it), the second was that lead singer/guitarist Micah Schnabel was putting out a solo record and wanted to do a show at the house after it was released. When the Stage Lights Go Dim came out in October as a self-release and was picked up by Suburban Home Records to be re-issued next month. I’d only had it for a few days when it came time to make my best of the year list and CD, but I didn’t hesitate to add it to the mix. Micah has a voice that’s raw and full of emotion. On top of a band he sounds like he’s been on the road since the day he was born, but over an acoustic guitar it’s the sound of someone spilling their guts. Stage Lights couldn’t be mistaken for anything other than autobiographical. It’s about playing rock and roll in the Heartland, partying too hard, and all the while believing you’re invincible and that love conquers all.

With Shane out on paternity leave, now was as good a time as any to tour the solo record. There were a string of east coast dates before the holidays and a short tour through the Midwest after. Micah has always been the guy who slept in the back of the van while Shane drove. That had to make heading out on his own interesting, but he was doing just fine. In fact, it certainly seemed to be working for him. He was selling a ton of merch every night, even though he couldn’t always locate the right size or color T-shirt. Tonight he tossed them onto the floor as he looked through the box for that elusive small. It wasn’t a surprise that he sold a lot of CDs, he’d just spent an hour convincing them they couldn’t live without it.

Their full band shows are always kick ass rock shows, but somehow the solo show was even more impressive. After opening with “American Static” which may be Stage Light’s strongest track, he mixed the new songs with tunes from their last CD and a few choice covers. The Replacements bubbly “Can’t Hardly Wait” gets slowed down on the record, making Justin Townes Earle’s pedantic version sound hurried. Petty’s “American Girl” and Springsteen’s “No Surrender” were perfect for his growling voice and frantic acoustic. At times he was so involved in the song he would step back from the microphone, letting the basement amplify his voice.

I’d been asking Time Since Western’s Andy Brawner to come play the basement since seeing the band over a year ago. At that time his bass player had quit the band and he didn’t know what their future would be. After the drummer moved away, the band is now just Andy. After his set tonight, I’m convinced he doesn’t need a rhythm section at all, unless they’ve got some jokes to tell. Between every song he bemoaned the fact that he was terrible at the banter thing, going so far as to practice it with his wife and making a list of conversation bullet points. Having no banter turned out to be all the banter he needed. He played most of his debut release A Sun Goes Down, in addition to a handful of new songs, most of which he insisted he was crazy to try to play out they were so new. In fact, the only song I know that he didn’t play was the impressive new track “Dizzy,” which he had recorded at Smart Studios and you can hear on his MySpace page, because he didn’t have the right guitar.

Hopefully he now knows what Micah already knew, the basement is a great place to play. It was an awesome start to a new year.

Time Since Western




Micah Schnabel