A Free Man

A Free Man’s Best of South Australia series continues with Adelaide’s No Through Road. Founded by Matt Banham in 2000, No Through Road has been churning out fetching lo-fi tunes at a heady pace. Matt’s hooked up with a regular band these days and their most recent record “Too Much or Not Enough” has just been re-released by Unstable Ape records. Matt was kind enough to take a seat on the virtual couch for a chat with A Free Man.

AFM: First of all, from what I’ve been able to glean from the internet, it seems that you are the soul and core of No Through Road but that you’ve recently added some regular players. Can you tell me who’s who in the band and what they play?

MB: Well, it started as just me in my room with a 4-track making songs that I didn’t really expect that many people to like but I just had to do it. I did that for a few years and then in early 2005 I picked some of my fave musicians from Adelaide and got them to join my band. Since then its been lots of fun because I was gettin’ kinda bored playing on my own all the time, and they have helped me to write a lot.
Currently the members are Steph Crase, Ianto Ware, Nic Datson, Marcin Kobylecki and Dexter Campos. They all swap around a lot so they don’t really have any main instruments.

AFM: I love the spontaneous, shambolic, sing-a-long quality if your 2005 internet only release “Lo-fi Sandwich”. Based on your most recent track on your MySpace page (“Rock N Roll”) I get the impression that your sound might be changing. This track is cleaner, more polished and straight-ahead rock? Is there a stylistic change in the works?

MB: I wouldn’t say too much of a style change just a change in how we record. Everything before this has been pretty much just done at home one a computer or multi-track tape recorder thing. Now with the band it’s gotten a lot harder to do that. And the live sound is great so I really want to capture that. I guess I’ve also been trying not to repeat myself too much so the songs on the upcoming album are a bit different from my older stuff. I guess I just don’t really wanna keep repeating the same old thing again and again.

AFM: One of my favorites off of that LP was “The Final Song for Ally McBeal”. Is there a story behind that track that you’d like to share?

MB: A lot of people like that song. I have grown to hate it now, I think probably mostly cause its so repetitive which I grow quickly bored of. I stole parts of it from a Modest Mouse song. I guess it’s just a song about the repetitive nature of my reaction to failing relationships. When I played it to a friend he said it sounded like a song you would hear on the end of “Ally McBeal” hence the name.

AFM: Okay then, you hate Ally McBeal, fair enough. What’s your favorite track from your archives these days?

MB: I think “Reason to Fight” and “Girl” are probably my favourite songs from that album. I think “Black & White” from “Monkey on a Rock” is probably my best song. I’m quite proud of that one.

AFM: What made you decide to release ‘Lo-Fi Sandwich’ for free on the net? Did you get what you hoped out of the experiment?

MB: Before I got signed to Unstable Ape, I made music on CD-Rs. I sold them for cost price to people just in the hope to get as many people out there to hear my music. I have never really expected to make much money or any money from my music, but I love the thought of lots of people hearing it. The internet is so good for that so I am happy to put lots of mp3s up. I made that album when there were delays in recording our last album ‘too much or not enough’. I was bored of waiting so I did it really quick and stuck it on the net. It’s gotten a good reaction over the years it’s been online, and heaps of downloads, which is pretty cool. It’s nice to know that people all over the world have heard my music.

AFM: That experimental lo-fi sound prevails in a lot of the tracks I listened to on your site. I hear Stephen Malkmus, Scott Kannberg, Mark E. Smith. Who do you hear when you’re writing and playing?

Continue Reading »

 

 No Through Road - "Hey Ya!" [2:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 No Through Road - "Black & White" [3:47m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 No Through Road - "Reason To Fight" [2:18m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Popularity: 21% [?]

“Well, I took a stroll on the old long walk
Of a day -I-ay-I-ay
I met a little girl and we stopped to talk
Of a fine soft day -I-ay-I-ay…”

-Steve Earle - “The Galway Girl”

I should cut Steve Earle some slack. Yes, his last couple of albums have pretty much sucked. But without Steve Earle, it’s possible I never would have landed my lady love.

After I met Dr. O’C on a frigid February night in Misery, she returned to her job in SoCal. But I, smitten, spent many an hour figuring out ways to woo her to me. The idea I came up with was the mix CD with a message - always an effective wooing tool. Among other songs, I included Earle’s wonderful ode to an Irish love “The Galway Girl”.

Except that told her that I would change this verse:

“And I ask you, friend, what’s a fella to do
‘Cause her hair was black and her eyes were blue
So I took her hand and I gave her a twirl
And I lost my heart to a Galway girl…”

To this:

“And I ask you, friend, what’s a fella to do
‘Cause her hair was red and her eyes were green
So I took her hand and I gave her a twirl
And I lost my heart to a Corcaigh girl…”

Yep, believe it or not, that worked.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to my two favorite Irish.

 

 Steve Earle - "The Galway Girl" [3:05m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Popularity: 14% [?]

I listened to k.d. lang’s album “Drag” on repeat while I was quitting smoking last year, so she’ll always have a special place in my heart. Her new LP, “Watershed” came out in January and what I’ve heard of it is outstanding. The steel guitar alone on “I Dream of Spring”, an appropriate track for a rainy English Sunday, is worth the price of admission.

MP3: k.d. lang - “I Dream of Spring”

London’s Blah Blah Blah firmly occupy a strange patch of musical turf somewhere in between Blur and Goldie Lookin’ Chain. Check out the oddly charming “Hopeless & Lazy”. Blah Blah Blah are on a UK tour and I bet they would be worth checking out live.

MP3: Blah Blah Blah - “Hopeless & Lazy”

I loved Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins “Rabbit Fur Coat” so much that I was thrilled to see that the Twins have a solo, er duo, record coming out soon. “Fire Songs” is due in June on Vanguard and, if this Cure cover is a good sample, will be a must.

MP3: The Watson Twins - “Just Like Heaven”

Brooklyn’s MGMT get the Best Lyrics of the Week award for…

“I’ll move to Paris, shoot some heroin and fuck with the stars.
You man the island and the cocaine and the elegant cars…”

…and Worst Website of the Week for this. “Time to Pretend” is off their debut “Oracular Spectacular”; it is synth heavy but fantastic.

MP3: MGMT - “Time to Pretend”

I’m really into lush folk-tinged indie music right now and Portland’s Loch Lomond really fit the bill. Their latest, “Paper the Walls” is out on CD or for download.

MP3: Loch Lomond - “A Field Report”

Frightened Rabbit is a Scottish quartet formed in 2004 by brothers Scott and Grant Hutchinson. “The Modern Leper” is from the forthcoming sophomore LP “Sing The Greys. “The Modern Leper” has got a building, driving tempo that makes it feel urgent - great vocals as well.

MP3: Frightened Rabbit - “The Modern Leper”

Nick Lowe has reissued his 1978 LP “Jesus of Cool”. It’s a record I’m not at all familiar with from an artist that, beyond “Cruel to be Kind” I’m not terribly familiar with. I hear bits of Jackson Brown, Brian Wilson and The Who in “So It Goes”. New to me - but great stuff.

MP3: Nick Lowe - “So It Goes”

Voice of the Seven Woods is Mancunian instrumentalist Rick Tomlinson. “Return from Byzantium”, which is featured on his new self-titled record, has a bit of a Western feel to it - reminiscent of Calexico. The new album is out and available from Twisted Nerve.

MP3: Voice of the Seven Woods - “Return from Byzantium”

More folk-tinged pop from These United States whose debut “The Three of Us at the Gates of Eden” was released earlier this month. The DC outfit’s “First Sight” is undeniably catchy.

MP3: These United States - “First Sight”

Number ten is a grower. Strangers Die Everyday, also out of Portland, is a strange post-rock instrumental act. Their debut full length ‘Aperture For Departure’ came out earlier this month on This Generation Tapes. One of the tracks off that LP, “Bicycle” really got into my head this week all the more upon repeated listens. It’s a slightly odd fusing of a string quartet with a rock band’s rhythm section, but I don’t think you hear enough music these days with a cello.

MP3: Strangers Die Everyday - “Bicycle”

Popularity: 34% [?]

…he spent the whole day screaming.

Popularity: 5% [?]

As a geneticist I knew, intellectually, that my son would be 50% identical to me at the DNA level. What I didn’t realize was what that meant in real life - that I would look at him and often see myself looking back. It is not like a mirror because it’s three dimensional and tangible and real and his mother is there as well. I can see the best and worst of both of us. It is equal parts frightening and fabulous. Frightening because at six months old I can’t imagine life without him now. Fabulous because he brings out an unselfish love of which I didn’t know I was capable.

I think that he looks at me and sees the same thing I do. For him, it seems a lot simpler - the familiarity makes him smile and that just melts my heart.

 

 Barenaked Ladies - "What A Good Boy": Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Popularity: 10% [?]

That’s the way one of my favorite live albums starts, that deep baritone voice, with the soft Southern accent. This is followed by one of the most familiar guitar licks you’ll ever hear and…

“I hear the train a comin’
It’s rollin’ ’round the bend,
And I ain’t seen the sunshine,
Since, I don’t know when,
I’m stuck in Folsom Prison,
And time keeps draggin’ on…”

The other day we were playing the baby Johnny Cash - the Sun Records version of “I Walk the Line”, in his/her continuing pre-natal musical education, and he or she went crazy, started kicking like Michael Flatley. We’ve interpreted this response as the baby enjoying the music - we’re glass half full kind of people. Now I found this kind of odd, I mean what’s in Johnny Cash for an unborn baby, where are the bits for him/her to relate to? Sometimes I think about things too much, but it got my memory working.

Some of the first music I remember hearing when I was a kid was Johnny Cash. When we first moved to Florida, my dad had a big green Mercury Marquis with an 8-track cassette player and was a big fan of Cash’s “Folsom/San Quentin” live album. I can remember driving in that car with the windows down (no A/C) in the Florida summer just melting into the vinyl seats, with my Dad singing the chorus:

“When I was just a baby, my mama told me, ‘Son,
Always be a good boy; don’t ever play with guns.’ But I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die.
When I hear that whistle blowin’ I hang my head and cry… ”

That’s the only verse he ever sung. I’m convinced to this day that my Dad knows only one verse to about a hundred songs. Continue Reading »

Popularity: 21% [?]

“Not on your arm
Not on your leg
Not in the toast
Not in the eggs
Not on the carpet
Nor the linoleum
Just how’d your little brother get it smeared all over him…”

-Over the Rhine - “The Poopsmith Song”

The strains of preparing for a trans-continental move must be getting to me because I’m finding the blogging juices have run bone dry again at this week’s end. Dehisced, I’m resorting to miscellaneous tidbits again

First, an update on my quest for decent kids music. Dr. O’C hooked me up with a compilation from Nettwerk Records called “For The Kids Three”. It features kid-friendly songs from different indie artists - the likes of Moby, The Barenaked Ladies, Of Montreal and many more. I’ve posted a couple of my favorites - Over the Rhine’s “The Poopsmith Song” and Great Lake Swimmers’ “See You On The Moon”. Before listening to these, I’ve got to tell you that “The Poopsmith Song” is deviously catchy. Even if you don’t have kids it is very possible that you will wander around for the rest of the day singing “poop in the potty, poop goes in the potty”. You’ve been warned. Great Lake Swimmers‘ “See You On The Moon” is really the better song. I liked it so much that I went in search of more music from these guys. Their “proper” music is this wonderful nature inspired indie-folk - all banjo and acoustic guitar and glockenspiel. I tracked down Tony Dekker, the heart and soul of Great Lake Swimmers, and got him to sit down with me on the virtual coach for an interview. It’s up today at A Free Man - check it out!

———-

Maybe I should start a new feature, call it Lazy Ass Friday, in which I seek to entertain my gentle readers by sending them somewhere else.

1. Judgmental cat is unpleased
2. Let’s get something straight
3. Chaos Theory: March 2008
4. The Sacajawea Theory, v 2.0
5. Vacation, All I Ever Wanted; Vacation, Had To Get Away

——–

Excellence? Wow, after I just shifted all of my writing responsibility for the day to other bloggers? Well, fellow expat blogger (and fan of alliteration) Kathy at What Do I Know gives me more credit than I give to myself. Thanks, thoroughly thrilled and titillated. I’m meant to pass it on and I think I’ll go out on a limb and offer this award to someone I don’t know so well. Ray at Nitro Vista got a well deserved, and much sought after, “I fucking love you” review from the hard to please folks of Ask And Ye Shall Receive. He’s a fellow “daddy blogger” up in the wilds of a Wisconsin college town. He’s apparently also a Wilco fan and as any Wilco fan should, has a witty, wry way with words. He deserves this award much more than your underwhelming narrator.

“For The Kids Three” is available from Amazon.

 

 Over the Rhine - "The Poopsmith Song" [2:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Great Lake Swimmers - "See You On The Moon" [4:09m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Popularity: 21% [?]

Since becoming a parent, actually since I knew I was to become a parent, I’ve been planning my strategy to avoid spending the next several years listening to The Wiggles. In addition to exposing my baby boy to my favorites, I’ve been checking out the occasional “kids” compilation by “adult” artists. Last autumn, my partner bought me Nettwerk’s “For The Kids Three” which featured tracks by Moby, Over the Rhine, The Barenaked Ladies, Of Montreal and others. This was a great compilation both because it was full of clever and well-played kids music and because it introduced me to the Great Lake Swimmers.

Great Lake Swimmers is the vehicle for Toronto based singer-songwriter Tony Dekker’s pastoral folk-tinged music. They released a self-titled debut in 2003 and followed this up with two more records for Toronto’s weewerk. Last summer, Great Lake Swimmers released their big league debut “Ongiara”, on Nettwerk. On the latest record Dekker was joined by Erik Arnesen on guitar and banjo and Colin Huebert on percussion. “Ongiara” is full haunting, lyrical and seductively textured acoustic music.

Tony Dekker joined A Free Man on the virtual couch recently to answer a few questions about Great Lake Swimmers.

AFM: I’ve got to kind of abashedly admit that I first heard your music on a compilation called “For The Kids 3″. “See You On The Moon” was one of my favorite tracks off of that compilation and encouraged me to check out more of your music. How’d you get involved with that project?

TD: I was invited to contribute a children’s song to a compilation for a Toronto record label, and so wrote one & recorded it in an afternoon. It originally came out on Paperbag Records, on a compilation which they named “See You On The Moon!: Songs For Kids Of All Ages” after the song I wrote for it. That compilation also had Allan Sparhawk, and Sufjan Stevens on it, among others. The song was later picked up for the “For The Kids” series.

AFM: You grew up in Wainfleet, Ontario not far from my old hometown on the American side of the river. I think that the banks of the Niagara River are a beautiful part of the world. I get a really pastoral feeling from your music, particularly the most recent record “Ongiara”. How much of your inspiration is rooted in nature?

TD: I feel very much inspired by the natural world. I think there is an inherent mystery and spirituality in it, and I think it merits further investigation through song.

AFM: I love the string interaction between you and Erik Arnesen on the banjo on the latest record. I know that Great Lake Swimmers started out as a solo project. How long has that collaboration been going on and is it going to continue? Do you prefer to work alone or with the other players?

TD: I started playing with Erik some time in 2004. With the various incarnations of the band, we attempted to rearrange the songs, especially from the first album, for playing live. Leading up to the recording Bodies And Minds, we already had a good number of shows behind us, so continuing that lineup for that record was pretty natural. The interaction has gotten a lot more intuitive the more we’ve played together, and I think that has really come through on Ongiara. Writing is a pretty solitary act for me, but I like collaborating with people when I have something to start the conversation. Erik is definitely a core member of the GLS camp and I expect that our collaboration will continue until we are old and shriveled.

AFM: On your myspace page a fan asks: “When are you coming to Australia? Please, please please?” As someone who’s currently undergoing an Antipodean emigration I’d love to know the answer to that question. Continue Reading »

 

 Great Lake Swimmers - "Your Rocky Spine" [3:36m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Popularity: 21% [?]

Dear DNC,

I am writing regarding your recent request. First, I should say that I am not a Democrat. I am a pragmatic liberal and thus am often inclined to vote for your candidates. This has certainly been the case recently due to the giant fuck-up that has been the Bush Administration. But I feel no obligation to the Democratic Party nor to blindly support your candidates. I voted in the Republican Primary in Missouri in 2000 for John McCain because my preferred candidate, Bill Bradley, had already fallen by the wayside. I had every intent of voting for Ralph Nader in the 2000 general election right up until I got into the voting booth and saw “B-U-S-H” in black and white. My vote for Gore, however, ended up being as big a waste as a vote for Nader would have been. While living in Missouri, I consistently voted for Representative Kenny Hulshof (R-MO) and Senator Kit Bond (R-MO) because of what they were able to do for my part of the world.

But I have been there when you needed me. I’ve voted for every Democratic presidential candidate since I was old enough to vote (1989 for those who are counting).When the puritans were trying to take down Bill Clinton in 1998, I voted a straight Democratic ticket to send a message to let the whole witch hunt thing go. I voted a straight ticket again in the 2006 elections to try and stem the Bush madness. I was one of the groundswell of voters that gave you the House and Senate two years ago.

But now, you have asked me to pledge to support the party’s nominee, whoever that might be, in November. I’m afraid that you’ve gone a little to far and I’m going to have to go ahead and decline that request.

The Bush administration has been an unmitigated disaster. There are very few people who would argue with that statement and it is why I helped you gain control of Congress. You told me - no promised me -that if I voted for your candidates that you would stop Bush and Cheney. That you would start to get my country back. What have you done with the Congress? You have not stopped the war as promised. You have not seriously inhibited any of the Bush Administration’s initiatives. You have shown neither courage nor strength as an opposition party and in fact have been as accommodating to Bush as the G.O.P Congress before you.

I know there are lots of excuses for this failure to stem the Bush tide. I’ve heard them all before, but like most people excuses don’t really interest me. Action, resolve, strength, leadership - these are things that interest me. You have shown me none of those qualities. Your party is in a unique situation - the sitting president is wildly unpopular, there is no strong leader in the opposition party and they’ve nominated a septuagenarian who is unpopular amongst their base. Taking over the executive branch should be a cake walk. But rather than grasping that opportunity, you are going to bicker and tear one another apart. You’ve got a former president and vice-presidential candidate, who should be playing the role of wise elders of the party, acting as hatchetmen for one of the candidates. You’re making race and gender the biggest issues of this primary process rather than the issues that Americans really care about. You’re letting Florida (and Michigan) make a mess of yet another presidential election. You, in an incredibly undemocratic process, are going to let a handful of party insiders make a decision that could define a generation.

So, I hope that you will understand when I say no I shan’t pledge to support the nominee. You’ll have my vote if things go the right way. If they don’t, well, I will need to be convinced that your nominee is better for the country than John McCain, a person for whom I have voted once before. If you can’t do that, I still owe Nader a vote.

Sincerely,

A Voter

Popularity: 20% [?]

“When the shadows of this life have gone
I’ll fly away
Like a bird from these prison walls I’ll fly
I’ll fly away…”

-”I’ll Fly Away” - Traditional Hymn

On the rare occasions that I get homesick for the U.S. it’s for the Deep South, where I spent about half of my life and the good part of my formative years. The two things that I miss most about Dixie are the food and the music. New Orleans is kind of the hub for both of those things down south. When I heard the The Hot 8 Brass Band’s version of “Fly Away” the sounds, tastes and smells of Big Easy hit me almost viscerally.

A New Orleans jazz cover of an old Baptist hymn is a little bit of a departure for a music site that’s been focusing on up and coming indie artists. But, The Hot 8 Brass Band is so good that I just had to . Their version of “I’ll Fly Away” is more spiritually uplifting than anything you’re likely to hear in a church. This is classic New Orleans jazz, but it doesn’t fall into the trap of sounding like a pale tribute act. The Hot 8 boys are spontaneous, funky, improvisational and even a little sloppy sometimes. They spoon some rock, a little funk, a dash of soul and hip-hop to taste into their pot and mix it up into an irresistible gumbo.

I’ve posted “Fly Away” as well as The Hot 8 Brass Band’s cover of the Marvin Gaye classic “Sexual Healing”. If you like these two tracks then check out “Rock with the Hot 8 Brass Band” - available from Amazon, or eMusic.

MP3: The Hot 8 Brass Band - “Fly Away”
MP3: The Hot 8 Brass Band - “Sexual Healing”

Popularity: 13% [?]