Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Folk
free for
you
and me
a sort of
leavetaking.
LIKE THE INNARDS OF A STOMACH, HEREIN ARE THE GUTS OF THIS ISSUE
COVER ELVA BERGER TOOK A PHOTO OF HER SON. HIS NAME IS BERGER. JON BERGER… 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS THIS VERY PAGE. I T 'S WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING AT . PRETTY, AIN'T IT? 2
DEBE DALTON INTERVIEWED IN THE 1ST ISSUE, FEATURED IN OUR LAST . HERB SCHER REPORTS. 4
THE W OWZ BREAKING NEWS: DEENAH VOLLMER TELLS US THAT SAM GROSSMAN ISN'T SAM JAMES. 7
MR. ROGERS JOCELYN MACKENZIE ON WATCHING PBS PROGRAMMING. 12
OJ ALL DAY OLIVE JUICE MUSIC PUTS TOGETHER IT'S SECOND ANNUAL FESTIVAL. READ ALL ABOUT IT. 15
URBAN JOKES A SAMPLING OF MAGAZINES THAT THIS ONE IS NOT . 19
SOPHIST FOLK JJ HAYES, THIS MONTH, WRITES ABOUT MEDIEVAL ARCHITECTURE. HOW DOES HE DO IT ? 20
GET IN THE MINIVAN BROOK PRIDEMORE DOESN'T LIKE IDAHO. I S IT THE POTATOES? CHECK OUT PAGE 22
COSTELLO'S W EB JONATHAN BERGER RIPS OFF DAN COSTELLO'S SHIT . 23
OPEN MICS SOMER BINGHAM EXPLORES SEVERAL OF THE CITY'S OPEN MICS. W HICH ONES ARE GOOD? 24
SUBWAY STORIES JOE CROW RYAN, BUSKING NEAR THE TRAINS? HILARITY ENSUES! 26
RECORD REVIEWS THE LAST REVIEWS EVER IN AN INDEPENDENT URBAN FOLK. TREASURE THEM. LOVE THEM... 28
MARK SINNIS JONATHAN BERGER TRIES TO GET TO THE BOTTOM OF INTO AN UNHIDDEN FUTURE. 31
scribd.com
While touring as a musician in Europe Matt Roth found himself playing in small club nights and
music festivals, often put on by record labels to promote their artists. Back home, as the driving
force behind Olive Juice Music, Roth had already been running a record label, music distribution
company, recording studio, and web community for songwriters. In 2007, inspired by the EU, he
decided to add music presenter to Olive Juice’s repertoire and kicked off the first annual OJ All Day
festival at Cake Shop. More than 20 artists played and hundreds of people attended.
This year the festival expands to a second day and includes more than 30 acts, plus a craft sale, free
clothing and book exchange, and a bricks and mortar Olive Juice Store. Artists on the bill include
Jeffrey Lewis; folk-punk pioneer Roger Manning; Schwervon! (Roth’s duo with Nan Turner) and a
broad range of performers from the community that has gravitated around Olive Juice. The festival
will be presented Saturday and Sunday, May 24th and 25th at Cake Shop, 152 Ludlow Street on the
Lower East Side. “Last year’s fest was more successful than I ever could have imagined,” Roth
said. “We set the bar high for ourselves. There’s a kind of energy that surrounds a music festival. I
think it even elevated the performance levels of a lot of the acts that participated, and the positive
response was especially rewarding because so many people who played in the festival lent their
talents to putting it on.
Olive Juice Music was started in 1999 by Roth and Tom Nishioka as a web site and record label.
Stemming out of the scene at Sidewalk Café, Olive Juice expanded into a collective of artists, with
group meetings and members who paid dues. After finding that the collective format was hindering
the ability to get things done, the group eventually coalesced under Roth’s leadership and has grown
to provide a structure and support for a wide group of artists who value an independent approach to
creating, promoting, and distributing their work but remain tied to the spirit of mutual support that still
guides Olive Juice. “The phrase ‘inde-
pendent’ music suddenly seems too in-
dividualistic and disconnected,” says
Jeffrey Lewis, whose critically ac-
claimed new album 12 Crass Songs
(Rough Trade Records) was made at
Olive Juice’s recording studio. “OJ is
communal, locally-grown, supportive,
and not at all like most ‘indie’ labels
which are nowadays just smaller ver-
sions of major labels.”
The OJ All Day festival is a good op-
portunity to get a taste of Olive Juice.
More information is available at
2008.ojallday.com and a full schedule
with artist bios follows...
5:30 pm Dibs There’s a lot more than just music making going on in
this community, mini Cakeshop used records sale too.
Dibs is playing guitar. He is looking down at the guitar,
in order to play it. He will be looking down for hours of OJ Free Clothing and Book Exchange
the festival, during performances by Huggabroomstik Bring some! Take some!
H
e
r
Urban Toke
Play the
b piano…
F …in ten
o short
l years!
k
It’s 4:20. Do you know
s where your munchies are?
!
page 19 ~ Urban Folk issue 16 - the Final Curtain
Spandrel Monger
by JJ Hayes
It is all about the unknown. As our knowledge grows, if the need or desire for recognition and compensation
we find less to be new. Those with the greatest experi- are not present, still the independence of the quest is
ence among us state that such and such is not new; compromised by what others have declared to be known.
it’s been done before. But it is new to us, we who are It is not a free and independent quest unless the artist
less well versed. And then what was old, what has been is seeking what is new to the artist (but then there is
done before, becomes new to us. But what is new is no distinction between artists who think they do some-
what was once unknown. And if it contains within it thing totally new with artists who, in fact, do). Both are
enough of the unknown-to-us, it may prove fascinating. looking for something that is new to them individually.
It is all about the unknown. The pleasure I derive from But then the artist who mines the old, revisits it, works
any work of art seems to be that it either hits dead on with it as it is new to them, is also an explorer of the
an experience I already know, or communicates an same order.
experience I haven’t had. But even the former is about What then is the difference between an artist seeking
the unknown. My experience is not new, but hearing it to be new to the rest of the world and an artist seeking
told perfectly is new. I either did not know that another purely commercial gain? It seems these motivations
human had such an experience, or could appreciate threaten to obscure the truth that may be available to
such an experience, or could possibly communicate it the artist, alone which could be new to the rest of us. It
so well. The experience is old but the telling is new. is precisely what is known to the artist (and therefore
The new is the unknown being made manifest. We did considered unworthy of attention or even boring to them-
not know it was unknown until such time as it was selves), which may be unknown to others. That which
revealed. The unknown being made known is the new. is commonplace – personal ways of thought and phras-
Some of us strive mightily to make something new, ing and sense of sound and vision – may be unknown
only to be told that it is not new at all, that we are not to us, the recipients, until the artist is willing to share
fully conversant with the world of arts and letters to that work.
really see something for what it is. But such a view Artists are humans with a set of spandrels and maybe
conflates the individual critic’s personal knowledge with they are spandrels. A spandrel is an ornament on me-
a collective knowledge. It declares as objective and dieval architecture that seems to serve no useful pur-
eternal that which is contingent upon the accidents of pose. The term was adopted by Stephen Jay Gould for
space, time, technology, industry and the critic’s ex- a feature, a mutation which appears for whatever rea-
perience. It declares that the first to be recorded and son and may or may not be useful now but when cir-
known was in fact what is new. It leads in its worst cumstances change give the species with a particular
manifestations to a rejection of what seems superfi- spandrel an advantage. Or it may be a hindrance. By
cially old, accompanied by a failure to hear what is its nature, a spandrel is something whose origin is not
actually new. within the control of its possessor. It has been given, it
The converse is the artist who insists on the objective has arisen, it is what it is. Why these spandrels? What
newness and worth of their art and narcissistically re- will happen with these spandrels?
fuses to acknowledge that what is new to them is not The artist has to play, as Debe Dalton notes, and when
necessarily new to others. Having bought into the no- such a deep seated spandrel as having to play, to write,
tion that the new is important, they search through the to make art is unsupported by the surrounding popula-
limited range of what they have been told or personally tion near and far, family, friend and stranger, perhaps
know, and try to produce something, only to run up the artist just wants to be normal for a minute. To be
against hearers who say it has all been done before. normal, the artist may seek those possessed of simi-
The ability to produce something heralded as truly and lar spandrels.
objectively new, as a conscious and intentional act is The aforementioned Stephen Jay Gould was one of the
predicated on knowing what is known in the field. But authors of the concept of punctuated equilibrium. At
then the quest becomes driven by the need for the rec- the margins of any species arises a much smaller popu-
ognition of its newness, of its revolutionary character lation, perhaps a spandrel-bearing population, that in
against a standard set by others. More profoundly even short order replaces the existing species in a given
Urban Folk issue 16 - the Final Curtain ~ page 20
environment. Evolution does not progress gradually. It is the unknown revealing itself to the unknown. In-
There is a sudden change and then a period of equilib- deed, the artist searching and exploring is revealing
rium. But you are never going to know at a given time if something unknown about themselves to themselves,
the smaller population you inhabit, with its own pecu- and then that self-communication becomes a commu-
liar set of spandrels, will be the group that sweeps aside nication to others. So the artist must first be receptive
the old way of looking at things, or will simply continue to herself or himself and then send the words, music or
to exist at the margins or even be eradicated. Such is images outside themselves where the offer will be ac-
the world of music I guess; one never knows. cepted or rejected. When a hearer communicates in
All our conversations are about the unknown. You men- return that something new has been revealed, that is
tion something, I mention something; you reveal some- the unknown, the-will-someone-like-it of existence,
thing unknown to me, I reveal something unknown to making itself known.
you – even if it is only the fact that someone else has So the origin of all this is unknown. Where it ends or
had the same experience. whether it is going anywhere is unknown. The offer is
We desire to be heard. We seek audience. So there is an offer of the unknown to the unknown, which unknown
the unknown of receptivity. We want a lot of willing re- then responds with its own offer of the unknown –
cipients, but sometimes we only find a few. We want namely the acceptance or rejection of the unknown
perhaps the hall crowded with 3,000 simultaneous re- made known. And the artist may accept or reject that
cipients rather than a hundred different venues with an unknown-made-known.
average of 30 (if we can get even that). We can find out And so the mystery of origin and end, of history and
what enough people want and give it to them, but then transcendence, of offer and acceptance; of knowledge
we are not being heard. There are spandrels of recep- and love really goes on at every open mic, at every
tivity as well as spandrels of creativity. And all of that is performance of every show.
really unknown as well, until the artist finds new fans Maybe it’s the same with the art of living.
willing to reveal themselves.
Hey, maybe it’s the same with everything.
Costello’s
by Jonathan Berger
Web
There are a variety of old school AntiFolk chicks that I used to stalk, but then they left town or set up restraining
orders, and I lost touch. Luckily, with this newfangled tool, the internetz, I’ve been able to track down some of the
lovely ladies of my past. web). There are some obvious attacks on the
Brenda Kahn right from the left with a pretty twangy – almost
Brenda Kahn’s the reason I got into this ironically so – voice. I’m not loving the track,
whole AntiFolk business. It was trying to but any jibe against a political party is worth a
follow her around when I discovered the little support.
Fort... and everything changed. Now she’s The other track is better. “Forty Cent Raise,”
living in PA with a passel of kids and a featuring vocals from John Doe, speaks to pov-
real estate license, and I never get to hear erty level employment, where there is such a
her anymore. But: what’s this? She’s got a site up? thing as a forty cent raise. It was about fifty years ago
She’s got some songs there for downloading? She that the Pajama Game’s “Seven and a Half Cents” spoke
wants some money for them but she doesn’t police it to the same point. The song makes me ache for
in any way to make me cough up the dough? I’m in America, much more than the “Jesus” song. It’s good
heaven. Her MySpace page has some other songs, to hear Cindy Lee back in the saddle. Maybe she’ll get
but I think my favorite is “Regular Job.” Kahn’s style to tour for the new Beloved Stranger album, and I won’t
remains literate; she rhymes “statistic” and “ballistic” have to go online to listen to her stuff.
while she addresses issues of growing up, and grow- myspace.com/mscindyleeberryhill
ing out of her early dreams. These are home demos, I
believe, created entirely by Ms. Kahn herself. I’m glad Casey Scott
to have them. I go to this page a bunch.
I kind of loved Casey Scott for a little while. She was a
brendakahn.com/music.htm nutjob, but her performances could be electric, and her
songwriting was distinct. Even when singing a love song,
Cindy Lee Berryhill she was acerbic and edgy, the very height of AntiFolk
The original first lady of AntiFolk, the chick who inspired artistry. When she moved back to Portland, Scott cre-
a hundred Kirk Kelly songs, is now a mother in SoCal. ated Red Venus Love Army, “12-piece soulful rock or-
She’s also reinvented herself as an anti-country artist, chestra.” The three tracks up on MySpace have been
taking the same violent stand against the C&W format all I’ve had of them for a while, and… currently they’re
she once had against West Village folk. There are two gone. Why am I mentioning them, then? You should
songs from her new album on MySpace. One is the look for Casey Scott however you can. If you ever get
well-distributed, arrhythmic “When Did Jesus Become the chance to hear Red Venus Love Army, do so. “400
a Republican?” It’s been all over Neil Young’s Living Stars” is a standout.
With War site, and blog pages all over the world (wide myspace.com/redvenuslovearmy
Sidewalk Cafe
94 Avenue at East 6th Street
Mondays at 8pm / Sign-up at 7:30pm
Free admission / Two drink minimum
You probably don’t need me to tell you about the long-
est running open mic in New York City, where acts like
Regina Spektor, The Moldy Peaches, and Nellie
MacKay, have graced the stage. If you’re reading this,
you might even be sitting at it.
Founded and run by Lach, who also coined the term
“antifolk,” this is one of the most popular open mics in
the city and fosters a creative and often welcoming
singer-songwriter scene often until 3am. I was quite
intimidated by the open mic’s reputation for talent –
one posting on openmikes.org claimed that the first 20
acts are “usually so good you may decide to head home
and work at it some more” – so I put off playing for
months before finally showing up.
Sign-up is by lottery, which has its drawbacks and
merits; I’ve seen as many as 80 on the list, but the
page 25 ~ Urban Folk issue 16 - the Final Curtain
play are promoting a show while a many of the rest are pleasing was the variety: a bit of country, a bit of antifolk,
playing to try to get booked, so complete beginners a bit of rock, emo, spoken word, and even an impromptu
were a rarer breed. performance of “The Witch is Dead” by a half pint rock
The audience almost entirely consists of other singer- star in the making.
songwriters, making this less of an opportune place to The venue is a café/bookstore/publishing company
draw a larger fan base – though you will see email lists dedicated to democracy and the “voice of the people”
passed around and also receive multiple fliers for shows. (hence the name) and serving up food, organic wine,
The sound is generally quite good, though it can be a and beer on tap. It’s a cozy space complete with out-
little loud at times. When the weather is warm, the door seating, which is perfect for the warm summer
crowd spills into the street where some musicians even months ahead, and the crowd was generally support-
play impromptu shows. ive throughout the night. It wasn’t uncommon for a per-
Summary: Might be frustrating for a beginner; best for former to announce a show they were scheduled to
those who are looking to get booked and/or benefit play at Vox Pop. Also, most of the musicians mixed in
from networking, collaborating or being influenced by a cover or two along with their original material. My
the other singer-songwriters who hang out in and around favorite aspect of the night was the three song format –
the venue throughout the night. more of a mini-set than you’ll get at most of the more
Vox Pop popular open mics I’m used to playing around the city.
1022 Cortelyou Road at Coney Island Avenue It was a little hard for me to hear my guitar and looper
Brooklyn, NY pedal during my set – the speakers are in front of the
Sundays at 7pm stage, and there are no monitors – but the crowd was
2 drink or snack minimum respectfully quiet, so this wasn’t too much of a draw-
No doubt this open mic is worth the hike out to south back. A closing praise of the night: most people stuck
Brooklyn via the Q train. Sign up is at 7pm, but despite around until the last few performances to listen and
showing up about 20 minutes late, there were only about encourage them, so the last of us didn’t have to play to
15 people already on the list. The night that I played a completely empty room. We left just as the host was
seemed a bit “front loaded” with experience – I imagine finishing his closing set around 11pm. Late for a school
the regulars are more timely than the rookies – but I night, but early for a open mic!
thought the overall concentration of talent was awe- Summary: For beginners or pros; a cool night to spend
some considering the size of the open mic. Even more in a part of Brooklyn you’ve probably never been to.
Subway Stories
How Was Work, Honey?
by Joe Crow Ryan photo by Herb Scher
Though being a full time musician (2-4 hrs a day, al- songs? You can usually at least get the genre ,era or,
most every day) seems romantic and exciting- even to sometimes, the artist), someone offers, “I’ll give you
me – it is a job. five dollars to shut the fuck up!”
If you have a job, you have a routine. While the musi- Reflexively, I rejoin, “Ten dollars! Though if there are
cian has the benefit of the occasional instant gratifica- any other bidders....”
tion of warm applause, unbridled esteem and the deep- “Just Shut the fuck up!” he persists.
est of smiles from beautiful women and men* (every-
one is beautiful when they smile at me), most days are I pause to look around (I only have one ear, so cannot
like yours: nothing really happens. tell from which direction a sound comes). Off to my
left, about ten yards off, I see some surly-postured,
Seeing my last story in this mag made me think, “What angrily motioning and tall black man. He continues mut-
has happenned worth writing and reading?” tering in a smoldering sort of way.
Well, whaddaya know? See what happenned. Did I mention that the slowly running L-Train had just
I am playing at my favorite station after midnight and disgorged a great number of passengers who have
ask those assembled, “Are there any requests?” and come over to my place of work? Well, among this num-
before I get to the part that goes, “Requests are likely ber is a familiar figure of a tall-tall black man of consid-
to be approximated” (really, who can know all the erable body mass who has in the past smiled and
Urban Folk issue 16 - the Final Curtain ~ page 26
shared his wealth while enjoying my act. He is of the What I could recognize was that there was an escala-
opinion, which he voices, that the distant heckler should tion of anger and mutually percieved disrespect that
just shut up himself. hinted strongly at imminent violence.
Here is where I launch my First Ammendment riff, de- “Holy Shit!” I think (I nearly never use vulgar language
fending both my right to sing and my foe (for that is out loud, since I feel it should be saved until nothing
how he defined himself to me)’s right to criticize. I went else will do. It concentrates their nastiness so that when
on with a new bit: “I know that I am not responsible for you do let loose out loud you can scorch your listener’s
people’s taste in music. That has nothing to do with eyebrows – figuratively).
me and I understand that this stuff I do is not for every- “This could hurt.”
one. I know there are people interested in this and
people disinterested in this. And if you can’t exercise I start strumming, the whole platform- to me- crackling
your disinterestedness in as small a matter as this, I with the fear that we are about to see some major black-
don’t see how you’ll make it in New York.” on-black crime – all because little ol’ me has to whip
out my unbidden schtick in public.
Since I have been speaking, I don’t follow the exact
words but my foe and advocate both have been hold- The strumming turned into “The Scared Song,” to re-
ing forth between themselves while I was riffing. mind me that it is my choice to eschew Fear. As I sing,
I find myself waiting for the feeling I love in my dreams,
I continue, “Plus, it is only going to be for a little while when I am about to be killed, no two ways about it, and
you have to suffer this. The train will be along in three I have nothing to do but let it happen (that is how I met
songs or so. Compared to the Knicks, this is just a Lily. Ask me sometime). The tension of the situation
teaspoon in an hourglass.” (that was the first time I made, however, for an imperfect peace.
ever said this: the Knicks and the hourglass thing, and
I thought it was pretty good. So did some others who I am thinking, “What if he has a knife? What if he comes
mildly laughed) where I sit crosslegged and kicks me and kicks me
and kicks me?
Did this “...oil on the waters...” calm the building storm?
What if my advocate and my foe struggle at length?
When the laughter dispersed, the two interested and Will I help before the cops get here (the station has an
large black men had advanced to a stage of social in- NYPD Station right upstairs)? Turn the other cheek?
tercourse with which I am to this day alien. Well, that has been one of my lifelong goals, but, Geez!
It was as though American blacks have a lingo private The song ends.
to themselves (I am put in mind of the Trinidadian broth-
ers who used to preach eloquently but who, when they My foe is reduced to indistinct muttering between my
spoke to each other, used a type of English that would following FIVE songs (even for the G-Train, this train is
need subtitles on a movie screen). taking like FOREVER).
More listeners on the now packed platform from the
sluggish L-Train smile and contribute.At last, the G-
Train comes.
The platform is clearing except for me and my foe.
He approaches and addresses me, “That’s right, you
stay right there, motherfucker (true, but we can’t go
into that right now other than to say none of them were
my mother) You stay right there.” and he scoots through
the shutting car door.
Of course, he feared that I would follow onto the train
and continue oppressing him with my dulcet ministra-
tions of musical art. Which I don’t.
Another platform fills and empties.
Another platform fills and empties.
“Huh!” I think, “Maybe he meant, ‘Stay here until I go
get my Glock so I can bust a cap in your miserable
subway-busker ass.’”
On second thought, I was right the first time.
myspace.com/clairefisherchick wakeywakeymusic.com
Wakey!Wakey!
Silent as a Movie
Mister Mike Grubbs has certainly come a long way
since his first solo piano show at Rockwood Music Hall
as Wakey!Wakey! Dazed and confused, blaming an
absent (and possible fictional) copy desk attendant for
his lack of a band, Grubbs, under his new name, played
a series of new songs – songs that were untested,
songs that were strong, songs that promised a new
pop style for this long-time acoustic player. There was