BCE Blogs: BC Rocks

Another show tonight

• Lost In Confusion announced a ROCK CHURCH event at 7 p.m. tonight at Battle Creek Friends Church. The B.C. Christian rock band is opening for Attaboy. $5.

Local shows this weekend, local music news

First, the news. This was posted as  MySpace bulletin:

• Blastzone Entertainment Group is looking for bands & artist
  
  We still have some spots left for our Blastzone Free Fest 2008 here in West Liberty, KY on July 25th & 26th. Contact us back here if interested in playing. Also if you want to please send CD's, T-shirts, and any other swag you would like us to give to the fans at the show to Blastzone Entertainment Group, 151 University Dr., Suite 311-A, West Liberty, KY 41472. Please have it to us a week before the show. Also send us a message here and let us know what your sending.
  
  We also have some spots left on the Tri-Label stage at Rocklahoma 2008 in Pryor, OK on July 9th - 13th with bands such as Ratt, Jackyl, Bret Michaels, Sebatian Bach, Extreme, Living Color, Lita Ford, Cinderella, Warrant, Queensryche, Ace Frehley, and Tesla. There is going to be a expected crowd of over 100,000 people for the entire 5 days. If you are interested in playing please contact us back here also. We are also looking for bands, record labels, etc. that are looking for us to give away stuff for them at Rocklahoma 2008. Please contact us here if interested.

Now, local shows:

• At Planet Rock: .Com E, Rude Moon, Labeled By Society and Saraph are on tonight; Hero Of None, Ground Effect, C.O.R.E. and Malakai are on Saturday.

• At Redrum: In A Blaze Of Glory, Amongst Enemies and Forced Life are on tonight; Viewed From The Right, The State Of Art and Madwire are on Saturday.

• At the Stagecoach Barn: The Bonk Brothers are on tonight and Saturday.
• At The Corner Bar: Sons Of The Revolution, State Of The Union and Headcase are on tonight; Rumble House, Vintage and Quiverbone are on Saturday.

• 

• Also, don't forget Gary Fields Comedy Club has live music — now outside — every Tuesday and Thursday night.

In today's WOW, multimedia

In today's WOW, you will find:

• This story on Grand Rapids' Bless You Boys.
• This Rock Column on telling the truth.

• This week's Top 5: Top 5 truth-telling songs:

5. "After Hours," by The Velvet Underground

4. "Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me," by Warren Zevon

3. "Every Day I Write the Book," by Elvis Costello

2. "My Sexual Life," by Everclear

1. "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue," by The Ramones

Kicking them while they're down Tough economy takes toll on Indie bands

The musician dedicated solely to his art is a lowly beast, finding sustenance in his song but rarely on the dining room table. The musician who forgoes the 9 to 5 in the interest of the twilight and stage-top makes little money, especially in a scene where paying gigs are few and very far between.

And so, already broke but happy, the state of things that big-whig press people call an "uneasy economy" is hurting them more.

They love the local scene, cherish it and foster it, but money-making and a lust for new eyes dictates a traveling tour here and there, even if in the region, even if in the neighboring city. But $4 plus per gallon makes that tricky when it costs more to get to point B than you have in your pocket at Point A.

It's getting harder to put food in the belly, because 79-cent tacos are good but not forever and the body starts to reject $1 double cheeseburgers pretty quickly. With rising gas, who knows how long those deals will last, anyway.

As shipping costs rise so do the price on necessities — guitar strings and picks and tuners and other miscellanea. Of course, the cash reserves were spent getting to last show in Big Rapids, anyway, so there's no more money for those things, even if the prices weren't climbing.

Add to that the strain on the wallets of consumers — people who'd normally spend their last $5 on a Friday night at Planet Rock may be forced to put that into one more gallon in the tank. Fewer people through the doors means less bread for the guitar man.

Much ink has been given to the effects of the economy on middle America; but I've seen nothing on the effects to the little guy, the independent musician, living that weird and skinny life of all play and no work, for the love of it.

The musicians will never disappear, but unless something breaks and incomes go up or prices go down, we may see a lull. Bands on the bottom ring of success will be forced into the dredge and out from that thin-thread world of the starving artist.

What we do about that, I don't pretend to know.

THE CUTTING ROOM: Bless You Boys

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Every week, I go out and interview a band (or two) and we usually speak for an hour, 90 minutes or more. I fill my notebook with scribbles and/or load up a voice recorder every time. Yet, with the confines of print media, I have to somehow scramble all of that down to about 1,000 words or less. Much of what doesn't make it into print probably wouldn't interest most readers, but a lot of it is interesting for music geeks like me. So, this is some of what didn't make it into print:

BLESS YOU BOYS

"We perform in suits, too," Bless You Boys guitarist-vocalist Chris Andrus told me. "We're really trying to bring back the 'put on a show' aspect of putting on a show, you know, give people a reason to come out and see live music instead of watching it on YouTube. We want to give people more for their money.

The Grand Rapids-based quartet spends a lot of time on its music — from a documentary-style electronic press kit for its first album to the suits on stage to a weekly Monkees-style sketch comedy show, in addition to the music.

Looking through my interview with the band, it looks like not much of what we talked about was left out of the story, so I present this: Click here to watch some of their sketch comedy shows on YouTube, instead of a long-winded, elaborate analysis of the music by me.

Check out the full story Thursday in WOW.

MUSIC THE UNITER: Susan Buckley

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've started a new project. I've always believed that music, if nothing else, was one area where people who disagree on everything might find common ground. So, over the next several weeks (and probably longer), I'll do brief interviews with city, county, state, business and health care leaders about what kind of music they enjoy and why and share that with you. Maybe there's a politician you can't stand, but you find you like the same song. At least there, you can find something to talk about. Maybe. I'll compile some of this into a later Rock Column.

This came via e-mail through my colleague, Robert Warner, who asked the questions for me:

NAME: Susan Buckley

POSITION: Management/Program Analyst at  Hart-Dole-Inouye Federal Center; trustee wtih Battle Creek Public Schools Board of Education

FAVORITE SONG: "Layla," by Derek & The Dominoes

WHY?: " Phenomenal music by some of the greatest musicians in the business; the incredible pain in Clapton's voice; and the story behind the song."

WHAT ELSE YOU LISTEN TO: "I listen to whatever suits my mood. Includes Doo Wop; rock of all kinds - country rock, hard rock, soft rock; blues; easy listening; country; and modern jazz."

ANYTHING ELSE YOU'D LIKE TO ADD: "I have a vast and wide-ranging collection of music. I buy it for a variety or reasons including liking the musician or band and the recommendation of others. One way I use to expand my music collection is to buy the music of musicians who play for each other. I also buy music of local musicians or the genre when I travel. When I was in China last year I bought some Chinese music, including Buddhist monk chants.

"My most unique CD is a jazz CD by Dr. Jack Kevorkian (yes, that Dr. Kevorkian). I bought it at a mall in Dearborn, Michigan. My copy is special limited edition 4,183 of 5,000 produced). Dr. Kevorkian wrote the music. The title? 'A Very Still Life.'"

NOTE: Click here to read the Music the Uniter entry on Kellogg Arena's Kevin Schiebler. Click here to read the entry on Calhoun County candidate Jim Haadsma.

NOTE NOTE: Here's the plan on this project: As I work this summer interviewing candidates for the August primary, I'll ask them some of these questions. The rock column will be written sometime before the primary. There you go. Hey, if you're a business leader, public official, nonprofit chief or politician and happen to read this, take these questions and send me an e-mail at jhinkley@battlecr.gannett.com of your favorite songs and why, to save me some overtime and keep this list as diverse as possible.

That song that makes me smile

My band does a few covers: "Eighteen," by Alice Cooper; "Volvo Driving Soccer Mom" and "Santa Monica" by Everclear; "Rockin' in the Free World," by Neil Young; "Jumpin' Jack Flash," by The Stones; "Basket Case," by Green Day...

We choose songs that mean something to us: Either they were fun songs that inspired us to pick up a guitar or drum stick in the first place, or they're songs that mean something to us. Or both.

I've ragged on cover bands before —  and I still say that, to my personal taste, I'd much rather see an original group — but cover band's are no less talented at the instruments than original players. And a good cover band knows how to pick those songs that mean something to them and probably mean something to their listeners...

Last week, I got an e-mail from Todd Brodginski at the Mitch Schneider Organization, which apparently is handling some PR for Everclear, who've just released an entire album of covers, called "The Vegas Years." Apparently Brodginksi saw one of my earlier columns where I mentioned Everclear and said, "We always love reading stuff from people who get it."

So he sent me a copy of the album.

The disc includes a couple of classic Everclear covers (Petty's "American Girl," Thin Lizzy's "The Boys are Back in Town," Van Morrison's "Brown-Eyed Girl"), and many new ones (Hall & Oates' "Rich Girl," Tommy Tutone's "867-5309 {Jenny}).

A cover album is always an interesting listen, to hear an artist make another's work their own. You can't play a cover dead-on like the original. You have to twist it, distort it ever so slightly so that it becomes yours, through your own voice. And Everclear frontman Art Alexakis has always done that well, going back to his earlier band, Colorfinger, with songs like Petty's "The Apartment Song" and The Stones' "Dead Flowers" and Patsy Cline's "I Fall to Pieces."

But releasing a cover album is always a risky venture... I can't think of another cover album that's done really well except Metallica's "Garage Days Revisited."

Anyway, that's just an update. I've got an e-mail out to several people trying to set up an interview with Everclear when they play the Stars & Stripes Festival in Mt. Clemens on June 28. I'll keep you posted.

Shows this weekend

Some local shows happening this weekend:

• 

• At Bell's Eccentric Café, Mifune plays at 9:30 p.m. Friday and Goldmine Pickers take the stage the same time Saturday.

• Naked And Shameless, Fishlips and American Flag are on at 10 p.m. Friday at The Corner Bar, followed by Ritual Suicide, Viewed From The Right, Date Rape and Beyond Reason at the same time Saturday.

• The Marci Linn Band is at The Silver Bullet at 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

• 

THE CUTTING ROOM: Interview with Marble Garden

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Every week, I go out and interview a band (or two) and we usually speak for an hour, 90 minutes or more. I fill my notebook with scribbles and/or load up a voice recorder every time. Yet, with the confines of print media, I have to somehow scramble all of that down to about 1,000 words or less. Much of what doesn't make it into print probably wouldn't interest most readers, but a lot of it is interesting for music geeks like me. So, this is some of what didn't make it into print:

MARBLE GARDEN

The first thing Marble Garden slide guitarist Angelo Santelli said to me when we walked out to the poolside deck at the band's Portage practice space was, "All you really need to know about us is this: we smoke."

The band — five Vicksburg High School students and a Vicksburg grad — play Allman Brothers-style jazz-psychedelia-infused blues music most people their age don't even listen to, much less take the trouble to learn to play.

You can read about the band's style and reasons behind their music in this WOW story. And, if you're a frequent reader of mine, you'll know I'm a huge fan of 60s-era music and think more people should try to play it.

But what didn't make it into the story is the amount of effort it takes to be this kind of band. Aside from the long jam sessions it takes to produce long songs and the skill it takes to master the minor pentatonic scale in a way that doesn't sound lame, there's the sheer physicality of playing in a six-piece band. I have a hard time getting three people together for regular practices.

Lastly, there's the crown jewel of the band, the thing that separates it from any other band I've ever interviewed: the Hammond B3 organ. The beastly instrument is at the heart of that old-school blues-rock sound, the very soul of the soul. With moaning whole notes and staccato eighths, the think adds a layer of Southern church style and separates what the Allman  Brothers did — and what Marble Garden does — from ordinary blues or rock. It adds an element of history, the hollowed black dirt of Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, into sonic reverence.

It's a necessary piece of the puzzle, Marble Garden said. They tried synthesizer keyboards and it sounded terrible, they said. And so they haul that behemoth — weighing much more than 50 pounds — to every gig. That, along with at least three amp cabs, two drum sets and percussion lineup, makes it easy to see why pared-down punk took as strong a hold as it did.

But that's dedication, if you ask me. Marble Garden runs an uphill marathon, I think, in trying to capture the attention of a generation lost on the immediacy of hard rock and hip-hop. But it's a worthwhile run, I think... Time will tell.

NOTE: Click here to listen to my full interview with the band.

In today's WOW, multimedia

In today's WOW, you will find:

• This story on Marble Garden. Click here to listen to my full interview with the band.

• This column: Finding ancestry in outdoor music fests.

• This week's Top 5: Top 5 live recordings

5. Colorfinger's "13 Years" on California's KZSU FM 90.1

4. Medicated Kisses' "A Wolf Among Lilacs" on Fearless Music

3. The Allman Brothers' "Whipping Post" on "Live at Fillmore East"

2. Country Joe & The Fish's "Rock & Soul Music" at Woodstock

1. Johnny Cash's "Cocaine Blues" on "At Folsom Prison"