RiffRaf

Indie Band Spotlight: Boiled in Lead

 

                                                                                                            Photo by Susan Esbjornson

Never shying away from a musical challenge, Boiled in Lead, who has been together since 1983, embraces an eclectic mix of Celtic, folk, rock, punk and traditional music.

The Minnesota folk rockers released their latest four song EP in February, The Well Below. Although Boiled in Lead's lineup is constantly rotating, the release of the EP features the the return of original lead singer Todd Menton, along with guitarist Dean Magraw and drummer Marc Anderson.

The Well Below opens with the Roscoe Holcomb cover “Wedding Dress," infusing bluegrass and Celtic sounds, with a bridge reminiscent of Led Zeppelin’s “Dancing Days.” They follow it up with the Irish folk song “The Well Down Below," a brutal tale of incest and murder, boasting such lyrical gems as: “There’s two of them buried beneath the floor at the well below the valley.”

They try their hand at country with “Western Borders” where singer Todd Menton asks, “These broken pieces, what do I do?” And they finish strong with “Transylvania Stomp,” an instrumental that pulls from a tradition of Hungarian and Romanian dance music.

Boiled in Lead will be heading back into the studio this summer to record another EP and preparations are under way for their 30th anniversary celebration in 2013. 

      

(Elford Alley has had plays produced and read across the United States and his sketch comedy featured in several shows in Chicago. He also writes for cracked.com. He currently resides in Dallas with his wife and daughter.)

What Ever Happened to Toad the Wet Sprocket (An Update)?

                
In the post What Ever Happened to Toad the Wet Sprocket (7/4/11), we claimed that the band was working on their first studio album since 1997's Coil. 

It's nearly a year later, and since Toad the Wet Sprocket released a greatest hits compilation last April - All You Want - they've been touring as well as still writing new material for a promising new record.

Glen Phillips (vocals/guitar), Todd Nichols (guitar/vocals), Dean Dinning (bass/vocals), and Randy Guss (drums) formed Toad the Wet Sprocket in 1986, having met while attending San Marcos High School in Santa Barbara. Glen Phillips was only sixteen years old.

The band recorded five albums throughout the 1990s; Fear (1991) and Dulcinea (1994) both went platinum. They also secured four highly successful singles: "Walk on the Ocean," "Fall Down," "All I Want," and "Something's Always Wrong."

Toad eventually broke up in 1998 to pursue other projects. Glen began his solo career, while Todd, Dean and Randy formed a new band, Lapdog.

Since their official break up, Glen Phillips has released three EP's and four studio albums, one with his friends, Nickel Creek. He is currently working on a follow-up to Mr. Lemons. Meanwhile, Lapdog recorded two studio albums, but disbanded in 2002 when Todd Nichols and Dean Dinning started writing songs for country acts in Nashville.

In 2010, Toad the Wet Sprocket officially announced their reunion. We're looking forward to new studio album later this year.

(Riffraf recently spoke to Glen Phillips. Check back next week (6/7 & 6/8) for our two-part interview. You don't want to miss it.)

Can I Get a Witness?

                                                    

In our Writers and Music series, authors discuss the music that has either been included in their most recent novel/poems or the influence music has had on their work overall.

Andrew F. Sullivan was born in Peterborough, Ontario. He has an MA in English in the Field of Creative Writing from the University of Toronto. Sullivan’s fiction has recently been published by Joyland, The Good Men Project, The Cleveland Review and Riddle Fence. You can find him at: http://afsullivan.blogspot.com/

The first time I was thrown out of a bar it was at a Constantines' show. I spent the encore sitting on a mailbox, singing along, unaware of the slush that had been splashed on my face by passing cars.

You could feel the building shake from outside. You could feel it down your spine. The tension and release building up in every song, the hoarse words coughed and hacked into a microphone someone would need to wash before the next show. Like a shambling, enraged ghost of Springsteen lost in the wastelands of Southern Ontario, the Constantines were a wrecking force. No vocal cords were spared. No ear drums left undented. No one left clean.

Of course, they are gone now. Four albums. A few EPs. That’s it. Everyone gets older.

It`s all still there though. The tension and the release—the fear and desperation in songs like “Hyacinth Blues," the hand claps like a dire warning in “Some Party," the howls for something better, something purer, where “a tired man can exist” in “Blind Luck.” Those things don’t fade. They remain raw and weathered. They remain defiant and messy and busted. There is no gloss.

I still go searching for those moments when I sit down to try and put a story together. I want to open with a relentless assault. I want the reader to feel the bottom drop out, to feel all that controlled tension finally erupt into something wild and unhinged—something they can’t avoid. You can see the end coming; you can predict the reckoning headed your way, but you can’t prevent it. You can’t deny it or undo it. You can only play a witness. You can only watch.

That’s what we are doing when we tell stories. We are playing witness to each other’s truths, if that’s what we want to call it. We are being asked to acknowledge something real, something we can’t find in everyday life. And it doesn’t have to be pretty—it rarely is. And it doesn’t need to be an affirmation or a call to arms or a claim for some moral high ground above all the messy, broken stuff we’d rather not remember.

There is a reason we love to read about dystopias. There is a reason why we lie and spin stories filled with pain and suffering and loss. We are playing a witness for each other; we are trying to say something or understand something that the logical narratives of daily life can’t always uncover. We don’t claim these are universal truths or that they should carry any meaning for anybody else. We are just there to say this happened; this mattered—whether it is real or not. This was done. Every time I write, every time I read, I am a witness. The Constantines understand that. They want you to join in on that chorus in “Young Offenders.” 

                        Young hearts, be free tonight.
                            Time is on your side.

                            Can I get a witness?

Even sitting on a mailbox in the cold with my ass frozen to the metal, I was a witness. 

              

Lost Gems: "Flying Up Through the Sky " by The Oxfords

                    

Released:1970 

Genre: Pop

Today we'll take a walk on the sunny side of the street. While it seems The Oxfords had three or four identities in their seven years together, these days they are mainly thought of as a classic "sunshine pop" group.

In 1964 Jay Petach, a high school student in Louisville, loved The Beatles and decided to start a band. After a few failed attempts, he came up with a brilliant strategy - steal players from the best bands in town. Petach recruited bassist Bill Turner, rhythm guitarist Danny Marshall, drummer Glen Howerton, and vocalist Bill Tullis. Petach took lead guitar duties, and they called themselves The Spectres. 

Meanwhile, drummer Jim Guest founded The Oxfords. A year later, Guest was having problems with his bandmates and asked The Spectres if they'd join The Oxfords, so the bands switched drummers. 

In 1966, Ray Barrickman took over on bass and Ronnie Brooks replaced Danny Marshall on guitar. Years later, Barrickman toured with Hank Williams Jr., while Brooks became a record producer as well as the voice of the middle frog in the famous Budweiser commercials. His brother Randy Brooks wrote the loved/despised Christmas song "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer."

They recorded their first single, the Bacharach/David song "(There's) Always Something There To Remind Me" - still the best version I've heard - with Barrickman on lead vocal. The record was sent to Nashville producer Buzz Cason (he wrote "Everlasting Love"), who liked it and got them a record deal at Bell Records. Naturally, that's when Ray Barrickman decided to enroll in college. That would happen today, right?

In 1968, the band evolved once again, recruiting vocalist Jill DeMarco from the all-girl band The Hearby, who along with Jay Petach, Donnie Hale on drums, Dill Asher on bass and Keith Springs doing the orchestration, became what you might call the classic version of The Oxfords, and was the group that recorded the bulk of their one and only album.

No longer a garage band, the group became a sunshiny cross between The Fifth Dimension and The Cowsills. They received two label offers, but they had to give up the rights to their songs. They declined, pressed 500 copies themselves and finally released the record under their own label in 1970, but they didn't have the means to promote it.

The album featured a handful of very strong pop songs, but none found the national charts. To this day "My World", "Lighter Than Air" and "Flying Up Through the Sky," all written by Petach and Demarco, are still held in high regard by fans of the genre.

The Oxfords toured with Frank Zappa and opened for The Grateful Dead, but by 1972 the band ended its ride.

Jay Petach still produces records in Louisville; Jill DeMarco left the music business in the 1980s for a career in Federal Aviation Administration. I guess to keep us safe when we're flying up through the sky. 

               

(Jim Pace can usually be found directing music videos in and around NYC. He will begin production on his first feature film in 2013. He spends his spare time writing songs, screenplays and getting involved in anything that will give him an excuse to listen to more music.) 

Songwriting 101: Big Bus Dream

                                     

On their latest album, Big Dream Baby (Wampus Multimedia), singer Mike Shannon and guitarist Chick Tsikouras blend acoustic roots with raw rock and roll, while mixing in a class of social commentary that is reminiscent of Lou Reed, John Lennon, and Mark Oliver Everett (Eels). 

Big Dream Baby deals with disappointment, acceptance, perseverance, aging, loss, failure and unrealized dreams. "I always believed that without a dream we end up being defined by our setbacks," Shannon believes, "there is wisdom in failure. And failure is not quitting...giving up is failure."

Mike and Chick chatted with Riffraf about the making of Big Dream Baby, the collaborative process, failure and big dreams, baby.

What piece of music made you want to make music of your own?

Mike: Left Bank's "Walk Away Renee" blew me away. The combination of classical and pop expanded my songwriting possibilities. Also, "Across the Universe," with its hauntingly beautiful melody lines, caught my attention.

Chick: When I went to school to study music I was taught about harmony, voice leading, chords and theory. Once I knew how they all worked together, I set out to create a sound/song that moved me in the same way my musical heroes did.

What was the first song you wrote that you were proud of?

Mike: "Stories of the Rain," the second single for The Resistors back in the CBGB days. It was a post-punk rock tune.

Chick: A song called "Cry." It had a catchy chorus and a great chord progression that wasn't typical of your usual rock song. It ended up getting airplay that landed us gigs as well as TV appearances.

On Big Dream Baby, songs like "Wonderland" have humorous and satirical lyrics. Does this make writing about dark subjects like divorce or failure any easier?

Mike: Humor and satire are used to lighten the darkness. It makes it all so much more palatable for the listener.

Chick: Songs are written from a personal place. They can be therapeutic or a way of healing. It's kind of the light at the end of a tunnel. You try to stay positive and move towards happier times. You gotta have a "Big Dream, Baby"!

One of the major themes of Big Dream Baby is that failure doesn't matter as long as we never stop dreaming big. Did this grow organically out of your songwriting or is this a particular ethos you've always had?
Mike: I think I always believed that without a dream we end up being defined by our setbacks. I would rather shoot for the stars and fall short, knowing I tried...rather than live a life of "what ifs" due to a fear of failure and change. I believe there is wisdom in failure. And failure is not quitting...giving up is failure.

Chick: I think if you stop trying to grow then you've given up. If you're happy being stagnant then that's where you'll stay in life. There's more out there to experience and we as musicians owe it to ourselves to push the boundaries of expression. A wise man once said, "We are the music makers...and we are the dreamers of dreams."

What did you hope to say with Big Dream Baby?
Mike: I really wanted to drive the Big Bus Dream philosophy of needing to and continuing to dream big. Also, that light and darkness can coexist. There can be beauty in dysfunction and power in redemption.

Why do you think you work so well together as songwriting partners?
Mike: We are storytellers. I usually bring the rhythmic patterns, the hooks (lyrical & musical), as well as the lyrical storyline to the table. Chick helps tell the story in various ways, often by adding parts or switching the chorus for the bridge or vice versa. He also brings his own chording ideas to the session, and at times we'll use this in place of the original pattern. His jazz schooling has come in handy in telling the story. This makes his mother happy, knowing his schooling wasn't a total waste of time.

Chick: The real reason Mike left out is that no one else can stand us (ha ha). When you've worked with someone for so long you kind of get into their head and know where they are coming from. You know what's best for the song and how to deliver it in the best possible way to get the message across.

What's the biggest challenge you encounter while working together on a song?
Mike: The biggest challenge is we suffer from MADD - music attention deficit disorder - though we're in therapy.

Chick: We have so many ideas during the writing process it's a matter of finding which one works for that song. We could easily go in multiple directions. Picking the right instruments or sounds to record is another hurdle. Does this song call for cello or would brass sound better?

How has your past experience with other musicians influenced your songwriting? 

Mike: What I've learned over the years is to edit, then re-edit a tune until it's clear and concise. Also, write from the heart 'cause the perspective must be yours, not somebody else's. If it's not your voice, you lose the passion.

What's up next for Big Bus Dream?

Mike: We have a video we are wrapping up as well as some radio in-studios and live podcasts/house concerts. We'll also get in a few shows this spring/summer. We should be working on some new music by this fall.

            

Landmark Albums: Nirvana's "Nevermind"

   
I think Rolling Stone said it best in their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: "No album in recent history had such an overpowering impact on a generation—a nation of teens suddenly turned punk—and such a catastrophic effect on its main creator.” Released in 1991, Nirvana’s Nevermind changed everything.

Nevermind was the stake in the heart of hair metal and brought Grunge to the forefront of the music scene. Nirvana went from relative unknowns, releasing their 1989 debut Bleach on the indie label Sub Pop, to selling millions of records and becoming international sensations. Presently, Nevermind has sold over thirty million copies.

The album's most commercial song, the tongue-in-cheek ode to The Pixies, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” received immediate airplay, while the video was in constant rotation on MTV. Even though Kurt Cobain’s songwriting embraced pop - Cobain was heavily influenced by John Lennon - the band was ultimately unhappy with Nevermind’s clean and polished sound. 

Butch Vig, the record's producer, has maintained that the band was initially very happy with the result, but after its tremendous success, one by one, members began to dismiss the album. Dave Grohl even went so far to say, "I was driving and 'Teen Spirit' came on the radio, and I thought 'God, that really sounds like shit!’” With the equally amazing In Utero (their 1993 follow-up), the band set out to create a dirty, distorted, lo-fi sound.

Aside from the band itself, Nevermind has its share of detractors. In a 2007 interview with The Guardian, The Flaming Lips' leader Wayne Coyne said the album is incredibly overrated compared to Nirvana’s other work: "It’s better to be overrated than underrated. Besides, it’s not the musicians’ fault Nevermind is overrated – it’s the public’s, or the critics’. But you don’t find yourself ever longing to listen to it, because there were – still are, in fact – so many mediocre bands that sound like it, that you’re constantly experiencing it."

Nevermind gave us “Something In The Way” and “Polly," whose acoustic renditions would shine on their unplugged session. It gave us “Lithium” and “Drain You." And more importantly, it gave us Nirvana, ensuring they wouldn’t spend their career hopping from one from bankrupt label to another, their music lost and forgotten.

The Songs:

1. Smells Like Teen Spirit

2. In Bloom

3. Come As Your Are

4. Breed

5. Lithium

6. Polly

7. Territorial Pissings

8. Drain You

9. Lounge Act

10. Stay Away

11. On A Plain

12. Something In The Way

(Hidden Track: "Endless, Nameless")

The Personnel:

Kurt Cobain – vocals, guitar, photography

Krist Novoselic – bass, voice intro to "Territorial Pissings"

Dave Grohl – drums, backing vocals

Chad Channings – cymbals

Kirk Canning – cello

Butch Vig - co-producer, engineer

        

(Elford Alley has had plays produced and read across the United States and his sketch comedy featured in several shows in Chicago. He also writes for cracked.com. He currently resides in Dallas with his wife and daughter.)

John Lee Hooker: Son of a Preacher Man

   

John Lee Hooker was a man of contradictions.

He was illiterate but a brilliant lyricist. He grew up in a household that forbade any music that wasn’t spiritual, but he went on to become a blues legend. The son of a Baptist preacher, he wrote songs like “Burning Hell,” a slow boogie that opens with him saying, "Ain’t no heaven. Ain’t no burning hell."

Hooker's father had refused to let him play guitar or be exposed to any music that wasn’t gospel, so John Lee didn’t become acquainted with the blues until his parents separated and his mother began seeing the blues musician Will Moore. 

Hooker ran away from home at fifteen, making his way to Detroit where he started his career. He would never have any contact with his family again; his mother would die shortly after he ran away - her date of death is unknown. He remained in Detroit, playing dives and honing his sound.

In the 40s, blues musicians were paid practically nothing, so Hooker would regularly travel from studio to studio recording his songs in different styles under various pseudonyms. His dedication eventually paid off; “Boogie Chillen” reached number one on the R&B Billboard charts in 1949, securing his place as blues royalty.

Years later, with the British Invasion, a new generation found Hooker’s music through covers of his hits “Boogie Chillen” and “Boom Boom” by bands like Led Zeppelin and The Animals. He had cameo appearances in films like The Blues Brothers and recorded the hit album The Healer with Bonnie Raitt and Carlos Santana in 1989.

John Lee Hooker died in 2001, but he left behind a truly massive musical legacy, hundreds of songs, dozens of records, all showcasing his signature style. He was the king of the "talking blues," playing a driving rhythm with an unsteady tempo, growling into the mic, telling his stories of lust, love, politics, religion and revenge.

The blues legend may be gone, but the music - dirty and raw - lives on. 

                  

(Elford Alley has had plays produced and read across the United States and his sketch comedy featured in several shows in Chicago. He also writes for cracked.com. He currently resides in Dallas with his wife and daughter.)

Lost Gems: "Hey Sandy" by Polaris

                          

Year: 1993 

Genre: Indie/College Rock

For anyone in their mid to late twenties, "Hey Sandy" is a song you'll recognize from its first note. While the rest of us were cranking Nirvana, you guys were in front of your television sets with a bowl of Fruit Loops, watching "The Adventures of Pete and Pete" on Nickelodeon, in between marathon sessions of Nintendo.

Admit it, you wish you were there right now, don't you? So do I.

For the rest of us who are over or under the target age, "Hey Sandy" will immediately shoot up our list of great TV theme songs. And none of us will ever figure out the lyrics.

Polaris was an offshoot of the band Miracle Legion, beginning as a duo - singer/guitarist Mark Mulcahy and guitarist Ray Neal - in New Haven in 1983. They added Jeff Wiederschall (drums) and Joel Potocsky (bass), and in 1984 they recorded the EP The Backyard, which includes the great title track. The song was a college radio hit and the band was poised to take off. They were even drawing comparisons to REM.

           

After a couple of label changes and a new bass player (Steve West), they finally released an LP in 1987, Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!, to decent reviews. But the landscape had changed. In college radio time, three years is an eternity.

More lineup changes followed. They recorded Me and Mr. Ray as a duo, and a pretty track, "You're The One-Lee" (as in "only"), hit the airwaves a few times on a show called 120 Minutes that was on a certain Music Television channel.

There were more personnel changes and more label trouble. The band recorded two more albums, fan favorite Drenched in 1992, and Portrait of a Damaged Family, which would not see the light of day until 1996, when it was released by Mulcahy's own label, Mezzotint.

The creators of "The Adventures of Pete and Pete" were fans of Miracle Legion, so they asked the band to record some music for the show. By that time the band had splintered, and Ray Neal wasn't interested but Mulcahy accepted. He worked on the show with a new band, but they called themselves Polaris. They were the house band for all three seasons, and recorded enough material to release one album that was the closest they ever came to the "sound" they had on The Backyard. Many twenty-somethings claim the show shaped their listening habits for life.

In 2009, long time fans, Thom Yorke, Frank Black, Michael Stipe and The National, among others, recorded a Mark Mulcahy tribute album - Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy - to help him out after his wife had suddenly passed away.

Whether it was college kids seeking refuge from the all too familiar sounds of top 40 radio in the 80s, or twenty and thirty-somethings reliving the glory days of childhood, at one time these "two" bands meant something to two different generations, leaving both with a lot to remember.

                   

(Jim Pace can usually be found directing music videos in and around NYC. He will begin production on his first feature film in 2013. He spends his spare time writing songs, screenplays and getting involved in anything that will give him an excuse to listen to more music.)  

Top Five Wilco Albums

                 

Every music geek likes to think that he has discovered a band. Every music geek has had a secret love affair with a band. Every music geek, at one time or another, devotes himself to his personal "discovery," courting it, and watching over it like an over-protective, jealous lover, making sure that his partner stays on the straight and narrow.

I'd like to think that Wilco has been that band for me, but in all honesty I didn't come around until Summerteeth, their third studio album. Still, it was a couple of years before their groundbreaking record Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, which established them as alternative darlings. 

Anyway, I like to mislead myself into thinking that I was the first music geek to have recognized their brilliance. So please, let me go on thinking that I have my fingers on the pulse of the music scene. This is a music blog for Pete's sake.

Here are Riffraf's top five Wilco albums.

Album: The Whole Love

Year: 2011

Highlights: Art of Almost, I Might, Dawned on Me, Born Alone, One Sunday Morning (Song for Jane Smiley's Boyfriend)

After two mediocre albums, Wilco returned to top form. The versatility of The Whole Love could only be executed by the consistent line-up that Jeff Tweedy had assembled and not a bunch of hired guns. Mikael Jorgensen's keyboards offer doses of playful nuance throughout the record; guitarist Nels Cline is the genius, mad scientist; multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone fills in all the musical holes; bassist John Stirratt and drummer Glenn Kotche lay down a deep and satisfying foundation, while Mr. Tweedy's songwriting is consistently top notch. As a whole, The Whole Love may not be Wilco's shining moment, but a few tracks - "Art of Almost" and "One Sunday Morning (Song for Jane Smiley's Boyfriend)" - remind us that Wilco is, without a doubt, one of the greatest bands of all time. 

 

Album: A Ghost is Born

Year: 2004

Highlights: At Least That's What You Said, Spiders (Kidsmoke), Handshake Drugs, Theologians

With the absence of Jay Bennett, Jeff Tweedy took on lead guitar duties. It was the first and only time in which Mr. Tweedy was the lead guitarist on a Wilco record. Maybe that's why so many songs have lengthy guitar solos that end in a flurry of sonic distortion. In his June 2004 review in Pitchfork, Rob Mitchum is critical of Mr. Tweedy's self-indulgent guitar work: "For an artist as lyrically and vocally gifted as Tweedy to resort to expressing emotions through age-old bombast and pyrotechnics, something must be gumming up the songwriting works."

The truth is A Ghost is Born is an erratic album, and that's precisely what I love about it. Big deal...it lacks cohesion. It's unevenness is most likely the result of Jeff Tweedy's addiction to painkillers. When A Ghost is Born was completed, Tweedy entered a rehab clinic, delaying the record's release by two weeks. You don't write an authentic song like "Handshake Drugs" unless you've experienced it firsthand.

Not that awards mean anything; however, A Ghost Is Born became Wilco's first top ten album in the U.S. and also earned them a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album. 

 

Album: Being There

Year: 1996

Highlights: misunderstood, outtasight (outta mind), i got you (at the end of the century), sunken treasure

Wilco's double disc, sophomore effort is a giant leap forward both musically and lyrically. It's an eclectic collection of songs written by an ambitious songwriter and performed by an equally ambitious group.

The self-produced album features more psychedelic and introspective writing than their debut, A.M., which is replete with alternative country tunes. 1996 was a stressful time for the group's leader, Jeff Tweedy; he had recently quit smoking pot, and he was trying to juggle marriage, a mortgage, and the birth of his first child. Furthermore, Wilco's popularity had been dipping. Tweedy discussed his trials and tribulations:

"I was a later bloomer. I was in my thirties before I even came to terms with the idea that I was making a living as a recording artist. I was in a punk band for a long time and thought it was my life. I was a bass player in a band making fifty dollars a night, paying eighty dollars a month in rent, making indie records and not getting paid for them, and having this naïve sense of well-being that I would always do this and never have much more responsibility than that. I went from that to being a dad and a major-label recording artist who had the pressure of supporting a family and also making something I felt good about artistically."

Up until Being There, Jeff Tweedy had been competing and trailing his former partner from Uncle Tupelo, Jay Farrar and his new band Son Volt. With recently hired multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett, Tweedy would find a new musical companion, his Paul McCartney or Keith Richards (if you will). The duo would collaborate on two of Wilco's most celebrated albums - Summerteeth and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - before parting ways.   

 

Album: Summer Teeth

Year: 1999

Highlights: She's a Jar, A Shot in the Arm, I'm Always in Love, Via Chicago, ELT

On Summerteeth, Jeff Tweedy's influences - twentieth century literature, particularly the works of Henry Miller, William H. Gass and John Fante, as well as his marital problems - are quite apparent. It was an emotional time for the songwriter who missed his wife and son because of the band's demanding tour schedule. 

Tweedy wanted to be a better songwriter and had been taking steps to improve his craft: "I definitely wanted to get better at writing, and those things happened simultaneously with trying to read better. I would write tons of stuff in my head, and forget. Some songs on Being There, I don't think I ever wrote any lyrics down....To fight that, I started writing words on paper and making up melodies to go with them. By writing things down, and putting more words into my head, it put more words in my mouth when I turned on the tape recorder to sing."  

While Tweedy might have felt alienated from his family, he and Jay Bennett's heavy-handed production style alienated the other members of the band. Unlike Being There, which was performed live in the studio, the duo overdubbed many of the songs with Pro Tools, resulting in diminished contributions from bassist John Stirratt and drummer Ken Coomer. In fact, Jay Bennett even played bass and drums when Stirratt and Coomer were not present. Needless to say, Coomer was disappointed about his reduced role:

"It was a circling of the wagons, and John and I felt left out. It was Jeff and Jay feeding off each other not just musically, but other vices. There was a bonding going on, and it didn't just involve music. Jeff didn't go into rehab [for an addiction to painkillers], but he should've, [sic] in my opinion. Jay was taking painkillers, antidepressants, and wasn't in much better shape. The band was different. There wasn't really a band, just two guys losing their minds in the studio."

Tweedy and Bennett might very well have "lost their minds in the studio," but the completed work is a stroke of brilliance and a foreshadow of the genius to come on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

 

Album: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Year: 2002

Highlights: I am trying to break your heart, Kamera, War on war, Jesus etc., Heavy metal drummer, I'm the man who loves you

The opening line to the opening track "I am Trying to Break Your Heart" - "I am an American aquarium drinker / I assassin down the avenue" - changed my view of lyric writing. A noun being used as a verb? Huh! Since then, I have placed Tweedy in the same class as Dylan, Reed, Waits, Smith and Cohen.

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is on many lists of greatest albums of the 2000s. Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and Paste all regard it as the band's magnum opus. What's even more miraculous than the music is that the band was even capable of delivering a record in the first place.

Filmmaker Sam Jones began shooting his documentary I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, about the creation of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, on the day that drummer Ken Coomer was fired. Shortly after Coomer's dismissal, drummer Glenn Kotche was hired just when things began to heat up between the band's two creative forces: Jeff Tweedy and Jay Bennett.

Bennett recorded the entire album, but failed to mix a few of the songs. Tweedy and Bennett argued over the transition between "Ashes of American Flags" and "Heavy Metal Drummer." Tweedy invited Jim O'Rourke to mix "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart" and the results impressed the band, so O'Rourke was asked to mix the rest of the album. Consequently, Jay Bennett was dismissed.

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was completed in September 2001, but Reprise (a subsidiary of the Warner Music Group label) refused to release it, so Wilco acquired the rights to the album and streamed it for free on their website. In November 2001, Wilco signed with Nonesuch (another subsidiary of the Warner Music Group label). It was eventually released on April 23, 2002 and has been certified Gold, having sold over 590,000 copies.

How's that for irony?

A Steady Diet of Coffee and Red Bull: Directing Music Videos with Joshua Mikel

                                                              

Joshua Mikel hails from Atlanta and graduated from Florida State University in 2007 with a dual degree in theatre and creative writing. He is a playwright and works as an actor and freelance graphic designer via his company Sharkguts Design. He has created music videos for Neon Trees, Fake Problems, Blacklist Royals, Ninja Gun, and Look Mexico, for which he was the long time drummer. 

Josh chatted with Riffraf about his crash course in filmmaking, working on a shoestring budget, and engaging in reckless energy drink use in order to meet deadlines.

How did you start making music videos?

The FSU Honors office was offering grants; I won one under the proposition that I make the transition from strictly playwriting to screenwriting. So me and my buddy Travis wrote a couple shorts; we rented a camera and shot. Among these three other short scripts, I figured what the hell, we have a camera, and I have a little money, let's shoot a music video for Look Mexico (the band I used to play drums in). That was the video for "Guys, I Need a Helicopter." It was a lot of fun, and I learned a shit ton. Then I kind of took it upon myself to produce/direct the rest of the videos while I was in the band. Those videos led to work with my friends Fake Problems and eventually with Blacklist Royals and Neon Trees.

             

Do you think being a musician gave you insight into what musicians look for in a video?

I wouldn't say so. I think you have to develop an eye for directing before you really know what folks look for. With that first video, I wanted to basically create something hyper nostalgic. Luckily, this camera we rented could shoot 60 frames per second, and nearly ANYTHING in high speed looks awesome. We really milked that.

What has been the biggest lesson you learned from directing videos?

There's a whole shit ton of stuff involved in putting a film together that most folks don't really take into consideration...So there was a whole bunch of stuff that I needed to take on as "producer" of these things, that I never took into account before I tried my hand at filmmaking.

Just because you act in a couple of short films at your college doesn't mean you know the ins and outs of filmmaking. I was absolutely clueless. I was calling myself director, when in actuality I was just taking on producer positions. Or I would storyboard a video. But when it came to directing, I had no idea what to do.

How do you come up with the video's concept?

Usually it begins with the song. I guess for the Look Mexico videos I just wanted to tell fun little narratives. Kids having the most excellent summer day. A pie eating contest (that ends up being a bit like No Exit). A little boy trapped in this kind of wild dream world, dudes on a hunting trip hunting down real monsters...that kind of shit. With the Fake Problems videos - those were more of a dialogue between the band and the other filmmakers and I. Usually it has to do with finding the coolest visuals. The Neon Trees video was about listening to the song. I created three pitches for the piece, and in discussion with their PR folks, I honed it down to one, and then fine-tuned that before I set in to animate.

You've done animated and live action videos. Do you have a preference?

Well, I tend to like animated videos because those generally are the ones where I feel like I am truly the director. Other times, there are so many variables, and I don't think I've earned a spine on live sets yet. I think I'm getting there, but only recently have I really understood the on set dynamic a director tries to achieve - about the things one has control over and who on the team he should talk to if something isn't panning out the way he wants it...but when it comes to animation, I have the freedom to move the camera around, light it, and animate the actors' performances where I'm getting (not always) exactly what I wanted.

I thought I'd mention two specific videos and have you briefly comment on the process of making them. “Songs For Teenagers” by Fake Problems. 

They're good friends of mine from my Look Mexico days, and I had 1st AD'd and assembled some crew for their "Dream Team" video, so I guess the next step was bringing the ball to my court. I produced their next video with some film school buddies for "Diamond Rings," and they eventually got in touch with me about doing this one.

I wrote out a few treatments, which I think they shot down, and then eventually I planned out one they liked; it was a lot less about the lyrics, and more about a feel - which is really hard to get across in a treatment. I worked with my buddy Bobby (who worked on the Look Mexico "You stay..." video with me) and my friend Kyle shot it. Bobby had worked with the Weeki Wachee Mermaids on a documentary, and when Fake Problems showed me a location they wanted to use (the dome buildings that appear in the video - off the coast of their hometown Naples, FL) it only made sense that we'd create a video where the dudes happen upon some mermaids.

It was the first thing I feel like I truly produced. Start to finish I handled the money, made phone calls, got folks on board, troubleshot the fuck out of some shit. It was hands down one of the most stressful things I've ever taken on. I never want to do it again (but undoubtedly will). The video has gotten a great response, and we're all happy as shit about it.

I want to point out that the four videos that I've produced or directed came in under $2,800. Most of them operated on about a $1,000 budget. So when you can make a relatively TINY amount of money go that far, it's something I'm very proud of...although I think I'd be more proud if I could get the crews paid what they deserve...

             

"Everybody Talks" by Neon Trees.

My buddy Patrick had put me in touch with a guy at Island Def Jam who reached out to me about perhaps doing an animated video for Neon Trees' “Your Surrender.” They needed it in two weeks. At the time, I hadn't taken less than eight weeks for the prior two animated pieces, so I didn't believe I could do it.

The next time they got in touch with me, I was determined to make it happen. This seemed like a crazy timeline still, but I felt I could pull it off. But the catch was, they needed to get the band and A&R folks to approve one of my three treatments. I sent in my treatments around Thanksgiving, and I didn't hear anything. I checked in a few times, but still didn't hear anything. Fast forward to December 15th, I get a call from Jazmine - a band rep - who tells me they want me to do the video. At this point I'm saying to myself, "no fucking way," but I figure what the shit, it will be awesome if I can do it. The next day I have money in my account, so I can't go back. I try and track down a partner animator, but it was the holidays and the last thing anyone wanted to do, so I decided to do it myself. They still needed to see a video by the 4th. Between the 16th and the 4th of January, I put in about 300+ hours on the video. I didn't work all of Christmas or Christmas eve, and I stopped early on new years to go see Fake Problems play with Against Me! here in Atlanta. But other than that, I was drinking so much coffee and chugging Red Bulls, and surviving on Trader Joe's noodle soups. It was a shit show, I lost about 10 pounds, but I couldn't be happier with the reception. It's only meant to be a viral video - so just a couple weeks ago they released a live version.

I just saw today one of the top comments was something like, "I like this one. Better than the live one...," which makes me feel real good. I think execution-wise it's head and shoulders above my Ninja Gun video. And I am just the proudest goddamn dude in the world that I did it in such a short time frame.

               

So any new video projects in the works?

I'm looking to hopefully do a project for myself here soon. I want to animate my ten minute play The Great Black Vulture.  So, no music video stuff for me for a bit. I'm trying to concentrate on acting. I'd like to do at least one animated piece a year. So, hopefully something will come along, but ideally it will be my piece.

(Elford Alley has written plays, sketch comedy, and short stories. He currently lives in Dallas with his wife and daughter. Follow Elford on Twitter.)