Live Music Alert: TONIGHT, October 29, CD release party at Hotel Donaldson, Fargo ND

Teague Alexi

Those rambling hobo nephews have a new album and DVD that they are introducing to a whole new audience while they’re mounting a major tour across the country. Traveling Show, a 13-song extravaganza, is supported by special guests: Marco Benevento (keys), Jon Graboff (pedal steel player from Ryan Adams and also the Cardinals), and Ryan Young (fiddle), Eric Berry (mandolin), and Dave Carroll (banjo) from Trampled by Turtles.

This endeavor is the third studio album the Hobo Nephews of Uncle Frank have produced. It is also a great sampling of Teague Alexi’s well-crafted songs. Teague, along with his brother Ian, founded the Hobos a few years back and began producing a rich sound and loyal following inspired by the land of the Iron Range of Minnesota. This is doubly inspiring because the Alexi brothers had no ties to the area until recently. They both grew up in southern New Jersey. Ian went off to the Berkeley School of Music and eventually studied drums and guitar in Africa for a year. Teague stayed stateside and played in a band called Spilled Milk and eventually followed a beautiful woman to the pine forests of Holyoke, Minnesota, where he makes his home.

Teague began to sit on his porch and let the land speak to him. That changed him to the core, causing him to rethink his musical journey and set aside some of his earlier musical influences, mainly hip-hop, reggae, and jazz. “After living in Minnesota for awhile, the rootsy music of this country started to sound better to me than it ever did on the beaches of San Diego or in Atlantic City, New Jersey,” Teague said. “Living out in the woods, suddenly that music started to make more sense to me.”

As Teague wrote and recorded his new music, he sometimes did a solo act as Teague Alexy with Medication. When Ian moved to Duluth, 30 miles north, Teague formed Hobo Nephews. He also started the Feelin’ Band, which is now fronted by Nicholas Mrozinski.

The Hobos released their debut self-titled album in the summer of 2006. Sing!, with its sepia album cover that looked like the front page of an old Sing Out magazine, came out in the fall of the following year. Then a limited EP, One For The Time Capsule, was released last October. Traveling Show, which is available in three formats (CD, CD/DVD, and digital download) was released September 1 of this year. The DVD called Moments and Truths is a documentary directed by Joshua Priestley that offers an intimate look at the Hobos as they record this album.

Traveling Show contains a happy collection of some of Teague’s best writing. Even the track about a misbegotten love, “Break Every Bone,” with its twangy, steel guitar-richness and tight harmonies makes you want to sing along on the chorus and join them in their misery. “Traveling Show,” the initial track, chronicles life on the road and also underscores the band’s trailer for the DVD and the album. “Little One” is a country rock tune reminiscent of Poco, and “The Rooster” presents a little dominant male song with a vocal catch in the vocals akin to Michael Parks’ recordings in the 80s. And there’s so much more.

The instrumentation is top-notch and the vocals (with Ian and Teague sharing duties) are a perfect vehicle for these great songs. Traveling Show is ripe and succulent, just ready for your listening enjoyment. But always it is rooted in the earthiness of the region and the big hearts of the people.

The Hobo Nephews of Uncle Frank are currently touring to bring this album and DVD to a wider audience. Teague handles acoustic guitar and harmonica on stage and on the album while Ian holds forth on guitars and electric bass. Paul Grill mans drums and percussion. Catch them when you can.

This week, I caught up with Chris O’Brien, frontman and principal songwriter for the Minneapolis band, Enchanted Ape. I’ve covered Enchanted Ape since they first formed back in 2005 and seen them live at 10KLF several times, but most especially at the Crosstown Lounge here in Grand Forks. This week, the band will make it’s sixth appearance at the club before it debuts at the Side Street Grille in Fargo. If you want background on this band, please go to: http://www.gratefulweb.com/interviews/interviews/enchanted-ape-digs-deeper-with-off-the-ground.html

Though many of you know what I think of Q&A—lazyman journalism–, I couldn’t help but put our conversation up here for all of you folks to read.

Enchanted Ape is:

Rob Bruce (bass, vocals)

Adam Kuchelmeister (drums)

Chris O’Brien (acoustic/slide guitar, vocals)

Pat Riddle (electric guitar, vocals)

Discography

Three Ring Symphony (2005)

Off The Ground (2008)

Refrain: Hey, Chris. It’s always my pleasure to talk with you. Enchanted Ape is really developing. You’ve got a great band backing you up.

Chris O’Brien: Yeah, it’s really coming together. We’re getting to the point where the live performances are really happening the way we want. It’s been good.

Refrain: I have always been struck by the depth of your writing and being able to take some unusual ideas. This is a far cry from when I first heard you several years ago. As good as that music was, you were a bar band. You aren’t a bar band any more because what you’re saying is something very accessible. It isn’t just something for people to get up and get drunk and dance. They’ll do that. You’ve got something to say. The last album was absolutely wonderful.

Chris O’Brien: I think you really hit the nail on the head. Our goal I think is just try to reach people on a lot of different levels. There’s a lot of bands with good musicianship who can make it a party at the bar, which is great. That’s part of what we want to do, but we also want to kind of make people think in some way or try to reach people on a deeper level

Refrain: I think the four songs that you pointed me toward–”Carry Me,” “Sacred Ground,” “From the Ground Up,” and “Park Avenue” are definitely not your party songs. All four of them are spiritual songs.

Chris O’Brien: Yeah, definitely.

Refrain: Even when you think about “Park Avenue,” it’s one trying to rise above everything that’s there and somehow be comfortable even though you’re there.

Chris O’Brien: It’s kind of a funny story about that. That’s the newest song that we’ve started to do live. It was very much of a collaboration between myself and Pat Riddle, our guitar player. He’d come up with this whole melody and a chord progression for the song. Then we just sat down and put some lyrics to it. I’d heard this story on NPR the other day about a guy who wrote a book from a very old story about the Collier Brothers. They were a couple of brothers in New York City who had inherited a bunch of wealth and they hoarded different kinds of stuff. Junk, stacks of newspapers, anything that they could find out on the street—they brought into this big mansion they had in New York. They just kind of locked themselves in and isolated themselves from society. It was kind of interesting and I started thinking about that kind of concept. The song was by no means a biographical song but it was more about this idea of people isolating themselves.

Refrain: And isolating themselves around their things. Even if you have things, even if it’s your junk or even your rich junk, you’re still isolating yourselves. That can’t be good for human growth. We need to interact with folks.

Chris O’Brien: Definitely.

Refrain: What about the other three songs? “Carry Me” is almost a hymn, an anthem. I really found stirring.

Chris O’Brien: It’s interesting that you take that from the lyrics. It absolutely is. It is kind of a gospel-inspired song. It’s interesting that you can hear that without even hearing the song. In fact, I just uploaded it to our website. It’s a fairly decent recording of it. We haven’t been doing it in the band that very long. But I actually wrote it around Christmas time. It was one of these songs that when I started writing it I didn’t know what it was about. I didn’t set out to write about anything in particular, but as I got into it, it was going to be from the perspective of somebody at war, a soldier or something. I don’t think the song has to be taken at that way. That’s kind of the mindset I had when I wrote the song. I asked myself, what are people most fearful of, other than the obvious, when you’re at war. I think there’s a fear of losing yourself, losing your identity, certainly losing your time and things that you could have done.

Refrain: That also applies to people facing serious illness or people going through tough economic times and maybe away from family trying to find work. It has a bearing on lots of things. It could even be someone who is working but who is so consumed with working that he or she loses track of what is important, who you are, being with your family, and that spiritual connection….I think that’s what is great about what you do is that it can have many levels and be applied to many different situations.

Chris O’Brien: I think so. A lot of the music that I’ve always loved has been that kind of way. The writer may have had one thing in mind when they were writing it, but it’s written in such a way that it can be applied to a lot of people’s lives and a lot of different situations. I think that that’s important with good music.

Refrain: And that is what will stand the test of time because it’s not only the mood that the song creates but it’s what it has to say. You take John Lennon’s “Imagine.” It states some very startling things: Imagine there’s no heaven, imagine there’s no God. But also imagine all of these other things when people get reduced to just being human beings. It gets beyond the initial concept might have been for writing the song but the song remains not because it was a big hit but because it had some value….Tell me about the other two songs.

Chris O’Brien: “From the Ground Up” is probably the most rockish of these songs. It’s kind of got a funky sort of thing going on. At one time, I had a live version of that on our website. I’ll put that up there, too. The idea behind that song was just thinking about building something from the grassroots, kind of like what we’re doing with the band. I’m sure that could be applied to a political movement or anything where you’re trying to gather community….That song is kind of a party song, but I think it has some depth to it as well. It’s not all fun.

Refrain: I think there’s something to be said about building something from the ground up. We don’t think about that in our disposable society, of actually building something. When I first saw the words, I though of Enchanted Ape but then I thought that the song was talking about something more. Like you said, what did we have in the last election but a great grassroots movement building on values and things we haven’t seen in a long time….And your other song, “Sacred Ground.”

Chris O’Brien: I started thinking about this song when I went to Thailand at the beginning of this year for a couple of weeks. I’d never been anywhere remotely close to that part of the world before. I went with my girlfriend Kim. We’ve been together about three years. I guess this is about the closest thing to a love song that I’ve written in recent times. There’s some of that in there. I guess this is sort of a spiritual song in general. I guess this is kind of the thought of finding someplace sacred. It can be someplace to travel to, but it can also be a place closer to home.

Refrain: I do remember your reference to Kim at the beginning, but it was walking together. Even that image with the title “Sacred Ground” says something about a life path. It could be some place to travel to. It could be your life journey and becomes a sacred ground because of the companionship together. As my husband and I enter our Sunset Years, I begin to value having a life companion….This is exciting to see how you’re developing as a songwriter and how the band is coming in to help complete what you’re beginning with your lyrics and present it as a package…..These are going to be great shows coming up. You’ll be a the Crosstown in Grand Forks on Friday, October 23 and at the Side Street Grille on Saturday, October 24.

]]> http://www.refrainmagazine.com/2009/10/one-on-one-with-chris-obrien-from-enchanted-ape/feed/ 0 http://www.refrainmagazine.com/2009/10/anarbor-download/ http://www.refrainmagazine.com/2009/10/anarbor-download/#comments Fri, 09 Oct 2009 22:56:16 +0000 admin http://www.refrainmagazine.com/?p=1440

[Live Music Alert: Oct 10, Aquarium, 5 pm]

Anarbor (photo by Gage Young)

Anarbor, fresh off a run of dates with The Almost and This Providence, has lined up a fall tour schedule that finds them supporting Straylight Run from 10/6-10-24 and Hawthorne Heights from 11/29-12/20.

The band’s track “You and I” off their recent Hopeless Records EP Free Your Mind, currently appears on the Cartoon Network original movie, Scooby Doo: The Mystery Begins. The film premiered on Cartoon Network last month and is now available on DVD and Blu-Ray. The home video version includes the music video for Anarbor’s “You And I” which premiered on Cartoon Network in August. Anarbor also recorded the theme song, “What’s New Scooby Doo” (originally done by Simple Plan).  The song appears during the end credits of the movie.

The Phoenix , area 4-piece is also preparing to head back to the studio to begin work on its first full length release with producer Mike Green (Paramore, Good Charlotte, The Matches).

For more information on Anarbor, see www.myspace.com/anarbor.

To view the “You and I” video featuring clips from the Scooby Doo movie visit: http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/tv_shows/scoobymovie/index.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4WnkfOPBZs&feature=related.

A version without clips from the film can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8jCIntzNY4.

]]> http://www.refrainmagazine.com/2009/10/anarbor-download/feed/ 0 http://www.refrainmagazine.com/2009/10/los-lobos-head-to-the-white-house/ http://www.refrainmagazine.com/2009/10/los-lobos-head-to-the-white-house/#comments Fri, 09 Oct 2009 22:48:39 +0000 admin http://www.refrainmagazine.com/?p=1436

Los Lobos

[This performance will locally at 8 pm on KFME channel 13.]

“In Performance at the White House: Fiesta Latina” is a concert hosted by the President and Mrs. Obama on the South Lawn of the White House that will be broadcast by PBS. The sixty-minute program, to be taped live by WETA Washington, D.C., on October 13, will celebrate Hispanic musical heritage and airs on the final day of National Hispanic Heritage Month, October 15, 2009 at 8 pm EDT, on PBS stations nationwide.

It will also be broadcast on Telemundo, the American Spanish-language television network, on Sunday, October 18 at 6 pm EDT, and on V-me, the national Spanish language network partnered with public television, on Friday, December 25.

The program, part of the WETA “In Performance at the White House” series, will include Chicano rock band Los Lobos, Marc Anthony, Jimmy Smits, Pete Escovedo, Gloria Estefan, José Feliciano, George Lopez, Thalía, Tito “El Bambino,” and the Bachata music group Aventura, with Sheila E. leading the house band.

“In Performance at the White House” has been produced by WETA since 1978 and spans every administration since President Carter’s. The series began with an East Room recital by the legendary pianist Vladimir Horowitz. Since then, “In Performance at the White House” has embraced virtually every genre of American performance: pop, country, gospel, jazz, blues, theatre and dance among them. The series was created to showcase the rich fabric of American culture in the setting of the nation’s most famous home. Past programs have showcased such talent as cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, dancer/choreographer Mikhail Baryshnikov, country music singer Merle Haggard, the United States Marine Band, soul and jazz singers Natalie Cole and Aretha Franklin, leading Broadway performers, and the Dance Theatre of Harlem.

The evening concert will be streamed live by the White House on www.WhiteHouse.gov and available to stream on the series website on pbs.org after the broadcast.

Here are the latest free downloads I’ve found this month.  You can snag some free mp3 singles or watch videos or even listen to entire streamed albums.

Some of these selections may be edgier than what I normally showcase, but they all are solid artists who deserve a listen. Check them out!

Evan Taubenfeld

Before striking out on his own, Evan Taubenfeld was best known as the musical director and lead guitarist for Avril Lavigne, co-writing such hits as “Don’t Tell Me” and “Hot.” After writing and producing for other artists, he’s finally releasing his debut solo album Welcome to the Blacklist Club this fall. The singles “Boy Meets Girl” and “Cheater of the Year” are already getting Evan a lot of attention, including features on MTV’s Buzzworthy, AOL’s PopEater and in J-14 Magazine.

You can check out some videos of Evan on his website here: http://evantaubenfeld.com/ettv

Moneypenny

Moneypenny

After their wildly successful performance at Lollapalooza 2009, Chicago-based DJ/electro duo Moneypenny will take their music to the masses with the release of a free 2-song digital single and string of high profile buzz gigs in Chicago, LA and San Francisco.

The duo, which began strictly as a DJ project in 2008, quickly blossomed into a full-fledged live act as Jessica Gonyea (A-Cup) and Chess Hubbard (Mother Hubbard)’s shared passion for new wave, pop, indie, electronica, and house music led them to write and record original material. Kept under lock and key until their debut live performance at Lollapalooza, Moneypenny’s original tracks quickly became must have material for industry types on both sides of the pond as word spread about these two incredibly talented young ladies. More than just two pretty faces, Moneypenny come stacked with a slew of great songs – one of which has already been licensed to ABC TV’s “Make It Or Break It” – a charismatic live show incorporating custom video projections and DJ skills to keep the after party going all night long.

Moneypenny is working on a full-length, debut release for 2010. In the meantime, they’d like to share a free gift for you to post and check out.

First single “Say No” was recorded in Chicago earlier this year and comes packaged with an insanely dance floor ready remix courtesy of good friends and fellow Chicagoans, Hey Champ.

“Say No” – DOWNLOAD HERE

“Say No” (Hey Champ Remix) – DOWNLOAD HERE

LOVEHATEHERO

[Live Music Alert: October 26, Triple Rock, Minneapolis , MN ]

LoveHateHero (www.myspace.com/lovehatehero) will be joining Eyes Set To Kill and Dreaming of Eden on a fall tour beginning 10/23 in Orland Park , IL . An 11-city Brazilian tour will follow. The band’s new CD, America Underwater, was released next Tuesday, September 29^th on Ferret Music.

Check out the new video for the title track at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaDxf7PIDgE

http://vimeo.com/6695030

http://ferretmusic.buzznet.com

http://www.friendsorenemies.com/web/foe/users/ferretmusic/

http://video.yahoo.com/watch/6035391/15686115

OR stream the entire album before you can buy at:

http://www.myspace.com/lovehatehero

http://www.ilike.com/artist/LoveHateHero

http://www.reverbnation.com/lovehatehero

http://www.ilike.com/artist/Ferret+Music/songs

http://www.purevolume.com/lovehatehero

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=320536394&mt=8 (Ferret Music iPhone App)

http://www.facebook.com/ferretmusic

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/LoveHateHero/9989801524

Via Tania

To many, Via Tania and her unique brand of self-described ‘moon pop’ are, as of yet, undiscovered musical gems of real beauty. The last five years have witnessed her traipse her own quiet path between Australia and the United States, as well as many exotic locales in-between, putting the finishing touches to her sophomore release, ‘Moon Sweet Moon’, which will be released this month with The:Hours.

“Moon Sweet Moon” will be available digitally October 13 and physically October 20

FREE Download of Via Tania’s first single “Wonder Stranger” Here.

A Brief Story on “Moon Sweet Moon”

“Via Tania came out of a need for personal space,” says the singer/multi-instrumentalist, explaining her set pieces and scene changes. “Even when I was a teenager, I liked to process things at my own pace and write about things alone. In fact, I have a cassette from when I was 14 years old, and the songs on it would fit perfectly in my sets even now.”

Often in her own world, Tania still remembers the rabbit footprints that once dotted her bedroom floor. It’s hard not to. That’s where it all started, after all—where she’d hide for hours dreaming up songs, letting her imagination take flight alongside schoolteacher parents who were “great storytellers” and “didn’t always separate fact from fiction.” “I was an outsider from an early age,” says Tania, a Sydney native who’s weaved in and out of the Chicago music scene for the past decade. “I’ve always been quite comfortable with it, though.”

No wonder why her solo work (as Via Tania) has always sounded like a long day’s journey into night, as if the sun just set and you’re suddenly surrounded by towering trees and the entire cast of Where the Wild Things Are. Except that kid with the crown. Tania’s taken his place, conducting Technicolor pop cuts that might as well be synced up to a short film of its own. Or at the very least, carefully sequenced into a mesmerizing album like Moon Sweet Moon—a parallel dimension that begins innocently enough (the echo chamber keys and buried shuffleboard beats of “The Beginning”) but quickly turns bizarre and a bit, well, mad.

With Moon Sweet Moon, songs started out folky in Tania’s room and expanded ever-so-slightly from there, as she reined in a revolving door of collaborators (including members of Tortoise and Shearwater) along with co-producer Craig Ross. A staple on the Austin music scene (Daniel Johnston, Spoon, Emmylou Harris), Ross met Tania at an Australian show and quickly agreed to help her wrap recording sessions that reached as far back as 2005.

“I told him it was a patchwork of sorts, and he seemed to have no problem with that,” explains Tania. “With Craig, there was a lot of letting go, and reshaping stuff that had been recorded for at least a year. He had such new, fresh ears—a bigger idea of what the whole record should sound like.”

So did Tania. As alone as she often feels in Chicago and Sydney—splitting her time between two very different cities has obliterated her sense of what ‘home’ really means—the Tania of today isn’t all that different than the teenager who used to escape into a world only she could truly understand. “I love new situations and experiences,” says Tania, “taking the challenge of making a new space, meeting new people, writing new songs. You can look at things from many angles, and then you move on—you change again.”

Motion Turns It On

The first track off Motion Turns It On’s upcoming LP, Kaleidoscopic Equinox, is available for download and sharing now. If you’d like to reward your limbic system with the kind of ear candy that can only be classified as post-prog, jazz-laced, psychedelic indie-rock then download this track and share it with everyone in the world.

“GIVE UP THE GHOSTS” (MP3)
http://www.chocolatelabrecords.com/mp3/Give%20Up%20The%20Ghosts.mp3

www.myspace.com/motionturnsiton

]]> http://www.refrainmagazine.com/2009/10/october-downloads/feed/ 1 http://www.refrainmagazine.com/2009/10/mae-brings-charity-music-venture-to-fargo/ http://www.refrainmagazine.com/2009/10/mae-brings-charity-music-venture-to-fargo/#comments Sat, 03 Oct 2009 18:39:46 +0000 Janie Franz http://www.refrainmagazine.com/?p=1376

Alternative rock trio MAE is currently in the midst of a social movement called “12 Songs, 12 Months, 1 Goal: Make a Difference.” The band, composed of Dave Elkins (lead vocals/guitars), Jacob Marshall (drums), and Zach Gehring (guitar), is releasing (physically and digitally) three separate collections of music: (M)ORNING, (A)FTERNOON, and (E)VENING. Partnering with charitable and humanitarian organizations, they will be touring to support this venture and will be in Fargo at the Aquarium on Monday, October 26 with Jenny Owen Youngs and Deas Vail.

Without a proper record label, the Norfolk VA group is releasing these music collections on their own imprint, Cell Records, now in partnership with Tooth & Nail Records for distribution. After a limited edition printing that sold out this spring, (M)ORNING was released to stores September 22, including the original eight songs plus a special DVD documentary portraying how the group developed the campaign and is achieving its goals. Only 2500 copies of a limited edition version of (A)FTERNOON will be made available during this upcoming fall tour, featuring 8 new songs including the current single “The Fight Song (Crash and Burn).” Individual songs for both discs are also available for download with a minimum donation of $1 through the band’s official website www.whatismae.com.

So far, MAE has raised $50,299.50 this year. The first charity the group partnered with was their local Habitat for Humanity in Newport News VA and helped build a home for a family in need. For (A)FTERNOON, the band has aligned with Donors Choose (www.donorschoose.org) to help teachers across the country directly get the supplies they are lacking for their classrooms.

In addition to donating proceeds from their music sales, MAE will also donate their time at every stop of this fall tour. Before each show, the band and local fans known as the “Maeteamers” will volunteer at local community soup kitchens, homeless shelters, clothing and food drivers, etc.

After each show, MAE will perform an acoustic set for donations, all of which will go directly to the local chapter of Donors Choose. Their mission is to impact a school in every state in the country.

Aside from just the music, MAE also likes to provide their fans with something more to cultivate growth and welcome possibility: A Multisensory Aesthetic Experience, as embodied in the band’s name. For this tour, the trio will now incorporate the sensory stimulation of touch into their shows in addition to their stunning 3D projection visuals and “rub and smell” scented CDs, which first debuted on the Spring tour. The combination of these elements will create a unique experience allowing fans to a unique musical experience.

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