I discovered The Bird and The Bee through a covers site, and heard their version of the Roth-era Van Halen classic “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love.”
I was smitten.
I love the irony, humor, disposition of musical elements of a good cover song, but this was something else: this was a true tribute. This was love.
But first, we must step back in time.
It’s no hyperbole to say that in 1978, Van Halen’s self-titled debut album split the rock world in two. Eddie Van Halen was the most prodigious and game-changing electric guitarist since our beloved Jimi Hendrix. It was like hearing a jet plane take off and leaving all the copycats, who were to follow in their wake, as mere shadows of the VH craftmanship of chops, songwriting with great hooks and charisma.
Enter The Bird and the Bee forty one years later. (NB: Inara was ten years old when “1984” was released and thought Panama was about the Panama Canal. The videos she saw were “both terrifying and exciting.” Check longer interview.)
Formed in 2005, when Greg Kurstin was hired to assist with her first solo album, All Rise, they “just clicked over musical interests” and “we wrote a couple of songs together and maybe we’ll see if somebody else wants to play them.” The rest, as it said, is history.
The Bird and the Bee will be featured on this week’s Eclectopia radio program. Listen to Eclectopia on WVPB Radio Fridays at 10 pm, with an encore Saturdays at 11 pm.
inara_george_extended_interview_eclectopia.mp3
Broadcast interview with Inara George from December 2016, plus bonus Q&As about Panama, Hot For Teacher, Beck and other good stuff.
Inara, DLR, and Greg at a special invitation-only DLR show. Follow them on Instagram.
I cannot remember when I first heard Joseph, but immediately was struck by their harmonies; the way they could blend and yet retain their individual timbres. On top of that was their arrangments: solo voice gives way to two or is it all three in unison? These intricate harmonies, the robust then delicate dynamics followed by a solo voice were so unique.
Who was this? I was reminded of Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins when, watching Karen Carpenter on TV, he yells “What sorcery is this? Reveal yourself, tiny songstress!”
Turns out, it’s called genetics. Natalie, Allison and Meegan Closner (Claws-ner) are sisters from Portland, Oregon. In fact, the band name came from the town of Joseph – a place where they spent their childhoods surrounded by the natural beauty.
When asked about the band’s name, the answer used to be attributed to their grandfather. “The name Joseph is more after the town Joseph, Oregon – the town our grandpa Jo grew up in,” said Allison, “because he name is actually just Jo. Just J-O, which we didn’t find out about until recently when my mom actually looked at his birth certificate.” The two sisters laughed. (Sister Meegan was having internet issues and could only join our conversation via text.)
Music was always around the family. Their father, a natural talent who was in a college vocal jazz ensemble, encouraged and helped them learn the craft of singing. Mom too was in local theater and musicals, so a robust musical life was to be found.
“Ambient music creates a world without a sense of time.”
Musician, composer and software engineer Peter Chilvers has worked with Brian Eno on several remarkable generative music apps for IOS devices, beginning in 2008 with Bloom. Such has been the success of these imaginary music applications that last year the 10-year anniversary was released: Bloom: 10 Worlds.
Let’s stop right here and I’ll assume you don’t know who Brian Eno is and what he has accomplished. In short, he’s one of the most creative and influential minds of our time. His biography is here. In May, Eno was awarded the Stephen Hawking Medal at Starmus space festival. At the ceremony, an asteroid was named after him. Pretty big stuff, yes?
If you’ve not tried Bloom, Air or Trope, you are missing out on something very unique, special and for me, absolutely necessary. Bloom is simple. Touch the screen and a raindrop-like circle appears with a tone. All the while a gentle drone (which I mistakenly thought was a piano) underpins your creation. The tones repeat, but never in exactly the same way. Do nothing and music will appear.
Why do I say these are necessary? Very simple: stress relief. Open Bloom, relax and listen. Twenty minutes in and time has slowed to a crawl.
I spoke to the thoughtful and delightful Peter Chilvers in June of this year.
peter_chilvers_part_one.mp3
Part one of an extended interview with Peter Chilvers.
peter_chilvers_part_two.mp3
Chilvers describes what we might hear in Bloom:10 Worlds, Reflection's seasonal sounds and an amusing story about the "cacophony" that had to be erased.
I saw Tristen and her band on Mountain Stage on June 16, 2017 and was duly impressed. I love singers with a little grit in their voice and Tristen has…
I saw Tristen and her band on Mountain Stage on June 16, 2017 and was duly impressed. I love singers with a little grit in their voice and Tristen has that, plus a lyrical purity and range. When she wants to imbue her lyrics with a delicate vulnerability or a outright aggressiveness, it flows out with ease.
For example, Glass Jar reveals its layers of meaning by her vocal inflections. First, the verse is sung with almost a sweet innocence:
Live by the sword, die by the sword They’re all assassins They’re all assassins Hold your head high, never swing low Don’t look behind you There’s no one there.
Then the chorus brings out the pain of the true romantic fallout:
I don’t have to say goodbye You don’t get to see me cry You put me in a glass jar and tap, tap, tap to see how I move.
Tristen Marie Gaspadarek, or just Tristen, is an American singer-songwriter based in Nashville. Her songs are eclectic: a rock-pop-60’s retro vibe with vibrant hooks you’ll find yourself humming all day, and with literate intelligent lyrics.
Growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, music was always a part of her life: “The folklore in my family is that I could sing at the same time as I was talking.”
Performance came naturally as she spent her high school years in plays and musicals: “The beginning really for me started doing acting and musical theater at a young age as well. It was something I was really interested in doing-performing.” (Receiving local notoriety back then, she now returns home to be in all-girl band tribute shows.)
As a freshman in high school, she started gigging at a local coffee shop who gave her with two sets: “I learned covers because I had only four original songs. And then it sort of turned into doing the circuit of coffee shops in the suberbs of Chicago.”
She wrote her first song at 14, so I had to ask if songwriting ever presented difficulties: “I’ve always been able to write songs and they weren’t very good when I was 14, but I’ve always been able to write songs. Easy. I never had the concept that I wanted to be a songwriter, I just started writing songs.” That turned into an obsession which has become her profession.
Fast forward to 2007 where she moved to Nashville and find others “obsessed with songwriting” and started gigging solo. One year later, she released her first album, Teardrops and Lollipops – a self-produced, folk-flavored work where she played all the instruments and even burned the CDs herself, complete with handsewn sleeve.
In 2011, Charlatans at the Garden Gate was released and the musical growth in the three-year interval was exponential. To use more common parlance: Tristen comes out swinging like a prize fighter. Eager For Your Love captures what “the young kids call breadcrumbing” (or intermittent reinforcement for you psychology fans) or someone who gets you on the hook and then “ghosts.”
Tame that nasty shrew ‘cause she knows what you’re up to You gotta keep her thin and hungry So she’s eager for your love
Subsequently, she has released CAVES (2013), Sneaker Waves (2017) and a new ep called Dream Within a Dream; culled from Poe’s poem. It’s flat-out rock and roll when she rips through:
O God! Can I not grasp Them with a tighter clasp? O God! can I not save One Is all that we see or seem But a dream within a dream?
She said that this poem attracted her because “It fingers the wound of mankind, prodding at the mercurial nature this reality is, consciousness as participation in a shared reality, and how the sands of existence creep through all hands.”
Tristen will be featured on Electopia this week (June 13 &14, 2019).
Listen to Eclectopia Fridays at 10pm and Saturdays at 11pm on WVPB radio
In-depth interview:
tristen_in-depth_interview_from_may_16__2019.mp3
Listen to Jim Lange's extended interview with Tristen.
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? ~ Yeats
The beast stirs from fitful sleep, opening voluminous eyes – slowly becomes upright. This beast, this Crimson beast, is awake and ready.
Credit DGMLIVE
/
Master bassist Tony Levin and his Stick Fingers.
What instruments? What batterie? What music?
In this world, a fourth world, normal is abnormal, expectation is shattered, all bets are on and off, time past-present-future is both linear and spiraled.
This is no polite English tea party. Hell’s bells, boys. This is Crimson, King Crimson.
This is a band that wants to melt your face, fracture your skull, then suddenly lead you to restrained introspection, delicate chamber interplay, nuance, color and light.
Credit DGMLIVE
/
Master percussionist, Pat Mastelotto.
This is a band where a man plays his electric bass with sticks attached to his fingers, where exotic percussion instruments are scraped, swiped and sticked by three drummers. A band whose blue-flame serpentine guitars announce, with all the vigor of St. John’s Revelations, the dawning apocalypse.
To this mix, we add woodwinds of all shape, size and sound.
Credit DGMLIVE
/
Master guitarist, Robert Fripp.
But you say, “This is trickery! The deception of the thrush! All is preplanned, informed and overly considered. This is merely the wizard’s art: slight-of-hand, frippery and rehearsed spectacle!”
Nay.
Not even The Wizard Priest knows what will happen. This band exists in the moment, the precise moment – the moving razor’s edge of music. Crimson improvisations are not the solo-over-the-known-and-carefully-charted-chord-progression species, but the whole band creating a collective once-in-a-moment music. What you hear at a Crimson concert is a unique incarnation, a creation only found in that time and that place. Time is both linear and spiraled.
This is why KC fans are buying tickets and extra dates are being added. This is why shows are selling out. Because in today’s world of autotune stars, lipsyncing and prerecorded tracks, listeners want something real. Something daring – live without a net.
No other band comes close to this high-wire act. Go see them.
with KING CRIMSON Canada 2015 Nov 13 Palais Montcalm / Quebec Nov 14 Palais Montcalm / Quebec Nov 16 Theatre St. Denis / Montreal Nov 17 Theatre St. Denis / Montreal Nov 19 Queen Elizabeth Theatre / Toronto Nov 20 Queen Elizabeth Theatre / Toronto Nov 21 Queen Elizabeth Theatre / Toronto Nov 24 Jack Singer Concert Hall / Calgary Nov 26 Vogue Theatre / Vancouver Nov 27 Vogue Theatre / Vancouver Nov 29 Royal Theatre / Victoria
with KING CRIMSON Japan 2015 Dec 7 Bunkamura Orchard Hall / Tokyo Dec 8 Bunkamura Orchard Hall / Tokyo Dec 9 Bunkamura Orchard Hall / Tokyo Dec 10 Bunkamura Orchard Hall / Tokyo Dec 12 Festival Hall / Osaka Dec 13 Festival Hall / Osaka Dec 21 Century Hall / Nagoya
What an interconnected world we live in. When I saw that Trey Gunn, a well-known figure in progressive music circles, had a new album, I reached out via his website. Fully expecting a publicist’s reply, Trey himself cheerfully agreed to a chat about his new work.
Gunn’s membership alone in King Crimson should inform you of his musical pedigree. He and others like Markus Reuter are raising the bar, redefining contemporary music and creating a performance practice for “touch guitars.” Besides, look at that Warr guitar (pictured above) and ask yourself how many of us could play, let alone make worthwhile or substantial music with that stringed mammoth. That alone puts him in rare company.
Gunn’s new album is The Waters, They Are Rising. There’s one cover, Bob Dylan’s Not Dark Yet, done with tasteful electronics (sung by the sultry Dylan Nichole Bandy) and the rest of the album are originals – some of which are live performances. Overall, it’s a thoughtful, without being ponderous, electronic landscape without the usual textural density.
"I try to be in rare company or otherwise you could go elsewhere and get what I do. The style of playing (Warr guitar) and the music both go together."
Trey and I had an informative conversation about his musical journey, working with Robert Fripp and David Sylvian, playing touch style instruments such as the Warr Guitar and his new album.
I knew before interviewing Trey that he is a great player, but his humble and thoughtful nature certainly came through.
Trey Gunn interview:
mixdown_of_trey_gunn_part_two.mp3
Part Two
Music used:
Trey Gunn: Dziban, Hard Winds Redux
Robert Fripp and the League of Crafty Guitarists: Eye of the Needle, Guitar Craft Theme I: Invocation
David Sylvian/ Robert Fripp – God’s Monkey, Damage
King Crimson – sex sleep eat drink dream
Trey Gunn – Not Dark Yet, The Seven Who Were Saved
