May 2006 (PDF) - Antigravity Magazine

[vol.3 no.7 may ‘06]
[your new orleans music and culture alternative]
HIS NAME IS ALIVE
GET READY FOR THEIR CLOSE-UP
ALSO: ART BRUT I LIARS I MIKE FREY
JUNIOR LEAGUE I BUILT TO SPILL I PELICAN
FREE COMIC BOOK DAY I PINBACK I KIMBO?
antigravitymagazine.com
FREE!

ART BRUT
THEY BOOKED A SHOW. THEY BOOKED A SHOW!_page16

FREEFLOATING RAMBLINGS
Ah, May. The home of...oh, wait—that’s last month’s schtick. Seriously though,
May flowers and all that aside, the fifth month of the year in New Orleans
brings the first sweat-drenched days; great lamentations if you don’t have A/C.
And May brings babies conceived in September. One of those three you can’t
avoid, and if you’re faced with either of the others, well, a new A/C unit’s cheaper
than any fruit-of-the-loins. What’s any of this have to do with this issue? Nothing
really, except that I wanted to segue into a conversation about my beard. Man,
my beard’s hot. And speaking of hot, we’ve got some hot shows this month
starting with Art Brut. The Brits who love to repeat (who love to repeat!) may
be the hottest band to take the stage at One Eyed Jacks since, well, fellow Brits
Bloc Party back in June of ‘05. Also on tap is the first feature (with many to come, we’re sure) of a show
at the new N.O. venue The Republic. First up: His Name Is Alive. Also in this issue is a special feature on
Mike Frey, who was tragically robbed and killed on Frenchmen St. this past March. As always, we have the
departments you’ve grown to love–so sit down and get ready, because we’re aiming to entertain. Next
month: the second anniversary of AG. ‘Til, then, we’ll see you out...
–Leo McGovern, Publisher
(Note: Of course, what happens right before we go to press? We get a cool front. In May. So forget what I said.)
Well NOLA, you’ve chosen a new mayor. We
just don’t yet know who it is. In the most
anticlimactic election since, er, Alec Gifford can’t
remember, ANTIGRAVITY did learn several telling
facts: the Zoo Tycoon split the vote; the rumors
of Mayor Wonka’s political demise were indeed
premature; and Leo Watermeier’s entire constituency
could fit inside the Circle Bar for his consolation
party. (To think we endorsed the guy just because his
name is Leo. “I don’t even own a CD player … at
home I prefer quiet,” he says—to a rock magazine?
Points for veracity, LW, but if you ask us, your fate
was sealed right there.) Congrats to the Mayor and
Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu for advancing to the runoff, and may the least incompetent pointy-headed politico
win. Music, you ask? I suppose we could talk concerts for a minute: May brings hot-shit London punk
pranksters Art Brut, Detroit electro-clash veterans His Name Is Alive and Berlin (by way of Brooklyn)
denizens Liars to our little corner of Louisiana. And watch out around town for the hell-bent caterpillars
from Hades. April already brought those.
–Noah Bonaparte, Senior Editor
Now that the mayoral primary is over and we barrel towards a heated run
off election, I would like to take this opportunity to recognize several of the
lesser candidates who gave it their all during the campaigns. Before these good
citizens slip back into their routines and out of the public spotlight (no matter how
dim it might have been), I want to show them my appreciation for offering a bit of
amusement and absurdity during a very stuffy race.
Nick Bacque. Total votes: 52. Nick provided us with not only the face
of a cherub but with a campaign that was more about getting laid rather then
making an attempt at City Hall. His website and blog were sources of constant
amusement with their frat party pics of pretty girls, lawyers in collars and khakis,
and drunken white guys making fools of themselves on the dance floor. Sure, everybody knows he was
Forman’s lackey, but Nick gave us a clear understanding of the social perks of being a young New Orleans
politico. James Arey. Total votes: 99. Nearly breaking the century mark is local NPR classical music
host James Arey, beloved for his on-air witticisms and for his Mama who founded PJ’s Coffee. James’
campaign slogan, “Arey. 2006. Fabulous,” will continue to delightfully bemuse political insiders for years to
come. Also baffling was his “2006 Initiatives” to bring back New Orleans. Prioritizing a mobile art program,
an “arboretum” plan and a computer upgrade at the Coroner’s office above establishing serious levee
reform, James once and for all proved that listening to too much public radio can sometimes be a very
bad thing. Manny Chevrolet Bruno. Total votes: 100. Manny’s tongue-in-cheek campaign offered
a breath of fresh air in an election that was riddled with double-speak and sinister power plays. In 2002,
Manny ran for mayor under the slogan, “A Troubled Man for Troubled Times,” and in the recent election,
exclaimed that he was “More Troubled than Ever.” Self-certain and unwavering, Manny declared that he was
“against” crime and “for” education, and also unveiled his revolutionary “Success Triangle”: a three-point
plan consisting of “good,” “fast,” and “cheap.” Manny explained that he could only offer two of the three
methods in rebuilding New Orleans, but that he would leave it to the people to decide. (I, for one, am a
champion of the “good-and-cheap-but-not-very-fast” scenario.) Manny showed us that if you play makebelieve
throughout an entire campaign, you will surely end up as the most honest candidate of all.
Thanks to you who made this election emotionally bearable. May we be so bold to hope that we’ll never
need your services again.
–Patrick Strange, Associate Editor
04_antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative

Yes, it’s another edition of real mail by real readers. Last month’s e-mail contest
was for a Sonic Youth three-pack of CDs and the criteria was to send us an e-mail
detailing your least favorite New Orleans celebrity. Yeah, we were setting ourselves
up for some hatemail, but we escaped unscathed. Here’s what we got:
Michael Bettler, via AG Blog
Dear Brocato’s...I hate to trace you back this way... This isn’t about comics...
this is about serious stuff: When you gonna open the cookie shop again? I
live in Houston and I read all about your coming to Houston during the
hurricane...and man I saw the picture you posted on the sign down and it
almost made me cry. I buy your cookies in Houston at one Italian resatruarnt
by the name of “DIMECO’S ITALIAN CAFE” in the Rice Village. The Queen
Cookies are part of the family here. The fig cookies are part of Christmas.
We made our own, as we do every year, but after Christmas we have a “cool
cousins party” and your cookies are always the ones taken first. Please ask
your Momma and Pappa to leave Arkansas, go back to New Orleans and start
again. My late father-in-law used to get your canoli when he was a kid, back on
the east side of the quarter...I can’t remember the Saint the street was named
after. The tradition has to live on!
I think Michael sent this response in about a photo I took in mid-September
of the Brocato’s neon sign with its lower left corner propped on the sidewalk of
Carrollton Ave. That picture and more are in the September archives on our blog.
Now for some entry towards the e-mail contest.
Shannah, via e-mail
1. Emeril. Bam! Nothing personal, really. Just...bam! The toothpaste?
Come on, man.
2. Kimberly Williamson Butler? The crazy.... jailbird. Is she high on life? Is
she moving to Texas anytime soon?
3. FEMA! FEMA! FEEEEEMMAAAAAAHH!
This worked for the Tennessee Williams Fest...
Good enough?
Fritz Esker, via e-mail
Tom Benson...Not only is he evil, he’s stupid.
If he were simply evil, one could perhaps respect
a Machiavellian cunning. Not so. The man was
evil enough (like many owners) to try and hold
New Orleans taxpayers hostage for a new
stadium. He was evil enough to try and exploit
Katrina to his own advantage. However, he is
a complete moron because he forced his hand
way too soon. In starting his whining about
having to leave New Orleans less than a week
after Katrina, he created a national uproar which
basically forced the NFL to force Benson to stay
in New Orleans, lest he look too evil. Compare
this to George Shinn, who is evil, but was smart
enough to keep his mouth shut for 6 months,
then mention his moving plans after the national
interest in our story died down.
Mike would coerce an older woman into a date by saying something like
“Do you have any idea what it’s like to go through puberty backwards? Yeah,
it’s true. There are only two known cases, me and Dick Clark.”
Only Mike could get away with having a friend named Boner, a name that
even Mike’s parents would use on “Richard Stabone.” It went over our
heads as children, but I appreciate that Kirk Cameron’s character would be
the first person many people of my own generation ever heard saying that
pivotal nugget of vocabulary.
Only Michael Seaver could get away with filling every orifice of his VW
Bug with parking tickets and still get off scot free.
Kirk Cameron, though not a New Orleans celebrity in the obvious and
outspoken Dr. John/Anne Rice/Dan Akroyd kind of way, is by far the worst
New Orleans celebrity to ever get a regular table at Sake Cafe.
The first reason being that he isn’t of aforementioned tradition of New
Orleans pride that could melt the face off of any other city’s pompous
affection (the exception being New York–New Orleans, I admit, is only
second in local pretense).
Though the implications may say that I’m going to go on to dis Mr.
Cameron for being a Christian, I am not. I am not going to say that he
sucks because he went from the forefront of badass to being Left Behind,
and showing the rest of the world that he really never was a good actor. I
am going to say that he sucks because after Hurricane Katrina, when I was
forced to relocate temporarily to California and spent hours everyday in
front of the news or computer looking at more and more articles on the
aftermath and all the benefits and help efforts, David Bowie and Kanye
West’s names came up more than Kirk Cameron. I don’t know what he’s
done for the city since the hurricane, but I sure would like to know. I’m
not saying that he has to flaunt his contribution, but he needs to speak up
for his city.
After all of that, I cannot imagine Kirk Cameron being any kind of active
participant in Mardi Gras or Jazz Fest the way they should be celebrated:
drunk as I can only imagine skunks get. The core beauty of our city is the
freedom we have that other’s don’t. It’s a wonderland where 17 year-olds
look forward to their 18th birthday the way 20 year-olds look forward to
being 21 everywhere else in the country. It’s a place where a man can grab
a forty and take his dog for a walk. You can buy beers and cocktails from
windows, and the only way you can ever get pinned for public drunkeness
is peeing on something.
While Kirk Cameron may be a great guy, and I don’t want to personally
insult him, he should really be exiled to Branson, Missouri.
Yeah, uh, this is the winner. I mean, first Saved By The Bell on Adult Swim and
now Kirk Cameron in ANTIGRAVITY. What’s the world coming to?
Eric Nail, via e-mail
Hello! I just read ANTIGRAVITY for the first
time, and was deeply impressed. I look forward
to many more articles of the same quality in the
future. Keep up the good work!
Question: Where can I reliably pick up copies
of ANTIGRAVITY here in Baton Rouge?
Comments: Would it be possible for
you to more tightly integrate your three
websites(www,antigravitymagazine.com,
antigravityneworleans.blogspot.com, and
www.myspace.com/antigravitymagazine)?
Failing that, would you at least consider
putting more prominent links to your
Blog and MySpace pages on your main
homepage? It’d make it a lot easier to
navigate.
Finally, I really appreciate that you’re
making ANTIGRAVITY available in .PDF
as well as the more traditional, dead-tree
format.
Yeah, Tom Benson...what else can be said that hasn’t been? As an avid football
fan and a Saints season ticker holder, I’m just thankful for Paul Tagliabue, NFL
commissioner, and his specific brand of sanity. As bad as people think Benson is, I’d
still implore people to support the team for the sake of New Orleans. They’re the
biggest business we have that’s profitable, and the possibility of being on national
television on a weekly basis for a four-month span can do so much good for the city
that it’d be a shame to waste it by only half-filling the Superdome.
Wesley Swinnen
I would have to go with Frank Davis. He is just straight up annoying and
anytime he pops his head on channel 4 I just have to change the channel.
I’ve heard that the guy doesn’t even catch the fish they show on WWL, but that’s
just a rumor. Only in New Orleans could he be a celebrity, though.
Brady Walker, via e-mail
There was a time when the charismatic bad boy, the cultural sitcom teenage
equivalent to Bart Simpson, Mike Seaver could get any girl in school. Only
Eric, thanks for the kind words. In BR, the most reliable places are Highland
Coffee, School Of Comics, Red Star Bar, Chelsea’s Cafe, and Spanish Moon. Other
places have us, but fewer copies. As far as the website, that’s certainly something
we’ll work on. The blog has kind of fallen by the wayside since we got the bloglike
feature on our homepage, but it’s worth going to for all the old photos and
whatnot. We’ll get some links up there soon. The .pdf format is something else
we’ll tweak–no more 40MB downloads–we’ll put smaller versions up so you can
get it quickly.
Johnny, via e-mail
I’m the boyfriend / cab driver who won the Springsteen DVDs and I
wanted to send you a quick note to thank you for them. They cheered
me up immensely. Keep up the good work...I’m glad you guys are
around.
“People really do win with Antigravity!”
That’s right, Johnny. I labeled his envelope “Attn: the blowjob-starved
boyfriend of Molly Knapp.” We don’t know if his situation’s changed, but at
least he’s got that DVD to watch.
antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative_05

ANTI-NEWS
As if Kimberly Butler’s mayoral candidacy wasn’t
controversial enough, the arrest warrant-avoider and
Red Cross station in his hometown of New York, Neufeld,
a comics artist and writer, applied to the Red Cross
for deployment to the Gulf Coast. In October ‘05 the
organization sent him to Biloxi for a three week tour of
duty.
Neufeld kept a journal of his time in the Gulf Coast
and periodically uploaded entries to his online LiveJournal.
In February of 2006 he published a print version of his
writings in the 88-page Katrina Came Calling, initially limited
to 100 copies.
In one section of Katrina, Neufeld travels to New Orleans
with two companions, one of whom’s family has a house
flooded after the hurricane. The trio visits a number of
N.O. hotspots and juxtaposes the state of the city with that
of Biloxi and other areas of the Gulf Coast.
former Clerk Of Court was caught in a Photoshop scandal
when a photo used on her website was revealed to be
doctored. The photo shows Butler standing in what seems
to be an innocuous street in New Orleans – Square, that is;
Disneyland’s New Orleans Square to be exact.
How was the photo’s inaccuracy found? A trashcan
in the photo was spotted as one that could only be at
Disneyland. Following a statement by Disney, the trashcan
was removed. Only problem being that the actual image of
the fake New Orleans is still unauthorized by Disney. As of
4/19 the entire image was taken from her website, leaving
Butler’s image over a standard banner, and as of press time
the website was removed entirely.
New York artist Josh Neufeld has published Katrina
Came Calling: A Gulf Coast Deployment, a ‘zine that details
his experience as a Red Cross worker. After a day helping
Katrina-displaced residents with FEMA paperwork at a
Typically you’re supposed to shut the fuck up in libraries.
Which makes the 15th Annual Free Speech Buffet, hosted
by the American Library Association Conference in the
OMNI Royal New Orleans Hotel on June 26, all the more
enticing. Look for a certain bearded media magnate as well
as K Chronicles creator Keith Knight among the show’s
exhibitors.
The Republic, a club relatively new to the New Orleans
music scene, has the makings of a very indie-friendly club.
Since opening in the spot vacated by the relocated Howlin’
Wolf, the Republic has hired Infectious Publicity as their
talent buyer. Casey Philips and Scott Simoneaux of Infectious
once booked the Wolf, and most recently the duo
worked with TwiRoPa Mills. Longtime AG readers know
that TwiRoPa lineups frequently graced our pre-Katrina
pages, and surely one can expect shows that would have
gone to that club to now be routed to the Republic.
The Republic is attempting to be diverse, with hip-hop
shows interspersed between indie rock concerts and
themed dance nights. Certainly no one faults them for that–
in this post-K world diversity may be necessary for survival.
Like any new venue, the Republic will have its growing pains
regarding aesthetics. Indie fans who showed up to April
shows such as Two Gallants may have been a bit put off
by the high-end dance club vibe–specifically the two-piece
suit-wearing door attendant, red carpet entrance and white
tablecloths. The good news is that the Republic’s owners
are not only willing to listen to others’ ideas, they’re soliciting
them. The white tablecloths–gone for live music events,
as well as the velvet ropes and red carpet.
Market On Esplanade, a grocery offering some organic
products, is set to open on May 8th, according to Fair Grinds
Coffeehouse owner and MOE neighbor Robert Thompson.
The Market, located at 3135 Esplanade Ave, takes over the
spot vacated when Whole Foods relocated that market
to Metairie. Also notable is that Market On Esplanade is
owned by the same people who own Lakeview Fine Foods,
the flooded grocery on Harrison Ave.
Susan Rosgen, longtime local TV anchor and
attractive urbanite, was reported walking a small dog in
the Uptown area of Napoleon Ave. and Magazine St. on
Monday night, April 24. From an eye witness account,
Rosgen reportedly looked “agitated” with the behavior
of the miniature canine and was carrying what seemed
to be a plastic grocery bag full of poop.
Burt Reynolds, famous film actor and one of the
few people in history that can successfully wear a
mustache, was spotted on the weekend of April 22-23
in the Boomtown Casino on the Westbank during the
shooting of his new movie, Deal. Confirmed reports
say that Reynolds was seen purchasing a t-shirt from
the casino gift shop that pictured an egg fucking a
chicken from behind, with text that read, “Who came
first—the chicken or the egg?”
Peyton and Eli Manning, NFL quarterback
brothers and favorite hometown jocks, were spotted
imbibing at the King Pin bar on Friday night, April 14.
According to sources, Peyton showed his maturity by
pacing himself at the bar. However, younger brother Eli
was less restrained, slurring his speech and acting like
“just another drunk dude.” It was also reported that
the two had an entourage of nearly 10 high school
buddies whom all hoped to end up in at least one of
the brother’s boxers at the end of the night.
Compiled by: A Rose is a Rose
Please submit your sightings to feedback@antigravi
tymagazine.com. Celebs in compromising positions
preferred.
06_antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative

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antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative_07

Progressive music is alive and well in New Orleans. And
by progressive, I mean “promoting or favoring progress
toward better conditions or new policies, ideas, or methods:
a progressive politician; progressive business leadership” (Thanks,
dictionary.com!). It’s music that’s not “indigenous,” but New
Orleans all the same. Also, it’s music that’s too weird to be
normal. Or, in Junior League’s case, music that’s so normal
it’s weird. But, we’ll talk to the local pop rock band’s frontman,
Joe Adragna, a little bit later in the column. Right now, I
want to bring you up to speed on the happenings of ambient
noise group Chef Menteur.
OPTICAL THEREMIN?
Chef Menteur is trippy. That’s the word I think of first.
The band can lay you down to sleep with progressions that
emulate a mellow drug excursion, or they can terrify you with
blasts of guitar or siren raids. One second it’s poppy handclaps,
shouts, banjo, and xylophone, and the next it sounds like I’m
hacking into the mainframe. Chef Menteur is an instrumental
group, so they’re naturally difficult, but if you can get past the
screeches and the drones, then you
might just be transported. The band
uses pedals, guitars, synthesizers, drums,
laptops, bass, percussion, and an optical
theremin (FYI–while the proximity
of human hands to regular theremin
antennas determines pitch and volume,
light, real or manufactured, is the only
thing that affects the sound produced
by an optical theremin). This last
contraption was hand-made by Dan
Haugh, a new member that joined
Chef Menteur at the Circle Bar
on April 25th for their first concert
since the hurricane. During a recent
telephone interview, leader/guitarist
Alec Vance said Haugh’s mini-Moog
proficiency is the reason the new lineup
is Chef Menteur’s “best-ever.”
Chef Menteur is a part of Backporch Revolution,
a record label/collection of electronic, drone-based, and
eclectic local groups. Backporch Revolution will release their
first compilation on June 1st, and according to Vance, all
proceeds will benefit a charity concerned with the rebuilding
of New Orleans. The comp is titled Proud to Swim Home
(proudtoswimhome.com), a phrase that Haugh coined and
makes bumper stickers with. And guess what? All the money
from the stickers has been going to the Habitat for
Humanity and the Humane Society of the U.S. These
are pretty alright dudes.
The compilation includes tracks from Chef Menteur, the
Buttons, the Bastard Sons of Morton Subotnick,
Archipelago, the Uptown Cajun All-Stars and
Lipeworks, a Mike Mayfield solo project. It’s normal
if you don’t recognize these names. The bands rarely or
never come out at night. Catch Chef Menteur playing with
Country Fried at the Big Top on May 13th, and pick up
the compilation at backporchrevolution.com.
CONSTIPATED WHALE?
Hairy Lamb is the best local band to materialize since
the hurricane. Their music and performance are a beautiful
mix of the wacky, depraved, sinister, dorky and depressed.
The songs are a soundtrack for outsiders who have trouble
expressing themselves but still want to get laid.
At a Circle Bar show in January, petite vocalist Jeanne
Stallworth pranced and bounced in her short shorts while
drummer and vocalist Steve Thomas, a large and bald man,
waxed poetic in his baritone about being sexually retarded. The
strange juxtaposition didn’t end there. Ex-Black Mountain
and Blackula member Brooke Lamm brought his wooden
board, and the clogging was on. Lamm picked up clogging while
he grew up in the Appalachian region, where he also drew his
hillbilly singing accent from.
Every Hairy Lamb song showcases Lamm’s growling,
repetitive bass lines. This, combined with Thomas’ sparse
groove-ready stomp, makes for music that speaks to the groin.
Considering it’s so ominous, you wouldn’t think it’d be so
danceable. When you sway, you sway hard.
“We have a spare sound. There’s a lot of space, there,”
Stallworth said during a recent phone interview. “It’s been
a problem for a lot of people. They say we need another
instrument.”
I don’t think so. I think that’s what makes Hairy Lamb
unique–the emptiness of sound that makes the music that
much heavier. Stallworth said that back in Blackula (Ha! –Ed.)
Lamm was a madman on stage, that he flailed his arms and
had the ability to be a true frontman. Lamm wants that back.
The band is currently scouting out bassists/vocalists like
Manwitch’s Rachelle O’Brien and Clockwork Elvis’
D.C. Harbold so that Lamm can
focus on vocals, harmonica, dancing,
and clogging during future live
shows.
Since all three members write
the songs, you can expect disparate
lyrical subjects from Hairy Lamb.
“Freight Train of a Hurricane,”
which is available at myspace.com/
hairylamb, is a creepy lament about
the gratitude that comes from
destruction.
Thomas brought us “Sexually
Retarded,” so you’d have to expect
his songs would be more tonguein-cheek.
“He wrote a song called
‘Constipated Whale.’ All of his
subjects have to do with aggression
or a sad subject.” Stallworth’s “Cream
Dream” is also a downer, but from a different viewpoint.
“I’m singing from the viewpoint of a teenage boy who’s not
getting anything he wants. It’s teen angst. I’m saying, ‘I’m never
gonna have my cream dream.’”
Hairy Lamb has no concerts scheduled since they’ll be
focusing on recording their full-length this summer.
They’re open to offers, though. Expect the album in the
Spring of 2007.
KINGS OF THE DEAD END?
I know it’s rare for a band like Junior League to
emerge from New Orleans, but I’d assume it’s rare for a
pop/rock band with allegiances to the Beatles and the
Beach Boys to come out of anywhere at this point.
New Orleans isn’t exactly known for its pop, and I’m
just not hearing the handclaps, tambourines, and jangly
guitar melodies on Top 40.
Junior League is a year-old local band that is having
its record release party for its first release, Catchy, at
the Circle Bar on June 10th. I sat down with founder/
vocalist/guitarist Joe Adragna on a drizzly evening at
The Balcony Bar to talk about the group and what
it’s like to operate as a rock band in New Orleans.
AG: Is Jason(bassist,vocalist) in New York?
JA: Yeah.
AG: So, you all don’t practice?
JA: No, we occasionally play the night before a gig.
AG: How does that work? How do you
progress that way?
JA: The thing is that The Junior League is like a rotating cast of
whoever’s around.
AG: Really?
JA: Yeah.
AG: You’ve written all the songs.
JA: Yeah. I played it all on the CD. I didn’t have a band.
AG: Oh, so all this on Catchy is just you?
JA: Uh huh.
AG: You’re playing the drums and everything?
JA: Uh huh.
AG: Very impressive.
JA: Thank you. I didn’t have anybody. I sat in my room for
two years and recorded songs in my own demo studio. I was
bummed out because I couldn’t meet anybody. I was having a
hard time, so I just said, “the hell with it. I’m gonna do my thing
and record.” I went to the studio back at St. Augustine because
that’s where I was living in Florida and my friend Jim Devito,
he’s got a great studio with box amps and he’s a genius. He’s a
really good friend, so I knew I could trust him. It took five days
to record the basic tracks, a few to mix, Jim mastered it, and
that was it. Jason was in my old band, Tether’s End, and he
was a good friend of mine. He offered to come down and play
bass. He said, “Send me the demos,” and he learned the songs.
He’s so talented. (Drummer)Brandon I met down here. I made
a friend. It was cool. Brandon was like, “I’ll play with you.” He
was in the Vowden Key.
AG: Ideally, would you like to have another
guitarist?
JA: Absolutely. I think it would really benefit. I’m pretty crappy
on guitar.
AG: No, you’re...
JA: I can’t lead. I’m a rhythm guitar player, man. My guitar heros
are Syd Barrett and John Lennon, and neither were
virtuosos. They were passionate.
AG: Your melodies are the strength, definitely.
JA: Thank you.
AG: You’ve been playing down here for how many
months?
JA: We had our first gig last May. It’ll be a year next month. We
played at Rock N’ Bowl with the Public and Girl in a
Coma. I was nervous as hell, but it was pretty exciting.
AG: What happens when you have a new song?
JA: I go upstairs, grab my acoustic, record the acoustic part and
just demo it right away–put the drums on it.
AG: So you send it to Jason, he learns it, and
08_antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative

then comes down and plays it live?
JA: Uh huh.
AG: He’s that professional that you can work like that?
JA: Yeah, he’s great. Brandon, too. He’s like, “what do you want?”
AG: But, you don’t practice with Brandon.
JA: No, Brandon and I practice. Brandon’s super supportive like, “What
do you wanna do, man? What’s up?” He’s such a good guy, and I’m really
fortunate to be friends with him.
AG: So, are you trying to make a mark locally right now, or
do you have your eyes set on a national level?
JA: Man, it’s hard enough to be something locally, you know?
AG: Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.
JA: We got to play in SXSW. We weren’t in it, but we played during the
festival. We played the same day with the Public. And we played the
International Pop Overthrow Festival in Nashville. I play New
York because I’m from there, but I think I’d rather try to get people to like
us here, ‘cause this is where I live.
AG: Get a base.
JA: Totally. I know it sounds stupid, but when people come to the shows, I’m
actually like, “Wow, that’s pretty awesome that they would come to see us.”
AG: Maybe it’s more difficult to get people to come out and
see your kind of music in New Orleans, though. Do you feel
that way?
JA: A little bit. There’s a lot of talent here. It’s a music city, and there are
many talented musicians doing cool things, and I think people are somewhat
discerning in their taste, and I think they know BS from not-BS, and they are
so many things they can see that perhaps maybe they’re looking at what I’m
doing, which is ‘60s-influenced pop music, and I wonder if they’re, “Oh, I can
go and see something much more interesting.”
AG: Yeah, and this isn’t from me, but I could see how people
would be like, “C’mon, man, we’ve heard that before.”
JA: I love the Beatles, I love Sloan, I love the Minus Five. I grew up
liking–when I say pop music, that’s what I mean, not Britney Spears or
Jesse McCartney. I mean the Who or Big Star or...
AG: The Kinks?
JA: The Kinks. Definitely. You notice that a lot of national tours don’t come
here, and I wonder why. There are a lot of cool venues, there’s a lot of
people who like music.
AG: I think they think there’s not enough of a market here.
I think they think that not enough people would come
out, and maybe in some cases they’re right, but I think the
problem is in promotion, not in the actual bands.
JA: Maybe.
AG: But, I think that if people were educated as to the bands
and what they sounded like, I think it could be different.
JA: Look, the Minus Five just played here, right?
AG: Right.
JA: There were ten people there, and I brought five, and I was like, “Are
you kidding me? It’s the Minus Five, man.” It was a Friday night at the Parish
and there was no one there, and I was like, “Where is everybody?” But, I
don’t know, I saw Rufus Wainright at Tulane recently, and it was packed,
which was great.
AG: He’s more of a name, though. Maybe that’s the
difference.
JA: That’s true.
AG: The tenth song on the album, “Kings of the Dead end,”
sounds like a classic rock song. It has that vocal harmony...
JA: “Whoah-oh-oh.” It’s like “China Grove” or something.
AG: That’s it! That’s exactly it!
JA: I better not say that. I’ll get sued or something.
WHAT KIND OF MACHINERY?
At a Rick Trolsen d.b.a. show, I caught up with Brian Coogan, the
best keyboardist in New Orleans. After marveling at a Peter Harris solo,
Coogan said that he’s an underrated bassist. Though Harris’ playing doesn’t
hit me in the gut like Cassandra Faulconer’s or James Singleton’s,
I’d have to agree. Then he said he had recorded with Harris, drummer
Simon Lott, and another drummer from California in a group called
Pussy Machine. Lott and Coogan have been moving in a dirtier rock
direction, so this name isn’t much of a surprise, but what a name, huh?
Look for Pussy Machine in local clubs when the drummer from California
moves here.
And while we’re on the subject of band names, I need one. E-mail me at
jason@liveneworleans.com and tell me which ones you like. Some of these
can be also be used as baby names: Thor, Paco, Esteban Guttenberg, Inigo
Montoya, The Pseudo Queens, Says You, Not So Kool-Aid, Show Me Your
Tears, Stripsearch. Also, can anyone play bass or a Hammond organ?
antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative_09

MIKE FREY
MATTERED
A TRIBUTE IN PRINT
COMPILED AND WRITTEN
BY DAN FOX

Around the corner from Cafe Brasil, within earshot of
the bustle of Frenchmen street, a variety of homemade
signs, spent religious candles, and a three-paneled
display surround the spot where Mike “Bone” Frey was robbed
and murdered. What stands out most is a wreath arranged in
the shape of an electric guitar. What kind of person would
be honored this way? The same person whose obituary
would read “in lieu of flowers, donations to the New Orleans
Musicians Alliance, Children’s Hospital or WTUL - FM Radio,
are preferred.” In short, someone whose entire life revolved
around the creation of music and humor.
The Westbank is home to a lot of incredible musicians and
pranksters. On the darkest part of a Sunday night this past
March, we lost one of the best. Mike was the kind of person
who kept the engine of New Orleans music running, though
he wasn’t exactly a household name. The bands that drew
inspiration from Mike form a very large and intertwined web
and also reflect the scope of Mike’s sound, from Suplecs to
Telefon Tel Aviv. He had a lot of friends so he also had a lot
of nicknames: Bone, Sweet Baby Egg, and The King to name a
few. This article should not exist; you should not be reading
this except to learn more about Mike’s projects like M.O.T.T.
and The Vowden Key. Some
of the many friends and
bandmates who knew Mike
were contacted to illustrate
him for those folks unlucky
enough to have never met
him. Many thanks go out
to Kevin Barrios, Nathan
Bindewald, Kevin Comarda,
the Hazard County Girls,
and Jack Porobil for sharing
some of their thoughts
which follow below. As
you remember The King,
imagine yourself at a table
just outside The Old Pointe
Bar, or in front of a bowl
of pho at Tanh Tanh and let
Mike entertain you at least
one more time...
“I was lucky enough to
have met Mike early in my
life. It was my first glimpse
of real creativity. I had taken
bass guitar lessons before
but it was Mike that taught
me how to play music. He
was already light-years
ahead of most guitar players.
So we eventually started a
band: Vertical Snowmen. At
the time I had no idea the
plan was to invent his own
genre of music. We hung
out everyday to write songs,
learn other bands’ songs, or
just to cut up and have fun.
We played our first show
in 1994 armed with a setlist
that included a cover
of Superchunk’s “precision
auto.” It was genius.
“My days of hanging out
with Mike and friends in
Kevin Davis’ garage were
some of the best times in my life. I could just sit back and watch
intently as the next amazing episode would unfold. One of the
most amazing things to blossom out of that garage was a short
horror film entitled, ‘Hogpinch.’ Hogpinch was a creature from
the swamp played by Kevin Davis. The costume for Hogpinch
was nothing short of fantastic. Forget about the make-up and
effects you see in the pages of Fangoria magazine. The creature
was constructed of Kevin Davis crawling around on all fours
with a sleeping bag draped over him. As he crawled he called
out in tortured voice, ‘Hawwgpeanch.’ When Hogpinch found
his victim, he crawled over their body leaving nothing behind
but their skeleton, which was played by a very flat and cartoony
plastic Halloween decoration that glowed in the dark. This team
of geniuses were smart enough to flick the lights on and off to
demonstrate that their props had built-in special effects. As
Hogpinch cobbled up corrupted teenagers, Mike Frey played a
piano stirringly in the background to set the mood.
“Peace is order on Earth and Mikey did his part. I know of
no one more gentle. A few years ago, his guitar was stolen
from his house the day of a show at the Parish. He called every
pawn shop and reported the theft to the police. They found
it just in time along with the culprit. He was so relieved he
didn’t press charges. And the show turned out to be one of his
better performances. That’s just a music related example of his
humanity. And if I can find comfort in our loss it is that I know
he left this earth with guilt absent from his heart.
“Mike always did the best impersonations; especially Michael
McDonald and Aaron Neville. He told me once when he was
working sound for bands-- the Neville Brothers to be exact-
- he wanted to hear Aaron say something to him (I guess to
practice his impersonation), so Mike “accidentally” poked
Aaron in the ass with a microphone stand. Aaron replied with
a nice “oh, excuse me” in that Nawlins drawl that is so familiar.
Ever since then, Mike had it down.
“The thing with Mike is that his humor was totally original,
no one else thinks on the same wavelength as him nor could
This article should not exist; you
should not be reading this except to
learn more about Mike’s projects like
M.O.T.T. and the Vowden Key.
Mike Frey in action. Photo by Jack Porobil.
Opposite: A calmer Frey. Photo by Chris George
they deliver such incredibly funny stories or ideas with such a
lackadaisical effortless inborn dryness. It wasn’t only the things
he said, but the things he got himself involved in. In high school
he found a video that taught you how to make balloon animals
in a thrift shop. He then recruited as many of his friends as
he could to learn the art of balloon animal making. As they
honed their skills, Mike formulated a plan to put this new
skill to use. On prom night he led his fellow balloon makers
to the entrance of the fancy downtown hotel in which the
prom was being held. He and his cohorts were dressed as
clowns and made balloon animals for each passing couple.
This practice soon became an epidemic. Every weekend this
group of vigilante clowns attacked the streets of the French
Quarter offering balloon animals to the drunken masses. They
even invented a drink that suited their crew, The Brown Clown.
It was a disgusting combination of generic Chocolate Soldier
and cheap vodka. Their clowning around days ended after they
became tired of being punched and pushed by drunken frat
boys. Why do people hate clowns so much?
“A few months after Vertical Snowmen had broken up, I ran
into Mike at the now defunct Belle Promenade Mall. I asked
what he was up to these days, and he informed me of his new
band, Honest Spacemen. He informed me that this band aimed
to tell you the truth about space, unlike those other songs
about space (examples: David Bowie’s ‘Life on Mars?’ and
‘Space Oddity’). Their goal was to remove the fluff of aliens
and black holes and just present the raw truth about space.
To illustrate his point he said, ‘Ask me the temperature of the
sun at night.’ I obliged. He answered, ‘Room temperature.’ To
further illustrate his point he said, ‘Ask me the temperature of
the sun during the day.’ Again I obliged, and again the answer
was the same, ‘Room temperature.’ So then I asked what we
all would have asked, ‘What is room temperature?’ He replied
very dryly as per his MO, ’72-degrees at my house.’
“When he heard that the female R&B group Divine was
hosting auditions for a video they would be shooting in a
Louisiana Plantation, he
decided to give it a go. He had
found a ridiculous looking silk
shirt which he felt screamed
R&B. Chris George further
encouraged him to wear this
shirt for the audition. The
director informed Mike that
if he wore that shirt in the
shoot, he had the role of the
piano player. When the video
was released we all watched
in amazement as a silk-shirted
Mike Frey did his best Stevie
Wonder impersonation, goldframed
sunglasses and all. We
were so enthralled that we
ordered the video over and
over again on the Box. Perhaps
it was our intoxication, or the
appeal of being surprised by
the video randomly coming
on, but we never thought to
tape it. We just spent much
of Anton Falcone’s father’s
money on ordering it.
“There isn’t enough we can
say about Bone. He and his
close knit friends are some
of the truest best people we
have ever known. We feel so
blessed to have known him,
and miss him immensely.”
There are many ways
to remember Mike or get
to know him. The Hazard
County Girls have turned
their May 12th CD release
party at One Eyed Jacks into a
memorial show; M.O.T.T. will
open with Mike’s long-time
bandmate Kevin Comarda
playing bass. Also, his good
friend Luke McCoy has set up
a website, remembertheking.
com, which has articles on his murder as well as pictures of Mike
and a memorial bat kite. Ask a friend of Mike’s if you want to know
about that one. When you think about Mike Frey, think about how
much you love your friends, your music, and your city and how
important each one is to you, and most of all: be safe.
antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative_11

12_antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative

antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative_13

LIARS
STUMBLE HOME
BY MILES BRITTON
With their sophomore
record They Were Wrong,
So We Drowned, they
burned post-punk at the stake. Now
Liars are out to revive it. In February, as a followup
to their masterful, much-maligned 2004 witch
hunt, the anarchic Brooklyn expats released
Drum’s Not Dead, a dozen exercises of freeform
tribal skinning that sound eerier than an Arthur
Miller séance. (So much for your return to form,
Trench dwellers.) Liars bring their cryptic creep
show to Baton Rouge’s Spanish Moon on May 24.
In anticipation, ANTIGRAVITY dialed frontman
Angus Andrew in Deutschland for a proper
decoding.

ANTIGRAVITY: Angus? Can you hear me?
Angus Andrew: Yeah, I can. It’s a little like talking over an
ocean, but I guess that’s what we’re doing.
AG: Oh, I thought you all were back in the
States?
AA: Nah, I’m still in Berlin. Aaron [Hemphill] and Julian [Gross]
moved back after we finished recording. They’re living in L.A.
now. The question is, what do I do? And I can’t tell you I really
know right now. We’re just trying to figure out where were
going to record next, and that’s where I’ll move to.
AG: What’s your typical day like out there?
AA: [Laughs] I’m pretty nocturnal, actually. Lately we’ve been
on tour most of the time, and during the weeks off I usually
sleep in, start working on music, and then go back on tour.
We’ve been using Berlin as a base, and it’s great because it’s
so central, you know? We can go for a weekend and play two
shows in Croatia or somewhere, and the next weekend go
play in Portugal.
AG: I love the new album [Drum’s Not Dead],
especially all the tribal drumming and your creepy
moaning/chanting vocals. I’d been reading a bunch
of gothic horror stuff when I first heard it and I
was thinking, “Man, this is the perfect soundtrack
to an H. P. Lovecraft story.” What inspired the
new direction?
AA: I don’t know if there was any one thing in particular. Most
of the idea for me was alienation and detachment. The idea of
not knowing who I was again. That’s what being able to move
to Berlin gave me the chance for. Up until that point, I had, to
a certain extent, defined myself by the places I lived in. But in
bringing myself out of that location into one that is very foreign
to me, especially with the language, it gave me the opportunity to
feel like an alien. That’s what helped me with writing the songs.
AG: What’s the songwriting process like for you
all? I read somewhere that you wrote most of
these songs on an acoustic guitar, which is kind of
hard to believe.
AA: Yeah, that’s been sort of a new thing for me. It helped with
developing a lot of the melodies. But yeah, it’s kind of strange
to think that some of them started out that way. I just got
into the idea of trying to write a more traditional song, in a
more traditional approach, rather than the back door way of
gathering bits and pieces and bringing them together, which is
what I’d been doing. Then I sent them to Aaron in L.A., and he
started thinking about the percussive element. That’s generally
how Aaron and I write songs, very separately; though this time
we were even further apart than usual. We’ve never been able
to write in that normal, band sort of scenario.
AG: Did you all have a definite vision of what you
wanted the end product to sound like?
AA: I actually don’t think so. It’s possible that Aaron did. We
were big on this drum thing, so we knew that that was going to
be one element of it. But the other element was pretty much
left unsaid. It was completely different for us than with the
record before [They Were Wrong, So We Drowned] where we
had everything written out and figured out so heavily. This time
we didn’t talk about it. We just knew that there were going to
be a lot of drums. And I think that was good for us, because it
let us explore some different subject matter and maybe be a
bit more personal, more introspective.
AG: You were the main guitar player on Drum’s
Not Dead…
AA: Yeah, it’s weird, huh.
AG: How do you like your new role?
AA: Its good fun, definitely, but I don’t really think of it as a new
role, so to speak. That’s what’s good about our band now, we’ve
got no roles. There’s no real drummer or singer or whatever.
When I listen to the two guys playing drums, there are all those
harmonies and melodies that come out of the different tones
between the drums, which I’m always sort of hesitant to add
anything that would cloud that natural harmony. So in that
sense it allows me to be quite minimal which is really about
all I can muster right now. And I’m getting a lot more used to
playing the guitar live, with the ‘amp-age’ and the ‘feedback-age’
which is all really fun and new to me.
AG: In my review of Drum’s Not Dead, I compared
your guitar dronery to “Glenn Branca conducting
a machine factory.” How do you get that sound?
AA: It’s pretty much just the tuning of the guitar. A couple of
the strings are doubled up, and it just makes it really easy to
play open strings… pretty much all of the time [laughs]. And
that’s all Aaron. He taught me all that. He’s an amazing guitarist,
so I’ve always been watching whatever he did
AG: You met Aaron while you both were going to
art school in L.A., right? That’s where the band
started?
AA: Yeah. And we actually met Julian there too but he didn’t
start in the initial phase. Basically the way it began was that
Aaron and I had some instruments and stuff, and one day we
copped a four-track. He kind of just sat me down and showed
me how to make a song, and then literally we made at least a
song a day for about a year. I think it would be pretty frightening
if any of that came out [laughs]. For me, it was really just about
the idea of making a song and hearing it played back, and the
fascination with all the possibilities of that. That’s still sort of
the way I work—the ‘more’ aspect. Pushing out a lot, even if
“I don’t think they (the record label)
ever believed that we were going to
give them 36 videos, and I think that
they’re still trying to get used to the
idea that we mean what we say.”
not much of it is very good. Aaron’s approach is much more
minimal. He just makes one really rad song every six months
or something.
AG: There’s been a lot of talk about a record
that preceded Drum’s Not Dead, one that you all
scratched. Was that sort of the reasoning? That it
was more but not particularly good more?
AA: Yeah, that’s right. Right after we finished Drowned, we just
kept on working, and we ended up with a lot of sound, spaceytype
stuff. It was the first sort of installment of Drum’s Not
Dead. Once we kind of decided that it was this serious thing,
we thought we were going to put that out maybe as an EP or
something. But then we realized that we needed to sort of…
not put that out…that we needed to make a proper record.
I think we actually went through two proto-records to be
honest with you, but it went through a natural progression and
eventually evolved into Drum’s Not Dead. So the idea of making
a big deal about how we ‘canned’ a record [laughs] – it’s kind of
overstated. With the way I work, I think we probably make ten
records a year. But it doesn’t mean that any of its good enough
to put out in record stores.
AG: What’s the story behind the Drum’s Not Dead
DVD? Were those videos shot as an afterthought
or did you all create the album as this sort of
multi-media project?
AA: Initially, that’s what the project was about. From the
beginning we wanted to have some sort of visual aspect to the
music. We wanted to try an attack of the traditional idea of the
album and what an album means, and maybe offer the possibility
of what an album could become with all the advances in
technology that we have at our fingertips. And beyond that—it
was about us personally having a hand in the visual medium to
create something meaningful to us as opposed to paying some
director to make a hot video with a hot girl in it.
AG: So do you think that the traditional 45
minutes of music packaged with some art work is
on its way out?
AA: Well, to be honest, mate, I don’t know. I think if you asked
me six months ago I might have felt different. I just think that
it would be so easy for bands to offer more, and I don’t really
know why they don’t. It doesn’t cost any more.
AG: But it’s a hell of a lot more work for the
band…
AA: Yeah, it is. It is. But I kind of think that a lot of these bands
should be working a lot more [laughs]. Especially on all these
other extraneous elements that aren’t just the music. It’s
always very annoying to see an interesting band that has their
label do the artwork. I like the idea of more of the work being
in the hands of the artist. We learned that really early on, right
after They Threw Us in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top.
We came over to Europe and came across these stickers that
said… I can’t remember. Some shit. With Liars, I’d always liked
the idea of representing ourselves and I almost had a heart
attack thinking about all the other places in the world where
they could possibly be misrepresenting us. Right then we did
a big revamp of our whole approach, just making sure that
from then on we had everything double checked by us before
anything happened.
AG: It’s sad how most bands couldn’t care less
about that stuff, even though doing it yourself
would seem like it’d give you a lot more freedom.
AA: It’s true. You just kind of have to develop a relationship
with the record company where they not only finally trust you,
but believe you too. I don’t think they ever believed that we
were going to give them 36 videos, and I think that they’re still
trying to get used to the idea that we mean what we say, that
we’re going to do what we said we’re going to do.
AG: What was the record company’s reaction
when you told them your idea for the cover of the
It Fit When I Was a Kid EP? The one where your
faces are photoshopped onto a gay porn scene?
AA: [Laughs] actually, they were fine with that, because it didn’t
cost them half as much as the first idea we had.
AG: Are you serious? What was the first idea?
AA: It wasn’t that crazy at all, but we really wanted a pop-up
book cover. And they rejected us. It was pretty late in the game
by that time, so we were pretty annoyed, and that was the
inspiration for putting the porn thing on it, because we were
just like, “OK, fuck it. Here, have this.”
AG: What’s the direction of the new songs?
AA: Well, for me it’s kind of a progression from how I began the
last record, you know? It’s a step beyond the acoustic guitar
and the idea of writing a traditional song into a more fuller
instrumentation. They’re basically these big, rock proper songs,
with actual chord changes and stuff like that. [Laughs] I don’t
know how to explain it any better.
AG: So, something more like the closing track on
Drum’s Not Dead, “The Other Side of Mt. Heart
Attack”? More like a pop song?
AA: Well, that with a bit more Black Sabbath. That more
traditional song structure and style but just turned up to 11
[laughs].
AG: So is Aaron going to get back on the guitar?
AA: That’s the question. I don’t know if you’ve followed him,
but he used to actually play riffs, and then after that it was
noise, and now he plays pretty much just the drums. So the
constant battle is to get him back on the axe so we can have
this wielding, duel guitar attack sort of thing. It’s like the hair
rock ‘80s days in the Liars camp right now [laughs].
AG: So what are the plans for the next album?
AA: It’s really got to do with where we decide to record. With
Aaron and Julian living in L.A. right now, if I lay my bets it’s most
likely going to be there. I tend to feel pretty strongly about the
idea that where we record has a lot to do with the direction of
the sound and where the record goes. So if it’s L.A., then…
AG: Glam Rock?
AA: [Laughs] yeah, it’s definitely going to be some rock and roll.
So if it’s L.A. it’s L.A., though I can’t say that I’m the hugest fan
of that idea. But it’s probably easier than going to Nigeria which
is what I’m kind of hoping to do [laughs].
AG: Thanks, Angus.
AA: Alright, mate. Cheers.
antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative_15

ART BRUT
THEY TOOK A PICTURE.
THEY TOOK A PICTURE!
BY DARREN O’BRIEN
16_antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative

Chances are that, if you’ve heard of
them at all, you probably have the
wrong idea about Art Brut. First of
all, according to singer Eddie Argos, “It’s all true. We really
did form a band, I really do love modern art, and I really
do have a little brother that I’m worried about. We’re not
Italian terrorists, but that really did happen, so that’s true,
too.” So, while they may not be total simpletons with no
inkling of an idea that they’re doing something brilliant,
neither, it seems, are they the post-everything ironists
that they’re often made out to be. “I never really had
an agenda,” says Argos. “My only plan was to just make
friends and write honest lyrics. Everything just sort of
came together through luck. If we’d had a plan the album
would have been out in America a year ago.” As it turns
out, what originally looked to be an elaborate joke was
actually a group of musicians being totally honest. And yet
we still find that absolutely hilarious. So they’ve pulled a
fast one on us, after all.
Since Argos is completely down to
earth, to make this a real piece of rock
‘n’ roll journalism I’ll be providing the
pretension and lies, which should come
fairly easily, not so much because I’m
particularly pretentious or untrustworthy
but because for most of our phone
interview, due to his thick English accent
and a bad international connection, he is
almost entirely unintelligible. I even try
having him speak in a falsetto the whole
time, which did help. But he couldn’t keep
it, and I wasn’t going to insist.
So we’re walking about in New
Cross, London, which I will pretend is a
former working class neighborhood, full
of Edwardian-style box housing, that is
recently enjoying a much-hoopla’d artistic
rebirth which sometimes takes the form
of dozens of bands slap-dashing their way
into brilliance. Some of the above is true,
just so you know. Art Brut, along with
the considerably more commercial Bloc
Party, are at the forefront of this scene,
and their bio is the stuff of which rock ‘n’
roll mythology is made. Argos came to
London in the early part of this decade
desperately wanting to be in a band.
He met guitarist Chris Chinchilla (later
replaced by Jasper Future) at a party
and told him he could sing like Aretha
Franklin, probably wisely not mentioning
that he has dyspraxia, which makes him
incapable of playing an instrument or
singing what we recognize as notes. So
he laid low as the rest of the band was
assembled from various happenchance,
including overhearing someone on a bus
mentioning that they knew a drummer.
Legend has it that within five minutes
of the first practice they had written
“Formed A Band,” one of the best singles
of any year it could be released in, which,
in our reality, happened to be 2003.
“Formed a band/We formed a band/Look
at us/We formed a band,” Argos giddily
chants over pounding, untrained pure
rock ‘n’ roll.
It should have been a one-time deal, but they followed
it with two more perfect singles, then a full-length called
Bang Bang Rock ‘n’ Roll, available for over a year as an import
from Fierce Panda, and only recently released in America
by Downtown Records. It is full of songs very much like
“Formed A Band,” with irresistible more-than-half-spoken
chants like, “Modern art makes me want to rock out”
(“Modern Art”), “My little brother just discovered rock
‘n’ roll” (“My Little Brother”), and “I hate the sound of
the Velvet Underground the second time around” (“Bang
Bang Rock ‘n’ Roll”), all set to joyous rock in its simplest
form, never too punky, but not in the least pretentious.
It really should start to wear thin a couple songs in, but
actually every listen makes it all the more endearing. This
is mostly down to Argos’ honesty. “I’ve always liked direct
songwriting, like Jonathan Richman, Jad Fair, and Television
Personalities.” This directness reaches its apex (or perhaps
nadir) on “Rusted Guns of Milan,” which is basically Argos
reassuring a girl that his erectile dysfunction is not her
fault. I ask if he has any hesitation about being so personal.
“Well, after ‘Rusted Guns of Milan,’ I can’t really be
embarrassed. I enjoy it; it’s cathartic.” It’s the kind of song
both genders can get behind, guys because it has a hint
of that Morrissey factor of someone else vocalizing our
pain, and girls because it takes the blame off them. And
it’s hilarious, with lines like, “It doesn’t mean that I don’t
love you/One more try with me above you.” “It’s funny to
me that all these people are really liking this song that’s
glamorizing bad sex,” Argos says. Well, it’s good insurance
for him, either way.
Another gem is “Emily Kane,” written about Argos’
teenage girlfriend with that actual name and how he still
loves her. “I hope this song finds you fame,” he sings, “I
“I was watching Gone With The
Wind the other day and noticed
how manly those guys looked with
moustaches.”
-Art Brut singer Eddie Argos
want kids on school busses singing your name.” She called
him up after a friend told her about the song. She had a
boyfriend, so he had to tell her that he was being ironic,
but he’s finishing another song called “Emily Rang,” in
which he will declare that he really meant it. “I’ll probably
have to tell her that I was being ironic about that, too,” he
told another interviewer. I suggest that this could go on
indefinitely. “No, I think I’ll leave it at that. I like the idea of
things being finished and tied up.”
The Italian terrorists that Argos referred to earlier were
a completely inept faction of the Italian Red Brigade, which
occasionally used city busses as their getaway vehicles.
Argos’ fascination with the gang was such that he originally
wanted to follow up the singles with a concept EP on
the subject. For whatever reason, however, this idea was
aborted, and only two songs bearing traces of the concept
appear on the album: “18,000 Lira,” whose titular chant
ends with the payoff, “sounds like a lot of money” (18,000
lira was equivalent to roughly one and a half US cents);
and “Stand Down,” which is oddly moving despite no real
vocal melody.
That lack of melody not only does not grate, but actually
works in their favor—especially live, where Argos doesn’t
really have to do much with all the fans chanting along.
There are several videos on YouTube of US performances,
and they look incendiary. There is also a video of Argos
partying after a show in Philadelphia, taking his first kegstand
and promptly falling over and hitting his head on the
corner of a wall. “I still have a huge bruise on my head,”
he tells me. Argos has recently grown a moustache, that
symbol of ironic hipsterism, but he seems genuine about
that, too. “My girlfriend made me do it. I’m growing her
moustache on my face. I’d prefer to have a long moustache.
I like it, actually. It reminds me of virility and manliness.
I was watching Gone With The Wind the
other day and noticed how manly those
guys looked with moustaches.”
The band’s affability is so much that,
at their own request, there are several
dozen Art Brut franchise bands, “50 or
60, maybe more,” Argos estimates. “We
just got back from America and heard
that there’d been a battle of the Art Brut
franchise bands.” An Art Brut franchise
band provided the b-side for one of the
early singles, and he informed that the
Brooklyn pop-post-punk band We Are
Scientists are Art Brut 47. Their original
goal was to be able to have a festival
of just Art Brut bands. I tell him that
my friends in the New York née New
Orleans band Maniac Mansion (née
Manchild) had developed the same idea
independently. He suggests that both
bands hold their festivals together, and
he sounds believable enough.
This is all well and good, but can
they do it again? “We’ve got seven or
eight new songs already,” Argos says.
“They’re the same sort of thing, about
girls and growing up, but the band is a
lot better at playing now.” So it looks
like there’s no danger of an about-face
into maturity, but Art Brut’s shtick has
revealed itself to be not having a shtick
at all, so it seems that their shelf-life
is potentially indefinite, even if they
never change a thing. I suggest that
even positive criticism rules out the
possibility of longevity for the band.
“Well, they’re wrong,” Argos answers
immediately, with conviction. “We got
that a lot early on, when we only had
the one single. People said, ‘Oh, they’ve
only got the one song, it’s not going to
last.’ Then it was, ‘Well, OK, they’ve got
a couple songs,’ then, ‘Well, they’ve got a
whole album.’ And now we’re working
on a second album, so people have sort
of stopped saying that.”
antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative_17

WTUL
91.5 FM
TULANE UNIVERSITY • NEW ORLEANS
www.wtul.fm
WE’RE BACK
ON THE AIR!
Music is the doctor.
Welcome home!
18_antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative

Forget for a second the seductive, female-sung
vocals. His Name Is Alive does have a frontman:
His name is Warn Defever, and he’s an artist, a producer
and a fan of pop prognosticating. “Yeah, the Beatles did some things,”
Defever interrupts our phone interview. “But when people go back
historically and analyze music in the 20 th Century, they’re only going
to talk about three things: ragtime, electro and Carole King.” The
truth to that joke is all over Detrola, the latest ear puzzle in Defever’s
Rubikesque 15-year recording career. Effacingly tabbing women over
the years to intone his lyrics and melodies, Defever strikes gold with
Andy FM, a King-like crooner who fl ips teases like “Don’t you like
to watch me dance?/Does it make you smile?” as casually as fl ipping
her brunette tresses. Defever’s knob-mastery is equally impressive,
trip-hopping from popcorn breakbeats and electrifying synth funk to
throwback Motown soul that will make your stereo sing. The man
behind the band called ANTIGRAVITY to rap about Detrola and rail
on Detroit.
HIS NAME IS ALIVE
MAKE THE ULTIMATE DETROIT RECORD
BY NOAH BONAPARTE

ANTIGRAVITY: I’ve come at you kind of
backwards, getting into Detrola and just now
listening to some of your older stuff.
Warn Defever: The old stuff doesn’t count.
AG: [Laughs] Totally different band. Your first
USA headlining tour in 10 years starts in May.
How’s it taken you so long?
WD: We’ve done a lot of opening tours. We’ve done coheadlining
tours, support shows. And really it just hasn’t
come up. We’ve done short trips, where we’ve just gone
down the East Coast or whatever. We did a thing for our last
record, which was like four of five years ago, where we did a
residency in New York City.
AG: Right, at the Knitting Factory.
WD: That was really good. And we’d go out on weekends and
stuff. But not really a full tour. Not really exploring the inner
workings of this country. And, I think doing the stuff
recently, the shows with Arab Strap on the West
Coast and with Low on the East Coast, there’s sort
of an opportunity for us right now. People have
caught up to what we’re doing.
AG: I’m definitely one of those people. I
had always known the name and never
actually heard your music until this
record, and I was just blown away. “After
I Leave U” is the best track I’ve heard in
a long time.
WD: The joke is that we’re four years ahead of our
time.
AG: [Laughs] And trying to stay that way
all the time, that’s brilliant. Did you put
the tour together yourself? Any dates
that you’re really looking forward to?
WD: We have a booking agent who’s really good,
who also books Death Cab For Cutie. He’s kinda
got it together. It’s a funny story: They showed me a
proposed routing, and I was like, “That’s pretty good.
But there’s no New Orleans show. We’ve never
played in New Orleans, and I wanna see what’s going
on down there. I heard it’s like Detroit now.”
AG: [Laughs] God help us all. We have
been somewhat neglected by the national
tours since Katrina, artists skipping
straight from Atlanta to Austin.
WD: That’s what happens to Detroit. A lot of bands,
they just skip Detroit—they do Chicago, Cleveland
and then just, that’s it. I don’t know how much you
know about Detroit …
AG: Very little. I know rappers get shot
up in Detroit.
WD: [Laughs] Yes. Detroit is a very special place.
You’re free in Detroit. You can do anything you want.
But, because of that, anything can happen here. If
you want to open a club and say, you know, we
won’t open until two AM, we’ll only serve alcohol
to minors, we’ll only have one light bulb—that’s
OK.
AG: How accurate a portrayal was 8
Mile?
WD: I haven’t seen it. Flipping channels I’ve seen little
bits of it, and what I saw didn’t capture the anarchy that
is Detroit. And it seemed pretty rough, but I think it’s
worse than anyone can imagine.
AG: Is that what you aim for on your
records, to capture that anarchy on
tape?
WD: Well, that’s the thing—as a musician based outside of
Detroit but near Detroit—that’s where I’ve worked for the
last 20 years. And I’ve seen a lot of interesting things go down
there. [Laughs] At least from an artistic standpoint, not being
directly involved with the day to day politics. For the last five
years I’ve had a studio in Detroit, and I really wanted to make
this record a Detroit record.
AG: You can feel the funk and soul oozing
through on these tracks. “Seven Minutes” was
described in MAGNET as “an outtake from an
abandoned Zapp album.” [Laughs] The writer
then goes on to say, “ … but to Defever that’s
probably a compliment.” Is it a compliment?
WD: That’s the greatest compliment. [Laughs] Especially
when you consider Roger Troutman was the guitar player
and the songwriter for Zapp, and he was shot and killed in
the studio. That is this record.
AG: Will you be bringing a full entourage to New
20_antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative
Orleans?
WD: Yeah. We’re on tour with a band called Nomo, and
they’re an 11-piece. I describe them as post-Afrobeat. It’s a
dance party; there’s horns, hot horns, and heavy percussion.
AG: A little Fela Kuti action?
WD: Yeah, and it’s headed out more towards M.I.A. or LCD
Soundsystem. But like a big band. It’s a good time. I produced
their new record, and it’s coming out in May on Ubiquity,
which is a Good Times label. We’ve hired them to be our
band as well. But, you know, His Name Is Alive is still pretty
minimal compared to most other bands, so it’ll be a mixed
up mess.
AG: Are you bringing all of your female vocalists?
Andy FM is all over the record, and [former
vocalist] Lovetta Pippen sings one track.
WD: Just Andy’s coming.
“You’re free in Detroit. You can do
anything you want. If you want to
open a club and say, you know, we
won’t open until two AM, we’ll only
serve alcohol to minors, we’ll only
have one light bulb—that’s OK.”
AG: I’ve read about you finding Lovetta in a
gospel choir; is there a similarly romantic story
with Andy?
WD: It’s funny—it’s almost the same. [Laughs]
AG: You have this penchant for discovering
unknown female artists.
WD: I like to work with non-professionals. Really, I’d been
trying to take a break from His Name Is Alive. I’d opened up
the studio in Detroit, and I was primarily recording other
bands. And there was a band from Detroit called the Piranhas,
and they’re like the most punk-ass band in Detroit. You know,
that’s the band where the singer takes off his pants, pees into
a trombone, and shoots the pee into the audience. Really,
just like the worst band, and I mean that in a good way. They
were at my house. It was a party. We’d run out of liquor. And
they started drinking the water from the plants. You know,
you have flowers in a vase. And it was messed up. It was five
o’clock in the morning, and Ian—the guitar player for the
Piranhas—is like, “Me and my girlfriend have a special present
for you.”
AG: Sounds like the beginning to a porno.
WD: Well, people are drinking the plant water. I don’t know
what is going to happen. Everyone’s completely out of their
mind. Now, I’d met Andy before, but I didn’t know her very
well, and I certainly didn’t know she sang. And I didn’t know
Ian could even play regular music. They sat down and played
four or five Elvis songs—just slow ones, sad ones. And I was
like, “Let’s go record right now. We’re gonna record you
singing these songs.” And Andy goes, “I don’t want to do that.
Actually, I hate Elvis, but I heard you liked him.” [Laughs] I was
so taken aback. Like, well, let’s go record something else. It
just kind of grew from there.
AG: Did you have any of these songs written
before her involvement?
WD: I had a couple little pieces. But the album
really came together because I met her.
AG: I read that, after Last Night and your
separation from [British label] 4AD, you
weren’t sure what the future held for
His Name Is Alive. Do you directly credit
Andy’s coming on board with saving the
band, or was it less cut and dried?
WD: It’s a little bit more complicated than that. I
had still been recording, but I had been doing stuff
like going to Japan and recording in a beautiful 500-
year-old Buddhist temple in Osaka. Or I went to
the Everglades to record birds.
AG: You were about to go the Jeff Mangum
route, disappearing into Eastern Europe
never to be heard from again.
WD: I found myself recording things that weren’t
necessarily music. And I realized that, pretty much,
I was avoiding the studio. And meeting Andy and
finding out she was a singer, it was just inspiring.
AG: There a too-easy, rock-journalist
angle here: a great history of muses
showing up at different points in your
life to provide inspiration right when you
need it. Do you ever think of it like that?
WD: Well, I think I get … it doesn’t … well, yeah.
Yes. [Laughs] I get inspired all day long. I’m eating a
sandwich, and I’m like, “This is the best thing I ever
ate. I see the world in a whole new light.”
AG: Hey, that’s all anybody could ask
for. Detrola seems like a very sultry, sexy
record.
WD: I think of it as a very dirty, nasty record.
AG: [Laughs] As I listen to “Seven
Minutes,” I’m not thinking Zapp. I’m
thinking: You’re doing new Madonna
better than Madonna.
WD: I was thinking that could be a demo I could
send to her.
AG: Might get you in the limo on her
next music video. How’s it going with
[new label] Reincarnate?
WD: It’s really good. We can basically do anything
we want. We do the artwork, we do the mastering.
We make the record we want to make, and they
just make sure that Sony distributes it well.
AG: Would you say you have the most
freedom you’ve had since the early
days with [4AD founder] Ivo [Watts-
Russell]?
WD: It’s really different than that, because he was a guy that
had really, really good ideas. He was like the smartest guy I ever
met. So there was never a time where I felt like I was dealing
with a record company. I felt like I was dealing with a partner
that was a genius. And he was constantly throwing ideas at
me that were way better than anything I was coming up with.
AG: Ever make music with him?
WD: There’s a couple embarrassing jams I have on tape.
[Laughs] He would come to my house. You know, he’s an
older fella. He came up in a slightly earlier era. He’s a really
good drummer. He was in college in the late ‘60s.
AG: Early on, was there ever a “Holy shit, I’m on
the Pixies’ label” moment?
WD: There was that day, the day that Ivo called and said, “I
want to put out this record.”
AG: Was your curious career path—the
underground Michigan band on the arty English

label—more helpful or hurtful to your development?
WD: Well, the creative development … we could do whatever we
wanted, and that was great for many years. After a while, Ivo had sold
the label, retired, and it really changed over there. And I wasn’t really
down with what was going on. There was definitely a few years of
corporate, bureaucratic nightmares. It was suddenly I was recording
for the McDonald’s corporation, and I didn’t know what to do.
AG: Was this record like a sigh of relief?
WD: [Sighs] Yeah. There was a point where they were saying, “You owe
us one more record.” And I was saying, “Fine. Here’s me playing a pine
cone.” And I put a pickup on a pine cone, learned how to play it and
was like, here’s your record. And they were like, “OK. You can go.”
AG: Last Night seems aptly named then. How’d you
come up with the name Detrola?
WD: Well, it was very much a Detroit record. But you really can’t have
a record called “Detroit.”
AG: Not unless you’re Sufjan Stevens.
WD: Right. So, Detrola was the name of this company that made
radios back in the ‘50s. I just stole their name.
AG: Any pending lawsuits?
WD: Well, they don’t know about it yet.
AG: It’s just a matter of time though, right? I get the
impression old bankrupt companies just sift through
music news, looking for artists to sue.
WD: That’s the good thing about not being very successful—you
hardly ever get sued.
AG: You’re not exactly obscure and British any more,
Warn.
WD: I still think so.
AG: You’ve been getting such great press for this, it’s
gotta be nice.
WD: You know, I see music press, and I always criticize the journalism.
The very first time I did an interview was with a British magazine
called NME …
AG: Lemme guess, they hailed you as “the band most
likely to save rock forever.”
WD: [Laughs] Exactly. Once a week. So they were like, “What do
you listen to?” I’m like, “Oh, I really like Jimi Hendrix, I really like the
Carter Family, I like Alex Chilton.” And the guy’s like, “No you don’t.
You like the Cocteau Twins and Brian Eno.” Like, what are you talking
about? The article comes out and, sure enough, I love Brian Eno and
I listen to the Cocteau Twins every day. It’s like, wait a minute. This is
how this works?
AG: Found out some new stuff about yourself.
WD: I know! It’s like I didn’t give him the right answers. Pretty much
after that I established a policy of just lying.
AG: Have you told me anything true in this interview?
WD: Yes and no.
antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative_21

Mom’s
Cancer
won the first
ever Eisner for best
webcomic, and now it
has been reproduced in a swanky print edition to get out to
a wider audience. Mom’s Cancer is in the tradition of books
like Pedro & Me and Persepolis, tales drawn from personal
experiences that were painful and difficult but which end
up, in the hands of a talented cartoonist, an uplifting and
entertaining experience to read about. The subject of Mom’s
Cancer is pretty clear from the title of the book, and it’s one
of those things that might put a lot of people off. “Dear God,”
you might say, “I can’t imagine wanting
to read a comic about something as
depressing as a family member suffering
from cancer!” However, Fies makes
the story of Mom’s Cancer inspirational
as well as depressing, funny as well as
sobering, incredibly engaging as well as
moving. When you come out the other
side of this graphic novel, having seen the
story of Fies’ mother from diagnosis all
the way through to its end, you feel like
you have met an incredible person and
witnessed her going through a difficult
but inspiring, personal journey. Fies never
makes himself or his family out to be
saints, but nor does he shy away from
the courage that can be found in each
one of them in the roles they play in the
story. The result is a story that is very
approachable reading, despite its dire
subject matter.
I can’t really judge how Mom’s Cancer
worked as an online comic, because the
presentation here is entirely different.
Clearly, it worked well enough to win
an Eisner award, but if Fies was using
any particular formatting in the online
world that made it work particularly
well, you certainly don’t notice the loss
when reading the printed version. Mom’s
Cancer is a slick little production, a small
hardcover book bound at the end so
that the pages are longer than they are
tall, with about 22 pages featuring some
kind of spot color but most of it in black
and white. Fies writes in a format that
features two to seven page chapters all
building into a larger story; essentially
serving as a hybrid of comic strip and
comic book. Mom’s Cancer is without a
doubt one big story fit for a graphic novel,
but the chapters can be read and enjoyed
on their own as well. I’m reminded of the
earliest issues of True Story Swear to God
in the format, and maybe a little bit in the
tone as well.
You see, Mom’s Cancer is about a dire
topic, but it is not a dire book. Fies has
a light touch, so that you can feel the
impact of the moments when the cancer
is diagnosed, when the darker threat of the disease rears its
head again and again, as counterbalanced against the dayto-day
life-goes-on story that is being told. We don’t learn
of Fies’ mother as an example of going through cancer or
as a cautionary tale about the dangers of smoking. Instead,
these are elements of the story being told about mom as a
person. Fies shows us her past, in the form of insights into
her job before becoming a mother, the man her ex-husband
had become and how that shaped her life and a very moving
story of her youth and her grandfather. He shows us her
present, as she shows a sense of humor even as the realities
of the cancer begins to set in. When Fies’ sister, a nurse, is
filling out forms and asks what she should put under hobbies,
mom suggests “Put ‘pole dancing,’ see what they say,” even
as she’s being wheeled away to draw up a treatment plan for
her cancer. Little bits of personality like this show through for
each character in the telling, and the result is that Fies draws
us into his family during this time although we never learn
any of his family’s names, just their roles: “Nurse Sister,” “Kid
A page from Zeb Wells’s New Warriors, copyright Marvel Comics
Sister,” and “Mom.”
This is not to say that Mom’s Cancer offers up a light or
meaningless take on cancer. Fies offers up an easy-to-digest
but seemingly comprehensive take on the treatment options
and the symptoms and development of the disease both
through specific things his mother went through and things he
learned from studying while she was going through it. There’s
a through-line in the story about mom’s smoking, and how
it was the main contributing factor to her cancer, if not the
only one. Mom’s Cancer doesn’t preach, but the connection
between smoking and cancer, in this specific case at least, is
laid out without a doubt in this story. The focus of the story,
however, is not on a message linking smoking to cancer or
on education about the disease but on the story of one
family and how they dealt with the disease. The messages and
educational information are side effects of the main thrust of
the story.
Fies has a clear and open comic book storytelling style.
Most of his pages are one or two panels, and he uses a fair
amount of narrative caption, giving the whole
thing a sort of “Wonder Years” talking to the
audience feel. Given how personal the story is,
this is a style that works, that brings the reader
in and invites them not to feel awkward about
the personal stuff they’re reading, but instead
gets them almost instantly on the side of the
narrator, his mother and his sisters. For the
duration of Mom’s Cancer, the reader is a family
friend, listening to tales of how someone they
care about is doing. There are several pages
that are visually inventive and clever, such as a
two-page color spread that shows symptoms
and treatments in an homage to the style of the
board game Operation, a couple other pages
that use a maze or board game motif to show
histories for characters and several fantasy
sequences that put the story material in the
context of a circus, a mad scientist’s laboratory
or a superhero comic. The superhero analogy
is a bit labored, feeling somewhat unnecessary
and even maybe too goofy in the context of
the rest of the book, but this could be due
to the proliferation of superhero motifs in
comics. Whereas most of the book feels fresh
and original, putting events in a superhero
context is cliché for this medium. It’s a rare
misstep though, and certainly forgivable in the
context of how much of the book just plain
works.
Given that this is an autobiographical story,
it may seem weird for me to say that I don’t
want to spoil the ending. But I don’t. Part of
the journey of Mom’s Cancer is wondering if
mom will be alright, if she’ll beat the cancer
or not, and that answer is more complex
than one might expect, playing out not just
in the comic bits of the story but in the
afterward and final text piece. Though in the
end, while the resolution of the story has
great meaning for those who lived it, for the
readers it’s almost immaterial. Instead, it is
the story of Mom’s Cancer, the courage and
the heartbreak and all the hopes and fears
throughout, that make it an engaging read,
one that this reader found hard to put down.
For more information about Mom’s Cancer,
check out http://www.momscancer.com.
22_antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative

COMICS
antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative_23

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24_antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative

PROJECTIONS
You’ve probably met Nick
Naylor. We all know
someone like the tobacco
industry blowhard, played
smugly by Aaron Eckhart
in Thank You For Smoking,
who retains his or her right
to “moral fl exibility” and treats life like it’s one long debate
tournament. They are often self-indulgent, inconsiderate and
vain. Conversationally they function as a black hole and, to be
honest, they annoy the piss out of me.
Thank You For Smoking, the directing debut of Jason Reitman
(Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman’s son), raises a captivating
question. How do you classify an average fi lm that’s list of
sins reads that it’s not that smart, it’s not that funny (I laughed
out loud twice), and its protagonist is not that likeable?
Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) is a lobbyist and spokesman
for Big Tobacco. His recent success has attracted the favor of
The Captain, the reigning king of the industry (played by the
ever-steady Robert Duvall). It seems the original Marlboro
Man (a role Sam Elliott was born to play) has throat cancer
and The Captain has chosen the persuasive Naylor to deliver
him a briefcase full of cash to keep quiet about it. Naylor,
meanwhile, is trying to impart some of his wisdom to his
twelve-year-old son (Cameron Bright), who his ex-wife is
only letting him see on weekends.
Thank You For Smoking wants to be a dark comedy but the
earnestness of the father-son subplot interferes. The treacly
scenes between Naylor and his son seem like they should
be in another movie. And even though Naylor’s budding
relationship with his son is admirable, it’s disconcerting
to see him teaching his boy how to be as unrelenting and
ruthless as he is.
Katie Holmes, as a reporter trying to get to the heart of
Naylor, is also a disappointment. She and Eckhart have no
discernable chemistry, and it’s hard to see what attracted her
to a role that amounts to a one-note sex kitten. This part
has been played a thousand times and by far better actresses
than Holmes.
The fi lm’s few moments of inspiration come when it
comments amusingly on the tobacco industry’s attempts
to appease the public on smoking-related health issues, like
when The Captain, reigning king of tobacco, suggests that
a 50 million dollar anti-teen smoking campaign proposed
by Naylor in a fi t of damage control “shouldn’t be too
persuasive.” These fl eeting bits of inspiration, however, are
rare.
In Thank You For Smoking’s case, a list of sins with three
“not that’s” equals “not a chance.” It’s not that Reitman’s
exploration of Big Tobacco’s manipulation of media and
politics is a bumpy ride, spectacular one moment and
putrid the next. Quite the opposite. It’s as steady as it is
unremarkable.
–James Jones
Nicole Holofcener is a
successful independent
writer/director who worked
as an assistant and film editor
under the tutelage of Woody
Allen in the ‘80s. Allen’s
influence is obvious in her
dallying, laid-back ensemble
pieces populated with neurotics and romantic ne’er-do-wells.
She ambled onto the scene with the excellent Walking and
Talking in 1996 and followed with 2001’s so-so Lovely & Amazing.
Her latest, Friends with Money, documents the peaks and valleys
of the love lives of four close female friends.
Things just haven’t gone right for Olivia (Offi ce Space’s
Jennifer Aniston). She’s a single underachiever who has lost her
confidence. Olivia gave up on being a teacher and spends her
days smoking weed and cleaning other people’s apartments
for cash. To make things worse, she’s a bit of a charity case to
her three best friends, all
of whom are married and
have enjoyed some degree
of success.
Frances McDormand
(Almost Famous) is Jane, a
flourishing fashion designer
with a son and a loving
husband. She is obviously
working through some
issues because her temper
has recently gotten out
of control. She constantly
berates and abuses those
around her and has trouble
controlling her emotions.
She’s having trouble settling
on the fact that her marriage
is closer to an extended,
amicable arrangement than
a passionate, romantic bedburner.
Christine (Being John
Malkovich’s Catherine
Keener) is a screenwriter,
who writes in tandem
with her husband, David
(Jason Isaacs). They
haven’t been getting along
of late as David’s lack of
sensitivity is spiraling
out of control. They are
building an addition on
their house (interrupting
their lives as well as their
neighbors’) when they
should be trying to repair
their marriage.
Joan Cusack (Sixteen Candles) is Franny, a wealthy, happily
married woman who is looking to donate two million dollars
to charity. When it is suggested she give it to sad-sack Olivia,
Franny sets her up with her sleazy personal trainer, Mike (Scott
Caan, Ocean’s Eleven), instead. (I’d like to thank Holofcener for
being the first filmmaker to accurately portray the all-knowing,
god-like abilities of the personal trainer on film. These selfaggrandizing,
wannabe Socrateses think they’ve unlocked
the mystery of life and that the world looks to them for the
answers. It’s nice to see them get theirs, but don’t expect them
to be in on the joke. They’re renting Pumping Iron and popping
andro…again.)
Holofcener has a history of getting insightful, unflashy
performances from her actors and that continues here.
Aniston is somehow believable as a woman who has run-out
of self-confidence and given up on getting “back on track.”
Frances McDormand shines as a woman acting out because
her marriage is unfulfilling. It’s interesting how the film handles
her husband’s sexuality: It’s questioned, and then left for the
viewer to decide.
Friends with Money is an intelligent, if unspectacular film that
at just under an hour and a half does not overstay its welcome.
It has its moments, but unlike all personal trainers everywhere,
does not hold the answers to life’s greatest questions.
–James Jones
antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative_25

REVOLUTIONS
THE OFFICIAL RECORD STORE OF ANTIGRAVITY
MUSIC, DVDS & MORE SINCE 1969
10am–MIDNIGHT
7 DAYS
1037 BROADWAY
NEW ORLEANS, LA 70118
504-866-6065
IT’S WORTH THE TRIP
BUY-SELL-TRADE NEW + USED MUSIC + MOVIES
YOUR ROCK ‘N’ ROLL
HEADQUARTERS
Perhaps Doug Martsch
did himself in when he
proposed‚ however ironically,
that his 1997 opus be called
Perfect From Now On. It proved, by most all measures, a nearperfect
record, so accomplished and envelope-pushing in its
breadth it made the band’s fantastic follow-up, the compact
and poppy Keep It Like A Secret, look like an underappreciated
martyr. You In Reverse, Built To Spill’s fourth (and perhaps
final) installment in a fortuitous, decade-long love affair with
behemoth backer Warner Bros., has
been held back more times than
Bartholomew J. Simpson—making it
both the most desired BTS release
since Secret and the most doubted
since 2001’s slight Ancient Melodies
Of The Future (which even its creator
has lightly derided). Any questions
about what kind of record this would
be get answered quickly with “Going
Against Your Mind,” a bombastic
rocker that starts with Martsch’s
best guitar work in years and ends up
taking several permutations before
pushing nine minutes in length. The
overall tone, too, hits much closer to
Perfect’s ominous star-shooting than
Secret’s radio-friendly hooks; these
songs take time, planting their roots
slowly before unfurling the genius in
slow-burn epics “Wherever You Go”
and “Just A Habit.”
ANTIGRAVITY phoned Martsch
to get the skinny on You In Reverse
and to check on erstwhile producer
Phil Ek.
ANTIGRAVITY: While setting
up this conference call, Warner
Bros. made a point of saying
that the conversation could
be over at any point if we got
too pushy on details of the
new record. So don’t hesitate
to shoot me down on any of
these questions.
Doug Martsch: [Laughs] There’s not
much I can answer, is the only thing.
But I’m not at all sensitive about it or anything.
AG: The people want to know, Doug!
DM: You know, I complained one time … [Laughs] Part of it
is that I’m always trying to describe it to people, and that’s
the worst thing that could possibly happen. And that’s my
own fault; I’ve got to learn how to either describe it more
correctly, or just say, “Sorry, that’s beyond my abilities.”
AG: We’ll try to steer clear of any corny
descriptors then. Correct me if I’m wrong,
but it seems like this record is going to be
significantly different from past ones, what
with the new studio and [longtime producer]
Phil [Ek] not being involved.
DM: Yeah, going into it, it was kind of fun just trying
something totally new. Phil’s great, but it was good to have
some other people’s ideas about how to record it, and
just their working techniques and stuff. But in a lot of
ways, too, I can see where we really miss Phil, because he
had organizational skills that I didn’t even know about, you
know, that he was doing all along—behind-the-scenes stuff
he would do to keep things running smoothly. We’ve run
into trouble keeping things running smoothly and quickly.
AG: What kinds of things, specifically?
DM: It has to do with the way you track things, and what
you put on different tracks, and planning out that part of it.
He had a way of mixing that was a lot faster than the way
we’re doing it. Basically, he’s worked on big machines, big
projects, a lot more than the guys we’re working with now;
this is their first big project, the first time they’ve done
anything on 24-track.
AG: Is there any backstory to Phil’s not
being involved? Just scheduling, or was it
intentional?
DM: Just to try something different, to see if we could do
something totally different with the
band. Phil had a certain sound, you
know, and we thought we’d try to
make the band sound different.
AG: From a songwriting
perspective, you’ve said
that since Perfect From Now
On, whether it was because
of the music you were into
then or whatever, you were
focusing on making more
concise, conventional music.
Is that still the case on the
new record?
DM: You know what, after Perfect
From Now On, I think we had a couple
records where I did kind of react to
that, but no, now it’s back to anything
goes. There’s a couple of long songs
[on this one]. I definitely got over it.
AG: There’s a cool quote
from you about the
differences between making
Perfect From Now On and
Ancient Melodies Of The
Future—you spoke about it in
math terms, something like
“geometry versus addition.”
In those terms, how do you
characterize this new record?
Or do you have another way
to describe it?
DM: There’s no way I can tell you
what this means, but to me it’s kinda
like geometry, but it’s geometry that
doesn’t really work. Not necessarily
any straight lines involved.
–Noah Bonaparte
26_antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative

Not often does a Cajun
swing album appear in
these here pages. In fact, one
never has. However, the contents of the Lost Bayou Ramblers’
third album are such that I just can’t help myself—and oh my,
don’t it feel good. Donning the personas of the “Mello Joy
Boys,” the Ramblers traverse the rocked up, jazz rag sounds
of Cajun swing, the dominant form of Cajun music during
the 1930s and 40s which served as one of the first national
exports of the Cajun genre. Departing from the material of
their first two albums which kept to the traditional form—
bare acoustic playing, accordion dance tunes, lyrics a la
Francais—the latest tracks are full-bodied piano-banjo-steel
guitar numbers that are sometimes bilingual but always retain
the distress of the Cajun voice. The tracks include both Cajun
swing standards and original material, making this album an
exercise in musical preservation as well as development.
Although the music is very “old” in a sense, there is something
very novel about what the “Mello Joy Boys” are doing. In all
meanings of the word, this is foremost a concept album…and
a Cajun swing concept album at that. Acting as purveyors of
the Lafayette-based coffee company (Mello Joy), the Boys
seem to make clear the commercial history of the music
that they are playing and the (healthy/unhealthy?) cultural
exportation of the genre. These are not a bunch of unwieldy
twenty-somethings we’re dealing with here, but a band that
is very much aware of its musical past. Sure, some of the
conceptual components are a bit kitschy, such as the “Mello
Joy Boys are on the air!” announcement at the beginning (and
the scratchy sound of needle-meets-record that precedes it),
but the purpose of the album stays true throughout. Also,
listening to these Great Depression-era melodies that are
so filled with raucousness, anticipation and an underlying
sorrow, it’s as if these tunes are expressively tailored for
present day southern Louisiana and all its loss and anger and
anxiety. Some songs will especially strike a chord with those
who feel deeply and feel often, like the renditions of “Blues
D’Hiver” and “Louisiana Breakdown,” and the last track of the
album which offers guest Wilson Savoy on piano and vocals
is simply heartbreaking—no matter if you understand the
language or not. The Ramblers’ enthusiasm for playing both
traditional and original tunes, combined with an immediate
place and audience that seems ripe for reconnecting with its
cultural and historical past, makes Une Tasse Café more than
just pertinent, it makes it very new.
—Patrick Strange
Live from Bohemia: It’s the
Capes with their new
age brand of pop punk that’s
generated buzz from buzzed
college dorm rooms everywhere. But this is no Dave Mathews.
The Capes bring self-awareness from the sarcastic, not sensitive,
with satirical commentary on everything from drug overdoses
to body image, all with sexy South London style. Call it ripping
off; I call it expanding upon. “Stately Homes” evokes early ‘60s
Fab Four with a near exact replica of “Do You Want to Know a
Secret”’s famous harmony. Whatever the result, anytime a band
takes on the best they make at least one top-10 (I’ve got $20
on Spin). The Capes aren’t all Beatle boot. Their classic punk
influence shows perfect timing, and with careful cultivating,
could make them the band they were born to be. Until then,
they’re sure to resonate from Magazine St. boutiques for at
least a summer.
—Billie Faye Baker
There is something offputting
about the fourth
record—assembled via tapes
and CD-Rs sent to and from
New York and Los Angeles—from this trio-turned-duo. Maybe
it’s a certain desolation or, at times, despair that shades into
monotony, whether by intention or design. All At Once starts
off strong, reaching a peak of sorts with “Dark Rainbow,” but it
dips in the middle (“Slow Moving Storm” jars not because it’s
genre-bending, but because, well, it’s jarring) before finishing on
another high note with “Ride On.” Katie Eastburn’s talent and
ability as a vocalist is one constant; her voice is lush without
being precious, and moves in tandem against a backdrop of
alternately melancholy and driving beats. At times, there’s a
hint of big-band and, more often, campy noir and showtune
style from both the piano and drums, making for an interesting
array of sounds. But they never quite gel, which may be what
makes the music of Eastburn and her collaborator Jarret
Silberman distinct. Distinct or not, I found myself feeling
more and more detached the more I listened. Ambience is
important, but it’s not everything, and the album’s lyrics don’t
match the intensity or depth of the manner in which they’re
sung, rendering them campy (there’s that word again) at their
best and artificial at their worst.
—Lisa Haviland
In her short story “Tiger
Mending,” Aimee Bender
writes about a woman who is
solicited from her job as a seamstress to go to Asia to help
stitch the backs of tigers that are mysteriously being split open
like steamy baked potatoes. The peeled tigers crawl through the
jungle to a stone mansion where they fall painfully in the laps of
women who promptly sew them up, only for them to appear
weeks later in the same condition. We never really find out
what is happening to the poor tigers, only that, in the words of
the distraught younger sister, “They do it to themselves.” Such
a literary analogy seems apt when critiquing a band that not
only incorporates “Ti-gers in Half” and “Narravation” in their
album title, but also entitles a song “Works Cited” and thinks
it wise to explain the formula behind their own lyricism. In the
disc jacket, it reads: “We stumbled upon a couplet with two
distinct narratives. Its second phrase denotes how the first is
said out loud while, as a whole, it paints a make-believe scene.
We wanted to show how our sing-song was sung.” Think it a
bit pretentious? Perhaps. However, as much as I was turned
off by the pedantry, I felt much like I did when I read Bender’s
short story. Although much of what is contained in the telling
makes absolutely no sense (for example, one of Candy Bars’
“couplets” reads”–Before you overdose on picture/let me
speak three-hundred just words per mile”), there is undeniably
an emotional response, and often it is one of deep sentiment
and pleasure. The album is a slew of dark pop anthems that
offer grand licks and symphonic vocal choruses. Lead singer
Daniel Martinez’s wispy vocals pervade throughout the entire
album, giving it a way-into-the-ether quality. Still, it must be said
that with the constant breathy and subdued whispering, you
wish that for once he would clear his throat and sing one note
with conviction. Several songs stand firm on music alone, the
best being “Enough to Choke a Cold Air” which is forceful and
stirring. All in all, this album is quite good when taken not as
the serious undertaking that its liner notes may make it out to
be (did I mention that there is an Appendix?) but just as what
it is: 11 pop songs that are nicely produced and great to listen
to when feeling glum. As far as the faults go, let’s just say that
they do it to themselves.
–Patrick Strange
Prior to her recording
career, honey-voiced
songstress Juana Molina was a
popular television personality
in her homeland of Argentina. This should raise two red-flag
suppositions regarding her music: It presents itself entirely in
Spanish (which it does), and it stinks worse than the putrid
month-old carpet pile collecting spores out in front of your
house (which it most certainly does not). And why the misplaced
skepticism? A quick perusal of our own country’s track record
at producing quality recording artists from the ranks of the
small screen and the answer becomes obvious. American Idols
Kelly Clarkson and Clay Aiken? The Monkees? Danny fucking
Bonaduce? If word gets out, poor Ms. Molina doesn’t stand a
chance. It’s a damn shame, too, because her fourth longplayer
has some genuine bite. Feeding the unpolished folk strum of Seu
Jorge into Four Tet’s electronic Cuisinart, Son ends up sounding
like the bizarre outtakes a sales-minded A&R guy might let slip
between his fingers. What to make of the pervasive, Bobby
McFerrin-like beatboxing? The little blippity bloops that linger
like icing over Molina’s spongy bass and flowery finger-picking?
The completely subverted song structures? There’s some Nick
Drake in “La Verdad,” as there is now in every guitar-tamer
with a sweet melody on their tongue. But congas and a chorus
of chirping birds quickly dispel that notion before it gains
legs. “Un Beso Llega” again begins as rote Drake but finishes
with Molina spewing kitty-cat mews through a whammybar
vocoder. So many songs take that route, an unadorned
guitar figure morphing into a soothing, somnambulent prayer
via Molina’s graceful guidance. It all adds up to something in
between experimentation and convention—a poor place to
be if you’re counting on record profits to pay your bills, but a
wonderful place for a former TV comedienne feeling out the
boundaries of new Argentine avant-folk.
—Noah Bonaparte
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antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative_27

28_antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative

PREMONITIONS
NEW ORLEANS
The Big Top
1638 Clio St., (504) 569-2700
www.3ringcircusproductions.com
Cafe Brasil
2100 Chartres St., (504) 947-9386
Carrollton Station
8140 Willow St., (504) 865-9190
www.carrolltonstation.com
Checkpoint Charlie’s
501 Esplanade Ave., (504) 947-0979
Circle Bar
1032 St. Charles Ave., (504) 588-2616
www.circlebar.net
D.B.A.
618 Frenchmen St., (504) 942-373
www.drinkgoodstuff.com/no
Goldmine Saloon
701 Dauphine St., New Orleans, (504) 586-0745
Handsome Willy’s
218 South Robertson St., (504) 525-0377
www.handsomewillys.com
House Of Blues / The Parish
225 Decatur, (504)310-4999
www.hob.com/neworleans
The Howlin’ Wolf
907 S. Peters, (504) 522-WOLF
www.thehowlinwolf.com
Le Bon Temps Roule
4801 Magazine St., (504) 895-8117
Maple Leaf
8316 Oak St., (504) 866-9359
Marlene’s Place
3715 Tchoupitoulas, (504) 897-3415
www.myspace.com/marlenesplace
McKeown’s Books & Difficult Music
4737 Tchoupitoulas, (504) 895-1954
One Eyed Jacks
615 Toulouse St., (504) 569-8361
www.oneeyedjacks.net
The Republic
828 S. Peters St., (504) 528-8282
www.republicnola.com
Sip Wine Market
3119 Magazine St., (504) 894-7071
www.sipwinenola.com
Shiloh
4529 Tchoupitoulas, (504) 895-1456
Tipitina’s
(Uptown) 501 Napoleon Ave., (504) 895-8477
(Downtown) 233 N. Peters, (504) XXXX
www.tipitinas.com
BATON ROUGE
Chelsea’s Cafe
2857 Perkins Rd., (225) 387-3679
www.chelseascafe.com
The Darkroom
10450 Florida Blvd., (225) 274-1111
www.darkroombatonrouge.com
North Gate Tavern
136 W. Chimes St.
www.northgatetavern.com
Red Star Bar
222 Laurel St., (225) 346-8454
www.redstarbar.com
SOGO Live
150 Mayflower St., (225) 387-0321
www.sogolive.com
The Spanish Moon
1109 Highland Rd., (225) 383-MOON
www.thespanishmoon.com
The Varsity
3353 Highland Rd., (225)383-7018
www.varsitytheatre.com
MONDAY 5/1
Rob Cambre, Donald Miller, Circle Bar, 10pm
Rob Wagner Trio, d.b.a., 10pm, $5
TUESDAY 5/2
Schatzy, d.b.a., 6pm
Johnny Vidacovich f/ Karl Denson, d.b.a.,
10pm, $5
Adam Hood, Red Star
Sip ‘N Spin, Sip Wine Market
Earthtones, Peter & The Wolf, The Big Top,
9pm, $5 General/$3 Members, 5pm
The Vital Synz, The New Orleans Levee-
Tators, The Big Top, $5 General/$3 Members
Happy Talk Band, The Drunk Stuntmen, One
Eyed Jacks, 9pm
DJ Kinetik, The Felabulous All Stars, Shiloh
HaleStorm, Mercy Fall, Shinedown, Trapt,
House of Blues
WEDNESDAY 5/3
Andy J Forest, d.b.a., 6pm
Rock City Morgue, One Eyed Jacks
Walter Wolfman Washington, d.b.a., 10pm, $5
Rebirth Brass Band, Johnny Sketch & The
Dirty Notes, Howlin’ Wolf, 9pm, Free
Largely Ironic Karaoke, Red Star
MC Sweet Tea, The Tastee Hotz, One Eyed
Jacks, 9pm
Chris Mule, Sublime Lens, Karl Denson, Shiloh
THURSDAY 5/4
Lost Bayou Ramblers, d.b.a., 3pm
Lost Bayou Ramblers, Louisiana Music Factory
(across from HOB), 7pm
Jeff & Vida, d.b.a., 6pm, $5
Fog Fest 2006 w/ Papa Mali, Eddie Bo, Kirk
Joseph, Robbie Kidd, d.b.a., 10pm, $10
Never A Dull Moment: 20 Years Of The
Rebirth Brass Band, The Big Top, 7pm, $7
General/$5 Members
Susan Cowsill, Beaten Path, The Big Top, 9pm,
$8 General/$5 Members
Benjy Davis Project, Ellipsis, The Republic, 8pm
DJ T-Roy, Shiloh
17 Poets! A Weekly Series, Goldmine Saloon
The Slow Signal Fade, Red Star
Chronic Illness f/ DJ Klever, DJ Willow,
Clayton Awful & Friends, Howlin’ Wolf, 10pm, $10
Bonnie “Prince” Billy, One Eyed Jacks
Monday, 5/01
Tuesday, 5/02
Wednesday, 5/03
Thursday, 5/04
Friday, 5/05
Kentucky blueblood Will Oldham is the
epitome of postmodern pop music: multiple
moniker changes, major stylistic shifts, even a
greatest hits album full of big-band covers of his
own music. His best turn came in 2005, when
a newfound partnership with guitarist Matt
Sweeney produced Superwolf, Oldham’s strongest
set of songs since the early days of Palace Music.
Country never sounded so civilized.
–Noah Bonaparte
FRIDAY 5/5
Hot Club Of New Orleans, d.b.a., 8pm, $5
New Orleans Klezmer All-Stars, d.b.a.,
Midnight, $10
Patrick Farrell, ContraBass Duo, Donald
Miller/Bruce Golden Duo, Dry Bones, Double
Trio, The Big Top, 10pm
The New Orleans All Stars, Papa Grows Funk,
Big Sam’s Funky Nation, Papa Mali, Howlin’ Wolf,
9pm
The Mansfields, Stephie And The White Socks,
Marlene’s Place, 9pm
Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Matt Sweeny, The
Warmer Milks, One Eyed Jacks
George Clinton & Parliment Funkadelic, The
Republic, 8pm
New Libation Orchestra, Shiloh
Year Future, Spanish Moon
3Now4kestra, Zeitgeist, 8:30pm, $15
General/$12 Students and Members
Rocket 88, Chelsea’s Cafe, 10pm
Free Comic Book Day, Local Comic Shops (see
article for locations)
Haven’t read comics in awhile? Has
Hollywood’s recent string of movies
based on comics (not only Spider-Man and
X-Men, but History Of Violence and Art School
Confidential) piqued your interest in the
sequential art medium? Free Comic Book
Day may be the time to stoke that flame, as
local comic shops give away books that are
excellent entry points for new readers and old
die-hards alike. Titles you can expect to see
include Bongo Comics Free-For-All (published by
Simpsons creator Matt Groening), Star Wars/
Conan Flip-Book (Dark Horse), Justice League
Unlimited #1 (DC Comics), G.I. Joe: Sigma 6
#1 (Devil’s Due Publishing), Transformers/Beast
Wars Special (IDW), X-Men/Runaways (Marvel),
and Tokyopop Sneak (Tokyopop). Some shops
may have additional titles like The Preposterous
Voyages Of Ironhide Tom! (Adhouse), Funny Book
#2 (Fantagraphics), Free Scott Pilgrim (Oni),
and Dead @ 17 & More (Viper). Local shops
participating in Free Comic Book Day include
Media Underground Comics (4524 Shores Dr.,
504-301-2435), BSI Comics (3030 Severn Ave,
504-885-5250), and, in Baton Rouge, School Of
Comics (660 Jefferson Hwy, 225-922-9080).
–Leo McGovern
SATURDAY 5/6
Friday, 5/05
Saturday, 5/06
Saturday, 5/06
Jeremy Lyons, The Deltabilly Boys, d.b.a., $5
Little Freddie King, d.b.a., Midnight, $10
Bustout Burlesque, Tipitina’s (Downtown),
8pm, 10pm (During Jazz Fest: 9pm, 11pm), $15
General Admission, $20 Reserved Seating; Parking
validated at Canal Place
The Tin Men, The Big Top, 9pm, $8 General/$5
Members
Cowboy Mouth, Dash Rip Rock, Howlin’ Wolf, 9pm
Rebirth Brass Band, Howlin’ Wolf, Midnight, Free
Morning 40 Federation, Liquidrone, One Eyed
Jacks, 9pm
Particle, DJ Logic, Republic, 8pm
Jurassic 5, Republic, 2am
Mao Now: A Cultural Revolution (Art
opening), Zeitgeist, 6pm-9pm
Martin Sexton, Trevor Hall, The Parish
Red Tide, Eric Lindell, Shiloh
Media Darling Records Underground Hip-
Hop Showcase, Shiloh
The Greyboy Allstars, Tipitina’s Uptown
Weary Boys, Chelsea’s Cafe, 10pm
SUNDAY 5/7
Tin Men, d.b.a., 8pm, $5
Robert Walter Trio f/ Karl Denson & Adam
Deitch, d.b.a.
Krewe of Zigaboo, JD & The Straight Shot,
Howlin’ Wolf, 9pm, Free
Femi Kuti, Rhythm Roots All Stars, Afrodisiac
Sound System, Aloe Blacc, One Eyed Jacks,
8pm, $15 (Proceeds benefit the Tipitina’s
Foundation)
Jurassic 5, Republic, 8pm
Diplo, DJ Willow, DJ Medi4, DJ Kinetik, Shiloh
Funk Shui, Dave Easley, Zeitgeist
MONDAY 5/8
James Singleton, d.b.a., 10pm
Ministry, Revolting Cocks, House Of Blues
TUESDAY 5/9
Johnny Vidacovich Duo f/ Mike Dillon, d.b.a.,
10pm
T.I., Young Dro, Yung Joc, House Of Blues
Sip ‘N Spin, Sip Wine Market
WEDNESDAY 5/10
Walter Wolfman Washington, d.b.a., 10pm
Country Joe McDonald, Jefferson Starship,
Tom Constanten, House Of Blues
Gutbucket, The Big Top, 9pm, $5 General/$3
Members
Largely Ironic Karaoke, Red Star
Art Brut, Think About Life, One Eyed Jacks
Voodoo Organist w/ Kaliyuga, Spanish Moon
THURSDAY 5/11
Ingrid Lucia, d.b.a., 10pm
Dimestore Troubadours, The Voodoo
Organist, Red Star
17 Poets! A Weekly Series, Goldmine Saloon
Harlan, Reception Is Suspected, Chelsea’s
Cafe, 10pm
FRIDAY 5/12
Rhino, d.b.a., 6pm
Rotary Downs, d.b.a., 10pm, $6
The Eames Era, El Ten Eleven, Red Star
Hazard County Girls CD Release Party, One
Eyed Jacks, 9pm
Judge Genius Release Party, Spanish Moon
Coogan Lott Duo, Chelsea’s Cafe, 10pm
Lying In States, The Republic
SATURDAY 5/13
Sunday, 5/07
Monday, 5/08
Tuesday, 5/09
Wednesday, 5/10
Thursday, 5/11
Friday, 5/12
Saturday, 5/13
Jimmy Descant Art Show Closing Party, The
Big Top, 6pm-11-pm, Free
Hexbone Family, Chef Menteur, Gavin
Elder, Country Fried, The Big Top, 10pm, $5
General/$3 Members
Merry Go Drown, Howlin’ Wolf, 9pm
Imogen Heap featuring Zoe Keating, One
Eyed Jacks, 9pm
Blood On The Wall, Spanish Moon
George Porter Jr., Chelsea’s Cafe, 10pm
antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative_29

SUNDAY 5/14
The Winter Sounds, Escapists, The Bad Off,
Howlin’ Wolf, 9pm
MONDAY 5/15
As Cities Burn, Poison The Well, Spitfi re,
Underoath, House Of Blues
Whitestar, Swayze, One Eyed Jacks, 9pm
Soul Position w/ RJD2, Blue Print, One
Below, Spanish Moon
TUESDAY 5/16
Sip ‘N Spin, Sip Wine Market
WEDNESDAY 5/17
Bleed The Sky, Eyes Of Fire, God Forbid,
House Of Blues
The Greyroad, Abner, Tom Violence, Howlin’
Wolf, 9pm
Largely Ironic Karaoke, Red Star
Red Stick Ramblers, N.O. Jazz Vipers, One
Eyed Jacks
Lee Rocker (of the Stray Cats), Chelsea’s
Cafe, 10pm
THURSDAY 5/18
Mondo Bizzaro Original Play: Everette
Maddox: Catching Him In Pieces, ASHE
Cultural Arts Center (1712 Oretha Castle-
Haley Blvd., 504-569-9070), 7:30pm, $10
The Tomatoes, d.b.a., 10pm
For The Wait, 11 Reasons, Howlin’ Wolf, 9pm
17 Poets! A Weekly Series, Goldmine Saloon
Red Stick Ramblers, Chelsea’s Cafe, 10pm
Sunday, 5/14
Monday, 5/15
Tuesday, 5/16
Wednesday, 5/17
Thursday, 5/18
FRIDAY 5/19
Mondo Bizzaro Original Play: Everette
Maddox: Catching Him In Pieces, ASHE
Cultural Arts Center (1712 Oretha Castle-Haley
Blvd., 504-569-9070), 7:30pm, $10
Hot Club Of New Orleans, d.b.a., 6pm
Mem Shannon & The Membership, d.b.a.
Soilent Green, Rue, Graves At Sea, Howlin’
Wolf, 10pm
The Melters, Forget Last Friday, Red Star
Roxie’s Fashion Show, One Eyed Jacks
Blackfi re Revelation w/ Pistols, Spanish Moon,
Dawn
Cary Hudson, Chelsea’s Cafe, 10pm
30_antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative
Friday, 5/19
Saturday, 5/20
Pelican, Mono, The Life & Times, Spanish Moon
In the grand opera at the end of the world,
Explosions in the Sky and Sigur Ros will
be playing the role of angelic choir while
Pelican will eagerly perform a requiem to
man. They are at times gorgeous, mostly
ferocious, and always above verbiage. This
is the music that metalheads listen to when
they want to cry. Sure, they twinkle twinkle
every now and again, fl irting with “obvious”
beauty like the aforementioned groups, but
the emphasis seems to be in going for the
biggest, the best, the loudest. They seek for,
and often fi nd, perfection in the train wreck.
The sheer thrust and power behind The Fire
in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw makes a
live show seem almost redundant, until one
remembers that the PA system in the Spanish
Moon is considerably louder than any home
stereo. Mankind is inherently fl awed, each one
of us a tragedy dusted with glimpses of bright
lights every now and again. Pelican just puts
it to music.
–Marty Garner
SATURDAY 5/20
Robert Merqurio, Jeff Raines, Brian Cougan,
Simon Lott, d.b.a., 11pm, $5
Narcissy, The Big Top, 9pm, $5 General/$3
Members
The Molly Maguires, Red Star
Dolemite, One Eyed Jacks, 9pm
Pelican, Mono, The Life & Times, Spanish Moon
Cortez Del Mar, Chelsea’s Cafe, 10pm
SUNDAY 5/21
Mondo Bizzaro Original Play: Everette
Maddox: Catching Him In Pieces, ASHE
Cultural Arts Center (1712 Oretha Castle-Haley
Blvd., 504-569-9070), 6:30pm, $10
MONDAY 5/22
MC Frontalot, Spanish Moon
TUESDAY 5/23
MC Frontalot, D.O.N., Republic, 8pm
Sip ‘N Spin, Sip Wine Market
Cougars, Red Star
WEDNESDAY 5/24
Saturday, 5/20
Sunday, 5/21
Monday, 5/22
Tuesday, 5/23
Wednesday, 5/24
Giant Drag, Pretty Girls Make Graves, The
Joggers, The Parish
Liars, Apes, Deerhunter, Spanish Moon
Largely Ironic Karaoke, Red Star
Tre Harden (of the Pharcyde), Pigeon John,
Spanish Moon
Thursday, 5/25
Pinback, Mary Timony, 2CV, Chelsea’s Cafe, 10pm
It’s been nearly two years since San Diego
lo-fi /sci-fi outfi t Pinback dropped Summer In
Abaddon, and recent news reports have bassist
Zach Smith’s previous band, Three Mile Pilot
(with Black Heart Procession’s Pall Jenkins),
on the mend. But fear not, Pin-backers: Any
Rob Crow follower knows that the chaps are
serial collaborators—the band formed from
the dissolution of Smith’s Three Mile Pilot and
Crow projects Thingy and Heavy Vegetable,
and Crow currently has side gigs going with
metal marauders Goblin Cock and the progpunk
Ladies. Quelling any notion of a split,
Crow and Smith are taking Abaddon’s sublime
set back on the road once more before holing
up in the studio for a follow-up.
—Noah Bonaparte
THURSDAY 5/25
Mondo Bizzaro Original Play: Everette
Maddox: Catching Him In Pieces, ASHE
Cultural Arts Center (1712 Oretha Castle-Haley
Blvd., 504-569-9070), 7:30pm, $10
Drums And Tuba, Kiley Michael, Analog
Missionary, Howlin’ Wolf, 9pm
His Name Is Alive, Republic, 8pm
Don Juanabe and the Aloha Pussycats, Red Star
17 Poets! A Weekly Series, Goldmine Saloon
FRIDAY 5/26
Mondo Bizzaro Original Play: Everette
Maddox: Catching Him In Pieces, ASHE
Cultural Arts Center (1712 Oretha Castle-Haley
Blvd., 504-569-9070), 7:30pm, $10
The Bumside Exploration!, d.b.a., 10pm, $5
Spicy Rock Fest IV w/ Random, The City
Life, Meriwether, Cilice, Point Of Reason,
Howlin’ Wolf
The Rewinds, Direwood, Red Star
Big Sam’s Funky Nation, Chelsea’s Cafe, 10pm
SATURDAY 5/27
Mondo Bizzaro Original Play: Everette
Maddox: Catching Him In Pieces, ASHE
Cultural Arts Center (1712 Oretha Castle-Haley
Blvd., 504-569-9070), 7:30pm, $10
Evergrey, In Flames, Nevermore,
Throwdown, House Of Blues
Spicy Rock Fest IV w/ Ellipsis, Slang Angus,
Brown, Dirtfoot, The Terms, Write Of
Insanity, Howlin’ Wolf, 10pm
Court & Spark, Red Star
People Under The Stairs, Spanish Moon, 9pm
Bingo!, One Eyed Jacks
Captain Legendary Band, Chelsea’s Cafe,
10pm
SUNDAY 5/28
Mondo Bizzaro Original Play: Everette
Maddox: Catching Him In Pieces, ASHE
Cultural Arts Center (1712 Oretha Castle-Haley
Blvd., 504-569-9070), 6:30pm, $10
MONDAY 5/29
DJ Atrak, Prefuse 73, Edan, The Rub, Spanish
Moon
TUESDAY 5/30
Aiden, HIM, House Of Blues
Sip ‘N Spin, Sip Wine Market
WEDNESDAY 5/31
Largely Ironic Karaoke, Red Star
Thursday, 5/25
Friday, 5/26
Saturday, 5/27
Sunday, 5/28
Monday, 5/29
Tuesday, 5/30
Wednesday, 5/31

www.voodoomusicfest.com