folk

8hands featured TV moment: Jeffrey Lewis on the Culture Show

alon — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 09:40:33 -0400

Jeffrey Lewis is one of my favorite artists – I wrote about him too many times by now, so there is no point in me explaining again why he's such a superior singer / songwriter. All there is to know is that he is amazing, and now, after watching him on BBC's "The Culture Show", I understand that I'm not alone.

If you are not convinced, listen to the man Jarvis Cocker, who, as I learned from "The Culture Show", thinks Lewis is the best lyricist working in the USA today.

Check out the video and let me know if you agree.

8hands Featured Interview: The Good Life

Alice — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 05:29:39 -0500

Ever since I picked my favorite 2007 album, some questions about The Good Life have been bothering me. That's why I'm so happy that the amazing Ryan Fox found the time to answer those questions and allowed me to get my peace of mind back.

You've joined Tim Kasher and The Good Life in 2001. I personally think your presence made the transition of the good life from a side project into an established band. In which point of time do you think it happened if you see a difference at all?

"About the time I joined was indeed the transition from solo project to band effort. Tim had recruited some people to tour with him for the first album, but 'Black Out', which we recorded in 2001, was a kind of turning point where it became a band. We still get tagged as a side project sometimes, which usually doesn't bother us. But it can be a bummer to see it in print because it comes off as a disparaging thing, like we're this lesser entity. The Good Life definitely feels like a band in the way we collaborate and work together, but it is different in that we have long stretches when we aren't playing together. But that's kind of nice, too, that the band operates on its own slow schedule and everybody has time to pursue other things, musical or otherwise, in the interim".

Living it large: The Good Life.

I'm sure that by slow schedule you mean slow when off tour, because your recent tour was pretty intensive. How was it? Which show was the best?

"We hadn't been on tour for a couple years, and it was great to get back out on the road and play for people every night. We played some places I hadn't been before and revisited some favorite spots. There were lots of shows I really liked for various reasons. In Philadelphia we played - for the 4th or 5th time - in the basement social hall of this church that has shows all the time. It was about 100 degrees in the room and probably 115 on stage. My hands slipped off the keyboard it was so humid. After the show, the floor was wet, like a layer of condensed sweat. It was kind of gross but I thought we played well and it felt healthy to sweat out some poison".

Sweating in Philadelphia, It's probably because it's always sunny there. How come, in your opinion, so many good and talented musicians came out of Omaha, Nebraska? Do parents there feed their children differently?

"I don't know what exactly to attribute it to. Lots of people here have been dedicated to their music for many years, and it's great that the world started to take notice a few years ago. I'm sure there are plenty of other cities with equal talent but perhaps Omaha is different in that there's not a particular sound or style, but it's still a spirit of collaboration. If there were some supermusic diet force-fed to Omaha toddlers, it's been brainwashed out of us".

Someone should make a movie about this place. Tell us a bit about Tim Kasher's screenplay, which your last album 'Help Wanted Nights' was originally written as its soundtrack.

"A guy's car breaks down in a small town and while he's stuck there he gets enmeshed in the lives and loves of the townsfolk. It's mostly set in a bar and involves just a handful of characters. Tim is working to get the movie made and has met with various people who could make it happen, though nothing is set in stone yet. To make an album can be quite the undertaking, but it seems that making a film is another beast entirely, with the costs and amount of people involved".

Well, sounds like it's worth the effort. If you could collaborate with one artist, dead or alive, who would it be?

"Hmm... Leonard Cohen? Maybe he could've used a different collaborator in the '80s when he put out some of those saxophone and synthesizer inflected - or: infected? - records. Tom Waits would be a fun one. How about John Lennon"?

What do you think about the way music and internet integrates? How does the internet affect you?

"I think it's a positive thing that the internet allows so many people to access so much information, music, etc. I still prefer word of mouth, my friends' recommendations and the random exposure of being somewhere a song is playing and thinking 'yes!' and having to ask who the band is. Sometimes the internet makes me feel flooded in music and like I can't really check anything out but can only stream a few crummy-sounding mp3s. But I've discovered things online that have prompted a trip to the record store: Stars of the Lid's 'And Their Refinement of the Decline', Papercuts' 'Can't Go Back' and Grizzly Bear's 'Yellow House' are a few that I've really gotten into".

Speaking of the web, I gotta ask, you know... being from 8hands and all... Are you a member in any online communities or social networks?

"The band has a Myspace account but I don't have one myself, though I've had them for a couple temporary bands I've been in. I think I still have a Friendster account that's been long inactive. I should get in there and make sure I'm not unknowingly sending out 'OMG! Macy's gift card' comments to people. The band also has a Virb account".

And Finally, What would you do if you had eight hands?

"We made a t-shirt last year that has an octopus riding a unicycle with two tentacles and drinking a six-pack with the other six tentacles. I guess if I had eight hands I'd wish for six more arms to put them on".

Download: The Good Life - Heart Broke

Download: The Good Life - You Don't Feel Like Home to Me

Download: The Good Life - A New Friend

The 8hands Mega-Team Puts An End To 2007! Part 4

Alice — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 05:29:46 -0500

This time, Alice opens up her heart and picks her album of the year, "Help Wanted Nights" by The Good Life.

When music writers publish their top albums lists every December, I guess they take into consideration issues such as innovation, the amount of influence album may have in the future or size of impact any album had on all music lovers out there.

I'm sure that assembling a list of top albums is not exactly an easy task, but somehow, even though there are thousands of album releases each year, and despite the fact that many criterions need to be accounted, still most lists suffer from an unfortunate resemblance to one another.

I bet most people explain it by wrongly assuming that some albums are "better" than others. The way I see it, music is not an exact science and therefore cannot be measured in terms of best or worst album. But hey, I ain't no party pooper, and the purple octopus ordered me to pick the best album this year, so as always, I obeyed.

There were many albums I liked in 2007, but the album of the year has to be the one by The Good Life.

Help Wanted Nights was released on Saddle Creek Records and it contains 10 beautiful songs that share the same lyric theme as they all talk about short term relationships, the kind that is most likely to end before they really evolve. Most songs are telling a story of an unequal relationship where one side is more interested and more caring than the other.

The former Good Life album, 'Album of the Year', was all about breakups and endings, and the current album feels almost like the next episode of the same series. I'd like to think both albums tell the story of the same man, which during 'Album of the Year', had gone through a terrible breakup, and now, on 'Help Wanted Nights', he is trying to find love again. Luckily for us, the guy is going in all wrong directions and there is constantly a sad feeling in the background.

The real story behind the album, as I read somewhere, is that it was actually written as a soundtrack for a screenplay Tim Kasher wrote. You see, this guy, the front man of the band, is so great with words that he can manufacture not only the most beautiful lyrics available but screenplays as well. So far there are no real plans for producing this screenplay, but if it will get produced eventually, I'm sure it'll be a great movie.

In the meantime, I highly recommend you to go out and buy yourself the album that made my year and let yourself get into a world where emotions are expressed in the best possible way.

8hands Featured Song: "The Rage" by Broughton & Casati

alon — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 09:23:28 -0400

Antony and his Johnsons are too burned out. It's not that Antony isn't good, it's just that after he guessed appeared in almost every album that came out since 2005, I can't listen to his shaky voice no more.

But that's no to say there is no more room for the special hypnotic and deep voices. There are some people who walk among us and carry with them that one-in-a-life-time voice that no else but them can do - David Thomas Broughton is one of these incredible individuals.

I first heard of Broughton in 2005, when he released the brilliant "The Complete Guide to Insufficiency". I played that album over and over again back then, but after that Broughton had disappeared from my vision. Actually, wikipedia just showed me that he has been quite active since, but for some reason we didn't cross paths until two weeks ago, when I found "The Rage".

"The Rage" is a new single by Broughton & Casati, a duo consists of David Thomas Broughton and Stockholm's based producer Chris Casati. Together they took Broughton vocal to a new level as he sits above some smarty-pants electronics. So far I've just heard "The Rage" and I can't wait for the entire album to pop up – with that single in the background, I just know it's gonna be amazing.

8hands Featured Artist: Jeffrey Lewis, Again.

alon — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 09:52:40 -0400

I already wrote here before about Jeffrey Lewis, but he had just released a new album and I had to repeat myself. What can I say? I'm a sucker for this witty anti-folker.

"12 Crass Songs", Lewis' new release is a covers album. No, wait. It's a tribute album. Oh, no. it's a charity album. Hmmm… No! It's a love and hate album, I think. It shows Lewis' love to the legendary Crass and represents Lewis' hate of authority, capitalism, violence and basically, in the words of Crass themselves, the system.

Back in those late 70s / beginning of 80s British punk days, Crass were one of the most controversial anarchist bands. They wrote war songs that fought against anything that was normal and everything wrong that came their way. Their Battle maybe seems a bit too oblivious these days, maybe even banal – it's not that I don't agree with their views, it's just that today a good protest comes in a more intellectual way – Still, sometimes the good old clichés are the truest thing around. Jeffrey Lewis looked for these primal anger feelings and found them in Crass.

Jeffrey Lewis Vs. The System

It's not that Lewis couldn't write songs like these on his own, but if he did, it wouldn't feel right. Lewis is too sharp and self aware, and hearing him sing lines about buying stuff that we don't need can be weird. I mean yeah, the system sucks, we all know that.

But Lewis wanted to scream out these thoughts without actually writing songs that don't fit his day-to-day catalog and he decided to record twelve old Crass songs. That way it will be a lovely tribute & a decent protest all at once.

"12 Crass Songs". The Cover.

Lewis took the songs into his domain and completely "folked" them out. He even added some lines to make the lyrics more relevant (the war in Iraq & Sarah Jessica Parker are here, of course). The production of the album is a bit more advanced than Lewis' old work, but even though I'm a fan of the low-fi, that isn't necessary a bad thing. "12 Crass Songs" is a beautiful album that actually says something, in the old-fashioned way – Songs like "Punk is Dead" and "I Ain't Thick" are nothing less than brilliant.

If you are worried about Lewis making money over the skeletons of what was once a great idealistic band, don't. Lewis will donate all the money that was earned by this project to several charities. Considering the fact that Lewis never really had his 15 minutes of fame, you've got to agree he is anything but greedy, and that, more than everything else, shows that he is the true current holder of Crass' torch.