Swedish sweaters

'You're getting the good Swedish stuff'

By Chris Nixon
August 12, 2004
San Diego Union-Tribune

Since the insidiously infectious music of ABBA exploded into the worldwide market during the 1970s, Sweden's main musical exports have consisted of vacuous, flavor-of-the-month pop. From Roxette to Ace of Base, the Nordic country tucked between Finland and Norway historically has churned out Top 40 fodder whose credo is "all-style, no substance."

Underneath all the spangles and pomp of Sweden's pop exports, a real rock scene developed. The current wave of Swedish rock bands – including the Hives, the Soundtrack of Our Lives, Sahara Hotnights and the Hellacopters – shed the sugary fluff for more significant riffs, more substantial melodies and tougher lyrics.

Spanning the gap between shiny pop and gritty rock, the Cardigans opened the door for legitimate rock bands to find audiences outside of Sweden.

"I'm not saying we had anything to do with it, but it did seem that when we started to get outside the borders of this country – maybe eight or nine years ago – things started to change," says guitarist and primary songwriter Peter Svensson from his home in Stockholm. "More real bands started to be heard outside of Sweden, not just the record company product.

"The record companies are really slow and dumb. If one band is breaking or making it, they immediately start to look for similar things. There are a lot of great Swedish bands that have been coming out over the last five years. I think you're lucky, because you're getting the good Swedish stuff."

With breakout hits like 1996's massive single "Love Fool" and 1998's "My Favorite Game," the quintet cracked the American market with its sweet pop melodies and bittersweet lyrics. Accessible and challenging, Svensson's thick orchestrated compositions along with Nina Persson's sweet sultry vocals and tough lyrics combined for a potent songwriting duo.

After recording four albums and almost a decade of constant touring since its 1992 inception, the Cardigans was burnt out on the music industry and the expectations of being recording artists.

"We needed to take a really long break after 'Gran Turismo,' " says Svensson. "We had been touring constantly and making albums for seven or eight years. Before the break, we never really had time to just sit down and get distance from all the things we had been doing. It was like a train going really fast. By taking that break, all the members of the band had some time to slow things down and get a life outside of the band."

The media's tendency to focus on one band member caused problems within the band, but not the jealousy one might think. Being an attractive female lead singer fronting five guys, Persson received the majority of the spotlight when the Cardigans became pop stars. In reality, none of the Cardigans wanted to assume the band's leadership role when it came to media coverage.

"I think our problem is that Nina is not very comfortable with that situation," admits Svensson. "It's not like the rest of the band is feeling 'Why don't we get the attention?' I think our problem is that no one in the band really wants the attention. And Nina is probably the one that wants it the least. Whenever the band is in the spotlight, she's the one they're going to pull out and do separate interview with and separate photos. She really wants just to be a fifth of the band."

The members took 18 months away from the Cardigans to regroup before reuniting to record 2004's "Long Gone Before Daylight," a cohesive collection of 14 songs. The break allowed the band to enjoy the process of recording and touring again.

"I think when we got back together, it seemed much more sincere," says Svensson. "It was more important just to be really good friends in a band rather than trying to be a part of a crazy industry and trying to create singles and selling albums. We tried to focus on the stuff that made us start up the band from the beginning. So, it's been a little bit different this time around."

Chris Nixon is a San Diego writer.

One of my favorite bands

In the 'pressure' cooker

Cake has survived 12 years in the rock biz by letting its songs carry the load
By Chris Nixon
August 5, 2004
San Diego Union-Tribune

As popular music in America goes, nobody listens to lyrics anymore. A song's music serves as the lightning rod for screaming fans, radio play and subsequent critical and financial success. The hook counts for everything: a catchy melody, a fleeting infectious chorus, a gorgeous harmony, a bumpin' beat.

Enter Sacramento quintet Cake, brimming with clever lyrics and carefully constructed mini pop symphonies.

Led by songwriter John McCrea and crafty trumpeter Vince DiFiore, Cake continues to carve its own niche. After 12 years of existence and a major-label recording career over the past decade, the group lures new fans with each release.

Often described as sarcastic, ironic, satirical, sardonic and even caustic, McCrea's lyrics cleverly use metaphors and a sly tongue-in-cheek attitude to create his image of the perfect woman, tell stories of lost love and comment on the benefits of bench seats versus bucket seats in automobiles.

"I've heard other people describe it as 'droll.' I've heard 'self-imposed alienation,' and 'deadpan,' " says DiFiore from Sacramento. "It's really in the tradition of American songwriting, but after going through the phase shifter of the influence of the psychedelia movement. But I think John wanted to write a song that everybody would understand, with a format that seemed like there was a lot of sobriety involved."

McCrea knows how to turn a clever phrase. Consider this from "Open Book" on the 1996 album "Fashion Nugget": You may think she's an open book / But you don't know which page to turn to, do you?

And he uses the most American of metaphors – the automobile – to describe his calm exterior and his chaotic inner workings: I've got wheels of polished steel / I've got tires that grab the road / I've got seats that selflessly hold my friends / And a trunk that can carry the heaviest of loads – but under my hood is internal combustion / Satan is my motor, from "Satan Is My Motor" on 1998's "Prolonging the Magic."

Even though lyrics play a central role in Cake's initial appeal, the band's airtight compositions featuring interlocking pieces give the songs a longer shelf life in the ears of listeners.

"We realized that we didn't want to waste the listener's time," says DiFiore, who has been with the band since its inception in 1992. "If there's a good song, you make a tight arrangement for it and then you let it be. You don't try to add a bunch of excess that is going to take away from a simple statement."

Along with guitarist Xan McCurdy, bassist Gabe Nelson and drummer Paulo Baldi, DiFiore and the band fashion tunes drawing from sad pedal steel country, groove funk bluegrass and muscle car rock. DiFiores' trumpet playing adds another melodic line to Cake's songs, separating the band's sound from the pack of current pop bands with unique instrumentation.

"In the '70s, there were a lot of bands playing horn-band funk: Sly and the Family Stone, who we often reference as an influence, War, Carlos Santana," says DiFiore. "But there are also a lot of Spanish-language radio stations around here playing Mexican norte×os and ranchera music. I think it came from those two aspects.

"(McCrea) wanted to shy away from the saxophone, because the saxophone is too much of a fun, good-time party instrument and the trumpet is a little sadder. So that's why John recruited a trumpet player to play with him."

CAKE
Hometown:

Formed in Sacramento in 1992

Discography:

"Pressure Chief" (due for release Oct. 5)

"Comfort Eagle" (2001)

"Prolonging the Magic" (1998)

"Fashion Nugget" (1996)

"Motorcade of Generosity" (1994)

Touring Lineup:

John McCrea – vocals, guitar

Xan McCurdy – guitar

Gabe Nelson – bass

Paulo Baldi – drums

Vince DiFiore – trumpet

– CHRIS NIXON

With the new album "Pressure Chief" due in October, Cake seems to be hitting its stride in terms of its music and its success. The band's Saturday's performance at the Del Mar Racetrack (which coincides with the annual Microbrew Festival) marks the start of a new touring cycle, so expect a fresh set of tunes at the show.

Life on the road is tough for DiFiore. But as long as Cake deals with the glare of the spotlight, the stormy nature of touring and internal strife, the band will keep at it: "Being a touring rock band is part traveling salesman and part fisherman. Sometimes I think I'm in 'Death of a Salesman,' I think of the dudes who were out in the boat in 'The Perfect Storm' and I think of being an adolescent. So we'll keep at it as long as we can deal with the tug of those dark themes."

Chris Nixon is a San Diego writer.

The gospel according to Randolph
The pedal steel wizard tries to bring 'this joy to the mainstream musical world'
By Chris Nixon
July 29, 2004
San Diego Union-Tribune

Robert Randolph lived in two different worlds growing up. During the week, he ran in the roughneck streets of urban New Jersey, a world where gunshots were the final word. But come Sunday, he clapped his hands and sang along with the rest of the congregation to celebrate at the African-American Pentecostal House of God church. In his Christian world, the word of God and the slide guitar had the final say.

"It was a pretty tough life growing up, which it is for anybody growing up in an inner-city environment," says Randolph, reflecting on his years as a young man in the city. "As a teenager, I got into some pretty tough situations. There were a bunch of incidents: losing friends, losing different family members. After time, things started to build up for me, and it made more sense not to be involved with those things.

"Luckily for me, I got into music. It kept me off the streets."

After leaving behind the thug life, Randolph focused his efforts on learning the 13-string pedal steel, an instrument normally associated with Hawaiian slack key music or honky-tonk country.
The young musician followed a long tradition of pedal steel playing in the House of God church, an institution often referred to as "Sacred Steel." Randolph became a prodigy, joining fiery gospel fervor with the bluesy licks of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix.

"For me being able to play music in church, first you develop this relationship (between music and religion)," says the 26-year-old pedal steel master. "Music is always to be played from the heart to form a connection with the listener, to really dig down deep within yourself and really express your feelings musically, to make that connection.

"You have a lot of people who have been taught music, who have been taught by a teacher, who have been all about the musical notes. Some of those people have a really hard time connecting with the audience or the listener. Growing up in church and having a different outlook on life allowed me to have that advantage over some artists out there."

His gifts as an emotional performer have served Randolph well. While working at a New York City law office as a paralegal, a bootlegged tape of one of Randolph's performances reached the ears of keyboardist John Medeski of Medeski Martin and Wood.

With the North Mississippi Allstars, Medeski and Randolph teamed up for the 2001 project titled "The Word." Combining the ever-experimental world of Medeski, the roots rock of the Mississippi band and the hallelujah shimmy shake of Randolph's Sacred Steel background, "The Word" produced a buzz among critics and brought Randolph's pedal steel playing to the mainstream's ears for the first time.

A virtuoso's faves
Robert Randolph knows his pedal steel history. When asked
about the greatest players of all-time, the 26-year-old virtuoso immediately
gave a shout-out to his three favorites:

Calvin Cooke: Born in 1944 in Cleveland, Cook is part of the long line of great pedal steel players emerging out of joyous church jams and gospel music. His big expressive voice has won him the moniker "the B.B. King of gospel pedal steel guitar." Says Randolph: "He comes out of the scared steel tradition. He's so soulful."

Julian Tharpe: Nashville session man Tharpe may have backed country stars like Ray Price and Barbara Mandrell, but he also created highly regarded crossover albums like "The Jet Age." Tharpe was also known for the unusual choice of playing a 14-string pedal steel. Randolph says: "He's an old school, jazzy pedal steel player. He's amazingly cool."

Buddy Emmons: This Nashville elite pedal steel player performed with everyone from Ernest Tubbs to Roger Miller to the Everly Brothers. Randolph says: "Buddy's the all-time country great. He was the first guy to really play in that whole context that you hear down in Nashville. He is
the all-time greatest on that thing."

When asked how he'd be considered alongside the trio, Randolph said: "I just need to continue to be original and come up with my own ideas. Those guys, they had their own tone. Great musicians. A great musician is someone who is completely unique and plays with all the heart and soul they have. That's where I want to be."
– CHRIS NIXON

Randolph rode the wave of notoriety by releasing "Live at the Wetlands" on his own Dare label in 2002, where he performed with cousins Marcus Randolph (drums) and Danyel Morgan (bass), now known as the Family Band.

"Mainly, what I try to do (in my live shows) is bring this positive, party life vibe of joyous singing and dancing together," says Randolph, talking from Milwaukee on tour with Eric Clapton. "It's really different from a lot of young black musicians today. Bringing this joy to the mainstream musical world is what I've been trying to do. And it's been going over really well. Somebody has to do it."

So how do you translate the live energy to a sterile studio environment? Randolph and the Family Band (which now includes Jason Crosby on Hammond B-3 organ, piano and violin) faced the challenge in the recording sessions for 2003's "Unclassified." The album's clap-your-hands, stomp-your-feet mentality perfectly captures the band's live shows.

Says Randolph: "We try and bring forth enough energy so if somebody's listening, they feel like they're in the room with us. That's what we try and create when we go into the studio.

"This Clapton tour we're on right now has catapulted us into the next level of respectability by musicians and audiences. It's a great, great thing to be playing with Clapton. He's the nicest guy. Everyday, I'm getting to talk to him and at the end of the show every night we come out and jam together. So it's really amazing."

Chris Nixon is a San Diego writer.