Trans Am nixed

Last week I was scheduled to write a piece on Washington, DC trio Trans Am for Night&Day. I did the interview and wrote the piece, but for some reason the U-T didn't print it. I think it probably had to do with space. I hope they didn't shy away from the band's political views. Either way, here's a peek at what I handed in. I'd be interested to hear anyone's thoughts.

Here's the story:

Over an ominous, minor-key synthesizer riff and a simple drum machine click track, the voice of President George Bush echoes: "Our commitment to weapons of mass destruction is America's tradition. In the battle of Iraq, we destroyed hospitals and schools. In this battle, we have fought for the cause of war…”

The quote does not represent the president’s actual words but a spliced speech reassembled on “Uninvited Guest,” a track from Trans Am’s latest album “Liberation.” The song’s 2:12 minutes reveal the album’s political subtext. The majority of “Liberation” remains a claustrophobic electronic diatribe on the current state of foreign affairs.

“Hearing Bush’s voice just makes people have knee-jerk reaction: a lot of people just cringe instantly,” said Trans Am guitarist/keyboardist Phil Manley during a recent cell phone conversation form the band’s home base in Washington, D.C. “Most of the people who respond to us certainly agree with our politics. In Europe, we’ve gotten a lot of positive response for this song, because this administration is so universally hated.”

The song splices together segments of President Bush’s speech on the deck of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln’s deck, in the rolling Pacific just off San Diego’s shores. Delivered on May 2, 2003, critics have attacked Bush’s address, since titled the “Mission Accomplished” speech. For Trans Am, the address provided the perfect opportunity to have its voice heard.

“Basically, we found the speech online, then we loaded it onto our computer and we painstakingly reassembled it,” said Manley about the making of “Uninvited Guest.” “We tried to recreate the pacing in his voice, which I think we succeeded in doing. It’s so easy to turn those speeches on their end. It was our interpretation of what’s really happening.”

But is taking someone’s voice and manipulating it digitally a legal activity?

“That’s a good question,” said Manley. “Yeah, I think it is. But the best thing that could happen to Trans Am right now if we were to get sued by the government. We don’t sell enough records. People aren’t going to know. But if it were to happen, go for it. Sue the pants off us. I don’t care. It’d be one thing if they were playing it on the radio everyday…but they’re not. They’re not playing it on major networks anyway. It’s not on Clear Channel, that’s for sure.”

Since Sept. 11, 2001, many among America’s music community have written songs about the United States and its political role in the world. From Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red White and Blue (The Angry American)” to Steve Earle’s “John Walker’s Blues,” musicians use the language of music to express their political opinions. While country music habitually represents America’s clear-eyed mainstream conscious, indie rockers often take the easy route using sly cynicism and tongue-in-cheek sarcasm to express political views.

In stark contrast to Trans Am’s eight previous full-length albums on Thrill Jockey Records since 1996, “Liberation” takes a more overt political stance.

“In the past, we may have been dabbling in politics, but certainly only in abstract and obtuse ways,” said Manley, who will perform at the Casbah Wednesday with drummer Sebastian Thomson and bassist/keyboardist Nathan Means. “Both ‘Surveillance’ and ‘Future World’ both have undertones of politics and dystopian societies. But this new one is definitely a full-on assault.”

Often associated musically with the prog-rock/post-punk scene along with Chicago hipsters Tortoise, Trans Am’s sound combines ‘80s synth pop, electro funk and artsy dance tunes. The trio comes by “Me Decade” noise honestly.

“(Our music) stems from being children of the ‘80s,” said Manley. “We were born in the ‘70s, but we really came of age in the ‘80s. I think the first electronic music I was exposed to was probably Herbie Hancock ‘Rockit’ and then also Kraftwerk’s ‘Tour de France’ and New Order’s ‘Blue Monday.’ I remember there was something called ‘Friday Night Videos.’ I remember being totally blown away when I first saw (the video for) this band Houdini. It was all break dancing and a brand new sound.”

But Trans Am’s main mode of communication comes through its music. Manley simply states: “Our lives are mostly consumed by music. That’s pretty much where we make our statements.”

Chris Nixon is San Diego writer.

Datebook
The Casbah
2501 Kettner Blvd
8:30 p.m. Wednesday
$12. Information: (619) 232-4355.

Roots rock ska

Here's the Hepcat piece:

'Ska is not just a fad'
Actor-singer Alex Desert of Hepcat makes the case for the music
By Chris Nixon
May 20, 2004

It's 102 degrees on the steamy freeways of Los Angeles, and Alex Desert is lost. On the way to another possible acting gig, the busy performer doesn't have time to stop for 10 minutes.

Like most lost Southern California drivers, he's multitasking: maneuvering, navigating and talking on his cell phone. Luckily, he's also listening to good tunes to keep himself sane.

"You got me on my way to a voice-over audition – and I'm listening to Tom Jones," says the sincerely upbeat Desert (pronounced "Dez-air") as assorted highway noises zoom by his window. Turning up the Welch crooner's hit "What's New, Pussycat?" on his car stereo, Desert bursts out: "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa." He adds, "What a great day, man."

Despite the withering weather and the snarl of L.A.'s highways and byways, the New York City native derives joy from his life's numerous directions. Desert's burgeoning acting career includes credits on the television series "Becker" and prime roles in the cinematic cult classics "Swingers" and "P.C.U." He will also take part in the ABC television series "Harry Green and Eugene" debuting in the fall. And, after a hiatus, his ska band Hepcat is dusting off the cobwebs and touring once again, including a stop at 'Canes Bar & Grill in Mission Beach Sunday night.

For the past 15 years, Hepcat led the West Coast contingent of classic ska purveyors. After four full-length albums and thousands of miles on the road, the eight-man collective continues to layer smooth vocals over skipping ska rhythms and a classic full-horn section. The band's music harks to timeless 1950s and '60s ska music (often called the First Wave), holding true to the traditional Jamaican style.

Even though originally Desert hails from Haiti, he didn't listen to Jamaican or Caribbean music in his formative years. He grew up listening to Motown soul as a child in New York.

"Honestly, I'm the kid that sang in the shower," said the 33-year old actor and singer. "I always liked doo-wop. The Temptations are my idols. In high school, I was actually in a doo-wop band. That's how I made money, singing in the subways. Then I came out to L.A. I got my first acting job. I met (Hepcat vocalist) Greg Lee and (keyboardist) Destin Berry and we became thick as thieves. So we decided we'd start a band."

Like the Motown and doo-wop groups almost 50 years ago in the United States, ska artists Prince Buster, the Skatalites and the Wailers (which included Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh) serve as the backbone for Jamaica's storied musical history.

With subjects like love and love lost, ska music represents the innocence of Jamaica's mid-century music much like Motown and rockabilly symbolize a simpler time in American culture. Both rock steady (slightly slower tempo than ska) and reggae (slower than rock steady) sprouted from ska's bouncing beats and soulful vocals.

Ska's development has three distinct periods, reflecting the style's ebb and flow in popularity and its growth to new parts of the world.

Prince Buster and the Wailers belong to ska's First Wave. An influx of Jamaican immigrants to Great Britain brought ska to the UK in the 1970s and '80s, spurring on Second Wave bands like the Specials and acts on the Two-Tone record label.

Ska's Third Wave represents the music's most recent incarnation. With bands like the Toasters, the New York Ska Jazz Ensemble and Hepcat leading ska's resurgence, more Americans tuned into the classic island music. Following a trend started by the Clash in the 1970s, punks like Rancid and Sublime began incorporating ska into their sound.

"Don't get me wrong: I don't knock the new stuff," says Desert on ska's mutations in the past decade. "I think it's great, we're keeping the music alive. Ska is not just a fad. It's reggae's granddaddy. If it wasn't for ska, you wouldn't have Beanie Man. You wouldn't have Boujou Banton."

With Desert and Hepcat starting to tour again, ska fans can look forward to new songs at shows and a possible new album in the next year or two.

Epitaph Records re-released Hepcat's debut album "Out of Nowhere" in March of this year, so the band seems to be pushing toward its own resurgence, its own second wave. But first Desert needs to find his way to the voice-over audition.

"Cool, I know where I'm going now," says Desert. "I've been driving in circles since we've been talking. I'm in a good mood, so it's all right. You caught me on a good day."

Chris Nixon is a San Diego writer.

About Hepcat
Hometown: Los Angeles
The lineup:
Greg Lee – vocals
Alex Desert – vocals
Deston Berry – keyboards, vocals
Kincaid Smith – trumpet
Dave Fuentes – bass
Efren Santana – tenor sax
Aaron Owens – guitar
Scott Abels – drums

Discography:
"Out of Nowhere" (1993)
"Scientific" (1996)
"Right On Time" (1998)
"The Swing Session" (1999)
"Push 'N Shove" (2000)
"Out of Nowhere" re-release (2004)

– CHRIS NIXON

San Diego is Burning

I just started a job at REI. The hours were supposed to be part time, but they've been keeping me running between training and working the cycling/paddling department. So I missed last week's transmission. Apologies on my part.

May 13 was a huge week for me in the Union-Tribune. I had three pieces in the entertainment section: my Localese column, a preview on songwriter Ben Kweller and a nuts-and-bolts logistics story on the Vatican exhibition currently running at the San Dieog Museum of Art.

Here's the Localese column (scroll down for the other stories):

Localese
By Chris Nixon
FOR THE UNION-TRIBUNE
May 13, 2004

Feel alone? Lost? Isolated from music-industry meccas like Los Angeles and New York City? Can't seem to connect with local bands you like? Despair at being stuck in the bottom corner of the Left Coast? We have just the compilation for you. ...

If you suffer from the symptoms listed above, Loud+Clear Records can give you the help that you need. Dial in "San Diego Is Burning" (Loud+Clear Records), a compilation of local bands released in April.

Beginning with the bombastic "Double Barrel Breakfast Cereal" from Comfortable for You (formerly Prizefight), the 19-track disc's strength lies in its diversity. Sonic pastiche, blurry guitars dominate Kill Me Tomorrow's "Xerox My Hand," while bouncy oom-pah-pah tuba balladry and singing saws ooze from Black Heart Procession's "From the Shores of a Washed Up Heart." The album also packs two songs from the No Knife camp: a cool remix of "Riot for Romance!" (which comes off sounding a bit like the Cure's classic "Mixed Up" album) and a sweet acoustic solo track by Ryan Ferguson titled "Wait for Me There."

All in all, "San Diego Is Burning" serves as a road map to San Diego's punk and indie-rock bands. And the best thing: Even if you don't like the music, half the profits go to a good cause. Fifty percent of the compilation's proceeds benefit the San Diego Humane Society. Your purchase supports local music and helps the Humane Society give aid to the area's animals. You too could help kitties and puppies. For just a one-time fee of $5.99 (plus tax), you get much, much more than just a CD.

Chris Nixon is a San Diego writer.

Mr. Kweller rising

And the Ben Kweller piece:
On his way
Despite looming stardom, Ben Kweller remains a humble guy – 'I'm just really lucky'
By Chris Nixon
May 13, 2004

Tearing through a noisy version of his latest single "The Rules" on the "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" show on April 14, Ben Kweller and his band ripped it up with a nationally televised, all-out performance.

Emanating a relaxed joy and a confident strut, the 22-year-old singer-songwriter proved his perfect garage-pop packages deserve their current attention and praise. Despite his demeanor onstage at "Late Night," performing on TV still freaks Kweller out a bit.

"It's never an old hat," says Kweller, during a concert stop in New Orleans. "Each show, you get more experience doing them, but I'm always just as nervous as the first time I stepped on a TV set. I've done Conan three times. His dressing room is full of guitars. Last time we were there, he was working on the (Beatles') 'Let It Be' guitar solo. So this time I asked him, 'Did you get the guitar solo down?' He said: 'Yeah, I got it down pretty good, but I can't sound like (George) Harrison.' "

Even though he's mingling with the lanky, red-haired comedian and other stars, Kweller remains down-to-earth and humble. Oddly enough, young Kweller, growing up in Greensville, Texas, listened to "Let It Be" constantly, drawing on the Beatles' ability to excel in a variety of settings.

After a stint as grunge rock's savior in his band Radish (which only released one album, 1997's "Restraining Bolt"), Kweller struggled to find himself as a solo artist. Basically forgotten by his label, the songwriter started his career from scratch to rebuild it his own way.

"You want to talk about the start of Ben Kweller, it all starts with me moving five years ago to New York City," says Kweller. "I didn't have any friends. I moved there with my girlfriend Liz Smith. We didn't know anybody. We moved into an apartment in Brooklyn. I made a record on my computer. I looked around the room and I didn't have a band. So I said to myself, 'I guess I'm a solo artist now.' "

Slowly, Kweller remolded his career. While playing solo acoustic gigs around New York, his self-produced album "Freak Out, It's Ben Kweller" found its way into the hands of Evan Dando, and the Lemonheads singer loved "Freak Out." On his next East Coast tour, the two hopped into Kweller's car and hit the road: "We put two guitars in my Volvo, and I drove him up and down the East Coast. And I opened up for him every night."

Experiences like touring with Dando and opening for Juliana Hatfield and Jeff Tweedy started a buzz around the young artist.

"There was this snowball effect. I'm just really lucky," says Kweller. "There were all these people and musicians who I loved so much taking me under their wing. There was no label hype. I was just doing it out of the trunk of my car."

Touring with his mentors gave Kweller enough exposure to hook up another record deal, but he wouldn't just sign with any company. O's Michael McDonald – who started the record label with Dave Matthews – approached Kweller after one of his gigs. The fledgling label's unconventional attitude and McDonald's personable style convinced Kweller to sign with ATO. The arrangement has proven to be a good decision for both label and artist.

"I was so set on building my own thing on my own. After the whole Radish experience, I wanted to be responsible for myself," says Kweller. "I just signed on the dotted line. I didn't look anywhere else. I just knew these were my kind of people. It really is a family."

The critics raved about the Brooklyn-based singer's ATO debut "Sha Sha," catapulting Kweller into indie rock singer-songwriter stardom. Mixing humor and heady lyrics, 2000's "Sha Sha" is an album of beautiful pop songs. Kweller sings: Don't bother me / When I'm watching Planet Apes on TV on title track "How It Should Be (Sha Sha)" and Lately I'm finding / I am the book and you are the binding on "Wasted & Ready." Not bad for a 20-year-old kid. Not bad for any songwriter.

After touring for two years, Kweller's act had morphed into a semi-collaborative band setting. The live shows set the stage for recording Kweller's follow-up album, pushing the band to recapture genuine off-the-cuff energy.

"I was on the road with my boys for two years, touring for 'Sha Sha,' and we got so tight onstage and so intuitive," says Kweller, who will perform at 'Canes Bar & Grill in Mission Beach tonight. "I would show the guys a new song every once in a while at sound check. We'd run through it once or twice and it would sound perfect. I would say to myself: 'Why aren't we in the studio right now?' We had one song we started playing live a lot and it lost that first-time spontaneity. Every one starts to learn their parts and it gets tight, but it can lose its soul sometimes."

So, Kweller decided to keep the songs a secret from his band until the day of recording. Producer Ethan Johns (Kings of Leon, Ryan Adams) also put the band in a room with no headphones. The result is 2004's "On My Way," 12 tracks of retro rock and soaring harmonies (see review on Page 22). With a live visceral feel and stellar songwriting, Kweller's album is an early candidate for best albums of 2004 lists.

On "The Rules," Kweller sings: Show me all the rules, girl / I just want to get 'em wrong / Show me all the rules girl, I just want to belong. From phenom to forgotten and back again, Kweller has learned the rules the hard way and he's better for the experience.

Chris Nixon is a San Diego writer.

Vatican at SDMA

Here's the Vatican piece:
The Lives of the Popes
'Saint Peter and the Vatican' chronicles 2,000 years of history, and bringing it to San Diego was a massive undertaking
By Chris Nixon
FOR THE UNION-TRIBUNE
May 13, 2004

Approximately 3 feet high and 5 feet long, the rectangular wooden crate, painted blue, seemed unimportant – then Monsignor Roberto Zagnoli began pulling priceless artifacts from it.

The largely ceremonial uncrating of "Saint Peter and the Vatican: The Legacy of the Popes" only hinted at the hard work, political maneuvering and careful planning done behind the scenes to bring this exhibit to life at the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park.

The simple crate belied its extravagant contents and the request for vigilance seemed an understatement: 391 works of art, insured for $60 million, traveled thousands of miles from Italy to San Diego – the exhibit's only West Coast stop.

Once installed, the exhibition's quiet beauty can say little about the thousands of hours invested by the museum to bring the Vatican's largest exhibit to ever tour North America here.

The 15,000-square-foot exhibition follows the Catholic popes' roles through 2,000 years of European history, from St. Peter through Pope John Paul II, in the gathering of these religious icons.

Following the uncrating and press conference last week, Zagnoli, a curator at the Vatican Museums and the man chiefly responsible for exhibit in San Diego, sat outdoors at the museum's Waters Cafe and explained the motivation behind mounting an unprecedented exhibition of this size.

"We tried to address two characteristics or answer two questions," said Zagnoli through Italian interpreter Elizabeth Hiel. "First, we tried to respond to people who think that the Vatican is a mysterious place. We wanted to open the doors of the Vatican and show people inside the Vatican through this exhibition.

"The second thing was to show the intentions of the pope throughout the centuries and to focus on this aspect of dialogue: the dialogue between humankind and culture, the dialogue of the church with itself, the dialogue of the church with other religions, the dialogue of the church with other cultures and finally, the dialogue between the church and the modern era.

"This is how the exhibition is broken up thematically. You basically follow the life of a pope."

How does an exhibition of this scale make its way from the Vatican to North America and back again, safe and sound?

First, the Vatican had to decide on which items would be making the trip to America, a process that sounds rather bureaucratic at its best.

"We gave a list of works of art to the (Vatican's) secretary of state," said Zagnoli. "Then, we had to talk with the different entities within the Vatican, because the Vatican isn't just one big entity. There are different jurisdictions within the Vatican. We had to discuss with all these heads of the different jurisdictions regarding which items should be included in the exhibition.

"This doesn't mean we were fighting," said Zagnoli with a smile. "It's just a part of the dialogue going on within the Vatican."

Once the necessary discussions were resolved, the objects were flown from Italy to the United States in 106 wooden crates. Each crate holds multiple items; the artifacts are packed with foam, reinforced with an inner crate and surrounded by another layer of foam.

From the first exhibition spot in Houston, and then on to the other museums schedule to host the exhibition in the States, the objects travel by ground transportation. After stops at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art and the Cincinnati Museum Center, the exhibit reaches San Diego via 15 trailer trucks, each 53-feet long.

In each city, a lengthy installation process is needed to set up the thematic environments. In San Diego, the installation will ultimately take three weeks according to Jeffrey Wyatt, vice president of production for Clear Channel Exhibitions and the person responsible for the design, setup and breakdown of the exhibit in each city.

Installing all of the objects, building environments and focusing the lighting takes a staff of about 30 craftsmen, scenic painters and lighting technicians.

"Every time the objects travel, we have to look at every object, check it out and document its condition," said Wyatt during the San Diego setup. "At the same time, we're putting together all these cases, over 100 cases and moving all these environments and walls and theaters in a short amount of time. It's quite an operation."

According to Wyatt, approximately 500,000 people have seen the exhibit already in Fort Lauderdale, Houston and Cincinnati. He expects 250,000 more to visit the San Diego Museum of Art installation, its last stop. At $18 a person – although some discounts are being offered – that's a lot of money.

"Generally, earned income (earned income is defined by admissions, door sales, general membership, fees for classes and lectures) accounts for approximately 30 percent of our (annual) revenue," said Heath Fox, the museum's acting executive director. "For this exhibition, we should make what we would with any reasonably successful summer exhibition. There will be no windfall.

"Revenues from this exhibition will be used to support future exhibitions and education programs, and allow us to continue to provide high-quality programming for the community."

Fox, however, would not say how the revenues from the show will be divided between the three presenting entities – the Vatican, Clear Channel and the museum.

"An exhibition of this size, with nearly 400 objects, coming from as far away as Rome, and requiring the high level of care necessary for the number of historical objects it contains, is expensive," he said. "Special ticket prices are applied in order to make it possible to bring this exhibition to our Southern California audiences."

Dealing with an exhibition consisting of irreplaceable religious icons, the final and maybe most important aspect of "Saint Peter and the Vatican" remains security.

"Contractually, (Clear Channel was) obliged to take certain measures," said Wyatt, a San Diego native who now lives in San Antonio, Texas. "It comes down to the object's security, involving alarms, cameras, etc. The museums we chose have a record for high security and no losses.

"The other aspect was climate. The museums we chose also had very good climate-control systems, controlling not only temperature but also humidity. We had to put those in the plan for the Vatican. There is a multilayer security plan to insure the safety of the objects."

Steven Kern, San Diego Museum of Art curator of European art, added his perspective on the museum's ability to handle a large-scale exhibition such as "Saint Peter and the Vatican."

"This exhibition receives the exact same attention that all of our other exhibitions, as well as pieces in our permanent collection, receive," said Kern. "We don't differentiate between something that's worth $10 or something that's worth $10 million. All of these are priceless objects.

"Nothing that we deal with on a daily basis can be replaced, at least that's my approach as a curator. .. . Each one of these objects shouldn't be looked at for any type of financial value, but for their cultural and historical importance and the stories they can tell."

In it's final sojourn before heading back to Italy, "Saint Peter and the Vatican" will touch many people: art connoisseurs, European history enthusiasts and, especially, religious folks who may never get a chance to go see these pieces in Italy at the Vatican.

"There has been a desire by John Paul II as a pope to let people appreciate the Vatican's artifacts, understand them and learn more about the history," said Wyatt, summarizing both the impetus and the public's reaction to the exhibition. "For Christians and non-Christians alike, this is history that is important and these are objects that are talking about that history.

"For Catholics, it's about learning about their history and growing closer to their faith. For non-Catholics, you can look at the art for art's sake and also the tremendous historical value."

Chris Nixon is a San Diego writer.