First Nights in S.D.

NIGHT LIFE
Fun for all

Have a rockin' family New Year's Eve at First Night

By Chris Nixon
December 30, 2004

Tired of taking care of out-of-control friends on New Year's Eve? Looking for a festive atmosphere to bring your kids, but hoping you won't be embarrassed by humanity and its penchant for excess during the annual holiday?

Two local New Year's Eve events implement concepts not normally associated with the traditionally boozy holiday: alcohol free and family friendly.

Both First Night San Diego near Seaport Village in downtown San Diego and North County's First Night Escondido focus on providing safe, kid-oriented celebrations for fiesta partakers.

"We try to incorporate the involvement of as many groups, organizations and individuals as is possible," says First Night San Diego organizer Patti Brooks. "We're about positive collaboration (between different) interests, attitudes, ages, talents, artistic endeavors and backgrounds."

Now in its 13th year, First Night San Diego will fill the Embarcadero Marina Park North, located near Seaport Village, with seven hours of music, karaoke, contests, food and fireworks. The party begins with a kickoff parade including the Eden Prairie Marching Band from Eden Prairie, Minn.

First Night S.D. features six stages of country, rock 'n' roll, Latin, oldies, big band, contemporary and jazz. At midnight, fireworks will light up the skies over San Diego Bay.

"Alcohol-free means safe," says Brook. "Family friendly means we encourage participation of people of all ages. We are about diversity. At the same time, we like to encourage families celebrating as a unit."

Escondido's massive First Night party celebrates 10 years this year, featuring more than 30 performers on 12 stages in the area surrounding the California Center for the Arts, Escondido.

First Night Escondido offers a wide variety of musical types and entertainment options: from mimes to Motown, from classical to country. The Escondido party also puts an emphasis on satisfying the needs, and early bedtimes, of kids by lighting fireworks at 8 p.m. along with the traditional midnight fireworks show. First Night Escondido has reasons for teens to stick around, too, with a battle of the bands giving the spotlight to young and up-and-coming local acts.

Particle Article

It's difficult to get bored with Particle

By Chris Nixon
December 23, 2004
San Diego Union-Tribune

Despite the onslaught of studio trickery and overdubbed live shows (see Ashlee Simpson's recent "performance" on "Saturday Night Live"), connecting with a live crowd and enhancing the dance remains central to a musician's artistic and commercial success.


Such late-'60s hippie bands as the Grateful Dead knew it. The early 1990s East Coast jam band renaissance, which fostered the careers of Phish, Blues Traveler and the Spin Doctors, embraced it.

Now, a new generation of bands applies the improvisational style of the Dead and Phish to DJ and electronic dance music cultures. Through constant touring and Internet trading of live recordings, these young lions build a grassroots audience and spread the word through nontraditional means.

Leading the way is West Coast quartet Particle, whose musical DNA consists of electronic dance music – formed around trance-inducing beats and synthesizer-driven melodies – along with a improvisational counterculture jam-band mentality. The group strives for a more human interaction between audience and performer, fueled equally by binary code and organic instrumentation. But drummer Darren Pujalet emphasizes the band's natural elements.

DATEBOOK

Particle
8 p.m. Wednesday; 4th & B, 345 B St, downtown; $13; (619) 231-4343

"If you come to a Particle show, you'll see that I play a lot of dance-oriented and electronic-styled grooves and riffs," Pujalet said during a cell phone conversation recently from his home base in Manhattan Beach. "But you'll also notice it's much more improvisational-based than most DJ dance music. We try to craft music that is more heartbeat oriented. If you start running, your heart is not beating fast right away. But after a minute or so, you're chugging pretty good."

James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, often describes his form of funk as "on the one." With their penchant for utilizing technology, Particle might describe its version of improv electronic funk as "on the ones and zeros."

The kids following and digging on Particle's music are not the "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" freaks of the 1960s or the trust-fund hippies of the 1990s. They are a tech-savvy eclectic crowd, comprehending the '60s infatuation with free form jams, '70s disco clichés and '80s kitsch.

Particle gigs are no doubt dance-friendly affairs, summoning the essence of J.B.'s funk with a new-school spin. The growing legions of the band's fans – dubbed "Particle People" – freely trade live shows online to spread the word.

Bassist Eric Gould, keyboardist Steve Molitz, guitarist Charlie Hitchcock and Pujalet formed Particle in the autumn of 2000. Four years and more than 500 shows later, the band released its debut studio album, "Launchpad."

Produced by Tom Rothrock (Beck, Moby, Coldplay, Foo Fighters), the disc contains 10 tracks of condensed Particle complete with ripping solos by Hitchcock and Molitz's space-age synth work.

For the guys in Particle, the process of boiling their live jams down to the essence wasn't difficult.

"In the live context, you can take your time and write a whole chapter, just take your time and craft your words and speak randomly at times," says Pujalet, who attended San Diego State University in the mid-'90s. "But in the studio, you have to confine that chapter into a paragraph. And you have to really get your point across quickly."

And Particle's talking points seemed to connect with critics across the country, garnering the band rave reviews from the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and New Yorker magazine among others. The band just returned from its first European tour and plans to tour internationally well into 2005.

But for Pujalet, the main objective remains connecting with the audience on a deeper level.

"When I play in front of somebody," said Pujalet, who will play with Particle Wednesday at 4th & B downtown for a special Particle People Appreciation Show, "if I can take them away from their daily lives and responsibilities for even five minutes, I've done my job."

Chris Nixon is San Diego writer.

Stranger In A Strange Land

Neko Case was 'struck with terror' during her first live recording, but she soldiered on

By Chris Nixon
December 2, 2004
San Diego Union-Tribune

What happens when you get some of the world's top minds together to talk about their work? If you're vocalist Neko Case, you engage the group by getting them to sing along with an old-time hymn.

In June 2003, Case recorded a version of the traditional song "Wayfaring Stranger" along with 300 audience members of the ideaCity Conference.

"You get 20 minutes to be a genius about something," says Case, taking a break from recording her upcoming studio album. "I'm not even closely related to a genius, so I had to trick them by making them participate in some singing. I wanted to show them what making a recording was like and how easy it was to make music."

Captured live at the Isabel Bader Theatre in Toronto, "Wayfaring Stranger" is the final track on Case's newly released collection of 11 live performances titled "The Tigers Have Spoken." Recorded over seven nights in Chicago and Toronto during 2003 and 2004, the process of making a live album turned out to be anything but easy for the fiery singer.

Neko Case
Neko Case, with the Sadies and Dexter Romweber
8 p.m. Sunday; Brick by Brick, 1130 Buenos Ave., Bay Park; $15; (619) 275-5483

Born: Sept. 8, 1970 in Alexandria, Va.
Raised: Tacoma, Wash.
School: Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Has worked with: the Sadies, Calexico, the New Pornographers, the Corn Sisters

Discography:
"The Virginian" – 1998
"Furnace Room Lullaby" – 2000
"Blacklisted" – 2002
"The Tigers Have Spoken" – 2004

Influences:

Hometown heroes
"There was a band called Girl Trouble in my hometown, which was a big influence on me. They were one of the first bands that I hung out with, and they had a lady who was a drummer in their band and I thought they were the coolest. They weren't the bad macho punk rock going on at the time. It was so self-conscious and uptight and lame. There was no melody left. And Girl Trouble was like this bright shining star. They were so unself-conscious that they would spontaneously start dancing during their concerts and be silly and just have fun. Ladies were invited, for a change. They seemed to get a lot of joy out of everything involved with being in their band. So they were a big deal to me."

Banded together
"I was heavily influenced by all the bands I was in, especially Maow. I learned everything about being in the music business from Maow, those tough ladies. We all sang, we all played instruments. We all chopped the wood, you know?"

Hallelujah
"I was really influenced by gospel music, which is weird I guess because I'm not really a religious person. But I love the passion of it. Bessie Griffin and the Staple Singers are a really big deal to me. I love a lot of really obscure records too, like the Gospelaires of Dayton, Ohio."

"I went into the project thinking it was going to be quite easy, but soon thereafter I was struck with terror," admits Case. "I didn't think I'd be nervous at the shows, but I guess whenever there's a giant recording truck outside, I get nervous. We were all nervous. We wanted to do a good job."

Born in Virginia and raised in Tacoma, Wash., Case developed her artistry while living in Vancouver. While attending art school in Canada, she first hit the music scene as drummer and vocalist for the punk trio Maow. Punk-rock drummers tend to be fierce and passionate by nature. So when Case decided to tackle the role of country singer-songwriter, her intense approach and her firebrand voice set her apart from the crowd.

"I think a lot of this music wasn't made in an attempt to get something for it; it was made to express something genuinely," says Case. "It's a very satisfied kind of music ... very uniting and universal. And I don't really think you have to translate it. The way it's sung and the way it's performed, people can relate."

Case fired her first shots in the roots revolution with "The Virginian" in 1998, followed by 2000's "Furnace Room Lullaby" and the top-notch album "Blacklisted" in 2002. Both her solo albums and her work with Canadian retro-popsters the New Pornographers have won Case the adoration of fans and critical raves.

And now Case is lazing about in her pajamas on a sunny day in Tucson, Ariz., hanging out with her dog, Lloyd, and reflecting on the experience of recording a live album.

"You can never really be objective about your sound," says Case, who recorded the disc with the Toronto band the Sadies ("my favorite live band ever"). "So that was another thing: I had to let go of a lot of control. I'm a big control freak in the studio. Not like a tyrant or anything, but I'm kind of hard on myself.

"So there are parts of my performance where I have to say, 'Well, it's live.' There are errors in it, but it's what I wanted to make. I wanted to make a live record and not cheat. And I feel proud that we all accomplished that."

Chris Nixon is a San Diego writer.

Lovely Latinas

'It's been a very rich experience'

'Latinas' tour brings together three diverse talents

By Chris Nixon
November 4, 2004
San Diego Union-Tribune

Three different singers. Three different backgrounds. Three styles of music. For Mariana Montalvo (Chile), Belo Veloso (Brazil) and Toto la Momposina (Colombia), Putumayo World Music's "Latinas: Women of South America" tour represents a chance to connect with kindred musicians and share sisterhood with fellow Latinas.

"Between us, there is a very good exchange," says the 51-year-old Montalvo by phone in English, her third language after Spanish and French. Her tour bus hums in the background as it speeds between concerts during this current Putumayo tour.

"We spend a lot of time together on the bus," she said of the touring group. "There are 20 of us, with the musicians. The road is tiring. But sometimes we take out the guitars on the bus and we jam together. We learn from each other new instruments or songs. It's been a very rich experience."

Organized by the world music label Putumayo, this group of 20 musicians will hit 29 cities in six weeks in support of the compilation CD "Women of Latin America." The disc brings together the music of Lila Downs and Susana Baca along with Montalvo, Veloso and la Momposina, offering the listener a chance to hear the feminine perspectives of Latino music.

Montalvo's own story mirrors the experiences of many Latinas.

Born and raised in Chile, the assassination of Salvador Allende and the violent military coup of Augusto Pinochet forced Montalvo's family to flee the country in 1974 and resettle in Paris.

But the young Mariana carried with her Chile's traditions and music. She particularly connected with a music movement called nueva cancion or "new song."

Born in the 1970s during Pinochet's brutal dictatorship, nueva cancion combines traditional Chilean music with contemporary sounds. Like many artists living under dictatorships, the nueva cancion musicians were forced to compose lyrics using the language of allegory and metaphor, never condemning Pinochet by name but implying criticism by telling a simple story.

Montalvo identified with this form of lyricism and used her own version in her music.

"In nueva cancion, you compose your songs to say something," emphasizes Montalvo. "It's not completely traditional. It's 'new traditional' with words that are important. In the Chilean nueva cancion, nothing is more important than the words."

Montalvo also embodies one of Putumayo's core principles: Music can help us connect with and understand each other cross-culturally.

On her 2004 release "Piel de aceituna" ("Olive skinned"), she integrates music from all over South America, along with touches of Parisian wistfulness and African rhythms.

"I think that 80 percent of our music comes not only from Chile but from all over Latin America: rhythms and melodies," says Montalvo. "On the last album, I also translated some French songs into Spanish and I surrounded the words with traditional Latin American instruments.

"I also sang with an African singer and I translated the fado from Portugal. When I like something that touches me, I take it and I incorporate it."

Montalvo believes cross-cultural awareness may be our only hope for a peaceful coexistence worldwide.

"Culture is not about marketing or money," said Montalvo, who will perform at UCSD's Mandeville Auditorium with Veloso and la Momposina on Sunday. "For me, it's about music and the exchange with other people. You can do this really easily because every culture has music. You can meet singers from all over the world. In this Putumayo tour, there is really a musical exchange between the three different singers.

"For me, culture is the only thing that can save this world. When you put people together who don't like one another because of governments or other problems and you make them sing together or make music together or do theater together, there is no problem between them."

On the "Latinas" tour, Montalvo has felt the musical connection firsthand, feeling the bonds of sisterhood with her tourmates: "We have different backgrounds and different personal stories. And we sing our stories. We have different musical languages but the same soul."

Chris Nixon is San Diego writer.

Datebook

"Latinas: Women of Latin America," with Mariana Montalvo, Toto la Momposina and Belo Veloso

8 p.m. Sunday; Mandeville Auditorium, UCSD campus, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla; $22-$32; (619) 220-TIXS

A river runs through company's veins

About Putumayo
Stretching 980 miles from the hills of Colombia to the Amazon River, the Putumayo River cuts through the South American rain forests and remains a major transportation route for commerce.

Dan Storper traveled through the region in 1974. The entrepreneur was struck by the river's beauty and named his clothing company after it.

Started in 1991 by Storper, the Putumayo World Music label brings diverse groups of artists together on its compilations, often focusing on different parts of the world: "Brasiliero," "Congo to Cuba" and "Women of Latin America."

The label introduces mainstream America to international artists rarely heard on commercial radio, widening our musical horizons. The albums tend to favor artists who update traditional music, adding contemporary sounds to the world music genre while staying true to the essence of customs and culture.

While the compilations avoid music too challenging or noisy for the mellow listener, they try to give exposure to deserving artists such as Africa's Oliver Mtukudzi and Brazil's Chico Cesar and Mariana Montalvo.

The Artists

Toto La Momposina: Emerging from the Island of Mompos in Colombia's Magdelena River, the "Queen of Cumbia" melds sweet lyricism and the swaying rhythms of South America. One listen to her beautiful voice, her infectious traditional music and her amazing lyrics should help spread the word in this country.

Belo Veloso: Many words have been written to describe Brazil's bossa nova and tropicalia music: quiet, subtle, sensuous. Vocalist Belo Veloso embodies all of these words, and for good reason. She hails from one of Brazil's most celebrated musical families. Growing up the niece of Caetano Veloso and Maria Bethania, Belo Veloso comes by her smooth jazz-tinged vocal style and orchestrated compositions honestly.

– CHRIS NIXON

Localese: Alfred Howard

Localese

By Chris Nixon
September 16, 2004
San Diego Union-Tribune

With the emergence of spoken word and the Def Poetry Slam in the 1990s, the link between poetry and hip-hop culture developed a concrete connection. In the past few years, spoken-word poet Alfred Howard has solidified the connection further by adding a live band playing fusion, funk and soul. Howard published a collection of poems titled "Serpentine Highway" (Altered States Press) in 2002, then put the lyrics to music with his band, the K23 Orchestra. The San Diego-based band also released "Kudra" and won the San Diego Music Awards Best Hip-Hop Band in 2003.

Beginning with the aptly titled "Bleeding Polished Cacophony," Howard furthers his poetic output with "14 Days of the Universe in Incandescent Bloom" (self-release, HHH). Drummer John Staten – who also mans the drum kit for Karl Denson's Tiny Universe – adds percussive flavor to the poet's articulate musings. While K23 Orchestra vets Travis Daudert (guitar), Josh Rice (keyboards) and Aaron Irwin (percussion) contribute to the disc, the album's 23 tracks focus on Howard's skills as a wordsmith.

On another note, I'd like to give a hearty toast to San Diego's own punk stalwarts, the Dragons, who, after righteously representing S.D., are calling it quits after 13 years. After many rocking nights at the Casbah and numerous "Exile on Kettner" shows, the boys always gave it all for their shows. Cheers.

Finally, I'd like to invite everyone to help participate in the local music scene by voting for their favorite bands in conjunction with the upcoming San Diego Music Awards. You can vote at www.sandiegomusicawards.com. The ceremonies will be held Sept. 28 at Humphrey's by the Bay. All proceeds from San Diego Music Awards events are used to purchase guitars for elementary schools in San Diego County.

Chris Nixon is a San Diego writer.

Dada dreamers

The Pixies return for a fall tour – 'It seemed interesting again'

By Chris Nixon
September 16, 2004
San Diego Union-Tribune

The 1980s stretched across 10 long years, a time when disco and glam heavy metal dominated the charts. But in the late '80s, the Pixies rocketed out of Massachusetts, blowing apart the money-grubbing hairspray posers and the limp balladry dominating the American airwaves.

Despite their short recording career (1987-1991), leader Frank Black and his cohorts churned out five of alternative rock's best albums. The Boston band's gigantic sound set the stage for the grunge revolution, which blew formulaic pop music off the charts for a few years in the early '90s. Nirvana, for one, often apologized for ripping off the Pixies.

DATEBOOK

The Pixies with the Thrills
6:30 p.m. Tuesday; RIMAC Arena, UCSD campus, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla; $36; (619) 220-TIXS.

But in the beginning, there was surrealism. And it was good.

Charles Michael Kitridge Thompson IV's tutelage at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst only lasted a year or two, but the future rock star discovered his passion for the surrealist masters during his short collegiate tenure. Thompson – later known as Black Francis and later still as Frank Black – had his head set afire with maniacal dada musings and surrealist images from the likes of Luis Bu×uel and Salvador Dali. The beautiful thing about Black and the Pixies: they didn't take themselves too seriously, but you knew they meant every nonsensical word.

"It's not like you have to sing a song about what happened to you on the way to the store the other day," says Black from his home in Oregon. "It's OK to make stuff up and rhyme a bunch of words and be crazy and weird."

The Pixies
Hometown: Boston, Mass.

The lineup
Frank Black (vocals, guitar)
Kim Deal (bass, vocals)
Joey Santiago (guitar)
David Lovering (drums)

Discography
"Wave of Mutilation: The Best of the Pixies" 2004 (compilation)
"Pixies at the BBC" 1998 (live)
"Death to the Pixies" 1998 (compilation)
"Trompe Le Monde" 1991
"Bossanova" 1990
"Doolittle" 1990
"Surfer Rosa" 1988
"Come On Pilgrim" 1987

"This ain't the planet of soouwwund!!!!!" yowls Black on the Pixies great 1991 disc, "Trompe Le Monde." The quartet did create its own atmosphere, weather systems and gravitational forces.

Joey Santiago's buzz-tone surf guitar renderings, Kim Deal's ethereal call-and-response with Black's guttural vocal musings and drummer David Lovering's pounding pulse held the maelstrom together.

In 1992, the Pixies' planet of sound fell silent. Deal went on to form the Breeders with sister Kelly. Black had his solo career. Santiago produced and performed in projects like the Martinis. Lovering became a magician.

But a chapter seemed to be missing from the Pixies' story. With a fall tour and rumors of a possible new studio album, 2004 finds the Pixies back to finish the book.

When asked why the Pixies recently rekindled the spark that started alternative rock, Frank Black simply says: "the dough." You get points for honesty, Frank. But to his credit he adds, "And the fact I suppose that it had been a long time since we did it. It seemed interesting again. Before, after five or six years it had started to become boring. Now, we've had this extended sabbatical and it doesn't seem so boring anymore."

Surrealistic pillow talk
Whether telling tales of monkeys ascending to heaven or expounding on the benefits of elevators, Pixies lead singer and vocalist Frank Black explores the non-narrative world of dada and surrealism in his songwriting. Here are the artists and musicians who made Black unreal:

THE DARK DIRECTOR OF MIDNIGHT MOVIES:
David Lynch

Black: "My influences primarily would be from the world of film. The most contemporary guy that had an influence on me as I started to write what was to become my first Pixies songs would be David Lynch and his most famous midnight movie 'Eraserhead.' He is what I would consider a surrealist filmmaker and probably one of the few out there right now. There is not too many times when I walk down to the mall, walk into a film and say, 'Wow, that was a truly surreal film.' So I have to give him a lot of credit.

THE CLASSIC SURREALISTS:
Dali and Bunuel

Black: "I wasn't a real good student and I dropped out, but I was able to extract a few things from that experience. When I was in college, I was into all the classic surrealist film guys, whether it was Luis Bu×uel or Salvador Dali. This is all pretty stock stuff. You learn about surrealist filmmakers from the 1920s and the surrealist art movement."

THE ROCK DADAISTS:
Dylan and the Beatles

Black: "I will give credit to Bob Dylan and the Beatles for being so famous and having such a huge impact on popular music. In the big mainstream kind of way, it was those two artists who really presented the world with surrealist images or a non-narrative type of rock lyric. It became just a part of pop music. Even before I discovered David Lynch, I was a little kid listening to the Beatles or Bob Dylan singing 'Quinn the Mighty Eskimo.' You know, 'Come all without, come all within. You'll not see nothing like the Mighty Quinn.' So it didn't seem unusual to me to incorporate that type of lyric. It didn't really seem wrong to me to pursue something that was non-narrative."

– CHRIS NIXON

With a highly publicized reunion at this year's gigantic Coachella Festival in Indio followed by a hugely successful tour, the Pixies seem to be firing on all cylinders.

Everyone's really enjoying it and everyone's playing really well," says Black. "Kim is singing really great. And I have had some voice lessons, so I don't blow my voice out as quickly as I used to. So I find it pleasurable to be able to keep singing the high notes. Everyone's a little bit better than they were before because of experience."

But will the Pixies return to churning out records a decade after turning the rock world on its head?

"I have no problem with it," says Black nonchalantly. "The gigs are still good and the couple of recording sessions we've had have gone really well. We want to be creative, we don't want to only make money."

Chris Nixon is a San Diego writer.

Prototype vs. Posers

The face in the 'mirror'

For Korn's Jonathan Davis, introspection put the band on the path back to its roots

By Chris Nixon
September 2, 2004
San Diego Union-Tribune

Originators transcend labels. Metallica knew this. Nirvana knew this. And Korn knows this now.

While Metallica dealt with thrash metal imitators flooding the market in the 1980s and the media saddled Nirvana with the "grunge" moniker in the 1990s, the Bakersfield-bred quintet spawned a whole generation of rap-rock clowns miming the band's fierce music.

DATEBOOK

Projekt Revolution with Korn, Linkin Park, Snoop Dogg and the Used
Doors open 1:30 p.m., tomorrow; Coors Amphitheatre, 2050 Entertainment Circle, Chula Vista; $38-$53.50; (619) 220-TIXS

"We're not 'rap rock,' we're not 'nu-metal,' " says Korn lead singer Jonathan Davis from his Los Angeles home. "We might have invented a new genre of heavy music or rock, but I believe the term 'nu-metal' was made up for all the bands that followed us. Those guys to me are nu-metal. And we're just Korn.

"When Metallica came out, you couldn't call them a thrash band," elaborates Davis. "They were just Metallica. Tons of bands came out after them that sounded just like them. But they are still Metallica. And it's the same with Nirvana and the whole grunge thing. Along with Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, they created a whole movement. They always come up with a word for it, but for me it's to label all the followers."

Bands like Korn and Limp Bizkit forged a new sound in the late 1990s, melding aspects of heavy metal, turntable scratching and rhythmic hip-hop-influenced vocals and grunge's introspective lyricism. Limp Bizkit came off as whiny; Korn was simply scary. With wild-eyed creepiness and bombastic guitar riffs, Davis and his compadres scored a huge hit in their 1994 double-platinum self-titled album.

Korn
Hometown: Bakersfield

Discography:
"Take a Look in the Mirror" (2003)
"Untouchables" (2002)
"Issues" (1999)
"Follow the Leader" (1998)
"Life Is Peachy" (1996)
"Korn" (1994)

The lineup:
Jonathan Davis (vocals, bagpipes)
Reginald "Fieldy Snuts" Arvizu (bass)
David Silveria (drums, percussion)
James "Munky" Shaffer (guitars)
Brian "Head" Welch (guitars)

– CHRIS NIXON

Despite the glut of rich suburban kids with backward baseball caps shouting about their pained existences, Korn continued to sidestep the posers with 1996's "Life Is Peachy" (double platinum), 1998's "Follow the Leader" (quintuple platinum) and 1999's "Issues" (triple platinum).

After selling almost 20 million albums in its first seven years, Korn decided to create a more textured, finely crafted album in 2002's "Untouchables." The album still went platinum, but fell short of sales expectations. With the rap-rock movement waning and more mainstream singer-songwriters such as Norah Jones, Dave Matthews and John Mayer retaking the airwaves, Korn's once-soaring popularity seemed on the decline.

With the band's most recent studio release "Take a Look in the Mirror," Davis and the band decided to circle the wagons and return to Korn's original raw sound. The album also marked the group's first self-produced effort.

"It was a total return to our roots, back to basics," says Davis. "We did 'Untouchables' and it went over everybody's head. So we went back to our roots. We said, 'Let's go back to what we did back in the day.' "

Give my regards
to Broadway
Growing up in Bakersfield, Jonathan Davis' first exposure to music came from the bright lights of Broadway: "The first thing that got me into music was probably Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'Jesus Christ Superstar.' The music was amazing, so I loved it to death. Then it went from Andrew Lloyd Webber to Christian death metal, Skinny Puppy, Duran Duran and Depeche Mode."

Hip-hop, hooray

"From there I got into hip-hop, like in '81 when it first came out. In the early '80s I was into hip-hop for a while. It was pretty easy for me to get the early hip-hop albums, 'cause I was a DJ. I would spin and do dances at schools. I was really into it. I was listening to N.W.A., Rob Base, Eric B. and Rakim, L.L. Cool J and all of that old-school stuff. That's what I loved."

Confessions of a shock rocker

"I really didn't get into rock and heavy metal until just before I got into the band. I listened to Slayer a bit when I was a kid. Slayer and Pantera were the two bands that blew me away. Just recently, I've been listening to a lot of death metal, Cannibal Corpse and bands like that."

– CHRIS NIXON

Rampant illegal downloading of Korn's last two albums has also hurt sales. Though many artists encourage trading their music online, Davis' views have changed on the subject over the past few years.

"I'm not in favor of downloading," states Davis. "At first I was, because we don't make any money off of it. But now we're doing our own thing and we're working so hard on it. No one knows how hard it is to make a record. It's long grueling hours away from my family. I love doing it. Don't get me wrong; it's my passion in life. But when you work so hard and somebody just comes along and steals it? That's not cool."

With the music industry going through some tough times, 2004 finds Korn taking steps to reverse the trend. First the band is joining with Linkin Park, Snoop Dogg and the Used for the Projekt Revolution tour, which stops at Chula Vista's Coors Amphitheatre tomorrow. They are also breaking away from Epic Records, to self-release all future albums.

"Everything's changed. The music industry is dead now. There is a lot of (crappy) music coming out now. Downloading is kind of killing it too. (Record labels) are only trying to sign bands that are going to be one-hit wonders. The bands have a hit, sell a million records and then they can't deliver on the next one. They (record companies) stopped developing artists by signing a band, putting them on the road, putting the money into them and watching them grow. That's exactly what Epic Records did back when Richard Griffiths was president there. They believed in us and put us out there, and we ended up being one of the biggest rock bands in the world.

"We're putting out our greatest hits record, which is our last album for Epic," adds Davis about the planned Oct. 19 Epic release. "So we're getting off our label and we're going to put out our own albums now. It's going to be self-published, no label. So it's exciting times for us. Exciting and scary."

Chris Nixon is a San Diego writer.

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.