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.

Gomez in the U-T

Gomez invites you into its garage
By Chris Nixon
Special to the Union-Tribune
July 22, 2004

Standing in a vast sea of automobiles and pavement, musician Ben Ottewell pokes fun at himself and the less-than-idyllic surroundings he finds himself in. Calling from a pay phone in a Seattle parking lot, Ottewell states in a deadpan English accent: "Now, this is the glamorous rock 'n' roll lifestyle."

Ottewell and the five-piece British band Gomez may have not traded up from parking lots to palatial hotel suites, but the group's retro-pop sound and electronic experimentations have poised the five Brits on the brink of mainstream American recognition.

British music fans have long been hip to Gomez. With its refined take (adding splashes of cellos, electronic beats or mellow horns) on boogie blues, roots rock and pop harmonies, the quintet scored a major-label deal without ever playing a live show. Ottewell and his mates – Tom Gray (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Paul Blackburn (bass, guitar), Olly Peacock (drums) and Ian Ball (vocals, guitar, harmonica) – created a masterpiece of pastiche rock by simply huddling in their cramped garage in a small town outside Liverpool.

"We had recorded the album already, but we did go to a studio to make it a bit more sparkly (after we got the deal). We created the first record in the garage really, not a studio," said Ottewell. "We don't sound like most of them at the moment, but we are truly a garage band."
Gomez's 1998 debut disc, "Bring In On," garnered the band the prestigious Mercury Prize, beating out the Verve, Cornershop, Robbie Williams and Massive Attack's classic "Mezzanine" album. Ottewell's gravelly vocals combined with the band's bluesy atmospherics and airy instrumentation set Gomez apart from the glut of retro Brit-rock bands coming out of Europe in the late 1990s. The 1998 album "Liquid Skin" found the five-piece delving into electronics even further, anchored by the songwriting talents of Ottewell, Gray and Ball.

Too many songwriters in one band can lead to friction, but Gomez members seem to keep their heads about them when deciding which songs make the cut for a record.

"Sometimes people in the band hit on a golden period in their writing; it kind of ebbs and flows like that," said Ottewell. "And we're not too precious about it either, which is good. It just naturally evolves from which songs people are getting most excited about or getting the best inspiration from."

the buzz > > > > > > > >

Hometown: Southport, England

Discography

"Split the Difference" – 2004

"In Our Gun" – 2002

"Abandoned Shopping Trolley Hotline" – 2000, B-sides and rarities

"Liquid Skin" – 1999 "Bring It On" – 1998

Lineup

Ben Ottewell – vocals, guitar

Tom Gray – vocals, guitar, keyboards

Paul Blackburn – bass, guitar

Olly Peacock – drums

Ian Ball – vocals, guitar, harmonica

Gomez followed the one-two punch of its first two albums by taking some time away from the road. During the hiatus, the band released "Abandoned Shopping Trolley Hotline" in 2000, a collection of B-sides and rarities. They also crafted the brilliant studio album "In Our Gun," a rambling collection of electronic blues songs and acoustic ballads. Much like Beck's "Mellow Gold" and subsequent albums, Gomez seems to capture the essence of bluesy acoustic music while stretching the boundaries with modern studio tactics and clever instrumentation.
"When we did 'In Our Gun,' we hadn't played live for a long time," said Ottewell. "So I think what we got out of that was a more 'studio' record. So it's more ephemeral. It's more of an introverted record."

This year, with Gomez's "Split the Difference," the band's rash of tours in the months before hitting the studio was reflected in the recording process. The live influence can be heard throughout the album, giving the album less of a knob-twiddling studio feel and more of an upfront live sound: "This one is coming straight off the road, so it makes sense for us to sound a little more live. It's more of a rock record, as far as we can be a rock band."

The British group seems to have found its muse in producer Tchad Blake (Los Lobos, Soul Coughing, Travis), keeping the album more cohesive than previous efforts. The album helped Gomez score a spot on this year's Lollapalooza. But the legendary touring festival closed shop after just a few weeks after the tour was announced, citing poor ticket sales.

"When we first heard about it, we were devastated," continued Ottewell, who will play the intimate environs of the Belly Up Tavern tomorrow night. "I think we're hitting most of the places we were going to be hitting for Lollapalooza. The Thrills are supporting us, and they were also going to be out on the road with Lollapalooza. It should be a fun tour. It just gave us a chance to put together Gomezapalooza."

Chris Nixon is a San Diego writer.

Warped Religion

Just got back from a few weeks in the High Sierras. Here's the Bad Religion/Warped Tour preview I put together for the Union-Tribune:

So happy together

Bad Religion, Vans Warped Tour make a fine pairing

By Chris Nixon
July 1, 2004
San Diego Union-Tribune

Bad Religion's Brian Baker and the Vans Warped Tour have been living parallel existences for the past decade.

Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman gave birth to the annual punk rock summer camp 10 years ago. The former Minor Threat and Dag Nasty guitarist Baker joined Bad Religion 10 years ago. Both epitomize punk's explosion since 1994, allowing the music to reach new ears without giving up its political conscience and the central tenants of the genre's aesthetic.

"(The Warped Tour) is a main reason punk rock has become an accredited musical genre," says Baker from his home in Washington, D.C. "You can walk into a mall (record shop) and there's a punk section, like there's an R&B section and a gospel section. You're dealing with a tour that can draw 20,000 to 30,000 people in any city."

The Warped Tour continues to book a cutting-edge blend of young-blood punks and old schoolers, with a splash of indie hip-hop.

And Warped has been a significant help to the career of Bad Religion.

The 13th album by the Los Angeles-based sextet – titled "The Empire Strikes First," commenting on the U.S. actions in Iraq – features songs penned by singer Greg Graffin and guitarist Brett Gurewitz. The duo wrote together during Bad Religion's early days. In 1994, Gurewitz left the band to concentrate on his successful label, Epitaph Records.

Bad Religion brought in Baker to beef up the band's sound in the 1990s. In 2001, Gurewitz rejoined the group for "The Process of Belief." The effort reunited Gurewitz and Graffin, a potent writing combo.

"When those two are on and together, working with and against each other, I think the music that comes out of them is absolutely spectacular," says Baker, who has a 24-year punk-rock resume. "The great albums come from Brett and Greg's dynamic. You remain relevant if you do something people think has value."

The Warped Tour continues to reinvent itself, adding little-known and local acts while bringing in punk's top echelons to draw the crowd. Lyman and the tour have also included up-and-coming hip-hop artists over the years, despite criticism from hardcore punk rockers.

"A lot of very relevant acts, from Black Eyed Peas to Jurassic 5 to Eminem to Ice-T to Kool Keith, they've all been on the Warped Tour," says Lyman, who once worked for San Diego's Bill Silva, along with Los Angeles promoters Goldenvoice and Perry Farrell's Lollapalooza Tour in its infancy. "There's a lot of that cool, underground hip-hop going on at the Warped Tour, but we're not out to force it down people's throats. I think if I stay with the roots (of punk) and put this stuff in as an addition, the kids will accept it more.

"Way back when, blink-182, nobody knew who they were. And they started on the Warped Tour."

So how does a tour, advertising itself as a bastion of punk rock, remain true to the roots of the punk-rock lifestyle? Like much of modern life, it involves compromise. Lyman promotes a controlled form of sponsorship, weaning a tour's needs from advertising dollars.

The Warped Tour continues to draw thousands, while Bad Religion continues to crank out pertinent political punk rock. So when does one get too old to be a punk? Lyman and Baker prove it's the mentality and not the mileage that punk music is all about.

"I think it's a good thing for kids, and I think it's a good thing for our scene," says Lyman. "Everyone will let me know when it's time to end."

Chris Nixon is a San Diego writer.

Sole-less America

Here's the Local H preview which ran in the San Diego Union-Tribune's Night&Day section on Thursday, June 10, 2004:

POP MUSIC
Local H gets right to the 'Soles' of the matter

By Chris Nixon
June 10, 2004

'It's 1980. Welcome to Rock 'n' Roll High School," says an announcer during the preview for the cult film, starring legendary punks the Ramones. "Rock 'n' Roll High School, the school where the students rule."

Like most 1980s party films ("Up the Creek," "Hot Dog ... the Movie"), "Rock 'n' Roll High School's" simplistic plot revolves around sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. Starring actress P.J. Soles as Riff Randell, one student's love for the Ramones incites general anarchy among the student body of Vince Lombardi High School. Randell battles the evil new principal, Miss Evelyn Togar, finally blowing up the school with the help of Joey and the rest of the Ramones.

For the Chicago-based duo Local H, the fascination with Soles stems from her roles in numerous classic films from the late 1970s and early '80s: "I've seen 'Halloween' a million times," said singer Scott Lucas during a recent interview from his home in the Windy City. " 'Rock 'n' Roll High School' has always been a favorite of ours. . . . I realized: She is in all of these movies that I grew up on and have seen a million times.

"(Soles) always seemed to be around in all these movies that have been really important to me. They're not the American Film Institute's Top 100 of anything, yet they're really important to me."

With its 2004 album, "Whatever Happened to P.J. Soles?," Local H ponders the fate of Soles and the fleeting nature of stardom.

Emerging from Chicago's Zion neighborhood, guitarist-singer Lucas and drummer Brian St. Clair prove the adage "less is more," discovering that the sum of two is greater than four. After creating Local H as a traditional four-piece band, Lucas had an epiphany: He could play the bottom strings of his guitar through a bass pickup, allowing him to play guitar and bass parts through one instrument.

So Local H was born as a power rock duo.

Since flirting with mainstream success in the mid-'90s (warming up for bands like Stone Temple Pilots and Veruca Salt), Lucas and St. Clair have maintained a devout underground following. Banking on the 1996 breakout single "Bound for the Floor," the press saddled Local H with the albatross moniker of "grunge."

For the past decade, the pair continued to merge post-grunge rock and catchy choruses with a tip of the cap to Nirvana, S.T.P. and Soundgarden. Despite such high-quality albums as 1998's "Pack Up the Cats" and 2002's "Here Comes the Zoo," Local H still struggles to escape the grunge tag.

"The big trick with us was trying to survive that whole mid-'90s kind of thing, just try to get out of it with our dignity intact," said Lucas.

In April, Local H released "Whatever Happened to P.J. Soles?" with songs dealing with pop culture and the misconceptions fed by the retro VH-1 culture and America's numerous makeover shows. The opening track, titled "Where Are They Now?," begins with Lucas screaming You're never, you're never, you're never going to get it.

To obtain the album's roughed-up sound, Lucas felt obliged to mangle his vocal chords before each take for "Whatever Happened to P.J. Soles?"

"Before we'd record a song (for the last record), I'd stand in the corner and scream my head off," says Lucas in a gravelly voice. "I'd just try and cash my voice out until it was 70 percent gone, then do the vocal. If you listen to a song like 'Halcyon Days,' my voice is almost completely gone, and that's probably my favorite vocal on the record."

Lucas finishes the thought by giving props to an unlikely source: "I think Rod Stewart is probably the best singer of all time. How does he do it? He always sounds like he's got laryngitis. It's great."

Chris Nixon is a San Diego writer.

Here's a recent SignOn profile I wrote on Courtney Love and her upcoming show at 4th & B. Click on the screen shot to view the full page. 

Nixon at the tables during a house party at our San Diego pad. 

Here's the profile I wrote for MxPx. They just happen to be my next victim for a Night&Day story... if I can get the interview done in the next few days. The article is slated to run June 24 in the U-T. Click the image to read the entire profile. 

Here's the Local H profile I wrote up for SignOnSanDiego. Click the image to read the entire profile. 

H stands for "Hoarse"

Just catching up with y'all in blogworld. I have a Local H preview coming out this Thursday in Night&Day. Lead singer and guitarist Scott Lucas sounded like his vocals chords had been sliced and diced Ginsu style. He actually works at getting a rough voice, screaming between vocal takes for the band's latest album "Whatever Happened to P.J. Soles?" He also said his favorite singer of all time is Rod Stewart...

Method to the smoothness

Here's the Night&Day story on Zero 7 which ran Thursday, June 3, 2004. I had a chance to check out the show at 4th & B. While seeing and hearing the four vocalists firsthand was a treat, the show seemed a little rehearsed and scripted. So here's the preview:

POP MUSIC
The method according to Zero 7

'We try to sit in a room together and do something that we like'

By Chris Nixon
June 3, 2004

Akin to the protagonist in Sting's "Englishman in New York," Sam Hardaker finds himself wandering around suburban Maryland searching for a proper British breakfast. The North Londoner sounds a tad lost during a phone conversation from his Ramada Inn room, where culture shock seems to be setting in – sans a spot of tea.

"We're doing a gig in D.C. tonight. But for some reason there was a mixup with the hotel, so we've ended up in a hotel 20 miles outside of D.C.," says Hardaker. "I was just out trying to get some food and I'm kind of struggling. It's all junk food. That's all there is. We haven't been here since the last time we were touring, and it takes me a bit to re-acquaint myself with your charming ways. I guess we spend a lot of time on big roads, and big roads don't tend to have the stuff I want near them."

Big roads have taken Hardaker and childhood friend Henry Binns – who make up the core of British soulful chill-out masters Zero 7 – from their homes in London and reluctantly through America's fast food drive-ins and the meat grinder of played-out pop culture.

After serious overexposure, their beautiful songs adorn the elevators, doctors' offices and strip malls of America, making their tunes the musical equivalent of a Supersized Big Mac meal.

"Our music was used a lot on TV," says Hardaker, lamenting on his music's association with fashion and fads. "They would use 20 seconds of our music on a home makeover program or a holiday show or gardening shows. It just seemed to be everywhere. After a while, it was pretty horrible. A lot of people were like, 'I just wish this music would go away.' "

Before the big-time saturation, big roads also brought Zero 7's knack for creating lush, organic settings to the world, exposing new legions of fans to its sultry summation of 1970s soul and jazz.

Growing up in the same neighborhood, the duo bonded through their mutual obsession for music.

"We were both really influenced by underground pirate radio stations in London," says Hardaker. "You could just tune into hundreds of illegal radio stations being broadcast from the projects. So there was all this really great music being played on the radio, especially on the weekends. A lot of old stuff being played – soul, funk and jazz – stuff that we wouldn't necessarily have heard. So that was really influential as far as our musical development."

After discovering the joys of '60s and '70s grooves through pirate radio, both Hardaker and Binns worked as engineering assistants at one of London's prestigious recording studios, Mickie Most's RAK Studios. Along with Nigel Godrich (who would later produce Beck and Radiohead), the trio recorded the top bands and artists of the day, performers like Robert Plant and the Pet Shop Boys.

During their off-hours, ensconced in a tiny back room, Hardaker and Binns concocted the programmed beats and melodies that became Zero 7's 2001 debut album "Simple Things."

Bringing in the vocal talents of Mozez (pronounced "Moses"), Sia Furler and Sophie Barker, the two producers sculpted an album filled with 14 lush compositions and beautiful, organic instrumentation. "Simple Things" sold over 1 million copies worldwide, while getting nominated for the Mercury Prize and the music industry's exalted Shortlist.

After a year of touring, Zero 7 faced the daunting task of matching the critical and commercial success of the first record.

"We definitely felt pressure," says Hardaker reflecting on the making of "When It Falls," released in March on Elektra. "We felt pressure because we wanted to make a record that we were proud of and felt good about. Going from the first record – where nobody knows who you are – to having this idea that somehow people are taking you seriously, there's definitely a different atmosphere. Suddenly, you're a recording artist. At the end of the day, we try to sit in a room together and do something that we like."

For "When It Falls," Hardaker and Binns brought back the trio of vocalists from the debut ( Mozez, Barker and Furler), adding Tina Dico on the tracks "Home" and "The Space Between." The disc retains the first album's silky appeal, while delving further into orchestral composition.

Like many records that represent a place and time, "Simple Things" found critics scrambling for words of excited affirmation. But down-tempos and jazzy electronica's evolution from trendy lounge soundtrack into the elevator music of the new millennium doomed Zero 7's follow-up, proving the fickle nature of fashion.

A few critics in England panned "When It Falls," including a particularly scathing review by the Guardian's Alexis Petridis. In the United States, critics conveyed a mix of muted praise and adoration.

"It's difficult, because the first album took us into some quite mainstream places," says Hardaker, who will take the stage at 4th & B Saturday with the 10-piece version of Zero 7. "I guess naturally it will level out at a place where we can happily exist with what we want to do and any sort of commerciality the record company may want to get out of us."

Chris Nixon is San Diego writer.

the buzz > > > > > > > >
Hometown: London, England

Discography: "Simple Things" (2001), "When It Falls" (2004)

Albums Zero 7's Sam Hardaker listened to when recording "When It Falls":

David Crosby, "If Could Only Remember My Name" (1971): "It's his first solo album. I don't think it's in my all-time Top 10, but there are some good songs on it."

Common, "Electric Circus" (2002): "His record came out around the time we were making our album, and we were digging on the hip-hop vibe."

Beth Gibbons and Rustin Man, "Out of Season" (2003): "I think the production is nice in a subtle way. It's really interesting without trying to be anything really cool."

The Beach Boys, "Surf's Up" (1971): "There's a song on there called 'Surf's Up' and an instrumental called 'Feel Flows' which is pretty. And 'Til I Die' is one of the best songs I've ever heard."

– CHRIS NIXON