Archive for February, 2013
STEELE INTERVIEWS: MY GOLD MASK
Posted by Amy Steele in Interview, Music on February 28, 2013
Chicago duo My Gold Mask furnishes a trippy journey into resplendent darkness and emotionality. Dramatic, layered songs awash in goth splendor. Unique experimentation and textured melodies orchestrated with merely guitar, drums and vocals that present as a rich aural tapestry– bit of 60s and 70s psychedelia. Gretta Rochelle’s impressive vocal range —from vulnerable to intense— equates the music to Siouxsie and the Banshees. My Gold Mask released its second full length album Leave Me Midnight on February 19th.
I interviewed vocalist/drummer Gretta Rochelle and guitarist Jack Armondo by email.
Amy Steele: My Gold Mask’s been together since 2009. How did you get together?
Gretta Rochelle: Jack and I met at a party years ago. Right off, we started talking about music. Like two days later, we were writing together.
Jack Armondo : It was like serendipity in a way. Because almost immediately I knew we would be making music together. As far as My Gold Mask goes, it really started off with us just experimenting and playing around with new sounds. Pushing ourselves artistically.
Amy Steele: What makes you work well together?
Gretta Rochelle: haha, history I guess. We’ve been working together for a while. We both know what the other person is trying to do even before they do it at this point. We share similar aesthetic views and have similar writing styles.
Jack Armondo: We are on the same page creatively speaking. Even when we argue we come to an understanding fairly quickly. There isn’t a lot of disagreement about the overall direction of things. That’s not to say we don’t fight, because oh yeah we do.
Amy Steele: What challenges you about being in a two-piece band?
Gretta Rochelle: The fact that I couldn’t focus on one particular thing was challenging for me. I was splintered between vox and beats. I really like to give attention to what needs to be nourished and for me, the vocals were where I wanted to grow and spend more time. Now that we have a live drummer, I can focus more on the delivery that the songs demand.
Jack Armondo: For me, it was a challenge to fill the sound out. In the beginning we were more minimal and inspired by bands like Young Marble Giants. It taught us that taking something away can work just as well as adding something, if arranged properly. For “Leave Me Midnight” we wanted a bigger sound. I love synths but they’re not really my forte, so I try out different sounds with the guitar and make it almost otherworldly. But as we fill things out we also try not to forget the things you learn playing in a minimal band. Limitations can be inspiring.
Amy Steele: How did you get the name My Gold Mask?
Jack Armondo: We like masks. We like the idea of dual identity. We also just like how it sounds. It sort of popped out in a conversation we were having about luche libre masks.
Amy Steele: What do you like best about making music?
Gretta Rochelle: It’s gratifying to be able to convert raw emotion into something audible. It’s magic to me to be able to pull out the clutter from my head and make it into something musical.
Jack Armondo: I guess if I had to pick my favorite thing, it’d be performing live. There is an energy you don’t get in the studio. But really we love every aspect of making music and try and focus on what we are doing at the time. It’s exciting when something you’ve been creating really starts to come to life.
Amy Steele: Gretta, you have such an amazing vocal range. Haunting, powerful, delicate. . . what type of vocal training have you had? How do you protect your voice when you’re on tour?
Gretta Rochelle: Thank you, you’re sweet. I’ve had no formal training…just singing along to awesome vocalists like Bruce Dickinson, Kathleen Hanna, Robert Smith, Billy Holiday and Ma Rainey…yeah. I actually have a super sensitive voice. I’m allergic to everything and lose my voice from just talking too much. On tour, I keep quiet and drink a lot of water….in between some Patron and yummy beers, of course. Carrot juice, Slippery Elm and Throat Coat are my best friends on tour.
Amy Steele: Let’s talk about the song “Some Secrets.” Synth beats, precious vocals. What inspired this song?
Jack Armondo: It’s just about when someone is telling you too much. Either about themselves or people you know. Rumours, secrets, things like that. Whether truthful or not, it can be destructive. Sometimes you don’t want to know everything. Sometimes the mystery is more attractive.
Amy Steele: I also really like the song “I, Animal.” What is this about?
Gretta Rochelle: Thank you, I really like singing it. To me “I, Animal” is a primal seduction song. I play around with my voice a little bit more on this one. There’s an unpredictability about it that mimics a sort of crazy love affair that may even be more one-sided if anything. Then at the chorus, it’s asking for the lover to just roll with it, regardless of the danger or threat of anything insane happening.
Amy Steele: “Without” is a beautiful, slower song where you both sing. What do you like
about this song?
Gretta Rochelle: Everything. It’s so sad. Jack wrote this song. I love harmonizing with him. He has an incredible voice and I think our vocals really lay lovely over each other.
Jack Armondo: I literally dreamt this song up. I woke up from a very sad dream and it was in my head and I immediately recorded it on my phone. The lyrics are simple, it’s about the feeling of the melody. At one point we tried adding more to it but it just seemed to take something away, so we left it simple. Gretta liked it and decided to make it a duet , which gave it that something extra I think. Sanford [Parker– engineer/producer] told us it was one of his favorite songs while he was mixing it, which was pretty cool to hear. He mixed it perfectly, it sounds haunting to me like it was in my dream.
Amy Steele: On “Lost in My Head” at times it’s almost as if you get into another character, Gretta. Is that your intent or do you feel that certain emotions must be sung in certain keys?
Gretta Rochelle: This song is probably the most “me” song on the record. I suffer from major panic disorder and have incredible panic attacks daily. The song isn’t sung in different keys, but the voices are different from verse to bridge to chorus to translate the roller coaster effect as accurately as I can via song.
Amy Steele: What makes a good song?
Jack Armondo: There’s not really one particular formula. There are so many different types of songs that can work for so many different reasons. I like songs with hooks, but that has to be accompanied by some real emotion. We like songs that feel immediate but pull you in deeper the more you listen and can challenge artistically as well. It’s not easy to write a song that encompasses all of that. But when it does come together, it’s a great feeling.
Gretta Rochelle: Hitting that sweet spot. Usually a dark, sweet spot for me. A good song is one that stays for life. I become obsessed with the feeling it gives me. Wherever I am in life, if that song comes on, I stop what I’m doing and let myself remember why I fell in love with it, what was going on when I found it.
purchase at Amazon: Leave Me Midnight
TOUR DATES:
March 2nd – Milwaukee, WI – Mad Planet
March 9th – Chicago, IL – Schubas
March 16th @ Midnight – Austin, TX – SXSW (Hickory Street)
March 19th – Hot Springs, AR – Low Key Arts
April 13th – Cincinnati, OH – MOTR
April 26th – Des Moines, IA – Vaudeville Mews
Apr 6th – Kansas City – Middle Of The Map Fest
June 25 – Philadelphia, PA – Kung Fu Necktie
June 26 – Cambridge, MA – The Middle East
June 27 – Brooklyn, NY – Knitting Factory
CLAIRY BROWNE & THE BANGIN’ RACKETTES: U.S. TOUR
Posted by Amy Steele in Music on February 27, 2013
— formed in 2009, this Melbourne, Australian group modernizes big band, soul and R&B music
members include: Clairy Browne (vocals), Camilla (vocals), Loretta Miller (vocals), Ruby Jones (vocals), Jules “Crazy Legs” Pascoe (bass guitar), Darcy McNulty (baritone sax), Gabriel Strangio (Piano), Peter Bee (guitar) and Ricky Martyn (drums)
—Baby Caught the Bus – U.S. Debut on May 21, 2013
TOUR DATES:
March 18th House Of Blues Cambridge –Dallas, TX
March 19th House Of Blues Bronze Peacock –Houston, TX
March 20th Varsity Theatre– Baton Rouge, LA
March 21st Soul Kitchen– Mobile, AL
March 22nd Smith¹s Olde Bar — Atlanta, GA
March 23rd Zydeco — Birmingham, AL
March 25th Rock and Roll Hotel — Washington, DC
March 26th Mercury Lounge — New York, NY
March 27th TT the Bears Place– Boston, MA
March 28th North Star Bar –Philadelphia, PA
March 30th Bottom Lounge –Chicago, IL
March 31st Mill City Nights/The Nether Bar –Minneapolis, MN
April 2nd Larimer Lounge — Denver, CO
April 4-6th Cosmopolitan Chandelier Bar –Las Vegas, NV
April 8th Crescent Ballroom — Phoenix, AZ
April 9th Troubadour –West Hollywood, CA
April 10th The Casbah –San Diego, CA
April 12th Rickshaw — San Francisco, CA
Academy Awards 2013
Posted by Amy Steele in Uncategorized on February 26, 2013
I saw all nine Best Picture nominees. I’m extremely happy for Ben Affleck, George Clooney and Grant Heslov’s win with ARGO. I remember very well Ben Affleck and Matt Damon winning Best Original Screenplay for Good Will Hunting 15 years ago. I was an extra on the film School Ties several years prior to that. While I particularly loved Silver Linings Playbook I knew that ARGO would take home the Academy Award this year. Jennifer Lawrence is so talented. Looked lovely in Dior Couture. She’s superb as a young women with depression in Silver Linings Playbook. Excellent for Quentin Tarantino to win Best Original Screenplay for Django Unchained. I’m a HUGE QT fan and Django blew me away. So did Zero Dark Thirty. Oh and Christoph Waltz made me cry in Django Unchained. Ang Lee is of course immensely talented but I didn’t like Life of Pi‘s story. It’s a beautiful film.
Seth MacFarlane proved to be quite the disappointing host. Sexist, racist, homophobic.
on to fashion I liked [at Academy Awards and after parties]:
Literary Rogues: book review
Posted by Amy Steele in Books on February 24, 2013
Literary Rogues: A Scandalous History of Wayward Authors by Andrew Shaffer. Publisher: Harper Perennial (2013). Literary criticism. Paperback. 297 pages. ISBN: 978-0-06-2077288.
Ingenious concept to catalog self-destructive and raucous authors chronologically and by vice—the alcoholics, druggies, mentally ill, sexually devious or depraved. One might argue that the best authors fall into those categories. Sure. More than likely. You’ve heard the saying that one must suffer for one’s craft. You won’t read about a goodie-goodie like anti-choice, teen pregnancy advocate, Mormon and mega-selling Twilight author Stephanie Meyers in these pages. When she feels like being risqué she listens to the band Muse. Author Andrew Shaffer does mention best-selling author Nicholas Sparks [The Notebook, Dear John] who won’t write anything that will shock his Grandmother. Thus explaining the teen obsession with his novels at the box office. Doesn’t hurt if Ryan Gosling or Channing Tatum stars in it of course.
Many writers, particularly in earlier days drank and did drugs to self-medicate, to mask pain and mental illness. For instance poet Lord Byron (1788-1824) liked to shoot pistols indoors and drank wine from his ancestors’ skulls. Often in “black moods” he reportedly slept with 200 women in Venice in one year. Admirers sent him locks of hair which he kept. He impregnated a cousin. Sure this all can be romanticized but any psychiatrist would read this as a sign of bipolar or mood disorder today. Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) smoke three packs of Chesterfields a day and used tuberose– a perfume used by undertakers to mask the smell of death– to cover up her extensive drinking. She also had an affair with F. Scott Fitzgerald during the hospitalization of his wife Zelda.
Notorious alcoholic Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) married four times and killed himself with a shotgun in 1961. The Beat Generation—Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs and Neal Cassady—incorporated drug experimentation, alternative forms of sexuality (I’m thinking mostly homosexuality), Eastern religion and a rejection of materialism into their work during the 1950s. After being hospitalized for multiple suicide attempts, Anne Sexton (1928-1974) started writing about mental illness and the pressures of maintaining a perfect middle-class household in the 1950s and 1960s. She successfully killed herself in 1974. Norman Mailer (1923-2007) founded alt-newspaper The Village Voice in 1955, married six times and had nine children. He was vehemently anti-birth control and pro-gun. Jay McInerney and Bret Easton Ellis partied it up with cocaine in the 80s. Elizabeth Wurtzel’s drug (not really) of choice that she wrote extensively about? Prozac. Literary Rogues turns out to be a fun, quick read in which you can skip around in or charge through.
FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from the publisher.
Upcoming Gigs around Boston
Posted by Amy Steele in Music on February 22, 2013
Friday, 22 February
lady lamb the beekeeper
xenia rubino
cuddle magic
tt the bears
Sun, 24 Feb
Acid Baby Jesus
Hellshovel
O’Brien’s
Tues, 26 Feb
Efterklang (from Denmark)
Middle East Upstairs
Thurs, March 7
Animal Collective
House of Blues
Friday, March 8
Peter Bradley Adams
Club Passim
Tuesday, March 12
Kate Nash
Brighton Music Hall
tuesday, march 12th
tame impala
House of Blues
Fri, 15 March
Tristan Prettyman
Brighton Music Hall
Sat, 16 March
Dropkick Murphys
Brighton Music Hall
Sunday, 24 march
nick cave & the bad seeds
sharon van etten
the paradise
Sat, 30 March
Mason Jennings
Brighton Music Hall
Remembering Malcolm X [1925-1965]
Posted by Amy Steele in Books, DVD, TV on February 21, 2013
civil rights activist Malcolm X was assassinated on this day in 1965
READ:
The Autobiography of Malcolm X [as told to Alex Hailey]
SEE:
Malcolm X [a Spike Lee film]
Betty & Coretta on Lifetime
–Mary J. Blige stars as Dr. Betty Shabazz, wife of Malcolm X and Angela Bassett stars as Coretta Scott King, wife of Martin Luther King, Jr. It’s a lot to pack into 90 minutes and starting in the middle can be rather confusing for those unfamiliar with civil rights history or with Malcolm X or MLK. These are strong, smart women. Although there’s an initial rivalry between the women and an animosity between the men and their opposing messages– Malcolm X wanted to use “any means necessary” to fight the system and MLK spoke out for civil disobedience– this film is about the women’s friendship after the assassinations of their husbands. Betty Shabazz earned her doctorate and taught. Coretta King worked tirelessly for the national holiday recognizing her husband.
HEAR:
Cowboy Junkies: SPRING TOUR
Posted by Amy Steele in Music on February 20, 2013
Cowboy Junkies–one of my favorite bands and one of the most phenomenal live bands — will be out on the road again in a few weeks in support of its NOMAD series, a four CD series recorded over an 18-month time span.
March 1 — Northampton, MA– Iron Horse
March 2 –Albany, NY–The Egg
March 3–Westhampton, NY– Performing Arts Center
March 4– Norfolk, CT–Infinity Hall
March 6–Franklin, TN–Franklin Theatre
March 7– Charlotte, NC– McGlohon Theatre
March 8–Atlanta, GA–Variety Playhouse
March 9–Carrboro, NC–The Arts Center
March 10–Annapolis, MD–Rams Head
March 11–Sellersville, PA–Sellersville Theatre
March 13 & 14–Alexandria, VA–Birchmere
March 15– Newark, NJ–Victoria Theatre/NJPAC
March 16–Tarrytown, NY–Tarrytown Music Hall
April 27–Seattle, WA–Neptune Theatre
April 28– Spokane, WA–Bing Crosby Theatre
April 29– Bend, OR–Tower Theatre
May 1– Napa, CA–Napa Valley Opera House
May 2–San Francisco, CA — Yoshi’s Jazz Club (2 shows)
May 3– Saratoga, CA– Montalvo Arts Center
May 4–Santa Cruz, CA–Rio Theatre
new music: Sin Fang
Posted by Amy Steele in Music on February 20, 2013
who: sindri már sigfússon
from: Reykjavik
sound: enchanting, blissful, murky beauty. similar to indians this is a one-person project with a gentle futuristic vibe. samples, looping, keys, dreamy vocals.
album: Flowers (Feb 19)
label: Morr Music
purchase at Amazon: Flowers
Acid Baby Jesus and Hellshovel: US TOUR
Posted by Amy Steele in Music on February 20, 2013
–psychedelic Greek rockers Acid Baby Jesus and Montreal’s eclectic Hellshovel head off on the road together beginning in New York with a stop at SXSW before ending in Wisconsin of all places
TOUR DATES:
2/22 Brooklyn, NY – The Bell House
2/23 New York, NY – Cake Shop NYC
2/24 Boston, MA – O’Brien’s
2/25 Philadelphia, PA – Kung Fu Necktie
2/26 Cleveland, OH – Now That’s Class
2/27 Detroit, MI – Magic Stick
2/28 Columbus, OH – Ace of Cups
3/1 Saint Louis, MO – The Heavy Anchor
3/2 Lawrence, KS – Replay Lounge
3/3 Memphis, TN – Buccaneer Lounge
3/4 Nashville, TN – The End
3/5 SE Atlanta, GA – The Earl
3/6 Birmingham, AL – Spring Street Fire House
3/7 New Orleans, LA – Siberia Bar
3/8 Houston, Texas – Notsuoh
3/9 Denton, TX – 35 Denton Fest
3/14 Austin, TX – SXSW, Legendary White Swan (Slovenly Showcase)
3/14 Austin, TX – SXSW, Tillery Park (Get Bent Showcase)
3/14 Austin, TX – SXSW (Austin Psych Fest)
3/14 Austin, TX – SXSW, The Rooftop on 6th (Nomains Showcase)
3/15 Austin, TX – SXSW, Cherrywood Coffeehouse (Temporary Insanity Showcase)
3/15 Austin, TX – SXSW, Tillery Park (Spring Break Boogie)
3/18 El Paso, TX – The Black Market (So Sick Fest)
3/19 Tempe, AZ – The Sail’s Inn (Rampage Fest)
3/20 Tempe, AZ – Erratic! Radio
3/21 Las Vegas, NV The Bunkhouse
3/22 Reno, NV – Debauch-A-Reno (Sticker Guy Fest)
3/23 Reno, NV – Debauch-A-Reno (Sticker Guy Fest)
3/26 San Francisco, CA – Hemlock Tavern
3/27 Oakland, CA – Stork Club
3/28 Los Angeles, CA – Towne Hall Warehouse
3/29 West Hollywood, CA – On The Rox
3/30 Los Angeles, CA – The Overpass
3/31 San Diego, CA – The Tower Bar
4/1 Las Vegas, NV – The Bunkhouse
4/3 Denver, CO – Lost Lake
4/4 Kansas city, MO – Davey’s Uptown
4/5 Chicago, IL – Permanent Records In-Store
4/5 Chicago, IL – Cobra Lounge
4/6 Milwaukee, WI – Linnemans Riverwest Inn
SOLO PASS: book review
Posted by Amy Steele in Books on February 19, 2013
SOLO PASS by Ronald De Feo. Publisher: Other Press LLC (March 5, 2013). Contemporary fiction. Paperback. 208 pages. ISBN: 978-1-59051-586-0.
“Brains are certainly funny and unpredictable. They can take you on a path of destruction, but then suddenly become helpful.”
Granted unsupervised leave after two months in a psychiatric ward in New York City, a man worries whether or not he’ll be able to handle being outside again. This will be an entire unfettered day to do whatever he wants. To wander wherever he chooses. That’s daunting for someone who’s handed meds three times a day. He’s been sheltered by schedules planned by staff psychologists and social workers. Someone who is locked in. Someone who is being observed.
As he prepares to leave on the solo pass, he examines his relationship to other patients on the ward. His closest friend and confident, Mandy, is a schizophrenic and nymphomaniac. His roommate Carl suffers deep depression—“a kind of visiting darkness and despair he simply doesn’t understand and doesn’t have the power to evict.” Carl suffered a major breakdown five years before. “He’s been in and out of work, and in and out of hospitals, ever since.”
Author Ronald De Feo provides a vivid description of a mental institution from meals to odd conversations and friendships inside you’d perhaps never have outside as well as the reflections on how one finds oneself institutionalized. He thinks about his ex-wife and former profession—“I’d spent years at this firm, years engaged in editorial torture. They’d taken advantage of my grammatical abilities, my skill in judging the written word, which I’d developed as a youth who often had only books to keep him company. They’d worn my brain to the bone, so to speak.” Then there’s the hopelessness, the dark thoughts. The empty feelings. Isolation and despair.
Once he gets out? Things are too bright. Too loud. Too crowded. Overwhelming. And then it’s rather exciting that he can seemingly fit in without being noticed. Here’s the possibility. Maybe he can fit in after all. Be something. Do something. —“Here I was, a current case, a resident of a mental ward, a recovering nutter, and no one recognized the fact. I was pleased, of course. I didn’t wish to be stigmatized. That I blended in so quickly was very encouraging, very hopeful.”
Solo Pass takes us through this exhilarating excursion. A frenzied trip for one man that’s a gigantic step toward his recovery and re-entry into civilization. It might seem that going out alone and taking a bus, buying something in a shop and getting back to one’s place isn’t a major deal but sometimes the little things make all the difference in one’s mind.
FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from the publisher.
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