Carly the Jagyularr’s Neighborhood

J. Tillman @ The Music Box Theatre, Minneapolis, MN 11.6.09
+ abridged album review

J Tillman ♥ Music Box

Despite his minor fame with unpopular, critically-ignored Fleet Foxes, Josh Tillman has been active in the music scene since 2004.  This past September he released Year in the Kingdom, a 9-track odyssey through stoic mountain towns by way of moderate folk sensitivity.  Merely 28, Tillman evokes an image of timeless worldly servitude that befits his preferred musical genre but also confuses.  He acts the part in person—bearded, casually nondescript, a man of few words; yet once he hits that first note, it’s obvious there’s something judicious beneath the weathered layers.  For one, the quality of his voice is beautiful.  There is simply no masculine way to describe it.  The probability that Tillman drinks and indulges like a big boy is high, but you wouldn’t know by listening to him sing.  Perhaps the impressive facial shrub is actually a clever disguise, masking a sweet, even-tempered fellow who rescues kitties and bakes things for charity.  Doubtful, but my point being Tillman’s ambiguity—it’s equally believable that he wandered into town from the wide blue yonder as it is that he stumbled on stage from the local, artist-packed watering hole.

Year in the Kingdom remembers a simpler era that Tillman was not alive to experience.  Softer tracks cite 60s folk influences like Joni Mitchell, had Mitchell penned her songs in a humble log cabin, without basic comforts save for canned beans and a faithful canine companion.  The sparse “Age of Man” is a few twangs/few stringed instruments short of Americana territory, while “Though I Have Wronged You” reminds us that Tillman isn’t seriously concerned by FF comparisons.  At times matter-of-factly somber (“There is No Good in Me”), the album lulls its listeners into a false feeling of peace (albeit reflective, disquieting peace) that does not prepare the ears for the sheer force of Tillman’s live rocking.

Kingdom-the-album clashed awesomely with Friday night’s show at the Music Box Theatre in Minneapolis.  I now have a physical point of reference for the expression “it blew my mind,” as I’m pretty sure I lost a piece of my skull when Tillman blew my mind.  Similar to the structure of the studio tracks—gentle start, build-up, full instrumental progression—the show began as one would expect had they listened to Kingdom:  Tillman + band = traditional 3-dimensional engagement.  Then, maybe a third of the way into the set, all hell broke loose.  Cue roar of full instrumental capacity, skin-tingling whine of amped slide guitar, psychedelic transformation, and crazy apeshit thrashing.  On top of everything unholy, we, the audience, bore witness to grown men playing plastic recorders and finger cymbals. Surely I wasn’t the only one to lose some head mass by the end of the night.

Cerebral hemorrhage notwithstanding, strong tracks like “Though I Have Wronged You” sounded ridiculously swollen with intensity and deliberate flair.  Not showy, per se; rather, phrenic but perverted by foggy invention.  It was like walking into the Louvre for the first time—extraordinary but strangely unfocused, as if the senses were forced into overdrive.  Had I lapped a taste of Tillman’s sweat*, the experience would’ve been complete.  Unfortunately, there was no exchange of bodily fluids; there wasn’t even an encore (a mumbled “thanks” and the musicians made their hasty exit).  It didn’t matter.  How do you follow an act like yourself?

J Tillman ♥ Music Box, Minneapolis (11/06/09)

A few random thoughts without homes:  in high school, Tillman visited Crown, a conservative Christian college in St. Bonifacius, MN; Miracle Whip is the default condiment of Fargo, ND, this according to the band; Josh’s younger brother, Zach, opened the show and also played bass for the elder Tillman’s set.

J. Tillman is currently on tour in support of Year in the Kingdom.  Upcoming shows include stops in Chicago and New York.  For more information or to listen to select tracks, visit his Myspace at http://www.myspace.com/jtillman. 

* I’m not a creeper, promise.

Crypticon 2009 was a bit disappointing, compared to last year. As with last year's cancellation of Tom Savini, this year it's Charles Band. What upset me was that Band's disinvolvement wasn't even mentioned anywhere on their website. As of this writing, their website still lists Band as a guest: "6:00pm Charles Band and his Full Moon Road Show in the Music Room 2nd Floor."

This year, the merchandise room was reduced to a size of a large bedroom, so you walk in and out in about a minute. I did manage to pick up some stuff, but they weren't cheap. Celebrities prints are costs anywhere from $20-40, we weren't allowed to take pictures (if you did purchase a print, then taking pictures would cost an extra $5). Last year, most of the nicer stars let us take pictures for free.

As for merch, the usual bootlegs, toys, horror t-shirts were there, but because of the smaller room - it feels like there weren't a lot of choices. Some commonly seen t-shirts were Nightbreed and Hellraiser, which I thought were cool, since I have always thought Clive Barker is genius. 

Also, this year they had music as part of the show. The person that was supposed to give me a pass to the music area was not at the ticketbooth and I didn't feel like paying extra to see music. Besides, all of the bands seems to be either punk or metal, not really my cup of tea, so I didn't bother to make much effort in getting the pass. 

Anyway, since Charles Band wasn't there, his Q&A was replaced with Linnea Quigley and Don Calfa (both actors appeared in Return of the Living Dead). If I had known, I would've rewatched the film to refreshed my memory. But it would seem even the stars had some trouble remembering what happened on set. 

Still, some interesting stories came out of it. 

First of all, they paid George Romero a million dollars to use the name "Of The Living Dead".  Romero's third sequel, Day of the Dead came out a year later, but was not as successful as Return. 

My favorite was when Calfa said one of the star wanted him to punch him for real, so he gave two hard slap. What's funny was that as he was telling the story, his hand gestured the slap and the next thing you knew: he had hit the microphone in front of him! Way to each that mic a lesson.

With the disappointing cancellation, incorrect/false information (is updating a website too much to ask?), the smaller space, and expensive admission ($30 at the door) - this will be the last year that my group will attend.

Parking in the college area known as "Dinkytown" in Minneapolis can be kind of hard, especially when the meters on 4^th Street runs until 10pm. I didn't mind walking a few blocks to the beautiful Varsity Theater as the weather was nothing less than perfect that Friday evening.

Opening up for Har Mar Superstar are three very different genre and acts. Starting with Koo Koo Kangeroo (official / myspace), whose music styling is that of hip hop - for toddlers. Their songs are dead simple, like "AOA" (sample lyrics: "aye oh aye oh aye") and "Cheh Cheh Chi" and "LMNOP", but they're catchy and easy to sing along. The highlight of their set was when they threw down a white tarp-like covering and the audience was dancing under it like a party fort.

Wow, Bang Bang Eche (myspace) are young. Someone told me that they're about 18 years old, but they certainly look much younger. Their music is very punk high-energy and reminds me a bit of Arctic Monkeys influenced. My easily favorite song from their set is "Fist Full of Dollars", perhaps a reference to Sergio Leone classic film? They ended their setlist with "Die Hippy Scum". Oh, also, it's worth noting that bassist T'Nealle sported a three keyboard cat moon t-shirt. Adorable.

The odd group on the bill was two-person group, Lookbook (myspace). The band is basically guitarist Grant Cutler, who plays guitars and handles the pre-recordings, with vocalist Maggie Morrison. Their music sounds like 80s pop, not exactly the "body-moving" type of music that you'd think Har Mar's audience would demand. Not really much to say, except I think Maggie looks really cute and I will be talking about them in further detail on my "book"-theme news on Sunday.

Har Mar Superstar ♥ Varsity Theater, Minneapolis (11/06/09)

Compared to the last time I saw Har Mar Superstar, which was basically a man and his undies and boombox - he now has a full band, all dressed in white with a red cross on the back. Also, the last time I saw him, he basically stripped down after the first few songs - this time, he started off very heavily dressed with an African cover, hat, etc.

After the first song, he took off his hat. After "DUI", he took off the overall to reveal a Prince "Purple Rain" shirt. He kept taking off articles of clothing as the night went on. From "EZ Pass", to "Girls Only", to "Creative Juices"... the audience was loving it all.

Har Mar and Melinda Park singing "Powerline"

By the time "Brothers & Sisters" was played, he inevitably took off his shirt. The pants disappeared with "Apple Sauce", followed by "Turn it Around". The finale song was "Tall Boy", which Zach, from Bang Bang, and some woman called Melinda Park (or was it Mindy Park?) joined on stage to help sing the song. Park would later turn up again to help sing one of the encore, "Powerline".

The very last song, Har Mar sang an a cappella version of Boyz II Men's "It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday". He would pretend the song ended and everyone would clap... only he would continue to sing the refrain. After the third false ending and after he said "goodnight", he came back and sang some more.

Har Mar's latest album is Dark Touches, available from Dilettante Recordings. Read Andrew's review of the album, pick up a copy at amazon

I arrived at the 400 Bar sometime after the doors opened, and the place was pretty dead. I thought there would only be a handful of people out that night, but thankfully as the night got longer, the place filled up.

Brazos ♥ 400 Bar, Minneapolis (11/04/09)

Brazos (official / myspace) warmed up the crowd around nine. What I liked about them is that they have a lot of lyrics in their song. The highlight of their set is the Adrienne Rich poem turned into song. I didn't recall the title, but I'm sure it had "Africa" in the lyrics.

Personally, I thought the best song on their setlist is "Feeding Frenzy", featuring these lyrics "We're interlocking, we're interlocking. It's a bitter conflict, this staring contest."

White Denim ♥ 400 Bar, Minneapolis (11/04/09)

In contrast to the lyrics-thing, White Denim are more like crazy pyschedelic, garagey, experimental rock 'n roll - with minimal lyrics. Whatever singer James Petralli spouted out, it didn't matter because you were so in awe of his amazing guitar-playing ability. You can just tell the guy is a rock god, the way his fingers frantically moved up and down the neck of the guitar.

I reckon these Austin lads don't care so much to slow down or stop, so all their songs are medleys - one song flow into the next, and pretty soon about six songs have passed before they have to take a breather.

If you like your music loud, loud, and loud, White Denim is the band for you. Be sure to bring earplugs.

White Denim's latest album is called Fits and is available now at their record label, Downtown Music, or amazon.