Wilco with White Denim :: 01.28.12 :: San Jose Civic Auditorium :: San Jose, CA

A gallery of photos from the 02.01.12 Davis, CA show at the Mondavi Center For The Performing Arts is below review!

White Denim :: 02.01.12 :: by John Margaretten

While most of the polite, clean cut crowd waiting outside the recently reopened San Jose Civic were there for Wilco, I had come primarily to see handpicked opener White Denim, simply one of the fastest evolving, fully switched-on young bands working today. While this Austin, TX-based quartet play very different music than the headliner, theres a shared spirit of exploration and openness that marks both bands which makes the pairing just good sense, an acknowledgement of congruities and a nice lil gift to Wilco fans, most of whom seemed to be hearing White Denim for the first time this night.

The band tiptoed in with Street Joy, taking advantage of an audience of inclined to shut up and listen to music after years of leaning in to hear what Jeff Tweedy and company had to say. The tenderness and rising ache of this standout from last years stellar D album moved into a spacey whoosh, controls set directly for the heart of the sun, and within two pieces White Denim had already illustrated one of their greatest strengths a head-scratching knack for switching gears swiftly and seamlessly. James Petralli (vocals, guitar), Joshua Block (drums), Steven Terebecki (bass, vocals) and Austin Jenkins (guitar) moved with a strange, compelling mixture of youthful herky-jerky energy and limber, almost athletic musicianship. Theres almost a prog-rock ethos at work but infused with punk/post-punk attitude. By the third tune, the four-piece were interlocking and lunging with such empathy that the whole enterprise ceased to be a compilation of elements and simply breathed as a whole, a rock n roll animal with thick fur and glimmering teeth.

White Denim :: 02.01.12 :: by John Margaretten

There is no doubting the hunger inside White Denim, and a coveted opening slot for one of Americas biggest bands is precisely where they belong right now. More than half a decade of honing their sound, bouncing around indie labels, and trudging from SXSW to Timbuktu in search of an audience has produced a band, as witnessed in San Jose, on the verge of their next evolutionary leap a move that is likely to take them from the clubs theyve largely inhabited into small theatres and beyond. At the moment, their music is struggling a bit to adapt to the larger spaces this Wilco tour finds them playing, but it was exciting to see them realize the potential reach their music possesses in real time at the Civic. Mixing together scraps of Tropicalia, tasty soul jazz licks and propulsive Velvet Underground-isms, they showed how familiar elements can be repurposed into original shapes. And just when one would think theyd settled into big groove, an unexpected curve would whiff by our ears, one suddenly tossed into, say, the updated 60s pop of No Real Reason (a boffo ballad off the recently issued Takes Place In Your Work Place EP) or taken deep into the recesses of burly group jamming. White Denim is a trip worth taking, and the boisterous round of applause as they finished their set spoke to a growing number of folks ready to jump on board wherever they might be traveling.

Wilco :: 02.01.12 :: by John Margaretten

So, what about Wilco? Having never seen them play outside of a festival set at Bonnaroo a number of years ago, I honestly had no real expectations despite the countless glowing reviews of friends and critics firmly under the bands sway. While always admiring of their studio work, Id never made the leap to actual fandom, always kept at bay by Tweedys thin, modernized Dylan voice and something in the lyrics that just never snagged my emotional center. That said, I was assured by folks I trust on such matters that seeing Wilco live would reveal their true glory. Thats a lot for any band to live up to but I tamped down high expectations and just listened intently as they took the stage.

Opener One Sunday Morning (Song for Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend) is a patient build, very much the child of Dylan at his expansive, poetic 1960s best, and featured some of the most controlled, lovely playing I have ever heard. Seriously, it and all that followed showcased some of the most beautiful, technically savvy, intuitive playing Ive ever witnessed in my long years of concert-going. While the source material and the focal point within Wilco simply may not be my personal bag, there is no denying that the players in this band are phenomenal, each serving the songs with near-penitent devotion and focus, producing an ineffable glow to Wilcos music in San Jose – something that cant really be pinned down in clumsy words.

Jeff Tweedy :: 02.01.12 :: by John Margaretten

More than the actual content/subject matter of the lyrics holds sway. Theres little doubt that Tweedy and his cohorts are striving towards larger understanding, the rock show used as a form of community building that pushes towards common understanding of our shared imperfections – which is sort of funny coming from such a thoroughly professional production, where things began right on time and unfolded with a practiced grace in every element lighting, stage design, sound. There was NOTHING imperfect about this night, which at times made certain numbers feel a touch too rehearsed, too familiar, too comfortable. For all the echoes of Bobs freewheeling days down to the blazing musicianship of dudes like Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper Wilco came off as all-pro, all-the-time to me. Maybe because Im not part of the cult, Im less charmed by Tweedys quirks and between song banter, which mostly struck me as vaudeville moderne, a stage device an intensely personal artist has mastered in order to ply his trade. And Im not saying I wasnt charmed along with everyone else in the Civic, only that my years of watching countless rockers at work gives me an instinct for whats really happening in the moment and what comes from a well-studied playbook. This band is WELL aware of the Pavlovian bells to ring on faves like Handshake Drugs and Jesus Etc. and shook them loud and clear this night but for my own tastes, I kinda wish theyd dance on the edge a bit more like new one Art of Almost, which lit up the beginning of their set with Radiohead worthy electricity and chrome-plated futurism, or even the sprightly Nick Lowe/Rockpile-esque pop of I Might, which avoided the mid-tempo pacing they favor on a few too many songs.

In the end, walking back to my car as the encore wrapped, I came to the conclusion that Wilco is undeniably one of the best outfits operating today, as classy and well formed as anything America has kicked up since rocks first great swell in the 50s/60s. Its unlikely Ill become a fan anytime soon but its hard to imagine anyone with an appetite for fundamentally perfect rock not digging a great deal about this band.

San Jose Setlist
One Sunday Morning (Song for Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend), Art Of Almost, I Might, Bull Black Nova, Side With The Seeds, California Stars, Red-Eyed and Blue, I Got You (At The End Of The Century), Born Alone, (Was I) In Your Dreams, You Are My Face, Impossible Germany, Box Full Of Letters, I’m Always In Love, Jesus, Etc., Capitol City, Handshake Drugs, War On War, Dawned On Me, A Shot in the Arm. [Encore]: Whole Love, Walken, I’m A Wheel

2/1/12 – Wilco and White Denim @ Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts (Davis, CA) View Photos

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Neil Young

Last week, it was reported that Neil Young is recording new music with Crazy Horse. As a follow-up, Rolling Stone has posted a video of Neil discussing the project.

In the video, Young says he has already recorded one album with Crazy Horse entitled Americana, which he describes as having “a choir in it that sings with Crazy Horse. A very young choir of children. They’re songs we all know from kindergarten, but Crazy Horse has rearranged them, and they now belong to us.” The group is already working on the second record.

Neil Young fan site Thrashers Wheat points to a 38-minute video posted on NeilYoung.com, which contains close-ups of recording gear while the band jams on “Fuckin Up” and “Cortez The Killer”. Head over to Neil’s website to check out the video.

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Dinosaur Jr. :: 12.15.11 :: The Fillmore :: San Francisco, CA

Henry Rollins

Those in the Bay Area looking to satisfy their hunger for some crushing, sonic-assault fretwork knew where to find it on this Thursday night, as legendary post-punk guitarist J Mascus and his band Dinosaur Jr. were in town and ready to blow some eardrums. But this was no ordinary Dino Jr. show, oh no, this mini tour was a celebration of their landmark 1988 album Bug, which the band performed in its entirety, but not before being interviewed onstage by none other than Henry Rollins, punks own master of the spoken word.

The night started civilly enough with Rollins giving the band his own enthusiastic introduction, and was followed by an interesting Q & A session that touched on a number of topics: the rarity of soloing in punk music (and how J Mascus pulls it off brilliantly), the excitement of playing in the legendary, acoustically-perfect Fillmore (it’s hard to have a bad night here), the importance of the rhythm section being locked in underneath Mascus barrage of distortion, and Mascus perfectionism (he wrote every drum and bass part for every song on Bug). Rollins assertive questions and commanding presence were contrasted by Mascus droll, simple answers and unassuming persona, though this would all change once he strapped on his guitar.

Dinosaur Jr.

After a short break, the band came out revved up and ready to rock. Dwarfed by towers of Marshall stacks, Mascus transformed into a true force of nature, a shaman of sorts churning out super thick n crunchy bursts of sound, while bassist Lou Barlow (strumming chords, no less) and drummer Murph laid down a tight foundation — essentially the canvas for Mascus to paint on. His aggressively loud, ragged playing was cathartic in its absoluteness — the distortion washed over us, and we were taken away.

After playing two newer songs to warm things up, the band launched into side one of Bug, and the crowd and band alike threw themselves into the familiar music. Opening with Freak Scene, Mascus immediately showed us that he is in a league of his own when it comes to soloing — using feedback and raw sonic distortion, he can contort sound to his liking, making statements with his guitar outside of the realm of tonality. This contrasted with his mopey, mumbling vocals, which delivered his tuneful lyrics like the shy kid in the back of the class. These disparate contrasts of wimpy melodies and ferocious guitar define the sound of Dino Jr, and the crowd lapped up every moment.

J. Mascus by Malzkorn

Adding to his own legend, Mascus also showed us that he can shred more traditional, melodic solos just as well as he can experiment in the outer realms of feedback. His sprawling, grandiose guitar work on the catchy They Always Come solidified him as a true dirty rock god in my book. Things barreled forward at a furious pace from there, with Murph pounding the skins and Barlow chugging out bass lines and chords underneath the sonic whirlwind. The set reached a roaring, freak-out peak with Bugs final song, Dont, in which a fan was brought on stage to scream the songs one angsty line (Why dont you like me?) over and over while the band climaxed in a shredding, ferocious double-time barrage of noise and aggression before ending the set in a hypnotic feedback loop.

After a heavy set which essentially blew out our brains, minds and ears, it was nice to have an encore that showcased their more mainstream 90s days; namely, their two major label hits, Out There and Feel the Pain. These poppier tunes saw Mascus clean up his tone, upon which he proceeded to straight kill us with a searing metal shred-fest that inspired pangs of nostalgia to well up in me for the days when MTV actually showcased awesome music like this. To close the show, Mascus barreled us over with a final bout of sonic assault that left my head ringing for days after. We poured out of The Fillmore feeling cleansed by the power of electric music, knowing right well that there is no band on this earth that can do what Dinosaur Jr. does. May the slacker ethos live forever!

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Big Gigantic is currently on tour behind their new album, Nocturnal. The duo plays for the next five days at Mayan Holidaze and then return to U.S. on February 2nd in Tallahassee, FL. Find full tour schedule here.

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Big Gigantic

Big Gigantic is a great band name. It could be any kind of music, and it strikes one as funny and lucky for Dominic Lalli (keys, programming, sax, production) and Jeremy Salken (drums, programming, production) that no one got to it first.

I was walking down the street in Boulder [Colorado] and I thought, Big Gigantic. Thats a good name. No, thats a GREAT name! When I started on a side project [from his gig in The Motet] I was going to call it Dominic Lallis Big Gigantic, but as I thought about it I found it a bit weird and decided to leave my name out of it, says Lalli. I was pretty into Karl [Denson] and dug the Tiny Universe, so that may be why I wanted to put my name in front of it, but it didnt work out [laughs].

A lot of faceless music abounds in the electronica realm but Big Gigantic has quickly differentiated themselves from the sea of homogenous assholes with Abelton software and an 808, something abundantly clear on their brightly shimmering, booty activating new album, Nocturnal (released January 11 and available for free download here).

Big Gigantic by Brad Hodge

Thats the key to anything being successful, says Lalli. It just needs to be its own thing.

One of the big things about why we wanted to do this project was the two of us seeing all this live electronic music coming around four or five years ago. I was an intern at the Fox Theatre in Boulder, and I played music around town in random jazz and funk bands with Dom and different Motet guys, says Salken. We kept talking about the electronic scene and how nobody seemed to know how to play an instrument. It was all producers without the musical background of knowing melodies, chord structures, different modes, etc. and how that could elevate the music if they knew those things.

Theres so much we can do, remarks Lalli. Theres a production side of it EQing and trying to get the kick drum sound just right that Id never dealt with before, and just crafting the sounds themselves is like learning a new instrument. The music part, the piano parts is easy because I played keyboards all through music school. But in terms of creating synthesizer sounds and bass tones, thats a learning process every day, which is really exciting. I love to learn and grow.

Dominic Lalli by Chad Smith

One aspect of Big Gigantic thats become more surefire as theyve evolved is their understanding of electronic/DJ cultures obsession with build and release dynamics.

Thats also whats so appealing about the jam band world. Musicians and fans love when bands build and build. This is a different kind of build and drop, but were working hard to refine that. Its such an important part of the music, says Lalli. In terms of production stuff, it goes back to reading and watching videos on YouTube every day I cant believe how much stuff I learn on there all the time. Were working on getting the music to sound professional and to flow in our own way. With the new album, I tried to represent a whole bunch of electronic music styles, but perhaps put into a different tempo than normal so it feels like Big Gigantic.

[A lot of] electronic music is extremely repetitive. Theres a lot of tension and release with the builds, which is why a lot of jam band kids like it. Thats what they dig in Phish, where they do that on top of the songwriting, says Salken. In the 90s, younger people were really into the jam band scene and it was growing strong with Phish, Cheese and lots of band on the rise. In the later 90s, it was Karl D, Soulive and all those bands kicking ass and selling out multiple nights everywhere. Then the electronic thing came around and theres a new generation thats excited about this new kind of music. But somehow it got more mainstream [than the jam scene] with people like Skrillex and Pretty Lights.

New Album

I think having access to music everywhere is making a difference. Before, you had to buy a CD, or hear just part of an album on the radio, or trade with blanks & postage. Now, you can go online and get almost anything. It makes it easier to get music around to people, says Salken. Facebook is a huge tool for spreading music and giving it to people, and just for publicity and hyping stuff.

The generation thats most taken to electronic music is also a generation thats grown very comfortable not paying for albums, downloading most of their music for free, whether authorized or otherwise. This is a problem to some but Big Gigantic has some insights into this situation.

Because we have computers in our homes now, you can make an album for practically nothing, remarks Salken. Before youd have to go into the studio and spend 10, 20, 30 thousand dollars making an album. Now, its almost free except for your time. You can buy $600 of software or get it for free, so thats one of the reasons electronic artists can give albums away for free because were not going into debt. Its like a side bet to the live show. Its a bonus and an underlying thing that makes this whole scene happen. We just want to get it into the hands of everyone we can so that they come see us. The real thing is the live show.

As true as that may be, Nocturnal is still more musical than much of whats out there in this field, an album one can listen to and enjoy without the huge amplifiers and crazy light show of a concert.

Big Gigantic Audience by Brad Hodge

Dom definitely approaches each piece as a song with choruses, intros and bridges of traditional songwriting, says Salken. But he also likes using different techniques he finds in all kinds of music as well stuff in electronic music we find that works. Theres definitely stuff those guys do that works and people love and we love and it makes a song cool and interesting.

One of the elements that makes Big Gigantic stand out from the pack of DJs and electronica bands today is Lallis saxophone, which often emerges as a warming blast, a descendent of 70s FM radio redolent of Steely Dan, Gerry Rafferty and the like.

When I have a horn in my mouth and Im trying to do lead/solo stuff, my head is completely in jam band world. Im thinking of guitarists what would Trey do? As a saxophone player, my natural inclination is move like I do in the jam or jazz world, thinking about what I can do to kick it up a notch, says Lalli, spotlighting how the horn helps cut through some of the ADD stroking tendencies of most electronica. Its a different thing but its still music. Everyone is dancing but its a whole different mentality. The crowds are SO awesome. Im speechless about them. Our whole fall was basically spent opening up for Bassnectar and Pretty Lights, and even at those shows people came at 7 at night and were right up front ready to go. Very colorful audiences [laughs].

Big Gigantic by Brad Hodge

Theres a fear with younger kids that theyll get bored, but we like playing a show thats action packed all the way through anyway, says Salken. We like to go full force for two hours wear everyone out, wear ourselves out so it feels like a workout by the end. But we still want a flow to the evening. We used to dip down more into the mellow but kids get bored really quick. The bigger we get, the more we know that people are there to see us and we can take more liberties.

The evolution of the band has taken them from being an electro rarity in jam scene to a slot at Ultra, the worlds biggest electronic music festival, this March.

The music industry and music itself is changing. Everyone can see it, says Lalli. So, we dont want to count ourselves out of anything. The point for me doing this project was to get the music out to as many people as we can. So, were really trying to get it to the jam band people. Were really trying to get it to the electronic cats. Were really trying to reach a younger audience AND an older audience bridge a bunch of gaps. Thats why were really excited to reach people who dont know who we are, to get to them with some music they might really like.

Big Gigantic Tour Dates :: Big Gigantic News

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