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Raul Malo
Thursday · Southgate House
What exactly does Raul Malo do to relax? He is perpetually at work with The Mavericks, the hugely popular Country/Tejano/Americana band he fronts and produces, but over the past five years, Malo seems to be finding a number of other projects to occupy what little free time he possesses. He began producing artists outside of The Mavs, including albums for K.T. Oslin and Ethan Allen, and doing sessions with everyone from Rick Trevino to Cuban vocalist Eliades Ochoa. Malo also became a part-time member of the revolving side project Los Super Seven. After contributing solo tracks to the soundtracks of The End of Violence and All the Pretty Horses (in which he also made a cameo appearance), Malo embarked on an actual solo career, releasing his debut album on his own, Today, in 2001; he has subsequently contributed tracks to tributes for Johnny Cash and Bruce Springsteen, sang a song with instrumental Surf rockers Los Straitjackets on their Sing Along collection and has done several instrumental and vocal tracks for Scholastic Video projects as well.
Two years ago, The Mavericks ended their brief hiatus by signing with Sanctuary Records, adding new guitarist Eddie Perez and recording their latest album, entitled simply The Mavericks. Last year, Malo appeared on the album Nashville Acoustic Sessions with Pat Flynn, Dave Pomeroy and Rob Ickes and also made an appearance on the eclectic and ecstatically received new Los Super Seven album, Heard It On the X. Early next year will see the release of his sophomore solo effort, You’re Only Lonely. Raul Malo has already proven himself to be the master of any genre he chooses to inhabit, from Country to Pop to Rock to Rockabilly to any Latin inflection possible with any of the above. All he needs to prove now is that he knows how to kick back on the front porch and do nothing at all, and his current solo tour is doing very little to make that point.
(Brian Baker)
Metric with The Lovely Feathers
Friday · Top Cat’s
Canadian quartet Metric has the kind of colorful history that would be impressive for a group with three times the experience under their belts. The New Wave/Indie Rock outfit is the brainchild of frontwoman Emily Haines (vocals/synths) and guitarist Jimmy Shaw (a Julliard-trained trumpeter), who also moonlight with critically acclaimed Indie collective Broken Social Scene. Formed in the late ’90s with bassist Josh Winstead and drummer Joules Scott-Key (who has been known to jokingly claim common ancestry with the author of “The Star Spangled Banner”), Metric earned a healthy following before hitting the studio to create their 2003 debut, Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? The album raised Metric’s profile exponentially, as MTV, commercial and satellite radio gave the band plenty of exposure and magazines from Spin to Alternative Press hailed them as future stars, all of which eventually led to a fascinating cameo in the 2004 heroin soap opera Clean.
For their new album, the just-released Live It Out, Haines and Shaw returned to their Toronto roots (after previously claiming addresses in Montreal, London, Brooklyn and Los Angeles) in a literal sense; a loft space above a bank that they once rented became available again so Shaw secured the space and converted it into a home studio. Where the first album blended New Wave sensibilities with ElectroPop cool, Live It Out finds Metric in a more straightforward Indie Rock groove, with Haines crooning like a cross between Chrissie Hynde, Siouxsie Sioux and a young Marianne Faithfull.
Meanwhile there’s a newfound subtlety in the band’s musical presentation, as Haines’ synths create cool waves of atmospherics while Shaw’s guitars alternately float within and slash through the New Wave ambience and Winstead and Scott-Key adjust the pulse accordingly. As heralded as both of their albums have been, though, Metric clearly shines in the live environment. (BB)
Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey
Tuesday · Blue Wisp Jazz Club
It’s almost a truism that the most amazing music always springs from the most unlikely places and circumstances, and the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey is merely the latest proof. The improvisational Jazz trio was formed a decade ago in Tulsa, Oklahoma (which, at last check, was a hotbed of very little) as a horn-driven, multi-membered Jazz collective with an equal passion for Rock and Funk and a pointedly twisted sense of humor; the group’s moniker stems from two names they found amusing and from the title of a dismal fusion song performed by fictional metallers Spinal Tap. Over the intervening years, the JFJO was pared down to founders Brian Haas (piano/keyboards) and Reed Mathis (bass with octave pedal effects), who added drummer (and ex-Cincinnatian) Jason Smart four years ago.
Early associations with Groove/Jam bands forced JFJO to move toward a more adventurous Jazz improv direction, which they have cultivated with thrilling results over the past five years. The band’s 2003 release, Slow Breath, Silent Mind, featured their transcendent takes on legends like John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Wayne Shorter and Thelonious Monk, while last year’s Walking with Giants found them offering up an album’s worth of similarly toned originals. Their just-released The Sameness of Difference, produced by the iconic Joel Dorn, is yet another departure, featuring JFJO’s patented improvisational brilliance on a set divided by remarkable originals and startlingly arranged covers from Björk, Brian Wilson, Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young and Oklahoma’s favorite oddball sons, The Flaming Lips. With an already proven track record of contemporary and classical musical excellence, combined with an expanded and insanely broad songbook to choose from, the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey has deservedly become one of the most talked about Jazz trios in recent memory. (BB)
This article appears in Oct 12-18, 2005.
