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The Appleseed Cast with Caterpillar Tracks, Voyageur, Alone at 3AM and All the Day Holiday
Wednesday · Mad Hatter
Since their formation nearly a decade ago, the Appleseed Cast has evolved from a standard-issue but talented Emo band into a complex and experimental unit with a penchant for blending seemingly disparate genres into a singular new whole. The band’s roots took hold in Southern California in 1997 when guitarists Christopher Crisci and Aaron Pillar formed a group called December’s Tragic Drive, inspired by their appreciation for Sunny Day Real Estate. By the next year, the band had been rechristened as The Appleseed Cast and signed to Deep Elm Records for their potent debut, The End of the Ring Wars, which attracted Emo fans in droves, but caught some critical flack for being too derivative of SDRE.
In 1999, the band moved their base to Lawrence, Kan., and hired new drummer Josh “Cobra” Baruth, whose extremely musical and polyrhythmic style expanded Appleseed Cast’s sonic range considerably. Their sophomore album, Mare Vitalis, was an ambitious concept piece about the ocean’s movements that showed the Cast’s extraordinary growth in a short span of time. But the album was a mere hint of their musical aspirations. After the arrival of new bassist Marc Young, the Cast assembled the two volume Low Level Owl project, a song cycle that relied on ambient techniques like sound collages, muted vocal arrangements, repetitive guitar patterns and textural keyboard washes that coalesced into an overall atmosphere as opposed to an actual song structure.
With the release of the archival Lost Songs in 2002, the Cast moved to Tiger Style Records for their next album, 2003’s Two Conversations, which found the band revisiting their earlier song-framed Emo style while incorporating some of the ambient elements utilized on the Low Level Owl albums. Predictably, the results and the responses were both mixed. The Cast went on hiatus shortly thereafter; Tiger Style dumped their roster for financial reasons and Baruth left the band.
It would be nearly three years before the Cast signed with the Militia Group and brought in Casket Lottery drummer Nathan Richardson for their next album, Peregrine, which was a more successful melding of their distinctive sounds. True to their contentious form, Richardson left months after Peregrine’s release earlier this year, replaced by Aaron Coker, drummer for Crisci’s occasional side project Old Canes. For all the turmoil within the band, The Appleseed Cast has no trouble delivering music that is amazingly diverse, impossibly eclectic and consistently engaging. (Brian Baker)
Hot Buttered Rum with Jake Speed and the Freddies
Thursday · 20th Century Theater
Hot Buttered Rum, a “High Altitude Acoustic Experience.” Plus one “well-oiled machine.” HBR’s appropriately titled sophomore album, Well–Oiled Machine, was released to much anticipation in February. The excitement was not surprising, as the Bluegrass-rooted quintet recruited sound engineer “Decibel Dave” Dennison, known for his work on the Garcia/Grisman sessions. Needless to say, Well–Oiled Machine has the organic nature and full-swing vibrancy of a live recording, minus the snap, crackle and pop. Plus one Peter Rowan. You know the gettin’s good when a Bluegrass legend such as Rowan lends his talent toward the cause, sharing sublime vocals with Erik on “Wedding Day.”
Fusing Jazz, Celtic, Country Folk, Blues, Rock and Reggae into their Bluegrass blend, HBR brings out the gamut, where young and old connect within pretty pickin,’ lyrical lovin’ tunes like “Firefly” and “Guns or Butter. ” OK, “Guns or Butter” might have a hint of political flavoring. but it’s all good fun for kids (of all ages) to dance around with. The HBR adventurers are kind enough to pass on some cross-country, honky-tonk touring tales with us on the title track, as they sing “When I say I wanna fill my bus with their cooking oil, the restaurant owners don’t know what I mean.” So bring a handle of your greasiest cooking oil and soak up some Hot Buttered Rum this Thursday. (Sara Beiting)
Jolie Holland with David Dondero
Monday · Southgate House
Jolie Holland ought to be used to the attention by now. After helping found The Be Good Tanyas and appearing briefly on their astonishing debut, Blue Horse, she departed to pursue her solo ambitions. Catalpa, Holland’s 2003 antique Country/Jazz/Folk debut, got her noticed in a big way. Catalpa‘s home demo structure got Holland signed to Epitaph imprint Anti-, which reissued the album. Catalpa and its follow-up, 2004’s Escondida, showcase Holland’s singular approach to songwriting and fresh interpretations within staid musical genres. All of this spotlighting affected Holland when she began work on her marvelous third album, Springtime Can Kill You.
“Yeah, it was a big transition realizing people were going to talk about anything I did musically,” Holland says. “You have to know how to ignore it and yet respond to it in a peripheral way. Something that really pulled me through and helped me give it the right kind of attention is that I’m so hard on myself that anybody else’s criticism is like cotton candy.”
Holland’s self-editing has clearly yielded great results; Springtime is another stunning example of her authentic and evocative songcraft, an intoxicating blend of Blues, Jazz, Folk and Country that has earned Holland comparisons to Billie Holiday, Nina Simone and Blind Willie McTell by way of the Carter Family and Tom Waits. Springtime‘s timeless, multi-genre presentation and intensely personal lyrical tone explores the inevitable themes of love and death.
Most surprising might be the amount of forethought and vision Holland applies to every project. “Two years before it happened, I knew what the art was going to look like and the whole thing was crystallized in the same moment,” she says. “I was on an international flight. It was a press tour for Escondida and I totally came up with everything for Springtime Can Kill You — the front cover, the back cover, the songs. The songs pretty much existed except for a few that I needed to finish writing, but I knew that all those pieces needed to fit together to tell a certain story.” (BB)
This article appears in Oct 18-24, 2006.