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Rocky Votolato with The Great Depression, Portugal the Man and Hazie Weatherfield
Sunday · Mad Hatter
The year 1999 was a watershed one for Rocky Votolato. After his teenage band Lying on Loot dissolved, Votolato started a new Rock/Post Hardcore group called Waxwing and after recording an impressive 7-inch, the quartet (now featuring Rocky’s brother Cody on second guitar) signed with Second Nature and released their debut full-length, For Madmen Only, in 1999.
But that year also marked Votolato’s debut as a Folk/Country-driven singer/songwriter, as he took a stack of his songs that had no place in Waxwing’s repertoire and recorded them alone with just an acoustic guitar. Waxwing would only last three more years, but Votolato’s singer/songwriter career has endured through a couple of EPs and four more albums, including his latest, The Brag and Cuss.
Votolato’s teenage years in Seattle might have inspired the Punk/Hardcore sound that blurted out of him in Waxwing, but it was his Texas birthplace that ultimately overtook his creative perspective, hearkening back to the Willie Nelson/Steve Earle/Johnny Cash atmosphere that permeated his childhood on a horse ranch near Dallas.
When Waxwing closed up shop, Votolato continued to pursue his Folk/Country inclinations on his subsequent albums, including 2006’s acclaimed Makers, all of which have been recorded mostly live and with a minimum of accompaniment. With Votolato’s fifth and newest offering, The Brag and Cuss, he has fleshed out his gorgeous songs with bigger arrangements and an actual band, giving them additional depth and resonance. Now a married father of two and quickly becoming one Indie Rock’s most emotionally reliable troubadours, Rocky Votolato has found a beautiful and powerful way to reconcile the visceral passion of his Punk days with the whispered desperation of his Folk/Alt.Country explorations. (Brian Baker) Buy tickets and find nearby restaurants and bars here.
The Polyphonic Spree with Rooney and The Redwalls
Monday · Bogart’s
Seven years ago, Tim DeLaughter combated the black depression that overwhelmed him after the overdose death of his good friend and guitarist Wes Berggren and the subsequent dissolution of their band, Tripping Daisy, by fashioning not merely a new band but a new kind of band. Assembling a core Rock band featuring his Tripping Daisy mates Bryan Wakefield and Mark Pirro and vocalist Julie Doyle, DeLaughter created a 20-plus-piece vocal and musical orchestra — in homage to bands of the ’70s like Electric Light Orchestra — that wore white (and then rainbow-colored) robes and sang songs about hope and positivity.
Dubbed the Polyphonic Spree, in deference to the similarly toned psychedelic Pop groups of the ’60s, DeLaughter’s ensemble recorded a 10-song demo that created such a demand among fans that the recording became the band’s 2001 debut, The Beginning Stages of…the Polyphonic Spree. The band might have existed for quite awhile as a local Dallas area novelty except for the intervention of some genius at Volkswagen — probably the same guy that suggested Nick Drake’s “Pink Moon” for the Passat commercial — who worked a Beetle/iPod campaign around the Spree’s “Light and Day/Reach for the Sun.” The commercial vaulted the Spree into the public consciousness at almost the same time that their tiny Indie label dropped them, opening the door for their signing with Hollywood Records and the release of their sophomore album, 2004’s Together We’re Heavy.
After taking some dings for manufacturing their happiness for the sake of a band image, DeLaughter and the Spree continued to tour successfully, signed a new deal with TVT Records and came up with a new look for their latest album, The Fragile Army. Shelving the robes for black military uniforms adorned with universal symbols of peace, the Spree sharpened their lyrical edge as well, as DeLaughter began exploring social and political realities in less sunny tones. And yet for all the darkness it details, The Fragile Army still fairly vibrates with the glorious light that has always emanated from the Polyphonic Spree. (BB) Buy tickets and find nearby restaurants and bars here.
Nada Surf with Sea Wolf
Tuesday · Madison Theater
When it comes to bands who were signed amidst the great “AltNation” signing spree of the 1990s (where most major labels cherry-picked pretty much every young band with guitars, decent melodies and a slight following), there are not a lot of happy endings. In fact, most of the time, things ended up pretty bad.
Despite having a “hit,” Elektra lost interest quick in New York trio Nada Surf when a new record was turned in and didn’t have an obvious copy of that hit. The group was all over MTV for a spell, with its goofy novelty hit, “Popular.” For their next album, The Proximity Effect, the band showed a vast improvement in their overall writing and performance. But the album contained no novelties, just serious, weighty Pop/Rock with melodies that ranked as some of the best being made. Hoping to find another mini-Weezer to pump out maybe a hit or two, Elektra ended up with a band that could write songs well enough to become “career artists.”
But someone didn’t hear a single and the band was on its own, though they retained the rights to Proximity Effect after a lengthy negotiation. The band hit the road, retaining some old fans, but mostly starting over.
When the emotional Pop/Rock masterpiece Let Go was released the band was suddenly back in the spotlight, albeit one much more dim and subtle than the one shone on them after “Popular.” The band recorded on their own dime and then shopped the album, ultimately landing at Barsuk Records. Let Go is a tour de force of vivid, poetic and honest songs about relationships and internal conflict, slathered in dewy melancholy. A perfect Pop record, it earned the band a sizeable cult of followers worldwide. In many ways, it was retribution — the “Popular” years finally seemed a footnote and Nada Surf was like a new band.
While the follow-up, The Weight is a Gift, received mixed reactions when it came out in 2005, clearly the band was continuing on the upswing when it came to songwriting craft. Let Go meant a lot to a lot of people, so anything that didn’t tap that same exact vein could disappoint. Kind of like the label’s expectations.
With Weight being a couple of years old , one would think the current tour will consist of some new songs. Don’t miss a chance to see the group live — the extra energy added to the airtight performances will send chills. (Mike Breen) Buy tickets and find nearby restaurants and bars here.
This article appears in Oct 10-16, 2007.
