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As I Lay Dying with Madball, A Life Once Lost and Norma Jean
Thursday · Bogart’s
San Diego quintet As I Lay Dying has been on the fast track to Metalcore stardom since their 2001 formation. Initially assembled as a trio by former Society’s Finest guitarist Tim Lambesis and named for the classic novel by William Faulkner, the band was in the studio recording their debut, Beneath the Encasing of Ashes, a mere four weeks after coming together. Just as quickly, AILD realized the potential of consistent touring and spread their gospel through rigorous roadwork. The following year saw the release of AILD’s split CD with American Tragedy, a short but potent set that laid out the blueprint for the dark and brutal melodicism they’d pursue from that point on. The EP, combined with an even more strenuous touring regimen, created a huge buzz in the Metal community, eventually scoring AILD a contract with powerhouse indie Metal Blade in early 2003. The band’s major label debut, Frail Words Collapse, was a tour de force of haunting Metalcore riffing, visceral Hardcore energy and classic Metal attitude. With the band’s increasing profile came better opening slots (Killswitch Engage, Lamb of God, Shadows Fall), a staggering amount of national and international touring and increased expectations and pressure. The unrelenting tours and attention took its toll on AILD internally, as the band’s lineup changed several times (only Lambesis and drummer Jordan Mancino remained from the original configuration), finally settling as a fivesome with guitarists Phil Sgrosso and Nick Hipa and bassist Clint Norris. This is the lineup that returned to California’s Big Fish Studio, the site of the band’s stellar work on Frail Words Collapse, to collaborate on their most immediate and focused album to date, Shadows Are Security. Utilizing all the elements that have marked their career to date — a howling and now tripled Metalcore guitar assault, double-clutched drumming and a spiritually thoughtful lyrical perspective — As I Lay Dying have fashioned an album that appeals to fans throughout the Metal subculture, and this could be the tour that vaults them into the genre’s rarefied realm of stratospheric fame.
(Brian Baker)
David “Fathead” Newman
Friday · Hyatt Regency Hotel
In 1954 musical planets aligned and David “Fathead” Newman joined Brother Ray Charles, cementing a musical collaboration ranking high among the constellation of similarly historical pairings like Billie Holiday and Lester “Prez” Young, Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn and James Brown and Maceo Parker. Smack dab in the middle of their decade-long work in the Ray Charles Band (1954-64), Charles leveraged his burgeoning power at Atlantic Records to produce 1959’s Fathead: Ray Charles Presents “Fathead,” Newman’s first sides as a leader with Charles on piano, Hank Crawford (mysteriously listed as Bennie Crawford) on baritone, Marcus Belgrave on trumpet, bassist Edgar Willis and drummer Milton Turner. It would have been wholly appropriate if Newman had rested on the laurels of “Hard Times,” the song that defined and announced his big, open Texas Tenor sound with blue curlicues of Charlie Parker at its edges. But Newman, a Texas native, built a career and a catalogue dismantling his close and early Charles association by breaking the miscategorization of himself as an R&B and Soul player. Instead, he recorded straight ahead Jazz sides — with some ’80s string and horn missteps — steadily since 1959. Newman boasts a wide array of label associations, including Atlantic, Prestige, Warner Bros. Muse Records, Kokopelli (owned by Herbie Mann) and back again to Atlantic before settling at High Note, where he’s been since 2001. None of this is worth mentioning except as an example of a stalwart who’s found a way to record and tour continuously, with few interruptions, since Charles “introduced” him to an audience who still listens to Newman’s music. Cincinnati is lucky to be a stop on the longtime Woodstock, N.Y., resident’s latest tour, wherein he’ll cut a swath through the middle of America playing arts and Jazz festivals, cruises, universities and clubs. I Remember Brother Ray, Newman’s latest High Note release, is an all-instrumental eulogy for Charles featuring now nearly anthemic chestnuts like “Hit the Road, Jack” and “Georgia on My Mind,” among others. The record went to No. 1 on the JazzWeek chart. Funny how the thing that started it all is now what keeps Newman going. And blowing. (Kathy Y. Wilson)
Hamell on Trial
Sunday · Southgate House
Ed Hamell is to Folk music what Muhammad Ali was to boxing — a bracing ass-kick of a wake-up call signaling a brand new way of taking a timeless and traditional form and making it revolutionary, brash, confrontational and exhilarating. After toiling away for years with a regional bar band in upstate New York, Hamell broke away and assumed a solo identity, Hamell on Trial, for his debut album, 1989’s Conviction. On pure instinct, he pulled up stakes and moved to Austin, Tex., where he spent a number of years honing his guerrilla Folk act and accruing a crowd of rabid Friday night regulars at the city’s Electric Lounge. In 1994, Hamell recorded his second album, the blazing Big As Life, which led to a jaw-dropping performance at that year’s SXSW festival and an eventual major label contract with Mercury Records. They reissued Big As Life in ’96 to almost universal acclaim; Hamell followed up with the equally powerful The Chord Is Mightier Than the Sword in 1997. With the Polygram/Seagram’s shakeup, Hamell was cut loose and formed his own label, Such A Punch Media, to self-release his brilliant and twisted lo-fi song cycle Choochtown in 1999. The following year, Hamell was opening shows for Ani DiFranco when he was nearly killed in a hit-and-run accident in Pennsylvania; doctors told him he’d have to retire from performing, but he offered them some unprintable advice on where to shove that prognosis and battled his way back to the stage, relearning to walk in the process. Meanwhile, DiFranco kept Hamell’s name on the radar by releasing live tapes made during his opening gigs on her tour as Ed’s Not Dead: Hamell Comes Alive and then officially signing him to her Righteous Babe label. 2003 saw the release of his RB debut, the astonishing Tough Love (featuring the devastating post-9/11 ode, “Don’t Kill”), and later that same year he self-released Yap, his first spoken word album (available at shows and through his Web site, hamell-ontrial.com). Eyebrows and hackles are sure to be raised by the tracks on Hamell’s next official release, February’s Songs for Parents Who Enjoy Drugs. Don’t miss any opportunity to see Ed Hamell live. Ever. (BB)
This article appears in Dec 7-13, 2005.