Music Tonight: Straight off a hyped, packed show at Lollapalooza earlier this month (see video below), the independent Hip Hop self-starters of Atmosphere jumped right back on the road for touring duties behind recent album, The Family Sign, bringing Slug, Ant and pals back to Greater Cincinnati for tonight’s “Family Vacation Tour” stop at Bogart’s. The typically solid support bill this time around features labelmates Blueprint (Ohio’s own!), Evidence, DJ Babu and Prof. The all-ages show starts at 8:30 p.m. and tickets are an awkward $29.27 (including fees). —-
The full-court hustle by the co-founders/flagship act of successful indie label Rhymesayers might be to capitalize on Family’s even broader crossover potential. It’s not Black Eyed Peas, by any means, but Atmosphere has sharpened its abilities through experience, success and a lot of practice, with gospel-spreading touring, fairly regular albums since 2002’s God Love Ugly and steady EPs filling in the intervening years. (And not “stop-gap” EPs, either. Legendary ones.) The Family Sign is the sign of the MC and producer trying to define its sound circa 2011 and coming up with a mix of what they do best done bigger — the humor, the honesty, the storytelling, the intimacy, the hooks, the beats, the lyrical flow and the fluid lyrics are there, but tightened, with brightened corners.
It’s not that Family’s more sensitive vibe feels calculated, even if it is the kind of thing that keeps Atmosphere’s ratio of female fans among the highest in the game. Slug and Ant (my favorite black-and-white, Soviet-era propaganda cartoon for children) are already legends of the less cliché, more artful Hip Hop fringe, boiling just beneath the mainstream. They’ll bubble over into the Top 10 with the next album or EP (The Family Sign just missed, landing at No. 13), then who knows how far they’ll go. They’ve certainly got the tools for a long, enduring career.
(Leave your suggestions/promote yourself or your favorites by telling everyone about your favorite music event recommendations for the day in the comments below.)
Momentous Happenings in Music History for Aug. 16
On this day in 1938, perhaps the most influential Blues artist of all time, Robert Johnson, died at that cursed age (at least for wildly gifted musicians) of 27. But, like practically every detail of Johnson’s short but productive life, mystery surrounds the circumstances of his death. Johnson didn’t reveal much about himself, even to touring partners, and he traveled more than a flight attendant, only putting down roots briefly before wanderlust kicked in and he was on the road again to wherever the next gig (or street corner, in a pinch) happened to be. That, plus the minimal footprint left behind when Johnson died, combined to create a very vague outline of the life and times of one of the most iconic figures in American music.
Because of the holes, the story was fleshed out by rumors and myths, some believable, others impossible, including his trademark transaction with Satan that earned him skills guaranteed to bring him riches and fame. And all it cost him was one human soul — his own. But hard-nosed research — there are enough “quest for the real Robert Johnson” investigative books to have a library full of just them — has also helped bring the Robert Johnson story into better focus.
A common, accepted version of events leading up to his death suggests Johnson drank alcohol (maybe whiskey, maybe moonshine) poisoned (with rye or maybe strychnine) by a jealous husband (sometimes a club owner) seeking revenge (via murder) after the bluesman tried to hook up with his wife (or, some say, the wife’s the one seeking revenge). Johnson finished his set, but grew increasingly weak, getting sicker over a period of anywhere from three to “several” days and contracting pneumonia, his ultimate cause of death. Or so they say.
Robert Johnson is such an enigma, for the majority of the time since his passing and his music’s resurrection, no one had any idea what he looked like (the first photo of Johnson was published in the ’80s by Rolling Stone). Even now, there are only two confirmed photographs of Johnson, both of which are burned into the minds of anyone even casually interested. The real, tangible evidence Robert Johnson left behind for history is his body of work. Though seemingly on the verge of receiving the fame end of that bargain at the crossroads (legendary producer John Hammond was trying to bring him to NYC for a concert at Carnegie Hall), Johnson died not knowing that his meager 29-song recording portfolio would be the lifeblood of his enduring legacy, one that has seen him become an undeniable A-lister on the red carpet to the annals of music history.
Born This Day: Musical folks that share an Aug. 16 birthday include one of Duke Ellington’s greatest vocalists, Al Hibbler (1915); half of loungey Pop standards duo Steve and Eydie, Eydie Gormé (1928); Jazz piano icon Bill Evans (1929); singer/bassist with influential late ‘60s psychedelic Rock band Soft Machine, Kevin Ayers (1945); the drummer behind Iggy Pop and The Stooges, Scott Asheton (1949); Pop chameleon and alleged actress Madonna (1958); Dixie Chick Emily Robinson (1972); and YouTube sensation turned teen Pop phenom Greyson Chance (1997).
The young singer/pianist is representative of the new model of A&R scouting, which essentially entails watching TV and surfing the Internet, then choosing which network karaoke contest winner to pursue or which viral video star to dine, wine and sign. Chance became the latter (barely beating out the star of “Cat Playing Piano”) in spring of last year when home video of him playing piano and singing Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” for a sixth-grade music showcase started trending. Then Ellen DeGeneres saw it, aired it on her morning talk show, had Chance on the show within a couple days and was so moved, she built an entire record label around him. Her eleveneleven label looks for stories similar to the then 12-year-old Chance’s. DeGeneres even proudly declared her main “scouting” tool for the imprint would be … YouTube. Her signings so far include a 16-year-old Brit, 11-year-old R&B singer and, for some reason, actress/Home Shopping Network star/cosmetic and clothing designer/reality show castaway Jessica Simpson. The former Mrs. Nick Lachey, who apparently began her career as a singer, released a Christmas album on the label last year.
Chance’s debut album Hold On ’til the Night came out two weeks ago and, judging by the public’s uninspiring response, Ellen’s brilliant experiment is off to a lackluster start. Hold On sold just over 16,000 copies in the U.S., enough for a No. 29 debut on the Billboard Top 200 album chart. It’s easy to claim the album’s flop as a victory for doubters and it proves that the public won’t just embrace an artist because he or she accidentally dominates the Pop cultural zeitgeist for a couple of weeks.
But it’s more likely Chance’s failure to transfer YouTube fame to real-life fame (the kind the pays real dollars) was the result of another web-induced side effect — with our gnat-like attention spans shrinking more daily, a gap between initial cyber exposure and full-length debut like Chance’s (about 15 months) may as well last a century.
But Greyson will always be a legend … of YouTube. His original “Paparazzi” clip currently stands at 42,250, 557 views. Help the poor kid out and watch it again.
This article appears in Aug 10-16, 2011.