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June 26, 2004
A Sort of Homecoming
I'm pretty excited about tonight's show at Go! Room 4. Opening up for psych-folk genius Devendra Banhart and Drag City harpist/songstress Joanna Newsom is the San Francisco folkie band Vetiver (pictured to the right, photo by Christoper Woodcock). Vetiver actually includes Banhart as a member but the band is headed up by former Greensboro, NC resident Andy Cabic (third from the left in the picture), who locals might remember from his days in The Raymond Brake. This particular show will be a bit of a homecoming for Andy - it's his first North Carolina gig since The Raymond Brake broke up in 1998. In my biased book, The 'Brake were one of the brighter lights of the mid-90s NC rock scene, a perfect amalgam of catchy pop, frenetic punk, and screwy Polvo-ish/Grifters-y guitar rock. I listened to their 1995 album Piles of Dirty Winters the other day and it's still a great listen. Not sure if the album is out of print or not, but since the Cognitive Mapping Vol. II CD comp is now completely unavailable, here's an mp3 of The Raymond Brake's "Sentiment" for anyone who's interested in (re)hearing a pretty invigorating slice of melodic mid-90s indie-rock.
Andy moved out to San Francisco in 1998 and this SF Bay Guardian article has some good info on his two current SF bands Vetiver and Tussle and even Vroom, the weekly multi-genre DJ night at El Rio where he often spins records. I think that first Vetiver show might have been at an Adobe Books art opening, as I vaguely remember standing next to some snack-hungry 16th Street winos while seriously digging the skinny motherfucker with the strange high voice. Vetiver's come a ways since then, they've fleshed out into a "string quartet" and their extremely pleasant new album on DiCristina even features guest spots from MBV's Colm O'Ciosoig, Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval, and Nick Holdzkom of Bevel (the early 90s Bevel from Chapel Hill, not the newer Bevel). Midheaven/Revolver has kindly posted an mp3 of Vetiver's "Farther On", as well as snippets from the rest of the album tracks.
Andy's other band Tussle is 180 degrees away from Vetiver but pretty awesome in its own right...totally tripped-out dub-rock with big loping basslines and lots of percussive dancy beats. Similar to Liquid Liquid in many ways but without the vocals or all the metallophones. Tussle's Don't Stop EP is one of my early 2004 faves and I can't wait for their full-length to come out on Troubleman Unlimited this fall. Some album excerpts and unreleased recordings can be streamed and/or downloaded here.
But back to tonight's show....local rock connections aside for a moment, I'm most looking forward to Devendra Banhart himself. On our last night in London several weeks back, my friend Todd and I went to see him play at the Institute for Contemporary Arts, a pretty amazing space perfectly situated on The Mall leading up to Buckingham Palace. Devendra's UK press has been pretty gushing and the show was totally sold out...but somehow we lucked our way in, mostly due to the kindness of some incredibly nice British ticket-takers who offered us some unclaimed will-call tickets at the last minute. After a very cool set of loud, hyper-raw stomp-blues from Baltimore's Entrance, Devendra Banhart assumed a lotus-like positon on stage and wowed both the Brits and us with that amazing, otherworldly voice. And on his birthday, no less! Andy Cabic accompanied him on several songs and Devendra closed out the set with an intense cover of Johnny Thunders' "You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory". No, I guess you can't, but I'll remember that show for quite awhile....a great last hurrah before heading back home to the States.
Posted by Tim at June 26, 2004 12:18 PM
Comments
So did Andy brake out any of the old Brake for the homecoming show? "Junkies and Cops"?
Posted by: Stuart at June 28, 2004 02:53 PM
No, but at one point somebody yelled out a song title and Andy laughed and said something about not remembering how to play it. I couldn't hear but Rawls later told me the request was "Dolly Madison". Greensboro in the house...
Posted by: Tim at June 28, 2004 05:45 PM
Hey I think I've met that guy here in SF. My girlfriend's friend Mieko does some sort of manager type thing for Tussle (she organized their Japan tour I think) and we've been to a number of Tussle or Tussle-related shows. I was never a big Raymond Brake fan though, so I didn't make the connection. Small world.
Posted by: Dav at June 28, 2004 07:43 PM
Aye on Piles of Dirty Winters. When I got the album I was a young high school lad purchasing anything on Simple Machines, and I really had no idea who these guys were, but they rocked. Unfortunately, when I arrived in '96, it was too late to see 'em live, though local folklorists seemed quite willing to let me know of their exceptional drinking habits. I still listen to Piles.. every once in a while. Had a kick on it early this year, and I asked Butch what he thought....he still likes tha album alot too. Then I googled them and sure enough found a young Butch telling AMCH or some list like that TRB was a fucking great live show. Random, truly random. But then again, how random is it all?
Posted by: fred at June 28, 2004 08:00 PM
I went to this show with almost no information about any of the artists, based completely on the strength of one of my friends' conviction that Devendra Banhart is the second coming or something.
The first kid was impressive, for a teenager. He had mad folk skillz. I really needed to him to break out of the James Taylor thing after about half a dozen of those emotional ballads.
I thought Vetiver were GREAT. I especially liked Andy's vocal style. He was so clearly talented, but really restrained. Not trying to show off, but just to share some beautiful sounds. Really rich, and subtle, and lovely.
Which leads me to the main event. I will leave aside the whole debate about whether Devendra Banhart can retain outsider folk art status and still live in Williambsurg, Brooklyn - it makes my head hurt. The man is obviously talented. It almost hurt to watch him so effortlessly make those amazing sounds.
But he seemed so pleased with himself. And after the first couple of songs, the novelty wore off for me. Which made it harder to ignore that Go felt like a tobacco-stoked sweatlodge, so I left.
Posted by: Ruby at June 29, 2004 09:42 AM
Thanks for the post-show comments, Ruby, I agree on most accounts. I can't really speak to how pleased Devendra Banhart is with himself, but I do get the idea that he's a really nice and earnest guy who also happens to be quite an odd character. And maybe he agrees with you regarding living in Williamsburg, 'cause he's moving back to SF. But yeah, it was impossibly hot and crowded in there...
Posted by: Tim at June 29, 2004 10:01 PM