Lots of times I treat local bands better than nationally known talent. I figure, if Vanilla Ice is playing in Lafayette, do you really need a graf (that journalingo/journalese) from me to inform you on Vanilla Ice? Sides, Lafayette talent is better than most touring garbage anyway.
I also do Notes for Now. Its sorta like local band/entertainment news. I'll talk about band break-ups/make-ups/stuff/record deals. You know, for the kids. I want it to be on the same level as Picks. People ask me to make them Picks (which puts me in a bad position that I don't like to be in). No one asks to be in Notes For Now, though the space is better in Notes for Now.
Stay focused, Nick
Here's some of both:
Curley Taylor
At the Christmas night Farewell to Grant Street show, Curley Taylor & Zydeco Trouble left the stage after an incredible set featuring guest appearances, their smooth R&B-infused zydeco and medleys containing Marvin Gaye's Let's Get it On. As the crowd cheered for more, the then-owners of the venue obliged, granting an encore even though the hour was growing close to midnight. Taylor returned to the mic and announced one more song. The band played the hell out of that one song, starting off with a rocking version of Must Be the Music (from their debut CD, Country Boy), before dropping in choruses from popular rap song like Lean Back -- tearing it up all the while. Late last month, Zydeco Trouble dropped their sophomore release Free Your Mind, and, like the title implies, it s a genre-liberating look at zydeco, keeping the beat while pushing the classic R&B feel that put his first disc in the hands of so many. Like Country Boy, Free Your Mind is an upbeat, rocking contemporary zydeco record, yet contains some of the spirit of a Boozoo Chavis. Just like Country Boy, however, it pales in comparison to his live performance. While the CD rocks, a Zydeco Trouble show blows up. On the record, the band gives their all; live, they give so much they go into debt. Catch them Friday, Feb 3, at El Sid O's, 1523 N. St. Antoine St. Call 237-1959.
Finally Frames Anyone in possession of (the) Frames of Reference albums knows there’s something peculiar about their thought processes. Past albums Contemplate Lunches, We’re Sorry … About Your Brain and Vast Differences and songs like “Fun Fantasy For Me,” “A Fascist of The Marrying Kind” and “You Might Not Want to Fall Down” belie a crossed wire somewhere. Their music is eyebrow raising as well, a modern indie take on pop music rooted in post punk and their eccentric cast, with raspy voice lead singer James VanWay’s lyrical stage setting through modern poetry and brief random literature references. The new album takes a different step. The title, The Things That Pass for Knowledge I Can’t Understand, is no conundrum for any listener to Eagle 98.1, as the line comes from Steely Dan’s “Reelin’ in The Years.” “Around the time we started writing this record, Dallas (Griffith, drummer) and I were both listening to a lot of Steely Dan, and one night he said, “Why don’t we do this for the next record: Let’s write our normal short, punchy Frames songs, but let’s make them as Steely Dan as possible,” writes VanWay. “I don't think we succeeded in that venture (nor did we really try very hard), but I guess we decided on the title around the same time, so it just stuck.” The material remains their ever-maturing, yet bent and witty, compositions. The story behind the album’s material VanWay repeatedly balks on getting into, only offering it’s sort of a ghost story and on the personal side. “The concept is difficult to explain, and tenuous even then. Probably better not to get too in-depth about it. Plus, it’s lunch time.” Earlier this month, The Times reported on Leap Studios, where the group cut the album. The article mentioned their eventual demise, as keyboardist Pat Gibbens eyes graduate school. Now even with Gibbens departure and drummer Cord Bueker’s consideration of moving, the group is hopeful. “We’ve faced worse situations, and I don't think the end is near. I believe we’ll be bouncing back, as we have so resiliently in the past. Nothing can stop a band so good at eating barbecue and coming up with amazingly complex jokes.” The record comes out this Saturday, Oct. 29, at Caffé Cottage, 1013 E. St. Mary Blvd., where the band joins instrumental progressive stalwarts AHAB! and Baton Rouge’s Secret Annex.
Last year, time-traveling rockers The Wizards of Boat played a Halloween multimedia extravaganza with theTransmission. The crowd witnessed the Wizards storm the present with awesomeness and their usual mix of cartoon theme songs, oddball songs, songs about He-man and the best cover version of "River Bottom Nightmare Band" ever. The band, clad in black body suits with strange white accents and two white boobs on their heads, stood in front of a large video screen, which was really a sheet. Behind them played a copy of Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo that was so scratched its playback halted and jerked about. When it wasn't skipping, it was digitally garbled and restarted once before shutting down completely. Twin D questioned the crowd if they'd ever seen anything so scary. "Just look how they are dancing?" The masters of time travel and moog rock, as absurd as a bowl of fruit loops with chocolate milk, have another special Halloween treat in store for their following. While the twins are keeping the details to themselves, it will be a defining Halloween show. "All the details are surprises I wouldn't want to spoil," writes Twin B. They'll warp into Renaissance, Friday, Oct. 28, joined by the costumed capers of MattRock & The Powerboxx and Baton Rouges' Bones. "A time machine (will be) at the door to transport the audience to Monday night (Halloween night)." The next morning, only four Earth hours later, WOB will time travel (after some rest no doubt) to 6 a.m. Saturday to appear on Passe Partout.
This week, Mark Meaux (singer, guitarist and fiddler) and Willie Golden (lap steel, rub board player) of the Bluerunners make their Bach Lunch debut. Meaux and Golden's set list is a mandolin and slide blues grab bag of patented Bluerunner Cajun-meets-Americana roots off their new record Honey Slides ("Ghost of a Girl," "Big Head," "I Got You"), traditional Cajun and Creole numbers ("Blue Runner," "Valse de Balfa") and blues selections (RL Burnside's " Poor Black Mattie" and the previously Bluerunner-adapted "Black Cat Bone"). "Now, the chances that anybody would actually recognize any of these is pretty slim, but not a slim as the chance that we'll actually play any or all of them," writes Meaux. Bach Lunch is held at Parc Sans Souci, 301 Vine St., on Fridays, with lunches -- Copeland's, iMonelli and Popeye's Fried Chicken -- going on sale at 11:15 a.m. and music starting at noon.
Along with sets by Thunderpants, The Black Rats and clips of various Troma films, Oct. 28 featured the Lafayette debut of Jon Clark's Pizza Time Theatre. The former Lafayette resident's 30-minute film/music video for three songs by his band, Maniac Mansion, is about parties, pinks, parmesan, pepperoni, pinball, comics, arcade, baseball and making out. Filmed in Olympia, Wash., it also features a homeless guy named Donny who can roller skate on stilts and sports an ostrich costume ala video game classic Joust made from trash. The film's $100 budget was spent entirely on pepperoni pizza. Now, Clark looks to make a film in Lafayette during the Christmas holidays. Titled Hack: The Movie, it's about hackey-sack and stars Lafayette's Bo and Ben McGehee and Jeff Farshad. "The inspiration for it came when I saw people hacking and realized how retarded it looks. My friends and I used to hack a lot in high school. We knew how ridiculous it looked and did it more as a joke than anything," writes Clark. The three play themselves, and much of the dialogue is culled from their lives. While the script and primary cast is in place, Clark needs extras and production help. Anyone interested in being an extra or helping with production, contact Clark via Appleseedrecords@hotmail.com.
When you are born into the legendary Ardoin family, you have pretty big shoes to fill. The family has one of the greatest legacies in music and is a defining part of Creole sounds. Dexter Ardoin is doing just fine filling the shoes he inherited from grandfather Bois Sec and cousin Amédé. While he manages to keep up with the modern take on zydeco, he stays closer to the music's post-WW2-through-1980s sounds. It's not over-urbanized or too rock influenced, but a still recognizable descendent of Creole tunes. Unlike the field of modern zydeco, his band also incorporates the fiddle in his music. A multi-instrumentalist, Dexter backed up many others before striking out to make his own name, fronting his Creole Ramblers playing accordion the way he was taught by Bois Sec. Still, The Creole Ramblers maintain that zydeco beat that has filled dance floors across the world with a 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 6 performance at Vermilionville, 301 Fisher Road.
When Christine Balfa was pregnant with her daughter, Amelia, she stepped off the Whiskey River stage and a man asked if she was having a boy or a girl. When she answered, "a girl," he replied, "Oh well, maybe the next one will be a musician." It's pretty much given that Cajun music is male driven and dominated. Members of Bonsoir, Catin know that, and each has her own stories of being a woman in the face of Cajun's boys club. Yet the all-female group seems less focused on its status as vanguards as it is on dynamite musicianship and camaraderie. Bonsoir, Catin began after April's Louisiana Folkroots Heritage Week. At the week's last bonfire, Balfa (guitar, Balfa Toujours), Yvette Landry (bass, Lafayette Rhythm Devils) and Kristi Guillory (accordion, Lafayette Rhythm Devils) were talking: "Our talk, probably a little wine-induced, started moving towards forming a band together, not because we were all women, but because we all admire each other for our musical ability and we all have the same vision when it comes to style," writes Guillory. Adding Anya Schoenegge (fiddle, Magnoila Sisters and Celjun), the group has clicked and started a vibe Guillory describes as high energy, a touch honky tonk, a bit raunchy, a little sad but a lot of fun. "We all have the same idea that the music needs to be driven by a lot of feeling in order for it to be real. I mean, Christine is the only Cajun singer and guitar player that I've ever seen actually cry while singing a song." Just at they stand out as an all-female group, they are turning heads and bending rules. Guillory notes, "Women in Cajun music aren't supposed to sing about getting drunk or cheating, but we do." A mix of influences -- tough, independent country women like Patsy Cline, Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, June Cash -- with obscure Creole and Cajun songs -- Sheryl Cormier, Joe Warren Cormier -- gleamed from Guillory's work at the University of Louisiana archive collides to form a unique sound that is sure to be well-received by any gender. Noting her band mates love the way each other plays, Guillory adds, "It just works." The group performs Saturday, Nov. 5, at the Blue Moon Saloon, 215 E. Convent St., with the Jeff & Vida Band.
Is it right that Joaquin Phoenix portrays Johnny Cash in Walk the Line? Is it wrong that he sings the Man in Black's songs? If you want to hear someone do Johnny Cash justice, forget popcorn and soda at The Grand, grab a cold one at The Blue Moon Saloon, 215 E. Convent St., this Friday. The Roebucks tribute Cash with a performance of his songs. Formed in 1989, The Roebucks cover classic rockabilly and write material in the style of late 1950s, early 1960s rock and surfy, twangy tunes. They write on their myspace page: "Hell, it all ties together, don't it? Lots of twangin' guitar, cheap liquor, corny smartass jokes, semi-interesting stories and striking good looks." Though influenced by Cash, Roebucks are more a white socks twisting in black shoes, nail-biting, Johnny's in a hot road race ... again, classic rockabilly band. However, with their reverence for good folks like Buddy Holly, The Roebucks covering Cash seems more in place than Phoenix fishing for an Oscar with the Man in Black as bait. Call 234-2422 for more information.
When the Weary Boys come to town, you can bet yer bottom dollar that it will be a night of good music, rowdy good times, generous boozin' and something of a modern day hoedown. No matter where their travels find them, the Wearys bring a shotgun marriage of old country and bluegrass, mixing standards -- murder ballads, Shady Grove, Katy Daly, an incredible version of Dixie -- with newer material -- Warren Zevon's Carmelita, taking a stab at Gretchen Wilson's pap country Redneck Woman -- and like-minded originals ranging from a testament to Copenhagen to Face of Jesus, inspired by Angola's death row. While the Wearys are a staple in these parts, their show this Saturday, Nov. 19, at Grant Street Dancehall, 113 W. Grant St., is the first appearance since August (and likely their last until next year). They play with fellow raucous anachronistic band The Lost Bayou Ramblers (Cajun). Call 237-8513 for more information and check out wearyboys.com for a fine selection of bootlegs.