4 posts tagged “ithaca”

Yesterday I caught the headline act for this year's Ithaca Festival: Orleans.  Yes, they're still... together.  (You thought I was going to say "still the one," didn't you?)  It turns out they have a rich local history.  The full version, by founder Larry Hoppen, is on Orleans' website, here; I highly recommend it.  The short version is: Larry Hoppen went to Ithaca College in the late 60s, and after quitting school in 1969 joined Cornell-based band Boffalongo.  Boffalongo eventually included brothers Wells and Sherman Kelly as rhythm section; Sherman wrote "Dancing in the Moonlight," which Boffalongo recorded for their first (and only) LP.  Boffalongo broke up, with Wells Kelly and then Hoppen moving to Woodstock to join John Hall in the band that would become Orleans.  Boffalongo member Doc Robinson formed King Harvest with some other Cornell guys, rerecorded "Dancing in the Moonlight," and had a monster hit with it.  Orleans had their own monster hits with "Dance With Me," "Still the One," and "Love Takes Time."  After leaving Orleans for a solo career in 1977, John Hall rejoined the band in 1985, remaining until 2006 when he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.  Orleans continues touring and recording, now composed of Larry Hoppen, his brother Lance, his other brother Lane, Dennis "Fly" Amero, and Charlie Morgan.  Anyway, that's why Orleans includes "Dancing in the Moonlight" in their sets:

And in the audience yesterday was none other than...Sherman Kelly, the man who wrote it!  Can you guess what song they played last?  It was a nice set, not my normal fare but the price was right (free).  I'd go see 'em again.

As in, I'm catching up on my blog by posting about Neko Case, and her fabulous concert at Ithaca's historic State Theatre last Saturday.  She was personable and funny, the glorious voice on her records is no mere studio construction, her band was perfectly unobtrusive, and she played all the songs I wanted to hear.  (And has anyone noticed she's gorgeous?  Haha!)  She also played what looked like a four-string Gibson SG, which didn't sound like a bass; an electric ukulele?  No, it's a tenor guitar, 33.3% easier to play than a regular six-string guitar, on account of having 33.3% fewer strings.  It sounded fine to me.  Here's a 2007 performance of "Hold On, Hold On" from somewhere or other:

Okay, that sounds pretty (alt)country, and I was just ragging on (alt)country, but I think Neko's music is to (alt)country as a good novel is to a joke greeting card.  She's the female Scott Walker of (alt)country.  And she's coming back to Ithaca soon, with the New Pornographers, whom I dislike on principle: their name sucks, and the fact that it's a music-critic in-joke makes it suck all the more.  But Neko Case........

Concert goers who arrived at the 8:00 starting time were punished with a solo set by Eric Bachmann.  Mrs. V. and I decided to spend that time in the lobby, which was not enough to fully esacpe the caterwauling but was at least bearable.  Not that I have anything against folkish music that is lifeless, repetitive, unimaginative, unmelodic, and tonally harsh; I just don't want to listen to it.  Whatever happened to Tal Bachman?  Him I liked.

I caught Asheville, North Carolina Afrobeat band the Afromotive at Castaways last night; with four full-time percussionists they put out some really rich beats.  It was a real luxury to take a ten-minute drive to see a ten-piece Afrobeat band for, again, just five bucks.  Here's some music from the Afromotive--there are actually three whole songs available, click the "songs" button to access the other two:

I am always amazed at the musicianship in Afrobeat bands, but I suppose that the genre attracts serious players with serious chops, and above all a great sense of fun.  At my first Afrobeat show (Nomo in Boston, back in July) I hit upon the idea of an Afrobeat version of Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein."  Nobody's done that yet, as far as I know, but yesterday I found the next best thing: a marching band version!  At the record show in Ithaca I got an album by the Stanford University Band, there's no date on it but I'll date it at 1979, probably recorded during fall 1978 football games (as the newest song on it is "Who Are You," a hit during fall of 1978).  I love marching bands, they dispense with any sense of subtlety at all in favor of pounding rhythms and blaring brass.  At my first office at the University of Maryland, the marching band would practice right across the street.  It gave a real sense of importance to whatever I was doing!

Too bad they didn't bring it back to the main theme after the bridge, but you can't have everything.  Edgar Winter's original version follows for comparison purposes.  If I am feeling mischievous one day, I may dig out his 1984 remake and post it on the blog.  If I am feeling evil, I will post the rap version.

Walking around listening to Speedometer in my earphones months ago, I really wished I could see them live, or at least see a band playing their type of music.  I must not have been playing close enough attention to the local music scene, because there is a band here in Ithaca, the Rozatones, who venture into Speedometer territory.  They opened for Freekbass at the Haunt on Thursday night; if the show had ended after the Rozatones I would already have gotten my money's worth.  The Rozatones are a seven-piece band of Ithaca College students, led by singer/guitarist Revi Roza.  I had high hopes for the set given that the lineup includes a two-man horn section, a keyboardist, and an extra percussionist, and my hopes were fulfilled.  They played a mix of rock, funk, soul, and blues that reminds me of great bands of the 70s (Rufus and Chaka Khan come to mind), the band was tight, the soloing was adept, and the keyboard had all the classic funk sounds in it--Rhodes, Hammond, Clavinet, Moog--what more could you want?  And they were all so into it!  It was an impressive set from a band who are all half my age!  Arrgh!  My preference is for the faster numbers, when everybody really gets down and lets rip, but the slower songs move along quite well too and give Revi room to showcase her powerful voice.  Here's one of the latter:

You can hear more Rozatones songs on their MySpace page, and there is an article about them from November 2006 here.

I scored some cool records at a record show today, I'll have some prime cuts coming up from them in the next week or so.  Tonight, there's Afrobeat right here in River City!  Finally!  I'm heading out to Castaways to catch The Afromotive.