"Awesome Band" (from MySpace.com, 4 April 2007)

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Desperately Obvious at the Capital District Federation of Ideas

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April 2nd was another wonderful night to be a local hipster; my confidence in the people of the Albany area to be creative and entertaining has been gaining strength all throughout 2007 so far and Monday was another testament to that. The Capital District Federation of Ideas (CDFI) hosted their first ever full blown show at Point 5, their house/gallery at 383.5 Madison Ave. This included Sgt Dunbar, Desperately Obvious (as far as I believe, mostly local) and Dust From 1000 Years, on day 4 of their 16 day tour out of Bloomington, Indiana.

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Desperately Obvious kicked off the show and continued to impress me song after song as the small space began to fill up and heat up with students, graduates, bosses and random passers-by. I was finding some very good influences in their tunes, starting with vocalist/guitarist Richard Nolan's wailing voice's similarity to that of Willy Mason. Add the rest of the band: a stripped down drum kit played with brushes, a very pretty bass, slide guitar and keys and you end up with an alt-emo-country pop-bluegrass band entering your head. If you're as big an Okkervil River fan as me then these guys are right up your alley, and their cover of "Westfall" was true enough to the original to see the bands respect for their influences, but also creative enough to be what is somewhat rare, a good cover song, and well adapted to their lack of a mandolin player.

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CDs were swapped and I ended up with a copy of their press kit, the album art of which was done in my favorite meidum: pen on lined paper, along with Dust From 1000 Years full length called "Buzzard" (check out next Wednesdays post) also done in one of my favorite mediums: crayon on construction paper. I enjoy when bands post their lyrics, and when I read along with the songs on their impressivly available myspace, www.myspace.com/awesomeband where their lyrics are posted,I really began to appreciate the lyricism that's there when you can get past the excellent instrumentation and composition.

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The disc starts with "New Flower", a very humbly poetic love song to a flower that evokes deep and honest longing. Then slows right down into "Cheatin' Heart", a mellow sort of Pink Floyd-ish bob your head bluesy kind of song, leaning towards more of a dramatic, fictional lyrical subject... at least I hope he didn't dump a mans body in a river. (these are the two mp3s i will post, so i suppose i should have described some of the other songs, but...tan tan tan).

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You can see them in Utica, at the Resonance Center with Sgt Dunbar and Fig Mints (of your Imagination) on April 28th at 8pm.

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They have at least one album out on Make Your Fate Records (comprised of them and the Mathmaticians), possibly two at this point. You can buy it from the MYF website (synonomous with the Desperately Obvious site) or probably just by sending them a message on myspace. For their presumably newer radio/press kit, you'll probably have to just go out and see them, which is a pretty good deal if you ask me.

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mp3: A New Flower

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mp3: Cheatin' Heart

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Desperately Obvious

www.myspace.com/awesomeband

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Pink font, stars, smiley faces, cleavage:

www.myspace.com/desperatelyobvious

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Make Your Fate Records/Desperately Obvious

www.desperatelyobvious.net

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Capital District Federation of Ideas:

www.federationofideas.org

Evolution Revolution and the International Women’s Art Show.

The fluorescent lights of the front lobby at 51 3^rd Street were blinding, but I welcomed them because fluorescence is good, unless it’s employed by Skidz pants, but these were light bulbs, and it was warm inside so I took off the mittens my mom made out of old sweaters and shoved them inside my winter coat pockets wondering where the music was. It would be the first time I saw Evolution Revolution.

Art exhibits of mainly the video variety were scattered about the space, but the sound of an accordion swept my attention away from the loop of human flesh being tattooed, purple ink oozing from its pores. We found that the fluorescent lights were reserved only for the entryway, as we were soon enveloped into darkness. I was actually startled at the clarity of the air in such a dense and people packed space, I half expected to pull out my fins and swim through clouds of gray cigarette smoke, funny the things your brain associates with basement concerts. But cigarette smokers shivered in the snowy courtyard while a baby and a child, straight from a karate lesson from the looks of it, stared in awe at the pretty lady with antlers who played the accordion on stage. We caught only the last song of Ryder’s set, which was unfortunate because her tattered tutu told me it had been fantastique.

Having never witnessed Evolution Revolution I incorrectly assumed that the two folks dressed as bugs (a spider and a butterfly to be exact, or maybe it was a fly and a butterfly, humans in bug costumes can so easily be misconstrued) were members of Evo Revo just waiting to take the stage, but apparently there was more than one set of humans posing as creatures at the International Women’s Art Show on March 8^th, and before the music kicked off we would witness what was either: a.) a poorly rehearsed skit where the two actors berated each other on stage for having not practiced their skit, or b.) a very well rehearsed skit, in which the actors pretended to be angry and berate one another for having not practiced their skit. Either way I was thoroughly fooled into believing their rage (as was the baby who squirmed off of its dad’s shoulders, frightened by the alarming, although meaningful, bit where the butterfly’s wings are torn off as the butterfly writhes and screams in agony. The baby seemed to take it better than I did).

There was then the routine art-show-live-head-shaving-act and a reading about Britney Spears. I spotted a wolf in the crowd and I knew the music was coming. Well, sort of.

It’s incredibly unfortunate that there aren’t as many aspiring sound-gals and guys out there as there are musicians. I know more than a few bands that would really love to have one on board. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from performing it’s that I hate turning knobs and pressing buttons while also trying to remember to smile as I sing lyrics and play chords. That and never piss off your sound operator if upon you one is befallen.

So partly due to the fact that the crux of live-head-shaving-act came from the shock value of audience participated silence while the sound of the electric razor echoed off the brick walls, Evolution Revolution had to wait for their sound check. Therefore the sound check was a bit long, but that’s what happens when you’re trying to play the music and adjust the levels at the same time. In the mean time, the audience had a whole lot of costumes to grin at. A praying mantis mask? Come on, who doesn’t love that? And (by now you know I’m not very good at animal costume identification, so I’m not sure if it was a rooster or a chicken, but either way…) the rooster/chicken was totally styling, and that foxy lioness… Grrrr. I’m also a sucker for mopey-dog percussionists with glasses. I looked around for the kids to see if they were loving it as much as I was, but by that time they’d gone home to bed.

Maybe it was the free red wine I was drinking (man I hope it was free, because I didn’t pay nobody) but I appear only to remember them playing three or four songs, which does not include their dance party jam at set’s end, featuring Salt ‘n’ Peppa’s Push It. I was really impressed with the Rooster’s uncanny ability to sing the bit that goes “S-S-S-Salt and Peppa’s here.” But I do know that a large majority of the show was spent with the wolf on a wrestling mat, occasionally picking up the mic to croon out a freestyle while the rest of the band jammed along.

When the band did play their songs they were tight, obviously well rehearsed, and fit into concentric circles of both danceable toe tapping music as well as singalongalbe melodic tunes. My only complaint was that there wasn’t more. But that’s a good thing. Their music was high-class, and that made me want seconds. Instead I saw what Evolution Revolution’s regular show goers consider a priceless wrestling match, all accompanied by six talented musicians dressed in animal costumes. I guess that’s what the infamous Evolution Revolution is all about. You never know if you’re going to get a show chock full of well-written, meticulously rehearsed songs, or if you’re going to get a different type of adventure altogether. Hey, I’ve paid $40 a show to follow bands who night after night haven’t been as entertaining.

International Women’s Day Art Show, microrevolt: http://microrevolt.org/reblog/archives/2007/02/-the-8th-of-mar.html
Evolution Revolution: www.myspace.com/evolutionrevolution

The Closing of America’s Oldest Market

A Farewell To Arthur's Market

He pointed at the exposed brick wall from where he was seated at the table.
“Over there was the deli. We used to come and get sandwiches. And they always had great big barrels full of pickles.” Jenny’s grandfather hadn’t been inside Arthur’s Market since he was a boy. He had come out this time to watch his granddaughter play the old piano that was tucked in alongside shelves of coffee, pasta sauce, loose rolls of toilet paper and cereal. The piano was adjacent to the old deli wall.
“We used to walk down here to get icecreams when Judy lived in the Stockade,” Jen’s uncle added, recounting for us the arrangement of the old shop some thirty years after his father had bought pickles at the deli.
As we looked at it we imagined that past. What we saw however was the quaint coffee shop and performance space we’d come to play at, skirted with just enough corner market products to officially hang on to the distinction of America’s oldest market.
Outside the sign reads: Arthur’s Market since 1795.
In all of my time performing music there are few places I’ve played at that are as comfortable and homey as Arthur’s Market. Arranged more like a family living room than a café, Arthur’s inherently creates a sense of welcome relaxation for all artists who come to play on the throw carpet tucked in beside cozy couches and armchairs.
It’s the only café/market that makes me feel funny when my shoes are on inside. Curling up on a couch or even crazy legged at the table I kick off my red corduroy shoes like I would at home.
I admire the art for sale that poses as the market’s décor, I pick up a book from off the coffee table, or I dance throughout the roomy market to the sounds of the Hobo Banned.
Saturday night March 17^th, members of the B3nson Collective stormed Arthur’s Market with an eclectic mix of joyously melancholic indie folk. The show was bookended by B3nson Collective members Sgt. Dunbar and The Hobo Banned and We Are Jeneric, with a middle set played by country western yodeler Corey Hough. The only place I’ve ever seen a bigger pile of instruments was in my middle school band room.
It was the third and final of the B3nson Collective’s monthly Arthur’s Market gigs.
Within a month the oldest market in America will be a restaurant as Arthur’s Market passes out of the hands of its current ownership. Richard Genest,, who also owns the Moon and River Café just down the street, chose not to comment on the closing of the market.
I spoke to him over the phone, but instead of talking about the store’s closing he chose to pass along his personal compliments about the energy of the music scene he loves so much, the scene in which the B3nson Collective has become a monthly staple. He was able to express only the joy that he sees in musicians that play at his establishments.
In my many casual conversations with Richard he always talks about the joy of music in grand statements. He believes that music is what our country needs in order to heal. And you can’t help but agree and nod your head as if listening to a health practitioner prescribe for you your medicine. And it feels good to think that my love for music might be a remedy for the ills of our country’s postindustrial and postmodern psychological depression.
In his compliments for the musicians, I can’t help but think about Richard’s role in the music scene. As owner of two coffee shops he built a nest for musicians to land at. He built a social center for people to flock to: a hub of music, comfort, food, and drink. He gave us the space to fill his prescription.
As a market, however, the Arthur’s Market we played at on Saturday was just barely hanging on to the old model. Its small selection of fresh produce, its 2/3rds empty refrigerator, its three bottles of olive oil were displayed more to allow the Market to keep the title as oldest market in America than to serve the community as a corner market. And as it transforms into a restaurant we are made to watch the last breath of the way things were in this country.
Before the automobile drove the middle class out to the suburbs and into their single-family homes the corner market used to be at the heart of the vibrant cities of the past; cities where people worked and lived. The corner market was where a community shopped, saw each other, passed rumors, cracked jokes. The city was full of neighborhoods where you could walk to buy anything you might need. This is what I imagine as I think about the end of Arthur’s Market.
To watch an eccentric music venue go is to watch one kind of community get the pinch. But to watch America’s oldest corner market go is to be allowed one more time to contemplate the death of America’s cities. When Richard prescribes music as the cure for America I wonder if he really means to prescribe the old sense of community we’ve lost with the advent of suburbia. The joy of live music brings people back to the downtown for a night of celebration, but a city full of things you can walk to and from –full of middle class people spending their hard earned cash at family stores, where proprietors exchange stories with their customers who are also their neighbors, where the people live more intimately together –it seems to me that this was what Richard’s real prescription might be.
Thankfully, Schenectady’s Stockade District will not be void of live music after Arthur’s Market closes, nor will it be void of Richard who will continue to run the charming Moon and River Café just down the road. The B3nson Collective and many, many other area musicians will continue to play the small coffee shop on South Ferry St.
I’ve only known Arthur’s Market for three months but I’ve come to love the place like a home. To hear that it’s changing hands is heartbreaking. Like many of the musicians in the Capital Region I will mourn the loss of one of the area’s most charming venues.
Goodbye Arthur’s Market and thanks for the out of tune piano, the comfy retro couches, the house drum set, the bathroom in the kitchen, the table of fresh fruits and veggies, and the home away from home atmosphere.
Arthur’s Market, you will certainly be missed.

Arthur’s Market & Moon and River Café: http://arthurs.moonandrivercafe.com/
Moon & River Café Calendar: http://www.moonandrivercafe.com/calend.htm
Fortifying the Stockade: http://www.historicstockade.com/historycenter/arthursmarket.htm
I Spy Schenectady: http://www.mvls.info/ispy/schenectady/sch_site12.html
The B3nson Collective: www.soundtosite.net/b3nson