Q&A with Stacy Webster of The Mayflies

The Mayflies released their newest album in 2009 and all news has been good news.  The following is a Q&A with the band’s frontman, Stacy Webster:

What does the next year look like for The Mayflies?

We will be recording a new album, and trying to book more festivals for next summer. That’s where the fun is!

How has the group changed after adjustments in instrumentation and new band members?

I’m really enjoying this new line-up! We have definitely become way less bluegrass oriented and are much more into grooves now.  Funny, though, because the instruments we brought in are still instruments associated with bluegrass (fiddle and mandolin) but we are definitely playing rock and groove music. For me, this really opens up the improvisational possibilities in the music, which is what I really dig in music.

What stands out about the new album (A Thousand Small Things)

 

2009 Album

 

 for you? 

For me, James Robinson’s drumming really is the centerpiece. He is rolling thunder on this record. On many of the songs, he actually laid down the drum part without any vocals or guitar there to guide him through the arrangements, because I was absent from the session one day. It’s crazy…he just sang them in his head and knocked out the drum part. He’s amazing.

What is the bands’ writing process?  Does the music come first? 

Well, we arrange as a group, pretty organically. We all write songs, and Patrick Bloom (who co-founded the band with me) still contributes material too. So every writer has a different process. Patrick writes music first and then lays lyrics on it. I tend to write lyrics and music in tandem. Not sure about the other’s processes though.

What is it like to have non-band members writing for The Mayflies?

Well, Patrick is really kind of a band member…he co-founded the band and played with us for years, so he knows how I sing and how I play really well…his songs fit so naturally into my heart and mind because I’ve been playing songs he’s written since we met in 1992. He is to us, like Robert Hunter was to the Grateful Dead.

Are there any music scenes, other than Iowa City, that have felt like home?

Yes…Boulder was a great music scene for me. I met Patrick there, and I wrote a lot of songs there too. I played a ton of solo coffeehouse gigs back then. There were an amazing amount of great players and writers in that town. I love taking The Mayflies back there for tours…iot does feel like coming home.

What has the band been up to since the album was released?

We took a hiatus through most of the winter after it was released, so we could work in the new players. Since our banjo player quit without notice, we were kind of forced to. This summer we got back in the saddle and have been playing the best shows of our career so far. It’s very exciting for all of us.

What do you think fans may not know about you and the Mayflies?

That’s a stumper! None of us are cultists or wizards….or ex-cons….or tax evaders…..well, maybe that last one. Our drummer’s Mother is a world famous author….Marilynne Robinson. She’s a pulitzer prize winner. Other than that we’re pretty un-news worthy!

Which bands have been specifically memorable to perform with? 

Cornmeal was a very fun band to play with…they tear it up. Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was a treat…we got to play for 12,000 people, and they were incredibly gracious folks.

Are there any venues or bands that you aim to work with in the years to come?

Any and all!!! World domination! Seriously, my dream would be to play at The Fillmore in San Francisco with the surviving members of The Dead. Who knows what the future holds?

What is the best part about performing in The Mayflies?

These people are family to me. We all love each other and support each other and we laugh a LOT. When we play music together we can read each other so well, that we telegraph musical ideas to one another on stage…it’s very connected, and that can make you walk away from a show feeling spiritually fulfilled. That’s pretty great.

Public Property: Facing the Future of Reggae

The Iowa City, Iowa, band’s new album, “Work To Do”, has a polished sound that begins with a solid get-happy/dance-now immediacy and resolves with a roots-bass on/off-time dub influenced ambience.  The production of each song suits Public Property very well; reggae of this caliber is meant for the live experience, and the feeling comes through this disk, into your headphones, as if the listener was there with the band.  At the start of it, the first lyrics heard are “Get ready….”  Make no mistake of song placement, here.  It could be coincidence; nonetheless, one listen of this record will convince fans that Public Property has grasped their sound tighter than a one-drop.  Those who are hearing this for the first time need to get ready; the new leaf to turn over.

In the last year, the group has gone through a few changes in members, yet they have kept  momentum a priority and rocked reggae to each town awaiting Public Property’s next show.  “Movement” was the 2006 release; home of several local hits and common requests, such as “Follow,” “On My Way,” and “Breakdown.”  The 2006 record is full of brilliant writing, clever instrumental precision, and a constant steady flow of feel-good, politically awakening, substance from one tune to the next.  Although the quality is impressive, the “Movement” disc lacks a certain level of professionalism that “Work To Do” makes look easy.  A more vivid production quality is what Public Property followers have been waiting for; a well-deserved tip of the hat for the time, patience, and resourcefulness taken in effort to create such a sound.

In addition to the general grade of the album, vocals on this album have grown individually and collectively; there is a new sense of maturity in lead singer, David Bess’, tone and confidence.  After performances with such legends as Toots and the Maytals, Public Property has reached out with the title track of the new album featuring the one and only Frederick “Toots” Hibbert.

Politically, this record is a shared voice of the people.  Musically, each track encourages the listener to dance until they wake up to a new day.  Public Property has done their work and created a phenomenal album; more need to hear of its existence.  Several new songs are absolute hits, on a wider scale than their past releases.  The future of reggae looks forward to their successful journey.

* Hear more of them at www.publicprop.com

A Shoulder-to-Shoulder Debut

The Modern Jazz Sextet

The Modern Jazz Sextet was simply fantastic. As there were several people who showed up on time, not to miss their first show, any fashionably late guests treaded up the back porch of a house in residential Minneapolis, Minnesota, to find a floor packed with smiling faces dancing to popular 80’s hits from a set of speakers. Making way through the body-movers and conversationalists led to a stairway. On your way down to a dimly lit basement, there were “men’s swimsuit edition” playing cards – stuck to the wall for viewing pleasure or surprising bafflement. Turning the corner, at the feet of the stairway was a shock. Not only was this band new and different, they also had an instant college-kid-fan-base. It was like a summer blockbuster hit, where kids do nothing but throw house parties, and everyone is either dancing, chatting, or watching a band they can’t get enough of – except less about fashion and more about experimental music & feeling.

At first listen, Sigur Ros, of Iceland, came to mind.  The guitarist, Sean Hickey, was twisting knobs on an electrical device, and playing jazzy seventh chords on top of a female vocalist’s falsetto/reverb-driven hum.  It wasn’t until the second track of the evening, when listeners felt the versatility of The Modern Jazz Sextet.  This time, Minneapolis’ own experimental jazz group, Happy Apple (renowned throughout the world for their unique offbeat rhythms and Coltrane-on-crack saxophone trills) sounded strikingly similar to what we were hearing – except this different.  They were tight, sounded practiced, and in addition, each band member was independent to their specific role.

For approximately an hour, the long dark tunnel of a basement was crowded from one wall to the feet of the band, as they played an intimate show for their friends, and their friends’ friends. Every song was different, and included assorted instrumentation; everything from a guitar or keyboard to pieces of a drum set and children’s toys were used. The Modern Jazz Sextet has taken a short break since this chilly winter session. However, the members are soon to reconvene, so stay tuned. Minnesotans should be proud of this musical gem.

George Clinton @ First Avenue

P-Funk

Pre-show
George Clinton show: tonight. With any luck, I will be in the front row of a very congested First Avenue within the next hour and a half. Energy is sure to be bouncing off the walls of this venue when the half ecstatic, or half ignorant, or half drunk, or half under-age, or half “I was there…”-hippie folk, or half drugged out fans of either what’s cool or what’s cut sprint for the Funkmaster to begin. Everyone at a show is coming for one of the following reasons: To experience the legend (my personal favorite), to try a craze that is new to them (a respectable second favorite – educating one’s self on a new music scene is such a beautiful thing), to dance until sweat-less (also very well worth it and guaranteed – if you can dig the music), to take a date to a packed place full of sexual dancing and funk beats (in which they might as well just go listen to a $2 DJ), or because they thought it simply sounded fun. The latter is almost the most exciting to watch, when at a show like this, because I have attained one amazing P-Funk All-stars show, and I am more thrilled, now, to watch others “freak” over the happenings.
And….. we’re off.
Post-show
Front and center, with a view of the entire Parliament crew, equipment fired and ready, and a sea of fans pushing up against the gate; this is the perfect spot to watch any high-energy show, like this one. For those who have seen George Clinton before, there’s nothing new about his band warming up the crowd for a good half hour before George comes out for all to see, with a series of shorts strides and hands up – working the crowd into clapping and power-fisting in the name of funk.
Kendra Foster began the opening groove sounds, this time around, in an bright green asian-style dress, finger snapping and hand clapping to hard grooves like she was taking us all to church. After her hit, “Bounce to This,” performed later that night, she has moved into high rank as a heavy-hitter within this eclectic ensemble of showmen and so-called funk legends. Members of P-Funk All-Stars, and Funkadelic, who are generally interchangeable and somewhat confusing to separate to most, were all present, in different songs during this performance. An absolute crowd pleaser, who impressed George Clinton as a 17 year old guitar player back in the early 1970’s, is the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame-r, Michael Hampton. He is known for his perfection of “Maggot Brain” that was originally done by Eddie Hazel; an epic note-for-note solo/ballad, full of long grooves over a minimal chord vamping progression. His solid performance made the floor scream and time stopped flat with mouths dropped.
Kendra Foster was not – as anyone can guess – the only one clothed for a vibrant and colorful party. George had a dreaded mop-top rainbow of extensions running through his hair that looked like he was dipped in a hundred paint buckets, hidden back stage. Every back up singer had their own unique voice and style; with gospel influence to R&B articulation, or between biker-gear and fedora caps, the band stood out like it was the last show of their lives (so why go quietly?). First Avenue had a perfect show for the Funkadelic dynasty. George Clinton, now in his 60s, is far from done touring – but waiting too long for a show like this is just pointless. Aside from bringing the funk, they bring one of the largest house parties to you, for a low/low price of $25.99. Do it.

“Mind Ink”

The more I read, of greats, of heroes, from thought provokers, and of those who inspire, the more I feel like I’m finding myself. I know who I am and what my long-distance “me” looks like, in my mind, but my voice on paper is a trickier handle to grasp. In anything difficult, tedious, or theoretically more important, it is easy to over-think a thought, to say the least. When I took Spanish, in high school, I knew what I wanted to say and how to say it – especially towards the end of my studies, but if I tried too much to decipher the correct phrasing, I would stumble over grammar and land head first into what tasted like my first sip of the language. It was only when I got excited and thoroughly involved in a conversation when I forgot what I was doing and realized I was speaking with ease.

I am now attempting to stop attempting, in a sense. Less thought, more feeling, big ideas, heavy conviction, and expressing myself from the gut. There is a beauty to the editing process. If I, as a writer (which I can finally begin to call myself), put all my words down with assurance of the voice that is mine, then I can always take out the ugliness at a later time. I may even grow on some of the ugly aspects of what I wrote, if it is not necessarily “proper” or “traditional”, what is written is still a voice I own.

My new term, or food for thought, when preparing to write, is “Mind Ink.” What I am thinking is honest, sincere, important for the moment, and valuable to one perspective or another, to someone or another – if not for the success and satisfaction of my future self. Some of what I write down can be used for a specific clip, or another – depending on how relevant it turns out to be when I am finished and entering the editing process. Writers that I enjoy reading the most have an edge that is almost producing envy within me. However, I am not envious – I am astounded and systematically analyzing their crafted lingo. I ask myself questions like: What word choices are they using to describe things differently than the average writers? What gives their voices a distinction from others? How do they introduce a topic and guide readers with stories or descriptions? These questions are helping me analyze my own work.

Similar to how I approached lead guitar, I mimic leaders of the art within practice settings and finally, when the practice concludes, I show my own takes on things. BB King once said how he hates when kids are blunt with their copycat BB King guitar licks, and I cannot blame him for a second. For the love ______ (you name it), who cares if they sound like him? It’s not like he is going to care from a personal “you stole my lick” standpoint.  Everyone and their grandmother can pick out BB King’s sound, even if they had to guess – and he has nothing to lose from copy-cats.  Sadly, the copycats, themselves, have something to lose. Learning from greats by mimicry can be helpful only if one uses their new ideas and structures to create something of their own. I plan on doing just that. One foot after the other, I am getting to know my voice more closely – with the help of steady typing fingers upon keys, musical compilations of others’ writings in my earphones, and a little fruitful mind ink – I’m beginning to hear it for the first time.

Expressing Excellence

Music is often seen as a language we use to convey ideas when our spoken terminology lacks justice. When the high-school freshman cannot conjure up the right way to tell his girlfriend how he feels, he may turn up Al Green’s “What Is This Feeling.” Similarly, when one gets that job they have been waiting for their whole life, they can have trouble expressing how irresistibly happy they are – so why not let “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag” declare satisfaction? Every emotion is shared around the world. Every song ever written includes at least one emotion we all know, too well. Sometimes the relation of your first listening experience for a specific song can trigger the same feeling or thoughts that you had at that time. However, the best of times, in live music, can be maddening. Consider the following hypothetical story:
A woman has been waiting for years to attend a Stevie Wonder concert. The opener was TBA, and she has no idea who will be playing, but her general admission ticket has her scooting up to the front row like her life depended on it. Now, she is front and center at her favorite artist’s biggest performance in years. “How could this get any better?” she asks herself – until Ray Charles graced the stage with a quick set. Her eyes are popping out of her head in amazement. The crowd is cheerful and appreciative for the opportunity to share the moment with such artists. This woman cannot believe Stevie is playing all of her favorite songs and a few she hadn’t heard before – but the all seem to be dedicated to her, in some mystical coincidence. Hammering the keys with the comfort of his rigid hands – Stevie has played these songs a billion times – but the woman swears their couldn’t have been a better night.
Recollecting the historical moment, after Ray Charles’ unforgettable passing, and looking back in her mind for the electricity that flowed through the crowd that night – the woman has trouble expressing herself to a close friend about how it felt. Such a phenomenal evening, full of dancing ‘til breathless, singing ‘til voiceless, and cheering from head to toe.
This brings us to a worthy question: How do listeners express the musical experiences meaning the most to them? If the woman was asked to describe her excitement for the show to come to town, she could have played her favorite Stevie Wonder tune for someone, but is there a way for her to communicate such an involved experience to someone as a live show that rocked the crowd with ease? Would a studio track of “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” truly articulate the goose bumps she received during a live performance of the same song? When the musician is sweating from a groove three feet away, it is more than difficult for the average listener to find a universal language describing the story of their experience.
Music publications, of all kinds, are helping people connect and express their grudges and we’re-not-worthy’s to other fans – either by magazine, newspaper, internet, or what have you – and this does make things easier. Like opinions can back each other up or say that one word that helps create a message another writer was trying to make. Yet, still, there seems to lack a vocabulary for the right words. The best words. The words to describe that OH MY GOD moment – where you couldn’t be happier and time slows down to a forceful halt. Those are the words worth searching for – not perfection, simply the best for an individual experience. As a music journalist, this quest is most definitely in the liner notes of the job description – covering the most excellent art and music with the highest level of literary excellence.

TV On The Radio’s Scientific Experience

On the DGC/Interscope label, DEAR SCIENCE comes into a world of music where variety is welcomed with open arms. Beginning with the upbeat drum rhythms, steady claps, and tension building vocal harmony of “Halfway Home,” TV On The Radio’s new album leaves us with a climactic marching-band-like finish dubbed “Lover’s Day.” At first listen, any fan will be mind-blown with the way this group has stepped up and taken the genre-pool by the horns. Listeners are to look forward to slow pulsating harmonies and immaculate illusions of chaos. In track two, “Crying,” there are hints of disco with R&B undertones. TV’s new single, “Dancing Choose” is a new age punk style accompanied by trails of pop and dance beats. In addition, this big leap into genre mixing could not leave behind a darker funk influence to change things up. For example, the titles most likely to grow on new TV On The Radio enthusiasts are sure to be “Red Dress” and “DLZ.” This Brooklyn band told the world they were not going anywhere but up when they released their 1994 hit “Staring At The Sun.” However, there is no doubt that this group has historically marked the industry with an alarming wail and no looking back, as of September 23rd, 2008.

The Pharaohs? I’m For ‘Em.

What do you get when you combine non-conventional rhythm, twin brothers, a gong, vocal harmony, unique album artwork, a comedy program, and an Egyptian rabbit? The answer is… a progressive rock band from the Twin Cities area identifying themselves as The Pharaohs Of Rhythm. On December 3rd, The Pharaohs spent their evening making jaws drop at the 400 Bar in Minneapolis. Eavesdropping from listeners led to the simple question: “Why are there not more people hearing this?”After speaking with the band, bassist Brian David noted how their best show yet “would definitely have to be one of the 7th St. Entry performances.” However, the crowd was not too bad for a cold weekday, at the 400 Bar, and with less time to promote this show, The Pharaohs thought the vibe was equally pleasing.
As an icon, their shirts are centered with one image – a rabbit with an Egyptian pharaoh’s cap. This idea is connected to one of their earliest tracks, “The Rabbit,” and the song derived from Andy and John Juhl’s, old VW car. Every song has a message, whether it is comical or a serious political statement. They are fans of progressive rock favorites (i.e. King Crimson, Genesis, Spock’s Beard, etc.), but John is partial to a quote from YES’ keyboardist: “Take the music seriously, but don’t take yourself too seriously.” For an idea of what they mean, visit their website to view “Pharaohs Forum” episodes at http://www.pharaohsofrhythm.com.
“What’s next?” They told the Decibel that a new album is bound to come shortly and the band is currently working on shows in the area for January and February. The Pharaohs Of Rhythm are a must see rock group for all who enjoy well crafted guitar licks, dynamic driven drum solos and a funky bass player who busts out a flute for kicks.

Radio (Written 11/14/08)

It has been years since radio thrived off concert-goers’ support and it has been years since radio was the best source for new music. Nowadays, most people I talk to, say that they “hate the radio” and only listen to college stations or public radio broadcasting for more “underground music.”
We have more technology than ever before in the music industry. There has never been such a powerful wave of new music flowing from one edge of the world to another. Nonetheless, you cannot turn on a public radio station without hearing a tune you detest.
How can we make this work better? What would make radio stations happy in this day and age? Money is everything to sponsors, etc., but there must be some fresh idea to get great music back on the air. Why is every station playing the same 50 hits (which everyone seems to get sick of except junior high kids)?

P.S. What is it like to be a DJ in today’s radio age?