The Dead Kenny Gs: Operation Long Leash (The Royal Potato Family, 3/15/11)

The Dead Kenny Gs: "Black Truman (Harry the Hottentot)"

Smooth-jazz lovers beware.  As an antidote to the polished alto saxophones and rarely improvised easy-listening jams of adult contemporary music, eccentric jazz trio The Dead Kenny Gs has released its second album, Operation Long Leash.  Given its play-on-words moniker that simultaneously drives a sock down the mouth of smooth-jazz king Kenny G and recalls the early '80s hardcore-punk band The Dead Kennedys, the powerhouse trio taps into a sound that fuses jazz and punk.  It’s a crazy mix that works surprisingly well, played intensely by a group that has the skill and knowledge to pull it off.

Composed of three of the members of legendary Seattle-based Critters Buggin — bassist Brad Houser, drummer and vibraphonist Mike Dillon, and saxophonist Skerik — the band uses its genre-mashing experience to anchor it all down.  The trio has played in countless projects together, including all three in The Black Frames, and Dillon and Skerik comprise half of Garage a Trois.  Needless to say, the three have run in the same circles for more than two decades, playing hybrid styles that are everything but conservative.

For Operation Long Leash, the trio is hostile and straightforward in fusing elements of free jazz, Afrobeat, punk, metal, and anything else that it feels like throwing in the mix.  Behind the hilarious name and the curly dark wigs, there are some serious chops at work.  Switching between instruments and utilizing a healthy selection of effect pedals, it’s sometimes hard to believe that there are only three musicians — and forget trying to decipher who’s playing what.

Sounding more like a noise-rock record, the 10-song set comes off like a swift punch to the face, making clear the band’s mission of subverting the restraints of the respected genres.  The deeper you get into the record, the more liberated the music becomes, and a sense that anything is possible emerges by the end.

Long-time collaborator and guitar virtuoso Charlie Hunter lends his style on the raw funk tune “Black Truman (Harry the Hottentot).”  The trio has mastered the mixing and matching of different sounds; even on this track alone, there is so much happening with harmony, timbre, and the nuances of melody.  Skerik rocks his saxophone in funky staccato bursts, an attack that sounds as raw as Hunter’s shape-shifting guitar riffs.  A wide variety of percussion instruments keep the rhythm inherently Afrobeat influenced, and some spacey electronic elements propel the band into some George Clinton-tinged P-funk.

“Melvin Jones” has the band bouncing back and forth between thrash, Balkan folk, and Klezmer styles, and switching time signatures between each section.  The effect is jarring, almost resembling a music form from a strange, dystopian future.  Like the cross-section where Black Flag and Albert Ayler would meet, the track is ferocious in sonic exploration, while bringing Eastern European melody lines to the forefront.

Though the tracks are as much informed by Jesus Lizard as they are by Roshaan Roland Kirk, they are entirely distinct to the DKG sound.  Songs have everyone playing frantically, making all kinds of disparate negotiations at once — whether it’s Skerik’s Klezmer sax lines with Dillon’s speed-metal drumming on “Sweatbox,” the mad electronic atmospherics with the gritty piano keys on “Bucky Balls (Spherical Fullerene),” or Dillon’s funk-infused vocal growls on “Black Death.”

Operation Long Leash's producer, Randall Dunn (Sunn O))), Earth), has worked with Houser, Dillon, and Skerik through Critters Buggin in the past, but he’s also worked with some of the heaviest metal bands in the world.  The result is a well-conceived sound that makes the punk-rock and free-jazz connection that people rarely make.  Not for the soft at heart, Operation Long Leash is aggressive, unrelenting, and designed to kill your speakers.

Young Widows

Young Widows: "Future Heart"

Though not a strict departure from previous material, the new album by post-hardcore outfit Young Widows displays a different phase of the band's career. Calling it a “progression” might apply regressive traits to its first two albums, but In and Out of Youth and Lightness turns down the Cro-Magnon wallop and continues the band’s history of accomplished noise rock.

Its last album, Old Wounds, was a mostly live recording by Kurt Ballou (Converge, Coliseum, Pygmy Lush). In contrast, the new album was produced by the band and Kevin Ratterman (My Morning Jacket) at The Funeral Home in its hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. Guitarist and vocalist Evan Patterson joined us to answer a few questions about the band's songwriting process and what bands people should check out.

How do you describe your music?

I don’t, but if you were a clerk at a gas station, I would tell you that we are a rock band. That’s as far as I can go.

On the new album, there's a bit of a weird blues influence — less Jesus Lizard pummel and more of a Liars atmospheric vibe. What did you want to do new or different? What did you want to keep the same?

Music has to progress. There are no specific influences. The goal with this album was to find my voice, and that was wholeheartedly achieved. Lyrically, [they're] the heaviest and most affective songs that I’ve created. Old blues has that same effect on me. It speaks to me. The bridge between modern rock music and blues is a short one, and it’s inevitable that those characteristics will be riding in the same vehicle to achieve certain goals.

How do you write songs? Are songs brought in by individuals, or are they worked out through collective rehearsals?

Most the songs are created through one part — whether it being drums, bass, or guitar — [and] we jam the ideas until the song comes together. It can be a single rehearsal or 30 rehearsals, but the mood of the song is the deciding factor of if we are going to keep a song around to document or ditch it.

Based on the live recording, the songs on Old Wounds must have been fully worked out before they were captured. Did you do more writing “in the studio” with In and Out?

We don’t write any music in the studio. Maybe a minor change, but the songs are as close to complete as possible when entering the studio. Lyrically, the songs changed quite a bit in the studio. Our excessive stage volume doesn’t lend itself to being able to audibly hear the final outcome.

How would you compare the state of the band during your most recent recording compared to the past?

Open and focused.

What other current bands should we paying more attention to?

My Disco, Phantom Family Halo, Flying Horseman, Helms Alee, Cave, Kings Daughters and Sons, Bill Callahan, Mick Harvey. On that note, someone needs to do a piece on Crime and the City Solution.

In that time, the group has become known for its hybrid of hardcore, metal, and rock’n’roll, a heavy combination carrying the torch of luminaries such as the Jesus Lizard, Unsane, and the Melvins. After three albums, beginning with Harshing Your Mellow (Dopamine/Seventh Rule) in 2001, Akimbo signed to Biafra’s Alternative Tentacles and released Forging Steel and Laying Stone in January 2006 before immediately heading back into the studio. Armed with then-new guitarist Aaron Walters and recording engineer/Lords’ front man Chris Owens, Akimbo came out victorious with not one, but two, stellar full-lengths.

Damm calls the double recording session “an awesome moment for us,” but that’s putting it mildly. When Navigating the Bronze (Alternative Tentacles) was released in August 2007, it was arguably the group’s best and heaviest album to date. The second record (Akimbo’s sixth altogether), Jersey Shores, wouldn’t arrive until over a year later, via Neurot Records.

Jersey Shores is a concept record based of a real-life horror story. “The concept,” explains the band via its website, “is that ‘nature will fuck you up.’ The theme is ‘sharks, in particular, will totally fuck you up.’” The album is rooted in the events surrounding a series of unprovoked shark attacks that occurred along the New Jersey coastline in the summer of 1916. The shark (or sharks — no one knows for sure) claimed the lives of four people and severely maimed a fifth. In their time, the attacks caused unparalleled mass hysteria. Later on, they provided the inspiration for Jaws.

Akimbo bassist/singer Jon Weisnewski’s taste for mythological references and storytelling had long been apparent in the band’s catalog, evidenced by songs like Elephantine’s “Bitten from the Thigh of Zeus” and Navigating’s “Wizard van Wizard.” It is unsurprising that he had been toying with the idea of a concept album for a long time.

“When we were writing the music, I was naturally playing with thematic elements. It seemed like some good material to base a concept record around. I’ve always been like a little kid. You know how kids get into dinosaurs and shit? I was reading a book called Twelve Days of Terror by Richard Fernicola (the full title is Twelve Days of Terror: A Definitive Investigation of the 1916 New Jersey Shark Attacks), and it kind of blew me away.”

Starting out with a few scenes and ideas, he recalls, “Once I really started writing Jersey Shores, I had it all in my head, and it was just a matter of figuring out the kinks.” Weisnewski centered the lyrics on what he considered to be the most profound moment in the story. During the third and final shark attack, a child named Lester Stillwell was attacked and killed, along with his would-be rescuer. Another boy was bitten upstream just minutes later. When word got out, all hell broke loose.

Music based on shark attacks must be inherently dramatic, but much of the tension found on Jersey Shores derives from the intense reaction of the public, heightened by a media circus in the wake of the attacks. Weisnewski points out, “You have to keep in mind that there was nothing about marine biology. Nobody knew about ocean creatures. You know that scene in Jaws when they go out searching for the shark? The same thing happened there. They were dynamiting the water. I found these crazy photos of carcasses upon carcasses of sharks. It was also during World War I, and people wondered if the sharks were some sort of secret weapon from the Germans.”

In six tracks, clocking in at forty-eight minutes, Akimbo paints descriptive images despite Weisnewski’s occasionally indecipherable (but awesome) screams. It is easy to follow the story as guitar and bass riffs ebb and flow like ocean tides, and scenes seamlessly run from one to the next. “Matawan,” named for the small, working town where Stillwell was killed, sets the story in motion. All is calm, but a sense of uneasiness becomes more and more pervasive. Stories of the first two victims circulate (“Bruder Vansant”). Tension has already mounted by the time the town suffers its own casualties and people begin to take matters into their own hands.

The plodding bass line on “Rogue” is reminiscent of a heartbeat ringing in the ears of someone who is scared out of his or her mind. Twelve-minute instrumental closer “Jersey Shores” revisits earlier themes and sees a return to daily life, but following the attacks’ bloody aftermath, the sound of rolling waves hardly feels tranquil.

The story of the New Jersey shark attacks may be nearly one hundred years old, but the sensationalistic media coverage and resultant public outcry surrounding such a tragic event sounds eerily familiar. Damm says that the album isn’t a comment on anything happening in the current world, but he admits, “There are definitely parallels, like with color coding for terrorism levels. But we don’t really mix politics with the band. It’s not something that has interested us.”

Even more impressive than successfully conquering a hardcore concept album is the fact that Akimbo somehow managed to not play it for anyone outside its circle in the last year. If you’ve ever killed a man in cold blood and need to get the guilt off your chest, tell these guys; they obviously know how to keep a secret. The band will finally debut Jersey Shores live in its entirety this September, and its members can’t wait. Weisnewski says that he is particularly proud of the album. “For me personally, it’s a really exciting record,” he says. “I have a lot of attachment to it. Every time I play it at practice, it’s an experience. I’m excited.”

Grails: Doomsdayer's Holiday (Temporary Residence Limited)

Fusing Indian music, 1970s film noir, and psychedelic sounds into heavy acoustic and electric rock, Portland's Grails are a wonderful anomaly. Doomsdayer's Holiday, as its name implies, cranks the group's heaviness beyond recent levels without losing its haunting, compelling melodies.

Grails: \"Reincarnation Blues\"

Earthless: Live At Roadburn (Tee Pee)
At the 2008 edition of the annual Roadburn Festival in Holland (spring break for anyone into heavy underground rock), San Diego psych-rock trio Earthless gave an impromptu headlining performance for 2,000 fans, having originally been scheduled at a venue one-tenth the size. Not only did its hypnotic, four-song, hour-and-a-half set blow away the crowd, but on recording it beautifully captures the energy and magnitude of the stellar live show.

Young Widows: Old Wounds (Temporary Residence Limited)

Old Wounds is the second album from Louisville rockers Young Widows since transforming from Breather Resist. Sporting an extra dose of heaviness, the disc opens with "Took a Turn," slowly building around a gritty, garage-floor bass riff before bursting with post-rock drums, multi-layered guitars, and reverberated shouts.

Throughout, the album changes tone and time at will like a lumbering, newly un-caged beast, while a primordial jungle pulse beats itself into a frenzy just below the crust.

Young Widows: \"Old Skin\"

Jolie Holland: The Living and The Dead (Anti-)
On her third solo album, Texas-born songstress Jolie Holland blends a variety of regional American folk styles. Topped with creamy vocals and bittersweet lyrics, tracks such as dark-toned "Fox In Its Hole" and wistful "Love Henry" make a long-lasting impression.

Jolie Holland: "Old Fashion Morphine"

Fucked Up: The Chemistry of Common Life (Matador)

The newest full-length from punk contrarians Fucked Up moves through more variety of atmosphere than standard punk/hardcore, with peaceful, otherworldly intros and layers and layers of guitar-more than seventy guitar tracks at one point (or so they say…).

There's less stop-start fury than 2006 release Hidden World-more sheets of sound. "Golden Seal" sounds like a darker Sigur Rós, or even Jean Michel Jarre.

Fucked Up: \"No Epiphany\"

Marnie Stern: This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That (Kill Rock Stars)

Backed again by untamed drumming beast Zach Hill, guitarist/singer Marnie Stern issues her sophomore effort with more frantic, high-pitched fret work, quirky vocals, and – through the carefully constructed din – catchy melodies.

Marnie Stern: \"Transformer\"

Hauschka: Ferndorf (FatCat)

German pianist and composer Volker Bertelmann, here known as Hauschka, uses a decade of classical studies as his musical foundation. With that, home-rigged piano effects, and additional acoustic and electric instruments, he combines structural influences of electronica and classical minimalism to create a beautiful minor-key oeuvre.

Hauschka: \"No Wind Today\"

East Coast Avengers: Prison Planet (Brick)

Featuring the outspoken sociopolitical lyrics of rappers Trademarc and Esoteric, East Coast Avengers are more than just skilled rhymers that take aim at rightwing water carriers. The group pastes stirring Romantic violin melodies and portentous soundtrack clips over head-nodding beats, setting an appropriate mood for its imperative lyrical content.

ECA has already taken plenty of heat in the corporate media for releasing the track "Kill Bill O'Reilly," so let's give the group some love.

East Coast Avengers: \"Kill Bill O\'Reilly\"

Desalvo: Mood Poisoner (Rock Action)

Released on Mogwai's Rock Action label, Mood Poisoner may just have influenced the heavy grooves on its label owners' recent record. Based in Glasgow, Desalvo sound as though the Jesus Lizard were a modern hardcore/metal band.

Sun Ra and His Solar Arkestra: Secrets Of The Sun (Atavistic)

A re-mastered and long-lost relic of the Sun Ra vault, Secrets of the Sun is now available from Atavistic 46 years after its release on Saturn Records. And if being available for the first time on CD isn't enough, how does a 17-minute unreleased track sound?

But all that's beginning to change with the recent inclusion of former Jesus Lizard/Scratch Acid vocalist David Yow. Adding Yow to the ensemble has not only heightened the act's profile, stirred up its live show, and brought an entirely new set of fans to the mix, but it's also found Qui producing an incredibly dynamic new album, titled Love's Miracle dropping this fall via Ipecac Recordings. ALARM caught up with Cronk and Yow (who also just finished an instrumental solo album, that he says is "almost orchestral and soundtrack-y and jazzy") to find out just how well the explosive veteran rock frontman plays with others.

How did Qui come together in the first place as a two-piece?

Matt Cronk: We met in high school about fifteen years ago. We went to a performing arts school in Minneapolis and didn't really play together for the first few years before we moved out here. We ended up moving out to L.A. in 2000 with the intent of starting a band. And the reason we started as a two-piece was because we couldn't find anyone to play with, or at least anyone worth a shit. No one was interested in playing the music we wanted to play. We played our first show in 2001 and just kept going at it that way.

How did you meet Qui?

David Yow: We met in the bathroom of the bus station. No, that's not true. It was at some party or something that a mutual friend of ours was having, and we just became friends and they asked me if I'd do a song with them-a Frank Zappa cover. So I said I'll do that, and we practiced more and more, and it sort of organically came about that I was in the band. It's weird for me because if you'd asked me the month before if I would ever be in a band, I would tell you, "Hell no, Waleed!" I never wanted to do this again. I didn't expect to. But these guys are so good at what they do, and I love their guts, so it worked out real nice.

Why were you so opposed to being in another band?

DY: I'm not a real musician. People like the other guys in the Jesus Lizard- they need to play music; it's part of them. I don't think I'm like that. It's not part of me the way it is them. I just had my fill, and I'm old. It's tiring being on tour, and I didn't want to repeat myself. I had no desire to do it again until this came about. Professionally, I do photo retouching. I used to be busy all the time, but it seems like recently I have no work, and so it all kind of fits together. It's like, OK, well, I don't have any work, so I'll just do Qui all the time.

You said you initially didn't want to do any touring. So is the band going to hit the road?

DY: Oh yeah, we're going to hit it real hard. Initially, I told the guys I didn't want to do any real long tours and they said that's cool and stuff. But as time went by, we decided if we're going to do this, let's do it right.

So you're in this for the long haul, then.

DY: Yeah, until one of us dies, I guess.

Coming into this established group, were you at all apprehensive about fucking things up, in a sense?

DY: Oh, yeah. Not only was I afraid of fucking it up, but I was very apprehensive about putting forth ideas. I just felt like my ideas are viable and everything, but I felt like it wasn't my place. I was the new guy. But the three of us work so well together, it's very "liquidy." Most of that has worn off. I'm no longer afraid to tell them what I think about something, and they certainly aren't afraid to tell me about my dumb input.

Though Qui's been together for several years, some people have just discovered your band because they're fans of David, and thus it's like a new band for them. Does it feel like a new band to you?

MC: No, we were doing everything exactly the same way we always have. But it's nice that people are paying attention.

Is the band a full-time venture?

MC: Absolutely.

And how long has it been a full-time project?

MC: For Paul and I, we've been attempting to make it a full-time thing for as long as we've been doing it. And then as soon as David officially joined the band, it was like if we're going to do it, we're doing it all the way. We all have day jobs, but we're going on tour for three months this fall and, God willing, we'll come home with enough money to live until we go out on the next one.

How do you go about your songwriting and how has it changed?

DY: Well, the terminology is always kind of vague, because they actually speak in musical terms, and I just sort of talk about, "You know that part that goes ‘da-da-da-da-da,' let's do that twice." And when I say I'm not a musician, I mean to say that I can't read music and I can't play any instruments. But one of the particularly cool things that I enjoy in Qui is that they're teaching me to sing, and actually hit pitches and do two- and three-part harmonies.

MC: Having another voice in there, there's more to it that we can do. The biggest change for me is that we can have a voice singing over a part that Paul or I would be playing, that would be too hard to play and sing at the same time. We were able to take a lot of old riffs that we came up with over the years that we couldn't make work, and we could play, he could sing, and it sounds really good.

You mentioned earlier that you're feeling old. But we saw you putting on a show that's very physical.

DY: I still jump around like an idiot and stuff. I had this sort of reputation for crowd surfi ng when I was singing, but that was then. I don't really have any plan on doing that kind of crap again. But yeah, I've been pleasantly surprised.

So, how do you maintain your physical health?

DY: Alcohol and cigarettes. I guess I just don't worry about it! (laughs)