To be fair, it’s not as if Bell made the transition from punk rocker to folk experimentalist overnight, out of nowhere. The multi-instrumentalist played bass in the seminal trance-inducing rock band Lungfish from 1996 to 2003. Even then, he says, the grit and twang of the indigenous music of the Maryland backwoods was seeping into his psyche.

“Growing up in rural Virginia, my father always had an interest in banjo music,” Bell says from his adopted hometown of Baltimore. “He gave me his banjo, but due to an introduction to punk and hardcore music in the early ’80s, I swayed more towards playing cheap electric guitars with way too much distortion rather than pursuing the folk music of banjo.”

It wasn’t until later in the ’90s that Bell began to find the call of his unique heritage overwhelming. Having recorded with more than a dozen disparate bands, including P.W. Long, Miighty Flashlight, and Television Hill, Bell says that he became engulfed with all facets of folk music, both domestic and foreign.

“As far as the style in which I write, the influence first came to me when my father took me to the house of a superb banjo player in Pennsylvania,” he says. “To my surprise, he was an expert on classical music on a five-string banjo."

The experience of seeing a talented musician stepping outside the normal confines of his instrument had an immense and lasting effect on the young Bell.

“This completely justified my frustrations of not being able to pick the Scruggs manner (a three-finger picking style) and to just ride down the river in my own raft of writing,” he says.

Bell’s education took another twist when he became friends with Peter Ross, a renowned builder and player of gourd banjos, a primitive instrument first made by slaves who formed the body of the banjo from a gourd. Ross has painstakingly researched both the construction and playing techniques associated with these once-forgotten but historically important instruments.

“It was from Pete that I learned the technique of frailing, otherwise known as the clawhammer technique,” Bell says.

Unlike the more widely used Scruggs picking style, the clawhammer uses a primarily downward picking motion. The hand, clenched into a claw, with the strumming index or middle finger kept stiff, strums the strings with a wrist motion rather than the flicking of the fingers. It’s an extremely rhythmic technique, and one that Bell employs to great effect in his most recent project, Brassa Bell.

Luciano Luis Valerio, owner of Brazil’s Desmonta Records, frequently brings foreign musicians, including Joe Lally (Fugazi), Jeff Parker (Tortoise) and Josh Abrams (Town & Country) to Brazil. Valerio heard Bell’s music and brought him to Brazil to play with Richard Ribero, Rogerio Martins, and himself — a group that would become Brassa Bell.

This hodgepodge grouping was instantly positive, according to Bell, who says that the group stumbled upon a new and bold musical form despite its members’ disjointed playing styles.

“The combination of electric banjo music with Brazilian rhythms has been a sound defining itself through us,” Bell says. “In other words, a completely coincidental collage of music, rhythms, and sounds."

Shining (Norway)

Thursday, October 23

Pillars and Tongues, Remindring @ The Hideout

Somber vocal harmonies emanate from aptly named Pillars and Tongues, an experimental trio whose creations exhibit mystical influences. As Remindring, multi-talented bassist Josh Abrams (Town & Country, Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble) lays out looped soundscapes with Emmett Kelly and Frank Rosaly.

Fucked Up @ Reggie's Rock Club

Punk-rock misdirection artists Fucked Up hit Chicago two weeks after the release of The Chemistry of Common Life, the group's follow-up full-length to Hidden World. This time around, Fucked Up's material moves through more variety of atmosphere than your standard punk/hardcore, with peaceful, otherworldly intros and layers and layers of guitar. There's less stop-start fury than Hidden World-more sheets of sound-so it will be interesting to see how this vigorous live act performs.

Coliseum starts North American and Japanese tour dates

Louisville hardcore staples Coliseum begin five weeks of performances today, hitting many cities in the USA as well as a few in Canada and Japan. The group doesn't hit Chicago until Nov. 15, but there's a good chance that it will be your city in the near future.

Friday, October 24

Ears & Eyes Festival @ The Hideout

With three outstanding weekend shows at The Hideout, independent jazz/avant-garde label Ears & Eyes Records celebrates its third annual Ears & Eyes Festival. The performances feature groups on the Ears & Eyes roster as well as other local standouts and friends of the label, and one such outside artist, Brooklyn's Parts & Labor, headlines this first night with a catchy mix of indie rock and electronics.

The six-artist, six-hour show also includes bass-and-drums rock duo Black Ladies and free-rock guitarist Tobin Summerfield, but the biggest highlight might be the collaboration between Sunfish Ensemble guitarist David Daniell and Tortoise cofounder/bassist Doug McCombs.

Voodoo Experience begins @ New Orleans' City Park

With a massive three-day lineup that can only really be explored at thetenthritual.com, New Orleans' Voodoo Experience celebrates its 10^th anniversary. If you're in the Big Easy on Friday, the fest's first day, be sure to catch DeVotchKa, Reverend Horton Heat, The Gutter Twins, Man Man, Extra Action Marching Band, and Andre Williams.

Shining (and other picks) at CMJ Music Marathon & Film Festival

There are hundreds of bands playing at the dozens of CMJ venues on Friday, the festival's second-to-last day, but we had to single out Norway's Shining at Cake Shop (and again at Knitting Factor on Saturday). The post-prog jazz-rock experimentalists return to New York, one of three cities on their first US tour earlier this year, and it might be a while before they return. If you're in NYC, do yourself a favor and check them out (and pick up Grindstone on Rune Grammofon).

The night's other highlights include sBACH, An Albatross, Akimbo, Phosphorescent, Sole and the Skyrider Band, and Broken Social Scene.

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