Aidin Vaziri: May 2011

31 May 2011

Pop Quiz: The Strokes

Aidin Vaziri | By all accounts - OK, mostly the band members' - the making of the Strokes' comeback album, "Angles," was a harrowing experience involving scrapped sessions, rehab stints and singer Julian Casablancas going astray. Judging from recent interviews, things haven't improved much since the record's release. But during a recent phone interview at his New York home, rhythm guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. assured us all was well.

Albert Hammond Jr. of The Strokes
Q: I heard you guys were barely talking when you made the album. Was it that miserable?
A: You can't be in a band if you don't talk. We were all in the studio from January to August writing. And then when we were recording Julian was on the road. It's not like we didn't have the songs or structures. There were times we had doubts for it felt weird. You have strange moments. At the end we were in the room together. We did the final changes. We spoke. Through our lawyers, obviously.
Q: Do you read what the other band members say?
A: We can be raw people. We use interviews as an opportunity to speak our minds. When you put it in a Q&A it comes across as serious. Take it a little lighter. Read it like a movie because then it's hilarious. What more do you want in a band? We're dysfunctional. It's awesome.
Q: So you don't actually travel in separate helicopters?
A: I wish we could travel in separate helicopters.
Read more.

Review: Death Cab for Cutie, 'Codes and Keys'

Review: Death Cab for Cutie, 'Codes and Keys': Aidin Vaziri | "Finally, there is clarity," Death Cab for Cutie front man Ben Gibbard sings on "Monday Morning," a track from the group's uncharacteristically upbeat seventh studio album, "Codes and Keys." For a songwriter who has spent the better part of his career moping about unrequited love and interminable loneliness, he certainly has plenty to be cheerful about. Leading up to the making of the new record, the group's first since 2008's "Narrow Stairs," he kicked alcohol, took up running marathons and married every indie boy's Hollywood crush, Zooey Deschanel. To drive the point home, Gibbard even ditched the geeky glasses. As a result, the acoustic guitars have been set aside as analog synths and lovely strings take the fore, making the album's gorgeous, slowly unfolding melodies sound as massive as possible. But clear skies don't necessarily make for a clear head. While there are certainly moments where he is positively soaring (Exhibit A: the punchy first single and title track), the singer-songwriter's inborn insecurity surfaces over and over in the minor keys of songs like "Some Boys," "Portable Television" and particularly the devastating atmospheric ballad "You Are a Tourist" ("I couldn't stand a chance without you"). It's the sound of insecurity amplified - and reassuring as all hell.

Bob Weir Remembers the Shoreline Years

Aidin Vaziri | As one of the main vocalists and front men with the Grateful Dead and the group's various offshoots, Bob Weir has probably spent more time in Shoreline Amphitheatre than any other artist. On Friday and Saturday, he'll be back there with longtime colleague Phil Lesh and their band Furthur. Weir reflected on his history with the venue recently at his Mill Valley home.

Bob Weir
Q: How did the Grateful Dead go from playing Golden Gate Park to a former landfill?
A: It was a long circuitous route from Golden Gate Park to Shoreline. There were thousands of shows in between.
Q: What do you remember about your first show there?
A: I remember one of the problems they were having way back when was that there were a lot of methane leaks out there. They stuck a bunch of pipes in the ground and burned it off. I imagine they still have to do that every now and again.
Read more.

25 Years of Shoreline in 25 Facts

25 years, 25 fabulous Shoreline Amphitheatre facts: Aidin Vaziri | It's not pretty. It's not convenient. It's rarely cheap. But since opening its gates over the site of a former garbage dump in October 1986, Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View has hosted some of the Bay Area's biggest concerts - from the Grateful Dead to Radiohead, the Spice Girls to the Backstreet Boys, the first Lollapalooza festival to Neil Young's annual Bridge School shindig. We look back at some of the venue's most memorable moments. Read more.

On The Town with Kim Nalley

Singer Kim Nalley notes favorite S.F. spots: Aidin Vaziri | Kim Nalley is a critically lauded San Francisco jazz and blues singer who has performed Gershwin with the San Francisco Symphony and produced sensational musical tributes to Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. In June, she will start a two-month residency at the Rrazz Room at the Hotel Nikko, taking on the music and life of Nina Simone. The former owner of the North Beach club Jazz at Pearl's, Nalley is a faculty member at the Jazzschool and a history student in UC Berkeley's doctorate program. She's as famous for her immaculate style as her remarkable range. We asked the Nob Hill resident to tell us about some of her favorite Bay Area spots. Read more.

Seth Meyers on Trumping the Donald

Aidin Vaziri | Seth Meyers has more reason than ever to smirk. After five seasons of skewering politicians and celebrities as the dapper host of "Saturday Night Live's" "Weekend Update" segment, the comedian and "SNL" head writer delivered a knockout performance at last month's White House Correspondents' Dinner in front of many of his marks, taking particular delight in hamstringing Donald Trump and his fancied presidential campaign.

Seth Meyers
Q: I want to personally thank you for taking Trump out of the presidential race.
A: I always get thanked for taking Trump and Palin out, but I don't think I have much to do with them. The one thing about the White House Correspondents' dinner I didn't know was he was going to be in the audience - so I think it was less the jokes and more the reaction shots. I was very happy about that.
Q: As a comedian, are you a little disappointed his campaign is over already?
A: I'm certainly disappointed. But I think I personally maximized it for comedic effect. Just going into the dinner we could have told a thousand jokes about Donald Trump.
Read more.

Live Review: James Blake at Great American Music Hall

James Blake review: Rapture at S.F. music hall: Aidin Vaziri | A voice emerged from the darkness in the general direction of the Great American Music Hall stage on Sunday. "Hi," it said, sounding almost apologetic. A quiet minute passed. "How are you doing?" This was James Blake's attempt at stage banter. At least, most of the people at the sold-out concert assumed it was Blake because the lights remained low, the evening's star remained seated behind his fortress of effects pedals and vintage keyboards, and the soulful yelp that punctuated the first notes of the opening song, "Unluck," sounded just like those on the 22-year-old British songwriter's rapturously received self-titled debut album. His low-key demeanor suited someone who made a headphone album in his bedroom two years ago, only to watch it unexpectedly thrust him onto magazine covers and into a roomful of strangers halfway across the world that whooped to every snare kick and jutted shoulder. Read more.

Pop Quiz: Aloe Blacc

Aidin Vaziri | Aloe Blacc captures the moment with his breakthrough hit, "I Need a Dollar." The funky recession anthem not only serves as the theme song for HBO's "How to Make It in America" but also has made its singer - born Egbert Nathaniel Dawkins III - an international star. The track comes from the 32-year-old Los Angeles native's latest album, "Good Things," which was released last year after Blacc spent more than a decade in the music business (he was in the rap group Emanon). Before that, Blacc was a health-insurance consultant at Ernst & Young.

Aloe Blacc
Q: Did you have any idea "I Need a Dollar" would strike a chord with so many people - and not just homeless ones?
A: I didn't realize it would be such a big song. As an indie artist, you get used to making music for your little niche of fans, but nothing on the level of being in the Top 10 in the U.K. or getting a gold record in France. Especially after 15 years of doing this.
Q: What's the most you've done for a dollar?
A: Back in the day, I used to make sandwiches for people. I haven't really gotten down and dirty for a dollar. I've been pretty lucky. I can't say I ever hated a job.
Q: Do you ever miss doing paperwork?
A: I'm pretty much doing it as an artist. I came up doing everything on my own and nothing changed until recently when things started getting bigger.
Read more.

The Guide: Bay Area Music Festivals

Your guide to Bay Area summer music festivals: Aidin Vaziri | There's no shortage of live music in the Bay Area this summer. Here is your ultimate guide to getting down and dirty at some of the season's biggest festivals. You might even get to hear some good tunes while you're at it. Read more.

Review: Wild Beasts, 'Smother'

Review: Wild Beasts, 'Smother': Aidin Vaziri | With Lady Gaga's new album yet to appear in the mail (the cassette copy of Madonna's "The Immaculate Collection" stuck in our car stereo since 1998 apparently doesn't count), we decided to review the other thoroughly weird, sublimely beautiful record with a terrible cover to come out this month. That would be Wild Beasts' "Smother," the third studio effort by the carnal British quartet that was nominated for a Mercury Prize for its previous release, "Two Dancers." The new one is less direct, taking time to unfurl in hesitant rhythms and knotted guitar riffs. Getting past Hayden Thorpe's theatrical voice and the cheap rhymes on the lyric sheet requires a certain amount of goodwill, but "Bed of Nails," "Loop the Loop" and "Plaything" eventually take unsettling shape, impressing themselves deeper on the mind and heart with each listen. The single "Albatross," meanwhile, brilliantly re-creates the gravity-free lift once offered by Talk Talk. Better still, not a single song here sounds like a rip-off of a dodgy old Cher tune.

15 May 2011

Pop Quiz: Sheryl Crow

Aidin Vaziri | She may be taking her time between albums, but that doesn't mean Sheryl Crow, 49, is taking it easy. The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and single mom of two is in the middle of a big solo tour, with a stop scheduled Saturday at the Sonoma Jazz + Festival. Then she turns around and joins Kid Rock on another long summer trek (they'll be at Shoreline Amphitheatre on July 29) before returning to her farm outside Nashville to begin work on the country-leaning follow-up to last year's "100 Miles From Memphis." Fortunately we were able to steal a few minutes of her time just before her appearance on "American Idol."

Sheryl Crow
Q: On the final night of your tour with John Mayer, you came out onstage in a bikini. I'm afraid to think how the tour with Kid Rock will end.
A: There is not a chance in hell I will wind up onstage in a bikini with Kid Rock because he will have all these 19-year-old pole dancers, and nobody needs to see a fortysomething's body when they have that.
Q: You're getting ready to go on "American Idol" today. What advice would you offer yourself at that age?
A: Don't sweat the small stuff. I would be more philosophical about the whole thing. I wouldn't give so much meaning and importance to small things along the way. You tend to do more if you have a good attitude about things, and part of that is getting enough sleep. I would tell myself not to work so hard and learn to say no and just enjoy it and be present in the moment.
Q: That's a lot of stuff. Is that what you're going to tell the people on "American Idol"?
A: No. I'm going to tell them to get a good agent.
Read more.

Review: Chloe Makes Music, 'The Puppeteer'

Review: Chloe Makes Music, 'The Puppeteer': Aidin Vaziri | There are traces of Joanna Newsom's billowing poetry and the hammock-swinging melodies of her parents' Crosby, Stills and Nash LPs, but on her debut album Chloe Roth - who records under the clunky name Chloe Makes Music - conjures folk music that is contemporary and uncomplicated. Working with a stable of local musicians (Roth frequently contributes local artist interviews to SFGate.com's Culture Blog), she drapes her barely there voice over mournful cellos and lithe acoustic guitars. Producer Christopher Chu of the Morning Benders, meanwhile, provides the homespun tunes with lush, brooding arrangements and lends his voice to the album's standout duet, "The Duel." The music is wonderfully seductive, particularly in moments like the shimmery breakup ballad "Island of Snakes" and the swooning "Wormwood" - each one delivering a fresh round of chills with every listen. They're capable of bringing sunlight to even the gloomiest summer day.

Pop Quiz: Raphael Saadiq

Aidin Vaziri | Having pushed back the release date of his new album several times in the past year, Raphael Saadiq had to promise us that "Stone Rollin' " would actually come out this week before we agreed to sit down with him. "It really is," he insisted more than once backstage before his sold-out concert last month at the Regency Center. It's well worth the wait, too. With barn-burners such as "Radio" and the meditative "The Answer," it's the strongest solo release yet by the Oakland native and former member of the retro soul groups Tony! Toni! Tone! and Lucy Pearl. Saadiq talked about the inspiration behind the album and jamming with Mick Jagger at the Grammys.

Raphael Saadiq
Q: How did you get the call to play with Mick Jagger at the Grammys?
A: He just called me and said, "Hey, it's Mick." He's a regular cat. He's the type of dude who can walk into any bar. The Stones are like that. They're just a blues band.
Q: Are you as upset as everyone else that he didn't acknowledge you onstage?
A: He did! He brought me up there. He said my name a few times. He calls me Ray. He was screaming my name the whole time. Sometimes small things can kill a person who wants to be big. That was a very small thing.
Read more.

Nick Pitera: Living The Fantasy

Pixar's Nick Pitera becomes YouTube singing star: Aidin Vaziri | Nick Pitera is leading a double life. Make that a triple. Actually, we might need to go a little higher. According to his resume, the 25-year-old Minnesota native is an animator at Pixar Studios in Emeryville. Millions of people know him better though as the dapper guy on YouTube with the amazing voice - the one who, without breaking a sweat, is capable of hitting all the high notes in dazzling covers of songs by the likes of Leona Lewis, Mariah Carey and, in his most popular clip, both Aladdin and Jasmine on "A Whole New World," from the movie "Aladdin." In his latest clip, "One Man Disney Movie," Pitera goes even further. Using a "Brady Bunch"-style grid, he performs an eight-minute-plus mashup of songs from various big-screen musical fairy tales, from "Beauty and the Beast" to "Tangled," taking on the roles of the heroes, heroines, villains, sidekicks and their furry choirs. Since he uploaded the octave-spanning medley to the video-sharing site some two months ago, it has reached nearly 3 million views.
Read more.

Review: The Cars, 'Move Like This'

Review: The Cars, 'Move Like This': Aidin Vaziri | Back behind the wheel after 23 years apart, the original members of the Cars (minus bassist-singer Benjamin Orr, who died in 2000) look slightly worse for the wear, which might explain the silhouettes permeating the album cover and video for the comeback single "Blue Tip." Musically, though, "Move Like This" makes it feel as if no time has passed since 1987's "Door to Door." Employing many of the same synthesizer effects, robotic handclaps and "Dynasty"-era lyrical cliches of the band's glory days, singer Ric Ocasek unleashes his full New Wave croon for tracks such as "Sad Song" and "Too Late." But nothing here is compelling enough to prevent you from downloading another copy of 1979's "Candy-O" instead, especially once the reunion effort hits a bottleneck of dreary ballads midway through.

Herb Alpert Looks Back

Herb Alpert looks back on remarkable musical life: Aidin Vaziri | He's the trumpet player who has sold more than 50 million albums, co-founded one of the biggest labels in pop history and signed the Police and Janet Jackson. But he's not done yet. Herb Alpert is back on the road with his wife, Lani Hall, in support of their new CD, "I Feel You." In anticipation of their Tuesday show at the Palace of Fine Arts, the 76-year-old Alpert looks back on some of the high points of his long and exciting career. Read more.

Pop Quiz: The Psychedelic Furs

Aidin Vaziri | The Psychedelic Furs are on the road celebrating the 30th anniversary of one of the most influential albums of the postpunk era, "Talk Talk Talk." Including the original version of the song "Pretty in Pink," the record not only inspired the John Hughes film of the same name but also played a large role in shaping the sound of the Killers and Interpol. When the Furs appear Tuesday at Slim's and Thursday at the Uptown Theatre in Napa, the British group - centered on brothers Richard and Tim Butler - will also perform a set packed with brooding '80s hits such as "Love My Way" and "The Ghost in You." Richard Butler, 55, looked back on the album by phone from his home in upstate New York.

Richard Butler of the Psychedelic Furs
Q: You were upset when John Hughes used "Pretty in Pink" for his movie of that name.
A: It was a weird situation to be in. It gave the band a wider audience, but they associated us with that movie, and it wasn't my kind of movie - it was for a different generation and a different set of expectations from mine. If you watch the movie, you might not get what the song is actually about, which I expect most people don't. So it's a double-edged sword.
Q: So if "Pretty in Pink" comes on cable you're not watching?
A: I don't watch TV anyway, but if it came on I couldn't get to the remote quick enough.
Read more.

Thao and Mirah: Harmonic Convergence

Thao and Mirah find harmony in collaboration, CD: Aidin Vaziri | Thao Nguyen and Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn - or Thao and Mirah as they're more conveniently known on their first album together - are a pair of strong-willed singer-songwriters who for two weeks managed to bring their distinctive styles together for a new self-titled album. Recorded at John Vanderslice's Tiny Telephone Studio and co-produced by Merrill Garbus of Tune-Yards, the off-kilter indie rock collaboration is at once deeply emotional and physically jarring. Having originally shared a bill at last year's Noise Pop festival, the duo toured together with the collective The Most of All before taking on this project. Mirah has released five solo albums, establishing herself as a staple on the Pacific Northwest indie scene before relocating here. Thao and her band the Get Down Stay Down, meanwhile, regularly pack local clubs. In anticipation of their show Tuesday at the New Parish in Oakland (they also play the Great American Music Hall on June 23) they filled us in on the finer details of how they pulled it off. Read more.

Review: Fleet Foxes, 'Helplessness Blues'

Review: Fleet Foxes, 'Helplessness Blues': Aidin Vaziri | Throw on a bohemian rainbow spinner skirt and bring the unicorn out front - Fleet Foxes are back with their second full-length album. Draped in early-morning mist and late-night desolation, on "Helplessness Blues" the members of the hirsute Seattle band dig even further into their parents' Simon and Garfunkel and Crosby Stills Nash and Young LPs. Acoustic guitars are politely strummed, baroque melodies gently rise and fall and singer Robin Pecknold delivers line after line of patchouli-scented prose. "I was raised up believing I was somehow unique/ Like a snowflake distinct among snowflakes," he sings on the title track. From the light jazz backbeat of "Bedouin Dress" to the bare "Blue Spotted Tail," the mood is unwaveringly mellow, with only the echo-chamber drums of "Lorelai" capable of chasing away the butterflies. It's beautiful, lofty music, no doubt, but your tolerance for it will depend largely on your ability to shut off the modern world and picture yourself traipsing through a forest to the strains of a Ren Faire instrumental called "The Cascades."

Live Review: Paul Simon at the Fillmore

Paul Simon review: Upbeat after all these years: Aidin Vaziri | His voice was supple. His attire was predictably practical. But what made Paul Simon's sold-out concert at the Fillmore on Wednesday really noteworthy was his enthusiasm for just being there. After years of putting on alternately awkward and curmudgeonly performances in the Bay Area, the 69-year-old rock icon arrived here with something resembling a smile - as rare a sighting in his company as a bushy-haired Art Garfunkel. Backed by a slick eight-piece band, Simon must have felt especially at ease inside a venue that packs nearly as much history as his resume, which stretches back over a half-century. In one of the few instances where he stepped up to the microphone to speak, Simon beamed, "There are posters of my wife on the walls here." Read more.