Francis and the Lights

www.francisandthelights.com

FRANCIS AND THE LIGHTS are a New York City based band led by frontman Francis Starlite. The band’s sound is propelled by two live drummers playing in conjunction with sequenced percussion, balanced with intertwining guitar and synth parts. The band was formed at Wesleyan University - their first show was a performance of the posthumous Otis Redding record The Immortal Otis Redding in its entirety. After secluding himself in Oakland, CA to write songs, Francis Starlite drove cross-country in a decommissioned postal truck and formed the current incarnation of the band in New York. The rehearsed for a full year before unveiling themselves at a series of invitation-only shows at a white fabric draped warehouse space featuring spring-loaded keyboards, young coconuts and a chandelier that descended onto the dancefloor bearing champagne glasses. They released the Striking EP in late 2007 and are currently recording a follow-up.

Francis and the Lights' "Striking" EP is available for download at www.francisandthelights.com.

Click here to go to Francis and the Lights' MySpace site to hear MP3s.

Click here to see Francis and the Lights perform at Galapagos on YouTube.

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LIVE PERFORMANCE REVIEW

by Bryan Clark

Dance party band The Fabulous Entourage made their thrilling return from an eight-month hiatus last night at The Annex, playing a slim nine-song set which featured three tunes from their 2006 CD Play Nice Now, two newer songs that can be heard on their website, an unrecorded live favorite, a new arrangement of one member’s solo work, a brand new number, and a cover of a the title song from Cannonball Run II. 

They started on time, they didn’t bitch at the soundman about their monitor mix, and they all but did away with the theatrical costuming of performances past.  (The day-glo tape on the men’s clothing was not in sight, and the girls looked ready for an ordinary night of clubbing with the single exception of Pamela Quinn’s green wig.)  All troubling signs, it seemed.  But unlike the result when KISS took off the makeup and revealed that there was simply nobody home, this streamlined and straightforward Entourage incarnation revealed an always-enthralling band which is debating its own future as it teeters on the outer edge of its prime. 

The standard Entourage opening “Theme Song”, with its refrain of “We’re gonna satisfy,” indeed continues to satisfy, especially when the shrieking crowd noises are for real (as they were last night) and not canned (as they are on the sole unfortunate moment of the album).   The band looked slightly unsure of themselves within seconds of starting to play, and the smirks and giggles that they exchanged throughout the number – and occasionally throughout the show – seemed to veer between the excitement of playing together again and the search for who had just played the wrong chord.

By the end of the opening number, though, they had gained their footing, along with the tremendous approval of the loyal crowd.  And then they pulled out “The Man Who Never Died,” one of the few tunes in their repertoire which cannot be found on CD or mp3, although a brief live clip from a previous show can be located on YouTube.  This number is reminiscent of their obscure EP “I Smell Danger” from their equally obscure early days as a duo with a drum machine and a proclivity for superhero musical fantasy performing in clothing inspired by Madonna via the New York Dolls.  But the epic hero lyric “Gave up trying in the '20s/ Gave up feeling in 1945/ Gave up hoping in the 80s/ When I realized that I never would die” now feels more overtly connected to the contemplation of growing out of their 20’s and contemplating their lives ahead.

“ Midnight Cowboy” was the usual crowd pleaser, as was the more recent “Out of Beer.”  The latter tune has been through a tough birthing process in the web-released demos, including a misguided version which featured a flute and an equally challenged mix which was overwhelmed by synth pop keyboard stylings.  Fortunately, the song has now found its feet live, with the help of a delightfully rough guitar part by vocalist Libby Winters.

In a typically unsurprising surprise, the Entourage inexplicably covered the main title theme from the movie Cannonball Run II, dedicating it to longtime groupie Gideon Levy.  They were joined on this number, and others, by Jimmy Owens on saxophone.  His overall presence made little sense in the show and generally undercut the power of the core quintet rather than supporting it, but his specific appearance at this point – from the balcony, dressed as Jesus Christ (in celebration of Good Friday) – was welcome, especially as it was a crucial reminder of the spectacular drama and irreverence of the Entourage in their heyday.

“Revolution / Keep on Movin,’” despite the annoying slash in its title, is inarguably their strongest dance floor anthem, and will be the anchoring number of any Album #2 that they might ever decide to record.  It drives hard and happy, even in its arresting  throwaway lyric “Dance tonight for tomorrow we die.”

The set took a brief dip during “Deepest Cut,” not-so-successful reworking of “Don’t Come Crawling” from keyboardist Kyle Jarrow’s rock musical Love Kills, followed by the new number “Don’t Look Back / Forget Her Face.”  Bassist Travis Chamberlain, amusingly outfitted with a pair of Kevin DuBrow prison-stripe pants, noted with a gleeful threat of reunion-as-farewell, “This is the only time you’ll ever hear this song.”  If true, that won’t be the greatest loss to the repertoire, as the lyrics were tired (“I’m not broken” felt like a rehash of the superior song “Save Me,” with its arresting lyric “I am a broken person”) and the tune unmemorable. 

But the gig suddenly roared back up to speed with the Entourage masterpiece “Perry’s Dream,” which provided the only glimpse of drummer Perry Silver on the tiny stage when he rose from the kit to play the familiar sticks-on-the wall section.  The girls’ vocal “Just keep on dreaming that dream/Things are just as bad as they seem” was as goosebump-inducing and Beatlesque as ever, yet Jarrow’s final refrain “Let me sleep forever” was shocking in its reiteration of the looming rumor that the band is calling it quits, especially as it became clear that this would be the final song of the night.

After the show, Jarrow explained that the band members have all gotten more involved in their other pursuits during the “hiatus,” including acting, directing, writing, and – gasp! – other bands.  So now they’re “trying to figure out how to stay together and keep playing now and then, given the changes in everyone’s life.”  It certainly sounds like the Entourage is preparing to pack itself away as a nostalgic recollection of youthful good times.  Its fans were plainly not interested in this plan, chanting “Encore!” even as the band was packing up and the sound guy had already left.  If the Fabulous Entourage really will “keep playing now and then,” I suggest you make your booking for your thirtieth birthday party now.  Or your thirty-fifth.  Forty, anyone?  Yes, guilty as charged. 

ABOVE: Photographer John Hahn took this shot of Shemekia Copeland and Joe Louis Walker during the recording sessions Walker's Witness to the Blues LP, recently released on Stony Plain Records.

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Westchester County, New York - Former San Francisco-based bluesman Joe Louis Walker was just a teenager when he burst upon the scene and set off on a course that would put him in the company of legendary guitarist Mike Bloomfield. And that wasn't all. During his formative years, he shared stages with John Lee Hooker, Thelonius Monk, The Soul Stirrers, Steve Miller and Jimi Hendrix.

Walker's rise to blues prominence came to a self-imposed halt when mentor Bloomfield died at a young age, prompting Walker to change his lifestyle. He dropped out of the music business, enrolled in college, and earned degrees in music and English. His musical performances were still regularl, but with a decidedly different slant, as he worked as part of the Spiritual Corinthians gospel group.

In 1985 he returned to the blues, formed his stellar band The Bosstalkers, and signed to HighTone Records, which released five albums before Walker moved to PolyGram’s Verve/Gitanes label, where he recorded six albums. Witness to the Blues is his debut release on the Stony Plain label.

Produced by fellow Stony Plain artist and award-winner Duke Robillard, Witness to the Blues features a scintillating duet by Walker and Shemekia Copeland in a reprise of the Peggy Scott & Jo Jo Benson R&B classic, “Lover’s Holiday.” Stony Plain Records is distributed in the U.S. by Koch Entertainment; in Canada by Warner Music; and this CD has been licensed for release in Europe by Dixie Frog.

With the stellar backing of Robillard on guitar, Bruce Katz on keyboards, Jon Ross on bass, Mark Teixeira on drums and a horn section of Doug James on sax and Scott Aruda on trumpet, Joe Louis Walker explores the many colors of the blues palette, including Delta and Chicago styles, Memphis soul, gospel and even rockabilly. More than half of the album’s 11 tracks were written by Walker, and he adds his own distinctive interpretations to several covers, including “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” and “Sugar Mama” (which includes special guest Todd Sharpville on guitar).

Joe Louis Walker is a true blues virtuoso whose skills as a singer, guitarist, songwriter and producer have earned him a dedicated legion of fans around the world. He’s recorded with B.B. King, James Cotton, Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, Steve Cropper, Ike Turner and Branford Marsalis, among many others in a storied career that covers 18 solo albums, two live DVDs and a number of compilations and guest appearances. He’s played on two Grammy Award-winning albums and won three Blues Music Awards (formerly known as W.C. Handy Awards). In addition to his hot-ticket shows in the U.S., Walker has become an international ambassador for the blues overseas, having played at countless festivals throughout Europe, South America, Australia, the Middle East and Asia.

Joe Louis Walker is managed by David L. Jones of Cathouse Music, LLC (djones@cathousemusic.com) and will tour extensively in both the U.S. and internationally in support of Witness to the Blues.

KAMA LINDEN

www.kamalinden.com

Brooklyn native KAMA LINDEN is an odd mixture of modern folk, showy exhibitionism and social-political activism. A songwriter since the age of 11, Kama claims Pat Benatar and Patty Smyth as influences, but she is very much her own creation; a hybrid that ping-pongs between confessional acoustic yearnings and rhythmic dance club beats. She scored an Outstanding Solo Artist nomination in the 2006 L.A. Rock City News Awards.

Kama released her LP Uninhibited in 2004, which has continued to perform solidly based on radio play reports. The release is available on I-Tunes and tracks off the CD have been used for television shows and movie soundtracks. “Waiting” was the first single to garner attention, but the second single “Crossed Over” may do even better. It was on the AC/Hot AC Main Chart at #21, just below the Fray’s hit “How to Save A Life.” It has been #15 on the AC/Hot AC Top 30 Indie Chart, just above Aaron Neville, #17 in the AC/Hot AC Top 20 Central U.S. Region Chart, #47 on the Top College Chart, and has also shown up on Hot AC land even Country stations.

She has supported the release with tours in the U.S. and Europe.

Equally impressive to her success with the LP is her ongoing work with a variety of charitable organizations. In the past months she has performed benefits to aid the suffering in Darfur, played an MS Benefit at the Muddy Cup on Staten Island in Honor of Tem Schlief for Life, performed at an AIDS Rock concert, and has performed every year since 2002 for the Blankfest organization, which collects blankets for the homeless.

KAMA LINDEN MP3:

Kama Linden MP3s can be heard on her MySpace website at  www.myspace.com/kamalinden

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How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall?

You Might Just Click On CarnegieHall.org

New York City, New York - When steel baron Andrew Carnegie anteed up in 1890 to begin construction on a performance space for the Oratorio Society of New York and the New York Symphony Society, on whose boards he served, he probably knew that he was creating something iconic. Carnegie had, after all, been populating the world with "Carnegie libraries" (the first was in his native Scotland) for the previous decade, and as one of the industrial age's richest men his personal legacy would live on through his endowments of learning and cultural facilities. Carnegie Hall, known as "Music Hall" for its first couple of years before board members encouraged Carnegie to lay more prominent claim, opened in April, 1891, just a year after project launch.*

Carnegie Hall opened officially in May, 1891 with a concert conducted by maestro Walter Damrosch and composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

Over the years, new works by Dvořák (“New World” Symphony) and Gershwin (An American in Paris), to name just a couple, have been premiered at Carnegie, but it was not until 1990 that Carnegie actually began to commission works for the hall. Carnegie Hall’s first two commissioned works were Leonard Bernstein’s Opening Prayer, premiered by the New York Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta in December 1986, and Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (commissioned jointly by Carnegie Hall, the Detroit Symphony, and the American Symphony Orchestra League) by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, which was premiered at Carnegie Hall in January 1987 (from Wikipedia).

The Carnegie's commissioning program is managed through the Centennial Commissioning Project, which initially consisted of a series of thirteen commemorative commissions honoring the Hall’s landmark hundredth season. Thirteen major composers were matched with great artists to prepare pieces for orchestra, chamber ensemble, and voice. The success of that program has grown into an ongoing commission of works ranging from solo to large orchestral pieces. There have been over 125 jazz band arrangements commissioned since 1992, and composers premiering works have included Elliott Carter, David Del Tredici, Bill Frisell, Osvaldo Golijov, Michael Gordon, Brad Mehldau, Meredith Monk, André Previn, Kaija Saariaho, and Charles Wuorinen, among others.

There is an excellent series of profiles of commission awardees available at the Carnegie Hall Commissions page, which is well worth visiting. You can listen to the works of commissioned composers and read their project notes, many of which are fascinating.

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Architectural Expressions of Man's Inefficiency and Dualistic Nature

* RAR NOTE: In putting this piece together, I was taken by a number of things, not the least of which was the extraordinary schedule for the construction of Carnegie Hall, which was built in little more than one year (1890-91).

When one looks at architecture from that period, and considers the rapidity with which these often monumental and ornate structures were built, one wonders why more than a century later it takes sophisticated jurisdictions like San Francisco decades to construct a public works project. (It took 10 years to put in the I-690/Hwy-24 interchange at Walnut Creek, and the eastern span of the Bay Bridge is still under construction 20 years after the Loma Prieta Earthquake that set the project "into motion", so to speak.) Certainly privately-funded projects like Carnegie Hall continue to be developed on a more streamlined schedule, but then compare the drawing of Carnegie Hall (right), with its blend of Baroque, Florentine and Oriental design, with the $11 Billion CityCenter project currently under construction in Las Vegas.

CityCenter is a 76-acre "city within a city" concept that blends high-rise residential with commercial enterprise (urban mixed use). The first phase broke ground in 2006 and, beset by finance and labor issues, it is scheduled to open at the end of this year, December 2009.

CityCenter is going to look like this, seen in the December 2008 photograph at right, at least in part. It has other towers that are equally...well, what would you say? It is certainly Vegas-shiny and modern and its curvy lines give it a sort of movement, which some (me) might find a little queasy making. And isn't it too "thin" to stand? I'm wondering if that isn't why they bent it round like that, to give it some stability. On the other hand, this is Vegas! How long does it have to stand?

Jokes aside, the architectural credits go to Gensler, the executive architect overseeing the project; along with architects of record HKS, Inc. for the Block A CityCenter Casino & Resort and surrounding facilities; Leo A. Daly for the Vdara in Block B; and Adamson Associates for Block C, which includes the Mandarin, Veer, Crystals and Harmon structures.

It is obviously not comparable to the Carnegie Hall project in any way, beyond being privately funded. On the other hand, it is a building project that makes a statement, and it is a statement one might note for its neurotic impulse to scream "see me in all of my excess!"

By contrast, Carnegie put together a "gift" that, while lacking shiny surfaces, stands like a beacon 120 years after its opening, shining a light on some fundamental changes that have taken place over that time in human ethos and aesthetics. Somehow Carnegie's architect, William Burnet Tuthill, managed to marry awesome presence to exquisitely genteel decorative design. The place seduces with masculine power and feminine mystique, begging the viewer's eyes to follow its rich contours and explore its generous recesses. It is one of Carnegie's "peoples' places", born for the purpose of providing for the furtherance of  admirers of culture for generations to come. It has a soul that is old yet vital.

Carnegie Hall was, somewhat ironically, the last all-masonry construction of a major building in New York City. Until an addition years after its opening, there was no Carnegie steel, or steel of any kind, in Carnegie Hall. It stands as a monument to quality, within and without, an outcropping of something innately beautiful within the human spirit, profoundly connected with "naturalness" itself. It honors the expression it was designed to house, humanity in its most refined forms.

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