The Bands @ Return of the Byrne: Magic City

Return of the Byrne: A St. Louis Fundraiser for Burn Your Bookes at the Schalfly Tap Room is only a few days away. (Thursday, March 11 at 7 p.m.)

In the lead up to the gig, we'll have a look at the bands who'll be playing. Today it's Magic City.

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Nostalgia is cool and all that. (And we'll dive into it a bit more in the next few days...)

But one of the best things about going back to St. Louis for Return of the Byrne is the chance to check out a very cool new band like Magic City: Larry Bulawsky (vocals and electric guitar); Adam Hesed (Farfisa organ, electric piano, vocals); Anne Tkach (bass, vocals); Jonas Hamon (lap steel, trombone, mouth harp, guitar, magic); Sam Meyer: (drums)

I have to thank Return of the Byrne guardian angel Brett Underwood for turning me on to Magic City and asking them to play the benefit. The songs that you can check out on their MySpace page are slinky and muscular by turns, smart and arty but in a exquisitely seedy and noirish way. On first listen, you can hear the Jonathan Fire*Eater in the band's DNA (see below), but there's something more overtly vulgar and theatrical going on too. I think they're going to be a band to watch over the next few years because of their talent, panache and unpredictability. There are surprises galore in this music. If we can get them to DC in the next couple months, that'll be perfect... And if they do get over to Europe as they plan to do after their album drops in summer, Europe is gonna eat them up.

But let me allow two Magic Citizens -- Anne Tkach and Adam Hesed -- introduce themselves. I emailed them a couple questions and they were kind enough to shoot back replies with alacrity and wit. And did I mention I can't wait to see this band live? I can't!

Q: How did Magic City form? What's going on with the name?

Anne: "Magic City"! The name first appeared to us in a Man Ray silent short film that some of us were involved in scoring for performance with our friend Sherman S. Sherman. There is a shot in that film of the scrolling marquis on the top of the notorious Parisian club called "Magic City"-- a haven for queers, misfits and miscreants, folks like us. We have since discovered that it is the name of a huge, famous strip club in Atlanta, GA, among other things.

Adam and I were in a band -- Bad Folk -- that broke up in the fall of 2008. We lived above Hairy Larry Bulawsky (Leadville, Couch Bucket), with whom I had played several years ago in the Good Griefs. That part was a no-brainer, the rest has fallen into place over time, including our friend J.J. Hamon (Theodore) who wanted to play in a rock band and current drummer Sam Meyer (Wormwood Scrubs): Your standard incestuous South Side rock band...?

Pat Boland (aka Patty Bobo) was our first drummer, which made us a truly multi-generational band as he is the same age as Larry's son Beau (Exercise). He left us for The Conformists. He's young... awesome drummer. Sam Meyer was/is my dream drummer and we decided that we had nothing to lose asking him to join us. I am glad we did, as he rocks. One thing that is happening in this band is that Larry (guitar savant?) is focusing more on singing. Very exciting. His song "Animal Hair" is older than Patty Bobo.

Q: There's so much cool stuff going on in your music -- the organ gives it a real noirish, even Jonathan Fire*Eater sort of feel that's tremendously appealing, smart lyrics, and an artier (though exquisitely seedy) vibe going on that I haven't ever heard much of in St. Louis rock. Are there particular bands that you feel close to as influences?

Anne: Hahaha! Adam is going to be so thrilled when he sees question #2, he should definitely field that one. I had never heard of Jonathan Fire*Eater till I met him. He is a huge fan, lived in D.C. for a bit back then. I'd say JF*E, and especially Nick Cave are our more direct influences, though we all love a lot of music. Larry has been writing songs for quite a long time.

Adam: Anne was right, I am thrilled. I discovered JF*E (along with the Make Up and Delta 72) at a very formative time in my life and still they are one of my favorite bands.

I don't think that I disagree with Anne at all, but there are a couple of things I would like to add. Primarily, that as Anne and Larry and I were sitting around the kitchen table discussing what we wanted our new band to be, we all agreed that we wanted a real rock 'n' roll band without all that twangy stuff that is so prevalent in St. Louis, and at the same time Larry wanted to get away from the big guitar rock that he has often played in order to focus on his singing.

The idea was to have a heavy backbone of drums, bass and organ and to let the lap steel take the traditional place of lead guitar while completely stripping it of its twangy tendencies. These were the criteria that informed the forming of the band, which lead us to many nights of listening to JF*E (as you noticed), Nick Cave, and especially, I'd say, Johnny Dowd, with whom we hope to do a split 7".

We are in the mixing stage of our first LP and hope to have it out by summer when we will start doing some touring, and we hope to be in Europe next year.

(Photo: Magic City live at Off Broadway in St. Louis.)

The Bands @ Return of the Byrne: Free Dirt

Return of the Byrne: A St. Louis Fundraiser for Burn Your Bookes at the Schalfly Tap Room is only a few days away. (Thursday, March 11 at 7 p.m.)

In the lead up to the gig, we'll have a look at the bands who'll be playing. Today it's Free Dirt.

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By the mid-1990s, I was sort of burned out on what had come to be known as "alternative country."

I know, I know. It's a contested term. You could argue that everything from George Jones to Gram Parsons to the Blasters was "alternative country." Hell, I saw Mary-Louise Parker interview Elvis Costello the other night and she argued that Almost Blue was the beginning of alt-country. I almost fell out of my chair.

What I mean here is the particular wave that started with Uncle Tupelo and blossomed into the No Depression movement, named after the Tupes' first record. My burnout on it shouldn't really shouldn't come as a surprise. As one of the critics who helped boost the first wave of No Depression bands, I had done a lot of heavy lifting. And I was getting less and less enamored with the bands that followed that first wave. The edge was being lost. Plus, I felt like I was getting pigeonholed. I wanted to write about the other stuff I loved: trip hop, French pop, art rock, the Mekons.

The successes of Uncle Tupelo and the Bottle Rockets (who both signed with major labels) did prompt a lot of Midwestern bands to try and duplicate what they had done. The ones I gravitated towards -- despite my burnout -- were the ones that attacked the music with ferocity. Omaha's Frontier Trust are just the sort of band I loved at that point: furious tractor punk. The Waco Brothers, too.

In St. Louis, the bands who cut through the droning alt-noise for me in that era were Stillwater (more on them in a future post) and Free Dirt (Dan Niewoehner, guitar; Tom Buescher, guitar; Greg Vernon, drums; Dave Harris, bass). Their recorded output is a couple songs on justly-celebrated compilation, The Way Out Club, (which also feature the Highway Matrons, Johnny Magnet and the Trip Daddys among others) and an eponymous record -- both on the Rooster Lollipop label.

I had gotten a demo tape from an earlier incarnation of Free Dirt called The Maurys, but it didn't really penetrate my consciousness. The first time that Free Dirt really made me sit up and pay attention was a night at the old Way Out Club in St. Louis in the mid-90s. (I think it was Halloween, but I won't swear to it.)

They were pretty wonderful that night -- the band's songwriting chops survived and even shone through a sloppy but incredibly powerful set. And they sealed the deal with a simply devastating cover of Devo's "Uncontrollable Urge." I still prefer Free Dirt's version of this song to the original, and it was their version that stripped the uptight neurosis from the Devo version and revealed the spinal column of Led Zeppelin's "Misty Mountain Hop" at the core of the song.

That night turned me into a believer. The songs were edgy scenester odes -- slightly seedy, slightly sozzled and yet knowing and reaching for something higher. (That pretty much summed up my existence at that particular late 1990s moment.)

And as I dug deeper into their songs, I discovered a lot of gems that are still on my iPod to this day. Niewoehner's "Rude Pets" is a jaunty ode to his past bands that had ill-fated dreams of getting past the classic rock that dominated the radio of that era. Buescher's "Slippin'" starts with chiming chords that his voice grinds down as the lyrics pursue their dismal and fatalistic race to the bottom. And when Buescher and Niewohner's sensibilities collide on "Settin' Myself Up/Medicine," it's one-two punch of undeniable power: Buescher's world-weary ode to decline is carried on waves of chords and then surges into Niewoehner's deftly-painted journey through a drugged -out landscape and its insufficiency to cope with life's enduring pain. It's just terrific.

I've always regretted that I wasn't able to single-handledly drag Free Dirt into a bigger spotlight. They really had that mojo that gets you signed... especially in that era. Check out "Untie My Head," which is up on their MySpace page. This song came late in the band's heyday and while this studio version is terrific, it doesn't quite capture the transcendent version that they'd crank up live. I remember seeing them do it live in Belleville one night and it nearly took my head off.

No Depression magazine eventually took notice of them but my recollection is that Free Dirt sort of imploded eventually and everyone went on the pastures and projects new. So I am delighted that they are getting back together for Return of the Byrne. I saw them play tight, blistering sets and I saw them veer toward shambles on occasion, but I never saw them play without passion.

Can't wait to see that again on March 11.

Free Dirt (from left): Dan Niewoehner, Tom Buescher, Dave Harris, Greg Vernon

Help Me (and Taffety Punk) Put on a Show

My show, that is. I am so excited that Taffety Punk Theatre Company will produce my play about alchemy in Renaissance Prague, Burn Your Bookes, at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop in spring. (Opening night: Friday, April 30, 2010.)

We had a standing-room only audience for the sneak preview of Burn Your Bookes at the Kennedy Center over Labor Day weekend. If you didn’t see it, a video of the performance is here at the Kennedy Center's web site. (Note: Real Player required.)

But I’m posting this message because we need your help to get the play up and running in late April.

Taffety Punk was the first theatre company that I contacted when I finished Burn Your Bookes in April 2008. Why? The same reasons that I’m asking you to help support the company today.

Commitment to excellence: Taffety Punk is about taking artistic risks and making them pay off for audiences. Whether it’s rethinking Shakespearean classics like Romeo and Juliet, Measure for Measure or Troilus and Cressida or tackling new work (like Burn Your Bookes or Gwydion Suilebhan’s plays Let X and The Faithkiller, or our recent critical smash suicide.chat room), Taffety Punk possesses a keen sense of adventure and a knack for showmanship. Critics and the D.C. theatre community are taking note. Taffety Punk performances have garnered raves in the Washington Post., the Washington City Paper and elsewhere, attracted the attention of local television and radio, and won the company a Helen Hayes Award as Outstanding Emerging Theatre Company in 2008.

Don't believe me? Ask Washington Post critic Peter Marks, whose review of suicide.chat.room in early February summed it up nicely: "The energetic evening is brought to you by Taffety Punk Theatre Company, a resourceful D.C. troupe that looks for ways to supplement the fairly conventional diet on which audiences here tend to be restricted."

Low ticket prices: Taffety Punk artistic director Marcus Kyd knows that the fierce competition for entertainment dollars – and young audiences – means that theater needs to be priced for maximum accessibility. Taffety Punk performances always feature a low $10 ticket price – live theater that’s cheaper than a movie. And some of our most innovative performances, including out annual Shakespeare bootleg (check out this rave from D.C.'s Examiner here) are absolutely free!

Emphasis on text and performance: As a playwright, this was a key selling point in asking Taffety Punk to do Burn Your Bookes. Taffety Punk is an actor’s and a writer’s theatre company. They love the text – whether it is the Renaissance language of Shakespeare or the contemporary language of new playwrights – and savor the wit and audacity of great writing.

I hope you’re moved to make a generous donation to Taffety Punk Theatre Company. Even with our scrappy, lo-fi production ethos, it still costs a few thousand dollars to produce a show. (Especially with $10 ticket prices.) Your contribution is targeted to ensure that actors and technical staff get paid – and that more people hear about the great work that we’re doing. We don’t have paid staff or other overhead at Taffety Punk. When you donate to us, it goes to producing great theater. Period.

Donating is easy. Click on this link -- or you can send a check to Taffety Punk Theatre Company at P.O. Box 15392 Washington, DC 20003. (Be sure that you write “Alchemy” on the dedication line on the web donation page or on the info line of the check, so we can track the support for Burn Your Bookes.)

Taffety Punk is a 501(c) 3 organization, so your contribution is tax-deductible.

Thanks so much in advance for any generosity. Burn Your Bookes has already had some major successes -- from a one-act version winning the Expats.cz and Prague.tv Prague Playwriting Festival to the full house at September's sneak preview. I hope to see you in April!

Richard Byrne for Taffety Punk Theatre Company

(Image is a drawing of John Dee's Hieroglyphic Monad -- a key element in Act One of Burn Your Bookes.)

Taffety Punk's suicide.chat.room

Very excited that Taffety Punk Theatre Company's suicide.chat.room is about to open at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint on Thursday night. (And not just because it means that the full-length version of my play, Burn Your Bookes, is up next in the Taffety Punk queue!)

The opening of suicide.chat.room is the final crystallization of a process that has engaged Taffety Punk artistic director Marcus Kyd for almost four years now, since the public got a first taste of it at the 2006 Page-to-Stage festival at the Kennedy Center. I've been to a few rehearsals now at various points in the journey and I am finding the piece an incredibly moving and intense blend of text, movement (choreographed by company member Paulina Guerrero) and challenging music from D.C. indie stalwarts Beauty Pill as well.

There's an official press release here, but what I was interested in posting a bit on the inherent controversy involved in appropriating texts written by those who have contemplated suicide --and in some cases, succeeded in doing so.

The fears in any such undertaking, of course, boil down largely to two main concerns: (1) sensationalizing suicide; and (2) encouraging it. From what I've seen in rehearsals and in the text, Marcus and his collaborators and actors are not treading into either one of those potential pitfalls.

I am not asserting that suicide.chat.room will not excite some controversy. It is trampling any number of taboos, in particular the notion that suicide should not be discussed with candor. The piece is unflinching in its examination of the human agonies and fragilities that create a desire to end one's own life -- and to seek out a virtual community where one can learn just how to do so.

Yet there is no glamor in the suicides -- imagined and real -- that are at the heart of suicide.chat.room. Without giving anything away or spoiling the twists and surprises in the piece, I can at least attest that I found the power of suicide.chat.room resides in the way that even this most lethally-minded of communities affirms the positive power of human solidarity and the consolations found in sharing our human grief and pain.

Ironies, paradoxes and outright contradictions are the meat of suicide.chat.room. It challenges, provokes and consoles in equal measure. It promises to be a powerful event.

Previews on Tuesday, January 26 and Wednesday, January 27. Opening night is Thursday, January 28. The run ends on Saturday, February 13. Information on tickets here.