Friday, May 14
@ THE
WORLD
When Neko Case first opens her mouth to sing, there's a
moment of awed surprise. She has a big ol' country voice, not the kind you
hear very much anymore, especially on country radio. In terms of power,
honesty and emotional vulnerability, it's reminiscent of Patsy Cline and
Kitty Wells. It echoes up out of the valleys of Appalachian tradition,
lush with the green of a Kentucky spring. It swims in the sea of
heartbreak and steeps in the smoke of a backroom honky-tonk. Hard to
believe she spent a number of years as a drummer in a Canadian punk band.
A self-taught musician and vocalist, Case spent the early 1990s playing
the clubs of Vancouver before she began work on her solo debut. The
Virginian was released in 1997 to critical acclaim. Her follow-up
album in 2000, Furnace Room Lullaby, cemented her position further.
Since then she has been tireless, touring nonstop, playing headline shows
and opening for luminaries such as Nick Cave. But Case is not content
simply to be a solo act. She is one half of the Corn Sisters, singing
beautiful old-time country with Carolyn Mark. In 2000, she became one of
the New Pornographers, whose debut album Mass Romantic won the Juno
Award, Canada's equivalent of the Grammy. Somewhere she found the time to
write and record her third solo CD, last year's Blacklisted. While
the album features guest stars from bands like Giant Sand, the Sadies and
Calexico, it is definitely a Case solo project. She plays more instruments
than on previous releases, but it is still her voice that is the central
feature.
-- WAYNE WISE
With the Sadies, Mendoza Line. 8 p.m. $15. Strip
District. 412.642.2941
GATO BARBIERI
Saturday, May 15
@ UPTOWN
THEATRE
There was a time when Gato Barbieri's tenor saxophone
could make the hair on your neck stand up. In the mid-1960s free jazz
scene, the Argentinean native stood apart from Albert Ayler and John
Coltrane thanks to a strong tone that regularly shot up to a muscular,
altissimo shriek. It worked especially well on Charlie Haden's
Liberation Music Orchestra album, when Barbieri introduced a
Mexican folk song with a solo that began like a spiritual and climaxed
with impassioned wails that approximated the cries of war widows.
Following a few wild albums as a leader and two with trumpeter Don Cherry,
Barbieri mellowed quite a bit as the decade came to a close. He revisited
the music of his home country, as well as bossa nova and Afro-Cuban
styles, and became internationally popular when he scored the soundtrack
to the controversial film Last Tango in Paris in 1972, winning a
Grammy in the process. The 1990s found him largely inactive, despondent
over the death of his wife and musical confidant Michelle, and having had
triple-bypass surgery. But at the end of the millennium, he reemerged with
a new sense of energy, clad as always in his shades and black Bolivar hat.
The Shadow of the Cat, Barbieri's 2002 album, contains some
trimmings that gear it towards a contemporary jazz crowd, but when he
starts playing on "El Chico" that brawny tone cuts through, with the same
fire it blew more than 40 years ago.
-- MIKE SHANLEY
9 p.m. $35-$40. Washington. 724.223.8101
ANDREW WK
Monday, May 17
@ THE
WORLD
It's been a full three years since the release of his
major-label debut, I Get Wet, and the uncapped energy and carnival
atmosphere of Andrew WK's live show somehow continues to precede him,
regardless of the fact that he relies on no stage props, no smoke machine,
no costumes -- no nothing. The manic energy -- and this will come as no
surprise to anyone who has furiously pumped their fist to any of Andrew's
beautifully dunderheaded butt-rock -- comes entirely from the
unpretentiousness and carpe diem ferocity of the man himself. Of
course, it's hard to believe, at first, that this guy is even for real.
Check out the track listing from his first record: "It's Time to Party."
"Party Hard." "Party 'til You Puke." And every last number is a
jaw-droppingly raucous arena rock anthem, clearly written with one
singular goal in mind: to induce pure, unbridled, rock-and-roll chaos, in
all its numbing simplicity. But irony or no irony, Andrew's fans seem to
be feeling the burn en masse: Live shows reportedly find half the audience
on stage, roaring and crowd-surfing, while Andrew pounds his Casio like a
born-again headbanger possessed. Sadly Andrew's latest release, The
Wolf, ventures off into somewhat more complicated, challenging
territory, choosing to leave the 1-2-3-4 party rock behind for a slightly
more serious look at life and how to live it, which Andrew claims is the
entire purpose behind every song he plays. Then again, with new titles
like "Long Live the Party," "Never Let Down" and "Make Sex," it's evident
that none of Andrew WK's electronic power-chord metal will ever ask more
of us than to simply live with intensity.
-- DAN ELDRIDGE
With the Locust, No Motive, Fireball Ministry. 7 p.m.
$15. Strip District. 412.642.2941
DAVID BOWIE,
STEREOPHONICS
Monday, May 17
@ BENEDUM CENTER
David Bowie can't be real. He's pushing 60, but he's as
fetching as ever. His career has stretched over three decades, but he's
still as popular as ever. And, unlike other seminal artists whose
tremendous mark on the history of modern music is slightly diminished by
the fact that they don't know when to quit, he's as good as ever. Part of
his immortality comes from the fact that his last two albums,
Heathen and Reality, both mark a return to more classic
terrain, which proves his sense of what's good. Where Heathen
reflected the dark, sensual and eerie nature of Hunky Dory to
Heroes-era Bowie, Reality is a more stylized and sharp
recollection of the aura of those and other classic albums. He's also
constantly tinkering with new musical trends without making anything sound
trite or dated. This day also marks the official release of the winning
song from a massive remix competition launched on his Web site, where
participants were asked to combine any classic Bowie track with material
from Reality. The winner, chosen by Bowie himself, will get their
remix released on MP3.
For a bunch of Brit boys, the Stereophonics sure nab
American blues-rock on their latest album, You Gotta Go There to Come
Back. Kelly Jones' grizzled voice hollers and hoots around the dirty
lounge rock that made them major figures in late 1990s British rock --
hailed "Britain's biggest band" by many a critic -- but it also employs
elements that guarantee it to be a landmark effort in their continued
history, including a gospel choir, brass and string sections and enough
raw attitude to last for hopefully several albums to come. Jones and Co.
don't stick to a consistent shtick; rather, they vary the speed and sauce
of their songs to remain innovative, and so far it's worked overseas but
has yet to charm the American ear. Let's see if the classic rock elements
of You Gotta Go can change that.
-- CINDY YOGMAS
Sold out. 8 p.m. Downtown. 412.323.1919
RATATAT
Thursday, May 20
@
GARFIELD ARTWORKS
Ratatat's self-titled album opens with a young man's voice
explaining that he's been rapping for 17 years, long enough for him to
bust rhymes spontaneously instead of writing them down. But we don't get a
sample of his lyrical skills because he is a sample. He's replaced
by a layer of synthesizers, vintage or otherwise, guitars and a
pre-programmed drumbeat. The song, "Seventeen Years," like everything else
on the album, contains no vocals and comes off like either a new breed of
dance music or the soundtrack of a Modern Science film that might be shown
in junior high classrooms, if such films are even shown anymore. Evan Mast
and Mike Stroud create a groovy blend of sounds that feels too smart to
merit labels like "retro" or "cheesy." They add clever nuances like a
percussive sound on "Everest" that sounds like a sample of pages of a book
being flipped. "Cherry," the duo's original name, could have come from a
lost Brian Eno ambient album. When Stroud doesn't create music, he spends
time working as a hired gun for touring acts like Ben Kweller and
Dashboard Confessional. While out on tour, Mast often sent him CDRs of
their recordings, which his friend distributed to people around the
country. One person who liked what he heard was Interpol's Paul Banks, who
invited the duo to join his band on a West Coast tour and became the de
facto third member of the group. Following an East Coast trip with the
Stills and the release of their album, Ratatat is ready to head out on
their own.
-- SHANLEY
With Jeremy Boyle, Noah Kracfive, Vorpal. All ages. 8
p.m. $7. Garfield. 412.361.2262
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