My Morning Jacket was voted Best Live Act of 2011 for a reason. They deliver tender folk-tinged rock, dreamy alt pop, and arena bombast with high energy and precision accuracy. MMJ has enough balls to experiment with their delivery by exploring their own music with thunderous improvisational jams and pulling randomly from an ever-growing catalog of powerful songs from night-to-night. Stamp this high octane mixture with the gripping and expansive vocals of an enigmatic yet engaging frontman and you got yourself a rock show. Last night at the Hard Rock Live in Orlando, FL was no exception.
The setlist was excellent despite lacking some of the deep cuts surfacing at other stops on this tour such as “Strangulation,” “The Bear,” “Cobra,” and “Heartbreakin’ Man” to name a few (We did get “Bermuda Highway” though).
My videos are far from professionally shot. Most are done with a Canon Powershot from just about any vantage I could get. The video is meh, but the audio is actually pretty damn good because of the type of mic the Powershot has and where it is placed. The point is capture a moment from these concerts as a sort of keepsake.
And the Top 10 Most Viewed Videos Are …
#10:
Modest Mouse put on one hell of a show at the Hard Rock Live in June 2008. They were supporting We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank playing a good mix of new stuff with killer classics like “Paper Thin Walls,” “Custom Concern,” “Breakthrough,” and this song, “Trucker’s Atlas.”
VIEWS: 1,703
#9:
Tricephus, or Hank III, visits just about yearly to put on one of the coolest live spectacles on the planet. He starts with a set of country classics from his grandpa, Hank Willimas Sr. Next, he does a set of Psychobilly – a sort of roots country / hard rock / punk hybrid and ends the show with AssJack, a full-on hardcore / death metal shit show. This AssJack metal medley that includes Van Halen, Ministry, and Slayer comes in at number 9.
VIEWS: 1, 716
#8:
Thievery Corporation is known for their chill, eclectic, international sound, but they come at the audience full-force with a host of supporting musicians and performers in their live shows. This performance of “Sound the Alarm”- the first track on 2008′s Radio Retaliation – is from the 2008 VooDoo Music Fest in New Orleans.
VIEWS: 2,195
#7:
Phish took over Miami for New Year’s in 2009. Their loyal sandal-shaking fanbase will search out all media related to their shows. All the videos from New Year’s Eve got a lot of views, but “AC/DC Bag” blew them all away.
VIEWS: 2,359
#6:
Avi Buffalo is a band of pretty young kids that visited The Social several times thus far (with Rogue Wave and Blitzen Trapper). Their biggest and possibly best song, “What’s In It For?” is reflected in the amount of views here.
VIEWS: 2,411
#5:
LCD Soundsystem blew my mind with their show in October 2010 at Hard Rock Live. I was amazed at the raw power that this semi-electronic dance pop band brought. I’m glad to have the opportunity to interview Pat Mahoney and see James Murphy and the gang because it ended up being their last tour. They kicked the show off with “Dance Yrself Clean.” This is a video that sort of captures the essence of what I try to do. Although the angles aren’t pro-shot, the immersion in the audience translates the kinetic vibe of the show.
VIEWS: 4,908
#4:
The Tennessee 3 was Johnny Cash’s famous backing band. Orlando had the privilege of seeing these legendary musicians play a set for Anti*Pop 2007. I was hesitant because I thought without Cash’s infamous gravelly baritone it just wouldn’t work. Not true at all. Guitarist and long-time musical companion of Cash, Bob Wooten, had an uncanny vocal resemblance to The Man in Black himself. Truly Amazing. All of the video from that night was popular, but “I Was There / Luther Did the Boogie-Woogie” is way out in front of other classics caught that night like “I Walk the Line,” “Orange Blossom Special,” and “Ghostriders in the Sky.”
VIEWS: 5,762
#3:
Del tha Funkee Homosapien rocked The Social in January of 2010 with his unique flow. I also interviewed Del in 2009. His show at The Social was razor sharp as he dug through his prolific song book. He even did a version of “Clint Eastwood,” the Gorillaz song that brought him mainstream fame, but it was classic, rarely played “Mr. Dobalina” that brought all the hits.
VIEWS: 6,146
#2:
My Morning Jacket is one of the best live bands in existence right now. They are a band I will travel anywhere to see if I can. This video for “Victory Dance” was from their performance at the 2011 Hangout Fest. It was the opening track and the first time fans got to hear this song from Circuital which was not released at the time of the show. It’s a slow and creeping song that builds to a frenetic ending. Watch as the eager crowd goes berserk in the last 30 seconds as Jim James banshee cries wakes them up.
VIEWS: 7,544
#1:
This is crazy. I’m not sure how this happened (it was probably embedded on a much more popular site) but Surfer Blood and Pains of Being Pure at Heart did a show at Firestone in June of 2010. Surfer Blood ended by bringing PoBPaH back on stage to cover Lit’s “My Own Worst Enemy.”
The Pixies | Photo by Kelley Jackson http://www.lucy-pearl.com/
Something tells me the folks at Festival Republic have done this before. Every bit of the event was seamless. It was organized and well orchestrated but laid back. The website was killer and the mobile app was a great tool. Everything from the entry process to The Killers Friday VIP show at The Beacham Theater, picking up media credentials, entering the festival, and navigating the property to concessions, music schedule, and set changes were meticulously executed. Bathrooms were abundant and clean (a major feat for a rock festival), concessions and merch were plentiful and logically located, and there were even free water refill stations sponsored by Camel Pak where concertgoers could refill their water for free! Even the concessions seemed to be on a schedule; it felt like every 15-20 minutes a vendor selling Heineken products and water would appear in the crowd when you needed them most. The police presence was strong, but subdued. I thought a world-class festival would not work in Orlando because our large and overzealous police force would take the opportunity to set up driving checkpoints and festival entry anal probes that would scare most fans away.
The grounds were clean, well planned and easy to navigate which made jumping from stage to stage rather easy – never taking more than 5 minutes to get to the next band. A lot of this could be due to the low turnout, but there is no doubt that Festival Republic runs a tight ship and it would be a shame if they didn’t return because Orlando is full of late adopters.
FRIDAY
The Killers VIP show
The inaugural installment of what hopefully becomes a successful tradition in Orlando Calling started with a bang as The Killers played a warm-up VIP concert at The Beacham Theater. I wasn’t sure if this would be a true warm-up or an intimate setting to debut new music. It was neither. It was a festival size show shoehorned into a historic downtown Orlando club.
SATURDAY
Saturday was the alt / indie part of the festival as it seemed to be compartmentalized into Saturday indie, hip-hop (to some degree), and alternative with sprinkles of Top 40 and country and Sunday adult-contemporary, classic rock, and heavier doses of country.
This was the first band I caught and they were excellent. This Detroit-based rock/soul band energized the crowd with a fat sound that seemed to embody as much goth as it did soul with the pin-up look perfectly suited for the horn section and her giant voice.
Deep Dark Woods
I moved from Jessica Fernandez at one stage to another band I haven’t had the chance to hear in Deep Dark Woods. These guys were great and reminded me of a Fleet Foxes meets Band of Horses sound. Immediately I was impressed and reminded of another wonderful attribute of a good festival; being turned on to new music just by wandering around.
Gogol Bordello
I knew these guys could bring it. From large festivals to more intimate settings like NPR’s Tiny Desk series, Gogol Bordello can work a crowd with their eclectic gypsy punk. They were one of the brightest spots on Saturday.
Kid Cudi
I was really excited about this show. I adore Man on the Moon and realized this was Cudi’s first trip to Florida. He brought a live band to amp up his songs and it was great, but the awesome band just made me realize how much I loved Ratatat’s production.
Kid Cudi | Photo by Kelley Jackson - http://www.lucy-pearl.com/
The Avett Brothers
I just don’t get it. It just feels like a watered-down Dave Matthews frat version of a folk rock like Iron and Wine. I had a Slayer shirt on and as I exited the show an Avett fan yelled, “Awww where are you going?!” I could hear his friend reply, “Dude, Slayer.”
I missed two bands I was looking to see in Iron and Wine and Civil Twilight. There are always casualties in a festival that has a lot to offer.
The Pixies
There was no bigger casualty for me than Dr. Dog. I love their late Beatles-esque retro rock. This was one of the bands that got me psyched up to come out, but alas, they played the same time that The Pixies did. I went with The Pixies and was not let down as they played all of Doolittle and closed with “Gigantic.” No “Where is my Mind” though.
The Raconteurs
I decided to see part of The Raconteurs show before moving to see the Roots. Jack White and the dudes from The Greenhorns sounded better than ever, but some of the effect was lost on the vast emptiness of the Citrus Bowl. The Citrus Bowl is massive and the only people that ever sell that out are U2 and the Rolling Stones so trying to put a dent in the Citrus Bowl is a large feat.
The Roots
The Roots delivered the rousing festival performance I sought minus one glaring omission: No ?uestlove! It appears ongoing politics with The Roots and their drummer got in the way of a big performance.
The Killers
The Killers were set to close out day 1 and they did a great job in front of a cool projection screen. It’s just that the band’s current drawing power and the vastness of the Citrus Bowl made the show feel small, a major contrast to their Friday performance. The Killers would have been perfect as the last band before Radiohead or the Foo Fighters, bands that people from other states will travel to see.
SUNDAY
Following Saturday’s small-ish turnout I expected Sunday to be a bust, but there were actually more people turning out for Sunday’s line-up. Never under estimate central Florida’s desire to party hard around classic rock and country. There were moms and dads a-plenty cruising the grounds. They seemed to be spending more as the midway and food areas were far busier than the previous day. Leave it to Orlando hipsters to complain about Orlando’s inability to have something cool then ignore it when it happens only to be outshined by their parents rockin’ out to The Doob.
Los Lonely Boys
I saw Los Lonely boys wrap up their set to a packed tent. I never really got into them before but dug their Stevie Ray Vaughn-like take on music with a killer rhythm section and a flailing screeching guitar hero.
Have Gun Will Travel
Bradenton’s HGWT were also sounding sharp as I caught the tail end of their set. This is definitely a band I wanted to see in their entirety since the last performance I caught at Anti*Pop.
Robert Randolph & the Family Band
Sometimes the jam scene drives me nuts so I opted out of Warren Haynes to hit another jam mainstay in Robert Randolph. This guy can set a stage on fire with his furious slide guitar and today was no exception.
Bloody Jug Band
I took a detour to the Art House tent to catch BJB as their description depicted a macabre version of the 20’s jug bands. They were pretty cool as they played some originals and toyed with classics from Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard. Their mandolin player was a cut above the rest.
Buddy Guy
This dude is 75 years old and he can still shred guitar and work a crowd. Wrapping up the show with a crushing “Voodoo Chile” cover that had him playing the gee-tar with his teeth and his ass. Actually it was the second rousing “Voodoo Chile” on that stage that day with Robert Randolph tearing through one earlier.
The Mudflappers
This was another retro-influenced band at the Art House tent. These guys were great and had a Squirrel Nut Zipper-like attention to detail and a unique sound – one of my favorites from Sunday.
This guy just gets better and better and now he has a band to back up what he writes. In addition to Thomas on guitar and vocals, Olivia Wynn and her angelic and soulful backing vocals, and Chris Bell lighting the “Mississippi Saxophone” on fire, Thomas was joined by Shak Nasti’s shredder, Tim Turner and legendary Orlando musician Anthony Cole now on bass duty.
Chris Issac
I either missed or he didn’t play “Wicked Game” and “Somebody’s Cryin’.” I’m not embarrassed to admit I wear a Slayer shirt and love those songs. His A-list band did bust out some killer covers of Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis, Sam Cooke, Roy Orbison and more as Isaac worked the crowd with ease and worked his shimmering mirror ball suit as well.
***
I had to call it a night and missed Seger and Dwight Yoakam. I would see them both just because they are who they are and Dwight was god damn Doyle in Slingblade!
I would say everything but the attendance was a success. This was an impeccable festival experience, but lacked something to draw larger numbers. One problem was Bear Creek took away at least 3,000 people that would go to Orlando Calling just for a festival experience. Another issue was there was no monumental draw other than The Pixies to bring people from all over the southeast down to Orlando. Filling the Citrus Bowl is tough too. Glancing at the side stages, it seemed like any other festival, but seeing the Bowl filled to 1/3 capacity for headliners made it obvious that they did not get the numbers they wanted. I think when word gets out about how well this was run and that Orlando has better weather than just about anywhere else in the country in November that this could become the destination festival that it was intended to be. Throw in a shitty techno tent and 10,000 more people will come out. Please don’t give up on us Melvin Benn and Festival Republic!
There’s nothing like a stadium-ready band blowing the doors off a club at a private show to kick off a weekend of music. The inaugural installment of what hopefully becomes a successful tradition in Orlando Calling started with a bang as The Killers played a warm-up VIP concert at The Beacham Theater. I wasn’t sure if this would be a warm-up or an intimate setting to debut new music. It was neither. It was a festival size show shoehorned into a historic downtown Orlando club. Brandon Flowers and company tore through a greatest hits setlist that included every arena pop anthem they ever released. No need to list them because it was all of them including their cover of Joy Division’s “Shadowplay.”
The Tiger Lillies descended on the quaint little Jaeb Theater (apart from a dingy German cabaret – the perfect place for this show) at Tampa’s Straz Center for the Performing Arts Thursday night to deliver a varied and open set of their unique brand of musical mayhem.
The set was so open in fact that it seemed like the set list was evolving as the band played. The ferocious and brilliant Martyn Jacques, looking like a drunk Dickensian Gene Simmons would abandon intros and stomp off stage to grab sheet music in order to play a different song. He would survey his instruments (He moved from his trademark accordion to piano and guitar throughout the performance) in between songs as if to ask, “What do I feel like doing next?” and band member’s Adrian Huge (percussion) and Adrian Stout (bass, theremin, saw) would key in on Martyn, waiting for cues as to what came next. Martyn’s voice was another instrument; tackling his trademark shrill falsetto, his gravely, deep Tom Waites-like low-end and everything in between with ease.
The Adrians’ were astounding. Stout “walked the dog,” slapping at his upright bass like it owed him money, creating a smooth, chugging backbone for most songs. On other tunes he added eerie ambiance with the theremin or saw.
Huge is one of the wittiest and most inventive percussionists I’ve ever witnessed live. His sturdy frame added delicate rhythm and subtle melodic charm for the duration of the evening. He played a rag-tag kit that would make a hair metal drummer gasp and faint at its austerity. A bass drum from a child’s kit adorned with a rubber chicken was accompanied by a piccolo snare and tiny tom-tom. Accents were added with a disheveled rack of varied, tiny splash and china splash cymbals. He also had a tool kit that allowed him to add percussive genius with tambourines, triangles, woodblocks, squeak toys, and even play a song with nothing but a mirrored disco ball and a rhythm egg. The Adrians’ added that twisted cabaret / vaudeville charm with their antics, attire, backing vocals, and humorous banter.
The Tiger Lillies just wrapped up a Vienna residency performing their latest twisted and depraved tale in Georg Buchnor’s Woyzeck, and more recently Sinderella in Brooklyn earlier this month. As Jacques noted in our interview, he was excited to play a more wide-open set list and move away from the theatrical show pieces. The Lillies were all over the map and played songs from various points in their 22-year career. Their darkly humorous brand of macabre songwriting ranges in subject matter from death and vice to lunacy and love. They worked the crowd into frenzy with classics like “Banging in the Nails” (a song about the first-hand joys of crucifying Jesus), “Gin” (from The Gorey End, about a worldly soldier’s terminal addiction to drink), and “Bully Boys” (a bullied child’s violent revenge). They opened the floor to suggestions and among all the calls for a wide variety of songs they played “Piss on Your Grave” (a wildly awful story about killing just about every major figure in the bible then pissing on their grave) and ended the show with Hamsters after an audience member derailed their attempts to close with another song with her constant calls for “Hamsters!” To give you an idea about the song is about, the show ended with Huge comically tugging on Jacques ass as Stout made grinding sounds on his bass. Huge yanked hard to remove a giant hamster from Martyn’s ass. – pretty awesome.
Early shows really get my panties in a bunch! I guess The Beacham really isn’t a premiere concert destination, but Tabu living a double life as a sometimes-live venue. So, arriving at 9pm, I already missed Active Child. Just as the lines at the door tapered around 9:30 M83 took the stage.
Set to an astral backdrop of shimmering stars frontman, Anthony Gonzalez, greeted the near-capacity crowd in some sort of grotesque Fraggle Rock alien outfit and we went apeshit. M83 is loud, real loud. They blended new wave electronica, arena rock volume, shoegaze reverb, and a psychedelic light show for a punchy little 90-minute set that sounded like AIR meets New Order.
The band dipped into their latest release, the ambitious double disc Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming for tracks like “Reunion,” “Steve McQueen,” and the subtle but stirring “Wait.” The crowd soaked in every moment as M83 moved through classics like “Kim & Jessie,” “We Own the Sky,” and closing with the epic instrumental “Couleurs.”
I was actually pleased they didn’t play “Graveyard Girl” because it seems“tweeny.” As the show ended, the audience roared and Gonzalez removed his guitar to sacrifice it to the rock gods. My only contention there is that I’m pretty sure there is a hard rule somewhere in the books of rock ‘n roll that you cannot grind your axe into the monitors, hold it in the air then lean it against your amp as you exit the stage unless you’ve had at least two (minimum) face-melter solos. Other than that, they passed.
The new wave of New Wave is here! The Beacham hosts two of the most promising acts in the 80′s mod revival in M83 and Active Child. Opener, Active Child, is back with a follow-up to last year’s groundbreaking EP, Curtis Lane. Crooner and harpist (yes, harpist) Pat Grossi is touring behind his latest LP in the enchanting You Are All I See with a few more musicians than his last show at The Social. A live drummer is certain to add another dimension to Grossi’s alternative chamber pop.
M83 will amp up the 80′s prog-goth with a touch of shoegaze. Only 2 weeks in to their North American tour behind Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming the French band – more precisely Frenchman, Anthony Gonzalez – are getting rave reviews and drawing large crowds. Expect big sounds moving back and forth from wall-shuddering dance tunes to reverb-drenched alt rock and sometimes both seamlessly intertwined.
“I’m Martyn, I come from a little town outside Slough (Berkshire, England) where I lived a happy childhood and a nightmarish adolescence.”
This is Martyn Jacques, the “criminal castrati,” a mastermind of sorts as the principal creative force and founder of the Tiger Lillies. The Tiger Lillies could be described as Brechtian Street Opera (after German poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht) or Gypsy Cabaret and I’ve called them macabre Vaudeville because of their twisted Something Wicked This Way Comes, 19th century carnival feel. There is a nursery rhyme quality to the foreboding tales of vice, death and debauchery woven into their songs. Not the sugarcoated, modern stories for children, but the dreary and awful stories of disease and death that often spawn these tales.
Does that make sense? Do those tales influence the storytelling in some of your songs?
“Well I’m not a big fan of great words and my tunes – at least when they are first born – are always very simple… almost childish you could say. My songs speak about the dark side of human beings which is I guess the basis of the storylines you refer to.”
Martyn finds it difficult to describe the music of the Tiger Lillies because it is “the music that just comes out of my head.” He touches on the broad influences of “cabaret, punk, blues, and old eastern music” as the music he loves to listen to. And it is all in there – elements of the east in Jacques’ ominous accordion spliced together with the raw energy and straight-forward savagery of punk, the dingy glamour of cabaret, and adorned with twisted takes on theatrical and literary themes. All of this blends with so many influences to create one of the most interesting collections of music and performances in modern music. That is why Martyn continues, “So I can’t give you a ‘label’ I’m afraid, but I can say that I believe our music has developed and changed a lot since we started – 22 years ago.”
Martyn’s musical ability – playing the accordion, ukulele, and piano among other things – and his approach to songwriting contribute to the unique world of the Tiger Lillies, but it is his voice that puts the signature on the body of work.
Describe your voice, I mean, how would one classify your vocal style?
“I’m a self-taught singer. I tried attending singing classes in my 20’s and absolutely hated it. Our teacher would use all these different signing techniques, but in my opinion the sound, either way, was absolutely boring. So I guess a voice production “expert” (like he was) would find all sorts of technical flaws in my singing. Its pretty clear that I’m not big on classification, isn’t it?”
(I chuckle) Yes.
“But as we are discussing vocal styles I think I should mention that these days I use both my high voice (that people are more familiar with and has become a trademark of sorts for the Tiger Lillies) and my low voice. They are very different in the sense that my low voice is much more harsh and untrained than the high one. I love using both on stage and when we record, because I think it creates variety, shifting the mood of the songs.”
“The Dreadful Story of Harriet and the Matches” – The tale of a little girls grim brush with pyromania
How did the Lillies come to be? How did the sound and themes and members come together?
“The sound and themes were born inside my head after spending a decade in London staying in my flat all day learning how to play various instruments and training my voice. I had a great view from my window; on one side of the flat there was the playground of a nursery school – on the other, Beak Street of Soho, full of drunks, prostitutes and drug dealers. The band members (originally Adrian Huge and Phil Butcher – who was later replaced by Adrian Stout) were the only two people that got in touch with me when I put an ad on Loot looking for a bassist and drummer.”
It is certainly Mr. Jacques previously mentioned “nightmarish adolescence” and the time in his Soho apartment that spawned the themes in the Tiger Lillies music. His 10 years “embedded” in west London privy to the daily dramas of the dregs of Soho served as research for their music while feeding a fascination with the underbelly of society.
They have numbers like “Heroin and Cocaine” which chronicles a school boy’s addiction and eventual death, “Larder” about a dead body decaying in a larder, “QRV”- a story about a mysterious drug that the whole town is abusing and dying from, “Snip Snip” about a young boy who is warned by his mother to stop sucking his thumbs or an ominous tall tailor will cut them off with his shears (he does), and so many more including “Whore,” “Besotted Mother,” “Pimps, Pushers, and Thieves” “Sodsville,” and “Hamsters” a descriptive tale that harkens the urban myth of Richard Gere notoriety. Their discography is long – beginning in 1989 – and all creepily awesome.
The Lillies are prolific to say the least. It seems that – for the most part – the albums are concept driven and so are the shows / tours / residencies that follow. How do these concepts come about? Where do you find inspiration for these songs that range in subject from whores, drugs and transsexuals to rape, murder, bestiality, and sometimes even love?
“Oh … everywhere around me. All these things are out there for everyone to see. Its more about wanting to look and think about them… and finding a way of doing it that can turn them into art.”
The other permanent members of the Lillies are the Adrian’s, Adrian Huge on drums / percussion and Adrian Stout on stand-up bass. Huge is a talented percussionist that has found a way to play the drums in a non-traditional style for a non-traditional music by bringing the songs to life with anything from percussive instruments to silverware and spatulas. Stout, if you listen, is a solid bass player rooted in jazz. If Martyn gives the songs bite I feel Stout gives them legs. Looking beyond their musical abilities, Jacques adds, “The Adrians contribute not only to the sound but also, and more importantly, to the world of the Tiger Lillies. We never rehearse, we never practice – I write songs at home (or more likely in some hotel room), I turn up at the sound check right before a gig and I play them. They both pick them up instantly and add their own elements to them… musically and theatrically.”
“Crack of Doom” Live from Russia:
Your success wouldn’t be defined as a commercial smash, but you’ve built a strong international following and earned the admiration of so-called stars. Could you name a few?
“I’m crap with stars – especially TV ones as I don’t watch any. Whenever we play in places like L.A. some famous people come at the CD signing and say hello and I honestly feel bad because I don’t know who they are.”
Ha! You are most certainly better off for it.
To elaborate a little on what I was poking around for is that the Tiger Lillies, although not at mainstream blockbuster status, enjoy an underground popularity and respect that true artists earn. Their fans include everyone from international composers and dramatists to Simpson creator, Matt Groening, The Talking Heads’ David Byrne, and Marilyn Manson. They were even commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney to create a “song cycle of crime” for the festivals 17th running in 2010 that was recorded and released as Cockatoo Prison.
Has Manson – a Tampa boy – ever contacted you about collaborating? Would something like that interest you?
“No he hasn’t, but I know he played our music at his wedding. I’m always open to new collaborations, I enjoy anything that gives me another reason to write music.”
Speaking of collaboration, the Lillies have been a part of some amazing and inventive collaborations like Symphony Orchestra of Norrlandsoperan, photographer Nan Goldin, and Russian band, Leningrad. The ‘sort-of’ collaboration with Edward Gorey (American Illustrator and Author), The Gorey End, is fantastic and the vehicle that brought me to your sound. I mean – it seemed so perfect – when I would see his work it was like Tiger Lillies music was coming out of the page and that was before I discovered you! How did that idea come about? What was the story behind it?
“Edward Gorey sent me a letter asking me to go visit him to discuss a collaboration. I was thrilled of course but just before taking the flight to go see him, he died. It’s almost too ironic to be true. We made the album anyway and I think its one of our greatest ones as his work is very inspiring for me, but it’s a real shame he wasn’t around to listen to it.”
I am dying to know what QRV is. What is it? I’ve never found anything on it. Not that I want to take it or anything …
“I’m dying to know too. I would have asked Edward Gorey if he hadn’t died days before our first meeting.”
You are coming off a residency in Vienna where you played a show called Woyzeck. Could you explain that show – the premise and its origins?
It’s about Franz Woyzeck – a great character: to earn an extra buck he has become a guinea pig and eats nothing but peas. He starts hallucinating and goes paranoid, which doesn’t help when he realizes the mother of his child is cheating on him with the sleazy, wealthy and butch drum major. It’s a wonderfully dark play and I think that the production I was in was a great one too. The run in Vienna went very well – hopefully we will tour it one day.
Stephanie Mohr, who directed The Weberischen (Another Tiger Lillies production with a dark and lusty interpretation of the women in Mozart’s life) in 2006, asked me to write some songs for Woyzeck that was the next project she wanted to work with us on. I wasn’t familiar at the time with Buchner’s (Georg Buchner is an early 19th century German dramatist) work, but I loved the play and I found it really relevant to the Tiger Lillies world.”
How was the stint in Vienna? Do you have any reflections on the city and your time there?
“Civilized is the first word that comes to mind when I think of Vienna. I know the city pretty well as I’ve done a few long runs there. When you travel a lot you develop certain “habits” in certain places. So it’s always good to be back and go to your favorite restaurants, bars, and galleries – walk down your favorite street. The Woyzeck run was very successful so it was a good experience altogether.”
There seems to be a strong kinship with Germany – from the themes of albums and homage to German writers and artistic movements. You also appear to do a lot of recording in Germany. Why is that?
“On one hand German cabaret as well as the Twopenny Opera (A Tiger Lilly interpretation of Bertolt Brecht’s musical, Theepenny Opera) by Kurt Weil (Original composer on Brect’s Threepenny Opera) have been very inspiring for me, so its possible that this influence on my work is something German audiences can relate to. We’ve also had some really good German agents. So over the last 22 years we visited Germany countless times; from big cities to small towns. As for the recordings, we always do them when we are on the road; it makes sense as we are almost never “at home” anyway. And as we spent so much time in Germany we have recorded a few albums there.”
The sound and mood of the music harkens bleak Dickensian squalor – for me anyway. Even though these themes are timeless, the presentation gives the songs a sort of antiquated feel – like it was captured from a bygone era. Do you draw any inspiration or fodder from current events like the current wars, the fleecing of the world by bankers, the imminent economic collapse of the world, and 2012 doomsday prophesies? All seem like they could fall in Tiger Lilly territory.
“I used to be rather indifferent to current events – but I think this is changing as years go by. Last summer I was in Athens where people were protesting at austerity measures. The committee of the protesters got in touch and invited us to perform in Syntagma Square, opposite the Greek Parliament. We performed in front of hundreds of thousands of people with tear gas grenades being fired everywhere around us. I felt what I was doing gained a whole new meaning. It was definitely one of the most important performances in my career.”
The Tiger Lillies Play Greek Parliament During Protests
Are the songs developed with the shows in mind or do the shows sort of write themselves as the album tells its story?
“It can and has worked both ways.”
Since I’ve followed you I can’t recall you visiting the states. Do you tour here much? What is the stateside reception of your music?
“We used to come to the States every year, usually in the fall – around Halloween. Last year we had a big tour around Europe with the “Tiger Lillies Freakshow” (a show built around their ’99 album Circus Songs, which could be likened to a musical version of Tod Browning’s 1932 classic horror film, Freaks), so we didn’t make it. Its great touring here, we have many really devoted fans that are also wildly enthusiastic as they don’t see us that often.”
What kind of fans does it seem to attract over here? It almost seems like the themes and nature are too clever for us – like only literature professors and theater majors would “get it.”
“I suppose I’ll take that as a compliment. I don’t however see your point. I don’t think my songs are that clever, and I definitely don’t think Americans are stupid. As in the rest of the world we attract different kinds of people; from 16 year-old Goths to middle aged couples. We even have some elderly ladies that follow us around.”
I would beg to disagree with Martyn’s assertion that, “I don’t think my songs are that clever.” As I see it, a band that is highly sought by the international musical and theatre community that can pull off albums dedicated to bestiality (Farmyard Filth, 2003) on one end of the spectrum and creating a musical translation of Francois Rabelais’s medieval novel Gargantua & Pantagruel (Here I Am Human, 2010) on the other is pretty damn clever. Just take a look at their long list of albums and their brief synopsis to get a glance at the magnitude of their themes and collaborations: www. http://tigerlillies.com/shop/
What can fans in Tampa expect? Will this be a more traditional concert as compared to the themes and concepts of Woyzeck and Freakshow?
“Oh yes. Doing runs with shows is great but eventually I get tired of performing the same songs each night. So now I’m really looking forward to some Tiger Lillies gigs where I can do whatever I like with the set list.”
“Bully Boys” – A brutal tale of revenge from the perspective of a bullied kid:
What do the Tiger Lillies have in store for us in the coming year?
“I’m working on many projects at the moment, but the one that might actually make it to the US is a new production of Hamlet. It will open in Copenhagen in the spring and hopefully next year it will tour the States.”
The Tiger Lillies wrapped up Woyzeck in Vienna in mid-October then went on to a brief stint at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn to perform Sinderella with avant-garde actor, Vivian Bond. This is the tale of Cinderella Tiger Lillies style as “Sinderella” is a crack-whore battling with drug addiction and domestic abuse. I wonder why Disney hasn’t come calling?
Martyn Jacques, Adrian Stout, and Adrian Huge will bring their bizarre, beautiful, and darkly funny brilliance to the Straz Center in Tampa on Thursday, November 3rd.
Said the Whale hopped in a van in their hometown of Vancouver to play a short series of dates through the U.S to end up in Miami tonight for a show at The Vagabond. For some inexplicable yet awesome reason, they played a free show at Winter Park’s Austin Coffee and Film. These are Juno Award Winner’s (kind of Canada’s version of the Grammy) crushing a coffee house for freakin’ free!
Besides being blown away by the weather (they noted, “It’s nighttime and I’m sweating. I don’t think I’ve ever said that” while I noted that I’ve said “It’s nighttime and I’m NOT sweating” about 3 times in my life in central Florida) – they blew away a small but dedicated audience at this area art house coffee shop.
The shared lead vocal duties of Ben Worcester and Tyler Bancroft, keyboards, and female backing vocals of super yummy Jaycelyn Brown give them a sweet, melodic indie sound while their bruising rhythm section (Nathan Shaw on bass and Spencer Schoening on drums) and duel guitar approach lends some thudding rock to a sound that pulls from folk, pop, and indie rock.
Opening band, We are the City were also from Canada. They were a pleasant surprise reminding me of Mimicking Birds with their ability to swerve from tender and intimate to overwhelming on the heels of an explosive bag-of-bones Bonham-like drummer.
STW’s EP, New Brighton, is due out in November and a yet to be titled LP will be out next year.
Door times for this show were pushed back because of the big Latin festival, Calle Orange, in downtown Orlando. So I go there about an hour early (Doors moved from 7pm to 9:30 pm) and had the great fortune to witness blocked city streets with piles of refuse and several drunken fights, bum fights, AND drunken bum fights. I may have missed AMC’s Walking Dead last night, but I got the chance to actually live it for a moment!
I waited in line, enveloped by the fuming stench of full port-o-lets lining Orange Ave. in front of Firestone. The queue was subjected to a fine chemical mist comprised of an undefined fluid churned up from a thorough street sweeper and the fumes wafting from the septic trucks draining the wretched little plastic boxes. What is this Bonnaroo?!
Firestone’s line was brutally inefficient because each person entering the venue was subject to a pat-down, ransacking of personal items, and anal probe that would make any TSA agent proud. They searched each pocket in purses, rummaging through personal goods including lipstick for … I don’t know … bomb making material? This is Little Dragon we’re seeing here, not Skrewdriver.
My disdain for life was defused by San Francisco’s Tycho aka Scott Hansen. Although I hadn’t heard Tycho, friend’s were excited to see them and for good reason. This 3 piece was able to create powerful, ambient, melodic instrumentals on the spine of good drum work and a melding of synth, loops, and guitar:
I’ve said just about everything there is to say about Little Dragon. They are a force live and although this show lacked some of the power, jams, and run time of their previous BackBooth experiences (being a snob) it was still another killer performance:
The new wave of New Wave is here! The Beacham hosts two of the most promising acts in the 80′s mod revival in M83 and Active Child. Opener, 
Door times for this show were pushed back because of the big Latin festival, Calle Orange, in downtown Orlando. So I go there about an hour early (Doors moved from 7pm to 9:30 pm) and had the great fortune to witness blocked city streets with piles of refuse and several drunken fights, bum fights, AND drunken bum fights. I may have missed AMC’s Walking Dead last night, but I got the chance to actually live it for a moment!
