Saturday, March 6 @ 7:30pm
Suggested donation: $8
($5 – $10 accepted)
Join us for special evening of music with West Philly locals, Scott McMicken of Dr. Dog, in a rare solo performance, and Birdie Busch, playing new songs and old favorites. The night will begin with the “slow-burning” tunes of Annie and the Beekeepers of Brooklyn, New York.
A variety of special-brewed sweet teas on us!
BYOB
Scott McMicken
(of Dr. Dog)
Scott speaks of what he and his band are trying to convey through music:
“I think the impression that we want to make, if anything, is having a light-hearted, relaxed attitude about things. That’s an important way for me to feel in life, and, for me, it just works out better if I’m not a prisoner to technology. I don’t want to be surrounded by computers. I don’t want to click and drag to turn up the volume, I want a console that has a big volume knob on it! The technology to record music is just a necessary evil; the music is within you. The goal, for me, is to have a direct line of recording from within, a way that will offer less friction, less obstacles. And this is just the way I do it.”
From an interview by Anthony Carew, September 2008
A little about Dr. Dog:
Founded on a creative relationship whose roots stretch back to when McMicken and bassist Toby Leaman met in the 8th grade, Dr. Dog was years in the making. After long hours practicing in basements, performing in barns, and tweaking knobs on cassette four track machines, Dr. Dog was officially established in 1999 with the Psychedelic Swamp record. What followed was an intense period of stockpiling eight-track recordings, open-ended enrollment policies where Dr. Dog membership included a man who played a one-string guitar in a skintight skeleton costume and another who danced in the crowd while wearing a tuxedo. Despite their loyal hometown following, Dr. Dog could have very well remained a Philadelphia phenomenon had McMicken’s then-girlfriend not slipped a copy of Toothbrush, a collection of home recordings, to Jim James of My Morning Jacket, who would take them on their first tour and prepare the way for the waves of positive press that would greet 2005’s Easy Beat. By 2007, their next album We All Belong was earning the band opening slots for Wilco and the Raconteurs and they were turning up all over late night television. They upped the ante with their sonically ambitious Fate and started headlining their own tours.
Just like each of their previous albums, it’s a record destined to claim its place on the timeless margins, untouched by modern tastes and content to exist on its own terms. Dig deeper, and you’ll hear that it’s the sound of bones groaning to support new growth and the story of how just how difficult the maturation process is, even when you want it more than anything. It’s the sound of Dr. Dog writing their next chapter, the one they’ve been working towards since they played their first notes together. Shame, just released, Shame is not a joyless affair. Just like each of their previous albums, it’s a record destined to claim its place on the timeless margins, untouched by modern tastes and content to exist on its own terms.
“At this point, we’ve set out this buffet for ourselves, but we first had to cook that food and figure out what our tastes are,” McMicken says. “Now it’s time to dig in.”
Birdie Busch
The music of Birdie Busch is the concise sound of a well defined personality unfiltered by the social trends or factors that often define what people are or aren’t listening to. Writing in deceptively simple terms, she reveals very complex and nuanced emotions and complicated narratives with stark phrases and novel turns of speech, creating a musical balance that is comfortable, understandable, and yet unique. Comparing it seems like an odd thing to do, and many often find themselves searching for a reference point, but critics from the Village Voice to American Songwriter have admiringly found her of kindred spirit to everyone from Syd Barrett to Eudora Welty. All Music Guide exclaimed after her 2007 Penny Arcade release that she was one of the “most affecting altos around”.
“Pattern of Saturn”, Birdie’s newest release, was recorded over the span of the past year. Recorded in various Philly friends’ converted spaces from basements to bedrooms and even hijacking the local high school’s choir room for some piano additions, the result is both rootsy and inventive, bold yet intimate. Percussion goes from light-hearted carriage clip-clops to the chains of the ghost of Christmas past and guitars, both electric and acoustic, cover ground between country, classical, psychedelic, and blues without falling into the position of bland redux.
When asked about Pattern of Saturn Birdie said, “In a way, I wanted it to be a mix of blues and classical by way of melodic repetitions. One of the things I love so much about blues patterns and finger-picking is that you can kind of go in all different directions. Meanderings from these simple pathways can be so interesting and prancing but also trancey. The idea was in bringing melodic themes in and out from one song to another where it was so subtle you might not notice but you’ll feel it, that continuity and flow.”
But, like always, the stories and lyrics in the songs are just as much a focus. Subject matter ranges from Birdie taking on the voice of a Mexican dishwasher named Gabino to dealing with the modern problems of Internet password pile-up. The album title is taken from an instrumental piece that rests in the center of the recording and she included other instrumental pieces as well. It’s a broad spectrum but Birdie has always believed in our multitudes and found inspiration in gray areas and mulit-faceted emotions. The trick is how she seems to encapsulate it, as we find in writers like Neil Young and Paul Simon, in what feels like very buoyant and effortless attempts.
Put out on her own imprint Monotask Music, its her continuing effort to make music that always wanders in wonder but never wanders from her hopes to keep creating music that is of her voice. It’s music that grows with repeated listens and shows you different things in different moments, with words that can strike too close to home and melodies that never wear out.
Annie and The Beekeepers
Annie and the Beekeepers is a folk and country inspired trio that met at Berklee College of Music in December 2006. The members of Annie and the Beekeepers came to Berklee from across the country with different musical backgrounds – Annie Lynch is a self-taught guitarist and the Beekeepers’ principal singer and songwriter from Cape Cod; Ken Woodward is from Charlottesville and plays acoustic bass and sometimes stomps on a snare at the same time for fun; and Alexandra Spalding, who lends her beautiful voice to create the Beekeepers’ signature harmonies, grew up playing cello in orchestras in Northern California.
In the summer of 2007, Annie and the Beekeepers joined Grammy-nominated producer, Jack Gauthier, at his lakeside studio for the recording of their self-titled debut album, Annie Lynch and the Beekeepers. They went on to play 2008’s Boston Folk Festival, CMJ and South By Southwest in 2009.
Nearly a year after their debut’s release, the band laid down new songs and live favorites in what Lynch describes as “a one of the most gratifying creative moments we’ve shared.” The songs recorded that afternoon would set the foundation for the Squid Hell Sessions, released in Winter 2009. Since the release of Squid Hell Sessions, the band has played the Americana Conference in Nashville, Bristol Rhythm and Roots Festival, Midpoint Festival and CMJ.
When the band first began playing together in living rooms and basements around Boston, the mysterious disappearance of bee colonies throughout the world was receiving a great deal of attention in the media. As the group built the foundations of their band in coffeehouses and clubs around the Northeast, the collapse of the bee colonies fascinated them and inspired their name. The bee has long been a symbol for hard work and community, and the Beekeepers were inspired to preserve and promote those same qualities by way of music and their role in the music community. To that end, the songs on their first album, 2008’s Annie Lynch and the Beekeepers and the Squid Hell Sessions EP (May 12, 2009), are honest, collaborative efforts, drawing on the sounds of Joni Mitchell, Gillian Welch, and Bob Dylan.
“Annie Lynch and the Beekeepers owes much of its sound to the lilting country and bluegrass melodies of its forebears, but its musical palette is diverse enough to include a touch of New Orleans Dixie clarinet and some gorgeously resonant cello playing. Lynch’s understated vocals and songwriting are reminiscent of Jolie Holland or the Be Good Tanyas, and the band seems capable of providing any backdrop she may need.”
* The Boston Globe
