Come On Like The Fast Lane

I have a friend, Scary Joe, who used to do a lot of work with the local music guys. Load outs and tech, but for the really fortunate bands, he would do the mix. He had an excellent ear; especially for vocals. His best work was for the power pop band Blue In The Face, who featured a lead vocalist with a broad, middle ground vocal that should be swallowed up in the instruments, and a three piece horn section which drove the whole thing into overdrive. And Joe could mix that in a way that you could hear the vocals, and as a bonus the snare drum snap could rip your face off, a signature of his.

It would have been nice to see Joe at the boards last night.

We almost didn't go to see the Silos; Zelmo, of course, is still under house arrest, and Silent Mike was feeling a bit down and not in the mood for a band. So I sat down and watched Harold and Maude, and dozed off with Toby on my chest.

But we sacked up, and hit the club, because hey, it had been fifteen years since I'd seen the Silos, and you know, it's live music.

Local alt-country stalwarts the Carolinas opened, with a nice set of mid-tempo country rockers. But as I mentioned, the mix was a bit tough on the vocals, which tended to disappear into the higher end of the guitars. Unfortunately.

But at the end of their set, they asked if Jon Dee Graham could come up to play a True Believers song. (.Jon dee was the second act on the bill). And the unassuming grizzled guy who'd been hanging at the bar climbed the stage, and blistered a cow-punk song with a layer of guitar skronk that was completely arresting.

I confess that I had no idea who Graham was. The song he played with the Carolinas made me wonder if he had been in the True Believers, which was a legendary '80's band that Bloodshot artist Alejandro escovedo had been in; I was not terribly familiar with the band.

But Graham took the stage a short while later, with a battered electric/acoustic guitar. Walter Salas-Humara of the Silos introduced him, and stood in the front of the crowd for most of the set, watching.

What happened was astonishing. Graham played a number of songs, that ranged from nearly whispered vocals to bashing acoustic punk, with a harsh, growled vocal that was nearly Tom Waits. But the real star of his performance was the songs.

The Songs. Stark, brutal, arresting, confessional stories of aging, and loss, and heartbreak. A No Depression writer said Graham's songs sound like 4 AM. The crowd was not just hushed, it was absolutely silent during the songs, something I've never seen in a club. Never. Graham had the whole crowd mesmerized, rapt in the stories he was telling.

The second half of his set, he brought the Silos up to back him while he played some rockers, including a sweet little ditty called "Laredo" about a 'dead hooker in the trunk'. When he spoke between songs, he revealed a dry, sarcastic sense of humor. Encouraging the sales of his latest CD, he said "I have to sell fifteen CDs tonight for this to make any kind of sense whatever. The first five....will pay for breakfast tomorrow and a pack of cigarettes. The next five will pay for lunch and another pack of cigarettes. If I sell five more, I can refill my meds, and while they won't make the voices stop, the voices will become more encouraging."

The Silos hit the stage soon after, and had similar issues with the vocals as the Carolinas. The songs were good, and they hit them with energy and passion, but the vocals were a bit indistinct, taking the edge off the music. Jon Dee Graham joined them for much of their set, adding his lead guitar and really punching up the songs. But for me, the whole night was made by Jon Dee Graham, a revelation. I bought his new CD, and aim to download his others as soon as I can. He's a new favorite, and next time he passes through, I will be haranguing everybody nearby to go see him. If you see his name on a local bill, just go.

Somewhat Related: Howie Klein, formerly of Sire Records and a current political blogger, has an excellent post about the crash of the music industry that helps to explain that Jon Langford quote up there. It was inspired by seeing a hot new band that has no record label, and no distribution, and doesn't need it. It should be noted that both Jon Dee Graham and the Silos had early major label success, which promptly turned to disillusion and being eliminated because the second tries didn't meet the corporate ideas of success. In particular, Graham ridiculed the notion that his former label spent $40,000 trying to get him played on the radio. The Radio! Ha.

And now, both have come to terms with their careers, and managed to make a living mainly outside of the record industry, finding homes on small labels that are artist-oriented like Bloodshot, and are much more directly involved in their own production and marketing. And not inconsequentially, I'd guess are happier doing so.