I am officially an adult now with a grown-up job and lots of grown-up responsibilities. It sucks. Wish I was hawking goggles at the ski resort (opening today) or pouring beers at the bar. At least my days off would be days off.
I’m thinking I’ll just win the lottery, buy a mansion in Flagstaff (a cabin in Mountainaire would be nice, as well), travel the world and in five years open a bar in San Diego or Seattle or somewhere hip. Anybody in with me?
| Two Tone return Ska legends the English Beat By Molly Coulter Published on 01/18/2007 |
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| Dave Wakeling hunts through fluorescent ski jackets on the racks in a Ketchum, Idaho, thrift store called the Gold Mine. “It’s a good name, isn’t it?” he says. He nabs a one-piece black Italian jumpsuit with “all sorts of straps” and laughs. “That’s all you need. It’s a good buy for a tall fella. I might try that on. I will look ridiculous.” He buys a $10 pair of rubber boots, a cashmere sweater with holes and a ski jacket he says is “ludicrously loud,” but he won’t be hitting the slopes as he tours the West this winter with his band the English Beat. “I’ve reached that brittle bone phase,” he says. “It’s like they say, your mind writes a check that your body can’t honor. I’m not Schwarzenegger, you know.” Wakeling and his superstar band mates have weathered a few storms since the creation of the Beat in 1979 England. Considered one of the superior starters of ska’s second wave, the Beat (referred to as the English Beat in the states to avoid confusion with an American band of the same name) laid tracks as significant to the 1980s as stone washed jeans and John Hughes. “Mirror in the Bathroom” from the band’s debut album I Just Can’t Stop It is a staple on the punk scene, whereas “Save it for Later” from the band’s third and final album Special Beat Service carries the upbeat, ska pop signature sound of the Two Tone era. (Two Tone, or 2 Tone, is synonymous with second wave and refers to the late ’70s revival of 1950s Jamaican ska music. The term touches on three themes from the era: the black and white suits worn by rude boys, the unity among black and white people as a socially conscious statement and celebration, and the record label created by Jerry Dammers of the Specials, 2 Tone Records.) “I’m the only original member, but it’s arbitrary because some of the players have played with me more than the original members,” Wakeling says of the English Beat’s current roster. Bassist Wayne Lothian of Wakeling’s post-Beat groups General Public and the Special Beat has a “photographic memory of the best catalog,” Wakeling says. “He’s had to really teach me some of them again.” Lynval Golding of the Specials plays guitar, Michael Ambrose of Hub City Stompers tickles the keyboards and Rick Torres of Supreme Beings of Leisure fuses his electronica influence. Wakeling says Rhythmm Epkins is “the best drummer in the world” and Fernando Jativa on saxophone has taken many tips from original sax master Saxa. “He talks to Saxa on the phone a lot and talks to his young boy,” Wakeling says. “He even uses the same sax.” We can reminisce with the English Beat as it comes to the Orpheum Theatre this Saturday night followed by a dancehall romp featuring an ’80s dance party. “The past 12 months every show has been fantastic,” Wakeling says. “When you come back, the band seems to be the sort of thing people find a dance in present day and trip down memory lane. We seem to generate a sense of connection throughout the evening. “The most interesting thing about the audience is we seem to have people from the age of 16 to the age of 60 dancing next to each other,” he says. “I think that’s a really great thing because you don’t usually see people 40 years of difference in age standing together. You have a father with his daughter and she’s playing along, too. She knows every word.” When multi-racial the Beat first hit, the U.K. was in a period of social-political upheaval. The band aimed to promote love and unity set to a great dance beat. Combining the reggae-influenced horn-heavy ska sound with pop and punk, the Beat toured the world and contributed to a number of causes through charity, as well as sat in for the recording of the multiple-musician song “Free Nelson Mandela.” I ask Wakeling if the Beat and its members (including Fine Young Cannibals founders David Steele and Andy Cox) have achieved their goal. “In our own little sphere, I think we did,” Wakeling says. “People tell me what a difference it made for them as they were growing up. Politically in England it was growing in a sort of right-wing way and we accidentally found ourselves in the spot. I think it was a natural thing that was happening. It caught people’s attention. It’s very difficult to hate somebody when you’ve been dancing next to them in the same sweaty clothes all night. “We are slightly disconnected from one other,” Wakeling says calling on the current state of the world and its disasters. “We keep people remembering that we are actually all one and that we are connected. “Wear comfortable, sensible shoes,” Wakeling warns. “Pace yourself because it’s a pretty long show.” Wakeling says he’s looking forward to playing in Flagstaff. “It’s got a spiritual vibe and I’m interested to see what kind of vibe I pick up.” The English Beat plays Sat, Jan. 20 at the Orpheum, 15 W. Aspen. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. and the music starts at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $22 in advance and $24 at the door. Stick around after the show for the ’80s dance party featuring DJ Elvis. For more info, see www.thebeatuk.com or call 556-1580. |
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Here’s a great article.
Lobe serves up some hearty soul soup for the New Year
By Molly Coulter
The pinecone is hoisted. The bars are stocked. The seats at the sushi bars and Italian joints are quickly filling. You’ve stuffed your wallet with ones for the bartenders, fives for the cocktails and tens for the cab rides. Your new duds are on and as you slip into your sexy black heels or worn-out leather hiking boots, you think to yourself: What should I do on the last night of the year?
Eat soup.
“What we do on stage as Lobe is crazy ass stupid s**t that in any other medium, would be just a big sloppy mess,” Lobe bassist Matt Sarnoski says.
“A good sloppy mess,” guitarist Hannis Brown says and smiles.
“With other bands it would be like chunky diarrhea. With us it’s like Chunky Campbell’s Soup,” drummer Conor Bailie says as the members of the band crack up.
“We want everyone to open a can of soup,” Sarnoski says.
And we can. Flagstaff’s favorite acid jazz trip-hop funk ensemble will reunite New Year’s Eve at Flagstaff Brewing Co.
Lobe used to play around town on the regular, but took a hiatus for the members to pursue other interests. Every once in awhile they’ll wind up in Flagstaff for a reunion show. Anyone catch the party on the patio this summer? The phrase “standing room only” was significant. That’s because anyone who’s seen these guys once contracted a pleasing addiction to avant-garde, high energy, orchestral harmony. Lobe’s sound is spastic jazz and simultaneously on point in every improvised note.
While everybody else anxiously awaits their return, the members have been keeping up with their individual goals. Lobe’s saxophone stylist Phil Jones is now a father and husband living in Phoenix as a music teacher and collaborating with Limbs Akimbo. Will Werwath is working his way through the scene in New York City as a sound engineer and freelance producer. Jones and Werwath couldn’t make it to the interview, but Sarnoski says that won’t be the case New Year’s Eve.
“If we’re not all going to be together, it’s just going to be something else,” Sarnoski says.
Bailie has spent his time working and visiting family on both coasts.
“Conor’s drum kit was in our garage just sitting. You can’t make plans with him, but every once in awhile he comes up to he house and the kid can throw down,” percussionist Sam Neeley says. “He hasn’t even seen his drums.”
Neeley’s been studying “book stuff” he says. “I’ve really gotten away form African drums and Brazilian drums for a little bit. I’ve been working on Afro-Cuban rhythms.”
DJ SOE’s photography is featured in two 2007 calendars you can find online at www.lulu.com/earthtonesphoto. “It’s Irie-Zona,” the DJ also known as Andrew Baker says. Musically, DJ SOE has been working with Greenhouse Fresh Produce crew’s Uncle Buck and Arek, and the Summit Dub Squad.
Sarnoski says he’s been working on, “as far as music, one plain fresh energy every time. With Lobe I can do anything I want, anything I feel. I react to whatever. But I’ve been training with the Foot Soljahs by playing the same riffs with an eight-string guitar and bass together.”
“By the way, he’s sick,” Neeley says.
“I’ve been working almost exclusively on composition, film shorts for my thesis project,” Brown says. This past month Brown completed New York University’s graduate program in film scoring and he says he feels great. “I’m probably off to LA. I’m using this time in Flagstaff as a reflection.”
“I’m just glad to play again. It’s been six or eight months of waiting,” Neeley says.
“It’s important to remember at least 70 percent of the show is made up,” Bailie says. The band formed as a jazz improvisation group and gelled with DJ SOE’s hip-hop beats and Sam’s hand drumming. Lobe released two albums and toured the Northwest during its run. The members attracted packed crowds in Flagstaff and Telluride many times with originals that never sounded the same.
“I think we all have that freedom in Lobe. You play in any other group and you just shatter someone’s form,” Baker says.
Sarnoski touches a shared feeling about the band’s reunion. “One thing I’m grateful for is to continue doing what we’re doing and we can do that for the rest of our lives.”
Neeley paraphrases. “When you move away from your parents’ house, you’re not breaking up with them. You can always go back.”
Well, welcome back guys. The special New Year’s Eve show starts at 8 p.m. on Sun, Dec. 31 at Flag Brew, 16 E. Rte. 66. There is a $7 cover charge. Greenhouse Fresh Produce will join the band for a few songs and the guys promise a high-energy good time. For more information, call 773-1442.
Since 2006 apparently didn’t fit my fancy suitably I’ve flipped my world upside down for 2007. New job (well, a promotion, but a new position nonetheless), new house (This one’s a keeper. 17 moves in 6 years and I SWEAR I found the perfect home. It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but it’s a one-bedroom, free-standing haven with a wood-burning stove and a clawfoot bathtub. Yes!), new jacket. My buddy, we’ll call him GP, said I looked like a whole new woman thanks to my $15 thrift store leather jacket. It’s the shit.
Welcome 2007. I promise I will follow through with my New Years resolution that I make every year — regular flossing. And I promise I will not move… ha! Yeah right.