Festival Review: Pitchfork Music Festival 2009

Amid the masses of hipsters with carefully-selected thrift-store t-shirts, cleverly ironic facial hair, and tailored-looking skinny jeans, there were some fine musical offerings at the 2009 Pitchfork Music Festival. Thanks to overcast skies and unseasonably cool weather this past weekend, the fest in Chicago's Union Park was more comfortable than summer festivals in our city tend to be.

FRIDAY (DAY ONE)

Although the weekend lineups dwarfed Friday's concert of just four bands, the Pitchfork people came up with an interesting way to get people in the door for Friday night's show. “Write The Night”—where fans have the ability to vote on their favorite songs to be included in each band's setlist—wound up being a success, with plenty of people in the crowd whooping and cheering when their favorites were played during each band's set.

Although festival opener Tortoise occasionally got solid jazz-funk-rock grooves going, they abruptly killed them with poorly-conceived and clumsily-executed minimalist and avant-noise sound experiments. There were many in the crowd during the set who seemed pleased, but the band left this reviewer unconvinced.

From the start of Yo La Tengo's trippy opening number, through the slinky shoegaze and straightforward rock of the other tunes in their set, the band entertained (and for me, this was when the music festival really started). The band gave an energetic set, and the fans were clearly getting into the swing of things by the end of it. The extended guitar-distortion solo by Ira Kaplan toward the end of the set looked and sounded as if he was trying to make love to his guitar, and in general, the tasteful sound experiments Yo La Tengo engaged in were quite similar, in substance, to what Tortoise was trying to do, but with better results.

“Shut the f*ck up” was the surly greeting to timid audience applause by midlifing frontman David Yow of The Jesus Lizard as the band took the stage Friday at dusk. By far the most entertaining act of the night, The Jesus Lizard are not aging gracefully. Yow's seemingly drunken shape-throwing, stage-diving, crowd-surfing, and inappropriate, innuendo-laced gestures were juvenile and hilarious. The stage persona may have been tongue-in-cheek; at one point in the set, after getting the audience to sing along with him to an acappella rendition of “Michael Row The Boat Ashore,” Yow quipped, “Wow, you're even stupider than I am.” The band came back onstage to do a few songs as an encore, much to the satisfaction of crowd-surfing fans and thrash-dancing children in the audience.

Day One's final act, Built To Spill lived up to their headliner status, closing the night with a stunning, virtuosic set of beautiful, folk-influenced indie rock that, like the band's albums, has a vaguely nostalgic feel to it. In all, the evening was satisfying as a stand-alone concert, but hardly worth the “festival” designation.

SATURDAY (DAY TWO)

In spite of myriad sound and setup problems (which caused the B stage to wind up horribly behind schedule by the end of the day), Saturday's main-stage headliners and supporting acts could not hold a candle to the energy and enthusiasm that came from the performers scheduled on the somewhat isolated B stage.

The Dutchess and the Duke played a passionate set of indie folk early on Saturday afternoon. It was visceral and lovely music, and made it worthwhile to get to the festival in time for the early acts. Bowerbirds did a melodic set of breathy indie folk. Inflected with the nasal whine of an accordion, it was beautiful music for a lazy Saturday afternoon. In spite of rain intruding on the start of Wavves' set Saturday afternoon, the duo delivered an upbeat set full of reverb-heavy vocals, jangly garage guitar, and just plain sweet, pulsing drums. Even Lindstrøm performed a surprisingly engaging electronic DJ dance set Saturday evening; his songs had forms, merged one into the next, slowly morphing the danceable grooves during the course of the set.

To my ears, Beirut's music always has a sort of moody, brooding European flavor thanks to an accordion playing waltz and other old-worldy rhythms that make up the band's core pulse. The harmonized brass instruments sound surprisingly delicate, thanks in part to the wheezing of the supporting accordion and the sweetness of the plucked and bowed strings. Like the band's albums, Beirut's live performance on Saturday was acoustically rich; stunning and beautiful, they are the musical equivalent of a knockout, but the festival setting and musicians projected on giant screens seemed far too impersonal a setting to really engage with such intimate-sounding music.

Drum and keyboards duo Matt and Kim had an infectiously high-energy, big sound that kept the audience going even toward the end of a long day. Again, there were problems with the sound during this B stage act's set: toward the end of the set, Matt's keyboards lost power in the middle of a song; the band kept the rhythm going until they were back in commission. Briefly stealing Matt's microphone, Kim commented “This brings us back to our early days of house parties in Chicago...if somebody knocks a plug out of the wall, you plug that sh*t back in, and keep playing.” Matt and Kim certainly did.

By far the most satisfying set on Saturday night came in the form of B-stage headliners The Black Lips, who closed the evening with an adrenaline rush. When, at the end of the first song of the set, the guitarist smashes his guitar and throws the pieces to the audience, you know you're in for a fun evening. The Black Lips rock hard the way you've always heard bands did in the old days, before musicians got too polite for their own good and forgot what rock was all about. With a sound that you can relate to on an almost primal level, punctuated with wicked howls from vocal effects pedals, the Black Lips grabbed its audience by the balls and kept them dancing and rocking all night, even encouraging audience members to make festival security “earn their money” by moving in close to the stage (a few even jumped up on stage and danced with the band during the last numbers of the night).

SUNDAY (DAY 3)

Being familiar with Blitzen Trapper's folky studio sound, I have to admit, I was a bit surprised at their live sound on Sunday afternoon, which had a sort of southern-rock feel to it. It really worked for them, though, and they held the fort on the main stage with some excellent music, including a truly blazing set closer.

A shirtless, slightly psychedelic set awaited the audience at The Killer Whales' performance on the B stage. The drummer got some good beats going, and had plenty of catchy, rhythmic guitar riffs for fans to sink their teeth into. I had certainly hoped that by the third day of the festival, the B stage's sound problems (whatever the cause) would be over, but Women's set proved this to be a false hope. The instruments had a big, booming sound, and you could really feel the pounding of the drums, but the vocal balance was so far off that you couldn't hear the singer at all in the mix, and in general, I just wasn't feeling it with their live set.

The Thermals, on the other hand, played a super-high-energy set on the main stage that reached all the way to the back of the park. Although they performed a few well-chosen covers that generally fit in well with the band's originals, it was the Thermals' own songs like “Pillar of Salt” and “Here's Your Future” that seemed to entertain the audience the most. The Walkmen played a set of intense music with a big sound and a passionate, gut-wrenching quality. The occasional addition of brass to some of the songs added a sweetness to the harmonies, and the performance was, on the whole, an enjoyable set of heartbreaking music.

I have never been particularly impressed by M83's recordings, so I was quite surprised at how engaging their live electronic-influenced set was. They were clearly working hard, and the crowd was clearly digging it. Grizzly Bear had, by their own account, several reasons to celebrate at this year's festival (including their drummer's birthday and having shared their stage at the festival with The Walkmen). Although they, too, had some sound problems (apparently their monitors kept going out), they kept the set going instead of stopping until the issues had been resolved. They played anyway, and well. In particular, the last song of the set was amazing—it was poignant, gorgeous, and had a good groove that got the audience moving.

I had always heard that The Flaming Lips put on a good show, but I honestly had no idea just how good their shows were until I saw them live at Pitchfork. There was a semicircular light/projector screen that illustrated the band's set, even at the very back of the park. The show opened with a video projection of a naked (but artistically blurred thanks to camera and lighting effects) woman who moves around, eventually lying down and opening her legs as a big, flashing tunnel of lights pulsated from between her legs. From a conveniently-placed door at the center of this projector/lightscreen/backdrop, the band members emerged, obviously alluding to birth. Frontman Wayne Coyne was present in his giant inflatable bubble, which was rolled out over the crowd as the band started to play. Confetti, streamers, giant balloons, and spouts of fog punctuated the opening and closing numbers of the band's set, which included women dressed as cats and men dressed as frogs dancing on either side of the stage. After nodding to Pitchfork's status as the “coolest” festival of the year, Coyne checked the crowd's ability to make “animal sounds” at the end of a very long weekend, riding on the shoulders of a man in a big-headed gorilla costume during one number. Although the “Write the Night” concept was primarily for Friday's bands, The Flaming Lips also participated, letting the audience know which number (ranked by popularity) each song they played was (no. 7, no. 12, no. 2, and so on), and trotting out fan favorites, including “Fight Test”, “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots”, “She Don't Use Jelly”, and set closer “Do You Realize”. The Flaming Lips wowed the audience with lush music and visually opulent stage spectacle, closing this year's festival with a very big bang. It was probably good that they were the final act of the festival; I seriously doubt anybody else on this year's lineup could have followed that stage show.

* * * * *
This review also appears on the Windy City Rock music blog.

Album Review: Elsinore, "Nothing For Design" (Green St Records)

2006 CU Music Award write-in winner for Best Live Act elsinore has been doing more than just putting on energetic, enthusiastic, and otherwise darn good live shows all over town. They also have a brand-new album for your listening pleasure. Recorded in town at Pogo Studio and produced by none other than Mark Rubel, Nothing for Design is the band's follow up to 2005's congenial live album On Display. And this new effort is nothing to sneeze at, either.

From the first notes of the opening "Mind, Space, and Time" through live favorites like "Vampire in My Town" and "The Rise," the band captures the listener's attention with the very best that the Americana genre has to offer - engaging lyrics and a sound that feels like coming home.

The exciting ostinato chord progression of "Kate" allows the listener to latch on to the core of the music from the beginning and gives its listener the freedom to notice the intricacy of the band's instrumentation. Ryan Groff's vocals throughout are clear and brilliant like polished glass. The mellower sound of percussionist Dave Pride's congas and bongos is a welcome change from the more traditional drum kit sound, and Mark Woolwine's piano parts add a sparkling veneer to the group's sound. Accompanying these is the unassuming bass playing of Chris Eitel and steadiness from Groff's rhythm guitar.

Aside from the vaguely unsettling "Rossville" with its delicate guitar work and forebodingly effect-laden voices that sound like ghosts in, well, a room with a guitar, elsinore welcomes the listener in with open arms. With vitality and sincerity, Nothing for Design is music for a sunny day, and well worth a listen or twenty. And if you haven't seen elsinore live yet, go see them already!


elsinore will be performing their album release show at Cowboy Monkey this Saturday, April 29 at 10 p.m. with opening acts Gentlemen Auction House and The Wandering Sons. $5 cover.


*****
Originally Published Apr 27, 2006, Buzz Weekly (Champaign-Urbana, Illinois)
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Album Review: Keller & The Keels, "Grass" (SCI Fidelity)

Jam band darling Keller Williams is at our throats again, but this time, he has a little help from his friends - Larry and Jenny Keel, featured on guitar and bass. As the title suggests, Grass is a bluegrass album (not another type of grass you may have been wondering about), and a very fun one at that.

Grass gives the listener a glimpse at some of the stylistic influences that have been a part of Keller's guitar virtuosity all these years, as well as a peek into his newest experiment - standard rock mixed with improvisation. With only two guitars and a bass - not the typical bluegrass instrumentation which includes banjo, mandolin and fiddle - Grass is a more palatable introduction to the genre for newcomers than its twangy, "pure" version.

Like any other Keller Williams album, Grass has its own individual, quirky vitality. However, this particular release lets die hard fans down with its lack of Keller originals. Grass is dominated by bluegrass covers of an atypical variety of songs, far removed in origin from bluegrass (i.e. Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" and Tom Petty's "Mary Jane's Last Dance" transposed into "Mary Jane's Last Breakdown").

The originality of the material Keller infuses into the covers keeps the songs from becoming stale too soon, but with a 3:7 original to cover ratio, the album leaves its listener wanting more of Keller's own songwriting touch. Especially in wake of his hit concert DVD Sight released last summer, which showed Keller at his best - thriving in a live full-house setting, the album settled itself below expectations in terms of vibrancy. All in all, the studio effort of Grass, although competent, is much more pale than Keller's previous livelier work.


*****
Originally Published Mar 30, 2006, Buzz Weekly (Champaign-Urbana, Illinois)
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Album Review: The Living Blue, "Fire, Blood, Water" (Minty Fresh)

Although playing new material, many things remain the same on local band The Living Blue's third release, Fire, Blood, Water (although the first actually as The Living Blue; their two previous releases have been as The Blackouts). Their success in the surrounding area, fueled in a large part by their charismatic live act, is captured quite well on the release. This latest album is a fair representation of their sound, attitude and energy that accompanies a Living Blue show.

The songs included on the album are much like the group's 2004 release as the Blackouts, Living in Blue, which includes guitar hooks that are made of equal parts garage psychedelia and blues-influenced rock, with a driving undercurrent of grumbling, rhythmic bass and bombastic drums. The lead vocals likewise defy apt categorization, with a distinctive turn of inflection that alternately sneers at you and makes you grin. Although generally lumped with "garage" bands, The Living Blue's virtuosity makes this a bit of a misnomer. They deliver memorable songs with singable lyrics that stick with the listener long after groups which have received much more mainstream attention than this group has so far.

The highlights, although this is a relative term, since there are no real low points on Fire, Blood, Water, of these songs include the friendly, interesting counterpoint which the two complementary guitar parts interweave throughout. This is heard especially on the pulsating "Serrated Friend," which is more delicate and sensitive on "Greenthumb," (which also includes an electric organ solo with a Farfisa-like nasal timbre, a delightful foray into other sonic areas not often visited by other similar bands). A crowd favorite from the band's live show, a powerhouse called "Conquistador," also translates surprisingly well from stage improvisation to studio release.

And the effervescent-yet-biting sound that plows through the speakers on "Murderous Youth" makes it an instant favorite for anyone who gets excited about music. The tracks on this album remain fresh, powerful, invigorating, and energizing, and it grows neither sour nor stale on repeated listenings. I would highly recommend both the album and the band to anybody, but especially to fans and friends of our local scene, punk and straight-ahead rock. Put simply, The Living Blue's Fire, Blood, Water rocks in the way bands used to and haven't in a long time. See this band, buy this album. You will not be sorry that you did.


*****
Originally Published Sep 29, 2005, Buzz Weekly (Champaign-Urbana, Illinois)
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Interview: Allen Clapp of The Orange Peels

"I think that the landscape around where we live-and I've lived here my whole life-around the San Francisco Bay area is such a great natural [setting]. Surreal, really. There are these beautiful coastal mountains, and every night the fog comes in over them with the sunset behind it. There's the ocean on one side, the bay on the other side; there's San Francisco 45 minutes one way, and there're redwood forests 45 minutes the other way. It's just such a strange place, that it's quite inspiring," Allen Clapp, frontman, multi-instrumentalist, and bandleader of the Orange Peels, lovingly muses about his native California. Especially on the band's latest album, Circling the Sun, Clapp feels that "the natural landscape has been a huge influence. I'm not sure how you go about capturing something like a natural landscape in terms of music, but we tried. We tried to make it feel as spacious and lush as the landscape does around here, and maybe that's [a] reason...why this album has a certain sound to it, a sort of conscious effort to capture that somehow musically."

The Orange Peels' music is as spacious as the richly verdant climate in which it was created. The sunny Californian pop presented on the band's third album is warm, with catchy melodies and shimmering string parts that interlock, stretching the ear, but never past the comfort zone. Clapp explains that the Orange Peels have had a different lineup on each album they've put out, and that, like their surrounding environment, the current lineup has something to do with the sound that was produced on the current album. "Right before we recorded this album," Clapp notes, "version two of the Orange Peels came to an abrupt halt, and then we made this record with Orange Peels version three, which had just come together almost by accident. And so I think right around that time, it was this new experience playing together...and we had never really recorded anything with these people before, so we just decided [to] experiment around with some sounds that we hadn't really used before... and everything just started sounding huge on its own."

"I think that our sound evolves on every record," Clapp continues, "and it's partially due to the fact that the band breaks up and goes through this big emotional upheaval every time we're about to put out a new record. It's not like I would choose to have that happen every time, but it just does." Despite certain changes in the lineup, Clapp and bassist Jill Pries are constant fixtures within the group, providing some continuity between incarnations of the group. "Jill and I are always in the band, no matter who else is coming and going," Clapp notes, "so our sensibilities are still there."

Not only has the band undergone extensive personnel changes between each album, but they have also released each of them on a separate label (most recently Urbana's Parasol Records). "We were signed to [our first label]...for three records initially, and we thought that that was going to be a good thing...but we just weren't seeing eye-to-eye with the label, and they didn't like the direction our second record was going...and we loved [our new direction]. Then we saw that the downside of being signed to a label was that these people aren't only going to put our records out, but they also want a lot of input. I have to draw the line somewhere. I want the people who have input in our music to be musicians, not A & R guys." Since then, Clapp adds, the band has just sought out single-record deals with labels, which "allows us to make the records that we want to make, without anyone else interfering in it....it's probably more work at the end of the day doing it [that] way...but it's given us a lot of freedom. We only do what we want to do, not what anyone else wants us to do, so it's pure art, in that respect; this is exactly what we intended [to] produce, and here it is."

"I think...early on, when I started making music, I wanted to have a lot of input into the parts that people played," Clapp reflects, adding that as time has passed, he has taken a more hands-off approach to music-making in a group setting. "I think I've realized that when you have people, and they have good ideas, you're going to make a better record if everyone can share their ideas. So I've become more inclusive of people's ideas-especially on this record-than I have been. I'll come up with the core song sometimes: a melody and a chord progression, lyrics, that kind of thing, but then everyone fills in the cracks, and everyone's personality comes through."

Being the primary songwriter for the group, Clapp provides some insight into the way he works: "More often than not, [musical ideas] just sort of arrive. I'll be doing stuff like mowing the lawn or washing the dishes, some brainless activity, and boom! Suddenly there's a melody going and maybe some lyrics accompanying it, even, and it's just there, when a couple of seconds before, it wasn't. And then you get into the process where you have to complete those things, those little bits and pieces that arrive on their own, and I guess that's more arrangement that you're doing later on....maybe the writing is what you do when you fill in the blanks of a song....the melody suggests lyrical ideas a lot of the time, and sometimes these little things that arrive on their own are both melody and lyrics, [and] a lot of times, they just kind of dictate which direction they're going to be going at the outset," Clapp comments, "some take more work than others." "Circling the Sun" "started off as...a little lullaby that I would play on piano, and ended up being...a Cars-esque sort of 80s pop song. So that one went through a major transformation, and it started off as just a musical idea with no lyrics, and the lyrics gradually got filled in over the course of a year."

After their second album came out, "[the band] decided that it was better to just have fun playing live and not worry so much about it sounding just like the record, because it's never going to sound just like [that] anyway, unless you bring a bunch of computers along, or twenty people.... it's going to sound different live, but there's going to be a lot more energy live, and it's probably going to rock a little bit more, because we're a rock band. It's not going to sound as pretty, maybe, as it does on the record, but there's going to be a different kind of energy there."

As far as future plans go, Clapp is interested mainly in the present. "Since it takes us so long to get these things [to promote an album] together and to release them, we want to give [our current album] a fair shot." The Orange Peels plan to give Circling the Sun fair airtime, but to follow up on this one sooner than their current pace of four years between albums. "We definitely don't want it to be four years before our next record comes out," says Clapp. "We're already writing for another record right now. We're aware that it's taken us four years to put out every record so far, and we don't want to be repeating that; we want to keep the momentum going....I think that there's a lot of really mediocre music out there right now that masquerades as important...and it's just really boring. And [the Orange Peels] are not boring. We're melodic and we want to be your new favorite band."

The Orange Peels will be playing at the Canopy Club in Urbana on Wednesday, August 24th with a $5 cover. Openers include Bailey and two local acts, Darling Disarm and the Elanors.


*****
Originally Published Aug 18, 2005, Buzz Weekly (Champaign-Urbana, Illinois)
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Album Review: Theory Of Everything, 'Evolution of the 'Art

If you're looking for good, clean, non-partisan rock, Theory of Everything is definitely not the band for you. If, however, you like a shifting palette of tonal colors and musical styles complementing clear, politically conscious lyrics, you might just like them. The local band, fronted by local scenester and open-mic star Darrin Drda, who describes their sound as "space folk," has recently completed a self-released album, "Evolution of the 'Art".

The use of wind instruments on the album's rollicking opener, "Deathmobile," a sardonic tribute to SUVs, as well as on the self-explanatory "Democrazy!" provides a nice contrast in timbre from some of the slower songs, which feature the more delicate flute and glockenspiel. The album's title track, "(r)Evolution of the (he)Art," is reminiscent of a slow groove song of the sort that Traffic did so well, and contains an almost mantra-like chant, "The heart is a muscle the size of your fist/You've got to keep loving, rise up and resist," which would be really cool live, but which (perhaps) goes on a bit too long on the recording.

The disco-tinged guitar and thumping bass counterpoint on "Never Gonna Buy It" provides a beat that gets under the skin, and the almost-too-perky "Hug A Republican" not only has some of the funniest lyrics on the album, but invites the listener to join in the music-making. The group also plays a track that can only be described as amplified country music on speed ("Wait and See"), and the vocals-if a description is really necessary-especially on "Note to Self," sound not unlike Ben Folds with a mild reverb effect.

All in all, there is not a bad song on the album and--like Theory of Everything's live shows--is definitely worth the price of admission.


Theory of Everything will be playing this Sunday, August 14, at 9:30 at the Cowboy Monkey with $5 cover. TOE appears as part of a "Best Of Open Mic"showcase.

*****
Originally Published Aug 11, 2005, Buzz Weekly (Champaign-Urbana, Illinois)
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Actual Proof (An Interview with Mike Clark of the Headhunters)

The Headhunters first received national attention in the 1970s as a result of their connection with and contribution to jazz keyboardist Herbie Hancock's groundbreaking work melding jazz, funk, soul, rock and other popular musics together. Over 30 years later, they are touring and still producing original music, this time without Hancock. Mike Clark, drummer for the group since their second album (1974's Thrust), has been responsible for innovations in people's perceptions of and approaches to rhythm and drum playing, and is one of the most widely sampled drummers in the world.

"It feels great that people like your work enough to want to make it part of their work," Clark says. At the same time, however, many popular artists who have incorporated recordings of his playing into their own tracks have not paid him-or even asked-for the privilege. "I'm from the school of musicians that actually play," Clark remarks, "it's called 'live' ... [Still,] I'm glad that even though they stole it, they liked it, and it brought more attention to me, which helps me financially and helps me to continue to create and to bring new stuff to the world of music and culture."

According to Clark, every member of the Headhunters is coming from a similar place in terms of their perception of themselves and each other. "My music comes from the roots up, meaning that I'm a student of the music and history: where it came from ... where the music that I love and am a part of came from, and the artists that made it. I'd say now my role is to pass on the information that I feel that I've gleaned-and that I feel is accurate-to the next group of people and to whoever's willing to listen and to whoever can hear it and is capable of understanding it. And in a group, I think it's a similar activity ... [We] are really trying our best to bring forth what we consider to be culturally the high road. [I'm] not saying that we're the best cats or the top of the food chain or divorced from ego, but ... there is a lot of history on the bandstand in [the Headhunters], and what makes it a special event for me is the history and the amount of contribution that every guy in this band has made."

Clark says that Hancock taught him the Buddhist chant, "Nam Myoho Renge Kyo," and that by chanting that, one can achieve all of one's dreams. "I was a young man, and if I heard of anything that said I could achieve all of my dreams, I wanted to know all about it right away, because I had a million dreams, and I'm not a particularly suspicious person, so I just thought, 'Sure, I'll check it out.'"

When the recording session for the track "Actual Proof" on the album Thrust came around, the producer (who had received a very basic knowledge of drumming in school) asked Clark to play a very "basic, unhip" rhythm. "I said, 'Look, I really don't want to play that. I think I have a better scheme,' and he got very mad at me," Clark recollects. "Rather than me getting mad back, I thought, 'This is an assignment for this [chanting] that I'm hearing all about from Herbie Hancock.'" Clark excused himself for a few minutes, snuck into another studio, and chanted. "I said, 'Okay, everybody's going to hear me on this record, and if I play a pedestrian beat like this man wants me to play, then they're going to think that this is who I am creatively.' The Buddhist practice is based on something called 'Actual Proof'-you get what you chant for-so ... being that the other tracks were also kind of pedestrian and this was my one chance to show my stuff, I chanted that on this track, I would be immortalized in jazz throughout history. I was young," Clark qualifies, "so that was my prayer." After chanting alone for several minutes, Clark says that he went back into the studio and (nicely) asked the producer to let them try playing it once their way, and if they could not get it in one take, they would play it the way he told them to. "He laughed at me, because it was a very difficult piece, and he said that nobody could play that piece in one take, because we hadn't really rehearsed it, and especially the way (we wanted) to play it, it was too complicated. I said, 'Please, give us a chance. If you're right, we'll all know within the first four bars.'" The group got the track in one take, and Clark is credited with a drumming innovation on the track, as well. The piece, originally titled something else, was changed to "Actual Proof" in honor of Clark's accomplishment. "When Herbie saw my inner change," Clark reflects, "and saw that it had affected the environment that strongly, he changed the name of it ... When the piece was over, everybody was giving me high-fives and hugging me in the studio and going, 'Michael, that was brilliant.' And [the producer] then came up to me and said, 'Thank you for arguing with me, and making me see what you were thinking. This is one of the finest things I've ever been a part of.'"

Incidentally, Clark is the only white member of the Headhunters, and experienced firsthand the breakdown of racial barriers in popular music in the 1960s and especially the 1970s.

"I lived in Oakland ... so I saw Huey Newton and all those guys, and I witnessed the police beating up African-Americans. I saw this with my own eyes. The reason I lived there was because Paul Jackson, the bassist in Herbie's band, and I have been best friends since I was 19 years old. So his dad got us a place together because we were both young guys starting out ... So I was witnessing a lot of things that I would have never seen before had I not moved in with Paul, and I was really outraged about what I was seeing, and about all the lies the government was telling..." Also, at the same time, Clark points out that in those days, "black consciousness ... was really rising ... and America was becoming aware of African- Americans' taste in clothes, music, what they liked and didn't like, and also the needs of the black community: what was being addressed and ... how they were being treated as citizens ... began to filter through into white America and other Americas."

"Paul and I were a musical team, and so our bands were usually predominantly black through his friends, and mixed with the occasional white guy other than myself....We'd try to mix it up...the musicians that could play the best were the ones that we would get. That was my experience, and that lasted years, so when I met Herbie, I was quite comfortable, as far as who I was. I didn't feel I had to try to be someone I wasn't, or that I had to affect a 'black-sounding'-whatever that means-type of talking, or any kind of bullshit. I was just kind of myself, and the friendship between Paul and I was so strong that nobody dared challenge it. However, there were some other people in the band who didn't see it that way; they had problems with the fact that I was white, and I learned to stand up for myself and also love those guys back, who felt that way, and understand why they felt that way the best that I could...and to this day, we're all serious family."

"And at the same time, it was this tremendous growing experience, being with those guys, because it wasn't all beautiful just because Paul and I were friends; I definitely got some flak for it. However, musically, how I fit in was being myself. It seems like the thing I came up with, the thing I was doing with my drumming, fit in perfectly with this band, and does to this day. Nobody ever gave me a hard time about playing, but there were some uncomfortable moments ... where I had to really look carefully at myself and figure out who I was. It made a man out of me, and it's the best experience a young guy could ever have, playing in that situation at that time period, because ... it made me a strong person and a world person; I mean, I can talk with anybody and be comfortable with them. I didn't have to adjust any of my personality to fit in the situation; what I had to do was accept the good part of my life, and not denigrate myself because I was a white person ... I couldn't be of any value as an artist if I punished myself mentally or spiritually because of that situation. .. I'm grateful that I had the experience to deal with that and develop myself. I wish everybody in this country could do that."

"Music really reflects what's going on in society, but it can also really affect what's going on ... Music is a strong force, and so that means that I want to be at my best, and the other guys in the band do, as well," Clark observes, also explaining that "especially with music like [the Headhunters] play, [which] is intellectually stimulating, there is a tapestry of souls going on as far as we're communicating with each other musically and intertwining each others' lives through musical conversation. And the music is funky, so the body gets a good sensation, as well. So you get it from the neck down and the neck up, and that's pretty much what our music is about. And so the more we can groove people and make them feel good, it just makes for a better feeling for people."


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Originally Published June 16, 2005, Buzz Weekly (Champaign-Urbana, Illinois)
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