May
21
2012
Yelawolf
Author: IvanYelawolf
Event on 2012-06-03 21:00:00
– Tickets available 3/31
Envision a humid world of slow-rolling Monte Carlos and slaughter houses; meth labs and rusting Mossberg’s, inked up arms and haircuts that look like they’ve been chopped by hatchets. Trunk Muzik. Southern Pine trees, smoking pine, and pine boxes. Call him Catfish Billy or Yelawolf, just don’t go make him go pop the trunk on you.
Enter Yelawolf’s Alabama—a backwoods badlands of sinners and salva…tion. He claims Gadsden, but he’s from everywhere. Born Michael Wayne Atha to an absentee father and a bartender mother, he attended over 15 schools while soaking up slang and spiritualism in Baton Rouge, Antioch, Tennessee, and Atlanta. While trying to stay afloat in a turbulent home life addled by drug and alcohol abuse, he discovered rap music in Tennessee and it soon became an obsession, along with the classic rock (Lynard Skynard, Pink Floyd, The Allman Brothers) that he was raised on.
“When I lived in Antioch, they’d bus us down to the projects in Nashville to go to school and everything just started clicking with me with rap music and in life,” Yelawolf said. “I felt the connection, these kids had the same problems that I had at home. And the weed, the dope…”
His music is a new strain of soul food, the traditional Southern cuisine that fortified the Dungeon Family, 8ball & MJG and UGK, but infused by Yela’s unique experiences as a cross-country vagabond with no place to call home. And, of course, his unparalleled ability to snap off double-timed staccato raps unlike anything you’ve ever heard.
His manager bestowed him with the nickname Joe Dirt because his experiences are so unbelievable. There was the stint commercial fishing in Alaska. An attempt to become a professional skateboarder in Berkeley thwarted by various injuries. Time spent in Seattle and New York, and of course, spots all over the South. The cross-country Greyhound tours around the country like a modern-day Jack Kerouac with the rhyme skills of LL Cool J circa the “Jack the Ripper” era.
Finally settling back down in Gadsden, Yelawolf hooked up with Gheto-O-Vision, who helped him land a deal with Columbia in 2007. Suddenly, the last 20 years of life as a vagabond seemed to be at an end. Yet the perpetual state of chaos soon re-emerged, when Rick Rubin took over the label and started cutting artists left and right. Before he had the opportunity to even finish his debut album or prove himself on a large scale, he was unceremoniously dropped.
“It was frustrating. I was just like, ‘you don’t get it? Alright, that’s cool, then I guess I’m extra special,” Yelawolf said. “I had to be arrogant because I could have been fucked up. I mean, Rick Rubin didn’t like me? But that’s just not my style. I refuse to quit.”
The only solution was to go harder, taking his anger at being slighted and turning it into something undeniable. He dropped a flurry of mixtapes, including “Stereo,” which found him riffing on old classic rock cuts from Fleetwood Mac to Pink Floyd to Heart. But while he continued to build a fan base with each release, something was missing.
“Not everybody in hip-hop messes with classic rock. There was no real element of surprise. I’m from Alabama, I’m into classic rock — it was obvious and there was no shock-value to it,” Yelawolf said. “After that, I wanted to focus on making sure that people understood that I respected the craft. “Trunk Muzik” was dedicated to the trunk riders, with 808s and hard ass music. It had a dirty Southern sound, and it opened things up.
Which is something of an understatement. “Trunk Muzik” dropped on January 1st, 2010, and within a matter of weeks, he was the toast of every blog. The New York Times raved about a live performance, describing him as “fully ascendant” and “striking and assured.” The LA Times declared he was “as safe a bet for stardom as anyone out right now — the rare rapper capable of earning respect from both Kid Rock and Kid Cudi fans.” His insanely energetic performances at SXSW were the stuff of instant-legend.
Songs like “I Wish” and “Good to Go” found Yela capable of going toe to toe with lyrical giants Bun B and Raekwon. While “Pop the Trunk” epitomized his 808-heavy trunk rattling sound, full of vivid pictures of rural redneck life and violence lurking around every bend. But Interscope didn’t just offer him a deal only to tell stories about the South. There are a million rappers capable of doing just that. But none of them can match Yelawolf’s versatility.
Whether he’s rapping over the beat for Cypress Hill’s “Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That,” Gucci Mane’s “Lemonade,” or The Doors’ “Waiting for the Sun,” Yela has the ability to adapt his style to each song. He doesn’t kick 48-bar freestyles, he re-interprets the song to fit a new meaning. He can spit with the most lyrical underground types or he can write an upbeat party anthem like “I Just Wanna Party,” alongside Gucci Mane.
“I can go any direction – arena rap or even the bluegrass hip-hop shit. I would never sign myself down to any style,” Yelawolf said. “I’m always gonna have the darker edgy music – it is always in my pocket because it comes so natural to me. You’ll never stop getting records like “Pop the Trunk” or “Good to Go” – the crunk south stuff. It will always be a part of what I do in some way. But I plan on evolving. You have to. I’m out to make long lasting records.”
Yelawolf – Website | Myspace | Facebook | Twitter | Reverb Nation
at The Slowdown
729 North Fourteenth Street
Omaha, United States
Freddy Jones Band
Event on 2012-06-02 20:00:00
In 2000 The Freddy Jones Band went on hiatus. During the ten previous years of recording and touring, the band had amassed a body of work that included five albums of ambitious, wide-reaching rock and a reputation for expansive and energetic live shows that made the quintet a hot commodity on the tape-trader circuit.
And now the Freddy Jones Band is back and reminding the world what was so special in the first place.
The group's original lineup — singer-guitarists Wayne Healy, Marty Lloyd and Rob Bonaccorsi, bassist Jim Bonaccorsi and drummer Simon Horrocks –reunited in the summer of 2005 for a charity show in it’s former home base of Chicago. Now the FJB is playing for keeps again.
The group's new album, TIME WELL WASTED – it’s first since 1999's MILE HIGH LIVE — is at once a recap and a step forward. It features 10 tracks recorded live in 2007, reprising favorites such as "Take the Time," "Waitress," "One World" and "In a Daydream." That's exciting enough, but TIME WELL WASTED also has three new songs — "Home Thing," "Contender" and "Empty Room" — written by the Healy and Lloyd team and marking the start of a new era in the group's interrupted history.
"We felt like it was time to put out a new piece of product that had new material and is also deeply rooted in the history of the band — but sounds like today," says Horrocks.
The sessions for the new songs took place in Atlanta, which Healy and Horrocks now call home, and were among the easiest of the group's time together. "Everyone had such an open mind," Lloyd recalls. "We didn't care who was writing, playing or singing. If it was working, we used it. We all accepted each other's support and direction openly and as a team, and I think it shows in the recordings.
Though starting out as "Jam Band," according to Healy, the FJB began concentrating on its own material, and Capricorn Records signed the group after its self-titled and self-released 1992 debut sold more than 10,000 copies. The FJB steadily built an audience from there with 1993's "Waiting For the Night," 1995's "North Ave. Wake-Up Call," and 1997's "Lucid" — which reached No. 19 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart — as well as radio play for songs such as "In a Daydream," "Waitress" and "Mystic Buzz." Rolling Stone praised the group's "fine line between schizophrenic jam band and sensibly-minded pop-rock." The All Music Guide opined that it’s "sound at times is reminiscent of the Allman Brothers" — high (and accurate) praise indeed.
The FJB were also road warriors, rocking 200-250 nights a year, everywhere from intimate club dates to amphitheatre’s full of fans on the H.O.R.D.E. Tour.
"We worked hard and the record label supported us and it worked out pretty well," Healy says. "There were some tough times, but overall we were very fortunate."
Fortunately, it was just as easy when the group came back together for its fateful reunion at the 2005 Riverview Music Festival.
"When we get together, it really is fun to be able to pull the skeletons out of the closet and play some songs," Healy says. "We've played these songs thousands of times, but sometimes you look around at sound check and feel like, 'Oh my God, it sounds like we never stopped."
Since the reunion, FJB has also started a new tradition — donating a certain portion of the proceeds to a local charity.
"We're just really enjoying the fact we can play music together again," Horrocks explains. "And we're really playing better than ever. We've all kind of matured. We've kind of grown into our material in a way. We're like a new band with a long history."
at SPACE
1245 Chicago Avenue
Evanston, United States
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