Detroit Garage Rockers Tyvjk Remind the European Union of Motor City’s Real Chief Export (Hint: It Ain’t Cars)
By Kat Gardiner on 04-07-2009
....okay, there are the riots. And headquarters of the people responsible for all those Calvins we see peeing on each other. Oh, and there's that extreme poverty, racial tension, and economic collapse that surrounds the city like a horrible cloud of insidious smoke. There's that, too. But in spite of all that shit (or maybe because of it), you end up with a by-product unparalleled in cities larger, richer, and arguably smarter.
You get music. Killer amazing music. You get Motown. You get Iggy and The Stooges and MC5 (that's Motor City Five, by the way). And then there's John Lee Hooker, Parliament-Funkadelic, Sonny Bono, Question Mark & the Mysterians, Bob Seger, Ted Nugent, and Alice Cooper; The Gories,The White Stripes, The Dirtbombs, The Von Bondies, J Dilla, and Eminem. See what I'm saying? Besides New York, Chicago, and LA, can you think of anywhere else that has given us so much and so varied a musical retrospective?
Now, enter Tyvjk (a.k.a. Tyvek a.k.a. TVK), and think messy garage art punk. Think hammers and nails eeking out a melody and four-tracks recording sporadically. These guys take that Detroit molten lava, throw it against the wall -- not in anger, but in pure joy -- just to see how it settles. They've been compared to The Velvet Underground and MC5, as well as Times New Viking and The Vivian Girls. I just think they're good old fashioned punk rock from the days before "punk rock" was a thing you needed to scream through or dress up as. They don't have a website yet (beyond their MySpace page); they've only released 7-inches (most notably on Sub Pop's singles club - TMT News). Hell, even John Waters is a fan.
Sounds like a good time to catch a show, if you ask me. They play tonight at the Most Wanted Fine Art Gallery in Pittsburgh, then it's off to Europe with Cheveu
04.10.09 - Düdingen, Switzerland - Bad Bonn
04.11.09 - Torino, Italy - Asilo Occupato
04.12.09 - Rome, Italy - Locanda Atlantide
04.13.09 - Italy - TBA
04.14.09 - Italy - TBA
04.15.09 - Zagreb, Croatia - Spunk
04.16.09 - Graz, Austria - Forum Stadtpark
04.17.09 - Praha, Czech Republic - TBA
04.18.09 - Hamburg, Germany - Beat Club
04.19.09 - Göteborg, Sweden - Utmarken
04.20.09 - Helsingor, Denmark - Musikhuset Elvaerket
04.21.09 - Germany - TBA
04.22.09 - Amsterdam, Netherlands - Occii
04.23.09 - Tournai, Belguim - TBA
04.24.09 - Paris, France - Fleche D’or (Pheromoans)
04.25.09 - Ris Orangis, France - La Ferme De La Justice (Aeroflot)
Flowered Up! Petal Pushers Bill Callahan, Scout Niblett, Devendra Banhart, Josephine Foster, and Mark Kozelek Pay Tribute to Kath Bloom
By David Nadelle on 04-07-2009
We should be grateful we live in this age of insane mass commercial availability, but rehashing the pointless and unimportant can get a bit sickening. However, some reminiscences are no-brainers, and a gentle rekindling of appreciation is required. Take, for example, Loving Takes This Course: A Tribute to the Songs of Kath Bloom, which eases into life by Chapter Music today, April 7.
Apart from the formidable Ms. Bloom, who gets a full disc to herself, the collection will feature some big-name admirers taking on her best and beloved songs. Hot-blooded men like Bill Callahan, Devendra Banhart, Mark Kozelek, The Dodos, and others have recorded tracks for the project. The female contingent boasts absolutely no slouches either: Josephine Foster, Meg Baird, Scout Niblett, Mia Doi Todd, and Corrina Repp all give props to the sad-voiced lady of the lowlands (of Connecticut?).
Bloom is mostly known for a number of lovely avant-folk, small-label records and limited CD-Rs she recorded with guitar guru Loren Mazzacane Connors in the late-1970s/early-1980s, but after returning to the recording arena in the 1990s, her too-few solo albums have garnered a great deal of praise as well. And no, while you will notice two versions of "Come Here" on each disc listed below, it is not because the song gained popularity after being featured in the Ethan Hawke/Julie Delpy film Before Sunrise. It is simply Bloom unleashing her inner Neil Young, who is a master of the duplicitous double song shots on some of his rekkerds. For Kath Bloom, it’s better to always burn brightly than to fade away.
Disc One (The Covers):
1. Marble Sounds - "Come Here"
2. Bill Callahan - "The Breeze/My Baby Cries"
3. Laura Jean - "When I See You"
4. Mark Kozelek - "Finally"
5. Mick Turner & Peggy Frew - "Window"
6. Devendra Banhart - "Forget About Him"
7. Scout Niblett - "I Wanna Love"
8. The Dodos - "Biggest Light of All"
9. Josephine Foster - "Look at Me"
10. Mia Doi Todd - "Ready or Not"
11. Corrina Repp - "Fall Again"
12. Marianne Dissard & Joey Burns - "It’s So Hard to Come Home"
13. Amy Rude - "In Your School"
14. Tom Hanford - "If This Journey"
15. Meg Baird - "There Was a Boy
16. The Concretes - "Come Here"
Disc Two:
1. Come Here
2. The Breeze/My Baby Cries
3. When I See You
4. Finally
5. Window
6. Forget About Him
7. I Wanna Love
8. Biggest Light of All
9. Look at Me
10. Ready or Not
11. Fall Again
12. It’s So Hard to Come Home
13. In Your School
14. If This Journey
15. There Was a Boy
16. Come Here
Bloom recently completed a small handful of dates in California, playing with the likes of Little Wings, Mia Doi Todd, and Be-Gulls, but she will be sticking closer to home for a couple shows in the next couple months. Come here, no, below here, to see the sites of her shows.
05.02.09 - New Haven, CT - Café Nine
06.21.09 - Litchfield, CT - Haight Vineyard