Bands performing here this week. Listen at washingtonpost.com/music


LAURIE ANDERSON “Homeland”


Heavy issues, with a bit of levity


Kindred spirits: Yoko Ono, Tricky, Ken Nordine Show: Friday at the Birchmere. Show starts at 7:30 p.m. 703-549-7500. www.birchmere.com.


Performance artist Laurie Anderson became something of pop star in 1981 with “O Superman,” a cool, stark and gently comic monologue about life as “made in America.” Nearly 30 years later, the New Yorker expands on this sound and vision on “Homeland,” which takes its title from our post-9/11 world. Her first studio album in a decade, it’s one of her best. Anderson’s style remains gently comic and — despite the presence of many collaborators — stark. But the cool melts away on “Only an Expert,” in which Anderson turns uncharacteristically


COWBOY JUNKIES “Renmin Park”


Kindred spirits: Velvet Underground, Vic Chestnutt, Neil Young Show: At Rams Head Tavern on Tuesday. Show starts at 8 p.m. 410-268-4545. www.ramsheadtavern.com.


“For the first time in twenty years, we are completely free of any recording contracts and obligations,” guitarist Michael Timmins writes in the press materials accompanying “Renmin Park,” the Cowboy Junkies’ latest CD. How eager is he to assert the band’s independence? Just give this curious, challenging and multifaceted song cycle a spin. Inspired by a


three-month visit to China in 2008, “Renmin Park” resonates with indigenous sounds, both traditional and contemporary. Some are drawn from recent field and studio recordings, but all are filtered through — or colorfully offset — the band’s signature alt-country sensibilities. No doubt some Western ears will find “Renmin Park” rough going at times. The cameo by vocalist Zuoxiao Zuzhou, for example, takes some getting used to. But for all its cross-cultural influences, weaves, loops, collaborations and instrumentation, the album boasts enough familiar sonics and song craft to keep longtime fans invested in this nearly hour-long excursion. Expect more unexpected departures


and twists from the Junkies. “Renmin Park” is the first installment of “The Nomad Series,” a four-CD collection scheduled to be released this year and next.


— Mike Joyce


outspoken. Accompanied by Four Tet’s Kieran Hebden on electronics and her husband (and co-producer), Lou Reed, on raucous guitar, she skewers politicians, pop psychologists and financiers: “Only an expert can design a bailout / And only an expert can expect a bailout.” The irony stings, but a whole disc of such outrage would be exhausting. Most of “Homeland” is more contemplative, as well as prettier than Anderson’s best-known work. Contrasted by Tuvan throat singers or Antony Hegarty’s falsetto on such songs as “Transitory Life” and “The Beginning of Memory,” the 63-year-old contemplates loss, mortality and the origins of civilization. Anderson may not be an expert on such matters, but she certainly sounds like one here. — Mark Jenkins


CLEM SNIDE “The Meat of Life”


Kindred spirits: Neutral Milk Hotel, Lambchop, the Olivia Tremor Control Show:With Heligoats on Tuesday at Iota. Show starts at 8:30 p.m. 703-522-8340. www.iotaclubandcafe.com.


It can be tough for an indie-rock band


to keep up its quirkiness after more than two decades together, and it can be even tougher if the band breaks up and then reunites. Case in point: “The Meat of Life,” Clem Snide’s new album, doesn’t sound like there has been a joyful reunion. There are a few moments that showcase the group’s unusual sensibilities, but those are rare. The vocal echoes at the end of “Walmart Parking Lot” convey more urgency than the rest of the song, and the instrumental flourishes (strings and piano) on “Stoney” add a much-needed texture to the band’s otherwise bland indie-rock sound. Even the lyrics by band leader Eef


Barzelay seem a bit clumsy. They veer from the awkwardly suggestive (“To grow the meat of life, I will plant my seed,” he croons on the title track) to the insipid (“This song goes out to all you beautiful American girls and boys” on “I Got High”). The band does strike gold occasionally.


“Denver” sounds like a lullaby but is a chilling confession of cheating; Barzelay’s unsettling cry “I hope that you never forgive me” sounds as if he hasn’t quite forgiven himself.


— Catherine P. Lewis


NewMusic


7


LELAND BREWSTER Performance artist Laurie Anderson’s new release focuses on the post-9/11 world.


THE NRIS “Eight Forty Two AM”


Kindred spirits:Wilco, Shortstack, Gist Show:With Bonjour, Ganesh!, Milk Machine


and Ghost Light on Saturday at the Rock & Roll Hotel. Show starts at 9 p.m. 202-388-7625. www.rockandrollhoteldc.com.


Local singer-guitarist Nayan Bhula


takes a musical furlough on “Eight Forty Two AM,” the debut of his part-time band, the NRIs, which stands for “Non-Resident Indians.” Bhula is of Indian descent, but the sextet’s music doesn’t venture anywhere near South Asia. The EP opens in “Music City”— meaning Nashville, to judge from the tune’s twang — and ends with “Texas.” “Eight Forty Two AM” isn’t simply a old-timey fling for Bhula, who takes a punkier path with his full-time band, Gist. The group features fiddler Melanie Papasian but, on several songs, it’s supplemented by a three-piece horn section. And if the busted-romance lyrics that guitarist Gabriel Fry penned for “Gone” are pure country, the song’s music is more than a little rock-and-roll. The NRIs’ bad-love and hard-drinking songs are simply well-executed genre exercises, but the disc’s centerpiece is more personal: “Fairwell” is a heartfelt ode to a new child, apparently born at 8:42 a.m. The first half of the six-minute song has a honky-tonk vibe, but its coda mixes violin, sax and female backing vocals in a suitably rapturous tribute to the event Bhula’s chant calls “a miracle.” — Mark Jenkins


THE REVEREND PEYTON’S BIG DAMN BAND “The Wages”


Kindred spirits: John Lee Hooker and R.L. Burnside Show: Tuesday at Merriwether Post as part of the Warped Tour. Gates open at 11 a.m. 410-715-5550. www.merriweathermusic.com.


On “The Wages,” the Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band gives the blues a 21st-century rendering with “Everything’s Raising”: “They say they’re bailing out some banks / I’ll take some of that money back . . .” But that’s about as modern as the band


gets. This is lo-fi, low-tech rural blues. How many bands can boast a washboard player and a drummer whose kit includes a five-gallon bucket? Hailing from Indiana, the band is Josh “the Reverend” Peyton (yes, an ordained minister) on bottleneck slide guitar, his wife, “Washboard” Breezy Peyton, and cousin Aaron “Cuz” Persinger on drums (and bucket). “The Wages” was recorded live on analog tape, with no overdubs. The Reverend sings the blues, to be sure, but the band performs with such foot-stomping aplomb, it’s easy to forget times are tough when singing along. Sure, he sings about the plight of rural America in “In a Holler Over There,” but his sense of humor is also evident. “The Wages” is front-porch, hardscrabble blues, accentuated by the Reverend’s frantic guitar picking and sliding combined with Breezy’s washboard. But make no mistake: The Reverend is proud of his down-home roots. When he sings “Homemade jelly, homemade jam / Please and thank you, yes sir and yes ma’am” in “Born Bred Corn Fed,” that porch seems like a good place to be.


—Benjamin Opipari


THE WASHINGTON POST • FRIDAY, JULY 16, 2010


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116