CircleBirds

From the fires of hardcore music and failed relationships, a chilled out, retrospective fern of a child was born. Circlebirds emerged from College Station, Texas in early 2007 as a simple interest in melodic song. At this time, Matt Jackson began piecing together material for his self released LP, While you were gone, I wrote some songs. Focusing more on the development of vocally driven, non-structured, multi-reverbed, folk influenced pop songs, he departed from his previous musical endeavors of hardcore/thrash. Since then, the solo effort has blossomed into a full band of talents, consisting of Whitney Smith (formerly of the Flyers) and Marc Fogelsong (formerly of The Kirby) with guest appearances from other musicians: Paul Clark (formerly of Oceans Firing, and the Planning Fallacy) and Micheal Foulk (from Act young) among others. After recently touring throughout the Southeast on a five-song EP (I wrote some songs, when times were long ep), Circlebirds is on the verge of releasing their second full length album (Complexities), a twelve song ideation of the complex nature of human interaction and the conflicts/resolutions that arise from these interactions. For more information check out:

www.myspace.com/birdgames

CD Special: CircleBirds have CDs for sale at Northgate Vintage. For $5 you buy their album, you get a half price pita at Pita Pit. This deal is going on until the end of March

By Chris Zebo

FREE MP3 DOWNLOAD HERE:

Feels Like

It’s not often that you get to preside over your own funeral; but when Nas released Hip Hop is Dead four years ago, he wasn’t shoveling dirt into his own grave—he was just digging a big hole for others to fall into.  The dirge went like this: “Everybody sounds the same / Commercialize the game / Reminiscin’ when it wasn’t all business / It forgot where it started / So we all gather here for the dearly departed.”  Nas certainly wasn’t the first to march in the procession or the last.  It was already known—especially underground—that hip hop had lost its way sometime between rap’s golden age and today’s age of the golden grill.

But what exactly happened?  For years, the East Coast pointed its finger West and the West Coast pointed back.  And it was a standoff until, eventually, all fingers began pointing South (finally, they agreed on something).  Lil Jon and the crunky bunch bore the brunt of the blame.  Yes, Atlanta was on fire again.  And the fire had spread all the way to Houston.  But as much as crunk and snap and Southern hardcore rap had lowered the denominator, it still didn’t explain how hip hop music—a sound that became a culture—was reduced to background music at frat party beer pong tournaments.

Today, hip hop is mired in an abysmal identity crisis, and there’s been a lot of soul searching (and searching for soul) as new and old artists sift through the ashes of a burned out music genre.

But one group in Texas has raked through the cinders and found something to hold onto.  Dem Southernfolkz, a hip-hop trio out of Dallas, has both resurrected vestiges of the golden age and made some much-needed improvements to a jaded formula.  Ironically, the trio—Kinfolk Jack, Big Ben, and Saturday Alridge—spent more time looking away from hip hop for inspiration than they did digging through the gold-plated rubble.  “I don’t even really listen to hip hop,” says Alridge, “and if I do listen to hip hop, there’s no lyrics.”

Instead, the group returned to the music’s ancestral roots—old gospel, soul, funk and jazz—and infused some new and unlikely influences, like Irish folk singer Fionn Regan, Bob Dylan, Broken Social Scene, and the Microphones.  “If you wanna move forward in your music and try to reach that point of innovation,” says Alridge, “you gotta put something else in. Otherwise, it’s incestuous to just put in hip hop and then try to crank out hip hop.” If you do recycle, he says, you “end up regurgitating whatever you put in.”

Dem Southernfolkz has self-released a full-length album, The Message, and a four-song EP, Something to Hold Onto, in the past year.  The Message is what you’d expect from a first release; it’s like an adolescent coming of age.  It’s got zits and growing pains.  There are songs that deserve repeat and others you might skip.  But all in all, it’s quite an impressive album, especially considering some of the music was written via email while Jack and Ben volleyed verses and beats back and forth while stationed in Iraq.

Something to Hold Onto, their most recent release, is the folkz all grown up.  The group says the EP reflects where they are now and where they’re going.  They’ve certainly turned over a new leaf.  For three guys that have probably never shot a drop of heroin in their lives, they’ve somehow figured out how to synthesize it aurally.  Listen—just once—to “Feels Like” and you’ll be a scratching addict.  The song opens with a breakbeat and a looping vocal sample, and by the time the synth wafts ethereally through layers of compressed bass and delayed guitar, it’ll be too late to go back.

Lyrically, the group has strayed far, far away from the hip-hop morass.  “When you cast off your morals and just [say] anything in the booth,” says Jack, “it’s a problem.”  So the usual suspects are conspicuously missing.  Absent are the token allusions to aggravated assault, jail time, thug love, bling and booty (although it was hard to say goodbye to booty).  “In our music,” says Ben, “we talk about the stuff that you think about when you’re at home, at the end of the day, nobody else is around, you’re looking in the mirror and you’re thinking about all the messed up stuff you did or what you should of did.”

“All the real stuff,” Ben adds, “all the real-life stuff.”  You remember that stuff,
right?—like forgiving and forgetting, trying to be morally responsible in an upside-down world, relinquishing the Hollywood fantasy and facing the real world, trying to pay your bills when you’re broke and living paycheck to paycheck.  It’s affecting stuff, sincere and uplifting.  “We might not have the best lyrics in the world, the best flow, might not have the best musicians,” says Ben, “but I guarantee you, it’s gonna touch somebody.”

Last week, Maroon Weekly sat down with Dem Southernfolkz for an exclusive interview a few days after their show at the Stafford.  You can watch the interview on the Maroon Weekly website at maroonweekly.com.  The group goes into more detail about the state of the music industry, why their time in Iraq isn’t exploited in their music, how the church has influenced their sound, and much, much more.  You can also download a free MP3 (“Feels Like”) by Dem Southernfolkz at our website!

Dem Southernfolkz return to the Stafford on Thursday, April 8 at 9pm.  You can download both The Message and Something to Hold Onto from their website at demsouthernfolkz.com.

DOWNLOAD THE SONG HERE

Roots Music from the Melting Pot

by Chris Zebo

Kara Suzanne and the Gojo Hearts’ debut album, Aumsville, was self-released in 2006 with a limited budget and all of the attendant hurdles facing any first-release indie group. In addition to being broke, they had little experience in the music biz. And without a label, a distributor, and cash flow, Aumsville was destined to be another indie album buried deep in the bottomless record crate of the Internet.

But they had resolve. They endured a lot of donkey work to get their music into people’s ears. They promoted it on MySpace (yes, MySpace still existed back then), they produced artful CDs (yes, CDs still existed back then) and they sent them to every critic and industry executive in the solar system (back when Pluto was still a planet). When they weren’t promoting online, on the phone, or in the mailbox, they took it to the streets—cutting their teeth at gigs all over Manhattan to generate a following.

Their tenacity paid off. Aumsville was discovered (somehow) and it became a critical success, if not a financial one. Within a few months of releasing the album, the group walked away with the Independent Music Awards’ Album of the Year.

In 2009, Kara and the Gojo’s returned to the studio to record their second full-length album, Parlor Walls (released January, 2010). The band drove north out of NYC, a hundred miles into the countryside, far from the five boroughs and smog-soaked trees. They arrived at Dreamland, a quaint, turn-of-the-century church converted into a stained-glass recording studio. Nestled in the idyllic, rolling hills of the Hudson River Valley, Dreamland was the ideal setting to record 11 songs with heartland tendencies. For seven long and slow days, they inhaled the country air and exhaled it into their microphones.

Sure, Parlor Walls is certainly more Nashville than Big Apple. Yes, there’s country in this album. But don’t expect paeans to pickup trucks or tear-in-the-beer ballads about cheatin’ hearts. Elements of folk, rock and blues are all there, too. But the brilliant thing about this release is how all of the genres congeal together, melodiously, in the same pot.

The band bridges the divide between blues, country, folk and rock; but they’re also not afraid of burning those bridges when the muse summons. The music fits under the umbrella of Americana/roots music without getting wet, but in another sense, this is roots music without roots. It’s as close to the farm as it is to the freeway. And that might be what’s most refreshing about this release; it’s homeless and it belongs somewhere at the same time.

Lyrically, the songs in Parlor Walls are not as much about a sense of place as they are about a person trying to grasp a world that’s perpetually shifting. The album takes its name from Ray Bradbury’s dystopian sci-fi thriller, Fahrenheit 451. In the novel, books are banned and burned at 451 degrees Fahrenheit (the temperature at which paper combusts). Television has become the dominant medium of exchange (now imagine that). People sit in TV “parlours” with walls constructed of TV screens, and they bathe in a glowing stream of moving images—thousands of them, all vying for their attention. The effect is paralyzing. People lose their grasp of reality. They lose their ability to frame cogent thoughts and to communicate effectively with one another. In short, they’re out of touch.

Well, the future is now and the walls are covered in liquid crystal. But Parlor Walls is certainly not a rueful album and Kara is not chanting revolution. If anything, Kara’s new album is a testament to how music can still bring us together and make sense out of the crazy world we live in. A very powerful record and an excellent production. Highly recommended.

You can listen to the album and download it at www.karasuzanne.com.

By: Josh Storie

Texans are proud of the fact that we have our own breed of country music down here. For years singer/songwriters like Jerry Jeff Walker, Robert Earl Keen and Pat Green have been writing songs that speak to the heart and make you feel as if they are singing about what you did last Friday night. But country music loving fans in Georgia have been experiencing the same affection for honest lyrics through the writing of Corey Smith. A former high school teacher, Smith’s rock solid songwriting and high energy stage show have made him a “must-see” at college campuses all over the southeast. And it hasn’t taken long for fans in Texas to acquire a taste for the spicy new style of country music that Corey Smith has brought to the table. I had a chance to sit down with Corey before his show at Hurricane Harry’s to talk about his ride thus far.

Maroon Weekly: I’m interested in how you got started. From what I understand, you began by playing the Athens scene in Georgia, right?

Corey Smith: Oddly, I didn’t start in Athens. I went to school in Athens and I live twenty minutes from Athens. Athens is sort of my adopted home. But Athens, much like Austin, is a difficult music scene. There are so many musicians there that it is hard to get gigs and hard for people to take you seriously. So I actually didn’t start there. I started playing out further in the country. I played a bunch of smaller college towns and kind of built up a buzz. And oddly, when I was playing those smaller markets people thought that since I was from Athens I had a big thing going on in Athens. But I really didn’t. So it wasn’t until later when I went back to Athens after we had generated a buzz that we were able to do really well there.

M.W.: So when did you first start performing?

C.S.: I had different phases. When I got out of high school I played some cover gigs just to make a stab at it. But I didn’t like sitting in a corner playing Jimmy Buffet all night. So I decided to become a school teacher and went to school. When I was in college in Athens, I really didn’t play out a whole lot. I still wrote songs and I’d play them for my buddies but I wasn’t out playing the bars. I’d hit an open mic every once in a while but it wasn’t until I had been teaching for a while that I got back into it. I’d play a few more open mics and take up a few gigs on the weekend trying to make some extra money and just gradually got back into it. Next thing I know I have a fan base and I’m able to stop teaching. And now I’m on a tour bus in Texas talking to you.

M.W.: So what do you think was the X-factor that sparked everything and allowed you to go from teaching full time to playing on the road full time?

C.S.: There are a lot of people who talk about a formula for being able to start a fan base. But for me, it’s been about songs and just being hard on myself as a writer, feeling like there is a purpose to it all. I try to just keep getting better. I believe that people want to hear good songs and they want to be moved. It’s an American art form and it is tried and true. It’s been here for over a hundred years. So, I think people just want to hear good songs and I just want to keep getting better as a writer so that I can deliver good songs. When I think about my career and how it all started, it really started with me getting to a point where I understood how to write songs that resonated with people.

M.W.: So how do you do that? How do you go about writing songs that are meaningful to you, but also connect with people in a way that makes them feel as if you are singing about them?

C.S.: I write very personal songs. Subject matter is usually derived from some internal struggle that I am having. In many ways my writing is like therapy. It is my way of dealing with things. I believe that most people aren’t that different from one another. Although we might appear to be different on the surface, I think ultimately we all go through the same struggles. When I deal with my struggles in my songs, I feel like most people are going to identify with my struggles because they are essentially dealing with the same things. So I try not to focus on whether a song is going to be popular or whether it is going to appeal to a certain age group. I just try to stay honest with myself and in doing that I feel like the songs are going to resonate.

M.W.: From a performance standpoint, the hardest part for a lot of artists is just getting people to show up. But you’ve been selling out shows for a while. What is the key to getting people out to the shows?

C.S.: Pray. Seriously, it’s really tough. I can’t control that. I find that it is useless to worry about things I can’t control and I can’t control how many people come out tonight. All I can do is focus on writing the best songs I can write and performing the best I can perform. And I find that if I focus on those things, the rest will take care of itself. The most important thing is writing songs that resonate and giving people a chance to listen to them. We encourage people to download music. I don’t worry so much about whether people are buying my music or getting it for free. And so far it has worked for us.

If you weren’t able to make it out to see Corey Smith at Hurricane Harry’s, be sure to check out www.coreysmith.com for more information on where he will be next.

Review of Sean McConnell and “The Walk Around – EP”

If you live in College Station and listen to music, then you are familiar with the Texas Country scene, where artists like Aaron Watson, Randy Rogers, and the Eli Young Band have emerged in recent years to become huge names.

But the beauty of what people call Texas Country is not simply that it comes from the Lonestar State. This type of music transcends state boundaries. It has a heart and soul that the Nashville cookie-cutter sound has completely forgotten. Yet even in that Tennessee city, that has become a bastion of meaningless, pop country, there shines a bright light of hope and that bright light is Sean McConnell.

To most of you, Sean McConnell’s name is meaningless. If you do not recognize his name, maybe you are familiar with the song, “In My Arms Instead,” by the Randy Rogers Band. Sean McConnell co-wrote the hit single with Rogers and has been penning tunes since his early teen years.

McConnell signed with Warner/Chappell Music a few years ago, and his work has been performed by artists such as Tim McGraw and Brad Paisley, and has even been covered by Jason Castro and others from American Idol.

So what does a guy from Nashville who writes songs for glorified pop singers have to do with the Texas music scene? Well, to start McConnell’s recent single, “Reckless Love” has seen extensive airplay on diehard Texas Country radio stations. The tune, which showcases his undeniable singing ability, is a wrenching powerhouse that will knock you off your feet the first time you hear it. The singer-songwriter has been touring since 2008, and his music captures something that his Nashville contemporaries seem either unwilling or unable to even get near.

His latest album, “The Walk Around – EP” came out this time last year, but chances are you missed it. With songs like “Say Say Say,” which drifts towards a rock sound with impressive results, and the above mentioned “Reckless Love,” the limited number of tracks will only leave you begging for more.

Thankfully, his backlog of songs is just as satisfying. “If These Walls Could Speak,” which appeared on his album “200 Orange Street” is a moving glimpse into childhood accompanied by a simple guitar and raw emotion in McConnell’s voice. Also worth mentioning are the outstanding “Somewhere Beautiful” and “Madly in Love With You.”

It is obvious that Sean McConnell is on the rise, as his music combines the bitter honesty of country with an inspiring talent that will only get better. If nothing else, the man’s voice, which shifts between silky smooth and a gritty edginess seamlessly, should be enough to rocket him to fame. His upcoming tour dates will bring this unique sound to Texas soon, and give audiences a taste.

Sean McConnell plays at the Tap this Thursday, Jan. 21 at 10:30. So what if the Nashville musician can never be a Texas Country star? It does not matter whether you label it Texas Country music, or as McConnell himself refers to it, “Lyrics Driven Roots Rock.” Whatever term applies best, you could simplify the debate by just calling it what it is: “good music.”

By Josh Storie

Austin-based pop/rock sextet, nelo, is no stranger to the College Station music scene. In the past couple years, the band’s acoustic-heavy rock stylings have had Aggies packing out venues like Schotzi’s. And they are coming back Tuesday, Novemeber 24th to rock the house once again.

Nelo, who derives their name from a strategy used in Spades, began playing together back in 2002 but didn’t officially form, according to songwriter/guitarist Matt Ragland, until they all packed up and moved to Georgia in 2005 to further develop their sound. The band left Texas for Athens, Georgia, leaving only a homemade demo behind.

While nelo was making a name for themselves in the Athens music scene with their signature jazzy acoustic singer/songwriter sound, they were also generating a buzz back in Austin. It didn’t take long before they were playing to full houses in both Texas and Georgia. Then one night, the band was playing a show at Momo’s in Austin where producer/studio owner and nephew to Willie Nelson, Freddy Fletcher happened to be in the audience.

“[Freddy Flethcher] came with his wife. His wife, Lisa Fletcher, had come to one of our shows before and she brought Freddy out and I guess Freddy was liking the band because we went back to Athens and Freddy and I started talking on the phone quite a bit and we ended up striking a record deal,” recalls Ragland.

Nelo’s debut album hit as high as the #21 spot on both the Billboard Magazine “New Artist Album” and Heatseekers charts. The album has sold 20,000 downloads and had critics such as Texas Music Magazine taking notice, saying nelo’s debut, “delivers arguably the catchiest batch of jam-friendly melodic pop since Blues Traveler’s Four.”

Last spring, the band began releasing singles from their new EP. They released one each month, starting with the March 17th release of “Love Solution”. Since then, “Story of our Lives,” “2 Years Ago,” and “Break Through” were all released digitally, giving loyal fans something to tide them over and converting fans in the process leading up to the release of Two Years Ago this past July. The EP has only been released digitally and is over 2,000 downloads.

Nelo will be performing at Schotzi’s on November 24th.  For more information on the band and their music be sure and check out www.nelomusic.com.