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Show I r i -- it x by Jed I i Sundwall Nathaniel Merriweather Presents Lavage, Music to Make Love to your 3 "i Old Lady By Nathaniel Merriweather OOO A: ri x ft ME y i do I begin? I don't whom this album is by or what its title is. Is it by Nathaniel Merriweather or is he just presenting it? Is the title of the album Lovagel Or is it !Z3 i I Lavage, Music to Make Love to your Old Lady By? Allow me to explain. A couple of years back two guys who called themselves Nathaniel Merriweather and Chest Rockwell got togethadventure called So... How's er and produced a fantastic hip-ho-p Your Girl? they called themselves Handsome Boy Modeling School. The project featured collaborators such as DJ Shadow, Kid Koala, De La Soul, Del Tha Furtkee Homosapien, Mike D and the list goes on. So anyway, half of Handsome Boy Modeling School (that is, Nathaniel Merriweather) has released a sexy side project titled something like Nathaniel Merriweather Presentslovage, Music to Make Love to Young Cubs, Fierce Rockers ome good things have been happening in the rock world lately. The industry always in goes and out of phases, and it's it 3 co-wro- been a long time since rock and roll bands populated the album charts or the radio. But kids all across the land are finally taking down their Kurt Cobain posters and replacing them with those of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The White Stripes and The Strokes. If Salt Lake City's music scene has any worth at all, there must be a band in town that's worthy of wall poster worship. ktr . I - and LOCALS ONLY gentleman, meet The The Wolfs are (top, clockwise from left) Jesse Winters, Carri Wakefield, Jeremy Smith, Josh Knight and Eli Morrison. And they rock. Yes indeed. Wolfs. The band is composed of EU Morrison on vocals, Jeremy Smith on guitar, Jessie Winters on organ, Carri Wakefield on bass and Josh Knight on drums. The quintet plays rock and roll, plain and simple. But the music is hardly simple. Filled with intelligent hooks, catchy melodies and good old- fashioned charm. The Wolfs can give any of the aforementioned bands a run for their...um, leather jackets. This week, the band celebrates the release of it's debut single, Ladies rock-and-ro- he members of The Wolfs invited me to their practice studio to watch their rehearsal. They had just returned from tak Wakefield to the hospital for a bad case of broning chitis. How rock and roll is that? Band escorts bass player to hospital and still makes it to practice. But they were a little late. They're musicians after all. Since half the group was ridden with illness, Morrison did most of the talking. The rest of the band coughed, sniffled and tried not to pass out. RED: What brought The Wolfs into existence? Jeremy Smith: cough Loop frustration. RED: i Morrison: Jeremy and had this band where we were just working on the computer all the time. It got to the point where was always passing out. think we just wanted to start a new band and get out of the basement. So called up everyone and asked them to play and they were all into the idea. RED: Did you have ay notion of what the band would sound like? Morrison: had this dream that was in this totally awesome R&B band. You know, like a parody of the Blues Brothers. It was the most awesome band in the world. But of course, we ended upjust playing rock and roll. RED: In the dream, were you playing in a seedy with a screen in front of the stage to protect the band? Morrison: Yeah, like a chain-linfence. A three-hou- r set in the cage. RED: I'm sure you guys have all kinds of personal influences. But who do you think The Wolfs end up sounding like as a band? Morrison: definitely like old rock and roll, and listen to a lot of it. While like the depth those records have, I don't want to sound like them. So the real inspiration for our band is to try and get the presence you'd have on those old records, but not have some Eli I I I I I I road-hous- e k I I I R4 I march 21, 2002 j your Old Lady By. So, I guess it's by Nathaniel Merriweather, but here's the other problem: Nathaniel Merriweather is really Dan the Automator whose real name is Dan Nakamura. The credits say that Dan the Automator the songs with Mike Patton (Faith No Jennifer Charles More) and (Elysian Fields) and they also say that he produced and mixed the entire album. But whatever, that's enou gh. Thi s is another album by the guy who can't stop putting out albums. He's the man behind Kool Keith on the Dr. Octogon records. He's the man behind Del Tha Funkee Homosapien on Deltron 3030, He's the guy responsible for big parts of CJorillaz. I mean if it's not a band posing as a modeling school, or a rapper daiming to be rapping in the 31st century, or another MC posing as a scary perverted doctor, or a band of cartoon characters, then what is it? Well, this time it's some dude from a modeling school who's peddling something called lovage" which is surprisingly not an aphrodisiac but an herb that reduces abdominal pains and flatulence. He's got Patton and Charles sounding as horny as they can, while he lays the beats like he does best The man must have an entire basement of records full of hooks and beats that all sound 30 to 40 years old. He orchestrates and mixes strings, harmonicas, classical guitars, pianos, harpsichords, 'and great drum breaks with unparalleled technique. Before I continue, let me say that I'm not saying that this is a bad album. It's not bsd. It's pretty good. Dan the Automator is good. He's great! He's dripping with talent, but maybe he's got to hold off for a bit Concept album after concept album gets tiring, and I'm not going tc explain his history when I review his next "project" I'm simply beginning to wonder if he's not just throwing parties in a studio and inviting his friends over. Chest Rodweli (A.KA: Prince Paul), Damon Aibam (Gorilla, Kur), Maseo (De la Soul), Kid Koala, and even Afrika Bambaataa show up en this album. Wonderful! I Is's got some talented friends.but Afrikajs-mtaataa'to the and Maseo's ccrtobutic-ralbum seem to be discussions about socks, and D2jr.cn Albam simply explains how to mix drinks using 'lovage "The joke is there and it's consistent throughout the whole CD, but it gets a bit old. And to tell ycu the truth, I don't know whether I should tale this CD seriously at all or treat the whole thing as a jcke. RED Magazine ll "The White Pill," with two release parties. Friday, March 22, the band plays the Kilby Court Galley with Contender and Someday i. On Saturday, March 23, The Wolfs play the Urban Lounge with the Red Bennies and Someday i. kind of retro-styl- e band. Josh Knight: The feel of this music really is current, too. I'm sure some of those old recordings affected us just as much as kids back in the day. For me, this music is just a natural thing to be playing right now. RED: How much did these old records directly affect the band? Morrison: A while back, we all traded these mix tapes around that had a bunch of old songs. Stuff like Iggy and the Stooges, The Cramps, Slade and Shocking Blue. Juice Newton was on there, although certain people hated that certain members of the band laugh. That stuff definitely made an impression on us, but we all listen to all kinds of music, old and new. RED: What current music is exciting you right now? Morrison: It just seems that there's a substantial part of music that's kind of gone lackluster these days. Finding a good record can really be like a needle in a haystack. RED: Would you say the same for Salt Lake City? Morrison: think we're really lucky here. We have a ton of great bands, there's lots of good clubs, and it's really easy to get shows. Anyone can play, really. And the coolest thing is that there seem to be lots of people who want to come see it, lucky for us. I've been in bigger cities and there are great bands playing and only eight people there to see the bands. RED: You've been playing several shows in town lately. Do you plan to go on the road with the EP? Morrison: Yeah, we want to tour soon, but we don't have a car right now, so it's a little bit out of the question. We've been together a while now, but we're really still a new band. We're still getting our batch of songs together, putting out our first single, making our stickers. That sort of thing. Come see these young cubs mature into mean, grizzly wolves...! mean Wolfs. The Wolfs perform Friday, March 22 at the Kilby Court Gallery (741 S. 330 West), The band also plays Saturday, March 23 at the Urban Lounge (241 S. 500 East), I 322-058- 7. 355-494- danred-mag.co- m ; s s lemonjeHy.ky LemcnjeSfy XI Record incs 0) rj no I review is almost exactly one year late, but I can't Li resist. I fast heard Lemon Jelly cn the Rcvgh Trzle ;CD box set that czrr: ? crjt l::t r, Th e song was caBedTnthi tslhnLVei it,but;.strci a father ; investigate, I forgot about it until I recently ttuted he 3 rinj a bit cf Le von Jelly buzz going around. I asked myself, where lave I hcziA of them? I didn't remember the Rough Trade $ tt ur.tj 1 finally got my hands on Lemon Jelly's first LP, Lemonjelh.ky, 2nd press ed ; '.ay. The first song is "In the Bath." It's great music": chilled, smooth and . ZYAs ' - impeccably produced. Well you might ask, don't we have enough cf that chill-ou- t stuff already? Yes. I, personally, am getting a bit tired of the "chill-out- " phenomenon. We've get the greats: Air, Nightmares on Wax and Thievery Corporation. There are countless others around to slew our pulses, but many lack originality. It's not that I'm looking for a gimmick, but an oversaturated genre needs original artists to push it along. Lemon Jelly might not be the savior of down tempo, but the band is unique and deserves some serious attention. However, the four-ea- r rating comes from something beyond the music: The band p?ys attention to the &rtv.'oik.Yes. Led Zeppelin did it with lei r . 1 1:Itni I V IC - Vi,A:r d J itv .h ' |