“Sometimes, the tighter the grip and the more you want to control it, the more you lose the magic,” shannon whitwoRth
Worth noting: Whitworth’s Friday, Nov. 8, Isis show will be her first without Kauffman, who’s now working with Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys on a new album for a musician who can’t yet be named. (Hint: This artist is a Christmas Jam alum.) At Isis, Mary Ellen Davis, formerly of Ménage, will sit in on bass and harmony vocals. But it’s Kauffman who, even outside the studio, has helped nudge Whitworth’s sonic evolution. “We’ll be onstage and he’ll kick off a song a totally different way, and I’ll just ride it,” the singer-songwriter
notes. “It’s exciting.” That’s how she wound up with an updated version of her own song “Don’t Lie,” from her 2010 album Water Bound. Gone is the banjo and the chugging two-step. Instead, the track plays out a slow burn from some dark echo chamber. The anguish is palpable. “We were playing it that way live, and we’d all look at each other after we played it, like, ‘We don’t want to leave that town.’” Songs, Whitworth points out, re-mold themselves according to the spirits who are playing them. And apparently, those spirits are re-molded by the songs they play. X
Power couple: Albert Adams releases new EP
in thEiR own woRds: “More or less every other day includes songs spanning our entire career and hopefully showcases the nuanced attention to chaos that is prevalent at our live shows,” says local duo Albert Adams.
Local duo Albert Adams (Jordan Adams and Thomas McNeely) makes some of the most intensely mind-melting-yet-still-weirdlypoppy indie rock you can find. Yes, that’s a challenge — and a compliment. But as the hyperrhythmic, crushingly distorted title track from their new EP, more or less every other day, posits, “If you relax and clean your ears it’ll be all right.” Definitely words to live by. Adams and McNeely launch their album at the next AHA AVL
showcase, Wednesday, Nov. 13, at the Moog Store. Not that they’ve exactly been sitting on their hands waiting for the big moment to arrive: Albert Adams has played a string of shows leading up to the EP release, including one at The Orange Peel with, inexplicably, “local wrestlers and a metal band called Sex Knuckle,” as McNeely posted on Facebook. Still, the two musicians have something special in the works for the AHA AVL stage. “We consider ourselves a ‘hyperkraut’ band and enjoy crafting technically challenging, high-energy music,” Adams and McNeely write. “We feel that this stands out in the current music scene and want to share our unique perspective with as many people as possible.” Expect guest appearances from members of The Tills (formerly The Critters), Hello Hugo, John Wilkes Boothe and The Black Toothe, Alligator Indian, Decent Lovers and The Gentlemen Callers. And a free copy of the album at the AHA AVL show. The invite-only show starts at 7 p.m.. Doors open at 6 and close at 6:45 p.m. For an invitation, contact aha. avl@moogmusic.com. Learn more about this season’s AHA AVL series at avl.mx/golocan. — A.M.
mountainx.com
noVEmBER 6 - noVEmBER 12, 2013
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