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Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out and C&V by amit

On August 3rd, 2006 C&V was given the opportunity to attend a screening of Stewart Copeland’s rock documentary, Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out, as well as a question and answer session with the drummer afterwards. Copeland’s Everyone Stares is a compilation of home videos he filmed using a Super-8 during the early 1980’s hay day of The Police. In the film, he chronicles the band’s life as hotel nomads and the antics backstage, at music video shoots and recording sessions. Although the film isn’t an in-depth look into the tribulations of The Police, it does illustrate the excitement band members Andy Summers, Sting and Stewart Copeland experienced together as a world-class rock band. Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out will be released on DVD September 25th. More details here.

Join C&V for an informative Q&A with The Police’s Stewart Copeland as he discusses everything from life with band to obtaining music rights for films.

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posted on 12:10 am 08/23/2006
Exclusives, Headlines, Interviews, Interviews, Movies, Music | Comments (3) | Permalink |

C&V Interviews Alec Ounsworth of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah by nate

Alec Ounsworth Solo: 9.0
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah: 7.5

Let’s talk physics. So, pay attention. There might even be a test, but I promise that towards the end I will magically relate the topic to music. You might learn something, but, yes, if you were interested, you will be a better person. Who knows, maybe you will even stop watching The Professional just to see a young, nubile and oh so lithe Natalie Portman dressed and puckering like a seductive Marilyn Monroe… your bag of apples, not mine.
Here we go, so hold onto your coif. Today’s lesson will be on gravity:
1) Who knows why the earth is attracted to the moon? OK. OK. No need to get restless and all up in my grill. You there.
2) Well, sir. The earth has mass, and things are attracted to things with mass. So the moon is attracted to the earth.
1) Is that right?
2) Oh, yes sir. There is even an equation. It is called the Law of Universal Gravitation. It states that F=G(m1m2/r2). That has two functions of mass in it! So, clearly mass is the culprit.
1) Well, that is some Newtonian jive turkey if I ever heard it.
2) Sir?
1) Nothing, continue.
2) Oh, I’m done.
1) Hmmm. Alright. Now, I wouldn’t say you are wrong, but I will say that you might be a victim to convenience. Don’t worry, you’re not the last to be informed of important facts to science and culture. We leave that kind of designation to the kids next door at Pitchfork.
2) Pitchfork?
1) It’s a rag. Don’t worry about it.

OK, here is what I want you to do. Go into your kitchen and get some SaranWrap. Go steal one of your baby sister’s marbles, a shooter preferably. You can give it back if you want, but you are older and bigger and your parents love her more than you anyway. Now, drop the shooter marble in the middle. See how it makes a dent? Next, grab something less heavy. Perhaps that trendy I Would Set Myself On Fire for You band button that is oh so carefully placed in viewing, but not conspicuous, sight on your JanSport elementary school book bag. Drop the button on the plastic. Smooth side down, now. No need to ruin good SaranWarp. Notice how the button slides towards the shooter? This is gravity.

Basically, objects make dents in space, and depending on who is making the largest dent in the proximity depends oh whom is falling to whom. See, space is much more like fabric than emptiness. There are dents from stars and planets and comets and black holes (if you really believe in that hullabaloo), and all these dents act as dips for other less dent-worthy objects to fall towards. Mass is really only half the story.

When C&V and the other professional music journalists entered the well air-conditioned Media Tent at Bonnaroo, there he was. The unwitting savior of the music industry sans the industry. The man that proved you don’t need a label to sell music these days, just the internet and a desire. It was he who is known as Alec Ounsworth, the frontman and vocal enigma/magnificence of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.
Alec was invited by Bonnaroo to do a special performance for the media guys and gals. You could say that Bonnaroo threw a party for us, and a coffee shop-style show was the door prize.
I guess a lot of questions enter your mind when it is just Alec Ounsworth and an acoustic guitar. Can I soul-clap to this? Will hipsters descend upon this secluded tent like a frenzy of piranhas, with girl jeans and black hair and pretension settling in the dust? Does he know any Janis Joplin songs? You wait and watch.
He settled down in his lonely chair in the middle of the stage, tuned, looked around, and then looked uncomfortable. I’m not kidding. I think the intimacy and lack of proper venue props (e.g. PBR, cigarette smoke, and a 40 watt light bulb to set the mood) tossed him a curve-ball. So, he did what seemed like an attack at feeling out of place. He played music. He played with a control and authority that grabbed everything around him, shook it, and said, “This is mine, and with this guitar I will be Atlas. I will hold your stars and planets and help you connect the dots.”
This basically left everyone saying, “Where in the hell did this guy come from?” One minute ago this person’s seat was filled with a disheveled Canadian who looked like he would at best ramble through some songs that he might have written. Now we are riveted. Enthralled. We are drawn closer with each word from “The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth.”

He didn’t have a band. So, he played his incarnation. He was playing for himself with eyes closed and voice focused. We were just witnesses, and it was like we caught a man in the act of doing something kind when he had no idea he was being watched. It was beauty.
I will describe the sound because I don’t think it is what you have heard. This was far, far removed from the very, very, clever, clever, dance, dance, clap sounds you could have expected. This was Elliot Smith/Nick Drake with Alec’s distinctive voice. Honestly it was morose, and when he broke into “Details of the War,” it was personal. You could see through him. This wasn’t a song, it was his heartbreak. You could feel the wind blow.
When C&V got a personal interview, the first question asked was where his life fit into the songs. He said his songs are really just “stories that have no choice but to be autobiographical.” This was his style. This is what his solo performances used to be, and Clap Your Hands offered him an outlet to send his songs in a different direction. To be arranged, composed, and attainable. His desire to create songs differently is a constant pursuit. He tries to find new directions to push, seal, and mail the envelope. But heavens, where it started was pure.
After our little interview, C&V hurried over to That Tent with all the other trendsetters to catch Alec’s next incarnation in Clap Your Hands Say Yeah as a pop God. And it was, well, it was the album. Don’t get me wrong, don’t get me wrong. The album is phenomenal. It makes other albums look sophomoric and completely derivative. But this is Bonnaroo. You kind of expect more. There was no extra expression or connection.

Now, this last word I want to get into: connection. See, I realized this is what we are often looking for. We are looking to be connected. Why do you go to a concert? Because you want that album you have been spinning for the past few months to be even more personal. You want it to be tangible, with sights, sounds, and words that no one else will hear. You want a conversation. These are our connections. These are the webs we weave to keep us up.
Clap Your Hands had the connection because the album is a Modern Art masterpiece, but Alec, man, Alec had gravitational pull. He was far past a connection. It was like going to a party and everyone is just circled around that one girl/guy. Everyone is being pulled in. There is electricity. You can’t help it. Someone is making this dent in this fabric that is holding you up, and you just start falling. You go looking for a connection then, bam, you find meaning, and your world just starts spinning.
You see, people and thoughts have gravity, and when they have enough mass, they dent. And brother bear, when they dent, everything changes. Call this your wobble, but believe me, it is perceptible without Hubble. It’s not just a connection. It has force. It throws your whole motion out of whack.
But you don’t argue. You love it. You need it. It gives you a direction, not aimless floating about or mindless monotony. It’s not another string to hold you up. It gives you angular velocity and momentum. It lets you know you are not alone out here, and this is what made Alec’s show so dense. It was a destination.
He took his index finger and pushed down on the fabric, and we all fell towards him. For just a bit, we had the same direction. For just a bit, our purpose and goal was in front of us, and for just a bit, we knew where we were supposed to be.

Nate’s exclusive Bonnaroo Media Tent photo:

posted on 7:47 am 07/24/2006
Interviews, Music | Comments (2) | Permalink |

C&V Interviews John Popper by amit

Amidst the heat at Bonnaroo I was lucky enough to sit down with the front man of Blues Traveler, John Popper, for a one-on-one only C&V could pull off. We laughed, we joked, and John even sang as we talked life, movies, and Jennifer Aniston. Check out a transcript of the interview after the jump or listen to it now.