Bob Dylan Christmas In The Heart

December 11^th, 2009

Christmas In The Heart offers an array of Christmas carol classics such as "Here Comes Santa Claus," "Little Drummer Boy," and "O' Little Town of Bethlehem." The basic idea of this album is the jingle bells and soothing choir of Christmas music topped with a hint of Bob Dylan's personality. Unlike the run-of-the-mill Christmas music, listeners will actually ends up paying attention to Bob Dylan's versions because of the unique approach he takes to these songs.

Dylan's version of "The First Noel," epitomizes the album. The song starts with a calming choir in the background with the occasional bells and chimes. Once Dylan starts to sing, the entire dynamics of the tune changes. His scratchy voice turns a family-friendly Christmas tune into an original – if not slightly sketchy – cover that makes you wonder if Dylan is being sarcastic about the holiday spirits or if this is his way of being cheerful about the season.

Out of fifteen tracks the absolute listener-catch is "Must Be Santa." This originally mid-tempo jolly carol was completely reborn with a touch of Dylan. Fast-paced drumbeats and quirky-sounding accordion brings a whole different feel to the song. Where the original version makes you think of Santa delivering presents to children, drinking milk and eating cookies, Dylan's "Must Be Santa" makes you picture Santa falling down the stairs drunk and partying Christmas Eve away.

If you are sick of the same Christmas songs sang by the same cheesy voice over and over again, Bob Dylan's Christmas In The Heart is just for you. It's not the album you listen to while opening presents, having dinner with your family, or having hot chocolate with your significant other – it's the album you listen to while you sit at your cubicle alone, getting extra work done, and feeling skeptical about the holiday spirits. Yet, the ironic energy the album carries makes you smile and laugh, which is what the holiday season is all about.

- By Lily Jeong

Elvis Perkins in Dearland December 3rd, 2009 The Paradise Rock Club

December 3^rd, 2009

On a rainy Monday night, one opening band was not enough to perk the audience for Elvis Perkins in Dearland. After two opening acts and three solid hours after the door opened, Elvis Perkins in Dearland came out to the crowd – but not on stage. The band entered The Paradise Rock Club from the top balcony, marching in with a drum, a trombone, and a trumpet. As the band marched into the venue, the crowd cheered, stomped, and clapped to the beat.

Elvis Perkins started the show with “Gypsy Davy,” from the band’s new Doomsday EP. The New York-based band has a collective of very tight followers. Many people from the audience were singing along and grooving to the beats. Plenty of Perkins’ songs had heavy percussions and catchy bass drum beats to it, which made it easier for the audience to dance to.

“Doomsday,” turned the festive mood around a bit. The light dimmed down to enhance the melancholy feel of the song, and people swayed and moved to the slow groove. The high-pitch and rather fragile-sounding voice of Perkins brought to mind Devendra Banhart, and the gloomy melodies the horns played added a central Asian feel to the band’s sound.

After a faster tune “Stop Drop Rock and Roll,” the band left the stage leaving Perkins alone with his guitar. “Right now is the part of the night,” Perkins told the audience. “…Where I do not know what is supposed to happen. What do you want me to do?”

Despite the fact that he tried to take requests from the audience, Perkins didn’t seem to like any of the suggestions that were thrown out there, including “Freebird.” Perkins decided to play one of his older songs on his acoustic guitar.

The band came back out after a couple acoustic songs, and the crowd energy hit the pinnacle. Although it was a cold and rainy Monday night, Perkins and his band threw a grand party at the Paradise, beating the drums, dancing around the stage, and singing with the crowd.

When the group exited the stage after their last song, the crowd cheered on and on craving more. Perkins came back out with his acoustic guitar and started to play a song, and the bassist and the drummer came out during the song to join him. Even after Perkins’ first encore, the crowd did not leave the venue regardless of the house light, so the band came out once more for a few tunes. The fact that it was a Monday night did not seem to bother these avid fans – Perkins could put up a party any day of the week.

-Words and Images by Lily Jeong

The Mieka Canon October 27, 2009 at 88.9 WERS

October 27^th, 2009

The start of winter in Boston is never pleasant. The beautiful fall days seem gone forever, and the only thing that greets people on the street is the stabbing-cold wind. Despite the nasty weather, The Mieka Canon arrived at WERS laughing and cracking jokes. Even the gray sky that looked like it could start pouring anytime could not stop the band's jolly energy.

Mieka Pauley, the front woman of The Mieka Canon, is not new to WERS. She not only went to school in Boston, but she's a frequent WERS in-studio performer. She looked extremely comfortable setting up and sound checking, and the band members seemed to be more relaxed than nervous.

The Mieka Canon is Mieka Pauley's new project with Brian Cassagnol, Andrew Morgan, and Gabriel Hayes. Pauley has been playing as a solo acoustic artist for some years, but she sought for a different way to express her music with a full band. "I think I wasn't satisfied with my solo work," Pauley said. "There were people who told me that they liked it, but it's not enough for me to be happy with, and then Ryan and Andrew brought to me the music that I've always wanted to play."

The band started off the set with "Faster," which is a medium tempo tune layered with Pauley's appealing vocals. Pauley's voice was simple yet touching, and the band added filled in the blanks that Pauley's acoustic sound might have been missing.

Pauley had a hard time defining her hometown when asked where she was from. She's lived in Kentucky, Colorado, and South Florida. Her eclectic sound perfectly represents her backgrounds, which also allows her to play with many different artists such as Citizen Cope, Ben Kweller, Eric Clapton, and even Natasha Beddingfield. "Mieka is kind of bluesy, kind of R&B," said Cassagnol. "… [Citizen Cope] is so much funkier, and yet it totally works because Mieka has got that down. But then we can get on stage with Ben Kweller and we can bring out more of rock and garage sound, so it can work with Ben Kweller."

The Mieka Canon finished their set with "We're All Gonna Die." Cassagnol's back-up vocals added a spunky spice to the song. With the band behind her, Pauley seemed to be more confident and comfortable letting her sound out. It was a great idea to get a band together on Pauley's end, considering how much more versatility Pauley's music carried with the band.

-Words and images by Lily Jeong

Ben Folds September 13th Symphony Hall

October 13, 2009

When news broke that Ben Folds was playing with Boston Pops at Symphony Hall, it did not come as much of a surprise. Folds' songs are all about dynamics and expressions, which is what an orchestra does best. Because of the expressiveness of his songs, Folds is also one of film industry's favorite pop artists to work with, not to mention he wears his heart on his sleeve when it comes to music.

On arrival at Symphony Hall, the wide range of the crowd was surprising. It felt like a representation of Boston population. From skinny jeans wearing hipsters to mid-age men in suits, the show seemed to have attracted every kind of demographic from every age group.

Folds walked out on the stage in all-black attire that matched the orchestra's tuxedoes, and the crowd cheered out loud from their anticipation and excitement. During the first a couple songs, Folds explored the space he had in the orchestra. Although they were his songs, his melodies, and his words, Folds did not try to take over the stage. Instead, he shared the show with Pops as if it was a giant band. His emotions and stories were coming out in the most modest-yet-honest way, and the crowd reacted instantly by cheering and singing along.

Into his fifth song, Folds' presence started to take over the stage. He played songs that had personal anecdotes to them such as "Ascent of Stan," and "Landed," and the Pops took the dynamics of Folds' songs and amplified them magnificently. By the time he was playing a song for his daughter, "Gracie," Folds had complete control over the crowd. He had the evident power to move the crowd, and as if hypnotized, the full-house audience laughed and cried to his words. During "Not the Same," Folds even taught the audience the three-part harmony from his song "Not the Same," letting the crowd experience the song as a full.

About three quarters through the set, Folds shared with the audience that he had been working on a new album with High Fidelity author, Nick Hornby. Boston Pops members put their instruments down to let Folds play two new songs from the album by himself. Even though the full sound of the orchestra was gone, the energy of the previous songs carried on, and left listeners with the impression that Folds' music inherently has the power to move people. A symphonic orchestra helped Ben Folds express his sound, but it was ultimately the presence of Folds himself that enticed the audience.

Folds ended his set with "One Angry Dwarf and Two Hundred Solemn" and retired to the backstage. However, the audience kept calling and cheering for him, encouraging him to come back out without Boston Pops to play some fan favorites such as "The Luckiest," and "Army." The encore brought out the rock 'n' roll side of Ben Folds' shows that the Pops were covering up, and everyone got up and danced in order to let out the energy they had been containing the entire night. The audience energy peaked during the last song of the night "Rockin' the Suburbs," highlighting everyone's night by dropping the F-word on top of their lungs in Symphony Hall.

Attendees left the venue feeling both energized and inspired. Ben Folds fed his crowd a genuine, raw musical experience that only comes to town once in a while.

-Lily Jeong

The Everyday Visuals To Release A Self-Titled Album Soon

The Everyday Visuals are frequent visitors to WERS. Lead singer Christopher Pappas and Eli Scheer (guitar / keyboards) sat down with WERS.org to talk about the band’s new self-titled album and their new website.

Interview conducted and transcribed by Lily Jeong

What have you guys been up to since your last visit to WERS?

Christopher Pappas: Making the record.

Eli Scheer: Totally just working on the record as much as we can until it was done.

CP: Now it’s done, and now we are here promoting it, putting it out among the airwaves.

Tell us a little bit about your new album.

CP: It’s self-titled, and it’s going to be out on April 14. We are really proud of it. I feel like we’ve learned a lot from making the last two records on our own, so the third one, I think we really have gotten in synch with what sort of vibe we want for the record. You know, what sort of production things we wanted to do, and sounds and all that.

ES: I think the last a couple records had a whole bunch of elements that were really representative of us in terms of: here’s one, here’s one, and here’s one. Like we said on air, it’s kind of a schizophrenia thing sometimes. This one to me – and I think we can speak for all of us – it feels more like allover representative, and it totally feels like us. From front to back, all of [the songs.] Some of them are still rockers and electric stuff, and some of them are more of the acoustic side of what we do. But they all somehow represent us more.

CP: It’s like somebody has split personalities and you’d have to combine all of them together make one person. It’s distilled. It’s like fine liquor. It’s like nice scotch. It’s like a nice blended scotch. Although my favorite is malted scotch so this analogy is bad, but a very good blended scotch could be awesome, and especially if you blend them right. I think we blended them right.

Is there a reason you waited out a couple albums to make this one self-titled?

CP: The self-titled was kind of Eli’s idea. I think all of those reasons I’ve mentioned before, I think this album truly represented us. The previous records represented us but it was disjointed. It was like, oh here is their acoustic side, and here is their electric side. But this record we combined them into one big sonic experience, you know? So I think Eli really hit on it and said, ‘This record is so us that we should just self-title it.’

I checked out your new website with your blog.

CP: Blog, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube…

ES: You can pretty much log into our website. You can almost [log in] if you have Flickr and YouTube accounts. We try to make it as inclusive and possible and stay connected to whoever might be visiting us.

CP: Right. And also, it’s just an easier update. We are not like web junkies. Our last website was all HTML, so you needed Dreamweaver to update it, so Eli and I were constantly trying to update it and keep up with it, but it was such a hassle. Now this one, I mean, I posted news items from my phone, because it’s a blog. It’s really awesome and it allows us to be current, and keep our website more relevant than our Myspace. That was our goal: trying to phase out people finding the news and tour dates from Myspace, even though Myspace is great…

ES: Hopefully people will sign up for our mailing list instead of clicking to be our friend on Myspace.

So I read your blog about asking people about weather you should play an acoustic set or an electric set for the opening acts.

CP: What do you think? Have you heard our electric set?

I have.

CP: What do you think? What should we do?

I want to say acoustic.

CP: Interesting.

ES: There is no right answer to this, because it’s an internal quandary that everybody has a different opinion on. Somebody actually commented on the blog that you were referring to on our website – they just did it today, I think – and I was reading it and it said, ‘I just saw you playing at the Paradise acoustic this last weekend, and I saw you there for the first time ever and when I bought the CD the next day I went home and heard the electric side, and I was blown away by the acoustic thing having never heard of the other, and then I went home and it was a wonderful surprise to hear the electric side of it.’ So I was like, wow. We won him over. But then he finished up by saying, ‘Not to be any help, but it doesn’t matter what you play because I am going to show up anyways the next time.’

What are pros and cons about opening acts?

CP: I think up until this point we used those sets strategically. If we are opening for a quieter band, we use the quieter acoustic set, or if we are playing in a small space like this we play acoustic. But ideally we would just love to be able to combine both of them. It goes back to the record too. We combined our identity and really distilled our identity on this record, and we wish we could do that live. Pros, you get in front of their audience, and you get new fans and new listeners. Cons are definitely that for a band like us that is so meticulous and very conscious about the way we sound, it’s hard to skimp on that aspect of a show: getting the bummer on the sound check, getting the short-end of sets, you know. But I mean, obviously we would much rather headline but we are not a type of band that snubs our nose at opening shows opportunities. We know it’s always one fan at a time and whatever gets us in front of people we love doing.

You guys do have some headlining acts coming up in New York City and DC though.

CP: We do. That is true. And hopefully Boston too. I think we are gonna do a Boston show, and try to get back up to our home state, New Hamsphire, too. We’ll see what happens.

Jen Kearney & The Lost Onion at WERS

Jen Kearney & The Lost Onion at WERS

Jen Kearney playing keys at WERS. (Ross Dallas/WERS)

(Ross Dallas/WERS)

By Lily Jeong

It was a typical day of March in Boston. The grey sky had been sprinkling raindrops all day, and the air was a bit colder than people preferred it to be. Everybody seemed to be dragging their feet and trying to stay motivated, but the gloomy weather did not help the lazy vibe floating around the station. Given the lethargic vibe, Jen Kearney & the Lost Onion’s organic sound was a wonderful surprise.

When the band went into their first song “The Year of the Ox,” Kearney’s powerful voice instantly brightened up the low-key atmosphere of the studio. It felt as if the band was loosening up my stiff joints to make me sway to their groovy sound. Kearney’s scratchy yet driving voice reminded me a lot of Susan Tedeschi’s vocals; it blended with the band’s mellow and sentimental instrumentals.

Although it was her first time performing on-air, Jen Kearney seemed to be very relaxed and content. Her second song, “To the Moon,” really showed Kearney’s songwriting skills as well as her ability to express her emotions freely through performing. Peter MacLean’s crisp drums topped with soul-infused piano riffs made a great rainy-day song, maintaining a good balance of soft and hard.

“I grew up listening to a lot of Otis Redding and old soul music like Aretha Franklin,” said Kearney when I asked about where she got her soul influence, “I was a freak about it, and I listened to every little bit of it… My mom had a bunch of cool records as well.”

Indeed, Kearney’s last song of the set, “Prime Meridian,” had a strong taste of old soul. The waltz rhythm piano intro slowly lead into a jazzy tune, and the band stayed with the free spirit throughout the entire song. Carl Johnson and Kearney rocked out sharing solo spots and creating an instrumental conversation. The seamless flow of the energy made it feel like they were improvising the song on the spot.

Kearney has taken such sonic experience all over the nation: northeast, Colorado, and even Georgia. However, she plans to stay local for a while because she feels like she needs to be stable until her new album release.

“We are gonna be very busy, I think,” said Kearney, “because we are releasing a CD in May. We are looking to book a ton of shows locally, and see how far we can get with it!”

High Hopes Band Rocks Rockers on WERS

High Hopes band performing their final song on Rockers at WERS.

By Lily Jeong

Live Mixes for Rockers are never disappointing. Especially after a dragging Wednesday that I spent waiting for the weekend, sitting in the studio listening to groovy beats is almost a reward.

Indeed, High Hopes Band’s live set at WERS did not let me down. The Boston-based reggae band consists of six people who enjoy sharing their music with people. They we’re also good company to keep on a hump day. Despite their various arrangements, High Hopes Band’s set-up and sound check went exceptionally smoothly with barely any problem. I was getting a good feel from the mix even before it had started.

The band started off the set with a mellow love song called “Stranger.” A popping reggae beat met the R&B feel, complimenting tender and romantic lyrics. Iron Zion’s scratchy vocals added a zest to the song, and everyone in the studio grooved and swayed to the beat, fully appreciating the positive energy the band brought on.

Shortly after the band’s first song, Iron Zion grabbed everyone’s attention with a noise that sounded like an animal roaring. It was hard to believe that the noise was coming from a person, and everyone wondered why such an effect was chosen. It started to make sense when the band introduced the song as “The Lion in Me,” a classic rocker reggae tune. Iron Zion’s roars added such an exclusive spice to High Hopes Band’s sound, and as the band continued the song a small group of people started to gather outside of the studio to watch them perform.

With the built-up energy, High Hopes Band wrapped the set up with “Doing What We Have To Do.” When the drums and the bass are the most important factors of reggae, Jules’ thick bass lines doubled up the feel of O Jinga’s drums, making everybody in the studio get on their feet. The key to High Hopes Band’s fresh sound is its simplicity. In the studio, all the band members kept their parts very basic yet crisp, which allowed those parts to come together and collectively create a full track.

After their last song, Jahsun Joseph, the guitarist from the band came into the control booth and gave the Live Mix staff members High Hopes Band t-shirts. The band was sincerely thankful for the opportunity to perform on air and share their music with people. It is just like the lines from their song “Have To Do”: “We’ve got music to play/ We’ve got work to do now/ We’ve got people to meet/ We’ve got places to go.”