Nick Cowan's Posts


Nick Cowan's Photo I've been a KDHX volunteer since 1996, and have engineered talks shows, live sound and programming since 1999. My current show on 88.1 KDHX is Train of Thought, every Friday 3-5 a.m. Central. I also write for KDHX Live Performances.

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Train of Thought’s top 10 albums of 2011

flickr.com/photos/starbright31/3707399835

While looking at all the music I was listening to this year I see that most of my favorite stuff ended up being single songs. (Stay tuned for a post on that topic.) But the albums that I dove into I dove into repeatedly and often. Here are about half of my favorites.

Beastie Boys – “Hot Sauce Committee Part 2″ (Capitol)

For me, this is their most complete album since “Ill Communication.” It’s full of the thumping beats and crazy, funky melodies that have always been a part of their finest work. The very first song is announced with a fat, fat synth line and as the record saunters forward you get more groove. There are still a couple of goofy tracks and a couple harkening back to their punk days. We still get lyrics with a lot a pop culture and the humor that made them a hit, but it’s tempered by age. I’m not saying they’re old, but their wisecracks have a measure of age.

Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears – “Scandalous” (Lost Highway)

Such a funky, soulful party starter. Lewis sings like it’s his last gig ever, and the horns get as much space as the guitar and rhythm. Black Joe reminds me of James Brown; he and his band pack a lot of funkiness into unbelievably precise tunes. When the song ends you know it’s over but you want more. I would buy another couple of discs worth of these sessions.

Listen to Black Joe Lewis’ Live at KDHX session from this year.

Mike Doughty – “Yes & Also Yes” (Snack Bar)

After 10 years solo I’m still impressed by the laid-back poetry of his lyrics. He gets a little crazy on a few of the short songs, a little reflective with Rosanne Cash on a tune and even references old programming languages in a track called “Russell.” Doughty does a lot of the production himself; some songs have other sounds and music mixed with the rhythm and his trademark guitar playing. I keep waiting for a Doughty record that doesn’t have me falling all over it like a prom date on Boone’s Farm — this isn’t it.

Listen to Mike Doughty’s Live at KDHX session from this year.

Explosions in the Sky – “Take Care, Take Care, Take Care” (Temporary Residence)

I’ve been fan of this group since I first saw them on Austin City Limits. Their long, atmospheric compositions set awesome moods. One track on the album is perfect for a nice sunset, another perfect for a night drive, and yet another would work for finding a corpse in your back yard. It demands your attention; it’s not throwaway music. It’s simply one of those CDs that you get into deeper with every listen.

Ezra Furman & the Harpoons – “Mysterious Power” (Red Parlor)

This frantic pop band from Chicago sent out another kick-ass record this year. When this showed up in my mailbox I did a little happy dance. I love it when I’m into a band, and I can hear them get stronger with each album. The Harpoons as a whole have gotten better at the brisk power pop that makes up most of the album. The slower tracks (like “Don’t Turn Your Back On Love”) are full of sincerity, maybe to the point of being a little goofy (in a good way). This is a great album.

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Posted by | December 22, 2011 | Music | Comment 

‘Don’t do anything that you dislike’ An interview with Mike Doughty

en.wikipedia.org / El jiggity

Since leaving Soul Coughing in 2000, Mike Doughty has released a couple of EPs, a half dozen records, toured in a few configurations and played here at KDHX (twice!). This year he’s got two albums out, “Dubious Luxury” and “Yes and Also Yes.” He was kind enough to take a few minutes to chat with me about the new albums, music and other odds and ends.

Nick Cowan: So how’s life treating you, everything cool?

Mike Doughty: Doing pretty good, I just put this band together for the fall tour and I’m super stoked about them. I’ve got the right drummer, Scrap’s gonna play electric bass, and Dan Chen, who I played with a bunch of years ago. He decided to not play on the road anymore but called me up and wanted to be part of it. So, I’m really excited.

So who’s the new drummer in your band on this tour?

His name is Pete Wilhoit. He played in Fiction Plane, and Dan Chen knew a guy who knew a guy and came up with Pete.

Why a full band this time? Last time it was you and [bassist] Andrew “Scrap” Livingston.

Basically, I wanted to do it. The album is a very bandy type of album and I want to have that fully expressed on the tour. But a lot of it was that I just wanted to do it to switch it up.

You’ve got two albums out right now, both of which are very different, “Yes and Also Yes” and “Dubious Luxury.” What was the spark that made you think, “Man, I’m gonna do these two records right now?

Well, “Dubious Luxury” I had been tinkering with for years and was in shape to be released two years ago, but I never found the right moment to do it, so I just put it out before “Yes and Also Yes ” came out. And of course, “Yes and Also Yes ” is the meat of what I do as a singer-songwriter.

I think a lot of folks know you as a singer-songwriter with other vibes going along with it.

Yeah, I totally tried to make sure everybody knew “Dubious Luxury” wasn’t a singer-songwriter record. Hopefully people listened to the snippets before they spent their money. It’s way different. I don’t sing on it for one thing.

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Posted by | October 26, 2011 | Interviews | Comment 

Tips for LouFesters

Nate Burrell

With LouFest coming up this weekend I thought I’d offer a few tips for two days of all-day music. I’m no expert on this stuff, but a very happy veteran of a dozen or so multi-day festivals.

This probably isn’t anything revelatory, no moments where Bugs Bunny might shout, “Eureka!” These are just reminders so you can make it from first chord to the final cymbal crash in good shape.
 
Water. The weather is tracking right now to be sunny with temps in the mid to high 80s so you probably won’t need massive amounts of H20, but bear it in mind. This is St. Louis, after all, so that could change. You can bring up to a 1 liter bottle of water in — take advantage. If you’re drinking water flavored with hops and barley, don’t be that guy face down on the ground being ill-treated for YouTube. That has nothing to do with hydration; just don’t be that person.

Sunscreen. If you are only going to be there late afternoon on, sunburn probably isn’t a big worry. But if you’re in for the whole thing, bring a tube with you. Otherwise, a normally comfortable shirt will feel like that chair of needles Han Solo was tortured in halfway through “Empire.” You might want to wear a hat for extra solar protection.
 
Clothing. If you stay for any length of time you’re probably gonna get dirty. Balance your fashion desires with how easy it will be to clean your (and maybe other people’s) sweat, sunscreen and everything else off of it.

Ear plugs. That much music could make your ears ring like crazy. Maybe I’m showing some age.

Shoes. You’ll be on your feet a lot, and other people might be on your feet too so I recommend skipping open-toe footwear.
 
I hope that helps. If you see a well-hydrated guy, covered in SPF900, wearing orange ear plugs and sportin’ some dope head gear say hi.

Posted by | August 26, 2011 | Concerts | Comment 

Festival review: Lollapalooza 2011 blows away the Windy City

Lollapalooza 2011

Nick Cowan

I’ve been back from Lollapalooza for four days now, after being there for all three days for the first time. The blisters have healed, sunburn is aloe’ed to the gills, and leg muscles have finally relaxed to put some notes to paper.

There were a few bands that didn’t catch our interest for whatever reason and a couple that flat out sucked. So I’d rather spend more time on what I think would be cool to check out then what to pass over. The beauty of a music festival is that if what you’re listening to isn’t the best thing you’ve heard all day, move on.

Here are some of my favorites.

I’ve been digging on OK Go’s recent live album (“180/365″) a lot and they were my only “gotta see” on Friday. Man, did they deliver. The band came out in different solid-colored suits and proceeded to rock out. I found out at that point that Chicago is their home town, and it was clear they were happy to be home and the crowd was happy to have them home. They played mostly hits, nothing too obscure, no covers, and they even played one song with handbells (white gloves and all). A lot of fun and the crowd was into them.

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals commanded a big stage like the veterans they are. After doing something like 800 shows in the past five years they’re getting some bigger exposure and this can only help their cause. Grace Potter doesn’t really reinvent any particular wheel, but what she does is good ol’ fashioned rock ‘n’ roll with swagger, confidence, a great band, super songs and a clear love of performing. There’s some tone and feel of late ’60s early ’70s stuff to the sound. Grace herself sings, plays guitar and organ and writes most of the songs. She surrounds herself with great players (her bass player was really impressive) and they play together with passion. When an artist really knock those things out of the park you get to see a show that’s out of the ordinary. It was my first time seeing her; it is not going to be my last.

The Disappears’ field of sound would have made Sonic Youth proud, from whaling distorted guitars to what looked like some sort of homemade synthesizer pushing at the crowd to pay attention.

Friendly Fires was a freaking groovy band. The lead singer was amazing and had the energy and enthusiasm of a little kid who happened to play cow bell. The drummer was great and they had a couple of horn players too. Very infectious. I almost danced in public, which has only happened twice since my wedding 10 years ago.

I hadn’t seen Ween before, and they were a highlight among highlights. The tightest band we saw all weekend. They started with some of their crazier pop stuff and got a little more conventional (as much as they will) as the one hour set progressed. They ended the set with “You F’ed Up” (one of the great break up songs of all time) and earlier they whipped up a tight cover of the David Bowie tune “Let’s Dance.” For that one, Dean Ween sang it in a faux lounge style that poked a little fun at Bowie.

Big Audio Dynamite. Hell yeah! When I saw them open for U2 in 1992 their stuff was too far ahead of my tastes then. Well, twenty years later I think their music is still a bit ahead of me. All that stuff (what fit into an hour anyway) came out great live and the years have been generous to Jones’ voice. They even played a couple of new tunes. The only one they named was “Robbing Peter To Pay Paul,” a nice, guitar-heavy gem laying out the current financial crisis in 3 1/2 minutes (as Jones stated). Even if their set hadn’t rocked, how often do I get to see Mick Jones?

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Posted by | August 12, 2011 | Concerts | Comment 

“The purest statement” An interview with Elizabeth Cook

Elizabeth Cook at KDHX

Sara Finke

Elizabeth Cook is performing on June 8 at Twangfest 15, her third appearance at the festival. Her music can be witty, contemplative and everything in between. That sentiment is true for all of four of her albums, the most recent of which is 2010′s Welder. She’s received quite a bit of press and accolades for that record. That’s just one of a few topics she and I talked about on the phone as she traveled down California’s I-5 freeway this past Memorial Day.

Nick Cowan: How’s it going?

Elizabeth Cook: It’s going fine we’re driving down the I-5 in California, so, I can’t really be sure about my phone.

I’m glad your’re taking a few minutes out and helping us get the word out about Twangfest. You were recently nominated for a number of Americana Music Association Awards. Welder got a nomination for Album of the year, “El Camino” song of the year, and you for Artist of the year. That’s pretty cool.

Yes!

This is a clichéd question but how does it feel to be recognized on the same playing field as Robert Plant and Lucinda Williams?

I feel kinda dwarfed by giants but I’m glad that I made a record that people thought was in the game.

And a lot of that record, too, was inspired by your relationship with your dad, right?

Yes, his life, over probably the years since the Balls album. Just life.

You performed here at KDHX last year; one song in particular, is “El Camino.” And I was wondering, there’s gotta be a story behind it.

Well, no, not really. I’m sure metaphorically it speaks to my reality. But, no I just made it up. Just sitting’ on the tailgate of a truck, daydreaming, zoning out. I wasn’t really trying to write a song or, just had a pen and paper, and wrote that out. It seemed entertaining to me, and just put a one-chord riff on it, and there’s the song.

Awesome. Do a lot of your songs come like that, or do you find yourself struggling sometimes to find a bridge section, or how to end the song. Is that an easy process for you?

No, it’s not. I don’t have the patience for that battle. You know, I wish I did — I’d be a more disciplined writer.

Are songs like “El Camino,” that or more upbeat, flow out, or do you spend more time with ones that might be more somber. I’m thinking of “Heroin Addict Sister” from Welder.

You know, it depends. I wrote that one pretty fast. It doesn’t seem to be that’s one that’s somber and one that’s not. It’s how fast the lyric comes out, how easily it’s unfolding. That song is just conversational prose, kind of, and we spend most of the time arranging it, going back through it after, just sort of making it a little tidier. House cleaning.

I’ve heard other writers say that it might take 10 minutes to write something and then 4 hours changing it.

That’s true for me.

Speaking of songwriting, I like the humor in your tunes. Kind of tongue in cheek, a little sarcastic, still nice. Do you sit down and think, “I want to crack people up,” or does it develop naturally?

I don’t ever sit down with that objective. I usually have to have the idea that makes me laugh, one that I think is funny, so I might sit down and might write it out and run it by people around me, see if it’s got steam or not. Then it goes from there…or not. I always like to laugh and kid around, my daddy is that way.

Do you think that helps draw people into your music?

There’s more dimension to my experience. I feel lucky to be able to have that much color in what I see and write about.

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Posted by | June 6, 2011 | Interviews, Music | Comment 

LouFest 2010 Preview: Interview with Eric Enger of Gentleman Auction House

Gentleman Auction House by Kathryn Moore

Kathryn Moore/myspace.com/gentlemanauctionhouse

Formed here in St. Louis in 2005, Gentleman Auction House self-released its first EP a year later, following up with two other EPs and 2008′s full length disc, Alphabet Graveyard on Emergency Umbrella Records. GAH has performed at South By Southwest and Daytrotter, and the Riverfront Times named the group Best Indie Band of 2009.

The band, led by Eric Enger, performs euphoric pop songs that aren’t afraid to take some chances and some left turns. In addition to the expected sounds of a band (bass, drum, keys, guitar), Gentleman Auction House has a knack for using all kinds of instruments to keep its horizons open, from horns to an instrument you might have played with as a kid, the omnichord. The music is fun, distinctive and adventurous. It gets even better on repeated listens.

I had a chance to interview Enger at Off Broadway on August 18 before a warm-up show for GAH’s hiatus-breaking set at LouFest on Sunday, August 29.

Nick Cowan: How did Gentleman Auction House start?

Eric Enger: The brief version is that Steve (Kozel) and I were in a band together, just a college thing.

Where did you go from there?

After that, I moved to Tucson to take a recording internship. The studio I was interning at was working on Calexico and Neko Case records. The Iron and Wine and Calexico collaboration was happing then. I got to be around a lot of really great musicians and studio people that really had their stuff together. It certainly stuck with me as a good example of how to record.

How long did you do that?

Less than 6 months, but it seemed like a lifetime. There’s a huge music culture in Tucson, a very communal vibe. I learned a lot from how they all operated and their devotion to craft is something I can relate to.

Then how did everyone you have now come in?

Steve and I were in that band before. Steve and I have known Kiley since college. Ryan Adams joined, Eric Herbst and Stephen Tomko were the last two. We’re all really close.

Has everyone with you now been in the band since recording Alphabet Graveyard?

Yeah, almost everyone. The six people in the group now are all devoted to the same thing.

They all play at least a couple of different instruments, right?

I don’t think there’s anyone that can’t play something else.

I love Kiley’s voice in the boy-girl chorus on a few songs — one of the Christmas songs, “On The Rooftop” comes to mind. Do you keep that dynamic in mind when writing vocal harmony?

That’s an element I’ve always really liked in music. Choosing the spots where there’s a female counterpart can be really effective and get the emotion across. I’ve always loved a female vocal of any kind.

What was it like recording the full-length album?

Alphabet Graveyard was a weird recording experience. It was really great but came with unforeseen stressors: There was a problem in mixing, so the tail end of the recording process was really hodgepodge; I flew back out to mix, and a couple of the final mixes had to be done by phone. In the end I’m pretty happy with it.

Did you learn how to play through any formal training?

I took guitar lessons for about six months, a year tops, when I was 14 and it got to the point where I had enough. The lessons started to get too mathematic.

How did you develop your musicianship after that?

I started learning what kind of chords and vocals I wanted. It started that simple and got more complex. My favorite pop music is a mix of the intuitive and the ugly and trying to combine oddities within some sort of cohesive package.

Is this where the omnichord and other stuff come in? Those little elements give the songs a little edge.

Yes! I was kind of looking for something new. The omnichord can do four things. I learned which two I liked. I grew up really liking heavily arranged hip-hop groove or drum and bass that had odd elements that jumped out of the song, or some sound that colored the song and gave it a personality. Odd sounds, omnichord or otherwise, are things that perk your ear up and when you really hit it sounds fresh and timeless too.

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Posted by | August 25, 2010 | Concerts, Local | Comment