Pages tagged “neko case”

[Above: The New Pornographers.]

Ahhh, the CTA. Gotta love those delays and train station closings, right? The two-hour travel time to Hideout prevented the chance to see The Uglysuit and those that played before them, but nothing cools off an angry commuter like some free watermelon and a playful game of Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes with Tim Fite on a lovely Sunday. His lively hip-hop performance was one of the weekend's many kid-friendly offerings, which also included crafts, a Wee Hairy Beasties performance and a puppet show whose theater was rigged to a bike.

For twelve years, Hideout Block Party has signaled the wind-down of the summer festival season in Chicago. This year's solid lineup was matched by great weather (we’re all happy it wasn’t last weekend!). Shortened by a day this year, neither Sunday nor Saturday appeared to hit capacity, but still brought out sizable crowds that gathered in vast parking lot adjacent to the cozy Hideout confines to indulge in the diverse performances.

Home to the out-of-place and in-between, the Hideout welcomes locals and musicians of any and all persuasions to the industrial North Branch along the Chicago River year-round. And even after a summer full of stacked festivals rolling through the city (Lollapalooza, Pitchfork Musical Festival and myriad neighborhood fests), the annual Hideout Block Party is one of the most anticipated by Chicagoans.

As far as summer indie-music festivals in the middle of Wisconsin go, Forward Music Festival in Madison really seems to take the cake.

When busy bee Neko Case hurt her ankle during this spring's New Pornographers tour with Okkervil River, faces fell long from coast to coast. The alt.country enchantress was to miss a number of dates supporting 2007's Challengers, and really, what's a Porno show without its chanteuse?

After spending almost three months on the road with Pornographer pals, Neko Case has rightfully earned some time away from the main stage. And yet, the alt.country crooner is showing no signs of stopping her march around the U.S.

Having only stepped off the tour bus for a little over a month, Case has announced a series of Northeast show dates beginning on Jan. 25. Although she'll be kicking it solo style, Case will be accompanied by former Paste Artist of the Week, Eric Bachmann, who is slated to open on all dates.

Currently there is no word on the possibility of more dates. But Case’s website says she will be premiering new work throughout this trek.

Dates:

January
25 - Tarrytown, N.Y. @ Music Hall
26 - Ithaca, N.Y. @ State Theater
27 - Burlington, Vt. @ Higher Ground Ballroom
31 - Albany, N.Y. @ The Egg

February
1 - Providence, R.I. @ Lupo's
2 - Northampton, Mass. @ Calvin Theater

Related links:
NekoCase.com
Paste: Neko Case: The Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
Paste: Feature: Neko Case

Got news tips for Paste? Email news@pastemagazine.com.

The most tender place in our Paste-y hearts is for Neko Case. Although she gets a great deal of press for her standout vocal contributions to the wacky New Pornographers, it's been Case's solo material that has built and cemented her legacy as a musician. Rock history is filled with legendary voices who rarely sang their own material (Dusty Springfield, Linda Ronstadt), as well as brilliant lyricists who could barely carry a tune (Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Patti Smith). Case, however, is that rare total package: evocative lyrical imagery, a deft touch with melody and atmosphere, and that voice - a sound capable of melting hearts across all genre barriers.

While it always seems to take her awhile to turn around a fresh batch of material (constantly touring with the New Pornos doesn't help), Case's label Anti- is helping to tide over her fans by taking them on a journey through the alt.country songwriter's recorded past. On Nov. 6, the label will reissue three of Case's last four releases: 2000's Furnace Room Lullabies (credited to "Neko Case and Her Boyfriends"), 2002's Blacklisted, and last year's Fox Confessor Brings the Flood. The re-release of Fox Confessor will tack on five bonus tracks: a previously unreleased demo of "Behind The House," plus two songs each from Blacklisted and Lullabies.

Case is currently out on tour with her pornographer friends, and dates are available on her site.

Related links:
Paste feature on Neko Case
Neko Case at Anti- Records
YouTube: "Maybe Sparrow" live on David Letterman

Got news tips for Paste? Email news@pastemagazine.com.

With her Fox Confessor Brings the Flood being hailed as one of the top albums of 2006 on numerous critics’ year-end wrap-ups, Neko Case has announced plans to tour in early 2007.

After a stint in Australia, for much of February Case will be back in the states playing shows up and down the West Coast, many nights appearing alongside country legend Merle Haggard. She will also perform with former Archers of Loaf and Crooked Fingers band member Eric Bachmann, whose second album To the Races dropped in 2006 to critical praise, for one night in Bellingham, Washington. An appearance with Emmylou Harris is also in the works for Case’s stop at Grand Rapids, Michigan’s Calvin College.

For fans not lucky enough to be in Australia, the American Northwest, or Grand Rapids in the next three months, fret not! You can read all the details on Case’s oft-hilarious tour blog, an erratically updated but definitely-worth-checking-out account of her travels and performances. The best posts often have nothing to do with touring or music whatsoever, including this account in which Case describes "the most 'free-style' little girl I've seen in a long time."

Tour dates include:

January:
25 – Adelaide, Australia, Governor Hindmarsh
26 – Perth, Australia, Fly By Night
28 – Brisbane, Australia, The Zoo
30 – Sydney, Australia, The Annandale
31 – Sydney, Australia, TBA

February:
1 – Melbourne, Australia, Prince of Wales
2 – Melbourne, Australia, Prince of Wales
9 – Oakland, CA, Paramount Theatre w/Merle Haggard
10 – Portland, OR, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall w/Merle Haggard
11 – Seattle, WA, Paramount Theatre w/Merle Haggard
12 – Spokane, WA, IMG Performing Arts Center
14 – Bellingham, WA, WWU Performing Arts Center w/Eric Bachmann
17 – Los Angeles, CA, Henry Fonda Theatre w/Merle Haggard
18 – San Diego, CA, Belly Up Tavern w/Merle Haggard
23 – New York, NY, Allen Room at Lincoln Center

March:
31 – Grand Rapids, Michigan, Calvin College Fieldhouse w/Emmylou Harris

Related Links:
Neko Case’s official website
Neko Case’s Travelogue
Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris on AllMusic.com
NPR listeners pick Fox Confessor… as #2 album of the year
Amazon.com Editors’ Picks rank Fox Confessor… as #1 album of the year

Johnny Cash and Neko Case together — wow. Too bad we’d never see or hear them perform live together, sharing the same stage. However, hearing and seeing them live as separate entities isn’t far-fetched at all.

As part of the “Live From Austin, TX” Austin City Limits series, New West Records is releasing Cash’s 1987 and Case’s 2003 performances on CD Jan. 9, 2007. Cash’s DVD version of the performance was released last year and Case’s back in October.

The original concerts were 60-90 minutes and were edited into half-hour TV shows, but the albums will play it in their entireties.

Cash’s tracklisting:

1. Ring Of Fire
2. Folsom Prison Blues
3. Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down
4. I Walk The Line
5. The Wall
6. Long Black Veil
7. Big River
8. I’ll Go Somewhere and Sing My Songs Again
9. Let Him Roll
10. Ballad Of Barbara
11. Sam Stone
12. (Ghost) Riders In The Sky
13. Where Did We Go Right (with June Carter Cash)
14. I Walk The Line (outro)

Case’s tracklisting:
1. Favorite
2. Outro With Bees
3. Behind The House
4. Ghost Writing
5. Deep Red Bells
6. Knock Out
7. Hex
8. Maybe Sparrow
9. Wayfaring Stranger
10. Furnace Room Lullaby
11. In California
12. Buckets Of Rain
13. Look For Me (I’ll Be Around)
14. Alone and Foresaken

Alt-country chanteuse Neko Case appears on The Late Show With David Letterman tonight at 11:30 p.m. on CBS, where she will perform “Maybe Sparrow,” a track from her latest release, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood. Tomorrow, she is set to give a concert at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Colorado. The show will mark the beginning of the second leg of her U.S. tour.

For more information and complete tour dates, click here.

Northwestern Patsy Cline with a graduate degree unleashes new album

In the same way Liam Neeson functions in the film world as gravitas-for-hire, the guest list for Neko Case’s new album reads like a receipt from the tumbleweed-skiffle department of a Tucson-area Rent-A-Cred; gracing this project are locals Howe Gelb, and Calexico, plus out-of-towners Kelly Hogan, Dexter Romweber and Garth Hudson, to name a few. Case, of course, still approximates a Northwestern Patsy Cline with a graduate degree, and while the stories she tells are mournful, her delivery remains buoyant. If an old spiritual (“John Saw That Number”) didn’t reveal her hand, you couldn’t be blamed for thinking Case was working to establish a new kind of magical-realist gospel, or Optimism Gothic. Despite the risk-avoidant, “for-grown-ups” tone of the arrangements, wrenching tunes such as “Dirty Knife” and “Lion’s Jaws” easily teleport the listener to a mystical denim prom with a very dusty welcome mat and decorations inspired by an outsider artist’s personal, widow-clogged Narnia.

All aging rebels yearn to showcase their latent songwriting chops in a more traditional genre; Neko Case is way ahead of the curve. At 27, the former punk quit those dilapidated hovels to build ornate mansions of traditional country with her Boyfriends and to punch out award-winning power pop with The New Pornographers. As she works on her fourth solo album, due out this spring, Anti- Records is releasing The Tigers Have Spoken, a live document recorded over seven nights in Chicago and Toronto with longtime collaborators The Sadies, Jon Rauhouse, Kelly Hogan, Carolyn Mark and the Pinetops. The album has several quirks that should quell any suspicions of back-catalog milking.

Only two songs on the album are part of Case’s previously recorded oeuvre. The rest are new originals, old standards like “This Little Light,” and a variety of covers, from Loretta Lynn to The Shangri-Las. “I didn’t want to rehash the old songs,” Case explains. “I wouldn’t want to buy a live record with a bunch of songs I already have on it.”

And instead of stuffing a double-disc with hours of material, Case kept The Tigers Have Spoken to a lean 35 minutes. “I have a 33-rpm, two-sided vinyl style attention span,” she says. “Just because a CD can hold more doesn’t mean it should. I didn’t want to overdo it; it seems incredibly self-indulgent.”

In a world where live albums often sound suspiciously studio, The Tigers Have Spoken remains gloriously raw. “It’s hardly touched-up at all,” Case says. “There’s a couple moments that sound messy, but I kind of like the messiness.”

On most live albums, audience participation amounts to little more than applause. But on “Wayfaring Stranger,” Case enjoins the audience to get involved in a more meaningful way. “It was recorded at the ideaCity conference in Toronto,” she says. “We recorded ‘Wayfaring Stranger’ right there in front of [the audience of 300], and asked them to sing along with the chorus. Those people did such a great job, I really wanted them on the record.”

And hey, that’s at least 300 people who are guaranteed to buy it. Popularity-wise, Case admits she’s “not Britney Spears . . . and thank God,” but she’s doing just fine—no disposable bubblegum diva, Case continues to defy expectations and build her fan base song by heartfelt song. Now that’s kinda punk.

Alt.country star Neko Case has earned her cult following; she belts out songs like a burlesque house Patsy Cline, her brash lyrics fading into sentimental phrases as a chorus of drunken cowboys cry in the background. The redhead more than holds her own in this macho world—she owns the space, melting hardened hearts when she croons “Favorite” and “If You Knew.”

On The Tigers Have Spoken (culled from a string of dates in Toronto and Case's current hometown of Chicago), she’s in perfect form. Her voice has strengthened and deepened—surely a result of her recent tour with Nick Cave—and she inhabits the stage like a natural-born performer. Surprisingly, Case doesn’t take the opportunity to air out old favorites; instead, she unearths Buffy Sainte-Marie’s “Soulful Shade of Blue” and the Shangri-La’s “Train From Kansas City.”

Like a siren luring sailors to their doom, Case channels melancholia for Cathy Irwin’s “Hex” and a mournful version of “Wayfaring Stranger.” At the opposite end of the emotional spectrum, she rips through the Nervous Eaters’ punkish “Loretta,” before approaching Loretta Lynn’s “Rated X” with equal delight. On the title track, Case combines ghoulishness and glee into a perfect package, while three more originals, including the eerie “Blacklisted,” round out the mix.

Call it maturity, call it confidence, call it natural progression, but without doubt Neko Case is moving forward as an artist. Case has always had a strong voice and a knack for giving gritty stories an ethereal bent. On Blacklisted, her third album, she is handling more songwriting on her own and putting a finer point on both her narratives and her presence as a performer.

Fans of Case’s first two albums will still recognize the artist on her third. Her persona and her music are still dark, mysterious, and a little distant, her voice wrapped in reverb as if she were calling out from a vast, empty space. If Tom Waits is the drunken dreamer caught in the gutter, Neko Case is the woman who put him there. And unlike some of her contemporaries, Case hasn’t given up on twang as she’s developed her own voice. Hard to argue that songs like "I Missed the Point" and "Runnin’ Out of Fools" aren’t firmly rooted in Patsy Cline country.

Still, Case has added a few refinements to her arrangements–the nod to bluegrass on "Things That Scare Me," the subtle rhythmic shifts in "Deep Red Bells." And at times, her lyrics are nothing short of beautiful. The chorus of "I Wish I Was the Moon" and the imagery of "Deep Red Bells" are as provocative as anything anyone else is writing right now. Blacklisted proves that Neko Case can take something good and make it even better.

See the rest of our 20 Signs of Life in 2002.