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Wednesday, November 26, 2008 - 17:28:03
Saturday To-Do: Hayes Carll
HAYES CARLL
9 p.m., Sticky Fingerz. $13 adv., $15 d.o.s.
Here's where the crowd starts hollering: “Arkansas, my head hurts/I'd love to stick around and maybe make it worse.” That's how Hayes Carll opens a song on his latest album, “Trouble in Mind.” A Texas native who schooled at Hendrix and married an Arkansas woman, Carll's no stranger to showing Natural State love. He named his second album “Little Rock,” and even as his career's blossomed, he's still managed to make it to town once every couple months. Look for Saturday's crowd to be especially swollen. There'll be two bumps: Hendrix alums and old friends home for the holiday, and those newly converted to the singer/songwriter's charms via all the year-end lists in which he's topping out. Not without good reason. Long billed as an heir to twang-y Texas songwriters who made careers out of striking an anti-Nashville pose, Carll's come into his own on “Trouble,” particularly on the song “She Left Me For Jesus.” It won the Americana Music Association's Song of the Year on the strength of lines like, “She's given up whiskey and I've taken up wine/While she prays for his troubles, she's forgot about mine/I'm a gonna get even; I can't handle the shame/Why last time we made love she even called out his name.” Check out the video for the song on Rock Candy. It was enough to get the Onion on board as a tour sponsor.
9 p.m., Sticky Fingerz. $13 adv., $15 d.o.s.
Here's where the crowd starts hollering: “Arkansas, my head hurts/I'd love to stick around and maybe make it worse.” That's how Hayes Carll opens a song on his latest album, “Trouble in Mind.” A Texas native who schooled at Hendrix and married an Arkansas woman, Carll's no stranger to showing Natural State love. He named his second album “Little Rock,” and even as his career's blossomed, he's still managed to make it to town once every couple months. Look for Saturday's crowd to be especially swollen. There'll be two bumps: Hendrix alums and old friends home for the holiday, and those newly converted to the singer/songwriter's charms via all the year-end lists in which he's topping out. Not without good reason. Long billed as an heir to twang-y Texas songwriters who made careers out of striking an anti-Nashville pose, Carll's come into his own on “Trouble,” particularly on the song “She Left Me For Jesus.” It won the Americana Music Association's Song of the Year on the strength of lines like, “She's given up whiskey and I've taken up wine/While she prays for his troubles, she's forgot about mine/I'm a gonna get even; I can't handle the shame/Why last time we made love she even called out his name.” Check out the video for the song on Rock Candy. It was enough to get the Onion on board as a tour sponsor.
Saturday To-Do: North Mississippi Allstars
NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS
8:30 p.m., Revolution. $18 adv., $20 d.o.s.
Between 1992-93 Luther and Cody Dickinson (sons of famed producer, session man and Little Rock native Jim Dickinson) used to play Vino's as part of a young blues-infested power trio out of Memphis called DDT. A few short years later, they birthed North Mississippi Allstars. Their debut 2000 release, “Shake Hands With Shorty,” was nominated for a Grammy for “Best Contemporary Blues Album,” and they received a W.C. Handy Award for “Best New Artist Debut” in 2001. These days, they've been at it long enough to have consuming side projects — Luther joined the Black Crowes in 2007, while Cody and bassist Chris Chew have stayed busy with the Hill Country Revue. So we're lucky to get an all-ages show squeezed in here. Known for its raucous take on hill-country, juke-joint-style trance blues in the spirit of R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough, NMA could offer one of the city's last great shows of the year. In related news, the band heads into 2009 with a full head of steam, releasing a 10-year retrospective titled “Do It Like We Used To Do,” a two-CD, one-DVD package set for a late January release.
—Paul Peterson
8:30 p.m., Revolution. $18 adv., $20 d.o.s.
Between 1992-93 Luther and Cody Dickinson (sons of famed producer, session man and Little Rock native Jim Dickinson) used to play Vino's as part of a young blues-infested power trio out of Memphis called DDT. A few short years later, they birthed North Mississippi Allstars. Their debut 2000 release, “Shake Hands With Shorty,” was nominated for a Grammy for “Best Contemporary Blues Album,” and they received a W.C. Handy Award for “Best New Artist Debut” in 2001. These days, they've been at it long enough to have consuming side projects — Luther joined the Black Crowes in 2007, while Cody and bassist Chris Chew have stayed busy with the Hill Country Revue. So we're lucky to get an all-ages show squeezed in here. Known for its raucous take on hill-country, juke-joint-style trance blues in the spirit of R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough, NMA could offer one of the city's last great shows of the year. In related news, the band heads into 2009 with a full head of steam, releasing a 10-year retrospective titled “Do It Like We Used To Do,” a two-CD, one-DVD package set for a late January release.
—Paul Peterson
Saturday To-Do: Sugar and the Raw
SUGAR AND THE RAW
9:30 p.m., Juanita's. $8.
Several years back, the kids couldn't get enough of Sugar and the Raw (who were long Sugar in the Raw before a threatening letter from the sugar giant inspired the change). The seven-piece started out funk-rock (if memory serves, Justin Collins spent several years banging a tambourine and dancing maniacally) before gradually evolving into breezy Southern pop. Their arc followed a locally typical path: Max Recordings put out a debut, the band tried to tour with mixed success, the band recorded a follow-up, but before the band had a chance to put it out, things fizzled. The spirit of the group's been kept alive in the bands that emerged in SATR's wake — Big Boots and the Winter Furs. But absence makes the heart long for a new gig, and now, for the first time in almost two years, the group's reforming to celebrate the release, on Max Recordings, of its lost second album, aptly titled “The Reunion Show.” Labelmates and longtime supporters Grand Serenade open the show. The cover charge includes a copy of the CD.
9:30 p.m., Juanita's. $8.
Several years back, the kids couldn't get enough of Sugar and the Raw (who were long Sugar in the Raw before a threatening letter from the sugar giant inspired the change). The seven-piece started out funk-rock (if memory serves, Justin Collins spent several years banging a tambourine and dancing maniacally) before gradually evolving into breezy Southern pop. Their arc followed a locally typical path: Max Recordings put out a debut, the band tried to tour with mixed success, the band recorded a follow-up, but before the band had a chance to put it out, things fizzled. The spirit of the group's been kept alive in the bands that emerged in SATR's wake — Big Boots and the Winter Furs. But absence makes the heart long for a new gig, and now, for the first time in almost two years, the group's reforming to celebrate the release, on Max Recordings, of its lost second album, aptly titled “The Reunion Show.” Labelmates and longtime supporters Grand Serenade open the show. The cover charge includes a copy of the CD.
Friday To-Do: 'Great Russian Nutcracker'
‘GREAT RUSSIAN NUTCRACKER'
7:30 p.m., Robinson Center Music Hall. $25-$65.
Goodbye Thanksgiving, hello holiday season madness. But before you get overwhelmed, perhaps a little “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies” will get you in the right spirit. Chances are you've seen some iteration of this Tchaikovsky classic, but performed by real Russians? Here's your chance. The Moscow Ballet, a touring group active since the early '90s, offers a unique spin on the original ballet. Choreographer Anatoly Emelianov sets Act II in the “Land of Peace and Harmony,” where doves fly and there's no war or suffering. If you miss the doves and don't catch the lack of suffering, a “whimsical, giant, six-handed grandfather clock,” new this year, will signal the transition. The elaborate sets, paired with giant puppets of unicorns and other animals, are likely to be worth the price of admission alone.
7:30 p.m., Robinson Center Music Hall. $25-$65.
Goodbye Thanksgiving, hello holiday season madness. But before you get overwhelmed, perhaps a little “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies” will get you in the right spirit. Chances are you've seen some iteration of this Tchaikovsky classic, but performed by real Russians? Here's your chance. The Moscow Ballet, a touring group active since the early '90s, offers a unique spin on the original ballet. Choreographer Anatoly Emelianov sets Act II in the “Land of Peace and Harmony,” where doves fly and there's no war or suffering. If you miss the doves and don't catch the lack of suffering, a “whimsical, giant, six-handed grandfather clock,” new this year, will signal the transition. The elaborate sets, paired with giant puppets of unicorns and other animals, are likely to be worth the price of admission alone.
Friday: 'The Toymaker's Apprentice'
‘THE TOYMAKER'S APPRENTICE'7 p.m., Arkansas Children's Theatre. $11-$14.
The Arkansas Children's Theatre bills this season's play as a “modern fable.” That might be a stretch. It's a Willy Wonka-ish set-up: In a small house on a peak high above a village, Gideon cranks out the best toys in the land. Even Santa's a regular customer. After one particularly grueling day, Gideon realizes that demand exceeds the supply he can generate alone and decides to hire an assistant. Two apply, Libby and Jack. But there's a hitch. Libby's a girl, and girls don't make toys! But they do, she persists, and Gideon decides to give her a chance. With the wisdom of an exploitative King Solomon, he offers up a contest: Work for a year, after which I'll pick the best employee. Along the way, according to the preview, Jack learns “the value of working hard and having a positive attitude,” and Gideon learns “not to underestimate Libby just because she's a girl.” Life lessons!
Friday To-Do: Hogs vs. LSU
Da boot. Doubt it.
ARKANSAS VS. LSU
1:30 p.m., War Memorial Stadium. $45.
So we're not going to a bowl. Our defense has regressed from bad to disastrous. Our star running back, who had a commanding lead in league rushing stats mid-way through the season, only to struggle with injury and O-line ineptness, probably won't play. The seniors on the team who never bought into Bobby Petrino's brusque, no-nonsense style of coaching (the anti-Nutt), have surely, now, really given up caring. Plus, we're likely to get plenty of help self-destructing: After getting creamed by Houston Dale's new squad last week, LSU will be out for blood. It could — probably will — be a drubbing. But! There are worse excuses to escape further family share time than to play bean bag toss and drink Bloody Marys on a muddy golf course. And Nathan Dick, at least in post-game highlights, actually looks pretty good (he can hit a receiver in stride!), so maybe we'll at least get a few fireworks to help send off the season. Even if we get killed, the game's a rite of passage to what many a Hog fan's looked forward to since August: talking about next season. Can't wait.
1:30 p.m., War Memorial Stadium. $45.
So we're not going to a bowl. Our defense has regressed from bad to disastrous. Our star running back, who had a commanding lead in league rushing stats mid-way through the season, only to struggle with injury and O-line ineptness, probably won't play. The seniors on the team who never bought into Bobby Petrino's brusque, no-nonsense style of coaching (the anti-Nutt), have surely, now, really given up caring. Plus, we're likely to get plenty of help self-destructing: After getting creamed by Houston Dale's new squad last week, LSU will be out for blood. It could — probably will — be a drubbing. But! There are worse excuses to escape further family share time than to play bean bag toss and drink Bloody Marys on a muddy golf course. And Nathan Dick, at least in post-game highlights, actually looks pretty good (he can hit a receiver in stride!), so maybe we'll at least get a few fireworks to help send off the season. Even if we get killed, the game's a rite of passage to what many a Hog fan's looked forward to since August: talking about next season. Can't wait.
Q&A with Nate Powell
Nate Powell, self-portrait.
Bonus Q&As from the interview I did with Nate Powell, author of the fine new graphic novel, "Swallow Me Whole." Read all about it here.
Nate will be signing his book's at Collector's Edition in NLR on Friday, from noon until 3 p.m.
So the beginnings of this book came a long time ago, right?
What became the book started out as a dream I had one night, like in Oct. of 2001. Basically I woke up in the middle of the night and sat on the toilet and scribbled out the dream. Then, I woke up the next morning and couldn’t read half of it. Slowly, over about a year, I pieced together the narrative. Then I spent a couple of years trying to make the story make sense. I’d pencil 40 pages and then throw them away.
I got really serious about the book in fall 2004. I did the first 15 pages and sent it off to Top Shelf, then I spent another year doing nothing but trying to make it make sense as a story. Once I had that together, it took about two years to sketch it out and make it make sense as a story. And probably about 800 days to actually produce 200 pages.
It’s obviously a very personal story, but at the same time, there’s not that strong autobiographical sense of your earlier stories.
A lot of the events that occur—they really happened to me or other people. Most of the characters are physically based on friends of mine or family members. But what happens to whom and behavior and personalities of the characters have nothing to do with their real lives. In the process of coming up with the book and make it make sense, it helped me resolve some of the more fundamental issues I have with the kind of half-fiction that I do — issues with legitimacy and voicing my own experience, subjective experience that also involves other people. It made me a lot more comfortable. If you’re writing a piece of fiction, it’s unavoidable to have yourself and your own personal experiences and narratives fall into that. But, yes, you’re certainly allowed to take from the experiences that make you and manipulate them to communicate something. Our experiences are tools.
The group briefly, formerly known as Bad Balance live!
Showcase time
Wednesday To-Do: J-One
Tuesday To-Do: Nada Surf
R.I.P. Clint G
Metallica pics
In Review: Metallica
Televisionist: 'Whale Wars,' 'Ghost Adventures'
Saturday To-Do: Metallica
Saturday To-Do: James McMurtry
Saturday To-Do: Punch Brothers
The Weekend: Thunder from Down Under, Damn Bullets, Kevin Kerby, 'Fall for Ballet'
Friday To-Do: Cool Shoes
Friday To-Do: Tim Reynolds and TR3
Free Candy: Daptone, Light in the Attic, Paper Route Gangstas
Thursday: Ted Ludwig Quintet, Brenn and more
Podcastic
Lars Ulrich on Bald Knob, signing dinner rolls and the bassists of Metallica
607, poet
Wednesday: g-force VJs
Wednesday To-Do: The Ted Ludwig Jazz Quintet
Last night: Chuck Klosterman
Tuesday: Finn Riggins, Moving Front, Throbbing Testicles, ASO's Sturgis Quartet
Tuesday To-Do: Chuck Klosterman
Monday To-Do: Celtic Thunder
Saturday To-Do: 'Christmas on Mars'
Saturday To-Do: Reba and Kelly Clarkson
The Weekend: Eclipse Glasses, Mozart to the Max, Gina Gee, Jimmy Thackery and Earl Cate and more
A New-fashioned Revival
Friday To-Do: The Boondogs
Friday To-Do: Anne Pressly Benefit
Thursday: Weekend Theater benefit, the Reds, Smoke Up Johnny, Eli Young and lots more
Podcasted
Thursday To-Do: Ben Nichols / Chuck Ragan / Tim Barry / Tom Gabel
Weekend To-Do: 'If They Sing It, You Will Come'
Obama possibly a nerd
List toppers
Talk to me
Tuesday: Patrick Sweany
Monday To-Do: Plain White T's
Saturday To-Do: Shannon Boshears
The Weekend: "If You Sing It," Big John Miller, Magic Hassle and more
Last night: Cedric Burnside and Lightnin' Malcolm
Friday To-Do: Punkinhead
Friday To-Do: Winnie the Pooh
Friday To-Do: 'Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens'
Hear your weekend
Thursday: Arkansas Film Series, Gettys, Kingsdown and more
The Boondogs give away new album twice
Thursday To-Do: Cedric Burnside and Lightnin' Malcolm
Thursday To-Do: Wolf Parade
Thursday To-Do: Larry the Cable Guy
Weekend To-Dos: Ozark Folk Festival
Gorgeous George and his lovely ladies
'Christmas on Mars' in Hot Springs
Review: Loch Ness Monster "Eleven Traditional Songs"
Moviemaking
Pressly benefit
Seventh Street shake-up
Wal-Mart to strike death blow to already dying music industry
Goldmine
Lil JJ becomes a man just in time
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