TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: HIP IS HIP

(I knew I'd forgotten something ... here's Friday's Tuneup)

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
July 30, 2004

The Tragically Hip is one of those bands that’s consistently strong, during their 20-year history. With their muscular guitar attack and the passionate vocals of Gordon Downie -- whose voice suggests Michael Stipe with more testosterone -- these Canadian road warriors virtually always satisfy.

The Hip’s new album, In Between Evolution, is a dark but inspirational work, if not quite their best. That honor belongs to Day For Night, their 1995 effort.

No song on the new one quite matches "Nautical Disaster" from Day For Night, a terrifying you-are-there account of a nightmare. But surprisingly the one on the new CD that comes closest has a seemingly light-hearted title. "Gus The Polar Bear From Central Park."

With its distorted guitar hook and plodding beat, Downie seemingly gets into the mind of a zoo animal to create an offbeat treatise on isolation and paranoia.

"What’s troubling Gus overhearing conversations/that it’s because your either them or me/when it’s either them or it’s us anything that moves and/everything you see is something to kill and eat."

The idea that the world has turned into a colder, harsher place permeates this album. There’s the ominous song "Meanstreak" creates the image of a town invaded by "strangers": ""The sssh sound of their boots/on the tops of the grass/as their hay wagon/rolled past …"

War images pop up everywhere. "Makeshift," built around what sounds like a long-lost Bachman Turner Overdrive riff, starts out "You do the combat math, I’m the war artist/You can’t take your shots back, I have to watch them miss."

"If New Orleans Is Beat" has one of the prettiest melodies the Hip have ever played, but keeps with the basic theme of a world turned wrong. "No one will give you a thing these days/They’d rather kill it or throw it away/you don’t `do’ dark American streets so/if New Orleans is beat … where’s that leave you and me?"

According to Downie, the macho, jingoistic hot-new-country star Toby Keith inspired "It Can’t Be Nashville Every Night."

"He said `We are what we lack’/and this guy’s the autodidact/Stares in to the glare of them TV lights/It can’t be Nashville every night."

The obliqueness of the words combined with the passion of the band’s playing create a foreboding mood that’s hard to shake.

More Canadian cool:

The Slow Wonder by A.C. Newman. Last year we knew him as "Carl" Newman, one of the front people -- along with Neko Case and Dan Bejar -- of The New Pornographers, those quirky and infectious rock/posters from Vancouver. (For those keeping track, their album Electric Version topped my Top 10 list last year.)
Newman’s first solo album sounds a lot what you’d imagine the third New Pornographers CD will be. Sure you miss sweet Neko’s singing, but most the other "pornographic" elements are here: snappy, hum-able melodies and addictive hooks that stick to your innards, simple guitar-based arrangements, and Newman’s rubbery voice that often slips into falsetto. There’s not a song here that wouldn’t have fit in on Electric Version.

Like the Pornographers, Newman’s album already is earning him comparisons to The Kinks, Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson and Harry Nilsson. I’ll add a couple of my own -- Badfinger and The Replacement’s Paul Westerberg, especially his early solo work. And the last song, "35 in the Shade" with its relentless drumbeat might remind you of The Who’s "Armenia City in the Sky."

Though The Slow Wonder is consistently satisfying, the strongest two songs are right at the beginning of the CD.

The opening song "Miracle Drug" starts out with a drum beat that might make you think you put on the Wild Tchoupitoulas CD by mistake. But when the guitars come in, and especially when Newman’s voice comes in a few seconds later, you know it’s no Mardi Gras. In a rushed, near frantic voice Newman sings, "He was tied to the bed with a miracle drug in one hand/In the other a great lost novel that, I understand, was returned with a stamp that said 'Thank you for your interest, young man.’ "

From that crazed image of rejection, suicide and craziness, Newman gives us one of his prettiest songs to date, "Drink to Me, Babe Then," a wistful song of love. The melody is sad as an acoustic guitar strums prominently (a snakey slide guitar waiting until the refrain.) The whistling solo in the middle of the song (a call-and-response with a subdued wah-wah guitar) brings an almost vaudeville or British music hall feel.

With or without the Pornographers, Newman is going to be a musical force to watch.

Also Noted:

Together We’re Heavy By The Polyphonic Spree. The robes are back. But is this a good thing?

I was initially fascinated by this group of 20-plus Texans in their shall-we-gather-at-the-river robes that made you wonder whether this was the product of some bizarre love cult, a group whose first CD, The Beginning Stages of The Polyphonic Spree, inspired about two thirds of the critics who reviewed it -- including me -- to mention Up With People.

Yes, I was smitten by that album, especially the song "Follow the Day," which also captured the imaginations of Volkswagen, who used it on an t.v. commercial and the makers of the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, who put it on their soundtrack.

But while I compared the first album to The Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev, this time out the sound is closer to bad Electric Light Orchestra and stale Moody Blues, even with former Pere Ubu member Eric Drew Feldman helping out on production.

O.K., I admit, I'm grudgingly fond of the self-help hymn "Two Thousand Places." But not much else here makes me want to put on a robe and witness for the Spree.

Maybe next album they’ll change their style to a ’70s revival band and call themselves "The Polyester Spree."

CONVENTION NOTEBOOK FINALE

More tales from the Democratic Convention
As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Aug. 1, 2004

BOSTON _ Pundits and critics have complained that last week’s Democratic convention was a scripted production without a trace of spontaneity or real drama.

Indeed, Wednesday morning at the New Mexico delegation breakfast, John Pound -- a Santa Fe lawyer who headed John Kerry’s state campaign during the New Mexico Presidential Caucus season -- discussed plans for a t.v. moment that would take only a few seconds later that night -- the ritual roll call vote, when all the state delegations official cast their votes for Kerry.

At the convention, Pound was one of two New Mexicans who, during the floor sessions, was stationed in “The Tank,” a room that in Pound’s words, was in “the bowels” of the FleetCenter. His job was where his job was to keep an eye on how the delegation looked on television. He had to make sure the delegates held up the right sign at the right time, etc.

As far as Wednesday night’s roll call was concerned, New Mexico’s Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, who was the head of the delegation, would do the talking for the delegation. The question, Pound said, was who would get to gather around the lieutenant governor when she cast the vote.

“It’s a human tendency to want to get up by the New Mexico banner to be on television,” Pound told the delegates. But he said delegation leaders were deciding on which people would get to surround Denish for that moment. He said the decision would be made on factors including ethnicity, gender and other factors, the goal being to reflect the state’s diversity.

Stand-off on Canal Street
But early Thursday evening there was a potential outburst of drama and spontaneity outside of the convention hall that few wanted to take place -- a confrontation between police and protesters.

Earlier in a week a Boston police officer walking through the so-called “Free Speech Zone,” a stark fenced-off area near the FleetCenter, told a reporter while the protests had been low-key up to that point, large numbers of “anarchists” to come to town on the last day of the convention.

“We’re calling Thursday `D-Day,” the officer said.

Indeed, Thursday saw a large influx of anti-war protesters. A few hundred marched up Canal Street to the barricades on Causeway Street near the convention center. Someone burned an double-sided effigy of Kerry and George W. Bush and police responded quickly.

Hundreds of black-clad, helmeted riot police, with chest and shin pads and ominous night sticks formed rows and pushed the protesters back a few yards. And there they stood for the next hour or so in a tense stand-off.

On the other side of the fence on Causeway Street, out of the view of the protesters -- but right in from of the media pavilion next to the convention hall -- another battalion of riot police gathered in rows. Reporters watched from the outside stairway as the officers prepared to replace their fellows on the front line.

But despite the obvious tension, on Canal Street, at the line where police stood almost nose to nose with the demonstrators, it didn’t seem that anyone really wanted violence.

A few yards back from the front line, a man with a bullhorn congratulated the demonstrators for standing up to the police and not backing down.

But none of the protesters were baiting the cops. And though the officers looked grim and Darth Vaderish in their black uniforms and helmets, beneath their visors were worried expressions of men who looked like they’d rather be almost anywhere else.

Things had gotten calm enough that reporter Amy Goodman of the left-wing radio and television show Democracy Now! was able to sit on the ground right up on the front line to tape interviews with demonstrators as police loomed above just a couple of feet away.

As protesters began drifting away, one Boston cop watching the action from about a block away on Canal Street agreed that the storm had apparently passed -- at least for Boston. In fact, according to press reports, the day ended with no serious injuries and only three protest-related arrests.

However he added ominously, “This wasn’t `D-Day.’ You know when `D-Day’ is? August 29, that’s when `D-Day’ is.”

August 29 is the day before the Republican National Convention starts in New York City. Far more protesters are expected there.

Amy, What You Gonna Do?
A few hours after the stand-off, gadfly Goodman had a confrontation with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.


She caught Richardson immediately after he had been on a panel discussion on Larry King Live to talk about Kerry’s acceptance speech.

Though Richardson normally is eager to appear on national media, this time apparently he wasn’t.

Here’s a transcript of the brief encounter, cut short by the governor, posted on the Democracy Now! website:

Goodman: Governor Richardson,-- is Kerry’s foreign policy an escalation? He’s talking about more troops in Iraq and talking about the Sharon policy. I'm Amy Goodman with Democracy Now! Radio and Television.

Richardson: No. Senator Kerry is an internationalist. He wants to operate our foreign policy with our alliances, with our allies, and not go it alone.

Goodman: But he's talking about, he's talking about more proof —
Richardson: I'm sorry. Please get that out of my way.

Assumedly the “that” Richardson referred to was Goodman’s microphone.

Salsa as Security Threat
My only bad encounter with authority at the convention was Thursday afternoon when convention security confiscated my jar of Bill Richardson salsa at the X-ray machine in front of the FleetCenter.

The New Mexico delegation was giving away the promotional salsa -- actually it’s Garduno’s restaurant salsa with a promotional label -- at its daily breakfast meetings and at the convention itself.

A delegate had given me a jar at breakfast and I’d stuffed it in my laptop case. I hadn’t thought of any possible problems in getting it through security. After all, the night before comic/commentator Mo Rocca had shown a jar of the salsa during a segment on Larry King Live.

But when the security X-ray machine at the media entrance spotted the jar in my case, an officer told me that I couldn’t take it in. They had nothing against hot sauce or even Richardson. It was the glass jar that concerned them.

He put the salsa on the ground under the machine -- along with seven or eight other jars of Richardson’s salsa.

I went back to retrieve my jar when leaving FleetCenter after Kerry’s speech. However, an officer told me that all the salsa had been emptied and thrown away.

RICHARDSON'S CONVENTION SPEECH

I'm back to Santa Fe. Home to the sopapilla!

For reasons only known to The New Mexican's web staff, my story on the lukewarm reaction to Gov. Bill Richardson's convention piece didn't appear on the paper's free web site today. So I'll post it here:

(But before we get to that, here's the link to my story earlier this week on the Dems' anti-Ralph Nader effort)

Here's the speech article:

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
July 30, 2004

BOSTON — As part of the buildup to Thursday’s address by John Kerry, Gov. Bill Richardson took his turn as a speech giver on Wednesday.

But some New Mexicans who heard his speech at the Democratic National Convention said it wasn’t in the same league as those delivered by some of the heavy hitters who took the podium this week.

Some thought Richardson’s speech Wednesday might have suffered because it came so soon after the Rev. Al Sharpton’s stemwinder, which electrified the FleetCenter.

In his speech, which started out in Spanish, Richardson talked about his background as a former congressman representing Northern New Mexico and a cabinet member in the Clinton administration. He then spoke about why he thinks it’s important to elect John Kerry as president.

Most New Mexico delegates interviewed Thursday said they thought the governor did “pretty good,” or said, “It went OK.”

One even said, “He’s a good orator.” But some delegates qualified their assessments by saying it was hard to hear Richardson’s speech because of all the talking and commotion on the floor.

Notably, there was little talking and commotion when Sharpton or Illinois senatorial candidate Barack Obama spoke.

One delegate said she thought Richardson’s speech was aimed more at the television audience than the people in the convention hall.

Other New Mexicans who heard the speech were more critical.
“It was mediocre at best,” said one Democrat, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“I thought it sucked,” said a delegate. “But I thought Ted Kennedy’s speech and (Richard) Gephardt’s speech sucked too.”

Richardson spokesman Pahl Shipley defended his boss’s convention address.

Alluding to Sharpton and vice-presidential candidate John Edwards, Shipley said, “It was a night of great speeches. The governor’s speech fit in quite well.”

Richardson’s speech wasn’t broadcast on any commercial television networks, though PBS and CSPAN carried it, gubernatorial spokesman Billy Sparks said.

Sparks said Richardson wasn’t disappointed by the speech’s limited exposure. Richardson had been interviewed on a couple of cable news shows shortly before the speech, he said.

Though Richardson’s speech didn’t make it onto CNN, his face made it onto Larry King Live — on a jar of salsa.

Comic/commentator Mo Rocca showed a jar of the promotional hot sauce that the New Mexico delegation has been giving away in Boston.

“This is much better than the Barbara Mikulski pico de gallo,” Rocca quipped, referring to a U.S. senator from Maryland.

CONVENTION NOTEBOOK DAY 4

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
July 30, 2004

BOSTON _ The trip to Boston was more than a political convention for one New Mexico delegate. Glorieta Nieto of santa Fe announced at Thursday’s delegation breakfast that this weekend she will marry her 14-year partner Jo Kenny.

Massachusetts, thanks to a state Supreme Court decision, is the only state where gay marriage is legal.

The delegation cheered the announcement and several members came up to the couple to express congratulations.

“This is very gratifying,” Nieto said. “Four years ago it made our delegation very uncomfortable whenever I tried to discuss gay marriage,” she told a reporter.

Nieto is a member of the Democratic National Committee and is vice chairwoman of the convention’s Gay and Lesbian Caucus.

Nieto and Kenny will be married Saturday by a justice of the peace at a Boston bed and breakfast called Newberry Guest House.

Singing for Lyndon

There has been a strangely diverse array of music at the convention. Acts who have appeared on stage include country titan Willie Nelson, gospel/soul great Mavis Staples, hip hopsters The Black Eyed Peas, ‘80s farm-belt rock John Cougar Mellencamp and folkies Peter, Paul and Mary.

But perhaps the strangest music heard around the convention was that of a group of young people devoted to political extremist and perrenial candidate Lyndon LaRouche.

A group of 30-40 LaRouche-ites marched through the second level of the Sheraton Boston Thursday morning as Democrats were scurrying between meetings and caucuses. The LaRouche bunch carried banners for their man, passed out copies of LaRouche’s “A Real Democratic Platform for Nov. 2004, all while singing a spooky sounding but moving multi-harmony song. One member said the melody was that of a Mozart piece, but the lyrics were written for the cause:

“Dubious is the convention/If LaRouche you fail to mention ... As long as you deny as truth/that this economy is doomed/You lie/We die ...”

The group marched out of the hotel, stopping near the entrance to sing several more songs -- including a version of “We Shall Overcome” with verses insulting John Kerry and Vice President Dick Cheney -- in front of the entrance before dispersing.

The Family That Sleeps Together

Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards made a brief but well-received appearance at the New Mexico delegation breakfast Thursday.

He got a laugh when he said his wife had promised their young children that if they behaved, they could sleep in their bed.

“That made for a long night,” Edwards said.

Edwards told a reporter that New Mexico was one of 5-10 delegations he’d spoken to that morning.

A spokesman for Attorney General Patricia Madrid -- who was Edwards’ state campaign manager for his presidential caucus campaign -- said Edwards invited Madrid and her husband Mike Messina to join the Edwards family in their box seat overlooking the convention center to watch Kerry’s acceptance speech.

MORE CONVENTION COVERAGE AT NEW MEXICAN SITE

In case you're having a hard time finding my other convention stories on The New Mexican's website, here's some quick links.

*Story about the FREE SPEECH ZONE

*Story about the MANY PARTIES for the New Mexico delegation and who's paying for it

*MY PREVIEW of the Democratic National Convention