Keller Williams
Keller Williams
Event on 2012-02-25 21:00:00
Most artists would bristle at the term self-indulgent, but Keller Williams often invokes it in describing his own approach to music. To Williams, being self-indulgent means creating music that satisfies him – if he likes what he's produced, he figures, then his audience is more likely to embrace it too. If he's not happy with it, why would they be?
And so, when Williams describes his first-ever all-covers collection, the amusingly titled Thief, as "self-indulgent, like all of my albums," that signifies not an inwardly pointed diss but a thumbs-up from one of the most tireless musical seekers around. Recorded with the Keels – husband and wife duo Larry and Jenny Keel – Thief is a sequel to the trio's 2006 collaboration Grass, and to those of us on the receiving end, there's nothing self-indulgent about it. If anything, it's about as accessible and welcoming a record as Keller's ever made.
Granted, Thief does require a certain amount of blind faith on the part of the listener: This is, after all, an album that includes songs originally written and recorded by as wildly diverse an assemblage as anyone's ever likely to dream up, from Amy Winehouse ("Rehab") to the Grateful Dead ("Mountains of the Moon"), the Butthole Surfers ("Pepper") to Kris Kristofferson ("Don't Cuss That Fiddle," which opens the album, and "The Year 2003 Minus 25," which closes it). The set is filled out with tunes by Ryan Adams, the Presidents of the United States of America, the Raconteurs, Patterson Hood, Danny Barnes, Cracker, the Yonder Mountain String Band and Marcy Playground. All over the place, yup, but that's the way Williams likes it. And in his hands it all makes sense – like everything he's ever touched, whether from his own pen or someone else's, it all becomes Keller Williams music.
"I'm a music lover first, a musician second and a songwriter third," Williams says, "so a covers record is a natural progression for me. I love writing songs and I love performing my songs – almost all of them. But I go out and do about 120 shows a year, and I just can't write enough to play new songs all the time. There are always different cover songs to learn though; just flipping around on the radio, next thing you know you've got a song stuck in your head. If you change it around and play it completely differently, it sounds like a whole new song."
Since he first appeared on the scene in the early '90s, Keller Williams has defined the independent artist. Most of his career has been spent performing as a one-man band – his stage shows are built around Keller singing his compositions and choice covers while accompanying himself with an acoustic guitar connected to a Gibson Echoplex delay system that allows him to simulate a full band. That approach, Williams explains, was derived from "hours of playing solo with just a guitar and a microphone, and then wanting to go down different avenues musically. I couldn't afford humans and didn't want to step into the cheesy world of automated sequencers where you hit a button and the whole band starts to play, then you've got to solo along or sing on top of it. I wanted something more organic yet with a dance groove that I could create myself."
Williams' solo live shows – and his ability to improvise to his determinedly quirky tunes despite the absence of an actual band – quickly became the stuff of legend, and his audience grew exponentially once word spread about this exciting, unpredictable performer. Keller's albums, meanwhile, beginning with 1994's Freek, were embraced by a wide community of music fans. Unlike his live gigs, Williams has nearly always invited fellow musicians to contribute to his albums, and an alliance with String Cheese Incident led not only to Williams signing with the band's label SCI Fidelity, but a collaborative effort on 1999's Breathe album.
Among his other albums – Thief is his 15th – Williams singles out 2003's Dance, consisting of remixes from the earlier Laugh record, as a personal favorite. He's also fond of his twelfth album, appropriately titled 12, the 2007 compilation for which he chose one track from each of his preceding 11 albums. "That's kind of interesting to hear my history one song at a time," Williams says.
That history begins in Virginia, where Keller was born 40 years ago, and where he lives today. Growing up just south of Washington, D.C., he remembers being exposed to a wide variety of music at an early age, starting with country and bluegrass and working his way up through hip-hop and go-go, a brand of funk particular to that part of the country. Once he began playing guitar, Williams' sphere expanded to what he calls "the post-pseudo-skateboarder punk-rock rebellious type of thing, Black Flag and Sex Pistols and Ramones, Dead Kennedys, things like that. That slid into the more melodic college rock, like the Cure and the Cult, the Smiths, R.E.M.'s first five or six records."
His introduction to the music of the Grateful Dead would become a game-changer for Keller. "I studied and learned their music and went to the shows," he says, adding that the impact of Jerry Garcia on his attitude toward music remains incalculable. Another major influence was Michael Hedges, the late virtuoso acoustic guitarist. "He was really excelling in a whole different world from what I knew," says Williams. "What an amazing force Michael Hedges was as a solo artist."
After moving to Colorado for a few years, further exposure to bluegrass music and progressive acoustic artists such as Béla Fleck and the Flecktones also had a major impression on Williams. As he began to develop his own distinctive compositional and performing style, Williams incorporated all of the lessons he'd learned from the long list of artists who'd found their way into his world, then filtered their music through his own experiences until something wholly unique emerged.
Today he is still exploring and expanding – although Thief (each of Williams' albums bears a single-word title) stays close to traditional bluegrass, eccentric song choices aside, Keller says that his most recent music incorporates elements drawn from electronica and DJ culture. Whatever direction he goes in musically, however, Williams is likely to continue to surprise lyrically. Known for writing about subject matter most simply described as unusual, Keller has no intention of going conventional any time soon. "In the history of music," he says, "there are trillions of love songs and there are so many political songs. I try to find subject matter that's not been written about or maybe hasn't been written about that much."
Keller's thirst for music of all kinds has also led him to the world of radio. For the past seven years he has hosted Keller's Cellar, a weekly syndicated program available on both terrestrial stations and online at www.kellerwilliams.net. Williams describes the show as "a self-indulgent (there's that word again), hour-long narrated mix tape of stuff I'm into. It's rule-less except for what the FCC says we can't do. I don't play contemporary country music. I don't play contemporary Christian music – however, there is possibly some old gospel. I don't play opera. Everything else is fair game. World music from all around – African music from all the countries, jazz, funk, reggae, techno, chill, lounge, lounge singers, rub-a-dub, dancehall. I pretty much stay away from smooth jazz. It's definitely a fun outlet for me."
And more recently, to satisfy his bottomless music jones, Williams has also launched "Once a Week Freek" (www.theonceaweekfreek.com), an online repository of unreleased studio and live tracks, nuggets from his archives, etc. "It's a series that's been going on almost a year. It's me releasing one song a week for download. I started it with the Odd record," he says, referring to his 2009 album release. "I'm trying to do something different."
And it's that last sentence that, in a sense, best sums up what Keller Williams has always been about – something different. Call him "self-indulgent," call him "odd" or even a "thief" if you like (those record titles don't come out of nowhere, you know). Just don't even think of calling him predictable. Wherever else Keller Williams may go from here, you can be sure that he will never title one of his albums Repeat or Bore or Snooze. Anything else, your guess is as good as his.
at Aladdin Theater
3017 SE Milwaukie Ave
Portland, United States
Dieselboy with Numbernin6, Big Chocolate – Numbernin6, Big Chocolate
Event on 2012-02-18 20:00:00
This event is 18 and over
Dieselboy
It has been a long road to the top for drum 'n' bass DJ/Producer maverick Dieselboy. After years spent pushing the U.S. drum 'n' bass scene forward and making a name for himself, it's easy to imagine that Dieselboy would want to step back and bask in his well earned success. But this is not the case… because for Dieselboy, it is the continual test that is the inspiration. Seeking out and approaching challenges head on, Dieselboy has taken it upon himself to tear down the walls that isolate music genres as well as expand the worldwide acceptance of drum 'n' bass as a whole and American-produced d'n'b in particular. A part of the stateside electronic movement from the very beginning, Dieselboy is hailed as one of the Founding Fathers of American drum 'n' bass. His passion for the music and his rigorous touring and production schedules have earned him a slot in that upper pantheon of DJs able to perform to enthusiastic audiences the world over. From Hong Kong to Helsinki to Philadelphia, the UK's Knowledge Magazine declares, "Dieselboy has managed to build a fan base that rivals that of any rock star."
The small-town boy, born Damian Higgins, first stepped into music as the drummer in his junior high school band. Growing up, Dieselboy was into breakdancing (which he picked up by watching movies such as 'Beat Street' and 'Breakin'), 80s synthpop, and metal. In the early 90s, Dieselboy was introduced to the classic T99 techno track "Anasthasia" – he was hooked, and an interest in DJing quickly followed. Learning the basics on a college radio show at Carnegie Mellon University (because he did not actually own a set of turntables himself), Dieselboy literally learned how to DJ on the air. "That's where I practiced beat-matching," he notes. He started sending mix tapes out via the Internet, and amassed his earliest fan base not at local raves, but in Internet chatrooms.
Over a decade has passed since the days of Dieselboy's online start-up. Today, he is at the top of his game: he can proudly say that he has one of the longest-running drum 'n' bass weeklies in the nation (Platinum in Philadelphia); he was the first American to be nominated (and win, tying with LTJ Bukem) for best d'n'b DJ at the 1998 Global DJ Mix Awards; the first American to get his record played at Metalheadz (2000's "Invid"); the first American d'n'b DJ to play Fabric in London; the first d'n'b DJ to chart a single on Billboard's dance chart; the first American d'n'b DJ to score higher on DJ Mag's Top 100 poll than a UK DJ (63 to Fabio and Grooverider's 97 and 88). Not to mention he is consistently rated as one of America's Favorite DJs in the annual BPM Magazine reader's poll, and received a nomination for Best Breakthrough DJ at the 2003 American Dancestar Awards.
The ultimate perfectionist, Dieselboy looks at DJing as a serious art form, not some cushy gig. Having every record alphabetized by artist, he's been called "particular almost to a fault." His modest Philadelphia home is filled with collectible vinyl action figures and thousands of records, with a downstairs studio for all his production work. Among his vast music collection one will find everything from My Bloody Valentine and early Verve stuff to classic 70s funk and disco, 80s new wave, hip-hop, and movie soundtracks. A film enthusiast with a photographic memory, Dieselboy watches up to four films a week and can quote from all the reviews.
For his eighth mix CD, Dieselboy dares to challenge the rigid delineations that have long plagued dance music, breaking down the barriers between drum 'n' bass, techno, house, trance/progressive. Entitled The Dungeonmaster's Guide in homage to his role-playing game days (the original Dungeon Master's Guide actually being the first RPG book Dieselboy ever bought), the CD is put together like an epic adventure across a varied and gripping soundscape. "It's a nod to my geek gaming roots," Dieselboy says. All the narration has been scripted personally by Dieselboy, and features the illustrious voice of none other than Peter Cullen, aka the Transformers' Optimus Prime.
Approaching some of the most notable progressive artists in the world, including BT, Sasha, and Tiesto, as well as techno prodigy and Philly compatriot Josh Wink, Dieselboy embarked on a mission to create something unique by having these artists' tunes remixed by a slew of the largest names and hottest up-and-coming drum 'n' bass producers. With the help of Kaos, Karl K, Concord Dawn, Gridlok, E-sassin, and more, Dieselboy collected the tracks for a state-of-the-art mix CD. While orchestrating a project of this magnitude was far from easy, Dieselboy would not have it any other way:
"With every CD, I've tried to set the bar a little higher than the time before. It would be easy for me to churn out a 'best of drum 'n' bass [compilation] every three months, cash in and rinse it out. But I try to do creative, artistic stuff, really go for it and do something different. I didn't get to this point so I could sit back, stop trying and fuck it all up. I'm trying hard now to keep progressing, developing and bettering myself overall as a musician and as an artist. You always have to keep reinventing yourself and doing new stuff, or you're just going to fall through the cracks."
CD 2 of the double-disc set features a bonus EP of remixes of original tracks from Dieselboy's label, HUMAN, started in 2002 as a way to help promote US artists he felt deserved attention. For the EP, he approached some of his favorite US producers to remix the HUMAN singles written by close friends Kaos, Karl K and Jae Kennedy, who blew up in 2003 with a series of Billboard-charting releases and graced the cover of drum 'n' bass magazine RINSE. Among those enlisted to do the remixes are Gridlok, KC, Stratus, Evol Intent and Basic Operations.
Dieselboy has also been experimenting with fusing drum 'n' bass with rock and hip-hop. He has remixed Orgy and Styles of Beyond, and has performed at shows with artists such as P.O.D., Orgy, and System of a Down. He has also toured alongside David Bowie, Moby, Busta Rhymes and Blue Man Group at 2002's Area:2 Festival, and played the main stage at 2003's Cyberfest featuring Kraftwerk, Pharaoh Monch, Planet B and Kevens. For his remix of Styles of Beyond's "Subculture," featured in the Playstation 2 game 'Amplitude', he brought in a live band to flesh out the programmed elements with live bass, drums, guitars and keyboards. "It was an experiment for me, but I found jungle, rock, and hip-hop to flow together very well," Dieselboy says. His next project: producing drum 'n' bass tunes with metal influences for a musical fusion that might just be the next wave in the world of d'n'b and beyond.
at Baltimore Soundstage
124 Market Place
Baltimore, United States
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