Featured Interview

HIM

Late last month, Ville Valo, frontman for Finland's biggest rock band HIM, found himself "slowly trying to get back to life, bit by bit," in the land down under. Following a thirty-hour flight and a couple restless nights in a hotel next to a construction site, Valo spoke via phone from Brisbane, Australia, not long before HIM took the stage at the internationally-known Soundwave Festival. Discussing HIM's widespread worldwide success – the band has the distinction of being the only Finnish band to have a gold record in the United States with their fifth release 2005's Dark Light – Recoil had an unexpectedly existential conversation with the more mellow than melancholic Valo. HIM's latest album, Screamworks: Love In Theory and Practice Chapters 1-13, comes after the more metal-ish gloom of their previous album, 2007's Venus Doom, and Valo's publicly known stint in rehab. Recording and performing completely sober, the disc can't exactly be called HIM's "happy" album since it still stays true to the band's sorrowful, self-described "love metal" sound, but in tone it comes the closest out of any of the band's seven releases. Intending on discussing the differences between Screamworks and HIM's previous efforts, the twenty-minute conversation instead ventured into how Valo doesn't want his songwriting to turn him into a hooker, how he dislikes the term rock star, and how Valentine's Day makes him sick.

Fruit Bats

"We're one-twentieth Kalamazoo is what I like to say," Eric Johnson, founder and primary songwriter of the indie folk-rock band Fruit Bats, told Recoil last month. He was referring to his band's bassist, Chris Sherman, who's originally from Battle Creek, and whose family frequently comes out to the band's gigs whenever they're in West Michigan, including their appearance last fall as the headlining act of WIDR-FM's annual Barking Tuna Festival in Kalamazoo. Johnson himself spent time growing up in Michigan, both in Ann Arbor and the Upper Peninsula, before his family settled in the Chicago-land area, where he got his start in music with the short-lived '90s group I-Rowboat. Going on to perform sideman duties for Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock's Ugly Cassanova project and Chicago post-rockers Califone, Johnson started Fruit Bats in 1999 as an outlet for his own songwriting, releasing their first three albums (2001's Echolocation, 2003's Mouthfuls, and 2005's Spelled In Bones) as almost entirely solo endeavors. He eventually relocated to the West Coast about six years ago, first living in Portland, Ore., and most recently moving to Los Angeles, and confessed that his most recent songwriting efforts for last year's The Ruminant Band find him expressing a lyrical fondness for the grim factories and cold weather of the Midwest. In fact, he returned to Chicago to assemble the solid five-man lineup Fruit Bats has had for the last two years, enlisting drummer/producer Graeme Gibson and lead guitarist Sam Wagster to join him and longtime collaborators Sherman and keyboardist Ron Lewis, in crafting the new album's more expansive '70s rock sound. Also known for his role as a touring member of Sub Pop labelmates and indie favorites The Shins, Johnson spent half an hour discussing how much Fruit Bats have grown and changed.

Rubblebucket Orchestra

The Boston, by way of Burlington, Vt, and soon-to-be-Brooklyn-based jam-collective Rubblebucket Orchestra has found something of a second, or maybe third, or fourth, home at Founder's Brewery here in Grand Rapids. Returning in support of their sophomore self-titled album, released last year, the eight-member Afro-beat-inspired outfit will play two shows in West Michigan, first at The Strutt in Kalamazoo March 12 and then Founder's March 13. Lead vocalist/tenor saxophonist Kalmia Traver shared her excitement for experiencing the energy of those two venues again with Recoil during a phone interview last month, discussing the differences between the band's new album and their 2008 debut, Rose's Dream, their diverse influences, and her joy of diving in and interacting with crowds. Beginning back when Traver and bandleader/trumpeter Alex Toth performed with Boston reggae group John Brown's Body, Rubblebucket Orchestra started during a late spring 2007 jam session the two had with percussionist Craig Myers (of Phish's Mike Gordon Band fame). That epic rehearsal led to others, with more people joining in on the group's feel-good atmosphere. Soon the band started playing gigs and not long after began touring. Most recently earning acclaim for their live performances by winning the Boston Music Award for Best Live Act of 2009, following up on their Best New Band award from 2008, Traver said she and Toth will move to Brooklyn this month, joining three of their other members who already live there, and giving the group a firm home from which to expand their energetic sound and their fan base.

Pass of Aggression

It goes without saying that the Grand Rapids rap-rock band Pass of Aggression are angry. Their name speaks for itself. But for the four-piece, formerly known as Vintage since starting out in 2004, their anger comes from their frustration with a local music scene they find "low in strength" and a music culture that has widely turned its back on their style of music.

"Every fucking band in West Michigan thinks they are the hardest, most metal or 'brutal,'" Pass of Aggression frontman John Lee told Recoil. "You all try to play 'metal' music and most, not all of you, play it badly. Where's the originality? Who can't machinegun guitar, and blast beat for 2.8 minutes straight while regurgitating cookie cutter death metal lyrics in a shaky unconfident growl/scream/mumble. Cookie monsters, I call them. There are some diamonds in the rough here in G Rap and the surrounding areas and they know who they are, and take no offense to what I just said because they feel the same way."

King of the forest

Can a rock album be like a gourmet meal and a wooden ship? How about a giant squid and Vincent Van Gogh's painting "Starry Night?" Or maybe just John Wayne because he's bad ass? Well, when talking with the Battle Creek-based alternative band King of the Forest, all of those things and more emerge from their brand new full-length, Intensive.

King of the Forest will release Intensive at Planet Rock in Battle Creek March 6, but the disc has been a long time coming. The beginning could be traced back to November of 2008 when the then two-year-old band parted ways with their previous drummer Fred Trogdon shortly after they released their debut album, The Nerve. The band – made up of sisters Michelle Russell (vocals) and Ashley "Kitty" Russell (guitar), and cousins Joe Klein (guitar) and Willy Klein (bass) – soon advertised for a new drummer, finding Mike Censke on Craigslist.com.

Greensky Bluegrass

There are many cultural experiences to be had in the city of Kalamazoo. It's home to a fine university and some even finer beer. It's a town with an impressive per capita theatre allotment, an underrated symphony and a respectable rock scene.

Modern bluegrass? Yeah, not so much.

Ralphie May

Ralphie May can free an avalanche with an ink pen. The Tennessee-born stand up comedian and Last Comic Standing (2003) runner-up is known on stage for his honest (read: politically incorrect), fast-paced delivery and for saying what his audience is too afraid to think. Off-stage, he's known as a prolific writer who churns out jokes faster than Toyota mails out recalls.

During a phone call with Recoil last month, May – who will perform March 11 at the Kalamazoo State Theatre – explained how his life experiences can steamroll into six or seven minute bits. For example, in January of 2009 he witnessed the "Miracle on the Hudson" (emergency plane landing) alongside his comedian wife Lahna Turner.

Dan Hicks & the Hot Licks

On Thursday, March 11, Grand Rapids will be lucky enough to host the legendary Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks at Wealthy Street Theatre. Hicks has been a pioneer in rock, jazz, and folk for almost five decades and has collaborated with a long list of musical greats. Tom Waits once famously declared: "Dan Hicks is fly, sly, wily and dry" – a description that surfaces constantly, partly because of the renown of the speaker, but mostly owing to the fact that it captures something in the essence of Hicks and his work that can be hard to define.

After playing with the rock ensemble The Charlatans for three years beginning in 1965, Hicks formed Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks in 1968, shifting his creativity toward the quirky folk/jazz/blues fusion for which he is now famous. Despite much commercial success, Hicks disbanded the Hot Licks in 1973 due to internal tensions. It wasn't until 1998 that Hicks revived the group with an entirely new cast to record Beatin' the Heat, which was released in 2000 through Surfdog Records.