Q&A with Montgomery Symphony Orchestra

MADE Paper: Kimberly Wolfe, how are you? 

KW: I’m great, I love MADE Paper so this is fun.

MP: Could you tell our readers a little bit about your musical background? Is it true you are a multi-instrumentalist? 

KW: Yes. I started taking violin lessons when I was five through the Suzuki Method, which is training that focuses on strengthening the ear. At age nine, I was taking piano, and by age thirteen I was learning operatic arias and placing in local competitions. I attended Boston University’s Tanglewood Institute for vocal study in 2004 and spent some time in Nashville playing “fiddle.” Not many people know that I am a Jazz enthusiast and singer and play Jazz on the violin. While studying at Huntingdon, I played gigs at the Renaissance Hotel and The Olive Room to help with my college expenses. I had some really cool local musicians who acted as my mentors in Jazz, like Pedro Louis Mayor and Sam. 

MP: I recently learned the MSO has a radio show. What sorts of things happen on this show?

KW: During Carolyn Hutcheson’s “Community Focus” radio time block, [MSO Conductor] Maestro Hinds talks about a variety of musical subjects. Interviews include local musicians and MSO Fellows. If you tune in, you will definitely learn something new! The show is so much fun.

MP: When and where can the public tune hear the MSO’s weekly radio show?

KW: Thursdays at 12:20 pm, you can listen by tuning in to Troy Public Radio, 89.9, if you are in the Montgomery area. We also try to post shows on our Facebook page if you missed it.

MP: Whenever I go out to see a symphony, I feel inappropriately dressed. What sort of attire should one wear to a symphony orchestra performance?

KW: We have so many age groups that attend the Symphony and although many people enjoy dressing up for a night out, it’s not required. We often have students from colleges and grade schools that come and wear t-shirts and jeans. We want the community to feel like the orchestra is accessible. If that means they come in casual clothes, it’s fine with us!

MP: Some of our readers are curious to know about what sort of classical music you like. Do you have any current favorite composers or compositions? 

KW: I just finished an interesting documentary on Philip Glass who I believe is a really compelling composer for our time. I love Yann Tierson’s work and most people recognize his music score from Amelie. I always enjoy Mozart and Chopin, Gershwin is fun. Classical music helps to create a moment and build drama, so I advise people to throw some on if they are playing a board game….it really heightens the experience immensely. I typically crank up the 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky (with cannons) when I am winning at Settlers of Catan. 

MP: Let’s say I was, for example, someone who plays a fine instrument, one that traditionally might belong in an orchestra. How would I go about potentially becoming a part of the MSO?

KW: We typically audition traditional orchestra instrumentalists in August. If you played an instrument that does not “go” with the orchestra….it would probably be best to contact our office. We rarely need bagpipes or a banjo but it wouldn’t hurt to ask. We always love it when local musicians want to show support of the Symphony even if it means showing up and being enthusiastic about the music.

MP: The MSO, as I understand it, is able to host and feature star performers from faraway places, and does so currently. Could you tell us about the artists-in-residence? 

KW: We are so fortunate to have Delyana Lazarova and Genevieve Guimond as our active Fellows right now. These brilliant young ladies will offer six concerts through our Fellowship Series at the Wilson Auditorium in the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts. These concerts allow audience members to have a more intimate musical experience and get to know the Fellows. We will also feature performers this year through our Symphony Concerts at the Davis Theatre and through the Vann Vocal Institute (VVI). The VVI performance this year will feature some world-renowned artists from the Chicago Lyric Opera and the Metropolitan Opera. It’s a free concert we’re offering on October 16th at 6:30 at Huntingdon College for all those interested. It’ll be epic!

MP: I understand it is traditional to give soloists flowers after a performance. Does every soloist get flowers, male or female? What kind of flowers are appropriate? 

KW: [After a quick phone call to check] Typically, we give the females flowers and the types may vary.

MP: The Davis Theatre is a beautiful venue. Could you tell us about where its located, and what parking is like there?  

KW: The Davis Theatre is such an amazing place. I don’t know if people really understand how many fantastic musicians have appeared on that stage. I view the Theatre as sacred territory since I experienced some of my very first concerts and plays there. As far as parking for a concert, it’s always good to show up ahead of time to get the right spot, but we have ample parking around Troy University’s campus.

MP: If I wanted to go see a performance of the MSO, where can I check the schedule?

KW: You can check out our schedule at montgomerysymphony.org or call our office for official concert dates.

MP: What number do I call to order tickets? Can I order tickets over the internet?

KW: You would call 334-240-4004. We offer ticket prices online, but usually the public either calls our office ahead to order tickets or we give them out at the Davis Theatre box office. If you want reminders on when tickets are available and concert dates, we can add you to our mailing list any time.

MP: And typically how much are tickets? Are we allowed to talk about that?

KW: We offer individual tickets at the Davis Theatre ranging from $14.50 to $30.00 per concert. Tickets for students are $12.00. For the Fellowship Concerts at the Wilson Auditorium, you can purchase a ticket for $15.00, and students can come for free to those.

MP: This performance you have coming up on October 13th, can you tell us about what makes it such a huge event for the MSO?

KW: October 13th is our opening night, kicking off our official Season! It’ll be an awesome show featuring the amazing talents of both our Violin Fellow, Delyana Lazarova, and our new Cello Fellow, Genevieve Guimond, in her first performance. 

MP: There must certainly be an enormous amount of considerations at play when it comes to what musical works are selected. Could you tell us about how the selection process works?

KW: It’s a choice typically made by Maestro Hinds but he also takes into consideration with great sensitivity the expectations of our audience, talents of our orchestra members and the musical contributions made by our talented Fellows.

MP: Finally, do you ever get to jam with the orchestra?

KW: I played in the Youth Orchestra and, at one time, with the Symphony. 

I certainly have tremendous respect for these musicians. As far as jamming goes, I’m sure as I gain further knowledge of the Symphony’s operations there will come a time to get back out there with voice or violin. For now, all I can say is stay tuned!

MP: Kim, thank you for agreeing to this interview!

KW: My pleasure.

Album Review: Aphex Twin - Syro

WORDS Brian Carroll

With nineteen pen names in tow, the most famous being Aphex Twin, legendary British DJ and producer Richard David James has been releasing electronic music for decades, and is easily the most influential electronic artist, period. Any dolt with a Bop-It! has the ability to call themselves a Techno musician, but unless said dolt is familiar with the music of Aphex Twin, you can rest assured they’re just spinning their wheels. 

A hard-working and prolific early adopter for countless now-standard mechanized styles and sounds, James has never been terribly shy about pointing out the similarities between himself and classical composers. To wit, half of Aphex Twin’s previous tentpole release - a double album called Drukqs – was just recordings of James timidly exploring ways to control a harpsichord-sounding prepared piano with a laptop. Serene, but not exactly Mozart, two of the resultant pieces paired nicely with Sofia Coppola’s film Marie Antoinette, but Drukqs - its companion disc a wall of Chopped-n’-Screwed drum attacks more befitting his skill set - was to be considered more dandy “flop” than “fop.” 

Fast forward thirteen years and all is forgotten. One day, a neon blimp bearing the Aphex Twin insignia appears over London. The same logo is discovered stenciled on the sidewalks of several of the world’s key music outlets, venue owners either shaking their fists in the air at that rascally AFX or deeply flattered, depending on their lucidity. Before long, a new album called Syro is announced on the seedy Deep Web. The official album art for Syro features a typed receipt tallying all the promotional costs and a list of gear used in the album’s creation. Transparency? Check. Hype? Double Check. Music?

Check. Unlike a dark swath of James’s enormous catalog, Syro appears to be a friendly handshake offered without hidden daggers or devious grins. Featuring non sequitur vocal snippets from James, his wife, and young son, this family affair comes beamed to us from their home in rural Scotland, where James has been quietly preparing as many as six new releases of material over the past decade. The album’s name, a nonsense word provided by James’s aforementioned six-year-old boy - budding Techno producer himself - sounds like “tyro,” but is even easier to say, making it simultaneously an apt title and Junior already out to be more gifted at naming things than George Lucas’ kids. 

An open invite to novices and curmudgeons alike, Syro acts an intro guide not only to the world of Aphex Twin, but to that of electronic music in general. Acid, Jungle, and Breakbeat - genres considered dead as a doornail only yesterday - have been dusted off and put on the hit parade again in a single, confident masterstroke. Though a charming and educational host, James’s personality remains as loud, animated, and colorful as a Kandinsky painting, so noobs be warned, his music can be quite dominant even when it’s at its sunniest. 

I could prattle on about the essential building blocks and alphabetical coloring books that make up its DNA, but as an album, Syro remains complex and unrelenting, having been built around a sputtering e-bass shot through countless signal chain processors. Its long, jittery jaunts, punctuated by the occasional modern effect and (softsynth or vocal) overdub, are both stifling and commercial - in such a way that makes you want to gasp for air and consume items at the same time. While listening, you feel like Kino at the outset of Steinbeck’s The Pearl, making long, strenuous dives in search of glimmering treasure. 

Wisened by age, and perhaps sweetened by fatherhood, Richard D. James has placed up a cordon so that the teeth of his machine can no longer damage innocent passers-by. That he would take the middle path as opposed to the devilish bombast of old is a constructive move, but it can feel at times like an attempt to reclaim the glory stolen by James’s many notable peers and followers, especially those who sit closest to him in the music tree. As such, it might not feel great to be Boards of Canada or Amon Tobin right now, because regardless of whether or not he has made his best album (as some have claimed), he has come very close to making theirs. 

In closing, Aphex Twin is such a beloved counter-culture figure that his return would merit a hooray even if Syro was composed entirely out of sampled goat bleats. Considering that it is instead a generous helping of personable, fluid, jazzy music, it can be highly recommended – even to the person who is generally repelled by modern art. Casual listeners may require a break while digesting the lengthy album, as Syro’s constant barrage of musical Seussisms tend to drown out all external speech and thought. It’s action music, the sound of verbs, so if you find yourself in the zone, doing something creative or set to a task, it’s a wonderful pick. To those of you who have never been into Electronic music before and wouldn’t know where to start, consider Syro your once-in-a-blue-moon opportunity to jump on board. Bop it!

Secret Stages, In Summary

WORDS  Brian Carroll

In August, I went to Secret Stages in Birmingham and had a blast. Featuring over sixty unknown bands in five neighboring venues, it was a music lover’s Disneyland and I highly recommend you go next year. Here are some of my favorite shows from the two-day event:

The Debauchees – Louisville, KY

Like a Rockabilly Arctic Monkeys, mysterious young Louisville trio The Debauchees delivered a sharp and clever set with a shy, devil-may-care attitude and wound-up punk energy in spades. Singer Sydney Chadwick hid behind her hair, a Squire guitar, and dangerously advanced vocal and guitar melodies flanked by a super-tight rhythm section. With no aspirations to stay in the garage, the band led the crowd through a cool, mischievous set that began at viable, Mr. Gnome-like Pop/Rock and crested with face-melting Math Rock and Jazz flourishes without losing their signature sound. I was surprised to see how surprised the band was that everyone liked them so much. It’s entirely possible Louisville audiences don’t know how to process a band this aggressive and mischievous. 

The band has a record on Spotify called Big Machines and Peculiar Beings. You’re likely never to find a more delectable concoction of sweetness, detachment, and ennui than spinning, eerie 6/8-power-ballad “It’s All Endorphines.” After looking that song up, check out the next track, hyperactive Latin phrase dropping “I’ve Got Energy.” Looking back, I can tell that the band played a couple of searing ass-kickers that aren’t on their album, so put the band’s live act on your radar. Something about their inescapable Southernity combined with such a European sound makes you want to root for the group as they find their way through the murky indifference of the American music landscape. Anthony Fantano is full of shit, Big Machines and Peculiar Beings is a great record. Check it out.

Mechanical River – Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston two-piece Mechanical River put on the most-talked about set of the weekend at brightly-lit fashion store Harold and Mod. Essentially a cymbal kicking one-man band with a tambourine shoe and electric cigar box ukulele, backed by yet another multi-instrumentalist, singer / songwriter Joel T. Hamilton howled to the pop deities Casio and Roland through a microphone embedded in a football helmet. 

Laying out their gear on an ironing board, the band’s homespun charm, positive songs, lack of slickness, and outright sung compliments won over the crowd, changing the early dynamic of the weekend from a ticking a checklist of second-hand-buzz bands to seeking out the groups with the weirdest names that no one knew anything about. 

With soft fuzz and reverb repurposed as a warm glaze, Mechanical River’s natural combination of folk, Lo-fi Electro Pop, and Chillwave sounds like a Walkmen- and My Morning Jacket-friendly update of XTC’s lush psychedelia lightly frosted with the spooky Folk sweetness of Devendra Banhart and John Jacob Niles. Though much cleaner than his live set, Hamilton’s latest album, Astral Castle, is beautiful and worth seeking out. 

Passing Parade – Jackson, Mississippi

What started as a hard-rocking and tuneful Power Pop set by the down-to-earth guys in Passing Parade quickly evolved into something stranger to the morbid delight of those in attendance. After a couple of balls-to-the-wall, high-flying stadium Rock songs, the band took it down a notch to explore noisy Delta-inspired blues for the rest of their set, and in the mix I heard a glorious, beefy rebirth of the Morphine sound. Maybe I’m just the sort of listener who gets the band, but hearing a loud, swaggering Rock set with swamp roots exposed stood out as authentic when compared to so many of today’s Indie Rock acts that mimic safe, easy-peasy influences. In talking with the singer Cody Cox about life in Jackson, it sounds like the state next door’s capitol city is enjoying a musical renaissance, with group shows among original bands at an all-time high and plenty of neutral, unbranded turf to go around. 

Courtesy Armand & Secret Stages

Armand Margjeka – Birmingham, AL

I wanted to include one of the several wonderful local bands in attendance at Secret Stages. From the impeccable art direction and costuming of sprawling Hip-Hop group The Green Seed to the nuanced, jazzy guitar feedback symphonies of Baghouse, the festival was a great way for me to check out several of Birmingham’s most popular bands all in one go. 

Solo artist Armand Margjeka, backed with four additional players in support of his recently released album Hummingbird, put on an otherworldly, moody set with the most inherent journalist cud of the bunch: First off, the guy’s from Albania, and though gruff in appearance, is a sweet, soft, and modest balladeer at heart. Margjeka began his set with an unusual stylistic homage to Phil Collins’s “In the Air Tonight,” accomplished by use of requisite a capella vocal effects and moody lighting (drum pad suit a no-show). 

It was the perfect sundown music, but as the band quizzically explored other comfortable Eighties Contemporary influences like Peter Gabriel, Robert Palmer, and Paul Simon, I kept wondering if they were ever going to break out the rugged Eastern European gypsy folk you could hear being repressed in the architecture of Margjeka’s songs. When finally unleashed and fully endorsed by his band, the Near-Russian influence emerged to a powerful, impish extent at the set’s nadir that the crowd roared in delight and approval. While you might be tempted to hear a replication of Margjeka’s tricky intercontinental bait-and-switch on Hummingbird, the record, unfortunately, doesn’t do the robust, twangy live set justice. Seek out Armand Margjeka, Baghouse, and The Green Seed in concert ASAP. 

In closing: Secret Stages is tricky for just one person to cover, with four or five concerts going on simultaneously, no one experiences the same festival as the person next to them. I swore I’d return in 2015 to recapture the permasmile of being up close to so much unknown music. Even though I was perpetually on the move, it was the closest thing I had to a vacation this year. The event showcased a mind-blowing amount of incredibly grateful and talented underground musicians, and I can tell the festival was a moving, bright point of the year for many of them. Many thanks and good blessings to the people behind this event for giving them all equal billing. That sort of open-minded, generous spirit is what being a good host to musicians is all about, a point sadly lost on the overwhelming number of originality-phobic venues here in Montgomery. As for you, reader of music columns, you must find a way to go to Secret Stages next year.

For details on this year’s event and to stay tuned for 2015, visit www.secretstages.net.

Album Review: Spoon - They Want My Soul

WORDS Brian Carroll

Coming as they do from a consummate “album band,” new releases by Austin five-piece Spoon are considered gratification for the Beatles / Stones camp, Classic Rock radio lovers let down by post-9/11 music culture. The group’s last LP, Transference, explored a prickly anti-pop domain only to be overlooked by the general public, an inevitability that disappointed the already drained band. After a hiatus, recharged at least to a smolder, the band hired MGMT producer Dave Friddman to help them explore the other side of their coin: commercial appeal. They Want My Soul, the band’s anticipated ninth album, is being touted as their most accessible release to date.

Often described as minimalist, Spoon eviscerates large sections of fat from their songs to exert a fascinating self-control, unlike bands like The XX or Low, who start small and stay there for a discrete purpose. When faced with the candy shop of production gimmickry available to today’s well-funded Rock band, Spoon doesn’t so much opt out as engage in musical bulimia. Hearing what they keep in and what they omit is part of what makes engaging with their albums a ritual and enduring pleasure.

Masters at staying on the bucking bull that sends lesser mid-level groups hurtling either to a sanded-down commerciality or nebulous nowheresville, it would appear you’d be wise not to doubt them, but is the new album an overcorrection? 

Bookended by bland, harmless filler, They Want My Soul is a real seven-ten split. “Rent I Pay” is a simplistic caricature of their earlier work, so to see it rushed out as both the first track and single points to one of Spoon’s weaknesses: not always understanding what people like about them. Another potential red mark is that the group, guided by the distinct brand of their new producer’s sound, has responded to the cactus-like, angular dryness of their last release by pushing themselves into a lush (but cold) Modern Contemporary world, one in which their edges have been nearly too smoothed out for the comfort of the inner hellion that lies at the heart of Rock and Roll. 

As much as you might fear the misdirection the band could go from here, they’re not there yet, singer Britt Daniel anti-heroically snarly and personable as ever. He goes to great lengths to adhere a dissatisfied humanity to the windexed production for balance. The problem is that drama-rich They Want My Soul promises to be about something: society, social media, the NSA, Youtube commenters, haters, hipsters, hamsters, zealots – The trope of THEY – and a soul in peril, but Daniel seems too distracted by an unrelatable NYC heart-stomping to focus, splitting the narrative to such an extent that you wonder if the tracklist wouldn’t best be served as two brilliant, five-song EP’s. 

Thankfully, Britt’s mojo-less spirit aspect evaporates at just the right times on record, such as when he delivers a life-affirming suckerpunch to Zach Braff on “Outlier.” Despite strategic missteps at play, Spoon’s overall craftsmanship is keen, and while taking fewer risks, they still elaborate on old sonic ideas their fans wished they would, headphone-ready scorchers like “Knock Knock Knock” showing off the same dizzying cut-and-paste doodad editing chops of Gimme Fiction’s “Was It You?”

“Do You,” the album’s second single, is such cyclical fun that you could Doot-Doot-Dit-Do It on repeat for hours and just get lost in it, like all of Spoon’s best songs. Also darn good is the incredulous early-Beatles-via-Ann Margret cover, “I Just Don’t Understand,” a straightforward rendition of the vampy, ragtime-tinged waltz that flirts with Zombies – of the Argent variety - yet continues to fly further sunward toward the heat of The White Album’s “Yer Blues.” 

Single three, “Inside Out,” is fresh oxygen, its semi-sloppy Chinese harp scales endearing rather than irritating. Meanwhile, buried on the B-side, little gem “Let Me Be Mine” takes a straightforward Power Pop beat and twists it into an Alan Parson Project before dropping down to a moonlit forest for sublime owl hoots in the breaks. That’s good weird, a great example of how Spoon likes to climax in a cinematic fashion, preferring to use the last track (in this case, the gross synth dance tune “New York Kiss”) to roll credits by rather than leave the audience hanging. 

The band’s burnout preceding this release sounds like it’s been well-bandaged. Producer Friddman may have cobbled a swift and decent Spoon album, an infinitely more popular cousin to their last, but it’s hard to shake the sense that there are a few hairline cracks in the vacuum, with generic Eighties and Nineties Top 40 seeping into Spoon’s carefully curated world. The few sour tracks from the band’s prior releases may have been too odd, but they had character, unlike the blah that threatens to shade They Want My Soul’s short tracklist. Musically still very worthy, but a missed thematic opportunity, a last minute lyric restructuring might have been enough to make it a bona fide classic from the band. As it stands, it’s just another feather in their cap.

They Want My Soul is best seen as an incremental improvement, or minor comeback, if you will.  “Do You,” now enjoying airplay, shares real estate with several well-adorned, equally strong friends. If you like Spoon, listen to the whole thing, get as obsessed with the act as a Spoon release demands. Bands of Spoon’s caliber and pedigree are rare on today’s radio, so grading them solely upon their latent capabilities can make criticism misleading when they still destroy ninety-nine percent of their competition. Longtime fans will admit that the band is capable of better work, but not too much better.