Drakkar SaunaHere are three things that Wallace Cochran told me in an interview last week to promote Drakkar Sauna's May 18 performance at RIBCO:

  • The old-school country duo's upcoming album (set to be released on August 1) is titled 20009, which is pronounced "two thousand-ousand nine."
  • "It's a theme record. It's about astronauts and love. Mostly astronauts and rocket travel and the failures of rocket travel in history."
  • "Jeff [Stolz] definitely brought the Louvin Brothers to our relationship, and I'm glad I could respond to that with Mandy Patinkin."

A word of warning: None of this is necessarily true. Interviews with Drakkar Sauna typically play like dry comedy routines between Cochran and Stolz, as if they were lost members of Spinal Tap. For evidence, see the e-mail interview between the band and Daytrotter.com founder Sean Moeller, who has previously featured the band on his site and is bringing them back to town for the show and another recording session.

But while the band's interview style might be self-effacing and silly, and there's undoubtedly an oddball element to the music, it would be wrong to accuse Drakkar Sauna of not taking its craft seriously. On the band's albums, indie-sensibilities are fused with old-time country in an appealingly ramshackle concoction that sounds as if it came from a time-traveling saloon.

Photos by Chris Jones of Tuesday's show with Tantric at RIBCO:

John Brown's Body

One of the label mates of John Brown's Body is the Easy Star All-Stars, and that outfit has presented albums by Pink Floyd, Radiohead, and the Beatles in a reggae style. Surprisingly successful, these recordings manage to retain the identity of the original songs while staying true to the reggae style -- an artful translation.

What John Brown's Body does is more like a fusion of reggae with other styles. Reggae is the primary ingredient -- "On top of that is where we really start to inject our flavor and our influences," said drummer and band co-founder Tommy Benedetti in a phone interview last week -- but the tastes include hip hop, funk, and progressive rock. And while the base -- the drums and percussion, the bass, and the horns -- is unmistakably Jamaican, its variety and skillful blending defy pigeonholing.

The band -- which will perform at the Redstone Room on May 12 -- began as a roots-reggae ensemble but has gradually shifted to something more amorphous. The death from cancer of bassist Scott Palmer in 2006 spurred several lineup changes, most notably the departure of founding singer/songwriter Kevin Kinsella.

The transition from traditional reggae was already underway by then. Kinsella was the only credited songwriter on the band's 1996 debut, but by 2005's Pressure Points, singer Elliot Martin was the dominant creative force.

Benedetti said that while he will always love traditional reggae, Martin's contribution of "33 RPM" to 2002's Spirits All Around Us was "one of the watershed change moments that we really had. ... When we started rocking that tune live, it was a whole new ballgame."

The shift was a "natural progression" from there, he said. "Elliot ... was really pushing the sonic barriers and really into making more cutting edge -- ... darker grooves, different textures, different sounds.

"Scott's passing was definitely the catalyst for ... people wanting to step out. ... The wheels were in motion. The band really needed a breath of fresh air at that point."

He and Martin "wanted to re-focus the band and the sound," Bendetti said. "We had a lot more music to give and to play."

Because Martin had been gradually taking a larger role, last year's Amplify, the band's first album since Palmer died, isn't a significant departure from its predecessor, he added. It's more like a continuation. "I think our fans realized that the band was evolving," he said. "The sound of JBB when Kevin left didn't drastically change. ... The essence of the band and the live show and the sound we've created over all these years ... was definitely intact."

The album is first and foremost a showcase for Martin's strong melodies and voice, but the instrumental textures are often scintillating. "The Gold" starts with horns that could be drawn from a Mexican gangster movie, and the song documents a life on the lam, with Martin's voice gracefully skating a tricky line between singing and rapping. "Ghost Notes" was written for Palmer, and it's a lovely, soulful, blossoming lament with a detailed instrumental bed under Martin's soaring voice, which sustains an almost frightening emotional fervor.

The closer you listen, the more Amplify reveals, and the reggae core ensures its instant accessibility. Benedetti said that John Brown's body will never abandon its Jamaican-music roots, but its goal is to stretch the boundaries: "We're just trying to breathe life into reggae."

John Brown's Body will perform on Tuesday, May 12, at the Redstone Room (129 Main Street in Davenport). The bill also includes Passafire, and the show starts at 9 p.m. Tickets are $12 and available at RedstoneRoom.com.

For more information on John Brown's Body, visit JohnBrownsBody.com or MySpace.com/johnbrownsbody.

 

The High Strung

On the one hand, Josh Malerman -- The High Strung's singer, guitarist, and songwriter -- sounds receptive to new ideas. When I asked whether the band will record an album of library songs -- the on-the-spot compositions generated with the help of the audience at the band's many gigs at public libraries -- he replied that generally the songs are performed once and then disappear.

But then: "We have probably 12 this year," he said. "If we recorded those 12, that's an album. I actually think that's a very good idea. Maybe we will. The more that I talk about this, I really think that we should just do that."

On the other hand, Malerman said he was perfectly happy for the trio to record with the same producer (Jim Diamond) well into old age. When the Detroit group's label suggested a new direction, Malerman said he was skeptical. He recalled that a representative told the band, "You've made three albums with this guy. Time to do something different." That was seconded by the High Strung's drummer and its bassist, but Malerman had to be sold: "I was ready to keep going like we were going until we were 80."

The High Strung will perform a Daytrotter show at Theo's Java Club on Friday, and the band's story suggests that Malerman indulges wacky ideas more than he rejects him. The group left its old tour bus in front of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, and it is probably best known, from a 2005 This American Life story, as the band that plays gigs at libraries -- full rock shows missing only booze and profanity.

Cross Canadian RagweedOn Cross Canadian Ragweed's 2007 album Mission California, the lead track is "Record Exec," and the prompt was the legendary Tony Brown, the co-founder of the band's label who played with Elvis Presley and produced records by everyone from Steve Earle to Reba McEntire.

Elvis Perkins in DearlandElvis Perkins is so full of articulated doubt in our interview that I ask him a blunt question: Does he like being a songwriter, musician, and bandleader? Because it seems like a miserable existence for him.

"Is that how it sounds?" he replied.

Superdrag

The first impression of Superdrag's Industry Giants is pure punk on "Slow to Anger," barely updated for the new millennium, and the second impression is My Bloody Valentine on "Live & Breathe," with its patient, droning guitar textures. The rest of the band's comeback album is confirmation that it defies pigeonholing.

But Superdrag -- which will be performing a Daytrotter show at RIBCO on Saturday, April 24 -- isn't impressive for merely being more than competent at different genres. What's striking is that it's nearly liquid; despite the stylistic shifts, the quartet is comfortable enough in the songs that the music all sounds of-a-piece. While Superdrag never transcends its influences, it is sometimes their equal, and that's no faint praise.

Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit

As part of the three-headed songwriting monster of the Drive-by Truckers, Jason Isbell was overshadowed by Patterson Hood's grim, vivid, and vernacular Southern tales sung with an inimitable, scorched voice that could become a haunting howl.

That says more about Hood than Isbell, though. Isbell wrote some the Truckers' prettiest music, but the band has never been much about pretty. Its three-guitar attack and working-class outrage meant that Isbell's songwriting and singing contributions to Decoration Day, The Dirty South, and A Blessing & a Curse got largely lost. And the truth is that his vocals are probably better suited to the Eagles than the Truckers.

When Isbell in 2007 split from the band (by all accounts amicably), it freed his songs from the Southern-rock context and gave them the space to be appreciated on their own. And following a 2007 solo debut mostly recorded with his Drive-by Truckers bandmates, the new Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit - released in February - represents a clean break.

I'm guessing the Quad Cities-based metal outfit won't approve of my labeling them "soft," but I intend it as a compliment. And I don't mean the quintet is a bunch of poseurs; they're still metal, but they're not made of titanium.

Because of its aesthetic constraints, metal often strips bands of credible emotional content, obscured by the muscle and attitude. And if one strays too far from the formula, it risks losing its bad-ass credibility.

In All Its Glory, on its self-titled debut, strikes a balance between sensitivity and a hard edge.

Photos by Chris Jones. Click on a photo for a larger version.

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