Vienna Teng
New Jersey-based Jenny Owen Youngs
brings a more quirky songwriting style to the
bill, more centered on urban-folk instruments
(banjo!) and lyrics that make Cat Power seem
fey by comparison. Youngs’ recently re-
released Batten the Hatches comes packed
full of meaty folk-pop ditties, including the
beautiful “Voice on Tape,” which samples
Regina Spektor in a moving tribute to post-
modern breakup blues. Vienna Teng and
Jenny Owen Youngs play at 8:30 pm Monday,
May 14 at John Henry’s. 21+ show. $10 adv.,
$13 door. — Chuck Adams
That Dude
Green Divas,
As Heard On TV
The well-intentioned plans of eco-friendly
musician club tours — complete with biodiesel
tour vans and service projects at every stop
along the way — oft go astray and give rise to
compromises. Instead of a variety of service
projects, Vienna Teng and her co-bill Jenny
Owen Youngs will primarily volunteer with
Habitat for Humanity (because the nonprofit
works weekdays) and offset their petroleum
usage (biodiesel tour vans were all rented for
the spring season) with donations to Native
Energy, an alternative energy company. In addi-
tion, fans who volunteer with Habitat for
Humanity are eligible to get free tickets to the
show, backstage passes, personalized song
requests and a $10 discount off merch products
(go to viennateng.com/greencaravan for info).
In case you are like “Vienna-who?” or
“Jenny Owen-what now?” maybe you haven’t
been watching quality television lately. Teng
has had her songs featured on the smart-but-
unfortunately-canceled NBC comedy Ed
while Youngs had her cute, incredibly catchy
song “Fuck Was I” featured on Showtime’s hit
series Weeds. Yes, you say, so they are TV
sell-outs, but what do they sound like?
File Bay Area-native Vienna Teng and her
four-piece band just behind Tori Amos and
maybe to the side of Beth Gibbons (of
Portishead). She’s a pianist-vocalist with the
breathy, downtempo jazz delivery of a con-
temporary Billie Holliday. Witness the way she
navigates from the bass-laden lounge-jazz of
“Transcontinental, 1:30 AM” to the newgrass
string section of “1 Br / 1 Ba,” both off her
2006 album, Dreaming Through the Noise.
At first glance, Mike Silverman, aka That 1
Guy, appears to be some sort of Amish cow-
boy inviting you on a trip to the moon. You
might not end up at the moon, but Silverman’s
new album The Moon is Disgusting will send
your thoughts spiraling to a strange world
where everything is animated.
Without even listening to the lyrics, a
story unfolds in your mind. “Dig” inspires
images of cartoon moles, clad in miner hats,
digging their way through underground tun-
nels. When you listen to “Jigsaw,” gorillas
running through the jungle pop into your
head. It could be the simplicity of the lyrics or
the playful way Silverman mixes electronica
with tribal rhythms, but one can’t deny the
animal magnetism and childlike joy encom-
passing his songs.
“The album was originally conceived as
the soundtrack to an animated film I wanted
to make,” Silverman says in press materials
for the new album. “I love music that takes
you on a trip, a journey.”
Like his songs, Silverman’s journey has
been long but well worth the wait. He started
as an upright bassist with a jazz background,
but he became best known for playing his own
invention, The Magic Pipe. This strange con-
cotion has been described as a system of elec-
tronically wired steel plumbing, shaped some-
what like a harp, with a thick bass string run-
ning from top to bottom and a hole that bil-
lows smoke. He later added an electric cow-
boy boot that he plays like an African talking
drum and an electrified musical handsaw.
In response to his live show, Silverman
has said, “These last few tours, I’ve really
noticed it taking off. People are starting to
grab onto it and come back, bringing five or
10 others with them. It’s just growing expo-
nentially.”
That 1 Guy and His Magic Pipe performs
with Wolff (of Drums and Tuba) at 9 pm
Saturday, May 12 at John Henrys. 21+ show.
$10 adv., $12 door. — Deanna Uutela
Earth to Cozmic
A trio of talented singer-songwriters touch-
es down at Cozmic Pizza this week as part of a
tour presented by Utah-based Earthvillage. Eric
Ethan and Erinn Williams hail from the City of
Angels; their tourmate James Orr arrives via
Idaho.
Ethan, the most earnest of the bunch, has
a plaintive and vaguely familiar voice, boyish
and thin. “Dedicated,” a summery, shimmery
track, seems to cross decades, picking from
Britpop, ’60s rock and more with slight
chords and jovial percussion. “Good Morning
Girl” is almost too sweet; those with even a
slight cynical streak may want Ethan to tuck
his heart just a little closer to his chest.
James Orr’s MySpace page immediately
offers up a lovely song, the wispy “Listen,”
synth-soaked and traced with a breathy
female voice that matches Orr’s tired mur-
mur. “In Conclusion,” poppy and swirling with
guitars, shows that Orr isn’t just a balladeer
while “City of Sin” calls to mind the better,
quieter Dashboard Confessional songs. Orr’s
songs are graceful, his unaffected voice
appealing, but he seems to stop just short of
the hook that would stick the song into the
listener’s head for hours or days to come.
Williams is a redheaded siren — and if that
makes you think of Tori Amos, at times (like
in “Damsel With a 6 Gun”) you wouldn’t be
wrong. Adventurous and in complete con-
trol of her versatile voice, Williams veers
from spare, anxious tracks to songs like
the rich and unforgettable “Dirty,” criss-
crossing the territory of a dozen other
singer-songwriters to ultimately land in
a space all her own.
Erinn Williams, Eric Ethan and James
Orr play at 7 pm Wednesday, May 16 at
Cozmic Pizza. $4. — Molly Templeton
crates were deep and his sampling skills were
up there with the greats.
That soulful side of Deadringer kind of
foreshadowed the mellowed grooves behind
his second album, Since We Last Spoke, and
the very non-hip hop soul ballads of his lat-
est, The Third Hand.
There were always elements of rock
music intrinsically tied to hip hop, and even
DJ Shadow utilized rock samples and forms
to craft hybridized hip hop instrumentals.
But with RJD2’s latest endeavor, hip hop has
taken a back seat to his interests in rock
music and rock songwriting. Tracks like “You
Never Had It So Good” find RJD2 playing a
slew of instruments and crooning like a
jaded Jamie Lidell. RJD2’s new direction
undoubtedly testifies to his fine abilities as a
musician and as a songwriter. This should be
an interesting moment to see him
live, especially if you’ve
already witnessed the
“hip hop” RJ. RJD2,
Pigeon John and
Happy Chichester
play at 8 pm
Wednesday, May 16
at the WOW Hall.
$15 adv., $18 door.
— Steven Sawada
RockJD2
Ramble John Krohn — ouch! I bet that got
shortened at an early age. These days, to the
underground rap world he’s better known as
RJD2 — the forward thinking beat maker
who ushered instrumental hip hop from
the DJ Shadow era into the RJD2 era.
With his 2003 debut Deadringer,
RJD2 turned a whole new gen-
eration of young’uns on to
the stand-alone hip hop
beat, yet again reinforcing
the fact that a producer
can have just as much of
an impact on hip hop
music as any MC.
Deadringer, which
spawned the anthemic
“The Horror,” rocket-
ed RJD2 right up
there with producer
peers like glitch hop
progenitor Prefuse
73 but also found him
forging his own territory
with soulful numbers like
“Smoke and Mirrors.”
Where tracks like “The
Horror” proved that
RJD2 could glitch out
with the best of ‘em,
“Smoke and Mirrors”
proved that his record
RJD2
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MAY 10, 2007 39