September 2002

The Perp: CRAIG FRAID
The Victim: NEIL HAVERTY

Although he's also known for his looming bass presence in Music For Mapmakers, as well as his writing for Chart, Exclaim! and the now-indefinitely-shelved AntiAntenna webzine, Neil Haverty also knows his way around wistfully complicated pop songcraft. He's been performing live around town in one-man-band solo-troubadour mode for the past few years, a project which surprisingly has yet to grace a Wavelength stage until this month, on Sept. 1st. In time-honoured two-birds/one-stone tradition, our man Fraid found this occasion to be a great excuse to hang out and listen to records at Neil's swank Annex pad rather than be forced to deal with such outmoded forms of interviewing as posing actual questions:

BEEKEEPER
"Won" from s/t (Southern, 1998)
A dirgy stilted 6/8 shuffle blares from the boombox]
Neil: I know this. This one's easy, too...
Craig: This band's connectable to one of your favourite Canadian bands. You might have first heard them opening for a certain band from Ottawa that I know you really like...
Neil: Is this the first Weights & Measures? [Vocals come in] No. I can't believe I don't know this. I think I listened to this a week ago!
Craig: They're from the States. It's a guy and a girl who trade off vocals, one of whom is in Ñ
Neil: Beekeeper!
Craig: Yeah.
Neil: Yes. Okay. I got this four years ago because Julie Doiron recommended it, and I was obsessed with her at the time. She recommended Beekeeper and The Peter Parkers in particular, I remember.
Craig: I guess I was being too presumptuous, because I figured you saw them open for the Wooden Stars.
Neil: No, I'd never seen them play. I think they broke up by the time I'd heard about them. I've been trying to get a hold of Matt Schickele from this band's solo album for about a year now. Back to the Wooden Stars, though, I only got to see them play once, when they were Julie Doiron's back-up band, but did separate sets and then collaborated at the end of the night. I wish I'd seen them earlier, though. Some of the best show stories about them seem to be from when Mardi Gras came out, but, having gotten into them around The Moon, I guess I missed out... I can't believe I didn't get this one, though, it was so fresh in my mind!
Craig: There's still time to make that up. [Laughs]

FELA KUTI & AFRICA 70
"Expensive Shit" from the Africafunk comp (Harmless, 1998)
[Trademark Afro-beat staccato stick hits on the "3" and "4" kick in right away]
Neil: Antibalas... No... Femi, right? Or is it Fela?
Craig: That's interesting how you went through all three in complete reverse chronological order!
Neil: Well, I went in the order of what I listen to most, since I listen to the derivatives way more often. See, Afrobeat's one of those genres where I love it, but can't really differentiate... Seeing Antibalas live at the Exclaim! party made me think of how what they need in this city is an Afrobeat dance club or night. I mean, what other kind of music makes even the most jaded indie kids dance their asses off like that? I heard something ridiculous, that Fela has close to 150 albums or something like that...?
Craig: Maybe all together, including bootlegs or repeated tracks, kind of like James Brown or Elvis records.
Neil: I was thinking the other day, though: imagine if you had your regular CDs, but then had a second collection of Fela or Bob Marley or Elvis or James Brown or somebody with a huge back catalogue... It's sort of appealing to me, although I think my taste's too diverse and I'm not that much of a completist. Like, if you like an average band, you'll get all five or so of their records, but to have every thing Bob Dylan or someone like that ever did?
Craig: It's so much easier to do that on the internet, though, which I did to a lesser extent with Fela a year or two ago, Ôcuz the double-album reissues were so expensive...
Neil: I'm still hopeful about the internet serving as this archive of pretty much everything you'd want, not that I know how it'd be done properly, but, I mean, the instant access Ñ
Craig: Well, to somehow make a network that's more like a library, like the "Global Jukebox" idea that Alan Lomax tried to set up. The best chance there is for material being archived that way is stuff in the public domain...
Neil: Yeah, think of how much that would revitalize the cover song. Actually, with the 50-year rule, think of what could become public domain in the next 10-15 years or so, y'know, certain Beatles stuff and whatnot... That's weird.
Craig: I also wonder if record companies are going to try and get the 50-year law repealed and extended...
Neil: Well, I know that there was a lobby for 75 years instead... How long can it go on for, though, without stuff getting freed up? Illegalizing appropriation totally kills great art...
Craig: Then there's the opposite phenomenon with plunderphonics and "bootlegs," where the unlawfulness makes it more fun and vital in a way...
Neil: Yeah, that rebellious element is really important, actually.

DAVE BRUBECK
"Blue Shadows In The Street" from Time Further Out (Columbia, 1961)
[An atypically ballad-like 9/8 waltz is softly plinked out on piano]
Neil: This is a challenging one.
Craig: This is someone where there's total time-primacy, where odd times are most important, since they were novel for pop tunes at this time, the fact that it's not a standard 3 but 3 groups of 3 instead could be a subtle hint...
Neil: Brubeck?
Craig: Yeah.
Neil: That's all you had to say, 'cuz that's the reason I listen to him. A lot of it's pretty cheesy, but the way the band so effortlessly plays weird times is great. I mean, there's a newer modern album of his where he pulls out like a 21 or something! I mean, personally, I could lie and say I can play in 13s without even thinking about it, but I can't! It opens so many doors, though, 'cuz sometimes just sticking to 4s and 3s can be pretty limiting... There's a balance that's needed, though. You just have to make sure that you don't lose the song.
Craig: By playing with adding and substracting beats, you can make standard chord progressions sound fresh again.
Neil: It opens so many doors as far as what you can do with traditional changes Ñ it's definitely an important source for innovation if you use it well.