On March 17th, 2012, Pat and Ben of Weather Duo met experimental sound poet Jaap Blonk for the first time. Shortly after that, the three recorded the completely improvised live set offered here today. Recorded live and mixed by Steve Gotcher at Audio for the Arts, Madison, WI. The Performance was presented by Surrounded by Reality.

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Panoramic & True is a Chicago band formed around the songwriting of John Lennox. They blends raw, colorful rock-n-roll with the dynamic palette of a full string section. They’ve been called orchestral pop, and they’ll be playing in Madison at the Dragonfly Lounge tomorrow, Saturday, May 12th.  Check out the event here, and read on to see what John had to say about Panoramic & True!

MAM (Corey Murfie): Tell me a bit about your band.  What is an “orchestral pop” band exactly?

P&T (John Lennox): Orchestral pop is the use of orchestral instruments in a pop band. In our case it means putting a string quartet (two violins, viola, cello) alongside a guitars-and-drums band. My songs are still mostly short pop songs built on guitar hooks, but I also like the texture and mood of the strings a lot. Think of pop and soul tunes from the 1960s and the string parts on them: “Stand By Me,” “A Change Is Gonna Come,” or some Buddy Holly songs. That’s the inspiration for much of the “orchestral” side of Panoramic & True.

MAM: What other acts would you compare P&T to?  Who do you like to play with?  Who do you cite as an influence?

P&T: This is a tough one. Because of instrumentation, Arcade Fire and recently Hey Rosetta! come to mind, but we all use strings in very different ways. Obviously bigger bands on stage get that same feeling, though we also play as a guitar-based four piece at times. I also think of early 70s Kinks, and lately more minimalist stuff like Joy Division or Television, in the guitar work especially, though their influence is only on some recent songs. These days, I really love Frog Eyes, a Canadian group, for lots of reasons, some Destroyer, Beach House, the list could go on. Behind all that is 70s Bob Dylan, folk, and country. We like playing with everyone, and prefer bands with a little space in the sound. Time to think.

MAM: How long have you been performing with this group?

P&T: The current line up has been playing since fall 2010. Before that there was about a year of pulling Jamie, Patrick, Dan, and April in the band, and before that it was me and Amanda, AJ, and Randy doing electric guitar and string work (our friend Katy Myers was playing cello at the time).

MAM: Who does most of the writing in P&T?  Is it more collaborative or does one person bring songs to the band and teach them the parts?

P&T: I write the songs and do most of the arrangements. In rehearsal, though, we hash out parts together, and there are lots of little things that don’t come from me, sometimes really great hooks or beats or whatever that aren’t mine at all, but that in rehearsal we find are obviously just right. Randy came up with a great hook on “Dakota Child” that’s coming out on Wonderlust in July. I ended up doing the track, but that hook was his and was so good we all knew it immediately. I usually have a very clear idea of where I want a song to go, sometimes very specific notes, but I’m generally open to suggestions, and consensus has never been hard to reach.

MAM: What musical endeavors have you previously worked on (if any)?  How did you get started playing music?

P&T: The rest of the band’s musical life is rich and varied: orchestras (AJ, Amanda, April), Irish fiddle tunes (Randy), straight up country (Patrick), garage rock (Dan), eclectic pop/rock (Jamie)—this list is non-exhaustive. I’ve always been interested in the 3:00 pop song, in whatever genre it can exist. When living in Montreal I put out a couple albums under my own name. They are more 70s Dylan/Stones-inspired: country guitar bends, etc. I also do a lot of piano songs, as a kind of genre (“Token Resistance” from Wonderlust a recent example), and have since I was 12 or so, when with great trepidation I first started learning pop songs on the piano and making my own melodies.

MAM: What recordings/albums are available for Panoramic and True?  What is the latest?  Where can it be found?

P&T: As of July 20 you’ll be able to get the new album Wonderlust on vinyl/digitally—until then those songs are only to be caught at our live shows. Our debut, the self-titled Panoramic & True (2010) is available for a very reasonable price through most online merchants, our bandcamp page, and in choice record stores in towns we’ve played in.

MAM: What is your personal favorite tune to play?  Why?

P&T: Right now I sit at the piano and play “Leaning On The Everlasting Arms,” the hymn, recently sung by Iris Dement and placed beautifully at the end of the film True Grit. It’s beautiful, deep in image and subject matter, Dement’s version is super inspiring, and I find it good for my voice, as a warm up and a focusing exercise. As a band I think we really like “A Week of Good Health,” another one off of Wonderlust, due out July, though we do it live every night now, because it has so many short and distinct sections that are all fun. It’s really lively.

MAM: What is your favorite snack food?

P&T: Chips (in Canada we have ketchup chips; those are my fave), with popcorn and those Snyder’s pretzels tied in second.

Firecracker is a new single by pop songwriter Tom Teslik. It features two tracks from an upcoming EP to feature songs written for drum machine, bass and vocals. Expect the EP out later this summer.

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While not making singable / folky pop songs, Tom Teslik is busy twisting nobs on pedals, creating experimental rock tunes. Sun Day consists of three of these pieces.  Come back Tuesday for a brand new single from Tom Teslik as well.

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Madison’s only absurdist rock super-group Cribshitter (self-proclaimed as “one of America’s most talented and versatile musician/entertainers”) dig out their own niche with equal doses of musical proficiency, bizarre concepts and potty humor.  The band is consistently genre-defying, and their dedication to the goof is unwavering.  “Mint Car” features mostly-new material (plus a few #1 hits) designed specifically for your station wagon, Sony Walkman™ and/or Tiger Delux Talkboy™.  Expect country, dubstep, make-out tunes and more.

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“Methlehem” is the newest full-length album from Madison-based bizarro-rock band, Cribshitter. As always, the band walks the line between comedy and respect. It’s brilliantly confusing.

Cribshitter
Cry a Little Rainbow (2008, Medicated G Records) $10

“…30 tracks of hilarious musical debauchery and mayhem.” ~ Maximum Ink. Cribshitter’s 2008 debut, “Cry a Little Rainbow” puts you in a weird place. Pop, rock, electronic – it’s all made fun of in the most serious way.

National Beekeepers Society
Pawn Shop Etiquette (2008, Self-Released) $10

“Pawn Shop Etiquette” is the 2nd full-length album from National Beekeepers Society, out of Madison, WI. Released in 2008, this album serves as additional reading for fans of Icarus Himself, which is where you’ll find Nick Whetro and Karl Christenson these days.

In this new EP, John Praw explores change and found-sound to create pieces that more resemble audio collages and case studies in sonic tension. It’s fuzzy, ambient, and sometimes rhythmic.

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The pinnacle interest of the album, however, is Palmer’s wailing drunken slur; equal parts Gerard Way, Julian Casablancas, and Dolly Parton.

~ Jimmy Roxy, Mezzic

Head over to the music blog Mezzic, where they’ve given Six-Gun Rhythm’s debut self-titled release some love.  They gave it an 8.3/10.  You can also stream or purchase “Six-Gun Rhythm” here.

Shenandoah Davis is a singer and pianist from Seattle who creates beautiful compositions with classical sentiment.  Her work is often compared to the likes of Owen Pallett and Joanna Newsom.  This week, Mine All Mine’s Corey Murphy had the opportunity to speak with her in anticipation of her upcoming stop in Madison.  Catch Shenandoah Davis this Thursday, April 12th at the Dragonfly Lounge with Ian Cooke, Ida Jo, and Myles Coyne & the Rusty Nickel Band.  Read on below for the full interview.

MAM (Corey Murphy): Tell me a little about yourself.  How did you begin playing music?  Did you start out playing piano?

Shenandoah Davis: I began playing piano when I was about four years old, and then got involved with choir and theater while I was in high school and decided to study opera performance in college.  About halfway through my program, I realized that being an opera singer was not really my cup of tea, but at my parent’s request I finished college, got my degree, joined a band and started working at a coffee shop like every other 21-year-old in middle America. Then I moved to Seattle, got a job at a fancier coffee shop and started writing songs. That was about three years ago.

MAM: Is your self-titled project your primary focus?  I noticed that you’ve worked with the Seattle Rock Orchestra and Portland Cello Project.  What sorts of experiences and opportunities did these experiences present?

SD: My collaborations with both of those groups has been mostly based on my classical background and penchant for orchestral arranging. I first worked with the Seattle Rock Orchestra while helping another band I was in for a few years (Grand Hallway) with arrangements for our album release show.  During that rehearsal process, I became friends with Scott Teske, their director, and he asked me to play keyboard and percussion parts and sing all of Regina’s parts for the Seattle Rock Orchestra’s take on Arcade Fire’s fantastic record ‘Funeral’.  Since then, they have backed me up in Seattle, and I hope to continue working with them.

The Portland Cello Project is one of my favorite classical-pop groups in the Northwest.  I think that the idea behind what they do – combining cello concertos with instrumental 6-cello renditions of hip-hop songs – is extremely clever and also a fantastic way to get younger folks excited about classical music and the many different ways that it’s possible to bridge out from a classical education into something very much your own.  It makes me feel a little antiquated to say anything about ‘kids these days,’ but classical music is definitely at an all-time low on the ‘cool’ spectrum. What kids fail to realize – and what adults tend to regret and tell me about after shows all of the time – is that the basic knowledge of how music works and how chords work that you pick up by learning how to play an instrument when you’re young is information that you can carry over into any field you choose to pursue.

MAM: What recorded material do you have available, and where can it be found?

SD: I recorded a full-length record in 2008 called ‘We; Camera’ that is still available for sale on iTunes, but in its physical form it has been retired onto audiocassette tape with accompanying digital download.  I also have a 7″ available at shows featuring cover songs of two of my favorite under-recognized artists, Shelby Sifers (from Portland, OR) and Paleo (from Iowa City, IA).  I’m recording a third record at the end of this summer that I’m writing for right now and already getting pretty excited about.

MAM: How have things turned out for those releases?  Have you seen any response to them?

SD: ‘The Company We Keep’ took more than a year to make, front to back, and was mostly recorded and written in between tours (I’ve been on the road for most of the last two years).  Considering it was the first record I had been proud enough of to try to sell, I’m really happy with the way it has been received. It got some really stellar reviews, inspired a congratulatory e-mail from a stranger that spiraled into a pretty amazing romance, and was one of the Top 3 self-released records on CMJ charts out of the whole country in August when it was released. It’s allowed me to not only travel the US since it’s release, but it also opened doors for me in New Zealand and Portugal, where I was for the first couple months of this year.

MAM: Are you touring with a full group or as a solo project?

SD: I’ve toured with a band in the past, but as Ian Cooke is joining me for this tour, I decided to keep our show a little more intimate.  We play and sing with each other from time to time, but for the shows on this tour – as well as the new material that I am writing right now – there is much more of a focus on lyricism and storytelling that I haven’t really experimented with before. For me, part of preparing to create that type of music is to practice playing the kinds of shows where literally every person in the room is completely drawn in by what you are doing.  And to me, if you can find that kind of energy in an audience, it doesn’t make a difference if the audience is nine people in a living room somewhere in the Midwest or two hundred hushed people at a club in Seattle.

I’ve had some of the most miserable show experiences of my life in packed houses filled with drunk people trying to have conversations over my little piano songs, and it really does make you want to go to law school or move into the jungle or just distance yourself as much as you possibly can from whatever music you’re creating when you have to play it in an environment such as that.

MAM: How has the tour gone so far?  Any interesting tour stories?  Have you come across any interesting groups along the way?

SD: This tour has only been going on for about a week, but the week before I went to Denver to meet up with Ian, I was in Portugal.  In February, I was touring around New Zealand with three of my best friends for six weeks.  In January, I was doing an artist residency program through The Beauty Shop in Fairfield, Iowa, and in the fall I did a 14-week tour of the whole United States with a cellist and drummer. So yes, there are some interesting stories, but after traveling for eight months, they all kind of blend together.  I’m sure that some incident on Thursday night will prod my memory and send me on a little reminiscing binge from onstage.

There were a number of musical groups that really blew me away in New Zealand.  Fuyuko’s Fables, and City Oh Sigh from Wellington; Tono and the Finance Company, and Nadia Reid from Auckland; and many others scattered throughout both islands.  I’m trying to take a break from touring after this jaunt with Ian, but it is tempting to just start carting the New Zealand music scene over here one band at a time.

MAM: Thanks for your time, Shenandoah!  We wish you the best of luck this Thursday and beyond.

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Lovely Socialite Mrs. Thomas W. Phipps is a self-proclaimed jurassic jazz-rock band. They move from heavy-hitting jazz grooves to free-roaming improv and back again in their first full-length album, Registers Her Delight.

EDIT: Registers Her Delight is currently available for free streaming for a limited time only.

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