The Blind Shake - Rizzograph
ARTIST.....: The Blind Shake
TITLE......: Rizzograph
LABEL......: Learning Curve
URL........: www.theblindshake.com
RIP DATE...: Dec-31-2005
STORE DATE.: Oct-11-2005
GENRE......: Indie
QUALITY....: VBR / 44.1Hz / Joint-Stereo
SIZE.......: 30,7 MB
Track Listing:
01 - Him In His Uniform 01:47
02 - Calling All Horses 01:46
03 - Running From The Mail 02:04
04 - Slow Mover 02:32
05 - Homecooking 01:36
06 - Grey Sleeves 00:34
07 - Painting Room 01:35
08 - White Mocha Army 01:15
09 - Decathlon 01:26
10 - Honeytown 02:39
11 - Lap Dog 00:39
12 - Crazymaker 01:53
─────
19:46 min
Release Notes:
www.learningcurverecords.com
Thelonious Monk was said to play the notes between the keys,
sticking his fingers into those unreachable spaces where
microtones and otherworldy scales live. True as that may have
been, it's also impossible (a paradox which, considering Monk's
paranormal mystique, was exactly the point). For those non-magical
musicians closer to Earth, then, a more practical way to scratch
those hard-to-reach notes is required.
Jim Blaha, guitarist and singer for local noise-rock trio the
Blind Shake, works his own brand of off-key mystique into his
songs, but through a more direct approach; he just tunes his
guitar strings to whichever bizarro half-notes he thinks the song
needs. If the next song is in a different tuning, he has another
guitar prepped and waiting nearby. That this strategy requires him
to tote no fewer than four guitars onstage every time he plays a
show is a necessary, if showy, consequence.
"People probably see me walk in with all these guitars and go,
'Who the fuck is this guy?'" he says.
"They don't realize they're the shittiest $100 guitars you can
buy," laughs his brother Mike, the Blind Shake's other
singer/guitarist.
The siblings are eating dinner with their drummer, Dave Roper, at
Grumpy's in downtown Minneapolis. They look like slightly skewed
mirror images of each other: Both have shaved heads, short noses,
and square jaws. Jim, a former track athlete, is svelte and
inward; Mike, a former football star, is thicker, more talkative.
Jim plays a standard guitar, while Mike plays the less-common
baritone version. "He's 15 months older," says Mike, citing the
number like it's a distance he's been running his whole life. "And
I'm 15 pounds heavier."
Grumpy's is a tailor-made setting for a band like the Blind Shake.
When it opened in the late '90s, owner Tom Hazelmeyer secured
funding through his other venture, Amphetamine Reptile Records.
Now, sipping sodas beside the bar's front windows, sit three guys
who picked up the torch dropped by that noise-rock label's old
standard-bearers--Hammerhead, Calvin Krime, the Cows, the Freedom
Fighters--and are running hard with it. And if the band didn't
already feel at home in this den of hard-drinking Melvins fans,
the hulking dude behind the bar is none other than Rainer Fronz,
founder of Learning Curve Records, the label that signed them.
("He can dunk," says Mike of the former basketball player-turned-
post-punk impresario. Jim laughs. "Yeah, that's why we signed with
him. Because he dunks.")
It's Thursday, and the band is skipping their usual rehearsal to
recuperate from a three-week tour promoting their debut,
Rizzograph, a hard-and-fast little album released on Learning
Curve in October. Rizzograph is a quick study of the sonic formula
that turned AmRep into one of the most successful indie labels in
Minneapolis history. Each short song turns on a single, dissonant
riff, with verse, chorus, and (the occasional) bridge all within a
minor step. Even the vocal lines are delivered as riffs, hanging
loosely on the rhythmic foundation, adjusting its shade and
texture but never its shape. This high-energy blueprint runs
through the entire record, making up in consistency what it lacks
in dimension. Packaged as 12 90-second songs, Rizzograph could
just as easily be one incredible 19-minute song. But then, when
would Jim switch guitars?
The crowds on this most recent tour were especially rapt by the
band's fuzzy noise blanket. "It was definitely our most successful
tour yet," says Jim, who can't agree with Mike about whether it
was the group's third or fourth tour. One thing they can agree on:
Grand Rapids, Minnesota, is their favorite place to play. "They
have a great scene up there," says Jim. "Kids were shouting our
name and even singing along with our songs."
"It's so fun to play those small towns," adds Mike. "And the bands
there are getting so good. It's funny, because you play there, and
you kind of watch the kids grow up. They're getting taller. Their
bands are getting better. Their girlfriends are getting hotter."
"If you print that last one they'll probably kick my ass," he adds
with a chuckle.
The Blind Shake know something about the small-town experience,
having been born and raised in Lake City, an ironically riverside
little town 80 miles southeast of the Twin Cities ("The birthplace
of water-skiing," Mike brags). After a short stint in Bovey,
Minnesota (Mike: "Home of the picture Grace!"), the stir-crazy
brothers migrated to the Twin Cities. When Roper, a high school
chum, ditched law school and followed them to Minneapolis, they
formed the band, taking their name from Omar Abdel-Rahman (a.k.a.
the Blind Sheik), who was jailed for masterminding the first World
Trade Center bombing ("It was funnier before September 11," Mike
admits).
After four years of figuring out the Blind Shake sound, listening
to Vaz records, and establishing the roles in the band--no easy
task with two sibling rivals on guitar and nobody interested in
playing bass--the group is anxious to record their next album and
begin their fourth (or fifth) tour. It's hard to tell whether all
this creative energy exists because of the brothers' natural
competitiveness or in spite of it.
"That's the great thing," says Roper. "No matter how much they
argue, the band can't break up."
"Yeah," says Mike. "Because I know where he lives. I know where
he'll be eating dinner on Thanksgiving." (citypages.com)
ENJOY! SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL NOISE!