To use a word that the twins themselves fancy, the Shook Twins are delightful women who play delightful music. Katelyn and Laurie Shook of the Northwest duo the Shook Twins are, quite literally, identical twins. They are joined on stage at Seattle’s The Triple Door by their bassist, Kyle Volkman. With alike voices, Katelyn is the acoustic guitar playing soprano who exalts into a near operatic, classical voice at the end of their set. Laurie is the banjo playing, giant egg-shaking alto of the group who is known to beatbox. They make folk music but I would not be surprised if they progressed into trip-hop.

From the first song, their performance was lovely, full, lush, layered, and beautiful with frisson inducing bridges–and the girls were funny. As their set progressed, the twins began to loop instruments and use more effects. Their songs began to surprise you, like when Laurie started laughing into the telephone mic she had been singing into and you couldn’t tell if it was a deliberate part of the song, but it fit much too perfectly not to be.

Highlights of their set include “Time to Swim” (definitely check out the remix of this song on their website), “Rose” and “Window.”

Below is Randomville’s interview with the Shook Twins, Katelyn and Laurie:

How did the Shook Twins come to be?

Katelyn: Laurie and I started playing regularly after we graduated college in 2006. At first it was just the two of us playing pretty lame covers and very cheesy originals. Then we met Kyle in 2007 as well as a cellist and a drummer. We made our first album You Can Have the Rest with them and toured as a band for a little over a year. Then we moved to Portland and started all over again and grew a lot with our music.

What’s changed for you in the past year?

Katelyn: We started working with a manager, booking agency and a publicist. We met more musicians that are joining us on stage more and we’re feeling a huge shift in quality. The venues have gotten bigger and better and our sound is really starting to take shape. Having more people on our team makes a HUGE difference.

How has the dynamic changed since Kyle re-joined the band?

Katelyn: He’s definitely the back bone of our music. We can always feel a big hole when he’s not playing with us. It’s been very comforting to be able to stand up real straight and tall with him behind us.

What are the musical and personality differences in the group?

Katelyn: I’d say that I am the main writer so I feel myself having the role of conducting the songs that I write. Laurie is the techy twin, meaning she runs our sound a lot, or makes sure the sound engineer at the gig is doing their job. She does all the looping and textural elements that add to our sound. She also edits little videos and mixes live recordings. Kyle is a very fast learner and doesn’t need to practice much at all. He is also the best driver of all the land and gets us to our destinations very safely.

Do you find yourself writing more formally or more casually the longer you are in the music business?

Katelyn: A little bit of both. They seem to be coming out easier and more casually, but we take more of a formal approach to crafting each song once they’ve fallen out. After working with such brilliant artists, we are learning to be more specific and deliberate with our own songs.

I see that you both have a film and media background. Do you want to combine that with music one day? By making music videos, or composing a film, or some other synthesis?

Katelyn: Laurie is using those editing skills we learned in college on our home-made dorky music videos. We’ve always thought it would be cool to have a big part in making a big budget legit music video. Having that degree really did give us a good eye and high standards for video and audio.

Do you both gravitate toward different elements of music?

Laurie: Katelyn gravitates toward the lyrics and melody. They come out of her more naturally. I gravitate toward the rhythm, harmony and form of the song.

You’ve mentioned before that some people make fun of you for writing happy songs. Why do you think it’s so easy for some to hate on people who are perpetually outwardly happy or people who create art, like yourselves, that embraces happy feelings?

Laurie: Because most are not outwardly happy and don’t understand it. Even we are too busy hatin’ to create art sometimes. The more life that happens to you, the more challenging constant happiness becomes. But music sure balances it all out for us.

Is it important to you to keep things quirky and lively in your music throughout your musical life?

Laurie: We always want to keep mixing it up and trying new things. It’s always better when the music is alive. Plus, we don’t really want to take ourselves too seriously. That would get stressful and boring.

What do you want to experiment with more in the future?

Laurie: Perhaps, electronic elements. Maybe going from folk to ambient electronic at the end of a song. Our producer remixed our song “Time to Swim” and we really like the idea of that.

What do you absolutely need people to know about you?

Laurie: That we both have curled pinkies which is why we can’t play a decent bar chord.

Anything you never get asked that you wish people asked?

Laurie: Katelyn was born first, one minute before me.

Photos by Kirk Stauffer Photography.

For those film, musical, and acapella lovers in Seattle, local acapella group, Seattle SoundBYTES, will be performing their original musical this Friday, May 18th.

The musical, inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean and Ocean’s Eleven, is a tale of nine criminals: the cat burglar, the hacker, the counterfeiter, the pickpocket, the muscle, the mastermind, the distraction…and Jack Sparrow.

“Desert Rose/Satrangi Re”:

Four original arrangements are featured in the performance, including their latest single “Desert Rose/Satrangi Re.” Classic hits like “Little Help from My Friends” will also be performed. To top it off, there will be prizes for audience members who catch their movie references. Also, If you wear your favorite pirate costume you will be rewarded with treasure.

The show will be performed at the Hughes Penthouse Theater in the University District on Friday, May 18th at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tickets can be bought here.

We just found out we will be covering the Sasquatch Music Festival again this year. One of the performers we can’t wait to see is young blues guitarist Gary Clark Jr. Don’t know who he is yet? Take it from us: This kid will be world-famous soon, so hold onto anything memorabilia you can get of this guy.

We can help you with that too! We’re giving away a free, signed poster of Gary Clark Jr.! You have until Friday, May 18th at 11:59pm EST to enter. Either leave the comment “Gary Poster” to this story, or send us an email at contests@randomville.com with the words “Gary Poster” in the subject line. You can only enter once, and PLEASE BE NEAR A COMPUTER within a few days after the contest ends. If you do not reply to the email that you won within two days, we will choose a new winner.

GOOD LUCK!!

Check out this video:

About Gary Clark Jr.:

Rarely does an artist explode onto the music scene with the force and impact of a comet. But when it does happen — as it did when 26-year-old singer-guitarist Gary Clark Jr. delivered an incendiary debut performance of his song “Bright Lights” at Eric Clapton’s 2010 Crossroads Guitar Festival last June — the result is magical. Funky, hip, and badass, Gary Clark Jr. is a rocking soul man for a new generation.

Weaned on John Lee Hooker, Lightnin Hopkins, and T-Bone Walker, Clark fuses his deep blues influence with a love of classic hip-hop and contemporary soul. His voice weaves between a melodic lilt and a seasoned blues howl with his guitar licks dancing and dodging between and behind the beat as if the essence of Snoop and Dre loom in his head by way of the Mississippi Delta. The virtuosity Clark displays, and the tone he rings from his cherry-red Epiphone Casino guitar, put most modern rock shredders to shame.

Born and raised in Austin, TX, Clark began playing guitar at age 12. He performed small gigs throughout his early teens before popping up on the radar of legendary promoter Clifford Antone, owner of Austin blues club Antone’s. Through Clifford’s connections, Clark was soon sitting in with and learning from an array of musical icons, including Jimmie Vaughan. Vaughan, and others in the Austin music community, mentored Clark along his path, facilitating his steady rise on the Texas music scene. His peers have showered him with acclaim for his galvanizing live performances. In 2001, Austin’s mayor, Kirk Watson, declared May 3rd to be “Gary Clark Jr. Day.” Clark was 17 years old.

Clark went on to win the Austin Music Award for Best Blues and Electric Guitarist on three separate occasions, in addition to receiving awards from various blues magazines and associations around the country. After playing the nationally televised show Austin City Limits and touring with such artists as Jimmie Vaughan, Pinetop Perkins, and Doyle Bramhall II, Clark released two self-produced albums, and composed the original score for the film Full Count. Clark’s creative versatility and love for not just blues, but also soul, hip-hop, classic rock, and jam bands, has allowed him to transcend his own musical talents. He starred alongside Danny Glover and Stacy Keach in John Sayles’ 2007 film Honeydripper.

In 2010, Clark was the only young newcomer to be selected by Eric Clapton to perform at the Crossroads Guitar Festival, where he performed with Doyle Bramhall II and Sheryl Crow. A DVD of the show, released last November, led to Clark’s signing with Warner Bros. Records for whom he is currently working on his major-label debut album. Clark’s singular talent has also attracted a bevy of artist support, including accolades from Sheryl Crow, Citizen Cope, Damian Marley, Ron Wood, and Questlove. As the latter recently Tweeted after witnessing a December performance at New York’s Brooklyn Bowl: “I don’t think y’all understand the greatness that is in front of you. Gary Clark Jr. is kickin’ ass and takin’ names.”

Each month we feature a new charity to share with our readers in hopes that they might donate to or at least spread the word to others for awareness. For May, we are profiling Little Orphans Kitten Rescue, a non-profit that helps save the lives of young kittens based out of Northern Kentucky.

The focus of Little Orphans Kitten Rescue, Inc. is helping the most helpless furry feline friends. Based in Northern Kentucky, this fledgling organization focuses on fostering and raising abandoned and orphaned kittens less than six weeks of age until they are grown and healthy enough to be available for adoption. Bottle feeding and attending to various medical needs are just some of the many daily tasks required. Little Orphans Kitten Rescue, Inc. believes that no healthy kitten should be euthanized because a human being willing to care for them has yet to be found.

Due to the costs associated with caring for very young cats, Little Orphans Kitten Rescue, Inc. is expanding their fund-raising efforts with an eBay Auction of Original Cat-Themed Art to start on May 12th, 2012. After auction and shipping fees are deducted, 75% of the proceeds will be given to Little Orphans Kitten Rescue, Inc. and the remaining 25% will be given to the artists as compensation for their time and materials used to create the pieces for auction.

The organization was founded by Nancy Hancock after years of volunteering her time, energy, and home to foster neonatal kittens. In June 2011, Nancy formed her own non-profit organization specializing in kittens still in need of nursing. Little Orphans Kitten Rescue, Inc. relies on the help of volunteers and foster homes to help fulfill their mission and obligation to kittens.

Little Orphans Kitten Rescue, Inc.’s kittens are typically found, rescued, or have been abandoned by their mothers. Bottle feeding and consistent human interaction helps socialize the kittens and, depending upon the foster home, some are socialized with dogs and other cats to help them adapt to a new forever home environments.

Prior to adoption every kitten is age-appropriate vaccinated, FeLV and FIV tested, treated for parasite, spayed or neutered, micro-chipped, and given other medical treatments if necessary. An application process and adoption fee is required prior to a kitten being released to its forever home.

Please visit www.orphankittens.org or like their facebook page for more information. Please keep an eye on the comments thread for more information about the organization.

If you have an idea for a charity that you would like to have profiled on Randomville, then please contact us at randomville@randomville.com

Each month, Randomville profiles an artist that Barsuk Records provides us. For May we’re profiling Ramona Falls.

The last time I saw Menomena perform, it was their first show to kick off their tour for their new album Mines. I had seen the band several times and had been a fan for years. From a fan’s perspective in the audience, the new songs sounded great, the performance was great; everything looked fine.

Until multi-instrumentalist Brent Knopf quit the band.

Knopf had spent ten years and been through four albums with the band, but according to him, opinions on how to make records began to change and the processes were just different. “I really held on as long as I could. In hindsight, maybe I should have left a year earlier.”

Rest assured that bad blood didn’t stain the relationship between any of the musicians. Earlier this week, Menomena left Knopf and his new band, Ramona Falls, a Tweet wishing him a happy release for his new album that came out on May 1st, Prophet.

Knopf’s response: “@Menomena aw, shucks, thanks Danny and Justin. I can’t wait to hear your guys’ new LP, congrats on finishing it! Long live Menomena! <3 B”

This isn’t the first album by Portland-based Ramona Falls, which features (still current) Menomena band mate Paul Alcott, Matt Sheehy and Dave Lowensohn. The band actually released Intuit back in 2009, while Knopf had some down time from Menomena.

Watching them all shuffle instruments in concert made Menomena fascinating to watch live. Knopf says that all of these guys are multi-instrumentalists as well. “But there is much less shuffling with this band,” he says. “I’m playing guitar and keyboard.”

Knopf is still using the Digital Looping Recorder (Deeler for short) to write most songs, as seven of the eleven songs from the new album started off with the Deeler. (This video explains The Deeler, but basically it just starts off with looping sessions, then he goes back and combines parts of the sessions to make actual songs). Lyrics almost always still come last.

“In Menomena, I used to leave a lot of space open for the others to jump into the songwriting process, whether they would jump in or not,” says Knopf. He says the guys in Ramona Falls understand that it’s more of his role to be the bus driver, so to speak, now.

Is he accepting that pressure well? “Yeah, it’s more work. But being less hybridized is what was happening towards the end of my time with Menomena anyway.”

Knopf claims to have had minor self-confidence and nervous issues in the past about his music, especially on stage. Now he says he’s learned to turn off his conscious brain as a cure. “The conscious brain can interfere,” he says. “Singers can forget lyrics when they are focusing on the next lyrics coming down the line. Then it gets even more weird when you need your conscious brain to return between songs so you can speak to the crowd.”

To go deeper into his brain, Ramona Falls is named after a waterfall located near Mt. Hood, OR, a place where Knopf used to hike as a child. “I try to hold on to childhood a lot,” Knopf admits. “I remember learning about the time between thunder and lightning as a kid, and how that determines how far away lightning actually is. This was the idea behind ‘The Space Between Lightning and Thunder’ on the new album. Moments of catastrophe.”

Staying with the child-like theme, two of Ramona Falls’ videos feature a larger-than-human sized frog in a top hat. “That is one of my dear friends, Nicholas. ‘Toad’ we call him,” Knopf laughs. “He is one of my best friends.”

Ramona Falls kicks off a cross-country tour on May 9th in San Diego. And while “Toad” will not be on tour with the band, Knopf assures that Toad, “is quite special and in demand.”

It seems like the older and older I get, the more and more I absorb the sadness when someone dies. I never met Adam Yauch, or MCA of The Beastie Boys as he was also known as. But just because I never met him, that doesn’t mean I can’t feel sad about his passing of cancer, which was confirmed today. He was 47.

As is often common when someone we know or care about dies, I started thinking about Beastie Boys memories and how that band influenced my life. To this day, I can still remember my cousins Dan and Jason giving me a tape with the tail end of an airplane on it. It had the words “EAT ME” written backwards on the plane. It was called Licensed to Ill, by a band called The Beastie Boys. The year was probably 1986 or 87. Up until that point, other than the classic rock I was raised on, Poison and a host of other shitty 80s bands were popular at the time. They were all I really knew.

Rick Rubin produced Licensed to Ill. Let’s not forget that.

The Beastie Boys opened a brand new door for me (and The Red Hot Chili Peppers too). I knew about rap like RUN-DMC and maybe a few more videos on MTV, but these were white guys rapping, and being silly, not serious. It was brilliant. Revolutionary for their time.

Some labeled them as poseurs, wanna-be’s; the term “wiggers” might have come about because of them. Women often hated the Beastie Boys due to their sometimes subjective and raunchy lyrics (see the song “Girls”). Regardless, they were the “newest, in new” as Ad-Rock has sang in the past.

Yauch and the Boys eventually grew up. Paul’s Boutique is, in my opinion, one of the best albums of all time, and certainly in my Top 10 best ever. RollingStone only ranked it number 156 out of the best 500 albums ever. I could argue at length about this.

Yauch became a hard-core advocate for the people of Tibet, as the band began to do a lot in the 90s to raise awareness. MCA even famously sang in the song “Sure Shot”:

I Want To Say a Little Something That’s Long Overdue

The Disrespect To Women Has Got To Be Through

To All The Mothers And Sisters And the Wives And Friends

I Want To Offer My Love And Respect To The End

Wait, what? The Beastie Boys were growing up??

I think those guys are often over-looked at just how good of musicians they really were too. Go listen to the instrumental album The Mix-Up sometime. Yeah, that’s all them.

I have to admit I wasn’t a big fan of their last album, Hot Sauce Committee Part II, but I haven’t liked anything by The Red Hot Chili Peppers in years either, nor anyone from that era, really. But if you were around in the mid-80s, chances are you remember just how cool The Beastie Boys were. They were pioneers and they absolutely deserve their recent nomination into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Of course I’m emotional and biased about this death because it’s about someone that was an important part of my childhood. Many more are on the way and who knows how many more farewell articles I will write? Hopefully none for a while.

Farewell MCA, and my thoughts are with your close friends and family. I can only imagine how difficult this is for Adam Horovitz and Mike Diamond. It was well known how close those three were. I really doubt the band will continue without him, and I wouldn’t have a problem with that.

I can still recite the words to “Paul Revere” at will, and I’m proud to say that.

Todd Snider at The Triple Door, Seattle

Todd Snider played The Triple Door in Seattle on Friday, April 20, the second of a two-night event.  Although it was 4/20, Todd was under heavy instruction (threats) by the management not to smoke anything green in the green room.  Okay, so what did the managers at The Triple Door expect when they decide to book a show on 4/20? Not that Snider smokes dope; he just needed a word that rhymed with “Pope” in his song, “Alright Guy”.

A Nashville transplant (make that East Nashville) originally from Oregon, Snider is most widely known in Seattle for his deliciously funny take on 90′s grunge with a song called “Talkin’ Seattle Grunge Rock Blues,” although this song was missing from Friday’s set.  He made up for its absence with a fine set of old favorites, other songs that appealed to the local crowd, new ones from Agnostic Hymns and Stoner Fables as well as a few surprises.

The Triple Door Stage

After settling into our dinner theatre booth and dining on tasty appetizers, we were ready for the opening act, Reed Foehl, a folk singer from Colorado.  Foehl and his duct-taped Guild guitar played a peaceful 30+ minute set of  heartfelt songs with a little harmonica thrown in as needed.  His playing was perhaps a little too soothing for the rowdy Todd Snider crowd, but the people were respectful and listened or finished up their meals while he performed.  I purchased Foehl’s second album entitled Stoned Beautiful after the show.  It has a serene quality, something akin to an Adirondack chair on the back porch.  His clear voice with a hint of vibrato lies somewhere between John Denver and Ryan Adams.

Reed Foehl

Notable songs Foehl performed at the show included the title track, “Stoned Beautiful” and “Carmalina,” also from his second album.  He also performed a beautiful cover of John Prine’s “Mexican Home” and mentioned that Prine is his hero.  Lee Ann Womack, a mainstream country singer, will cover one of Foehl’s songs called “Fly” in the near future.

After a quick break, loud and masculine whoops and cheers erupted as the house lights dimmed.   The “Sanford & Son” theme song played while Todd entered the stage, joined by Paul Griffith on drums and Eric McConnell on bass.  They took a couple of minutes to settle in and don their instruments.  Todd slipped off his canvas tennies while his roadie Elvis handed him his Epiphone; then “Judas went electric.”

Eric MCConnell, Paul Griffith and Todd Snider

Snider electrified the audience with “In Between Jobs,”  a gritty and bluesy tune off his new album.   His character feels the frustration of being stuck in between jobs and watching the rich get richer.  “What’s keeping me from killing this guy–taking his shit?  Can you dig it?”

Mr. Snider is a man of the people;  he’s a folk musician/genius with a very humorous and witty take on serious social, religious and political topics.  He’s The 21st Century Mark Twain of Folk.  Before judging him and his views on the state of the human race, relax–it’s funny shit.  The stories Snider tells in between songs can be equally entertaining, although he might ramble on “for as long as 18 minutes.”   He also comes armed with a disclaimer regarding “making this shit up” and sharing his opinions via his songs with the audience.

Next, a local favorite, “Ballad of The Kingsmen.”  He added an update regarding Marilyn Manson and changed the line about how Marilyn was a skinny public high school kid who joined a band and got all the girls.  Instead he added, “Well, he could be working at Wendy’s now; but the point is, he had a good run!”

“Too Soon To Tell” was another song off his new album and includes a great line, and possibly my new motto: “Everything in moderation, including moderation I suppose.”  Here is a clip of his song from “American Songwriter“:

Tonight, he told The Aaron Allen Story, which I will not attempt to re-tell here, but the main idea of the story was the advice he received from Mr. Allen, paraphrased as:  “If you want to be a musician for a living, you must ask yourself if you can you pack up your life, everything you own, in 15 minutes.  There might also come a time when you need to do this out of necessity.”

He played a couple of other local songs, including one about his stint in “Tillamook County Jail” where he said he had to also do community service, and the probation officer appointed him to teach kids about drugs.  Big mistake!  “D.B. Cooper” was another favorite played later in the set.

Before breaking in to “The Devil You Know,” a song about crime in the ‘hood, Todd exclaimed, “East Nashville – We’ll steal your heart AND your lawn mower!”

He officially ended his planned set with another new one called “Digger Dave’s Crazy Woman Blues,” a slower, stripped down version, which then picked up in volume when the bass and drums joined in.  He then transitioned into “Alcohol and Pills.”  I watched his big toes curl back a little when he emphasized a high note.

Todd Stompin' It Out

Snider then started taking requests (the audience shouted out requests between songs from about the second song on!) and led off with “I Can’t Complain,” “Play a Train Song” and the sing-along-if-you-aren’t-too-drunk-or-maybe-even-if-you-are ”Beer Run.”  After that song, he raised his arms in triumph.

He did play “Alright Guy”  and made reference to the fact that there are a lot worse things a person could do besides what he was going to do in the green room on 4/20.

Snider also released a tribute album to his hero and mentor Jerry Jeff Walker called Time As We Know It: The Songs of Jerry Jeff Walker.  He told a story about being in a Santa Fe club with Jerry Jeff and hearing Mr. Bojangles being picked on a banjo somewhere.  The two took to the street and found a solitary street musician, playing only for them.  They listened, and neither of them told the musician he was playing in front of Jerry Jeff Walker, the man who composed the song!  Todd said, “I must’ve done something right in my past life to be able to witness that with Jerry Jeff.”  He then played a very sincere and tender version of “Mr. Bojangles” and gave proper respect for Mr. Walker.

No election year would be complete without “Conservative Christian Right Wing Republican Straight White American Male” in the set.  He bowed and exited the stage after this song, but the audience brought him back for the encore, “Louie Louie.”  First, Todd told a funny tale about having a girlfriend years ago who wanted him to get a real job and sell his guitar.  Then he thought to himself, “I could be outta here in…” the audience joined him and shouted in unison, “15 minutes!”

UPDATE: CONGRATS TO CHRIS ADKINS OF INDIANAPOLIS, OUR CONTEST WINNER!!!

Ah yes, contest time once again at Randomville! Who would like to win a free Lithograph (sorry, not signed) of The Mars Volta? We’re going to make one lucky fan a winner!

Here is what you have to do: Either leave the comment “Mars Volta” in this story, or send an email to contests@randomville.com with Mars Volta in the subject line. You have until 11:59pm on Thursday, April  26th to enter the contest.

You can only enter once, and please check your emails within two days after the contest ends. If the winner doesn’t respond within three days after the contest ends, we will pick a new winner.

GOOD LUCK!!!

Picking up the pieces from At the Drive-In, Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez formed the Mars Volta and wasted little time branching out into elements of hardcore, psychedelic rock, and free jazz that expanded on the boundaries of their previous work. Although their previous band’s demise ultimately arrived before they were able to truly capitalize on their mounting commercial triumphs, the Mars Volta immediately impressed with their willingness to eschew conventional logic and push themselves into new artistic directions instead of opting for the more marketable sounds. (Interestingly, their progressive yet streamlined approach gave them the early lead among critics against their former bandmates in Sparta, the more emo-leaning of the bands resulting from the split.) Bixler-Zavala and Rodriguez-Lopez enlisted friends Ikie Owens (also of the Long Beach Dub Allstars) and Jeremy Michael Ward, and the Mars Volta debuted with the EP Tremulant in 2002. Still, as much of their reputation was built on the strength of their live show, their highly energetic performances resulted in a wave of word-of-mouth hype that elevated the band to near-mythic proportions because so little of their recorded material was available to the public. Sadly, Ward passed away May 25, 2003 at the age of 27 from an apparent drug overdose. The Mars Volta had recently returned from an European tour supporting the Red Hot Chili Peppers, where they introduced brand-new tracks from the full-length De-Loused in the Comatorium, which was released via Universal the following June.

The band returned in early 2005 with their second full-length, the ambitious song cycle Frances the Mute. (They also issued the live set Scab Dates later that year.) Leading up to the release of third album Amputechture in September 2006, drummer Jon Theodore quit and was replaced by Blake Fleming (who had played on early Mars Volta demos). The album also featured an expanded role for the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ John Frusciante. Less than a year later, in late 2007, the new single “Wax Simulacra” paved the way for the fourth Mars Volta album, The Bedlam in Goliath, which debuted at number three on the American albums chart. Less than two years later, the band had prepared their follow-up, a slightly quieter outing titled Octahedron that became their debut for Warner Bros. Rodriguez-Lopez has also recorded multiple times, producing more than a half-dozen albums within the span of as many years. In 2011, it was announced that At the Drive-In would be reuniting, though this didn’t slow down Bixler-Zavala and Rodriguez-Lopez, who released their sixth album as the Mars Volta, Noctourniquet, in early 2012.

Quite frankly, I’m surprised with how Damon Albarn’s career has turned out. When Blur was put on indefinite hiatus back in 2004, I thought that the Britpop superstar was destined for an unremarkable solo career. After all, how did most of our favorite frontmen of the 90s cope after their massively successful bands broke up? We’ve seen poorly received solo projects such as Billy Corgan’s TheFutureEmbrace, creations of mediocre “supergroups” such as Velvet Revolver that had too much ego for the band to survive, and even head-scratching embarrassments at making a crossover that proved damaging for the artist’s brand (Chris Cornell’s Timbaland-produced *Scream*, anyone?). All of the aforementioned attempts at becoming solo successes ultimately failed, and in the past few years, many of these frontmen got back together with their former bands, primarily to regain the artistic credibility that they once thoroughly enjoyed but had now become tainted.

I expected Albarn to similarly return to his band in shame after he realized that none of us cared about what he did after Blur. But in a strange twist of fate, the exact opposite happened. In the past 10 years, Albarn formed Gorillaz, a band that was actually taken seriously in the public and critical eye; fronted The Good, The Bad & The Queen, a supergroup that actually worked; and even wrote the wildly successful Monkey: Journey to the West, an electronica-tinged, Asian-influenced opera that sold out many of London’s biggest venues. Not only has Albarn maintained his relevance in the past decade, but he has also expanded his brand, properly experimenting and integrating his sound with different styles of music and gaining recognition as a serious musical visionary as a result.

Which brings us to his latest release, Rocket Juice & the Moon. Albarn again takes his music in a different direction, abandoning the electronic depths of Gorillaz and the conventional rock of Blur for the Afrofunk and psychedelia of Rocket Juice. This isn’t a total surprise; Albarn had previously incorporated African elements on the final Blur album Think Tank, but Rocket Juice & The Moon provides a vehicle for him to explore the genre in full.

Of course, Albarn rarely delves into his ambitious experiments alone, and Rocket Juice is no exception. To round out the band, Albarn has brought back Tony Allen, his drummer for The Good, The Bad & The Queen and one of the pioneers of the Afrofunk movement, and has brought in a new collaborator, Flea, of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, on bass. The two play off of each other very well; Allen’s African-influenced drumming pushes Flea’s signature bassline into a previously unheard direction of world music, notably on the lead single “Hey Shooter” (featuring “The Queen of Neo-Soul” Erykah Badu). Flea’s notorious funk influence allows Allen to incorporate a more dance-y beat, as evident on instrumentals such as “Rotary Connection” or “Night Watch” creating psychedelic funk soundscapes reminiscent of Parliament/Funkadelic.

The drum-and-bass duo often steal the show for Rocket Juice, but Albarn exhibits the same unselfishness that made The Good, The Bad & The Queen so successful. The album has a very loose feel, and Albarn often lets his band members do the work and improvise to their hearts’ content, but on every song, Albarn always comes in with the right keyboard/horn/vocal hook to break the monotony and often adds a new dimension. His keyboards on “Night Watch” becomes the most memorable aspect, and his piano gives the album’s conclusion “Leave-Taking” a stronger pump for the pulse provided by Allen and Flea.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of Rocket Juice is Albarn’s vocals. Or rather, his lack of them. Only half of the album’s 18 songs feature vocals of any sort, and of those nine, Albarn only sings lead on one of them. This was perhaps to add to the album’s ethnic flavor. In addition to Baku, Albarn recruited other foreign singers for the album. Most of the times they sing in their native language (Malian musician Cheick Tidiane Seck takes the lead on “Extinguished”), but on other tracks the singers trade both vocal and lingual leads. One of the album’s biggest highlights is “Follow-Fashion,” which features Malian Fatoumata Diawara coolly singing and chanting in her native language and an English rap verse from M.anifest in his Ghanaian accent, with Albarn, Allen and Flea in tow delivering a beat for the ages. Danceable, funky, and drenched with foreign flavor, the song proves to be one of the moments when everything clicks.

The one time Albarn does take sole lead vocal is on the song “Poison,” where the album takes a slower turn but ends up being its best song. “Poison” has all the making of what made the album great, but its slowed-down tempo and Albarn’s hauntingly forlorn voice pushes the song into more accessible territory, and ends up ranking with some of his best material since Blur went on indefinite hiatus. When I first heard him sing “The thought that we are wishing for is poison / poison is a part of love,” my heart actually sank a little bit, and the African musical arrangements only pushed the song into mystic territory, hinting that perhaps I’ll never know of the troubles that Albarn is going through similarly to how I’ll never know the troubles his new African counterparts are cooning about.

The added scope that Rocket Juice & The Moon brings to Albarn’s discography makes you wonder how he’ll continue incorporating all these aspects for his future projects. In addition to Gorillaz, a recently-reunited Blur, and a new opera Dr. Dee planned for soundtrack release this year, Albarn already has a second African album planned, a collaboration with R&B DJ Actress, which is supposed to be recorded in Congo. And despite being supremely busy in the last decade, Albarn has still not released a proper solo album under his own name, something he keeps announcing but keeps pushing back. However, Albarn has continued to expand his brand, in addition to adding to his list of superstar collaborators. As Rocket Juice & The Moon has proven, you know it will be a winner.

4 out of 5

The Lumineers recently lit up Seattle, specifically at Neumo’s on March 31st. Check out the photos from Erin Lodi.