I only heard about
Black Fret in the last few months from a colleague that is a member.
The organization is a charity based in Austin in its third year whose
primary purpose is to give money to promising local musicians. More
detail can be found in the recent Pitchfork article or the Black Fret website. It's an intriguing model,
and while I am not a member at present, I was lucky enough to be
invited to this year's annual ball.
Event: Black Fret Ball
Venue: Paramount
Theatre
Location: Austin, Texas
Date: 10 December 2016
The format of the event
was that over four hours, almost every band that was nominated for a
grant this year and was able to attend played two songs, and in
between sets the organization's founders talked to the audience,
introduced other guests to help present the major grant winners, and
displayed videos about the organization. Since the bands barely had
enough time to make an impression, I won't be assigning scores, but
I'll write a brief review of what I can remember.
The night started with
Golden Dawn Arkestra in their typical fashion: just as at
their regular concerts, they started from the
back of the crowd and worked their way to the stage while playing
whatever instruments they could carry. The appeared in the largest
configuration I've seen yet with fifteen members, including four
horns players and three dancers. They played "Sama Chaka"
and "Stargazer" from their new album and did an awesome job
of it. Their otherworldly psychedelic funk jams always bring a smile
to my face.
Leopold and His
Fiction: The weirdly dated look of the frontman put me off
immediately, but I tried to withhold my judgment until I heard their
music. The first song was a tolerable, low-key affair with a decent
picked guitar part, but they went quickly downhill with the second
number. It was a clichéd rock song with lots of wankery and
grotesquely sexual maneuvers with guitars.
Magna
Carda: A hip hop outfit featuring a sizeable live band. The
combination of good lyrics, a strong frontwoman, solid beats, and
proficient musicianship made for a winning combination. They won a
major grant later in the evening.
Carson
McHone: A country singer/songwriter with a good voice and a
standard backing band. The music was decent and she was inventive
enough to carefully avoid too much cliché. One of her two songs was
"Dram Shop Girl", which appears to be getting some
attention. She also won a major grant later in the evening.
Harvest
Thieves: A weighty Americana or alt-country band. I particularly
liked the keyboardist/mandolinist's contributions, but the group
wasn't particularly exceptional otherwise. The other memorable aspect
was that they had an incredibly tall extra electric guitarist that I
could swear I've seen somewhere else before.
Ray
Prim: A self-described "singer soulwriter", but in
truth he and his band landed in a nebulous space between a variety of
genres. I appreciated that I had a really hard time trying to figure
out what labels were appropriate. Prim was a strong frontman, and his
two backing vocalists were nice additions even if I'm not sure how
much the second one added. (This may be the first time I've seen a
band with any number of male backing vocalists that did not play
instruments.) The musicianship was just as solid as the vocals, and I
thoroughly enjoyed the contribution and energy of the keyboardist,
the violinist, and the violist. The rhythm section was similarly on
point. This was one of the strongest performances of the night, and I
wasn't surprised at all when they won one of the major awards.
Calliope
Musicals: I'd been meaning to see this band all year and I
finally got my chance. They are a delightfully bizarre blend of indie
rock, folk, psychedelia, an art project, and a party band. The B-52s
might be the best reference point, but even that isn't a perfect
comparison. There were multiple dancers in various costumes, and the
primary lead instrument was an electric xylophone. (I didn't even
know that existed.) Their extremely high energy was enchanting.
Daniel
Eyes and the Vibes: A fairly generic rock man-band quartet that
didn't impress me.
Wendy
Colonna: A decent singer-songwriter with some soul vibes and a
full band. She didn't particularly stand out to me, but she won one
of the major grants.
Dana
Falconberry: The frontwoman/guitarist/vocalist was backed by two
further women on banjo and keyboards, both of whom also sang. I loved
their ethereal folky sound, the well-crafted harmonies, and the
complex layers produced by just three musicians.
Swimming
with Bears: An indie/alt rock band that was somewhat promising
although not quite a standout. They won a major grant, though.
Suzanna
Choffel: Another singer-songwriter with a good voice and a basic
band. She had some soul, but was a little bit more in an indie rock
vein. She was joined by the xylophonist/keyboardist from the Golden
Dawn Arkestra, which was a great addition. She won one of the first
major awards of the night.
Bee
Caves: This band has been on my radar for a bit, and I was
pleased to find their live set was actually better than my impression
had been from their recordings. They made a decent mix of Americana,
rock, and psych. Their sound was a bit hazy and transcendent, but
fairly well grounded. They also won a major grant.
The
Peterson Brothers: They won a major grant right before they
started their set. The two brothers played guitar and bass and were
backed by a drummer and a percussionist. The four of them put down
some great grooves. The bassist had incredible skill and the
guitarist was surprisingly creative with his solos. The two of them
managed to keep me interested despite their lengthy jams that
could've easily bored me. For their second song, a cover of Jimi
Hendrix's "Voodoo Child", they brought out two additional
guitarists: Eric Tessmer, who played in a rather generic style, and
Jackie Venson, who was a welcome change of pace. As they played,
various other musicians from throughout the night (along with the
founders) gradually found their way on stage and it turned into
something of an all-star jam.
Final
Thoughts: I wasn't really sure what to expect from the evening,
and I had some concern that so many bands in so little time would
result in lengthy delays and bad sound. However, the night only ran
about fifteen minutes past the scheduled four hours, and the sound
quality was superb. While I know standards are high in Austin, and
the Paramount is a particularly well-regarded venue, I'm still
mightily impressed that the sound was that good for every single
band. There were a couple bands in which the keyboards were too low
in the mix, but that's literally the only complaint I could level on
that front.
At
first, the banter of the two founders between the sets annoyed me.
There was a lot of self-congratulating and general hyping that in
normal circumstances would really put me off. However, as the night
wore on, I started to see the incredibly heartfelt and thankful
responses of the musicians, and I realized that there's a reason why
everyone is proud and excited about the organization. Furthermore, I
gradually realized that the two co-founders were probably just
nervous and under pressure, and they were simply trying to entertain
a sizeable crowd while keeping things moving smoothly and speedily.
Ultimately, I think they did good job of balancing humor, excitement,
success, ambition, and a whole bunch of diverse personalities.
Hearing
the major grant winners give short speeches of gratitude was
occasionally highly illuminating. Several winners spoke of finally
being able to release an album they'd been sitting on for a while but
were unable to afford pressing. Others mentioned being able to record
on more than a shoestring budget. Swimming with Bears were the most
honest and memorable when they said they could finally afford hotels
instead of sleeping in cars and showering at Planet Fitness. Their
award was presented by Austin mayor Steve Adler, which was in itself
a surprise. He claimed that he came to Austin in 1978 because the law
school was the cheapest, but he stayed in town because of the music.
Each
of those major grants is worth $17000, up from the $12000 awarded to
the winners last year. In addition to the winners mentioned above,
three further artists received awards but did not perform: Dan Dyer,
Walker Lukens, and Nakia. The rest of the nominees still receive
minor awards of $5000 each and remain eligible to be nominated again
next year. (Winners have to sit a year out.) Three further bands were
nominated but did not perform nor win a major award: Brownout, Sweet
Spirit, and Name Sayers.
I
left the night feeling overwhelmingly positive. I'm considering
becoming a member. However, I was struck by one thing: some parts of
this world have real public sponsorship of the arts. Musicians have
access to grants, subsidized work and living space, publicly
sponsored performance opportunities, and official networking systems
directly from various levels of government. In a country or a state
that valued such creation on a fundamental level, we wouldn't require
membership-based organizations to fund the arts. Black Fret is an
inherently classist institution in that the $1500 annual membership
fee is prohibitive to working-class people. Undoubtedly, if Black
Fret allows more artists to sustain productive careers in music, that
means more music is more easily available to everyone, but the issue
of privilege rears its head when you consider that only members can
nominate and vote on the grant recipients, meaning the power of
distribution is vested in the wealthy few. It's an odd microcosm of
capitalism. While I obviously would prefer a true public solution,
Black Fret bridges the gap and represents a clever middle ground of
working within the capitalist system and doing the right thing with
the means available to them.
P.S.
Other reviews can be found at the austin360 music blog (including a compilation
video of each of the performances) and AMFM
Magazine. The Austin Chronicle has a write-up
alongside some other local music-related nonprofits.
P.P.S. Thanks to Greg, Sana, and Alyssa!
P.P.S. Thanks to Greg, Sana, and Alyssa!
