There was a time (much of the 90s, into the early 2000s) when the band Push Down & Turn ruled the Indianapolis club music scene. You wanted to go out for a big Saturday of live music? They were the go-to pick for a night of drinks and a band that could get your ass up on the dance floor with big, fat radio rock (and their own stuff added for legitimacy and depth). Bandmembers Sam King, Jason Brown, Jason Barth, Tay Bourquein and Matt DeVore (all DePauw University grads) were part of the band that was perennially named NUVO’s Best Local Rock Band winners.
We caught up with King, a busy man – playing solo shows and raising a family. He spills some insight on recording, reunions and energy drinks.
ROB: I see you out playing a lot of solo shows. You look like you stay pretty busy. What do you like about the solo gigs?
SAM KING: I stay relatively busy, but it’s a little slower now than it was before the economy took the downturn in 2008-09. I have a nice niche, in that if someone wants live music, but doesn’t want to pay $800 a night for a band, I fit their bill. The places seem to rotate a lot, but some constants for me are Cheeseburger in Paradise in Southport, The Rathskeller, and the Quarry in Kokomo.
ROB: Any new songs and new original music in your future?
SK: I’m always writing, but probably not recording as much as I should be. It’s fun for me to try out new things playing them in front of people, rather than just hearing a recorded version of it. There’s more emotion live. And I’m not one of those guys who use a looper pedal or sampler, that’s just not me. If I can’t pull it off with just me and a guitar and win the crowd over, then I need to work harder.
artist interviews
Indiana Music: Grover Parido
Cellist Grover Parido was an essential part of the magic that made Cara Jean Wahlers’s 2010 album “Goodnight Charlotte” a quiet masterpiece. Parido has become more prominent in the Indianapolis music scene lately, picking up new projects and live shows. He has a lovely orchestral sound with hints of a Nashville coffeehouse and the majesty of U2. How’s that description for you?
ROB: I saw you sit in with Chad Mills as you guys opened the Truth & Salvage Co. show at Radio Radio, and you were terrific. Blown away by the sound. Do you have any more shows coming this spring with them?
Grover Parido: The band (our first show with that cast) you saw at Radio Radio, Chad Mills, Bill Rood, Bob Stewart and me, will be playing at the Britton Tavern in Fishers April 14. Chad, Bill and I will be doing a acoustic battle of the bands April 21 at the Ugly Monkey. I have a blast playing with those guys. (They have) good humor and energy.
Indiana Music: John Byrne
When I enter a club, and look at the stage, if I see guitarist John Byrne is part of the band, I know it’s gonna be a pretty good night of musical revelry. The longtime guitarist, raised in Indianapolis after moving as a toddler from Long Island, wrings a sound from his guitar equal parts gritty and eloquent. I’ve seen John play dozens of times, with the ’90s regional cover band Mere Mortals, and with Louisville’s Danny Flanigan and the Rain Chorus. I caught a show with Soul Bus, and even some shows when he was with Madison roots/rocker Rusty Bladen.
Here’s what I’m saying: Indianapolis’ John Byrne – never flashy, always finding his musical pocket on stage – has earned a reputation as a guy who can make a band better.
He has added pedal steel playing to his guitar repertoire, and seems to lend a hand, whether for many years (Flanigan) or fleeting (Chevy Downs) to groups that are really good – because he is in them, right? Now he’s started a new band, in addition to other projects. So I wanted to get with John, and find out out what the scoop was.
ROB: What music and bands are keeping you busy?
JOHN BYRNE: I’m playing in a variety of projects these days. Last weekend’s gig was with a pretty nails 6-piece outfit featuring Jes and Vicky Richmond. Our set list is a semi-eclectic mix of great 70s and 80s singer/songwriter rock like Little Feat, Bonnie Raitt, Lyle Lovett, and John Hiatt with a fair amount of blues, hippie rock (like) Traffic and Allman Brothers, and smarter-than-the-average-bear tuneage like Steely Dan. We also do a handful of Jes and Vic’s originals.
Indiana Music: Max Allen and the Hard Rock band battle
With six albums to his credit, blues guitarist and singer Max Allen might be in a position where he doesn’t have a need to enter events like the recent Hard Rock “Battle of the Bands” contest. Or maybe his winning the Indianapolis section of that event was due to his willingness to play for his next break. Can’t hurt, right? Four bands will earn spots on the stage at the Hard Rock Calling festival in London’s Hyde Park this summer. We caught up with Allen after his band won the local throwdown, before he moves on to regional, and possibly national, competition, and more of his regular gigs. He also says they have a new album almost ready to go.
Indiana Music: Bobbie Lancaster readies new album, more shows
While Bobbie Lancaster may not tell you herself, her self-titled, debut album from last year contained some of the prettiest, gospel-tinged and heartfelt pieces of Americana music released in 2010. Instead, she’s more likely to look forward than back. Though you might catch her pride of performance on that first album when it whispers into her conversation, she’s a woman who lives in the moment as best any of us can, and takes the now and applies it, with a spiritual flair, to her future.
Todd Snider: a new album and interview with No Depression
“Back in the late 80’s, I was playing an afternoon show at a festival. Backstage was Billy White Shoes Johnson, myself, Alejandro Escovedo, Jerry Jeff Walker, Weird Al Yankovic and some odd -looking friend of his began playing a simple little poker game that, in my opinion, spun way out of control. When we started talking about the single Elton John had put out with Kiki Dee entitled “Don’t Go Breaking my Heart”, things did indeed get ugly between Alejandro and Weird Al Yankovic’s friend. ” – story as told by Todd Snider
Todd Snider should be (maybe already is) considered one of the best storytellers of his generation. The 40-something folk rocker could never sing again, and just sit on a stool onstage, and talk, and he would be great. I’ve never seen him completely screw up a story; it iseither funny, heartfelt, happy-with-reservations, soul-baring or inflammatory, and always brilliantly told. Most of the time, it is three of those things at the same time.
His new live album, The Storyteller, wraps itself around both the stories without music – and the stories with.
Snider exchanged email’s with No Depression’s Hal Bogerd talked, and Snider (as shown in the opening passage to this blog post, taken from that interview) keeps his internal screw just a little loose, on purpose or not, and is endearingly intelligent and happily hippie.
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