Pop-music criticism can be just as shallow as some of the music it analyzes. Just check out some of the things written about singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III.
Though he’s been creating complex, thoughtful, often beautiful songs for more than a quarter-century, rock scribes often characterize Wainwright, 49, as a musical jester rather than the craftsman whose work has aroused the admiration of folks like Richard Thompson and Johnny Cash.
“My first records were kind of stark and serious,” says Wainwright, caught while on tour in England. “Back then I was touted as the new Dylan or something. But when my novelty song `Dead Skunk’ became a hit in ’72, it put a kink in things. All of a sudden, I was the `funny’ songwriter.
“The fact is, I like to write both humorous and serious songs. I like to mix it up. I write songs to be performed. And when you do a show, it’s more interesting if you can move back and forth between different emotions.”
Wainwright’s fine new record, “Grown Man,” nicely captures the versatility and depth of his songwriting. Though a couple of tunes aim for laughs, many others, like “A Year” and “Dreaming,” intertwine deeply moving lyrics with uncommonly beautiful melodies.
“Grown Man” also makes a convincing case for the complexity of Wainwright’s art. “Father/Daughter Dialogue” is a duet Wainwright performs with his daughter Martha, in which she accuses him of parental dereliction of duty and of using songs to say things he should convey in person.
“That song,” says Wainwright, “is almost a transcription of an argument we had. I conclude by telling her that the guy singing my songs isn’t me — because I realize she’s got me nailed. I try unsuccessfully to wriggle out of it and save face.”
“Grown Man” candidly examines some of the other familial themes that wind through Wainwright’s most recent records.
“Family is a very interesting topic to me, both because of my own family and because, at my age, what else are you going to write about? I know that some of my peers still write about fast cars and getting laid. But, I mean, who are those people? I was writing songs about not getting laid when I was 25. It always made better subject matter.”
Loudon Wainwright III headlines shows Saturday and Sunday at Schubas.
– Individual listings are by Rick Reger unless otherwise noted.
Gong, Sunday at the Cubby Bear: This show reunites the original Gong, an anarcho-hippie collective that’s persisted through myriad incarnations for more than 25 years. Founded in the early ’70s by Australian avant-gardist and cosmic muffin Daevid Allen, Gong ladled out a spacey brew of rock, jazz and mild funk laced with Allen’s idiosyncratic mythology of Zero the Hero, flying interstellar teapots and pot-head pixies. Although later, jazz-fusion Gong outfits led by Pierre Moerlen sold more records, this lineup concocted the music on which the band’s legend rests.
W.C. Clark and Bill Perry, Friday at Buddy Guy’s Legends: Perhaps best known for co-writing the late Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “Cold Shot,” W.C. Clark is a commanding singer and concise guitarist whose stylistic approach hovers between blues and soul. He co-starred with Vaughan during the 1970s in the Triple Threat Revue before forming his own band, and his “Heart of Gold” was one of 1994’s best blues discs. Bill Perry exhibited promise in the blues-rock vein when opening for B.B. King at the Cubby Bear recently; Pointblank just released the guitarist’s first album, “Love Scars.”
– Bill Dahl
Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, Saturday at the Riviera: While the Melody Makers’ lyrical exhortations might fit snugly into reggae tradition, the band’s slick mesh of contemporary pop with a rocksteady beat is another matter. Ziggy and family garnish reggae/dance-hall rhythms with perky R&B grooves, horn charts and pop balladry creating a glossy, listener-friendly hybrid. Though the sugar-coated tunes are too rich for reggae hard-liners, they’re better than most pop-radio fare.
The Chieftains, Friday at the Chicago Theatre: This brilliant ensemble rehabilitated Irish music’s rustic rambunctiousness and starkly plaintive beauty by refusing to present it (as so many had) with genteel, concert-hall daintiness. And the Chieftains’ embrace of pop and international folk music has only added to their appeal. These guys are so good, you can even forgive them for working with Sting.
Pegboy, Friday and Saturday at the Double Door: Sprung from the once-mighty Naked Raygun, Pegboy furthers the tradition of tough, tuneful punk rock aimed at ruminative rebels rather than militant thugs. The quartet’s last LP, “Earwig,” sizzles with lean, searing musicianship and hook-strewn songcraft. Like Husker Du, Pegboy mines the seam that links punk, pop and old-fashioned rock. Reunited punk godfathers, the Effigies, co-headline both nights.
Honeyboy Edwards, Syl Johnson, and Kid Jonny Lang, Saturday at FitzGerald’s: Three distinct generations of blues talent. Edwards rambled with no less an icon than Robert Johnson early in his blues odyssey; the octogenarian guitarist is one of the last links with the pre-war country blues tradition. Johnson’s soulful slant on the genre earned him numerous R&B hits during the 1960s and ’70s, including “Come on Sock It to Me” and “Take Me to the River.” Rounding out the bill is Lang, a 15-year-old guitar prodigy from Fargo, N.D.
– B.D.
Echobelly, Wednesday at the Double Door: Echobelly’s buzzing, ’60s-inflected guitar pop isn’t bad; it just blends far too easily into the blandly familiar sound of numerous Brit-pop practitioners. Where have all the great British tunesmiths gone?
Killdozer, Saturday at the Empty Bottle: It’s almost spring, that time of year when a young man’s fancy turns to . . . Killdozer! Taking its name from a psychotic earth-moving machine, Killdozer’s music more than measures up to the moniker. Powered by seismic guitar-bass-drum shudders and Michael Gerald’s bullfrog bellow, Killdozer’s bluesy swamp-metal doesn’t engage listeners so much as it plows over them. Any outfit that titles its debut album “Intellectuals Are the Shoeshine Boys of the Ruling Elite” is on to something.
The Choir, Friday at Wheaton College/Edman Memorial Chapel, Wheaton: It’s being billed as a farewell tour for this energetic Christian alternative band, though Choir leader Steve Hindalong stresses that the group has only called an end to long tours, not making music. That it will likely continue to record is good news; its new album, “Free Flying Soul,” is a strident, hypnotic masterstroke, brimming with confident songs and challenging lyrics. Opening will be the 77s, Common Children and long-time tour mates The Throes.
– Lou Carlozo
Damon & Naomi and Smart Went Crazy, Wednesday at the Lounge Ax: Ex-Galaxie 500 members Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang now divide their time between the psychedelic phantasmagoria of Magic Hour and this more-tranquil unit. The duo’s new “The Wondrous World of Damon & Naomi” is a procession of ballads spun from translucent melodies and introspective verse. Smart Went Crazy is the Dischord label’s latest foray into art rock. Filigreed with cello scraping, pungent dissonance and a crooked lyricism, SWC’s tunes twist timeworn pop formulas into knotty, sometimes novel shapes..
Morbid Angel and At The Gates, Sunday at the Thirsty Whale: This thrash metal twin-killing pairs Sweden’s At The Gates — who intriguingly display some trad-metal moves and a knack for melody — with Morbid Angel’s more formulaic death-metal mauling.
