Interview: Finn Riggins + Review: 'Vs Wilderness' New CD

I first saw <a href="http://finnriggins.com/">Finn Riggins</a> live at Slabtown, a small venue and I knew nothing of them. They stunned me. I got their album A SOLDIER, A SAINT, AN OCEAN EXPLORER and it won my vote for best of 2008. To the burnt-out music cynic (not me!) who asked when, if ever, I was actually “blown away” by an act, I now had an instant response. As I reported then: - “Finn Riggins. The peak. They shocked and stunned: Truly amazing, like a locomotive storming into a barn... in years to come this could be the band you wish you were on the front wave of.” <img width="500" vspace="2" hspace="2" height="333" border="2" align="left" src="/uploads/Image/TLE_SHW_081.jpg" alt="Finn Riggins" />Photo: <a href="javascript:location.href='mailto:'+String.fromCharCode(109,97,105,108,116,111,58,116,121,108,101,114,64,116,121,108,101,114,107,111,104,108,104,111,102,102,46,99,111,109)+'?subject=OPB%20photo'">TYLER KOHLHOFF</a> Surely Finn Riggins’ new album Vs Wilderness had to disappoint, surely. Well, for a suspended, brief time, it did: For about one listen. Two, three plays, and I was having another experience, it wasn’t the same sonic masterpiece of ’08, but it was already up among the best of ’09. I requested the album lyrics (some band’s words are best undisclosed, Finn Riggins’ add, flip and transform songs to present a dish of alternative takes: a real kettle of fish). Soon, in came the missing lyrics... and off came the kettle’s lid. Now I wonder if Vs Wilderness may be even better than it’s predecessor. This is power, this is class, these people write with deep intention but don’t bring the music down, instead they let loose controlled energy and sheer joy across ever shifting rock-scapes. You can go see them live and just dance-off, or you can listen in to a fine set of observations of the American experience. What you can’t do is ignore it: This is infectious, relentless and the only performance/album I’m reviewing in several years that’s a 7 out of 7. <img width="300" vspace="2" hspace="2" height="451" border="2" align="left" src="/uploads/Image/TLE_SHW_069.jpg" alt="" />Read about the full facts elsewhere, here’s the gist: - Eric Gilbert plays 3 full keyboards (and no tinker-toys), & sings & sweats. Lisa Simpson sings (yes like Natalie Merchant of 10,000 Maniacs) and subjugates guitar in a manner that will have Thurston Moore salivating. Cameron Bouiss holds the whole monster together with a full drum kit, driving the rhythms on without appearing to move; a zen presence with a West Indies steel tease. Read below,<a href="#VsWilderness">my reactions to the songs on Vs Wilderness</a>, or jump to <a href="£Interviews"> a truly surreal interview that is the multifarious result of notes flying out of windows, camera theft, spilt liquid bleeding over ink scratchings and of course, blurred memories...</a> Zaph Mann   Copyright: Zaph Mann 2009+.  Reproduction with attribution is fine. Original publisher: opbmusic.org 2009 Finn Riggins PDX CD RELEASE PARTY - 10/10 PORTLAND, OR @ Berbati’s Pan w/ Jared Mees & The Grown Children + World’s Greatest Ghosts + Typhoon   <a name="VsWilderness"></a> Vs Wilderness - The songs <img width="272" vspace="2" hspace="2" height="272" border="2" align="right" alt="" src="/uploads/Image/Cover.jpg" />Vs Wilderness has songs of admiration, songs of challenge and songs to shift perspective. Yeah, yeah, yeah... well, not much of that. Is this the ridicule of cliches? No soppy love songs, no nonsense; it’s more than any individual’s thought, it’s what’s happening on a wider landscape, or imagination - thoughts laid out while the music does the thumping and hammering. Take these samples: ‘Wake’ - a song reminiscent of Talking Heads on More Songs About Buildings and Food: “Building homes lies in all our thoughts / spent my life tryin’ to get what I haven’t got / what I got is what I sought / holes and holes, holes in my socks / carving trees into table tops/ planting crops in our backyard lots / See the birds in the graveyard / grey as the stone / press the snow against your heart / see your breath against the frozen trees” ‘Wake’ finishes with a prolonged refrain which echoes through America’s financially devastated backwaters “gotta keep this town alive / gotta keep this town alive / gotta keep us all alive”. The infectious, uptempo, rock ’n’ roll dance beat disguises the angst of this song, or perhaps signals the counterpoint that is hope. ‘Dali’ - If you don’t know Salvador Dali ‘s work, or you think he just painted weird pictures, go check him out at a book store, then listen to this homage which ends with “Dali painting the sky / Gala / Lorca / Dali painting the sky//”. Idaho is a place dominated by The Sawtooth Mountains, which the Vs Wilderness artwork seems to reference, there, in late summer you can watch the Perseid Meteor showers (shooting stars) minute by minute - and it’s Finn Riggins painting the aural sky. ‘Furs’ Need a road-trip song fix? Not me, usually. In Furs, Finn riggins have updated the American road song, will Mellancamp or Springsteen cover it? Lowell George (Little Feat) would have lived to write this song: “Drive-in movie screen burned down late last July / left a burning parking lot at the corner of Blaine and Oxford Tennessee / in the middle of rush hour traffic / can’t get my window to roll down in this heat /” ...  “not sure what to make of the bridge over the Mississippi River / we used to cross it in wagons / we used to trade our furs for directions, trade our furs / the shirts shirts shirts we sweat through / the shirts shirts shirts we build in / the shirts shirts shirts we play in / the shirts shirts shirts we drive in//” These songs are about meaning, about choices and about conflicting pressures. It’s no wonder that Finn Riggins’ music is so charged given such downright honest and emotional observation of the human condition. America changes and needs fresh perspectives. And although the songs the usual pop personalization, the reach is such that it may reveal strains in the emotions of the band as revealed by: “I try to quiet this mind of mine/ to break the drone of storylines” - and doubts too in a repeating refrain: “We’ve got the same old cause”. Good writing hurts a bit, wrings the soul, no need here for doubts. <a name="Interviews"></a> The Interview(s)* Follow inline, or jump to <a href="#QsCam">Cam's bizzare tale of the steel drum</a>, or <a href="#QsLisa">Lisa's defence of being short.</a> *Extracts from several encounters, the attributed answers may not actually match the person identified... ~ You’re all from Idaho, met at the University etc.., and there’s a town somewhere called Riggins, your band name is Finn Riggins, is that where you’re from? FR: No we were just driving and saw the road-sign for ‘Riggins’ and thought it would be a cool name. ~ Of course, everyone knew that, but there are place-names in Idaho like Bancroft, Dietrich and Heyburn - not just ‘cool’ names, but ‘hot’ ones? FR: Well there’s also Carey, Murray and Downey; but we didn’t drive past them at the right moment either! <a name="QsEric"></a> <img width="500" height="375" align="left" alt="" src="/uploads/Image/EricGilbert_6036.JPG" />Questions directed at Eric Gilbert ~ You play with three big keyboards and not even one of those trendy little pink toy glockenspiels - why is that? EG: Ich lese das spielerei mit Worten/Zahlen, nichts glocken, (He likes playing around with words, not bells) ~ But what about the keyboards - can’t you make a decision about which you want? Do you have trouble letting go of things and have a big stamp collection? EG: My uncle, up in the Sawtooths, has a collection of scalps that I assumed were those of early settlers, but that he insists are those of various critics and journalists... <img width="250" height="333" align="left" alt="" src="/uploads/Image/CamBoiss 6039.JPG" /> <a name="QsCam"></a> Question...? directed at Cam Boiss ~ Tell me how you came to own this steel drum... CB: I went to the West Indiies with my Father on vacation, he said we had ‘a few things to talk about’. I think it was the third day, the day these ‘things’ were to be talked about, that my Father introduced me to a waiter called Joe. Joe seemed to know my Father very well and suggested that instead of a beer I try a local island cocktail. My Father nodded, and, as I recall he smiled vaguely beneath an unusually distant look... [long pause] ~ ...and the drum? CB: What? Oh yes, the drum. ~ You play it very sparingly - wisely given that it could become an overused gimmick. CB: Thanks, it’s hard to reach over that far. ~ Didn’t you get it from someone famous? Yes. Soon after Joe returned with my drink, which I noticed had moving crests of froth that moved in synch with the breaking waves, my father suddenly stood, stared down the beach, then told me to ‘drink up’ and follow him as he staggered off. ~ Really? Well it wasn’t so hard, I even fell over the same crooked palm trunks. ~ And? After a while we reached a hidden cove and my Father stopped, looked around then sat at the edge of the sea. He lit a pipe. I noticed he’d grown a beard that was white, black and silver. Exhausted from the heat and the pace of the walk I collapsed on the sand beside him and lay there for quite some time, dozing in the sun. ~ Yes? I must have been there for some time as when I woke suddenly, it was the incoming tide licking at my feet. I was alone. I regained my wits and saw that my Father’s footprints told that he had headed to the hotel, back the way we had come. ‘I’d better be going,’ I thought, but as I set off I noticed another trail heading inland through the trees, up towards the rocks. Like an animal’s tail? Or perhaps a long beard which brushed whatever tracks lay before it away. For some reason I followed this course. ~ Great! We’re still talking about the drum right? The climb was easy at first, then it became steep, I felt weary and considered going back. It was then I found my Father’s message: A clumsily written note speared through with a stick like a sail. Then I knew it was the right decision. ~ OK, I can’t help myself  - what did it say? See you back at the hotel. ~ Is that all? (smiles) Ah, but you don’t need to hear the rest. ~ What! Yes I do. No, it gets weird. ~ It GETS weird?  OK. I’ll cut it short. This, you see, was “the hidden way”. [big smile, long pause] ~ That’s significant? Oh yes! This was the hidden way, or, as they say there on that island - ‘De path up de hill’ ~ Very profound And at the top of the hill was the man. ~ Oh! Finally, so you bought your steel drum from Ex-Invader Otto "Boots" Faustin one of the world’s most famous suppliers? No the guy's name is Tallboy, no lie; rasta / steel drum master, I could tell you the whole story... ~ No, no. That’s more than enough, got to keep the word-count down... you know. <a name="QsLisa"></a> Questions directed at Lisa Simpson: ~ You’re a little short for a guitarist, don’t you think? LS: No... I'm quite tall for my height.... but a lot of even taller lead singers use the mic stand before me, creating an optical illusion... (and she goes barefoot). <img width="500" height="333" src="/uploads/Image/TLE_SHW_062.jpg" alt="Lisa simpson by Tyler Kirchoff" /> ~ I’ve noticed you slap your guitar around a lot, doesn’t it work properly? LS: My guitar and I have a very special relationship... I chose it for it's submissive nature... it enjoys the punishment.   ~ Do you have a favourite theory, law, rule or whatever? LS: The ones that will be used to create teleportation will be AOK with me... ~ Surprise or Anticipation? LS: I don't like surprises very much... but I hate anticipation...so surprise by a nose... (surprise by a nose?) ~ How many swans do you recommend, per bathtub? LS: well that really depends on the dimensions of said bathtub... but always in pairs... they'd get lonely otherwise... ~ Llamas are common in Idaho, but when was the last Rhino seen? LS: I think we saw a hippo last weekend... wait! That was in Oregon... ~ You are perpetually on tour, so what do you always forget bring home? LS: I leave a trail of toiletries scattered across the US in people's bathrooms... like breadcrumbs to help me find my way again... ~ What have you got to say about uncommon chord progressions? LS: I like the tangy ones ~ Given free unrestricted travel, where would you go? LS: First... back to the Cote D 'Azure in France... then everywhere else I could possibly fit in... I love it... ~ When did you last skip, and why? LS: I'm quite sure it wasn't that long ago... and that it was a reflection of my mental state at the time... ~ What are a few of your favourite things? + Can you make it scan...? LS: They involve food... it might get messy... ~ When you were dead, what? LS: I'll let you know when I get back... ~ Do you know how to dig a pony? LS: That sounds like a fascinating dance craze... are all the kids doing it? ~ What do you think of men with long waxed moustaches? LS: I like their style.... and just hope they don’t tie me to the train tracks... -------------- <a href="#QsEric">Go back to Eric's questions</a> or <a href="#VsWilderness">return to VsWilderness review</a>   true

2009-10-13T22:23:18-07:00

2009-09-29T22:23:18-07:00

false 601 true

2009-09-29T22:23:18-07:00

My pick for best live performance and best album 2008 was Finn Riggins. Could they possibly pull off the double again?

Interview: Finn Riggins + Review: 'Vs Wilderness' New CD

2009-12-11T14:48:30-08:00

1660