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HI@25
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a “microfest,” celebrating 25 years of Household Ink Records, SOhO, May 21
What:
“HI@25,” a “microfest” with multiple acts on the Household Ink Records label
When: Tuesday, May 21, 7 p.m.
Where: SOhO, 1221 State St., Santa Barbara
Cost: $10
Info: (805) 962-7776, www.sohosb.com
Who:
Headless Household, Natalie D-Napoleon, Julie Christensen, Lucinda Lane, Zen
Horse Repair, and…?
Article on Household Ink Records, Down Beat magazine, September, 2012
http://www.householdink.com/db_hi_2012.htm
Santa
Barbara-based label Household Ink Records was born, out of necessity and
curiosity, in 1987, as an outlet and “in-house” label for the eclectic band
Headless Household. By the early ‘90s, the roster and the sense of a future had
grown, including acts such as flapping, Flapping, Dudley, Lean-To, Fringe
Deities, Nate Birkey and more.
Cut to 2013, and the genre-diverse label is 25 years deep and with a catalogue
of 36 titles (with eight by Headless Household) and counting. It’s a ripe time
for another “microfest,” of the kind the label had five years ago at SOhO.
Welcome to “HI@25.” On Tuesday, May
21 at SOhO, for three hours-and-change, a handful of acts on the roster will
kick up sonic dust, including the still description-defying
Headless Household, respected
“Americana” artists Julie Christensen
and Natalie D-Napoleon (the label
family’s newest addition), the wily coyote-esque
Zen Horse Repair, and
Lucinda Lane, a brand new band,
presently hatching and going public.
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This is a special gig for Headless Household in that Julie Christensen, its
longstanding, outstanding and beloved vocalist, is moving on over to Nashville
this summer, bringing a dozen-year Headless chapter to, not a close, but a
quasi-hiatus. We hope. Also joining the Household same-olds – Dick Dunlap, Tom
Lackner and Joe Woodard – at SOhO are Tom Buckner, Bill Flores, Sally Barr, Tom
Ball, and possible surprised guests.
Headless Household has a discography of eight titles to date:
Headless Household (1987), Inside/Outside
USA (1993), ITEMS (1995),
Free Associations (1999),
mockhausen (2000),
post-Polka (2003),
Blur Joan (2005) and
Basemento (2010). They are currently
in kickstarter mode, with a campaign to raise greenbacks for their ninth album,
and all-ballads affair (linkage
here).
www.householdink.com/headless.htm
Iowa-born
and variously based in Austin, Texas, Los Angeles, Ojai – and, soon, Nashville –Christensen,
a startlingly versatile singer, has a resume including work with Leonard Cohen,
Van Dyke Parks, the pioneering country punk band the Divine Horseman and other
projects. She also has a rich discography in her solo mode, including so –far
three titles for Household Ink: the jazz-infused
Something Pretty, and
Where the Fireworks Are and the
latest, her well-received Weeds like Us,
the latter two in her more country-rock-folk-soul duds on
– aptly described as “great prairie soul.” Christensen is moving upward
and outward on her own terms.
Australian
singer-songwriter Natalie D-Napoleon, now a Santa Barbaran,
joined the Household Ink family last year, with the American release of her
moving album Leaving Me Dry, produced
by David Piltch (who also has a record out on Household Ink,
Minister of the Interior), with the
musical help of the late Kenny Edwars and Victoria Williams. Reviewing the album
in No Depression, Karl Benon wrote that “when
Australian singer-songwriter Natalie D-Napoleon wanted to turn her
Americana-infused tones into a debut solo album, she seemingly opened up a map
of the United States and firmly stuck a pin in the midst of the California's
central coast. And it turned out to be a stroke of musical genius.”
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Zen Horse Repair, aka ZHR, aka the brain trust of
singer-composer-Buddhist banjoist-poet Neal Crosbie and drummer/conspirator Tom
Lackner, blissfully occupies a niche of its own on the label. Rootsy sounds,
alien sounds, experimental backwoods treks, wry poetic wranglings and oddly
catchy songs are part of the project’s unique mix, as heard on the HI album
Ghost Brain.
From the on-the-horizon perspective of the Household Ink roster, the band
currently known as Lucinda Lane is a new project, with singer
Nicole Lvoff and guitarist/songwriter Joe Woodard cooking up some new stew,
something along the lines of IndieBossaJazzTwang. A debut album is currently in
the works, in creative cahoots with drummer/ studio master Tom Lackner, and
musical helpers tba.
Voila,
HI@25...
a Household party waiting to happen.
Downloadable photos @
www.householdink.com/picturehole.htm
For further info, photos, mp3s, CDs, press
clips, etcetera, please e-mail
info@householdink.com
www.householdink.com
Headless Household photos: http://www.householdink.com/hhphotos.htm