Akron’s own Shivering Timbers will play the Nelsonville Music Festival this Saturday at 1pm on the main stage.
Last time we got together, when they hired me to document their headlining date at Cain Park, we made a picture they use on their websites, tour poster, and for promotion/press.
We’ve talked about setting up an official portrait session, and the Nelsonville festival grounds provide the perfect backdrop. So as long as schedules, mother nature, and some good old-fashioned good luck can align, we’ll post the results of our adventure here soon.
“This isn’t bullshit slacker rock. It’s the real fucking McCoy.” — NME
Herzog, led by singer/songwriter/guitarist Nick Tolar, rapidly started gaining attention before the release of the first album, Search (Transparent records). By the time 2012′s new release Cartoon Violence arrived ( Exit Stencil Recordings) they’d already found favor with NME, Pitchfork, a slew of music pubs/blogs, and even NPR [Robin Hilton, on National Public Radio's All Songs Considered, called Silence "The most kickass song of the year."] Rounding out the band are Dave McHenry on lead guitar, Dan Price on drums, and Brian Hill on bass. Lyricist Tony Vorell has been collaborating on songs with Tolar for years, and is Herzog’s offstage fifth member.
“Nick Tolar and his crew have gained a full, big, and confident sound“…“…try your hardest to not get those double guitar riffs stuck in your head. Tolar is already one of the best songwriters in Cleveland, and when you put a regular band behind him, things get really nice”— The Noise Is
“Impressively, as Herzog skip between genres, work in different textures, and vary tempos, they never lose that sense of band — Shredding Herzog and laid back Herzog both sound natural. For these Clevelanders, talent also means never laying down a bad jam.” — I Rock Cleveland
At Blazing Saddle Cycle, Jamey Rychak and Travis Peebles build, repair and restore bicycles. I spent a few hours with them to photograph their new location near 75th & Detroit in Cleveland.
For decades, the building was home to Lakefront Hardware & Glass, and while I was there several customers came in to get keys made; lucky for them the guys still do that.
Six weeks ago, five people got together to play in a band called Voxcaster. We already made our first record. It’s called This Is Ellipsis, and it was engineered by Chris Russo. We plan to do two more this year. The second is already underway.
Voxcaster was founded and is fronted by Van Gogh Round Records producer Eric Schulte. Schulte was the manager, then guitarist, then bassist of The Dreadful Yawns (their new album Picnic features Schulte’s song Figure It Out). He also was an original member of The Village Bicycle, Aluminum Anemone, and Shiny Penny.)
These are the Erics: Schulte and Collins. At live shows, Schulte sings and plays guitar, and Collins switches between bass and drums. Here’s Schulte recording the bassline for the title track, This Is Ellipsis…
And here are the first two tracks of the album, known as “the two-part Louisiana trilogy.”
I like these guys. I like how dedicated they are to what they do. They work hard. They go after what they want and need, and take the risks and make the investments that keep the band moving forward (with good results). Just looking at their status updates shows how they’re working every day behind the scenes. I can get behind that.
And they’ve been doing it all with a baby at home. Except these days she’s dancing and swaying from the front row in a princess dress and ruby slippers, while Mom & Dad sing songs they wrote because of her.
Tech specs:
Cain Park has a massive inground-pool-ish orchestra pit at the front of the stage, so there was a big gap between the stage and any available photographic vantage point. This was a job for the
Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 • manual exposures, shot raw and developed using Camera Raw
“His is a body of work that consistently flouts convention in favor of musical leaps of faith, statements of purpose cloaked in subterfuge, and the joyous refrain of an optimist’s heart cloaked in cynicism.” — Merge Records
When I Rock Cleveland asked me to photograph The Pitchfork Music Festival again, I immediately started looking forward to seeing Destroyer. I’d been loving the new strength in Dan Bejar’s unmistakable voice, and was curious to hear how the mellow set would translate across the 90-degree Chicago air. My favorite moment was chuckling along with the amused inter-band grins and glances during Blue Eyes, when the line “I sent a message in a bottle to the press/ It said, ‘Don’t be ashamed or disgusted with yourselves’” was delivered while a pit of 50+ shooters strained and contorted against all odds in almost-futile efforts to achieve usable images for their publications. That’s funny stuff. Bejar’s lyrics are full of wit and strong visuals, but for now the memory of that moment tops them all.
The first time I saw Bejar live was with The New Pornographers on the second date of their Together tour [Newport Music Hall, Columbus Ohio, 6.13.10]. He’d slip in and out of the wings, waltzing slightly with the neck of his beer bottle balanced lightly in his fingertips, for Myriad Harbour, Testament To Youth In Verse, Silver Jenny Dollar, Jackie. Each of the eight musicians (Carl Newman, Kurt Dahle, John Collins, Neko Case, Kathryn Calder, Todd Fancey, Blaine Thurier, and Bejar) is a strong musician/songwriter with other active projects, and if you can keep up with them you get to experience an impressive variety of styles and sounds. Dave Molnar and I drove down for the show, and by the third song we’d decided to play as them for Beachland’s halloween show (a tradition where Cleveland bands put aside their original material for one night and cut loose with some covers).
Tech specs: Nikon 70-200 f/2.8, shot raw and processed using Adobe Camera Raw.
To book your session, license an image for editorial/promotional use, or buy a limited-edition print…
email Mara@MaraRobinson.com or call 330.414.4651 or fill out this contact form and I’ll call you.
Sloan
Wayne Kramer
Tom Morello
The New Pornographers
The Walkmen
Purple Knif
Peter Murphy
El Ten Eleven
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Roy Loney
Destroyer
Neko Case
Thurston Moore
EMA
Guided By Voices
DJ Shadow
Yuck
Kurt Vile
TV On The Radio
OFF!
Free Energy
LCD Soundsystem
Girls
Modest Mouse
The Tallest Man On Earth
Liars
Lightning Bolt
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Pavement
TheGhostOfASaberToothTiger
Sean Lennon
The Flaming Lips
Yo La Tengo
Y La Bamba
George Jones
Wanda Jackson
Chooglin'
The Growlers
Nick Tolford and Company
Bomba Estereo
Michael Hurley
Mount Carmel
The Black Swans
::The DAVENPORT Collective::
Herzog
Expecting Rain
Remember
The Dreadful Yawns
The New Lou Reeds
Mike St. Jude &TheValentines
The Artificial Sweeteners
Volcano Fortress
Good Touch Bad Touch
Aluminum Anemone
The Volta Sound
9-Volt Haunted House
The Phoebe Cates
LasVegasTumbleweedConnection
Sun Spots
The Village Bicycle
Afternoon Naps
Shiny Penny
Machine Go Boom
Megachurch
Spacer Ace
The Mole People
Swindlella
Cloud Nothings
The Hot Rails
Eric Alleman/Stencil Everything
Voxcaster
Busman's Holiday
Fitz and the Tantrums
Melted Face Constitutional
Anamanaguchi
Peelander Z
Sebadoh
Richard Buckner
Gold Motel
Skybox
Banderas
The Party Of Helicopters
Drummer
Relaxer
New Bomb Turks
Giraffes
Robert Francis
MC Chris
MC Frontalot
Presque Vu
Nights
HotChaCha
Foreign Born
Mumiy Troll
Charles Bradley
Budos Band
...more...
