Triphop Innovators Pigeonhed's Righteous Return Flight

This Is What Love's About, Ain't It So?
Triphop Innovators Pigeonhed's Righteous Return Flight
by DAVE SEGAL

PIGEONHED Steve Fisk and Shawn Smith, ahead of their time since 1992.

The popular press, Wikipedia, and music authorities like Allmusic.com don't acknowledge this, but Pigeonhed very likely invented triphop before the term was even coined. Back in 1992, Seattle keyboardist/production whiz Steve Fisk and sanctified soul singer Shawn Smith huddled in the SCUD Building where the former lived and cut their self-titled debut album. These gifted musicians were buddies with Sub Pop co-owner Jonathan Poneman, who issued the work on his label in 1993. With grunge still raging in the U.S., heads weren't quite ready to digest the lasciviously funky sonic roughage Pigeonhed were dropping.

"Because of the collision of their respective sensibilities, that first Pigeonhed record has a tension that makes it an engaging listen to this day," Poneman asserts. "Brilliant stuff. Furthermore, it was absolutely the first triphop record."

"We were pioneers," Smith claims. "[But I] gotta give props to the Beastie Boys for opening my eyes [with Check Your Head]. Steve's were already open."

Poneman faced some internal trepidation and external discouragement before green-lighting the innovative project. "I was a little scared of it at first," he remembers. "It was so different from anything else. But that also made it wildly compelling. I remember kind of sneaking it onto the schedule. But [because] Steve was involved—Shawn was still largely unknown—that more or less spared me from a mutiny [among Sub Pop employees]. It's good to have friends in high places."

An anomaly in Sub Pop's vast catalog, Pigeonhed is essentially a strange dance/romance album that's distinguished by Smith's hypersensual soul-man exhortations and Fisk's panoply of bizarre keyboard textures contoured together into supple seducers, which belong in the pantheon where Prince, Marvin Gaye, and Al Green preside. The funk here is extra thick and lubricious, and often laid-back to help you get laid... like much of the triphop that would emanate out of Bristol, England, and those early offerings on Mo' Wax and Ninja Tune. Listen to "Ain't It So" and "Trial by Sex" and try not to think of Jamie Lidell biting this steez more than a decade later. Throughout Pigeonhed, Smith ranges from Barry White rumble to fluttery Al Green falsetto with flamboyant ease, and Fisk keeps the libidinal tension at the boiling point. You can stuff your Afghan Whigs LPs; nothing in Sub Pop's history is sexier than Pigeonhed's debut full-length.

"I heard about all the fucking," Fisk responds when asked if Pigeonhed were attempting to score sexual conquests with their debut record. "Very cool, but we didn't plan it. Prince was a big influence on both records. The Beach Boys were not. The second CD [1997's The Full Sentence, which is like Pigeonhed's There's a Riot Goin' On or Sign o' the Times] was one of the last records recorded in Bad Animals Studio B, an authentic world-class 1970s studio. We had much help: Kim Thayil, Jerry Cantrell, Matt Chamberlain, Reggie Watts, Carrie Akre. [It was a] different process than the first record."

"I was smitten by a love that didn't love me back on the first record," Smith recalls. "On the second, she still didn't love me back, so I had to find some good in it. I had my muse and that's a beautiful thing."

Pigeonhed's two albums fuse silky R&B and gritty funk to eccentric electronic music with exuberant expressiveness. Amid the grunge explosion, the debut sounded like a true oddity—an unabashedly romantic and vulnerable yet unclichéd soul record that sprouted in a manly-man milieu of lumberjack rock. Surely, they must have felt like they were staking out singular territory in the Northwest with this sound.

"We never articulated what we intended to do," Fisk says. "It was very intuitive. Shawn and I had already worked together on some of his first solo music. Somewhere in there, the Steven Jesse Bernstein Prison record happened and Shawn liked what I did with break beats. We were neighbors in Lower Queen Anne.

"[Pigeonhed] was done at the height of the media grunge rape of Seattle," Fisk continues. "[We recorded it] in my space next to the old Cyclops on Western. I loved much of that music, but we never saw Pigeonhed as any kind of 'answer' to all of that. I think we were no more vulnerable than TAD."

"The Beastie Boys' Check Your Head was the jump-off point for me in terms of letting go and allowing Steve to be as freaky as he wanted soundwise, and then I put my pop sensibilities into the psycho soup," Smith says. "There was never a thought about the rock of Seattle at the time and where we fit in. It was being financed by Sub Pop, so we fit in somewhere."

While Pigeonhed have been dormant for 13 years, Fisk and Smith have maintained hectic careers. The former has become an in-demand producer (Low, Harvey Danger, Unwound, many others), developed into a vaunted solo artist (999 Levels of Undo is full of sui generis electronic music), played in Cut-Out, and, with Ben Gibbard, scored the soundtrack to Kurt Cobain: About a Son. Smith fronts the more conventional soul-rock outfits Satchel and Brad, and works as a solo artist and collaborator with several other area players in projects such as Fireside Gospel, Forever Breakers, and All Hail the Crown.

The good news for Pigeonhed fans, though, is that the duo have been working—sans outside help—on a third album, some of which they'll air at Thursday's Neumos gig. "It's maybe less abstract [than previous Pigeonhed releases], although there are a lot of strange details and weird signature sounds and textures," Fisk explains. "No wolves, angry dogs, or thunder. There are some ballads. Shawn did really elaborate vocal harmonies. It still sounds like us: heavy grooves, 110 bpm, vintage Arp synths."

One of the great ironies about Sub Pop Records is that the Lo-Fidelity Allstars' remix for "Battle Flag"—a track that met great resistance within the company—ended up keeping the label afloat after the track blew up on radio and in clubs, and was licensed in several movies. Poneman recounts, "I remember being lectured by a former employee who was quite adamant that our Pigeonhed remix record [1997's Flash Bulb Emergency Overflow Cavalcade of Remixes] was poseur folly. This perspective was built on saltier observations made by a then-popular local DJ who shall remain nameless. 'Battle Flag' was singled out for particular ridicule."

Ultimately, Pigeonhed were too ahead of their time to click with more people in the 1990s. Artists like Lidell and, to a lesser degree, Mayer Hawthorne have taken what Pigeonhed did to the bank. Perhaps the time is ripe for Pigeonhed to reap greater rewards now.

"If we were ahead of our time, then the time machine was broken," Fisk notes. "Postmodernism was eaten for breakfast in the '90s. If Pigeonhed's distillation of our influences was 'ahead' in any way, it's only because the 'future' turned out to be a dismal array of genre clowns. Thanks, iTunes!"

"Who the hell are Jamie Lidell and Mayer Hawthorne?" Smith asks. "Do they owe us money?" At the very least, Shawn.

Jack Johnson's "To The Sea" Produced by ROBERT CARRANZA Sets Sail At No. 1 On Billboard 200

Jack Johnson claims his third No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart as "To The Sea" debuts atop the tally with 243,000 copies sold according to Nielsen SoundScan. The album breaks an eight-week long streak of No. 1s selling less than 200,000 -- where five of those weeks were sub-100,000 frames.

Downloads made up 114,000 of "Sea's" first week -- nearly half of the set's overall figure. In terms of download units, it's the biggest week for an album since the week ending Jan. 31, when the digital-exclusive charity compilation "Hope For Haiti Now" set sold 143,000 downloads in its second week of release.

Read Billboard's Jack Johnson Cover Story

"To The Sea" also helps perk up the overall album market a bit. 5.16 million albums were sold in the past chart week (ending June 6) -- up 4% from the woefully low 4.98 million the week previous.

See All of 2010's No. 1 Albums

Johnson's last studio set, 2008's "Sleep Through the Static," arrived in the penthouse with 375,000 while his first No. 1 came with 2006's "Curious George" soundtrack. The latter bowed with 163,000 in February of that year. Overall, "To The Sea" is Johnson's fifth top 10 album. He previously reached the region with 2005's "In Between Dreams" (No. 2) and 2003's "On And On" (No. 3).

Last week's No. 1 album, "Glee: The Music, Volume 3: Showstoppers," slips to No. 3 with 45,000 (down 29%). Meanwhile, Justin Bieber's "My World 2.0" climbs one rung to No. 2 with 52,000 (up 4%). Nos. 4-6 are non-movers this week, as Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now" is at No. 4 (41,000; down 12%), Usher's "Raymond v Raymond" is at No. 5 (35,000; down 2%) and Lady Gaga's "The Fame" is at No. 6 (33,000; up 6%). Carole King and James Taylor's "Live at the Troubadour" moves up two spots to No. 7 with 25,000 (down 4%).

After Johnson, the next-highest new entry on the chart belongs to Taio Cruz's debut album "Rokstarr," arriving at No. 8 with 24,000. The set's lead single, "Break Your Heart" (featuring Ludacris) hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in March and has sold over 2.2 million downloads according to SoundScan.

Speaking of downloads, over on the Hot Digital Songs chart this week, Cruz finds himself with two titles in the top 20. "Break Your Heart" falls from No. 10 to No. 11 with 109,000 (though with an increase of 2%) while "Dynamite" debuts at No. 13 with 83,000. The highest debut on the chart is Drake's "Miss Me" (featuring Lil Wayne) which enters at No. 8 with 128,000. The top three slots remain static, with Katy Perry's "California Gurls" holding at No. 1 (318,000; up 19%), B.o.B's "Airplanes" at No. 2 (248,000; up 5%) and Usher's "OMG" at No. 3 (226,000; down less than 1%).

Back on the Billboard 200 albums chart, Clay Aiken earns the third-highest arrival on the list this week with his debut album for Decca Records, "Tried & True." The covers album, which features the singer's take on such standards as "Mack the Knife" and "Moon River," enters at No. 9 with 22,000 copies sold. "Tried" is Aiken's fifth top 10 set and first since departing RCA Records. Aiken's last studio release, "On My Way Here," opened at No. 4 with 94,000 in 2008.

Rounding out the top 10 is Ke$ha, who rebounds up seven slots to No. 10 with "Animal," selling 20,000 (up 5%).

Overall album sales in this past chart week (ending June 6) totaled 5.16 million units, up 4% compared to the sum last week (4.98 million) and down 19% compared to the comparable sales week of 2009 (6.39 million). Year to date album sales stand at 130.6 million, down 11% compared to the same total at this point last year (146.6 million).

Digital track sales this past week totaled 22.6 million downloads, up/down 4% compared to last week (21.7 million) and up 8% compared to the comparable week of 2009 (20.9 million). Year to date track sales are at 510.6 million, up less than 1% compared to the same total at this point last year (509.6 million).

Sebastian Krys produces Top Latin Pop Airplay Song according to Billboard

Sebastian Krys produced “Aqui Estoy Yo” for Luis Fonsi which won the Latin Pop Airplay Award at this year's Billboard Latin Music conference over Shakira, Paulina Rubio and Tito"El Bambino". For more from Billboard go to:

Aventura Tops Winners At Billboard Latin Music Awards

Sergio Dalma's new album "Trece" produced by SEBASTIAN KRYS debuts at #1 in Spain this week

Recorded in Madrid and Los Angeles, "Treces" features 11 new songs, "with powerful lyrics and the full force of the voice of Sergio Dalma" encouraged by the production of Sebastian Krys, metals very soul, "elegant string arrangements and impeccable melodies."

THE CULT Completes Recording New EP with Producer CHRIS GOSS

Veteran rockers THE CULT have finished recording four new songs at a Los Angeles-area studio with producer Chris Goss (MASTERS OF REALITY, KYUSS, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE) for a brand new EP, to be released this summer. More details will be revealed soon.

John McEntire produces Broken Social Scene

Broken Social Scene back together in Austin

Local rock heroes had to reassemble to launch new album

By Ben Rayner Entertainment Reporter

AUSTIN, TEXAS–It's no accident that Broken Social Scene has chosen the South by Southwest festival for the big international unveiling of its new album, Forgiveness Rock Record.

SXSW was where it all started happening for Broken back in 2003, when there was a growing, Pitchfork-abetted buzz around its sophomore album, You Forgot It in People, but still little awareness outside Canada what the rangy Toronto collective was capable of onstage.

That would all change very quickly that March after a single, memorable South by Southwest gig at the slightly out-of-the-way live-music haunt Momo's – one that, oddly enough, had BSS playing second fiddle to the then red-hot Montreal outfit the Stills.

Such an impression was made at that show that, one year later, Broken Social Scene was able to return to SXSW and headline one of Austin's largest venues, the venerable outdoor amphitheatre Stubb's, before a crowd of more than 2,000 breathless fans, while the many satellite acts associated with it – Metric, Stars and Jason Collett among them – were well on their way to becoming marquee names in their own right. Soon after, BSS would go on to close one of the main stages at Lollapalooza in Chicago, playing to some 50,000 people. It had officially arrived. And that arrival was, in large part, due to two big splashes made at South by Southwest.

"When we played here, it felt like the beginning," concurs de facto BSS frontman Kevin Drew at Stubb's, where the band reassumed headlining status on Thursday.

"We got so lucky," says Jeff Remedios, who'd just quit a full-time job at Virgin Records in 2003 to start the indie label Arts and Crafts with Drew. "The way South by Southwest works, you have to go early to shows because of the lineups and we were playing right before this really hyped buzz band called the Stills, who none of us knew. All of these people came early to see the Stills, and not only did they enjoy them but they left going `Who is this Broken Social Scene?' And out of that one little show, we got our American booking agent, our European booking agent, our failed European record deal, our publicist, all kinds of stuff – all out of one show."

Arts and Crafts has come to South by Southwest 2010 with 10 artists, 15 staff and two separate, evening-long showcases on the schedule. The top item on the label's agenda right now, though, is Forgiveness Rock Record, which arrives on May 4, a full five years on from BSS's last record, the difficult, divisive Broken Social Scene.

Anyone familiar with recent Broken history (or Stuart Berman's recent tell-all This Book is Broken) knows that it's a minor miracle there's a record at all. The past five years might have witnessed tremendous success for such on-again/off-again members as Metric and Leslie Feist, but personal relationships within the band went through difficult contortions and, for a while, it looked like there might never be another Broken Social Scene record.

As it stands, the ensemble that made Forgiveness Rock Record with producer (and Tortoise/Sea and Cake drummer) John McEntire in Chicago and Toronto last year is a leaner, meaner unit than the sprawling, incestuous family responsible for the last two albums. The Broken core these days is Drew, Canning, Charles Spearin, Andrew Whiteman, Justin Peroff and relative newcomers Lisa Lobsinger and Sam Goldberg, and on Forgiveness this crew leans noticeably less heavily on contributions from the usual rotating cast of guests.

"We did it as a way smaller, tighter unit, but at the same time, not really because the guests are all there," says Drew, adding he had made peace with their possible absence, but "I didn't know if I wanted to spend the next two years answering questions about why they weren't there.

"I don't get to see these people. I don't see Leslie (Feist) any more. It's tough to see Amy (Millan) and Evan (Cranley) because they live in Montreal. Jimmy (Shaw) and Emily (Haines) have been on the road so much. They just came and we hung out in the studio for a few days in Toronto. Just to hang out was enough."

Broken Social Scene hasn't closed the door on collaborations, by any stretch. Metric's Haines and Shaw were invited onstage Thursday night to perform You Forgot It In People's show-stopping "Anthems For a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl," while stretches of the show featured a six-piece horn section, the Beauties acting as a sort of all-male chorus line and vocal contributions from Jason Collett.

Still, the bulk of the performance was given over to (re-)introducing the seven-piece lineup as a potent melodic force, bravely putting the emphasis on unfamiliar Forgiveness Rock Record tunes such as "Texico Bitches" and "The Sweetest Kill" rather than standards like "Fire Eye'd Boy." As strong as the new material sounded, the tactic had thinned the crowd at Stubb's by a good third as last call approached and many less devoted fans wound up missing the set's boffo closing attacks on the intense (and Tortoise-like) new jam "Meet Me in the Basement" and "Major Label Debut."

Part of Broken Social Scene's charm is its capacity to frustrate, though, so this was entirely in character. It was also a nice reminder how lucky we are that this thing has hung together for so long.

"There were a lot of `internal relations' going on, and once those things start to implode ..." says Drew. "As Collett would say, you're always experimenting with intimacy in this band. I think things just had to settle and take some time. Everybody has a lot of respect for each other and I think a lot of people don't understand how much of a family we were, and hopefully will always be.

"With the personal relations and all the successes, I think you lose the plot a little bit. I think that's the way it's supposed to go and there's nothing wrong with that. It's okay to get lost."

Robert Carranza produces new Jack Johnson album

Jack Johnson's new single to hit airwaves in April

By Star-Bulletin staff

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Mar 18, 2010

Local singer/songwriter Jack Johnson has a new single, a new album and a new tour coming up.

"You and Your Heart," the first single from "To The Sea," will air on radio in early April. The album itself will be released June 1 on Johnson's label, Brushfire Records. It is the artist's fifth studio release.

The album was co-produced by Johnson's bandmates — Merlo Podlewski, Zach Gill and Adam Topol — as well as his longtime engineer, Robert Carranza.

Johnson will donate all profits from his world tour for the album to charity (visit AllAtOnce.com).

The tour will take him to Australia and Europe before he begins a summer U.S. tour on July 9 in Hartford, Conn. (Johnson's Kokua Festival 2010 on April 23 and 24 is already sold out.) Highlights include gigs at Madison Square Garden and a headliner at the Hollywood Bowl and the Greek Theatre in Berkeley. The tour ends Oct. 14 in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Tickets go on sale April 10. Visit jackjohnsonmusic.com for details.

Local singer/songwriter Jack Johnson has a new single, a new album and a new tour coming up.

"You and Your Heart," the first single from "To The Sea," will air on radio in early April. The album itself will be released June 1 on Johnson's label, Brushfire Records. It is the artist's fifth studio release.

The album was co-produced by Johnson's bandmates — Merlo Podlewski, Zach Gill and Adam Topol — as well as his longtime engineer, Robert Carranza.

Johnson will donate all profits from his world tour for the album to charity (visit AllAtOnce.com).

The tour will take him to Australia and Europe before he begins a summer U.S. tour on July 9 in Hartford, Conn. (Johnson's Kokua Festival 2010 on April 23 and 24 is already sold out.) Highlights include gigs at Madison Square Garden and a headliner at the Hollywood Bowl and the Greek Theatre in Berkeley. The tour ends Oct. 14 in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Tickets go on sale April 10. Visit jackjohnsonmusic.com for details.