Sharon Heather teaches fifth and sixth grade. “She’s like ‘Hot for Teacher,’” Jennifer Kirtlan laughs, but Heather won’t be teaching much longer. As the drummer for Hazard County Girls, things are going well enough for her, Kirtlan and guitarist/vocalist Christy Kane that quitting isn’t just the American Dream; it’s necessary for the band to progress. “Everywhere we’ve played, we’re immediately asked back,” Kane says. “In Atlanta, they took us in the back, got out the calendar and immediately booked us again.” It has been a good year for a band that first formed just over a year ago.
Heather and Kane first thought of Hazard County Girls shortly after Kane moved to New Orleans from New York, and Art Boonparn offered them a gig after the movies he was showing on Monday nights in the Mermaid Lounge. Without a bass player at the time, they asked Rock City Morgue’s Sean Yseult to stand in, “and she came up with something really cool for each song,” Kane recalls. Because Yseult had her own projects, Hazard County Girls recruited Katie Campbell, then fresh from Sugartank. Campbell was the bass player for their band launching party at the Matador, but soon she was hired away by Nashville Pussy. “She’s been great, promoting us everywhere she goes,” Kane says, and Campbell can be seen sporting a Hazard County Girls t-shirt on the cover of Nashville Pussy’s Say Something Nasty.
The band finally arrived at a stable line-up with the addition of Kirtlan, who switched from guitar to bass for the occasion. “Sean’s bass lines were the first things I played,” she says, and judging by audience responses, things are working well. According to Heather, “There’s something about seeing some rock dude air guitar or air drumming to us. When some bearded caveman says, ‘You guys fuckin’ rock,’ that’s the biggest compliment.” Kane continues, “A friend said, ‘If I close my eyes, if not for you voice, y’all could be guys playing.’ We take that as a compliment.”
At this point, the band has one track on a compilation on Shuteye Records that’s going to 400 college radio stations, but they’re particularly excited about going into the studio with Daniel Rey in a few weeks. Rey most recently produced Rock City Morgue, and he is known for recording such New York punk bands as the Ramones. “He was my neighbor in New York,” Kane says, “and when he heard our demos he wanted to work with us.” The results of those sessions won’t be available until next year, but Hazard County Girls will be playing December 7 at the Matador with the kings of bass, Black Mountain.
THAT’S ROCK ‘N’ ROLL
With only a week before Supagroup was scheduled to go into Truck Farm Studios, they told the label they had been dancing with for almost a year that it was time to sign a contract or they’d cancel the sessions. After a nervous couple of days, Foodchain Records sent Chris Lee the contract and the band, like the rock stars they are, jumped on their bicycles in search of a notary at 4:30 on a Friday afternoon. “We had to wait for Leif [Swift] to get off work, then we’re riding around and everybody’s closed.” Fortunately, they eventually found a lawyer who wasn’t quite on New Orleans time, signed the contract, then got ready to start recording the next day. “We’d been working on this for so long,” Lee said, “We were out front on our bikes and said, ‘umm, wheee . . . uh, high fives.’”
Trina Shoemaker, who produced the Queens of the Stone Age’s Rated R and won a Grammy producing Sheryl Crow, is producing the album, as yet untitled. “That shows her range,” said Lee. The band has recorded 17 songs, some new and some that appeared on Rock ‘n Roll Tried to Ruin My Life, though only 12 will make the final cut. If all goes as planned, the band’s major label debut should be available next spring.
WHAT I LEARNED IN BARS
When the world needs a Billy Bragg, it gets Billy Bragg. In the last days before darkness descended, Bragg played a show that was as much a political rally as it was a concert, not that that surprised anybody there. It was reassuring to see political activity doesn’t have to be wretched; he sang with the life of someone who still wants to get laid and to have some pints with his mates. As invigorating as that felt though, the moment that will stay with me was Ian McLagan of the Faces joining Bragg for a version of Ronnie Lane’s “Debris.” It was lovely, and the story told reminds you why you fool with politics in the first place.
Opening for Bragg at Tipitina’s was Twinemen, the remnants of Morphine with a new bass player and female singer. Their post-beat grooves and Dana Colley’s sax sound will be familiar to fans of Morphine, though Twinemen don’t have Mark Sandman’s sure song sense yet. Still, a great night show during Jazz Fest would pair them and New York’s Sex Mob, who also have a jazzy, horn-driven feel that never obscures the scuffling beat the jam underground dances to. Their version of “Oops, I Did it Again” is guaranteed to fill floors.
By the way, did Britney hit on something with that song? Richard Thompson has recorded it for his upcoming album as well. When he says he’s not that innocent, you get the impression he probably isn’t.
Eric Orlando didn’t quite have his patio available for his patio-opening party at Carrollton Station, but that didn’t kill the party. He drew a chalk door where one will soon be and relied on beer and Red West & the Medicine Show to distract people from the reason they came. The band—David Harbold, Ron Hotstream, Richard Bates and John Maloney—all have other gigs, and thank God. That keeps them from rehearsing their set of Elvis covers, so when they play, the music is genuinely live. The feeling coming off the stage was of a band having a blast, and it was contagious. I wanted to see what chance they’d take next just to see their own excitement at risking it. Bottom line: practice just enough so that what happens on stage is completely spontaneous, or work daily like Supagroup so you can make it look off the cuff.
In the cattle pen that was Tipitina’s for Wilco, there was time to think during the slow songs. It’s weird how someone like Jeff Tweedy loves melodies like he does, but that none of them stuck with me after the show. It’s weird how someone who loves melodies enjoys dissonance as he does. It’s weird how such a reluctant performer has become such a star, and its weird how such often-challenging music attracted the hoard it did. I think all of this tells us something positive about Wilco, its music and the audiences labels don’t factor into considerations, but such meditations require a bar, a bartender, and a hockey game on TV. In lieu of those things, I leave further considerations to you.
COMING ATTRACTIONS
Weird, but at press time, so little of interest was booked that there’s little reason for this section. St. Rock alumni Catch Velvet and World Leader Pretend are at the Parish December 17, but after that, what am I supposed to do with myself this December? Hang out with loved ones? What am I supposed to do with my money? Buy people presents? Get real. Merry Christmas.
