Making the scene

DJ Acme, Dogwood Moon, and more

by Michael Caito

Those who witnessed the numerous gallery and live performances at Olneyville's Rogue/Renegade space have heard the turntable artistry of DJ Acme. Running as aural wing-man to curator/booking agent Jim Draper, it was back in September of '95 when Acme -- born John Rao -- released his first 90-minute mix tape Live At Rogue: phat jazzy deep phreak.

It's already mid-'97, and last Friday's Bermuda show at Renegade marked what will be, according to Draper, the final live performance there "for a while, anyway. I'm concentrating now on the Call." In the interim, two other small rooms already in existence, Fort Thunder and One Up on Steeple Street, have continued to cater to younger, often student-led bands, and rock fans often loosely aligned with the Over the Counter and Load Records labels and their continually irascible recordings. Add to this wet stew the booking policies of the Living Room (perhaps most of all), AS220, the Call, CAV, the Green Room and the Met and there seems to be less cause for alarm about availability of gigs in Pro-Town than in, say, Boston, even though all clubs at the moment are slogging through mid-summer doldrums. Boston Phoenix columnist Brett Milano reported last week that things are even shaky at the storied Rat, though reading between the lines it seems that he diplomatically called the club on its overbooking of hard-rock bands from the Boston suburbs. And omigod they're terrible, if the releases I'm inundated with are any barometer. Stagnate, pay dear. No surprise.

Original music "scenes" can be comparatively barren in much larger international markets as well. Exhibit A: London. There, after the electronica, you have diddly in a city of more than 5 million. No wonder scalpers ask for and get [[sterling]]50 ($80) outside sold-out clubs there. Point being, here there are numerous rooms which encourage and applaud chance-takers; still-discerning booking agents, many of whom are active musicians, are bringing quality to complement what is already here. Being businesspeople, of course agents hope that if the art from within the area avoids stagnation the crowds will follow, despite the fact that application of that theory has closed many a club's doors. The permanent endeavor of making Rhode Island a legit stop -- instead of a backwater tour option for national and international bands moving between Boston and New York -- continues in the bigger rooms. Otherwise Terrastock, Bermuda, Godhead Silo, and bis may have only stopped over for a coffee milk and rocked elsewhere. But preachiness aside, for the moment anyway, the "Renaissance city" does not lack for vital proving grounds. Can't have a rebirth without a birth, I guess.

Back to DJ Acme. Silk segs, mixmastered by Rao off Draper's record selection, which goes back to the earliest, break-dance-fuelin' advent of hip-hop plus some kill-at-will fusion-free jazz dosed like dollops of fresh whipped cream onto your favorite pudding. The next Acme mix tape Jazztronic, just out, reportedly spends time in drum& bass land, which I have yet to hear mixed creatively. Most d&b bores me silly, but if anyone can resurrect the sh**, it's Acme. Try the seamless thrillery of phat jazzy deep phreak first. Lament the demise of the old school beats and notice how often it's nicked by both hip-hop and ambient-seeking techno thrillseekers. Become wistful when realizing that current MTVidiots Prodigy are essentially Pop Will Eat Itself with a frontman who recently lost a battle with a weed-wacker. Kick it, Acme.

DOGWOOD MOON

Dogwood Moon: The Call to Infinity (11-song CD)

This comparatively quick follow-up to their homonymous '96 debut finds the duo of Jonathan Grossman and native Newporter Laurie Gunning reining in the southwestern U.S. imagery which ran amok, albeit tastefully, on the debut. Where that record's "Sage," "The Cherokee" and "Lack of Rain" conjured pueblo idylls, The Call to Infinity takes a confident step forward for this L.A.-based folk pair. Backed again by sax, keyboards and a low-impact rhythm section, Dogwood Moon's latest belongs more truly to singer Gunning than either guitarist/singer Grossman or returning producer/ keyboardist John Bird. Without the style of Gunning to keep things buoyant, the lyrics -- mostly Grossman's, we're guessing, since he was credited on the debut -- would be highly suspect. The project seems to have benefited from Gunning's--and the entire band's, natch -- inclusion in the arranging process. Their most salient metaphor chronicles a life waiting to be realized through a painter's use of color in "Painting," and "Moonlight" is a picturesque lover's ode. The balance of their tales are unremarkable, except for their solid Everyman appeal. Crucially, their lithesome vocal harmonies swoop 'round and 'round, the moods are never forced, and the slower pieces achieve profoundness by not trying to be grandiloquent. Again, much credit goes to Gunning, who, while not an overpowering singer, has a confident delivery, knowing when to carve a point and when to hang loose like Geri Verdi but much less blues-spirited. Put it this way: if the Indigo Girls, with whom Dogwood Moon seem to share an approach to folk tunesmithing, ever put out an album with this much cogent, unforced panache, the weasel music press would hosanna the Indigos to Alpha freakin' Centauri, which is weird, but sadly predictable in these pretentious PC times. Hollywood is already hip to their appeal -- they've had two previously unreleased tracks included on the soundtrack to Stephen King's film Sometimes They Come Back . . . Again (the director was a fan)and Miramax recently picked up "Invaded" from their debut (reviewed here in '96) to be included in the upcoming film Full Tilt Boogie, a feature-length documentary on independent films which features Quentin Tarantino and George Clooney.

I dunno. Maybe Dogwood Moon are independently wealthy and have no pressure on them -- how else can one explain the release of two such fully-realized studio efforts in such a short period of time? Isuspect they merely work their asses off. On The Call to Infinity, it's the listener who is rewarded.

Dogwood Moon perform at the Pier in Newport August 8 and at CAV August 18. Reach 'em online: www. lama.com/home/dogwood.html.

QORQ AT OOP. Joe Auger appears today at OOP!(297 Thayer) at 7 p.m. On Friday, Black &White hit the Harbourside in East Greenwich. Their upcoming Hepcat! is an 8-song disc with guest spots by Roomful cats Porky Cohen and Doug James (trombone, tenor/bari). Record's due September the foist. After-work cocktail party at Grappa (525 South Water) will benefit the Music School, the vital non-prof school for the arts. Happens Tuesday, August 12 at 5:30; info at 739-9009.

David Byrne's in town this weekend, rehearsing a band to support Feelings (Luaka Bop). Byrne continues applying a lowspeed Cuisinart to his already pan-genre mix; the newest came about between trips to New York, LA and London. The harvest includes the talents of London's Morcheeba, Seattle's Black Cat Orchestra, Devo, plus Andreas and Camus from New York's C'n'A. About Feelings Byrne writes: "It seems to me with the recent advent of relatively cheap home-type recording equipment with studio-quality sound, not only will anybody with two turntables and a microphone be making records, but everyone else too, in an incredible variety of styles and approaches . . . and everywhere. This stuff is going to put musicians all over the world on an even more equal footing with Western pop/alt/ urban musicians. They were always equal as far as playing and writing, but now more and more of us will be able to express what it feels like -- the global media atmosphere that we breathe every day."

Luaka Bop just released another one by Zap Mama, who are incredible. Find it. Byrne's Strand set starts early and also features the New Orleans funk-world amalgam that is Coolbone. Very nice.