Wednesday, September 9, 2009
{The Blue Banner}
Page 11
Indigo Girls return to The Orange Peel
By Erin McWhorter
Assistant Arts & Features Editor
EMMCWHOR@UNCA.EDU
When asked to describe the music of
The Indigo Girls, singer-songwriter Em
ily Sailers simply says “heart-felt.”
Returning to Asheville Sept. 17, The
Indigo Girls are scheduled to perform at
The Orange Peel Social Aid and Pleasure
Club.
“We’re looking forward to coming
back to Asheville,” Saliers said. “We love
Asheville. We’ve played there many times
before, and it feels like coming home.”
The Indigo Girls consists of long-time
musical partners Emily Saliers, 46, and
Amy Ray, 45. The pair began their music
ventures together during their high-school
days in Atlanta, 30 years ago, according
to Saliers.
“Amy, her style is little more rock-it’s
a little more, for lack of a better word,
aggressive. Mine is more sort of pop and
groove influenced musically,” Saliers
said.
Saliers considers Ray’s background of
mral living to be more reflected in her
musical style and lyrical content, while
Saliers herself admits to pondering more
philosophical and relationship questions
when composing songs.
‘For whatever reason, when we bring
our songs to the table, she writes hers and
I Write mine. We’re able to arrange them
together, and that’s what makes them In
digo Girls songs in the end,” Saliers said.
Behind Saliers’ earlier musical influ
ences are Joni Mitchell and Stevie Won
der. Ray’s include more post-punk artists,
such as Patti Smith and The Clash.
“We have very, very different influenc
es and sensibilities,” she said. “When we
Photo courtesy of Matt Odom
The Indigo Girls will play at The Orange Peel on Sept. 17.
first started out, she held the rhythm down
as a very strong strummer. I was more like
the acoustic kicker. I have a higher voice
and she has a lower voice.”
Performing throughout the years as a
duo, as well as with a touring band, The
Indigo Girls will deliver the more inti
mate acoustic experience of songs from
the latest album, “Poseidon and the Bitter
Bug,” to Asheville fans.
“Our concerts are just kind of joyous
experiences because everybody’s really
connected to the music,” she said. “So,
we hope that that continues - that we’ll
be able to focus on the new material, but
also play a bunch of songs from our dis
cography and sort of mix it up.”
Grateful to keep fans over such an ex
tensive musical career, Saliers says The
Indigo Girls have maintained the “bar
band” mentality where fans can associate
their own lives with the lyrics.
“We play the old sing-a-long favorites
and then we play some obscure ones that
we just feel like playing,” Saliers said.
“It’s sort of a smattering of songs from
our past to our present. We make a new
set list every night.”
The Grammy-award winning duo has
seen many changes throughout their ex
tensive career in the music industry in
cluding fan base and label recognition.
“I would say that when we first started
as a bar band we were very much sup
ported by the women’s community, the
queer community, and then over the years
the audience has expanded to be much
more diverse,” Saliers said. “We’ve been
around so long now that our first genera
tion of fans has kids and now the kids
are coming to the shows, so that’s awe
some.”
The Indigo Girls offer fans a new dy
namic with “Poseidon and the Bitter Bug.”
The album consists of two CDs, one with
the acoustic versions of songs, the other
with the accompaniment of a band.
“It’s been received very well. The re
cord came out in the spring, and I per
sonally feel that each CD has its own
identity,” Saliers noted. “Listening to the
See indigo girls Page 12 |
Drone Valley
Continued from Page 7
that caters to the indie rock, perhaps avant-
garde, experimental vein.
“We tend to be a little psychedelic. There
some heavier bands, but it doesn’t
delve into heavy metal and you won’t hear
screaming,” he said. “It’s very instru-
toentally focused, and we have a lot of
live-performance bands.”
It is difficult to keep up with the evolu-
don of experimental music genres, now
including psychedelic-noise prog rock and
angular bands, the second characterized by
more stop and go, dynamic compositions
that change tempo any second, according
to Meier.
“I think new genres are cheated every
day,” he said.
Gray Yotmg from Raleigh keeps it
simple and describes their sound as rock
ntusic. Their songwriting process is about
letting the music lead and just following as
the musicians, according to guitarist and
singer Chas McKeown.
“We go to a room and we just start play
ing. It’s a very organic process,” said McK
eown, 31. “If something strikes all three of
us, then we’ll usually keep playing it and
see if anything else comes from it.”
Goodbye, Titan, another band from Ra
leigh, said their music sounds like ghosts
in a cave, rain overflowing from the gutters
and the final stand of men against ores.
“The most obvious influences on our
band are our post-rock and prog-rock
forefathers,” guitarist Allen Palmer said.
“We’re constantly getting compared to
Explosions in the Sky and Sigur Ros,
even though I think our music sounds only
slightly like theirs.”
The band often writes songs imagining
they are a movie score, helping them de
cide where the song or film should go next.
according to the band.
“We try to have our songs hit on several
themes, sort of a reflection of actual human
emotion,” Palmer said. “Maybe we in the
band all just have A.D.D., but I don’t really
think people feel the same way for more
than a few minutes at a time.”
Goodbye, Titan, Gray Young and The
White Cascade are three bands from Ra
leigh set to perform at Drone Valley, repre
senting the concentrated indie-rock scene
in the Triangle.
Their presence at the festival will attract
a lot more out-of-town attendees, accord
ing to Andy Meier.
“I’m happy to see that a lot of people
have ‘RSVPed’ from as far as Chapel Hill,
Raleigh-Durham and even the east side of
the state,” he said.
According to the bands, the most excit
ing thing about the festival is the opportu
nity to play and hear great music and meet
new people, all of which play a central role
in the festival according to Meier.
“Everybody just gets together and has a
good time playing their hearts out,” Meier
said.
Meier said the music scene in Asheville
is very tight-knit, and he hopes Drone Val
ley avoids that exclusive mentality.
“It is hard to break into the scene, so
we’re making it a regional festival instead
of just bands from Asheville or Buncombe
County,” he said.
“We have a band coming from as far as
Tampa and another band from mid-Mich
igan. Most of the inspiration behind it is
just networking more than anything else.”
For more Drone Valley ‘09 information,
please visit www.myspace.com/droneval-
ley