Mojo, September 2013: Difference between revisions
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{{Bibliography header}} | {{Bibliography header}} | ||
{{Bibliography index}} | {{:Bibliography index}} | ||
{{Mojo index}} | {{:Mojo index}} | ||
{{ | {{:UK & Ireland magazines index}} | ||
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<center><h3> Double | <center><h3> Double vision </h3></center> | ||
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<center> Dorian Lynskey </center> | <center> Dorian Lynskey </center> | ||
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'''Forged in the unlikely surroundings of an American late-night TV show, the transatlantic union between Elvis Costello and The Roots' drummer and co-frontman Questlove has resulted in one of the landmark albums of the year. | |||
{{Bibliography text}} | {{Bibliography text}} | ||
It's 5.30PM on a Tuesday afternoon in the studio of ''Late Night With Jimmy Fallon'' at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York. Showtime. Fallon, an affable ''Saturday Night Live'' graduate with none of the thorny egotism of a Jay Leno or David Letterman, likes to create an atmosphere of relaxed goofing around and his favourite playmates are the men he proudly calls "the greatest band in late night": Philadelphia hip hop crew The Roots. | |||
It's 5.30PM on a Tuesday afternoon in the studio of ''Late Night With Jimmy Fallon'' at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York. Showtime. Fallon, an affable ''Saturday Night Live'' graduate with none of the thorny egotism of a Jay Leno or David Letterman, likes to create an atmosphere of relaxed goofing around and his favourite playmates are the men he proudly calls "the greatest band in late night": Philadelphia hip hop crew | |||
Tonight, as every night, the eight members squeeze themselves onto a compact, split-level stage, anchored by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, the huge, teddy-bear-shaped drummer that ''Rolling Stone'' has dubbed "America's bandleader." In this role Questlove possesses the comical hangdog demeanour of a sitcom dad, and wears a suit like he's been blackmailed into it. | Tonight, as every night, the eight members squeeze themselves onto a compact, split-level stage, anchored by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, the huge, teddy-bear-shaped drummer that ''Rolling Stone'' has dubbed "America's bandleader." In this role Questlove possesses the comical hangdog demeanour of a sitcom dad, and wears a suit like he's been blackmailed into it. | ||
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Since Fallon took the ''Late Night'' reins from Conan O'Brien four years ago, the show has transformed The Roots from well-regarded if low-profile workhorses into national treasures. In a country that has no dedicated national music programming, the late-night talk Show is live music's most important shop window. Driven by Fallon's fandom, ''Late Night'' attracts guests of the calibre of Prince and Bruce Springsteen while spurring rival shows to raise their own game musically. The Roots are its engine room. Now the show has indirectly allowed the group to make an album with Questlove's hero, Elvis Costello, the brilliantly ominous ''Wise Up Ghost''. | Since Fallon took the ''Late Night'' reins from Conan O'Brien four years ago, the show has transformed The Roots from well-regarded if low-profile workhorses into national treasures. In a country that has no dedicated national music programming, the late-night talk Show is live music's most important shop window. Driven by Fallon's fandom, ''Late Night'' attracts guests of the calibre of Prince and Bruce Springsteen while spurring rival shows to raise their own game musically. The Roots are its engine room. Now the show has indirectly allowed the group to make an album with Questlove's hero, Elvis Costello, the brilliantly ominous ''Wise Up Ghost''. | ||
Costello's own history at 30 Rockefeller is somewhat more chequered. Just two floors above the ''Late Night'' studio is the home of ''Saturday Night Live'', where Costello made his live US TV [[TV 1977-12-17 Saturday Night Live|debut]] in 1977. Midway through the agreed performance of his debut US single " | Costello's own history at 30 Rockefeller is somewhat more chequered. Just two floors above the ''Late Night'' studio is the home of ''Saturday Night Live'', where Costello made his live US TV [[TV 1977-12-17 Saturday Night Live|debut]] in 1977. Midway through the agreed performance of his debut US single "Less Than Zero," the spiky 23-year-old — whom the ''Village Voice'' nicknamed the "Avenging Dork" — called a halt and led the Attractions into "Radio Radio," his as-yet-unreleased dig at censorious broadcasters: ''"I{{nb}}wanna bite the hand that feeds me."'' ''SNL''{{nb}}producer Lorne Michaels was so enraged that he told this limey upstart that he'd never work in television again. | ||
"We rubbed each other the wrong way," Costello later tells ''Mojo''. "They were kind of pleased with themselves and we were super-arrogant on our first trip to America. We thought we knew everything. We knew nothing." | "We rubbed each other the wrong way," Costello later tells ''Mojo''. "They were kind of pleased with themselves and we were super-arrogant on our first trip to America. We thought we knew everything. We knew nothing." | ||
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Ever since he outgrew his youthful Mr Angry persona in the mid-'80s, Costello has been one of music's most relentlessly agreeable participants. Booking a benefit gig, tribute album or awards show? Costello's your man. Such sociability is new to Questlove. Playing up to 230 shows a year left The Roots little time for networking, and Questlove is naturally shy. "Even 18 years into our career, the idea of shaking hands with people we admired was new," he says. "I thought this was a retirement gig, Every act falls off so we might as well fall off gracefully. I forgot to consider the possibility that things could get better." | Ever since he outgrew his youthful Mr Angry persona in the mid-'80s, Costello has been one of music's most relentlessly agreeable participants. Booking a benefit gig, tribute album or awards show? Costello's your man. Such sociability is new to Questlove. Playing up to 230 shows a year left The Roots little time for networking, and Questlove is naturally shy. "Even 18 years into our career, the idea of shaking hands with people we admired was new," he says. "I thought this was a retirement gig, Every act falls off so we might as well fall off gracefully. I forgot to consider the possibility that things could get better." | ||
When Costello, who currently lives in New York with his wife Diana Krall and their twin boys, first appeared on ''Late Night'' in November 2009, The Roots set about seducing him with arcane knowledge. For his walk-on music they played the old jingle for R White's Lemonade, composed by Costello's dad Ross MacManus, and featuring the young Declan MacManus on backing vocals and bass. For the actual performance, the band prepared "High Fidelity" in its slower, Bowie-inspired demo form. By Costello's third visit to ''Fallon'', last March, Questlove had summoned the courage to ask him about working together, no strings attached. | When Costello, who currently lives in New York with his wife Diana Krall and their twin boys, first appeared on ''Late Night'' in November 2009, The Roots set about seducing him with arcane knowledge. For his walk-on music they played the old [[Secret Lemonade Drinker|jingle]] for R White's Lemonade, composed by Costello's dad Ross MacManus, and featuring the young Declan MacManus on backing vocals and bass. For the actual performance, the band prepared "High Fidelity" in its slower, Bowie-inspired demo form. By Costello's third visit to ''Fallon'', last March, Questlove had summoned the courage to ask him about working together, no strings attached. | ||
Costello had in fact decided he was done making albums, and would be happy just performing live from now on; but, true to type, he was hooked by the prospect of an unusual alliance. | Costello had in fact decided he was done making albums, and would be happy just performing live from now on; but, true to type, he was hooked by the prospect of an unusual alliance. | ||
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"Yikes!" yelps Questlove. "Same story!" His father, Lee Andrews, was a doo wop singer who restarted his career during the early '70s nostalgia boom and kept going as a full-time nightclub act, featuring his wife, playing the latest hits five shows a night. Desperate to keep their son safe from Philadelphia's crack-fuelled crime epidemic, the couple ran a tight ship at home as well. Questlove had to come straight home from school every day and was forbidden to watch TV except for Sesame Street and music shows. "Maybe I was an introvert but my parents were very strict. Thank God my father had a 5,000-plus record collection." | "Yikes!" yelps Questlove. "Same story!" His father, Lee Andrews, was a doo wop singer who restarted his career during the early '70s nostalgia boom and kept going as a full-time nightclub act, featuring his wife, playing the latest hits five shows a night. Desperate to keep their son safe from Philadelphia's crack-fuelled crime epidemic, the couple ran a tight ship at home as well. Questlove had to come straight home from school every day and was forbidden to watch TV except for Sesame Street and music shows. "Maybe I was an introvert but my parents were very strict. Thank God my father had a 5,000-plus record collection." | ||
Gifted with metronomic timekeeping and computer-like recall for songs and dates, Questlove was destined to join the | Gifted with metronomic timekeeping and computer-like recall for songs and dates, Questlove was destined to join the family business. At six, he was shining shoes, brushing suede and navigating the band to venues. At 10, he was operating the lights. At 12, he played his first ever show — at Radio City Music Hall, right across the street from 30 Rockefeller. "One day a drummer couldn't make it and my dad said, 'You know the show' After that he was like, 'Oh, you're way cheaper, you're my new bandleader?" | ||
"My first gig with my dad was at the Central Club, Blackpool," responds Costello. "Not quite as glamorous as Radio City. I was 16 and played guitar. I realised I was half a step out and just turned it down and mimed." He smiles. "That was a pretty good apprenticeship for television." | |||
This is one of a few comments today that suggests Costello still struggles to shake the old suspicion that TV is a naff and artificial avenue for musical performance. Questlove was wary, too, when Fallon first approached him. "My main concern was, OK, it's taken us 16 Years to finally make a living," he says. "Do we leave what we built to go into the unknown? What if the show gets dropped? What if we lose momentum? How could this ever look cool? So it was a leap of faith. [NYC blog] ''Gawker'' said The Roots taking the Fallon gig was like Miles Davis becoming a subway musician, but I like being underestimated, because in my heart I knew we could nail this." | |||
Questlove now calls it "the wisest move we ever made". Coming off the road not only saved strained personal relationships, it restored friendships within the band. "Being in this intimate box together has made us closer than ever. On the road we were just eight individuals." It's also given them long overdue job security. "Because we were never a multiplatinum rap act our only saying grace was critical acclaim," he explains. Words cannot do justice to Costello's look of incredulous amusement when Questlove confesses to obsessively checking The Roots' score on on-line reviews aggregator Metacritic. | |||
''Late Night'' has opened countless doors for Questlove. Last year, before he hired a team of trainers and therapists and lost 40 pounds, he contracted Coxsackievirus, a rare infection brought on by overwork. "It's hard for me to say no, which I guess is a fault of mine," he says. Not long ago, he had 12 jobs, five managers and four assistants. He has just finished his semester teaching music appreciation at New York University, his memoir ''Mo' Meta Blues'', and his work on D'Angelo's first album in 13 years. That just leaves a restaurant, a clothing store, two movie scores, a sit-com soundtrack, regular DJ gigs, the 16th Roots album, a coffee-table book about the seminal black-music showcase ''Soul Train'', and seven hours at 30 Rockefeller every weekday. Next February the band will follow Fallon to the ''Tonight Show''; the most prestigious gig in television. "Short of an unfortunate circumstance, this is pretty much our job for life," says Questlove. "If we want it." | |||
Costello's schedule seems leisurely by comparison. "I've never been that prolific," he insists. "I just give that appearance." He's currently writing new songs with Burt Bacharach for a stage version of their 1998 album ''Painted From Memory'', and working on a book. "It's not a typical memoir because there's an account of you on the internet now so why would you argue with that? The only thing of value would be something nobody else could possibly know, because it's in your head." | |||
'' | What both men have achieved is that most elusive prize in any career: a second act. Haying been born into the world of the old-fashioned showbiz pro, they both spent many years wary of the mainstream's temptations and compromises before returning to that world, via unpredictably circuitous routes, to find that it doesn't necessarily diminish your art — it can even strengthen it. | ||
"I stayed outside of lots of things for a long time," Costello reflects while Questlove nods supportively. "I didn't join in for the first 20 years of my career. And then I thought, OK, let's see what it's like through that velvet rope. Is it more fun or less fun or just different? There's something self-defeating about standing on the periphery and staring at your shoes. It's self-satisfied, really I've had some fun going to the most unlikely places. Other times these experiences confirm your worst suspicions. But you'll never know from outside exactly what's there." | |||
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|prev = Mojo, July 2013 | |||
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'''Mojo, No. 238, September 2013 | '''Mojo, No. 238, September 2013 | ||
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<br><small> Photo by [[Mattia Zoppellaro]].</small> | <br><small> Photo by [[Mattia Zoppellaro]].</small> | ||
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<br><small> Page scans.</small> | <br><small> Page scans.</small> | ||
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*[http://www.elviscostellofans.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=109815 Elvis Costello Fan Forum] | *[http://www.elviscostellofans.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=109815 Elvis Costello Fan Forum] | ||
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Latest revision as of 17:53, 23 September 2018
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