The Mifflin Street Block Party

The University of Wisconsin has traditionally held two giant student parties every year. One is Halloween (where out of town revelers caused so many problems, it evolved into Freak Fest, still a good party but one that turns State Street into a demilitarized zone each year) and the other is the Mifflin Street Block Party. Started in 1969 as a reaction to the Vietnam War (the event that seems to loom over every student activity or university story from that decade), the party has been an annual tradition some times at odds with the city and some times with the city’s blessing. After a long time of relative peace, in 1996, drunken and foolish partygoers decided to attack a fire truck that came to put out a bonfire started in the middle of the street. Next thing you know, there’s riot gear, people are screaming bloody murder, and lots and lots of arrests are made. Needless to say, the 1997 party was kind of a drag. But the fest has continued in the ensuing years, and now local music promoters DCNY PRO, Madison natives and longtime Mifflin Street attendees, David Coleman and Ny Bass, have taken the bull by the horns. They spearheaded the party in 2009 to one of its most successful years. On the fortieth anniversary of the festival and even with over fifteen-thousand people in attendance, arrests were down from the year before and in 2010, they’re bringing more changes to make it a friendlier and safer place.

Charlie Cheney

As a solo Americana singer/songwriter, CHARLIE CHENEY has been traversing the country and delivering a brand of intelligent, moving and fun songs. This last winter, Charlie embarked on a 25 city tour where he played his solo acoustic show, gave music business seminars, and participated in the February Album Writing Month challenge (an internet songwriter community where people encourage each other to accomplish writing fourteen songs in twenty-eight days.) All the while also hosting a radio show every day of the tour which focused on other FAWM participants. Now, he’s back on the road and has several house and coffeeshop concerts in the Midwest in April.

“FAWM is such a cool event.”, Charlie says. “It’s just an interesting challenge, and at first it was sort of a lark… like a dare… But now that I’ve done it four years in a row its become a much different thing, a chance to really work the craft of songwriting in new and inventive ways each year, honing the craft, learning why songs make you feel a certain way, or why you write songs at all. And the community is just so incredibly positive and thoughtful and supportive… it inspires me to write songs that really mean something to me.”

Cracker

Since their formation in 1991, Cracker has existed on the fringe of the mainstream, riding the dangerous line between country western and alternative rock, probably best known for their Platinum 1993 release “Kerosene” which contained the breakout hit, “Low”. It was Johnny Hickman and David Lowery who decided to do an acoustic duo tour as part of their relentless touring regimen. Check out a show when they hit your city. As someone who has seen Cracker several times I can tell you that you will not be disappointed. Below is an interview with Cracker’s lead guitarist, Johnny Hickman.

MAXIMUM INK: What is your least favorite interview question?
JOHNNY HICKMAN: What’s you favorite Cracker?  I often answer “A racist one” just to get a reaction to this banal question that I’ve heard for 20 years. I don’t mean to be cruel, but it’s just exasperating you know? Come on!

Helen Money

Listening to the new instrumental record by HELEN MONEY, In Tune, is a completely different kind of instrumental experience. Alison Chesley is a Chicago-based cellist who earned her rock credentials with the 90’s alternative band, Verbow, then started performing with world-rockers, Poi Dog Pondering, and even recorded with nu-metallers, Disturbed. If you’re expecting just cello renditions of rock n’ roll songs, you won’t hear that, but you’ll hear music that’s completely unafraid to reach into dark places and her mixture of pizzicato, heavy bowing, distorted leads over beds of soft strings is a fascinating listen of how to channel rock’s traditionally guitar-oriented aggression through an instrument that gets most of its heavy metal recognition from the bridge section of Whitesnake’s “Still Of The Night”.

For her interesting choice of musical direction, Alison says that it was because the traditional model didn’t appeal to her.“ I grew up in Los Angeles and I spent about ten years after I dropped out of college, where I just wasn’t feeling inspired playing cello.”, she says. “So I started going out to clubs to see bands like The MInutemen and Meat Puppets and Bob Mould

Heatbox

Vocal organists are a hard lot to find. Humans may all be born with mouths, but what emanates from that orifice varies greatly. Babies tend to be the most creative but also unrefined when it comes to their vocal expressions. Some folks however take the time to refine their vocal tool and the results can be spectacular. Case in point HEATBOX, the one man beatboxing sensation from Minneapolis, MN who describes his music as sounding like a “funky a’ capella group from outer space.” 

His new release is called “System” and drops on May 5, 2009, necessitating a tour and therefore a fantastic opportunity to see him live and in top form. I’ve seen HEATBOX several times over the past several years and he is always extremely interesting and entertaining as a performer.  I was pleased when he recently had a moment to answer a few questions. Since the amount of solo beatboxing performers is a slim one at best, I was curious as to how he chose his musical path.  “I have always had a nerdy spot in my heart for a’ capella music… and funk!” Heatobox begins. “But really I think it chose me.”

When performing, Heatbox is far more than just a simple a’ capella performer. Hums, whirls, squeaks, scratches, thumps and bumps are but a paltry attempt to semantically replicate the types of sounds in his arsenal of vocal slurries. I questioned if certain sounds are harder to generate than others?

Bellydance Superstars - Petite Jamilla

Petite Jamilla has been belly dancing her entire life, bridging the generation gap between traditional folkloric style and modern belly dance fusion. Studying for over ten years, Jamilla toured the Southeast U.S. at fifteen, a seasoned instructor by seventeen, with two instructional DVDs before she turned twenty. A member of the BELLYDANCE SUPERSTARS for the past three years, Petite Jamilla was kind enough to answer a few questions in anticipation of her troupe’s arrival at Madison’s Union Theater on March 26th.

MAXIMUM INK: What are the biggest misconceptions about belly dance?

PETITE JAMILLA: Due to Hollywoods’ early depictions of ‘belly dancers’ I think the biggest misconception is that belly dance is done for exploitive and seductive reasons, but it really has become a self-exploratory and self-improvement tool for dancers in the U.S.