|
Pulse of the Twin Cities Login |
|
If you do not have an account yet
Create One.
|
|
|
Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
|
|
|
|
Jay Bennett Enters the Spotlight: Ex-Wilco sideman shows he has his fair share o
Wednesday 07 August @ 09:55:23 |
 by Rob van Alstyne
With the absurdly large amount of press that Wilco’s finally-released Yankee Hotel Foxtrot has been garnering, the absence of their lead guitarist/studio wizard Jay Bennett is all the more glaring. Bennett was unceremoniously booted from the group shortly after the completion of the album for which he co-wrote eight of the eleven songs, purportedly due to disagreements during the mixing process of the record. For longtime Wilco fans his departure was a difficult shock to overcome, many having pegged him as the prime force behind the groups evolution from Tom Petty’s lovable stoner cousins to masterful psych-pop practitioners during his nearly seven-year tenure with the group. Fortunately Bennett has moved on with a new recording project, a collaborative effort with longtime friend and fellow songwriter Edward Burch, who ended up releasing their debut on the same day as Wilco’s long-delayed opus. Even more amazingly, the album is nearly as compelling.
Bennett and Burch’s record, The Palace at 4 am (Part I), is an album overflowing with ideas and ambition, the 38-year-old Bennett sounding every bit like the sweet-toothed kid on the loose in an audio candy store. No instrumental stone is left unturned (the liner notes credit Bennett with no less than 19 different noise-makers), seemingly as a reaction to the more spare turn taken on Foxtrot. Showing a classic pop sensibility indebted to early Elvis Costello on tracks like the bouncy “Whispers or Screams,” Bennett proves himself an able co-front man, trading off lead vocal duties with Burch, while still employing his already well-established studio skills and fret board mastery. While speaking via telephone from his Chicago home it’s clear that Bennett relishes the role of studio Svengali, but is wary of the dangers that accompany it.
“Doing too much is definitely a danger,” says Bennett. “To be honest it’s probably a danger that we slipped on once or twice with this record. That’s why I brought in some extra help when we were mixing. Mike [Hagler, co-producer of the album] was the first guy to go ‘Dude you don’t need that there.’ He’s dead honest. We’re not a band per se, it’s me and Ed. We are missing those three other guys to say ‘Hey, what are you doing? It sounded beautiful a minute ago and you just ruined it with that orchestra.’ Even with Mike’s help, Ed and I still might have packed things a little too densely. I still do this all in a really organic way, which keeps things from getting out of control. I don’t use pro tools and work with 200 tracks, I do have limitations in terms of the number of sounds I can hold onto, which is probably a good thing. None of my favorite records have 200 tracks on them, maybe 60 though [laughs].”
The lush and dense sound of Palace is immediately engrossing, each song awash in vintage keyboard layers, vocal harmonies, and well-timed guitar licks. The studio gadgetry, however, is employed in the service of widely varying songs. Cuts like “Shakin’ Sugar,” left on the cutting room floor of Foxtrot, recall mid-period Beatles while late night torch song balladry (most notably in the form of the sublime Burch-sung “Forgiven”) also makes up for a significant portion of the album’s sprawling fifteen tracks.
Although Bennett admits to being shocked and hurt upon his August 2001 dismissal from Wilco, it’s clear that he relishes his new-found position as a front man as well. “I can honestly say that I personally don’t have any hard feelings,” explains Bennett. “For me it’s doable to react to my emotions in a certain way and place them in a framework where they can become really positive. I’ve chosen to move ahead and wish everybody else the best of luck and treat them with kindness and respect. It’s not hard for me to continue feeling love towards those people. I don’t like to look back too much. Should I have done my own record five or ten years ago? I don’t know, maybe I wasn’t ready. I think the experiences I had working with other people were important. I do know for certain that I didn’t want to wait any longer to do it. Some of it has to do with a lack of self-confidence. It just takes a lot more balls to get up on stage and be the singer who gets the attention.”
On the verge of hitting the road for the second extensive tour in support of Palace, Bennett once again finds himself plying his trade at small bars and recording for a tiny independent record label, a position he hasn’t been in for years.
So, does Jay Bennett consider himself a born-again indie-rocker? “I don’t think indie-rock as a term can apply to the music because that’s pretty much a meaningless adjective in that way,” says Bennett. “I think on some level that term does apply to the reality of our situation now though. Are we touring in a van? Yes. Are we sleeping on floors? Yes. Do I feel a certain comradery and get in the van aesthetic? Yeah, and I’m really loving it. I’m just so thankful to the people who come and see us play, who care about the records and support us. They deserve all the respect in the world. The word audience has taken on this pejorative sense to me lately, I need a new word for those people who like what we’re doing. I like being in contact with those people. It’s something I missed for a long time, the last seven years or so with Wilco. It was more like take a cab to the show ten minutes before, leave ten minutes after, it was just the logistics of the situation. Reconnecting with fans is great. For the time being I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Wilco has yet to make a great record without Jay Bennett, although it should be interesting to hear their follow-up to Foxtrot. The same can no longer be said of Bennett himself.
Jay Bennett & Edward Burch play Sat., Aug. 10, at the 400 Bar. With Will Johnson of Centro-matic. 9 p.m. $7. 21+. 400 Cedar Ave. S., Mpls. 612-332-2903.
|
|
 |
|
|
