#ok last one. technically a mash up of two. if you read nothing else of this book - you should it's a quick read and it slaps

[utilitycaster]

"I don't want characters to be 'goals', I don't want them to be 'strong' or 'role models' or 'inspirational'—I want them to just be great characters. I don't want to bend over backward trying to find redeemable aspects or excuses for their actions. It's not a question of perception but of permission. The pleasure of watching unlikeable female characters is watching them make choices, following their intentions, and using their agency. Even when they don't get away with it, they have an intention; they're not passive. We might not always get what we want, but we always want something. And while women are mostly taught to temper their desires, curb their hunger, stop wanting quite so much, watching these characters unleash their wants is such a joy...

When I was pitching this book, I was asked a question: What do you want the readers to take away from this? Simple as it sounds, it's empathy. I'd like us to allow our female characters the same amount of empathy and grace that we allow all other characters. With all the talk around representation, we have not yet allowed our fictional women much leeway to be as messy, flawed, or downright evil as fictional men without making it into a headline or a joke."

-Unlikeable Female Characters

[sinceileftyoublog]

The Wood Brothers Interview: Warts and All

From left to right: Jano Rix, Chris Wood, Oliver Wood; Photo by Alysse Gafkjen

BY JORDAN MAINZER

In between One Drop of Truth and their next record (hopefully out early next year), The Wood Brothers are giving a glimpse as to why they’re even more essential as a live band than as a studio band. Live At The Fillmore, out a week from Friday, documents their two-night stand at the San Francisco venue, a mix of songs from Truth, older material, and covers. According to drummer (and “third brother”) Jano Rix, the nights there weren’t technically their best shows but the ones that captured the spirit of their live show better than any other. Speaking to me over the phone last week from his dressing room in San Rafael, Rix shared some insight into the band’s live approach, including how their songs change over time and how they construct set lists. Read the interview below and catch the band on tour at various points throughout the rest of the year; they’re working with Thistle Farms so that $1 from every ticket sold will go towards helping female victims of trafficking, prostitution, and addiction.

Since I Left You: Why did you decide to release a live record?

Jano Rix: One reason is we tend to change the arrangements of songs over time, and things just evolve. Sometimes, the instrumentation evolves in songs, and we play them in a completely different way. To present a different take on the songs and kind of document that. And depending on where the songs fall in the set on a certain night, we might play them on completely different instruments. It’s nice to document some of that stuff. Sometimes, we feel like we get better at them, too, over the years. [laughs]

SILY: Is this recorded performance some of the best that your old songs have ever been?

JR: We like to think so. [laughs] But we tend not to listen back to the records for years and years. Sometimes, we’ll hear the album version come on the radio and are so surprised at the tempo. We’ll have completely forgotten and be like, “Oh yeah, there are horns on this song.” It’s about the evolution and capturing where we are creatively this year.

SILY: How do you decide on your set lists on a nightly basis?

JR: There are a lot of factors: what day of the week it is, the town we’re in, what we played last time in the town. We look back at previous years’ sets and try to do something different each time. If we’re playing multiple nights in a place, we’ll try to write different sets for different nights. And just trying to construct a flow that will take people on a journey from the beginning to the end. Take into consideration what the venue feels like and what the audience is gonna feel like there. If it’s all standing, if it’s a seated theater, if it’s a festival and there’s three other bands playing within a half mile of us--then the soft songs with lots of space are not gonna go over well. We all meet about it about an hour before we go on. That’s when we write the set.

SILY: How has touring One Drop of Truth been unique as compared to touring previous records?

JR: That’s a good question...I haven’t really pondered that...I don’t know that it’s really all that different. We don’t play songs mostly from the record we just put out. We play all Woods Brothers songs every tour. We mix up new songs with the old songs. People want to hear songs from the first record. So I wouldn’t say it’s that different. Our crew has gotten bigger, and we’re carrying more instruments, gear, and lights, which is it’s own challenge, but it’s been really rewarding.

SILY: Your discography certainly has some upbeat songs, but they’re mostly very lyrics-forward. Your live shows seem to be more celebratory. Do you “put on a show” more than simply play songs?

JR: For sure. It’s a show! It’s changed a lot since the early days just because of the venues we’re playing. When you’re playing to a few hundred people in a club, they’re basically in your living room. When you’re playing to 2,000 people, what gets across and what’s possible is different. As time has gone on, we’ve had more songs on records that are danceable, and people have come to really like that. We’re just kind of in it with everybody. They like what we do, but we like what they do, too. We’re feeding off of them. It influences us how to write a set.

SILY: On the performances of Smoke Ring Halo’s “Blue And Green” and [Jimmy Reed cover] “Big Boss Man”, you play keys and drums at the same time.

JR: I do that quite a bit these days.

SILY: It’s obviously something you can’t realize just listening to the record. So where does a live album, for you, fit? In between a concert and a record? Or is it still just a record?

JR: It’s definitely more in between. Especially this one and the last one. Though we recorded the entire spring and listened to all of it, we decided to put out just the Fillmore, warts and all...We had some more perfect performances, but the Fillmore had a lot of energy. We thought it would be cool to document the experience of going to a show.

SILY: What are all of the different instruments you play on any given night?

JR: I play all sorts of messed up toy instruments. [laughs] I play drums, the shuitar, a crappy old guitar I mashed into a percussion instrument, keyboards, melodica--that’s about it. But I’m pretty busy up there.

SILY: Do you have a pretty standard rotation of covers in your arsenal? Or are you constantly learning new ones?

JR: It’s best when we’re constantly learning new ones. We learn new covers when we have openers sit in with us and try to learn a song they know. It’s always good inspiration.

SILY: What else is next for you and The Wood Brothers in the near future?

JR: We’re on the road. We’re working on the final mixes for the next studio record, which we’ve been working on for the past year. We’re getting ready to finish that up, and the album will come out the beginning of next year. We’re excited about that. We also have a show at Red Rocks [Amphitheatre] a couple weeks away. That’ll be a big, fun show for us.

SILY: Any plans to come back to Chicago?

JR: Of course. Every year we’ll be in Chicago. It’s one of our favorite cities to play. You guys have the most great venues of any cities we know of. There are just so many.

SILY: What are your favorites?

JR: SPACE in Evanston. The Vic. Lincoln Hall. Old Town School of Folk Music--that place is amazing! We’ve just played so many venues in that town, as opposed to other major cities where at every size, there’s maybe one decent venue, if it’s decent.

SILY: What are some of your other favorite cities to play?

JR: We do always enjoy our West Coast runs, especially during the winter, for the change of weather. It’s really fun to play Levon’s Barn [Levon Helm Studios] in upstate New York. The Beacon [Theatre] in New York. Stone Mountain Arts Center in the middle of nowhere in Maine. It’s beautiful and has the best backstage anywhere. There are so many great venues around, but they’re not always the big ones. It depends on the vibe.

SILY: Is there anything you’ve been listening to, watching, or reading lately that’s caught your attention?

JR: I wish I had an answer for that, but nothing specific comes to the tip of my tongue. I have been listening to a lot of Cuban salsa lately.

Tour dates:

8/27 - Boise, ID - Knitting Factory Concert House ** 8/28 - Salt Lake City, UT - Red Butte Garden ** 9/5 - Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheatre ^ 9/8 - Chattanooga, TN - Moon River Music Festival 9/21 - East Aurora, NY - Borderland Music and Arts Festival 10/16 - Pensacola FL - Vinyl Music Hall 10/17 - Ponte Vedra, FL - Ponte Vedra Concert Hall 10/18 - Wilmington, NC - Greenfield Lake Amphitheater 10/19 - Greensboro, NC - The Carolina Theatre 10/20 - Black Mountain, NC - Leaf Festival 10/25 - Placerville, CA - Hangtown Music Festival 11/7 - Roanoke, VA - Shaftman Performance Hall ^^ 11/8 - Highlands, NC - Highlands Food & Wine Festival ^^ 11/9 - Louisville, KY - Headliners Music Hall ^^ 11/10 - Cincinnati, OH - Taft Theatre ^^ 11/12 - St. Louis, MO - The Pageant ^^ 11/13 - Kansas City, MO - The Truman ^^ 11/14 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue ^^ 11/15 - Madison, WI - Barrymore Theatre ^^ 11/16 - Indianapolis, IN - The Vogue ^^ 12/3 - Baton Rouge, LA - Manship Theatre ^^^ 12/4 - Houston, TX - The Heights Theater ^^^ 12/5 - Austin, TX - Paramount Theatre ^^^ 12/6 - Dallas, TX - The Kessler Theater ^^^ 12/7 - Tulsa, OK - Cain's Ballroom ^^^ 12/9 - Omaha, NE - Slowdown ^^^ 2/27 - 3/2 - Punta Cana, DR - Avett Brothers at the Beach 3/6 - Santa Barbara, CA - Campbell Hall

** w/ Colter Wall ^ w/ Fruition + Steep Canyon Rangers ^^ w/ Nicole Atkins ^^^ w/ Katie Pruitt