Simple ambitions
Former Spinane Rebecca Gates makes mellow music marvelous
Music preview
Rebecca Gates
w/guests
Saturday, March 9
Night Gallery
A lot of great bands were born during the mid-90s indie pop/ rock semi-explosion. A profusion of independent record labels released music by the arty cream of urban music scenes coast to coast, continent-wide. For example, in the U.S., K Records had Beat Happening, Matador had Liz Phair and sub pop had Nirvana, while in Canada, Murder had Sloan.
A few artists graduated to the more lucrative alternative category as they, and in some cases their labels, went major. However, artists like Rebecca Gates, formerly of the Spinanes (also on sub pop), have kept that independent music torch alight.
The Spinanes recorded three albums, the acclaimed Manos, followed by Strand (featuring guest vocals by Elliot Smith) and Arches and Isles. The band's brainy, oblique, jangling guitar-pop floated Gates's breathy voice with charming results. Then drummer Scott Plouf, the other half of the Portland, Oregon duo, jumped ship to join Built to Spill (an indie band previously on K that went on to sign with Warner Records), and Gates headed for the thriving music scene in Chicago.
Indie faded as a music buzzword, but the heroes of the movement continued to evolve outside the measure of limelight they had briefly enjoyed – although not untouched by the changes.
"We've all gotten older!" Gates says. "It's interesting to see how cultures are created and absorbed. I find response and process (in music making) to be much more regimented in a sense. At the same time, those of us who are still playing are developing in what we do."
In Chicago, Gates's own development renewed. "Chicago has definitely affected how I make music," she says. "I think the community there, with its knowledge and history of jazz, provided a vocabulary that has helped me do some things I want."
She cites jazz artists such as Jimmy Giuffre, Jim Hall, Lester Young and Abbey Lincoln as well as soul artist Curtis Mayfield as influencing her direction. The jazz influences in her album, Ruby Series (Badman CD), are discernible, but equally so are strands of hip-hop and the works of Dusty Springfield. The most immediate comparison that jumps to mind is Lou Barlow (Sebadoh, Folk Implosion). This is mellow music made with the help of members of The Sea and Cake and Tortoise – bands that similarly merged multi-instrumental, slow-lane jazz with indie pop guitar.
Gates’s torchy, sugar ’n' molasses song stylings say a lot about the ambitions of the new indie set – the music has never taken a back seat to the drive for commercial success. She is spurred on by curiosity and a need to hear music she can't find.
"I like simple ambitions," she adds. "Don't kill my houseplants, be healthy, keep learning." |
