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SECRET HISTORY PRESENTS: MARIA TAYLOR / THE WHISPERTOWN 2000 / THE GRENADINES
Tuesday Apr 7, 2009 8:00 PM
Birmingham native Maria Taylor returns to Bottletree in support of her new album, "LadyLuck".
Though much of the deliciously diverse LadyLuck is inspired by the end of a relationship, it’s not dripping with sadness and grief, nor is it in-your-face empowering. Rather, Taylor strikes a stunning balance between melancholy (aching strings, hushed vocals) and uplifting (rolling rhythms, shimmering keys), highlighted by sharp lyrics that draw optimism out of sadness. This is not a woman down on her luck.
The Whispertown 2000 is such a fitting name for a whole bunch of reasons. Morgan Nagler, (lead vocals, guitar) has been whispering for years before making this record. For the longest time, her songs were only heard in the most casual settings; passing the guitar in a circle in someone’s living room, barely singing above the crackle of firewood or clinking bottles.
This show is for ages 18+; Doors at 8pm.
Tickets for this show are $10 ADV; $12 DOS.
MARIA TAYLOR | 8:00 PM
Before you listen to her new album, Maria Taylor suggests you prepare yourself. Listen to it, she says “in a dark room, with a candle or two with headphones, maybe in the bath, but definitely horizontal.”
Though much of the deliciously diverse LadyLuck is inspired by the end of a relationship, it’s not dripping with sadness and grief, nor is it in-your-face empowering. Rather, Taylor strikes a stunning balance between melancholy (aching strings, hushed vocals) and uplifting (rolling rhythms, shimmering keys), highlighted by sharp lyrics that draw optimism out of sadness. This is not a woman down on her luck.
LadyLuck, Taylor’s third solo effort, is about “personal growth and the change that comes with it,” she says. Much of the album was written as Taylor was preparing for a move (to Los Angeles) and immediately after arriving. “This change in my life was so so needed,” she says, “that, whereas lots of older songs have happy words but a sad undertone, these songs have sad words but with hopeful undertones of renewal.”
Change is something Taylor has welcomed in her career, which started at age 15 in the Birmingham, AL-based band Little Red Rocket. Taylor later became one-half of the dream pop band Azure Ray and left in 2005 to strike out on her own. “I just listen to my gut…always,” she says of the move. “Something said it’s time to try something different.” In 2005 she released the bold and critically-acclaimed solo album 11:11 which featured vocals by Conor Oberst. In 2007 she delivered Lynn Teeter Flower, which showcased her growth as a solo artist, as well as her aptitude for inventive beats and featured Doug Easley (Cat Power, Pavement) and Spoon’s Jim Eno.
On LadyLuck, Taylor changes things again, trading beat-centric tracks for more guitar and vocals (though she does get behind the drums on “It’s Time”). As on previous albums, she works with Now It’s Overhead’s Andy LeMaster as well as new contributor, REM’s Michael Stipe, both of whom collaborated on the album’s final track, “Cartoons and Forever Plans.”
First single “Time Lapse Lifetime,” with its orchestral strings and grand melody, is about how fast life moves and how in a moment everything can change. Appropriately, the song is punctuated by both a driving beat and lingering plaintive vocals, with breaks of near-silence for poignant turns of phrase. “Oh, we dreamed a life / and it was just like that, and just like that it’s gone,” Taylor sings as lone strings fade out.
Intimate, earnest, and complex, LadyLuck is Taylor’s most stunning effort to date. Whether you listen to it in the dark or light, with headphones or on the stereo, horizontal, vertical, or diagonal, LadyLuck will move you to cry, to dance, to sing, and everything in between.
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THE WHISPERTOWN 2000 | 8:00 PM
 The Whispertown 2000 is such a fitting name for a whole bunch of reasons. Morgan Nagler, (lead vocals, guitar) has been whispering for years before making this record. For the longest time, her songs were only heard in the most casual settings; passing the guitar in a circle in someone’s living room, barely singing above the crackle of firewood or clinking bottles.
That all changed when she met guitarist Tod Adrian Wisenbaker. Tod and his brother, Casey, grew up playing in punk, folk, and hardcore bands in California. Morgan and Tod soon began playing shows in and around Los Angeles. Eventually they added singer Vanesa Corbala, who was born in Tijuana and grew up singing traditional Mexican music, and Casey to the lineup. The addition of Casey and Vanesa allowed the band to experiment with the instrumentation. Tod, Vanesa, and Casey trade off on drums, bass, guitar, harp, and vocals. The Whispertown 2000’s vibrant live shows have scored them opening slots with Jenny Lewis, Rilo Kiley, Maria Taylor, She & Him, and Bright Eyes.
The band soon caught the eyes and ears of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, inspiring the first signing to their own Acony Records. Likewise, Swim is the first real-deal album release for The Whispertown 2000. Recorded by Thom Monahan (Devendra Banhart, Vetiver) and mixed by Shawn Everett and Rawlings (Old Crow Medicine Show, Robyn Hitchcock), Swim is The Whispertown 2000’s contribution to that nostalgic, weird, assortment of American music.
Morgan’s classic songwriting is put in a more fractured and modern context by Tod’s avant-blues guitar, Casey’s robust bass playing (and uncanny moustache) and Vanesa’s new-traditional harmonies and creative magic. The songs on the record range from quirky folk -pop on “103” to the sweet/ sad hypnotic harmonies of “Pushing Oars” to California –country style “Lock and Key” to ballads like “Atlantis”, which features a choir made up of Nagler, Corbala, Welch, Rawlings and Jenny Lewis.
When Lewis, a longtime friend and supporter of The Whispertown 2000 was asked for a quote about the band she simply said: “Morgan Nagler is my favorite songwriter. Period.” The band seems to inspire that kind of praise among their peers. Some whispers are meant to be heard
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THE GRENADINES | 8:00 PM
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