Friday, August 22, 2014
Doe, A Dear
More from old newspapers.
Although the marriage of John Doe and Exene Cervenka ended in 1984, they kept wrangling new tracks with their headstrong, headlong California punk group X until 1993. Today, fourteen years after the original line-up of X got back together, singer/songwriter Doe's combustible combo add up to one highly reliable road band. This fall, having recently toured with the Knitters, a hardy Americana outfit which began as an X side project, and Jill ("I Kissed A Girl") Sobule, with whom he recorded the sly underdog anthems of 2011's A Day At The Pass, Doe joined X in a round of Latin American shows, opening for Pearl Jam. X will hit the Sunbelt circuit in December, after Doe's own Midwestern shows.
¶ 8/22/2014
JOHN DOE, A DEAR
By Don Allred
11-23-11
Although the marriage of John Doe and Exene Cervenka ended in 1984, they kept wrangling new tracks with their headstrong, headlong California punk group X until 1993. Today, fourteen years after the original line-up of X got back together, singer/songwriter Doe's combustible combo add up to one highly reliable road band. This fall, having recently toured with the Knitters, a hardy Americana outfit which began as an X side project, and Jill ("I Kissed A Girl") Sobule, with whom he recorded the sly underdog anthems of 2011's A Day At The Pass, Doe joined X in a round of Latin American shows, opening for Pearl Jam. X will hit the Sunbelt circuit in December, after Doe's own Midwestern shows.
(The last time he played Columbus Cowtown, Doe and Canada's Sadies brought soulful, frequently feedback-roasted honky tonk jukebox chestnuts, from their '09 Country Club. The show still turns up on YouTube.)(For instance: "The Have-Nots" Live)
Doe's solo albums have been reinvigorated by X's second life as a concerts-only experience, and, he said, " the freedom from having to write for them." Also, lessons learned from the dissolution of his nearly twenty-five year second marriage helped provide the alchemy of songs such as "Golden State," slamming into its chorus: "We are luck/We are fate/We are the feeling you get in the Golden State." The sound of freedom also sweeps all philosophizing into a new, challenging reality: "It's the feeling I get/When you walk away."
"Pieces of sadness exist in everything, but it doesn't have to be the only thing," Doe said recently. His new Keeper gives us love songs with teeth, such as "Little Tiger," which might be about one of his three daughters, prowling through private sorrow. Still, nothing here is too narrowly defined. "Have you noticed all the time travelers in cities recently?" he asked at least one recent audience, introducing "Giant Step Backwards." It's about a guy who hears that his "factory girl" has suddenly disappeared from where he depended on her to remain, in the story of his life. He's rallying for a new quest, possibly in time, but also, Doe suggested, it has to do with "men getting too far ahead in relationships, needing to let the other person step forward."
The reflections of Keeper are polished just enough, sometimes to a slightly surreal glow. "Moonbeam" is a recently unearthed, vibrantly atmospheric R&B ballad, which gets crowded when the background singers jump into Danny White's vintage original, but Doe's cover keeps the wonder discreetly at hand. We also get a compatibly restive remake of an X classic, in which a battered wife "flips a finger" in farewell to a bartender who can only offer pity. Then she sways towards the Greyhound station, declaring, "Roses are red/Violence is too/Everybody knows/I'm painting the town blue." Sounds like a fairly bright blue, one that might guide her through the smog.
John Doe and His Rockin' Band, with supporting act Robert Ellis, will perform at the Rumba Cafe on Monday, November 28. Doors open 7 p.m. Ellis plays at 9 p.m., Doe at 10 p.m. 18+ show. $12. Under-21 pays $ 2 surcharge at door. For more information, please see columbusrumbacafe.com
(update: full album here: https://johndoex.bandcamp.com/album/keeper)
*my 2009 show preview:
John Doe & The Sadies
John Doe (still with the reunited X) and The Sadies (colleagues of Neko Case) take a well-timed ride on “Country Club” ‘s honky tonk marriage-go-round of old-schooled roolers. These testimonials are more affecting for passing by a little faster (and funnier, as the Sadies punctuate git-through-it wit). The Sadies also carefully steer Doe across neon shadows, to truly see: “This ain’t no life. But it’s my life!” Another soul saved by (or for) the jukebox!
05/10 @ The Rumba, 2507 Summit St.
10 p.m.
