All pictures on this page are copyright ©2004 of me
Check out:
Hubcap (2004)
Willem Tell Blues club, St-Lenaarts, 07/03/2004
WirWar, Turnhout, 07/04/2004
Kindasortaterrific
I
spent the past two nights in the company of the Ithaca Five, the
4 guys of the band Hubcap and their manager/“schmooze guy”
Doug. They’d sent me their CD a while ago – the first "free"
one I really, really dug – and told me they’d pulled
it off to arrange a two-week Belgian tour, like, smack dab in the middle of
the music festival-season. Of course I had to check them out – luckily
Belgium’s only a stretched out village if you think of it – and
got my first opportunity at blues club Willem Tell last Saturday, where they’d
perform an hour after their set at the Na Fir Bolg Folk Festival
nearby had ended. Little time to chitchat, as the band immediately started
getting their equipment on stage and Doug turned displaying merchandise into
an art form itself. Even though the audience (about five dozen people, which
made the small place pretty crowded) and club were obviously blues-biased
(you know, a lot of them mean, roadhouse-styled stompin’ boogies,
etc), 
they
were surprisingly receptive towards the band’s brand of roots-rock.
As I argued in my review of the album, the band’s style’s not
that easy to pinpoint. Yeah, I know, they say that about every band, but it’s
true in this case, as they love melody and rocking out more than your average
alt country band, while they’re more roots-inspired than the average
rock band-with-a-twang-for-authenticity’s-sake. I was fully
prepared for the set, I knew every song from Halogen Sons by heart
(well, sort of), but when the band finished its set two hours later, a quick
sum told me I’d heard only seven Hubcap songs I knew. While their second
album is as good as finished and supposed to come out around the fall of 2004,
they’d rehearsed the new songs especially for the Belgian tour. It’s
not that that was an unexpected move for the audience (Halogen Songs hasn’t
been distributed in Europe (yet), so I presume only a handful of them heard
the music before), but it goes to show the band wasn’t satisfied with
turning in an half-assed effort, instead trying to display as many sides of
themselves as possible. During the double set at the Willem Tell, the guys
tore through their catalogue with an infectious eagerness, alternating muscular
rock with rusty Americana, a bit introspective balladry and more traditionally-oriented
tunes, including a swift take on Hank Williams’ “Mansion on the
Hill,” done in a way that reminded you the hardcore country legend might
as well have been one of the original rock ‘n’ rollers out there.
Anyway, they immediately started off with a new song (“Wish”)
that had them incorporate a ripping Crazy Horse-styled groove. That band was
repeatedly referred to by guitarist Peter Glanville’s impressive combination
of greasy licks and melodic soloing. Glanville further proved his outstanding
capacities during the countrified “Railyard,” which he also sung.
As I was standing there, names and bands started flashing through my head
(Green on Red, The Jayhawks, Chris Whitley, Wilco, etc), as the band delivered
an enthusiastically received version of roots-pop gem “Two Bits + Shirtless
on Main St” and also Camper Van Beethoven’s “Sweethearts,”
that immediately made sense in the light of songs like “Henrietta Universe,”
that are informed by traditional styles, as well as alternative rock and classic
power pop (with pop-meisters Elliott Smith and Neil Finn lurking
around the corner). 
The
swampy “Bullfights on Acid” proved to be a dark and massive groove
that featured some howling guitar parts, new song “Pretty/Ugly”
bordered on the abrasive and the cutting “Chloroform” contained
more sparkle than a gallon of Coke. Throughout the entire set the rhythm section
of Walt Lorenzut and Ryan Cady demonstrated to be the perfect fit for the
guitars and vocals of Glanville and Steve Gollnick. Seemingly unnoticed, but
always present and fulfilling their roles with style and creativity, keeping
the groove light when needed, providing a more muscular bottom during the
tougher songs and occasionally swinging like hell (with small details by Cady
and groovy bass-lines by Lorenzut that were the icing on the cake, so to speak).
Gollnick is one of those no nonsense-guys as well; perhaps you might
only like the loudmouthing, ‘did you‘see my new shirt’-type
of guy, but I don’t know how anyone wouldn’t like this guy, a
humble dude – hinding under his black cap - with a flair for wonderful
melodies (as proven by the big-ass chorus of new song “Perfect”)
and excellent rhythm guitar-parts. Propelled by the animated crowd, the band
nearly played ‘til there was nothing left anymore and closed the set
with Camper Van Beethoven’s “Eye of Fatima.”
It’s not obvious for an unknown band to attract big
crowds in Belgium, certainly when the main competition is the Werchter rock
festival (one of the biggest in Europe) and during their gig at Turnhout’s
WirWar … the final match of the Euro 2004 soccer tournament.
You gotta know one thing about Belgium: soccer is popular here. 
Almost
as much as beer, chocolate and empty-headed right wing-politicians. Anyway,
a small crowd it was, but once again also a small victory that must’ve
felt good. This time around, they played only a 50-minute set or so, but at
least I was familiar with most of the songs – having had the opportunity
to hear some of their forthcoming album. The sound – like at the Willem
Tell club - was excellent again, maybe also because of the cosy,
old-fashioned interior (which means: lots of wood) of the pub. The set seemed
a bit more country-ish and laid-back than the one the day before, but that
didn’t stop Peter to turn in a truly incendiary solo during
“Two Shirts” and some amazing guitar shredding during a cover
of Neil Young’s “Eldorado.” Despite the short duration,
the band managed to demonstrate their versatility again, by rendering an almost
unrecognisable, psychedelic “Roman Holiday” that was so slow and
feverish it nearly sounded threatening; by offering simply beautiful roots
tunes like “Kindasortawrong” and “Buzz;” and the mellow
& moving “Birthday,” which is bound to be a highlight on the
next album (you can confirm that in a few months, pal). Finally,
the huge hooks of “Henrietta Universe” and a swaying “Stick
Figures” ended the set on a strong note. 
I
don’t know about you out there, but when I see bands like Hubcap at
work, it’s like getting a reconfirmation of the usefulness and necessity
of music. They’re a band that has the talent, the chops and, most importantly,
the fervour to make good music and have the potential to become somewhat
of a household name. They’re probably not gonna make it BIG
(where are the cheap gimmicks, dudes?), but in a certain way I wouldn’t
want that either; I’d hate to see these guys get fucked by some major
company who’d turn them into some product to be exploited. On the other
hand, I hope they’ll be able to make a living out of what they do best,
or at least get the opportunity to play once in a while and release the music
they create and get some credit (do I ask for too much, or what?).
When I was talking to these guys, I was under the impression they didn’t
even believe they were playing on a stage several thousands of miles from
home (not that Belgium’s that great). Their excitement and wonder showed
during the gigs, cracked me up and already makes me look forward to their
next trip to Belgium, whenever that is. The sooner the better, though.
Hubcap (2005)
06/25/05 - Willem Tell Blues Club, St. Lenaarts (B)
06/29/05 - Café Hemelrijk, St. Niklaas (B)
07/01/05 - MusiCafé, Leuven (B)
07/06/05 - Café 't Stekske, Arendonk (B)
07/20/05 - Castaways, Ithaca, NY (USA)
07/23/05 - Grassroots Festival, Trumansburg, NY (USA)
That's "wieldop" for you, Sylvain.
2004 - THE EYES! THE EYES! 
Marty
Feldman would've been proud! Belgium has that effect on foreigners - especially
when they're American - and it was no different in Hubcap's case. Actually,
this assertion might very well be the overstatement of the year, but it was
a plain fact that seeing the Hubcap guys wander around before and after their
sets, kick off their performances with caution and socialize with their Dutch-speaking
audience (people who often didn't know better than address these guys in a
mixture of German, the Antwerp dialect and the occasional English word thrown
in) was a bit like taking a kid to day-care for the first time, stepping to
the other side of the two-way mirror and observe how they'd get along, explore
and eventually feel at ease. I managed to catch the band during three of their
gigs (a dozen or so), saw them play a double set in front of a tiny audience
in a cosy blues club, as well as try to convince a huge tent at the Sjock
Festival. Despite the fact that they didn't play any blues songs or sleazy
rot 'n' roll, surf or rockabilly (except for that seething romp through
Hank Williams' "Mansion on the Hill"), they managed to silence the naysayers
on the strength of solid song-writing, dedicated performances and a healthy
no-bullshit attitude. They proved that even without a European distribution
deal, a band with only album (Halogen Sons) to its credit can play
credible shows, win fans and, most importantly, do it without slavishly surfing
the waves of one trend or other. On top of that, that advance copy of Between
the Rails - set for release around autumn 2004, sounded promising. Very
promising.
2005 - A year and album later, they're back. Still
without a European distribution deal, but with support from people
in the know who called Between the Rails "hands down the best local
release of 2004"
(quite a feat in a city where every second person seems to be in three bands)
and a loyal fan base at home. Also: with an increased confidence, improved
cohesion and more excellent songs. Compared to the sonically dense debut album,
the sophomore album might initially seem a bit less self-assured, but that
is definitely not the case when you've patiently digested the platter of songs
that's presented on Between the Rails. Like the debut, it has ventures
into pure/alternative pop ("Engine," the swift "Motionsick"), offers ear candy
(the lullaby "Barstools and Landmines," the stop-whatever-you're-doing-and-check-this-out
"KSW"), drags you through an emotional quagmire ("TV @ a Loss") and has you
shake your head to the Crazy Horse-inflected drive of "Wish." These new tracks
were already tried out in 2004, but at the time they were still fresh, not
yet road-tested and probably no match for the current renditions - which sparkle
with energy where necessary and are better at stressing their respective strengths.
In the meanwhile, the band has also become looser, guided by a wordless communication
that can only be obtained from playing lots of gigs and spending time rehearsing
in the smelly fumes of a tiny rehearsal room. With no less than 15 shows in
18 days, the four Hubcappers and manager Doug had definitely something to
look forward to - wouldn't you like, totally freak out if you were
given the opportunity to rock out a few thousand miles from home?
Unfortunately, the attendance was usually quite small and occasionally led to some panicky looks and the realisation that the new schedule didn't include a new Sjock-experience (which is already exciting before you've even played a note). And there were reasons for this, of course, as a) the band played a lot on weekdays, b) they had to compete with big-ass festivals, c) some of these dates were last minute-offers, d) there had hardly been any advertising and e) people still don't give a fuck about you or your band before mass media shoves it up their body entries or if somehow word has spread that you're the next big thing waiting to be discovered. Oh well, it didn't prevent some gigs from becoming nothing if not interesting experiences. The double set at the Willem Tell blues club was as cosy as it gets, while the show at the MusiCafé - a club that boasts about the worst sound this side of the equator - could've been totally ruined, yet was saved by the mathematical dance patterns that were unfolded before the stage (some of my countrymen and women never cease to amaze me) and propelled the band to heights they hadn't even imaged before. Well, almost.
Apart
from the songs on Between the Rails, almost all of which were played
("Wish" being the one inexplicable exception), the band hadn't rested on their
laurels the past year and offered an array of new songs and covers that not
only contained some surprises, but occasionally also demonstrated the different
approaches/styles of the two front men/guitarists/vocalists. Even though Steve
Gollnick is the key song-writer in the band (and a solo artist in his own
right), singer of most songs, architect of the band's course and probably
the most dominant personality, musically speaking, guitarist Peter Glanville's
contributions have increased and betrayed an own identity, as such offering
a clue to the band's approach, which often seems to walk the thin line between
different spheres, eras and genres. As is often the case with bands that mainly
depend on the input of two members (and I'm not suggesting bass player
Lorenzut and drummer Cady don't add their own two cents, touches, tics and
ideas to the band's sound, because they do - albeit on another level), the
personalities/baggage of Gollnick and Glanville are complementary. Whereas
Glanville almost seems like your All-American boy, the straightforwardly approachable
kid grown up on a diet of classic rock 'n' roll (Led Zeppelin, The Grateful
Dead, The Who, etc), burgers and Budweiser/Labatt/whatever he likes; Gollnick
almost comes off as his indie kid opposite, a loner type immersed in
his own universe, the teen angst chroniclers of The Replacements, the alt
country of Son Volt and early Wilco and the slacker generation jangle of Pavement.
Though Gollnick is not ignorant of rock before the '80's, he's definitely
a product of the nineties, an experimentalist who has tasted roots music through
the distillations of his teenage heroes, whether it's in the indie rock, country
or punk format. Coupled to Glanville's tendency for coming up with no-nonsense
heartland-rock, this results in an interesting merger of old and new, traditional
and contemporary, and while the latter mainly surfaces during their often
surprising cover choices (Teenage Fanclub's "The Concept", Pavement's Gold
Soundz," Camper Van Beethoven's "Sweethearts") that perhaps don't make you
wonder where their true allegiances are (since they also cover Hank Williams,
The Rolling Stones' "Dead Flowers" and Neil Young's "Eldorado"), but will
make you expect that one of these days, a full-bore excursion into one of
the extremes will baffle their fans, as Glanville's "Rail Yard" (more blue
collared than they ever got) and Gollnick's "After the Fall" (with the singer
frantically spewin' out the lyrics to a C&W-beat so as to get to the slashing,
shuffling Gun Club-styled climaxes as fast as possible) already tread unfamiliar
territory.
I saw the band play four times in a week and a half during
their European tour, but that wasn't everything yet, as I found myself in
their very own hometown two weeks later to capture two of their shows on their
home turf of Ithaca, NY. 
After
four days in a maddeningly hot, humid and expensive New York City (how anyone
can survive in a city where living must be three times as expensive as anywhere
else in the US still eludes me), we arrived in Ithaca, home of Cornell University,
hippie idealists, five thousand musicians (or so it seems) and some of the
nastiest wasps I've ever encountered. All kidding aside, Ithaca really seems
like an unreal city, situated in often gorgeous surroundings, and as
untarnished as possible by the kind of US you will encounter if you drive
50 miles in either direction of the Commons (Ithaca's downtown). As their
t-shirts have it, Ithaca doesn't want to include itself in American reality.
Whether it's in the water, the air or something else that's hard to explain,
I'm not sure, but it's a fact that the city seems a bastion of musical creativity,
as each civilian seems to be in a band or has a brother/son/mother/blood brother
who's in one. These band members not only seem to know each other's work very
well, but they're also in bands with members from other bands to such a degree
that the music community seems like an ever-shifting, evolving web of interrelations
staying on the healthy side of incest. While many of these acts could be filed
under "roots music," there's more than enough variety, ranging from Hubcap
to The Horse Flies' contemporary take on bluegrass, Wingnut's jazz improv,
Johnny Dowd's dementia and Mary Lorson & Saint Low's shimmering alt-pop. For
a town with such a blossoming scene, there didn't seem to be that many venues
willing to organise concerts though, as they all seem to be concentrated around
two places: Castaways and The Chapter House. I managed to catch the band at
the former - a nice location next to the river that leads to the amazing beauty
of the Finger Lakes - where they basically rehearsed on the eve of the Grassroots
festival for their performance there.
General observations:
-
People are uptight about underage drinking. I'm pretty sure that I've learned to make myself look older than 21 (I actually turned 30 in the US, for Chrissakes!), yet when the guy at the door heard my foreign accent, I had to dig up my identity card, which he put through a scrutiny I hadn't witnessed since some doctor studied my genitals during our annual medical inspection in high school.
-
People go to concerts to dance! Well, not always and not the entire time, but dancing and making noise is definitely more common than in Belgium, where the audience will usually wait for an artist to give his okay about them talking, clapping and cheering.
-
People don't drink like they're mad. Going to concerts is (seems) a social thing in the US and not the ideal occasion to get totally wasted on beer. But maybe that's due to the price difference.
Anyway,
it was pretty cool to be in the company of several people that actually knew
what they could expect from Hubcap (and knew the words to some of the songs),
but this wasn't even half as much fun as the Grassroots Festival in
Trumansburg - a 20- minute drive away from Ithaca. Even though it has a reputation
for being a festival that mainly appeals to naive dreamers, hippies and other
flower children (my impression, at least),
the band roster at Grassroots was surprisingly diverse, with the organisation
ensuring that many, many definitions of "roots" were lived up to. On the day
I visited the festival site, there was hip hop (Little Egypt), bluegrass (The
Horse Flies), funky gospel-blues (The Campbell Brothers, who played a set
using pedal steel, lap steel and regular electric guitar to create music that
was hotter than a jar of jalapeno peppers), other kinds of world music, Hubcap,
Johnny Dowd, etc, and all this in beautiful surroundings, well-organized,
with a laidback atmosphere, good food and a unique vibe (though it takes some
time to get used to it). It was in the Cabaret Hall, the smallest but cosiest
of the four stages, that Hubcap finally appeared on stage around 9PM to play
one of the best sets I've seen them play, spurred on by an enthusiastic crowd,
without wasting anytime on superfluous banter. Keeping in between-song breaks
as short as possible, the band played an energetic yet tight set that included
a few older songs ("Henrietta Universe," "No Myth/ No Less," a brooding "Bullfights
on Acid), a bunch from their second album and a few new ones: a frenetic "After
the Fall," the gentle balled "Chesterfield" and "Radio Cure," which could
become a contender for catchiest song on their next album (if it ever winds
up on that one). The set provided a balanced alternation of swifter songs
and quieter introspection, showing the breadth of their material and their
mastery of several formats. They're certainly not revolutionary upstarts or
virtuoso wizards creating challenging music that expects you to alter your
notions of rock 'n' roll, but that's not required. They're an ultra-competent
unit, consisting of equally gifted musicians and songwriters with two excellent
albums under their belt, talent to spare and a bunch of followers already
waiting for their next move, whatever that will be.
A few Grassroots Impressions:
Red-Hot: The Campbell Brothers
Bluegrass improv at Grassroots
Grassroots is a family festival, maaaaaaaaaan!
Read album reviews of similar or related artists: Hubcap - Johnny Dowd