Tucson Weekly: Soundbites (January 21

NAMING NAMES: Okay...here's the scenario: You've got this band--not just any band, but a band from the densely talent-populated music Mecca of Silverlake, California, the same spawning ground that hatched Beck, the Geraldine Fibbers, and the Dust Brothers.
Sound Bites And let's say that this band released their debut album in 1997, the same year that Beck unleashed Odelay on the world, and in return was treated by both critics and fans as Christ resurrected. I mean, who didn't bestow Album of the Year honors on Odelay?
The unexpected answer is "most of the SoCal music critics," who decided that our so-far nameless band outdid their homeboy with their debut, Post Minstrel System, which was released on indie label Aerial Flipout--as opposed to some mega-conglomerate like its closest competition.
Who is this band, you ask? Honestly, I'm a little hesitant to tell you, because they have a really awful name--not offensive (at least not to me)--but just plain bad. So when I tell you that you simply must go see this band, and you say, "How could a band that saddled itself with that name be any repository of creativity?"...I'll confess I had my doubts, too; but once you see them play live, the name won't matter anymore. (You can thank me later).
With that aside, the band's name is...The Negro Problem. They're not skinheads, and they're not militant followers of Louis Farrakhan (at least as far as I can tell). What they are is a multi-racial, mixed-gender pop band that draws influences from the quirky pop of XTC, the dreamy psychedelia of early Pink Floyd and Love, and the complex pop arrangements of Burt Bacharach and Jimmy Webb, whose "Macarthur Park" they cover here (updating the line "Someone left the cake out in the rain" to "Someone left the crack out in the rain"). The lyric change is intended to show how a place once known for beautiful outdoor weddings has become nothing more in the '90s than a glorified crack park. Regardless of their intentions, the song got the group banned from at least one influential L.A. radio station.
So why would a band with such a promising career shoot itself in the foot by naming itself The Negro Problem? Singer/songwriter/guitarist Mark "Stew" Stewart explains, "We just thought it was hilarious, though there is a serious side to it. Because I'm a black person playing this music, we're always going to run into the race issue. And as a band, we always thought of some record executive wringing his hands and saying, 'God, they could be so massive if it weren't for the Negro problem.' "
So there you have it. Don't let the name scare you, and I'll see you at 7 Black Cats, 260 E. Congress St., on Friday, January 22. Things should kick off around 9:30 p.m. with Al Perry and the Cattle. Call 670-9202 for more information.
GET MORE SLACK: Did you know that the state of Hawaii represents the world's most isolated set of islands from the major land masses? I didn't until recently, just like I didn't know a whole lot about what Hawaiian slack-key guitar playing was (and that isolation is the reason you probably don't know much about it, either). Believe it or not, Hawaii has much music to offer us mainlanders, even beyond the genius of Don Ho.
Hawaiian slack-key guitar (or ki ho alu) is, in fact, one of the world's great acoustic guitar traditions. Ki ho alu translates literally as "loosen the key," and that's what this style is all about: The guitar strings are loosened to produce a variety of different tunings, with each tuning providing its own characteristic resonance to echo behind the melody being played. Slack-key playing is an intense finger-style, marked by hammer-ons, pull-offs, harmonics and slides, which mimic instrumentally the yodels and falsettos common in Hawaiian singing.
In an effort to bring the slack-key style to a wider audience, the Santa Cruz, California, Dancing Cat label (launched by pianist George Winston) has issued an exhaustive series of releases by slack-key masters. Three of those artists will be stopping through town this week: Cyril Pahinui, George Kahumoku, Jr., and Rev. Dennis Kamakahi perform at 8 p.m. Saturday, January 23, at the Rialto Theatre, 318 E. Congress St. Advance tickets are $16, and available at Hear's Music, The Book Mark, Antigone Books, or by phone at 529-0356 or 1-888-278-9212. They'll be $18 at the door. (If there are any left--last year's concert at the Berger Center actually sold out.) For further details about the show, call 740-0126. For more info about slack-key guitar, and to hear audio samples, visit the Dancing Cat website at www.dancingcat.com.
BAND WAGON: Celebrating 25 years of recording and performing, the Grammy Award-winning female vocal ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock recently released the aptly titled Twenty-Five, its first release on Rykodisc, and its 14th recording overall. The album represents the first time the traditionally a capella group has used any instrumentation at all, though the percussion and wind chimes that appear on the new release are, unsurprisingly, used sparingly.
Incorporating both ancestral and modern prototypes of black music forms, the ensemble has never flagged from its original goal of using these musical traditions as a unifying force against all types of oppression. However, the songs are so beautifully uplifting they could be about almost anything and still have the same aural effect: nothing short of spiritual transcendence.
Sweet Honey in the Rock takes the stage of Centennial Hall, University Boulevard east of Park Avenue, at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, January 24. Call 621-3341 for details.
Local slop-funkateers the Pork Torta continue to celebrate the release of their brand-spankin'-new CD by gigging at Club Congress, 311 E. Congress St., this week. Serge will join the trio for a couple of numbers, and lo-fi Delta bluesman Bob Log III will kick things off in the opening slot. It all happens at 9 p.m. on Friday, January 22. Cover charge is $4 to $5. Call 622-8848 for more information.
If you like the punk rock, there's a hefty triple bill goin' down with your name on it: Albuquerque's highly acclaimed Scared of Chaka, local heroes Los Federales, and Memphis' Pezz (whose forthcoming album is produced by Steve Albini) play the basement of the Double Zero, 121 E. Congress St., on Sunday, January 24. Tickets are $5, and you can call 670-9332 for additional information.
Finally, local Dixieland jazz group Jazzberry Jam, led by University of Arizona jazz dude Jeff Haskell, offer up a very special benefit show for local saxophonist and clarinetist Mike Porter. In addition to performing with Jazzberry Jam since 1988, Porter has worked with the Tucson Jazz Orchestra, Big Band Express, and the Cliff Jurgens Big Band, among others, since he moved to Tucson in 1981.
Last year Porter developed symptoms of Huntington's Disease, a rare and degenerative condition which includes progressive mental impairment. Because he is unable to work or live on his own due to the disease, Mike is now in an assisted living facility. All proceeds from the event will go toward helping Porter with his expenses, and local jazz musicians are invited to sit in on the second set of the evening to salute their friend and peer.
The benefit takes place at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, January 24, at the Cottonwood Club, 60 N. Alvernon Way. Admission is a $10 donation, and there is also a special dinner package available. For reservations for this most worthy event, call 326-6000.

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