INTENSE CITY

A deer tick is a nasty little parasite that lives on the blood of mammals and is known to causes Lyme disease, but it is also the moniker for the song writing project of 21-year-old John McCauley.

McCauley, who is based out of Providence, Rhode Island, takes his cues from legendary songwriters such as Townes Van Zant, Neil Young and Hank Williams. He sound is an amalgamation of classic country and bluegrass, rhythm and blues, and down and dirty rock and roll.

McCauley whiskey soaked voice, languid alt-country arrangements, and his end of the road lyrics like, “Maybe I’ll see better days/ But I’m not so sure I will,” suggests that McCauley has weathered through more than his 21 birthdays.

Opening the album is “Ashamed,” with its infectious single note-plucked guitar melody and somber lyrics of heartache and yearning:

I am the boy your mother wanted you to meet
But I am broken and torn with halos at my feet
And with your purest light why don’t you shine on me
Oh, I should have been an angel, but I’m too dumb to speak

The song can be placed in the tradition of those banished souls, who wander on lost highways, singing of their regrets while searching for redemption.

The apex of the album, in my opinion, is the song, “Art Isn’t Real (City of Sin),” where McCauley’s angst slowly unleashes itself in the melody and his clever turns of phrase.

In the first line he sings jauntily,

I am the dotted line,
And you fill me in with whatever you like.
I am just going through the motions.
I need an old fashioned potion.
There has gotta be some old recipe.
‘Cuz I gotta get drunk,
I gotta forget about some things.

A few moments later, McCauley’s reels us into his absorbing confession,

I lived in lies all my life,
And I’ve been living here for a long, long time,
And I know its been coming down a while now,
When it shows, then you get me on the dial,
But right now you’re half way around the world,
Maybe I’ll see better days, but I’m not so sure I will.
I’m still hanging round and round.
Sometimes it’s a racket, but lately not a sound.
In the bowels of history and time,
I have learned to stay back and never shine.
Now I feel stupid when I smile.
For not a journey, circuses are our lives.

Deer Tick’s, War Elephant is a beautifully crafted story of one man’s search for salvation and an “eternal testament to how we are so animalistic.”

It is also one of the most powerfully affecting records of the year and it certainly deserves a place on my top ten list of 2007.

It was a brutally cold and rainy October afternoon as a group of party goers head up 16th Street in Manhattan, bracing themselves against the cold. Their destination is a place called the Union Square Ballroom where New York’s longest running disco party is underway.

When they arrive they discover a miraculously transformed space with hundreds of multi-coloured balloons and a huge mirror ball. Psychedelic images dance across the walls. The atmosphere seems born from childhood fairy tales. The track, “House Party” envelopes the room from large Klipschorn speakers and if the party goers were to close their eyes, Fred Wesley and his band could be playing live. As the tempo builds, there is a chorus of whistles, hand clapping and shouts as the dancers work the floor, implementing spinning top turns, jazz flicks, and break dance moves.

David Mancuso who has been on a quest for a spiritual, unifying clubbing experience for over three decades now, is actively presiding over New York’s longest running disco party.

Mancuso was born in Utica, a small New York town in October of 1944. He spent his first four years in a Catholic orphanage. He credits his early inspiration for his legendary parties to Sister Alicia who would gather 20 or so children from the orphanage around a table in a room cheerfully decorated with balloons. In the centre of the table was a record player with a stack of vinyl. Many of the children were too young to speak but the music brought all of them together. When asked about his formative years Mancuso says, “Music gave me a lot of piece of mind since there was a lot in my environment that was not stable. Music is therapeutic,” he explains, “it raises your life energy…if your life energy is raised then music is healing.” The synthesis of music with spirituality would prevail throughout Mancuso’s life like a golden thread.

Mancuso and a friend took a trip to New York City during the Labor Day weekend of 1962. He was instantly attracted to the openness and diversity of the people so much so that he relocated there that same year. He stayed living with friends until he found menial work and could afford a place of his own. Later in 1965, Mancuso moved into a loft on Broadway. He describes the space as being approximately 25 feet by 100 feet with 14 foot ceilings. Mancuso adds that, “it was just an old factory converted partially for living, and I thought it was a good opportunity.” His attraction to the loft, he says “goes back to the orphanage….Somehow or other I always identified with large spaces and old buildings.”

Shortly after his move to the former factory space, economics changed drastically for the young Mancuso and he decided to throw a Valentines Day bash to supplement his irregular income and help pay his rent. He called his first party, “Love Saves the Day.” and he ended up spinning records from midnight until six in the morning. The party was such a success that soon it became a weekly affair. Mancuso says that, “the idea of being a DJ never crossed my mind. I only did it because I was with my friends and we all liked the same music.” Soon the parties had an attendance of over 300 people and by 1971 the events were being referred to as “David’s Loft” or simply, “The Loft.”

One of Mancuso’s hobbies was playing with stereos and electronics which eventually gave birth to an obsession with high end audio. Two of his closest friends, Richard Long and Alex Rosner were revolutionary sound engineers. Together in 1971 they designed the incredibly crystal clear sounding Loft stereo system which would become a blueprint for future dance clubs. David maintains that, “if the sound is clean, and you walk into a room blindfolded, you can’t tell how many speakers are in there, and where they are placed etc. etc.,” He adds, “all you know is that you’re enveloped in music. That to me, from my perspective on how music works, makes sense.”

Mancuso is open to all forms of music and dislikes categorizing it. He explains that the music he plays at The Loft is fundamentally dance music and includes everything from classical to jazz and “everything in between.” David Mancuso’s has a finely tuned and highly eclectic ear for a great song. For example, ‘Soul Makossa,’ the track that introduced the African musician Manu Dibango to an international audience owes its success almost entirely to Mancuso who stumbled upon the rare record while looking in a thrift store.

Mancuso always has a deep respect for the records he plays and this is reflected in his style of DJing. Unlike most club disc jockeys he refuses to manipulate records by mixing them. He believes in staying true to the artist’s original intentions and playing them the way they were meant to be heard. He smiles and adds, “If you’re at home listening to the records you love…you let them play out don’t you?” This is in alignment with his view that a DJ should be an egoless figure or as Mancuso prefers to call himself a “musical host.”

In 1999 Nuphonic Records released two separate compilations of classic tracks played at The Loft. The compilations sold extremely well and cemented Mancuso’s legendary status as a party engineer and DJ. Soon he was receiving invitations from Japan, the U.K., Italy and France to spread the vibes worldwide. He currently embarks on several tours a year and continues to host parties in New York. Mancuso says he will keep on doing Loft parties “to my last breath-if they let me do it.” However, he will only continue if the party “doesn’t revolve around one person,” he says, “once that starts to happen, forget about it.” When asked to describe the whole Loft experience Mancuso says, “it’s a vibe. You’re having a peace of mind or you’re not. Usually the more you shed your ego the more peace of mind you will have. The music, that’s what it allows us to be, free.”

Back at the Union Square Ballroom the new arrivals make their way through a welcoming crowd that consists of many nationalities and age groups. At the bar the Loft Staff is serving up Bud’s Bud on draft and homemade sangria. There is also a buffet of energy enhancing foods consisting off fresh fruit, cheese and crackers and a selection of vegetarian fare that have all been included in the entry fee of $25. When the sonic disco record “Can’t Live Without Your Love,” by Tamiko Jones ends, immediately the crowd shows their appreciation by clapping and whistling as the next record begins.

Many wise sages in the past have said that music has the power to bring out the best in us. David Mancuso puts it in his own words when he often declares that, “Music is Love.”

When it comes to revolutionary politics there is nothing like the speed of good rock and roll to get the message out.

Neil Young conceptualized and recorded his amazing new album, “Living with War” in just six days. Four of the nine tracks on the album were written and recorded on the same day. Young is accompanied by Chad Cromwell on drums, Rick Rosas on bass and Tommy Bray on trumpet. Unexpectedly, Young also recruited a 100 piece choir to back him up on his 42 minute rock and roll political assault on George Bush and the war on Iraq.

Young’s career has stretched across more than four decades now beginning with the psychedelic folk rock band Buffalo Springfield in the 60’s, continuing his partnership with Crosby, Stills, and Nash; his stunning solo debut in 1972 with “Harvest,” his electric experimentations throughout the 80’s and then finally a return to country rock. However, unlike the mostly acoustic 2005 release, “Prairie Wind”, “Living with War” sees the 60 year old post-aneurysm Young picking up Old Black, and furiously rocking out unstoppably from the very first track.

Young has commented on political affairs in the past but it has been a long time since he has written and recorded with such urgency. Not since he penned the song “Ohio” (his reaction to The Kent State Massacre) have we seen such angst, direct questioning and rage that envelopes this new album. With the raw power of Young’s corrosive guitar, booming drums, martial trumpets and a 100 voices strong in the background the album is destined to become one of his greatest.

Even though Young is dealing with dark subject matter, the tone of the album is also very optimistic. For example, in the first two lines of the opening track, “After the Garden,” Young writes:

Won’t need no shadow man
Runnin’ the government

Young has taken a political approach to his material, but as well as a ‘call to arms,’ it can also inspire us with hope for the future. Young’s message on “Living with War” should not be surprising to anyone. It is my opinion that people realize that Bush and his regime are incompetent, corrupt and have perpetrated an illegal and catastrophic war on Iraq. What Young has accomplished on the record is to organize the present conflict into an easily digestible package for our post literate society. Young has made the current situation accessible to all of us and has invited us to look more closely at what is really happening. The album also urgently reminds us that America belongs to the people, not just the Bush’s, Cheney’s or Rumsfield’s.

The seminal track on the album is “Let’s Impeach the President.” It’s a straight-up hard rock song that ends as a gospel in the end. It is the most controversial track on “Living with War,” not only because of its title but also since Young charges the Bush regime with criminality, spying, neglecting post Katrina New Orleans, as well as “hijacking our religion” to further their political agenda. Young brilliantly reinforces his indictment of Bush with the president’s own words edited together warring against a choir singing, “flip-flop.” Hearing Bush’s own voice in the song has a powerful effect because it exposes him as a tyrant spewing forth fabrications. Young’s verdict is to:

Impeach the president for lying
Misleading our country into war
Abusing all the power that we gave him
And shipping all our money out the door

The theme of the Bush regime’s incessant deceptions is a thread throughout the entire album. It resurfaces strongly in the track, “The Restless Consumer” in which the chorus shouts in mantra like repetition, “no more lies.” This song is destined to become a quintessential track at peace rallies in the near future.

The album finishes with “America the Beautiful,” an encouraging and soaring gospel number that leaves the listener hopeful for the future. “Living with War,” is an incredible album that has been released at a critical time in our history. It is definitely Young at his best and thankfully he is showing no signs of retirement.

“Living with War” was first released digitally on the internet a month ago. Hard copies of the album are now available in stores. If you find yourself low on cash you can also hear the album for free from Young’s website.