Brandi Carlile shines bright on stage and off

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Friday, September 30, 2005
Brandi Carlile shines bright on stage and off
By Lacey Korevec
Singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile never completed high school, but was thrilled at the chance
to perform for college students on Tuesday, Sept.
27. She opened for Howie Day in the Bart Leudeke
Center Cavalla Room and received a warm response
from students.
“I am ecstatic to be playing to a college crowd
because everybody’s so much younger and less
jaded and totally open minded to new music and
new things,” she said. “I am excited.”
But Carlile is no stranger to the stage. At the
fresh age of 24, the artist has already spent time
on the road with many well-respected musicians,
including Tori Amos and Dave Matthews Band.
“I played to like 6,000 people [while opening
for Tori Amos] and it was amazing,” she said. “As
far as I could see there were so many people. It felt
like I was outside because the ceiling was so high.”
Hailing from Washington state, where she
was born and raised, Carlile admitted that she had
never heard of Rider before now.
“I barely even remember what my high school
was called,” she laughed.
While on tour and far from home, Carlile
relaxes by popping in an Elton John album. Still,
she misses home, she said.
“I miss my animals the most,” said Carlile.
“My animals, my family and food. I love to cook
and it’s like one Taco Bell after another out on the
road.”
According to Carlile, she wrote her first song
when she was only 4-years-old and her second, a
slightly more serious one, between the ages of 10
and 11.
“It was just like a cowboy song,” she said.
Her song-writing style has always steered away
from lyrics about love and breaking up, which she
said sound “redundant” to her.
“A lot of the songs I write are about things that
kind of keep you up at night, that you’re puzzled
Photo by Al Viciedo
Brandi Carlile, an up-and-coming singer-songwriter, performs at this year’s SEC Fall Concert., held Tuesday, Sept. 27, in the BLC Cavalla Room.The Washington state resident has previously shared the stage with the likes Tori Amos and Dave Matthews Band. Carlile, who was recently signed to Columbia
Records, released her self-titled major-label debut album on July 12.
about or confused about—things that aren’t quite
right,” she said. “I tend to write about the down
side of things so that I don’t focus on them in my
daily life.”
In recent years, she has become well known
after releasing a self-titled album and an unplugged,
acoustic album, in addition to contributing a
song to the The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
soundtrack. However, Carlile’s career actually began
decades ago. She has been performing music since
she was a little girl but she admitted, after all these
years, she still finds it difficult to define her genre
of music.
“I could tell you what it’s not,” she said. “I
don’t think it’s country. I don’t think it’s folk. I
definitely think it falls under a way more generic
category like rock, especially if you saw us live as a
band; I mean, we’re a rock band. I’d say it’s like an
acoustic rock ’n’ roll thing.”
Rock or not, Carlile said she still has never
completely broken away from the music she preferred in her younger years—country.
“It’s the only thing I thought existed then,” she
said. “I have this country twang that I can’t get out
of my voice.”
Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn and The Judds are
among her musical influences, Carlile said.
“Just a whole bunch of really old country
stuff,” she laughed.
Her most recent record, Brandi Carlile, was
recorded in her log cabin in Seattle, as well as her
home in Maple Valley, Wash., because of the peaceful atmosphere.
“It was vibey as hell,” she said. “During the
day it was hard to concentrate because there was so
much more to do. You wanted to go out and throw
a stick with the dog or kick a soccer ball around or
go hiking or catch frogs or whatever people do. But
as soon as the sun went down and, you know, we
started lighting candles and stuff the atmosphere
got really good.”
Having recording tools in the middle of her
living room for four weeks “disrupted” her life, she
admitted, but it was well worth it.
“You know, I couldn’t live in the recording
studio so I loved it,” she said.
As far as the future goes, Carlile is looking forward to releasing a third album, which she said will
feature “a little more electric guitar.”
“There will still be little acoustic things,”
she said. “But it will have more of the big giant
songs.”
Socratic drives to success
with supreme musical method
By Bill Greenwood
Adam Swider, bass player for pianorock collective Socratic, was forced to
make a life-altering decision in the fall of
2003: stay in school or follow his dreams.
Swider, then a Rider University freshman,
chose to sign with Drive-Thru Records.
“I definitely miss school, and I spent
a lot of time questioning whether or not
I should just go back, but once things
started really happening, it really started
making sense that I made the right decision,” Swider said. “Now, with this tour
that we’re on, there’s actually kids coming
and singing songs that we wrote. It makes
it just 100 percent worth it.”
Swider is still interested in his education (he makes a conscious effort to read
and watch the Discovery Channel, he
said), but currently, he’s more engrossed
in the day-to-day affairs of a touring rock
band.
Today, Socratic is in Austin, Texas
preparing for the first date of a primarily
East-Coast tour with fellow musicians The
Rocket Summer, Adam Richman and This
Day and Age. This comes on the heels of
093005p6-7.indd 1
a smaller tour with bands Houston Calls
and Amber Pacific, which the band members couldn’t be happier about.
“The [last tour] was damn good
because I thought it was going to be one
of those shaky tours where some shows are
good and some are just really lame,” said
Duane Okun, Socratic’s lead singer. “But
there wasn’t really one show where there
wasn’t at least 100 kids.”
The band will make its way to the
area on Thursday, Oct. 13, for a show at
The North Star Bar in Philadelphia. They
will also perform at The Knitting Factory
in New York on Tuesday, Oct. 18. Those
who get a chance to check out Socratic’s
live show can expect a “chill” vibe, Okun
said.
“We’re not going to come out and
be like, ‘What’s up, you mother f-----s!’”
he said. “We just play good songs and we
keep getting better every time we play.”
Despite this generally relaxing atmosphere, Swider said audiences should also
prepare themselves for a little bit of rock
’n’ roll.
“Kids can expect us to rock out,”
he said. “We’re not just going to stand
there.”
Socratic has signed on for these tours
in an effort to promote their debut fulllength album for Drive-Thru, Lunch For
the Sky, which was released on Tuesday,
Sept. 6, 2005. The disc—a straight-forward rock record heavily influenced by the
punk scene and featuring the piano as a
major instrument—has been in the works
for quite some time, according to Swider.
“We spent a good year-and-a-half
writing it, working it and fine-tuning it,
and, finally, we had a chance to record it,”
he said. “It’s so gratifying to finally have it
out. It makes touring so much more worth
it because we’re pushing something.”
While both Okun and Swider said
that multiple songs on the album were
particularly close to their hearts, each had
a clear favorite.
“I’m a big fan of ‘B to E,’” Okun said.
“[The album] kind of gets a little downing
at the end and ‘B to E,’ [the second-tolast song], is more of an uplifting kind of
song.”
Swider, however, preferred “Tear a
Gash,” a song that really affords him a
chance to show off as a bass player.
Photos by Al Viciedo
Howie Day headlined the SEC Fall Concert this past Tuesday, Sept. 27. Day presented himself as intoxicated and took on a negative attitude throughout the
concert’s duration, drawing angry reactions from those in attendance.
Day ruins night
By Al Viciedo
A clearly intoxicated Howie Day
took the Cavalla Room stage on Tuesday,
Sept. 27, to the initial cheering of many
Rider students. Day started the show
with a lesser-known track from his hit
album, Stop All the World Now, and began
berating the crowd by commenting that
“New Jersey people are always so loud.”
For the third song of the night,
Day started to sample some of his more
eccentric beats on the fly to the dismay
of many fans. Some of his sampling
techniques included the incessant repeating of the word “vodka” coupled with his
hitting of the guitar to produce a basslike sound. By this time, many concertgoers had begun to boo him and several
jeering fans started yelling phrases like
“Howie you suck!” “Get off the stage!”
and “You’re so drunk!”
Day ended the night by apologizing to his fans and thanking them for
coming. He then played his smash single
“Collide.” Unfortunately, the fans ended
up singing more of the song than he did,
leaving many viewers disappointed.
‘Flightplan’ film crashes and burns
By John Schulter
Photo by Stewart Isbell
Socratic is (from left) drummer Tom Scratton, bassist Adam Swider, guitarist/vocalist
Kevin Bryan, pianist Vincent D’Amico and lead singer/guitarist Duane Okun.
“I get to go off for that song,” he
said.
Swider’s bass-playing skill is certainly
undeniable, but so is his continuing devotion to Rider. He was interested to know
how the new residence building turned
out and even asked about the status of his
favorite dish in the Bronc Diner. So, while
his decision to leave the University may
have been the best one he ever made, he is
still a Bronc at heart.
“We always think we’re not doing that
well, but to see crowds really react to our
performances and to get a good response
makes us feel better about performing and
that drives us to keep doing better and
better,” Swider said. “We’re the luckiest
band in the world.”
Well, it’s still September and that means good movies are
hard to find.
Flightplan, starring Jodie Foster, continues that trend as she
stars in another thriller that doesn’t deliver. Some of her previous
films, including Panic Room and Contact, follow the same trend
of great ideas that fall short of expectations, which is exactly what
happens in Flightplan.
When Kyle (Foster) finds out her husband is dead, she and
her daughter must come to terms with the ordeal as they fly
back to America from Berlin to bury him. When the daughter
mysteriously vanishes during the flight, Kyle must go looking for
her. The crew members and the airline marshal (Peter Sarsgaard)
both assist in searching for Kyle’s daughter, but end up making
matters worse by telling her she is crazy and that her daughter
never boarded the plane. Kyle continues her panic as she goes on
a wild search for her daughter’s whereabouts.
The movie does make you wonder what happened to the girl
and how she disappeared. Once you find out the truth, it really
doesn’t make sense.
The performance by Foster is fair, but too reminiscent of
her other thriller, Panic Room. I also thought Sarsgaard (Skeleton
Key) gave a good performance in the beginning of the film, but
fell short towards the end. His character is also not explained
enough. The supporting cast, including Sean Bean (Goldeneye),
was not awful, but seemed to overact a bit.
Besides the acting, the movie’s strongest trait was its premise,
but even that falls short. The passengers and crew all say they
haven’t seen Kyle’s daughter anywhere, which makes no sense
because someone would have had to see this. Also, the movie
Photo copyright Touchstone Pictures
Flightplan flew into theaters on Friday, Sept. 23. The movie
stars old favorites, such as Jodi Foster and Peter Sarsgaard.
contains many poor attempts at mind tricks, such as trying to
convince the audience that Arabs on the plane were responsible.
This is a pretty insulting stereotype that makes no sense in the
movie. The ending is laughable with poor and unrealistic visual
effects that make you cringe.
All in all, Flightplan is not worth the 10 bucks it costs to see.
If you like Foster, then maybe give it a try. The film has a bumpy
takeoff and crashes very hard in the end.
9/29/05 10:07:44 PM