This post is from Out the Other's 2009 Bonnaroo Artist Previews, where I will be posting previews of all the musical acts playing the 2009 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival. Please check out and subscribe to the full site to learn more about all of this year's performers.
Editor's Note: This is a guest preview by Matt Graupman, my cousin and the awesome dude behind Spinadoo Comics, a comic blog and home of the daily journal strip "Stay-At-Home Matt." He can be reached through his site or at spinadoocomics@gmail.com.
Our society is obsessed with labels. Nowadays, everything and everyone needs to be captured, dissected, analyzed, scrutinized, and identified for easier understanding. Oftentimes, however, these labels are misapplied as we sacrifice depth for something more digestible. For example, people often refer to me as a "hunka hunka sex machine" and, yes, that's true but that's only one part of me (amiright, ladies? *wink wink*). That over-simplification ignores the facts that I am a stay-at-home-dad, an artist, a guest music-blogger (booyah!), and (according to my mommy) The Nicest Boy In The Whole World (betcha didn't know that). Another misused label, particularly in the 2008 election cycle, is "maverick." Without getting too political, being a Caucasian man from a family of wealth, privilege, and connections doesn't make one a maverick. A maverick is someone from humble beginnings whose hard work, talent, and vision allows them to release over twenty albums on their own staunchly independent record label, assist the careers of other musicians, and maintain their own concert venue, all the while challenging traditional notions of politics, morality, sexuality, and spirituality. Ani DiFranco is a maverick.
Ani DiFranco has an independent streak like Megan Fox has smoky, deep eyes that I could just spend an eterni--... hold on. What were we talking about? Oh, right. What I'm trying to say is that Ani DiFranco plays her own game by her own rules. Born in Buffalo, New York in 1970 as Angela Marie DiFranco, Ani is now the 38-year-old CEO of an empire that includes Righteous Babe Records (a legal dispute changed the name from Righteous Records), a church-turned-venue called Babeville, a far-reaching grassroots political organization dubbed The Righteous Babe Foundation, a veritable music store of studio and live albums, and (as if she didn't have no free time already) a daughter. Yowzah! I have to lie down for a minute just for typing all that and that's her life. She's a self-identified athiest bisexual feminist and, on top of all that, she can fingerpick a guitar like Nick Drake on crystal meth; seriously, despite her label (again misapplied) as a "folk" musician, DiFranco flat-out rocks. I had the opportunity to see Ani when she was touring in support of her Up Up Up Up Up Up (I think that was enough) album and it wasn't until last week that the goosebumps I got from her performance of "Angry Anymore" finally faded away.
Currently on tour with David Byrne (of Talking Heads... c'mon, you know that), Ani will be hitting Bonnaroo with her own backing band. In the meantime, take some time to check out one of her 2,746 albums (I'm only half-joking); I highly recommend 1997's Living In Clip double live album if only to hear the rock juggernaut that is Ani, bassist Sara Lee (who played with Gang Of Four which is freakin' awesome), and the exceptional Andy Stochansky on drums. The album was recorded when Ani was refusing to shave her armpits (check the liner notes), fresh from a stint in New York City (where she took poetry classes with Mike Doughty), and still dating women. She was filled with humor and self-confidence then and motherhood and two marriages have done nothing since to mellow her enthusiasm. Take it from this "hunka hunka sex machine," that's as good as it gets.
"Emancipated Minor"
"Little Plastic Castle"
Ani DiFranco will play the That Tent on Friday from 6:30-8 p.m. Check out the full Bonnaroo schedule on the official Bonnaroo website.
