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 from contributor Lance Conzett, a Nashville-based photographer and music writer who also edits the Belmont Vision. Lance can be reached via his website, lanceconzett.com, or via email at conzettl@pop.belmont.edu.
If you’re anything like me, there are a few phrases in the English language that make your eyes glaze over and your mind go blank. “Guitar God” is one of those word combinations that make me forget my name and wonder if I’ve somehow accidentally stumbled into a Guitar Center. It’s the kind of title that inevitably starts off a conversation about how technically proficient Steve Vai and Joe Satriani are, usually instigated by a guy with a ponytail who probably teaches equally ambivalent teenagers guitar. As you’re reading this, you can probably imagine how this would go, and some of you are already starting to lose consciousness. Stay with me, I’m going somewhere with this—to call Kaki King a “Guitar God,” as Rolling Stone has decided to do, does her talent a complete disservice.
My introduction to Kaki King was on last year’s tour exclusive Black Pear Tree EP collaboration with John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats. Darnielle isn’t the kind of guy who often shares the spotlight on Mountain Goats projects, so when he comes out with a collaboration, it’s usually something special. Kaki King’s complex acoustic guitar movements create an interesting juxtaposition against Darnielle’s typically lo-fi, trimmed to the bone singer/songwriter tunes. In some way, King’s guitar style compliments Darnielle’s tragic figure narratives—and the urgent squawky voice he articulates them with.
That’s all well and good, but John Darnielle, as far as I know, isn’t going to be at Bonnaroo. This is all going to be Kaki King solo. How does she hold up on her own? Surprisingly well, actually. If you’re familiar with Victor Wooten, the sounds King gets out of her guitar similar to what Vic Wooten does with a bass. She transforms the guitar into a percussive instrument, thumping and slapping a rhythm at it while still playing complex fingerstyle plucking. King’s early material, especially on 2003’s Everybody Loves You, falls into the same wanky guitar noodling trap that the aforementioned guitar idols have been milking for decades. The sounds are interesting, but do interesting slap guitar sounds necessarily make good music? Well, no. Not really. She started to turn things around with Legs Make Us Longer in 2004, especially with the added instrumentation on “Doing the Wrong Thing,” which let her breathe a little (if you’ve seen Into the Wild, it’s used frequently, along with “Frame”).
Last year’s Dreaming of Revenge represents a major turning point in King’s style. She hired on a full band, started experimenting more with looping and finally broke out of the novelty that was holding her back. Her style is clearly evident throughout the album, but she uses it to drive instrumental indie rock instead of attempting to do everything herself. The result is an album that you want to listen to because the music is pretty, not just because it’s an oddity destined to be admired but not quite appreciated.
If you’re a guitar dork, you’ll like Kaki King. If you’re pumped for Rodrigo y Gabriela, you’ll like Kaki King. Those of you who, like me, dug that Mountain Goats/Kaki King EP, she does sing a little on Dreaming of Revenge and she ain’t bad for an instrumental guitarist. And who knows, The Mountain Goats aren’t touring right now, maybe John Darnielle will make a surprise appearance and they’ll do that song about Toad from Super Mario Brothers (“Thank You Mario but Our Princess Is in Another Castle”). I wouldn’t count on it though.
"Life Being What It Is" (from Dreaming of Revenge)
"Black Pear Tree (with The Mountain Goats)" (from Black Pear Tree)
Kaki King will perform twice during Bonnaroo: in This Tent on Friday, June 12 from 1:45-2:45 p.m.; and on the Sonic Stage on Friday, June 12 from 5-5:30 p.m. Check out the full Bonnaroo schedule on the official Bonnaroo website.
