When The Scarring Party released "A Concise Introduction" in 2006, Milwaukee audiences, music lovers and media members paid attention. Perhaps it was the band's neo approach to Depression-era ditties that cast a new light on what folk music might be. It also could have been the carefully-selected period costumes each member dons on stage, pieces of which peek out behind agile accordion, lumbering tuba, bantering banjo, vibraphone, trumpet or mandolin.
Two years on, a freshly reorganized Scarring Party is offering another return to ragtime with a record so evolved from "Introduction," vocalist / accordion / guitar player Daniel Bullock compares the former to the embarrassment incurred from a massive exploitation of one's baby photos.
"That's not the most flattering picture ... and doesn't really represent the band now," he says.
The new album, "Come Away From The Light," still finds the quartet integrating vaudeville-inspired vignettes with themed theatrical performances, yet it possesses a newfound polish that accompanies the stylized storytelling.
We caught up with Bullock -- who recently collaborated on an OnMilwaukee.com / WMSE local music podcast -- as he and the band prepare to unveil the fruits of their labor at Turner Hall Ballroom this Saturday, March 15.
Bullock talks about the promising new lineup, his awkward interaction with Daniel Johnston and reveals why his microphone is one of his most valued instruments and the vital role it plays in achieving the band's signature "end-timey" sound. And yes, he also explains what that means, exactly.
OnMilwaukee.com: You're having a pretty exciting year so far. Last month you opened a huge Daniel Johnson show and this weekend you're back at Turner Hall for the highly-anticipated release of "Come Away From the Light." Did you get a chance to chat with Johnston at all?
Daniel Bullock: We've had a very strong start. Last year was relatively reclusive -- we spent the time writing and paying for the record. Daniel (Johnston) isn't really the type to chat. When I introduced myself, he just said, "Nice to meet ya" and took a bite of an enormous sandwich while waiting for another sandwich to arrive. It was a remarkable opportunity to play with a songwriter whose work we really admired, even if he wasn't much for small talk.
OMC: You've made a couple of lineup changes in the past year. How has welcoming William and Chris into the family affected the dynamic?
DB: It's incredibly positive. They're both remarkably natural musicians. Both have really made our performances much more consistent. I've been really pleased with the new material we've rehearsed with them. It's refreshing to have players you can lean on really hard in arrangements.
OMC: Tell me about the evolution from writing "A Concise Introduction" to "Come Away From the Light." The new songs sound so much fuller, complex; is that what you were hoping to achieve?
DB: Definitely. It felt like after learning the strength of the players, it was easier to write to everyone's strengths. It didn't hurt that many of us were pushing to challenge ourselves. I'm more inclined to write myself parts that I can't play, and trudge through it over and over until I can. The arrangements were much more intricate. For the first time, I was writing everything on paper and balancing the woodwinds and tuba instead of merely syncopating them off of one another.
DB: Personally, I would never want to re-issue it. It's like having over a thousand of your baby photos out there. "A Concise Introduction" was made a few months into first playing together. That's not the most flattering picture, and doesn't really represent the band now. We may not be in agreement, but I'm quite fond of limited quantities in general. Crouton Records always impressed me with their packaging and limited runs. It makes a CD feel special in a way that vinyl always feels special to me.
OMC: People are constantly referring to the band as "old-timey" but you insist on "end-timey." What's the difference here?
DB: "End-timey" was just a means of putting on a front to deflect the inevitable question, "What do you call this kind of music?" We're not traditionalists. "Old-timey" suggests anachronism in lieu of relevance. If we were writing songs about the railroad, we may as well sell war bonds instead of records. People that don't have much familiarity with folkways, early jazz, ragtime or crooner records probably wouldn't distinguish how our music is much different, but I think it's impossible to write a piece of music that isn't greatly impacted by modern work. In my view we're not recreating something old. We're creating something new using older textures.
OMC: Tell me about the handcrafted microphone you utilize to help achieve said "end-timey" sound.
DB: It's one of my favorite instruments. The diaphragm is recessed in the capsule to give a voice the phonograph crackle. I still like using it live, but it played less of a leading role in studio. We wanted to avoid making the vocal sound static throughout the record. The vocals that we recorded without the copperphone sounded as though they inhabited the same space as the other instruments that better served the album.
OMC: Do you ever feel inhibited in your composition by the niche genre / reputation you've created for yourselves?
DB: We're certainly inhibited by what shows we can play and at what volume. Playing between or after much louder bands is really challenging. Creatively, I think we have fewer limitations than a rock band. We're afforded more liberty to write narrative songs or infuse them with a little theatricality. Writing a song that doesn't tell a story or say something sounds like more of an inhibition than being unable to incorporate electric guitars.
OMC: Is there any label interest to report with the new release?
DB: We've been very cautious, but we haven't stopped looking. We couldn't entertain some offers because they were ill-equipped to provide us with anything we weren't already doing for ourselves. It is gratifying to release a great sounding record the way we wanted without being thousands of dollars in debt to a label. Ideally it's about cultivating a growing audience and making the best records we can for them.
OnMilwaukee.com staff writer Julie Lawrence grew up in Wauwatosa and has lived her whole life in the Milwaukee area.
As any “word nerd” can attest, you never know when inspiration will strike, so from a very early age Julie has rarely been seen sans pen and little notebook. At the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee it seemed only natural that she major in journalism. When OnMilwaukee.com offered her an avenue to combine her writing and the city she knows and loves in late 2004, she knew it was meant to be. Around the office, she answers to a plethora of nicknames, including “Lar,” (short for “Larry,” which is short for “Lawrence”) as well as the mysteriously-sourced “Bill Murray.”
