{"id":2860,"date":"2010-04-22T10:58:05","date_gmt":"2010-04-22T18:58:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/?p=2860"},"modified":"2010-04-22T10:59:24","modified_gmt":"2010-04-22T18:59:24","slug":"gimme-five-django-haskins-of-the-old-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/2010\/04\/gimme-five-django-haskins-of-the-old-ceremony\/","title":{"rendered":"Gimme Five! Django Haskins of The Old Ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/Picture-11.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium  wp-image-2861\" title=\"theoldceremony\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/Picture-11-300x215.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"215\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/Picture-11-300x215.png 300w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/Picture-11-360x259.png 360w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/Picture-11-111x80.png 111w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/Picture-11.png 884w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/span> It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard enough playing music in front of people without having to wonder if they understand a single word you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re saying\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bother explaining that little quandary to Django Haskins.\u00c2\u00a0 Adventuring after graduating from college, this Florida-native found himself cutting teeth as a songwriter playing shows in Hangzhou, China and that feeling of being lost in translation was all too immediate.\u00c2\u00a0 With words suddenly so insignificant, melody and rhythm and tone and instrumentation became the most important expressions.\u00c2\u00a0 It was an accidental lesson, but an important one. He went over a songwriter; he left a budding arranger.<\/p>\n<p>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been several years since Haskins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Chinese escapades, but any passing listen to the complex and textured aural landscape of <a href=\"http:\/\/theoldceremony.com\/\">The Old Ceremony<\/a> intimates how important that translation-gap was to his musical mindset. As figurehead and lead songwriter of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.myspace.com\/theoldceremony\">The Old Ceremony<\/a>, Haskins, along with bassist Matt Brandau, drummer Dan Hall, vibes\/organist Mark Simonsen, and violinist\/keyboardist Gabriele Pelli, conjures music that hinges on some pop-noir aesthetic.\u00c2\u00a0 It bleeds jazz affectations into atmospheric Brit invasion inspired expanses.\u00c2\u00a0 The deliberate theatrics of their arrangements pair with murky, affecting lyrics and undeniable hooks.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a precarious balance that perhaps inspired the name of their most recent album, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Walk-Thin-Air-Old-Ceremony\/dp\/B001T5T1YG\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=music&amp;qid=1271962183&amp;sr=1-1\"><em>Walk on Thin Air<\/em><\/a>, and you can watch them tiptoe that line this Friday, April 23rd, at the <a href=\"http:\/\/catscradle.com\/schedule.html\">Cat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Cradle<\/a>, where they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be joined by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.myspace.com\/benjihughes\">Benji Hughes<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Now just the new ritual questions for ye old ceremonial leader:<\/p>\n<p><strong>1. If your band were a  member  of New Kids on the Block, who would it be?<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/wahlbergs.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-2881\" title=\"mark and donnie wahlberg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/wahlbergs-209x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"257\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/wahlbergs-209x300.jpg 209w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/wahlbergs-55x80.jpg 55w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/wahlbergs.jpg 419w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Well, we all like to hope that  never happens, but if we had to be a member of NKoTB in order to save  the lives of terminally-ill orphans on the Titanic, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be Mark  Wahlberg  because he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the one who erased his New Kids past most effectively.  Plus he got to deck Matt Damon in The Departed.<\/p>\n<p><em>[editor&#8217;s note 1: The editor would like to point out that she thought everybody knew that Donnie was a New Kid and Mark was the leader of the Funky Bunch. &#8220;Come on, come on! Feel it! Feel it!&#8221; The editor wonders if maybe this is just a ruse so that Mr. Haskins does not have to admit having a NKOTB poster above his bed&#8230;]<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>[editor&#8217;s note 2: After pointing out the common knowledge of &#8220;note 1&#8221; to Mr. Haskins, he replied with reference to <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mark_Wahlberg\">Mark Wahlberg&#8217;s wikipedia<\/a> page which clarifies that although later replaced by Joey, &#8220;<\/em><em>Mark, at age thirteen, had been one of the group&#8217;s original  members.&#8221;\u00c2\u00a0 Mr. Haskins did not, however, make any clarification on the existence of said NKOTB poster above his bed.]<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>2. What do you want this  band to be when it grows up?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Asking a musician what he wants   to be when he grows up is like asking <a href=\"http:\/\/harlowgold.tripod.com\/yul2.jpg\">Yul Brynner<\/a> what kind of shampoo  he favors; there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an assumption that musicians intend to grow up  at all. To answer your question, we wanna be a firefighter.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. Describe your feelings about Montreal and\u00c2\u00a0 Philadelphia cream cheese.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Well, the Montreal Cream Cheese   Fiasco is part of a larger, sadder tale, but the short version is that  I like Philadelphia cream cheese. When we were last in Montreal, I got  a half-dozen Montreal bagels (which are incredible) and a tub of Philly  cream cheese to take along on the next leg of the tour. But the  Quebecois  hold a long-standing disdain for anything other than local cream cheese,   so when they smashed the window of our van, stole my laptop and iPod,  along with my bag of bagels, they purposefully left the Philly cream  cheese (they had to actually remove it from the bag they took) as a  silent comment. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not every day that a felon also criticizes your  dairy choices.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/barton_fink.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2882\" title=\"barton_fink\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/barton_fink-203x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"160\" height=\"236\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/barton_fink-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/barton_fink-54x80.jpg 54w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/barton_fink.jpg 511w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 160px) 100vw, 160px\" \/><\/a>4. Who\/what might be a few  inspirations or influences that might really surprise people?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s  surprising,  but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been listening to <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fela_Kuti\">Fela Kuti<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sunkilmoon.com\/\">Sun Kil Moon<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Serge_Gainsbourg\">Serge Gainsbourg<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/English-Settlement-XTC\/dp\/B00005ATHJ\"> XTC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s English Settlement<\/a>, Indian classical music, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pogues.com\/\">the Pogues<\/a>,  and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Paul-Simon\/dp\/B00024WYKI\">Paul Simon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first solo record<\/a> a lot lately.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0101410\/\">Barton Fink<\/a> also rolls  around my mind a lot, especially the scene where <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ZGkVBg6k9Rk&amp;feature=related\">Jack Lipnik<\/a>, the studio   head, tears into Barton for making his wrestling screenplay too  \u00e2\u20ac\u0153fruity.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d  \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Nobody wants to watch a movie about a guy wrestling with his soul!  I mean, sure a little bit for the critics. But you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re making it the  carrot that wags the horse!\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re talking about men. In tights.  Both literally and figuratively!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Not sure how that influence works  its way in to TOC songs, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure it does somehow.<\/p>\n<p><strong>5. What did you dream of  being when you were a kid? (How\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d that turn out?)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I dreamed of being taller,  since I was five-five until about eleventh grade. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s turned out  okay, though I doubt I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to get any taller now.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c    \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u201c<\/p>\n<p>Check back for more high fives and head out  to <a href=\"http:\/\/catscradle.com\/schedule.html\">Cat&#8217;s Cradle<\/a> this Friday to hear The Old Ceremony throw it down. And by all means, be sure to  give Django a high five when you  see him!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard enough playing music in front of people without having to wonder if they understand a single word you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re saying\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bother explaining that little quandary to Django Haskins. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":2861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[311],"class_list":["post-2860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","tag-gimme-five"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2860"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2887,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2860\/revisions\/2887"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/mill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}