February 11, 2005

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Palo Alto Online

Music for music's sake

by Molly Tanenbaum

It's hard to beat paying $5 for an evening of live music in Palo Alto. But punk rocker Ian MacKaye will tell you that's exactly how it should be.

MacKaye will perform with his new band, The Evens, next Tuesday evening at Palo Alto's Terman Middle School. All are welcome -- and the price is right.

Performing in a school auditorium is nothing new to MacKaye. As singer-guitarist of indie-legends Minor Threat and Fugazi, Mackaye's anti-corporate reputation set him apart from the crowd. Believing in music for music's sake, Mackaye has released $10 CDs, favored community concert spaces over rock clubs and turned down numerous lucrative offers from large record labels over the course of his career.

"What it does is it inhibits innovation and new ideas," said Mackaye, the co-founder of Dischord Records, a 25-year-old independent label. "The thing with new ideas is they have no audience. They haven't been thought of yet. I think it's important to have access to spaces. The idea of free spaces is very important,"

MacKaye's new group, The Evens, is comprised of himself and drummer Amy Farina of The Warmers. The two are longtime friends who met through MacKaye's brother, Alec, the Warmers' guitarist and singer.

Farina and MacKaye have performed over 50 shows since forming a year ago. The Evens will arrive in the Peninsula after a week of touring in Los Angeles.

When asked about The Evens' style, MacKaye replied, "That's the thing about music. If you could put it into words, you wouldn't have to play the music."

But he did provide some hints.

"I will say this: We're not super loud. We sing. Lots of singing going on. And we're definitely not interested in playing in rock clubs. We'd like to reclaim music and let it come back into spaces that are a little less commercially oriented."

The Evens selected the Palo Alto concert venue because of MacKaye's history in the area. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., he attended seventh grade at Terman Middle School while his father was on fellowship at Stanford University.

"That was the only nine-month period that I didn't live in the District so it's significant in my mind," he said.

MacKaye was dismayed at how difficult it was to find a concert space in Palo Alto, but he is pleased to be able to play in Terman's auditorium, the locale of his very first school dance.

The concert will bring back memories, both fond and a bit painful, of the time he spent in Palo Alto. He remembered the difficulties of being the new kid in school.

"I had really long hair and was pretty tattered. I was a hippy kid. It was 1974. I walked into junior high and these kids were wearing corduroys and Adidas and Izod. I felt like I was dropped off in another land. It was intimidating. No one would talk to me and I thought they were all snobs but it turned out everyone was scared of me because I was from the East Coast," he recalled.

Prior to the concert, MacKaye will give a lunchtime talk to interested Terman middle-schoolers. But, from experience, he doesn't expect the students to have heard of him, The Evens, Fugazi or Dischord Records.

"I've only spoken to one younger school and they're like, "Who is this guy?"

MacKaye won't bring a prepared speech; he just hopes interested students will attend and ask him questions. But MacKaye has an inkling as to why producer Mark Weiss asked him to talk to the students.

"I just don't practice the general American business ethic, which is to grow and sell, grow and sell, grown and sell. And I actually have a really different approach. So maybe he thinks that it's a voice that has been overwhelmed by the din of avarice," MacKaye said.

Palo Altan Weiss, producer of the upcoming show and fellow Terman graduate, set up the afternoon Q&A session because he views MacKaye as a potential role model for the young audience. He was impressed when he heard MacKaye speak in the past.

"He's not a really famous musician on MTV but I think kids can tell who is an interesting person when they meet an artist or a musician. He's an interesting guy and he's done interesting things with his life and I think kids will find that rewarding and inspiring," Weiss said.

MacKaye's modesty and down-to-earth attitude about creating music may be just the right message for middle schoolers who have grown up on MTV, "American Idol" and the fleeting stardom of countless performers.

"If you think back to when you were 10, 11, 12 years old, kids are just coming to grips with music and they're engaging with the music that's being spoon-fed to them."

MacKaye admitted to liking The Monkees as a youth, pointing out that simply the idea of music fascinated him at a young age, and that was what was available to him at the time.

What's important for young aspiring musicians, MacKaye said, is sticking to their passion and not prioritizing money over art.

"What's more discouraging to me is when people make decisions based on what's expected of them and that's crippling in the long run in terms of creativity. It's more important that people actually believe in what they're doing," he said.

"If me and my friends could do it then anyone could do it. My advice is not to get caught up in the way things are supposed to be and focus on the way you want them to be," he continued.

Recalling his middle-school days, MacKaye said he felt discouraged about the possibility of becoming a musician.

"I had given up at that point that I'd ever be able to play rock because at that time it seemed like rock and roll was out of reach and that people doing it were anointed by the queen. They were so high falutin' and so far removed and unreachable by a kid like me," he said.

It wasn't until 1979 when high-schooler MacKaye taught himself to play the bass, and then the guitar. It was the freedom of punk rock that revived him.

"That was what was so deeply important about punk rock in the late '70s...For me, punk rock was a free space where new ideas could be presented because profit was not the primary motivation."

His late high-school band, the Teen Idles, launched his music career. From those roots, MacKaye formed Minor Threat in the early '80s and Fugazi in 1987. The band, comprised of Mackaye, Brendan Canty, Joe Lally and Guy Picciotto, was known for its austere, mid-tempo punk sound. They toured for 15 years but have been on hiatus since 2002, allowing members to attend to their personal lives.

Although The Evens will release their self-titled album March 8, they decided to tour the Bay Area in February. When asked why he wasn't waiting for the album's release to tour, MacKaye said, "I'm of the mind that records support shows and not the other way around. The industry has skewed that idea."

Editorial Intern Molly Tanenbaum can be reached at mtanenbaum@paweekly.com.

Who: The Evens, featuring Ian Mackaye and Amy Farina. The concert is open to people of all ages.

Where: Terman Middle School Auditorium, 655 Arastradero Road in Palo Alto

When: Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.; doors open at 7 p.m.

Cost: Tickets are $5 and can be purchased in advance at www.virtuous.com.

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