the hum / By Bob Doran

It’s Political

Casey Neill and the Norway Rats, KSLG’s b-day and music for mothers

(May 8, 2008) Casey Neill and the Norway Rats are on the road. I found Casey in Los Angeles getting ready to depart for San Francisco on a tour with a few more stops, including one in Arcata for a Saturday night show at the Jambalaya. Then its back to home base in Portland.

Neill explains that the Norway Rats name comes from a breed of urban rats in America allegedly brought over by the Norwegians in the rough and tumble days of immigration depicted in movies like Gangs of New York. He figures the band has been together for about 10 years.

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“We’ve been in like 15 bands together, that’s kind of a Portland thing,” he said, noting that the current tour is with a slightly stripped down version of the band, including keyboard player/accordionist Jennie Conlee from* one of Portland’s hot indie bands *du jour*(Decemberists),* ex-Decemberist Ezra Holbrook on drums and bassist Adam East. All but East also play in a Neill-led Pogues cover band called KMRIA.

“It stands for Kiss My Royal Irish Ass,” Neill explained. “It’s originally a reference from James Joyce’s Ulysses, but then was used in a Pogues song. That band has definitely influenced my writing — there’s a lot of Pogues in there, along with Joe Strummer and others in and around that world.”

The songs on Neill’s latest album, Brooklyn Bridge, are certainly less folky than the Celtic-inspired political eco-anthems that were once the core of his work. But he says the new songs are no less political.

“If you’re singing about the real world at all, it’s political. It’s more that my standards for what makes a good political song have gotten much higher. There’s definitely less of the anthemic political cheerleading. I’m trying to focus more on storytelling, where the narrative draws people into the story, which has inherent politics to it. I want to let the listeners come to their own conclusions without being a bully about it. Of course we still play some of the old songs because, well, people won’t let us stop.”

So don’t fear, you’ll still be able to sing out “Hooray for the Riff Raff” when Casey Neil and the Norway Rats* play* at the Jam. Also on the bill that night: Thunderbird Motel , a bluesy garage rock band from Seattle.

“The truth is here,” saysBrother Ali, headliner for Thursday’s Hip Hop 101 confab in HSU’s Kate Buchanan Room. The politically-aware albino rapper from Madison, Wisc., is joined by Scarub , LuckyIam and Eligh from L.A.’s Living Legends crew, and Northern State , a rockin’ trio of female rappers from NYC, who reminds me of an updated Tom Tom Club.

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