Cover Of The Month Reviews:

Walcott @ Citizen Dick

Run To You @ Jazz Mando

Two Tickets To Paradise @ Jazz Mando

In The Bamboo Forests Of Pennsylvania – Reviews and Interviews

The earliest incarnation of Coconut & The Duke equated to “Coconut” Joseph Maurer and Lucas “The Duke” Stangl jamming in a dorm 15 years ago. However, it’s unlikely anything they were doing at the time resembled their latest release, In the Bamboo Forests of Pennsylvania. The liner notes credit them with playing mandolins, guitars, basses, “Dukuleles,” accordions, keyboards, percussion, and singing vocals, not to mention that various friends make even further additions. In the Bamboo Forests is a peacock in comparison to six-string dorm sessions.

Still, there remains that impromptu element. Coconut & The Duke create music largely by writing segments, swapping them online, and then building a garden salad. The band operates this way out of necessity. It’s only half-local. Coconut lives in Eau Claire and The Duke in Pennsylvania.

This is all immediately apparent. The echoing mandolin on opener Venison Jerky is staggered into timid hand-drums, claves, and earthly vocal harmonies that wonder: “where does the time go?” On the other hand, some of Bamboo Forests is well puréed. Venison Jerky melts away into the instrumental Intro before contorting itself again in the title track. Later on, Vitamin Y introduces, against all odds, a sax solo to a bouncing cabaret theme. Bamboo Forests’ discombobulation might also be attributed to the general absence of a drum kit played familiarly. Most of us are used to a prominent rhythm instrument adhering a song. And so, steering clear of the temptation to include some Buddy Rich wannabe, In the Bamboo Forests means to break popular rock norms.

The duo cite eclectic mock-rockers Ween as an influence on their refusal to be just one band. Motel Maids moseys around with a southern darlin’ mandolin reminiscent of Blue Sky Boys. For prog fans, the duo wander the nearly eight-minute 3rd Night, letting the song “have a mind of it’s own” (as the mantric lyrics go) and entirely reinvent itself two or three times before ‘oommm’ing to a close. The Duke mentions that they grew up on folk and jazz, but there’s a surf song, a country ballad, a reggae tune and even a spaghetti western ode present on In the Bamboo Forests.

Coconut & The Duke sing in a subtler manner than most singer-songwriters. While Astral Weeks is certainly influential here, neither member overstates à la Van Morrison. Coconut & The Duke allow their voices to slither through the gaps between strums, creating a simple lyrical tone that emphasizes lyricism. Occasionally matching one another’s melody, they hesitate to drive further north or south of a speaking voice. But staying true to their unpredictable nature, they do allow some room for choir-like glory.

In its ambitions, In the Bamboo Forests takes risks and falls short at times. The dominating chorus of Honeydipper drags minor back and forth like a hypnotist’s pendulum all over an otherwise gorgeous mandolin lick. Sometimes the record simply lacks a good hook (A Memory and a Nap), or a passage of that goofy spoken word doesn’t bide well. For myself, these moments are few enough to overlook. A safety catch in covering so much ground on one disk is that everyone will like something, even if nobody will like everything.

On their homepage, the band refers to the short, instrumental interludes sprinkled throughout the CD as “palette cleansers.” Coconut & The Duke deliver by increasing the weight of their music’s diversity. The band’s artwork is not only a reflection of the music itself, but also shares the band’s political style. The artwork is created in collaboration between Coconut and another Eau Claire artist, Lori Chilefone. Thus, it seems a tour featuring Coconut and Chilefone is more likely than one featuring Coconut & The Duke.

Chilefone combines anachronistic figures with Native American emblems and the geographical. In some images, we see Greek statuettes dressed in gowns of corn or strawberry swimsuits. In another piece, a pied piper dances along the shores of lake superior trailed by his wind-blown scarf. Coconut’s art splices clippings of drab American frontiers, agreeing with Chilefone’s explorations of placement. Together, these juxtapositions make for a fitting visual component to the whole Coconut & The Duke package.

- words by Ted Waldbillig for Volume One Magazine

Sir Duke of The Late Greats has collaborated with some dude named Coconut Joe as Coconut and The Duke for a new album called In The Bamboo Forests Of Pennsylvania. Don't know what these guys are smoking or drinking up there in Bethlehem PA, but this record is strangely fascinating. It has an overall vibe to it that reminds me of old Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks, Geoff & Maria Muldaur's "Brazil," and yes, damned me for saying this Jimmy Buffet. Maybe if Daniel Johnston was a parrothead, but hey, this ain't Margaritaville, my friends.

 - Bruce Warren from WXPN and Some Velvet Blog

1) How do you two normally write songs? How do they get fleshed out and recorded, then?

Duke:  Some of the songs on Bamboo were reworked drunken basement jams.  Other songs were written independently and brought to the other person to add their special touch.  And the last batch of songs were written in a truly collaborative effect; one of us would have a musical idea and the two of us would work with it until we got it right. 

Coconut:  I credit the Duke for recognizing those basement jams were worth keeping.  There was one rare case where a dynamic melody came out of a very late and strange hour, it was just a matter of fitting lyrics to the melody there after. I would never have known this had the Duke not sent me a recording of that night.  In other instances, I'll labor through 50 or 100 takes until I find what I'm looking for.  And the Duke may not like what I send him in the end...I'll have to redo it!  There is definitely a Coconut or Duke hand in each piece; however, nothing was done in the writing partnership without the other signing off on it.  This was kind of painful at times.  We had to be brutal to each other's work.  But it was also freeing and fun once I realized, I do not need to have all the ideas. 

2) Do you two still live far apart from each other? How often do you meet to practice/tour/play?

Duke:  Being that we mostly work apart, we record parts of songs and share via email and ftp.  Once all the parts are finished we assembled the songs little by little.  Joe is in Eau Claire while Lucas lives in Bethlehem, PA.  Outside of a Joe PA visit back in early May to finish up the album, we haven't played together since November 2008.  There is no touring Coconut and The Duke at this time.  But we are hoping to play out with some surrogate partners.  If/when Lucas moves to the Midwest, there will be a touring Coconut and The Duke.  

3) Is there a particular theme to "In the Bamboo..."? What do you normally write songs about?

Duke:  If we were to give Bamboo a "concept" it would be the idea of things that invade.  The title track is a lament about a possible future when exotic, invasive plant species overrun all native plants.  We took the idea of invasives to another level in regards to the styles of music represented on the album.  There is a surf song, a country ballad, a reggae tune, a spaghetti western ode to margaritas.  Plus the usual more folky and jazzy stuff we are accustom to playing.

Coconut:  We scrapped a lot of songs to arrive at an album 'concept'.  We knew we wanted to try different popular content, but the music had to be interesting or something we'd want to listen to.  I think we learned being able to write well crafted songs is being able to edit well.  
 

Duke:  I don't think we ever sat down and said, "Let's write a song about....".  Most of the material came from an organic place and time.  We never consciously set out to write a song about honeydippers (septic trucks).  My son is fascinated by them.  I had this melody and chord changes that sounded nice.  I originally intended it to be an instrumental.  But Joe thought it needed words.  So we wrote and rewrote many verses until we came up with ones we liked.  The best way to sum up our writing process is a line from the song 3rd Night - "The song has a mind of its own".  As a duo, we let the music dictate where it was going.   

Coconut:  The benefit of being a song writing team is the themes or meaning end up being more dynamic than if I were to sit and write them myself.  I like a little tension in the song.  I like when art gives enough to make one curious, but does not give it all away.  The songs 'Venison Jerky', 'Honeydipper' are "about" two distinct points of view.  In 'Honeydipper' it's from the point of view of the user and the Honeydipper operator.  Each of us wrote a verse.  In 'Venison Jerky' we're talking about a severed relationship: my leave from the East Coast: my writing partnership with Lucas.  We were singing to each other in that one.  

4) Are you looking to someday pursue the project full-time? or is it more for fun?
 

Duke:  Coconut and The Duke is a stress reliever.  After a long day of being a stay-at-home dad, making music with Joe brought me back to earth.  It keeps me sane.  It would be great to generate enough income to sustain the duo and make more albums.  I don't think we ever intended it to become a fulltime job.  

Coconut:  Song writing was the best therapy.  Having gone through a very difficult divorce, break-up songs suddenly starting making a lot of sense.  I'll keep my day job and continue to write songs.  I'm of a the mindset that a person doesn't need to do one thing.  The thinking of a Landscape Architect can apply to music.  

Duke:  We do it for fun, for our enjoyment.  We believe our pleasure comes through in the music and can maybe, bring you some pleasure while listening.

- email interview with Ted Waldbillig