Cameron McGill’s new LP, Is a Beast, began when he picked up an old acoustic guitar at his girlfriend’s apartment. It was her late grandfather’s and hadn’t been played for 20 or 30 years, he says. With the original strings intact, he began writing songs as his girlfriend shared stories of the man to whom the guitar had once belonged.
“It had an eerie quality,” McGill says. “In some ways it seemed to cast a shadow, maybe, over the light in which those songs were written.”
Cameron McGill & What Army is on tour supporiting the album and will stop at the Bourbon Theatre at 9 p.m. Thursday, April 7 in Lincoln as a part of a KRNU benefit show with The Betties, Life of a Scarecrow, Masses and Show is the Rainbow. You can catch them a week later at the Barley St. Tavern at 9 p.m. Thursday, April 14 in Omaha with openers Bryan Rogers and Manny Coon.
I caught up with McGill while he took a break in a tour bus stopped in St. Louis.
Bus engine off, he’s able to catch some time to hear himself think so he can work for a few hours, he says, while out on tour with Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s. With a forthcoming album under his main project, Cameron McGill & What Army, he has some pre-release work to hash out.
“This release has definitely had the most kind of set-up and promotion than any of my past records,” he says of the LP, due out physically April 12.
Since joining up with Margot in 2009 as the band’s keyboardist, a break from one band means time for the other, especially when you’re touring about seven months out of the year between the Chicago groups.
Or at least, that’s how it’s shaped up for McGill as he prepares to self-release his fifth studio album. Is A Beast is currently available for purchase on iTunes as well as for online streaming. The album holds McGill’s singer-songwriter sound while expanding upon the band’s music, lending to a nice mix of folk and rock.
It's not often that one sees more cops than showers over a week's course. After Noah's Ark Was A Spaceship's Midwest/Southern tour with Yuppies, vocalist/guitarist Andrew Gustafson can say he's done it.
Fresh off his spring break, unparalleled to any other college kid's, he tells me that with four run-ins with the cops at house shows and on the road, "I don't think anyone in both bands showered more than twice." Yikes.
Official tour group pic
The band introduced its debut LP, Hanga-Fang, to show-goers across the south and Midwest, even meeting a few song requests and synched lips in Denton, Texas, a city less than half the size of Lincoln.
"The kids we met were totally supportive and genuine," he says. "It's not something that you necessarily find everywhere."
"Opener" and "Warm Eyes" from Hanga-Fang. Free downloads here at Slumber Party Records.
Now back in Omaha, Noah's Ark is looking forward to a break before hitting the interstate west for a 10 (or so) day June tour. A break from playing, anyway.
"We’re looking forward to knowing that we’re coming back out again in June, but also knowing the time between now and then we can write and lay low," he says.
Along with the West coast tour, there's also talk of a weekend stint with The Answer Team, he tells me.
In part two, Noah's Ark goes Ninja Turtles for pizza...
Wednesday, March 23: house show in New Orleans We left Memphis after a long night of hard partying to New Orleans. The drive was a long, Southern-filled experience. The South is much different from Omaha. In a gas station we saw dudes with gun racks inside their trucks. There were Confederate flags everywhere and single-serving beer cans to-go on every corner. Wow!
We entered Louisiana (Gator Land). Apparently, Rob cornered one and tried to feed it some leftover bananas but it was not into them. The gator turned around and whipped Rob in the genitals. I guess he learned his lesson.
New Orleans is an incredible city still ravaged by Katrina. We played in a sweet house with Yuppies. Our sets were filled with sweat and beer. The show was so packed that things became unruly. Women threw their panties at the stage and the floor became so full of underwear that it needed to be swept before Yuppies went on. Yuppies were great and singer Boogs threw the crowd into a trance with his piercing eyes. He's a huge hit with the tranny crowd.
After the show, we hit the town with our friends Steevo, Liz and Eric from Omaha. We ate poboy sandwiches with a homeless guy before consuming gallons of Louisiana gator beer. We sang near perfect renditions of our favorite pop and R&B tunes at a karaoke bar. We stumbled home and immediately disrobed and danced the night away. We awoke the next morning nude and sweating. Off to Austin, Texas! — John (guitar/ bass/ vox)
