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Last Updated:
May 13th, 2008 - 11:13:47 |
Alan Scheurman & Red Cats
Chant On The Heart's Strings
Every song is a love song and every song is political. Perhaps that was the axiom that drove his former band, Rescue. Perhaps that is his mantra. Perhaps these very words will, one day, grace his headstone.
In a post-Rescue world, Alan Scheurman dove into studying labor studies and Africana studies at Wayne State. He wants to be a professor, but no matter what course life takes him, he’ll always be one of Detroit’s sacred musicians. On May 15, Scheurman will be joined by Jeff Fourneir (bass), Richie Wohlfeil (drums) and Luke Schram (sax) for a show in the Pike Room where they’ll perform with other staple Motor City bands, The Sisters Lucas, Child Bite and the Drinking Problem. “This is a very non-committal band, everyone just gets together and plays and has a really good time,” Scheurman tells me as we wax on the Detroit noise scene and new-psychedelic bands popping up around town.
Noise has always been an ingredient in Scheurman’s sound with swirling sounds layering in your head making for beautiful cacophony. And though some songs were written back in the Rescue days, songs that Rescue didn’t do or were working on at the end, another portion are brand new and sound much different. “It’s pure in the sense that these songs, because they’re so basic, are really just what’s at the root. I can play them by myself or with these amazing musicians and they carry the same weight and feeling,” Scheurman says. But the truth is that none of these tunes may have seen the light of day had it not been for a life altering, spiritual experience. Scheurman, somewhat recently, attended a Native American healing ceremony on the lower eastside of New York. It clarified what was holding him back with music, namely putting off recording. “The ceremony deconstructed my ego. I’ve been going through that process for a long time, but this helped. I figured out that these songs are what they are, and they’re great and we’re having a good time playing them,” he says.
Spiritually revitalized, Scheurman longs for a more communal, less cliquey music scene. “I think a show offers an amazing experience that can be shared — I think we’re starting to see that." | RDW
Alan Scheurman & Red Cats • 4/15 • Pike Room
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