Freakshow Revenge: Louis August Feature 2006 Louis - "Freakshow Revenge"

Feature Article by Ben Krieger


What does one do when there is no "rock star image" to latch on to? No steamy female frontpunk? No showboat guitarist or six-fingered keyboard player? No sequins, no hairspray, no scarves on the mic stand? Maybe you just have to talk about what matters: the music. Louis Schefano falls neatly into a group of artists that, these days, are rare: simple, lyrical, talented. No gimmicks, no overachieving studio histrionics. Just the songs, man... just the songs.

"My Own Good." The drums are the first thing that hit you. As they should. Our hero is, after all, a drummer at heart. The rubbery bass comes next, a McCartney-ish Motown line that lays out the minor key tonality, then several acoustic guitar parts, strumming out a rhythmic structure that accentuates the offbeat. And the voice... a blend of echoes that dance just outside of being recognizable. Elliot Smith, J Mascis, Lou Barlow, Michael Holland, Steve Malkmus... hard to tell. "Lock me up / throw away the key forever," he says. And within a minute the song has slipped into a subtle, catchy, lyrically universal chorus: "it might be for my own good / if I don't do as I should / It might be for your own good / If you don't do as you should."

Courtesy of myspace.com/lou-is

Sometimes nothing paints a better initial impression of an artist than the setup for the interview. I met Slow Learner in the back of Laila Lounge and spent the evening downing beers with the band. For Dynasty Electric, we sat in their recording studio fooling around with the Theremin and listening to Sun Ra. When I meet Louis in a West Village Cafe, he suggests that we get our ice coffee to go and wander into Washington Square Park. A quiet, shady corner would be preferable. We spend a while searching, finally finding an ideal spot at the opposite corner from where we entered. Halfway through the interview, we will pick up and follow the shade. The conversation drifts over topics such as the meaning of success in the music world, the disappointments of CD remasters, the mind-boggling power of *The White Album* and, most importantly, perpetual motion.

It's a term that Louis holds dear. Raised in Birmingham, Alabama, he has never stayed in the same place for too long. Sometimes he just feels like hitting the road, sometimes he's told to hit the road, and sometimes he returns from recording at Daniel Lanois' studio to find that the house has burned down (there isn't much more to that story, but it's a keeper, no?). "Everything in my life seems to change every two years," says Louis. Following a stint in Bushwick, he's currently homeless (but not shelterless), recording Jaymay's full length record and preparing to record his own LP; all in all, Louis seems quite at home with the free spirit life.

His most recent EP, *Freakshow Revenge*, is a stunner. The back stories are personal, but not in that "look at me world, I'm Dashboard Confessional" sort of way. The songs come first, and Louis has sculpted four friendly rooms that a listener can feel comfortable wandering through. The backbone is the rhythm section (also Louis), and if I was forced to slap a label on, I'd try "drum folk." The songs were recorded on a recently acquired ProTools rig that has allowed him to flesh out his production skills (Martin, Eno and Lanois are three favorites).

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Lyrically, the scars of his 9/11 experience can be felt, and Louis acknowledges that the songs on *Freakshow* reflect on the tragedy to a degree. Like many NYC songwriters, Louis has his own version of a post-9/11 'big apple' moniker; "town of the falling towers" is a harrowing image. He moved to the city in the Spring of 2001. "I was in utter awe. Gushing with pride... and [the night before the attacks] I was actually down around those buildings! At 4am that night." But Louis adds that, "I'm ready to move on from that." Regardless of where he moves to (literally and/or figuratively) Louis' next full-length CD promises to speak volumes.

So have I done justice to this simple, yet talented drummer-turned songwriter? A devote Brian Wilson fan who claims, with the utmost sincerity, that any truth he discovers in life will be done through music? The southern boy who loves New York but may, someday soon, find himself pursuing the call of perpetual motion?

Perhaps, but not nearly as effectively has the tunes themselves. Alright kids, you know what to do: http://www.lou-is.com