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Pop Life: The Post-Punk Preston School of Industry's in Session
By: By Chris Macias - Sacramento Bee
January 26th 2001 9:33am
The Preston School of Industry castle once housed wayward youths in the lonesome foothills near Ione. Now Preston School of Industry is the name of a newly minted band and the musical home of Scott Kannberg. For over a decade, Kannberg was associated with Pavement, a group of indie-rock kingpins he co-founded with his former Stockton classmate Stephen Malkmus. Over the years, Pavement received critical acclaim by the spool and zealous devotion from its fans, and briefly inhabited MTV's cathode rays with its 1994 single "Cut Your Hair." But Pavement called it quits late last year, leaving its members enveloped in various solo projects. Tonight, Old Ironsides will host the inaugural gig for Kannberg's Preston School of Industry. It will also mark a return to Kannberg's former stomping grounds. Now living in Berkeley, Kannberg was an urban planning student at California State University, Sacramento, and a patron of Old Ironsides in the early 1990s. No doubt, Pavement die-hards will be listening tonight with attentive ears. So what might they expect? "It has elements of what Pavement had," said Kannberg. "It comes from the post-punk, indie-music influences that I have and brought to Pavement. Probably a quarter are songs I've had kicking around for the past few years. The rest I've written recently." While Kannberg will assume the vocal and guitar duties, Preston School of Industry is filled out with drummer Andy Borger, who has played in Tom Waits' touring band, and bassist John Erickson. The three have been recording for the band's debut album, which is scheduled for release in May. "It's close to being done," said Kannberg. "For the past couple of months we've been recording here in Berkeley. Originally, I did a little bit in Stockton with Gary Young (Pavement's original drummer). But I'm also planning to release a single prior to the record coming out." In addition to his musical duties in Preston School of Industry, Kannberg runs the Amazing Grease record label, which features Bay Area indie-rock groups Oranger, Carlos and Sunless Day. He's also been helping to mobilize musicians through the Popular Noise Foundation, a nonprofit group that addresses the rising number of San Francisco musicians being displaced by skyrocketing rents. But for the time being, Kannberg's name is still associated with the freshly broken-up Pavement. Also, Preston School of Industry may play a Pavement song or two in its set tonight. But what about plans for a reunification? "I seriously doubt it," said Kannberg. "But there's always the possibility. Pavement was cool and we did a lot of cool things. It wasn't a collective decision to bring things to a halt, but it's been a good thing. I've been able to do songs of my own finally and not have anyone breathing down my neck, 'Are you done yet?' " Bon voyage: Poplife bids a fond farewell to Ben Morsss, local musician and co-mastermind of the "Sacpop" CD compilation of area bands. His fractured-pop group, the Pilgrims, was starting to make waves in town and attracting a particular following in the Bay Area. But Morsss is leaving town at month's end to pursue musical projects of the highbrow nature in New York. "Sacramento's been great for me," said Morsss. "I'd moved here from Berkeley and played with all kinds of people and did neat things in town. But I want to do more musical theater, experimental and classical things. I probably have a better chance at trying to develop those things out there. It's exciting, but if it doesn't work out, I'm sure I'll be back." Before Morsss scoots to the Big Apple, perhaps he could leave Sacramento with more recordings of his excellent classical compositions. If not, hopefully Morsss and his ensemble can serenade the River City in the future. New CDs in stores on Tuesday: Break out the satin pants and feather boa. Members of Blondie, Hole, L7 and others pay tribute to David Bowie, T.Rex and Gary Glitter in "Blockbuster: A '70s Glam Rock Tribute." Speaking of the 1970s, Richard Lloyd, a founder of the late-great art-punk band Television, releases his latest solo album, "The Cover Doesn't Matter." Also on the solo end, former Pixies frontman Frank Black unleashes "Dog in the Sand," the third disc with his band, the Catholics. Ready to shake the pop charts include the sunny-sounding songstress Vitamin C, who follows her million-selling debut with "More," while rapper Juvenile promises more jiggy-laden beats and grammatical liberties in "Project English." CHRIS MACIAS is The Bee's pop music writer. Write to him at The Bee, P.O. Box 15779, Sacramento, CA 95852, send e-mail to cmacias@sacbee.com or call (916) 321-1253. To see more of the Sacramento Bee, or to subscribe, go to http://www.sacbee.com
Copyright 2001 Sacramento Bee. All Rights Reserved.
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