Hidden Track

Men, suck in your gut and comb your sideburns: The lovely SuperDee is here. Our favorite female rock writer brought NOLA’s Rotary Downs to town last weekend, and she wants you to set your radio dial so you can hear them this weekend.

The city is built
To music, therefore never built at all,
And therefore built forever.
~Alfred Lord Tennyson

Can a rock ‘n roll band save a sunken city? Hurricane Katrina and her aftermath seized many souls from the beloved city of New Orleans. Its denizens have been spread all over the country, if they survived the storm.

Those who stayed behind or returned home after mandatory evacuation were faced with the daunting task of rebuilding a city below sea level. They not only have to construct physical homes and infrastructure, but they have to rejuvenate the unique spirit of this place that so many hold close to their hearts.

We all know how powerful music can be in its ability to affect social change and expedite healing. The history of New Orleans is so deeply rooted in its music that it only makes sense the rebuilding would start with the artists. Habitat for Humanity acknowledges this with its Musicians’ Village project to build houses for displaced musicians: Bring the music back, bring New Orleans back.

But it’s not only the sound of brass and blues that are bubbling back up in this aftermath. An unlikely sound from the Crescent City is emerging to do its part to revitalize the city’s music scene — indie rock. Rotary Downs is a band that is rising to this challenge. Read on about the band that just turned New York heads…

Of this newly diversified music scene in NOLA, vocalist/guitarist/songwriter James Marler told the Gambit Weekly, “It seems like people are not as locked into their respective scenes as they were, because there’s less music and also less people.”

In the fall of 2006, Rotary Downs independently released Chained To The Chariot and has received much acclaim for their great work. But prior to this weekend, their live performances had been concentrated in clubs around New Orleans. 

Rotary Downs embarked on their maiden voyage to New York City, where the band played the Knitting Factory Tap Room on Friday, January 19, and Magnetic Fields Lounge in Brooklyn Heights on Saturday, January 20 – and in a show of support for the NOLA boys, both shows were well-attended by the NYC faithful.

Those who came were presented with music from New Orleans like they’d never heard before: indie-rock riffs, pop hooks, thoughtful and twisty lyrics with an interesting mix in their otherwise standard rock instrumentation including a trumpet, a pedal steel guitar and…a bellydancer?

But here’s the important part of this post: While in the Big Apple, Rotary Downs was invited to record a show for New York Public Radio’s esteemed show, Studio 360, “the place where a Freudian shrink can analyze a videogame about bunnies.” 

Tune in to hear some of the stories behind the songs that paint a very honest picture of The Big Easy, from drug dealers to marching bands. Praise whichever deity you enjoy when you hear how the band saved their brilliant half-recorded album from near extinction after The Storm. Listen to live in-studio performances of favorites from the album, Big Parade and False Protection, as well as a special acoustic version of Sing Like The Sun.

This segment of Studio 360 will air this weekend, as early as last night in some cities, but mostly on Saturday or Sunday. Broadcasting times are varied nationwide, so check your local station listings here. There will also be a podcast available for download here.

Help Rotary Downs help bring the New Orleans spirit back. Listen up.

More on Rotary Downs: The band’s MySpace page; SuperDee’s more in-depth review of Rotary Downs’ weekend in NYC; RD on Rhapsody

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