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The Heavy makes you

happy
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LIVE ACOUSTIC MUSIC ON FRIDAY NIGHTS.
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Located in SoHo Square in Homewood A BAND CROSSES THE OCEAN TO START A SOUL COMMOTION
column Courtney Haden
You heard it here first: when the new something I’ve never seen him do in nearly

OUR TACOS ARE: season of American Idol cranks up next year,

someone a lot of you know will be in the
running. I wish I could be more specific, but
Fantadelicio en Flavoburcitio the litigious drones that toil at the behest of
Emperor Murdoch’s network would wreak a
horrible vengeance were I to divulge names
and they leave change and places.
I mention this only to whet your appetite
in your Pocketio! for seeing a band from Noid, England, Sat-
urday night at Bottletree. When they played
the considerably larger Ed Sullivan Theatre
Check us Out-tio! on The Late Show, the four gentlemen from
the little village laid down such a big sound
www.camptaco.net that Uncle Dave Letterman was roused from
his usual torpor, shouting aloud, “There’s
your American Idol right there!” Then he did
thirty years of nocturnal entertaining: he
asked the band for an encore.
The band is called The Heavy, perhaps
because their music is weighted with so many
diverse yet congruent influences. You may
recognize the song that got Dave’s attention
as the theme for a surreal Kia Sorento Super
Bowl commercial. “How You Like Me Now?”
is sung with all the nuance the question could
contain by Kelvin Swaby, a young man with
an old soul who was gracious enough to
phone in as The Heavy prepares for its first-
ever swing through the Deep South.
Birmingham Weekly: It’s been said that
The Heavy are like a group of chemists,

Fresh-Fast-Fair-Healthy-Delicious
1017 20th Street S (Five-Points) • Birmingham, AL • 205-930-1915

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Puddle-jumping rockers The Heavy bring their soulful sound all the way from
England to Bottletree on October 23. Photo by Will Cooper-Mitchell.

Hot Seat & Limelight

Stop beating around the bush:
As part of Domestic Violence
Awareness Month, a recent
annual survey by the Violence
Policy Center entitled When Men
Murder Women: An Analysis
of 2008 Homicide Data ranked
Alabama third in the list of states with the highest
rate of women killed by men. The study reached
its conclusion by analyzing a portion of data from
the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s otherwise
unreleased Supplementary Homicide Report.
Alabama received third place with a rate of just
over two homicides per 100,000 people. Way to
reinforce our redneck stereotypes! Beating us in
the beating game are Nevada and, surprisingly,
Vermont. New Hampshire walks away as the state
least likely to kill it’s women with a rate of just 0.30
people killed per 100,000. View the full report at
www.vpc.org.
Getting ready to play ball:
On Tuesday, the Birmingham
City Council voted to approve
funding for the entertainment
district portion of Mayor William
Bell’s downtown development plan, and laid the
groundwork for a vote next week to approve funding
for a baseball stadium downtown near the newly
completed Railroad Park. According to a story in
the Birmingham News, the council has to vote on
the baseball stadium again next week because the
vote on Tuesday was not unanimous. Councilman
Roderick Royal was the sole abstainer, citing lack of
detail in the current plan as the reason for his “no”
vote. Even if Royal changes his vote, there remain a
few obstacles to the planned stadium, which also
requires an agreement from the Birmingham Barons
to relocate from their Hoover home.

4 oc tober 21 - oc tober 28, 2010 B I R M I N G H A M W E E K LY


experimenting with compounds. Tell us
about the laboratory you work in.
Kelvin Swaby: It can be anywhere, whether
it be four of us or just myself in an airport,
just working on some beat or chopping up
some horn part that we’ve kind of half-played.
Or it might come from just myself and Dan
[Taylor, on quicksilver guitar] just working
around. It really doesn’t matter where the
inspiration comes from, we always manage to
find a way to get it down.
We’re not super anal about the way that
things are recorded, so it means the labora-
tory is a lot wider than just being “in a studio.”
So many people get caught up with the idea
that you actually have to go into a studio
and get this super-slick sound, but a lot of
the music that I like sounds—terrible! The
recording does, y’know? I love that. I think
that’s what we kind of aspire to.
BW: One interesting aspect of your back-
ground is your early DJ work. Are you better
able to get over to a crowd as a performer,
now that you’ve learned what works for an
audience in a room when you’re playing
tracks for them?
KS: I wouldn’t say it’s easier; every room is
different, but I think, just because of my re-
cord collection, the diversity of music I kind
of collect, I try to look back to the old masters
of that music I so adore and try to keep it
like that. That’s the way we try to perform,
remaining true and absolutely passionate to
what we do.
BW: How big is your record collection?
KS: Pretty large. I think I’ve got, 45s, prob-
ably only about 4,000. Twelves [12-inch single
discs] and albums, probably about the same.
But it’s the 45s that really, really move me.
The first record I remember stealing from
my father was a 45. Had to be Al Green, “I’m
Glad You’re Mine.”
BW: Were a lot of people in Noid into soul
music when you were growing up?
KS: Well, when my parents came over
[from the West Indies to England], my dad
was an avid record collector, and he used to
hold a whole heap of parties at our family
Don’t look now, but Alabama is on
fire: According to a recent report by
the Birmingham News, Alabama
is suffering from a rash of wildfires
across the state that so far have
consumed more than 16 square
miles of forest and fields and
destroyed 85 homes and other buildings. Alabama
has been plagued by drought recently, though not as
badly as in recent years. Jefferson County has seen
its fair share of fires, though many are located in the
south-western portion of the state. However, there
are some forces working in our favor. Dan Jackson,
forest operations division director for the Alabama
Forestry Commission, told the News that there has
been a lucky absence of wind this year, which has
helped halt the spread of the existing fires.
Fire prevention
home. So it was always great for me to see
people coming in and dancing to all this kind
awareness
of music.
BW: What was it about American music
October is Fire Prevention Month
that grabbed your ear?
KS: For me, personally, it’s the instrumenta- At the Birmingham Water Works, we not only supply water
tion. I love the big band thing that’s involved for every day needs like cooking and drinking, but we also supply
in a lot of music that I collect from America. water to protect your life.With more than 14,000 fire hydrants in
Huge horns, huge strings. And I prefer when
the beat’s just stripped and easy and very,
our service area, we are responsible for making sure water is avail-
very simple. You guys are so good at that. You able to protect you and your loved ones from the threat of fire.
have so many amazing players over here, this
country is so vast. How can you help?
It’s the passion in the soul, but we can
also look at the Sonics, we can look at the Prevent Fires
Wailers, look at Bunker Hill and that whole • Turn pot handles toward the back of the stove.
side of rock and roll. It’s the same sentiment, • Roll up sleeves before cooking and keep flammable items such
y’know? It doesn’t sound super-polished, like
a Berry Gordy offering, but it’s the same kind
as dishtowels at least three feet away from the range top.
of soul, and it definitely hits a nerve with me. • Do not allow children to light candles unless an adult is present.
BW: Here in Birmingham, we’re a couple Report water theft . . .
of hours away from Muscle Shoals, where so Illegal water connections affect water pressure and availability.
many great soul records were recorded. There
you had the anomaly of a bunch of white
Call 244-4000 to report unauthorized use of fire hydrants, water
country kids playing behind Aretha, Wilson theft or illegal water connections.
Pickett and such, playing with authenticity
because they loved that music.
KS: Exactly. It’s not about color, it’s about
the passion. I think that’s what people can see
with us: you’ve got one black dude of Jamai-
can heritage, you’ve got Dan who’s half Italian,
half English; you’ve got Chris [Ellul, the
stalwart drummer] half Maltese, half English
and Spencer [Page on dense, dense bass] the
Londoner.
It doesn’t matter if we have to drive thirteen
or fourteen hours to get across the country
to get to our show. As soon as we get to the
stage, it’s one hundred percent committal,
because we know people have come to see our
show. That’s the way it used to be. From all
the documentaries I’ve seen and all the books
I’ve read about the performers I love, that’s
what it seemed to be like. We try and do that,
not necessarily to replicate it, but to have that
within our ethos.
The Heavy open for Mayer Hawthorne &
The County at Bottletree on October 23.
Tickets are $16 in advance and $20 the day of
the show. Doors open at 7:30 and you must be
18. Visit www.thebottletree.com for more info.
Read more of this conversation online at
www.bhamweekly.com.
Downtown Draw: Downtown
Courtney Haden
Birmingham’s newestisattraction,
a Bir-
mingham Weekly
Railroad Park, columnist.
has received a lot
Write to courtney@bhamweekly.
of attention lately, but they’re not
com.
resting on their laurels. Already
hosting an impressive array of
attractions and amenities, including free Wi-fi, a
playground replete with obstacle course, skate park A message from the BWWB and your
and of course a fabulous view, they have begun
programming a number of events in the park in order
participating local fire service.
to attract new visitors. The Railroad Park Sunset
Cinema has begun showing free movies every Friday
at 7 p.m., and on October 24th Magic City Smooth
Jazz will host Jazz in the Park from 5 – 9 p.m., which
is also free to the public. This Thursday’s free movie
will be the cult comedy Clue. For more information on Birmingham Water Works Board
Jazz in the Park visit www.magiccitysmoothjazz.com. B i r m i n g h a m Wa t e r WO R K S. . . fo r Yo u !
www.birminghamwaterworks.com
oc tober 21 - oc tober 28, 2010 B I R M I N G H A M W E E K LY 5