Spring Break
Indie folkers Vetiver produce sweet, breezy sounds
CHRISTOPHER BENTON
Issue date: 3/24/09 Section: Variety
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Like its namesake flora, which is used in perfumes, Vetiver makes a sweet-sounding synesthesia that is pleasant and subtle. Also like its namesake, which is used for erosion control, Vetiver's agrarian, back-to-basics sound preserves the roots of the pastoral folk tradition. Still, the music eludes the weirdo freak-folk association that having a guy like Devendra Banhart in your band might suggest.
More than a name, Vetiver is a man - the brainchild of Virginia-born singer-songwriter Andy Cabic.
"Sanders [Trippe] and Otto [Hauser] have been playing with me for a long time. I don't play without them. But conceptually it is probably easiest to consider Vetiver myself and folks who play with me," Cabic said.
After the 1998 breakup of Greensboro, N.C.-based The Raymond Brake, Cabic moved to San Francisco.
There, he was fascinated by left-of-center folksters such as Joanna Newsom, who would ultimately play harp on their first self-titled album and take Vetiver on tour with her. Cabic also befriended Devendra Banhart, the group's sometime band mate.
While Vetiver was in gestation, Cabic also played bass for another on-the-verge band, the disco-krautrock juxtaposers, Tussle.
"I left Tussle in 2006. I was busy. I was touring with Devendra. I was touring with Tussle. I was working. I didn't have enough time for all the projects," Cabic said.
Now, Andy Cabic, Renaissance man, is full of projects as he manages his own record label, which he co-owns with Banhart, while still recording his own material.
"I am doing production on the new Vashti Bunyan record and also producing the upcoming album by Johnny Irion and Sarah Lee Guthrie. Of course, I am touring to support the new Vetiver album 'Tight Knit.' I also have a label called 'Gnomonsong,'" he said.
Cabic also has been prolific with his Vetiver work. The group released the cover albums "Thing of the Past" and the E.P. "More of the Past" in late 2008. Vetiver then prepared a full-length of original material for release in February 2009.
The group's first album for major-indie label Sub Pop, "Tight Knit" is as concise and straightforward as their previous attempts at nomadic reverie - with occasional visitations by psych-folk specters.
"We recorded 'Tight Knit' at The Hangar Studios in Sacramento, [Ca.]. John Baccigaluppi, who publishes 'Tape Op Magazine,' operates it, and it is also where we mixed our cover album 'Thing of the Past,'" Cabic said.
Cabic is a big fan of the Athens sound, "I like the Barbeque Killers and I have some Method Actors 45s. I grew up listening to Pylon and R.E.M. a lot when I was younger." Cabic is excited to bring his brand of folk fantasy to Athens for his second time playing the 40 Watt as Vetiver.
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