An intimate space, used to Mother Falcon's advantage: Claire Puckett in the center, Tamir Kalifa to the far right
“That was a big honor,” says bookish vocalist and accordion player Tamir Kalifa. “This is our first time out here and it’s a critical moment for the band.”
Tamir and his interview partner, raven-haired vocalist, guitarist and pianist Claire Puckett represent roughly 10% of Mother Falcon’s stage-busting lineup. Their name originates from cable TV showings of Die Hard where a commonly said expletive phrase had to be cleaned up for family viewing (as in, “Yippee-kay-yay mother falcon!”).
“We’re thinking a lot about moving into regional and national circles,” Kalifa says. The band “repped Austin hardcore” at the 35 Conferette music conference in Denton in March. Their new album, Alhambra, was released earlier in 2011.
Mother Falcon has officially been around for three years. Originally the music was nearly “3/4ths cello,” but once Claire joined the group it “slowly morphed and grew” to its present shape. Some of the members had played with Nick Gregg in high school, and both Claire and Tamir fondly recall gigs with “crazy-packed stages and violinists spilling into the crowd, three violinists sharing a microphone.” Early performances took place in various living rooms, as well, where Mother Falcon could “use the intimacy” of the location to their advantage. “We’d get everyone’s faces flushed with warmth,” Puckett poetically states.
“We released a 5-song EP about a year ago, and that’s how we hit Austin,” Tamir recounts. “We then were just playing out for a while, and with this we developed a more cohesive and mature sound.”
The duo says the ginormous band has been trying to get away from their earlier aesthetic of “a big classical sound.” Tamir says “the new music can be jazzy or groovy rock.”
“The strong point of Mother Falcon is the live experience,” Puckett says. “We try to capture that on album by recording in a church as it happened. We captured our live sound, live.”
The band later held their CD release party at the same church. “If we can develop our dynamics, I can play my part to the best of my ability,” Kalifa describes.
“Earlier on, the quiet moments would get lost or we’d get lost in the loud sections or vice-versa,” Claire explains. But that doesn’t happen anymore, as the group has grown into a surprisingly tight unit for such an ungainly setup. There has to be a lot of different musical interests and influences coming through at any given time.
Tamir, true to the band’s universal outlook, has been listening to the exotic, buzzing alt-rock band A Hawk and a Hacksaw. “It’s led by the drummer from Neutral Milk Hotel (ed’s note: Jeremy Barnes),” he informs. “Also, Esperanza Spalding is great.”
Claire has kind words for Sufjan Stevens’ latest opus, The Age of Adz. “I also want to get the new Radiohead,” she says. “Li’l Wayne’s back, too, and I’m excited about that.”
The two say that right now there is a “war” among the band over the merits of divisive hip-hop superstar Kanye West. AME, of course, thought his last record was pretty great.
“We don’t have any huge plans right now,” Puckett states. “We’re doing a Texas tour at the end of the summer; we’re starting small.”
One of the biggest changes for the current touring incarnation of Mother Falcon is the addition of “an actual drumset,” in Claire’s words, to the lineup. “It’s drums as opposed to rhythmic texture, which was our old approach.”
Kalifa describes the band as “taking a new direction. The new direction is louder, we’re not going to rely on classical moments, but we’re also not a rock band. There is not a wall of sound.”
“Our last three songs were the hardest to write,” Kalifa continues. “We’re pushing what we’re doing, and it feels epic. Like two and a half minutes with a lot packed in.”
“Structurally, it’s simple,” Puckett says. “But it’s got as many people involved in the singing as possible.”
Alhambra is available now. Stay tuned to AME for further Mother Falcon updates.
Lads into jockeys might be a better title for LADS & JOCKEYS, the 2008 documentary just now opening here in the USA that tracks a bunch of boys and girls (though we see little of the girls) around 14 years of age, as they are educated -- via a special boarding school in Chantilly, a small village outside of Paris -- in the joys and pains of possibly becoming a jockey. As one trainer not so pleasantly puts it, "They call these kids 'apprentice jockeys' but 'apprentice stable lad' is more like it." And it's true: They clean the stables, groom the horses, and do a load of other chores -- but few of them, it seems, will make the grade as full-blown jockeys.
Directed by Benjamin Marquet, shown at left, the film focuses on three boys: Steve, Florian and Flavien (shown below) -- though only the last of these is called by name often enough during the film so that viewers will know him. Flavien (shown at left, below) also seems to get the most screen time, for reasons that become apparent as the movie rolls along. He's certainly got the best face of the three -- and maybe the best form, as well.
The film's sweetest scene, however, is given to that freckle- shouldered, red-headed kid, shown at right, above, as he's on a cell phone with, first, his dad, and then his mom. The three boys make a trip to the big city in one scene, and to the racetrack, where they even place bets. (Can 14-year-olds do this legally in France? Evidently so.)
In addition to some interesting archival footage interspersed throughout (the film's beginning features Eddie Constantine talking about how much he loves doing deals, making money and horse racing), much of the film is given over to the boys being trained, with emphasis on the horses' well being, rather than the jockeys'. "Think about the horse -- not yourself!" one boy is told. We go to a stud farm, as well, and learn about the importance of good breeding -- only to have the rug pulled from under this importance by the final few words on the subject.
While the training sessions can be exhausting, the horses are indeed gorgeous, and anyone who's a horse lover will probably want to see the movie, as will those interested in where jockeys come from, or those who simply love all things French.
"You're on horseback: Man's greatest conquest!" notes the head trainer early on. Someone might want to respond, "Well, there was that time we sent men to the moon...." But why quibble. Horses are gorgeous creatures, and France is always a lovely place to visit.
Lads & Jockeys, from Music Box Films, in French with English subtitles, and a shade too long at a running time of 100 minutes, opens Friday, December 2, in New York City at the Cinema Village, and on December 16 at the Music Box Theater in Chicago. Further playdates might be in the offing, though this one may be a tad too esoteric to warrant a much larger limited release. 
