Should be a special night

Music Row
By Brian Rademaekers

Friday night is going to be a big one for Philly’s Capitol Years.
As far as the indie rock scene goes, the partly Fishtown based six-piece have earned themselves plenty of cred with their pop-rich songs — both in Philly and around the country.
That work has earned them the weird and awesome honor of opening for and backing rock legend Daniel Johnston during his gig at the Trocadero on Friday night.
Johnston rose from obscurity in the mid-1980s when a nascent MTV began running footage that captured his eccentric personality and queer, childlike pop songs.
His popularity spiked above cult status in the 1990s when Kurt Cobain ceaselessly wore a T-shirt featuring the Texas singer-songwriter’s Hi, How Are You? album cover.
It might seem like a trivial link, but all it took was a few questions from the press about Cobain’s filthy shirt and a whole generation of music fans and musicians learned to love the quirky and haunting glory of Johnston’s explorations into the tortured human psyche.
In more recent times, a whole cadre of Johnston followers has emerged thanks to the artful and thorough 2005 documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston.
The film followed Johnston from his early days as a stunning savant playing Texas rock clubs and recording his songs on a tape recorder, on up to his later years of extreme mental distress and return to musical obscurity.
Fans saw not only the genius behind Johnston’s irresistible songs but also the demons that haunted him and the effect that his near-schizophrenic tendencies and abuse of hallucinogenic drugs had on his career and family.
The film also shone a spotlight on his wild and often graphic illustrations of aliens, flying eyeballs and exploding monster brains — images that frequently graced his many album covers. And as freaky as his visual artwork is, it has also caught the attention and praise of many, including Simpsons creator Mark Groening (also a fan of the music).
While The Devil was disturbing, many found it was more inspiring and enlightening than it was depressing.
For Shai Halperin, the lead man behind the Capitol Years, the documentary put Johnston’s music into a new, more meaningful context and spurred a miniature obsession. It also led to the band’s slow and dreamy cover of Johnston’s True Love Will Find You in the End, unofficially released last year.
Halperin thinks that recording may have led to their booking with Johnston, but regardless, the Years’ melodic sound is a fine match for Johnston’s songs.
Halperin is admittedly honored to share the night with the legend. But the Capitol Years have been there before.
In 2001, when the Years had just released their debut Meet Yr Acres, they opened for Johnston at the North Star Bar in Fairmount. Halperin, already a Johnston fan, remembers being impressed with the set but puzzled by an odd gift the musician left on his amp: an unopened can of Mountain Dew and a new pack of nylon guitar strings.
Only later, after watching The Devil, did Halperin learn that Mountain Dew is kind of sugary green holy water in the world of Daniel Johnston, and that gift was indeed a meaningful one. Like that can of soda, Johnston has taken on an added significance to Halperin, and he and the band have been practicing about 20 numbers in preparation for Friday night.
As of Monday, that practice was still a gamble, as there has been no confirmed set list from Johnston’s end. But, well in tune with Johnston’s penchant for the Beatles, the Years have been working on a number of the Fab Four’s hits, including I’m So Tired, In My Life and Come Together.
To Halperin, Johnston is an artist who stands out not just for his music but for his honest approach to his career and songwriting.
"It can be tough to write songs that have such a childlike innocence about them and then put it down on tape, but he did it without any kind of pretense, and at the same time he put it out there that he wanted to be famous," said Halperin. "He pretty much wrote simple songs that say what every one else thinks, and he does it in a way that is very melodic."
Over the years, Johnston has put out nearly 30 albums, with some of the best coming from his work in the late 1990s and this decade.
Despite a career that has matured pleasantly, reviews of his recent live shows and footage available on YouTube show a man still plagued by many of the disquieting demons that dogged his early years.
A writer commenting on a Feb. 5 show in Detroit noted a Johnston shaken by tremors and an often-ragged treatment of his songs. Equally noted, however, was the fact that Johnston’s performance was as touching and powerful as the legend that has grown up around his name.
Halperin said he and the band are prepared for some potentially rough moments but are expecting "a pretty normal night."
"I’m more excited than I am freaked out," said Halperin. "He is going to be remembered as a major figure for his art and the way he put it out there." ••

Check it out . . .

Who: Daniel Johnston with The Capitol Years
Where: The Trocadero, 10th and Arch streets
When: Friday, Feb 22, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20 at the door, $17 in advance. All ages.