hy?, aka Jonathan Yoni Wolf, and his cohorts performed quite a show on Sept. 5 at Kilby Court. why? went all out to shake the concrete walls of Kilby with his eclectic music and held nothing back for the relatively sparse crowd. The music of why? is as profound and ambiguous as the stage name. Nobody, not even the members of his band, actually know how to describe the music that he plays.

Ask the man directly what kind of hip hop this is, and he'll respond, “I don't think I'd call it hip hop. I'd say we just play honest music.” On stage, the bandmates will jokingly call it “shit-hop” or, perhaps more accurately, “folk-hop.” Suffice to say, however you want to label why?’s music (and really, does it even need a label?), he really blew the doors down at Kilby Court last week.

why? and his band (comprised of Wolf on vocals, Wolf's brother Josiah Wolf on drums, Doug McDiarmid on keyboard and Matt Meldon on guitar) make music not only with their respective battlestations, but with wood blocks, tin bowls and a good half-dozen electronic instruments I could never, ever tell you the actual names of.

	why? asks why hip hop can't combine with the likes of folk music.

why?’s music can make you feel like you're cruising at 30,000 feet over cumulonimbus clouds or it can shake every bone in your body and force you to submit to its beat. The whole time, why? himself gets way into the whole performing aspect of being a musician. He jokes with the audience and fellow bandmates and doesn't just stand there when the music flies away without him (sometimes he’ll literally flap his arms and try to fly himself). One thing obvious about why?’s music, other than its passion, is that it’s incredibly fucking tight. The changes seem to come out of nowhere, but when they do, they make the most perfect, sick sense.

Jonathan Yoni Wolf grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. The son of a rabbi and a painter, he got into making music when he found an old four-track in the basement of his father's synagogue. Wolf was also a graffiti kid growing up and the stage name came from his tag name, Whyoner.
Eventually, Wolf gave up his career tagging buildings and began focusing on making music with fellow shit/folk-hop pioneers dose one and odd nosdam. The result was cLOUDDEAD, a cream-in-yer-jeans record that—if you've ever had the pleasure of hearing it—you know why this four-track album made by three teenagers in Ohio got the attention of such experimentalists as Boards of Canada, Fog and Stereolab. Eventually, the mates moved to Oakland and helped launch anticon, a label specializing in the crazy whatever-hop that cLOUDDEAD made. why? has also traveled around the world more than once, has already toured all over America playing music.

why? came to Salt Lake City (“an interesting town,” he calls it) last week to entertain the masses and push his new album, oaklandazuleasylum. The album's title came to Wolf while riding around Oakland on ’shrooms and a bike. “I don't do drugs,” Wolf assured me from behind the merchandise table, “but I was just messing around that night and the title came to me from out of nowhere. Sort of ‘the city of blue refuge’ kind of thing.” why? is still at the beginning of his tour, having played Seattle and Portland before Salt Lake City, but called Salt Lake City “the best crowd.” After the show, Josiah Wolf said the band would definitely play here again. When that time comes, let's make the audience a little more than sparse, shall we?
jordan@red-mag.com