Austin In Austin

Thurston Moore: Interview

2007-02-06T16:54:00.000-08:00

This guy needs no introduction. Seriously. All you need to know is that this interview eventually became a feature on his label, Ecstatic Peace, which you can find linked from a couple fo months back. Enjoy.

Austin in Austin: As detailed in the book Our Band Could Be Your Life, Sonic Youth and yourself in particular, were so instrumental in bringing attention to these young indie rock bands and essentially creating the Seattle boom. How would you relate what you did during that time with what you’re doing now through Ecstatic Peace!?

Thurston Moore: I’ve had Ecstatic Peace since 1982 or something. For me, it was never a label where I was trying to support or generate any kind of scene. It was basically just my desire to document music that I thought was interesting that wasn’t getting documented. Usually when I do a record by a band, I hardly ever do a follow-up record with the band because they usually get picked up by other labels. For me, that’s the success of it anyways – creating some sort of profile for a band that gets other people interested. It doesn’t happen all of the time, but generally I like to kind of move on to something else. Right now we’re become more professional now that we’re going through Universal. I have to have contracts with bands, giving me the option of having 2-3 record deals for these bands which is kind of weird. I think the band looks at that and is like ‘great, we’re going to do two or three records.’ Well, not necessarily, you never know. This is all kind of new for us to do it in this fashion.

AIA: Ecstatic Peace seems to take on so many projects, especially in the last year that it’s difficult to even keep up with how much it’s done.
TM: Well, yeah. The commitment to different records takes place on different levels. For some records, I’ve had the master tapes for the last five or six years, that sort of thing. The record label to me was something that I did as a vanity label.

AIA: Even so, if you’ve been running Ecstatic Peace since 1982, why is just now beginning to make a name for itself in terms of national noteriety?
TM: Because I did a deal with a major label to utilize their distribution as an independent. I was getting a lot of music sent to me that really warrented some kind of place in the sort of retail scene of independent rock. Stuff that’s not so challenging as most of the stuff I like to normally deal with, just great rock ‘n’ roll records like Black Helicopter’s new record, Awesome Color’s record, those records I thought could really work in that sort of situation. I wanted to sort of start building some capitol to start investing and promoting these bands a bit further instead of me just handing it out to whoever. I’ve never really done much press beside putting a little ad in the back of Wire Magazine or something like that. It’s a fine line. I want the label to be a successful forum for bands like that, and hopefully it can be something that leads the label into other ventures.

I’m into exploding the whole notion of what a record label is. Especially now today with digital media and ability to do things on the internet with visual media. I’m really interested in pursuing more of that and doing some more book publishing. I want to get more of a literary leg up so to speak. But it’s all in due time. I’ve always taken baby steps in my approach to the label and now, after meeting with all of these corporations and people in the record industry to see if anyone would want to invest in Ecstatic Peace- basically investing in me ‘cause they know me from Sonic Youth which has enough of a profile for them to warrant getting involved- that was kind of a big deal.

AIA: How does that deal work? Do you have to reach an agreement as to which bands are going to be released on or through Universal?
TM: Basically there’s three levels. With Be Your Own Pet it was essentially a joint venture with Universal, where the record goes through the Universal distribution system. Bands like Awesome Color and Black Helicopter, we sort of signed them to a pretty modest deal. We put there records exclusively through Fontana Distribution which is a distribution outfit spearheaded by Universal that’s a concentration fo independent labels distributed through them. It’s a pretty active distribution network. And then for a lot of the records that we do, that we’ve done, which is music that really doesn’t stand a chance of selling more than a couple of thousand copies at the most, some of the more experimental stuff, the more noisey stuff. Anything that we do under 1500 copies we either sell ourselves or sell to smaller distributors.

I’m able to release records on any level and that’s really exciting for me. I’ve always tried to put out records that were contemporary in the sense that in my opinion they were what was interesting happening primarily in the underground. Even Be Your Own Pet, with all of the hype and buzz they got in the press, I still sort of saw them as this band that was just bustling around in the Nashville underground. They were playing a decidedly, more challenging faction of garage rock where they were being informed by things that were outside the steer of the typical garage rock genre. Thigs that were much more avant-garde. But I never really thought about them as some big time band that I should try and put out on Ecstatic Peace. I thought that it would be a great thing to be a part of now that I had this new relationshi with Universal. It really made sense to me plus I really liked them. I couldn’t have put their record out any other way because they kind of demanded and commanded more attention that I was able to offer.

What I’m trying to do with Ecstatic Peace is blur the distinction between a band like Be Your Own Pet and more experimental music like Dead Machines, Wolf Eyes, or Hair Police. These bands that are sort of more radical, underground experimental noise bands and stuff like that or even quieter, somber music. We’re putting out a record by Matt Valentine and Erika Elder, MV + EE with the Bummer Road, which is a really amazing record when it comes out because for me it’s the most significant release in terms of what people are looking at as this new freak-folk genre or whatever. Matt Valentine is kind of a flashpoint for that scene and in a way that’s not really known that much in the media. It seems like the media has really latched on to the most identifiable proponents of it. So I’m really excited to put this record out.

AIA: Do you fear at all that some of your bands on Ecstatic Peace may be a little bit weary or regretful about their association with a major label?
TM: There’s something not very cool about being on a label with an association to a major label. That record industry shouldn’t be any different than any other industry that has a workforce. I refuse to unassociate myself with a major label just because people have a history of getting ripped off by them. I never took too much credence in that. It’s usually a much more complicated situation than saying major labels rip people off. You have to know what you’re getting into and know enough about it that you conduct your business in a manner that has some sort of knowledge and ethics to it. I’m not going to blame the record industry for crimes of the past, because the record industry is always made up of industry and the maverick of that pedigree used to go through generational changes, but these days it sort of goes through annual changes. It completely turns into a new face annually and gets more and more hectic to the point where the whole industry is in a state of transition to some whole other new paradigm. It’s a complete shadow of what it was in reality, even ten yers ago. For someone to say that have a problem with a major label, it’s like, based on what? Based on an apparatus that doesn’t exist anymore? I understand the politics of it certainly and it can be a fearsome situation certainly. When we decided to sign to a major label, our whole thing was just being very aware of what we were going into and what was going on with accounting. We were always very aware and very cautious of where money was getting spent and who’s money was getting spent. You can read these nightmare tracks of ex-rock ‘n’ rollers writing books about not knowing what was going on, but that’s there own fault. You have to be cautious, but that’s the same way you have to be in any industry you work in. For me, people being able to advacne in any industry, is the nature of the workforce. I don’t seeing people getting promoted in other industries being called sell-outs; that’s specific to the record industry. I think it’s a bunch of bunk.

AIA: How much of your Ecstatic Peace can you trace back to your success with Sonic Youth and your successful transition to a major label?
TM: It’s due almost entirely to the success of Sonic Youth and whatever sort of profile I have in the mainstream, how ever far that extends. It allows me to be able to walk into a Universal Records and say I’ve done this sort of bedroom label since 1982 and I’d like to take it another label and have them be interested. It’s all due to whatever I’ve established as an artist. I could never have done it otherwise. Historically, vanity labels that get involved with major labels go belly up. I know that going in there. We’re very modest in our finances. The day of a major label giving a label like Matador a few million days as collateral to work with is over. It’s over. Unless you’re a hip-hop label that’s a genre of music that still sells millions of records. There’s only a handul indie rock bands that have sold millions of records in the past few years. Even a band like The Flaming Lips, they’re doing pretty well, but there not doing teenage-emo well.

AIA: Was there a single event that made you want to take Ecstatic Peace to the next level?
TM: That’s a good question. The only thing I can think of is putting a band like Black Helicopter into my CD player kind of unexpectedly, and hearing this raocous rock ‘n’ roll music that every Joe in America could dig so I want to give them access to every Joe in America. That’s what gave me the passion to do it in a way.

Ecstatic Peace has always been viewed as a pretty radical label and I thought, what could be more radical than putting it in a commercial context without deradicalizing the content that much.

AIA: That’s an interesting way to put it. I know a lot of music gets sent to you but I know you also discover music like Be Your Own Pet, on your own. How do you go about finding new music?
TM: I’m insane. There’s a whole community of avant-garde cassette labels, not just here in America but around the world, and I confer with all of them. I constantly purchase anything they do on cassette. I'm interested in the different disciplines and strains that continue and develop.I draw the line on the CD-Rs, I just can’t afford it. That’s even more insane than my own insanity, but what I’ve noticed is that when I do order cassettes people throw in CDs anyways which is kind of nice.

I’ve always been really into archiving. I’ve always been a book collector, a record collector. For me, it’s an archivisit’s obsession in a way. But I’m also really interested in the different sort of disciplines and strains that continue and develop as underpinnings to whatever is happening in the mainstream music scene. For my money, what’s going on in the underground of music right now is far more broad nd wide and interesting, than it’s ever been. It’s just amazing. It has it’s own mainstream in a way that’s completely subterranian to the other mainstream. It’s this whole other world. In a way, that’s what Sonic Youth came out of and we never really had an ambition to leave it either, so we never have.

AIA: How does something like the Notekillers album relate to you as an archivist?
TM: The Notekillers are specific to me as an archivist cause they are a band that released a seven-inch in 1978 that to me, was one of the most iteresting records of that eras. It’s one of many, but to find out that this band had other recordings at the time, I was only too happy to collect every bit of it to put out. It took a long time; it took years for me to put that record out. To me, it’s like nothing’s fast enough. The whole industry of archiving releases is so huge right now. There’s labels that are specific to putting out lost psychadelic records or whatever. That’s a current phenomenon, though it’s been going on for many years. It’s gotten to the point where people are able to just put out some lost acetape of some acid folk band from Buffalo, NY in 1967 that only had one recording from a radio station or something like that but it’s an amazing document of the era. The label will put it out, track down the band, interview them and put out this little package. For me as an archivist, it’s a wonderful thing, but it’s such a marginal factor in the whole world of music. Yet it continues to thrive. You can really thrive in little ways, but a lot of little ways, which makes one big thing. Ecstatic Peace has been like that we’ve put out a lot some really arcane relases where it creates one whole that is really big in peoples’ minds. There’s very few people out there that own ever Ecstatic Peace release out there that sees the label for what it is. It’s just Thurston or whatever, it’s an extension of him as an archivist of him as an archivist and a musician.

AIA: How is it possible for someone to really break into the underground scene when there’s so much out there that you don’t really know where to begin?
TM: You can’t buy into it. It’s like punk rock; you either are of the mind or you’re not. You have to devote yourself to it in a way. You can be a part-time punk. There’s a lot of bullshit detection that goes on in that scene, you get called out pretty quick.

AIA: Now that you’re signing bands to multiple album deals, do you feel like you’re becoming more of a mentor to these bands than just an archivist?
TM: We have to have paper on these bands. I don’t think that’s going to have to much affect on the type of music we’re putting out. Next year we’re putting out a Lee Ronaldo record, I’m doing a record. We have a couple of things on deck that we’re really hoping to get things going with that I can’t really mention yet. It’s weird so our first big summer out, which is a pretty shitty time to do it, we put out three records by artists that nobody had ever heard of before. In a way, the activity that we’ve had this first year, it’s sort of necessary to figure out what exactly we’re doing and what we want to do. It’s still a learning process where we figure out what we want to do.

Weird little things influence me in terms of how a record label can exist. I read something Dylan said the other day about downloading, where he said basically ‘Why shouldn’t people download it? The music’s not worth a damn anyways.’ He wasn’t talking about the quality of the music; he was talking about the format that they’re getting when they download it. It’s this squashed mp3 crappola. We spent how many decades developing stereophonic sound into this wonderful thing to completely decimate it. It’s gone, it’s completely fucking gone. It’s turned into this bullshit medium of iPods. Which for the sake of convenience is a wonder, but it sounds like HELL. Every audio engineer out there worth a grain of salt is in misery because it’s a travesty. But, people don’t care. It’s like politics, you can look at what’s going on, see how bad things are and in general, people are going to look away. They accept authority deliverance.

AIA: What can you tell me about the solo record you hope to put out through Ecstatic Peace?
TM: I’ve been trying to put out a solo record ever since I did one in the 90s, and usually what happens is that a lot of the material I have I transmute it into new Sonic Youth stuff. This allows me to do it in a way that’s good.

AIA: Anything that’s going to surprise some people?
TM: I don’t know. Like the Sonic Youth records I’m just going to let it take shape. I don’t want to preconceive too much of what it is; I don’t have the time to preconceive it. Although it’s so formulated in my psyche in a sense, that I’ll be curious to see how it manifests. It’s like making a sandwich.

All My Love: C-Side Records Feature

2007-02-06T16:52:00.000-08:00

Chris Gregory isn't uniquely blessed with the iconoclastic golden locks and hedonistic wail of Robert Plant nor the guitar-god gifts of Jimmy Page. He enters Ruta Maya's full-moon Led Zeppelin Hoot as a mere mortal and Austinite, a humble middle-school science teacher who aims to please.

The Golden Bear lead singer's meek appearance is heightened by his tucked-in flannel shirt, grandfatherly glasses, winter scarf, and black beanie perched high atop his head. He seems almost lost or, at the very least, dazed and confused, as the Almost Is tears into Physical Graffiti.

"I was under the impression they'd supply us with instruments," worries Gregory. "We've never done one of these before and didn't really know what to expect. All we brought was a keyboard."

Thankfully, Golden Bear always travels in packs. The back corner of the South Congress coffeehouse resembles the band's family reunion, as brothers, sisters, and wives congregate with, among many others, Colby Pennington and Thom Marshall, who perform with the five members of Golden Bear in its sisterly local collective, the Channel. Finding strength in their numbers and borrowing gear from Tia Carrera and Just Guns, the ursine quintet takes the stage slowly and unsurely.

It isn't until keyboardist Matt Gardiner issues the euphonious opening to "All My Love," backed by Andy McAllister's thunderous beat, that the other half of Gregory emerges – the side that waits patiently for this moment. His brown loafers begin to shuffle, his hands start twitching, and his voice trembles as he sings Plant's words, earnestly and sincerely, without any sense of irony or sexual pretense.

Yours is the cloth, mine is the hand that sews time.
His is the force that lies within.
Ours is the fire, all the warmth we can find.
He is a feather in the wind.
All of my love, all of my love, all of my love to you.

Transcendence comes during the breakdown. With a single swoop of his guitar, Gregory finally mounts the stairway, releasing all anxiety and self-consciousness. Now resembling a gawky combination of Pete Townshend, James Brown, and Elvis, he does the robot and a few windmill strums in a matter of seconds; his beanie falls to the floor in the process. He clicks his heels like Dorothy as his face lights up with ecstatic joy.

This is his victory, revenge of the nerds, his second in the sun, which most people spend their entire lives chasing. The warmth and positive energy he exudes illuminates everyone around him, including his faithful bandmates and friends.

"The experience is almost out-of-body for me," Gregory says later. "Afterward it feels like this weird dream that happened, but I'm left totally exhausted and drained. I don't think I've been blessed in terms of ability, but I have been with my perseverance and determination.
"It's using the gifts that you have that matters. At that moment I'm realizing all of my aspirations."

Continued

Update

2007-02-06T16:25:00.000-08:00

Sorry I've done such a terrible job of keeping up with things here. I took a short leave of absence over the Christmas Break, then never really checked back in. Listed below are all of the links to the articles I've written in the mean time. Hope you enjoy them.

Also, I will no longer be posting my playlists as I've split my Monday morning show (7-9 am) into two separate shows. The first is my regular free form hour, renamed "All Things Go," and the second I know share with Doug Freeman. It's called "The Austin Sound," after the website Doug started to showcase all of the local talent here. We play only up-and-coming artists from the area and have weekly guests as well. Last week we had Bill Baird of Sound Team, and this Monday we'll have the fine folks from Zykos in. The point is that the playlist as well as in studio photos for each week can be found at www.austinsound.net.

Lastly, I've started a metal blog, "Into the Void," with the Austin Chronicle. The first entry, an interview with the Sword, was published last week.

For the Austin Chronicle:
Hug
Ghostland Observatory
Led Zeppelin Hoot
The Alice Rose
P.O.D.
Nickel Creek
Metallica
Iron Maiden
The Who
Johnny Cash
Roy Orbison
Neil Young & Crazy Horse

For the Dallas Observer:
This Will Destroy You
A Hawk and a Hacksaw
T.I.
Red Hot Chili Peppers, Gnarls Barkley
Red Monroe, New Frontiers, Quiet Company, Manchester Orchestra
Austin Powell's Top 10 Local Albums of 2006
Reverend Horton Heat

Polyphonic Spree: Feature

2007-02-06T16:18:00.000-08:00

The revolution was not televised, nor was it sold at the local record shop. Colorful chamber-pop collective the Polyphonic Spree instead digitally released one of the best albums of the year, the five-song EP Wait.

Bookended by two songs from the group's forthcoming full-length, A Fragile Army, which is tentatively set for release in late spring and features production by the Paper Chase's John Congleton, "Mental Cabaret" and "I'm Calling" both reveal the angelic noise brigade's struggle to find strength in its numbers and power through its passive resistance. The songs evoke an overwhelming sense of urgency—anthemic, powerful and sincere. With joined hands and matching uniforms, the 20-plus member band dances with faith and marches to its own beat against the black parade.

"You'd have to live with your head in the sand to not be affected by what's going on, especially if you're an artist or a songwriter," Spree front man and maestro Tim DeLaughter says. "This is our way of fighting back."

Read the rest of the article on here.

John Brannon: Interview

2006-12-07T02:13:00.000-08:00

Ready to Fight: A chat with Negative Approach's John Brannon (originally published in the Austin Chronicle on Dec. 1.

Negative Approach's career, like its nine-second manic meltdown "Pressure," hit hard and fast and ended before it really had the chance to begin. The seminal Detroit-bred hardcore band, led by John Brannon, who went on to form Laughing Hyenas and Easy Action, released only a fistful of songs before disbanding during its Tied Down tour in 1983, just one week before a planned three-city run of Texas with the Big Boys. Like Scratch Acid, NA recently reformed for Touch & Go Records' 25th Anniversary, spurring a series of one-off gigs. The Chronicle tracked down Brannon to see what it's like tapping into his 19-year-old self.

To read the rest of the review click here

Sublime: Album Review

2006-12-07T02:11:00.000-08:00

Sublime - Everything Under the Sun

John Lee Hooker - Hooker

The Story of AC/DC: Let There Be Rock

Black Keys: Feature

2006-12-07T02:02:00.000-08:00

Dan Auerbach may or may not have made a deal with the devil at the crossroads, but the Black Keys' singer did venture to the Promised Land, the muddy banks of the Mississippi, to hone his signature guitar tone. His journey to R.L. Burnside's "Bad Luck City," the Delta region responsible for the electric blues Auerbach lovingly refers to as "the good stuff," began while he was briefly enrolled at University of Akron in Ohio.

"When I went to college, I just kind of fell into the blues and became obsessed with it," Auerbach says during a recent drive through Indiana as part of the band's current tour with Dr. Dog, which reaches the Granada Theater on Friday. "I was digging as deep as I could trying to find stuff that I liked, because there's lots of bad blues music out there. You have to weed through it."

Auerbach credits one artist in particular, Junior Kimbrough, for changing the way he listened to and thought about music. "I remember at that point in time I thought it was the best music ever recorded," Auerbach says. "I just stopped going to class altogether and would just sit in my room and listen to his records."

To read the rest of this article on the Black Keys click here:

Playlist: 27 Nov. 2006

2006-12-07T01:52:00.000-08:00

The Octopus Project "All of the Champs" (One Ten Hundred Thousand Million, on Peek-A-Boo) Canned Heat "Skat" (Instrumentals 1967-1996, on Ruf)
Easy Star All-Stars and Toots and the Maytals "Let Down" (Radiodread, on Easy Star)
A Hawk and a Hacksaw "Waltz for Strings and Tuba" (The Way the Wind Blows, on The Leaf)
Peter and the Wolf "Safe Travels" (Lightness, on The Worker's Institute)
The Channel "Wages of Death" (Sibylline Machine, on C-Side)
The Skygreen Leopards "Sally Orchid" (Disciples of California, on Secretly Canadian)
Norfolk and Western "The Longest Stare" (The Unsung Colony, on Hush)
Brothers and Sisters "New Life" (Brothers and Sisters, on The Calla Lily Company)
Summer Hymns "Start Swimming" (Backward Masks, on Misra)
The Lovely Sparrows "The War has Seen the Best of Me" (Pulling Up Floors, Pouring on (New) Paint, on Abandoned Love)
Gob Iron "Instrumental #4" (Death Songs for the Living, on Transmit Sound)
Amandine "Sparrow" (Leave Out the Sad Parts EP, on Fat Cat)
Grizzly Bear "Knife" (Yellow House, on Warp)
Isis "Holy Tears" (In the Absence of Truth, on Ipecac)
Big Business "Focus Pocis" (Head for the Shallow, on Hydra Head)
Kyuss "Thumb" (Blues From the Red Sun, on Dali)
Black Mountain "Don't Run Your Heart Around" (Black Mountain, on Secretly Canadian)
Karminsky Experience "Exploration (Medeski, Martin and Wood Mix)" (ESL Remixed, on ESL)
DJ Shadow "Artifact" (The Outsider, on Universal Motown)
Negative Approach "Fair Warning" (Total Recall, on Touch and Go)
Explosions in the Sky "Remember Me as a Time of Day" (Local Live Vol. 4 Refurbished Robots, on KVRX)
Sparklehorse "See the Light" (Dreamt for Light years in the Belly of a Mountain, on Capitol)
Chris Joss "Waves of Love" (You've Been Spiked, on Eighteenth Street Lounge Music)
Ratatat "Seventeen Years" (Live at KVRX, on KVRX)
Operator "Paper" (Operator, on Self-Released)
Faceless Warewolves "Short Term Memory" (Medium Freaky, on Super Secret)
The Decemberists "Sons and Daughters" (The Crane Wife, on Capitol)

Tia Carrera: Feature

2006-12-07T01:48:00.000-08:00

There are dimensions of the mind that only music and a handful of pills can unlock: the dark side of the moon, an octopus' garden in the shade, a stairway to heaven. One improvised jam at a time, Austin metal trio Tia Carrera follows its muse into a surrealistic terrain where each chord progression represents another possible path. Yet it's not about the destination but rather a bleeding of the colors – the spontaneity and creativity aroused in this portal of the moment.

"The experience lets your mind wander," ventures the group's guitarist, Jason Morales. "It doesn't give you a lot to grasp on to, so you have to create your own meaning."

And it's not hit or miss. Instead, each member hits it twice, passes it to the left, returns to the tonic, drags on the root, and unleashes "Morales Riff No. Four Hundred Twenty." As many a local hoot night has proven, from the Who to the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, the trio also has an uncanny ability to reinterpret the past, exploring the voids left in the wake of rock & roll's forefathers.

Behold Tia's telepathic trinity, then. Bassist Andrew Duplantis has backed everyone from Son Volt and Jon Dee Graham to the Meat Puppets and Bob Mould, while his rootsy venture with the Unfaithfuls continues to leave audiences Colorblind. Erik Conn, who also handles the sticks for Those Peabodys and Migas (with Morales), is the centrical force driving Carrera. Morales, meanwhile, like J Mascis before him, is a drummer turned guitar god who specializes in psychedelic sludge.

In the wake of Tia Carrera's new self-titled disc on Australian Cattle God, seven jams recorded at Cacophony Recorders and the Launch Pad over the past two years, and the group's return from the CMJ Music Marathon in New York City, the Chronicle engaged Morales in an e-mail dialogue about an album that influenced the band's sessions. His choice? The Melvins' copyright-infringing, 1991 classic, Lysol, subsequently re-released as The Melvins. The epic, one song, six-part album practically birthed stoner and drone metal in a mere 30 minutes. It remains, arguably, the band's heaviest work to date.

In retrospect, the connection is obvious. For one, there's Morales' thick black 'fro, which recalls the Melvins' King Buzzo. Then there's the lone Native American warrior basking in the sun on the cover of Lysol, his remains resurrected 15 years later for Tia Carrera's artwork. Perhaps it's the "Second Coming" Lysol once prophesied. Oh yeah, and then there's the shared obsession with "Tone, Levels, and THC." Let it burn.

To read the interview, which published in the Austin Chronicle on December 1, click here.

Playlist: 20 Nov. 2006

2006-11-26T20:01:00.000-08:00

Sound Team "The Fastest Man Alive" (Work EP, on Big Orange 003)
Pompeii "Ten Hundred Lights" (Assembly, on Eyeball Records)
Isis "Wrists of Kings" (In the Absence of Truth, on Ipecac)
Los Amigos Invisibles "A Una Mujer" (Superpop Venezuela, on Gozadera)
Sufjan Stevens "Get Behind me Satan" (Songs for Christmas, on Asthmatic Kitty)
Joanna Newsom "Sawdust and Diamonds" (Ys, on Drag City)
Califone "Pink and Sour" (Roots and Crowns, on Thrill Jockey)
Gob Iron "Instrumental #8" (Death Songs for the Living, on Transmit Sound)
Gob Iron "Little Girl and the Dreadful Snake" (Death Songs for the Living, on Transmit Sound)
Micah P Hinson "The Leading Guy" (The Baby and the Satellite, on Jade Tree)
Matt Pond PA "Halloween" (Several Arrows Later, on Altitude)
Band of Horses "Funeral" (Everything All the Time, on Sub Pop)
Black Heart Procession "The Letter" (The Spell, on Touch and Go)
The Hold Steady "First Night" (Boys and Girls in America, on Vagrant)
Beach House "Saltwater" (Beach House, on Carpark)
Excepter "The Rock Stepper" (Alternation, on 5RC)
The Black Neon "Ode to Immer Wieder" (Arts and Crafts, on Memphis Industries)
Operator "Human Company" (Operator, Self-released)
Robert Pollard "Supernatural Car Lover" (Normal Happiness, on Merge)
Mission of Burma "Spider's Web" (The Obliterati, on Matador)
Sonic Youth "Rats" (Rather Ripped, on Geffen)
Ratatat "Germany to Germany" (Live at KVRX, on KVRX)
Chavez "New Room" (Better Days Will Haunt You, on Matador)
The Walkmen "Before You Leave" (Pussy Cats, on Record Collection)
The Dears "Hate Then Love" (Gang of Losers, on Arts and Crafts)

Black Helicopter: Interview

2006-11-26T19:44:00.000-08:00

There’s a little motto I’ve adapted ever since digging knee deep into Ecstatic Peace Records and Tapes: If it’s good enough for Thurston Moore, it’s good enough for me.

Enter Black Helicopter, the label’s latest who released perhaps the most underappreciated rock ‘n’ roll album of 2006, Invisible Jet. I recently spoke to lead singer and guitarist Tim Shea about his shitty day job and his ties to Mission of Burma.

Austin in Austin: How did you transform from Green Magnet School into Black Helicopter?
Tim Shea: After the last tour we had a lot of personnel changes and the music just started changing. After a couple of years we decided it was something else entirely.

AIA: How did you originally cross paths with Mission of Burma?
TS: We got word that Mission of Burma was going to be doing some shows and our guitar player Jeff decided that he wanted to shoot a documentary about it. Somehow he got a hold of them and pitched them the idea. In the meantime, they needed a rehearsal space and they really didn’t have any gear so we lent them our gear and our space and got to know them threw that. We were all there for a lot of the filming, and went to the first batch of shows. We got to know them pretty well over the course of that time.

AIA: Where is your practice space?
TS: At that time we were underneath a real estate building in Boston. We’ve since moved but we still share a space and some gear with them.

AIA: How is it that Mission of Burma doesn’t have their own gear?
TS: They do now. Roger’s amp, I don’t think he owns his amp. He sold it years ago and now the original one is kind of on a permanent loan back to him. For those first few shows back they used by cabinet and Jeff’s Marshall head. Clint still doesn’t have his own bass rig; he uses ours and Peter’s on his third drum set. He’s been on a gear buying frenzy. He’s got three kits at our rehearsal space and it’s cluttering up the damn thing. He should sell one of them, or take it home or something.

AIA: Tell me then how about you ended up coming in contact with Ecstatic Peace.
TS: Our whole association with Mission of Burma hasn’t hurt us in the least. We did a show with them at the Iron Horse near where Thurston lives and he saw us there. It just seems like he’s such a fan of music that when he’s sees a band he likes he just puts out their music. We actually finished our album over a year ago, and they postponed it for the Universal deal.

AIA: What do you think of the Universal distribution deal?
TS: That’s really the best part, being able to type our name in on Google and see it for sale everywhere. Our first album we put out with Tractor Seven, they did their best to promote it, but they didn’t really have distribution. This way it’s at least out there. I’ve been playing music for years and haven’t really made any money yet so that doesn’t really even matter.

AIA: Tell me about the writing process for Invisible Jet.
TS: It was recorded over about a year and a half, two-inch 24 track analog gear. Some were done on a 16-track in our old space. It was all done really casually.

AIA: How does some of that equipment influence the heaviness of the new record?
TS: During this whole period I was recording other bands and that helped out a lot. They didn’t sound anything like us, but it was all a learning experience. There’s mistakes on it and quarks, but I’m pretty happy with it. The studio gave us the time. If we couldn’t have demoed as much as we did some of it would have been forgotten. It just allowed us to continually develop it all.

It’s all about laying down a good groove and doing something intelligent over it. We’re trying to be heavy without just turning the amps all the way up and blasting you over the head with it.

AIA: Black Helicopter hasn’t toured much to date? Are you looking to get out more in future?
TS: We’re older guys; we’ve all got jobs. It’s not as easy when you’re young and you’ve got some crappy convenient store job, but yeah, of course. We’ll see how it all works it out.

Playlist: 13 Nov. 2006

2006-11-24T20:09:00.000-08:00

Goatwhore "Wear These Scars of Testimony" (A Haunting Curse, on Metal Blade)
Red Sparowes "Untitled 1" (Every Red Heart Sunes Toward the Sun, on Neurot)
The Notekillers "The Zipper" (The Notekillers (1977-1981), on Ecstatic Peace)
SunnO))) and Boris "Akuma No Kuma" (Altar, on Southern Lord)
This Heat "S.P.Q.R." (Deceit, on Rough Trade)
Sounds From the Fround "Rotorblade" (High Rising, on Waveform)
The Knife "We Share our Mother's Health" (Silent Shout, on Brille)
Sol.illaquist of Sound "Property and Malt Liquor" (As If We Existed, on Anti)
Sage Francis "Escape Artist" (A Healthy Distrust, on Anti)
Johnny "Guitar" Watson "Chill Me Out" (And the Family Clone, on Shout! Factory)
Joe Doucet "Got you on My" (Houston's Third Wave Blues, on Dialtone)
Lambchop "Paperback Bible" (Damaged, on Merge)
Micah P. Hinson "Jackeyed" (Micah P. Hinson and the Opera Circuit, on Jade Tree)
Bonnie Prince Billy "Big Friday" (The Letting Go, on Drag City)
The Decemberists "The Crane Wife" (The Crane Wife, on Captiol)
Rufus Wainwright "April Fools" (Rufus Wainwright, on Dreamworks)
Antony and the Johnsons "Hope There's Someone" (I Am a Bird Now, on Secretly Canadian)
Sufjan Stevens "The Transfiguration" (Seven Swans, on Sounds Familre)
The Album Leaf "The Light" (Into the Blue Again, on Sub Pop)
Easy Star All-Stars featuring Horace Andy "Airbag" (Radiohead, on Easy Star All Stars)
Mastodon "Blood and Thunder" (Leviathon, on Reprise)
Buffalo Killers "San Martine Des Morelle" (Buffalo Killers, on Alive Records)
When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth "The Triumphant Spirit of the Olympics" (Snacks, on Heavy Like Philosphy)
Superchunk "Driveway to Driveway" (Foolish, on Merge)
Talk Talk "Ascension Day" (Laughing Stock, on Polydor)

Metallurgy: Album Reviews

2006-11-24T20:03:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since I've posted the links to my album reviews. Here's a whole slew of them.

Metallurgy

Gorch Fock

The Black Keys

... And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead

Voxtrot

Spin.com: Shout-out

2006-11-24T20:01:00.000-08:00

Spin.com covered the Austin Sound / KVRX benefit show down at Emo's with Golden Bear, The Channel, and Operator. Here's the link:

http://www.spin.com/features/ithappenedlastnight/2006/11/061107_austinsound/

Playlist: 6 Nov. 2006

2006-11-24T19:37:00.000-08:00

This was a special all-Austin show that previewed that night's benefit show at Emo's with Operator, The Channel, and Golden Bear, that latter of which was called in for an on-air interview but to no avail.

The Sword "Iron Swan" (Age of Winters, on Kemado)
Lions "Metal Heavy Lady" (Volume One, on Self-Released)
Gorch Fock "Megumi Miyazato" (Thrilller, on Australian Cattle God)
The Black Angels "The First Vietnamese War" (Passover, on Light in the Attic)
Ghostwriter "Sailing" (Darkest Hour, on End of the West)
Scott H. Biram "Truckdriver" (Live at KVRX, on KVRX)
Texas Southside Kings "Leo's Shuffle #2" (Texas Blues, on Dialtone)
Wayne Hancock "Aint Gonna Worry No More" (Tulsa, on Bloodshot)
Leatherbag "Tennessee" (Love Me Like the Devil, on Superpop) :
Kinky Friedman "The Ballad of Charles Whitman" (Last of the Jewish Cowboys, on Shout! Factory)
The Black "Cell Block" (Tanglewood)
Operator "The Frenetic Fit" (Operator, on Mega Heavy)
The Channel "Sibyllne Machine" (Sibyllne Machine, on C-Side Records) :
Golden Bear "A Reason to be Proud" (Golden Bear, on C-Side Records)
Golden Bear "Santa Rosa" (Golden Bear, on C-side Records)
Golden Bear "Silent Prayer" (Golden Bear, on C-Side Records)
Voxtrot "Your Biggest Fan" (Your Biggest Fan EP, on Playlouder)
Tacks, The Boy Disaster "Frozen Feet" (Oh, Beatrice EP, on Self-Released)
Peter and the Wolf "Safe Travels" (Lightness, on Workers Institute)
Shearwater "Seventy-Four, Seventy-Five" (Palo Santo, on Misra)
The Ugly Beats "I'm the One" (Bring on the Beats, on Get Hip)
Faceless Warewolves "Short Term Memory" (Medium Freaky, on Super Secret)
The Lord Henry "Fire on 42 Street" (Zoo Palace, on Self-Released)
The Octopus Project and Black Moth Super Rainbow "Spiracle" (The House of Apples and Eyeballs, on Graveface)
AM Syndicate "Democracy for the World" (Am Syndicate, on Sickroom)
Household Names "Picture in my Head" (Picture in My Head, on Self-Released)
The Lovely Sparrows "Chemicals Change" (Pulling Up Floors, Pouring On (New Paint), on Abandoned Love)
Smog "Bloodflow" (KVRX Volume 10, on KVRX)
Bavu Blakes "Nobody Leavin'" (KVRX Volume 10, on KVRX)

Explosions in the Mind: Feature

2006-11-16T04:53:00.000-08:00

If a tree falls alone in the woods, and it does in fact make a sound, Thurston Moore will track down a rare, cassette-only recording of the event as proof of its existence. For Sonic Youth's six-string scholar, life is music is noise is art is Confusion Is Sex. An aural archaeologist, he obsesses with preservation of the past, the blurring of lines between creation and destruction – the foundation of underground music.

To read the rest of my feature on Ecstatic Peace for the Austin Chronicle click on the links below:

A Universal Plea for Ecstatic Peace!

Be Your Own Pet

Awesome Color

Peace Offering

What Would Joan Jett Do?

2006-11-16T04:38:00.000-08:00

As the following links will reveal, I've been pretty busy lately (resulting in a lag of posts, sorry). Here's everything that's happened lately with the Dallas Observer, including the oddest interview I've conducted to date. You'll know the one.

What Would Joan Jett Do?
Regina Spektor
The Lemonheads
Exene Cervenka
Kris Kristofferson
Kasabian
Pretty Girls Make Graves
My Morning Jacket
Lions

Playlist: 30 Oct. 2006

2006-11-08T19:57:00.000-08:00

Tia Carrera "Carrera!" (TDOVPD, on Australian Cattle God) :: Metal/Hardcore
The Melvins "The Hawk" ((A) Senile Animal, on Ipecac)
The Sword "Burial's Blade" (Age of Winters, on Kemado)
SunnO))) & Boris "N.L.T." (Altar, on Southern Lord)
Tall Firs "Go Whiskey" (Tall Firs, on Ecstatic Peace!)
Silver Jews "Trains Across the Sea" (Starlite Walker, on Drag City)
Lampchop "The Decline of Country and Western Civilization" (Damaged, on Merge)
The Coachmen "A Psychadelic Swirly (Modal Variations on a I, IV, V Progression for Garage Quartet)" (Ten Compositions in Free Rock, on Ecstatic Peace!)
Lee Scratch Perry "Rastafari" (Panic in Babylon, on Narnack)
Thuderbirds are Now "We Win (Ha Ha)" (Make History, on Frenchkiss)
The Rapture "The Devil" (Pieces of the People We Love, on Universal Motown)
Phoenix "If I Ever Feel Better" (United, on Astralwerks)
Ghostland Observatory "Piano Man" (Paparrazi Lighting, on Trashy Moped)
Regina Spektor "Edit" (Begin to Hope, on Sire)
The Ponys "Get Black" (Celebration Castle, on In the Red)
Four Tet "Tics" (Four Tet Remixed, on Domino)
Sol.illaquist of Sound "Mark It Place" (As If We Existed, on Anti)
Subtle "A Tale of Apes I" (For Hero: For Fool, on Lex)
Daniel Johnston "Story of an Artist" (Welcome to My World, on Eternal Yip Eye)
Mountain Goats "The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton" (All Hail West Texas, on 4AD)
George Moore "This Door is a Portal" (Plastic Flowers, on Ecstatic Peace!)
Final Fantasy "He Poos Clouds" (He Poos Clouds, on Tomlab)
Evangelicals "Another Day" (So Gone, on Misra)
Andrew Bird "Fake Palindromes" (Andrew Bird and the Mysterious Production of Eggs, on Righteous Babe)
The Lovely Sparrows "The War Has Seen the Best of Me" (Pulling Up Floors, Pouring on (New) Paint, on Abandoned Love)
Chin Up Chin Up "We've Got To Keep Running" (This Harness Can't Ride Anything, on Suicide Squeeze)
Chap VanGaalen "Dead Ends" (Skilliconnection, on Sub Pop)
The Decemberists "The Perfect Crime #2" (The Crane Wife, on Capitol)

Robert Randolph: Interview

2006-10-25T10:02:00.000-07:00

Robert Randolph has only gotten high once. He mistakenly ate one of Gov’t Mule’s potent brownies before a show. At the Bonnaroo Music Festival, he demonstrated its effects, collapsing to the ground and convulsing his legs until his signature wide-brimmed hat fell to the floor.

For Randolph, music is the ultimate high. With his sacred pedal steel guitar in tow, he seamlessly blends genres – from funk and gospel to rock ‘n’ roll - unifying their associated histories and followers through an uplifting and spiritual songs.

I recently spoke to Randolph about his numerous collaborations for his latest album, Colorblind.

Austin in Austin: Obviously there’s more of an emphasis on song structure and capturing the energy of your live performances on the new record. What’s the most difficult aspect of doing that for you?
Robert Randolph: The only thing that was difficult at first was learning how to work with other people. Only the really great musicians can adapt to other people. I really had the chance to learn from Eric Clapton and Carlos Santana and so many different people, Dave Matthews. You got to get used to learning from people who’ve been around longer than you. There’s this thing Clapton was telling me: Everybody thinks that they’re good enough, but until someone has the balls to come around and tell you that you can be better, you can’t really take it to the next level. These musical pioneers were helping me become the best musician that I can be. I’m learning to put the guitar around the song to build choruses. If you look at Hendrix, who to me is the best guy at doing it, he’s the greatest guitar player of all-time and he’s written some of the greatest songs as well. People are still trying to take from him.

For me, this whole writing process was a learning experience. I don’t know if I was ever really done recording the record. It was newfound thing for me to pull so much more out what we were already doing. We wrote about 40 songs, recorded maybe 20 of them, but there’s just that constant energy to it that’s easier now. A conversation I had with Steven Tyler, for instance, helped influence the first song, “Ain’t Nothin Wrong with That.” It was us just us talking about music and listening to some older rock bands, stuff that influenced him, that produced that song. You wouldn’t guess it though. There’s a huge party vibe, but it feels rock, if feels fun. Bringing people together, having the guitar up there and a big huge chorus up there, it’s like Sly Stone meets Outkast meets Hendrix meets going to church and bringing everyone together. There “Ain’t Nothing Wrong with That.”

AIA: What exactly was it that Steven Tyler said and what were those records you were listening to?
RR: We were listening to The Pretty Things, a song called “Don’t Bring Me Down,” which I ended up taking with me. It has that same vibe but it was recorded in the ‘60s.

AIA: What was your first experience with Eric Clapton like?
RR: You know the first time, we had just started the European tour and I was sitting in the back of the guitar playing acoustic and he walks in and stands at the end of the room and is like ‘man, what’s going on.’ We just started talking for hours up and until show time. He’s really just a down home guy who loves music. We started talking about our histories and backgrounds and that went on for our whole six months we were on tour together.

AIA: Aside from working with a lot different musicians you brought in a lot of different professional songwriters as well. What was the reasoning there?
RR: It’s all learning. It’s the reason why Michael Jordan has to go to basketball practice. It’s not just about guitar scales or being able to jam live, you learn a different aspect to writing a song. It’s about getting into the headspace and putting things in prospective. Most people don’t have the ability to call up Rob Thomas or Carlos Santana and say I have this idea, what do you think? It’s just a blessing.

AIA: Is the ultimate goal then to get to a place where you can write it all yourself on a future record?
RR: I enjoy working with other people. Unless it’s a total song that the good Lord just gives me, sometimes we just get those gifts, but I would rather sit down and feed off these other people. That’s what makes jamming and recording fun. What happens then is that you get another five ideas from that one session or jam.

AIA: Going back in time a little bit, I can’t help but wonder what those early church services were like with you rocking the “Sacred Steel.”
RR: If you’ve never been, it’s one of the greatest experiences you can even imagine. Going to church anyways is the greatest experience. At the same time, in our church there’s a great tradition of music since the1930s, guys like Calvin Cook, Ted Beard and Henry Nelson. Their style is more joyful than anything else. A lot of people like old gospel music, Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles. All of those people come from that old Baptist/ Pentecostal tradition. Al Green … it’s the ultimate experience. Some of the different ones were given the message and the ability to go out their and share it with the rest of the world. Here I am playing pedal steel, a young African-American; my goal is always to bring joy to people through song and music. Hopefully there will be thousands of people inspired to go out and do the same thing, especially in day in age with all of the young African-Americans wanting to be rappers, want to be kinda from the ghetto and have that kind of anger to where they’re not really trying to influence people to better – it’s just thug life, you know? That’s different from me.

AIA: Because of your notorious live performances, you are a heavily bootlegged artist. Do you have any particular opinion on the matter?
RR: With technology of today, you can be recorded at any given time, just look at YouTube. It’s a different musical time, but that’s one of the things that allow us to out there and do improvisation a lot more. Stevie Wonder used to tell me that the studio used to be like going to the club. You went there and drank, and did whatever drug you were doing, and you’d play music for hours on hours. "Superstition" was probably was about four different jams combined. It’s kind of like that. It pushes me to not do the same thing and actually try new things, unlike some of these low-end rock bands.

Robert Randolph and the Family Band will be performing at Stubb’s on Friday, October 28th.

Decemberists: Recommendation

2006-10-25T10:01:00.000-07:00

I recently published my first articles for the Dallas Observer. Here's a link to the Decemberists preview:
http://www.dallasobserver.com/Issues/2006-10-19/music/preview4.html

Playlist: 23 Oct. 2006

2006-10-25T09:53:00.000-07:00

Octopus Project "Bruise" (One Ten Hundred Thousand Million, on Peek-A-Boo)
The Album Leaf "See You Into the Sea" (Into the Blue Again, on Sub-Pop)
DJ Shadow "Broken Levee Blues" (The Outsider, on UniversalMotown)
Junior Wells "Hoodoo Man" (Blues Hit Big Town, on Delmark)
The Black Keys "Nobody But You" (Chulahoma, on Fat Possum)
My Morning Jacket "It Beats For You" (Okonokos, on ATO)
The Decemberists "The Island" (The Crane Wife, on Capitol)
Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice "Dread Effigy" (Gipsy Freedom, on 5RC)
The Dears "Ticket to Immortality" (Gang of Losers, on Arts and Crafts)
What Made Milwaukee Famous "Selling Yourself Short"(Trying to Never Catch Up, on Barsuk)
TV on the Radio "Hours" (Returm to Cookie Mountain, on Interscope)
Ratatat "Lex" (Classics, on XL)
Russian Circles "Death Rides a Horse" (Enter, onFlameshovel Records)
Isis "1,000 Shards" (In the Absence of Truth, on Ipecac)
The Big Sleep "Murder" (Son of the Tiger, on Frenchkiss)
Weird Weeds "Weird Feelings" (Weird Feelings, on Soundsare Active)
The Paper Chase "We Know Where You Sleep" (Now You Are One Of Us, on Kill Rock Stars)
The Walkmen "All My Life" (The Pussycats, on Record Collection)
Art Brut "Good Weekend" (Bang Bang Rock and Roll, onDowntown)
Yo La Tengo "Black Flowers" (I am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass, on Matador)
Frida Hyvonen "Once I Was a Serene Teenaged Child" (Until Death Comes, on Secretly Canadian)
Portastatic "I'm In Love (with Arthur Dove)" (Be StillPlease, on Merge)
Red Sparowes "Untitled Two" (Every Red Heart ShinesToward the Red Sun, on Neurot)

Rolling Stones: links

2006-10-25T09:49:00.000-07:00

The Stones rolled through Austin this past Sunday night, putting on one of the most incredible live performances I've ever seen.

Here's a link to the review I wrote for The Daily Texan (which means that all of the errors you will find were created by editors themselves):
http://www.dailytexanonline.com/media/storage/paper410/news/2006/10/24/LifeArts/Legendary.Band.Brings.Big.Bang.To.Austin-2383919.shtml?norewrite200610251244&sourcedomain=www.dailytexanonline.com

And here'a a review of Robert Greenfield's new book, Exile on Main Street: A Season in Hell with the Rolling Stones, that I wrote for the Austin Chronicle:
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A412260

Playlist: 16 Oct. 2006

2006-10-25T09:38:00.000-07:00

Monday mornings, 7-9 a.m., on KVRX 91.7 FM Austin, or online at www.kvrx.org

James Figurine "You Again" (Mistake Mistake Mistake Mistake, on PlugResearch)
120 Days "C-Musik" (120 Days, on Vice)
DJ Shadow "Triplicate/ Something Happened That Day" (The Outsider, on Universal Motown)
Weird Weeds "Tupper" (Weird Feelings, on Sounds are Active) :
Tall Firs "Buddy/ Baby" (Tall Firs, on Ecstatic Peace)
Bonnie Prince Billy "The Bad News" (The Letting Go, on Drag CityRecords)
Sparklehorse "Shade and Honey" (Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain, on Capitol)
Micah P Hinson "The Leading Guy" (The Baby and the Satellite, on Jade Tree)
The Lemonheads "Baby's Home" (The Lemonheads, on Vagrant) :
Del Rey "Stemrick" (A Pyramid for the Living, on My Pal God)
Black Helicopter "Warshed Jet" (Invisble Jet, on Ecstatic Peace)
The Black Heart Procession "The Spell" (The Spell, on Touch and Go)
Golden Bear "A Reason to be Proud" (Golden Bear, on C-Side Records) :
Hot Chip "Colours" (The D.F.A. Remixes Vol. 2, on DFA Records)
Prom Nite "The Office" (... Thanks for the Words, on Self-Released)
Faceless Warewolves "Don't Blow It" (Medium Freaky, on Super Secret)
When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth "1-2-3 Pissmop" (Snacks, on Emperor Jones)
The Black Keys "My Mind" (Chulahoma, on Fat Possum)
James Cotton "Baby, Don't You Tear My Clothes" (Baby, Don't You Tear My Clothes, on Telarc)
Hidden Cameras "Wandering" (Awoo, on Arts and Crafts)
The Gothic Archies "Dreary, Dreary" (The Tragic Treasury, on Nonesuch)
TV on the Radio "Wolf Like Me" (Return to Cookie Mountain, on Interscope)
Big Boys "Which Way to Go" (The Fat Elvis, on Touch and Go)
Big Black "Kerosene" (Rich Man's Eight Track, on Touch and Go)
Gorch Fock "One of Five Sisters" (Thrilller, on Australian Cattle God)
Sonic Youth "Do You Believe in Rapture" (Rather Ripped, on Geffen)

Built to Spill: Interview

2006-10-18T23:10:00.000-07:00

Built to Spill’s seventh album and first in nearly five years, You in Reverse is an appropriate reflection of chief songwriter Doug Martsch’s own personal maturation. It’s found in the tone of his guitar, the reverb in his vocals; nothing is polished to perfection. Instead, the indie guitar icon focuses primarily on creating emotional and epic musical passages that build from fundamentally simple conceits to climactic and grandiose gestures, while accepting its own limitations and imperfections.

From his hotel room in Washington D.C., Martsch fielded some questions regarding his solo work, cover band, and life in studio.

Austin In Austin: During that short hiatus for Built to Spill, what was it that influenced some of the more noticeable changes of You in Reverse and how did you know when it was time to begin recording another album?
Doug Martsch: After touring for Ancient Melodies of the Future we were a little burnt out so we took a brief hiatus,” Martsch explained from his hotel in Washington D.C. When we finally got back together it was like we needed to figure out what we wanted to sound like. I’d say the album is an attempt to really define ourselves as a band … who we are now.”

AIA: How did the decision to switch to a quartet come about and as a guitar player, how did that affect the way you wrote the music?
DM: On this record, a lot of different people play guitar. It’s not just Jim and I. Bret Nelson and Steve Lobdell the guy who recorded the record, are both on it a bunch. It’s nice; it’s fun getting to play with different people. I was kind of maybe a little bit worried that we’d step on each other’s toes or something, or there would be enough work to go around, but that wasn’t the case at all. There were a lot of times when someone wouldn’t quite have the feel of something and someone else comes in and nails it. There’s parts where Steve is playing rhythm guitar because the rest of us couldn’t get the feel of it or something.

AIA: Was that collaborative effort similar to the revolving door of musicians idea that you had in the beginning of Build to Spill’s career?
DM: I don’t know. Not really, at least not in my mind. The original idea was a band, just random people getting together to do things. So, I don’t know.

AIA: In the past, Built to Spill spent almost too much time in the studio perfecting each part, and overdubbing your vocals and so forth. What is the feeling you get personally when listening to You In Reverse?
DM: I still haven’t really had a chance to give it that type of listen. You just work on it and it becomes whatever stage you’re in – it’s focused on those things. I think it takes a couple of years before you can really give a record a listen. I listen to it and I think mostly about the mixes, the way things are balanced, the tones, things like that. It’s hard for me to be objective with it. I actually haven’t listened to it in a while. I’m pretty happy with it, I guess.

AIA: What stage would you say you were in for you solo project, Now You Know?
DM: That was actually an awkward time. After we recorded Keep it Like a Secret I wanted to learn how to play the blues, that moody style of guitar. I wanted to play slide, but I didn’t want to figure out other people’s songs; I just wanted to make up my own little licks. That was just sort of a fluke. It was just about exploring another style of songwriting.

AIA: Is that the same kind of purpose the Boise Cover Band served?
DM: That was just something to do. We do cover a couple of reggae songs, but we don’t play reggae at all. Over the years I’ve had different people come over to my studio, jam and hang out, and so I had a group of friends come over to jam. We didn’t feel like improvising one day so we just started doing our spin on some cover songs. I was playing bass and singing. It was just for fun. And again, it was just like why not record it. We never played any shows; that was it. We sell the CD on tour. It’s called Unoriginal Artist. It’s seven-song album.

AIA: What all do you cover on the record?
DM: We do “Ashes to Ashes” by David Bowie, an instrumental version of “Back on the Chain Gang” by the Pretenders, and then everything else is pretty obscure - A Captain Beefheart song, some Middle Eastern song whose name I can’t even pronounce, some other stuff.

AIA: I look forward to checking it out. I found it ironic that there was nothing conventional about “Conventional Wisdom” as a single for a major label. What is your relationship with the Warner Bros. like?
DM: From my point of view, it’s pretty good. We get to do what we want to do; they pretty much let us have complete creative control over the music and everything else. We chose when we tour and where we tour, pretty much everything about what we do. I’m pretty happy about it personally.

AIA: That’s great, it seems rare. I’ve always found it a little difficult to decipher your lyricism, especially on some the tracks on the new album. That slurring effect seems to create a sense of ambiguity and mystery. Is that intentional?
DM: I think that’s just a comfortable way for me to sing. I’m not at all trying to obscure anything. That’s just the way my voice naturally wants to sing. It’s not conscious at all.

AIA: So there’s no tie in to the lack of lyrics in album booklet or online?
DM: I need to do something about that. You used to be able to write to record label after an album’s come out and get the lyrics. My feeling about lyrics is that I don’t mind if you know the words, but I don’t want you to buy the record and sit down and listen to it while reading the lyrics. That’s the reason why they’re not there. I don’t think they work that way, you know.

AIA: From what I could make out, it seems that your lyricism deals a lot with paradoxes, and the turning of common sayings to challenge standard conventions and existing trains of thought. Am I anywhere in the ballpark?
DM: Of course, definitely.

AIA: What then, influences that style of writing for you?
DM: My main thing with lyrics, or even just music, is just to try and avoid a bad thing. Music, just in its nature, is good and interesting, it kind of takes a lot of work to turn it into shit. For lyrics, they can be very vague, but if the music’s real good and they’re not obviously annoying or stupid, then it’ll be fine. As long as it doesn’t get in the way it works. It’s also a lot about the sounds of the words a much as their meaning – how it fits within the music, which vowel or consonant sounds emphasized, alliteration, all of that.

AIA: Would you consider You in Reverse the pinnacle of Built to Spill thus far, or a new beginning?
DM: I don’t think of it as anything like that. It’s just the next record. In a lot of ways I like it better than other records because it fits my personal taste in music better than any of the other records at this point in my life. But that’s all subjective and random. I just think of it as the next one.

AIA: Is it a change in style and preference, or have you become more secure in your playing and with your voice?
DM: A lot of the way things sounded in the past was based on my insecurities, with my voice, with the guitar playing, with everything. On the older records there was never a spare moment; I was so worried that the listener might get bored. In the past I just liked to keep things busy. It’s always been a conscious decision to hide a little bit of everything with all of these layers of things going on. Some people want music that’s just packed, but I don’t really like that anymore. I want to have it more stripped-down; to me, that makes for better music. I’ve been making promises to myself that I would mellow out and let things occur a little more naturally, but each time I felt like the songs just weren’t doing it. Now it’s more about the quality of my voice, the tone from the guitars. On You in Reverse we’re trying to sound like a group of people in a room together like those old classic records. I think we’re almost there.

Built to Spill will perform Friday, Oct. 20, at Stubb's.

Playlist: 9 Oct. 2006

2006-10-18T22:50:00.000-07:00

Monday mornings, 91.7 FM Austin, or www.kvrx.org

Band of Horses "Everything All the Time" (Monsters, on Sub Pop)
Bauhaus "Stigmata Martyr" (In the Flat Field, on Beggars Banquet)
Galaxie 500 "Blue Thunder" (On Fire, on Rykodisc)
Akron Family "No Space in this Realm" (Meek Warrior, on Young God)
Frog Eyes "One in Six Children Will Flee In" (The Golden River, on Animal World)
Dick Annegarn "Coutances" (The Science of Sleep, on Astralwerks)
M Ward "To Go Home" (Post-War, on Merge)
The Lord Henry "Is This Legal" (Zoo Palace, on Self-Released)
The Rapture "Down for So Long" (Pieces of the People We Love, on Universal Motown)
Faceless Warewolves "Don't Blow It" (Medium Freaky, on Super Secret)
The Album Leaf "See In You" (Into the Blue Again, on Sub Pop)
The Knife "We Share Our Mother's Health" (Silent Shout, on Brille)
Ghostland Observatory "Sad Sad City" (Paparrazi City, on Trashy Moped)
A Hawk and a Hacksaw "The Way the Wind Blows" (The Way the Wind Blows, on Ba Da Bing)
Beirut "Postcards From Italy" (Gulag Orkestar, on Ba Da Bing)
Midlake "Balloon Maker" (Bamnan and Slivercork, on Bella Union)
Shearwater "Seventy-four, Seventy-five" (Palo Santo, on Misra)
Oxford Collapse "Please Visit Your National Parks" (Remember the Night Parties, on Sub Pop)
Don Caballero "Sure We Had Knives Around" (World Class Listening Problem, on Relapse)
Silversun Pickups "Well Thought Out Twinkles" (Carnavas, on Dangerbird)
The Thermals "Test Pattern" (The Body The Blood The Machine, on Sub Pop)
The Breeders "Cannonball" (Last Splash, on 4AD)
Be Your Own Pet "Bicycle Bicycle Your Are My Bicycle" (Be Your Own Pet, on Ecstatic Peace)
Ho-Ag "Paint the Navy" (The Word From Pluto, on Hello Sin)
What Made Milwaukee Famous "Mercy Me" (Trying to Never Catch Up, on Barsuk)
Built to Spill "Wherever You Go" (You in Reverse, on Warner Bros)
Anders Parker "Missing" (Anders Parker, on Baryon)
The Decemberists "When the War Comes" (The Crane Wife, on Capitol)

Frank Black: Interview

2006-10-08T20:44:00.000-07:00

Under the alias of Black Francis, Charles Kitteridge Thompson IV revolutionized the sound of indie rock as the lead singer and songwriter of The Pixies. His rigid, stop-start dynamics, full-frontal guitar assault and fragmented lyricism was an ear-drum shattering, tour de force that paved the way for the grunge explosion.

After breaking-up The Pixies in 1993, he inverted his stage name to Frank Black and embarked on a solo venture that amplified the eclectic influences that were buried deep beneath The Pixies’ frantic wall of noise. His latest record, Fast Man, Raider Man, is an expansive two-disc, 27-song collection that furthers the introspective, Americana and back porch vibe of 2004’s Honeycomb.

I recently spoke to Black about the possibility of a new Pixies record, his writing process, and the maturation of his solo work.

Austin In Austin: Considering the success of The Pixies reunion tour, its accompanying documentary, “LoudQUIETloud,” and the 2004 Warren Zevon cover "Ain't That Pretty at All,” can we expect some new music from The Pixies soon?
Frank Black: Oh I don’t know. There’s something being scheduled in a couple of months, but we shall see.

AIA: Actual studio time?
FB: Sort of. It’s not really recording; it’s just a place to rehearse.

AIA: With the Pixies you were known for your cryptic lyricism, and while that’s still there in your solo work, your latest seems to have much more personal narrative…
FB: Depending on the song, there’s still a lot of the cryptic stuff there, but I see your point.

AIA: Right. How would your writing be affected if you were to write a new Pixies record? Would there be a lot of influence from your current style in the music?
FB: I believe that is the greatest fear of one of the band members.

AIA: Which one in particular?
FB: I can’t say who she is, but I’ve tried to reassure her that it will not be a country western album that I would be composing for the Pixies. You know, some people have a problem with the country rock. That’s okay.

AIA: It’s a natural progression if you look at the beginning of your solo work to where you are now, but it seems as though music may have changed in terms purpose for you. Do you get the same things out of music that you did twenty years ago?
FB: I guess I’m not sure exactly what you mean. You listen to the music, you’re into certain stuff and then that changes over time. It’s like the old Mike Jones song, with Big Audio Dynamite “I Turned Out a Punk.” [sings] “I didn’t like jazz / I didn’t like funk / then I turned out a punk.” That’s the chorus. I can relate to that. I didn’t use to listen to Miles Davis but now I do. What’s that all about? I don’t know. You just become more open to different styles as you learn more about music. I don’t know. I think that people think that if you play one particular style of popular music, and then you play another, they think it’s a really big step or transition. Now if I was playing minor league baseball or something that would be something I could compare and contrast.

AIA: Right, you’re a musician. And all of the different styles you’re developing now, you can go back and hear it in the Pixies and all of the work you’ve done and all of rock ‘n’ roll.
FB: Exactly.

AIA: What I was trying to get at was whether or not the intrinsic value of the creation process has changed for you over the years.
FB: I don’t think it has. Since about the age of 19 or 20, at some point around there, I learned how to write chord progressions. That is the cornerstone of my songwriting experience. I write chord progressions and on top of that I find some sort of ‘la la la’ melody that mutates into some sort of baby talk language. Then, perhaps, that baby language mutates into some sort of lyrics that maybe has rhyme schemes or a narrative or some sort of ambition as a little song. That’s how I write songs and it hasn’t changed for twenty years.

AIA: That’s interesting. Is the live performance of the music, when it’s stripped down to just you acoustically, a little bit different now that there are some more on the surface personal elements to the songs?
FB: Not really, cause even the most abstract, cryptic songs has personal items in it. I’m already up on stage, everyone’s looking at me, and they’re either going to applaud or through tomatoes at me. So I’m already vulnerable, like I’m standing up there naked for people to analyze me. It’s already that kind of experience.

AIA: You’ve compared Fast Man, Raider Man to Bob Dylan’s double album Blonde on Blonde, but the times have certainly changed. Those fourteen songs could fit on one disc today easy, where as your release is two, equally dense, full discs. In this two year process, and these four different recording sessions, what drove you to continue writing and how did you finally know the record was complete?
FB: I guess that’s what happens whenever you have downtime in terms of releasing records. I had a bit of that. You do a session, the record isn’t done because there’s no rush to get it out, and so you do another session and then another session. Then you start second guessing yourself. Maybe these songs suck and I have to do more. There’s not really a big concept. At one point the producer and engineer said that if we cut one song, we could fit the other 26 on one disc. But I said, ‘screw it, make it two discs.’ After I’m done making the art, it all gets a little silly to me. I send them in a track listing that’s in alphabetical order.

It’s hard because I’m a believer in ditties. I think people forget ditties, or quirky little songs, not necessarily your, “Day in the Life” type of songs, are a big part of my thing. I hope for an anthem. I’ll never forget the only advice I got from the owner of 4AD Records some time ago, was make it anthemic. In other make a pop hit. There’s nothing wrong with that; you always hope that people want to sing along to your music. But writing quirky, little ditties are part of everything I’ve ever done. The Pixies recordings are chuck full of those types of songs. I have a hard time leaving off some of the so-called lesser songs. I think my true fans expect to hear those types of songs from me. I believe in that kind of thing. My best example of that is The Beatles. Even though they were the biggest band in the world, my favorite experiences with the Beatles are their quirky numbers: “You Know My Name (Look Up the Number),” “Revolution 9,” “Wild Honey Pie.” Good enough for the Beatles, good enough for me.

AIA: Those are words to live by; I’m going to make a T-shirt. How did each of the sessions affect the album as a whole?
FB: When you’re playing with the sort of people that I worked with for this record, you don’t come in with songs that sound like Minor Threat. So lo and behold, those twangy, Americana, bluesy doors opened in my creative mansion. Are my metaphors driving you crazy yet?

AIA: No, not all.
FB: It’s just enough of a suggestion to know that you’re playing with session cats from Nashville to open those doors. I wasn’t trying really hard to write those kind of songs it’s just kind of happened. It may have affected the rate at which I wrote the songs, because I knew that I could write a song at three o’clock in the morning and I could walk in there at ten and they could play the absolute shit of it without even hearing it. They’d do a first take that was just wonderful. It was inspiring to work with musicians of that caliber because you can just throw shit at them and they don’t even blink. It was bad ass. Those were incredible experiences for me, but for those guys, that’s their daily life. They’re playing and recording seven nights a week. I would love to live in Nashville but I’d probably never see my family again. They’d be like where’s dad? I’d be like, ‘let’s record some more.’

I’m not saying every song I write is brilliant or every album I write is a classic. It’s just what I do; it’s fun. I don’t fault an artist for having a song that maybe isn’t their best. There’s usually some interesting aspect there that’s make the experience worthwhile.

AIA: Even in those lesser moments, it’s nice to see a musician or an artist in their unedited form, to go beyond some studio perfected version of them. You get a much broader idea of what’s really going on.
FB: That’s a good point. Sometimes I wish I could be the opposite and put out a record every three years that’s just brilliant, but that’s just not me.

AIA: How do you feel looking back on all that you’ve accomplished and all of those that you’ve influenced musically throughout the years?
FB: At one moment, I’m impressed with myself and I think it’s great and I’m really flattered. But at another moment I just feel embarrassed. You know, we’re just talking about rock music here. Get a guitar, find some drums, and bang around for 30 minutes in a garage and you’ll come up with some rock music. There isn’t any pioneering going on here. If anything cool ever happens, it’s all instinctual. It’s just gut. It’s always been that way for me. ‘Hey, let’s go play music in this room and see if we come up with something. Then let’s go to a recording studio and record it and see what it sounds like. That’s literally, where I operate. I know there’s some artists who are like, ‘I have this vision in my head! I can hear every note! If only I can get the right people to help me bring it out and play it the way I hear it in my head!’ I’m not like that. I’m like, ‘I’ve got this song; I don’t know if it’s any good. Let’s record it and play it back and see if it sounds like rock music.’ That’s it! There’s no analysis; there’s no vision. It’s all trial and error. The goal is to make some rock music or popular music of the twenty first century. The tools are always the same, and that’s it. I don’t mean to demystify what I do. The mystique is in the end result, not in the process. There are literally thousands of factors that go into a way that a song sounds: who’s playing it, what are their backgrounds, the songs they’ve heard, the songs they haven’t heard. The list just goes on. All of it is summed up in the result. That’s what makes something great so intangible.

I don’t know what came over me. I can never tell you what I was thinking when I was writing a song. It was just some crazy song coming into the room.

AIA: I hear that on Fast Man, Raider Man. Nothing sounds contrived or forced; it just sounds like a reflection.
FB: Yeah. Everyone does it differently. I think I like to refer to my Chinese zodiac sign, the snake – he feels his way around on his belly. He doesn’t have a lot of vision; it’s all feel. He’s not necessarily a stupid animal, but he also thinks he’s little bit smarter than he really is. He just goes on his gut feeling. He’s not like the monkey whose up in the tree seeing everything beneath him. The snake literally has to feel his around. My wife refers to it all of time when we’re in some city we’ve never been to and I just kind of find my way around places. She says you’re snaking your way again. Blah, blah, blah, I’m a snake.

Frank Black will be performing Tuesday night at La Zona Rosa.

Playlist: 1 Oct. 2006

2006-10-08T20:36:00.000-07:00

That's Monday mornings, 7-9 a.m. on 91.7 FM, or online at www.kvrx.org

Scratch Acid "She Said" (The Greatest Gift, on Touch and Go)
The Melvins "Houdini" (Honey Bucket, on Atlantic)
The Jesus Lizard "Monkey Trick" (Goat, on Touch and Go)
The Minutemen "It's Expected When I'm Gone" (Double Nickels on the Dime, on SST)
The Futureheads "Cope" (News and Tributes, on Vagrant)
The Big Sleep "You Can't Touch the Untouchable" (Son of the Tiger, on French Kiss)
The Dismemberent Plan "Superpowers" (Change, on de Soto)
Maritime "People, The Vehicles" (We The Vehicles, on Flameshovel Records)
Ghost of the Russian Empire "August 1914" (Ghost of the Russian Empire, on Thirty Ghosts)
The Red Krayola "Breakout" (Introduction, on Drag City)
DeVotchka "Commerce City Sister" (Una Volta, on Cicero)
Bonnie Prince Billy "No Bad News" (The Letting Go, on Drag City)
William Elliot Whitmore "Everyday" (Song of the Blackbird, on Southern)
Scott Biram "Work" (Graveyard Shift, on Bloodshot)
Sparklehorse "Don't Tke My Sunshine Away" (Dreamt For Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain, on Capitol)
Tortoise "The Source of Uncertainty" (A Lazarus Taxon, on Thrill Jockey) :
Ratatat "Lex" (Classics, on XL)
Hot Chip "Look After Me" (The Warning, on Astralwerks)
Yo La Tengo "I Should Have Known Better" (I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass, on Matador)
What Made Milwaukee Famous "I Decide" (Trying to Never Catch Up, on Barsuk)
Grizzly Bear "Knife" (Yellow House, on Warp)
Polyphonic Spree "Sonic Bloom" (Wait EP, on Hollywood)
Voxtrot "Rise Up In the Dirt" (Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives, on Cult Hero)
Sons and Daughters "Johnny Cash" (Love the Cup, on Ba Da Bing)
Serena-Maneesh "Beehiver II" (Serena-Maneesh, on Honeymilk)
The Pixies "Bone Machine" (Surfer Rosa, on 4AD)
Red Sparowes "Untitled Four" (Every Red Heart Shines Toward the Red Sun, on Neurot)

Mastodon: Interview

2006-09-30T15:25:00.000-07:00

Mastodon became the undisputed god of the sea after unleashing its Moby Dick-inspired, oceanic serpent Leviathan in 2004. Herman Melville’s “holy grail, white whale” was harpooned and speared with vengeance by the Maiden tandem guitar front of Brent Hinds and Bill Kelliher. With the hammer of Thor, Brann Dailor’s lightning quick, fill drumming cracked oars and broke backs while Troy Sanders’s drowning bass lines signified an epic, turning of the tides.

It’s an album that changed the way people thought about modern metal. Suddenly, the intricacy and technicality of High on Fire, Boris and Neurosis seemed worthy of discussion alongside the merits of Jóhann Jóhannsson, Devendra Banhart and Sufjan Stevens.

Upon the release of their stellar third full-length, I spoke with Sanders about life ship-wrecked on Blood Mountain, collaborating with Josh Homme, and the difference between ligers and cysquatches.

Austin in Austin: The first track on Blood Mountain, “The Wolf is Loose,” begins in “The belly of the whale / Refusal of return.” In what ways is the story interwoven throughout this album a metaphor for the band’s struggle to write a follow-up to Leviathon and about the writing process in general?
Troy Sanders: It’s just the next step, you know. Even though we found out several months ago where we stood, at the base of this next mountain so to speak, so even though things had been gradually ascending for our band we’re still at the footstep of a giant slab of Mother Nature and we’re trying to scale. The struggle and quest on Blood Mountain is completely metaphorical to our true life journey, struggle and sacrifice to achieve our goals - to the new record, to our new marriage with Warner Brothers, to the next year and a half of touring, to many things.

AIA: You just mentioned it briefly, but how did the move to Warner Brothers affect the writing and recording of Blood Mountain.
TS: It didn’t affect the writing or the recording at all. Warner just wanted us to keep doing what we’re doing because they had enough faith in us that we’d put out a bizarre, hopefully unique heavy rock record. When they signed us, all they said was, ‘we want to put your record.’ They knew we weren’t going to change our sound and they recognized that we had a good thing going. Hopefully, they’ll just take us to more of a world wide level than what we were already at. It’s the same twelve songs we would have written if we were still on Relapse or unsigned or whatever.

AIA: Does your interaction with the label feel a lot different know that you’re part of a major?
TS: It’s still the same. We wouldn’t have signed with them if we weren’t friends first. We spoke with for months and months and months and really worked at establishing a relationship the same we did with Relapse before. We talk to these people sometimes on a daily basis and the last thing I want to do is being married to or have to talk to someone everyday that I don’t like. Those guys are fans, friends and they’re down and behind the music 100%. If a major label is going to give a heavy metal band full creative control, that’s showing a great deal of trust from the get go. We wouldn’t have done it any other way. We wouldn’t compromise our sound for anybody.

AIA: What is the most difficult part for you, of scaling this mountain, as you put it?
TS: There’s many difficulties. We travel nine months a year so I think a lot of it is sacrifice. I have a house that I pay for that I never sleep at, ever. So does everybody else in the band. Half of us are married, half of us have kids. Are we idiots for touring nine months a year or are we super dedicated for doing that? There’s a fine line between being driven and being fucking insane. That’s been a big part of all of our records, in particular Blood Mountain. I’m in Boise, Idaho right now eating a bagel. It’s going to be a great show and we’re having a great tour, but I’d like to be eating a bagel with my family who I haven’t seen in quite a while and I speak for everybody in the band when it comes to that. This is just the underbelly theme o why we’re pissed off a lot.

AIA: Leviathon was one of the first records to really garner respect within the indie community. What was the band’s initial response to being accepted by this other music community?
TS: It came across as a little overwhelming and flattering. At the same time, we were really thankful that there was a different group of people opening their eyes and ears to us. I think we like to niche ourselves in with bands like Isis and Mars Volta where it’s not for everybody, but it’s like thinking man’s heavy music you know what I mean. It’s a little step beyond that’s more challenging. It’s got more elements involved; there’s various textures and dynamics. It’s still a heavy rock record but there’s a little bit of everything in there, if it’s going to gain more attention or exposure then that’s great. I’d rather people be into Mastodon than handful of other bands I’d rather not list right now.

AIA: Could you see yourself playing alongside Tapes N Tapes or some of these other bands in the much heralded “Best New Music” section of Pitchfork that Mastodon currently holds?
TS: Yeah, I’m not really familiar with those bands so I’m not sure what they sound like or whatever.

AIA: Let’s talk about some of the guest appearances on the album, from Josh Homme (of Queens of the Stone Age, Kyuss, Eagles of Death Metal), Cedric Bixler-Zavala (of Mars Volta) and Scott Kelly (Neurosis). How did those come to be?
TS: At 5 in the morning last year we were drunk in London and we were just hanging out with Cedric, all hugging each other, ‘dude you gotta record our next record.’ And he’s like ‘ok, I will.’ So when it came time to actually write the record we called up Cedric and we’re like ‘dude, come play on this track. You promised us at 5 in the morning, drunk in London.’ So we sent it over. He was in New York at the time, we were in Seattle. So we mailed him the song, (“Siberian Divide”) he did his thing and mailed it back to us and it worked out great. It’s not a gigantic part of the record but he’s a good friend of ours and we wanted to get him involved.

We’re friends with Josh Homme because we’ve done some Queens of the Stone Age shows with him before and he heard the song, “Colony of Birchman” on an airplane actually, and he was like, ‘wow, I like that. That’s catchy, maybe I can sing on that song.’ He contacted us and asked us if we’d care if he did vocals on that song and we were like ‘hell no we don’t care. You can do whatever the hell you want. You’re Dude, you know.’ We’ve been Kyuss fans and QOTSA fans forever so we were all for it. He was in a studio in Los Angeles working on some Queens stuff so we just sent it out the same way as with Cedric. He asked us, how cool is that? Ikey (Owens) from Mars Volta, he did keyboards and synths on “Pendulous Skin” because we wanted it to have a 1970’s Pink Floyd feel to it, which totally gave flavor to that song.

And on “Crystal Skull,” our friend, mentor and brother, Scott Kelly from Neurosis – we try to have him be a part of everything we do and he wants to contribute any way he can – so when we had that part that sounded like the most thunderous part of the record, there was no one else that we wanted the part to go to. That’s the highlight of the album in my opinion.

AIA: Did Josh Homme send back the snippet that’s at the end of the album as well?
TS: Yeah, Josh, he’s a dork, that’s why we get along with that guy.

AIA: On “Hand of Stone” the protagonists of the record, “Chew on the root that gives us sight.” Is there a proper mental state one should be in to fully get the concepts within Blood Mountain?
TS: I think it all depends on the individual. It’s all open to interpretation. I don’t smoke weed or do acid but I can totally dig fucked up and trippy shit you know. I can get into it for other aspects of it you know. To each their own, it’s about your own personal experience. But I’m fucked up enough as it is, I don’t need any help seeing something as interesting.

AIA: Is the Cysquatch at all related to the Liger?
TS: Um, no. The Cysquatch is something that we made up. They’re hideous beasts on the surface but they’re actually very friendly. They come to warn us and give us guidance and they warn us of the Birchmen later on, cause the Birchmen are trying to eat us and kill us but the Cysquatch are there to warn us. At first, they surround us, these giant, one-eyed mountain creatures, and we think they’re going to eat us and we’re dead, but they’re there actually offering us kindness. You can’t judge a book by its cover.

AIA: How much of this is the listener actually supposed to piece together? Do you expect them to know what a brontotherium is?
TS: Brontotherium is the Latin term for prehistoric ground sloth. It’s like in Empire Strikes Back, if you’re freezing and you’ve got a dead beast beside you, you have to slice him open and you have to warm up inside of his guts or else you’re going to get frostbite and brain freeze and die. You know what I mean? So we had to dive into this prehistoric ground sloth to warm up or else we’d have been dead.

AIA: Naturally. So where did this idea to create your own epic adventure?
TS: I think to a degree, we all enjoy being storytellers; we like to close our eyes and drift off into fantasy land. We find that when we’re righting records it helps to really focus if we’re working with a central idea and focal point that we can dive into and branch off of. At the end, you get this fucked up movie plot that’s like a story.

AIA: Musically, what encouraged you guys to attempt such broad terrain on Blood Mountain especially in regards to vocal technique?
TS: We’ve always wanted to incorporate more vocal stylings. We’re tired of screaming all 45 songs in our catalogue. We’re fans of Thin Lizzy, Ozzy Osbourne, Neurosis, the Melvins. There’s a lot of people out there that can sing and actually have melody to their voice. If you can incorporate that into a song and make it better, that’s a good thing I think. The voice is a fifth instrument for us and melody and catchiness is a wonderful thing in music. On “Hunters of the Sky,” Sleeping Giant” and “Colony of Birchmen” were all able to incorporate clean vocals and we all thought that it made the song better. It allowed us to branch off and add some identity to our voices.

AIA: At the record’s end, do you feel like Mastodon has finally reached the summit of Blood Mountain in terms of what it symbolizes?
TS: I don’t know. I hope not. I guess time will tell but hopefully we’ll continue to grow as individuals and as a band and make a more bizarre / interesting record in the future, hopefully sooner than later.

Mastodon will be performing Wednesday, Oct. 4 at Emo's.

Playlist: 25 Sept. 2006

2006-09-30T15:15:00.000-07:00

SunnO))) & Boris "The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)" (Altar, on Southern
Lord)
Jucifer "Hennin Hardine" (If Thine Enemy Hunger, on Relapse)
Mastodon "Colony of Birchmen" (Blood Mountain, on Reprise)
Comets on Fire "Jay Bird" (Avatar, on Sub Pop)
Sonic Youth "Star Power" (Evol, on AAD)
Lou Reed "Crazy Feeling" (Coney Island Baby, on RCA)
Magnolia Electric Co. "Don't Fade on Me" (Fading Trails, on Secretly Canadian)
Richard Buckner "Town" (Meadow, on Merge)
The Album Leaf "The Light" (Into the Blue Again, on Sub Pop)
Ratatat "Gettysburg" (Classics, on XL)
Sufjan Stevens "Springfield, or Bobby Got a Shadfly Caught in his Hair" (The Avalanche, on Asthmatic Kitty)
Smog "Bloodflow" (Local Live Vol. 10, on KVRX)
Scott Biram "Have No Fun" (Graveyard Shift, on Bloodshot)
Leadbelly "Goodnight Irene" (The Bourgeois Blues, on St. Clair)
Damien Jurado "I Had No Intentions" (And Now That I'm In Your Shadow, on Secretly Canadian)
Frank Black "You Can't Crucify Yourself" (Fast Man, Raider Man, on Backporch)
M Ward "Don't Let Me Down" (Live at KVRX, on KVRX)
M Ward "Chinese Translation" (Post-War, on Merge)
M Ward "The Story of an Artist" (Live at KVRX, on KVRX)
The Mountain Goats "Half Dead" (Get Lonely, on 4AD)
Yo La Tengo "I Should Have Known Better" (I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass, on Matador)
The Thermals "Returning to the Fold" (The Body The Blood The Machine, on Sub Pop)
The Black Keys "You're the One" (Magic Potion, on Nonesuch)
The Arm "Malaria! Malaria" (Local Live Vol. 10, on KVRX)
Mission of Burma "(That's When I Reach For My) Revolver" (A Gun to the Head, on Ryko)
Man Man "Van Helsing Boom Box" (Six Demon Bag, on Ace Fu)
Sound Team "Born to Please" (Movie Monster, on Capitol)

Magnolia Electric Co.: Interview

2006-09-29T14:23:00.000-07:00

Jason Molina is perhaps the most underappreciated songwriter of our generation. Over the past ten years, and through more aliases than Will Oldham, he has written more than 1,000 songs. His music may not always reflect the times, but like Tom Petty, Neil Young, and Willie Nelson before him, it always reveals his personal trials, triumphs, and desperate need for self-expression.

His two latest records are no exception. Magnolia Electric Co.’s Fading Trails is a lonesome journey through Molina’s struggle to accept the dying of the light, the inevitable change that awaits us all. Perhaps his most personal work to date, the nine songs, which were compiled from four separate recording sessions - including work with Steve Albini at Electrical Audio in Chicago, David Lowery at Sound of Music in Virginia, and at the infamous Sun Studios in Memphis – strikes a familiar blue note that evokes universal responses to death and departure.

The other, is a collection of songs written and recorded, in sequential order, during three days in Bloomington, Indiana. The solo effort, entitled Let Me Go, Let Me Go, Let Me Go, recalls earlier recordings as Songs: Ohio and Pyramid Electric Co. through sparse instrumentation that heightens Molina’s feelings of isolation.

Right now, however, Molina’s just thankful to be wearing pants. The prolific singer-songwriter fielded my questions regarding his writing process while locked out of his home in Chicago.

Austin In Austin: When you’re in the writing process, how do you know which songs need the intimacy of you alone as opposed to be backed by Magnolia Electric Co.?
Jason Molina: With the band included, I’ve actually finished five projects this year. So there’s just a pile of new stuff that we haven’t even taken out on the road yet. As I was piecing together these different projects, which were just completely separate entities, I realized that I had a wide variety of songs and there was a batch in there that I didn’t think would really work with full arrangements. I felt like they were complete songs as they were. Basically it’s all still Magnolia Electric Co. I still edit myself. I don’t just put out every song that I write. And running throughout all of these sessions were some cohesive, unifying thoughts and I think that’s what you here on the Fading Trails collection.

AIA: How many songs would you say that you have stored underneath the bed, never to see the light of day?
JM: I have this working method where I never have more than ten finished songs which haven’t been recorded. I like to write towards a record, which gives each of the sessions a different link, be it a specific tuning or lyrical theme.

AIA: There’s a theme of departure throughout Fading Trails. What inspired that subject?
JM: When you write all the time, music becomes a complete reflection of what’s going on with you personally. My mother passed away during one of the sessions as well another close friend. It was a heavy to be writing and recording music. It’s a great living document of a pretty sad time.

AIA: Is that something that’s going to be found on the solo release as well?
JM: I wasn’t forcing the issue of having to release what I would come up with, but I just got to the point one day where I said that I’m going to write a record from start to finish and see what comes out of it. It was for my own piece of mind, knowing that I could write a cohesive piece of music during when surrounded with all of this chaos; it was important to me. I’ve been focusing these last couple of years on getting out the music while it’s still in me. Not that I could ever walk away from music.

AIA: It seems as though music is some sort of therapy for you, a healing process that you can completely dive into.
JM: It’s weird, sometimes you write for a year and you end up with a year’s with worth of trash. For me, it’s all about finding that one song that really says everything that needs to be said.

mp3:
Jason Molina - Get Out Get Out Get Out
Magnolia Electric Co. - Lonesome Valley
Magnolia Electric Co. - Doing Something Wrong
Magnolia Electric Co. - The Dark Don't Hide It
Magnolia Electric Co. - Leave The City
Songs: Ohio - Farewell Transmission
Songs: Ohio - Loneness

For more information on Jason Molina's full catologue check out www.secretlycanadian.com

Playlist: 18 Sept. 2006

2006-09-22T14:33:00.000-07:00

The Rapture "Calling Me" (Pieces of the People We Love, on Mercury)
Faceless Warewolves "Short Term Memory" (Medium Freaky, on Super Secret)
Hellacopters "(Gotta Get Some Action) Now!" (Supershitty to the Max!, on Man's Ruin) The Libertines "Time For Heroes" (Up the Bracket, on Rough Trade)
Wire "Mannequin" (Pink Flag, on Pink Flag)
Beat Pharmacy "Slow Down" (Constant Pressure, on Wave Music)
7L and Esoteric "The Most" (A New Dope, on Babygrande)
Gerritt and John Wise "Untitled 1" (The Disappearing Act EP, on Misanthropic Agenda)
Radio Birdman "Anglo Girl Desire" (The Essential, on Sub Pop)
Ecstatic Sunshine "Little Dipper Big Dipper" (Freckle Wars, on Carpark)
Murder By Death "One More Notch" (In Bocca Al Lupo, on Tent Show)
Viva Voce "Believer" (Get Yr. Blood Sucked Out, on Barsuk)
Sparklehorse "Gold Day" (It's a Wonderful Life, on EMI)
For Those Who Know "Competition" (EP, self-released)
Stars "Elevator Love Letter" (Heart, on Paper Bag)
Old Crow Medicine Show "My Good Gal" (Big Iron World, on Nettwerk)
Calexico "Quattro (World Drifts In)" (Feast of Wire, on Quarterstick)
Iron and Wine "On Your Wings" (Our Endless Numbered Days, on Sub Pop)
Jose Gonzales "Hints" (Veneer, on Hidden Agenda)
Erasure "Alien" (Union Street, on Mute)
The Personals "Share the Sound" (The Personals, on Sumo Pogo)
The Ugly Beats "Get Up" (Local Live Vol. 10, on KVRX)
New Pornographers "Twin Cinema" (Twin Cinema, on Matador)
Neko Case "That Teenage Feeling" (Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, on Anti)
Son Volt "Drown" (Trace, on WB)
Brendan Benson "Emma J" (One Mississippi, on Virgin)
TV on the Radio "Hours" (Return to Cookie Mountain, on WB)

ACL Music Festival - Live Reviews

2006-09-22T14:28:00.000-07:00

What a weekend... here's links to the four reviews I wrote for The Austin Chronicle.

Sam Roberts
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A404260

Paolo Nutini
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A404238

The Raconteurs
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A404256

The Long Winters
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A404252

ACL Music Festival: Interviews, Part 3

2006-09-22T14:10:00.000-07:00

The Blue Van

ACL Music Festival: Interviews, Part 2

2006-09-22T13:56:00.000-07:00

Paulo Nutini

ACL Music Festival: Interviews, Part 1

2006-09-22T13:40:00.000-07:00

The Raconteurs

The Ice Cream Man: Feature

2006-09-22T13:32:00.000-07:00

What's So Funny About Peace, Love, and Free Ice Cream?

The "Miracle Man," Elvis Costello, prefers a vanilla ice cream bar dipped in rich, dark chocolate with almonds. Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie has a sweet tooth for Bomb Pops, while Wilco songsmith Jeff Tweedy goes for shark-shaped Great White Lemon Ice Popsicles. Jim James's craving for fudge bars links back to My Morning Jacket's Chocolate and Ice EP. Kanye West, Arcade Fire, Sufjan Stevens, and the Dears all favor organic flavors of Julie's renowned ice cream bars.

Matt Allen has served them all. Since 2004, he has trekked more than 15,000 miles from his Southern California headquarters in a 1969 Chevy Stepvan, christened "Bessie," to hand out free ice cream at the country's largest music festivals. In other words, Matt Allen is not just an ice cream man. He's the Ice Cream Man.

"The term has over 50 years of goodwill attached to it, yet there's no face; there's no image, no brand, no company, no logo, there's nothing," cries Allen. "My idea was that I could make myself Ice Cream Man so that when people think of ice cream, they'll think of me, my logo, my company."

This week he adds the Austin City Limits Music Festival to his roster.

Allen was aboard the Queen Mary when a then-unknown Wolf Parade was unceremoniously kicked off the ship for reckless behavior (hence the name of the band's Sub Pop debut, Apologies to the Queen Mary). He distributed ice cream outside the Beastie Boys surprise gig at Stubb's during SXSW in March. He was backstage at Bonnaroo when Stevie Nicks joined Tom Petty for "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around." At Wakarusa, he was an enchanted alien extra on stage, dancing to the Flaming Lips' "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Part Two." Most recently, he was the reason Jack White of the Raconteurs told 40,000 fans at Lollapalooza that there was free ice cream at the festival.

"People grow up and think they have to give up the things that made them happy when they were younger," says Allen, who has, to date, given away more than 50,000 frozen treats. "That makes absolutely no sense to me."

To read the rest of my first ever cover story for The Austin Chronicle click here:
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A402882

Ice Cream Handicapping ACL '06
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A402883

Ice Cream Man on the Web:
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A402884

Quenching the Flaming Lips:
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A402885

Willie Nelson: Interview

2006-09-19T21:33:00.000-07:00

God bless Willie Nelson. Aside from saving the world, or at least the way a portion of the way it operates with his Biodiesel, the 73-year-old red-headed stranger recently made a pilgrimage back to the Austin City Limits Music Festival and wrote a new record with rising outlaw Ryan Adams, Songbird (Lost Highway), which drops on October 31.

I recently received an unexpected phone call from Willie himself (I’ll save the story for a rainy day). Here’s all that was recorded before the damn batteries died. *Note to aspiring writers, don’t ever do an interview while stuck in traffic, no matter what!

Austin in Austin: Why did you choose Cindy Walker and those songs in particular to cover for your latest album (You Don't Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker)?
Willie Nelson: I’d been singing Cindy Walker songs practically my whole life, not knowing who Cindy Walker was. I just knew everything that Bob Willis had ever done and sung all his songs. It just so happened that all of his songs and albums were actually Cindy Walker’s songs. I found that out later and than even later in life I met Cindy Walker and her mom, they used to come to the disc jockey conventions in Nashville every year and we’d have a good time - talk, and play or sing whatever we’d written recently – we got to be good friends. And I started finding out more and more about what she had written, “Dusty Skies” and all of those great songs that she had written throughout the years and I realized I’d been singing a whole lot of them throughout the years. I knew she wasn’t getting a lot that well and was deteriorating in health and I just thought what a good tribute it would be to do an album of her songs.

AIA: It’s an amazing album and an amazing tribute to say the least. Are there any other artists you’ve consider doing the same for in the future?
WN: Well I did one for Hank Snow, one for Webb Pierce, Rusty Adams, Faron Young. I’ve done these kind of albums through the years pretty much since before I was stirring up much action and no one cared whose songs I was recording. It was just natural for me to want to do an album of her songs.

AIA: And there’s no one else in the back of your mind whose songs you’d like to record?
WN: I’ve also done an album of Billy Joe Shaver songs; he’s one of the best writers we still have around these days. I don’t know really. Carl Belew was a great writer and I was talking to a friend of mine the other day and was thinking that his family would probably appreciate any kind of income they could get at all but if we did a Carl Belew album that would be good because he wrote so many good songs. “Crystal Chandelier,” “I Forgot More Than You’ll Ever Know,” boy he wrote some good songs.

AIA: I was listening to the new Johnny Cash record today and it’s amazing to hear because at that time, it sounds like music was the only thing that was keeping him alive. It sounds like there were things that he just had to get out. I was just wondering if that’s the way you feel about music and if you see yourself still making records for as long as the road goes.
WN: Well yeah. For as long as I can, it’s what I enjoy doing. I can think of anytime and hopefully for the rest of my life where there will be ten songs I could sit down and record. Who knows if they would sell as much as the Stardust album but there would be songs from that era, you could do some from another era – gospel. There’s no limit to the amount of creating you can do if you manage to stay healthy; that’s about it.

AIA: Do you ever find yourself trying to adapt to the current times?
WN: I’ve never really tried to catch on with any particular audience. I just sot of play the music and let the audience catch on to the music. That’s the way it’s been my whole life. I used to just play for four or five people, my family, then things just got bigger. It’s just a matter of me going out there and singing what I like and knowing that other people out there are going to like it too.

AIA: What is it mean to you to be playing the Austin City Limits Music Festival again this year?
WN: We did the first one and I’ll come back and do as many as they want us too. To me, all of those people at Austin City Limits have done a fantastic job of recording not only Austin music, but music from all over the country of bands who come to Austin, and it got to a point where it was the place that everyone wanted to go. I was fortunate to be there in the beginning when they were one of the first to make music sound good on television, that was a tricky thing back in those days.

Playlist: 11 Sept. 2006

2006-09-19T20:57:00.000-07:00

With the upcoming ACL Limits Music Festival only a few days away I decided to play some tunes from some of my favorite bands appearing at the three-day free for all in Zilker Park.

My Brightest Diamond "Dragonfly" (Bring Me The Workhorse, Asthmatic Kitty)
Wooden Wand and the Sky High Band "Hot Death" (Second Attention, Kill Rock Stars)
Woody Guthrie "Hard, Ain't It Hard" (Chain Gang Special, Smithsonian)
Old Crow Medicine Show "James River Blues" (Big Iron World, Nettwerk)
L. Hollins and the Mackadoos "Bui Bui" (Eccentric Soul The Big Mack Label, Numero)
The Knife "Silent Shout" (Silent Shout, Mute)
The Rapture "The Devil" (Pieces of the People We Love, Universal Motown)
The Futureheads "Burnt" (News and Tributes, Vagrant)
Brazilian Girls "Don't Stop" (Brazilian Girls, Verve)
Wolf Parade "Grounds for Divorce" (Apologies to the Queen Mary, Sub Pop)
I Love You but I've Chosen Darkness "Lights" (Fear is on Our Side, Secretly Canadian)
The Stills "The Mountain" (Without Feathers, Vice)
The Black Angels "Young Men Dead" (Passover, Light in the Attic)
Sebadoh "Violet Execution" (III, Domino)
The Mountain Goats "Half Dead" (Get Lonely, 4 AD)
Richard Buckner "Lucky" (Meadow, Merge)
Scott Biram "Goin' Home" (Graveyard Shift, Bloodshot Records)
South Austin Jug Band "Overdrivin the Mic" (Dark and Dreary World, Blue Corn Music)
The Meat Purveyors "Fist City" (Someday Soon Things Will Be Much Worse, Bloodshot Records)
Final Fantasy "This Lamb Sells Condos" (He Poos Clouds, Tomlab)
Junior Boys "In the Morning" (In the Morning EP, Domino)
French Kicks "So Far We Are" (Two Thousand, Vagrant)
Nada Surf "Do It Again" (The Weight is a Gift, Barsuk)
The Blue Van "Don't Leave Me" (Dear Independence, TVT)
TV on the Radio "Dirtywhirl" (Return to Cookie Mountain, WB)
Black Heart Procession "After the Ladder" (After the Ladder, Touch and Go)

Tool: Interview

2006-09-18T00:27:00.000-07:00

Tool is the aural equivalent of T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land," an attempt to capture the depravity and despair of modern society through ambiguous, esoteric lyricism and an overwhelming onslaught of riffs and drum rolls that draws inspiration from widely disparate genres and cultures.

I recently spoke with Tool bassist Justin Chancellor in an attempt to wade through the calculated undertow of the band's latest, 10,000 Days.

AIA: Tool is one of the last bands to not give in to the iTunes conversion. Why is that?
Justin Chancellor: The fear is that the album will get torn apart. The main problem is that we work hard on this piece of art that's supposed to be presented as a whole. To have people pick and choose parts of it is not what we want to get across.

AIA: How much more difficult does it make the writing process to create a complete album as opposed to a batch of songs with no cohesive unit?
JC: I don't think one's more difficult than the other. It's just a matter of where your head's at. It takes more time to make all of the elements work together ... it's just going a bit deeper.

AIA: The cover art for 10,000 Days deals a lot with mirror images and dualism. How does that reflect what you were striving for musically?
JC: There's a similarity in the third dimension that we're trying to evoke by drawing together the imagery and music, a depth the listener can delve in to.

AIA: Musically, there's a juxtaposition of tribal sounds and rhythms with lyrical commentary, rather criticism, on modern society. What's the underlying message you're trying to get at with that pairing?
JC: It all happens much more organically than that. Each piece is a reaction to what's come before it. You don't try to control it or direct it to any certain place, and then hopefully you end up in some place you never even knew existed. A lot of the tribal sound is about that organic sound, the simplicity of the beats and how you react to them.

AIA: The first thing I noticed when I heard the record was the way that Maynard (James Keenan) was pushing himself vocally in a manner similar to some of the covers such as "When the Levee Breaks" and Toni Mitchell's "Fiddle and the Drum" on A Perfect Circle's Emotive. Did you notice a change in his performance coming out of that recording session?
JC: I didn't think about the other session that much but I definitely noticed that his desire to experiment was a lot greater. I think part of that has to do with music we were writing though. This album goes into different places dynamically that past ones. I think he was trying to match some of that variety, to make each song its own separate world if you like.

o.

Playlist: 4 Sept 2006

2006-09-17T23:53:00.000-07:00

Playlist: 4 Sept 2006

You can now catch "Austin in Austin" every Monday morning, 7-9 a.m. on KVRX 91.7 FM, student radio for the University of Texas at Austin and online at www.kvrx.org.

My Morning Jacket "Wordless Chorus" (Z, on ATO)
Snowden "Like Bullets" (Anti Anti, on Jade Tree)
Yo La Tengo "Black Flowers" (I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass, on Matador)
The Thermals "Returning to the Fold" (The Body, The Blood, The Machine, on Sub Pop)
John Doe "Heartless" (Forever Hasn't Happened Yet, on Yep Roc)
Blue Cheer "Rock Me Baby" (Vincebus Eruptum, on Mercury)
Secret Machines "It's A Bad Wind That Don't Blow Somebody Some Good" (September 000, on Ace Fu)
Grizzly Bear "Knife" (Yellow House, on Warp)
Jamie Liddell "You Got Me Up" (Multiply Additions, on Warp)
Ratatat "Gettysburg" (Classics, on XL)
DJ Logic "Hypnotic" (Zen of Logic, on Ropeadope)
Dr. Octagon "A Gorilla Driving a Pick-Up Truck" (The Return of Dr. Octagon, on OCD International)
What Made Milwaukee Famous "Selling Yourself Short" (Trying to Never Catch Up, on Barsuk)
Golden Bear "A Reason to be Proud" (Golden Bear, on C-Side)
Jesu "Silver" (Silver, on Hydra Head)
Richard Hawley "Hotel Room" (Cole's Corner, on Mute)
Jose Gonzales "Stay in the Shade" (Vineer, on Mute)
Damien Jurado "Simple Hello" (On My Way to Absense, on Secretly Canadian)
Amy Millan "Hard Hearted (Ode to Thoreau)" (Honey From the Tombs, on Arts and Crafts)
White Whale "The Admiral" (WWI, on Merge)
Starlight Mints "Pearls (Submarine #2)" (Drowaton, on Barsuk)
The Greenhornes "Stay Away Girl" (The Greenhornes, on Telstar)
The Court and Spark "We Are All Uptown Rulers" (Hearts, on Absolutely Kosher)
The Long Winters "Pushover" (Putting the Days to Bed, on Barsuk)
TV on the Radio "Wolf Like Me" (Return to Cookie Mountain, on Interescope)
Weird Weeds "Tupper" (Weird Feelings, on Sounds Are Active)
M Ward "Requiem" (Post-War, on Merge)
Six Organs of Admittance "The Desert is a Circle" (The Sun Awakens, on Drag City)
Comets on Fire "Holy Teeth" (Avatar, on Sub Pop)

311: Interview

2006-09-17T23:28:00.000-07:00

311: Across A Wire

Every year on March 11, thousands of fans migrate to New Orleans to celebrate 311's music the way other's celebrate 420. It's a universal day of peace, love and understanding, and in the past, the band has performed for upwards of six hours with material ranging from their early independent releases like "Dammit!", "Hydroponic" and "Unity" to their latest smash single "Don't Tread on Me."

311 guitarist Tim Mahoney, who started his day with a wake and bake, paused to reflect on the band's holiday and the good vibes being shared each night on the band's Summer Unity tour with the legendary Wailers and Pepper.

courtesy of Zomba Music Group

Austin In Austin: Have you ever made out in a dark hallway and displayed the kiss that made the day?
Tim Mahoney: I think S.A. [Martinez] might have. That's funny' cause if you knew him, that's such a natural thing for him to say. I have made out in a dark hallway, but the rest of that gibberish I'm not sure about.

AIA: How did you end up with Pepper and more importantly, The Wailers, on your current tour?
TM: We've been playing with Pepper for a while now. Our styles vibe together well. The Wailers, that's one of my favorite bands of all time, space, continuum or whatever. For me, the vibe is just unreal. To hear all of those classic songs with Jr. Marley singing, it's just great. By the time it's our turn to play that vibe is just perfect for us; it's the best line-up we could ever hope for.

AIA: How did 311 Day come to be?
TM: Well, we've celebrated 311 day as long as we've been a band. There just so happened to be a couple of years in a row starting about five years ago, where we were consecutively playing in New Orleans. So then we just looked at the situation and decided it would be cool if we just created a holiday for ourselves, and the band, and our fans. And New Orleans is such an awesome city that's always embraced us. This past March, we weren't able to actually do it in New Orleans because of all the damage done to the city. The area where we normally play wasn't up to safety regulations and that sort of thing. There weren't enough generators. There was a whole bunch of stuff in the air, so we did it in Memphis working with the same promoters and it turned out great. I forget how long we played for that evening. We just try to outdo ourselves, but it kind of got to the point where we only have five hours to work with.

AIA: Only five hours?
TM: Well, yeah. But we play songs that we haven't played in 10 years and that sort of thing. We're so fortunate that we have fans that would come from every single state except for Hawaii to be there. And we played Hawaii after that, so it wouldn't have been that reasonable for those people to have come then.

AIA: Does it surprise you each time you add up the years and you realize it's been 16 years? And a follow-up question to that, how have you managed to stay relevant in the process?
TM: It's almost like time travel when we go back and play those older songs, because it puts you back in that place. Plus, they're fun to play because we've become such better musicians since then that we're able to play these songs in ways they weren't before. As far as the actual music, we've always just tried to channel beautiful melodies or super rockin' riffs that we just enjoy playing. And the lyrics are just things that everyone can relate to, that are timeless in a sense. We've always just tried to influence people in a positive way with our music. That's been the attitude all along.

We just try to get people to be kind to one another. All I can really do is try and be a good person and influence people in a positive way, to try and have people get all that they're supposed to get out of music.

AIA: Between 311, Pepper, Damien Marley and Matisyahu, there seems to be a recent rise in reggae-influenced music on the popular, mainstream level. Is this something you expect to continue or last?
TM: It blows my mind still that every city doesn't have a reggae channel. People just don't get exposed to it enough. I'm glad I did when I did through those old Bad Brains records. It's not surprising to me; it seems like each year it grows a little bit more, spreads out a little more.

Playlist: 8 Aug 2006

2006-08-19T01:35:00.000-07:00

Here's to hoping I get a better time slot next semester.

Jason Molina "Let Me Go, Let Me Go, Let Me Go" (Get Out, Get Out, Get Out, on Secretly Canadian)
Comets on Fire "Dogwood Rust" (Avatar, on Sub Pop)
Sunset Rubdown "Stadiums and Shrines II" (Shut Up I Am Dreaming, on Absolutely Kosher)
Ana Laan "Para el Dolar" (Music From the Wine Lands, on Putomayo)
Thievery Corporation "Khalghi Stomp - TransglobalUnderground" (Versions, on ESl Music)
Psalm One "Beat The Drum" (The Death of Frequent Flyer, on Rhymesayers Entertainment)
Peeping Tom "Getaway" ft. Kool Keith (Peeping Tom, on Ipecac)
Saviours "Holy Slaughter" (Crucifier, on Level Plane)
Blood Meridian "Your Boyfriend's Blues" (Kick Up the Dust, on V2)
Bedhead "Psychomatica" (Transaction de Novo, on Trance Syndicate)
The Black Keys "Thickfreakness" (Thickfreakness, on Fat Possum)
Fugazi "Epic Problem" (The Arguement, on Dischord)
South San Gabriel "Saint Augustine" (Welcome, Convalescence, on Misra)
Black Mountain "Don't Run Your Hearts Around" (BlackMountain, on Jagjaguwar)
Television "See No Evil" (Marquee Moon, on Elektra)
Gang of Four "Ether" (Entertainment!, on EMI)
The Futureheads "Worry About It Later" (News and Tributes, on Vagrant)
Final Fantasy "This Lamb Sells Condos" (He Poos Clouds, on Tomlab)
Sufjan Stevens "Chicago" (The Avalanche, on Asthmatic Kitty)
Smoosh "Free to Stay" (Free to Stay, on Barsuk)
The Jesus Lizard "Cold Water" (The Jesus Lizard, on Touchand Go)
M Ward "To Go Home" (Post-War, on Merge)
Stuart A Staples "Already Gone" (Leaving Songs, on Beggars Banquet)
Scott H. Biram "Goin' Home" (Graveyard Shift, on Bloodshot)
The Divine Comedy "Something For The Weekend" (Cassanova, on Setanta)
The Decemberists "The Engine Driver" (Picaresque, on KillRock Stars)
The World Provider "Valentine" (Lost Illusions, on Ta-Da)
The Deadly Snakes "Work" (Porcella, on In the Red)
Man Man "Six Demon Bag" (Van Helsing Boombox, on Ace Fu) :
Tegan and Sara "City Girl" (If I Was You, on Vapor)
Animal Collective "Fickle Cycle" (Grass Single, on Fat Cat)

Final Fantasy: Interview

2006-08-19T01:18:00.000-07:00

The following recommendation was originally published by The Austin Chronicle on August 17. It is reproduced here because it is no longer available online.

There’s no denying it, Owen Pallett poos clouds. Whether he’s achieving transcendence through the perennial mourn of The Arcade Fire’s Funeral or adding the final symphonic glaze to Grizzly Bear’s Yellow House, everything Pallett touches transforms into a suspended state of illuminated beauty.

His second overcast as Final Fantasy, He Poos Clouds (Tomlab), is no exception. The album is meticulously crafted, weaving elegant string and piano arrangements around the frail wavering of Pallet’s poetry. Andrew Bird’s Mysterious Production floats within Patrick Wolf’s Wind in the Wires.

It is also without a doubt the greatest record inspired by the game Dungeons and Dragons. “Every different song is about a specific school of magic,” Pallett explains from Portland where he’s searching for the perfect midi sound for his current tour.

“Arctic Circle,” which opens the album with a series of ascending violin notes that quickly builds to the anxiety of a Forgotten Realms campaign, “is about adjuration, which is the art of protecting one’s self.” “Do You Love” appropriates the art of transmutation through analogies to cooking and plastic surgery while “This Lamb Sells Condos,” a sly reference to Toronto-based condominium broker Brad J. Lamb, proposes “that the art of conjuration leads to baldness and impotence,” Pallett says.

Though part of the magic and allure of He Poos Clouds lies within the grandiose production of the St. Kitts String Quartet, Pallett renders the album live alone. “I do a lot of looping,” the frequent Hidden Cameras collaborator clarifies. “The solo show is much more punk rock I guess, just having just one guy on stage fumbling through these songs that normally have an orchestra playing them. It’s like a Tetris game if you want to get really specific, seeing pieces fall into place and lines getting cleared.”

Because I know that many of you would like to know the latest on The Arcade Fire and some of Pallett's other projects, feel free to email me for a transcribed copy.

Playlist: 29 Jul 2006

2006-08-08T00:12:00.000-07:00

This is what playlists look like when you hit the snooze bottom too many times...

Fully Fullwood "Utopia" (For All Time, on Big Daddy)
Television Hill "Jewel of Texas" (Twilight, on Teneral)
Cut Chemist "What's The Altitude ft. Hymnal" (TheAudience's Listening, on WB)
Jucifer "She Tides the Deep" (A Thine Enemy Hunger, on Relapse)
The Stills "Still In Love Song" (Rememberese, on Vice)
Phosphorescent "Joe Tex, These Naming Blues" (Aw Come Aw Wry, on Misra)
The Theater Fire "These Tears Could Rust a Train"(Everybody has a Dark Side, on Undeniable)
Jesus and the Mary Chain "Just Like Honey" (Psychocandy,on Blanco y Negro
Wire - "Ex Lion Tamer" (Pink Flag)
Black Helicopter "Hand of Steam" (Invisible Jet, onEcstatic Peace!)
Mew "Why Are You Looking Grave" (And The Glass Handed Kites, on Columbia)
Erase Errata "Rider" (Nightlife, on Kill Rock Stars)
Herbert "Something Isn't Right" (Scale, on Accidental)
The Arm "To Yr Id" (Call You Out, on Indierect)
The Prototypes "Je Ne Te Connais Pas" (The Prototypes)
The Brian Jonestown Massacre "God is My Girlfriend" (We Are the Radio, on Tee Pee)
Will Johnson "Mandatory on teh Attack" (Survey/ Voyage, on Misra)
Stone Jack Jones "Vivid" (Bluefolk, on Fictitious)
Will Taylor and the Strings Attached "Easy Rider"(Collaborations, on Heart Music)
Love Is All "Turn the TV Off" (Nine Times That Same Song, on WYR)

Peaches: Live Review

2006-08-03T00:42:00.000-07:00

Emo's recently got a full-frontal taste of Peaches. Read the review here:

http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/review?oid=oid%3A392302

Hank III: Feature

2006-08-02T07:50:00.000-07:00

By the end of his three-hour set, Hank Williams III looks like he’s been to hell and back. He dons a ripped up black shirt that reveals his numerous tattoos and protruding veins. His eyes glare demonically into the crowd as he belts out a dark and chilling growl. His hair swings freely as he head-bangs violently.

Beside him, band background screamer Gary Lindsey punches himself in the face with the microphone, causing blood to spurt uncontrollably onto the crowd.

The audience, what’s left of it at least, appears as though they made the hellacious journey as well. The mosh pit is crawling with broken and bruised bodies—for a moment they pause to raise fists triumphantly into the air.

This isn’t Nashville. Hell, this isn’t even country music. This is turned-on, tuned-down and droned-out Dead Kennedys-style punk rock that bleeds sludge metal, exactly the way Hank III wants it to be played.

Of course, the night never begins this way. This is merely one-third of the unholy trinity that is a Hank III show—the part that’s only allowed out after midnight.

For the rest of this article check out the Salt Lake City Weekly article here:
http://www.slweekly.com/article.cfm/threesidesofhank

Playlist: 22 Jul 2006

2006-07-28T08:48:00.000-07:00

Kalas "Frozen Sun" (Kalas, on Tee Pee) Boris "Farewell" (Pink, on Southern Lord)
Oneida "Up With People" (Happy New Year, on Jagjaguwar)
Cursive "The Censor" (Dorothy at Forty, on Saddle Creek)
Bonnie Prince Billy "God's Small Song" (Cursed Sleep, on Drag City)
Phoenix "Consolation Prizes" (It's Never Been Like That, on Astralwerks) Camera Obscura "Let's Get Out of This Country" (Let's GetOut of This Country, on Merge)
Ghostigal "The Heart" (In Cod We Trust, on Ipecac)
People Under the Stairs "Step In" (Stepfather, on Basement)
KRS ONE "F-cked Up" (Life, on Antagonist)
Explosions in the Sky "Snow and Lights" (How Strange,Innocence, on Sad Loud America)
Single Frame "Icon" (Everything What's To Be Used ForWhat It Was Made For, on Volcom
Awesome Color "Animal" (Awesome Color, on Ecstatic Peace!)
Tam "No Cars Go" (Tam, on Ecstatic Peace!)
White Flight "The Condition" (White Flight, on Range LifeRecords
Pink Mountaintops "Plastic Man, You're the Devil" (Axis of Evol, on Jagjaguwar) Centro-matic "Patience For the Ride" (Fort Recovery, on Misra)
Constantines "Hotline Operator" (Tournament of Hearts, on Sub Pop)
Dirty on Purpose "Car No-Drive" (Hallelujah Sirens, on North Street Records)
Saxon Shore "With a Red Suit You Will Become a Man" (TheExquisite Death Of, on Burnt Toast Vinyl)
Midlake "Young Bride" (The Trials of Van Occupanther, on Bella Union)
Pelican "GW" (Australasia, on Hydra Head)
What Made Milwaukee Famous "Mercy Me" (College Ruled, on KVRX)
Black Heart Procession "To Bring You Back" (The Curse, on Touch and Go)
Ladyhawk "Long 'Til The Morning" (Ladyhawk, on Jagjaguwar)

I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness: Single Review

2006-07-28T08:32:00.000-07:00

I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness
According to Plan Single
Secretly Canadian

“According to Plan” is the lead single from I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness’s new album, Fear Is On Our Side, it’s got a throwback 80s feel that Michael Jackson could singer over, though the band takes it into the darker, more mysterious path of Joy Division and The Cure. It’s what has come to be expected from this Austin quartet who somehow manages to make evil new wave dance numbers. “Close to Here” is a B-side that slowly builds from a whisper to an absolute roaring of guitars, an even stronger showing than single. “Better Strangers,” a newly recorded song, is slow and anticlimactic, but enough to tide over fans until another full length comes out.

MP3:

According To Plan

The Rakes: Album Review

2006-07-28T08:22:00.000-07:00

The Rakes
Capture/ Release
V2
7.2 out of 10

The Rakes are the latest UK export to combine The Clash and Gang of Four (see The Futureheads, Franz Ferdinand, The Strokes and Razorlight) for an amazing debut album that rocks as hard as it rolls. Produced by Paul Epworth (the genius behind Maximo Park and Bloc Party) this record perfectly captures the middle class urban decay and routine boredom that shot Arctic Monkeys straight to the pop of the charts. If the other bands shamelessly name dropped here are any indication, The Rakes sophomore effort should be something to seriously look forward to. In fact, some new tracks can be streamed here:

http://www.therakes.co.uk/go.php?object=music_and_video

Block Buster Wrestling: Feature

2006-07-26T15:09:00.000-07:00

Warning: The following story has absolutely nothing to do with music whatsoever (except for the fact that the title is borrowed from the latest Paul McCartney album and one of the subtitles references a record by Hatebreed).

This is a story I've been wanting to write for a very, very long-time. It is essentially the Cliff Notes version of Tommy and Scotty Childers's lives, two kids from my hometown of New Braunfels that started a backyard wrestling organization. I know not many appreciate or understand the value and signifiance that professional wrestling plays in some people's lives, but I think everyone can relate to a desire to escape from the monotomy of life and its daily trials and tribulations to a world of their own or someone else's creation.

Chaos and Creation in the Backyard

Greg Graffin: Album Review

2006-07-25T06:43:00.000-07:00

Greg Graffin
Cold as the Clay
Anti
5.8 out of 10

Though the term and the genre may not have existed at the time, folk icon Woody Guthrie stood for everything that’s now considered to be punk rock. Ever since, the line between political poets and pissed off punks has gone grown increasingly thin, or in the case of Cold as the Clay, they are one in the same.

Greg Graffin is best known as the frontman for the revered Southern California hardcore punk band Bad Religion, who made a quite name for itself in the early 80s with its insightful lyricism and progressive sound. He also helped create Epitaph Records, which like the band itself, continues to thrive today.

Graffin isn’t your typical anarchist off the street though. He has a Masters degree in Geology from UCLA and a PhD in Biology from Cornell University. As such, he’s never been contempt with locking himself into one genre or outlet for his frustrations.

Cold as the Clay is a traditional folk album meant to pass along the tales from the old-time while sitting on a back porch somewhere in rural America. The majority of the album finds Graffin updating classic numbers like “Little Sadie,” “Omie Wise,” “Talk About Suffering” “Willie Moore” and “One More Hill” with the help of the Weakerthans.

The originals aren’t half bad either. “Don’t Be Afraid to Run” has a sound similar to Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks while the combination of steel guitar and Julie Holland’s harmonies on the title track help add the country twang Graffin’s striving for. And “Rebel’s Goodbye,” like all good Bad Religion songs, finds its strength within Graffin’s passionate, slightly pissed off vocals. It’s not punk rock, but it’s as close to it as you can get with a banjo in the mix.

MP3s:
Don't Be Afraid To Run
Talk About Suffering

Playlist: 18 Jul 2006

2006-07-25T06:37:00.000-07:00

Black Flag "Rise Above" (Damaged, on Roadrunner) [M]
Dinosaur Jr. "Thumb" (Green Mind, Blanco y Negro/ Sire) [R]
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah "The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth" (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, self-released) [R]
Hot Chip "Over and Over" (The Warning, on DFA/ Astralwerks) [R, new]
Regina Skeptor "Fidelity" (Begin to Hope, on Sire) [R, new]
Glass Eye "Cecelia" (Christine, on Restless) [R]
Voxtrot "Mothers, Sisters, Daughters and Wives" (Mothers, Sisters, Daughters and Wives EP, on Cult Hero) [R]
Neko Case "Star Witness" (The Fox Confessor Brings The Flood, on Anti) [R]
Cat Power "The Greatest" (The Greatest, on Matador) [R]
Danielson "Time That Bald Sexton" (Ships, on Secretly Canadian) [R]
CSS "Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above" (Cansei De Ser Sexy, on Sub Pop) [D, new]
Devotchka "I Cried Like A Silly Boy" (Curse Your Little Heart, on Ace Fu) [W, new]
Dr. Octagon "A Gorilla Driving a Pick-Up Truck" (The Return of Dr. Octagon, on OCD) [H, new]
Peeping Tom "Five Seconds" (Peeping Tom, on Ipecac) [H]
Spank Rock "Rick Rubin" (Yo Yo Yo Yo, on Big Dada) [H]
James Figurine "Leftovers" (Mistake Mistake Mistake Mistake, on Plug Research) [D, new]
Gotan Project "Criminal" (Lunatico, on XL/ Beggars) [W, new]
Brian Eno "Triennale" (Shutov Assembly, on Compounds and Elements) [E]
Beat Happening "Crashing Through" (Crashing Through EP, on K) [R]
Ghost of the Russian Empire "August 1914" (With Fiercest Demolition, on Thirty Ghosts) [R]
Magnolia Electric Co. "Don't Fade On Me" (Fading Trails, on Secretly Canadian) [R]
Shearwater "Seventy-four, Seventy-five" (Palo Santo, on Misra) [R]
Shapes and Sizes "Island's Gone Bad" (Shapes and Sizes, on Asthmatic Kitty) [R, new]
Final Fantasy "This Lamb Sells Condos" (He Poos Clouds, on Tomlab) [R, new]
The Black Heart Procession "The Letter" (The Spell, on Touch and Go) [R, new]
Andrew Bird "Fake Palindromes" (Andrew Bird and the Mysterious Production of Eggs, on Righteous Babe) [R]
Mission of Burma "2wice" (The Obliterati, on Matador) [R]

Stuart A. Staples: Album Review

2006-07-22T08:55:00.000-07:00

Stuart A. Staples
Leaving Songs
Beggar’s Banquet
7.8 out of 10

Stuart A. Staples, the former lead singer of the Tindersticks, has the type of voice that sounds like it’s been dragged through the dirt – ragged, broken and wrecked by one too many cartons of cigarettes. As such, it’s perfect for an album like Leaving Songs, a collection of melancholic reveries about departure and loss.

With his abused, deep croon that recalls both Mark Lanegan and Tom Waits, Staples pulls off the same fleeting desperation captured on late Johnny Cash records, where every songs sounds like a struggle to survive. “Old Friends No. 1” looks at fleeting memories through the bottom of an empty beer bottle, crooning lines like “I’ve been drunk and stoned and feeling mellow” while breezy trumpets accentuate the chorus lines.

More upbeat numbers like the sweeping violin infected “Which Way the Wind” hits close to a cross between Richard Hawley and Roy Orbison and duets with Maria McKee (“This Road is Long”) and Lhasa de Sela (“That Leaving Feeling”) offer a much needed change in perspective midway through the record.

Perhaps most powerful though is the quivering, languid romanticism of “Already Gone” which seamlessly blends gorgeous finger picking, violins, and horn lines to suggest that some things end before they even have the chance to begin. And somehow, there’s beauty to be found somewhere within the process.

Blue Cheer: Live Review

2006-07-22T08:39:00.000-07:00

July 16^th, 2006, will always be remembered as the last time I ever went to a concert without earplugs. It’s been nearly five days and the ringing in my ears has yet to cease (will someone please answer at that fucking phone!).

The show at Emo’s began with local three-piece instrumental onslaught Tia Carrera, whose 30-minute improvised jam fused the psychedelics of Hendrix with the mayhem of the Melvins. Aside from perhaps Pelican and Mogwai, no one could have been this loud without ushering a single word (excluding the brief “thanks” at the end of the set). They droned endlessly into Dead Meadow and left me stranded somewhere within Kyuss’s desert blues. In the end, Jason Morales’s guitar was gently weeping; my ears were gently bleeding; it was incredible.

Later, The Black Angels performed the way I wished the Secret Machines still sounded – tense and surreal, slowly building from a repetitive haze into an overture of noise and feedback. The local six-piece pulled heavily from its stunning debut album Passover, including “The First Vietnamese War,” “Sniper at the Gates of Heaven” and “Empire.”

Blue Cheer’s debut in Austin has been 40 years in the making. Well, actually, bassist/ vocalist Dickie Peterson claimed that he’d been wanting to perform here since Janis Joplin told him about the city when he was 18. Regardless, the original power trio of heavy metal wailed (and that’s not a term I just throw around).

Peterson’s deep growl has only gotten better with age. His blues sounded more sorrowful and soulful; his rock ‘n’ roll sounded more fiery and ferocious. Drummer Paul Whaley blasted beats with the vigor of a man half his age. Andrew MacDonald proved to be the very definition of a shredder – his virtuosity and flooring volume simply stole the show.

Blue Cheer kicked the dust off a couple classics from Vincebus Eruptum like “Out Of Focus” and “Second Time Around” but as always, the band sounded best with its interpretations of other’s work (not unlike Tia Carrera). The group did no harm (except to my aforementioned ears) with Mose Allison’s “Parchment Farm” and got down and dirty on a cover of Willie Dixon’s “Hoochie Coochie Man” and of course, Jerry Capehart’s “Summertime Blues.”

Hopefully the beast will be back. Next time I’ll be ready.

MP3s:

Tia Carrera - While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Originally performed by The Beatles)

Tia Carrera - Baba O’ Riley (Originally performed by The Who)

The Black Angels – The First Vietnamese War

The Black Angels – Bloodhounds on My Trail

Be Your Own Pet: Interview

2006-07-19T16:24:00.000-07:00

Be Your Own Pet came out kicking and screaming with its self-titled debut album, churning out adolescent anthems that threatened to steal both your money and virginity. The four teenage punks, led by vixen Jemina Pearl, had clearly caught the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Fever to Tell and weren’t afraid to spit it back in everyone’s face in playful, two-minute attacks of noise that screamed “I’m an independent mother fucker” (“Bunk Trunk Funk”) and proclaimed “I’ve never had this much fun” (“Thresher’s Flail").

The group brings to mind an age we all wish we were still at, where we could live with reckless abandon because we never thought we’d have to grow up to face the consequences.

At the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, Pearl took the stage and promptly declared, “So what’s up all you hippies? It’s hot and it smells like weed.” It was obvious that the band’s recent wave of success hadn’t changed their personal motives. Be Your Own Pet would have been a lot happier and more comfortable playing to a crowd of 20 friends in a garage thirty minutes away in its hometown of Nashville.

After the show, I caught up with Be Your Own Pet’s founder and drummer, Jamin Orrall, to talk about the band’s beginnings, their hometown and what he anticipates for the future.

Austin In Austin: What was your first experience with Thurston Moore (of Sonic Youth; the band is signed to his Ecstatic Peace! label) like?
Jamin Orrall: Me, my brother and my dad own our own record label (Infinity Cat), that’s what we put the first Be Your Own Pet single (“Damn Damn Leash”) out on. We fill all of the orders ourselves and one day we were just checking out the website and like, one of the orders was from Thurston Moore and we were like ‘Holy shit!’

AIA: So did you personalize it or do anything differently?
JO: Well, we always personalize it; we send out different stuff. So that was really weird and then a while later he came up to us and talked to us about his label. He came down to Nashville and checked out one of our shows, it was really weird.

JO: Did you get to meet him earlier?
AIA: Yeah, I was total geek. I went over there and told him that his recording of Steve Reich’s “Pendulum Music” is now being taught at Universities. I tried to think of something to say that wouldn’t make me sound like an obsessed fan. I don’t think it worked.

AIA: So tell me about Infinity Cat.
JO: It’s kinda a family thing. We started it when I was in a hardcore band, playing some weird stuff early on. So we started the label to put that out and a couple of things from my friends.

AIA: After the single, did it become too much of a hassle? What’s the status of the label now?
JO: No, we still do stuff. We put out another single on it a little while ago. It’s just cool to now be able to go out and see your record in a store and to not have all the hassle.

AIA: What have you’re experiences at SXSW been like?
JO: It’s been okay. I don’t really like SXSW. I think it’s just sleazy and mindless, just industry dudes. I played three shows this past year, two with Be Your Own Pet and one with the other band I’m in with my brother called Jeff. It’s fun to play but the crowds are always kind of weird. It’s just so stale. I’d rather just play a normal show.

AIA: I would imagine that for a band it feels something like prostitution.
JO: Yeah, totally. I don’t know. This year we weren’t even looking for anything. Last year, we were like “This sucks,” cause you basically have to go somewhere and play for people because they won’t come and see you. You’re the one making the music, you know.

AIA: Well, you’re from Nashville. Is this your first experience at Bonnaroo?
JO: Yeah, I don’t think my mom would have ever let me go before. I just turned 18 a couple of weeks ago. I just got my driver’s license as well. So I don’t think she would have let me go the past couple of years. I haven’t had a desire to come though really at all. Playing it’s cool, I just wouldn’t come.

AIA: Why is that?
JO: I just don’t really like festivals that much. Crowds and heat and…
AIA: Sleeping in a tent…
JO: Yeah, well I could sleep in a tent, just not in a sea of tents. It’s just way too crowded and way too expensive.

AIA: What’s it like then being so young and on a nationwide tour?
JO: I don’t think it’s that much different than when you’re older. They don’t put beer in our dressing room and we’re not allowed to drink but I don’t know. I can’t tell. I don’t know what it’s like when you’re older.

AIA: Does your mom trust you out on tour now?
JO: My mom’s always trusted me. My parents have always supported that side of me.

AIA: With a label and family that supports you, where do you see Be Your Own Pet in the next 5 years?
JO: I have no idea. I’ve been thinking about that lately. Hopefully we’ll be doing something completely different. I don’t think we’ll ever want to do the same thing twice.

AIA: Are there any bands you look to in terms of progressing and changing over the years?
JO: My influences will always be my friend’s band and stuff.

AIA: Why is that?
JO: Just cause it’s people I spend time with and like, I can relate to them. We like to play shows together and push each other to try new things. Watching them do something that you really, really like is really inspiring.

AIA: The only other person I’ve spoken to from Nashville is Hank Williams III and he bashes the area every chance he gets.
JO: What’s label is he on? Curb Records? That’s probably why.

AIA: So what is it like in Nashville?
JO: I like Nashville. I grew up there so all of my friends are there and you meet people that you like to spend time with and create things with. I think you can do that anywhere though.

AIA: So is there a club scene that supports you guys?
JO: No, not necessarily. All of our shows, cause we’re all in different bands and stuff, are just at each other’s houses and little art galleries. We try to do stuff all ages a lot, but that’s really hard. There’s only a few good venues that’ll have us.

AIA: So what’s the biggest difference for you when going from garages to a festival like Bonnaroo or just being on tour?
JO: It’s really weird. I don’t know.

AIA: Do you worry ever that Be Your Own Pet may get too big?
JO: It’s not realistic for me to think about that. If it ever got to be a problem and we didn’t like it, we’d just throw in the towel. That’d be it.

Playlist: 11 Jul 2006

2006-07-18T14:08:00.000-07:00

Shellac "Prayer to God" (1000 Hurts, on Touch and Go) [R]
Be Your Own Pet "Ouch" (Be Your Own Pet, on Ecstatic Peace) [R, new]
A Frames "Traction" (Police 1000 Single, on Sub Pop) [R, new]
The Rakes "Strasbourg" (Capture/ ReleaseI, on V2) [R, new]
The Rakes "Retreat" (Capture/ Release, on V2) [R, new]
Evangelicals "Here Comes Trouble" (So Gone, on Misra) [E, new]
Bedroom Walls "Do the Buildings and Cops Make You Smile" (Do the Buildings and Cops Make You Smile EP, on Baria) [R, new]
Astronautalis "Seaweed Sheets" (The Mighty Ocean and Nine Dark Theaters, on Fighting) [H, new]
Serena-Maneesh "Selina's Melodie Fountain" (Serena-Maneesh, on Honeymilk) [R]
Tarantula A.D. "Grazie Signore" (Atlantic, on Kemado) [M]
Tacks, The Boy Disaster "Matilda" (Oh, Beatrice, Self-released) [R]
Joy Division "Atrocity Exhibition" (Closer, On QWest) [R]
Windsor for the Derby "Untitled Five" (Calm Hedes Fleat, on Secretly Canadian) [D]
Four Tet "Sun, Drums and Soil" (Sun, Drums and Soil, on Domino) [D]
Portastatic "The Search For Daniel" (Origianl Film Score for Who Loves the Sun, On Merge) [O, new]
Tapes n Tapes "In Houston" (The Loon, on XL) [R]
Built to Spill "Wherever You Go" (You In Reverse, on Warner Brothers) [R]
Gogol Bordello "Sally" (Gyspy Punks Underworld Punk Strike, on Side One Dummy) [R]
Brightblack Morning Light "Everybody Daylight" (Brightblack Morning Light, on Matador) [R]
Charlie Christian "Good Enough to Keep" (Solo Flight: The Genius of Charlie Christian, on Columbia) [J]
South Austin Jug Band "No Baby Swings Like Mine" (Dark and Weary World, on Blue Corn Music) [C, new]
The Black Angels "Empire" (Passover, on Light in the Attic) [R, new]
Sonic Youth "Pink Stream" (Rater Ripped, On Geffen) [R, new]

Ladyhawk: Album Review

2006-07-08T01:01:00.000-07:00

Ladyhawk – Ladyhawk
(Jagjaguwar)
8.3 out of 10

Listening to Ladyhawk takes one into a shitty, cramped kitchenette – flies hovering over last Tuesday’s pizza still sitting on the counter, empty beer cans littering the sodden and stained carpet – where you share the same restroom with thirteen strangers. In this blank space that suffocates every color of one’s existence, a struggle begins to understand the harsh realities of life – the loss of childhood innocence, the accumulation of debt and dread, the thought of death lurking just around the bend.

Perhaps it’s for this reason that Ladyhawk credit a spiritual advisor, Steve Hubert, in the linear notes for its self-titled debut album. Hopefully he’s not the creature prancing around naked on the cover, alone in the woods save for a small campfire, several glass candles, a 24-pack, some figurines, a teddy bear and a manikin head.

But if “Advice” is any indication of his teachings, the band is manipulating its cynicism and nihilism into an excuse to live a life determined by selfish impulses and the negligence of its consequences. And the band’s doing it with a reckless abandon not heard since The Replacements, where feedback and broken bottles are used as metaphors for the turbulent, unsustainable pace of one’s life. Over bracing, distorted guitars that reverberate through carefully contrived space, giving the effect of smoke drifting off a burning candle or the exhale of yet another drag, Duffy Driediger declares:

“Don’t take it personal when they forget about you / Cause you’re just a drop in a bucket, money for the stew / To be chewed up and swallowed and spit back out / Just cause it’s cruel doesn’t mean it’s not true.”
He adds later, “Take my advice my friend / Listen to me / Don’t work for nothing / No, don’t work for free / … Soon you’ be fifty / soon you’ll be dead / So smoke if you wanna and drink up your filth / Your good lucks are fading fast so fuck who you will.”

The sentiments are delivered in the same convincing manner as Okkervil River’s Will Sheff, where the strain and the sincerity evoked carry more weight than the words alone. It’s the band’s biggest strength, allowing songs like the herky-jerky hand-clap affair of “My Old Jacknife” or the melodramatic “Summertime Love Song” to be overshadowed by the chaotic energy of “Came In Brave.”

Of course it helps that Ladyhawk introduces itself from the beginning of “48 Hours” as the next great indie guitar rock band, taking the torch that has been passed from Neil Young to J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr) to Doug Martsch (Built to Spill). “The Dugout” revels in a desperate plunge of rhythm guitars that seem to scream along with Driediger “Tell me the truth of your heart / Please tell me / Please tell me” while “Drunk Eyes” saddles itself up Crazy Horse.

Then there’s “Long ‘Til the Morning,” whose minute long opening mirage and slow burning slap back echo sounds like the result of a camping trip spent with Great Lake Swimmers, My Morning Jacket and Band of Horses – absolutely breathtaking.

Whatever Hubert has the band doing, it’s obviously working.

MP3: Dugout

The Sound The Hare Heard: Album Review

2006-07-06T01:02:00.000-07:00

Various Artists
The Sound the Hare Heard
Kill Rock Stars
5.5 out of 10

Sufjan Stevens does for compilation records what Morgan Freeman’s voice does for blockbuster movies – add instant credibility and ensure national attention. In some instances, the two are given phenomenal original material which they are paid to perform lip service to (“Variation On ‘Commemorative Transfiguration and Communion at Magruder Park’” from I Am the Resurrection: A Tribute to John Fahey, “She Is” from Dream Brother: Tribute to Tim and Jeff Buckley, “What Goes On” from This Bird Has Flown: A 40th Anniversary Tribute to the Beatles’ Rubber Soul and “War of the Worlds” respectively). Other times, their additions are the extra boost that turns a mediocre project into something remarkable (“Opie’s Funeral Song” from Mews Too: An Asthmatic Kitty Compilation, “To Be Alone With You” from Music for the OC: Mix 4 and “March of the Penguins,” Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D” respectively).

On The Sound the Hare Heard Stevens is called upon to do the latter. What he offers up is an unreleased song originally recorded for last year’s critically acclaimed Illinois. “Adlai Stevenson” chronicles the former Illinois governor’s accidental murder of a childhood friend using a barrage of single guitar notes and sparse drumming. It’s a short track, one that bursts with Stevens’ usual colorful innocence, but nothing that forces you to buy this compilation before the upcoming release of The Avalanche.

Highlights include Devin Davis’s album opener “When the Angels Lift Our Eyelids in the Morning,” which uses a harmonica and guitar to pave a gentle path for his beautiful, yearning vocals and straining, off-kilter falsetto in attempt to catch a moment that is quickly fleeting. Essie Jain later encloses herself within a wall of light piano rhythms and building tension to revel in a state of constant guard and questioning on “Why.” Current Yeah Yeah Yeah’s touring guitarist and Alaska! songsmith Imaad Wasif’s “Other Voices” is a plaintive, haunting acoustic ballad that finds strength in its vocal harmonies and empty spacing though it fails to grab listeners the way Jose Gonzales does using the same technique.

On the downside, Ontario’s Great Lake Swimmers contribute “Where in the World Are You” to the cause – a song that recalls the band’s minimalist beginnings while finally answering the age old question of ‘can you ever have too much reverb?’ Kill Rock Stars owner Slim Moon also slips in some forgettable tunes from his current roster, including Jeff Hanson (no, not that Hanson) and Wooden Wand (“Daylight” and “Bones For Doctor Swah” respectively). And it’s best to disassociate Colin Meloy’s disappointing droning drum track riddled “Lazy Little Ada” from the full blown brilliance of his full-time band The Decemberists.

Of course there’s some sort of Chinese parable invoked by the title, but if the music isn’t going to shed light to its meaning, why should any one else?

MP3: Thao Nguyen - “Feet Asleep”

The Oklahomos: Feature

2006-07-06T00:15:00.000-07:00

It's 2:11 a.m. and OU still sucks.

Let me just say, this article on local trash metal punks The Oklahomos is downright disturbing. In fact, I can't even believe that The Daily Texan published it.

Read it in its entirety here:
http://dtweekend.com/070606/who.html

And be sure to check out The Oklahomos on the web:
http://www.myspace.com/oklahomos

Band of Horses: Live review

2006-07-05T23:23:00.000-07:00

Somewhere in the reverb oscillating between Jim James and Will Johnson lays the bittersweet country-fried drawl of Band of Horses’ Ben Bridwell.

When the band halted its carriage at The Parish Room on June 25th, it was quiet apparent that it had recently passed through Houston. The group took the stage as T.I.’s latest blared incessantly through the house PA, leading Bridwell to develop a running shtick with the audience that involved “homies” and “baby mommas” (all of which sounded utterly ridiculous, but completely laughable coming from a tattooed northerner dressed in flannel shirt and trucker hat).

“We’ve been getting lazy lately,” Bridwell confessed to the sold-out audience. “Our sets keep getting shorter and shorter but we’re gonna party tonight. We’re everything we can think of.”

Sure enough, Band of Horses rolled through its stellar debut album, Everything All of the Time, in its entirety from the slow, sweet steel guitar opener “The First Song” to the melancholy My Morning Jacket-esque “The Funeral,” requiring more guitar changes than a Sonic Youth show. With as many tuning adjustments that the band made that night, its no surprise the audience was treated to a unique rendition of “Our Swords” where Bridwell’s bass strings sounded as though they had been covered in aluminum foil and were slowly tearing apart with each strum.

The Seattle stewards also debuted a couple of new tunes that may be released on the EP A Little Bit Too Quick next year, including “Detlef Shrempf,” a majestic and meditative slice of southern comfort that has absolutely nothing to do with the awkward German basketball player that somehow became a three-time NBA All-Star. “Buying Time” hinted at something more rambunctious like the group’s “Weed Party” while “No One’s Gonna Love You” had a drifting backdrop of melodic noise that beautifully revealed Bridwell’s sincere, yet desperate declaration of adoration and dependence.

Just like T.I., the King was back!

mp3: from Everything All the Time

Funeral.mp3

Dingle.mp3

Wicked.mp3

Bass Song .mp3

the pAper chAse: album review

2006-06-29T00:49:00.000-07:00

The pAper chAse
Now You Are One of Us (Kill Rock Stars)
6.1 out of 10

John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats plunged into the depths of divorce, depravity and death, swung from an utterly mundane pendulum of love and lust, to create the conceptual masterpiece, All Hail West Texas. The record is an equally humorous and intelligent musical coming-of-age in the post-modern and post-high school star running back experience in the lone star state.

It’s not a far stretch from Darnielle’s description of “The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton,” to that of the pAper chAse, an avant-noise outfit recently named the “Best Experimental” band in Dallas. Those capital A’s symbolize pure anarchy by the way if you didn’t catch it. In all fairness, the group was named “Best Electronic” act as well, though it was more by default than actual prevalence (there’s not exactly a raging music scene in the big D; seriously… Burden Brothers took top honors for “Best Hard Rock” band without even releasing a record or touring much last year).

What’s ironic, and in this case unfortunate, is that lead ghost (what the band members describe and portray themselves as) John Congleton, who acts as producer on top of handling vocals, guitar and random weird noises, channels Darnielle’s stridulous nasal-driven delivery while stripping away everything that made the Mountain Goats instantly enjoyable. In place of sarcasm, relatable emotion and off the cuff poetic banter, there is overwhelming paranoia with doom lurking behind every corner and every window curtain. For the Cliff Notes version, just check out the song titles (“It’s Out There and It’s Going to Get You,” “We Will Make You One of Us,” “The House is Alive and the House is Hungry”).

Aside from “You Will Never Take Me Alive” though, which could easily be this year’s “Dilaudid” with its stark cello opening and emphasis on Congleton’s vehement prose, the pAper chAse take large strides to distance itself from too many other comparisons by creating a haunted house of sound effects and stentorian guitars.

The shift works well within the context of Now You Are One of Us, an album that could easily double as the soundtrack to “Night of the Living Dead.” The record begins with a tension-building, minute long intro of found sound that features frantic and panicky voices (in this case not Congleton) over stuttering violin lines that sound like a zombie attempting to catch its breath. The song creeps its way into “We Know Where You Sleep,” which like a good 1950s B-horror film (“The Thing,” “The Day Earth Stood Still,” “The Ten Commandments”) uses a theremin as a scare tactic.

From there it’s one aggressively boisterous moment after the other. The piano notes drip like a broken faucet and crawl like a black widow on “The Kids Will Grow Up to Be Assholes.” The keyboards bang on Cursive’s “Ugly Organ” during “You’re One of Them Aren’t You.” The violins slash and burn throughout, adding an eerie sense of beauty to the collage of confusion. The stridulous, obstreperous guitars kill in the name of Tom Morello and Buzz Osbourne on everything else.

While the band succeeds in creating a disturbing sense of pandemonium, by the halfway point the listener is dead tired of having Congleton’s dread and misery forced down their throat. Somewhere he has created a noose from a neck tie and is dangling atop a cubicle or resting with his head in an oven, but after four albums of these painful emo tendencies enough is simply enough. Don’t say “I’m running out of songs to sing about this wicked world breaking my heart,” just stop.

For in the end, if one could choose between Darnielle’s comic creation that salutes West Texas, or the sad reality of Congleton’s panic-stricken life, the clear choice is self-evident. As the best ever death metal band in Denton would say, “Hail Satan!”

MP3:
"we know where you sleep"

To purchase:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FFP05U/sr=8-2/qid=1151565485/ref=pd_bbs_2/104-5526252-5443116?ie=UTF8

Beck: Master of Puppets

2006-06-29T00:46:00.000-07:00

On a hoisted stage surrounded by red curtains, backed by a large projection screen and illuminated with a flood of colorful lights, a band of puppets danced, sang and performed for more than 5,000 people Tuesday night at The Backyard.

They had their own dressing room, luxury tour bus, wardrobe, video monitors and production team, but these weren't ordinary puppets. They were scaled down, life-like versions of Beck and his entourage, created to emulate the band's every movement at the flick of a wrist. Miniature Beck, for instance, adorned with a brown, broad-brimmed hat, vest and slacks, strummed an acoustic or electric guitar at various points during the night.

For the complete story click here:
http://www.dailytexanonline.com/media/storage/paper410/news/2006/06/23/LifeArts/Strings.Attached-2118260.shtml?norewrite200606290321&sourcedomain=www.dailytexanonline.com

Bonnaroo: Live Review

2006-06-28T23:36:00.000-07:00

A stark naked man swung 20 feet above the stage where dios (malos) was performing. Lead singer Joel Morales paused only briefly to address the situation. “This isn’t a Pearl Jam concert,” he said. Moments later, the man lost his grip and plunged to the ground. Security guards quickly covered his body with a large black tarp, shielding whatever dignity that still remained. He was then airlifted to a nearby hospital.

Mere hours later, Electric Eel Shock drummer Tomoharu Ito was banging out balls to the wall rhythms with only a large white tube sock covering his genitalia. With devil horns raised triumphantly in the air, the band moved the audience into a mosh pit with its Japanese translation of American metal.

Such was the atmosphere of the 2006 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, June 15-18 in Manchester, Tennessee.

The former was a prime example of the laid back approach the festival took to manage its 80,000 attendees. Individuals were trusted to handle themselves in a manner that was respectful to the environment and to those around them. Except for the occasional idiot who acted out of their own accord, the entire weekend went off without a hitch. It was a testament to the event and its participants that campers were able to leave their belongings unguarded in their tents for days at a time without having anything stolen.

The latter represented the broad diversity of the festival which allowed artists to reach an audience they might not normally attract, while attendees were able to see bands with distinctly different styles and origins all in one place. The spacing of the eight stages and various activities also allowed patrons to visualize the connection between disparate musical acts of past and present, along with the art, comedy and culture that encompassed it.

Thursday’s highlights included a breathtaking set from The Wood Brothers that pulled heavily from their debut album Ways Not to Lose. Comprised of Oliver Wood, the frontman of the legendary blues rock band King Johnson and his brother, Chris Wood, of Medeski, Martin and Wood (who weren’t too shabby themselves at the festival), the duo delivered a smooth blend of jazz and down home country that perfectly encapsulated the mood present at Bonnaroo.

In the “Yet Another Comedy Tent” Demetri Martin delivered streamlines of one-liners that consisted of casual observations (“Hot potato is a very different game when you’re starving”) over basic chord progressions on an acoustic guitar – spoken not sung. The comedy tent proved to be one of the biggest draws of the festival, often resulting in massive lines for entry and a one-out, one-in admittance.

The spotlight seemed to fall on the next generation of indie music giants Friday. Devotchka, who use instruments on stage that most wouldn’t be able to pick out of a line-up – a Theremin, a bouzouki, a sousaphone, an accordion, an upright bass, a violin – created a freak folk explosion that would have fit right in at the local county fair. With the slap back echo placed on Nick Urata’s crooning vocals, the band offered a unique sound that fell somewhere between the lonely worlds of Roy Orbison and Tom Waits.

Later, Andrew Bird, a one-man supergroup entranced audiences with his technical and musical capabilities. A classically trained violin virtuoso, Bird plucked, blew and scraped his stringed instrument, then immediately looped and layered the sound to create an intimate and detailed sonic soundscape. On top of this platform he whistled, strummed a distorted electric guitar and lightly taped a xylophone, and sang, producing the dynamic of a full-scale band comparable to the likes of Damien Rice. Due to the complicated production technique involved, his music is something that one must see live to fully appreciate.

Bright Eyes turned out a remarkable performance packed with some extraordinary special guests. After making his way through classic numbers like “Lover I Don’t Have to Love,” Conor Oberst and company were joined by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings for a breathtaking rendition of “Lua.” Later, Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals, graced the stage for a solo performance of “Hello Sunshine,” which Oberst declared to be the “theme song for Bonnaroo.”

Cat Power and Death Cab For Cutie were both crowd favorites while My Morning Jacket, whose lead singer, Jim James, also joined Bright Eyes on stage, closed the night with a three-hour set that was as energetic when it began as it was when it ended at three in the morning (aided by the vodka energy drinks James spoke so highly about before the festival). The performance was epic; the band roared with an onslaught of guitars that overcame the wave of disappointment felt by Tom Petty’s lackluster performance (which began 30 minutes late and ended 45 minutes early).

Saturday at Bonnaroo was carved out for legends. Buddy Guy taught a thorough history of the blues – performing covers of everyone from Stevie Ray Vaughn and Albert King to Muddy Waters and Eric Clapton, while throwing in some Ray Charles and “some Buddy Guy shit” for good measure. “I feel good,” Guy screamed in to the microphone. “You’re going to have to stop me tonight.” He then made his way into the crowd, polka dot guitar ablaze, attracting a horde of followers and more than one kiss on the cheek.

On the main stage, Elvis Costello rolled through his greatest hits along with a few from his latest, River In Reverse, for which he welcomed New Orleans legend Allen Toussaint to the stage. Beck delivered an amazing acoustic set that included “Lost Cause,” “Golden Age,” “One Foot in the Grave” and one verse of the Flaming Lips “Do You Realize” and Radiohead’s “Creep” respectively.

Though the night would end for many with the memorable gathering of Mike Gordon, Joe Russo, Trey Anastatio and Marco Benevento (the newly christened GRAB) at the Superjam, all eyes Saturday night were on Radiohead. Taking the stage to an odd bit of found sound, which continued throughout the night and connected the group’s electronic forays and electric onslaughts, Radiohead performed in front of ten jagged projection screens that gave off the illusion of a broken mirror. The band started things off with two from Hail to the Thief, “There, There” and “2+2=5,” and proceeded with an array of concert staples, namely “The Bends,” “Fake Plastic Trees” and “Paranoid Android” that were as close to a religious experience as one could hope to have surrounded by 80,000 strangers. Radiohead also debuted a number of new songs, most notably “Body Snatchers,” which seemed to allude to another electronic-based release in the vein of Kid A or Amnesiac.

Sunday showed a glimpse of how disastrous the weekend could have been as brief downpours left thousands seeking shelter from the rain. Most took relief in the That Tent which kicked things off early with a ferocious set from Be Your Own Pet. The Nashville natives, who are signed to Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace label, clawed through almost their entire self-titled debut while getting downright confrontational with the crowd, asking them “What’s up all you hippies?”

Stephen Malkmus, of Pavement and Silver Jews fame, offered up his latest solo material, backed by the Jicks, later that day. The real highlight of the evening though came during Sonic Youth’s set when Malkmus joined the band for a stellar and completely unexpected rendition of “Expressway to Yr. Skull.” When asked later about the collaboration, Malkmus casually replied, “I practically begged them to let me do it.” Apparently even for the artists involved, the 2006 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival was only what one chose to make it. Thankfully, most chose well.

Bonnaroo: Press Perks

2006-06-27T15:55:00.000-07:00

The benefits of being a member of the press at Bonnaroo are the stuff of legend: free food, free drinks, air conditioned getaways, batting cages and most importantly, access to special performances and press conferences.

Friday afternoon Alec Ounsworth of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah performed an acoustic four song set that revealed the intricate beauty of his common man poetry and lyricism often lost within the jangled noise of his backing band. With his eyelids fluttering and his harmonica blowing in the wind, Ounsworth sang “The Skin of My Yellow Teeth” and “Details of the War” in a Dylan-like demeanor before ending with “Is This Love?” Had that been all I’d seen at the four-day festival it would have still been worth the 14-hour drive it took to get there.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My notes from that same afternoon, approximately 3:30 p.m:

This is awkward. I’m sitting in a press conference tent surrounded by other music journalists. Ben Folds, who just finished attempting to destroy his piano, thrusting his stool into the piano keys as hard as possible and conducting the crowd like Mickey Mouse in Fantasia, is sitting here slouched over in his chair. Beside him is Jack Antonoff from Steel Train, Robert Randolph in his usual silk shirt and broad brimmed hat, Jim James, of My Morning Jacket, looking as though he just finished chopping down some lumber and comedian Lewis Black appearing exhausted. One after the other they are asked the same boring questions, which in turn, create some predictable answers. One “journalist” even questions Robert Randolph as to what instrument he plays.

After more than 30 minutes, the following can be concluded:
1.Every artist here really, really likes the festival. They tend to describe it as a family reunion or a summer camp.
2. It is something that they look forward to on the calendar.
3. They have a hard time going back to regular shows afterwards.
4. Robert Randolph was once slipped a pot brownie before a show with Gov’t Mule. He didn’t like that at all.
5. What happens in tent city stays in tent city.
6. Ben Folds thinks stem cell research is good. He also attempts to be as cute and witty during interviews as possible.
7. Lewis Black is only funny when he curses loudly.
8. Lewis Black curses loudly pretty often.
9. Lewis Black is extremely funny.
10. People only came to this press conference so they could encircle the artists after the interviews were over.
11. Remind me to show you my picture with Lewis Black some time (he’s a funny guy).

For the official story I wrote for The Daily Texan regarding the 2006 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival click here:
http://www.dailytexanonline.com/media/storage/paper410/news/2006/06/19/LifeArts/Home-Sweet.Home.At.Bonaroo-2104756.shtml?norewrite200606271851&sourcedomain=www.dailytexanonline.com

Electric Eel Shock: Interview

2006-06-26T07:47:00.000-07:00

Rock and Roll Kills the Blues

Amidst the indie and jam band bliss of the 2006 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, Electric Eel Shock’s blend of gritty guitar rock and heavy metal stuck out like a sore thumb. Late Thursday night the Japanese trio jolted audiences awake with a high octane performance that pulled equally from their debut, Go USA! And their latest, Beat Me. With his devil horns raised in the air, Aki Morimoto, the band’s lead singer, reclaimed the electric guitar as a phallic symbol - straddling it, moaning to it, humping it against his microphone stand – allowing his guitar prowess to establish his physical presence.

I spoke with Morimoto after the show about business, touring and Bonnaroo:
Austin: So how do Japanese rock stars party?
Aki Morimoto: Ah, we have to be in Athens, Georgia tomorrow night so we have to get in van now. Of course we want to have a party after the show, but we can’t have a party every night. Today we had a big drive from Minneapolis and now we go to Athens.

A: How did a heavy metal act like Electric Eel Shock end up at Bonnaroo?
AM: Good music is good music, so if we have opportunity to perform with a jazz band or a country western band, I don’t care about it if they are great band. You know, Bonnaroo, it’s a real shame we miss Sonic Youth, Beck Dr. John. We don’t want to go to Athens tomorrow but a lot of people are waiting for us there so…

A: Were you serious earlier when you said that the band needs money for a plane trip back to Japan?
AM: No [laughs hysterically] that was business talking.

A: How is the latest record [Beat Me] doing in Japan. Are you finding more of an audience in your home country?
AM: We just released it in Japan so we are watching how it does there. It should be good cause we get a lot of news from outsider countries. I hope we get bigger in Japan.

A: Do you feel any different touring in the States behind your new record?
AM: We feel better, but, ah, the only real difference is that gasoline is much expensive now. … I should also say we’re about to go to studio to record album for next year.

For more on Electric Eel Shock check out this article I wrote upon the release of Beat Me earlier this year:
http://dtweekend.com/020906/extra.html

MP3’s:

Scream For Me (Single Edit)

Rock & Roll Can Rescue The World

Do The Metal

Suicide Rock & Roll (Live)