How awesome would Bitch Mob letterman jackets be?
UK producer Star Slinger, aka Darren Williams, teamed up with Lil B and Stunnaman, former members of Berkeley, CA’s The Pack, for his latest “Bad Bitches.” The name is about as impressive as the southern-drawl-gone-Cali delivery by B and Stunna, but that seems to be the angle Williams is working with on this track.
His production on “Bitches” forms a bog of minced vocals and bubbly tricks looped and stuffed between syncopated hits of wet snare, hi hat, and cow bell. The verse and chorus slog through the neck-high soup of maximalist club that will have grind-induced erections finding the belt more often than the high school “end of period” bell. Lil B and Stunnaman are not the feature here; they’re merely accomplices with letterman jackets in the assault.
(via Impose)
Interview|||Mikey Collins of Culture Dealer and Run DMT
Selection: “Eternal Dosez”
Kirby Michael Adams Collins, Dm.T, strikes again with a democratic compilation that will have your creative juices starving to be sampled. For the people, of the people, and by the people is his game on One Hit Wonders; a compilation of submitted song poems parleyed into glistening gems by studio misfits The Doobie Sisters Family Band.
In addition to a promo featuring samples of Culture Dealer’s take on the desultory poetry of people like you and, literally, me, scope an interview with Dm. T about the project prior to its release, below.
Check the Altered Zones submission by yours truly, above.
What interested you in creating a song-poem series? How long has this concept been on your mind?
Specifically, the song poem idea has been in my head since I watched the film Off the Charts: The Song Poem Story. I guess that’s been a year or two. The greater concept of using a musical stage to offer some sort of interactive service where you can collaborate has been in the forefront of my plans for many years. I hate the idea of how many writers, musicians, artists, poets, filmmakers, etc. remain inactive because of self-consciousness, personal strife or lack of inspiration.
That’s just the whole idea for me. Before I really found my voice creatively, I was lucky to have a number of truly supportive close friends and collaborators, and my path now is to simply express myself and fuel the fire of others who might need an invitation to do so.
Why cassettes as opposed to vinyl, or just a simple digital format?
Well, I’m just starting out obviously with having a label, so as I plan on doing vinyl in the future, I’m not rushing that now. I just love cassettes; they are physical, you have to sit with them, and the fidelity is incredible.
Also, though, for the song poems, I love the idea of a split cassingle for the copy you receive. It’s so cool that each song submitted is getting a copy back with another strangers song. There will be a chance for those people to correspond because each of those parties will be the only one’s with each other’s song.
How long do you plan on accepting submissions? When do you plan on releasing the One Hitter Wonders comp(s)?
I’m gonna turn it off soon, until all of them are sent, then probably do a second round. One Hitter Wonders will probably come out before this summer.
How did you get up with The Doobie Sisters Family Band?
The Doobie Sisters [Family Band] is myself, Sasha Winn, and a range of session musicians that change day-to-day. Frequent members include Alex Deranian, Edwin White, Sam Shea, Renee clark, and others. Essentially, it’s a brain trust, but The Doobie Sisters also have original songs that we’re all really exicted about. Those songs will appear on a Doobie Sisters full album called The Wizards of Ahhh’s.
How are you and The Doob Sis’s interpreting the poetry? Are there strategies in interpreting these, or is it spontaneous?
We have a slightly different crew every song usually, so it’s all reading the lyrics, jamming for a bit, then someone will step up and shine some idea, and we’ll just all support it. I like that energy. The level of collaboration here is a dream for me, from the person who wrote the poem, to the muse they write about, to the newest member of The Doobie Sisters, to the music were pulling from.
Buy One Hitter Wonders here. Get busy, the world is awaiting your slime.
Review|||Lee Bannon Gnarlon Bando’s Midnight Noir
Selection: “The Chase!”
Imagine it’s a Saturday around midnight. You’re blunted, cruising down an inner-city freeway in the backseat of a tricked out Chrysler 300 playing Virtua Racing on a Sega console hooked up to the shotgun headrest video monitor positioned ahead of you. You there? Good. Now you’re at the vantage point Lee Bannon wants you for his latest mixtape Midnight Noir; a surreal-noir soundscape tracking Bannon’s alter ego Gnarlon Bando for a single night of seedy misadventure.
On Midnight Noir, Bannon breaks from the J Dilla Donuts template of ADD and quantity—typified on ‘09’s Big Toy Box and ‘11’s BTB 2—to flex concept and cohesion. His segues of cryptic dialogue, tire screeches, redlining engines, and natural sound animate the interiors, roadways, and confrontations inspired by the minimalist titles and production of the 11 tracks spanning Midnight Noir. Bannon’s sleight of hand in shape shifting and half-beat chopping has favored his rolodex thus far, so it’s only natural that stepping out of character as Gnarlon Bando grants him space to parley a dramatic title like “The Chase!” into the satin funk Final Fantasy characters bang to.
Ultimately, Bannon allows the listener to construct the rising and falling action by eliminating dynamic with phantasmagorical synth and sample, and by emphasizing pace with repetitious percussion and bass. Following the opening sequence, “Nighshift Pt. 1,” we know that it’s raining, wherever Gnarlon Bando may be. With the shift into “Pt. 2,” Bannon introduces the listener to the sonic convergence of life, electricity, and infrastructure, encouraging the imagination to construct the setting.
Bannon is deft in continuing his blueprint throughout the mixtape, never confusing the perspective and action of the protagonist with the nature of the scene. Paranoia is suggested in “Arcade Scene.” The preceding tracks’ titles are based around a “Motive” and a suitcase with $50K. Unlike the disco tech scene in Terminator, Bannon distracts us from Sarah Connor’s fear of her killer stalker with the lights, the music, and the dance floor.
During “The Chase!” we are but voyeurs to the weaves and drifts of the cars at play. The confrontation of “The Shoot Out” is palpable, but never gives away to injury, death, or cowardice.
By “The Count Down,” Bannon’s production evolves out of the quasi-ambient into glitch-beat contemporary, harping on the loop “Count on me.” It’s with “The End Credits” that the Gnarlon Bando’s Midnight Noir is indeed over, and Bannon is back to being himself, waking from the Rockstar Games veneer and banal moniker to the rising producer with the ability to drunk dial Talib Kweli and DJ Premier.
Stream and download available here
(via Impose)
The best art about the sinking of the Titanic is a piece of minimalist composition.
Selection: “The Sinking of the Titanic”
From President Abraham Lincoln’s death in 1865, the breaking of the MLB color barrier by Jackie Robinson in 1947, to Tax Day (since 1955; unless the date falls on weekends or Emancipation Day), April 15 has retained a level of historical significance over the last 150 years. Not only does the anniversary of RMS Titanic’s tragic plunge fall on this date, but also this year marks the one hundredth anniversary of the event. For the centennial, Le Poisson Rouge is presenting a rendition of Gavin Bryars’ “The Sinking of the Titanic” by mainstays in the Wordless Music Orchestra and LPR’s house band.
Bryars’ composition, produced by Brain Eno and released on his Obscure label in 1975, is a haunting and surreal speculation of the Titanic’s demise in the icy waters of the North Atlantic. The almost half hour piece is based around the last song played on the Titanic described by Harold Bride, the junior wireless operator on board the ship, to be the Episcopal hymn Autumn. Bryars’ construction ensconces elements of wind instruments, piano, guitar, bass, atmospherics, and archival audio of interviews with survivors into the violin-led hymn. For those interested in the ambient, this is essential.
While observing the centennial of the Titanic’s last breath isn’t going to be a social fest reviling Halloween or anything, Le Poisson Rouge is offering you an interpretation of a visionary that explored the wreckage of the Titanic ten years before it was even found. Or, you could certainly give James Cameron some more bucks to explore the Mariana Trench by catching the 3-D version of Titanic. On the upside, “The Sinking of the Titanic” won’t have you waiting around two hours for a 3-D shot of Kate Winslet’s boobies. On the downside, no Billy Zane.
(via Impose)
Review|||Eyes, Wings & Many Other Things Napalm beach
Selection: “Double Rainbow”
“No, no. The Waves. The Waves! Look at that, breaks both ways. Watch. Watch! Look! Those six-foot swells! …See how they break both ways? One guy can break right, one left, simultaneously. …We’ll have this place cleaned up and ready in a jiffy, son. Don’t you worry. …Smell that? You smell that? Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”
—Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore in Apocalypse Now
After all, “Charlie don’t surf!” And neither does Dallas-duo Eyes, Wings & Many Other Things on their recently released Napalm Beach. What we are introduced to in Sean French and Colin Arnold’s latest outing off Pour Le Corps Records (co-created by French) is surface level experimentation with elements of drone and neo-psych that meander in and out of meter-peaking production. The game has changed, and French and Arnold are strongly influenced by the ambient world of curtailed shatter-scapes reaching for pop acceptance.
Despite their faults, there is promise in their sound—although it either collapses interest in its familiarity with more-pleasant noise acts like Run DMT and Cough Cool or in prompting the listener throw on any incarnation of Sun Araw’s Cameron Stallones. It could be argued that hypnagogic pop like Oneohtrix Point Never’s latest, Replica, institutes a similar structure (albeit a different approach) of ephemeral noise planes that have the ability to cross over to a broader audience in compatibility with our “ADD” generation, but Brightblack Morning Light and Pure X - as well as the aforementioned acts - have already accomplished a more unique sense of the focus Eyes, Wings & Many Other Things reach in the nine tracks of Napalm.
That being said, Napalm isn’t a bad listen whatsoever. It’s just nothing new, or exploratory; more of combination of their taste and a reiteration of what should be gracing your speakers in times of devastation and contemplation. “In Crumbles” will find a nice home with fans of Psychocandy, while “Cruelty” and the title-track “Napalm Beach” edge you closer and closer to the nuances of Sun Araw’s production style. The effects and production used in processing the guitars and synths create a shimmering cacophony that almost seems destine for over-modulation. But, the wall of sound teetering on edge finds relief from the wreckage before aural cataclysm occurs. This is where the band finds promise and truly understands the works of constructive decay exemplified in artists connecting ‘80s shoegaze with neo-psych. “Engulfed” and “Double Rainbow” couple this sensibility with slow-drone warmth creating a necessary light for the traveler approaching the album as a whole. The whispering pan of atmospherics beneath the melodic vocal groans and choppy, delay guitar melody of “Bad Powder” shines the deep psych of their Texas home teasing us with a sound that almost peaks its head over contemporaries.
Keep your ears peeled for a tour. Despite having similar traits, Eyes, Wings & Many Other Things have the live potential to reach an audience untapped by peers with their stylistic convergence and pop-brevity. Let’s just hope they play a warehouse and not a “legal” venue.
(via Impose)
Oneohtrix Point Philip Glass|||Koyaanisqatsi Remix
Daniel Lopatin, aka Oneohtrix Point Never and co-founder of Software, recently concocted this remix of Philip Glass’ work on the Godfrey Reggio documentary Koyaanisqatsi for the forthcoming remix album celebrating Glass’ 75th birthday. In a conversation with The Fader, Lopatin said producers Beck and Hector Castillo considered his version to be “not good enough” to make the record.
Lopatin’s remix first surfaced on the most recent edition of WFMU’s Mudd Up! hosted by DJ/Rupture. During the show, Rupture talked to Lopatin about the rejection, Replica, echo jams, dropping tears to The Wake, and how Blank Dogs member and Captured Tracks founder, Mikey Sniper, stole not only his idea for re-issuing rare shoegaze albums, but also his black scarf.
While Brooklyn indie beef via radio is retro blah, fashion and comfort is nothing you want to strip from a man-about-town in the winter—I’m a scarf man, too, Danny. Although, the “beef” could certainly (most likely) be a joke on the gullible blogosphere. Stick around for Lopatin’s selections featuring an older track from Software’s new sweetheart Autre Ne Veut called ”Demoneyez” and the V/Vm, aka Leyland Kirby, tweaked Abba cut “Money, Money, Money;” they’re well worth the wait.
Review|||Monster Rally & RUMTUM MR&RT
Selection: “Tribes”
On last year’s Coral II: The Remixes, a digital bonus to Monster Rally’s debut, we first heard RUMTUM, aka John Hastings, blanket fellow Columbus, OH producer Ted Feighan’s “Splash Talk” with a variegated vail of gossamer trance. For their first collaborative effort, MR&RT, Feighan and Hastings flex their personal strengths into a funky effervescent timbre neither of the two are capable of manufacturing on their own.
Since 2010, Monster Rally has garnered a decent amount of attention for sampling thrift-store bargain records—leaning heavy on the exotica variety—into ephemeral spells of crackle and hook. RUMTUM’s 2010 digital offering Lunar Lanterns spanned the down-tempo and up-beat sides of the lounge giving us a dubby glimpse into the sounds permeating his John Malkovich room. Feighan’s not known for peaking the two-minute mark, but with a co-pilot like Hastings augmenting his samples into an expanse of lush dub-trance it seems only fitting that listeners are treated to more than just a taste.
While MR&RT was recently released on both digital and cassette formats—the latter coming with the additional tracks “Andes” and “Forest”—for the past couple of months the calculated release of cuts “Raindrops” and “Tribes” have given Tumblr and Wordpress bloggers enough to circulate more hype than either of the two have received for their previous solo efforts. The only unfortunate aspect to the trickle leak of these two particular tracks is that they’re arguably the best representation of the duo’s sound. Not only that, but the tracks are placed successively and early on in the 7-song EP.
The opener, “Jungle,” introduces the fluid and hypnotic repetition of half-beat samples that act as the vertebrae of each track comprising MR&RT. By track two, listeners are rushed into the climactic up-tempo funk of “Raindrops.” The entrancing stretch of the sampled lyrics coupled with thick bass and a jazzy outro cannot help but to grab your head and shoulders and force them into a cyclical bob leaving your hippocampus desperate to process more Monster Rally & RUMTUM into the long term memory bank. The head-fuck tranquility of “Tribes” slows down the pace, lulling the imagination onto the floor of a white-sand ocean bed fit with the wash of crystal-clear waves crashing overhead. The mind can do little but watch the air bubbles float up from the mouth and into the curl of the waves overhead.
While these two tracks compliment each other in their succession, it leaves little room for the remaining tracks to make as much of an impression as they could with a reworked track list. The following three tracks “Sultan,” “Birds,” and “Tundra” play heavy on Feighan’s interest in the production stylings of Pete Rock and J. Dilla. The layering and transitions are slick and complex, but lack the repeat power of the preceding tracks which adds a minor lull to the progression of the EP. We all can’t be winners.
The finale “Free Store” shows true promise in its warm, palpitating ambience, but gets knocked up by a heavy-handed layer of acoustic guitar and tambourine. While arpeggiated samples of acoustic have worked in the past for RUMTUM, the addition seems superfluous for this number which, at its core, would be just fine as a closer.
Feighan’s and Hastings’ work on MR&RT is a prime example of why it’s so important to explore new territories and angles as a young artist. So, it will be exciting to see what the two conjure up individually following an insightful experience such as this.
(via Impose)
Their witchdoctor didn’t know they were a band. But he knew where their future was.
Selection: “Masaka”
It’s shoulder-to-shoulder in the small common area of Shea Stadium. Three Japanese girls clad with little to nothing but taped Xs over their breasts and feathered panties approach the stage. Three men back them dressed in white togas. They’re the rhythm section. The lot of them are sporting Australian Aboriginal dot paint. Elliot Hasiuk, the drummer, cues the pre-recorded hyper electro-pop on a device I imagine is an iPod. Yuka, Qrea, and Nabe Nippple begin to shout what seems to be English into their microphones over the groove and clatter of Hasiuk, Joseph Lamont (bass), and Jimmy Masheder (guitar). Whether people are moshing or jumping is indistinguishable, as are the lyrics. What’s happening is simply energy. People are moving, transferring sweat. The casual spectator does not thrive in this crowd. There is no room for modesty here.
This is Trippple Nippples, an outfit from Tokyo, and, with ease, they’re capitalizing on an opportunity to fuck your brain just because they know how. The emphasis is not necessarily on the music but on the spectacle. Forget Fashion Week when you have Trippple Nippples in town. Their style is not one you should be able to pinpoint, nor is their sound. It’s simply a product of the 21st century. And, if they can find a local prop like Roberta’s pizza to emphasize that, they’re going to certainly use it and spit it back in your face. If you weren’t soaking wet following their performance, simply, you weren’t there. And if you were bored, well, “Sucks to your ass-mar!”
Following the show, I open a door adjacent to the stage at Shea in an effort to locate a quiet space to conduct an interview with the sextet after the final performance of their first American tour. Two dudes with bleeding eyes look at me awkwardly through the thick smoke of a fresh bong hit.
“Is it cool if we do an interview in here?” I ask. They look reluctant to even answer.
“Who’s it for?”
“Impose.”
“Oh, ok.”
You would think after almost a month on the East Coast, Trippple Nippples would be a little tired – and after five performances in the area, a little over the whole New York thing. But no. Even after playing higher profile gigs with Devo at proper venues with capacities capping the 1K mark, they’re pretty jazzed about an interview in a makeshift loft that may very well kill them if it collapses – seven people in an indoor, plywood treehouse the size of a child’s closet is a pretty scary interview setting. They scamper up the stairs that look as sturdy as the rest of the constructions at Shea and dive into a single-size mattress as if it were a pool. Despite the lack of space, they look comfortable nestled together. It’s pretty fucking precious. Tokyo’s not known for living space, but I guess there are a decent amount of ramshackle loft spaces in Tokyo, or Trip Nips are all just full-grown kids.
Without having a full-length album, Tripple Nippples have managed to make quite a name for themselves since their beginnings back in 2006 with a handful of singles, videos and a live reputation Pharrell Williams is willing to bet on.
“We’re bullshit artists. We want to create a fantasy world,” said Masheder prior to their performance. With faint paint still dotting their faces and sweat fresh from the surprise, late-night performance by Anamanaguchi, the Trip Nips gang chatted with me about playing to members of the AARP, ancestor worship, a Mexican witchdoctor, and recording in the midst of the 3/11 earthquake disaster.
How was your first tour of america going from supporting devo at bigger venues to finishing off at a diy space?
Yuka: The first tour in America was fantastic Mr. Fox. The Devo show was kind of interesting because a lot of the audiences were over 60 years old, basically. The grandpas were really enjoying it, and some grandmas were really pissed because you don’t wan’t to see your husband going crazy with young Japanese chicks. One mother was shielding her daughters ears when we were swearing at the audience. It was a really great experience over all. The Devo guys were really nice. They’re really brilliant guys and we had a really good time with them. We miss them a lot.
How did you get up with devo for your first american tour?
Jimmy: We found out that America really loves us, and, of course, we really love America. And Mark [Mothersbaugh] from Devo was interested in what we were doing so he asked us if we would support them for their east coast dates.
Do you prefer a more intimate reception like the one you received here at shea stadium?
Yuka: I think that audience should not matter so much. Our job is to entertain people and we just want people to have a good time at our show. It’s our job and what we want. Just that.
Yuka, when did you meet nabe and qrea?
Yuka: We are basically all cousins. The three of us grew up together in the countryside of Japan, and our dream was to become Destiny’s Child. But it didn’t turn out that way…
Where does the inspiration for your costumes and performances lie?
Joseph: Oceania.
Jimmy: We’re just trying to pay respect to our ancestors.
Joseph: And the Pacific. Literally we are—we’re not kidding. That’s where it comes from. There’s a little bit of Africa and a little bit of China, but it’s mainly Oceania through a Japanese filtration system.
Jimmy/Joseph: Ancestor worship…(giggle)
Yuka: I think we didn’t worship our ancestors enough before, but we realized our ancestors made us be here. So we thought we should respect our ancestors – Jo’s ancestors used to chop up enemies heads and make human Xmas trees—he is Scottish. We may not do that, but once upon a time we were all warriors! It’s in the blood, cant you feel it every now and then?
I have to ask you about incorporating roberta’s pizza into your performance. What was the thought behind it?
Yuka: We wanted to include THE American thing in our performance, cause we are in America. We tried hot dogs, hamburgers, chips and popcorns, whatever we can get around the corner of the venue. Time, place, occasion it is!
I read somewhere that your coming together had something to do with a witchdoctor?
Qrea: One day we were at the beach in Mexico and saw a witchdoctor. We followed him and found his house, which was filled with voodoo dolls. There was a guy sitting in the house with a broken leg getting voodoo magic done to it. He looked like he was in harsh pain. The very next day, we saw him running at the beach. I’m serious. We went back to the witchdoctor’s house and started talking to him. He said we are fated to be together, and said something about music. And here we are now. We don’t exactly know who he was, but we will go back there again soon. We have to.
He assumed you were a musical group?
Yuka: He didn’t know we were a band, but he knew where the future was. It’s a voodoo thing.
So how did you start creating music as trippple nippples?
Jimmy: We had two cassette boom boxes and we would just multi-track record onto one and record onto the other, and make instruments from wood and stones.
More organic instruments?
Jimmy: We’re trying to get rid of our electricity again, back to where it began.
I’m interested in the influences on your musical style because i don’t want to bastardize your sound. What’s the source of your sound?
Joseph: Go to the Oceania exhibit at the Met and have a walk around.
Tell me about how you got up with pharrell williams?
Jimmy: Our witchdoctors who are really looking after us always lead us to whatever is meant to happen. That’s how we caught up with Pharrell and also Devo.
Kind of like destiny?
Jimmy: Yeah. From the future they tell us. They know what’s going to happen, and they just make it as they see fit. Pharrell is a really big fan of Japanese culture and he wanted to support it after the quake and make this film. And they wanted to see the cool stuff happening in Tokyo, and of course he came to see us because we’re like the funnest thing. Yeah, it just happened.
I heard you’re planning on recording with him.
Yuka: We’ve been talking to him back and fourth. I guess it’s going to happen sometime this year, but we never know. That should be in our witchdoctor’s list though.
Should we expect an lp in 2012 or 2013?
Yuka: Yes! In 2012.
Joseph: 2012 it’s going to happen, finally.
Yuka: Wait, we live in the future, so it’s actually 4012, not 2012.
will there be any association with the winter solstice of 2012?
Joseph: I hope so.
Did 3/11 affect the way you approach and perform music? In what ways?
Yuka: Yeah. I think since 3/11 happened our music got a lot faster and harder. I guess it’s because you always think tomorrow will be promised, but not really because shit happens and you never really know what’s going to happen. You really have to live life to make the most of it. You deserve it; it’s the only life you get. I think we didn’t really think that way at that time, but I guess we got the vibe of the whole thing and naturally our music got a lot faster which is kind of killing me (giggles)!
What is the process of recording a song like “lsd” or “masaka”?
Jimmy: Actually, LSD was recorded while [3/11] was happening.
Say what?
Yuka: We are really a hardworking band, so we went to the rehearsal studio a couple of days after the quake – that was when the radiation news was everywhere . We were like “let’s fucking do this!” as always, but nobody was at the studio practicing – even nobody was in the city! It was weird, all the water was gone from the store so I remember I was so thirsty while rehearsing.
Jimmy: ”LSD” was done literally that week - at the end of that week. I think it was a positive influence, actually. I think it made everybody in the scene realize what was going on and it got rid of all the fluff.
I have to ask: What do psychedelics have to do with your spirituality and your music? You do have a song called “LSD.”
Joseph: Nothing, that’s a separate thing. The only spiritual hippie we got is Nabe Nippple. She ran away to India and just returned to the group last year. We are so happy she is back.
(Everybody laughs)
Last thing: Yuka, during the last song you were chanting “USA, USA, USA!” then you held up your middle finger and said something. I was wondering what that was?
Yuka: I think I was saying something like “Don’t be a fucking wuss.” You have this moment in your hand, right now, in your face. It’s fine to go crazy ‘cause this moment is gonna go in both good ways and bad ways. You have to make most of the moments you have. So I wanted the audience to come on the stage – share the time we have together. That’s the basic idea of our live show anyway. I don’t remember holding up my middle finger. Hmmm, I wonder why?
(via Impose)
Interview|||Pow Wows
The Pow Wows never meant to be a real band.
Selection: “Following the Tracks”
“The whole retro thing is cool, but you have to understand – rock ‘n’ roll, country, and punk have all been borrowed. It’s all gone through the gamut and there are just new incarnations of it. If you want to start an avant-garde band then go fucking do that… But, if you like rock ‘n’ roll then just put your own spin on it and you’ll be free.”
—Tim Presley
It is in Toronto, Ontario that the convergence of the grit of the Detroit scene, the manic panic of the San Fran psych scene, the twang of the Southern scene, and the eeriness of the French scene have come together over “dudes getting drunk and stoned recording shit thinking it’s a joke.” While Pow Wows have a sound embedded in the tried and true style of rock ‘n’ roll, it’s how they’ve seamlessly melded the panache of contemporaries and early adopters into a style that has both fans and critics looking north of the border for what’s next in the evolution of DIY rock.
According to native Canuck, King Khan, on their self-produced debut Nightmare Soda Pow Wows “gloriously carry the flower-punk torch and continue in our debaucherous death cult tradition.” High praise, and for good reason – although the flower-punk sash is more of an adornment than a religion. It’s a sound that provokes gallivanting beyond hedonistic salubrity. The kind of mischief that results in the form of lush ambivalence, the daily shakes, consistent trips to the free clinic, a boost in the black-market drug trade, yellow teeth, bad breath, diarrhea, paranoia, and one hell of a record collection. This is an ethos I’m not confident is embodied by Pow Wows’ members, but one that could certainly be ascertained through their variety of shit-hot garage.
On Halloween Pow Wows – composed of vocalist/bassist F. Scott Beaudelaire, guitarists Jay Shite and Juarez Laredo, and drummer Kelly MacGrewver – came to the Lone Wolf bar situated under the cackle of the J train on Broadway in Brooklyn – not the Broadway known for lights, stars, and theatre but the one known for bodegas, dime-bags, and bootleg porn – to play what would be their American debut. Pageantry was absent despite the holiday. Go figure Bushwick.
“Honestly, I think that this band wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for Get Hip getting behind us,” said MacGrewver following the show.
The majority of the half-capacity crowd adorned with mostly black leather jackets, selvedge jeans, and hair styles reminiscent of Elvis’ iconic coif were in attendance to see Pittsburgh garage stalwarts the Cynics. Get Hip founder and Cynics guitarist, Gregg Kostelich, discovered his label’s latest darlings during a show at Toronto’s Mitzi’s Sister (now the Sister) over a year ago.
“It was our second show as a band,” said Beaudelaire. “We had this tape. We gave the Cynics a copy of the tape, and then, that was it. We went on, and maybe three or four months later they contacted us saying they wanted to make it an LP. We were like, ‘really?’”
At first, Kostelich and Barbara Garcia-Bernardo, co-head of Get Hip, only wanted to issue a 7” single, but, after spending more time with the cassette, the two decided to master what was already recorded into Nightmare Soda. Their only changes as far as content were adding the numbers “Know Her Name” and “Plastic Factory,” as well as removing the blistering cassette closer “Riding Down The Tracks” which is a Captain Beefheart cover. “We committed copyright infringement,” said Beaudelaire.
The recording that would become Soda was built around a series of sessions in a couple different practice spaces dictated by work schedules and the abilities of a Zoom MRS1608 digital interface. The original lineup – Beaudelaire, MacGrewver, Shite, and another Jay whose last named went unspoken by the band – was only fully present for the recordings of “EIO (During the Flood)” and “Pandemic 44.” At the time, Pow Wows was just a collaborative project, not a focus, which served advantageous for these sessions.
Michael Kastelic (Cynics), Jay Shite, Juarez Loredo, and F. Scott Beaudelaire
“The rest of the record consists of lineup mixes of Siam Cat and Godzillas. It wasn’t meant to be a record, none of this was meant to be an album. It was just that we were in the space, fucking around,” explained Beaudelaire. “Here’s a song. We recorded a song. We’d do that. Then there would be days when I wouldn’t be there, and there were days where he [Shite] wouldn’t be there and it would get recorded.”
How many bands receive a 180-gram vinyl pressing for work they didn’t intend to even properly release? Not a lot. For recording the distorted layers of vocals, guitars, bass and drums Beaudelaire said it was all about “mic placement.” Either way, the inexpensive method contributed towards their timeless sound. A sound that seeks an audience not by recording capacity but by product. “We just kind of write our own songs and then record it in a lo-fi quality. Digitally. The recorder we have might as well be a tape machine. But, that’s the beauty of the technology. The only thing different is the ease. The actual sound quality is achieved by the mics being used. If we went to a proper studio, they would laugh at the methods that we use.”
Ultimately, the decision to release an LP with Get Hip prompted the boys to make, what they considered, necessary changes to their lineup in order to become a proper recording and touring act. Pow Wows’ original lead guitarist, the other ‘Jay,’ was asked to step aside. A couple of weeks before the show, Juarez Laredo was asked to step into the role of lead guitarist for the tour.
“Once Get Hip got involved, that was when it came to a point that it was like, ‘ok, maybe this can be an actual band,’ because it was literally not a real band. Once we tried to take it as a real band, there was a point where we had to get rid of a member because it was this fractured thing and that’s when Juarez Laredo entered the picture. Not that we’re like ‘serious,’” said MacGrewver. “I was more concerned with being able to deal with an asshole as a bandmate. We wouldn’t have wanted to do these shows with The Cynics in these five or six cities. We wouldn’t want to do these shows with the previous band,” he added.
During their set, the Toronto gang wheeled out renditions of Soda numbers “EIO”, “Seeing Black”, and “Worry… Don’t” which captured the essence of what made the album so exciting:
Beaudelaire’s guttural vocals, Shite ‘s heavy-handed strums, the solid pace of MacGrewver’s skins, and the delayed twang and fuzz of the lead played by Juarez. As raucous as their sound is, live and in studio, ugh, practice space, they would prefer not to be placed in any bracket of rock ‘n’ roll.
MacGrewver expressed a cynical disposition to the modern state of rock ‘n’ roll that didn’t sit well with the rest of the band.
“It’s happened and it’s dead…”
“What the fuck are you talking about? It’s not dead!” shouted the rest of the band at MacGrewver.
“I’m not into that kind of music,” said MacGrewver. “I don’t listen to garage rock on my own. I listen to fuckin’ acid house and drum machine kind of music, and that’s how I try to play drums.” I guess it’s safe to assume he’s not the one playing tambourine on Soda’s closer “Plastic Factory.”
Thus far, Pow Wows have enacted their sense of rock ‘n’ roll elementals, and an aptitude for the delay pedal, into a rousing DIY venture which, in attitude and execution, bleeds passion over intention. “There’s an aspect of old school rock ‘n’ roll, though I don’t feel like we’re necessarily that sound. But, somewhat in the aesthetic but more so in the delivery. It’s an honest thing we’re doing. We’re not doing something punky. We want to bang out the songs on our instruments and see what happens. Every night [of practice] is jamming our tunes and seeing how they go,” said Shite.
Recently the boys debuted the video to the A-side of their latest single “Killing Me.” The 7” release will be available upon their return to the states for the Get Hip SXSW showcase featuring Paul Collins and Peter Case, The Ugly Beats, The Higher Stte, Authorities, The Ripe, and Nervebreakers at the Easy Tiger Patio this Saturday.
If you’re one of the fortunate souls down in Austin this week, catch them somewhere if not the showcase, and tell ‘em “Impose” sent you.
(via Impose)
Milk Dick|||Spookytown, USA
“I prefer un-pasteurized milk,” says the quaint man with his nose high into the air to no one but himself. After setting the carton of local 2% down on his tray, he continues down the buffet line scoffing at the “paltry” fruit selection and the “suspect” appearance of the various meats and sauces simmering in the pans below the sneezeguard. In hearing the man’s supercilious monologue, the buffet manager looks toward the clock for salvation. The clock reads “11:11.”
“It’s too early to start making wishes,” the manager mutters to himself. ”But, it ain’t too early to start making plans for five o’clock,” he continues while fondling the substance enclosed by cellophane in his right pocket.
The Milk Dick eventually settles down at the furthest table from the buffet. He hoists his face over his plates full of starch, starch, starch, and protein, opens his carton of milk and shoves a full biscuit into his mouth. The 2% is gone before he even begins work on his country fried steak.
Meanwhile, three feet away, through the glass of the wall-size window, the manager lifts a filtered cigarette to his mouth to light the fifth cigarette of the day.
Milk Dick’s first offering, Happy Valentines Day, is now streaming at BC. Don’t miss Milk Dick at Big Snow Buffalo Lodge on March 3 with White Laces, ABADABAD, and Flights. That’s Numberwang.
Baby Erection|||Twenny-Six
There are so many unfulfilled prophecies at 26. And Baby Erection is right, we’re not going to be twenny-six for long. We’re all just getting older, slowly dying, hanging on to the dreams we had at 15, wondering where all the time has gone.
“I never really got started/never had the Wonder Years-years” bellows vocalist “Nick” over the intersecting sounds of punky-jazz percussion and tinny guitar hooked through a fuzz pedal into a 10W amp on the second track of the B-side of Baby Erection’s debut single.
“Twenny-Six” is a statement against the status-quo, benchmarks, milestones, production, instruments, relationships, maturity, and hate. Passive contention is all around us in the form of fashion, philosophy, and trophies. Fuck off; they’re (we’re) still trying to figure it all out.
Baby Erection’s self-produced 7” Lon Chaney Blues is available for stream and download on Bandcamp.
Teenage Mysticism|||Sweetheart
I feel like I’m not much of a writer these days. I can hardly call myself a writer because it’s not my occupation. I’m just a guy that hates his job, drinks, talks shit, dreams and has sex on occasion. A regular person, I guess. I’m fond of telling people that I have commitment issues, and that’s the reason for my sporadic and ephemeral relationships. Although this may very well be true, I’m not in any way trying to remedy my commitment issues. Loneliness is a bitch without a blanket. Relentless and cold. Ideas are romantic; application is awkward. Porn is mostly trite, but, never the less, finds success at a higher rate than most media. HBO just canceled Bored To Death. Nielsen didn’t project enough cum rags lying around the living room following the credits, I guess.
Here’s Joey DeMarco’s latest single as Teenage Mysticism. Velvet. Emotive. Saccharine strokes of innocence teetering on the end of a mattress tainted by yesterday’s sex. Thank goodness for fresh linen. TM’s forthcoming album Dead Channels drops Valentine’s Day courtesy of The Epiphysis Foundation.
Peaking Lights|||Westbound
White peeps been fucking with some good dub this year. Between Cameron Stallones’ (Sun Araw) new work with Duppy Gun and Peaking Lights’ latest, 936, we’re in a new era of psychedelic electro dub that’s a far cry from the Sleng Teng Riddim. ”Westbound” is a new track that Indra Dunis and Aaron Coyes, aka Peaking Lights, unveiled on Huw Stephens’ BBC 1 program last week. If you missed 936, then you probably missed the vid for “Hey Sparrow.” Check that below in addition to Duppy Gun’s video for their first single “Multiply” by Dayone.
Cough Cool|||Older
Right in time for winter, Bathetic gives us a wonder of a debut LP from Phil’s Cough Cool. There’s nothing like a dose of gauzy-drone pop to help you appreciate your bed-ridden, half-naked depression. Just one thing: Do everyone a favor and wipe the gizz off your chest before inviting anyone into your lair to burn one to Lately.
Below, Cough Cool’s Dan Svizeny puts on some clothes before inviting us into his bedroom to watch him totter in front of his Flyers blankie for the title-track video. Lately drops tomorrow on Bathetic.
