under ciy lights - march '11
DESCRIPTION
Welcome to the new issue of Under City Lights!TRANSCRIPT
SHARON VAN ETTEN LA SERA DELS RA
DIO
HEA
D
Interviews, columns and reviews
March 2011
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 18 F
EB
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
NEON TREES / TRANSFER••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 2
5 F
EB
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
TH
E O
YA
FE
ST
IVA
L &
FIE
LD
DA
YV
S C
LU
B N
ME
FE
AT
UR
ING
...
NOT SQUARES / LUCY SWANN / TEAM ME••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 4
MA
R •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
THE AGITATOR / BONES••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 11 M
AR
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
NEON HITCH / JOANA & THE WOLF••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 18
MA
R •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
BLEECH / SPYCATCHER••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 2
5 M
AR
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
THE GOOD NATURED / BLACK DIAMOND BAY•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
TH
E G
AL
LE
RY
BA
R H
OS
TE
D B
Y BRAINLOVE RECORDS
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
£2
.00
B4
10:3
0P
M / £
4.0
0 M
IDN
IGH
T W
ITH
ST
UD
EN
T C
AR
D
FIR
ST
100
FR
EE
/ £5
.00
B4
11PM
/ £7
AF
TE
R
£1.2
0 S
OU
RZ
SH
OT
S A
LL
NIG
HT
£1.8
0 S
EL
EC
TE
D B
OT
TL
ES
OF
BE
ER
BE
FO
RE
MID
NIG
HT
TIC
KE
TS
~ 08
44
84
7 2
25
8 / W
WW
.KO
KO
.UK
.CO
M
ST
RIC
TL
Y O
VE
R 18
EDITORIAL Welcome to another issue of Under City Lights, the first of 2011. It’s been a while, but we’re back full of reviews and interviews with wonder women Sharon Van Etten and La Sera. The UK is producing some of the best innovative music in the world at the moment, and we’ve got an interview with DELS, one of the artists at the forefront of
the UK’s music revolution. Finally, we’ve got plenty of stuff on this month’s inescapable event, Radiohead’s The King of Limbs. Enjoy!
COMPETITION
We’re running a competition with our friends over at KOKO. We’re offering 2 x 2 VIP entries with a free drink to any of KOKO’s Club NME nights. To win, simply text Rare + KOKO + where you picke up this magazine to 60300. Altrenatively you can email [email protected]. Winners will be randomly selected.
Dasal Abayaratne, Rob Hakimian, Holly Bidgood, Tom Riste-‐Smith, Roger Stabbins, Oli Frost, Miranda Robins, Oli Smith, Sam Goff, Aimeè Wang, Will Hines, Adam Saunders, Edwin Shaw
OLD AND GREY "The stakes were low, the stakes were high, upon the my oh my," growls Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart, in the small BBC studio, his eyes fixed characteristically wide upon the camera, within them a certain kind of ecstatic madness. He rubs his hands together gleefully, back arched, dressed in jeans and shirt with a mop of brown hair that may just have rolled out of bed, a little moustache perched above his lip. Always there was a bizarre energy and delight in his performances until his untimely death from Multiple Sclerosis last December, aged just sixty-‐nine. In 1974's Old Grey Whistle Test performance he seems like a man who has just stumbled out of Frank Zappa's recording studio to a breakfast of forty cigarettes, before howling his witticisms around the BBC to a backdrop of clanging bluesy guitar laden with oddly haunting pauses and perfect phrasing.
The cover of 1969's album Trout Mask Replica gives an indication of this man's bizarre and somehow admirable nature, showing the bust of a man in a top hat, a bow-‐tie, and with the face of a fish. Van Vliet proved himself early on to be a talented sculptor as well as a player of numerous wind instruments. He was
influenced by the Delta and Chicago Blues of Son House and Howling Wolf respectively (from the latter of whom he developed his versatile and distinctive howl of a vocal style), was a teenage friend of Frank Zappa, harboured almost an obsession in his frequent demands for Pepsi (prompting Zappa to sing: "Why doesn't someone give him a Pepsi?") and claimed to remember being born. He worked alongside his changing 'Magic Band' until the early eighties, penning songs that, like many alternative bands of the time, transcended the typically aesthetic melodies in favour of muttered phrases, unsettling growled vocals and fairly cryptic observations set over rhythmic blues licks, which provided the ideal basis to Van Vliet's general charisma and unmistakable stage presence. To get an idea, listen to the man howl "Eeelectriiicityyyy," on the first album Safe as Milk, or even The Black Keys' recent cover of Grown so Ugly (from the same album). Or furthermore, a well known story, cited even on Whistle Test, in which Van Vliet, whilst working as a vacuum-‐cleaner salesman, comes face to face with author Aldous Huxley. "Sir," he declares, "This sucks!". HB
JESSIE J ‘DO IT LIKE A DUDE’: A THESIS
Ok so I know that we’re a bit late on this, but I don’t care. What is music’s obsession with the current all
about, eh? I’m going to start by saying this; I actually quite like this song, I think it’s a pretty good slab of
pop. Good, not great.
The thing about it is though, it’s just ridiculous. Not in a kind of Lady Gaga ridiculous pop music style either; it’s on a whole new level of ridiculousness.
The first question that this track raises is quite why exactly a reasonably attractive woman like Jessie J (see
fig.1) would want to “Do it like a dude”? I don’t mean this in a sexist way, quite the opposite. At first listen this track could be taken as some kind of statement of
equality; “look at me I’m a woman and I can do it just as good as all of you guys.” This is a sentiment that would make more sense if she was in the male dominated rap
scene that the song seems to attempt to reference, but in the pop scene that this song so obviously
belongs to it’s the females who dominate. Surely all us guys should be aspiring to “Do it like a Dudette” as far as pop music goes.
The next point I want to raise about this song stems from the video. I don’t even believe that Jessie J can,
or even wants to, do it like a dude. Throughout the video she oozes femininity – well the modern sense of femininity at least – as she gyrates around grabbing her crotch. Rather I think that this song is a great pastiche of the type of boys you expect the character of Jessie J to be hanging with. I say character because
I seriously doubt that the portrayal of her in the video is the real her. Not that I have a problem with that. Pop music is all a great act, a story, something to buy into, a release from mundanity. That’s why it’s brilliant.
I started the review by saying that the whole song is ridiculous. I don’t think that’s unintentional. As far as I can see the whole song exists to highlight, in a comical kind of way, how ridiculous “dudes” – more in
attitude than in gender – actually are. Let’s take a look at some of the lyrics; “Boom, boom, pull me a beer, no pretty drinks, I’m a guy out here.” This is possibly my favourite line in the whole song, it can’t be serious, it just can’t. It’s got to be a dig at “dudes’” narrow minded approach to masculinity: the “I’m a
man, gimme a beer” attitude. (Because lets face it; who doesn’t, even if only in secret, love a mojito?) What about this “Rollin’ rollin’ rollin’ rollin’ money like a pimp, My B I T C H’s on my d*ck like this”. Let’s not forget Jessie J is a woman, either she has some serious issues or she’s taking the piss and let’s face it
the kind of artists she’s laughing at set themselves up for it. Think Usher, with all his come to daddy nonsense. At times, most notably when Jessie directly addresses “boys” she changes character. The most interesting of these is when she sings “Dirty dirty dirty dirty dirty dirty sucka, you think I can’t get hurt like
you, you motherf*ck*r.” It seems like here she is addressing the Dude character that she is playing in the rest of the song, it can’t help but lead me to think, who is this song about? Who has actually behaved like the dude she is portraying and hurt her enough for her to write a parody song about them? TRS
Fig.1 Jessie J likes arts and crafts
ROB’S VIDEO SPOTLIGHT RADIOHEAD SPECIAL
Radiohead – ‘Lotus Flower’ http://bit.ly/UCLzine_7
On February 18th Radiohead more or less out of the blue unleashed their new album The King of Limbs upon the world, but shortly preceding it was the video for the single and album highlight ‘Lotus Flower’. It features Thom Yorke in a bowler hat dancing in his signature spaz-‐out style, but shot in artistic, sharp focus black and white, and goes on for an unsettlingly gripping five minutes. The video’s director, Garth Jennings, is best known for having helmed the 2005 movie-‐version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, but even still this is probably the weirdest thing he’s ever filmed. Several jabs at the video have been made and some of them are very funny (“how much did they pay Andy Serkis to do the motion capture?”) but the most creative have come in the form of re-‐editing the video. Here is my rundown of the best ‘Lotus Flower’ spoofs.
Thom Yorke Dances to ‘Single Ladies’ http://bit.ly/UCLzine_8
Most of the re-‐edits have been simply to change the music he’s dancing to. As is usually the case the original is the best. The first to surface was Thom bouncing his booty to Beyonce’s ‘Single Ladies’ and undoubtedly the video’s creator has found a groove that the Yorkemeister is perfectly happy to get down to. Imitators include setting the video to ‘Whip My Hair’ and ‘Soulja Boy’ to name a couple, and you can now even Thom-‐roll people with the ‘Lotus Flower’ video set to ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’. If you want to interact with dozens of other changeable tunes then head to makethomyorkedance.tumblr.com – I particularly recommend the Austin Powers Theme.
++++++
Thom Yorke needs the toilet -‐http://bit.ly/UCLzine_9
I would actually personally name this one ‘Thom Yorke does a Mr. Bean Impression’ but I’m not the one who added the strange, strangled, arrhythmic squeals and sounds to this video. By removing the song and adding sounds that Thom could genuinely be making, this video emphasises how downright odd and uncomfortable this video really is. That’s uncomfortable for both Thom and the viewer.
Thom Yorke smashes dead fish on washer-‐dryer –http://bit.ly/UCLzine_10
And the best is for last. By merely adding odd props and comic sound effects to certain parts of the video we get to see things we’d always dreamed of seeing, but never thought would happen: Thom Yorke playing tennis, Thom Yorke getting slapped silly and loving it and Thom Yorke slapping a fish on a washing machine. Who says dreams don’t come true?
++++++
Reviews
Radiohead The King of Limbs
The four years since that In Rainbows surprise have passed relatively calmly, as any rumours relating to the progress of a new record were quickly straightened out by Radiohead. So it is with some surprise and excitement on Februauy the 14th to hear that the 8th studio album had been completed, and would be coming out in just six days time. In essence this means that the band have effectively leaked there own album, generating the same buzz as an early release, but reaping all of the rewards without losing a penny, and ultimately giving a big "Fuck You" to their oldest enemy, music journalism. For a band with a career as inventively directed as Radiohead it's hard to ignore all of these sideshows, but now the album has been with us for a week, lets forget about all the politics and such.
The album in its entirety is in a consistent state of peace that hasn't been maintained on any other Radiohead album before. A large contributor to this calmness is the abandonment of Jonny Greenwoods aggressive guitar solos and progressive song structures that featured on tracks such as '2+2=5' and 'Paranoid Android', in favour of the gentle ticking loops and samples. Opener 'Bloom' is a prime example, the first minute of the track is spent gradually building up the instrument layers one by one. This is no doubt a method rooted from front man Thom Yorke's continued interest in the world of electronic music; his side works over the years have included works with Modeselektor, Fourtet, and arguably the king of sample looping, Flying Lotus.
The repetition is used relentlessly, particularly on the crisp snares and hi-‐hats of Phil Selway, but Colin Greenwoods free-‐jazz inspired bass helps keep the motion interesting, along with blissful orchestral injections. The following couple of tracks are cut form a similar cloth, whereas track four takes a notable turn. Thom's voice is twisted and pitched in a way reminiscent of the cold and soulful vocal samples being produced by the likes of Burial and James Blake. Current single 'Lotus Flower' seems to be The King of Limbs most accessible offering, one of the only tracks to feature distinguishable lyrics, a verse and a chorus.
It's 'Codex' and 'Give Up The Ghost' that showcase Radiohead’s delicate beauty once again, floating in the same lake as former greats such 'Nude', 'Pyramid Song', 'Go Slowly' and 'Videotape'. These aren't going to bring you to tears on first listen though, as 'Reckoner' or 'Nude' may have done; the vocals are heavily in reverb and masked by Ed O'Brien’s signature guitar hum. It also seems like there isn't an obviously extractable subject to take away from either songs. True song meaning in our Radiohead lyrics is always a matter of heated debate, but often because there are several clear lines that really stand out to mean something, when the rest of the song is comparatively ambiguous. Take crowd favourite 'True Love Waits'; the lyric "Just Don't Leave" being sung back again and again, whereas other lyrics such as "I'll dress like your niece to wash your swollen feet" are generally passed on. The point is that the song has that one incredibly touching and pained lyric that immediately grabs anybody who's ever watched someone leave them, whereas these songs don't hit out so hard. But the cloud around these songs just means there's so much still to get out of them, a new feeling each season. These are going to be strong growers, in perhaps a month or so they could be all time favourites. Closing track ‘Separator’ has quite some discussion across the blogosphere; it is thought it's title suggests this is not the end of the album, but the bridge to the next one, which people are further justifying with the lyric "If you think this is the end, then you're wrong". Some people have even managed to extrapolate this to produce a theory that claims there's a secret package hidden deep in the downloaded album, and that it will reveal itself on our desktops on Easter Day, for whatever reason...
Why would fans expect another helping though? Those who ordered the deluxe edition of In Rainbows were treated with a second disc or material, and a deluxe edition has been offered this time round as well. Also, Kid A was quickly succeeded by Amnesiac, with the content coming from the same recording sessions. The band have said to have been recording "on and off for a year", yet several of the tracks are not entirely new to us ('Lotus Flower' has been used by Thom's over band Atoms for Peace, 'Separator' has been previewed during the In Rainbows tour, and 'Good Morning Mr. Magpie' has been kicking around since OK Computer), not forgetting the fact that this 'LP' weighs in at only 37 minutes, which has received much criticism. In fairness, since 2009 we’ve been told that there were no intentions of another long playing album being made for some time, so comparing lengths is really an invalid argument against this 'album'; if that's what you want to call it at all.
I think maybe the real reason fans are baying for more is that perhaps not everyone is entirely satisfied with this release on first listen, and they're trying to justify the feeling with everything but the actual music. It probably harks back to the same reason songs, (e.g. Codex), are less immediately loveable than previous works; the songs are harder to attach to. There are many past examples of this though, 'Paranoid Android', 'Bodysnatchers', 'Knives Out', all obscure in their lyrical stories; but the difference there was an enormous amount of angst and energy that was very powerfully radiated in the music. Take that away and the emotions aren't expressed so easily, but with time they will come out. Since writing this passage I've listened to Codex four times over, and already images are evolving in my head as lines are becoming clearer: "Jump off the end into a clear lake, No one around" breathes the kind of deep calmness you might feel on the long after walk after the break up talk, and I'm sure other tracks are going morph in much the same way. Whether there's more to come in the foreseeable future is probably not worth arguing about; instead spend that time listening to this piece over and over again, and by Easter day it will probably feel like a whole new album anyway. RS
Reviews
Mogwai Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
When progression and development take the place of repeated song structures and throbbing guitars are put to use in texture and scope instead of hooks and choruses, you have ‘post-‐rock’. It’s about as pretentious a genre as it sounds, so after becoming labelled as one of its pioneers, Mogwai have tried to defy its definition. Nonetheless, it’s possible to describe at-‐least a few of those qualities in Mogwai’s 1997 debut Young Team that were foundational to the genre. For example quiet, brooding guitar and piano melodies over soft and sparsely placed beats that would build and build to dynamic heights, becoming swallowed in a thick wash of distortion. Sometimes the crescendos expressed rage, while others were uplifting, but neither was restrained in melodrama. From the mid-‐2000s bands like 65daysofstatic broadened the genre until the utility of the term was diminished, yet at the same time there was this slew of ‘generic post-‐rock’ acts. As the formula for immensity and atmosphere became routine, the impressions lost their force. However, in the last few years some of those original instrumental groups have left behind the central tenants of post-‐rock, and taken their ideas elsewhere. 65daysofstatic for one, returned to their roots last year to bring their odd time signatures to more conventional dance music. With most tracks barely passing the 5 minute mark and the substitution of pianos for synthesisers, Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will is similarly divergent. Mixed in with some solid vintage Mogwai, there are good things for listeners both new and old. Some of these changes may make original fans uneasy. Its first single, ‘Mexican Grand Prix’ is an atrocity on first listen. Its verse-‐chorus-‐verse structure, repetitive vocals and punchy beat comes across as a desperate drive to grab a wider audience. Similarly, ‘George Square Thatcher Death Party’’s opening synth sounds disgracefully like one in ‘Mr. Brightside’. However, even when breaking out of post-‐rock, Mogwai still finds a way to come into its own. Overall, the album just sounds more digital, but this has brought new scope for creating texture and ambience. Its vocals are processed to the point where they become indiscernible, and subtle static ambient screeches and glitches leave layers left to explore with each listen. The rough and brittle distortion through ‘Rano Pano’ shows unprecedented attention to detail in the treble, creating the cold and harsh sound that gives the guitars their menace. However, there are tracks left untouched by this treatment. ‘How to Be a Werewolf’ has that warm and indistinct bass which harks back to the Young Team era. Despite being overtly major, it manages to be uplifting yet not sickeningly sweet. There’s a patient three minutes build before it makes its powerful crescendo, while contrasting tracks like ‘San Pedro’ jump the gun and enter head on. Both are sure favourites, but one can’t help but feel that where they restrain themselves, the pay-‐off is far more rewarding. In all, it’s this kind of diversity in approach that make it hard to pin down the album’s sound. However, on any approach, no track is filler, and if you’ve been unable to get into instrumental rock before, then now is a better time than ever. OF
O.Chlidren O.Children
In the lull between the release of any new Editors material, O.Children offer their self-‐entitled album to fill the gloomy silence. Often likened to Joy Division and named after the Nick Cave song, their ominous melodies and haunting lyricals-‐ “So long and farewell, I’ll see you in hell, if you mess with my death, it will be your last breath..” (‘Don’t Dig’) are likely culprits to their reputation as the East London kings of ‘modern goth rock’.
Look out for ‘Malo’, ‘Heels’ and ‘Don’t Dig’ although the overall atmosphere of the album has a greater impact than any one song alone! MR
Reviews
TOBACCO, La Uti EP [Anticon, Nov. 2010]
As cowardly as it may be to say it, a full album from Black Moth Super Rainbow’s Tom Fec is a frightening, exhausting proposition. As beatsmith TOBACCO, he has lived up to his imposing and suffocating moniker with two albums (last year’s Maniac Meat and 2008’s Fucked Up Friends) of left-‐field hip-‐hop that made up with sensual force what they lacked in coherence. He deals hand after hand of cut-‐up analogue synth, thick beats, and cracked, incomprehensible falsetto. It’s a rural, agricultural sound (rumours are he records in some Pennsylvania backwood), with the humidity and incessant buzzing pressure of a swamp. Coupled with their lurid artwork, and Fec’s penchant for surrealistic and graphic wordplay, these records can be hard to swallow whole.
As such, the companion EP seems an appropriate enough format for Fec, allowing his listeners the chance to digest some choice, steaming cuts in a less crowded environment, whilst also easing in new material. On LA UTI, he draws on seven guest MCs-‐ including Doseone from fellow Anticon crew Subtle, and the newly reformed Anti-‐Pop Consortium-‐ to reimagine four Maniac Meat pieces and lay claim to three new compositions. It should be said from the off that no one can touch TOBACCO when it comes to this kind of muddied, drenched beat, and he seems to roll off all seven brilliant instrumentals with ease. Alongside the familiar crunch of ‘TV All Greasy’ and the woozy, Golden Age thuds of ‘Sweatmother’, we are immersed in the likes of ‘The Injury’, where the reverb lingers just long enough to deprive us of air, and ‘2 Thick Scoops’, which fuses a stately rock bassline with swoops of scorched keyboard.
The weakness of the EP lies with the MCs, who seem to struggle to respond to the same dilemma that the queasy listener might undergo on the full-‐lengths: how to escape the synth-‐swamp, and make yourself heard? The delivery is disappointingly substandard throughout: Anti-‐Pop Consortium still sound a little rusty as they get lost in the reverb of opener ‘TV All Greasy’, their fatigued rhymes banging against the walls to little effect. Doseone’s familiar tones do some good work alongside TOBACCO’s lilting vocals on ‘The Injury’, but Serengeti on ‘2 Thick Scoops’ and newcomer Icicle Frog on ‘Unholy Demon Rhythms’ just can’t match the Frankenstein swagger of the beats. Rob Sonic’s turn on the updated ‘Lick The Witch’ is better in that he meets the fevered shake of the beat head-‐on, his voice clearer and his imagery more than a match for his oddball producer (‘Ain't afford a math hole to get a brown star/Hands up on his feet getting deep in lawn darts/Jungle jack rabbit his magic is deep shadow/Asshole this is foot, Bobby this is Tobacco’). TOBACCO isn’t going to come out of this any worse for wear-‐ he seems happy to inhabit this cramped soundworld-‐ but unless MCs can up their game to match him, they won’t escape the swamp smelling of roses. SG
Braids Native Speaker
You may have heard a lot about Braids’ debut album already. A band to watch? Yes. A spectacular and original debut? Yep. Another Animal Collective? Not entirely. One of the most common tags attached to this new release is that they are just mimicking Avey Tare, Panda Bear, and the gang. Sure, you can hear AC’s influence, but this band are something a bit different, stringing out their 7 songs to 45 minutes, keeping the record pulsing with minimalistic beats, and an outstandingly dynamic female voice (even attaining Bjorkian reaches). They are patient; sometimes the songs take a while to grab you, which may alienate some people -‐ but once it happens, it’s so gradual that you’ll wonder when it actually did get you. ‘Lemonade’, the opening track and leading single, sets the tone for the album; a progressive, hypnotic band, that make sure each of their drawn out tracks is layered, lovingly textured, creating a sort of soundscape yet with minimalism. It’s the vocals that go from whispering to bellowing, the reverb-‐coated lyrics, and the skilful and pulsating cohesiveness of the band; the Cocteau Twins meets Animal Collective (circa Feels), with a rainy twist. Another standout track, ‘Plath Heart’ is hard not to love, whizzing along as its own pace, with an irresistible voice, an assortment of instruments to match, and again making something great out of very little. Singing about pushing out babies has never been so amazing.
Nevertheless, there are the songs you don’t notice as strongly, drifting along, giving you a breather. And as a first release, the production isn’t always on the beat – for example, the drums could have been more pounding, punchier. But, you’ll forget all that with ‘Glass Deer’, their best song, epitomizing Braids: mesmerizing, elegant, gradual, just brilliant (you’ll be humming “oh I’m fucked-‐up-‐de-‐cup-‐de-‐cup-‐de-‐cup” for a long while). With the title track, what at first seems distant becomes mesmerizing – the empowered, yet vulnerable voice dominating the drifting sounds paints its blunt picture of sexuality and sensuality so well. OS
Reviews inadvertent, attention-‐ only turning to take tabs on Chad’s whereabouts,
The night was hardly insightful into the psyche of Funeral Party; there were no conversational interludes, throw-‐away banter or even introductions between the numbers, which was made more noticeable by the intimate 300 guest capacity. The few words said-‐ over the prolonged, anticipatory introduction to ‘Finale’-‐ were only to advertise upcoming tour dates around London.
But did this attitude put any of us off (as much as being charged £6.50 for a glass of wine)? To be honest, it probably gave momentum to the energetic atmosphere of the night, bypassing any awkward chit-‐chat and moshers left stranded in silence. And Chad was sure to prove his love to us by showering us in beer at the height of ‘Chalice’.
The crowd itself was not the young, indie Londoners that presumably account for many of their Youtube views. City men who had apparently been at the pub all day, with a week’s worth of energy waiting to be unleashed against each other and anyone in the circumference, hogged the floor.
Ultimately the Funeral Party experience is finding yourself in a sweaty high, an hour in the future, with no idea where the time went and why there is beer all down your tights. Is this an experience you would necessarily want? Well, it’s highly addictive. The morning after my night at Cargo, I booked to see them at Heaven in May!
Funeral Party @ Cargo 11/02/11 There is often an energy to live music unattainable
even by air guitar-‐ing to iTunes with your bedroom curtains closed. However only on the rarest of nights, at a hipster’s paradise known as Cargo, does a band unapologetically blow you away and degenerate your highest quality mp3 of their latest album one song at a time. From now on, whenever the first few beats of ‘Just Because’ begin to play, they will only sound flat and second rate in contrast to the fibrillated chords Funeral Party smashed out for their encore.
Chad Elliot’s (Vocals, Samples and Keyboards) voice is unfaltering, whether he is artistically positioning himself on speakers, parading the microphone stand like a trophy, or being taken off-‐guard by the guitarist adding in a (drunken?) diversion from the original melody. From his first step on stage Chad was casually confident. Too cool in his leather jacket, moustache combo, to acknowledge the other members standing beside him, let alone the gathering of fans before him. Tambourine in hand, Funeral Party broke open their set list, dragging the crowd into a sweaty whirlpool of moshing in less than a song.
Once bored of the speakers, tambourine, microphone-‐ stand, lead and all-‐ he moved to his keyboard for a dramatic instrumental, undeterred by Kimo Kauhola (bass) blocking our view. His new toy was his only audience, the one thing that could humour him in that moment. Kimo was less blasé in the face of the spotlight. He amped up his
Alexander @ Camp Basement, 15/02/11 Having had a few typically unproductive reading week days to stew over Alex Ebert and his troupe of bearded men, or Alexander, I still can’t work out what exactly happened. The gig was disorganised, interesting, enjoyable, and ultimately a mess. I guess I could start with the venue. Mildew and exposed pipes aside, the pub-‐come-‐creepy-‐basement-‐cellar did exude some sort of charm. It seemed the kind of place to come across a little known band, where the small dingy basement would add to the feeling of exclusivity of your discovery of said band. And true enough, it did do that… for the openers The Shute. With an element of grunge perfectly suited to the room, they managed to overcome the biggest challenge to support acts and actually capture the attention of the crowd. Though I can’t tell you what any of their songs were about due to a profoundly poor sound system, there was an eerie, captivating quality about the lead singer’s voice, which I have to assume was paired with fittingly mysterious lyrics. Off to a good start, I had high hopes for the main act. Admittedly, all I knew about Alexander was that singer Alex Ebert had had previous success with the fun family of folk that is Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. I suppose what I expected was some easy listening American style folk, or sounds in a similar vein. This being a band with which Ebert created such emotive lines as, ”Nobody better pinch me, bitch I swear I’ll go crazy.” It was a shame the speakers didn’t clear up for the headline act. The set did start out well, with opening reggae-‐jazz number ‘Awake My Body’ getting the audience in high spirits, and ‘A Million Years’ showcasing some impressive whistling no doubt harnessed during his Edward Sharpe days. Silly and unnecessary hat aside, Alexander had a strong stage presence and blue grey eyes you couldn’t help but stare into. The night, however, soon spiralled into chaos. It began with the failure of one of the guitars, which left the band an instrument short. Seemingly pointless pleas to the crowd for a spare following the disappearance of all members and instruments of The Shute were to no avail, and saw Alexander trying to excuse the mishap by arguing it was only his “second ever gig” in this line-‐up. It was during crowd favourite ‘Truth’ that the first of two restarts occurred, when the audience stopped the band because a man had fainted, not because they had found a spare guitar as Ebert had hoped. The man soon got up, and embarrassingly made his way towards the exit. The second restart happened when Alex stopped playing, saying the song would “sound shit” if they didn’t do it over. After changing nothing, it appeared it was not so much the way they were playing but the song itself that needed a rethink. The pathetic promise to “try [his] best to get through the set” left you with the feeling that there should have been a bit more practise before they started charging £7 to watch them epically crash. A guitar washing up on stage in time for the last song didn’t do enough to salvage the night. In fact it only helped to emphasise the fact that the band was incomplete for most of the time. Though upbeat songs like ‘In the Twilight’ momentarily got the crowd back on his side, it didn’t do enough for the long-‐term. AW
Reviews J.Cole @ Koko, 09/01/11 Hype is a dangerous thing. The first act signed to Jay-‐Z’s Roc Nation imprint, J. Cole (née Jermaine Lamarr Cole) shouldered the hopes and expectations of one of the biggest names in the business, stepping out onto a gilded platform large enough to launch any talent; Mr. Beyoncé didn’t join the label business to shore up half-‐baked rappers, however. If the signing of young Willow Smith wasn’t proof enough, J. Cole’s lyrical smarts are the confirmation. Since being signed, his journey has taken an unusual turn. Cole’s rise has been anything but textbook; four years and three mixtapes into his career, there is no official date set for the release of his mysterious debut album. High profile cameos continue, whilst supporting tours roll on (this date coming amidst a European jaunt supporting Drake, the last major rap breakthrough). Cole is anything but anonymous, however; for this, his first major bow in the UK, he played to a sold out Koko, full to its 1500 capacity. The crowd intensified during DJ Semtex’ warm-‐up set, bouncing jeers from the vaulted ceilings during Nicki Minaj’s verses, or brap’ing to Lethal Bizzle’s ‘Pow’. The OG crowd were hard-‐core, delivering a less than warm welcome for support act Maxsta, who turned in a sub-‐par performance that only accentuated the divide in quality between the some of the UK’s grime MCs and a man who is ostensibly one of US rap’s best lyricists. He also had numerous hype-‐men, a notable (and welcome) omission during J. Cole’s set. Prefacing the main event, Cole spoke at length about the importance of all the fans who were ahead of the curve, and there to see him alone. He returned the favour; for a rap show, the set-‐list stretched for a lengthy 90 minutes, taking in the best of his material from mixtapes The Come Up, The Warm Up and most recently, Friday Night Lights. The remainder of the set was fleshed out with his best featuring spots to date. Little is known about the album, beyond the fact that Cole has been taking production duties into his own hands (as he always has done). The closest he got to this at Koko was a brief stint working the keys for ‘Lights Please’. For the remainder of the set, backing duties were left to two keyboard players and DJ Beat, who had their moment during a beat-‐juggling breakdown. These skills, alongside an understated singing ability, make him a triple threat; the only thing lacking was a freestyle section, but a minute of digging on YouTube provides the goods we are looking for. The innovations continued, stripping back to acapella for some of his best verses, or unleashing a Notorious B.I.G. ‘Hypnotize’ instrumental for the breakdown of ‘Who Dat’ – “So anything you can do, I can do better/And any chick you can screw, I can get wetter.” Talking about his past on ‘Dollar And A Dream’, Cole bent the truth somewhat; concerning his move to New York City to follow his dream with “a single dollar to my name”, the truth says that the move was in fact supported by an academic scholarship at St. John’s University. Indeed, his early education in Fayetteville, North Carolina took place at one of America’s best high-‐schools. Cole is a scholar. Semtex spoke about this being a “legendary” show in his introduction, as you would expect. That word does strike a chord, however; how many hip hop artists are able to sell out a large venue on alien territory, before releasing any material? Reaching out to the crowd for his encore, one line stood out: “Never say I’m better than Hov, but I’m the closest one“. If ‘Monster’ and ‘H.A.M.’ say anything about the aging fortunes of Jay-‐Z, one might say the pupil has outgrown the master. WH
Sharon Van Etten We met Sharon and her new bandmates Doug Keith (bass) and Ben Lord (drums) in London on the eve of their first show outside of US soil as a band. In a busy pub on a Saturday lunch time we managed to find a spot in the corner hidden from the booming commentary coming from the live rugby on television and mostly hidden from the raucous fans whose eyes were glued on the game. We talked over a pint about her musical progression, recording her new album with Aaron Dessner, touring Japan,
For people who don’t know you, tell us about your musical past and how you started in music SVE: Growing up I started off being in choir and I was in musicals in high school and then I moved to Tennessee and started listening to a lot of country kind of music and then by the time I moved back to the East Coast I was doing like solo acoustic guitar and when I moved to electric guitar I decided that I wanted to get a band together.
Was it only once you were in Tennessee that you started to write your own songs?
Do you remember the first song you ever wrote? SVE: My sister reminds me all the time. I remember one of the lines – it was so bad – but I remember the lyric was “I wanna rip out your eyes and hang them in the sky” or something. That’s not so bad… I’m sure that the rest was worse. That’s the one line that my sister always repeats to me. We used to share a room. She was like the studier and I was always playing guitar, she’d be like “shutup, I need to study!”
OK so what kind of things outside of music inspire you? SVE: My friends, movies, Woody Allen… Were you a Woody Allen fan from early on? SVE: Oh yeah So you must have always wanted to move to New York? SVE: Oh yeah. All of his movies are like so New York and that was my vision. I didn’t watch any of them until high school but yeah I love him. I even saw him play at The Carlisle because he has jazz nights once a week. Really? SVE: Yeah so I got to see him on my birthday last year. What does he play? SVE: He plays clarinet! Is he good? SVE: He’s awesome. Ben: Really good You play clarinet don’t you? SVE: I played when I was really young and I played for a couple of years but I wasn’t very good. You’re not tempted to ever try to play clarinet on a song? SVE: It’s hard to sing and play clarinet at the same time… Yeah that’s true! < laughs > You could do like a clarinet solo in the middle of the song… SVE: That’s true. Let Doug sing. Doug: Yeah, I’d sing with your clarinet. < sings a little > < everyone laughs > So are you still inspired by the same things as you always were or have you learnt to appreciate other things? SVE: In all honesty it’s just things that happen to me and my friends. Because of my life I just write about my friends, my surroundings, and everyday things like that. Do you write anything other than songs? SVE: I write moments and I write… I don’t know if they’ll turn into songs or anything but I like keeping a journal of my travels, writing quotes from movies or just things my friends do.
So you fairly recently brought out your second album [Epic] and it’s quite a different sound from the first one [Because I Was In Love]. What changed lyrically – to me it seems that both of them are about a breakup or a few breakups and the first to me is about the initial impact and the pain and the second one is more about reflecting on it. SVE: Definitely. I’m also just a lot more confident than I was when I wrote that first record and now it’s like I’m coming out of it, I’m more secure. I’m still learning to deal with some things but like, I’m learning to be a little angry, I think that’s OK too. But I think mostly it’s just that I’m more confident. Is that anger going into your new songs? SVE: Yeah I think the newer songs are kind of a mix of the vibe of the first and the second but I think they’re a lot more nice. But there’s always like an air of sadness in my writing, but that’s only because that’s my way; it’s like self-‐therapy. I’m dealing with it, I don’t feel that way anymore. It’s like dealing with the things in hindsight. Is that anger going into your new songs? SVE: Yeah I think the newer songs are kind of a mix of the vibe of the first and the second but I think they’re a lot more nice. But there’s always like an air of sadness in my writing, but that’s only because that’s my way; it’s like self-‐therapy. I’m dealing with it, I don’t feel that way anymore. It’s like dealing with the things in hindsight.
I wanted to ask – I don’t mean to sound rude – why did you only put seven tracks on your last record? How did you decide it was done? I had two weeks to record and we picked the strongest songs that made the most sense with the others. We got six songs done and we added the seventh ‘cause I recorded “Love More” first – before we went into the studio – for the Weathervane Project. I don’t know if you know anything about that? It’s awesome! Brian McTear is amazing, he just asked me to do this thing and it was like two days of writing and recording in collaboration, which they filmed and they documented. They got the song as a single on radio and I wasn’t expecting the song to do well, I just thought it was a cool project for the community to let them know this is what they do, that they have people contributing money to help them to continue to do this, to support struggling artists. I had such an amazing experience in the studio that I decided to record the rest of the album there. So we recorded six songs in two weeks and we added that one to make it seven. Also it made sense with the vibe of the record. It ended up being “well this is what I have, and it makes sense, and I’m really proud of it. I don’t think anything needs to be added.” I just wanted to be done with it, it was a really good time to have it finished and be out. You guys are recording together for the new album; how’s that going? SVE: Pretty awesome. Ben: Amazing. Doug: Swimmingly. SVE: It’s going to be insane. Ben: It’s like a beautiful, natural progression. And you’ve got Aaron Dessner of The National producing, that’s exciting! SVE: Yeah, he’s been great. Every time I do a record I want to step up. Every time, you know? You don’t want to have the same record. There’s people that I love but all their records sound the same. I want the proceedings to be different each time, to stand out on every record so that people can remember it for what it is. So he’s pushing me a little beyond my comfort level, I think that’s good because most of my friends do that to me anyway to help me, like, grow as a person. So he’s helping me grow as a person and do things I wouldn’t naturally do. Ben: He’s pretty brilliant and he’s coming up with pretty amazing arrangements. He’s very good. SVE: Yeah his brother did some string arrangements on a couple of songs. Doug: He’s got a unique perspective.
How did the collaboration with Aaron come about in the first place? SVE: Well, I was on tour with Megafun about two years ago and Brad the bass player woke me up in the morning to play me a video of Justin Vernon from Bon Iver and Aaron and Bryce from The National covering my song “Love More.” And I lost it, I was just like “how do they know who I am!? What is happening?!” And so by the time I got home from the tour I was planning to record the rest of the record. So I went out on a limb and I wrote Justin and I wrote Aaron and I wrote Bryce and I asked if they would want to record on my record. But they were too busy, so they said “next time you record, let us know. We have a little studio in Brooklyn in case you want to stop by and work on something.” Yeah if you want to stop by, no big deal. < laughs > So I finished the record and I kept in touch with Aaron and I let him know my plans. And he kept his word and now we’re working on stuff. It’s funny how someone that you put up on a pedestal is super normal and down to earth. He just likes doing music; he tours and comes back and he goes back into the studio. He’s so productive.
So how far along are you with the new record? SVE: Well… there’s ten songs that we’re working on, we’re going to try to record fifteen. Those ten aren’t done, we’re going to work some more in May and hope to finish it then. I’ve heard Aaron’s putting lots of different sounds on it, how does it sound so far? SVE: Well we have violin, cello, viola, trombone… My friend Julianna Barwick is singing on it. There’s a song we kind of turned inside-‐out on it, because originally it was just like strumming, chord preogression, but we realised that I start all of my songs like that so just for fun we tried to mess around with the guitar part. And so now instead of playing the normal progression I’m just playing a drone, one note the whole time and then stuff builds around it instead. So he just helps me to do things differently. Doug: He’s kind of a genius with guitar sound, too, I think. He does like – it’s a guitar but he adjusts the sound every time to make it unique. He’ll find a different way to play it, he’ll take a chord and do it front-‐way then turn it around. SVE: He’s got lots of pedals and different amps.
So it sounds like it’s going to be different… SVE: It is different. Hopefully it’s not a total shock but there’ll be some surprising things.
I suppose it’s too early to talk about labels really, but I noticed you quit your job at Ba Da Bing and you put out a seven inch on Polyvinyl, does that mean anything? SVE: Oh no, Polyvinyl just did a seven inch; we’re not going to Polyvinyl. I just made Ben from Ba Da Bing my manager so we’re going to put it out on a new label but we’re not sure who it’s going to be yet. You finished your last show in New York with an R.E.M. cover, are you going to do more covers live or was that a one-‐off? SVE: We’re working on doing more covers. We’ll have more time in the spring to work on new ones. Ben: That R.E.M. song [“Strange Currencies”] kind of found us because Sharon found that album [Monster] and brought it in and played that song and did a full singalong-‐lip-‐sync to it. So we could not not do it live. I saw you tweet earlier that you’ve been watching Peep Show; is it your first time? Doug: First time, it’s amazing! SVE: It’s amazing! I think my favourite quote is “fuck the fuck off!” < general laughter > But it’s intense! Doug: We watched all of season 1 yesterday and part of season 2. SVE: I love the British Office too and my Dad was really into that older British comedy Coupling.
OK back to serious topics. My favourite album of 2009 was Hospice by The Antlers [on which Sharon guested]; do you know anything about their new one? Are you going to be on it? SVE: I know they’re working on it, they just set up their own studio. They all lived in separate places before by now they’ve all moved to a local area so they can write and record together in the same space. I was supposed to stop by before I left but I was too busy so I’m going to have to stop by after this and hopefully catch them before they leave. I think we’re only back for three or four days between tours but I hope we cross paths; I want to see their new space. I’m sure it’s just a matter of me showing up and they’ll find something for me to do on their new record. But I don’t even know what their new stuff sounds like, we’ve all been so busy that we can’t even see each other play.
So what are your immediate plans after this? SVE: We’re touring with The National for two weeks around Europe which is exciting. I’m excited to see them play for two weeks in a row. RH
DELS For people who haven’t heard about you before, describe your sound to them; what can they expect from you? DELS: Hip-‐hop, raw, honest, and experimental... that’s it basically. Simple. What sets you aside from the other hip-‐hop artists that are around at the moment do you think? I don’t know. It’s not something I really think about really, but I guess that with the producers that I’m working with it’s got like a different sound to what’s currently out there. I wanted to ask you about your choice of producers, producers I really like –so I was wondering were you involved with those choices or were they suggested to you by the label? How did that come about? I’ve been working on this record years before I signed with the label last year and I’ve been friends with Micachu, Joe Goddard from Hot Chip and Kwes since like 2006. That’s around the time when I started getting into their music, ‘cos before I went to university I was straight like hip-‐hop, dancehall music, stuff like that and then when I went to uni I met different people and got into different types of music and I guess that’s the reason why my music sounds the way it does. I don’t really listen to hip-‐hop that much anymore and I spend time listening to other interesting sounds.
So you mentioned you started way back in 2006 and then I think in 2008 you released a single with Moshi Moshi? Yeah So what have you been doing between that release and releasing ‘Shapeshift’ on Big Dada? Well, after that in 2009 I had ‘Shapeshift’ ready. We shot the video in 2009. So we’ve been sitting on that for a very long time and I only got to release it last year in July. I was just kind of trying to work out my live show, cos now I’ve got like a proper band and I thought a hip-‐hop show can be a bit boring when it’s just DJs and a guy on the mic. I just wanted to build that process you know. And make sure that when I’m onstage I’m communicating something to the audience because I feel like hip-‐hop could be so much more interesting if you have some great musicians around you. I’ve also been working on my record. I finally finished it at the beginning of the year and it’s coming out in May. How has your live show changed over the course of writing the album? It started off with me and a CD player, to me with a DJ, to me with a drummer and a DJ, to now with two keyboardists, singers, delay pedals, bass guitar. I’m really happy with it, but the next step is to add visuals; I want my instrument to be a visual. How long ago was you and a CD player? Last gig was in Hull in a dingy club with about four people looking at me and that was in 2009. Wow, that’s quite recently. I was thinking it would have been back when you were in college. No, no, no it was recently! Why is the album called GOB? Just because I like the word “gob”. It’s very British, it’s something that my mum used to tell me to shut up all the time like “shut yer gob”. My friend Kwes who’s producing on this album he made this track called ‘Gob’ and I just thought it was so punchy. It’s gonna be the next single. Are you going to make a video for it? Yeah definitely. We’re shooting a week Tuesday. You do all your own graphics and videos and things don’t you? Yeah. With another design studio.
Does that make you feel like you have greater ownership over the whole project? Yeah for sure. That’s how I’ve always wanted it to be. I’ve always said that I wanted this DELS project to be equally about the audio and the visual, because the times that we’re living in now everything’s online and people are interacting with music in different ways. I think pushing the whole visual element is a really interesting concept for me and that’s something that I’ve been interested in for the last few years. And coming from a graphic design background it’s kind of like a natural progress. And my music might not last. I might fuck up in a few years time. So I don’t want to go to an interview at a design studio in London and they’ll be like “Ok so what have you been doing for the last few years?” – “Oh I’ve been making music.” But they want to see evidence that I’ve still been thinking in a visual way. So that’s like my plan b. What kind of themes can we expect to hear lyrically on the album? Basically the album’s all about the coexistence between fantasy and reality and it’s like an exploration of that space in between. Yeah that’s what I got from the track titles... Yeah. ‘Hydronenburg’: that’s about alcoholic water and it’s all about changing. There’s a lot of things where I’m talking about changing objects or changing myself or changing things about other people and stuff like that. So it’s kind of like this distorted view of reality. That’s what I was interested in for this album; just because it lends itself to such a rich visual. Cos if you just base everything on reality it’s too regimented but with fantasy you can do anything.
Are you inspired by things you read? Yeah things I read, I love Aruki Murakami, the way he writes, he’s a Japanese writer. Also I love Hayao Miyazaki, he’s amazing; and I just love the whole story element. That’s why when I was growing up I used to like people like The Streets, Roots Manuva or even like Notorious B.I.G. just because they all told stories and that’s what I really like. How did you end up signing to [Ninjatune subsidiary] Big Dada? Were there a lot of offers coming in? They were the ones that were really passionate about what I’m doing and I felt like they understood my vision. That was the most important thing for me. I also wanted to make sure that I have creative control over what I’m doing, that’s important. And you’ve got Roots Manuva on the album, how did that come about? Yeah! Oh my god. To be honest that was quite random how that happened. I played his night at the Queen of Hoxton and he came up to me out of nowhere and was like “Yeah let’s make a song.” I didn’t even meet him yet! We were label mates but I’d never met him and he’s like “let’s make a song” and he’s talking to me like he knew me. It was quite weird but I was really excited at the same time. I was trying to compose myself. He’s one of my idols and to make a song with him was just amazing. That was done with me, him and Joe Goddard and we had a brass section. Yeah it sounds really cool.
You’ve got many different producers working across your album, do you think their different sounds and styles tie together to make the finished product? Because the beginnings of the instrumentals that they sent through to me I picked them while keeping in mind “how can these all go together?” So I wasn’t just picking any old instrumental, I was thinking “Nah that’s not right, we need to work on this.” And then as the album was coming to its completion we kind of just tied the sounds together. It was supposed to be Joe Goddard producing but it ended up with Kwes producing six tracks on the album, Joe Goddard having three and Micachu two. The project was originally going to be a joint project with Joe Goddard and me and we were going to come up with a name for it, we came up with all these shitty names. Then he said “you might as well just call it DELS” and I became a solo act basically. You still live in Ipswich and you’ve been commuting to London to record; if this album is a success will you move to London? The plan is to move to London this summer, obviously I lived here before, I moved back to write the album. I just wanted to write it in Ipswich for some reason and it’s worked. I’m looking forward to moving back to London but to be honest I’d probably prefer to write my second album in another city like Tokyo or New York. In 2008 you released ‘Lazy’; do you think you’re still lazy? No I’m definitely not lazy, not anymore. <laughs> That was kind of like a reflection of my teenage years before I went to college and stuff like that. I noticed on the b-‐sides to ‘Trumpalump’, the Joe Goddard remix isn’t so much of a remix; it’s pretty much a whole new song. Yeah I know! Do you end up with a lot of extra lyrics that you don’t use? I thought about using the same lyrics again, but then I thought that would be cheating the audience. I wanted to give the audience something fresh. And it’s quite a heartfelt lyric; it’s about my granddad. I don’t know, I just wrote it. Joe said we were gonna do a remix and I always wanted to do something with my friend Ghostpoet at some point because I think he’s a great artist. He did his verse and when he did that I said to Joe that I thought we should do a quiet remix, stripped down, less crazy, and I just wrote that verse and then that was it.
In a lot of the press I’ve read Ghostpoet and you have been touted together as a “new wave of hip-‐hop.” So with his verse on that track did you meet him, do you know him? Or was it something that was hooked up? No, he’s one of my friends. I met him, met Kwes, Micachu, Joe Goddard and Sampha… I met all of these great producers and artists all on MySpace, when itwas booming! I was talking to these guys every single day and I’d never even met them. It was weird. So when I saw Kwes – I remember bumping into him on the underground I was like “Whoa! You’re Kwes,” and he was like “yeah.” Then we kept seeing each other out at like gigs and stuff. But I’ve known Ghostpoet for a few years and I think he’s a great artist and I think he’s going to do some really great things. Would you consider getting together again and doing another collaboration? Definitely! We did a mixtape, we released it in 2009. It was produced by Micachu and Kwes, and it had Ghostpoet, The XX, The Invisible, Golden Silvers, Man Like Me, just a crazy amount of artists and we all know each other through friends of friends. It’s called Kwesachu Volume 1 and we’re going to do a Volume 2 this year hopefully, just everyone get together and make music. You mentioned Sampha. Are any of the tracks you’ve made with Sampha ever going to be released? Are they going to show up as b-‐sides? Yeah I’m sure they’re going to be released in the future, we just need to finish them. He unexpectedly got really popular so then he got really busy and we couldn’t finish the tracks. I really wanted him to be on the album but I think we’re going to do something over the next month or so and finish it and put it out there because I think he’s just a wicked, wicked producer and he’s an amazing soul singer as well. I suppose we should whack this in: every press release I’ve read about you says you were in a two-‐step garage band that John Peel played. What was the band called and can people still hear the song? No, no, you can’t find the song. It was a band before the internet age so it doesn’t exist, luckily. <laughs> We were called The Alliance Inn. So you won’t ever trace it back to that period. If you take off it might come out on an old John Peel sessions CD or something. I hope not! RH + TRS
LA SERA
First thing I wanted to ask is that I always see you referred to as ‘Kickball’ Katy Goodman just wondered where that came from? My nickname has been ‘Kickball Katy’ for the last ten years because when I was seventeen I was a member of a super secret Kickball society, in Rochester New York but I’m not allowed to talk about it
La Sera is the project of Katy Goodman bassist for the Vivian Girls, her new album, which shows more of her melodic side came out 14th February. We met up with her on the final date of her European Tour in London.
Was music something you always wanted to do? I never thought I could do music; it was never even a possibility in my mind. I went to for college physics, finished then college for teaching, I was going to be a physics teacher, then the month I was looking for jobs was the month the Vivian Girls took off and started doing stuff. My music career happened by accident, a happy accident. This album is quite a different sound to the Vivian Girls, what were the influences for it? There were no direct influences, I wasn’t aiming for it to sound like anything. Actually the first song on the album, ‘Beating Heart’, I wrote after hearing Fever Ray, so I was like I wanna make my own creepy sounding songs. That was the only one where I was aiming for a particular sound. One thing for me was the record seemed quite nostalgic, some similarities to Real Estate and that scene. Real Estate? I went to high school with them. I dunno I think making music like this is all I’ve ever known, people always say to me very nostalgic, old timey sounding. I’m like “what’s new timey sounding?” When people say it’s very modern or new, I don’t know, to me ‘modern sounding’ means techno. I don’t know how to make music that’s ‘today’; I don’t know what that means. I’m not sure I want to know. You seem to play London a lot; what’s your impression of London? My impression of London is completely formed by my relationship with Male Bonding. If it weren’t for them I don’t know how I would feel about London because I don’t know many other people but from the day the Vivian Girls first stepped foot in England, through friends, like through a friend of a friend, we got in touch with John from Male Bonding, he let us stay in his house. From that day on we’re best friends forever. Whenever we’re in town we stay with them, they make us feel like we’re at home its very nice and so I’d say that’s my main impression of London, is how wonderful the boys in Male Bonding are. I saw you tweeted that you didn’t like the fact that you were compared to other Girl bands, which I think was to do with the Coke Machine Glow review. But more generally I was wondering about your feelings of being labeled a girl group? It seems completely unfair because, there are so many bands in this world that are all male, they don’t get compared to each other just because they’re all male, that’s not something that happens, it just doesn’t happen. Just because a band is all girls, La Sera is not all-‐girl but it’s female led, I don’t think it warrants comparisons to other bands just because of that. I think it’s unfair, especially because that article was very harsh to Best Coast who I’m friends with, really good friends with them, so its hard to have people write articles about your friends and say, “your friends suck”. I don’t want to read that. Who wants to read that? Lots of Girl Bands get asked “are you a feminist?” Does matter much to you, or the idea that you somehow represent or encourage other girls to get involved in music? I don’t think that being involved in music and in a band is necessarily feminist; I would definitely say I am a feminist, however. I think its still crazy to be a girl in a band is a political statement. It should just be normal, it shouldn’t be seen as being any different than if it a male band. It’s true that being girl in a band it is its own statement, it’s a thing. I do want to encourage other girls to play in bands till we’re at the point where it’s not a weird thing to be a girl in a band. Were there any particular females figures in music that made you think music was more open to you? One of the main reasons I started playing, when I was twenty I was listening to Julie Ruin, which is Kathleen Hanna’s from Bikini Kill’s side project. She had this song called the ‘Punk Singer’, it was my favourite song the whole year, my number one favourite song. I realised that song was only four chords, repeating the entire song, the song does not change at all, it’s the easiest song ever made chord-‐wise. That’s when I realised you can do a lot with just four chords and melody and so that was my main inspiration to play music at all. I don’t need to be a virtuoso on guitar in order to make music that I like, definitely Kathleen Hanna. One final question, do you have any plans for more making albums under the La Sera name? Yes definitely. The second album is half written. Right now I am thinking how I want it to sound, I’ve kind of envisioned the record as a record, that’s where I’m at. AS
MINI HYPE
Weed Hounds
Weed Hounds are from New York, and they mix sweet female-‐fronted dreampop with spiky blasts of wired guitar noise. Drowsy and pretty but propulsive, like waking up still drunk or a bubblegum version of the Swirlies. All their stuff's up for download on their tumblr. Isn't that nice of them? Album coming soon.
Veronica Falls
Veronica Falls have been going for a while, with a single on ultra-‐hip label Captured Tracks, but with an album slated for release this year they're only going to get bigger. Think classic indiepop moves (clean guitars, Mo Tucker drums, gingham dresses) but with songs about suicide locations and dead lovers, super-‐catchy vocal harmonies, and Roky Erikson covers.
Published by Tom Riste-‐Sm
ith on behalf of UCLU
Rare FM
ES