by Robert Lanham

Rogue Wave's last release Out of the Shadow is one of our favorite records of the past several year. It was like a more psychedelic Shins record, generous with hooks and deceptively complex. Their latest record, Descended Like Vultures, is a very worthy follow-up sure to please fans of the band. You can check out an MP3 here to get an advance taste. The record is due to be released October 25 by Sub Pop. The following is an email interview with lead vocalist and guitarist Zach Rogue (second from left above).

1. Your press release says that Descended Like Vultures was informed by politics. Is the title of the record a statement about the Iraq War or perhaps the Bush administration?

Everything is political. Ignorance, diversion, distraction, those are
all political things. Anyone with half a brain loathes the Bush
administration for obvious reasons. But the title of the record isn't supposed to be some pointed statement directly at them or the war. It's supposed to be about more than that. It can be a lot of different things. It can mean whatever you want it to mean. Turn on the TV or the radio or pick up a magazine. Can't you see the vultures circling?

2. How did the band get involved with the Stubbs the Zombie soundtrack?

We were playing a show in Austin last year and a couple of guys who work for the promotion company that put the project together came to the show. They came backstage and asked if we wanted to work on the project. When they said bands were covering artists from the 50's, I said I wasn't so sure. When they said we would be doing a Buddy Holly song, I said ok.

3. Is the first track "Bird on a Wire" an homage to Leonard Cohen?

No. I love his music though.

4. Being in a band can put a strain on friendships. Does the band spend time together when they're not playing music?

As much as we can. If we don't have strong friendships, we don't have a band. So, if you're asking if we get sick of each other, the answer is no. I always look forward to hanging out with them.

5. The last record was largely written by you. Was there a concerted effort to make this more of a "band record?"

It was kind of inevitable, given that we were basically living in a
studio for a couple of weeks. I wrote the songs, but we all contributed to the record. We weren't trying to make every song sound like some live band was playing, or something like that. some of the songs don't have that much instrumentation; they're still kind of stark at certain points. But the goal all along has been for this project to be about a band and not just one person. I don't want to be a "singer-songwriter".

6. We're always curious about people's first concerts. What was the first concert you ever attended?

I think it was Donnie and Marie Osmond.

7. Is there anyone you want to say "great job" to? Anyone you want to say "you suck" to?

great job: Jon Stewart. Oh, and those guys who won the Nobel Prize for science. No wonder I have never gotten an ulcer. I should have by now.

you suck: This guy that lives next door to me that likes to do handy work and piecemeal construction on his house at about 6am on the weekends.

8. Do you guys ever record or play shows, um, impaired?

Not that you know of. Sometimes. Uh, never. Um, of course not. Yes.
Definitely NO.

9. What's your most cherished record? Most embarassing?

I'm not embarassed about liking certain music. "I'll Melt With You" is probably my favorite song of all time. But don't ask me for a record. I can't do that. Can you?

10. We like the line from the record "Screw California." [Ha ha] When can we see the band play New York again?

The fact that there is a state named California and a person as well is sort of a coincidence. I think we will be there within the first couple of days in December.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 09:19 AM | Comments (0)

Interview by Monte Holman

Giant Drag is slacker noise-pop duo with a propensity for shrugging satire. Annie Hardy plays the guitar, spread thick with effects pedals. She drawls the vocals with a permanent half-smile and half-shut eyes. Micah Calabrese plays drums, saving his left hand to ring out the synth bass lines. The final product is fuzzy pop in slow motion that doesn't take itself too seriously.

The duo just released their first LP, Hearts and Unicorns (Kickball Records). The songs on the record have a nice mix of low-fi warmth and polished production, which is evidenced in a huge wall of sound.

We chatted with Annie and Micah while they were here for CMJ. Things started off poorly when, a couple questions into the interview, the bouncers at Northsix kicked everyone out of the club to check for wristbands. Annie was starving, and the band had nearly rumbled with a sound guy the night before, so prospects for conversation looked shaky. Luckily, Annie and Micah have a sense of humor and are as friendly and upbeat as you'd imagine after hearing their record.

Stream Hearts and Unicorns here. Despite the band's ironic, self effacing name, it's a great debut. Check them out October 6 at Irving Plaza with Stellastar.

*****

FREEwilliamsburg: Some songs on Hearts and Unicorns, particularly "Cordial Invitation" have a certain My Bloody Valentineness to them, which is surprising coming from a band made up of two people. How do you translate that lush fullness live?

Micah: We turn up the delay pedal a little more. (laughs)

Annie: We don't really try to match the album. It's like the album and the live show are two different entities. Live, you get to establish a relationship with the people in the room.

FREEwilliamsburg: How do you try to establish that relationship?

Micah: Usually Annie's on the mic telling jokes.

FREEwilliamsburg: You've been playing together since 2002 - why'd it take so long to record your first full-length?

Micah: We were just sort of hanging out. We just became friends and were like let's just mess around and record some stuff, never intending to start a band or anything. Annie was like "I booked a show-let's go play it."

Annie: The time between our first show and when our record came out wasn't that long. A lot of bands take a lot longer….

FREEwilliamsburg: How did things with Kickball Records get started?

Annie: We had an EP out on Witchita in the UK and on a small indie in the US, and Wendy Hicks, whose label it is, her friends told her that she would really like us, and she heard our song on Indie 103, the radio station in LA. She said that she was driving and pulled over and listened to it and then tracked us down and signed us.

FREEwilliamsburg: Where did you record Hearts and Unicorns?

Annie: We did the drums at Paramount Studios, and we did the rest of it at this horrible makeshift studio in Downtown Rehearsal, which is like a big building full of rehearsal rooms where all the metal bands and mariachi bands and all the other horrible bands in Los Angeles practice. It was pretty rough every day. Our friends Louis and James from Dirty Little Secret, an L.A. band, helped us out, and we had some guest musicians come and tinker around.

FREEwilliamsburg: You have a video for "Kevin is Gay" - Is that something you initiated?

Annie: Our friend GJ did our first video for "This Isn't It." He always has a reason for us to make a video. The first one, it was like "Hey we want to make a video, kind of." And he was like "Well I'm trying to build up my reel," and he did our video for free. We said we'd pay him back if we ever got in the position where we'd have money to pay him. We are not in that position.

So he, again, paid for like three-quarters of the ["Kevin Is Gay"] video. This time, somebody was talking shit to him about his videos, so he was on a mission to make nice looking videos. He paid a lot of money and got some 16 mm cameras going on.

FREEwilliamsburg: What do you think about music videos in general?

Annie: I think they're cool. I've always liked music videos, growing up with MTV back before it was what it is today. It's always cool to have a visual. Not everybody can see you live. At the same time, most of our videos don't have that much live performance. The videos are kind of the only area where we can handle handing control over to somebody else. GJ comes up with the main idea and we riff off of each other.

FREEwilliamsburg: There's a definite cock-rock feel to a lot of your songs, particularly the song, forgive the pun, "My Dick Sux." As a guy-girl duo, do you consciously go into writing songs that play with gender perceptions?

Annie: Yeah, I've always been that way. I've always hung out with dudes. I've always had a mouth like a dude, sometimes a dirtier mouth than a dude. It's like I'm not setting out to do anything on purpose - it's just a part of who I am, my sense of humor and everything else.

FREEwilliamsburg: A lot of people have compared you to Nirvana, and you have a lot of sarcastic, politically-incorrect lyrics. Maybe that's where the comparison stems from?

Annie: I've gotten myself in trouble a lot with that, but I'm only kidding. I'm not too serious that often unless I'm angry, usually. But even then I'll still keep a little sarcasm.

FREEwilliamsburg: SXSW went over really well for you guys, and you've played CMJ before and are here this week again for it. Is there any added pressure playing at these industry festivals, or is it just fun like any other show?

Annie: It's not fun. (laughs) These shows are going horribly, and I want to go home. Last night, I threw confetti…

Micah: Which we were asked to do…

Annie: Yeah, Frankie, the guy running the show, said, "Hey, you wanna throw this confetti from the stage?" And I was like "Whatever, I like confetti," so at one point, it was like "Confetti party!" and I threw it. It went on the monitors, which couldn't have done any harm. The sound guys came during our second song and took ALL the monitors off the stage and we couldn't hear anything. It sounded bad before that, but…they started fucking with our sound. Afterwards, at the end of the show, I was like "Fuck this, I'm out!" And I threw the mic, and it went off the stage and landed on the cement. And then the sound guy yelled at Micah, who did absolutely nothing at all.

Micah: He lost his shit at me! He was too afraid to yell at a girl.

Annie: Kick him in the nuts - don't step to me, sound-guy-bitch.

Micah: We'd kick his ass.

FREEwilliamsburg: Hopefully it'll be better tonight. The sound guy here at North Six is nice, and he does a great job with the house sound. I haven't heard the stage mix.

Micah: This show hopefully will turn our luck.

Annie: We've been having bad luck, in general, since we got here. Our hotel - it's an art-deco hotel in Times Square, that's the first bad part (laughter). The second bad part is that there's a shower right in the middle of the room. THE shower.

Micah: No curtain, no sliding door - just the shower!

Annie: No nothing! It's like "we're just friends, we don't need to see that." C'mon. That's something they should tell people. It's like $200 a night or something.

FREEwilliamsburg: As a fairly new band to most people, you're going to be bombarded with comparisons. Have any that you've heard struck you as being particularly interesting?

Micah: Oh, there was that David Lee Roth one. (laughs).

Annie: Not about the music.

Micah: Yeah, it was more about her stage presence.

Annie: They said I have David Lee Roth stage power. And somebody else said I was the…what's that guy's name? That comedian?

Micah: Don Rickles?

Annie: The Don Rickles of indie rock. And the Beach Boys comparison…

Micah: Probably just because we did a cover once before we were even a band.

Annie: I don't believe in these comparisons. I just saw that someone compared us to Veruca Salt a couple times and was just like, they're pouring Veruca Salt in my wounds!! (laughs) Get outa here with that! It's insulting.

FREEwilliamsburg: Have you been able to meet any of your heroes in this experience of being in a band together?

Annie: I didn't get to meet her, but when we were recording our EP, I walked back to go to the bathroom, and Stevie Nix was standing in the hallway talking about how she has menopause. And when I walked further down the hall, Mick Fleetwood was standing underneath a picture of himself from the 70s, talking on his cell phone. That was pretty cool.

FREEwilliamsburg: What was the first concert you ever went to, Micah?

Micah: The first thing I ever went to was a Steppenwolf concert.

FREEwilliamsburg: That's a good one!

Micah: Yeah, it was awesome. I was ten, I think, and it was a free concert in the park for KLOS or something.

FREEwilliamsburg: What was the crowd like?

Micah: It was a bunch of old hippies, or people that used to be hippies. Including my dad, who brought me out there. It was fun-it was great. That was back when they actually used real organs, real B3s, rather than digital keyboards.

FREEwilliamsburg: Annie?

Annie: Unfortunately, the Steve Miller Band. (Micah laughs)

FREEwilliamsburg: What's unfortunate about that, come on?

Annie: I was probably at an age where it was unforgivable to go to see the Steve Miller Band.

FREEwilliamsburg: How old were you?

Annie: I think I was like 15. I went with my friend. I was in boarding school, though, and I missed that time where my parents would've let me start going to shows. Then my first SHOW ever was the Angry Samoans at the Troubadour.

FREEwilliamsburg: Well I'm glad you admitted the Steve Miller thing to us.

Annie: Well I'm not gonna lie. "Keep On Rocking Me, Baby." I liked that song. I was a hippie for a little while. Well, my parents raised me like a stupid, fucking…hippie.

Micah: Yeah, Annie-Summer.

Annie: My real name is Annie-Summer. A hyphenated first name.

FREEwilliamsburg: When did you drop it?

Annie: I never kept it. (laughs) My dad's the only one who calls me that.

FREEwilliamsburg: So what's next after these CMJ shows?

Annie: We're going on a small East Coast tour with Stellastar, and then…

Micah: From there onto the UK.

FREEwilliamsburg: You're on a label over there as well?

Micah: Not quite yet…

Annie: I don't know what's really going on, but we're gonna have a single that's getting put out with some unreleased tracks, kind of unrecorded. They're live tracks from this session we did. They're new songs. I'm already sick of the ones on the albums.

FREEwilliamsburg: You've played over there before, right?

Annie: He didn't. He had quit the band for a while.

FREEwilliamsburg: I heard about that- you quit, but now you're back because you signed your soul away to Annie or something?

Micah: Yeah, I'm a slave.

Annie: Now he gets to quit his job.

Micah: Yeah, I get to quit my job. She purchased my soul from my employer. (laughs)

******

Giant Drag Website: Click Here
Myspace fan page: Click Here
Live Dates:
10.04.05 Philadelphia, PA (The T.L.A)
10.05.05 Washington, DC (9:30 Club)
10.06.05 New York, NY (Irving Plaza)
10.07.05 Boston, MA (The Paradise)

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 06:36 PM | Comments (4)

CMJ begins tonight and one of our favorites, the publicity-challenged Ox, is playing The Knitting Factory at 7:30. He's huge in Canada. His originally self-released alt country ode to America, Dust Bowl Revival, debuted at #1 on the Canadian college radio charts. We're usually suspicious of everything Canadian, but Ox (aka Mark Browning and his band) is the real deal. His hauntingly beautiful debut is one of our favorites this year. Check out these MP3's L.A. City , Carolina then be sure to catch him live if you can.

1. Why Ox?

KISS was taken. Honestly, it was a magic type of thing- the name just came to me one day and it resonated right... at the time I was very much a solo singer/songwriter type and I recognized that I wasn't ready for the name so, over time I grew into it. With the Dust Bowl Revival album I knew it was Ox.

2. As a Canadian, why'd you decide to record an album about the American heartland?

The record isn't really about the American heartland... it's about America- but a twisted reflected variation of it- as in, the image of America through glass- a windshield even... the glass is the border and I'm Canadian. It's about the 70's- skateboards and banana seat bikes, summertime romance that doesnt go anywhere... the hot highway and fast cars that guzzle fuel.

3. You're a rock star in Canada. Any thoughts on why you're yet to find a major American audience?

I'm patient and I don't really care. I just do what I do and sometimes people like it- sometimes they really hate it. Hopefully, nothing in between.

4. We're always curious to know people's first concerts. What was yours?

I did a festival gig at the Northern Lights Festival in Sudbury, Ontario- my hometown. I was 16. I can't remember the show at all and later that night I threw up in bed from the stress. I was way freaked out. Since then, I've never really been nervous again.

5. What's your most cherished record? Most embarassing?

cherished: JULIAN COPE, peggy suicide
embarassing: REO SPEEDWAGON, hi-infidelity

6. Have you ever driven a Trans Am?

My mom used to drive one. She sold it when I was 13 and bought a fucking Honda Civic.

7. Anyone you strongly admire? Anyone you hate?

I don't really like 'people'. It's more about the things that people 'do'. I like Julian Cope a whole lot cause he's manic and driven and crazy- and that's reflected in everything he does. I like P.T. Anderson (the director). I admire my bandmates cause we're a family. I guess I hate Madonna.

8. Has your music ever gotten you any action?

Of course.

9. Canada or America?

If it's for cigarettes and movies- America. if it's for donuts and moosemeat- Canada.

10. What's next? Any plans on an American tour?

I'm touring the USA in November. Next month we're finishing the new Ox album which will be a double- and released possibly next summer.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 04:52 PM | Comments (0)

An interview with the dreamy one, Taylor Hanson
by Monte Holman

The eyebrows are back! Former boy sensations, Hanson, are storming the music industry with the passion of proselytizers for the cause of independent music. A struggle to survive in the pick-of-the-day major label system in which bands are discarded like non-recyclable take-out boxes drove Hanson to drop Geffen and start their own label. They now fervently preach the Good News of independence.

But their Starbuckian jargon sounds awfully suspicious. Discussing the band using terms like entrepreneurship, brands, markets and models seems to transplant the evil concerns of the big labels into a new setting. An increasing familiar setting in which indie bands capitalize off the OC and Target.

Thing is, Hanson are likable kids, er, young adults, who obviously love music but grew up under the thumbs of soul-sucking record execs. It's impossible to stoop to the usual cynicism directed toward commercial bands when these three brothers are trying so earnestly to do something about it. Like really earnestly, man. So their upcoming album, The Best of Hanson, Live and Electric (3CG), may not be your cup of tea. But I'll be damned if you could talk shit about these guys after hearing them out for a few minutes.

We were recently offered the opportunity to speak with Taylor. The dreamy one. How could we refuse? Via phone, Taylor explained the band's philosophy, which when his awkward industry lingo was boiled away, amounted to keeping two things sacred: the music and the fans.

Hanson is Isaac, Taylor and Zac Hanson.

FREEwilliamsburg: The title of the new record is The Best of Hanson, Live and Electric. Why go with a "best of" at this point? What spurred the desire to put out a live album?

Taylor: It's become really trendy to put out a "greatest hits" or "best of" too early. It's spawned by a major label idea to try to put out hits. But for us, it's more about the "live and electric" part. And it's a "best of" because when you play shows and you've been a band for like 13 years and have released multiple albums, you've got a certain amount of songs that are the best of songs, the ones people know and react to live. It's not as much a greatest hits package as a reinterpretation of what we've done for the last decade or so. It's about framing who we've always been.

FREEwilliamsburg: You include a Radiohead cover and a U2 cover. Why those particular bands and why do covers at all on this sort of album?

Taylor: It's a representation of some of our influences. U2 probably more than Radiohead. U2 is such an icon right now. There are so few great bands. They're one of the greats right now-they are dishing it out. They're a real inspiration to us just as a band who's had such an arc in their career. I love that song ["In A Little While," from All That You Can't Leave Behind]. With Radiohead, that song ["Optimistic", from Kid A] is a seismic song. We started off almost every show the last two years on tour for Underneath with it. We wanted to start things off with a sort of brace-yourself, larger-than-life, electric feeling. That song is really dynamic, and it does that for people. It's really unexpected for someone listening to a Hanson album, and also it's really a lot more of an example of who this band is in a sense of its versatility, pushing yourself and always throwing something in there that's in the realm of what seems like what you'd expect to get.

FREEwilliamsburg: As evidenced by the songs on the live album, there seems to be a progression from an R&B influence when you guys first started out to straight up rock and roll in more recent songs. Is that something you've consciously moved toward, or did it come naturally?

Taylor: You have a natural meeting of the minds as you make each record. You're right - with that first record, where we came from, the biggest inspiration was old R&B. Aretha Franklin and Otis Redding, stuff like the Eisley Brothers-great classic R&B. And old rock and roll, you know, Elvis and the Beatles. You see that a lot more on the first record, and on the second record there were more rootsy songs like "This Time Around." And then Underneath becomes more straight-up rock influenced by more alt-country and mellower bands like Travis, like Jayhawks. Those are some of the things that leaked into the writing process on the last album. A natural evolution happened.

But what Live and Electric does is ties all that together and says, "bands change as they should, and they're all one."

I love going to shows, and I don't want to hear the same song like 30 times. I want to go through an experience, I want to go up and down, I want to rock a little bit, I want to pull my lighter up a little bit, and jump around a little bit. That's what we tried to do with this record, to create what you feel at a show.

FREEwilliamsburg: A lot of talk around you guys is the move toward independence. For a band who's had a lot of success and sold a lot of records within the major-label system, why decide to go indie?

Taylor: What you've got to remember is that the old label system, or the major-label system, used to be a lot closer to what the indie-label system is now. When we came out, it was sort of the last breath of the real major record companies. When the record companies still operated much closer to an indie in a sense that you had people that were running labels that had been there a long time, more artist-relations people, more thinking, real investment in brands.

What's happened over the last five to eight years is this dramatic shift of consolidation, corporate turnovers and a lot of labels hiring a lot more accountants than people that know music. It's actually a lot like us saying we want to stay on the same path we started with, which is to work with people that believe in their fans and in long-term and a career and not alter that because we're afraid of leaving a major label and go on a system which has become more about stock prices. The attention span is so short. People don't realize who this band is always been because we're so young, and it's hard to get over that stigma of "wow, they're so young." But we've always been really hands-on, almost too hands-on where people are like "dude, you don't have to be involved in everything.

That level of passion is the way we operated from the beginning. As we began to clash with this system that was changing and becoming more and more corporate and more removed from music and from the music we make, we were like "look, this isn't the way records should be made, and this isn't the way careers should be made."

FREEwilliamsburg: What has the response been from peers, other musicians, to your move toward being independent?

Taylor: It's been really awesome, actually. For me, those relationships are really important. In the pop-rock genre, especially all the whiteys have really missed the idea of communities, have really overlooked the idea of sharing and creating a movement, a wave, and working with one another. In rap and R&B, there's a real connection from one artist to another. Especially since we started the label, the band has become more passionate about the importance of building those relationships with other artists. For instance, on Underneath, Michelle Branch-she's a friend-sings on the record. Sam Farrar, who's the bass player in Phantom Planet, plays on the record. Matthew Sweet, we wrote with Matthew on the record. Greg Alexander from the New Radicals, who used to be in the New Radicals, is on the record.

Those are different artists doing different things, and an extension of that is something I think is really important. It's like if you don't have artists who are looking at one another and realizing they're part of a greater whole, and nitpicking over this insular vibe, then you can't exhibit the sense of a movement or the sense of excitement with your fans. They feed off of that energy, of a passion between other artists.

FREEwilliamsburg: You guys are about to go to a lot of campuses as a part of your upcoming tour to not only play shows, but also to discuss the current state of the music industry with college students and to show a documentary about the band.

Taylor: The documentary-we produced it, but a guy named Ashley Grayson, who's a first-time director but somebody we've known for a long time, directed it, and he really had a passion for trying to capture the story of making the last album [Underneath]. It became a story of the political struggle and eventually of us leaving the label and starting out on our own. It was interesting because it unfolded. We felt rather than taking it to film festivals and doing with it what you'd normally do with a documentary, we wanted to use it as a tool. So in conjunction with playing these shows, we said to ourselves, "look, universities are the places where this is applicable. These are the places where we can bring this to people."

The story is we're one band of many bands who've been in this situation of being caught in this kind of swirling corporate problem. We chose to do one thing. Not every band has chosen to do that. Wilco chose to go to another label within their same chain. People like Taking Back Sunday, Death Cab for Cutie have gone from majors to indies, and some have gone from indies back to majors. To use that as a discussion point, to say to people that are our peers, "hey, we're entrepreneurs, we're musicians, and we're your peers."

We're touring with the Pat McGee Band, and we're setting up contests where local bands in each market submit their music and get voted on through the college radio station and through our website to be the opening act on all these shows. That local band that gets elected, in addition to the Pat McGee band and ourselves, we are all going to be visiting the universities ahead of the screenings and going to the radio stations and to the newspapers and sitting down and talking about music and about the importance of creating a better community between artists and fans and why it's a really crucial time now, where college students and music fans can have a real impact in shaping whether independent music takes hold of a bigger piece of the pie or whether it dies.

FREEwilliamsburg: You've started your own label, 3CG. Are you looking to grow the label and include more bands?

Taylor: We would love to be able to release other artists. I'd be lying if I said that wasn't one of our goals. But we don't want to take on other bands just because it's cool that we suddenly have a label. We don't want to just take people on without being able to do what we'd want to be able to do for other bands. Coming from the artist's perspective, you don't want to take on things you can't really promote like you should. We're taking it slow. We're wondering, "how can we figure out whatever the new model is?" or things that we can do better as a label, or look at the way technology is becoming a part of music, things that we've learned in the first couple years of having the record company, figuring out how we can supply a service that's gonna help promote all the things that we care about, not just get overzealous about signing a bunch of people. That sucks for artists and for labels.

FREEwilliamsburg: How do you find the time for all this? Are you in school? What's your scheduling like?

Taylor: (laughs) I'm 22, I could be in school. In a perfect world, things like studying other aspects would be totally awesome, but yeah, there is no time. (laughs) We're pretty crazed, trying to do these things-these are very real things, trying to set up this contest to enable opening bands, the documentary getting made, and a tour that is not just a tour, but something that involves a lot of legwork. It's valuable to us. We don't really care that there's work. We'd much rather work hard and crazy for something we thought was a great idea.

FREEwilliamsburg: So it's the School of Hard Knocks?

Taylor: School of Hard Knox? Yeah, sure. (laughs) I guess that's just the way we like it. That's why we've gone out there and have done the things we've done.

FREEwilliamsburg: Do you record at home?

We've used a ton of studios, but we have our own studio. I remember talking with Will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas-on our last album we got to know him a little bit out at his studio-he was joking that he doesn't buy cars and bling. He buys studio gear. (laughs) We're kind of like that because from the very beginning we were like "wow, we've had success, let's go get a console, let's go get some old keyboards." You can just use those things forever.

FREEwilliamsburg: You're veterans of the music scene now. You've played a billion shows. What was the first concert you ever went to?

Taylor: It was probably live gospel music or some local music from where we grew up, friends in bands at that time, people that were dramatically older than we were at that time, people that we had developed friendships because we were starting to play music. Couple different local bands from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

FREEwilliamsburg: Do you guys still get a lot of flack for being a kid band?

Taylor: It's always hard when you make a strong impression, any kind of impression, a good one you're proud of or one that has been misconstrued, only because whatever that impression is, good or bad, it's clear. We've never focused on trying to dispel or make anything known on the defense. We've always played offense. We've always said "sure, ok, you think we're this, or you think we're this-well THIS is what we are." I'm really proud of what we've done, and I feel like you should never be satisfied that you've done it, that you've achieved the goal of making sure everybody knows what you are. I think you're always, quote-unquote, re-imaging yourself because you're never the same. If we're a kid band or teen band or twenties band or thirties band, there'll always be the question of "what are you now?" We're continuing to say "this is what we are now."

FREEwilliamsburg: After this tour, what's next?

Taylor: We're excited about going to schools and showing the documentary, so there's talk of doing another leg of touring this spring, but our focus is completely on writing and recording for the next studio record. The next full-length studio record is going to come out early to mid next year.

We wrote a ton of songs that weren't even on Underneath. So much writing has gone on over the last five years. But we're really pumped about what we're going to do on the next studio record. In a way, I guess Live and Electric is setting the stage for it. It's taking everything we've done touring for Underneath and the music we've done before that and bringing it to a head, showcasing what the band's been up to. It's going to be a matter of "will we have time to get back to finishing another record?" It won't be long. We won't be strangers.

The Best of Hanson: Live and Electric hits the shelves October 11. Check out the tour dates at www.hanson.net.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 09:53 AM | Comments (66)

Interview by Monte Holman

Of Montreal has been putting out smart records since 1997, beginning with Cherry Peel (Bar/None) and prolifically progressing to their latest effort, The Sunlandic Twins (Polyvinyl). Spinning out of the Athens-based Elephant 6 collective, Kevin Barnes has consistently, and constantly, produced sprightly and imaginative recordings.

The Sunlandic Twins is no exception. It takes liberties with traditional song structure and retains a home-recording aesthetic, but this album reels in many of the experimental tangents older songs floated away on. It's tight and danceable, more accessible to the ass-shakers. After bird shit on my shoulder while I was waiting outside the club for the interview with Kevin (he said it was good luck), we sat down and talked about the band.

Go see Of Montreal on this tour if you have the chance. Hands-down the best show we've seen this year. Check out the remaining tour dates at www.ofmontreal.net. Their new record is one of the best of the year.

Check out some of their MP3's here:
from The Sunlandic Twins
Requiem For O.M.M.2
Wraith Pinned To The Mist (and other games)

FREEwilliamsburg: The first time I heard the record, I wanted to turn on the Wizard of Oz without the sound and use The Sunlandic Twins as the soundtrack. Did you go into this album thinking, "this one's going to be cinematic"?

Kevin: I think so. To some degree, that's a goal in all our records, for it to be very visual. I think it'd be great if we found someone who understood what we were doing musically and had a really distinct style, visually, to take the record and make a movie out of it, whether it be animated or live-action stuff. I think it would be a great experience if you could have it on and just listen to the music or turn on the TV and watch the visuals.

FREEwilliamsburg: I love the video the Kangaroo Alliance did for "Wraith Pinned to the Mist."

Yeah, I love it too.

FREEwilliamsburg: It's playful but sort of darkly so, which is another thing I noticed on the record-there's a sort of Shel Silverstein underbelly to an apparent theme of youth.

Kevin: With this one, our influences are a little older-the early records were very gleeful and very childlike and naïve and innocent and sweet. But as I'm growing older, it's becoming impossible not to be influenced by the world. That's sort of filtering through as I'm maturing or whatever.

FREEwilliamsburg: Like you feel like you're becoming a cynic?

Kevin: I'm actually coming through it, I think. I went through a phase of pretty heavy cynicism, but it never really found its way into my music because I feel like the music should be an elevation. It shouldn't become muddled by social diseases you pick up. So I always approach it like escapism. Like this is the personality I wish I had.

FREEwilliamsburg: That comes through, especially in Sunlandic Twins. Lots of make believe. With sharp teeth.

Kevin: (laughs) Right.

FREEwilliamsburg: I read that children like Of Montreal. Do you hear that a lot?

Kevin: It's pretty friendly music. It's not the kind of music where kids are going to be like, "Ew, adults are scary." (laughs) Musically, it's very buoyant, very colorful, and I think kids can identify with that.

FREEwilliamsburg: Your brother, David, who does all the artwork for the band, has a great website (www.thebeewithwheels.com) that you can link to off the Of Montreal site (www.ofmontreal.net)-are you all involved with his site, and is he also involved with the band?

Kevin: The site's totally his thing. And with the band, he's kind of an objective ear. We'll play him something and he'll say, "oh that's cool" or "you should change this or that." He's always there in the creative process, but he doesn't actually play an instrument. He doesn't add any actual music, but he adds these sort of abstract things like, "well, that doesn't really sound right-maybe add a little more, like, lava!" (laughs) And we're like, ok, lava-what would that be?

FREEwilliamsburg: Was creativity encouraged as you and your brother grew up?

Kevin: It's funny because neither of my parents were very artistic, and neither really are my sisters. I have two older sisters. So my brother and I just sort of stumbled upon it and really got excited about art and made it our lives' focus. You can't really trace it back to any specific person. It just happened. We were definitely nurtured in that way, like my dad bought me musical instruments and encouraged me and let me practice my drums in the house.

FREEwilliamsburg: At one point the whole band was living together in the country-how was that?

Kevin: For a brief period, it was wonderful. (laughs) After a while it was just like...too much time together. We were touring together and living together and hanging out together. Living out in the country like that, it's a pain in the ass just to leave the house. You end up spending way more time at home than you would normally. Also, lines were blurred-like people's rolls became confused. Everything was sort of muddled up a bit.

FREEwilliamsburg: Sunlandic Twins was mostly written by you-was it more of a group project back then, when you were all under the same roof?

Kevin: Back then, it was very collaborative. Coquelicot and Aldhil's Arboretum were the two band records that we did where everyone actually contributed a fairly equal amount.

FREEwilliamsburg: Do you see things coming back around, or do you like the way it works now with you as the primary writer?

Kevin: We did the last few records pretty much the same way, just sort of layering parts on top of each other, filling it out. But we did a couple recordings together, a 7-inch where every member of the band threw in their own part, and it was fun. It was the first time we'd done that in years. I could see us doing that again, to some extent, probably not a whole record.

FREEwilliamsburg: Do you record in Athens?

Kevin: We've always recorded at home. We've always recorded, engineered, mixed, produced, all that stuff, by ourselves. That explains the super lo-fi sound of our records. (laughs) Because we don't know, really, what we're doing. But it's fun to do it that way because you have total creative control-no timeline, really.

FREEwilliamsburg: Do you have a preference between recording to tape or doing it digitally?

Kevin: I always used tape until Sunlandic Twins. I only used tape on one song. Everything was on my computer. That was the first time, sort of an experiment. I used to be an analog enthusiast who thought anything digital would just be gross, but then I realized the potential of working in the digital world. You can do so many creative things.

FREEwilliamsburg: You guys are into media and on-tour extras like skits, videos, etc. Are those additives as important as the songs themselves? Like when you're writing the songs, are you also thinking of the possibilities the songs will have with other forms of media?

Kevin: Almost always, I write the song for the song. When we go on tour, we think "what can we do to make this tour special? What can we do to make it visually stimulating as well?"

FREEwilliamsburg: You tour extensively-how do you keep it fresh?

Kevin: The music we're making right now doesn't require too much brain power. (laughs) It's less intellectual. Kind of funkier music, dance music. It's more visceral. It's more fun. It's like being at a dance party every night. Plus, it's really exciting because the response from the audience has been so great. It's so encouraging. It's been amazing-doing such great numbers in places we've never touched upon. We used to be very lucky to have 80 people, and now it's like 480 people.

FREEwilliamsburg: Tonight, for instance, is sold-out (at North 6).

Kevin: Yeah, it's a new development for us. We were laboring away for years and years, (laughs) and no one seemed to give a shit. It's building up in this really cool way, and it's exciting because we feel like we're connecting with the audience more, and they're connecting with the music more.

FREEwilliamsburg: Have the label folks (Polyvinyl) played a part in that?

Kevin: I think the record label has played a big role because they're super artist-friendly, and they're also on top of things like very few labels are. But I also think musically, there's an obvious shift in style, like it goes from very conceptual, bordering on goofy at times, to this new phase, which is a little bit sexier and funkier. I think that people who were turned off by us before, are like "this is Of Montreal? I kinda like this. It isn't so bad." (laughs)

FREEwilliamsburg: Who's on this tour now? Same people as the last album tour?

Kevin: On Satanic Panic in the Attic, Nina, my wife, was playing bass, and now we have a new bass player, Matt. He's been playing with us for over a year now, and he's the only new guy. I've been playing with most of those guys, and girl, for a long time-about seven years or so.

FREEwilliamsburg: Seems like all of you have three or four projects you're involved in. Is Of Montreal everyone's priority?

Kevin: It's been like that. I don't know how long it's gonna last-you can only play someone else's songs for so long. (laughs) Brian has a project, the Late B.P. Helium, that he's going to be involved with. It's great; he's a great songwriter. And Jayme is also a really great songwriter, and he's getting a record together, a couple records, actually, that are going to be released in Sweden. So he's spent a lot of time over in Sweden. It's kind of hard to balance it sometimes, but everyone dedicated themselves, at least for the last year or two, on Of Montreal.

FREEwilliamsburg: Are you planning on taking a break after tour or getting back into the studio?

Kevin: Definitely going to get back in the studio as soon as possible. We're going out west again in January. We're going to try to squeeze in as much time in the studio as is possible in between tours.

FREEwilliamsburg: Is the next album written already?

Kevin: Yeah, I've got a majority of it written.

FREEwilliamsburg: You're playing in Montreal tomorrow night.

Kevin: Playing in Montreal is great. Last time was really great. The people there are really nice.

FREEwilliamsburg: Will you ever hear the end of it? I think everything I read about you guys starts with "Of Montreal isn't really from Montreal-hahahahaha."

Kevin: Yeah, you kind of get sick of it. Answering that question. (laughs)

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 09:44 AM | Comments (0)

Interview by Monte Holman

Does the world really need another rock band? If the band is fronted by Mac McCaughan, yes. Heralded since the late eighties as an indie music legend — he was in Superchunk and co-founded Merge Records — you'd think someone with Mac's successes would bask in the glow of being an acknowledged avatar of independent music. Not so. McCaughan is full-steam ahead, most recently with a new Portastatic LP, Bright Ideas.

Portastatic has primarily functioned as a side project for Mac, who's put together some innovative DIY recordings over the years. The name Portastatic even pays homage to the band's method: Porta for 4-track brand Portastudio and Static for, well, the sound of a shitty home recording.

With each Portastatic record, different avenues are investigated, from electronic instrumentals to a collaboration with Ken Vandermark to traditional Brazilian jazz. With Bright Ideas, the exploration continues, though this time the frontier is the rock and roll past. It's a return to Superchunk and the Boss. The record was recorded live at Tiny Telephones in San Francisco with his brother Matthew McCaughan, a Portastatic veteran, on drums and Jim Wilbur of Superchunk playing bass.

Superchunk is on hiatus, and Portastatic is shaping up to be a real live band. Mac spoke with us when he was in town for an in-store at Other Records to commemorate the release of Bright Ideas.

Bright Ideas

I Wanna Know Girls MP3 (4 MB - From Bright Ideas)

FREEwilliamsburg: How do you have time for all this; Merge, Portastatic, Superchunk, family, North Carolina...

(laughs) Yeah, North Carolina does occupy some of my time. You know, it's weird, but I don't think about it too much. I just kind of plow forward. With all the things you're talking about, Superchunk hasn't been terribly active for the last couple years. We played a couple shows this summer and put out those live cds.

FREEwilliamsburg: The Clambake Series...

Yeah, but in general, I've been concentrating on Merge and Portastatic, pretty much since we started working on Summer of the Shark. I have a kid, and that makes you have to rationalize your time a lot more, but in some ways it means that when you are working, you get more done because you have to. When I was writing songs for this record, I would have, basically, a day per week to work on music. I made a goal to write a song every week.

FREEwilliamsburg: You've coupled the last couple albums with EPs — seems like a lot to do all at once.

With the Spanish EP that came out, Looking for a Power Supply, they said they wanted to do a limited edition EP, so again, it kind of gives me a reason to write songs, like "ok, these are for the album and then I'm going to record and do these extras for the EP." For something like that, a limited edition only coming out in Spain, I don't have to spend a lot of money and go into a studio. I can record at home, which I like to do also. It's cool to have outlets other than "here's my record" and then two years later, "here's my next record."

FREEwilliamsburg: The new album, Bright Ideas, sounds like a rootsy album for you, more Superchunk than I've heard in past Portastatic albums. And there's a solid Springsteen songwriter feel to it.

In the new one? I don't think anyone's said that yet, so that's cool.

FREEwilliamsburg: Especially "I Wanna Know Girls." That's quintessential Springsteen iconic rock. Did you go into this album, since it was recorded live, thinking "Springsteen rock"?

Hard to say. I think since Summer of the Shark came out and we played it live as a trio and kept the trio thing going, I was definitely writing some of the songs for the new record thinking that these songs were going to be these types of songs played by this type of band, a rock band. Portastatic hasn't always had that vibe. I like still being flexible, like tonight doing this solo acoustic show [at Other Records in NYC] - that can still work too. A lot of the songs were written and recorded solo acoustic. But the idea of making a rock record and being able to play it live was very appealing, especially knowing that Superchunk isn't going to be making a record soon or touring. I was definitely anxious to go out and play rock shows.

FREEwilliamsburg: The first few Portastatic records were recorded at home. Was recording at Tiny Telephones with the whole band enjoyable?

Part of me is impatient with making records. I want to hear how it's gonna sound, so I never spent a lot of time recording. We'd just get it done and mix it, and there it was. So at Tiny Telephone's it was cool to be able to spend more time on all of that.

Summer of the Shark was recorded at home, it took months and months. This time I didn't have the option of doing that because our daughter was born, and her room happens to be next to the recording studio at the house (laughs), so I couldn't really make a lot of noise in there anymore.

That wasn't an option, so we got an offer to do the show in San Francisco and they paid for the plane tickets, so it was the perfect opportunity. I'd read a lot about Tiny Telephones and wanted to check it out. It all kinda worked, and it was fun working with Tim from American Music Club. Until Merge started working with AMC, I didn't know that he did engineering stuff, but I talked to him when he came through Chapel Hill on tour, and he worked on Love Songs for Patriots, and it's a great-sounding record. Seemed like the natural thing to do since he was in San Francisco.

FREEwilliamsburg: Were you more involved in production than in the past?

I've always been pretty involved in the production of records we've done, Superchunk or Portastatic. This time, as opposed to other Portastatic records where I'm playing every part or layering everything, I could just go play the songs. It definitely gives it a different vibe.

FREEwilliamsburg: It was all recorded live?

Most of it, yeah. Maybe two songs were done by adding things on, but almost the whole thing was done live.

FREEwilliamsburg: Your daughter was born as you were working on this album?

Yeah, during the summer after Summer of the Shark. I was already starting to write songs for this album.

FREEwilliamsburg: Has being a parent has affected the songs on Bright Ideas?

Yeah, definitely. I think in both the positive viewpoint some of the songs have, and in the depressing viewpoint some of the songs have (laughs). It is great being a parent-it's an inspiring thing, but it also makes you look at the world in a harsher light. As opposed to when you're just an adult depending on yourself, you can just roll through the world and not have to think about it too much. But if you have a kid and think about the kind of world they're gonna have to grow up in, it's a little more depressing to think about, about what's happening in the world.

FREEwilliamsburg: You seem very comfortable with Portastatic, particularly on this record-you've got your brother on drums, Jim on the bass-do you feel like the songwriting is different than it is in Superchunk? Do you and Jim interact differently in this band?

This may sound weird, but we don't really interact that much in Portastatic's songwriting. Jim adds his ideas to the songs, but in Superchunk, we're all writing the songs at the same time. In Portastatic I pretty much have the thing written out, not literally, but I have at least a demo of it. Sometimes there's a bassline, sometimes there's not, but the bulk, the framework is already there. It's definitely a comfortable situation-Matthew has been there playing on Portastatic records since Nature of Sap, and obviously, I've been playing with Jim for 15 years.

It is comfortable. We also have Margaret White playing violin on this tour. That'll be fun-she lives in New York now, but she's from Chapel Hill and has played with the Comas and Cat Power and different people. She adds a lot to what we can do live. The trio thing is great, but there's stuff on the record that you want to hear, strings and things, so it's cool to have that.

FREEwilliamsburg: A lot of the charm in early Portastatic recordings involves the bleeps and crazy things you pick up on tape-do you try to recreate all that live?

It's a pretty different experience. My goal, and I think the goal with Superchunk too, is to write songs that can withstand whatever kind of setting you put them in. Laura doesn't like it too much, but I think the rest of us like doing the acoustic Superchunk things. I think the songs can exist in both realms, and it's the same with Portastatic.

There are definitely songs on records that we don't play, but I think on this record we've played all the songs live except for "Bright Ideas." We will try to play it live, but it's just harder to do, and we haven't done that many shows since the record was recorded. I like having a record where all the songs can be played live, but I don't think you try to make it where the songs sound the same live. You do try to retain what was good about the song on the record.

FREEwilliamsburg: A good song stands alone?

Yeah, but a lot of the Portastatic songs prior to this album were a little more erratic-they were recorded at home, a good deal of them, and they're stranger songs, maybe, not as straight-forward, some instrumentals thrown in there, some electronic things. I was a little insecure about this record, like if we make a record just as a rock band, is it gonna be boring? Because then we're just another rock band. There are like a million rock bands, you know? (laughs) Does the world really need another one of those?

In some ways, I was worried about making something that was just standard-sounding. Because then you're just relying on the songs to make it outstanding. There could be everything but the kitchen sink on a record, and that's distracting enough and pleasant enough, but without that, you wonder if it's still interesting enough to listen to. That remains to be seen, I guess (laughs).

FREEwilliamsburg: Do you feel like you're approaching a Portastatic "sound," or is Portastatic more about trying out all these different possibilities?

It's more like I just have a vague idea in mind. I try to execute it in a way that makes sense. A lot of the thinking with this record was the enjoyment of playing with the trio and the knowledge that we'd be able to tour some after the record. We wanted to make a record that we could just play live. We wanted to make a record that was less erratic and less side-projecty. I like all the Portastatic records-I mean there are definitely some moments I would redo (laughs)-but I think that they definitely give off the air of someone who's just messing around, having fun, and that's cool, but in some ways, it's easier to dismiss a record like that. With Superchunk being inactive right now, I didn't want to make another record that made people think, "it's just a side-project record-I'll wait for the real record to come out." I wanted this to be the real record.

FREEwilliamsburg: Was Summer of the Shark, with its thematic heaviness, a move toward that "real recordness"?

Definitely. There was more rock on that record, too. That was, again, starting to get focused. I think Bright Ideas is the first record I made that I was able to get down to 10 songs. That was deliberate. I think records are too long because they can be. Superchunk's never been able to get an album down to 10 songs because we can never agree on which songs to kick off. So I wanted to be in charge on this one. There are songs we left off that I really like, but I wanted it to be very concise. Summer of the Shark was a move toward that, but not quite as focused as Bright Ideas.

FREEwilliamsburg: Summer of the Shark got a lot of acclaim, some of it having to do with how you wrote about September 11, which is nearly impossible because of the Toby Keith kind of bullshit out there. Your approached seemed to attempt to reflect on this huge event in a very small-scale way. Did you go into it thinking "I'm going to write an album about this"?

I had a few songs started, maybe the lyrics, that I was writing when Superchunk was on tour. Here's to Shutting Up came out September 18, so we were on tour right after 9/11. I actually came to New York on September 13 because some friends who live in New York were in North Carolina and needed to come back here. That was CMJ, and Superchunk was supposed to play. They reopened the Bowery Ballroom the night the show was supposed to happen, so we still had a show, but the rest of the band didn't come up, some bands made it, some bands didn't. It was a very emotional night, but I'm glad that we did it.

Anyway, I drove up for that and was here right after that, and that brought it even closer to home. Superchunk went on the road right after that, and I wrote a lot of lyrics on tour. After I did a few of them, I started designing the record, thinking that it would be interesting and a challenge to make a record that actually has a theme, even though it's probably not going to make much sense really-it's there in my mind anyway (laughs).

FREEwilliamsburg: So you wrote it deliberately with a theme in mind?

It was deliberate and was a challenge because it's hard to do something like that without being goofy or not sensitive enough or too reverent. I really liked Springsteen's record, The Rising, that came out after that. I think there are some great songs on that record. It's funny because reading about that record, some of the songs you're convinced are about 9/11, were songs he wrote before that. He added more songs later, and it became The Rising, but some of those songs, like half or something, were written before. In the frame of mind you're in when listening, you can add your own things to it.

But anyway, I was happy with the way it came out. It's easy for me to write songs that are vague, cool images or something like that, but it's harder to write songs that are more straight-forward and direct about those things. That's a goal of mine sometimes-it's easy to slip back into the vagueness. I wouldn't want to write a record that's all literal and easy to decipher-that's boring too-but I think it's good to shoot for a balance.

FREEwilliamsburg: What was the first concert you went to?

I went to jazz concerts when I was young. My dad would take us.

FREEwilliamsburg: In North Carolina?

No, this is in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. We moved when I was 13. Or 12. But the first rock big rock concert I went to was very Floridian. It was Molly Hatchett at the Sunrise Musical Theater in Florida. I was psyched, it was great. For a couple years there I saw a lot of things like that-you know, Van Halen.

FREEwilliamsburg:Are your parents musicians?

Well, my dad plays piano and played clarinet growing up, stuff like that. They're definitely into music and are supportive of the idea of seeing bands and being in bands.

FREEwilliamsburg: You're always teasing us with titles like "Here's to Shutting Up," What's the future status of Superchunk?

I think after all the touring after Here's to Shutting Up, everyone was burnt out and wanted to take a break anyway, then I had a kid, and Laura had a baby last fall, so that kind of extended the hiatus. But we did a little tour when Cup of Sand came out and did a couple shows this summer. And we have a few new songs written, but the way we write songs, we all have to be in the same place at the same time. Our schedules have to allow that. What we've talked about is doing a record next year, like writing early in the year and recording after that.

FREEwilliamsburg: And for Portastatic after this tour?

I always like bands that put out a lot of records. When we recorded this record, there were other songs we'd done demos for already that we didn't learn for Bright Ideas and a couple extras we'd done that didn't make it to the record, so there's gonna be another Portastatic record coming out next year.

FREEwilliamsburg: Full length?

Yeah, we're going to try to keep it that way. Hopefully by the time I get all the songs done for the next record-it's about half-way done right now-it'll be time for Superchunk to start writing some songs for another record. You just have to look at the space in front of you and figure out what you can do in that time.

Portastatic's new LP, Bright Ideas, is now available from Merge Records. Check out their tour dates and line-ups (all hail the Rosebuds, Tenement Halls and John Vanderslice!) at portastatic.com.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:47 AM | Comments (1)

Ultramagnetic MCs featuring Kool Keith
when: 7pm
where: S.O.B.'s (204 Varick St)
price: $20 / $18 advance

We love Kool Keith and the U-MCs. This show promises to rule, despite the fact Ice T is opening. From Flavorpill:

De-funked since '93, the Ultramagnetic MCs were minor players in Bronx hip-hop's second wave (i.e., when white folks tuned in), the quirky younger brothers of legends Public Enemy and Run DMC, and creators of Critical Beatdown, one of the greatest hip-hop debuts ever — hyperbole this ain't. Unfortunately, the UMCs currently have more notoriety as the springboard for one Kool Keith (aka Doctor Octagon), an inconsistent but occasionally compelling rapper fetishized for his battles with mental illness (see also: Wesley Willis and, arguably, ODB). This comeback includes support from Ice-T, Keith's onetime Analog Brother.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 11:13 AM | Comments (0)

By John Rickman

Return of the giant Slit!

In the years since the legendary, all-girl U.K. punk band The Slits disbanded in 1981, the band's lead singer Ari Up has divided her time between Kingston, Jamaica and Brooklyn, New York performing as a singer and dancer under the name Medusa, as well as designing clothes and being a mom to her three sons Pablo, Pedro, and Wilton.

This year Up released her first solo recording "Dread More Dan Dead," a collection of natty punk dance tracks and empowering pop lyricism reflective of the profound impact Jamaica's culture has had on her life and identity.

FREEwilliamsburg caught up with Up when she returned to New York recently to prepare for an upcoming gig with her live band the True Warriors.

**************

FREEwilliamsburg: What do you like about living in Brooklyn?

Ari Up: Brooklyn is Brooklyn! I live in the heart of Flatbush, which I like because it's very urban and hasn't become overpopulated in the same way Williamsburg has. Williamsburg, before it became overly trendy, used to remind me of the artsy area in West Berlin near the wall when it was still up.

FREEwilliamsburg: How has living in Jamaica influenced the way you express yourself?

Ari Up: Moving to Jamaica was a natural transition for me. It was the next logical step after performing with The Slits and as the main singer in the On-U Sound reggae project New Age Steppers. I got to know local Jamaican girls and people in general and going to all the dances and spots in Kingston, then when I started recording and performing there people already knew who I was.

I was warned before I moved there, "Oh if you go to Jamaica, how can you wear your crazy punk clothes? How can you wear anything like that without worrying about people chastising you or stealing stuff from you off the street?"

It's just not the case! The more outrageous I dressed in Jamaica, the more accepted I was — especially during the nineties with the dancehall music explosion. That was a revolution in itself with clothes. People there never disrespect me and tell me to cut my dreads or call me a false dread.

FREEwilliamsburg: "Dread" is actually your first completely solo endeavor, correct?

Ari Up: It is. My new album is called "Dread More Dan Dead" because people have thought many times over the years, "Where is Ari? Is she dead?" No, I'm dread, not dead!

I would have had many solo albums out by now but.

I'm either too busy running around naked in the jungle with indigenous people, or shopping with freaked out A&R people who all seem so scared of me. I need a manager! It's a shame, but business people miss out on all of the good art coming from the street, which is where art originates. They think I'm mad, but playing the part of the crazy artist has actually helped keep me safe and sane.

FREEwilliamsburg: Who are the True Warriors?

Ari Up: They're my live band. I leave my computer and electronics at home when I perform with them. It's totally raw and I play more of my punk stuff. They're named after one of my songs, but it didn't stick until one night, after performing the song and asking the audience where my true warriors were, the band said, "Hey, we want to be true warriors too!"

FREEwilliamsburg: Many songs on "Dread" reflect a sense of family values and deal pretty heavily with relationships. How has being a mom affected you?

Ari Up: If I have a relationship, I always want kids. But somehow I have ended up being a single mom, which I don't think is ideal.

Wilton's father was the ideal true warrior for me, but he died shortly after Wilton was born. That kind of messed me up. Some woman say they would like to do it all — be the woman of the house and be both mother and father. I understand where they're coming from in a way, but it's not realistic. They're not thinking about the balance of life or how not having a father might affect their children. Being a single mom should be avoided if possible. I'm pretty healthy and at my best right now, but a big part of my life is missing not having a man in my life. Good, regular sex is essential — with one man that is! I don't like sex everywhere and all over the place. That's why I would rather not do it at all.

The song 'Me Done' is about that actually. Basically, I can't take the pressure of one night stands anymore.

FREEwilliamsburg: What can your fans expect from you in the future?

Ari Up: Tessa Pollit and I are rebuilding The Slits! It will be the new Slits and we have a new EP coming out later this year. Also, there's a new release of old Slits material out now called "Man Next Door."

* "Dread More Dan Dead" is out now on Collision
Records and Ari Up's website can be found at http://www.ari-up.com

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 11:19 AM | Comments (2)

Mark you Calendars. This war is unwinnable:

Saturday, September 24
Massive Anti-war March and Concert
Gather 11 AM at the Washington Monument

Join Operation Ceasefire, a new coalition of concerned musicians, for a massive anti-war concert/rally at the Washington Monument on September 24th. This event will be a centerpiece of what is expected to be 4 days of enormous protests in nation's capital in support of a full withdrawal of U.S. forces from the quagmire in Iraq. The concert will bring together musical acts such as: Thievery Corporation, punk rock and independent musicians LeTigre, Bouncing Souls, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists; country music artist Steve Earle, rock and soul band the Bellrays; latin musicians Machetres, socially conscious hip-hop groups The Coup and Head-Roc; and even long time activists Wayne Kramer of the MC5, Jello Biafra and Greg Palast will be involved in this event! With over 60% of the public currently opposed to the war in Iraq, this concert is a fun way we can all come together and demand that this Congress and this administration bring our troops home and start a well over due Ceasefire!

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 12:34 AM | Comments (0)

Interview by Monte Holman

You've heard their name sprinkled across blogs and music nerd sites like rainbow sprinkles on soft-serve for months now. But until recently Clap Your Hands Say Yeah was still mailing CDs to record stores from Alec Ounsworth's home in Philadelphia. Now, they're shopping for a label after selling out of their original pressing of their self-titled debut.

We're taught to be skeptical of bands that receive as much hype as quickly as these guys have—they've only been playing altogether for about a year. But after hearing the album, and especially after having the chance to converse with Ounsworth about real music icons like Axl and Tool, we're completely drained of skepticism.

They've been branded by Pitchfork's steaming hot prongs as this year's Arcade Fire. And for good reason. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah backs that shit up.

We talked to them about their music, Philly, and and found out about Alec's first concert and rumors about a Guns and Roses tribute band.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are Alec Ounsworth (vocals, guitars), Tyler Sargent (bass), Robbie Geurtin (guitar, keyboard), Lee Sargent (guitar, keyboard), and Sean Greenhalgh (drums)

MP3s
In This Home On Ice
Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood
Over and Over Again (Lost & Found)
Some rarites at Philebrity

***************************************

FREEwilliamsburg: Area code 215, where am I calling?

Philadelphia, that's where I live.

FREEwilliamsburg: Does everyone else live up here in New York?

Yeah, everybody else lives up in Brooklyn.

FREEwilliamsburg: How does that work for practice?

It's, uh, you know. (laughs) It's good for them, bad for me.

FREEwilliamsburg: I really, really like the first song on the record. Why'd you choose that one to kick things off?

I don't know-I like the idea of trying to challenge people a little bit on an album, and it seemed like that was the only place we could put that one. I wrote it as an introduction to the whole idea of the band, so it seemed like the ideal place to put it.

FREEwilliamsburg: Have you been playing the songs from the album live long? How old are they?

I wrote a few five or six years ago. Some are pretty old, and I've rearranged them a bunch of times over the years and rearranged them while the band was working on them. Yeah, most of them are pretty old.

Alec Ounsworth

FREEwilliamsburg: Are the newer songs written by the band, or do you bring an idea to the table?

Usually I write the songs here in Philadelphia and bring them up. I built a studio, and I try to get everything together, which I suppose is one of the reasons we've been able to bring everything together. It's a combination of songs that are prepared to a certain extent combined with the guys in the band, who are very technically proficient. So that propels it all forward.

FREEwilliamsburg: Did you record the album at your studio in Philadelphia?

We recorded part of it in Providence, Rhode Island, and we recorded a few tracks in Brooklyn.

FREEwilliamsburg: Who'd you record with?

We recorded at Fireproof Studios with a guy named Adam Lasus in Brooklyn, and we recorded at a place in Providence at a place called Machines With Magnets with a guy named Keith Souza.

FREEwilliamsburg: Did you know those guys previously?

No, I didn't know either of them. Somebody from the band-these guys are all much more band - experienced than I am. (bark, bark) The other guys in the band suggested them. (growl, bark)

FREEwilliamsburg: What kind of dogs are those?

(laughs) I have two English Springer Spaniels. I'm just kind of chilling outside with them right now. We just took a little walk, and we went for a swim. So they're drying off.

FREEwilliamsburg: Sounds nice. Do you live in the city or outside the city?

It's in the city, technically, but it feels a little like outside the city. Philadelphia's an interesting place. We have an enormous urban forest, and I take walks with these guys and it's like going up to Vermont, really.

FREEwilliamsburg: Did you grow up around there?

Yeah, I actually grew up not too far from where I am right now. (laughs)

FREEwilliamsburg: Did the band start playing while you were all in Philadelphia then?

Yeah, I've been in Philadelphia the whole time the band's been in progress.

FREEwilliamsburg: How long has the band been together?

A little over a year.

FREEwilliamsburg: Seems like you did a lot of live shows before the record. How has that affected recording?

When we started recording, we had only played a handful of shows. In fact, it's something nobody's really brought up too much-but the recording was initially intended just to be six or seven tracks. We were just starting and were wanting to get more shows. (laughs) We were recording an album-not an album; I guess it's called an EP-for the purpose of getting shows at, say, the Mercury Lounge or something like that. It just happened that things started to move forward a bit faster than we thought, and by the time we got down to Brooklyn to add more tracks, we had started to play bigger shows, and we decided to make this a full-fledged album.

In any case, I guess that's not really answering anything. (laughs) Anyway, we had played a lot of live shows, and the studio recording was interesting because the guys in the band weren't too familiar with the songs yet. The studio recordings kind of pushed the live shows forward. I remember I was in the control room singing the lines and pointing out the parts when the guitarist was supposed to go and shit like that (laughs). So I think it was helpful to have the studio recording so everybody could go back and say "ok, this is the structure of the song." I don't know if that answers the question. (laughs)

FREEwilliamsburg: Did you feel any pressure to put out the album quickly because of the reception you guys have been receiving (which is pretty phenomenal)?

Yeah, we wanted to get it out as soon as we could. The live shows have been, surprisingly, great. Everybody's been very enthusiastic. Mostly the pressure came from everybody asking "when the hell are you going to put out an album??" (laughs)

FREEwilliamsburg: Internet sites and blogs and things have adopted and endorsed you guys pretty hard-core lately. How do you react to Pitchfork's making you their "it" band?

I appreciate it-that's the first thing I'll say-I appreciate it. I was very unaware of Pitchfork. I'm not sure I had been to the site before. Apparently their opinion holds weight in some circles. I appreciate it, but I've got to say I don't feel one way or the other about it. It's helpful. A lot of people wouldn't have thought of us otherwise. Sometimes you need a point of reference.

FREEwilliamsburg: Do you think it's pushed you toward considering labels, that sort of thing, since everything thus far has been pretty DIY?

Sure. I think for right now, we're pretty firm about being DIY. We've been talking to folks here and there about signing on, but I like the idea of it being an independent operation as long as we can do it. But the fact of the matter is, there are five of us. We all have our own obligations, and it's very difficult between five of us to handle everything. So that would be the purpose of a label.

FREEwilliamsburg: Do you mean that the label would take care of scheduling details?

Primarily distribution. We've literally sat around with a bunch of Uline packages, single boxes, to send CDs all over the world from my house.

FREEwilliamsburg: I got a mass email today from Sound Fix Records here in Williamsburg talking about how they finally got more Clap Your Hands Say Yeah records.

Well after the Pitchfork thing, I thought it would be a relatively gradual process and that me and another guy in the band, Robbie, would be able to handle it ourselves because everybody was preoccupied. But then the Pitchfork thing came out, and I realized that it was kind of humanly impossible. So essentially we transferred it over to a place called Insound, which I was pretty unfamiliar with, and they've been handling the bulk of it for direct internet sales. If we tried to do it ourselves, I don't know if any other albums would ever get made. (laughs) We'd be packaging this one forever.

FREEwilliamsburg: Are you familiar with other local bands in Philadelphia?

Not too much. I had a certain interaction with a certain group of people that were relatively off the map. I used to play performances at this cabaret, and it was interesting. There was this transvestite performer with a shaved head, and that was my real connection to Philadelphia. But as far as rock n roll bands are concerned, I don't know too much about it.

FREEwilliamsburg: What about Brooklyn? Any more connection?

About the same that I do to Philadelphia. I have to admit, I feel more connected to Philadelphia in a proudly superficial sort of way. (laughs) Know what I mean? There are bands that I hear are going to play with us that I hear are from Philadelphia, and I gotta say, I get all excited, and I don't even know who they are. (laughs) As far as NYC is concerned, I'm not too familiar with what anyone's doing, musically.

FREEwilliamsburg: Is it true that someone in CYHSY is in a Guns N Roses tribute band?

(laughs) Yeah, it's true.

FREEwilliamsburg: Who is it?

Sean, he plays the drums with us. And he's Axl Rose for Mr. Brownstone. He's taking on the world as Axl. (laughs) I've never seen them, but I hear a lot about them.

FREEwilliamsburg: What was the first concert you ever went to?

I think the first concert I went to-I could be wrong about this, but I think it's right-I was about 13 or 14, and I went to one of the Lollapaloozas. It might've been the second year in. I remember-who was it-Alice and Chains and Tool. Man, I haven't listened to Alice in Chains in years and years. When I was 13 it was great. Tool's performance was pretty cool.

FREEwilliamsburg: Tool's a great band.

Yeah, and Primus was good too-I liked them.

FREEwilliamsburg: Both of those bands had great videos. I was always disturbed by them. Tool videos always had a caterpillar going through a pipe underground or something.

I'm pretty sure that was first. It was either that or the Dave Brubek Quartet.

FREEwilliamsburg: Where'd you see them?

At a place called the Keswick theater, which is in Glenside, Pennsylvania, nearby. There are probably others before, but those are the ones that are bigger to me.

FREEwilliamsburg: You have a couple sold-out shows coming up here.

Yeah, at Southpaw and the Mercury Lounge.

FREEwilliamsburg: Has that been ordinary?

I don't know - I know we've sold out a few shows before, but I don't think it's been regular.

FREEwilliamsburg: We've mentioned the internet following. What's the deal with that video that guy made. Is that something the band endorses?

I'm not sure what to think about that. We've had plenty of conversations with him. It was a friend of a friend, and he wanted to do a video for free, and I said we weren't interested. We weren't finished with the album. But a lot of people were saying "he's doing it for free-you have nothing to lose-you don't have to use it or do anything with it," and apparently-I just got wind of this a little while ago-he took it upon himself to put it out there. I don't think it's terrible or anything. I'm not much of a music video person, myself. I'm struggling with the basic concept of the music video, anyway. I don't know what to say about that. He did it. I suppose he can do what he wants with it, but as far as us claiming it as ours, I don't think we're exactly doing that.

It's not really an issue. I've been hearing so much about this lately that I'm tired of it. I don't care what the hell happens with it anymore. (laughs)

FREEwilliamsburg: Fair enough. I hear you're going on tour this fall. How'd that come about?

We played a show a little while ago at the Mercury Lounge, and a band called the National was playing there. We both liked what the other was doing. I got to talking to some of the guys, and they came down to Philadelphia to do a show and I went to see them. We got to talking, and Aaron, one of the guitarists mentioned they were going on tour and needed somebody to support. It's a perfect, perfect situation because these are all great guys. The guys in the National are really cool guys, and they've been through it time and again. They're all a little bit older and ostensibly more responsible (laughs). They may be able to show us the ropes as to how to keep stable on a tour.

FREEwilliamsburg: Are you looking to record again any time soon?

I was hoping to record when we get back. We've practiced enough new stuff to do an album fairly soon. There are a couple other things-we may or may not be going over to England after the tour with the National. I'm not really sure-this is kind of speculation. But if we have a chunk of time, we'd like to get back into the studio soon.

************************

Upcoming Shows

Southpaw
July 20th
125 5th Ave
Brooklyn, NY
w/ Dirty on Purpose, Dr. Dog, and Saints and Lovers
SOLD OUT!

Mercury Lounge
July 27th
217 E Houston St
New York, NY
w/ Portion Control
SOLD OUT!

Seaport Music Festival
August 10th
South Street Seaport
New York, NY
w/ Devotchka

First Unitarian Church
August 17th
Philadelphia, PA
w/ Magnolia Electric Co
Songs:Ohia

Bowery Ballroom
September 9th
6 Delancey St
New York, NY
w/ The National
SOLD OUT!

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Interview by Monte Holman

New York's The Cloud Room delivered their highly anticipated, self-titled album (on Gigantic Music) back in April. The record immediately faced the task of living up to the success of its first single, this summer's anthem, "Hey Now Now." The band serves up some throbbing beats and dark instrumentation that can be as Ziggy as Bowie and a joyless as Ian Curtis, all in the same measure. And all kinds of people are taking notice-The Cloud Room is hitting charts and airwaves all over the country, and they're about to head across the pond with hopes of seeing the same success there.

The band's lead singer, J, made us rethink the old adage about never trusting a man who goes by a letter or symbol. He was kind enough to speak with us about the band and the fallen virtue of Amy Grant.

The Cloud Room are Jason Pharr (drums), J (guitar, vocals), Benjamin Nugent (keyboards), and John Petro (bass).

MP3's: Hey Now Now | Blackout

*****************************

FREEwilliamsburg: What's your reaction to all the great press about your hit single, "Hey Now Now"?

J: It's exciting. I wrote the song about a year ago, and I remember playing around on the guitar and coming up with this stupidly simple melody, and I thought, "Oh my god, that is so stupidly simple-am I allowed to do this?" (laughs) I just kind of went with it, and it became that song. I knew it was the most accessible thing I'd written up until then, but I didn't know how the world would perceive it. Since we're so new, that song has kind of preceded us in a lot of ways. I feel like it has overshadowed the rest of the record. The band thought the last song on the record was our best song.

FREEwilliamsburg: "We Sleep in the Ocean"?

J: Yeah, that's my favorite song, but "Hey Now Now" is the most generally accessible song on the album.

FREEwilliamsburg: Has the expectation been daunting?

Yeah, in the sense that some reviews we've gotten have stated it in those terms, that the rest of the album isn't ten more songs of "Hey Now Now." But I don't think I want that. I wanted to have a nice, broad scope of songs and some highs and lows. It comes with the good and the bad, and I'm just happy to be here.

FREEwilliamsburg: CMJ called "Hey Now Now" a "fit-for-iPod-commercial groove." Is that a compliment or insult?

J: In principle, I see no problem with Top 40 pop. If a huge audience got behind this song, I think that would be great, and I'm not even speaking about the money, though that would be great as well. (laughs) It broadens the palate of what you're hearing on the radio, and it's also a very sincere song. It's a very cathartic song for me. I was going through some awful stuff, and I just had to get all emo. (laughs) I don't even know if people are paying attention to the themes of the song. I've read where people have listened to the first to lines of the chorus and actually think the song's about riding a bus and getting really excited about that, and I think it's funny. So I have no problems with the idea of it being that accessible or widely heard.

FREEwilliamsburg: What musicians did you most identify with when you were growing up?

J: The thing that got me started was Sonic Youth. Their album, Dirty. Before that, I was listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, which was a step up from Michael Jackson, my childhood favorite. The Chili Peppers were a great source of rebellion, you know, they said bad words and stuff. But I remember I had my mom buy me the cassette of Dirty. I had been reading about it, and it was like the first note hypnotized me. I consciously thought that this was something totally different, and it changed my whole world view or something like that. So I got a guitar a few months later. The first eight years of my whole, I don't know, music life, was me trying to make Sonic Youth type experiments.

And then there was another big event that changed that: I was on this trip-I grew up in California-and I was on this trip to New Orleans, and the only thing we could get on the radio was country and oldies stations, and we certainly weren't going to listen to country. (laughs) I started listening to these oldies stations and started realizing how brilliant these pop songs were and how brilliant it was to write a pop song that was such a gem. I'd looked down on it as if experimental rock was a higher art form. From there I decided that I wanted to try to start writing pop music, which is the hardest thing for me to do. The reason this band has been around for four years and is only now starting to do something is because it took that long to develop. For three years, there was a sort of in-between stage. The songs were all right and interesting but definitely not what I wanted to do. That's my long answer to your short question.

FREEwilliamsburg: So do you feel like now that you've written a pop record you're headed back toward the Sonic Youth type experimentation?

J: I haven't really thought consciously what it is we want to do next. I have felt a little constrained. All of our songs are verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge, etc. At first, it was a great experiment to try to put things together organically because I wasn't always good at that sort of thing. But, yeah, I do see myself wanting to challenge myself and us more and combine what I used to be and what I am now and make something that is very unique sounding but horrifically catchy at the same time. If you break it all down, I come from an art rock background, so I'm never going to forget that. I'm curious to expand and explore how a song can be a pop song but be something else as well.

FREEwilliamsburg: Are you currently more interested in playing live and touring or getting back into the studio?

J: In one sense, I want to get back into the studio because I don't feel like the way people have perceived this album is how I perceived it or want it to be perceived.

FREEwilliamsburg: How so?

J: I think we're getting pigeon-holed in some ways in this new-wave thing, and that caught us by surprise. Part of it is because I'm such a detail-oriented person that when we were recording this album, I wanted to expand-I always thought rock expanded its rhythmic potential in the 70s. We all love the Beatles and the Stones, but rhythmically they weren't doing a lot. In the 70s there was James Brown and Kraut rock and Joy Division, and I think all that rhythm is so much more interesting. We wanted rhythms like that, but with the pop sensibilities of Bowie and the Beatles and the Kinks and all that. So I was intrigued in the studio when we would add all these acoustic guitars and Rhodes and Wurlitzers, really warm instruments, on top of precise, pulsating rhythms. And then we looked toward Bowie's Berlin-era stuff for some of the synthesizer textures, but I think the combination of some of the rhythms and some of the synth makes people automatically think new wave because that's everywhere. I feel like if you look at the details of it, it's a lot different, and we're much more on the acoustic side-I mean, we're not an acoustic band, but we're more on the acoustic side, the warmer side, 60s sort of stuff. I'm curious to explore what it is we're after and finding an even bolder way of presenting it.

FREEwilliamsburg: Not too many musicians like to be compared to other musicians, but you're often in the same sentence as the Kinks, Bowie, and Ian Curtis. What are your thoughts on those comparisons?

J: (laughs) What we're after is to try to be as good as the bands that we love. It's not like I don't like contemporary bands, but a lot of times people say "Oh, it's like the Strokes or it's like Interpol," and it's as if no one's listened to music before 2000. Probably for my own ego, I'd prefer to be compared to the originators. (laughs)

FREEwilliamsburg: It seems like when people think of the music community in NYC they think of 80s throw-back dance rock. Do you guys feel a part of that?

J: Not so much in sound, but in our place in rock n roll right now, I think we're a lot more mainstream, in motivation even. Like I have no problem with teenagers in Wisconsin digging our music and buying our t-shirt at Hot Topic or whatever because I was one of those. It doesn't have to be only for people living in Williamsburg. I think a lot of New York still has this art rock side to it that a lot of bands are a part of. I guess my point is that I don't know too many bands that have the mindset that we have. Most of my friends that are in bands, their intentions are more on a local level.

FREEwilliamsburg: So you guys are looking to tour and hit the radio?

J: Oh yeah. I've never done that before, so it's really exciting.

FREEwilliamsburg: No one who lives in New York is from New York. What's the story behind your ending up here?

J: When I was living in Santa Cruz, a friend of mine had a contact in the Hal Hartley office. He's a pretty cool director, and I was into him a few years ago. I had gone to film school, so film was really my thing, and I just called him up one day and said, "Hey I really want to work with you. I live in California, but I'm moving to New York because I want to work with you guys." They told me they were about to shoot a short and didn't have anyone to help out, so send a resume blah blah blah. We were in a dialog about it, and they said yeah, this looks good. Come out in a couple weeks, and we'll start shooting. So I quit my job and sold my car and flew out there. The day after I arrived, I went to the office-this was about a week later - and was like "Hi, I'm here. I'm the kid from California." The secretary looked at me awkwardly and said, "You know, we filled your position with an NYU intern." I don't know why or how, and I was about to get my little California rage on, but Hal Hartley was sitting like two desks over, so I was also a little star struck. (laughs) So I kind of gave them my resume again, and that was it.

I still worked in film on different projects, but I realized that it was not an art form just because you were working in film, especially when you're young. It was such a bureaucracy and I wasn't fulfilled at all. I'd played music for years prior to that, but I didn't think it was my career. I started again, and I thought it was much more emotionally fulfilling. The connection with the audience, it has so much more of a connection with people, and I really enjoyed that. Not being hidden away in my room typing and then five years later maybe it'll come out.

FREEwilliamsburg: Who would you love to ask to produce one of your records?

J: I'm not sure if they're alive-actually, it would either be Ken Scott or Tony Visconti. Ken Scott produced the Ziggy Stardust album and he worked at Abbey Road, so he was an engineer on the White Album. I think Ziggy is maybe my favorite album, not just the song, but the recording. The snare on the first song, "Five Years," I find really amazing. The type of echo and reverb they used is such a warm feel, and the strings compliment it well. With the Visconti one, he did T-Rex. There were some albums where he had strings on every song, but they were very understated. He made everything beautiful and lush, even the smallest song. I would love to have that kind of warmth.

FREEwilliamsburg: What was the first concert you ever went to?

J: I went to a New Year's Eve concert at the Cow Palace, which is near San Francisco, with Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Nirvana. I think that was the year of the Nevermind tour. (laughs) Isn't that quite a first concert? What was your first concert?

FREEwilliamsburg: I saw Amy Grant in the middle of the Bible belt in Texas in a huge stadium with my sister, and it was pretty amazing. I think I was nine or something, and to see somebody that big was great.

J: I went to Christian school growing up. Didn't Amy Grant officially cross over to not calling herself Christian?

FREEwilliamsburg: Yeah, and she got a divorce with Gary Chapman and married Vince Gill, which was pretty racy for Christian circles.

J: Is she at the bottom of a gutter right now dealing with her sins?

FREEwilliamsburg: I hope she doesn't feel too bad, but she did kind of forsake her crowd…

The Cloud Room will be touring on the West Coast in June, appearing in L.A., San Francisco and Seattle. In July they're either touring from Chicago back to New York, or they're heading over to London for a few shows.

And Amy, if you're out there, you're not alone: Romans 3:23.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 03:25 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

by Monte Holman

Laetitia Sadier has been the stylish voice of cool for a decade and a half, fronting Stereolab and delivering space age bachelor pad themes with a French twist to us drooling fans. We can't get enough, so Sadier and company simply deliver more and more and more. Stereolab's just-released three-disc set "Oscillons From the Anti-Sun" is absolutely essential for any fan of the band.

Somehow Sadier found the time to strike up a side-project, Monade. In this band she takes over the majority of the songwriting duties whereas in Stereolab her role is limited primarily to lyric composition and vocals. Monade's first album, "Socialisme Ou Barbarie: The Bedroom Recordings," (Drag City) presented Sadier's songwriting ability in a low-fi, D.I.Y. manner. Several songs featured Pram's Rosie Cuckston. Monade's latest, "A Few Steps More," (Too Pure) is a more stylized production featuring a full band (sans Cuckston) and a studio production.

Between all the recording and touring and child rearing, Sadier graciously spoke with us about her newest venture. And not surprisingly, the way she charms us sonically in Stereolab and Monade carries over to conversation.

Monade are Laetitia Sadier (vocals / moog / tambourine / trombone), Marie Merlet (bass / vocals), Nicolas Etienne (keys) and Xavier Chabellard (drums).

FREEwilliamsburg: Are you enjoying the Monade tour?

Sadier: Yeah, this is actually lovely because it's the groundwork. You have to somehow be persuasive. People are very enthusiastic and supportive, and it makes for nice shows.

FREEwilliamsburg: So the crowds are different with Monade than they are with Stereolab?

Sadier: Yeah, indeed, they're far less numerous, but it's very exciting.

FREEwilliamsburg: Stereolab is one of the most prolific bands of the last fifteen years. What made Monade necessary? What prompted its forming?

Sadier: I wanted to write songs. I have been writing songs. Because I couldn't write songs in Stereolab, I created a space where my little songs could exist. I also wanted to play the guitar. I always had a vision of myself with a guitar, playing the guitar, and it's the kind of thing I have problems doing alone in my bedroom. I thought it would be more exciting to play in a band format, and it is more fun, more stimulating. And that's simply that, really.

FREEwilliamsburg: Where did the songs on the first Monade album come from?

Sadier: They're songs I wrote over the years that came out on some little singles with friends, and eventually I thought if I record another five or six songs, I could put them all on an LP. And indeed, that's what happened. It was also motivation to work, to do it, you know. It's all about doing it, the activity of it. You can sit in your room and dream you're going to become a rock star or something, but somehow that didn't seem like too much of an option for me. I knew better, that if you want to do something, then go out there and do it.

FREEwilliamsburg: The first Monade album was mostly you, your songwriting, your playing. How did the process of the second album differ now that you have a full-on band?

Sadier: I would still write the songs, but obviously in a loose form. Being with the band, we developed them by playing them with drums, and playing them all together would mean that we could get ideas as to where the song could go and how it could change, how it could turn.

FREEwilliamsburg: Do you share the same musical interests as the rest of the band?

Sadier: Yeah, I think so. I was pretty lucky that I found people that were interested in the same way. I have a new drummer now who comes from a very different musical background, but he is learning our way of thinking (laughs), with difficulty sometimes, but he's doing good—he's doing good.

FREEwilliamsburg: When did he join up?

Sadier: About two months ago.

FREEwilliamsburg: Right before the current tour?

Sadier: Yes, we've played maybe fifteen shows together as this band. It's really fresh and exciting.

FREEwilliamsburg: You also play the trombone on this album, and I read in another interview that the instrument intrigued you. What about the trombone appeals to you?

Sadier: I like the sound of it. It's kind of an intuitive thing, you know, being able to identify with a sound. I think it's a bridging instrument—it goes high; it goes low—and I feel it's a bit like my voice, maybe another expression of it. Personally, I prefer the trumpet. I wanted to play the trumpet, but I don't think there is a trumpeter in me. The trombone, I thought, was closer. It's an instrument you really need to work at, and I don't feel I'm putting in the hours. Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don't, and I feel like I'm back at square one. It's a lot of dedication. Hopefully I will carry on, but again, it's a question of having a reason to play it.

FREEwilliamsburg: You've mentioned that Monade is a band in which you hope to find your own voice because in Stereolab, you aren't the primary songwriter. Do you feel that the current lineup is getting you closer to finding that voice?

Sadier: Well I really don't know what the future holds, exactly, but I'm closer to finding this voice. I can really identify with the music of Stereolab, and hopefully with Monade we'll be able to discover some new grooves, new ways of grooving and somehow being free within the group. But at the moment, we're concentrating on being a group and on being comfortable playing together, and hopefully it will enable us to take it somewhere else, where it's supposed to go.

FREEwilliamsburg: What was the first concert you ever went to?

Sadier: The first concert where I had to buy a ticket and everything was Simple Minds. It was their first album, so they played a small club in Montpelier. It was super exciting—I was thirteen. It's probably not the best concert I've been to (laughs). My dad came with me.

FREEwilliamsburg: Are you going to take your son to shows?

Sadier: He's already been to a few Lab shows, but I think he's still too little for that. He wants to go when he sees that I'm getting all ready to go to a show. He says "Ah I want to go, I want to go!" but he has time...

FREEwilliamsburg: Robert Lanham, the guy who runs our site, wrote a book called The Hipster Hanbook (wink, teeth gleam with subtlety), and in it, he listed Mars Audiac Quintet as an essential record to own. If you had to choose out of all the Stereolab recordings, which would be your favorite, the most essential? I'm a Dots and Loops fan, myself.

Sadier: I really like Dots and Loops. I like the record we did with Charles Long, "The Amorphous Body Study Center." I do connect with this one. And Margarine Eclipse is a nice record.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 09:51 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Interview by Monte Holman

Shearwater (Puffinus gravis) hail from Austin and are blood relatives of folk-rock band Okkervil River. Jonathan Meiburg and Will Sheff share song-writing duties in both bands, though lately it seems they've branched off from one another. Sheff assumed more of a lead role in Okkervil, and Meiburg claimed Shearwater, enlisting the help of Travis Weller (violin), Thor Harris (drums, thunder), Kim Burke (upright bass), and Howard Draper (everything), all of whom were present on past Shearwater recordings.

"Theives" (EP—Misra), their latest recording, explores dynamics. It's both delicately soft and surprisingly noisy, all the while haunting. Employing folksy standbys, such as banjos and lap-steels, the band attempts to build lush new backdrops for instrumental presentations listeners may expect from a Texas-based band. Meiburg's sober vocals ring out beautifully and ghostly.

Shearwater is currently on tour with the Mountain Goats, and Jonathan Meiburg (pictured front and center) was kind enough to speak with me before the show at North Six. The man loves birds.

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

FREEwilliamsburg: I read on your website that you consider yourself, for the time being, "more of a musician than a scientist rather than the other way around." So you've been studying a while then?

JM:(laughs) I'm nearly finished with my Master's thesis, which I returned to with some vigor and determination a couple months ago and found that I still really loved it and was really interested in it. I'm going to finish it up in a month or two and stop there for now because while I'm interested in moving on and getting a Ph.D., it would mean six years of school and I'd have to quit music. I'm just not ready to quit music right now.

But today I went to the Natural History Museum. I spent time up in the collection there working with the guy I worked with in the Falklands, and it's so cool to get to go back in there. Today I just spent time in the exhibits, and ah, I love that place. It's like a maze — it's so alive — it's got this sort of scientific veneer but it's really all about art. It's all about the presentation, the beautiful and strange dioramas and the way everything is laid out—it's very whimsical, and some of it's almost nonsensical. There are parts of it that you get the feeling they're almost embarrassed are still there, but they can't get rid of them now; it's so permanent.

It's like a microcosm—parts of it are always sealed off with no explanation. Parts of it they're always working on. There are new things opening up; it's never going to be finished. Parts of it are becoming outdated just as new parts of it are coming online, you might say. Some incredible things are getting glossed over and left to get dusty. There are cabinets in the basement that haven't been looked at — I think some of them are albatross cabinets — and they have hundreds of thousands of birds in the collection, most of them in these big metal cabinets with these drawers you slide out. Some of them you pull out and think "nobody's looked at this in forty years."

FREEwilliamsburg: And you were able to go down and see some of those collections?

JM: Yeah, yeah. Some of them — well the building has shifted on its foundation since the cabinets were shut last, and they don't open. (laughs)

FREEwilliamsburg: They're trapped in there?

JM: Well, you'd have to get a welder down there—it's wild. There are probably about five people managing the entire bird collection. Most of the time the stuff just sits there.

FREEwilliamsburg: Who was the guy you studied with in the Falklands?

JM: Robin Woods — he's a British ornithologist who works for Falklands Conservation. He's retired, but you wouldn't know it from his schedule. He's a really incredible fellow, very patient with me. He introduced me to the world of birds. I met him in a boarding house down in the Falklands, and he needed an assistant for this bird survey he was about to do, so I said "take me." I pestered him enough that he took me along. It was a seven week trip to the outer islands of the Falklands to look at this one bird, which is the bird I ended up studying for my thesis.

FREEwilliamsburg: Which bird?

JM: The Striated Caracara — you know that picture of that weird — looking bird [on the Shearwater website]? That's it.

FREEwilliamsburg: Misra's site says you're the world's leading expert on the Striated Caracara.

JM: I don't like that tag. I'm not the world's leading expert on anything. I mean, I know about as much about it, I guess, as anybody, but expert is not the right word. It's just that nobody's really looking at it. I'm not an expert, though. It makes me nervous seeing that because I don't want Robin or any of those people seeing that and going "oh, ok..." I don't have a publication to my name about that thing. I should—I've got all the stuff, but... when I left the aboriginal settlement I lived in...

FREEwilliamsburg: When was that?

JM: The same year. It was that weird Watson fellowship thing. The guy I'd been staying with, one of the last things he said to me was "Don't become an expert!" (laughs)

FREEwilliamsburg: What's the Watson Fellowship?

JM: The Watson Fellowship sends about sixty students a year from different small liberal arts colleges to do projects you design yourself in one or more foreign countries. For a year. You can't