low fat getting high granny
palberta
zula
chumped
Vol. 2 Issue 1
VOL. 2 ISSUE 1
CONTENTS
TEAM EDITOR IN CHIEF
ASSISTANT EDITOR
DANNY KRUG
ART
JAKE SAUNDERS
MADELINE BABUKA BLACK
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comics by
MADELINE BABUKA BLACK
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MICHAEL SINCAVAGE
PHOTOGRAPHY
DANNY KRUG
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LAUREN BARFIELD
LOGO DESIGN
NICOLE CODY
MUSIC
ART EDITOR
WRITERS
ISAAC GILLESPIE
8 GRANNY
JAKE SAUNDERS
10 ZULA
PRESTON OSSMAN
12 RIVERGAZER
DANNY KRUG
14 LOW FAT GETTING HIGH
MADELINE BABUKA BLACK
16 SEDIMENT CLUB 18 PALBERTA 20 CHUMPED
EXTRAS
24 SOME PICTURES 25 SOME ALBUMS
CONTACT gigawattsmag@gmail.com facebook.com/gigawattsmag instagram @gigwattsmedia
EDITOR S LETTER SO THIS IS NEW... This is the first issue of Gigawatts that you’ll never be able to hold IRL. Sure, you can hold your iPad or iPhone and "flip" through the pages, but this isn’t "real." Not like the other issues were, anyway. It’s VERY real when it comes to the content though. Thanks to our new editor crew, Jake Saunders and Madeline Babuka Black, we have some of the coolest more diverse content that we’ve had in a long time. We live in a society where, now more than ever, content is king. CONTENT. IS. KING. You’ve got a band with no recordings? Might as well not exist. You only post on Instagram once a week? Don’t waste my time. Your music blog prefers to publish well thought out pieces as opposed to music gossip and tour dates? Boring. We at Gigawatts see the need for the content, but I also don’t think that quality should suffer or things should be easily glossed over or lost in the shuffle. So what’s our solution? More issues, more content. It’s kind of like that manifesto from Jerry Maguire but in reverse. You might be inclined to think that with more content will come a dip in quality. This couldn’t be further from the truth. We look at our new found format as a chance to give space to the things we
care about but weren’t able to fit in the constraints of a printed issue in the past. More space to talk about the artists and musicians we like and that we hope you will like as well. Gigawatts has some stuff in store for 2015, and I think that we’re kicking it off right with this issue. If not, at least we’re kicking it off at all. And for anyone currently mourning the death of print, we still have a lot of print planned this year. You’ll have plenty of things to read about on the can and then tear out and wipe your ass with. Gigawatts still aims to occupy your living room, your toilet and your heart. To commemorate this turning of the tide, this illustrious moment in Gigawatts history, we’ve decided to start a new volume of Gigawatts. That’s what magazines do right? They have volumes? This is the first issue of our new volume. Like we’re born again but kind of still the same, baptised in the mixed mess of liquor in the bar spill mat at the end of a long night. --Danny
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COMICS
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Madeline Babuka Black
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michael
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sincavage
When not fronting Low Fat Getting High, working on solo music or running Money Fire Records, Michael Sincavage somehow finds time to create these complex and deconstructed line drawings. While a lot of the drawings end up as the cover art his musical projects and promotional flyers, a handful of them became a Low Fat Getting High zine that was released alongside one of their EPs. Michael’s work is rooted in the every day things that we see here in Brooklyn such as cans of PBR, scuffed up Converse and cats. It also includes elements that feel like an old Steve McQueen movie and a few horror movie style creepy characters. There’s a push and pull between normalcy and fantasy as well as joy and fear in his work. - danny krug
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lauren barfield
Lauren Barfield’s work is easy to pin as illustration. It’s also not ‘wrong’ to do so, but categorizing her work has never helped me fully understand it. Lauren is a weird and awesome artist. She tirelessly (check out how many drawings this lady has on her website!) depicts a certain abject associated with middle America and being a self reflective creative person through her meticulous sketchbook drawings and collages. From naked baby-people with breasts chugging mountain dew to chubby ladies fawning over ugly dads to remarkably heartfelt one-liners, her work is best seen through her sense of humor and her willingness to poke fun at the truth of herself and her surroundings, which will forever be refreshing in an art world full of internet-obsessed irony and hiding behind avatars. She doesn’t take herself too seriously, and that, to me, is the real strength of her goofy yet sincere imagery. - madeline babuka black
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granny Leslie Hong has made a name for herself around New York the last couple of years fronting the slop-rock trio Haybaby. Her hard-charging take-noshit vocals and guitar playing have won her a hard-earned reputation as a true baller. But her new lo-fi couch-punk duo with Mattie Siegal (drummer from erstwhile garage-punk outfit Lunchbox) aims to explore a more sensitive side. "I do take shit from people, actually." For Hong true rock and roll is all about vulnerability "I want everybody to know how weak I am. Because you are too. We’re all weak. I want you the audience to be like ‘We’re all weak’." Foregoing the oblique approach that’s 8
become popular among rock lyricists, Granny songs are specific, sloppy and true. "As long as I feel like people got the message of the emotion behind what I’m doing I feel like I’ve succeeded even if I’ve fucked up the entire way through. That is what i’m trying to do: connect with people."
None the Richer and they’re making me feel so much better." From this archetypal experience, Hong has carved out a space to explore a specific new performative self. "In Granny I’m trying to represent the attitude of what my high school self thought I would be if I was a rock star."
Specifically, Granny songs speak to the emotional experience of adolescent turbulence and heartbreak; a shared experience that’s at the heart of rock and roll itself. "The reason I wanted to start writing songs, and I’m trying with Granny to hold true to the style of a lot of those high school songs, is just remembering being fourteen and feeling like nobody got how I felt. But then I’m lying in my room listening to Sixpence
Central to this project is the question of femininity; what is it and what does one do with it? "With Granny I guess I’m trying to embrace that I’m female-bodied. When you look at me, you see a woman. So I’m trying to embrace that. I’ve never done it! I’ve always been a tomboy, don’t really dress up. I don’t." Addressing gender issues also brings Hong back to her adoles-
cent self, "I used to dress up a lot when I would go to church as a Jevhoah’s Witness. And I’d feel really uncomfortable and out of place like I was masquerading as somebody else. That’s often how I feel whenever I put on a dress that’s what it’s like for me now." With Granny, Hong is consciously exploring the feminine experience and purposefully pushing at it’s limits. "My biggest frustration is that women are expected in rock music to sexualize. With Haybaby I was sort of stubbornly like I’m never gonna dress sexy it’s only going to be about the music. But at our most recent [Granny] show, I was aware that having a button undone here was like kinda sexy a little bit. But Granny’s also fun cause you
can play with the idea of little old lady, too. So I wore a dress that my mom MADE FOR ME WHEN I WAS SEVEN.... She gave me room to grow."
her goals for the band "I wanna be there like ‘Hey girl, it’s totally cool to be silly and have feelings and be brazen and talk about poop and also sing about your feelings and be just honest.’" It’s Hong brings a nuanced eye to a refreshing perspective on the the issue of gender and sexu- scene, one that’s tough but not ality in a performance context. jaded. Here’s to more Granny goPairing deeply personal songs ing forward! with a quest for true honest engagement between artist and audience, Granny sets the ground for real conversation about the way people interact. "I’m trying to embrace how wrong things are I guess. I’m trying to be less angry about it by playing with it. I think once I started doing that with granny I’ve become less angry words by isaac gillespie as a person." It’s easy to imagine photograph by danny krug Hong is address her own teenage self when she talks about
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ZULA
I can’t stop thinking about sibilities to the project in what something that Sam Owens results in a highly cohesive yet The band is one of the hardest of Celestial Shore told me one open-ended sound. Perhaps the working in Brooklyn (so sayday during an interview a few months ago. I was asking him something regarding the ‘complexity’ of his band’s music and, slightly agitated, Owens countered that it wasn’t that Celestial Shore’s music is complex in any way, rather it’s just another form of communication between musicians, and the conversations that Celestial Shore has on stage happens to be a little strange and chaotic. I think that idea is really important to be aware of; that every bands speaks their own language. Not only does it help with appreciating certain types of music one might not normally enjoy, but more importantly it provides higher value for bands who can have an effective conversation with each other on stage (and in recording, but mostly in performance). When unanimous participation is present in this conversation, the musical ideas and intentions become synchronized, existing purely in the moment, which ultimately provides something meaningful as a listener, either physically or emotionally.
most effective word that comes to mind when thinking about Zula’s music is hypnotic. Zula songs evolve and develop slowly into drawn out landscape jams. Pablo and Noga prove themselves to be one of the tightest rhythm sections in Brooklyn, cementing each groove in a colorful, concrete line of freedom.
Nate and Henry Terepka (they’re cousins) characterize each song with deeply personal and introspective lyrics, contributing to the openness of Zula as much as the sounds do. "I was up and wise to greet the day/In our cellar, so maybe not/They’ll all try to see my breath away/In our cellar, so maybe not." Henry sings those lines on "Sullen Crackle", one of the stand out tracks from their excellent 2014 record, This Hopeful , which came out on Inflated Records. Their lyrical persuasion is a tactic executed so naturally, inviting listener’s minds into thought and sound where both become inseparably mutual. It’s an effect that swallows one whole, and it’s hard not lose yourself in the cloud that Zula is a perfect example of a Zula rests on. It opens the world band that operates between the up for opportunities. Henry once threads that run through each told me "It’s about creating a sitmember. There are four: Pablo uation where a variety of actions (percussion), Noga (bass), Henry can happen. I mean that in the (guitar/vocals/electronics) and most literal sense [that] there’s Nate (guitar/vocals/electroics), a very open sense of what people and each provides their own senare supposed to play,"
eth the iconic show list website, ohmyrockness.com, where they hit number 4 for bands most listed on the site in 2014), and have shared bills with some of the best and equally hard working bands of Brooklyn; artists like Mr. Twin Sister, Celestial Shore, and Ava Luna have lumped Zula in with a group of bands whose music could never really be lumped in with anything other than themselves. Now because I’m not really in the business of ‘lumping’, you can ignore that sentence and take it more simply as "this band is operating on their own terms." They exist in their own world, in their own space and have reached a point of uniqueness that transcends any ‘scene’. Watching Zula play a set is to get lost in their world, ultimately making it a little bit yours in the process. It’s immersive, it’s personal, it’s hypnotic, and it’s all translated through infectiously catchy grooves, submerged in digital manipulations, driven by psychedelic hooks that move the soul. Zula’s the kind of band that grinds the gears in your mind and will stop them all at once; whichever you prefer, it’s up to you.
words by jake saunders photograph by danny krug
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riverga From his laconic vocal delivery to his sparse guitar playing, Rivergazer’s Kevin Farrant likes to keep it simple. In fact, he’s so minimalist
went on tour with Porches across the country. That summer I was playing guitar and [Aaron] was singing with an iPod backing track. We had a couple of funny shows like that." All the while Farrant was working on writing and recording songs that would become Oh My Ego the first Rivergazer EP. "It was all just home stuff. really shitty Logic recordings. No know-how. Some of it was recorded with iPhone speaker, computer speaker." Perhaps growing up around a recording engineer father rubbed off; for of Oh My Ego’s lo-fi recording it still sounds full and fresh.
melodies. A softly plucked guitar that’s quietly capable but never showy. It’s a sound that’s both assured and relaxed. The elaborate melodies are always purposeful. There’s a lot going on but it’s balanced; nothing ever sticks out or feels overindulgent. That sound is anchored in Farrant’s guitar playing: "I have a pretty specific way I view the instrument now. mainly I’m trying to always play less and just be the most effective that I can. I’m trying to play really effectively not chunk along with chords the entire time. I’m trying to choose the right moments and then don’t feel like you have to play the whole time."
his current apartment doesn’t even have a bathroom. "We live in prospect heights in a studio. our bathroom is down the hall! It’s not actually part of the studio." For Farrant it’s all about getting it done in the most efficient way possible. A skill he’s honed as lead guitarist in Porches and then woven into the melodies of his own Rivergazer songs. Farrant first started the project in the summer of 2011, right around the time he started playing in Oh My Ego introduced the Riverchildhood friend Aaron Maine’s gazer sound. Soft sweeping pro- Farrant’s songwriting also adnew band Porches. "In early 2011 I ductions with simple purposeful heres to the less-is-more phi-
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azer
losophy. Focusing on little mo- that Rivergazer would have to ments, Rivergazer songs explore formalize into an actual band. the hidden depth of the everyday. "After we made the record it was like ‘Oh shit, we have to put a 2014 found Farrant up to Hunter live show together!’ so we need Davidsohn’s Binghamton record- to find people that want to be a ing studio The Business District part of this and it’s working out" working on a Rivergazer full- Rivergazer currently consists of length. He began work on a record Farrant on guitar and vocals, Kolthat "sounded like Oh My Ego but son Pickard on bass, Cornelius bigger." Farrant says, "Rivergaz- McMoyler on drums & Oliver Hill er was me and Kolson [Pickard] on keyboards. "Right now we’ve and Hunter in the studio. Hunter settled into a four person lineup plays the drums on a few tracks which is cool," Farrant says. "It’d on the record, Kolson plays the be nice to have one other person. drums on a few tracks. We didn’t i’d probably add another guitar have a full band going in to make just so i could play less. I would that record. It was us three and love to focus only on singing and then like whoever was around. " then drop in and play a couple licks here and there. Singing’s But with Random Nostalgia’s cel- hard enough! You gotta focus on ebrated release it became clear that!"
Still Farrant is pleased with the progress Rivergazer has made so far. "It’s so amazing when you have a great band backing. It’s like a stress relief valve, you don’t have to carry the whole thing. You go, ‘Oh they’re so talented and everyone’s so good!’ It’s just chill. You can relax and have a good time." With chill and relaxed in mind, Rivergazer is poised to carry us into the future one good time after another.
words by isaac gillespie photograph by danny krug
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low fat getting high 8
"I don’t think we’re as cool as anybody, we just kind of have our own little thing going on." Low Fat Getting High. Weird name. Great band. Originating as a project between frontman Michael Sincavage and bassist Artie Tan as a band initially called Scrambled Porn, Low Fat Getting High was conceived as "drums, really fucked up sounding bass, vocals and textures," says Michael. After a while the band decided to bring in guitar and the band took on a form of what it is now. After releasing a couple EPs and recording a full length, their original drummer Kaleen Reading left the band. When the band got an offer to play with Death From Above 1979 they called up Ian Burns to play with them and now he’s a permanent part of the lineup. They’re a band that’s a great example of true DIY. Low Fat Getting High isn’t trying to nail the DIY aesthetic or fit into the current DIY landscape. "We’ve been really lucky with who includes us in their little scenes. There are all these pockets of people doing stuff. Some are really cool, some are really talented, and I don’t think we fit in with anybody so much, but we’ve been really lucky with people including us in their shows," says Michael. "There was this really tight knit Death By Audio crew and we just kinda snuck
unique blend of metal and grunge to the table that no other band in Brooklyn is doing right now. In a time when records are ex- The bass tones are crunchy, the pensive to produce and plants drums hit hard and the vocals are backed up for weeks, Low sound like they’re being piped in Fat Getting High packaged their through a scratchy loud speaker. second EP in the form of a 7"x7" It sounds like your teenage angst zine with a digital download. It’s that grew up, graduated college, the perfect size to fit in your 7" couldn’t find a job and just derecord collection and features all cided to scream some more. the artwork (drawn by Michael) that vinyl collectors love. Limited With a new record out, I’m sure to 100 copies, the Low Fat Getting we’ll be seeing Low Fat Getting High zine is a perfect example of High popping up on bills all over a band taking a unique approach town this year. From DIY spots to their physical product and hit- to big Bowery Presents shows to ting it out of the park. DIY bands colleges, Low Fat Getting High take note, Low Fat Getting High is is all over. Let Low Fat Getting doing some cool stuff with their High be your soundtrack to your anger, to your drunken all night product, be more like them. ragers, to whatever, I guess. Next From the music (obviously) to time you see their name on a bill, the artwork to the record label, do yourself a favor, put on your the band handles it all. "We re- coat, walk to the venue and throw corded the record over the course down your $8 or whatever the of a year, in that time I also start- show costs. ed Money Fire Records with our engineer John Meredith. By the time we were ready to put it out it felt like we just had to do it with our own label," says Michael. The self-titled record came out at words and photography by danny krug the end of 2014 and helped close out the year with a loud strong musical kick to the gut. The 12 track, 28 minute record brings a in there sometimes, same thing with Shea," he adds.
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SEDIMENT CLUB words by jake saunders photograph by vladisav grach
+ sediment club
Where everything nowadays seems to be a regurgitation, reappropriation, reinterpretation, and/or reassociation of what has come before it, The Sediment Club identifies with, and in some ways is reliving, a short lived era of musicians that were only classifiable in that they couldn’t really be classified. The no wave scene of the late 70’s and early 80’s was probably more influential and well known to the world after it’s time, but has been cemented as one of the most important musical staples in New York City’s history. I have deduced that there is no way to truly dive into The Sediment Club without a basic understanding 16
of the no wave movement simply because they are so deeply intertwined.
Artists and musicians like Lydia Lunch, James Chance, Richard Hell and Arto Lindsay pioneered the underground punk scene in the East Village for a short time, actively questioning the constructs of guitar music through their nihilistic attitudes and anxieties. It’s a textural kind of music, one that focuses on confrontation (Lydia Lunch called herself a confrontationalist) and lies
symmetrically in between obscurity and accessibility (whatever either of those terms actually mean). The movement had direct influence on bands like The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Liars, and Sonic Youth during the late 90’s and early to mid 2000’s, who all received more commercial success than any of the original no wave acts, but aided in solidifying the no wave era as an important moment in punk rock history. Now in the year 2015 there are a handful of bands who have found sonic and aesthetic like-
ness to no wave; Guerilla Toss, whom Sediment Club shares a split with, Big Neck Police, and Palberta (featured in this issue) are a few examples of artists who are directly or indirectly taking pieces of the no wave aesthetic whether it be in the form of confrontation (Palberta), fusion of musical styles (Guerilla Toss), or texture (Big Neck Police). And yet perhaps the most exciting part about our up and comers is that they are pulling from just about anything they can get their hands on, combining the no wave aesthetics with a whole variety of influences. Sediment Club’s vocalist/guitarist, Austin Sley Julian, has a bit of punk royalty in his blood; his father is Ivan Julian, who played guitar in Richard Hell and the Voidoids, and performed with acts like The Clash and the Isley Brothers (just to name a few). Currently in the process of making their next full length, Sediment Club is recording with Ivan in his own studio, and lends aid in the creative vision of the band. Highly influenced by the music from which his father came from, Austin and The Sediment Club have adopted that sense of confrontational individuality that sets them apart from most bands. Yet while the influence is present, the intention and outcome is unique. In our vastly saturated world,
bands like Sediment Club are a godsend. Their recordings are meant to replicate the live experience, and their digital releases only feature fractions of the physical album, split or tape. This is one indication of what, for me, makes Sediment Club such a rare find; they are actively forcing their listeners to seek out their band in some physical manifestation, whether it be in the form of an LP or tape or a live performance, weeding out the true fans from the faceless internet hype that runs the world of music today.
truly innovative improviser. The trio’s faces alone can say it all: twisted into contorted expressions of tension, anxiety and violent reaction, it is a confrontation fueled by darkness, but man does it feel good.
"Carnival prayers nailed upon a neon blaring cross/Madonna coal is cruci-fixed to the screen/Canceled eyes cut a deal in a rush/ canceled eyes got the last of it now/canceled eyes sunk a tooth in saving flesh," wails Austin on "Kicked Back Into the Crypt", re-released on their most recent tape, 30 Seconds Too Late, and Their performances emulate this possibly one of Sediment Clubs’ physical presence more than most brutal songs. At times Ausanything; it is a test of corporal tin’s vocals are incomprehensienergy, and their appearances ble, focusing on inflection and only add to what becomes a mys- tone rather than language, but terious and, at times, intimidat- his lyrics are personal and caving experience. Austin is usually ernous, portraying images just clad in a dark fur coat reaching as gruesome as the sounds. down to his ankles, accessorised in bones on a wire around his There are no smoke screens neck. But it’s the body expres- when it comes to The Sediment sions that epitomize Sediment Club, there are no special efClub’s presence, as the bands fects or technicalities. They sing serrated movements explore of alienation in New York City, the sounds as much as the ears dark scenes and violent imagdo. Austin uses his guitar like a ery all through a deeply personal machine gun, spraying everyone and reflective reality. We can’t be before him. Lazar Bozik’s furious thinking about flowers and roses bass lines are often compared to 24/7, but then again Sediment Les Claypool’s round and circling Club makes me think about love grooves, which seem to take on in the eye of the beholder more a jagged life of their own. Jackie than anything else. Darkness can McDermott’s drumming is loud be beautiful in it’s own way; Sedand unpredictable, but his focus iment Club makes living in darkand attention is the mark of a ness feel good.
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palberta
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Palberta orchestrates a transformation. Stripped of a shroud stained with blood and grease, the body reveals itself, naked and pure, beautiful. What was once cloaked now dances, sings, and glows. Yet, with urgency, you yearn to look deeper, observe the beauty beyond the body. You are in search of the primordial substructure upon which the beauty of the body must necessarily depend, beauty which allows for the beautiful just as sex allows for the sexy and food allows for the hungry. So, the body beneath the garment becomes another surface to penetrate, another veil to remove. The procedure is non-cosmetic and organic. You look in the mirror and make small incisions along your left and right jawline. Then, you form a ninety-degree angle between your thumb and forefinger on each hand. Finally, you wedge your thumbs into the pockets formed by the incisions, pinch the skin firmly, and tear. Now, you are not only beautiful, but you know what beauty is. There is no halfsteppin. We often try to ignore everyday discomfort by dressing it up, stripping it down, dissolving it in water, falsely presenting it as a problem with a solution. All the while, pain stares you in the face
like that absent visage in the mirror, mask removed. It is what it is.
the mouth of Hell, barking and biting in unison, collectively hungry. But Palberta do not fixate on the mythic or epic. They are obsessed with quotidian discontent, planning, shopping, intercourse and eating. They are stuck in a parking lot, singing nursery rhymes, dining on leftover sushi, and smoking roaches. Yet, they make use of this scenery. They turn the unavoidable ugliness of the world inward and beauty once again reveals itself.
Palberta know what it is. They recognize that beauty and pain linked, putting the sublime in sublimation. They are not outwardly destructive, but frustrated, fed up, and definitely still living it up. They put their aggression to work, taking turns pouring themselves over guitar, bass, drums, microphones, and audience. The intensity is palpable. They learn by doing and so do Thus, when occupying an audiyou. tory space with Palberta, you are witnessing a pagan incantation If anything, pain and beauty man- in a backyard, basement, or bar. ifest themselves most apparent- The chanting crescendos as the ly in Palberta’s state of childlike cauldron comes to a boil and you wonderment, the ecstasy of not sway and stretch to the beat of knowing that you do not know, bedlam. For a moment, you might a mix of fear and intrigue. They feel distinctly asymmetrical, or are constantly questioning the briefly consider leeches and pizwill, where, when, why, and what za as a cure for the common cold of almost everything said, seen, (with thoughts of capitalizing on and thought. Appropriately, the two industries already wrought climax often comes at the height with bloodletting.) Yet, beauty of uncertainty, exploding like the must move beyond the body. Your tantrum of a child experiencing fingers find a right angle and you his or her first existential crisis. finally experience the beauty beThus, Palberta provides playful- hind the beautiful. ness with the possibility of becoming violent. On the border between wet dream and nightmare, three voices unite and sustain something discordant and angelic. Like Cerberus, they defend words by preston ossman photograph by danny krug
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CHUMPED
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"All our parents forced us to be in a band together. They’re all trying to live out their dreams. They were never rockstars, so they wanted us to be rockstars and so they trained us. We used to play in little league bands together...sometimes I feel like I’m just living my parents dream," jokes drummer, Dan Frelly, on the band’s origin. 2014 was the year that the music press decided to acknowledge that pop punk was still a thing and that there are new pop punk bands out there making good music and pushing the genre forward. The world of listicles liked to classify the "top new pop punk bands" throughout the year. Without fail the lists would always feature Joyce Manor (arguably the biggest new pop punk band), Knuckle Puck and New York’s contribution to the new pop punk world, CHUMPED. Having been a long time pop punk fan, I couldn’t be more excited that it’s come back into fashion or whatever this kind of thing is called. No am I the only guy in the room openly gushing about Blink-182 or Taking Back Sunday a decade after they released their last decent recordings. Pop punk is cool again and as a result, new bands are getting the attention that they deserve. "I would say in our niche little world, it was never unpopular. The general public is finding something interesting about it again," says Anika Pyle, Chumped’s front woman. And while it’s true that any type of music will have it’s audience, the
reemergence of pop punk brings something interesting with it. It’s the first time a genre that emerged in my formative years and had a huge impact on myself and my generation has cycled back around. "There’s a lot of the 90s revivalism happening separately and within the pop punk world as well. It’s like when clothes come back in fashion but a little different," says bassist, Doug McKeever. Towards the "end" of pop punk the genre got stale and almost became a parody of itself. After the break-up of Blink-182 in 2005, pop punk in the mainstream slowly declined and became a thing that only happened on the Warped Tour every summer. Now, a decade later, kids who grew up on pop punk are forming bands and working to build a real fan base. That’s the cycle of music. That’s how it works, and now that I’ve seen it work in my conscious lifetime, its kind of a mind fuck.
and much of 2014. At the end of last year, Chumped hit it out of the park with their debut LP, Teenage Retirement (also on Anchorless), which landed them on numerous year end lists. Teenage Retirement feels more cohesive and well thought out when compared to the EP, as full length albums tend to in comparison. "We’ve become a band that works with each other on everything. Just getting to spend more time with one another that has given us more space to think about who we are as a band," says guitarist, Drew Johnson. "Whereas the EP was in the studio, out the studio, these are the six songs, we’re done with it, that’s it," he adds. "We just wanted some music to put on the internet," says Dan. The hard hitting nature of the EP comes, in part from this process. It’s what the band was feeling as well when they were recording. They just wanted to get their sound down and get it on the internet so that people At the end of 2013, Chumped re- looking for them would be able to leased a self titled EP on Anchor- have something to hear. With the less Records. The EP features album, a handful of the songs six tracks of hard hitting pop were old and even predating the punk greatness. It became my band, just songs that Drew and soundtrack to the end of 2013 Anika had written and obviously
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frankie the rest were written for the record. The band worked with the new and old material to record a record that had cohesion and a well crafted feel throughout.
cosmos
ika. "Having someone interpret up now could learn from. Instead our art in another medium is re- of waiting for someone to come ally hard," she adds. along and hand you what you want, go out and just do it. If you After a nationwide tour last year don’t want to risk booking a shitthat included stops at Riot Fest ty midwest basement show that The themes of Teenage Retire- and The Fest, Chumped is doing nobody is at, then this probably ment are summed up rather per- the tour grind like a serious band isn’t for you. fectly by the album artwork. A should. And it seems to be treatbearded guy floating in an above ing them well so far as they’re While they’ve likely caught a ground pool in the middle of sub- headed to Europe in February couple lucky breaks due to the urbia. Shot by a friend of the band and then on another huge tour reemergence of pop punk in the at the house of Drew’s aunt, the with Andrew Jackson Jihad after media, Chumped is one of the photo is both absurd and true that. They’ve gotten to this point most solid, hardworking bands to our generation, or at least the in touring totally DIY, they don’t in the Brooklyn scene. Through public perception of our genera- have an agent out there pitch- a combination of good songtion. "We had the album name al- ing them for support slots and writing, some killer live shows ready," says Doug. "We sent them trying to get them in front of big- and the willingness to grind, a synopsis of the kind of feeling ger acts. Chumped got Chumped Chumped has become a major and some photos that were Teen- where they are now, which is a player to emerge in the scene reage Retirement-y," continues An- lesson that a lot of bands coming cently. 22
words and photography by danny krug
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some photos shows, parties, and other weird experiences
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STUFF WE’RE LISTENING TO AND THINK YOU’LL DIG
Parlor Walls - EP
Charli XCX - Sucker
Chumped - Teenage Retirement
Two Inch Astronaut - Foulbrood
Sediment Club - 30 Seconds Too Late
Knuckle Puck - While I Stay Secluded
will return in 2015