Issue #0 – July 2014 - FREE - killerponytail.com
Field Mouse Creating music on their own terms
+ Primavera Sound 2014 DEERS Joanna Newsom
SO, this is the first issue of Killer Ponytail! Thanks for dropping by. I’m very excited to introduce this little magazine to you, and hopefully we’ll be more interesting, innovative and invigorating than many of the other music magazines currently around at the moment! How about our cover stars, eh? We’re super excited to have Brooklyn’s Field Mouse on the front cover and we were lucky enough to have an in-depth chat with them about the creation of their new album Hold Still Life and about how they created the whole thing without a record label. Elsewhere, we’ve got a Spotlight feature where we shine a light on Spanish lo-fi noise rockers DEERS as well as a full-on round up of Primavera Sound 2014 in which we tell you all about the best bands we saw over the course of the festival. If you read that piece, it’ll be like you were actually there (sort of). So dive in and we hope you’ll read about some bands you love, and maybe make a few new discoveries along the way.
James A. If you’ve got any music you think we should know about, or just want to say hi, get in touch: killerponytail@gmail.com Twitter: @killerponytail !
Facebook: facebook.com/killerponytail "!
DEERS
SPEAKERS PUSH THE AIR: What’s been rattling the office boombox speakers this month
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SPOTLIGHT: Introducing the ramshackle pop of DEERS
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INTERVIEW: Brooklyn’s Field Mouse talk about doing things their way
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FESTIVAL ROUND-UP: Experience this year’s Primavera Sound festival…on paper
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REVIEWS: Albums + opinions
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RETRO HYPE: Every issue we revisit a game changing album…this time it’s Joanna Newsom’s seminal LP The Milk Eyed Mender 15 !
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Here are a few of the best tracks that have been gracing our office stereo Girl Band – Lawman Despite having the most un-googleable name around right now, this Dublin based four piece have created a gloriously intense and sardonic racket on their track Lawman. It may have been released a couple of months ago, but it’s still a firm favorite.
Girl Band Doe – Unrested Taken from their recently released Sooner EP, London three piece Doe are making the type of insanely catchy noise pop that could sit comfortably next to any Riot Grrrl band and the choicest early Weezer. Ideal to sing along and lose your shit to. Gentle Frien dly – Wild Grass The opening track from the London duo’s new album KAUA’I O’O A’A (we don’t know how it’s pronounced either) draws you in with a slightly unnerving intro before the song explodes like a demented street party. One of the best tracks we’ve heard in ages. !
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DEERS
There’s nothing like a good road trip. Setting off with your buddies to somewhere new can often serve as the catalyst for the creation of something truly special. Just ask Spanish two piece DEERS. Hailing from Madrid, Ana Garcia Perrote and Carlotta Cosials travelled to the coast of Spain with two guitars and decided to mess around by playing some music. Fast forward a few months and they’ve created two of the most gloriously ramshackle tracks we’ve heard in a very long time. The ethos behind the tracks seems to be one of fully embracing the concept of just having a good time, and it shows. ‘Bamboo’ is shot through with sunny surf vibes and pays homage to the 60s is an emphatic way. Its bright pop chorus will be running around your head for days like a teenager on speed. ‘Trippy Gum’ is a sludgy, fuzzed-up Stones-esque romp sounding like The Brian Jonestown Massacre with a turbo charged ukulele, complete with a sing along chorus. DEERS are taking their carefree DIY aesthetic to the streets, and you’d better be ready to party. Dig Deeper: Check out more from DEERS here and here. !
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Brooklyn’s Field Mouse began life back in 2012 as a meeting of minds between vocalist Rachel Browne and guitarist and producer Andy Futral, but after a year or so of creating music together and releasing a set of independent 7″ singles, it become apparent that the songs were becoming more and more ambitious and it was time for the duo to upsize. So, with the recruitment of a full time rhythm section, they graduated to a fully fledged band and the stage was set for Field Mouse to realise their full potential. With the imminent release of their debut album Hold Still Life, there can be little doubt that this potential has been realised… and then some. Awash with dream pop sensibilities found in the likes of Beach House, Hold Still Life is ample evidence that Field Mouse have a knack for taking delicate tones and pumping them into fuzzy, anthemic indie rock that would put the likes of The Breeders or Juliana Hatfield to shame. Ahead of the album’s release on 22 July, we were lucky enough to catch up with singer Rachel and guitarist Andy for an exclusive chat about the evolution of the band, how the album came together, and the benefits of a DIY approach to creating something beautiful. !
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Wh ere are you and what were you doing just befo re answerin g these questions?
Has the live dynamic of the band ch anged? Rachel: I think it has. We’ve developed these specific ways of interacting with each other on stage from touring and playing together so much. Sonically I guess we’re just louder than we used to be, fuzzier, less reverbed out, and I finally learned to sing louder.
Rachel: Watching the new Cosmos with Neil DeGrasse-Tyson and learning about SPACE! The band has exp anded from a two piece to a four piece over the past year or so. How has taking on a full time rhythm section ch anged the sound of Field Mouse?
Let’s talk abou t the new album. Hold Still Life is the first full length you’ve produced as a fully fledged band. How do you feel abou t the album finally being released into the world?
Andy: It honestly hasn’t changed all that much on recordings. The addition of our new bassist Saysha has changed a lot because we have had a rotating cast of friends playing with us for a while, but now we have this solid relationship with her and it’s awesome. I think bass is a bit more prominent on the new record because of that. I have written all the drum parts from the first single through the new record, so it’s a pretty slight difference overall. I’m looking forward to not being a drum part bully on future songs. We did press photos as a duo because our rhythm section wasn’t set for a while, but it was always the intention to be a regular full band when we met people we could get along with in a cramped van for months at a time. !
Rachel: I am so excited and relieved that it’s happening. Some of these songs are years old and have been developing into what they are now the whole time, and it feels so good to finally put them all out there. Wh at sorts of thin gs (music or otherwise) influenced you while the album was being produced? Rachel: I thought it would come off …
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… scatterbrained thematically at first, but it really isn’t. The songs are just about a period of time in my life, and whether they’re more introspective and abstract or about one thing in particular, they’re all part of that snapshot. A lot of it had to do with feeling stuck in New York and stagnant in life in general, and how to break out of all of that.
“Sonically I guess we’re just louder than we used to be, fuzzier, less reverbed out, and I finally learned to sing louder”
The new album sounds pretty different to your previous output, there’s a darker edge to the songs bu t it also has more of a pop sensibility to it. How did the songs co me together in this way?
Given your exp erience, do you thin k bands really need advances from labels to make reco rd s these days or do you thin k the DIY metho d is better? Andy: No one needs any serious amount of money to make a good record. We were fully prepared to record this on our own, but one big downside to recording on your own is not having any pressure or time constraints. I really wanted to have a small budget and days in a studio and just know it had to be done by a certain date. If we recorded in our homes and practice space like we did with previous releases, we could have wasted a lot of time. If your guitar recording setup is a few feet from your bed (like mine tends to be), there is this sense that anything you record doesn’t have to be perfect because you can just do it again. The part where I think DIY can potentially fail is mixing. You need a good mixer and a decent mastering job to make things work, and you need to pay those people what they are worth. You are doing your music a big disservice if you don’t know how to properly mix. There might be some slight phase problems or something, but if you like how the individual tracks sound then that’s great, but mixing is a whole other thing. That being said, anyone can take the time to become good at mixing!
Andy: I think that is probably because we recorded the album right after we got off a long tour, and it’s more fun to play big loud songs live, so everything had gotten little faster and more aggressive. We also made a decision to curb our “more is more” attitude that we had on our singles. Between the two songs on our first 7″, there were probably 60 guitar tracks. Which is pretty crazy. There are still a lot on the record, but it’s way more reasonable. Hold Still Life was largely funded through a Kickstarter campaign and the support you received was pretty phen omenal – you ended up raising nearly double your target. How did it feel to receive that level of support from your fans? Rachel: I cried. It didn’t seem real to me. I didn’t even think we’d meet our goal. It made us crazy inspired to make something that we could be proud and !that people would like.
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Yo u gu ys have played a ton of shows in your time as a band. Do you have any crazy tour stories? Rachel: Our craziest tour stories are probably food poisoning related, and should probably never be told. Memory-wise…I once drove overnight, halfway from San Francisco to Portland, after our van window had been smashed and things were stolen. It was insane and we didn’t leave San Francisco until 4am, but it was a really beautiful drive and I watched the sun come up while everyone else slept. Wh at do the next 12 months have in store for Field Mouse? Andy: We just want to tour as much as possible, hopefully with friends or with cool strangers who then become friends. A year from right now I’d love to be working on the next album and also binge watching a new and amazing TV show that doesn’t currently exist.
Hold Still Life is released on 22 July on Topshelf Records. Check out more from Field Mouse here and here.
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The Primavera Soun d festival, undoubtedly the jewel in the crown of the Spanish summer music calendar, is not for the faint hearted. Boasting nine stages of continuous music from 5pm – 6am over the course of three days, it’s enough to run even the most enthusiastic and hardened festival-goer ragged. But that’s not to say the experience isn’t worthwhile, far from it, you just need a decent pair of shoes. Thursday’s indisputable band to watch had to be the recently reformed Neutral Milk Hotel. Before their set began, the space in front of the ATP stage quickly transformed into a sea of festival goers, admittedly, most of which were 30 something men with beards sporting obscure band t-shirts. But as Neutral Milk Hotel took to the stage, something of a religious experience began to take place. Jeff Mangum grasped the microphone, sounding as fresh and invigorated as was imaginable, like the intervening 20 years since the release of their seminal In The Aeroplane Over The Sea had been nothing but a trip to the local store for beer and cigarettes. The hour long set covered nearly the entirety of the band’s two albums, the horn section and off-kilter folk arrangements blending effortlessly during standouts ‘King of Carrot Flowers Pt.1′ and ‘Two Headed Boy’, leaving the crowd elated. !
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The big hitters of the night were Qu eens of the Stone Age who blasted out a slew of career spanning hits. The band’s self styled ‘ginger Elvis’ Josh Holme lip-curled his way through ‘No One Knows’ and ‘Feel Good Hit Of The Summer’ with obvious glee while the desert rock shenanigans of ‘I Only Want You’ served to insight the crowd into a beer soaked frenzy as the blue lights flashed ferociously over the audience. Elsewhere, the night was capped off at the Vice stage with London based Japanese outfit Bo Ningen , who showcased their third album in incendiary fashion, their heavy duty Kimonos matching the weight and texture of their riff-laiden performance.
As the night drew closer, there was really only one place to go, and the crowd duly herded over to the Heineken stage. You’d be hard pushed to find a more influential band than Pixies, whose artistic cannon has been cited by the likes of Nirvana and Sonic Youth as a major influence. So it was unsurprising that the sea of people erupted into a jubilant frenzy when Frank Black et. al. unassumingly strode on stage and proceeded to embark on a hit heavy set beginning with their Surfer Rosa era classic ‘Bone Machine’, !
Friday began as it meant to go on: loud and unrelenting. John Grant started proceedings at the Heineken stage amidst the throws of a fully fledged thunder storm that saw half the crown run for cover. But a hardcore huddle of festival goers stuck it out and watched Grant run through highlights from last year’s stand-out album Pale Green Ghosts and some choice tracks from his debut solo album Queen Of Denmark, including a resplendent set closer in the form of the album’s title track. Oh, and the biblical style thunderstorm eventually relented resulting in an awe-inspiring double rainbow that arced right across the Balearic sea… which was pretty amazing and had everyone quickly reaching for their camera phones.
Black’s freakishly gnarly vocal yelps raising up into the atmosphere. The band knew exactly what the crowd wanted, delivering a set drenched with hits airing ‘Here Comes Your Man’, ‘Debaser’ and closing the set with an anthemic rendition of ‘Where Is My Mind’. The only notable omission was ‘Gigantic’, but the crowd didn’t seem to mind and the 80 minute set was the perfect way to cap off Primavera’s penultimate night. **!
Saturday, the final day of the festival, boasted the most eclectic line up of the whole event. Beginning on the Pitchfork stage (which served as next door neighbour and fellow enfant terrible to the Vice stage) Dum Dum Girls served up a welcome dose of pop noir via their goth inspired doo-wop. Then the crowd started to file out, making their way towards the Pitchfork stage in hot anticipation of the Odd Future collective’s most enigmatic representative Earl Sweatshirt. Any member of Odd Future, the brainchild of LA based hip-hop artist Tyler, the Creator, has a reputation for doing things their way, and Earl Sweatshirt is no exception. Sending out his DJ ahead of him in order to whip up the crowd, Earl Sweatshirt finally appeared a full 10 minutes into his all too short 40 minute time slot to a rapturous sea of whoops and hand claps. What followed was the probably closest to a West coast bloc party Spain has ever seen, blasting through condensed versions of nearly the entirety of his recent album Doris as well as some highlights from his lauded mixtape, and even showcasing a brand new track. Earl Sweatshirt truly proved himself to be an ambassador of hip hop in the fullest sense. Afterwards, it was clear who everyone was really here to see as the space in front of the Sony stage filled up for the final time to receive Nine Inch Nails.
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It was difficult to anticipate what to expect from Trent Reznor’s project after their ‘farewell’ performance at Primavera five years ago, but riding on a wave of renewed energy after the release of their new album Hesitation Marks, Nine Inch Nails were primed for an incendiary performance.
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“Reznor stood demigod-like on the vast stage bathed in red light looking like a version of Henry Rollins freshly rejected from hell for being too bad-ass” They didn’t disappoint. Beginning their set with a trio of new songs, Reznor stood demigod-like on the vast stage bathed in red light looking like a version of Henry Rollins freshly rejected from hell for being too badass. Reznor has a reputation for being reluctant when it comes to performing his more popular material, but this certainly wasn’t the case tonight as a slew of vintage tracks were aired amidst a sea of fist pumps and electrifying strobes. Downward Spiral stand-out ‘March Of The Pigs’ seemed to wave the banner for industrial post rock like never before and ‘Head Like a Hole’ was delivered with so much energy that, if harnessed, could have powered the entire country for years. Just when the crowd thought the 90 minute set had come to a close, the lights went down and Reznor strode over to a small piano and delivered ‘Hurt’ to devastating effect. So, that was Primavera 2014… all in all, an amazing and intense experience. Maybe next year we’ll get a triple rainbow, if there is such a thing. You can read our full 3 part round-up of Primavera Sound over at killerponytail.com
Tom Vek
LUCK (Moshi Moshi) Result: 4.0 / 5.0 Vek has always been know for his fastidiousness in the studio and the crisp and clean production on LUCK bears this out. ‘Pushing Your Luck’ boasts razor sharp beats and a smooth, scintillating synth that drives the track forward with exhilarating intensity. But, as with most of the album, it’s Vek’s vocals that have been place front and centre. His delivery is achingly direct and at times so confessional as to be a little disconcerting (see: ‘Trying To Do Better’) but this is all to the album’s credit and adds to the intense experience that LUCK is undoubtedly designed to be. That’s not to say everything works on LUCK. ‘Ton of Bricks’ sounds like a genuine attempt to scale the heights of mainstream pop, but the track falls a little flat and never quite achieves the level of pop swagger promised at the start. But LUCK, as a whole, certainly works as an affirmation of Vek’s world view and all his sardonic energy is wrapped in an album that sees him taking, possibly not a leap, but definitely a large stride forward.
Klaxons Love Frequency (Akashic/Sony Red) Result: 2.8 / 5.0 The first thing that strikes you about Love Frequency, Klaxons’ third album, is the cover which features their newly stylised ‘K’ stamped on what definitely looks like an ecstasy tablet. This cheeky nod to the heady days of acid house is quite fitting as there is more than a touch of the 90s here, but slightly ironic cover art aside, Love Frequency‘s embracement of EDM is firmly at the forefront of this album. Opening track ‘A New Reality’ bursts into its intro with a looped Casio keyboard refrain overlaid with tight vocal harmonies before braking into a thumping four-on-the-floor exercise in sonic !maximalism. *#!
This track is the closest thing to an ‘old school’ Klaxons song on this album and could sit comfortably next to anything on their debut. The track ‘There Is No Other Time’, chosen as the band’s lead single, shows Klaxons fully embracing the EDM ethos and pushing their pop side straight into the spotlight. However, the bouncing mid-tempo rhythms and verse-chorus-verse structure seems a little uninspired for a band that made a point of breaking boundaries with their early output, but everyone needs a ‘commercial’ hit on their album, right?
Bo Ningen III (Stolen Recordings) Result: 4.3 / 5.0 When it comes to uncompromising music you’d be hard pressed to find a band more extreme than Bo Ningen. Their rich and complex sound is often as abrasive as it is compelling and their third album, simply entitled III is certainly no different. Opening track ‘Dadada’ drags you into Bo Ningen’s sonic landscape with a crash of cymbals and resonating feedback before the screeching vocals let you know – in no uncertain terms – the band have arrived. III is a frightening listen, but like a good horror movie, one that you’ll want to revisit again and again.
Bob Mould Beauty & Ruin (Merge) Result: 4.6 / 5.0 It could be argued that Bob Mould has always found it a little difficult to live up to the seminal output he created whilst in Sugar back in the 90s. His ‘difficult’ first two solo albums were undoubtedly good, but had some people wondering if he’d ever fully return to the type of songwriting he’d become best known for. If his previous album Silver Age saw the return of a more melodic, playful outlook, Beauty & Ruin is surely the return to form we’ve been waiting for. ‘I Don’t Know You Anymore’ is a track that has all the hallmarks of Mould’s unique ability to create a piece of punk rock sunshine whilst infusing it with bittersweet sentiment. ‘Hey Mr Grey’ shows Mould’s more pensive side, something that permeates the entire album as he reflects on the death of his father, but this doesn’t take anything away from the boundless energy and verve underpinning these songs. Beauty & Ruin has the capacity to be as devastating as it uplifting, and is without doubt the best 27 minutes you’ll experience this summer. !
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Every issue we revisit a game changing album and tell you all about it.
Joanna Newsom - The Milk Eyed Mender
Wo rd s by Fio na Roberts It’s 2004 and Joanna Newsom is on the cover of NME, in a row of elfin-figured females and bearded men who look like the police line-up after a Woodstock drugs bust. It’s the birth of the freak folk movement, an emerging avant-garde genre – and Joanna Newsom (along with Devendra Banhart and Animal Collective) is at the helm.
The Milk Eyed Mender was Newsom’s first widely recognised work, and she’s since built upon it with a great deal of success. Continually blurring the boundary between stories and songs, it contains 12 short tales rather than a few epic sagas, combining medieval-themed lyrics with the hippy spirit of the 60s and 70s. Filled with small, haunting songs and a spacey arrangement of harp, harpsichord !
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and electronic piano, The Milk Eyed Mender is an idiosyncratic album which brought something truly innovative into the 2000s music scene. A myriad of creative ways have been employed to describe Newsom’s voice, some celebrate her unconventional tone, while others are a little more critical. It’s an acquired taste for sure, but there’s something beautiful about its untrained rawness. On The Milk Eyed Mender Newsom’s voice is especially unusual, but it makes the record what it is, and lends a hint of discord to all the fairy tale prettiness.
Touching upon past influences, like offbeat 60s folk by artists such as Vashti Bunyan – music where unusual voices were combined with simple, melodic instrumentals – Joanna Newsom helped to revive a more eccentric approach to contemporary folk music. Take ‘Peach Plum Pear’, one of the album’s highlights: touching upon themes of shyness and self-doubt, it’s strangely upbeat, a teenage love story which is disguised by galloping harpsichord. It’s a twist upon classic folk narratives, with strange otherworldly images being bled into a contemporary story about love. The same theme is continued in This Side of the Blue and Swansea, which both contain strangely chilling imagery, such as “How I would love to gnaw/to gnaw on your bones so white”. Newsom places this alongside sweeter lyrics and dream-like melodies, and the songs wash over you like you’ve swallowed a magical potion. Newsom’s harp-based songs are what she is most loved for. It’s when the music is most pretty that The Milk Eyed Mender is at its loveliest – Newsom’s fragile, wild voice and the emotionally raw images in her lyrics combine with its harmonious sound perfectly.
The Milk Eyed Mender combines the faraway past with more contemporary influences in a totally distinctive way. That was how it was with freak folk; a spitting out of the old – 60s Vashti Bunyan, Appalachian folk rhythms and medieval-themed stories – into something new and inspiring; revolutionary to music in the mid-00s. Nearly ten years later, we await Newsom’s next offering, while fondly remembering The Milk Eyed Mender – the record where it all began. !
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