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FRIDAY, MAY 3, 2013
CHACHA MURDICK Seriously Y’all
Get ready for Library Fest Wow, I wish I was writing a column about Jazz Fest right now. Instead, I’m at the library at 5:00 a.m., looking back to all those months ago when I was like, “Yeah! I’ll definitely have all my finals magically completed weeks in advance because I’m such a good student, and I will totally have the time and money to go see Hall and Oates and Frank Ocean.” What a fool I was. Of course Jazz Fest always falls during finals, and I always finish my finals at the last possible minute. Why must school constantly interfere with my partying schedule. I’ve failed you as a Life & Times columnist. I should be out there with the human beings. Instead, I’m a study robot. I therefore dedicate this column to everybody who thought they might be able to go to Jazz Fest, only to find themselves spending these last weekends of the semester at Library Fest, which is a much lamer music festival mostly composed of the fuzzy-sounding pollution hip-hop you can overhear coming out of the ear buds of the guy a few tables away from you. The crazy party drugs involved are mostly coffee, which can actually make you see crazy stuff after a sufficient period of no sleep and malnutrition. Then there are the Adderall abusers — avoid these people. You’ll recognize them because they actually look happy, and when they corner you in conversation, be prepared to hear some conglomeration of their final psych paper as applied to their entire life story mixed with complaints about chapped lips and then assertions that they are fine, just fine — but like, too fine. Run from these people. They are the equivalent of the cokehead trashing in the front row at Jazz Fest: a mosh-pit made of one. Then there’s television. If you don’t have your own Netflix account, you know someone who does. Between study sessions, you need something stupid to clear your head. It’s like cleansing the pallet. It’s like excusing yourself from Jazz Fest excitement to take a breather and grab a bottle of water before you unleash yourself back into the party. Watch one episode of something stupid that only lasts thirty minutes. Do not let yourself watch that second episode! TV is like potato chips: delicious. But all the fake doctors on “Grey’s Anatomy” won’t help you pass your biochemistry exam, I promise you. Stick to one episode or else take a nice walk. Smoke if you smoke. Buy your own coffee machine if you have extra money, because Community Coffee just can’t keep up with hardcore Library Fest ravers like us. BYOB, and remember: You Only Library Once.
Chacha Murdick can be reached at gmmurdic@loyno.edu
PHOTO COURTESY OF PETER MARTIN
Music industry junior Peter Martin stars in the first 90 Pounds of Pete music video, “Arms.” This first video from the project has already amassed 22,000 Youtube views.
Two music industry students find success with their recent dance-pop collaboration By LAUREN IRWIN Contributing Writer Music industry junior Peter Martin felt uncomfortable when two women licked his face on camera. The idea, thought up by director and alumnus Tyler Yee, was filmed for 90 Pounds of Pete’s music video for his second single “Promisland,” due out in June. The video for “Promisland,” inspired by a party scene in the movie “Garden State,” follows Martin’s first video, “Arms,” which garnered over 10,000 views within the first week of its release. 90 Pounds of Pete is a dancepop collaboration between best friends and Loyola students Martin and Adam Stewart, music industry junior Locked inside Stewart’s makeshift bedroom-turned-recording studio at the corner of Spruce Street and Fern Street, the pair produced the project’s foursong EP, including “Arms” and “Promisland” in fall 2012. “The theme of the entire EP — the theme of the project — is a really awkward kid forcing himself to be in a situation where he has to be a front man of a pop group,” Martin said. 90 Pounds of Pete is the “weird image of an awkward, shy person thrown into the limelight,” Martin said. Martin considers this persona to be “almost 100 percent” him in personality.
The name of the project stems from Martin’s deemed “awkward” physique, with the musician joking that he weighs 90 pounds. “Usually pop is dominated with sexy people who take control — the opposite of what I am,” Martin said. Just like the project’s name, 90 Pounds of Pete started out as a joke. Martin spent years drumming for a Chicago-based indie rock band, Young Jesus, while Stewart sang and played guitar for rock band, Aerial Attack. The project was born during a recording session in spring 2012 when Stewart jokingly threw a dance beat behind a pop song written by Martin. The beat stuck. “Peter comes to my house and rails out a thousand ideas at one time and I record them all,” Stewart said. “I am the translator of Peter’s ideas.” Stewart, the producer, mixes individual acoustic recordings of Martin singing and playing guitar, drums and keyboard, while composing dance beats to throw behind the vocals. Stewart turns Martin’s pop songs into “full scale pop productions,” Patrick Kolstad, bassist in Aerial Attack and English literature junior, said. “Adam knows how to turn Peter’s pop song into a party rock anthem.” Martin agrees. “Adam is a recording genius,” Martin said. “He knows how to work with my brain.” Some found Martin’s move from indie rock to pop amusing, as he is known for his indie rock credentials. “It’s funny because I saw Peter as a hipster in a rock band — it
was surprising to see him do this,” Jordan Riewer, environmental studies junior, said. Martin and Stewart dropped
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Usually pop is dominated with sexy people who take control — the opposite of what I am Peter Martin music industry junior
the first single, “Arms,” with a music video on social media in late January. Based on observation, “people respond to embedded video in a much more substantial way than an embedded song,” Martin said. So the pair created a “weird video,” Martin said. The video for “Arms” features four minutes of stoic Martin singing aback a collage of found footage, including clips of bar mitzvah dance parties, zebra stampedes and oiled-up body builders flexing their many muscles. “I listened to ‘Arms’ probably a hundred times to get me through a road trip from Austin to New Orleans,” Riewer said. “It’s really fun — something you can dance and sing along to,” Riewer said. Now at 22,000 views, “Arms” has had much blog exposure, rolling in as the number one post
on GoodMusicAllDay.com for almost two weeks. The success of “Arms” inspired the pair to make a video for “Promisland.” “We had the opportunity to work with Tyler Yee — an awesome director,” Martin said. “It’s going to look even weirder than the last.” “’We’ve gotten a lot of hype,” Martin said. “It’s scary and exciting — a feeling that is in line with my personality. I’m equally as terrified and excited at the same time,” Martin said. This hype may stem from the duo bringing something new to Loyola’s music scene. “Loyola has a really good music scene which definitely leans more towards the indie rock community,” Kolstad said. “90 Pounds of Pete transcends that.” The project’s music is “a little bit more accessible to people that might write off Loyola’s music scene,” Kolstad said. “Peter makes good pop songs — and everyone loves a good pop song.” Although the hype is “encouraging,” Stewart said, “We have a lot of work to do.” The pair plans to move in together and spend the summer in a new bedroom-based studio. The following two singles on 90 Pounds of Pete’s EP will be released for free download after the video and song release of “Promisland.”
Lauren Irwin can be reached at lhirwin@loyno.edu