Pork & Mead - Music - Sep/Oct

Sept. - Oct. 2011

Sept. - Oct. 2011

Sept. - Oct. 2011

contents 04 05

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music features 8

| Trouble Andrew

16 | CSS

editorials

7 | Buying into Music 14 | Happy Birthday to Me 15 | Brevity is the New Longevity

small features

18 | Balmorhea 19 | Baron Bane 20 | California Wives 21 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. 22 | The Fresh and Onlys 23 | The Kickdrums 24 | Lights 25 | Locksley

reviews 26 | Trevor Hall/Botany

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27 | Small Reviews

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masthead

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Founder............................... Crystal Vinson Editor in Chief.....................Crystal Vinson Art Editor..................... Christina Youmans Music Editor.........................Mitchell Davis Web Editor................................ Haniya Rae Creative Director....... Matthew Scheiderer Copy Editor.................. Amanda Hausauer Art Dept.................................. Logan David

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Pork & Mead Issue 1, Sep-Oct 2011, is published bi-monthly.

Letters/Submissions Send all unsolicited material to: Pork & Mead 439 Selden St. #302 Detroit, MI 48201 Copyright 2011 All material contained within Pork & Mead as well as the porkandmead.com website are Š 2011 Pork & Mead Magazine and cannot be reproduced in any way without the expressed written consent of the Publisher of Pork & Mead Magazine.

As ever Opinions expressed are those of their respective authors, not necessarily those of Pork & Mead

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Contributors: 06 07

Alaina Latham, Alyssa Coluccio, Anthony Venditto, Ben Dayton, Bryan Menegus, Bryan O’Keefe, Chad D. Ghiron, Christine Bettis, Elizabeth Price, Gina Conn, Hannah Palmer Egan, Keith Carne, Kim Reick Kunoff, Kristi Waterworth, Jennifer Piejko, Jessie Wheeler, Joseph Baron-Pravda, Matthew Lambert, Michael Garfield, Ruo Piao Chen, Tara Mcevoy, Tracy Walsh, Veronika Hoglund, Whitney Meers

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Buying Into Mu$ic Words | Veronika Hoglund I was first inducted into the world of music festivals in 2008, when I attended the Bonnaroo music and art festival in Manchester, Tennessee. From the moment I arrived, the atmosphere easily reflected an enthusiasm for music and community - aka there was little bullshit, if any. So while the event may have beckoned a variety of different kinds of attendees, all with a variety of musical interests, most evidently seen in the all-black attired participants whose main motivation for attending was to catch the Metallica set, there still existed a tangible sense of respect and understanding. At the end of the day there was no difficulty in gathering together around the campsite and finding homogeneity in a mutual love for music. This being said, the festival, of course, did not go without a certain element of consumerism, as perceived by the rows of tents each offering a specific collection of products. However, at no point did this component ever overwhelm the initial reason for attending; that, of course, being the music.

Flash forward to 2010, and I noticed a significant disparity in the ambience while attending the Coachella music and art festival in Indio, California. Originally my motivation for heading out west was simply the superior lineup in comparison to Bonnaroo. While the festival in no sense was a disappointment, I did feel an overwhelming sensation that there existed incentives outside of the music. This past year has only confirmed my initial concern that these weekend get-aways, so to speak, have been tampered with, as evidenced by their now seemingly blatant undertones which, at times, aggressively convey a consumer motivated environment.

The question that comes to mind is: why have these festivals suddenly become the latest obsession? Tickets for Coachella 2011 sold out in a record six days after going on sale - months before the scheduled event even took place. Not to mention that, in previous years, tickets were still available all the way up to the day of the event itself. Immediately following the unexpected incident, tickets appeared on a variety of sites with new prices ranging up to and over $700 for a single ticket - a drastic increase from the original $269. The festival did little to disguise itself from how commercial it had become - most evidently seen in the publicity surrounding the event and the almost too-trendy attendees (celebrities included). Further, as if enough money wasn't being made, as a result of the immense response in ticket sales, Coachella organizers added an additional weekend to the upcoming 2012 affair - a decision likely fueled by commercial-driven reasoning.

This year, Burning Man, a week-long art concentrated festival, occurring annually in Nevada, cut further ticket sales once they had sold 50,000. Like the NFF, it marked the first time in the event's history that tickets sold out prior to the scheduled date. Similarly, Chicago's Lollapalooza, Miami's Ultra Music Festival, the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago, Sasquatch! in George, Washington, and the CMA Music Festival in Nashville, Tennessee - just to name a few - all hosted sold out functions, allocating further indication that festivals have almost instantaneously gained extraordinary mainstream attention. The trend offers a variety of considerations, perhaps most importantly, being: How does the corporate world factor into all of this?

Because it most certainly does.

Within the past decade, festivals have not only increased in popularity but also in number. Dating back to the 1960s, the most obvious example being Woodstock 1969, these events represented a call against establishment and a symbolization of free spirit.

Today, these once monumental gatherings, have transformed into a lucrative business, the corporate hand hard at work. With a few exceptions, the majority of these festivals are organized by a selection of powerful entertainment companies, whose events are commercially sponsored, branded, and geared towards carefully chosen products - interfering and inhibiting the consumption of the festival attendee. The rise in social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have only intensified the role of corporate organizations’ involvement within these events.

The influx in ticket sales isn't solely limited to Coachella.

All 80,000 tickets for Bonnaroo 2011 sold through the website prior to the event, while the previous year ticket sales were a few thousand short of the sellout mark. Additionally, the Newport Folk Festival, which annually takes place in Newport, Rhode Island, sold out (also in advance) for the first time in the festival's 59-year history. Oriented towards folk-related genres, the festival typically brings in a particular, generally older, crowd.

Also, the NFF is a non-profit event and, assumably, has yet to be entirely invaded with commercial organizations. And I put emphasis on the word yet.

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My main frustration arises not necessarily from the actions made by these corporate businesses, for I cannot say I expect anything less of them. Instead, I feel irritated and disappointed in those who fail to recognize or develop any concern in the control executed by these companies. While there certainly exists a level of dependence on these institutions, for without their presence the festivals would fail to exist, the dependence should only go as far. Large businesses have created an unthreatening environment full of familiar brands and mainstream comforts which can easily distract from the profit driven realities of these events.

Having attended hundreds of music concerts and art events I, without any doubt, recognize, appreciate, and yearn for all that can be obtained by taking part in such gatherings. Music and art festivals in particular create a fantastical space where an intense sense of community can be established; and though only temporary, its fleeting presence does not take away any of its legitimacy. It is because of this that it is so important to step away from the mainstream, to pay closer attention, to ask questions. For an experience so bona fide in its nature should not be corrupted or compromised by the corporate world.

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very adolescent boy wants to grow up to be Trouble Andrew.

pursuits. “It was really free, and that’s the only way I’ve been able to do what I have.”

Sporting a white Thrasher Magazine baseball cap and his signature style oversized sunglasses, he is effortlessly cool as he opens to the door to his apartment in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, that he shares with his wife, Santi White (better known as the indie queen Santigold), and their Great Dane, Beau. Across his left arm, a tattoo bearing the word “dedication” seems to guide his every move, and when he smiles, a gold cap on one of his teeth glistens in the sunlight, seeming somehow comical, yet signifying a playful confidence at the same time.

But for someone like Trouble Andrew, even a stint as an Olympic contender isn’t enough to feed his relentless desire to create. After a knee injury he sustained in 2004 left him unable to snowboard for nine months, he found himself drawn to the idea of using that downtime to create music. First, he tried DJing, but while he has no qualms about his ability to pick out hot tracks, he admits he learned early on that he “wasn’t a dope DJ.” He then decided he wanted to make beats, thinking he might be able to produce sick sounds for artists he liked, but it was Santigold who pushed him to take his music more seriously and to explore various options to see what might work. “She’s definitely been a huge support,” he says of the award-winning singer, songwriter, instrumentalist and producer.

Zipping through his apartment, he heads to his shaded back patio, where he mentions how empty his apartment seems without his dog and his girl around. In the muggy August heat, he talks about growing up in a culture of skateboards and ski lifts; a culture that fed his passion for music and art as a young teenager in Folmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada. He seems entirely nonchalant about his achievements, unaware that he’s done more in his 32 years on the planet than most people will in their entire lives.

As an avid snowboarder from a young age, Trouble Andrew, whose real name is Trevor Andrew, dropped out of high school at age 15 to pursue a professional snowboarding career. His parents weren’t thrilled with the decision at the time, but gave him their blessing and a year to figure out the next steps on his own.

Within that year, he was winning contests and had earned professional status. Behind his success, he had one thing that many people his age will never get to experience: parents who supported his choice because they believed in him and his craft.

At an age when most people are juggling algebra homework and homeroom crushes, Trouble Andrew was already a professional athlete, a pursuit that would ultimately land him a place representing Canada both the 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympics. Growing up in that environment while also being mentored by other local skaters and snowboarders guided his life and his

It was around that time that he first picked up a 4-track recorder, started messing around with a keyboard and taught himself a few guitar riffs.

“I was never taught to play a guitar or keyboard or anything,” he says, “I was just making songs because I thought it was fun.” One day, he found himself freestyling over one of his own beats. In realizing the simplicity of it all, he immediately thought to himself, “Fuck, I should just do it for myself.” Within those nine months that he was out of the snowboarding game, tending to his blown-out knee, he had his first album, Trouble Andrew, which was initially completed in 2005 but was re-released by Virgin in 2009.

In the earliest days, Trouble Andrew put his songs up on MySpace, which, at the time, served as an ideal platform for musicians to put their music out into the world, where the only costs involved required nothing more than a recording and an hour of free time.

It was on that site that he gained a lot of traction in a short period of time, striking a chord with the skateboarding / snowboarding demographic that relates to every aspect of Trouble Andrew – a snowboarding, skateboarding, weed smoking, party-going, fun-loving adult; the kind of person who represents everything

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their parents hated. A song from his debut album titled “Either Way” was even featured in a skateboarding video part for pro skater and Jackass stuntman Bam Margera.

At that early stage, Trouble Andrew thought that recording tracks and putting them online would be the maximum reach of his musical career. He’d convinced himself that would never do a live show. “I used to actually have nightmares about performing,” he says, “Almost like the dream where you show up to school naked.”

But when presented with an opportunity to perform in front of an audience, Trouble Andrew stepped up to the challenge. He knew he wasn’t ready, but got booked on some fairly major shows early on. “I just knew that I had to do it anyway. You gotta fall down and hurt yourself and take those beatings to take it to the top,” he says with an inspirational enthusiasm. Whether talking about skateboarding, snowboarding or live performance, Trouble Andrew is certainly someone who has had to learn how to take a beating, and has grown in dozens of ways as an artist because of it.

For example, take skateboarding and snowboarding, which he likens to this musical career, perhaps surprisingly at the outset. To Trouble Andrew, snowboarding and skateboarding aren’t sports, per se, but rather, creative outlets, just two of his numerous artistic pursuits.

In addition to snowboarding, skateboarding, producing beats, writing his own music and playing guitar and keyboard, he also takes a hands-on approach in the design of all his pro model projects, including his snowboard graphics. He also runs his own record label, which allows him to collaborate in various capacities with the people who inspire him in his own life. His present snowboarding sponsors include Yes Snowboards, Analog clothing, Electric glasses and goggles, Nixon watches and Native shoes. He mentions that the moderately oversized glasses that he’s wearing at the present moment are his own design, that he’s actually wearing the demo sample that Electric sent to him to approve before the company invests in purchasing mass quantities of the product to be sold in stores.

In talking about skateboarding, Trouble Andrew says, “It’s really art because there are no real rules.” His entire worldview is shaped by the boarding culture, a culture which has given him numerous opportunities to travel and grow, opportunities that most young skateboarders only dream of as they’re trying to compile footage to send to corporate company representatives in order to land their first product sponsors. “There’s no rules [sic] and it brings people together,” he says as he references the times when he was a merely a child, and it made no difference that he was a decade younger than many of his skateboarding and snowboarding peers.

He explains how people outside the culture don’t al10 ways identify with the lifestyle: “You might not see that this culture is more than a sport. It’s, like, breeding art.”

11 He clarifies that there’s no gimmick to his music, that he’s not necessarily the bro’ed out snowboarder-skater“rapper” that the corporate-types would want him to be in order to help push records. When he first set out on his musical endeavors, he feared that there might be a disconnect between his snowboarding career and his life a musician, and he found himself initially reluctant to discuss his music in interviews about his snowboarding career. He felt reluctant to try to bridge the gap between what he felt were two separate parts of his life. However, as he grew as an artist, he came to the realization that the disconnect he feared was all imagined. Regarding music, he says, “It lives in my culture and my culture embraces it. I’m not trying to sell myself on that.” Still, he finds himself slightly irked when people call him a “rapper,” because while he may lay words over beats, what he does is distinctly different from verses from tried-and-true rappers such as the Wu Tang Clan or Outkast.

“I’m always looking for a new creative outlet,” he says.

He feels lucky to have had skateboarding and snowboarding in his life from an early age, as it was those

pursuits that allowed him to travel around the world and be exposed to all of the things life has to offer. “It started there,” he says. “If you’re not exposed to cool shit, you’re not gonna grow.”

He explains how earlier that same day, he’d come across some adolescent skaters who’d high-fived him in spite of the fact that they had no idea who he was, merely for the fact that he was also riding his skateboard, and that they identified with him as a skater as well. The kids had assumed he was going to the park to skate, which he hadn’t happened to be doing on that particular day, but regardless, they appreciated him and his identity from the mere idea of a shared identity. “That’s why I think skateboarding is so special,” he says, “Because there’s no age or color or anything. If you skate or snowboard or surf, you’re on that level.

You’re connected. It’s so positive.”

He relates this energy back to music, noting how in skateboarding or snowboarding, “Everybody’s got a style. But still, you inspire each other.” To him, music works the same way. In the same way that professional skaters and snowboarders have distinct styles, people who make different styles of music are set out to accomplish very different things. The bottom line that brings everything together is that when a person comes in with something original, that’s the person’s style, and that’s what drives that person’s skating or snowboarding. To Trouble Andrew, music functions in an identical manner. Skateboarding and snowboarding are art forms--art forms that take athletic ability, but not in a way that requires someone to keep score. To him, competitions such as the Olymipcs or the X Games, though necessary, can complicate this inherent freedom in the art.

“I just feel like my whole life is crazy,” says Trouble Andrew, whose passion and dedication to his craft seems

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larger than life when talking to him in person. Even the act of making music has opened up his mind to the possibility to write movie scripts or to act.

“I love videos and I want to do more. I wish I had videos for every song,” he says, noting that every music video he’s ever done has been completely on the fly.

“Everybody just came together to make art and have fun.”

Trouble Andrew writes most of his own music, and says he continually feels himself growing as a writer.

Whether the goal is to write a krunk-style party jam about smoking blunts or a track that strikes at a deeper, more emotional level, no topic is off limits for Trouble Andrew, as long as it comes from an honest place. “I feel like I have so much to talk about I don’t even know how to say it yet.” He notes that the melodies often move through him easily, setting the tone for what the song should be, but that the words sometimes escape him and take more time. Concerning the music itself, he says, “Sometimes if I make a beat, it’ll tell me what the feeling of the sound is going to be.”

His music comes from an extremely grounded backdrop. For Trouble Andrew, his music isn’t as much about his listeners as it is about whether he himself is satisfied with the song. He speaks over rock-influenced beats, and his spectrum of influences spans genres and generations. When recording, he allows the music to guide him, and he goes with the flow to let the song be whatever it is that it wants to be.

With so much positivity emitting from a man who seems to have it all, the title of his second album, Dreams of a Troubled Man, which was released in March of this year, seems like a misnomer. “The process of making that record was a dream come true in a sense,” he says, “But it was also a nightmare.” He attri-

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butes this to the fact that when he first started making music, he didn’t care whether people had an opinion on his music – he was making beats and laying down tracks for fun, to fill his intrinsic need to create – so when he was suddenly gifted with a record deal, it upped the ante on what was expected from him. “All of a sudden, there were a bunch of people involved with my art.”

He hesitates as he says this, and it becomes inherently clear that when it comes to any kind of art, Trouble Andrew wants to do it the Trouble Andrew way. “I’ve always had a clear vision of my sound,” he says. While it’s not uncommon for someone to send him a beat that he likes and he wants to work with, he seems reluctant to allow for much editorializing of his vision, which can 12 be problematic when others are pushing him to take a direction that might be fundamentally opposed to 13 Trouble Andrew’s artistic interpretation.

The fact that Trouble Andrew hasn’t been dissuaded by the dollar signs makes him even more admirable as a person. Through the ups and downs, Trouble Andrew managed to make it all work to his benefit. If nothing else, the experience opened up other doors, and through it he gained the knowledge of what to do and what not to do, which he used when he created his own record label supporting his music as well as that of his collaborators, which collectively refer to themselves as the Trouble Gang. Through his own label, he’s been able to focus on releasing his own music, but also has the opportunity to put together mixtapes featuring the music

of the people he admires and likes working with. “If you want to win, you gotta do it yourself,” he says. “Nobody knows what the fuck to do better than you.”

“Now I have my own record label and my own artists and I own everything from my music,” he says. For people who aren’t all that familiar with the industry, it’s worth noting that dealing with music publishing and copyrights can be an extraordinary burden for any artist, and by owning the entire thing, he’s made a wise choice to bypass the politics of the music industry, an industry still struggling to catch up to newer distribution models through new media outlets and Internet platforms.

He’s a firm believer that if you don’t have your own vision, you’re not a true artist. He notes that his song “Chase Money” was incredibly simple to make, yet received extremely positive reception. He created a beat, looped it, dropped some verses over it, and suddenly, it became art. “I’m me and I make the music. I don’t know what I’m doing, but I’m doing it.”

And, whatever “it” might be, he’s certainly making noise in the Internet universe. “The Internet is crazy.

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You can reach everybody. You can live in the middle of nowhere and become a huge star.”

Trouble Andrew is aiming to release the second Trouble Gang mixtape in mid-September. “I love producing, and working with other producers, and, of course, learning and growing,” he says. “I love collaborating and I love when other producers come in and bring something from the gate.” He also says he already has enough near-complete tracks to start working on another album.

But he says the thing that really fuels his everlasting fire is the positive energy of the people he surrounds himself with in his everyday life. “I feel like that’s my mission, to help the people that are around me.”

And, for Trouble Andrew, that’s ultimately what life is all about. “I make a living out of having fun and doing what I love,” he says, “I think that’s the only way I can survive.”

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME 14 15

I spent a portion of my last birthday openly weeping at the Gap on 5th avenue whilst my girlfriend tried on free trade brassieres. As I sat, my ears were being violently assaulted by the empty calorie “music” of some sun-dappled tween sensation and I couldn’t help but well up when contemplating the state of popular music today.

It’s not that I give two shits about pop music, (I’m more of a song and dance man myself) it’s just that as my angina years loom closer I’ve become exponentially more crotchety and less tolerant of just about everything.

So I sat there. Stewing, like a schmuck on wheels, with some pixie stick product packaged as a pop star pouring sour nothings in my ear. I was PISSED OFF, but not at her. NO. I was pissed at the guy behind her, the man pulling the strings - or as they said in Swingers, I was pissed at “the guy behind the guy.”

I couldn’t stand the concept of some swine actually writing down the twaddle that this golden voiced tit-willow was presently warbling into my ears.

My left eyelid started to twitch, as is its wont when mild annoyance up shifts into ire. I couldn’t wrap my brain around it, how could what I was hearing even begin to qualify as lyrics? That’s when a THOUGHT bitch slapped me squaw in the chops: The hate crime I was listening to, laid down over a Casio keyboard backbeat, wasn’t the work of just one gran mal imbecile. No, this aural rape being perpetrated on my very soul was the work of a team!

And that’s when I blacked out.

Not really, but fortunately I began to relax and unclench. This was just music after all, music that was strange and ridonkulous to me, but music all the same. Still, I was horrified by the fact that this pap was out there influencing today’s youth.

Then, a thought: who are these song-writing influence peddlers? And on top of that, who’s the most influential of them all? I posed the question to my myriad of Facebook friends: Who is the most successful song writing team of all time?

I got a bevy of answers: Hall and Oates, Don Henley and Glen Frey, those adorable kids from Abba, Simon and Garfunkel. Some people noted the face melting power of Waters and Gilmore. Folks went nuts for Bernie Taupin and Elton John.

There were the Motown votes and the country music people. The names of rap producers and performers were bandied about. People quoted Rolling Stone magazine at me like it was the bible, throwing around Grammy facts and sales records.

At the end of the day nearly everybody agreed

though: the champs were Lennon and McCartney.

Me, not so sure.

My money’s on a couple of minister’s daughters from outside Louisville: Mildred and her kid sister Patty. These progressive thinking Presbyterians are the duo behind the most widely known song on the planet: that old standby and stalwart harbinger of ageing - “Happy Birthday To You.” What is influence after all, if not familiarity? And there are more people on Earth familiar with the birthday song than any other song ever written. So there it is, Millie and Pats: the most influential songwriters of all time.

Now class, can any of you out there give me a little background on these lasses and their ubiquitous ditty? No? Sit back and shut up while I drop some knowledge. Mildred J. Hill was born June 27, 1859 and was followed by Patty nine years later. Their pa Bill, who was a Presbyterian minister, and their mama-dukes, Martha, raised them.

The Hills were super chill people. They believed that play for the sake of play not only wasn’t sinful, but was actually (GASP!) beneficial to a child’s development. In the 1800’s, that thinking was borderline heresy. It was that upbringing that got the girls interested in education as a career.

Mildred started out as a schoolmarm then became a composer specializing in the study of Negro spirituals. Patty spent her career as a major reformer in early childhood education collaborating with leaders in the field. Her work in the kindergarten sciences helped shape me, you and everybody you know under the age of 80.

Okay, back on topic: Magic happened in 1893.

Mildred was a teacher at the famed Louisville Experimental Kindergarten School; kid sis Patty was the principal. The gals sat down and created a song one day. Millie composed the melody and Patty the lyrics. The song: “Good Morning to All” would become four lines and eight bars of musical gold.

“Good Morning to you Good Morning to you Good morning, dear children Good morning to you” The song was published in a book titled Song Stories for the Kindergarten in 1893 …and then forgotten.

Then in 1924 it appeared in another songbook, this time with a second verse featuring the famous “Happy Birthday To You” lyrics. Over the next ten years “Happy Birthday” began to creep up all over

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Words | Anthony Venditto

the place: various radio programs, the Broadway musical The Band Wagon, the Warner Brothers cartoon Bosko’s Party and the Irving Berlin musical As Thousands Cheer. Western Union even used it as its first singing telegram in 1933. The Hill sisters received zero compensation.

That’s when kid sister Jess told everybody to step off, and working with the Clayton F. Summy Company set off to prove that “Happy Birthday To You” was her sisters’ song with the lyrics changed. The Man agreed and copyrighted the song for the Hills in 1935 allowing them to reap royalties.

Under the laws at the time the song would be copy written for 28 years and then could be renewed for another 28 years, after which it would enter the public domain. This meant that in 1991 “Happy Birthday To You” should’ve been free for all and sundry.

But no, in 1976 copyrights were extended to 75 years from the date of first publication, then in 1998 another law was passed adding 20 years to that. So, when will Happy Birthday fall into the public domain? …2030. But I wouldn’t bet on it.

Now, if a song has a copyright you CAN sing it at private functions without having any lawyers sniffing at your crotch. However, if you’re holding a “large gathering” (like a concert or a playa’s ball) you need to apply for a small performance license and pay royalties on any copyrighted songs you use at said “large gathering”.

That’s why you can’t sing “Happy Birthday” at big events or use them in commercials, plays or movies without paying some sort of royalty. That’s also why when you go to Chuck E Cheese they sing you some bastardized version of the song.

The cost for the privilege of using “Happy Birthday” varies. For a national commercial, you’re looking at a few thousand bucks, use in a feature film will set you back tens of thousands. Dig this: In 2008 the song generated about $2 million in royalty payments.

Where’s this mountain of cash going? Well, the Hill sisters both died unmarried spinsters without any heirs, but they did set up The Hill Foundation and a portion of the cash goes there. Who gets the rest? …Paul McCartney. No, I’m kidding, but that was a rumor going around for a while. The real co-owner of the copyright is Summy-Birchard Music, a subsidiary of Warner Music Group, which is a subsidiary of AOL Time-Warner which in-itself is run by Satan.

Happy Birthday to me.

Brevity is the New Longevity Words- Christine Bettis

Tyler, The Creator

Idiosyncratic is just one adjective that has been used to describe twenty-year-old boat rocker, Tyler Okonma, ak.a. Tyler, The Creator. Tyler is the lead rapper and producer of the alternative hip-hop group Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, a.k.a. OFWGKTA, a.k.a. Odd Future. His lyrics are fresh; they resonate with the youth of America. His songs have a satirical, controversial and sometimes creepy personality.

Tyler’s latest solo album Goblin, freaked me out, particularly the last track, “Golden,” in which Tyler raps to his therapist about wanting to commit suicide. Do not listen to this album while tripping on any sort of drug. As affecting as the lyrics are, the music backing them up is boring. It could be bigger. I predict that Tyler is going to pull one of those “be super fucking brilliant then die of an overdose at the age of 27” stunts (as Hendrix, Morrison, Joplin and Basquiat did). That gives his music seven years to grow into his lyrics.

Brevity Rating: 7 years Lady Gaga

When she was 17, Lady Gaga gained early admission to NYU’s Tisch School of Arts, where she studied music. Her proficient, avant-garde like artistry infiltrates her performances, music videos and her hair/makeup/costume choices.

When Lady Gaga sits down in front of a piano, she taps into an eager intensity that can only be found on the peripherals of reality… or in serial killers. I have seen her turn into an insect on that bench, jerk around like a praying mantis, then stalk and strike at those keys like they’re her prey. At the 2010 Grammy Awards, she damn near broke the piano with her bare hands and came very close to showing Sir Elton John up. She also exudes gratitude for her fans; I have a friend that waited outside in the rain for hours next to her tour bus for the chance to meet her and when he finally did meet her, Lady Gaga herself made him a cup of tea. If Lady Gaga should fall from grace, millions of “Little Monsters” would stand by her.

Longevity Rating: Rolls 37,785,208 deep

Sleigh Bells

Derek Miller and Alexis Krauss of the noise pop duo, Sleigh Bells, make loud, in your face, wake-the-fuck-up-please music with a computer, a guitar and a voice. Electro beats juxtapose quite nicely with Derek’s crunchy power chords and Alexis’ sometimes salty, sometimes sweet, sometimes sexy voice. If you’re someone that introduced your friends to Sleigh Bells, you probably scored some crucial cool points that you’ll be able to use later when you get drunk and cross a line-- “I know I projectile vomited blueberry pie all over your dog’s face and now he’s blind, but, c’mon… let it go, man, I introduced you to Sleigh Bells.” There is no doubt that Sleigh Bells injected energy into a lot of summer playlists this year. I almost kicked my roommate in the head while rocking out to their song “Tell ‘Em.” I am infatuated with Sleigh Bells; we are in the middle of our blissful honeymoon phase, leave us be.

Brevity Rating: Do Not Disturb Asking Alexandria

My Pandora was confused when I added Asking Alexandria as one of my stations. “It’s taking longer than usual to decide what to play next,” said Pandora. That’s because they are a metalcore band and my Pandora is used to musicians like Bjork. Asking Alexandria was formed by lead guitarist Ben Bruce in Dubai, a region where skyscrapers are reaching great heights and the culture is diverse. They had to have been influenced by an environment like that. “The Final Episode” is a song of theirs that will make you say “WHOA!” Shotgun a RedBull (or an all-natural alternative), wait five minutes, channel your angsty inner teenager, and then blast it.

Stepped Up and Scratched, an album of their songs remixed with womp-wompy dubstep beats was set to drop last year, then didn’t, and the release date keeps getting pushed back. Are these guys flaking out on their fans or are they producing something extra special for them? We’ve only just met, I’m not sure of their character yet.

Longevity Rating: It’s taking longer than usual to decide on a longevity rating.

Jay-Z

In 2010 Jay-Z dropped Decoded, a memoir in which he placed his music under a microscope in order for his fans and critics to examine the genetic coding that makes up his songs. I recently got my hands on this book, and it has engulfed me. The amount of thought that Jay-Z puts into his lyrics is overwhelming. “Take em out the hood, keep em lookin good / But I don’t fuckin feed em’,” may look like a simple lyric, but Jay-Z attaches to it a paragraph+ long footnote that provides the not so simple context behind the lyric. I wish that more musicians would dissect their music; it would open people up to genres outside of their comfort zone. Jay-Z’s music is mainstream, and this book has challenged my belief that mainstream musicians have little depth (minus Katy Perry). I can’t wait to see what hip-hop’s Renaissance Man gives rebirth to next.

Longevity Rating: 99 Problems but Forever Young

Sept. - Oct. 2011

Three years was a long time for fans of CSS to wait for a new album, but that patience will soon be rewarded. CSS’s album La Liberación will be released on August 29. First-time listeners won’t be able to resist CSS’s up-tempo, thoughtful music; long-time fans will appreciate the album’s polished, eclectic sound. La Liberación probes diverse experiences from love and sex to growing up as an outsider. The haunting tune of “Hits Me Like a Rock” explores the staying power of music while being the very kind of song that hangs in the air long after the notes have faded. La Liberación is definitely an album you can dance to while waving your arms wildly in the air.

As exciting as the new album release is, it’s really just a brief pause in a whirlwind year for CSS. They wrapped up an American tour with Sleigh Bells in May and will be busy touring Europe through mid-September. CSS returns to North America for shows throughout October. A complete listing of tour dates is available on their website (http://www.csssuxxx.com/tour).

I was able to catch up with Lovefoxx, the band’s lead 16 vocalist. We talked about her family, the new album 17 and, of course, the tour with Sleigh Bells.

“That tour was so much fun,” said Lovefoxx. “Our music is really different but the crowd was liking it. We played in Richmond for the first time and it really blew our minds!”

No matter where they are in the world, before a performance the band declares “Vai ser umbelo show (It’s

going to be a beautiful show)!” Even after her many years on tour, Lovefoxx gets pre-show jitters. “I always get excited and anxious before going on stage. It's a great feeling. It's as if you don't really know what's going to happen except you KNOW it will be good.”

one cuts loose like the Japanese. “Japan is very peculiar. They dance a lot and if I start doing a dance step we can all do [it] together as if we were one. It's beautiful!“ Tokyo is the band’s favorite place to tour because of the enthusiastic audiences.

All that redirected nervous energy makes for a show that has a lot of energy and really engages the audience. American and European audiences get excited and enjoy CSS’s music, but according to Lovefoxx, no

After the audiences clear out and the venue is dark, the band packs up and heads back to an airport to make the next show. The plane trips are bittersweet for Lovefoxx, whose family is intimately familiar with

Sequins Not Included:

CSS Releases La Liberación and Tours Like Mad Words | Kristi Waterworth

Sept. - Oct. 2011

airplanes. Her father was an airplane mechanic, her grandfather a pilot and an aunt was a stewardess. As a child playing around planes being repaired, she had no idea she’d spend so much time traveling in them as an adult.

“I used to hang out in the hangar where the planes were,” stated Lovefoxx, “He [my father] would bring home plane meals and I would eat them on my lunch break . . . I felt really badass! Back then the planes had a very peculiar smell, something like plastic wrap, but it was really good. I had a lot of plane cutlery (they were metal). It's weird to think of all this right now because I spend lots of time on the plane.”

With Donkey, CSS’s second album, they toured frantically until the band was exhausted. When the tour was over, CSS had plenty of time to rethink their approach for their next album. La Liberación represents a new mind set for CSS -- they approached the album in a far more relaxed way. Each song is a story unto itself and the band stopped focusing on reaching a certain song length, instead writing a song to its logical end even if that meant shorter songs. CSS had the luxury to rework songs that weren’t working instead of scrapping them entirely. If they hadn’t had a loose timeline, “Hit Me Like a Rock” might have never been written.

“I love that on La Liberación some songs are two minutes long. Having time to go back and change everything on something was good too. I was almost going to record vocals for a song called "Maybe" but then Adriano didn't like how I was sounding. I didn't like it either but felt kind of lazy and he was like ‘No, no…let's change it.’” After some lyrical alchemy, “it became ‘Hits Me Like a Rock.’”

“Fuck Everything,” La Liberación’s final chapter, may have been the most difficult piece on the album. Taking eight months to write, it became a real labor of love for Lovefoxx. “Even with all this thinking when I finished it, it was this genuine, spontaneous thing.”

Adriano suggested she add a funny personal message to the end: “Hi, my name is Lovefoxx and I’m twelve years old. I like going to the pub with the gays. I like buying pencils and pens. I like cooking and I like cookies.” Lovefoxx loved the idea. Incidentally, she reports that her favorite place to eat those cookies (Zane’s) is in America.

Lovefoxx continues to maintain that the band’s primary goal is to have a great time and put on a fun show.

While they aren’t seeking political influence, they are aware that people still look to them as somewhat reluctant guides.

“Being in this position is really weird. There's no boycotting in here, it's a special place to be. What I'm saying is that people like to see when we're having fun. We feel lucky and we want to give it back. Our social message is implied on what we do and how we do things.

We have our way, we have our time and for us this is enough of a statement.”

No word yet on what’s in store for 2012. CSS’s style matured significantly with La Liberación. Having found a more comfortable way to make music that better suits them, I’m sure that we’ll be hearing plenty of new clubcharging, crazy music from CSS down the line. In the meantime, I recommend you play La Liberación as loud as you can and dance shamelessly until you fall down.

Sept. - Oct. 2011

“I always get excited and anxious before going on stage. It's as if you don't really know what's going to happen except you KNOW it will be good.”

Words by Bryan Menegus com

B

almorhea are an Austin, Texas-based band whose sound is as easy to pidgeonhole as their name is to pronounce (Bal-more-ay; they presumably take their name from the town or lake of the same name, also in Texas). With a healthy appreciation for contemporary classical composers like Steve Reich and John Cage as well as modern indie pop (and an erstwhile or waning affection for postrock), Balmorhea collect and summarize any number of disparate influences into their own unique blend of instrumental music. As core member and pianist Rob Lowe (not the actor) notes, “Whatever strikes me, I’ll take a piece of.”

18 19

Though formed under unassuming circumstances approximately six years ago, Rob Lowe and Michael Muller first met at a summer camp (that Lowe was enrolled in and Muller was a counselor for). However,

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www.balmorheamusic.

they didn’t begin playing together until Lowe’s matriculation at The University of Texas in Austin. Although Lowe chose not to major in music after his first year, he found an outlet for his musical leanings by playing casually with guitarist Muller. The rest, as they say, is history: Balmorhea have since released four full-length records—a self-titled debut, Rivers Arms, Constellations, and All is Wild, All is Silent—and EP and a 7”, expanding to a six-piece which includes violin, cello, upright bass, and drums.

In many ways, Balmorhea are a band adrift. As Lowe puts it, “Instrumental music in the popular [music] world doesn’t really exist anymore,” which, from a critical perspective, leaves the group at a disadvantage in terms of viable comparisons. The only band who really strove for a comparable sound was Little Joe Gould, the Bloomington, Indiana-based group who became Murder by Death, abandoning their instrumental leanings for alt-country concept records. Lowe resignedly bemoans how Balmorhea are often lumped into genres or sounds—post-rock in particular—which don’t necessarily apply to any conscious influence he puts his music. Although he admits that groups like Explosions in the Sky may have been a pigment on their sonic palette in early recordings, post-rock is not a style they take cues from anymore.

But for the same reason, Balmorhea are a refreshing listen. Their lilting downtempo compositions sound like absolutely no one else presently on the scene, and they dare to make the music they find appealing, lyr-

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ics be damned. When asked how he would describe his band and right the wrongs of incorrect genre shoutouts and namedrops, Lowe fumbled a moment and then admitted rather bluntly, “It’s really hard for me to use words.” Even if this can be a viable reason for the absence of lyrics in Balmorhea’s music, Lowe’s lexical confusion is counteracted by his and his band’s ability for sublime expression through instruments alone.

Anyone left unconvinced need only visit their website, balmorheamusic.com, to hear their most recent 7”, Candor/Clamor. Just because it can be difficult to discern direct influences in their music doesn’t make it any less moving or effective; swelling strings give way to heavily syncopated snare clicks and Lowe’s majestic ivory-tickling on “Clamor” so effortlessly, lyrics would act only as a distraction.

Lowe and Co. have plans to ship up to Chicago’s Soma Studios in the next two weeks to begin recording a new as-yet-to-be-named full-length with longtime live sound and studio engineer (described by Lowe as the seventh member of the band) Andrew Hernandez, another native son of Texas. “We’ve always done our recording very quickly,” Lowe said, describing the process as painless, usually done live, and completed in less than a week—an impressive feat considering the number of personnel on any given Balmorhea record.

But at Soma Studios, the Austin sextet hopes to stretch out a bit. “We’d like a lot of time in the studio…[and to] let the songs occur naturally,” Lowe said hopefully, planning to spend considerable effort making this next record a more nuanced and cohesive effort. Although having the time to step back and consider the tracks multiple times before locking in masters might break their streak of quick and easy recordings, Lowe indicates that the results will be worthwhile. Fans can expect the new record to come out around this time next year, as well as a tour in support of it.

Words by Elizabeth Price | www.baronbane.com

I

magine long together band mates fiddling with a vintage Micro Moog synthesizer and flipping through Kerouac's On the Road. Sounds romantic right? That's what you get with Sweden's Baron Bane. A little grittiness, some strings, and a whole lot of baroque electronica.

In their own words they are a "fusion between analog and digital.” It's easy to appreciate a band that can find harmony in combining the acoustic and electronic.

Sometimes it takes a car ride with a band to get your head around whom and what you’re listening to.

And sometimes it requires smacking on some headphones ala Radiohead to get a little deeper and peel back the layers. That's the beauty of Baron Bane: they can go from headphones, to the car, and then later if you so desire cranked up for your impromptu dance party on the living room floor. They just work. They have more depth than the status quo mud puddles your listening to on Pandora guaranteed.

Baron Bane released their second album, LFTO, in April of this year. The album is much denser than their first go around, S/T, which came out in March of 2004. On LFTO you'll find a mix of robust strings

layered on top of vintage synthesizer produced electronica. You'll hear hints of Massive Attack, Nine Inch Nails, and a little bit of Kosheen sprinkled on top for good measure. The band notes that they are inspired

by Beck's creativity. Much like Beck it's easy to hear on the first spin of LFTO that the band is not committed to one genre or sound.

The songs on LFTO are a collaboration of all the band members with most of the lyrics being put together

by Stefan, who plucks guitar strings, and Christer, who strokes the ivories. While the band is considering changing up their writing and recording process, it seems like things turned out mighty fine with LFTO. The band has the luxury of working out of their own studio. You can hear the time Baron Bane invested in LFTO. This clears up the question as to why some of the tracks are a bit long toothed like "Midthing" and “And The Flare Will Spark.” But when one can revel in one’s creations day after day it makes sense that the stretch between the how and the why would show through in some of the songs. Ida Long, who joined the party after being a guest vocalist on the band's debut album, has a voice that can be cathartic and jar-

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ring depending on the tune. Don't be misled, though.

She'll pinch even the most arctic hearts with sweet musings. Try "Your Words" and "Orchids" if your aim is to be enveloped. Give props to the band for delivering visceral lyrics like, "Too beautiful for my eyes. I feel the heat.”

If you want to hear what Baron Bane fancies for their own listening pleasure, check out their Spotify play list and enjoy the likes of Plaid, Super Furry Friends, and Yelle. For those living in the US, that's about as close as you’re going to get to the band unless you plan on traveling to the UK. The band plans on traveling across the English Channel to perform and promote LFTO in October. If you’re lucky you might catch them in smaller towns throughout Europe servicing the locals with up close and intimate sets. Keep your eyes wide as the band is making videos for "Echoes" and "Love.Cure.All.” At the moment Baron Bane is discussing strategies to bring their music and stellar stage show to both the US and Canadian markets. For the sorry folks who can't make it across the Atlantic, you can find Baron Bane in all the typical hegemonious spots; Facebook, iTunes, Amazon, and Spotify.

Words by Tracy Walsh | www.californiawives.net

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hen one thinks of the name "California Wives" he or she may have imagined bleached blonde, spray-tanned faces and buttcheeks-implant crazed, drama queens pulling out each other's, once donkey-tail-hair weaves.

Or, you might have come across the YouTube video entitled "California Wives," which showcases two Big and Beautiful, more specifically, "boobiful" and "bootiful" ladies' "whoppingly," impressive hoola-hooping hoopla.

On the same grounds, the music of the band "California Wives" is addicting entertainment to see performed live by the guys, or to listen to on your iPod or what-have-you.

California Wives fit into the Indie/New Wave/Pop genre, and have been credited for bringing the synthdomineering sound of 80's bands, especially that of New Order, back to shore. California Wives' songs 20 range from upbeat and fun, to moody and brooding, conjured with direct, non-Beethoven-like arrange21 ments. Every aspect of their music has received rave reviews from many, many music critics.

California Wives are basically brand-spanking new, having formed in just 2009, and the groups' fan-base is already spreading like wild fire. Jayson Kramer (vocals, keys, guitar), Dan Zima (vocals, bass, guitar), Joe O'Connor (drums) and Hans Michel (guitar, keys) are the members.

I told Jayson when I set my eyeballs on the name "California Wives," I envisioned chicks from Cali cat-fighting, chasing each other's tails, and clawing one another

with their long, fake nails. So, I asked Jayson if the band have had any similar happenings. He said, "Probably not. We work together on our songs, although Dan and I are the main songwriters, when you got four people working to make one song, there might be a few tiffs here and there."

Again, on behalf of the ladies who want Jayson, I inquired about what qualities he finds attractive in a lady. "You know, a little attitude and confidence are important. So, it could really be anybody [with those attributes].” It would be like totally awesome if he were to yell out while he's onstage "You're a hottie, meet me backstage," huh ladies?

After I read that prior to California Wives, Zima, O'Connor and Michel performed at a retirement home, scenes from the movie "Cocoon" flashed thorough my Irish, Mr. Potato-Head-Sized noggin. I had to ask Jayson if he heard anything about the "dream" gig.

"The guys told me the floors were made out of marble, so the sound was kind of ricocheting all over. Yeah, the band said it was very loud! One of the anecdotes they gave me is someone in the retirement home asked them to turn it up, which I thought was very funny."

Indeed, Jayson's funny bone works just fine, but he is also a nose-to-the-grindstone artist and down with being business-minded. "We're not a band that gets all drunk and is falling all over themselves on stage. We really love what we do, and we really want to do it for a living. We respect it. You know, you work so hard on your music, and we have a ton of chords on stage to worry about.” California Wives do not want to look like do-do-da-da-yada-yada-ding-dongs. Jayson says, "We want to give the most accurate representation of what you hear on our records."

For all the smitten, panting ladies, Jayson unveiled he is single! Also, predominately wholesome, Natalie Portman, is one of the most attractive celebrities, Jayson admits. Although, likely to go "Commando" Karen O from the Yeah, Yeah, Yeah’s, is another of Jayson's picks for most appealing female star.

Sept. - Oct. 2011

I am now aware "California Wives" is a foursome of good-looking guys, and a band who reportedly only have some minor bumping of heads during recording.

Additionally, California Wives' obvious, special talent was loud enough to be heard by major somebodies, The Chicago Tribune, who deemed California Wives "One of the 11 local bands to watch for in 2011."

You should wet your pants, or do an 80's dance, in excitement to learn California Wives are working on more songs as you read this. The most notable aspect of California Wives' music to date is "The rhythm is gonna get you...The rhythm is gonna get you!" Yes, that's right! Not too shabby, to say the very least, for some guys who are also chi-town-suburbanite-reared honkeys. If I, a humble, pasty-white girl, may say so myself.

Words by Gina Conn www.daleearnhardtjrjr.com

Their name proclaims them to be some sort of musical illegitimate son of Dale Earnhardt Jr., so when his races are on television, they act accordingly. “He feels like a family member at this point. I watch him and root for him.” Before officially taking on the name, they wrote Dale requesting permission. Not only was the legendary driver cool about it, but he told the two that he was a fan of their music. When I asked if perhaps Dale would someday make a cameo in one of their music videos, Josh adorably responded, “He's pretty busy. I don't want to bother him. He's already done so much for us.”

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spoke with Joshua Epstein, one half of the electro-pop duo Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. days before their departure to perform at Lollapalooza. He and co-member Daniel Zott's NASCAR fueled band-name intrigued me greatly, as I grew up in such a close proximity to an amateur race car track I could hear the rumbles from my bedroom.

When I was eleven I nursed a short-lived dream to become a race car driver. But, that life-style just wouldn't have been a good match for me. Just like the name Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. doesn't exactly match the band's sound. Inspired by the talents of Motown, The Beatles and the Beach Boys (hence their cover of “God Only Knows”), Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. creates hauntingly beautiful melodies and contrasting upbeat lyrics. Their ability to blend the dreamy with the dark sets them apart from the countless and ever growing genre of electro-indie bands.

Josh spoke to me from Detroit, where both were born and raised; Daniel now lives at the 8.5 mile point while Josh lives at the 11th mile. With rumors of Detroit becoming some sort of new Williamsburg embedded in my mind I asked, like a douche-bag, if they live in an up and coming neighborhood “No. I live in a blue collar suburban area with houses and small yards.” The two have known of each other for six years while playing in different bands around the area. Two years ago Josh called Daniel to ask him to collaborate on some songs.

They recorded “Simple Girl” after 3 or 4 hours, a song now used by Guess for a promotional video, and went forward from there to record their first album, Horse Power EP. They recently wrapped up the shoot for “Simple Girl,” a shoot in which children were cast to play younger version of themselves. The electro-poppers and their younger counterparts competed in pickup basketball for the video, and during the game Josh made little Daniel cry: “I couldn't help it!I had to block his shot!”

Sept. - Oct. 2011

Not only was sports a big theme in one of their videos once again (their video for “Nothing But Our Love” featured box cars they built themselves) but the sportsnamed duo also contribute a bi-weekly sports blog on ESPN and just got asked to continue it indefinitely.

Back in the day Josh played soccer and Daniel played basketball. They don't have much time to play anymore, but they do enjoy spending the free time they do have watching sports. Seeing how the majority of musicians are openly anti-sports, their admiration for the physically-inclined is refreshing. “For some reason, sports have always been a really good way to turn off my brain, everyone needs that. Some people drink a lot, some people do drugs, but Daniel and I tend to watch sports.” But he made sure to mention, “Not to say that people who watch sports are idiots.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. recently took part in the live touring of everyone’s favorite LSD-inspired children's show, Yo Gabba Gabba! performing in two of the Detroit shows. During one of the them, Josh got robbed by the orange spandex wearing host himself. “There was a massage therapist on the tour and you could sign up on his door for a time slot. I went for my massage and DJ Lance Rock had crossed out my name and wrote Lance Rock on top of mine.” Josh has a picture of it for proof.

Their own tour kicks off September in Denver, a tour that promises some of the biggest venues and largest crowds they have experienced in their short yet successful career. They are working on writing some new material to hopefully record come this holiday season so that they can release a new album in 2012.

Words by Bryan Menegus www.thefreshandonlys.blogspot.com

T

hey may have the gritty charm of The Black Lips, but don’t mistake San Francisco’s The Fresh and Onlys for garage rock revivalists. Despite an all-analog recording ethic (eight-track reel-to-reel sans studio) and a network of DIY compatriots among like-minded bands and labels, The Fresh and Onlys are thoroughly a pop band, more in the vein of The Beach Boys than ? and the Mysterians, but still retaining the semi-psychedelic edge of The 13th Floor Elevators. As bassist Shayde Sartin opines in the “everything’s cool, man” fashion prototypical of Californians, “We don’t write rock opera . . . we just want to do the best we can with a really simple pop song.”

notes casually. And, reaching even farther than the U.S. mainland, The Fresh and Onlys have toured extensively in Europe, stopping in the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Spain, and the Netherlands.

Touring far from home has its own difficulties, especially for a band so invested in small labels. Although the band gets what they need from a more caring organization, these labels don’t have the distributive reach of the majors or even the larger indies, so very few of The Fresh and Onlys records have come out in Europe.

“Sometimes, if we’re way up north, we’re playing to five people in the audience who are superfans because

Formed in 2008, The Fresh and Onlys stormed the Bay Area—despite the members of the band hailing from all across the state—and entered into the same scene that spawned Thee Oh Sees and The Mantles, a scene which Sartin describes equally as eclectic and nurturing. “There’s a lot of different things going on,” Sartin muses about his band’s stomping grounds, where a diverse cross-section of bands seem to crop up at an astronomical rate. He describes the Bay Area as being very receptive to most things, but thankfully, “If you’re 22 trying to be the next, I dunno, Third Eye Blind…” he trails off, before skipping ahead to complain about, 23 “Those types of bands that have a contract before they even put out a f*ckin’ record.”

So seemingly, the San Francisco audience is pretty easy going. But in accord with the DIY ethic, you have to pay your dues—and The Fresh and Onlys certainly have. Despite near-constant touring, they’ve found time to release a glut of LPs and EPs on small labels like Chuffed, Dirty Knobby, Castle Face, Captured Tracks, In The Red, and Sacred Bones. Sartin described December as their only month off, though not necessarily by choice. He sighed, “If you’re trying to get something recorded, or tour, or get someone to work on album art, it just isn’t going to happen. December is a dead month for indie rock,” indie rock being the term he uses, correctly, to describe hard-working and vehemently anti-corporate bands like The Fresh and Onlys, not as a means of harkening to the decidedly safe arrangements and emasculated vocals of Death Cab For Cutie-esque “indie.”

But what stands out most from The Fresh and Onlys catalogue is the slew of 7” singles under their belt, many of which are split with similar bands not only in the Bay Area, but from the East Coast, France, and Italy. As Sartin describes it, the DIY community which propels bands like his into the spotlight—and to play such career-making festivals as South By Southwest in Austin, Texas—is becoming globalized. “The Bay Area has a lot in common with what’s going on in Brooklyn and what’s going on in Echo Park in Los Angeles,” he

Sept. - Oct. 2011

they heard us on the internet.” But Sartin implied that larger metropolises, like Paris, bring larger crowds of fans and soon-to-be fans.

And those really are the only two categories of listeners as they apply to The Fresh and Onlys: fans, and fans-to-be. It’s nearly impossible not to be won over by the honesty and simplicity of their music, or at the very least, by their work ethic. Pop connoisseurs looking for a little integrity would do well to check out their 2010 LP, Play It Strange, or their most recent EP, Secret Walls; fans of The Fresh and Onlys can expect a new release this time next year.

Words by Whitney Meers | www.thekickdrums.com

A

lex Fitts and Matt Pentilla look entirely unassuming as they sit amongst the daytime drunks at a dingy watering hole on a scorching hot Saturday in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. With Alex’s boyish good looks and Matt’s childlike charm, one wouldn’t immediately suspect that this duo, who met in Cleveland but presently live in New York, are the masterminds behind beats for artists as big as Kanye West, Lil Wayne and RZA. But forget all the A-list clients – these two have their very own music project, and it’s one that they hope will help change the direction of a struggling music industry, with a model based on hip hop beats, remixes and Internet-based mixtape distribution models. Working together as KickDrums, the band has big ideas about how to shape the future of not just the music industry, but of music itself.

kast’s Aquemini as one of his favorite albums, and it’s easy to hear the influence of an album like that when listening to Meet Your Ghost.

Several of the tracks used beats that they’d made for other artists that didn’t quite make the cut for one reason or another. To the untrained listener, it’s hard to believe that a particular track may have been made for a hip-hop superstar. But, with the magic of the KickDrums’s sound editing skills, just altering a few things here and there can change a song’s sound dynamically.

The duo also makes creative use of their studio space on this album. For instance, in “Counting on You,” a bongo-style beat heard mid-song is actually Fitts banging on a Poland Spring water bottle. He says that the use of the bottle was inspired by the realization that he wanted to add the bongo element, but there was nothing in the studio at that time that could create the

After an emerging feeling that the work they were doing for their clients was getting repetitive, combined with the understanding that ANR reps are more interested in artists than producers, Fitts and Tilla decided to work together to focus on making they types of music they both found engaging.

“The Jimi Hendrix of the computer is going to emerge in the next five years,” says Pentilla, who goes by “Tilla” for short. Referencing the magic of Ableton, a loopbased software sequencer for producing, songwriting and live performance, he shares a contagiously positive outlook about the possibilities of the future of music.

In spite of having produced music for high profile clients for a number of years, it was a series of digital mixtapes that first captured the attention of music-loving Internet junkies, the types of people who can launch a band’s career with something as simple as a blog post.

One of the KickDrums’s best-known mixtapes called, quite simply, Coachella 2011, features remixes of the artists who played at the mega music festival of the same name, paired with other of the fresh favorites.

“It’s a different type of mixtape,” says Fitts, referring specifically to another recently released mixtape, Lollapalooza in 45 Minutes. And he’s 100% right - the duo have a special talent for mixing artists from completely different genres and finding a way to make those songs work together.

The duo released Meet Your Ghost on June 28 as their first album of original songs. With rock-style vocals layered over hip hop beats, the KickDrums offer a sound as multifaceted as Fitts and Tilla themselves.

They liken their original songs to Gorillaz, though that seems to be a stretch – the reality is that there are very few artists out there right now doing anything remotely similar to what the KickDrums are doing.

Fitts’s rock-inspired vocals take them away from the group’s hip hop roots, but the beats remain audibly inspired by rap songs past and present. Tilla cites Out-

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sound he wanted. Rather than waiting for someone to come to the studio with bongos, he tried that instead.

Referring to the beats, Fitts says, “You can sing on anything.” Unlike rap music, where it’s tough to spit a New York-style rap on a Southern beat, he says, “You can sing on something straight speed metal or as slow as dub step, and people will listen.”

The KickDrums are on a fast track to continue growing as two individuals brought together by circumstance to create a fantastic collaborative outlet for their musical talents.

“We’re just having so much fun doing this,” says Fitts.

“I’d rather be doing this than be a slave for the man.”

“There’s nothing we can’t do, really,” adds Tilla.

Words by Gina Conn | www.iamlights.com

I

spoke with pint sized Canadian synthpop singer-songwriter Lights, catching her as she was dealing with the fun that is customs at the Canadian border. I could almost hear her glowing as she gushed to me that she had just become an aunt and was in Vancouver visiting her sister and the new edition.

Valerie Poxleitner, who legally changed her first name to Lights, was a daughter of missionary parents. The mobile lifestyle that accompanies missionary-hood prepped her for the tour life she leads now, and the exposure to worship music that came with it became a key influence in her songwriting. Worship music is "simple and easy to sing along to but the melodies are really strong, and the same elements are crucial for pop music.” She learned to mix that structure with innovative sounds much like her idol Bjork, whom Lights adores for makings songs that are strong even when stripped of their bizarre elements. “It’s a hard thing to achieve: to do something creative and different and on the cusp of innovation but still have a great song there.”

She spoke with me about her regrets for her over-usage of auto-tune for her 2009 album, The Listening. “Who knew that auto-tune would have become such a negative thing?” It was used more as an effect rather than a cover-up for poor vocals, as this Juno Award winner did an entire acoustic tour that proved her singing abilities.

She used far less auto-tune in her new album, Siberia, coming out on October 4th, an album she claims came 24 from a more confident and happy place than the last record, and shows her progression as an artist. “The 25 first record was a little more clean. This [Siberia] is still pop but it’s raunchy and there’s almost a grossness to it.” Lights feels that confidence is essential for successful collaborations and felt privileged to have been emotionally prepared to work with hip-hop artist Shad and electronica band Holy Fuck. Just one jam session with Holy Fuck produced tracks “Siberia,” “Everybody Breaks A Glass,” and a 9 minute instrumental entitled “Day 1,” creating a “kind of live electro rather than typical electro, which is very structured in general.”

ally written about WOW, and she credits the game for some of her best memories. “It was 2009 and I was on a horse in the sunset down this beach in a zone called Tanaris, and I had these songs [that she had written] playing in the background and its just one of the best memories I have.” She also possesses three WOW tattoos: the twin blades of Phoenix, a spectral tiger mount, and the heart stone tattoo. "You can be in the middle of the battlefield and it can take you home." The tattoo means more to her than just a virtual teleportation device; its symbolic for her personal battlefields as well. Her body is the canvas for over 30 hours worth of work, all art that has multiple meanings, acquiring tats for notable accomplishments and milestones.

"Everything I have is a marking a time in my life, and unless you hated yourself, why wouldn't you want to look back?”

Lights is an avid collector of Wonder Woman and Magnus Robot Fighter comics and incorporates this hobby into her work. Her first album was based on retro sci-fi comics like Barbarella, which directly influenced her video for “February Air.” For Siberia she takes it back a few more decades to Noir-style comics such as Dick Tracy. Her video for “Everybody Breaks A Glass,” which she drew herself, invokes the darker comics of the 1940s. She worked with Tomm Coker of Marvel Comics to created a semi-animated comic called “Audio Quest: A Captain Lights Adventure” which aired on MTV in 2009. And, of course, that accomplishment warranted a tattoo; Lights got a tattoo of the laser gun that her animated self carries.

A gamer at heart, Lights loves the music from Street Fighter and uses RPG game World of Warcraft as a source of inspiration. Her song “Lions” was actu-

Sept. - Oct. 2011

And speaking of comics, not unlike Hit Girl from KickAss, Lights also possesses an impressive weapons wall at her home-base. Much like her manner of acquiring tattoos, she picks up a new weapon every time she experiences something significant. When she went on her first major tour she purchased a replica light saber to add to her wall of laser guns, daggers and much more. "My place is very dangerous, it makes me feel as though if my house gets broken into, I'll be the winner." She’s also a lover of bad B-horror films, such as the Pumpkinhead series, and cited Bruce Campbell as her dream cameo, thus making her my dream BFF and every nerd’s dream-girl, I’m sure.

Words by Gina Conn | www.locksley.com

I

spoke with Kai Kennedy of the the optimistic indie band, Locksley, one sunny afternoon.

Him and I chatted on the phone to the tunes of my boyfriend playing Megaman in the background. I’m sure Kai didn’t hear it, but I sure did when I was transcribing the interview and, for better or worse, I will forever link Megaman and Locksley in my mind.

Sam Bair, Kai Kennedy and brothers brothers Jesse Laz and Jordan Laz, make up Locksley, one of the many Wisconsin bands kicking as right now, and they play tribute to their Midwestern and “typical middle class” past with the song “Oh Wisconsin.” Although they feel like family to each other nowadays, it wasn’t always that way. “Jesse and I started out as enemies and we found a common ground in Latin Class.” The foursome formed in Madison during their high school days, performing for the first time at a Barmitzvah.

Their first big show was at the Mercury Lounge in Manhattan three years ago and “it was a hell of a night.”

They describe themselves as doo-wop punk, and idolize punk rockers like Richard Hell, Deadboys, New York Dolls and The Ramones. When it comes to songwriting they follow in the footsteps of early British Invasion bands like The Kinks and The Beatles. Locksley is incessantly compared to The Beatles; just a few YouTube searches produced a crapload of discussions and videos dedicated to “The New Beatles!” I asked Kai how he felt about being compared to the epic Englishmen. “If we are going to get compared to anybody, that would be a band I wouldn’t mind being compared to at all, but as much as I don’t mind, c’mon! It’s the fucking Beatles! Nobody else is the Beatles, definitely not us.” They may not be The Beatles but they do perform a killer cover of “I Saw Her Standing There.”

There’s no doubt they are highly influenced by the early Beatles in addition to bands from the doo-wop era. Their album covers and manner of dressing up in matching suits are an intentional and fun throwback.

“You see pictures and old film [of those kinds of bands], and it’s so cool, why would I not look like that?”

With album names like Be In Love, Locksley churns out music that is upbeat and cheery, which is a con-

trast to the typical indie rock band of today. I asked Kai why they named themselves after Robin Hood and Kai told me, “On the risk of sounding esoteric here, we always considered ourselves a merry band of men just basically living our own way and trying to make merry.” And make merry is just what they do. “I’ll let the news tell people stuff that will bring them down.

We only have a short amount of time; our sets are short, our lives are short so lets not write a bunch of sad songs.”

The music video of their single “The Whip” off their selftitled album is a video that features a white room and paint-happy partiers. I asked Kai how long it took for him and his merry mates to get all the paint off their

Sept. - Oct. 2011

bodies. “It took about a week and a half actually. I had it in my ears, my eyelids and my nose actually.” It didn’t seem to bother him, saying it felt great to let loose.

When they aren’t playing rock music they take a break from the genre enjoying the sounds of hip-hop artists Wu Tang clan, Ghostface Killah, and Mobb Deep.

“We golf from time to time, we watch a hell of a lot of movies. Sam spends a lot of time waxing his mustache.

Jesse and Jordan spend a lot of time having staring contests, in complete silence.” If you hope to run into them in New York, stick to Manhattan. “We tend to end up in the Lower East Side a lot. Williamsburg is too cool for us.”

REVIEWS Trevor Hall

Words | Jessie Wheeler | www.trevorhallmusic.com

I

n very much the same vein as his 2009 self-titled album, Trevor Hall’s newest release once again treats listeners to smooth reggaerock grooves that provide the backdrop for lyrical themes of togetherness and love.

Hall’s music is all about vibe and feel. Are there any major standout tracks here? Well no, not really, but Everything Everytime Everywhere seems to be more concerned with inspiring a general mood, bringing about a calm, peaceful atmosphere that is soothing as it is uplifting.

The majority of songs on the album feature reggae beats with a strong rock influence and the occasional hip-hop driven verse. The first track, “Introduction,” presents a jumble of street sounds ending in a soft, prayer-like chanting that is echoed throughout the album. Songs of optimistic promise, such as “Brand New Day,” “Good Rain,” and “The Love Wouldn’t Die,” speak of love and its strength giving power, binding us together in hope, telling us that “when you love one another only good rain comes down.” Guest singer Cherine Anderson‘s rapping on “Fire” offers a little something different with a very effective outcome, making this one of the most upbeat songs on the album and a well-timed break from the other, rather softer pieces. “The Mountain,” the album’s final track, is a nineteen minute long finale beginning with some soft reggae rock, then delving into a period of silence before closing with Indian classical-inspired singing, ending, more or less, where it began: with sounds of India and messages of love and hope.

26 27

Botany

Words | Michael Garfield

B

y the time the anonymous girl's tinny dream of a voice kicks in on the title track of Feeling Today, Botany's bustling garden sound is already sprawled thick in the kind of eternal dusky playground once evoked by acts like Air – back when lo-fi delay junkies like Caribou, and toy box sample kids like Four Tet, had not yet established backyard nostalgia as the emotional fundament of indie electronic music.

And so it goes for all eighteen minutes of Spencer Stephenson's lovely EP: twinkling along in such constant prim blush, dipping in the same walled garden fountains where Pogo finds his sleepier tracks, that listening to it is almost more like the memory of a song than the song itself.

Everywhere sunlight glints through floating motes and golden leaves.

It's a kind of faerie celebration in the woods – on "Bennefactress," birdcalls and saturated bells bending around the clatter of handclaps and sticks, a midsummer march, attendants dancing round their queen.

"Agave" is edgier, desert grit getting between my musical teeth. Sharp glassy noises, hanging chimes, a sense of traveling suspension with the straight snare keeping city time -- it's entirely appropriate to Stephenson's Texas home base.

Botany's various websites are information wastelands – this project says more through its music than its collective online presence. As annoying as that is in an age of easy access, it makes me want to know; and I can not help but listen a little deeper to the epic layered spaces of Feeling Today – a quickie that rewards repeating.

Sept. - Oct. 2011

Jeff the Brotherhood | We Are the Champions Words | Bryan O’Keefe www.myspace.com/jeffthebrotherhood

Asa | Beautiful Imperfection

Gabe Dixon | One Spark

Words | Keith Carne www.asa-official.com

Words | Ruo Piao Chen www.gabedixon.com

Things would have fared slightly better for French Nigerian soul vocalist, Asa if she used “The Way I Feel” as a mantra for her new record. It’s one of the few memorable tracks on Beautiful Imperfection, but somewhere buried inside is a sincere Afro-pop EP. When Asa eases into chirping melodies in her native Yoruba, her voice sounds like an expressive horn, and it gives her an elegant confidence. “Be My Man,” is an English exception: it’s an infectious single that embraces the slick production and gets you dancing on her side. I just wish she could have kept me there longer.

Starting off his new album, One Spark with a blast of a song that echoes Panic! At the Disco and Coldplay in their primes, Gabe Dixon captures the essence of easy-listening rock with “Strike.” The rest of the album is filled with lyrical, uplifting beats that ride major keys most of the way through. With ballads “On A Day Just Like Today,” and “Burn For You,” Dixon adds a bit of pop flair to his delightful rock album. A happy blend of easily remembered tunes, maybe one should consider waking up to these pleasant melodies on a lazy summer morningor more likely, afternoon.

Graffiti6 | Annie You Save Me EP

Baron Bane | LPTO

Words | Keith Carne www.graffiti6.com

Baron Bane makes no apologies for pulling you off the dance floor to cry it out only to throw you back out moments later to dance again with their album LPTO. With tracks so textured and goddamn sweet you won’t care about a few bruises. Intoxicating strings and tasty synthesizers should make listeners question why they didn’t hear about this band the day before yesterday. For those in need of a little something to help them kick back try “Midthing” and “Your Words,” and then end your go around with the palpable, “Orchids.” All five of your senses will thank me.

Annie You Save Me, the eponymous EP’s single and lead off track is a nimble anthem that shimmers like the Beta Band and flows like Sneaker Pimps. Over TommyD’s ballasted rhythms, Scott makes his voice float. He connects his syllables and nestles into the crevices carved out by his own reverb (see their acoustic cover of Blackstreet’s classic, “No Diggity”). Sometimes it tiptoes over that line into drippy over-singing and sometimes it makes you painfully aware that he’s really good.

We’ll probably have to wait for their upcoming full length, Colours, to decide.

Big Harp | White Hat

Her Space Holiday | Black Cat Balloons EP

Big Harp is a husband and wife duo from, respectively, Valentine, Nebraska and Los Angeles, California; the name Big Harp referring not to an instrument, but to a version of solitaire played with two decks. Their breed of folk is rustic in way that harkens further back than their influences, collecting and folding in splashes of country, bluegrass, and saloon tunes on the journey to the present. White Hat, their debut, has an old-timey sensibility, which shines through their atmospheric production. And like Tom Waits, Big Harp sound nostalgic in a way that perfectly complements a tall glass of whiskey.

I’m not really sure whom Her Space Holiday’s Black Cat Balloons EP is intended for. The Marc Bianchi helmed collaboration project is synth-poppy without the sweetness and punk-y without the messy authenticity.

Bianchi doesn’t sing on “Anything for Destruction” and “Bitter Hearts,” so much as he timidly paws over them in a square, quaver-pitched spoken word. He sort of position’s himself (and I can’t help but think of him as) Ben Gibbard’s doubletracked negative. “I hope in the end I’m bitter enough to burn down my heart,” Bianchi wishes at the end of “Bitter Hearts” spiteful choruses; but you just know he won’t be.

Words | Elizabeth Price www.baronbane.com

Words | Bryan Menegus www.facebook.com/BigHarpMusic

Words | Keith Carne www.herspaceholiday.com

Sept. - Oct. 2011

If you’re expecting Heavy Days, don’t, as this is new territory for JtB. Admittedly, while there are some spicks and specks of that 2010 marvel layered throughout the new album (see tracks “Shredder” and “Mellow Out”), there is much more going on here, and you’ll either appreciate it, or you won’t. Take the song “Health and Strength,” for instance; a track that is about as heavy as a feather… dig that jangly sitar. So, take it or leave it, We Are the Champions is what it is --the follow-up to a record that, in my opinion, was virtually impossible one to surpass.

Leland Sundries | The Apothecary EP Words | Ruo Piao Chen www.lelandsundries.com

Who said country music had to be auto-tuned into mainstream pop? Leland Sundries’ new EP, The Apothecary, delights any Charlie Daniels Band fan by returning to a traditional, more relaxed take on indie-folk music. The vocals and accompaniment are reminiscent of 90’s Cali rock, perhaps a relief to some in these hectic contemporary times. Forget about those dropping stocks! Take a breather by watching the sunset to “Oh My Sweet Cantankerous Baby,” and let these Southern tunes lull you in their bittersweet way as you bid summer 2011 a melancholic goodbye, preferably with a cocktail in hand.

Three Legged Fox | Always Anyway Words | Bryan Menegus www.threeleggedfoxlive.com

Do you really like Dispatch?

Do you consider Sublime to be culturally and aesthetically significant? If you answered ‘yes’ to either, Three Legged Fox’s most recent full-length, Always Anyway, is entirely your bag of tricks. The Philly four-piece is another descendant in the long, dry bloodline of white guy reggae—crooning vocals, driving bass, and upstrokes abound. If you need something besides “Buffalo Soldier” to listen to whilst playing hacky sack on the quad, Always Anyway will fill that lack. If, on the other hand, you shudder at the mere mention of Phish or Rebelution, you will almost undoubtedly hate this.

V/A : Those Shocking Shaking Days Words | Bryan O’Keefe

This monster has been part of my constant rotation ever since I got an advance copy of it back in January. I, for one, didn’t think the vinyl heads over at Now Again would be able to top their 2009 psych collection Forge Your Own Chains, but, they did. People who are unaware of the brilliant sounds that were pumping out of wartorn Indonesia during the late 60s and early-mid 70s take notice, as this comp is out to educate, just as much as it is to entertain. Standout tracks include the Panbers’ fuzzed-out “Haai” and Sharkmove’s eerie “Evil War.”

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