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IN THIS ISSUE
12 Tungs 13 Just Plain Ant 14 Crispin Hellion Glover 16 Drop The Lime 18 Les La Britanica 20 The Clipse 26 Ken-Credible 30 Ryan Mclennan 34 Rusko 38 Jeff Staple 42 Oderus & Dave 46 Sara Blake 50 Ameoba Man 54 Record Reviews RVA MAGAZINE ARTICLES ARE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT RVAMAG.COM. cover photo by SARA BLAKE
TUNGS by Adrian Bennett
PHOTO by Dominic Butchello
The only word needed to describe Richmond acid-punk quartet Tungs is psychedelic. Everything about the band has been harvested and refined from the strange, murky waters of the James River, like the mysterious bubbling film you find floating on top of some stagnant pool. The band’s sound draws from many different styles within the vast array of psychedelia, from the creeping metamorphosis of Krautrock demigods like Can, and their bastard offspring of the post-punk era, to the surreal and experimental late 60’s songwriting developments that revitalized the pop music of the time. Tungs draws from all of these sources and more to create a strangeness that is undeniably their own. We just don’t really ever stop,” says multi-instrumentalist Alex Criqui 12
about the group’s expansive sonic palette. “Each week one of us will get into something different and show the others, so we are always changing in our taste and what we’re looking for from music.” The band, comprised of Criqui, fellow multi-instrumentalists and songwriters Ben Miller and Paul Himmelman, and newly added drummer Andrew Halligan, are known for their wildly energetic and unpredictable live act. In sets that rarely last longer than thirty minutes, they go from serene space pop to squalling walls of feedback and saxophone-fueled free jazz without thinking twice. “I think there’s always been kind of a ‘fuck it’ mentality in this band, when it comes to what we feel we should or should not do in our music,” says Himmelman. “I don’t really see that changing any time soon.”
The group’s self-produced full length, Sleeping , was released this summer and has been getting ample attention, with the help of DIY video projects and some catchy yet by no means formulaic singles. The album’s conceptual exploration of the dream world, created by using some of the most surreal elements of pop music, is perfectly set within the framework of the songwriting trio’s various compositions. “We all have different approaches and different ideas about the band, but we try to set our egos aside and let our perspectives flow into one sound,” Miller says. The bands newly expanded lineup has added a wide frontier of sonic possibilities. The group’s newest material seems to draw inspiration equally from Miles Davis and the experimental punk of the
1980’s. “Before Drew joined, it was a situation where you had three guitar players trying to drum,” says Criqui. “But now, we actually have someone who knows what they’re doing, and so it’s awesome being able to let that go and just [have] all three of us concentrate on the melodies.” Tungs is planning on releasing an EP this winter through their new label, the Acme Thunderer, as well as a vinyl seven inch on Whole Ghost, scheduled for release in February of next year. Their inquisitive nature and continued explorations into new frontiers of sound should keep Tungs progressing in fascinating and unpredictable directions for a long time to come. www.myspace.com/tungsband
JUST PL AIN ANT WORDS by B.I. BL ACK
For Anthony Gillison, better known to the river city as the eclectic beat maestro Just Plain Ant, 2010 has been an especially prolific year. Gillison has kept his sound fresh with each changing season, dropping his third release of the year, See What Eye See , this fall. JPA’s past effor ts have featured a formidable collection of some of the best MCs in the game, from both within Richmond and beyond its borders. He even managed to attract the legendary talent of Public Enemy front man Chuck D, who lent his voice to this summer’s sensational full length Rumble, Young Man, Rumble . The legendary MC’s presence and musical ethic stand as a touchstone for Just Plain Ant’s boundary-pushing music, which combines elements of jazz, electronica, and classic old-school hip hop, always keeping the emphasis on intellect. Gillison’s journey began in 2009 when he joined with like minded talents from around the region to form the Just Plain Sounds collective. The group formed in an effor t to bring a scattered group of collaborators within the Richmond hip hop scene together into a unified front. By combining the forces of ar tists including Joey Ripps, OhBliv, Sleaze, and Draztiq, Just Plain Sounds--along with acts like the Chocolate Milk beat collective, and freestyle champion Nikelus F -fostered a renewed scene for positivist hip hop in Richmond. Just Plain Ant’s work goes far beyond mere creation of backing tracks for MCs to drop verses over. His heavily varied sound spans the spectrum of beat culture. He’s capable of producing sample heavy
bangers like Rumble Young Man, Rumble’s “This is Madness (featuring Black Liquid),” but by juxtaposing them with digitally dripping original compositions that would feel more at home on a Radiohead album than a typical hip hop release, he creates an entirely new context for both kinds of composition. See What Eye See’s first single, “Singing To Myself (feat. Caits Messner),” steps even far ther into lef t field. It combines the cool contemplation of early 90’s lounge music with an abstract collage of spoken word and seductive coos, which dissolve amongst the haunting, reverberating jazz piano chords. Gillison describes See What Eye See as his best and most introspective work to date. He uses fewer samples in favor of working with more original melodies and sound sources that reflect his current temperament and full ar tistic range. However, he still retains his strong connections with the roots of hip-hop, placing these new explorations in sound alongside rhymes from the members of the Just Plain Sounds crew. As if two full-length albums and an EP weren’t enough for one year, Ant claims to be working on a four th release: a top secret project of a more experimental nature that will soon be completed, but may or may not ever be revealed to the general public. In a year that could always use more of the amazing new hip-hop music that Just Plain Ant continually provides, we can only hope that we all get to hear it, and soon. justplainant.bandcamp.com
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Crispin Hellion Glover by Todd R aviotta
photo courtesy of crispin glover
Crispin Hellion Glover is undoubtedly best known for his roles in classic 80s movies like Back To The Future and River’s Edge. However, while he might seem like a marginal figure to those who see the world through the filter of a Hollywood lens, in truth Glover is a multi-talented artist who has spent the past three decades putting the majority of his energies into his independent projects. These projects range from producing and directing low-budget independent films to releasing albums to writing books, all of which reflect Glover’s unique sensibility. His more recent work in big-budget Hollywood movies also reflects this sensibility to a great extent, as Glover typically portrays eccentric characters in his more recent film work. Among those roles are the title role in the 2003 remake of the 1971 film Willard, that of the Creepy Thin Man in the Charlie’s Angels film series, and that of Grendel in Robert Zemeckis’s 2007 adaptation of Beowulf.
is not addressed during the film. In order to best present the film, and deal with the questions it was sure to raise, Glover chose to forego typical avenues of film distribution. Instead, he took the film on tour and presented it himself at independent theatres, accompanied by a question and answer session, as well as a slideshow presentation of several of his books entitled Crispin Hellion Glover’s Big Slide Show. Glover’s books are just as much works of visual art as writing; he constructs them by radically modifying books from the 19th Century that have become part of the public domain. He has published several through his production company, Volcanic Eruptions, but many more remain unpublished. Glover is currently touring with his 2007 sequel to What is it?, entitled It is fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE. This film was written by and stars Steven C. Stewart, who also appeared in What is it? Glover produced the film and co-directed it with David Brothers.
In 2005, Glover released What is it?, a film he’d been working on for over a decade, financing it with the paychecks from his appearances in big-budget Hollywood films. What Is It? was a shocking experimental film dealing with taboo subjects such as racism and prejudice towards the handicapped and disabled. Most members of the cast have Down Syndrome, although the condition
His tour will bring him to Richmond’s Byrd Theatre on Friday, December 3rd, in an appearance facilitated and sponsored by the James River Film Society. The event will start at 9:00 PM, and will consist of two programs: Crispin Hellion Glover’s Big Slide Show Part 2, a one hour dramatic narration of eight different, profusely illustrated books; and a screening of
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It is fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE (35 mm, 74 minutes). Tickets are $10 for each program, or $20 for both, and are available at Chop Suey Books and Video Fan. Todd Raviotta got in contact with Mr. Glover over email to ask about his films, his books, and how he balances his work within and outside of the Hollywood studio system. TODD: What is your process and ritual in the book making? CRISPIN: I made all the books in the shows in the 80’s and early 90’s. I would find older bindings from the 1800’s and images from around the same time and rework them. I usually reworked the text with india ink and the photos and illustrations with graphite and india ink. I would use rubber cement to glue in the illustrations. Some of the books were made over a period of months or even years, if they were put aside for a time, and some of them were made more rapidly. There usually was some revising of them after having gone through the pages, and then at a certain point it would become apparent that the book was completed. The books are taken from old books from the 1800’s that have been changed into different books from what they originally were. They are
heavily illustrated with original drawings and reworked images and photographs. When I first started publishing the books in 1987, people said I should have book readings. But the book are so heavily illustrated, and the way the illustrations are used within the books, they help to tell the story. So the only way for the books to make sense was to have visual representations of the images. This is why I knew a slide show was necessary. It took a while, but in 1992 I started performing what I used to call Crispin Hellion Glover’s Big Side Show. People get confused as to what that is, so now I always let it be known that it is a one hour dramatic narration of eight different profusely illustrated books that I have made over the years. The illustrations from the books are projected behind me as I perform the show. TODD: How do you strike a balance between the experience of working on big impersonal projects and that of making complex intimate smaller films? CRISPIN: I do not really use the same vocabulary to describe the balance of my film work. I will explain what you are asking this way: In the last ten years I have been acting in films that I have been utilizing the money to finance my own film projects. I often see it written as though I am only act-
ing in other people’s films to finance my films, but this is not true. I enjoy acting in other people’s films. Actually financing my own films with the money I have made acting in other people’s films has made me enjoy acting in other people’s films more and be more grateful for it. TODD: When did you first start working on your personal films? What got you started on making them? CRISPIN: I have been making films starting when I was thirteen and purchased a Minolta super 8 camera with an intervalometer. I do not quite remember what attracted me to making movies at that age, but I did like it. Some details about the two feature films I have completed are as follows:
What is it? is my psychological reaction to the corporate restraints that have happened in the last 20 to 30 years in filmmaking. Specifically, anything that can possibly make an audience uncomfortable is necessarily excised, or the film will not be corporately funded or distributed. This is damaging to the culture because it is the very moment when an audience member sits back in their chair looks up at the screen and thinks to themselves, “Is this right what I am watching? Is this wrong what I am watching? Should I be here? Should the film maker have made this? What is it?” And that is the title of the film. What is it that is taboo in the culture? What does it mean that taboo has been ubiquitously excised in this culture’s media? What does it mean to the culture when it does not properly process taboo in its media? It is a bad thing when questions are not being asked, because these kinds of questions are when people are having a truly educational experience. For the culture to not be able to ask questions leads towards a non educational experience, and that is what is happening in this culture. This stupefies this culture and that is of course a bad thing. So What is it? is a direct reaction to this culture’s film in content. I have completed part two of the trilogy entitled It is fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE. Steven C. Stewart wrote and is the main actor in It is fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE. I put Steve into the cast of What is it? because he had written this screenplay, which I read in 1987. When I turned What is it? from a short film into a feature, I realized there were certain thematic elements in the film that related to what Steven C. Stewart’s screenplay dealt with. Steve had been locked in a nursing home for about ten years when his mother died. He had been born with a severe case of cerebral palsy and he was very difficult to understand. People that were caring for him in the nursing home would derisively call him an “M.R.” short for “Mental Retard.” This is not a nice thing to say to anyone, but Steve was of normal intelligence. When he did get out, he wrote his screenplay. Although it is written in the genre of a murder detective thriller, truths of his own existence come through much more clearly than if he had written it as a standard autobiography. I put Steven C. Stewart into What is it? when I turned What is it? into a feature film. Originally What is it? was
going to be a short film to promote the concept to corporate film funding entities [of] working with a cast wherein most characters are played by actors with Down’s Syndrome. Steve had written his screenplay in in the late 1970’s. I read it in 1987 and as soon as I had read it, I knew I had to produce the film. Steven C. Stewart died within a month after we finished shooting the film. Cerebral palsy is not generative but Steve was 62 when we shot the film. One of Steve’s lungs had collapsed because he had started choking on his own saliva, and he got pneumonia. I specifically started funding my own films with the money I make from the films I act in. When Steven C. Stewart’s lung collapsed in the year 2000 this was around the same time that the first Charlie’s Angels film was coming to me. I realized with the money I made from that film, I could put straight into the Steven C. Stewart film. That is exactly what happened. I finished acting in Charlie’s Angels and then went to Salt Lake City, where Steven C. Stewart lived. I met with Steve and David Brothers, with whom I co-directed the film. I went back to LA and acted in an lower budget film for about five weeks, and David Brothers started building the sets. Then I went straight back to Salt Lake and we completed shooting the film within about six months, in three separate smaller productions. Then Steve died within a month after we finished shooting. I am relieved to have gotten this film finally completed because ever since I read the screenplay in 1987, I knew I had to produce the film, and also produce it correctly. I would not have felt right about myself if I had not gotten Steve’s film made. I would have felt that I had done something wrong and that I had actually done a bad thing if I had not gotten it made. So I am greatly relieved to have completed it, especially since I am very pleased with how well the film has turned out. We shot It is fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE. while I was still completing What is it? And this is partly why What is it? took a long time to complete. I am very proud of the film, as I am of What is it? I feel It is fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE. will probably be the best film I will have anything to do with in my entire career. People should join up on the email list at CrispinGlover.com as they will be emailed with information as to where I will be where with whatever film I tour with. It is by far the best way to know how to see the films. TODD: What is your experience with the handicapped and disabled? What attracts you to telling part of their story? I should reiterate that What is it? is my psychological reaction to the corporate restraints that have happened in the last 20 to 30 years in filmmaking. And although most of the actors in the film have Down’s Syndrome, the film is not about Down’s Syndrome. The second film in what will be the trilogy is the film I will be showing at the Byrd Theatre. I am very proud of this film. TODD: How has touring with your independent films affected the way you see the country and the world? CRISPIN: When I show What is it? outside of the United States, I get a
much different reaction than when I show it in the United States. People become much more aggressive in the US in the Q and A session. I would attribute this to the fact that the control of the US media is more stringent in the US by corporate interests than it is in other countries. Therefore What is it? feels more alien and more questionable in the US than it does in most of the other parts of the world I have shown. Strangely, the only other countries that I have had similar kind of aggressive questions as the US are in Ireland and Germany. My experiences in Canada, Norway, Spain, Japan, Australia and Finland were that the audiences were far less aggressive about the material that they witnessed. It could have just been the mood of the particular questioners in the audience though. I have had less aggressive questioning in the US as well. I did notice that cities in the US that would be often considered liberal cities had the more aggressive questions, and that cities that may be considered more conservative in the US would have less aggressive questions. I would not consider What is it? either a liberal or conservative film, but I do not think either film would be appropriate for anyone under the age of 18. TODD: Do you have any hope for 21st century independent media in the US? CRISPIN: I think the continuing tightness of the constraints over the corporate funded and distributed media will make it necessary for non-corporately funded media to be funded and distributed by individuals who want to express specific thoughts that corporately funded media will not fund or distribute. TODD: What do you look out for in visiting places where you share your films? CRISPIN: It is more about the aggressiveness of the people involved with the venue in getting me to them than it is about me searching out and pursuing venues. I have to admit I love playing in genuine vaudeville theaters because I can feel that they were constructed for live performance, but the individuals who are passionate about bringing unusual films and media to help educate their community are true unsung heroes! TODD: What directors or artists first inspired or continue to inspire your creativity? CRISPIN: Werner Herzog, Luis Buñuel, Stanley Kubrick, Tod Browning, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Fritz Lang, F.W Murnau, Federico Fellini, Roman Polanski, Gaspar Noé, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Diane Arbus, and many more. TODD: Do you make work with an audience in mind? I often am thinking about my own enjoyment, but for the films I also know that I have to recoup the investment, and if there is a limited audience for what my personal interests are, then I have to be very careful with the budget.
TODD: One of my favorite moments from Wild at Heart is the Cousin Dell parable. Can you share thoughts on developing Jingle Dell? CRISPIN: I loved working with David Lynch. That performance is the most concisely directed performance I have ever done. As much as I am very happy with the performance and being in the film, I have to say that it was to the second precisely directed by David Lynch. TODD: I found your portrayal of Andy Warhol in The Doors to be very interesting. How difficult is it portraying an art icon that has been interpreted many times over in numerous other films? CRISPIN: I shot that film in 1990. To my knowledge, I was the first person to portray Andy Warhol in a feature film. I had met Andy Warhol and talked with him a bit at Madonna and Sean Penn’s wedding in 1985, five years previous to portraying him. After I spoke with him I stood back and watched him and how he moved. I thought he would be an interesting person to play sometime. The first time I heard about a film that had him as a character was for The Doors, and I pursued the role and auditioned for Oliver Stone. I did have certain concerns about how to portray the character, but many of the concerns were about having the character say less, and Oliver Stone was very good to work with as a director. TODD: How do you feel about being forever connected with George McFly? CRISPIN: I am glad that I was in Back To The Future. The character of George McFly was an excellent role, and I feel good about the final results in that film. I need to clarify that I did not play the character in the sequels to the film. There was never an agreement reached for me to appear in the sequels to Back to the Future. The producers hired another actor and, with a false nose, chin and cheekbones, made him up to look like me, then inter-spliced a very small amount of footage of me from the original film in order to fool audiences into believing it was me playing the character. Because of my lawsuit, there are laws in the Screen Actors Guild that make it so no producers, directors, or actors are ever able to do this again. I am proud of that. I have noticed, however, that Bob Gale, who was the co-writer and one of the producers on the films, and one of the chief architects of the concepts that led to the lawsuit, has been stating false things about me to attempt to lessen his wrongdoing. I do not like his false statements and would like to remind that what he did caused laws in the Screen Actors Guild to be changed to protect actors from his kind of wrongdoing. I ended up having an excellent working relationship with Robert Zemeckis on Beowulf, which was released in 2007. Despite the negative aspects of Bob Gale, I am glad that I played the character in the original film. For more info on the December 3rd showing at the Byrd : jamesriverfilm.com On Crispin Glover : www.crispinglover.com
DROP THE LIME WORDS by ALEX ROSE
PHOTO by ERIK FOX ALEX: You have the “Hot as Hell” single coming out soon as well as your debut LP entitled Into The Night. When should we expect to see these? DTL: The single, “Hot As Hell,” just got pushed back. It was supposed to come out in November but now itís coming out in January. The album is set for release on January 30th. We have some major labels that I canít talk about that signed the album and single. ALEX: Is the music video timed to release with the single? DTL: Yeah, same time. Crazy video. We shot it in London. We got some models, we got some girls from Agent Provocateur. We were rockabillying out. Getting wiggly-n-wild. ALEX: Last year/earlier this year youíve been travelling the world. How was that for you? DTL: Unglaublich! ALEX: I have no idea what you just said. DTL: Haha, it means unbelievable in German.
Once a month in Richmond all hell breaks loose for an event known as Brain Drain. These monthly parties have been happening for a few years and have had to change venues several times to accommodate the rapidly growing head count. Over the past few months, resident DJs audioammo have brought in some heavy hitters to help get the parties started right. DC natives Nadastrom, Richmond-raised Cobra Krames, and Trouble & Bass Label heavy hitters Deathface and Drop The Lime have all graced the stage. Prior to his special Brain Drain performance last week, I thought it would be appropriate to sit down and pick the brain of two-time Brain Drain headliner Luca Venezia aka Drop The Lime. And as those who attended learned, “special” does a poor job of summing up the madness that occurred on this memorable evening. ALEX: The Hot As Hell Tour kicked off a few weeks ago, howís it been going? DTL: Fantastic! ALEX: Everything you ever dreamed of? DTL: And more. ALEX: How’s the crowd feeling the new stuff? DTL: Real good. It’s a twist. I got the rockabilly, the western-infused house music and the bass madness. ALEX: Sounds like it’s never been done. Youíre an innovator man. DTL: I don’t think it has been done. Maybe it has. It probably has, but no one has put it out there. These kids should put it out. BRING IT OUT!
ALEX: What are some standout cities? DTL: Sydney, Australia. Hong Kong. Bangkok. These places are insane. ALEX: Jumping back to your Hot as Hell tour, is it going worldwide? DTL: It’s going worldwide. The November leg is UK/Europe. I do them all again. ALEX: I’ve been seeing a little more about it lately, but when it first came out, people didn’t really catch onto it. I’m talking about your FabricLive mix. It had to have been an honor to be asked to prepare a mix for them. DTL: It was a huge honor. I’ve always looked up to those mixes. I’ve always looked up to Fabric. When I got a residency there first, it was always my dream to hopefully do a mix. And when I did the mix... it was difficult because everything had to be cleared. I had a mix that was a lot different. ALEX: I want to say I read somewhere that when you first sent in your mix, you were unsure how they would accept some of the tracks. DTL: I had really weird/obscure rockabilly and a lot of weird, asian-infused house. ALEX: How much do you think they edited out? DTL: At least 70%. Just because you can’t clear it. A lot of record labels are like, “No, we won’t clear it.” ALEX: The latest release I saw with you doing some guest vocals was the AC & Dell release. Prior to that, I saw that Crookers had you on a track. Are there any tracks with your vocals coming out
in the future that you can talk about? DTL: I did a song with Arthur Baker. Thatís coming out next year. I did a song on the Cubic Zirconia album. I did a song with Para One and I’m thinking that’s about it. Oh, and I did a song with Mowgli! Been doing a lot of guest vocals. ALEX: Sounds like you’ve kind of been branching off into a few different genres. DTL: Yea it’s fun. Real fun. I actually did a song with Spank Rock too. He’s finishing up his new album here soon. ALEX: Going back to your album. What did you want to accomplish. Did you want more vocals/less vocals? What were your intentions. DTL: I wasn’t thinking. It kind of happened naturally. Because I was DJ-ing rockabilly in my sets and mixing with dance music, I just started to produce that way. Next thing I know, that’s what the sound was. I had an album I thought was done 2 years ago. All of those songs are done. The only song that is on the album that has lasted is “Devil’s Eyes.” ALEX: Trouble & Bass just had their 4th year Anniversary. Congratulations! Did you see yourself and the label here 4 years ago? DTL: Yes. Of course. ALEX: Such confidence, got to love it. How does it feel knowing that at any given time, there are Trouble & Bass artists DJ-ing all over the world? DTL: It’s real good. It’s a good international family. It’s a gang. We’re like a mafia. We’re not a record label. We are not a party. We are a fucking gang. It’s a gang that makes people dance. ALEX: You did a few shows as the Trouble & Bass Crew over the summer. Do you have any more plans to do any of these types of shows? DTL: We’re doing a big tour. We’re doing San Diego and Los Angeles. We’re taking over Avalon in December. On the 18th I believe. It’s a whole Trouble & Bass night. It’s all 4 of us with Samo Sound Boy. Me, AC Slater, Star Eyes and the Captain. ALEX: What should we be expecting from T & B in the coming months? Anyone catching your eye in the hopes of bringing into the family? DTL: Deathface is doing a new EP with us. He’s doing a live band, has female singers, it’s real next level music. We have a new Supra1 EP coming out, real cool sounding. I produced a bunch of stuff for Little Jinder. We have a new song that I produced that’s a dubstep tune thatíll come out called “Without You.” A lot of new stuff... Zombies for Money has some new stuff. As far as new people weíre taking on, weíre working with Canblaster and Manta Ray. I’m doing a collab
with Bart B More. It has cow moo-ing samples and some other unusual sounds. Cowabunga! That’s what we should call it, haha. ALEX: Last time you were in Richmond, you played a much smaller club. It was insanity. It was probably one of the most memorable times I’ve had here. Do you feel like you have to one-up your last set? DTL: Right now, what I’m doing is so different and crazier. Let’s just say it’s going to be fun. We’re here to have fun and I’m going to make sure we’re going to have fun. ALEX: If you could produce/work with any artist/group from any time period, who would it be? DTL: KLF. KLF and Tom Waits. ALEX: Who’s your favorite producer now? DTL: I’d say Canblaster is really nailing it now. This new wave of French kids are really killing it. ALEX: In your down time, what are some new music releases you have on repeat? DTL: In my downtime, let’s see. Emeralds, from Cleveland they’re amazing. Reporter, another amazing band. Altered States. I listen to lot of bands, I don’t really listen to dance music. Oh, and the new Skream album sticks out. ALEX: I saw on your blog that when you’re travelling all over, you like to post pictures of all the food! What’s some of the craziest shit that stands out when you look back? DTL: We like eating, AC Slater and I. We like cocktails and fancy foods. When I played with Classixx in Beijing, we ate a live fish. Check it on youtube. A fish, a whole carp, still breathing. You see the gills moving, everything. It’s cooked! It was the most delicious fish I’ve had in my entire life.
(misc talk amongst the people in the room about how the fuck this was possible) DTL: Ok basically what they do--I asked--they take a blanket and suffocate the fish, fry the body, pull it out quickly and then take the blanket off so it’s still breathing. That was the weirdest thing. It was an unbelievable experience. Would I do it again? Yes. (laughs) ALEX: Final question: three things you cannot go on tour without. DTL: Pomade, Sweet Georgia Brown to be exact. A comb. Those should be together. And my lucky number 7’s.
He then pulled out a pair of dice and rolled a 7, first try nonetheless. At that point, my interview with the heavy bass champion was over. www.dropthelime.com
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LES L A BRITANICA WORDS by Anna Wittel and Meghan WORSHAM
P hotos by ross iannatti, jason lappa, & caleb plutzer Last winter, my cohort in crime, Meghan Worsham, and I trudged through the snow to see Les La Britanica play a gig in a packed, grimy basement in the Fan. The mostly twenty-something crowd convulsed collectively to the beat, singing along with front-duo Lindsey (Les La) and Louis (The Jilla Kew) who, along with Luke (Bobblehead) the resident beat-master, blasted their special brand of rap-hip hoppop music into the eager ears of the gathered masses. This was our first encounter with Les La Britanica and their many loyal super-fans. Since that winter the group has only continued to grow in popularity and panache as they woo new admirers at various venues around town. Meghan and I recently had the opportunity to sit down with the trio at Crossroads coffee shop and ask the hard-hitting questions about where the band’s been, where they’re headed, and more importantly, what in the world Poppinoffolopolis means. MEGHAN: So how did you guys meet? LINDSEY: I guess the first time I met Louis he was rapping in a white body suit. [laughter] LOUIS: That was the first time I had rapped or anything. Lindsey was there and that was the first time she met me. ANNA: What kind of bodysuit? LINDSEY: A painter’s suit with a hood. Louis: You’ll see it in our music video. LUKE: The first time that I met you I didn’t really like you Lindsey. [laughter] Well it wasn’t that I didn’t like you it’s just that…You have this thing, when you get drunk you yell in people’s faces. You were doing that to me all night… LINDSEY: [ giggles] I’m so sorry! LUKE: I didn’t dislike you. You were just intense, that’s all. LINDSEY: I can be loud and obnoxious. I have to make a scene for normally being quiet and well behaved. ANNA When did you all get started with music? LUKE: At first the name Les La Britanica comes from…Lindsey’s name is Les La and this other girl named Brittany we call Britanica. Louis and I were just going to be the beat-masters. They were going to be sort of the rap girls. And Britany didn’t even make it to the first practice. LINDSEY: We figured out that she can’t keep a beat. She can’t even clap on beat. [ laughter] LUKE: Before that Luke and I were making rap CDs. He was making beats and I was making really bad raps. I wasn’t trying to say I was a
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rapper. It was meant for people to laugh at. Lindsey ended up being one of those people that heard it and she liked it.
I’m not there. It’s not like we get together ever.
MEGHAN: What do you guys think of the Richmond music scene?
ANNA: Do you guys fight a lot?
ANNA: Had you rapped before?
LINDSEY: All the time. [laughter]
LINDSEY: No, actually I had been playing guitar and writing since I was 13. I was really serious about music and then they asked me if I would rap. It was a joke almost. I remember it was “Slave to the Thump,” and you guys were like, “That’s not bad.”
LOUIS: We’re all friends so we bicker. We bicker more than we fight.
LINDSEY: I think it’s really good. I really wish we could do more house shows and not have to constantly worry about the cops showing up.
LINDSEY: Uhh..electronic-dancerap. It’s very poppy.
LOUIS: The Richmond music scene -- there’s a lot of people doing cool stuff, but where are we going to play? It’s hard to find places where even they have equipment to utilize or a sound guy.
ANNA: What are your roles in the group?
LUKE: Our genre is Poppinoffolopolis.
ANNA: What music do you listen to?
LOUIS: She’s kind of like the face, not saying that she’s not talented, but in this case she’s talent and the face. I guess I would be the soul.
ANNA: Wait say that again?
LINDSEY:: I’ve always listened to pop music. I listened to country music when I was a kid. But, I love Lady Gaga. I’m actually into a lot of Baltimore acts. Right now I’m obsessed with Future Islands, Washed Out, Neon Indian…What about you guys?
ANNA: How would you describe your music?
LOUIS: Poppinoffolopolis. Me and Luke love it and Lindsey hates it! [laughter]
LINDSEY: Louis bitches at everyone and it gets shit done. Luke makes beats.
MEGHAN: What does that mean?
LOUIS: We all write music. We all produce music. It’s not like he’s the beat man, but he makes the best beats out of all of us. He makes the best licks. But, if he’s unwilling to work then we’ll work.
LUKE: It’s like a metropolis that kind of pops off. It’s kind of a real place. It’s kind of a state of mind.
LUKE: We just have a weird dynamic. We don’t really all work together. We all do it separately – I’ll make a beat, save it on the computer, and then maybe Lindsey will come to it, record her lyrics over it. She might not even be there. Then Louis might write some lyrics and record when
LINDSEY: Shit’s poppin’ off!
LOUIS: It’s anywhere you want it to be. We’ve thought of all sorts of dumb things to call it. Hype-hop, which is not cool. It’s like a clash of our sensibilities. LINDSEY: We still don’t even know what we’re doing. So each song is different, especially on our newer album.
LOUIS: We all have similar enough tastes, but also really different. When I was in high school I would listen to all the hip-hop from the 90s, but then my favorite band in the world is Built to Spill, so I was really into the indie scene at the same time. I mean, I was never a musician in high school. I’m more of a visual artist. I played baritone horn in 8th grade and I don’t play guitar or keys. I’m starting to learn how to play the keys, but music has always been a secondary thing to me really.
LUKE: Yeah, I guess indie. Definitely the older, classic indie rock like Pavement, Built to Spill, old Modest Mouse. I guess that’s my core. MEGHAN:: So what are your aspirations for Les La? Where do you see yourselves in a year? LINDSEY: We’re hoping that eventually we’ll be able to do some kind of tour. First and foremost we need to just finish this album because we’ve been working on it for a year now. It’s really almost done. It will be awesome to be able to get that to people and feel like this is the most current, relevant music that we give them. ANNA: Do you guys have groupies? LOUIS: Nahh, I mean… [laughter] ANNA Does Lindsey have groupies? Louis: The girls are more intrigued by Lindsey then want to go up and tell her that she’s amazing. I think the girls like her more than the guys. MEGHAN: Are you sexy? LINDSEY: In a hidden way. I like to hide filth in my lyrics. If you tried to decipher them, you might figure it out. “I take the Visa if you swipe it through my jimmy stache.” That’s all I’m saying. www.myspace.com/leslabritanica
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THE CLIPSE DOiN GOOD THiNGS
by Shahan Jafri
Since their critically acclaimed release Lord Willin back in 2002, the Clipse have been recognized by fans and artists alike as one of the most venerable duos in the industry. The industry itself, though, has not always been so kind. Label problems from early on, and being labeled “coke rap,” did not help the grit-laced brothers. They have had a wild ride from the get up, and are now on the “re-up” with two different paths. Gene Elliott Thornton Jr (Malice) and Terrence Thornton (Pusha T) are on the verge of doing some really good things. Malice is finishing up a book this December entitled Wretched, Pittiful, Poor, Blind and Naked, which will serve as somewhat of an autobiography. “I tell my son you gotta pick your friends better, I love Geezy to death but I have yet to write a letter,” he says on his promotional track “Wretched, Pitiful, Poor, Blind and Naked Freestyle.” This is a reference to Clipse’s former manager Anthony “Geezy” Gonzalez, whose 32 year sentence for drug trafficking was a very close call to home. Malice has also started a vlog site at maliceoftheclipse. com, where he is making short films based on true stories of hardship and redemption. Meanwhile Pusha is finding his place on the stage and in the studio these days. There had been rumors since the beginning of summer of Pusha signing with Kanye’s label G.O.O.D. Music, and they were recently confirmed. Whether its rocking out this year’s VMAs, or appearing on Saturday Night Live, performing the number one hit “Runaway” with Kanye West, Pusha is not quite done yet. The brothers Thornton have nothing but love and respect for each other as they follow their own endeavors. Recently I was lucky enough to see both perform in DC as they rocked out Howard Homecoming. “2011 Pusha Solo album, 2011 new Clipse material, 2011 new Re-Up Gang material--we back by popular demand y’all.” Beat drops and the place erupts. This was the scene on stage, and after it all died down, I was able to speak to them separately about their upcoming endeavors.
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PART 1: MALICE SHAHAN: What can you tell me about the book? MALICE: The book covers my life in the industry, the affects it has on me-positive and negative both. I think it serves as a eye opener for a lot of younger people who have aspirations of not just getting into this industry but any form of entertainment. Just being in this realm for fame, fortune, success or whatever their idea of that is. SHAHAN: What led you to write this book and make these blog films? MALICE: I think it was the platform that I’ve been blessed with, and I feel like I would do a disservice to only paint one side of the picture. For years you have seen the ups of the Clipse and you have seen me at my pinnacle. I think it’s only fair to show that there are two sides to every coin. We have had a lot of stellar moments and that’s what the media portrays and shows. You see us in all our splendor, but it’s not always like that. SHAHAN: What is maliceoftheclipse.com about? MALICE: The site is basically geared towards the youth, to those people I feel can still be molded and can still be taught. You still have influence on them to be thinkers, and not to always conform to what they see the next man doing. I know every person has talent and I don’t want that talent to be wasted on a figment of your imagination. SHAHAN: You recently changed your blog site-MALICE: The new direction of the blog site is basically to promote the book, and then eventually the film. All the video blogs are true stories. They all basically have an interesting tale which I narrate over and give the background. They are all events that have happened in my life. I find it to be very interesting because they have direct parallels to the Bible. It’s 2010 and I see a lot of the same stories that were documented over 2000 years ago. It just overwhelms me how the same things going on today were going on back then. SHAHAN: As far as music goes, your brother is doing a solo album, will you be featured? MALICE: I would have to say more than likely that I would be featured on my brothers album. The only question that comes into play is whether or not I feel compelled to rap (laughter). SHAHAN: You told me one time that it was a blessing that rhymes were not coming to you, and you were just choosing to follow another path. MALICE: That has since changed, because right now I feel like a beast rhyming. I recently did a song with Ab Liva. It’s called “Where Do We Go.” I know I still got it, obviously, but I have another focus right now. I found another source of fulfillment with these video blogs, the book and the movie. I feel like that is my new found passion. Rap will always be there, but it’s just not my focus at this point in time. SHAHAN: So there could be a solo album coming out? MALICE: Definitely. Don’t ever rule that out, but I have just been really enjoying this down time to finalize my book and promote it. I think I get a lot of satisfaction from helping people, and the testimonies that people have received lately are very satisfying. I’m just reading the comments and feedback and I feel like what I’m doing is a very needed thing. That to me is very satisfying. SHAHAN: How do you feel about your brother and where he is headed? MALICE: I think he has been put into a really good position. You know I am with my brother all the time, so I know how talented he is. So it doesn’t surprise me. As long as his soul is right then he is a total package. www.maliceoftheclipse.com / mademylifechange.com
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PART 2: PUSHA T
PART 1: MALICE
SHAHAN: So it is official, you are with G.O.O.D. Music? PUSHA T: Yes, 100% official. SHAHAN: When did this all begin? I know you went out to Hawaii to Kanye’s studio several months back and started collaborating. PUSHA T: I want to believe it was around March. I went out there for three days initially, which turned into a month. There would be days where I would literally take a flight from VA to Hawaii, go do a show and studio and come back. It ended up being a month and some change. SHAHAN: Did you have an idea after the last album, Til The Casket Drops, that you wanted to do a solo project? PUSHA T: It’s always been in the plans for Re-Up Gang Records, honestly. Anything that builds upon the Clipse brand, Re-Up Gang Records and, while building that brand, solo projects were always part of it. I look at my favorite acts like Outkast and Mobb Deep, and they did solo projects. You have to remember Malice and I are brothers, and there will never be a non-Clipse. So there is no breaking up with us, we really have to do things that build upon the brand. SHAHAN: During the DC show, you announced that your solo album will be coming out in 2011. Do you have an expected release time on your album? PUSHA T: We talk tentatively about it, but at the end of the day we are taking it project by project. Right now all the focus is around Kanye’s Dark Twisted Fantasy album. That and the tour that will be around it, which should be in the near future. SHAHAN: How do you feel about the direction your brother is taking? PUSHA T: I love it, I love everything that he is doing. I think his direction explains, and makes me have to explain less, the dichotomy of the Clipse. I think people are getting wind and really seeing how far his greatness spans. It’s really dope because there is a level of sincerity and a level of consciousness in it. SHAHAN: I asked Malice if he will be featured on your album, and he said more than likely, but only if he is “compelled to rap.” PUSHA T: Now if he says if he is compelled to rap? Well all I am going to say on that is if you have heard the Ab Liva and iCan Y.E.S. project, he just dropped a verse on that a couple of days ago. I don’t think there is a question of him and rapping. SHAHAN: Is Kanye producing this album from top to bottom? I heard you and Bangladesh (Producer) were in the studio working together. PUSHA T: Yeah, see that’s the thing, we have been in and made solo records together. But it’s really hard to talk into that project until [Kanye’s album] is over with. He will just send me records, and I will get it and record to it. At the end of the day, while he is not doing that, I can be in the studio with Bangladesh or Pharrell. I am trying to be everywhere. I just have to create and I have to keep creating. SHAHAN: You are probably on the best label right now with Common, Kudi, Mos Def, the list goes on. PUSHA T: Oh my god, yeah, man. (laughter) SHAHAN: How has VA influenced this upcoming album? PUSHA T: My whole thing is life experiences, man. I think that is the best way to even discuss it. I was born and raised here, and it’s the only thing I know how to do. It’s actually harder when you are making up a lot of things, I’m not that imaginative. SHAHAN:When does inspiration take place? PUSHA T: Some things I think, off the cuff and I’m like, ‘Yo, I need to put this to a beat.’ You got guys who build some great sound beds for some of my words, and I try to seek them out and find them. I try to be everywhere getting with people. SHAHAN: Will you be working with the Inkredibles, who are based out of Richmond VA? PUSHA T: I would like to. I am actually going to be seeing them very soon. SHAHAN: When are you coming to Richmond, man? PUSHA T: I just left Stony Point mall if that answers your question. (laughter) www.playcloths.com
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KEN-CREDIBLE
ANT: So your past work has been band photography. You are working currently with more high fashion, Betsey Johnson being an example of that. But you also do some fringe work. What’s the range of stuff that you like to do?
Girls falling from the sky, women towering over a landscape, guys cutting through time with knives... Ken gets paid to push you outside the everyday, disrupt your train of thought, and even scare you sometimes. For this reason, I wanted to sit down and ask him about his roots, photography and fighting the mainstream.
KEN: There’s nothing I wouldn’t say no to doing, but I’m the kind of person who wouldn’t just do anything for money. I’m at an advantage [because] I do web design also. I’ve had a good life, I’m not at a point where I have to do everything that’s set in front of me. It’s hard to say. If someone comes up to me with a interesting project or if they have a general idea that they want me to develop into something bigger, I’m all about it. No matter what it is.
ANT: Are you a Richmond native?
ANT: Fetish photography?
KEN: Yes--grew up here, went to Midlothian High School, moved here when I was 12 from Lynchburg, Virginia where I was born.
KEN: I wouldn’t say no to it, but itís funny you say that. In Philadelphia, I shot a lot of higher end latex designers. They pretty much are at the borderline of fetish. I’ve been in one of the biggest fetish magazines in Europe for the past three years from that kind of photography. I’m not shooting people having sex and stuff, which I’m not really into... but if I can get my art in the same genre it’s fine with me.
An interview with photographer Ken Penn
by Ant
ANT: I heard you were in some local bands when you were younger, can you talk about that? KEN: I was. I still love bands. I did a reunion show two weeks ago, believe it or not. The most notable band was called Grip, which was a hardcore band from the Fan, VCU area. We later changed our name to Dayspring-the same band, just went a little more melodical. Actually, we had to change our name because a metal band in Boston showed us a cease and desist. (laughter) ANT: About what year(s) was that really active? KEN: Probably 92-94. By the end, we did a whole US tour and everything. It was pretty awesome. ANT: Were you taking pictures while you were in the band, or is that something that came after? KEN: I’ve been taking pictures since high school. In the early years I shot bands--mostly bands that I liked, hardcore bands, punk bands--at the old Metro/Rockitz club downtown, Twisters, and throughout the years [of] being in bands. Also, I would shoot, but I didn’t shoot as much as I would now, because I would enjoy being in the pit and stuff, too. So that was fun. I didnít get into subject matter like models and everything until maybe 2003. After that I started focusing on the fashion aspects of things, and different kinds of artistic styles. ANT: Is that when you went to being a professional photographer - trying to make it your living? KEN: Yeah, exactly. I started to study, and the main thing I tried to focus on is lights. Getting different feelings through dramatic light, making the light help you tell the story. That’s when I started to seriously focus on it. It always ends up [being about] how much you focus and how much you want to get better at your craft, really. ANT: I noticed, and I might be off, but it seems like you are inspired at least a little bit in your high fashion work by Dave LaChappelle. It’s a little more fantastical -seems like there are similar elements- the beautiful women and imaginary narratives. Can you talk a little bit about that, where that might come from? KEN: Every now and then people say that to me, and I take that as a big compliment. I like his work a lot. I don’t look at it as far as trying to follow his style or anything. I don’t look at myself as having a style. I try to do things that will leave a lasting impression. You can take a picture with just a person standing in a room. Someone might remember it more if you have something unusual or contrasting in the photo. If they like it or hate it, they’ll remember that’s why they hated it, or that’s why they liked it. Because its something off, a little more unique about a photo. That’s what I try to do. Sometimes it’s a little more outlandish. I’ve tried to calm down on my photoshop editing, because I used to get crazy with that. But now Iím trying to do the same craziness, but shooting it all at once. So it’s more thought out, more planned, and just keeping it interesting. 26
ANT: So you are back in Richmond and you are still working with your connections in Philadelphia. What is the next step for you, and why did you move back here? I mean, coming back from a larger market to a smaller market. Is it just because you love Richmond? Or does it matter anymore? You can get work wherever after you made the connections. Can you speak a little more on that for a second? KEN: Well the main reason, my wife and I just had a baby girl a year ago. She’s turning one this Friday. My wife is a doctor and has been training for the past 9 to 12 years or so. We decided that we would move back here if she found a position here. As far as I look at it, like I said, I aways take myself worldwide. If someone wants to take me to Europe, to China, to Hawaii, I’m all about it. With the internet I can make contacts everyday. It doesnít really matter. It’s just pushing my art, and getting people to see me. Taking it bigger every time is what I want to do. ANT: So you’re not limited by the city, and I donít think most creative people are anymore. Let’s talk about your models for a second. It seems like you have a fondness for tattooed women and men. Can you speak a little bit on how you choose your models and why you stick with alternative lifestyles? It doesn’t look like your work will ever go mainstream. KEN: I think it all revolves around to what I said before, keeping the interest in a photo. It’s not really trying to pick certain people or certain things, but I think I’m drawn to subcultures. Things are really bold and in your face, and that leaves lasting impressions on people. With the contacts I’ve made, time and time again people in that network, whether it be models or fashion designers, seem to tie back. One of my favorite makeup artists that I use from New York was the hairstylist and make up artist for Katy Perry, who’s as mainstream as you can get right now. But if you look at Katy Perryís past work she’s kind of alternative herself. It’s not mainstream until everybody sees it. So once everyone sees me, I’ll be mainstream. ANT: I guess mainstream is very subjective now. The old fringe stuff is mainstream, and the stuff thatís on the fringe is too scary for everybody. KEN: I think there’s a difference. I’d like to be mainstream, but I don’t want to be cheesy. It is what it is, I guess. ANT: Absolutely. Where do you see your work going from here? You’re working in high fashion, you’re still doing the more artsy stuff that you love... Do you have any immediate goals? KEN: I’m trying to round myself out as far as subject matter goes. I’ve dabbled in a little bit of everything, and I want to take all of that to the next level. I’m looking at doing a high fashion wedding scheme this year. I’m looking at pitching to Vans Media for national campaigns--taking it back to my skateboarding roots. It usually goes back to stuff I love, you know--I love beautiful women, I love skateboarding, I love music... That’s what I shoot.
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KEN PENN
additional credits: Hair: Juaquin Cameron Makeup: Andrea Martini Necklace : Belle Morte Bees: Safari Anomalous
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RYAN McLENNAN by S. Preston Duncan It doesn’t give me the warm and fuzzies to hear about talented people moving away from Richmond, but there’s not really anything warm and fuzzy about the ar t of Ryan Mclennan for his relocation to corrupt. His work is a morose contemplation of human abstractions explored in the context of anthropomorphized animals, personified flora. The result is a desolate reexamination of consciousness, both of mor tality and the unknowable nature of existence. The effect is one that leads to not only the reconsideration of the fruitlessness of nihilistic perspective, but the needless absurdity of grasping for definitive answers to the question of what it means to be alive. It prompts a quiet investigation of the depression related to sacrificing existential exuberance for a practical philosophy of meaninglessness, an effect amplified by the starkness of the images presented on an empty white background, stripped of their natural context. There is a relatable quality in this, a subtle suggestion that the depicted quandaries are inherent to a detachment from the natural environment, and the unrelenting sterility of ar tificial surroundings.
redefining their image from that of a musician to that of a visual ar tist, a phenomenon that can be easily ascribed to his identifiably signature style, impeccable compositions, and discernibly Richmondinfluenced color schemes.
I work on paper. Overall, the work is very deliberate because I can’t afford many mistakes. I’ll stare at a painting for hours before I am 100% sure what to do next. If I place something in the wrong position it could potentially cost me the whole piece. Lighter strokes can be sanded off, but if I overwork something it can be impossible to get rid of. I use source material all the time. I use what I find in books, magazines, the Internet and whatever photos I can take on my own, though I am not much of a photographer and animals don’t care to be photographed.
A Richmond native now pursuing his ar t career in New York, I was first introduced to Ryan’s creative prowess by his reluctant involvement in the profoundly influential local acoustic act Homemade Knives, both as a bassist and album cover ar tist. He’s one of the few ar tists that has succeeded in
It would be reasonable to assume that a painter with such a demonstrable grasp on craf t and technical skill would contend with little resistance in ar t school. Apparently, however, drawing animals didn’t exactly appeal to the high-brow, professorial sensibilities of university thought, a dilemma that
His process is one of relentlessly developed vision, precise forethought, and meticulous rendering, and conjures images of ancient sculptors meditating on an unshaped block of stone before setting about its carving.
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forced Ryan, albeit briefly, from his subject matter of choice, but that ultimately contributed to his ar tistic evolution.
Drawing dinosaurs and animals when I was in elementary school was the beginning. Universities do not like dinosaurs and animals. Going to college was good because it gave me a chance to prove that I don’t like what I thought I didn’t like. After school I got back on track. With an established aesthetic of exactness that rests comfor tably somewhere between the stylized and photo-real, and a distinct symbolic voice that speaks all at once to the primal and evolutionary consciousness, Ryan is setting about an ar tistic exploration of less concrete imagery and scientific execution.
Hopefully [my work will become] less precise and more painterly, which is not too subtle of a transition. I’m working on it. And it’s an interesting transition. The illustrative qualities of his work demonstrate the human capacity for literal observation, and though his subjects are represented as grappling with human abstraction, the process itself doesn’t par ticularly exemplify the confusion depicted. There’s a cer tain level of palpable detachment in this, not from the pieces themselves, but from the individual entities contained therein, a sense that the god of the piece is a distant creator, who has lef t his creations to sor t out their existence on their own.
Most of the interactions are influenced by human dilemma. The animals are beginning to question their existence. Some are possibly finding faith, some despising it. Some are not only surviving, but they truly fear death. Some don’t want to be alive anymore. There is a dystopian quality to these ecological networks, a sense of the inescapably tragic, of re-contextualized pessimism, a quality due in par t to the color schemes of the pieces, which, Ryan says, are largely influenced by his time in Richmond.
I have grown to really appreciate old things. Old buildings. I like the architecture in Richmond and many places on the east coast. New buildings and renovations make me feel uncomfortable, they bore me. I like drab earthy colors (obviously, my paintings are all brown) and I think of Richmond as a fairly drab place. Not flashy. When I think of Richmond I think brown. I hate bright colors. If I wore a shirt that was orange or yellow it might kill me.
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An ar tist moving to New York generally indicates forward momentum, building success, or at least a dream and the requisite gonads. Ryan speaks modestly of the move, avoiding elaboration on the trajectory of his career.
I don’t know what [moving to New York] will mean, maybe nothing. I lived in and around Richmond my whole life. It was time to go. I have good friends in New York. There is a lot of art to see. Most everything is new to me here. I love it. As a musician playing bass for Homemade Knives, Ryan also designed the cover to their last album, No One Doubts The Darkness, but apparently this is the closest the two creative outlets come to overlapping.
I try to keep one as far from the other as possible. I don’t enjoy playing in bands. I do love my musician friends though so I play with them when I am able to. It’s a good time. They know I hate it, and I know [I] really don’t HATE it. It’s kind of a joke. They let me leave as soon as I know a song. With an ever-transforming style and burgeoning career, it’s no stretch to wonder what it is about these paintings that attract people living in our society today, and what that attraction says about our society. Is it indicative of an evolutionary shif t in human consciousness, a symptom of our desire to return to the unfettered acceptance of existence once held by pre-civilized man? Is it simply a way to reevaluate our perceptions of life, death, and the problems we face between, made palatable by the detachment of anthropomorphizing animals rather than depicting human beings? Or is it just that it causes us to ask ourselves what it is we like about these scenes of despair, quiet hope, and awareness of survival? It’s also no great leap of forethought to consider how living in the permeating intensity of New York will effect Ryan’s vision, or to contemplate the potential of his return to Richmond. When asked if he had any plans to return, his answer was no more overworked than his paintings, and considerably less revealing:
Let me move away first. WWW.RYANMCLENNAN.COM
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WORDS AND PHOTOS by Erik Fox
It’s been less than a year since DJ/producer Rusko moved from his native England to Los Angeles, but Americaís first “dubstep ambassador” has already set clubs on fire from California to New York with his unique take on the genre. Coming from a musically-oriented family, Rusko went through the music program at Leeds University, graduating with a degree in musical performance and production. After school, he discovered dub culture through SUB DUB, The Digital Mystikz, and his own work with Iration Steppas, which eventually led him to move to London seeking a larger dub scene. Since then he has solidified his niche in the genre as dubstep’s leading popdub producer, focusing more on danceable party melodies rather than the dark, moody rhythms from which the genre originated. Though die-hard fans of the music may shun his pioneering work, there is no ignoring the fact that what he has brought to the scene is expanding the genre. It’s also expanding his own career, allowing him to work with a diverse range of the industry’s A-list artists, from pop queen Britney Spears to hip independent performer M.I.A. to fellow club producer Diplo. We caught up with Rusko over email a few weeks before his explosive live performance at the Canal Club on October 23. ERIK FOX: First of all, Rusko, I’d like to thank you for taking the time to get up with us about your tour’s upcoming stop through Richmond. I understand that this will be your first time in RVA? RUSKO: Yep, super excited! ERIK: I’ll get to your recent success in a minute, but let’s start from the beginning. How long have you been into music? RUSKO: My mum was in a folk band whilst she was pregnant with me. She sang and played mandolin in the band! She stopped once she had me and never got back into music again, but now she is, like, obsessed with dancixang. I started making music at 14. I play the saxophone, bass, guitar and piano. My mum bought me this 4 track tape recorder that I would [use to] record songs I made on a simple drum machine program on the family computer. Then I started playing in bands with my friends. I had a ska and punk band. I used to play guitar and write the lyrics. That was fun for a while but I like to be in control of the music, so eventually I upgraded my software to Sony Acid and started producing solo. Then I went to Leeds college of music, but I didn’t graduate! They kicked me out and told me it was never going to happen for me! I am pretty strong-willed, and I just wasn’t interested in a lot of what they were making us do. I felt like most of their work was taking up valuable music-making time. I would skip class, stay home and make music. I am pretty much completely self taught. My drive and love for music is what made me stay home. I was 100% dedicated to music and making it my career, just not necessarily how the
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school thought it should have been done. ERIK: So at what point did dubstep come into your life? RUSKO There is a huge dub culture in Leeds. They’d have battling sound system parties and Iration Steppas obviously was the best. They had a major influence on my music. Then I met Caspa online! I sent him one of my old dub tunes, and he wrote back and said that he could totally see this as a dubstep release for his label! I went down to London to meet him, and that was that, really! I moved down to London and started producing dubstep and releasing [records] on Dub Police. When we used to collaborate, we would basically spend one whole looooong day working on it, and at the end one of us would take it home and just put the finishing touches on it. Then we started playing DJ sets together and did the FABRIC LIVE 37 CD. ERIK: Since then you’ve done work with huge names in the industry--Switch, Diplo, M.I.A., just to list a few. Are there any artists you’ve really enjoyed collaborating with? RUSKO: I’ve definitely worked with some amazing artists. I really enjoyed working with M.I.A. I really enjoyed the whole process. She is really creative and has crazy ideas! Sometimes they were totally impossible to do but other times it was [possible], and I think we came up with some amazing stuff! She really pushed me to try new things. As a producer it was cool to have her more involved in the musical process. A lot of times you never get to work one on one with the artist, but we spent a ton of looooong nights working in the studio. She was really willing to try out some of my ideas that other artists may not have had the balls to try! ERIK: Your most recent album, O.M.G.!, is by far the most distinctive collection you’ve put out yet. I’ll admit I’ve had it on repeat for some time now. Can you tell us what you’ve done with your music to solidify such an unmistakeable style for yourself? RUSKO: I have always listened to a wide array of different styles of music and have made all kinds of stuff. I think this is just the first chance I’ve had to really showcase that. The talkbox disco vibe is sort of a running theme through the album, and that was a big influence in my sound. This album took me quite some time to make, so I think when listening to it, you can sort of go on the journey with me. I have some classic dub tracks and a ton of melodic dubstep, also some fun vocal tracks too. ERIK: Once again, thanks for your time with us. RUSKO: Thanks! www.ruskoonfire.com
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A CONVERSATION WITH JEFF STAPLE by Neil Lopez (www.thisisforyoumom.com) Interview and Lecture Photos by Duy Nguyen (www.acollegeproject.com)
I met Jeff Staple at Jackson Ward. The nearly two-hour talk we had, over coffee and tea at Ettamae’s, was an incredibly inspiring experience. If you had told me over the summer that in a few months Jeff would be flying into Richmond from New York late Sunday night, that he’d be eating his first Richmond meal at New York Fried Chicken around midnight, and that I’d be having a sit down conversation with him two blocks from my apartment the following morning; I would have laughed in your face, especially from the New York Fried Chicken bit. But yet, that all happened thanks to the VCU Student Hip Hop Organization (SHHO), a group of VCU students and alumni whose aim is simple: higher learning through hip-hop. SHHO collaborated with the VCU Brandcenter to bring Jeff Staple to Richmond for a lecture, held on September 13th. I’ve been to several of the VCU Brandcenter guest lectures and this was one of the most packed and diverse crowds I’ve seen. For those who don’t know, Jeff Staple (otherwise known as Jeff Ng) is a hugely influential figure in the worlds of communication design, hip-hop, sneaker culture, streetwear culture, and fashion in general. He is the founder of Staple Design, Staple Clothing, and NYC retail spaces, Reed Space & Reed Annex. He is the man behind the now legendary chaos of the Nike Pigeon Dunk and other collaborations with Nike, New Balance, Oakley, Lomo, Mountain Dew, Airwalk, Starter, Penfield, Kid Robot, Burton Snowboards, among others. The man is both a veteran and a tastemaker of streetwear culture. His work defines and evolves the game all at once. In an industry full of shallow tee shirt graphics and nonsensical collaborations, Jeff Staple is an established standout. It would be easy to go on and on about his influence but I will choose not to preach. Instead, a word to the wise: Let the wise speak. NEIL: Could you tell us the reason behind the names Staple Design and Reed Space? JEFF: When I started making simple t-shirt graphics out of school, I wasn’t even really trying to start a company. I was just wearing one of my shirts when I walked into a store (Triple 5 Soul) and the guy that was working the store wanted to buy my shirts. But I didn’t have a brand at that point. I just had to think of a brand like right there on the spot. So I came up with Staple and that dude named me Jeff Staple. This was back in ‘96/97, and I was so dissatisfied with what hip hop fashion had to offer. I loved hip hop music and I loved the lifestyle, but the clothing was so cornball that I couldn’t be caught dead in it. This was like when Ecko was really popping off, and Sean John was just coming out and I was like, “Man, this is so much loud, meaningless yelling.” To me, the best parts of fashion were what laid underneath. Not the bling factor. So I just wanted to take hip hop back to the staple foundation, you know, the roots--the essential material that you can’t live without. That is what a staple is. Staple Design is like the design that requires the raw, basic, essential elements and that’s it. No added bullshit on top. And I went with that. Reed Space is named after my high school art teacher, Michael Reed, who was really the first teacher that not only taught me about art and being creative, but also about communication--being able to convey messages and thoughts and ideas in a positive light. Designing and teaching are basically transferring messages from one person to another. He was incredible at that. He taught you without you feeling like you were being taught. He made you thirsty, which was dope. He passed away while he was teaching me and it had a huge effect on me. The one teacher that I really loved was taken in midyear, and that really hit me hard. That was in ’93, and I didn’t start Reed Space until 2002. So [for] nine years, I kept him in my mind, and when I decided to open my store, I named it after Michael Reed. NEIL: How long did he teach you for? JEFF: One year. Not even--half a year. Let me give you an example of what he did. I had just got a car back then, and it was a Honda Civic Hatchback. I bought these ill speakers that you put into the trunk. I was really happy, but then there’s the back seat and the hatchback in the rear and I couldn’t hear anything because there’s no way for the sound to escape. So I was telling Mr. Reed about this and he was like, “You should just take the lid off, cut holes in it, and ventilate it.” I was saying, “That’s nice, but I don’t know how to do any of that shit.” And he was like, “After class, let’s do it, you and I.” So after class we went into the workshop, the wood cutting shop. He got a hacksaw and was teaching me how to do it the whole time. We jury-rigged this really nice aerated mesh grill, all handmade by me and him, all after school hours. He didn’t have to do that shit. NEIL: I’ve never had a teacher like that. JEFF: Exactly. It was so dope that he took the time out. I always remember that. To me, it’s important to take time out, lend an extra hand. Whether it’s for one person or two hundred people, or a thousand people. The more people I could touch, it just adds to the world, you know? Just trying to carry on what Mr. Reed taught me. 38
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JEFF STAPLE NEIL: How was it growing up in Jersey? How important of an influence was New York City? JEFF: Well, Jersey is a small state. Where I came from, Monouth County in New Jersey, is just rural, suburbia. It’s small. And I think, from a very young age, I needed to get out of New Jersey. I appreciate where I came from, but I knew that the speed of New Jersey wasn’t for me. I was coming into New York every weekend. My parents worked in the city and from a young age, like ten years old, they’d be like, “All right, we gotta work, so just walk in the city. Don’t go above 23rd Street.” They just threw me out there by myself. NEIL: How old were you? JEFF: Like less than thirteen. Maybe twelve or eleven years old. NEIL: Must have had some crazy shit happen to you. JEFF: Yeah, man. It was great! (laughs) I got conned so many times, but that’s how you learn. Like hey, little guy, want some sunglasses? And three card monte, like, “You got ten dollars, little kid? Come on, you can see where the ball is, right?” But that’s how you learned. You get conned. So I just felt, from a really early age, like the speed of New Jersey was not fast enough for me. I knew I was going to NYU before entering high school. Like there’s no question about it, you know? I applied for early admission. I also always knew that there’s a big difference between people who were born and raised in a big metropolitan city versus those people who were born in the outskirts, suburbs, small cities, then moved into the city. Not to stereotype and pigeonhole everybody, but I think if you’re born and raised in New York, you feel like you’re privileged. NEIL: Like assholes? JEFF: *Laughs* I don’t know if they’re assholes, but more like, “Yo, I was born and raised in New York, I deserve to be here by default.” Outsiders are just hungrier. A person from the outside is more humble, hardworking, diligent. It’s a broad stroke, but I’ve found that to be very true in every city that I’ve been to. I’m very appreciative of the fact that I came from a small town, and I think I still have small town sensibilities deep down, even though I’ve seen the world. NEIL: You’re quite the jetsetter. What do you think the importance of traveling is? JEFF: The most important thing about traveling is to understand that the world is bigger than the place that you occupy. I could see how if you come from a certain area, the problems of that area and the obstacles in that area, and even the accomplishments, both good and bad, are your whole world. If you have a problem, it’s like, “Aw man. Fuck this town.” Or if something dope happens, it’s like, “Yeah, I’m the king of this town.” But then you got sorta zoom out a little bit and realize, like on Google Maps. You could just zoom out one click, and you’re meaningless. You know, maybe if you’re like a true baller, than you zoom out five clicks and people still care about you. But eventually, I don’t care who you are, you could be like Lady Gaga or Kanye West, you’re gonna zoom out to the point where people don’t give a shit about you. Travel reminds you of that. You go to a place and go, “Wow, everything I’ve done means nothing here. Everything I’ve accomplished, people don’t give a shit.” And conversely, every stressful thing that hinders me in New York or wherever you’re from, doesn’t hinder me here. You need to travel in order to open yourself up to think on a global level. It’s not just about me sitting here doing this or that. It’s really how it could affect or potentially affect the whole entire world. NEIL: What do you think of the current state of streetwear culture? And what do you think about the use of that term to describe this culture anyway? It’s kind of an odd term. JEFF: It is an odd term, but whatever, I’m not ashamed of it. People use it a lot, but it’s just a broad term so I don’t really mind it. In terms of where it’s going right now, I think it’s been in a weird spot for a while. We’re fortunate enough to live on the cusp of the culture. So when shit starts to look good, we’re generally the first ones to feel it. And then there’s mainstream that’s in the middle--they feel it later. When sneaker culture, for example, began to feel wack and corny, and it started to not be in a good place, we felt that. Me and the people I work with were probably sick of Dunks like five years ago. And maybe now, like a year ago, the mainstream is finally starting to be sick of Dunks. There’s such a delay, it’s almost like it’s back around. Like we were sick of camo, and then two or three years later, the mainstream was sick of camo. But now that the mainstream’s sick of camo, we’re kind of cool with camo again. You know? *Laughs* And then it looks like we’re behind. We’ve sort of lapped them, and they’re like, “oh this guy’s trying to bring back…” No. We already did a lap. We’ve already been there. So I think it’s in a weird place right now but I also think that the movement that replaced street culture is Americana. Plaid shirts, chambray shirts, right? That’s it. If you open a store now, it’s gotta have a dead moose head on the wall, you need old wood, a burning fireplace, that’s the look right now. 40
That will pass, and what’s going to replace it is the rejection of Americana, which is street culture again. Like in your face revolutionary statements, maybe mixed with an infusion of Americana. The reason people like Americana is the craftsmanship, and the time that was put into it. It’s also a rejection of things made overseas, in China and stuff. So I think what you’ll see is the mentality of street culture mixed with the craftsmanship of Americana. Maybe you won’t see street culture the way it was, like a kid silkscreening a shirt in his bath tub. Maybe now it’ll be a 100% whole cotton shirt made in America that an artist in Vermont silk screened, but with like a dope graphic or message. I think that’ll be really good. People ask me, “Isn’t streetwear dead?” I think it’s just evolving. I think like, Kanye, love him or hate him, is a great example. You could say hip hop is dead [according to] a definition that you have of hip hop, and you don’t think he is a hip hop artist, but he is a hip-hop artist--an evolution of the hip hop artist. I think that’s what’s happening with streetwear right now. What you think of streetwear as, like all-over print guns on a shirt, that might be dead. But I have a friend who really hates on streetwear, cause he’s all into Americana and he’s always like, “How are you surviving? Street culture is dead.” And I’m like, “You realize that everything I’m wearing is street culture, right? You don’t make that connection?” NEIL: What do you think are the best forms of communication today, in terms of reaching the consumer? JEFF: Twitter. I think Twitter is amazing. It’s kind of sad though. The reason why it’s so effective is because it’s so easy and so quick. And if you’ve been on this Earth long enough, you’ll know that anything that’s easy and quick is never really that good. It’s like sex, or fried chicken. *Laughs* But in terms of being able to communicate, it’s so powerful. I thought when I had a blog it was powerful, but Twitter blows blogging out of the water in terms of accessibility and touching people right away. Then again, it’s just about communicating, it’s not about authenticity or accuracy. All these things go out the window. When you go out in the Wild West of blogging and twittering, almost anything goes. I just started following Dave Chappelle today and I don’t even know if it’s really Dave Chappelle. It could be a girl in her panties in her bed just pretending to be Dave Chappelle. I have no idea. So validity is very very dicey in this new age world, but it’s also very quick and accessible. NEIL: I feel like there’s duality here. I mean, why did you start a print magazine like Reed Pages? JEFF: I’m really passionate about magazines, so I want to try to make a magazine you know? People want to be able to touch something. It’s an experience. People want to cherish something and put it on their bookshelf and access it. It’s not like you can’t access an old Hypebeast post months later or something. You can. You just do a search. But there’s just something about the process. Anything of a digital nature is strictly junk food. It’s the difference between eating a Peter Luger prime rib steak and Doritos. Have you ever looked at a blog or Facebook for too long, so that it feels like you’ve eaten a huge bag of chips by yourself? (laughs) You feel sick, whereas if you’ve eaten a dope steak, you just feel like, “Ahhh.” You’re in heaven. And that’s what I want Reed Pages to exist as. NEIL: There’s this advertising book called the Brand Gap that you may have heard of. They define a brand as what people think about you, not what you say about the brand. It’s their gut feeling of the brand that defines what the brand is. For the Jeff Staple experience, what do you want people’s gut feeling to be? JEFF: Fuck. I just want them to have an opinion. I don’t care what the feeling is. I think a lot of brands spend too much time and money in trying to steer their consumers into feeling a certain way. “I want you to feel safe when you think about my brand. I want you to feel rebellious.” I just want you to think about my brand. Maybe it’s naïve of me to say, but I just feel honored when anyone thinks about what I’ve created. Whenever I see someone hold a Reed Space shopping bag I’m like, “Holy shit, that dude spent money at my store. That’s dope.” It’s still wild that that shit happens. So love it or hate it, I just want you to have an opinion. Like, I love haters. I think haters are some of my biggest source of inspiration. We just recently did an Oakley collection, a six piece collection. The last one to come out was the Frogskin, which was pigeon inspired. I saw some guy saying, “Man, can’t Staple do anything other than those stupid fucking pigeons?” OK, this dude’s obviously an idiot, but also, I’m not doing a very good job at explaining what my company does. Because obviously we do a lot more than pigeons. With this kid, whatever rock he’s living under, I need to get to that rock. That is the inspiration that drives me. NEIL: When it’s all said and done, how do you want to be remembered by other people? JEFF: I think this is where my Asian blood kicks in. I just want to be remembered for being a hard working person, that’s it. I just put in my hours and did what I could.
Thanks to the Student Hip-Hop Organization, the VCU Brandcenter, and of course Jeff Staple. To see more of Jeff’s work and to purchase product. www.stapledesign.com www.reedspace.com For the full length video interview www.theshho.com
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DAVE & ODERUS AN INTERVIEW WITH THE GWAR FRONTMAN by Ian M. Graham
St. Louis has an arch. San Francisco has the Golden Gate Bridge. Washington, DC has the federal government and the world’s greatest chili dogs. And Richmond, VA has a heavy metal band from outer space that wants to skull fuck you. Slowly at first, but by the time they’re done, it’s violent. Grammy nominated, banned in multiple municipalities and states, GWAR is here to offend you. Anyone who hails from Richmond and is a weirdo like me owes something to GWAR, whether they like it and acknowledge it or not. Nobody has been strange in RVA for as long as they have, and after over twenty years, they’re not just going strong, they’re gaining steam; they are producing albums at an alarming rate, and are touring more currently than they have during several periods in the past. At its core, GWAR is art. Their music, costumes, stage show and presence all smack of a not-very-subtly crafted message of shock and gore; it shows hours of tireless work on their art. The costumes are incredible and the stage presence is ridiculous. Their version of political commentary is ripping the heads off of latex world leaders and, you guessed it, skull-fucking them. If you haven’t seen GWAR live, you have no idea what I’m talking about, so do yourself a favor and check them out on youtube. Better yet, go to their next show, wear a white t-shirt, and get ready to be covered in blood, guts, and green alien jizz. I recently had the opportunity to speak with both of GWAR’s frontmen: Dave Brockie, and his character, Oderus Urungus. IAN: It’s safe to say at this point that the Earth has been pretty well conquered by GWAR. Which planet is next? ODERUS: We have conquered pretty much everything at this point. We did go back to outer space on the last album, checked it out, and when we were getting ready to destroy everything in all of space we realized that Earth is the only place that has crack. So we had to come back and stock up on crack, and we really haven’t left since then. We are planning on re-invading outer space again, after this record is over.We intend to bring our bloody choir to every fucking place we play on this tour. We will zombify them, and then use their zombified bodies to to make our undead shock trooper zombie army that we’re going to invade outer space with. However, the one thing that’s probably not going to work about this is GWAR’s tremendous talent for failing, miserably, over and over again. Every time we have an idea, you can put money on the fact that it really won’t work out the way we thought it would. But that’s okay! Failure is sometimes just as good as victory, as long as things are getting broken and I’m getting my dick sucked. IAN: As long as you’re high on crack, it’s all good? ODERUS: I wouldn’t say that I get high, the feeling is just different than not smoking crack. It is better, and if I don’t get it... Well, I was going to say that I get mean and violent, but it’s probably just meaner and violenter [sic]. I try and downplay the whole crack thing, it’s just like, I’m a crackhead! Sue me. IAN: It’s well known that Flattus Maximus deforested the fertile crescent with his chronic flatulence. What impact does this have on international relations? ODERUS: It’s a symbol of the impact that GWAR could have on the environment. GWAR could be used by the governments of this planet in a more constructive manner. For instance, during the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, GWAR has, in the band, the largest pumper of nasty organic material in existence.I am talking about Flattus’s butt. We can fuckin’ shovel more shit through that asshole than any supertanker could ever handle. We could have shit that well shut after just a few buffets at Denny’s.Flattus would have performed a fecal top-kill maneuver on it. I could easily irrigate the entire Sahara Desert with my fucking cuttlefish. But no! No! The governments of the world are too fucking concerned that I’m gonna end up butt-raping the pope on national television that they won’t talk to us about these things. Then again, we wouldn’t help them, anyways. IAN: They’re asshats. If you could only skull-fuck one more human, who would it be, and why?
ODERUS: Which human? Justin Beiber. Everyone’s been begging me to kill that little fuck, and I don’t even know who he is. But yeah, that would be him. IAN: Nice. So, the entire human race was created when GWAR went on a fuckspree with prehistoric animals. Why is it, then, that humans are such pathetic, puny fleshbags? ODERUS: I don’t know. When I was fucking various animals, trying to create a new form of life, I was hoping to get some kind of super cross between GWAR and apes, like a war-beast creature. Maybe with wings? But instead I got these pink, hairless wimps. But you know, you guys, one thing we have to give to humans is that they do have some pretty interesting inventions. We gotta give it up to you guys for coming up with heavy metal, squirt cheese, the rubic’s cube... There are a lot of interesting things that the humans do. There’s a flipside: everything else you do completely fucking sucks. So, I’m not really understanding how you guys got to be the way you are. I do have to take a certain amount of credit, being the creator of the race; I am kind of like your father, and you guys are kind of like my kids, except you guys are a retarded disappointment. At least Down Syndrome. At least a serious LD. I guess my penchant for corporal punishment, beating the shit out of children, I heartily approve. It isn’t really helping things, it’s probably causing huge brain growths to expand like cauliflower sacks of pus in your brainstems. IAN: Do you know of a good travel agent on Scumdog? I’ve heard the beaches there are nasty. ODERUS: Oh no, it’s terrible. The only reason they have beaches on Scumdogia is so they can practice amphibious invasions and have a place to shit. I mean, they’re really nice beaches, but there is just so much fecal matter on them that you can’t walk anywhere without stepping in a stinker. And, no travel agents, the only people that go there are either enslaved or kidnapped to be brought there to feed the endless war machine. Really not a place you want to have a vacation on. I would say try Flobcliff Eight. IAN: If GWAR were to enter the Thunderdome, in a two-bands-enter, oneband-leaves scenario, who would you want the other band to be? Why? ODERUS: Any other band on the planet would explode immediately. There’s plenty of bands I’d love to see in the ring with GWAR, top of the list would be that Finnish fuck Lordi. The one that apparently hadn’t heard of GWAR while he was busy completely ripping us off and using everything we’ve ever done. He deserves death, certainly, but as far as the other bands are concerned, I really wouldn’t want to slag them too hard or destroy them. Coming from a first person view on the whole thing, I understand how difficult it is, it’s a tough road. People think being a rock star is a big bed of roses, but there’s actually a lot of people doing all of my work for me all day so that I can sit on a phone and yell at people. So I guess, actually, I’ve got it pretty good. I’m pretty well off on the whole thing. A lot of other people have to die before I start killing off bands in the thunderdome. I’d love to take all the members of the United States Congress in there! That would take at least a week. Alright. The next questions are for Dave Brockie... ODERUS: Alright, I’ll go get him. [I hear the phone set down on the table, and, I think, footsteps.] ODERUS: Here he is. IAN: Thanks. DAVE BROCKIE: Hey, what’s up? IAN: Hey, Dave, what it is? DB: How was Oderus? He give you a hard time? IAN: Dude, that guy is terrible. I can smell him from here. DB: Yeah, he’s terrible. IAN: Awful. How are you? DB: Good! We’re out in Lincoln, Nebraska today. 43
IAN: Is there anything out there? DB: Sure, there’s a whole city out here. It’s called Lincoln fucking Nebraska. Bruce Springsteen wrote an incredibly depressing album about this place. It’s great, it’s completely depressing and horrible. We’re in that weird extension of America, everything from Texas to the West Coast. There’s occasionally a landmark of civilization, and in between those, there’s not a hell of a lot. Everything between The Rockies and the Mississippi is just flat. There’s not a heck of a lot going on there except tornadoes, Indian burial grounds, and broken vehicles. IAN: Do you ever get the urge to snap into character when you’re getting really shitty customer service? Have you ever flipped the fuck out on someone at a Burger King? DB: Ha! I’d love to be able to do that, but it doesn’t work at all. People just think you’re absolutely fucking crazy, and then they get mad at you. I wish I could whip out the Cuttlefish of Cthulhu and blast my way through any situation. But I have to remind myself that I do have to be a real human being at the end of the day. It’s a difficult lesson I’ve had to learn: the louder you yell at people, the less they listen to you. It’s one thing when Oderus is yelling at you; people like that. I’m so deaf from years of being in bands that I just yell at people, and they think I’m yelling at them but I hear myself in a normal conversational tone. And then, what makes it even worse is that when you really do yell at someone, it’s mind-numbingly loud. IAN: Leonard Cohen is, I think, seventy-six years old. Does he still have it? DB: Sure, definitely he does. Just because you get old doesn’t mean you lose it. You get to the point where you have so much of it that you’ll have it for the rest of your life, and even after you’re dead. For instance, and this might be a little hard, but I was thinking about it last night- Metallica. They still have it. They might have put out ten crappy records in a row, but the shit that they did that was so great is so good and it will still be good. I’m sure if Cohen wanted it, he could have a sixteen year old naked blonde Korean child sucking his nuts. So yeah, he’s got it. IAN: What’s the biggest gun you’ve ever shot? DB: I shot an AK. Nothing particularly obscene. Casey [Orr, “Beefcake the Mighty”] shot a fifty caliber one time. He wouldn’t stop pulling the trigger. He shot off a couple hundred rounds, apparently it was like six hundred bucks in ammo. The dude was yelling “Stop! Stop!” but once he started pulling that trigger, rockin’ that ma deuce, he couldn’t stop until the belt was empty. IAN: Why haven’t you moved into local politics in Richmond? DB: (laughs) IAN: If Dee Snider can get a radio show here, you should be on city council by now. DB: Well, that’s a national radio show, isn’t it? He’s all over the place with that. I’ve often thought about doing something like that. There’s just not enough time. Like anything in my life, I like to do the best job I possibly can at it. GWAR right now, really the last couple years--I know it sounds weird for a band that’s been as long as GWAR has to be taking off. It’s gotten to the point now where when I wake up in the morning, I can spend every single second working on GWAR stuff. This goes for everyone in the band and all the artists that are supporting us. We’ve never been more intensely busy and challenged by all the things we have coming up right now. It’s a super intense time and I just don’t have time to think about politics right now, other than the fact that I completely loathe politicians. I think it would be one of those things where people, you know, they want to become a cop for all the right reasons but after a couple years they become warped and perverted by the system itself. I don’t know how long I’d be able to handle it. Richmond especially, they have such a reputation for corrupt politics, and I have a reputation for being a sponge for all things naughty. I don’t think I would do too well at it.
IAN: That’s why I think you would do well at it. What dirt could anyone possibly dig up on you? DB: It could work really well, yeah, and I could see myself doing something like that in the future. We certainly have no plans on leaving Richmond. It has definitely been there as my home, and will be for the rest of my life. There’s a lot that I would like to do for our city. I actually have some really big plans for Richmond, if I could just get some of these rich motherfuckers to step up and get behind GWAR! I have some stuff on the burner here that would do no less than completely revolutionize the way that Richmond is perceived. Not just by our regional rivals, Charlottesville and Virginia Beach, I’m talking about the entire world. The way I want to do this--and I know I might be tipping my hand a little early here--I think that Richmond’s [an] ideal spot for a museum that’s a museum of countercultural art, underground art. They say a lot of what we do is the low art movement--tattoo art, heavy metal, punk rock, customized bikes, all that cooky, crazy underground shit that’s been coming out for thirty plus years that is trying to make itself into a movement right now and doesn’t really have an outlet. We need a museum that could really get all those different ideas underneath one banner and kind of proclaim it. The idea comes from having a GWAR museum, and it’s kind of grown from there. What you have is a museum with all that crazy art, and then you have the guys from GWAR and the Richmond community as the stewards of the museum. If you look at Richmond, it’s really the perfect place for it. Look at all the amazing bands that we produce, look at all the talented artists that the place produces. And yet that city has still barely gotten any respect from anyone because we’re just DC’s little bastard butt-boy. We get the trickle down from I-95, and we never get any fucking respect for all the amazing people in Richmond. GWAR should blaze the way and there should be The Museum of the Counterculture Revolution or whatever the fuck you want to call it, we should build it in Richmond fucking Virginia. And you know what? We’d be doing for the local politicians what they’ve wanted for so long. They want Richmond to be accepted and respected as a city that means something. The problem is, they’re trying to do it in all the wrong ways. Getting us a baseball team! Celebrating our Civil War heritage! Or WHATEVER bullshit thing they’re trying out as a way to get people to visit Richmond. Fuck all that shit. Concentrate on what Richmond is fucking great at--making fucked up art and producing really fucking heavy bands. It’s not just a small stupid little thing, it’s an international movement. These bands go all around the world. GWAR is an international icon. Lamb of God is playing the Philippines in front of eighty thousand people. We have a power in our city that needs to be documented, needs to be developed, and a museum would be the perfect way to do it. IAN: I’m for it! My next question is unfortunately political. Who makes the best sandwich in Richmond? DB: Oh! You know, that’s a tough one. I’m not as up on my sandwiches as I used to be. There’s so many new restaurants in Richmond that I haven’t been able to catch up with a lot of them. I’m partial to-- At the old Village, they used to have a thing called an Egg and Anchovy burger. It wasn’t supposed to be the ingredients, they forgot to put a comma in, so I would always order the Egg and Anchovy burger. A burger counts as a sandwich. That was always my favorite one. It was an over easy fried egg with three anchovies on it, just a regular hamburger. That combination of dripping yolk, salty greasy fish, and hamburger is the best thing in the world. Unfortunately, they took it off the menu, so I can no longer have my favorite sandwich. I have to construct them at home. Don’t worry about any cheese, don’t get any lettuce or anything like that on it, maybe just one piece of lettuce and a few onions just for crispness, but when that egg pops and drips hot yolk all over the inside of the burger... Two or three anchovies at the most. It’s that perfect combination of salt and dairy and meat, oh it’s delicious. IAN: Thanks for your time, Dave, take care and have fun out there! DB: One more thing! We played the FunFunFunFest in Austin, Texas with Municipal Waste and Strike Anywhere, also on the bill were Bad Religion and The Vandals and all these old school California punk bands. Richmond went up against California in Austin, and let me tell ya- Richmond kicked California’s ass. www.gwar.net
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SARA BLAKE by Jonny Sismanis
Her style is vivid and dream-like, mixing traditional illustration with digital techniques. She creates unique images defined by intermingling textures, vibrant colors laid over grays and blacks, and prominent negative space. There is an inherent duality in her work, between the real and the surreal, emptiness and defined form, color and the lack thereof. Her name is Sara Blake, known also as ZSO, and in addition to being a Richmond-born artist schooled at NYU (as opposed to VCU--an oddity, I know), she is an exceptionally talented artist with a knack for marrying elements of differing schools of art (graphic design, photorealism, watercolor, comic art) into signature accidental masterpieces. Based out of New York, Sara has spent the last several years as an art director, graphic designer, and freelance illustrator, keeping a tight work schedule and barely any sleep schedule at all. Having recently returned from her first ever solo show at the Friends of Leon Gallery in Sydney, Australia, she is currently making the transition to full-time illustrator. Despite her very busy schedule, Sara made time for an email interview, which gave me a chance to find out a little bit more about her life, her art, and the new directions her career is taking her. JONNY: Tell us a little bit about yourself, who you are, where you’re from, what you do now, and how you got there. SARA: Hello hello! I’m Sara Blake. I also go by ZSO—I’m originally from Richmond, VA, but I’ve been living and working in New York City for the past 7 years. I moved here for school and studied a variety of things including some graphic design and fine art. It wasn’t until I taught myself Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, and even learned to code a little that I really found my voice working digitally. That turned into a job working as an interactive designer and digital art director in a bunch of agencies over the past few years. I guess I sensed early on in my career that something was missing from my life creatively, so in 2007 I started drawing more and experimenting with coloring my hand drawn stuff digitally. Over the past few years I’ve just been working as hard as I can, and finally, as of this month, I’m able to illustrate full time! JONNY: So am I correct in saying that ZSO is your pseudonym of sorts? Can you tell us where that comes from or would you have to kill us? SARA: Correct! It is my pseudonym, but I can’t tell you what it means. I can, however tell you that it’s shape is significant. When kerned tightly, the shape between the Z and the S makes an upside-down heart shape. All you really need to know about ZSO is that it’s all about love. I truly believe that love for our craft or for a person or for whatever it may be makes the world go ‘round. I guess it was a really fitting fluke that my name’s negative space is an upside-down heart. The love in my life is always slightly weird and on its head. But it still governs my life and my work. JONNY: I know you’ve got a couple of different mediums you like to work in--illustration, graphic design, photography, or a little of all three--but is there anything you’d consider your main focus? SARA: I think I definitely relate to illustration the most. I take pictures but I really don’t consider myself much of a photographer. I carry around my camera quite a bit because I shoot all my own textures to use in my digital pieces, so try to develop my camera skills when I can. But without a doubt, illustration is the focus and the passion. My process always starts on paper. I love graphic design and respect and enjoy it immensely, but I don’t think it’s my strong point. I really look up to artists who can marry graphic design and fine art in smart ways. Think James Jean or Krzysztof Domaradzki. JONNY: Your illustrations show a remarkable and unique style. You seem to mix aspects of photo-realism, comic-art, and graphic design to create these really crisp, rich, digital images. How would you describe your style and how you developed it? SARA: Wow, well thank you! I love comic art, but I never imagined I could come close to anything that resembles it. I think my style is pretty accidental. I struggled a lot to find “a style” when I first started. It was really tough and everything felt forced. I went through those stages that every young illustrator goes through where they try to emulate others, and I was hyper-conscious of that. And it just wasn’t working. I think one day I was like, “OK, I’m gonna stop trying so hard and just draw whatever.” I had to sort of take the pressure off and erase my mind. And it worked. I guess my style found me. I also like to just experiment and mess up. I never really know what a personal piece is going to look like until it’s done. While I love client work because it pushes you to new ground, I’m much more of a “Hey, let’s see what happens” kind of artist. I think the digital part came in because I could never get my traditional pieces to a place that felt finished or in47
SAR A BL AKE JONNY: If you’re working on an illustration, what is your typical workflow like? SARA: If it’s for fun, I’ll usually sort of just choose a subject matter and go at it. No sketches or anything. I like the mess ups (usually). However, as I’m starting to get more assignments, clients must see early sketches to show proof of concept, so I’m just starting to get better at sketching. I’m making it a goal to sketch one hour a day, even if it’s all throwaway crap, just to get in the habit of drawing, and to train my hand. Sometimes I’ll comp sketches right in photoshop too. Once I’m done with my drawing, I’ll scan, usually in several small pieces because my scanner is small. I scan very hi-res, piece them together and clean in Photoshop, and then add color and texture digitally. JONNY: Do you have any tips for other artists out there trying to bridge the gap between organic media and digital? SARA: Well, I guess first of all you gotta establish if it’s essential to your process that you bridge that gap. I’m often very jealous of masters like Alex Trochut who manage to work purely digitally, or vice versa, those like Sam Weber who can work all traditionally. I think digital has it’s advantage, especially in a global industry where we rely so much on the internet, but I think first things first... you have to see if your style needs to be hybrid. I think once you’ve established that, there’s no other advice other than work, work, work! I’ve only been doing this a handful of years and I’m still constantly learning. Everything comes with practice. JONNY: What kind of inspirations do you use in your work, i.e. other artists, music, etc.? I mentioned a perceived comic art influence earlier, would you consider that a correct assumption, and can you elaborate on that influence at all? SARA: I’m not sure the comic influence is intentional, although I’m sure it’s there as I studied graphic novels in school and grew up the past 4 years following James Jean’s Fables cover releases. I think overall I really dig heavy linework, so that is sort of comic-y. I think my influences are mainly things like music, fashion, New York City, textures, and just life. I’m greatly inspired by so many artists, many colleagues from Depthcore and the KDU, but when I’m in the middle of working, I try to stay away from looking at other people’s art. It messes me up. I sort of compare that to running... I’ve been a runner all my life, but when I ran in groups, or on teams, or in races, I was unhappy or injured. But now I run alone, go at my own pace, and to the beat of my own drum, and I’ve been doing just fine. JONNY: I’ve re-written this question a million times to avoid sounding like an idiot, but basically, what’s it like being a woman in your industry? SARA: Totally valid question! It’s without a doubt an industry run and dominated by dudes. (I mean what industry isn’t, right?) I think part of the thinking behind my pseudonym in the very beginning was to hide my sex, but I think I’m finding my stride and identity, and it’s better to just be me. I still get mistaken for a guy sometimes on things where I am just listed as ZSO, and I take it as a compliment. I’ve always wanted to be able to hang with the dudes, in sports, in grades, in holding my whiskey, and in talent. I am a little self conscious sometimes about being a girl, but in the end, I have to remind myself, it comes down to the work. Keep your head down, and focus. JONNY: So, you’re from Richmond, you live in New York--how can you describe that transition? Can we expect to see you back around here anytime soon, and will you be bringing your work with you? SARA: Richmond is home-base, but New York is home. When I moved here when I was 18, I knew this was it for me. NYC is a lot more intense than Richmond. There is always energy, and I don’t think I’d be where I am now without it—I think lots of artists move here for the same reason, to sort of get immersed and up their game. It’s just harder faster better stronger 24/7. It can be unbelievably exhausting, lots of 100-hour weeks, and lots of headaches. I do fantasize about moving back to Richmond sometimes where the pace is a little slower, but I think I’d miss the masochism. Unfortunately I don’t make it back to RVA much these days, but I do actually have a pipe dream of having a show in my hometown one day. Hey, know any cool galleries? JONNY: What’s next for you? What’s big that’s going on for you right now, and where can we expect to see you next? teresting. I dream in Photoshop, so I guess it just felt like a natural way to expand on it. JONNY: What kind of gear do you use (software, hardware, etc.)? SARA: A nice piece of bristol vellum, some pencils, some blending sticks, watercolors, a regular old flatbed scanner, Photoshop, a Wacom tablet, and my newly pimped out Mac with tons of memory (my files are pretty monstrous, usually breaching PSD-land and ending up in Photoshop-large land). That and a lot of coffee.
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SARA: This month is my first month as a full time freelance illustrator, so right now the plan is sort of to decompress and take the next month and just draw, draw, draw. There will be some new pieces done for an online shop this winter, a solo gallery show in Perth next year, some collaborations with the Keystone Design Union in Brooklyn, and some top secret projects that I can’t talk about yet, but you can check my blog in the coming months to learn more!
You can see more of Sara’s work, as well as reading some of the interviews she’s collected in the past year, on her blog at www.hellozso.com.
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Jason Hodges devotes more energy to music than most people do to anything in their lives. He plays in four different bands, all of which have released a record in the past year. He runs a record label, which releases plenty of the sort of weird, experimental music that strikes his fancy. By his own standards, though, this still is not enough. “To be honest, I wish there were two records coming out this year by each of my bands,” he says. “I’d like to do more.” When I mention that he seems like a busy guy, he replies, “Yeah, it’s a lot of fun.” It’s clear that there’s nothing else he’d rather be doing. Jason’s musical journey began over two decades ago in the small city of Roanoke. “I started out as a metal kid,” he says. “From metal, I found Corrosion Of Conformity and Suicidal Tendencies. I started exploring all the old punk music, but then I got into really fast hardcore. I ordered all these really obscure hardcore 7 inches from ads in [leading punk fanzine] Maximum Rocknroll. I had to mail-order everything because you couldn’t find records like that in Roanoke.” He cites early EPs by No Comment and Infest, as well as the 1991 compilation Bllleeeeaaauuurrrrgghhh!, as powerful early influences.
Bllleeeeaaauuurrrrgghhh! was based around a concept then unheard of--get a ton of bands to record their shortest, fastest song, and cram as many of those songs as possible onto a 7 inch vinyl EP. Its 12-minute running time featured 41 bands. “That comp changed everything for me,” Hodges says. “That stuff just blew my mind.” In 1992, at the age of 17, he and some high school pals formed Suppression, who, along with many of the bands on the Bllleeeeaaauuurrrrgghhh! comp, were grouped together into a nascent genre known as power violence. Power violence music was characterized by extreme speed, brevity, and distortion. Suppression crammed 13 songs onto their first 8-minute EP, and only got faster and more intense from there. At one point, their lineup featured a second guitarist who wasn’t really playing guitar by any normal definition. “He had this little combo amp,” Hodges says. “I don’t know what happened to it, I’ve never heard another amplifier do it, but every time you turned it on and plugged a guitar into it it just went--” he makes a siren-like oscillating noise. “He could manipulate the pulsing of it, the speed and frequencies on it. He had a guitar, but he didn’t use it as a guitar at all, he’d just use tools on the pickups to make noise.” This guitarist only played with Suppression on two of their EPs, but he gave them a very distinctive sound during his brief tenure. But the very fact of said brief tenure points to an ongoing problem with the original Roanoke incarnation of Suppression. Hodges was the only member who played in all of their lineups. He was usually joined by Davey Austin on vocals and David “Hog” Conner on drums, but even those guys were not guaranteed to be reliable. The band featured several different guitarists over the course of their career, and quitting just before a tour was a common theme. In fact, it’s what eventually broke up the band. “We were about to go to Japan, and they all bailed because they didn’t want to be apart from their girlfriends for two weeks.” Jason’s frustration is obvious, even over a decade after the incident occurred. “I was like, ‘Are you crazy? I’m done with this.’ And I moved to Richmond.” A depressing postscript to the story of the Roanoke version of Suppression came a few years later when former guitarist Dave Craft collaborated with a German label to release a Suppression discography CD without mentioning it to Jason. Since Craft had left the band two years before the Roanoke incarnation disbanded, he didn’t have copies of several of the band’s releases, and filled up the CD with poor-quality rehearsal demos. “I wasn’t angry with him about it [at first],” Jason says. “I emailed him and said, ‘Dude, it’s kinda weird that you just did this CD without even bothering to ask me or anything. Can I at least get a copy of it?’ And he told me to send him money for postage. I was like ‘You know what? This is bullshit.’ We exchanged some really insulting emails and nothing ever really came of it.” Hodges is mystified by Craft’s motivations in the affair. “I don’t know if he made any money off of it. I couldn’t believe somebody actually put it out. All those demo tracks did not need to be put out at all.” He had assembled a CD discography of his own, but had never been able to release it. “I felt like I’d rather focus on the present with the label’s money. And then that thing came out, and I was just embarrassed about it, so I wanted to rectify it.” To that end, he finally got the money together and released the far superior Amputated Brain Stem last year. Years after leaving Roanoke, Jason decided to revive Suppression, despite the fact that he was the only member left from the Roanoke version of the
band. He didn’t feel the least bit guilty about continuing to use the name. “I put too much work in,” he says. “Fuck it, I started the thing, I wrote all the songs, I can do whatever I want.” Since the revival in 2001, the band--now down to two members--has been much more stable, if a bit less active. Jason’s partner in the current version of Suppression is drummer Ryan Parrish, whose main gig is playing drums for metal band Darkest Hour. You’d think that, with Parrish spending significant amounts of every year on tour with Darkest Hour, it’d be hard to keep Suppression going steadily. However, Jason doesn’t find that to be true at all. “It really works out well,” he says. “We just get along really well, and it’s really fun. A year could pass, two years could pass, and if we got together and started to play, we’d just pick up right where we left off.” The spot where Suppression picks up today is a far cry from what they were doing in the late 90s. Their current, guitarless sound is less harsh than their old stuff, but it’s probably even weirder. Their songs boast intricate construction, which can sometimes make live performance more challenging. “A lot of times we’ve only practiced a couple of times before we play shows,” Jason explains. “Most of the time it’s one practice after six months of nothing. If we play a new song we’ll try to go over it in at least a couple of practices. If something’s that new though, and it’s got 14, 15 riffs in it...” he shakes his head and trails off. The complexity than can make songs difficult to master in time for live shows also makes them an interesting listen. The latest Suppression LP, Alliance Of Concerned Men, features a truly impressive level of technical ability, with mathematically-complex riffing backed by elaborate drum patterns, all of which stop and start on a dime. They draw heavily from the acid-drenched psychedelic weirdness of bands like the Butthole Surfers, as well as postpunk bands like Wire and Gang Of Four. The album’s title, Alliance Of Concerned Men, is the sort of phrase that jumps right out at you. “We were driving to record in DC and we saw the seal on a van,” Jason relates. “We never bothered to look up what it meant, we just thought the name was hilarious.” After releasing the album, they learned that the group works to teach inner city kids skills they can use to gain careers, in order to keep them away from gang activity. “After the fact, I was worried that people would think we were talking shit on this great cause.” Nothing could be further from the truth, though, he insists. “We just thought the name was funny.” While not quite as long-running as Suppression, The Amoeba Men have been around long enough to attain veteran status in the Richmond music scene, as demonstrated by their recent gig opening for indie-rock godfathers Mission Of Burma at University Of Richmond. The Amoeba Men began with solo recordings Jason did on a four-track in 2003. At that point, the project was known as The Amoeba Man, but the band name soon became pluralized with the addition of drummer Barry Cover and guitarist Chris Conrad. Jason and Barry had previously played together in Kojak, the first band Jason did when he moved to Richmond in the late 90s. Soundwise, Kojak fit in somewhat with the chaotic hardcore sound that was big in the mid to late 90s. The Amoeba Men don’t exactly pick up where Kojak left off, but there are elements that link the two. Foremost among them is the distinctive vocal style that Jason developed in Kojak--the perpetually-surprised holler of a redneck with amnesia. This style reflects the same sort of fascination with trash culture that came through in the music of the Butthole Surfers. Compared to Suppression, The Amoeba Men’s songs are simpler and more accessible, sticking to the sort of verse-chorus structure that people expect in rock music. However, the bands do sound somewhat similar, a fact that even Jason acknowledges. “I’ve had a couple of riffs here and there where I was like, ‘Hmm, Amoeba Men or Suppression?’” he tells me. But he’s getting away from writing in circumstances that would lead him to ask that question. “I don’t like to write at home anymore. It’s more fun to see what happens when you’re playing with other people. Those happy accidents make the best songs.” With Ryan Parrish away so frequently, The Amoeba Men have been Jason’s main focus over the past several years. That may be changing, though. “Chris has got a serious job. Barry has a kid now, and he’s got another band as well. We haven’t been practicing that much.” Instead, he’s been focusing on a newer project: Bermuda Triangles. Like The Amoeba Men, Bermuda Triangles started out as a solo project. That version of Bermuda Triangles released a CD and a split EP before Jason decided to add some more musicians to the fold. “Initially I was trying to get those guys to rework songs I had done by myself, but when we started writing together, that’s when we did our best stuff.” The Reptilian Intervention LP is the band’s first release to feature the current lineup. The overall sound is tribal, but beyond that, it’s 51
hard to pin down. “Somebody started this whole ‘tropical post-apocalyptic’ thing,” Jason tells me. “I would say percussive psychedelic postpunk. It’s a mash of all kinds of stuff we’re into. I definitely like a lot of stuff that’s considered world music.” He mentions congotronics, a style of music that integrates modern electronics with traditional African music, and there is a detectable resemblance between Bermuda Triangles and congotronics groups like Konono No. 1. Nonetheless, they are a unique group, especially in the indie rock world. Bermuda Triangles is the most active of Jason’s current bands, and they have no plans to slow down anytime soon, with a tour coming up in the fall and a new LP planned for the beginning of next year. Another project Jason has focused on in recent months is Mutwawa, his collaboration with Head Molt’s Gary Stevens. With both members playing a variety of samplers and effects pedals, Mutwawa has the sort of group structure that might lead listeners to expect a completely improvised wall of noise. However, while improvisation has its place in the group, the songs have a consistent, if loose, structure. Jason explains: “I arrange beats and samples by myself and then bring them to Gary. We practice them over and over, record52
ing everything until we have a suitable version. I use a lot of samples taken from free-form four-track recordings. Gary usually runs my sounds through two different chains of effects pedals. His pedal set up can change from session to session. We sometimes play a song live at more than one show, but we never play them the same way twice.” On the other hand, some of their music is completely improvised. “Sometimes we just hit record and do sporadic 30 to 40 minute recordings, with me making beats on the fly and Gary taking them to that next level. Those jams rarely make it to our releases. We have hours and hours of unreleased material.” Mutwawa’s strange, pulsing sound is electronically based but nonetheless very musical. Bizarre melodies and clear, constant rhythms run through their songs. Their first release, the cassette EP Necro Zulu, was jointly released by Flish Records and Jason’s own CNP Records earlier this fall. Other than the recent Suppression album, in fact, Jason releases almost every piece of music he records on his own label. He has been releasing music for almost as long as he’s been playing it, starting in the early 90s with cassette releases he did under the name Chaotic Noise Productions. He
shortened the moniker to CNP in the late 90s. “Everybody who ordered tapes from me always wrote ‘Jason CNP’ on the envelopes anyway. I kept the ‘CNP’ so people would know it was me if they saw the record for sale somewhere. I was proud of all those [Chaotic Noise Productions] cassettes.” At the same time, he felt that it was good to move away from having the word “noise” in the label name. “I didn’t want to pigeonhole myself, or paint myself into a corner.” The first release under the CNP Records moniker was a 99-track compilation CD called Audioterrorism. “I was hanging around with Scott Hull [of Pig Destroyer] a lot at that time,” Jason says. “I don’t remember which one of us came up with the concept. Scott had contact with a lot of Japanese noise artists, and I knew all the bands I’d met on the Suppression tours. We hit up everybody we’d met in the past year or two that did weird music.” Each band on the CD contributed one track, and the average length of those tracks was around 45 seconds. The result strongly resembled the Bllleeeeaaauuurrrrgghhh! compilation that had had such a big impact on Jason nearly a decade before. Since then, compilations have been a staple of the label’s release schedule. Bizarrely-titled CDs like Supersonic Sounds From The Fuck You Movement mix contributions from current and defunct bands in the CNP family with fourtrack experimentations by Jason and other CNP regulars. In fact, a themed cassette compilation entitled Yo! CNP Raps is the next release from the label. Jason gives me the details: “It’s DJ Renaldo, which is Ryan Parrish; Big Eats, which is Bill Porter; a Bermuda Triangles track from when I was still doing that stuff by myself; Mutwawa just did a track; Diamond Black Hearted Boy is on it; and Boner Legs, which is Joe who used to be in Ho-Ax. I like hip-hop, but most of the stuff on there is pretty ridiculous.” While CNP released quite a few CDs over the past decade, recent releases have all been on vinyl or cassette. Jason believes that CNP is through with CD as a format. “CDs are disposable and cheap. I’m not ever putting out a CD again. I’ve spent so much money on CDs that are just piled up in my closet. When people order things I just give away stuff from that closet along with whatever they ordered.” Making money is not Jason’s main concern as a record label owner. He likes the idea of making as appealing a physical release as possible. He particularly likes the options provided by the larger size of vinyl record covers. “It’s this big piece of art. You’ve got all this space to use up. It’s awesome.” Lately he’s been enjoying doing screenprinted covers. “The last three releases we did have been screenprinted. I definitely want to stick with it.” He doesn’t rely on precise, expensive screenprinting equipment, either, preferring to do everything DIY style. “We just buy a couple of twelve-packs, put a table in my living room, and power it out.” Of course, this approach has its downsides. “We only have 14 copies of the Bermuda Triangles LP left. We’re almost certainly gonna repress it, and the thought of doing all that screenprinting again just makes me want to throw up.” Jason’s emphasis on unique, handmade releases, as well as the unusual nature of most of the music his label puts out, gives CNP an immediately recognizable aesthetic. It also makes their products more appealing, since they don’t look like anything else one is likely to run across. Their approach used to be much more common; ten or more years ago, there was an entire community of underground bands and labels whose distinctive, handcrafted products shared a completely different look from those within the mainstream. In more recent years, though, the aesthetics of the indie world have moved closer and closer to the mainstream, leaving labels like CNP on the fringe. “Trying to run a label like we did in the 90s [now] is just kind of weird,” Jason says. “Press kits are... eugh.” He shudders in disgust. “I hate that aspect of the music business. There’s no personality. It’s just soulless fucking garbage.” His musical endeavors may have plenty of soul, but they are by no means a guarantee of financial security. When asked if he ever expected his music to pay his bills, he replied, “It hasn’t so far, and I’ve been doing this for 18 years. I’m not holding my breath for that.” And yet, when asked if he can think of another career he’d rather have, his answer still relates directly to making music. “I would love to do scores or soundtracks at some point. I think that would be a challenge.” Even if he never makes it big, Jason Hodges seems content to live the life he’s got right now. “Where music is concerned, I’m definitely a lifer,” he says. “It’s what drives me. When songs come together, it’s just really rewarding.” For him, the spiritual rewards of playing music outweigh any of the financial gains he’s forsaken. www.cnprecords.com
RECORDS by ANDREW NECCI
Cough Ritual Abuse
Envy Recitation
Gritter Sour Mash And Spanish Moss
Lydia Ooghe And Lux Vacancy Love That Glow
(Relapse)
(Rock Action)
(Self-released)
(Self-released)
Das Racist
The Fall
Katy Perry
Sit Down Man (Mad Decent/Greedhead/Mishka)
Our Future Your Clutter (Domino)
Teenage Dream (Capitol)
The Measure [SA]
Dungen
Grinderman
Long Arms
Trudging, crawling, totally hypnotic doom metal from this Richmond band. They keep things interesting with vocal effects, harsh feedback, and echoing psychedelic passages, all of which have one thing in common: heaviness. It’s hard to make consistently slow music that’s also consistently interesting, but these guys pull it off. Recommended.
Humorous wordplay covers for a serious political consciousness and makes for some of the most interesting lyrics in the hip-hop world right now. The music is quietly brilliant, too. Das Racist were originally regarded as a joke act, but it’s time we all start taking them seriously.
Originally considered screamo, Envy have spent their career edging towards the post-rock epics of bands like Explosions In The Sky. The melodic guitar leads and dramatic crescendos of their screamo past are still in place, but drowned in reverb and drawn out significantly, resulting in perhaps their best work.
When a singer rules a band with an iron fist for decades, musical inconsistency will result. This album is proof, as it veers from lo-fi noise to mind-numbing repetition to occasional flashes of the postpunk brilliance that The Fall are known for. Not a brilliant listen, but always interesting.
Skit I Allt
Grinderman 2
(Subliminal Sounds/Mexican Summer)
(Anti)
Dungen began moving away from the heavy psych of their earlier career on 2008’s Dungen 4. Skit I Allt dispenses with that album’s transitional growing pains, presenting a mature atmospheric pop sound that explores a different style of psychedelia than previous work. They’ve changed, but they still rule. 54
Their debut was the sound of Nick Cave’s midlife crisis--a wall of buzzing noise angst. This followup comes closer in mood to the stately darkness of Cave’s recent solo work. It retains the bluesy rock n’ roll feel of the first Grinderman album-just without all the feedback.
This Richmond band plays slow, pounding metal, somewhere between the bluesy sludge of Eyehategod and the muscle-car rocknroll of Kyuss. The times when the singer actually sings get kinda cheesy, but he spends most of the record screaming, so overall I’m into it. Slow-motion headbangs all around!
Minimizing her famous perv streak for a tour through the overamplified emotional minefield of adolescence, Ms. Perry strikes gold when she sticks with the sweeter (or sillier) side of things. Darker, more serious content is still a bit of a reach for her, but the majority of this album shines.
This album feels like an anachronism, like it should have come out in the 70s when Joni Mitchell was popular. In a good way, though--it captures the best elements of that era. Quiet, polished folk-pop tunes with substantive lyrics and gorgeous vocals. Not my usual thing, but I dig it.
Notes (No Idea)
Upbeat pop-punk that does a great job striking a balance between snarling rhythm guitars and melodic lead lines. The male and female vocals mix well, with both singers harmonizing on many of this album’s excellent choruses. The lyrics are pretty great too. Really, this whole album is great.
Neil Young
To Hold You
Le Noise
(Self-released)
(Reprise)
This is the newest project of James Menefee, formerly of Funsize and River City High. He’s grown up, and so has his music; this album reminds, at various points, of Springsteen, Ryan Adams, Social Distortion, and Paul Westerberg. Production is smoother than I’d like, but the music is undeniably enjoyable.
This is a true solo album for Young, containing only his voice and guitar. The mostly electric songs feature just as much distortion as his loudest work with Crazy Horse, and are just as powerful as they’d be with full band backing. His best work since Mirrorball? It seems likely.
No Age Everything In Between
Souvenir’s Young America Name Of The Snake
(Sub Pop)
(Init)
Here on their third album, this minimalist duo have found their perfect sound (forever). Distorted yet jangling twochord hypnotic guitar buzz, repetitively propulsive drumming, feedback solos, melodies carried entirely by vocals that fight with fuzzbox hiss for headspace. Important namechecks: Velvet Underground, Jay Reatard, Galaxie 500, Mercury Rev. Necessary.
This local instrumental group walk the line between post-rock and post-metal, infusing their music with a dark, heavy feel more common to Neurosis than Mogwai. This album also features some surprisingly excellent harmonica playing. The resulting sound could be described as “ambient blues.” You need to hear this.
Swans My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky (Young God)
Swans were never metal, and not even always loud, but they were always heavy. This, their first album in 15 years, is even heavier than usual. A sense of a huge, echoing atmosphere surrounds them at all times here, and its frightening majesty makes this album a powerful, riveting experience.
The Thermals
Salem
Stereolab
King Night (IAMSOUND)
Not Music (Drag City)
This collection of outtakes from 2008’s Chemical Chords focuses on Stereolab’s poppier side. These songs tend to resemble 1960s-era French pop, or the exotic lounge style known as “space age bachelor pad music.” I generally prefer their explorations into Krautrock and psychedelia, but this album is still quite enjoyable.
The Thermals took their catchy, poppy punk to the next level on their third album, 2006’s The Body The Blood The Machine. Since then, they’ve returned to their earlier sound, and it’s kind of disappointing by comparison. There are some fun songs here, but this doesn’t approach their best work.
Soundgarden
Superchunk
Underoath
Majesty Shredding
Ø [Disambiguation]
(A&M)
(Merge)
(Tooth And Nail)
This “witch house” group’s album isn’t quite as scary as their mixtapes have been, though there’s still definitely an air of menace here, emphasized by sonic references to screwed n’ chopped hip-hop. Warbling, ambient synth and vocal melodies contrast with the hip-hop influences to create a seductive blend of opposites.
Telephantasm [Double-Disc Edition]
This retrospective makes a great introduction to Soundgarden’s career. Their last album made me forget how good their first five albums were, but this is an excellent reminder. The new song and live tracks included are worth having, making this an essential purchase for superfans as well as casual ones.
Superchunk moved away from their roots as an energetic, melodic punk band on their last few albums--slowing down, “growing up,” and suffering a corresponding lapse in quality. After a nine-year break, they’re back to basics, and the result is their best album in fifteen years. You need this.
Personal Life (Kill Rock Stars)
Underoath’s last three albums were an excellent mix of metalcore and melodic emo-pop. However, before this album was recorded, drummer/vocalist Aaron Gillespie quit. He seems to have taken Underoath’s melodic sense with him. Metal screamo epics are what remains, and they’re just not as good. I am disappoint.
The Vaselines Sex With An X (Sub Pop)
It’s the first album in 20 years from this Scottish indie-pop quartet, best known today for being covered multiple times by Nirvana. They’ve got a charming, ramshackle, acoustically-based sound, and if you like catchy indie-pop tunes, their new record will make you very happy. Check it out.
Weezer Hurley (Epitaph)
Frustratingly, a few songs on this album (“Run Away,” “Trainwrecks”) sound like the old Rivers Cuomo, from back in the 90s. Apparently he still has some talent. Too bad he squanders it most often on the sort of 80s-movie soundtrack rejects that populate the majority of this album.
White Laces White Laces EP (Self-released)
Local shoegazers White Laces have an excellent guitar sound--reverb-laden, bent-stringed, and beautifully distorted. It drives their noisy pop tunes perfectly, and makes me long for quite a few more songs than just these five. “Sick Of Summer” is the masterpiece, but the whole record’s great. Get it. 55
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