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PHOTOS BY CHRISTIAN HEWETT
PHOTOS BY CHRISTIAN HEWETT
I DIDN’T PAY FOR THESE
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RVA #5 / SUMMER 2011 / RICHMOND, VA IN THIS ISSUE
10 Flaming Lips 16 Kenna 22 Othelo Gervacio 26 Inter Arma 32 Steve Aoki 36 Richard Perkins 42 Ty Segall 46 AKM Glass 50 Record Stores 56 DJ Carlito in Mala.ysia 58 Record Reviews RVA MAGAZINE ARTICLES ARE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT RVAMAG.COM. Flaming Lips cover photo by J. Michelle Martin-Coyne Aoki cover photo by RICHARD PERKINS 8 | RVA Magazine | RVAmag.com
PHOTO BY NICK GHOBASHI
CUT ALONG DOTTED LINE
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Flaming Lips O
AN INTERVIEW WITH WAYNE COYNE BY ANDREW NECCI PHOTOS BY J. MICHELLE MARTIN-COYNE
ver the course of their nearly three-decade-long career, The Flaming Lips have been through a number of surprising metamorphoses and unconventional side trips on their way to becoming an alternative rock institution. It might therefore come as a surprise to learn that they’ve spent the vast majority of their career signed to Warner Bros, one of the most conventional major labels of all. However, as singer/guitarist Wayne Coyne reveals in the interview below, that contract expired at the end of 2010. There will be a new contract with Warner Bros, and in fact, securing it is a mere formality at this point. But as of right now, for the first time in nearly 20 years, The Flaming Lips are an independent band. They’ve taken this brief label-free period as impetus for a frantic burst of musical activity, planning at the beginning of this year to release one song per month--a goal they have thus far wildly exceeded. Some of these releases have taken bizarre form (see our discussion below about their just-released gummy skull, each of which has a USB drive containing 3 songs embedded within it), but all of them have one thing in common--they display the same spirit of spontaneous adventure that has been a hallmark of the Flaming Lips’ career thus far. On top of all this release-related activity, the band has found time to embark on one of their world-famous tours, which will bring their psychedelic sensory overload of a stage show to Richmond’s The National on May 15. In celebration of that upcoming appearance, I caught up with Wayne Coyne over a long-distance telephone connection. Our conversation took place on March 30.
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So I just found out this morning that you guys did a record with Neon Indian like a week ago. Well, we released it about a week ago, yeah. I took it down to some record stores last Friday, I think. Cool. So I haven’t heard it yet. What are you guys doing on that record? Well, we committed ourselves to this thing where we put out a song every month. Some of them will be unique formats and some of them will just be 12 inch vinyl records and stuff like that. The very first one was one that we released specifically for iPhones back in February, on Valentine’s Day. This one that just came out last week was four songs; even though we’ve said we were only gonna do one song, it ended up being four songs. It’s just our way of doing something different. Just saying, “Fuck, let’s do some weird music.” I saw that you named one of the songs after a Minutemen song [“Do You Want New Wave Or Do You Want The Truth Part 2,” named after a song on the Minutemen’s Double Nickels On The Dime.] [laughs] Well, a lot of people don’t know that, but yeah. We did. What inspired you to do that?
it was reissued a year later--this was back in 1984 and 1985--both of these covers featured this skull on it. I don’t really know what’s happened to it since. It wasn’t a real skull, but it was a good replica that I had taken from high school. This thing that we’re doing now... we’re not out of our contract with Warner Bros, but our initial contracts with Warner Bros. ran out at the end of 2010. And so we were in this strange limbo, where we know we’re doing a contract with them, but it’s probably gonna take another couple of months. In the meantime, we all got together and decided, “Let’s do all these things ourselves.” Meaning the gummy skull, and the vinyl records, and there’s a stompbox [guitar effects pedal] that we’re making. I think we’re gonna have a cereal box with a record on the back. I think there’s gonna be a thing in the back of Mad Magazine that has a record and a foldout. With Warner Bros, we’ve talked more intensely over the past couple years about what we would do if we were given the opportunity to release music any way that we wanted. And kind of casually, without giving it too much serious thought, I said, “I think we’d want to release music literally all the time, in all kinds of weird formats.” I probably said something like, “We want to release it inside cereal boxes and candy and machines!” And they [said], “OK, let’s try that.” So when January started, we announced that we were gonna put out a song a month, even though it’s really been more than that, and see if we can find interesting ways to deliver it to the audience. The gummy skull really came about because we had been messing with this idea of skulls. We had some plastic skulls, and we were messing with rubber, and we were messing with bubblegum.
“When we started to play shows for The Soft Bulletin, that really changed the way we presented ourselves. Because we knew we wanted to sing these very powerful but delicate songs that really related [to] knowing that you’re going to die.” We’ve always loved that title. That just seemed like one of these call-to-arms things that’s both funny but also kind of a radical truth. [laughs] Specifically, they’re probably speaking of it as, “This is just trendy music. Why would you want that?” To me, I don’t think it’s necessarily true. I just think it’s funny that they thought it was so true. I don’t know if Mike Watt will be thrilled or pissed off about it, to tell you the truth. I’ve known him forever, but I didn’t think about that part of it too much. It’s an open-ended jam, where we start and stop four different times. Part of it’s live and part of it’s an overdub, but it’s like... we’re just trying to get this one thing down. And I think it mimics a version of the truth that Mike Watt would be talking about. It’s like: this music isn’t perfect, and it’s better because it’s not perfect. We don’t really know what we’re doing, and it’s better because we don’t know what we’re doing. This isn’t calculated, we don’t know what we’re gonna be. So [the song] is evoking something of that, I hope. So you’ve got this gummy skull coming out next month. Can you tell me more about that? We should be getting them in here on Monday. We’re still waiting on the boxes that we’ve designed to get ready. They should be ready in about another week or so. But yeah, I don’t know where we began with the idea. This thing that we’re doing for this year is kind of an excuse to go back to being an independent group, and our first record that we ever put out featured a skull on its cover. Even when 4 | RVA Magazine | RVAmag.com 14
We got a hold of a guy in Raleigh, NC that has a giant gummy candy factory and was already making giant things. We talked to him about it, and we designed this skull and the stuff that he’s doing for us, and so it just kinda worked out. I don’t know if all [of the ideas will] work out, but you’ve gotta try. Speaking of crazy things that end up working out, what made you guys decide to cover the entirety of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon? [laughs] Well, I’m glad that you said that it worked out. We were putting out our last record, and when you release these things, you arrange things with iTunes and some of the big online distributors. There was a producer [at iTunes] that wanted to have some exclusive tracks, so you could go to iTunes to get this record, as opposed to the thousands of other websites. And so we were talking on the phone--I think we were actually on the way to The Colbert Report. There wasn’t very much time to talk or think or really do anything, but these things have to get done. You don’t really have much of a choice. And so we were sitting in the car, and I said, “Well, we don’t really have any other tracks to give you.” I suggested, kind of out of a panic, that we do Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon, because we love that record, and we played a couple of the songs at Bonnaroo in 2003. And once I said it he was like, “Oh, cool. That sounds like a cool idea.” It was not a very big or serious decision. It was just like, “Sure, do it.” We only had two days to do it in, so there was a spirit of, “Fuck it! Let’s just make this kind of our own version of it.” I think some of it is a radi-
cal departure from [the original], and some of it isn’t that radical. We were doing it with Henry Rollins and Peaches and my nephew’s group, Stardeath And White Dwarfs, so there was a little bit of like, “Let’s just see if we can get everybody together and do this thing.” We didn’t really think it would be the greatest thing ever, but we also thought, “Well, we’re working with a lot of freaks here. It’ll probably be pretty cool.” And once we did it, you know, you get to the point where you have to ask the members of Pink Floyd if they’ll let you release it or whatever. So yeah, it’s an interesting thing to do. Like I said, we didn’t give it that much thought. It was just kind of, “Oh, fuck it, we have to do something,” and before you knew it, we were doing it. You guys have now been chronicled multiple times, in the movie Fearless Freaks and the book Staring At Sound by Jim DeRogatis. Does being written about in that way, and having people try to get your legacy down, affect your creative process as you continue to be an active group? Well, you’d like to think that it wouldn’t. You know, most of these things are done by people that absolutely love you anyway, so you’re surrounded by people who are interviewing you about music, and musicians love to talk about music and ideas and shit like that. For the movie specifically, [director] Bradley [Beesley] was around us. I’ve been making videos with him since the early 90s, so that was all very normal, and you really didn’t notice it was going on. But once
and be like, “Oh wow, that’s just amazing.” You’re really working from subconscious parts of your mind anyway, and you kinda want to. I don’t really wanna be a logical, smart person when I’m writing songs. I kinda wanna be a freak that has some insight into human nature, and our ridiculous lives. So I don’t know. You kinda want it to come at you as a surprise. You don’t really wanna know what’s going on. I find that people who got into The Flaming Lips since Soft Bulletin had gotten used to you sounding a certain way because that was all they knew of the Flaming Lips. And then when you guys did Embryonic, they were really surprised and kind of backlashed at it. So I’m wondering, with you guys doing less commercial-sounding music lately, do you feel this backlash at all? Do you feel like people are put off ? How does that affect you? To me personally, I don’t really get that. We will always have those records. That’s part of who we are, and those records have allowed us to keep growing and keep expanding. We do pay a lot of attention to the Yoshimi record, and The Soft Bulletin record, because we know there’s an audience there that has really been impacted by that. You can only have a Soft Bulletin happen to you one time. It’s not a sound that we are making, it is really a version of our life. So when I talk to people about it, if they were to ask me, I’d say, “We made that music at that specific time. We can never be those people again.” The things that we were realizing, the things that we
“ I don’t really wanna be a logical, smart person when I’m writing songs. I kinda wanna be a freak that has some insight into human nature, and our ridiculous lives. So I don’t know. You kinda want it to come at you as a surprise.” this story gets told--this condensed version of what was 20 years even then [when Fearless Freaks was released in 2005], this story that encompassed Stephen’s family, my family, Michael’s family, and goes back even to our childhood--you look at it, and you’re like, “You know, that’s not really the way it was.” Something that could take five years for you to realize happens in a moment in a movie. It’s based on momentum and entertainment and drama. But as time goes on, I can say for sure... I ran into a friend of mine who [had been] trying to get his son to watch this movie for a while. And his son was like, “Dad, I don’t want to watch this boring movie about Wayne. I’ve met him, whatever.” He finally watched it, and I ran into him the other night--he’s only nine years old--and he’s like, “Wayne, I think you’re the greatest guy ever after seeing that movie.” You can’t help but want it to have an effect on people. And this story that it tells... it’s not absolutely the truth. But it’s an entertaining view into a version of our life that I suppose is true. I think it affects [us], but I would say you kind of want to be affected by things. I want to have experiences and opinions and things have an impact on me. I’m really not sure of what the fuck I’m thinking, or what I am about, ever. I want to go somewhere and do something and find out what it’s about. So I would say yeah, but any curious creative person would love that. You’d want powerful things to happen to you. [pause] My wife is laughing at me. [laughs] I do agree with you, though. I feel that in my own life. Yeah, and you want that! I have to say, sometimes I don’t really know what the songs are about. I’ll read someone’s interpretation of it,
were discovering about ourselves, we can’t discover them again. We can’t be walking into that unknown that The Soft Bulletin represents for us again; we’ve already done it. But that doesn’t mean that it’s not important. I think that that record, and a lot of our records, mark such a specific creative moment in our life that I would not wanna copy it. It’s a creation that’s better than I am as a person. And for me to sit here and analyze it and copy it and try to redo it, to me, would just take away from the power of something like The Soft Bulletin. I think the core of our audience are people that love music. Part of our audience is a casual listening audience that loves music that’s a little bit more popular, but the core of our audience, I think, likes music to be interesting. They like the people that are making music to be everchanging. And so, I would think most of our audience could love The Soft Bulletin, and love something as freaky as Embryonic or Zaireeka at the same time. I mean, I know I do. When I was young, my brothers and I listened to virtually all music. We could easily love the most popular music of the day, whether it be the Beatles, or Peter Frampton, or whatever was popular in the 70s, and we could also listen to freaky underground music. I remember listening to Frank Zappa and Yoko Ono and all that, and feeling like this is just music to us. So if it’s possible for me, and I’m really just sort of a normal person, it’s possible for anybody. Do you guys feel like the newer stuff is integrating well into the live show? I feel like the live show really related a lot to the kind of things you were doing in the Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi era, and I’m wondering how that all fits together. RVAmag.com | RVA Magazine | 155
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I think it really is all the same thing. When we are making music, you don’t know what’s gonna happen. You don’t have any idea where it’s gonna take you. But then once it’s made--it’s not unlike these movies and books we were talking about. Once they’re made, they tell you an atmosphere and a story. When we started to play shows for The Soft Bulletin, that really changed the way we presented ourselves. Because we knew we wanted to sing these very powerful but delicate songs that really related [to] knowing that you’re going to die. Even though we’ve been singing about that since the very beginning, I think The Soft Bulletin really started to humanize that idea. So we’re singing songs that, for an older person--I was 35, 36 years old when that record was made, so I’m into a new phase of my being an adult. But I knew that we were going to be singing songs to people who weren’t in a new phase of being an adult. We were going to be singing songs to people who were 20 years old. And here I am singing about... DEATH. So we thought, we don’t really want to just sit up here--here it is, Saturday night, and we’re going to sing five or six songs in a row about death to these 20 year olds who are taking acid! We thought, “Damn, we don’t want them to go home and kill themselves,” and so we started to make our show seem more like a party. More like a freakout instead of this heavy rock show. We’d done heavy rock shows since the mid-80s, really. So we started to take this approach of being loud but gentle. If we’re gonna be singing about death, can we make this seem more like a birthday party than a funeral? I think the more we did that, the more we felt that that was right. We want the audience to be absorbed in what we’re doing and what we’re saying, but at the same time I don’t want to bring them down. That continued all through The Soft Bulletin, through Yoshimi, and even into what we do now. We start the show by saying, “Fuck, people, this is gonna be the fuckin’ greatest party you’ve ever been to. BLAM! Let’s go!” And I think that allows us to have these other emotions in the set, because we’re saying, “Look, it’s about a party. It’s about a celebration of life. It’s not about the end of our life. It’s about what we do now that we know we are alive.” www.flaminglips.com www.youtube.com/flaminglipsfree www.twitter.com/waynecoyne
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KENNA INTERVIEW BY SHAHAN JAFRI PORTRAITS BY ALEXANDER GERMANOTTA PARTY PHOTOS BY NICK GHOBASHI
“That had to be the house party of the year,” some kid muttered, passing me as he walked out onto the streets of RVA. Many comments like that flew past us as kids staggered down the long spiral staircase above Comfort. We cleaned up quickly, as we knew we had three more nights of “work” ahead of us to finish the video for the first single off Kenna’s Land 2 Air Chronicles I: Chaos and The Darkness LP. We had been contacted by Kenna a few weeks before to come up with a treatment for the high energy track, entitled “Chains,” which was produced Shimmy Hoffa (aka Chad Hugo). The idea was simple--to throw four ridiculous house parties and document them in a way that matched the lyrical storyline. We were very excited to work with the VA native, especially knowing that this would be his first new release in three years. He is considered by many to be one of the last true artists; he sticks to his intuition very strongly, and is a huge advocate of just being yourself. I recently caught up with Kenna to talk about Virginia and music, but most importantly, that random yet very memorable night. 18 | RVA Magazine | RVAmag.com
What do you remember about that night? Real. [Laughs] It was a real party. It wasn’t a fakeout with people playing the same song over and over again. People didn’t have to muster up energy. Doddie was spinning real records that we all love. There was no fake sweat, there were no spray water cans for the sweat on peoples faces (laughter). It was pretty dialed in as a house party. That’s kind of the movement right now anyways. It’s not as much going out as much as it is staying in and having all your people [over], and letting it erupt into a musical escapade. Just enjoying the fact that [you] are around people that are like minded, and people who love music. It just seemed like that--especially from the kids at VCU. They were there for the love. They were there for the love of VA, the fact that they were working with Orson Whales, and showing me love, which I was thankful for. In your eyes, what does the “Chains” video represent? I think that it represents a Kafkaesque experience of life, and how we are always having to run from the things that are holding us back, whether it be a job, person, [or] relationship. At the same time, it also represents the fact that we all have dreams, and the ability to see ourselves out of something and to go on our own journeys, whether it be in our minds or our life. I think learning how to translate those dreams into reality is the whole point of Land 2 Air Chronicles and the Songs For Flight album next year. Describe what you are doing with Land 2 Air Chronicles and what is being launched right now. The Land 2 Air Chronicles, as a series, is based on [Ralph Waldo] Emerson’s SelfReliance. Chaos and the Darkness, being the first one, is the darkest one because RVAmag.com | RVA Magazine | 19
“THE BEST WAY TO BE ORIGINAL IS TO LIVE IN YOUR OWN SKIN, AND BRING TOGETHER ALL OF YOUR EXPERIENCES INTO WHATEVER ART YOU CREATE.” it represents all the things that hold you back. The title Chaos and the Darkness is a direct quote from Emerson’s Self-Reliance. The second EP is called Imitation is Suicide, and that EP is about being a non-conformist and being original. The best way to be original is to live in your own skin, and bring together all of your experiences into whatever art you create. That will be the most original art you will make, because no two individuals on this planet have the same experiences. The last EP is called Self-Reliance which is actually the one that represents the most significant foray into administering the last two EPs. So it basically says, “Fine, I’ve learned this, so here’s what I understood.” Then after that comes Songs For Flight. Consider Land 2 Air Chronicles the runway, and Songs for Flight me taking off. Describe growing up in VA, and your influences. I have worked every job you can imagine in Virginia [laughs]. I worked at Jackson Hewitt tax service as a computer tech. I worked for Federal Express as a courier. I was the self-proclaimed VP of my mom’s real estate company. She fired me. I’m still bitter about that [laughs]. Why did she fire you? There just couldn’t be two of us [laughs]. I have done every job there is to make my music, so it’s not different from anyone else. VA is underestimated in a lot of ways, but if you actually look at our history, some serious talent has come out of VA. Whether it be D’Angelo, Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo, Timbaland, Missy Elliot, Dave Grohl, Bruce Hornsby, Chris Brown, or Clipse, music has always flourished here in Virginia. Being around it, you are always around people that are extremely talented, that are pursuing their talents full-force. You have a lot of extra time in VA. It’s not like the clubs are open until 6 AM, like in Miami. You have your music and you have a dream to make something that the world is going to hear, so its the best incubator for great art. Thanks for talking to us, man. Anything in closing? I really hope everyone goes to youtube and watches the video, and on MTV as well. www.kenna.com
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Interview by Bryan Woodland
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remember going to Othelo’s house in Richmond in early Spring of 2006. I was with a few friends from VA Beach, and we pretty much walked into scenester paradise. I fell in love around 30 times that weekend. I hadn’t been back to RVA in a few years, so the abundance of these sexy scene girls caught me with one foot off the merry-go-round. As we walked around Richmond, Othelo was the dude that knew everyone, and it seemed like everyone genuinely liked him. He was about to graduate from VCU in the creative advertising program and
had already been accepted to the VCU Brand Center. However, he also had the opportunity to move to NY and work with heavy hitter Scott Campbell at Saved Tattoo in Brooklyn. He ultimately made the move to NY--the right decision, in my opinion--which lead to a successful career in the art/design field. I kept in touch with Othelo over the years, through short visits to NY as well as catching up when he came back to the Beach for holiday visits. It also wasn’t rare to catch him on one of my regularly visited websites, such as the aNYthing blog (glob.anewyorkthing.com) or
Interview magazine (interviewmagazine.com), talking about various projects and letting the rest of the world know about his skills as a jack of many trades. He parted ways with Campbell after four solid years, and ended up working as a creative associate and designer with another set of close friends at Alldayeveryday (alldayeveryday.com). He is currently gearing up for a solo show, and took some time to give a little update on some of his other current projects, as well as to let Richmond people know how he’s doing up there. RVAmag.com | RVA Magazine | 25
When you were deciding whether or not you to attend the Brand Center, you had already been accepted but also had the opportunity to go work with Scott Campbell. Do you think you made the right decision in choosing to work with Campbell? At the time it was a very hard decision to make, but in the end it was the right one. I was offered the job the day after my birthday, and two weeks later I was living in New York. Do you find any similarities between RIC and NY? I found that Richmond was a good stepping stone before moving to NY. I learned very valuable bum evasion techniques that I still practice to this day! Do you think working for Campbell pushed you in a certain direction with your own solo work? Everyone associated with and working at Saved Tattoo was a true and talented artist--I took influence from all of them. Being there was sort of the spark for the stuff I’m creating today. The subject matter of some of your ink drawings is pretty dark--death, reapers,etc. What are some inspirations for this type of work? The work I make is mainly the outcome of my disenfranchised youth, lingering in picture form. This is my reaction to what’s “cool,” and feeling unprivileged compared to the rest. Whatever happened to making art and music because you hated what was happening around you? So long punx, hello “fashion punks.” Have you seen the $5,500.00 leather Burberry studded biker jacket? Goodbye DIY. No thanks, I’d rather I’d sit at home, listen to sludgy metal and paint something dark. This is my “Fuck you, fuck life” type of art. I saw that you recently made a cameo in one of TV On the Radio’s videos for their new album, Nine Types Of Light. Is there a cool story behind that? The creative agency I work for produces music videos as one of it’s many facets. A few days before the shoot, the director from L.A. had been working out of our office - prepping for the video. They were in the middle of casting when they realized that they didn’t have to look very far, because voila-”normal guy” was right in front of their faces making photocopies of his taxes.
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You had mentioned working with an Italian company on a shoe project. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Yes. A friend from Italy named Gio Forbice saw and liked what I was creating so he asked me to design a pair of shoes. What started as just designing the shoes ended up being a whole package. I designed the shoe box, shirt, zine, patch, etc. The company is called Forfex. Gio has also collaborated with Rockers NYC, Ari Marcopoulos, P.A.M., Fergadelic, and so on.
I could create a place that cool zines and people who sell them could get attention. I regretfully don’t keep up with it as much as I want to, but I do what I can! Any future projects that you are working that you want to let the people know of? Yes! I have a solo show entitled “Postboredom” coming up in July! Fuse Gallery. Hide ya kids, hide ya wife! www.othelogervacio.com
What is Zine-O-Phobia and how did it come about? Zine-O-Phobia was a little blog I started supporting the zine scene. I just thought
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It’s not exactly news to any reader of this magazine that Richmond is a hotbed of creativity, both musical and artistic. For one thing, we have a well-known art college right in the middle of town. For another, like Austin, Texas (which our mayor just visited to see what all the fuss was about), we are a proverbial jewel in a toilet bowl: an oasis of cheap living compared to NOVA, and a magical wonderland of creative expression compared to places like Lynchburg, Danville, and the Tidewater area. Not to say that Richmond doesn’t have problems. The Civil War (oh, excuse me, I mean the War of Northern Aggression) just ended last week. The local anti-fun police and that ridiculous noise ordinance (since declared unconstitutional) have made it necessary to cultivate an underground, secretive network of short-lived house show venues, which pop up and disappear like mushrooms 28 | RVA Magazine | RVAmag.com
after a rain. It’s kind of hard to keep up with who is doing what, but maybe that’s part of the charm of our scene! All the members of Inter Arma ended up here after escaping from various far-flung rural areas. Since about 2006 they’ve been honing their skills in assorted defunct venues like the Bone Zone, the Dude Manch and the late, lamented, much-revered Nara Sushi. These five seasoned, beer-marinated veterans, along with their compatriots in Bastard Sapling, Cough, Windhand and Occultist, are at the forefront of the local underground metal scene. In true incestuous RVA fashion, most of Inter Arma’s members are also in multiple other bands. Every time they go on tour, it’s an occasion for both joy and despair; the rest of the country gets to experience the greatness of our hometown heroes, but with them gone, half the other bands in town
are left without a vital member! In time-honored band tradition, a couple members live in a big house dubbed the “Metal Hotel,” where touring bands are often welcomed on their way through town with a comfy floor and some pizza. It’s only fair--when Inter Arma go out on tour, they frequently rely on the kindness of strangers. It’s working out well for them so far; they’ve completed three East Coast/Midwest tours and one US tour, and by the time you read this they’ll be out again with their friends Lions Of Tsavo. I invited myself over to talk to singer Mike Paparo and guitarist Trey Dalton in a brief moment when nobody was at their day job or band practice. Anytime one writes about a band, one is expected to define the music. Problem is, Inter Arma resolutely refuse to be categorized. While copping to elements
of Black metal and Doom (and in my opinion, a slight whiff of boogie), they insist that they are a METAL band. No more, no less. When pressed, Mike and Trey will admit to being compatible with Rwake, and, chuckling, say they’ve been compared to Soilent Green and even Sick Of It All. I find them strangely uplifting and emotional. They are definitely a band best appreciated live, in a tiny, packed bar or basement, where everybody goes home tired and happy, covered in beer and other people’s sweat. Inter Arma come out of the gate ripping, and continue to shred at MAXIMUM INTENSITY through their whole set, a five-person explosion of controlled chaos. Drummer and musical mastermind T.J. Childers (who played with bassist Tommy Brewer in previous metal bands) is especially stellar. MARVEL! as he holds a stick aloft in one hand,
harder to do) and CDs at the shows. On the gripes that the internet is ruining music: “People who really like music will go out regardless. Downloading, on our level, is doing us a favor. The more that see it, the better.”
playing with the other! BE IN AWE! as he drains a PBR with one hand while continuing to play! His collection of broken and mangled cymbals stands in mute testimony to his badassery. Meanwhile, mild-mannered, thoughtful Mike (who also fronts Bastard Sapling) goes completely Mr. Hyde on the audience, wailing like a rabid banshee as he flings himself around the place. Inter Arma are constantly evolving. They have, in the last 4 years, played their own well-crafted original metal, as well as a set of Cro-Mags, Minor Threat and Dead Kennedys covers. Once they joined forces with a Roanoke band and played with two drummers and three guitarists. They’ve even done a set consisting of just one epic 40-minute song! Yes, usually it is really boring to see a band play the same riff for over 10 minutes at a time. But on the other hand, like Joan Jett once told me, “It
doesn’t matter if you only play three chords, as long as you play those three chords with total conviction!” Recordings don’t do their live set justice, but for documentary purposes, their split 7-inch with Battlemaster (recorded ages ago but released January 2010) and the full-length album Sundown (May 2010, with artwork by Eliza Childress, on Richmond’s own Forcefield Records) are pretty good representations of the band. By now, only fools have any illusions that rock ‘n’ roll is ever going to pay the bills. The bald fact is, the second your record comes out, it is immediately available on the internet to anyone anywhere for free. And Inter Arma actually don’t mind. “At least people get to hear it if they want. A lot of times there’s no distribution where we go.” A touring band, if they’re lucky, can hope to break even and make gas money by selling T-shirts (still bootleg-able, but it’s a little
How did the current lineup come together, anyway? Mike recollects his first days with the band like this: “I think I played my first show with Inter Arma... Well, [guitarist] Steven [Russell] conned me into it. I didn’t really wanna play music at the time. I [had been] in a band called False Hope that he was into. He called up one day and said, ‘Hey man, wanna come practice with my band?’ I was like, ‘I’m bored, I’m not doing anything, why not?’ He’s like, ‘We have a show tonight.’” That was at the Bone Zone with Asshole Parade, Holy Mountain and Balaclava in March of 2007. Guitarist Trey is the newest member, joining in May of 2009. Back home in Roanoke he was a valuable commodity, having the ability to play drums as well as guitar. But when he got invited to join Inter Arma, he recognized “a good overall opportunity to get out of my hometown,” so he picked up and moved to Richmond. His two years of
classical guitar lessons were helpful, he thinks.”I don’t have an extensive theory background, but I have enough. So, you know, certain things will come through differently than if I didn’t have it.” The entire band enjoys touring, and are happy to report that as they return to places, attendance is improving. They have a great time in out-of-the-way places like Sarasota and Tallahassee, FL, Fort Wayne, IN, Las Cruces, NM, and Chico, CA. “It was the only way we woulda survived, really,” says Mike. “Because, you know, you play someplace like LA and no one really cares. They’re more concerned with the vintage Sodom T-shirts they bought on Ebay.” It seems that the house show scene is alive and well across the US. “[The place we played in] Fort Wayne is a house,” Mike relates. “It’s been there for 6 years. Parents bring their children there because they’re very militant about no drinking, any of that. So it’s weird--you’re in a house show setting, in this dingy basement, and it’s like, 13-year old kids going, ‘This is my first metal show!’ It’s so sweet. I wish I had that kind of stuff when I was growing up.” In the van, they’ve been known to listen to Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, and OutKast. “I love metal, trust RVAmag.com | RVA Magazine | 29
me,” Mike says. “I listen to it continuously. But when you’re surrounded by it all the time... When you’re in the van, you just wanna hear something else. It’s just so refreshing.” Recently, the band has been moving in a different musical direction, with less emphasis on the longer epic songs. These are favored by drummer T.J., who in the past has been the band’s main songwriter. According to Trey, “He’s better on guitar than either me
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or Steven are. He’s kind of bred to be a musician. He’s been playing music, and drums specifically, since he was 3.” Mike agrees. “He’s got some wild stories, like being 8 years old in his Dad’s cover band and opening up for Foghat.” With the new 4-song The Destroyer EP, which is nearly finished, Trey says, “I feel like we’re trying to simplify, so it doesn’t get bogged down in a lot of overly technical stuff. Instead of [songwriting] being 100% T.J., which is what it was, I’m gonna give it like a 60-40 split, just to
make myself feel good.” He laughs. The new songs range in length from around five minutes to about nine. What’s the lyrical content like? “It’s pretty grim,” muses Mike. “A lot of the songs [on the older records] were written in different time periods of Inter Arma, so some of the lyrics are kinda different. Inter Arma’s a fun band, and we’re all fun dudes, but the lyrics are super-serious. It’s pretty dark, nohope subject material. The new one, though, some of it’s real obscure. One song’s based on Robert Oppenheimer’s struggle with the fact that he created the atomic weapon.” All the music was recorded live by Garret Morris of Windhand. “He’s done a real good job so far and we haven’t even really begun to mix and EQ different things,” Mike
says. “We’re really excited.” What words of advice would they have for up-and-coming young bands? “Don’t have high expectations,” says Trey. “As cynical as that sounds, if you go out and you have big-band expectations, you’re just gonna be let down over and over. But if you change your view, it becomes a blast, regardless of what you’re doing. The main goal is to be able to actually make a living, but realistically, if all we get out of it is [touring] a bunch of times around the country and going to Europe, I’ll be OK with that.” “We really just wanna tour,” agrees Mike. “We wanna go everywhere, see everything.”
is. From metal to hardcore to all the experimental stuff, there are so many damn good bands here.” What do they want the readers of RVA Magazine to know? “They need to go to shows,” Mike declares. “All of them. I could literally write a list of 50 bands in this area that I think are great.” Trey nods. “We don’t have such terrible attendance, but more people should come out!” And there you have it, folks. See you in the basement! www.myspace.com/interarmametal
Trey’s thoughts on the Richmond scene: “There are soooo many good bands.” Mike agrees. “It’s the best, it really
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S TEVE AOKI by Alex Rose
W
e all know that feeling. Watching something that you create blossom into something that is not only special, but is enjoyed and accepted by those closest to you. Human nature drives us to set goals and work to reach them. The factors involved with creating something great can vary, but in the end, we find ourselves constantly trying to put in motion our new ideas in the hopes that we can make something of them. Entrepreneurs are plentiful, but those who manage to bring several different markets and audiences together rank a little higher in my book. Steve Aoki, the son of a successful wrestler and restaurant entrepreneur, had his work cut out for him at an early age. He went to school and ultimately graduated with not one but two B.A.’s. He was applying for PhD programs when a chain of events and some very wise decisions landed him on a path to become one of the most recognizable figures in the dance industry today. As a successful touring DJ, producer, founder and promoter of Dim Mak Records, co-owner of a Korean BBQ restaurant, and magazine creator (to name a few), Aoki has been one of the most successful figures in the dance culture movement, taking place right under our | RVA Magazine | RVAmag.com
noses. I was able to sit down, albeit very briefly, with Mr. Aoki in the hopes that we could backtrack through his career and learn of his future aspirations. I was excited to sit alongside and talk to a man who, in the same breath, could say that he’d collaborated with Lady Gaga and helped start MSTRKRFT’s career. We’ll get to my little Q&A in a second, but first, I feel it is important to gain some insight into the party that took place the second my chat session ended. Coming back from one hell of a week at the Ultra Music Fest in Miami, Steve Aoki graced the Richmond stage for the first time at the Hat Factory on March 3. Steady, unique promotion had been hyping this event up for weeks, and as the evening began, the kids poured into the venue. After a delayed sound check, the music began and the floodgates opened. With opening sets by Mass FX and Richmond favorites Audio Ammo, the night was off to a great start. Midnight rolled around and, after a down-to-the-wire interview, Steve was set to grace the stage. This was my third time seeing Steve in one week, so I had an idea of what to expect, but no one was fully prepared for what was to come. The crowd erupted as Steve started into his set. Off the bat, his first track was a Tyler, the Creator song that I realized was the
PHOTO: TREY HILL
same track that he had been looking for when I was chatting with him backstage. Soon after giving respect to Tyler and his newly-famous rap group Odd Future, Steve mixed into the tracks that we came to hear. With an impressive catalogue at his disposal, Steve Aoki favorites such as “I’m In The House” and “Wake Up Call” were quickly checked off our lists. Steve also unveiled some new productions that he had been working on, including a recent collaboration with Travis Barker. Before we knew it, Steve Aoki changed gears and we found ourselves being conducted in an a cappella rendition of Kid Cudi’s “Pursuit of Happiness.” As one of the more engaging live artists I have seen, his punk background shines through into his live set. If you have heard of Steve Aoki, you have heard of his stage dives. They have become synonymous with his live show, and he did not forget to pull this card out of his hat in Richmond. After several stage dives, the crowd was going nuts. Steve grabbed the microphone and got right in the crowd’s face, screaming and inciting them. Then came the champagne, another one of his favorites. As the music climaxed, so did the pressure inside of that poor champagne bottle. It relieved itself on the crowd, but the people were not mad. The shower was expected.
Stage dives, check. Champagne shower, check. All we needed was a few fires and overturned cars and we’d have ourselves a small riot. The end was nearing, and as 12th Planet’s “Hold On” remix ended the show, the crowd knew it was time to give it all they had. Everyone jumped to the music, at the same time helping Steve, lying on a pool raft, float atop a sea of hands. As the song ended and the lights came on, the crowd looked up at the stage, some with looks of utter confusion. Mr. Aoki began what would ultimately be his final track, a dance rendition of a familiar Lion King chant. We didn’t all know the words to it, but we screamed along as close as we could. The crowd went in for it one last time. Then the show was over, and Mr. Aoki was gracious enough to greet and take pictures with the fans who had worked their way onstage. After he’d signed autographs and taken pictures at his merchandise table, the Hat Factory closed its doors and the children were forced to return to their normal lives. After all, it was a school night.
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“I WA S A TELEMARKETER IN COLLEGE AND A BIKE DELIVERY BOY. I HAD S TARTED DIM MAK A S S ORT OF AN ART PROJECT.”
It’s quite the contrast to learn that you graduated from college with a degree focusing around Women’s Studies and Sociology. At that point, did you see yourself going down the path that we find you on now? I didn’t even really know what a DJ was at that point. I owned a turntable, but called it a record player. It wasn’t meant for playing to a crowd or anything. I had probably amassed over 10,000 records. I was a collector and with that many records you probably couldn’t even DJ publicly. I followed labels and the vinyl culture. What were you doing to put food on the table before DJ’ing? I was a telemarketer in college and a bike delivery boy. I had started Dim Mak as sort of an art project. It was sustaining itself, really. I just wanted to make sure money was coming in to keep the presses going.
hardcore band The Exploder toured Japan with Aoki’s band This Machine Kills in 2000--ed.]. I was like you; I was interviewing bands and artists. I started an AsianAmerican magazine in college. I graduated with a BA and applied to PhD programs. That was my world, before. Dim Mak was the bridge. I started that in ’96 as a rock label. When I moved from Santa Barbara and decided to not go to college to pursue academia, a certain band sort of propelled me into staying with the label. That band was The Kills. I put out their first EP in 2002 and moved to LA. Lived there for a year and started throwing Dim Mak parties. In 2003, I signed Bloc Party. At this point, Dim Mak had already put out roughly 60 records. [Bloc Party was] a different story altogether, though. The label started gaining ground, and we were selling a lot of records. Eventually, by 2005 we partnered with Atlantic and Vice, and sold 350,000 Bloc Party albums. We became a successful label and were doing well. We were an indie label, but we were still staying alive. When I started bringing DJ’s to come play the Dim Mak parties I was throwing, that is when I learned how to DJ. So it was learning to DJ live first. How much later did producing enter the picture?
At what point did the bike messenger/telemarketer in you decide to make the transition into the DJ world? It was two different worlds. I was in punk bands [Richmond trivia: Richmond post-
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Production came in 2005 when I remixed Bloc Party, who were on Dim Mak. It was easy because I had the [song] stems and everything. I’m more of a composer anyways, and my friend [Blake Miller of Los Angeles-based band Moving Units] and I
PHOTO: RICHARD PERKINS
STEVE AOKI RVA MAGAZINE ISSUE 5
started Weird Science. That ended a few years ago, though. Weird Science was quite successful in its relatively short run, wouldn’t you say? Your productions and remixes incorporated artists ranging from Michael Jackson to Snoop Dogg, and even threw in some Duran Duran for good measure. We did have some success. It was kind of a building block. We learned a lot from each other. I learned more from him, on the engineering side, than he probably did from me. I’ve been producing on my own now since 2008, and have been working on finishing up my album, which should be coming out this summer. I have a bunch of features on there: Kid Cudi, Lil Jon, Will.I.Am, Travis Barker, Blaqstarr, Rivers Cuomo. No title just yet, though. I’ve seen that you’ve collaborated with a bunch of artists who would stereotypically fit into the “Top 40” category more so than the electronic music field. Lenny Kravitz, Snoop Dogg, Lady Gaga, and Drake, just to name a few. How do these come about? Are you approached by the labels or do you go after them?
The Klaxons just hit me up and I’m good friends with them, so I did that. A remix I’m working on right now is for Linkin Park. I was hit up by Mike [Shinoda], who’s a good friend of mine. Drake came about when Interscope asked Travis Barker and me to remix it. Kid Cudi, he’s my homie, so that was a given. When it’s friends who ask me, I do the best I can. You have to pick your battles. Almost all of my studio time now is devoted to finishing my studio album. Your live show is synonymous with a few things; stage diving, champagne popping, etc. How do these elements that are not typical of the electronic scene set you apart now? I grew up with the metal culture. My first punk show was when I was 13 and my first stage dive was when I was 14. I’m just reliving my adolescence, I guess. When you go to a punk show, it is status quo. At a dance show, it’s sort of abnormal, but now it’s becoming more accepted. As far as the champagne goes, I just like doing that [laughs]. steveaoki.com
Almost all of the time, the remix comes about by the artist or their management. I don’t have the time to approach an artist or label because I’m always so busy.
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REPRESSED YOUTH I remember the first photo that really got me wondering who was shooting all the disposable-camera shots at the VA Beach/Norfolk parties. It was at a Fantastic Planet DJ night at the Jewish Mother: there was this great crotch shot in which you could pretty much see the girl’s vag. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who noticed this pic that was so well executed and kept going back to it. That was the moment when the name of his website, “Who the fuck is Richard Perkins?” became relevant. It seemed like he was everywhere--at every
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party, shooting different styles of photos in all sorts of different media. I was psyched to see something fresh, and someone that seemed to have a genuine passion and an eye for what he was doing. There was a grimy feel to the photos--somewhat trashy and perverted-but the execution was the most intriguing part. The precise moments captured in his images gave a realistic feel to his representations of the kind of youth that thrives without supervision.
Where you at, fool? Taking flicks?
When I was a child I was pretty much alone, playing with action figures and drawing and stuff, but when I hit Portsmouth and my teen years, I started skating. Skating pretty much changed my life for everything.
I always fucked with an Acera; had one on me taking shitty photos of me and my friends doin’ kickflips. But other than that, I’ve always had some strange attachment to it.
Word. How was growin up in Portsmouth? Is that where you are originally from?
Who were some of your favorite pros?
I grew up in Craddock and Suffolk, pretty much, then started going to private school cuz Craddock public schools were fuckin’ me. Courts Street Academy is a priate school in Portsmouth. Then I started hanging down there.
Ali Boulala, Dustin Dollin, Heath Kirchart, Mark Gonz [Gonzales]. And a lot of dudes that have mad weird style. I don’t really like a lot of dudes throwing themselves down 20-sets [stairs]. I’d rather see Jason Lee do a 360 flip on flat ground.
Do you remember the first photo you took when you were like, “Damn, I like that, I want to do this all the time?”
What was your home life like growing up?
Did you ever take skate flicks? Would you say that inspired you to start taking photos, or were you always into photography?
South Carolina… Yeah, and bombing maaaad hills.
Nawwwww. I had disposables, and used them like kids would use digitals now, for documentation. I do remember getting a shitty video camera that had the ‘still’ effect, and got into it a little after that. So what are you using these days? Disposables, point and shoot? RVAmag.com | RVA Magazine | 39
Disposables, digital, random other shit. But I think I mastered disposables, I just use digital a little more now, because it’s getting hard to use [disposables]-develop and scan and all that shit. Do you develop your own film? I can’t. I’ve never taken a photography class. My high school didn’t even have one. I guess I just never got the chance. So do you prefer shooting film as opposed to digital? Yes. Always. But it’s hard sometimes. The new age of digital is eating our soul. I’ve noticed a lot of photos you post are pretty sleazy--at least the ones I enjoy the most. Is there any convincing involved, or do the subjects of your photos get down willingly, with no questions? Sleaziness is easy, but for me it took a little while to actually do what I want. I like to be as raw as possible, and as dirty. I’m highly influenced by 90s snapshot porn photography and 90s fashion. I just recently did the Commodore Brand [Clothing] shoot and got a few sleazy shots in. It was brilliant. Virginia is mad sleazy though. I love it. When did you see your first porn movie/mag? Shit, four or five… sneaking into my parents’ drawers on accident. Porn is an art to me, sex is an art. All of it is also hilarious. Porn is funny and sex is funny. And throwing it in [under] the right circumstances makes for a good joke. You have a good variety of staged shoots, party photos and random shots. What do you prefer to shoot? What do you like shooting the most?
I honestly like them all. Staged is probably the least, though. The random spontaneous disposable shots are always the best. I also love the party photography. Working with WEOK [VA Beach Party Crew] has been an honor. Going back to school--how was going to private school? Did you like school at all? Private school was the shit for me. We could do whatever we wanted, wear whatever we wanted. I met my homie Anthony Didio there--we live with each other now. And my friend Mike Davis. I live with him too. My relationships there never got broken, even when we went to different high schools. My private school only went up to 8th grade, so after that I went back to public school in Suffolk. Seems like you’ve got a solid set of friends. Are they supportive of the work you do? And are they subjects of your work?
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I love shows. I wanna be in as many as possible. I wanna show some of my actual art one day. I’ve never got the chance to yet. What kind of art do you do? Shitty art. Little art. Art that not too many people will understand. What are some things you would be interested in shooting in the future? Fashion. A lot of fashion, and bigger parties. Maybe some dirty shit thrown in somewhere. Word. Is there anything else you’d like to say to let peeps know who the fuck Richard Perkins is?
My friends are my family. They’re in full support, even though they give me a hard time sometimes. They also love getting their photos taken.
I just wanna thank everyone who’s helped. C’monwealth Boutique, WEOK, Commodore, Noah Larmz [VB/Norfolk Party Crew], ANYONE who believed in me. I also just hope this stuff never ends, and we all make it to the top.
What do they give you shit for?
parachutefullofforks.blogspot.com
[Laughs] Having my name on my jacket. Writing my website [address] places. They kinda make fun of the “Who The Fuck Is Richard Perkins” thing. You’ve had work in a few shows lately. What kind of response has your work gotten outside of the general scene? Both shows were highly successful actually. [At] the contemporary art museum one, I had my work shown on the theatre screen, and people responded very, very well. The Selden one was even bigger. I sold some big pieces in that one. It also brought a pretty huge crowd.
“THE RANDOM SPONTANEOUS DISPOSABLE SHOTS ARE ALWAYS THE BEST. I ALSO LOVE THE PARTY PHOTOGRAPHY.”
PHOTO: JOSIAH MARROQUIN
Is that something you want to pursue more? What other kind of things would you like your work to be a part of?
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WWW.VENUESKATEBOARDS.COM
PHOTO: BRENT O’DONNELL
ERICH BIELEFELDT MAURY BLANKINSHIP JORDAN BRADSHAW ANDREW CAUTHEN GILBERT CROCKETT CALEB OCASIO TRAVIS PITTMAN JOSH SWYERS
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rying out by the second, my eyes stay fixed on Chun Li’s movements, manipulated by incoherent button mashing and jolting the joystick around as if I were a five-year-old attempting a Commodore 64 F-16 flight simulator. As I finish off another nameless Capcom vs. SNK 2 character, a distorted rumble builds from the stage to my left. I know this song. Immediately, the levels are peaking, and the cymbal crashes are careening past the scattered patrons that dot the bar next to me. The few existing beyond the bar meander around with mugs of tea and coffee, seemingly unbothered by the chaos thundering from the nearby speakers. I break stride, straying from the game, as my ears followed by my head drift towards the peak load of reverb and sludge that hits me, screaming, “I got a favorite one.” That’s the Prince of San Francisco Psychedelic Rock, Ty Segall, and his band, going absolutely apeshit on the song “Lovely One.” Pleasantly bewildered at the ferocity of their warmup, I return to my Japanese fight fantasy, nodding my head, mumbling the words, and mashing and jolting the controls of the console in time with the mucky floor-stomping beats flourishing in the background. Following soundcheck and subsequent dinner, Segall joined me for a conversation in the alley behind Strange Matter. It’s been almost a year since I last interviewed him, and almost a year since the release of his most diverse and bizarrely accessible album to date, Melted. Since our last conversation, Segall has released his fifth LP in three years, Live In Aisle 5, on South Paw Records, in addition to a limited 12” of T. Rex covers appropriately titled Ty Rex for Record Store Day. He has played festivals and toured extensively around the states and Europe--complete with a gig in the Bermuda Triangle, thanks to the Bruise Cruise. If that’s not enough Ty for you in 2011, don’t fret, his fourth studio album, Goodbye Bread, drops this summer. Beyond Strange Matter’s vintage arcade, through back doors fit with a taped piece of computer paper reading “Employees Only Beyond This Point,” we discussed coming to terms with his eponymous band name, his burgeoning catalogue of tunes, touring with his main squeeze, “the dream,” and of course, Richmond, VA. Segall’s played Richmond before, but not with his band. Sporting a drab sports jacket (leather elbow patches included), a stretched out grey cardigan, and a Thee Oh Sees t-shirt, Segall swipes his wavy blonde locks to the side with his his green-ink-tattooed fingers. He trails as though he’s warming up his memory for a long car ride, condensed breath drifting through the gazing glow of the flood light overhead. “I came here [with] The Traditional Fools, like, three years ago; maybe more than that. It was awesome.” It’s not like he’s been avoiding the East Coast or anything; just Virginia. Since last summer, Segall and his gang of fuzz studs have hit DC twice. Once at DC 9; once at Comet Ping Pong in North West. On his current tour, Segall says he’s “really happy to stop in places” his band has skipped over. “We don’t really know what to expect in places we haven’t played, so it’s awesome that anyone comes.”
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Segall has contributed drums, guitar, and vocals to a number of California rying out by the second, my eyes stay fixed on Chun Li’s movements, manipuprojects that waver somewhere between psychedelic rock and punk, including lated by incoherent button mashing and jolting the joystick around as if I were Orange County’s Epsilons and San Francisco’s Traditional Fools, Party Fowl, Sic a five-year-old attempting a Commodore 64 F-16 flight simulator. As I finish Alps, and The Perverts. The main difference between those groups and the enoff another nameless Capcom vs. SNK 2 character, a distorted rumble builds semble he brings to Strange Matter now is that this is his band. He has hatched from the stage to my left. I know this song. Immediately, the levels are peaking, cerebral manifestations from the kaleidoscope of surfscapes and social tales an and the cymbal crashes are careening past the scattered patrons that dot the adolescent encounters while becoming a man on the the coast of California. This bar next to me. The few existing beyond the bar meander around with mugs of perlustration of his adolescent experience is aided by his knack for nostalgia; tea and coffee, seemingly unbothered by the chaos thundering from the nearby foregoing the new for the old, channeling the psychedelic sounds of the 60s and speakers. I break stride, straying from the game, as my ears followed by my head the fuzzier punk stylings of the 70s. The psychedelia comes compliments of his drift towards the peak load of reverb and sludge that hits me, screaming, “I got affinity for the echoplex, and for airy, reverberated fuzz balladry. These elements a favorite one.” That’s the Prince of San Francisco Psychedelic Rock, Ty Segall, make up Segall’s unmistakable new vintage sound. Throughout the interview, he and his band, going absolutely apeshit on the song “Lovely One.” Pleasantly references albums such as Alice Cooper’s Pretties For You and Bob Seger’s Rambbewildered at the ferocity of their warmup, I return to my Japanese fight fantasy, lin’, Gamblin’ Man, saying “Forever Changes is one of the best albums ever,” about nodding my head, mumbling the words, and mashing and jolting the controls Love’s 1967 classic. Love’s Arthur Lee is a no-brainer, but who knew the author of the console in time with the mucky floor-stomping beats flourishing in the of “Night Moves” would influence modern punk psychedelia? I guess I need to background. listen to his early stuff. Following soundcheck and subsequent dinner, Segall joined me for a converDespite years of experience as a member of various bands, it wasn’t until 2008, sation in the alley behind Strange Matter. It’s been almost a year since I last when Segall decided to play a rather serendipitous solo show exposing mateinterviewed him, and almost a year since the release of his most diverse and rial he developed in his bedroom, that his solo career truly began. “I’ve always bizarrely accessible album to date, Melted. Since our last conversation, Segall recorded in my bedroom, most of which won’t ever see the light of day. I just has released his fifth LP in three years, Live In Aisle 5, on South Paw Records, in recorded a tape and gave it to [KUSF, the University Of San Francisco’s studentaddition to a limited 12” of T. Rex covers appropriately titled Ty Rex for Record run radio station, now defunct] and some other places. And they liked it a lot. I Store Day. He has played festivals and toured extensively around the states thought maybe I could play these songs live. The Traditional Fools got asked to and Europe--complete with a gig in the Bermuda Triangle, thanks to the Bruise play with this band the Nodzzz, and we couldn’t do it. I didn’t want to back out Cruise. If that’s not enough Ty for you in 2011, don’t fret, his fourth studio album, of the show because I love that band. So, I told them that if they wanted, I could Goodbye Bread, drops this summer. play a few songs by myself. And that’s the first show I ever played. I just played kick drumStrange (and guitar) andvintage that’s how it started,” avers. Beyond Matter’s arcade, throughhe back doors fit with a taped piece of computer paper reading “Employees Only Beyond This Point,” we The cassette, Horn The Unicorn, was recorded at his residence, Wizard Mountain, discussed coming to terms with his eponymous band name, his burgeoning which doubles as a tape label. It featured a handful of songs that would resurcatalogue of tunes, touring with his main squeeze, “the dream,” and of course, face on Ty Segall, released on Castle Face Records later that year. He continued Richmond, VA. Segall’s played Richmond before, but not with his band. to play by himself, only adding a high-hat and tambourine to enhance his solo dynamic reverb-drenched rock. Having recorded all of his material out up Sportingof a drab sports jacketgarage (leather elbow patches included), a stretched to that time by his lonesome, Segall didn’t consider forming a band until after grey cardigan, and a Thee Oh Sees t-shirt, Segall swipes his wavy blonde locks recording third and first for Goner Records, onewarming man to the sidehiswith hisLPgreen-ink-stained fingers. He Lemons. trails as “Doing though ahe’s band is kind he says. “I felt like I did the one through man band up histhing memory forofalimiting,” long car ride, condensed breath drifting therecord gazing [on TyofSegall]. I kind of overhead. don’t like doing thehere same record twice if I can Fools, help it.like, So glow the flood light “I came [with] The Traditional Ithree felt like I might well do a full band record next, becauseIt’s I don’t know how I years ago;as maybe more than that. It was awesome.” not like he’s been could really that one without itjust sounding likeSince the same thing.” Segall and avoiding thematch East Coast or anything; Virginia. last summer, Considering the diversified had for Lemons, the album his gang of fuzz studs havevision hit DChetwice. Once at DCit’s 9;clear oncethat at Comet Ping was an expansion upon the lo-fi primal rock constituting his semi-debut Pong in North West. On his current tour, Segall says he’s “really happy to(Horn stop The Unicorn) true debut (Ty Segall). Those albums nothing too in in places” hisand band has skipped over. “We don’t really featured know what to expect drastic Although he did record he draws a distincplaces or wecomplicated. haven’t played, so it’s awesome thatLemons anyonesolo, comes.” tion between his first two efforts beyond the interchange of recording mediums from a digital eight-trackdrums, to reel-to-reel tape. While songs of onCalifornia his self-titled Segall has contributed guitar, and vocals to athe number album were could be executed alone, the tunes could only projects thatsongs waverthat somewhere between psychedelic rockon andLemons punk, including be enacted live with the support of a band. “It’s a way less stressful thing to play Orange County’s Epsilons and San Francisco’s Traditional Fools, Party Fowl, Sic with bandThe instead of byThe yourself,” he says. “The mainthose difference forand methe is being Alps,a and Perverts. main difference between groups enfreed up.he Being able solo; being able to get off this time;isgetting a little weirder and semble brings toto Strange Matter now is that his band. He has hatched having fun with it.” He pauses and collects his thoughts. “Because if I play by cerebral manifestations from the kaleidoscope of surfscapes and social tales an myself it’s kind of super-intense. I’m definitely playing adolescent encounters while becoming a manenjoying on the the coastitofaloof.” California. This perlustration of his adolescent experience is aided by his knack for nostalgia; Ultimately, Segall’s main gig is under his name, regardless of backing band foregoing the new for the old, channeling the psychedelic sounds of the 60s and support. “For some reason I’ve always felt that ‘Johnny Something and The the fuzzier punk stylings of the 70s. The psychedelia comes compliments of his Somethings’ is a little tacky,” he says. “There’s that notion in my brain that you’re affinity for the echoplex, and for airy, reverberated fuzz balladry. These elements putting a label on this band, and not acknowledging them as people, too.” He admake up Segall’s unmistakable new vintage sound. Throughout the interview, justs himself on the cement steps. “The only reason I haven’t [developed a band he references albums such as Alice Cooper’s Pretties For You and Bob Seger’s name] is because one of the main purposes for this project is that I like to make Ramblin’, Gamblin’ Man, saying “Forever Changes is one of the best albums recordings where I play everything. Which is a totally selfish thing to do. It’s kind ever,” about Love’s 1967 classic. Love’s Arthur Lee is a no-brainer, but who knew of how I write. I guess I started things accidentally under my name. But I really the author of “Night Moves” would influence modern punk psychedelia? I guess started playing under my name because I didn’t have a choice. I had all these I need to listen to his early stuff. songs and said, ‘I’m going to play; I’m not going to wait around.’ Now, we’re kind of stuck with weird. I think it a of lot.various It is a trip. I don’t like being the Despite yearsit.ofIt’s experience as aabout member bands, it wasn’t until in 2008, spotlight either. I just like making tunes. But now I’msolo the show number one dude in the when Segall decided to play a rather serendipitous exposing matespotlight in this band, which can bethat a stressful thebegan. price you for rial he developed in his bedroom, his solo thing. careerIt’s truly “I’vepay always wanting to have freedom on the recordings. It makes it a limitless thing, which recorded in my bedroom, most of which won’t ever see the light of day. I just is nice, you know?” recorded a tape and gave it to [KUSF, the University Of San Francisco’s studentrun radio station, now defunct] and some other places. And they liked it a lot. I His monogamous studio efforts are the soul of his creations, but the polygamy thought maybe I could play these songs live. The Traditional Fools got asked to of his live sets is a means of drawing forth the mad psychedelic grit-rock visions play with this band the Nodzzz, and we couldn’t do it. I didn’t want to back out that propagate in his cerebrum. His current live support comes from the people of the show because I love that band. So, I told them that if they wanted, I could who care the most: lovers, man. This amorous menagerie consists of Segall’s play a few songs by myself. And that’s the first show I ever played. I just played
girlfriend, Denee Petracek, on bass, and hand-holders Emily Rose Epstein on kick drum guitar) and that’s how itWhy started,” drums and (and Charles Moothart on guitar. miss he her,avers. or him for that matter, when you can bring ‘em on tour? “I was super-stoked because when you’re on The cassette, Horn The Unicorn, was recorded at his residence, Wizard Mountour all the time and you’re away from your girlfriend it’s not fun,” says Segall. “I tain, which doubles as a tape label. It featured a handful of songs that would have been friends with Charlie for a long time; since high school. Charlie started resurface on Ty Segall, released on Castle Face Records later that year. He condating Emily like a year ago, so I said, ‘Let’s do this thing.’ Then we became a twotinued to play by himself, only adding a high-hat and tambourine to enhance his couples band. It’s pretty funny.” Pretty fucking romantic, if you ask me. solo dynamic of reverb-drenched garage rock. Having recorded all of his material up to that time by his lonesome, Segall didn’t a bandand until after Segall asserts that, in addition to absolving his consider duties asforming both maestro recording his his stage third LP and first for Goner Lemons. man orchestra, coterie permits him toRecords, be “louder. I want“Doing to get aasone loud as band thing is kind of limiting,” he says. “I felt like I did the one man band record possible. People seem to like the one man band as a spectacle thing. I don’t think [onaTy Segall]. by I kind don’t like doingup the same record I canjust helptryit.toSo I’m spectacle anyofmeans. To walk there with four twice peopleif and I felttheir like I faces--that’s might as wellanother do a fullway band next, because I don’tofknow how I melt of record trying to make a spectacle something, could really match that one without it sounding like the same thing.” too,” assures Segall. And ain’t that the truth. There’s no room for casual rock n’ Considering the latest diversified vision he had for Lemons, album roll fans. Segall’s touring troupe evokes the freakit’s flagclear in usthat all, the sonically was an expansion the rockabilly lo-fi primalquiff rockdrift constituting hisassemi-debut (Horn suggesting that youupon let your downward your shoulders The Unicorn) and true debut (Ty Segall). Those albums featured nothing too convulse to the pulse of the bass drum and the shrill of the treble. Think Egon drastic or complicated. Although he did record Lemons solo, he draws a distincSpengler in a worn black leather jacket, cracked out on cheap bourbon and tion between first two efforts beyond interchange recording mediums Marlboro Reds,his taking a subcultural respitethe from his rogueof Rebel Without A Cause from a digital eight-track to reel-to-reel themodern songs on histhat self-titled motorcycle status to get some kicks at a tape. local While dive. The shit makes album were songs that could be executed alone, the tuneswet. on Lemons coulditonly Dick Dale, Glenn Danzig, and Quentin Tarantino’s panties What makes bememorable enacted liveiswith support ofessence a band. “It’s a way less stressful thing to play so that the there’s a true of pop underneath the epidermis of with a distortion, band instead by yourself,” he says. “The main difference for me is being reverb, andofthroat. freed up. Being able to solo; being able to get off time; getting a little weirder and having to funSegall’s with it.”work He pauses and collects if I play by Thanks ethic, there’s a lot ofhis histhoughts. work out“Because there. “When I first myself out it’s kind oflike, super-intense. enjoying playing it aloof.” started it was ‘Go, go, go,I’m go, definitely go--the more you can do, the better’,” he says. “Now, I want to do the best stuff I can possibly do. I’d rather put out one Ultimately, Segall’s main is and under hisitname, backing bandthan single and one record thisgig year have be theregardless best stuffof I’ve ever done, support. “For some reason I’ve always felt that ‘Johnny Something and The have the songs suffer [just] to put out more.” It seems as though his new ethos Somethings’ is a little tacky,” he says. “There’s that notion in my brain that begets a new beginning. Segall’s forthcoming album, Goodbye Bread, slated you’re for reputting a label on be thishis band, not acknowledging them as people, lease June 21, will first and for Drag City Records. “I’ve been a fan oftoo.” DragHe City,” adjusts himself steps. “TheMarkers, only reason I haven’t [developed a proclaims Segall.on “I the lovecement Royal Trux, Magik Michael Yonkers, stuff like band name] is because one of the main purposes for this project is that I like to the Scene Creamers... It is just an awesome label.” He’s taking a similar approach make I play is aattotally selfish thingeveryto do. on the recordings new recordwhere as he has ineverything. the past, in Which that he’s the helm; playing It’s kind of how I write.He I guess I started thingsdeclaration accidentally under my name. thing on the recording. makes the exciting that Goodbye BreadBut will I really started playing under my name because I didn’t have a choice. I hadI don’t all be “weirder” than his past albums. Considering the title track off of Melted, thesehow songs and weirder said, ‘I’mhegoing to play; I’m notslower, going to wait around.’ Now, we’re know much can get. “Definitely moodier,” he assures. kind ofpsych-y stuck with It’s weird. think about it a kind lot. Itofisdistorted. a trip. I don’t like being in “More thanit.harsh. LessIgarage-y harsh, It’s definitely the spotlight I just likeWhatever making tunes. But now I’m the number one dude in different... noteither. as concept-y.” that means. the spotlight in this band, which can be a stressful thing. It’s the price you pay for wanting to have freedom on the recordings. makes it a limitless which is Hours later, following a mind-fuck of a set byItRichmond’s Bermudathing, Triangles, and nice, you know?” a surf-danceable spree by The Super Vacations, Ty Segall and company stand atop the Strange Matter stage, ready to barrage the crowd with their version His monogamous studio efforts are therock. soul I’m of his the reached polygamy of deafening San Francisco psychedelic notcreations, sure if thebut show of his live sets is a means of drawing forth the mad psychedelic grit-rock visions capacity, but my shoulders never left my neighbors’ throughout the headline thatStrange propagate in his cerebrum. live comes the begin people set. Matter wants it, but His isn’tcurrent ready to letsupport its guard down.from Heads who care bob, the most: lovers,start man.toThis amorous menagerie of Segall’s girlto timidly and bodies oscillate like tops duringconsists the opening number, friend, Denee Petracek, on bass, and hand-holders Emily Rose Epstein on drums “Standing At The Station.” The speakers shake enough to make the debris on the and Charles Moothartbass on guitar. Whyguitar miss crunches her, or himechoing for thatthrough matter, the when you floor move. Petracek’s thudding, arcade canback, bring Epstein ‘em on tour? “I was because when you’resnare, on tour all the and controls the super-stoked chaos with a perimeter of cymbal, bass and timedrum. and you’re away from girlfriend it’sAfter not fun,” sayscan’t Segall. “I like haveyou’re been kick Moshing will haveyour to wait its turn. all, you look friends with Charlie for a long time; since high school. Charlie started dating Emhaving too good of time in front of other people, right? Finally, the closing, encore ily like a year ago, so“Pretty I said, Baby ‘Let’s (You’re do this thing.’ Then weRichmonders became a two-couples numbers “It #1” and So Ugly)” get in the pit. band. It’s pretty fucking you askthe me.cavity before the Inhibitions aside funny.” and barPretty tabs well fed, romantic, the crowdifabsorbs stage as Segall’s screaming blonde mop envelopes the microphone. Following the Segall asserts that, in addition to absolving his duties as both maestro and sweaty performance, attendee Kaley Morris yells, “I can’t hear shit right now!” as orchestra, his stage coterie permits him to be “louder. I want to get as loud as if she were trying to convey a message across a ravine. Jen Lawhren expresses possible. People seem to like the one man band as a spectacle thing. I don’t think that she feels “the California love in the ugly, disgusting, cold city of Richmond,” I’m a spectacle by any means. To walk up there with four people and just try to as post-show zombies shuffle toward the vinyl available for purchase next to the melt their faces--that’s another way of trying to make a spectacle of something, Ms. Pacman machine. too,” assures Segall. And ain’t that the truth. There’s no room for casual rock n’ roll fans. Segall’s troupe evokes freak us all, sonically Segall, at 23 yearslatest old, istouring more precocious thanthe most at flag this in point in life. While suggesting that you let your rockabilly quiff drift downward as your shoulders selling merchandise, his smile never fades; the road fatigue never shows. He has to the pulse of the bass whiskey-cocked drum and the shrill of the treble. Think Egon aconvulse dream beyond the now; beyond aspirations. His dream of exisSpengler in a worn black leather jacket,Incracked out on cheap andRoe, Marltence is based on the reality of Trouble Mind Records heads bourbon Bill and Lisa boro Reds, taking a subcultural respite from his rogue Rebel Without A Cause whose label is the purveyor of both the supreme Segall single “My Sunshine,” motorcycle status to get some kicks at a of local The“2+2=?” modern shit that makes and his creepier, grittier-than-thou cover Bobdive. Seger’s “Bottom line: Dick are Dale, Danzig, and Quentin Tarantino’s panties wet. What makes it They theGlenn sweetest people,” Segall says of the Roes. “It gives me hope. They’re so memorable is that there’s a true essence of pop underneath the epidermis doing everything I want to do. Have a rad daughter, play in a rad band [CoCo- of reverb, distortion, Coma], have a rad and label,throat. be super happy people. That’s the dream,” the Prince of San Francisco Psych conveys with an assuring look. It gives me hope, too, Ty. Thanks to Segall’s work ethic, there’s a lot of his work out there. “When I first Punk isn’t dead, and neither is the future. started out it was like, ‘Go, go, go, go, go--the more you can do, the better’,” he says. “Now, I want to do the best stuff I can possibly do. I’d rather put out one
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Andrew’s pieces are profound sculptural glassworks that could stand on their own podium in a gallery next to less functional work, were they not stigmatized by the majority of the art world for their capacity to conduct smoke into the lungs of their particular patrons. It’s a natural thing to contemplate while being conducted from the workspace and into a lounge area with comfortable couches and display cases. My dad took a glass blowing class in Northern Virginia when I was still in high school, and I kinda begged my folks to set me up. I wanted to learn how to blow glass. I wanted to make a specific object; I wanted to make some pipes. And they didn’t know that so much, but they got me signed up in the glass class, and it really went beyond that. I got involved in the medium, and it was awesome. I really enjoyed it, beyond [the fact] that I was working toward this ulterior motive that I had, which was to make some pipes for myself. It really gave me a passion for the material, and I began to pursue it back then, in ‘99, 2000.
Breaking Glass T
By S. Preston Duncan Photos Kenneth Howard JR
he temptation to document the sensory overload of standing in the back of Influence Glass--UV protective goggles on, paper cup full of Captain Morgan’s in hand; watching globs of molten glass rotate under indigo flames like some strange series of infant planets, primordial, glowing at the majesty of their own genesis--is too great. The way the warehouse walls rose with a certain ceremonial dignity around the peculiar warmth of the studio space, covered in bright and elaborate graffiti; the faint melodies of music I cannot quite recall, infusing the constant rush and hum of heavy machinery; these things deserve to be noted. The overall atmosphere was one of artistic devotion, craftsmanship, and shared subcultural camaraderie, shot through with a quiet sense that the art being made was, in its state of dubious legality, Outlaw Art.
And yes, it’s art. 48 | RVA Magazine | RVAmag.com
His stuff, suffice it to say, has evolved a bit. Intricate pieces that are nearly indiscernible as smoking devices demonstrate an innovative, creative vision, coupled with impeccable craftsmanship and a natural eye for composition. I’d be scared to touch one of these things, let alone pass it around a hazy living room. And this lends his work a certain gravity as fine art. I won’t entertain the unending debate undertaken by those fixated on aesthetic philosophy as to what constitutes art (there’s no answer, dammit). A more relevant question, however, might be at what point the highbrow, track-lit intellectuals of the art world begin considering something an artist might smoke out of to be art, itself. There is that “Oh it’s a pipe, it’s not art” thought, but for me it’s in the eye of the beholder. You can go to any museum, throughout the country, throughout the world, and look at certain objects, or paintings, or abstract art and say to yourself, or to others around you, “I don’t think that’s art. I could have done that. That’s a Jackson Pollack splatter painting.” So it’s all in the eye of the beholder, what you think is art. It takes a very open-minded gallery--and there are a lot of people banding together, because they believe in the fact that it is art. They’re opening galleries that are based on glass, based on pipe makers; oftentimes they’re owned by pipe makers. But that’s what you gotta do sometimes if you want to get your idea out there. If you want to display this as art, and no gallery wants to display it as art, make your own gallery. Display it as art. Create your own setting for your own art. It’s always been the place of the underground artist to redefine art for the rest of the world, to labor under the
constraints of subterranean legitimacy, until the outlaw becomes chic enough to auction off. In this state, what is created remains pure, unadulterated by the stylistic whims of the marketplace. It is untainted by the pressures of commercial conformity, popular expectation. But it is still commercial work. There are still production pieces. This line between functionality, saleability, and creativity has fostered a community in which the niche market for “heady” glass appears reactive to the glass blowers, rather than the other way around. The glass blowers, in turn, have become profoundly influenced by each other, rather than by some faddish standard of art world desirability. I do what I do. And I don’t necessarily have a goal to become solely an artist. I feel as if I’ll always make pipes, even if I’m making them in the art world. I make pipes right now because it’s the best money I can make. The art world doesn’t pay the same as the production world. And I would have to say that I would definitely like to be more known as an artist, as well as a pipemaker, because I do feel like I fall in that category, as do lots of glass blowers. It would be very nice to get more of... not necessarily pipe oriented, but that culture, that type of work, that type of idea--that it’s ok to display this as glass art, even though it’s a functional pipe. If you make a teapot, and that teapot is beautiful, and you think it’s art, there’s no harm in putting it in a museum or a gallery, even though it’s just a teapot. It’s funny, because even within the pipemaking and glass community, there are individuals that consider themselves artists, and there are individuals of equal talent and skill, who make the same items, who would call themselves well-trained craftsmen. And the only difference to me is their mindset, what they think their work is. So it’s an interesting scale. And I don’t get to talk to too many people who are in the general public that go and view art, that would have an opportunity to view a lot of pipe art. I don’t have any idea of what their feedback would be, so it would be nice to learn that, to see that happen. This stigma is entwined with that of an associated, criminalized culture. Despite every pipemaker’s assertion that their work is solely for use with tobacco, nothing has really alleviated the stereotypical connotation conjured by heady glasswork of the classless stoner, overly obsessed with getting high. The common perception is that this stuff is for lawbreakers, potheads. But decriminalizing a substance is a far different thing from destigmatizing a culture, and the effects of such a decriminalization on the legitimacy of pipemaking-as-art are debatable. I think once that issue has been dropped a little, and everyone kind of gets their panties out of a bunch, more galleries and more people will be receptive to the idea
that this is a pipe show, and that we’re going to show some pipes. We’re ready for that, and it’s going on in a lot of places, and I’m on the brink of breaking into them. I’m trying to make things happen here so that I can go out and get down on some of these other events, and go to some other gallery openings where fellow pipemakers are having gallery openings with new work of theirs. Or a new idea or concept. And oftentimes there’s some amount of pipework, and then a bit of just art in there, that the glassblowers are making because they are bridging that gap. The quasi-legal status of marijuana on the West Coast has not had an overwhelmingly positive effect on public perception of artistic glasswork. Far from a miraculous legitimization of the practice, legalization has seemed to enable an artless attitude of blatant priority among the vague community of stoners, who react with a careless, does-the-trick apathy towards the more elaborate smoking apparatuses. Honestly, this might kinda contradict what I said earlier, but it seems like out west, where you have this decriminalization thing going on, it‘s less about “I want this awesome piece,” and more about “I just need something to get the job done.” Now, that could just be what I’ve been exposed to. I’ve never lived out there, I’ve never spent more than 6 days at a time out there, so really, what do I know of it? But it’s what friends tell me, and kind of what I’ve seen. It seems like it’s a hard hustle to get your glass on [out West]. And I hear there’s
a lot of glassblowers out there, and they can get their stuff out. They live out there because they like the area. But then there are a lot of glassblowers out there that just kinda know how to make production, and all they do is sit around and make the same thing a hundred times a day. They probably don’t consider themselves artists, and I don’t consider that art, but you could take that and make it art. There’s an individual who has made a really large American flag, and when you step back it appears to be an American flag, but when you zoom into it, it’s a series of pipes that are colored, and that are laid out to display this American flag. Now if you had just made all those pipes one color, and hadn’t laid them out like that, it wouldn’t be art. You just made a bunch of pipes to sell and make money. But he consciously colored them the way he wanted, and laid them out in a conscious pattern, that conveyed a specific message. Thus, it is art. That’s how easy it is to bridge pipes into art. And not just art, but political art. Any time you have a medium inherently confrontational towards the legal institutions that be (like, say, graffiti), the work carries with it an implicit defiance. The very act of its creation is one of subversion in the context of social mores and legislative judgment. It’s one of the rare instances in art where intent is irrelevant to the statement being made; it’s always there. But pipemakers aren’t default activists. The relatively small glassblowing scene has, in its ostracism from the art
world and under the suspicious glare of the law, cultivated a unique community with its own standards, levels of accomplishment, and celebrity reverence. There are absolutely some, I guess you could call, “celebrity” glass blowers. People that are just really sought after. And I think a part of that is I’m living this daily, where I can only make so much work. It’s simple supply and demand. If you can get the people to want your stuff so bad, then you can charge what you want, and you can sell to who you want, and you can call the shots. And that’s what pretty much makes these guys big celebs. They can put the dollar ticket that they want on their product because the demand is there, and people are willing to spend it. And I think that’s when you know you’re a bigshot. There’s definitely a pecking order in the glass community. We all know who the top dogs are, and they know it, and they get invited to flame offs, and master’s competitions, and they get offers to teach classes. I personally take classes from some of these superstars. I admire them. They’re my Tony Hawk. It’s definitely interesting to see the progression of some of these people, however, because I’ve seen some of them just pop up out of the woodwork, and become superstars out of nowhere. And it’s just because, “I’m so and so from wherever, and I’m local, I’m independent, but I’m good at it. And then all of a sudden I pop up on the internet, and the world is exposed, and they respond really really well to my glass.” And then almost overnight you can gain superstardom in the pipemaking community. It’s pretty
awesome. There’s not a lot of mediums where that’s possible. If you’re a musician, you’ve got a long, long road to go before you become famous. It’s really cool to me that within the pipemaking community, it just takes a couple good ideas, and you can be one of those top dogs we’re sitting here talking about. As with any movement, glass has its epicenters, those places where the accomplished and aspiring assemble to break into the realm of respectability and fame. Perhaps more important than his own personal accomplishments is the vision Andrew has for Richmond. I would say the Richmond glass community is doing a pretty good job of representing. We’ve got a decent amount of glassblowers out here. I hope to bring more into Richmond. We’ve got a couple kids down here from Northern Virginia who are interested in a space in the shop. I got a guy in Charlottesville who’s interested in a space. So we’re pulling some people in here. And compared to some cities, we might be crushing them, but there are a lot of other places, like Philly, that are just swarming with really good glassblowers. And Burlington, Vermont, they’ve got a lot of good glassblowers out there. There are a lot of areas where people just kind of congregate, and get these glass meccas started. And that’s what we’re trying to push for. So I would say we’re measuring up, but we’re still growing. We’re young, we’re hungry, and we’re ready to make it happen. Photos courtesy of Kulture.
I feel as if I’ll always make pipes, even if I’m making them in the art world. RVAmag.com | RVA Magazine | 49
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BALLICEAUX
203 N LOMBARDY RVA
LUNCH BRUNCH DINNER EVENTS
BALLICEAUXRVA.COM
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LOCAL
Words By Graham Scala / Photos By Tony Lynch
Record
A
nybody who has paid the slightest bit of attention to any sort of media outlet over the past two or three years has likely seen a piece on the resurgence of vinyl records. One can speculate on the medium’s newfound popularity and the reasons behind it, but explanations are myriad and inconclusive. There is the much-trumpeted tactile appeal of records, the physicality of a needle contacting a vinyl surface rather than a laser passing over a piece of plastic or a clump of binary code shrieking from an MP3 player’s woefully miniscule plastic ear pieces. The visual appeal cannot be discounted either – a standard LP can be adorned with at least two feet of artwork. Then there is the sense that possessing an object as unwieldy as a vinyl record is an act in opposition to music’s recent tendency to move into an intangible digital realm. Whether this is a renewed emphasis on consumerist tendencies or a revival of interest in music as a complete package depends on how charitably an observer is inclined to comment. As could reasonably be expected, the mainstream music industry has largely missed the bandwagon on vinyl’s newly-recovered popularity. The Recording Industry Association of America, when not busy suing music downloaders for exorbitant sums or ripping off musicians for even more, found time to issue a statement denying that there was any sort of renewed interest in records at all. Major labels surprised nobody by being several years behind the times in terms of vinyl and, to make up for lost time, flooded the market with overpriced reissues of dollar-bin albums and flash-in-the-pan
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STORES
Top 40 material. But despite the bumbling, out-of-touch approach taken by the stodgier elements of the music industry, the medium’s popularity has soared amongst a fan base which has splintered into a variety of forms. There are the casual fans: those who see it as a sort of retro fashion item, the hip indie record to go with the USB turntable from Urban Outfitters; or the contrarians who view their support of the medium as a pre-packaged nonconformity. But then there are the consumers for whom the renewed interest in vinyl is a non-issue, the type that collected records all along and won’t stop even after popular interest has waned. Some weave record collecting into their identity more than others, but even to apply the term “consumer” sells short the relationship between this type of individual and the music that they cherish. It is this latter category of vinyl devotee that is behind the coterie of record stores that have popped up in Richmond over the past two or three years. Prior to the establishment of these smaller, more specialized shops, a handful of options existed – Plan 9 and Record Finders most notably – but all were larger and lacked the new stores’ focus. While these newer establishments vary in aesthetic and focus, there are also striking similarities which, when combined, provide a wealth of resources for vinyl collectors both novice and seasoned.
DEEP GROOVE RECORDS I
t is little surprise that one of Richmond’s most seasoned record store veterans would embark on his own endeavor. Jay Leavitt, owner of deep groove, has worked around music for decades, including a sixteen-year stint managing Plan 9. His own operation is decidedly more scaled-back than his previous employer, however. Rather than sheer volume of stock, Leavitt focuses on ensuring the quality of each album in the bins. As he explains it, “So many stores you go into are stocked with lots of crappy records. You often have to dig through hundreds to possibly find one. You can come into Deep Groove and look at every record in the store in an hour.” His dedication to crate-digging as a sort of treasure hunt extends to another policy – whereas many stores offer their wares on the internet to maximize profit, Leavitt keeps as much stock on the shelves as possible, allowing customers a fair chance to snag something that might otherwise be difficult to come by. Leavitt explained some of the shifts he has witnessed in recent years. The most immediately noticable is a wider age range. LPs are no longer just the purview of those who “grew up with records and never stopped buying or listening to them,” but also those thirty to forty year olds who “grew up in the CD era and are getting into vinyl for the first time,” and the “high school and college age listeners” whose interest in the medium is encouraged by “pretty much all the new bands putting out their material on vinyl, most with an MP3 download card. You have the vinyl record, plus you can download the music. The best of both worlds.” In addition to demographic shifts, as Richmond becomes a town that can support more and more record stores, Leavitt has begun to “see people come in from a fairly distant radius on a regular basis.” This influx of interest from outside sources provides a wider appreciation of Richmond as a destination for music aficionados and an expanded customer base, benefiting not only his own store, but Richmond’s music community as a whole. Leavitt was also quick to stress the interdependent relationship between record stores and their customers. Whereas many businesses have a one-way flow of products to their clientele, used music stores are equally reliant on customers. “We’re always looking to buy records. The toughest part of this business is getting in good stock.” But in spite of the difficulties, Leavitt stands firm in his belief that “people will still be buying, collecting, and listening to records when the Earth crumbles.” While the spike in vinyl sales could very easily have inspired a sense of competition amongst the city’s record stores, he believes it offers a chance for a solidarity between them. “It’s a bit like fast food,” he explains, “and the way they often group Taco Bell, McDonalds, and Wendys together. The more the merrier.” deepgroovevinyl.com RVAmag.com | RVA Magazine | 53
Steady Sounds D
eep Groove isn’t the only store started by former Plan 9 employees. Steady Sounds, the brainchild of Marty Key and Drew Snyder, holds the title of Richmond’s newest record store. While the owners have largely abstained from promotion outside of the painted wooden sign in front of their store and a small internet presence, they have thrust Steady Sounds into the thick of the city’s artistic community, hosting touring bands and art shows in addition to selling records. Starting another record store might seem like a strange decision in a town with several, but it seemed like a natural choice to Snyder, who explained, “Me and Marty had been doing it for a long time. We had a lot of people we got really good records from so we just kinda figured why not get them for ourselves and open our own place. I guess what separates us is that we have a really steady flow of vinyl coming in, which is really tough to get in any town. It’s our leg up.” The store came together quickly – in about six months total, according to Snyder - but possesses a distinct atmosphere. “We wanted it to be light and airy, definitely not stuffy,” he explains. “We wanted it to be a place where you can chill and not feel rushed or cramped. I mean, I worked in the Plan 9 basement for so many years, I just wanted to get away from that sort of environment.” It’s easy to see what he’s talking about – the well-lit openness helps to create a relaxed environment conducive to a comfortable crate-digging experience. While it may not have seemed like the wisest move to open another record store in such a shaky economic climate, especially one surviving primarily on wordof-mouth, Snyder seemed unconcerned. “It’s a good music town and always has been. Even going back to the ‘60s and ‘70s it was a soul hub, it’s just a very musically-oriented city. I think it’ll always be that way and won’t ever have a problem.” steadysounds.tumblr.com
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VINYL CONFLICT espite Richmond punk’s renown over the decades, anybody looking for punk and hardcore records around town in recent years was hard-pressed to find a regular source. Soundhole closed after a steady decline, and infoshops like the People’s Resource Center/818 Space or Paper Street were relatively shortlived. Good records would occasionally turn up in the used bins at Plan 9, but that store was never focused on any single genre, much less punk.
D
Brandon and Lauren Ferrell had run No Way Records since 2005 and had often considered Richmond’s lack of sources for punk records. When Salvation Tattoo relocated from its Pine Street location in 2008, the two stepped in to fill the space. Ferrell explained that Vinyl Conflict is “the only hardcore/punk/metal specific store in Richmond. That’s the niche we wanted and are sticking to. We’ll sell some other stuff too, because it comes in. Or we’ll refer people with stuff we know nothing about to other stores.” And while they’re certainly not the only store to have opened in recent years, the dedication and the genre-specificity that characterize Vinyl Conflict help to ensure their continued success, regardless of the store’s niche appeal. As Ferrell puts it, “Get the hottest of the hot, the rarest of the rare, the best of the best. Do it right and stick to your guns. The people will come to you then. If you’re a shady fuck, people will know and they won’t give you their money.” While Vinyl Conflict arose from No Way Records, which, like all record labels at this point, relies on internet sales, the store’s owners shy away from offering their stock online. Ferrell explains, “We offer stuff we get a lot of online in our webstore, but not much of our used stock that keeps most of the people coming in. It comes in and out so fast it would be hard to put it all online anyway.” It’s not just the dedication to keeping used stock in-house that separates Vinyl Conflict either. Record collecting’s mainstream had little to do with punk rock for a long time, but in recent years rare punk albums are being sold for more money than ever before. While it would be easy for the owners of Vinyl Conflict to offer a larger portion of their stock online, likely garnering substantially more money, they choose to offer it to customers in-person, typically for far less than the items would earn online. Their approach is born of a sheer love of the music, of wanting to get records into appreciative hands rather than squeeze every last cent out of each item. vinylconflict.com
While these newer stores may seem to lack a cohesive identity between them, they all have an overarching sense of focus and dedication. Rather than appealing to everybody, each store focuses on a smaller, more specialized audience. Each is more selective in its offerings, so that a shopper isn’t inundated with the same unwanted surplus stock that tends to clutter larger establishments. Each downplays an emphasis on internet sales, offering the customer a better chance at a good find. Each focuses on the physical environment, ensuring that patrons aren’t rushed, crowded, or uncomfortable. While it may seem like an unwise decision for so many music stores to open up in the midst of what is at best an uncertain economy, and at a point in which the music industry continues its rapid nosedive, stores such as Deep Groove, Steady Sounds, and Vinyl Conflict all demonstrate that vinyl retailers can survive, not through competition but through supportive coexistence. RVAmag.com | RVA Magazine | 55
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hen Carl Hamm’s curiosity and compassion drove him to reach out to Indonesian residents after the tsunami of 2004, he had no idea it would send him on a 7-year research project of “some of the most beautiful, soul-stirring music I have ever heard”—the quirky psychedelic sounds of Malaysian Pop Yeh-Yeh. Carl, aka DJ Carlito, a local Richmond DJ well known for his Bollywood Nights and WRIR Sunday evening radio show “If Music Could Talk,” has always kept his passion for collecting obscure secondhand vinyl at the forefront of his creative endeavors. As he was developing ideas for one of his upcoming radio broadcasts after the tsunami wrecked the Indonesian landscape, he began working on a set list for an hour-long creative tribute to Indonesian music. The next few weeks led him to scour Ebay auctions for the most obscure and interesting music of Indonesia. Due to geographic proximity, many of the auctions included Malaysian 60’s and 70’s pop records mixed into the offering. “I deeply respect the creative process of all music throughout the world,” Carl says. “So I decided to purchase the vinyl and take a listen.” As the needle dropped, giving him his first listen to these vintage sounds, he knew that he had found a genre worthy of his deep devotion. Soon thereafter, he began a routine of daily post office pick ups, slowly accumulating Malay vinyl delicately packed in faded album jackets. The clerks who admired the unusual stamps on his deliveries soon got to know Carl as a regular. After the tsunami, when Carl reached out through Blogspot and Myspace, the two most popular virtual social networking tools at the time, he started his introduction abroad with a simple question: “Is everybody okay?” He soon began engaging in frequent dialogue with several individuals in a Singapore metal band, Suicide Solution. This group included Elsa, then Suicide Solution’s singer, who now resides in Oregon and sings in the hard rock band Soul Distraction. Elsa humored Carl’s love for the 60’s pop that her parents 58 | RVA Magazine | RVAmag.com
were fond of in their youth, and translated lyrics of the popular tunes. Carl’s growing interest in Malaysian Pop Yeh-Yeh is unusual, as “young Malays see the music as old-fashioned in an era during which their music scene is trending toward Western-sounding metal, rock, and techno-pop. But there are also young musicians such as Elsa that have a deep respect and admiration for the pop stars of the elder generation.” Her ties to the music run deep, as her mother was a makeup artist and stylist for some of the most popular singers of the era. Over the next several years, he researched the individual Pop Yeh-Yeh artists, piecing together the history of the era. “Almost all of the artists recorded at the same studio in Singapore, after they were discovered through local talent show contests,” he relates. “After recording, they were picked up by small record label companies that were typically owned by independent businessmen as a creative side venture. These labels released the music, and artists were paid a flat fee, often signing away any publishing rights to their works. In general, maintaining copyright wasn’t given priority until sometime in the 70’s.” As Carl continued to trace the works of both popular and obscure musicians of the genre, the desire to make Pop Yeh-Yeh more accessible led him to the idea of releasing a digitally remastered double LP compilation of vintage gems. He contacted EMI for permission to license some of the older songs in their catalog, and found himself “bounced back and forth between international offices and label employees.” Having no luck with approaching the bigger labels, he decided to focus on smaller defunct labels, and hoped to find a way to contact the artists directly for permission. Carl contacted Sublime Frequencies, a small label in Seattle known for releasing obscure and interesting sounds from around the world, and they took immediate interest in the project. Unfortunately, this still left
him with a dilemma: with the small record labels of the era having gone out of business several decades prior, how would he acquire licensing for the songs they’d released? However impossible it seemed to do so, honoring the creative rights of the original artists was a priority that negated the possibility of simply cutting the record without their consent. He was left with only one option: to find all of the artists on his set list and obtain their legal permission for the re-release. If he was going to do this, he was going to do it right. Carl knew he had to go to Malaysia. As soon as he made this decision, he was faced with unknowns that would have stopped others dead in their tracks: where to get the money for the hefty airplane ticket and travel expenses, how to get enough time off work without having to quit his job, and who to even contact once he stepped on Malaysian ground. He had months of work to do, both in nailing down the details of his nebulous plan and in finding a creative way to fund the trip. He sent a video summary of his proposal for the project to kickstarter.com, along with the description of specific goals that he intended to accomplish.
Thanks to help from his big sis, Carl’s donations increased, as did his luck—“I was connected with dozens of people in Singapore and Malaysia who wanted to help me out when when I arrived.” Aidil, the leader of the Malaysian power pop band Couple, contacted him and mentioned that the band’s guitarist happened to be the daughter of Adnan Othman. “Adnan is one of my favorite Pop Yeh-Yeh artists,” Carl says. When Carl arrived in Malaysia, Aidil personally introduced Carl to Adnan, who went out of his way to help Carl while he was there. As he prepared for his trip, his email inbox continued to flood with correspondence from the people that he had been in contact with over the past several years. He updated them on current travel details, and they worked on scheduling times to meet. The information that he needed to finalize the re-release was waiting for him, over 6,000 miles away. Weeks of coordination over email developed his itinerary, and articles highlighting his upcoming trip ran on Malaysian media websites, such as Junk and Klue Magazine.
He slowly drew in small donations over the course of the next few weeks, but it wasn’t adding up to what he needed fast enough. The momentum came when his sister, Xeni Jardin, a co-editor and major contributor for BoingBoing.com, decided to help her little brother out by posting his Kickstarter idea on her website, giving it global exposure. She described her “crate-digging brother’s” research trip to the popular website’s audience, and posted several Youtube links to the somewhat sappy black and white music videos of the era. Despite the language barrier, current audiences could dig the meanings of the songs through the dramatic acting of the musicians as they performed in a Lawrence-Welk style studio setting.
Seven years after he first listened to Pop Yeh-Yeh, on July 3, 2010, Carl boarded a plane to embark upon his three-week research trip with the goal of meeting with all of the artists on his compilation’s set list, and receiving their legal consent and approval to release their digitally remastered music. He also packed a video camera to document his archival excursion. Over the duration of his trip, the singers from the glossy cover art of his record collection came to life, through conversations occurring everywhere from impromptu lunches at street vendor stations to more formal family gatherings and social events. “Every day I received tips from Othman and his peers on who I should go meet next,” he says. “Thanks to their help, the appointments stacked up so quickly that I could barely keep up.” His days were filled with new introductions, video footage, and purchases of last-minute bus tickets to unfamiliar places. He met legends such as Dato’ A. Rahman Hassan, Cikgu Yusnor Ef, Zam Zam, Kassim Selamat, A Halim,
Hasnah Haron, M Fadzil, S Mariam, Zaleha Hamid, and many others, and had the opportunity to attend a private practice session with Orkes Nirwana, a wedding performance by Adnan Othman with Band D’Lima, and and several other bands that still actively perform to sold-out audiences. He also spent time with Joseph Pereira, author of Legends of the Golden Venus, a book about 60’s and 70’s Singapore rock. While Carl was in Malaysia, he was interviewed on the Malaysian radio station BFM’s “That Music Show,” giving listeners an update on how his project was going. Each artist was welcoming to Carl’s research, and “helped to guide me to the next artist that I was seeking,” as well as to many authors, promoters, and historians along the way. His trip was one of absolute immersion into the once-sensational culture of Pop Yeh-Yeh. Carl returned to Richmond with many release signatures, as well as over 25 hours of video footage. “Currently I’m in the process of obtaining the remaining licensing necessary for the compilation release on Sublime Frequencies,” he explains. He’s also in the process of editing his footage into a documentary, which will be screened locally on completion. Once all release signatures are received, Carl will finalize plans to release the compilation, making the unique melodies of the genre available for listeners in the coming year. On a local level, Carl plans to start the vibe with a record release party for the compilation at a local Richmond record store. Ultimately, he hopes to bring several of the artists to the states to perform the legendary tunes of the era in a live setting. In the meantime, Carl will keep the diverse appetites of local music lovers enticed with his Bollywood Night dance parties every second Saturday at Cous Cous, over the airwaves on Sunday evenings on WRIR, and through upcoming gigs at Balliceaux. His upcoming gigs at Balliceaux will feature a generous offering of Pop Yeh-Yeh, as well as other Asian psychedelic pop sounds. For more on Pop Yeh-Yeh, visit Carl’s blog, at: menarigogo.blogspot.com
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reCord revieWs by AndreW neCCi
Art Brut
Bill CAllAhAn
des Ark
heideCker And Wood
Atmosphere
Creeping Weeds
eleventh dreAm dAy
Jim ivins
the greAter the risk
lAurA stevenson And the CAns
Brilliant! Tragic! (Cooking Vinyl) The fourth full-length outing by these British art-punks is more subdued than some of their earlier LPs, though there are still a few ragers to be found. Think of The Fall (if their singer had a soul) collaborating with the Pixies. Or something like that. Either way, it’s awesome.
Family Sign (Rhymesayers) On this quirky, inconsistent album, Atmosphere focus heavily on live instrumentation and dark, haunting grooves, moving them away from their “backpacker” past. Though some of these songs just do not work, the unconventional, emotionallydriven hip-hop on display here will still give longtime fans something to enjoy.
Apocalypse (Drag City) Former Smog leader Bill Callahan’s third solo album is full of dark folk songs, featuring an almost-uncomfortable emotional intimacy. His striking baritone voice is at the front of the mix, while instruments other than his acoustic guitar mostly just add background textures. Excellent album, unsettling listen.
See Through (creepingweeds.com) Philadelphia’s Creeping Weeds integrate several prominent indie trends of the moment--Animal Collective’s Beach Boy vocalisms, Vampire Weekend’s worldbeat plundering--into a gorgeous, melodic sunshine-pop indie sound with Beatlesque instrumentation and a Caribbean feel. See Through is guaranteed to brighten your day. DMD EP Cover
BuffAlo tom
Skins (Scrawny) These 20-year alt-rock veterans are still doing what they do best: literate, emotional, guitar-driven heartland rock, like some sort of cross between Wilco and Dinosaur Jr. They don’t really bowl me over with their awesomeness the way they once did, but I’m glad these guys are still making records. Extremely essential. Give me more. 60 | RVA Magazine | RVAmag.com
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Don’t Rock The Boat, Sink The Fucker (Lovitt) Des Ark’s long-awaited second full-length has a split personality--recorded at two different sessions with two different lineups, the songs alternate between quiet acoustic pieces and full-blown rockers. That said, it’s all excellently crafted and performed, filled with passion and heart, and not to be missed.
Riot Now! (Thrill Jockey) These alt-rockers from the early 90s grunge era resurface after over a decade’s absence with a darker, heavier sound than they used to have. Their X-style malefemale vocal harmonies are still in place, though, and mix well with their louder guitar sound. Fifteen years later, they’ve still got it.
Starting From Nowhere (Little Record Company) This dead-on recreation of schmaltzy 70s soft-rock crap was made by Tim Heidecker of Tim And Eric Awesome Show, so it’s a joke, but it’s the sort of ironic humor that’s so deadpan, it eventually becomes indistinguishable from what it’s parodying. Funny once. Maybe. After that, it’s just bad.
Late Night Drive EP (self-released) Richmond singer-songwriter Ivins takes a break from fronting his eponymous band on these five emotion-tinged acoustic pop songs. I’d probably like these songs better if they were performed solely by voice and guitar, rather than including tinkly piano and percussion adornments. However, this EP is still quite good.
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dAmmit mAttheW dAmmit
Dammit Matthew Dammit (self-released) Three-chord midtempo rock from this Richmond trio, who aren’t quite fast or loud enough to really sound like punk to me--they’re more reminiscent of Weezer, The Knack, or maybe a keyboardless version of Devo. Their joke lyrics aren’t that funny, unfortunately. Dead Milkmen fans might dig this, though.
Say What You Never Said EP (thegreatertherisk.storenvy.com) These days, emo is seen as music for vapid teenagers. But it’s really just pop music, and pop songcraft never goes out of style. Richmond’s The Greater The Risk showcase their excellent guitardriven melodies on this EP, and my only complaint is that it’s too short. Record a full-length already!
Sit Resist (Don Giovanni) Based on their connections with Bomb The Music Industry, I was expecting this group to have more of a punk feel. Instead, this is straight-up melodic indie rock with folk and girl-group tinges. Stevenson’s songwriting skills enable her to create an excellent pop album. Absolutely worth checking out.
liturgy
Aesthethica (Thrill Jockey) This black metal band still bring the raw, primitive blastbeat fury sometimes, but it’s broken up by strange keyboard detours; monolithic, hypnotically repetitive jams on single riffs; and moments where their music crosses some random border into Hella-style math-core. Whatever--it all rules. You need this.
pArlour shAkedoWn
Geography King (parlourshakedown.com) This group of local teenagers have a great grasp of pop songcraft--there are some excellent melodies here, particularly on “Mr. Silver” and “Corona.” However, the production is too polished. There are no rough edges here, which significantly reduces its impact--a shame, in light of their obvious talent.
reAtArds
Mirrors (Family) These guys mix mid-70s era Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, and other radiorock influences from the same era, and overlay them with a modern sheen. Their sound varies significantly from song to song, too, making some far more enjoyable than others. Not terrible, but not worth repeat plays either.
Wormrot
lord By fire
pontiAk
ryAt
the mountAin goAts
pygmy lush
skull tApe
Relics (lordbyfire.bandcamp.com) Often overlooked, wildly underrated Richmond doom-metallers Lord By Fire kick things up a notch with their latest EP, simultaneously keeping things slow, heavy and powerful and retaining interest over the course of their lengthy tunes with varying tempos and intricate drum patterns. Head-crushingly awesome.
All Eternals Deck (Merge) Despite a subdued instrumental palate and smooth, clean production, this new Mountain Goats album, their sixteenth, still retains the raw passion that has characterized all phases of their career. Leader John Darnielle’s brilliant lyrics and fiery delivery just can’t be smoothed out--to his credit. May he forever rage.
Comecrudos (Thrill Jockey) Much of this EP’s duration seems taken up by very little--ambient feedback hum, unchanging dub-like rhythms, slow lengthy codas, etc. What songs that surface are pleasant and tuneful, not unlike mid-70s Pink Floyd. But for the most part, this EP feels like filler. Needs more actual songs.
Old Friends (Lovitt) On their third full-length release, DC’s Pygmy Lush move ever farther from their hardcore origins. There are no electric songs here, just a dozen psychedelic folk epics. However, Pygmy Lush retain a post-hardcore consciousness, combining it with acoustic instrumentation to produce an excellent, original sound.
us royAlty
(Goner) This 40-song double LP combines the late, great Jay Reatard’s earliest recordings--the first Reatards LP and his original demo, recorded on a four-track with bucket drums. These lo-fi slabs of raw, raging rock n’ roll de-emphasize melody in favor of pure venom. Crank it up and get reatarded one last time.
Teenage Hate/Fuck Elvis Here’s The Reatards
Avant Gold (Obvious Bandits) This glitchy keyboard-driven indie dancepop gains its main strength from group leader Christina Ryat’s strong, polished voice, but the excellently constructed pop hooks are what gives this album its heart. Fans of The Knife, Radiohead, Aphex Twin and Bjork will be thrilled with what they find here.
The Invisible Hand And The Descent Of Man
(LA’s Fine) This excellent debut, the brainchild of former Mae Shi member Brad Breeck, mainly features keyboard-based posthardcore songs infused with both mathematical complexity and incredibly catchy choruses. Should please fans of Parts And Labor and The Faint, or really anybody who likes good music.
Dirge (Earache) 25 songs in around 20 minutes from this Singapore grind unit. They use the classic grind trio lineup--vocals, guitar, drums--to shred without mercy. Blistering speed, furious distortion, and awesome song titles like “Semiconscious Godsize Dumbass” and “All Go No Emo.” What more could you ask for?
young WidoWs
In And Out Of Youth And Lightness (Temporary Residence) This Louisville post-hardcore band started out loud and heavy, but become less conventional with each new release. This one incorporates echoing guitars and wide open sonic landscapes of Isis/Mogwai post-rock, but the rhythm section still punds. The uneasy, foreboding atmosphere on display here creates a spooky, RVAmag.com | RVA Magazine | 61
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n i H rt th
T 3
o p up
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