By Sofia Ciechowska Illustration bi Basje Boer
Unruly Music Magazine October 2012
What’s Cooking
Food The For Real Issue
Ducktails, Ben Chasny, Hieroglyphic Being Page 1
Features
The For Real Issue
THE CHUCK TAYLOR ALL STAR SNEAKER Page 2
The For Real Issue
Features
www.converse.be/mixtape Page 3
New Music
This Months recommendations
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BLACK DICE 02.10 POSSESSED FACTORY (JEF CUYPERS & MAURO PAWLOWSKI) HIDDEN ORCHESTRA + MONOPHONICS 09.10 DANS DANS 16.10 CHAOS OF THE HAUNTED SPIRE · SANNE VAN HEK · ONNO GOVAERT · SHAHZAD ISMAILY RAT RECORDS LABEL NIGHT UFOMAMMUT 18.10 INCOMING CEREBRAL OVERDRIVE BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE 19.10 SILENCIO BALAM ACAB + oOoOO 23.10 KEVIN DRUMM & THOMAS ANKERSMIT 25.10 LOTUS PLAZA + CLOUD NOTHINGS 04.11 SHABAZZ PALACES 05.11 THEESATISFACTION PURITY RING 06.11 DOLDRUMS MOON DUO 07.11 CARLTON MELTON
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The For Real Issue This Months recommendations
New Music
This is a photo of Manic Street Preachers guitarist Richey Edwards, taken in 1991, right after he’d carved the words ‘4 Real’ into his forearm with a razor. He did this because a journalist questioned his band’s authenticity. This was his answer. Some answer, right? Why are we showing you this photo? Because we feel that questioning a band’s authenticity, is something that might be done a little more often these days. Not necessarily cause we want artists to slash up there forearms, but because, as music enthusiasts, we are always looking for some sort of intrinsic value to the music that we enjoy. What are we listening to, and why are listening to it? Important questions in an era where success and failure are defined by a couple of random mouse clicks.
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Content
The For Real: Issue
Ducktails
Ben Chasny
Page 20
Page 26
Hieroglyphic Being
Agenda
Page 34
Page 49
Top 5 New Music We Saw You Ducktails ben chasny hieroglyphic being art
10 13 18 20 26 34 40
reviews food Agenda subbacultcha! shows other shows Free Stuff after midnight
44 46 49 51 56 60 61
4 Real or not 4 Real, yo? That’s the question. Or, what actually is 4 Real? Maybe that’s the question. Anyways, let us be 4 Real 4 a change. Let’s not try to be witty or smart in these few opening lines but simply tell it like it is: we feel that the true motivation to make music is shifting from personal emotion to fleeting and ironic comments on society and media. Nowadays, music (in our part of the spectrum) is about adding up music and style quotes from all eras, sometimes resulting in music of philosophical brilliance but often evoking spineless mud. But hey, spineless mud is real too... and nice to roll around in. Uhm... Page 6
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Colophon
Who we are and what we do Subbacultcha! Magazine is published by Subbacultcha! Ghent Office Karperstraat 26, 9000 Ghent, Belgium www.subbacultcha.be. magazine@subbacultcha.be Amsterdam Office Da Costakade 150, 1053 XC Amsterdam, the Netherlands www.subbacultcha.nl. magazine@subbacultcha.nl We are Editors: Leon Caren, Bas Morsch and Kasper-Jan Raeman Editorial Assistant: Megan Roberts Design: Bas Morsch Interns: Bram Nigten, Floor Kortman and Tjade Bouma Good Girls: Herlinde Raeman and Gerlin Heestermans Printing: Drukkerij Gewa, Arendonk
Contributors: Carly Blair, Koen van Bommel, Leon Caren, Zofia Ciechowska, Bobby Doherty, Astrid Florentinus, Yana Foqué, Kathrin Klingner, Bryan Lear, Steven McCarron, Bas Morsch, Carlijn Potma, Kasper-Jan Raeman and Christopher Schreck Distribution: Brussels: Jesse van Pée, Gertjan Rasschaert, Simon Gossiaux, Cécile Farber, Eliott Opdenbosch. Ghent: Bart Bruneel, Loes Deckers, Eline Ceelen, Fernand VanDamme. Antwerp: Antonio Marques, Clara De Ponthière, Livia Schoorel, Egon Parmentier. Leuven: Vincent Baptist. Kortrijk: Sofie Devriendt. Luik: Collectif Jaune Orange Pick up Subbacultcha! Magazine here (among 200 other places): Brussel: AB, Buzz On Your Lips, VK* Concerts, BOZAR Ghent: Democrazy, Vooruit, SMAK, DOK, Music Mania Antwerp: Scheld’apen, Trix, Kavka, American Apparel, Think Twice Kortrijk: De Kreun, The Pits Leuven: STUK, Depot, De Werf Luik: Jaune & Orange If you want your bar, venue, store or business to be on the distribution list, please send us an email. Advertising To advertise in Subbacultcha! Magazine send an email to magazine@subbacultcha.be Memberships Become a member of Subbacultcha!. For only €7 a month you get free access to all Subbacultcha! shows and the monthly magazine sent to your house. Plus, you get a fresh Subbacultcha! bag. Check the website to sign up. Cover: Matt Mondanile aka Ducktails photographed by Bobby Doherty Page 8
concerts
©Kris Mouchaers
Van she
• Kid Koala «12 Bit Blues Revue» + adira (02.10)
amram and the experience
(06.10)
• islands (07.10) • a place to Bury strangers (08.10) • the hundred in the hands (10.10) • teengirl Fantasy (18.10) • teitur (19.10) • mujeres (01.11) • micachu & the shapes (02.11) • haim (03.11) • twin shadow (05.11) …
02 218 37 32 more @ Botanique.Be
Top 5
1
We recommend
Food: Burger Wednesdays
Every first Wednesday of the month we make the craziest burger. In October we present you with Ducktails’s secret recipe for his Big Matt. We only have 12 places at our special location in Brussels for you hungry hippos. Make reservations via magazine@subbacultcha.be if you want to taste this heartstopper.
2
Podcast: Doodcast’s Mali Special
Every once in a while DJ Fitz (London) makes an international psychedelic music podcast. We’re big fans of one of his latest specials about Mali, featuring the great Orchestre Regional de Mopti.
3
Song: My Kind of Woman
Mac DeMarco’s romantic rock ballad ‘My Kind of Woman’ got stuck in our head a month ago and since then we’ve made it a habit to listen to it just before we go to bed. ‘Oooh girl.’
4
Exhibition: Un Siècle Moderne
From mid-October until early 2013 the Brussels museum d’Ixelles is hosting an exhibition about the Belgian modern artists of the 20th century. It offers an original insight into some incredible sculptures, paintings and graphic works of our finest artists.
5
TV: Louie
Season three of Louie (written by and starring stand-up comedian Louis CK) just aired in the States and features some of the best episodes so far. Disturbingly hilarious and a must-see for fans of Larry David and Woody Allen.
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By Zofia Ciechowska
This month’s recommendations
New Music
Mo Kolours
mokolours.bandcamp.com
If you’re experiencing summer withdrawal symptoms, Mo Kolours will restore the pink in your cheeks and the spring in your step with his dubby grooves and sega beats hailing from the crossroads of Mauritius and South London. Think a bit of Madlib, Gonjasufi and Sun Araw, y’know. This music is best experienced in a warm climate, hence adequate listening conditions can be recreated by blowing hot air down your T-shirt with a hairdryer whilst sipping a sweaty glass of rum and coke. Be sure to check out Mo Kolours’ EP1: Drum Talking and EP2: Banana Wine on One-Handed Music before the final part of his EP trilogy drops.
Boyfriend
www.soundcloud.com/boyfriend Declared the rising star of the tropical bass scene by the Internet, Boyfriend lives in the not-so-tropical city of Vilnius, Lithuania. Dropping the beats on Zebra Katz’s Winter Titty EP, including the mad dirty track ‘W8WTF’, Boyfriend is one to keep an eye on right now as he spins lethal webs of deep, throbbing rhythm that might send a mini earthquake through your flat. You might have thought getting a Russian wife online might be what you’d like to do when you’re 50, but we are so getting a Lithuanian boyfriend right now. Page 13
New Music
East India Youth
www.soundcloud.com/east-india-youth The music of self-declared sound architect/sound gardener William Doyle, the young Londoner behind East India Youth, is quite simply pretty fucking ace. It pulsates with a startling rawness and glitch that makes you sweat profusely like you’re in one of those clichéd/legendary ’90s techno clubs somewhere in Detroit, sloshing vodka on your trainers and burning people with your cigarette, having a whale of an inebriated time. Check out Doyle’s album Total Strife Forever (‘Hinterland’ is a killer track). I don’t care if you’re at work right now and your boss is a total a-hole, turn this shit up to the max and bust out your best moves.
Pressed And pressedand.virb.com
Cruising through Technicolor deserts in their Mario Kart cars, Andrew Hamlet and Mat Jones of Pressed And have just released a little gem of an EP called Hyper Thistle on Mush Records. Recorded somewhere between Brooklyn and North Carolina, from its very beginning this release resonates with a beaming electronic vibrancy that flutters between meditative guitar hums and surges of abstract vocals. This is one musical labyrinth I would happily get lost in for ever. Check them out before they get all mainstream and boooo-ring. Page 15
New Music
Cabaret Scene
cabaretscene.bandcamp.com
Remember our good old crazy ukulele-strumming bros Flamingods from South London? Well, one of their band members, Charles Prest, has a great side project called Cabaret Scene, which is buzzing with ecstatically sunny drum beats, scratchy guitar riffs, tribal chants and tropical loveliness. It’s like skinny-dipping at sunset in a pool filled with deliciously cold mango pineapple lychee pomegranate orange dragonfruit smoothie and not having a care in the world. Get a load of his latest album Porcelain Swimmers, which is totally free, and start spreading the love.
Pop Winds
popwinds.bandcamp.com Experimental psych-pop trio from Montreal Pop Winds have apparently parted ways very recently, which is why I am writing this blurb to make them reunite and play some gigs in Europe so I can toss my bra at them with a big ‘Whooo!’ Their most recent album, Earth to Friend released on Arbutus Records, is drenched in reverb, hypnotic rhythms and stellar synth tones. I imagine this was the soundtrack Neil Armstrong listened to when he walked on the Moon. Keep your ears pricked for these guys’ new solo projects and in the meantime go through their amazing back catalogue. Page 17
We Saw You
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Spotted at Subbacultcha!
Photo by Yana FoquĂŠ
Are you for real? Off course I am for real. I’m 34 years old and have developed my own strong personality with my own style of clothing, my own taste in music, books, films and people. And I like my fake allstars because they are fake. So that must make me for real for sure!
Gert Laureys, spotted at the Fawn Spots on 14 September at JC Egelantier, Antwerpen
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Features
The For Real Issue
Ducktails
For his forthcoming album Matt Mondanile, aka Ducktails, left his typical woozy bedroom psychedelia and used ‘real mics and drums and stuff ’. We talked about Woody Allen, death (of course), the new album being way more grand in ambition and a less ironic band name. ‘I really hate pretension in music, so I thought, Oh, if I call my band something cheesy then no one will think I’m trying to pull a wig over their head.’ Interview by Brenda Bosma Photos shot on film by Bobby Doherty in Brooklyn, USA
No one really says they’re in the music business for the girls. But if we were to be really honest: are you? Yes, totally. Girls inspire not only my music, but also my life and my pursuits. Girls are simply beautiful; my mother, my sister and all the Page 20
women I know. They really bring out certain nice qualities in me that men definitely don’t. Why do you do what you do, make what you make? To tell you the truth, I really don’t feel like working a nine-to-five job
Features
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Features
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The For Real Issue
Ducktails
Features
‘I don’t think of myself as an amazing musician, or even a musician, but I would like to do this for ever.’ for a boss. I don’t think of myself as an amazing musician, or even a musician, but I would like to do this for ever. My dream would be to be just like Woody Allen and make stuff at an insane tempo. He makes movies because he’s afraid of death. His films are also about that. Funnily enough he never really dies this way. I love his specific style. I hope to establish such a specific style with my records and music videos. How would you describe your style? It’s fucked up. It has changed a lot. Now it’s like this weird mixture of stuff that I can’t really put into words. I used to do more drone solo improviser pedal stuff. Then I got more into songs and started writing sketches of songs. Now I have full-blown recorded songs that have bass lines and guitars and keyboards and all of this stuff. Even back-up vocals. Sadly I can’t do that live in Europe because it’s too expensive to fly a band over. It is so real, it can’t be flown over to your continent! But will you keep death at a distance
with these new songs? I hope so. I would like to keep it as far away as possible. What about irony? My band name is super ironic. It’s a different spelling of a Disney cartoon. I really hate pretension in music, so I thought, Oh, if I call my band something cheesy then no one will think I’m trying to pull a wig over their head. Sometimes I feel I want to be taken more seriously, but then I realise: Oh my God, I named my band the stupidest thing ever. I just have to live with that. I guess that keeps me young also. And at a distance from death. What do you think of your own music? Would you give it a 7.4 as Pitchfork did? No way, I’d give it a 10.0! I’m getting 10s in my head. Inside my head is all that matters. Pitchfork is just a flatscreen website. Not even HD. You said you want to be taken more seriously sometimes. Do you get fooled a lot? I used to get picked on a lot. I Page 23
Features
Ducktails
‘Sometimes I feel I want to be taken more seriously, but then I realise: Oh my God, I named my band the stupidest thing ever. I just have to live with that.’
think it’s because I’ve always been a self-conscious, cautious little nerd. My good looks freaked out the bullies in school or they just didn’t like my face. It didn’t really fill in yet and so I looked fucked-up and crazy at a young age. I don’t know, but it was tough. My dad even made me take boxing lessons in Paterson, NJ, which is a ghetto. I boxed there twice a week. Finally as a freshman in highschool I proved myself and beat up the bully. It was classic highschool fight movie style. With a happy ending. No one picked on me after that. Now the fooling around is just innocent fun. Did you know Woody Allen was actually really good at baseball despite his fragile appearance? No way! He’s such a funny guy. And such a great director. I love every single one of his films. In one of the songs on the new album there’s this line: ‘Kiss Picasso, Woody Allen’. This is exactly what I think of life and art: Page 24
Just Live it Up. That’s sort of a Truth. And an answer. Would you say you are more serious with the new album? Definitely, and I’m totally excited about it. Lots of different people played on it. It’s not like a lo-fi homerecorded record; it was recorded in a proper studio with real mics and drums and stuff. Shouldn’t you change your band name into a more serious one before it gets released? ‘Kiss Picasso, Matt Mondanile’ of course! Ducktails play on 20 October at Madame Moustache in Brussels. The show is free for Subbacultcha! members.
The For Real Issue
Features
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Features
The For Real Issue
Ben Chasny
The man, the myth Ben Chasny is hitting Belgium twice this month. Once with his psych-folk outfit Six Organs of Admittance and once with his supergroup Rangda. Reason enough to give the guitar maverick a call. Ben took some time and talked to us about concentric circles, pentagrams and playing synthesizer. ‘Tomorrow I might have my fingers chopped off in a freak accident,’ he says. ‘If that happens I’ll probably play synthesizer.’ He’s keeping it real all right. Interview by Brenda Bosma Drawings by Astrid Florentinus
You’ve been doing this for quite some time now. Can you remember what your motivation was to pick up a guitar? And is it still a motivation? From a young age I had this romantic idea of making a single note, Page 26
of creating sound. I always thought that the idea of just being able to make a chord or a sound would be enough. In that way, yes, it is still a motivation. What about girls?
Features
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Features
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The For Real Issue
Ben Chasny
Features
‘Most people think of time and the creative process in a linear fashion. I think of it more in terms of a concentric circle in movement outwards, but returning to a familiar place.’ If you ever saw the audience for Six Organs you would know I do it for the bearded men. With tattoos. I still haven’t figured out how to change our audience into an all-female one. I just play music that I like. I’m lucky that anyone at all wants to hear it. I read the album picks up on a piece that’s been lying on a shelf for over a decade... It has been on my mind for ten years but now seemed the best time to do it. Most people think of time and the creative process in a linear fashion. I think of it more in terms of a concentric circle in movement outwards, but returning to a familiar place. But did the final piece differ much from the original idea? I think my playing is a bit more refined now. Whether or not that’s good is up to someone else to decide, I suppose. About that familiar place. Wouldn’t you say creativity is also about embarking on unknown territory?
Wouldn’t you say there is an infinite amount of territory to be explored in one piece? I’d be exhausted. It’s a familiar place, but not the same place. That’s why it’s a concentric circle, not a circle. Always moving outwards. So when Bob Dylan decided to go electric that was a familiar place? Yes, he was still playing guitar. Except for a large part of his audience. It was still pretty much the same. He just changed his system. Do you change your system every once in a while? I don’t consider changing a system to be integral to the movement in the first place. I don’t really sit around thinking, Hmm, I need to do something new to really get the kids listening. I just always have this stream of ideas coming and I need to get it down. But maybe that’s why kids don’t listen to my music! Maybe it would help if people called Page 29
Features
Ben Chasny
‘I just always have this stream of ideas coming and I need to get it down.’ you ‘the Jimi Hendrix of acoustic guitar’ more often. Was that reviewer for real, by the way? I figured there was a sense of irony in that. And the guy who compared you to John Fahey? Everyone gets compared to John Fahey. Just tune your guitar to an open tuning, pluck some strings and BAM! You sound like John Fahey. On ‘Ascent’ you sing about Satanic rockets that are being launched. Why? That line was a reference to Jack Parsons who started the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena (the same company that just landed the new Mars Rover). He practised magic and developed a solid rocket fuel system used in Titan rockets by the USA. The system involved a pentagram in the design, though he wasn’t really Satanic of course. The idea of all these rockets with pentagrams in them is pretty intriguing. If we were living in a devilish era, let’s say the Era of Synthesizer, and the synthesizer was the only instrument around, would you still play the guitar? Page 30
I’m all for more instruments. Maybe someone has no brain for guitar, but has a genius brain for a synthesizer. I play guitar because I had/ have a romantic notion of it. That came from listening to guitar music when I was younger. If I had grown up as Klaus Schulze’s son it might be different. But I have no real problem with synthesizers. Tomorrow I might have my fingers chopped off in a freak accident. If that happens I’ll probably play synthesizer. I don’t want to end this conversation in a morbid way, but since you brought up the chopped-off fingers: will you have a guitar on your deathbed? God, I hope not! Seems a little pretentious. I just want to watch the movie Dune on my deathbed. I’m no movie connoisseur, but that seems like something I’d want to do in the end. Ben Chasny is playing with his band Rangda at Les Ateliers Claus in Brussels on 06 October and with his other band Six Organs of Admittance at Trix in Antwerp on 31October. Both shows are free for Subbacultcha! Members.
The For Real Issue
Features
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Teengirl Fantasy play on 18 October at Botanique in Brussels.
Teengirl Fantasy
Centrefold
The show is free for Subbacultcha! members and is promoted in collaboration with Urban Outfitters. Photo by Christopher Schreck.
Features
The For Real Issue
Hieroglyphic Being
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The For Real Issue
Features
Chicago producer Jamal Moss, otherwise known as Hieroglyphic Being, is something of a dance music visionary. His exciting mix of styles ranges from African tribalism to noise jazz and slackjawed psychedelia. So leading up to his European tour, we decided to call him up and ask him how he channels all that creativity. Turns out the word fun is not part of his vocabulary. Talk about keeping it real. Interview by Koen van Bommel Photos shot by Bryan Lear in Chicago, USA
I read somewhere that you used to read a lot of science fiction when you were younger. Do you still read a lot? Yes. Can you name a book that really influenced you? Not just one book, but the people who wrote them: Ray Bradbury and Philip K Dick. They were born in my area, in Chicago. Your music is very diverse, is that something that’s inherently connected to you? Do you also have a really diverse taste in women? Books? Food? Movies?
Diversity is inherently important to me as a learning medium, so as not to mentally, spiritually or physically suffocate. Books, food, visual mediums, musical genres and a respectful diverse taste in women. I read that you spend lots and lots of time making music, and I guess it must be true with all the music you’re putting out. It’s true. I just follow my calling. I feel that this is what I’m meant to do. What kind of music is the most fun to make? Do you decide beforehand what Page 35
Features
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The For Real Issue
Hieroglyphic Being
Features
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Features
Hieroglyphic Being
you’re going to create? Or does it just flow naturally? I don’t decide beforehand. I also don’t have fun when I create, because I’m always in a learning stage and challenging myself to be better in my creativity. When you’re learning intensely – no games, no fun, no smiling, no play – you’re just doing work. And what floats out of me isn’t always the best or always good, that’s left for the others to decide. Do you have a certain musical approach that you use every time? Or is it a new experience each day? It sounds like you’re experimenting a lot with different kinds of moods/sounds. You’re asking questions that don’t really apply to my train of thought. I don’t see myself making music or creating it. I am not a trained musician or theorist. I experiment with vibrations, harmonies and rhythms, that’s my approach. Never claiming or professing, just manifesting and believing that I can. I saw you play in Amsterdam earlier this year and I was dancing a lot. Is that your aim when you DJ? Or are there other things that are important to you when you are performing? I try to do my part to free people from their burdens and transcend through selecting certain sounds, and Page 38
in the process it helps to heal whatever ails me at the time. I am always stressing and beating myself up on the inside that no matter how bad things can be for me, I can at least make sure others can have a moment of happiness and release. It’s like a cleansing; a purging of the negative. The show I went to in Amsterdam was part of Club 4 reel, and since this is the For Real issue, I thought it was a funny connection. What’s your definition of real? Whatever affects your five senses and mental state of mind in your reality. What’s the realest thing you’ve done today? Still have a faith in others no matter how many times I have been let down. Do you ever need a reality check? Life is the reality check. I don’t need it, but I want it. Hieroglyphic Being plays on 11 October in NEST in Ghent. The show is free for Subbacultcha! members.
The For Real Issue
Features
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Art
Featured artist
Lychee Spears
Lychee Spears is the moniker of artist/ graphic designer Kim Thissen. Kim is living (and dying, as she herself says) in Antwerp. Kim is a modern hunter-gatherer, seemingly spending lifetimes online, looking for iconic images which – when placed together on a page – offer a confronting and revealing look into today’s culture. Her everything-is-possible-nothing-is-real image collections betray her fine sense of the trends and tendencies of today’s web-driven culture and are an equally beautiful as unsettling window on today’s eclectic life. A spiritual, antropological and sensitive hymn for modern-day society. athena-nike.tumblr.com/ kimthissen.tumblr.com/ Artist selected, liked and approved by Ladda & Topo Copy. Page 40
Art
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Art
Featured Artist
NVMBR 26 2011 CONSENTUAL RESTRAINT hanging sculpture mixed media using 12 sequential vintage Ame Page 42
Lychee Spears
Art
erican Vogues Page 43
Music Reviews
New releases worth your while
By Carly Blair
Chris Cohen Overgrown Path
Woods Bend Beyond
Like a nameless but influential character actor in Hollywood films, Chris Cohen has been highly active in the music scene of his native Los Angeles, subtly contributing as a member or touring player to a long list of excellent bands: Deerhoof, White Magic, Cass McCombs, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti and more. By relocating to the farmlands of Vermont, the 37-year-old singing drummer has apparently given himself the time and quiet necessary to focus on his own thoughts. Adding bass, a Casio MT65, piano and guitar to his repertoire, the psychedelic pop he proffers on his debut full-length, Overgrown Path, is so delicately dreamy and sympathetically idiosyncratic, I’m amazed that he took so long to step into the spotlight, but delighted that he finally did.
Part of me feels a swelling of admiration at the sight of a dude with a gigantic beard, and then that part of me is reminded that I’ve dated dudes with gigantic beards. Though magnificent in principle, they are occasionally flecked with disproportionately repulsive bits of food, and the extent to which their wiry little curls get in the way makes me wonder how similar kissing the mouth buried beneath them is to going down on a chick who keeps things au naturel. Which brings me to Woods. To my knowledge, falsetto-ed frontman Jeremy Earl remains as bearded as ever, but on his band’s latest album they’ve groomed their sweet but occasionally sloppy folk/rock, trimming away the outlying fuzz and brushing up their songwriting just enough to reveal their most refined and appealing album yet.
(Captured Tracks)
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(Woodsist)
Music Reviews
Thee Oh Sees Putrifiers II
How To Dress Well Total Loss
This extremely prolific nameand line-up-changing San Franciscan band never stays put for long. Mastermind John Dwyer & co have released no less than 14 albums and a mountain of EPs and 7-inches over the course of their seven-ish-year existence. If that doesn’t convince you Dwyer is a madman, then you should see him deep throat a mic during one of their legendarily wild live shows. All that restlessness has yielded a discography famous for shapeshifting. Appropriately enough, their latest album is like a sonic Rubik’s cube: at first listen, a scrambled mix of everything they’ve done before, from garage rock to psychedelia to pop to punk to folk to kraut rock to drone, but once you let your ears twist it around enough, you’ll find that every facet of Putrifiers II is solid.
How To Dress Well is the oneman recording project of Tom Krell, a globetrotting lo-fi sortof-R&B crooner. His 2009 debut full-length, Love Remains, was instrumental to the shift away from chillwave towards witch house and ambient hip hop / R&B. Since Krell was an instigator rather than an imitator of this new style, not to mention one of its finest exemplars, I don’t mind that its follow-up continues in the same vein. According to Krell, Total Loss was made during a very unhappy and confused period, and finds him learning how to ‘lose in a meaningful way and sustain loss as a source of creative energy’. As his most accomplishedsounding and gorgeous work yet, it succeeds admirably in this regard.
(In The Red)
(Domino)
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Food
Cooking with...
By Zofia Ciechowska
Black Dice’s Bjorn Copeland Tell me about your eating habits. My wife and I always eat really simple stuff. The area we live in has a lot of Thai restaurants so we eat a load of rice and vegetables. We had a big chunk of time when the gas in our apartment was shut off. Picture my kitchen – there’s a small electric hot plate on top of the stove, a toaster, a microwave and one of those folding electric sandwich makers. We just made a lot of stir fries on the hot plate or we cracked eggs in the electric sandwich maker and made fried-egg sandwiches on leftover wheat bread from the local coffee shop with cheese and avocados and some arugula. That was a big staple of our diet for a while. Great for when you don’t have a lot of money... or gas. When Black Dice started touring around 1997, we read an article about these dudes who wrote a cookbook about cooking stuff while you’re driving and you just wrap all the ingredients in tin foil, Page 46
pack them in the car engine and they’re cooked when you get to your destination. Sometimes you have to be creative. So here’s a recipe for a nice hotplate stir fry. We have a big sack of Japanese sticky rice in the kitchen that we cook for this dish by the way. Rice is just the best. It reminds me of this time back in high school when I made this paper pulp for sculptures and I had so much of it I just starting throwing it out of the window of the studio on the fourth floor. Most of it just splattered on the ground and made these paper pancakes that cooked in the sun but sometimes it would hit a moving car and you could totally hear the pulp crease the roof. I kind of imagine rice could be similar. Black Dice play on 02 October at De Kreun in Kortrijk. The show is free for Subbacultcha! members.
Food
Photo by Carlijn Potma
Bjorn Copeland’s Hot-Plate Stir Fry
• Sauté some garlic and onions in an oiled wok on a cheap hot plate, or a fancy gas stove if you’re feeling eccentric. • Add some chopped-up tofu and fry until golden. • Add three chopped green onions, two handfuls of mushrooms from your local Asian shop, a handful of chopped carrots and a handful of chopped peppers. • Stir in some ready-made chilli paste and add a slug of rice vinegar, and some salt or some soy sauce to taste.
• Keep on cooking until the vegetables are coated in all the flavours, but don’t overcook them; a few minutes is all they need. Keep them crispy! • Make some peanut sauce with a bit of peanut butter, rice vinegar and oil mixed together. • Serve the vegetables on a plate of steamed sticky rice and top it off with the peanut sauce. • Do not throw out of the window.
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11/10 JOOKLO DUO (it) GONZALEZ&STEENKISTE 20/10 THE DREAMS SCORPION VIOLENTE TWILIGHT RACING 3/11 DOOMSDAY STUDENT (vs)
11/10 JOOKLO DUO (it) GONZALEZ&STEENKISTE 20/10 THE DREAMS SCORPION VIOLENTE TWILIGHT RACING 3/11 DOOMSDAY STUDENT (vs)
Agenda
Shows in October
Agenda On the following pages:
Subbacultcha! concerts, totally free for members Page 51
Other shows Page 56 Free tickets Page 60
This is Tom Krell aka How to Dress Well. Tom was photographed for Subbacultcha! Magazine by Christopher Schreck in Chicago, USA. How to Dress Well plays on 18 October in Charlatan, Ghent and on 19 October in Ancienne Belgique, Brussels. Don’t miss. Page 49
We
Su
31
Nixie Presents
Kabul Golf Club(BE)
Steve Gunn(US) Sa
6
Citizens!(UK) Tu
06 okt 09 okt
october
20 We
beursschouwburg
01 okt
ocober
october
We
beursschouwburg.be
14 Skip&Die(NL)
14 Jarboe(US)
october
We
october
17
Shonen Knife(JP)
10 COEM(BE)
november
Fr
october
OPENING NIGHT Season 2012-13
Sa
november
5 Manngold De Cobre(BE), Thunders Of Glamour(BE), Hush Hush(US), Return Of The Amazons ft. Melissa Logan (Chicks On Speed) & Maral Salmassi(DE)
Release ft. Onda Sonora, On-Point & San Soda(BE) ... Nuit Blanche
october
6
concerts
Esmerine Zoom ft. Zed Bias Breton
24 okt Club Cross-Linx met Canto Ostinato 01 nov
Six Organs of Admittance
kijk voor ons volledige programma op www.effenaar.nl
Shows in October
Agenda
As a member you will also receive this magazine every month plus a stylish tote bag
Film: Battleship Potemkin
02 October - KASKCinema, Gent 20.30 | €5 | Free for Subbacultcha! members
Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 silent propaganda classic, about the mutiny that occurred in 1905 when the crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin rebelled against the officers of the Czarist regime. This iconic piece of Soviet cinema still echoes through the world of film today, while its ‘soundtracks’ have helped to reinvigorate the movie through the eras.
Black Dice + Possessed Factory 02 October - De Kreun, Kortrijk 20.00 | €10 | Free for Subbacultcha! members
Brooklyn’s Black Dice originally hail from the same Providence, Rhode Island School of Design noise punk scene that birthed Lightning Bolt and key noise label Load Records. Their new album Mr. Impossible is billed as a ‘soundtrack to a substance-fuelled teen basement show on Mars.’ To my ears, this translates to a sort of extraterrestrial electronic jazz punk I could imagine playing at a druggy afterparty of the Mos Eisley Cantina scene in Star Wars. Fifteen years of damaging eardrums and the need to balance music with real-life shit thankfully hasn’t dampened these veterans’ innate enthusiasm for fucking around with weird noises, and their new material sounds as uncompromising and vital as ever. Possessed Factory is a Belgian noise duo featuring Mauro Pawlowski of dEUS and Evil Superstars. Page 51
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Rangda + Amen Dunes
06 October - Les Ateliers Claus, Brussels 20.00 | €11 | Free for Subbacultcha! members
In the island of Bali’s mythology, Rangda is a child-eating demon queen. In the label of Drag City’s discography, Rangda is no less bone-chilling: a guitar-shredding stoner rock trio comprised of Sir Richard Bishop of Sun City Girls, Ben Chasny of Six Organs of Admittance and Comets on Fire, and Chris Corsano, a virtuosic jazz drummer who’s played with Bjork and many others. Also playing tonight is Damon McMahon, aka Amen Dunes, who will no doubt be playing some of his beautiful, benumbing lo-fi pop.
XXYYXX + Seiren
08 October - DOK (Ladda), Ghent 20.00 | €7 | Free for Subbacultcha! members
XXYYXX isn’t the sound of a knackered keyboard. But even if it was, Marcell Everett could probably fix it. This Florida-based kid (16 years old!) is particularly exciting because he’s utterly off-template. He’s absorbed all the post-dubstep and witch house sounds and simply moves onwards, building synths, reconstructing effects and fearlessly throwing together new sounds and beats. Support from local beat producer Seiren. Page 52
Shows in October
Agenda
As a member you will also receive this magazine every month plus a stylish tote bag
Hieroglyphic Being + Louis H 11 October - NEST, Ghent 22.00 | €8 | Free for Subbacultcha! members
This Chicago producer, aka Jamal Moss, is something of a dance music visionary, born out of the all-too-familiar Chicago house scene but always willing to push at its boundaries. From within that contemporary electronic scene, he runs the daring imprint Mathematics Recordings, but it’s his live sets that have the most potential to inspire. In some moments he reminds of a deeper, darker Caribou, shying away from the dance pop and limelight. But it’s his self-described ‘uglier’ moments in the mix where the real magic can be heard, edging from African tribalism to noise jazz and slack-jawed psychedelia. You just don’t expect DJs to sound this… broken.
Jooklo Duo
11 October - Scheld’apen, Antwerp 20.00 | €TBA | Free for Subbacultcha! members
Jooklo Duo is the duo of Virginia Genta and David Vanzan, two self-taught musicians who’ve been taunting each other with drums and horns and woodwind instruments for almost a full decade. Along the way they’ve Page 53
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See all these shows for free. Sign up at www.subbacultcha.be.
toured the world and met a host of daring collaborators who have brought additional sonics and textures to their art. But with or without these guests, the duo is explosive. Their blasts of furious noise and improv will always be labelled jazz, but their art is energy and expression without boundaries.
Teengirl Fantasy
18 October - Botanique, Brussels 19.30 | â‚Ź13 | Free for Subbacultcha! members
Delicious mid-tempo beats and swirling, reverb-drenched sounds from Teengirl Fantasy duo Nick Weiss and Logan Takahashi. Since their inception there’s been a lo-fi DIY aesthetic at heart, but new album Tracer shows they can also produce some rousing dance pop, touching on classic Orbital and Merriweather-style Animal Collective, albeit with softened edges. Plus they still put on one of the most exciting live performances of all their DIY electro peers. The show is promoted in collaboration with Urban Outfitters. Page 54
Shows in October
Agenda
As a member you will also receive this magazine every month plus a stylish tote bag
Ducktails + Bear Bones, Lay Low 20 October - Madame Moustache, Brussels 20.00 | €8 | Free for Subbacultcha! members
Real Estate guitarist Matthew Mondanile’s solo project Ducktails started out sounding pretty chillwavey, but has gradually become more refined, with cleaner production and generally poppier feel. His upcoming new album was written collaboratively with Big Troubles, and features Oneohtrix Point Never’s Daniel Lopatin, Joel Ford of Ford & Lopatin/Airbird, Madeline Follin of Cults, Sam Mehran of Outer Limits, members of Big Troubles, Jessa Farkas of Future Shuttle and Real Estate’s Martin Courtney. It’s doubtful the whole gang will come along on tour, so here’s hoping the whole Tupac Hologram thing extends to lo-fi pop.
Six Organs of Admittance
31 October - Trix, Antwerp 19.30 | €11 | Free for Subbacultcha! members
Mesmeric new-folk from the ever-prolific guitarist Ben Chasny, blending acoustic prettiness with drones and psychedelic vocal harmonies. Away from Comets on Fire, his play is soft and lulling, but no less memorable. This year the Organs released Ascent, upping the psych-jam factor a notch further, and creating another sprawling masterpiece that harnesses both the sweet and sour. Page 55
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Agenda
Shows in October
oOoOO plays on 23 October in de Kreun in Kortrijk
Van She 02 October - Botanique, Brussels Africa is so 2009. These Australian lads, on the go as Van She for a full decade already, have blown off the traditional electropop templates and stumbled upon a recipe that’s pure Caribbean – none more so than during the synth-riddled new track ‘Jamaica’, a cornerstone of new album Idea of Happiness. Leaves may be landing in your hair but Down Under summertime is just getting ready to erupt, so embrace the sunny side and dance your socks off.
Black Dice 02 October - De Kreun, Kortrijk Brooklyn’s noisemakers Black Dice have been damaging eardrums for over 15 years, and their new material sounds as uncompromising and vital as ever. Read more on page 51
Play Festival
05-06 October - Muziekodroom, Hasselt The beginning and the end of the underground will always be in Hasselt. Play Festival returns in 2012 with a broad selection of new music and old faves, promising intimate performances across five stages in the Muziekodroom. Dance beats rule the Friday sessions, from the enduring HerbPage 56
alizer to the contemporary dance-floor antics of Machinedrum. Saturday sees the guitars reloaded, but there’s still plenty of indie electro and crossover from the likes of Balam Acab and Palmbomen.
Rangda + Amen Dunes 06 October - Les Ateliers Claus, Brussels Guitar-shredding stoner rock trio Rangda is playing alongside benumbing lo-fi pop artist Amen Dunes. Read more on page 52.
Release: Onda Sonora & On-Point 06 October - Beursschouwburg, Brussels As if you didn’t know, Onda Sonora is the hard-working musical collective renowned for picking out off-centre music and artists. No hype, just interesting projects and exciting collaborations. Tonight they’re teaming up with On-point Records for one of their RELEASE experiences – a multimedia project supporting DIY talents through expos, concerts and workshops.
Islands 07 October - Botanique, Brussels This Montreal band has retained only its founding member (Nick Thorburn) over its seven-year existence, and with his sweet lyrics and goofy antics, Thorburn provides
Shows in October
Agenda
XXYYXX plays on 08 October in DOK in Ghent
the cornerstone of the band’s ever-evolving take on indie rock.
A Place to Bury Strangers 08 October - Botanique, Brussels Though ‘New York’s loudest band’ isn’t necessarily the highest of accolades, being forerunners of the shoegaze revival is something APTBS can be proud of. Their new and entirely self-produced album, Worship, delivers more of the shoedelicrockgazia they’ve used to shatter ears for years.
XXYYXX 08 October - DOK (Ladda), Ghent Marcell Everett, aka XXYYXX, builds his own synths, reconstructs effects and fearlessly throws together new sounds and beats. Read more on page 52.
Clock Opera 09 October - Ancienne Belgique, Brussels Imagine a world in which Coldplay are tolerable. Nah, okay… picture tuning into a Saturday night chat show and experiencing Dan Deacon going mental and casting a spell over millions. Well that’s where Guy Connelly’s Clock Opera is coming from – or is possibly headed. He has the soaring voice and the anthemic choruses at his disposal, but he’s also just a normal, albe-
it slightly mental, bloke with an arpeggiator and a wall of sampled guitars. After a few years of singles and live shows, debut album Ways to Forget has finally seen the light of day.
The Hundred In The Hands 10 October - Botanique, Brussels This NYC duo take their name from a 19thcentury battle in which Native American chief Crazy Horse killed 100 Civil War soldiers. Since their sound isn’t so much a triumph of the primitive over the orderly as it is darkly atmospheric synth pop, and their instrumental set-up includes guitar and a miniKORG but exactly zero instruments made out of animal parts, I can only assume the connection is that they’re into peyote or some shit.
Hieroglyphic Being 11 October - NEST, Ghent Dance-music visionary edging from African tribalism to noise jazz and slack-jawed psychedelia. Read more on pages 34 and 53.
Fushitsusha + The Tenses 11 October - Les Ateliers Claus Psychedelic rock from Fushitsusha, led by Tokyo-based guitarist and vocalist Keiji Haino. Course, the inclusion of Haino alone Page 57
Agenda
Shows in October
guarantees that this is no ordinary psychedelic rock. And most definitely not some namby-pamby indie boys who turned up the reverb to mask a lack of proficiency. Nope, over the past 30 years, Haino have been responsible for some of the most fucking terrifying guitars and vocals put to tape – in a completely exhilarating way, of course. So Fushitsusha is no easy trip, but they’ll move you if they don’t destroy you first. Oh, and there’s support from The Tenses, the slightly more concise and compact offshoot of ’70s psych LA outfit, Smegma.
Erased Tapes 15th Anniversary 16 October - Stuk, Leuven 17 October - Stuk, Leuven (sold out) Between the warm neoclassical piano work of Nils Frahm (a student of one of the last students of Tschaikowsky), the almost-poppy piano ambiance of Iceland’s Ólafur Arnalds and the the droning soundscapes and melancholy modern piano compositions of A Winged Victory for the Sullen (a collaboration between ex-Sparklehorse and Stars of the Lid musician Adam Wiltzie and composer Dustin O’Halloran), this evening should make for a spellbinding experience.
Tame Impala 16 October - Ancienne Belgique, Brussels These Australian psychedelic rockers blew their fair share of minds with their 2010 debut, the gorgeously hypnotic Innerspeaker. Their sophomore release, Lonerism, purportedly represents somewhat of a departure from their debut by relying on a broader sonic palette and more emotional and narrative songwriting.
Festival Des Libertés 18-27 October - Théâtre National & KVS, Brussels This multidisciplinary festival is renowned Page 58
for its libertarian programming and a cutting-edge selection of unscreened documentaries from around the world. But its ten-day schedule is also packed with theatre, exhibitions and fiery live sets from internationally minded acts. In 2012, the bands include Brooklyn crazies Antibalas and hip hop stalwarts Public Enemy and De La Soul.
Teengirl Fantasy 18 October - Botanique, Brussels Delicious mid-tempo beats and swirling, reverb-drenched sounds with one of the most exciting live performances of all their DIY electro peers. Read more on page 54.
How To Dress Well 18 October - Charlatan, Ghent 19 October - Ancienne Belgique, Brussels How To Dress Well is the one-man recording project of Cologne-based American expat Tom Krell, a lo-to-no-fi sort-of-R&B crooner well-versed in chillwave tropes, but just distinctive enough to ensure himself a spot on a gorillavsbear monthly mix. His devastating new album, Total Loss, features an abundance of beautiful and romantic mixtape-worthy moments.
Ducktails 20 October - Madame Moustache, Brussels Real Estate guitarist Matthew Mondanile’s Ducktails project features carefree and gloriously summery guitar melodies. Read more on pages 20 and 54.
Dirty Projectors 20 October - Ancienne Belgique, Brussels This Brooklyn-based experimental pop group have carved out a niche for themselves with their blend of ambitious experi-
Shows in October
mentation, traditional instrumentation and harmonically-complex vocals. Their new fulllength, Swing Lo Magellan, is more playful and spontaneous than their earlier work, and that unguarded intimacy makes it their most welcoming and indispensable record yet.
Steve Gunn 20 October - Beursschouwburg, Brussels Steve Gunn is especially known for his work with Brooklyn improvisational trio GHQ. His solo work is a journey, not a destination, and his masterful guitar playing (both acoustic and electric) finds him travelling from slow ballads to simply-strummed ditties, lengthy raga/psych hybrids, twangy country meditations and sprightly bluegrass-inflected jaunts.
Doomsday Student 21 October - Les Ateliers Claus, Brussels Providence, Rhode Island’s Arab on Radar cohabitated the same seminal noise rock scene as Lightning Bolt. Following their brief reunion in 2010, they collapsed upon themselves like a funeral pyre. Doomsday Student has risen out of the ashes of threequarters of that band, sounding similarly relentless but rejuvenated.
Moon Duo + Zechs Marquise 23 October - Trix, Antwerp Minimal psych twosome Moon Duo’s Ripley Johnson and Sanae Yamada are partners on and off stage who’ve recently relocated from the bustling psych scene of San Francisco to Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. Originally started as a side project of Ripley’s main band, Wooden Shjips, the duo earned its fair share of praise with songs built on a hypnotically repetitive foundation of organ, fuzzy guitar and simple percussion. Support from improv psych rockers Zechs Marquise.
Agenda
Balam Acab + oOoOO 23 October - De Kreun, Kortrijk Alec Koone, aka Balam Acab, got lumped in with the witch house coven early on, based on his use of slow tempos, warped vocals and releasing on witch house stronghold Tri Angle Records, but his newer material is more like a pastoral counterpart to Burial’s urban vibe, incorporating elements of hip hop, field recordings, folk and drone into a richly textured and meditative whole. Labelmate oOoOO will provide support with his darkly seductive beats.
Af Ursin + Limpe Fuchs 26 October - Netwerk, Aalst Contemporary art noise from Af Ursin, aka Timo van Luijk. This electro acoustic experimentalist has been specialising in improvised acoustic sounds and tape loops for more than 20 years. Support from German composer and improviser Limpe Fuchs and electric guitar quartet Zwerm. Plus a screening of the documentary Step Across the Border about guitarist/composer Fred Frith.
Tallest Man On Earth 30 October - Ancienne Belgique, Brussels The man of charm returns and we dare anyone to deny him. The Swedish indiefolk maestro only released his third album There’s No Leaving Now back in summertime, and it already feels like a natural fit with his previous acoustic works.
Six Organs Of Admittance 30 October - Charlatan, Ghent 31 October - Trix, Antwerp Mesmeric new-folk from the ever-prolific guitarist Ben Chasny who will bring members from his legendary backing band Comets on Fire. Read more on pages 26 and 55. Page 59
Free Stuff
Free Tickets and Goodies
To win, sign up to our mailing list on www.subbacultcha.be
2x2 Tickets PLAY FESTIVAL
2x2 Tickets play festival
3x2 Tickets HOW TO DRESS WELL
05 October Muziekodroom, Hasselt
06 October Muziekodroom, Hasselt
18 October Charlatan, Ghent
2x2 Tickets lEE FIELDS
2x2 Tickets balam acab
2x2 Tickets Six organs of admittance
20 October Cactus, Brugge
23 October De Kreun, Kortrijk
30 October Trix, Antwerp
Page 60
Submitted photos
AFTER MIDNIGHT
Send photos that were taken after midnight to aftermidnight@subbacultcha.be If your photo gets published, you win a good goodie This month’s photos were submitted by Mees van Amersfoort Page 61
Overview of all Subbacultcha shows in October
02 October
11 October
Film: Battleship Potemkin
Jooklo Duo
Scheld’apen, Antwerp 20.00 | €TBA | Free for members
KASKCinema, Gent 20.30 | €5 | Free for members
18 October
Teengirl Fantasy
02 October
Black Dice + Possessed Factory
Botanique, Brussels 19.30 | €13 | Free for members
De Kreun, Kortrijk 20.00 | €10 | Free for members
20 October
Ducktails + Bear Bones, Lay Low
06 October
Rangda + Amen Dunes
Madame Moustache, Brussels 20.00 | €8 | Free for members
Les Ateliers Claus, Brussels 20.00 | €11 | Free for members
31 October
Six Organs of Admittance
08 October
XXYYXX + Seiren
Trix, Antwerp 19.30 | €11 | Free for members
DOK (Ladda), Ghent 20.00 | €7 | Free for members
11 October
Hieroglyphic Being NEST, Ghent 22.00 | €8 | Free for members
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