Spring 2018 by Vinyl Tap Magazine

Spring 2018

Foreword:

Table of Contents

Meridian Meets: Alfred And Yung Pocket$

Killing Me Softly: The Challenges Of Transforming An Original

On Being The Merch Girl For An Early 2000â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hardcore Band

Dull Ache

An Invitation To A House Show

The Spirit Of Pop Punk Lives On In Trap

Profile: Gabi Thiam

WCWM Fest Spring 2018

The Lit Mag

Staff Playlist

Resurrection Vinyl Tap is selling out. As in, we’re selling issues. But they’re free. And we hope to run out. For the past few semesters, this publication has been dead. Like dead-dead. No articles, no issues, no staff; actually, Vinyl Tap has never really had staff. But this year, we’re back and resurrected from the dead. We’ve got a team of staff writers, some computers, a guy with a camera, and access to exactly one super-pneumatic-hydraulic standing desk. It’s not too different from a Silicon Valley startup. Hopefully, less sexist. Truth is, radio at William & Mary is in a midlife crisis. Station-side, WCWM has been working on music preservation and trying to get special collections to preserve our sticker-laden doors. Fest this year was cool in every way except the venue. Trinkle Hall echoes way too much, but we think Half Waif was maybe happy for the extra reverb. Anyway, radio’s hair is falling out and we’re here to cover it.

Caroline Gates

Eric Asplund

Stacia Phalen

Collin Ginsburg

Corey Bridges

Tori McCaffrey

vinyl tap

*some type of advertisement ** hmm...maybe vinyl tap really is selling out? spring 2018

enjoy! 7

meridian meets...

alfred.

vinyl tap

& yung pockets spring 2018

“...I was the person in college that was told they bring too many heads to the party.” In February, we caught up with Alfred and Young Pocket$ before their set at the Meridian. While Alfred consumed an absurd amount of coffee, we talked about “So Sensitive,” synesthesia, Dark Gospel, and the intersections of identity within the Richmond hip-hop scene. M: It’s been a few months since you’ve been here…it was October I believe. What have you guys been up to since then? You went on a tour with Masterhand. Alf: It wasn’t even a tour honestly. I think the purpose of it was a collaboration between a friend and I. And we wanted to see if we could, we were part of a bigger thing and wanted to give it a shot in different cities. Take what had, but with a smaller group of people. With that, I wanted to bring young Matthew (YP) and

some company along, I think Rashawn and our friend Ed. M: At the Meridian, it was Bedroom Hijinks, you, Afrocat, and some of our people at the Meridian show: Huey, and H2 --- How did you and Pocket$ meet? YP: The actual first time, I was really drunk at a mutual friend’s house and we didn’t know each other. We were free styling overAlf: It was just him, for a bit, he had no shirt on. YP: It was a consistent theme that summer… I think that night I went to vomit, and I came back and kept freestyling… Alf: I think I also ended up rapping, and I think you played some of your beats and didn’t tell me they were yours. That was sneaky but I like that. And I just vinyl tap

rapped over the beats he made, and I was damn these are crazy. And then we ended up chilling some more and now we are here. *laughs* M: What’s the process between y’all? YP: I think the best way we work is when Aaron (Alfred.) has synesthesia and he will talk about things in terms of color and shapes. M: Do you actually have synesthesia? Alf: Uh huh…not at all. YP: Aaron will relate things to me in color and obscure adjectives and I get it I guess? Alf: I feel like a lot of times I’ll talk to a producer and I’ll be like “can we make it like this” and

they’ll be like what the f*** are you talking about. But Matt was willing to play along at least, well that was how I took it at the beginning. And I ended up finding out that you agree with how I felt about music. But usually I hope that people will just play along and be like “oh yeah sure… I’ll make a ‘squishy’ beat.”

just 4 or 8 bar loops, because I’ll get really bored with something and move on. So “So Sensitive” was shaping a lot of those little beats and then shaping it with a whole other person’s perspective on them.

M: So those are the adjectives you use?

Alf: Perhaps. I feel like Matt knows how to create a mood, especially with the titles of the beats.

YP: Those are an example…purple… I think a lot of “So Sensitive” was orange and yellow and orangish pink. Alf: And some ugly dookie green. When Phil got on the track, it got a little black and green. By the end of it, it’s blue, sleep, and dark blue. M: I’ve noticed in your beats, at least in “So Sensitive,” that there was more live instrumentation. There’s a guitar player I think I’ve seen. Alf: Safo. She kills it. YP: “So Sensitive” was weird because a lot of those beats were pretty old, like stuff I had from a long time ago. A mix of that sample-based stuff that I had been doing but then I moved away from that and started trying to create more original sounds. I started making things that were more based on instrumentation and other more original ways of making sound. And I think that’s more reflected in “So Sensitive” and I think it has a similar vibe.

M: [to Alf.] Would you say that your lyrical content shaped the theme of the album?

M: You title them first? YP: No just how I would title the beats files. Alf: Some of them were so good that I didn’t have to change it. Matt titles things so precisely. There’s this one beat called “Please Don’t Save Me.” And at first, you are like: “Why is it called this?” And then you listen and understand that it’s fire. And “Oh Shit, that’s why its called that.” Matt’s beats, to me at least, are pure statements, in a sound. M: Let’s talk features. There seemed to be a lot of features on “So Sensitive.” Why? Alf: Because I was the person in college that was told they bring too many heads to the party. And anytime I’d go somewhere , they would say “you are trying to bring too many heads.” But I feel like I’ve always been that person to a degree. Not like I’m putting people on, but I love my friends and I especially love my friends

that make things and say things and believe in things. And I had I never met Matt and I could have easily built like 17 reasons about why I shouldn’t like this person, constructing all these misconceptions. It’s like nah, not at all, his work is just there, in my opinion, it’s unmatched at least from where we are from. I don’t really see people who have broken down feeling the way Young Pocket$ does. M: Are the other people on the album from Richmond? Alf: They are people I grew up with and brought along on my journey. But also friends I met along the way. You end up finding out that your friends hide such great content from the world, and I want people to see that really badly. I wanted to mush my friends together into a friend sandwich…that’s so gay, but hey this is our friend vomit. M: Would you describe Richmond hip-hop as that communal? Alf: No. not at all. *laughs* *spits coffee out* YP: It would be nice if it was. I feel like the thing to acknowledge is that everyone says they want it to be friendly, including myself, perhaps Aaron too feels this. There are other people I know who feel this, saying that they wish there was more synergy. But all those people also have their own reservations and things that preventing it from being like that. It’s really clique-y and

M: What was the impetus for “So Sensitive”? Alf: I think we had most of the songs and we didn’t know what to call them. And we were like wow, who else feels as much as we do *laughing* M: But were all of those beats from a given period of time? YP: For the first couple months, we would hang out at my house and I would be like “Here’s 40 beats that I made,” and Aaron would be like “hmmmmmm this one’s alright.” Or,“This one is fire, put this one the list.” And the one’s that made the list became songs. A lot of them were spring 2018

of layers to why people are defensive of their slice of music or community. I want to acknowledge that that exists, but I also want people to acknowledge that hip-hop is homophobic and transphobic. And I get there are queer people doing great labors to make that not the case but for the time being it still is. And I feel like a lot of people want to find a lot of ways to say it isn’t an issue. So where do Matt and I fit into this dynamic [intersections of identity, community] ?

“Am I playing rough or are you just being

a bro?” it’s a small city where everyone kind of knows each other and is watching each other. It’s a small city with a lot of different art and a lot of different of musician, specifically hip-hop. M: So it’s hyper-competitive…for the goal of becoming famous? YP: I don’t even know the goal… recognition in RVA? The hope that you will be acknowledged, that you will be acknowledged beyond the city limits. I cant speak for other people. Maybe exposure and recognition for art because Richmond is a place that is pretty focused on art, and I guess artistic integrity. Alf: *returns*Are we talking about artistic integrity? That’s crazy. YP: Everyone wants their art to be better than the other person’s art. M: Do you think there is another underlying cause of that competitiveness? YP: There is probably some tension between people who are RVA local vs. VCU students who comes to Richmond to make art. Admittedly, that’s us. We both went to VCU and we come from

a very different place from a lot of other people making hip-hop. Alf: It’s almost a “don’t gentrify the place I’m from” type of shit. I try to respect that. I feel like let that be where it is. There are bunch of layers, because it’s hiphop and cis-het dominated. A lot of times I feel like people say they are for something and they are with the shits but they will have reservations. And it will show in their interactions. And you can make your own conclusions from their interactions. I know from my personal navigation of Richmond, I’ve had to figure out when I am sticking my fingers in someone’s pot and when is someone being an asshole. M: You mean when are you agitating someone vs. when is someone agitating you because of your identity? Alf: Not necessarily. “Am I playing rough or are you just being a bro?” It’s people being dudes and feeling like someone is trying to take your shit over. And it doesn’t have to be like that. I think there is so much nuance to this issue because hip itself is so diverse and Richmond too. I guess I’m saying there are a lot vinyl tap

M: What’s Dark Gospel? Alf: Dark Gospel is … so I grew up in church. And church is f***ed up. M: Which church? Alf: Southern Baptist, and I think church has some awesome qualities that have helped me become a pretty OK person today, but I think Dark Gospel is me thinking about those qualities. And I think because I was raised to be a Christian, I have to think about Christianity a lot and I’ll think about God and be like “why are you in my head?” M: So you feel like you’ve been conditioned? Alf: Christianity is like really f***ed up. Its just like a trap. So like in my adult life, I’ll still have these moments. Why am I still thinking about my longevity? And where am I gonna go after I die and am I gonna go to hell because you’re pretty f***ing gay. Shit like that. *laugh* Because even if I wanted to turn back and be a Christian again, at this point, you know you’re so f***ing gay dude, it’s not gonna work. YP: Jesus has thrown you out of kingdom. Alf: I’m just like oh shit I’m just gonna suck dicks in hell, and so Dark Gospel is me taking all that and make a bird out of it. M: But gospel literally, the genre, the singingAlf: Making a bird out of it. YP: You don’t get it? M: Did you sing in a choir?

Alf: I grew up church boy, singing in a choir, singing God’s Zoo *sings God’s Zoo* I could unleash this whole thing. M: What’s the future for y’all? What are you working on? Alf: We are trying to make a covers EP. YP: “Slowhands” was a sampler plate for a more extended project of just covers that don’t sound anything like the original, but still hold some semblance. And I am eventually looking to put out an EP of my own. M: Beats plus rap? YP: Maybe not rapping, not necessarily, a hybrid of moaningM: Like Lil Peep style? Alf: *laughs* I’m sorry, no disrespect. God forgive me. YP: A hybrid of singer-songwriter with rapping. Important note: we have tour coming up in March. Short tour, two weeks, where we will ultimately end up at SXSW in Austin. M: What’s Citrus City? YP: We released “So Sensitive” thru Citrus City, which is a local tape label in Richmond. M: Two more questions. Favorite food? Alf: Anything with noodles. Anything with noodles. No no no no no. I need to be more specific. Uhhh you go…Chicken fingers, that’s mine. YP: I love food in general, I love to cook, I like noodles, Love Thai, Mexican, shout out to food. Food holds it down, except when it literally doesn’t hold it down.

Alf: Duck, chicken.

Check out Alfred and Young Pocket$ latest album, So Sensitive, on soundcloud (https://soundcloud.com/ alfred-15/so-sensitive-full-albumstream-yung-pocket-alfred), and keep a look out for tour dates in your area!

M: But you eat them... YP: I like penguins. Alf: You are a penguin. M: Thanks for doing this! Alf: Yeah! Thanks for tolerating us!

Photos and Interview by Collin Ginsburg

M: Favorite bird?

“I think a lot was orange

and

‘So

and orangish spring 2018

Sensitive’

yellow pink.”

vinyl tap

spring 2018

Killing Me Composing and executing an artistic vision is a challenge in itself, but reimagining the vision of a past artist covering and adapting it to a new time is one that breeds increasing difficulty with the ambition to totally reinvent or faithfully update. Here, we explore how artists can make a classic new again, how indecision breeds failure, and how a forgotten original can be a breath of fresh air -- the art of covering a song.

The Good: Iron Man Black Sabbath

The Cardigans

Black Sabbath is the band behind the song Iron Man. Though one would assume it is based on the Marvel character of the same name, the 1971 song was formed around the opening guitar riffs, which Ozzy Osbourne described as “evoking ‘a big iron bloke walking around1’”. One of TIME’s All-TIME 100 Greatest Songs, Iron Man is an intense and entertaining example of the best of heavy metal.

The best thing about the Cardigans’ cover of Iron Man is that it takes a classic to a completely new place. This version gives it a dreamy, distant quality that totally reimagines the emotion and sentiment of the song itself. No longer do heavy metal riffs set the tone; instead, the more subdued instrumentation delivers the semi-robotic vocals through moments of triumph, revenge, and humanity.

1. TIME Staff. “All-TIME 100 Songs: Iron Man.” TIME, 21 Oct. 2011, http://entertainment.time.com/2011/10/24/the-all-time-100-songs/ slide/iron-man-black-sabbath/

vinyl tap

Softly

The Challenges of Transforming an Original written by Caroline Gates

The Bad: Gangsta’s Paradise Falling in Reverse The Falling in Reverse version of “Gangsta’s Paradise” is a mess from start to finish. The post-hardcore band attempts to reimagine the well-known, Grammy-nominated 1995 rap hit by Coolio, but they oscillate between attempts at rap and the punk singing that characterizes their genre. The main failure of this song is simply that it can’t decide between

maintaining the essence of the original (even referencing the original music video in the Punk Goes 90s video) or completely reimagining it. Through this, it loses the emotion and authentic feel of Coolio’s original and fails to establish a sensibility of its own.

The Unknown: Killing Me Softly Lori Lieberman

The Fugees

Though most histories of “Killing Me Softly” cite Roberta Flack’s 1973 version as the original, Lori Lieberman was both the first to sing it on her eponymous 1972 album and was one of the key contributors along with Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox 2. Though Flack’s version was the first to make the song an ultra-hit, it seems to fall short of the depth, rawness, and melancholy that characterize both Lieberman’s and the Fugees’ takes. [A Note: If you want to listen, you won’t be able to find the original recording on spotify. I recommend going to her bandcamp to find the best version]

The Fugees’ version is the one most of us are familiar with. For this song, the Fugees, an “avant-garde...genre-bending” hip-hop group that blended elements of reggae, folk, country, rock, soul, and Creole, won the Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 19963. Though relatively simple in its composition, the combination of the standard hip-hop beat and Lauryn Hill’s intimate vocals sweep you up and cemented the song as an instant classic.

2. Donovan, Charles. “Killing Her Softly -- The Trials and Triumphs of Lori Lieberman.” Huffington Post, 16 Apr. 2013, https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/charles-donovan/trials-and-triumphs-of-lori-lieberman_b_2638514.html 3. “Fugees Bio.” Rolling Stone, n.d., https://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/fugees/biography spring 2018

I fell into a comic level of clout among fans

of a very specific hardcore punk and 90’s screamo scene the summer after my senior year of high school. I applied for a job at a café in Leesburg, VA that sadly no longer exists and began working in the steaming hot, soupy, lovable mess that was Cultured Café. In the nearly three years I worked there I met a number of local characters who became friends—and who also, by chance, were related to the huge bubbling cauldron of musical rage that came out of Sterling, VA from the late nineties into the early ought’s in the form of bands like Majority Rule, Pig Destroyer, and pageninetynine. My manager at Cultured was Mike Taylor, a founding member of pageninetynine with his brother Chris and four friends. They started the band the year I was born, 1997, and played and toured through the first six years of my life. The band was a rotating cast of nearly ten members that churned out an impressive body of work in their comparatively short time as a band, Document No. 1 (1999) through Document No. 14 (2003) were released as an array of tapes, 7’’s, LPs and CDs from ’99-’03. Above Culture was Dig!, a record store owned by Kevin Longendyke

of City of Caterpillar, Mike Widman of Pygmy Lush and the pageninetynine reunion shows owned Cultured with his partner, and JR Hayes of Pig Destroyer works on the farm Cultured got its produce from. They all grew up in the same neighborhood and have been playing together since then. I used to spend all day nearly every day of the week in the kitchen with Mike at Cultured getting an education in the punk rock of the years Mike was in high school, just before I was born, through to now. He played The Jesus Lizard, Majority Rule, Thou, and without fail, at least once a week, we bumped Madonna’s album that defined a generation: Like a Virgin. (Or at the very least defined a generation’s virginity kink). I played new stuff and Mike would hate it or like it but never really pay that much attention except for when I would, by chance, play his friends music. I would be left dumbstruck by the distinct lack of degrees of separation between myself and all these musicians I’d been listening to for years. The first time I saw any of the assorted Leesburg characters play was at the Black Cat in DC. Malady and Pygmy Lush were opening for City of Caterpillar at a packed show in the upstairs vinyl tap

of the Black Cat. Each band had a rotating cast of the same characters in the comical way that basically every establishment in Leesburg does too. The formula: at least one Taylor brother, at least one guy named Mike, and Johnny Ward probably drums for you—or at least he did back in the day. Everyone has roots in Sterling but the band is from DC or Richmond and Chris Taylor draws the zombies on everybody’s merch.

“I had more than two grand in twenties shoved into the pockets of my shorts...”

In the nearly three years that I have known the Taylor brothers I have been nothing but impressed with them. They are some of the warmest, kindest, smartest people I have ever met and they have the biggest hearts in the world and the ever-impressive ability to eat s*** and keep going. I think the best example of this is also the story of how I became the pageninetynine merch girl for one night and one night only. Pageninetynine and Majority Rule were planning an East Coast reunion tour—not for their own

mariejanemachin.com @pentaxjane

On being the merch kid for a early 2ooo’s hardcore band

gain, but as a benefit tour for progressive local charities and activist organizations in each city they played. The tour was in direct response to the Trump presidency, his immigration policy, and the Dakota Access Pipeline situation that at the time was still unfolding. They had asked themselves, what can a bunch of now middle-aged white dudes who play in bands and have day jobs do to make a dent—and that was the tour. No one was really making any money other than what was needed to get city to city, all the openers were locals playing for free to support the cause, and they raised nearly $40,000 on an eight show tour. But, the lack of paying led to a bit of a lack of personnel and so I rolled in, said hi, and then was immediately placed behind the merch table. The only real issue with this situation was that I did not actually listen to pageninetynine, nor did I know what any of their album art looked like which promptly added a layer of complexity to the situation. When diehard fans were asking for Doc No. 8 or Doc. No. 5 and I just had no idea which was which. It was a crash course education in the discography and lore of pageninetynine happening on all sides from the fans and members of the band who jumped in to help me and Erin, Mike’s girlfriend, who was in exactly the same boat as me. We were just so clueless but somehow ended up in charge. And as I found, you cannot be a joker at the merch table. And

it also really helps if you can do math. It was a sold out, hometown show at the Broadberry in Richmond for two bands that had been more or less dead for coming up on two decades that had never sold merch other than tapes, CDs, and limited runs of vinyl. I have never experienced anything like it. It was fun and funny and completely exhausting. At one point toward the end of the night I had more than two grand in twenties shoved into the

pockets of my shorts and I was just cramming them in and trying not to lose anything. It is without a doubt the most cash I have ever had on my person at one time. There is this really funny kind of exhaustion that usually sets in after shows are over if you stay until the crowd has left—its like somehow the room being still humanizes everyone as they pack up their gear. The question of “what now?” hangs over everything. Everyone has been there for too long, the equipment still has to get loaded up, and everyone is either ready to go to bed spring 2018

or to drink it off. Erin and I counted down the money and decided no one in the band was responsible enough for it so she took it. Widman was loading the truck, and absolutely no one else was allowed to help. Someone was leading a plank competition. I have never before or since been surrounded by a bunch of punks and hardcore guys pushing 40 smoking cigarettes while in what is more accurately a downward dog. Everyone was just shouting their hands hurt before their abs gave out. I stayed until the last amp had been rolled into the trailer and Widman had artfully placed it in his game of trailer Tetris. Everyone was packed up and headed out to drinks and then on to DC in the morning. I was headed back to Williamsburg. Everyone thanked me and offered me a ride the rest of the way to be the kid on merch. I think I remind them of themselves 20 years ago, but a little bit too rea@criscrude sonable. I wanted to stay, to go on the whole tour, but I had a math test the next day and no musical career to fall back on— but I could have been a roadie if I failed. In the last three years I found out what happened to the bad kids in high school 20 years ago, and they are pretty f***ing cool. I did okay on my math test.

written by Stacia Phalen photo courtesy of Marie Machin illustration by Chris Taylor 19

vinyl tap

spring 2018

vinyl tap

to figure out for a long time. I dunno, I really like sitting down and editing for long periods of time, so I always have to have something to be able to sit in that corner and mess around with. So whether it’s Swete Dreams or Wet Dreams or Dull Ache, it’s all the same activity for me. B: Also there was this time when we went to the Matoaka Amphitheatre when it was raining and jammed under… C: The Pringle! B: …and it was a very different feel from what we had been doing. C: It was the beginning of fall break or right after fall break. B: It kind of came together very nicely. It was also very different, so we decided to go with that sound for the album. C: It was definitely different from what we were doing with Wet Dreams and Swete Dreams, and, granted, the stuff from this new album has a bit of a return, but it’s different. B: It’s different! When is your new album coming out, you think? C: I just finished tracking the last thing that I have to track. Probably by the end of the school year, but we’ll have to wait and see. Part of me says we should probably hold onto it and send it to labels. B: It’s good to take some time. There’s no need to rush, I guess. What gets you guys inspired to write new stuff? C: These songs come together in different ways. Usually they’ll start out as a guitar thing, and then I’ll elaborate on it in different ways. Then I’ll bring it to Brendan and we’ll jam on it and get a structure and then I’ll put lyrics and melody to it. I guess it’s absent-minded anxiety and fiddling with instruments. B: A sort of bottom-up approach. C: Yeah. Recently, have you been more focused on writing new material or production spring 2018

or playing shows? B: Recently we’ve been recording. Since spring break up to last weekend it’s been a lot of recording. We’ve also played a lot of shows, I feel like. C: Shows…we kind of take them as they come. Probably should be more active in seeking out shows. B: I feel like we’ve sort of done the William & Mary thing. C: We’ve played all the venues there are to play at William & Mary and most of the venues in Richmond as far as houseshows go. I’d say production. Production is the thing that I’ve been focusing on mostly. What’s the production process like and what’s it like doing that in Williamsburg as opposed to somewhere else like Richmond? C: Uh… B: It’s easier. C: Maybe, I don’t really know. There are no studios here, and we probably couldn’t afford to

do a studio in Richmond anyway. I like being able to record in my own space. Being able to centralize all of the creative process to one corner of my apartment is really nice. I do everything except track drums right there.

C: Every time we do this I get better at production, so it’ll probably be cleaner and a little bit better in that way. I have a new microphone that I’ve been using for vocals so that’s cool.

Do you use any of the resources on campus?

B: Also it’s just heavier. I feel like there’s a lot of low key s*** on Other People.

B: Media Center.

C: It’s faster.

C: The Reeder Media Center. I used to use a lot more stuff from there than I do now because now I own most of the equipment I need to be able to track and record now. But yeah, with the first two Wet Dreams or Swete Dreams albums we used a lot of equipment from the media center. [To Michael Clark playing PS4] Michael! Kill all those people! Oh my god!

B: Yeah, it’s certainly faster. “Wasting Away.”

How will your next release be different from Other People? We’ve kind of talked about this a little bit. C: Like the way we go about releasing it? No, just the sound and the content.

C: “Wasting Away” is pretty heavy. But there’s parts of “All of the Time” that are heavy. I think the biggest stylistic change is that there is quick stuff on it. There’s also stuff that was musically challenging to do. Most of the stuff on Other People, you’d record it, and then say maybe I don’t like that take very much, so I’ll do another one, but at no point was it difficult. There are songs on the new one that were and are really hard. Also, I’ve been trying to rely a lot less on synthesizers. There’s a fair amount of synths on Other People, and I can’t do that live, and I want

to narrow the gap between what we do live and how we sound in recording. Part of that is eliminating unnecessary instrumentation. Like including synthesizers. What are some problems that have popped up as a two-piece band that might not occur if you had more members? B: It’s not really problems, but perhaps the low end isn’t as filled out as it would be if we had a bassist, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Maybe a trade-off? C: It’s a trade-off. It makes it easier to rehearse and record and play, because there are just fewer pieces musically and logistically. I can’t maybe do as much cool shit on guitar because I have to switch off between playing rhythm and playing lead, so every time we play live, I am playing some hybrid between lead and rhythm and that wouldn’t be the case if we had more instrumentation. Yeah, the low end – I have to crank the bass on my amp to keep from sounding hollow, but by and large, it’s just

easier. So here’s a question about WCWM Fest. What was playing fest like versus a houseshow or a normal show at a venue? B: The room was bigger. C: Yeah, that’s the most salient difference. We had to sound check at the sphincter of dawn. A lot more contempt. A lot more pretense. Honestly, really not that different. B: It was fun. There were more people and they were having a really good time. It was nice not being in the Meridian. C: It was nice not being in the Meridian [to Michael Clark playing PS4] Dude, throw a grenade, Jesus Christ! Michael: Caleb, we’ve talked about this! Don’t talk to me that way! C: Anyways, um, I was actively trying to think of it as the same as any other show. I think part of that was the fact that it was in Trinkle. I was disappointed that we didn’t play at the last fest,

and I was like “we’re totally going to play the amphitheater this year; it’ll be really fun!” We had that experience of figuring out what kind of sound we wanted to make -- at least for other people – playing at the amphitheater, and it would have been like coming full circle for the both of us, and that fell through, so it was pretty much just another show, but it was bigger and had nicer lighting. Just another show. What do you do to get in the right mindset for a show? B: Chug Red Bull. C: Whippets. B: Coffee Enema. C: I usually have some coffee beforehand. This semester, I stopped drinking for a couple months, and that’s good. Before playing, I would usually have some drinks before playing, but I’m actually way better when I don’t do that. I’m trying to figure out if I have a pre-show ritual, and I really don’t. I guess I haven’t really nailed down any

recipe for success there. B: When we were on tour, I would have like a playlist that kind of got me ready to go before shows.

B: I have no thoughts.

C: What was it? My Immortal by Evanescene on repeat five times?

C: I resent that I read Pitchfork, but I do.

B: Exactly. But I haven’t really been doing that lately. I guess, because I don’t get as nervous playing at the Meridian or wherever.

What are some good things and bad things about distributing via Bandcamp?

C: Yeah, it kind of puts a ceiling on how good it can be. B: The edge is taken off. Would you hate it if you became an Pitchfork indie darling or would you take the good press?

C: Oh f***! I would love it if we became a Pitchfork indie darling! Put that on my goddamn resume. Yeah that’d be cool.

C: Bad things: nobody listens. B: Nobody really listens to Bandcamp, and it’s more of a means to an end than a good thing that I am fond of. I like Spotify more because it’s a lot more accessible. C: You get this little app that tells you when people listen to your

shit. It’s fantastic. Yeah, I mean, Bandcamp is fine. It’s free. That’s probably the biggest thing. There are also bands that I love and respect that have their albums on Bandcamp so you kind of feel like you are part of a bigger scene -starting out in the same place as other people. But really nobody cares. There’s a millon squared albums on Bandcamp and more get released every day. What are your plans with regard to Dull Ache after graduation? C: We’re going to Chicago and we’re gonna continue making music. And Thor is rejoining. And if Dirty Mike gets his shit together, he’ll play bass.

Now go listen to Dull Acheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new album on bandcamp... dullache.bandcamp.com/album/other-people

vinyl tap

spring 2018

the spirit of

POP PUNK lives on in

TRAP Article by Corey Bridges Illustrations by Stacia Phalen

vinyl tap

Popular music is an ever-changing medium that often takes twists and turns as the culture around it does. For many decades, rock music has been the dominant force in American popular music along with its many subgenres. This fact is the reason why the 2017 music industry study, conducted by Nielson, found that Hip-Hop had surpassed Rock as America’s most popular genre. For years now, the running joke has been that rock is a dying genre which can be seen in the closing of the Vans Warped Tour next year along with increased booking of non-rock acts at major music festivals. Pop punk is a specific genre that has had a major dip in popularity since its mainstream peak in the early 2000s. Although pop punk may no longer be as relevant as it once was, its influence and spirit live on within the young artists of the modern trap wave. Punk and Hip Hop have grown in similar fashions since their origins. They were both founded within New York City by groups that didn’t fit the mainstream makeup and wanted to create their own spaces for expression. Both genres also have strong foundations in anti-establishment attitudes and would be ostracized by popular society early on in their histories. However, as the years passed, and the genres were given time to develop further, more artists would come to adopt the styles and add features to them that would help generate mass-market appeal for these new genres. The version of pop punk that we know today began its popular development in the late 1980s with bands fusing pop melodies with the raw, almost amateurish, musicality of original punk. These bands embraced the do it yourself approach to music, which made the barrier of entry into the scene at the time almost non-existent. Because of this, any group of kids with a few instruments could form a moderately successful band, even if they had limited musical ability. One such band that embodied this attitude early on and would go on to become an early pop punk pioneer

was Green Day. Green Day started out as just a few local teens playing shows in Southern California, a hot spot for the early pop punk scene, and would eventually garner enough attention to be signed to their first major label in 1994. This would help increase the popularity pop punk to a wider audience but would also cause the band to receive backlash from fans who believed that Green Day sold out and didn’t represent what ‘true punk’ was. This is theme that would be seen throughout the history of pop punk along with some of the most recent wave of trap artists. Trap’s roots in popular music can be traced back as early as the 90s as a specific style developed by Atlanta rappers. It didn’t have many distinct musical characteristics from the hip hop of that era other than that the lyrical themes centered more heavily around southern culture. Trap, as a term, was used by groups like Outkast and Ghetto Mafia to describe the location where drug deals were made. The term wouldn’t begin to be used to describe a style of southern hip hop until Atlanta rapper T.I would coin it in his aptly named 2003 album Trap Muzik. The album would peak at number four on the billboard album charts and would go on to inspire several southern trap producers such as Fatboi and Zaytoven. As mentioned earlier, the barrier for entry for these genres wasn’t much of a barrier as it more closely resembled a wideopen door that was easily accessible for anyone with the resources available to them to make music. Pop punk is known for its ease of playability as much of the musical elements that it consists of are simple beginner techniques. In fact, some of the very first songs learned to play on guitar were by pop punk spring 2018

bands. The lyrical content of the genre is also extremely formulaic as many of the topics discussed in pop punk songs follow themes of teenage life, love, and angst. This lack of musical variety has led many pop punk bands over the years to sound very similar to one another in style. This isn’t to say, however, that pop punk is a bad genre. In fact, the simplicity of pop punk was part of the reason why it was so successful in the first place as it would help make the genre much more agreeable to a mass audience. This is something that’s currently being seen in modern popular trap music. It can even be argued that being successful in the world of trap music has been made even easier in recent years because of easy access to technology. Artists looking to breakthrough into the music industry no longer have to save up for quality instruments and play numerous gigs in the hopes of getting noticed. Now, they can just download software like GarageBand and produce their own tracks from their home. This recent development has made anyone with a phone, computer, and internet capable of making a commercial hit. An artist like Lil Pump is a prime example of the 21st century version of DIY musical success. Like many of his young peers, Lil Pump got his

“Artists looking to break through into the music industry no longer have to save up for quality instruments and play numerous gigs in the hopes of getting noticed.” 32

start producing and writing his own songs and sharing them on Soundcloud. His simple stylistic approach to trap music and carefree attitude appealed to many on online communities across the United States. He would eventually gather enough attention to establish a loyal following that would help him land his first top three hit at the age of 17 with Gucci Gang in 2017. The recent mainstream success trap is currently having closely mirrors the similar peak that pop punk had in the early 2000s. The seminal pop punk band during the peak of pop punk was the Southern California trio, Blink-182. Blink-182 was the standard pop punk group in that they checked every single box needed for becoming a successful band in the early 2000s. They had outspoken members, catchy choruses, accessible music, energetic live performances, and an appeal to a young audience. The band would release three multi-platinum albums; Enema of the State (1999), Take off Your Pants and Jacket (2001), and Blink 182 (2003) at the height of their commercial success. Along with this, they would go on to perform at numerous festivals and award shows, further cementing their legacies as one of the most successful acts of the 2000s. Another young trap artist who is just entering his prime and shares many of the characteristics with the pop punk bands of old is Lil Uzi Vert. Lil Uzi had an extremely successful 2017 that was encapsulated by his inescapable smash hit XO Tour Llif3. The song instrumentally, is like that of any modern trap song. It utilizes hihats and booming 808s that you would expect from any major hip hop artist of this era. However, Lil Uzi does something unique with the performance of what would become his most popular song. In XO Tour Llif3, Lil Uzi utilizes lyrical and vocal elements reminiscent of early pop punk with its clear themes of lost love and drug use. A song like this coming from Lil Uzi shouldn’t come as a surprise either, as he has previously stated that one of his many vinyl tap

musical influences is the pop punk band Paramore. Influences like this have encouraged Lil Uzi to stray away from the traditional sounds of hip hop and formulate a new style of his own, angering some purists in the process. Lil Peep was another artist who fused the styles of pop punk and trap in his music. In his short career, Lil Peep routinely sampled pop punk songs into his own music and was on the verge of becoming a pioneer of a new genre. Songs like Awful Things and Lil Jeep are more clearly influenced by pop punk than even XO Tour Llif3, and if it weren’t for the trap instrumentals in the two songs, one could confuse them for a traditional pop punk song. Sadly, the music community will never know what else Lil Peep would’ve brought in the future as his life came to an untimely end due to a drug overdose in November 2017. It also can’t be understated how much influence that both trap and pop punk have had on youth culture. Pop punk was one of the primary reasons for the rise of high school kids starting their own bands at the turn of the 21st century, as many of the most popular ones of the time started the same way. This is a similar trend that is being seen today with the rise of young people writing and producing their own rap songs thanks to the newfound popularity of hip hop in the United States. Things have changed over the past decade in a way where teens have gone from wanting to be a rock star, to where they now want to be a rap star. The recent cultural shift has also been seen in the media where much of it was previously saturated by pop punk bands of the time. Some examples of this were the numerous appearance of pop punk bands on MTV and movie cameos like Blink-182’s in the popular teen movie American Pie in 1999. Both examples were attempts to target the teen market by inserting the stars of the time into media to cash in on the success of the bands. Trap is also experiencing something similar in that it is now being used to

advertise products and brands to a young audience. Lil Yachty is a good example of this because of his likeness and his musicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s appearance in new ads from Sprite and Target. Although itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s easy to see that the United States has shifted its collective focus from rock to hip hop, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important to note that hip hop has always been popu-

lar in primarily minority communities since its conception. Just like punk records in decades prior, trap has only come to be accepted in mainstream culture once more upper class suburban white audiences became interested in it. The success that trap is seeing right now will likely only last as long as this new audience will allow it to. The decline of pop punk has been gradual as spring 2018

the stars of the past have aged and failed to get back to the level of relevance they had once had in their prime years. Trap may be just a fleeting musical fad with a limit for how long it can remain popular, but it is still fun to see another interesting genre garner such unlikely success in a way similar to that of what pop punk had done over a decade prior.

Profile: Gabi Thiam written by Leonor Grave photo by Collin Ginsburg

It’s Friday night, and that means ghost hunting. On the drive to Crawford Road, the radio is set to the bro-country station. For all its grating southern twang and gratuitous references to whiskey and God, there is something disarmingly endearing about the genre. “I think you can figure out within 15 seconds all the lyrics to the entire song,” Gabi says. “It’s really earnest in a really disearnest way.” It’s 11:11 p.m. by the time we pass the York county line marking the spot where Crafford Road becomes Crawford Road. Development ended at the county line, and suddenly it’s dark and the woods adopt an ominous presence. Stacia is driving, Gabi’s in the passenger seat. Lauren, Kayla and I take up the back seats. When we drive under the graffiti overpass, the temperature seems to drop slightly in the car, but we don’t stop. As we drive along the road, it’s not hard to imagine why this is a place where a murderer might think to dump a body — six bodies have been found in the area in the last three decades. “If I die, I’m gonna be really mad,” Kayla says. Gabi and I get out of the car roughly 20 yards from the graffiti overpass. On the side of the road, we notice a light-up LED angel and a bouquet of flowers. As we approach, a noise from the woods spooks us and we sprint back to the safety of the car. Much like Kayla, we were not trying to get murdered that particular night. Thankfully, all ghost hunting participants returned unscathed, and I emerged with a greater mission in mind — I tasked myself with the job of Gabrielle Thiam’s unofficial biographer. It is for this endeavor that I found myself on the front porch swing of the Meridian Coffeehouse, where Gabi has served as general manager for the last year, asking

her about her life, her zodiac, and her love for Fanon’s post-colonial theory. Gabi sits on an armchair that appears to belong to a different century but somehow feel right at home at a place like the Meridian. To Gabi, the single most important thing the Meridian does is provide a space for live music every weekend. “Not only is that great for people who want to watch live music, but it’s also great for people who want to perform,” Gabi said. “It’s a great resource. This is a really campus-focused thing, and its run by students, which makes it special too.” At the activities fair her freshman spring, she remembers first spotting the Meridian table because of the Addams Family-esque dark shroud that seemed to envelop it. At her first Meridian meeting, someone approached her to warn her about the mannequin in the bathroom, but everyone else was dead quiet. She would soon learn the reason for the silence — most of the staff was hungover, either physically or spiritually, from a 54º 40’ or Fight party the night before. Despite the frosty beginning, she soon broke through and found her place in the DIY venue. One of her earliest Meridian memories is sitting on the front porch at dusk, with two older Meridian staffers, Alyssa and Alaric, during their shift, as they introduced her to the music of Williamsburg’s hometown hero Will Toledo, the front man for Car Seat Headrest. “At the end of the year Car Seat played a show at the Meridian,” Gabi recounted. “Alyssa and I stood in the back on the couch and watched everyone just go nuts for this guy.” Before she was the general manager, Gabi was the art director. She’s been drawing since she was a kid, and though she is an anthropology major, she has continued to make art in her own time. You might catch her walking around campus in flared jeans made whimsical by the faces she painted on them, or you vinyl tap

might spot a Meridian staffer wearing a printed shirt made from the woodcuts Gabi designed. After she leads staff meetings Sunday evenings, she makes her way to the basement of Campus Center to host her show on WCWM, The Third Coast. The night I tagged along, the theme was musicians from the Great Lakes Region. The music — which included Ezra Furman, Earth Wind and Fire, John Mellencamp, The National, and Stevie Wonder — was interspersed with stories from time at her grandparents’ cottage in Michigan, and about her time in Evanston, where she once saw Ezra Furman play live at SPACE. Yet, Williamsburg, Virginia is a long way from where Gabi’s life began. Born in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, France on the second day of July in the year of our lord 1996 to parents Kirsten and Fred, her family didn’t move to the United States until Gabi was six. Her mother, a Midwesterner born and bred, met Gabi’s Senegalese-French father when she spent a semester in Paris while completing her master’s degree in French. “I think for a while my music taste was my parents’ music taste,” Gabi said. “My mom was a big U2 fan, so U2 was deeply ingrained into my psyche for a long time. I have a very sentimental feeling about U2, but I also kind of hate Bono. But I also know all the words to pretty much any song by them. And then my dad would always listen to Stevie Wonder or Marvin Gaye. He had the Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye album on tape and it we listened to that all the time, especially when we lived in

France and we’d drive to my grandma’s house.” However, when France’s economic prospects grew dim, and her mother found herself missing her friends and family, the three of them packed their bags and moved to the land of 10,000 lakes. The summer before sixth grade, Gabi’s father got a job offer in Chicago and they moved once again, this time to Evanston, where she remained until she graduated from high school. In eighth grade, Gabi and her friend started their own music Tumblr and featured The Front Bottoms, a band she first discovered on PureVolume. In a bold move only an eager middle-schooler could have the guts to make, she emailed The Front Bottoms and told them she had featured them on her blog. Somewhat miraculously, they replied and thanked her. Her high school years are the time during which she discovered her passion for live music; she spoke fondly of the shows that marked her teenagedom. Her first concert was the Plain White Tees at Metro Chicago and a love of music and commitment to civic duty melded when she first registered to vote at one of The National’s shows. It was also during her years in Evanston that her grandmother suggested that they go on a college road trip, during which she visited William & Mary for the first time. These Chicago venues that marked her teenage years are partly what led her to the Meridian Coffeehouse as a freshman at the College. “I really liked music, I was really

into it,” Gabi said. “I couldn’t do it and I figured that seeing live music was a way to be really into music and enjoy music, and it was cool — you see the people that you’re listening to in your bedroom all night, all the time, at 2 a.m. and then they’re there, you’re listening to them, then you get to see them onstage and they’re a real person. And you’re like, ‘Wow that’s so weird because I was crying to you yesterday and I know the words to all your songs.’ It was a really cool feeling, and I’m glad that I got to go to so many when I was a teen.” While she admitted that not playing music herself sometimes makes her feel like an outsider, she found value in learning how to run a music venue. As general manager, Gabi acts as the point of contact between the Meridian and the outside world. She manages the staff of around 30 people, deals with everyday emergencies, and carries around the keys. But during her time as general manager she has also sought to make the Meridian’s reality align up more closely with its professed intent of being a safe space. “The biggest responsibility is dealing with issues of finding and figuring out a protocol for preventing gender-based violence in this space, and around this space and keeping perpetrators away,” Gabi said. “That’s been where the top priority is, and me and other people on staff are GBV prevention trained, so we’re the accountable people at the Meridian. The ultimate responsibility of kicking people out, it’s a decision

“...I care for each and every one of those people and am grateful to the Meridian for bringing us under one roof.” spring 2018

we all make together, but that I present to the group.” She’s not the first person at the Meridian to bring up these issues; creating a more inclusive community, especially for women and genderqueer people, is a recurring conversation within this space. Yet, she says addressing the problem of gender-based violence was never really a leading focus of Meridian leadership until recently. “I don’t remember those topics being talked about my freshman year,” Gabi said. “I also didn’t really get it or understand it. I didn’t know that it was a thing that we were going to talk about ever … And I certainly don’t think that we have it all figured out and that we’re there. Ideally, everyone on our staff would be trained in GBV prevention.” Improvements to the Meridian culture, she hopes, will come with increased conversations about the GBV protocol and continued conversations about this topic, and continued training of staff members in GBV prevention training. “Having a protocol in place and having people who are learning about it and taking it seriously and who are willing and able to take someone out of this space, I hope has made it a safer space for people,” Gabi said. “I hope.” But she couldn’t and wouldn’t be able to work alone, and the collective dimension of the Meridian is at the heart of its meaning to her. “The staff really is a team and a family — we all need each other and depend on each other for Meridian functioning but also for emotional support when things get tough,” Gabi said. “We have our quirks and things to iron out like any group of people and personalities but I care for each and every one of those people and am grateful to the Meridian for bringing us under one roof.” While the Meridian has marked her both figuratively and literally (she has a small scar from when she fell from the attic her freshman year) she has also left her mark. As she moves on to the shadowy netherworld of post-graduate life, we can only hope to find her ghost lingering, somewhere along South Boundary Street.

WCWM

We may not have had the perfect day, but around 11pm it was snowing—but everyone was safely inside of Trinkle Hall in Campus Center listening to the last notes of Half Waif as she closed out the show. Four Campus bands: The Offbrands, Brown Thunder, The Masaharu Effect, and Dull Ache played with Remember Sports and Half Waif co-headlining and EDM Club sets between acts.

Remember Sports

is a four-piece indie rock band that started on the campus of Kenyon College in Gambier, OH. Carmen Perry, Catherine Dwyer, Jack Washburn, and Benji Dossetter all squeezed on to the same blue couch in the radio station, chatting with each other about how cats’ names are easier to remember than humans’ and snacking on Gushers. They drove down to Fest from Philly where they relocated after graduation and rebranding from Sports to Remember Sports, a name change that comes both as a command and with an immediate sense of nostalgia. They recounted their evolution from campus band to a touring band with an upcoming third record, Slow Buzz, being released May 18th 2018. The biggest piece of advice they had for campus bands is to play. “Use the time to feel more comfort-

able playing in front of people when the stakes are lower and its around friends and smaller parties and things like that. Take advantage of that to shake off the nerves of playing in front of a crowd.” Remember Sports got their start playing parties and opening for bands that came through the campus venue. The show that really launched them off campus was with Swearin’ and Waxahatchee at the campus venue, of all places. Amanda Bartley, the bassist of all dogs, was there and she booked them to open for Radiator Hospital at a bar in Columbus, which became the show that got them their first gig in New York. “We got to meet a lot of cool people like there wasn’t a super big scene at Kenyon. There were a couple other bands that played around but, I don’t know its just a really small school and the administration vinyl tap

at Kenyon does not create a super welcoming environment for people to have bands and have shows.” Aside from the album though, the whole band is pretty psyched about a recent tweet they saw from a current Kenyon student asking if it had become passé to actually like Remember Sports. “The idea that it might be getting old and not cool to like us at Kenyon any more is really appealing to us.” They made it folks!

Slow Buzz out May 18th on Father/Daughter Records. remembersports.bandcamp.com

FEST2018 spring

written by Stacia Phalen photos by Kayla Temple

April 7th

Half Waif

-- Nandi Rose Plunkett, Adan Carlo, and Robin Baytas -- sat on the big blue couch marveling at the vinyl stacked floor to ceiling in the WCWM radio station. They made the drive down from their home in upstate New York the night before, stopping in Baltimore for the night. They had just come back from exploring Colonial Williamsburg and grabbing some dinner before the music started. Half Waif (@halfwaif) displayed some Williamsburg classics on their Instagram story: tulips from DoG street and the green campus center basement bathroom. They had just returned from a week-long tour with Mitski of smaller towns and cities in the US that weren’t usually stops on national tours, towns like Lexington, KY and Santa Fe, NM. The whole band agreed that the shows in Louisville and Lexington Kentucky were among their

favorites they’d played recently. They were “filled with super positive energy and people were just so psyched we came there,” said Plunkett. She grew up in a small in the woods, and recently the whole band made the move from Brooklyn to upstate New York to focus on their music—so they are no strangers to a small town show like Fest. They moved May 1st of last year to work on the record, Lavender, that was just released with Cascine on April 27th. It is the biggest project the band has taken on and they really sought out a way to do it right and to create a more sustainable environment to return to after tour. “It’s like when you hear about ideal circumstances for working on an album. I was really happy that we created this beautiful little world for ourselves and out of that we made this album that I’m super proud of.” spring 2018

There is a real melancholy and feeling of isolation that flows through the twelve track Lavender, yet it, simultaneously is grounded in familial connection to Plunkett’s mother and grandmother. She weaves beautiful storytelling and an intense sadness and longing through the whole of the album, but especially the haunting vocals of the opener, Lavender Burning. Plunkett reflected on making the album, “sometimes when you’re working on something creative or an artistic pursuit and it feels like stabbing yourself a million times and like pulling out your insides, and it can be this cathartic process but also kind of painful. [But while] there were elements that were very emotional certainly, it just came together in a really natural way.” Lavender is out now on Cascine Records. half-waif.com

The Lit Mag Fashion Statement

Inspired by Madonna’s “Vogue” in The Devil Wears Prada I am the empress of avant-garde. Armed with my stilettos, I am recklessly boiling on thin ice. I will never welcome you to my world, my friend. Critics fall in love with my infamous virtues: “a cautious glass-ceiling breaker.” Gazing at me, they fill in the blank: “a classical dragon lady.” Sweet, the tiger feels bitter.

Baby Panda and Butterfly

Inspired by Lin Cheng’s “Xiong Mao Mi Mi” (Panda Mimi) Hello, my friend. Do you know all bamboos on the hill have blossomed? I am glad you have nectar from these fragrant gems. I am also wondering where my breakfast for tomorrow will come from. What you need brings me hunger and fear. What should I do now, my friend?

Contributor’s note: After bamboo blossoms, it dies out. A panda’s daily diet consists mainly of bamboos.

by Xuanxuan Chen 38

vinyl tap

Playlist Stacia Collin Eric Tori Corey Caroline

Helen in the Woods - TORRES Meat - Krill

Venus as a Boy - Björk The Door - D’Angelo

Alsatian Darn - Panda Bear Borrowed Time - Parquet Courts

Emotion - Daft Punk Tiger Girl - 65daysofstatic

Hey Momma - Kay Kay and his Weathered Underground G.R.I.T.S. - Internet Strangers

Ghosting - Mother Mother Here’s to the Afterlife - Current Joys

Link to Playlist: https://spoti.fi/2qRt4Ot

spring 2018

vinyl tap