Vancouver's Jordan Klassen must have been inhaling the same air as Carl Newman when he wrote this track. I know nothing of Klassen other than he's based in British Columbia, the home of The New Pornogapher's Newman. Although, now I know this song is just a touch baroque where Newman's pop is often in the 'power' camp. And that's not all... "Go To Me" has an air of Sufjan at it's start, but it's not long before Newman pushes him aside.
So spare, so crisp, like a collar-less dress shirt, freshly laundered. White, starched... slip it on and button it up. You'd swear you can smell hot metal and steam on the papery cuffs as you finger comb your hair. Spoon is all about control—neat, folded, pressed—ready-to-wear out of the package. Pull the top one from it's paper wrapper and snap it in the air... that starchy crack is Spoon. But it's not all clean and smooth, this is music with it's roots in the dirt... born of sweaty rock 'n roll, of R 'n B, and that dirt comes via the gritty, grimy scrape of Britt Daniels' vocals.
Sweet Billy Pilgrim is a British band named for an American character, Billy Pilgrim, from Kurt Vonnegut's classic novel, Slaughterhouse-Five. A 21st century band referencing a late sixties novel, describing events of a late 1930's to mid 1940's war. This leapfrogging of time is as folded-in upon itself as the creation of art can be, and what's folded in during moments of creativity are the artist's influences. Everything which has left it's mark spinning about a tiny kernel, or better, a grain of sand. A finite speck working it's way into something big and open, beautiful and sad, joyful and dirty; into something infinite... like a favourite Sweet Billy Pilgrim song.
There is a shadowed pain, a smoky ache, drifting through the band's songs and it's found in Elsenburg's voice. As if a wounded boy were singing to the man he wishes he had become; his childhood dreams withered by adult acceptance. SBP may not play metal, or Elsenburg's songs sound like metal, but it's there, it's in him... buried, subsumed in the middle-aged body of a civilized man. Those bludgeoning waves and beastly howls are within him, and yet only come forth as beautiful laments twisted and corkscrewed by the pressures of countless influences, musical, or otherwise.
The lanky Tim Elsenburg was tracked down and subjected to the blunt force trauma of Sixeyes' questions. The result? Many pearly answers were pried from his 'heavy metal' shell.
* * * * * * * * June 2013
Alan Williamson: Hi, Tim. It's been a while. So long that you and the band (Anthony Bishop, Alistair Hamer, and Jana Carpenter), have gone and pushed three albums out the door... and your latest, Crown & Treaty, is your first outside your garden shed, is that right?
Tim Elsenburg(photo: julian simpson): Yes... It was a room with a view, rather than a wooden box with no windows, air, effective heating or soundproofing. In the winter I'd get chilblains. In the summer; mild heatstroke. Plus, if you solo the vocal tracks on either of those first two albums, I'm joined by a chorus of barking dogs, excitable birds and droning aircraft. Not that I'm moaning, really. It's always brilliant to have a place to work, and there's something kind of healthy about having to leave your house and go somewhere (to the end of the garden in this case) to do your 'job', even though at the time it wasn't really that.
Crown & Treaty, however, was recorded in a little rented bungalow in the garden of a big cottage in an idyllic little village in the Buckinghamshire hills. Following our Mercury Music prize nomination, I got a small publishing deal and used the advance to give up my day job and concentrate on the music. I set up shop in the bay window of my front room overlooking the beautiful grounds, and as my view opened up, so did the sound of the record. Where Twice Born Men sounded kind of tense and a little bit claustrophobic, Crown & Treaty opened its arms and wanted to be more inviting. I also learned that squirrels rule the nature's criminal underworld, and saw enough pigeon-on-pigeon sexual violence to last me a lifetime.
AW: Where do you call home?
TE: I now live in Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, which is about 50 miles North West of London. I grew up around here, and despite wearying a little of cars with stereos more powerful than their engines, and the general sense of hopelessness that seems to ooze from provincial towns, I have kids in school here now. London's only an hour away on the train, so it's not so bad.
AW: Is that where you write and record Sweet Billy Pilgrim songs?
TE: Yep. A little loft room. Hot in summer. Freezing in winter. Just like old times!
AW: The critical acclaim for Crown & Treaty is staggering in the UK, do you feel your Brit-centric music will travel well to other countries?
TE: I don't know if I agree that it's Brit-centric... Difficult for me to be objective, being British and in the band, but as much as I'm influenced by English music like the Blue Nile or Talk talk, my first interest in actually joining bands and playing came from listening to American bands. I was massively into Husker Du (probably the biggest influence on how I play guitar) and your own Nomeansno (Wrong is a major landmark record for me), plus lots of US mathrocky things and metal. Swans, Sonic Youth... It's all in there, fighting with my very English need for order, I guess. It's certainly not Brit-centric in the way that Paul Weller or Oasis might be. Or even in a more Syd Barrett way, where the whimsical elements perhaps don't translate as well. I'd put us more with the Peter Gabriels and Elbows of this world, in approach, if not actual sound.
AW: Experimental is always ticked off in the list of boxes to describe SBP, so, just what is it you're experimenting with here? Are we talking white lab coats and caged rats? I don't hear that... should I use headphones?
TE: Experimental always has that connotation; that it's going to be esoteric or left-field—somehow abstract or 'difficult'. I'd argue that it's more about tinkering with the form of things and trying to do something new. It doesn't have to be unrecognisably, alienatingly new, just kind of progressive—to use a word that itself has become wrongly associated with capes and keyboard solos. I'd say Scritti Politti's Cupid and Psyche and Tears for Fears' Songs from the Big Chair were really experimental albums in the 80's, and they sold shedloads. More recently, bands like Field Music and Everything Everything have bent pop music into new forms without making it unlistenable, just by imagining what a song featuring Timbaland and King Crimson might sound like... And that's what it comes down to: imagination. We write pop music. It has choruses and hooks. After that, there are layers and weirdness if you want to look, but essentially I hope there are tunes that will stay with you. That said, Dan our keys player should really have a white lab coat. With four biros in the breast pocket. That's just a fact.
AW: I wonder, do you, or you and the band, sit around and say, “Hey, let's experiment with this one!” Or, do the early versions of the songs sound like Usher, or Macklemore, and you've got loads of work ahead of you?
TE: It basically starts with me coming up with a vague idea, usually a chord sequence or riff with a melody and then taking it to rehearsal where we mess about with it to see if I'm on to something or just jerking off. Usually, if it gets as far as playing it to everyone, then it turns out to be the former rather than the latter. I teach songwriting at a music school, and the first thing I say is that most things start out bad. You have to trust your songwriting 'radar' that somewhere in amongst all that confusion, there's the kernel of something interesting. Tellingly, there aren't any outtakes from an SBP album. If it gets as far as being started, then it generally gets finished and goes on the album. I would almost argue that given time and patience, any idea can be made good. Again, it comes down to imagination and force of will. And gradually turning grey in a room on your own.
AW: You say you're teaching songwriting, does the very act of teaching your own craft improve your own songwriting? Are you learning as much as you're teaching?
TE: Yes! It's interesting, in that I'm writing the new album at the same time as putting my lesson plans together, so I'm actually having to look at the process as it happens in order to be able to explain it to a class. All the stuff that generally happens instinctively and reflexively as a songwriter is then simultaneously being observed in a far more objective way by the part of my brain I've cordoned off for teaching. Turns out that I'm more logical and systematic than my general lack of organisation and terrible maths grades at school would suggest. It seems that I'm more 'perspiration' than 'inspiration' based, in that writing something involves exploring and then discounting as many possibilities as I can. So, rather than the famous Neil Young thing of 'Thinking is the worst thing for writing a song... Now is the time to get to know the song, not change it before you even know it. It is like a wild animal; a living thing,' I kind of go the other way and try to work through everything it could be so I can then choose the 'right' thing for the song when the time comes. The tricky bit is knowing when that time comes, and it's usually when one or more of the band start yelling at me. I mean, I'm not saying there aren't 'eureka!' moments, but they seem to grow out of recognising a mistake as a lucky break.
AW: Do your songs typically find structure in the same way, do they follow a similar path? How do they start taking shape?
TE: I usually just wade through as many of the possibilities as I can think of for a melody or a chord sequence or an arrangement, whether it be in the studio, or in my head while I'm on a train or bus. Then— when I find something I like—I think, 'Is that good for the song? Or am I doing it to seem clever, or show that I can shred like Uli Jon Roth (I can't)?' If the answer is 'yes—it's for the song', then it goes in. Once I've exhausted all the possibilities. It's pretty tiring and it means that things take time, but hopefully it can be heard in the quality of the songs.
AW: What was it musically that helped form the boy you were into the man you've become? Alright, that's a bit broad, what album had the most influence, and influenza, upon your malleable mind?
TE: There's a few, of course. But what made me buy a laptop, abandon trying to be a budget Dave Grohl and try to work out who I was, were two albums. One was Adem's Homesongs and the other was Sufjan Steven's Seven Swans. It was the sound of air moving in a room; there was atmosphere and depth; fingers moving on strings; intimacy. A few hip hop records by Public Enemy, Wu-Tang and El-P also had a pretty profound effect on how I wanted the records to sound, especially at first. All those guys made it ok for me to find a quiet corner and discover my voice. Crown & Treaty is really the end result of my doing that. Once I had the confidence and the technical know-how to make something bolder that beat its chest a little, I could reach back to other records I've loved over the years; The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Pinback's Summer in Abaddon, The Divine Comedy's Promenade, Prefab Sprout's Steve McQueen, Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue, and make something grand.
AW: Has the addition of newest member, Jana Carpenter, brought more depth or contrast to the sound of the band?
TE: I finally realised the most obvious thing in the world when I started Crown & Treaty. That the thread that joined up all the records I really love and connect with was the voice. Previously, I'd treated mine as another instrument, quite happy to bury it in the mix and give it a more supporting role. Now it seemed better trained and more... interesting. I wanted people to hear it. At which point I met Jana on Twitter, and we sung a few things together, just at parties and gatherings. Even looking into the crowd somewhere where we weren't particularly the focus of attention, we could see that people were connecting with the voices, and so when I started writing 'Blue Sky Falls' (last song on the album), I wanted it to be our Gram/Emmylou 'Love Hurts' moment. If a record is going to have open arms, what could be more welcoming than two voices being there to greet you? It's weird that our voices blend actually, given the difference in timbre, but I'm very glad they do. It's also great to finally have a rock n roller in the band. Man, that girl can swear and smoke, plus she makes lethal cinnamon vodka.
AW: The production and mixing are done by you, where and how did you pick up these crafts?
TE: To be honest, it was just necessity. The process I've kind of outlined above is pretty time-consuming, so it's impossible when you're on the clock in a traditional studio. It was just driving me to distraction that nothing ever sounded like it did in my head, so I invested in a laptop, an interface and a microphone and got started. A friend of mine spent a day teaching me the basics of using the music program Logic, and then I started to record a song. Basically, the first song on the first album is the first thing I ever did, and the reaction from everyone I knew was a loud, 'Yes! THAT!' so I just worked at it. By the time I got to making Crown & Treaty, I'd upgraded from a tiny laptop to a bigger computer, plus I felt more confident with the technology so I decided that I was going to make an album that sounded like a million dollars for next to nothing. I did limit myself by not using any of the extra stuff you can buy in terms of effects and digital versions of vintage studio gear, otherwise—I knew—I'd still be EQ-ing the hi-hats as we speak, so everything you hear on that record was recorded and mixed with just the standard Logic package. We took the finished thing to a friend's studio to check mixes on pro speakers and 'prettify' a few things, but by-and-large (apart from the drums) the whole thing was a living-room record.
AW: What were the first film and record that made a memorable impression upon you?
TE: The first record was a song by Dennis Wilson's solo record, called "River Song". I had it on a compilation LP of later period Beach Boys stuff, and when I first heard it, it was like someone had lit a fire in my head. When the middle section kicks in and the strings swell and he sings "It breaks my heart to see the city", my 10 year old heart was broken too, but of course I didn't recognise it as that. I felt that ecstatic sadness... and I guess it wouldn't be overstating it to say that somewhere I realised that I had a soul; or at least that there was something beyond riding my bike and grazed knees. I suspect the fact that I lacked the vocabulary and experience to express it made it even more magical, although I know deep down that that will always be the case. I think I probably make music (and seek it out) to feel like that 10 year old again; to try and both express that feeling, and to try and recreate it. Films came later... but the first to really grab me were Brazil, just for the scale of the design of it, and Peter Greenaway's The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, which I loved for its perfect symmetry. Everything just kind of fitted perfectly. When I listen to the final mix of a new song, I want to get the same feeling aurally as the film gives me visually; everything in its place. Plus it's stunning to look at.
AW: I came across something online where you quote Austin Kleon. The quote was 'Creativity is subtraction', what does that mean to you?
AW: Kleon also says an artist needs a 'willingness to look stupid'. Give me some examples of your willingness, or unwillingness, to do just that.
TE: Oh god... It's constant. At one end, there's the presenting of a new song idea to the band, and having to yap phonetic nonsense as we play through it, just because I haven't got any lyrics yet. Taking a chance with a new direction musically or lyrically always involves that; first with the band, then with an audience. We played a new song for the first time at a recent show, and it's a quite a departure musically speaking. At the back of your mind is the possibility that you'll get to the end and there'll just be an eerie silence—or, worse—the slow clap. Then there's the band photo session. No one's quite got the hang of that though, to be fair, except perhaps Nick Cave... Finally, there's the actual things-fucking-up scenario. I did once get lost on stage in front of 500 Japanese people. Finished playing, turned around and everyone was gone, and I could not see the exit, so I spent the next minute or so groping my way along the back wall while everyone in the audience lost it. It was so bad that the Japanese crew, who'd previously been the very models of courtesy and humility, were just plain pointing and laughing when I finally got backstage. But one of the most important lessons I've learned from Jana, who does a lot of acting improv, is to let that feeling go, and more—to own it and make it part of the process, and then move on. Also, to laugh when it happens. Sometimes it's gold, and an audience seem genuinely comforted by it. I once saw Peter Gabriel live bring an 80 piece orchestra to an abrupt halt because he'd forgotten the words to something, and it was a really lovely moment. It's really just a 'willingness to look human', which is what all good art is about anyway.
AW: What do you get out of Steal Like An Artist lists like Kleon's?
TE: Just a kind of confirmation that you can never be truly original, and that part of the reason that people might like what you do is that it reminds them of something, however distantly, and that that's OK. It's the reason that people like to pigeon-hole a band. Because then it can be related to a personal history and it means that you're not alone. Not only do you know people that like that band and that style of music, but the band themselves reference music you've loved that's tied to specific times of your life etc etc. What Kleon does brilliantly is to very simply legitimise the feeling that anyone creative gets when they actually recognise something someone else has done in the germ of their idea. He describes 'Good Theft' as 'honouring, studying, stealing from many, crediting, transforming' and 'Bad Theft' as 'degrading, skimming, stealing from one, plagiarising, imitating', which I think sums it up perfectly. When we start creating, it's generally almost a tribute to the art we love, and I guess it continues to be in some ways, except that our voice becomes louder and the other voices just help to bind it all together. He also says 'write the book you want to read'. Unavoidably, that book (especially at first) is going to resemble the books you've loved reading, until you understand the process enough that (to mix metaphors a little) you wake up one day and without noticing, someone's taken the training wheels off your bike and you're free to move from the main road and off into the woods a little, and it all feels entirely natural. It's also important not to forget that we don't just steal from other artist's work; most of the time we're just sharing, or reshaping and then re-sharing a way of experiencing the world that we call ours.
AW: You've written of your love and need for metal, so have you slipped any metal-like bits or pieces into your songs? As a private joke between you and your inner caveman?
TE: Oh yes. Certainly the heavy section of a song like "Kracklite" is an expression of that! What seems to happen is that there's a displacement, where I listen to more extreme music while I'm making an album so it doesn't influence me unduly, and then that stuff finds its way onto the next record. The follow up to Crown & Treaty is certainly going to have its fair share of riffing. This makes me very happy.
AW: Which other genre, or genres, of music fill a void in you as metal does?
TE: Principally hip hop actually. Darker, more left-field things like El-P and Aesop Rock along with classic stuff like Eric B & Rakim and Public Enemy. The fact that these guys are unafraid of atmosphere in their production work has been a big influence, but also just because of the sheer, unadulterated joy in language. Also, there's less of tendency to occupy the grey areas, as with metal. Being quite comfortable in my own fuzziness, it's good for me to spend time in the company of people who have a more decisive and positive (not necessarily in outlook) attitude in what they say and do.
AW: What do you get from creating? What is the reward, the purpose, the need filled? Why does Tim Elsenburg create? Are there any drawbacks from this?
TE: It's curiosity. And imagination. They're not just abstractions; they're needs, to be fulfilled, explored, expressed and shared. As I get older the need to feel part of something; to feel connected to those parts of me that I have in common with people, becomes more important, and the need to feel validated via ego becomes smaller and smaller. It's lovely when someone says that something is great, but it's even better when someone recognises some common ground and sends it back up to you by singing your words with you at a show or by sending a message, or even by forming a band. I read somewhere once that politics is about what makes us different from each other, and music/art is about what we have in common, and I love that idea. Being curious; always prepared to look at your motives and your experience and maybe change in line with that, because it's always in flux and therefore interesting. Translating or trying to express all that with your art, whatever that might be, and seeing the world reflected back at you through people who innately understand what you're saying at a primal and/or an intellectual level is an amazing privilege. Their interpretation of things may not be exactly the same, but it's like a choir or a string section all performing the same notes, everyone is pitching slightly differently so it sounds full and lush. If the tuning was entirely accurate, a hundred voices would just sound like one voice, and that would be very dull. Also, in trying to do this well, you have to put all cynicism aside. You have to stay in touch with that childlike part of you so you still access the deeper recesses of your imagination unhindered. Cynicism kills that. It's ugly and bitter and it strangles everything like weeds, and creativity seems to be the perfect antidote.
AW: The Mercury nomination in 2009, did that have much more effect than you anticipated? Were the benefits all positive?
TE: Yes... pretty much. It didn't make much difference in terms of sales, but it has meant that we've been taken more seriously when we're trying to involve people in projects or get business stuff looked at. It's just a nice calling card, and it was an amazing night... I had to keep reminding myself that we deserved to be there as much as anyone else. Maybe more, if you take into account the fact that we all had to go work our day jobs the next day.
AW: Okay, now down to brass tacks.... have you got a family?
TE: I do indeed. Been married for many years, with two beautiful sons to show for it. They're 11 and 14 now, and it's so interesting to watch how they connect with music. What's interesting to me is how there's no conflict for my eldest in listening to Meshuggah one minute and Alt-J the next. There really isn't the tribal aspect to music that there was when I was growing up, but to my great joy, he's still more than happy to listen to an album all the way through. All that seems to have changed is the emphasis on owning the artefact, although—that said—I scored him his first signed vinyl from a friend of mine who's in a metal band we both like, and his eyes lit up. That was a real father/son moment.
AW: I understand that you've got tinnitus, as have I, does it cause any problems when playing live, in the studio, day to day?
TE: Just at night when it's quiet. Then I get a little symphony of whistles and treble. I like to go to sleep listening to a radio station we have here that purely deals in spoken word stuff; plays and comedy and book readings. That helps.
AW: Finally, just how tall are you? Are you the Stephen Merchant of indie rock?
TE: I'm 6' 3", and not a graceful 6' 3" at that. Coincidentally, we were asked at the Mercury awards by some kids' TV presenter, who would play us in a movie version of our lives, and Al (SBP drummer, Alistair Hamer) pointed at me on national TV and said Steven Merchant.
Maybe you get the reference to 'gold-plated diapers', maybe you don't. And maybe, juuust maybe, you've never heard this song before. The entire staff here at Sixeyes recalls this song, by Malkmus and his band, fondly; we all love it—especially the cowbell.
the hook
(mp3 provided by epitonic.com - one of the first curated music sharing sites)
Off of Yo La Tengo's 12th full length release, Popular Songs, is "Periodically Double or Triple". Opening with a slashing guitar and overwhelming bleating organ, we feel like we're slipping between the covers of The Beatles' White Album, until the detached and cool vocal pulls the rug out, or the sheets off. Sixeyes is loving this and glad to have found it this morning. This is what happens when smarts, talent, and a rock 'n roll heart meet behind instruments and mics (just you wait for that organ solo).
Andrew English first came to the attention of Sixeyes as main man of Lexington, KY trio, The Scourge of The Sea. Their album, Make Me Armored (2006) had been leveled with uncommon songs, many which hold their allure to this day (read sixeyes review here). Now, after a couple of solo forays which went undeteced by Sixeyes (Englishman 2010 and Taxi-dermy 2009 ), English is readying to release new music. No date has been set for followup EP, Unsafe & Sound, but English tells Sixeyes he's waiting for "...(the) finishing touches of artwork for this new release". Luckily he has shared a single titled "More Than Insects", which you can listen to and download via the bandcamp player below.
Opening with a promising whining slide guitar evoking the quiet Beatle, George Harrison, it's when English begins to sing that things climb another notch. There's a distinctive timbre that vibrates from this Lexington KY natives throat, as if the screws have been twisted an extra half turn. Just as if his 'action' has been set too high and he's landed alongside John Darnielle's crystallized whine, but at it's more relaxed and mellow moments. And not unlike Darnielle, English pens memorable lyrics, songs chock full of lines that will ring in your head without their musical support.
From "More Than Insects":
So it's pills of all colors for magical cures turning hearty meals into breakfast blurs the pain is so brilliant and cutting it loose leaves half empty coffins half ready for use When babies are born they don't ever get told everything hurts you and then you are old you ruined my haircut, put blood in my brow and I never killed much more than insects till now
Another gem from one of indie musics unrecognized talents, Andrew English a.k.a. Englishman.
Both aforementioned releases Englishman and Taxi-dermy can be found on the Englishman bandcamp.
I know, it's hard to believe, but Facebook is very, very new to Sixeyes... and Sixeyes to it. Twitter is another story, but it's almost as confusing. So, please follow and/or like this page called Sixeyes and the confusion might be bearable.
Thanks, everyone.
(We've got those cute little icons in the right sidebar to make it easy for you)
The Fall and Rise of... is the debut of Chris Anderson, an eccentric Brit musician who has been banging about in various bands of varying genres for years (he looks to be in his early fifties). And now he has at last seen fit to release his debut under the quirky nom de plume, Crayola Lectern. The first single is "Slow Down", a slow motion breeze coming off the coastal sea; leaving you dripping with tulip-shaped piano notes and soft honeyed horn.
There's an umistakable Robert Wyatt similarity in the music and voice of Anderson, but other tracks display earmarks of The Fab Four in structure.
Culture Reject is Toronto based Michael O'Connell, a musician, songwriter, and you could probably throw in teacher and social worker. After learning more about him he is, as is usually the case, more than he appears to be, he isn't just some guy who makes music, it appears to me that music makes him. Michael was kind enough to find some time to answer a handful of questions for Sixeyes:
__________________________________________
A. Williamson: Hi Michael, first I want to know about the name, it's very distinctive... where did it come from and why not use your own name for what is essentially a solo project?
Mike O'Connell: There are many Michael O'Connells in this world.... maybe too many. I also wanted a name that could bring musicians in when needed and an easy opt out when I preferred playing solo or with other musicians. The name Culture Reject came from a lyric in "Inside the Cinema" which is a song about people (primarily homeless or street-involved.... also queer and transfolk) who I witnessed articulating their critique of the world that rejected them with such pointedness and accuracy that I realized people opt out of the mainstream for many reasons. I then started thinking in the larger social picture about belonging and the pressure to fit in; the elusive and also obvious benefits of belonging; our struggles to fit in, but how in those struggles, we let go so much of who we truly are. It's a question and sometimes crisis of identity. I think when people are honest about who they are they become increasingly aware of their own power and control to reject the rejectors equally. I also think it is arguable that we are all, at one time or another, alone and as rejectable as anyone else is in a culture that encourages or fosters divisiveness based on identity.
AW: Six years have passed since the debut release, how have you been keeping busy musically? Touring, producing, recording, session work?
MO: I have been writing and playing new songs with two wonderful singers: Karri North and Carlie Howell in Toronto. Since the debut I have toured Europe, Iceland and the US three times. That's how I formed a relationship with the French label Specific Recordings (in Metz). I started writing a little more towards a three person band formation, but still write for the orchestra in my head.
I also have the privilege of operating a recording studio (sketch.ca) in the Parkdale neighbourhood of Toronto that serves young people living on the streets or on the extreme margins. We make A LOT of music.... grindcore, dubstep, old timey banjo folk, accapella, rock, rnb, Cumbia... and collaborations of artists who come out of those genres and are willing to play to make new sounds. It's an honour to witness and even more so to produce and facilitiate.
AW: How did it come about, the recording studio for young people living on the street? Was there one event, or experience which triggered the idea?
MO: It grew out of an initiative of artists who recognized the need to address the systemic barriers faced by people who are homeless and marginalized in the city. The goal was and still is to offer art space, instruction and materials to allow people greater health and to increase control over the lives. I was fortunate enough to be asked to coordinate the music studio.
AW: How do you choose the people you have playing on your recordings, or play live with?
MO: It's definitely a taste thing. They have to bring a passion for what they do musically, but also be willing to take on my musical vision. Often that means accepting the parts that I'm doling out. I've had horn players who I respect massively, look at me and say "that's more of a guitar line you want me to play on the sax... I don't think it translates." But they'll do it and they'll find a way to make it pleasing to my ears. I'm lucky that people are willing to embrace and contribute to the kind of music I hear and the way I want to express it.
AW: Do your songs grow out of jamming? I get a loose nearly funky feel when listening to much of your music.
MO: Not really. I really spend a lot of time recording. I guess I then jam with myself in an overdubbing kind of way and begin to come up with countermelody and melody to chord structure (it is, after all, just a form of pop music). The vocal arrangements are a little more collaborative and I owe a lot to Carlie and Karri for hearing and speaking up about what they think works best.
AW: Forces is on a French indie, Specific, how did you choose this label? Or was it more them choosing you?
MO: Florian Schall is an audiophile, super passionate vinyl lover, musician and community builder from Metz, France (he's the one that booked the band METZ before they were called METZ... but after that gig they took on the name...). He (and his partner Jennie Zakrzewksi) told me he was sick of a world that didn't have new Culture Reject music and told me to put together as many songs as I could and he would release it on vinyl. That's what happened. We're planning a vinyl re-issue of the debut record and a new collection of Culture Reject songs in 2014.
Thanks, Michael.
** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
Culture Reject's latest recording, the 'Forces'EP, is now out and available on iTunes, bandcamp (vinyl), and via his Canadian label White Whale Records.
Back in 2009 Michael O'Connell released his debut as Culture Reject and it floored me. Fantastic rhythms, mesmerizing vocals, unexpected shifts and turns, a roller-coaster of personal tales that swayed as much as they bounced and snapped. I also spent a great night in Guelph, Ontario at the sadly departed Carden Street Cafe listening to Mike O'Connell and some friends get the dimly lit little place bobbing their heads in unison.
Now six years have come and gone and I'm happy to say that Culture Reject has returned. The new Forces EP is bursting with his familiar sounds and yet open, airy, pulling in almost as much as it's pushing out, leaving space that attracts the ear. You may not notice these little pockets of vacuum, but they make room for sounds to linger, for anticipation to grow for the next shift in tempo, the next note. Culture Reject's Forces is full of these little holes, like an inverted night sky pricked by tiny black stars. This is the magic of a well arranged piece of organic music, not only do the spaces, or gaps, unknowingly attract the listener's ear, they are pulling and pushing the music along, as well.
The EP opens with "Avalanches" and O'Connell's strongest asset as a songwriter, his sharp, compact, and simple guitar lines delivering a song's hook painlessly and with the contradictory promise that you will feel something. On a near par with this distinction is an ability to sew together intricate patterns with the layering of voices used as wordless instruments, skittering percussion, and those singular guitar parts. These qualities carry throughout this hefty six song EP, from the aforementioned "Avalanches" quiet groove to the melancholy "In my Lovin' ", with lonely guitars and longing falsetto, to the chattering rhythms, talk-sing vocal, and chiming counterpoints of standout "Talkin' Easy".
Don't take this the wrong way, but if Justin Timberlake lived in Silverlake and was pals with Beck, Sofia Coppola and Ryan Gosling and went all indie, this is pretty much what I'd expect to hear. Hold on, don't move on just yet, he sounds nothing like Timberlake, it's an analogy. What I'm saying is that under other circumstances, different influences, different dreams and desires, Culture Reject would be huge... but then it wouldn't be Culture Reject. It would be some poor guy mass marketed to the 18 to 29 year old demographic. But it isn't.... it's Culture Reject.
This is a lot of talent, big talent, here in Mr O'Connell, with a craft that, sadly, connects with a smaller audience; believers who appreciate art and can be inspired to make their own. So, make something... make a move and join the smaller audience. Unplug the mainstream, it may be tough, but abstinence is the way to go; Culture Reject is back and what a relief.
RIYL: Chad Vangaalen, Television
(Watch for an interview with Culture Reject a.k.a. Michael O'Connell next week)
Forces EP Tracklist
Avalanche
Quicksand
Talkin Easy
Timeless Outrage
Brand New Well Worn Suit
In My Lovin
Not sure how it's done... how This Is Head does it. There is 'computer' written all over some of what I hear in "Illumination", BUT it isn't turning me off, as it normally would. The song opens with a drugged and slo-mo'ed Giorgio Moroder synthesized chug, Ã la Moroder's classic Miami Vice theme and then becomes some kind of indie feeling dance song as they add layers. And... still... I like it. If comparisions are being made, then Sweden's This Is Head are Franz Ferdinand with more computers and less sunlight... in the winter that is, but more sunlight in the summer... sooo, nevermind the sunlight part, it all balances out in the end. This Is Head are damn good, simply put.
But I do envy those Swedes their Swedish summers.
This is the band's second single off their second album, The Album ID.
"Illumination" Single Tracklist:
1. Illumination
2. Castaway (El Perro Del Mar & Bobby Bell Remix)
3. Staring Lenses (Prince Rama’s Setting of the Sun Swedish Black Metal Remix) Buy the single on iTunes:
This is the first time The High Wire have hit my ears... the song is still making it's virgin passage and I have to write about it. Anthemic is a term I turn to when I imagine a song live, the crowd moving in unison, singing along. "LNOE" has an extremely strong hook, arrangement, and most importantly, presence. Put simply, this is a radio hit from my youth, back when no one had a computer and the dated and poor had 8-track players in their cars.
(6 minutes later)
Alright, I've had three listens now and it's shallowness is becoming evident... still, there's that hook and a vocal that sounds like it's coming from up on a high wire. If you're looking for a summer car song... pop "LNOE" in the 8-track.
Jesper Berg shot and edited the video, a video which is very spare and simple as is befitting the sparseness and simplicity of this song which is essentially a demo, a private home recording made by Alice. This song and several more make up her first release called Skisser, an EP now available on Adrian Recordings. And, yes, that is Alice dancing on the beach. Read sixeyes interview with Alice here and the review of her EP here. Buy on iTunes.
"Monarch" by Estrangers is one whirly gig of an indie anthem. Everyone is coming hard at the listener, but not hard enough to knock you down. Although, when you add all they're pitching your way together, it's another story. You may be hanging on as this song twists around you like cotton candy on a paper cone. It might not bowl you right over, but it sure will stick for a while. And isn't that what we want?
TOUR DATES:
Jun 14, 2013 - Winston-Salem, NC - The Garage
July 20, 2013 - Asheville, NC - The Grey Eagle
Jul 26, 2013 - Charlotte, NC - RECESS FEST 6
Aug 2, 2013 - Durham, NC - The Pinhook
Aug 03, 2013 - Wilmington, NC - Soapbox Laundro Lounge
Sep 05, 2013 - Raleigh, NC - Hopscotch Music Festival
Season of 1000 Colors - Released today, June 11, 2013
Carlos Del Amo and Lua Rios (Lua is the daughter of Spanish rock pioneer, Miguel Rios) met while still in their teens forming the band We Are Balboa in their native Spain. After several releases and a trip to SXSW in 2009 they relocated to NYC where they took on drummer, Dave Burnett. The next few years of touring and writing saw the trio coalescing into what we hear now on their two-song "We Already Exist" single, due June 18th. This is the first teaser of what's to come on their debut album, Years. Written and recorded in Madrid, it was mixed in Seattle with renowned producer Phil Ek (The Walkmen, Father John Misty, The Shins, Fleet Foxes). Galloping down trails bordered by long wet grass, a hot heavy sun rising above motionless trees, this song, by Gold Lake, takes you down a winding dirt path to a cool spring where you can stop, drink, and rest.
Marc St. Louis and Matilda "Tillie" Perks are the founding members of the Montreal quartet, Valleys. This year saw the band sign with New York indie Kanine Records and the subsequent release of Are You Going To Stand There And Talk Weird All Night?
At the heart of their songs is a beating cherry pop tart, but then they've gone and dragged everything through an extremely large empty metallic tank, with the help of computers, robots and electricity. You know the tanks I'm talking about, they get pulled out of the ground when a gas station closes, the pumps dismantled and then those long underground storage tanks are exhumed. Valleys have stumbled upon one of these tanks and pushed and pulled their music and vocals through the long empty drum's blackened air, through the cobwebs and the ghosts of gasoline fumes. Their songs then pulse into the clear air with a big, dark hollow echo at their core and the fragrant promise of ignition as they encounter the sun. Listen for yourself, this is the second track on the album:
Back when I had built this into a well visited music blog, I put up mixes called sixpacks. This time out, I'm going with 'The Listening Post', which is a 1940's wartime idiom meaning 'a center for monitoring electronic communications (as of an enemy)' or ' a forward position set up to obtain early warning of enemy movement' or 'any position or location for obtaining secret information about an enemy'. Okay, obviously we're not dealing with enemies here, but let's take the old adage 'To know your Enemy, you must become your Enemy', and change it to 'To know music, you must become your music... or at least listen to music'. So, this Listening Post is where you will gather 'secret' intell that you may, or may not, wish to share with friends. Some great new, or not so new, music that makes your day just a little bit better... and how could you not share something like that? How dare you keep that secret... even with your enemies?
******
This post features The Veils, without doubt the most underrated band I've had the good fortune of listening to. Even caught them live in Toronto at the El Mocambo, where I experienced the humilation of being told "No... you're not on the guestlist." Thank, God, for the kindness of the band's tour manager, who let me and my companion in as his guests.
Neko Case and her label Anti have released a 90 second trailer for what we can only presume is for her forthcoming album. There is even a glimpse of a handwritten lyric sheet in this clip, the gist of which is below: Then I left my body for good, and shook off all the strength I'd saved, I wanted so badly not to be me, I wanted so badly not to be me, I squinted in morse code, dot dot dash, dot dot dash, and saw my body lookin' lost... etc. There is a bit more on the sheet, but at the end of the clip this appears on screen: The worse things get The harder I fight The harder I fight The more I love you There is no title, no date, nothing, just a hint, perhaps, when she sings "Where did I leave that fire?" And, of course, Neko walking in the fields, laying on a bed, and sliding down into the water of a clawfoot tub. Check it out below.
The water imagery in "Chained" is spot on for an XX video. The thick bass lines like water slapping your eardrums, the smooth quiet vocals of both Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim find their visual equivalent in these lovely slo-mo images of water grey, blue, and black.
"Chained" Video Credits
Director - Young Replicant
Creative Producer - Joe Nankin
Exec Producer - Laura Tunstall
Commissioner - Phil Lee
Producer - Rachel Rumbold
1st AD - Stehpanie Zari
DP - Steve Annis
Colorist - Ben Rodgers at Glassworks
SFX - Gary Brown at Munky
SFX Producer - Samantha Banack at Munky
AND HERE IS THE NEW Young Replicant directed video for The XX, "FICTION". The director has opted for black and white for this nightime shoot, a choice which lets the film-maker play with light in a much more compelling way.
Here's the new video for the opening track from Father John Misty's debut album, Fear Fun. Band leader Josh Tillman (below), who co-directed “the clip” with Grant James, said this about the video:
"Music videos don't need blurbs. It's like putting a brief summary before a Garfield comic strip. Also when did everyone start calling them "clips"? A "clip" is an excerpt of a whole, I thought. Whoever post’s this, don't spoil the ending in your blurb, which will probably read like this: "Seattle based folk beardo Father John Murphy mopes around a deserted, apocalyptic landscape (and shows off some of those infamous dance moves) in this Josh Tillman directed clip for "Funtimes In Babylon"."
photo courtesy magnet magazine
Tour Dates
Jun. 08 - Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer Jun. 09 - Baltimore, MD - Ottobar* Jun. 11 - Cincinnati, OH - 20th Century Theater* Jun. 12 - Louisville, KY - Headliners Music Hall* Jun. 13 - Manchester, TN - Bonnaroo Jun. 14 - St. Louis, MO - The Firebird* Jun. 15 - Columbia, MO - Blue Note* Jun. 16 - Lawrence, KS - Granada* Jun. 18 - Denver, CO - Ogden Theatre* Jun. 19 - Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge* Jun. 21 - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore + Jun. 22 - Pomona, CA - The Glass House + Jul. 06 - Quebec City, QE - Festival D’Ete Jul. 12 - Minneapolis, MN - Basilica Block Party Jul. 24 - New York, NY - Terminal 5** Jul. 25 - Boston, MA - House of Blues** Jul. 26 - Portland, ME - Port City Music Hall^ Jul. 27 - Newport, RI - Newport Folk Festival Jul. 28 – Montauk, NY – Surf Lodge Jul. 30 - Pittsburgh, PA - Mr. Smalls^ Jul. 31 – Cleveland, OH – Rock and Roll Hall of Fame^ Aug.01 - Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall (Official Lollapalooza After Show) ^ Aug.02 - Chicago, IL - Lollapalooza Aug.03 - Toronto, ON - Danforth Music Hall^ Aug.04 - Montreal, QE - Osheaga Music Festival Aug.24 – Monterey, CA – First City Festival + w/ White Fence ** w/ Wild Nothing ^ W/ Night Moves * w/ Pure Bathing Culture
.png)