Here is an interview I did with the band Miasma & The Carousel Of Headless Horses for Vice Magazine. They feature members of bands like Guapo and the Alabama 3 and they are really good.
Miasma & The Carousel Of Headless Horses
Miasma are genuinely scary. Scary in a goosebumps as soon as you hear them kind of way. They sound like a lost piece from Susperia that Dario Argento thought too terrifying for release being played backwards by King Crimson on repeat forever. Somehow they occasionally get lumped in with the ‘freak-folk’ movement. Probably by people who have never actually listened to them before. They are about as close to Banhart as Comus were to Donovan. I.e.: basically not in the same in the universe. Although they are sort of a supergroup made up of members bands like Guapo and Chrome Hoof the music they make together is pretty much like none of those things. They have an EP available now on Southern’s Latitudes label and a forthcoming full length on Rise Above.
Your music is pretty frightening. What scares you?
Sara: Walking around at night in a dark garden and being alone with your superstitions. That is what I think of when I play.
Daniel: Playing with this band live can be frightening due to the complexity of the material. It is rehearsal-intensive music with a high level of technical rigour. Sometimes though after two or three songs you forget the fear and just play.
Orlando: Positivity and space docking.
You like pretty weird onstage. Do you always dress like that?
Leo: Well…yeah. (it should probably be pointed out here that we are sitting in Negril on Brixton Hill and the Miasma guys are all sitting there eating plantain in their Witchfinder general hats).
Daniel: We aren’t trying to be Slipknot.
Orlando: I just don’t really get the whole corpse-paint thing though. We don’t do that. Those Black Metal guys just look like they are in the Rocky Horror Picture show. We thought about dressing up as white minstrels once and capturing the horror of those old Al Jolson clips but that puts you on slightly dodgy ground I suppose.
You are all pretty strange guys. How did you meet each other and decide that this was the music you wanted to make?
Orlando: I met Daniel at the Horse Hospital in Bloomsbury where all these old queers and failed artists and junkies hang out and drink and we had a similar outlook on life.
Daniel: We don’t all agree on influences either. Apart from maybe Sabbath. We’ve had long and virulent arguments about certain Kate Bush albums. I’m more into the Sensual World era but they don’t really get it.
Monday, 7 May 2007
Rattatat Interview
Here is an interview I did with the band Rattatat for the Vice Web Blog.
Rattatat Interview
Rattatat are these two guys from New York called Evan and Mike who play laptop programmed music with millions of layers of guitars and synths. It sounds like sleazy, robotic, oompah chamber music that’s equal parts Queen and Edwin Collins and makes all the girls go weak at the knees. Especially Kelly Osbourne apparently. If you took it all apart and got real human beings to play their music it would be like one of those Glenn Branca or Rhys Chatham shows with 87 people playing guitars. They used to hang out with people like Paul Banks in New York who got them a support slot on an Interpol tour before they’d even released a record and their new album is modestly entitled ‘Classics’. They also have a bootleg album just out of Hip Hop remixes of tracks by guys like Young Jeezy and Devin Tha Dude. But don’t tell anyone.
You guys look a little the worse for wear if you don’t mind me saying?
Evan: Sorry. We played a show at The Astoria last night. It got a little crazy.
Mike: Yeah we played with CSS and then they took us to this place The End. Durr or something? I don’t know.
Evan: Can you tell these UK promoters to stop giving us Jack Daniels on our rider, that stuff isn’t even whiskey. Its just headache in a bottle. Ugh.
So you’ve gone from playing guitar with Ben Kweller and Dashboard Confessional to making sexy studmuffin albums of your own and remixing Biggie and Young Jeezy. How did that happen?
Mike: The job with Dashboard was just me and it was just that: a job. I was playing in a band on tour with them and they needed a piano player so I took the gig. I did one studio session then Ben poached me. That was more fun but this is what I wanted to do. As soon as we had the opportunity we did this. We met at college and we have been making music together since then.
Evan: The hip hop thing was just something we wanted to do. As well as Queen and this band White Light I really love Timbaland, His production is a real inspiration. The remix thing is just a logical progression of what we do I think. Labels have begun to come to us. We did a remix for the Television Personalities, that was interesting cos I wasn’t too familiar with them apart from like ‘Part Time Punks’. We also did a remix of a track by The Knife. That was weird.
Mike: Yeah the girl sent us this super specific e-mail where she was like: “I want it to sound like this one specific Prince track” and spelled out in the e-mail duh duh duh duh duh duh duh. You know? Like how she wanted it to sound. Weird.
Evan: We heard back from Beanie Siegel and Devin saying that they’d heard the remixes and were into it. That’s nice.
Your music seems highly programmed. Is it not just a case of standing onstage and pressing buttons?
Mike: No not at all. It would be unfeasible to play it all live though. We have a guy called Jacob who plays live keys with us now. And we do live guitars. Lead guitar and lead bass. Haha. Live is always exciting, we’re not jamming out or anything but the live stuff can influences the studio stuff subsequently.
Evan: Yeah, I wanna make more aggressive stuff now. We could maybe do it live as a special one off show in New York or something that would be cool. We have video projections we use too.
Would you cry if your laptop got stolen?
Evan: That would be the worst. We’d probably have to give up music.
Is there anyone out there ripping on the Rattatat sound, any fellow travellers?
Mike: Not really, some people have ripped off our logo font though.
Why call the record ‘Classics’?
Evan: It just sounds funny.
Who is the average Rattatat fan?
Evan: Her (points at elderly lady sipping tea in the ICA café).
Mike: Seems to be a lot of stoner kids in the US.
You seem to always be on the road, do you hate each others guts by this point?
Mike: Nah, we have fun on tour.
Evan: I did get shot in the eye with a pellet gun in Amsterdam. Maybe that was the culmination of tension.
Who would you play with if you could play with anyone?
Evan: A total Hollywood band: Stevan Segal, Russel Crow, Kaenu Reeves.
Mike: And Brian May.
Rattatat Interview
Rattatat are these two guys from New York called Evan and Mike who play laptop programmed music with millions of layers of guitars and synths. It sounds like sleazy, robotic, oompah chamber music that’s equal parts Queen and Edwin Collins and makes all the girls go weak at the knees. Especially Kelly Osbourne apparently. If you took it all apart and got real human beings to play their music it would be like one of those Glenn Branca or Rhys Chatham shows with 87 people playing guitars. They used to hang out with people like Paul Banks in New York who got them a support slot on an Interpol tour before they’d even released a record and their new album is modestly entitled ‘Classics’. They also have a bootleg album just out of Hip Hop remixes of tracks by guys like Young Jeezy and Devin Tha Dude. But don’t tell anyone.
You guys look a little the worse for wear if you don’t mind me saying?
Evan: Sorry. We played a show at The Astoria last night. It got a little crazy.
Mike: Yeah we played with CSS and then they took us to this place The End. Durr or something? I don’t know.
Evan: Can you tell these UK promoters to stop giving us Jack Daniels on our rider, that stuff isn’t even whiskey. Its just headache in a bottle. Ugh.
So you’ve gone from playing guitar with Ben Kweller and Dashboard Confessional to making sexy studmuffin albums of your own and remixing Biggie and Young Jeezy. How did that happen?
Mike: The job with Dashboard was just me and it was just that: a job. I was playing in a band on tour with them and they needed a piano player so I took the gig. I did one studio session then Ben poached me. That was more fun but this is what I wanted to do. As soon as we had the opportunity we did this. We met at college and we have been making music together since then.
Evan: The hip hop thing was just something we wanted to do. As well as Queen and this band White Light I really love Timbaland, His production is a real inspiration. The remix thing is just a logical progression of what we do I think. Labels have begun to come to us. We did a remix for the Television Personalities, that was interesting cos I wasn’t too familiar with them apart from like ‘Part Time Punks’. We also did a remix of a track by The Knife. That was weird.
Mike: Yeah the girl sent us this super specific e-mail where she was like: “I want it to sound like this one specific Prince track” and spelled out in the e-mail duh duh duh duh duh duh duh. You know? Like how she wanted it to sound. Weird.
Evan: We heard back from Beanie Siegel and Devin saying that they’d heard the remixes and were into it. That’s nice.
Your music seems highly programmed. Is it not just a case of standing onstage and pressing buttons?
Mike: No not at all. It would be unfeasible to play it all live though. We have a guy called Jacob who plays live keys with us now. And we do live guitars. Lead guitar and lead bass. Haha. Live is always exciting, we’re not jamming out or anything but the live stuff can influences the studio stuff subsequently.
Evan: Yeah, I wanna make more aggressive stuff now. We could maybe do it live as a special one off show in New York or something that would be cool. We have video projections we use too.
Would you cry if your laptop got stolen?
Evan: That would be the worst. We’d probably have to give up music.
Is there anyone out there ripping on the Rattatat sound, any fellow travellers?
Mike: Not really, some people have ripped off our logo font though.
Why call the record ‘Classics’?
Evan: It just sounds funny.
Who is the average Rattatat fan?
Evan: Her (points at elderly lady sipping tea in the ICA café).
Mike: Seems to be a lot of stoner kids in the US.
You seem to always be on the road, do you hate each others guts by this point?
Mike: Nah, we have fun on tour.
Evan: I did get shot in the eye with a pellet gun in Amsterdam. Maybe that was the culmination of tension.
Who would you play with if you could play with anyone?
Evan: A total Hollywood band: Stevan Segal, Russel Crow, Kaenu Reeves.
Mike: And Brian May.
No Age Interview
Here is an interview I did with No Age for Vice Magazine.
No Age Interview.
No Age are these two guys who were in this band Wives that used to have fights on stage the whole time and do backflips into drum kits and stuff like that. You know. Now they play this cool twist on post-hardcore with all these mad build up’s and break downs that is pretty amazing live. Dean the drummer guy is so good at yelling into microphones that Wrangler Brutes got him in to sing for their final US show. For those of you that don’t know what I’m talking about this is like a kid who is really into football being asked to fill in for Ronaldo up front. Or something. I know fuck all about football.
So were you snotty little LA punk kids when were you were younger?
Randy: I wasn’t a punk kid at all, I played basketball and had more of a mid 90’s Philadelphia hip-hop thing going on. I was into Boyz II Men.
Dean: I went through that phase also, I had a ridiculous haircut, this fake high top fade that made my head look like a giant penis cos it had this centre parting. I was also inspired by Kriss Kross to wear my pants back to front. I went to the drive-in theatre with my folks with these backwards ankle length shorts on and really needed to go. It wasn’t easy.
Randy: He was the one that introduced me to punk rock though. We just used to jam in high school, do Living Colour covers and shit. I used to have to get the tablature to play the parts. It was pretty embarrassing.
So what’s with the name? Do you have aspirations of musical timelessness or is it just lifted from the SST compilation?
Dean: Yeah we took it from the comp. It’s this late 80’s compilation of SST guys doing instrumental stuff like The Process Of Weeding Out era Black Flag stuff but a lot if it is actually pretty crap. The name sounds good though and it seemed almost like the most punk thing to do releasing all this instrumental shit, like a big fuck you to any sense of expectation.
Randy: What we are trying to do with No Age is totally different to Wives where the mission was just to destroy stuff. With this we are trying to build something.
Dean: Yeah, with Wives it was the bull in a china shop thing, just get in the room and fuck everything up. This has an equal energy but it’s focused differently. It is more calculated, I can’t get all wasted and do backflips and shit.
You never played drums before this, how come you feel ready to play drums and sing now?
Dean: I just felt that I knew how I wanted the drums to sound in this band. Plus I’m actually pretty good you know! Also I always had this weird Husker Du fantasy where I wanted to be like Grant Hart and sing and play drums at once.
Sure it wasn’t a Phil Collins thing?
Positive.
No Age Interview.
No Age are these two guys who were in this band Wives that used to have fights on stage the whole time and do backflips into drum kits and stuff like that. You know. Now they play this cool twist on post-hardcore with all these mad build up’s and break downs that is pretty amazing live. Dean the drummer guy is so good at yelling into microphones that Wrangler Brutes got him in to sing for their final US show. For those of you that don’t know what I’m talking about this is like a kid who is really into football being asked to fill in for Ronaldo up front. Or something. I know fuck all about football.
So were you snotty little LA punk kids when were you were younger?
Randy: I wasn’t a punk kid at all, I played basketball and had more of a mid 90’s Philadelphia hip-hop thing going on. I was into Boyz II Men.
Dean: I went through that phase also, I had a ridiculous haircut, this fake high top fade that made my head look like a giant penis cos it had this centre parting. I was also inspired by Kriss Kross to wear my pants back to front. I went to the drive-in theatre with my folks with these backwards ankle length shorts on and really needed to go. It wasn’t easy.
Randy: He was the one that introduced me to punk rock though. We just used to jam in high school, do Living Colour covers and shit. I used to have to get the tablature to play the parts. It was pretty embarrassing.
So what’s with the name? Do you have aspirations of musical timelessness or is it just lifted from the SST compilation?
Dean: Yeah we took it from the comp. It’s this late 80’s compilation of SST guys doing instrumental stuff like The Process Of Weeding Out era Black Flag stuff but a lot if it is actually pretty crap. The name sounds good though and it seemed almost like the most punk thing to do releasing all this instrumental shit, like a big fuck you to any sense of expectation.
Randy: What we are trying to do with No Age is totally different to Wives where the mission was just to destroy stuff. With this we are trying to build something.
Dean: Yeah, with Wives it was the bull in a china shop thing, just get in the room and fuck everything up. This has an equal energy but it’s focused differently. It is more calculated, I can’t get all wasted and do backflips and shit.
You never played drums before this, how come you feel ready to play drums and sing now?
Dean: I just felt that I knew how I wanted the drums to sound in this band. Plus I’m actually pretty good you know! Also I always had this weird Husker Du fantasy where I wanted to be like Grant Hart and sing and play drums at once.
Sure it wasn’t a Phil Collins thing?
Positive.
Saturday, 21 April 2007
Chromeo Press Release
‘Fancy Footwork’
Monday 21st May
Hey there,
If you are reading this it’s because you are someone that matters. Well done.
Remember Chromeo? They did that Needy Girl record Thought you’d remember… Dicovered by Tiga and loved by everyone from Whitey to Philip Zdar to the DFA, ‘Fancy Footwork’ is a reminder of the pure joy at the center of a Chromeo record. They are still doing their thing: fusing 80’s Mineapolis funk, Rick James, Hall and Oates and Hip Hop but this time the mainstream has caught up with it being OK for indie and dance to make out. Back Yard Recordings, home of The Gossip, is putting out this limited 10” and their second album in July. With contrinutions from Tomas Barfod (Get Phsical/WhoMadeWho), Guns ‘N’ Bombs (Kitsune), Surkin (Institubes) and D.I.M. this is basically shaping up to be the record of the year already. If that line-up sounds heavy on the Parisian cross-over, remember that Dave 1 is finishing his PhD in French Literature in Paris right now and Chromeo are pushing buttons there. For those still wondering what their whole deal is and whether it was all just a clever-clever parody, relax and just enjoy Chromeo’s C Funk this time round. Trust us…
www.myspace.com/chromeo
www.back-yard.co.uk
National Press: Seb Burford : email seb@six07press.com or call 020 7428 0933
Monday 21st May
Hey there,
If you are reading this it’s because you are someone that matters. Well done.
Remember Chromeo? They did that Needy Girl record Thought you’d remember… Dicovered by Tiga and loved by everyone from Whitey to Philip Zdar to the DFA, ‘Fancy Footwork’ is a reminder of the pure joy at the center of a Chromeo record. They are still doing their thing: fusing 80’s Mineapolis funk, Rick James, Hall and Oates and Hip Hop but this time the mainstream has caught up with it being OK for indie and dance to make out. Back Yard Recordings, home of The Gossip, is putting out this limited 10” and their second album in July. With contrinutions from Tomas Barfod (Get Phsical/WhoMadeWho), Guns ‘N’ Bombs (Kitsune), Surkin (Institubes) and D.I.M. this is basically shaping up to be the record of the year already. If that line-up sounds heavy on the Parisian cross-over, remember that Dave 1 is finishing his PhD in French Literature in Paris right now and Chromeo are pushing buttons there. For those still wondering what their whole deal is and whether it was all just a clever-clever parody, relax and just enjoy Chromeo’s C Funk this time round. Trust us…
www.myspace.com/chromeo
www.back-yard.co.uk
National Press: Seb Burford : email seb@six07press.com or call 020 7428 0933
Black Lips Press Release
NEW SINGLE – ‘COLD HANDS’
RELEASED ON VICE RECORDS – MONDAY 4TH JUNE 2007
The Black Lips are back! Their new single released on Monday
4th June 2007 is their second for Vice Records and follows their sold-out debut ‘Not A Problem’ / ‘Dirty Hands’. It will feature: ‘Cold Hands’ and is released as two seven inch singles and a digital download backed with ‘My Struggle’ and live classic ‘Hippie Hippie Hoorah’ (recorded live in Tijuana).
Did you see them last time they were over? If you did you’ll know that their live show involves three front men singing lead, flying blood, group kissing, sudden nudity and sometimes fireworks explosions. If you didn’t then time to pull your finger out of your ass and get wise. They hit the UK running after playing a handful of packed dates in March and ten (yeah TEN shows) at SXSW where the New York Times called the the hardest working band in Texas. A new album is set for release on Vice Records in September.
The Black Lips are: Cole Alexander - Vocals & Guitar, Joe Bradley - Vocals & Drums, Jared Swilley - Vocals & Bass and Ian St. Pe – Guitar
RELEASED ON VICE RECORDS – MONDAY 4TH JUNE 2007
The Black Lips are back! Their new single released on Monday
4th June 2007 is their second for Vice Records and follows their sold-out debut ‘Not A Problem’ / ‘Dirty Hands’. It will feature: ‘Cold Hands’ and is released as two seven inch singles and a digital download backed with ‘My Struggle’ and live classic ‘Hippie Hippie Hoorah’ (recorded live in Tijuana).
Did you see them last time they were over? If you did you’ll know that their live show involves three front men singing lead, flying blood, group kissing, sudden nudity and sometimes fireworks explosions. If you didn’t then time to pull your finger out of your ass and get wise. They hit the UK running after playing a handful of packed dates in March and ten (yeah TEN shows) at SXSW where the New York Times called the the hardest working band in Texas. A new album is set for release on Vice Records in September.
The Black Lips are: Cole Alexander - Vocals & Guitar, Joe Bradley - Vocals & Drums, Jared Swilley - Vocals & Bass and Ian St. Pe – Guitar
Viceland.com April Blog Posts
Visa takes life?
Visas sure can be a pain in the ass eh? All that queueing and waiting and form filling and that’s just to go and sit on a beach somewhere and stare at sunburned boobs for a few days.
If you’re in a band a Visa becomes a whole different life or death deal. Without one you can’t legitimately perform and if you do choose to play without the correct Visa you risk deportation and future barring from the border of that country. Not so cool.
As if to rub salt in these gaping irritants, last week the Home Office decided to inexplicably raise Visa prices to literally unfeasible levels unless your band is on a major or are willing to go all Midnight Cowboy on the side or something. Each act no matter the number of members needs to purchase a straight Work Permit which now costs £190 as opposed to £155. That doesn’t seem so bad but the real kick in the balls is the Work Permit Visa which is up from £85 to £200 PER BAND MEMBER! So if you’re in a 4 piece you’re looking at £2,000 just to be able to plug in before you even start thinking about flights, transport, and accommodation. Broken Social Scene must be shitting themselves…
So it goes-R.I.P Kurt Vonnegut
And so another American hero passes. Vonnegut’s brave, time-skewed, masterpiece, Slaughterhouse Five, has been one of the defining texts of the last half century. His tale of the life of Billy Pilgrim was based on his own experiences being captured behind enemy lines in Dresden fighting for his country in WWII. While imprisoned in the abbatoir of the novel’s title he witnessed first hand the firebombing of Dresden and was forced to aid the Nazi’s in disposing of the dead in mass graves and watch while bodies were incinerated with flame-throwers. His work incorporated elements of his own experience with science fiction and post-modern techniques such as his appearance within his own fiction that dudes like Martin Amis steal to this day. He will be missed.
Record Collectors Are Pretentious Assholes.
So sang Poison Idea. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m into records as much as the next geeky dude who gets excited about a rainbow-splatter Bathtub Shitter lathe cut 5” that’s limited to 3 copies worldwide (I just made that record up but how cool would that be eh?). Sometimes however things get just a little crazy in the weird world of vinyl obsessives.
So, I got an e-mail earlier from a wonderful West-Coast mail order record shop letting me know that as a valued, regular customer I could put in an advanced order for one of the copies of the new version of Altar, the Sunn O))/Boris collaboration, that they may or may not be getting in soon.
Ok, pre-ordering something that’s going to be popular is not all that weird. What is pretty off the wall is that this is (at my most conservative estimate) the 5th version of this record to be released in under a year. I couldn’t help but cackle thinking that the kind of people that would buy this Japanese-only triple-vinyl pack with new O’Malley and Fangsatan (Atsuo from Boris to his ma) artwork and a new track featuring Drone’s comeback cover boy Dylan Carlson would most likely own ALL of those other versions.
Before you ask this re-re-re-re-re-release is limited to 1000 worldwide so it obviously sold out on pre-order. Duh, what did you expect? The words ‘limited’, ‘O’Malley’ and ‘Japan-only’ are like tantalising rocks just out of reach of a fiending crack-head for these guys.
Have I mentioned yet that these records are selling at $140 EACH? So these cats look to be bringing in $140,000 selling dudes something they already own. It’s like that bit in Lock Stock where they try and sell Rory Breaker’s own skunk back to him at twice it’s worth. Except this record won’t get you stoned. Maybe Poison Idea were right after all.
It’s Alright Ma I’m Only Touring
This week Bob Dylan came to the UK. I’m a little obsessed with Bob so I went to 4 out of the 5 UK shows. Newcastle wasn’t too far, I just didn’t like the idea of going to Newcastle. Here’s a video of Bob in Sheffield playing Like A Rolling Stone and looking sort of like a dancing nat in a hat while he air humps his keyboard. I could go see him play every night forever, look at him dancing! In fact I actually could go see him every night forever. Since 1988 Bob has been on what he refuses to call The Never Ending Tour (geeks like me refer to it as the NET, I have over 1000 bootlegged live recordings of NET shows) in which he plays 100-150 shows a year, every year. Every night he wheels out a different set-list and refuses to play enormo-domes like the Stones or McCartney who are basically playing to pay for hip operations and alimony or whatever you do when people have just said ‘yes’ to you for so long that your brain’s turned into putty. While all these other faded caricatures wheel out the hits every four years Bob’s still on the road heading for another joint and re-interpreting his art instead of massacring it. Not bad for a dude hitting 67 next month.
Visas sure can be a pain in the ass eh? All that queueing and waiting and form filling and that’s just to go and sit on a beach somewhere and stare at sunburned boobs for a few days.
If you’re in a band a Visa becomes a whole different life or death deal. Without one you can’t legitimately perform and if you do choose to play without the correct Visa you risk deportation and future barring from the border of that country. Not so cool.
As if to rub salt in these gaping irritants, last week the Home Office decided to inexplicably raise Visa prices to literally unfeasible levels unless your band is on a major or are willing to go all Midnight Cowboy on the side or something. Each act no matter the number of members needs to purchase a straight Work Permit which now costs £190 as opposed to £155. That doesn’t seem so bad but the real kick in the balls is the Work Permit Visa which is up from £85 to £200 PER BAND MEMBER! So if you’re in a 4 piece you’re looking at £2,000 just to be able to plug in before you even start thinking about flights, transport, and accommodation. Broken Social Scene must be shitting themselves…
So it goes-R.I.P Kurt Vonnegut
And so another American hero passes. Vonnegut’s brave, time-skewed, masterpiece, Slaughterhouse Five, has been one of the defining texts of the last half century. His tale of the life of Billy Pilgrim was based on his own experiences being captured behind enemy lines in Dresden fighting for his country in WWII. While imprisoned in the abbatoir of the novel’s title he witnessed first hand the firebombing of Dresden and was forced to aid the Nazi’s in disposing of the dead in mass graves and watch while bodies were incinerated with flame-throwers. His work incorporated elements of his own experience with science fiction and post-modern techniques such as his appearance within his own fiction that dudes like Martin Amis steal to this day. He will be missed.
Record Collectors Are Pretentious Assholes.
So sang Poison Idea. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m into records as much as the next geeky dude who gets excited about a rainbow-splatter Bathtub Shitter lathe cut 5” that’s limited to 3 copies worldwide (I just made that record up but how cool would that be eh?). Sometimes however things get just a little crazy in the weird world of vinyl obsessives.
So, I got an e-mail earlier from a wonderful West-Coast mail order record shop letting me know that as a valued, regular customer I could put in an advanced order for one of the copies of the new version of Altar, the Sunn O))/Boris collaboration, that they may or may not be getting in soon.
Ok, pre-ordering something that’s going to be popular is not all that weird. What is pretty off the wall is that this is (at my most conservative estimate) the 5th version of this record to be released in under a year. I couldn’t help but cackle thinking that the kind of people that would buy this Japanese-only triple-vinyl pack with new O’Malley and Fangsatan (Atsuo from Boris to his ma) artwork and a new track featuring Drone’s comeback cover boy Dylan Carlson would most likely own ALL of those other versions.
Before you ask this re-re-re-re-re-release is limited to 1000 worldwide so it obviously sold out on pre-order. Duh, what did you expect? The words ‘limited’, ‘O’Malley’ and ‘Japan-only’ are like tantalising rocks just out of reach of a fiending crack-head for these guys.
Have I mentioned yet that these records are selling at $140 EACH? So these cats look to be bringing in $140,000 selling dudes something they already own. It’s like that bit in Lock Stock where they try and sell Rory Breaker’s own skunk back to him at twice it’s worth. Except this record won’t get you stoned. Maybe Poison Idea were right after all.
It’s Alright Ma I’m Only Touring
This week Bob Dylan came to the UK. I’m a little obsessed with Bob so I went to 4 out of the 5 UK shows. Newcastle wasn’t too far, I just didn’t like the idea of going to Newcastle. Here’s a video of Bob in Sheffield playing Like A Rolling Stone and looking sort of like a dancing nat in a hat while he air humps his keyboard. I could go see him play every night forever, look at him dancing! In fact I actually could go see him every night forever. Since 1988 Bob has been on what he refuses to call The Never Ending Tour (geeks like me refer to it as the NET, I have over 1000 bootlegged live recordings of NET shows) in which he plays 100-150 shows a year, every year. Every night he wheels out a different set-list and refuses to play enormo-domes like the Stones or McCartney who are basically playing to pay for hip operations and alimony or whatever you do when people have just said ‘yes’ to you for so long that your brain’s turned into putty. While all these other faded caricatures wheel out the hits every four years Bob’s still on the road heading for another joint and re-interpreting his art instead of massacring it. Not bad for a dude hitting 67 next month.
The Cribs Vice Interview
The Cribs are three brothers from Wakefield who have been playing their punky indie for a good while now and with each record they seem to get a little more popular but have never had the breakout success of bands like their mates the Kaiser Chiefs. This is a shame because their melodic hooks are a total joy and they have played our parties before and the shows always end in beer soaked, bloody carnage. Ryan impaled himself on a Pint Glass at the NME award last year but he’s over talking about that so we left it. They have a new record out next month that they did in America with Alex from Franz Ferdinand and just did a club tour where there were as many kids queuing outside the venues as there were inside.
So how was recording the new album with Alex Kapranos? Was it like being locked in the studio with your dad? Isn’t he like 56 or something?
Gary: Nah man, fuck that, he’s cool as fuck.
Ryan: Trust me, he gets crazy. He once ate a squid tentacle and puked on us.
That is pretty crazy. What was it like playing stadiums with Franz in America? Must have been pretty different to coming up in Wakey?
Gary: Wakefield was totally dire, dead boring, there was one bar and it was known that you could get in when you were 14. That was the only place to go. You just had to be a member; you could go in any time of day, in your school uniform, whatever, as long as you were a member that was that.
Ryan: We used to play in peoples houses, squats, there were sort of diy-promoters that would put on non-profit gigs and bring bands into the area but until The Cribs and Ladyfest and a night called Strangeways in 2002 it was total ghost town man.
What about Leeds? That was just down the way…
Ryan: Leeds was down the road but it was dominated by horrible promoters and shit indeed bands who were only worried about being technically good and having expensive amps and getting signed. We just did our own thing like playing in living rooms and kitchens, we aren’t trying to sound indier than thou or nowt but that’s how we came up and with the way things are now bands just don’t have that.
Anyone in particular you talking abut here?
Gary: Look man, we aren’t gonna name names and start slagging other bands off but it all just seems so fucking disposable. Bands are getting signed to majors before they’ve even put a single out and it’s just like some production-line, quick-fix culture. None of these bands that are out at the moment have any scope for longevity.
Ross (while Gary and Ryan have been happily riling against the world over their beers Ross has been quietly sipping Coke and avoiding eye-contact and generally seeming like a lovely fellow but suddenly pipes up with this): All those bands just seem fucking pointless to me mate.
Ryan: People now are starting bands as vanity projects just to get signed to a major. If you go from Myspace to a major you are basically signing up to get money shoved up your arse, get exploited for all your worth and then get dropped. That’s what they seem to want though, get exploited to get famous rather wanting to build something creative that will last. The whole culture of indie celebrity makes me sick, being a punk should mean you hate celebrity. We were approached pre-first record by majors but we knew we wanted to just build it in a grass-roots way. We are about to release our third record and all that time we’ve just been growing a fanbase organically. We are a punk-rock band at heart and that spirit just doesn’t seem to be around at the moment.
But you just did stadiums in the US and licensed a song to an advert in Canada. That doesn’t seem so punk…
Gary: First up we knew fuck all about that ad and whatever money our US label made on that sure aint in my back pocket. It was for some company called Telus. Maybe ‘Telus’ should of ‘told us’ about it. Ha ha.
That was a really bad joke.
Gary: Sorry. But anyway, that company used Belle & Sebastian and Daft Punk in their other ads so we are selling our souls in good company!
Ryan: I think Bill Hicks said if you do an ad you are off the artistic roll call so that’s a shame but in terms of the whole venue thing we’ve actually just come off a tour doing 200 capacity clubs. Getting back to how we started.
How was that?
Gray: We were a bit naïve. There were too many kids. Tonnes outside. Venues too full. The Water Rats show in London was insane (footage below).
Have Cribs ever been asked to do Cribs?
Ryan: Nah mate, who wants to see my place in Wakefield?
So how was recording the new album with Alex Kapranos? Was it like being locked in the studio with your dad? Isn’t he like 56 or something?
Gary: Nah man, fuck that, he’s cool as fuck.
Ryan: Trust me, he gets crazy. He once ate a squid tentacle and puked on us.
That is pretty crazy. What was it like playing stadiums with Franz in America? Must have been pretty different to coming up in Wakey?
Gary: Wakefield was totally dire, dead boring, there was one bar and it was known that you could get in when you were 14. That was the only place to go. You just had to be a member; you could go in any time of day, in your school uniform, whatever, as long as you were a member that was that.
Ryan: We used to play in peoples houses, squats, there were sort of diy-promoters that would put on non-profit gigs and bring bands into the area but until The Cribs and Ladyfest and a night called Strangeways in 2002 it was total ghost town man.
What about Leeds? That was just down the way…
Ryan: Leeds was down the road but it was dominated by horrible promoters and shit indeed bands who were only worried about being technically good and having expensive amps and getting signed. We just did our own thing like playing in living rooms and kitchens, we aren’t trying to sound indier than thou or nowt but that’s how we came up and with the way things are now bands just don’t have that.
Anyone in particular you talking abut here?
Gary: Look man, we aren’t gonna name names and start slagging other bands off but it all just seems so fucking disposable. Bands are getting signed to majors before they’ve even put a single out and it’s just like some production-line, quick-fix culture. None of these bands that are out at the moment have any scope for longevity.
Ross (while Gary and Ryan have been happily riling against the world over their beers Ross has been quietly sipping Coke and avoiding eye-contact and generally seeming like a lovely fellow but suddenly pipes up with this): All those bands just seem fucking pointless to me mate.
Ryan: People now are starting bands as vanity projects just to get signed to a major. If you go from Myspace to a major you are basically signing up to get money shoved up your arse, get exploited for all your worth and then get dropped. That’s what they seem to want though, get exploited to get famous rather wanting to build something creative that will last. The whole culture of indie celebrity makes me sick, being a punk should mean you hate celebrity. We were approached pre-first record by majors but we knew we wanted to just build it in a grass-roots way. We are about to release our third record and all that time we’ve just been growing a fanbase organically. We are a punk-rock band at heart and that spirit just doesn’t seem to be around at the moment.
But you just did stadiums in the US and licensed a song to an advert in Canada. That doesn’t seem so punk…
Gary: First up we knew fuck all about that ad and whatever money our US label made on that sure aint in my back pocket. It was for some company called Telus. Maybe ‘Telus’ should of ‘told us’ about it. Ha ha.
That was a really bad joke.
Gary: Sorry. But anyway, that company used Belle & Sebastian and Daft Punk in their other ads so we are selling our souls in good company!
Ryan: I think Bill Hicks said if you do an ad you are off the artistic roll call so that’s a shame but in terms of the whole venue thing we’ve actually just come off a tour doing 200 capacity clubs. Getting back to how we started.
How was that?
Gray: We were a bit naïve. There were too many kids. Tonnes outside. Venues too full. The Water Rats show in London was insane (footage below).
Have Cribs ever been asked to do Cribs?
Ryan: Nah mate, who wants to see my place in Wakefield?
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