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the deli
everything about the nyc music scene
FREE in NYC
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Features
Surfin’ NYC
~A New Wave of Surf Rock~
For Earth / Only Son / Rubblebucket
+ Guitar Pedals, Mics & Audio Plug-Ins News
www.thedelimagazine.com
Alex Winston Figo Radical Dads rubblebucket
Ravens & Chimes shake the baron Only Son
Yellow Ostrich Sam Amidon devin therriault
ava luna Mister Melt American Darlings Yellowbirds
High Highs The Hollows The Yes Way The Nico Blues
Caveman
+ Hooray
Issue #27 Volume #2 Summer 2011
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the deli
everything about the nyc music scene
Issue #27 Volume #2 Summer 2011
Note from the Editor
Deli readers,
In the good old Myspace days, the truly original bands were
the ones that did NOT pick funny, nonsensical genres to
describe their music (Hyphy, anybody?)
p.19
p.17
Caveman
On The
Web
Surfin’ NYC
~A New Wave of Surf Rock~
interviews with nyc bands
nyc.thedelimagazine.com
Photo: Shervin Lainez
I’m aware that many bands hate to be categorized in genres
— I was in a band too, no artist likes to be “boxed in.” But I
believe this is a necessary evil - and a kind of fun and entertaining evil for that matter. Music is such an abstract art form
that any single word which can express a combination of
musical concepts is more than welcome. Also, as I’m personally dealing with hundreds of bands every week, categorizing
has its advantages — it keeps things tidy and aides memory.
Of course, a word can’t describe the complexity of a band’s
repertoire, but the blurbs or reviews are there for that purpose, and that’s really the most important piece of information
most music fans are interested in knowing, in particular when
they are reading about emerging artists they don’t know.
Besides, visual arts are also organized in currents, movements and waves, so this issue is not specific to pop music.
This is just to say that many artists — when categorized by
music writers — should understand that they are just making an effort to promote their music to the kind of audience
who can appreciate it.
Paolo De Gregorio
Editor In Chief: Paolo De Gregorio
Founder: Charles Newman
Executive Editor: Ed Gross
Art Director: Kaz Yabe (www.kazyabe.com)
Cover Photo: Kate Edwards (www.kateedwardsphotography.com)
Senior Designer: Ursula Viglietta (www.ursulaviglietta.com)
Graphic/Photo Sssistants: Kelly McDonough, Rebecca Cesa
Web Developers: Mark Lewis, Alex Borsody
Staff Writers: Bill Dvorak, Nancy Chow, Kenneth Partridge,
Lauren Piper, Dean Van Nguyen, Mike SOS, Meijin Bruttomesso,
Dave Cromwell, Quang D. Tran, Ben Krieger
In-House Contributing Writers: Charlie Davis, Simon Heggie,
Christina Morelli, BrokeMC, Gina Alioto, Whitney Phaneuf,
Katie Bennett, Leah Tribbett, Alex Borsody, Mike Levine, Paul Dunn,
Michele McManmon, Vann Alexandra, Jason Bertone, Allison Levin
The Kitchen: Janice Brown, David Weiss, Mike Bauer,
Ben Wigler, Shane O’Connor, Matt Rocker, Justin Colletti
Interns: Caitlin Clive, Madison Silvers
Publishers: The Deli Magazine LLC / Mother West, NYC
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The Deli Magazine is a trademark of The Deli Magazine, LLC, Brooklyn &
Mother West, NYC. All contents ©2011 The Deli Magazine. All rights reserved.
Only Son
A
fter sitting down with Only Son’s Jack Dishel for a few hours and learning a
bit about how he operates, it seems a bit ironic to forward him the Delicious Audio questions about the recording process. Dishel is not a musical
magician in the strictness sense, but in the song, “Magic,” he is pretty clear: even
if you know how he recorded that guitar, what preamps he used, how he miked the
drums, and his relationship with his mom, you’ll never be able to assemble his soul.
Only Son’s second and latest record is Searchlight. The band is just the latest chapter in Dishel’s rich artistic history that includes notoriety as a teenage underground
graffiti celebrity, time spent as a guitarist for the Moldy Peaches, and success fronting a previous solo project, Stipplicon. Most recently, he’s ventured into standup
comedy. These activities further emphasize the point that it’s impossible (and
undesirable) to try and pin this songwriter down simply by listening to the music (at
least not before you search MySpace for his hip-hop project, Jack Beats Bruno).
Only Son’s music holds up beautifully on its own and the ever-growing collection of
DIY music videos on the band’s website expands the picture with a healthy dose of
humor, but the band is just one aspect of this highly creative artist.
Read Ben Krieger’s article on Only Son at:
www.thedelimagazine.com/artists/onlyson
“W
Rubblebucket
e actually met our
trombone player,
Adam, at a marching
band parade gig in Boston,”
laughs Kalmia Traver, Rubblebucket’s lead singer and multiinstrumentalist. This barmy recruitment policy reflects the ethos
of the eclectic eight piece group,
who have brought their members
together from all parts of the
musical spectrum. Each, however,
work towards a common goal:
creating great pop music.
Photo: Peter Dean Rickards
Having cut their teeth in various
bands, both together and apart,
Kal and long-time creative partner Alex Toth now form the nucleus of the group.
The duo have been collaborating for eight years now. Having first met at the
University of Vermont, they began touring and recording together in bands of all
shapes and sizes. A super-group, of sorts, Alex decided to create Rubblebucket
by approaching musicians he considered to be the best he had worked with. “Alex
is really good at making things happen and when he had the idea for Rubblebucket he started pulling together the best musicians he knew,” says Kal.
Read Dean Van Nguyen’s article on Rubblebucket at:
www.thedelimagazine.com/artists/rubblebucket
soundbites
Photo: Nick Dorey
indie pop
Bird of Youth
By Jason Bertone
A
tlanta-native Beth Wawerna had long
been a respected journalist known for
her keen ear and impeccable taste, but
little did her readers (or subjects for that matter) know she had something else cooking.
Working under the name Bird Of Youth, she
has released “Defender” The band combines
the guitar-driven pop sounds of ’90s rock
with clever lyrics and authoritative delivery.
Were you always writing music on the side,
or did songwriting come later?
Sometimes I think of my journalism career
and my music career as a kind of relay race.
Journalism came first — and then when I felt I’d
gone as far as I wanted to go as a music journalist, the baton was handed off.
What Music were you exposed to growing up
in Atlanta?
When I was 13-14-15 years old, I would rummage through boxes of my brother’s old LPs
and that’s how I discovered things like R.E.M.,
Pylon, The Pixies, NRBQ, Elvis Costello and
The Replacements. I was still a teenager in
the 90s and so I was also listening to stuff like
The Cure, Jane’s Addiction, Nirvana, Nine Inch
Nails. So I sort of led a musical double life.
Full interview: www.thedelimagazine.com
/artists/birdofyouth
Alex Winston
By Mike Levine
Alex Winston
Bird of Youth
RIYL: Azure Ray, Ok
kervil River, Neko Ca
se
both of these influences into your work?
I’d say absolutely with Folk. With Opera it’s a
bit different. I started taking lessons when I was
ten years old and I guess I fell into it by default.
If opera has influenced my music, it’s been on
more of a subconscious level.
You’ve used some really unique sounds in a
lot of your recordings.
I think a lot of it was trial and error. I do a lot of
writing on Garageband before I go in to the studio, and I mess around with most of the sounds
at that point.
/artists/alexwinston
A
Ava Luna
You have a history of singing opera as well
as listening to folk music. Have you brought
va Luna draw from ’60s doo-wop but
spruce it up with touches from current
indie luminaries like Dirty Projectors.
Carlos Hernandez leads with his soulful,
affected croon with a trio of female singers
supporting with gorgeous vocal harmonies.
The instrumentation is sparse — complex
beats accompanied by light synths and bass
— but intricate and deliberate, allowing the
voices to take the reins and guide listeners
nother of Kate Bush’s disciples making good on her education. At 21
years old, Alex Winston has already
been featured in a Hyundai commercial,
toured the world and released a couple of
critically acclaimed recordings. With this
year’s beat-driven EP “Sister Wife (Heavy
Roc)” out, Winston is exploring very different territory from her past two releases.
She’s come a long way in a short time, and
it’ll be fun to keep an ear to this artist and
see what happens next.
RIYL: Kate Bush, Joanna Newsom,
Regina Spektor
By Nancy Chow
A
Ava Luna
RIYL: Dirty Projectors, Joe Jackson, The The
through a matchless music experience.
How did you assemble Ava Luna? How did
you find people that harmonize so well?
I consider everyone in the band to be an
old, old friend. We either went to high school
together or hung out in college, playing in weird
bands for years. Anyone can harmonize, all you
need is practice, practice, practice.
You recorded the “Services” EP in the basement of a Korean Methodist church.
It’s an amazing place, isolated, very magical,
“spirits roam there,” etc., etc. And good pizza
is close by.
/artists/avaluna
Production Corner
Parallel Processing on Vocals
Waves
Aphex Vintage Aural Exciter Plug-in
Waves’s plug-in recreation of the Aphex
Aural Exciter.
By Justin Colletti
Back in the 1960s, Motown engineers Mike McClean and
Lawrence Horn were using a technique on vocals that they
called “Exciting Compression.”
Simply put, a vocal track would be duplicated through a
console; one instance of that vocal would be treated with
typical EQ, compression and reverb, and the other would
be squashed and then brightened considerably with heavyhanded hi-shelf EQ.
A decade later, Curt Knoppel would design
the first Aphex Aural Exciter, a box whose
basic function would owe much of its
heritage to this tactic.
In addition to parallel compression, parallel
distortion is a common trick for vocals.
Often, applying distortion directly to a
lead vocal can leave the track sounding
thin, harsh, undecipherable and overprocessed. Add some distortion to it in
parallel however, and your have a gritty
vocal that maintains much of its original
body and natural growl.
Indie P
op
Top 20
The Deli’s
Web Buzz Charts
Ravens & Chimes
Fire,
RIYL: Fanfarlo, Arcade
e
tag
van
Ad
erta
Rural Alb
Ravens & Chimes
By Nancy Chow
R
avens & Chimes emerged as the winner of latest year end
readers poll. There’s no mystery why; the talented quintet
is New York’s answer to 2011’s big Grammy winner, Arcade
Fire. The spirited vocals and baroque instrumentation hearken
comparisons to the band’s Canadian counterpart, but Ravens
& Chimes don’t need the coordinated outfits and an expansive
troupe of musicians to grab people’s attention. Even the band’s
most subtle songs are as enthralling as the epic, ornate tunes.
How does it feel to win this year’s readers’ poll?
It’s pretty fantastic to see our fans come out and support us like that.
There’s nothing like getting a message that someone has heard what
you’re doing and appreciates it.
Was your approach to “Holiday Life” different than the way you tackled the songwriting in “Reichenbach Falls”?
With “Holiday Life,” the writing took a long time to come but happened
very quickly once it started. We scheduled the recording sessions right
after we finished touring the first album, but I had really bad writer’s block,
so we ended up recording some older songs I had already written. We
had basically gotten to a point where some of the members didn’t want
to do it any more but didn’t know how to walk away. It was hard to face
finishing new songs in that kind of environment. We took a bit of time
1. Cults
2. The Drums
3. Beirut
4. Sufjan Stevens
5. Rufus Wainwrigh
t
6. Broken Bells
7. Ra Ra Riot
8. MGMT
9. Vampire Weeke
nd
10. Oh Land
11. Islands
12. Caveman
13. Freelance Whale
s
14. Class Actress
15. Darwin Deez
16. Santigold
17. Beach Fossils
18. Lenka
19. The Virgins
20. Keren Ann
Check out our
self-generating
online charts her
e:
www.thedelimag
azine.com/chart
s
off and sorted out what doing the band meant to us, and everyone who
decided to come back was really happy to just sit down and do music
again. Having that support in place made it possible to bring in new
songs and get them where they needed to be. I ended up writing the bulk
of the record over the course of two or three months, which is very fast
for me. Then we went and recorded what we had.
Your song “Carousel,” which will be on “Holiday Life,” was on the show
“Skins.” What was it like to see your music used in a television show?
The funny thing about “Carousel” is that the song was floating around in
my head half-finished when our old label asked us for a song to submit
to the “Twilight 3” soundtrack. We rushed to do a demo of it, but I don’t
think we even submitted it on time.
Then when it was fully recorded, it got licensed to “Skins” out of the blue.
I did watch the episode. It’s very surreal to hear it on television, but the
cooler thing ended up being the bootleg versions that people put up on
YouTube. To see so many kids comment on the song and post their reactions felt really good.
When is the “Holiday Life” album coming out? Anything special
planned for the release?
We haven’t set a proper release date for the album yet, but I’m hoping it
will be out in late fall. As for release plans, I’m excited to do a vinyl edition
and start touring again. We just did some Midwest dates and it was great
to reconnect with our fans.
Full interview: www.thedelimagazine.com/artists/ravensandchimes
the deli_8
soundbites
rootsy
My Cousin, The Emperor
By Jason Bertone
I
t’s been well established that the hills of
Appalachia and the expansive western
plains breed a certain extent of lonesome
heartache and stark introspection, but
one might argue the big city doesn’t get
enough credit in this regard. My Cousin,
The Emperor offers a shining confirmation
that the roots music impulse (or talent for
that matter) doesn’t just dissipate when
one crosses city limits.
How is being country band in New York City
different from being a country band in a
traditional hotbed?
I feel that many people have a preconceived
notion that they don’t like country music, especially in an urban center such as New York, but
surprisingly this is not the case. Globalization
has helped introduce everyone to things they
necessarily would have been aware of twenty
years ago. There are country music fans everywhere now, all over the world.
Has living in the city changes your
perspective on the genre?
How many people in America still ride trains
everyday? I would guess not that many but I do,
so when I write a train song, with the “chugging”
of a Johnny Cash feel, it can easily be translated
to a “subway” song. There is no better place to
study the human condition than New York City.
/artists/mycousintheemperor
Sam Amidon
By Mike Levine
G
rowing up in a family of folk musicians
in Brattleboro, Vermont, Amidon was
immersed in a rich musical tradition
from a young age. Now based in NY, Amidon,
along with his fellow Bedroom Community
colleagues, is classing up Brooklyn’s indie
scene, one folk tune at a time.
What is it that attracts you to creating your
the deli_9 Summer 2011
My Cousin,
The Emperor
RIYL: Blue Mountain, Wilco, Old 97s
particular brand of folk-inspired music in
New York and Brooklyn in particular?
What I love about New York is the chaos and
the way everything is mixed up- it’s like 400
little villages and teeny scenes all piled on top
of one another.
Tell me a little about Bedroom Community.
I grew up in Vermont listening to folk music but
also crazy free jazz and minimalism and whatever else I could find at the CD store. So when
I came to New York it was like this whole world
of things that had only existed on plastic CDs
turned into real people! It was amazing.
/artists/samamidon
The Hollows
The Hollows
RIYL: Tom Waits,
Th
Creedence Clearw e Band,
ater Revival
Roo
Top tsy
20
The Deli’s Web Buzz Charts
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Theophilus London
11. CocoRosie
Yellow Ostrich
12. Deer Tick
Norah Jones
13. Phosphorescent
Sharon Van Etten
14. Antony & the Johnsons
Regina Spektor
15. Jenny Owen Youngs
Discovery
16. Jaymay
Ingrid Michaelson
17. Daniel Merriweather
Cat Power
18. A.A. Bondy
Devendra Banhart
19. The Felice Brothers
Titus Andronicus
20. Jolie Holland
Check out our self-ge
nerating online charts
here: www.thedelima
gazine.com/charts
emulate this energy on record?
Dan: Live shows and recordings are two completely different mediums and it will always be
a struggle to marry the two. This is definitely a
studio album. We wanted something that was
a little different from our live shows, but it’s a
compass that hopefully leads more people to
our live shows, and then they can sweat, curse,
drink, dance, and make merry with us.
he Hollows are a 5-piece band from
Brooklyn who specialize in the multipart harmony, instrument-swapping,
kitchen sink approach that The Band made
famous.
You used Kickstarter to raise nearly $10,000
to record this record with nearly 200 backers.
Dave: Kickstarter offers a great platform to
build on, and it gave us a lot of ideas about
ways to keep people excited and interested in
the project (sending updates, offering advance
copies of the album, sharing “sneak peeks” of
recordings-in-progress, and so on.
Your live performances always come across
like melodic, fiery hoedowns. Did you try to
/artists/hollows
By Ben Krieger
T
soundbites
mellow core
High Highs
By Allison Levin
T
he High Highs don’t attempt to make
a grand entrance — they’re more
subtle. But don’t mistake that for a
lack of either passion or talent, because
their hooks are solid and their melodies are
sweeping. Begun as a studio project, these
guys don’t mess around.
High Highs
Yellowbirds
RIYL: Genesis, Roy Orbison, Grizzly Bear
Tell me about how you guys formed.
High highs started as a studio project in
Sydney. Oli and I met working at the same studio and started making music together. We both
found ourselves over here in New York, where
we started playing properly as a band. We met
Zach, who joined us on drums shortly after that.
If your music was a food, what do you think
it would be and why?
I would like to say it’s a nice healthy nourishing
soup, but its hard to say. Maybe it’s closer to
some kind of flan.
You guys have an ethereal, retro quality that
is encapsulated in your music video. How
did you come up with the idea?
That was the director, Thomas Beug’s idea. The
pianos were all over the city, it was an art piece
called ‘Play Me I’m Yours’.
/artists/highhighs
Yellow Ostrich
By Mike Levine
T
here’s no such thing as a Yellow
Ostrich, but that doesn’t stop Alex
Schaaf from insisting it’s alive anyway. This is a man/ostrich not afraid to take
chances, recording many of his records
with only voice and beatbox. Other ways
he’s not afraid to take chances? Recording
an entire record inspired by Morgan
Freeman’s Wikipedia page
I’m curious where you find your ideas. I get
the impression listening to some of your
albums that you guys are looking everywhere
for inspiration, or does it find it’s way to you?
I don’t usually set out intentionally to go and
find inspiration; those trips usually end up as
failures. Most of the time, things just pop into
my head and I try to turn those things into
songs. Not that some mystical element is sending me divine inspiration, but like most things
involving music/art, the best outcomes usually
happen when you’re not even trying.
Tell me about getting signed to Barsuk!
It is very exciting. An important step, and
Barsuk seems like a great bunch of people that
know what they are doing.
Do you ever take a break? If not... do we
have a new LP to look forward to soon?
Our longest break so far has been a week and
The Beach Boys,
RIYL: Animal Collective,
ls
Stil
The
half or so back in April where we didn’t
rehearse at all. It was glorious. But no, no
plans for a break soon. We’re going to be
touring a lot more for the rest of the year,
to go along with this re-release. Another
record is in the works, but we haven’t put
anything to tape yet. Especially since the
Mistress is being re-released, we’re still
focusing on that for a little bit longer.
/artists/yellowostridge
Yellow Ostrich
RIYL: Bright Eyes,
Chris Garneau, Elli
ott Smith
Yellowbirds
By Nancy Chow
S
am Cohen successfully emerges
from the unwieldy shadow of Apollo
Sunshine, the psych-rock band
on indefinite hiatus that he helmed, with
an ambitious solo project christened
Yellowbirds. True to his roots, Cohen
writes psych-pop inflected with some
country accents on Yellowbirds’ debut
album, “The Color.”
How did Yellowbirds come about?
It’s basically a moniker for my solo work. A
couple of years ago, I had a group of songs
evolving, and I knew exactly how I wanted
them to sound. Instead of bringing them in to
the band, I just got started with that and called
it Yellowbirds.
Me
llow
Top Core
20
1. Twin Sister
2. The Pierces
3. Dark Dark Dark
4. Chris Garneau
5. Joan as Police Woman
6. Lia Ices
7. High Highs
8. JBM
9. Acrylics
10. Lana Del Ray
11. Doveman
12. Ida
13. Samara Lubelski
14. The Silent League
15. Will Stratton
16. Brookville
17. Midnight Masses
18. Jozef Van Wissem
19. Luke Rathborne
20. Aderbat
Check out our self-generat
ing online charts
here: www.thedelimagazine
.com/charts
tener to a place where they would want to stay.
Of course, that’s a totally subjective thing, so I
was really just trying to make an album that did
that for me.
When you write songs for Yellowbirds, do
you miss the collaborative songwriting you
experienced in Apollo Sunshine?
Not really. We tended to write by ourselves
most of the time anyway. We’d arrange and produce together, which yielded some results that I
love, but as far as a workflow, I like this more.
Do you find things of your childhood more
inspiring than your experiences in Brooklyn?
Definitively no, except in the sense that childhood is inspiring, and it’s hard to instantly
recognize something new as equal to or better
than anything you feel nostalgia for.
What were your goals for The Color?
I wanted to make an album that took the lis-
/artists/yellowbirds
soundbites
INDIE ROCK
Radical Dads
Devin Therriault
By Dean Van Nguyen
L
oaded with memorable hooks, catchy
guitar lines and lots and lots of swagger,
vintage rocker Devin Therriault faithfully channels the spirit of fifties and sixties
rock’n’roll. With songs like ‘I Don’t Think I’
and ‘You’re Mine’, he’s expertly recreated the
sound of the era, with his live shows adding
an extra dimension of authenticity. On stage
he is like a caged beast unleashed, wowing
audiences as he hip-trusts his way through an
energetic set reminiscent of stars like Buddy
Holly, Billy Idol and Iggy Pop. Unsurprisingly,
The Stooges frontman has proved Therriault’s
most prominent inspiration.
Who do you consider your most direct influences and what made them leave such an
impression on you?
Iggy Pop has been a serious long term obsession. I’d heard a few songs like ‘I Wanna Be
Your Dog’ and ‘No Fun’ but they never had an
impact. Then I saw this clip on YouTube of him
doing ‘The Passenger’ live. It says it was in
Manchester, 1977, and it’s a pretty long clip, over
7 minutes. Most people can’t hold my interest
that long but it’s an unbelievable performance
and it hit me and it changed me. When I saw it, I
hadn’t been on stage yet, but I knew I wanted to
be something like that and I knew I could. He’s
completely serious, but also ridiculously funny.
He’s totally comfortable, but also has a certain
desperation. And it’s just him under the spotlight
— and he’s looking out at the crowd, but it’s
all black, but it’s like he can see something so
clearly — and I want to know what he sees.
Your live shows have been getting some
great write ups. What can someone expect
when going to a Devin Therriault gig?
It’s all high drama and sex appeal [Laughs]. It’s
a great show, and I can do it alone if the audience just wants to sit back and watch, but I
always like it better when the audience is more
a part of it, physically.
/artists/devintherriault
Beast Make Bomb
Yeahs
RIYL: Elastica, Breeders, Yeah Yeah
RIYL: Chavez, Yo La Tengo
Devin Therriault
RIYL: Buddy Holly, The Stooges
The Yes Way
Beast Make Bomb
By Caitlin Clive
B
east Make Bomb is indie rock with
aggressive rhythm guitar and gentle
female vocals. The lyrics are resonant and relatable, and the melodies are
fun and catchy. And while the message
is realistic, the feel is quite innocent and
happy-go-lucky. It makes you want to roll
all the windows down and take a road trip
to anywhere. Forget the world, turn this on,
and crack a smile.
Favorite show you’ve played?
Either The Highline Ballroom with Cold War
Kids (totally surreal) a few months ago or
maybe even our second show at Lake Johnson
in Bushwick in a tiny back room with a sweaty
moshpit yelling the lyrics during our cover of
“Hashpipe”.
Was “Coney Island” drawn from
real experience?
Last summer I ventured out to Coney Island
with some friends for the first time and as soon
as I came home I wrote that song. Something
about that place invites a sense of heaviness,
eeriness, and heartbreak. While Coney Island
is still open, it seems to have fallen apart years
ago which is one interpretation of what the
song could be about.
RIYL: Jeff Buckley, Nirvana, Andrew Bird
The Yes Way
By Meijin Bruttomesso
T
he Yes Way plays an interesting
hybrid of art rock, alt rock and indie
pop. Taking a path less common
than most indie bands The Yes Way incorporates different sonic elements — guitar
riffs blended with smooth harmonies, heavy
instrumentation carried by emotional vocals
— creating eerie melodic rock with punk
attitude and indie aesthetic.
If you could get anyone (dead or living) to a
Beast Make Bomb show, who would it be?
Patti Smith would no doubt headline and she
would ask us to go up on stage and sing “Ask
The Angels” with her.maybe they catch our set.
We are also fans of Local Natives, Ra Ra Riot
and Bear Hands, but we have always been
most impressed with the local talent we have
supporting us when we hit the road.
What is it like being a New York artist? What
are the best and worst aspects?
As musicians in New York, we feel strangely
anonymous and yet part of a beautiful community of like-minded people. The best part
of New York is that you are surrounded by so
much quality music that it motivates you and
drives you to always work harder at your craft.
The worst part is that, due to this over-saturation of quality, generally nobody really cares
about what you do. The scene sometimes feels
un-navigable, and you run around aimlessly
working your ass off. Then, suddenly, beautifully, you find all these people at your show
digging it and realize that the word has been
spreading, and the people are starting to care.
/artists/beastmakebomb
With whom and where would you most like
to tour? Why?
The band made a trip to Philly in June to see
Kurt Ville who’s the perfect example of an
artists who has taken the time to perfect his
craft while not losing sight of why he started.
Another good fit would be My Morning
Jacket who’s headlining the Kahbang festival
in August which will be playing at... maybe
they catch our set. We are also fans of Local
Natives, Ra Ra Riot and Bear Hands, but we
have always been most impressed with the
local talent we have supporting us when we
hit the road.
/artists/theyesway
Radical Dads
By Mike Levine
R
adical Dads don’t have the same
issues as other bands you’ve been
listening to. You’re not gonna hear
singer Lindsay Baker, other singer Robbie
Guertin or not-singer Chris Diken talk
about posturing or clubbing. Get real.
They’re having way too much fun to
worry about all that nonsense.
You guys have been doing your thing for
quite awhile now through various projects.
How do you still have fun with everything
after being in the game for this long?
We really like each other and we really enjoy
Indie R
o
Top 20ck
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
The Strokes
Animal Collective
Interpol
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
The National
Gang Gang Dance
Grizzly Bear
The Rapture
Cymbals Eat Guitars
Yeasayer
11. The Walkmen
12. Young Boys
13. The Morning Benders
14. Ghost Ghost
15. Cult of Youth
16. Department of Eagles
17. Mirror Mirror
18. Oneida
19. Noveller
20. Nat Baldwin
here: www.thedelima
gazine.com/charts
playing music and hanging out together, and
there’s no reason for us to be cynical about
that. And regarding “the industry,” we don’t
have any bigwigs breathing down our collective
neck, which makes things easier. Finally, we’re
kind of old, so we don’t have time to be cynical.
We need to spend all our time being psyched.
So how did you folks come together? Have
you known each other awhile?
Lindsay and I are approaching our 15-year
friendship anniversary, and Robbie and I have
been going steady since 1999. We met where
all college-rock bands meet: in college. We
came together over a love of radio broadcasting, electric guitars, and Flying Nun records.
Full interview: www.thedelimagazine.com/
artists/radicaldads
Production Corner
By Justin Colletti
PARALLEL PROCESSING: DRUMS
For the iconic sound of “New York-style” compression on drums, get a good blend of drums together
for your main mix. Then, simply route all your drums
through another bus, squeeze to taste, and bring them
back into the main mix alongside your clean tracks.
The goal here is to make sure your parallel drum mix
is compressed to the point where it has precious
little dynamic range. For this technique, a very fast
attack time often works best. Fast releases time that
pump and breathe with the rhythm of the music are
fair game, as are longer release times that create a
smooth and consistent decay.
Depending on your tastes, the compressed drums
may sound a bit dramatic by themselves, but that’s
okay. When added to your original mix, this parallel
bus acts as a supporting element, allowing you to
bring up the beef and average level of your drums
while preserving the original transients and much of
the larger dynamic changes.
Read the rest of this article on
sonicscoop.com/parallelprocessing
SoundToys Devil-Loc Deluxe
The Shure Level-Loc (originally a cheap miccompressor)
was made famous by Tchad Blake who used it on drums
through parallel processing for added “trashy” character.
SoundToys recently released a plug in emulation of it.
the deli_14
soundbites
alt ROCK
American Darlings
RIYL: Sunny Day Real Esta
te, Dinosaur Jr,
Teenage Fanclub
The Nico Blues
Mouse,
RIYL: The White Stripes, Modest
Pavement
The Nico Blues
T
he Nico Blues gather up their roots
in rock, folk, blues, and punk to
formulate widely appealing hooks.
The quintet’s latest record, “Blame the
Boredom, Blame the Basement,” commences with hard-hitting percussion,
crunching guitars, and vocals that trade-off
between melodious and roaring.
What or who is Nico?
Nico Blue is the name of Shannon Hoon’s
daughter. He’s the late singer from Blind Melon,
who became one of our favorite groups when
we were younger. We were completely unaware
that this would ever get back to her, but it actually did. Christopher, the guitarist of Blind Melon,
heard about us and we’ve been talking back
and forth recently. He let her know that we “borrowed” her name. Hope she doesn’t mind.
What message do you want fans to take
away from your current album?
Instead of trying to get too lofty, the honest
truth is that we are just some dudes with guitars
who want to play music.
artists/nicoblues
Shake the Baron
B
rooklyn’s Shake the Baron, who
played The Deli’s “Best of 2010
Festival,” touch on the ups and
downs of song writing, combining light
hearted melodies, peppy rhythms, and tender and smooth vocal harmonies with lyrics
and inflection that express great yearning
and melancholy on their self-titled album.
What does it mean to “shake the baron?”
Jon: To “shake the baron” means to rustle your
Shake the Baron
RIYL: The Strokes,
Vampire Weekend, The Shin
s
bald father’s scalp with such ferocity that he finally
admits that he listened to ABBA as a child.
Matt: It can mean anything you want it to. I
want everyone to shake the baron.
If you could tour with anyone, (alive, dead,
broken up, etc.), who it would it be?
Spike: Wesley Willis. Duh. Maybe the only guy
who blurts our more inappropriate shit on stage
than Andrew and Jon do.
Matt: Destiny’s Child and Aaliyah. We used
to cover “Say My Name” and “Are You That
Somebody?”
What inspired you most on your current selftitled album?
Jon: We were really into the notion of creating
bigger, denser, rock soundscapes using the guitar — something that’s fallen out of favor over the
last few years. We were listening to a lot of Sonic
Youth, Broken Social Scene and Dirty Projectors.
artists/shakethebaron
American Darlings
A
merican Darlings sound as sweet as
their name. The Brooklyn based trio,
comprised of Jason Maksymilian
(guitars, vocals), John Alexander (bass), and
Daniel Vincent (drums), produce delightful
garage rock that can be found on their two
EPs, aptly titled “American Darlings EP” and
“American Darlings Second EP.”
What makes you “American Darlings?
John: I ordered a beer by that name (by Pretty
Things Brewery in Cambridge, Massachusetts)
from a bar on the lower east side and thought it
would be an awesome band name. I still think it is.
If your music were the soundtrack for a film,
what kind of film would it be?
Jason: A psychological thriller like “Vanilla Sky”
or any Kevin Smith movie.
Alt Ro
c
Top 20 k
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Brand New
11. Jesse Malin
The Hold Steady
12. Morningwood
We Are Scientists
13. Wakey!Wakey!
Straylight Run
14. Ted Leo
Cosmonaut
& The Pharmacists
Semi Precious
15. Locksley
Weapons
16. Lissy Trullie
7. Steel Train
17. Robbers on High Street
8. Stereo Skyline
18. Black Gold
9. The Bouncing Souls
19. Alberta Cross
10. Screaming Females
20. Atomic Tom
here: www.thedelima
gazine.com/charts
Production Corner
By Justin Colletti
Bass
Parallel Compression on
rtion is just the
Sometimes, a touch of disto
ulate, defined, and
thing to keep the bass artic
Adding some gain
audible throughout a mix.
you don’t lose too
in parallel can help ensure
process (careful
much low-end power in the
with the phase though!)
d from 3 or more
Some mixers create a blen
nel provides solid
chan
one
nts:
tme
trea
parallel
ange growl,
midr
nice
a
ers
deliv
one
,
low end
ed to maximize
voic
is
nel
chan
third
the
while
articulation.
the instrument’s snap and
s may seem like
While such drastic measure
guitar is one of those
overkill to some of us, bass
ys benefits from at
alwa
st
almo
that
instruments
or distortion to
sion
pres
com
llel
least basic para
song.
the
in
hold
foot
solid
help it gain a
1176 and Teletronix
Vintage compressors Ureiused by pro mixing
LA2A are still commonlyersal Audio offers
engineers on bass. Univ of them.
faithful plug in recreations
John: Luxury car commercials. Particularly
“Divide” and “Replace”.
artists/americandarlings
We're connecting our rocking history to your future!
Congratulations to NYC band, In One Wind
Read more about this issue's "Expose Yourself"
winner online on The Deli's NYC Open Blog
Find us on facebook
www.facebook.com/themusicbuilding
Catch us on the web
www.musicbuilding.com
Get Featured in this Space
MB
Submit your band information to
www.thedelimagazine.com/exposeyourself
for the chance to have your band photo featured
HERE in the next issue of The Deli Magazine
specials the deli’s features
Caveman
Gabba Gabba Doo?
RIYL: Belle & Sebastian,
The Shins, Best Coast
By Nancy Chow / Photo by Kate Edwards
O
n a residential block of East Third Street, there’s a small yellow guitar that marks the entrance
to Cobra Guitars. This inconspicuous dwelling serves as the workshop of Caveman guitarist
Jimmy Carbonetti and the band’s unofficial clubhouse. Down the cement stairs and through
the unmarked door, visitors will first encounter Carbonetti’s handcrafted guitars hung carefully
on the wall, tangles of wires, amps, stacks of vinyl, a vintage-styled couch and a laptop set up in the
corner; a working musician’s paradise. In the back, there’s an assortment of guitar parts strewn about
that will be used to build a dream instrument. Whether it’s Carbonetti, keyboardist Sam Hopkins and
guitar technician Mas Hino working on guitars or a rotating cast of peers dropping in to hang out or jam,
the basement space in the East Village is always humming with activity.
On this particular night, the men of Caveman are gathered around a
laptop watching a video of Christian Vander of Magma performing
“Otis” on French television in 1981 archived on YouTube. The band
has a loose connection to the falsetto-scatting vocalist in Carbonetti
and frontman Matt Iwanusa’s previous band, The Subjects; the quartet
practiced in Magma’s former manager Giorgio Gomelsky’s Red Door.
Hopkins was also rehearsing in the building with White Clam, but the
complex, intricate threads of how these five gentlemen know each
other were spun way before the Vander connection.
Toward the tail end of 2009, their respective bands at the time were phasing out by happenstance. Carbonetti and Iwanusa were beginning to pen
songs together that didn’t fit into The Subjects noisy power pop structure.
Though Hopkins and Carbonetti have traced their lineage back to
the Mayflower, more recently, Carbonetti and Iwanusa attended high
school together and formed The Subjects with their teachers Joseph
Smith and Dave Sheinkopf, who randomly dropped in during the
interview to show and tell his bike battle scars from the previous
night. Sheinkopf also attended college with Caveman drummer Stefan
Marolachakis (formerly of The End of the World), introducing him to
Iwanusa and Carbonetti. Meanwhile Jeff Berrall was a bartender at
Sin-e and bassist for Elefant, serving the still underage Carbonetti and
Iwanusa. Hopkins and Carbonetti later joined up with Berrall at 30th
Street Guitars, where they repaired instruments.
“Sometimes making music is difficult, but it’s been really simple,”
explains Berall. “Everyone matches up very well with what they play.
Music should be simple. It should be effortless.”
“We started brainstorming who we would want in our band and thinking
about friends we hang out the most, who we would like to spend our
time together and who are the best musicians that we know of,” says
Carbonetti. Since recruiting their friends, the original songs Carbonetti
and Iwanusa had worked on became more relaxed and open.
The songwriting and approach on Caveman’s debut album CoCo
Beware sounds carefree and natural. There’s an incredible amount of
maturity that recalls the relaxed introspection of ‘60s folk artists. They
focus on the graceful sound of words over lyrical complexity, but the
musical direction gives tremendous weight to the songs. This sophistication doesn’t feel forced with the deep sincerity that radiates from
the melancholy restlessness of the warm, weathered songs. A collage
of comparisons comes to mind from Grizzly Bear and Local Natives to
The Beach Boys and Laurel Canyon legends.
The songs are dreamy and cinematic, sounding both modern and retro
at the same time. The complexities and details of the songs formulate
conflicting descriptors, but therein lies the band’s strength in taming
dichotomies to create hauntingly beautiful chamber pop songs. When
the songs’ components are disassembled and laid out there are constant opposing forces in the songs, but they are artfully composed into
gentle, rolling melodies with an underlying sense of dissonance. At the
songs’ center are the consoling vocal harmonies with beguiling guitars
and synths weaving in and out of the foreground. The guitars switch
from vibrant tones to sawing distortion, while the anxiety-ridden synths
menacingly lurk in the background or decidedly embellish with a vivid
vignette. The rhythm section fastens all the elements together, setting
the songs’ sunny, approachable vibes.
Iwanusa first met Nick Strumpf of the French Kicks a few years ago as
a teenager. After listening to the early rumblings of Caveman, Strumpf
recorded a portion of “Decide” with Iwanusa in his recently opened
recording studio, Love Boat, in Dumbo. Strumpf continued to help
the band record for the next six months, experimenting with recording
techniques and exploiting the qualities of his new recording space.
“Nick is a friend we trust,” says Marolachakis. “Since we all had time
on our hands, he would suggest something, and we would have the
time to try it out. Everyone was willing to try different ways of recording
pianos, drums, etc.“
They kept the news of recording the album mostly to themselves, but
an acquaintance forced the songs out of them to play at his bar. As
they listened to the songs in this real-world setting, they went back
to studio and changed around some elements. Even before the band
planned to self-release CoCo Beware on September 13, friends had
been playing songs off the album in bars and venues. The result of
this subliminal promotion is the successful recruitment of fans; audience members at their shows have mentioned being introduced to
Caveman’s songs by hearing them in various places in the city.
The quintet has played with a variety of acts, including Wye Oak,
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Cursive and Blue Öyster Cult.
They have gone on tour with New York peers White Rabbits and Here
We Go Magic, and by the beginning of September, they will complete
another tour with The War on Drugs. The band attributes its tight performances to the ability to read each other well and members’ experiences
in numerous venues throughout their respective musical careers.
“If you log enough time playing so many weird places — every time you
start a band, you play the weirdest shows; you pay your dues,” says
Marolachakis the night before performing a Rocks Off Concert Cruise.
“You fight as hard as you can to make the same sounds in these different places, whether it’s a fancy rock club or the ‘Jaws’ boat.“
After spending some time with the band, it becomes immediately clear
that Caveman’s fortune is driven by friendship. Even without scheduled
photo shoots and interviews, they can still be found hanging out at
Cobra Guitars in their spare time. The basement workshop, initiated at
around the same time as Caveman, not only represents the success
of Carbonetti’s entrepreneurship but also the earnest and passionate
spirit of the band.
“Since we all got together, we got closer because we had a space like
this that we could hang out all day,” says Iwanusa of Cobra Guitars.
“It’s inspiring to see guys like Mas and Jimmy all day working on
something that they really care about. I sit in here all day sometimes
and think, ‘I’ve got to do something with my day.’ But I’m like, ‘Wait,
I just felt great all day, because people are doing something they care
about.’ The feeling is contagious.”
Artist Equipment Check!!!
Cobra Guitars Cavehound
Our favorite pieces of equipment are our Cobra Guitars
— the Cavehound, Old Friend
and the Beachcave — along
with old echos like a Roland
Space Echo or Echoplex and
tons of synths, played in epic
fashion by Sam “Slammy”
Hopkins.
the deli_18
A New Wave of Surf Rock
By Mike Levine (@goldnuggets) / Illustration by J.P. Peer
W
hat comes to mind when you think of “Surf rock”? Is it Uma Thurman dancing
to Dick Dale’s “Misirlou” in Pulp Fiction? Does that chipmunk’s laugh from The
Surfari’s “Wipeout” bounce around your skull?
While Uma would never dance that well again, these moments barely scratch the surface of
a storied genre that’s gone from party jock jams in the ’60s to the anthems behind some of
the most anti-establishment groups of the past several decades.
This beach-obsessed brand of party music didn’t die with Beatlemania as the history books
tell it. Instead it went another, more surprising route… underground. Re-emerging a decade
later as the DNA behind some of the punkest jams of the past couple decades, happily
bouncing its way around from one disenfranchised generation to the next.
Of course, you’d never know it from its innocuous, Tween Beat roots; surf rock was about
as mainstream as it got before the hippies had their day in the sun. The Beach Boys were
among the first groups to make this sound chart (“Surfin’ U.S.A.” was on Billboard’s top
five for a record 25 weeks in 1963), they were followed closely by Jan and Dean, The BelAirs, The Chantays, and a whole bunch of other groups I’ve never heard of. It took “I Want
To Hold Your Hand” to finally push this genre out of the way for the next big thing. Almost
overnight, surf rock went from the soundtrack of hot rods to discarded as last year’s rage.
From then on, the establishment was pretty much done with surf rock, making sure anyone
with taste, culture and privilege had nothing to do with the beast. The genre never really
found its way back into the mainstream again, but it didn’t exactly go away either.
After the ’60s, the only musicians interested in approaching surf rock were players feeling
disenfranchised themselves.
The Ramones
to The Rescue
History lesson in brief: In ‘70s Lower East Side NYC, the
very foundations of punk were laid on an appreciation
of rock’s shore roots. Joey Ramone especially was a
tremendous fan of surf rock. He insisted his band cover
Jan and Dean’s “Surf City”, and showcased his alliterative
talents on The Trashmen’s immortal ‘Surfin Bird’ (Bird is
the word!!). Then we have “Rockaway Beach”, “Sheena is
a Punk Rocker”, “Do You Wanna Dance”... ok, I’ll stop, but
there you go. More than perhaps any other punk group, The
Ramones had a unique knack for turning the disposable
and goofy into brilliant, high-voltage energy. The band easily
recast a discarded art form into a necessary ingredient of
the counter-culture.
Crystal Stilts
This pattern kept repeating itself. In the ‘80s, East Bay Ray
of the Dead Kennedys and Pixies guitarist Joey Santiago
were just two of the DIY heroes taking this genre to new
places, retaining surf rock’s warmth and party hype while
creating something entirely new at the same time. East Bay
Ray re-created surf’s energy as hardcore backbeat, while
Frank Black never sounded as relaxed as he did in “Here
Comes Your Man.”
Today, surf rock has come back to America to reclaim its beachfront
property. Setting up shop in both California and New York, the two
coasts have each given surf rock their own unique feel, each competing
for dominance even while it’s perfectly obvious to me which ocean the
best jams are coming from. Best Coast, Wavves, and Soft Pack make
up some of the groups coming from the Pacific; while Crystal Stilts, The
Drums, Dum Dum Girls, Beach Fossils and Japanther rep some of the
finest of what’s nearer the Atlantic.
In the ’90s, the genre took a much-deserved vacation
overseas. Moving far from its homeland, it traveled to far
off places like Shanghai (The Beat Bandits) and Australia
(Bleeding Knees Club) before settling into a lot of the
material behind New Zealand’s Flying Nun records. At this
local label’s base in Christchurch, NZ, label-mates The
Clean and The Verlaines took surf riffs and built a hugely
influential scene from scratch.
Citing Flying Nuns bands like The Clean as an enormous influence on his
music is the man responsible for much of surf rock’s comeback around
Brooklyn: singer/songwriter Brad Hargett of Crystal Stilts. Originally from
south Florida, Crystal Stilts moved up to Brooklyn in 2004, and arguably
represent as close to the center of this town’s scene as you’re likely to
find. A somewhat spacey, morose group, they lend an entirely original
voice to this groove, sounding as if Ian Curtis decided to cover some
Velvet Underground tunes a bit closer to the water.
Each time surf rock was dealt with by subsequent
generations, three-chord bands would glorify the genre’s
stupidity, sanctified corniness and zero sum tolerance for
irony. These groups justified surf rock’s claims to good times
through their DIY birthrights, stepping to the genre’s defense
time and time again, refusing to discard what the music
industry tried throwing away.
Hargett sings in a way that makes you think about everything he’s
singing, mostly as a result of the fact that you really can’t make out
any of what he’s singing. His lyrics are just barely audible, and this only
makes you more and more interested in what’s going on in there.
Beach Fossils
One of my fave local acts is Beach Fossils. Jamming out a more
intimate, melodic and less raucous sound than Crystal Stilts, the
band has more in common with Ridgewood, NJ’s laid-back scene
(Ducktails, Real Estate, Julian Lynch) than a lot of their noisier
Brooklyn-bred peers.
I spoke with drummer Tommy Gardner recently (who just released
a brilliant new EP himself as Crush) on what this sound is all
about, and this is how he broke it down for me: “There has been
a move away from the kind of rock guitar style where songs are
Guitarist/co-songwriter JB Townsend of Crystal Stilts discussed the
influence of The Trashmen (again, Bird is definitely the word) on his
group in an interview with Denver Westword: “I like the bass and drums
because they feel so punky. If you took that out and laid in guitars and
vocals from the late ‘70s, they could be the Ramones, basically.” That
just about sums it up right there.
based on power chords, open chords, and/or blues-influenced
lead lines, and bands are instead opting to base songs on melodic,
single note lines. This concept often extends to the bass as well,
and the result is that the harmony of a song is heard as the sum
total of the melody lines, not as a guitar playing a big open chord
and the bass playing the root note. It’s easy to see how a focus on
simple, melodic single note lines could be perceived as coming
from surf rock, but at least for Crush and for Beach Fossils, this
happens to not be the case. Comparisons to a lot of post-punk or
Sarah Records bands, for example, would be more accurate, but
even so, I think the sound that gets associated with surf rock is
less about influence and more about a particular way to approach
writing on the guitar.”
Whether or not you call what Beach fossils does ‘Surf rock’, their
music reminds me a lot of this genre’s vocal roots anyway. When the
Beach Boys sung their parts back in the day, they each took a piece
(bass, tenor, Brian Wilson’s very mezzo soprano), which collectively
added up to a full chord. This same dynamic is now working for
Beach Fossils, The Drums and a lot of other bands’ instrumental
melodic lines (after all, we can’t all harmonize like Grizzly Bear).
Surf Guitar Tone
By Howie Statland of Rivington Guitars
www.RivingtonGuitars.com
The Vandelles
In fact, the more I look at bands around here, the more I find that groups
aren’t really finding a big difference between surf and punk jams at all.
Take The Vandelles for example. They’re another great up-and-coming
Brooklyn group, currently recording their second LP upstate. Old-school
and contemporary at the same time, the Vandelles place rich harmonies
alongside hardcore guitar theatrics, as if the Beach Boys included East
Bay Ray among the Wilson brothers. The music all comes together
as an extreme example of what happens when you sample several
generations’ worth of punk music indiscriminately, and dot that territory
with reverb-soaked harmonies and Stratocaster drones.
Singer/guitarist Jason Schwartz (AKA Jonny Strings) of The Vandelles
described how this catch-all sound came about for his group: “…
you hear more of the Beach Boys influence with songs like ‘Swell To
Heaven’ and ‘Dead Wave’, but we think of our style as a continuation
of the surf side of rock n roll - Starting with the surf legends like Davie
Allan and Dick Dale, to the Beach Boys, to the Ramones, to the Mary
Chain, to us.” To Jason, all these bands work equally well together; and
I imagine Brad Hargett and Tommy Gardner would probably agree.
This scene’s not all about the dudes though. The biggest girl group out there
has to be the Vivian Girls, NY’s answer to LA’s Dum Dum Girls. Vivian Girls are
only a couple generations removed from the Tom Tom Rock of Phil Spector acts
like The Crystals or Darlene Love, and are another one of the bands here that
have their dirty jam grooves down so perfectly, it’s almost impossible to hear
where the punk ends, and where the surf rock begins.
In many ways, the ladies are taking over the surf scenes of both coasts. For
instance, former Dum Dum Girls drummer Frankie Rose has played with both
The Vivian Girls and Crystal Stilts, and The Vivian Girls’ old drummer, Ali Koehler,
is now playing with Best Coast, so who knows… perhaps the California and BK
scenes aren’t as far apart as they look on a map.
T
he ultimate surf guitar tone has
several elements: a guitar, the
amplifier, reverb, tremolo, and
vibrato, but the sound starts with the
guitar itself. A Fender Stratocaster, Jaguar
or Jazzmaster would be my personal choice.
These are the most commonly used. One of
the secrets to the tone is single coil pickups.
There’s quite a difference between the vintage
ones and the new ones, the older ones sound
more organic, with more of a bell tone, and
more surf like. There’s also a difference in
price, so you make do with what you can.
I highly recommend a
Fender amp to get the
signature surf sound, one
with a spring reverb tank in
it. A Fender Twin Reverb,
Super Reverb, Princeton
Reverb, Dual Showman
Reverb, etc. — the key
is reverb. An Ampeg
Reverberocket would also
sound great.
For the best reverb tone,
one can purchase a
separate reverb unit. The
very best is a vintage
Fender reverb unit, which
sits on top of the amp.
These have the warmest
and most organic sound.
One can also use foot
pedals for reverb, the
Electro Harmonx Holy
Grail is my personal favorite. Fender Jazzmaster
Tremolo units create a hypnotic quick increase and
decrease in volume. Vibrato is a difference in pitch, up
and down. Both these effects are often used on surf
rock records.
Know Your Label
“You can have
all the gear
in the world
but ultimately
it’s all in the
fingers!”
None of this madness would ever be possible without the love and support of
some very influential labels, and two of my favorite startup indies are repping
many of these groups. If surf rock is your thing, you really can’t do much better
than the Brooklyn-based Captured Tracks Records. Boasting a growing roster of
up-and-coming talent including Beach Fossils, The Beets and the DC-based band
Eternal Summers, this label’s become a halfway home for the three-chord salute.
While Captured Tracks are relative newcomers, Slumberland Records has been
putting out some of the most hummable tunes for over twenty years now. This
veteran label works with a lot of new new wave acts (The Pains of Being Pure
at Heart for one), but works their share of the wavy jangle as well, from Black
Tambourine, to Frankie Rose’s solo releases, to The Crystal Stilts themselves.
I personally like a thin pick,
a Dunlop light grey .60mm
— it facilitates the quick,
flutter picking so common
on surf records.
Backyard Barbeques
For great surf tone, check
out artists like Dick Dale,
Link Wray, the Ventures,
the Shadows, the Bel Airs
and the Northern Lights.
So why surf rock anyway? How did this cornball party jam genre successfully
incorporate itself into so much anti-establishment material over the past couple
decades, ultimately finding its home in our own backyard? Surf rock is yacht
rock for the punks. Leave Steely Dan’s chill to the Hamptons set (Donald
Fagen’s not much of a Ramones fan anyway), while surf rock owns spots like
Coney Island and ok… Rockaway Beach.
You can have all the gear
in the world but ultimately
it’s all in the fingers!
Fender Jaguar
Photos courtesy of Rivington Guitars
Hooray For Earth
The Say Yay Kids!
RIYL: TV on the Radio,
Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear
By Charlie Davis / Photo by Drew Innis
J
ust as our own planet has its share of cherished milestones (the discovery of fire,
the invention of the wheel, the advent of the Ronco kitchenware revolution), NYC’s
Hooray For Earth are not without their own monumental landmarks.
Formed in the mid-aughts by singer/producer/multi-instrumentalist
Noel Heroux, Hooray for Earth relocated from Beantown to the
Big Apple and released the Cellphone EP in 2008 with Dopeamine
Records. After that, the band released the Momo EP in 2009, and
toured with blogo-darlings like The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
and Surfer Blood. You should also know that in late 2010, the band
released an undeniably bubbly and catchy single “A Place We Like”
with fellow NYC artist and pop enthusiast Twin Shadow.
nothing more than washed out layers of vocals and synth pads hovering in a dream-like suspension. As momentum builds, the percussion
instruments slowly give way until fading back into ominous synth layers. It’s definitely heavy — but it’s the kind of heaviness you would
expect from a one-man basement recording project (which to no
surprise, is how Hooray for Earth began). It’s not until the next track
(“Last Minute”) that you see how roles of all four band members work
together to truly bring the ruckus.
Then, in June 2011, Hooray for Earth decided to show us all up by
creating a damn-near-spotless, air-tight pop record called “True
Loves” that gave listeners a shit-ton of things to hooray about.
Varying bpm’s play an important role as well. The album finds an even
balance between down tempo dubbed-out grooves (“Black Trees”)
and the higher energy dance party jams (“Sails”, “Bring Us Closer
Together”). Other times, songs may bounce back and forth between
the two (“Hotel”). In either instance, there is no shortage of hooks
and instantly catchy melodies. The album’s lead single “True Loves”
has a unique almost-reggae feel with it’s booming synth-bass, syncopated rim clicks and heavy snare cracks. If you’re reading this at
work, be sure to drop whatever you’re doing and check out the song’s
accompanying video full of breathtaking visuals of beaches, caves, a
Medieval knight and things are arguably related to magic (The narrative’s a little murky, but hey, you’re supposed to be at work).
Calling upon an era when pop songs and hooks had a secret cleverness about them, “True Loves” incorporates a few tricks from 1980’s
synth pop/new-wave playbook, while still sounding totally current. The
hooks are molasses-y sweet and emotionally charged enough to make
the cut of a John Hughes film (Baby’s Day Out notwithstanding), but
can still throw their weight around on a playlist next to MGMT, Animal
Collective, LCD Soundsystem or Passion Pit.
Early album gems like “Sails” and “Same” show just how deftly Heroux
appropriates some of these ’80s synth pop conventions. Beginning
with arpeggiated keyboard lines that are nothing short of gorgeous,
these tracks call upon some of the finer moments of groups like OMD
and Depeche Mode in their prime (the galloping shuffle feel of “Same”
could be a dead ringer for a long lost Tears for Fears b-side). After
listening to the album in its entirety, however, it becomes clear these
stylistic touchstones are more of an entry point than a destination.
Part of the uniqueness of “True Loves” lies in a certain kind of heaviness that’s intertwined with its pop buoyancy. The drums are massive
and brooding (and were recorded on a rooftop) and the keyboards are
thick and lush with extensive layering on every track. While the album
does have extensive guitar work, most of it is reworked and chopped
up to sound like keyboards. In addition, the album was mixed by Chris
Coady - who is no stranger to cutting-edge sounds (Beach House,
Delorean, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and TV On The Radio to name a few). In
June, Hooray For Earth did a cover of Kanye West’s “All of the Lights”
off of “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” (another rich and densely
layered album) for Billboard.com which sounds nearly spot-on with the
rest of their repertoire. And oh yes, to top it all off, Noel Heroux also
cites Enya as an important influence on the creation of the record.
The album’s opening track (“Realize It’s Not The Sun”) starts with
Despite the album’s ornate layers, in terms of function, “True Loves”
is an album of economy. With a mere ten tracks, every song is sharply
executed with each section going straight for the jugular and packing
a severe punch, whether it’s an intro, chorus or breakdown section.
Song structures are completely to the point and each chorus delivers
what the preceding section hint at. It is these same techniques that
helped create a countless number of classic pop songs in the 1980’s
to begin with. And while the arrangements do call for a good amount
of layering, Heroux’s production style does not allow this delivery
system to weigh itself down. The vocals tread very gently above the
compositions and lend themselves more to visuals than narratives.
Even the album’s monster hooks and choruses manage to carry an air
of pleasant understatement to them.
All in all, Heroux’s approach to pop music succeeds in winning over
the listener at the very first glance and makes “True Loves” one the
great debut albums of the year. Now cemented onto the “2011 bands
to watch list”, there’s no doubt that Hooray for Earth have a promising
future ahead of them. If Heroux can seamlessly pull out all the stops
and make such a concise pop record, he can just as easily take it in
other directions as the band continues to grow and evolve. Keep a
lookout for HFE on tour with Architecture in Helsinki this summer. In
the meantime, try to find some new hobbies to keep yourself busy.
the snacks the deli’s CD reviews
Celestial Shore
California Eden EP
Uuuuuh... we like this
combination of words:
“playful psych pop with
an experimental edge”.
That’s our attempt at
describing the music of
Brooklyn based band Celestial Shore. These guys
follow on the bizarre and elaborate “avant-pop”
steps of acts like Dirty Projector and Deerhoof,
with a slightly “mathy-er” approach, and vocal
melodies and harmonies that will get Beach Boys
fans excited. The way “Pals” — a perfect pop
gem — gets truncated and pretty much sacrificed
as a “song” to the god of experimentation might
irritate the many pop purists out there. Instead,
it makes us smile with complicity. Boring song
structures are for later in life... (Paolo De Gregorio)
Facebook.com/celestialshore
Shenandoah
and The Night
Self-Titled EP
Shenandoah Ableman has
the rare ability to turn any
genre into a voluptuous
experience. Comfortable
singing in front of styles
ranging from German cabaret to doo wop, her
quintet Shenandoah and The Night are bringing
sexy back... one sultry style at a time. The band’s
new self-titled debut EP showcases this sensuality
with deep confidence through a series of songs
steeped in the tradition of American folk, but
featuring a very un-American, almost overwhelming, nostalgic power — in the most literal and
decadent definition of “romanticism”. These songs
(“So Fine” and “All The Beautiful Ladies” deserve
a honorable mention) make us flirt with “dangerous” thoughts like the fragility of love, the desire
for the lost past, the unreachability of perfect
happiness, our vain but primary quest for beauty.
They might not make us jump or feel happy,
but the do make us feel alive. Can you afford to
ignore it? (Mike Levine + Paolo De Gregorio)
www.shenandoahandthenight.com
NYC Bands, do you know that you can promote your
live show directly on The Deli’s homepage?
Go here: nyc.thedelimagazine.com (far right column)
Widowspeak
Gun Shy /
Wicked Game 7”
It’s always interesting
to follow how a promising emerging band’s
sound slowly evolves and
matures — in particular if it
does so in interesting ways, of course. Widowspeak first appeared in the NYC scene earlier this
year, sounding like a twangy version of The Velvet
Underground, and landing some noteworthy opening spots for Crystal Stilts and Beach Fossils at various NYC DIY venues. Things seem to have evolved
rapidly in these few months: the band’s brand new
7” signals the intent of taking that “twanginess” to
new levels, with the beautifully melancholic song
“Gun Shy” and a cover of what could be considered one of the (if not the) best twangy ballads ever
written — Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game”. This band
is sounding more and more like a slightly psych
version of The Cowboy Junkies with really good
songs, and we like this very much. They just signed
with NYC DIY label Captured Tracks, announcing a full release for August. (Paolo De Gregorio)
Myspace.com/bandwidowspeak
Cinema Cinema
Shoot The Freak EP
Brooklyn-based
Cinema,Cinema, an
amalgamation of Ev
Gold (vocals/guitar),
Chris Tropeano
(bass), and Pat Fusco
(drums), explodes into
aggressive, grungy garage punk on their grumbling
and demonic EP, Shoot The Freak. Frantic screamer,
“Lady Abortion” surges with distortion and high
speed drums. The EP continues the medical motif
with “Pleased to Meet You, Anesthesia,” which
features parallel melodies in vocals and instrumentation, losing control in sirens of guitar feedback.
Ringing bass and guitar riffs set Day-Leash” off in
a progressive rock frenzy, eventually returning to
the opening measures which fade into silence to
close Shoot The Freak. Cinema Cinema creates
cinematic music to say the least, with an uncommon
sound in the indie scene. (Meijin Bruttomesso)
www.cinemacinemaband.com
Exemption
Public Cemetry Party
Ubiquitous Long Island
power trio Exemption
busts through the gate
with another mind-bending
collection of tunes on their
psychedelically sprinkled
nine-track affair Public
Cemetry Party. This multi-faceted unit allows its
prog rock sensibilities to overshadow their stoner
metal tendencies and modern metal panache this
time around (“Cold Bodies”) while tumultuous
percussive rumbles and layers of delectable guitars
illuminate their variety-addled path to musical
enlightenment (“White Animal”). Exuding as many
moments of jaw dropping musical interludes as
produced studio slickness (“Hyper Spiral”) with a
boundless energy and freewheeling musical spirit
at the helm, the compositions on this release are
jam packed with an encyclopedic knowledge of
a multitude of rock genres that reaches down
deep in the grab bag to obtain wondrous musical
prizes for folks who care to have their horizons
expanded (“Hounds of Sound”). (Mike SOS)
Myspace.com/exemption
The Reverend
John DeLore
Little John
The Conqueror
The Reverend John DeLore
is not your typical country
crooner. The Wisconsin
born poet, songwriter
and musician has been active in the New York
since relocating to Brooklyn in 2003 and has built a
reputation around providing thoughtful roots music
with an alternative energy while staying away from
cowboy hat nostalgia. His sophomore effort Little
John The Conqueror showcases DeLore’s maturation as both a lyricist and melodist behind a backing
band of classic Americana sounds. Sonically, the
group is firmly grounded in gritty guitars, roadhouse
piano, a dynamic rhythm section, and DeLore’s
no-nonsense tenor, creating a solid bedrock for the
published poet’s weighty lyrics. Like great songwriters such as The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle,
DeLore has a knack for using relatable experiences
and presenting the ordinary as artful. Take the New
York-centric vocal opener “Avenue A” : “Her body is
much younger than her movements might suggest,
clutching at her breast, eyes distant and dispossessed. / Where she goes when the sun goes down
is anybody’s guess. All I know is she wears her loneliness like a wedding dress.” Far from stock country
tropes, 12 bar blues, or Nashville’s underestimation
of its audience, the songwriter’s keen observational style and sense of place can turn something
as common as a love song into something more
subtle and ultimately, satisfying. (Jason Bertone)
web.mac.com/johndelore
Mirror Mirror
Interiors
Interiors is the ten-song
sophomore album of
Mirror Mirror, the New
York based duo of twisted
sound-smiths David Riley
and Ryan Lucero. These
Brooklynites offer some
sonically adventurous avant-psych-pop that blurs
the lines between epic and grotesque, while referencing a myriad of genres and influences (mostly
situated between the ’70s and the ’80s). Amongst
these we detect Brian Eno’s cerebral pop tunes from
the Taking Tiger Mountain era, Peter Gabriel’s audacious avant-pop of the So period, King Crimson’s
and Pink Floyd’s trippy and insane early ’70s
prog- and psych-rock, and the occasional reference
to disco music. The ten tracks, glued together by
prominent buzzy synth lines, atmospheric keyboard
pads, and guitars and vocals drenched in various
effects (but mostly reverb), are filtered through
a psychedelic lens that distorts the material in a
way similar to what a curved mirror does to an
image — or David Lynch to a story. Recorded in
two parts, Interiors features the production work
of Chris Coady (Beach House, Gang Gang Dance,
Zola Jesus), who helped realize an expansive
sound from Mirror Mirror’s home-studio recordings. The other album half, aided by Joshua da
Costa’s live drumming, was produced by Thomas
Asenault and Zeljko McMullen. (Paolo De Gregorio)
Myspace.com/mirrormirrornyc
Not Blood, Paint
Tommy
I’m not sure who Tommy
is, but he’s been having
a rough time recently. He
hasn’t been picking up
the phone, he’s bleeding
everywhere, and that bitch
called Destiny has broken
his heart. Poor guy. But then, with this amazing
an anthem to tell his story, how bad can things
possibly be? Theatrical arena rock (think Meatloaf,
Queen, Muse) has never been the easiest thing to
pull off. You go too far into theater and things get
ridiculous, too far rock and it isn’t fun anymore...
With Not Blood Paint, they got all your bases covered. Their new single clocks in at over 6 minutes,
but that’s nothing compared to how many times
you’ll be listening. It goes from bluesy confessional, to Brian May guitar theatrics, to a singalong
of brotherly concern and back again. Recorded
at their McKibbin loft home studios, this is a band
that lives, breathes and eats their music as much
as their own madness. Listening through to Tommy
is as close as I’ve come to witnessing this band’s
insanity, next to seeing them live. So enjoy, but
don’t get too comfortable... they have a debut LP
coming out soon, you may want to be careful walking alone late at night in Bushwick. (Mike Levine)
Facebook.com/notbloodpaint
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icons
pop
rock
loud rock
The Mast
Wild Poppies
The Mast is the new
project of NYC based
vocalist and guitarist
Haale and drummer Matt
Kilmer, who toured for
two years with Haale’s
band. Under that moniker they released a debut
CD in 2008 and played over 250 shows, including Bonnaroo, Preservation Hall, and the David
Byrne-curated series at Carnegie Hall. In 2010
they returned to Brooklyn where they built a studio
and recorded Wild Poppies. Their new sound,
reminiscent of a punchier, more tribal version of
The Cocteau Twins, builds on Haale’s ethereal
and dreamy vocals/melodies, and Kilmer’s rather
aggressive and eclectic percussive work, open
to all flavors of drums. (Paolo De Gregorio)
Themast.bandcamp.com
Starlight Girls
Gossip
Starlight Girls would
have been the ideal
band to write the original
soundtrack for the “Austin
Powers” film series — at
least, this is what we
gather from “Gossip”,
the only track they have available online. This is a
sassy indie pop gem strongly influenced by early
’60s pop, with a loungy touch in the form of an
addictive piccolo sample that screams “Austin
Powers is at this party!!!”. Fun, clever music
for fun, sophisticated people like… those who
read The Deli (hopefully). (Paolo De Gregorio)
Starlightgirls.bandcamp.com
Zak Smith
Haunted Feet EP
Bluesy jams open “Under
Your Possession” on New
Jersey-born, New Yorksettled artist, Zak Smith’s
Haunted Feet EP. Smith’s
airy and soulful vocals
enter, followed by guitars
that break into a chromatic bridge. A dancier
beat underlies melancholy lyrics on “Suffer Like a
Ghost,” and the EP floats forward with a nostalgic
folk
psych rock
melody/soft
electronic
noise
dance
lo-fi/DIY
ballad, “The Ones that Got Away Will Bury Me,”
made more sentimental with string accompaniment. Playing with more genre-mixing and
continuing the ghostly theme of the album, Smith
takes a poppier direction with “The House You
Haunt” and closes Haunted Feet with the uplifting
strums and call and response vocals of “Faith
But Wailing.” Zak Smith’s debut EP is a promising start in the right direction for this up-andcoming singer/songwriter. (Meijin Bruttomesso)
Zaksmith.bandcamp.com
Julia Haltigan
Julia Haltigan and
The Hooligans
Americana musicians are
often forced to walk an
interesting line between
folk idealism and popular
realities, with the best of
such acts successfully synthesizing the strongest
elements of both paradigms. One such act is New
York-based songwriter Julia Haltigan. Her eclectic
brand of roots music is reminiscent of iconoclasts
such as Tom Waits, the electric blues of Chess
records, and the atmospheric soundscapes of
golden age Hollywood. Haltigan’s cryptic lyrics
and blues-inflected vocal timbre sit right at home
amongst a backdrop of lush guitars, old-timey
horns, and a driving rhythm section. The pedal
steel guitar, a mainstay in country music since
the time of Hank Williams, adds an eerie ambiance that appropriately ties together Haltigan’s
sound. Required listening for fans of classic
blues, alt-country, and rockabilly alike. Check out
“Knocking at the Door” from her latest release,
Julia Haltigan and The Hooligans. (Jason Bertone)
www.juliahaltigan.com
Yvette
Self-Titled
The rediscovery of ritual
music is a consistent
theme in much of
Brooklyn’s output over
the last decade. Bands
like Animal Collective,
Yeasayer and Tanlines
have adopted this minimal, repetitive style as their
own, reducing an internet’s worth of ideas to a
tribal, almost religious “primalism.” Brooklyn’s
Yvette channels this tradition, but they do it
ambient
other
influences
hip hop
prime
good!
nyc music
like badasses, carving out their tribal energy
with religious devotion and knife-like intensity.
Their debut self-titled EP is a primal meditation
without all the psychedelic trappings. Making no
apologies to analog originalists, their construction of LOUD, grinding, sawtooth synths is all
digital; which works well for them. Yvette’s
approach is so immediate, I doubt anyone will
mind how they’ve built their saturated, washy
textures. The same can be said of their vocal
chants. Most of the time when duo Noah and
Rick are singing, you really can’t make out any of
the lyrics, but really... what does it matter? The
way the earsplitting drums, laptops and vocals
are thrown into the fire, the need for narrative
detail is entirely discarded. The four songs on
their EP weave an intense journey without using
verses, hooks, or even chord changes to tell it,
trading in these usual placeholders for a deeper
sense of continuity... one droney shout at a time.
In a town blanketed in beach bands, Yvette is
a much needed wake-up call. (Mike Levine)
Myspace.com/yvetteyvetteyvette
Religious to Damn
Glass Prayer
Like many current bands,
Afghan-American singer
Zohra Atash’s project
Religious to Damn is
inspired by the sound
of the ’70s and ’80s.
However, the influences
on this record are far from typical. Religious
to Damn’s music doesn’t have anything to do
with those dancey Motown tunes, glam rock, or
electro-pop. Instead, the album Glass Prayer references dark and sophisticated artists like Japan,
David Sylvian, Siouxsie & The Banshees and (in
the poppier choruses) queens of cool Blondie
and Kate Bush. The best songs on the album are
“Drifter”, a track built on a super simple bass line
that develops quite surprisingly towards celestial
openings and the title track “Glass Prayer”, which
alternates a verse that’s almost a tribute to late
Japan with a chorus as beautiful and voluptuous
as Kate Bush’s best songs. Infused with exotic
sounds and atmospheres, the record features a
good number of ballads and mid tempo numbers,
but things seems to get more interesting whenever
the BPM go up, as evidenced by the Morriconian
“The Wait”, and the tense and apocalyptic
“Let The Fires Burn”. (Paolo De Gregorio)
Religioustodamn.bandcamp.com
The bands featured on this
page rehearse at
The Music Building in
Manhattan. If you rehearse
there, submit your info to
be covered in the next
issue of the deli at:
thedelimagazine.com
/musicbuilding
By Kenneth Partridge
I
n 2008, FIGO dropped “Plaza,” its Danzig-does-disco debut
single. Although the dance-punk thing had long since run its
course, singer Parag Bhandari and his boundary-smashing
band mates offered something different: a scorching crunch ‘n’
thump sound still relevant in the post-Rapture era.
The subsequent two years brought remixes and high-profile gigs, but
amid all the globetrotting, FIGO finally found time to record a fulllength. Put It All on Black is due out in August, and if the blip-thrash
single “Faded” is any indication, the album is going to prove well
worth the wait.
When a band says it’s influenced by both the Misfits and Kylie, it
usually turns out to be bogus, but I really can hear both in your
music, as well as a lot of other artists. How did you develop
such eclectic tastes?
Fist fights and bitch slaps.
Rock and dance music have intersected many times over
the years, but it seems like the lines are blurrier than ever.
Artists melding rock and dance music has been around
for decades, obviously. But as technology
Mister Melt
RIYL: The Jesus and Mary Chain, Raveonettes, Cults
By Kenneth Partridge
O
n “Drive Your Car,” from its forthcoming debut EP, boy-girl duo
Mister Melt sings about cars, sex, fighting, and dancing — the
Big 4 of rock ‘n’ roll. Mickey, the band’s car-averse singer and
guitarist, calls the tune “totally ironic,” but “escapist” is more like it. If
nothing else, Mickey and Maria dig how Brits like the Jesus and Mary
FIGO
RIYL: The Misfits, Primal Scream,
The Chemical Brothers
advances and using things like computers, iphones, etc., is the norm, the
concept of using computers and live music does not seem so alien.
In addition to playing your own music, you guys do a lot of DJ sets.
Do you prefer one to the other?
There’s a certain energy in dance clubs that is different but just as intense
and awesome as in live/rock clubs. We definitely approach DJ gigs differently than LIVE gigs — they are two different animals, but we prefer LIVE
gigs and the energy of all of us being on stage.
Full interview: www.thedelimagazine.com/artists/figo
Chain recontextualized malt-shop memories.
On “Godzilla” and “Lemon Tree,” the pair cruises
along with the distortion cranked high, making a noise as
timeless as Wayfarers and black leather.
How did you guys meet?
Mickey: I first met Maria in front of Jackson Pollock’s “Autumn
Rhythm” at the Metropolitan Museum in Manhattan. I was working primarily in visual art before this project. But I was in punk bands
when I was a kid upstate.
Maria: This is the first “serious” music project I’ve been involved in. I’m
a writer; at least that’s what my college degree says.
What are the advantages of being a two-piece?
Drummers are notoriously crazy people, so you may have avoided
some headaches in that regard…
Mickey: Yeah, what actually happened was we just got tired of looking
for a drummer. We were rehearsing with drum tracks in the meantime and
then we finally just said, “Let’s get a sampler.” It has streamlined things—
we’re totally solid.
Maria: We’ve had an off-and-on relationship with the idea of live drums.
It’s easy to coordinate with just two people. I agree with Mickey that the
sampler has become a really useful tool in our creative process. And it
always shows up for practice.
You say that you’re influenced by shoegaze and new wave. Why do
fuzzy guitars blend so well with synths and electronic beats?
Mickey: It’s like jumbo shrimp.
Maria: To steal a vocabulary word from Mickey—it’s cathartic. Guitar
feedback can be super ambient at times. And messy, energetic noise
can provide a good counterpoint to the more catchy, melodic part of
a song. The beats and sampled noises can also be really distinct,
repetitive, and controlled.
Full interview: www.thedelimagazine.com/artists/mistermelt
kitchen a local business
Joe Lambert
Mastering
By Mike Bauer
“I
want to work with everyone,” says
mastering engineer Joe Lambert. One look
at his discography proves he’s not kidding:
from Deerhunter to Stephen Sondheim, Animal
Collective, The Black Crowes and Kanye West —
the list is as long as it is eclectic. Having worked in
Manhattan for over a dozen years, Lambert’s skills
were in demand long before he opened his own
mastering facility, JLM Sound, in DUMBO in 2008.
Lambert began his mastering career in the mid-nineties in SoHo at
Ground Zero Recording, which was a part of Zero Hour records.
He transitioned from the position of house engineer, as the studio
supported his desire to switch his focus by building a mastering room.
Says Lambert, “I knew that [mastering] is what I wanted to do.
I wanted to be the guy who adds that finishing touch.”
He moved on to mastering full-time at Classic Sound from 1999 until
2005, and then over to Trutone Mastering Labs, located in what was
previously the famed Record Plant Studios on West 44th Street. But
with an insider’s view of the Manhattan recording industry, he knew the
challenges facing studios at the time.
Moving to DUMBO, with it’s vibrant art scene, great views, and easy
accessibility was a natural choice for the location of JLM Sound.
Lambert has stayed busy with no signs of letting up: recent projects
include the latest from Panda Bear, Moby, and Russian Circles, as well
as Red Hot + Rio 2 and tracks for MGMT. He’s seen firsthand the recent
resurgence of cutting to vinyl, and the growth of the Do-It-Yourself
mentality when it comes to making records. But Lambert cautions that
for all the benefits of D.I.Y., it can be a double-edged sword.
“You could see it becoming more independent artist and independent
label-centric. The majors weren’t putting out as many records, and
I could see how the labels were changing, but also how the studios
were changing. They were having to downsize at every studio I worked
at: no matter how talented the engineers were and how nice the
studios were.”
“Although you can do things all by yourself, that doesn’t necessarily
mean that that’s gonna be the best thing. There’s an advantage
to working with people who have made dozens of records,
who’ve worked with a lot of different people and a lot of different
environments, as far as tracking, mixing, mastering, whatever part of it:
there’s a lot of different people with specific skills.”
The music industry was
struggling with a combination
of falling CD revenue, lower
production costs, and labels
that were finding it harder to
stay relevant with the growth
of internet music distribution.
In New York City, the added
pressure of constantly rising
rent costs began to topple
recording fixtures like The
Hit Factory and Sony Music
Studios. Eventually, Trutone
was added to the list of
Manhattan closures, and that’s when Lambert decided to make the
move to Brooklyn.
“Mastering is way more
important now because
it’s very rare to find a
project that is recorded
in a really good studio,
with good microphones,
with people who
know how to place
the microphones,
and then mixed in a
professional room. You
have all these things
working against you
now, because of your
budget. So the mastering is just that much more important to make
sure it’s as good as it possibly can be.”
“When you see these major studios that have been around for decades
closing shop, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that some things
need to change. I knew that I wanted to open my own studio and I
wanted to be able to work with the people I’d been working with.”
JLM Sound has adapted to the changing industry too: Roman Vail has
been added to the mastering team, in order to help increased demand,
and offers a first tier of pricing for mastering services, allowing bands
on a budget to still get a great sounding record.
“A lot of my clients had already either been here or moved out here
— and newer artists were still coming from all over — but instead of
moving to Manhattan, they were moving to Brooklyn, not only because
they could afford it, but because this is just frankly where they wanted
to be...It’s just a great artistic area. There was a time where Philly
was the place to be and Seattle was the place to be, and right now
Brooklyn is the place to be if you are making records.”
Looking back, Lambert likes the view from across the bridge. “From
day one, it’s been good and I’ve been happier here for sure. You know,
it’s a wonderful thing to not have a ‘job’. I’m really thankful that I can
spend my life helping people make records.”
“Mastering is way more important now
because it’s very rare to find a project
that is recorded in a really good studio,
with good microphones, with people
who know how to place the microphones,
and then mixed in a professional room.”
www.joelambertmastering.com
New Releases from Mother West
Kris Gruen
Part Of It All
“Artfully conceived and
expertly executed.”
-Dan Bolles, Seven Days
“Tranquil Vermont singer-songwriter with engulfing folkie sound.”
-CMJ
The Davenports
Why The Great Gallop?
“Steeped in pop/rock — Weezer meets
Ben Folds meets The Hold Steady —
leading you to sing along to songs that
you’re hearing for the first time while
stories unfold of relationships gone awry”
-The Deli Magazine
Ceramic
The Past Ain’t Far
The Past Ain’t Far is the first full
length from these Brooklyn dreampoppers. Moody guitars weave
with violins, percussion and grand
beats, while vocals hover and
careen about.
Tom Shaner
Get Real or Get Gone
“Get Real or Get Gone has got substance
like you can’t imagine” -Skope Magazine
“There are few singer-songwriters that are
able to create something that successfully
marries the rich tradition brought to the
genre by luminaries like Dylan and Cohen”
-Neuftur Magazine
Bela
Art Deco Smiles
Foreboding and somber like a Bela Lugosi
movie, but with a musical aesthetic more
in line with Béla Bartok, critics have long
spun superlatives that point to this band’s
chosen namesakes. The newest release
Art Deco Smiles infuses surf gtr, retro drum
machines and whimiscal melodies with
cinematic soundscapes and stories.
M-16
La Raiz De Todo Poder
Scathing, pulsing, and louder than hell,
M-16’s music is at times bombastic and
scalding, yet poetic in style and nature.
Unapologetic lyrics sung entirely in
Spanish scream and whisper tales of
mortal disillusion, political terror, and the
chaos of modern times.
www.MotherWest.com
the deli_30
kitchen recording equipment news
Brought to
you by
The UAD-2 Satellite Quad
Firewire DSP Accelerator
www.uaudio.com
Review by Bo Boddie
T
he UAD-2 Satellite Quad — Universal Audio’s new
Firewire 400/800 UAD-2 plug-in platform (with Quad
processing power) — comes with a stellar collection of
plug-ins, which Universal Audio calls the “Analog Classics”:
1176LN and 1175SE, Pultec Pro, Realverb Pro, and LA-2A.
All of the other UAD plug-ins are pre-installed along with the system
software, and have 14-day demo periods.
The Satellite Quad is extremely easy to setup and I was pleasantly
surprised at how well the system works over the Firewire bus. I tested it
at both 400 and 800 speeds, in both Logic and Pro Tools 9, and although
less plug-ins can be used with lower data bandwidth, using the Firewire
400 bus did not seem to radically affect performance.
The UAD control panel offers extensive control over how the Firewire bus
is used, and allows the user to make decisions about how much Firewire
bandwidth is allocated for the card’s usage. This is a wonderful feature
given that there will almost certainly be other devices on the Firewire bus,
either drives or an audio interface, and being able to have some control
over how data bandwidth is distributed is paramount.
Universal Audio recommends that the Satellite always be the first device in
the daisy chain, if there is one. The Satellite does not distribute bus power
to devices that may need it, so that will also be a consideration. There
is no question that more plug-ins can be used with PCI-based cards,
however, the Satellite’s major offering is its portability and compatibility on
computers without PCIe, like MacBook Pros and iMacs.
It is here that we see the one major difference between the Firewire and PCI
based systems: LiveTrack mode cannot be used with the Satellite. For me,
this certainly isn’t a deal-breaker, as I rarely incorporate any software-based
processing while tracking; as long as I can mix with the plug-ins I’m happy.
The only issue I had with the Satellite will not be a factor for most of you, but
presently the Satellite works only with Intel-Based iMacs, select MacBook
Pros and Mac minis. Make sure you check out the UAD-2 Satellite Support
Page to find your hardware on the list of compatible systems.
NYC Studios
Brought to
you by
Converse Opens Free
Recording Studio in Williamsburg
Converse has opened a recording studio they will book via online
application, for free. Located just off the L in Williamsburg, Rubber
Tracks is a brand-new studio based around a new API 1608 console
and a range of analog outboard gear and microphones. In addition,
there’s a smaller edit/mix suite, a rehearsal room, and a large main
stage/event space which doubles as a huge drum room. Management
will review online applications and reach out to schedule sessions,
requiring that “bands be serious about their art”, and working with
artists to help them make the best use of their recording time – also
pairing them up with an experienced house producer. To apply just
Google: “converse studio apply”
A Classic Now More Classic:
Electric Lady Studios Expands
Speaking of API consoles, Electric Lady — that storied rock-and-roll
In my mind, there is one compelling reason to use this product, and
that is to have access to the dizzying array of analog emulations that
Universal Audio has developed. They all sound fantastic, and have made
a noticeable difference in my ability to more easily pull off great sounding
in-the-box mixes.
While I was only able to use the Satellite with my Mac Pro for this review,
the ease of set-up was fantastic, and I really enjoyed having 4 extra chips
worth of power with which to go hog-wild with the plug-ins for a few weeks.
I should note, that even with my DUO PCI card alone, I usually do not
max out the available DSP. A friend recently asked me if I thought the
Satellite would be a good addition to his TDM Pro Tools system, as he
had run out of PCI slots. After seeing how solidly the Firewire interface
has worked I can say yes!
The UAD-2 Satellite comes in several different configurations: DUO (2
chips) with $50.00 voucher ($899.00); DUO FLEXI with $500.00 voucher
($1,199.00); QUAD (4 chips) with $50.00 voucher ($1,499.00); QUAD
Flexi with $500.00 Voucher ($1,799.00); and QUAD OMNI with all the
UAD plug-ins up to version 5.7 ($4,499.00).
Visit www.uaudio.com/uad-plug-ins.html for the full range of UAD-2
powered plug-in systems.
For more on these stories, visit
www.sonicscoop.com
recording haunt on 8th Street made famous by classic sessions with
the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Wonder, AC/DC and Patti
Smith — has built a new API Mix Suite to cater to up-and-coming acts
and indie projects. The new room is part of a recent facility-wide renovation that includes the installation of a classic (restored and recapped)
Neve 8078 in Electric Lady’s Studio A, where Kanye West, John Mayer,
and Coldplay have recorded in the last year.
NYC Studio Tour: Recording Retreats
City bands retreating to the countryside to work through the creative
process is nothing new. Artists from Led Zeppelin to Grizzly Bear to
Bon Iver have all generated some of their most recognized work while
shacked up in makeshift cabin studios. But sometimes, an environment
that offers a little more control and a proven track record is in order —
especially when time and money are of the essence. Our review of the
top destination recording experiences within 3 hours of Manhattan includes a variety of converted churches, barns, houses and even a boat.
Check it out at www.sonicscoop.com/recording-retreats.
Blue Microphone Spark
www.bluemic.com
B
lue Microphones have always
had a reputation for having
great-sounding microphones at
reasonable prices. When SonicScoop
approached me about doing the review
for the Blue Spark, I had no hesitations.
The Spark is a cardioid, solid-state condenser
microphone, designed using Class-A discrete
electronics. The result is a versatile all-around
mic that is colorless and designed to handle
multiple jobs ranging from vocals, to drums,
guitars, pianos, brass, and woodwinds among
other sound sources. Also having the Focus
control, a mode selector which I explain in detail
later, users have access to broader control of the
Spark’s high and low characteristics.
I was scheduled to record The Clatty Lads, a
NYC-based folk/rock/pop/country band and felt
it was the perfect application to put the Blue
Spark to the test. The decision was to use it on
a pedal steel guitar played by the very talented
Matt Knapp. Matt brought in a Peavey Nashville
400 amp to record the song at Stadium Red in
Studio A, here in NYC.
In an effort to get the sound I was looking for I decided to record in their live
room. This was the first time I had ever recorded a pedal steel and I decided
Review by Ariel Borujow
to put the Blue up against the old trustworthy Shure SM 57. I also employed
two sets of room mics to capture some ambiance for this recording.
Once I had the chance to listen, the first thing that was apparent was how
much fuller the Spark was compared to the 57. The Spark was a bit duller
above 10K — which was perfect for what I was looking to achieve, while
the low end was very silky and smooth.
Once I heard the Spark on the pedal steel I was curious to know what it
would sound like rocking through a Marshall with a nice clean tone. The
Spark was able to capture a very pleasing, full sound on the electric.
However, when mixing, you might find yourself cutting some low mids to
help it sit better in the song.
Acoustic guitar was next: the first thing I noticed was the fullness on the
low mids which I love on acoustics. The highs were not where I wanted
them, but it was nothing a little bit of EQ can’t handle. Overall the sound
was really pleasing.
The Spark’s “Focus” control button provides you with two different tonal
characteristics when pressed, and de-pressed. With the electric guitar and
acoustic, when you have the Focus in the Normal position (de-pressed),
the low end seems to increase with less emphasis on the high end. When
Focus mode is pressed, the clarity in the high end was immediately
apparent, and the lows seemed to decrease slightly, but without losing the
richness. Having two different flavors like this can help tremendously for
being a bit creative and having different sonic qualities when tracking.
For the price tag of $199 for the Spark, I would recommend it for the
project studio owner and the seasoned engineer: It has its own unique
characteristics and would be a solid addition to any mic locker.
the deli's Pedal Board
Himmelstrutz
Fetto Custom
• Offers a great variety of
musical distortions.
• Perfect string separation, all the way from
smooth overdrive to
heavy distortion.
• Designed to match the
volume control on your
guitar perfectly. Most
pedals sounds just like
a pedal.
Line6 M5
Stompbox Modeler
Strymon
Blue Sky Reverberator
• Delivers 100+ emulations of distortions, choruses, reverbs and
other effects in a single-pedalsize stompbox.
• It runs one effect at a time,
which makes it ideal for replacing the effects you only use
occasionally.
• No menus, the display only
changes parameters according
to the selected effect.
• When you power down, your
settings remain, just like a classic stompbox.
• Hand-crafted, computationally intense
Plate, Room and Spring algorithms.
• Normal, Mod and Shimmer modes per
algorithm for extremely versatile reverb
options.
• High Damp and Low Damp controls for
über-flexible reverb tone shaping.
• Mod mode for a beautifully modulated
spring, room or plate reverb.
• Shimmer mode for infinite pitch effects
“in the tank”.
• Dedicated Pre-Delay control to fine tune
reflection times.
the deli's Plug-in inserts
Way Huge
Ringworm
Modulator
• Analog modulator based
on old school synth technology, recommended to
those who like weird tones.
• Five different waves of Low
Frequency Oscillator (LFO)
add beautifully bizarre and
unpredictable amounts of
modulation.
• Expression input allows an
expression pedal to take
over the function of the
Frequency knob.
if you are interested
in reviewing pedals
and plug-ins for The
Deli and
Delicious Audio, ple
ase contact
delicious.editor@the
delimagazine.com.
Steinberg Portico 5033 Equalizer
• Bron from collaboration with Rupert Designs.
• It reproduces the analog warmth and sonic finesse of its
acclaimed hardware counterpart.
• Extremely precise EQ, with the help of EQ curve graphics.
Applied Acoustics System
Lounge Lizard EP-3
• Delivers Authentic Rhodes and
Wurlitzer sounds.
• Smooth dynamics, no velocity layers.
• Huge library of presets + custom effect
to create original sounds.
Waves
Maserati GTi Guitar
Native Instruments
West Africa
• Plug in created exclusively for guitar bus
with the help of producer Tony Maserati.
• Subtle but effects usable in a wide
variety of applications.
• 5 no brainers presets: Clean, Clean
Chorus, Heavy, Thick Rhythm,
Soft Flange.
• Only works with Komplete plug in.
• Collection of beautifully sampled
percussion and melodic instruments.
• Comes with editable library of rhythms.
• The interfaces allows the possibility to
change between traditional and chromatic scales for pitched instruments.

here - The Deli Magazine

Transcription

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