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RVA #5 / SUMMER 2011 / RICHMOND, VA
IN THIS ISSUE
10 Flaming Lips
16 Kenna
22 Othelo Gervacio
26 Inter Arma
32 Steve Aoki
36 Richard Perkins
42 Ty Segall
46 AKM Glass
50 Record Stores
56 DJ Carlito in Mala.ysia
58 Record Reviews
RVA MAGAZINE ARTICLES ARE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT RVAMAG.COM.
Flaming Lips cover photo by J. Michelle Martin-Coyne
Aoki cover photo by RICHARD PERKINS
PHOTO BY NICK GHOBASHI
CUT ALONG DOTTED LINE
12
Flaming Lips
O
AN INTERVIEW WITH WAYNE COYNE BY ANDREW NECCI
PHOTOS BY J. MICHELLE MARTIN-COYNE
ver the course of their nearly three-decade-long career, The Flaming Lips have been through a number of surprising metamorphoses and unconventional side trips on their way to becoming an alternative rock institution. It might therefore come as a
surprise to learn that they’ve spent the vast majority of their career signed to Warner Bros, one of the most conventional major
labels of all. However, as singer/guitarist Wayne Coyne reveals in the interview below, that contract expired at the end of 2010.
There will be a new contract with Warner Bros, and in fact, securing it is a mere formality at this point. But as of right now, for
the first time in nearly 20 years, The Flaming Lips are an independent band. They’ve taken this brief label-free period as impetus for a
frantic burst of musical activity, planning at the beginning of this year to release one song per month--a goal they have thus far wildly
exceeded. Some of these releases have taken bizarre form (see our discussion below about their just-released gummy skull, each of
which has a USB drive containing 3 songs embedded within it), but all of them have one thing in common--they display the same spirit
of spontaneous adventure that has been a hallmark of the Flaming Lips’ career thus far.
On top of all this release-related activity, the band has found time to embark on one of their world-famous tours, which will bring their
psychedelic sensory overload of a stage show to Richmond’s The National on May 15. In celebration of that upcoming appearance, I
caught up with Wayne Coyne over a long-distance telephone connection. Our conversation took place on March 30.
3
So I just found out this morning that you guys did a record with
Neon Indian like a week ago.
Well, we released it about a week ago, yeah. I took it down to some
record stores last Friday, I think.
Cool. So I haven’t heard it yet. What are you guys doing on that
record?
Well, we committed ourselves to this thing where we put out a song
every month. Some of them will be unique formats and some of them
will just be 12 inch vinyl records and stuff like that. The very first
one was one that we released specifically for iPhones back in February, on Valentine’s Day. This one that just came out last week was
four songs; even though we’ve said we were only gonna do one song,
it ended up being four songs. It’s just our way of doing something
different. Just saying, “Fuck, let’s do some weird music.”
I saw that you named one of the songs after a Minutemen song
[“Do You Want New Wave Or Do You Want The Truth Part 2,”
named after a song on the Minutemen’s Double Nickels On The
Dime.]
[laughs] Well, a lot of people don’t know that, but yeah. We did.
What inspired you to do that?
it was reissued a year later--this was back in 1984 and 1985--both of
these covers featured this skull on it. I don’t really know what’s happened to it since. It wasn’t a real skull, but it was a good replica that
I had taken from high school. This thing that we’re doing now... we’re
not out of our contract with Warner Bros, but our initial contracts
with Warner Bros. ran out at the end of 2010. And so we were in this
strange limbo, where we know we’re doing a contract with them, but
it’s probably gonna take another couple of months. In the meantime,
we all got together and decided, “Let’s do all these things ourselves.” Meaning the gummy skull, and the vinyl records, and there’s
a stompbox [guitar effects pedal] that we’re making. I think we’re
gonna have a cereal box with a record on the back. I think there’s
gonna be a thing in the back of Mad Magazine that has a record
and a foldout. With Warner Bros, we’ve talked more intensely over
the past couple years about what we would do if we were given the
opportunity to release music any way that we wanted. And kind of
casually, without giving it too much serious thought, I said, “I think
we’d want to release music literally all the time, in all kinds of weird
formats.” I probably said something like, “We want to release it
inside cereal boxes and candy and machines!” And they [said], “OK,
let’s try that.” So when January started, we announced that we were
gonna put out a song a month, even though it’s really been more
than that, and see if we can find interesting ways to deliver it to the
audience. The gummy skull really came about because we had been
messing with this idea of skulls. We had some plastic skulls, and we
were messing with rubber, and we were messing with bubblegum.
“When we started to play shows for The Soft Bulletin, that
really changed the way we presented ourselves. Because we
knew we wanted to sing these very powerful but delicate songs
that really related [to] knowing that you’re going to die.”
We’ve always loved that title. That just seemed like one of these
call-to-arms things that’s both funny but also kind of a radical truth.
[laughs] Specifically, they’re probably speaking of it as, “This is just
trendy music. Why would you want that?” To me, I don’t think it’s
necessarily true. I just think it’s funny that they thought it was so
true. I don’t know if Mike Watt will be thrilled or pissed off about it,
to tell you the truth. I’ve known him forever, but I didn’t think about
that part of it too much. It’s an open-ended jam, where we start and
stop four different times. Part of it’s live and part of it’s an overdub,
but it’s like... we’re just trying to get this one thing down. And I
think it mimics a version of the truth that Mike Watt would be talking about. It’s like: this music isn’t perfect, and it’s better because
it’s not perfect. We don’t really know what we’re doing, and it’s
better because we don’t know what we’re doing. This isn’t calculated, we don’t know what we’re gonna be. So [the song] is evoking
something of that, I hope.
So you’ve got this gummy skull coming out next month. Can you
tell me more about that?
We should be getting them in here on Monday. We’re still waiting on the boxes that we’ve designed to get ready. They should be
ready in about another week or so. But yeah, I don’t know where we
began with the idea. This thing that we’re doing for this year is kind
of an excuse to go back to being an independent group, and our first
record that we ever put out featured a skull on its cover. Even when
14
We got a hold of a guy in Raleigh, NC that has a giant gummy candy
factory and was already making giant things. We talked to him about
it, and we designed this skull and the stuff that he’s doing for us, and
so it just kinda worked out. I don’t know if all [of the ideas will] work
out, but you’ve gotta try.
Speaking of crazy things that end up working out, what made you
guys decide to cover the entirety of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The
Moon?
[laughs] Well, I’m glad that you said that it worked out. We were
putting out our last record, and when you release these things, you
arrange things with iTunes and some of the big online distributors.
There was a producer [at iTunes] that wanted to have some exclusive
tracks, so you could go to iTunes to get this record, as opposed to the
thousands of other websites. And so we were talking on the phone--I
think we were actually on the way to The Colbert Report. There wasn’t
very much time to talk or think or really do anything, but these things
have to get done. You don’t really have much of a choice. And so we
were sitting in the car, and I said, “Well, we don’t really have any
other tracks to give you.” I suggested, kind of out of a panic, that we
do Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon, because we love that record,
and we played a couple of the songs at Bonnaroo in 2003. And once I
said it he was like, “Oh, cool. That sounds like a cool idea.” It was not
a very big or serious decision. It was just like, “Sure, do it.” We only
had two days to do it in, so there was a spirit of, “Fuck it! Let’s just
make this kind of our own version of it.” I think some of it is a radi-
cal departure from [the original], and some of it isn’t that radical.
We were doing it with Henry Rollins and Peaches and my nephew’s
group, Stardeath And White Dwarfs, so there was a little bit of like,
“Let’s just see if we can get everybody together and do this thing.”
We didn’t really think it would be the greatest thing ever, but we
also thought, “Well, we’re working with a lot of freaks here. It’ll
probably be pretty cool.” And once we did it, you know, you get to
the point where you have to ask the members of Pink Floyd if they’ll
let you release it or whatever. So yeah, it’s an interesting thing to
do. Like I said, we didn’t give it that much thought. It was just kind
of, “Oh, fuck it, we have to do something,” and before you knew it,
we were doing it.
You guys have now been chronicled multiple times, in the movie
Fearless Freaks and the book Staring At Sound by Jim DeRogatis.
Does being written about in that way, and having people try to get
your legacy down, affect your creative process as you continue to
be an active group?
Well, you’d like to think that it wouldn’t. You know, most of these
things are done by people that absolutely love you anyway, so you’re
surrounded by people who are interviewing you about music, and
musicians love to talk about music and ideas and shit like that. For
the movie specifically, [director] Bradley [Beesley] was around us.
I’ve been making videos with him since the early 90s, so that was all
very normal, and you really didn’t notice it was going on. But once
and be like, “Oh wow, that’s just amazing.” You’re really working
from subconscious parts of your mind anyway, and you kinda want
to. I don’t really wanna be a logical, smart person when I’m writing
songs. I kinda wanna be a freak that has some insight into human
nature, and our ridiculous lives. So I don’t know. You kinda want it
to come at you as a surprise. You don’t really wanna know what’s
going on.
I find that people who got into The Flaming Lips since Soft Bulletin had gotten used to you sounding a certain way because that
was all they knew of the Flaming Lips. And then when you guys did
Embryonic, they were really surprised and kind of backlashed at it.
So I’m wondering, with you guys doing less commercial-sounding
music lately, do you feel this backlash at all? Do you feel like
people are put off ? How does that affect you?
To me personally, I don’t really get that. We will always have those
records. That’s part of who we are, and those records have allowed
us to keep growing and keep expanding. We do pay a lot of attention to the Yoshimi record, and The Soft Bulletin record, because
we know there’s an audience there that has really been impacted
by that. You can only have a Soft Bulletin happen to you one time.
It’s not a sound that we are making, it is really a version of our life.
So when I talk to people about it, if they were to ask me, I’d say,
“We made that music at that specific time. We can never be those
people again.” The things that we were realizing, the things that we
“ I don’t really wanna be a logical, smart person when I’m
writing songs. I kinda wanna be a freak that has some insight
into human nature, and our ridiculous lives. So I don’t know.
You kinda want it to come at you as a surprise.”
this story gets told--this condensed version of what was 20 years
even then [when Fearless Freaks was released in 2005], this story
that encompassed Stephen’s family, my family, Michael’s family, and
goes back even to our childhood--you look at it, and you’re like, “You
know, that’s not really the way it was.” Something that could take five
years for you to realize happens in a moment in a movie. It’s based
on momentum and entertainment and drama. But as time goes on, I
can say for sure... I ran into a friend of mine who [had been] trying
to get his son to watch this movie for a while. And his son was like,
“Dad, I don’t want to watch this boring movie about Wayne. I’ve met
him, whatever.” He finally watched it, and I ran into him the other
night--he’s only nine years old--and he’s like, “Wayne, I think you’re
the greatest guy ever after seeing that movie.” You can’t help but
want it to have an effect on people. And this story that it tells... it’s
not absolutely the truth. But it’s an entertaining view into a version
of our life that I suppose is true. I think it affects [us], but I would
say you kind of want to be affected by things. I want to have experiences and opinions and things have an impact on me. I’m really not
sure of what the fuck I’m thinking, or what I am about, ever. I want
to go somewhere and do something and find out what it’s about. So
I would say yeah, but any curious creative person would love that.
You’d want powerful things to happen to you. [pause] My wife is
laughing at me.
[laughs] I do agree with you, though. I feel that in my own life.
Yeah, and you want that! I have to say, sometimes I don’t really know
what the songs are about. I’ll read someone’s interpretation of it,
were discovering about ourselves, we can’t discover them again. We
can’t be walking into that unknown that The Soft Bulletin represents
for us again; we’ve already done it. But that doesn’t mean that it’s
not important. I think that that record, and a lot of our records, mark
such a specific creative moment in our life that I would not wanna
copy it. It’s a creation that’s better than I am as a person. And for me
to sit here and analyze it and copy it and try to redo it, to me, would
just take away from the power of something like The Soft Bulletin. I
think the core of our audience are people that love music. Part of our
audience is a casual listening audience that loves music that’s a little
bit more popular, but the core of our audience, I think, likes music to
be interesting. They like the people that are making music to be everchanging. And so, I would think most of our audience could love The
Soft Bulletin, and love something as freaky as Embryonic or Zaireeka at
the same time. I mean, I know I do. When I was young, my brothers
and I listened to virtually all music. We could easily love the most
popular music of the day, whether it be the Beatles, or Peter Frampton, or whatever was popular in the 70s, and we could also listen to
freaky underground music. I remember listening to Frank Zappa and
Yoko Ono and all that, and feeling like this is just music to us. So if
it’s possible for me, and I’m really just sort of a normal person, it’s
possible for anybody.
Do you guys feel like the newer stuff is integrating well into the
live show? I feel like the live show really related a lot to the kind of
things you were doing in the Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi era, and I’m
wondering how that all fits together.
6
I think it really is all the same thing.
When we are making music, you don’t
know what’s gonna happen. You don’t
have any idea where it’s gonna take you.
But then once it’s made--it’s not unlike
these movies and books we were talking about. Once they’re made, they tell
you an atmosphere and a story. When we
started to play shows for The Soft Bulletin,
that really changed the way we presented
ourselves. Because we knew we wanted
to sing these very powerful but delicate
songs that really related [to] knowing
that you’re going to die. Even though
we’ve been singing about that since the
very beginning, I think The Soft Bulletin
really started to humanize that idea. So
we’re singing songs that, for an older
person--I was 35, 36 years old when that
record was made, so I’m into a new phase
of my being an adult. But I knew that we
were going to be singing songs to people
who weren’t in a new phase of being an
adult. We were going to be singing songs
to people who were 20 years old. And
here I am singing about... DEATH. So we
thought, we don’t really want to just sit
up here--here it is, Saturday night, and
we’re going to sing five or six songs in
a row about death to these 20 year olds
who are taking acid! We thought, “Damn,
we don’t want them to go home and kill
themselves,” and so we started to make
our show seem more like a party. More
like a freakout instead of this heavy rock
show. We’d done heavy rock shows since
the mid-80s, really. So we started to take
this approach of being loud but gentle. If
we’re gonna be singing about death, can
we make this seem more like a birthday
party than a funeral? I think the more
we did that, the more we felt that that
was right. We want the audience to be
absorbed in what we’re doing and what
we’re saying, but at the same time I don’t
want to bring them down. That continued
all through The Soft Bulletin, through Yoshimi, and even into what we do now. We
start the show by saying, “Fuck, people,
this is gonna be the fuckin’ greatest party
you’ve ever been to. BLAM! Let’s go!” And
I think that allows us to have these other
emotions in the set, because we’re saying, “Look, it’s about a party. It’s about a
celebration of life. It’s not about the end
of our life. It’s about what we do now that
we know we are alive.”
www.flaminglips.com
www.youtube.com/flaminglipsfree
www.twitter.com/waynecoyne
KENNA
INTERVIEW BY SHAHAN JAFRI
PORTRAITS BY ALEXANDER GERMANOTTA
PARTY PHOTOS BY NICK GHOBASHI
“That had to be the house party of the year,” some kid muttered, passing me as he
walked out onto the streets of RVA. Many comments like that flew past us as kids
staggered down the long spiral staircase above Comfort. We cleaned up quickly,
as we knew we had three more nights of “work” ahead of us to finish the video for
the first single off Kenna’s Land 2 Air Chronicles I: Chaos and The Darkness LP. We had
been contacted by Kenna a few weeks before to come up with a treatment for the
high energy track, entitled “Chains,” which was produced Shimmy Hoffa (aka Chad
Hugo). The idea was simple--to throw four ridiculous house parties and document
them in a way that matched the lyrical storyline. We were very excited to work with
the VA native, especially knowing that this would be his first new release in three
years. He is considered by many to be one of the last true artists; he sticks to his intuition very strongly, and is a huge advocate of just being yourself. I recently caught
up with Kenna to talk about Virginia and music, but most importantly, that random
yet very memorable night.
What do you remember about that night?
Real. [Laughs] It was a real party. It wasn’t a fakeout with people playing the same
song over and over again. People didn’t have to muster up energy. Doddie was
spinning real records that we all love. There was no fake sweat, there were no spray
water cans for the sweat on peoples faces (laughter). It was pretty dialed in as a
house party. That’s kind of the movement right now anyways. It’s not as much going
out as much as it is staying in and having all your people [over], and letting it erupt
into a musical escapade. Just enjoying the fact that [you] are around people that are
like minded, and people who love music. It just seemed like that--especially from
the kids at VCU. They were there for the love. They were there for the love of VA,
the fact that they were working with Orson Whales, and showing me love, which I
was thankful for.
In your eyes, what does the “Chains” video represent?
I think that it represents a Kafkaesque experience of life, and how we are always
having to run from the things that are holding us back, whether it be a job, person,
[or] relationship. At the same time, it also represents the fact that we all have
dreams, and the ability to see ourselves out of something and to go on our own
journeys, whether it be in our minds or our life. I think learning how to translate
those dreams into reality is the whole point of Land 2 Air Chronicles and the Songs For
Flight album next year.
Describe what you are doing with Land 2 Air Chronicles and what is being
launched right now.
The Land 2 Air Chronicles, as a series, is based on [Ralph Waldo] Emerson’s SelfReliance. Chaos and the Darkness, being the first one, is the darkest one because
“THE BEST WAY TO BE ORIGINAL
IS TO LIVE IN YOUR OWN SKIN,
AND BRING TOGETHER ALL OF
YOUR EXPERIENCES INTO
WHATEVER ART YOU CREATE.”
it represents all the things that hold you back. The title Chaos and the Darkness is
a direct quote from Emerson’s Self-Reliance. The second EP is called Imitation is
Suicide, and that EP is about being a non-conformist and being original. The best
way to be original is to live in your own skin, and bring together all of your experiences into whatever art you create. That will be the most original art you will make,
because no two individuals on this planet have the same experiences. The last EP
is called Self-Reliance which is actually the one that represents the most significant
foray into administering the last two EPs. So it basically says, “Fine, I’ve learned this,
so here’s what I understood.” Then after that comes Songs For Flight. Consider Land 2
Air Chronicles the runway, and Songs for Flight me taking off.
Describe growing up in VA, and your influences.
I have worked every job you can imagine in Virginia [laughs]. I worked at Jackson
Hewitt tax service as a computer tech. I worked for Federal Express as a courier. I
was the self-proclaimed VP of my mom’s real estate company. She fired me. I’m still
bitter about that [laughs].
Why did she fire you?
There just couldn’t be two of us [laughs]. I have done every job there is to make
my music, so it’s not different from anyone else. VA is underestimated in a lot of
ways, but if you actually look at our history, some serious talent has come out of
VA. Whether it be D’Angelo, Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo, Timbaland, Missy Elliot,
Dave Grohl, Bruce Hornsby, Chris Brown, or Clipse, music has always flourished
here in Virginia. Being around it, you are always around people that are extremely
talented, that are pursuing their talents full-force. You have a lot of extra time in VA.
It’s not like the clubs are open until 6 AM, like in Miami. You have your music and
you have a dream to make something that the world is going to hear, so its the best
incubator for great art.
Thanks for talking to us, man. Anything in closing?
I really hope everyone goes to youtube and watches the video, and on MTV as well.
www.kenna.com
Interview by Bryan Woodland
remember going to Othelo’s house in Richmond in early Spring of 2006. I was with a
few friends from VA Beach, and we pretty
much walked into scenester paradise. I fell
in love around 30 times that weekend. I hadn’t been
back to RVA in a few years, so the abundance of these
sexy scene girls caught me with one foot off the merry-go-round. As we walked around Richmond, Othelo
was the dude that knew everyone, and it seemed like
everyone genuinely liked him. He was about to graduate from VCU in the creative advertising program and
had already been accepted to the VCU Brand Center.
However, he also had the opportunity to move to NY
and work with heavy hitter Scott Campbell at Saved
Tattoo in Brooklyn. He ultimately made the move to
NY--the right decision, in my opinion--which lead to
a successful career in the art/design field. I kept in
touch with Othelo over the years, through short visits
to NY as well as catching up when he came back to
the Beach for holiday visits. It also wasn’t rare to catch
him on one of my regularly visited websites, such
as the aNYthing blog (glob.anewyorkthing.com) or
Interview magazine (interviewmagazine.com), talking
about various projects and letting the rest of the world
know about his skills as a jack of many trades. He
parted ways with Campbell after four solid years, and
ended up working as a creative associate and designer
with another set of close friends at Alldayeveryday
(alldayeveryday.com). He is currently gearing up for a
solo show, and took some time to give a little update
on some of his other current projects, as well as to let
Richmond people know how he’s doing up there.
When you were deciding whether or
not you to attend the Brand Center,
you had already been accepted but
also had the opportunity to go work
with Scott Campbell. Do you think you
made the right decision in choosing to
work with Campbell?
At the time it was a very hard decision
to make, but in the end it was the right
one. I was offered the job the day after
my birthday, and two weeks later I was
living in New York.
Do you find any similarities between
RIC and NY?
I found that Richmond was a good
stepping stone before moving to NY.
I learned very valuable bum evasion
techniques that I still practice to this
day!
Do you think working for Campbell
pushed you in a certain direction with
your own solo work?
Everyone associated with and working
at Saved Tattoo was a true and talented
artist--I took influence from all of them.
Being there was sort of the spark for
the stuff I’m creating today.
The subject matter of some of your
ink drawings is pretty dark--death,
reapers,etc. What are some inspirations for this type of work?
The work I make is mainly the outcome
of my disenfranchised youth, lingering
in picture form. This is my reaction to
what’s “cool,” and feeling unprivileged
compared to the rest. Whatever happened to making art and music because
you hated what was happening around
you? So long punx, hello “fashion
punks.” Have you seen the $5,500.00
leather Burberry studded biker jacket?
Goodbye DIY. No thanks, I’d rather I’d
sit at home, listen to sludgy metal and
paint something dark. This is my “Fuck
you, fuck life” type of art.
I saw that you recently made a cameo
in one of TV On the Radio’s videos for
their new album, Nine Types Of Light. Is
there a cool story behind that?
The creative agency I work for produces music videos as one of it’s many
facets. A few days before the shoot,
the director from L.A. had been working out of our office - prepping for the
video. They were in the middle of casting when they realized that they didn’t
have to look very far, because voila-”normal guy” was right in front of their
faces making photocopies of his taxes.
You had mentioned working with an
Italian company on a shoe project. Can
you tell us a little bit about that?
Yes. A friend from Italy named Gio
Forbice saw and liked what I was creating so he asked me to design a pair of
shoes. What started as just designing the shoes ended up being a whole
package. I designed the shoe box, shirt,
zine, patch, etc. The company is called
Forfex. Gio has also collaborated with
Rockers NYC, Ari Marcopoulos, P.A.M.,
Fergadelic, and so on.
I could create a place that cool zines
and people who sell them could get attention. I regretfully don’t keep up with
it as much as I want to, but I do what I
can!
Any future projects that you are working that you want to let the people
know of?
Yes! I have a solo show entitled “Postboredom” coming up in July! Fuse Gallery.
Hide ya kids, hide ya wife!
www.othelogervacio.com
What is Zine-O-Phobia and how did it
come about?
Zine-O-Phobia was a little blog I started
supporting the zine scene. I just thought
It’s not exactly news to any
reader of this magazine that
Richmond is a hotbed of creativity, both musical and artistic. For
one thing, we have a well-known art
college right in the middle of town. For
another, like Austin, Texas (which our
mayor just visited to see what all the
fuss was about), we are a proverbial
jewel in a toilet bowl: an oasis of cheap
living compared to NOVA, and a magical wonderland of creative expression
compared to places like Lynchburg,
Danville, and the Tidewater area. Not to
say that Richmond doesn’t have problems. The Civil War (oh, excuse me, I
mean the War of Northern Aggression)
just ended last week. The local anti-fun
police and that ridiculous noise ordinance (since declared unconstitutional)
have made it necessary to cultivate
an underground, secretive network of
short-lived house show venues, which
pop up and disappear like mushrooms
after a rain. It’s kind of hard to keep up
with who is doing what, but maybe
that’s part of the charm of our scene!
All the members of Inter Arma ended
up here after escaping from various
far-flung rural areas. Since about 2006
they’ve been honing their skills in assorted defunct venues like the Bone
Zone, the Dude Manch and the late,
lamented, much-revered Nara Sushi.
These five seasoned, beer-marinated
veterans, along with their compatriots
in Bastard Sapling, Cough, Windhand
and Occultist, are at the forefront of the
local underground metal scene. In true
incestuous RVA fashion, most of Inter
Arma’s members are also in multiple
other bands. Every time they go on
tour, it’s an occasion for both joy and
despair; the rest of the country gets
to experience the greatness of our
hometown heroes, but with them
gone, half the other bands in town
are left without a vital member!
In time-honored band tradition, a couple
members live in a big house dubbed the
“Metal Hotel,” where touring bands are
often welcomed on their way through
town with a comfy floor and some
pizza. It’s only fair--when Inter Arma go
out on tour, they frequently rely on the
kindness of strangers. It’s working out
well for them so far; they’ve completed
three East Coast/Midwest tours and
one US tour, and by the time you read
this they’ll be out again with their
friends Lions Of Tsavo. I invited myself
over to talk to singer Mike Paparo and
guitarist Trey Dalton in a brief moment
when nobody was at their day job or
band practice.
Anytime one writes about a band, one is
expected to define the music. Problem
is, Inter Arma resolutely refuse to be
categorized. While copping to elements
of Black metal and Doom (and in my
opinion, a slight whiff of boogie), they
insist that they are a METAL band. No
more, no less. When pressed, Mike
and Trey will admit to being compatible
with Rwake, and, chuckling, say they’ve
been compared to Soilent Green and
even Sick Of It All. I find them strangely
uplifting and emotional. They are definitely a band best appreciated live, in
a tiny, packed bar or basement, where
everybody goes home tired and happy,
covered in beer and other people’s
sweat.
Inter Arma come out of the gate ripping,
and continue to shred at MAXIMUM
INTENSITY through their whole set,
a five-person explosion of controlled
chaos. Drummer and musical mastermind T.J. Childers (who played with
bassist Tommy Brewer in previous metal
bands) is especially stellar. MARVEL!
as he holds a stick aloft in one hand,
harder to do) and CDs at the shows. On
the gripes that the internet is ruining
music: “People who really like music will
go out regardless. Downloading, on our
level, is doing us a favor. The more that
see it, the better.”
playing with the other! BE IN AWE! as
he drains a PBR with one hand while
continuing to play! His collection of
broken and mangled cymbals stands
in mute testimony to his badassery.
Meanwhile, mild-mannered, thoughtful
Mike (who also fronts Bastard Sapling)
goes completely Mr. Hyde on the audience, wailing like a rabid banshee as he
flings himself around the place.
Inter Arma are constantly evolving.
They have, in the last 4 years, played
their own well-crafted original metal, as
well as a set of Cro-Mags, Minor Threat
and Dead Kennedys covers. Once they
joined forces with a Roanoke band and
played with two drummers and three
guitarists. They’ve even done a set
consisting of just one epic 40-minute
song! Yes, usually it is really boring to
see a band play the same riff for over
10 minutes at a time. But on the other
hand, like Joan Jett once told me, “It
doesn’t matter if you only play three
chords, as long as you play those three
chords with total conviction!” Recordings don’t do their live set justice, but
for documentary purposes, their split
7-inch with Battlemaster (recorded ages
ago but released January 2010) and the
full-length album Sundown (May 2010,
with artwork by Eliza Childress, on
Richmond’s own Forcefield Records) are
pretty good representations of the band.
By now, only fools have any illusions
that rock ‘n’ roll is ever going to pay the
bills. The bald fact is, the second your
record comes out, it is immediately
available on the internet to anyone anywhere for free. And Inter Arma actually
don’t mind. “At least people get to hear
it if they want. A lot of times there’s no
distribution where we go.” A touring
band, if they’re lucky, can hope to break
even and make gas money by selling
T-shirts (still bootleg-able, but it’s a little
How did the current lineup come
together, anyway? Mike recollects his
first days with the band like this: “I think
I played my first show with Inter Arma...
Well, [guitarist] Steven [Russell]
conned me into it. I didn’t really wanna
play music at the time. I [had been] in
a band called False Hope that he was
into. He called up one day and said,
‘Hey man, wanna come practice with
my band?’ I was like, ‘I’m bored, I’m not
doing anything, why not?’ He’s like, ‘We
have a show tonight.’” That was at the
Bone Zone with Asshole Parade, Holy
Mountain and Balaclava in March of
2007.
Guitarist Trey is the newest member,
joining in May of 2009. Back home in
Roanoke he was a valuable commodity, having the ability to play drums as
well as guitar. But when he got invited
to join Inter Arma, he recognized “a
good overall opportunity to get out of
my hometown,” so he picked up and
moved to Richmond. His two years of
classical guitar lessons were helpful, he
thinks.”I don’t have an extensive theory
background, but I have enough. So, you
know, certain things will come through
differently than if I didn’t have it.”
The entire band enjoys touring, and are
happy to report that as they return to
places, attendance is improving. They
have a great time in out-of-the-way
places like Sarasota and Tallahassee, FL, Fort Wayne, IN, Las Cruces,
NM, and Chico, CA. “It was the only
way we woulda survived, really,” says
Mike. “Because, you know, you play
someplace like LA and no one really
cares. They’re more concerned with the
vintage Sodom T-shirts they bought on
Ebay.” It seems that the house show
scene is alive and well across the US.
“[The place we played in] Fort Wayne is
a house,” Mike relates. “It’s been there
for 6 years. Parents bring their children
there because they’re very militant
about no drinking, any of that. So it’s
weird--you’re in a house show setting,
in this dingy basement, and it’s like,
13-year old kids going, ‘This is my first
metal show!’ It’s so sweet. I wish I had
that kind of stuff when I was growing
up.” In the van, they’ve been known to
listen to Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, and OutKast. “I love metal, trust
me,” Mike says. “I listen to it continuously. But when you’re surrounded by
it all the time... When you’re in the van,
you just wanna hear something else. It’s
just so refreshing.”
Recently, the band has been moving in
a different musical direction, with less
emphasis on the longer epic songs.
These are favored by drummer T.J.,
who in the past has been the band’s
main songwriter. According to Trey,
“He’s better on guitar than either me
| RVA Magazine | RVAmag.com
or Steven are. He’s kind of bred to be a
musician. He’s been playing music, and
drums specifically, since he was 3.” Mike
agrees. “He’s got some wild stories,
like being 8 years old in his Dad’s cover
band and opening up for Foghat.” With
the new 4-song The Destroyer EP, which
is nearly finished, Trey says, “I feel like
we’re trying to simplify, so it doesn’t get
bogged down in a lot of overly technical stuff. Instead of [songwriting] being
100% T.J., which is what it was, I’m
gonna give it like a 60-40 split, just to
make myself feel good.” He laughs.
The new songs range in length from
around five minutes to about nine.
What’s the lyrical content like? “It’s
pretty grim,” muses Mike. “A lot of
the songs [on the older records] were
written in different time periods of Inter
Arma, so some of the lyrics are kinda
different. Inter Arma’s a fun band, and
we’re all fun dudes, but the lyrics are
super-serious. It’s pretty dark, nohope subject material. The new one,
though, some of it’s real obscure. One
song’s based on Robert Oppenheimer’s
struggle with the fact that he created
the atomic weapon.” All the music
was recorded live by Garret Morris of
Windhand. “He’s done a real good job
so far and we haven’t even really begun
to mix and EQ different things,” Mike
says. “We’re really excited.”
What words of advice would they have
for up-and-coming young bands? “Don’t
have high expectations,” says Trey. “As
cynical as that sounds, if you go out and
you have big-band expectations, you’re
just gonna be let down over and over.
But if you change your view, it becomes
a blast, regardless of what you’re doing.
The main goal is to be able to actually make a living, but realistically, if all
we get out of it is [touring] a bunch of
times around the country and going to
Europe, I’ll be OK with that.” “We really
just wanna tour,” agrees Mike. “We
wanna go everywhere, see everything.”
is. From metal to hardcore to all the
experimental stuff, there are so many
damn good bands here.” What do they
want the readers of RVA Magazine to
know? “They need to go to shows,”
Mike declares. “All of them. I could literally write a list of 50 bands in this area
that I think are great.” Trey nods. “We
don’t have such terrible attendance, but
more people should come out!” And
there you have it, folks. See you in the
basement!
www.myspace.com/interarmametal
Trey’s thoughts on the Richmond scene:
“There are soooo many good bands.”
Mike agrees. “It’s the best, it really
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S TEVE AOKI
by Alex Rose
W
e all know that feeling. Watching something that you create blossom
into something that is not only special, but is enjoyed and accepted
by those closest to you. Human nature drives us to set goals and work
to reach them. The factors involved with creating something great can vary, but in
the end, we find ourselves constantly trying to put in motion our new ideas in the
hopes that we can make something of them. Entrepreneurs are plentiful, but those
who manage to bring several different markets and audiences together rank a little
higher in my book.
Steve Aoki, the son of a successful wrestler and restaurant entrepreneur, had his
work cut out for him at an early age. He went to school and ultimately graduated
with not one but two B.A.’s. He was applying for PhD programs when a chain of
events and some very wise decisions landed him on a path to become one of the
most recognizable figures in the dance industry today. As a successful touring DJ,
producer, founder and promoter of Dim Mak Records, co-owner of a Korean BBQ
restaurant, and magazine creator (to name a few), Aoki has been one of the most
successful figures in the dance culture movement, taking place right under our
noses. I was able to sit down, albeit very briefly, with Mr. Aoki in the hopes that we
could backtrack through his career and learn of his future aspirations. I was excited
to sit alongside and talk to a man who, in the same breath, could say that he’d
collaborated with Lady Gaga and helped start MSTRKRFT’s career. We’ll get to my
little Q&A in a second, but first, I feel it is important to gain some insight into the
party that took place the second my chat session ended.
Coming back from one hell of a week at the Ultra Music Fest in Miami, Steve Aoki
graced the Richmond stage for the first time at the Hat Factory on March 3. Steady,
unique promotion had been hyping this event up for weeks, and as the evening began, the kids poured into the venue. After a delayed sound check, the music began
and the floodgates opened. With opening sets by Mass FX and Richmond favorites
Audio Ammo, the night was off to a great start. Midnight rolled around and, after
a down-to-the-wire interview, Steve was set to grace the stage. This was my third
time seeing Steve in one week, so I had an idea of what to expect, but no one was
fully prepared for what was to come. The crowd erupted as Steve started into his
set. Off the bat, his first track was a Tyler, the Creator song that I realized was the
PHOTO: TREY HILL
same track that he had been looking for when I was chatting with him backstage.
Soon after giving respect to Tyler and his newly-famous rap group Odd Future, Steve
mixed into the tracks that we came to hear.
With an impressive catalogue at his disposal, Steve Aoki favorites such as “I’m
In The House” and “Wake Up Call” were quickly checked off our lists. Steve also
unveiled some new productions that he had been working on, including a recent collaboration with Travis Barker. Before we knew it, Steve Aoki changed gears and we
found ourselves being conducted in an a cappella rendition of Kid Cudi’s “Pursuit of
Happiness.” As one of the more engaging live artists I have seen, his punk background shines through into his live set. If you have heard of Steve Aoki, you have
heard of his stage dives. They have become synonymous with his live show, and he
did not forget to pull this card out of his hat in Richmond. After several stage dives, the
crowd was going nuts. Steve grabbed the microphone and got right in the crowd’s face,
screaming and inciting them. Then came the champagne, another one of his favorites.
As the music climaxed, so did the pressure inside of that poor champagne bottle. It
relieved itself on the crowd, but the people were not mad. The shower was expected.
Stage dives, check. Champagne shower, check. All we needed was a few fires and
overturned cars and we’d have ourselves a small riot. The end was nearing, and as
12th Planet’s “Hold On” remix ended the show, the crowd knew it was time to give it
all they had. Everyone jumped to the music, at the same time helping Steve, lying on
a pool raft, float atop a sea of hands. As the song ended and the lights came on, the
crowd looked up at the stage, some with looks of utter confusion. Mr. Aoki began
what would ultimately be his final track, a dance rendition of a familiar Lion King
chant. We didn’t all know the words to it, but we screamed along as close as we
could. The crowd went in for it one last time. Then the show was over, and Mr. Aoki
was gracious enough to greet and take pictures with the fans who had worked their
way onstage. After he’d signed autographs and taken pictures at his merchandise
table, the Hat Factory closed its doors and the children were forced to return to their
normal lives. After all, it was a school night.
“I WA S A TELEMARKETER IN COLLEGE
AND A BIKE DELIVERY BOY. I HAD
S TARTED DIM MAK A S S ORT OF
AN ART PROJECT.”
It’s quite the contrast to learn that you graduated from college with a degree
focusing around Women’s Studies and Sociology. At that point, did you see
yourself going down the path that we find you on now?
I didn’t even really know what a DJ was at that point. I owned a turntable, but
called it a record player. It wasn’t meant for playing to a crowd or anything. I had
probably amassed over 10,000 records. I was a collector and with that many
records you probably couldn’t even DJ publicly. I followed labels and the vinyl
culture.
What were you doing to put food on the table before DJ’ing?
I was a telemarketer in college and a bike delivery boy. I had started Dim Mak as
sort of an art project. It was sustaining itself, really. I just wanted to make sure
money was coming in to keep the presses going.
hardcore band The Exploder toured Japan with Aoki’s band This Machine Kills in
2000--ed.]. I was like you; I was interviewing bands and artists. I started an AsianAmerican magazine in college. I graduated with a BA and applied to PhD programs.
That was my world, before. Dim Mak was the bridge. I started that in ’96 as a rock
label. When I moved from Santa Barbara and decided to not go to college to pursue
academia, a certain band sort of propelled me into staying with the label. That band
was The Kills. I put out their first EP in 2002 and moved to LA. Lived there for a year
and started throwing Dim Mak parties. In 2003, I signed Bloc Party. At this point,
Dim Mak had already put out roughly 60 records. [Bloc Party was] a different story
altogether, though. The label started gaining ground, and we were selling a lot of records. Eventually, by 2005 we partnered with Atlantic and Vice, and sold 350,000
Bloc Party albums. We became a successful label and were doing well. We were an
indie label, but we were still staying alive. When I started bringing DJ’s to come play
the Dim Mak parties I was throwing, that is when I learned how to DJ.
So it was learning to DJ live first. How much later did producing enter the picture?
At what point did the bike messenger/telemarketer in you decide to make the
transition into the DJ world?
It was two different worlds. I was in punk bands [Richmond trivia: Richmond post-
Production came in 2005 when I remixed Bloc Party, who were on Dim Mak. It was
easy because I had the [song] stems and everything. I’m more of a composer anyways, and my friend [Blake Miller of Los Angeles-based band Moving Units] and I
PHOTO: RICHARD PERKINS
STEVE AOKI
RVA MAGAZINE ISSUE 5
started Weird Science. That ended a few years ago, though.
Weird Science was quite successful in its relatively short run, wouldn’t you say?
Your productions and remixes incorporated artists ranging from Michael Jackson
to Snoop Dogg, and even threw in some Duran Duran for good measure.
We did have some success. It was kind of a building block. We learned a lot from
each other. I learned more from him, on the engineering side, than he probably did
from me. I’ve been producing on my own now since 2008, and have been working
on finishing up my album, which should be coming out this summer. I have a bunch
of features on there: Kid Cudi, Lil Jon, Will.I.Am, Travis Barker, Blaqstarr, Rivers
Cuomo. No title just yet, though.
I’ve seen that you’ve collaborated with a bunch of artists who would stereotypically fit into the “Top 40” category more so than the electronic music field. Lenny
Kravitz, Snoop Dogg, Lady Gaga, and Drake, just to name a few. How do these
come about? Are you approached by the labels or do you go after them?
The Klaxons just hit me up and I’m good friends with them, so I did that. A remix
I’m working on right now is for Linkin Park. I was hit up by Mike [Shinoda], who’s a
good friend of mine. Drake came about when Interscope asked Travis Barker and me
to remix it. Kid Cudi, he’s my homie, so that was a given. When it’s friends who ask
me, I do the best I can. You have to pick your battles. Almost all of my studio time
now is devoted to finishing my studio album.
Your live show is synonymous with a few things; stage diving, champagne popping, etc. How do these elements that are not typical of the electronic scene set
you apart now?
I grew up with the metal culture. My first punk show was when I was 13 and my first
stage dive was when I was 14. I’m just reliving my adolescence, I guess. When you
go to a punk show, it is status quo. At a dance show, it’s sort of abnormal, but now
it’s becoming more accepted. As far as the champagne goes, I just like doing that
[laughs].
steveaoki.com
Almost all of the time, the remix comes about by the artist or their management.
I don’t have the time to approach an artist or label because I’m always so busy.
REPRESSED YOUTH
I remember the first photo that really got me wondering who was shooting all the disposable-camera shots
at the VA Beach/Norfolk parties. It was at a Fantastic
Planet DJ night at the Jewish Mother: there was this
great crotch shot in which you could pretty much see
the girl’s vag. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who noticed this pic that was so well executed and kept going
back to it. That was the moment when the name of his
website, “Who the fuck is Richard Perkins?” became
relevant. It seemed like he was everywhere--at every
party, shooting different styles of photos in all sorts of
different media. I was psyched to see something fresh,
and someone that seemed to have a genuine passion
and an eye for what he was doing. There was a grimy
feel to the photos--somewhat trashy and perverted-but the execution was the most intriguing part. The
precise moments captured in his images gave a realistic feel to his representations of the kind of youth that
thrives without supervision.
Where you at, fool? Taking flicks?
When I was a child I was pretty much alone, playing with
action figures and drawing and stuff, but when I hit
Portsmouth and my teen years, I started skating. Skating pretty much changed my life for everything.
I always fucked with an Acera; had one on me taking
shitty photos of me and my friends doin’ kickflips. But
other than that, I’ve always had some strange attachment to it.
Word. How was growin up in Portsmouth? Is that
where you are originally from?
Who were some of your favorite pros?
I grew up in Craddock and Suffolk, pretty much, then
started going to private school cuz Craddock public
schools were fuckin’ me. Courts Street Academy is a
priate school in Portsmouth. Then I started hanging
down there.
Ali Boulala, Dustin Dollin, Heath Kirchart, Mark Gonz
[Gonzales]. And a lot of dudes that have mad weird
style. I don’t really like a lot of dudes throwing themselves down 20-sets [stairs]. I’d rather see Jason Lee
do a 360 flip on flat ground.
Do you remember the first photo you took when you
were like, “Damn, I like that, I want to do this all the
time?”
What was your home life like growing up?
Did you ever take skate flicks? Would you say that
inspired you to start taking photos, or were you
always into photography?
South Carolina… Yeah, and bombing maaaad hills.
Nawwwww. I had disposables, and used them like
kids would use digitals now, for documentation. I do
remember getting a shitty video camera that had the
‘still’ effect, and got into it a little after that.
So what are you using these days? Disposables,
point and shoot?
Disposables, digital, random other shit. But I think I
mastered disposables, I just use digital a little more
now, because it’s getting hard to use [disposables]-develop and scan and all that shit.
Do you develop your own film?
I can’t. I’ve never taken a photography class. My high
school didn’t even have one. I guess I just never got
the chance.
So do you prefer shooting film as opposed to digital?
Yes. Always. But it’s hard sometimes. The new age of
digital is eating our soul.
I’ve noticed a lot of photos you post are pretty
sleazy--at least the ones I enjoy the most. Is there
any convincing involved, or do the subjects of your
photos get down willingly, with no questions?
Sleaziness is easy, but for me it took a little while to
actually do what I want. I like to be as raw as possible,
and as dirty. I’m highly influenced by 90s snapshot
porn photography and 90s fashion. I just recently did
the Commodore Brand [Clothing] shoot and got a few
sleazy shots in. It was brilliant. Virginia is mad sleazy
though. I love it.
When did you see your first porn movie/mag?
Shit, four or five… sneaking into my parents’ drawers
on accident. Porn is an art to me, sex is an art. All of
it is also hilarious. Porn is funny and sex is funny. And
throwing it in [under] the right circumstances makes
for a good joke.
You have a good variety of staged shoots, party photos and random shots. What do you prefer to shoot?
What do you like shooting the most?
I honestly like them all. Staged is probably the least,
though. The random spontaneous disposable shots
are always the best. I also love the party photography.
Working with WEOK [VA Beach Party Crew] has been
an honor.
Going back to school--how was going to private
school? Did you like school at all?
Private school was the shit for me. We could do whatever we wanted, wear whatever we wanted. I met my
homie Anthony Didio there--we live with each other
now. And my friend Mike Davis. I live with him too.
My relationships there never got broken, even when
we went to different high schools. My private school
only went up to 8th grade, so after that I went back to
public school in Suffolk.
Seems like you’ve got a solid set of friends. Are they
supportive of the work you do? And are they subjects
of your work?
I love shows. I wanna be in as many as possible. I
wanna show some of my actual art one day. I’ve never
got the chance to yet.
What kind of art do you do?
Shitty art. Little art. Art that not too many people will
understand.
What are some things you would be interested in
shooting in the future?
Fashion. A lot of fashion, and bigger parties. Maybe
some dirty shit thrown in somewhere.
Word. Is there anything else you’d like to say to let
peeps know who the fuck Richard Perkins is?
My friends are my family. They’re in full support, even
though they give me a hard time sometimes. They also
love getting their photos taken.
I just wanna thank everyone who’s helped.
C’monwealth Boutique, WEOK, Commodore, Noah
Larmz [VB/Norfolk Party Crew], ANYONE who believed in me. I also just hope this stuff never ends, and
we all make it to the top.
What do they give you shit for?
parachutefullofforks.blogspot.com
[Laughs] Having my name on my jacket. Writing my
website [address] places. They kinda make fun of the
“Who The Fuck Is Richard Perkins” thing.
You’ve had work in a few shows lately. What kind of
response has your work gotten outside of the general
scene?
Both shows were highly successful actually. [At] the
contemporary art museum one, I had my work shown
on the theatre screen, and people responded very, very
well. The Selden one was even bigger. I sold some big
pieces in that one. It also brought a pretty huge crowd.
“THE RANDOM SPONTANEOUS DISPOSABLE SHOTS ARE ALWAYS
THE BEST. I ALSO LOVE THE PARTY PHOTOGRAPHY.”
PHOTO: JOSIAH MARROQUIN
Is that something you want to pursue more? What
other kind of things would you like your work to be a
part of?
2926 W CARY ST RICHMOND, VA 23321 / 804.358.2516
WWW.VENUESKATEBOARDS.COM
PHOTO: BRENT O’DONNELL
ERICH BIELEFELDT
MAURY BLANKINSHIP
JORDAN BRADSHAW
ANDREW CAUTHEN
GILBERT CROCKETT
CALEB OCASIO
TRAVIS PITTMAN
JOSH SWYERS
rying out by the second, my eyes stay fixed on Chun Li’s movements,
manipulated by incoherent button mashing and jolting the joystick
around as if I were a five-year-old attempting a Commodore 64 F-16
flight simulator. As I finish off another nameless Capcom vs. SNK
2 character, a distorted rumble builds from the stage to my left. I know
this song. Immediately, the levels are peaking, and the cymbal crashes
are careening past the scattered patrons that dot the bar next to me. The
few existing beyond the bar meander around with mugs of tea and coffee,
seemingly unbothered by the chaos thundering from the nearby speakers.
I break stride, straying from the game, as my ears followed by my head
drift towards the peak load of reverb and sludge that hits me, screaming,
“I got a favorite one.” That’s the Prince of San Francisco Psychedelic Rock,
Ty Segall, and his band, going absolutely apeshit on the song “Lovely One.”
Pleasantly bewildered at the ferocity of their warmup, I return to my Japanese fight fantasy, nodding my head, mumbling the words, and mashing
and jolting the controls of the console in time with the mucky floor-stomping beats flourishing in the background.
Following soundcheck and subsequent dinner, Segall joined me for a
conversation in the alley behind Strange Matter. It’s been almost a year
since I last interviewed him, and almost a year since the release of his
most diverse and bizarrely accessible album to date, Melted. Since our last
conversation, Segall has released his fifth LP in three years, Live In Aisle
5, on South Paw Records, in addition to a limited 12” of T. Rex covers appropriately titled Ty Rex for Record Store Day. He has played festivals and
toured extensively around the states and Europe--complete with a gig in
the Bermuda Triangle, thanks to the Bruise Cruise. If that’s not enough Ty
for you in 2011, don’t fret, his fourth studio album, Goodbye Bread, drops
this summer.
Beyond Strange Matter’s vintage arcade, through back doors fit with a
taped piece of computer paper reading “Employees Only Beyond This
Point,” we discussed coming to terms with his eponymous band name, his
burgeoning catalogue of tunes, touring with his main squeeze, “the dream,”
and of course, Richmond, VA. Segall’s played Richmond before, but not
with his band.
Sporting a drab sports jacket (leather elbow patches included), a stretched
out grey cardigan, and a Thee Oh Sees t-shirt, Segall swipes his wavy
blonde locks to the side with his his green-ink-tattooed fingers. He trails as
though he’s warming up his memory for a long car ride, condensed breath
drifting through the gazing glow of the flood light overhead. “I came here
[with] The Traditional Fools, like, three years ago; maybe more than that. It
was awesome.” It’s not like he’s been avoiding the East Coast or anything;
just Virginia. Since last summer, Segall and his gang of fuzz studs have hit
DC twice. Once at DC 9; once at Comet Ping Pong in North West. On his
current tour, Segall says he’s “really happy to stop in places” his band has
skipped over. “We don’t really know what to expect in places we haven’t
played, so it’s awesome that anyone comes.”
Segall has contributed drums, guitar, and vocals to a number of California
rying out by the second, my eyes stay fixed on Chun Li’s movements, manipuprojects that waver somewhere between psychedelic rock and punk, including
lated by incoherent button mashing and jolting the joystick around as if I were
Orange County’s Epsilons and San Francisco’s Traditional Fools, Party Fowl, Sic
a five-year-old attempting a Commodore 64 F-16 flight simulator. As I finish
Alps, and The Perverts. The main difference between those groups and the enoff another nameless Capcom vs. SNK 2 character, a distorted rumble builds
semble he brings to Strange Matter now is that this is his band. He has hatched
from the stage to my left. I know this song. Immediately, the levels are peaking,
cerebral manifestations from the kaleidoscope of surfscapes and social tales an
and the cymbal crashes are careening past the scattered patrons that dot the
adolescent encounters while becoming a man on the the coast of California. This
bar next to me. The few existing beyond the bar meander around with mugs of
perlustration of his adolescent experience is aided by his knack for nostalgia;
tea and coffee, seemingly unbothered by the chaos thundering from the nearby
foregoing the new for the old, channeling the psychedelic sounds of the 60s and
speakers. I break stride, straying from the game, as my ears followed by my head
the fuzzier punk stylings of the 70s. The psychedelia comes compliments of his
drift towards the peak load of reverb and sludge that hits me, screaming, “I got
affinity for the echoplex, and for airy, reverberated fuzz balladry. These elements
a favorite one.” That’s the Prince of San Francisco Psychedelic Rock, Ty Segall,
make up Segall’s unmistakable new vintage sound. Throughout the interview, he
and his band, going absolutely apeshit on the song “Lovely One.” Pleasantly
references albums such as Alice Cooper’s Pretties For You and Bob Seger’s Rambbewildered at the ferocity of their warmup, I return to my Japanese fight fantasy,
lin’, Gamblin’ Man, saying “Forever Changes is one of the best albums ever,” about
nodding my head, mumbling the words, and mashing and jolting the controls
Love’s 1967 classic. Love’s Arthur Lee is a no-brainer, but who knew the author
of the console in time with the mucky floor-stomping beats flourishing in the
of “Night Moves” would influence modern punk psychedelia? I guess I need to
background.
listen to his early stuff.
Following soundcheck and subsequent dinner, Segall joined me for a converDespite years of experience as a member of various bands, it wasn’t until 2008,
sation in the alley behind Strange Matter. It’s been almost a year since I last
when Segall decided to play a rather serendipitous solo show exposing mateinterviewed him, and almost a year since the release of his most diverse and
rial he developed in his bedroom, that his solo career truly began. “I’ve always
bizarrely accessible album to date, Melted. Since our last conversation, Segall
recorded in my bedroom, most of which won’t ever see the light of day. I just
has released his fifth LP in three years, Live In Aisle 5, on South Paw Records, in
recorded a tape and gave it to [KUSF, the University Of San Francisco’s studentaddition to a limited 12” of T. Rex covers appropriately titled Ty Rex for Record
run radio station, now defunct] and some other places. And they liked it a lot. I
Store Day. He has played festivals and toured extensively around the states
thought maybe I could play these songs live. The Traditional Fools got asked to
and Europe--complete with a gig in the Bermuda Triangle, thanks to the Bruise
play with this band the Nodzzz, and we couldn’t do it. I didn’t want to back out
Cruise. If that’s not enough Ty for you in 2011, don’t fret, his fourth studio album,
of the show because I love that band. So, I told them that if they wanted, I could
Goodbye Bread, drops this summer.
play a few songs by myself. And that’s the first show I ever played. I just played
kick
drumStrange
(and guitar)
andvintage
that’s how
it started,”
avers.
Beyond
Matter’s
arcade,
throughhe
back
doors fit with a taped
piece of computer paper reading “Employees Only Beyond This Point,” we
The cassette, Horn The Unicorn, was recorded at his residence, Wizard Mountain,
discussed coming to terms with his eponymous band name, his burgeoning
which doubles as a tape label. It featured a handful of songs that would resurcatalogue of tunes, touring with his main squeeze, “the dream,” and of course,
face on Ty Segall, released on Castle Face Records later that year. He continued
Richmond, VA. Segall’s played Richmond before, but not with his band.
to play by himself, only adding a high-hat and tambourine to enhance his solo
dynamic
reverb-drenched
rock.
Having
recorded
all of his
material out
up
Sportingof
a drab
sports jacketgarage
(leather
elbow
patches
included),
a stretched
to
that
time
by
his
lonesome,
Segall
didn’t
consider
forming
a
band
until
after
grey cardigan, and a Thee Oh Sees t-shirt, Segall swipes his wavy blonde locks
recording
third
and first for Goner
Records,
onewarming
man
to the sidehiswith
hisLPgreen-ink-stained
fingers.
He Lemons.
trails as “Doing
though ahe’s
band
is kind
he says.
“I felt like
I did the
one through
man band
up histhing
memory
forofalimiting,”
long car ride,
condensed
breath
drifting
therecord
gazing
[on
TyofSegall].
I kind
of overhead.
don’t like doing
thehere
same
record
twice
if I can Fools,
help it.like,
So
glow
the flood
light
“I came
[with]
The
Traditional
Ithree
felt like
I might
well do
a full
band
record
next,
becauseIt’s
I don’t
know
how
I
years
ago;as
maybe
more
than
that.
It was
awesome.”
not like
he’s
been
could
really
that one
without itjust
sounding
likeSince
the same
thing.” Segall and
avoiding
thematch
East Coast
or anything;
Virginia.
last summer,
Considering
the diversified
had for
Lemons,
the album
his gang of fuzz
studs havevision
hit DChetwice.
Once
at DCit’s
9;clear
oncethat
at Comet
Ping
was
an
expansion
upon
the
lo-fi
primal
rock
constituting
his
semi-debut
Pong in North West. On his current tour, Segall says he’s “really happy to(Horn
stop
The
Unicorn)
true
debut
(Ty Segall).
Those
albums
nothing
too in
in places”
hisand
band
has
skipped
over. “We
don’t
really featured
know what
to expect
drastic
Although
he did record
he draws a distincplaces or
wecomplicated.
haven’t played,
so it’s awesome
thatLemons
anyonesolo,
comes.”
tion between his first two efforts beyond the interchange of recording mediums
from
a digital
eight-trackdrums,
to reel-to-reel
tape.
While
songs of
onCalifornia
his self-titled
Segall
has contributed
guitar, and
vocals
to athe
number
album
were
could be executed
alone, the tunes
could only
projects
thatsongs
waverthat
somewhere
between psychedelic
rockon
andLemons
punk, including
be
enacted
live
with
the
support
of
a
band.
“It’s
a
way
less
stressful
thing
to play
Orange County’s Epsilons and San Francisco’s Traditional Fools, Party Fowl,
Sic
with
bandThe
instead
of byThe
yourself,”
he says. “The
mainthose
difference
forand
methe
is being
Alps,a and
Perverts.
main difference
between
groups
enfreed
up.he
Being
able
solo; being
able
to get
off this
time;isgetting
a little
weirder
and
semble
brings
toto
Strange
Matter
now
is that
his band.
He has
hatched
having
fun
with
it.”
He
pauses
and
collects
his
thoughts.
“Because
if
I
play
by
cerebral manifestations from the kaleidoscope of surfscapes and social tales an
myself
it’s kind
of super-intense.
I’m definitely
playing
adolescent
encounters
while becoming
a manenjoying
on the the
coastitofaloof.”
California. This
perlustration of his adolescent experience is aided by his knack for nostalgia;
Ultimately, Segall’s main gig is under his name, regardless of backing band
foregoing the new for the old, channeling the psychedelic sounds of the 60s and
support. “For some reason I’ve always felt that ‘Johnny Something and The
the fuzzier punk stylings of the 70s. The psychedelia comes compliments of his
Somethings’ is a little tacky,” he says. “There’s that notion in my brain that you’re
affinity for the echoplex, and for airy, reverberated fuzz balladry. These elements
putting a label on this band, and not acknowledging them as people, too.” He admake up Segall’s unmistakable new vintage sound. Throughout the interview,
justs himself on the cement steps. “The only reason I haven’t [developed a band
he references albums such as Alice Cooper’s Pretties For You and Bob Seger’s
name] is because one of the main purposes for this project is that I like to make
Ramblin’, Gamblin’ Man, saying “Forever Changes is one of the best albums
recordings where I play everything. Which is a totally selfish thing to do. It’s kind
ever,” about Love’s 1967 classic. Love’s Arthur Lee is a no-brainer, but who knew
of how I write. I guess I started things accidentally under my name. But I really
the author of “Night Moves” would influence modern punk psychedelia? I guess
started playing under my name because I didn’t have a choice. I had all these
I need to listen to his early stuff.
songs and said, ‘I’m going to play; I’m not going to wait around.’ Now, we’re kind
of
stuck with
weird. I think
it a of
lot.various
It is a trip.
I don’t
like being
the
Despite
yearsit.ofIt’s
experience
as aabout
member
bands,
it wasn’t
until in
2008,
spotlight
either.
I just like
making
tunes.
But now I’msolo
the show
number
one dude
in the
when Segall
decided
to play
a rather
serendipitous
exposing
matespotlight
in this band,
which
can bethat
a stressful
thebegan.
price you
for
rial he developed
in his
bedroom,
his solo thing.
careerIt’s
truly
“I’vepay
always
wanting
to
have
freedom
on
the
recordings.
It
makes
it
a
limitless
thing,
which
recorded in my bedroom, most of which won’t ever see the light of day. I just is
nice,
you know?”
recorded
a tape and gave it to [KUSF, the University Of San Francisco’s studentrun radio station, now defunct] and some other places. And they liked it a lot. I
His monogamous studio efforts are the soul of his creations, but the polygamy
thought maybe I could play these songs live. The Traditional Fools got asked to
of his live sets is a means of drawing forth the mad psychedelic grit-rock visions
play with this band the Nodzzz, and we couldn’t do it. I didn’t want to back out
that propagate in his cerebrum. His current live support comes from the people
of the show because I love that band. So, I told them that if they wanted, I could
who care the most: lovers, man. This amorous menagerie consists of Segall’s
play a few songs by myself. And that’s the first show I ever played. I just played
girlfriend, Denee Petracek, on bass, and hand-holders Emily Rose Epstein on
kick drum
guitar)
and that’s
how itWhy
started,”
drums
and (and
Charles
Moothart
on guitar.
miss he
her,avers.
or him for that matter,
when you can bring ‘em on tour? “I was super-stoked because when you’re on
The cassette, Horn The Unicorn, was recorded at his residence, Wizard Mountour all the time and you’re away from your girlfriend it’s not fun,” says Segall. “I
tain, which doubles as a tape label. It featured a handful of songs that would
have been friends with Charlie for a long time; since high school. Charlie started
resurface on Ty Segall, released on Castle Face Records later that year. He condating Emily like a year ago, so I said, ‘Let’s do this thing.’ Then we became a twotinued to play by himself, only adding a high-hat and tambourine to enhance his
couples band. It’s pretty funny.” Pretty fucking romantic, if you ask me.
solo dynamic of reverb-drenched garage rock. Having recorded all of his material
up to that
time
by his
lonesome,
Segall didn’t
a bandand
until after
Segall
asserts
that,
in addition
to absolving
his consider
duties asforming
both maestro
recording his
his stage
third LP
and first
for Goner
Lemons.
man
orchestra,
coterie
permits
him toRecords,
be “louder.
I want“Doing
to get aasone
loud
as
band
thing
is
kind
of
limiting,”
he
says.
“I
felt
like
I
did
the
one
man
band
record
possible. People seem to like the one man band as a spectacle thing. I don’t think
[onaTy
Segall]. by
I kind
don’t like
doingup
the
same
record
I canjust
helptryit.toSo
I’m
spectacle
anyofmeans.
To walk
there
with
four twice
peopleif and
I felttheir
like I faces--that’s
might as wellanother
do a fullway
band
next,
because
I don’tofknow
how I
melt
of record
trying to
make
a spectacle
something,
could
really
match
that
one
without
it
sounding
like
the
same
thing.”
too,” assures Segall. And ain’t that the truth. There’s no room for casual rock n’
Considering
the latest
diversified
vision
he had
for Lemons,
album
roll
fans. Segall’s
touring
troupe
evokes
the freakit’s
flagclear
in usthat
all, the
sonically
was an expansion
the rockabilly
lo-fi primalquiff
rockdrift
constituting
hisassemi-debut
(Horn
suggesting
that youupon
let your
downward
your shoulders
The
Unicorn)
and
true
debut
(Ty
Segall).
Those
albums
featured
nothing
too
convulse to the pulse of the bass drum and the shrill of the treble. Think Egon
drastic
or
complicated.
Although
he
did
record
Lemons
solo,
he
draws
a
distincSpengler in a worn black leather jacket, cracked out on cheap bourbon and
tion between
first two
efforts beyond
interchange
recording
mediums
Marlboro
Reds,his
taking
a subcultural
respitethe
from
his rogueof
Rebel
Without
A Cause
from a digital
eight-track
to reel-to-reel
themodern
songs on
histhat
self-titled
motorcycle
status
to get some
kicks at a tape.
local While
dive. The
shit
makes
album
were
songs
that could
be executed
alone, the
tuneswet.
on Lemons
coulditonly
Dick
Dale,
Glenn
Danzig,
and Quentin
Tarantino’s
panties
What makes
bememorable
enacted liveiswith
support
ofessence
a band. “It’s
a way
less stressful
thing to play
so
that the
there’s
a true
of pop
underneath
the epidermis
of
with a distortion,
band instead
by yourself,” he says. “The main difference for me is being
reverb,
andofthroat.
freed up. Being able to solo; being able to get off time; getting a little weirder and
having to
funSegall’s
with it.”work
He pauses
and collects
if I play
by
Thanks
ethic, there’s
a lot ofhis
histhoughts.
work out“Because
there. “When
I first
myself out
it’s kind
oflike,
super-intense.
enjoying
playing
it aloof.”
started
it was
‘Go, go, go,I’m
go, definitely
go--the more
you can
do, the
better’,” he
says. “Now, I want to do the best stuff I can possibly do. I’d rather put out one
Ultimately,
Segall’s
main
is and
under
hisitname,
backing
bandthan
single
and one
record
thisgig
year
have
be theregardless
best stuffof
I’ve
ever done,
support.
“For
some
reason
I’ve
always
felt
that
‘Johnny
Something
and
The
have the songs suffer [just] to put out more.” It seems as though his new
ethos
Somethings’
is
a
little
tacky,”
he
says.
“There’s
that
notion
in
my
brain
that
begets a new beginning. Segall’s forthcoming album, Goodbye Bread, slated you’re
for reputting
a label
on be
thishis
band,
not acknowledging
them
as people,
lease
June
21, will
first and
for Drag
City Records. “I’ve
been
a fan oftoo.”
DragHe
City,”
adjusts himself
steps.
“TheMarkers,
only reason
I haven’t
[developed
a
proclaims
Segall.on
“I the
lovecement
Royal Trux,
Magik
Michael
Yonkers,
stuff like
band
name]
is
because
one
of
the
main
purposes
for
this
project
is
that
I
like
to
the Scene Creamers... It is just an awesome label.” He’s taking a similar approach
make
I play
is aattotally
selfish
thingeveryto do.
on
the recordings
new recordwhere
as he has
ineverything.
the past, in Which
that he’s
the helm;
playing
It’s kind
of how
I write.He
I guess
I started
thingsdeclaration
accidentally
under
my name.
thing
on the
recording.
makes
the exciting
that
Goodbye
BreadBut
will
I
really
started
playing
under
my
name
because
I
didn’t
have
a
choice.
I
hadI don’t
all
be “weirder” than his past albums. Considering the title track off of Melted,
thesehow
songs
and weirder
said, ‘I’mhegoing
to play;
I’m notslower,
going to
wait around.’
Now, we’re
know
much
can get.
“Definitely
moodier,”
he assures.
kind ofpsych-y
stuck with
It’s weird.
think about
it a kind
lot. Itofisdistorted.
a trip. I don’t
like being in
“More
thanit.harsh.
LessIgarage-y
harsh,
It’s definitely
the spotlight
I just likeWhatever
making tunes.
But now I’m the number one dude in
different...
noteither.
as concept-y.”
that means.
the spotlight in this band, which can be a stressful thing. It’s the price you pay for
wanting
to have
freedom
on the recordings.
makes it a limitless
which
is
Hours
later,
following
a mind-fuck
of a set byItRichmond’s
Bermudathing,
Triangles,
and
nice,
you
know?”
a surf-danceable spree by The Super Vacations, Ty Segall and company stand
atop the Strange Matter stage, ready to barrage the crowd with their version
His
monogamous
studio efforts
are therock.
soul I’m
of his
the reached
polygamy
of
deafening
San Francisco
psychedelic
notcreations,
sure if thebut
show
of
his
live
sets
is
a
means
of
drawing
forth
the
mad
psychedelic
grit-rock
visions
capacity, but my shoulders never left my neighbors’ throughout the headline
thatStrange
propagate
in his
cerebrum.
live
comes
the begin
people
set.
Matter
wants
it, but His
isn’tcurrent
ready to
letsupport
its guard
down.from
Heads
who
care bob,
the most:
lovers,start
man.toThis
amorous
menagerie
of Segall’s
girlto
timidly
and bodies
oscillate
like tops
duringconsists
the opening
number,
friend,
Denee
Petracek,
on
bass,
and
hand-holders
Emily
Rose
Epstein
on
drums
“Standing At The Station.” The speakers shake enough to make the debris on the
and Charles
Moothartbass
on guitar.
Whyguitar
miss crunches
her, or himechoing
for thatthrough
matter, the
when
you
floor
move. Petracek’s
thudding,
arcade
canback,
bring Epstein
‘em on tour?
“I was
because when
you’resnare,
on tour
all the
and
controls
the super-stoked
chaos with a perimeter
of cymbal,
bass
and
timedrum.
and you’re
away
from
girlfriend
it’sAfter
not fun,”
sayscan’t
Segall.
“I like
haveyou’re
been
kick
Moshing
will
haveyour
to wait
its turn.
all, you
look
friends
with
Charlie
for
a
long
time;
since
high
school.
Charlie
started
dating
Emhaving too good of time in front of other people, right? Finally, the closing, encore
ily like a year
ago,
so“Pretty
I said, Baby
‘Let’s (You’re
do this thing.’
Then
weRichmonders
became a two-couples
numbers
“It #1”
and
So Ugly)”
get
in the pit.
band. It’s pretty
fucking
you askthe
me.cavity before the
Inhibitions
aside funny.”
and barPretty
tabs well
fed, romantic,
the crowdifabsorbs
stage as Segall’s screaming blonde mop envelopes the microphone. Following the
Segall asserts that, in addition to absolving his duties as both maestro and
sweaty performance, attendee Kaley Morris yells, “I can’t hear shit right now!” as
orchestra, his stage coterie permits him to be “louder. I want to get as loud as
if she were trying to convey a message across a ravine. Jen Lawhren expresses
possible. People seem to like the one man band as a spectacle thing. I don’t think
that she feels “the California love in the ugly, disgusting, cold city of Richmond,”
I’m a spectacle by any means. To walk up there with four people and just try to
as post-show zombies shuffle toward the vinyl available for purchase next to the
melt their faces--that’s another way of trying to make a spectacle of something,
Ms. Pacman machine.
too,” assures Segall. And ain’t that the truth. There’s no room for casual rock n’
roll fans.
Segall’s
troupe evokes
freak
us all,
sonically
Segall,
at 23
yearslatest
old, istouring
more precocious
thanthe
most
at flag
this in
point
in life.
While
suggesting
that
you
let
your
rockabilly
quiff
drift
downward
as
your
shoulders
selling merchandise, his smile never fades; the road fatigue never shows. He has
to the pulse
of the
bass whiskey-cocked
drum and the shrill
of the treble.
Think Egon
aconvulse
dream beyond
the now;
beyond
aspirations.
His dream
of exisSpengler
in a worn
black
leather
jacket,Incracked
out on cheap
andRoe,
Marltence
is based
on the
reality
of Trouble
Mind Records
heads bourbon
Bill and Lisa
boro
Reds,
taking
a
subcultural
respite
from
his
rogue
Rebel
Without
A
Cause
whose label is the purveyor of both the supreme Segall single “My Sunshine,”
motorcycle
status
to get some kicks
at a of
local
The“2+2=?”
modern shit
that makes
and
his creepier,
grittier-than-thou
cover
Bobdive.
Seger’s
“Bottom
line:
Dick are
Dale,
Danzig,
and Quentin
Tarantino’s
panties
wet. What
makes
it
They
theGlenn
sweetest
people,”
Segall says
of the Roes.
“It gives
me hope.
They’re
so
memorable
is
that
there’s
a
true
essence
of
pop
underneath
the
epidermis
doing everything I want to do. Have a rad daughter, play in a rad band [CoCo- of
reverb, distortion,
Coma],
have a rad and
label,throat.
be super happy people. That’s the dream,” the Prince
of San Francisco Psych conveys with an assuring look. It gives me hope, too, Ty.
Thanks to Segall’s work ethic, there’s a lot of his work out there. “When I first
Punk isn’t dead, and neither is the future.
started out it was like, ‘Go, go, go, go, go--the more you can do, the better’,” he
says. “Now, I want to do the best stuff I can possibly do. I’d rather put out one
Andrew’s pieces are profound sculptural
glassworks that could stand on their
own podium in a gallery next to less
functional work, were they not stigmatized by the majority of the art world for
their capacity to conduct smoke into the
lungs of their particular patrons. It’s a
natural thing to contemplate while being
conducted from the workspace and into
a lounge area with comfortable couches
and display cases.
My dad took a glass blowing class in
Northern Virginia when I was still in high
school, and I kinda begged my folks to set
me up. I wanted to learn how to blow glass.
I wanted to make a specific object; I wanted to make some pipes. And they didn’t
know that so much, but they got me signed
up in the glass class, and it really went
beyond that. I got involved in the medium,
and it was awesome. I really enjoyed it, beyond [the fact] that I was working toward
this ulterior motive that I had, which was to
make some pipes for myself. It really gave
me a passion for the material, and I began
to pursue it back then, in ‘99, 2000.
Breaking
Glass
T
By S. Preston Duncan
Photos Kenneth Howard JR
he temptation to document the sensory overload of standing in
the back of Influence Glass--UV protective goggles on, paper
cup full of Captain Morgan’s in hand; watching globs of molten glass rotate under indigo flames like some strange series of infant
planets, primordial, glowing at the majesty of their own genesis--is
too great. The way the warehouse walls rose with a certain ceremonial
dignity around the peculiar warmth of the studio space, covered in bright
and elaborate graffiti; the faint melodies of music I cannot quite recall,
infusing the constant rush and hum of heavy machinery; these things
deserve to be noted. The overall atmosphere was one of artistic devotion, craftsmanship, and shared subcultural camaraderie, shot through
with a quiet sense that the art being made was, in its state of dubious
legality, Outlaw Art.
And yes, it’s art.
His stuff, suffice it to say, has evolved
a bit. Intricate pieces that are nearly
indiscernible as smoking devices demonstrate an innovative, creative vision,
coupled with impeccable craftsmanship
and a natural eye for composition. I’d be
scared to touch one of these things, let
alone pass it around a hazy living room.
And this lends his work a certain gravity
as fine art. I won’t entertain the unending debate undertaken by those fixated
on aesthetic philosophy as to what constitutes art (there’s no answer, dammit).
A more relevant question, however,
might be at what point the highbrow,
track-lit intellectuals of the art world
begin considering something an artist
might smoke out of to be art, itself.
There is that “Oh it’s a pipe, it’s not art”
thought, but for me it’s in the eye of the
beholder. You can go to any museum,
throughout the country, throughout the
world, and look at certain objects, or paintings, or abstract art and say to yourself,
or to others around you, “I don’t think
that’s art. I could have done that. That’s a
Jackson Pollack splatter painting.” So it’s all
in the eye of the beholder, what you think
is art.
It takes a very open-minded gallery--and
there are a lot of people banding together,
because they believe in the fact that it
is art. They’re opening galleries that are
based on glass, based on pipe makers;
oftentimes they’re owned by pipe makers.
But that’s what you gotta do sometimes if
you want to get your idea out there. If you
want to display this as art, and no gallery
wants to display it as art, make your own
gallery. Display it as art. Create your own
setting for your own art.
It’s always been the place of the
underground artist to redefine art for
the rest of the world, to labor under the
constraints of subterranean legitimacy,
until the outlaw becomes chic enough
to auction off. In this state, what is
created remains pure, unadulterated
by the stylistic whims of the marketplace. It is untainted by the pressures
of commercial conformity, popular
expectation. But it is still commercial
work. There are still production pieces.
This line between functionality, saleability, and creativity has fostered a
community in which the niche market
for “heady” glass appears reactive to
the glass blowers, rather than the other
way around. The glass blowers, in turn,
have become profoundly influenced by
each other, rather than by some faddish
standard of art world desirability.
I do what I do. And I don’t necessarily
have a goal to become solely an artist. I
feel as if I’ll always make pipes, even if I’m
making them in the art world. I make pipes
right now because it’s the best money I
can make. The art world doesn’t pay the
same as the production world. And I would
have to say that I would definitely like to
be more known as an artist, as well as a
pipemaker, because I do feel like I fall in
that category, as do lots of glass blowers.
It would be very nice to get more of... not
necessarily pipe oriented, but that culture,
that type of work, that type of idea--that
it’s ok to display this as glass art, even
though it’s a functional pipe. If you make
a teapot, and that teapot is beautiful, and
you think it’s art, there’s no harm in putting
it in a museum or a gallery, even though
it’s just a teapot.
It’s funny, because even within the
pipemaking and glass community, there
are individuals that consider themselves
artists, and there are individuals of equal
talent and skill, who make the same items,
who would call themselves well-trained
craftsmen. And the only difference to me is
their mindset, what they think their work
is. So it’s an interesting scale. And I don’t
get to talk to too many people who are in
the general public that go and view art,
that would have an opportunity to view
a lot of pipe art. I don’t have any idea of
what their feedback would be, so it would
be nice to learn that, to see that happen.
This stigma is entwined with that of
an associated, criminalized culture.
Despite every pipemaker’s assertion
that their work is solely for use with tobacco, nothing has really alleviated the
stereotypical connotation conjured by
heady glasswork of the classless stoner,
overly obsessed with getting high. The
common perception is that this stuff is
for lawbreakers, potheads. But decriminalizing a substance is a far different
thing from destigmatizing a culture, and
the effects of such a decriminalization
on the legitimacy of pipemaking-as-art
are debatable.
I think once that issue has been dropped
a little, and everyone kind of gets their
panties out of a bunch, more galleries and
more people will be receptive to the idea
that this is a pipe show, and that we’re
going to show some pipes. We’re ready
for that, and it’s going on in a lot of places,
and I’m on the brink of breaking into them.
I’m trying to make things happen here so
that I can go out and get down on some of
these other events, and go to some other
gallery openings where fellow pipemakers
are having gallery openings with new work
of theirs. Or a new idea or concept. And oftentimes there’s some amount of pipework,
and then a bit of just art in there, that the
glassblowers are making because they are
bridging that gap.
The quasi-legal status of marijuana
on the West Coast has not had an
overwhelmingly positive effect on
public perception of artistic glasswork.
Far from a miraculous legitimization of
the practice, legalization has seemed
to enable an artless attitude of blatant
priority among the vague community
of stoners, who react with a careless,
does-the-trick apathy towards the more
elaborate smoking apparatuses.
Honestly, this might kinda contradict what
I said earlier, but it seems like out west,
where you have this decriminalization
thing going on, it‘s less about “I want this
awesome piece,” and more about “I just
need something to get the job done.” Now,
that could just be what I’ve been exposed
to. I’ve never lived out there, I’ve never
spent more than 6 days at a time out there,
so really, what do I know of it? But it’s what
friends tell me, and kind of what I’ve seen.
It seems like it’s a hard hustle to get your
glass on [out West]. And I hear there’s
a lot of glassblowers out there, and they
can get their stuff out. They live out there
because they like the area. But then there
are a lot of glassblowers out there that just
kinda know how to make production, and
all they do is sit around and make the same
thing a hundred times a day. They probably
don’t consider themselves artists, and I
don’t consider that art, but you could take
that and make it art.
There’s an individual who has made a
really large American flag, and when you
step back it appears to be an American
flag, but when you zoom into it, it’s a series
of pipes that are colored, and that are laid
out to display this American flag. Now
if you had just made all those pipes one
color, and hadn’t laid them out like that, it
wouldn’t be art. You just made a bunch of
pipes to sell and make money. But he consciously colored them the way he wanted,
and laid them out in a conscious pattern,
that conveyed a specific message. Thus, it
is art. That’s how easy it is to bridge pipes
into art.
And not just art, but political art. Any
time you have a medium inherently confrontational towards the legal institutions that be (like, say, graffiti), the work
carries with it an implicit defiance. The
very act of its creation is one of subversion in the context of social mores and
legislative judgment. It’s one of the rare
instances in art where intent is irrelevant
to the statement being made; it’s always
there. But pipemakers aren’t default activists. The relatively small glassblowing
scene has, in its ostracism from the art
world and under the suspicious glare of
the law, cultivated a unique community
with its own standards, levels of accomplishment, and celebrity reverence.
There are absolutely some, I guess you
could call, “celebrity” glass blowers. People
that are just really sought after. And I think
a part of that is I’m living this daily, where
I can only make so much work. It’s simple
supply and demand. If you can get the
people to want your stuff so bad, then you
can charge what you want, and you can
sell to who you want, and you can call the
shots. And that’s what pretty much makes
these guys big celebs. They can put the dollar ticket that they want on their product
because the demand is there, and people
are willing to spend it. And I think that’s
when you know you’re a bigshot. There’s
definitely a pecking order in the glass community. We all know who the top dogs are,
and they know it, and they get invited to
flame offs, and master’s competitions, and
they get offers to teach classes. I personally
take classes from some of these superstars.
I admire them. They’re my Tony Hawk. It’s
definitely interesting to see the progression
of some of these people, however, because
I’ve seen some of them just pop up out of
the woodwork, and become superstars out
of nowhere. And it’s just because, “I’m so
and so from wherever, and I’m local, I’m
independent, but I’m good at it. And then
all of a sudden I pop up on the internet,
and the world is exposed, and they respond
really really well to my glass.” And then almost overnight you can gain superstardom
in the pipemaking community. It’s pretty
awesome. There’s not a lot of mediums
where that’s possible. If you’re a musician,
you’ve got a long, long road to go before
you become famous. It’s really cool to me
that within the pipemaking community, it
just takes a couple good ideas, and you can
be one of those top dogs we’re sitting here
talking about.
As with any movement, glass has its
epicenters, those places where the
accomplished and aspiring assemble
to break into the realm of respectability
and fame. Perhaps more important than
his own personal accomplishments is
the vision Andrew has for Richmond.
I would say the Richmond glass community
is doing a pretty good job of representing.
We’ve got a decent amount of glassblowers out here. I hope to bring more into
Richmond. We’ve got a couple kids down
here from Northern Virginia who are interested in a space in the shop. I got a guy in
Charlottesville who’s interested in a space.
So we’re pulling some people in here. And
compared to some cities, we might be
crushing them, but there are a lot of other
places, like Philly, that are just swarming
with really good glassblowers. And Burlington, Vermont, they’ve got a lot of good
glassblowers out there. There are a lot of
areas where people just kind of congregate,
and get these glass meccas started. And
that’s what we’re trying to push for. So I
would say we’re measuring up, but we’re
still growing. We’re young, we’re hungry,
and we’re ready to make it happen.
Photos courtesy of Kulture.
I feel as if I’ll always
make pipes, even if
I’m making them in
the art world.
BALLICEAUX
203 N LOMBARDY RVA
LUNCH BRUNCH DINNER EVENTS
BALLICEAUXRVA.COM
LOCAL
Words By Graham Scala / Photos By Tony Lynch
Record
A
nybody who has paid the slightest bit of attention to any sort of media
outlet over the past two or three years has likely seen a piece on the
resurgence of vinyl records. One can speculate on the medium’s newfound
popularity and the reasons behind it, but explanations are myriad and
inconclusive. There is the much-trumpeted tactile appeal of records, the physicality of
a needle contacting a vinyl surface rather than a laser passing over a piece of plastic or
a clump of binary code shrieking from an MP3 player’s woefully miniscule plastic ear
pieces. The visual appeal cannot be discounted either – a standard LP can be adorned
with at least two feet of artwork. Then there is the sense that possessing an object as
unwieldy as a vinyl record is an act in opposition to music’s recent tendency to move
into an intangible digital realm. Whether this is a renewed emphasis on consumerist
tendencies or a revival of interest in music as a complete package depends on how
charitably an observer is inclined to comment.
As could reasonably be expected, the mainstream music industry has largely missed
the bandwagon on vinyl’s newly-recovered popularity. The Recording Industry Association of America, when not busy suing music downloaders for exorbitant sums
or ripping off musicians for even more, found time to issue a statement denying that
there was any sort of renewed interest in records at all. Major labels surprised nobody
by being several years behind the times in terms of vinyl and, to make up for lost time,
flooded the market with overpriced reissues of dollar-bin albums and flash-in-the-pan
STORES
Top 40 material. But despite the bumbling, out-of-touch approach taken by the stodgier
elements of the music industry, the medium’s popularity has soared amongst a fan base
which has splintered into a variety of forms.
There are the casual fans: those who see it as a sort of retro fashion item, the hip indie
record to go with the USB turntable from Urban Outfitters; or the contrarians who
view their support of the medium as a pre-packaged nonconformity. But then there
are the consumers for whom the renewed interest in vinyl is a non-issue, the type that
collected records all along and won’t stop even after popular interest has waned. Some
weave record collecting into their identity more than others, but even to apply the term
“consumer” sells short the relationship between this type of individual and the music
that they cherish.
It is this latter category of vinyl devotee that is behind the coterie of record stores that
have popped up in Richmond over the past two or three years. Prior to the establishment of these smaller, more specialized shops, a handful of options existed – Plan 9
and Record Finders most notably – but all were larger and lacked the new stores’ focus.
While these newer establishments vary in aesthetic and focus, there are also striking
similarities which, when combined, provide a wealth of resources for vinyl collectors
both novice and seasoned.
DEEP
GROOVE
RECORDS
I
t is little surprise that one of Richmond’s most seasoned record store
veterans would embark on his own endeavor. Jay Leavitt, owner of deep
groove, has worked around music for decades, including a sixteen-year stint
managing Plan 9. His own operation is decidedly more scaled-back than his
previous employer, however. Rather than sheer volume of stock, Leavitt focuses
on ensuring the quality of each album in the bins. As he explains it, “So many
stores you go into are stocked with lots of crappy records. You often have to
dig through hundreds to possibly find one. You can come into Deep Groove and
look at every record in the store in an hour.” His dedication to crate-digging as
a sort of treasure hunt extends to another policy – whereas many stores offer
their wares on the internet to maximize profit, Leavitt keeps as much stock on
the shelves as possible, allowing customers a fair chance to snag something that
might otherwise be difficult to come by.
Leavitt explained some of the shifts he has witnessed in recent years. The most
immediately noticable is a wider age range. LPs are no longer just the purview of
those who “grew up with records and never stopped buying or listening to them,”
but also those thirty to forty year olds who “grew up in the CD era and are getting into vinyl for the first time,” and the “high school and college age listeners”
whose interest in the medium is encouraged by “pretty much all the new bands
putting out their material on vinyl, most with an MP3 download card. You have
the vinyl record, plus you can download the music. The best of both worlds.” In
addition to demographic shifts, as Richmond becomes a town that can support
more and more record stores, Leavitt has begun to “see people come in from
a fairly distant radius on a regular basis.” This influx of interest from outside
sources provides a wider appreciation of Richmond as a destination for music
aficionados and an expanded customer base, benefiting not only his own store,
but Richmond’s music community as a whole.
Leavitt was also quick to stress the interdependent relationship between record
stores and their customers. Whereas many businesses have a one-way flow
of products to their clientele, used music stores are equally reliant on customers. “We’re always looking to buy records. The toughest part of this business is
getting in good stock.” But in spite of the difficulties, Leavitt stands firm in his
belief that “people will still be buying, collecting, and listening to records when
the Earth crumbles.” While the spike in vinyl sales could very easily have inspired
a sense of competition amongst the city’s record stores, he believes it offers a
chance for a solidarity between them. “It’s a bit like fast food,” he explains, “and
the way they often group Taco Bell, McDonalds, and Wendys together. The more
the merrier.”
deepgroovevinyl.com
Steady Sounds
D
eep Groove isn’t the only store started by former Plan 9 employees.
Steady Sounds, the brainchild of Marty Key and Drew Snyder, holds the
title of Richmond’s newest record store. While the owners have largely
abstained from promotion outside of the painted wooden sign in front of their
store and a small internet presence, they have thrust Steady Sounds into the
thick of the city’s artistic community, hosting touring bands and art shows in addition to selling records.
Starting another record store might seem like a strange decision in a town with
several, but it seemed like a natural choice to Snyder, who explained, “Me and
Marty had been doing it for a long time. We had a lot of people we got really
good records from so we just kinda figured why not get them for ourselves and
open our own place. I guess what separates us is that we have a really steady
flow of vinyl coming in, which is really tough to get in any town. It’s our leg up.”
The store came together quickly – in about six months total, according to Snyder - but possesses a distinct atmosphere. “We wanted it to be light and airy,
definitely not stuffy,” he explains. “We wanted it to be a place where you can chill
and not feel rushed or cramped. I mean, I worked in the Plan 9 basement for so
many years, I just wanted to get away from that sort of environment.” It’s easy
to see what he’s talking about – the well-lit openness helps to create a relaxed
environment conducive to a comfortable crate-digging experience.
While it may not have seemed like the wisest move to open another record store
in such a shaky economic climate, especially one surviving primarily on wordof-mouth, Snyder seemed unconcerned. “It’s a good music town and always
has been. Even going back to the ‘60s and ‘70s it was a soul hub, it’s just a very
musically-oriented city. I think it’ll always be that way and won’t ever have a
problem.”
steadysounds.tumblr.com
VINYL CONFLICT
espite Richmond punk’s renown over the decades, anybody looking for punk
and hardcore records around town in recent years was hard-pressed to find
a regular source. Soundhole closed after a steady decline, and infoshops like
the People’s Resource Center/818 Space or Paper Street were relatively shortlived. Good records would occasionally turn up in the used bins at Plan 9, but
that store was never focused on any single genre, much less punk.
D
Brandon and Lauren Ferrell had run No Way Records since 2005 and had often
considered Richmond’s lack of sources for punk records. When Salvation Tattoo
relocated from its Pine Street location in 2008, the two stepped in to fill the
space. Ferrell explained that Vinyl Conflict is “the only hardcore/punk/metal
specific store in Richmond. That’s the niche we wanted and are sticking to. We’ll
sell some other stuff too, because it comes in. Or we’ll refer people with stuff
we know nothing about to other stores.” And while they’re certainly not the only
store to have opened in recent years, the dedication and the genre-specificity
that characterize Vinyl Conflict help to ensure their continued success, regardless
of the store’s niche appeal. As Ferrell puts it, “Get the hottest of the hot, the rarest of the rare, the best of the best. Do it right and stick to your guns. The people
will come to you then. If you’re a shady fuck, people will know and they won’t
give you their money.”
While Vinyl Conflict arose from No Way Records, which, like all record labels
at this point, relies on internet sales, the store’s owners shy away from offering
their stock online. Ferrell explains, “We offer stuff we get a lot of online in our
webstore, but not much of our used stock that keeps most of the people coming
in. It comes in and out so fast it would be hard to put it all online anyway.” It’s not
just the dedication to keeping used stock in-house that separates Vinyl Conflict
either. Record collecting’s mainstream had little to do with punk rock for a long
time, but in recent years rare punk albums are being sold for more money than
ever before. While it would be easy for the owners of Vinyl Conflict to offer a
larger portion of their stock online, likely garnering substantially more money,
they choose to offer it to customers in-person, typically for far less than the
items would earn online. Their approach is born of a sheer love of the music, of
wanting to get records into appreciative hands rather than squeeze every last
cent out of each item.
vinylconflict.com
While these newer stores may seem to lack a cohesive identity between them, they all
have an overarching sense of focus and dedication. Rather than appealing to everybody,
each store focuses on a smaller, more specialized audience. Each is more selective in its
offerings, so that a shopper isn’t inundated with the same unwanted surplus stock that
tends to clutter larger establishments. Each downplays an emphasis on internet sales,
offering the customer a better chance at a good find. Each focuses on the physical environment, ensuring that patrons aren’t rushed, crowded, or uncomfortable. While it may
seem like an unwise decision for so many music stores to open up in the midst of what
is at best an uncertain economy, and at a point in which the music industry continues
its rapid nosedive, stores such as Deep Groove, Steady Sounds, and Vinyl Conflict all
demonstrate that vinyl retailers can survive, not through competition but through supportive coexistence.
hen Carl Hamm’s curiosity and compassion
drove him to reach out to Indonesian residents
after the tsunami of 2004, he had no idea it
would send him on a 7-year research project of “some
of the most beautiful, soul-stirring music I have ever
heard”—the quirky psychedelic sounds of Malaysian
Pop Yeh-Yeh. Carl, aka DJ Carlito, a local Richmond
DJ well known for his Bollywood Nights and WRIR
Sunday evening radio show “If Music Could Talk,” has
always kept his passion for collecting obscure secondhand vinyl at the forefront of his creative endeavors.
As he was developing ideas for one of his upcoming
radio broadcasts after the tsunami wrecked the Indonesian landscape, he began working on a set list for an
hour-long creative tribute to Indonesian music.
The next few weeks led him to scour Ebay auctions for
the most obscure and interesting music of Indonesia.
Due to geographic proximity, many of the auctions
included Malaysian 60’s and 70’s pop records mixed
into the offering. “I deeply respect the creative process
of all music throughout the world,” Carl says. “So I
decided to purchase the vinyl and take a listen.” As
the needle dropped, giving him his first listen to these
vintage sounds, he knew that he had found a genre
worthy of his deep devotion. Soon thereafter, he began
a routine of daily post office pick ups, slowly accumulating Malay vinyl delicately packed in faded album
jackets. The clerks who admired the unusual stamps
on his deliveries soon got to know Carl as a regular.
After the tsunami, when Carl reached out through
Blogspot and Myspace, the two most popular virtual
social networking tools at the time, he started his
introduction abroad with a simple question: “Is everybody okay?” He soon began engaging in frequent
dialogue with several individuals in a Singapore metal
band, Suicide Solution. This group included Elsa, then
Suicide Solution’s singer, who now resides in Oregon
and sings in the hard rock band Soul Distraction. Elsa
humored Carl’s love for the 60’s pop that her parents
were fond of in their youth, and translated lyrics of the
popular tunes. Carl’s growing interest in Malaysian Pop
Yeh-Yeh is unusual, as “young Malays see the music as
old-fashioned in an era during which their music scene
is trending toward Western-sounding metal, rock, and
techno-pop. But there are also young musicians such
as Elsa that have a deep respect and admiration for the
pop stars of the elder generation.” Her ties to the music
run deep, as her mother was a makeup artist and stylist for some of the most popular singers of the era.
Over the next several years, he researched the individual Pop Yeh-Yeh artists, piecing together the history
of the era. “Almost all of the artists recorded at the
same studio in Singapore, after they were discovered
through local talent show contests,” he relates. “After
recording, they were picked up by small record label
companies that were typically owned by independent
businessmen as a creative side venture. These labels
released the music, and artists were paid a flat fee,
often signing away any publishing rights to their works.
In general, maintaining copyright wasn’t given priority
until sometime in the 70’s.”
As Carl continued to trace the works of both popular
and obscure musicians of the genre, the desire to make
Pop Yeh-Yeh more accessible led him to the idea of
releasing a digitally remastered double LP compilation
of vintage gems. He contacted EMI for permission to
license some of the older songs in their catalog, and
found himself “bounced back and forth between international offices and label employees.” Having no luck
with approaching the bigger labels, he decided to focus
on smaller defunct labels, and hoped to find a way to
contact the artists directly for permission.
Carl contacted Sublime Frequencies, a small label in
Seattle known for releasing obscure and interesting
sounds from around the world, and they took immediate interest in the project. Unfortunately, this still left
him with a dilemma: with the small record labels of the
era having gone out of business several decades prior,
how would he acquire licensing for the songs they’d
released? However impossible it seemed to do so,
honoring the creative rights of the original artists was
a priority that negated the possibility of simply cutting
the record without their consent. He was left with only
one option: to find all of the artists on his set list and
obtain their legal permission for the re-release. If he
was going to do this, he was going to do it right. Carl
knew he had to go to Malaysia.
As soon as he made this decision, he was faced with
unknowns that would have stopped others dead in
their tracks: where to get the money for the hefty
airplane ticket and travel expenses, how to get enough
time off work without having to quit his job, and who
to even contact once he stepped on Malaysian ground.
He had months of work to do, both in nailing down the
details of his nebulous plan and in finding a creative
way to fund the trip.
He sent a video summary of his proposal for the
project to kickstarter.com, along with the description of specific goals that he intended to accomplish.
Thanks to help from his big sis, Carl’s donations increased, as did his luck—“I was connected with dozens
of people in Singapore and Malaysia who wanted to
help me out when when I arrived.” Aidil, the leader of
the Malaysian power pop band Couple, contacted him
and mentioned that the band’s guitarist happened to
be the daughter of Adnan Othman. “Adnan is one of
my favorite Pop Yeh-Yeh artists,” Carl says. When Carl
arrived in Malaysia, Aidil personally introduced Carl to
Adnan, who went out of his way to help Carl while he
was there.
As he prepared for his trip, his email inbox continued
to flood with correspondence from the people that he
had been in contact with over the past several years.
He updated them on current travel details, and they
worked on scheduling times to meet. The information
that he needed to finalize the re-release was waiting
for him, over 6,000 miles away. Weeks of coordination over email developed his itinerary, and articles
highlighting his upcoming trip ran on Malaysian media
websites, such as Junk and Klue Magazine.
He slowly drew in small donations over the course
of the next few weeks, but it wasn’t adding up to
what he needed fast enough. The momentum came
when his sister, Xeni Jardin, a co-editor and major
contributor for BoingBoing.com, decided to help her
little brother out by posting his Kickstarter idea on her
website, giving it global exposure. She described her
“crate-digging brother’s” research trip to the popular
website’s audience, and posted several Youtube links
to the somewhat sappy black and white music videos
of the era. Despite the language barrier, current audiences could dig the meanings of the songs through the
dramatic acting of the musicians as they performed in
a Lawrence-Welk style studio setting.
Seven years after he first listened to Pop Yeh-Yeh, on
July 3, 2010, Carl boarded a plane to embark upon
his three-week research trip with the goal of meeting
with all of the artists on his compilation’s set list, and
receiving their legal consent and approval to release
their digitally remastered music. He also packed a
video camera to document his archival excursion. Over
the duration of his trip, the singers from the glossy
cover art of his record collection came to life, through
conversations occurring everywhere from impromptu
lunches at street vendor stations to more formal family
gatherings and social events. “Every day I received tips
from Othman and his peers on who I should go meet
next,” he says. “Thanks to their help, the appointments
stacked up so quickly that I could barely keep up.” His
days were filled with new introductions, video footage,
and purchases of last-minute bus tickets to unfamiliar
places.
He met legends such as Dato’ A. Rahman Hassan,
Cikgu Yusnor Ef, Zam Zam, Kassim Selamat, A Halim,
Hasnah Haron, M Fadzil, S Mariam, Zaleha Hamid, and
many others, and had the opportunity to attend a private practice session with Orkes Nirwana, a wedding
performance by Adnan Othman with Band D’Lima,
and and several other bands that still actively perform
to sold-out audiences. He also spent time with Joseph
Pereira, author of Legends of the Golden Venus, a book
about 60’s and 70’s Singapore rock. While Carl was in
Malaysia, he was interviewed on the Malaysian radio
station BFM’s “That Music Show,” giving listeners an
update on how his project was going. Each artist was
welcoming to Carl’s research, and “helped to guide
me to the next artist that I was seeking,” as well as
to many authors, promoters, and historians along the
way. His trip was one of absolute immersion into the
once-sensational culture of Pop Yeh-Yeh.
Carl returned to Richmond with many release signatures, as well as over 25 hours of video footage.
“Currently I’m in the process of obtaining the remaining licensing necessary for the compilation release on
Sublime Frequencies,” he explains. He’s also in the process of editing his footage into a documentary, which
will be screened locally on completion. Once all release
signatures are received, Carl will finalize plans to
release the compilation, making the unique melodies of
the genre available for listeners in the coming year. On
a local level, Carl plans to start the vibe with a record
release party for the compilation at a local Richmond
record store. Ultimately, he hopes to bring several of
the artists to the states to perform the legendary tunes
of the era in a live setting.
In the meantime, Carl will keep the diverse appetites
of local music lovers enticed with his Bollywood Night
dance parties every second Saturday at Cous Cous,
over the airwaves on Sunday evenings on WRIR, and
through upcoming gigs at Balliceaux. His upcoming
gigs at Balliceaux will feature a generous offering of
Pop Yeh-Yeh, as well as other Asian psychedelic pop
sounds. For more on Pop Yeh-Yeh, visit Carl’s blog, at:
menarigogo.blogspot.com
reCord revieWs by AndreW neCCi
Art Brut
Bill CAllAhAn
des Ark
heideCker And Wood
Atmosphere
Creeping Weeds
eleventh dreAm dAy
Jim ivins
the greAter the risk
lAurA stevenson And the CAns
Brilliant! Tragic!
(Cooking Vinyl)
The fourth full-length outing by these
British art-punks is more subdued than
some of their earlier LPs, though there
are still a few ragers to be found. Think
of The Fall (if their singer had a soul) collaborating with the Pixies. Or something
like that. Either way, it’s awesome.
Family Sign
(Rhymesayers)
On this quirky, inconsistent album, Atmosphere focus heavily on live instrumentation and dark, haunting grooves, moving
them away from their “backpacker” past.
Though some of these songs just do not
work, the unconventional, emotionallydriven hip-hop on display here will still
give longtime fans something to enjoy.
Apocalypse
(Drag City)
Former Smog leader Bill Callahan’s third
solo album is full of dark folk songs, featuring an almost-uncomfortable emotional
intimacy. His striking baritone voice is
at the front of the mix, while instruments
other than his acoustic guitar mostly
just add background textures. Excellent
album, unsettling listen.
See Through
(creepingweeds.com)
Philadelphia’s Creeping Weeds integrate
several prominent indie trends of the
moment--Animal Collective’s Beach Boy
vocalisms, Vampire Weekend’s worldbeat
plundering--into a gorgeous, melodic
sunshine-pop indie sound with Beatlesque
instrumentation and a Caribbean feel. See
Through is guaranteed to brighten your
day.
DMD EP Cover
BuffAlo tom
Skins
(Scrawny)
These 20-year alt-rock veterans are still
doing what they do best: literate, emotional,
guitar-driven heartland rock, like some sort
of cross between Wilco and Dinosaur Jr.
They don’t really bowl me over with their
awesomeness the way they once did, but
I’m glad these guys are still making records.
Extremely essential. Give me more.
25:11:2010
11:52 pm
Don’t Rock The Boat, Sink The Fucker
(Lovitt)
Des Ark’s long-awaited second full-length
has a split personality--recorded at two
different sessions with two different
lineups, the songs alternate between quiet
acoustic pieces and full-blown rockers.
That said, it’s all excellently crafted and
performed, filled with passion and heart,
and not to be missed.
Riot Now!
(Thrill Jockey)
These alt-rockers from the early 90s
grunge era resurface after over a decade’s
absence with a darker, heavier sound than
they used to have. Their X-style malefemale vocal harmonies are still in place,
though, and mix well with their louder
guitar sound. Fifteen years later, they’ve
still got it.
Starting From Nowhere
(Little Record Company)
This dead-on recreation of schmaltzy 70s
soft-rock crap was made by Tim Heidecker of Tim And Eric Awesome Show, so
it’s a joke, but it’s the sort of ironic humor
that’s so deadpan, it eventually becomes
indistinguishable from what it’s parodying. Funny once. Maybe. After that, it’s
just bad.
Late Night Drive EP
(self-released)
Richmond singer-songwriter Ivins takes a
break from fronting his eponymous band
on these five emotion-tinged acoustic
pop songs. I’d probably like these songs
better if they were performed solely by
voice and guitar, rather than including
tinkly piano and percussion adornments.
However, this EP is still quite good.
Page 1
dAmmit mAttheW dAmmit
Dammit Matthew Dammit
(self-released)
Three-chord midtempo rock from this
Richmond trio, who aren’t quite fast or
loud enough to really sound like punk to
me--they’re more reminiscent of Weezer,
The Knack, or maybe a keyboardless version of Devo. Their joke lyrics aren’t that
funny, unfortunately. Dead Milkmen fans
might dig this, though.
Say What You Never Said EP
(thegreatertherisk.storenvy.com)
These days, emo is seen as music for
vapid teenagers. But it’s really just pop
music, and pop songcraft never goes out
of style. Richmond’s The Greater The
Risk showcase their excellent guitardriven melodies on this EP, and my only
complaint is that it’s too short. Record a
full-length already!
Sit Resist
(Don Giovanni)
Based on their connections with Bomb
The Music Industry, I was expecting
this group to have more of a punk feel.
Instead, this is straight-up melodic indie
rock with folk and girl-group tinges. Stevenson’s songwriting skills enable her to
create an excellent pop album. Absolutely
worth checking out.
liturgy
Aesthethica
(Thrill Jockey)
This black metal band still bring the raw,
primitive blastbeat fury sometimes, but
it’s broken up by strange keyboard detours; monolithic, hypnotically repetitive
jams on single riffs; and moments where
their music crosses some random border
into Hella-style math-core. Whatever--it
all rules. You need this.
pArlour shAkedoWn
Geography King
(parlourshakedown.com)
This group of local teenagers have a great
grasp of pop songcraft--there are some
excellent melodies here, particularly on
“Mr. Silver” and “Corona.” However,
the production is too polished. There are
no rough edges here, which significantly
reduces its impact--a shame, in light of
their obvious talent.
reAtArds
Mirrors
(Family)
These guys mix mid-70s era Rolling
Stones, Fleetwood Mac, and other radiorock influences from the same era, and
overlay them with a modern sheen. Their
sound varies significantly from song to
song, too, making some far more enjoyable than others. Not terrible, but not
worth repeat plays either.
Wormrot
lord By fire
pontiAk
ryAt
the mountAin goAts
pygmy lush
skull tApe
Relics
(lordbyfire.bandcamp.com)
Often overlooked, wildly underrated
Richmond doom-metallers Lord By Fire
kick things up a notch with their latest
EP, simultaneously keeping things slow,
heavy and powerful and retaining interest
over the course of their lengthy tunes with
varying tempos and intricate drum patterns. Head-crushingly awesome.
All Eternals Deck
(Merge)
Despite a subdued instrumental palate
and smooth, clean production, this new
Mountain Goats album, their sixteenth,
still retains the raw passion that has characterized all phases of their career. Leader
John Darnielle’s brilliant lyrics and fiery
delivery just can’t be smoothed out--to his
credit. May he forever rage.
Comecrudos
(Thrill Jockey)
Much of this EP’s duration seems taken
up by very little--ambient feedback hum,
unchanging dub-like rhythms, slow
lengthy codas, etc. What songs that surface are pleasant and tuneful, not unlike
mid-70s Pink Floyd. But for the most
part, this EP feels like filler. Needs more
actual songs.
Old Friends
(Lovitt)
On their third full-length release, DC’s
Pygmy Lush move ever farther from their
hardcore origins. There are no electric
songs here, just a dozen psychedelic folk
epics. However, Pygmy Lush retain a
post-hardcore consciousness, combining it
with acoustic instrumentation to produce
an excellent, original sound.
us royAlty
(Goner)
This 40-song double LP combines the
late, great Jay Reatard’s earliest recordings--the first Reatards LP and his original
demo, recorded on a four-track with
bucket drums. These lo-fi slabs of raw,
raging rock n’ roll de-emphasize melody
in favor of pure venom. Crank it up and
get reatarded one last time.
Teenage Hate/Fuck Elvis Here’s The Reatards
Avant Gold
(Obvious Bandits)
This glitchy keyboard-driven indie dancepop gains its main strength from group
leader Christina Ryat’s strong, polished
voice, but the excellently constructed pop
hooks are what gives this album its heart.
Fans of The Knife, Radiohead, Aphex
Twin and Bjork will be thrilled with what
they find here.
The Invisible Hand And The Descent Of Man
(LA’s Fine)
This excellent debut, the brainchild of
former Mae Shi member Brad Breeck,
mainly features keyboard-based posthardcore songs infused with both mathematical complexity and incredibly catchy
choruses. Should please fans of Parts And
Labor and The Faint, or really anybody
who likes good music.
Dirge
(Earache)
25 songs in around 20 minutes from this
Singapore grind unit. They use the classic
grind trio lineup--vocals, guitar, drums--to
shred without mercy. Blistering speed, furious distortion, and awesome song titles
like “Semiconscious Godsize Dumbass”
and “All Go No Emo.” What more could
you ask for?
young WidoWs
In And Out Of Youth And Lightness
(Temporary Residence)
This Louisville post-hardcore band started
out loud and heavy, but become less
conventional with each new release. This
one incorporates echoing guitars and wide
open sonic landscapes of Isis/Mogwai
post-rock, but the rhythm section still
punds. The uneasy, foreboding atmosphere on display here creates a spooky,
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