garage zine scionav.com vol. 3

GARAGE ZINE
SCIONAV.COM
VOL. 3
COVER PHOTOGRAPHY: CLAYTON HAUCK
STAFF
Scion Project Manager: Jeri Yoshizu, Sciontist
Editor: Eric Ducker
Creative Direction: Scion
Art Director: malbon
Production Director: Anton Schlesinger
Contributing Editor: David Bevan
Assistant Editor: Maud Deitch
Graphic Designers: Nicholas Acemoglu, Cameron
Charles, Kate Merritt, Gabriella Spartos
Sheriff: Stephen Gisondi
CONTRIBUTORS
Writer: Jeremy CARGILL
Photographers: Derek Beals, William Hacker,
Jeremy M. Lang, Bryan Sheffield, REBECCA SMEYNE
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00430-ZIN03-GR
SCION A/V SCHEDULE
JUNE
Scion Garage 7”: Cola Freaks/Digital Leather (June 7)
Scion Presents: Black Lips North American Tour
The Casbah in San Diego, CA (June 9)
Velvet Jones in Santa Barbara, CA (June 10)
Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, CA (June 11)
Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, CA (June 12)
Wonder Ballroom in Portland, OR (June 14)
Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver, BC (June 15)
Neumos in Seattle, WA (June 16)
Knitting Factory Concert House in Boise, ID (June 17)
Urban Lounge in Salt Lake City, UT (June 18)
Bluebird Theater in Denver, CO (June 19)
Plush in Tuscon, AZ (June 21)
Rhythm Room in Phoenix, AZ (June 22)
The Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa, CA (June 23)
The Music Box in Los Angeles, CA (June 24)
The Glass House in Pomona, CA (June 25)
Scion Art Tour: Installation 7: Video
CO Exhibitions in Minneapolis, MN (June 4-June 25)
Scion Presents: The Big Idea, curated by Monsieur L’Agent, at Installation LA (June 25)
JULY
Scion Garage 7”: Reigning Sound/Last Year’s Men (July 5)
Scion Art Tour: Installation 7: Video
Pump Project in Austin, TX (July 9-July 30)
Locations, cities and dates subject to change
CURRENTLY AVAILABLE
Scion Garage 7”: King Tuff/Hex Dispensers
MUSIC VIDEOS
Davila 666
“Esa Nena Nunca Regreso”
Tyvek
“4312”
Hussle Club
“Quaranteenagers”
ASK SCION
Garage bands often put out music through many different independent record labels
rather just sticking with one. What do you think that says about the garage rock
community?
Many bands and enthusiasts in the community hold the practices of the past
dear. Prior to the mid-1960s, music in general was a singles market, which
helped instill an insistent quality to what hit wax. The ability to have something
tangible of your creation, even if it only lasts five minutes, is a monumental
concept. In modern times labels are run by enthusiasts, no matter how limited
a budget, and I believe that truly proves how supportive of a community we
have.
—Jeremy Cargill, writer for zines Ugly Things and Galactic Zoo Dossier
If you have a question, email us through the Contact page on scionav.com
original videos & performances BY
plUs eXclUsive & free mUsic doWnloads, event info,
streaming mUsic on scion radio 17 & mUch more
scionav.com
Bad
Photography: Rebecca Smeyne
Sports
Growing up in Texas, there was no shortage of garage rock heroes
for the three members of Bad Sports to worship. And though their
sonic DNA can be traced back to sources far outside the borders
of the Lone Star State, the Denton/Austin trio’s hooky assault has
undeniably deep local roots. Guitarist Daniel Fried runs through a
list of his four favorite Texas bands and musicians, some of whom we
expected and some we’re psyched he told us about.
Roky Erickson & The 13th Floor Elevators
The 13th Floor Elevators were always on commercials here in Texas. You’d hear them
here and there, but the first time I heard one of their full albums I was like, “What
the hell is this?! There’s a guy playing electric jug right now. I don’t know what this is,
but it’s awesome.” Pretty recently, I’ve gotten reeeally into Roky’s solo stuff as well,
mostly through that documentary You’re Gonna Miss Me. Actually, there was this
time we were on our way to New York and we were on the same flight as Roky. He
was really nice.
Bobby Soxx
I’m actually working on a documentary about Bobby Soxx’s life
and music. He was a guy who always had a sense of humor about
his lyrics and wrote really offensive stuff at the same time, too.
Between songs he was constantly saying funny things, but then
they would play and it was just this barrage of really, really heavy
riffs and droning drums. He also had this really great band Stick
Men With Ray Guns.
OBN III
Probably the best band in Texas right now, outside of anything I’m
involved in, is OBN III. It’s our bassist Orville’s other band. They
played on a patio at SXSW this year and it was the best show of
the fest. They absolutely killed it. They’re actually named after
Orville’s initials: Orville Bateman Neeley III. It’s a weird solo
band sort of thing and they’ve put out two seven-inches so far and
they’re going to put out more, I think. But during that [SXSW]
show, Orville was climbing on top of ATM machines and jumping
over the fences and he cut his hand sometime during the second
song of the set. It was spurting blood all over the crowd. It was
really cool. They really took the ball and ran with it.
The Marked Men
Our drummer Greg and I both went to the University of North
Texas in Denton, but neither of us was good enough for the music
school there. I think Greg was a Behavioral Analysis major and I
was an English major. There’s only one person I know who’s gone
to that school and is in a band and does anything at all musically:
Jeff Burke of the Marked Men. He studied guitar there for two
years and realized that he hated it, so he quit. It’s such an intensive
program that it sort of saps all the fun out of playing music. You’re
practicing all day every day, going to school with people who are
into Dream Theater. But his band, the Marked Men, they’re like
our “Denton Dads,” I guess you could say. They’re the ones who
came before and paved the way for us. They’re a great band that
built up a following over the years, and when we started out they
booked us on shows and helped us out. In fact, our next album is
coming out on Dirtnap, who did all of the Marked Men records as
well. They blend punk and power pop and garage all at the same
time. And we do that, too.
As told to David Bevan
myspace.com/badsportsband
Watch an interview and live performances from Bad Sports at
Scion Garage Fest at scionav.com/garagefest. Hear “Would You Wait For
Me Too,” their contribution to the Scion Garage 7” series,
at scionav.com/garage
DAVILA 666
ESA NENA NUNCA REGRESO
WATCH THIS VIDEO, PLUS OTHERS FROM
TYVEK, THE SPITS, THE DIRTBOMBS AND MORE
SCION A/V MUSIC VIDEO SERIES
SCIONAV.COM/MUSIC/SCIONAVVIDEO
Story: Jeremy Cargill
Rock & roll fanzine culture bubbled up from the musical underground in the late
1960s and exploded over the next two decades, but tech-obsessed inter-nerds have
nearly steamrolled independent printing. Some fanzines still survive via the few rabid
practitioners putting their money where their minds are, fringe-sitting to create a
tangible artifact. Here, light is shed on a couple.
Bananas Magazine
Headed up by visual artists/enthusiasts Charles Gaskins
and Christophe Lopez-Huici, Bananas Magazine is one
of the most active, informative and well-written zines
around, with a third issue just hitting the stands. This
young and deadly zine revives grimy New York City’s
corpse and presses its bones into ink for posterity.
But Bananas’ breadth is what makes it shine: lengthy
interviews with future-past champs like J.D. Martignon
of Midnight Records, an overview of Russia’s garage
revival scene, the ongoing state of NYC rock & roll and
its champions, a report on Portugal’s Barreiro Rocks
garage fest and Swamp Rats guitar tabs. And all of this
is delivered with a wry sense of humor that makes it
impossible to put down. Available for free in New York
City, or just pay shipping for your own sterling copy!
bananasmag.com
Galactic Zoo Dossier
Published roughly every two years since 1995, Galactic
Zoo Dossier is the outgrowth of psychedelic renaissance
man Steve Krakow (aka Plastic Crimewave) and a host
of contributors, including genre stalwart Byron Coley.
Galactic Zoo Dossier brings together Krakow’s love
of psychedelic rock, garage, space rock, folk, noise
damage and the seedier side of 1960s and1970s comics
in a fully hand-drawn package that evokes the prime
late-’60s rock zines. It also includes trading cards and
CD comps. When not occupied with GZD, Krakow
runs Drag City’s reissue imprint (Galactic Zoo Disk),
writes the Chicago Reader’s “Secret History of Chicago
Music” column and fronts his own psychedelic-spacepunk band, Plastic Crimewave Sound. Packages don’t
come more complete than Sir Krakow.
plasticcrimewave.com
Mongrel Zine
Rounding the corner at issue #9, Mongrel ’s got the good word on what’s happenin’ Northward. Seemingly all
rocks are over-turned by our Canadian neighbors, from garage, trash and pop to more blues-drenched and blownout varieties. Janelle Hollyrock, Bob Scott and the whole cast of characters are true fanatics, with enthusiasm
and passion that’s brilliantly transparent. Mongrel Zine’s an entertaining read throughout, with interviews
masquerading as comic strips, a LENGTHY reviews section (watch for the highly opinionated and humorous
Steve Ferreira) and the ongoing saga of roots-punks Demon’s Claws in their various forms (Jeff Clarke’s interview
in #9 is pricelessly hilarious). None shall pass without the Mongrel clan laying their piece down, and it’s a worthy
and informed piece indeed.
mongrelzine.ca
Humanbeing Lawnmower
At a rate of one issue every other year, Humanbeing
Lawnmower has thus far cranked out two issues of
digest-sized depravity, with the next one scheduled for
sometime this year. But these well-constructed tomes
are fully worth the wait. Avi Spivak (cartoonist/editor/
partisan) is the ringleader of this rock & roll circus
filled with Mad-style comic irreverence and articles
covering overlooked stars of the big beat, past and
present. Humanbeing Lawnmower covers everything
from modern power pop and garage bands to features
like William Penoyar’s diatribe “My Revolution: The
Thug Rock Story.”
avispivak.blogspot.com
Ugly Things
Broadcasting “the wild sounds of past dimensions”
since 1983, Ugly Things may stand as the longestrunning rock & roll fanzine. Mike Stax and a cavalcade
of fanatics worldwide (including this writer) prove time
and again that people want what’s timeless and that the
music of the ’60s (and the ’50s and ’70s) will forever
be brimming with untold tales. Begun in the glueand-scissors format before evolving into the current
biannual bible/encyclopedia, Ugly Things continues to
ripen. Stax also leads a rock-solid garage-psych combo,
the Loons, and contributes liner notes to ’60s reissues.
ugly-things.com
Story: David Bevan
Photography: Derek Beals
Digital Leather
Digital Leather’s synth-punk was first born in a
bedroom. Actually it was a dorm room. Mastermind
Shawn Foree had just enrolled at the University of
Arizona, Tucson and to help “cure“ his boredowm,
he took to recording hallucinogenic guitar sounds on
a four-track recorder. Addictively. As he progressed
through school, Foree amassed a mighty collection
of his own cassette-bound recordings, the Casiospiked contents of which grabbed the ear of a friend
so aggressively that said friend sent a hand-picked
collection of songs to King of the Monsters, a tiny
hardcore label in San Diego.
That was in 2004, the year Digital Leather’s selftitled debut arrived. “I never really thought about
putting out records, to tell you the truth,” Foree
says. “I didn’t really have anything to do with that
record coming out. But after that I thought I might
as well put out another. And after that second one
came out, I was hooked.”
In the years that followed, Foree recorded and toured
at a feverish pace, attracting the attention of both
Fat Possum, the increasingly influential Mississippi
label that released his Warm Brother in 2009, and
close friend, former manager and recently deceased
Memphis garage rock hero Jay Reatard. “We wrote
songs for one another,” Foree says of Reatard, who
he toured with during the writing and recording of
Reatard’s synth-driven Lost Sounds project. “It was
a lot like a competition, where we would show each
other stuff after it was written. But we played off
one another here and there. Our songwriting was
very call-and-response. Like an argument.”
It’s a manic influence that you can hear right away
in Foree’s energy, both on stage and on tape. Digital
Leather’s gut-punch sensibility translates to just
about any sonic palette he chooses to apply it to—
be it a simple acoustic pop song or keyboard-driven
kablooms, a dormitory bunk bed or a stained rock club.
Watch an interview and live performances from Digital
Leather at Scion Garage Fest at scionav.com/garagefest.
Hear Digital Leather’s contribution to the Scion Garage 7”
series at scionav.com/garage
Searching
for Kicks
Story: Jeremy Cargill
These days you can buy a thrill, and
searching for kicks isn’t so hard. Online
shopping carts are battered by a devoted
few who sift through the muck for rough
diamonds to present to vinyl hounds and
vintage gear junkies in the physical realm.
Visit these spots when on their block.
Burger Records
Burger began with fellas from Thee Makeout Party!
itchy to release their own vinyl and that of local teen
punks Audacity. After being denied a vacation for
touring, Sean Bohrman left cubicle monotony behind
and went all in, opening a storefront in Fullerton,
California with Brian Flores (ex-Third Eye Records)
and Lee Noise. Home to today’s finest craves and
past fave-raves on cassette, with occasional forays
into CDs and LPs, they’ve crunched out 90 releases,
with more to come soon. And for past finds, the boys
rise at 5AM every weekend to scour swap meets for
the treats collectors need. When in SoCal, make
time for Burger.
645 S. State College Boulevard, Fullerton, California 92831
burgerrecords.com
Goner Records
The venerable Goner Records, founded by Eric
Friedl, is a garage rock institution, going from
a humble Memphis start to current worldwide
adulation. Springing up in 1993 as an outlet for Guitar
Wolf’s U.S. invasion and material from Eric’s own
band, Oblivians, they’ve since amassed more than
40 releases. Then in 2004 Friedl united with friend
Zac Ives to bring the Goner mission to a storefront.
But Goner’s done more than release rekkids. They’re
approaching year seven of Gonerfest, a showcase for
worldwide garage punk bands. Add regular in-store
performances and an Elvis impersonator shrine on
premises and you’ve got a Memphis must-stop.
2152 Young Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee 38104
goner-records.com
OMNIBUS
In one year OMNIBUS has made a name for itself
as an extension of bar/live music venue East End.
Housed in the bottom floor and run by friends with a
passion for all things classic and vintage, OMNIBUS
specializes in affordable clothing by small designers,
vintage goods (clothes, records, etc.) and short-run
releases by touring bands. Inspired by late-1970s
Brit record stalls and vintage suppliers, and with
aims to mutate into a record label, collectors can
save time at OMNIBUS by browsing sub-categories
geared towards obsessives (e.g. “Stonesy stuff”).
203 SE Grand Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97214
eastendpdx.com
Vinyl Richie’s Wiggly World of Records
After becoming the mail-order center for record
label Florida’s Dying six years ago, Rich Evans’
home eventually became overgrown with records
and Wiggly World was born. Walls bedecked with
whacked art, mostly courtesy of Ben Lyon, share
space with a spate of releases by every modern
label making worthwhile noise in the garage scene.
But that ain’t all. Evans digs back to keep the racks
packed with punk reissues, space rock and other
toxic sounds. Its secluded location also makes the
space ideal for shows in the parking lot.
2436 E. Robinson Street, Orlando, Florida 32803
floridaisdying.com
...debut LP coming soon.
OUT NOW...
Kid Congo...
Gorilla Rose
LP/CD
Thee Oh Sees
Castlemania
LP/CD
TV Ghost
Mass Dream
LP/CD
Dirtbombs
Party Store
LP/CD
Davila 666
Tan Bajo
LP/CD
www.intheredrecords.com
Story: Maud Deitch
Photography: William Hacker
Ask musicians who know their stuff what they think
of Gino Washington and you’ll hear a sweetness
come to their voice and see stars appear in eyes. An
R&B and rock & roll singer who made his name in
Detroit in the early 1960s, Washington’s recorded
output is brief but masterful. King Khan, a beloved
soul-tinged garage rock figure in his own right,
speaks of Washington in a tone that is a mixture of a
son-to-father respect and all-out fandom.
At Scion’s Garage Fest in Lawrence, Kansas last year,
King Khan & the Shrines had the rare opportunity
to back Washington in one of the festival’s closing
performances. The collaboration was orchestrated
after a few phone calls and one pre-show meeting
in Kansas. “I felt really shy to meet him, but he
was joking around with the band, doing his Johnny
Mathis impersonation,” says Khan. “I didn’t know
if we were going to get a tyrant or what.” Instead
Washington was nothing but a gentleman, with, as
Khan puts it, “none of the ego you might expect” and
all of the punctuality you wouldn’t.
At the festival, Khan & the Shrines commanded
the sweaty Bottleneck, one of the four venues, with
gyrating dancers, flying tambourines and horns
playing in all directions. “I could see Gino on the
side of the stage and I could tell from the look on
his face that he was really excited,” says Khan. “We
warmed up the room to the right temperature, and
then when he did go on, I just stepped back and
thought, ‘My band is backing up Gino Washington.’”
Months later, Khan still laughs giddily when
recalling this moment.
“Jared [Swilley] from the Black Lips, you know
he’s my little bro, and he was right there and we
were hugging watching it and freaking out,” Khan
continues. The crowd had the same reaction,
whipping itself into an even greater frenzy. And
onstage Washington stood calmly and smiled,
holding the mic like an extension of his body and
pulling the audience through fifty years of soul
history.
myspace.com/ginowashington
myspace.com/kingkhantheshrines
Watch an interview with Gino Washington and live
performances of him with the Shrines at Scion Garage Fest
at scionav.com/garagefest
CROOKS & CASTLES
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Interview: David Bevan
Photography: William Hacker
tyvek
Tyvek take their name from a fibrous, industrial grade,
water-resistant brand of insulation so insanely dense
that it’s used to protect the insides of homes and cars.
The Detrort band’s wall-of-fuzz garage rock is the perfect
analog to their namesake. We caught up with frontman
Kevin Boyer over the phone just a few hours after the band
returned home from a five-week trip through the rock clubs
of Europe.
You guys just got back from Europe. Forty shows in 40 days
is a haul. Yeah, I think it was actually like 37 shows in
39 days, but close. We were driving ourselves, too, so
we didn’t really have much downtime. You just have
to try to eat really good, you know? Europeans really
take the feeding bands thing to a higher level. We
got good meals and good spots to sleep everywhere
we went. In the US, you kind of have to find your
own way.
Do you think there’s a European equivalent to Detroit?
Probably Helsinki. It felt like it had a similar vibe.
We played in the Basque country in Spain, too. That
had a really Midwestern feel to it. But in Helsinki,
it seemed like everyone was trying to alleviate the
boredom and depression of the super long winter
there. They cut loose. Detroit’s a weird place, it’s not
really like anywhere else, that’s for sure. The music
scene is really good but there aren’t that many places
to play. Everybody just heads to the same three or
four bars.
Nothing Fits was definitely your cleanest record to date,
but it was still pretty noisy. With so many bands who
could also be considered lo-fi shifting toward way tidier
sounds, do you plan on continuing down that path? I think
Nothing Fits turned out a lot cleaner because we
were in a real studio for the first time and got to
do it right. So it just came out that way naturally.
I definitely want to go back to a studio—if not the
same studio we recorded that album in—but I try to
think from record to record. I don’t know what the
next Tyvek album will sound like. It might seem like
a continuation or it might seem like a left turn. We’ll
have to wait until we actually start recording it and
then see what happens.
Where did your idea for naming Tyvek’s sound “crocodile
rock” come from then? Crocodile rock, more than
anything else, is a commentary on the idea of genres
or groupings. It’s just a joke!
Watch an interview and live performances from Tyvek
at Scion Garage Fest at scionav.com/garagefest
Inter v ie
w: Dav
id Beva
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reigningsound
Greg Cartwright has been forming influential, true blue garage rock bands for nearly two decades,
including Oblivians. Most recently, the Memphis native has written and recorded with Reigning Sound,
a band that’s gained cultish renown for bringing their road-worn sensibility and all-inclusive songwriting
to stages big, small and grimy. Just minutes after he put his daughter to bed at 7:30PM sharp, Cartwright
filled us in on what he’s been up to and what he’s been thinking about.
You were just at a record convention in Allentown,
Pennsylvania, right?
Yeah. It’s this 45s-only record show that happens
twice a year. The funny thing is that the show is on a
Saturday, but everyone shows up the Tuesday before
and we all stay at the same hotel. So everybody
is just walking from room to room, listening to
records, hanging out. People have their records laid
out all over their rooms, on their beds and dressers
so everyone can look. And for four days, before
anything even happens, people are hanging out and
trading. By Saturday I’m already gone. I’ve already
got everything I want and everything I needed to see.
What kind of 45s did you set out looking for? Did you
have a wish list?
I don’t have a wish list, but I know what I like. There
are things out there that I’d love to own copies of, but
I’m also just looking for local releases from different
cities that have an interesting, homemade-looking
label. Or a band you’ve never heard of with a cool
sounding song. Everybody’s got a portable record
player that they carry with them and you can go
through people’s boxes and dig out five or six things
you want to listen to. The end all/be all is to find a
song that is awesome that you’ve never heard before.
That’s what you really want. The known records that
are really pricey and rare are great because you can
flip them or keep them or do whatever you want
with them, but when you find that real jewel in the
pile that nobody’s ever really heard before, well,
that’s exciting.
Did you find anything like that this time around?
I did. I found at least three that were really, really
great. Sammy Johns & the DeVilles’ “Words Won’t
Come My Way” has a sound I like: 1960s teen garage
with a really Southern vocal. You can hear that the
guy is about 17 years old and maybe from Mississippi
or Arkansas. Being from Memphis and being really
into local ’60s records from Memphis, that sound
really resonates for me. I also picked up a couple
rockabilly things, some R&B records, some garage
stuff. I DJ a couple nights a week. What’s at the fore
in my mind when I’m looking at a box of records
is, “Is this something I can play on a Saturday night
and people will dance to it?” That’s why I’m always
looking for a good R&B 45.
You grew up listening to oldies radio, didn’t you? Does
your feel for DJing have a lot to do with that?
I did, and when I was a kid listening to oldies radio
stations in Memphis you would hear Pop 100 things,
but you would also hear local hits, like the Hombres’
“It’s A Gas” or the Guillotines’ “I Don’t Believe.”
Those kinds of songs were really cool and really
local. But the way charts worked back then was so
different. Local radio really could be local. Things
were different back then. I remember when I had
my very first car, I was driving to high school and I
turned on the oldies station I would listen to every
morning and they said, “Oldies 98! No more boring
doo-wop. Now, hits of the ’70s and early ’80s!” Just
like a switch, they turned it off. I’m sure it was sad
for people who were nostalgic for the music of their
era, but it bummed me out as well.
It’s interesting how the definition of what’s “classic”
tends to evolve. To me, your work in Reigning Sound
veers that way, towards rock & roll traditionalism
rather than purism.
I think so. When I think of somebody as a purist, I
think of someone who walks around in Beatle boots
and perfectly coifed hair and everything about their
lifestyle must be, look, seem and sound like it came
from 1966, or whatever era they’re trying to evoke
purely. To me, it’s all about mixing it up. I do like
the old traditions, the old ways of writing songs and
the classic song structures. I’m into preserving what
I feel rock & roll is all about.
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How do you think the idea of garage rock specifically
has shifted?
In the late ’70s and early ’80s, all these bands were
being influenced by underground ’60s records, local
records and edgy rock & roll records by bands like
the Seeds. But people were turning onto that sound
and trying to find a way to work that into what they
were doing, like Television and the New York Dolls.
And they did, they found a way to integrate that
sound. That’s when “garage rock” first started being
tossed around to define that kind of music. It’s really
changed since then. It’s come to encompass bands
that look like they’re from the ’60s, bands that are
totally aggressive punk bands or surf bands. Even
singer-songwriters are being identified with the
garage movement. I think that’s because “garage” has
come to be what describes rock & roll at its most
basic level. Start a band, learn some chords, play
some gigs, have some fun. That’s it. “Garage” seems
to personify people who play for their own pleasure,
when you’re playing in your garage or your living
room or your carport or whatever. You’re not playing
in a stadium. Chances are you never will, though you
might make it to a bar. But you’re playing for your
friends. That’s what garage means and that’s true to
Reigning Sound. I’ve basically been playing the same
circuit of bars for the past 15 years.
facebook.com/reigningsound
Watch an interview and live performances from
Reigning Sound at the Scion Garage Show series at
scionav.com/garage
LAST YEAR’S
MEN
Story: David Bevan
Photography: Jeremy M. Lang
Last Year’s Men are in a van somewhere
around Rochester, New York, about 18 hours
since their first set in New York City. Strangely,
it wasn’t a typically frosty New York audience
that irked the Chapel Hill-based upstarts, but the
other bands that they shared the bill with. “Not a
ton of people came out, but that wasn’t our scene at
all, man,” says 19 year-old frontman Ben Carr with a
laugh. “It was all indie electronica, like Justin Bieber
meets Nine Inch Nails. So weird.”
While you can hear Last Year’s Men’s youth
in both the verve of their pop noise and the
teenage thrashing of Carr’s lyrics, their age hasn’t
kept them from sharing hometown stages with
incoming guests like King Khan & The BBQ Show
and Reigning Sound, the long-running outfit that
actually inspired Carr to start writing songs on his
own. In fact, you might say Last Year’s Men are
more old souls than young punks. They not only
took their name from a Leonard Cohen lyric, but
also filled out their first few practices by
dusting off Sam Cooke covers. “We were
originally going for that kind of sound, but
then we transitioned somehow to garage-y
power pop,” says Carr. “I think the residual
effects from whatever punk bands we were in kept
lingering and just came out naturally.”
It seems like they’ve found a healthy medium, one
that their neighbors seem to totally appreciate
when Last Year’s Men practice (LOUDLY) in
drummer Ian Rose’s basement most nights of the
week. “It’s in a suburban neighborhood so we
figured a couple of cops would have been called,”
Carr says. “But, nope! No complaints to date!”
Watch an interview and live performances from
Last Year’s Men at the Scion Garage Show series
at scionav.com/garage
SCION RADIO 17 FEATURES NEW MUSIC, EXCLUSIVE MIXES
AND INTERVIEWS ON 17 DIFFERENT CHANNELS
CHANNEL 1
SCIONAV.COM/MUSIC/RADIO17
STREAMING FREE EVERY MONTH
Photography: Bryan Sheffield
As they get older and release more music, Black Lips
have become more recognized for the craftsmanship in
their ratty psychedelia than for their on- and off-stage
shenanigans. And they continue to expand outwards, as
evidenced by Cole Alexander’s growing interest in remix
work. Here, the band’s guitarist/vocalist explains which old
and new sounds have influenced how he tackles a remix.
It completely changed the music industry once somebody
realized you could take pre-recorded elements and make
music out of them. That’s the art of sampling. Schaeffer
would slow it down and loop it so it would keep going
on forever. They would do all kinds of stuff. Then in the
1950s, people started to get into more of what we know as
electronic music: computers making drumbeats.
My approach to remixing is to try and make things more
psychedelic and ethereal, more ambient. I’m still learning,
but I’m getting into it and I think even a good remixer is
always learning.
I have a much more avant-garde sensibility when it comes
to remixing. It’s not so much about getting people to dance
at the club. It’s a way to deconstruct music. That’s what
I really like about DJ Screw: slowing stuff down, taking
sounds apart and manipulating them. I do like dancing,
but my approach is more about giving people a psychedelic
soundscape.
I’ve learned the basis of what I’m doing now from recording
music myself. I have a sampler with Black Lips, and I run
pre-recorded pieces through effects all the time when
we’re recording or playing live. We work with analog a lot,
so I’m trying to figure out computer programs that can
help me do stuff digitally. All the stuff I used to do was
with tape cassettes. For my own pleasure I would take
spikes in songs and run them through effects and back onto
cassette. The first time I did that was when I was 13. We
would record little blips and scratches from tapes and mix
them.
I’m really into musique concrète. It’s a form of a music
they came up with it in France in the early 1900s, the first
electronic manipulation of music. Everybody made classical
music, but by the 1900s they figured out how to record
music, so they started recording symphonies. There was
this guy, Pierre Schaeffer, from France in the 1920s. He
was the first guy who took the playback of the recorded
music and manipulated that. He called it musique concrète,
and he would take concrete sounds like, say, something in
nature or train sounds, and then he would manipulate it.
I’m actually working on a remix right now for a song on
our new record called “You Keep On Running.” I’m trying
to get Tyler from Odd Future on there and Waka Flocka
Flame, but I guess I need to send them the song and see if
they like it. Mark Ronson was actually encouraging me to
make a mixtape for the new record as a promotional tool.
He made a lot of alternate remixes in the studio, like live
analog remixes while we were working. I really liked those.
He’d make our mix and then make another one real quick.
He’d honestly deconstruct everything, take it all out except
for bass and drums and then ride up the volume from other
tracks really minimally. I learned that from him, riding a
mixer. It’s turntables as a style of remixing. I like all the
early forms of remixing, before computers.
As told to David Bevan
Hear Black Lips’ remix of Win Win from Scion A/V Remix:
Win Win — Victim f. Blaqstarr at scionav.com/winwin
t
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Scene
Report
PJ’s Lager House
A venue that I definitely like a lot is the Lager House.
It’s run by this guy PJ who actually used to run a record
shop in Ann Arbor that I used to go to when I was young.
They book everything—Detroit has a rich garage rock
history and there are a lot of garage rock bands now, but
there are a lot of other kinds of music. And there are
national acts that play there. It’s probably a 150 to 200
capacity venue, so it’s pretty small. So if you play there
on a Tuesday night and 50 people show up, you still feel
good about yourself.
High Bias Recordings
Photography: Bryan Sheffield
Ko Melina, member of the Dirtbombs
and all around Motor City womanabout-town, says that Detroit’s the
kind of city where “you definitely
need a tour guide,” so we figured we’d
ask her to be ours. Melina came back
with some awesome recommendations
of places to go and people to meet.
Peoples Records
I’m sort of biased because I just started working at
a record store in Detroit. The best place is Peoples
Records. It’s all secondhand, so if you’re going to buy a
brand new record it’s not going to be there, but it’s got a
great selection of everything’s that’s basically Detroit’s
history. There’s one owner, his name is Brad, and he’s
actually the bass player for Human Eye. Detroit’s like a
big little town, so everybody knows everybody.
High Bias Recordings is run by my friend Chris Koltay.
Chris Koltay is one of those people who’s definitely a
character. He’d be so mad at me for saying this, but
you either like him or you don’t like him. But when
you record there, he takes really good care of you. He’ll
cook you dinner and cook you breakfast, so you kind of
feel like you’re at home. He has a room with bunk beds
set up, so if you’re not from Detroit and you come to
record, you can stay with him at his place. He also has
a good selection of reading materials for when you have
downtime, like when somebody’s doing an overdub and
you have nothing to do. He’s mostly analog, but he does
have digital capabilities.
Johnny Ill Band
There’s tons and tons of good new Detroit bands.
There’s this guy who has a band called the Johnny Ill
Band that I like a lot. For lack of a better description, it’s
kind of adolescent punk. It’s humorous to me. Like, he’s
got a song about winter and how winter sucks because
it’s cold. There’s a certain charm he’s got about him that
I enjoy.
thedirtbombs.net
Watch an interview and live performances from the
Dirtbombs at Scion Garage Fest at scionav.com/garagefest.
Hear “Secret Code,” their contribution to the Scion Garage
7” series, at scionav.com/garage
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buddyhea
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Never afraid to om
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gonerblog.blogspot
presence of iconic
The Gonerblog is the online
. The folks at
Memphis label Goner Records
ssion to keep you
Goner have made it their mi
ws and tunes
up to date with the latest ne
his and beyond.
from garage acts from Memp
They don’t miss a beat.
Radio 17 To P Picks
CH RIS MO RR IS
Chris Morris, journalist and host of Scion
Radio 17’s Watusi Rodeo, is basically an
encyclopedia of garage rock. We caught
up with him to tell us some of the choicest
cuts he’s been listening to off the air.
Black Lips, Arabia Mountain (Vice)
The new Black Lips record was recorded with
Mark Ronson, who also recorded Amy Winehouse.
They haven’t lost anything in trying to make a more
“professional sounding” record. The tracks are as
tough and uncompromising and funny as anything
they’ve done in the past, and there are a bunch
of standout tracks on the record. For a band in
the garage vein, you can say this is a very mature
record.
The People’s Temple, Sons of Stone
(HoZac)
The People’s Temple are two sets of brothers from
Lansing, Michigan: Spencer and William Young,
and Alex and George Szegedy. It’s a straight-up
garage rock thing, very traditional, very Nuggets-y,
but with a kind of Rolling Stones influence. And at
least on this album they throw on the psychedelia
really heavy. They’re thrilling live, really up in
your face. It’s not just working from the old
template, they bring something new and unique to
everything they do. But really, the proof is in the
pudding—the record is straight out of the garage
and it’s not manicured, it isn’t real pretty. There’s
always something interesting going on. They’re all
kids, but they know their stuff and come firing on
all cylinders.
The Fleshtones, Roman Gods/Up-Front
EP…Plus (Raven Records)
The Fleshtones are still standing on tables, diving
into the crowd, jumping around and creating havoc
everywhere they go. They’re one of the great
garage bands from New York City. The Australian
label Raven has put out a collection of some of
their early material on I.R.S. from when they were
doing what they called “super rock” back in the
1980s. They’ve reissued a package of one of their
early albums, Roman Gods, material from their
Up-Front EP, as well as [songs] from one of their
live albums, Speed Connection II. The Fleshtones
are heroes of mine. They’ve been doing this for
30-some years, and there still isn’t a better garage
band working out there. This package gives people
who weren’t around for the early part of their
career a chance to go back and see where they
came from.
The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project,
We Are Only Riders (101 Distribution)
This is a record Kid Congo told me about back
when we did the Scion Garage Fest in Portland in
2009, and I finally got my hands on a copy of it. It’s
a tribute record called We Are Only Riders and it’s
by the Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project. Jeffrey
Lee Pierce was the frontman and songwriter for
the Gun Club, the great LA garage punk band. A
cassette was found of a bunch of uncompleted
songs Jeffrey Lee was working on when he died,
and an all-star cast has come to the microphone
to work on some of them. You’ve got people like
Nick Cave, Debbie Harry, Lydia Lunch, Dave
Alvin, Johnny Dowd, you’ve got Cypress Grove,
who actually recorded with Jeffrey Lee back in the
day. It’s an incredible group of people interpreting
the legacy of Jeffrey Lee Pierce. Jeffrey Lee was
a guy who never got a lot of credit when he was
alive, but he was one of the first guys to bring
together punk rock and blues and garage rock and
mix them up and turn them into something new.
So this is a really unique opportunity to see what
the next stage in Jeffrey Lee’s musical evolution
might have become. And obviously the people on
the album are incredible. It’s worth hunting for.
Listen to Watusi Rodeo, Chris Morris’ monthly Scion Radio
17 show at scionav.com/radio/channel12
LAST YEAR’S MEN at scion garage
show in austin, tx.
HEX DISPENSERS at scion garage
show in chicago, IL.
GUESTs at scion garage
show in austin, tx.
CHERYL DUNN AT INSTALLATION 7 :
Video IN BROOKLYN, NY.
Gluekit at installation 7: video
at installation LA.
scott musgrove at 11:11
opening at installation LA.
GUESTs at scion garage
show in austin, tx.
ABOUT TOWN
REIGNING SOUND at scion garage
show in austin, tx.
A GUEST at scion garage
show IN Austin, TX.
LAST YEAR’S MEN at scion garage
show in austin, tx.
REIGNING SOUND at scion garage
show in austin, tx.
The london police at installation
7: video at installation la.
Scion’s commitment to artistic expression provides a
platform for passionate artists to focus on developing their
art and exploring the endless possibilities. To learn about
current and past projects from Scion Audio/Visual (SA/V),
please visit scionav.com.