PHARRELL LADY LUCK

NAS
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REILLY
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†††
*
ALOE
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LORDE
COACHELLA
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AT THE STANDS
Out Now: FILTER Issue 55: “Beck: Lost and Found”
Publishers
Alan Miller & Alan Sartirana
After a 20-plus-year career and nearly a dozen studio albums that span the spectrum
of style and genre, the ever-innovative Beck Hansen decided to cycle back to familiar
Editor-in-Chief
Pat McGuire
territory with his newest album, Morning Phase. In an effort to embrace earlier sounds he
Managing Editor
Breanna Murphy
worked hard to create, Beck reunited the players from 2002’s Sea Change and the result
is an organic, peaceful record that is gentle in scope and personal in content. In this issue,
Art Director
Melissa Simonian
FILTER gets an inside look at Beck’s nonlinear, context-driven creative process, the lost
or otherwise shelved material that Beck never released and the inspiration he drew from Elvis. Also: We talk with
Editorial Interns
Christian Koons, Sarabeth Oppliger
Scott Hansen—known both as the graphic designer ISO50 and the electronic musical entity Tycho—about his two
Veep star and recent Emmy winner Tony Hale. Plus: Get up close and personal with Angel Olsen; read a savvy history
on the reanimation of the The Afghan Whigs; take a journey through the black-and-white world of Dum Dum Girls;
glimpse into the personal lives of Sleigh Bells and Glasser through their own cameras; spend 24 hours in Holland;
take a taco tour in Mexico City with Phantogram; get to know ceo, Eagulls, Gardens & Villa, I Break Horses, Mark
McGuire, No, Skaters, Nick Waterhouse and, if you haven’t already, meet Priscilla Ahn, Cibo Matto, Drive-By
Truckers, Jimi Goodwin, Hauschka, Marissa Nadler and Dean Wareham; and get acquainted with The Bruisers, the
wild fan base of Danny Brown, as told by their hero himself.
TEMPLES
*
LONDON
GRAMMAR
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RICHARD
HELL
*
DUM
DUM
GIRLS
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REAL
ESTATE
ys come from the outside in. See more at FILTERmagazine.com/Converse
IN THE GUIDE
Need more FILTER in between issues? Head over to FILTERmagazine.com where you
can download the FILTER Good Music Guide for free. While you’re there, be sure to check
D A MON A L B A R N
DISPLAY THROUGH APRIL ’14
E V E R Y D A Y P AG A N
out our back issues, the latest of which features Damon Albarn, Temples, London Grammar,
Richard Hell, Dum Dum Girls, Real Estate and more. And if you find yourself roaming the
festival grounds of Indio during Coachella, keep your eye out for us. We’ll be there.
Scribes
AD Amorosi, Jeffrey Brown, Jon Falcone, Jessica Jardine,
Daniel Kohn, Shane Ledford, Kyle Lemmon, Nevin Martell,
Sarabeth Oppliger, Kurt Orzeck, Adam Pollock, Angela Ratzlaff,
Ken Scrudato, Laura Studarus, Adam Valeiras
FILTER Creative Group
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Daniel Cruz, Sam Dailey, Jacqueline Fonseca, Monique Gilbert,
Wes Martin, Bailey Pennick, Courtney Phillips, Kyle Rogers,
DeYandre Thaxton, Connie Tsang, Jeff Wolfe
Thank You
McGuire family, Bagavagabonds, Elise Hennigan, Marc Lemoine,
Mike Bauer, Wendy, Sebastian and Lucia Sartirana, the Ragsdales, Pablo Sartirana,
the Masons, Pete-O, Rey, the Paikos family, Shaynee, Wig/Tamo and the SF crew,
Shappsy, Pipe, Dana Dynamite, Lisa O’Hara, Robb Nansel, Pam Ribbeck,
Susana Loy Rodriguez, Asher Miller, Autumn Rose Miller, Rachel Weissman,
Alejandra Gomez, Liz Gomez, The Simonian family, Maria Boutzoukas,
the Murphy and Stafford families, Nels, Max Sweeney + Moxie,
Samantha Feld Samuelson
ON THE WEB
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COVER PHOTO BY CASS BIRD
creative outlets; take some advice on how to be modern from We Are Scientists; and receive a lesson on grace from
7.25 " Bleed
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6.25 " Live
MAGENTA YELLOW
CYAN
I don’t think
anyone factors
meeting Kanye
into her life plan.
BLACK
Your guide to the unseen from a recent issue of FILTER magazine
—Lorde,
on unfathomable situations
her success hath wrought
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UNSEEN QUOTE AND PHOTO FROM FILTER MAGAZINE ISSUE 54: “LIVING THAT FANTASY:
THE POSTMODERN BUZZ ABOUT LORDE.” PHOTO BY MARC LEMOINE.
Your guide to the unseen from a recent issue of FILTER magazine
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UNSEEN PHOTO FROM FILTER MAGAZINE ISSUE 54: “LIVING THAT FANTASY:
THE POSTMODERN BUZZ ABOUT LORDE.” PHOTO BY MARC LEMOINE.
good music guide filter 11
The Doctor Is In You
The Disappearance of John C. Reilly
By Pat McGuire
While you were looking for John C. Reilly, at the multiplex or in the Theater District or
in the pages of People magazine, the respected and sought-after actor has been hiding
out on late-night cable television with a couple of weirdoes and a wireless microphone.
Donning a pair of wire-rimmed glasses and a drab suit, Reilly has spent the last
five years transforming into a creation of his own improvisatory invention named Dr.
Steve Brule, a mild-mannered ne’er-do-well whose insatiable curiosity and adventurous
spirit takes him and his Check It Out! With Dr. Steve Brule cable access TV cameras
on quests for information throughout his community, typically leading him head-first
into certain doom. As Brule, Reilly all but vanishes into the character, who speaks in
his own bizarre vernacular and develops nonsensical catchphrases (“for your health,”
“who cares, it’s just a bunch of hunks”) as he interviews (presumably real) real-world
professionals about their particular fields. He’s like a retarded Huell Howser for the
Internet generation.
Why an Oscar-nominated actor with over 70 films to his name considers a bumbling
TV host to be the crowning achievement of his career is owed in large part to the freedom
afforded and earned by working with the show’s co-creators, Tim Heidecker and Eric
Wareheim. Visionaries in the Adult Swim weirdo-comedy corner, Tim and Eric brought
Reilly into their world and together the trio has changed the way a character actor can
realize his art. If Steve Brule didn’t look so much like John Reilly, we couldn’t be too
certain that it wasn’t Andy Kaufman himself back at it again.
This spring, the Check It Out! ride continues with six new episodes comprising its
third season. Reilly, never one to want to spoil the broth by dissecting the ins and outs
of his beloved character, finally decided to pick up the phone and talk turkey in a simple
effort to spread the Brule-tide cheer. One thing is certain: no one has more love for the
good doctor than Reilly himself. Let’s check it out.
First off: congratulations. There’s something about this character
and this show that just does it for me and a whole lot of other people.
Thank you, I’m really proud of it. I’ve always loved the freedom that we
have when we make this show, that’s pretty much the reason I started doing
the character at all. I just sort of made it up on the fly with Tim and Eric at
Awesome Show and I just loved that there was no one around who was not
fun to talk to. There’s always some artistic director who’s that guy—“Ugh,
I gotta listen to his opinion”—or a producer or someone from the studio…
but Tim and Eric... I remember the first time I went to their offices when
they were making Tom Goes to the Mayor, I was like, “Holy shit, how did
you guys pull this off? You’re two wiseasses from Philadelphia who have a
full office and staff and cameras and you can shoot whatever you want and
your bosses are in Atlanta. Do you realize how special this is?” And they’re
like, “We know, we can’t believe it!”
And they do have to take notes from Adult Swim but it’s often after the
fact. In our case, with Check It Out!, we’re totally free to do whatever the
hell we want. And that’s the key, that’s why you react to the show the way you
do and why younger people, especially, are flipping out for this character:
because it seems like anarchy. It’s very fresh material [laughs] and it comes
out of our stream-of-consciousness in a very short time and is made into a
show. The kids I talk to about it, that’s all they know me from! I’ve done like
70 movies at this point; most teenagers, all they know me from is this and
maybe Step Brothers, too, but mostly this. Which is really cool.
Is that the reason you keep coming back to it—because this provides
you with an outlet that you don’t get from other acting jobs?
It keeps me coming back because I just love the character and working
with Tim and Eric; we have fun together and it’s a really rewarding feeling.
Actually, it’s become the only thing I really feel like doing, to tell you the
truth [laughs]. In terms of acting, it’s pretty hard to go back to saying
someone’s lines exactly as they’re written after you’ve had the freedom and
the exhilaration and chaos of doing this show.
Do you ever reach a point on the show where you say, “That was too
far, we can’t air that”?
Yeah, everyday! I think that’s the point, you try to go way past the mark…
Sometimes we’ll get into something that you just right away know is too
crazy; “We’re wasting our time because we’ll never use this.” But we worry
about what’s too far after we’re done.
good music guide filter 13
improvising, what comes out of your head today is very
different from what came out of your head six years ago,
whether you’ve tried to keep it the same or not. Your body
changes, whatever. So the character does have an arc, and
it’s a very real, human arc, because that’s what happens to
a human being… [laughs] who lives the way Steve lives.
And has the challenges that he has. He’s not super smart,
he eats very poorly, he has a lot of bad luck and a lot of
psychologically damaging things have happened to him…
We’re taking our time to let it evolve.
So what made you decide to talk about this character
now? Earlier in the Brule timeline, your stance on
talking about him was more Andy-Kaufman-silence…
I’m filled with regret every single time I say something
right now, actually. I want people to see the show. The
interviews get really short and really awkward very fast if
I don’t acknowledge that I’m creating the show with Tim
and Eric. I try not to put words into Steve’s mouth. People
ask, “What would Steve Brule say?” And I say, “I don’t
know, you’d have to ask him.”
Look, here’s the thing… I think the people who know
this show already love it. They don’t need to know the
backstories, or how we made it, and they don’t really want
me to take off the mask of the character and talk to them.
I think the whole world has become overly analytical about
everything. People want to know too much about what’s
behind the curtain.
I’ve done plays or movies where they want to have
a behind-the-scenes crew, and do a whole documentary
about the making of this thing and the process…and I’m
like, “That’s none of your fucking business! I didn’t sign
on to make a documentary about how I work, I signed
on to make this movie!” And I think that stuff impacts
how you’re working. All of a sudden how you’re working
becomes some kind of performance? That is really fucked
up, in my opinion. So, not to get too grumpy about the
whole thing, but you bring up a point—I just have to figure
out a way to make the show more available to more people
without spoiling the central goodness of it. It’s this weird
thing that’s hard to understand and it’s kind of a miracle
14 filter good music guide
that it exists, you know? I gotta find a way to encourage
people to talk about it without belaboring the process.
Is the reaction you get to this character greater than
what some of your more known characters receive?
Oh, yeah. And I’m proud of it. This may be the best thing
I’ve ever done, to tell you the truth. When you look at my
life when I’m retired or whatever—dead—people will
definitely look at this character as one of the best things
I’ve ever done. And I think because it’s a real expression…
it’s an improvised character; its creation was improvised
and the way we execute the show is totally improvised, so
there’s something very cool about that. It’s very special.
Most stuff is severely overworked by the time it gets to
the audience.
I must admit that not everyone in my household gets
it, I’m sorry to say.
No, that’s alright. That’s good! I like that the show divides
people because if it didn’t, it’d be like every other fucking
crappy thing on network TV. It’s not meant to be warm
oatmeal. It’s meant to be a weird flavor that some people like.
Do you see an arc in the character after playing him
for several years?
It might be even six years now. It’s almost like those
documentaries where they interview a kid and then seven
years later they interview the same kid. Because of the
timespan of what we’ve done, there’s no way I’d be able to
repeat exactly what I was like six years ago. And if you’re
And Adult Swim is happy because I wouldn’t think
you’d need too much more money to do the show
during this evolution…that’s not the show’s nature.
Oh, we had more money this time and I was like, “Get rid
of that, turn off some of these lights, put the set exactly
like it was.” I mean, you hire good and talented people and
they’re like, “I want to do my best, I can do this better,”
and I’m like, “No, we don’t want it to, it’s gotta look like
Steve and Denny did it, and no better than that.”
What are interactions with fans like? Do people ever
imitate Brule to your face?
Not to me, but there’s a lot of that stuff on the Internet.
I hope that rather than inspiring people to do their own
Steve Brule, it inspires people to actually do their own
character made in the same way that comes from their
heart. Because I’m improvising all the time, there’s nothing
false about the character, it’s totally from my heart and my
brain [laughs]. So it’s not like I’m copying anything or
trying to put one over on the audience. I’m reacting in real
time to real situations with real people. All those people
I interview—that’s their job, they’re real. That priest, the
doctor, the brain surgeon, the child psychologist…all of
them are all real. In fact, we’ve tried to have people come
in that are just weird-looking people and tried to tell them,
“This is your job, so just talk like this is your job,” and it
just doesn’t work.
And it’s only going to get harder to find real people
who don’t know the show as it continues to grow.
Eh, you’d be surprised. The show is such an acquired taste
that there’s a lot of people who have no idea that it exists.
All they hear is, “John C. Reilly wants you to be on his TV
show,” and they’re like, “Oh, great!” And then I get there
and it’s Steve Brule and I’m the only person they have to
talk to; then we’re done, and they’ve already agreed to do
it and then they’re on Check It Out! With Dr Steve Brule.
[Huge laugh.] F
The
Unlikely
Preacher
Chino Moreno
and the Book of
†††
I’ve come to realize that I’m not a poet.
So says Chino Moreno as he hangs in Austin, Texas, within spitting distance of Kanye
West, Lady Gaga, Chris Martin and other larger-than-life musicians who would probably
have a cow if they weren’t bestowed with that titular honor.
Make no mistake about it, Moreno is not one of them. His stature in hard rock might
measure up to theirs in rap and pop, respectively, but the singer of Deftones and †††
(spoken as “crosses”), the noirish electro-rock side project that prompted his jaunt to South
By Southwest and will soon take him to Coachella, is a different breed.
For one thing, he hates writing lyrics. Always has, even since the first Deftones album,
1995’s Adrenaline.
“So many of those songs didn’t even have lyrics, it was just me scatting,” says Moreno,
who Hit Parader, MetalSucks and other heavy metal authorities have named one of the
genre’s best vocalists of all time.
“It was just pure laziness—or me being scared to write lyrics. I don’t feel like I have
a lot to say, and I don’t like to go in writing a song about this person or this situation,” he
continues. “I don’t have a political agenda or anything I need to convince people of—that’s
not the type of writer I am. I react better to rhythms and melodies; that’s the way I come
up with lyrics.”
Essentially, Moreno has just given the CliffsNotes version of †††. After he stumbled
across some rough ideas that longtime friend Shaun Lopez (of indie-rock legends Far) and
Chuck Doom had laid down for a rotating cast of singers, Moreno stepped up to the mic.
It didn’t take long for Lopez and Doom to realize they had found their guy, who they
courted even though he was busy working on Deftones material.
“I said, ‘I’m in, as long as we work on it very nonchalantly—no stress, no hype,’” recalls
Moreno, who recently ditched living in Los Angeles for a rural town in Oregon. “We worked
on it when and how we wanted to, with no pressure other than [our desire] to make some
tunes together.”
By Kurt Orzeck
good music guide filter 17
Moreno’s relaxed approach to ††† can be appreciated even more given his
unceremonious virgin experience with side projects. Back in 2003, he was ready to release
the first album by Team Sleep, a dream-pop affair whose affiliates included Mike Patton,
Pinback’s Rob Crow and others.
But then song leaks and major-label contractual issues got in the way, complicating
what seemed intended to be a cathartic exercise.
With †††—which, somewhat similar to Team Sleep, weaves free-flowing and hardedged rock beats with eerie electronic music—Moreno has taken the opposite approach.
After the trio assembled 20 songs, they beat the pirates by releasing a batch of songs for
free in August 2011.
“We did it with nothing more than a tweet or Facebook post,” he says. “People found it
themselves, and that was a big catalyst to keep us going: When I find music that’s unsolicited
that I stumble upon myself, I tend to appreciate it more.”
Living up to their promise to play it cool with †††, the three-piece took a year off to
work on other projects. (For Moreno, that meant hunkering down on Deftones’ last studio
album, Koi No Yokan—considered to be one of their strongest to date.)
But a funny thing happened while ††† kept themselves on the down-low: People
started to take notice, including Sumerian Records, which offered to buy the band’s EPs
and issue them in the form of a proper record.
18 filter good music guide
His hands full with Deftones—and Palms, an even
more ethereal side project featuring three members
of now-defunct sludge-metal heroes Isis—Moreno
nonetheless green-lighted the ††† full-length.
“It seemed like a no-brainer,” he reasons. Plus, he
had stumbled across an exciting new challenge: “Getting
into a hole and trying to climb out. It forces you to let the
music speak for itself. There are dues to pay; I don’t ever
expect that I’m going to put something out and it’s going
to be at a certain level. So we need to do the work and
familiarize people with it.”
Which brings us back to why Moreno is in Austin, a
place where new bands try to break out and veterans try
to resolidify their status. Moreno is the odd man out here,
since—as an established artist calling attention to one of
his other projects—he doesn’t fit into either camp.
So, why is he promoting ††† with appearances at
SXSW and Coachella, a performance on Jimmy Kimmel
Live and music videos to boot? Especially when a new
Deftones record is imminent and would inevitably kill
any momentum that ††† might gain?
The answer is simple, according to Moreno.
“I really like the record that we made and want as
many people to hear it as possible,” he insists. “I’m really
proud of it, how it sounds as a cohesive work. It wouldn’t
have come out that way if we had planned it.” F
page 16: dana distortion; this page: raul gonzo
I don’t feel like i have a
lot to say. I don’t have a
political agenda... i react
better to rhythms and
melodies; that’s the way i
come up with lyrics.
Advertorial
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us how they capture audio inspiration from nature’s symphony.
Head to FILTERmagazine.com/Converse to see more.
PHARRELL
LADY LUCK
By Laura Studarus
photos by cass bird
22 filter good music guide
good music guide filter 23
It might be hard to believe, but Pharrell Williams is 41 years
old. In both quantity and quality, the musician’s CV reads like someone’s twice his
age. There are the production gigs. (Among his credits is work for Britney Spears,
Snoop Dogg, Justin Timberlake, Johnny Marr and Robin Thicke.) There’s time
spent as a member of The Neptunes and N.E.R.D. There’s his solo work. Even
as a guest musician he has the knack of landing once-in-a-lifetime spots. (Perhaps
you’ve heard Daft Punk’s ubiquitous single “Get Lucky”?)
But for all his headline-worthy accomplishments, Pharrell bounds along in
conversation with the enthusiasm of a teenager. Each statement, no matter the
question, is peppered with mentions of his main interests and delivered with the
intensity of a well-crafted pop hook. Life is good. Unique equals special. And ladies?
Yeah, he loves ’em.
Pharrell has plenty of reasons to celebrate the fairer sex these days. His
sophomore album G I R L is a tribute to the women in his life—wrapped in the
soulful grooves, pop hooks and funk-filled swagger of the songs of his youth. A sharp
turn away from the bombastic rap of his previous solo album, 2006’s In My Mind, the
sunshine-infused song cycle breezes by with such ease that it might be easy to miss
all the high profile collaborators. (Timberlake, Kelly Osbourne, Timbaland, Miley
Cyrus, Daft Punk, JoJo, Alicia Keys, Tori Kelly and Leah LaBelle, to be precise.)
The Guide recently sat down with Pharrell for a closer look at what makes
up his sunny disposition. Like one of his catchy singles, the musician moved from
topic to topic, filling us in on some of the music, philosophies and women that have
inspired his life to date. And like one of his albums, it’s a potent blend.
24 filter good music guide
You’ve gained a reputation as being a very positive person,
and obviously G I R L isn’t going to change that. How do you
respond to people who equate serious music with being sad
or dark?
I think humanity fell into a spell of feeling like the only way to
emote was to take the dark route. In a movie there has to be a
moment where someone stumbles and falls. Getting back up makes
you feel better. The world has been over-inundated with so much
travesty and tragedy because of the Internet. If you look at the
news in real time, there’s seven billion people on the planet. There’s
bound to be tragedy every five seconds. That’s the odds. But what
I want to do is highlight some of the happier moments in life. For
every guy who dies in a car crash, a new beautiful baby has been
born. We don’t spend enough time seeing those things. So I wanted
to make an album that gave people the feeling that I felt when I
was a kid. When I was a kid, I didn’t feel so drab and so down and
so low. When I was a child, music was jubilant and it took you to
another place and made you feel something good.
What were you listening to as a kid that brought you to that
transformative place?
When I was a kid I’d listen to this station called K94. You’d hear
everything, from “Another One Bites the Dust” to “As the Beat
Goes On” to “Planet Rock.” “Eyes Without a Face” by Billy Idol,
Tears For Fears, Michael Jackson, Prince, to Madonna to Genesis
to Phil Collins. Dire Straits, David Lee Roth, Van Halen, Europe...
It just kept going! Lionel Richie, Linda Ronstadt, Kenny Rogers…
it was such a great place. It was so diverse. All these songs emoted.
As a child, when I heard music, it moved me; it would take me to
different places. I wanted to make music that could do that.
Is there a woman from history with whom you’d love to have
a conversation?
I’m happy having conversations with everyday women. That’s
what “Marilyn Monroe” is about. I love Marilyn Monroe, she’s a
wonderful figure who represents beauty in a lot of different ways. I
thought Cleopatra was beautiful in the images that we’ve seen, but
she’s mostly known for her strategy—the stratagems that she would
exercise while making her pharaonic decisions. Then you think of
Joan of Arc, a woman who’s completely brave and gallant enough to
die for what she believed in. I love what all those things represent,
but I don’t feel that every woman has to live up to those standards.
In fact, I think that what makes you different makes you special,
and that’s what celebrating the everyday woman is about.
good music guide filter 25
trim
live
Who are some of the inspirational women in your own life?
I find inspiration in all kinds of women, in all kinds of archetypes of
women. Writers, politicians, fitness instructors, soccer coaches, teachers,
visual artists and designers. Hillary Clinton. Oprah Winfrey. There are
just so many.
I understand your grandmother was also a major force in your life.
Yes. Both of my grandmothers were major, major, major forces. One
encouraged me into music, and the other was very encouraging about
my life and where I was headed when I was young boy. Both of my
grandmothers were different types of motivational forces, and both of
their elements in my life created the alchemy that is my personality. I love
them and I miss them both dearly.
I tried really hard to get it right. In situations like this, there are going to
be some imperfections due to the fact that I’m a human being and I’m also
a man. This is only from my perspective. I tried my hardest to get it right.
I just wanted to make a connection with you all and celebrate my affinity
for all women. It was a thank-you because they’ve been so good to me for
so long. I just wanted to make something that was jamming and wasn’t too
preachy, but felt good. When you hear it, it takes it to a place of escapism.
Should you go looking in it, below the surface of the groove, there are
some messages there.
Was your creative collective “i am OTHER” started in the
same spirit?
I am OTHER is an umbrella of all kinds of creative people who come
together and shield each other and create a refuge. Normality is supposed
to be cool. But we think “normal” and “standard” is weird. We believe
in individuality and celebrate that. That’s what we do together. We join
arms and stand, metaphorically, for individuality, for people standing up
for themselves and just being different.
mimi valdes
That’s wonderful, then, that you can pay tribute in a way with G I R L.
It’s awesome that you’re able to pass that on.
That’s the other thing: I don’t want to be preachy. So I try to hide these things in my music. I
try to hide some of the things I want to say. That’s why when you listen to “Happy” you hear the
groove first. If you like the groove, if you go looking, you can find some holistic medicine in there.
I’ve grown to love hiding intention and purpose in everything that I do. That’s a pastime of mine.
A hobby. An Easter egg hunt. You’ve got to go look for meaning and find answers. I got to deal
with things that are no longer idle and aesthetically pleasing but have some kind of spiritual value.
Has that been a theme throughout your career, aiming for a greater purpose?
I never knew that when I was younger. I never knew that was what I was doing.
Was that a message that you heard a lot as a kid?
In honor of your Coachella performance: If you had to head into the desert with one
person, who would it be—a member of Daft Punk, Robin Thicke, Justin Timberlake,
or Miley Cyrus?
With a name like Pharrell I had to learn that on my own.
My wife! F
26 filter good music guide
Lived In.
live
Anna Calvi, musician.
Lives in broken-in denim. #livedin
good music guide filter 27
Face the Sun
He certainly wasn’t wrong to declare
himself “The Man” after a year like that.
In late 2013, singer-songwriter Aloe Blacc found
himself on top of the international music charts,
blasting out of speakers from every corner of the
world, thanks to the success of his hit “Wake Me Up”
(made with co-producer and superstar deejay Aviici).
The song charted at Number One in nearly two dozen
countries around the world and the official video
currently stands at around 175 million views. It became
one of the biggest-selling singles of the past year.
Fans of Blacc might’ve been surprised to hear
his smoky voice woven into the dance floor stomper.
Then again, Aviici’s EDM-ers might’ve also cocked
an eyebrow after hearing Blacc layered on top of
the deejay’s signature dance beats. Regardless, the
two created a gangbusters duo that’s sent them
both rocketing into the stratosphere; it’s from
there that Blacc managed to follow up his insta-
By Jessica Jardine
photos by nick walker
fame with another hit single, “The Man,” which
winkingly snags a hook from Elton John’s beloved
“Your Song.”
All of this isn’t to say that fame struck an
unexpected target. Blacc has been working steadily
as a musician for nearly 15 years, amassing a solid
critical reputation with three solo full-lengths and
nearly half a dozen releases as a part of the hiphop duo Emanon (featuring producer Exile) on the
revered Stones Throw record label. His 2010 track
“I Need a Dollar” was featured as the title song for
HBO’s How to Make It in America and raised his
visibility significantly. But now he’s squarely in the
spotlight as he plans to go on tour with Mr. Super
Bowl Halftime himself, Bruno Mars, and has even
popped up as a guest advisor to Adam Levine on
NBC’s mega-hit singing competition The Voice.
The Guide recently chatted with Blacc about his
steep ascent, as he jettisoned from a recording studio
(where he’s fine-tuning a version of “The Man” to be
featured in the NFL Draft) to LAX.
good music guide filter 29
What has this past year felt like from the inside, given the incredible international
success of “Wake Me Up”? Was that something you anticipated at all when writing
and recording the song?
Are the musicians that you work with the same
group that you’ve always worked with over the
course of your career?
It’s been really, really great to be part of such a big song that’s ended up getting played on so
many formats of radio. I didn’t think it was going to be a big hit—a pop hit—when I wrote it.
I figured it would be really well-received in the dance music world because, obviously, Aviici
has that presence. But for it to take off on pop radio, urban radio, adult contemporary and
stations in Nashville—to be anywhere near Nashville!—was pretty cool.
No, I’m always working with different musicians. Like,
right now, there’s a band in the studio in LA that I’ve
worked with. I’ve got a band in New York and a band
in Paris and a lead team that I’ve been working with for
years in Los Angeles. I’m always working with different
musicians to get different perspectives, different
personalities and characters, because every instrument
has a personality behind it. There’s a human being who
spent 10 years or more crafting the skill and you can
hear it in the way they play. You might not necessarily
notice it but it’s there and it adds to the track.
Then you were able to follow that up so immediately with another hit, “The Man.”
How did it feel to be able to sustain that kind of momentum?
It’s not easy. I mean, I just try to make the best songs that I can and then let the business
people do their jobs to give the songs visibility.
You’ve put some serious time into the music industry, oscillating from smaller labels
to majors. What insight have you gleaned?
I think, ultimately, what it comes down to is intention. I’ve had a bit of luck to be able to focus
and do music as a hobby and for fun; I literally make music for fun but I do recording industry
business as my day job. So, when I’m in the studio, I’m not thinking about what’s going to
happen with the music. I’m just thinking about making great songs.
And, always have musicians in the studio because you’ll never make a terrible song if
you have great musicians in the studio. They won’t let you get away with it. They won’t put
their name on it. That’s important. That’s an important thing to think about because there are
so many bedroom musicians and bedroom producers who are making music with no checks
and balances—no system of quality control. And, for me, the quality control comes from
making sure I have a group of musicians who would never, ever put their name on something
terrible, to be seen by their peers as having participated in something that’s wack. So, it’s just
a note that keeps me in check.
You stepped out even further into the spotlight
recently by appearing on The Voice. What was
that like and what made you want to be a part
of the show?
The Voice was a good experience, as an opportunity to
be in front of millions of people but also to be part of
a show that I think is doing it right. Music for me is
not a competition but if it’s gonna be, [The Voice is]
showcasing things that should be meritorious: basing
it on factors that are not the way that someone looks
or the way they dance or whatever. The Voice kind
of breaks it down and says, “OK, here’s what we’re
choosing our talent based on”: it’s based on the talent
of the voice.
“Make music for fun. Make art
for the sake of art and if it’s
good, the business will follow.”
30 filter good music guide
Outside of Coachella and your upcoming tour with
Bruno Mars, what’s on the horizon?
I have a small role in a film coming out called Get On Up and it’s
the James Brown story. I’ve also created a small entertainment
group called Artivist Entertainment for like-minded artists
who are involved in socially positive activities. These are
non-profit organizations and community organizations who
have “message art”: visual artists, dancers, filmmakers,
photographers, musicians, producers and vocalists.
So Artivist connects these musicians and artists to
communities to help facilitate outreach?
Actually, being part of Artivist suggests that you already are
involved in community and so it’s just a place where, as my
visibility increases, I’ll have a chance to expose these other
voices that I believe are worthy and doing really great things
but don’t have the kind of access and resources that I have.
I’m also doing this with a band called Quetzal, the Grammy
Award–winning Chicano rock band, so together we have the
kind of resources and experience that can help bring these
otherwise-known-as “alternative voices” to the mainstream. I
think they should be the mainstream.
People like to peg the fact that you’re an older and
more experienced musician to your success story. What
kind of advice do you give young musicians who would
want to emulate your career?
I would really stress not worrying about the career part. Make
music for fun. Make art for the sake of art and if it’s good,
the business will follow. And if it works commercially, the
business will follow. But if you’re trying to force the business
then you’re likely either going to fail in business or you’re
going to fail in art. You’re going to compromise your art by
focusing on business. So, get a day job. Make your art for fun
and use social media and the tools that have been so helpful
in this past decade and when things start to pick up, trust
me, business folks will knock on your door. They’ll be there.
They’ll see the dollar signs. F
Star Reborn
Nas
and
2 0 Y e a rs
of
Illmatic
By Kurt Orzeck
photos by danny clinch
32 filter good music guide
“Yo, Nas, yo, what the fuck is this bullshit on the radio,
son... Shit is mad real right now in the projects… I
think we need to let them niggas know it’s real, man.”
—Illmatic’s intro, “The Genesis”
asir bin Olu Dara Jones grew up in Queensbridge, New York—and lived to
tell about it.
By the time he turned 20 years old, both his brother and best friend had
been shot (on the same night, horrifyingly), and it had been seven years since
his dad bailed, leading him to drop out of school and start selling drugs on street corners.
But there was hope for young Nasir: Hype was still brewing over the criminally bold
verses he dropped on Main Source’s track “Live at the Barbeque” three years earlier,
drawing him comparisons to rap’s ace lyricist Rakim:
Verbal assassin, my architect pleases
When I was 12, I went to hell for snuffing Jesus
Nasty Nas is a rebel to America
Police murderer, I’m causing hysteria…
I was trapped in a cage and let out by the Main Source…
And hanging niggas like the Ku Klux Klan
I melt mics till the sound wave’s over
Before stepping to me you’d rather step to Jehovah
Slamming emcees on cement
Cause verbally, I’m iller than a AIDS patient.
Talk about making an entrance. America, meet Nas. Don’t expect a handshake.
Rap saved Nas’s life, giving him an alternative to jail, or worse. And he returned the
favor, giving the genre its first and arguably most important album ever to tell the truth
about the streets from a first-person point of view.
The US economy was rebounding under Clinton in 1994, but that would’ve been
news to Queensbridge, a massive public housing development ravaged by black-on-black
violence, drugs and poverty.
“I made it to be 20, so that means something,” Nas said in a 1994 interview on the
Muchmusic TV show Rap City. “I’m supposed to do something.”
An iconic image from Les Miserables features a young Cosette staring into the distance—a
symbol of France’s bright future. The cover of Nas’s indelible debut, Illmatic, depicts the
artist at age 7, skeptically looking dead ahead with the image of a ghetto superimposed in
the background.
It’s a bleak, gritty collage that captures the futility of hope for young black men
growing up in the projects. But, as the story unfolded, it turned out to be the album’s
eventual success that gave Nas the out he needed to survive—and to be reborn.
This spring, 20 years later, Columbia Records has reissued Illmatic in
anniversary-edition form with unreleased songs, mixes and other bonuses. Few
would’ve imagined the deluxe treatment two decades ago for an album that took
seven long years to go platinum.
But there’s at least one person who knew right away that the album was a masterpiece,
and it happens to be the same guy who’s performing it in its entirety at Coachella.
34 filter good music guide
A Conversation
with
Nas
What do you remember most vividly about making Illmatic?
It was an exciting time in music…the temperature was right for an
explosion onto the scene. It was ‘92 when I started to record it. Everything
from Onyx to A Tribe Called Quest to Redman was killing the shit
everywhere, and music was in a great place with a bunch of new artists on
the scene. I was just taking my position and getting ready.
What did you bring to the table that other artists at the time didn’t?
I brought you into the personal. Whereas a lot of acts at the time had real
blazin’, sizzlin’ joints, my joints were more about what was going on in
the world and were not necessarily radio records. Back on “N.Y. State of
Mind,” I said, “Y’all know my steelo with or without the airplay.” That was
the first song on the album [after the intro, “The Genesis”], kind of the
beginning of what you were about to experience about this album: There
was no bullshit. It was more into my psyche.
Did you feel like you captured lightning in a bottle with Illmatic,
since Columbia wanted it out so fast?
I spent my whole life working on it. I’d been working on it since I started
rapping, and I wrote half of it at 16 years old. Most people don’t realize
that [about] a lot of people’s best works, how young they were when they
started putting those verses together. Redman, when he started writing
[1992’s Whut? Thee Album], he was probably a teenager. I was a teenager
when I started writing Illmatic, so once I got the feel, I just had to finish
up a few verses [and] tighten up a few things.
Did you know when you were making Illmatic that it was going to
be a classic album, or was it hard to get that sense because it was
your first one?
There was probably a time when somebody would ask me that question
and I’d say, “I didn’t know.” But that’s bullshit. I knew it. The people
around me knew it. My friends knew it. The record company knew it. The
people producing the album knew it. We all knew.
good music guide filter 35
Were you happy with the response you got from people
outside your immediate circle, or were you expecting
bigger things?
I was beyond excited to be accepted, acknowledged,
approved. That was my biggest dream, just to be in the
rap game. That’s why it was so surreal: “Wow, I’m really an
emcee that people know.”
How did you handle getting accepted by the rap game?
Were you comfortable with it?
I was comfortable, because I was in the projects all day, and all
the friends on my block, we celebrated like it was a birthday
every day… The fact that people were finally getting to know
my story, our story, my neighborhood story, New York’s story.
Ironically, didn’t your first album wind up taking
you out of the world that you wrote about and that
made Illmatic such a success?
It gave me hope. It showed me different worlds. But it
wasn’t like it sold 10 million copies or even went Gold when
it first came out. It got all this acclaim, but it didn’t do huge
numbers—which I really didn’t care about. Of course, it was a
life-changing album for me, but it’s not like it removed me from
the things that were around me. It was just different, because
now I had a car.
Does Queensbridge still have the same social
conditions from the time you made Illmatic? Or have
things gotten better?
Things have changed. There’s cameras on the buildings.
Everybody has a street mentality now, whereas it was hidden
in a lot of ways before. Now you see it, you feel it more. New
York’s been through a lot of shit. New York needs a vacation.
With so much out in the open now in Queensbridge, do
you think Illmatic would have had the same effect had it
come out today?
Well, if it was me coming out, it would still be a story never told
my way. Writing is not about just saying something someone
else said or making it popular or making it catchy. Good writing
is about seeing things through your way that opens it up to other
people’s eyes in a way they haven’t seen it or heard it before.
36 filter good music guide
What was the hardest thing about making Illmatic?
[Long pause, then laughs.] I don’t know, man. I guess trying to figure out the business of it
along the way…things I didn’t care about but was forced to learn. That kind of stuff bothered
me: watching my deals, watching the people who were watching my deals, checking anybody’s
ego that I might have met along the way, calming down my unruly crew, trying to keep us from
going to jail before the record came out. It was new for all of us. So we scared a lot of people
and ruined a lot of relationships back then.
Looking back, how would you describe your 20-year-old self?
I was a cool guy. I was a lot like I am now, I just know more now and have experience now. I was
less social with people who didn’t really know me.
Was that why it was so authentic for you to open up to people with Illmatic, because
you hadn’t been used to doing that?
I didn’t look at it like that, but yeah, it was the first time giving my inside story to people. Put
myself under the microscope and then go away, not let them get close to me, physically. Outside
of my familiar faces that were around me, I didn’t trust nothing.
Was Columbia cool with you executive producing your debut album?
I wanted [Large Professor] to do it. He told me, “No, do your thing.” He was dealing with a lot
of internal drama with his group [Main Source]. He was busy, and he didn’t want to bring that
[drama] around me. [Columbia was] just excited to see what was going to come on this album…
I didn’t even think I had deserved that right [to executive produce] at that time. I was just so
appreciative, so happy to be signed to this major company.
You said recently that you wouldn’t be where you are today without Illmatic and that
“what is past is prologue.” So where do you think you would be without that record?
Do you think [1996’s] It Was Written would’ve taken you to the same place, or would
it have taken you longer to catch on?
You only get one chance to make a first impression and make it big. So I couldn’t play with it.
If I wanted to be accepted, acknowledged in the world called rap, I had to do it right from the
jump, straight from the rip. I felt like, if I could do this, I’d be set, so that was my goal. There
was no other way for me other than…to become a peer of the greats within the business at the
time and to get their respect. There was no other way to do it, ‘cause then you’re just dragging
yourself along...and you don’t want to be going through that when you’re 40. You want to get
that out of the way, so you resonate early.
Speaking of age, why do you think Illmatic has stood the test of time as well as it has?
It’s real me all the way throughout… There wasn’t a lot of money advanced to me to make it
feel like a superstar project. It was so raw…it’s no fluff, there’s no guest appearances by rap
superstars. It’s just a moment in time that I happened to capture. MEMORY
LANE
Nas Trips Down Illmatic’s
Illest Moments
Were there any songs in particular on Illmatic that you knew
were going to be bangers?
I thought that people would be happy with a different kind of song…
like “One Love.” But I [didn’t] know that people outside of my group
would think it was a classic.
You put out five singles from a nine-song album [technically
10 songs, including the intro]—but arguably your biggest song
ever, “N.Y. State of Mind,” wasn’t one of them. Did you have
any say in choosing the singles?
“It Ain’t Hard to Tell” and “The World Is Yours” were more suited for
radio, if anything. “Halftime” was most suited for underground mix
shows and even clubs… But even with those tracks having some radio
love, the record was its own living thing that had nothing to do with
anything too mainstream.
If you only had nine songs, why didn’t you put “I’m a Villain” [an
unreleased song from the 20th anniversary edition] on there?
I forgot that song existed when I started making Illmatic. It showed up
from someone else; I didn’t even have a copy of it. I don’t even know
how Sony got a copy of it now.
Is there a version of “Life’s a Bitch” out there with a “Juicy
Fruit” sample [a Mtume song Nas wanted to crib from before
Notorious B.I.G. did with his song “Juicy”]?
No. [Laughs.] I didn’t mess it up by using a “Juicy Fruit” sample.
Mtume [is] a genius, and that’s one of my favorite records I ever heard
in my life, but I wouldn’t have done anything good to it, like what
Biggie did.
What do you think is the most unappreciated song on Illmatic?
I guess maybe “One Time 4 Your Mind.” The bass line and the drops
in the record, where it’s just me solo on one word and the music drops
out, I like that. F
good music guide filter 37
One-Liners:
a miniature take on selected Filter Magazine reviews
........................................................................................................................................
(Go to FILTERmagazine.com or pick up FILTER Magazine Issue 55 for full reviews of these albums)
Beck
Morning Phase
CAPITOL
87%
Dum Dum Girls
Too True
SUB POP While it explores familiar sonic territory, you
can see the change that Beck’s experience
brings to this calmly inventive and pareddown collection.
83% Warpaint
Warpaint
ROUGH TRADE
While the tried and true Siouxsie-meetsMadonna sheen has returned for Too
True, there’s also a new element at work—
vulnerability.
Warpaint have always been more concerned
with capturing and preserving a mood than
simply producing a product and here the girls
are pretty much on-point.
Tinariwen
Emmaar
ANTI-
79%
86%
Liars
Mess
MUTE
The influence of political tension brings a
gentle dissonance and semi-stoic tone to
the desert-blues group’s signature crackling
electric sound.
82%
Lost in the Trees
Past Life
ANTI–
Mess unfolds within a familiar inky-black
cyberpunk world and it’s all tempered by
the same ambiguously aimed menace that
has become Liars’ defining aesthetic mood.
Ari Picker trims the fat from previous efforts and
makes a chilling, straightforward album of riffs
and melodies more grand than grandiose.
Eagulls
Eagulls
PARTISAN
81%
Foster the People
Supermodel
COLUMBIA
78%
85%
Lo-Fang
Blue Film
4AD
Leeds-based post-punkers use volume,
simplicity and marble-mouthed vocals for an
incendiary debut that is both nostalgic and
refreshingly contemporary.
Matthew Hemerlein’s voice strikes enough
of a balance with the chilly electronics to
keep the core of this winter release at room
temperature.
Foster trade electronics for guitars, world music
and psychedelia but fall short of pumped-up
expectations for this sophomore effort.
Phantogram
Voices
REPUBLIC
84%
Solids
Blame Confusion
FAT POSSUM
The Notwist
Close to the Glass
SUB POP
40 filter good music guide
80%
Back to front, Blame Confusion consists
of balls-to-the-wall bangers and when the
pace slows down, it isn’t by much.
FILTER
ALBUM
RATINGS
Phantogram combines sleazy, fuzzed-out
synthesizers with pretty, mournful melodies to
conjure paradise where the sordid sounds sexy.
85-100%
80-84%
75-79%
70-74%
below 69%
8
8
8
8
8
a great album
above par, below genius
respectable, but flawed
not in my CD player
please God, tell us why
76%
73%
The Notwist’s experiments go further than ever
before—and that’s saying something—but large
swaths fall through cracks of their own creation.
Music,
etc.
.......................................................................................................................................................................................................
book
Oasis
Definitely Maybe [Chasing the Sun edition]
90%
BIG BROTHER Twenty years have passed since Definitely Maybe
kicked off the Britpop revolution and made
the Gallagher brothers bigger than Jesus (at least in their
minds). The album has lost none of its neo-Beatles charm,
cocaine-fueled urgency or take-it-or-fuck-off bravado,
making it just as compelling today as it was at the tail end
of the grunge age. “Live Forever” soars stratospherically,
there’s a pell-mell electricity driving “Bring It on Down” and
oftentimes overlooked “Slide Away” is a winning prototype
for the heart-on-sleeve balladry (“Don’t Look Back in
Anger,” “Wonderwall”) that cemented the Mancunians’
Stateside success a couple years later. This remastered
three-disc set boasts a bounty of bonus material, including
all of the B-sides from the era; “Whatever,” the quintet’s
strings-laden standalone single; and a slew of demos and live
tracks that are absolutely worth owning, especially a searing,
stripped-down take of “Live Forever.” Is this a classic? Not
maybe. Definitely. NEVIN MARTELL
tUnE-YArDs
Nikki Nack
4AD
84%
Merrill Garbus is the harbinger of so-called
“ugly pop.” Since we last encountered her
tUnE-yArDs project with 2011’s universally adored w h o
k i l l, Garbus was tutored by a drum master from Haiti,
where she ventured to embrace non-Western music. The
result is a thoroughly cross-cultural album dripping with
soul and iconoclasm. It’s fun, too; there are party anthems
and a funny spoken-word interlude. But, above all, Nikki
Nack is a generational statement if there ever was one.
KURT ORZECK
Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks
Enter the Slasher House
DOMINO
77%
An eerie ode to the supernatural sides of
Carpenter and Craven, Animal Collective’s
42 filter good music guide
Avey Tare proudly presents his Slasher Flicks, joined by
fellow East–West Coast transplants Angel Deradoorian
(Dirty Projectors) and Jeremy Hyman (Ponytail, Dan
Deacon). A ghostly specter of their new LA neighbor (in
name and, sometimes, style and sound) Ariel Pink, fans of
Animal Collective may enter the Slasher House and revel in
Tare’s fun-sized treats, but others might be too disappointed
by the tricks, remaining contented with the Haunted Graffiti
next door. BREANNA MURPHY
Chad VanGaalen
Shrink Dust
SUB POP
85%
On his newest album, Chad VanGaalen
continues his multi-layered musical
exploration of his own mind, this time through a sci-fi/
fantasy lens. The lyrics found on Shrink Dust are about what
you expect from the album’s cover image—death, monsters,
dismembered hands—but it’s clear that VanGaalen’s
having fun with this album, letting his imagination guide
the content even while his music reaches some of the most
accessible points of his body of work so far. It’s an album
that wears its weirdness on its sleeve, but it’s the best kind
of weird, and a joy to listen to. JEFFREY BROWN
Eno * Hyde
Someday World
WARP
81%
Dearest Brian,
We’re chuffed you chose to mingle your
musical blood with once-Underworld-chappie Karl Hyde.
Not sure you even realized, but Someday World sounds quite
like Happy Mondays at times, and rather like King Crimson
at others. Of course, we knew you were mates with that
Fripp fellow—though who could have guessed you were
also concealing a Madchester fetish? (“Hallelujah!”) But
really, the grooves are so ace, we almost pulled the vintage
baggies out of storage. The jittery but pretty prog guitar
riffs are also a nice new touch for you. Best of all, you and
Karl harmonize so magnificently, in that, you know, “lifelike
robot” sort of way. And since you thought to ask of us, “Did
you ever dream the end of the world?” we must admit
that, indeed, we have. And, funny enough, this was the
soundtrack. Your friend, KEN SCRUDATO
Chromeo
White Women
BIG BEAT/ATLANTIC
82%
Daft Punk’s naughtier, funnier Arab–Jewish
counterparts (in spirit) continue along the
same path they’ve long walked through the soul city. The
merry merging of dirty disco and glossy funk inspiration
from the ’70s and ’80s is Chromeo’s slap-bass wheelhouse,
and the boys let loose on the hand jive of “Jealous (I Ain’t
With It)” and the slick and pseudo-sensual “Sexy Socialite.”
Despite their love of period tones and chord changes, White
Women doesn’t sound like a camp pastiche. Instead, “Come
Alive” (with Toro Y Moi) and “Lost on the Way Home”
(featuring Solange) are kitsch-modern without being stuck
in the past. A.D. AMOROSI
The Afghan Whigs
Do To the Beast
SUB POP
81%
Rock-and-roll timelines have turned in on
themselves so completely since Little Richard
kicked things off in the mid ’50s that it’s sometimes hard
to remember what came first: Keith or the riff. That The
Afghan Whigs are releasing a new album almost three
decades since first forming seems unfathomable, yet here
they are, and back on Sub Pop to boot. Longtime fans will
relish the return as Greg Dulli’s voice—full of longing, sex
and anger—has never sounded better; new listeners will
marvel at the drama that was so prevalent in bands from
the ’90s, and that can be so lacking now. ADAM POLLOCK
Conor Oberst
Upside Down Mountain
NONESUCH
84%
“Sometimes I get mistaken for this actor/I
guess that I can see it from the side/Maybe
no one really seems to be the person that they mean to
be/I hope that I am forgotten when I die.” With lyrics
like those, Oberst won’t be. The ever-loquacious monster
of folk has a lot to say on his latest record (this one finds
him particularly obsessed with time), but it’s his growing
mastery of orchestration that muzos might appreciate the
most. A tip of the cap to Jonathan Wilson, who curated
the sound in Nashville—and a round of applause for
Oberst. KURT ORZECK
Walter Martin
We’re All Young Together
FAMILY JUKEBOX
70%
Before they disbanded, The Walkmen’s
Walter Martin played bass and organ for
the sometimes harsh and heavy quintet. Unlike many
band-members-gone-solo, however, Martin has made
a radical career-180. We’re All Young Together is innocent
and sweet, accurately defined as a “family record.” The
album sure evokes the image of the ever-smiling acoustic
guitarist singing songs about nature and love to a huddle
of kindergartners, but damned if it’s not a fine collection
of pure, juvenile tunes, and with impressive production,
instrumentation and collaborations to boot. Sorry, Walt,
there can only be one Raffi. ADAM VALEIRAS
dvd
The Rise and Fall of The Clash
81-90%
SHOUT! FACTORY
Exposing The Clash in all its success
and failure, this documentary takes a
step behind-the-scenes of “the biggest
band in the world,” making it difficult
to believe that the British rockers
managed to survive for 10 years. Unseen footage of
the group on and off stage shows the legendary band
members as they lose sight of their punk roots and
quickly fall victim to money-hungry management. The
Clash, also distracted by wealth and drugs, became a
musical chameleon too blinded to evade its own selfdestruction. Rudie could fail. SARABETH OPPLIGER
Courtney Barnett
The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas
MOM + POP
84%
Melbourne-based indie singer-songwriter
Courtney Barnett has a razor-sharp knack
for detail in her lyrics and a heady brew of psych-rock, pop
and melodic hooks to wash down all the droll wordplay. The
international release of her double-EP compilation runs through
idiosyncratic tales about an anaphylactic panic attack (“Avant
Gardener”) and acrid breakups (“Don’t Apply Compression
Gently”) with the cleverness of an underground rapper and
the soul of a country balladeer. This is one of the more assured
debuts of an artist in recent memory. KYLE LEMMON
White Sea
In Cold Blood
MOM + POP
81%
In Cold Blood, the debut White Sea full-length
from M83’s leading lady Morgan Kibby, is a
giddy, headfirst plunge through Cocteau Twin–esque pop,
anthemic power ballads and all matter of excess, circa
1980–1990. Kibby’s ambition pays off—the layers of
layering crunchy synths, strings and her clarion could sound
sloppy in lesser hands. It’s an exercise in conviction. Such
is the force of her magnetic personality that when she sings,
“I’m the girl who makes it out alive,” you have no choice but
to believe. LAURA STUDARUS
Sylvan Esso
Sylvan Esso
PARTISAN
79%
Tropical, African. Soul, blues. R & B,
simplicity. Sylvan Esso blends it all and makes
preconceived notions of electronic-driven music parallels
to unintelligent dubstep fade away. The group’s debut selftitled album opens with rich, rhythmic vocals from Amelia
Meath, and electronic producer Nick Sanborn’s synths blast
“Hey Mami” into pure bliss. “Coffee” drives contemporary
soul into a build-up that leads to a sway-worthy “My Baby
Does the Hanky Panky” segment. Pure dark, smooth genius.
ANGELA RATZLAFF
William Shakespeare’s
The Empire Striketh Back
Ian Doescher
QUIRK
81%
“Part the Fifth” of The Bard’s imagined
take on George Lucas’s epic saga, this
sequel to William Shakespeare’s Star Wars
goes the distance for its gimmick, that’s for sure. Iambic
pentameter; liberal usage of words like “prithee,” “doth”
and “hath”; and exchanges like “I am thy father,” “Nay,
’tis not true!” make Ian Doescher’s cleverly goofy idea
pay dividends if you’re one of those types who think that
150-plus pages of that shit is funny. Yoda talks in haiku;
there’s a “dramatis personae” list. Your high school
drama teacher is gonna love it. SHANE LEDFORD
Mirah
Changing Light
ABSOLUTE MAGNITUDE
83%
The Hold Steady
Teeth Dreams
POSITIVE JAMS/WASHINGTON
SQUARE
82%
Five years after her last solo release, Mirah’s
Changing Light is filled with less up-tempo
pop than much of her earlier music, and a more consistently
soft texture. This breakup record begins emotionally rough,
but ends beautifully, with hope and acceptance. Along the
way, these vocals are perhaps her best yet, while complex
arrangements build each song into a unique moment. At the
same time, Mirah maintains the sincerity and earnestness
that gives her music its soul. JEFFREY BROWN
What better way for the Brooklyn natives
to celebrate their 10th anniversary than by releasing their
first batch of new material in four years? On their sixth
LP, Craig Finn and company deviate from the formula that
made them indie darlings. Relying on a wall of distortion
and nasty guitar riffs, the results sees The Hold Steady
with an in-your-face, rapid fire record that’s arena-ready
and their most ambitious to date. DANIEL KOHN
Owls
Two
POLYVINYL
82%
An Owls record really wasn’t expected,
some 13 years after the Chicago legends’
debut. Born from the recent spat of reunion shows,
in many ways an Owls album is a far sweeter end
product than a Cap’n Jazz release, which would drown
in expectation. Two rages in discord and arrhythmia;
“Ancient Stars Seed” powers through rhythms whilst
Tim Kinsella’s vocals fall apart with fidgety boredom.
Two is more than a reminder—it’s a fresh thrash of
emotion from a supremely talented, if dysfunctional,
band. JON FALCONE
blu-ray
The Wolf of Wall Street
PARAMOUNT
86%
Marty’s latest adventure in Leoland
could essentially be summed up
in this Ricky Ger vais–approved
Des’ree lyric: “Money don’t make
my world go ’round/I’m reachin’ out
to a higher ground.” Wait a minute…strike that,
reverse it. Cash rules everything around this clan of
degenerate Big Apple stockbrokers, and the prettytrue-to-life stor y unfolds in typically brilliant
Scorsesian fashion. At three hours, the excess
can start to feel, well, excessive—the film even
apparently set the record for the number of “fuck”s
flown in a major motion picture—but that’s the
point, son. Get the money; dolla dolla bills, y’all.
SHANE LEDFORD
TEEN
The Way and Color
CARPARK
79%
In less than two years since TEEN released
their solid debut In Limbo, the resurgence of
R & B jams within indie music has altered the music world.
The effects of this change overwhelm Teeny Lieberson and
44 filter good music guide
family’s follow-up LP. Standout tracks like “More Than I
Ask For,” “All the Same” and “Not For Long” are heavily
influenced by Lorde’s almighty chart-topping power.
While fun, some of the foursome’s unique sound is sorely
absent. BAILEY PENNICK
Leon Russell
Life Journey
UMe
83%
Leon Russell is one of rock’s legends.
Whether solo (slow, moody hits like “This
Masquerade”) or paired with the likes of Joe Cocker and
Elton John (Life Journey’s executive producer), Russell
brings a touch of the old South to all he surveys. Same
here. Though Russell uses his craggy, soulful caterwaul
and playful piano stylings on classics like “Georgia on
My Mind,” Russell-penned originals such as the jumpboogieing “Big Lips” and the swinging “Down in
Dixieland” are this winning deck’s aces. A.D. AMOROSI
were one and the same. Here, the songs are still draped
in some kind of fog, but rather than reveling in the
mystery, they are melancholic, tired and stuck in endless
repetition. While Pleasure and C.U.T.S. evoke the nature
of the dream, Angel, obsessive and occasionally trite,
tends to tell rather than show. ADAM VALEIRAS
Thievery Corporation
Saudade
ESL
songwriter Kip Berman recently told MTV about Days
of Abandon. Berman’s quote is accurate. Despite some
inspired guest contributions from A Sunny Day in
Glasgow’s Jen Goma and Beirut’s Kelly Pratt, the raw
guitar anthems from Belong are too often replaced by
poppy fizz, toothless jangle and twee melancholia on
Abandon. Please enjoy, moms. KYLE LEMMON
The Horrors
Luminous
XL 82%
While you always know what to expect
with a Thievery Corporation album, it
doesn’t stop it being a sumptuous, partly therapeutic
listen. Harking to their genesis, the sound is organic
and in this respect a departure. “Para Sempre” swirls
in a gentle dance and stars of electro and bossa nova
pepper the album, such as Nouvelle Vague’s Karina
Zeviani. “Saudade” means “to acknowledge an absence,”
but there’s nothing missing from these contemporary
lullabies. JON FALCONE
80%
After years of mayhem and darkness,
Luminous purports to be The Horrors’
sweetness-and-light album (no more Bauhaus
comparisons for them!). With songs like “First Day
of Spring” and “Jealous Sun,” we’re inclined to go
along with the stor y, and the music bears this out. It’s
a bit of a departure but we can’t fault the chaps in
their attempt to be fun and danceable—at least they’re
still wearing all black and sporting the occasional cape.
ADAM POLLOCK
Chet Faker
Built on Glass
DOWNTOWN/FUTURE CLASSIC
81%
Within the 12 tracks that make up his
full-length debut, Chet Faker is the
crooner (“Release Your Problems”), the DJ (“Cigarettes
& Loneliness”), the innovator (“No Advice [Airport
Version]”) and the best boyfriend you could possibly
have (“Talk Is Cheap”). While the different factors might
seem like Built on Glass is a broken pile of jagged shards,
the album’s enthralling fusion of electronica and soul
proves that Faker’s glass foundation is a prism showing
his colorful range. BAILEY PENNICK
Pure X
Angel
FAT POSSUM
72%
It’s only been three years since Pure X’s
stunningly hazy Pleasure, yet I’d never be
able to guess that that band and this band behind Angel
Rodrigo Y Gabriela
9 Dead Alive
ATO
78%
On their fifth studio effort, the Mexican
duo return to their roots with the dueling
salsa-meets-flamenco guitars that caught on with fans in
the first place. Each song is dedicated to an artist they
respect, and thus, the guitarists pay tribute in a way
that’s flashy and adventurous, yet sees them intricate and
technically proficient. Sometimes going back to what
works can be a crutch and creatively stifling, but for
Rodrigo y Gabriela, it’s a welcome return. DANIEL KOHN
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Days of Abandon
74%
YEBO
“I think my mom will like this one
more, and that’s how I usually evaluate
songwriting,” The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
dvd
Orange Is the New Black: Season One
84%
LIONSGATE
It makes sense that the idea of
turning Piper Kerman’s prison
memoir into a television show came
from the minds of Weeds’ creators;
it’s a scandalous program with a
female lead smack-dab in the middle
of the action. Orange Is the New Black (one of Netflix’s
tent poles of original programming) follows the
decade-late incarceration of Piper Chapman—a
knowing accessor y in an international drug cartel.
While this sounds dramatic, let me remind you that
Jason Biggs is on this show. Season One introduces
a loveable-yet-terrifying cast of characters whose
hijinks (I’m looking at you, Taystee) expand in the
DVD extras. BAILEY PENNICK
The Skull Defekts
Dances in Dreams of the Known Unknown
81%
THRILL JOCKEY
For those who value their un-defective
craniums, be warned that Swedish psychmetallers The Skull Defekts seem singularly intent on
pounding said craniums into oblivion. The music on this
explosive new album is as tightly coiled as early Sabbath,
but their terrifyingly detuned guitars, brickbat rhythmic
chaos and contributions from Lungfish’s Daniel Higgs
imbue the proceedings with an overwhelming air of
apocalyptic doom. Imagine Killing Joke without all that
righteous fist-shaking, and you’re almost there. Keep out
of reach of children. Really, just do. KEN SCRUDATO
Young Magic
Breathing Statues
CARPARK 77%
There’s nothing worse than a good
book with a bad ending. Young Magic’s
sophomore album opens with a trippy vocal prelude,
urging minds down the rabbit hole. Steady rhythms
and simplistic melodies bring on relaxing trances.
The Brooklyn duo casts dark electro-psych spells, as
listeners become consumed in a dark wave of synth
rhythms (“Ageless”) and upbeat pop jams (“Fall In”).
Then, it all becomes repetitive. That original curiosity
is lost, unfortunately making way for boredom.
ANGELA RATZLAFF
“Primal. Gigantic. Loud
as cannons. Royal Blood
are all of these things.”
NME
royalbloodband.com
“Chief flag-bearers for
riff-based rock ‘n’ roll.”
Q Magazine
“SXSW Best Bet”
Stereogum
“OUT OF THE BLACK” EP
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CITY SOUNDSCAPES
Clipping’s audio inspiration is all around them
at FILTERmagazine.com/Converse