Sorry, technical difficulties made this a tad late today:
Joe Lally | Edie Sedgwick | Tre Orsi (Rubber Gloves) Would you say "Joe Lally of Fugazi," or "Joe Lally, formerly of Fugazi?" I was never clear whether the band actually broke up for good, or are just taking the longest break ever. It would be nice to get one more album out of those guys, wouldn't it? I really dug Ian's performance with the Evens at Public Trust a couple months back, but man, it just isn't a substitute for Fugazi.
Erykah Badu | Q-Tip | 9th Wonder (Ghostbar) I know I know, but it's QTip. Despite the fact that places like Ghostbar thoroughly depress me (can't rich assholes in Dallas at least be evil enough to be funny or something?), I thought you should know at least.
Do you know what a 'fight bite" is? If so, then you probably realize that Denton's Fight Bitehave one of the most disgusting band names in the metroplex. You won't notice it while you're trapped in the lush, dreamy haze their lovely tracks will send you into, but a quick Google image search will snap you outta that one pretty quick. Totally NSFW.
Anyway, gross band names are pretty cool in my book, and apparently, they're pretty cool in Stereogum's too, as the love it or hate it international hipster blog just added Fight Bite to their list of "Bands to Watch"after last week's glowing Gorilla vs Bearpost. Fight Bite consists of former Christian Teenage Runawaymember Leanne Macomber and Teenage Symphonylead singer Jeff Williams, and despite the fact that they've only played a handful of shows together, the reason they're getting so much attention becomes pretty clear after just a few moments on their Myspace page- yes, the music really is worthy of the early praise. Check out standout track "Swissexlover" to see what I mean. Anyone who's into Beach House or High Places or maybe even Celebration will dig this stuff for sure.
Kaboom | Last Men | Clap Party (J & J's Pizza) Denton's Douche are now Last Men, while the last man you dated is now a douche. Well, at least they'll now be invited to play Christmas shows, Easter Shows, and other family events. Whatever they're called, they are a formidable live act, full of literate, palpable rage and I'm looking forward to hearing some actual recordings. Clap Party are a recently reunited group with an approach colored by the frayed art punk tendencies of bands like Rocket From The Tombs and the loose, disjointed psyche passages of US Maple. I've really enjoyed Kaboom's recent recordings and much like the aforementioned Last Men, it would be cool to get my hands on a proper release. Fuck this Yousendit shit.
We have Cool Out tonight @ The Cavern, of course, and Jazz @ Amsterdam, of course, and Bill's Records will be hosting a record release/listening party for Erykah Badu, who will make an appearance at the store to sign CDs and whatever else starting at midnight. I honestly don't think I've listened to an Erykah Badu song since like 1997 or something, but come on everyone: she's from Dallas! Erykah Badu is from Dallas guys! See, our town isn't irrelevant, check it out, she's ours! Snooze. I do remember liking her hats and her hair and stuff though, and I bet the party will be decent too. Still haven't been to the new Bills yet...
We'll have Melodica related stuff for you some time very soon.
WED: Joe Lally/Edie Sedgwick/Tre Orsi (Rubber Gloves) THU: Prince William Benefit with The Party/Cool Out/Faux Fox/Keith P/Hawatha Hurd/It's What We Get (Sloppyworld) THU: The Octopus Project/Mt. Righteous (Lola's) SAT: Built to Spill/Meat Puppets/Helvetia (Ridglea) SAT: Texas Noise Fest (Red Blood Club)
Formed in Austin in 2006, Finally Punk catapulted their way to the top of a fairly short list of Texas' best exports and national acts in less than two years, garnering recognition in such polar opposite media outlets as Pitchfork Media and Maximum Rock 'N' Roll. The immediacy of their seizure-like rhythms and stark yet inventively spiky guitar playing was the only constant in the dizzying setup of the band rotating roles, vocal and instrumental duties of every member after almost every song. The hyperactive shouting has been increasingly tempered with a gentler approach to singing, but that hasn't watered down the group's potency, it's only added to their overall appeal. Founding member Erin Budd spoke to us via email.
FORMING AND AUSTIN
How did the band come about in Austin? Were you natives or as is often the case, had some of you come for school or music etc?
Elizabeth (Skadden) is the only true Austinite. Steph (Chan)moved here for school and I (Erin Budd) moved to Austin out of boredom caused from growing up in a small Texas town. Austin was the only city in Texas I could envision myself living in.
What do you feel overall about Austin as the so-called live music capital? Do you feel that it's undeservedly hyped or justifiably recognized? Do you think the media focus is on the wrong things or that it's legitimately balanced? Do you think that it's a place where some of the more obscure acts eventually get the attention they deserve?
I think that the whole live music capital thing is a bunch of shit. There are millions of terrible bands here that play every night and only a tiny percentage of Austin musicians are actually doing something interesting. It is rather easy to become jaded and not really care about what is going on. Mainstream media only covers safe bands; bands that aren't really covering any new ground and who write those irresistible catchy tunes we've already heard a million times. I think that the more obscure acts will and only get attention among a small niche of people and probably won't be recognized as being innovative until it is too late, but this goes for any scene in any city past and present. Austin isn't special.
How do you feel about the venue situation in Austin? What do you like about it or what could be improved
The pro to having so many venues is that it is extremely easy to book a show whenever you want. My biggest complaint would be that there needs to be a general all ages hangout where they charge no more than 5 dollars at the door. However this would be difficult to manage because Austin is a transient college town and nothing good here is able to sustain itself for very long. I'm sure several clubs/venues could say that they have been successful, but they're catering to more generic popular crowds. I guess Emo's has been alright for more experimental music, but it seems like the bands I want to see are starting to play elsewhere.
OLDER SONGS VERSUS NEWER SONGS
In your earlier music, there were more jerky and jumbled rhythm structures and things were overall more chaotic sounding. Though the rhythms haven't completely calmed down, there is a bit more restraint and singing as opposed to shouting in songs like "Boyfriend Application" and "Primary Colors." Do you agree that parts of your sound changed? What do you attribute it to?
In the beginning we didn't know how to play/make music. We picked up instruments for the first time, wrote a few songs within minutes, and recorded in our living room. We were sloppy and terrible but people seemed to like it. I agree that certain sounds may have changed, but the only attributing factor to this would be that our songwriting abilities were sharpened with practice.
The track "Missile" has become somewhat legendary and the unforgettable opening line seems to be one of the first things I've heard people blurt out when your name comes up. Why do you think that is? Can you tell us a little about how that song came to be? I believe I said it was the best song of 2006 in my year end summary.
"Missile" was written in kind of an avant-garde fashion. People have interpreted the meaning in many hilarious ways, but the truth is that it is a reenactment of a reenactment of a fight between two drunk guys.
SWITCHING OFF AND BAND MEMBERS
How does the switching off of instruments work in this band? Is the person who usually sings the song also the author as well? Or do you just pound out the songs together and try to decide who will do what later?
Refer to a few questions earlier when I answered that we had no idea what we were doing. Due to our lack of musical ability, we decided to switch around. The person who sings usually only writes their own lyrics and the music comes from either jam sessions or from parts that members may have brought into practice.
Are there instruments that you feel more comfortable on? Do you like the idea of forcing yourself to do something you're less comfortable with or has it all evened out by now?
I hate playing drums and I think that my strength lies in vocals/lyrics and bass, although I would love to be great at the guitar. Steph has been playing guitar since her early teens and she is really great at noodling. Veronica (our ex member) was great at drums and I think that Elizabeth is really good at coming up with experimental guitar parts. I feel very unimaginative when it comes to drums and only like to play similar beats. It is frustrating, but I deal with it by not playing the drums on very many songs.
I understand that you've experienced at least one significant lineup change and are now geographically challenged as well. What was the lineup change and how are you divided up now? How has the lineup change affected the switching off?
Veronica decided to quit the band so now we are a three piece. Elizabeth moved to Rhode Island to go to graduate school, and Steph is now living in LA. I'm the only member left in Austin, and I try to keep the fort held down. We got together this past fall in NYC for the CMJ festival and we were able to write and record a few new songs. Geography has definitely complicated the band and since losing a member we've never had the chance to really practice as a three piece and reassign parts. Communication is also key to a long-distance relationship and since we're all relatively busy perusing personal goals the band has lost some priority.
How did playing with Katelyn from Mika Miko come about?
She is Steph's roommate. We've had several people fill-in at past shows whenever certain members were either traveling or for some reason couldn't make it to a show. Since we haven't been able to have an extensive practice as a three piece we figured we'd just get one of our friends to help out.
INFLUENCES
It seems that in anything I've read about you, they list Kleenex/Lilliput, The Raincoats as well as Bikini Kill/Riot Grrl stuff to compare or reference what you sound like. Do you feel that is a somewhat narrow summary or do you think it's fair? What other influences do you have that you think are missed or that may surprise people?
We all listen to a great deal of music and our tastes can be anywhere from drastic to somewhat different from one another's personal favorites. I think that lumping us into the riot girl summary is quite a bit narrow, but it isn't necessarily a bad thing. It is just easy for people to lump us in with other known women musicians and this is fine because we like them, but I don't think that we're directly influenced by them.
THE PRESENT AND FUTURE
Are there any current acts that you either relate to or that you feel are doing interesting things? Any guilty pleasures?
Sure, I think that we could all agree the we all enjoy the bands that keep popping out from LA.The Smell has recently been getting a lot of publicity and that is great because they showcase some of the better current bands. I enjoy Ariel Pink, No Age, The Bubonic Plague, etc. I also feel that there are many good bands emerging from Houston as well, like Indian Jewelry.
How do you feel about SXSW? Looking forward to it or is it a necessary evil?
SXSW is my favorite holiday. I look forward to all of the day parties and other non festival related events.
Ok Pals, listen up. We've been working on interviews and Melodica (our Saturday night show features Finally Punk, pictured right) and SXSW and lots of other stuff today, and these things have eaten up much of our time. We also have these annoying little things called jobs, which feature these annoying little things called bosses, who expect us to do this annoying little thing called work, which is why today's weekender is annoyingly short. However, links are below, and we decided we'd give you a weekend to decide what's cool on your own. Awesome! Here it is (if we missed anything, feel free to add a comment)
FRIDAY Melodica Festival (Expo Park) Of course, this is the main highlight of the weekend for a lot of people, and rightly so. You can get the full schedule by clicking on the Melodica Link, but I thought we'd share some highlights (three day passes are $25 or you can pay cover at individual shows)
Loop 12 (Avenue Arts) 840 and 950 Life Death Continuum (Avenue Arts) 1230 Silver Apples (Sloppyworld) 11 Spectrum (Sloppyworld) midnight Light Bright Highway (Sloppyworld) 1am Minc: whole line up is solid all night, featuring Dev79, Keith P, Central Booking, Royal Highnuss and Dragonman. Record Hop (Amsterdam) midnight
SATURDAY Melodica We Shot J.R. Showcase feat. Finally Punk | Cry Blood Apache | Tree Wave | Medio Mutante | Zanzibar Snails (Amsterdam) I'm really proud of myself for putting together such a completely kick ass line up! I should really be thanked for this. If you've never checked out Finally Punk but still somehow think you're cool, click up top there and learn all about why you'll be at this show tonight. Excellent quality all around, from sloppy, energetic punk to no wave/industrial sludge to harsh, rhythmic electro to the unique Tree Wave, I have to say that I pretty much rule. Oh, and the bands are good too. You can get in with a Melodica pass or pay the cover.
Other Melodica Highlights:
Yells at Eels (Avenue Arts) 9pm Transona Five (Avenue Arts) 10pm Farah (Fallout) midnight The Great Tyrant (Sloppyworld) 10pm Mundo and Lifted MC (Sloppyworld) 1045pm Apendics Shuffle (Minc) 1130pm
Seth Sherman | Fight Bite | Glass | Voyant | Angry Businessmen | Glass Gown | Fake Blood (Strawberry Fields) I don't know why these dickheads had to schedule such a kick ass show on the same night as our kick ass show, but whatevs, we still love em. Or kinda like em. Anyway, this will be a great night at Strawberry Fields, and I'm sure a couple new faces will show up to check out Fight Bite, who recently received the approval of indie powerhouse blog Gorilla vs Bear. And he's right: it's pretty good stuff.
Melodica All Ages Show (Club Dada) Many of the highlights from Saturday and Sunday will be playing this thing, and none of you underage geeks should miss it. Nor should you overage geeks for that matter. Starts at 4pm. Here are the bands playing.
Well, I was planning on trying to write a very serious and thoughtful intro to this interview, but then I figured I'd just dork out and say "I got to interview Simeonof Silver Apples!" And yes, I planned on using that exclamation point. Silver Apples became a big band for me several years ago when I started learning a lot about electronic and psychedelic music, but more than being a band for critics and record collectors to praise, Silver Apples are particularly interesting to me because of how infectious and easy their music is in spite of the fact that it is so strange on so many levels.
I attended the most recent Apples show at Hailey's a few months back with a friend who hadn't ever heard them and typically isn't interested in druggy, experimental electronic music. After a couple songs, however, my friend was converted, and that is exactly the kind of thing that I hope happens to others this evening when Silver Apples play Sloppyworld as part of the Melodica Festival. I talked with Simeon about the past, present and future, and here are the results:
So I wanted to start off asking you about how you met Wanz and how you became involved in this year's Melodica Festival.
Ten years ago, in 1998, I was touring with Silver Apples as a trio, and we were promoting our new record, Contact, and our booking agent in New York knew Wanz and had booked his band in the past and knew he was putting together a festival in Denton that year, and so on our tour we used Melodica that year as almost a tour break. We were touring in our RV and parked it in the parking lot there, and stayed for about a week. We got to know Wanz pretty well, he hung out in the van and stuff, and so when he started putting together this festival as an anniversary get together, he called me, and I was sort of in the middle of touring, but I was happy to squeeze him in because it was so much fun working with him before.
And so, you guys put your first record out in 1968. When you think about the fact that so many critics and fans in electronic music circles consider Silver Apples to be pioneers in an iconic and legendary sense, how does it make you feel?
Well it's totally an honor. At the time, we didn't think we were doing anything different, we were just having fun with what we could put together at the time. We really were not aware of the electronic movement so to speak, we didn't know about Can or Neu! or any of those other bands that we seem to be considered contemporaries of today. There really wasn't communication amongst us all at the time, and there wasn't an art movement or anything at the time. We were just out there doing our thing, and later on, as things come together historically, it looks like things were all happening together, but I doubt very much that any of those people were aware of me and we weren't aware of them, we were just doing our things sort of simultaneously.
But you guys came before Can or Neu! or any of those groups.
Yeah, but I doubt very much that they knew us or knew of us even. I don't know what kind of distribution we had in Europe. We have pretty good popularity over there now, but back in the 60's, I don't think anyone had heard of us. I think it was just simultaneous creativity.
Well that's interesting, because it sounds like when Silver Apples were first starting out, you didn't feel like you were doing anything revolutionary necessarily.
No, it didn't feel that way. There was a lot of revolutionary stuff going on back in those days. Rock n Roll was sort of in its beginning stages. I know there was a lot before that, but there was a new feeling about rock and its place in the culture, but in the arts and movies and music, everyone was trying to do new stuff. Doing something new was considered the thing, you know? It wasn't considered strange, it was almost expected. And so we hit on this thing quite by accident, both Danny and I being from rock backgrounds, we didn't have any ideas about electronics or how to put stuff together, we just used whatever we had, much like you play with toys. You don't really have to know how to make things work, you just put them together and see if you can make something happen with it. We didn't think of it as revolutionary at all at the time.
Could you briefly explain how Silver Apples got together in the first place?
Both Danny and I were playing music in straight rock n roll bands in New York, just club bands. I was a singer and he was a drummer, and my band, the Random Concept, broke up and went back to Connecticut where they were from, and that left me sort of stranded in New York. The band that Danny was with needed a singer, so our booking agent, a mutual booking agent, knew of my plight and knew Danny's band needed a singer, so he got us together. So I started singing at the Cafe Wah, they were the house band there at the time, and I got to know Danny. Then I started bringing in oscillators just because a friend of mine had them and was showing me how to play them, and I was bringing them in and plugging them into my vocal amp and playing along with them when they were doing these long extended guitar solos, almost like the Grateful Dead, just playing forever. They left the singer with nothing to do, so more out of boredom than anything else, I just plugged in oscillators and started playing around. And one by one, the other members of the band quit for one reason or another, most of them saying that they couldn't stand what I was doing, but Danny liked it, so it finally in the end boiled down to just me and him left, and rather than adding a new member, we just kept going with what I was doing, and he changed his drumming style from straight rock n roll beat to getting into patterns, because that's what I was doing, and we started getting into a looped kind of sound rather than a progressive or linear sound, and that's how Silver Apples got going. It was pretty much an organic thing. We didn't have a big light bulb go off, it just sort of happened.
Were you guys aware of the originality of what you were doing at the time? Did you feel like any other band was doing anything similar to what you were doing?
We didn't know of anybody if there was anybody. We kinda felt all alone out there. We'd go out and play with other bands on the same bill, and we'd be astounded that our sound was so completely different. We didn't realize that we were all alone until much later.
Is it true that you didn't have any formal training in music when you started the band?
Yeah, I had played trumpet in my high school marching band, but that's the only musical experience that I had.
Have you tried to learn more about formal, traditional music during your career?
Well you can't help but pick up stuff as the years go by. I kind of can play chords on guitar, I know what the notes are on the piano, I can pick out tunes, but no way can I actually play it. I can find chords and structure songs on a keyboard, and then I just translate these sounds or structures to my oscillators, but I still play them the same way I've always played them.
So you have your own method for notating and developing songs before you record them?
Yeah, I don't think you could sit down and put them on a piece of sheet music. Well, I guess maybe you could, but a lot of the changes don't really fit a fretted instrument or keyboard because a lot of my stuff is in between the notes. So it's like I'd be in B flat and a half, and (laughs) I don't really know how you'd notate that.
Can you explain how you started to build your own equipment?
Well its like I said, we were just playing with toys. We would have oscillators and we'd make all these noises, and we'd try to figure out how we'd make rhythms with them, and we decided to hook them up to on and off switches, but that was too cumbersome, so we tried telegraph keys. And that worked for a while, but then we realized that my fingers could only play so many telegraph keys, so I started doing the same thing with my feet. But I would stomp on the telegraph keys and break them, so we rigged up a piece of wood with some on/off switches so I could stomp them with my feet, and that's how I started playing the bass, just one note at a time with me feet, and then rhythm and oscillators on top with telegraph keys. I didn't know how to play a keyboard, so I just figured out my own way to play.
Well it sounds like the Simeon set up was created out of necessity, but do you see any intrinsic value in creating your own instruments?
Sure. The instrument is as integral a part of musical expression as the music itself. If you have created your own instrument, and are writing songs that maybe couldn't be played on some other instrument, or maybe just not as easily, you're writing music for your own capabilities and creative senses, and other movements don't come into it, you're just doing it for yourself and tyring to see if you can make some music, make some sense out of all this mess you've created.
So it's important sometimes to create a new medium or vessel with which to make music?
Yeah. Just this last week before I left to come to Dallas, I discovered in one of my new songs that I'm going to be doing that I needed another oscillator. I could do it the way I've been doing it, but it would be much nicer to have another oscillator I could play in a live setting so that I didn't have to rely on my sampler. Instead of carrying 20 oscillators around with me, I've been sampling different sounds that I've been using so I don't have to carry all the oscillators around, but I found with this new song that I really do need the other oscillator, so I went on Ebay and bought one, and it arrived two days ago. I wired it into my system and practiced with it last night and this morning before I left, so my so called Simeon instrument has grown one more oscillator in the last 24 hours because of Melodica.
So you took a pretty long break from doing Silver Apples stuff, like from the late 60's until the mid 90's.
Yeah, the 70's and 80's, Danny and I both spent doing different stuff not related to music.
What were you up to?
Well I was down south here in Mobile, AL, working as an ice cream truck driver and then i got a job editing film at a television station, and when they switched to video, I turned around and started working on camera covering news and I eventually became a news reporter, and I was a reporter on various television stations in Virginia and Baltimore for about 10 years. Then I became a graphic artist when that ran out, and worked at an advertising agency for a while. But I maintained contact with the art world and hung out with the artists there, and it was the artists who were aware of the resurgence of interest in the Silver Apples, and it was at an art opening that I heard one of the artists playing my music and I realized something was going on. And that was why Silver Apples started again in the 90s, through my art contacts.
How did it feel to know that people were taking interest in your music almost 30 years later?
At first it was a little bit of a head scratcher, because I couldn't figure out why. If I wasn't a success back then, why would anyone care now? But I slowly realized that it was because of comments from music writers about how the music sounded fresh today and ahead of its time. That's when I realized that the fact that Danny and I didn't try to play like anyone else has kind of kept it pure in a way, and has made it more meaningful than if we had tried to blend in at the time and tried to be commercially successful. We could have had bass and guitar players, but it probably wouldn't have had the impact it has had today.
How disappointed were you with your lack of commercial success back in the 60s?
Well everyone wants to be a success and be able to pay their bills and not have to duck out on hotels bills and stuff. Our manager used to teach us shoplifting techniques so that we could eat. Things were really desperate there for a while, right around the time the band broke up. There were lawsuits against us. The record label had folded and there were some outstanding bills and we were kind of laying low. No record label would sign us, and it was just a very bad time. We eventually had to take jobs, and finally I just bagged it, moved down to Alabama and drove an ice cream truck. I was just tired of New York winters.
Do you listen to a lot of contemporary electronic music?
Oh yeah, today I'm very much into it. People send me CDs and MP3s from all over the world telling me that they were inspired by my stuff and asking me to accept their music as a gift. So I'm very aware of contemporary stuff going on all over the place. Just a month ago, I came back from a media festival in Italy, and I did the ATP festival in England about a month before that, where Portishead and Sonic Youth and others that were influenced by my stuff in the 90s were playing. Its all very fulfilling and exciting to me and I love it.
Do you feel that there is an energy level in music today that is in any way similar to what you experienced in the 60's?
Yes, it's very peculiar that you would go through such a drought in the 70's and 80s. It started to warm up in the 90s, but it never really got anywhere. But now, in the mid 00's, all of a suddenly it's kind of catching on fire and people are getting into it, and there is some joy in total experimentation and creativity that is like it used to be in the 60's. There isn't the Vietnam War or any of that stuff, and there isn't that sort of anti-government or anti-war feeling, but there is a creative energy going on now that is quite like the 60's.
Are there any new bands in particular that you find exciting?
I can't really name anyone in particular, but at that festival in Italy, there was a band that came on just before me called Los Super Elegantesfrom Argentina. What they were doing with live sampling was one of the most creative things I've ever seen. They had a stage set that was like a kitchen in an apartment, and there was a couple in the apartment that was having a knock down, drag out screaming fight, a domestic fight, breaking dishes, etc. right in front of the audience, and it was one of the most interesting approaches to electronic live sampling that I've ever seen. They are in LA right now, so I would say that if anyone gets a chance to see Los Super Elegantes, they should grab the opportunity because they're great.
What are your plans for Silver Apples in the immediate future?
I have a European tour coming up right after I do Melodica, and I'll be there through the month of March, and when I get back I'll have a break, and I'll be working on a new record that will come out late summer on Gifted Children records on vinyl. The record label is planning several tours to promote the record in the fall, one of which will include Pop Montreal and the Over the Top Festival in Toronto, so I'll be pretty busy this year. There is a lot going on.
