In anticipation of his show with Zanzibar Snailsand Dust Congressat The Cavern on Wednesday, January 16th, we were lucky enough to be able to talk with Six Organs of Admittance's Ben Chasny about his new record, his other band (Comets on Fire), and the way he approaches writing the psychedelic folk, drone and experimental pieces that have made him a critical favorite for the past few years. Chasny will also be playing an in store at Good Records on the 16th at 6pm. Enjoy:
I'll start off with some basic stuff-- when did you start playing guitar and music in general?
I started playing bass guitar when I was sixteen, and a couple years after that I started played acoustic guitar.
What were you interested in playing when you first started?
When I was playing bass, I was mostly playing in garage and punk bands, but I was really only into bands from San Francisco like the Melvins and stuff like that.
How did you progress into the Six Organs stuff you do today?
I don't know, I guess when I was 19 or 20, I picked up an acoustic guitar and it kind of clicked a lot more with me. I grew up in a small town called Eureka, and there was really nobody at the time playing that sort of thing up there, so it was just interesting, and I became interested in acoustic music at that time.
Do you feel like your early interest in punk still has an influence on you as far as Six Organs is concerned?
Well a little bit. I think as far as writing words and songwriting goes, I think King Buzzo is great. Nobody ever really talks about him as a songwriter with words or anything, but I've always been pretty stoked on his lyrics. They don't really make any sense, but they sound great phonetically, like a song like "Night Goat" or something, it just sounds great, so actually, even on the last record, I was consciously working with the words in sort of a King Buzzo realm.
That's a good segue, because I was going to ask you about lyrics-- it seems that over the past few Six Organs releases, lyrics and singing have become more important, like your voice is more central in the mix.
A little bit, but it might change. I look at every record as its own thing, and I'm working on some recordings right now where I don't have any singing and just kind of some wordless vocals, but it seems like everything has been getting more and more toward the last record, which is more singing than I've pretty much ever done, so yeah, for sure.
Was that the result of a change in what you were interested in doing or do you feel like you've become a better singer and have more confidence in your vocals?
(laughs) No, definitely not, I don't feel like I've become a better singer. I'm pretty aware of my limitations as a singer, which is why I never really sang much in the first place. I just go record by record, because the record before this only had a couple songs with singing, and the rest had sort of wordless vocals, so before I even start to write a record, I think whether or not it's going to have a lot of songs on it, and I let the record write itself.
Yeah, I guess a better way to phrase it would be that it seems that you've been more focused on lyrics with words as opposed to the earlier stuff which is more wordless.
Yeah, I guess I have, yeah.
How do you go about writing lyrics? What inspires you and where do you draw your lyrics from?
Usually there isn't like one subject. On this record there actually were specific subjects that I talked about, but usually it comes from different things. Like on School of the Flower I was working on songs when my friend was doing a movie so I kind of wrote lyrics based on his movie. I usually end up writing late at night and kind of pick stuff out later.
What were some of the subjects you were addressing lyrically on the new record?
Lets see. It usually comes from stuff I'm reading at the time, and at the time I was writing this record, I was reading a lot of Paul Virilio, so I was kind of concerned with technology and speed and impending accidents that he always talks about.
I'm not familiar with his work, could you tell me a little about it?
He's a French theorist and he really talks a lot about speed and how speed comes before power, and in recent pieces he talks about how any sort of technological advance sets up the idea of accidents, so he says that when the locomotive was invented, so was the crash, and when the car was invented, the same thing, a crash. And so then you have nuclear technology with accidents, and with bio mechanics, he talks about the possibility of accidents as well. When you read him, he seems kind of doomsday from one angle, but it's more like a warning, like "hey, pay attention to this kind of thing," so that was what I was reading when I was writing the lyrics. I can't really recommend one particular work by him, but if you get into him, there's stuff all over the Internet about him, and he's pretty awesome.
That's interesting because when I was preparing for this interview, I read the interview that you did on Pitchfork, and one thing that I found interesting is when the interviewer starting asking you about nature and spirituality, you commented that you kind of agree with Werner Herzog's thoughts regarding nature being more about death and chaos than anything else, and I wonder how that view ties in to these lyrical themes on the new album.
Well I was being a little dramatic when I told him that, you know, for the sake of an interesting read, but I think it's so easy in music, in a post new age movement, to talk about nature and be all "hey, we're a bunch of hippies," but if you really look at nature, like the winter time we're in right now, it's kind of brutal, you know?
Yeah, when I listen to Six Organs, it feels meditative to me and it has this organic quality that does make me think about nature and Thoreau and all this stuff, but it doesn't seem like an entirely pleasant or optimistic take.
Yeah.
And that is something that I find interesting too because natural forces in the world around us are always brutal and often unkind and unpleasant, or at least less than ideal.
Yeah, absolutely. And beautiful too. It's a balance.
And I think you're right, that is something that tends not to be explored as much in pop music, particularly from artists from places like San Francisco, which people always associate with hippies and good times and positive attitudes.
Yeah, it's a bit of a curse that I live in San Francisco, I mean, not the actual living situation, which is awesome, but when it comes to people pinpointing musical styles I just want to say "No, No, I just live here because I have to live here!" It's not because of any scene or anything like that.
Yeah, people forget about the Dead Kennedys a lot, huh?
Yeah, totally, exactly. Or Crime or whatever, you know?
So on this new record, the sound was a lot more clear and crisp to me, and a bit less noisy and muddy. Do you agree?
Yeah, it wasn't really conscious, it's just the way it worked out. I recorded this one and Sun Awakens at the same studio, and School of the Flower was recorded at a different studio in Michigan, and those were the only times I've ever really recorded at a studio. Yeah, I can understand the difference with School of the Flower because it was a different studio, but maybe Tim had some tricks up his sleeve or something this time, I don't know, but it just sort of turned out that way.
One of the things I enjoy about your music is what sounds to be the contrast between opposing forces-- there's a gentle undercurrent to your acoustic guitar and singing, but then you seem to have a lot of drone and dissonant noise going on a lot in the background. Do your interests in drone and noise as opposed to acoustic music come from separate places, or do they all come from the same place?
For me they all kind of come from the same place. I remember there was a point when I couldn't put the two together or figure out how they worked together, and at the same time I started playing acoustic guitar, I started having a pretty healthy interest in pretty extreme noise guitar, and I couldn't figure out how to put them together, and I was doing all these projects and recordings and they just weren't going together. But at some point, I realized how they could go together and that is sort of when Six Organs started as a project, trying to put those things together. So originally, they were seperate, but now I see them together. I try to create something beautiful and scary and all together. I just have such an aversion to new age music, and it's funny because sometimes I get described as that, like a "totally mellow listen," and that's fine, but I actually don't enjoy mellow listening stuff and don't listen to it.
Well I've seen it mentioned that John Fahey was an inspiration for you, and you always hear people reference him as an accidental precursor to new age music.
Yeah, it's weird, people have said he was a big influence on me, and I think if you pick up an acoustic guitar, anyone is going to say that he's an influence, but I've actually consciously chosen not to play like Fahey, and I'm actually much more interested in the British guys rather than the Americans. But yeah, he did kind of start it, but he didn't like it either, which is why in his later years he was recording some of the most dissonant and ridiculous music with electric guitars because I think he realized what he started. So I think he started it, but I think he regretted it.
One thing you couldn't call Six Ograns' music is "pop." Do you find that the loose, experimental song structures you utilize allow you to express something that you just couldn't express with a more pop or trad folk approach?
Yeah, I don't really have anything to communicate in a pop form. I don't know why I put the sounds down I just do, I just work on stuff, and the things that I like to make are just usually a little more extended. When I do a song that is shorter, or more pop form, it's more kind of a trick to get people to listen to the rest of the record (laughs). It's like "hey, check this out," and then it ends up being a 20 minute song or something.
With Six Organs, do you write all the parts of all the songs, or do you ever work with other people?
No, not with Six Organs. Six Organs is just me writing. I have a lot of projects with a lot of other people, and if I ever did start working on stuff with someone else, we would probably just start another band.
So do you ever find it frightening in a way to work completely by yourself since you aren't bouncing ideas off of other people when you write?
I think that I've been doing it for so long that it is kind of just natural to me now. It might have been scary if I had never done it before, but luckily when I started doing it there was no one listening, so I could keep doing it while no one listened, like for three or four records, and ten years later, it isn't that big of a deal to me.
What goes through your mind when you read critical reviews of your work?
I usually just consider it to be a good barometer of whether I would want to hang out with the person in general (laughs), and with my record, I probably wouldn't want to share a beer with you. If I was making music that everyone liked, then I wouldn't be making music that's good. It makes total sense that a lot of people wouldn't like the music I do, and it makes sense that a few would. I don't really listen to pop music or music that sells many copies, just because of its nature, so it makes sense that lots of people probably wouldn't like what I do. I just take it with a grain of salt.
What are some of the differences between playing material in a group with Comets on Fire and playing your own material with Six Organs? What are the different things you get out of it?
Well Comets is mostly just about hanging out with friends more than anything. We don't have a lot of creative things coming up because everyone kind of has projects going on and babies and marriages that just happened, but there is still this need for everyone to get together and have a beer and play some music together every once in a while. That is the heart of that band, five guys who are really good friends and just want to play music. That's pretty much the biggest difference. Six Organs is just me and Comets is a total democracy, usually, if it works right.
If you had to choose between playing on your own or playing in bands for the rest of your life, which would appeal to you more?
If it was just between those two, I would play with other people for the rest of my life, but if you're saying I have to play with the same people for the rest of my life, I would probably choose to play by myself.
Aside from musical influences, what else in your life influences your music?
It's crazy now, it's just something that is totally natural now. It's like walking around and eating. If there is a guitar lying around, I'm going to pick it up, and a lot of times nothing comes out of it, but sometimes it does. There are all sorts of things. It's rarely a flash where I just get this great idea, like "oh look at that tree," I just pick up the guitar or think about something and go with it. It's just a really natural thing.
So when you start writing material, you don't always set out with a general intent or a firm idea of where you want to go with it? It's more of a random trial and error?
Well there is actually a specific listening trajectory that I always think of, like where the piece is going to go, and what you'll think about on the way, and once I think about that, I figure out how to do it. I always construct the records as a whole piece rather than a collection of songs.
So someone downloading a Six Organs MP3 off a blog isn't going to get exactly what is going on unless they hear the whole record?
Well I guess, but I think about it more cinematically. You can watch a great scene from a great movie and be like "oh, that's great, lets watch it again," so the trick is to be able to do both, to do something that people can pull out if they want to, because I'm not a dictator, I'm not going to force people to listen to it a certain way, so the trick is to be able to make something that you can listen to any way, even backwards. It's just that the full album is the only way I conceive of the material when I'm making it.
Does Comets or Six Organs have any new material coming out?
Comets is taking a break, Ethan is taking Howlin' Rain out for quite a while, and for Six Organs, as soon as I get back from tour, my friend just wrote this novel called Empty the Sun, and I'm going to do a soundtrack to the novel. It's funny because that will actually be the first Six Organs that is written with other people, but it will be me and my friend Steve, writing music for the novel, and we're going to go down to his house in Los Angeles and record it.
You don't really hear about novel soundtracks.
Yeah, that was my friend Joseph's idea. He said "everyone writes soundtracks to movies, so why don't you write a soundtrack to this novel I'm writing." And I said "let me read some of it," and he was kind of just getting going, and I read the first chapter and thought it was awesome, and I said "lets do it." He just finished it this week, actually, so he's going to hand it off to me in Los Angeles.
Will you distribute the novel and soundtrack together?
Yeah, we want them to be together. And the music can be listened to by itself or while you're reading. It's slightly ambient as a soundtrack and it's a good driving record, because it is kind of a road story. There are a lot of different factors going in to it.
Lost Generation (Fallout Lounge) Wanz is at The Beauty Bar in Austin tonight and we're not sure who's filling in for him. Please leave a comment if you know who it is.
On this blog, we freely, often contemptuously, compare our local music scene to that of other cities. I think sometimes our derisive tone stems from dismay over our inability to form a "scene identity." North Texas has enjoyed periods of interesting bands and interesting music, but for whatever reason, the area's inhabitants seem to lack an interest or capacity to appreciate across temporal zones. That's too bad because continuity and lineage seem to promote vital music communities in other places: DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston, Portland, Chicago, North Carolina, Athens, small town Ohio, Vancouver. Those are places that I like to call "hotbeds of hip."
One thing that we don't do a whole lot of around here is compare DFWd now to DFWd then. Actually, in one of the few books ever written about Dallas history, Michael Phillips argues that our city is uniquely a "laboratory of forgetfullness" in that our actual history of racial discord has been supplanted by a false myth of consensus. That myth, he says in White Metropolis, has served as a de facto justification for the status quo and for power structures that have enabled us to shine, in the vision of the powers that be, like a beacon of modernity and commerce in an otherwise hillbilly south.
I don't know about that all of that, but I do know that WSJR is on your side in this fight against "amnesia by design." In all of our condescending paternalism, which we might somtimes employ to conceal some of our own insecurities, we implore you to investigate Transona Five and consider checking them out at Sloppyworld on Friday night. They were here in the 90s, and some even say that what they did back then was important. If you were around when they were, use this opportunity to re-familiarize yourself. If you weren't, then give yourself a chance to connect with an artifact of this place and that time.
One of their founding members passed away about a year ago. They've been through a lot. The fact that things are coming together for this weekend is a good story, although that's way down on the list of reasons for you to show up at the Slop on Friday. For one thing, they'll be playing with 3 other acts that are worthy of your attention. For another, you might be interested to come see for yourself if this Sloppyworld thing is going to work out. Maybe if we had some continuity of venues, it'd be a little easier for us to have continuity of music community identity (see "Argo" below).
Check out the below interview with member Chris Anderson to find out more about Transona, Dallas, and Denton... then and now.
Regarding the early days: where and when exactly did things start for Transona Five? Who was in the band? I think I bought Melatonin Bullet at CD World back in the mid-nineties, but back then I was pretty young and I never had the chance to see you play. For some reason I always assumed you were more or less based in Denton. Is that even correct? Didn't you tend to play at the Argo?
We started playing together in Dallas sometime in 1994, I think, when Chris Foley and I placed ads in the Observer and the Met. Greg Morgan answered the ad. We'd actually met the semester before in a creative writing class, so we already had that in common. He came over, we played a few songs, it went beautifully. Then Greg said, "Hey, I know a drummer who lives up the street." Fifteen minutes later he was back with G.P. Cole and we were a band. Rachel Smith came about a year later as we began working on our first single. Denton was more of a home for us than Dallas. Wanz Dover and a few other people had started booking interesting things up there, first at the Kharma Cafe, then at the Argo, then Rubber Gloves. Rachel went to school up there. Scott Marks, who replaced Greg when he took his leave, lived up in Denton. So yeah, we have deep roots in Denton. I'm not aware of your band changing much in terms of who it involved. I know that you lost Chris Foley, but other than that has anything changed in terms of the membership?
We've kind of organically developed an open door policy for Transona Five. First it was me, Foley, Greg, and G.P., then Rachel came. Then Greg moved on, so we added Scott. Then Foley left for a time. And Mitch Greer (Go Metric USA, the Lickets) was always kind of a satellite member. Now it's back to Greg, G.P., and I. It sounds dramatic, but it really isn't. Even when someone "left the band," they were always invited to play live with us, and often they did. Some of our more magical moments happened when there were seven people on stage. We're now playing with a guy named Jonathan Hooker to help fill in the blanks, and we hope to have other guests on stage as well at these shows. When exactly did things taper off for the band, and what were the circumstances? I actually moved to New England to finish my undergraduate studies in creative writing. Scott and Rachel also moved up, but G.P. ran into a snag so he had to stick around Dallas. We played for a while after the move, but it quickly became evident that our lives were too busy to make it work at that time. After our last show in New York City in 2000 we decided it was a good point to push pause. Rachel was becoming more involved in Lickets (their new record is excellent!), and Scott was starting a new family in Massachusetts. I eventually attended graduate school in San Marcos, so that put me back in immediate contact with Greg and Foley. Rachel's in Chicago now and Scott's still hanging in western Massachusetts. They have other things going on, but the door is always open for them.
What motivated the re-grouping? Did everything develop after Chris' death, or did a possibility of getting back together exist beforehand? What sort of leg-work had to occur to make things happen? We were all hungry for it. Foley had been playing with Austin's the Swells, but I'd been busy with school, and Greg and G.P. had their own things going on--but we all missed what happened between us. When we first practiced in early 2006 we were rusty, but a few glimmers shone through. It made us happy, and hopeful. Then life stepped in. Foley was going to be spending the summer in Montana, and I was offered a job teaching writing in New Hampshire. We decided to wait and let things settle, then arrange future plans the following fall. Last fall we started talking again, trying to map things out. Then Foley died and we had top stop and re-evaluate. I mean, this guy was our brother. I'd known him for nearly 20 years--I was crushed. But there wasn't much of a question about it. Greg and G.P. were still in. We feel like we have much to say, especially now. We got together last August. It was difficult, but it felt like healing.
So now we're running this in kind of a American Analog Set/New Year kind of way. Greg lives in Austin, G.P. lives here in Dallas, and I'm out in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Technology has allowed us to trade demos, and because I teach there are large blocks of time where we can record or play shows. Our goal right now is to do these few gigs, then hopefully hit a studio early in the summer. We've got several new songs we're excited about, and we want to get that down soon. Maybe we'll be able to throw together a few shows late in the summer. We'll see.
As I alluded to, I was too young to witness first hand what's often called the "space rock" scene in Denton circa the mid-nineties. So, I'm curious: do you think there was a legitimate scene along those lines? Was it tight knit or just kind of fleeting? And what were some of the bands that were involved?
Well, I think most of the bands didn't really fit that label, and almost nobody was embracing it. Oddly enough, it was pretty tight knit. We all helped each other out. And we all tried not to pay attention to simplistic renderings of what was going on. Yes, Light Bright Highway, Skiptracer, and Mazinga Phaser took us into space. But Maxine's Radiator, Thorazine Dreams, and Comet were more about song. All of these bands were transportative, if that's a word. The music took you somewhere else. Outer space? Sometimes.
Compared to a band like Wanz' old band, Mazinga Phaser, I think you guys were much more representative of slowcore, another ambiguous movement. If you think that's accurate, then I'm wondering how you think that style came about. The name Transona Five is taken from Stereolab'sMars Audiac Quintet album, but any Stereolab I hear in your music is pretty isolated, and the connection between Stereolab and slowcore doesn't seem self-evident anyway.
We were all about slowcore, but our pop exploded out of us sometimes so we didn't really fit that category either. We did listen to a lot of slowcore bands. We all were listening to Low like it was a drug. God, the tension! But we were just as much into those "noisier" bands--early Stereolab, My Bloody Valentine, and Pavement. I think the Stereolab is always in our sound--we love to get lost in the ringing of a single note, and the pulses that expand out from it. Philip Glass and Steve Reich are also an obvious influence. So we've just perverted some of these ideas to our own end. We try to be pretty most of the time.
I think something unique and special about what you guys did, particulary on Melatonin Bullet, and what some of the other Dallas and Austin bands in the late 90s, especially Bedhead, were doing is that you played music that was basically post-rock in a very pure or straightforward way. Like if you subscribe to the notion that post-rock is the use of traditionally rock instruments to play non-rock music, you guys did exactly that and usually without the addition of sounds made by other non-rock instruments. I think the fact that you get lumped in with the "space rock" group illustrates how your kind of pure post-rock is somewhat of a neglected genre. Stonedranger pointed out to me the other day that Austin's Stars of the Lid were appearing on a lot of "Best of 2007" lists with Their Refine of the Decline last year. But while there might be a notable "ambient" or "atmospheric" album that pops up every once in a while, it seems like it's never purely post-rock in the minimalistic guitar/bass/drums sense. Why do you think there's a void there and are there any bands that you enjoy these days that play in that way? We always saw ourselves as a pop band, so yes, it is very straightforward music. Bedhead wrote great pop symphonies. They are catchy pop songs that are delivered in a non-traditional way. The Stars of the Lid album is good stuff--it's great to write fiction to--but I've asked myself that question: Is this really a post-rock work? I guess it depends on how you want to advertise it. But I've found that these categories are often falling away for me. I keep my ears open for what sounds authentic. That's my only criteria, really. I play my iPod on shuffle most of the time. Pram mixes with Gillian Welch, Gorecki blends into Movietone. I do think there is a bit of a gap now on the corner we're working. The Clientele were kind of doing it at first, but have moved on. It is out there, but it seems to be happening in Spain and other places. Polar and Astronaut are really good. I guess locally you could look at the bill on Friday. Texas still seems to be the place.
I was listening to Felt recently and I noticed that they don't really make use of cymbals. Then I was listening to Melatonin Bullet, and I realized that it's pretty much the exact opposite for you on that album: the percussion is predominantly cymbals and rimshots with very little bass drum or snare. Was that intentional or did it just kind of happen given the songs and the way other instruments were being played? Or is that just the particular style of GP Cole?
The American Analog Set guys always used to call G.P. our secret weapon. They're right. Before G.P. joined Transona Five, he'd only played in hardcore punk bands. But he says he likes the challenge of playing slow--says it's harder. We all play in a way where we are reacting to one another, but G.P. tends to be our grounding rod. He's really one of the best drummers out there. I can't say that enough. Just listen to him Friday night.
What do you anticipate for Friday? I know that you know Theater Fire...are you familiar with the others that will be playing at Sloppyworld? Do you plan to play mostly newer or older songs in Dallas on Friday, and on Saturday in Austin? What kind of instruments will your guests be handling and will you be picking up from where you left off in 2000, or has your sound changed course at all? Friday will be many things: rock show, incantation, exorcism, tribute, a second step. It's really coming together nicely. We've known the Theater Fire guys since Don and Mark were in Vena Cava and Curtis was in My Friend the Atom. We were on the same label--Sandwich Records--and played together whenever we could. It was family. A few years back I saw Curtis at the Cavern and he told me if we wanted to play he'd love to fill in for Rachel, who has been in Chicago for the last few years. As this whole thing took shape I kept that in mind. When the Theater Fire played Cambridge recently, I went and reminded Curtis of what he'd said. So he'll be on stage playing guitar mostly, but also drums and organ. He is an amazing musician. We also have a guy named Jonathan Hooker who has been playing guitar and organ with us. He was a fan who drunkenly emailed me a few years back, but I never replied. After Foley passed away and we decided to continue working, I finally got back to him, and he's worked out great. This is what drunken emails can get you.
All I really know of Dust Congress and J.Gray is what I have heard on MySpace, and I love what I am hearing. This is what is great about the internet, and how it has changed the industry. Almost every band has a MySpace page--or something like it. If I hear about a band it takes no time for me to find them and give it a listen. The Blogs are also spreading the word. It's such an amazing time to be a musician. Anyone who says there isn't good music out there right now is lazy.
As for our set, it'll be a mix of new and old. It's been over seven years since we left off, so of course our sound has changed. In 2000 we recorded an LP with Matt Pence and Matt Barnhart that was largely a rock record. It wasn't released for a few reasons. One reason is that we fell out of love with it pretty quickly--some of the louder stuff didn't feel like us. Our minds were elsewhere. I think we've backed off the volume a little now. A few of the new songs don't have drums on them. That isn't to say we don't take off into space once in a while, but now we're back our original pursuit--the quest for melody.
What happens after this weekend? Will you be recording? Playing more shows in or out of town? How important is it that this next phase of the group be "productive" in terms of shows or output? Why not continue at your own pace as long as you, GP, Greg, and your associates enjoy it, whatever comes of it?
After this weekend it's pretty open. We've been asked to play Melodica next month, and I'll be flying back for that. We want to record early summer, then play a few more shows here and there. We're in no hurry. The perspective we have now on time is allowing us to enjoy the process. We're also thinking about whether or not to expand. I'd love to get a female voice in here. And Curtis has the Theater Fire to attend to, so we'll probably be looking for someone to fill that roll. The future is open, and that's an exciting thing.
This article from 2004 was commented on back when we posted regarding Chris Foley's death in early 2007. At the end of the article, a thread of comments exchanged by G.P. Cole and Greg Morgan stems from 2005 and foreshadows the reunion of the band, which will culminate in their shows this weekend. Following the events at Sloppyworld, Transona will travel with Theater Fire down to Austin to play Saturday night at The Mohawk.
The Dust Congress will put on a show at The Cavern with Zanzibar Snails and Six Organs of Admittance on Wednesday Jan. 16.
J. Gray will hopefully come to Dallas more often.
2/8/08 Update: Rachel Smith and Mitch Greer have contacted WSJR concerning what they perceive as inaccuracies in the above interview. They requested that we post: Rachel Smith states that she quit this band permanently in 2000. She is not committed to an “open door” policy. Mitch Greer states that he was not a past or current member of this band." They did not wish to be further interviewed. WSJR doesn't really feel like talking about it either, and we do not endorse the accuracy nor imply the inaccuracy of anything claimed by either Chris, Rachel, or Mitch and contained in this post.
Taxi Fare is at Zubar for those into some of the new reggae, dancehall, dubstep, and a lot of the old school versions thereof. It's What We Get will be spinning with Dutch at Hailey's, and Strawberry Fields'Short Attention Span Theater will be showing MTV's The State at Rubber Gloves. And we'll have multiple posts for you later tonight and early tomorrow.
Oh, and I had been listening to the song below pretty regularly for the better part of a year without ever realizing that homeboy was white... but before you go making a joke about 311, the guy is actually from Bermuda, and the song is the jam:
1. Shock of Pleasure - It's About Time 2. Mom - Little Brite 3. The Polyphonic Spree - The Fragile Army 4. The Crash That Took Me - Orchestrated Kaleidoscope 5. The Drams - Jubilee Dive
Good Records Overall Top 20
1. Radiohead - In Rainbows 2. Jonny Greenwood - There Will Be Blood (Soundtrack) 3. The Octopus Project - Hello, Avalanche 4. Beirut - The Flying Club Cup 5. Panda Bear - Person Pitch 6. Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala 7. Sea Wolf - Leaves in the River 8. Band of Horses - Cease to Begin 9. Shock of Pleasure - It's About Time 10. Mom - Little Brite 11. Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam 12. Dawn McCarthy & Bonny Billy - Wai Notes 13. Cass McCombs - Dropping the Writ 14. Blakes - Blakes 15. Phosphorescent - Pride 16. Scott Walker - And Who Shall Go to the Ball? And What Shall Go to the Ball? 17. Sigur Ros - Hvarf-Heim 18. Les Savy Fav - Let's Stay Friends 19. Sunset Rubdown - Random Spirit Lover 20. Caribou - Andorra
Strawberry Fields Local Top 3
1. denton Deluxe v.3 2. Mad Scientist - Geoparasitism 3. Ella Minnow - The Quick & Clean E.P.
free tickets: dan deacon and six organs of admittance
What up? Dudes at Spune hooked us up with a pair of tickets to Dan Deacon'sperformance at Hailey's this Saturday, January 12th, as well as another pair toSix Organs of Admittance's show with Zanzibar Snails and Dust Congress on Wednesday, January 16th at the Cavern.
If you want to win them, just email weshotjrtix@yahoo.com any time between now and this Thursday the 10th at noon. Be sure to include your full name in the body and the name of the show you want to see in the subject line. Winners will be picked at random. Good luck!
