Disqo Disco (Fallout Lounge) Tonight's guest is Mikey Rodge.
Le Loup | Jacob Metcalf (The Cavern) From a recent interview with Tiny Mix Tapes when front-man Sam Sitkoff was asked which of his favorite albums represented a cohesive statement:
TMT:What are some of the albums you think fall into that category?
Sitkoff:SMiLE by Brian Wilson is one of the main ones for me. Yellow House by Grizzly Bear. Pretty much everything Sufjan Stevens does. Animal Collective is probably the band that most consistently impresses me in that way. And of course In the Aeroplane Over the Sea."
Does anyone else find it weird that Yellow House is included like it's some timelessly classic and hugely seminal work, not to mention the fact that most of his answers were very contemporary and popular artists? That record was a big deal when it came out, and maybe it will eventually come out in a deluxe edition with seven extra discs worth of demos, but it might be a little early to tell. At different points in history, people considered Source Tags And Codes, Is This It?, The Shape Of Punk To Come, and August And Everything After to be really important records too, but I don't know if they're aging as well as some thought they would. Anyways, I'll give this guy credit for being so upfront about his influences, since a lot of bands will tell you how they're influenced by Blind Willie McTell and Guru Guru when their music sounds exactly like Coldplay, but Le Loup is definitely more similar to Animal Collective than anything else mentioned. So again, points for being honest.
Note: Nurses canceled this show and so obviously won't be appearing at Good Records either.
Whoa, it took me the majority of today to get situated, sorry about that. Hey, what's up with this Olivia Newton John version of "If Not For You" smoking the Dylan original and the cover by Harrison? Craziness. Anyways, I was really pleased that I found this 45 at Recycled recently. Also, this is much better than a lot of similar sounding yet modern, lightweight indie pop. Listen for the great solo that is way too high in the mix around the 1:37 mark. Olivia's terrible gyrations along to said solo make it all the better.
Pelican | Black Cobra | Struck by Lightning (The Granada) You have to be careful with groups like Pelican and Black Cobra. Sometimes it can sound impressively epic, but on weaker moments can come off like Creed played at the wrong tape-speed. Pelican seems to avoid such dubious territory, but occasionally I'll be caught off-guard by the lame riffs of a similar band.
Pete Freedman (The Libertine): Watch out, Cool Out. Serious competition across the street tonight.
SHOWS OF NOTE THE REMAINDER OF THE WEEK
TUE: Nurses (Good Records) WED: Sleep Whale/Power Animal (Jupiter House) WED: Benefit Show for Brain Tumor Society Walk featuring music by John Pedigo of The O's, Tim O'Brien Of The Dogkickers and Laura Harrell of Romp Almighty plus Silent Auction (The Libertine) WED: In Defence/Ramming Speed/Dark Forces/Collick (Lion's Den located at 622 N. Austin St. in Denton) WED: Alela Diane/Marissa Nadler/Bosque Brown (The Modern Fort Worth) THU: Half-Handed Cloud/Little Birds/Younger Sons (Dan's Silverleaf) THU: Russian Circles/Red Sparowes/Young Widows/Coliseum (Rubber Gloves) FRI: Melt Banana/Kaboom/Ssion (Hailey's) FRI: Underground Railroad To Candyland/Genius Party/Collick/Hats And Statues (1919 Hemphill) FRI: The Great Tyrant/Embers/Vorvadoss (Lola's) FRI: Destroyer/Sarah Jaffe/RTB2 (Granada) FRI: The Lovemakers/DJ Sober/They Were Stars (Rubber Gloves) FRI: Royal Bangs/Beauxregard/Land Mammals (The Cavern) FRI: Christ On Parade/Seraphim/Reviver/Division Of Power/Raging Boner/Life Erased (Phoenix Project) FRI: Nick Catchdubs/The Party with Nature/Select/Sober (The Loft) FRI: Health/Times New Viking/Teenage Cool Kids/The Axemen (The Lounge) FRI:Dallas Videofest Screening:R.E.M.: This Is Not A Show (Angelika Film Center at Mockingbird Station) SAT: Many Arms/Schnaack/Great Tyrant/Orange Coax (Phoenix Project) SAT: Away From The Numbers with Telegram Sam & DJ Gabriel (Fallout Lounge) SAT: The Crash That Took Me/Gaffney/True Widow/Stereo Is A Lie (Sons of Hermann Hall) SAT: Atlas Sound/Broadcast/Selmanaires (Hailey's) SUN: GWAR/Job For A Cowboy/The Red Chord (The Door) SUN: Ssion/Ishi/Fizzy Dino Pop (The Cavern) SUN: Snoop Dogg/Method Man/Red Man (House Of Blues) SUN: Dallas Videofest Screening: Bubblegum Music Is The Naked Truth featuring rare footage of 1910 Fruitgum Company, The Archies, Bay City Rollers and more (Angelika Film Center at Mockingbird Station)
Dear Human | Babar | Kamfgrounds (Bee's Fifth Collective located at 306 Texas St. in Denton) You think there would be only one band called "Babar" on Myspace...
Digital Leather | Thomas Function | Yussuf Jerusalem | Leg Sweeper (The Lounge) Digital Leather has softened their sound quite a bit, and it's definitely not what you could honestly describe as synth-punk at this point, but will still appeal to most people who buy records on Goner, who honestly put out some of the coolest records I can play for my parents. I liked the impossibly catchy Thomas Function when I saw them at 715 a while back, though I was criticized for missing part of the set to play basketball by someone in the comments section. Look, mind your own business when you see daddy working.
The Pogues | Justin Townes Earle (House Of Blues) Obviously a big show, especially to those on the grayer end of the demographic spectrum. Their cover of "Dirty Old Town" is a heart-breaker.
Ourselves | Melting Season | Sunnybrook (J&J's Pizza) So many side-projects and renamed old projects make describing this event rather confusing, but here's the summary: There is a Mom EP from 2005 that Gutterth Records is re-releasing, but the same EP is now called "Ourselves" instead of Mom. This limited edition disc has a 100 copy run, and that's it.
Day Bow Wow Presents a Benefit For The Denton Community Food Center: Bleach Boys | Parata | The Virgin Wolves | Western Giants and more (The Schoolhouse located at 914 Bolivar St in Denton)
Butthole Surfers | Peaches | Men (Granada) One of the rare instances where I think the performers' behavior could collectively be as bad or worse as what will surely be an excited audience that is absolutely anxious to willfully lose control. That's not a knock at all, as I'm sure this will be something to see as well as hear, and you have to respect the fact that probably the only people on stage under the age of 40 will be the members of Men, an Brooklyn-based art/performance collective that features JD Samson of Le Tigre. Wish I had known that they were on the bill yesterday, as that certainly would have been worth mentioning in the giveaway description.
Baring Teeth | Great Tyrant | Silk Stocking | Lychgate (Chat Room Pub) Baring Teeth features Andrew Hawkins from the now defunct, Man Is Mostly Water, and the technical aspects of their tracks reach bizarre levels of virtuosity. The group is at its best when it locks into a hypnotically repetitive clip and I especially liked the instrumental Youtube video on their page. Lychgate has just returned from what was, by scattered accounts, a successful US tour, and as such will most likely be demonstrating even more of their newly found dynamic prowess that is heightened even more after having been on the road. All in all, an appropriately dark lineup, but remember just because something is "noisy," doesn't necessarily mean it's "scary," amateur hour.
BC Tha Dinosaur | Big Fiction | Sans Soleil (Rubber Gloves) Big Fiction's online recordings don't do justice to their live set; a ferocious mixture of Duane Denison pulloff heroics which eventually gives way to a more traditional yet raging hardcore sound.
Kurt Vile And The Violators | The Aquaholics | Giggle Party (The Lounge) Neon Indian | White Denim (Granada) Has anyone heard this band? I wonder if you can fill me in. I noticed they are playing a free show, so maybe it's hard to get people to come see them? What's going on here, exactly? Can't find many details online. Hmm. Maybe I should do a Tweet search. I know who White Denim is, they're a pretty hip act from Austin, but what is this group? Is it a DJ? I think I heard some people getting mad that other people liked them or something, that's weird. Isn't it a good thing when people like something? Oh, it's not? Ok so the live band consists of, let's see, where's the local angle? There's a guy from Ghosthustler, someone from The Gazelles, everyone from Vega, the girl from Fight Bite and Christian! Teenage Runaway. Pretty local, sounds good. As you guys know, I love local music. Oh, wait, C!TR?! That was the band that couldn't play their instruments right? Isn't that what the internet said? Shit. And hold on, wasn't Vega not as good as Ghosthustler or something, because Ghosthustler was like truly from Denton, but Vega moved to Austin, and that's like, hipster shit and we can't really claim it up here anymore, right? But when something is local, isn't it like, ALWAYS kind of local FOREVER, just a little bit? Like when you love someone, aren't they always, you know, kind of yours forever, in a little bitty tiny way? No? It doesn't work like that? Not even with St. Vincent? Not even with Neon Indian? Shit. Guess I had better RSVP to this show. I thought if you had a Denton driver's license, you could walk right in. Bye, Neon Indian. Don't forget to write.
As just a small beginning to our ongoing project of expanding We Shot JR's coverage past our geographic borders and into new places, we decided to do something that we normally don't do around here-- interview a band or artist who is NOT coming to North Texas any time soon (you'll see a lot more of this in the near future).
For the past year and a half or so, I've been spending a significant amount of down time enjoying the music of Cameron Stallones, the lead guitarist of Not Not Fun group Magic Lantern and the sole force behind one man project Sun Araw. Sun Araw's hazy, psychedelic collages touch on such a wide variety of sounds and influences that attempting to list them in any comprehensive way would be nearly pointless, but Stallones' loop based compositions are certainly a hypnotic journey well worth taking for oneself, blending classic psychedelic rock with afrobeat, funk, krautrock, early electronic, ambient, and a heavy dose of Stallones' own unique vision that renders any of the aforementioned influences fleeting and often transformed into something entirely new all together. This approach results in some of the most compelling, provocative and enjoyable psychedelic pieces you'll hear coming out of just about anywhere these days, radiating with a warmth and attention to detail that's difficult to find in the vast sea of contemporary tape label psyche rock.
After reading an interview with Stallones in the most recent edition of Wire, I decided to contact the man behind Sun Araw and ask him a few questions via email. Here is what we discussed:
Although I suppose I could be wrong, I'm guessing that you didn't start off as a teenager listening to many things that sound anything remotely close to the kind of music you make today. Could you tell us a bit about your musical background-- some of the music that really inspired you early in your life and any bands/musical projects that you participated in early on?
Once I got into music in a serious way, I did the typical record store geek-out, just following the energy through anything and everything. It was pretty idyllic, chasing these tones that I never knew existed through so many genres and esoteric pockets. Got really into 60’s soul music and pre-rock for a long time, the whole paisley underground scene, hip-hop, krautrock, etc. Didn’t have any successful bands really, though William and I tried to form a band that was conceptually the Beat Happening as a Nuggets-band, only doing inept, primal soul covers with two guitars and drums. I’m still into the idea of that, but let’s just say it wasn’t executed well. Someone should do that.
And what were some of the influences that brought you closer to the more abstract, psychedelic kinds of things that interest you musically today?
I discovered Can, Ash Ra Tempel, kraut and kosmiche vibes fairly early in my record store geek-outs, but it wasn’t quite harvest time, that all had to gestate for a few years. 80’s psych like Spacemen 3 (who we all worship) and Loop went a long way towards the formation of Magic Lantern, and later Sun Araw, but I think the real catalyst was hearing Parson Sound. It’s just a mind-flaying slab that manages to condense psychedelic rock to its most primal elements while also (even preternaturally) synthesizing all its disparate experiments into one pure and molten whole. The monolithic first-fruits of crossbreeding Terry Riley's "In C" with the Velvet Underground's most spaced moments.
Could you tell us about a few of your favorite guitar players and how they might influence the way you play?
Daniel Fichelscher completely freaks me out, doesn't sound like anyone else, but his licks resonate deep inside memory zones. Melodic simplicity that is so completely on point, it's traditional music of some unknown hybrid country. Oghene Kologbo, of course. Also, Jason Martin. He fronted/fronts a long-running 90's brit-pop/shoegaze band called Starflyer 59. Their early records blew my tender mind. Neil Young's electric jams are just too too ridiculous: shambling, saturated rays. Manuel Gottsching’s cosmic waves too. I could go on for a while. Totally mesmerized by all that stuff, and imitate each in some malformed way.
On a very basic level, what is it you hope to accomplish whenever you record or play live as Sun Araw?
For myself I hope to establish some moment of spiritual connection, to exist and manipulate objects on a different plane for some minutes or more. That sounds grandiose, but that's really what interests me in other people's music and it’s the sort of kicks I want to extract from my own.
Can you describe your live set up for us? Is it difficult for you to create the same audible atmosphere found on your records in a live setting?
It can be a challenge, certainly. I’m content to let the live thing be a different thing, of a different order: the order of moving to a groove. But it’s necessarily stripped down. Usually it's me on guitar and vocals and tape loops, my Lantern-mate William on organ and occasional guitar. Recently though, in preparation for some upcoming tours, I've been practicing performing completely solo. Got some more robust gear that’s helping out with that, though I always prefer to have a brother/sister to voyage with if I can.
In previous interviews I've read with you, I've enjoyed the way you discuss direct influences on particular albums or songs you've made, such as how Beach Head was a "tribute" to or loosely influenced by Neil Young's Zuma. It seems like a lot of artists tend to shy away from such influence spotting for a variety of reasons. Do you think you can do this more freely because none of your music really sounds much like what influenced or inspired it? Could musicians in general be a little more honest as far as what they borrow and what inspires certain things they do musically?
For me influences are the physical pieces laid over the non-physical structure. I don't mind copping to 'em, because I feel my music is never an attempt to recreate the structure of their music, just maybe some tones here and there. Most musicians seem pretty chill with discussing influences, though when they aren’t it’s probably because everyone knows what’s really going on, in the worst way.
It seems like there is a much larger audience for the kind of music you make these days than there has ever been before, and of course, the most obvious cause one could cite would be the internet and the incredible accessibility to music that it provides. However, is something else at work here? Is there something else about American and European audiences, at this time and place in history, that seems to promote an openness towards the kind of repetitive, loosely structured music you produce?
Well, it’s hard to say. I would consider my music, and most contemporary psychedelia as being spiritual in nature, in that it isn’t engaging your mind or emotions the way traditional songwriting does, but through some attempt at transcendence through repetition, improvisation, texture, etc. I think most tuned-in people are sensing some intense forces, technological mostly, that are emerging and fundamentally re-ordering our existence. It tends to brutalize your soul, but I think those that are staying alert, making sure to crest the wave, are already stoked about the ways they have found to re-order those energies for their benefit and the furthering of psychedelic and tuned-in living. Even for those who aren’t aware of the intense manipulation of their consciousness, there is an unconscious move towards esoteric and spiritual thinking, definitely a renewed interest in higher consciousness and spirituality, and probably in general paranoia. That’s the dark side of it. On the whole, I try to see it as a really positive and necessary move. Dreams are important because they give us practice in inhabiting a world of pure concept, divorced from physical perception, which is definitely the direction the world is being pushed (for better or worse). So I guess we should suit up, figure out how to live healthy in those circumstances so we don’t go all Schwarzenegger at the beginning of Total Recall, eyes buggin’ out. I find that making and listening to this sort of music definitely helps.
Can you tell us a little bit about the community surrounding Not Not Fun and what it's been like to work with those people?
Deep family. Britt and Manda keep us all inspired with non-stop shenanigans, and endless band starting. I respect them more than I think they know: they conceive a reality they want to exist in, and they simply create it. It’s a skill we all need to hone. They come correct, it’s rare but obvious that there isn’t even a trace of nonsense in their label operations, it’s pure love start to finish. And the extended crew here in LA just gets doper and more surreal, I’ve never felt so surrounded by talented buds.
Do you enjoy listening to the harsher noise and drone and black metal and the like? To me, a lot of that stuff has psychedelic elements that are similar in a very basic way to some of the stuff you do with your various projects, but much of it obviously comes from quite a different place and provokes and responds to different things. Where does this kind of music fit in relation to what you do?
I do. I mean, I’m definitely more interested in noise that can be classified in some way as psychedelic, and a lot of it is. There is a side of the scene that’s almost entirely based around modes of masculine aggression and that doesn’t really appeal to me when it’s the end-all, though it can be a sick element in something that’s aiming higher. But even some of the harshest jams can be truly mind-expanding. With metal, I’m just a tourist, woefully ignorant. I love early Sabbath, and obviously heavily psychedelic stuff like Sleep, Om, or experimental stuff like Orthrelm. I haven’t dug too deep into the stuff in the middle. It usually just gets my attention when it’s coming from a certain vantage point that I can relate to.
Can you walk us through the process of how you create a Sun Araw track? From the inception of the idea to the final version coming together, I'm curious about the process you undergo to bring these sounds about.
I try to really drop-in/drop-out for a good chunk of time, wade through whatever tones are hanging around in the air. After listening back, usually something asserts itself and that gets edited out, becomes the skeleton of a new jam. Then I attempt to build that single point into a resonant field. Sometimes it happens very quickly, other times it can be more of a struggle, but for me it has to start from a point of allowing yourself to be flooded in a self-less zone, then basking in the glow for a while. Next comes speaking the word, and then you offer the fruit in thanksgiving. This is what Heavy Deeds was all about for me. Once I enter a zone that I feel has particularly fruitful energy, I try to map it for myself so I can find my way back easily. I’m giving very personal signifiers, creating an iconography that has an internal logic that I can follow. So after I had finished all the music on Heavy Deeds I had been dwelling in those jams for enough time to begin to visualize the peaks and valleys of that dimension, and assign meaningful visual cues to them. The Wonder/Diddley/Cherry triad represented on the album map the particular aspects of that universe that relate to those three stages of creative activity.
Obviously, much of what you're trying to convey and communicate with Sun Araw isn't all that direct or straight forward in message, i.e. Minor Threat's Straight Edge or something like that. Do you feel like you would have anything worth saying or communicating via a more structured, traditional pop music format?
Well, I just don't find that traditional pop music really offers to me what it is I want to get out of writing and performing, no glowing doorways in there. I love traditionally structured music and listen to tons of it, it’s by no means a value judgment. The psychedelic zone that I put myself and Magic Lantern in, it's just a different sort of music with different goals and tools, structured around Eastern or Minimalist ideas, more about texture than narrative. It’s also functional in nature, trying to push your mind into particular spaces. I want the music to be hard workin’.
How has Long Beach and Los Angeles helped shape your music, and how different do you think Sun Araw might be if you were based in say, Brooklyn, rather than the west coast?
Los Angeles is a deeply psychedelic city. It’s a post-everything environment. A huge number of people here take part, in one way or another, in the creation of non-physical spaces, maybe through art or the film industry or just by movement through and habitation of the zany architectures that have been constructed in that quest. I think the early film industry here unlocked some wild energy, and because the landscape and culture here was so malleable (unlike France or other places in Europe where early film erupted) the imaginary spaces that were created and the exaltation of image had a profound effect on the physical spaces of LA. I moved here for college from Austin, Texas, which is a much more directly benevolent environment, and I really hated LA for the first few years, because it lacks that overtly benevolent energy. Also because I just really didn’t understand it. But since then it’s revealed itself to me and I’ve come to love it, it’s a city that you have to have a complicated relationship with. There is so much vibrant, positive energy that’s mixed with truly hostile and negative energy, but the longer you stay, the better you get at tuning out the problem frequencies and amplifying the constructive ones. The amount of personally and communally constructed vibes and dimensions here are overwhelming once you start to see them, there’s a deep tradition and encouragement of the physical realization of mind. The music I make is an attempt on my part to continue that tradition (probably with different goals in mind) to move a camera in deep focus through other spaces and other levels of energy.
What are some of the other projects you are working on and what are your immediate plans for Sun Araw as far as touring and recording new material?
Well we just finished up the new Magic Lantern LP, which should be out soon. I also just finished the new Sun Araw full-length, a double LP called On Patrol. Actually I just finalized the last mixes an hour or so ago. That will be out early next year. I’ll be touring up the West Coast with James Ferraro and Infinity Window and Wingdings in January, so stoked about that, true alien lanes. There’s also plans on the books for a Pocahaunted/Sun Araw US tour in March and a Sun Araw tour of Australia and New Zealand in September 2010. Trying to come correct, you know.
I realize that EVERYTHING this week is Halloween themed, but I couldn't resist this one.
"Demon Angel" - A Day and Night with Roky Erickson is, of all things, a Swedish tv documentary featuring an interview with Roky Erickson from May of 1984 and a live performance filmed Halloween night of the same year, apparently at an underground creek in Austin.
Roky Erickson's mental condition over the last 40 years has been well documented, so I'll spare the background info. Most are aware of the kind of shape this guy was in at the time, and it shouldn't be too surprising that the interview covers a wide range of topics such as demons, the devil, Bob Dylan, screaming, and Ronald Reagan. Maybe that's not a WIDE range of topics.
Anyway, the live performance features a solo Roky, though Mike Alvarez frequently accompanies on guitar. The set is pretty heavy on sloppily compelling and intimate versions of several of Erickson's solo "classics" such as 'Bloody Hammer,' 'White Faces,' and 'Cold Night for Alligators.' The duo also performs the ubiquitous 'You're Gonna Miss Me,' as well as a fantastic version of the Elevators' 'Splash 1.'
Fans of this film would do themselves right to find 'Meeting with an Alien,' a public access tv documentary very similar to this one from 1980, though instead of a solo performance Roky has a backing band.
I have to make this quick, but some thoughts off the top of my head:
1. I can't believe the Stern BrothersandJello Biafra are both going to be performing in Deep Ellum tonight, just down the street from each other. Watching the Sterns in 1983's Another State Of Mind face the crushing impact that reality has on young idealism is one of my all-time favorite moments in any documentary. Biafra's backing band sounds fairly similar to late period Dead Kennedy's, when they were more riff-oriented and less thrashy.
2. Halloween cover shows are usually horrible but always fun.
3. I'm sure it's not easy being George Harrison's son, so I'm just going to pass on talking about the Wolmother show's lineup, however I should mention that Wolfmother is playing at a Best Buy in the lovely town of Farmer's Branch right now. Which aspect of this sucks the most? Aren't partially owned by major label subsidiaries awesome?
4. Everyone loves R. Kelly.
5. Leon Russell wrote "Superstar" made extremely famous by The Carpenters. "Superstar," man.
6. I wish Dallas Cinemania had more screenings.
Dead Ramones (Subhumans)/Fakeshrine (Crimpshrine) | Ippur (Buzzcocks)/Genius Party (The Queers)/Teenagers From Mars (Misfits) (1919 Hemphill)
The Granada Theater was kind enough to give us two pairs of tickets to tomorrow's anticipated showdown between two of the biggest live spectacles in all of popular music, The Butthole SurfersandPeaches. Either one of these acts would be more than enough to lead us into Halloween weekend, but be one of the first people to send an email to wehotjrtix@yahoo.com and you can see them both.
Sorry to be even more of a dork, but the flyer for this show claims that the title Body Text = "gender" has something to do with html. Why couldn't someone on this project ask one of the four hundred billion people who write html if that makes any sense? How about:
<body>gender</body> or document.body.innerHTML = "gender";
Geez retards, get your act together.
SATURDAY
Break It, Don't Fake It Harmony Padgett Molly Murphy mighty fine arts 419 North Tyler, Dallas, TX 75208 October 31 : 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Image not really courtesy of the Estate of Henri Rousseau.
