Interview: The Great Mistakes

The Great Mistakes are a self-described "cat-punk" trio from Cincinnati, employing ukulele and cello in their instantly accessible folk pop sound. Their recently released debut single, "I Don't Blame You", shares many qualities with other similar acts that I enjoy, namely Jayber Crow and Mrs. Mole. 

Half-Gifts: How and when did The Great Mistakes form? Did all the members have a common interest in the same type of music?

Spencer Peppet: The Great Mistakes formed kind of by accident. My school does a coffeehouse-style performance called the Beat, and last year I decided that I was going to play some of my songs. I wanted a bigger sound than just me and my ukulele, so I asked Nathan and Grace to play. We ended up having a lot of fun and decided to continue as a band. We do have common music interests, though. They're prominent influences on our own music, especially The Velvet Underground, Neutral Milk Hotel, The Mountain Goats, Joanna Newsom, and Cat Power.

You played a show at Everybody's Records this week, how did that go? Have you performed anywhere else? 

Our Everybody's show is my favorite show we've played so far! We had a great turnout, and we were the youngest band to play over the series of live music Saturdays. It was a lot of fun, and I'm really happy we had the chance to play there. We've played shows at the Beat and at Music on the Green in Terrace Park, and we have more shows coming up!

Speaking of live music, what local bands have you seen play?

Local bands are really fun, especially when it's a high school band. My favorite non-high school local bands are Wussy and WHY?, they're both amazing. As for high school bands, Nathan is in another band called Sophie's Dream and they're great. We've seen The Wonderful Sadists, Olivia Frances, Banducci and the Wheels, Greek Myth, Jake Kolesar, Andrew Boylan, and the Social Rejects' Club.

Your Facebook and Bandcamp pages describe The Great Mistakes as a "cat punk" band. A genre tag search only brings up the song "Bounty Hunter" by Mardou. What is cat punk?

"Cat punk" started as kind of a joke, and it started with our first name. We were the Aristocats for a while, then changed to The Great Mistakes. We like to stay true to our feline roots, you know? We've continued using the tag because it still fits the music. It makes sense with the way the songs sound.

You have released two songs as a part of your digital single, "I Don't Blame You". Any plans to record any of your other songs?

We're currently recording our first full record! It's very exciting. We've been spending lots of time in Nathan's basement getting the sounds right. It's minimal, with the cello drone and big sweeping build-ups. The record is called "High School." 

What are your favorite non-musical things to do?

Well, we eat a lot of Indian food. Nathan enjoys quoting the Iliad at length, Grace likes cats, and I read a lot of books. Kundera, Salinger, Diaz, and a bunch of others, Nathan introduced me to all the best ones. Grace and I both do theatre as well, she covers all areas and directs along with acting. Most of our interests are literary or musical.

What are your goals for this year?

The main goal is to get the recording sounding as good as possible, and then to become the Velvet Underground.

Review: Linus Nordmark - "Songs"

Linus Nordmark - Songs

(Self-Released 2014)

Could Linus Nordmark's debut album signal a return to the former glory of Bandcamp's "dream pop" tag? Using only the most rudimentary pop components, the Swedish solo artist's material is a lovely look back at shoegaze circa 2011, the scene responsible for my love affair with reverb and fuzz. Liquescent droplets of clean guitar splash against a solid, glassy pane of throbbing keyboard drones. The drum machines are cold and mechanical, trimmed of any flourish or hint of improvisation. Existent only to propel warbling bass tremors forward, they are beautiful in a strictly utilitarian way. It's quite similar in texture to Craft Spells and The Wake. 

In a 16-song album that's shoegazey from start to finish, it's Nordmark's vocals that carry much of the weight of the music, ranging from a post-punk monotone to a dramatic new-wave howl. He chooses to open with one of his poppiest tunes, "The Fall", a bouncy song laced with interweaving guitar melodies and swelling keyboards. "Happy Place" is another pop gem, but is a slower track, void of any percussion. It's carried by plodding bass and spindly lead guitar, and could be mistaken for a demo track by The National. The greatest triumph on Songs, however, is "Isolate Me", featuring a towering chorus and blistering guitar riffs. Hopefully Nordmark releases more music soon, as I'm already a major fan of his after just downloading his album this morning.  

Live Review: Feldi/Forest Management @ Cincinnati Public Library

(photos by Steve Kemple)

Feldi and Forest Management

January 15 2014

Cincinnati Public Library

Wednesday marked my third visit to the Cincinnati Library for their monthly experimental music series. Each time I attend, the experience becomes increasingly surreal; the setting is just as, if not more important than the music for these shows. The performers set up on long white tables that one might associate with dented cash boxes and high school basketball ticket sales. Behind them is a glass window wall, providing the audience a view of the city and its inhabitants. I mentioned this in my last library review, but I think it's worth mentioning again that they, unknowingly, become performance artists. Like silent film stars, their gestures and expressions become comically exaggerated when detached from their words. The audience is lovably neurotic, and I feel like I fit in. Everyone is there simply because they love to consume art in all of its various forms.

I arrived midway into the soundcheck of the first act, Feldi (aka George Feldick), a self-proclaimed noise collagist from Norwood. To the untrained eye, he may have appeared to be setting up a yard sale. A toy guitar lay face-up next to a miniature blue accordion. A red shopping bag, which I later learned carried tapes, slumped over. A small television faced Feldick, broadcasting something I could not see. His music was created with a loop pedal, which was used to layer noises in the three collages he created over the course of his 15 minute set. He would first lay down a grimy foundation composed from a distorted cassette, and then proceed to cloak it in the hazy drone of his accordion, twangy guitar sound effects and a breathy whistle from a wooden recorder that he produced from his jacket pocket. It was gorgeously woozy. Behind him was a projection of a short film called Fake Fruit Factory, a pastel-toned close up look at manual labor, demonstrated through extreme close ups and the gossip between workers. The music and movie paired so well that I assumed that Feldick was sampling the audio from the clip in his set, but he assured me he wasn't. He mentioned it might have something to do with the sound intermingling with the light flowing between the projector and screen. I thought it may have also had something to do with the human brain's desperate need to make sense of foreign sensations, using any connections it can find in attempt to rationalize them.

Between sets, Ellen Atkinson gave a short presentation about a play written during the French Revolution called "The Meeting of August 10th", which she recently translated into English. The play gave insight into the propaganda and numerous festivals of the revolution, which were eerily reminiscent of those of ancient Rome. The dialogue was supposedly meant to be sung, and it was jokingly suggested that the crowd of EMATL regulars compose music for their own production of "August 10th". That doesn't sound like a bad idea. I actually think Robespierre would have appreciated such a performance! Only at the library will you catch an academic lecture between two bands, and it works surprisingly well.

The final act of the night was Forest Management, made up of one John Daniel, who traveled from Cleveland for the show. His setup was more sparse, but also a bit more organized than Feldi's. A laptop, a pedal and a portable tape deck made up his entire arsenal. His music was just as minimal as his table, but was also extremely beautiful. It reminded me of Pulse Emitter's ambient epic, "Forest Mountain Valley". Looping, textureless synths melted into each other while being dragged downward by heavy, growling bass tones. Nature sounds seeped from his tape deck, and he managed to create a wall of noise by fiddling with the cable between the deck and the speakers. In contrast to Feldi's chaotic and unpredictable performance, this one was composed with precision, and repetitive loops created a trance-inducing aura that was both sleepy and compelling. That's what made it so surprising when Daniel threw back a few orange Tic Tacs mid-set. He was so quiet and focused while performing, that it was striking to see him momentarily break his concentration just for a few pill-shaped candies. That instant was definitely the highlight of the show for me.

Review: Flowers Taped To Pens/Nevasca/American Memories/DayCare

Flowers Taped To Pens/Nevasca/American Memories/DayCare Split

(Ozona Records 2013)

Finding a sufficient balance between beauty and violence can be a difficult task, but can make the difference between a song that's perfectly striking and one that's overly saturated with one particular feeling. Each of the four bands on this split tape display mastery of achieving this sonic equilibrium, lobbing lightweight, crystalline guitaristry to be belted out of the park by abrasive crescendos. It's fascinating to have four takes on the rising DIY screamo/twinkly scene all on one release, and even more so considering that there is still a great diversity of sounds contained within the confines of the genre. 

The first of these bands to appear on the album is San Diego's Flowers Taped To Pens, offering up two tracks. "Ghosts in My Bed" opens with a pleasant degree of creaminess, as clean guitar pluckings wallow in a warm trumpet drone. Shortly after it starts, this melody eerily ceases, interrupted by a yelp. The full extent of  the band's angst-driven energy rains down from above, a warbly and surprisingly dreamy brand of hardcore supplemented by screamed vocals. Their second song, "That Same Street", is less fast-paced but is perhaps more intense. The guitars turn shaky loops in the air, wobbling and improvising their way through a spacious rhythm provided by distant percussion. The tension this instability creates threatens to snap at any moment, yet somehow manages to hold itself together for four full minutes.

Following Flowers Taped To Pens is Russian quartet Nevasca. Their sound is poppier and a little more accessible than the rest of the bands featured on this release, weaving complex, shimmering guitar melodies together over anthemic exuberance on standout cut "Leaving This Northern Town". The interplay between the male and female vocalists is stunning, and adds even more layers to a song that is already quite textured. "Memory Fails Me" is the mini-epic around which this split revolves, clocking in at nearly 7 minutes. It nearly tresspasses into post-rock territory; it's minimal, and instrumentally charged, resembling an emo Sigur Ros.

American Memories step up to the plate next, a lo-fi and rather streamlined skramz track. The vocals are in the spotlight on "Grave", crashing into the fuzzy walls of guitar and pounding drums. California's DayCare make their debut as the final band to appear on the split, providing the lone tune "I Don't Wanna Come Home". It's the most polished sounding of the bands here, emphasizing the raw screams over chiming guitar chords. There really isn't a weak spot on this whole tape, and a full listen is worth your while.

Interview: Lion House

In what may be 2014's most inspirational interview, Aaron Hurtado and Damian Fisher of Lion House teach us how to give it 100%, provide details on their upcoming EP and inform us of the Year of Versace.

Lion House is one of the youngest bands in a growing Kansas City scene. What was it like starting to play shows and beginning to record together?

Aaron: Well we all grew up going to the same highschool, so we were already pretty close friends. I was in a band with Austin my freshman year and then a band called Summer Handjob my sophomore year of highschool with Damian. So when things with Lion House started coming together, it was a pretty smooth ride.

Damian: It was really cool getting to go from being someone that watched to being a part of it, and it really helped like the idea of DIY because it used to be just a big thing. You just gotta go out and give a hundred percent everyday ;*

Where's the coolest place you've played a show? What's it like for the touring DIY band?

Aaron: The Lemp Neighborhoods Art Center in St. Louis, MO is without a doubt my favorite venue that we have played. I think in 2013 we made the trip up there either on tour or just for a misc. show 4 times. We have made a lot of good friends and heard a lot of good music at that place. And the owner Mark Sarich knows how to hold together his community. He makes sure to feed every band, and provide a place for them to sleep, as well as giving them the money that is made at the door. Touring DIY is almost never financially easy.

Damian: The coolest place has to be The Lemp Neighborhood Art Center in St. Louis. You walk in and there are all these couches and there is this huge St. Louis flag just on the wall, and Mark, the man who runs Lemp, is so welcoming it's crazy. Touring as a DIY band kind of sucks when you're a tiny band that no one knows about because it's supposed to be "Do It Yourself" or "Do It Together", but when half the people in this scene don't respond to you trying to book a show or help you book shows it becomes a stressful burden booking a simple four day tour, but it's still a lot of fun getting to be with your close friends all day erryday for however long you're on tour. Just gotta go out there and give a hundred percent ;*
Your list of tags on bandcamp includes 'shoegaze' and 'midwestern emo'. How do you combine the two genres? What bands do you consider influences?

Aaron: We kind of have found a happy medium between ambient noises and minor scales. I mean all four of us have way different influences musically, I think we can agree on one or two, but if we got into a real deep discussion about it, I'm sure someone would get injured. We've come close to that before. As for my influences, The Smiths, Joy Division, Foxing, Bon Iver, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Elvis, Deafheaven, and Cloakroom have all provided little attributes musically that I have really taken and added to my own style.

Damian: I don't know how we combined them, but for me it's all about the "feeling" of the song when you're playing it, and I think the shoegaze/emo thing allows the song to feel intimate more so than it would if we were a poppy bubblegum emo band. Some influences for me are Joie De Vivre, Pianos Become The Teeth, Funeral Diner, Funeral Advantage, Bon Iver, Explosions in the Sky, I Hate Myself, Mineral, Sore Eyelids, Suis La Lune, and Two Bicycles.

You have a proper debut release in the works, how is that coming along? What's your recording process like?

Aaron: We are currently getting material together and it is a lot of fun. Today was -21 degrees outside and Damian was persistent to get us to practice at 9 am to work on the new song. As for recording, we have not gotten that far yet. A studio will probably be our best bet when it comes to getting a final product that we will be proud to present to people.

Damian: It's coming along, we have really been dragging our feet awhile, but we're getting back into the groove of practicing at least once a week. Recording so far in Lion House has been us using like one microphone placed in the room and all of us playing our parts and hoping it doesn't sound too bad, so for this release we've all decided to actually go somewhere and have it recorded for us.
Besides music, what do you enjoy doing?

Aaron: Shit. I like to read, and write. I really enjoy J.D. Salinger. I eat a lot and work a lot. Oh and I do hang out with my beautiful girlfriend. The life of Aaron Hurtado is pretty boring.

Damian: I really enjoy reading J.D. Salinger. As for me, I don't have time for a beautiful girlfriend man. I just smoke cigarettes like a grandpa, in hopes that one day I will just become a cigarette. Just hanging out with friends, and lastly; sleeping forever (5ever). You just gotta go out there and give a hundred percent when you're trying to sleep

You guys are both in another band called Sex Groove, right? What's the story behind that?

Aaron: So I have this really rad friend Seth. Him and I have a few Highschool classes together, so like we get to walk around school and act too cool. Well Seth has this incredible voice, and like we were talking about making some music. One night, a bunch of us were hanging at Seth's house and I picked up the guitar, and Damian picked up the guitar, Seth started singing, and our friend brad grabbed the back of a computer chair and started smacking the shit out of that. Thus, Sex Groove was born, and by the looks of it, we are taking this band pretty serious!

Damian: I mean what he said. Aaron and I  live together so it's really easy to just be in bands together because we cuddle at night for warmth, but no because we know how the other person writes, so it's a breeze

Any future plans for that project?

Aaron: Ya, Sex Groove is writing some songs, and then a split with some pretty cool bands. After that we will see where the wind blows us. I can see Sex Groove touring and dancing all summer

Damian: Yeah what he said. I'm just in it for the Versace shirts

Back to Lion House, which of the songs on your bandcamp are you most happy with? Will any of them be on the upcoming release?

Aaron: Culo Sweatshirt is my favorite that we have on the bandcamp site. Mostly because one of my bestfriends was our drummer at that time. He passed away this past August so that song holds a lot of weight. Agape will definitely be on the new EP. I am not sure about the other demo honestly.

Damian: I think our demos of Agape and DJ will be on the new EP, but for me I'm most proud of Agape because it broke a little rut that Lion House was in with writing, and it just has a lot of emotion for me. But you just gotta go out there and give a hundred percent. Leave it all on the field. Honestly, I think the songs we're writing now are better than ever before so if you like those demos just wait till you hear the new stuff. ;*
What was your favorite LP of 2013? Who do you predict will drop 2014's best album?

Aaron: I have like a little tie. MBV - My Bloody Valentine, The Albatross - Foxing, and Deafheaven - Sunbather. As for 2014, that new 17 years album Teased Hair coming out in like 2 days is going to be too good.

Damian: I think other than Deafheaven's Sunbather, this was a year of just really good songs, but not incredible albums. For me Foxing's The Medic and Bit By a Bee pt. 2 are the jams, and the last half of Caravels Lacuna. Then Capsule dropped [A] and that thing is a hot little release. The internet has been saying Pianos Become the Teeth are recording, so if they release something that is probably going to be the best thing, but Empire! Empire! (I was a lonely estate) is finally releasing a follow up to What It Takes To Move Forward, so hopefully that takes the cake.

Aaron: Jude is the coolest kid. He makes my heart melt with his cute smile. Thanks for giving support to the small bands, what you're doing is helping out more than you know.

Damian: Thank you for asking us to do this, and dealing with our goofy responses. I went out there and gave a hundred percent, but Jude out there giving a 1000 percent, and everyone needs to know this the year of Versace

Cassette Corner: Tucker Theodore - "To Make the Sun Hurt"

Tucker Theodore - To Make the Sun Hurt

(Antiquated Future 2013)

To listen to fuzz-folk like the kind created by mysterious solo artist Tucker Theodore is a study in musical paleontology. Crumbling remnants of drone folk lie fossilized beneath jagged chords and wet, unidentified sludge, all melding together to form an impenetrable wall of earth. The ten tracks that compose Theodore's new tape, To Make The Sun Hurt, are hewn from this rock and left untreated, making for an organic, gritty texture that, ironically, brings out a softness, a vulnerability in the music. It's more shoegaze, than folk, really, because noise and tape grime make up much of the murky wall of sound that oozes from the listener's speakers. Imagine Woody Guthrie going avant-garde.

The first strums on the opener, "Shifting Dunes", disintegrate at the touch of an eardrum, leaving swirling dust in its place. Theodore delivers his lyrics in the form of a rattling croak, as if the parched surface of the song has dried up his throat. It all sounds so beautifully lifeless; each note and word is forced out, and even the instruments seem to be moaning from some form of dehydration. "The Way Home" is the only track that provides a bit of relief from the thick dust storm, allowing for some rhythm to push through the tempest. A synth or sample of some sort adds foreign texture to the mix, and one can even pick out individual pluckings rather than hearing them all at once. To Make the Sun Hurt is definitely an acquired taste, but it will most likely appeal to those who value rawness in music. 

Review: Crying - "Get Olde"

Crying - Get Olde

(Double Double Whammy 2013)

There's a fine line between gimmick and genius, and honestly, most of the "chiptune" projects I've heard fall under the former category, sculpting bland electronica out of nostalgia-inducing Game Boy sound effects. Though New York trio Crying make use of Nanoloop, a music creation tool built for the original Game Boy, it's by no means a mask for their sound, but rather a complement to their already powerful songcraft. Their first release, Get Olde, clocks in at around fifteen minutes and delivers whimsical, breezy pop throughout. The instrumentation is overwhelmingly upbeat, bursting at the seams with vibrant 8-bit color. It's pop-punk with an emphasis on the punk, not unlike Olympia, Washington's Tiger Trap. It can only be categorized by its emotion, really, and that's charming placidity. "Bloom", for example, is tinted with slightly crunchy, pastel toned guitars, which are overtaken by chiming synths that gave me a major flashback to the embarrassingly long hours I spent hunched over Pokemon: Leafgreen in grade school. The lyrics may come as a bit of a surprise though; they're a bit self deprecatory, adding a human element to the artificial cheerfulness concocted by the Game Boy. "Bloom" meditates on the frustration of being unable to drive a car (and ride a bike) properly, and "ES" discusses missed expectation. "Rat Baby" even concludes with a rather grim look toward mortality. ("If this is the pace at which I'm going, what will be left of me when I'm fifty-one?")

The way Elaiza Santos delivers her lines further adds to that humanizing element. They seem to be spoken offhandedly and fill the space left between bleeping chiptune tones. Similarly, I really respect their decision to include live percussion rather than a drum machine. Returning to the lyrics, there is one song that has a more lighthearted subject matter: Bodega Run. It's simply a story about ditching a band's show to buy Doritos, but it's told beautifully. And the music surrounding the verses is some of the catchiest you'll ever hear. Fuzzy power chords and riffs propel the sparkling synths, which bob, swell and explode at will. It's the greatest triumph on an album full of hits. Don't let the chiptune exterior fool you; Crying's debut is beautiful and complex. 

Interview: Passion Pusher

Questions and answers with James Gage of Scottish fuzz-pop project Passion Pusher.

Many of my favorite Scottish bands like Cocteau Twins, Mogwai and even Belle and Sebastian (to some degree) are noted for having a reverb-washed and dreamy sound. Which bands have most influenced your musical style?

Probably more American bands if I'm honest; I've found a lot of great Scottish musicians now that I've started recording and gigging but before that it was mainly lo fi garage rock like White Fence and Ty Segall that opened me up to simply recording with whatever's at hand, so I think that heavily influenced my slop pop style.

I did used to listen to a hell of a lot of Iggy Pop and Joy Division around 12/13, so that may have creeped in on the style I play at the moment.

I've found that one of the most noticeable components of your music, and your biggest similarity with the bands you mentioned (especially with White Fence) is your rapid output of music in all sorts of different styles. Do you find that recording a lot of different tracks in a short amount of time is more satisfying than working on a small amount over a large amount of time

It seems to just be the way I work. I completely hate recording a small couple of songs over a long period of time.

I begin to hate my work very fast so I rush it until I think it's okay and then just throw it out there with whatever else i recorded at the time.

My approach to song writings very weird, I don't really have many full formed songs. I kinda just bash them out and try and learn them back from my recordings to play at gigs etc

But it's always been music over lyrics for me. I am a truly terrible lyricist and my voice sucks haha.

Has releasing your music on bandcamp led you to meet new people?  

Yeah it's introduced me to a lot of great musicians who get in contact for splits etc

I actually have a split EP coming out on cassette by the end of January with an American artist Dead Katz, and I have the collab album being planned between me and The Furnsss singer Brendan Dyer, Nadnerb

What are your favorite bands you've discovered through bandcamp?

Definitely at the moment The Yawns, an awesome band from Glasgow, Real Swell, Dead Katz, Brazilian Money, Franco years, Elvis Depressedly.

Though if i'm honest I do get nearly all my music through friends putting stuff on bandcamp or finding it on bandcamp.

Kinda my go to for new music

Which of your own EPs or albums are you most pleased with?

Probably My Least Favorite Book, Bury Me Next To My Father and The Devil and; Me

I think My Least Favorite Book is the one I listen to most. It's a bit more dream-pop oriented than the rest of the music you've posted 

Yeah I'm actually planning on grouping The Devil And Me and My Least Favorite Book into one release and putting that onto cassette myself.

Was thinking of doing a small limited run of my dream pop material.

What's a typical Passion Pusher gig like? Do you have a full backing band?

It's just me and a drummer.

They're usually pretty hectic and crazy.

Me and my drummer, the wonderful Matti Art, usually get super drunk before and during and just kinda have fun

What other bands have you gone to see this year?

I saw the Growlers with Tomorrows Tulips around October, i saw some pretty weird and crazy bands in Bosnia when i went there around and I think I saw Animal Collective at the beginning of the year or it might have been the end of last year.

To be honest I've spent most of this year in my room recording.

I saw Animal Collective last month actually. 

Do they still have the whole mouth stage set up?

It was amazing when I saw them.

It was a crazy light show.

Avey Tare and Deakin were wearing jump suits.

And Avery Tare had dyed his hair blue.

I was super bummed they never played Winters Love though.

Have you covered any of their songs?

haha I have actually they're pretty terrible covers.

I covered Winters Love and Banshee Beat when I was about 14/15 on my ex girlfriends apple mac.

That was when I was putting stuff out under the name Portasound.

So what do you think is in store next year for Passion Pusher?

My album/ep thing Bury Me Next To My Father is being released on cassette through the label Cath Records.

I have the split with Dead Katz being put out through Electropapknit, a Glasgow label.

Got a bunch of gigs booked

Hopefully things will start to take off and more people will start listening.

fingers crossed.

Review: Vellhouse - Nyoro-n Demouya

Vellhouse - Nyoro-n Demouya

(Self-Released 2013)

Vellhouse's debut demo is a prime example of an album you can't judge by its cover. Upon seeing the cover art for Nyoro-n Demouya, I prepared myself to take in another helping of sugary pop-punk in the vein of Baby Ghosts or Tiger Trap. The band even chose to themselves as being "cutecore", further conjuring three-chord pop and twee boy-girl harmonies What was emitted from my speakers instead was a major surprise, and a majorly good one at that. From beginning to end, Nyoro-n Demouya gallops ahead with an avant-hardcore ferocity that sounds like the child of Minutemen and Bad Brains. Minneapolis-based three piece Vellhouse seems to be hell-bent on setting Potemkin expectations for their listeners and bursting out from behind them, each time revealing a new layer in their sound and songcraft.

This tendency is most notable on "Bro Team", which at first whirls like a tornado, flinging rapid-fire, tinny lead guitar riffs and clanging powerchords in every direction. The lead vocalist shouts in attempt to be heard over the storm, sounding more than a little like Corin Tucker on Heavens To Betsy's "Me and Her". The heavy winds subside soon, revealing a minimal, vaguely dub influenced song. You can't get too comfortable listening to this demo; there are just too many changes and so much pummeling the listener's eardrums at once to really grab on an take hold of the music. But, when it comes to hardcore, it think that's the mark of a band's success. Vellhouse keep you coming back in attempt to finally tame their frenetic auditory assault, but will elude you each time. Don't underestimate cutecore.

Phoning It In with: Juan Wauters

In the debut episode of my new interview podcast, Phoning It In, I give Juan Wauters a call to talk about his upcoming solo LP, North American Poetry, which is set to be released in February via Captured Tracks. Wauters, who also fronts The Beets, chats with me about library cards, album cover art and The Ramones. 

Review: whatnot - "Demos 2013"

whatnot - Demos 2013

(Self-Released 2013)

What is it with all the the Arthur references I've been seeing in lo-fi/emo albums lately? Ever since I interviewed  Pennsylvania's Ratburn earlier this year I've seen at least 5 other bands that allude to the long-running children's cartoon in some form, and, as a devoted fan of the show myself, I find this to be a welcome trend. Arthur's low-key, somewhat nostalgic look back at a late-90's adolescence matches perfectly with what I've dubbed the "tumblr-era emo" scene. Connecticut's whatnot is the first of these bands I've seen that's completely devoid of vocals, but that doesn't prevent it from being one of the strongest I've recently heard.

whatnot, the solo venture of Rock Bottom Records owner David O'Brein, resembles a less cinematic version of Explosions in the Sky, tight punk riffage interposed with shoegazy moments of shoegazy ambience. "insert pretentious song title here" is the best example of this sort of contrast, opening with a twitchy post-hardcore that bursts into a peal of post-rock tremolo picking. "all killer #nofilter" is the most placid of the EP's four tracks, layering orchestral synths behind Beach Fossils-esque rhythm guitar loop. whatnot is one of the most accessible post-rock acts I've listened to due to his relatively short track lengths, consistently compressing symphonic emo beauty into individually wrapped, snack-sized bites.

Interview: The Pizza Underground

The Pizza Underground:

The Interview

 

New York's Pizza Underground recently gained a significant amount of attention due to their inventive, pizza-themed Velvet Underground covers and the presence of their drummer/kazoo-ist Macaulay Culkin (of Home Alone fame). Band member Phoebe Kreutz was kind enough to take the time to answer a few questions about the band's origins.

 

What inspired you to start a Velvet Underground covers band? How did you go about assembling a band?

We love the Velvet Underground and we couldn't understand why no one had ever rewritten their songs to be about pizza. The time had come. We assembled the finest musicians possible.

Is writing pizza themed parodies more difficult than regular songwriting? Which lyrics are you most pleased with?

 

Writing pizza-themed parodies is by far easier. All the heavy lifting has been done. We just have to figure out what the original lyrics mean. And then make them about pizza. Our favorite lyric is when we replace "Sweet Jane" with "Pizza". It has an elegant simplicity to it that really comes through.

Speaking of pizza, what's your favorite topping?

Red pepper flakes

 

How did you go about recording the new demo? I really dig the raw recording quality

 

That quality can only be achieved by standing around a computer and singing after a few beers.

 

Are there any plans to record a more polished sounding album? Have you written any non-pizza themed songs for the project?

 

All songs will continue to be pizza-themed. We are considering offers to make another recording. It may or may not be more polished. There is something to be said for cheap pizza.

 

Were you in any bands prior to the Pizza Underground?

 

We've all performed in different bands. I (Phoebe) play solo and with a band called Urban Barnyard that only writes songs about animals in the city. Matt currently plays trumpet for Two Kazoos, Kung Fu Crimewave and Jagged Leaves. Deenah raps in L.A. Boobs. Macaulay has appeared on stage with Har Mar Superstar and Adam Green. Austin was in Stockholm Syndrome. After so many different projects, it is interesting that this is the one that caught fire. 

 

Which bands are you currently into besides the Velvet Underground?

 

We love our local acts: Ching Ching, Toby Goodshank, Little Cobweb, The Johns, Give to Light and Schwervon!

 

Have you, or are you planning to, play any live shows as a band?

We are planning all kinds of live shows. That's where the fun is.

Which do you prefer, cassettes, CDs or vinyl?

Vinyl fits the nicest into a pizza box. 

Listen to the Pizza Underground's debut demo below:




Cassette Corner: Mormon Girls - "The Farm Sessions"

Mormon Girls - The Farm Sessions

(Norwegian Blue 2013)

 

As fun as it is for me to get wrapped up in subgenres and subcultures, there are times when nothing can be as satisfying as pure, unadulterated indie rock. In an age that demands gimmicks and an unorthodox recording quality to stand out in a crowd of indie upstarts, it's surprising to hear such an honest effort like The Farm Sessions, the debut release by Canadian quartet Mormon Girls, and it's even more surprising to find it on cassette. With its raw, but also lifelike sound quality, (as the title suggests), this EP melds Dinosaur Jr's You're Living All Over Me with the mid-tempo college rock delivered by R.E.M. and Ned's Atomic Dustbin.  

 

The opening track, "Boy", opens with a crawling, but heavily distorted riff that sails into the air, leaving behind a small shower of sparks. The drums are curt and to the point, filling the sparsity between the guitar notes. Mick Hayward's vocals ease into the tune, and his singing fits somewhere among Ben Gibbard's and Michael Stipe's. As the instrumentation takes back center stage, a second guitar and a nimble, slippery bass line join the song and the drums fire back a bit more aggressively, creating a wall of nearly concrete sound. Mormon Girls' excellent variation of dynamic and texture sounds great on tape, and the live recording style just makes the instrumental crescendos hit that much harder. Especially benefitting from this treatment is "Bears I". Its growling post-punk power chords transition seamlessly transition into post-punk lead guitar as Hayward's vocal delivery overloads the microphone, the highlight of the tape.

 

Since this is the first cassette release on Norwegian Blue Records, I must note that the design is very nice. The scattered arrangement of font on the cover art seems like a touch from an early Captured Tracks 7", and the music is pressed on translucent red tapes, which always look great in my opinion. You can buy it here.

 



Cassette Corner - Abandoned Houses - "Untitled Spirals"

Abandoned Houses -  Untitled Spirals

(Rok Lok 2013)

 

Delayed gratification may not seem like a term that anyone would associate with pleasure, but in the realm of music, especially lo-fi music, the two terms just might be synonymous. You'll listen to a tape for the first time in the car like I did this afternoon, and one or two verses, maybe a chorus, will really resonate with you. And the trouble is that afterward, you can't even remember how that line goes, or even if it exists at all. Songs seem to exist in ideal form in our minds. They may sound great as we listen but they are made perfect as we forget them. And on the way home from school today, this tape was perfect to me, and I keep coming back to it, searching for the sacred moment of warmth that overtook me while adrift in the passenger's seat. That constant search is what makes an album pleasurable, though. I enjoy prolonging sleep, preferring to spend as long as I can in the divide between consciousness and dreams before giving in to slumber. Similarly, it is in the struggle to find perfection in the music of others that I find the true enjoyment of an album. Each note and verse is scoured over, as if I were studying a text in another language, and like any true scholar, I begin to appreciate how the song's nuances comprise its whole.

 

Anyhow, pretensions aside, this album is really great. I compare a lot of music to Lou Barlow's work, but Abandoned Houses' Untitled Houses sounds almost exactly like the acoustic b-sides available as bonus tracks on Sebadoh albums. Higher notes peel off of the fruit of constantly throbbing bass, and whispered vocals seem like an after thought. The lyrics are mantras supplemented by scattered thoughts, yet everything about the EP seems so complete. Things really fall together on track 3, a cover of Blink-182's "What's My Age Again?". I hadn't heard the original before, but the interplay between sparsity and intensity is perfectly executed as pluckings melt into chords.

 





Half-Gifts Christmas Compilation Out Now