Review: Aaron Read - "Even Rats Can Feel the Sun"

Aaron Read - Even Rats Can Feel the Sun

(Green Burrito Records 2013)

"Whether Even Rats... is sheer genius or just another cassette's worth of lo-fi eccentricity, I'm not sure."

Interview: Julia Brown on Tour

My friend Ben Wiley had the opportunity to talk to one of the year's finest new indie pop bands, Julia Brown, on their recent tour. Read the interview below, which concludes with a surprise appearance by Coma Cinema's Mat Cothran.

INTERVIEWER: What tour date is this and how long have you been out?

Sam: This about two weeks now.

John: This is the fourth night of the tour. It’s not officially the first day out on tour because we played Baltimore the first night of the tour. Then we went back

Sam: A home show first, yeah.

INTERVIEWER: Where do you guys play in Baltimore?

            Sam: We played at Club K. Which was ok. It’s the best thing there since Bell Foundry shut down.

 INTERVIEWER: What’s been your favorite part of the tour?

            John: Tonight probably.

            Sam: Tonight and last night probably. Tonight was maybe the most fun to play because we got to be goofier. Shea, where we played Brooklyn last night, it’s like a venue and a studio and they record everything they do and archive it so we couldn’t mess around. It sounds phenomenal.

            John: We don’t really do sound checks and have our stuffed mic’ed because of the places we play it doesn’t make sense.

Alec: We played on a stage.

John: We actually played on a stage, which was cool.

Alec: It was definitely a less professional show tonight.

John: I think the three Brooklyn shows and the show here tonight are my favorite shows we’ve played as a band.

 INTERVIEWER: John, what were you doing before Julia Brown?

Sam: I can tell you all about that.

John: Before Julia Brown I played bass in a bunch of bands including the Night Crawlers. I actually just started playing drums for this band because they needed a drummer. I was in school.

INTERVIEWER: How do you think your sound has translated live?

Sam: When we were recording ‘to be close to you’ there were only really two or three songs we did all together. We started recording it before the band was formed, before we knew who was in it. I was recording songs. There were a couple songs we were like “we need a drummer for these” and that’s when John joined but then you were in Mexico. Yeah, You got really lit in Mexico for a while and I specifically remember you talking about sea lions for a while.

John: Every night in Mexico, that’s when I bought my first pair of drumsticks, I was vacationing with my family in Mexico for a week. I looked up how to say drumsticks in Spanish and went to a music store and sat there and played drums on a couch and got hella lit and talked to Sam all night. Yeah, it was pretty cool.

Sam: ‘Library’ and ‘falling in love’ are the opening two tracks, the only tracks we did as a full band on that so were thinking naturally that was going to be how it was going to go live. So when we were working on ‘to be close to you’ and ‘I will do this for the rest of my life’, they have drums, we were trying to not just replicate but to do a more unique version of them. The new one we’ve been playing is probably going to be very similar to how it is. It depends on the song but we can’t have a lot of super-no-drums-downtempo  stuff and really get away with it.

INTERVIEWER: What’s it like playing with Mat Cothran all the time?

Alec: It’s a lot of fun

John: Uhh its fucking awesome. I love seeing Mat every night.

Sam: He’s a character. He’s another that writes very downtempo. I like when he does Her Vore….and there he is now.

Mat: You guys talking about me?

John: Do you want to be part of our interview?

 Sam: I got a question for mat. So who is Mickey and who is lee and who is Eva Angelina?

Mat: Oh no.

Sam: Who is Blue Suicide?

Caroline: How do you play an F chord?

Mat: I’m like the guru of the mountain but only idiots climb up.

            John: Is Blue Suicide dead? Did the dog kill himself and is that why he’s sad?

            Mat: Someone asked that one once.

Single Review: Tyrannosaurus Dead - "Bed Dread"

Tyrannosaurus Dead - Bed Dread

(Bleeding Gold 2013)

"A guitar tone similar to that of fellow pre-historic punk band Dinosaur Jr."

Review: Mardou - "Cardigan EP"

Mardou - Cardigan EP

(Self-Released 2013)

"Icy, caustic guitar... chugging, bass and drum driven songcraft"

Review: A Grave With No Name - "Whirlpool"

A Grave With No Name - Whirlpool

(Lefse 2013)

"Swirling, mid-tempo melancholy"

Review: Mood Rings - "VPI Harmony"

Mood Rings - VPI Harmony

(Mexican Summer 2013)

"A powdery guitar tone that should satiate any dream-pop purist"

Half-Gifts Cassette Compilation Now Available

The first ever Half-Gifts compilation album is now available digitally and on cassette tape. Head on over to the brand new Bandcamp page, where you can stream, download and purchase a physical copy of the 32-track release. A big thanks to everyone who submitted a track; the compilation sounds fantastic.    

Review: Technicolor Teeth - "Teenage Pagans"

Technicolor Teeth - Teenage Pagans

(Stroll On Records 2012)

"Ghastly but beautiful ambience"

Cassette Corner: sink/sink - "A Lone Cloudburst"

sink/sink - A Lone Cloudburst

(Already Dead Tapes 2013)

"Wistful pop cloaked in orchestrally layered feedback"

Single Review: Imaginary Pants - "Channels/Seacliff"

Imaginary Pants - Channels/Seacliff 7"

(Rok Lok 2013)

"Delivers twee dreaminess in spades"

Review: Ratburn - "The Dangers of Running in Small Circles"

Ratburn - The Dangers of Running in Small Circles

(Self-Released 2013)

"The scattered experimentations of previous recordings compressed  into an extremely quirky album" 

Review: Jovontaes - "Roll The Dice"

Jovontaes - Roll the Dice

(Burger Records/Gnar Tapes 2013)

"Jovontaes fully embrace the surf rock style they've often dabbled in"

Update: Swan City Sounds

An interview with Clifford Parody, one of the brains behind Swan City Sounds, a tape label from Florida.

So, just as an introduction, what's the story behind the label? Where did you come across the resources to start it? What would you say is Swan City Sounds' mission?

Last July, my buddy Brandon Adams and I decided we wanted to start up a tape label. The very next day, a cassette duplicator appeared on Craigslist. Together, we drove to the middle-of-nowhere home of a doomsday-prepper/conspiracy theorist who was in the process of selling off his possessions to move to Black Mountain, where he planned on hunkering down to wait for the financial apocalypse to hit. He said ‘golly’ a lot and had numerous charts and graphs. We left there $35 broker, one cassette duplicator richer, and with heads full of doubt about the shape of American society.
Where we live in Lakeland, Florida, you can’t go anywhere without seeing some form of Swan – whether it be a statue, a painting, a street sign, or the real thing – the Swan represents our city. Knowing that, and with a desire to pull all of the sonically and artistically inclined folks in the community together to help us out, we decided to name our label Swan City Sounds.
Our music and arts scene here is, in my opinion, pretty vibrant, but at the same time we have remained rather isolated over the years. Most of my friends either play music or make art and they do it pretty damn well, but there isn’t really one specific place that could showcase all of this talent. The goal of Swan City Sounds from the onset was to create something that would accomplish this – to get all of the talent in Lakeland in one place so we could show likeminded folks in other places what we’ve got going so maybe they would want to come hang out with us and play shows and shit.

One thing about Swan City Sounds that I find the most interesting is the art. Who does the album covers and layout currently? Who made the collages on the first 4 releases?
The album artwork is done by a few different folks in town. The first five releases featured artwork by Leif Langford, who Brandon and I have known for years. He is an incredible artist and was the first person we both thought of when we decided to source local work for the cover art. I am sure we will be using his work again at some point. Some other super talented folks have also donated their work: Olivia Lewandowski, Charlie Reese (of Pilgrimage and FSBTB), Aaron Corbitt (of LeapFrog and The Pocket Symphony(s)), and Justin Lewis and Jeremy Thrush, who tag-team paintings together.
Currently, Brandon and I both work together on the layout but Brandon, who had a solid background in graphic design, is pretty much the brains behind that whole side of the operation. I just sit and drink beer with him while he makes shit happen.

So 3 SCS releases dropped in the past week, each sounding vastly different. Tell me about each one.

“Deep Creek”
California Baseball Band is a group that I have wanted to put out since we started the label. They are just stellar musicians and writers and the live show they put on is fantastic. You can tell when you watch them playing that they are all just good friends having a good time. I was super excited to finally get their tunes on tape and I think the medium works really well for their sound. Anyone who has a penchant for folk/alt-country should check them out. Olivia held down the cover art.

“Pilgrimage EP”
Pilgrimage is a band that rose from the ashes of two Lakeland bands that each killed it in their own time. Clint Wooley (who plays drums open handed like a boss) and Jeremy Cranmore played in the Colorside like a decade ago. Matt DeOliviera and Charlie Reese both played in Fire Spoken by the Buffalo, a band we put out a little bit back that has since dissolved. The music falls within the post-hardcore/post-rock/math-rock type vibe, which they have kinda mastered. All of them have real diverse tastes in music and I think it shows through the tunes. Plus they wrote and recorded the whole album in like three or fourth months. Early on I would go and peep their practices and it really floored me well they meshed instantly and how quickly they progressed from there. Jeremy and Justin donated the art for this one.

“headphones”
The Pocket Symphony(s) is Aaron M. Corbitt. I first met Aaron probably ten years ago when he was going by the name Jim and it wasn’t until two or three years ago that I realized Jim wasn’t his real name. According to the legend, he recorded all these songs during his travels up east coast and around NYC where he was homeless for a time. His SoundCloud has something like 300 tracks on it so even though this is technically his first solo release it’s almost acting as a “best of” of sorts. The music is mostly acoustic/folk stuff but other elements are tossed in there as well. Aaron is also a singer, songwriter, guitarist in LeapFrog and an unbelievable talented and prolific painter. He is the kind of person that makes you realize how lazy you truly are.


Which releases have been the biggest successes so far?
It’s hard to say which released have been the most successful. FSBTB and Glad Animal Movements have both sold out at this point, but Jay Tholen’s tape has been downloaded like a million times and Existentia Cicada has managed to get thousands more plays than any other release we have put out. Aside from a core group of folks that consistently buy everything we put out, the attention we get seems to be really sporadic. We are cool with that though for now.

Are there any labels that you feel are inspirations? Who are the raddest purveyors of tapes out there today?
Absolutely. From the start Patrick McBratney of Lava Church and Christian Filardo of Holy Page Records were and remain incredibly inspirational. When we were first getting going both of them would
(graciously) answer all kinds of silly questions I had about how to get things done. One of the coolest things about putting out tapes is getting to talk with and exchange ideas with other labels. It’s that free exchange that makes us not just want to keep moving, but to keep stepping our game up as we go along. It’s really cool because now I am able to talk with folks starting up their own labels and share what little wisdom I have with them. Holy Page, Lava Church, Purr Tapes, Crash Symbols, Already Dead Tapes, Moon Glyph, Tolmie Terrapin and Juniper Tree Songs have are all doing some seriously dope work. All of those labels don’t just put out super rad music; they also pay close attention to the aesthetic elements of the cassette, which I, and I think everyone who has caught the tape bug, greatly appreciates. Also, I have to say everyone involved in the Living Room Visions Collective is constantly churning out neat stuff, and when you see other people being productive, it makes you want to be more productive.

Do you have your own band?
Currently, no, I don’t, but Brandon makes some sick nasty beats under the name Hahaha Etc. His tape will be coming out very soon.

Going into the second half of 2013, in what direction is Swan City Sounds headed? What new releases are lined up, if any?
On top of Brandon’s release we also have tapes coming out by Tetro Veteran and Adieux and have a beat tape in the works as well.
We are also in the beginning stages of a very large compilation project that we were hoping to have done for our year anniversary but it’s looking like it may not be for another few months.
I will be starting graduate school in North Carolina in August, so we are trying to figure out how to do things from there. We are thinking about starting to put out seasonal batches of tapes with like 5 or 6 in each batch? That’s the current idea at least.
AND we are gearing up for our first two splits released on the Swan City Friends sub-label, which will offer a platform for folks outside of our hometown to release with us. As of now, it’s looking like the first few tapes are going to be noise-oriented, which is pretty exciting as we haven’t done anything in that realm yet (Lost Trail/Proud Father will be the first and NYKDLN / (I don’t know how to make Japanese Characters)AUTO/MJ & Linkcoln/Lasership Stero will comprise the second). These are going to be released in much more limited edition runs (20-36 a pop) and, for the most part, much more minimal design wise.

Any plans for releases on vinyl or CD?
No plans to release on CD, but I like to think that vinyl could be somewhere in the future for us. We are going to have to bring in a lot more cheddar before that can become a reality though.

Interview: Mat Cothran of Coma Cinema and Elvis Depressedly

An interview with lo-fi singer/songwriter Mat Cothran, who operates under the names Coma Cinema and Elvis Depressedly. Thanks to Ben Wiley for conducting this Q&A session.

Between Coma Cinema and Elvis Depressedly you have garnered an incredibly devoted following: did you expect anything of this magnitude?

When I first started making music it was purely for my friends to hear. A few of my friends had some success sending their music out to blogs (before all the blogs were inevitably killed my the corporate tastemakers) and I gave it a shot. the amount of people listening to my music now is vastly beyond what I ever thought it could be. I'm still just doing this for me but it's nice to have people there to encourage me all over the planet.

Did having an established fan base during the creation of Posthumous Release affect your creative process?

It sort of wore on me during the last album "blue suicide" but i've learned to let all that go. I haven't gotten a single negative response from a listener about Posthumous Release. regardless of that album's financial failure it is an artistic success for me and i stand behind it completely.

From your Twitter posts to your lyrics, your words are often shockingly honest. Did it take time to let go of inhibitions? Does it take work to be so honest?

I think it takes a self awareness that is detached from self obsession. honesty is almost a defense mechanism for me now. The ugly truth will get people to leave you alone a lot faster than a ruse. I feel responsible to be honest with my audience because they are honest with me about themselves and their opinions. It's a two way street.

The lyrics on Posthumous Release seem less impressionistic than those found on earlier records. Was this record written with specific events in mind?

Definitely. This album references certain very important and sometimes traumatic events in my life. It's all about how to survive when you're homeless, poor as fuck, addicted to bad shit and trying desperately to keep going. It's the most cohesive thing I've done. I saw no need to get symbolic...everything is pretty literal...the book of revelation when taken literally makes the most sense to me. we are in the end times.

Did the writing of Posthumous Release feature much collaboration?

Delaney Mills (who is 1/3rd of Elvis Depressedly) wrote all the music for "Lee" and Rachel Levy of R.L. Kelly was integral in finishing these songs. Also the guys from TV Girl wrote a lot of the drum parts and percussion, on top of engineering the album. everyone knew we had a job to do and acted accordingly. They're very professional like me...I don't fuck around and I am NOT a hobbyist.

Reviews for Posthumous Release were overwhelmingly positive except for a somewhat sour write-up from Pitchfork. What was your response to the review? Did you gain any audience because of it?

The review didn't sell any records or garner any followers, but i don't believe it was sour. I think it was a well written review and I have no shade for Ian Cohen. I do question the relevancy of Pitchfork for any artist that isn't white bread indie.

In those reviews you are often compared to Elliot Smith; both of your songs share a focus on things broken and cast out. Do you agree with these comparisons? Does your music attract a certain type of person?

Elliott was a living angel and I miss him a lot. While in LA, I visited solutions audio where the cover for figure 8 was shot. Elliott has always been in my mind when i write songs. I think we had the same goals. 

If you could play a show anywhere on earth, where would it be?

I've really gotten to play every venue i could ever dream of playing. It'd be nice to play during bike week at Daytona...or on television...

What's next for Coma Cinema? Will Elvis Depressedly be seeing action soon?

Coma has said what it needed to say. there will be an Elvis Depressedly full length this year called NEW ALHAMBRA/11th COMMANDMENT

Thanks again to Mat and Ben for the awesome interview. Listen to Coma Cinema's new album below.

Review: The Socials - "The Beast Bites EP"

The Socials - The Beast Bites EP

(Centsless 2013)

"Exemplifies everything I love about punk"