Seattle Weekly
Sub Pop’s newest off-shoot, Best Ambiance, is a partnership with KEXP DJ Jon Kertzer which hopes to bring world music to a broader American audience. The Seattle Weekly profiled the label and interviewed Mr. Kertzer about the viability of a world music label. “Basically I think a lot of music has been getting down to more specialized niches,” explained Kertzer, “there’s less of a big mass center as their used to be.”

I’ve encountered my first 2010 release in Beach House’s Sub Pop debut release Teen Dream. Some of the blogs that I read are already saying nice things about the duo’s third full-length album, and I must agree with them.

Beach House is an indie band in all the polite senses of the word, and their songs really do sound like lush dreams. Victoria Legend has a fantastic voice that warrants both Nico and Mazzy Star comparisons, but she is more accessible with a blue-collar sensibility that feels natural instead of pretentious. The instrumental compositions offered up by Victoria and bandmate Alex Scally are nuanced yet satisfying, textured like a surrealistic landscape oil painting, but without the stagnation that can so easily accompany bands who play slower music meant to fill both space and time. Sure, this is a great headphone record, but also one that translates well to the old fashioned stereo (and I am thankful for a vinyl release).

“Norway” is the first single off Teen Dream, and it is readily available across the internets. Teen Dream hits US stores on January 26, 2010 in vinyl and CD formats. Also, according to Pitchfork, the album “will be released with a DVD containing a video for every song.”

Avigdor Zahner-Isenberg, and his band, Avi Buffalo signed a record deal with Seattle’s Sub Pop Records recently. They join an impressive gang of Band of Horses, The Shins, Iron and Wine, and Blitzen Trapper over at the Sub Pop label. The only difference is these guys are fresh out of high school. Looking forward to following this talented bunch. Learn more and listen to more HERE.

I should totally be asleep, but instead I’m studying for french, and listening to No Age. So why shouldn’t you do the same? Maybe not the french part.

One of my favorite No Age tracks is Brain Burner, the last track of their most recent full length album, Nouns. It’s a sub two minute adrenaline driven romp through punk-rock and it is unbelievably simple, and even more catchy. Below is a live version of said track. The vocals are hard to hear, but the energy is unmistakable. No Age, would completely tear your house apart, and this proves it.

And in case you actually wanted to “hear” the song, here’s the studio version. The quality isn’t THAT much better..

My other favorite track from Nouns is Teen Creeps, and below is the studio version of that song as well..

If you haven’t heard Nouns in its entirety, change that right now, it’s almost the weekend, you’ve got time. If you point your browser to subpop, the bands label you can snag a copy for a meager 12 dollars. Do it. Click the album art below to surf to sub pop and pick yourself up a (relatively cheap) piece of punk rock awesomeness.

Indie-Barde Chad VanGaalen hat mich mit seiner leiernden Stimme schon auf Infiniheart erfolgreich überzeugen können und setzt diesen Kurs aktuell konsequent fort. Um das noch etwas abzurunden ist seine neue Soft Airplane EP zudem noch kostenlos. Hatte ich erwähnt, dass VanGaalen bei Sub Pop veröffentlicht? VanGaalen veröffentlicht bei Sub Pop! Was durchaus ein Qualitätsmerkmal für zeitgenössige Indiekompositionen bedeuten mag. Nur falls das unklar war.

Download:   Chad VanGaalen – Soft Airplane EP

Chad VanGaalen @ Sub Pop

[via Generation Music Online]

Beach House kommer med nytt album 26 januari nästa år. Skivan heter Teen Dream och i väntan på den släpper Sub Pop deras nya singel Norway som en gratis mp3. Bandets debutalbum som kom 2006 gjorde aldrig något vidare intryck på mig. Uppföljaren, Devotion, har jag däremot lyssnat massor på sedan den kom ut förra året och med det här fina singelsläppet ser det ut som om kommande Teen Dream kan göra sommar av vintern.

Beach House – Norway

Ladda ner Norway hos Sub Pop

The Baltimore duo of Alex Scally (guitars/keyboards) and Victoria Legrand (vocals/organ), better known as Beach House are at it again readying their third full length album Teen Dream (cover art shown above on left), which is to be released via Sub Pop on January 26, 2010. In other exciting news, Teen Dream will also be accompanied by a dvd that will have a video for each song on the album. The tracklist for the album is listed below.

The debut single “Norway” off Teen Dream has just been found its way to the interweb (thanks to the band themselves) and can be downloaded below. In related news, last year Beach House released a new song “Used to Be” as a single/video which has now also found its way onto the Teen Dream LP. Check out the video for “Used to Be” below.

Beach House – Norway

Beach House has also released a high quality WAV version of “Norway” to download if you’d like instead of the mp3 version. Check that out at the official Beach House website.

Beach House – Teen Dream

01 Zebra
02 Silver Soul
03 Norway
04 Walk in the Park
05 Used to Be
06 Lover of Mine
07 Better Times
08 10 Mile Stereo
09 Real Love
10 Take Care

I waited, waited, and waited for the follow up to what I considered to be the best album of 2008, Devotion by Beach House.  I won’t have to wait that much longer, as Teen Dream, one of the albums I most anticipate for 2010 will come out in the years first month on Sub Pop.

The duo is definitely growing, and I think Impose summed it up best when they called Victoria Legrand’s delivery on this song her “huskiest yet”. It’s also an interesting, wobbly mix of Galaxie 500, Mazzy Star, Kate Bush,  and a little bit of Marianne Faithfull.

Listen: “Norway” by Beach House

Normally I would tell you all to beware of those musical projects that are crazily over-hyped. They only tend to disappoint in the end.

But around a month ago, Sub Pop filtered out Teen Dream, the new LP from Beach House, to a few select bloggers who immediately began tweeting that it was sure to be the best album of 2010. Then Ed Droste from Grizzly Bear got in on that action and said it was actually one of the ten best albums of his entire life.

Naturally I was completely jealous and moped about, enraged that I had to wait for January to roll around. UNTIL TODAY.

Victoria and Alex were lovely enough to post their new single “Norway” on the interwebz and give the blood-thirsty crowd a taste of what’s to come.

I won’t say too much about the song as it’s already been written up to death. But I will say this.

BELIEVE THE HYPE.

MP3: Beach House – “Norway”

xo,
Linds

Amazing new track from recent Sub-Pop signings, Beach House

Beach House – Norway

The Album Leaf is done recording and mixing their record in Iceland.  Now back in San Diego, they are getting ready for a winter tour in support of the album, A Chorus of Storytellers, that comes out on February 2nd (2010) on Sub Pop.

They’ll be at the Doug Fir Lounge in Portland on Feb 5th (per the club’s mailer)!!  I missed their show this past winter (Jan ‘09) due to busy season at work.  Same situation this year, but I’m planning on going regardless of it. More tour dates will follow when they’re announced…

~Dan – np: Galactic Cowboys – At the End of the Day

Frausdots are the darker side of California’s new psych that reared up in the early 00’s.  Brent Rademaker was the main songwriter in this group which spun out of the same scene that Beachwood Sparks and The Tyde helped forge.  This definitely isn’t as sunny and good vibes as those two bands, but it still retains the sense of magic.  The production is incredible, songs are really dynamic incorporating big drums, big choruses, minimal but effected guitars, and a real understanding of density, peeling layers to dramatic effect.  Sup Pop was putting out some really good psych in the 00’s, seems things have kind of dried up today, but definitely grab this.  It should also be mentioned that if you LOVE this as much as I do there are a couple  Frausdots singles out there with great B-Sides.

Beach House have revealed the cover art and tracklist for their third album, and first on Sub Pop, Teen Dream. It will be released January 25, 2010.

1. Zebra
2. Silver Soul
3. Norway
4. Walk in the Park
5. Used to Be
6. Lover of Mine
7. Better Times
8. 10 Mile Stereo
9. Real Love
10. Take Care

Wincing the Night Away

The Shins

2007

Sub Pop

So, The Shins… an indie band lead by frontman James Mercer.  The Shins started out in life as Flake Music, then took their new name from one of their songs.  After their first two albums, Oh, Inverted World! and Chutes Too Narrow, The Shins came out with Wincing the Night Away in 2007.  Most people have probably heard at least one track on the album, as it got about as much popularity as “New Slang”.

The album begins with “Sleeping Lessons”.  We’re treated to what sounds like a dream sequence tune, with Mercer’s distorted vocals shortly thereafter.  I sort of think this may be a turn-off for those getting their first taste of The Shins.  But Mercer pulls it off flawlessly, and the rest of the band comes in, and we hear the James Mercer we’re so used to hearing.  Also following general Shins trends, the wordplay Mercer uses is very reminiscent of the two previous albums, and continues through the whole of Wincing.

“Australia” is the next track and starts off with someone with a German accent yelling across the room ‘It’s time to put ze earphones on you!‘ Well, that’s what it sounds like to me… The transition from “Sleeping Lessons” into “Australia” is so seamless, that I even forget which song is on sometimes.  But about the song itself, it’s signature Shins sounds, except that James Mercer swears! *Gasp* For some reason this song always puts me in a good mood.  Maybe that it’s a rather upbeat tempo, maybe it’s that the lyrics seem to reflect growing up, both physically and emotionally, like so many Shins songs from previous offerings.

“Pam Berry” has always seemed somewhat awkward to me.  I’m not sure if it was meant to be a stand-alone song, or just a slightly more elaborate intro to “Phantom Limb”.  Either way, something about this song always put me off a little bit, even though it, too, is very reminiscent of previous Shins songs.  It’s kind of the low point before the big hit which follows…

“Phantom Limb”.  This would be the song which got about as big as “New Slang”.  The vocals here sounds as much like the other two albums as any song on the album, and Mercer is really at his high point here.  He shows his range, and brilliant lyrical writings at once.  The lyric which is my favorite here is ‘the milk from the window lights, family portrait circa ‘95′.  For some reason it just seems to evoke something from what I know to be classic Shins.  I have only one negative thing to say about this song, and it is this:  it goes on too long.  The bridge repeating at the end incessantly has me skipping to the next track preemptively sometimes, and it’s a shame.  All in all, though, this really is one of the best tracks on the album, and that’s saying something, considering the next few are heavy contenders as well.

As “Phantom Limb” fades out, we’re then treated to the entrance of “Sea Legs”.  This is a very different sound for The Shins, and even avid listeners of Inverted and Chutes might not recognize it… but then James Mercer’s vocals remind us that this truly is The Shins that we’ve come to know and love.  While this is a variation from their normal sound, I think they manage to pull it off very well.  Could this hint at a different direction of sound for their next album?  It’s possible, and I can say I wouldn’t be disappointed if it were the case.

So then comes “Red Rabbits”, and we first hear what sounds like a childish tune, and then James Mercer does something different.  He sings in a lower tune than we’re accustomed to.  Of course, there are some parts where he strays back to his usual sound, namely during the chorus.  I feel this is another high point of the album, albeit, again, a slightly different sound than we’re used to.  It’s a very relaxing song, and Mercer proves his ability to do whatever he wants, and succeed.

“Turn on Me” then goes back to the sound that is what we expect from The Shins.  Mercer busts out early, and I personally love the lyrics on this song.  It’s another song that seems to be about someone growing up, learning about interacting with others, and moving on.  There is no doubt for me that this is one of the best songs on the album, possibly even better than “Phantom Limb”

Unfortunately, this kind of sets up the next track for disappointment.  “Black Wave” does all it can to appeal to me, but something about it that I can’t put my finger on throws me off.  It almost seems like they were trying to mix the mellow songs that frequented the ends of their previous albums with their normal sound.  It just ends up coming off as a rather dark song to me, and maybe that’s what kills it for me.  I’m so used to The Shins being an upbeat, happy-go-lucky sound, and this shatters that.  Personally, it’s another low point on the album for me.

“Split Needles” starts off with some twangy guitar and simple repeat drums, and then, as if you expected anything different, Mercer shows why he’s such a great frontman.  He really puts his emotions behind the vocals here, and it shows.  This definitely doesn’t feel like a winding down song on an album from The Shins; it’s more of a middle-of-the-album track that’s made to stand out, rather than get lost in the mix.

So we come to the penultimate song, “Girl Sailor”, and boy does it deliver.  It’s back to the usual upbeat song about growing up that The Shins seem to have made into a trademark.  “Girl Sailor” delivers just as much as “Phantom” or “Turn” in my opinion.  It really is a definitive track of The Shins as a whole.

And we then arrive at the final track, “A Comet Appears”.  Keeping in stride with previous albums, it’s a mellow song, with Mercer displaying his vocal prowess.  But, if you listen closer to the lyrics, it’s amazing how the words and the sound contrast so much.  The song definitely is very good, not quite up to the level of the heavy hitters (if you can call any Shins song ‘heavy’) but it definitely isn’t a letdown of any kind.

So there we have Wincing the Night Away, the latest (albeit two years old) offering from The Shins.  Personally, I think this album is fantastic, but it falls just ever so slightly short of Oh, Inverted World! and Chutes Too Narrow.  Not that that’s a bad thing, as both of those albums are incredible offerings.  If you have any interest in The Shins at all, I highly suggest giving this a few play-throughs.  You won’t be disappointed.

Buy This Album

Official Site

Last.fm Page

Essa semana meu MP3 player esteve carregado só com discos muito bons, não teve nada mais ou menos. Cada passo na rua e cada minuto no ônibus foram guiados por uma trilha sonora excelente

Eis os 5 (OK, 6!) discos que mais ouvi no MP3 player nessa semana, e que dizem muito de como será meu set amanhã na Nave:

Arctic Monkeys – Humbug (2009)
Beat Happening – You Turn Me On (1992)
Devo – Freedom of Choice (1980)
The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses (1989)
The xx – XX (2009)
VA – Sub Pop presents Insound Digital Mixtape Sep.09 (2009)

I’m not going to go into the fact that just in time for the holidays Nirvana’s Bleach has been remastered and a DVD is available for their Live at Reading show. The rock magazine Kerrang placed this show as one of the “100 shows that shook the world.” There is a really good commentary in Newsweek on these two releases, both the live at Reading show from Universal Music Group (Geffen) and Bleach from Sub Pop. I’ll be featuring two tracks from Nirvana tonight from these.

Here’s a famous clip from the festival:

Listen in tonight at KRUI 89.7 fm or online here. I’ll be playing between 8 and 10 pm.

1. Nirvana, Live at Reading, Come as You Are (1992)
2. Nirvana, Bleach (20th Anniversary), School (Live At Pine Street Theater)
This album originally came out in 1989 with Subpop and is Nirvana’s debut album.

3. Low, Things We Lost in the Fire (2001), Dinosaur Act (A Request)
4. Sonic Youth, EVOL, Expressway to Yr. Skull (A.K.A. Madonna, Sean and Me)
I wanted to play this track during the Halloween show but didn’t get to it. It was released in 1986.
5. Mudhoney, Superfuzz Bigmuff, Sweet Young Thing Ain’t Sweet No More
Another Sub Pop release that came out in 1988.
6. Iggy Pop, The Idiot (1977), Funtime
7. Melvins, Nude with Boots (2008), The Savage Hippy
The Melvins formed back in 1982.

8. Scratch Acid, The Greatest Gift (1991 compilation off of Touch and Go), Owner’s Lament
9. Mark Lanegan (of the Screaming Trees), The Winding Sheet, Mockingbirds
This was released in 1989 off of Sub Pop records.
10. Babes in Toyland, Painkillers (1993), He’s My Thing
11. Siouxsie & The Banshees, Kiss in the Dreamhouse, Slowdive
This album was released in 1982 and recently rereleased and expanded this year.
12. Bikini Kill, Pussy Whipped (1993 on Kill Rock Stars), Rebel Girl
This track is #455 on Blender’s “500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born”.
13. Heavens to Betsy, Calculated (1993 on Kill Rock Stars), Decide
Corine Tucker is on Guitar for these guys, she’s also the main vocalist for Sleater-Kinney
14. Pixies, Doolittle (1989 on 4AD), Hey
This album changed my life.

15. Pavement, Wowee Zowee (1995), Kennel District
16. Superchunk, Here’s Where the Strings Come In (Merge 1995), Certain Stars
17. The Jesus & Mary Chain, Honey’s Dead (1992), Reverence
18. Gang of Four, Entertainment! (1979), Outside the Trains Don’t Run on Time
19. Magazine, Magic Murder and the Weather (1981), About the Weather
20. PJ Harvey, Is This Desire? (1998), Joy
Here’s another album that changed my life and that I might take with me to the grave. This is art.
21. Flipper, Generic (debut in 1982), Nothing
22. Cat Power & Steve Shelley, Dear Sir (1995), Headlights
23. The Replacements, Let it Be (1984), Androgynous
24. The Swell Maps, A Trip To Marineville (1979), Vertical Slum
25. Mission of Burma, The Definitive Editions Compilation, Ballad of Johnny Burma
26. The Breeders, Mountain Battles, Overglazed
Their 4th album released in 2008
27. Fugazi, Steady Diet of Nothing, Runaway Return

The new video for the title track, “Losing Feeling” from No Age’s Sub Pop 7″ released in October.

I’m almost 100% positive that you have all been asked this question at least once in your lifetime.

“What musical era or time period would you want to live in?”

It’s something that everyone wonders about. Usually, it’s branched out of dissatisfaction with a person’s current situation and ends up stemming from a longing for ‘better days’, so to speak. The period varies per person but usually the general consensus comes right about down to the 60s-70s.

Normally, I would choose the 70s. However, every so often, I become incredibly happy that I live in our present time and don’t have a hankering for a time machine at all. More and more great artists are starting to make their presence known and thus establishing the great musical history of our times and lives.

(From L-R: Sheridan Riley, Avi Buffalo, Rebecca Coleman, Arin Fazio)

You see, there’s this band from Long Beach, California called Avi Buffalo. Their name comes from the adopted name of the band’s 18-year-old founder, Avigdor Zahner-Isenberg.

Several great shows later, the band makes their way to Sub Pop Records and now, they have their debut 7″ coming out soon; December 8th to be exact.


The 7″ has two songs on it, “What’s In It For?” and “Jessica”. Either one or both of the songs might end up on their full-length LP which will be released by the Sub Pop sometime this coming Spring.

I’m personally quite enamored with this band. I hope you will be too. Here is the first track, “What’s In It For?”.

An absolutely captivating live performance of the b-side “Jessica” can be found here.

Website
MySpace
Pre-Order

This an extract of an interview that I did with Mudhoney a few weeks back, over a tasty curry at Hansa’s in Leeds.

All of the band were present and to sum them each up in a pointlessly reductive manner, Mark was playful, like a puppy that would tear your leg off if you gave him the wrong dog food. Steve seemed more studious (though maybe it was just the glasses… gee, that really is reductive). Guy was passionate and keen to chat, just as keen to eat (and the grub is mighty fine here). Dan was quiet – he seems like a speak-when-he’s-got-something-important-to-say kinda chap. Which is possibly why he doesn’t feature too heavily in this section.

I wanted to talk to the band about the rising culture of revisionism in music. When I used that phrase, they initially gawked at me like I’d just puked up the Review section of that day’s Guardian newspaper. Convinced that it was a real word and I was using it in the right context, I bumbled on, asking them how they feel about bands reforming, revisiting old material, vaguely mentioning ATP and skirting around the ‘Don’t Look Back’ series, of which Mudhoney took part a few years ago.

Mark: “You mean the ‘Don’t Look Back’ stuff?”

Er, yeah, that and the fact that there are a hell of a lot of bands reforming, like the New York Dolls, etc, etc, blah blah blah.

Mark: “I go by a case-by-case thing really (there are mumbles of agreement between mouthfuls). I mean, I was really excited to see the The Stooges. I’m not as excited to see The Stooges with James Williamson. But I’m still pretty excited to see them… It was a pretty weird process for us to do it (referring to their ‘Don’t Look Back’ performance of Superfuzz Bigmuff Plus Early Singles) But we’re doing it again with the Raw Power Stooges (sic) in New York, about a year from now.”

Guy: “Barry (Hogan, All Tomorrow’s Parties henchman)’s been very clever, because he’s picked bands that have been popular for him. There’s people that want to see them that didn’t get a chance to see them.”

Mark: “And it’s a really fucking good idea.”

Guy: “But a lot of these bands reforming, you know, a lot of it’s about money.”

Care to name names?

Steve: “Well, I think that’s a good part of why we’re doing it, right?” (more mumbles of agreement)

Mark: “And I think a band like The Stooges should get the money.

Sure, I get what you’re saying, but you know, there’s tons of bands that I like, that I never got to see first time round, but you know, that wasn’t my time. Why should I feel the need to be a part of it? Isn’t it a bit selfish to insist on having a little bit of everybody’s past for yourself? Doesn’t kind of indicate a serious lack of anything happening in the here and now, if we’re all desperately scrabbling around getting bands to reform and recreate the past? Sounds like a fairly damning indictment of modern music culture…

Mark: “So don’t go.”

I won’t!

Guy: “You can never recreate the real thing; like, seeing the Stooges in a football stadium in Seattle is never like seeing them in a small ballroom in the ‘70s.”

Steve: “I’m amazed that, you know, punk rock fans wear the same things that punk rock fans have worn for years. You know, it’s like, you’re worse than the hippies ever were…When we got into music, people were wearing stuff from, like, 10 years before, late ‘60s, early ‘70s and this was the ‘80s. Punk rock was like, what? 30 years ago? People wearing leather jackets with The Clash and The Exploited patches right next to each other, you know, just not getting the point at all. At the time, there was a huge gulf between those two bands. Now it’s all kinda the same thing.”

Mark: “I’m always happy when I see the kids doing something that I don’t expect them to do.”

Steve: “So, what, you’re happy when they wear leather jackets with The Clash and The Expoited next to each other?”

Mark: “No, but I accept that, because…” (at this point, Mark’s profound statement is cut off by the more pressing issue of a waitress taking our drinks orders)

I think there’s a lot less tribalism with kids these days, they listen to loads of different types of music, because it’s all there at their fingertips.

Guy: (the conversation moves on to electronic music and access to downloads) “people don’t really buy albums, they just buy tracks. And there’s so much out there, so much that’s underground, they start a label on their own or there’s independent labels. Thre’s all these labels of what it actually is – it’s fascinating.”

I guess, in a way, it’s become so much easier now for kids to sit at home, with a laptop, than it is to lug guitars and amps across town. Harder to find places to practise too. I think in many places, people are less tolerant of noise, warehouses & practise places are getting bulldozed to make way for posh flats, councils trying to gentrify every inch of their towns and cities…

Steve: “And you can also discover so much music now, just sitting at your computer, which I think is great.”

Mark: “But you know, I looked for those first two Stooges records for a couple of years before finding them on Canadian import in Oregon…”

There is a general agreement that the widespread availability of downloads kinda kills the thrill of the hunt that record collectors have thrived on for years. Pity the children. And the lazy ones…

Members of THE HELIO SEQUENCE chatted with me on the back porch of THE EARL in ATLANTA, GA before their show.

Even when my questions were about trading cars for dinosaurs, Benjamin and Brandon took me seriously. That’s no surprise, considering how carefully they consider their music–from songwriting to production. From their past jobs as instrument repo men to coming back from a lost voice, these guys have been nothing but sincere. Read on to learn about everything from their tips for success as an independent artist to their plans for making revenue from dinosaurs.

Thanks to the sweethearts at Sub Pop who were kind enough to blog about this interview.

Special thanks to Matt Crisler for taking photographs of the interview and for being my concert buddy.

Full Transcript: (Audio)

Nichole Bennett: Alright, I’m Nichole, and I am lucky enough to be here at the EARL in Atlanta with members of The Helio Sequence. Would you guys mind introducing yourselves?
Brandon Summers: I’m Brandon.
Benjamin Weikel: And I’m Benjamin.
NB: So, there’s a lot of information online about the story of you guys, and most people who are literate and have an internet connection can look that up. If they were to reenact your story, would they use marionette puppets or sock puppets?
BS: Finger puppets probably.
BW: I was thinking we might as well go all the way with marionettes. Or Jim Henson, you know?
NB: We’re going with muppets?
BW: Yeah, totally muppets, dark crystal, that would be cool.
BS: Lo-fi or big budget.
BW: I think we would get more realistic drumming action with like the Animal thing.
BS: Animal, yeah. Animal could play you.
NB: That’s a good one. So, we settled on muppets? And you guys used to work at a record store together?
BS: We did. It was actually a music store. It was more like a band instrument rental store with some guitars. So we were renting instruments to kids who were beginning band.
NB: Any stories from that? Any funny…or scary stories?
BS: Oh jeez, too many to remember. We used to practice there, which is sort of a story in and of itself.
BW: We actually recorded our first records there. I was a band instrument repo guy for a while.
NB: I didn’t know that existed!
BW: I became responsible for all of the accounts. And there had been people who basically had never paid for years, and I’d have to track them down.
BS: It got to be where you knew these people. It was like “Oh, that woman would come in and say she paid it off and would actually drop twenty five dollars on us.”
BW: Some people would be alright, but some people would be really weird. They’d bring their kid to the front door and be like “This is what happens!” Yelling at the kid because he can’t fifteen dollars a month for a clarinet.
NB: The drama of a music store!
BS: Like “He could have been the next Jon Bon Jovi, but you took that chance away from him”
BW: I have a pretty bitter taste from all that repo business. It’s not my kind of thing.
NB: Yeah, I played saxophone, so that was kind of expensive. But that’s another story.
BS: But you paid for it?
NB: Yeah…upfront. That was not very fun. So, again anybody who is literate and has an internet connection can learn about how you lost your voice and how you gained it back.
BS: Right.
NB: But I was curious about something most others had skimmed over and that is the Bob Dylan connection. You got to read a lot during that time, and his was the first book. And there are some of my favorite Bob Dylan covers on this album. And I read that you gained your voice back by playing a lot of Bob Dylan. Is that true, or am I just making this up?
BS: Yeah, in a way. That’s kind of a gloss over. You know how records come to you at a time when you really need them? I don’t know if that makes any sense. You just happen to hear a record at a certain point in your life, and it means a lot to you. For some reason when I lost my voice…it’s not like I didn’t know who Bob Dylan was before I lost my voice, but I happened to be at the record store, and I happened to come across a copy of The Times, They Are a Changin’ And I was like, I’ve never really listened to this record. I just bought it on a whim, and it really meant a lot to me, particularly the song “Boots of Spanish Leather.” That was the first song that I decided to learn. And then from there, I thought it was interesting to actually put the chords under my fingers and actually learn a song, so I should do more of that.
NB: I really like that. I think that one of the big things music does for people. It’s kind of a soundtrack, in a way. Yeah, I was actually going to ask you what your soundtrack album was from that time, and you just answered that for me.
BS: And other things come along. What else were we listening to during that time?
BW: I don’t know. That was such a long time ago.
BS: I remember listening to a lot of Dark Side of the Moon during that time. You can infer a lot from that, I’m sure.
NB: Oh yeah, I get that in the album.
BS: So we decided to put some extended guitar solos in, and then we cut them all out.
NB: Speaking of the latest record, there’s kind of an almost a paradox between a more polished sound, but you still have that “off the cuff” sound. I heard that “The Captive Mind,” you just recorded.
BS: Yeah, a lot of the vocal stuff was just first take. We would be working on something in the studio, and I would be able to take it home and work on the vocals.
BW: The demos.
BS: Yeah, the demo stuff, really rough. And bring it back and record the real version of it. And when I went to lay down the real track, something was missing from it. Something about the energy or the feeling of it or the meaning. And it was kind of “Well, what if we just redo some of the instruments around it. Lay down the drums again and the guitar and the bass, all kinds of stuff, and just use those vocal takes.” A lot of it ended up like that. A lot of it was first take stuff. It’s almost better that way.
NB: Yeah, you get a combination, almost a paradox between…it’s definitely very polished, like you tweaked it, but at the same time it’s very organic.
BS: That’s probably a lot of the mixing process. We spend a lot of time working it out. We record our own records and mix them.
NB: I think it’s neat when a band takes things from start to finish.
BS: I can’t imagine doing it any other way. It amazes me when a band is like, “Yeah, when we recorded the record we went in for about a week, and then we handed it off to a bunch of people and they finished it for us.” I don’t understand it.
NB: I imagine you would get handed back something totally different than you had actually put out. But you guys have control over that side of things.
BF: Maybe we’re just control freaks.
NB: This record is also more lyrically focused. And I say that, but at the same time, if you took the lyrics out, the songs would be able to stand by themselves. And it’s a little less cluttery. I hate the word cluttery because I do like the older stuff too because it is that way.
BW: Yeah, but when you compare them, that sums it up in a way. We approached the record thinking that way. Bob Dylan is a great example of somebody that makes songs that to us that are really really meaningful. And it’s not so much about the music as the lyrics or the story. And so we thought, we love music with orchestration and all of the crazy sounds, but let’s try to see if we can make more of a lyrical connection. So when we were doing all the orchestration, instead of just throwing it all together and being like “Here’s everything!”.
BS: And having to work the vocals in after that.
BW: It would be like “That’s kind of just getting in the way of it.” It’s really all about the vibe. It had a feeling from the beginning. Whenever we did something that felt like it was changing it too much or it was losing that feeling, we just cut it out. So then it ended up being…compared to the average band there are still more parts and more orchestrated, but for us, it was a little more sparse.
NB: Yeah, I think you can get that. I discovered you guys after you opened for Minus the Bear, and I immediately picked up Love and Distance there. And I never buy albums from opening bands.
Matt Crisler [taking photographs of interview]: Band snob!
NB: That is not what I meant at all. I meant I never buy an album from a band that I don’t even know, like right there, and I did. And I listened to it. And then the new one came out, and I was blown away by how different it was, but it was still you guys. But you guys put it much better than I could. Obviously, I’m very terrible with words.
BW: It’s a good thing you’re a writer.
NB: Yeah, it’s a good thing. I actually really wanted to ask you guys. You did something on this latest album that is sometimes scary for smaller bands, scary for indie bands. I think this was a lot more universal than most bands would go.
BW: Yeah, it’s totally out of fashion.
NB: It’s not very fashionable to appeal to a lot of people.
BW: I don’t know if it’s a question of appealing to a lot of people. I think it’s more a question of meaning.
BS: Well, I think it’s a question of just saying what you want to say. Like, when I’m writing lyrics, I’m thinking something to myself, and I’m just writing. I’m not thinking of something being universal or trying to get to a large amount of people. But I know what you’re saying, I think that a lot of lyrics, especially in the indie world come off as impressionistic. Like, a little image here, a little image here. Don’t do something that is too specific because then you’re going to have to take responsibility for having said that.
BW: Some people do it so well that they are creating a mood, and the only way to keep it that was is by not saying something, by having it be almost sort of more background. Almost commercial. And I don’t mean commercial in the sense of sellable, but commercial as literally in a sense of in the background. Like background when you’re driving, background when you’re hanging out in a bar. Nothing that is really going to get that close to you. Something that is going to be off. You can push it away, and it’s there and it sounds great, feels great, you know. But the moment somebody starts saying something that are personal, that means something, and I don’t think that’s the fad of music right now.
NB: It’s almost dangerous.
BS: Yeah I guess it could be. But more and more, the older I get, the music I am listening to, I’m actually listening to what people say. I’m listening to what is going on behind the sound of something or just “I like how that part sounds” or “That’s a catchy part.” That’s one level of music, and I don’t think you should discount that, especially if you’re making pop music, in essence. But if you’re able to make a song on that level, and then think to yourself “Well, what are they saying. What is that guy saying?” And it may be that I’m not getting anything from that. It doesn’t make any sense, or it’s all mixed up. That, to me, it actually brings the value of the song down.
BW: There are a lot of records, and I’m definitely not naming any names, but there are a lot of records on the surface that I’m really immediately excited about. But the more I listen to the music, I’m like “What is he saying?” It’s kind of killing it for me. The lyrics are either really horrible, or you can’t hear them. Everyone’s hiding behind the lo-fi.
BS: What you are saying is that if you’re saying something, you have to take responsibility for it. And you’re saying there’s something dangerous about it. And I’ve thought about it—that you somehow risk not being cool anymore by not agreeing with somebody. So it’s interesting that more and more, you get less of that .
NB: It’s very fashionable, I think, especially in a lot of hyped bands…We were just talking about the internet mentality earlier with Venice [is Sinking]. To not make sense, to be esoteric, and “Oh you guys, you just don’t get me.”
BW: It’s all very impressionistic.
NB: Impressionistic is a perfect way to put that. So if you were to describe your sound to a five-year-old, what would you say?
BS: I wouldn’t describe it, I would just put the CD on.
NB: I don’t talk to five-year-olds.
BS: No, I talk to five year olds very often. I have a nine month old. I’ll just put on music for her.
NB: So, no need for description…just put it on.
BW: I have a three year old nephew, and he came out to our show in Los Angeles, his first rock and roll show. The first time he’s seen me playing. My sister, his mom, she plays him the songs, and he knows that this is uncle Benjamin’s band. And we were playing the set. We stopped playing after the second song, and everything kind of died down for a second, and I just heard this “That’s Uncle Benjamin!”
BS: And mind you, this is in a three or four thousand person venue.
NB: Do you guys read press about yourselves?
BW: No.
BS: No, not anymore. I used to.
BW: It just bums me out.
NB: Yeah, it would be something that would just tear me apart.
BW: Yeah, it’s really depressing…
NB: I’m already self-critical enough. I don’t need any help.
BW: It would be dumb to say there is no point to music journalism, and I’m definitely not making a judgment of music writing. It’s more of just that I have an understanding that a journalist is a writer, and they have to do something interesting. If you write a bunch of reviews, that don’t say anything, then your job is boring. It’s a realization that somebody writing about music—you can’t take it personally because there’s always agendas just beyond the music. I don’t want to read it.
BS: And at the same time, you can’t truly get away from it. Someone’s actually going to come up to you and say “I read your review in Rolling Stone or blahblahblah.” And then you don’t have to read it.
NB: Since music journalism is so much more accessible with blogs and the internet, do you feel that it is affecting you guys in anyway, even though you aren’t reading it?
BS: I’m sure it helps just general awareness. And the way that people find out about music is all over the map these days. I’ve had people come up to me on this tour and tell me that they found out about us because we have one song on the Google phone. They came to us and asked us if they could include our song, for free, so it comes with the phone when people buy it. I’ve had people come up to me and say that they didn’t know who we were, and I heard you guys on my new phone. I love you guys. I went out and bought your records, and I’m a fan now. You can find music in so many ways. It’s just crazy.
NB: That’s another thing. When bands talk about commercials, they say that people heard their song on a commercial.
BS: I want to find someone who became a fan because of a ringtone.
BW: I think we did! There was a myspace comment once that they had downloaded “Don’t Look Away” ringtone.
BS: They probably meant to download The Chili Peppers.
BW: And then he went and looked at our myspace page.
NB: You guys have been around for quite a while. What advice would you give to a band that is just starting out.
BS: Keep going. I don’t know.
BW: Stop if you’re not good. We usually don’t take support bands on the road with us. So we get tons of local openers. Sometimes people are really excited, and they ask us “How do you hook up with Sub Pop” or “What do you do?” And I think some people want to try to skip steps. They just want to jump up ahead. And all that I can say is some people win the lottery, and some people don’t. Start thinking one step at a time. Book your small show, and get some friends there. Do one thing at a time. Don’t think about this big thing far off in the future. Enjoy making music
BS: And keep sight of that as you keep going because there are going to be people coming along saying “We want to sign you and throw all this money at you.” That kind of stuff happens. We had that happen to us especially early in our career.
BW: We said no.
BS: And we said no. For us, anyways, it was the right thing to do. Some bands can sign some gigantic contract and have a bunch of people throw money at them and get paid. But, I think you really run the risk of falling on your face.
NB: Definitely. Which fictional character is most like you guys?
BS: One character? Or is it a duo?
BW: The three muskateers.
NB: It can be one. You don’t have to pick a duo. You can pick separate ones.
BS: Probably Animal for Benjamin.
BW: Why? Why would that me be? I’m thinking the geeky guy in Real Genius.
BS: I’m trying to think of a fictional character.
NB: It can be cartoon.
BS: Yosemite Sam?
BW: What? How are you like Yosemite Sam?
BS: I don’t know. He’s fictional.
James Sewall [of Venice is Sinking]: Droopy’s good.
BS: I’m down with that.
NB: Okay, if you guys could break any world record, what would you break?
BW: Richest dude in the world.
NB: Richest dude in the world!
BS: Longest touring band in the world. We’ll be 90.
NB: Never stop touring. Do you guys prefer studio or stage?
BW: Both, in their own ways.
BS: Yeah, they are totally different worlds.
NB: As a duo, with a keyboardist/drummer, I’m sure it totally different both ways. And we talked earlier about how you go back in and tweak things.
BS: Yeah, it’s a totally different. A lot of bands come back from touring and record an album, but for us, I feel like the studio process is a lot slower, much more methodic kind of a process.
NB: And at the same time, your live sound is very similar to your studio so. So, whatever magic you guys are working…
BS: That’s what it is.
NB: And if you could turn in your tour van for a dinosaur, which one would you choose?
BS: What’s the fastest dinosaur?
NB: I’ve never seen a dinosaur race.
BS: Because that’s all you need out of a tour van—get to that next city.
BW: You’re thinking you want the dinosaur to be a vehicle?
BS: Well, if we didn’t have a tour van, we’d need something to get from show to show.
BW: I mean, I don’t think a dinosaur is going to work.
BS: We have to trade it in for a dinosaur, though.
BW: If we had a dinosaur, we could open a zoo…
BS: And then from the revenue of that, okay.
BW: We could totally buy a new van. I’m thinking we should go for a big one, like T. Rex.
BS: Okay.
BW: Well, maybe a brontosaurus, though. It doesn’t eat meat. It would be more indie. It would be more cool. A vegan dinosaur. And less likely to eat anyone.
NB: We would like to request a vegan dinosaur, please.
BS: Okay, I’m down with that.
BW: We would have to buy some land.
BS: We could get a loan from the bank.
NB: With the brontosaurus as collateral.
BW: But where would we put the dinosaur while we are waiting for the loan?
BS: This is really tricky.
NB: This question is a lot more complicated that I had originally thought it would be.
BW: Or transportation too. We’d probably have to hire a construction company for it.
Matt Crisler: You could walk it.
NB: Dinosaur rollerskates.
BW: I wonder if you could lease a brontosaurus. Like if we had a huge, a really heavy truck, that we could chain it to.
BS: Or a van…oh damn, we gave it up for the dinosaur.
NB: On that note, we’ll end on if you were any animal, what would you be?
BS: A panda.
BW: I don’t know. A brontosaurus.
NB: Thank you very much for being with me.

Drenched from the rain, I showed up at the 40 WATT in ATHENS, GA to meet NO AGE before their show.

It was my first live interview, so I was nervous to be around a couple of musicians that I admire. Luckily Dean and Randy are some of the nicest guys in music. We had an excellent discussion about everything from personal politics to how to screenprint a skateboard. This interview also contains the best use of the word “shambolic.”

Full Transcript: (Audio)

Nichole Bennett: This is Nichole. I’m the music director for WSBF, and I’m here with No Age. Dean and Randy of No Age. So you guys just came in from Asheville?

Randy Randall: Yes

NB: Did you play the Orange Peel?

Dean Spunt: No

NB: The Grey Eagle.

Dean Spunt: It was awesome.

NB: Was that your first time in Asheville?

DS: We played one time before. We opened up for Liars, and we played the Orange Peel. One of our favorite restaurants is in Asheville. It’s called Rossetta’s Kitchen. It’s a vegetarian restaurant.

NB: Speaking of vegetarian restaurants, have you tried The Grit?

DS: We are going to go there after this.

NB: You guys are vegan—is that really hard on tour?

DS: Not really. We’re both vegan, so it’s one of the main agendas. We play, and then we gotta find food. We’re both pretty crafty.

RR: I eat more often on the road because there’s a schedule.

NB: Like a never-ending field trip. Everbody stay with your buddy!

RR: Yes. We are the field trip buddies.

NB: One of the questions that some of the people from the station wanted me to ask was about your appearance on CBS.

DS: BOOM. Rando.

NB: Yes, I wanted to talk about the shirt and the censorship.

RR: It was really nice that a show like Late Night with Craig Ferguson. Being before one of the most important political decisions in our country, that it would be apropos to voice my support for Barack Obama. So, I chose to wear a t-shirt. We go through rehearsals and everything. It’s a tiny little stage. You don’t meet anybody. We have five minutes to go one, and one of the people there are like “We’re so excited you are here. The only thing is you can’t wear your t-shirt.” It’s free time. Everyone who is a candidate for president has to be given equal time. That sounds fine—let’s make a John McCain t-shirt. And they were like, no it’s everybody who is running. And I thought this was even better.

NB: Make a list!

RR: We were going to be creative, but due to weird legal…

DS: They just didn’t want you to wear the shirt.

RR: There’s a lot of loopholes around it. I couldn’t really understand what their reasoning behind it was, but they were going to stick to it. We had to make a decision. I was ready to walk away and go home. I didn’t live too far from the place where we were filming. I was done. I didn’t care. It just felt like too big of a compromise.

DS: But, my grandfather was there.

RR: Yeah, Dean’s grandfather was there.

DS: He’s like 81. We should do it.

RR: So I thought we should take advantage of it. We can still do it. So we did it. I flipped the shirt inside-out and wrote “free health care,” which is an issue that I thought was more important even than a political figure. So I thought I would pick an issue and support that.

NB: Yeah, at that point I thought it was funny that equal time didn’t apply to issues.

RR: The reason I even like Barack Obama is that he stands for some of the issues I believe in.

DS: After that, Randy posted on our blog and the media go a hold of it.

[Interrupted by Soft Circle sound check]

NB: Now we are recording! Just a summary of what we just said.

RR: I believe that politics are personal, and its what you believe in. Us as a band…we don’t have a voice or any more of a right to speak than anyone else. No matter who you are, you can do what you believe in.

NB: We were talking about the skateboards earlier. Are you guys getting more into the visual side of things? For our listeners that don’t know, there are some No Age-designed skateboards, and they look pretty rad.

DS: We’ve been doing some stuff with a skateboard company. We curated some t-shirt designs for them, and we are going to make some more clothing designs for them. We never really made a skateboard before that, but it was a cool collaborative effort with AAM. We’ve always wanted to make skateboards

RR: Even before No Age was around, one of the things we wanted to do was create a skateboard company that was just for bands. It costs a little bit of money. More money than we had at the time.

DS: The main thing was that we wanted to screen it. My mom owns a silkscreen shop, so we wanted to screen them ourselves. Skateboard companies don’t easily give out information on how to do that. They are really secretive, and there are only a few companies. It’s weird. The screens have to be bent.

NB: Tell me about how this tour is going.

RR: This tour’s been awesome. We started out in England with Los Campesinos! and Times New Viking, who are really awesome. We then went on to play a few European show with a band from Belgium called White Circle Crime Club. We then started up in New York with Titus Andronicus and Soft Circle.

DS: Then after Titus, we meet up with a band from New York, friends of ours, called Silk Flowers.

NB: This is your first time in Athens, Georgia. What are your first impressions?

DS: It’s awesome. We just ate at…

RR: The Grit!

DS: We have a friend that has lived here for a while in a band called Dark Meat named Jim. He’s always wanted us to come here.

NB: If you could be any animal what would you be?

DS: A kitten. I just got a kitten, so I want to be that little kitten.  A different kitten. I would be it’s buddy. I think years ago when I didn’t have a cat I would be a different animal. Something like a giraffe. What would you be?

RR: I would be…

DS: a potato

RR: That’s not an animal. I was thinking of something along the lines of a mussel or a barnacle. I could just hang.

DS: You could be algae.

RR: No, not quite evolved enough.

NB: And you would get eaten a lot. Maybe a barnacle on a whale. You could get around.

DS: The whale…is America.

DS: I just want to say that No Age is the best band ever and you should buy all of our records. Not! But really, I think that if you are in a band, you should think you are the best ever or there is no point.

NB: What brought you guys in this direction? Your sound is a bit punk-y but experimental.

DS: I think it was just growing up being weird kids, listening to music, skateboarding a lot. Seeing things a little differently.

RR: Are you asking why we sound the way we do?

NB: Was it a choice or did it just naturally evolve?

DS: I think the only choice was that we wanted to make music that was the best music ever, for us. We like pop music, so we like hooks. Or not…sometimes just some noise. Music that we liked.

NB: Yeah No Age spans that barrier between poppy and noise.

RR: It just reflects our taste in music. I would be just as happy to go to noise show one night and a pop, sort of punk, show the other night. I get something out of both things. In one area you can push the boundaries of composition and sound and mind-blowing. And something else can be the perfect pop record.

DS: Yeah, crafting a song.

RR: Like a great hook, and this static sort of euphoria rushes over you, and you are like “I can’t believe they did that.” When a song explodes into complete chaos and is cathartic and it’s a release. You are like, ah, this is shambolic. It’s just as exciting as when a hook comes back around. It’s exciting when it works. It’s what I like in listening to music, so those are my priorities in making music…a crescendo of noise and pop aesthetics spilling over everywhere. That’s what I love to hear. I love listening to music loud. You take The Ramones or Paul McCartney and you turn it up and it all starts to distort. That’s exciting. That’s really fun. Or you hear it from the next room. You’re only catching every other note and the bass is all washing everything out together, and you hear a few ghosting kind of melodies. And then you pull it open and it’s a Brittany Spears song, but from three houses down it sounded like this wave of bass. Sometimes it’s the quality of the sounds you hear that makes the moment. It’s the time and the place.

DS: And I think it is the person too. I think there are lot of people that play pop music who are just crappy people. Or just going to make money. Usually people we like are people that seem to have a different attitude towards it and are writing music for different reasons. Not for money and not for fame.

RR: It’s always clear why this person is here. They are here to have a good time and share an experience with the audience, or they are just there to make a dollar.

DS: And goodnight.