Dude, I am so there.
Oh, and there are some other bands playing, too, like TV On The Radio, The Killers, The Cure, Okkervil River, Band Of Horses, Fleet Foxes, My Bloody Valentine…that’s kinda cool.
But, but…Leonard! Cohen! Is hella playing! At Coachella!
Dude!
Back in December, we dropped a track by Chicago electronic/funk/ambient/whatever quintent Loyal Divide. Now we’ve got an exclusive interview with Loyal Divide bassist / songwriter Adam Johnson, talking about the band’s debut EP Labrador.
Mojo Republik: Tell us about how Loyal Divide got together.
Adam Johnson: We got together in 2005 while attending Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. It was very much a casual thing back then, and was so until late 2007, when we decided to move from Columbus, Ohio, where we were all living at the time, to Chicago. Once we moved, I think that we became much more serious about trying to become a legitimate band.
MR: What drew you together as musicians? Were you all friends beforehand? What was your inspiration to start the group?
AJ: I was looking to put together a band to play some songs I had written. We got together more out of this need than any shared musical interests or special chemistry. I knew Sid and Noto from highschool, and they knew Chris and Thundarr. It wasn’t until afterwards that I realized they could help with songwriting or that we all kind of liked Brian Eno.
MR: I can hear the Eno influence, definitely. What are some other influences on your sound and your songwriting process? I would guess maybe Radiohead (or Thom Yorke’s solo record), maybe TV On The Radio (or actually, the bits of Prince’s stuff that influence TOTR), Nine Inch Nails, perhaps?
AJ: Radiohead is, of course, an obvious influence, and it’s one that I’ve struggled to escape from. But I think that our sound is in many ways shaped by our ambition to not sound like Radiohead, a band who we adore, whom we’ve internalized, and who we can’t help but sound like.
[Nine Inch Nails'] The Downward Spiral is certainly an influence, as it’s an album I’ve lived with for many years, and like [Radiohead's] Kid A, it’s one that I couldn’t help but internalize. The album still sounds really well thought out and impressive to me. I’ve lost my taste for the lyrics, but that doesn’t get in the way of connecting to the special music underneath.
Luomo’s Vocal City is just about the only thing I’ve listened to for the past year. My tastes have drifted towards dance music for practical reasons, in that it’s perfect for public transportation. It’s music that you can choose to zone out to, which is nice when you’re on the train everyday for an hour. Labrador’s glitchier moments are copped from Vocal City, and it’s an influence which I think is even more prominent on the next EP.
MR: What is the band’s process of writing? Lyrics first, then music? Vice versa? Since you’re all Eno fans, do you ever use any of his “strategies” for songwriting/recording?
AJ: The songwriting process begins with either a riff, a beat or a sample. That component is then built upon and developed. I come up with melodies independent of any textures and usually just choose one to layer over a song. I then fit syllables to the melodic lines which then eventually turn into words that at the very least make partial sense. It’s not the most complicated process, but it seems to be working at the moment. I’ve never used any of Eno’s methods. (Doesn’t he use a tarot deck or something along those lines?) The idea of using something external and random to determine artistic choice is fascinating to me; I hope that one day I have the courage to surrender myself to something like that; perhaps when the process outlined above begins to fail.
MR: How does a Loyal Divide live show differ from the recorded version?
AJ: Ever since purchasing our sampler, and in truth, making it central to our recording process, we’ve worked towards skimming it out of our live show as much as possible. With a track like “Labrador,” we have our drummer play to the main sample, backed up by bass and electric guitar. I think it’s important to at least always have the drummer playing, because for me, that’s the key difference between the live experience of a dj and a band. Not to detract from everyone else’s contributions to the live set, but I think our greatest asset is our drummer, Thundarr, who can play our sample based songs perfectly in time.
MR: Final question: Now that you’ve got the EP out in the world, what’s next for Loyal Divide?
AJ: We are aiming to get signed and to release another EP within the next five months. We don’t have any reliable transportation at the moment, which makes touring impossible, so we’re focusing on getting exposure in Chicago.
(Thanks to Adam Johnson for answering our questions over e-mail!)
Paste Magazine has a story about a new money strategy coming from big festival promoters like Goldenvoice: put your ticket on layaway.
According to the article — and the USA Today story it sources from — festival-goers will be able to put down half the $269 cost of a Coachella ticket up front, and half on April 1st…or 10% up front, followed by equal payments (presumably of 45%) on March 1st and April 1st. (The event is April 17-19). This is only good for the big three day all-inclusive event pass, not the $99 day passes that a lot of Coachella-goers purchase.
This is all presumably due to the tanking American economy. Personally, we’re waiting for Coachella 2011, when concertgoers will only be allowed into the festival after fighting each of the now-feral Jonas Brothers, mano a mano, in Thunderdome, which will be right outside the gates but ahead of the plutonium and projectile weapons checkpoint. Which will, we’re sure, look something like this:
My apologies for the sparse posting — we’re working on some amazing new behind the scenes stuff here, and I get sidetracked. Call it ADD.
Anyway, Letters (or maybe letters) are a lofi chamber pop band out of Olympia, Washington, a town best known for hometown son Kurt Cobain. This track, entitled “You Make Me Feel (Like The Island I’m Not)”, from the band’s 2008 debut album In Case We Lose What We Have, sounds nothing like Nirvana — it’s quiet and delicate and sparse, and very beautiful.
Letters, “You Make Me Feel (Like The Island I’m Not)” [mp3]
[via I Am The Crime]
That last post got me thinking about Lester Bangs, who was one of the great rock critics and a remarkable writer in his own right. Lester’s been dead for a really long time now — almost thirty years, Jesus Christ — but his voice is still relevant if you’re one of the sad few people who still care about rock and roll.
You should read Lester. Start with his book Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung, which is a collection of his work edited by (also amazing) critic Greil Marcus. When you’re done with that, check out Main Lines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader. It’s not as essential, but there’s still a lot of amazing work in it.
When you’re finished with those, check out Jim DeRogatis’s Let it Blurt, an excellent biography of the man. (Jim was the last person to interview Lester before his untimely death in 1981, aged 33).
But if you don’t want to take a chance spending your hard-earned cash on nothing more than my say-so (and shame on you!), start here: Lester’s review/appreciation of Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks, which is one of the finest pieces of writing on pop music ever set to paper. This is the reason I bought Astral Weeks, and discovered that Van Morrison wasn’t just slow-dancing music for aging yuppies…and, in the process, finding one of my essential albums of all time.
There has never been another Lester Bangs, which is probably a good thing; the man despised sentimentality, and would abhor the notion of someone trying to be him. (As his friend/enemy/inspiration/nemesis Lou Reed once said, “I do Lou Reed better than anybody“.) But it would be nice to find more writers who were equally as passionate about their subject matter, and equally unafraid to not look cool. Because — as Philip Seymour Hoffman said, portraying Lester in the great Cameron Crowe film Almost Famous — writers aren’t cool. They don’t have to be.
If you’re reading this site, chances are good that you might be a music geek. And if you’re a music geek, chances are you’ve seen the film adaptation of Nick Hornsby’s novel High Fidelity, in which John Cusack, Jack Black and that other guy who never quite got as famous as John Cusack and Jack Black endlessly discuss their “top fives” — top five side one track one songs, top five songs about death, top five songs to have sex to, et cetera et cetera. It’s something you hear quite a lot amongst a certain type of music obsessive…though less so after the film came out; it was too much of a cliche.
Well, damn the torpedoes and bring on the cliches, folks, ’cause I’m gonna re-vive that insti-tution. And since the world is going to hell in a handbasket, I’m gonna kick it off with my all time top five songs about the end of the world.
5. “Wave Of Mutilation (UK Surf Mix)”, The Pixies
Okay, maybe this song isn’t explicitly about the end of the world. But that’s how I’ve always thought of it. I used to sit around and smoke cigarettes in my bedroom in high school and listen to this song and wish I had acid right at that moment. And also a hot alterna-rock girlfriend with oddly-colored hair.
Since then, I’ve had both of these things, and it wasn’t quite everything I thought it could be…but this song still is. And if I ever do find out the world is gonna end, this is what I’m going to be listening to on my iPod.
(This is not the album version, which is uptempo. But it is the superior version, in my humble opinion.)
Buy The Pixies, Complete B-Sides @ Amazon.com
4. “Waiting For The End Of The World”, Elvis Costello
Does it get any better than Elvis Costello’s debut album My Aim Is True? I dunno. You’ve got the biggies — “Alison”, “Watching The Detectives” and “Less Than Zero”. But you’ve also got deep cuts that are equally awesome like “Mystery Dance”, “Miracle Man” and this happy little ditty, which — unlike “Wave Of Mutilation” — is explicitly about the end of the world. Elvis at (almost) his most sneeringly amusing, complete with Phil Spector big beat.
Buy Elvis Costello, My Aim Is True @ Amazon.com
3. “The Earth Died Screaming”, Tom Waits
Is there anybody more generally apocalyptic than Tom Waits? I can’t think of anyone. And this track is the sound of a doomed planet. Amazing percussion (credited on the album as “bones”) and minimalist bass playing from Primus’ Les Claypool.
Buy Tom Waits, Bone Machine @ Amazon.com
2. “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)”, R.E.M.
This probably seems like an obvious choice for Number One With A Bullet. And maybe it is. It’s a great song, great lyrics if you can understand ‘em. (I do. I can do this song at karaoke almost entirely without looking at the screen. Yep. For reals.) And hey, they namecheck Lester Bangs, which is awesome.
But I can’t quite give it number one, much as I’d like to. There’s another song that’s earned that place.
Buy R.E.M., Document @ Amazon.com
1. “The Man Comes Around”, Johnny Cash
Okay, yeah, it’s almost disqualified by its use in the Dawn Of The Dead remake…even though I personally thought it was used perfectly for the title sequence. But this is the most badass song about the end of the world ever. And it’s entirely due to the fact that Johnny Cash was the baddest man who ever lived. I mean, if you walked by Johnny Cash’s grave right now, and you said a bad word about your momma or Jesus, Johnny would rise out of his grave in his black coat and absolutely kick the shit out of you before returning to his slumber. And damnit, you’d deserve it.
Plus he quotes Nick Cave, which is always awesome.
Buy Johnny Cash, American IV: The Man Comes Around @ Amazon.com
The Appleseed Cast are a shoegazer band out of Lawrence, Kansas — a town which, despite having a vibrant college community, has never really been known for music (Mates of State notwithstanding). This track, “As The Little Things Go”, is almost textbook shoegaze — massive delay sounds, big climax. Really pretty.
Coffee Prince
I can’t tell if Coffee Prince is a Korean TV show, a Korean movie, or a Korean band. But I like this song, “Sad Thing”, which is sort of Mazzy Star-ish.
Coffee Prince, “Sad Thing” [mp3]
Meghan Coffee
Meghan Coffee’s work was an unexpected treat. Her songs — particularly this one, “Jericho”, are near-perfect pop gems. They remind me a bit of early Sarah McLachlan, though Coffee sings more like Sam Phillips or Lamb’s Lou Gabriel, or a more restrained Tori Amos. This track’s going into my personal mix.
Meghan Coffee, “Jericho” [mp3]
Buy Meghan Coffee’s Songs to Sail By @ Amazon.com
Lunar Coffee
Lunar Coffee is an “interstellar spacetraveller on a music mission” from St-Gall, Switzerland. His music is electronic, trippy sort of dance stuff. I don’t really know what else to tell you, other than that I think the above photo is the most awesome band pic I’ve ever seen on MySpace.
Lunar Coffee, “Plutonian Kiss” [mp3]
I’ve never heard of Cazals, despite the fact that apparently a couple of the members were in one of my favorite British TV shows, Nathan Barley. They’re a London band who apparently grew up with ex-Libertines and current Babyshambles singer/tabloid fodder Pete Doherty. Apparently they’re pretty well-regarded lads-about-town in London.
This track, “Somebody, Somewhere”, from their debut album What Of Our Future, is actually quite awesome. It’s in the Bloc Party vein, but lead singer Phil’s voice falls somewhere between the Specials’ Terry Hall and Men At Work’s Colin Hay. This is a good thing — it’s nice to hear a dude with a robust voice in indie rock.
Cazals are signed to French label Kitsune, who are apparently primarily known for electronic stuff like Crystal Castles and the Klaxons. Cazals aren’t electronic, but there’s definitely that edge to what they do.
There’s something retro in a lot of ways about Alexandra Hope — her track “Whatever You Want” sounds sorta like early PJ Harvey, but if PJ listened to French chanteuse music instead of…well, whatever PJ was listening to back then, more Jane Birken than riot grrrl. The Minnesota-born, Paris-raised singer-songwriter makes noisy, fuzzy dreamy pop. And she’s incredibly lovely. Which has nothing to do with her music, but man, I could look at her liner notes all day.
Alexandra Hope, “Whatever You Want” [mp3]
[via RCRD LBL]
