Art for Spastics: October 2008

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

AFS v. 198½ ~ In Honor of Mr. Mick Mucus

AFS v. 198 ~ Rotisserie Gold

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

AFS v. 197 ~ Perpendicular Jello

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

AFS v. 196 ~ Knife Hits!

11:57 AM me: So, what about this new LP?
How's it gonna carry?
11:58 AM Twin: the new lp is a party / its like a new madonna lp from 84, no joke!!
me: Well, some of those songs are indeed moments of pop brilliance. What kinda things am I gonna hear that I haven't heard before on your CDRs and 7"?
12:00 PM Twin: well for once it should be all new songs , no demos no scrappy live traxx, its all guitar based now , jeremiah is playing more bass type stuff on the moog, theres a soft cell cover on there that kinda holds the lp together. we recorded it ourselves.
12:01 PM whereas the last record we did "two girls 7" was recorded in a fancy studio with the engineer taking control and adding in his own sounds. it worked but we wanted something different.
12:02 PM me: How many songs and minutes is it?
Twin: 8 songs 26 minutes
12:03 PM me: So, less atmospheric then?
Twin: no, not necessarily. side b is more dreamtime, and side a is pop madness.
12:04 PM me: Is this still gonna play well at a dance party?
12:06 PM Twin: it will play very well, we got sick of people calling us a dance band cause we were on Summer Lovers, and cause we had two moogs, so we wanted to make more of a early nineties party record, kinda like the story i heard of charles peterson playing out his copy of nirvana's mollys lips live single at his house parties.
12:07 PM me: You realize that your split cassette w/ N.213 that was limited to 47 shoulda been on vinyl, right? Your side of that is pretty great!
12:08 PM Twin: i know i know / me and nic are trying to get a label to release it. it was meant to be on vinyl from the start.
12:09 PM me: It has a few mastering issues, but that's easy enough.
Twin: i know nothing about mastering, all i know how to is stay up till 6 am mixxing and mixxing songs over and over.
12:10 PM i spent weeks mixxing the new lp.
12:11 PM me: There's a dark despair and desperation in a lotta music coming from Vancouver, and yet it seems like people are all excited about the music from there, whether it's kids here in Sacto and Davis or folks like Exclaim doing feature articles on it.
12:12 PM Why is Vancouver music so glum-sounding, yet also sparking a lotta interest these days? Twin Crystals included!
12:15 PM Twin: well for one thing all our bands - Shearing Pinx / Mutators / Twin C / Defektors....... all practice on Hastings Street for the low rent, but that street is home to some 20000 addicts. i'm talking the cops have no idea what to do, all day everyday people are smoking crack freely on the street, shooting up in front of cops. the Emergencry Room just got robbeed, and we hall had our guitars stolen. this city is fucked...im not really sure why people are taking notice now, though. all of us have been doing this for years, and we have had zero interest up until now. in Channels 3 and 4, we all worked so hard but we got nowhere with it. it seemed no one cared or anything. we never even got local press.
12:16 PM me: I hear that a lot about the Vancouver press....even D.O.A. complained about it back in 1981-82, I read.
12:17 PM Twin: yeah and look where they are now. hahahha...maybe thats what we have to look forward to.
me: No wonder you guys are so downcast, eh!
12:18 PM So, who's putting the LP out?
12:19 PM Twin: our friend david from NMR records here in Vancouver is releasing it. Summer Lovers wanted to do it, but they are too slow, and project us towards a different audeience...not a bad thing necesarily, but just not really what we want. dave is letting us have complete control. so i have sorted out our distro and cover art and everything. we are really really excited for it.
12:20 PM me: What's it like for Twin Crystals to share Jeremiah with a million other bands?
12:22 PM Twin: well, we all play in different bands, so it's not really a problem ever. it might be a struggle for him, but for us it's really quite exciting to see our best firend have success with other people he plays with. the thing about jeremiah though is he is a player not necessarily a songwriter, so he can just jump into a situation and play along perfectly to someone else's songs.
12:23 PM me: Jordan also strikes me as the sound/engineering kinda guy, so is that also kinda like a part that plugs into a system pretty well?
12:25 PM Twin: yes indeed...jordan is a full time sound engineer. he records most of the vancouver scene and does it perfectly. he is really easy to work with, but he never records twin crystals cause i think he finds it a bit frustrating trying to balance the sound and the playing. so i usually just record us. but yeah...it's a really good thing that we all have going...jordan records all the bands...all the bands are our friends, all our friends go on tour, all our friends make rad music, and that's kinda why i think everything is coming together nicely.
12:27 PM me: It's always so cliched to ask the same old question of "Who are your influences?" But tell us one influence that we wouldn't expect based on your sound.
12:29 PM Twin: well, when me and jordan first put the band together i was (still am) heavily into Fela Anikulapo Kuti, and i was showing jordan all this great afro disco beat, and we kinda imagined these rhythms over pop songs. i think a perfekkt example of that is our song "Trinity".
12:30 PM me: Hmmmm, I never realized that....
I always thought it was like a jungle/DnB-type song minus the drum machine and sequencers.
12:31 PM Twin: hahaha
me: That's your signature song as it's appeared on a lot of different releases. So why is its meaning still so mysterious?
12:34 PM Twin: i think all our songs are surrounded by mystery, but that one in particular is a bit dfferent. it's a really positive song if you can listen though the edges. it's kinda about the three of us sticking together through anything, 'cause we have all been through a lot in our lives...through friends suicides and overdoses, and it's just about the three of us being a family...not just ones that say they are; [we] really mean it.
12:35 PM me: Ah, we must all be imagining that it's more metaphoric than it really is!
12:36 PM Twin: haha probably
12:37 PM it might have a little bit to do with the break up of Channels 3 and 4 where i say "can you tell where my arm got torn"
12:38 PM "don't come and tear it apart"...that means i couldn't believe we didnt make it through 'cause we were supposed to be family. but now that family is back, and it feels good.
12:39 PM me: That coulda been a great record cover photo concept.
Twin: haha yeah probably
me: Put a little baby bonnet on Jeremiah.
12:40 PM Twin: we wouldn't even have to force him.
12:43 PM man that san kazakgascar band rules; they sound incredible.
me: Yeah...Jed, the guitarist of San Kaz is really great! They have a clarinetist, too, which just takes it over the top into magic carpet land.
12:44 PM Twin: awesome...i cant wait!

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

AFS v. 195 ~ Beware of the Freedom!

On Saturday, October 11, 2008 ten groups will take to the stage of Plainfield Station to rock Operation: Restore Maximum Freedom VI, the DIY underground music festival presented by freeform alternative KDVS 90.3FM in Davis.

It kicks off at 1:30pm with KDVS DJs spinning killer tracks from this year's top albums. The live music starts blasting at 2pm, with an eight hour roller coaster of punk to experimental to raw folk to indie to psych until 10pm sharp. All this is happening at Plainfield Station, 23944 County Road 98, just north of Davis. Best burgers, killer tacos, and beer bar for 21+.

TIP no. 1 TO ENJOY YOURSELF TO THE FULLEST: BRING A BLANKET TO SPREAD OUT ON THE PARKLIKE GROUNDS.

$7 presale/student and $10 general door admission feeds the hungry touring vans and artists.

Presale tickets are currently available at Armadillo Records in Davis and through our PayPal button on our Myspace page...
http://www.myspace.com/maximumfreedom

Group bike rides are leaving from Davis, as well as a shuttle bus for those too inebriated to keep upright on two wheels. Maximum Freedom has developed a strong tradition of biking to the festival. For the past five fests, people have biked from as far away as the Bay Area to see this unique event! Bike rides leave from Davis at 1pm and 4pm, returning from Plainfield at 10:30pm.

The free KDVS shuttle bus will leave Davis at 1:30pm and 6:30pm, returning from Plainfield at 6pm and 10:30pm.

Driving Directions:
From I-80, take 113 north for a few miles. Exit at Covell blvd. and turn left. Turn right at County Road 98. You will see the Plainfield Station on your left, right after the intersection of County Roads 98 and 29.

Check our DavisWiki and Myspace pages for more updates! And stay tuned to KDVS 90.3 FM or http://www.kdvs.org/ for music from the featured bands, ticket giveaways and more information.

The Lineup:

LSD & the Search for God
Described quite accurately as dreamy indie-warp by the San Francisco Chronicle, this SF group has been compared to My Bloody Valentine, Luna, Spacemen 3, and the Telescopes, with its uniquely moving blend of psychedelic shoegaze indie rock.

Traditional Fools
Shrieking buzzing guitars and raw vocals meet punk melodies to send a killer garage punk rock n roll lighting bolt straight down your spine and get your feet dancing.

Blackblack
LA indie rock ushers out the summer with ebola-catchy lyrics melodies that make you want to dance, then takes a step back to reveal beautifully cute indie pop.

Ohioan
Will this wandering Portland native bard be able to hitchhike his way down the coast in time for ORMF? You'd better hope so, or you ll miss his powerful, sorrowful, honest folk brewed on the roads of America.

Inca Ore
Surreal experimental that must be witnessed to realize the warping of your mental state.

Hexlove
The drummer from Sacramento's Who's You're Favorite Son, God? and Prints launches forth in his solo drum n' ambient experimental crusade against lameosity and the expected.

Beware of the Knight
A mysterious blast from the past, the distilled essence of Sacto '95 Loft in psych/weird/garagepunk form, manifesting itself in a Sacramento rocker playing his first live show in a long, long time.

Countless Others
Feedback fuzzed up, messed up, roadkill raw, garagey rock n roll hailing from The City. What else can you say?

Religious Girls
Forged from the ruins of Destroy Tokyo, this Eastbay experimental electronic rock project takes convention out behind the shed and shoots it.

San Fransisco Water Cooler
Local lords of the psych garage, the sound flows like something that cannot be described, only felt. A KDVS Recordings featured artist!

ORMF VI lineup w/ times:

2:00- San Fransisco Water Cooler
2:45- Religous Girls
3:30- Countless Others
4:15- Hexlove
5:00- Beware of the Knight
5:45- Incaore
6:30- Ohioan
7:15- Blackblack
8:00- Traditional Fools
8:45- LSD & the Search for God

Transportation

Bike rides leave from the Delta of Venus Cafe at 1pm and 4pm.

KDVS volunteers will be providing a bus/shuttle service to the festival, leaving from and returning to the UCD Memorial Union bus stops. The white ex-Unitrans Chris Bus will depart the MU bust station at 1:30pm and 6:30pm. It will return from Plainfield at 6pm and 10:30pm.

1pm- Bike to Plainfield
1:30pm- Bus to Plainfield
4pm- Bike to Plainfield
6pm- Bus to Davis
6:30pm- Bus to Plainfield
10:30pm- Bike and Bus to Davis
Ticket Information

$7 advance
$10 at the door

Tickets available at Armadillo...205 F Street in Davis.

Monday, October 06, 2008

Dead Science off the dome

For nearly ten years now, Seattle band The Dead Science have been one of the most stridently drastic and dramatic bands in the world of independent pop music. Just over a year ago, KDVS Recordings released a split 7" of The Dead Science with Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, and this summer, the band released their first full-length album--Villainaire--for their new label, Constellation Records, also home to another outstanding pop deconstructivist in Carla Bozulich's Evangelista. I'm no longer bummed that Deerhoof's last couple of records have been so rhythmically un-daring (relatively, anyway) because the Dead Science have only ratcheted up the excitement now...jazzier, more drastic and obtuse than ever, yet undeniably alluring!

In support of Villainaire, the Dead Science are touring this month and will play a "KDVS Presents" event on Thursday, October 16th at Luigi's Fungarden in Sacramento (1050 20th Street, #160) with local psych desert-drifters San Kazakgascar and the Canadian neo-no-wave danceparty, Twin Crystals. (All ages, 8-11pm only, $5) This is a tremendous band in live performance.

Dead Science guitarist/vocalist Sam Mickens emailed back and forth with me after I'd finally come to appreciate that--while all of their albums and EPs have been very good or even great--Villainaire, replendent in beckoning beauty yin to severely obtuse angular yang, is their first true masterpiece!

Me: For better and for worse, so many critics and bloggers talk about The Dead Science as music with a high degree of difficulty and complication---not just for you musicians, but for the impatient or casual listener as well. I love the challenge and reward, but surely a lotta people wilt almost immediately. How do you suppose this difficulty and complication affects your relationship with your audience? Both fans and a more general audience?

Sam: Well, I don't think of the music itself as exceedingly or
intentionally difficult; it is definitely, for us, fairly pure pop
music, in the sense that it is perpetually about trying to construct
and refine the most exciting and emotionally decisive moments we can,
though I appreciate that what we consider the most beautiful and
immediate musical decisions may sometimes register as unusual or "out"
to others. I think in terms of lyrical content I do value the idea of
encoding and encrypting a lot, and trying to build patterns and arcs
that may only be readable with invested attention.

Me: Particularly in the pop/rock world, complication is thought by many to be an unnecessary contrivance? But I get the sense that these complications unfold your genuine selves? How authentic an expression is The Dead Science's music?

Sam: 100% pure realness.

Me: As individual musicians, you each seem to have a very singular voice, which I especially notice in your live performances. It makes me wonder how collaborative a project is the Dead Science during songwriting? What do you value about Jherek and Nick's individual approaches to the process? How much of a negotiation process is it to write a new song, or do things snap together magically? (A combination of both, I imagine...)

Sam: Generally things snap together really rapidly and in a nice group-mind
sort of way. I think, most basically, our songs will usually start
with Jherek or I having some kind of musical figure or figures that we
then build up from together. There is a good amount of negotiation in
that we will sometimes move through a few different approaches to
arrangements but generally we all coalesce pretty easily on what seems
the illest.

Me: How is Villainaire different from any of your previous records?

Sam: I think that musically and in terms of the arrangements and
production, it is much more fully realized and complete than anything
we've made, due largely to the fact that we made it all ourselves,
with Jherek recording, so we took absolutely as much time as we felt
necessary to make things as we wanted. I think thematically, too, it
is the most thoroughly designed and well-honed record we've done; it
forms a much stronger whole and the themes that exist in the record
pervade every atom of it. I think it is also more instilled with
agency, violence, and forward motion; where the last two full-lengths
were maybe more about being submerged and buried by energies, this one
is much more in aggressive concert with them.

Me: You write about hip hop with such grace and authority for The Stranger (popular alt-weekly newspaper in Seattle). That struck me as something completely unexpected. In what ways does your appreciation for hip hop creep into what you do with The Dead Science?

Sam: In a ton of ways, and not just my appreciation for Hip Hop, but Nick
and Jherek's as well. I think those influences are certainly much
more pronounced on Villainaire than on anything we've previously done;
the music itself definitely bears more of the blood of modern R & B
and Hip Hop, and some of the ways of approaching and dealing with the
content are definitely somewhat similar to rap records.

Me: I've heard about the School of Villainy-The Villainaire Prequel mixtape. What an astounding idea! How did this idea develop? I can't even think of a precedent!

Sam: Thanks, Rick. I don't know of any precedent for the mixtape in the way
that we made it, though obviously there are countless excellent
mixtape predecessors from the Hip Hop world. The idea just kind of
sprung out, but in developing it and working on the tracks, it
definitely took shape as something with two main intentions-one being
to work on lots of sorts of songs that are somewhat outside of the
natural realm of our band and try to exert our creative powers in a
more free-roaming way, and the other being to involve, showcase, and
culturally gene-splice with both our friends and immediate community
and music and film that we worship and adore.

Art for Spastics

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

AFS v. 198½ ~ In Honor of Mr. Mick Mucus

AFS v. 198 ~ Rotisserie Gold

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

AFS v. 197 ~ Perpendicular Jello

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

AFS v. 196 ~ Knife Hits!

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

AFS v. 195 ~ Beware of the Freedom!

Monday, October 06, 2008

Dead Science off the dome

About Me

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Art for Spastics

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

AFS v. 198½ ~ In Honor of Mr. Mick Mucus

AFS v. 198 ~ Rotisserie Gold

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

AFS v. 197 ~ Perpendicular Jello

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

AFS v. 196 ~ Knife Hits!

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

AFS v. 195 ~ Beware of the Freedom!

Monday, October 06, 2008

Dead Science off the dome

About Me

Subscribe to AFS

Links

Blog Archive

Followers

My Yelp Reviews