The Austin garage trio Woven Bones make dark, fuzzed, primitive, foot-stomping garage rockabilly shot through with J&MC, VU, and the Damned. (And you can extend that list to include a number of "the" bands: the Gun Club, the Troggs, the Cramps, etc.) I say trio, but right now guitarist/vocalist Andrew Burr and bassist Matty Nichols are the only permanent members until they nail down a steady drummer. They're here today because Andrew does freelance design work and Matty's been waiting tables at the same Austin Italian restaurant for five years. When not working, they're in the midst of recording their first album. After the conversation take a listen to the title track from their recently released The Minus Touch 12" and revisit "If You're Gold, I'm Gone"' and its grinding half-speed Stooges crawl.
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Posted at 4:07 PM by brandon in ,
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latest by robert
Reyna Kay is one half of Blessure Grave, the gothy Hellhammer-referencing South California death rock band and one-time Outsiders you should expect big things from in 2010. (Well, amongst those of us who listen to Swans, Cocteau Twins, KUKL, and old Siouxsie & the Banshees and feel our hearts skip a beat.) When I approached them about doing a Day Job piece, T. Grave told me Reyna's employed by the school district and as an ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis) Therapist. When I followed up with Reyna, she confirmed it. That, and she's putting in 60-hour work weeks. I asked her to explain exactly what it she does when not concocting tracks like "Stranger In The House" and "Open Or Shut," and "Stop Breathing" (scroll) with her Death In June-loving cohort. After our discussion, take a listen to "The Cycle" from the excellently intense, dour, catchy Judged By 12, Carried By 6.
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Posted at 5:44 PM by brandon in
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latest by Aniceto por si soca
San Francisco's the Fresh & Onlys make for great autumn listening. There's something gothy about their psychedelic rock 'n' roll swing, but the sort of vintage wind-blown vibe that's more internal than dyed hair or eyeliner. That atmosphere was definitely there on "Invisible Forces" and "Dude's Got A Tender Heart." You know, a sort of refined Gun Club garage thing (they still do mention Buzzcocks, Mekons, and Country Joe and the Fish as favorites). As far as their employment info, bassist Shayde Sartin explained:
I'm the only one currently with a full-time job. I work at Amoeba Records on Haight Street. I have for 8 years. Tim worked there as well until recently. Wymond is a dad and student. Kyle bar backs and moves furniture, hangs art and whatever else he can get.
I spoke with Sartin about his 9-5 at Ameoba. In the spirit of our record store discussion, after you're done, check out his Jewelled Antler-related work in Giant Skyflower Band, Skygreen Leopards, and truly great/sadly missed Flying Canyon.
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Posted at 3:45 PM by brandon in ,
Tags: Shayde Sartin | The Fresh And Onlys | Tim Cohen
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A couple of months ago, we posted Bear In Heaven's "Lovesick Teenagers" in the midst of the deaths of John Hughes and Patrick Swayze. It colored the song then and has provided me a framework that still affects me when I hear it. The Jon Philpot-fronted Brooklyn (via Georgia and Alabama) quartet offer a number of darkly triumphant dispatches on their ambitious second proper full-length Beast Rest Forth Mouth. Philbot says it was "a ton of work," obviously, which is why he's currently between jobs and trying to get his life back together. (He usually does freelance editing, shootings, special FX and music for television.) The other guys, though, are back behind their respective "desks": Joe Stickney's a bartender at the video game-stocked bar Barcade, Adam Wills does freelance video editing (for Vice, Tokion, The New York Times, Comedy Central, etc.), and Sadek Bazaraa does art direction and graphic design "of all sorts" for his company GHAVA. After our discussion take a listen to "Wholehearted Mess", "Dust Cloud," and the aforementioned "Lovesick Teenagers" if you don't already know what we like about BIH.
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Posted at 1:41 PM by brandon in
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When we called recent Philadelphia/New York crew Cold Cave a Band To Watch last December, we mentioned Heartworm Press, which frontman Wesley Eisold runs with the writer, curator, and now-again Cold Cave member Max G. Morton (who shows up candleside in the video for "Love Comes Close"). Heartworm released the first Cold Cave collection Coma Potion, the Electronic Dreams cassette, and eventually Loves Comes Close before Matador reissued it, along with books by Mark McCoy, Boyd Rice, Jonathan Shaw, Chris Leo, Morton, Dominick Fernow, etc. Speaking of Fernow, currently 1/3 of Cold Cave, he runs Hospital Productions, the great metal/noise record store/label in Manhattan, but I've spoken with him about that already, so I decided to focus on Wes.
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Posted at 12:30 PM by brandon in ,
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The sunny psychedelic pop housed on LAKE's Let's Build A Roof deepens and interestingly darkens the Olympia group's previous output. The dozen songs were produced by Karl Blau, someone who clearly has a knack for adding layers without losing a creaky, natural spaciousness (and someone they tour with in October/November). A ways back I mentioned "Madagascar"'s island feel. The group digs into shimmery horn-lined dream pop on the anthemic "Don't Give Up" and gets increasingly frantic on the swooning "Gravel," an exhilarating Let's Build A Roof standout that debuts after my conversation with the band.
Right, they're here because they work: Eli Moore's a part time electrician's apprentice and his fellow LAKE co-founder Ashley Eriksson works for for Whidbey Island Environmental Action Network, aka WEAN, "a non profit working to restore and preserve Native habitats on Whidbey Island," an island about 30 miles north of Seattle. As far as the other LAKE-rs: Adam Oelsner's a baker, Lindsay Schief's a barista at Stumptown, and Markly Morrison multi-tasks at a bakery. (I didn't speak to Andrew because he makes a living as a full-time musician. That said, he is also a student at Evergreen College.)
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Posted at 4:04 PM by brandon in ,
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When we spoke with Matt Popieluch about non-album track "Wander Aimlessly," the Foreign Born vocalist/guitarist/"lo-fi renaissance man" mentioned that the song was partially inspired while he was driving to "a shitty temp job." A few days later I asked him about his current employment situation and it turns out he works for the environmental non-profit TreePeople. As he noted:
I am a grounds-keeper in Coldwater Canyon Park, where they are based. I am at times a glorified, outdoor janitor, sometimes architect/handy man and street-sweeper (those dudes with orange vests). I catch run-away dogs and occasionally run into very famous people who are trying to jog like "normal" people. I water trees, take out the trash, and pitchfork tons and tons and tons of mulch!! I also get to destroy shit with sledgehammers now and then! I am surrounded by squirrels and lizards all day and find myself digging lots holes and sweeping lots of gutters. I've worked here full time for over a year.
He said if I had any additional questions I should feel free to ask them, so I did. After our discussion, you can take another listen to "Early Warnings" and the Quit Your Day Job-appropriate "Vacationing People," both from the band's sophomore album Person To Person.
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latest by Willie
At the beginning of the year, we said UK trio the Rayographs were a band worth watching. As mentioned then, guitarist/vocalist Astrud Steehouder conjures Grace Slick (or, to get more contemporary, Mira Billotte working with the Breeders) amid the band's dark psychedelia. They had a great first 7" then. There's a great second 7" out shortly. (Speaking of which, that first "Hidden Doors"/"Gold Light" single is up on iTunes as an EP with an extra track, "The Sea.") We'll have to wait a bit longer for a full-length debut -- they're recording it this summer -- but I have both of the new songs after my conversations with Steehouder and bassist/vocalist Jessamine Tierney about what they do for work: Tierney organizes drama/media/music projects at the Roundhouse and Steehouder's involved in music and DVD distribution/licensing. When we first spoke about doing the interview she said her contract was ending in a month ("Maybe I could start busking..."), but turns out said contract "just kept being extended," so she's still employed. Good news, but hopefully someone comes to their senses soon and signs the band so they can tour outside Europe, release that record, and take an extended vacation.
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Posted at 5:29 PM by brandon in ,
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