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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latest by HARDCORE JIMMY
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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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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Lately Brooklyn's the Antlers have been the topic of more (and more) conversations. Yesterday we posted a track from the icily anthemic trio's self-released and emotionally drained/draining Hospice, which is about to be re-released via Frenchkiss. (If you haven't heard it, as mentioned previously, it's currently streaming at Spinner.) The band's here today because frontman Peter Silberman works as a graphic designer at (Le) Poisson Rouge, drummer Michael Lerner's part of the family real estate business, and multi-instrumentalist Darby Cicci has experience as a freelance art handler, installer and gallery assistant.
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So far the group-chanting Brooklyn BTW Suckers are best known for their outfits, a self-titled EP produced by Yeasayer's Anand Wilder and Chris Moore (TV On The Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs), and a lineup featuring fellow BTW Quinn Walker. That, and a "2080"-style, occasionally dub-y sound constructed from joyful synth-and-percussion combos. Now maybe they'll be known, too, for their various (and varied) day jobs. Multi-instrumental songwriter Quinn does double time as a doorman at Glasslands and a bartender at Arrow Bar (and, maybe, a male escort). Drummer/keyboardist Brian Aiken is an ex-Ross Stores Data enterer currently onto bigger and better things. Multi-instrumentalist Austin Fisher works in the New Media production team at the Metropolitan Museum Of Art and fellow multi-tasker Pan's a designer for the clothing company Mishka. After these four work-related discussions, take a listen to their most cathartic free-time track, "It Gets Your Body Movin'."
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Tags: Quinn Walker | Suckers | Yeasayer
Despite the comparisons (blame the one sheet), Olympia's Gun Outfit sound much more like Some Velvet Sidewalk (or, really, King Kong) than Dinosaur: Their straight-ahead, bass-free punk-inflected rock is definitely old-school in spirit, which is maybe why folks are fond of referencing SST, but the fit's not quite right. The trio's debut, out now on Dean Spunt's PPM label, is a batch of 11 spare, intense compositions that immediately conjure the Pacific Northwest. When not digging into their streamlined hooks -- live, the guitar interplay comes off especially intricate, and even catchier -- the band members hold down day jobs: Drummer Reuben Storey is employed at a record store, guitarist/vocalist Dylan Sharp teaches English in Turkey, and guitarist/vocalist Caroline Keith holds down a government job, but one she can't really talk about in print, so we decided to instead focus on the job she had prior to it at a horse farm, where she fed and led stallions from the barn to the pasture. As she put it, "I had to quit the horse farm because I was afraid for my life but it was the best job I ever did have. Like heaven on earth but with a fear that intensified exponentially. Horses sense those feelings and that put me at a disadvantage. They aren't forgiving animals. They're herd and prey animals." So, in this shitty economy, a day job daydream.
We already posted Dim Light's "In The Dark." To keep with today's theme, you'll find the collection's "Work Experience" after the conversations about just that.
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Posted at 1:47 PM by brandon in ,
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latest by C
San Diego BTW Crocodiles evoke Jesus & Mary Chain, VU, and the Spacemen 3 with their stripped-down, dark noise-pop, but the duo is one of our favorite new bands because they write super songs, not because I'm obsessed with Darklands: It's one thing to own a good set of influences, another thing entirely turning them into a kick-ass collection like Summer Of Hate. Vocalist/programmer Brandon Welchez and guitarist/synthesizer player Charles Rowell are here today because Welchez works as a substitute teacher at a Special-Ed school and Rowell works in a bakery. After our discussion, take another listen to them working together on "I Wanna Kill."
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