The Awkward Off Vs. Dappled Cities

Amidst the swirl of SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST, I met up with DAPPLED CITIES at the DANGERBIRD RECORDS showcase at THE RANCH in AUSTIN, TX.

They had to leave soon for their show, but I got to hear their view on the internet’s role in music, how much they love Austin, and what is best to thing to put on french fries. These sweetheart Aussies are on a mission to remake the word “pop” and are always sure to blame the internet for a bad review. Did I mention that their show rocked?

Full Transcript: (Audio)

Nichole Bennett: This is Nichole. I’m here with Dappled Cities here in Austin, Texas for South By Southwest, and I was lucky enough to talk with these guys. How are you guys doing today?
Dappled Cities: Good, good.
NB: And they are playing today at The Ranch. So if you’re lucky enough to catch them. I’ve just got a few questions. We are going to do a quick interview with them because they’ve got a set to do. My first question is something that I’ve been talking about with my friends. Is “pop music” turning into a bad word? Or do you think it is turning into something new? What does “pop music” mean to you?
DC: I think pop music is any sort of music that is accessible to a large amount of people. Either that or music that makes you feel good about yourself. If you think of the nineties pop music it wasn’t really something, there’s no doubt it wasn’t something that I’d like. And Michael Jackson is pop music.
NB: Yeah, I think in the nineties it became something of a bad word.
DC: We certainly have intentions of putting it back into the psyche of cool. Pop is cool.
NB: Do you guys ever read your own reviews?
DC: Yeah.
NB: Yeah?
DC: Well, we know they’re all going to be good, so there’s no problem there. Well, if you’ve got a bad review, you can always just blame the internet.
NB: Yeah, he’s not who we are trying to reach anyway.
DC: Yeah, yeah. He’s not who we are playing to anyway. Reviews are good though, in terms of finding out what people think of what you’re doing and so on…how people interpret it.
NB: So, we’ve got a weird age coming on. We’ve got the internet coming into play and this almost A.D.D. musicality. How does this affect a band?
DC: I think that it’s great that we’re getting fans. I think the industry’s been turned on its head since the internet came in. And the only people who seemed to have benefited from it all are the artists. We say, bring it on.
NB: I’m all for that. What do you like to eat on your French fries?
DC: Pepper, lots of pepper. Oh, so much pepper. That’s what we do in Australia.
NB: If Dappled Cities had a catchphrase, what would it be?
DC: Calm down.
NB: If you could describe your sound to a three-year-old, how would you describe it?
DC: Um, you’re a three year old…
NB: If you could tell the story of your band, would it be a pop-up book or would it be a comic book? And then, how would it go?
DC: What was the first option?
NB: A comic book or a pop-up book.
DC: Oh, it would certainly be a pop-up book. We’re a very three-dimensional band. We have depth as well as excitement…and revelation.
NB: With pull tabs?
DC: Definitely.
NB: If you could replace your arms with anything, what would it be?
DC: Flying V guitars.
NB: You guys have thought this out.
DC: We have thought this out. Octopus tentacles.
NB: If you were an animal, what would you be?
DC: An octopus.
NB: I’m losing it. Crunchy or smooth peanut butter? Or just Vegemite, right?
DC: Yeah, we just eat Vegemite.
NB: I tried Vegemite the other day.
DC: What did you think?
NB: It was very different. It’s going to take a little while.
DC: It’s pretty salty.
NB: I think I expected more like Nutella. So how do you guys like Austin?
DC: It’s a beautiful place. I really love it. Do you live here?
NB: No, but I want to. I’m from South Carolina.
DC: I think it’s been describe to us as a black hole in the Bible belt. That was just a funny description.
NB: What question do you wish interviewers would ask you guys? So you can spill. Or which one do you wish they would not ask?
DC: Certainly a question that we really hate answering is where our band name came from because it’s a really hard question to answer. Well, most bands alcohol and drugs are involved in the conception, so no one can even remember where it came from. As far as questions we love being asked: What size is your waist for these free Levis? What size are your feet for these free shoes? What are your favorite sunglasses for your free sunglasses?
NB: Whoa, whoa, not that type of interview. We’re a small town here. Um, free…toothpicks!
DC: We might need to wrap this up in a second because we’re on soon.
NB: I really appreciate you guys hanging out with me.

The Awkward Off Vs. Blitzen Trapper

The fellows of BLITZEN TRAPPER met me before their show at the 40 WATT CLUB in ATHENS, GA.

What was an interview soon dissolved into random chatter about the cosmos, the internet, and what to put on French Fries. We became pretty ambitious and decided to start writing criticism of music criticism, and Eric Earley taught us how to escape from carnies. Be sure to catch the audio version for Brian’s half-and-half creamer freakout as well as Monty Python fun facts.

We eventually gave up pretending like this was an interview and decided we would just settle things with a fierce pinball tournament.

Here is a transcript of interview portions of the conversation. You can listen to the audio for the full craziness without our tangents edited out.

Transcript: (Audio):

Nichole Bennett: You’ll get the interview, and it’ll just be “tweet, tweet.” I promise I’m interviewing Blitzen Trapper.

Marty Marquis and Brian Koch: Let’s walk away from the waterfall.

NB: So nice of you guys to show me this park.

MM: Yeah, this is our private Blitzen Trapper park.

NB: Oh man, that white tiger was pretty cool.

MM: So what’s up Nichole?

NB: Not too much. Do you guys want to go around and introduce yourselves to the mp3 recorder?

Eric Earley: I’m Eric.

MM: So, was that everybody? I’m Marty over here, and I’ve got a cable knit sweater on.

BK: I’m Pussywizzle the tiger!

MM: You are going to be able to air like two seconds of this. Can you say pussywizzle on the radio?

NB: You can say…no. My first question is a friend of mine wanted me to ask where the name came from. I heard it was a Winnebago brand. Or that’s the rumor.

EE: That is one of many stories.

NB: It sounds so made up.

EE: The one I’ve been using lately is that it is a children’s cartoon from the early 70’s in Scandanavia.

MM: Yeah, it means “lightening ladder.”

NB: …in German. What are some other stories for it? I read the Winnebago one, and I was like, really?

EE: Yeah, with Winnebagos you have different types. You have the Blitzen Trapper model.

MM: Ticonderoga.

EE: Sunset Chasers.

MM: Yeah those are cool. We almost named the band Sunset Chaser.

EE: But we opted for Blitzen Trapper. You seem suspicious.

NB: No, never. So I guess other than the white tiger, what would be your band’s mascot? Or it can be the white tiger.

EE: Apparently, he’s the mascot. [Pointing at Brian]

MM: Pretty much, look at that beard.

BK: [continues roaring…as he has been since the beginning of the interview]

MM: Every album has a totem creature. Where we come from mascots are called totems. The current totem is the bear.

EE: The bear on the back.

MM: Before that it was the raptor. Before that was the giant cat.

BK: The beaver.

MM: The leopard. And before that was a zebra.

BK: My vote for next year is the humpty-back camel.

MM: I prefer the long windy man myself.

NB: Is this the deciding process for the totem creature?

EE: Yeah.

MM: It arises out of our collective. I think I know what the next creatures gonna be.

EE: You do?

MM: I think so.

EE: Do tell.

MM: I don’t want to reveal at this point. I usually just keep my counsels to myself, and when Eric comes up with what it’s actually going to be, I say “I knew it all along!”

EE: You might already know it.

MM: I had your iPod, so I think I know.

EE: Oh shit. That’s not it.

BK: A faint within a faint.

NB: So how is this tour going?

EE: In what way?

NB: In whatever way you want to describe it.

EE: Well, nobody’s lost a limb.

BK: I would like to respond to that with a tone to describe my experience.

NB: Yes! Where did you guys just come from?

MM: We were in D.C. Two nights ago was D.C. Then we stopped in Charlottesville, VA yesterday and did a little radio thing. We stayed the night in Charlotte.

EE: Ate at a Waffle House.

Erik Menteer: I cover mine in mayonnaise and they make rather inappropriate comments.

MM: He’s half British though.

NB: They put mayonnaise on everything.

BK: That’s no different than having your French Fries in mayonnaise. It’s only a skip away from tartar sauce, which people on the east coast of America are already flirting with.

NB: That should be my new question. I should ask people what they put on their French fries.

EM: I also like McDonalds barbeque sauce.

EE: On my hashbrowns, I definitely put salsa on them.

BK: I only put ketchup on it because I don’t want to taste the shitty fast food fries that I am eating. So I guess I prefer high fructose corn syrup to the taste of bad potatoes. Otherwise I never eat fries.

NB: If you guys were in a haunted house, what would you yell?

BK: Why did you ask that?

NB: I don’t know. Why not?

BK: I’ve just been thinking about ghosts a lot lately.

EE: Why would you yell at all?

MM: If it was real, I would be like…what is your problem?

NB: What if you were working in a carnival, what would you scream at little kids?

EE: Like I’m a carnie? What do I say to little kids? I say, pull my finger.

MM: That’s frightening.

EE: It is because they don’t know what’s gonna happen.

BK: I would say, you have no respect for your elders!

MM: You have to feel bad about people working at carnivals though. For years now they have this thing built up about them being skuzzy and low life. Maybe they are really fucking nice people.

EE: It’s because it’s true. I’ve been chased by carnies.

NB: What did you do to be chased by carnies?

EE: They didn’t catch me.  You were there. Down by the funhouse, after hours.

MM: Yeah I was there. Me and Jay didn’t go in because we hate clowns.

EE: It was me and that red-headed chick.

BK: Can I just say for a moment that I was there!

EE: We waited for it to close, and Bryan was there.

MM: He was the red-headed chick.

EE: We went in, and then the carnies were like, “Hey! Get away from there!” They didn’t catch us though because carnies, by their very nature, are slow.

BK: Can I just say for a second that I was there!

NB: I’ve never been chased by carnies. I’m going to put that one on the life list. If you could replace your arms with anything, what would you replace them with?

EE: I would want this one to be a time-machine slash drill that I could drill into the earth with. This one would not be as technical. It would be a lot more organic.

EM: Like a plant so you could just photosynthesize?

EE: No, like one of my favorite T.V. personalities would be there instead of my left arm.

MM: I’d replace one with the cosmos.

EE: You should give her marijuana to smoke, and she’ll totally be there with you.

MM: I tried, and she refused.

NB: So back to the tour. You guys are going to be at South By Southwest, right?

EM: Yeah, briefly.

EE: It’s going to be a sucker-punch.

NB: How long is this tour lasting?

EM: About a month.

BK: I think the effects will be felt for at least a week or two after.

NB: Do you guys prefer touring or doing stuff in the studio?

MM: They are both fun in their different ways. Touring is a lot more exhausting, obviously. So it’s nice to rest.

EM: It’s a nice exhaustion though. I like being busy and always working.

NB: How would you describe how your band sounds to a three-year-old?

BK: Wet.

MM: Wet. Love. Fun.

BK: Candy.

EM: Sunshine. Licorice.

EE: Would a three year old know these words?

BK: Are you kidding? There are three-year-olds out there like predators on the net.

MM: Animal. Fuzzy. Fun. Love. Play-doh.

EE: Blitzen Trapper is kind of like one of those Tempur-pedic memory foam pillows. You squeeze it, and it stays in that shape. You can put it in the cold, and it freezes. You can use it as a weapon. But enough about three year olds.

NB: Do you guys read reviews about yourself?

EE: I don’t. He does.

MM: I used to.

EM: We read one the other day that was just kind of funny and ridiculous.

MM: I read them because I have a stony heart, and I write reviews of the reviews.

EE: Fuck Marty, that’s perfect. We should start our own blog that is reviews of reviews.

MM: Yeah I wanted to get all of the musicians in Portland together to write criticism of music criticism.

EE: If you are a band in Portland, and there are a lot, you get written about.

NB: And they don’t get criticized.

EE: And they need to be.

MM: Because they suck ass.

BK: They are in the same position as a sound man at a show in that they have a huge impact on how they are seen and viewed by people but they are in the background and in the shadows. They aren’t brought into consciousness. The band is the one that gets the attention one or or the other. If the sound man fucks up, they are listening to you. It’s the same with criticism. Every person with a computer can have a blog.

EM: Plus, in the end it doesn’t even really matter what they say. They are still talking about it. They are putting some sort of importance on it.

[conversation dissolves into the crazies]