The Good Guys Always Win at Rebuilding Venues

On June 19, 2009 of this summer, a fire destroyed the Georgia Theatre, an important Athens, GA venue. This historic building was an important landmark for the Athens music scene. Ever since, the community of Athens has been working to raise the funds to help rebuild it. On their website, the Georgia Theater is accepting donations in return for perks like behind-the-scenes tours, merchandise, invitations to the ribbon cutting, and name recognition.

Some Athens bands are also trying to help bring the theater back. Dead Confederate is giving away their latest LP Dirty Ammo with a donation, and $1 of each purchase goes toward helping to rebuild the Georgia Theatre. It features live songs and covers recorded at The Earl in Atlanta, GA.

Venice is Sinking is also helping out. Before the fire, they recorded their third album in the Georgia Theatre. (You can read more about this in our summer interview with the band). They’ve decided to collect donations for making the album , with every cent of profit going toward the Georgia Theatre, its staff, and Wilmot Greene (the theater’s owner).

In the age of click-download-done, it’s refreshing to see bands trying to break distributional boundaries. It’s even better when it helps out a good cause.

Good luck to Athens, GA and her Georgia Theatre!

The Awkward Off Vs. The Coathangers

Behind stage at THE EARL in ATLANTA, GA I was surrounded by the four lively ladies of THE COATHANGERS.

These ladies are just as energetic in person as they are in their live show, and we had more fun than should be allowed. We complained about lazy internet reviewers and how girl bands are judged more on their looks than boy bands are. They offered great advice for new bands, especially with regard to snack foods. They shared the secret to the glue that keeps them together, told me all about smashing a cardboard city for their music video, and discussed the best things to drop kick.

Full Transcript (Audio):

Nichole Bennett: I’m Nichole. I’m at The Earl in Atlanta, and I’m lucky enough to be with the lovely ladies of The Coathangers.

The Coathangers: Wooooooo!

NB: Do you guys want to go around and introduce yourselves?

Julia Kugel: Hi, I’m Crooked, and I play guitar.

Merideth Franco: I’m Minnie. I play bass.

Candice Jones: I’m Bebe. I play keyboard.

Stephanie Luke: And I’m Rusty. I play drums!

NB: So if somebody came to you and said they wanted to do a documentary on The Coathangers, but it had to be in animation. Would it be in computer animation or claymation or regular animation?

SL: I think old school. Like Popeye. Or the old black and white Mickey and Minnie ones where they don’t talk.

CJ: Steamboat Coathangers.

SL: That’s a good question. Do we want to go old school?

JK: Claymation would be cool too.

CJ: Really animation in general.

JK: As long as we’re not in it.

NB: Any moments in Coathanger’s history that would stick out…that you can see in clay or animation?

SL: Us falling off the edge of our minds.

NB: That would do well in clay I feel.

JK: Setting your shirt on fire.

SL: There are so many.

JK: We’ll have to save them for the documentary.

NB: Speaking of video, I just saw your “Stop Stomp Sompin’” video. Was that as much fun to video as it was to watch?

The Coathangers: Yeah!

CJ: It might have been more fun.

SL: Yeah that was great fun. Our friend Dave Hahn came up with the general idea. We kind of wanted to do something with monsters and aliens. We came up with it along with some other friends.

JK: And so many people donated their time helping us paint those cardboard boxes.

SL: And there was baby powder everywhere. When you see them smashing the buildings and dust flies up that’s baby powder. It got over everything. We had a bitch of a time cleaning that place up.

NB: Did anybody get to keep the skyscrapers?

SL: We kept some of them, and eventually we were like “We don’t have anywhere to put this.” We kept destroying them again at shows.

CJ: After the shoot, though they had been so smashed.

JK: We love garbage.

SL: We’re like garbage collectors.

NB: Do you guys prefer studio or stage?

JK: Recording is hard in its own way and fun in its own way. On stage it’s instant gratification.

SL: I like stage. You just get to wild out. It seems like it’s the it’s the 30, 35, 35 minutes that are the best part of the day. It doesn’t matter what kind of bullshit we’ve been through that day. When we get on stage it’s like a total release. We put a lot of energy into it. I don’t speak for everyone, necessarily. We do rage.

NB: I haven’t seen you guys live yet, but I have seen pictures. It looks like you guys have a lot of fun. Any songs that are your favorite to perform live?

CJ: I like “Down With the Sickness,” a cover to perform live. Merideth has a good “oooh ah ah ah ah.”

NB: If The Coathangers had a catch phrase, what would it be?

JK: Do it!

CJ and SL: Party!

CJ: Scramble!

SL: Get it!

JK: We have a lot of catch phrases.

SL: I’m gonna get you!

JK: How about “Long hair, don’t care.” All of those.

SL: Check. Fact.

CJ: Man, you really got us started now.

NB: Do you guys feel influence by where you come from? I know you are probably tired of hearing “You sound like such and such band,” but I wonder how much where people come from influences their music.

SL: I think where we come from, the Dirty South, influences us.

JK: It’s whatever we’ve been through in our lives.

SL: We’ve seen a lot of Atlanta bands. I wouldn’t say they influence us, but they definitely light a little fire under our butts. But I think our influences are more personal. But being from Atlanta…we’re all about representing Atlanta because Atlanta has represented us nicely.

CJ: It is what it is. We are influenced by the humidity and the mosquitoes.

NB: You guys are notorious, or famous, for your band glue. You guys really click, or that’s what people say.

CJ: It’s because we huff glue together before the show.

NB: Is there a secret?

CJ: It’s because we’re friends. It’s kind of like being sisters except you have a choice on whether or not to remain friends, and we choose to remain friends.

JK: At this point, I don’t know if we have a choice.

CJ: I think you might be right about that.

SL: Yeah, I’d be spending my time with these bitches anyways. I might as well be creating something.

NB: You see so many bands where that is backwards. They are together because of the music first.
SL: I don’t understand how that works. You do go through so much shit emotionally and mentally and psychologically. I think that’s where many bands miss the mark. They are playing the set, but they aren’t playing it together. They are just playing their parts. I don’t like seeing that. I like seeing a well-mushed-together PB&J.

JK: Sometimes that tension helps, but it’s just not us.

NB: Yeah for most two-fer bands they just wander around la la la. But with four people it must take more.

CJ: It takes about an hour to make any decision.

SJ: Just to get out and go to the gas station takes about thirty minutes because I’m always looking at crap I don’t need, like magnets.

NB: Do you guys ever read press about yourselves?

CJ: Yeah but not often.

JK: We try not to.

SL: Especially the blogs because they are mean. I love it when people comment on stuff that has nothing to do with your music. “Those girls look like they came out of American Apparel.”

JK: “They’re not even that cute.”

CJ: “They’re not hot, but they’re not ugly.”

SL: If it was a guy band, I doubt you would be like that. It’s just because we are a girl band that they think we give a shit. We kind of do. But not really!

NB: And then we get into this internet gobbledygook. The reviews begin to sound canned after a while, and they like to make up genres. And they label you “punk.” What does “punk” mean to you guys, and do you feel that label fits?

JK: No.

SL: It kind of baffles us. I think it’s because we’re loud, and we don’t play that great.

JK: And we speak our minds.

SL: I think “punk” is more of a mentality, a lifestyle, of not really giving a shit what other people think. It’s about giving a shit about what your agenda is. It’s not even an agenda. It’s just the way you live you live. People think “punk” is about mohawks and peeing on people’s cars, but it’s also about feminism and respect and…

JK: Doing the damn thing.

CJ: We are riding the yes-wave. Not no-wave, yes-wave.

SL: We didn’t call ourselves that. We just play what comes to us. We’ve never been a label, and we don’t know anything else.

JK: I guess you wouldn’t classify us as rock ‘n’ roll, and you wouldn’t classify us as du-wop.

CJ: We’re not jazz.

JK: We could be screamo. Femme-core.

NB: If you could replace your arms with anything, what would it be?

SL: We love questions like this!

JK: I would replace my arms with money.

MF: I would replace one with a bubble wand.

SL: I can’t replace mine with any kind of food. Emily would replace hers with cheesy poofs. That’s our tour manager.

CJ: I would replace one with a pencil or a pen because I’m always looking for one that I lost. The other one might be a string or something. My cat would like that.

SL: I would replace mine with two taps, one involving Jameson whiskey and the other a never-ending supply of PBR.

NB: So when this happens I want to hang out with you guys. What kind of advice do you have for bands that are just starting out?

SL: Don’t listen to anybody.

JK: Except people that encourage you.

MF: Do what you want to do.

JK: And try not to try to sound like anyone.

CJ: Take snacks when you go on tour.

SJ: Something other than chips. You’ll have a diet of nothing but chips and Taco Bell.

NB: What is The Coathangers favorite thing to punch or drop kick?

CJ: Kittens.

SL: Babies. Newborns! Once they get to six months, they really don’t fly as well. Or ex-boyfriends.

CJ: Anything really. We like to kick things.

The Awkward Off Vs. Handsome Furs

Before their show, HANDSOME FURS met me for an interview at THE EARL in ATLANTA, GA.

I was immediately stoked because Dan was wearing a shirt from my favorite East Atlanta record store, Reactionary Records. Later in the interview, we were joined by Paul Tilghmon, the store’s owner, who was confused to find himself in the middle of an interview.

We touched on all of the bases: dog farts, smoking with inhalers, and punk squats used for music videos. Alexei and Dan are just as nice as you would imagine, and they aren’t nearly as tired as you would think of interviewers asking them about being a couple and in a band.

After ragging on the FCC and censorship for a spell, we compromised by making up our own swear words and went straight into the interview. “Consarnit! Dagnabit!”

Special thanks to Matt Crisler for taking photographs and for being my concert buddy.

Full Transcript (Audio):

Nichole Bennett: On that note. I am Nichole. I am at the Earl in Atlanta, and I am lucky enough to be surrounded by members of Handsome Furs.

Alexei Perry: We’re only two. I’m Alexei.

NB: Yeah! I was going to ask you to introduce yourselves.

AP: And that’s Dan.

Dan Boeckner: Dan right here.

NB: So, if you had to tell the story of Handsome Furs, would it be a pop up book or a graphic novel?

DB and AP: Graphic novel.

NB: That was very quick.

AP: We read a lot of graphic novels, so it’s easy.

NB: I was going to ask you about your videos. Before the recorder got turned on, we were talking a lot about farting dogs and other such things. Your video for “Face Control” was just released.

AP: That was a really fun one to shoot.

NB: Yeah, I was going to ask if they were as much fun to shoot as they are to watch.

AP: Yeah, we are really fortunate to always work with friends, doing the directing and all the filming and everything. That was done by a guy name Scott Coffey out of Portland. We went there for two days and had to bang it out as quickly as possible.

NB: Wow.

DB: Yeah, we shot that video in under 48 hours for a budget of under $5,000. For indie rock videos, even…a lot of them clock in at twenty grand. We shot it at a punk squat next door to Scott’s house.

AP: And he just befriended them…you know. He was like “You guys do this anyway. Can we throw a party at your house?”

DB: We bought them beer and that made everybody happy. The first night was the interior shooting, and the next day was the outdoor stuff. The first night we were shooting it to look like a party, but it actually turned into a party.

AP: A really great party. It went so late. We were like, this isn’t going to match the shots anymore—the sun’s coming up.

DB: And it became difficult to act as we got really drunk.

NB: Do you guys prefer studio or stage?

DB and AP: Stage.

NB: You guys look like you have a lot of fun. I’ve seen you at both of the South By Southwests that I’ve been.

DB: Generally I like playing the new stuff.

AP: Yeah I think the new stuff is most exciting. You are on your toes trying to figure everything out, and when it all works out it’s really triumphant.

NB: I think for my first Handsome Furs experience….wow I wish this was on video.

DB: We’ll describe it for our radio listeners.

AP: Neil from The Cinnamon band just came in and handed us his inhaler because he needs to have a smoke.

DB: Smoke your face off.

NB: Oh, my first Handsome Furs experience. I was sneaking my way to the front of the tent, and the whole stage is rocking. Alexei’s Corona keeps earthquaking its way to the edge, and she keeps grabbing it just in time.

AP: Yeah we have a lot of fun on stage. Whoa a bug!

NB: I really do need to get into videoing these.

DB: It’s a creature…a cockroach.

NB: Narration—a cockroach creature just flew up into an old wasp’s nest.

AP: This is really good radio.

DB: Solid radio.

NB: Maybe I should get into TV. This is just like Prairie Home Companion with Handsome Furs. And I heard that when you guys do recordings, you do sort of a first-take thing. It sounds very fresh.

AP: That’s kind of our policy. We try to make it sound as live as possible, and we don’t want to do a lot of tinkering. Because we work with a drum machine, there is already that element of programming. While we are trying to do a recording, we try to do it as raw as possible.

NB: On a scale of one to definitely, how tired are you guys of interviewers asking you what’s it’s like to be married and in a band?

AP: I’m only really tired of that when they are lazy enough to use that as their angle. What happens a lot is when that question gets asked, it’s usually followed by “What couple band do you compare yourself to?” I’m like, “fuck off.” Ike and Tina Turner. Not really. I understand. It’s interesting. Honestly any journalist that is interested in us, we want to be as open and friendly as possible. And that fact is inescapable. That’s what we are. We have a very good time on stage. It’s hard not to notice that we are very much in love. It doesn’t tire me. It just tires me if the followups are lame.

NB: Yeah I read some that were totally focused on that.

AP: Yeah, we don’t write love songs. You’ve got the wrong band if you are trying to peg us as a cute couple. We love each other, but that’s about as far as it gets as far a songwriting.

DB: Yeah, absolutely.

NB: That being said, do you read press about yourself? I think that would be kind of nerveracking.

DB: I do sometimes. Yeah, for sure. Anybody who says they don’t read their press is lying.

AP: Yeah, it’s like “Do you not read?” I’m interested in new music so I go to blogs and magazines and such. So of course I’m going to end up reading some of it.

DB: It’s also that you can make the metaphor that it’s like you’re at a house, and there’s a door. There’s an entire room of people who are talking about you. Some of them are saying good things, and some of them are saying mean things. You know that’s happening. You know that’s going on. You have the ability to hear what they are saying without them know you are listening to them. Of course people do that! People make art, and they put it out in the world. They’re fucking vain.

AP: The truth is that there is also a really humbling part to that fame or notoriety or whatever because everything that you do is so immediately given back to you. I’m curious to know that. I wouldn’t fucking play live if I didn’t care what people thought.

DB: The trick is not to read it too much and not to take it too seriously.

AP: And also some bands that read it too much try to construct themselves in a way to be audience-friendly or critic-friendly, and that is something I’m totally against. I cannot choose my audience. I’m thrilled with whoever comes.

DB: You can’t change your art to match what you think people are thinking. And you can’t turn the tarot-internet babble into “We should write our songs in more of a major key” or “We should make our tempos faster.” “We should sing about this instead of singing about that.” You can’t do that. It’s just impossible. Everybody is as loud as everybody else on the internet, so there’s no way of judging.

NB: It’s a weird era that we live in. It’s sort of an A.D.D. internet mentality. And you can be anonymous…totally anonymous. You can be as mean as you want or as super nice as you want. It’s a strange set of extremes. You aren’t going to bother to post on the internet if it’s like “ah, meh.”

DB: I remember years ago when Wolf Parade was just starting out, I read something really awful on the Montreal music scene blog. At the start of that whole Montreal music scene…

AP: You’re basically like, “I know this person!”

DB: Well, the thing is I didn’t know that person, but I found out who he was. We weren’t friends or anything. His name was Dave. I went to a show…

NB: Dave, now your name is released on the internet.

AP: You are outed!

DB: Dave, as far as I know doesn’t make music or play music. He’s just a large internet presence. So, I saw him at a show. He was considerably younger than me. I think we were watching Comets on Fire. I was like “You’re the guy who wrote X on the Internet. Why did you write that? Like, really?” Then, he basically ran away from me. That experience really changed my relationship with reading reviews and such.

NB: How would you describe your sound to a five year old?

DB: Loud.

AP: It’s going to make you dance, baby!

NB: You guys do something that is brave, especially with having an electronic element. Your sound is pretty sparse. Usually with two people bands will try to cover that up. I was wondering if that was conscious or just came about organically.

AP: Yeah, it’s conscious in that it’s just us, and we just use the instrumentation that we have. And I think sonically what you do reflects on how you feel about the world, and how I feel about the world is totally dissatisfied with how empty things are. So I use that as a backdrop.

NB: We are getting a music and a show. Background music provided by Tree. On that note—so many bands are so very symphonic. It’s nice, but it’s refreshing to have something that is sparse and fresh.

DB: You know, in these tough economic times.

AP: You’ve got to keep things cheap.

NB: Noise costs money!

AP: We can’t afford xylophones!

DB: In these tough economic times, only the upper-upper class can afford a harmonium or a cello player or a bunch of violin players. It’s a band of the people, you know. The people’s music.

NB: If you could break one world record, what would it be?

DB: Most sweat on stage.

AP: Really? Mine is so lame, and it has to do with spicy food. That is all because of my father.

DB: I thought your world record would be to read more books than anyone.

AP: Yeah I want to read more books. That’s good too. I said that earlier today. So, yeah.

DB: Alexei secretly wants to own every single book ever published.

NB: What advice would you offer an up-and-coming band?

AP: Just tour. Play as much as you can, and do it with every earnest bone you have in your body.

NB: Which is something that you guys are really known for, and something that you guys really put yourselves into. Is this tour going well?

DB and AP: Yeah.

NB: You just came from Chapel Hill.

DB: Yeah, this leg of the tour is going good.

AP: Yeah that’s really my only thing to tell new bands is to play as many live shows as you possibly can.

DB: Yeah focus on playing live. Don’t focus on getting a great song to put on your Myspace page or getting a manager or signing with a record label. Just go on tour. Play shows in front of people. Record labels are going to be completely obsolete in the next five years, and the only thing people are going to be able to judge a band on is…Hey!

[Paul Tilghmon enters]

AP: We just bought records from him.

DB: Yeah we just went to…

NB: Reactionary Records! Did you guys pick up anything cool?

AP: We got Recommendations from Radio City

DB: And The Jags.  Which Paul wouldn’t sell me because they were his only copies.

Paul Tilghmon: I’ll sell them to you.

DB: Which means another trip to the store. We go Joe Gibbs and Phyllis Dillon. The Gibbs is a compilation and Phyllis Dillon’s One Life to Live. And I got a t-shirt too. You should support your local record store.

NB: Yeah I need a t-shirt before I move.

DB: Schoolkids Records shut down in Chapel Hill.

AP: Yeah we were pretty bummed because we wanted to go there.

DB: Support your local record stores and buy vinyl.

NB: I’m biased, but it’s my favorite. What are some of your favorite places to play?

AP: I’ll just go with some of the more recent ones because there’s a lot. Bucharest was amazing. Belgrade. Zagreb fantastic. Every show in Helsinki is life-changing and amazing. Philly was really great. New York is always beautiful.

DB: Detroit was pretty cool. We played a free show outside for the Comerica City Fest. Anybody could come.

AP: A lot of families…a lot of dancing kids.

DB: Not really our usual crowd but definitely a fun time.

NB: If you can get little kids to dance, then you’ve accomplished something.

DB: Little kids will dance to anything.

AP: They are very selective. No, no, no they are a very discerning crowd!

DB: Little kids will dance to Napalm Death.

NB: And I will end on if you could be any animal, what would you be?

AP: Dan would be an otter!

DB: I would be an otter. You would be a jaguar, I guess.

AP: We’ve discussed this a lot.

NB: It sounds like a recent discussion. I should just get these two to interview each other. Thank you very much!

The Awkward Off Vs. Venice Is Sinking

After their show at THE EARL in ATLANTA, GA band members of VENICE IS SINKING joined me for an interview.

Before finally shutting down the club on that Sunday night, we were able to talk about the many things that interest Venice is Sinking. We set the record straight and credited the horn parts on their latest record to the correct person. We talked about the influence of Athens on their music, and they backed up my theory that every musician from Athens is, was, or will be in the band Dark Meat. In an eerie prelude to that summer’s tragic Georgia Theatre fire, we talked about the album they recorded there and the importance of “musical mistakes.” We also talked about the internet’s double-edge influence on bands, fans, and press and we found out that Lucas (the drummer) loves every cereal in the grocery aisle.

Special thanks to Matt Crisler for taking photographs of the show and for being my concert buddy.

Full Transcript (Audio):

Lucas Jensen: My name is Lucas Jensen!

Nichole Bennett: My name is Nichole. I’m in the Earl in Atlanta, GA, and I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by members of Venice is Sinking. Would you guys mind going around and introducing yourselves?

Daniel Lawson: Lucas already went.

Lucas Jensen: My name is Lucas Jensen! I play drums!

James Sewell: I’m James Sewell, and I play keyboards.

DL: And trumpet.

JS: And trumpet.

DL: I’m Daniel Lawson. I play guitar, and I also sing.

NB: If you were to tell the story of your band, would it be a comic book or a pop up book?

DL: We were just talking about pop up books.

LJ: I think we would have to go with pop up book. In person maybe we are goofier, but our music is more ornate or pretty. Some sort of glittery griffin with some fairies kind of pop up book.

DL: I think it captures our whimsical side and our artistic depth.

LJ: I’m just kidding. I don’t want any fairies at all near us. We’ll leave that for the Tori Amos set.

DL: We talked about doing this though…back when we thought we would have money for things.

JS: Before global warming, the economy….World War II.

LJ: Yeah that was back before 9/11.

DL: We were just fetuses.

LJ: That’s true. Before 9/11 we were at some point. Everything changed that day. It’s not good to joke about that still?

DL: I guess not.

NB: It’s almost acceptable.

LJ: We were going to say before that we are not commenting on 9/11. Pop up book it is.

NB: So your latest album has been gaining a lot of press, and I heard that it was a more democratic album than your first one. As in, the whole band was involved in the making of this one—is that true?

DL: Yeah. I think with the first record I had a lot of songs lying around before we were even a band, so we ended up using those. With this one, it was just a lot more collaborative. Like James came in with that bit that is the thematic…

JS: The Azar theme.

DL: …that main melody that is intertwined throughout the record—that’s all James. There’s that one day, Lucas, where you, me, and Karolyn…

LJ: It was two days, and we wrote three songs or something. We wrote “Sun Belt.” “Ryan’s Song” was just this instrumental we had, and we turned it into something one day. We did something else too…we finished “Iron Range.” It was like, wow those were a great two days, and then we took months off and didn’t do anything. I think Daniel had these songs, and it was more of his project…and that’s not saying it shouldn’t be..

DL: I brought stuff early in on this record, and we all fleshed it out.

JS: Yeah that was the fundamental difference. Even if you had the fundamental idea of what a song would be, it wasn’t all done. When I first joined in 2005—because I’m not the first keyboard player—I was told the parts to play basically, and they were within the limits and ranges not only of the old keyboard player but of the old keyboard, which was considerably smaller. It had like one sound you could switch on. So for the new record, it was a more collaborative songwriting effort but also for the individual parts like the keyboard part.

DL: Yeah, and you got to do the horn charts and stuff for “Okay.” That’s all you.

LJ: Which somehow managed to go uncredited on the records, but now we will set the record straight. The song “Okay” off Azar by Venice is Sinking: horn arrangements by James Harold Sewell.

DL: Junior.

LJ: Junior. So there we go. Maybe BMI can put that in there.

NB: I believe on your website you say that this album talk about a location’s ability to influence. You guys are out of Athens, which is well-known for it’s music and it’s billions and millions of musicians. How do you feel that being located in Athens has affected you guys.

DL: It’s certainly helped. There’s somewhat of a cache trying to book shows out of town if you are from Athens.

LJ: People are definitely interested in the scene—everything from B-52’s to Pylon to Widespread Panic. There are a lot of people out of Athens that people don’t even talk about. Matthew Sweat got his start there and The Glands…the whole E-6 thing with Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control. If you know indie rock, there’s a lot of great indie rock from there. It’s a wonderful music town. There’s so much influence too.

DL: It’s a great place to start out as a band. As a really young band you could play every week if you wanted to. There’s plenty of venues.

LS: And you can have a different audience as well. There are going to be different people at different venues.

DL: For somewhere like Clemson, I’d imagine it’s a little more limited.

NB: Limited.

LJ: Not to discredit Clemson at all.

NB: No, no no. There are definitely places that could be venues, but it’s the audience that is more keen on cover bands and jam bands.

LJ: No problem with jam bands and cover bands, though. They definitely serve their purpose, and there are even quite a few popular ones. It’s not our scene necessarily, but we certainly don’t begrudge that. [In Athens] there are so many musicians living together that everyone has their own thing, their own side projects along with collaborations.

NB: Dark Meat.

LJ: Yeah Dark Meat. Everybody’s in that band. Our old bassist actually was in it for a while.

NB: Raise your hand if you are in Dark Meat.

LJ: Our old bassist Steve [Miller] threw out sandwiches for them for a while. That was kind of his job. Obviously it influences us, but more than that—getting back to the locations thing—ther’s a song on our last album CSX about moving out of our old practice space. It has a very southern feel to it. People don’t actually hone in on this in our music, but it’s actually pretty southern. The third record is going to be even more so. We like plenty of British bands, but I feel like there is an Americana thing even if it isn’t twangy or country. A part of that is that in Athens you are surrounded by kudzu, train tracks, and porches. Moths and mosquitos.

Benjamin Weikel [from The Helio Sequence]: Big fucking bugs.

LJ: Yeah you guys don’t have bugs like that in Portland.

BW: Yeah there was one time before a show…I was out back, and I always stretch before I play. There was a black widow hanging from a water spout. I was like, wow, black widow. That’s a big spider. Then I went a little further down, and this wood spider comes out. It was as big as my hand. I was terrified.

LJ: Did you see the cockroaches? This probably doesn’t happen in Oregon, but in some of the old houses here, they are just there. The exterminator can come, but they are just part of your existence.

DL: My cat eats them.

NB: Speaking of the new album, I heard that you guys are doing a Cowboy Junkies Trinity thing. Is that true?

LJ: Yeah that record was recorded a year ago, actually. Which is kind of depressing that we haven’t put it out yet, but we had to put this one out in order.

DL: It always takes so much longer.

LJ: Yeah, we are going to put this one out on vinyl.

DL: It was recorded in Georgia Theatre. They shut it down for one week, and we recorded it with Dave Barbie using just two stereo microphones.

LJ: Unidirection, I think. I mean, we don’t know that much about this, but you can hear where everyone is placed on the stage, if that makes any sense. It’s like flattening 3-D a little bit. You can hear that placement. We used only two mics. We recorded directly to tape.

DL: It’s totally live, but it’s not a live record like you would think of.

LJ: There’s no clapping.

DL: Yeah no one was in there, it was just a big empty room, us rolling take after take.

LJ: Like The Trinity Sessions, we tried to pick the best one. We played a lot louder than The Trinity Sessions though. They used one mic, and we used two. We went direct to quarter-inch tape, so the mixing that was done was done live, pretty much just setting the levels. That brings about some interesting things. Some are good. Some are bad. If the vocals are a little quiet on one song, they are a little quiet. That’s it. On another song if it goes a little loud, it might peak out and get distorted.

DL: Yeah, it’s totally unusual, and you are constantly adjusting the volume, maybe. I mean, if you are just sitting down and listening to the record maybe. If you are in your car, you are constantly fiddling with the knob. Which is cool because you don’t normally hear records like that. Everything is so compressed now.

JS: Normalized.

LJ: Like the whole Metallica controversy with the new record. It was so loud and even, the mastering job. Our record is definitely old fashioned that way. We’re not luddites or anything. We love technology and hip-hop and all of these other things that use modern technology, but this record is just really pure in that regard. It’s cool to have musical mistakes on there. With a lot of modern music, it’s buffed to perfection. With indie rock too—don’t let indie rockers tell you they don’t autotune. They are autotuning everything. Everything is just spit-shine clean.

DL: That’s kind of what we did on Azar, so it was nice to have a record that was the complete opposite. Someone told us there was an opening.

LJ: Yeah, we were finished with Azar in eight months. In two months, we had to write songs and put it all together. So, there is an immediacy to the songs.

JS: Some of us, not any of us here, hate some of those songs and don’t want to play them. She’ll remain nameless, but she doesn’t want to play them.

LJ: But that’s Will’s favorite song on the record.

JS: One of my favorites too.

LJ: We put them together quickly, and that’s kind of scary to me. We had some meltdowns. We got drunk a lot…a lot of Scotch. It was a fun experience.

JS: It was pieced together a lot hastier than Azar. When we got in the studio, and Scott Solter asked us what color our album was, we didn’t know. And it turned out that was a valid question. With the Georgia Theatre stuff, we came up a lot different.

LJ: It’s a lot twangier. Well, not twangier but acoustic-ier. It’s the opposite.

NB: I would be interested to hear that.

LJ: So the next record, the fourth record: apocalyptic dance party record. This won’t happen, and this will be somewhere. And I’ll look like a total idiot.

NB: Headline of Pitchfork tomorrow!

LJ: Yeah I wish they would care that much about us.

NB: Remind me to tell you about Spoonfork.

LJ: I just want to embrace more rhythmic ideas. It’s pretty, but maybe it’s a little edgier. I want your guitars to sound like Boris on top for me to sound like Miami Bass. And then you’ve got piano…I don’t know. It might be awful, but you’ve only got one life, one go-around. You’ve got to take chances.

DL: It’s evolved from just my straight reggaeton.

LJ: No offense to reggaeton people, but god it’s so repetitive. Also we don’t know what we are doing. It’s all the same beat. We tried to listen to Pandora and come up with different beats, but it’s all the same beat!

NB: Before the show, we were all talking about the internet’s role in music. There’s a danger in a few ways. A band can get over-hyped, but at the same time it’s something for bands that never would have gotten any notice at all. So I was wondering what you guys thought about how the internet plays a role for Venice is Sinking? Has it helped you guys, hurt you guys?

JS: All of this stuff is available for download on the internet illegally.

LJ: If you search “Venice is Sinking Azar” on Google probably the fifth thing down is a rapidshare. It’s a pretty good bit rate too. It’s not even an up-convert.

DL: I think it’s kind of awesome because people have our music.

JS: Yeah it’s not necessarily a negative thing.

LJ: There’s really nothing we can do about it.

DL: It’s just been very different from our last record which came out in 2006. That stuff wasn’t quite as common.

LJ: Now it’s just everywhere. There’s good things too. You can hear it on Last.fm. We have it up on iLike. iLike’s cheesy or whatever. Lala—you can listen to the whole album without paying for it. You can check it out if you want to buy it. Blogs have been really good to us with interviews and things. Stereogum premiered our video, which was great. Pitchfork, fingers crossed, will hopefully review this one. They gave the last one a 7.0. That’s a pretty great rating. I think there’s a lot of opportunity. There’s a lot of press. There’s so much other noise too. I think that’s the dark side. We’ve had more opportunities to connect with fans than before through Myspace, Facebook, all these other things. At the same time, so does everybody else. I think there is a widening of the scope of what indie-dom is and the number of bands there are, but I don’t see a lot of heightening. In fact, you can look at sales figures, and you can see that from a sales perspective sales are tanking everywhere. But, certainly, there is a better communication between the fan and the band. And the fan and press, the band and press. It’s a wash. You might get in a couple of ‘zines before the blogs, but you wouldn’t get in Spin or Rolling Stone. You’re still not going to, but you have all of these other places you can get in. Maybe ultimately it’s a gain. I wish we were more successful, but I’m sure a lot of people do. You take advantage of these opportunities. Keeping track of it is a real pain—keeping track of all of the different webthings, Myspace events, Facebook events. You do a Facebook event, and 73 people confirm. You look out at the show, and 10 of them are there. What does that mean? There’s so much noise, and a lot of it doesn’t mean anything. At first I used our Twitter as totally promotional, but I just merged it with mine. So, I talk about my cat and stuff. It doesn’t matter. It’s just content out there.

NB: The internet has also helped you guys bring out some of your music videos, as we talked about earlier, with “Ryan’s Song” on Stereogum. You guys actually won an award for one off of the last album.

LJ: “Pulaski Heights.” We are lucky to know people who do video very inexpensively and are talented. All of the credit goes to them for that. We’re not actors.

JS: And living in an artist’s town has a lot to do with that.

LJ: There is a great visual arts community as well.

NB: And then before we had the Powerpoint.

LJ: Oh, I made that one myself. Nobody’s ever watched that. I laughed my way through it, but some people thought I was being sort of serious. Some people are like “that’s really terrible.” I know. We should give that one another promotional push. I’m gonna twitter-tweet that.

NB: They are kicking us out of the Earl because of Sunday midnight rules, so we will end on everyone’s favorite cereal.

LJ: I like a lot.

DL: I don’t know that I have one, but I was just in Sweden visiting our old keyboard player, and it was kind of astounding—their grocery stores—because everything in them was completely healthy. Like, the grocery store on the corner from my house—you couldn’t buy wheat bread there. It’s all just Sunbeam white. You go to a grocery store in Sweden, and it is all heavy and dark. There’s a whole aisle in this urban grocery store that is all muesli varieties. So, I guess I’m going to go with that.

JS: I’ve been big on Raisin Bran lately.

LJ: Classic.

JS: It’s got some sweetness to it. I’m moving up from the kids’ cereal.

LJ: I have a lot. I really like Cocoa Pebbles. I grew up not eating sweet cereal, so when I have them it’s really good. I like the healthier stuff. I gotta say Life cereal is pretty much the jam. Cinnamon Life is really good. Oh’s are good, but they cut my mouth open. I know that sounds really weird. Golden Grams are real good. Cinnamon Toast Crunch is good. I don’t think Apple Jacks is that good. It seems good at the time, and then half way through the box…

JS: Same with Fruit Loops.

LJ: The semi-healthy cereals are really good. Smart Start—I’m not gonna lie. I like Grape Nuts.

DL: Didn’t you put Grape Nuts in your percussion shaker thing?

LJ: Yeah I put Grape Nuts in my shaker, and my shaker blew open.

NB: I’m glad this is relating back to music.

LJ: It blew up. All the little beadies fell out, and I needed a replacement so I put Grape Nuts in it. It just sounds dead. It’s not a good shaker anymore.

The Awkward Off Vs. The Helio Sequence

Members of THE HELIO SEQUENCE chatted with me on the back porch of THE EARL in ATLANTA, GA before their show.

Even when my questions were about trading cars for dinosaurs, Benjamin and Brandon took me seriously. That’s no surprise, considering how carefully they consider their music–from songwriting to production. From their past jobs as instrument repo men to coming back from a lost voice, these guys have been nothing but sincere. Read on to learn about everything from their tips for success as an independent artist to their plans for making revenue from dinosaurs.

Thanks to the sweethearts at Sub Pop who were kind enough to blog about this interview.

Special thanks to Matt Crisler for taking photographs of the interview and for being my concert buddy.

Full Transcript: (Audio)

Nichole Bennett: Alright, I’m Nichole, and I am lucky enough to be here at the EARL in Atlanta with members of The Helio Sequence. Would you guys mind introducing yourselves?
Brandon Summers: I’m Brandon.
Benjamin Weikel: And I’m Benjamin.
NB: So, there’s a lot of information online about the story of you guys, and most people who are literate and have an internet connection can look that up. If they were to reenact your story, would they use marionette puppets or sock puppets?
BS: Finger puppets probably.
BW: I was thinking we might as well go all the way with marionettes. Or Jim Henson, you know?
NB: We’re going with muppets?
BW: Yeah, totally muppets, dark crystal, that would be cool.
BS: Lo-fi or big budget.
BW: I think we would get more realistic drumming action with like the Animal thing.
BS: Animal, yeah. Animal could play you.
NB: That’s a good one. So, we settled on muppets? And you guys used to work at a record store together?
BS: We did. It was actually a music store. It was more like a band instrument rental store with some guitars. So we were renting instruments to kids who were beginning band.
NB: Any stories from that? Any funny…or scary stories?
BS: Oh jeez, too many to remember. We used to practice there, which is sort of a story in and of itself.
BW: We actually recorded our first records there. I was a band instrument repo guy for a while.
NB: I didn’t know that existed!
BW: I became responsible for all of the accounts. And there had been people who basically had never paid for years, and I’d have to track them down.
BS: It got to be where you knew these people. It was like “Oh, that woman would come in and say she paid it off and would actually drop twenty five dollars on us.”
BW: Some people would be alright, but some people would be really weird. They’d bring their kid to the front door and be like “This is what happens!” Yelling at the kid because he can’t fifteen dollars a month for a clarinet.
NB: The drama of a music store!
BS: Like “He could have been the next Jon Bon Jovi, but you took that chance away from him”
BW: I have a pretty bitter taste from all that repo business. It’s not my kind of thing.
NB: Yeah, I played saxophone, so that was kind of expensive. But that’s another story.
BS: But you paid for it?
NB: Yeah…upfront. That was not very fun. So, again anybody who is literate and has an internet connection can learn about how you lost your voice and how you gained it back.
BS: Right.
NB: But I was curious about something most others had skimmed over and that is the Bob Dylan connection. You got to read a lot during that time, and his was the first book. And there are some of my favorite Bob Dylan covers on this album. And I read that you gained your voice back by playing a lot of Bob Dylan. Is that true, or am I just making this up?
BS: Yeah, in a way. That’s kind of a gloss over. You know how records come to you at a time when you really need them? I don’t know if that makes any sense. You just happen to hear a record at a certain point in your life, and it means a lot to you. For some reason when I lost my voice…it’s not like I didn’t know who Bob Dylan was before I lost my voice, but I happened to be at the record store, and I happened to come across a copy of The Times, They Are a Changin’ And I was like, I’ve never really listened to this record. I just bought it on a whim, and it really meant a lot to me, particularly the song “Boots of Spanish Leather.” That was the first song that I decided to learn. And then from there, I thought it was interesting to actually put the chords under my fingers and actually learn a song, so I should do more of that.
NB: I really like that. I think that one of the big things music does for people. It’s kind of a soundtrack, in a way. Yeah, I was actually going to ask you what your soundtrack album was from that time, and you just answered that for me.
BS: And other things come along. What else were we listening to during that time?
BW: I don’t know. That was such a long time ago.
BS: I remember listening to a lot of Dark Side of the Moon during that time. You can infer a lot from that, I’m sure.
NB: Oh yeah, I get that in the album.
BS: So we decided to put some extended guitar solos in, and then we cut them all out.
NB: Speaking of the latest record, there’s kind of an almost a paradox between a more polished sound, but you still have that “off the cuff” sound. I heard that “The Captive Mind,” you just recorded.
BS: Yeah, a lot of the vocal stuff was just first take. We would be working on something in the studio, and I would be able to take it home and work on the vocals.
BW: The demos.
BS: Yeah, the demo stuff, really rough. And bring it back and record the real version of it. And when I went to lay down the real track, something was missing from it. Something about the energy or the feeling of it or the meaning. And it was kind of “Well, what if we just redo some of the instruments around it. Lay down the drums again and the guitar and the bass, all kinds of stuff, and just use those vocal takes.” A lot of it ended up like that. A lot of it was first take stuff. It’s almost better that way.
NB: Yeah, you get a combination, almost a paradox between…it’s definitely very polished, like you tweaked it, but at the same time it’s very organic.
BS: That’s probably a lot of the mixing process. We spend a lot of time working it out. We record our own records and mix them.
NB: I think it’s neat when a band takes things from start to finish.
BS: I can’t imagine doing it any other way. It amazes me when a band is like, “Yeah, when we recorded the record we went in for about a week, and then we handed it off to a bunch of people and they finished it for us.” I don’t understand it.
NB: I imagine you would get handed back something totally different than you had actually put out. But you guys have control over that side of things.
BF: Maybe we’re just control freaks.
NB: This record is also more lyrically focused. And I say that, but at the same time, if you took the lyrics out, the songs would be able to stand by themselves. And it’s a little less cluttery. I hate the word cluttery because I do like the older stuff too because it is that way.
BW: Yeah, but when you compare them, that sums it up in a way. We approached the record thinking that way. Bob Dylan is a great example of somebody that makes songs that to us that are really really meaningful. And it’s not so much about the music as the lyrics or the story. And so we thought, we love music with orchestration and all of the crazy sounds, but let’s try to see if we can make more of a lyrical connection. So when we were doing all the orchestration, instead of just throwing it all together and being like “Here’s everything!”.
BS: And having to work the vocals in after that.
BW: It would be like “That’s kind of just getting in the way of it.” It’s really all about the vibe. It had a feeling from the beginning. Whenever we did something that felt like it was changing it too much or it was losing that feeling, we just cut it out. So then it ended up being…compared to the average band there are still more parts and more orchestrated, but for us, it was a little more sparse.
NB: Yeah, I think you can get that. I discovered you guys after you opened for Minus the Bear, and I immediately picked up Love and Distance there. And I never buy albums from opening bands.
Matt Crisler [taking photographs of interview]: Band snob!
NB: That is not what I meant at all. I meant I never buy an album from a band that I don’t even know, like right there, and I did. And I listened to it. And then the new one came out, and I was blown away by how different it was, but it was still you guys. But you guys put it much better than I could. Obviously, I’m very terrible with words.
BW: It’s a good thing you’re a writer.
NB: Yeah, it’s a good thing. I actually really wanted to ask you guys. You did something on this latest album that is sometimes scary for smaller bands, scary for indie bands. I think this was a lot more universal than most bands would go.
BW: Yeah, it’s totally out of fashion.
NB: It’s not very fashionable to appeal to a lot of people.
BW: I don’t know if it’s a question of appealing to a lot of people. I think it’s more a question of meaning.
BS: Well, I think it’s a question of just saying what you want to say. Like, when I’m writing lyrics, I’m thinking something to myself, and I’m just writing. I’m not thinking of something being universal or trying to get to a large amount of people. But I know what you’re saying, I think that a lot of lyrics, especially in the indie world come off as impressionistic. Like, a little image here, a little image here. Don’t do something that is too specific because then you’re going to have to take responsibility for having said that.
BW: Some people do it so well that they are creating a mood, and the only way to keep it that was is by not saying something, by having it be almost sort of more background. Almost commercial. And I don’t mean commercial in the sense of sellable, but commercial as literally in a sense of in the background. Like background when you’re driving, background when you’re hanging out in a bar. Nothing that is really going to get that close to you. Something that is going to be off. You can push it away, and it’s there and it sounds great, feels great, you know. But the moment somebody starts saying something that are personal, that means something, and I don’t think that’s the fad of music right now.
NB: It’s almost dangerous.
BS: Yeah I guess it could be. But more and more, the older I get, the music I am listening to, I’m actually listening to what people say. I’m listening to what is going on behind the sound of something or just “I like how that part sounds” or “That’s a catchy part.” That’s one level of music, and I don’t think you should discount that, especially if you’re making pop music, in essence. But if you’re able to make a song on that level, and then think to yourself “Well, what are they saying. What is that guy saying?” And it may be that I’m not getting anything from that. It doesn’t make any sense, or it’s all mixed up. That, to me, it actually brings the value of the song down.
BW: There are a lot of records, and I’m definitely not naming any names, but there are a lot of records on the surface that I’m really immediately excited about. But the more I listen to the music, I’m like “What is he saying?” It’s kind of killing it for me. The lyrics are either really horrible, or you can’t hear them. Everyone’s hiding behind the lo-fi.
BS: What you are saying is that if you’re saying something, you have to take responsibility for it. And you’re saying there’s something dangerous about it. And I’ve thought about it—that you somehow risk not being cool anymore by not agreeing with somebody. So it’s interesting that more and more, you get less of that .
NB: It’s very fashionable, I think, especially in a lot of hyped bands…We were just talking about the internet mentality earlier with Venice [is Sinking]. To not make sense, to be esoteric, and “Oh you guys, you just don’t get me.”
BW: It’s all very impressionistic.
NB: Impressionistic is a perfect way to put that. So if you were to describe your sound to a five-year-old, what would you say?
BS: I wouldn’t describe it, I would just put the CD on.
NB: I don’t talk to five-year-olds.
BS: No, I talk to five year olds very often. I have a nine month old. I’ll just put on music for her.
NB: So, no need for description…just put it on.
BW: I have a three year old nephew, and he came out to our show in Los Angeles, his first rock and roll show. The first time he’s seen me playing. My sister, his mom, she plays him the songs, and he knows that this is uncle Benjamin’s band. And we were playing the set. We stopped playing after the second song, and everything kind of died down for a second, and I just heard this “That’s Uncle Benjamin!”
BS: And mind you, this is in a three or four thousand person venue.
NB: Do you guys read press about yourselves?
BW: No.
BS: No, not anymore. I used to.
BW: It just bums me out.
NB: Yeah, it would be something that would just tear me apart.
BW: Yeah, it’s really depressing…
NB: I’m already self-critical enough. I don’t need any help.
BW: It would be dumb to say there is no point to music journalism, and I’m definitely not making a judgment of music writing. It’s more of just that I have an understanding that a journalist is a writer, and they have to do something interesting. If you write a bunch of reviews, that don’t say anything, then your job is boring. It’s a realization that somebody writing about music—you can’t take it personally because there’s always agendas just beyond the music. I don’t want to read it.
BS: And at the same time, you can’t truly get away from it. Someone’s actually going to come up to you and say “I read your review in Rolling Stone or blahblahblah.” And then you don’t have to read it.
NB: Since music journalism is so much more accessible with blogs and the internet, do you feel that it is affecting you guys in anyway, even though you aren’t reading it?
BS: I’m sure it helps just general awareness. And the way that people find out about music is all over the map these days. I’ve had people come up to me on this tour and tell me that they found out about us because we have one song on the Google phone. They came to us and asked us if they could include our song, for free, so it comes with the phone when people buy it. I’ve had people come up to me and say that they didn’t know who we were, and I heard you guys on my new phone. I love you guys. I went out and bought your records, and I’m a fan now. You can find music in so many ways. It’s just crazy.
NB: That’s another thing. When bands talk about commercials, they say that people heard their song on a commercial.
BS: I want to find someone who became a fan because of a ringtone.
BW: I think we did! There was a myspace comment once that they had downloaded “Don’t Look Away” ringtone.
BS: They probably meant to download The Chili Peppers.
BW: And then he went and looked at our myspace page.
NB: You guys have been around for quite a while. What advice would you give to a band that is just starting out.
BS: Keep going. I don’t know.
BW: Stop if you’re not good. We usually don’t take support bands on the road with us. So we get tons of local openers. Sometimes people are really excited, and they ask us “How do you hook up with Sub Pop” or “What do you do?” And I think some people want to try to skip steps. They just want to jump up ahead. And all that I can say is some people win the lottery, and some people don’t. Start thinking one step at a time. Book your small show, and get some friends there. Do one thing at a time. Don’t think about this big thing far off in the future. Enjoy making music
BS: And keep sight of that as you keep going because there are going to be people coming along saying “We want to sign you and throw all this money at you.” That kind of stuff happens. We had that happen to us especially early in our career.
BW: We said no.
BS: And we said no. For us, anyways, it was the right thing to do. Some bands can sign some gigantic contract and have a bunch of people throw money at them and get paid. But, I think you really run the risk of falling on your face.
NB: Definitely. Which fictional character is most like you guys?
BS: One character? Or is it a duo?
BW: The three muskateers.
NB: It can be one. You don’t have to pick a duo. You can pick separate ones.
BS: Probably Animal for Benjamin.
BW: Why? Why would that me be? I’m thinking the geeky guy in Real Genius.
BS: I’m trying to think of a fictional character.
NB: It can be cartoon.
BS: Yosemite Sam?
BW: What? How are you like Yosemite Sam?
BS: I don’t know. He’s fictional.
James Sewall [of Venice is Sinking]: Droopy’s good.
BS: I’m down with that.
NB: Okay, if you guys could break any world record, what would you break?
BW: Richest dude in the world.
NB: Richest dude in the world!
BS: Longest touring band in the world. We’ll be 90.
NB: Never stop touring. Do you guys prefer studio or stage?
BW: Both, in their own ways.
BS: Yeah, they are totally different worlds.
NB: As a duo, with a keyboardist/drummer, I’m sure it totally different both ways. And we talked earlier about how you go back in and tweak things.
BS: Yeah, it’s a totally different. A lot of bands come back from touring and record an album, but for us, I feel like the studio process is a lot slower, much more methodic kind of a process.
NB: And at the same time, your live sound is very similar to your studio so. So, whatever magic you guys are working…
BS: That’s what it is.
NB: And if you could turn in your tour van for a dinosaur, which one would you choose?
BS: What’s the fastest dinosaur?
NB: I’ve never seen a dinosaur race.
BS: Because that’s all you need out of a tour van—get to that next city.
BW: You’re thinking you want the dinosaur to be a vehicle?
BS: Well, if we didn’t have a tour van, we’d need something to get from show to show.
BW: I mean, I don’t think a dinosaur is going to work.
BS: We have to trade it in for a dinosaur, though.
BW: If we had a dinosaur, we could open a zoo…
BS: And then from the revenue of that, okay.
BW: We could totally buy a new van. I’m thinking we should go for a big one, like T. Rex.
BS: Okay.
BW: Well, maybe a brontosaurus, though. It doesn’t eat meat. It would be more indie. It would be more cool. A vegan dinosaur. And less likely to eat anyone.
NB: We would like to request a vegan dinosaur, please.
BS: Okay, I’m down with that.
BW: We would have to buy some land.
BS: We could get a loan from the bank.
NB: With the brontosaurus as collateral.
BW: But where would we put the dinosaur while we are waiting for the loan?
BS: This is really tricky.
NB: This question is a lot more complicated that I had originally thought it would be.
BW: Or transportation too. We’d probably have to hire a construction company for it.
Matt Crisler: You could walk it.
NB: Dinosaur rollerskates.
BW: I wonder if you could lease a brontosaurus. Like if we had a huge, a really heavy truck, that we could chain it to.
BS: Or a van…oh damn, we gave it up for the dinosaur.
NB: On that note, we’ll end on if you were any animal, what would you be?
BS: A panda.
BW: I don’t know. A brontosaurus.
NB: Thank you very much for being with me.

The Awkward Off Vs. Tokyo Police Club

On the rickety back porch of THE EARL in ATLANTA, GA Greg Alsop, drummer for TOKYO POLICE CLUB did an interview with me.

We immediately bonded over Christmas pop-up books and then moved on to remark about how music critics are never criticized. Although not at all turtle-like, Greg would love to carry his home around with him. Like many bands with interesting names, there’s no good story as to how TPC got their name, but there is a good reason that their tour van floor is covered in jellybeans.

Special thanks to my new friend John Kurc for sharing his photographs of Tokyo Police Club with me.

Full Transcript: (Audio)
Nichole Bennett: Just introduce yourself.
Greg Alsop: I’m Greg Alsop. I’m in Atlanta, and I play drums in Tokyo Police Club.
NB: Thank you so much for joining me. So I guess just a little bit of background on the band. If you could describe the story of your band, would it be a comic book or would it be a pop-up book? And maybe fill in the details.
GA: I would probably choose a pop-up book. I’m not as familiar with graphic novels as some. I sort of grew up on pop-up books. I had a great version of “The Night Before Christmas” that my mom bought in the seventies that saw me through year after year.
NB: Yeah I make my parents read mine every Christmas.
GA: Yeah, same. We formed in January of 2005. We were all friends in high school. So you could picture us all there drawn in mostly pastel colors. And there’s a little slide arrow of us waving in front of our high school. We’d all just been friends in high school. The other three had known each other since elementary school, and we all just kind of bonded over similar taste in music. We were the only people we really knew in our small town who were into a lot of the new bands that were coming out around that time. You know like Interpol, The Strokes, Arcade Fire… Everyone else was, kind of strangely, into hip hop. It was a bunch of really rich white kids. Just like…beating each other up for no reason. And we were like “I don’t want any part in that.” So, our thing to do on Friday nights was just to gather in somebody’s basement and just play music until our parents told us to stop. Eventually, that brought us here.
NB: Where did the name Tokyo Police Club come from?
GA: There’s no good story.
NB: Is it just words mashed together?
GA: Yeah, it really is just words mashed together. That’s the best description. We should come up with a decent story for it because people ask us that all the time. We’re not a band full of mystery. That’s the problem…very open. And we’ve got nothing to say about our name. We wrote the song “Cheer It On” in May of 2005 and it came to be our first show, and we were like “We need to call ourselves something.”
NB: So how is this tour going?
GA: It’s fantastic. It’s the best. Yeah, we are touring with all incredible bands that we are great friends with. Ruby Coast from our home town in Toronto. Born Ruffians from there also. The Harlem Shakes, who are amazing. Ra Ra Riot, who we’ve been out with before. If I’m missing somebody, then I apologize, but it’s just all incredible bands.
NB: Yeah, I saw that all of your openers are fantastic.
GA: Yeah, we wanted it to be that way. We haven’t toured in a while, and we’re not going to be touring again for a while, so we wanted to make this as fun as possible. Going out on tour can be very exhausting, but when you get to the venue everyday and there’s a bunch of people there that you’re really excited to hang out with it’s much better.
NB: How would you describe the sound of the band, or even maybe the sound that you guys are looking for, to a three year old?
GA: To a three year old? We’re music you can jump around and have fun to, I’d say. You don’t have to cover your ears. We don’t have too many swears. Hopefully they aren’t words that a three year old would be familiar with anyway so it doesn’t really matter. Even if, there’s nothing that you would be shocked to hear a three year old say. It’d be a little more cute.
NB: Three year olds cover Tokyo Police Club.
GA: Yeah, yeah, you could do that. If Kidz Bop or whatever that was decided to do one of our tracks, they wouldn’t have too much trouble choosing, sifting through the lyrics.
NB: Do you ever read your own reviews? I always wonder, as a musician, if you read your own stuff.
GA: Yeah when the album first came out, I did. But eventually it became too difficult separating what they are saying as an actual critique from just journalism. You can’t take it to heart. Sometimes you find reviews that maybe do offer very good criticism that you can use to make better songs in the future. Some publications are just about tearing bands up, and some publications are just about puffing bands careers up. I don’t know. I feel like it’s good to find a middle ground.
NB: I feel like reviewers should also be reviewed sometimes.
GA: Yeah.
NB: They’re never criticized for their writing.
GA: That’s the one thing. That is the one part of the music industry that is completely unnecessary. It’s kind of the easiest job out there.
NB: Yeah, nobody is looking over their shoulder.
GA: Exactly. Maybe that will be my thing…writing in just letters to the editor week after week. More counter-reviews.
NB: What is your favorite flavor of jellybean?
GA: In just the regular variety, yellow.
NB: Yellow-flavored.
GA: Yellow lemon I guess. Or white, I guess. I like white beans sometimes. But if you’re going to go all the way to the Jelly Belly gourmet flavors, Dr. Pepper. We had a bunch. I got a bunch for Easter last year, and they were all nicely laid out in a tray, and within a few hours they all just spilt and were all over the floor. So every once in a while, you could just reach down, grab a couple up and just make a cocktail.
Matt Crisler (WSBF-FM): Do you eat the black ones? That’s the big question as to whether or not they like jellybeans?
NB: Yeah, I like the black ones.
GA: I do, yeah.
NB: My friends would all hand me the licorice ones. And I love food, so I was always like “Give me all of yours.” So, I gradually grew to love them.
GA: Yeah, I will take all of the other ones. But if I reach down and grab one, then I’ll eat it. No problem.
NB: So you guys have a Candyland van with jellybeans all over the floor.
GA: Yep.
NB: So I was thinking about this the other day that pop music, when you think about the word “pop” it has become something totally different in especially the minds of young people these days. Do you have your own personal definition? Or has it become a bad word? It used to be like pop and that meant Brittany Spears.
GA: I definitely agree that it used to be something to approach rarely, and if you were labeled as pop music it was just stuff that was very trite and easily digestible. The definition has become much for vague and all-encompassing. I mean, what do you really consider not “pop” music these days? Clearly if it’s not jazz and if it’s not composed in a modernist classical sense, then everything else can really fall under the pop category. I mean, we label ourselves as pop music. I don’t like assigning genres. Oh it’s like trip-electrocore or something. What are you talking about man? It’s just music, and if you like it, then listen to it. It shouldn’t be something that you try and find a label for and then listen very strictly to that.
NB: One more, and this is the one more and this is the one that I ask all bands. If you were an animal, what would you be?
GA: Me? Maybe a turtle because then when I tour, I can bring my home everywhere with me.
NB: That would be nice.
GA: That’d be the best actually. That would be really great. I don’t think it fits with me any other way.
NB: Thanks so much.

The Awkward Off Vs. Los Campesinos!

In the green room of the EARL in ATLANTA, GA, I was surrounded by members of LOS CAMPESINOS!

For the whole interview, I concentrated on trying not to pick up their British accents…with limited success. In between laughter and tangents, we discussed the importance of an album as physical art, the internet’s huge role in music, and starting up a Russian hamster fighting ring. They tried to convince me they were more music lovers than they were musicians, but their concert definitely proved otherwise.

Full Transcript: (Audio)

Nichole Bennett: This is Nichole with WSBF, and I am here with Los Campesinos!

Los Campesinos!: Hi!

NB: Would you guys like to go around the circle and introduce yourselves?

Neil Turner: Hello, I’m Neil from Los Campesinos! and I play guitar.

Gareth Paisey: I’m Gareth from Los Campesinos! and I sing.

Oliver Briggs: I’m Ollie from Los Campesinos! and I play drums.

Alex Berditchevskaia: I’m Alex from Los Campesinos! and I sing and play keyboards.

Ellen Waddell: I’m Ellen, and I play bass.

Tom Bromley: I’m Tom, and I play guitar.

GP: There’s normally Harriet as well, but she’s not here because she’s ill. She normally plays violin.

NB: So tell me a little bit about your history. How did you guys get together?

GP: We’ve been a band for getting on to three years now, which seems to have flown by.

EW: That long?

GP: It’s weird because we still get called a new band. I guess there’s not that much to tell. We started the band whilst we were at University. We then finished University. We released some records. We’ve toured…a lot. We’ve been to some really interesting places…some not so interesting places. It’s been, generally speaking, a lot of fun. I guess the rest is just what happens to bands.

TB: A series of clichés.

NT: Lots of interviews.

OB: Sex.

GP: Tell them about that time!

NB: So where did the name come from?

GP: The name is Neil’s fault.

NT: Yeah, I used to speak some Spanish in school. It was just a word I knew. When it came time to think up a band name—it sounded fun.

GP: It looks nice. It sounds nice. It’s quite exotic to our English tongues.

NB: So the exclamation point is the only thing keeping you from being a Peruvian band. I think there is a folk band there. Are you guys rivals?

GP: We’ve not had the pleasure of meeting them.

NB: So how is it? Is it just a mishmash of all sorts of things? The songwriting process, in general. Or if you don’t want to answer the question, you can make up an story….at any point in the interview.

GP: We’ve already given you the good story…Ollie’s story. Back to the question. They’ll write a song and then we’ll take it as a band and it will develop through that. I will write some lyrics over top of that, and I guess that is the boiled down version of how to write a song. Lyrically, recently, I tend to write quite autobiographically and honestly.

NB: We were speaking a little bit about the internet earlier. It’s radically changed how a band gets out. It’s definitely helped you guys along. How do you feel? Is it a negative and a positive thing at the same time?

GP: I think, first of all, to say that it was anything else other than an absolute positive would be really ungrateful. We admit that if it wasn’t for the internet, we would not be a band. In this case it was us recording a demo and putting it up on Myspace. Within five days of putting songs on Myspace, we were being offered record deals in Australia. We’ve not even been to Australia, so I think that shows just how powerful the internet was for us.

TB: There are lots of negatives.

GP: Yeah, there are things that the internet has changed the way people write about music  and the way that people interact with music.

TB: And the positive things massively outweigh the negatives.

NB: Yeah, I think it levels the playing field.

TB: Yeah, completely.

GP: It has put a lot more power in the hand of bands as opposed to labels. It’s getting where you can do a lot of things without a label. Obviously a label helps with putting a record out, but you don’t need it to get heard.

NB: As much as I hate Myspace at times, it is good at that. So I guess we could talk a little bit about the latest CD that has come out…the second one of the year. It comes with a lot of goodies.

GP: It does. Sadly not as many in the U.S. as it does in the U.K. The U.K. version of the record is so much nicer than the U.S. version. It was a matter of record labels.

NB: Yeah, you are on Arts & Crafts here.

GP: And Wichita in the rest of the world. The Wichita version is infinitely nicer. The U.S. version is nice. It has the extra DVD and a sort of ‘zine.

NB: Yeah, I remember getting the package and thinking they had sent me a novel as well.

GP: Yeah, I don’t really like that package. Pretty cheap. It’s just a lot of plastic and a lot of cardboard.

NB: It is nice in that way, in our digital age, to have something physical. That’s why I’ve gotten into vinyl lately. It’s a piece of art. It’s something you can own.

GP: Yeah, you have to give people an incentive to buy something physical rather than downloading the album for free in the space of two minutes. So when it comes to packaging, we want it to be something that people are going to want to actually go to a record store and buy and enjoy it in more ways than just listening to it off a computer. So, I hope that more and more bands will consider things like that.

TB: For me, I see doing things as a band the way that my favorite bands did. Like when you get a vinyl and it opens up three ways, it’s like the best thing in the world. If we are in a position to do things like that, we will. Maybe we sort of romanticize about things like that.

GP: We’re music fans. We don’t consider ourselves musicians at all. What we do is that we are several people who started a band who like a lot of music and are getting to do what people in bands that we like do. We want to be a band that we would like and be excited about ourselves.

NB: I’ve heard rumors that this one is going to be pretty limited. Like one run? Is that true?

GP: That is the idea.

TB: In the U.K. they had to print some more, but I think that had to do with somebody fucked up the preorders.

GP: They clearly over-ordered the record because we’re more popular than we ever thought we were.

TB: It’s not really a proper second album, so were able to do something special with the packaging. It was more for people that really loved us.

NB: Since we talked about you guys being more music-lovers than musicians, what is in your CD player right now or your iPod? What is really hitting you lately?

GP: I’ve been listening to a lot of orchestral music. I’ve realized that as we’ve been on this tour, I’ve listened exclusively to OMD, The Smiths, Paul Simon, and Simon & Garfunkel. It’s weird. I’m not sure how I feel about that.

TB: Yeah, that’s unusual for you, especially.

GP: Yeah I don’t know, but I’m loving it, especially those 80’s drum sounds.

OB: The drums are really good on Graceland.

TB: I’ve been listening to Guided By Voices.

NT: I’ve been listening to a band called Chlorox Girls from Portland. It was Tom’s birthday yesterday.

NB: Happy late! Is that what this cake is? Are they animals? And, what is your most embarrassing CD?

NT: I have the whole Alice in Chains back catalogue.

GP: I have Pearl Jam’s CD.

NB: One more. This is the only question that actually counts. If you were an animal, what would you be?

TB: I’d probably be a cat. They are really cute, and they don’t really do anything. They get lots of attention and don’t do anything.

GP: The thing is with questions like these, I’m totally incapable of giving and off-the-cuff answer. I have to really think about it. Neil just brought up a good point. I’m allergic to horses, and if I was a horse, would I still be allergic to them? I’ll tell you. I wouldn’t be a horse because I don’t want to take that chance.

OB: I’d probably be a monkey.

GP: I can see that.

TB: You’re already halfway there.

OB: I’ll take that as a compliment.

GP: I don’t really want to be an animal, if we’re being honest. I’d end up being eaten. What good animals are there? What do they actually do?

OB: Should we pick something for you?

TB: A vegan questioning the point of animals.

GP: I don’t like animals. That’s why I don’t want to eat them. What should I be Ollie?

OB: What about some sort of bird?

GP: If you were a monkey, what sort of animal would you want to hang out with?

NT: I like Russian hamsters.

OB: What is the difference between Russian hamsters and normal hamsters?

NT: Russian hamsters are really cool.

GP: A friend of mine had two Russian hamsters, and he named them after the Hardy Boys, Matt and Jeff. And they always used to fight each other. The thing about this is that the Hardy Boys were a tag team. So, it made no sense at all.