Featuring new songs by these bands:
Color Of Clouds – Brother
Kuan – OnE.G
Marching Band – For Your Love
Money Penny – Say No (Hey Champ Remix)
N.A.M.B. – L.O.N.
Phantogram – When I’m Small
Phosphorescent – It’s Hard To Be Humble
Rapid Cities – In My Mind
Red Dress – (Glitch Mob Remix)
Rykardaparasol – Covenant
Sarah Kirkland Snider – This Is What You’re Like
Savoir Adore – We Talk Like Machines
Seabear – Lion Face Boy
Sleep Bellum Sonno – A House Of Spades
The Bewitched Hands – Hard To Cry
William Brittelle’s – Dunes Of Vermillion
Woods – I Was Gone
“Brother” is a song you might hear in that moment of stillness right before you die, or in that short period of time when you feel the ache your bones take on when you feel heart break coming on. I might be leading you astray because it’s not macabre in any sense of the word, it’s just that painfully breathtaking. Who would have thought that Brooklyn would become the make-up and lipstick of a burgeoning New York music scene? But it’s true. I have a feeling Color Of Clouds will have us all swooning and crooning their tunes in no time. This 3 piece has a debut album by the name of Satellite of Love coming out on April 6th, 2010. The album is a follow up to last year’s well-received EP The Look. “Color of Clouds is fronted by singer-songwriter and Moby touring partner Kelli Scarr with Dan Chen (Nicole Atkins & The Sea) on keyboard and Nate Greenberg on production. Amen.”
With the release of their new album At Echo Lake right around the bend, the musical prowess that is Woods has just released a lo-fi gritty mountain music rocker perfect for skinning dears or planting evergreen trees, and it’s called “I Was Gone”. Now you should no it’s short, and just when it gets going it ends, but that’s all the more reason to get into it. This song actually might be only a tidbit of the actual song. Maybe their publicist sent the short version of the song? It could be on purpose. In 2007 this NYC rock band released their last full length album At Rear House and now the world only has to wait a few May showers until full realization is ours.
How goes?! TheLaw hail from the city of Dundee on Scotland’s’ east coast. We released our debut album in the autumn of last year and have been touring the UK & Germany since then. The record itself is a collection of songs to celebrate everyday life. Recorded in the Sawmills studio, Cornwall, the main objective was to capture the energy of our live shows on tape – the result is ‘A Measure Of Wealth’!
2. Have you ever been fed up with playing music or with band members, why?
This is the best job in the world – music has so many tangents and avenues, it would impossible for even the closed-minded among us to get bored! Band members are the opposite – they tend to have a multitude of deviations and vices so complex that without an open mind, most of them would be grossly misunderstood!
3. What was your first concert experience? Do you remember how you felt once the concert was over?
Yeah, I was 15 in the old Westport bar in Dundee. The band I was in at the time played a mixture of original material and Doors covers. When the gig was over, I stood in the audience to take the total number of bodies in the room up to 5!
4. Did you grow up wanting to play music, or when did the whole making albums thing come about and how?
We all found a certain sanctuary in music from an early age. Playing music is something we all love and making a record is just the next step up the ladder if you want to carry on writing and performing for a living!
5. What qualifies you guys to be in a band?
Marti and Si’s (brothers Martin and Simon Donald, Drummer and Bassist) granddad played the spoons…
6. Do you have a favorite song you have ever written? Why?
For the groove of the tune – Television Satellite from the record! Everyone has a vice, in one form or another, they should really just give up – we chose the squeaky clean subject of Television as apposed to relationships, drugs etc. for this number!
8. What qualities should a successful label or manager have?
A successful act always helps!
9. What’s the scariest thing that has ever happened to you in your life?
Our bass player and motivator is, as is every red-blooded male, partial to a drink. Simon isn’t biased, in fact he is quite open- minded when it comes to the type of said liquor. However, a drink by the name of vodka can cause this gem of a man to turn… During these spells of madness, Simon is, and i quote “neither drunk nor wrong!” These are the scariest moments of my life…
10. What’s the first thing you do when the band arrives in a new town while on tour?
We unload the van, set up the stage and sound check. After all that we usually check a local pub and chill until stage time.
11. Have you ever had an audience member give you the willies because they kept looking at you all weird?
We are of the mindset that if they buy the record, they can look at us whatever way they bloody well want! It would actually be more fitting to ask our audiences, “Have you ever had member of TheLaw give you the willies because they kept looking at you all weird?”
12. Have you ever cried while listening to music? If so what were you listening too?
Every time our old tour manager picked up the guitar it brought a tear to my eye. Having to watch someone disgrace such a beautiful instrument in that way is quite emotional. He was chronic!
13. If you could re-record, or re-write any song of yours what would that song be?
We put a lot of hard work into seeing that the tunes sounded the way we imagined them to. I don’t think any of the band has any desire to move backwards by revisiting old turf. Onwards and upwards!
14. What’s the worst place you have ever played a show at, and why?
Something this band has always been good at is making the best out of a bad situation… or is it, making a bad situation worse?! I forget! Anyway, sometimes the places that look the worst on the face of it all are turn out to be the landmark gigs for your band. It’s a combination of the band and the audience all knowing that things could be a hell of a lot better and just saying, ” F**k it, we’re here now, let’s get on with it!”
15. In a perfect world how many albums would you have to sell to be happy?
None. In a perfect world, commercial success and the cold grip of cash would hold no restraints over the wonders of music. You could pick up CD’s of your favourite groups or download them legitimately for free and gigs would be on a first come first served basis… “Who’s paying us again..?”
16. What do you guys have planned for the future?
We’re currently rehearsing for a US tour that starts on the 15th March. There are a few showcases in New York & L.A. with a mini tour of SXSW in the middle of it all.
17. What music do you listen to when you are having a bad day?
Bad days usually come up when I haven’t listened to music for a couple of days due to one reason or another. It’s just your body’s way of telling you that you need your fix. A heavy dose of Rubber Soul usually sets you on feet again!
18. If you had your life to live over again, what one thing would you change?
Nothing. Ask me in another 40 years… Thanks very much for your time. Hopefully you can make it to one of the shows soon enough.
Get to know The Law and check out their tour info!
The generic label iTunes assigns to Eyelid Movies, the debut album from the duo Phantogram, is “alternative.” With so many indie bands sounding alike, the moniker “alternative” doesn’t really make sense, Eyelid Movies is the exception. This group sticks themselves out from the pack on their first album with a sound like Human League mixed with J. Dilla’s beats. Phantogram consists of childhood friends Josh Carter and Sarah Barthel who surfaced not from Brooklyn, Seattle or London but from the bustling Saratoga Springs scene. Hailing from a town not overrun by indie copy cats frees them from any mimicking that could spoil their originality.
The duo share turns on the vocals but the strongest songs are the ones that feature Carter and Barthel together, like “You Are the Ocean.” They take some big chances, and with the exception of “Running from the Cops” all their risks pay off. It’s the first single off the album but it doesn’t leave the listener with a fair representation of what to expect on Eyelid Movies. The album opener “Mouthful of Diamonds” or “As Far As I Can See” would have been a better choice to showcase this great new band.
The album is refreshingly rough around the edges and doesn’t feel over produced. Although a few too many of the beats sound the same the album is pretty unpredictable. Think of it like the bizarro version of last summer’s The xx album. Instead of the contained, smooth, atmospheric dream pop of xx, Eyelid Movies gives us a manic, often disjointed, noir-ish, shoegazey album. Phantogram sounds like trip-hop revisited, while Carter and Barthel refer to their sound as “street beat, psych pop”, whatever name you want to call it it’s refreshing.
“A House Of Spades” could have made it on the soundtrack to the new Alice In Wonderland flick. Instead the people that came up with the tunes for that movie decided to put a bunch of watered down tracks on it instead of material worthy of such a tripped out subject. Needless to say “A House Of Spades” succeeds at entertaining even with duo vocals that are as opposite as day is to night but fit the odd composition well. I’m imagining people that are way into Cursive and mewithoutYou liking Sleep Bellum Sonno, let me know if I am wrong.
It feels like every day a new female talent comes calling to the masses for their praise. Not many stand out and quite often seem redundant. In the coming months composer Sarah Kirkland Snider shouldn’t have to worry about such trivial matters, at least if her new single “This Is What You’re Like” is any indication of what is to come. Her new album Penelope (August, New Amsterdam Records)features Shara Worden from My Brightest Diamond on vocals with renown chamber group Signal backing, and will premiered live in NYC on April 3rd at the Bell House.
Aloha’s latest album “Home Acres” is in stores today! We had three of our contributors all review it on their own and since they were all great reviews we had to post them all. So here our the thoughts of three seperate people that span 3 different locations including another continent. Don’t forget to check out our Aloha Contest to win the albm which ends soon. Click Here To Enter.
Review #1
Written By Barry Moore
Score 8.2/10
Aloha’s recent release “Home Acres” is upbeat to say the least. There are few moments of down time and although it doesn’t quite inspire me to jump up and down and dance, it does at least keep my head bobbing. It’s nonstop rock and roll in the most classic sense of the word. Not so much in the “classic rock” sense of the word, but in the sense of the word that the 90’s are beginning to be a part of what is considered “classic” these days and it’s making me feel old. There are moments when Aloha is reminiscent of R.E.M. or perhaps, Dinosaur Jr. but, really “Home Acres” just has a distinctively late 80’s/early 90’s “alternative” feel to it.
“Everything Comes My Way” and “White Wind” are the slowest tracks on the album and comprise a nice break in the middle of all the motion throughout the adventure of exploring “Home Acres”. It also allows the listener to focus on the lyricism a little more rather than just feel absolutely brainwashed by the driving drums and guitars. But it immediately picks back up again with “Cold Storage” in the kind of interesting dichotomy that makes up the album.
Lazy melodic vocals laid atop the fist pumping drums seem to be the most consistent aspect of the album. Each track differing with guitar tone and delivery and sometimes accompanied by piano, or organ, it has a very similar theme throughout the whole experience which ties each individual song in nicely to what makes Aloha so welcoming. It’s very lovely album construction.
On their first four records, indie rockers, Aloha have earned a reputation for their experimental style that references eighties luminaries like The Cure and Joy Division. On their fifth record, “Home Acres” other key influences have been added to the musical melting pot with the band producing glorious harmonies like The Beach Boys and going off on a few experimental tangents à la The Velvet Underground.
“Building A Fire” is a great song awash with keys, cymbals and the kind of dirty guitar riffs synonymous with a blistering Queens Of The Stone Age anthem. The result is one hell of a trip on the back of a pick-up truck through a bright cloud of purple haze.
“Moonless March” is yet another catchy indie pop song to add to an already burgeoning genre. Sure it’s a little interchangeable and plenty of bands spew out this kind of music with gusto, but few manage to elicit such a feel good sensation in the process.
“Microviolence” boasts some of the best xylophone heard since Radiohead’s “No Surprises.” But Aloha also keep things funky while also delivering a love letter of sorts. “Searchlight” meanwhile, is sunny indie pop reminiscent of The Drums’ music about surfing and the summertime. It’s clear that the latter haven’t got the market on contemporary musicians referencing The Cure in a light-hearted yet modern way.
“White Wind” contains harmonies that reach for the sky like The Shins, while the beat in “Cold Storage” instantly conjures up images of flamboyant eighties acts in fluoro spandex. And capping things off is “Ruins,” which boasts more keys than a locksmith. Okay perhaps not, but it does reference New Order’s “Love Vigilantes” while offering some organ that sounds like it has been derived from a hymn. Praise the Lord!
On “Home Acres” Aloha aimed to turn the energy up to eleven and equal the dizzying heights they had reached in their previous work. It’s fair to say they delivered, due to their excellent throwbacks to the best elements of the sixties and eighties, not to mention a modern twist of lime for added juicy goodness. Basically, Aloha will leave you wanting to dance around smiling in the sun and if you can’t enjoy participating in this silly kind of sport than you’re just a killjoy.
Review #3
Written By: Wells Sinclair Score: 8.6/10
We’re all assholes really. You me and everybody else who goes to web sites like IRR to find the lesser-known bits of delight in music. We don’t want our favorite musicians to have massive followings. We feel like the music is contaminated once some douche (I usually picture him running a finger over his cowry shell necklace and listening to a Dave Matthews mix on his iPod while having his teeth professionally whitened) also owns an album by a band that we personally cherish.
Aloha fans are likely to be in for that disappointment sometime relatively soon. The Prog-Rock/Post-Rock (fill in the the blank with your arbitrary genre label here ____ ) quartet can only put together so many quality albums before the fan base bulges and a few starry-eyed main streamers start calling their sound home. You don’t think so? Well nobody thought it would happen to Modest Mouse either but by the time Good News for People Who Love Bad News came out, the days of romantic obscurity were long past.
I’m not saying Aloha sounds anything like Modest Mouse or even appeals to the same set of cochlear implants, but it’s a quality album – a quality album coming on the heels of four other quality albums and two EPs.
I’d recommend you get the album now so you can at least have a tinge of superiority when, 3 years from now, your 13-year-old cousin from a farm in Eastern Washington tells you their favorite band is Aloha. “Yeah,” you can say with your manufactured nonchalance, “Their earlier stuff was cool, I guess.”
C’mon man, your cousin is only thirteen. You’re such an asshole.
Here’s how the record label accurately and fluffily describes it:
“Home Acres pushes tempos and dials up the guitars, with the band’s slow-burn intensity sometimes overflowing into huge moments. But even as the energy surges, Aloha casts an otherworldly glow, serving up ambiance and attack with equal measure.”
IRR: Tell me a little bit about Nouvelle Vague. How did it come about?
Marc Collin: It’s a long story. It’s like… I was a fan of new wave when I was young. And after I became a composer, and an artist myself. So a long time after, I just went back to all these songs and just realized that they are really beautiful songs. So I wanted to prove that by keeping only the skeletons of the songs, the lyrics and the melody, and remix it completely differently. In order to prove that songs are timeless somehow.
Most of the time when you do a cover, it is something that is already known as a classic somehow. So I thought it was interesting to cover something that is normally not covered. Like Marian from Sisters of Mercy, Bela Lugosi’s Dead from Bauhaus, Friday Night Saturday Morning from The Specials. Those bands are not covered really. So I wanted to do a tribute to all of these bands in this era, because I wanted myself, to hear these songs differently.
IRR: What has been the biggest struggle with covering some of these groups?
MC: Most of the time it’s really easy because the songs are really good, even if you take I’ll Melt With You, with only two chords, it’s kind of easy. Sometimes, the struggle is that there is a song that I really love, for example Bella Lugosi’s Dead, that it’s not really a song actually. It’s just a little melody, almost no chords, so I have to struggle, and I have to really be imaginative and inspired to completely reinvent the song and try to find the different arrangement, or something completely different.
IRR: When you’re completely reinventing a song, what steps do you take to reach the goal you’re looking for?
MC: I’m trying always to start from something, like an idea. For example, Bella Lugosi’s Dead, suddenly I just get in my mind ‘okay… let’s do this song that could have been recorded ten years before for a movie, maybe a sci-fi aura movie’. And suddenly I get all of these images, the black and white screen… you know. So I just took the song and put the arrangement like the soundtracks of the 70’s.
I just get things in my mind, and suddenly I’m doing it, because I have a lot of things in my studio. It’s not that difficult to take the sound and attack one point, and it’s works like that. And if it works, I start looking for a singer.
IRR: Do you have a favorite song that you want to do?
MC: I’m a big fan of Japan, and their song Ghosts. But I don’t know exactly how to do it now. I’ve tried one or two different times and I wasn’t really happy, so I failed. I gave up. Not too many songs. It’s just a matter of an idea. One day I think ‘Oh! I have to do it like that’. I have to find some links between genres in many ways.
Ghosts, if it had been recorded before in the 20’s with a jazz singer, and we try it like that. It’s just a matter of ideas. There are a lot of bands that I like that are not on the album. There is no Madness, and I’m a big fan of Madness. I did a cover of Enola Gay from OMD that I didn’t put on the album. Also Devo… a lot of songs.
IRR: Aside from the songs that you cover, which artists do you gain inspiration from?
MC: To do a cover, I have to gain influence by something else, otherwise I will do the music like the original. The first album was really Bossa Nova, so I took my inspiration from Bossa Nova of the 60’s from Brazil. The second album I did a lot of research of the Caribbean sound, the mento, the calypso, reggae, ska, all this stuff. Also I’m a big fan of all the soundtracks, John Barry, Moriconi, etc. This new album we’re more into south country and western sound, bluegrass, Johnny Cash, this kind of thing. This is our reference.
IRR: The tour is wrapping up tonight. Do you have any memorable experiences this time around on tour?
MC: Probably the thing that happened that was incredible was Melanie, that is one of our singers, couldn’t come because she was pregnant. She was supposed to have her baby at the end of March. The bass player of the band is her husband. He thought that he’d come do the tour and that it would be okay because it would end on time.
Finally, in the middle of the tour in Seattle, he got a call in the middle of the night saying that his wife will have the baby, so he just quit the tour. So we did two gigs without bass. But it was nice, and went okay.
IRR: You’ve worked with various different artists for the songs on your albums. Are there any favorite artists that you’ve paired with and learned from?
MC: For sure. The members bring me inspiration for sure. When we recorded with Phoebe on the second album, she was already into this bluesy and dark thing. So I knew that she could perform Human Fly, and Bela Lugosi’s Dead, and this kind of track. It brought me inspiration as I adapt my style for artists like this.
IRR: What’s your plan from now since the tour is wrapping up?
MC: The idea is to go back to France and record a new album. We have now an idea to do a special album for America. Telling a bit of the story of punk, from New York Dolls, and maybe even from Iggy Pop, through The Talking Heads, Black Flag, and all of this stuff. We will start soon I think. The idea is to release that next year. So we’re going to tour with this album next year. There are a lot of things to say about American music.
When I was young, punk was English for me. It was in the British movement you know. It was a long time after that I discovered that punk was born in America finally, and that Malcolm McLaren was the manager of the New York Dolls, and that took everything from Richard Hell and imported it to England, with all the science of marketing, invented punk. But he just invented how to sell it in a way. But the roots are really from America, from Iggly Pop and all these bands. Nobody knows it. But it would be nice to say that.
IRR: How come France produces so many brilliant artists? It seems there is a huge influence from France by just the artists that come over here.
MC: We are a bit special, because we’re trying not to copy the English band and the American band, so we’re trying to have our own style. I think we have the audacity, to dare to do things a new way. Nouvelle Vague is a good example of that. I don’t think an English band can do that in the same way. If you think of Daft Punk, and Air, they have this ‘we’re going to do it!’ attitude ya know? We’re going to put these rock beats, and the synth, and we’re going to invent something.
I think in England and here in America, there’s a style, like R&B, Blues, Country, Rock, and you follow something. I think we are more open to try different things, because we don’t have these roots. We don’t have blues and such… maybe just jazz and some things. We don’t have the things to follow, so we just try our own new things and go after it like we have nothing to lose.
IRR: If you had one message to share with the world, what would it be?
MC: That’s difficult to say. Try to keep inspired by music and everything around you somehow. Keep on with inspiration. Because the inspiration that music is bringing to you is really important, even when you’re really young.
Icelandic indie rockers Seabear have delivered their newest full length listen, with “We Built a Fire.” Seabear started as the brainchild of Reykjavik song man Sindri Már Sigfússon until recruiting more members, transforming into a full unit. Gaining praise for their previous release, “The Ghost That Carried Us Away,” on label Morr Music, we were introduced to not another pseudo language-singing Icelandic noise rock outfit, but an indie songwriters feast.
Right away, I gravitated to the piano ballad “Cold Summer,” with its dreamy strings and simple piano progression. It spoke easily of Sufjan Stevens or The National, in its rich horn washes. The Sufjan Stevens comparison that Seabear so frequently gets, though, does them a disservice, as the music streams into commonly sailed waters. Soft whispering vocals, which could easily be found in something like Stevens himself or Doveman, are delivered without any originality or gusto. Taking lead vocalist Sigfússon seriously is quite a task, when he conjures up a mental image of falling asleep at the microphone.
Breaking away from the droning nature of the album is the upbeat folk jam, “Wooden Teeth.” Peppered with bluegrass fiddle and trickles of banjo, this song brings a rise in energy so deserved in the album. There are a handful of gems in this coal mine, those being “Cold Summer,” “Wooden Teeth,” and “Warm Blood.” Without those songs in the mix, coupled with no focus to the track listing on your iTunes display, one could easily confuse this album with a handful of 25 minute songs.
I realized that the strength of the album was really its lush and organic production, coating the album like a thick jam. Unfortunately, dreamy and layered production still doesn’t trump solid song craft. Again and again I found myself hearing the production of other bands on top of hollow husks, masquerading as songs. Overall this album left me wanting more, regardless of its sleek instrumentation and vague beauty.
1. Tell us about the band?
Well, there’s a lot to tell. We’ve been doing this together for a while now. Going on 5 years I think. Let’s just say we are four relatively average, slightly eccentric, wildly excited guys that get together at least once a week to play rock songs. We also get in a Ford Van (by Ol Elegante) and drive to rock clubs all around the U.S. We record new songs when it’s time to do that. Then we call Travis at the record label. He helps us a lot.
2. Have you ever been fed up with playing music or with band members, why?
There was this guy in my band one time. He was a dick.
3. What was your first concert experience? Do you remember how you felt once the concert was over?
Billy Idol. At the end of it I cried Monk.
4. Did you grow up wanting to play music, or when did the whole making albums thing come about and how?
When I was ten, I put two boom boxes face to face, covered them with pillows and made a copy of my sister’s Billy Squier tape. That’s the first thing I ever tried to record. It was exciting.
5. What qualifies you guys to be in a band?
I was the Captain of The Pinafore in 5th grade. Keelan was a great pitcher at Clanton high school. Lester had a mohawk and a reverse mohawk at the same time. Jake’s mom is originally from California.
6. Do you have a favorite song you have ever written? Why?
Country Roads by John Denver. John and I wrote that one after a long day of cross-country skiing. And there was a basset hound sleeping on the porch. I was talking to Yoko Ono the other day and she said sadly “I really miss John.” I know how she feels.
7. What is your greatness weakness as a band?
Folk music. We are NOT an alt-country band godplamit!
8. What qualities should a successful label or manager have?
A hard working, well intentioned, big tittied, people person who knows how to make things happen and believes in those he represents.
9. What’s the scariest thing that has ever happened to you in your life?
Keelan had a near death experience one time due to anesthesia complications while having hand surgery. He said that he saw the light. Seriously.
10. What’s the first thing you do when the band arrives in a new town while on tour?
Go to Ho Jo.
8:30 Leave HoJo to go to the club.
8:45-11:30 Standing around shooting the shit waiting for our turn to play.
11. Have you ever had an audience member give you the willies because they kept looking at you all weird?
David Baker. Before I knew him. And Trey from 13 Ghost. After I knew him.
12. Have you ever cried while listening to music? If so what were you listening too?
I have cried during many movies. I feel that the emotion that the music adds to the scene is one of the main jerkers of tears of all the elements in a movie.
13. If you could re-record, or re-write any song of yours what would that song be?
I put out a solo album in 2003 called “Chandelier”. It was a “learning experience”.
14. What’s the worst place you have ever played a show at, and why?
There have been many shows that we’ve had to chalk up to paying our dues. But, what makes any bad show worse is a.) You’ve traveled a long way to get there and b.) If the people at the club are flatly unfriendly. There are certain places that we’ve really grown to love because the people at the club are so great to us: The Hummingbird in Macon Georgia, The White Water Tavern in Little Rock, Arkansas, and The Bottle Tree here in Birmingham, AL all come to mind.
15. In a perfect world how many albums would you have to sell to be happy?
Happiness is complicated.
16. What do you guys have planned for the future?
SXSW parties in March, including the Birmingham party on Friday the 19th. We’re touring to Chicago at the end of March. New York in April. Then taking some time to record our 3rd full length.
17. What music do you listen to when you are having a bad day?
18. If you had your life to live over again, what one thing would you change?
I would not have kicked that kid in the balls when I was in fourth grade. Wherever you are, I’m sorry.
1. Tell us about the band?
I write the songs. My brother and father are pretty much the main stays as the backing band. The other backing members change for each record and live.
2. Have you ever been fed up with playing music or with band members, why?
Surely. Bad show. Small crowd. Bad performance. If on tour, if someone becomes a liability it can be annoying.
3. What was your first concert experience? Do you remember how you felt once the concert was over?
The first I remember was Weird Al and the Monkeys. Complete.
4. Did you grow up wanting to play music, or when did the whole making albums thing come about and how?
My brother and I started our first band in 94. That’s when it really started.
5. What qualifies you guys to be in a band?
Nothing
6. Do you have a favorite song you have ever written? Why?
That’s like asking if you have a favorite child. Just kidding. I have three kids. Wish I could remake two of them. Again. Kidding.
7. What is your greatness weakness as a band?
We don’t play the game.
8. What qualities should a successful label or manager have?
Depends on your definition of successful.
9. What’s the scariest thing that has ever happened to you in your life?
Passed out drunk in the middle lane of the Verrazano Bridge. Driving.
10. What’s the first thing you do when the band arrives in a new town while on tour?
We have no routine
11. Have you ever had an audience member give you the willies because they kept looking at you all weird?
If I did, I don’t remember
12. Have you ever cried while listening to music? If so what were you listening too?
Yes. Creed
I just don’t get what these guys are trying to do. Johnny Whitney and Cody Votolato, members of the (now defunct) Blood Brothers, are releasing their sophomore album Hologram Jams but I wasn’t impressed with the first album so I hoped that this follow-up would be more structured and filled with better quality songs. Listen, simply put I don’t know what these guys are trying to make. Without trying to make too many comparisons to The Blood Brothers, these guys are both great musicians, and have written some amazing songs but I don’t know what this is.
What am I supposed to call this album? Electro? Electro-rock? I guess. The songs are structured like electro-pop songs, but give a listen to a track like, “Don’t die alone” and you begin to wonder what the hell they were trying to make. I’ll give them credit for making chord progressions I wouldn’t have thought could go together. But I think I’m right when I say their chord progressions shouldn’t go together.
Johnny Whitney’s voice has always been high and shrill, but the voice in this album makes me cringe. He is often times off key, and his attempt at singing Janice Joplin’s – Piece of my Heart makes me wish I had just listened to it at my local karaoke bar. The singing sucks.
The songs are not dance-able and that is a huge thing for electronic music. You need to be able to make people dance and I’m sure Jaguar Love delivers a very strong live performance, but I don’t know how people can really get into moving and dancing with the songs that this album bestows.
If they hadn’t been in one my favorite bands before, I would have passed by this album like it was nothing. From such great writers I expect better material. I’m happy that they’re making music that they love to write, and sharing that with fans, but old fans will dismiss this album, and I just don’t believe this album will bring any new ones.
IRR – Sorry for interrupting your breakfast, what are you having by the way?
Krista – Oh, no problem. Well we were going to be having pancakes but the batter came out a little different so we turned it into savory crepes.
IRR – Wow, very impressed. Sounds slightly McGuyverish. Glad to hear that you didn’t require any gum or hairpins.
Krista – Nope, no hairpins or bomb detonators required.
IRR - Speaking of gum, hairpins and bomb detonators, YSP!WSD! is going on tour soon, right?
K – Yeah, we are starting on March 8th. First show is in Seattle. That tour is going to be about 5 weeks. Than we are home for a little bit and than we are off again. We are going to be on tour more or less for the rest of the year. But, we made some new rules for touring. We have to come home for 2 weeks after every 8 weeks of touring. That rule came about after a 4-month tour and we nearly lost our minds. We did a full Canada tour, than a month in England touring nonstop in a station wagon.
IRR – Wait, 5 people in a station wagon for a month?
K – Yeah, and we were touring with our friends, Los Campesinos! Than we went over to continental Europe for another month and than back to Canada and toured for 2 weeks back across Canada in the middle of Winter.
IRR – That is a long time on the road. What were some of the highs and lows from that period?
K – Well it became a blur so it’s kind of tough to remember all the highs but we had some great shows with Los Campesinos! And Sky Larkin. The lows would have to involve the fall out we had in Berlin. That was definitely a low point. That was the culmination of a lot of stress and we almost weren’t a band anymore. But we pulled it together for the rest of the tour.
IRR – Do you think that was due to the tight quarters and extensive tours or was it something that had been building up for a while?
K - It was a lot of things. We were pretty stressed from being on the road for so long and we were broke. I mean I had spent most of that month in Europe with wet feet because I couldn’t buy shoes. Being broke is pretty stressful. It was close quarters always and some personal issues got compounded in all that environmental stress. But after we worked it all out it has made things better. We are actually better friends and more like a family now.
IRR - So it actually became a positive thing than?
K – Yeah, we’ve come to a really positive place from it. And I think the whole driving force of this album is us coming through the hard times.
IRR – And with the release of the new album …… you are all embarking on a lengthy and huge tour.
K - Yeah, we are going to do the first 5 weeks in the US, than back home, than over to Europe, than over to Asia. Hopefully Australia. We are really excited to be going back to Asia though. We did a couple shows in China in 2008 and it was totally amazing. We spent about 2 weeks just in China. China has incredible excitement in the audience because it hasn’t been that long that bands have been coming over to China. I don’t think we were the first by any means but we were among them. The excitement and enthusiasm is so energizing and so incredible. And all the bands we played with were great. They were local Chinese bands.
Its not that often that all the bands you play with are great but they really were. It’s a totally different tour experience. You take trains everywhere. And every show involves borrowing whatever equipment you can to make it happen. It was a very renegade method. It was the experience of a lifetime. And I think we are headed back in spring.
IRR – Are you taking any other bands back with you?
K – As of right now it looks like it’s going to be just us playing with the local Chinese bands.
IRR – And who are some of the bands that you are touring with in the States.
K – We aren’t really touring with a set band. It looks like we are playing with different bands every night.
IRR – And how does the music selection in the vehicle on tour work? Is it pretty democratic or totalitarian rule by the driver?
K – We are pretty democratic but the driver does have veto power. We listen to a lot of different stuff. Anything from SaltnPepa to Grizzly Bear to Neil Young to Metallica. Our tastes are pretty varied.
IRR – What new music out there right now are you into?
K – Well, I’m really really really into the new Beach House album. I love that song Gila. I can listen to it over and over again. I get like that with songs and albums. I think last summer I listened to Hounds of Love by Kate Bush for about 2 months straight. I get into them.
IRR – Well, let’s go even further back and talk about the formation of YSP!WSD!.
K – I think it was just before Christmas 2003 when we started jamming. That was just wintertime in Abbotsford. Super rainy and boring so we just started playing in Becky’s parent’s basement. Most of us had never been in a band before and didn’t know what we were doing. Stephen kind of led us through most of that. I had played piano before as a solo thing but being in a band was new to most of us. So we just played in basements and than played our first show the following April in Abbotsford where we all grew up.
We’ve all known each other forever being from Abbotsford. I think Devin and Darrin have known each other since birth. Becky knew them in High School, and I knew Stephen in High School so…
IRR – That is quite a while. Now we have heard that a lot of Vancouver is having split feelings over the Olympics. How is the band reacting to the Olympics up there?
K – Well, like most bands we are quite a mix of opinions and thoughts. It’s pretty rare when all 5 of us feel the same way about something. But what we decided to do was play some Olympic events and give some of our earnings to a local downtown organization that is helping those that are not profiting from the Olympics. And we aren’t trying to toot our own horns about that; we just want people to see that the Olympics aren’t helping everyone.
IRR – That’s great to see that you are giving back to the community right there. Well I feel like I have eaten up all your time since breakfast so I will let you go but looking forward to seeing you guys soon on the tour. Thanks so much!
Upcoming Tour Dates:
09-Mar – Seattle, WA – Chop Suey
10-Mar – Portland, OR – Doug Fir
12-Mar – San Fran, CA – Bottom Of the Hill
13-Mar – Los Angeles, CA – Echoplex
15-Mar – Phoenix, AZ – Rhythm Room
17-Mar – Austin, TX – Canadian Blast Party @ SXSW
17-Mar – Austin, TX – Pure Volume Showcase @ SXSW
18-Mar – Austin, TX – Casablanca Publishing / Maggie Mae’s @ SXSW
18-Mar – Austin, TX – Paper Bag Records Party / Speakeasy @ SXSW
19-Mar – Austin, TX – Consequence of Sound Party / Black Sheep Lodge @ SXSW
19-Mar – Austin, TX – Lose Control 2010 Party / Vice @ SXSW
21-Mar – Memphis, TN – Hi Tone
22-Mar – Atlanta, GA – The Earl
23-Mar – Charlotte, NC – Snug Harbor
24-Mar – Baltimore, MD – Ottobar
26-Mar – New York, NY – Knitting Factory
27-Mar – Boston, MA – TT The Bears
29-Mar – New York, NY – Piano’s
30-Mar – Detroit, MI – Pike Room
31-Mar – Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle
