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Mystery (Jets) Solved by Q&A

Oh those Mystery Jets - oh so mysterious! Their new single "Young Love" is out today!! Pretty much the moment they sent out a myspace bulletin (the night before V-day) announcing the arrival of their music video for the tune, I was plagued by four questions, but before we get to those, let's have a quick chat with William (who handles lead vocals on the track) shall we? He brings up stalking by the second question. Out to steal my heart a little?

Was "Young Love" written in response to a specific situation or an ode to young love in general?

Written more in general really, although there are a number of different situations over the past years which the song draws from. I'll keep the details under wraps....

If literally all you had to go on was the girl's name, would you really go door to door? Or would you have to know the name and maybe a few of said girl's acquaintances and general area of residence before taking up the task?

Yes, I would go from door to door, we're not lying you know. Obviously postcode and address details would be greatly appreciated, but then we are getting into stalker territory aren't we?

What is currently the most perplexing question on your mind? Can be related to anything at all... 

What colour shall I paint my walls?

How important is your blog to you and why?

Really important; it's where all our little passions come out. All the things we love get a mention on it. It's good to write with an awareness of other people reading it. It's a discipline.

How many blogs do you subscribe to?

I subscribe to none, but read lots of music blogs.

Back to the video at hand for "Young Love":

My questions upon watching were:

1) Is it truly possible to love them more?

2) Are they themselves sure they've collaborated with Laura Marling and not say... Emmy the Great?*

3) Gasp!!! Has resident patriarch Henry left the band? He's noticeably absent from the video...

4) And who is the director?

For a few, the answers came to reveal themselves in a multitude of different ways:

1) Ummm.... apparently yes. Rather unsurprisingly enough. That was answered in the first second.

2) *=Not a serious question in the least... just a reference to being on the Patrick Wolf/Lightspeed Champion tour trail with Dev in November. Everyone got confused when it came to his Lavender Bridge collaborator. At one point in Bristol he took a quick call from Emma during a radio session. He then informed the DJs that he hadn't talked to her almost since their time in Omaha and that she was talking about their song "Everyone I Know is Listening to Crunk" during the short convo. Minutes later he was asked if Laura Marling had supplied the female vocals for his tracks. Weren't you just listening???

3) Henry's still in the band!!!! I guess I just don't brush up on their Wikipedia often enough, but some mysterious folk by the name of 9 & 12 supplied me with the positive answer. Just cutting down on live and press appearances, but very much still apart of the band!

4) Still unknown.... But as Scully and Mulder have taught me, the truth is out there...

Buy "Young Love" digitally today or pre-order the single in physical form. All 3 formats for only 4 pounds or 4 thousand USD (nah.. only a little more than eight dollars, but it feels like 4K). 2 x vinyl plus the CD single is out on March 10th.

I spent my Sunday dancing along to multiple versions of "Diamonds in the Dark" and Lykke Li's "Little Bit." You can too:

"Diamonds in the Dark (Dusty cabinets Remix)" Mystery Jets MP3

Linktime, linktime, linktime...

Mystery Jets Blogspot: Behind the Bunhouse - we may differ in opinion on MGMT (they like 'em, me...ehhh...) but have many other bands in common from Band of Horses to Arcade Fire in the live realm and they were one of the first to note the brilliance of Late of the Pier back in February 2007 and then revisit the band again in June talking up "The Bears Are Coming," which I got Late of the Pier themselves to talk up

Mystery Jets myspazz

They DJ!

I bumped into William at the Klaxons afterparty at Kitts in December in London

I filmed Mystery Jets doing a magical in-store at HMV in Glasgow back in March 2006. Watch it!

As for William's great paint dilemma, I'm thinking he should select a nice green tea shade of paint. It's proven the most calming plus it looks pretty cool and can accent nearly anything. Oh, and to avoid bright red at the very least...

To help:
Restful color schemes you'll just love waking up to

Let nature inspire colour choices

How many other music blogs are linking to paint selection articles today?

Late of the Pier Chat, Video and "Choon"

(Photo by Alistair Allan)

I love me my Late of the Pier! I want to swig cheap wine with them and have wanted to for approaching a year now; ever since I stumbled upon a NotGL reader who had "The Bears Are Coming" on their myspace page. That page view opened me up to their Nottingham madness.

It was a bit of a bummer I didn't connect with them while in the UK at the end of 2007, but I'm sure the opportunity will present itself sometime on the near future. It better! I have occasionally emailed with them - first about "The Bears Are Coming" and most recently when I was writing about them for URB Magazine's "Next 100" issue due out in March. I had a bit of info on my hands, but I went straight to the source for a fun exchange. Here's what Late of the Pier had to say:

What is your connection to Metronomy and have you recorded more with Erol than just "The Bears are Coming?"

Hello Nilina, we're with Erol right now, he's recording our album.

We played with Metronomy about a year ago, and became friends. Joe says he's a father, but we just consider him a really cool but slighty unhinged uncle. He's remixed "The Bears..." and it's the best remix I've ever heard.

How long have you been a band and how did you form i.e. were you all friends through school, etc. ? Why did you form?

We grew up in the same village and shared a passion for music and alchemy. Now we're trying to chase a career in both passions. Gold music, or just fools gold music... Either way we're having fun and we no longer live in the village.

Are they kings of the pull quote or are they kings of the pull quote? "Slightly unhinged uncle," "a passion for music and alchemy,"Now we're trying to chase a career in both passions." !!!???!!! Gold I tell you! Gold! I so want to talk to them in-depth as they have interesting things to say and interesting ways of saying it.

Oh wait - I think they're already kings. At least in their brand new video out for "The Bears Are Coming":

Directed by some guy by the name of Saam. Hmm...never heard of him... hahahahaha

Now, let's go back to the bit about the Metronomy remix. I went on a mad search for it, found it and then got hit by what felt like a ton of bricks. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I still can't. It was actually a Metronomy remix. A remix. I've never heard one of those before.

We all know I have an extensive collective of Metronomy tracks, from Britney Spears covers, to "remixes" of Kate Nash, Bright Eyes and the Infadels, but never have one of those remixes every sounded like a remix. Ever. He takes them and make them sound like whole new tracks, like Metronomy tracks just with said bands' vocals. His remix of "The Bears Are Coming" actually sounds like a remix in the casual sense of the word. Not in the Metronomy definition of remix.

Oddness. You can download his "The Bears Are Coming" remix for free at online label RCRD LBL.

And I'm oh so thankful for it because it truly caught me by surprise and made me go through every "remix" I have of his to discern whether this had a occurred before - a remix sounding like a remix as opposed to an entirely new track. That action reintroduced me to his remix of Hot Club de Paris' "Clockwork Toy." In just days it racked up 82 plays in my itunes when previously I'd only gone through the first minute and stopped. That track is sheer brilliance! Thank you Joe Mount for remixing "The Bears Are Coming" to sound like an actual remix and in turn giving your other remixes that had somehow escaped my attention a new lease on life for me! That's clearly the reason you did it, right? hahaha

Here is their original version of "The Bears Are Coming." By original, I mean even pre-Erol production:

"The Bears Are Coming" Late of the Pier MP3

They've got a load of other tracks on their myspazz. So much so that they sent a bulletin around about 'em at the beginning of this month:

Date:     Feb 1, 2008 9:22 AM
Subject:     new choooooons
Body:     well. sort of.
finally put up the single version of The Bears Are Coming, lovingly fondled by our second daddy mr erol alkan.

also posted one of the remixes from the mighty Emporer Machine (I love it. I really really really love it.)
along with an amazing remix of Bathroom Gurgle by our favourite BreakBot.
'ave a ganders.

also put up a new demo of Heartbeat. we've reworked it slightly for the album. let us know your thoughts on it please.

kissy kissy
x

Late of the Pier myspazz

Vocab of the day:
alchemy -
• the medieval forerunner of chemistry, based on the supposed transformation of matter. It was concerned particularly with attempts to convert base metals into gold or to find a universal elixir.
• figurative a process by which paradoxical results are achieved or incompatible elements combined with no obvious rational explanation

Oh, and is that Final Fantasy I spy? Since when does Owen Pallett have a twin?

A No Age kinda day

(Somehow I have resisted the urge to draw hearts all over the picture given I just love them so much)

So my last Monday of January was spent in dedication to my favorite Los Angles duo. Literally. From 3pm to 2am I was pounding the pavement to take in their couplet of live shows and get personal with them in an interview for Pitchfork.

I'd lost my camera the night before at the noisy Night Wounds / failed Feather Figure show I threw at Towne Lounge. I left my apartment a little past three to go fetch it and then boarded a bus in route to Food Fight!, the grocery store No Age would be playing come 6 after our interview due to start at 5. I got to 41st and Division a couple minutes past 5 - as I'd already told guitarist Randy I would due to bus schedules, then wandered around with aim, but unsuccessfully to find the vegan storefront.

Luckily I had my computer with me (to record our scheduled interview) and luckily there were a million networks of free wifi so I again googled the store and again the address popped up dictating that indeed 41st and Division was the correct address, so I called. And Food Fight! had moved 3 months ago! To 12th and Stark. Whoo! Someone's gonna be late! I hopped on the 4, got off and transfered to the 70 and made it into the store a little past 5:30. At that point less than a handful of the faithful were gathered, but by 6 attendees had swelled to capacity.

The set was exactly what you'd expect from No Age playing in a vegan grocery store - obviously awesome! Dean rocked a T-shirt proclaiming "Fleetwood Mac" that looked like instead of being made from spray paint, that it'd come into existence via those Blo-pens you can get at specialty craft stores. Randy scaled some freezers to get his rock on and film crews from Vice's internet channel VBS.tv were there to record the action.

A full on mosh developed as did some crowd surfing according to a bandana accessorized Elliott who got lifted to the top of it. The aftermath left from such festivities included smashed glass jars of garlic and tomato paste that smelled entirely too good to someone (i.e. me) who had already grown hungry having to look at Amy's Kitchen products behind Randy and my favorite Tasty Bite next to Dean. There were so many smiles the entire time from No Age, the audience and employees alike.

After a quick detour to Whole Foods for some food and a purchase at Powell's of my first writing credit in URB Magazine (turn to page 40), it was off to the Wonder for No Age's 9pm set. Randy got his Lil' Wayne on by rocking some faux tattoos - including a tear drop beneath his eye.

I expect three next time! You can't get a Source, Vibe or XXL cover with only one. Dean ate a banana onstage before almost throwing up hahahaha. Oh yeah - they were playing music right? How did that go? Well... fun! At one point they kinda turned it into a pep rally at your local (hopefully long-forgotten by now) high school - splitting the audience in two and conducting shouts after some random occurrence (which I forget now) put the idea in their head. They were laughing as they did it and Dean shouted a facetious "Don't do drugs" into the mic before they chugged into their next song.

The set was again interactive just as it had been at Food Fight! and when I saw them supporting the Teenagers in London in December. Randy strummed some chords from inside the audience and then closed the set by handing off his guitar to someone in the immediate crowd while he controlled the distortion pedals from onstage. Dean got out from behind his drumkit for some singing front of stage. There was climbing too and general playfulness that makes you not want them to leave when their time on stage (and off) has elapsed to a close.

From onstage they'd announced a contest for best band name created during the night. The prize? A No Age tote bag! And I won - cue confetti and streamers! Their merch guy Jordan who bestowed me with the title rocks all around - from letting Elliott and I store our stuff with the merch to his obscenely terrific tailored skinny jeans. I don't know which of my band names won, but my entries were (in no particular order):
Space for Rent (an ode to Who Made Who song)
Lisa Frank Stickers
Valentines Day Massacre Part 2 (more of an ode to a rave Manny from Atole threw at age 15 than to the infamous shoot up)

Afterwards, Randy seemed partial to Lisa Frank Stickers, so expect a No Age remix EP under the name to drop sometime in the near future. I'm serious. Just you watch. I've already drawn the CDR artwork.

Eventually we settled down for the interview with a gaggle of No Age friends until the Wonder kicked us out five minutes into it in oder to close. We then boarded No Age's mini-van. First off, I didn't get to ask why they changed the background color of their blog from white to black (I found the former more inviting) or about the emphasis (or lack of) on vocals/lyrics in No Age, but there was some talk of Daoism, Bill Cosby and of course talk of having children. Don't you love how I added the "of course?" Don't you love that it came up multiple times more?

The interview was pretty personal and was in relation to their music as opposed to strictly about it. Those are the conversations I prefer. Of the interviews I've done, one I did over two hours in the basement of Berbati's with Sam from the now defunct band Hope of the States and the one I did in April with Simon from Klaxons have been my favorites. I.e. the ones where you get to know a little bit of what the person you are talking to is about instead of just surface stuff that you can and will find in any glossy publication over and over again over the promotion cycle for the album.

I really respect musicians that refuse to put up a barrier between bands in fans, which was a personal conviction of Hope of the States and what initially drew me to wanting to speak with No Age. That and their bevy of pop-culture references from the stage in London.

It was a really great conversation scheduled for a half hour and that ended up lasting well over the hour I was able to record before my computer died. It was great too - because we weren't all just hearing each other, we were listening to, made obvious by us all referencing things others of us had said earlier as basis for whole new points and questions. Boy is it gonna be a bitch to transcribe! And it was already due! Whoo!

At the end of the evening No Age drove me home!!! SO SWEET! I thought it was sweet enough that Dean was driving me downtown to catch a cab since the last 6 and 4 from the area had long gone past, but when we got downtown and I said they could drop me off on a corner, Dean said they'd just drive me the whole way since he didn't want me to have to stand out in the rain waiting for one. All the way to SW! - almost Washington County when the venue had been in NE and they were also staying in NE! So nice!!

I learned a lot during the chat, not only about No Age, but about myself too. When we were driving home, Dean asked me if I'd always lived in Portland and I gave a mini-run down of my moves starting as a kid. He said that he found my life exciting since he's always lived in LA and that while some people think being a touring band is exciting, he doesn't find it so much so - it just is what it is and asked if it was the case with mine whether I find it "exciting." I noted a few horror story hallmarks from my time living in Glasgow. Afterwards I also noted how I was just there again and really enjoyed my time there this past time around. In that realized for the first time I don't find moving blindly to international locations exciting, but I do find traveling exciting. Really exciting!! Maybe because there's also a timeline attached as opposed to being stranded in Scotland on a one-way ticket and not being able to afford to leave for a year and a half.

Dean has this combination of optimism and idealism that's anchored to realism, but not anchored by it. I see a difference.

Earlier he talked about a free beach tour he wants to do and I'm thinking he needs to get in touch with Harry and the Potters and glean some tips from them about their annual free library tours.

Randy Randall (god I love that that name exists) had so much progressive stuff to say about pretty much everything - elections, the realistic power of a rock band and tons of other stuff, but I was most enthralled by two of his points. One being about his desire to do a zine about free health care in the US and where it is available in each city. That is still in the idea form, but I'm hoping he brings it to a physical state because I know a lot of people would benefit. I have all of Portland's info already ready. He also talked about talking to moms. More on that once the interview runs.

When I got out of the mini-van outside my place, I felt like hugging Dean who got out to help me out. I felt like I really knew them and it was like saying goodbye to a friend I wouldn't see for a while.

What were my final words to the duo?
"I want you to meet my mom!" You know - without explaining that she lives in Seattle and not at the apartment they've just dropped me off at hahahaha And because our conversation had been along the lines of what me and F Mason already talk about.

God - I am such a geek! Love it! Love them!

My Pitchfork photo post (including Liars action)

My photo post of Food Fight! shots on LocalCut

No Age's blog post on Portland

Food Fight! Youtube action

"You Is My Hot Rabbit" No Age MP3

No Age myspazz

Simian Mobile Disco Interview

My Simian Mobile Disco Feature Interview ran on Pitchfork while I was still in the UK in the beginning of December. Below it the audio, outtakes and a link to the interview on Pfork + a SMD remix MP3.

Back in September I had a mighty fine chat with James Ford - he of Simian Mobile Disco and producer to the stars - indie stars that is. I'm IN LOVE with him... like since before meeting him. When did the love affair begin? Well, when he produced Test Icicles' album For Screening Purposes Only. Our names both appeared in the album booklet - mine cause I did the band portraits and his because he handled the production in France. I had to know more, but his name was pretty scarce on the internet at that time - mid-2005 - and only a few results returned for Simian and a few remixes of his led me to the Piccadilly Records site where I truly fell in love with electro. On the same page, a track from New Young Pony Club was displayed serving as my first and fateful introduction to them in the form of "The Get Go."

So James and I sat back in Diplo's dressing room at Neumo's in Seattle because theirs was even shittier and spent near an hour discussing songs, remixes, production and song requests when they DJ all the while surrounded by rude yet hilarious drawings on the mint green walls.

You can read the interview on Pitchfork for the above topics, plus song titles, their first "Hustler" video, just how busy James is and spy a photo I took them taking their name far too literally. What can I say? I'm obsessed with props!

Here are a few out-takes that didn't appear on Pfork about guest-vocalists and whether he will find himself down a rabbit hole as Paul Epworth did with so many production credits to his name currently flying around:

In terms of making the tracks with guest vocalists, how does that happen - do you make the music first?
We really didn't know how we wanted to incorporate vocals, we just knew that we probably wanted some vocals. It's actually really hard to get vocals over electronic music. Generally as DJs, we'd always play the instrumentals of things, but we knew for the album we wanted to have vocals on there.
Basically what we did, its we'd get people in that we knew, or that we knew as friends of friend. Get them in for an afternoon, play them four or five bits that we'd been working on that were at various levels of completed-ness and got them to pick one that they liked the most and try to write something there and then. That's a hard thing for people to do really. We had varied levels of success. The ones that were most successful are the ones that made it on the record. I think the most song-y one was the one from Simon Lord - "I Believe." I think mainly because we've had a history of working with him and he sort of knew roughly what to do.
Same with Barry from Clor. We'd done a little bit of work in the past, so we were already on a wave length. Some of them were way off the mark. We tried out quite a lot.
It was weird how we did it. We didn't want to get anyone who was really sort of famous, or successful, or really more famous than us, because we didn't want it to be about collaborations. We wanted it to be our record and there were some voices on there as opposed to "Hey - it's Simian Mobile Disco featuring -

Kele from Bloc Party."
Yeah. We could've probably gotten Kele on it if we'd wanted because he records in the same studio and he's really good and blah blah blah. It would've just been a bit... Especially with me being an indie producer it would've seemed like getting people in for the sake of it.
In terms of how we work with vocals in the future, I really don't know what will happen. We'll just see.

As a producer, you're working with so many acts. Has it ever crossed your mind, "I hope I don't encounter the Paul Epworth curse?"
What is the Paul Epworth curse? 

Granted he's now come back with Kate Nash, but after he hit success with Futureheads, Bloc Party, Maximo Park, etc. nobody new worked with him and none of the bands whose debuts he produced didn't do their second albums with him. So many acts that your working with, specifically Klaxons, are so adamant that you work with them on their future releases.
The thing is I've got a lot of respect for Paul and I think he's really good.

I agree!
I think the main negative thing that maybe counts against him is that he was apart of a sound and part of a particular type of band.

And you're kind of genre-hopping.
For me, I've always enjoyed, like you say, genre-hopping or not having a sound in a way. I think that Paul has really diverse music taste and can do that, but maybe the bands he chose and that particular time were all similar sort of bands whereas hopefully the bands I'm choosing are broader and the stuff I'll do in the future is... If you ever get into the situation we've got into where you're a - inverted commas - Hot Producer - there's bound to be a period six months later where you're the opposite of a hot producer. I'm very much expecting that to happen to me. I think the only thing you can do is to try to keep making records that you like. There's nothing you can do beyond that. The rest is all out of your hands.
The good thing about being a record producer and making music, your always judged by your last record. You make a really good record - hopefully people will see that and that's what you get judged on - that's what it says on the tin. I think that's a really good thing.

And you can listen to the interview yourself:

Simian Mobile Disco Audio Interview MP3 (48:22)

*For those of you new to my audio interview bandwagon, I have the tendency to say "yeah" and other similar words in response. It feels weird to stay completely silent only nodding my head in agreement and I'm exactly not gunning for a career in radio y'all. Preteens on forums seem to harp on it when my interviews get reposted (not that I think this one will), so that's the reason for the disclaimer...

Afterwards they DJed, came back down and got completely trashed. James is so cheeky - when the evening wound down he began to leave, then stopped to bow his face right in front of me waiting for a kiss. He didn't leave until he got one hahahahahaha. Both in looks and personality, he is quite the character.

Two more question and answer outtakes:

With remixes, offers, and people approaching you - are you picky with that?
Picky mainly because we don't have any time to do anything. If we do a remix it has to be something we really, really want to do as opposed to something we think just might be okay. Literally, we don't have time to. We've always done remixes rather quickly. We've always done them in a day or a couple of days. Literally it's like, you've got from mid-day today until you get on the plane tomorrow night or something, which is kind of dangerous. You can quite easily do something that is okay, send it off, and it's out there, which we've don't a couple of times. It's not a nice feeling. We're trying to say "no" as much as possible [right now].

Do you have favorite remixes that you've done?
To me, remixes are pretty throw-away, but in a good way. I kinda like that. I think that's why we don't spend that much time on them. For me they're almost function.  It's almost like make a song, do a job. It's like making it work on a dance floor. We've just done a Bjork remix [of "Innocence"] that I like, maybe just cause it's newest.

"Innocence" (SMD Remix) Bjork MP3

Simian Mobile Disco myspazz (how much do I love how many months Chromatics have been in their top friends?)

My flickr photoset of the evening (spent alongside Diplo and Switch as well)

The Horrors Interview

I didn't take any photos of the Horrors, just one of Spider Webb interacting with fans. artStar was there (ie the glitterati from Fist Fite's first show).
After Spider Webb signed some autographs, we headed onto their tour bus where I proceeded to leave my computer bag after we were rushed to a close. By computer bag I mean Bumbershoot 2006 canvas tote that I was only using for the first time that day, complete with glow in the dark plastic vampire teeth inside.
While I was sehr impressed with their soundcheck, I didn't have enough personal investment in the band to go to their concert and I was sick from staying up pretty much the entire night before (what am I talking about? - entire week prior). Oh, and the fact that this interview was so uncomfortable and that the tour manager didn't seem to have anything together, so being left off the guestlist was a shoe-in. So my Test Icicles, Klaxons, Horrors trifecta was completed with this interview.

We talk vinyl, Glastonbury, photoshoots, and that canceled Black Rebel Motorcycle Club tour:

The Horrors Interview MP3 11 minutes

It's really funny because we walked back into the venue with Faris for their soundcheck and el Senor Webb totally gave me an exclusive on their next album. Did my MacBook record it? Hells no. Well a little bit actually - 50 seconds to be percise:

The Horrors Talk a little Second Album MP3

'She is the New Thing' The Horrors MP3

Sound on the Sound was there to catch their live show. Looks rather entertaining, but would you expect anything less from a band that leaves a trail of paint and wrecked art behind them wherever they tour?

The Horrors on Wikipedia

Klaxons Audio Interview

Battle of the hyphenated surnames!
Nilina Mason-Campbell vs. Simon Taylor-Davis

My first Pitchfork feature! It wasn't even for Pitchfork either. It was for this blog, but then I realized Simon was saying things that more than two people should hear (understatement, but you know what I mean) so I clued my Pitchfork editor Scott into it and he said the most magical words to my ears "You're right." Rewind to this time last month and it hit the site in pretty much a lot of it's glory.

Simon was sipping diet coke (which you can actually hear at times). I however had been drinking tequila upstairs where we hung out for a little bit just prior to pushing record. I can be inarticulate when intoxicated. I couldn't even remember Hunter S Thompson's name! "He does road trips. . . He writes about Vegas. . ." - that's as close as I could come to naming him! It totally reminds me of in Can't Hardly Wait when Amanda is asking about Preston at the party and the guys are like "He has hair. . . he wears shirts sometimes."
Yeah, so just keep in mind I was a little drizz-unk during this hahahahaa

It was supposed to be a half hour interview, but we ended up chatting for two hours (including some drawing with chalk time).
We talk about their next album, future tours, the recording of Myths of the Near Future, the merits of Metronomy, Test Icicles, limos, Test Icicles, Philip K Dick, Fist Fite, the Strokes, Japan, Test Icicles, screen-printing, his girlfriend (now wife) Lovefoxxx and a whole lot o' other stuff too including Test Icicles. It's long. Listen to it.

Klaxons Interview Part 1 MP3 One hour, 5 minutes

*Note that it stopped recording, so it gets sketch in continuity between part 1 and part 2 when we pushed record again

Klaxons Interview Part 2 MP3 7 minutes

And you know what? I'd totally sound like this and be acting out a scene from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat starring the incredible Donny Osmond (which you can't see with this MP3 obviously) tipsy or not.

Needless to say, I absolutely adore Simon.

For much of the text, head on over to Pitchfork.

When it was edited, it totally came down to how many Test Icicles references could be included. I of course was like, "more, more!"

Additional >>>>>>>>>>>>

Photos that sync with the interview:
The limo:

care of Simon

James pre-intervention:

care of Ollie

Boring yet interesting mic check on behalf of Simon (only click if you want to waste 19 seconds of your life. I however did learn something from it):

Simon Mic Check MP3

Can somebody PLEASE remix this? Hahahaha

Wanna know how much of a delusional Metronomy geek I am? Read the comments on this screen cap cackle cackle

First ever gig:

My how they've progressed

E*Rock: An Interview with Awesome

Behold, he who is E*Rock- most acurately described by Willamette Week as: "Portland's greatest unknown electronic music multitasker, ever."

Emphasis on greatest and ever

If you don't already know him by name, you'll be asking yourself how you don't as his relevance spans several acts and media. Probably his two most visible efforts to enter mainstream territory have been the release of the debut single 'Seventeen Years' from his brother's band Ratatat on his label Audio Dregs as well as the music video for the Gossip's 200K selling single 'Standing in the Way of Control' (not to mention one for Beck as well as the animation for a live action video for the Blow). He makes his own music, releases it as well as others' tunes on CD and vinyl over his two record labels, creates poster art and does so much else that's it's a bit hard to keep up with the chronicles of E*Rock.
Maybe you can follow along. . .

1. What was it like growing up in Nordenham?

Oh, I see you've done your research! Well yeah, it was cool, I guess.

2. a. Did you meet any celebrities while working on the cruise where you met your Fryk beat label partner? Who?

I met the guy from a popular TV show and his infamous wife! I tend to forget celebrity names. I'd like to see that Daft Punk movie that's coming out.

b. Share a story about one particularly memorable and/or strange meeting:

They were despicable human beings. When they weren't looking I put gum in their hair and farted in church and told God it was them.

3.How do the different partnerships in running each label vary?
Running labels is kinda boring business with lots of work for very little payoff. I'm going to take a little time off to work on music and other neglected projects, like music and drawing and video. Don't get me wrong, I'll still keep doing it, but there's less need for it than there was when I started. Everyone has a label these days and no one really has money to buy records.

4.What about the music or the artist makes you want to release their music?

Its mostly friends and sometimes you make a long distance friend and then you're like, hey let's do this! The label is about relationships and ideas, which is what music is about, which is all that life is about. We're all social creatures, more than most will admit. To me a label should be a little more than reproducing plastic discs though.

5.When will you be posting this year's mission statement on Audio Dregs?

Oh yeah, I keep forgetting. Maybe tonight? I'm making a note to myself right now.

-okay-I'm going to abandon the numbered format now-

How do you approach remixes? ie by what you feel the song could be or a desire for it to become a whole new entity, or for it to sound like only you could have made it, or . . .

Well, I usually remix songs that I already like, so I try and just
put my own take on it. I think of what sort of beat I would put in there if I was working on the song with that person. Some of the Panther songs I was working on the original with Charlie, so the remix was just trying to find a different way to approach something I had already thought hard about. I'm trying to finish a new mixtape of unofficial remixes, so I have to take acapellas and start more from scratch. My brother got me into that, and has a new mixtape out like that and I love it! Also DJ Copy is totally got me excited to do it as well. His mixtapes are totally crucial!

-What dictates what it will become?

Its like a puzzle. You listen to the the melody and see where it can go, or if it needs to get more dancey. Usually it needs to get more dancey. My brother sticks really close to the original song structure, whereas I never did, so I'm going to try that method. Keep it pop. Sometimes you gotta force the pieces to fit though.

Were you blogging elsewhere previous to your blog Light and Sound on Urban Honking?

No, though I had kind of a fake blog on the Audio Dregs site, like in 2000. It wasn't very good. I had a "news" part of the site and then I had a hidden "fake news" section, which was blog-like, but the word blog hadn't been invented yet. I was influenced by Mumbleboy's blog- like section at the time.

Did your friends at Urban Honking approach you or did you make the suggestion?

Yeah, when they started Jona asked if I'd like to do one, and I said no. I'm not a writer, and I don't really like writing about myself. I thought the whole blog as diary thing was weird, because I don't get into the whole "this is what I like, this is my opinion, blah blah, me me me..." thing. But then I was dating this girl that was doing a blog with Urho (loves made me do weirder things) and I was getting into Jona's tour diary blogs at the time too. So I realized I could just put up pictures with no text and that would be fine.

Also, as the economy got worse Kinko's made it harder to steal copies (Ed- Seriously, what is up with their pre-pay?) and this caused less people to do regular zines. Blogs sort of
replaced personal zines, and became the new zine.

Is your zine Thumb still active?

Its been dormant, but I'm planning to publish one more issue together with Yeti Publishing. Just as soon as I get some time.

You have a show coming up in June in Tokyo-will there be a theme? Will it be all 2d art or . . . ?

It's at Hanna gallery with my friend Mumbleboy. It'll be video with drawings, and some 3D stuff as well, made out of cardboard mostly.

Has anything (weird fan mail, . . .) resulted from your doing the video for The Gossip's 'Standing in the Way of Control'? When creating the video did you think they were soon to reach the international exposure that they have now? Were they involved in the concept?

The weirdest thing that resulted was a feature/interview for "video of the week" in the NME. Otherwise, nothing weird came out of it. The UK label didn't even like the video and wasn't going to use it at first. Then they used stills for a CD, 12" and 7" singles for the song and never sent me copies of the records! I even emailed them and they didn't write back. I've never seen the records in person even. I think its a good video, and a good song, but I don't think anyone had an idea they'd get so big. They're super stars in the UK and that's awesome.
I still haven't heard the entire record, Nathan said he'd give me a copy of the record on vinyl, so I never picked it up, but I haven't seen him in months.
Before we made the video I got together with the band and Maggie from KRS and we talked about a concept. What we came up with was "gayos", which is gay+chaos. That was all we came up with and I had like two weeks to get it done. So I painted a make-shift green screen, we shot some video, and Ben Jones and I made some animations and put it together in the last 5 days or so after that. It was a fun project.

Do you have a preferred creative medium?

email interviews.

Who are you currently listening to?

Ratatat, Copy, Kavinsky, Suicide, Chromatics, Sarcophagus comp, Boredoms, Eats Tapes, Yacht, White Flight... the usual stuff.

Please describe yourself in five words or less-as a complete sentence or just a jumble of words:

Mirror or window? You decide.

What can we expect in the rest of 2007 (related to you and/or anything that takes your fancy-- alien invasions? a new record for world's largest pumpkin? . . .)

I'm trying to make a book of art, another issue of Thumb, release a new record of some of my own music, a mixtape, a collaborative DVD with Ola Vasiljeva, and move to Berlin for the summer. I'd love to go on tour again someday. Also, there's a bunch of music videos in the works I'd love to finish.
I have no idea what will happen in 2007.

Thanks so much!

YEAH NO PROBLEM!

'Victory at Sea' Bobby Birdman E*Rock remix MP3

Buy the 12 inch here and visit Fryk Beat's myspazz to add the song to your profile. It's been up on mine for the past month.

Wanna stalk E*Rock? You should!:

Audio Dregs

Fryk Beat

E*Rock Homepage

E*Rock's youtube channel

Informative Willamette Week mini-Interview-find out the difference between Audio Dregs and Fryk Beat

Fratatat: Brothers Eric and Evan Mast joint interview

Yacht's Kancho Poncho Tour pics

Watch animation on Collective Jryk (a site made possible with a grant from Microsoft haha :) P.S. It'll make your eyes [insert antonym for bleed] in the same way/in the good way that Casette Playa's does (stylist to M.I.A., Klaxons, and sometimes Patrick Wolf)

Related, unrelated: Mumble Boy+Hanna Gallery circa 2004

Oh- and my live mention of E*Rock in March: Panther Album Release Show - where I shot the photos of him included in this post

Hot Club de Paris Walk the Interview Plank

Hot Club de Paris-the off topic interview

I've seen many a blog triumph this Liverpool trio and upon hearing 'Shipwreck' included in a Swish Blog podcast I am ready to too. Ahoy-here comes Hot Club de Paris' Paul ready to conquer the States, not ready to rock an eye patch. . . yet. Behold

Tell a creative story about a ship wreck, with this picture taken in Bowling Scotland as the basis:

"There was this ship, and like, all the crew like left in dead odd circumstances and like, no one knew where they went but like, some dude boarded the ship and found that the crew they must have like, got off the ship not long ago and he scratched his head and wondered how they did it. Or something."

Know any good pirate jokes?

I do actually:

"Captain Blackbeard was mortified at how middle class his new parrot was when it started squawking "PIECES OF AFTER EIGHT, PIECES OF AFTER EIGHT". I read that in Private Eye. I was then mortified at how middle class I was for doing so."

If you had the option to wear a gold plated eye patch for a week, would you wear it?

"Probably not. We're not really hip enough to accessorise."

What was the worse thing about the canceled dates for the Semifinalists and Jeremy Warmsley tour?

"The worst bit about cancelling the dates was that we didn't play any of the shows on the tour apart from the one in London."

Who are you favorite new bands in Liverpool right now?

"There's a new band called Go Faster who are fantastic [Ed.-yes they are fantastic]. Other bands that are amazing include SSS, Down and Outs (who Matthew from our band used to be in), Do Idea, Walk the Plank, Arms, Voo and 28 Costumes."

How did the deal with Moshi Moshi come about?

"They assembled the band through a series of auditions."

How did you pick your name?

"We had a list of names:

The Zutons
The Coral
Ladytron
Echo and the Bunnymen
Dead 60s
The Beatles
Hot Club de Paris

It turned out that there wasn't already a band from Liverpool called Hot Club de Paris, so we went with that."

If Hot Club de Paris were a breakfast pastry which one would you be and why?

"I'm afraid that I can't think of anything witty in response, I'm afraid. I'd be shit on Blind Date."

Any plans to conquer the States?

Yes.

Do you have any favorite blogs?

No. I'm not even sure what the internet is, yet.

What are your favorite Moshi Moshi releases?

"The first Hot Chip album is great, Tilly and the Wall are wonderful and the Architecture in Helsinki album is thoroughly astonishing. The release we're most excited about however, is Danananakyroyd's debut 7" "Totally Bone". They are currently the best band in Britain. No mess."

'Shipwreck' Hot Club de Paris MP3

Hot Club de Paris myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/hotclubdeparis

Arctic Monkeys Blast from the Past!-Mercury Prize Interview

Listen to them predict their Mercury Prize luck back in July 2005.

I recorded this interview with Matt and Andy before their gig at King Tut's in Glasgow on July 31st 2005. This is one of my favorite interviews, not only because of the heights they soon achieved, but also because of the many topics and opinions we touched on. Where else would I have found out they were a Blink 182 cover band when they started? And the fact that Laurence Bell of Domino approached them just as they were signing on the dotted line with another label. And ask them if they'd do a Les Savy Fav and release an album like Inches. Or that they found out about their record deal offers via text at work? Listen to me gawk at them pulling crowd of 1000 ha! They kind of were too when we talked about the album's release date. My times have changed. . .

Download Mercury Music Prize segment (MP3)

Download Entire Interview -25 minutes 52 seconds (MP3)

Two notes:
I posted the audio on the Arctic Monkeys forum and wow did they hate me! They didn't seem to realize that I, the poster, was the one on tape, but they really hated my American accent, and hated all the yeahs and uh huhs.
And yeah-if you listen to the full interviews-I know a lot of people have heard of Les Savy Fav, but none of their core fans at the time

NME: Arctic Monkeys win 2006 Mercury Music Prize

Oh no they Didn't: Looking heinous chic at ceremony

Related entry: 'Catch It'- Caught it and jumped on a bandwagon too. . .

Interview with the Subways-Oh Yeah Oh Yeah!

Last weekend I had a short sit down chat with Charlotte Cooper of the Subways about touring and their second album before they graced the stage at the Bite. Talking M.I.A. to the Dodgers, here are some excerpts as well as an mp3 of the interview to listen to and download below including a snippet of new song 'California'.

Do you find that you have a different work ethic in comparison to other touring bands?
"We just love it. It does annoy me a little bit when I see bands going 'Oh it's so hard.' It's like-well yeah, but don't you like doing it? We're doing this because we love it. We work really hard because we enjoy the hard work. It's amazing-it's an amazing opportunity to get to see these places and play to this many people. Get a bit more happy people-it's good."

Reveals an October All American Rejects tour
"The plan is just to stay out and record the album, but if we get an amazing tour offer then we'll obviously jump on that."

In regards to the Taking Back Sunday / Angels and Airwaves tour:
"It's so cool. The fans are so loyal. I suppose it's because the bands have toured so much they've built a real connection with them. That's the kind of thing that we want to build up. Just kind of. . . I like the way that even though these people have probably never meant the people in the band they feel like they kind of know them and I like that familiarity between the band and the fans."

In the songs that you're demoed, do you hear a change in the sound?
"Each song that we've written has been completely different. And something we're really enjoying at the moment is trying out new ideas that we never thought we could try before. That's definitely the way we kind of work-is that we have to try to make each one of them different-kind of a different mood and different atmosphere in each song."

Delving into the second album:
"We're thinking about it constantly. . . We're definitely always thinking about it."

On the break due to Billy's pallups:
"Went a bit crazy. It was kind of a very strange sort of time. All of a sudden we have all this idle time. The first week was really hard, we were like 'Oh my god-what are we going to do?'- kind of almost panicy."

How would you describe the band in 5 words or less for people that aren't aware of you yet, or even people that are?
"Okay. This is really lame:
The Subways love to rock."

They "feel so uplifted after shows," and hope that the audience "takes that away with them."

Charlotte reveals ambition to share the stage with Sonic Youth, Death Cab for Cutie, or the Like.

And on Pancake Mountain:
"Pancake mountain was awesome. Every band should go on Pancake Mountain. It's just the most fun you'll ever have. It's very very strange, but it's fun.
"I keep going on it and watching all the performances. I like the M.I.A one-I think that's awesome."

Stand out shows:
"The Big Day Out tour in Australia was amazing. Every time we go to Japan. Like we've been to Japan twice and it's just this massive whirlwind of four days. It's like you do gigs and you going partying and eat amazing Japanese food and you meet the crazy Japanese people. It kind of blows your mind. . . It's a different world-a completely different world."

Delight at my ill-timed cues in editing:
Download the Subways Interview MP3
Interview 13 minutes and 44 seconds

Click to delight in their performance on the ultimate of shows Pancake Mountain
You can get the DVD from Pancake Mountain's official site