Sound and Vision: My Interview with The Weather Underground

(Photo by Andy Tenille)


What do you get when you mix a cool band of four from the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles with a cool interviewer, a big couch, and a very people-friendly dog? Why a fun interview between myself and Harley Prechtel-Cortez, Ryan Kirkpatrick, Diego Guerrero, and Soichi Bagley of The Weather Underground of course.

However, I'm not sure that "interview" is the right word for it. I mean, ok, following their show here in Washington, DC I asked them questions about their band and they gave answers. But in reality it was more a friendly discussion amongst five people (and one ham of a dog) in the wee small hours of the morning about, well, everything: from the reason for Prechtel-Cortez's hyphenated and long last name to commentary on Los Angeles and its music scene; from a modern-day movie casting of “The Sun Also Rises” to who ranks higher, the Rolling Stones or The Who. It’s laid back, it’s a little sloppy in the camera work (this being the first time I used Mac’s iSight feature as a camcorder), it includes a dog’s obsession with a squeaky toy...and it's a charming laugh-riot. These are definitely four guys you'd want at your next dinner party.

The best part is that you truly get a feel for the personalities of each of these musicians. Razor-sharp smart and utterly hilarious, they’re a band of guys who are talented and serious artists but also incredibly grounded-no stereotypical haughty LA rock band here. They’re as tight off-stage as they are on, and it’s obvious they aren’t friends just because they’re in the same band; they’re friends because of who they are and the kinetic energy they share with each other. It’s a camaraderie that was wonderfully refreshing to witness.

The Weather Underground Interview, Part 1



The Weather Underground Interview, Part 2



The Weather Underground was generous enough to provide me with a currently unreleased track that they often end their shows with called "Leap Into the Void." This version, with Prechtel-Cortez alone on piano, is "a sort of minimalist Spiritualized gospel style version, the kind of stuff i'm usually a big sucker for," Prechtel-Cortez said.

Leap Into the Void (unreleased piano-gospel version)-The Weather Underground

Read my interview with The Weather Underground's Harley Prechtel-Cortez here.

Three Podcasts For Your Listening Pleasure: Airborne Toxic Event, Morning Benders, and Radars to the Sky

Sorry for the radio silence this week kids. I’ve been in the midst of editing a group of interviews that were supposed to go live this week until the subjects suddenly decided they wanted to be part of the editing process days in the 11th hour...grrr

So to make up for it, I’m sending you over to Web in Front for three really great show podcasts. They were each recorded 8-7-08 at the El Ray in Los Angeles.



I’ve only listened to The Airborne Toxic Event's set of the three thus far but you can totally hear what everyone who saw the show said about both Airborne's set and the entire night, this it was amped and incredible and something special. Those return readers of Between Love and Like know that we are big supporters of Airborne from way back, and have long raved about the power and intensity of their live show. This show at the El Ray is a prime example of what we've been yammering on about all this time. Plus, you get to hear the lovely addition of the Calder Quartet on the Airborne fan-favorites "Sometime Around Midnight" and "Innocence," the latter containing the only-played-at-LA-shows (it seems) intro piece called "Heaven."



The Morning Benders sound is an upbeat trio of Brit pop (tell me if lead singer Chris Chu doesn’t make you think of VGPS-era Ray Davies) and Beach Boys-California sunshine, with a dash of Elliot Smith. Their new record, Talking Through Tin Cans is great, as is their recent record of covers, The Bedroom Covers. (Looking forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks at the Monolith Festival boys!)



Then there’s Radars to the Sky. Everyone reading should absolutely download their podcast twice and give a copy to a friend, then immediately go get their latest EP, "Big Bang," that’s how great they are. Out of the Silver Lake area of LA like Airborne, Radars to the Sky’s music has this lofty, lovely front paired with a great rock back, and I’m keeping fingers and toes crossed that Radars and baby Spitzer show up at SXSW 2009. If all is right in the world, these guys should be the next big thing out of Silver Lake.

What an incredible lineup right?? All three podcasts can be snagged here.

Show Review: Devotchka @ 930 Club, Washington, DC (5-16-08)

With all the traveling back and forth to NYC as of late coming to a close for a bit (unless I see notice of The Henry Clay People or Radars to the Sky coming to the right coast of course), I'm finally getting back 'round to those posts/interviews from that "lost weekend" that went 31 days in May (grand jury duty). You may say, "Well what's the point now?" But ah my friends, the reasoning comes in my desire to share those things which were pure beauty. One of these things was seeing the Colorado band Devotchka live at the 930 Club on May 8th in support of their new release, A Mad and Faithful Telling.

Music is an interesting thing. Whether instrumental or when teamed with lyrics, it's got this incredible ability at times to touch something so deep inside...the hair stands up on the back of your neck or you get goosebumps, and you physically feel your breath catch when you're listening. That's what seeing Devotchka at the 930 Club was like for 90 straight minutes.

I’ll admit, I didn't really know much of Devotchka's music apart from “Queen of the Surface Streets,” the Little Miss Sunshine soundtrack, and a few tracks via the Hype. But they came highly recommended from some folks whose musical tastes I respect, so I thought what the hell. I fully expected a sold out show, but with the plethora of other shows that night (for example, Los Campesinos! down the street), there was actually room to move around some, and we got quite close to the stage.

Devotchka came out and a small woman in sparkly bathing suit threw roses from the stage. To watch a rock club crowd lose its collective mind over someone playing an accordion was a little surreal-I'd only ever seen this much excitement over an accordion before at Oktoberfests and when the Hungarian side of the family got together when I was a kid--but I must stress how worthy of the adulation it was, Tom Hagerman’s playing was seriously amazing. And it wasn’t just an accordion he rocked. Each of Devotchka’s main musicians plays multiple instruments, and not always those of the same family: Jeanie Schroder plays upright bass AND tuba (yes, I said tuba); Tom Hagerman plays accordion AND violin; Shawn King drums AND trumpet, and lead singer Nick Urata guitar AND saw. How they use these instruments also differs from those one expects to see in a rock band- it’s not a bass guitar keeping the rhythm with the drums, it’s a tuba. Instead of a lead guitar shredding solos, it’s a violin or an accordion. And on top of it all was Urata’s voice; my god, Urata’s voice was probably the loveliest instrument of the group. It made me think of twilight, that time where it’s not quite day and not quite night, and can be sultry and keening, dark and dangerous, heartbreaking and sad, and exciting and fevered, all at once.

As a collective, Devotchka created music that was at times racing and swirling and fast paced with the accordion leading the charge, whipping the crowd up and carrying them along, and other times, what came off that stage was insanely haunting and lush and beautiful. Mere words wouldn't do it justice, but you knew it was something powerful and amazing because you could feel your soul sobbing from the sheer emotion of it all.

On the whole, the audience was loving it, though I did see some filtering out towards the encore. Which made them fools because they missed the encore, and the encore was something you had to see to believe.

From the ceiling’s lighting rigging came a long red silk scarf that went to the floor. A woman appeared, the woman who’d thrown the roses out into the crowd earlier in fact, and she started to climb up the material, stopping some 30 feet up. It’s probably obvious to say that anyone thinking of filtering out stopped dead in their tracks with this. Devotchka started to play, providing an instrumental backdrop to this amazing aerialist’s performance as she literally danced in mid-air, leaving the crowd literally slackjawed in awe and delight.





After her descent, opening act Basia Bulat came out to join the band for a raucous “My Brother’s Blood,” into the ethereal “You Love Me,” which was complemented with amazing mariachi-style horns. Urata and company then waved goodbye to the crowd, swigging from a bottle of red wine, sending the crowd off into the DC night to love and to live and to dream of the foreign lands of which Devotchka sang.

If you haven’t already guessed, Devotchka isn't your everyday group in terms of sounds or instruments. Look up Devotchka in the dictionary and following its first definition of “girl/Origin-Russian,” the second definition is a picture of these guys with the words “a musical and emotional phantasmagoria of multicultural influences.” In this day and age of songs remaining the same, it’s nice to know there’s a band out there who can still give you goosebumps.

(Devotchka is currently out on tour supporting A Mad and Faithful Telling and will be performing at the Monolith Festival in September.)

"My Little Underground" or "How Friggin' Incredible is the Silver Lake Music Scene?"

This past Tuesday, my pal and fellow music writer Travis Woods and another LA music writer Mouse hosted the first of many celebrations of the local-to-them Silver Lake music scene, a little shindig they called My Little Underground. With solo performances from the lead singers of local bands. The list of performers was a venerable whos-who of the scene, including Mikel Jollett of the Airborne Toxic Event, Andrew Spitser of Radars to the Sky, Timothy James of the Movies, Sarah Negahdari of the Happy Hollows, and Evan Way of the Parson Red Heads.

Travis writes:

It was an alternately eclectic, moving, hilarious, and triumphant night of local music, one in which we were all reminded why this matters so much to us—because it’s our little underground, and it’s one that is a privilege, a real privilege, to know and to hear.

Such an incredible idea, and from the sounds of things, an amazing evening for both performers and attendees (especially if you like the Everly Brothers heh). Each site provides both great photos of everyone as well as performance videos so go check them out: Travis' review and Mouse's review.

Great job boys, we're looking forward to the next one! Ideas and enthusiasm like this might just make the New York kids here at Between Love and Like rethink their mantra of "Hell no, I could never live on the west coast!"