Seen Your Video: The Hold Steady Take Over the Colbert Report

The Hold Steady was on The Colbert Report last night. Colbert had a few words with lead singer/guitarist Craig Finn and lead guitarist Tad Kubler to start. Best line:
Colbert: "Do you rip off Mother Theresa a lot? Tad, does she get a cut?"

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Hold Steady
www.colbertnation.com
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Then the band came out for a performance of "Hurricane J" from the latest record Heaven is Whenever. I kind of dig Finn doing the second chorus alone without all of the "whoaa-oh-oh-oh," which differs from the recorded version...changes it up a bit you know?

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Hold Steady - Hurricane J
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Fox News

Superchunk Talks to the Village Voice

I'm super sorts of slammed with a day-job deadline today, but wanted to share this mighty cool video interview that the Village Voice did with Superchunk's Mac and Laura after Superchunk's awesome Village Voice SXSW day party set.

She & Him Interviewed on ABC Amplified

She & Him is one band who played a bunch at SXSW this year and yet...I always wound up missing them for one reason or another.

ABC Amplified did a nice interview with members M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel recently that touches on her musical history (she's been singing/writing songs since she was 8), if her husband, Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard, contributes to her songs (no, he doesn't even hear them until after they're mastered), and the possibility of a "She & Him-Volume 3" (yes). It also includes some live footage from their SXSW performance at Cedar Street Courtyard. She & Him's overall goal with their band? "We're trying to make the greatest hits from a secret band that never existed," says Deschanel.

Seen Your Video: The Airborne Toxic Event's "Gasoline"

"Gasoline" has been one of my favorites from The Airborne Toxic Event since the very first time I saw them at SXSW in 2008. (So much so in fact that I found myself asking for even the roughest demo of it to go with the big interview we did with them less than a month later.) It's got such energy, and that combination of Daren Taylor's drum beats and Mikel Jollett/Steven Chen's guitar riffs creates the hookiest of hooks.

The video for it came out a few weeks ago and it's charming. Both a band video and homage to their stomping ground of East Los Angeles, it shows the landscape and the streetscape on which ATE thrives.

Sound and Vision: My Talk with Charles Bissell and Kevin Whelan of The Wrens

Ever since seeing them at SXSW this year, my fingers have found themselves choosing The Wrens on my Ipod pretty consistently. Their live show was a total force of nature, a tsunami of hooks and energy, that left me slackjawed and thrilled; it had been a long time since I had a band knock me on my backside like that. Their history is one of music-industry legend, similar in some respect to YHF-era Wilco, so although they've been around some 20 years now, they've only put out three full-length records and a few EPs. But those few are mind-bendingly good. The last one, 2003's Meadowlands, is comprised of 13 songs that are catchy and hang together perfectly, creating an emotional opus that's an embodiment of the phrase, "That which does not kill you makes you stronger." The Wrens may be the Halley's Coment of indie rock-JD Salinger's next book may come out before their next record-but somehow, it's ok because you know what you'll hear will be truly worth the wait.



I knew I definitely wanted to get an interview with The Wrens on camera. They rarely do video, but after almost hyperventilating from laughter reading this, I was pretty sure that getting at least two of them together on camera would be hilarious. It took awhile coordinating schedules and whatnot, but we finally met up in a great little Irish bar in NYC. In a dark little corner (so forgive the lack of lighting), over pints of Guinness, bassist/keyboardist/vocalist Kevin Whelan and guitarist/vocalist Charles Bissell talked to BL&L about influences, collaborations, 20 years as a band, and how they made it together that long. That is, when they weren't cracking jokes...And I know it seems like a whole lot to watch, but I totally promise you, it's worth it.

**1/7: A 23 year-old bass guitar, Liberace, and Charles Bissell Kennedy**

References: Liberace, the Mummers

Give a Listen: North to Nothing-The Wrens (from Abbot 1135)

**2/7: Beginning as a cover band, their 20th anniversary, and mammoth Bissell fingers**


Give a Listen: Z (2007 demo)-The Wrens

**3/7: Song backstories, writing, author recommendations, and the Guinness kicking in**

References: Robert Lowell, John Berryman, Kenneth Patchen

Give a Listen: Life Stories of the Union-The Wrens, Brightest New Year-The Wrens

**4/7: More about songs, the power of Jameson, and Kevin calls out Bon Jovi for a street fight**

References: Maxwells

Give a Listen: This is Not What You Had Planned-The Wrens

**5/7: Changing band dynamics, crazy drummers, and making records opposed to songs**


Give a Listen: This Machine-The Wrens (from Abbot 1135)

**6/7: Thoughts on licensing, connections to Okkervil River, and love for KEXP**

References: WKEXP

Give a Listen: It Ends with a Fall-Charles Bissell covering Will Sheff, Black Boys On Mopeds-Charles Bissell (live, Maxwells, 9/26/04)

**7/7: Brainiac and Tim Taylor's influences, next tours, and why they consider themselves lucky**

References: Brainiac

Give a Listen: Vincent Come Down-Brainiac

Sound and Vision: Talking Photography with Tad Kubler of The Hold Steady

If you know anything about the Hold Steady, it wouldn't surprise you to hear that lead guitarist and co-founder Tad Kubler is a top-notch guitar player. Playing the more zen-like ying onstage to lead singer and (the other) co-founder Craig Finn's spastic and hyper yang, Kubler's playing really gives Hold Steady songs a fullness, creating a sound that, to quote a friend, "smells like pure testosterone."

So you might know Kubler is a guitarist, but it might surprise you to hear that Kubler is also a top-notch photographer as well. Starting out in Minneapolis, MN shooting for ad agencies before the band got going, he still shoots whenever he can. Kubler's been involved with press materials for The Hold Steady and occasionally, does work on the side for publications like Rolling Stone (for instance, Kubler's responsible for this great shot of Leonard Cohen)

I discovered all of this when I was doing some reading on The Hold Steady after finally experiencing The Hold Steady live at SXSW this year and stumbling across Kubler's photography site ("woefully outdated," he says). I'm relatively new to the photog field but there were things in Kubler's approach to composition that I found myself really relating to, because they seemed to run congruent to things I found forming in my own work that I'd like to expand. Plus, I was super interested to hear just how exactly he scored such wonderfully rich colors (answer: it ain't digital). So Kubler very graciously found me some time before their recent 930 Club show here in Washington, DC to discuss his background and the wonders of film.

Be sure to check out the links that follow each segment too.

PART 1/4


Take a Look:
* Two big influences:Krissy Drake, Mark Seliger
* Photographers mentioned: Judson Baker, Doug Ordway, Max Vadukul

PART 2/4


Take a Look: Yashica camera, Hasselblad cameras

PART 3/4


Take a Look: Tad Kubler Photography

PART 4/4


Take a Look: A Positive Rage (DVD/Live Album)-The Hold Steady

Sound and Vision: My Interview with The Morning Benders

I discovered The Morning Benders after SXSW last year when I stumbled upon the slew of great indie bands out of the Los Angeles and Northern CA areas . Based out of Berkeley, CA, theirs is a sound that is most comparable to sunny Britpop but with a distinctive edginess.

Lead singer/songwriter/guitarist Chris Chu started the band by himself initially, armed with just a computer and a guitar. He then added drummer Julian Harmon, a childhood friend, and guitarist Joe Ferrell, whom he and Harmon met when they all worked at Disneyland in southern California. "Julian ran Mr. Toad's Wild Ride," said Chu, "Joe worked Pirates of the Caribbean. I was in the yogurt shop that was the only
place where you could buy pineapple yogurt." Bassist Tim Or is a more recent addition, though they claim Tim was a Disneyland worker as well. "He was maintenance," said Chu with a laugh.

Though young (all are in their early 20s), the Benders are that kind of contemplative smart that normally comes with a few years under your belt. You know how some people are said to have an old soul, where they may be young in age but seem to have a sense about them that makes them more mature somehow, sort of wise beyond their years? That's definitely one thing that kept popping into my head when talking to these four guys. I mean, how many members of rock bands typically read autobiographies of yogis and philosophy books by Bertram Russell? And all four have a wry, deadpan wit that kept me in stitches. You know what they say, it ain't the years, it's the miles that matter...

Only on the scene for a couple of years now, the Benders have already become a seasoned touring band, opening on major tours for The Kooks, Ra Ra Riot, and We Are Scientists. Having just finished a great book at about the time of our interview, (Petal Pusher by Laurie Lindeen), about a woman's experiences in a young indie band, I decided to get the Benders insights on whether the whole "indie rock band in a van" experience has changed much in last 20 years. Except for the prevalence of anti-lock brakes, air bags, and cell phones now, I think it's safe to say the answer is "Nope." It's not an easy existence, criss-crossing the country as a touring band, but The Morning Benders are clearly four guys who take their music seriously and settle in for a good laugh about the rest, all the while enjoying the ride.

(Chris Chu)

(Tim Or)

(Julian Harmon)

(Joe Ferrell)
(See the rest of The Morning Benders photos from the Black Cat show here)

((The Benders saying g'bye...)


(The Morning Benders latest release, Talking Through Tin Cans is out now, and they are currently out on tour with The Submarines. They're also playing a tons of places during this year's SXSW.)

Sound and Vision: My Interview with Matt Vasquez of Delta Spirit

We made the following comment about Delta Spirit awhile back: They really are a barn burner of rock and soul. Delta Spirit will make you dance, lift your spirits, and reveal the beauteous sound that is the top to a metal trashcan.

If you haven’t had the pleasure of attending a Delta Spirit show yet, it’s a lot like an old-timey church revival without the snake handling. Theirs is a stage full of energy, of singing, screaming, dancing, an organized chaos with multiple people playing multiple instruments, a fist full of, well, feeling. I've caught them twice in the last little while, the first time at The Rock and Roll Hotel (Photos), and most recently when they were the middle opening band for Nada Surf at the 930 club (Photos). The RnR Hotel show was good, but the 930 Club show was just flat out white hot. No lie, I haven't seen a band and an audience that "in the moment" with each other like that in some time. People around me were rapturously glued to the band’s every move, and the band was right there with them. It was a true “come to jesus” moment of the best kind.

Delta Spirit’s sophomore record, “Ode to Sunshine,” wound up on just about everyone’s best-of lists for 2008. Hailing from San Diego, CA, the band is a group of five guys who bonded together four years ago over a seemingly simple (but not always practiced) idea: develop a band they were all really, really excited to part of. Guitarist Jon Jameson and drummer Brandon Young knew each other from playing together in other bands, and they'd become friendly with guitarist Sean Walker--but none of them wanted lead singer duties. So when Young happened upon Matt Vasquez and his arena-worthy voice busking in a local train station super-late one night, Young, having ears and not being dumb, got his contact info.



It's probably a safe bet that everyone is really, really glad Young takes public transportation. Vasquez not only came onboard as lead singer shortly thereafter, but when the band decided to record some demos, Vasquez contacted Kelly Winrich, his high school buddy and family friend, to see about using the Winrich family home recording studio. (The Winrichs aren’t professional musicians, no, but they probably should be...let’s just say that the Winrich family gene for musical talent isn’t recessive by a long shot.) The Winrich-house demos became 2006’s "I Think I've Found It,” with Winrich producing. Before long, Winrich was playing with the band as well as producing, so he joined the group full-time as a multi-instrumentalist.



During Delta Spirit’s recent jaunt with Nada Surf, Vasquez and I chatted by phone about the band, the “I Fought the Law and the Law Won” tour, and colored underwear.

BL&L: You've been out on tour with Nada Surf for the past month or so. How did things go this time out?

MV: This time out is really great. It's new for us because we've pretty much known everyone before going out on a long tour. We actually missed our first show because John got arrested. We actually made a film of it, like on a digital camera, and Kelly, our piano player like walked around with it like hidden camera star around the jail. And we did it to the music of Brian Eno's stuff from "Traffic." It's really funny and we're gonna post it, Sean from Daytrotter is gonna post pretty soon.
(Editor's Note: Sadly, I just got word that the film is lost due to theft. The thieves who broke into the band's van in NJ are apparently "Macs" and took the laptop that the film was on.)

And we just got so many tickets. Sean and I outside Minneapolis, we got two $100 soliciting tickets each for having a conversation walking to the van. We stopped for a second and had a cigarette, waiting for everybody, cop rolls up and gives us two tickets. And then uh...who else got a ticket...Kelly got a ticket for making a left turn on some street he couldn't at a certain time because we were following a GPS. This is the "I Fought the Law and the Law Won" tour. (laughs)

BL&L: I read that you are always recording new material as you travel. Your songs are pretty stripped down-do your tracks change a lot from the initial to the final, or have them been ruminated on a lot prior to recording so that what you record initially is the final?

MV:Yeah. It's very like I'll start something or Kelly will start something, or any one of can start something that is just a bare-bones idea. Maybe it's a song structure or a type of structure with lyrics and it's sorta heading someplace, and everybody else just keeps heading that way, and we ruminate together.

BL&L:That actually leads into the next section, how does a song come together amongst the five of you? I mean, do you guys kind of riff off each other and everyone does their own parts? I mean, you've got Kelly who plays about 45 different instruments (laughs), so how do you work him in and whatnot?

MV:Well a lot of times, considering Kelly can do anything, and whatever he feels like doing, he'll usually just do that. And then I'll fill in a gap...we all just fill each other's gaps up. If Kelly ends up playing guitar, chances are Sean will do percussion, and/or I'll play piano, and they both play guitar. Or you have a trashcan lid and you know...

We're looking into a tum drum, you know those big drums whose sound is very marimba-like; Tom Waits "Bone Machine" used those. We gutted a CP-70 piano, which has this whole pickup system on it. Using that would be really neat because it's got tremble and overdrive. We're not really sure what the next record is going to sound like, but we were up to about 17 songs before we left for tour. And when we come home from Nada Surf, we start demoing the next one.

BL&L: Do you try out any of this new stuff out during a tour?

MV:Totally. But it's been really hard this time around; actually the last couple tours, just cause we've had a middle spot, we've had zero sound checks. On earlier tours with Clap Your Hand Say Yeah and Dr. Dog, we were first of three so we always had that 30 min before doors to work stuff out until they'd start yelling at us. Now we don't have that. So we more so demo it on Garage Band or an MBox, and save it. Show everyone the song obviously, and say, "Just kind of have this in your head." They then put it into their computers, and listen to it once in awhile, and then once we get back, it's like, "Oh I remember that," and get to it.

BL&L: What do y'all do to pass the time while on the road, are there any "van rules" like "No stopping at Hardess or Bojangles"?

MV:In terms of van rules...we just bought a new van. The van we originally had was this total screwed up van that the Cold War Kids gave us for $2000 bucks, and it had vinyl floors and we could do whatever the hell we wanted in it. It had more than 200,000 miles on it. Before the Cold War Kids had it, it was a mental institution van. Basically you could do whatever the hell you wanted in that thing, people smoked with the windows closed while we drove, it just didn't matter.

Now we have a new van, er well, a pre-owned vehicle. And besides all the other problems with having a pre-owned vehicle-like rats actually living in the engine and ate the wiring out, and all sorts of fun stuff-once we got that all figured out, the inside was pretty clean. So now that we have carpet, we can't just run around and be really crazy. So we designated the shot-gun seat as the smoking seat, and you can't smoke anywhere else. But there's 4 out of 5 of us who smoke so it's basically like, round-robin/golden chairs. We built a bed in the back. But we built it too tall so it's like being in a Chinese prison camp. The dimensions are like, you can't sit up, you can't lay flat, you kind of have to always be in a cradle position, and you can barely roll over. Like it's shoulder-wide you know? It's so funny. We're actually touring with a guy who's a buddy of ours from San Diego. He was a guitar tech for As They Lay Dying, the heavy metal group, or hardcore group or whatever their genre is. And he's this huge vegan guy ...and he's always in that back bed. It's just amazing to me how he fits in there. Not that he's crazy fat or anything it's just this long haired blonde guy who's always back there snoring. And he sleeps so deep! We've probably got in two car accidents and he didn't wake up during both of them. It's insane.

BL&L: Anything else beyond the smoking restriction?

MV:When you're a driver, you can listen to anything you want. Except Brandon the drummer really likes techno and that gives me anxiety, so we ruled that out. And then metal is ruled out too. Especially now, our new roadie, he doesn't have an Ipod or anything, he has a 300-cd folder thing that weighs about 20 lbs. And it's like almost every piece of music you can imagine he has in there, metal-wise. Like every Megadeath record, Pantera, Down...it's very funny. Reminds me of junior high. He put Great Southern Train Kill on the other night and was like screaming....broke the rule, but it was really fun though everyone was like "SHUT THE FUCK UP!" But it was really fun.

And we have a Sirius radio that we bummed from Dr. Dog's tour manager. Since it's Sirius radio, it's Howard Stern once a day. We get the Howard 101 news, the Best of the Week, and the Best Ever, so it's really fun, it always kind of puts people in a better mood. The talk radio really helps, especially when it's Stern, because I mean, you got Eric the Midget, cmon, those guys are fucking insane. Stern's a good life lesson because if Stern can treat people good, then we can treat people good. (laughs)

BL&L: You and I had talked before about your first release, the out of print "I Think I've Found It." The sound of it, like the track "Gimmee Motivation" for example, is, well, poppier, for lack of a better word from the tracks on "Ode." Can you speak some about what changes took place between "Found" and "Ode" that made such a dramatic change to your sound?

MV:With that whole period it was kind of "do whatever the hell you want" and that's what it sounded like. And that's who we were when we did that exactly. And when we did "Ode to Sunshine," that's exactly who we were. And when we do the next one, that's exactly who we are then too.

Sound quality wise, we intended that EP to be demos. And we just put our foot down, like we'll be sick of these songs before we get to a full record, which is mostly true. I mean, that's the reason why we haven't played "Gimmee Motivation" in two years now. I actually really miss that song.

-Gimmee Some Motivation_Delta Spirit (from "I Think I've Found It" EP)

We actually found a box right before we left for tour of "I Think I've Found It" vinyl and the cds that we didn't even know existed. So we put it back on sale on this tour and we're just gonna sell it until it's gone.

BL&L: So then do you feel like you'll bring "I Think I've Found It" back in print at some point?

MV:Naaahh...maybe like if, you know, we ever become that band that has a glory days...if we are ever a band that gets to having glory days. We just take it one day at a time here. We're no Joe Strummers...

BL&L: Right, right. Kelly was the band's producer at first. How/why did he move from producing the band to being a member?

MV: Well, I would disagree that he was the producer just because, with the EP, a lot of times, he just turned mikes on and then fell asleep. (laughs) He's really responsible for a lot of drum sounds....it wasn't like he wasn't completely uninvolved. For "French Quarter," he wasn't even in the band but wrote the bass part. And he would do organ tracks and a bunch of things...he'd do good sounds when he was awake. And that was a larger part of the time than when he was asleep. (laughs)

-French Quarter_Delta Spirit (from "I Think I've Found It" EP)

Then with "Ode to Sunshine," he was way more involved. I went to high school with Kelly. We'd played together forever and then when he left, I was super-bummed but he was still a family friend. His parents helped build a a studio with a tracking room and all this great stuff. I've been through so much with him. When Delta Spirit kind of came around and we were getting together demos and stuff, Kelly let us do it for free. His family was obviously totally cool with it. Then things started happening, and he was like "Man I wish I was in your band," and I was like "Are you serious? Are you fucking kidding me?" It was like a dream come true for me. I mean, I love Jon, Sean, and Brandon so much, so having Kelly there too, it was just done for me.

Once that happened, and in terms of production and stuff, he took it way more seriously, and was a whole other thing. And I mean, everyone's opinions and theories about miking and EQs were really involved, but I think Kelly is a huge part of why "Ode to Sunshine" sounds like "Ode to Sunshine."

BL&L: I'm always curious as to what makes people go from appreciators of music to one who has to make music. Can you each speak to your experience with this?

MV:I think I can. It's a crap shoot between my mom and dad showing me a Stevie Ray Vaughn retrospective on television when I was about 5....and I didn't play guitar before then, but I did pick up one and fuck around with it and thought it was the coolest thing on the planet...and then my grandma, she used to work for Fender in '52, she was Leo Fender's sixth employee, so she bought all the boys guitars. I got a Strat. Then my brother's friend showed my brother "Come As You Are" by Nirvana. I learned my first proper guitar song and got crazy into Nirvana and Alice in Chains and Soundgarden and all that.

BL&L: How old were you when you got the Strat?

MV:I was 8 years old, in 3rd grade.

BL&L: Wow it was probably bigger than you were. (laughs)

MV:Yeah actually it was. And it was really fun. It was electric so it was easier to learn how to play. And I learned a bunch of tablatures. As long as I've been playing music, it's been a life lesson for me to not identify who I am with it. You know, I am who I am, not what I do, you know what I mean? For a long time, my whole youth, I always identified with the music I listened to....I always had my White Zombie band tshirt on and all sorts of crazy stuff. In 8th grade, I did a report on Randy Rhodes. I used to listen to Zepplin vinyl in my English class.

BL&L: You must have been a fun kid to have around. (laughs) What music do you recall being played the most in your house when you were a kid? You mentioned Stevie Ray Vaughn...

MV: Yeah Stevie Ray Vaughn, Elvis, Janis Joplin, The Beatles, Prince's Purple Rain, Garth Brooks, Charlie Daniels Band...that's a lot of my parents' music growing up. The Gipsy Kings...I used to run around my house and...you ever do that trick with the Laz-E-Boys that don't recline, like run up on them and tip them over with your feet? I used listen to that (sings) "Bamboleo, bambolea" [song] and run around in my short shorts, just doing that over and over again. I love the Gipsy Kings! And Charlie Daniels Band, I thought it was the craziest thing because it was the only thing on the radio that said "You son of a bitch" in "Devil Went Down to GA." And I remember going to Little League baseball practice, and hearing that and just being like WHOA!! THAT'S SO CRAZY!!

BL&L: Ryan Roco has done a large number of your press photos...
MV:He's actually with me right now! Him and Josh Ballenger, who does a bunch of video stuff for us, they've both moved to NYC so we picked them up in Brooklyn last night and they're gonna hang out with us. You'll meet them...

BL&L: So Ryan has done your press photos in addition to some odder ones that prove you and Brandon like colored tighty whities...(laughs)

MV:Ahh, they're just cheap Hanes. Go to Target you know! It keeps you sorted out (laughs)

BL&L: I was talking more that he photographed you in them, but that's beside the point. (laughs)

MV:We feel pretty comfortable with Roco-san, he's pretty great. Kelly and Ryan went to high school together, my rival high school. And they've done about everything in terms of getting in trouble. There's actually a whole crew of them. Josh does all the video, Roco does the photos, this other guy Brad "The Jew"...this is a random story but way too funny so I have to tell it-he decided to be a lumberjack and went up to Washington State, looked up on Craigslist for a job. First job offer right, he shows up and the next thing he knows there's a camera on him. And he's on that axe show (Axmen). Ryan is that kind of person too, he and Kelly always do these crazy adventures like fly to Vancouver, take a bus to Whistler to go snowboard. He just got back from Africa....We're all part of the same family just doing different stuff, and sometimes we get fortunate enough to hang out together. He's just so great.

BL&L: That's cool. It sounds like you guys are all very close knit so it's interesting to see that you keep so much like "in the family" if you will.

MV: Well you know, you stick with people you trust. You can handle when someone close to you says some shit to you. It's like, you always know that they're "there."

BL&L: So what's next for you guys? What's happening in the new year for you?

MV: We're very much looking to hang out with our family after this tour, just enjoy not running around. Even though I love running around. It feels way too awkwardly normal these days.

We were going to do a show in NYC for New Years but we just decided to stay home and keep recording and do nothing. I dunno, I might decide to drink a Sprite or something. (laughs)

2009 is going to be really busy. We have an El Ray show the 17th, and we leave for Europe the 18th, for like 10 days. Then we come back home and do a whole February headlining tour. I "think" it's going to end up being Other Lives as the main support band. And then the other opening band is a friend's band we've been promising forever that we'd take out, and finally we have the means to do it. They're this band called Dawes, they're really great. They sound just like The Band if a young Billy Joel that you could really believe in sang. And the drummer is this 18 year-old guy who plays like Levon Helm. The piano player learned bass from Rick Danko but he plays piano, and he's insane. He plays at this speakeasy in LA...they're just these crazy guys. The singer and drummer are brothers, and their dad is the only white singer in Tower of Power, so it's in the family. So that tour is gonna be great. Then we go back to Europe again, then record a record.

We're looking for a place to record actually.

BL&L: Really?

MV:Yeah, Catskills [Mountains] would be great. We really wanna do it on the east coast, out of the way of everything. Maybe not a cabin, maybe just a studio out in the middle of nowhere. So if you own a chic cabin and you're really rich, anybody....(laughs)

Delta Spirit 2009 Tour Dates
Delta Spirit 2009 Tour Dates:
01/16 - Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theatre
02/04 - San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of The Hill
02/05 - Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
02/06 - Seattle, WA @ The Tractor Tavern
02/07 - Vancouver, BC @ Media Club
02/09 - Boise, ID @ The Neurolux
02/10 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court Gallery (Early Show)
02/10 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge (Late Show)
02/11 - Denver, CO @ Hi-Dive [Buy Tickets] $10
02/12 - Lawrence, KS @ Jackpot Music Hall
02/13 - Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry
02/14 - Chicago, IL @ Double Door
02/15 - St. Louis, MO @ The Gargoyle Club
02/16 - Columbus, OH @ The Basement
02/17 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Brillobox
02/18 - Ithaca, NY @ Castaways
02/19 - Albany, NY @ Valentine's
02/20 - Cambridge, MA @ Middle East Downstairs
02/21 - New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
02/23 - Charlottesville, VA @ Gravity Lounge
02/24 - Charleston, SC @ The Pour House
02/25 - Atlanta, GA @ Drunken Unicorn
02/26 - Mobile, AL @ Alabama Music Box
02/27 - Houston, TX @ Walters on Washington
02/28 - Austin, TX @ Emo's (inside) [Buy Tickets] $11
03/01 - Dallas, TX @ House of Blues
03/05 - Santa Barbara @ SOHO Music Club
03/06 - Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up Tavern
(Delta Spirit is also playing SXSW this March in Austin, TX.)


Listen:
-Strange Vine_Delta Spirit (from Ode to Sunshine)

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.

Sound and Vision: My Interview with Harley Prechtel-Cortez of The Weather Underground

(Photo by Andy Tennille)

The Weather Underground is a great 4-piece band out of the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles. When I saw them for the first time here in DC back in June, I described them as follows:

The Weather Underground plays rock music that is tinged with the influences of folk, soul, punk, gospel, and Latin, the latter making sense as lead singer/songwriter/rhythm guitarist Harley Prechtel-Cortez is very tied to his Guatemalan heritage (more on that later). But I'm not talking Gipsy Kings imitators here, I'm talking “the Strokes meet a mariachi band meet Otis Redding,” or “The Cribs meet Hank Williams meet Bono, with some Sandinista-era Clash" thrown in for good measure. The neat thing about listening to this band is that each musician's piece is really interesting and creative separately, so that when they pull it all together it becomes one amazing sound. (full DC review, NYC review)

I had the great pleasure of conducting two interviews with The Weather Underground, one with the group as a whole and one with Prechtel-Cortez alone. The full band one, which posts tomorrow, was conducted after their DC show, and can be summed up in one word: hilarious. It's definitely a funny interview, but it also shows just how charming and comical these guys are as individuals, as well as how close they are as friends.

As one would imagine, we missed some things or wound up on tangents so late in the evening, so Prechtel-Cortez and I sat down a short time later to recap, which is what you'll see below. Not only did we tie up some loose ends from the previous interview, but I think we also captured some interesting insights about this enigmatic and whipsmart frontman (he was a budding rapper as a little kid! He lived in the same neighborhood as the Ramones!), the ways that he and the band approach their beautifully crafted songs, and the influences that permeate both. Prechtel-Cortez is a gentleman's old soul in a 20-something's body whose writing and intellect bridge the two realms perfectly in a very unique way.

Part 1



Part 2

Show Review: The Airborne Toxic Event@ DC9 (7-29-08)

After The Airborne Toxic Event took the stage at DC9 here in Washington, DC recently, we were supposed to sit down and follow up on our long interview from a few months back. But with their driving to Boston the next day (a hellaciously long trip), very Pemberton-weary faces all 'round, and the knowledge that we were seeing each other again twice in next two months anyway, I suggested we reschedule. (Lead singer/songwriter/rhythm guitarist Mikel Jollet, back fresh from a long jog down to the Capitol and back, and I did squeeze in a few minutes about Airborne's acoustic video series and the general state of Airborne these days which you can watch here.)

Not planning to interview the band AND review the show, I left the notebook at home. But I did bring a camera, thinking some snaps might pair nicely with the interview....


(click on any photo to enlarge)

...as well as a friend who'd never seen or heard Airborne before, who was going merely on my mentions of how energetic Airborne is live. He has a predilection for old-school hard NY/Boston punk, and while Airborne is punkish in Daren Taylor's strong backbeat and Steven Chen's piercing guitar chords, theirs is a punk more like The Smiths than punk like Minor Threat. I wasn't sure he'd like it at all.

Guess what? Airborne's live show struck again. He loved it. And I loved his comments on it so I included them below:

The music rocked my socks off. I really dug a lot of the songs. Another thing I noticed is that when I catch a show by a band I don't know is that I will often like them better after a couple of hearings; its like my brain has to hear a song a couple of times before it clicks. The Airborne setlist, on the other hand, grabbed me immediately. Not sure what the reason for the difference is.

You know how sometimes there are summer nights that feel different -- wide open, like something unusual and wonderful could happen? Kind of a sense of mystery and possibility in the air? The night of the show was the opposite of one of those nights, and you could feel it in the audience before Airborne took the stage. The whole atmosphere was leaden and exhausted (not that I was surprised, this is DC after all. DC is Hollywood for ugly people after all...). I thought that it was interesting that once they started playing, Airborne gradually pulled the audience out of its funk, until by the end of the show the crowd had real energy. Even another talented band might have succumbed to the initial lethargy of the crowd, but Airborne didn't seem fazed by it.

And I was surprised at how laid back and accessible the band members were before & after the show. A band with a nice start on a body of work like theirs could get very arrogant and full of themselves, but the members were all very cool.

Oh, I forgot, one other thing...did you ever watch Deadwood on HBO? There is a character named Seth Bullock played by Timothy Olyphant.

In the series Seth Bullock is the sheriff of the town, and not someone you want to mess with. He had a volcanic temperament and was lethal with a sidearm. So Daren the drummer has a similar facial hair thing going as the Seth Bullock character, which I noticed when I met him. Then later, after you got up to chat with Noah, Daren is walking by the bar, when this big doofy meathead looking guy inexplicably sticks his foot out behind him and Darren trips over it. There's no way meathead meant to do it I think -- he was looking the opposite way. Daren stumbles for a split second then catches himself, and looks up. And for a brief moment, Daren looks homicidal. I am really thinking he is about to break a chair over doofus' head, and Airborne is going to need another drummer tonight while Daren cools his heels in the pokey. Then he snaps out of it, takes a sip of beer, and heads off where he was going. Which was a relief, because its better to look like Seth Bullock than act like him -- too many corpses.

Like Keith Richards once said of Charlie Watts, "Never fuck with a drummer, man."

Sound and Vision: Mini-Interview with Mikel Jollet of The Airborne Toxic Event

The Airborne Toxic Event and I had planned on an updated interview from this after their recent DC9 show here in Washington, DC, but scheduling and exhaustion on all parts caused problems, so we rescheduled. But lead singer/songwriter/rhythm guitarist Mikel Jollet and I had a quick mini-chat prior to the show, just in time for the formal release of Airborne's new record (that's tomorrow) and the last installment of their acoustic video series. Then there's Mikel singing Billy Idol....

Sound and Vision: My Interview with Howard Fishman

(Painting of Howard Fishman with band by artist Clifford Bailey)

Howard Fishman and his band play a unique mix of jazz, blues, rock, and old New Orleans-style music. Howard, a self-taught guitarist, began his musical career as many do, busking in the streets of New York and New Orleans. That was 10 years ago....since then Howard has done a great many things, played a great many places, and exposed a great many people to his takes on how music can be created and heard. His is truly a unique and original voice.

I, however, need a new verb beyond "interesting," as you'll hear when you listen to the interview. But I couldn't help it, Howard is just that.


Part 1 of 3


Part 2 of 3


Part 3 of 3:


More on Howard Fishman...
-->MP3s:
Night After Night-Howard Fishman.mp3
Mary Ann-Howard Fishman.mp3

-->Purchase: Amazon, as well as Itunes.

-->Video: Youtube channel

-->Website: Howard Fishman

(Howard Fishman will be playing Dizzy's Club Coca Cola at Lincoln Center in NYC today through Saturday, Joe's Pub in NYC on July 22, and various other dates you can see at his web site.)

Goodies for the next week (or so)....

Who knew a 4 hour interview could take so much out of a girl! Chart your courses and mark your calendars, upcoming goodies for the next week or so here at BL&L include:

-Completing my SXSW 08 experience report
-Sound and Vision: My Interview with The Red Romance
-Show reviews of Eels, Jens Lekman, and by that time, The Redwalls.

You know you want it...

Sound and Vision: My Interview with The Airborne Toxic Event (Act IV)

(Old photo "disappeared" so....new photo via Modelography)

Act I of IV
Act II of IV
Act III of IV

ACT IV of IV
"No matter how long it holds me if it falls apart/or makes us millionaires/We'll go through this thing together/and on heaven's golden shore we'll lay our heads"-Golden, My Morning Jacket (File taken down per request of a threatening entity)

Mikel and I reconvene a day or two later, again via video conferencing, to tie up some loose ends.

Me: You guys only have an EP out but are looking to put out your first LP. You have gotten some label interest. Say you get a lot of interest but no one you're really knocked out by. Would you ever consider putting it out yourselves?
MJ: Yeah absolutely, we have extensive plans for that. We've gone pretty far down that road already thinking about it. We just made the record ourselves at the first of the year, and then it was, "Well let's find a way to put it out." And we knew we were going to be in front of labels and all that kind of stuff in January and to some extent, February. What we decided is that we want to do whatever makes sense. And what makes sense could be a 360 deal on a major--we doubt it but it could--that's one extreme, right? Then there's the other extreme where we just put it out ourselves. We'd have a proper release for it, but it's just whatever makes sense.

We've been like...I dunno if "disillusioned" is the right word, but the fucking major label system is broken for a reason. It is just...I do not understand how those people think, at all. (laughs) It's like a sinking ship.

(From here, we start discussing the book about Wilco, Learning How to Die, which covered the band and their trials and tribulations with the whole record label merger mess that took place around the time of their seminal record, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.)

Me: But it's exciting because people are starting to put stuff by themselves and such, ala Radiohead.
MJ: Yeah, one of the cool things about all this is that the distribution channels are no longer guarded by these huge corporations. It's like well, the whole thing is fucked anyway. KROC [a major radio station in LA] for example, they added us even though we're unsigned because they're like, "Fuck it, this whole thing is going down." And all those indie rock promoters of the '90s promoting major radio, that's all dead with that huge lawsuit. And no one is making money on cd sales….Except indie rock. Do you know that indie rock sales are actually up 8%, and country and hip-hop have taken the hardest hits? It's like heyday for indie rock right now. We think it's because it's lean years now but indie rock bands are used to being lean. It's like, "Fuck we have to be in a van? We've been in a van for 20 years, who cares."

Me: I'd asked you before about why you didn't study writing in school versus the science stuff you did study, and you answered briefly, but we had to break at that point so things got a little garbled. Basically your life/training had been veering towards science at that point; being a writer was a big switch. Why and how did it happen?
MJ: Well, I decided to become a writer when I was 26 or so, and I moved up to a horse ranch, as I think I mentioned. And I've felt all my life that the smart people in this society were the writers, those were always the people that I respected and admired. So whenever I thought about becoming a writer, I'd get a little tingle in my spine, you know, kind of nervous and excited. Whether I had any proficiency at it is another question. (laughs) But I certainly was interested in it.

So I decided that's all I wanted to do with my life, and for a long time, that's all I did. All I did was write, write, write, write. for years. And then I had this big turning point with music where I was working on a novel. I had a story go up the ladder at the New Yorker but then they ended up not taking it--that's the one coming out in McSweeney's next month. And I got into Yaddo [an artist colony and residence in Saratoga Springs, NY] that same month, which is a huge honor for an unpublished fiction writer. So I got in there and I got the prime spot in the summer, they gave me 2 months. I had a really good literary agent I'd landed, and I had a novel that was just about done that he was really excited about. That same month, I met Daren. And I remember my parents, my friends, everyone I knew, were like you've got to take this. I had to make a decision…if I went to Yaddo, I wasn't going to be able to start the band. And suddenly, it was "Am I a writer or am I a musician?" I remember telling my folks, because they'd seen me struggle for years and years trying to establish some kind of writing career and working on the novel forever, and they said "You're out of your mind!" They thought I was nuts. And I was like, "But I met this drummer and he's really good, he's a great drummer," and they were like, "Who cares!" (laughs) But then I chose not to go [to Yaddo] and instead, I locked myself in the warehouse with Daren for a few months, played music, and started Airborne. And we haven't looked back. My parents, they understand it now I think. At the time they didn't get it, they were like "What are you doing??" But now they seem to get it, that we had some real clear ideas of what we wanted the band to be, and we didn't want it to be the run of the mill whatever.
Me: Wow man, that'll either be an inspiration to a lot of people or piss a lot of people off. (laughs)
MJ: But then it's funny because now I've been doing music and I'm finally getting published as a fiction writer.
Me: I guess the question I have of that is, what, Daren wasn't going to stick around? Was he shipping off to sea or something? (laughs)
MJ: That's a good question…I guess I really understood that it was a crossroads. I think at the time, I really understood that [if he went to Yaddo] I would have had to finish the book, and then go and become a writer. And you know, Daren might join another band before then, and he was the first drummer I'd met that I was like, this guy's great, I gotta work with him. We just clicked immediately; we knew we wanted to be in the same kind of band. We lived and died by it and we knew this was going to be a thing for us. I guess I knew it was a crossroads.

And music suddenly felt way more real. Like the writing of the novel, which had been the focus of my life for years, suddenly seemed really academic and almost, like I was an imposter because all I did was play music, like all day long. And that's what ultimately helped me make my decision. I couldn't imagine literally going to this place and writing because I had literally been playing and singing for 8 hours a day for the previous 8-9 months, ever since the whole thing with my folks and my disease and everything. It just seemed stupid, like this isn't me anymore.

On working with Filter*/industry folks he knows:
(*Ed. note: If you're coming in late to our interview here, Jollett used to be Managing Editor at Filter)
MJ: We won't work with them. You know how like in the Senate you can't just avoid a conflict of interest, you have to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest? Being in LA and an indie rock band in LA, Filter's a big part of the scene here, so we've just avoided it at every turn. It's important to us; we don't want to look like we're cheating.
Me: That's interesting. When I was doing my research on you guys, I guess I'd come across some comments and such that went like, "Oh they're just industry people, they're getting big because they're using their connections."
MJ: Yeah I actually didn't mention it to Daren for the first 6 months. I didn't mention it to club promoters because I just didn't think it was relevant. And also, nobody fucking cares. (laughs) I mean, people are going to come see your band or they're not. If I said to you, "Hey let's go see this show, there's this Fader writer playing," you'd be like, "Who fucking cares!" (laughs) Same thing with us. And also, if you're a writer, you don't have any connections, you know publicists, you don't know anyone else. It's like, "Hey you're a publicist, I have a band," and they'd say, "So what, I know 5000 bands...and I'm in a band too." The whole thing is kind of silly.

I try not to read press because it just makes you super-self conscious all the time. But I feel like it's sort of part of it, slagging off bands. I used to like to slag off bands, it's fun to slag off bands, it's part of the sport of it. If you can't handle people having strong opinions about what you're doing, then you shouldn't be a musician....that's part of the sport of rock and roll. I mean you're putting yourself out there for it, and you have to take it all with a grain of salt, the praise and the derision. 95% of our press has been extremely positive so we're very spoiled....but it [bad press] is all part of the sport, it's part of being in the mix….it's awesome. It's more fun being in a band and making music and being part of it all, you know?

On doing videos:
MJ: Yeah it was fun. It was a big group of people, everyone contributed. My friend Jason Wishnow directed, and he's just an amazing director, he just put the whole thing together. And we did it on a shoestring budget...the "crew" was us and our friends, and we just kind of did it.



We're doing another one pretty soon for "Midnight." We were going to wait a little while but I think we've decided it's time to just make a video…we don't care. We have some good ideas for what we want to do with it. I think the important thing is to have a good idea and then try to execute it, I mean how much was that OK GO video, which cost them what, 1000 bucks? (laughs) But it was super smart.

On the all black wardrobe the band often sports onstage:
MJ: Yeah, that's on purpose. The idea, at first, was we wanted there to be a certain anonymity to what we were doing. The original idea was something like mirroring the static of a television…we didn't want it to be a question of what's cool, but more to serve the artistic purposes of the band. Like dealing with a world so saturated with media and trying to cut through it by doing something that's really not.

About the name "Airborne Toxic Event":
MJ: The name The Airborne Toxic Event made a lot of sense to us for a few reasons. The cloud itself is formed in "White Noise" when an explosion at a chemical plant releases this enormous black cloud into the atmosphere. It's deadly, or at least reported to be so. The protagonist, Jack Gladney, gets exposed to it and thus spends the entire rest of the book thinking that he was going to die. It made him confront his fear of death. The Airborne Toxic Event was literally a symbol of his own death, floating out on the horizon somewhere.

I wrote a lot of the music for the band in a very dark period after my mom got diagnosed with cancer and I got diagnosed with auto-immune disorder. It basically made me feel very mortal. I guess it was the first time I really realized, in a powerful way, that I was totally going to die someday. And at that point, with that realization, suddenly all I wanted to do was play music. So I guess the name made sense since it literally symbolized that idea.

About his disease:
MJ: In a way, it makes you grounded because I'm never going to be like, pinup rockstar guy. I never wanted that anyway, but that's just not an option so I better really, really mean it. And I can't get vain because in the next couple of years I'm going to start looking really funny. It's already kind of started. But you know, shit like that, it's just hair...I have a funny peanut head so I'll probably just shave my head at some point. We talked about it in the band. Noah's like, "When the day comes and you just got to shave your head because you're on nothing left, we're all gonna do it, we're all just going to shave our heads, an act of solidarity in the band." (laughs).
Me: Even Anna?
MJ: Oh I dunno about Anna. (both laugh)

About being so forthright and honest in his songwriting:
MJ: I feel like the best thing you can do is invite people into your life. I mean, you go to an Airborne show, you know a lot about me because all these songs are about real things that happened.

It's sort of appropriate, like a deal with the devil in some weird way. You're going to have this band of great musicians you get to play with, and out of nowhere you're able to write songs, but you're gonna start looking funny in the next couple of years so you better not let it get to your head, you better not become an asshole. You have to actually mean it. You have to be in it for the right reasons and not for vanity and stuff like that."

Dénouement
5 days prior to the initial publishing of this interview, I came across this. When Jollett and I talked that weekend, I inquired about it. He said he couldn't dish, it was a PR thing, but that they were officially announcing their plans on Thursday. That Thursday, I received this:

From: AirborneToxic@aol.com Sent:Thu 4/17/08 1:16 PM
good morning, We are thrilled to announce that we have officially signed a record deal with Majordomo records. Majordomo is a new, independent, west coast label made up of refugees from both major and indie labels including Rhino records, Warner Brothers, Mute, V2 and many others. The situation (and the deal) combines the tenacity and dedication of an indie with the large scale distribution (Majordomo is distributed through the enormous Sony/BMG network), meaning our record will be everywhere records can be. When we looked at the options and considered who and what we are as a band, the state of the music industry and the intelligence and innovation of Majordomo, there was no doubt in our minds that this was the right home for us. The deal is a partnership arrangement, very similar to that which Radiohead signed with TBD Records, that we feel allows us to control our destiny as artists while benefiting from a large and dedicated team at our label. It just felt right. Our self-titled debut record will be in stores on July 15th. We will be touring extensively in support of the record, announcing all those dates very soon. One date we can announce now is June 7th on which we will be playing BFD, Live 105's summer music festival at Shoreline Amphitheatre in lovely Mountain View, California. Can't wait to play that one. Also, we'll be playing Last Call with Carson Daly on Tuesday, April 22nd on NBC. Big day for us. more soon... we miss you and love you, more than you know, more than we could ever begin to tell you-- Mikel, Daren, Noah, Steven, Anna the Airborne Toxic Event myspace. com/theairbornetoxicevent --- a new, a very extensive interview with an East Coast music blog, published in four parts (this is I and II): http://betweenloveandlike. blogspot. com/2008_04_01_archive. html

On this, the virtual eve of their signing to a major label, I asked Jollett how he defined success. He said it wasn't so much about the money and whatnot, it was more that people (about a million in fact) discovered and appreciated ATE's music. New people that is, not people who already knew them or had a vested interest already, but people they'd never met, people who didn't know them, but who just got the proverbial "it." He told me a funny story about how he'd met a guy named Ray after a show one night, and how psyched Ray was that Jollett had written 'Sometime Around Midnight,' as Ray had been through something similar with an ex-girlfriend of his. With this signing to Majordomo and SONY/BMG's distribution muscle, Jollett should expect to hear something similar from Rays in Kentucky and South Carolina and Boston and... in the not too distant future.

After the many hours of us talking and pickling our livers, I think I gained more than a few insights about ATE... Like they're each absolutely whip smart. Very, very funny. Look out for each other. And universally dedicated to making their band succeed. The optimist in me thinks that while that book of Crash Davis idioms might be necessary for some bands, I don't believe it is for these guys. The record industry is a tough bully sure, but Jollett and Company are like a brainy family of siblings whose dad taught them to fight; they may seem small, but if pressed, none of them are afraid to throw that left hook to a jaw and leave that bully bleeding in the corner.

Travis Woods, an LA writer whose work has been in Prefix Magazine and the LA Times (as well as a great interview with ATE back in Sept 2007), picks up where I leave off here. His interview includes the band's outlook after signing, information about the new label, AND the mp3 of a great song ATE plays live, "I Don't Want to be on TV." Go check it out...
Web in Front, Featured Artist: The Airborne Toxic Event

Sound and Vision: My Interview with The Airborne Toxic Event (Act III)

(Photo via Modelography)

Act I of IV
Act II of IV

ACT III of IV
"The hope I had in a notebook full of white, dry pages/Was all I tried to save"-Via Chicago (Live, 2.18.08 at The Riv, Chicago)-Wilco

(We pick up the interview where Act II closed. Steven is in another room playing guitar.)

Me: Has there been one writer whose books you collect/always pick up when they put one out?
MJ: Yeah, probably Fitzgerald, Phillip Roth, Don DeLillo, and Alice Munro are ones I like.
Me: And in terms of music?
MJ: I've always followed the career of Eric Bachmann pretty closely….Archers of Loaf, Crooked Fingers, his solo stuff, I think he's this misunderstood musical genius. He's almost a morality tale in terms of why you not only have to be serious about your songwriting, but serious about what it does for your life. He's an extremely talented guy and I've always looked up to him and admired him, my whole life. I've always felt he was a very important songwriter that's been kind of overlooked. But yeah, pretty much anything he does I'll follow. For years and years I followed anything The Cure did, though I lost track of that bit a little while ago.

But I'm more of an archive person, I more discover things and follow their catalog for awhile. I don't read books, I read authors. I find a book that I like and I want to read every book by that author, the same thing with bands. So I have these seminal bands that I've listened to every one of their songs and tried to absorb some of what they were doing I guess.
Me: I ask that because I know some friends who are also writers and really, really into music, but they'll follow a certain band and then say "Oh they put out a shit album and I'm not going to follow them anymore." I just disagree with that.
MJ: I agree with them, you shouldn't put out shit albums, because you can lose the plot as an artist. You stop working as hard, you stop trying as hard, or you start taking shortcuts with what you're doing. And so it's perfectly appropriate for them to say, "Yeah they kind of lost the plot with that record." It's true, it's abso-fuck-alutely true, they did lose the plot, and you know why, it's because they weren't paying that much attention. You gotta pay attention as an artist because that's your job. So I agree with your friends on that. I mean, what, you're supposed to just absorb everything someone does just because they happen to be a musician? Who cares, write a good song, you're a songwriter, that's your job.
Me: But it's not so much that. If a certain person originally reached out and grabbed you in some degree, I think it could still possibly be there…We can agree to disagree I guess. (both laugh)

Now books…some books I've gone back to multiple times even though I have brand new books sitting on a shelf. Name two like that for you.
MJ: Tender is the Night and Lolita.
SC: (from the other room) John Grisham's The Summons.
MJ: (laughs) Steven's making a joke. "Tender is the Night" I've read probably 12 times, and "Lolita" I've read probably 10-15 times.
Me: And yet you're complaining you have only 16 year-olds coming to your shows? (laughs)
MJ: No, I think people misread "Lolita." There's that Vanity Fair quote about "Lolita" that it's the only honest love story of the 20th century. It's not a love story; it's a story about obsession...
Me: (interjects)...and lust
MJ: I don't even know about lust, lust is this other thing; I think it's actually just about obsession. Really what I admire about "Lolita" is the story-telling, watching him literally be conspiratorial with his audience. Half the time you read Nabokov, you're caught up in the story, and half the time, you're just admiring this man who can tell this fucking story so beautifully and so perfectly…..
SC: (from the other room) In his second language.
MJ: In his second language, that's right, it's not even his first language! It's his fucking second language and it's just unbelievable to me. And also, obviously White Noise, I've read quite a few times. So I'd say those three are the books I've read the most. (Starts scanning the walls of the room) I'm looking up at the books taped to my wall...I've got The Trial by Kafka taped to my wall, Notes from the Underground by Dostoevsky, American Pastoral by Philip Roth, Laughter in the Dark by Nabokov and strangely enough, Steinbeck. I actually like Steinbeck quite a bit, I think he's actually a really good writer. He's like a bull with his characters. He has a really repetitive voice, and he's not particularly interested in diction, but his way of telling a story is "Here are these characters, now watch me push these characters through a series of really, really bad things." And so, it's hard to turn away.
Me: But that's a lot of what the songwriting is with you guys, it seems, hard to turn away. A lot of these situations people have endured and yet, they're being spoken of in a way that's very forthright, very vulnerable, very Westerberg-esque if you will...heart on your sleeve sort of stuff.
MJ: (laughs) Well it's not on purpose.

Me: What the best and the worst part about being a writer of songs rather than a writer about songs, and vice versa?
MJ: Whew, you're going for the big guns here, Erica. (pauses) Well...The worst part is feeling like a fraud. What happens is you listen to a lot of music from people that you respect and you feel like they become these demagogues in your mind....Bob Dylan is a god he's not a person, or Robert Smith, David Bowie, John Sebastian, you name it, they're not people. And so as a songwriter when you start to write songs and people listen to them, you start to feel like you're a fraud, like "Who the fuck am I?" I mean, I went to high school, I've got parents who still think I'm 11, I've got friends who roll their eyes at some of my habits...You feel like you're a complete and utter and total fraud, and anyone who would listen to you is just buying into some persona that you're projecting. And it sucks; it's like a really shitty feeling of just being almost embarrassed by all that vulgar emotion that you're showing. So that's the worst part.

And I guess conversely, the worst part of being a writer when you write about music is feeling like you don't matter. And these people who write the songs are the ones who matter and you're just some asshole commenting from the wings. And no one cares what the fuck you think, they just care about these songwriters.

So then there's the best part of being, I guess, a critic which is that you can tell people when other people are full of shit. You can say, "That record sucks because this guy was just reading too much of his own publicity, and it's crap." And it's fun, it's really fun to slag off on bands. There can be a certain sort of...conspiracy you have with your reader.

And then the best part of being a songwriter is connecting with that audience. It's bringing everybody into your room when you wrote that song. It's like you wrote it, and finished it, and you had this feeling at 1 in the morning, on a fucking Wednesday night, and you're broke, and you're not sure how you're going to pay your rent in 2 weeks...And you're sitting there by yourself with writing all over your arms and your legs and your walls and whatever...And now here's 200 people singing it with you. And it's just really, really affirming where you just feel like..."fuck you loneliness!," this happened, and other people felt it too.

And then I guess the median point between all these things is that we're all critics that suck, and were all complete frauds, and we're all conspiratorial with our audiences, and we're all completely with them while they go through our pain with us. At various times, everybody is all these things; the fun part is being one of them. It's realizing that you can be part of it. And it makes you want to tell everyone you know, "Hey man, quit your job, start following bands or reading books or watching movies or looking at art or whatever it is you want to do that actually excites you or interests you." Because wherever your place is, as an artist or a critic, or appreciator, or as a complete and total fuck-up mess that just goes to museums, whatever, go, be part of it. Just don't be part of some soulless, nameless, credit-driven corporation who tells you what your life should be because THAT's bullshit, that's soulless and wrong. And everything else, whether people hate you or think you're a god, everybody's wrong. Anyone who hates you is wrong and anyone who thinks you're a genius is wrong....At least you're not sitting behind a desk, under a florescent light, pushing papers for a profit margin because that sucks.
Me: (ponders, then calls out to Steven still in the other room) Steven do you agree? (laughs)
SC: Yeah he's right.
MJ: (laughs) He's half passed out on my bed because he doesn't handle scotch.
SC: I drank too much Jameson!
MJ: Tell the truth you can't handle scotch!
SC: (coming in from the other room) I'll handle scotch back and forth across this room, I'll handle it all night!
MJ: Just go lie down you're not doing well. (laughs)

(Steven leaves)

MJ: Erica, when are you going to ask me about my five songs I wish I'd written? I spent some time seriously thinking about this.
Me: Great! (Reading over notes) Well I think we're at that point, so ok, name five songs you wish you wrote and why.
MJ: I wish I'd written “Chelsea Hotel #2” by Leonard Cohen just because I like the part where Cohen says, "We're ugly but we have the music." I love that line. It's about him having sex with Janis Joplin...she gets up and straightens her dress and says,"Well never mind, we're ugly but we have the music." That's after that line where he says, "You told me again you prefer handsome men."
Me: She also preferred women so he shouldn't take it personally. (both laugh)
MJ: Yeah he shouldn't take it too hard. You know, I've got autoimmune disorder and I'm losing all the hair on my head and my face and my body, and I'm losing all the pigment on my body...and autoimmune disorder cuts your lifespan down by about 20 years. This is all the stuff that happened to me when I started writing music. And it's funny because my whole life, I've always been, (pauses) I was like the cute boy in high school and college to some extent, and I started a band not until I was 30 something, and then I got diagnosed with this disease, and it changes the way I look. And suddenly everyone is taking pictures of us, shooting videos of us, and I look at them and go,"Wow, you don't have that much hair," (laughs) or "Your skin looks funny," and....it's really nerve-wracking and weird. When it comes to just the art of it, you don't care, you just want people to care about what you write or what you sing or what your band is doing. But then there's this real thing about being in front of people, and other people telling you, "Hey dude, gosh, you kind of look weird." So that line where he says "We're ugly but we have the music," that really speaks to me. I feel like I didn't have the music until I became ugly, and that was my tradeoff with the world. And so I couldn't try to be the cute boy who fronts a band or tries to sleep with groupies…I had to write songs I meant, I had to be with bandmates I truly cared about, I had to do things that I really believed in. I wasn't going to get away with just trying to be cute because I wasn't gonna be cute anymore….I was going to lose all my hair and my skin pigment and look like Moby. (laughs) So he expresses that idea really well. And I feel that way a lot, that I didn't get music until I got so ugly.

Another one is “Quicksand” by David Bowie. Hunky Dory, it's just a great record. I remember listening to that song when I was 11 years old with my friend Jake in his garage. My friend Jake was my best friend at the time, and he was this real awkward kid who loved Sigue Sigue Sputnik and the Cure and the Smiths, and I didn't know from that shit except that he introduced me to it. We were both these poor kids, his dad was a coke addict, and we were on welfare and food stamps, and our escape was our garage with our music. And David Bowie sings that line, "You don't believe in yourself," that always spoke to me…It always meant we don't matter, that our ideas matter but we don't. We're just a couple of loser kids and we'll always be loser kids, but we can attach ourselves to ideas or we can have ideas, and that's the important thing.

The third one is “I Found a Reason” by the Velvet Underground, just because Lou Reed once told me, "Rock and roll can go ba ba ba, it can't go la la la." (laughs) I just really liked the song, it's beautiful, and I wish I'd written it because it's one of my favorite songs.

Number four is “3rd Planet” by Modest Mouse. Maybe it's something to throw you off with a more modern thing in there, but if I had to choose one song that was my favorite of all time, I'd have to say “3rd Planet” by Modest Mouse. It's because you're there with him, you're swimming around in all those guitar delays and all that confusion….And you see the planets and you see your own stupid, pitiful, little life, and it just makes sense to you.

And you know, "My only art is fucking people over" is a GREAT line because it just absolves you from your complete and utter inability to relate. I don't think I'm like that, I think I probably relate ok, but it's a great line and it makes you on his team at that point.

My number five was actually a bunch of different songs. I couldn't decide, so I figured instead of trying to explain or choose one, I'm just gonna list them and you can decide for yourself why.
-“Fairytale of NY” (The Pogues)
-“Like Cockatoos” (The Cure)
-“Rapture” (Pedro the Lion)
-“The Calendar that Hung Itself” (Bright Eyes)
-“Hotel Yorba” (White Stripes)
-“We've Been Had” (The Walkman)
-“A Little Bleeding” (Crooked Fingers)
-“Queen of the Surface Streets” (Devotchka)
-“Lion's Mane” (Iron and Wine)

Now if you're a songwriter, the reasons why you would choose any one of these songs seems really obvious to me, like they captured a little bit of what it felt like to be them at that moment. Before recorded music, poetry was really popular. My theory is that poetry isn't popular anymore because we have music now. Before we had a recording of how people felt, they'd try to capture it lyrically in poems. And now, no one gives a FUCK about poetry because we have all these songs, and they're so much better at capturing what it felt like. When Robert Smith wrote "Like Cockatoos," I know that feeling, I know it really well. "Fairytale of NY," I know what that feels like...You want to see all those police officers singing “Galway Bay.” "The Calendar that Hung Itself," have you ever been jealous in your entire life, of anyone? "The Calendar that Hung Itself" is the quintessential jealousy song. So it's a bit of a cock-up naming all these songs as #5. [Overall] what you're trying to do as a songwriter, you're trying to let other people know what it felt like to be going through this exact moment you're going through right now. And it's a series of lyrics, and a bunch of music, and there's a way that you sing it so that you can communicate with these people like, "You know what man, that's how that felt, it sucked, and that's what happened." So I guess I feel like each of these songs captures a bit of that in some way or another.

Me: Your band has become pretty hot pretty fast. You put out an EP, played Europe even, and then just recently got a manager. In fact, I heard from an industry friend in LA that your single had been picked up by "the" rock radio station out there - the first time in something like 10 years that they'd added a single by an unsigned band to their playlist. I'd read that you guys were pretty much doing everything yourselves. Do you feel like your time spent in the world of music reviewing gave you insights on what to avoid or what to do?
MJ: Well maybe some insights...like we have a band rule against doing coke. (laughs) Nobody in our band is allowed to do blow because we know that blow breaks up bands, so I guess there is shit like that.

I don't know if there's much crossover in terms of writing about music because it was real important to me from the jump never to bring it up. Actually, I think Daren was in the band 3-4 months before he even knew that I'd ever written about music. I always felt like it was two separate things and some of the stuff is just kind of embarrassing. You just want to write a song and you want people to think about the song, not think about you as some critic, some ex-whatever…You wonder if people will ever allow you to be multiple things in your life. It was really important to me to never use anything [from his music reviewing life]....I just never brought it up...ever. We've had to turn down press opportunities because it was someone I knew, and we've turned down a lot of promotion because it was someone that I knew....I just wouldn't accept it.

So it's kind of two different worlds. It sounds so fucking stupid and trite, but I just...suddenly, all I wanted to do was play music. And it's all I've done. I literally have intense credit card debt, I've defaulted on my student loans, I haven't paid taxes in 7 years, I'm so fucking broke...and all I want to do is play music. I just don't care, I just don't care. And when I wrote about music I felt that way, when I was writing a novel I felt that way (laughs)...I don't know how else to be in life, I don't know what else to do.

So did it give me a perspective? Yeah it taught me that bands shouldn't do blow, because it makes everyone super egotistical and then you break up. And that sucks, you became a band because everyone in the band was really talented at what they did, and you came together and were really talented as a group. So we don't do blow as a result.

And I guess it taught me that what's important is you write and record good songs, and the rest of it kind of doesn't matter that much. But the rest of it, I dunno if one informs the other, I think they're two totally different functions of reality. I would have been done with music writing either way; I would have been writing novels at this point if I hadn't gotten bit by this music bug.
Me: That's exceptionally forthright, way more forthright than I expected. (laughs)
MJ: Steven is over there riffing right now you should see him...he just lying on my bed right now, riffing.
SC: (from the other room) You liking the mad riffage?
MJ: Yeah you're tapping your foot, it's awesome. Steven Chen, ladies and gentlemen, Steven Chen....My bandmates are my best friends; we've all kind of cast our lot together, and (pauses)….this is all any of us have. There's nothing else we're better at, there's nothing else we're trying to do, this is it for us. And we live and die by it. So we're friends, but partially we're friends because we're tied to the same fate, if that makes any sense.

Me: How would you define success at this point?
MJ: (laughs) I once remember telling a friend about a year and a half ago that I just wanted five people I'd never met to like songs that I'd wrote. Not friends, not friends of friends, but five people that I didn't know to like something that I wrote, and then I'd feel like I was a success. And now I think my feelings are that you multiply that by about...a million. (both laugh)

But it's the same basic idea, if you could reach people you've never met, people who don't know you, or people who don't have some sort of vested stake in your success, and who just get it. The last Spaceland show that we played...Spaceland's a club that holds maybe 400 people, and the last show we played, about 1000 people showed up. And the crowd, it wasn't your sort of local hipsters but all kinds of different sorts of folk. And this guy named Ray came up to me. Ray was like, "Hey man, I don't want to sound gay or nothing like that, but 'Sometime Around Midnight,' that happened to me." And I was like, "Oh, ok Ray, that's cool," and he was like, "No man, no," (makes the Wonder Twins power motion with his fist) and we pounded fists. Then he introduced me to his wife and said, "No no, it wasn't her, it was some other punta," (laughs) "but lemme tell you, I've been there and I know what that feels like, so you know, alright." And stuff like that...we all want to do this for a living for sure, but stuff like that, I look at shit like that and think, "Wow, fuck man, I totally talked to RAY." How the fuck would I know Ray, and Ray was all psyched that I wrote this song about being all bummed out about my ex-girlfriend at this bar one night. So yeah, that's success, that's good enough for us.

It's weird, you start getting ahead of yourself in your head and thinking like "Wow here's how much money I'm gonna make," and "I'm gonna be rich in 2 years and do this and that," whatever… And then other times you think nobody gives a fuck, like nobody cares about my music or my band or anything. And I guess success is if you're a guy who needs 100 dollars and someone gives you 101, where as failure is a guy who needs 101, and someone only gives him 100. So we're always trying to be the band that only has 20 bucks to their name because we're all really broke. (laughs) And we love that fact that people even know who we are because, you know, we're just an unsigned band from Los Feliz.

Me: How did you guys find SX….Did you find it was worth it, how did you guys get there, how did all that happen?
MJ: Well we took a plane (laughs)....We played this place called the Troubadour in LA and we made a bunch of money that night because it sold out. We took that money and we bought plane tickets.
Me: Nice, smart ass….I mean did you get in* [to SXSW proper]?
(*Ed. note: Often, bands, if they don't get into SXSW, will just come down anyway and try to get into venues and play.)
MJ: There's an application process and we applied. It wasn't clear when we applied that we would even get in. But then we got accepted and we got offered a number of, much to our surprise, a number of showcases. And we didn't even have plane tickets because none of us have enough money to just buy plane tickets. Then we played this show at the Troubadour which sold out. We took the money we made that night and bought plane tickets. Now we're even again and we're back to zero. (laughs)

It's funny because while we were at SX the biggest question we got asked was, "What is it like to be so successful?" And we were all like, "I wouldn't know!" (laughs) We don't have a label, we don't have any of that stuff. It's just us, it's just the five of us, we don't know what's gonna come of it. Everyone keeps telling us that that's what's gonna happen, but we don't know if that's true or not....none of it has really happened yet.
Me: But have you gotten good info from people from SX?
MJ: Well even before SX, we've definitely been wined and dined by labels. Like a lot of big name labels, like the presidents of labels are inviting us to their house at this point. We definitely feel courted, if for no other reason than they want us to feel courted, and maybe somehow loyal to them. We don't know what we're going to do yet. We don't really trust labels, we don't really trust anyone but the five of us. We trust each other but that's about it because you know, people say a lot of shit.

Me: Well that was actually a question that I had. If you go the Radiohead route and you go completely independent, it's difficult because there's the distribution issue. My friends and I are pretty big music nerds, but we first heard of you, being on the east coast, via SX stuff. Had we not gone to SX, we might not have heard about you guys, but then you're huge in LA. So I guess the question is what do you think about that? I mean, you have this EP, you have enough stuff "mastered" for a full length record, but I guess it's what do you want to do? What would you settle for?
MJ: Well, we're not in the mood to settle. We're very much in a mood to find people who believe in what we're doing and wanna support it. We're not terribly concerned about the numbers. We've already been offered enormous numbers, and also smaller numbers, and we've sort of scoffed at both because we're not signing away our futures. But we're also not interested in only being a band from Los Feliz that never goes anywhere. So I guess there's a line to be walked there somewhere. You can never predict how big your audience is gonna be or how many people are gonna like what you're doing...it's like there's a weird calculation that goes on where you have to figure out what you're worth, and what other people think you're worth, and we don't know. Honestly Erica, sometimes I feel like we're not worth anything. Some days I wake up and I feel like nobody gives a fuck, I feel like the biggest loser on the planet and no one cares...that's the honest truth. And then other days after shows, and there's like, 500 people running up to talk to me or talk to the band, I feel like the fucking king of the labyrinth. And I'm confused by both of those things. It's a very confusing and sort of overwhelming position to be in. It's like sometimes you think you're gonna be the biggest band in the world, and other times you think no one's ever gonna care, you fucking oversaturated fuck.

And I don't know, maybe some people don't go through things like that but those are the kinds of things that I go through. I know this is what I wanna do, I know I believe in what we're doing. I know I'm a participant in our shows, and I've looked at our shows and they look different than other shows that I see. And you kind of have to remain humble about those other things, you can't control them. You've just kind of got to do your thing and hope somebody gets it. And if they don't, you know, you're an asshole if you don't keep doing it anyway.

(After almost 3.5 hours of talking, much Jameson and wine had been consumed by all parties at this point, and we were losing Steven to massive hunger. So we called last question.)

Me: Ok so…have you had previous training as a singer, and are you looking forward to playing new stuff?
MJ: No and no. C'mon, you got a better question in you than that…I've no training as a singer, I spent the last year and half locked alone in my apartment singing 6 hours a day, and that's the only reason I can even carry a tune.
Me: How is that possible, that's nonsense!
MJ: It's true, it's true, I couldn't even carry a tune 3 years ago. I have the mp3s to prove it. It's only because...I'm telling you, my mom got sick, and my dad was sick, and I was sick, and suddenly everything just didn't matter, and I started singing all the time. Before that, I couldn't really sing, it was only after months and months and months and months of trying. C'mon Erica, I know you have another question.
Me: I know you have to go eat.
MJ: Is that it then, are we done, is that the whole thing? (calls to Steven) Steven, we're done, Erica's out of questions.
SC: (from the other room) Oh ok, you want me to ask you questions?
MJ: No I think we're good.

(Steven cheers)

Wishing Well (2006 version)-Airborne Toxic Event (MP3)
Wishing Well (2007 EP)-Airborne Toxic Event (Purchase)


Act IV coming up...