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

The Weather Underground on Live Daily Sessions

Live Daily has this nice little section called Live Daily Sessions where bands come and play a couple of acoustic numbers. Recent bands include Langhorne Slim, Le Switch, and a favorite around Between Love and Like, The Weather Underground, where they performed "All Ye People" and "Neal Cassady," seen below, both off their newest EP, Bird in the Hand.

"Neal Cassady"



"All Ye People"

A Soulful Saturday: Otis Redding, Live at the Whiskey A Go-Go, Hollywood, CA (4-10-66)

(Photo via Georgia Music)

When I was digging around for that perfect quote that best summed up Otis Redding's live show to include in my review of The Weather Underground's recent show at the Mercury Lounge in NYC, I stumbled across an entire performance of Otis Redding's second-of-two 4-10-1966 shows at the Whiskey a Go-Go in West Hollywood, CA. Rather ironic, given my assertion of The Weather Underground being more Otis than James Brown, then I find Otis covering Brown's "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag"...Talk about some full-circle movement, eh?

A little taste (this from the 4-10-66 first show):



Then the 4-10-66 later show for your downloading pleasure:

Download: Otis Redding Live at the Whiskey a Go-Go, 4-10-66, Show 2.mp3

Setlist:

Your One and Only Man
Security
Good to Me
Respect
Ole Man Trouble
I Can't Turn You Loose
A Hard Day's Night
These Arms of Mine
Papa's Got a Brand New Bag (false start)
Papa's Got a Brand New Bag
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction

(Thanks goes to Up the Downstair for the original)

Show Review: The Weather Underground @ Mercury Lounge, NYC (6-20-08)

(Click on any photo above to enlarge)

As you may tell from the things I’ve been reviewing as of late, my ears have been cocked westward to things coming from the Silver Lake/Echo Park music scene in Los Angeles for the last little while. For the most part, I hear many of these bands aren’t just great to listen to, but they also put on stellar live shows. One such group I’d heard this about was The Weather Underground; “Think James Brown fronting a punk band,” was what I heard specifically, which is one damn tall order. Thus, I blocked my calendar out when I saw they were playing DC last week.

Now, as I wrote, they were good and I definitely enjoyed their Rock n Roll Hotel show. But when I think of James Brown, I think of going to the bridge in a lavender cape, and a charisma and energy that bounces off the stage, into the crowd, and back. That wasn’t really The Weather Underground’s DC show. As I think I mentioned there were glimpses of it and the songs themselves were energetic, but you can’t feed off the energy of an audience if there really isn’t one (as was the case in the sparsely-attended DC show). So I thought hmm, why not catch the Mercury Lounge show in NYC that following Friday, maybe do a comparison and see? I mean, hell, it would be NYC, where folks go to shows even when it’s raining, on a Friday, on a bill of four bands with two relatively known (Band of Thieves and Parlour Mob), so there was bound to be more than 20 folks there. Plus, I knew that these boys, all proud Los Angelinos, would probably want to “represent” in this rival city to LA, and show the crowd that LA isn't all Motley Crue and "The Hills."

Thank you Lord for giving me good instincts because whatever it was, I was dead on, this was in no way the Bonaroo-weary-but-determined band I saw in DC. Energy radiated off that stage from the minute they tore into “Fight Songs of the Desajolos,” the opener. “Little Sparrows in Boyle Heights” followed, and by the time they hit the title track from their latest EP, Bird in the Hand, lead singer/songwriter/rhythm guitarist Harley Prechtel-Cortez was bouncing up on the balls of his feet, that baritone voice and soul-filled howl pouring forth flawlessly. His ability to maintain a long banshee yell on key in a single breath continually friggin’ astounds me.

It looked like the rest of the band had also gotten some rest because they too were right there with Prechtel-Cortez. During “Neal Cassady,” lead guitarist/keyboardist Soichi Bagley, who plays tambourine on this song, actually knocked it out of his own hand from the force at which he was hitting it, and drummer Diego Guerrero throttled the maraca with both hands, shaking it madly. Prechtel-Cortez sang their new song, “Letters,” with such passion and intensity, he looked almost surprised by it, as was the case during “Trainwreck.” This intensity carried through into a much more punk version of “Old Man Jude” than I'd seen in DC or heard on record even, and by its end, it was almost a punk/gospel sing-along. Well, for the band at least.

Sometimes you experience a show differently from the person next to you for whatever reason. Maybe the music struck me in a different way from the person next to me. Maybe the person next to him was having a bad day. Maybe the couple next to him was just biding time until Band of Thieves came on. But something made Prechtel-Cortez apparently feel that the audience, despite Weather Underground’s best efforts and a pretty scorching set, wasn't engaged because in addition to again dedicating "All Ye People" to his stepfather who passed away last year, he paused for a second and added, “Yeah, we’re almost done here folks.” Towards the end, “All Ye People” seemed to get through to the crowd though because I noticed that folks to my right stopped talking and folks to my left started clapping along.

Perhaps to capitalize on this breakthrough, the band did one more song, one I didn't know at all. Suddenly, Prechtel-Cortez came down into the crowd, still singing (this is something he typically does in the west coast shows I heard later). He then said, "A little bit of love and kindness is all you guys need," hugged the guy next to me, and returned to the stage after the chorus, apparently needing a short break....


...before the band went into a cover of The Beatles' "Dear Prudence" with gusto, complete with harmonica...




...and then they went back into whatever the previous song had been, to end the set. (Check out the picture stream at the top of this post where you can see the progression of things as they're shown in order. Alas, it totally escapes me now how Prechtel-Cortez wound up laying on the stage again playing guitar.)

So was it really “James Brown fronting a punk band”? Dunno if I'd go quite that far based on what I saw at this Mercury Lounge show last week, maybe that's an experience you only get by attending their hometown shows. But would I give them "Otis Redding fronting a punk band"? Yup, Otis, I'll give you, without question. Cause while Prechtel-Cortez may not don a lavender cape, he and his bandmates, like Redding, brilliantly synthesize the evangelical fervor of a church and the rambunctious vibes of rock 'n' roll. The Weather Underground is definitely a band with soul.

Show Review: The Weather Underground @ Rock n Roll Hotel, Washington, DC (6-16-08)

(Click on any photo to enlarge)

I assume a rock show on a rainy Monday night is tough to get a huge crowd at most places, but in Washington, DC, it's REALLY hard. If you're a smaller band from another coast who is also playing second on a bill of three on a rainy Monday in DC, you might very well be playing to a handful of folks and the venue staff for your set.

This is, unfortunately, what happened for The Weather Underground's show last Monday at the Rock and Roll Hotel. They wound up playing for around 20 people plus the bartender and the sound guy in total; but DC, I'm here to tell you, you should have showed up because you missed one hell of a rock show.

Out of the super hot Echo Park/Silver Lake music scene in Los Angeles, 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.

Diego Guerrero's drumming is truly a thing of beauty. It's a crisp and clean but driving force, and in at least one song, he uses a maraca and a tambourine in place of drum sticks, making for a really neat and different sound. And Guerrero doesn't just tap the drums to keep time and the beat, he beats the bejesus out of them in a way that would make Topper Headon proud (how they don't have holes in them is beyond me). Lead guitarist/keyboardist Shoichi Bagley only learned how to play a few short years ago when his cousin, Prechtel-Cortez, was in dire need of a fill-in guitarist for a radio show he was doing. But when you hear Bagley, you'd think he's been playing forever; always the true sign of a natural talent. Bagley’s slide guitar playing is effortless and truly adds another dimension to the songs. Bassist Ryan Kirkpatrick disproves the notion held by some I know that a bassist is just there for filler, and something like the bass line from Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water" is the only thing a bassist aspires to play. Kirkpatrick's sound is full of movement and inventive, and almost seems to follow the lilt of Prechtel-Cortez's voice at times. Sid Vicious he is not.

Prechtel-Cortez has one of the better rock singer yells I've heard in some time and he sings like his life depends on it. With a baritone voice similar to Eddie Vedder's and a Robert Plant Led Zeppelin-era wail, the man can sing. Prechtel-Cortez typically appears onstage sans shoes ("It's a comfort thing, like you would be when you're at home," he told me later), and sings with his eyes closed most of the time, almost like he's having a private moment with the muse that's inspiring him….until, that is, he lets out a lyric in a melodious yell, like a preacher in an evangelical church trying to summon the heavens.

Rock and Roll Hotel’s space may have been small but The Weather Underground’s sound was HUGE. They started the set with two songs from their newest EP (entitled Bird in the Hand), “Little Sparrows in Boyle Heights” and the title track, the latter of which Prechtel-Cortez played so hard on that he literally lost the hat he was wearing. "Neal Cassady," dedicated to Bo Diddley, followed suit, followed by “When I Was a Soldier,” and then an INCREDIBLE new song, “Letters.” Prechtel-Cortez plays keyboards on this, giving Bagley and Kirkpatrick center stage, with Guerrero doing that cool substitution I mentioned earlier, using a maraca and a tambourine for drum sticks. From this swirling din, came “Something’s Gotta Give,” this one dedicated to Otis Redding, and I see why--it screams soul but backed with a tribal beat. I recall thinking “I hope to hell he’s using a pick” as I watched Bagley play this because it seemed he was trying to literally tear the notes from his guitar. Guerrero’s drumming was so intense, I saw his kit moving around.

Then they got to “Trainwreck,” this fabulous standout song about addiction on the the new EP. Even if they’d just spent the last three days in the hot sun playing the Bonaroo Festival and “lost their minds there,” as Prechtel-Cortez commented earlier in the night, even though they looked exhausted and probably felt more so, I’m pretty sure folks 11 streets down at the Capitol could feel Guerrero’s drumming, and were most likely asking each other where that catchy keyboard/guitar sound was coming from. But I’m damn sure they all heard the melodious banshee yell of “I’m coming hoooommmmeee” by Prechtel-Cortez. You think I’m exaggerating here, and maybe I am...Ok, maybe it was only five streets down not 11, but I’m dead serious about all the rest of it. The band was like a group of demon children on holiday, playing fast and furious, to the point where I saw Bagley visibly go “whew!” when the song was finished.

“Old Man Jude” followed and is a nice “musical fake out” (it starts off all slow and bluesy, complete with Prechtel-Cortez playing harmonica and doing a little ad-lib singing of “Anyway, the Lakers are a whole lot better than the Celtics, and anyway, it’s just a game).” But then the song jumps to 60 miles an hour with four quick taps of Guerrero’s drum sticks. This calm-to-raucous dichotomy seems to happen in many of The Weather Underground’s songs, and that’s probably why I enjoyed them so much. To me, the ability to switch tempos on a dime like that has always been indicative of a band that a) is incredibly tight and b) contains incredibly competent musicians. As The Weather Underground *seemingly* did this switch flawlessly over and over in various songs throughout the evening, I’d say both of these apply.

Almost to give band and audience some time to breathe from this energetic onslaught, they then did a slow gospel number called “All Ye People,” which brought “Let It Loose,” off The Rolling Stones’ “Exile on Main Street” to mind. Prechtel-Cortez dedicated “All Ye People” to his step-father who passed away last year (“He always wanted to be a preacher so I dedicate this one to him,” he told the audience). It’s a gorgeous and lush song about the solitary nature of dying, and how one must live in the now. “All Ye People” is definitely a song that weeps.

The band ended with “Fight Songs of the Desajolos,” another song off the new EP, and was inspired by the month Bagley and Prechtel-Cortez spent in Guatemala last year. I read somewhere that one reviewer heard this track and wondered if he’d received the wrong record. It’s got an upbeat “mariachi band at a carnival” sound, paired with serious lyrics (about displaced field workers), and is sung entirely in Spanish. Admittedly, on record, this song didn’t do much for me, but live, live, I was sold. Is it a typical song for a rock band to play? Nope. But than again, it appears that The Weather Underground isn’t really your *typical* rock band, so it all makes sense.

In the end Washington, DC, you missed a rousing show last Monday from a top-notch live band who rocked our 39 socks off (would have been 40 but I wasn't wearing socks with heels). The Weather Underground will be back, and when they are, even if it’s raining, be sure you go. I guarantee you won’t be sorry.

Download: All Ye People-The Weather Underground (MP3)

In NYC tonight and looking for a good band to see?

Yes, I know the Cure is playing MSG but what if you want something different, more raucous and definitely cheaper? Come down to the no-longer-as-dirty-as-I-recall Alphabet City (specifically Avenue A and E. Houston Street) and check out The Weather Underground from Los Angeles. The Silver Lake/Echo Park area to be exact.

Where? Mercury Lounge, 217 E. Houston Street (corner of Avenue A and E. Houston Street)
When? 9:30

Besides how many bands do you typically see whose lead singers sing sans shoes? None probably, plus they're all hot as hell, so go check them out. They will blow your mind.