Category: Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog

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Video Grab Bag: Panic! at the Disco, Christina Perri, Industries of the Blind and Empires

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This video for Ready to Go (Get Me Out of My Mind), Panic! at the Disco‘s second single off of their new record Vices & Virtues, just came out yesterday, and, you guys, I really just love it so much. Not only is it a great song (turn it up!), but the video is beautifully shot and lit AND there is fabulous choreography. There are also fun costumes, because the whole thing is a visual tribute to musicals, including Grease, Mary Poppins and Singin’ in the Rain. Oh and also SOMEONE GETS SHOT OUT OF A CANNON. It is just delicious.

 

Panic! At The Disco: Ready To Go [OFFICIAL VIDEO]

 

Continuing with the movie theme, this is the lyric video for Arms, from the upcoming lovestrong by Christina Perri, which features words “projected” onto old-fashioned movie screens. I’ve already confessed to typography nerdery; what I especially like about this one is the way the letters shuffle and jump and sometimes arrive as snarled little knots that then expand into words and phrases.

 

Christina Perri - Arms [Official Lyric Video]

 

Next up is music that sounds like it should be in movies, from Industries of the Blind. This video is a teaser trailer for their upcoming record Chapter 1, and so doesn’t contain a full song. It does, however, give you the chance to see all nine (!) of them in action. I haven’t yet had the chance to see them live, but once this semester is over and law school (temporarily) stops interfering with my social life, I’m going to venture out to Brooklyn and catch one of their shows. In the meantime I put it on while I’m working on writing projects, because it is perfect for making all of the other noise in my head settle down so I can focus and concentrate on the task at hand.

 

Industries of the Blind - Chapter 1 promo

 

And in conclusion, a band that I hope gets their Hollywood ending: that’s right, Empires, the little rock band that could/band of my heart, has made it all the way to Round Three of the Rolling Stone cover contest. If they make it to Round Four, they have a shot at playing a battle-of-the-bands style show with the other finalist at Bonnaroo,  and, of course, being on the cover of Rolling Stone.  As an enticement to vote for them as often as you can before the contest closes on May 13, I submit TWO new videos for songs written and recorded during the contest, Night is Young and Hard Times. There is also a third song, Hells Heroes, which is available for free from their website. If you join their mailing list while you’re there, you’ll periodically get epistles addressed “Dear Scholars,” which is one of the very many reasons this band is the band of my heart.

 

 

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American Idiot

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When it comes to Green Day, I have, over the years, been something of an inconstant lover, prone to casual liaisons (singing along to When I Come Around on the radio in 1994), impetuous tiffs (changing the station every time I heard the opening notes of Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) in 1998) and brief put passionate flings (that time in May 2001 that I made my cube-mate listen to The Grouch on endless repeat every morning until he almost literally begged for mercy) but for various reasons resistant to actually committing.

Then, in 2004, they released American Idiot.

That record was different. That record was the one that I bought out of idle and morbid curiosity (Rock opera? Seriously?), then kept in the player in my car for the better part of several months, where it served as company and comfort during the numerous solitary journeys I made up and down 287 South and I-95, trying to balance work and love and clearing twenty-six boxes of books and assorted other memories out of my parents’ house before they moved. Even now, seven years later, the memory of curve of the road unwinding in the distance and the attendant simultaneous rising and sinking of my heart are inextricably tied to the first explosive chords of the first song.

So when I heard it was going to be made into an actual musical, I was warily elated. The early reviews from the California production were promising, and then, even better, it jumped to Broadway. My Green Day girls who have been going steady with the band since the early 1990s came back from previews in raptures, and my theater people, all gimlet-eyed Broadway audience veterans, were similarly impressed. (The show has since won several awards, including both a Tony and a Grammy.)

The first time I got to see it myself was in late June 2010, when NTSIB friend Cam Rogers visited New York in advance of our larger road-trip to Mississippi. I proffered it gingerly, and he not only agreed to see it but also hauled a suit halfway across the world in his rucksack so that we could have a proper night at the theater. And thus it was that I ended up at the front of the balcony in the St. James Theater, trying not to bang my head (it’s really difficult to hold still during those opening bars) while I absorbed the action and the stagecraft, with several thoughts forming; chief among them was the sudden certainty that this was always how it was meant to sound.

Speaking of stagecraft, let’s talk about that for a minute. The set, which was wall-papered with newspapers covered in graffiti and punctuated by video screens, still managed to look natural and lived-in. The costumes didn’t look like costumes, they looked like things that people I know would (and do) wear. Watching the actors stomp and swirl as they sang, I felt more than thought Those are my people, that is my tribe. Also notable: The soundtrack incorporates some material off of other Green Day records, and, against all odds and in defiance of almost 15 years of dedicated loathing, when Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) showed  up at the end, it struck me as the perfect grace note and I developed a sincere affection for the song. It, too, benefits from being sung with multiple voices.

I went on to see the show three more times – the most times I ever have and probably ever will see one Broadway show – once with my sister, and twice more on my own. The fourth and last time I saw it was a week and half ago, during Billie Joe Armstrong’s third turn as St. Jimmy, and one of the last performances before it closed on Easter. And, while I’m sad to see it go,  the reason it closed, and the reason I’m writing about it now, is an exciting one: it’s going out on tour. The festivities will kick off in Toronto in late December and make a slow march around the country through early 2012. I encourage all of you to check the listings and mark your calendars and go see it.

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Strangers: Dark Pop and Twisty Soundscapes

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Raife Hacking (drums; left), David Jones (vocals, keyboards; right);

not pictured: Glen Nicholls (producer, programmer, keyboardist, crafter of twisty soundscapes,  and international man of mystery).

 

I’m intrigued by your sound. So, tell me more about the band. Who are you, collectively, and what’s your story?

David: Well the band is a trio, myself and Raife Hacking started working with Glen Nicholls, the producer and also third band member in October last year. We are from the Midlands in the UK originally, but now work from Glen’s studio in North London.

We came together through a love of dark pop music, stuff like Depeche Mode, some Bowie stuff, The Cure, Nine Inch Nails (you’ll hear that coming out more in our new stuff). Glen is a producer/remixer and has worked with bands such as White Lies, Prodigy and Unkle amongst others, and I have been songwriting for a few years, inspired by my love of dark uplifting pop songs. I use the word pop loosely, I guess.

We’re aiming for a big powerful live show which we are debuting in May/June in London UK, and are releasing another couple of EPs over the course of the next few months followed by our debut album later this year.

 

I have a rough idea of where the West Midlands are but, to be honest, almost everything I know about the bits of England that aren’t London I learned from books like Pies and Prejudice and Cider with Roadies by Stuart Maconie, movies like Brassed Off and Billy Elliot and the week I spent in the Lake District before I went up to Glasgow for my junior year abroad. I can look at a map and see you aren’t from those part(s) of England, but: what is your England like? What propelled you down to London?

David: Well, my England was centred around Northampton when I was growing up, which is a large town in the middle of England. I was brought up in a Christian community where everyone shared all of their possessions and lived simply without a television or radio. It meant that I was encouraged to be creative from a very early age. So I’ve been writing songs and playing instruments from about the age of 7.

What brought me down to London was music. I always knew I wanted to pursue a musical career, and London seemed a good place to meet people and go to gigs etc. I also like buzzing places and being part of a city that’s always moving and always vibrant is a great place to be for inspiration.

 

Was your community akin to the Amish? Was London a whole lot of culture shock, or was the separation between the two types of worlds not as stark as the Amish/”English” division tends to be? (The old order Amish here generally refer to the non-Amish as “English.”)

David: The community I was brought up in has similarities, I guess, to the Amish, but only in the way everyone lives together. We all went to normal schools and interact with ‘normal’ society. They just choose to live a simple and humble life as they believe it is how God would want them to live. They call themselves Charismatic Christians. I think my upbringing has influenced me in a very positive way.

 

Are Raife and Glen from Northampton too? Did you call decamp to London together, or meet there? What is their England like?

Glen: I’m originally from Leicestershire, not too far from Northampton but moved to London in 1997.

David: Raife is from Northampton, and still lives there. He comes to stay with me in London every week so we can work on the band, though. Raife is the youngster of the band and we love him for his energy and enthusiasm, and also his crafty beats. I guess our collective ‘England’ is quite similar, we are all from relatively small places and have a desire to do something bigger than the confines of where we are from. That isn’t to say that we’re not proud of where we’re from, and I still really enjoy being in Northampton, it’s a great place with lots of creative people around.

 

Why did you name the band Strangers?

We came up with the name Strangers because firstly we thought it fitted perfectly with our sound and secondly everyone is born a stranger into this world and we really find the concept behind that idea. Also we all interact with Strangers everyday, more so than we ever have, and its a really interesting idea and can be used in loads of different ways.

 

You mentioned NIN as an influence; is that early NIN or later? Also, is that a violin I hear, on one of the tracks?

Yes, that is a violin in one of the tracks. Our producer is very much into ‘filmic’ sounds, by that I mean epic, huge soundscapes, and so he will often spend days coming up with a string part for one of our songs. I think it really works well for our sound. To be honest I’ve only recently got into Nine Inch Nails. I love ‘Hurt’, Closer, tracks like that. Glen is more of a hardcore fan, and he has turned me onto them.

 

Oh, okay, Closer and so on, that’s early NIN. Those are some of my favorites, too! Would it be appropriate to read “dark pop” as a synonym for “gothic”? Or at least as being related to certain strains of gothic music?

I guess there are gothic elements to our sound, but Dark Pop sits better with us as a way to describe our sound at the moment. Some of influences definitely have gothic roots; The Cure, Depeche Mode.

 

[ Strangers ] - In Chaos

 

Where was the video filmed? It looks very dark and pleasantly creepy, wherever it is. Also, how long did take to do it, using just the iPhones as recording devices?

We filmed the video in Holland Park, which is a national park in West London. They are very strict about what is filmed there, so we had to stealth it a bit, and stay ‘under the radar’. It was raining for most of the filming so we were all standing there drenched, trying to get the right shots, it was an interesting day to say the least! We were there for about 3 hours the first time, and then went back for an hour or so a week later to get a few of the shots we missed. It was all shot using two iPhones, yes, and I think we were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the footage.

 

What was your transformative song – the rock and roll lightning strike?

David: A guy who I was in a band with a few years ago played me Depeche Mode Enjoy the Silence and it was literally love at first listen. From there I got really into The Cure and bands like that, as well as purchasing the entire Depeche Mode back catalogue.

Glen: Mine would have to be Head Like a Hole, by Nine Inch Nails, literally blew my socks off!! haha!

Raife: Everlong – Foo Fighters. The first time I heard it I wanted to be Taylor Hawkins, just such an entertaining drummer to listen to, and watch, he’s so animated. Also, it’s just a great track, I’ll never grow tired of it.

 

What was your first show (that you attended, not that you played)?

David: My first show i went to was a local band called Glendon. The guitarist used a food mixer on the fretboard to make some cool sounds, back then that was enough to impress me haha.

Glen: Depeche mode’s ‘Devotion Tour’ in ’93 was the first big concert I went to in London!

Raife: The very first show I went to was to see a Scottish metal band called Mendeed, I was 13 at the time. It was at the forum in Kentish Town, proper battle metal type stuff, there was mohawks and dreadlocks all over the place. Loved it. I really clearly remember just how loud it was, I couldn’t believe PA’s went that loud, pretty sure the ringing in my ears right now is because of that first show I went to.

 

What was the first record/tape/etc that you bought? What was the last one?

David: I wasn’t allowed to buy tapes when I was a kid, as all other music other than Christian music was considered ‘worldly’ and wrong. I used to go round to my mates house and he would copy me stuff that was in the charts at the time.

Glen: Damn! probably Michael Jackson’s Thriller on vinyl and the last was the Inception movie score by Hans Zimmer.

Raife: Nirvana, Nevermind, the most stereotypical album to be a bought by a teenager. I listened to it over and over, really opened up my musical ears. The last one I bought was  Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, full of great hip-hop grooves, some really interesting instrumentation on some tracks, and a cameo perfomance from Chris      Rock at the end of the last track, couldn’t ask for more.

 

And finally, where will you be playing the live shows?

David: Our first show is May 20th at a new venue called Victory. We are playing this show for Club. The. Mammoth and will be the main support for FOE. Also we are playing at Bull and Gate in Kentish Town, North London for Mybandsbetterthanyours Presents on June 7th.

 

To hear more from the Strangers, visit them at their Website or on Soundcloud!

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Video Spotlight: Les Wampas

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Good morning, NTSIBbers. Today we’re going on a virtual field trip to France! We are going to visit with Les Wampas, a punk band that has been around since 1983 but I didn’t know existed until probably about a month ago. And they are fantastic. They have become my go-to comfort music at pretty much all times. They do sing in French, but do not let that put you off. My facility with spoken French is approximately that of a very polite toddler, and I don’t find my lack of proficiency and/or comprehension a barrier to enjoying their music quite thoroughly.

The first song I am going to share is Manu Chao, from Never trust a guy who after having been a punk, is now playing electro (2003). It’s a diss track, but it’s a mild one. The lyrics, loosely translated, are along the lines of “If I had as much money as Manu Chao, I would go on lots of vacations” and Manu Chao is another  European rockstar.

It’s the track that floated up on shuffle as I was walking to class one night after visiting the 7-11, trying to balance my cup of tea and umbrella at the same time and thinking something along the lines of “Have I lost my brownie again?” and I really did stop in the middle of the street, circuits jammed with “What is that?“, “Where can I get some more?” and “I need to make it louder right now.”

 

Les Wampas - Manu Chao

 

The next one is Rimini, from Rock’n’Roll No. 9 (2006) and is a memorial song for Marco Pantanni, a Tour de France champion who died in Rimini, Italy, in 2004. The song is masterfully constructed; it starts with just Didier Chapedelaine’s voice accompanied by a simple, delicate guitar line and then, in something like a minute and a half, slowly expands to include another guitar, drums and fuzzy, thudding bass:

 

les wampas - rimini

 

Finally, a fan video from a show, filmed in Spain in 2009, so you can see them in action. Didier Chapedelaine is essentially leading the pit in an acoustic performance of Les bottes rouges from Simple et Tendre (1993) . The whole room is singing along, clapping out the beat, and carefully surfing him around all at the same time:

 

Les Wampas - Les bottes rouges / Alhambra - 2009.10.23

 

There is much more to listen to on the “Songs” section of their website, and you can also watch some webisodes they made to promote their last record over here. If nothing else the person running around dressed like an ostrich is extremely entertaining.

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Postcards from the Pit: The Pogues

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The Pogues’ last tour, which I caught as they rolled through New York during St. Patrick’s Day (really St. Patrick’s Week, or Month), was titled “A Parting Glass” and meant to be the last one. For a lot of reasons, I hope that’s not actually true. Not least because St. Patrick’s Day in New York will not ever be the same without them. These shots are actually from March 16, the second night of a three day run at T5.

I didn’t stay in the pit very long, a combination of it being a school night and the pit being a little bit rough. I actually did the most dancing of the evening once I had retreated upstairs to the couches near the bar, where I twirled through a couple of measures of Dirty Old Town with a stranger. Though if this was their last go-round, I’ll hoard that memory as a fine send-off.

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Markers: 1 Year

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Hello NTSIBbers,

Today is my one year anniversary of writing for this blog. Thank you, April, for inviting me to the party and being a fabulous co-blogger, and thank you, NTSIBbers, for reading and commenting and making music and generally being wonderful people.

Also, I figured I should introduce myself, since I didn’t bother with that a year ago. (Whoops!) Hi! I’m Jennifer, and when it comes to music I’m a bit of a magpie. I like things that glitter and shine. I deeply appreciate people who, to paraphrase Brandon Flowers, wear their sequins unironically. I enjoy big drums and dirty bass lines, geeks, novelty songs, and novelty songs about geeks. I also enjoy the roar of the big machine, and my favorite part of  nearly any show is when the circle bells out and the center starts to spin.

Mostly what you’ve seen from me so far has been concert photography, and there will be more of that to come. I also have some half-formed ideas/nefarious plans regarding other topics (hint: I have A Lot of Feelings about videos) which I’ll be exploring later this spring.

Finally, in celebration of this first anniversary of mine, I’m doing a special give-away of twelve prints of my pictures that have appeared on NTSIB. Here’s the deal: The first 12 people to email the blog today, April 6, will get one 8×10 print of a picture, of your choice (if you specify which one you want) or of mine (if you don’t.)

Your email should contain the following: Your name; your address; and an indication as to which picture you want, if you have a preference. You can specify as broadly or as narrowly as you would like. Note: International submissions are okay!

To find my pictures: click on the Rock n’ Roll Photog category and look for posts tagged “show reviews”.

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The Allman Brothers at the Beacon Theater

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Like the swallows returning to Capistrano, the Allman Brothers annual extended run at the Beacon Theater is one of New York City’s earliest signs of spring.  I attended the second night of this year’s run. It was my first Allman Brothers show, and I went in without any particular expectations – save perhaps a vague, half-formed hope that they mighty play Ramblin’ Man – and came away both enlightened and entertained.

 

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I say enlightened because frankly, I normally just don’t get jam bands. You might, therefore, reasonably be wondering whatever possessed me to attend a performance of the great-granddaddy of all jam bands ever, to which I can only say: I was curious. And it seemed like something I should experience in the name of my own musical education.

 

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So on a chilly Friday night in early March, I ascended to a seat that was practically on the ceiling of the Beacon Theater and settled in for whatever might happen. Here is what I learned: I had seriously underestimated the role of percussion in their music. There were three drummers on stage, and the beats moved between them in slow tides, while also serving as a complex latticework on which the rest of the band hung the guitars and vocals. The main reason I’m not much for jam bands is that most of the time they sound, to me, like a bunch of aimless noodling. This music, on the other hand, was clearly constructed, all of the elements coming together to form a cathedral of sound.

 

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And like most cathedrals, while it was beautiful, it was also the tiniest bit chilly. The Allmans are not much for extended between-song banter with the audience, and I’ll confess I felt a little bit disconnected from the proceedings as a result. That said, it was still a great show, and, while I am still not converted to the Way of the Jam Band, I’m glad I went and saw them at least one time. And as for Ramblin’ Man, it was not forthcoming, though I did find out later that they don’t usually play it live, mainly because it has a fairly tight structure and doesn’t lend itself to expansion and embroidery.

Here are a few more pictures from the evening:

 

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Guest guitarist Jimmy Vivino, of Conan O’Brien’s Basic Cable Band

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Get More Gritty: Again and Again

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Ladies and gentlemen, please meet Again and Again, of Seattle, who I learned about from Twitter. After I had poked around their website a little bit and listened to a couple of songs, I was intrigued and wanted to know more. After getting past some technical difficulties, drummer XwesX (Wes Keely) (center) and I had the following email chat:

 

Who was in which band, previously, and how did you get together to form Again and Again? And who does what in Again and Again – did anyone switch roles (or instruments) from previous bands?

OK, well, to start this off, Dutch VI (above left) plays guitar, Geoffrey C Walker (above right) sings, and I play drums. We had a few other members over the years, but at the current moment this is the core group, and we have a few fill in bass players that go out on tour with us from time to time. Geoffrey used to sing in the Victory Records band called On The Last Day based out of Seattle, Dutch VI also plays in a few different hardcore bands that we are not really allowed to talk about, and I was a founder of Walls of Jericho and have also played in bands such as Most Precious Blood, Throwdown, Until The End, Remembering Never and a few others.  I also spent years as a hired gun for several different bands over a span of 5 or 6 years.

There was no role switching as far as instruments go, although we all play other instruments. Dutch plays a mean set of drums from time to time; Geoffrey plays guitar and bass and knows how to rock a Pro Tools rig like no other; and I play guitar as well as bass.

 

On the “hired gun” front, I see from your blog that you were out with the Jonas Brothers. How did that happen and what was that like, because there’s quite a vast gulf, musically, between Throwdown and the Jonas Brothers. Also, tangentially, I have noticed that there are an awful lot of ex-hardcore drummers in pop and/or pop-punk bands. Is that just a coincidence, or a kind of natural progression?

Haha, well, ok, I did some touring with Jonas this past summer, but there was no drumming involved. I was on the tour working for one of the lead sponsors of the tour that works with the Jonas group.  It’s funny, I did a tour just before that one with Jordin Sparks and a lot of people were asking me “are you drumming for her?” because really with the amount of jumping around that I have done in the past something like that is pretty possible.

As far as hardcore drummers in pop music, well that one has been happening on and off for years, people like Andy Hurley playing in Fall Out Boy with Pete [Wentz], and Chad Gilbert playing in New Found Glory after sinning in Shai Hulud.  I think its just one of those things where people just play in HC bands for years and eventually you just want to do something else.

Pete and Andy used to go to WOJ and Earthmover (band 3 members were in before we started WOJ) shows in Chicago and they played in HC bands too. We all used to have fun and play shows together and mosh it up, but eventually some of us just wanted to do other things.  Some people go back to school, some get married, some start pop bands and become millionaires, it happens.

 

Hah! There’s also Alex Johnson of The Cab, though I don’t remember now which HC band they got him from. Though Andy Hurley (and Joe Trohman) have since gone back to heavy music, with The Damned Things.

Yeah, it’s awesome, they are all doing great. Andy and I just recently got back into touch, he’s a rad dude and a solid drummer I hope to see him play again one day here soon!!

 

On the ProTools tangent – have you been producing your own records, or are you working up demos and then working with a producer?

YES, the first record we had some help from a sweet dude named Steve Carter, he’s a great guy and a great engineer and has million dollar ideas.  Steve and Geoffrey pretty much handled the first record [Again and Again, 2008]. I mean, we all had our hands in, it but the majority of the producing was all on them.  The second record, Get More Gritty [2010], was pretty much all Geoffrey. Derek [Casey], the guitar player and song writer at the time, had hands in it as well, but for the most part it was Geoff.  We had some outsiders mix and master the record, which is always a great idea.

 

Is sending a record to someone else to be mixed and mastered a good idea because it’s helpful to have someone listen to it / “edit” it who isn’t so close to it?

Yes, I mean sometimes we are so deep in it that we can’t always hear the songs for what they are or what they aren’t.  It’s nice to have another set of ears on the songs.  For example, our latest release Get More Gritty was mixed my one of my oldest friends, Marc Hudson, who happens to be an amazing engineer and has a great ear. I have been working with him on and off since I was about 15.  He spends most of his time on the road with Taking Back Sunday and Saves The Day, [so] he has such a different outlook on how things should sound, and sometimes that makes all the difference in the world!

 

Why did you pick Seattle as your home base? (Also I’d like to know more about the Barn of Solitude!)

Seattle is a great place to live, we have all lived in a ton of other places, I mean between us all, we have lived in Vermont, Michigan, Virginia, Kansas, Germany, South Florida, Orange County and Washington.  Seattle is by far all of our favorite place to live, it has mountains, desert, snow, rain, rain forest, city, hiking, camping, great music scene, jobs, and great food. It’s just the best! Seattle just happened to be the place that we all ended up, before meeting each other. (Other than Dutch and I, we were friends before the band.)

The Barn of Solitude is a great place, free of most distractions, where we wrote and recorded our first 2 records. It has a great sound and we have been fortunate enough to use it whenever we needed to over the past 3 years.  It’s 30 minutes out side of the city, up in the hills of an area called Sammamish, just east of the city.  We also shot a a video there for More Ripley Less Darrow.  It’s just an awesome place to play, write, and hang out.

 

Woah, that’s a lot of moving. And I say that as someone’s who’s moved, I think, nine times since 1998, or something like that.

Yeah, I mean between dudes in the band that have been in other band, moving and traveling just kind of comes with the gig.  Some people are fortunate enough to start a band in their home town and never leave only to tour and record, we just haven’t had that luxury.

 

“Wish I Could Be” and “More Ripley, Less Darrow” are so far my two favorite songs, MR,LD in particular because a) I appreciate a good ode to a self-rescuing princess but also b) it isn’t a simple song. The narrator sounds like he’s really wrestling with the issue. What can you tell me about those songs?

Well all of the songs are written biographically and are situational of course.  There are metaphors all over the place. Geoffrey really puts the work in to tell a good story in a catchy way.  We really try write catchy fun songs but  at the time we also try to keep ourselves entertained while playing them, which in turn makes them a little complicated by nature.  There is a lot of pre-production that goes into our songs, and we try to write more songs that we will need for a record, so we can sort out the best of the material that we have at the time.  We are in the process of starting to write and demo some new tracks, [and] we’re very excited to see what will come out next.

 

Again and Again - More Ripley, Less Darrow OFFICIAL

 

Why did you name the band Again and Again?

That was Geoff’s creation. It was funny, when he and I joined up and we were talking about doing a band together, I asked him “what’s this band going to be called?” and he was just like “Again and Again.”  I don’t think that I have ever been in a band where one guy had already decided the band [name]. It’s always such a pain to have 5 dudes trying to come up with that they think is the best band name, him having the name he liked and being set on it was great, because we totally avoided that situation.

When I asked Geoff why that name, he told me this: “To me Again and Again means a lot. It represents persistence and perseverance, sometimes to a fault. But it’s about never giving up”.

 

Who did the cover art for Get More Gritty and the website? Something about the style seems very familiar and I can’t tell what it is. I am having a moment of Why Do I Recognize That Bear?

If you recognize the bear you are probably just thinking of something else.  There are a lot of people that do the “scratchy” type drawings people like Derek Hess and Jake Bannon but I can assure you it was neither of them, it was in fact my roommate and long time friend Rawb Evans. We had this idea for the new record of a “scratchy” bear and he made it for us.  There are a lot of bears here in Western WA!

 

I see you’ve been on Warped Tour before, do you have any plans to go out on tour again soon? Not necessarily on Warped Tour, just, at all?

YES!! We did a short 4 week tour in OCT/NOV and have been planning on heading back out, sometimes life and holidays get in the way, that and the US getting blasted with snow everywhere but here in Seattle hahahahaha.  We will be out very soon.

 

And now the questions for all three of you. What was your transformative song – the rock and roll lightning strike – and why?

Geoffrey: When I first heard a rough version of Excuse This Honesty everything clicked.  I’m proud of everything we’ve done, but that song just really defines what we are at this point.  It has all the elements of music that we’ve been trying to inject into these songs.  Excitement, beauty, sincerity, and intensity.

Dutch: Excuse This Honesty is the jam, it embodies all the rock but still stays groovy and has tons of emotion in the melodies.

XwesX: I feel is the song that actually hit us in the face and the “transformative song” was a song called TMNT2, that never actually saw the light of day. It’s something that we wrote and recorded and it only made it to preproduction before we came up with 4 or 5 songs that were just way better, but had a familiar feeling to the TMNT2 track.  It really was the song that started defining what A&A sounds like today.

 

What in the world does TMNT2 stand for? Part of my brain wants to parse that as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2, and I know that can’t be right.

XwesX: HAHAHA, that’s exactly what it stands for. I can’t tell you why, I can just tell you that that is indeed what it stands for!!

 

Also, let me rephrase that last question a little bit: what song(s) made you fall in love with rock and roll?

Geoffrey: I can think of a few. But narrowing it down is tough. So here are two. It might sound cliche, but Smells Like Teen Spirit made a big impact on me. It was just so HUGE sounding. So aggressive and in your face.  The other is Closer by Nine Inch Nails. It was the first time I’d really heard electronics in modern music that didn’t induce vomit. It was dirty and grimy and shockingly honest. Trent Reznor remains a hero of mine to this day.

Dutch VI: I have a record more than any one song: Pink Floyd, The Wall.

XwesX: There are definitely a few records that strike me as “the ones” that made me wanna rock but I think when all is said and done it was probably the Arise record from Sepultura. My brother used to air drum to this record all the time, and spin these drum sticks that he had to all the awesome drum parts. I don’t think he could have ever played them for real, but it was cool to watch him when I was like 13.

 

What was your first show (that you attended, not that you played)?

Geoffrey: Aerosmith!  They played a ski area near where I grew up (during the summer).  It was on the Get A Grip Tour.  So good.

Dutch: Steve Miller Band, 1998

XwesX: Body Count, 1992

 

What was the first record/tape/etc that you bought? What was the last one?

Geoffrey: First: I wish it was something that gave me mad street cred.  But I’m pretty sure it was New Kids on the Block.  I was only 8 or 9. Haha. Last: The last record I bought was the Tron: Legacy soundtrack by Daft Punk.  It’s so epic.

Dutch: First: Weezer- Blue album, Last: Behemoth- Evangelion

XwesX: First: Guns N Roses “Appetite for Destruction” , Last: Mumford & Sons “Sigh No More”

 

Okay! Thanks so much for talking with me. And with that, I’m going to leave everyone with one more song for the road:

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London Calling: Good Dangers

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This band’s information floated over our transom with the following e-note appended:

We wrote these songs in our living rooms

We recorded them

We moved to north london so it was easier

We didn’t always agree

but that’s ok

We made some art to go with the music

We made videos which took longer

We have all been in other bands – this is our favourite

Good Dangers is – Maxim, Gavin, Johny, Jenny & Howard

I listened to their songs and watched their video(s), and later, upon adding Abigail to my daily playlist (listen to it streaming at bandcamp), I found myself humming along and tapping my pencil to the beat while I worked. And then I took it upon myself to do some further investigation. Lead singer Gavin (top right) expanded as follows:

Naturally the first question is going to be: Which bands were you in before?

That’s a bit of a secret, we like mystery.

Where did you move to North London from?

We all studied and lived south of the river after going to Goldsmiths College, gradually we migrated north/east so we could write and play easily. It’s good times in that part of London.

Why did you name the new band “Good Dangers”?

The music has a tension about it.  There’s a lot of risk in putting music out there and giving up a part of your life to do that. We wanted to capture that in the name. Or we just came up with cause it sounded good. Can’t remember.

The songs sound so light and airy, but your comment in your bio about disagreements makes it sound like getting there was hard. Was the songwriting difficult? How did you go about putting the pieces together?

Sometimes writing is painless, the songs write themselves. Other times we massively disagree. Great songs come out of both situations. You can never tell how it will play out. The only thing you can guarantee is that we will all have an opinion!

Are you all supposed to look dead in your press picture? If so, why?

No, although I agree we look a bit dead! There is something good about taking your clothes off and shutting your eyes, we can say that much.

I watched the video for Brasilia, and wow, there’s a lot to unpack there, visually. I saw a lot of footage I recognized as being disaster- or crisis-related, and a lot that seemed, at least in theory, to be harmless. What was all of that mixing about, and how does it related to the song? Also was it meant to evoke Brazil, the movie?

No relation to that fantastic movie. Making that video, I used footage from growing up in Australia shot on super 8 and a bunch of archive footage that I felt summed up the themes in the song. The song is about memories and their potency.

 

 

These last ones are for everyone. What was your transformative song – the rock and roll lightning strike?

Gavin: Anything from Van Morrison – Astral Weeks; Guns N’ Roses – Use Your Illusions II; Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream; Ryan Adams – Heartbreaker; Strokes – Is This It and Arcade Fire – Funeral.

Howard (bottom right / bass): Anything of ‘Nevermind’ (I love Drain You), when that was played at parties everyone used to go more nuts than anything else.

John (bottom left / drums, brother of Howard): The entire Strokes first album

Jenny (center / keys): Anything off the Jimmy Eat World self-titled album

Max (top left / guitars): Positively 4th Street – Bob Dylan. My Dad’s enthusiasm finally made sense on one long drive in Spain with the family.

 

What was your first show (that you attended, not that you played)

Gavin: First proper show, [was the] Smashing Pumpkins [in] London. I managed to grab a broken guitar string off Billy’s guitar. I was 14.

Howard: George Benson somewhere in London with my folks. I think I was 5 years old, I spent the entire gig shoving cotton wool in my ears as it was so loud and his smooth tones really hurt.

John: The Strokes, 2003, Alexandra Palace.

Jenny: Billy Joel

Max: Echo and The Bunnymen, Royal Court, Liverpool, 1996

 

Good Dangers - Beat Of Your Heart

 

What was the first record/tape/etc that you bought? What was the last one?

Gavin: First: Mc Hammer – Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em /Last: Wild Nothing – Gemini

Howard: I bought REM Automatic For the People because my cousin was really into them. I love that album. Last one I bought was the new Radiohead album.

John: Power Rangers theme song in 1994.

Jenny: Cyndi Lauper, True Colours and Arcade Fire, The Suburbs

Max: Ain’t talkin bout dub – Apollo 440; Zola Jesus – Stridulum II


And finally, will you be playing any shows any time soon?

Gavin: We are playing at:

March 17: Old Queens Head, Islington, London

March 24: Hoxton Bar&Kitchen, Hoxton, London

April 12: Catch, Shoreditch, London

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Rock and Roll Dreams Come True: Meat Loaf at Irving Plaza, 2/23/11

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This is Evan Watson , of Evan Watson & The Headless Horsemen . He’s a bluesman from Indiana, though right now his home base is in Tarrytown, NY. I saw him last week when he opened for Meat Loaf at Irving Plaza (!) by himself, minus his Horsemen, and, while I’m not much for the blues, I could tell he would be delicious for people who like fancy picking over a steady slow roll. He’s also got a fantastic rumble-growl voice to go along with all of that, so, blues enthusiasts: you should check him out.

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And here is where I have to back up and explain that, for all I was on “spring break” last week, by Wednesday I was inexplicably thin-skinned and heartsore, and in dire need of some cheering up. Meat Loaf at Irving Plaza turned out to be exactly what I needed. I have to explain also that Irving Plaza is tiny, or at least, it is significantly smaller than the places Meat Loaf normally plays, in the sense that it only fits 1,200 people. (I normally see punk bands there; this show was one of the few times I wasn’t the oldest person waiting in line.) The last time he was in town he was at the United Palace Theater, which is somewhere around 3,000 people.

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Anyway, not only was it an amazingly intimate show, he also played my favorite song, which is You Took The Words Right Out of My Mouth. Though I suppose if I’m being honest they’re kind of all my favorites. He also did a rousing Bat Out of Hell as the third song of the evening, and I tell you what, there is nothing that makes my black little heart expand three sizes like 1200 people singing along at the top of their lungs. It makes Meat Loaf happy, too:

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At one point during You Took The Words Right Out of My Mouth he gave up on singing and started conducting the crowd:

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In addition to the old stuff, he also did three songs from his new record, Hang Cool Teddy Bear, including Los Angeloser. The riffs were big and the melodies as catchy as ever; I was surprised when he said the record hadn’t done well. Then again, I was also surprised to find out there was a new record, which, uh, maybe part of the overall problem there.

The other highlight of the evening was Paradise By The Dashboard Light, which is really a piece of theater disguised as a song. Patti Russo, his long-time duet partner, displayed her usual excellent comic timing throughout the piece.

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Here’s a better picture of her, from earlier in the show:

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In summary: it was a fantastic evening, and I walked out into the freezing night with sore knees and warmed heart, refreshed and ready to deal with the rest of my week.