Live Music
Post-Echo: The Audio/Visual Experiment LIVE with Roomdance/Forces of a Street
by frjones on Dec.15, 2011, under Arts, Columns, Commentary, Live Music
On 12/3/2011, Art Bar hosted Post-Echo: The Audio/Visual Experiment featuring live performances from Roomdance, Forces of a Street, Cassangles, as well as visual contributions from local artists- Jason Stroud, Joel Floyd, Jessica Diaz, and Johnny Timmons. It was indeed an experience to be remembered. If you missed out, here’s some footage of the event. For further coverage of the artists involved with this event, visit www.Post-Echo.com .
Phantogram INTERVIEW
by frjones on Nov.07, 2011, under Live Music
CCP’s very own Fr. Jones shoots the breeze with Sarah Barthel of Phantogram about ghostly imagery, small towns, iPods, and their new record, Nightlife.
FR: Honestly, before I even heard your music, I was intrigued simply based on the name Phantogram.Where did that name come from?Does it have anything to do with actual phantograms?
SB: No.Well, it didn’t when we were thinking about band names.Josh actually thought he made it up.He was trying to find a name that represented something from another world, something ghostly, something there but not there.We were thinking about Ghost Hands or Phantom Hands.There are so many bands and everyone takes a name, so Josh suggested Phantogram, as a description for a message from another world or from a ghost world or something.We really liked the imagery that came with it so we decided to take it.And then we looked it up and the definition was completely different.But it works.
FR: Yeah.It totally works.
SB: Yeah.
FR: How did you begin writing music and how did that lead to the development of Phantogram?
SB:I used to spend my free time on the piano just messing around.I’d come up with songs and then forget about them a couple days later.I never took it very seriously until I met up with Josh in 2006.And that’s when we started working together.He came home from living in New York City where he was pursuing a different band with his brother.He let me listen to some of his music and I really was amazed by it.I was in awe, it was so beautiful.And he asked me to sing the songs he was working on and it ended up working out okay.We then decided to collaborate.
FR: Eyelid Movies boasted some pretty stylish music videos with “Mouthful of Diamonds†and “When I’m Smallâ€.Will any tracks from Nightflife be granted the video treatment?
SB: I don’t know.I’m not sure if that’s going to happen. I’m thinking the label will probably want us to do a music video for “Don’t Move†but I think it would be amazing to do something for “Nightlife†the song or “A Dark Tunnelâ€.That would be pretty cool as well.
FR: That would be the less safe route.
SB: Yeah, I know.
FR: What kind of equipment do you use to create Phantogram’s infectious beats?
SB: Let’s see. We have a laptop we record on in Logic.We’ve been collecting synthesizers, analogues, a 4-track, records, loop pedals, samplers, drums, drum kit, guitar, bass guitar, tapes and other types of equipment we like to loop things in and put samples in to distort them to make different sounds.
FR: What was the main inspiration behind Nightlife?Do you think your sound has evolved since Eyelid Movies?
SB: Yea.I think the main inspiration behind Nightlife is… a lot of experience and emotion, circumstances that Josh and I went through in the past couple of years while we’ve been on tour and been a band who has become successful. We wanted it to be heavy.We wanted it to be dark. We wanted it to have a different dynamic element that Eyelid Movies may possibly lack. Eyelid Movies… we were actually only hoping for it to be a demo when we finished it up in 2007-8.The plan was to just release it locally so we can have some music to play and sell to get our name out there for college radio stations and all that stuff.But it caught on a little bit quicker than we were expecting.So I think Nightlife is definitely a more mature sound than Eyelid Movies. If we ended up waiting a little bit longer or if we knew what the plan was going to be where people caught onto our music quicker, I think Eyelid Movies would have sounded a lot more like Nightlife.
FR: Is the EP a format that you embrace or did the music just need to get out?Any idea when we can expect another full-length from Phantogram?
SB: I’m not sure what the plan is yet.Josh and I are still figuring it out.I think our initial plan is to get back into the studio and start writing and recording a full-length-but there’s a side of me that is intrigued about another mini-LP and releasing it sooner.We will see.
FR: You guys have had a pretty rigorous touring schedule over the past year.Not to single anyone out- but do you have a favorite place to play?
SB: We played Santa Fe last night and it was so much fun. We love playing in Minneapolis.Also, the night before last we played in Phoenix and it was incredible too.Josh and I are big fans of driving through smaller cities where most bands don’t drive through or stop and play.You get a crowd and energy that you really can’t find anywhere else because they are so happy you are there.And even if you fuck up the entire set, they will still love it.
FR: What is the most difficult part of translating Phantogram into a live experience?What is the most rewarding?
SB: There’s a lot that needs to be done. It can get a little complicated to get the sound from the record into the live environment. But we’re able to pull it off pretty well. When people come up to us when we’re done and say that we were the best show they had ever seen, that has to be the most rewarding.
FR: Since you have officially become a popular female frontwoman for a successful band- are there any other female musical artists, either current or in the past, that influence you?
SB: Oh, man.I don’t have a lot of female inspirations.I look more up to male performers, singers, and songwriters.I guess if I had to pick one, I would have to say… Beyonce’.
FR: Music is currently available in a variety of formats.MP3s, CDs, vinyl, even cassette tapes are staging a mild comeback- what’s your favorite format for listening to music?
SB: I can say vinyl of course because it sounds the best.The experience of sitting down and listening to vinyl is an experience compared to pressing play on your iPod where you can’t really wait for the next song to come.Sitting and listening to a record and flipping it over, it’s more of a memory thing.But I also really enjoy listening to music while I drive and the only way I’m able to do that now is with my iPod.It just depends I guess.
FR: What’s on your iPod right now?
SB: Com Truise, Exitmusic and Sacred Spirit.
FR: In the past decade, the music business has changed drastically- from Napster to iTunes to Spotify.In your opinion, where do you see the industry going in the next ten years?
SB: I think you’ll see more singles.I think you’ll see more short records.Not necessarily more EPs but mini LPs.I think there will be more connection with visual concepts along with records- like possibly whatever gadget they’ll have that allows you to put on a record and project something off your phone on the wall while you’re listening to it. I think stuff like that is possible.I think people are going to start- even though I know it’s already popular at the moment- but I think music fans are going to start wanting to collect tangible music the way it used to be.
FR: Any advice to up-and-coming artists struggling to make it in the 21st century music industry?
SB: Don’t think you have to move to a big city to do it.Just work your ass off and believe in your music. Do what you have to do.
- Fr. Jones
M83- LIVE REVIEW- Moogfest, 10/30/2011
by frjones on Nov.06, 2011, under Commentary, Live Music
Believe it or not, I usually don’t spend my early Sunday evenings jumping up and down in unison with hundreds of costumed hipsters to the otherworldly, euphoric sounds of arena space-rock/dreampop- but I happily made an exception for M83’s unforgettable set on the final day of Asheville’s Moogfest event. And now the day of rest will never be the same.
- Fr. Jones
Moogfest 2011: Interview with Clara Boucher of Grimes
by admin on Oct.22, 2011, under Live Music
FR: So, you will be performing in this year’s Moogfest in October. How did this come about? Are there any artists you are excited to see perform?
CB: Well, I would say most artists making music today are “post-internet” — I wasn’t trying to make any serious cultural diagnosis or anything when I made it. But I was basically referring to the generation that grew up with Napster and everyone after that because I feel like their approach to music is inherently going to be different from the older generations because the nostalgia that stems from early adolescence is so much less specific in terms of what music one would be listening to. For me, I’m as nostalgic for Lata Mangeshkar as like, New Order or something. There was really like an infinite amount of music that I was exposed to whereas before that you would have to go to the record store. And emotionally formative years were really driven by specific things like I know my dad just has this obsession with when he first heard David Bowie and Bowie being the one ultimate savior of high school or something because it was so hard to get music and it was the only cool record he had. Which is totally chill, i just think like that lead to a kind of stasis in terms of what he can enjoy. People who are my age but even moreso people who are younger are, like, really able to be experimental in their taste. You look even at mainstream music and its soooo fucking weird, because teenagers are like, insatiable. They have everything so you just need to bombard them with the craziest shit.
But if you want artists who I think really embrace the chaos — I would say Doldrums does it the most. Cop Car Bonfire, Blue Hawaii, I don’t know.. I feel like Flying Lotus kind of has pretty chaotic vibes in terms of how he approaches music. Really everybody though. Like, I did not invent this idea — everybody who’s mashing pastiches and hopping through genres is from this generation. I think its not a movement its just the natural progression. I don’t want to be like, labelled as the inventor, im just doing what everyone is naturally doing and ppl latched onto a word I used to describe it once.
FR: Can you give us a hint as to what the next Grimes album will sound like?
Interview with Paul Frick of the Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble
by admin on Oct.22, 2011, under Live Music
FR: Before the ensemble was formed, how did the original trio get together? And what was the process like when it came time to form the actual ensemble?
PF: We met in the club music scene, mutually liking each others music, Jan and Daniel’s project “Scott” and my solo house project. Our first common session worked so well for us that we just kept on making music together. Then we had this ensemble idea very quickly, because we asked ourselves how we would want to perform without using prerecorded sounds live.
PF: Daniel had the ideas for both of them, he’s the one who usually comes up with visual and conceptual stuff. For “You Make Me Real” we asked the illustrator Danae Diaz to draw it. Afterwards she also made the video for “Caffeine” based on the artwork, together with Patricia Luna. And the objects for the “Mr. Machine” artwork were build by Jan’s friend Robert Meyer and photographied by Richard G. Brozowski. Mr. Machine’s skull has even moving parts and lights in it, and also the ear, the arm and a bone. Mr. Machine is an old pre-industrial robot that we found underneath our garden.
PF: We know each other well, so it’s very cool to work together. Before we did the album recording of “Pretend,” we had done a remix of her original song. At some point we had the idea that our remix would fit very well for making an ensemble arrangement of it. Emika was also on tour with us in May, supporting us and then also singing “Pretend.” All the ensemble musicians loved it from the start.
PF: Oh, ask our booker! We’re excited about Moogfest, glad to be able to see for example Amon Tobin, Flying Lotus and again Battles who were already fantastic at Glastonbury.
PF: People shouldn’t have any particular expectations and come with their senses open wide. Maybe they will like it.
PF: Well, yes! We shot a pretty gigantic video some weeks ago, and the cut is almost ready. It’s very different from “Bop,” and I find it quite spectacular.
PF: Not completely sure about the others, but my favourite is the piece “You Make Me Real” itself. It’s got a very intense vibe and there are very mind-blowing and sick instrumental sounds in it.
PF: Love and hate, life and death.
PF: No, it’s about creating a world, with whatever means we feel like. But maybe we can make a competition: who finds the vibraslap on the album gets a CD?
PF: They can’t expect anything, we don’t even know it ourselves!
PF: To eternal happiness?
FR: Hm, just the obvious one: first make music and then you can think of the industry, not the other way around.

