Live Music
Moogfest 2011: Anika Interview
by admin on Oct.22, 2011, under Live Music
FR: I’ve heard that you never expected Anika to become as popular as it has- at first, even questioning whether or not to actually release it. I find this interesting because it defies exposure- which is practically the opposite of why most musicians record albums in the first place. What motivated you to lay down these tracks?
ANIKA: I think the answer to this is that there are too many musicians making music for the wrong reasons. I don’t think you should make music because you want to be famous. Often whilst in the process of creating something, you don’t quite know the answer as to why you are. It is often only in hindsight and when you are distanced from something that you are able to join the dots and appreciate why or even how. I still struggle with the how. At the time i was even a little annoyed to be grabbed and prevented from pursuing my path as Political Journalist. I had just moved back to Berlin and started a job as the UK Higher Education correspondent. I enjoyed my life there and so the idea of exchanging it for an impoverished life in Bristol was less than appealing. The reason i made the record was because i was frustrated with the play-it-safe attitude of the British general public. I hated the fact that “politics” was such an unpopular word amongst the young and educated and even more so amongst musicians.
“Keep calm and carry on” was the British slogan, revived from WW2 days. The music scene, which i personally think should provide a platform for social and political frustration was dominated by easy listening, inoffensive indie, carved out by musicians, often reluctant to release darker, riskier music in fear of it being ignored.
I never wanted to front a band particularly but now i’ve found it’s actually really a special thing to be and that it gives me a rare platform to voice my views or at least challenge what people perceive as normal. I don’t think it is my place to tell people WHAT they should think, merely that they should think and question.
ANIKA: It is very personal. People think that the record and performance are quite cold but this is by no means the case. It is very personal. I used to always say writer first but slowly the boundaries are being blurred. I have had to assume the role of musician more over the past year and have had to adjust priorites and such. I think there are equal parts musician and writer for definite. The mind and the heart perhaps. I just neglected the musician side for quite some time.
ANIKA: Not really no. I think it’s a personal thing. I personally really enjoy playing vinyl. It’s probably purely nostalgic. There’s just something about the smell of vinyl and the excitement of finding certain vinyl or stumbling across a rare 7″ in the most random place. It’s just a form of collecting really.
ANIKA: Music has always evolved and adapted to changing needs or demands. It will save itself. The idea of ‘saving it’ just means keeping it at the place it is now or striving for a nostalgic ideal of the glory years. One should never rest on their laurels. It’s always been around in one form or another and i think if people make music for the right reasons, then the form of it doesn’t matter so much. Obviously musicians have to survive but if there’s a will, there’s a way. Hopefully the consumer becomes a little more open minded but i think that is bound to happen at some point.
Battles Interview
by admin on Oct.22, 2011, under Live Music
FR: Moogfest is right around the corner. Can you tell us a little more about how you got involved with this event?Â
IW: I look forward to seeing the Stickmen, if it is in fact the same band that was from Philadelphia in the late seventies.
IW: The main difference to me is that your time is more abrreviated at a festival- so you have to rush through your set and can’t expand as much. And also sometimes you can be really rushed just to set up in time and that can screw your show up if you’re not able to be ready in time. I’d say sometimes it can be the fault of the artist or sometimes can be the fault of the festival when that happens.
IW: It’s hard the hardest thing i’ve tried, but also the most rewarding. It’s a strange high, one that comes from a fucked up lifestyle, but a high that is hard to match doing other things. I try things like jogging and also touring with a bike in the bus. It makes you feel instantly local in each town.
IW: Each of us is different. I like to stretch a bit and not be bombarded with socializing.
IW: Ireland is pretty strong. Japan is too. Mexico is really good these days. In the US, I’d say the west is pretty great.
FR: Let’s talk Gloss Drop for a bit. I really dig it- I’m a big fan of “Futuraâ€and I think “Sundome†is some of your best stuff. Outside of Tyondai Braxton’s absence, what was the biggest difference between Mirrored and Gloss Drop?
IW: I think we’ve had a linear progress from the early EPs through to Mirrored then Gloss Drop. Our technique has been more honed and we’ve figured out how to take our musical language further.
FR: Battles is known for their tight, precise, electronic sound as well as warm, organic instrumentation. Do you intentionally try to combine these elements? Do you hold allegiance to one over the other?
IW: We don’t make a division between the two worlds. The obvious joining happens when electronic sounds are put through amplifiers on stage. It gives some air to what could be a really tight electronic sound. It makes it more soupy. And also when you loop guitar lines, it does the Black Sabbath sounds like a disco song thing.
IW: I like all the loops on Gloss Drop. It’s really the looping that evolved on this new record. New tricks that Dave and I used to make them. If i had to pick maybe i’d say “Futura” or “Wall Street”.
FR: Where do you see Battles and the music industry in the near to distant future?
FR: Any advice to up-and-coming artists struggling to make it in the 21st century music industry?
M83 Interview
by admin on Oct.22, 2011, under Live Music
AG: Well, then, I’m super excited to see them.
AG: You’ve heard the single, right?
AG: The single is kind of different. Well, it’s not too different but there are a lot of different styles of music on this album. A lot of very intense tracks, a lot of orchestrated tracks, a lot of small pieces of ambient music to connect all the tracks. This album is more like a dream, it’s a journey. It’s like a movie almost. It’s very cinematic. So there’s many pop songs, but there’s a lot of slow songs, very intriguing, very psychedelic. “Midnight City†is one of the poppiest songs on the album. The rest of the album is much more cinematic… I don’t know. It’s hard to explain. It’s a double album y’know? So there’s a bit of everything in it.
AG: I don’t know. I grew up listening to double-albums. When you’re a kid in the 80s and you know that one of your favorite bands is releasing a double-album, you really wait for the album to come out. You’re just waiting for it. Because you know it’s going to be big and thoughtful like a great piece of art, a piece of work. And I’m a little nostalgic about that musical era, y’know? Now it’s not about discs anymore unfortunately. It’s all about the single and downloading stuff and I think it’s kind of sad. I’m not saying it’s bad and it was better before. I’m just saying there is too much information nowadays. It might be too much for people. I don’t know, it’s too much for me. What I miss is when you’re really expecting something to come out NOW. But now there’s something in the same day, the same week- you’re basically excited about the album for forty minutes, and then you’re excited about something else. I don’t know. I’m an old music fan and I love listening to vinyl and CDs, y’know..
AG: With Brad Laner, I was a huge fan of his band Medicine from the 90s and it was a great experience for me to work with him because I was a fan as a kid. Same thing with Justin the producer who was the bass player for Beck. Playing with them and making an album with them, when you watched them play on TV as a kid, it’s just amazing, y’know? Watching him perform with Beck as a teenager and now he’s one of my best friends and we’re making music together- it’s really unbelievable. And Zola Jesus- she’s one of the rare female artists that really gets my interest. I think she has something very special in her voice. She has something unique, such character in her voice. It’s hers and no one else’s. That’s what I like about her. And she’s such a nice person, very genuine, very smart, very intelligent. I was expecting a very perfect girl. But she was actually very simple and nice. We have a lot of things in common, the same movies…
AG: My writing process rarely changes. I always start the same, finding a good melody on keys or with chords. I always start my songs with my keyboards. I barely start any songs on my guitar or bass- mainly piano and keyboards. Because I’m basically alone in the band, I just go into my studio and it’s basically creating layers and layers of sound. I like the idea of a wall of sound adding layers and layers of instruments until it’s too much.
AG: We are maybe planning another video contest for the last single from this album but for now… for “Midnight City”, I have been working with two directors from France. They are shooting the video this week so I’m excited to see it. They had a great concept for it.
AG: For the last album… well, I’ve always been fascinated by space, science fiction. I love science fiction movies and books. I play lots of video games about space. For this album, I often drove my car to the desert with my laptop just to get away from the city, just to see the stars at night because I miss that. In the desert, you can see all of space in front of you- it’s right there. This is what I liked to do on this album. I would bring my computer and most of the small ambient interludes and songs on this album have been composed in the desert.
AG: A favorite song of mine? I think one of my favorites would be “Lower Your Eyelids to Die With the Sunâ€- the outro from Before the Dawn Heals Us. It’s very special.
AG: Cool. Cool.
AG: Hey… that’s cool.
AG: Obviously, just like anyone else…. Fortunately, there are a lot of mp3s. But I still like to buy CDs and vinyls. I still buy a lot of vinyls. I love the sound of vinyls- especially for the kind of music that I’m listening to. I’m listening to a lot of electronic music from the 70s and it just sounds better on vinyl.
AG: Try to find another job because it’s very hard now. It’s not the best job on earth right now.
I’m with you
by admin on Oct.03, 2011, under Movie Times and Reviews
By Fr. JonesEven more so than on previous releases, band stalwarts, Anthony Kiedis and Flea, are front and center here. Despite the vocal confines of the legendary frontman, there is a comfortable restraint to his lyrics even at their most “freaky styleyâ€- and Flea gets ample opportunities to exercise his fleet-fingered bass lines that exist to purposefully rescue songs from sonic disarray. Much fuss has been made over the replacement of guitarist John Frusciante, mostly due to the band’s previous excursion sans Frusciante- the misunderstood One Hot Minute with Dave Navarro. And while replacement guitarist Josh Klinghoffer is not quite as prominently featured (there are times when he actually seems buried within the mix), he is allotted several moments to shine especially in the album’s first half. Although he could certainly grow to be the full-bodied presence of his predecessor, Klinghoffer is reliably efficient, workmanlike, and far from the distraction that was Navarro.
I’m With You is not without it’s fair share of clunkers. But they are often strategically surrounded by energetic stretches of quality. The tracklist structure deserves substantial praise. As far as discernible flow, this is the band’s best arrangement of songs sinceCalifornication. The album begins with the dynamite trifecta of “Monarchy of Rosesâ€, “Factory of Faithâ€, and “Brendan’s Death Songâ€- three tunes that seamlessly capture galloping rhythm, funk, and pathos. The following tracks, “Ethiopia†and “Annie Wants a Baby†never fully engage like intended, lacking the steadfast direction of earlier tunes. I have already said my piece on “Rain Dance Maggieâ€- yet I must admit the song is not quite as painfully awkward when taken in the album’s context. “Look Aroundâ€, “Did I Let You Knowâ€(with a trumpet solo), and “Goodbye Hooray†liven up the midsection and also feature some of Klinghoffer’s more impressive melodies. I’m With You’s overlength predictably causes it to stumble towards the end. “Police Station†or “Even You Brutus†would have functioned properly as legitimate album closers. Instead, we end with “Meet Me at the Corner†and “Dance, Dance, Danceâ€- two offerings that are far too slight to end such a polished effort. In particular, the placement of “Dance, Dance, Dance” is a little odd. No strangers to minimalist finales, Californication featured the beautifully quaint “Road Trippin” as it’s curtain-dropper, but “Dance” exists somewhere between a campfire singalong and a raucous high-energy dance number. The song really only works when listened to beyond the tracklist.
Nevertheless, I’m With You is an immensely rich and polished collection of songs. And if there was ever any real doubt, the Red Hot Chili Peppers are back and not treading water. Whether or not this direction is aimless is really for them to know and us to find out. But when it comes to these guys- isn’t that always the point?
M83
by admin on Oct.03, 2011, under Live Music
CCP’s very own Fr. Jones shoots the breeze with Anthony Gonzalez from M83 about Moogfest, double-disc nostalgia, walls of sound, and music in the desert.
AG: Well, then, I’m super excited to see them.
AG: You’ve heard the single, right?
AG: The single is kind of different. Well, it’s not too different but there are a lot of different styles of music on this album. A lot of very intense tracks, a lot of orchestrated tracks, a lot of small pieces of ambient music to connect all the tracks. This album is more like a dream, it’s a journey. It’s like a movie almost. It’s very cinematic. So there’s many pop songs, but there’s a lot of slow songs, very intriguing, very psychedelic. “Midnight City†is one of the poppiest songs on the album. The rest of the album is much more cinematic… I don’t know. It’s hard to explain. It’s a double album y’know? So there’s a bit of everything in it.
AG: I don’t know. I grew up listening to double-albums. When you’re a kid in the 80s and you know that one of your favorite bands is releasing a double-album, you really wait for the album to come out. You’re just waiting for it. Because you know it’s going to be big and thoughtful like a great piece of art, a piece of work. And I’m a little nostalgic about that musical era, y’know? Now it’s not about discs anymore unfortunately. It’s all about the single and downloading stuff and I think it’s kind of sad. I’m not saying it’s bad and it was better before. I’m just saying there is too much information nowadays. It might be too much for people. I don’t know, it’s too much for me. What I miss is when you’re really expecting something to come out NOW. But now there’s something in the same day, the same week- you’re basically excited about the album for forty minutes, and then you’re excited about something else. I don’t know. I’m an old music fan and I love listening to vinyl and CDs, y’know..
AG: With Brad Laner, I was a huge fan of his band Medicine from the 90s and it was a great experience for me to work with him because I was a fan as a kid. Same thing with Justin the producer who was the bass player for Beck. Playing with them and making an album with them, when you watched them play on TV as a kid, it’s just amazing, y’know? Watching him perform with Beck as a teenager and now he’s one of my best friends and we’re making music together- it’s really unbelievable. And Zola Jesus- she’s one of the rare female artists that really gets my interest. I think she has something very special in her voice. She has something unique, such character in her voice. It’s hers and no one else’s. That’s what I like about her. And she’s such a nice person, very genuine, very smart, very intelligent. I was expecting a very perfect girl. But she was actually very simple and nice. We have a lot of things in common, the same movies…
AG: My writing process rarely changes. I always start the same, finding a good melody on keys or with chords. I always start my songs with my keyboards. I barely start any songs on my guitar or bass- mainly piano and keyboards. Because I’m basically alone in the band, I just go into my studio and it’s basically creating layers and layers of sound. I like the idea of a wall of sound adding layers and layers of instruments until it’s too much.
AG: We are maybe planning another video contest for the last single from this album but for now… for “Midnight City”, I have been working with two directors from France. They are shooting the video this week so I’m excited to see it. They had a great concept for it.
AG: For the last album… well, I’ve always been fascinated by space, science fiction. I love science fiction movies and books. I play lots of video games about space. For this album, I often drove my car to the desert with my laptop just to get away from the city, just to see the stars at night because I miss that. In the desert, you can see all of space in front of you- it’s right there. This is what I liked to do on this album. I would bring my computer and most of the small ambient interludes and songs on this album have been composed in the desert.
AG: A favorite song of mine? I think one of my favorites would be “Lower Your Eyelids to Die With the Sunâ€- the outro from Before the Dawn Heals Us. It’s very special.
AG: Cool. Cool.
AG: Hey… that’s cool.
AG: Obviously, just like anyone else…. Fortunately, there are a lot of mp3s. But I still like to buy CDs and vinyls. I still buy a lot of vinyls. I love the sound of vinyls- especially for the kind of music that I’m listening to. I’m listening to a lot of electronic music from the 70s and it just sounds better on vinyl.
AG: Try to find another job because it’s very hard now. It’s not the best job on earth right now.
LATEST LOCAL NEWS- One killed, seven injured in bus-car collisionOne person has been killed and seven people have been taken to a hospital after a late-afternoon collision involving a Richland 1 school bus.Click to Continue » […]
- Midlands couples share their storiesCouples from around the Midlands share their love stories Chocolaty Valentine's recipes Getting over an ex, digitally…Click to Continue » […]
- Chocolate is flavorful way to show special someone you careThe old adage, ?There?s nothing like lovin? that comes from the oven,? is perhaps never more true than on Valentine?s Day.Click to Continue » […]
- One killed, seven injured in bus-car collision
Download 10-21-11
Download 8-25-11
or browse
Download 8-4-11
or browse
Download 7-7-11
or browse
Download 6-16-11
or browse
Download 6-02-11
