Monthly Archives: July 2014

“That bead of sweat. Do you remember? What part of the body was it? I don’t think anyone knows. But Hall and Oates H20 is definitely the first album cover in my parents collection that caught my eye.”

“It was leaned up against their dark wood record cabinet that housed their wood grain Rotel player. Vinyl was on its way out, and my brother and I were on a steady diet of Dead Milkmen, early Chili Peppers, and Iron Maiden tapes. Anything remotely related to adult contemporary would spark a protest. Blasting Christopher Cross’s “Sailing” was how they got us out of the house on the weekends.

But even my bleached hair and vision street wear attitude couldn’t shake a song like “Maneater” on vinyl. That heavily delayed sax solo through the bridge? It’s undeniable. I’m not saying the album was without its faults. The song, “Italian Girls” features this line: “I eat, I eat, I eat so much pasta basta, I’m so full and yet so lonely.” Regardless, that record would stay with me through the rebellious years, foreshadowing the musical direction I would eventually head in.

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Since the dissolution of ‘90s indie pop-rockers The Dambuilders, singer-instrumentalist-writer Dave Derby has focused upon a variety of projects, one being Gramercy Arms, a New York City-based outfit whose self-titled ’08 debut established a revolving member, indie all-star affair. Roughly six years has elapsed, and now Derby has coordinated a follow-up. The Seasons of Love features unfussy professionalism and a slightly broadened scope; while not a consciousness-altering record, it does go down smoothly enough, and fans of pop-rock song-craft should take note.

Though they released seven full-lengths across a near decade of existence, Boston via Honolulu’s The Dambuilders received their highest profile as a four-piece in the mid-‘90s. Part of the era’s indie deluge, the first three LPs came out through German imprint Cuacha! NYC’s SpinART issued the Tough Guy Problem 10-inch/CD EP in ’94 shortly prior to the group’s emergence on the roster of EastWest Records.

That Atlantic-subsidiary funded The Dambuilders’ best work, ‘94’s Encendedor and the next year’s Ruby Red. As was the case with many of their indie-to-major contemporaries, the band’s last statement, ‘97’s transitional Against the Stars, was a disappointment. Subsequent to breaking up in ‘98, guitarist Eric Masunaga went into film, opening a studio specializing in post-production, drummer Kevin March continued beating the skins, most prominently in one of Guided by Voices numerous lineups, and violinist/vocalist Joan Wasser embarked solo under the name Joan as Police Woman.

Bassist/lead singer Derby has kept himself quite occupied as well, initiating the side-project Brilliantine, hooking up with Lloyd Cole in the cult Brit’s post-Commotions ensemble the Negatives and completing two solo albums, ‘03’s solid Even Further Behind and ‘07’s borderline excellent Dave Derby and the Norfolk Downs. He commenced Gramercy Arms not long thereafter.

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“A lot of people say that vinyl sounds warmer or just better, but I think that’s an overstatement. A lot of new vinyl is not pressed well and it sounds tinny and squashed—but grab a Rolling Stones album from the ’70s out of a bin at the thrift store for $.50 and you will be knocked backwards by the sonic depth and detail.”

“I like vinyl for a lot of reasons—rich sound, having a cool keepsake thing, vinyl records often appreciate in monetary value because of their scarceness, and I tend to like indie labels and indie artists and often they’re the biggest purveyors of vinyl. Plus I need coasters like anyone else. But you don’t like vinyl in a vacuum—you like vinyl because you like the artists on vinyl.

Plus I need coasters like anyone else. But you don’t like vinyl in a vacuum—you like vinyl because you like the artists on vinyl.

Vinyl is temporary. Record stores are temporary. Musicians are temporary. Songs are forever.”

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“I am no purist and as such have little respect for the drooling fetishists who pay a small fortune to own an original pressing of some obscure jazz fusion album. I’m not fussy about formats and spend much of my time listening to music online. However there is no denying that my listening habits have been retarded by the tsunami of free music available on the internet.”

“As a teenager I was keen (and perhaps pretentious) enough to force Frank Zappa, Charles Mingus, and Igor Stravinsky records down my throat until I fell in love with their cacophonous beauty. Now I make rapid fire decisions about the relative merits of a song before the first 30 seconds has played out, thoughtlessly clicking through an incessant glut of free music whilst the full beam of my attention is obliterated by a thousand digital distractions.

CDs were trash, far from the indestructible future of modern listening which they purported to be. They never survived our parties and lacked the aesthetic gravitas to be treated with care. I used to spit on them and rub them on my jeans in a vain attempt to get them to play before throwing them across the room in disgust.

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Lionheart. Y2J. Moongoose McQueen. The Ayatollah of Rock and Rolla. Whatever name he’s gone by, the one thing that has remained a constant for Chris Jericho is entertainment.

First, he made a name for himself in the ECW, WCW, and WWE as one of the top wrestlers of his era. His musical passion saw the light in 1999 when Jericho joined guitarist Rich Ward in the cover band Fozzy Osbourne. Shortening their name to Fozzy in 2000, the band took off. Five albums and fourteen years later, Fozzy is preparing to release their sixth album, Do You Wanna Start a War this week. We had a chance to talk to Chris about the new album, Abba, doo-wop Slayer songs, vinyl, and much more.

You’ve been busy! Dates with Fozzy coming up, a new album coming out, and a big return to the WWE a week ago…

Yeah, it’s just par for the course for me, man. The WWE thing kinda just came about at the last minute because we were off the road with Fozzy for a couple of months. The timing just really worked out well. Always busy, man.

What’s your take on where the WWE is nowadays?

It’s great man. It a very reciprocal business. Characters come in, and take control, take charge. The WWE will never die, man. It continues to grow. As it grows, new people come in and freshen the scene up. It’s always a very exciting time.

Way back when Fozzy Osbourne was something you did for fun, doing covers, did you ever think it would morph into Fozzy and go as far as it has?

At the time, when we started, it was just a fun thing. It was a good way to get my feet wet in the music business. I had been a musician since I was twelve, but had never actually made a record or done tours. I think once we started doing our own thing and becoming an original band, especially when we made Fozzy the priority back in 2009, that’s when I would totally say, “Yes, I expected this,” because I wanted to be the biggest band in the world.

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You wanna hear a miracle? I lived for almost five-and-a-half decades without ever hearing Jailbreak, or any other Thin Lizzy album for that matter. Here vocalist/bassist and chief songwriter Phil Lynott and his Irish compatriots put out a truly tremendous LP in America’s Bicentennial Year, not to mention a parcel of other great LPs, and what was I doing? Listening to Elton John and John Denver and England Dan and John Ford Coley, any band basically with a guy named John in it. If Debbie Gibson’s middle name been John, I would have listened to her too.

I would love to be able to say I simply wasn’t into hard rock back then, but I owned albums by Bad Company, UFO (UFO? Me? Inexplicable!), Robin Trower, and Foghat, so that’s sheer bunk. But there’s no point in crying over guilty milk, and it’s never too late to make up for past mistakes, that is unless you’re Lee Harvey Oswald or that chimpanzee (name: Travis) who ripped a woman’s face off in 2009, and I’m neither of those personages. So here I am making up for atoning for my inexplicable oversight, and listening to Jailbreak which mixes tremendous twin-guitar hard rockers with sweeter fair, all of which I love with the possible exception of “Cowboy Song”—in which Lynott, a black Irishman, plays rodeo cowpoke.

But I take that back. “Cowboy Song” may start slowly, but its guitar solos are tremendous and Lynott’s vocals are impassioned (especially when he sings, “It’s okay amigo/Just let me go/Riding in the rodeo”) and the jam at song’s end is a bono fido guitar marvel. Turns out I love the damn thing! Just as I love everything about the LP, except for its cover. Too sci-fi for my decidedly earthbound tastes.

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Press Play is our Monday morning recap of the new tracks received last week—provided here to inform your vinyl purchasing power. Click, preview, download, purchase.

New God – Firework
Octave Minds – In Silence
Cassie – Me & U (KRONO Edit)
Henry Pope – LUZ featuring Fernanda Karolys
The Rosebuds – Blue Eyes
Dream Stretcher – The Fall
City and The Sea – Venture
SOS – She Wants
stickybackplastics. – Vampire
Sounds Like Moving – Away

TVD SINGLE OF THE WEEK:
Buddy – Weak Currents

VIRGO – Tides Of Neptune (HUSH Remix)
Joe Marson – Here With Me
Gazzo feat. Y LUV – Never Touch The Ground (Original Mix)
Hot Sugar – Moonlight Sonata
Olympic Ayres – Control (Pat Lok Remix)
Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars – Gbaenyama
Autumn In June – Weeks
The Tallest Tree – Boat
Cosmonaut Grechko – Luv More
HΛNΛH – Out Of Touch

13 more FREE TRACKS on side B!

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Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

As most of my friends know I’m a freak for fishing. Specifically deep-sea fishing off the coast of Mexico. Maybe this hobby sounds a bit odd for an Idelic rocker, but there’s definitely a spiritual side to being a fisherman at sea. There are so many factors on a long journey. One thing is for sure, when you are far out at sea, you are in a deep and changing wilderness.

Wednesday morning the good ship Shogun arrived back in San Diego. Adrift for five days I was totally “off grid.” No phone, no email, no job worries, no family dilemmas—just the seas, a rod, hook, and a hand flu of companions. I barely listened to a note, just the sound of the ocean and vessel. I arrived home woozy and very relaxed. So relaxed I didn’t want to touch my stride. I spent most of Wednesday listening to classic rock and reading Mojo magazine.

I’ll call it a well deserved break in my action.

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We recently went to Bonnaroo and were inundated with new music. One of the coolest experiences this year was spending time in at the Red Bull Music Academy’s Basscamp.

Though Redbull is accustomed to a presence at festivals, this year’s Bonnaroo ramped up their involvement with the Basscamp, an onsite area where Redbull collected 20 regional producers, gave them studios stocked with great equipment, showered them with lectures from the likes of Thundercat and Mannie Fresh, and encouraged them to write music in between sessions of going out and seeing shows. I got the opportunity to sit down and talk to a few of the producers involved.

Austin Paul is an emerging singer and songwriter. Though his sound can go anywhere from James Blake minimalism to ’80s throwback R&B, he labels his music “Goth pop.” After checking it out, it’s clear why. His art and aesthetic is clean and slick, with lots of stark contrasting elements and color palettes usually involving dark imagery or Gothic symbolism. The visuals match the mood of his music, which is ruled by his voice and its strong sustains, soulful runs, and delicate portmanteau work between the words and throughout his phrasings. These vocals lay atop sexy or somber chord textures, producing a satiating and full sound.

How did you start making music?
I began with show choir when I was five years old. I started writing when I was about 10.

What equipment did you initially use?
GarageBand, a Shure 57, and a pair of M-Audio Monitors.

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“My whole life has been spent around music. My father is a singer/songwriter as is his father. So, music has always been abundant in the Chapman household.”

“I can just barely remember cassettes from my early days, then of course your standard compact disc, and in my middle school years the iPod came on the scene changing everything. The only interaction I had with vinyl growing up was around Christmas time when mom and dad would dust off a few holiday classics to help create the appropriate ambiance.

It was not long after I had graduated high school, however; that I was convinced to get my own record player. I was listening to an album I knew well from the many times I had played it on my car stereo, but this specific listen through was different. The album I was listening to was Jon Foreman’s solo project, and apparently he had released it on vinyl.

There is no need to play up the emotion of the story here, I just remember thinking, ‘That sounds really cool. I need one of those machines.’

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Need a dose of technodelica to kick start your weekend? We’re delighted to debut Bür Gür’s “Orchard Hearse” vid do to just that. And we’ve got the duo’s Corbin and Makan on the records that have informed this trippy bit of studio wizardry.

Ratatat, Ratatat | “I definitely listened to this one a whole lot when I was younger. I always loved the song “Cherry”—it has these awesome, layered guitar tones that filter in and out. A lot of their techniques were super inspirational to me when I was first learning how to produce. If you listen to my first solo album Mirror Stage, you’ll definitely hear a lot of reversed guitars and drums.”

Postal Service, Give Up | “This album was definitely on repeat for a good chunk of my high school days. It always really resonated with me for some reason. Dntel, the guy that made all the beats is probably one of my favorite musicians. Listening to it at this point I am still super inspired by his production. I love his subtle production style… his songs always feel very earnest to me.”
—Corbin

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Inside of every rock critic there exists a rock star screeching like Geddy Lee to be let out. In my case said inner rock star actually escaped, and the results were… unfortunate.

I poured hot wax down my pants and shoved fish filet sandwiches and the club microphone down my pants (there wasn’t much, really, that I wouldn’t put down my pants) and was nearly beaten to death by enraged lesbians and poured pitchers of beer on my drummer Berndt’s head and climbed the rafters at the Velvet Lounge and was known to run out into the street with the microphone to serenade startled passersby, all of which made club owners very unhappy. Especially one, whom we consigned to immortality with the tune “Burn Down the Velvet Lounge.”

But not every critic’s inner rock star fails so miserably. Take the Angry Samoans, the great LA punk pioneers whose line-up included not one, but two, rock scribes in Rolling Stone writer “Metal Mike” Saunders and Creem critic Gregg Turner. You remember the Angry Samoans, right? How could you forget? They scored three Billboard No. 1 hits with their classic songs “Lights Out” (about a teen fad sweeping the nation involving poking your own eyes out with a fork), “They Saved Hitler’s Cock” (“If Hitler’s cock could choose its mate/It would ask for Sharon Tate!”), and “Get Off the Air,” their infamous jibe at Rodney Bingenheimer, former owner of Sunset Strip’s English Disco turned KROQ DJ (“8 PM, and Rodney’s on the air/He’s beating off in Joan Jett’s hair.”) What’s more, their “My Old Man’s a Fatso” scored big, and I mean REALLY big, in the hard-to-find-on-the-map nation of Berserkistan.

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