Crystal Stilts GIF

ASHLEIGH DYE: So your newest album, Nature Noir, (out on Sacred Bones) just came out, where did the concept for this album originate?  Was there a specific writing process that you had?JB TOWNSEND: The songs came about the way they have for a while, it was just practices and jams, working them out. In terms of the concept of the album that was lyrically, the noir thing. Noir is anything man made so it’s just the idea that “nature noir” doesn’t really make that much sense. However, in a sense, we are affecting nature and that sort of back and forth dynamic is the concept of the record.AD: So that sort of juxtaposition really fueled the album. How does writing with five people go? Way back when it was just you two, then you grew to this five piece. Do you guys have a certain process you try and stick to?BRAD HARGETT: I don’t know, the thing is, back then, I would mainly play the guitar, and then the arrangement of the song after but, the drums and the bass were pretty simple. It was not generic but exactly the bass line you’d expect for the song. Now we have other people, and they get it, they get the band so they can just play whatever they want. We trust them to play what’s good and fits. It naturally works together.JBT: It’s both easier and harder. I feel like a lot of things come easier because everyone is in charge of writing a part so you don’t have to deal with that, but there’s also five opinions and when we used to play we’d just play for 15 minutes or whatever but now everyone’s like ‘wait’, ‘no, wait’ ‘wait’, so it’s both better and harder.AD: I really like the video for “Star Crawl”; I think it’s a great embodiment of the concept for the album. So how did the filming and planning for that go?[laughter]BH: Well we started out with a very simple idea that I kind of had, then our friend Dan got in touch with me and said he really, really wanted to do a video. So we met up and talked about it and then made a plan to do it. They went upstate, I didn’t go, I had to work, and it was a complete disaster.JBT: It went really bad. Dan, our friend, hired some people to help him with the gear and the cameras and stuff and what they did was they forgot to bring a second battery for this camera so it was almost out. And they were like, “Oh lets just hook it up to the car battery to recharge it.” Not a good idea. It immediately fried the car battery, which was a rental. So we were immediately stuck in that one location and the sky just let loose. There was a park ranger who walk by and pointed at the sky and said “its goin’ rain, ‘bout thirty minutes” and we looked up and within two minutes there were just sheets of rain.  Everything just got soaked.[laughter]AD: Well it looks great, you would have never known!JBT: Yea it’s amazing they got enough.

AD: My dad was in town this week so while I was preparing for the interview and re-listening to all the albums I played him some of your stuff and his reaction, to me, was very intriguing. He really liked it but was also pretty weirded out by it. I think he used the word ‘interesting’ like five times. It’s pretty far from his classic rock realm. What are your parent’s and family’s reactions to the music you write? Do they ever come to your shows?

JBT: It’s funny because I feel like he [Brad] and my dads have very opposite reactions. His dad is really supportive, not that my dad isn’t, his dad is just very enthusiastic. Kind of over the top enthusiastic, he calls [the band] the best new Beatles.[laughter]BH: It’s more of just him just trying to be a dad and be supportive. He wants to like it but he doesn’t know about music, at all.  So he doesn’t get the references. I feel like some people really get it, but my dads not into records at all.JBT: And my dad’s just really old. He was in his mid-thirties when the Beatles came out. So he doesn’t even like Led Zeppelin. He listened to Benny Goodman, he had like Gato Barbieri records, jazz stuff. So to him music is people that can sight-read, and play instruments. So his initial reaction from our first recording was “are you even saying words or are you just moaning into the microphone.”

AD: Geez, its artsy dad!

JBT: Yeah, he just doesn’t get it, but he’s gotten to appreciate it even if I don’t think he gets the music that much. He got to come to a show that we played in Denver and it was a Monday night in Denver and the place was filled, like 250 people. So I think he was like “huhuh woah, people like them”

AD: I think the generational gap, in that sense, is pretty fascinating to me.

BH: I kind of like it, too, because we can go to certain places, like we played at a festival in Kingston, New York, a small street fair festival, and there was all these ex-pat New Yorkers in their 70’s that probably saw the Ramones, and The Velvet Underground, and Television at CBGBs and they got it, so its cool that we can bridge that gap.JBT: Yea that was fun. There were a lot of people coming up afterwards and they wanted to talk about their time in the city.BH: And how they had been around that scene from the late 70’s and 80’s

AD: This is a great transition. So you guys are both from Florida originally, did you grow up in the same area?

BH: Yeah, well I was born in California. My parents move around a lot, they live in Paris now. So I grew up in Florida, that’s where I cut my teeth or whatever, but I don’t have any emotional ties there.

AD: Would you have any comparisons between what life there is like compared to living in Brooklyn?

JBT: I mean we met, when he was not quiet 20 and I was 22 or 23, I managed a record store called the

CD Connection

. In order to stay open the owner had to sell like pipes and stuff, so it was half a head shop and half a record store.

AD: I’m really into store hybrids

JBT: So, he worked at the coffee shop down the street and I was trying to find, I mean, where we lived there was probably only a group of 10 people that liked Suicide or The Velvet Underground, or any obvious sorts of bands.BH: Artistic people in places like that are really hard to come by. It was very Jersey Shore.JBT: Just nobody, the culture there was like techno, waxing your chest, going to the beach. So he would come over on his breaks and we would just talk about records.

AD: That’s cool that you guys had each other.

JBT: Yeah, and realized we had very similar taste, and we moved to New York around the same time.

crystal stilts

AD: Living in an artistic wasteland can be hard; the town I grew up in was the same way but a different aesthetic. It’s like all cow tipping and Kenny Chesney.  What do you think Crystal Stilts would have been like had it been born in Florida?

JBT: Oh geez, it would have been so weird.BH: It wouldn’t have even happened!JBT: I mean maybe we would have tried to do something, but for us, I feel like a lot of bands either have money or come from money, or have other means for support. We just had to scratch whatever we had to just play shows around Brooklyn. Like we couldn’t go on tour. If we were in Florida we wouldn’t have gotten noticed. At least not at that time, it’s a little different now. You can get found on MySpace or YouTube now. At the time [of the band starting] they told us “labels wont sign you if you haven’t toured, if you’re not a functioning, touring band labels wont even talk to you.” So we had to do that whole thing, then in a year a two it wasn’t even a thing anymore! Bands are getting signed based off their MySpace song.

AD: How do you think starting in Brooklyn when you did, in the early 2000s, right before if got super hip, and on the cultural map, affect your sound?

BH: I wasn’t really thinking about it, but then as we were doing it, when we first started recording in 2003/2004, I was pretty surprised there weren’t more bands doing what we were doing, because people really seemed to like it.JBT: I was really surprised that, at that time, there were no bands doing it.BH:I feel like if we had been like ‘lets do this, lets go crazy, lets get a manager, lets make a record, get a label’ – I don’t know if the climate was ready but, we probably could have tapped into something that hadn’t been totally mined. That kind of 60’s guitar pop was sort of passé then, it wasn’t popular.JBT: We’ve even talked about that. I think the first record, without a doubt, the lyrics were for sure, about the new place. If you go back, ‘Shattered Shine’ was our first single, and the lyrics on that are totally just this new feeling of being in a metropolis.

AD: Yea, I mean in that time of just having moved, being in a place where no one is really doing what you’re doing seems like a great inspiration

JBT: Yeah, it definitely affected the lyrics.BH: New York then was this sort of post-Strokes, Rapture, Fisher Spooner, that kind of stuff. There were a couple years that went by that we were like ‘what are we even doing?’JBT: We recorded that EP in 2005, and we recorded

Alight of Night

in 2006 but when they finally got put out it was in 2008. And then it was like part of this new wave we got grouped into. So it’s really interesting, it’s a question that will never be answered, but would we have been championed if those records actually came out when we made them, we might not have been. It’s a total mystery.

AD: So you guys intentionally had a slow roll to fame, it took a while for it to transform from a hobby to something you do year round. What inspired you to make the move to make it more serious? Was there a specific moment?

BH: No, there wasn’t a specific moment. I guess when you realize you can keep doing it, and make enough money to do it and pay yourself with it, its kind of like a part-time career.JBT: All that time was a learning process, too. We didn’t know what to do, like we just totally were making music, and besides that we had no idea. We didn’t have photographs or videos; we barely played shows.

AD: I really like the comparison of people like you who are honestly doing it because that’s what you like to do and if it gets popular then, hey that’s great compared to people who are very ‘one track mind about it’. I’ll do photos for bands sometimes that are so much more formulaic and business like about it and its structured and stuff.

JBT: Yeah, like “we’re going to do this kind of music, this way, and conquer this market.” It’s such a cynical way to make music.

AD: My last question is a ‘Would You Rather’. SO would you rather be able to talk fluently to any animal on the earth, in the sea, in the sky OR fluently converse with any human?

BH: Easily animals![lots of conversing]ANDY ADLER: I dunno. I’ve seen Dr. Dolittle and that seems like a curse.JBT: Yeah, I dunno, talking with animals would really take away all the mystery.AA: I often wish I could talk to my dog,BH: “I want food! I gotta poop!”AA: I’ve got a lot of options for what his voice would sound like.BH: I gotta go animals. If you made the effort, you could communicate with any human if you tried. Animals, though, that’s a line you can’t cross.JBT: Have you guys ever heard of that guy, Lilly? He tried to create a language to talk to dolphins and also had an

insane Percocet addiction

,

Valium addiction

,

Xanax addiction

, or even

Adderall addiction

. He would even take the ketamine and talk to these three beams of light.AD: I dunno, I think doing ketamine near the ocean is a bad idea.JBT: Well, he was doing it in those tanks, what do you call em…AD: A sensory deprivation chamber?! That’s a double dose of crazy, ketamine in a deprivation chamber. Wow. Well what did the dolphins have to say?JBT: Ha, well he never broke through.[laughter]

FALL BALL, the lovechild of Salonathon's JANE BEACHY & Empty Bottle Presents, hits Logan Square this weekend, and it's gonna hit that neighborhood haarrrd (Dewey Cox style).  The night of fall formal shenanigans will be all over the artistic map, seeing collaborations between venerable punk rock marching band MUCCA PAZZA and some of the city's rising stars in dance and music. Hyper-local online rag LoganSquarist has a preview of the event, which details many of the happenings going down at the Auditorium, along with a lil interview, and you can find out more about the event on HEREor at the Facebook event page.Local businesses are getting in on the fun, as well, offering up discounts and specials for anyone who buys tickets in advance. Below is a list of all the delectable discounts you can get your little hands on! As with all things that are cheap and easy, the opportunities are limited so jump on it...* Longman & Eagle and Parson's Chicken & Fish are offering a limited number of reservations for dinner before the event on 10/19 (they normally do not offer reservations and waits are enormously long). Folks can email jane.beachy@gmail.com or reach out through the FB event invite to inquire.* Township is going to be offering a free Michelada on Saturday morning (9-3pm) with brunch purchase for anyone with proof of Fall Ball ticket purchase.* Intelligensia on Milwaukee Ave. has created a special drink this week called the FALL BALL: "The official Intelligentsia "Fall Ball" drink is a Chai, with some espresso,mocha and hot pepper mixed in - so delicious! We introduced it this week (starting Monday) and it will be running until the end of the 19th."* Also, the first 100 people through the door at LSA will receive a FREE DRINK COUPON from the fine folks at Intelligentsia! It'll be the perfect start to your hangover on Sunday.* Penny Lane Hair Studios will offer $30 "up-do"s and $15 "eyes and lips" for Fall Ball attendees.* Darling Shear is performing a number at the ball and is also offering a special $50 Stylist package to attendees who want help planning their look.* GlitterGuts will be on board to capture all the fun.

10.19.13 Fall Ball @ LSA FULL

Watch and learn, friends...

DSC_1856

So, there I am, standing around, drinking a Tecate, waiting for the tunes to start, when I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn around to see a blonde bob behind a pink sparkly mask. I know instantly who it is, the words she’s saying to me are lost as I excitedly think to myself “that’s Miss Pussycat. Its Miss Pussycat!” Without absorbing any of what she was saying I blurt out “You’re Miss Pussycat!” Before I know it I starting hearing words like “big fan”, “idol”, and “favorite role model” spewing out. I stand there cringing at my own ‘fan-girl’ outburst. Before I can do anymore damage I calmly stop myself and say “can’t wait to see ya play,” as I walk away.Considering I’ve had about a million solo dance parties while listening to some of Quintron and Miss P’s albums, I had pretty high expectations for the set ahead. I’d been pining to see them in the flesh for years and now it was happening, there was Quintron’s infamous Hammond-Fender Rhodes-car hybrid, there was the puppet theater Miss P would perform in and I had a spot front and center, I felt like a child on Christmas morning.After some dance-tastic sets by MAGAS and zZz, (Q and Miss P’s partners in touring crime) I could not have been more excited for their show. They were the perfect precursors to the set.  Following a puppet show, performed by Q and Miss P themselves, the set started off in full-force. Beaming up at the stage as Quintron played his quintessential swamp-tech beats and Miss P’s sang her shrilling vocals, I was on a dance train to the moon. The energy from both the duo, and the crowd, was superb, and I was saddened when it all came to an end.Although, I never got to ask Miss Pussycat which puppet she identified with most, and never got to hear how exactly Quintron choose the tracks from the Singing House for the cassette, I definitely got to cross a few things off my bucket list Saturday night. Quintron and Miss Pussycat will forever be my favorite duo. Between Quintron’s out of this world inventions and Miss P’s pure puppet magic, their imaginations, and talent are comparable to none.  I don’t like being the barer of bad news, but if you weren’t at the Bottle on Saturday, ya blew it.

quintron

Leave it to Michael Cera to come up with the best ways for bands to promote themselves. Did you know that he came to the Bottle once? It was when he was playing in that band Mister Heavenly - after one of their shows or something they came to hang out with us. Cool!Anyways, Mr. Cera has started a new YouTube comedy channel called Buh, which you should probably check out since you have nothing better to do. One of the videos they produced at Buh came out last week and, boy-howdy, it sure knocked us on our ass and had us ROFLing, if you will. It's a mockumentary short featuring ISLANDS, the indie-rock stalwarts who play HERE in less than two weeks. The video centers around the making of their excellent new record, Ski Mask, which you can and should go buy or listen to. The song "Becoming the Gunship" is like music to our ears.Watch the video on dis here blog and catch ISLANDS when they hit the Bottle with BRAZOS on 10/14.Tickets to the ISLANDS/BRAZOS show are ONLY $12 and can be purchased here. See you then!

True free spirits are gems that are few and far between. You know who I’m talking about, those rare birds that are unabashedly themselves, who do what makes them happy, who don’t associate success with happiness. The Cosmic Psychos are those rare birds. Trade in those Tevas for some work boots and your Kombucha for a PBR: The Psychos are a new breed of free spirit - a group of men who aren't driven by profit and who represent a sense of songwriting as honest as Daniel Johnston. I had the pleasure of sitting with the Psychos to discuss that damn kangaroo problem, why the Psychos never made it rich, the price you play for playing in America, and what makes it all worth it...

cosmic psychos

Yes GIF.

ASHEIGH DYE: WHAT WAS LIFE LIKE GROWING UP ON A FARM IN AUSTRALIA? WHAT INITIALLY INSPIRED YOU TO START WRITING MUSIC?ROSS KNIGHT: I guess it just might have been boredom. And being at the right age at the right time when the entire punk rock thing happened in the mid 70’s. I sort of caught on to that. Ya know, it couldn’t have been any worse in life being stuck miles away, in a town with a horrible a farm, where the sun’s shining and you can ride your motorbike all day, and you can go fishing and shooting. It’s terribly depressing. Your parents feed you three good meals a day. Life couldn’t have been any worse.AD: So you have a song called ‘Dead Roo’, how many kangaroos do you see, on average, dead or alive?RK: Thousands.DEAN MULLER: Some dead ones, heaps of live ones. In fact I saw a live one recently that was dead as soon as I saw it.AD: Oh wow, really?DM: Yeah, I hit it with my car.AD: [Laughs] so they’re kind of like the deer of Australia?RK: Even worse! They’re everywhere at the moment.DM: Well, they’re protected at the moment; they aren’t allowed to be killed anymore.AD: I’ve heard they’re kind of mean. I’ve seen a lot of internet clips of kangaroos kicking people.DM: They can be when they’re mating.RK: You’ve tried to mate with kangaroos?DM: No. They tried to mate with me. I had to run away really fast and climb a tree.RK: I knew a farmer whose dog chased some kangaroos into a dam and it tried to drown the dog. So he [the farmer] went to try and save the dog and they tried to drown him.AD: Wow. So that was a lot of kangaroo talk. You guys have been said to be a part of the Yobb lifestyle. Can you tell me what that’s all about?RK: Well I think people have tried to pigeonhole us for many years and I think just ‘cause we, I dunno…DM: Don’t comply to the kind of ‘dress em up’ kind of punk rocker thing.RK: We just look like your average punter that drinks in a pub and wanders around aimlessly.JOHN ONYA: I used to wear white boots. But not anymore, I got too old.  White boots are for the young.AD: Your band has gone through some significant line up changes over the years, how do you think it has affected the Psycho’s sound?RK: Probably not all, because it’s a dumb sound that you cant break out of, but it has affected a sound a bit. I reckon the line-up now is the best we’ve ever been.DM: Awe, shucks. You should have said “it’s the shittiest we’ve ever been lets go back to the old days”RK: The good thing about the change of line up is that it is the same basic formula but it sounds a lot different with another guitar player and another drummer. For me, I just play the same boring bass right from day one. I’m finding it really good. Really, really good.DM: The sound of the bass is the thing that makes it unique. It’s the first thing that hits you. It’s a very, very unique sound; its really one of the most important things about the band, the songwriting and that sound of the bass. The rest of us could be replaced tomorrow as long as he’s still there.RK: I don’t think so.AD: What was it like working with Butch Vig, for Blokes You Can Trust, compared to other producers you’ve worked with?RK: He was a great bloke to work with. The funny thing was, because I haven’t really got much to do with the music industry, I sort of know of some of the work he had done but I never realized he was such a big, respected producer. It didn’t even matter, because he was one of the nicest blokes in the world. It was really good. We all got along well. We could not have had a better time. It was fun.DM: We’ve had a pretty good run all the way though. There have been a couple rotten bastards along the way, but you run in them everywhere. I reckon they’re less than 5%.JO: Yea, that’s life.AD: What was it like having a film made about you guys, and the band as a whole? Was it weird hearing what people like Butch Vig, Eddie Vedder etc had to say about your influence?RK: Hilarious, weird, a bit confusing.DM: American’s love that though don’t they; it’s the American dream, the silver screen. To be immortalized that way.AD: That’s very true; everyone just wants their story to be important enough for people to pay attention.DM: Whereas I can’t even watch it anymore. I see it and cringe.AD: How many times have you guys watched it?RK: Maybe once or twice.AD: That seems like plenty. What are your favorite memories from the US tour, so far?DM: This is my first time in the states. It’s just been fantastic all the way. New York was great. Seattle was great. LA was fantastic. I got a shower in LA it felt really good.AD: Ross, John do you have any that stick out from before this tour?RK: It’s really hard. I had a really good tour a couple of times with the Cows, a tour with The Melvins stands out. What a great band to have the privilege to see every night for two weeks.JO: Twenty times in a row!RK: I felt really lucky to get to see them like that. I never got sick of them, how could you? If the Cosmic Psychos were serious about making money we’d probably play in Europe. We’d do one or two shows.DM: We’d all get face-lifts[laughter]RK: It costs us a lot of money to play in America, and we don’t have a lot of money. We were lucky enough to do really well in Australia in our last tour to invest $45,000 bucks to lose money to come here. I love playing in the states. Mac [John Onya] has played here before with his other band so it was hard to explain to Dean. It’s not like Europe. You don’t get plate loads of food, you don’t get shit loads of money, the crowds are smaller but you have a better time.DM: It’s hard to find a bathroom. In Europe they love their bathroomsJO: Especially in San Francisco at 4:30 in the morning.AD: What’s an ideal day for you guys back in Australia?RK: A day offJO: A whole week-end off.RK: For me an ideal day would be to have a lovely day with my two kids and speak to these two on the phone.  Between the three of us a perfect day would be to plan a band practice and not do anything. Just sit down and drink a beer. We’ve done that many times. Dean’s got a studio at his place, which is only an hour from mine, Mac will fly downJO: If there’s a gig or somethingRK: But then we haven’t seen each other in a month so we just sit around drinking and catching up.DM: Sometimes we bring out the Casio and get down on some synth music and record some rubbishAD: That all sounds pretty fun, like you are really living the dream. How did you guys meet if you’re all so spread out?JO:  I met Ross over 20 years ago but I met him properly about 17 years ago because my band The Onyas toured with the Cosmic Psychos in Europe. That would have been about ’96 and we’ve just know each other ever since.RK: When did I meet you? [Dean].DM: Well I lived in a house with your sister, Melissa, and her boyfriend, Kerian, asked me to come down to your place and jam with him. That was in the early 90’sAD: So you guys were saying that an ideal day for you would be a day off, a day with out work. It’s been said you’re a working man’s band, so is this something easy for you guys to indentify with?RK: Well, we’ve all got jobs and don’t rely on music for anything other than entertaining the three of us.DM: Rock stars have nothing to write songs about if there’s nothing going on in your life. If you’re just in hotel rooms or on airplanes, and all your sandwiches have the crusts cut off you’re not experiencing anything.RK: There are very intelligent and smart people in the rock business that can write songs because that’s what they are put on this earth to do. Unfortunately – or fortunately, for us – we weren’t put on this earth to write songs.[Laughter]AD: So if you could only drink one thing, other than water, for the rest of time, what would it be?RK: Beer! Let’s be greedy and say the best beers in the world!DM: PBR! A workingman’s beer.JO: Chartreuse.[Laughter]RK: Well, you guys can’t have any of mine when you get sick of those!AD: OK, for my closing question I have to ask, why shouldn’t you drink with the Cosmic Psychos?DM: Can I answer a question with a question?AD: Go for it.DM: Why should you?RK: I suppose we do have a reputation. It was on purpose, but a lot of people did end up very sick when drinking with us.

Our pal Joe Schorgl, who you may know from The Sueves, is an awesome artist. He made this poster for Thursday's SOUL CLAP & DANCE OFF with DJ JONATHAN TOUBIN....

by Joe Schorgl

Here's some more info on the event, courtesy of the show's sponsors, Brooklyn Brewery Mash!

DJ Mr. Jonathan Toubin's Soul Clap and Dance-Off is North America's most popular soul party - by far playing to more people in more places and generating more capital than any of its contemporaries. Founded in New York City the concept is simple-all night dancing to the wild soul 45s of subterranean superstar DJ Mr. Jonathan Toubin and, around 1:00 am, a $100 dance contest judged by a community panel. Cash is great. But so is a trip to Brooklyn for the dance-off championship at Brooklyn Bowl. Don't miss your chance to dance your way to New York City. For free.And you can dance guilt-free cause a dollar of each ticket sold will go to benefit the local sustainability non-profit, Slow Food Chicago.Recession-friendly mass entertainment with a universally cheap door price, the dance party/spectacle not only sells beyond capacity at home, but has brought its excitement to domestic markets all the way from Portland, Oregon to Portland, Maine and internationally from Tel Aviv to Mexico City-including monthly residencies in New York, Chicago, LA, San Francisco, Oakland, and PDX. The Dance-Off portion features judges from every edge of music and culture from classic subcultural icons like Mike Watt and Jello Biafra, to rock stars Andrew Van Wyngarden (MGMT) and Nick Zinner (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), to interesting cultural figures like Karla LaVey (Satanic Priestess) and Matt Gonzalez (Green Party Vice Presidential Candidate) to your favorite neighborhood heroes. Catch The Soul Clap!

9.23 Announce

Check it out, y'all. We've got a a bunch of shows that have been on sale for a while, but there are some bad-ass openers and/or headliners being added to the bill. Check that sickimage out and you can catch our drift pretty quick... And buy tickets to each one before you miss out. #NOFOMO201310/24/13: RUNNING added to OOZING WOUND, THE BODY, TOUPEE (9pm; FREE WITH RSVP)10/26: DUSTIN WONG & TAKAKO MINEKAWA added to JACCO GARDNER and MATCHESS (9:30pm; $10)11/8: CAVE opening for WOODEN SHJIPS (9:30pm; $14)12/12: DISAPPEARS headline the Kranky 20th Anniversary Show with LICHENS, IMPLODES (9pm; $12)

Jeez, my head hurts a bit (but in a good way). How great Thalia Hall looks with close to 400 friends and folks basking in the glow. A lobster roll and a nice glass of beer sure doesn’t suck, too – it’s the opposite of suck, really. Numerous glasses of punch put it over the top. For all of you who attended, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Your warm praises are music to our ears. We are finishing stuff up getting ready to open our doors to the public on the 28th. Hope to see you soon. - Bruce Finkelman (head cheese)

thaliadragons

thaliafirstlook

friendsatpunchhouse

duseksspacejuice

punchhousechairs

punchhousecouch

duseksbarparty

dusekswillduncan

duskesbeerboard

duseks

There are few things in this world that improve with time: a fine wine, scotch, Daniel Radcliff and now, No Age. Almost a decade into playing together and the LA based punk duo is still going strong.Now, sitting across from me, bathed in sunlight, and full of smiles, No Age fills us in on the making of ‘An Object’ (out this past August on Sub Pop), the importance of transitions, and meeting Prince... First, check out some pictures of their early show @ the Empty Bottle on Saturday, September 14th.

Dean GIF

ASHLEIGH DYE: I ’m really impressed at your guys’ commitment to hand package and create 5,000 LP sleeves and 5,000 CD sleeves. You decided to do this before the album was finished – how did this affect the writing for this album?DEAN SPUNT: It gave me a big motivation to write for the record. Before that we had tried and I think it felt like we were going down the same path as we’d been to before – get together, make a record, do a tour – and I think that wasn’t very inspiring to me and I think that this idea helped me work through it. It gave me a goal besides just making a record.AD: I’m sure it made it a lot more personal, since you’d physically be making what the record was put in.DS: Yeah, it kind of helped give the record some context instead of just making music for the sake of making music, which is not bad but for me it needed something to help it along.AD: So how many paper cuts did you guys get?RANDY RANDALL: I didn’t get any!DS: No paper cuts, more like lots of blisters.  I’m used to blisters from playing drums but these were like weird red marks on my fingers.AD: Ah yeah, from all the pressing and folding. Did you guys design the album art as well?DS: Yeah, with our friend Brian Roettinger.AD: What was the process for that like? Was there a certain message you were trying to send?RR: I think the original idea had started out, we had settled on the name ‘An Object’ and Dean had the idea of constructing a three-dimensional kind of figure, but everything we looked at – we had an industrial design guy come out and try and figure out were the cuts and scores would be --DS: It got goofy pretty quick…RR: Yea it felt like a pop-up book, ya know.AD: My grandma does a lot of 3D puzzles.RR: Yea! Like that.DS: It got too crafty feeling; we were making lots of trips to Michael’s. Which isn’t bad but it wasn’t the vibe we were going for. We over shot the vibe and it became too complicated and constructed.RR: We wouldn’t have known until we tried to do it. The idea sounded interesting. “OK, this thing, it’s a record and you can take it home or wherever and you can actually make it into a sculpture."

no age

AD: I’ve seen an album cover like that before, the band [Flipper] had something you cut out and folded into an old psychedelic van.

DS: There ya go.RR: That was part of the idea.  So we got away from that idea and we were still trying to work on it as a package. The album sleeve in its own right is an interesting sculpture, in the way of making it, folding it. So we got into that and when it came time for an actual image [for the album cover], we had one that was very stark and a very Swiss looking design with boxes and very esoteric and cold even though it had warm colors like red and white but it didn’t vibrate. And Brian came up with this very high contrast idea.DS: Something that would mess with your eyes a little bit, something you would see and not be able to look away from.  You had to notice it.RR: It also felt like having a picture of ourselves on the cover or anywhere in it was almost unheard of. My mother in-law had mentioned “Why don’t you put a picture of yourself in it?” and Shannon [my wife] said “Mom, bands don’t really do that” and I was like, “Funny enough, that is one of our ideas.” And we just kind of ran with that more because it felt like it gave a pull, putting yourselves on the cover.

AD: What was the meaning behind the album title? Was that has specific as the artwork and construction of the physical album?

DS: After making the idea of making it that felt pretty easy. I had accomplished that and I kind of left it, I didn’t have too many ideas after that.

AD: Right, when so much goes into making it and how it physically looks…

DS: Yeah, I just felt like that was the main focus, so once we figured that out. I was writing something for the press release and I’d written something that we released “an object,” and then Randy suggested that’s actually pretty perfect. And we thought about it, for not very long, and were like that’s what it is.

AD: It’s nice when something just clicks like that

.RR: It felt like a world play, too. You say No Age released

Nouns

in 2008. No Age released

An Object

in 2013. It was kind of calling it what it was. Also, the naming process has been that over-simplification. Like

Nouns

– person/places/things – stuff where we came from. And

Everything in Between

was the space we played with. It’s hard to label these things. Creating an individual song takes so much effort and to give that whole thing a name you start to get down to that critical mass of, “I don’t know how thin you can get to put a blanket over this whole thing.” It wasn’t like it was these concept albums like these are songs about flowers.DS: The title worked because making the records themselves the record ends up being about consumerism. How we’re making these things, why are we making these things, and why are people buying them. I think the titled really just nails it.RR: There was also an element to that it was ‘to object’ or in opposition. I think a lot of feelings like that went into it.DS: Yea it was an objection for us to make these records, it’s sort of against what we’re supposed to do.

AD: Right, it seemed like kind of a no brainer… So you guys took a three-year break in between putting out ‘Everything in Between’ and ‘An Object’. What was going on during those three years?

RR: We sat at home the whole time.DS: Yea I just stared at the television. Ha, no it wasn’t much of a break, we put out a cassette, worked on

Collage Culture

, and we toured a lot. We were busy, we just didn’t put out a record.

AD: Do you think what you did over that time went in to writing for An Object?

RR: Of course!DS: Yea, you can’t ignore what you’re experiencing.

AD: What was it like working on

Collage Culture

, writing music to go alongside spoken word

?DS: It was cool; we listened to the spoken word and figured out how long it needed to be then just riffed off of it. Randy would do a part, then I would do part. We kind of collaborated that way. I think we collaborated more on the sequencing of parts, right?RR: Yea we did a score for a film for a movie called

The Bear

. That was 90-minutes long so we had to develop this way of working in blocks of time. When you’re working for 90 minutes, 10 minutes is just a small fraction of that, so you just create these spaces and then there are the transitions. You work in big blocks, you write in city blocks vs. individual bricks. So we definitely used a similar process with

Collage Culture

. Just writing in pieces and transitioning them into each other.

AD: Things like that seem a lot different than just writing songs for albums, so are these things you do to help combat redundancy?

DS: I don’t know if it was that intentional. I think since we’ve started we’ve always wanted to be doing things other than just putting out records and we always have done little things here and there. It wasn’t to combat redundancy but it did lend its self to writing the new record. It split us in half of making songs and making these long form pieces. Before this album we were just making songs, structured rock songs, but at some of our earlier shows, that other scene show, we sat there and just played noise.  So, its not anything new, we’ve just gotten better at it I think.

AD: I think its probably a good thing that you guys aren’t just focused on putting out albums and making records, it allows you to grow more as musicians.

DS: And I think our structure of writing songs aren’t too off from those long form type pieces. We really consider that negative space in between songs, that’s really important. How it transitions how much space is there. That’s all taken into account.

AD: So you guys have been on a lot of tours together. How many would you say you’ve been on? Are there any special memories that stand out?

RR: This is our first one! I just met this dude.DS: Yea, 10 years. There’s so many, chatting here with you!

AD: [laughing] good answer.

DS: [laughing] We met Prince in Minneapolis! We played at his club and he showed up.

AD: Was he a cool guy?

DS: We barely met him, he came and sat down in the back and I went up to him and shook his hand and I gave him a CD of ours.RR: It was intercepted by the bouncer!DS: I went to take a photo and the bouncer just went like this [wags finger].RR: Yea we brought the camera out and saw that and were like uhh, never mind.

AD: Wow! I want enough power to just be able to wag my finger and make things happen. SO for my closing two questions I’m going to ask: Dean, what’s you’re favorite thing about Randy?

DS: That he’s such a sweet person. He’s the nicest guy, really. Very good-hearted human being, the best.

AD: Randy, what’s your favorite thing about Dean?

RR: He’s a big picture guy. He sees things in a bigger way than most people do and I enjoy seeing the scope and the dedication to these ideas. He’s a synthesizer, there’s a place that doesn’t exist and he kind of creates it and has enough charm and guile to bring everyone in to this space and suddenly it’s a real thing.Interview conducted and transcribed by ASHLEIGH DYEPhotos by ASHLEIGH DYE

bare-mutants-leslie

bare-mutants-matt-holland

bare-mutants-Jeanine-close-up

baremutantsJeredGummere

baremutantslive

After a long, slow drive from St. Louis, Bare Mutants finally arrive at the Bottle for their official album release show for The Affliction, out last month on In the Red. The album takes you deep into the smooth dreamland of leader Jered Gummere with the help of fellow Chicago scene staples, Jeanine O’Toole (vocals) of the 1900s and Seth Bohn (bass) from Mannequin Men, along with talented friends Leslie Deckard (keys) and Matt Holland (drums). The Affliction is perfect for those chilly, overcast days where you dedicate yourself to doing nothing but staring into space and pondering your life.Sitting across from me, clad in all white, chain smoking cigarettes and guzzling iced coffees, we discuss: how cool is white on white, life as a new father, and who they’d want to play dodge ball against.JERED GUMMERE: What do you think of these white outfits? I guess it’s too late to change…ASHLEIGH DYE: I’m into it. With the white backdrops; you guys are doing a white out. I'm into monochromatic things... So first of all - I have to say that band names and the naming of things fascinate me - so why Bare Mutants?[laughter]JG: [laughing] Well, because I went to a name generator on the Internet and that was the first one that came up that I was like, not too bad!AD: A name generator, eh? See that’s interesting, no less. That’s a pretty interesting thing for a name generator to spit out. Was it a band specific generator?LESLIE DECKARD:  Yeah and I think you typed in, like, BARE or something to finally get there.AD: The Velvet Underground has been mention/referenced for your guys’ new album The Affliction, but were there any other major influences that went into making this album?JG: Friendship.AD: Each other - that’s a good influence to have. You're on a small mid-west tour right now, is this your last stop?JG:  We play Milwaukee tomorrowAD: Where’s your favorite stop been so far?JG: My house [laughter]LD: No, Ed’s house![Everyone]: Yeah - Ed’s!JEANINE O’TOOLE: We stayed with Jered’s old friend in Galesburg, Illinois.AD: Galesburg?SETH BOHN: Yeah. It’s like a half hour south of Rock Island. We did a Day Trotter recording session and had the night off, so we just went there. It was a lot of fun.AD: sounds like a good time. Old friends, recording sessions, shows. How was the audience’s response?LD: Sold out, first of all. [laughs]JO: No, well St. Louis...SB: St. Louis was goodishJO: St. Louis was a great response; I’d say it was more quality than quantity. But, it was cool. Everyone was into it.AD: That’s good. I mean, as long as the people their are enjoying what you’re doing that’s what matters; you could have a crowd full of people and if they’re just talking to each other, what's the point? Do you have any more dates lined up or an affirmed future for Bare Mutants?SB: There some stuff in the works for December.AD: Where are you guys looking to go?SB: Out East.JG: Maybe Canada. AD: Out east is a good place to go in December, that’s some crafty planning.JG: We’re also playing Midpoint Festival in Cincinnati at the end of this month.AD: Jered, this question's more for you: How does writing now compare to projects past? How has your recent venture into fatherhood played a role in that? Do you think it’s been significant?JG: Well, most of this record was written way before that, but I’m a stay-at-home father now, so at night when my wife comes home I go to the basement and I’m pretty productive. I feel much more focused.AD: Sometimes it takes more things going on in your life to make you more focused creatively.JG: I think it was the other things that were the problem before. Now I have minimal focus.AD: If your daughter could only listen to one artist throughout her baby years of your choosing, whom would you pick?JG: Oh, man… I mean right now she’s a Willie Nelson girl, so I’ll probably stick with Willie.AD: If money and time were obsolete for you guys, where would you go on tour?JG: Uh, Japan.JO: I was just going to say Japan!AD: I’ve always wanted to go to Japan! They’re so weird over there... What’s a band you’d most like to have a dodge ball match against?LD: I really suck at dodge ball so this is a hard question.JO: Leslie you can’t be on the team!AD: I was always the girl hiding in the back, and then I’d end up being the only one left on my team. But I can’t throw very far so it sucked. JG: I don’t really like Mac DeMarco. We’ll take him out.[everyone laughs]LD: Five on one![laughter]JG [laughing] Nah, he’s got like 4 or 5 people in his band.SB: Or Outer Minds, they’d be fun to throw some balls at.AD: OK so these are my last couple questions, they’re from Mike G here at the Bottle... Jered, who do you think is more famous, you or Bruce Lamont?JG: Oh yeah.JO: That’s good, haha.JG: Uh probably Hesh, unfortunately.JO: He is Robert Plant in half of his time so…AD: And in closing: Who do you think will win this year, Packers or the Bears?JG: The fucking Bears! There are too many Green Bay fans in this city.SB: Even if the Packers win, the Bears still win because they’re the Bears.——————————————————————————————————Live @ Empty Bottle on Friday the 13th of September, 2013Interview conducted and transcribed by ASHLEIGH DYEPhotos taken by ASHLEIGH DYE

DSC_9267

I was running late to the first installment of this new interview series, mostly on account of the always-dangerous wine and porch combination.Rushing to the Bottle, I walked in to see a beaming, full-mouthed smile from one of the most well manicured man I've seen to date. It belonged to none other than Mr. TAV FALCO, this past Saturday’s headliner. His band seemed newly-assembled and a tad unfocused during their set – not to mention there were no guitars being chainsawed like back in the old days – but Tav & his Panther Burns still brought the heat, leaving us with some deliciously fried ears and brains. Though often credited as the man who "invented psycho-billy” to those who have never heard of HASIL ADKINS, there’s no denying Tav’s charm and hip-shaking moves are still damn contagious. After the set was finished and the fans had filtered out, I had the pleasure of chatting with Tav about the gems you can uncover while thrifting in Memphis and our shared love of leopard print details. A lovely gentleman, that Tav.The rising star of the night, however, was young Daniel Fromberg. “BOOK HIM AGAIN” was the note I read from Bottle staff after the show and he got a nice write-up in his hometown paper (Oak Park) following the show. Curious at the young star’s abilities I immediately went to hisBandcamp site. Daniel's tracks are dripping in shoegaze with some industrial undertones; this kid knows what’s up. I mean really, where was this kid when I was 13?  It’s like if Kevin Shields had Trent Reznor's bastard child and raised him alone – hopefully we’ll hear more from Daniel in the near future.Photos & Words by ASHLEIGH DYE

This Friday we'll be celebrating the release of the debut album by Chicago's own BARE MUTANTS. Comprised of some of our favorite local bands - THE PONYS, MANNEQUIN MEN, THE 1900s and LIKE PIONEERS - the LP is titled The Affliction and it was release released on one of our favorite LA-based labels, In The Red. If you know us, which you probably do by now, you know we can't get enough of these bodacious dudes and lady-dudes. Front-dude JERED GUMMERE continues to blow us away, and this record further solidifies his place as one of the absolute top-notch songwriters to grace our stage...In case you don't already know, if you buy tickets in advance to Friday's show you'll be entered to win some sweet, sweet vinyl records! BARE MUTANTS have given us a copy of their new LP, as well as their debut 7" on HoZac, and the smokin' hot members of VERMA have provided their new LP Coltan (Trouble In Mind) along with their new HoZac 7-inch. WOWE what a prize! The winner will be contacted the day of the show and can pick up his/her prize the night of the show.Here are some nice things "the press" has to say about that excellent BARE MUTANTS LP...

"This album is a heartbreaking motherfucker of sublime despondency. The simple but not simplistic arrangements underscore the matter-of-fact lyrics by former Ponys front man Jered Gummere—they read like a chronicle of the stocktaking and soul-searching you do while spending an afternoon recovering from last night’s epic bender." (Brian Costello, Chicago Reader)"In the absence of new music from the Ponys, fans of noise-streaked rock can turn their lonely eyes to Bare Mutants... Bare Mutants have previously shared "Crying With Bob," and now you can hear "Growing" first below. Both are patiently sculpted works rich with fuzzy guitar, garage-rock organ, and echoing baritone vocals." (SPIN)"How many reasons does Jered Gummere need to give us before we start invoking his name tirelessly? What's this guy got to do for us that was not already proven with The Ponys, Guilty Pleasures and influencing Jay Reatard and the burrough of Brooklyn for the better part of the Aughts? Turns out, it's start yet another killer band." (Impose)

SMOKER, previously known as STEPHEN PAUL SMOKER, celebrates the release of their new record Strange Ways, at the Bottle on Friday, September 6th. Hey, that's tomorrow! Or tonight, depending on when you're looking at this! Opening the show are Chicago sisters THE KUHLS and direct support will be the wonderful weirdos in WILD JESUS & THE DEVIL's LETTUCE. Wowe what a night! Buy advance tickets here, or pay $8 at the door!Listen to the new record below...More info on the album...

"STRANGE WAYS is the Sophomore release from Chicago's own SMOKER (Formerly Stephen Paul Smoker). Following the acclaimed release of RIPE FRUIT in 2012, the band has expanded on their often times honest and sometimes down right weird approach to song writing. This is a musicians band. But on STRANGE WAYS they reach out to everyone with what might be their most accessible record yet. They continue to inspire and surprise with their ability to draw you into the song. It seems to be their highest endeavour, and they succeed with grace and brilliance."— Paul Kauffman

It has been decided. The round table of Album Art Judges have made up their minds and declared that Chicago's OOZING WOUND have provided us with the "Best Cover Art" for all of 2013. Judge Milton Cornbeater has this to say about the decision: "For the rest of the year, all items might as well just be blank, with simply the band name and the title of the record, cause no one is going to top this shit." Cheers to our friends OOZING WOUND - see em at the Bottle for their Record Release Show with THE BODY & TOUPEE on Thursday, October 24. It's FREE with RSVP!Thrill Jockey Records has more on the record below...“take three dudes from some of the city’s grossest, weirdest bands, and together they create a simple, powerful thrash unit...Retrash is a seven-song, 32-minute blast of streamlined, high-intensity heavy metal”  - Chicago ReaderOozing Wound is Zack Weil (guitar, vocals), Kevin Cribbin (bass), and Kyle Reynolds (drums), young men that have established themselves in the volatile Chicago underground in a short time, playing in Cacaw, Unmanned Ship, ZATH, Bad Drugs, and countless other groups that have populated packed, sweaty basements and lofts throughout the city. Simultaneously hilarious and terrifying, their debut album, Retrash, is made for people who have no faith in melody and happiness, and no resistance to heavy riffage. This is music by and for people with a desire to slay.The band channels their inner 15 year old, offering little distinction between comedy and antagonism. As Weil puts it, Oozing Wound is defined by, “loud fucking guitars and screaming and shit. We don’t sing, and we don’t write big choruses. Anything like that gets checked by the wayside because, fuck it, it’s not us.”The songs on Retrash use humor to defend against and explore the anger, paranoia, and destruction that characterize life in the modern era. The line between hysterical and histrionic is tread with little regard for anything at all. “See you later, alligator” Weil howls in “Welcome to the Spaceship, Motherfucker,” as he channels a fever dream of the Biblical Joseph after discovering Mary’s pregnancy. “No more faker, doppelganger/No more false child of mine.” At the core of every song is a riff, or collection of riffs: from the ur-thrash of the gut-punching opener “Everyone I Hate Should Be Killed” to the sludgy noise of “New York Bands,” Retrash is a blast of pure energy put forth with simplicity and fury.Retrash was recorded at Electrical Audio and Studio Chicago in two 12-hour sessions by their friend Matt Russell, and follows the Vape and Pillage cassette on Reynolds’ own Rotted Tooth Recordings. These recordings were not made for laptop speakers or ear buds, and are meant to be played as loud as possible.

The fine folks over at AdHoc are streaming the excellent new TERRY MALTS record, Nobody Realizes This Is Nowhere, which comes out next week on Slumberland Records. Here's a tidbit of what they have to say:

"The new record starts with an alarm ring, which seems like the perfect way to describe Nobody Realizes This Is Nowhere. The album sounds like that jolt in bed when you wake up, giving you goosebumps and rattling your skull. The trio hasn't changed its sound or character drastically; if anything, they've honed in on what made their debut so appealing."

Give it a listen here and don't miss TERRY MALTS when they play a FREE MONDAY show here on September 16th with excellent openers SPRAY PAINT, DUMPSTER BABIES and FLORAL WREATHS. More info on the show can be found here.

Bro koozie

aimm 2007 small

Howdy, partners.If you're the proud owner of an Empty Bottle Koozie, you get discounts throughout the weekend! Bring your koozie into the bar tonight or Saturday and we'll hook you up with some cheap-ass HAMM'S and EB t-shirts. That's right, this is an exclusive offer for all the proud Koozie Klub Card Carrying Members out there. Don't have a koozie yet? We've got your remedy. Ask a friendly bartender if you can buy an EB Koozie for yourself and - PAH! - you get in on the specials, too! Here's what's available...Fri & Sat ONLY we'll be selling HAMM'S cans for ONLY $2.00!Fri & Sat ONLY we'll be selling Empty Bottle t-shirts grab-bag-style for ONLY $5!!!Get to it, kidz, and see you here all weekend!

Demdike Stare

 One of our bad-ass interns, Ashleigh Dye, photographed this portrait of DEMDIKE STARE when they stopped at the Bottle for a show on Saturday, August 10th. More like, Demdike Stare until my brain starts to melt, you know what we're saying??? You know...Hopefully we'll have more of these brain-squishers for you in the future.

As you may have noticed, we've been featuring specialty punches for sale - and drink - at the Empty Bottle over the past several months. Earlier this month, we made a video of punch master Will Duncan brewing a batch of fresh punch over at Thalia Hall, the new multi-purpose property in Pilsen being opened by our head honcho, Mr. Bruce Finkelman (and others). Punch House, located in the basement of Thalia Hall, will specialize in these delicious concoctions, offering an array that will be available by the glass, carafe, or bowl, as well as on tap in a carbonated form.Our main man Nick Brazinsky shot and created this video that gives viewers insight into how much goes into making punch. See if you can follow all the steps and be sure to come by on September 17th when Punch House & Dusek's both officially open! See you here.

Mark your calendars, boyz and girlz, cause it's that time of year, when we throw a new spin on an old favorite - it's the Empty Bottle Friendly Family Block Party, coming to you LIVE and just outside our front door. We're shutting down the stretch of paved road south of our building to welcome any and all for a summer bash unlike any this city has seen before. Last year, as you may (or may not) remember, we had a few bands and some food trucks outside our doors. This year there will be seven bands, all of which feature a staff member of the Bottle! We'll be serving up delicious street food, courtesy of Bite Cafe chef Dave Cooper, and Revolution Brewing will be providing folks with frosty brews. Unfortunately we had to scrap the overly-expensive dunk tank, so we might just get a kiddie pool for people to relax in...The programming for this event, much like a week spent at the Bottle, is all over the map. The party's lineup will run the gamut - from arty metal to messy garage, indie-pop to thrashy punk, all your rock & roll desires will be fulfilled throughout the day. Here's the lineup:YAKUZA ** RABBLE RABBLE ** CIRCLES ** PLANETSEXPLODER ** PET LIONS ** GUZZLEMUG ** NUDE INTEUDERThe bar will be open throughout the day and, of course, there will be non-alcoholic drinks for our more responsible friends. "Street food," for those who don't know, is basically anything you can eat with one hand - sandwiches and sausages and all that good stuff. There will be vegetarian options available, too, so anyone and everyone can grab some food while they're poundin' delicious bevs.For those who need a break from the summer sun for some cool AC, we'll have activities inside the Bottle, as well. There will be a face painter, duh, and a nail artist who can turn your fingers and/or toes into graphic wonders. We'll also include an area for people to play Corn Hole (or Bags, depending on where you're from). Stay tuned for more, cause we're cookin' up more fun for the indoors.Gates will open at noon and it's a $5 (suggested donation). We'll be planning some late-night shenanigans, as well, so stay tuned and get ready. And as with every suggested donation, the $5 is mandatory. No, seriously - we're serious.