Interview: Il Gato launches Kickstarter campaign for new record
March 28, 2012
Il Gato plans to record the follow-up to their debut studio album, All these Slippery Things, at Tiny Telephone in May and June, with the hopes that they can release it by August. But like many cash-strapped musicians, they don’t have the funds to make it happen.
If you wanna hear that new album sooner than later, there’s something you can do to make it happen. Il Gato has started a Kickstarter campaign to give their loyal fans an opportunity to help them out.
As a plea/thank you to their supporters, Il Gato plans to play a show at Cafe Du Nord on April 5 with Passenger & Pilot, themselves no strangers to new albums. P&P just self-released their debut full-length, The Calm Before — which you can check out on their Bandcamp page — back in November.
As an added incentive to pitch in for the Il Gato cause, check out the band playing a new song at the Great American Music Hall a few months ago. Then check out the interview I did with Il Gato’s Daimian Holiday Scott.
“Slap Your Tongue” by il gato from il gato on Vimeo.
Bay Bridged: Tell me where Il Gato is going.
Daimian Holiday Scott: I actually have been thinking a lot about the evolution of Il Gato and all the different places it has been. It seems that as I started and just had friends come on board we were kind of a loose collective which really allowed a whole plethora of instruments to be associated with the songs. From that experimentation and looseness I was able to really see what worked for that batch of songs and it was certainly surprising to me as someone who recorded a solo album in their bedroom surrounded by candlelight that the songs could get big. And I mean really big. A string section, horn section, banjo, mandolin, accordion, bass, drums, piano big. A number of people even suggested a timpani! It was kind of surprising but it seemed to really work.
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Interview: Two Seconds release new EP after a four-year hiatus
March 14, 2012
Sierra Frost and Lily Faden of the teen sensation Two Seconds have been on hiatus since 2008, when Faden relocated to Brooklyn and Frost joined The Downer Party. In December 2011, they began writing music and recording bi-coastally and have this new EP to show for it. The girls have picked right up where they left off, channeling bands like Sleater-Kinney and early Bettie Serveert. Sleep In the Yard sounds like a college radio transmission from the mid-90s that got lost in the airwaves and found a way to reemerge in cyberspace.
In a three-way email conversation with the girls, here is what they had to say:
TBB: How did you two meet?
Two Seconds: We met at local all-ages shows around the Bay Area when we were in middle school. We were thirteen. After having been acquaintances for months, we began talking one night after discovering that our Live Journal screen names, drummer_babe and member_rub, were (are) anagrams. We didn’t start playing out until we were sixteen. That was in 2006. We’ve always been really competitive with one another.
TBB: What is the origin of the band name?
TS: When we first started playing, we both played guitar. That was when the band was called “Seconds”. Later, in the second incarnation of the band, we both played drums. That was when we named the band “Seconds Two”. When our label at the time, PopSmear Records printed our first t-shirts, something went wrong and the shirts read “Two Seconds.” The order was non refundable so we stuck with the name and agreed to play different instruments.
TBB: What was it like playing venues that you normally wouldn’t be able to get in to?
TS: We liked it. One time we opened for Carrot Top at SF State. A few months later, we played Slim’s, but since it’s a 21+ venue and we were underage, federal drinking laws stated we had to be blindfolded and led to the back until our set. It was really weird like the guy who plays piano in Eyes Wide Shut.
TBB: What are Two Seconds’ musical influences?
TS: There are really too many to count, but our only influence is definitely Kraftwerk. Last year we were in Dusseldorf, Germany and did a walking tour of Kraftewerk history. Lily got a tattoo while we were out there.
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The Joy Formidable: “It’s not just volume, but dynamic and passion.”
March 9, 2012
The Joy Formidable – “Whirring”
When Welsh rock trio The Joy Formidable resolved to record the follow-up to last year’s critically praised debut, The Big Roar, the band did not settle on a studio in New York, Los Angeles or their home base of London. Instead, vocalist/guitarist Ritzy Bryan, bassist/boyfriend Rhydian Dafydd and drummer Matt Thomas decamped to a cabin in the woods of Maine. Bryan said her band, which kicks off a 2012 tour with two sold-out shows at The Independent next week, enjoys being in nature, be it the wilderness of New England, or the Arizona desert, which the trio discovered when they first came to the Unites States.
“I’ve always had a thing for really odd landscapes,” said Bryan in a recent phone chat from the United Kingdom, as the busy band prepared to return to America for the fourth time in about a year. “We thought (the American Southwest) was a magical place; it’s so different from North Wales. I’m the only one who can hack the heat out of the three. We’re all quite pasty, but I was better prepared.”
The budding success of The Joy Formidable follows two experiences Bryan does not relish discussing. Half a decade ago, she decided impulsively to leave her home in North Wales. “I needed to be somewhere else really quickly. There was something happening in my life and I needed to get away,” she said, without offering details.
Through Craigslist she found a job as an au pair for a family in Washington, D.C. “This (job) was so not an obvious choice,” she said. “I like children, but I’m not particularly maternal.” A solitary year followed, during which Bryan learned how difficult taking care of strangers’ children truly is. “I wrote an awful lot in that time,” she said. “I was quite isolated where I was living.”
After a year, Dafydd, a childhood friend, called Bryan and invited her to join a band he was playing in. She jumped at the chance, but that experience didn’t go so well, either. That band collapsed from infighting in 2007 after only a few months, an experience that left a bitter taste in her mouth. “We dread even just thinking about (the past),” she said. “There was a lot of emotional baggage; there were a lot of control issues. You can be passionate about what you are doing and still be on the same page.”
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Interview: Carletta Sue Kay discusses contributing to new album by The Magnetic Fields!
March 8, 2012
When Carletta Sue Kay was first emerging on the Bay Area scene back in 2007, the SF Bay Guardian described the music as “lilting, Emmylou Harris–meets–Magnetic Fields tunes.” Turns out the SFBG hit the nail on the head with that description: Carletta Sue, a.k.a. Randy Walker, is a big fan of The Magnetic Fields. So you can imagine how stoked Walker was to have been asked by Stephin Merritt himself to contribute to the new Magnetic Fields album, Love At The Bottom Of The Sea (which you can stream in its entirety on NPR right now).
This is shaping up to be a big year for Carletta Sue Kay. Fresh off a Noise Pop 2012 show with Chapter 24 and Dirty Ghosts, Randy is taking the band down to Austin for their first official SXSW showcase later this month, with plans to drop CSK’s debut album — at long last — on Kitten Charmer Records, which has put out this song, “For the Birds,” as a teaser:
The Magnetic Fields being indie rock royalty, and Carletta Sue Kay being a hometown hero, we figured we should check in with Randy and see just how awesome the experience recording for Love At The Bottom Of The Sea was. Hit the jump for the interview, but first watch Carletta Sue Kay killing it on a track called “Cruel Cruel Man” at the Hemlock Tavern.
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Chairman Wow release debut full-length
March 2, 2012
Chairman Wow‘s self-titled debut full-length album is out now. Typically comprised of just three voices and one guitar, Chairman Wow’s music is impossibly catchy. I contend that there’s simply no way to listen to songs like “Someone Pick You Up And Put You Down” or “Hold My Fire” (which you can stream below) and not walking away humming the melodies.
Chairman Wow is available now in the iTunes store. Hit the jump for an interview with Tom Mullaney, Chairman Wow guitarist and singer/songwriter, Stanford professor, and all around good guy.
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Interview: Loma Prieta discuss touring Australia, releasing new album on Deathwish
March 1, 2012
Bay Area hardcore stalwarts Loma Prieta‘s newest album I.V. is now available on Deathwish Inc.. For a band formed back in 2005 with numerous self-released records under their belt and extensive touring experience in the US, Mexico, Canada, and Japan, it’s hard to believe I.V. is their first release for a bigger label. Even after one listen, though, it’s easy to see why Deathwish pulled the trigger on these guys — the guitars crunch and grind every note, the song arrangements are ambitiously twisted, and the throat-ripping screaming surprisingly melodic. With I.V., Loma Prieta have crafted a powerful statement of purpose worthy of the national stage.
Check out my recent e-mail conversation with guitarist/vocalist Brian Kanagaki, where we discuss the band’s recent Australian tour, the Bay Area hardcore scene, and more.
The Bay Bridged: Loma Prieta just finished an Australian tour. What’d you think of the land down under? How’s the scene? Play with any exceptional local bands?
Brian Kanagaki: Touring Australia and NZ was great. Val and I had toured Australia before and we all have a lot of friends down there so it really feels like a second home. I really like how cozy the scene is – the actual part of the country that you can tour is so small that you end up playing the same cities 2 or 3 times and you stay in the same house with the same people for a few nights. I really like it. It’s half tour and half summer vacation. There are a lot of good bands from Aus that I like. We were able to play some shows with our friends band – they are called Shit Weather. They are an awesome power violence band from Melbourne.
TBB: You guys have been touring around the Bay Area since 2005. What are your favorite venues or show spaces?
KB: As far as venues and stuff in the Bay Area, I would say that Gilman is up that at the top of the list. It’s always fun and packed. Our friends have a show space at [their] house in the basement; its called The Hive. Jake and Sean from LOMA actually live at that house. It’s always fun to play a house show. The room only fits about 30 people but we have packed in about 100 at times. It gets pretty crazy. As far as that, there aren’t that many other spots that will have bands like us play. Five Points Art Space has been having some good shows lately but we haven’t played there yet. It’s really hard to have a sustainable all ages punk venue in the city so unfortunately we don’t get to play here that often.
TBB: I believe this is your first release for a bigger record label — is there anything you did differently as a band for this record than your previous LPs?
KB: Yeah, this was our first record on Deathwish, but we didn’t know that they were going to put it out until after it was already written and recorded. A lot of people that think we wrote this album to be a certain way because we were on Deathwish, but we just wrote it like any other record and it actually sat for a few months before Deathwish came along and emailed us. We knew that we wanted to do something different but nothing had come up until they contacted us. Tre and Jake at Deathwish have been awesome and have let us do everything that we wanted with the record. This release comes with a huge art poster and the production is really high. We are really happy with how it came out.
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Friends of Friends: Getting to know Swiftumz
February 21, 2012
Friends of Friends is a feature on The Bay Bridged where a little name-dropping never hurt anyone. We interview a local band or musician and get the low-down on the music scene from their point of view. Last time around, Cruel Summer was interviewed and recommended Swiftumz, a.k.a. Chris McVicker. Who will he recommend for the next installment? Keep reading to find out.
If you’ve never heard of Swiftumz, chances are you’ve heard the music of Chris McVicker. He wrote the popular Hunx and his Punx single “Don’t Cha Want Me Back,” of which there’s a bonkers, drugged out version on his 2011 Swiftumz LP, appropriately titled Don’t Trip and out now on Holy Mountain.
Besides that, Don’t Trip delivers everything from guitar-dominated ballads to synthy pop songs and fuzzed-out lo-fi anthems. The track “Too Many Friends” begs to be blasted from a car stereo while cruising down Route 1 on a sunny day, and the love song “More Than Sleep” makes dysfunctional relationships seem awesome. It’s that good. The album is both sarcastic and sweet, and is the product of a year of McVicker struggling to get his songs recorded on a shoestring budget. That deeply personal sentiment shows, not only in the music, but also in the inclusion of his phone number with instructions to call him, Mike Jones style.
Since then, McVicker has assembled a band for live sets — Brian Hamilton on guitar, Marie Davenport on bass, and Chris Kohler on drums — to back up his guitar and vocals, and has been playing around town. I sat down with him at Mission Bar to watch the Warriors game and chat about music over whisky shots and laughs.
Chris McVicker: I’m not really prepared.
TBB: I’m not Barbara Walters. I’m not trying to stump anyone.
CM: What if I start crying?
TBB: That would be awesome.
CM: Haha, that should be your goal as a journalist, to make people cry. You should have done a little more research to find out how to make me cry
TBB: There’s plenty of time for that. How long have you been playing music?
CM: I’ve been playing music since I was little kid — piano lessons, band. I quit marching band in high school because it was boring and dumb, so then I just started playing guitar or whatever. You had to be in marching band in order to be in any of the other bands, like jazz or concert band, but the marching band music was so bad, everything about it sucked.
TBB: Do you prefer solo or collaborative music-making?
CM: I’ve always collaborated with people. A lot of times just one other person. I played in a band with Tina [Lucchesi from The Bobbyteens, or the 47 other bands she's been in] called Special Ed, and a bunch of other punk bands. I’ve made a lot of recordings that never really became anything. I just eventually quit because I wasn’t happy. But this is the first release that’s mine.
TBB: Is Swiftumz a solo project?
CM: I wrote all of the songs, but it was also really collaborative. A lot of the songs I only play guitar on. Everything else is somebody else.
TBB: What about the track “It’s Beautiful”?
CM: That song is all samples. It was me in my room with a sampler and my records. I’m always afraid that we’re gonna get sued because the drum beat is just a Tommy Roe drumbeat and the music is from Cannibal Holocaust. We didn’t get permission.
TBB: Hopefully their lawyers don’t read the Bay Bridged. There’s a mellower version of Angelita on Youtube. Is that a demo?
[More...]
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Interview: The Mallard’s Greer McGettrick talks ‘Yes on Blood’ (record release party tonight!)
February 18, 2012
Greer McGettrick pours my coffee some mornings at my neighborhood café-slash-video store, and she knows just how I like it (a 20-ouncer with steamed nonfat — don’t judge). She’s also been waking me up with her tunes, thanks to the Mallard cassette I’ve had on a pretty regular rotation for my daily AM nudge. By stroke of luck, she knows how I like that, too.
The Mallard — of which said barista is the principle songwriter and engineer for, as well as guitarist and vocalist — is raw, loud, and raucous, with the vocals so overdriven at times that it makes McGettrick sound like an insectoid creature straight out of a Japanese monster flick complete with a killer surfy, garage rock soundtrack.
While this multi-talented, monster movie, coffee slinging, rad chick has performed and recorded all of The Mallard’s songs thus far, she has assembled a live band — two musicians named Dylan — to bring the sound home.
I was able to catch their set, along with Woollen Kits from Australia (another band to check out — a very early Flying Nun sound), when they opened for Blasted Canyons at the Knockout last month. Drummer Dylan Tidyman-Jones pounds the skins while standing, offering background vocals along with a tribal, DMT-soaked vibe. Dylan Edrich coolly and statuesquely plays guitar and bass, while McGettrick shreds and snarls like she’ll bite your head off if you fuck with her. Luckily, she’s incredibly nice and probably won’t.
I was fortunate enough to get a copy of the brand spanking new Yes on Blood, The Mallard’s first proper full-length release, out now on Castle Face Records, and it delivers the same gritty and ear-splitting sound as the cassette and live set, while some tracks could ft right in on The Breeders’ Title TK. It’s too easy to write this band off as simply garage when it is so much more than that.
You can get your own copy of Yes on Blood at The Mallard’s record release party at Dreamers and Make Believers tonight (9pm, $3). Also playing is Asabov Sobelo, the solo project of Ryan Sambol from Austin’s Strange Boys.
Until then, read this interview with McGettrick and listen to a track from Yes on Blood:
TBB: How did The Mallard form?
Greer McGettrick: I moved to San Francisco from Fresno about 3 years ago and started writing songs. The band had a few early incarnations resulting in a solo act. Then, about a year ago, Tidyman-Jones moved from Fresno and I asked him to play drums for The Mallard. He’s an incredible guitar player, but hadn’t really played drums, so I thought it would give our sound something different. I met Edrich at a crazy party in Fairfax about eight months ago, she’d just moved here from Brooklyn.
TBB: What is your songwriting process?
GM: I don’t have a concrete process when it comes to song-writing. Songs come from just playing around from a riff, or sometimes I start with drums and then vamp it until it takes a form I’m happy with.
TBB: What inspires your music?
