Rapture, The – Whoo! Alright-Yeah…Uh Huh

The Rapture already are responsible for one of the best songs of the last five years. But, “WAYU” while, yes a bit cheeky, is a big banger of a tune. It has all the makings of a dance anthem. A jittery, bouncy, silky beat that is really hard to stand still while listening. The hand claps, the female backup singers all just fill in everything so nicely. Then at the last 50 seconds or so when we get the question “are you ready?” and things just get crazy. Easily, the best song off “Pieces Of The People We Love” and this will get people dancing!!

By John Siwicki

Secret Machines

Are you guys currently on the road? Where are you at now?

Well actually right now, we’re in between tours. We just finished touring in the US and soon we start touring Europe. So right now, we’re home, in New York, where we have been living for the last 6 years.

So you guys will be touring Europe, where you’ve already toured before. Are you excited about going back?

Yeah, because in Europe we don’t feel that there’s as much expectations as in the States. The States is such a big country and Europe is made up of smaller countries, so things are more word of mouth there. But, yeah we’re really looking forward to going back to Europe.

This summer you’ll also be touring in Asia. Will it be your first tour there?

No, we actually went to Japan a couple of years back for the Summer Sonic tour. You know, big bands can tour everywhere, anywhere and anytime. For a smaller band like us we never know when we’ll be back in Japan. Before we were actually with a label, Japan would kind of pass on us. Then when we got a label, the label company did not think it would be a good idea to go there until the record came out.
Japan is one of the few places in the world where I’m truly lost. I don’t speak the language, I can’t read anything and not everybody speaks English, so I’m truly lost. It feels really weird.

Kind of like Lost in Translation?

Yeah, but imagine that at night you’ve got to play. You feel totally lost and weird all day and then at night you’ve got to rock.

So what would you say as been your best experience so far on this tour?

We started in the US with these real ambitious shows. In New York and Los Angeles, we played in the round. We would play in the middle of the room, with all the people around us and the lights coming up. It was really cool. It’s not like when Metallica plays in the round. They’re in an arena filled with people. For us, it was a much smaller site. We wanted to be entertaining and we pulled it off. We’re thinking of ending our US tour for the fall in the same way.

You guys are also coming to my hometown, Montreal, for the Dog Day Afternoon show. Have you ever been to Montreal?

Actually we’ve been a few times. We have been to Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. We always have good shows in Vancouver. Toronto was good too. Montreal is cool, but whenever we come to Montreal, there always seems to be a reason why it should’ve been better. It’s like “Oh you guys shouldn’t have come in the winter” or “you should’ve been here last week”. We get small crowds. And you keep hearing all these things about how Montreal is down, Montreal is hip to music. I do like Montreal. I just wish we would do better here.

You guys have had a lot of media attention lately. Would you say it has changed the group’s relationship? Has it put extra pressure?

It hasn’t put extra pressure, because no one puts more pressure on us than we do on ourselves, regarding what we want to do musically, artistically and what kind of path we want to explore. But it does seem like it was easier when it was just us three. When we first moved to New York, in 2000, we didn’t have a lot of money. We had an apartment, in Bushwick, which at the time was a rough part of town, with just one big room with all of our gear on one side and our three beds on the other. It was a year where we just did what we had to do; write, rehearse, play shows, etc. Now it seems like there’s always someone to deal with. You’ve got to deal with your manager, your booking agent, your lawyer, etc. We have more of a do-it-yourself attitude. We’ll never be the kind of band to call up our manager and say that we need our dry cleaning done. We try to keep doing stuff by ourselves as much as possible. So it’s not so much the pressure as the stress of balancing the new responsibilities, like having a crew for lights and sound. We want to keep playing and keep cherishing that. We don’t want to tamper with our love for music. We want to wake up and play music and have fun. Doing what you love as a career is difficult; you have to make a lot of sacrifices. Right now, we’re in a situation where we can do this for the rest of our lives, so we’re just trying to stay balanced.

Talking about media attention, you were recently interviewed by David Bowie. Are you guys big fans? How did that feel?

It’s funny because since the podcast with Bowie, we’ve gotten these sci-fi interviews where we’re in an interview asking us about another interview. It’s kind of like the interview is more popular than other aspects of our music. But we are big fans and we’ll always have that memory. I mean this is David Fucking Bowie. He’s a cool guy. He’s interviewing us and we’re like “Dude, we should be interviewing you!”. It was very flattering and cool. At the same time, we don’t want it to be the only thing we’re known for. “Secret Machines ? Isn’t that the band that got interviewed by David Bowie?”. We don’t want it to be our big highlight, but it’s really cool.

Your album has also been reviewed by Rolling Stone and you have been in countless magazines. How do you feel about the media attention?

Well it’s kind of a double-edge sword. It’s mostly thanks to our publicist at Warner Bros, who fell in love with the band. He’s great. Since he has this real love for the band, he’s able to get a lot of people’s attention to it. It’s weird that we get so much ink when we have less record sales and station rotation than other groups. I get the impression the people see us as more successful than we really are.
We’re really lucky. Thanks to our publicist, we’re getting a lot of press. I would say that we’re the most overlooked underground group with the greatest amount of press. Personally, I wouldn’t mind having less press, but more fans. Fans are real. Reviews come and go. We do appreciate it though. It would suck if we got a lot of negative press.

What does the name of the album, Ten Silver Drops, mean?

This is a weird question, since normally we don’t like to tell people what album titles or lyrics mean. But this time I’ll answer it. We were in a studio in London mixing. The whole time, everyday, we would throw out album names and we would each be like “Nah, let me think about it for a while”. One day, Brandon (Curtis, vocals) came in the studio saying he had a dream.
“Cool, what was the dream about?”
“Ten Silver Drops.”
At the time, we were mixing ten songs, but only 8 songs made the album, so for me it just totally connected. We have 10 songs and we have been here mixing this album for what feels like 10 months.
We’re always careful about telling what our lyrics or album title mean. I think it’s cool when you make it your own. It’s good to leave that space for you to interpret it.

Leave space for the imagination?

A little bit, yeah. Because it’s fun. It’s like a Van Gogh painting; you don’t look at it for what he’s telling you, but for what you’re feeling when you look at it. We try to not push a meaning on people. It’s fun for the songs to be reinterpreted.

By Eli Larin

Wolfmother

For those unfamiliar with your music, can you tell us a little bit about yourselves? Give us a bit of background, so we can get a picture of who you are.

We are three guys who met up through mutual friends, some years ago, in Sydney Australia, and realised we shared a love for collecting gear and playing music. We spent five or six years jamming together in our free time, we would have sessions where we would just play for hours on end with no structure at all really. We loved it but began to get increasingly frustrated that we didn’t really have any songs and had never played a gig. Most of the tracks on our album were put together to get gigs and try to fill a live set.

How do you write songs? Any special techniques?

A lot of the tracks come together from jamming sessions that we would record and then go back and slowly structure into songs, we spend a lot of time thinking about dynamics, and how we are taking a song on a journey, a lot of the time a song doesn’t really get resolved until you road test it on an audience.

What do you think is the most influential Australian music release and why?

For me it would probably be The Avalanches “Since I left You” because it was such a bold statement, They really weren’t paying attention to what anyone else was doing and came out with something so unique and full of character. Part of the beauty for me is that it doesn’t necessarily sound Australian, It sounds like it could have been produced in New York or Paris or wherever. It’s just a celebration of psychedelic music, and can translate anywhere, I think.

Can you tell us a bit about your upcoming album?

Well we recorded the album in L.A last year with Mr D. Sardy. The majority of the tracks came directly from our live sets we had been playing and touring for up to a year and a half before hand, a handful of the songs were created during the one month of pre-production we spent working at cherokee studios in L.A. We then spent another two months tracking and recording the album in various studios around Hollywood. It was an amazing experience for us and we are really happy with how it has turned out.

The producer on the album Dave Sardy has worked with some great bands. Was that a pressure to bare?

We were probably a bit nervous the first day of pre-production when he walked in, sat down and said “o.k. play me a song” but very quickly we realized that we was a great guy to work with, he would push and challenge us but at the same time was a really down to earth and funny guy. He taught us a whole new way to communicate and he was like the fourth member of the band for a while, he could bring an outside perspective to structuring the tracks and giving us ideas.

The artwork for your releases has been stunning. Who does the work?

It’s from a guy called Frank Frazetta, he’s a pretty well known illustrator from N.Y. he did a lot of sci-fi and fantasy book covers and things back in the 60’s.

You are on the Big Day Out Festival. Are you looking forward to playing with all those bands?

We love being a part of music festivals, it’s a trip for us to have our name up on the bill with bands we really dig.

What cane people expect at one of your gigs?

People cane expect to experience a trance induced interaction between three curly haired fools jumping around the stage and attempting to co-ordinate a musical happening through the use of loud noises.

Who are you guys listening to right now? Are you listening to new stuff as well as old stuff?

A Tribe Called Quest, Air, Amon Duul II, Antipop Consortium, Aphex Twin, The Arcade Fire, Autechre, The Avalanches, The Beach Boys, Beans, The Beastie Boys, The Beatles, Beck, The Beta Band, Bjork, The Black Dog, The Black Keys, Black Mountain, Black Sabbath, Blackalicious, Boards Of Canada, Bola, Bon Jovi, Booker T. & the MG’s, Boom Bip, Brian Eno, Broadcast, Buffalo Daughter, Bumblebeez 81, The Byrds, Can, Cannibal Ox, Capitol K, Caribou, Clisms, Clouddead, Cream, The Creation, Cut Copy, Daft Punk, Damnation, The Dandy Warhols, Danger Doom, David Axelrod, David Bowie, David Holmes, De La Soul, Dead Meadow, Death In Vegas, Decoder Ring, Deep Purple, Desert Sessions, Devendra Banhart, Die! Die! Die!, Dj Shadow, Donovan, The Doors, Dr. Octagon, Dungen, El-P, Entombed, Faith No More, Four Tet, Fu Manchu, Fudge Tunnel, Gerling, The Go! Team, Gorillaz, Grateful Dead, Herbie Hancock, The Hives, Icehouse, Incredible String Band, Interpol, Jackson and his Computer Band, Jaga Jazzist, Jean-Michel Jarre, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Jimmy Edgar, The Juan Maclean, Kate Bush, Kim, King Crimson, Kings Of Leon, The Kinks, KLF, Kraftwerk, Kyuss, LCD Soundsystem, Led Zeppelin, Lego Feet, LFO, M83, Madvillain, Manitoba, The Mars Volta, Massive Attack, Mastodon, Metallica, The Meters, Midnight Juggernauts, Mike Patton, Miles Davis, Money Mark, Motorpsycho, Mouse On Mars, Mr. Bungle, Mr. Oizo, Mr. Scruff, Mum, My Bloody Valentine, Neil Finn, Neil Young, New Buffalo, Nightmares on Wax, Nirvana, Outcast, Pavement, Pink Floyd, Plaid, Plone, Poets Of Rhythm, Polyphonic Spree, Portishead, Prefuse 73, The Presets, Primal Scream, Prop, Radiohead, Ratatat, RJD2, Rocket Science, Roots Manuva, The Saints, Savath and Savalas, Skalpel, Slayer, Sleep, Sly & the Family Stone, Soulwax, SPOD, Squarepusher, Stereolab, The Stanglers, The Strokes, Supergrass, Syd Barrett, Talking Heads, Tangerine Dream, Tom Vek, Tomahawk, Tommy Guerrero, Tortoise, Trans Am, Turn On, Two Lone Swordsmen, Van She, Vincent Gallo, Ween, The White Stripes, The Who, Wolf & Cub, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Yellow Sunshine, etc.

I always wanted to go to Australia. Give me a reason why I should?
Because you always wanted to. We’ve got kangaroos.

By John Siwicki

Smudge – Manilow

Aussie rockers Smudge have re-released their 1994 record “Manilow”. The re-issue contains a total of 38 tracks spread over 2 CDs. Disc one is the re-issue of

Fink – So Long

“So Long” is the latest lifted from Fink’s “Biscuits For Breakfest” LP. “So Long” is really a trippy folk, meets RnB. Fink’s vocal is the main focal point as the rest of the song has quite a minimalist feel to it. The vocal takes a bit to get warmed up. The main problem was that nothing was really keeping my attention. It just gets to be a boring listen, as musically and vocally there is very little change at all. There is potential for some interesting stuff, but this one is rather dull.

By John Siwicki

The Automatic

How did you get involved in making music?

We all went to school together so started a band because the town where we’re from doesn’t really have much to do other than sit on benches!!

How do you write songs? Any special techniques?

We just all get together in a room and see what comes out, if something’s working we know straight away. We tend to scrap songs that become too much work because they’re just not fun!

How did you guys end up with B-unique?

Loads of labels were meant to be coming to one of our gigs but B-unique were the only ones that turned up. Then we went and did a showcase for the whole label where they decided there and then that wanted to sign us!

The track “Monster’ is it really about a monster you saw over a hill?

No, it’s about the way people get extremely drunk on the weekends and become pretty monstrous each in there own way!

Tell us a bit about your debut album “Not Accepted Anywhere”?

It was recorded in three different studios around Britain Stir, Chapel and Elevator studios!!

You have quite a lengthy tour this summer. Has touring always been something you
guys enjoyed?

Yeah touring is the best thing about being in a band, it’s where we get to see our music having an effect on people and why be in a band if you don’t enjoy performing your songs to people?

Who are you listening to right now?

Right now were listening to Refused, Minus The Bear and Phoenix

What are some of the bands that have inspired you?

We’ve been inspired by loads of bands Refused is one, Manic Street preachers as well and of course David Hasselhoff!!

?What is going on in the Welsh music scene? Who should we be looking out for?

The Welsh music scene is a mixed bag of Emo-hardcore and indie bands!!

Give us a good reason to go to Wales?

It has lovely countryside

What would be your greatest fear?

Turning inside out!

Cold War Kids – Hang Me Out To Dry

After, reading Lucia’s review of “Robbers and Cowards” I decided the kids were worth another look(read the review its brilliant, made me buy the record). “Hang Me Out To Dry” blows away the last single I looked at “We Used To Vacation.” The tune has got a nice twang bass and a little later day Beatles to it. Cold War Kids are not a great band, but this song gives me hope and who knows album two could be brilliant.

By John Siwicki

MSTRKRFT – Work On You

The latest from the duo’s “The Looks” LP is pretty tasty of electropodance. The album is tough to listen from start to finish as a lot of their programming does sound the same but some of the tracks hold up well on their own. “Work On You” is one the highlights with the little squelches and bleeps and the vocoded vocals. They love the 80s and Daft Punk. Lately, the band have been banging out some impressive remixes and their own material will only get better.

By John Siwicki

Boy Kill Boy – Civilian

The highly anticipated debut album release from the London rockers Boy Kill Boy hits shelves in summer, and is best described as a contemplation of current indie and post-punk rock. The bright and bouncy songs are a mish-mash of the type of sound that most people think of when they hear “indie.” The instrumentals and rhythms of the songs are a mix of Franz Ferdinand, The Killers, and The Bravery. Songs such as “Suzie” draw from the choppy vocal rhythm of Fall Out Boy, but sound more like The Killers. Dance beats and extra instruments remind one again of The Bravery and Sound Team.

Boy Kill Boy is very stereotypical in this sense, there was nothing new or unique about the album, just a good mix of indie, post-punk, and dance. The lyrics are simple and typical, mainly about relationships, and not happy ones. The vocals edge in on annoying at times, and some songs are repetitive and boring. Listeners, especially those who like some but not all of the bands that influence Boy Kill Boy, will find some songs that just rub them the wrong way.

Although Boy Kill Boy is simply a puddle of current popular indie rock, they’re good at being a puddle. The album is altogether good and fun to listen to. Their sound is mature and professional, and any fan of indie-meets-punk-meets-dance will find a song or two here that will have them dancing in their seat, drumming on their steering wheel, or banging their head.

By Michael Schmitt

Final Fantasty – He Poos Clouds

Canadian Owen Pallett, aka Final Fantasy, debuts with string pop album He Poos Clouds. This strangely named LP combines a number of string instruments, mainly violin, piano and harp to create some deep mellow sounds.

Obviously a mainly string based album will produce some traditional classical music. But the artist puts his own modern twist on it. If I Were A Carp is a perfect example of this. It starts out like any classical piece but in the middle takes a dark turn using synthesisers and echoes underneath the vocals.

I’m Afraid Of Japan is at the other end of the scale. It maintains the classical sound with vocals that sound a little like Radiohead mixed with popera. Another technique favoured by Pallett is having vocals and noises come in from behind the lead singer such as Do You Love and Many Lives>49

Song Song Song is another track which grabs the attention. It begins with African style wooden percussion instruments before working its way to conform to the rest of the album style.

A remarkable feature of this album is that Pallett combines modern styles with traditional classical styles seamlessly. At no point is the contrast so strong that any part of the songs sound odd or messy.

He Poos Clouds is defiantly an interesting album. One problem however is that many songs are a little too quiet. Usually with string based music you build up to a dramatic ending but little of that takes place which at times makes the music sound a little bland. Final Fantasy may find a cult following amongst the alternative community but it will struggle on the mainstream market as a result of being a little too different.

By Craig Evans

Tags: Final Fantasty, He Poos Clouds

Next Page »