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Tags: Joseph Mount, Metronomy, The Engiish Riviera
LCD Soundsystem: Yes this is happening
17 Dec
Observing people from afar, by reading or watching interviews about them or through enjoying or thinking about their artistic work, you start to form a (usually inaccurate) view of what they’re like as a person.
But strangely enough, James Murphy, the man behind New York’s successful LCD Soundsystem project and co-founder of DFA Records is, as I expected – direct, mostly serious, intelligent, and articulate. Well, that’s what I got from a 15-minute phone conversation anyway, which for him took place on a Saturday morning in Dublin.
He sounded tired. The night prior, LCD Soundsystem had played a sold-out show in Dublin and they had another that night. The band has been on a world tour since April. “I love being on the road but I’m tired immediately. It’s pretty gruelling stuff,” he says.
There’s a little chitchat about Ireland itself. Despite his Irish surname, he wasn’t attempting to connect with his roots instead, “just eating and playing”. He states the weather is “cold but not punishing” and reveals a few of his thoughts about Dublin: “It’s a gloomy dark place in some ways, but that’s one of its charms.”
We delve into more pressing matters such as – ‘is this, or is this not, LCD Soundsystem’s last ever tour?’
When they visited Australia for the Big Day Out in 2008 on the back of their hugely successful second album, Sound of Silver, their was speculation it was to be the last, but in May this year, a brilliant third album was released called, This Is Happening, followed by some east coast dates in Australia last August and an official announcement by Murphy that it was their last ever tour.
Not too long after LCD Soundsystem were announced on the Big Day Out for 2011.
“The first time round I was starting to feel like I needed it to be ending soon,” he explains. “But this time, I’ve basically said point blank that I’m going to end the touring side of things at the end of this tour and that’s not a rumour.
“At the end of the day, it’s not really the end of the band; it’s the end of us professionally touring. We’re just going to get back to making 12 inches and being a bit like normal people again.”
Right at the moment, the band is in Mexico, they take a little break for Christmas, and then it’s Australia and New Zealand followed by a few more dates to be announced soon.
“Next year is a mystery. I’m not sure what it’s going to be like,” he says.
For most bands, touring is how they survive these days, but Murphy says that making money is not the primary goal. He isn’t sure if he will continue to release albums either.
“The music industry is changing a lot and it doesn’t make sense as to what to do any more. I’m just going to see what I want to do after this. I’m excited to go home and not know.”
After writing the score to the film Greenberg by director, Noah Baumbach, which he wrote at the same time as writing, This Is Happening, he says writing soundtracks isn’t a direction he wants to head in either.
“No, it’s not really my… I really like Noah – I’d do a soundtrack with Noah anytime but I don’t like the movie industry that much. If you think the record industry is crazy try dealing with the movie industry,” he laughs.
Even though it is foolish to predict what Murphy will do next, perhaps he could move into writing literature given the enjoyably witty lyrics on This Is Happening. Possibly something satirical or postmodern.
According to Wikipedia, he was offered a job writing for the TV sitcom Seinfeld at its inception.
“There are a few things that are weird to talk about unless you are doing them – one is fighting and one is writing,” he says. “These are two things people talk a lot about and then don’t do.
“It’s a goal of mine. I don’t really want to die having not tried to write a book – it’s what I went to school for and what I was planning on doing and then I detoured into music.
“I’ve been doing music all my life but I have done it for a while and it’s something I’d like to do, but planning to write a novel is thoroughly meaningless, so we’ll see what happens.”
THE PLUG LCD Soundsystem plays the Big Day Out at Claremont Showgrounds on February 6. Tickets on sale from Ticketmaster and the usual outlets.
[Edited version published in The Wire, The West Australian, Issue 81, 09.12.10]
Tags: Big Day Out, DFA Records, Greenberg, James Murphy, LCD Soundsystem, Noah Baumbach, Seinfeld, sound of silver, this is happening
El Guincho: Influencial Sounds
17 Dec
Spanish musician Pablo Díaz-Reixa aka El Guincho went to an enormous amount of effort considering the sound and techniques to apply to his third album, Pop Negro.
While some artists might take an ‘organic’ approach and just see what spews forth, El Guincho began the process by researching radio hits and big-selling singles in England, Spain, the USA and South America in the late 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s and discovered a big percentage of these hits were engineered and sometimes produced by only 40 or so different people.
Specific songs like A New Career In A New Town by David Bowie (produced by Tony Visconti), Michael Jackson’s Baby Be Mine (a Quincy Jones production) and Bryan Ferry’s Day For Night (a Rhett Davies production) plus other tracks too numerous to name, but which you can read about on El Guincho’s web site, became massive influences on the album.
“(Researching the production) was probably my favourite part of the whole process,” he says from London where he was playing a show that night. “I bought books from engineers, read interviews with producers and was kind of getting the beginnings of ideas.
“It’s really inspiring in the studio when you create your own limits”.
He explains in a strong Spanish accent that with his successful last album, Alegranza! which relied heavily on samples and elements of Afrobeat, tropicalia and pop, he wasn’t free in a songwriting sense because he was using loops, whereas with the new record, “I wanted to be super free songwriting wise so I needed to put limits on the production to make the songwriting make sense.
“I didn’t want the two albums to fight,” he says. “I just felt after three years I needed to feel excited again about writing music so I headed in a different direction. I wanted the excitement of being in a studio – to plug your bass to an amp and find more conventional sounds.
“Alegranza was basically the opposite to that – I was trying to make it sound warm, but it was all machines.”
What resulted was a less full-on rhythmic record that takes influence from early folk and pop music from Latin America – Cuba mostly. This seed was planted when he released an EP of covers called, Piratas de Sudamerica, earlier this year.
“From the beginning of the last century, people used to write a different way,” he says. “There are changes to chord progressions and arrangements that really influenced the songs I wrote for Pop Negro.”
When he visits Australia next month it will be his second visit to Perth after playing at the 2009 Laneway Festival.
“We’re a trio now,” he says. “I’ve done three tours to Australia. The first time was just myself; the second time was with a friend; and now it’s three people. Maybe by the time I do my 10th Australian tour it will be a 10-piece or something,” he laughs.
“It’s going to be fun because there’s going to be a lot of live instrumentation – bass guitar, electric guitar – it will feel like a live band playing dance music.”
THE PLUG Pop Negro is out now. El Guincho plays The Bakery, Perth on December 17.
[Edited version published in The Wire, The West Australian, Issue 81, 09.12.10]
Tags: Alegranza, Bryan Ferry, David Bowie, El Guincho, Pablo Diaz-Reixa, Pop Negro
The Brow Horn Orchestra: Brow beating
17 Dec
Brass’n’beats big band, The Brow Horn Orchestra are next Thursday releasing their first official single – well it’s actually two singles – the tune Goliath, which has been getting spins on RTRFM and the yet-to-be-unveiled Don’t You Wanna Sing Forever.
The band’s leader and chief songwriter, Nicholas Owen, says it feels great to be finally putting something out for the world to hear.
“Being very much grounded as a live band, recording has always been a nervous exercise as we could never quite capture the fun vibe on stage,” he explains. “But I think we’ve worked out how to pull this off with some great engineers.”
The Brow Horn Orchestra is rapidly making a name for themselves based on a killer live show with eight members strong who play trombone, trumpet, two sax’s, clarinet, violin, bass, percussion, drums, keys, beats and vocals.
Fundamentally, they write quirky accessible pop songs with a hip-hop slant, not too dissimilar to The Cat Empire – good clean, fun with a socially conscious edge.
“We’re always going to be about having a good time,” Owen says when asked about the promo they undertook around the time of the last election to vote for The Australian Greens.
“I don’t ever want to be one of those bands who force opinions or ideas down people’s throats political or otherwise as everyone’s always going to have different beliefs, attitudes and values and that’s what makes this country such a great place to live in.
“I think it’s important to use your soapbox as a forum to help express what’s passionate and true to yourself though. Generally we all seem to have a shared Greens ethos in the band and have done a lot of charity shows to support conservation causes including, the anti coal rally in Fremantle with John Butler.
“We just want to live in a fair and sustainable world because it feels like the only way to move forward and keep kicking,” he says.
Their formula is working as this year they won The Next Big Thing competition, played shows at HyperFest and RTRFM’s Radiothon opening party and have been booked to support Arrested Development on New Years Eve. They will be releasing an EP sometime next year.
“A profound moment came when we supported The Sunshine Brothers and had Charlie the drummer from the late Double Entendre and Shan the ex-trumpeter from the Gold Coast’s Tijuana Cartel jamming with us on stage,” Owen says.
“These three bands were the main reason we took our music off the streets and into the pub environment because it gave me some real drive to really have a crack at it. To be treated as equals amongst those you’ve ‘pedal stooled’ is a very humbling moment.”
[Edited version published in The Wire, The West Australian, Issue 81, 09.12.10]
Tags: Australian Greens, Brow Horn Orchestra, Cat Empire, Don't You Wanna Sing Forever, Goliath, John Butler, Nicholas Owen, Sunshine Brothers, The Next Big Thing, Tijuana Cartel
Sets on the Beach: Bag Raiders, Tim & Jean & more @ Scarborough Beach
17 DecSETS ON THE BEACH – BAG RAIDERS, TIM & JEAN & MORE
Sunday, December 10 Scarborough Beach Amphitheatre
One couldn’t ask for a better setting for a Sunday party – dancing on the sand with sun lounges and views of the ocean, except the weather was cloudy and windy but the rain held out – and it didn’t deter the 2000 or so excited youngsters, dressed in their most summery of outfits – i.e. the shortest of denim shorts.
Locals Charlie Bucket and Philly Blunt kicked off the party, followed by Sydney-based DJ, Cassian and then synth-poppers Tim & Jean.
Frontman Tim Ayre started the set by showing is adeptness on the keys with a nifty jazz solo accompanied by drummer Jade Masters before launching into the track, Like What with Jean Capotorto and Ben Smith joining them on stage.
The audience was more concerned with frolicking in the sand than watching Tim & Jean perform their summery 80’s pop tunes, but they dished up the goods and battled through the sound issues – the system seemingly unable to handle a live band with the bass distorting and tinny upper levels – as they played songs from their debut album to be released early next year.
Stand out tracks included, Give It Up and when Ayre asked, “Put up your hands if you are intoxicated,” and most of the audience put up their hands, before they launched into Veronica and their massive single of last year, Come Around, which finally seemed to unite everyone on music and dancing.
Sydney DJ duo Flight Facilities were next – and just to make it crystal clear who you were listening to, they wore old-skool pilot hats, playing a mostly uninspired repetitive house set, occasionally touching on techno and disco and throwing in remixes of popular tracks by Daft Punk, Phoenix and New Order. They finished a one and half-hour set with a remix of their hugely popular track, Crave You.
Before headliners, Sydney duo Chris Stracey and Jack Glass aka Bag Raiders played a live show to support their new album, alcohol stopped being served – apparently due to license restrictions. Oh well. It didn’t mar the party as punters got excited and the duo opened with Gone Away from behind workstations comprised of synthesizers, samplers, tom drums, wood blocks and vocal mics.
Stracey asked everyone to step back a bit so people at the front didn’t get hurt and they played the brilliant pop track, Sunlight, which unfortunately sounded terrible due to the fact that again, the system just couldn’t seem to handle the live set-up.
Fortunately things improved for the percussive Snake Charmers, the electro-funk inspired So Demanding and Golden Wings and by the time the set closed with singles Way Back Home and Shooting Stars, well, nobody cared how it sounded, with Bag Raiders winning everyone over with their catchy tunes.
[Edited version published in The Wire, The West Australian, Issue 81, 09.12.10]
Tags: Bag Raiders, Cassian, charlie bucket, Flight Facilities, Phily Blunt, scarborough, sets on the beach, Tim & Jean
The Swiss: Swiss Beats
5 Dec
“Oh I hate musical terms… it’s just about dancing, right? Whether it’s techno, disco or house – there’s usually a four to the floor beat going on,” says Tony Mitolo – drummer extraordinaire and one third of Adelaide nu-disco band, The Swiss.
“Our sound doesn’t sound to me like disco in the 70’s, it’s very different. We definitely borrow and look-back and we’re influenced by all those great 12-inches that came out of New York in the mid-70s, but it’s changed. Disco can be a very broad term.”
The Swiss released their latest EP Bubble Bath earlier this year through Modular – working with unofficial fourth member of the band, Donnie Sloan a producer and songwriter for Empire of the Sun and Sneaky Sound System. Mitolo is also the touring drummer for Empire of the Sun and has done extensive touring with Pnau, but The Swiss is currently where his heart is.
“I’m really passionate about The Swiss,” he says on the phone from his mum’s house after a trip overseas doing shows in the US. “I’m really enjoying playing our own songs live – there’s much more emotion in it. We’re not just session players. The way it’s set up is quite unique; we all face each other and we jam a lot – if you close your eyes it sounds just like a DJ.”
The Swiss live experience includes Mitolo on drums, Sidwho? on bass and Luke Million on keys. There’s a lot of gear on stage and the band is entirely instrumental. Recordings are created in the studio as a live jam session.
“We’ll play a song 30 times over three days in the studio,” Mitolo says. “The first day we’ll end up getting a song down. By the last day of the session we’ve re-recorded it and it’s a totally different feeling to what we started out with and then we’ll overdub stuff like claps and percussion on an arpeggiator and synths.
“The core stuff – bass, drums, keys they’re all taken straight-up, which is really cool in dance music when people are mostly using computers and drum machines. We really try to emulate our own sound in a live way in the studio.”
[Edited version published in The Wire, The West Australian, Issue 73, 14.10.10]
Tags: Bubble Bath, Donnie Sloan, Empire of the Sun, Luke Million, Modular, Pnau, Sidwho?, Sneaky Sound System, The Swiss, Tony Mitolo
