J. Kit Clayton told me Die Antwoord is a hoax, and that they are an art collective that used to do Powerpoint presentations on how to rap. But for some reason I kind of don’t care. It’s strange because Leif watched the videos and said they reminded him of Borat, and I got really mad because for once I just wanted to BELIEVE in something, and root for someone and let them make me happy instead of just letting cynicism take over. And apparently this is the one time I should have been more cynical. (I mean, look at that website, right?) But as I said, I’m kind of with this guy on this one in that I don’t care. I mean, I think James Frey is a total sleazefuck, but most hiphop videos are all about fantasy anyway, and the debate about legitimacy has always been there. I mean, how’s it that different from selling suburbanites a fantasy version of “ghetto” Compton? South Africa just seems like the logical next level of exoticism.
VIOLENT WORLD
And here’s me cashing in on the exoticism of my hometown of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It’s an excerpt of the piece I did at the Queens Muscle show a couple weeks ago. The set wove in and out between narrative and music, and this section cuts to the end of a longer story and focuses mostly on the loop/ARP/MAX version of Danzig’s “ARCHANGEL”. (Gawd he’s just so big, dumb and sexy) The whole thing is really a love letter to all the rough and tumble boys in my hometown who taught me how to throw TVs off of balconies. But in the excerpt it comes off as a little harsh; my apologies to J.H. Diamond, who bears the brunt._
I know that’s not really a “video” so much as a static shot, but video seems like the only searchable medium these days (skip to 7:30 if you get bored). So if you want more of a real video, I’ve got one for ya. It’s Psychic Handbook doing a cover of “White Like Heaven” on the day after Christmas at Rhinoceropolis in Denver. It’s a little dark and at first you can’t see the singer, so I thought in the beginning that maybe it was a record. She starts to fucking wail at about 2 minutes in and it sounds so good. I always wished I could wail like that.
I think they do a really beautiful job and it gives me the craziest feeling to watch. Kind of makes me cry actually, but also makes me wonder if now other people are more easily able to access that person who wrote the song than I do. That person: me.
One of the members was DJing at Cansifus’ comedy night at the Ivy, and he ordered a drink next to me at the bar, but I couldn’t talk to him. What did he give me by playing that song? I will never be able to put it into the right words.
Tomorrow I’m lucky to be performing at the closing of a beautiful art show put on by 0th. It’s called WHEN THE QUEENS MUSCLE ACED INFINITY. I think that’s a great name.
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I’m going to be doing some things I’ve never done before, including playing a synth version of DANZIG through a custom-built MAX/MSP / Arduino pedal and telling a story from when I was a teenage Bukowski. Hot, right? And here’s a pic of my new haircut. What a bruiser.
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0th is a badass art, music and technology collaboration among Rose / Canner MEFE, Jacqui Gordon, MNDR and Caryl Keintz. Their collective output is very impressive, and the show is definitely worth seeing in person if you’re in the area.
INFO for QUEENS MUSCLE:
0th art show at 21 GRAND
Closing Performance: February 26th, 8PM
Laetitia Sonami
Ava Mendoza/Matt Ingalls/Jordan Glenn – Trio
Erika Anderson
0th
Location:
21 Grand Gallery
416 25th Street
Oakland, CA 94612-2409
(510) 444-7263
Gallery Hours: Thurs 4-8pm, Fri 4-6pm, Sat & Sun 2-6pm
_PS– show went great! The whole evening felt really electric and high quality. I’ve got a great recording that I’d like to post, I just might need to edit it cuz my Grandma internet-stalks me and I don’t want her to hear the story about my crazy teenage exploits. I try to hide from her but she is savvy. HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA! (she just turned 80)
I love these kids. They keep me tough, and also not so tough. They are, in some ways, what the last GOWNS song was about. Them vs the fatcats of the world.
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And of course, FUNNY DUDE.
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In other news, when I’m not telling jokes or dodging spitballs, I’ve been spending some time going over other unreleased material. I believe it could be time for the EMA solo record…
As of last week, the collaboration between artists Erika Anderson, Ezra Buchla, and Corey Fogel, also known as GOWNS, has ceased to breathe.
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The band had been together for about 5 years, creating in that time a small-run EP known as Dangers of Intimacy, the critically acclaimed LP Red State, a recently released Latitudes Session for Southern Records, as well as a standout appearance on the Live At The Smell DVD.
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Pitchfork Media once described GOWNS as “one of the most heart-stoppingly great live bands on Earth”, and it was the same tension that produced these electrifying performances that ultimately drove us apart. Another reviewer once referred to the themes of light and darkness that ran through Red State, which funnily enough I had never noticed, but seems now like an apt metaphor for the entire experience in general.
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We were tapping into some very raw emotions, and I’m ultimately proud of the risks we took. In spite of anything else, I feel like we were honest, and I feel like we were brave.
I’m also proud of the sounds we created, as though the combination of our talents created something that was rare and unique.
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Before this we were just finishing work on a piece for our next record, and I think in many ways it’s one of the best things we’ve done. At 17 minutes long, it’s a good representation of everyone doing the best of what they do best: it’s got Corey’s frenetic yet graceful drum patterns, Ezra’s swelling viola drones, a rhythmic and powerful guitar line, and a vocal and lyrical style that is at once direct and oblique.
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I’m posting it here as a free download, because I know people were anxious to hear something new from us, and I know we had kept them waiting far too long. I’d like to think of this as our final release.
please click above to hear entire song, a short excerpt is below
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Please feel free to forward and REPOST this link. The distribution of it is now in your hands.+
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Like Gowns’ fantastic 2007 album Red State, this set was positively charged with desperate energies and highlighted by moments of profound focus and clarity. During those brightest moments (light and brightness being a leitmotif of Red State) it feels as though Gowns are grasping at some quintessential truth, and in so doing, tottering at the edge of oblivion. And then oblivion always wins.
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All members continue to be involved with other endeavors.
EMA has a soon-to-be released tape on the Iowa City-based Night People label, which is paired with a short personal essay on fidelity and nostalgia, and a collaborative art project. Find info on that here.
Also in the works is a digital LP version of the Some Dark Holler material, including a Hobo Code/graphic score of the epic “Kind-Hearted Woman”, which was performed earlier this year in support of Throbbing Gristle’s recent US tour. More info on that here.
Most releases remain in print, but some are down to only a few copies. Please email to inquire about Red State, Broken Bones; info on the brand new vinyl re-release of Dangers of Intimacy, here.
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While GOWNS has ceased, we still have love in our hearts, and haven’t ruled out the possibility of future collaborations.
Please contact thegowns@gmail.com for more information.
So here we are to celebrate the new year and 2 new old releases, including “Broken Bones”, which was recorded during our 2007 tour of the UK, and “Dangers of Intimacy”, our first EP recorded in 2005. We’re also working on lots of new stuff, which has mostly been tracked but needs to be mixed, which is kind of a major task if you want to do it right. We typically mix everything ourselves, and that’s like hand stitching. You know how you can listen to Red State over and over again? That took a long time. I want to make things that wear well, and a lot of that is really obsessive, tasteful mixing…
So “Broken Bones” is basically one live session. It is a document. It is part of the “Latitudes” Sessions created by Southern Records in order to pick up where John Peel left off: bands come in for one day, record whatever they want, and then mix. (Just for reference most albums take anywhere from 2 weeks to ??? years (Chinese Democracy)). So I don’t consider this session to be a GOWNS record per se, I more consider it to be a high quality, beautifully mixed version of what GOWNS circa 2007 sounded like live in a sweet studio with a full rhythm section. We were all super-stoked and honored to have a chance to record in fucking CRASS STUDIOS (!!!) with the amazing Harvey Birrell (No Age, Babes in Toyland, etc). FMI check out an interview here:
That said there is an Aesop’s fable/long anecdote that describes not only our mindset going in, but also kind of illuminates some essential and primal fact about the band itself.
Before arriving in the UK, we had just been in Italy for 2 weeks, and the contrast between the mild weather, luxurious foods and gracious continental hospitality to Britain’s cold and rain was extreme.
Somewhere far in the past of initially booking the tour, we had been invited by one of the headliners of ATP to drop in and hang on the house, gratis. For some reason we decided not to go. I think it had to do with money, and we decided that we should try and make some (no matter how small an amount) instead of spending any to get there. It seems like vaguely sound reasoning, but really, from a band careerist perspective, it was quite stupid. If you are a self-respecting ambitious indie band that wants to get somewhere in life (dammit!), when the festival headliner invites you to show up, you should show up.
But instead we decided to go to Hull.
Hull.
If you’re from GB, you already get the punchline, but if you’re not, Hull is an industrial port town that in 2005 was named by the BBC as the “Worst Place to Live in the UK”. Its claims to fame include an overabundance of gunshot wounds and chip shops, making it the “fattest” city in the UK and also where you are most likely to get mortally wounded. There also seemed to be a fuckload of drugs.
When we showed up that night at the Adelphi, we were 3/4s sick with the flu and seemed to be reaping the whirlwind of not only the stupidity of skipping a free trip to ATP, but perhaps a whole lifetime’s worth of mistakes.
That night we played our best show of the tour.
There is something about playing a small show in a bar in the middle of nowhere to a few people. Where you know that it probably won’t end up on a blog or in a magazine, and you won’t likely meet anyone that will offer you a record deal (whatever that means these days). And if it doesn’t depress the fuck out of you, it can be a very beautiful and freeing experience.
At the end of the night we still weren’t sure where we were staying, and as the small crowd trickled out we faced the possibility of sleeping inside the freezing club. As I said, we had just come from Italy and Europe proper, where they not only feed you but give you a place to stay as well. But in the UK, much like America, you’ve got to beg. (Insider tip to non-bands: if you want to hang out more with a band you just saw AND you’ve got the space, offer to put them up. You’d be surprised how often they’ll take you up on it. Just don’t be a creepo, ok?)
BUT THEN, out of the beer-soaked blackness, an angel appeared. A slight young man in beanie who looked like he might support the legalization of marijuana showed up at the last minute and offered us couch and floor space.
He led us to a small flat in a questionable neighborhood and I felt like Mary and Joseph so grateful for the haystack. Blankets! Cats! Tea! And most importantly, a chance to rest.
I don’t know how much my life and career might or might not have been different if I had spent that weekend hobnobbing at ATP, but I know I will never forget the feeling of being taken in and cared for by complete strangers. They let 4 unknown people in off the streets and gave them a place to sleep. They let us stay through the whole weekend. They cooked for us. They gave us showers. They let us recover from the road. And right before we left for our next stop, I complimented one of the girls living there on the sweater she was wearing. Without hesitation, she gave it to me right off her back.
grace.
[POST SCRIPT] … This post was originally up for a second but then Ezra read it and got really sad and angry about it. How could I leave out Paul, the wonderful owner of the Adelphi, and the great soundguy and the awesome lead singers of the other bands? And how could I boil a gracious invitation to ATP down to a joyless careerist schmoozefest? He felt I was basically leaving certain things out in order to tell a story, (and being a total asshole about it.) And he was right. I was trying to tell the fable, of the promise and desire of the material being triumphed over by the surprise fulfillment of the spiritual, and of being completely humbled by blind kindness. I can’t explain all the intricacies, they don’t read well. But I can tell you that it’s not just 20/20 hindsight that tells us that choosing to play in Hull was a good idea. I think we knew from the start, and it’s a bet we make again and again. (I still have the sweater).
Listening to this recording evokes a time when we were barely holding on by our fingernails. Ezra had broken bones in his foot, which the cold and rain didn’t help. There were points during that tour where I just kind of lost my mind, and during the recording of “HEAVEN” there was a moment where I completely forgot where I was, who I was, and what I was doing. Can you hear it?
As if the bands alone weren’t sweet enough, the venue is over the top. THE CONTINENTAL CLUB: An old wood-floored ballroom from Oakland’s bygone glamour days. Rumor has it that Martha and the Vandellas, Ike and Tina, Otis Redding and more played here in yesteryears. Lately shows here have been very rare, so we’re trying to make it a real special event. Soul DJs, red curtains and a mirror ball. FREE ADMISSION if you come as Santa Claus or Freddy Krueger…
Jesus ok, know I haven’t updated for a second but man this has been kind of a crazy 2 weeks filled with mucho ROCK. First of all, last last Friday we threw a really fun show for BLUES CONTROL at Studio 1510 in West Oakland. Super great lineup that included WORK (Sarah from 16bitchpileup and Erin from Child Pornography), JAWS (one man band, white pants and a knife) SIC ALPS (the same band you know and love now with noel from comets on fire playing drums) and of course Blues Control from NYC. (Terry Riley was playing up the street, but Blues Control is basically the modern equivalent, dig?) The only bad part was that I forgot my damn camera so I have no video or pictures of it. BUT the good news is that since the show was in a studio we got a really nice recording of all the bands, which I will post now for your benefit. You can thank me later. Or thank LEIF from Studio 1510 (aka “East Nile”). Send him a postcard.
Right after that Ezra was here and we practiced and wrote a new piece and then went down to LA to play it. We played at the ECHO with 60 WATT KID, BEST COAST and TEARIST, all totally sweet bands that represent a cool cross-section of what is going on in LA, (and 3 out of us 4 were female-fronted, so howabout that?) Which is part of the reason it was especially flattering to get this really nice write up in the LA WEEKLY… The picture choice is a little funny, as it shows the old European tour lineup from 2 years ago, but I guess the one with 4 people really does look the most like a real “band” and nothing says “lead singer” like a miniskirt! But all kidding aside, it was a very nice surprise and a great review.
Another great thing was playing this new piece that I really like. It’s huge and epic with swirling strident viola exploding into industrial guitar feedback. It’s also about 15-20 minutes long, which I feel like is a really good length for a song. We got a chance to track it in a little back shed in Claremont, and the question now of course is how to put it out. Do we try to record more and make it part of a “full-length” album? Does it make any sense to release “full-length” albums anymore? Is one 20 minute piece the same as an EP? What if we put track breaks in it? Does a work that long still cost 99¢ on iTunes? Please weigh in with comments if you’ve got any advice. In some ways it seems so baroque! having to wait for a physical object. But on the other hand, something that never makes it out of ones and zeroes is kind of like the puppet that never becomes the real boy…
me and lil sis, funny face
Right after I got home from that lil sis showed up to practice for our new grunge band WHEEL. I had been wanting to make music with her again since she played with me in Some Dark Holler when we opened up for Throbbing Gristle. She is an all-around excellent player, but in many ways the part I like best is harmonizing vocals with her. It’s a total old-timey/Carter Family style pleasure, the sister vocals relating and overlapping, weaving around each other. Our first show was a little shaky but overall really rewarding. Here’s a short video of the show we played at 21 GRAND in Oakland:
That night’s show was especially fun as I got to reconnect with some old and new friends.
TALK NORMAL at 21 GRAND
We played with TALK NORMAL again, who have a new record out on Rare Book Room Records. Here is a video of them from when we played together in Brooklyn. WET HAIR also played that night, which is Shawn Reed from Racoooon’s new band. Someone described it as the Doors playing Can, which I liked, cuz there is lots of nice tranced out Manzerik-sounding keys, and also singing that is kind of a Morrison/Suzuki hybrid. But that’s a stretch so don’t quote me!
colin's black eye
jeff and darren cuddle up on the couch
WET HAIR at 21 GRAND
Another good thing is that I finally got to give Shawn a master of some solo material that will be coming out as a tape on his label NIGHT PEOPLE. It’s all little song-y things that were improvised straight to tape late at night mostly in my bedroom, using the voice function on the tape player to create a weird whirling atmosphere, really using the tape as another instrument. It’s going to be called Little Sketches On Tape, and I’ll post more info as the release date nears…
Sorry this post was so scene-y but these coupla weeks were crazy! Next post will include roasted kale recipes and outfit ideas that utilize blaze orange.
Being Kanye for Halloween felt amazing and very powerful. The costume came together at the last minute and before that I was thinking of being Ronnie Spector cuz my friend was going as crazy Phil, but that would have meant wearing a dress and heels and I think I would have felt very uncomfortable. Suit jacket and microphone felt great. We went to the SFMOMA party on 10.30 and ended up at Lobot on actual Halloween. I don’t mean to generalize, but I felt like there was definitely a racial gap as to who recognized the Kanye signifiers. And interestingly enough there were more at MOMA in downtown SF than at LOBOT, which is in West Oakland. I mean, I know the costume wasn’t perfect and I looked kind of New Wave-y, but the sunglasses alone should have given it away. Which is unfortunate cuz by then I had gotten pretty good at making “Imma let you finish…” jokes on the fly. BUT at Lobot I did run into a Beyonce and a curly blonde girl who I made pose for a photo-op as Taylor Swift (results above).
A lot of people thought I was Tom Petty, I guess cuz of the heartbreak patch and OK, BECAUSE I AM TALL WHITE AND BLONDE. (But I am determined not to let those details hold me back in my rapping career.)
Seve Sinatra and L. Spector
I went with my friend Seve who was Frank Sinatra, and Leif, who was a crazy Phil Spector. I thought we had a slightly incongruous group costume that was kind of pulled together by us all being musical icons from different eras who were all probably misogynist, ego-driven assholes. It was only at the very end of the night that I realized that oops! We were accidentally the TRAVELING WILBURYS, the 80s supergroup featuring Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, George Harrison and Jeff Lynne. Seve, with his dapper suit, could easily have been a Roy sans shades and Leif, with his fuzzed out trial-era Spector hair, was actually a ringer for Dylan. NOOOOO!!! HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!?
Although, I must say that the phrase Traveling Wilburys, and all its connotations, is basically the BEST PUNCHLINE EVER, so as a group costume it was actually pretty sweet.
So this last trip to NYC was the first time that the city really made sense to me. I’m a country mouse at heart, and when I tell the folks at home that I’m living in California they repeat the word back to me as if I had just said that I was living on MARS. But if I had said New York City they would probably think perhaps I should be committed. Why on earth would you want to live there?!? It’s big and dirty and they’ll slit your throat for a nickel! They would probably think I was some sort of pervert. And while I never quite believed all that, I also never understood how people could actually live there. It did seem so expensive and scary and closed-in and in a word, hard.
But this time I began to understand why people say it is the only city in the world. It kind of is.
my first
first world
Despite that fact, the whole time I was there I did not see a single homeless person, which I found pretty shocking. However, I did go to a sort of homeless-themed fashion show, where the models wore sandals and shirts made out of plastic bags and other recycled materials. Here is a pic of a girl wearing a skirt made out of an Ikea bag. It was my first fashion show, and the whole thing initially struck me as absurd and surreal, like a satire of a hip fashion show instead of an actual hip fashion show. I definitely was not sure how to take it. Especially since I had came from a week of band practice in downtown LA, where the homeless problem is huge and very real, and people often wear plastic bags on their feet out of necessity, not style. So I had a couple moments of looking around and wondering “uh, this is fucked up right? am I the only one that thinks this is really fucked up?”
real deal (?)
But after I let it sink in a bit, I could kind of appreciate the post-collapse/world-village vibe as celebrating resourcefulness and promoting the reappropriation of the world’s trash. I mean, maybe we all should be wearing plastic bags on our feet instead of buying new shoes every year. It’s got to be more sustainable than leather and fur and neoprene and whatever else people usually put on the runways.
Also, this was the first time I recognized fashion as an interesting art form with little to no conscience. Not necessarily this show, but most of it is so unabashed, like; hey we wanna look at really skinny beautiful people and we don’t care who or what we rip off to get our point across! Which is kind of cool in a way. Honesty is usually thrilling. I mean, it’s probably more complex than that, but I get most of my clothes once a year at the Sioux Empire Mall JC Penneys after-Christmas sale. (Thanks Mom!)
shows
social junk rocks out at DBA
For our first show in NYC we played at the opening of the maze at Death By Audio, which was rad because the bill was rad but I have to admit I did get a little frustrated by trying to get around during a show because it was literally a maze. And space or time are not really dimensions that I travel well in. The bill was packed and great, with Skeletons, Dan Friel, Knyfe Hyts and Mincemeat or Tenspeed. But the band I actually got to watch the most was Social Junk, which for this show was 2 cute boys from Philly who both wore thick glasses and holy Tshirts and looked kind of like identical twins. Their set was sludgy, percussive and I’ll just go ahead and say it: TRIBAL.
The next night at the Cake Shop was a super sweet bill that was like power-lady time, us and Sarah Lipstate (Noveller) and Megan (US Girls) and Real Rags, who was Ezra’s old Oberlin friend Stefan Tcherepnin and his friend whose name now escapes me because I am also bad with names (space, time, words… how do I get by in this world???) And speaking of fashion, this show had the potential to be super awkward cuz not only do Sarah and I play the same kind of guitar (Jaguar), but me and Megan sometimes favor the same kind of 3rd-grade-boy bowl haircut (check out this sweet video of her playing at the hemlock). But that night hers was dark and mine was shaggy so it was fine. (Can you tell when I’m kidding? boys and haircuts and stuff? If you think this is bad you should read the Andy Warhol Diaries)
For our last show we played at West Nile in Brooklyn and I think it was partially because it was our last show, but I really let loose and had a great time, felt really free and I think we played well. So here are some post-show pictures of me after I got my groove back (and my whiskey on!) I would like to thank the cute sweet drunk boy who insisted that he take these pics right after I played. As he said, “this one’s for you!”
At that show we played with WISH who I missed because it was so hot I kept feeling like I was gonna throw up, so I went outside to get some air. Talk Normal also played right before us and they were really great, I think we were all like, “where have you been all my life?!?” Fast friends and they were fucking great, I just had a huge grin on my face the whole time they played, so excited. Here is a video:
Mirror Mirror was scheduled to close the show, who are some of my favorite people. Unfortunately 3 songs into their set their drummer turned into a werewolf, smashed the drums and ran out of the building. He ripped off his shirt, howled at the moon and took off down the street. For reals. You can ask them.
And I’ll leave you with this cute pic of Ezra at the MOMA, in an exhibit where attendees were invited to record their height and name on the wall with black sharpie. Jesus wow, the MOMA is,,, damn. So great. My absolute favorite was an exhibit on 70’s Dutch Conceptualists like Jan Dibbets and Bas Jan Ander. Do you know? How he rode his bike into a canal and disappeared at sea? And while I slack-jawed through the white rooms a lightbulb went off in my head as it occurred to me that a GOWNS performance often felt more like falling off a roof than it did like Austin City Limits. Those thoughts exhilarated me, and planted a seed that set the stage perfectly as we headed off to Baltimore…
