The Cairo Gang, Sovereign Syre, Daptone Records, The End of all Music, Torres, Ultimate Painting, Richard King, Brian Case, Viet Cong, Mike Giant, Paradise of Bachelors and Chastity Belt.
Issue Six: It’s a free periodical about record shops.
SAUN & STARR ‘LOOK CLOSER’
MICHAEL HEAD AND THE STRANDS ‘THE MAGICAL WORLD OF THE STRANDS’
“A tough, audacious… thrilling debut. Once more, Daptone has come up trumps. This is solid gold soul.” – 4/5 LEAD REVIEW IN MOJO
All-time classic. Set to be one of 2015’s most soughtafter reissues. Gatefold 180gm LP. CD version includes 2 bonus tracks: ‘Green Velvet Jacket’ and ‘Queen Matilda’ (demo), the B-sides to the 1998 NME and MELODY MAKER SINGLE OF THE WEEK.
(DAPTONE) LP/CD
(MEGAPHONE) LP/CD
OUT 17 JUL
POLAR BEAR ‘SAME AS YOU’
THE SUPREME JUBILEES ‘IT’LL ALL BE OVER’
“Their sixth album is their most direct and uplifting yet.” – 4/5 IN UNCUT
First ever LP reissue. “A limited-pressing, low-key gospel gem sees the light.” – 4/5 IN MOJO
(THE LEAF LABEL) 2LP/CD
(LIGHT IN THE ATTIC) LP/CD
DERADOORIAN ‘THE EXPANDING FLOWER PLANET’ (ANTICON) LP/CD
Former bassist and vocalist for Dirty Projectors. “Her solo project builds a bridge between the tribal drums of Can and layered vocal harmonies of Stealing Sheep.” – NME RADAR FEATURE
FOUR TET ‘MORNING/EVENING’ OUT 21 AUG
(TEXT) LP/CD
“Maybe his best – certainly his most psychedelic – in a while.” – UNCUT PLAYLIST
SAUNA YOUTH ‘DISTRACTIONS’
THE ORB ‘MOONBUILDING 2703 AD’
“Sharing their artful simplicity and amphetamined urgency with first wave trailblazers Wire, Alternative TV and the Fall, Sauna Youth take punk back to its ‘no rules’ roots and makes it dance to their tune.” – 4/5 IN MOJO
“‘Moonbuilding…’ finds the duo in fine form – over four lengthy tracks, they manage to distil that classic Orb sound, but also give it a bit of extra purpose, more focus and a nicely taut production sheen to boot.” – 8/10 DROWNED IN SOUND
(UPSET THE RHYTHM) LP/CD
(KOMPAKT) 2LP/3LP/CD
TORO Y MOI ‘WHAT FOR?’
THE LIMIÑANAS ‘DOWN UNDERGROUND: LPS 2009/2014’
“From the gentle piano leitmotifs of ‘Ratcliff’ to the pre-funk licks of ‘Spell It Out’ and the dreamy nuances on ‘Half Dome’, the album is a retroactive joy from start to finish.” – 4/5 FULL REVIEW IN MOJO
All 4 albums on one 2 CD edition (‘The Limiñanas’, ‘Costa Blanca’, ‘Crystal Anis’ and ‘(I’ve Got) Trouble in Mind: 7" and Rare Tracks’).
(CARPARK) Deluxe LP/LP/CD
(BECAUSE MUSIC) 2CD/LPS x 4
SPEEDY ORTIZ ‘FOIL DEER’
(CARPARK) Deluxe LP/LP/CD
“You won’t hear many more cutting albums this year.” – ALBUM OF THE WEEK IN NME WITH 9/10 REVIEW
OUT 31 JUL
VASHTI BUNYAN ‘SOME THINGS JUST STICK IN YOUR MIND – SINGLES AND DEMOS 1964–1967’ (BRANCH MUSIC) 2CD
Originally slated for release on the Spinney label after they rescued the ‘…Diamond Day’ album. Will now be reissued by Branch Music.
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Deluxe. Hard as it is to comprehend, this might be the first time you have picked up Deluxe. Good to meet you, we are doubtless the world’s best free independently distributed quarterly periodical newspaper about independent record shops™. What we are sure of is that you have picked up this newspaper in an independent record shop, that feels like a good thing. You are part of our world already, you get why these buildings are special places, you get why these people work so hard to keep the walls lined with records.
Is this issue we were delighted to speak to five bands that we are really into; Viet Cong, The Cairo Gang, Chastity Belt, Ultimate Painting and Torres. Also record shop histories from writers Brian Case and Richard King, indie labels Daptone and Paradise of Bachelors, artist Mike Giant, actress Sovereign Syre and the superb End of all Music store in Mississippi. All of them are talking about the same topic, why they love record shops.
Interviewed and Edited by Rupert Morrison Cover Photograph by Andy Morrall Printed by Newspaper Club Distributed by Forte and Windsong International Whilst every care has been taken in the preparation of this newspaper, the publishers cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of information or any consequence arising from it. Published in Devon by The Drift Record Shop. © 2015
Forte UK Independent Music Distribution info@fortedistribution.co.uk www.fortedistribution.co.uk
The Cairo Gang The Cairo Gang can be a constantly evolving group of musicians. They are always however fronted by, or occasionally composed solely of Emmett Kelly; singer, songwriter, chief orchestrator and harmony singer of supreme skill (as anyone who’s caught him onstage with Bonnie ‘Prince’ will vouch). Ahead of his new LP “Goes Missing”, we spoke to Emmett about heading out on the road, old fashioned English jangle and naturally a few record shops. Deluxe: Hey, how’s it going?
The Pretty Things and even Yardbirds (maybe even a little Kinks?)
Emmett Kelly: Rad! D: From what i’ve heard of ‘Goes Missing’, there is a real garage jangle going on. If you worked in a record store for the day, where would you be filing your new album? EK: Rock and Roll D: I really picked up on a very English line of psychedelia… Any bands from the UK circa forty something years ago inspired you? - I might be way off! haha - we said the same thing to Tim Presley last year about ‘For The Recently Found Innocent’ and although he liked the connection it was just not on his radar at the time…. E: I’d be curious to know what specifically you are talking about. This record obviously has some classic references, but I don’t find it to be specifically British psychedelic. That being said, the music I was listening to most while making this album was Kevin Ayers, This Heat and String Quartet no. 2 by Morton Feldman. Whether or not you can hear those in this, I can’t say.. My music is probably a subconscious reference library.. D: I guess I was thinking somewhere between Idle Race,
EK: Whoa it’s amazing because those are bands I don’t listen to.. The idle race I have never heard! Which is fucked up because the drummer in Mikal Cronin’s band (who I am on tour with) says it’s his favorite band. The Pretty Things, yeah I guess I have heard a little bit of SF sorrow. The Yardbirds.. Well, five live Yardbirds is fucking great. And yeah the Kinks are cool but they aren’t my favorite.. at least I have never wanted anything to sound like them.. I guess that’s wrong. I often think of the song This Is Where I Belong... and the early shit is totally rad.. I don’t get into so much of the cheeky British day to day kind of stuff... I mean, I totally do. But I like the more freaky and perverse stuff.. Have you heard the Giles, Giles, and Fripp album? But the same thing I don’t really jive with with McCartney’s jams is the same thing I don’t jive with with the Kinks.. I’m not an Anglophile. My dad is Irish, from Ireland and spent the crucial part of his young adult life in London playing in bands there. I was bred to believe that Peter Green was the Holy Spirit, and to know and love all the bands... but the ones that always stuck with me are the early Who, Cream, The Zombies, The Stones, Beatles, Small Faces, Fleetwood Mac.. and I don’t mean Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks!
Mikel Avery
But lately my favorite stuff is anything to do with The Soft Machine. That I think is my favorite band. It’s got everything I want. Musical depth, great lyrics, cool characters. D: I read that ‘Gone Missing’ was written in between places, on the run, recorded in a variety of rooms. Did you worry about cohesion or did you just go with the vibe? How did the transient approach change things? EK: I did worry about it. I also wasn’t going to not make something. It also wasn’t an album until a certain point! The year I spent working on it was rife with harshness and confusion and in turn I was uprooted. And then continually uprooted.. I moved back to my hometown (LA) and had nowhere to live for about ten months. So the few times I had the opportunity to spread out in somebody’s house or had found a sub-let, or made it back to my dungeon in Chicago, I just took as much advantage as I could. The songs are all, in my mind, related to each other in tone. The lyric and overall harmony were very much within the same world. I was not in one world in particular, and so then the music created its own world. That stayed pretty consistent throughout D: What inspired you on the road and what was your favourite recording space en route? Well, it’s hard for me to put it in terms of what “happened on the road” or things like that. I was pummeled by sensation as one is, and thus took to processing it. Mind you, I was intensely alone. I find this record is very much an alone record. I probably wouldn’t have been so isolated, but as we all know, sometimes you end up in a strange place with your surroundings, people or otherwise, and your only options are to look inside. I am grateful for this passage because as it took place I had some radical moments. There were two spaces that stick out as being super rad. One was up in my moms pottery studio in Santa Ynez. It’s got a glass door that looks out onto a small garden of grapevines and pomegranate trees. That’s where The Open Sky took place. As well as Gangsters and Chains. Another was my friend Johnny’s house I stayed in for a month in Eagle Rock.
That was a specifically great time. I got into a good rhythm there. She Don’t Want You was recorded there and Gangsters and I think that’s where I first got to understanding how to mix A Heart Like Yours..
never felt like I had the resource to put people through the process of making a record. I have done that a few times for others, and I find working on records to be an extreme amount of work. I wouldn’t want to involve
I guess I like record stores that make going to record stores fun. That don’t seem like a realistic outpost for eBay shoppers.. That love music and care enough to make it available to people who love music and aren’t totally rich.. People who search for music. D: You worked with David Vandervelde and Paul Oldham on your last LP, who was involved this time out? - Did you feel excited to record as much of it as you could yourself? EK: I think you are taking about The Corner Man, which I don’t consider to be the last album. Tiny Rebels was. It was short, but it’s a full record. It’s the length of a TV show! I recorded that entirely myself, and Dave helped me sort of “master” it. D: Sorry for missing out Tiny Rebels! I’m psyched to go back and check it out. EK: The Corner Man though I recorded entirely myself as well. I had friends come and play but you know I had a pretty radical set up in Chicago and did all of the recording. I made many recordings there. I haven’t worked recording with anyone on any of the modern CG records. I have
anyone unless I could pay them what they deserve. I invited Dave in to mix The Corner Man with me. That was crucial to the sound of that record. He is an amazing engineer. I think that was a good thing to do - work in a really idiosyncratic way at home making the record and then bringing it to somebody to mix it. It adds a good punt of perspective. It turns the whole thing into a session and then glues it all together. Paul I have only really worked with remotely in terms of mastering. For Goes Missing, I recorded everything. Marc Riordan plays on two songs and one song is me and Josh Abrams. I just worked on it until it was done and then a friend of mine was going on tour and she lent me her house in Laurel Canyon, so I just stayed there and mixed it. Once that happened, I sent it to my good friend Helge Sten in Oslo to master it. That was funny. He told me it was the most crushed record he ever received to master. For non recordists, that means
that I used “too much” compression.. Ha! D: Drag City hooked us up with some copies of ‘ The Corner Man’ and we were pretty blown away by the packaging; old-style paste-on sleeve with a letter pressed obi in particular. How important to you is the artwork and how involved do you get? EK: I am totally in charge of everything that has to do with The Cairo Gang. Everything about a record is important. The song writing, the recording, the mixing, the mastering, the cutting, the artwork, the materials, and the price of the record. With Empty Cellar, you know he is a small label who makes beautiful records, but it’s you know a sort of boutique sorta thing. I wanted to make a really elegant thing for a The Corner Man, and for Empty Cellar... and so the tip-on sleeve with the high gloss photo was the big expense. The obi strip was just using some creative thinking. I have this friend Jennifer Parsons that runs a letter press in Burbank, and I love letter pressing, and so whenever I saw her would just talk to her about it. She had worked on a couple great looking things for Bonnie “Prince” Billy.. I don’t know, I asked her what she thought about this sort of armband thing. It was a great experience, and we were able to work it so that we recycled some of the paper from some other gig she had and blah blah blah.. It wasn’t so expensive. The record is still pretty expensive, but it’s super deluxe in comparison to other records that cost the same amount. Jennifer also helped me work on the cover for Tiny Rebels. Have you seen that one? D: I just looked it up, thats a dope looking icon... EK: That was really experimental. I bought loads of heavy stock cardboard and Jennifer turned me on to this guy she knows who does die-cutting and we made a stencil for the cover.. Every cover is a stencil.. and me and Ryan, our Chicago bass player, silkscreened the backs. The big expense on that
was finding someone to shrink wrap it. That was going to make it look legit.. and it does! For 10 bucks! It’s insane how rad that one looks and for ten bucks I thought it was a pretty rad accomplishment. It’s crazy how expensive records are these days. D: What are your earliest record shopping experiences? Do you remember the first shop you bought something from and what it was? EK: My first record store that made an impact on me was Moby Disc in Sherman Oaks, CA. There was obviously Music Plus before that and I think my first purchase was Appetite For Destruction on tape, but Moby was the first really getting into a record store. There was a dude who worked there, Nick. I would just go and ask him what I should buy... It was rad. D: I think an Appetite For Destruction cassette was one of my first legit purchases. It felt pretty edgy to be buying a release with a skull on the front. EK: No shit about appetite! I relished buying it... and also going to see them with Metallica back then. I think I was like 11 or something. I bless the fact that I had rock and roll parents everyday of my life. D: On your travels, which record shops have really impressed you? For you, what makes for a good shop? EK:I really love the St Louis Record Exchange. Pretty insane place and not so expensive. I really love Encore in Ann Arbor, MI. Totally amazing place and again not so expensive. Rad world music selection. I recently went to Feeding Tube in Northampton, MA. That place is insane. There is a totally mental place in Gothenburg, Sweden I can’t remember the name of. I don’t know there are a few things I look for. Obviously an interesting selection, but the prices are key for me.There is this place in LA that is totally amazing as far as finding shit goes, but it’s so god damn expensive that I just get angry if I ever go in there. I understand the market for collectible vinyl, but it’s gotten completely out of hand. Byron from Feeding Tube was talking about some place that he found, I forget
where, but the guy who ran it is so weary of dealers going in to flip his records that he sniffs you out to see what the deal is and only allows one copy of anything to be sold at a time. Sounds like a cool place. It’s no fun anymore what with eBay and Discogs. I mean it’s completely ridiculous that you would ever find a Neds Atomic Dustbin single for 40 bucks, you know?? Or have the balls to price a Nick Drake album at 1000 dollars... That’s just total bullshit. I guess I like record stores that make going to record stores fun. That don’t seem like a realistic outpost for eBay shoppers... that love music and care enough to make it available to people who love music and aren’t totally rich.. people who search for music. D: How was recording at Burger Records? (We really dig those guys) EK: That was an in-store performance that my friend Michael Ehlers recorded. It was fun. The Burger Dudes are totally awesome. They are visionaries. After the show one of the dudes was like, “dude, was somebody recording that? We should totally put it out if they were!” D: Which shop is your local? EK: The record store scene in LA is kinda gnarly cuz everything is really expensive kinda curated boutique-y sorta shit... I guess I go to Permanent the most because they fucking rule and are my homies. I like Rockaway. That’s been there for years, but sadly I do most of my record shopping online these days or while traveling.
JM Darling
Sovereign Syre Over the last twelve months a familiar name with an ever-changing profile picture kept popping into our twitter timeline; comments on L.A. life, Cormac McCarthy, Harold Pinter and more often than not pictures of her naked body. Sovereign Syre is funny, brutal, savvy and an award winning porn star.
Deluxe: We primarily reached out to you as you quote Smiths lyrics on your Twitter quite a lot. How big a part of your life is Music? - Which musicians and artists inspire you? Sovereign Syre: Music is a huge part of my life. I always have it playing when I’m writing, driving, running, fucking or sleeping. I love A Tribe Called Red right now. I love intense soundscapes. Bjork’s new break up album, Lykki Li’s latest album, Mykki Blanco’s Gay Dog Food, Azealia Banks’ Broke With Expensive Taste are all in heavy rotation right now. D: Extending that to artwork, as a visual person, which album covers have resonated with you and why? SS: I always had a thing for Roxy
Music album covers. The image of beautiful, elegant women in stark contrast to the normal hypersexualized female form always seemed classy and mysterious. Secret Chiefs Three, Faith No More, Tool, Sisters of Mercy - anything that was a mystery to be solved. D: You initially appeared in our Twitter world as you are followed and re-tweeted by a number of journalists we’re friends with. Do you think your professional world has crossed over into the mainstream or is it just more a case that you’re funny? SS: As much as I’d like to think that it’s because porn is going mainstream it’s probably more because I’m unexpectedly funny. As much as I’d like to believe I’m funny, I’m probably
just funny for a porn star. I think that pop culture and porn have become increasingly hard to tell apart. Most men’s magazines look like the covers of porn mags and the like. At the same time, most people on the street couldn’t name five contemporary porn stars to you if you asked. They don’t actually watch or care any more about porn than they have before, I don’t think. I’ve only been here for four years. D: Did you consciously decide to approach your online presence with a little more personality? You seem to goof around quite a bit… it’s not just pictures of you working. When I first got on twitter I used to just tweet what I was doing throughout the day, but it seemed pointless.
I looked at accounts I liked and realized they made no attempt to document their lives, but rather used the platform to tell jokes or make observations. I started doing the same thing, making jokes and observations and in that way, very organically came to build a “brand.” I just wanted my feed to be interesting to people. I didn’t do porn when I started on twitter, so it’s been a learning process. I mainly don’t post pictures from work because I’m followed by so many people that come for the jokes or because they followed my old blogs and writing before I did adult. I don’t want to inundate them with pictures of my pussy, and more than that, I think people should pay for their porn. If they want to see me naked, they can go pay for it. My twitter is for me to express myself as a person. I’m glad if my twitter has helped humanize me to people that only knew me as a porn star though. Of course. I’m all for that. D: Besides having to pay for the licenses to use tracks, why do you think adult movies tend not to use as much music? If anyone does an impression of a ‘porn film’ they always make that goofy wah wah pedal funk noise… SS: Most porn does use music until the action starts. It’s usually modern EDM Dub Step type stuff. Mason makes great use of music in trailers and teases. Most people watch pirated porn these days, which cuts out teases and transitions. The clips start when the action starts. It’s more titillating to hear a woman moaning and cooing than to hear a Dub Step drop. People make the 70’s sound because that was the Golden Age of porn, when it was mainstream. So it’s a broad cultural reference we all immediately get. D: If you were directing yourself in a movie, what artists/ tracks would you try and get in there? Deniro Farrar Faith in Something Deadmaus Strobe Mykki Blanco Bugged Out Interpol Untitled Bryan Ferry Which Way To Turn Bjork Black Lake and on and on. D: Porn and music have run a quite interesting parallel over the last twenty years, specifically the relationship with the internet. MP3 made ‘music free’. Were the ramifications in your industry comparable? SS: I get to hear about the “good old days” all the time. I think the statistics are something like, a DVD used to sell 20000 pieces and now they sell around 2000. The profit margin has narrowed to near diminishing returns. Conversely the industry is more competitive than ever in terms of girls interested in the work, I think in part because the stigma attached to the work has decreased as sexting, selfies and purity restraints on women have relaxed over time. Most girls have to diversify their revenue streams and become “brands.” Which in some ways is kind of cool. To survive in porn you HAVE to become a business woman or you’ll be done in a few months. It separates the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. There are a lot of really impressive
just remember that magical time when you’re fourteen or fifteen and music is like the most amazing fucking thing that ever happened to you. Something about our ability to feel things so much more intensely that makes music so powerful. women working in my industry right now. They direct movies, make custom videos, feature dance, run their own websites, sell their own merchandise and have turned being themselves into a living. Pretty amazing. D: You spend a lot of your down time writing. Do song lyrics really resonate with you? - I have to confess that as a professional record listener lyrics actually wash over my head unless I really concentrate. What makes for a good song lyric? SS: Melody always comes first, but good lyrics can really sink you. Think about something like Landslide by Fleetwood Mac or I’m On Fire by Bruce Springsteen. Shit. Heavy. D: You’re in Highland Park right? have you checked out Mount Analog? Thats a great store. SS: Since I moved around so much as a model and then a performer I haven’t had a record player in a while D: Which record shops do you frequent?
SS: I spent part of my childhood in the Central Valley in California. There’s a great record store there called Spinners where I used to find old punk records like Jello Biafra, F.E.A.R., D.I., Fugazi, and the like. Whenever I roll through, I still always take a peek to see what’s around and just remember that magical time when you’re fourteen or fifteen and music is like the most amazing fucking thing that ever happened to you. Something about our ability to feel things so much more intensely that makes music so powerful.
SS: I like to discover things. I also have social anxiety so when someone tries to “help” me, I tend to feel under attack. I’ll find what I’m looking for on my own thank you very much.
D: What makes for a good record shopping experience for you? Do you like to be led and curated or do you just like to get in and follow your own nose?
D: Have you ever experienced any bad attitude in record stores or do you think those days are over? Is High Fidelity a thing of the past?
D: Specifically talking about artists, who have you found recently or who have you discovered on impulse purchase? SS: Lykke Li. Just really fucking incredible. Leon Bridges. Alabama Shakes.
SS: I’m a pretty girl, so walking into record stores or comic books stores, pretty generally I’m going to be treated like I invented sunshine. D: Do you remember the first Record store purchase? Where and when? SS: My brother gave me a Queensryche cassette tape to put in this little like Barbie pink tape player I had as a baby child.
FULL TIME HOBBY SUMMER RELEASES 2015 OUT NOW
JACCO GARDNER ‘HYPNOPHOBIA’ CD / LP / DL ‘Summons up an exquisite nostalgia for an invented ‘60s’ Uncut 8/10
COMING SOON
SAMANTHA CRAIN ‘UNDER BRANCH & THORN & TREE’ CD / LP / DL 17/07/15
FARAO ‘TILL IT’S ALL FORGOTTEN’ CD / LP / DL 11/09/15
fulltimehobby.co.uk
Daptone Records Based in bustling Brooklyn New York, Daptone Records is an independent powerhouse, a label and a studio specialising in Funk and Soul. Formed by Gabriel Roth and Neal Sugarman, Daptone is cut from the same cloth as Motown, Stax or any number of hard-working, DIY imprints from decades gone. They spend all day living, breathing and playing music. We called up the Brooklyn HQ, it’s not like they’d be anywhere else. Deluxe: Talk us through the “House Of Soul” in Brooklyn. Having the headquarters and studio rolled into one hang out seems like both a very old and very modern model. How did it all come together? Neal Sugarman: Basically, Gabe and I are musicians first, and Gabe, more than a musician, is a record producer, so the idea was always just to keep it in house. There was really no other way we would have considered running a record label. As you said, it’s a real old concept that many of the record labels in the sixties, and maybe even the fifties used. They all started as much out of a recording studio as opposed to some sort of ‘business man’ concept of how
to make and sell records, but it really is a huge component of what Dapton is all about. Not only are we playing on the records as musicians and producers, but everyone who works in the office is really involved in every record, as they are all around the process of being recorded.
be involved in making music.
D: If feels more intimate then?
NS: Literal. Gabe and I had been looking for a house to convert into a studio/office and we just had no money left, so we were asking everyone to pitch in. Weirdly enough the label had been around for a while so we knew the artists, and even Charles Bradley before he had a record out was in helping, and me and Cares were doing the dry walls, The Budos Band were in on demolition, smashing plaster down from the ceiling...
NS: For sure, and it gives us way more flexibility, you know, we’re not watching the clock… studio time can be very expensive . Most record labels of today have a budget, give it to the studio and get turned in a master… they never really have any idea of what they’re gonna get until you know… it a record I guess. It’s completely counterintuitive to how you’d want to
D: Talking about everyone being involved, can I ask you definitively about Sharon Jones and the studio electrical outlets? Was that metaphorical or did she literally get out tools?
Ann Coombs
D: So I had planned to joke that DIY was a prerequisite or your A&R policy, but the roster did really build the joint... NS: Yeah, totally. Even people like Kenny Dope, who didn’t have any vested interest and just believed in what we were doing, threw in a couple of thousand bucks to buy wood and get ourselves off the ground. D: I read a great quote from Sharon Jones about auditioning with a major label as a teenager; “Sony told me I was too black and too fat and too short. And when I told him my age I was too old.” None of you would ever need to have any interaction with a major label these days, but do you feel that model of thought has changed at all? Are they catching up? Or are they pretty antiquated? NS: Yeah, I don’t think that major labels are catching up, especially more so now than ever. No one is taking a risk, no one is trying to do anything unusual. Actual record sales are not their business these days, margins are too low. Their business is marketing an artist and getting a piece of the live
show, their marketing, their streams. They are not going to sign anyone now unless they are young and beautiful and are gonna sell a lot of concert tickets. No major label will take a chance… not at all. D: Do you feel that at over a decade in, people trust you to keep releasing records that they’re into? Do you feel that as a catalogue the releases tell an overall ‘Daptone’ story? NS: Yeah, I do. Again, I don’t want to seem kind of dark, but what has basically happened over the last three or four years with companies like Spotify is that more people have access of the music, but less people are actually buying the music. Vinyl has grown, that is undoubtedly a beautiful part of this new business model, for all of us at Daptone it is really exciting because we get to focus more on creating the things we love. Like creating a physical product, artwork for a 12” LP jacket, but that being said, what is shrinking are the number of people who are not into that and used to go out and buy CDs or maybe even iTunes and pay to download it. Although the record label is doing fine,
it is just very hard to gage and judge the growth because all these people are streaming out music but it is not helping us… pay the electricity bills! D: People come into the Drift shop and quite regularly already know a new release album and talk about having streamed it. NS: We’re in the same boat. We are grateful for the physical market and the fact that it still finds an audience. Buying LP’s makes you feel like you are buying something that has value, and will maintain it’s value, like you’re walking home with something. It has weight and it’s beautiful and it’ll last for a hundred years if it taken care of properly. D: The “little indie label that could, would and certainly should.” - I thought ‘Should’ is the most interesting part of your self-written description; Daptone artists produce work that has to be heard right? NS: Listen (laughing), we’re musicians first and we have a ‘business model’ of primarily being artistic. It’s not necessarily the best way to make
Jacob Blickenstaff
money, but it is the only way that we know how to run a business. To be honest if I was interested in getting remotely rich I wouldn’t be in the music industry anyway. We have to do it our own way or it’s just not worth doing. The distribution network these days is much better and we could have put out a lot more records but potentially a lot more shitty records… it’s just not how we function.
NS: Would you want to have a store in London?
what was happening, making believe that I was one of the musicians. I loved Jazz from an early age and that got me slowly into Soul records, but I liked the more bluesey artists.
D: (Laughing) well, i’d not want to burn any bridges… but probably not really. You get way increased footfall but it’s more expensive, it’s just D; Hey look, I have young kids and dramatically more pressure… London is I play a lot of music at home… am I kind of edgy. turning them on to a life of music and hardship? NS: It’s like that with bigger cities. It’s not a bad thing necessarily, just the NS: Absolutely man… absolutely. They need to learn man, I have kids, they D: That goes back to the label question best stores I have come across are in medium to small size cities, or college need to be able to clap their hands in I think, people trust you right? towns and they don’t have such massive rhythm and their life will be enriched. overheads and they can focus on NS: I hope so! doing things that are more unique and D: Last question, and it’s broad, What D: Which record shops have been long creative. They’re not bound to selling x has been your best ever record store amount of records or they fail to make experience? time supporters of Daptone? their rent. NS: Man… going to People’s Records in NS: We are all vinyl junkies so we tend D: Which shops did you grow up with? Detroit with Dap-Kings and vibing to go digging into older records (as about who was gonna walk out with you can probably tell from the music the really hot 45. It’s a stressful record we make) but being in New York there NS: I grew up in - I am a little buying experience with those guys is a store called Academy Records that older now, I am fifty - I grew up in because you’re looking over your we really love. They started out selling Massachusetts and Boston was great because it’s a college town and there shoulder and wondering who’s gonna used records, so we shopped there for were great record stores. When I was get that nugget. Get in, head down and years, and since then it has grown and get digging and you’ll always come grown and they are bringing in curated a kid I used to go to this place called away with something special. The new stuff. They are great guys. There is Newbury Comics. It was a comic/record store and you could get Punk rock 45’s whole experience man, it brings me a record store in Nashville that I look and weird…. pretty much anything. back to being a kid, flipping through at all the time, a perfect model of how Boston had really good radio stations rack of 45s. Even now, when the band is businesses and record stores should because of all the colleges. You could on the road, in the States especially, we function, it’s called Grimeys. hear local bands and obscure UK try and get a taxi to some corner record store in… New Orleans, and follow D: We know those guys, great store, we bands… Newbury Comics was really dialed into what they were playing, so some tip that you’ve been given a line spoke a few issues back to Josh. you could always find these obscure on. Those feelings never change. records. NS: Good guys, Doyle is a long time friend. You walk into that shop and D: Thats a very modern, very they know their customers. Some guy immersive way of going about things... walks in and they’re like “hey man, did you hear the new Saun & Starr record yet. you’ll love it” - they know their clientele. NS: Yeah, totally, it’s how they should all function, that’s what I am saying. They have created a scene and they look after it. There is another store like Doyle at Grimeys had a radio show in Nashville, it’s using all of the outlets that in Bloomington Indiana called Landlocked Music. In Austin Texas there to sell records and tune people onto is a store called Breakaway, selling new, music. In Boston there was also Looney Tunes, where I got into Jazz and Funk weird, old, all curated. We used the opportunity to press Neal and Soul It was kind of more used about vinyl bin dividers, Daptone stickers, LP’s... D: Can you give us any tips for crate distributors and the next few Dapton releases digging in New York or is that secret before the rumblings of drums and the rich D: Do you remember your first stuff? analog sound of an organ filled the office. purchase? Obviously experienced at just raising his voice NS: I’ll tell you man… it’s not much. and conducting business over the top of the NS: You know, my Dad had a huge It’s expensive, it’s expensive to have house band, Neal gave me a few instructions record collection, so I remember not so about where to send this article. It hardly rent. It’s not an earthy organic city. much buying records but discovering Where are you guys? made much sense, I guess we’ll just address records from his collections. Jazz like it to the “House Of Soul, Brooklyn NY”. Charlie Parker, big band… putting D: We’re in Devon, 300 miles South We said our goodbyes, it was clear that the them on and just being fascinated by West of London working day had begun.
The End of All Music Located on North Lamar in Oxford, Mississippi, The End of All Music is a fairly young independent record store by most standards, but one often sighted as a great example of doing the right things right. Over the last couple of years we’d struck up a friendship with co-owner David Swider so we took the opportunity recently to talk to him about the store and Oxford Town. Following him on instagram I had become increasingly certain that we were seperated at birth. Deluxe: “The End of all Music” - I have read about you explaining the name, but perhaps you could one more time for us as I don’t want to get this wrong?
too. We suggest the essential Junior Kimbrough record “You Better Run,” and you’ll understand where I’m coming from, and where Charlie Feathers was coming from.
David Swider: The name of the store comes from blues musician Junior Kimbrough’s tombstone. Junior is considered one of the greatest of the North Mississippi Hill Country Blues artists and there’s a great quote engraved on his tombstone from rockabilly artist Charlie Feathers. Charlie calls Junior, “the beginning and the end of all music.” So that’s where the name came from. Oxford is heavily steeped in the North Mississippi Hill Country Blues tradition so it was fitting to name the store with ties to that. Plus some of the strongest titles in the Fat Possum Records catalog belong to Junior Kimbrough, so we sell a lot of his records
D: From record fan to shop owner, what made you make the leap and what was your journey to behind the counter? DS: I worked in a local bookshop in Oxford called Square Books for about 5 years and loved it. I knew I wanted to do something in that kind of retail environment. I also have always loved buying records and record store culture for better or worse. Unfortunately then and fortunately now Oxford didn’t have any type of record store. The internet and the iPod had killed the last shop in the mid 2000s and nothing had come along to replace it. Bruce Watson,
things to look at on your walls, you have a framed Pavement picture. What’s the story there? DS: Pavement is my favorite band. When I was opening the store I hit up Matador Records to see what they had as far as Pavement stuff goes, and my sales rep Dave dug around in the basement a bit and found me this original Wowee Zowee promo poster. I flipped out and immediately had it framed. I also have a framed Pavement sticker on the wall that my buddy Clay Jones gave me. He got it at a Pavement show during one of their first tours in the early ‘90s. It’s this shitty little homemade sticker but I love it. But yeah, the Wowee Zowee poster gets a lot of comments. It’s a prized possession. My favorite piece of art hanging in the shop is a photograph taken by Kelsey Bennett of soul singer Charles Bradley. Kelsey is a photographer based out of New York and she followed Charles around and photographed him when he was still performing as a James Brown impersonator, before he released any of his amazing solo records on Daptone Records. It’s such a great photo and it’s hanging right by the front door. general manager at Fat Possum, got wind that I was wanting to open a store and so did he. So we got together a few times and within a month or two we’d found a location and started remodeling the place. It was a whirlwind and really fun. D: Do you remember what your first record shop purchase was? Where and when? DS: My first record purchases were made at thrift stores around my hometown of Greenwood, Mississippi in the Mississippi Delta. Then I probably had my first real experience in a record store when traveling to Jackson, the state capito, a few hours away. There was a local chain of indie stores there called BeBop Records. I loved that place. I spent all my money there whenever I got the chance. I remember buying Weezer’s blue album there and Radiohead’s The Bends. Some really important discoveries were made in that place. All of the BeBop
stores have since closed and we actually bought some of their old record bins, which we now use in our store. I still smell BeBop in our store every once in a while because of those bins. It’s crazy nostalgic. D: You’ve been running the store since March 2012. Three years in, what would have been the best advice you could have given yourself before you opened? DS: My best advice to anyone starting a business is to do it because you love it and don’t sweat to small things. I was so stressed out for the first year about making ends meet and making the shop the best it can be. It paid off for sure but it wasn’t always necessary to be so stressed out. I should’ve just enjoyed it and had fun a little more, which is what I’m trying to do now. I have my dream job and not a day feels like work. What more could you ask for? D: Of the many, many fascinating
D: Is the shop an extension of your record collection? Yourself? DS: The shop is most definitely an extension of myself. I curate everything and I try to listen to most of what we stock. That’s why you open a record store, right? I like to think of the shop as being my alternate living room. I want folks to be really comfortable when they’re flipping through records. I want them to think, “man, I wish my house was like this.” D: The colour Blue… It is so specific to your shop that I once saw a google image search of someone holding a record in their hand with the tiniest flash of blue wall in the background; you were instantly recognisable. Was it a conscious decision there with your pallet or did you just plain like the Blue(s)? DS: Blue is my favorite colour! Also, when we rented the building its previous tenant was a Mexican grocery
and the walls were bright orange, so when I was picking out the paint color I knew it would be blue. I wanted a darker color so all the album artwork would really pop, and I think that’s important. D: How big of a deal is Record Store Day? DS: RSD is a huge day for us. We love it. I struggle with it every year from a money standpoint and I hate some of the crap releases that come out, but we just don’t stock everything on the RSD list. I try to be very selective about what we bring in…what makes sense for our store. I also really like to throw a big party. Sure, we can sit there and take people’s money all day but that’s bullshit. I like to look at RSD as a great way to say THANKS to all our customers. We have tons of free beer, BBQ, live music, and we give away a ton of free stuff. It’s also an excellent excuse to put out our own records and projects. This year we did our first vinyl release, which was a spoken word record by a local author/hero Barry Hannah. Oxford is very literary and the town really got behind the release and it was a huge success. So that’s what I really dig about RSD. I just try to look past all the negative aspects of RSD and try to just focus on my customers and my store and trying to make it the most fun possible, and so far so good. And it’s always nice to be selling records!
D: Who is your customer? Oxford is a big University town right? All those fresh faces every year is going to be good for business? DS: Our customers are all over the place. We have college kids, high school and junior high kids, grandpas and grandmas, middle aged record nerds…the list goes on. So many different kinds of people come through our doors, but they all have that itch for records in common. We are in a part of town where there is zero foot traffic, so people really have to go out of their way to come here, but that’s ok with us because the folks that do find us are finding us for all the right reasons. D: Now you’re pretty tight with Fat Possum right? DS: We operate as kind of an unofficial Fat Possum store front—we sell their whole catalog as well as t-shirts and stuff. We even have a Fat Possum listening station. Their offices are right down the street and I’m really close to those guys that run the label. They’re all excellent dudes and I really admire the work they do. They are constantly surprising me with badass records. Be on the look out for a record by Seratones coming out in the near future on Fat Possum. They’re from Shreveport, Louisiana and are pretty great. That record is going to be good. Fat Possum also keeps
My best advice to anyone starting a business is to do it because you love it and don’t sweat to small things. I was so stressed out for the first year about making ends meet and making the shop the best it can be.
reissuing records from the Hi Records catalog that I just can’t get enough of. The Don Bryant LP is now one of my favorite soul records and I didn’t even know it existed until they reissued it. They’re about to drop a new Ann Peebles reissue that I’m really looking forward to. D: Which other labels are a joy for you to champion? DS: Some labels that constantly put out interesting stuff that I keep my eyes (and ears) on are Paradise of Bachelors out of North Carolina (check out the excellent Jake Xerxes Fussell LP they put out recently), Trouble in Mind, Other Music, Drag City (as always!), Dustto-Digital out of Atlanta, Superior Viaduct from Oakland, I love all the Memphis reissues that Omnivore Records has been doing. Zoo Music always puts out interesting stuff, and Secretly Canadian is constantly growing and getting better. SC distributes some of the best labels on the planet at the moment. D. Talking briefly about bands, who have been memorable instores for you?
DS: We’ve hosted a lot of great instores in the three years we’ve been around. Some notable performances that come to mind are Lonnie Holley, William Tyler, Jon Langford of the Mekons, Dent May, Bass Drum of Death, Dead Gaze, Young Buffalo, Water Liars, and the list goes on and on. The Lonnie Holley show was really special. He’s just an amazing artist and had the room completely focused on what he was doing. Lonnie stuck around and made found art with all the kids after his performance. It was amazing. Check out his two records on Dust-to-Digital.
Pylon “Chomp” LP from them not too long ago. My friend Dent May keeps telling me to check out Mount Analog in LA, so I’ve got that on my list. I could also list all the stores in the AIMS coalition of independent record stores, which we’re a part of. AIMS is made up of some of the greatest stores in the country and I find instant motivation from all those places—Grimey’s in Nashville, Criminal Records in Atlanta, Landlocked, Luna Records (Todd rules!), End of an Ear in Austin. Instagram has also made it really easy to see other record stores, and I love checking them all out. I think that’s how we know each other!
D. Which other shops are buddies of yours? Which other shops inspire you? DS: Whenever I travel anywhere I always seek out the local record stores. It’s a sickness, but in a good way. One of my favorite stores is Domino Sound Record Shack in New Orleans. It’s so old school and tons of great international LPs. I always hit up Euclid Records in New Orleans as well. I love going to Other Music when I’m in New York. Lagniappe Records in Baton Rouge, Louisiana is great. I bought a original
All photographs by Katelin Davis
Shawn Brackbill
Torres Born to a Baptist family in Macon Georgia, formerly of Nashville and now a New Yorker, Mackenzie Scott, under the moniker TORRES, is a songwriter of phenomenal depth and skill. Still only 24, she knows the darkness and her new album Sprinter is a clattering call to arms, with rich literary references. We’ve been trying for years, so stoked to get a chance to ask her a few questions.
I was raised in a small town and there are very special things about it, but I don’t prefer to live that way. I like the chaos of the city. Deluxe. Mid 2013 we were pretty blown away by your self titled debut. From it’s release in the January to all the positive critical review by the end of the year, it must have been pretty intense. How was that year for you? Torres: It was the most exciting year of my life. “Intense” is a fitting word for it. D: We interviewed Sharon Van Etten late last year and she was keen to talk about you. Praise from your peers must beat any of the critical review right?
because he didn’t try to take the reigns from me, and he listens so well. He added musical nuances that ended up being genius, and we had the luxury of being on the same page from start to finish, so we both agreed when we knew something was or wasn’t working. He’s also formidable on the drums. That’s his territory. He just absolutely killed it. D: ‘Strange Hellos’ explodes to life. Does it set the tone for the album? Was it’s sequencing right at the start of the album for that reason?
T: Definitely. Especially from Sharon! D: Your new album ‘Sprinter’ is a pretty intense listen. It’s dark in places and you’re lyrically very direct. Now that it is forever committed to tape, does it make hard listening for you? Are you glad you were able to say what you said? T: It isn’t hard listening at all, because I don’t listen to it! I’m so proud of this record. I got to say exactly what I’ve wanted to say for years. It’s healing. I know I made something important. D: Are you able to sing things as TORRES that you wouldn’t want to as ‘Mackenzie Scott’? T: Yes. Mackenzie Scott is the introvert, the person who doesn’t like conversations. TORRES can do anything. D: We’ve known Rob Ellis for a number of years. He is a very calm man in contrast to some of the music he has produced. How was working with him? What did he bring to the table? T: He is a joy. I mean it. He is so pleasant. I’m certain we were close in a past life, because he’s such a familiar soul. Working with Rob was affirming
T: Yes. I wasn’t interested in easing anybody into this record. It’s not sweet. I sequenced it so that it played well with the Sprinter motif--coming out of the womb kicking and swinging. D: We read a bunch of recent interviews and your style and how you dress seemed to come up a lot. Do you think female artists get asked disproportionately more about image and clothing than male artists?
parent’s weekend at college and I took her to the record store. She bought me Sufjan Stevens’ “Michigan”. D: Was it a positive experience? T: Dreamy. That’s where my vinyl collection began. D: Where are you based now and which record shops do you regularly frequent? T: I live in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The honest-to-God truth is that I don’t have enough money to buy records at this point in my life. I can hardly make rent. D: Do you remember which stores you saw Torres and Sprinter in for the first time? - How did that feel? T: Rough Trade East in London! It’s a surreal feeling. It’s just gratifying to know that the records are out there for people to find. I’ve released them -they don’t belong to me anymore.
T: Definitely. D: For us, in principle what you wear and how you dress is interesting, but does it seem patronising to be questions about that rather than your work? T: That is true. I’m pretty good at shutting down the style conversation as soon as it begins, though. People immediately become disinterested when I tell them I usually wear Hanes v-neck t-shirts. D: What was your first record shop experience? Do you remember what you bought and where? T: Grimey’s in Nashville. It must’ve been 2010. My mom was visiting me for
D: The role of the record shop have changed pretty drastically over the last decade… why do they matter to you and what purpose do they serve? T: From my perspective, record stores are doing better than they have in years. Those shops feel like a close friend to me, a comfort, and someplace I’m always going to be able to discover something new (to me) and lifechanging. It feels like coming home every time I walk into a record store.
Ultimate Painting During downtime from their day jobs as part of Mazes and Veronica Falls, Jack Cooper and James Hoare found time to hatch plans, swap demos and swiftly deliver one of last years most addictive jams under the name Ultimate Painting. No slouches, they have a second album out shortly with a third partially in the can. They’re making it sound easy. Deluxe: The last eighteen months must have flown past pretty quickly for you guys. As soon as you started jamming through ideas you must have known you were onto something pretty tight, but has Ultimate Painting surprised you as a project? Jack: I don’t think either of us were surprised as such. It’s been refreshing that people have been so receptive and excited about it, because I don’t think the good stuff always rises to the top, but yeah... it’s been fairly straight forward. I think we both bring something to the band that maybe the other person doesn’t... don’t ask me what those things are and it’s not completely tangible but it does feel pretty natural. D: I dig that you’ve kept momentum going with a new
record. Are you consciously now trying NOT to write any material? James: We’re starting on LP no. 3 shortly, we’re just getting the songs together now. You need to make sure the standard is as high as it can be so its wise to be writing/re writing as much of the time as possible, or at least when inspiration comes. D: What was the recording process this time around? Where did you tape it, how, with who? James: It was recorded in my flat, on an Otari Mx5050 tape machine. Alll done on analog equipment, no computers or plug ins. The Otari is the same model of machine Nirvana used to record their first LP Bleach, that’s basically why
I purchased it. I recorded/produced it but we are both involved in the process and have input in all the various stages.
releases. Are you surprised that they aren’t cited more often? - On topic, who artistically has had an impact on you as a band and this record in particular?
Jack: He records the thing, but we’re both there the whole damn time. I certainly have some input as to the sonics but I’m punching below James when it comes to production. I would just complicate matters and the idea is for everything to be very simple. He’s very good at what he does. As far as the performing goes, we split that down the middle really. Some of my songs I have pretty specific guitar lines for so I’ll record both guitars but other than that it’s 50/50 all the way... although slightly different on this record as I got kicked off the drum stool.
James: The feelies are a great band. I guess there are similarities with the Lou Reed Ostrich guitar style that they adopted, so they are an influence. I tried to go for an Abbey Road feel on one song but it didn’t quite work out. I guess classic bands. I did write a song that I thought sounded a bit like Mac Demarco but that didn’t end up sounded anything like him in the end either, the track break, the chain is obviously Beatles influenced.
D: On your new LP, ‘The Ocean’ has a reprise version a track later in the sequencing. Reprises feel like a very conscious process in producing an album. Do you think that is indicative on your approach to ‘Green Lanes’ in general? Is it more considered? Jack: No it’s fairly considered... We try to make the whole thing sit cohesively. We canned a slow one of mine and I wrote something a little bit more uptempo as the record was feeling a little downbeat. I guess the reprises just tie the whole thing together and I suppose they’re a way of embellishing a certain aspect of the parent song that we breezed over. The Ocean reprise came about because there was a variation on the chord change that James played that I thought was particularly interesting and I had an idea that’d work over it. D: The LP still feels loose, were you at all anxious about losing the freewheelin’ vibe of the first album? Jack: Yeah we were. It’s hard to replicate the initial spark of anything but we’re hoping to move fast enough to keep things from getting stale. But yeah... it’s loose but that’s a balancing act in itself. D: Talking about themes… it seems a little more maudlin than your debut. Am I way off there? Jack: No I think you’re about right. I don’t know why that is. If I did then it wouldn’t be. D: How was working with Bradley Kerl again? James, this is your flat yes? Does it seem weird to imagine your flat on the walls of record shops around the World? And Jack, Bradley created the Mazes ‘Better Ghosts’ sleeve too right? James: It is my flat. I am very fond of my bedroom so I’m happy for a painting of it to be in record stores around the world. Jack: Bradley’s the best. A super talented guy. The first sleeve wasn’t something we collaborated on really. We were really pleased when we found that particular painting but it was way more satisfying on this LP to have an idea and see someone as talented as Bradley see it though. D: Trouble In Mind have mentioned Feelies in your press
Jack: I don’t see too much of the Feelies on our records really. I love them but there’s a momentum to their music that we don’t really share. That’s kind of the thing that defines them. I’ve been reteaching myself aspects of the guitar as well, trying to learn some different ways of playing, so I’d say that’s been an influence. I’ve played for 20 years and got into some bad habits. I’ve been obsessed with the Grateful Dead for a few years. I’ll never be as good as Jerry Garcia but the way Bob Weir plays guitar and the influence of McCoy Turner has been something I’ve actively tried to learn. Figuring out weird and sparser ways of playing chords. Why play five notes in a chord when you can play two. D: Even more broadly, who are you listening to at the moment and who do you guys want to champion? James: I’ve been listen to Air, Walkie Talkie and Moon Safari, but that’s not new to me, or something that needs championing I guess. New bands - the Twerps from Melbourne, Parquet Courts from New York, the new Young Husband record sounds very good. Its not out yet but that will definitely be one to watch out for. Grimm Grimm from London. Jack: I’ve been really exploring jazz for the first time in my life. I’ve always been into the more well known things... Coltrane, Miles Davis etc but I’ve been delving pretty deep. The same with Joni Mitchell... something really clicked with her and I recently. A bunch of our friends in New York just did some recordings and I’m super into them... They’re called WALL... tightly wound post punk kinda thing but it sounds fresh. And then there are some cool London bands who I always enjoy seeing; Feature, Primitive Parts and Blueprint Blue. D: You are both London based, where do you frequent regularly and who is running a good shop right now? James: Flashback Esssex Road and Crouch End are the probably the best. They get good things coming through and the people that work there all know their stuff and are cool. They have in stores regularly which are always enjoyable. Jack: I only really go in Flashback and Rough Trade although I rarely buy anything unless I’m on tour. I tend to blow a load of money when I’m in America because it’s easier to find a bargain.
D: We are very good friends with End of an Ear in Austin TX. Dan and I were texting whilst you played in store this year… which stores have treated you well on your travels? Which shops have impressed you and why?
more like a normal show and you get a better atmosphere in a tiny place. One place I would like to play is Drift Records. Hopefully that will happen soon. D: Yeah, date.
James: I specifically wanted to play End of an Ear as i’d played there previously with Veronica Falls and liked it a lot. I know Timmy who works there, so we set the thing up. End of an Ear is particular good. Disc Union in Shibuya Tokyo impressed me greatly with its extensive range of original pressings and prices.I try and go to Blue Arrow records every time I’m in Cleveland as it’s extremely reasonably priced and has interesting things. Big Love in Tokyo also is a great shop. Extremely well selected new releases of new underground bands. Jack: I really like Weirdo Records in Boston, Blue Arrow in Cleveland and then the two Permanent Records in Chicago and LA. D: Do you like in stores? Which have gone well and which… haven’t? James: I like in stores a lot, the smaller ones are more fun, big places like Amoeba are ok to do too but they’re
Jack: I like going to the ones at Flashback in Islington... it’s more of a street drinking type of scene which I’m behind. I remember seeing James playing with Veronica Falls there and getting them for the first time. They were a breath of fresh air.
I think the first album I owned (on cassette) was Michael Jackson’s Bad. I think the first thing I bought with my own money... y’know money I’d earnt from a weekend job, were copies of ‘With The Beatles’ and ‘Doggystyle’ so that’s where I was at. D: Following on, I imagine that yours and mine will be quite intertwined James, but do you think that for the next generation of kids the raised awareness in record shops and the internet in particular have made it easier to discover new music? Are record shops doing an important job and has their role changed?
D: Do you remember your earliest record store experiences? What did you James: I think their role is as purchase and where? important as ever. It is easier to James: I remember it well. I purchased discover new music with the internet, REM’s debut EP ‘Chronic Town’ from but downloading an MP3 will never Rare Records, underneath the Civic Hall give you the same satisfaction as coming away from a record store with in Totnes. I was ten I think. I used something special. to go there regularly and was always highly excited just being in there. In those days, pre internet it was harder to gain information on bands. You had to just buy things and take a chance. As it happens that is still my favourite REM record. Jack: Yeah the first 7” I owned was the Ghostbusters theme song and then
Bags
New and old, these bags have all been hand delivered to our shop from our world travelling friends. Thanks.
Richard King For all the evangelical support and regular good PR injections surrounding indie record shops over the last few years, the most honest appraisals seem to come from folk who have spent time on the service side of the counter. Author Richard King’s latest book, Original Rockers, reminisces about the years he spent working in Bristol’s iconic Revolver Records. It is a bittersweet memoir of those bricks and mortar and a warm and funny tribute to the people and records that made the place more than just a shop. Deluxe. Do you feel there is some sort of affinity between people who have worked in record shops? There are certainly lots of weird connections; in fact, one for you is that one of the guys we have working for us at the moment is Matthew Board… grandson of … Ian Board...
never imagined wanting to do anything else and always considered working in a record shop for very little money as their primary life goal. In the right sort of environment it’s a fairly extraordinary education, both musically and in terms of understanding humanity
Richard King: That’s brilliant!
D: I think one thing i’d point out is that although it has obvious perks, working behind the counter is not always that easy is it? Customers, after all are, for the best part, utterly mental.
I think there’s a certain shared pathology, most people I know who have worked, or work, in record shops have
RK: Yes, see previous. I have friends who get quite drained with customers who they feel are only in their shop because they don’t understand how the internet works. Also it’s fairly expensive to run a record shop these days and the era of hanging around at the counter shooting the breeze may be nearing the end. A lot of shop assistants have to be working online while at work, I still see some fairly hardcore loafing occasionally, which is encouraging. D: I sensed a real resistance from Revolver to conform, to modernise at least? RK: Everything was done on the shop’s own terms so the idea of conforming or modernising would have seemed irrelevant. D: Do you think that Revolver would have lost it’s identity if it had adopted structures like marketing and barcoding? RK: Not especially, I once talked about ideas like having plants and was told it had all been tried before to no avail. I once drove out to the Mendips to buy rough cider from a farmer, flagons of which were then kept in the back room. For a few weeks we handed out glasses to customers and drank a fair bit ourselves while on duty. It was during a heatwave though, so the aroma, which was fairly ripe to begin with, grew rather strong. D: One of my favourite quotes from your book was that the customers ‘experienced music as if they were practising rituals’. For you, why are these buildings more than just a shops? RK: They are places that nowadays represent a soft form of resistance to the digitisation of everyday experience. They are solid places. For our customers Revolver was also a safe place, occasionally almost a safe house. A good deal of our clientele were from the margins of society and Revolver allowed them to feel welcome and revived, possibly inspired, certainly encouraged to carry along on their chosen path. It was a location for conversation and absurdism where time slowed down or sped up of its own accord. A circuitous debate about
A really good shop will have at least a dozen records it pushes on customers who are dubious about the suggestions, because they haven’t come across them in the media and are uncertain of the provenance, but once that trust is earned it last forever. deleted free jazz records could feel ritualistic (but you had to have a certain attitude or weakness in your psychic defence to begin with) D: Without the records lining the walls, did the building still feel like Revolver? RK: In a sense its topography - the long corridor, the virtually windowless room, the back room hidden from customers - contributed as much to its character as its stock, but walking around there seeing bare walls and open spaces felt very eerie. As though an approach to life had been stripped away along with some of the shelves D: How did you feel about the archetypal aggressive ‘record shop man’ figure? Were record shops the only form of retailing where you could adopt such a negative attitude towards customers? Is it a good thing that post
‘High Fidelity’ most of those figures have had to ‘modernise’ and tone it down? RK: I have never read ‘High Fidelity’ or watched the film but I assume there is a blokeish quality to it that sees life through a prism of banter, football and music? To be honest I have only encountered such behaviour in record shops rarely. Many of those I know have female employees or owners and are fairly enlightened and progressive places. D: Conversely, there is a section in the book where Roger (the shop owner) asks a potential Galaxie 500 customer “Did you like the last one?... Well buy this one then” - Although a little cantankerous, he had a point right? RK: Absolutely, that customer was me and I have since been lucky enough to reissue the Galaxie 500 catalogue for Domino.
D: Have the successful new modern shops become a little bit cookie cutter? Is there a danger of being insipid? Record shops need edge don’t they? RK: They certainly do, the hashtagification of everything certainly doesn’t help develop individuality. Like most people I have fairly mixed feelings about RSD and the homogeneity the day produces. I also struggle with the sense of ownership it has over ‘the record buying experience’. But shops need to do all they can to drive sales and regular custom. This means taking a broad approach, hence the cookie cutter effect you mention. Great record shops trust their instincts and those of their clients though. D: Do you feel that most records will find an audience one day? You talk about David Crosby’s ‘If I Could Only Remember My Name’ finding a new generation of fans some thirty odd years after it’s release. Do all albums have a life of their own? RK: I’d like to say yes but I’m not sure it’s always the case, now, everything is available, and I think the perceived esoteric value of a lost record is less than it was, however............. D: It’s interesting to me the amount of re-issues and prominent re-issue labels (Light in the Attic, Numero, Anthology Recordings) - Do you think people are looking backwards as hard as they are looking forward? RK: .....Partly this stems I think from wanting to escape the permanent digital now, and digging around what lurks undiscovered in the past, and can be re-evaluated, has a different appeal to what it may have done before the internet. Also a LITA release is often beautifully presented and very engaging but the hype stops there. It’s quite a relief not to know what x band member said about x non-event on social media. I think people enjoy the different speed at which reissues enter the consciousness with the minimum of background noise. These are music first labels with a deep love of their subject and people respond accordingly. One could argue there is no such thing as an underground anymore, music is present and there it is - a hitherto unknown, deeply
obscure, privately pressed release that is given the Numero or LITA treatment is perhaps representative of what ‘underground’ means today. By this contortion a record like “L’Amour’ by Lewis can seem avant garde. D: You speak a little bit about Sarah Records. What do you think made the label so enduring … whilst never really being well known? RK: I think that has a great deal to do with the personalities involved; the people in the bands, Matt and Clare who ran the label and the audience who bought the records, all of whom I think it’s fair to say, thrived in an environment of intense, friendly, rather introverted correspondence. D: Looks like a good clean copy of The Sea Urchins’ “Pristine Christine” will go for about £350 these days. Did you keep hold of the copy you were playing in the shop? RK: No chance, my friend sold his copy for £400 a few years ago though D: What was your earliest record shop experience on the shopping side of the counter? RK: Buying ‘The Model’ by Kraftwerk fairly rural area and its stock reflected the population, there was a great in WH Smith Newport deal of roots and second generation krautrock along with things like John D: Which record shops have had the Fahey and Sandy Denny. This sort of biggest influence on you over the ‘terroir’ is always good in a used record years? Which shops on your travels shop. have really impressed you? RK: All the Amoeba stores are pretty incredible. The Berkley one had some great second hand jazz about ten years ago. The first time I visited the Hollywood branch I felt the same rush I had when entering Revolver (it’s obviously on rather a different scale). In the 90s the Rough Trade Covent Garden branch was very special to me, as is Monorail in Glasgow today. Hard Wax in Berlin is a wonderful environment, Replay, another Bristol shop, had remarkable and cheap second hand records for 15 years, and the first time I went to New York in the early 90s places like Kim’s Underground and Rocks In Your Head felt very happening, as did this incredible jazz shop in Gronigen, but I forget the name. Cob in Porthmadog was a wonderful shop in a
D: Lastly, for you, what makes a good record shop? What is essential? RK: Musical knowledge is the sine qua non along with a rejection of both the canon and obvious contemporary trends. A really good shop will have at least a dozen records it pushes on customers who are dubious about the suggestions, because they haven’t come across them in the media and are uncertain of the provenance, but once that trust is earned it last forever. There’s nothing like after hours in a record shop either, an extra half an hour hang out after closing time with maybe a beer and a discursive chat about whatever has landed that week. That takes some beating.
Brian Case The Anglo-Irish son of a Deptford cop, Brian Case got hooked on Charlie Parker at the age of 12 and never looked back. For five decades, writing for NME, Melody Maker, Time Out and latterly Uncut and The Times, his distinctive hard-bitten voice rapped out pieces on a thrilling after-midnight world of jazz, film and hard-boiled fiction. The recently published ‘On the Snap’ is a collection of conversations recounting some of his most memorable encounters – from Chet Baker and The Sex Pistols to Jack Nicholson and Michael Caine. It was the first time we had interviewed a professional interviewer; the hope was he’d go easy on us. Deluxe: I thought you seemed very fair in interview with people. Knowing, for example with Tom Waits, that you were not particularly enamoured with his output, does it make it harder to interview someone or do you try and remain as impartial as possible? Brian Case: I wasn’t crazy about his stuff, but I wasn’t really in the market for that sort of thing. I don’t know how to
explain it. I thought he was probably really good but it felt to me something like… like the beat past, Nelson Algren maybe. It didn’t strike me as terribly original and of course his voice (laughing ) … you can’t believe that. I quite liked him as a bloke, he was alright. It wasn’t hard to remain impartial because he is a likeable man and although I wasn’t crazy about his work, I had done an enormous amount of research on him and It had to be researched into as I wasn’t
Brain Case, illustrated by Joe Ciardiello
a follower. I had plenty to ask him and he gave me very good answers. A lot of these things I was doing were for papers that were not central to Jazz or specifically Tom Waits, so I very often got stuck with people that I felt nothing but contempt for… you get stuck with that, and then you end up doing swaps. - ‘I’ll do two of your crappy people but I must have one of my jazz people’ - when the swapping gets to be about five of theirs to one of yours you know that you should really try for another paper. D: Following on from that, who has really won you over in person after you may have approached apprehensively?
O’Toole had a reputation for being a bit of a bastard in interview, so I approached him with some trepidation, but the first interview I did with him he was an absolute sweetheart. He was smoking with his usual cigarette holder and it fell out and went down the back of the sofa and we quickly had to try and put out the fire, so a good ice breaker. He was very good on drink, very articulate and in fact his own autobiography is absolutely terrific stuff. Not like any of the ‘my good friends is...’ type of show business crap, his stuff is really very good as I found him to be splendid company for a good couple of hours. D: Your piece on Richard Harris cracked me up...
BC: Well there were quite a few I BC: I liked the over top Irish-ness approached apprehensively, I am not of him. I didn’t actually see him fall a tremendously pushy person, not exactly shy, but slightly timorous. Peter over the top into the arctic sea and
get rescued nearly dead with cold. Phoning up all of his ex-wives is so vain glorious, quite wonderful in that way and that was really what he was like. D: It seems he was hard not to like, but hard to be anywhere near? I spoke to John Hurt about working with him on a film. He said ‘oh you must understand that he (Harris) is the only one on a screen and there are times where you’d like to throw an old horse blanket over him’ (laughing ) Another one I was slightly apprehensive about speaking to, not necessarily on my own account, more that Time Out, where I was at the time, seemed to have a little bit of a political down on her Marxist views was Vanessa Redgrave, but I did her, and Christ, we got on famously. She shared all my roll up cigarettes, rolling up fags and
Frank Sinatra photographed by David Redfern
talking on and on and on. She did talk a lot about politics but very intelligently and I didn’t necessarily disagree with her. D: I’d also say that you do not come across as ever being particularly starstruck. Is that in any way a conscious decision? Who has particularly excited you at the prospect of interviewing? BC: No, I really wasn’t. Probably as I was so ancient, I was more star struck by interviewing John Gielgud than anyone else. Alongside Olivier and Richardson who had been the gods of my early teens, knights of the boards and I felt ‘Gielgud, Christ, I’ll never get to do him’. The sort of person my mother would have said “wow, he’s done John Gielgud!”. I found him almost absurdly courtly and polite, including me in things I couldn’t possibly have been part of, he said things like “Well when I was having dinner with Gershwin… were you friends with Gershwin?” (laughing ) I kept having to apologize, ‘No sir John, I am afraid I wasn’t’. He kept trying to drag me into things, being polite incase he was treading on your toes, delightful. About every quarter of an hour he’d say “Would you like a Tea or would you rather have a white wine?” - He was of Polish extraction and I hadn’t expected how emotional he would be. He started crying a couple of times, because all his dames had started popping off, he sat there crying. He popped off shortly after but he was a terribly human man. I was quite nervous and excited about interviewing Jack Nicholson, as I knew he was very intelligent indeed, a lot of the best actors in my experience are. Nicholson and (Meryl) Streep were the best of the best. D: I can well imagine, Nicholson seems kind of terrifying. You can detect him in every character can’t you? BC: It comes over in the interview too, he’s a great man for lulling the tongue out at woman and stuff like that, He is shameless really.Streep was very poised, terribly vulnerable. You might think of her as an ice maiden of something, but I asked her how she felt about the reviews she was getting from Pauline Kael . She had a down on Streep and would say ‘she looks like a hen, her
eyes are too close to each other on the side of her head and her beaklike nose; thats just unfair, and would describer her as being ‘a very good ventriloquist’. Did you ever read Kael? D: No, I don’t ever recognise the name if I am honest? BC: And did you ever have dinner with Gershwin? (laughing ) - Streep said she felt absolutely crippled by Kael. She’s been having a go at her right from the start of her career when she was astonishing most of us. She never gave up and never gave her a crack of the whip. Streep said the awful thing was that she loved Pauline Kael’s writing and agreed with her critique on almost everything, but when it came to her, that’s what really hurt. Her vulnerability made me like her a lot more. D: Conversely, it’s a frequently uttered rule to try and avoid meeting your heroes... BC: No, I didn’t avoid them. When they became available I did them. D: Have there been any people you wish you hadn’t met over the years? BC: Well, not exactly that, now I know what they are like they were either pretty bastardly or thick. Tommy Lee Jones… horrible! I’ve done him two or three times and he really hates the press. I admire him as an actor but he had nothing but contempt for me and my sort. For stupidity, Dannii Minogue. I didn’t fight to get to her.. she is as thick as shit. Eddie Murphy was very hostile, and flash, in your face. I liked him, I thought he was very funny but he was very unpleasant. He had a bunch of his mates in the room and it was very hostile. In that situation he was playing to his friends. I think there were Black/White things going on D: Did you encounter much racism? BC: I didn’t run into much of that in Jazz. American Jazz men when they came to the one European fan, which was me, they are pretty pleased you know. I did Richard Prior and he certainly had no undertones. He wasn’t very forthcoming, having said
that but that was due to his problems more than anything. D: We’ll talk later about Chet Baker, but I guess with prominent drug abusers you never know who you are going to get? BC: I think thats right. Most actors are of an uncertain temperament anyway. Ironically, O’Toole on subsequent interviews was absolutely putrid. He didn’t want to do it, didn’t want to talk, very dismissive. It depends on whether you are the eleventh person into the hotel room as well, terminally boring. D: I’ve always been a big Chet Baker fan, but I am guessing he could be pretty depressing company? Do you feel that you ever saw the ‘real’ Chet? I’d read that he was hyper aware of ‘charming’ people constantly. BC: I liked him, a good trumpeter, and I liked him. I don’t particularly care for the spell he casts, thats all. I was extremely sorry for him, I thought he was pretty pitiful as a bloke, towards the end of his life when we went out of the window. D: How near to the end of his life did you meet him? BC: I think about three of four years of something. I read cuttings on Chet, I thought maybe being on the road with him i’d get something different, but I really didn’t. D: The irony with Chet is that he did live a long life... BC: Good grade stuff… Same with William Burroughs, he went on till he was about eighty and he was on it constantly without cease. Real lab condition stuff. He died at the same age as James Stewart (laughing) he’s got to be Mr.Clean? D: Is there anyone you would have really of loved to have interviewed that you didn’t get the opportunity to? BC: Yeah, I don’t think I would have done very well with any of them, but they were people I thought were considerable. Lester Young, there is only one interview with him and you
really need a glossary. He speaks in his own language, it was done by a French man and he (Young) talks about himself in the third person.I would have loved to have been in the presence. Love his music. Sinatra… you’d be scared though really wouldn’t you? Getting into that nest of Italians. I had a friend David Redfern the photographer who inherited filming Sinatra at the Albert Hall. His job was to be in the wings and to unobtrusively take photos of Sinatra on stage. He did about three nights and looked at his stuff and thought it was all very average. Finally Sinatra sent for him and he went via all sorts of Mafiosa up to the top suite and Sinatra said “what do you think?” David said he thought they were pretty average, so Sinatra said “What do you need to get stuff at your peak”. It came down to light and Sinatra said “I tell you what David, there is a shot I always wanted and haven’t got. Me, post set, coming off stage to the audience, towel around my neck, bow-tie loose, sweating maybe and seeing the faces of the people I have been singing to. All very clear, seeing their emotion. What would you need for that?” David explained about the footlights at the front of the stage and how it was the only way he could really get them all in focus. Sinatra just said “Be ready tomorrow night”. In the night Sinatra’s people obeyed God’s voice and fitted lighting under the seats of the first ten rows and David got the shots of his life. Sinatra was happy and called David up asking what he thought. David said they were the best shots of his life Sinatra just shook his hands and said “Thanks, nice working with you.” D: Was there anyone who you think didn’t get captured all that well in Interviews? BC: He wasn’t insanely bright, but Elvis. Clint (Eastwood) but only about Jazz, because I know he loves Jazz
and hasn’t been gratefully chased on that. Paul Newman, he just didn’t like interviews or the press. His son died I think of an overdose and I think he had a hard time then, he didn’t do many interviews. I always thought he was a good bloke. (laughing) He was on Nixon’s hit list so he was probably a damn good bloke. D: I really enjoyed your recommended viewing, reading and listening section at the back of the book. Is that ever evolving or have you really nailed down your ‘essentials’? BC: Yes, it is, or course. Many many more, it goes on, I am explosively delighted when I find someone new. On the Noir stuff, someone I have just been reminded of as I picked it up in an Oxfam was a Northern Irish writer called Eoin McNamee. His book is called ‘Orchard Blue’, that is as noir as you can get. I am preferring that to Elroy at the moment. You feel the horror of that sectarian society. D: You have spoken about live music, Jazz and venues like Ronnie Scott’s being a formative experience on you. How early on did recorded music have an impact? Where did record shops fall into the story? BC: Probably about 12 years old, three specific 78’s (Earl Bostic’s ‘Flamingo’, one by Charlie Parker and one by Stan Getz and the Swedish All Stars.). At the Golden Age of the Jazz Record Shops there was, what I regarded as, a Bermuda triangle. Every friday I would go to these three shops and use up my paycheck, it would disappear in the triangle. It was, Dobells, Rays and James Asmans, alll within a hundred yards of each other, loved them. There were little wars going on in the listening booths. In Dobells someone who didn’t like modern jazz had written “Monk Eats Shoes”.
D: Do you remember the first time you bought music? BC: Well I am afraid to say it was George Shearing “Slowly but surely” on 78, I liked the sound of the vocal sound on it. I haven’t got it now (laughing) and shouldn’t necessarily want to associate with it anymore. Getting into the LP era it was early Sonny Rollins, Jackie McLean, Miles Davis.. the usual suspects. D: What makes for a good record shop? BC: (laughing) That is has a lot of Jazz. A good second hand section, where all sorts of things turn up that you had more or less written off. They are a dying breed now, particularly in London.
Brian kindly let us print his encounter with Chet Baker from ‘On The Snap’. The book is available now and very high recommended.
Chet Baker I can remember that Chet was major despondent. A black cloud marking time. Why was I interviewing him? No particular reason. The Jazz Centre Society just asked me if I’d like to go on the road with him, and I said yes. - Brian Case. I wasn’t crazy about Chet, in the same way that I wasn’t really crazy about Miles. There’s a certain sort of trumpeter who seems to exude a lot of self-pity – Chet did, sometimes Miles did. Aggressive, I preferred. But I knew I was on to a winner in terms of writing about him. Actually, shortly after the piece came out, Derek Bailey grabbed me and said, ‘I loved the thing you did on Chet.’ Writing about fallen angels is schtick. It’s a genre. I talked to Derek about that and he laughed. He was in flight from genre. It’s such a well-trodden story, Young Man With a Horn, that book about Bix, all that stuff. His music? I don’t think he played badly. He was terribly professional. He never lost his love of playing properly and playing as well as he could. He’d sing melodies to me sitting on his bed. Twardzik’s ‘The Girl From Greenland’. He was still nuts about that music. The best image in the piece is me walking around some Midlands tank town in the rain looking for an Indian or somewhere to eat at 11 at night and I suddenly realized I’d lost Chet. He wasn’t with me, he was about 100 yards back, camel coat with the belt lost and the cigarette burns, gazing in a pawn-shop window. I asked why he was looking, and he pointed to the trumpet and said, ‘I was trying to see the name. You never know what a horn like that is gonna sound like.’ That’s great, isn’t it? The first time I ever heard him play I was in New York, not working for any paper, just a jazz nut. I looked in the Village Voice and there was a gig going on in a Strykers Bar. It was the Lee Konitz–Wilbur Little duo. I thought, ‘That’s for me. I’ll go to that.’ Anyway, it was terrific and then in the gloom, I heard this desolate trumpet and it sounded familiar. There was someone sitting right back on the stage amongst the stacked chairs. He had a Stetson on and cowboy boots. And it was Chet and he just played. He stayed in the shadows the whole time. You could see the light on the big African amethyst ring on his pinkie. ‘Mister Chet,’ breathed the bartender.
When I was on the road with him, Chet was travelling in a big people carrier and I joined him in that. The piano player was driving, I think. Chet didn’t make much conversation, just sat there dumped. He looked like a skull. Every so often he’d say something mournful. Out of nowhere, he’d say, ‘If I asked you, would you kill me?’ You felt like saying, ‘C’mon, Chet, pull yourself together!’ I think he meant it though, he really did feel that bad. He was dreading doing an interview and kept eluding me. At one point he cheered up. At least, I supposed he cheered up. A young Frenchman, in his early twenties, I guess, turned up and he and Chet retired to a private space. They’d obviously fixed and he was a bit more tractable at that time. He spoke highly of things in the past – except Mulligan, they’d obviously quarrelled badly. He didn’t want to speak about a lot of people because he’d shopped them, I suppose. He did talk about being picked to play with Bird. When Bird was on the west coast, he looked to audition a trumpet player to join him, and he chose Chet. That was before Mulligan, before Chet was known at all. There are records of him with Bird. At that stage he was similar to Miles, a little less hesitant, maybe. I talk in the piece about putting him to bed and his dentures and all that stuff. His James Dean years had gone when co-eds had swooned clean out of their saddle oxfords, as someone memorably wrote. At the gigs, I could see middleaged women who thought they could save him from himself. When I left him, he gave me an Austrian schilling and said, ‘Have one on me,’ like someone in a ghost story. When I heard he’d died, fallen out of the Amsterdam hotel window, on the nod, I suppose, I was very upset to hear it.
Viet Cong As massive fans of Chad Vangaalen, Women and pretty much everything their hands have touched, Viet Cong were always going to be a band we went overboard for, but from the first brooding bars of their Cassette EP it was evident they had tapped once again into a dark and hypnotic musical vein. We spoke to Matt Flegel about his band, their first full album and the Calgary cold. Deluxe: Whenever we speak to Canadian bands, we often get the vibe that you spend a large part of the year surviving the elements
those eight month. So this record was definitely a product of that, locking ourselves in the basement and not wanting to go outside for anything.
Matt Flegel: (laughing ) yeah, that is generally true.
D: How about playing live, How supportive a scene for playing live is Calgary?
D: Is playing in bands a way of keeping warm? MF: It depends, for us a lot of it has to do with the fact that it is winter eight months of the year so you kind of need a project to get you through
MF: I think so. It’s funny, we haven’t really played Calgary that often. I don’t live in Calgary anymore, I actually moved away to the west coast in December. We played there since then just once, and we’re playing again
in July. I’ve played more times in… London, then I have in Calgary in the last six months. D: So it doesn’t feel like a homecoming? MF: I mean it does sort of feel that way. A lot of our friends are still there so in that way it does and it is extremely supportive and very tight knit, but it is also kind of stressful playing live in your home town , as it’s all your friends. It’s easy playing to strangers (laughing ).
D: How was recording with (Holy Fuck’s) Graham Walsh? MF: Oh man, Graham is great. He was right on the top of our list of people to work with and it all just ended up falling into place. It was all very last minute. We are talking about ten days before we actually got into the studio, organising everything and getting in there. He’s great though and an old friend so it was very comfortable… an old friend who just happens to be an engineering wizard. D: That helps right... MF: Yeah, very convenient. D: Did you feel like you were able to focus more on producing the music and your performance rather than the specific technical aspect of recording? MF: Yeah, it was the main idea really. We kinda grew up and recorded in basement studios and garage studios a bunch before. Monty our guitar player is pretty good at the technical aspects… he’s like a conduit between a lot of my ideas and I guess putting them into the technical world of recording music. D: In terms of cassette (your first release), I read an interview at the time where you spoke about being in part-time jobs. It feels like it’s all blown up around you pretty quick. MF: Yeah, definitely. Well, actually, when did that even come out? I don’t know. Cassette is like… I don’t even really consider that a proper release, kind of thing. It had our name on it but it was mostly just me and Monty kind of fucking around in his basement. With the LP that came out in January, that was very much more the product of all four of us as ‘a band’ D: I dig Cassette, but your LP felt very much more crystalline, like it was all in focus... MF: Yeah, it is a band effort, four of us playing in a room, you know? D: I think it comes across. That’s why, certainly to my understanding, people have got into it as you’ve made a document of you as a band… like, they might see this if they see you live? Is that naive? MF: No, that makes sense. D: (laughing ) I wasn’t trying to get a promise or anything…. is this what I am going to see live? yes or no? MF: (laughing ) - Thats fine. I can’t promise. D: The aesthetic of the band feels all very locked in. Is that all of you together creating or does someone take point on that side of the process? MF: We didn’t have anything to do with the music videos. I mean, we had the final say and we dig that both of the directors that worked on those videos were kind of in our
same head space and liked the same films and books as us. The imagery, the cover art was essentially based on a photos I found in an old book. We actually couldn’t’ find the owner of the photos so we… well… (laughing ) just recreated it. We hired a photographer to re-create the set up, as we couldn’t find any information, and you know we wanted to avoid any legal complications or issues. D: In my experience a bunch of bands would have just cut the corner and used the original… MF: I would have, but it’s not just necessarily my choice. D: Going back home (although I know now you have moved) where is good for record shopping? MF: In Calgary there were two or three we’d sort of hang out in or use. There is Hot Wax, run by some good friends, which is great. Very big used sections, good prices, like if you don’t have much money you can go to the basement and have a rummage through and always find something in there. I think for newer stuff there is a shop called Melodiya and they do all kinds of stuff, like reissues and are more focused on newer vinyl. There’s also a place called Recordland in Calgary that is pretty much all used. That place is mad, a real cluster fuck of a record store which is exactly what you’d want. You can’t have more than like two people in the isles at any one time, floor to ceiling, like fifteen foot high crammed with like everything. You can easily get lost in that place. There is a great place called Fascinating Rhythm in Nanaimo where I just moved and that is really great. I haven’t spent a load of time there yet but I feel like that is going to be my record shop. D: What makes for a good record shop? MF: (laughing ) Records man! It can be any genre, it can be anything. For me I like the idea of rummaging through bins and finding used treasures, that is my favorite thing and I think a good record shop, if they
don’t have something that you’d want, will order it in right? D: So I guess somewhere in between…. helping people out, finding things and just everything dumped right in the middle of the store for you to find your own path? MF: It’s funny though, I don’t know if it’s like it in the UK, but in Canada there is this cliche of the surley record shop owner, who just don’t want any shit… (laughing ) He fucking knows what record you are looking for and he knows he has it but he won’t help you out… you have to just go in and search for it on your own. We get a few of those kind of characters in Canada. D: … I think he lives in the UK too…. MF: It’s like its part of the aesthetic, you need an old, surly, musician.. (laughing ), ‘FAILED musician’ running the shop .. and he won’t fucking help, and he hates you and your band in your tight jeans. D: How about on tour, where have you come across you liked? MF: Ah man, there is so little time to try and go and get to a shop but I always end up with a bag at the end of a tour with records from other bands that we played with, which is a nice thing too. Stuff you might not have heard before I guess, little reminders of that band live, supporting eachother. D: I guess in towns that don’t have a strong, vibrant indie store, the merch’ table is going to be the closest thing to a shop right? MF: Exactly. Obviously a lot of bands rely on selling records to just get by. D: What was your first record shop experience? What did you buy? MF: (Laughs) Well, i’ll admit that it definitely wasn’t at a record shop… probably gonna say, a K-Mart or like a department store and I am pretty sure it was… Young MC, Stone Cold Rhymin’... a tape… I grew up on cassettes, that was the medium for me and I think it was probably my first. If not that, then it was something equally
shitty, or shittier like MC Hammer. D: Young MC to MC Hammer in one purchase. MF: I’m not proud i’m just honest man. I still have a soft spot for Young MC so I really shouldn’t be slagging him off. D: He might read this... MF: Exactly, if he’s still alive, I don’t know, he might read it.
Paradise of Bachelors Brendan Greaves and Christopher Smith are folklorists and collectors, committed to indepth research, compelling curation, respectful collaborations and beautiful presentations of music. As Paradise of Bachelors they are a record label, a recording company, a Soundsystem and an archive located in pastoral North Carolina. They are one of a select handful of labels whose releases we buy as a precedent, everything they have released has spun long on our stereo and sat proud on our shelves. We called up Paradise.
Deluxe: Day to day, who is involved in PoB and how did it all come together? Christopher Smith: There are many of us! Brendan and I do the main stuff you’d typically associate with a label: curation, A&R, writing, design, manufacturing, etc. Our wives Samantha and Constance are integral, covering our books, office management, photography, and plenty of the typical label stuff. Same for our crop of interns. They all contribute above and beyond what we’d imagined possible. We have plenty of friends who continue to assist, inspire, and keep the boat chugging along. It just came together out of necessity, a very organic and holistic result of collected energies and focus.
us, naturally. Brendan and I are both classic Yanks; I still live in Philadelphia. Brendan and Sam moved to NC for grad school and that exposure was fundamental. D: What makes for a good record shop? And more tellingly, what makes for a bad record shop? CS: Good shops are well curated and low on the dead stock. You can drink a beer there, or a few. There’s a community and a guy like Harmonica Dan. D: Which shops have been particularly good supporters of your label? Who was first to really get onboard?
CS: There are so many! All Day Records, Harvest, Bull City, D: Over your first twenty releases, what has been the biggest Philadelphia Record Exchange, Other Music, Academy, you guys. It doesn’t feel right to select a few. lesson you’ve learned? CS: It’s more work than you think it will be and plenty more than that! Stick with your gut and trust your partners. D: You know that we’re fans; do you feel that your catalogue is telling a broader story than the individual records together? ‘Paradise of Bachelors’ feels like a vibe that is pulling these works of art together. Was that intended from the outset?
D: Jumbo, a superb English Inside shop in Leeds, chose Steve Gunn’s “Way Out Weather” as their 2014 record of the Year. - Did you expect your releases to reach out as far so early? CS: We knew Steve would blow folks away. He’s never going to stop! He’s just incredible and a complete natural. Working with him has been a huge blessing and pleasure.
CS: Yes, we intended to create something more than a summation of albums and musical tastes under the PoB banner. Brendan and I come from art, film, and folklore backgrounds, along with music. We’ve both worked extensively as curators, writers, filmmakers, musicians, in academia, the whole shebang. We still do! Our day to day lives lack a specific feeling of separation or compartmentalization of these things. We read science fiction, a record comes in and a song reminds us of one of the magics in that book, however it sounds like a DAC vibe, too. Brendan’s son Asa dances to it, his motion recalls something we saw in a film or a party we went to 10 years ago. The convo at that party had to do with HC Westerman, one of his sculptures influencing a design idea. We’ll smoke some trout out back and further discuss. It just keeps going that way; perpetual narrative and hopefully inspiration to contribute to the line.
D: I have to confess to knowing very little about Mike Cooper until you reissued some of his work. How did the reissues of Places I Know/The Machine Gun Co. and Trout Steel come about? Did you get to spend anytime with Mike? Was it a personal project to you?
D: MC Taylor, Nathan Bowles, William Tyler, Steve Gunn and Nathan Salsburg are some of the nicest guys and most passionate artists we’ve met through the shop; I am sure it helps but is liking your artists important to you? Do they need to get the Bachelor vibe?
CS: Kenny is a sweet, humble guy. He’s been a pleasure to work with.
CS: They just do. These folks are friends. There’s no real litmus or anything like that; we sort of make an automatic connection with all of our artists. I wish the world could see the first encounter with Chance; to me, that’s what being on the same page plays out like. Manifestation. D: So stretching that out a bit broader, where on your travels across the USA has particularly impressed you? CS: We’ve been all over the place! The South has influenced
CS: When I first partnered up with Brendan, Mike Cooper was one of the first ideas we had. He was well known enough among the record folk, however never really celebrated with a reintroduction. It was personal, as we love his music and had to deal with layer upon layer of major label detritus to see it through. We’ve met Mike on the phone, email, Skype many times. He is the man. D. Now a record that we are currently obsessed with is Kenny Knight’s “Crossroads”. I guess the same question as Mike, how was it working with Kenny? On paper he comes across as an utterly charming guy.
D: Over the last few years there have been some amazing success stories with reissued works (in particular Light in the Attic and Rodriguez) - do you think people are actively looking backwards for lost gems? CS: It sure seems that way. There’s a lot to look for and listen to.
It’s more work than you think it will be and plenty more than that! Stick with your gut and trust your partners.
ESSENTIAL ALBUMS OF 2015
BLANCK MASS DUMB FLESH
THE HOLYDRUG COUPLE MOONLUST
THE CHARLATANS MODERN NATURE
JENNY HVAL APOCALYPSE, GIRL
V/A - A MONSTROUS PSYCHEDELIC BUBBLE: THE WIZARDS OF OZ
MOON DUO SHADOW OF THE SUN
CALEXICO EDGE OF THE SUN
FOLLAKZOID III
V/A TOO SLOW TO DISCO 2
JON HOPKINS LATE NIGHT TALES
YUCATAN UWCH GOPA’R MYNYDD
LUKE ABBOTT MUSIC FOR A FLAT LANDSCAPE
Sacred Bones
Festival Records
How Do You Are
Sacred Bones
Sacred Bones
Late Night Tales
BMG Rights
City Slang
Recordiau Coll
Available at Drift Records Support your local Independent Record Store
Sacred Bones
Sacred Bones
Buffalo Temple
Mike Giant Artist Mike Giant first made his mark with spraypaint back in 1989 and he hasn’t stopped writing his name down since. His bold black and white style is iconic and instantly recognisable across walls, skateboards, canvases, skin and the attire of the REBEL8 brand he co-helms with Joshy D. He is one of the most celebrated and versatile artists of his generation. He took time out to talk to us about art and music. Deluxe: I feel like there is a lot of tradition in your work. Do you feel like there is a strong sense of morality even in instances of more illicit outlets like street art, tattooing and specific gang culture? Mike Giant: Morality is subjective. Not everyone has the same moral background. What I think is acceptable you may find horrifying. As far as respect for the law as an extension of morality, obviously graffiti writers, drug dealers and gangsters don’t follow the status quo’s code of conduct. But I know from personal experience that supposed
criminals can exhibit far higher moral character than my civilian friends. I treat everyone as an individual and I judge moral character on one’s deeds. D: Public awareness and acceptance of tattooing has become much more mainstream these days, does that amuse you as someone who worked in the culture before it’s heightened awareness? MG: I think it’s great. To me it’s a sign of a big change in the planet as a whole. At 19 years old, I never thought
tattoos, graffiti art and marijuana would become parts of mainstream American culture. It blows my mind, and I remind myself that soon everyone under 30 will outnumber those over 30. In a supposedly democratic society like America’s, that means a huge shift in voting power. With more voting power comes more access to radical change, like the decriminalization of marijuana. What’s next? The dismantling of the corporate food system? The dissolution of the Federal (Corporate) government? The end of fossil fuels? D: I thought it was fascinating hearing you talk about San Francisco pre and post gentrification. Do you feel that the city is moving towards a good place right now? You are still a SF native right? MG: I left SF in 2012. By then the vast majority of my friends had already left because they couldn’t afford to stay. I got tired of paying $2000 for a tiny apartment. So when REBEL8 had to move to LA I followed soon after. I lived in downtown LA for a year (which sucked) then moved to Boulder, Colorado. Since April of 2014 I’ve been living in a small rented house on a large piece of land with a barn that I
use as studio. Big change from all my years in SF. I get back to SF about once a year and to be honest it gets harder to return every time. The city has changed so much. It lost so much of it’s heart. It used to be the city you moved to because there was nowhere else for you to go. It was a joke to the rest of America, full of queers and artists and hippies, but to outsiders like myself, it was home. We could let it all hang out. It was so free and fun and dangerous. Now it’s the destination for internet tycoons. Fuck it. They can have it. D: Where in the city is a good place to hang out? If you had a few days of downtime where would you want to relax? Frankly I’d get out of the city. All my spots in the city are gone or overcrowded now. I’d take BART to the East Bay, visit the Berkeley campus, dig for records at Amoeba, then get something to eat on Telegraph. I’d stop by Temple Tattoo in downtown Oakland too. Then I’d hunt for murals in the area (there’s LOTS), walk over to Lake Merritt. Then, depending on the time of day, I
At 19 years old, I never thought tattoos, graffiti art and marijuana would become parts of mainstream American culture. It blows my mind, and I remind myself that soon everyone under 30 will outnumber those over 30.
might stop for a drink at the The Ruby Room on the way back to the BART train. D: I’ve read a number of interviews with you where you (very eloquently) discuss Buddhism, ecology and society… it seems like a juxtapose to your origins in street art? MG: First of all, just to clarify, I’m a graffiti writer. It’s insulting to me as a graffiti writer to be lumped together with “street artists”. As a writer, I’m trying to develop my name, a single word, over a lifetime. It’s a very particular activity with a very particular history and code of conduct. Street Art is wide open, lacking any fundamental connecting factor other than the fact that it’s done in public. I have very little respect for most street artists and and even less interest in street art in general, but I would still rather see that bullshit than corporate advertising. As for my interests in Buddhism, ecology and society, I feel like I was born with an interest in these things. My last name is LeSage. It means “The Wise Man” in French. I am from a bloodline of tall, whitehaired mystics. I was brought up with Freemason ideas about fairness and working hard. I grew up in upstate New York, spending much of my time in the forest behind my house. My father was in local politics when I was a child and my mother has worked in Human Resources most of my life. From their example, I was exposed early on to the dynamics of societies and working class relationships. All of these things came way before graffiti writing and criminal activity. D: I think what I am getting at, did you want to make the art because it was a great medium or was being bad part of the draw? MG: I’ve been drawing since I could hold a crayon, and admittedly, I did write on the walls straight away, but being bad was never a draw for me. Being punished always sucked. I just liked to draw. Still do. D: You have made a couple of prominent musical collaborations in the last few years (Major Lazer featuring Pharrell “Aerosol Can” video and the Blink
182 ‘Neighborhood’ sleeve) Do you feel an affinity between Music and Art? MG: Of course. Almost every waking hour of the day, I’m listening to music. Oddly, I never wear headphones though. I quit using them for no real reason after a meditation retreat in France in 2003. But yes, I find myself very much inspired and influenced by the music I listen to. It’s very important to me. That said, I do very much enjoy silent meditation practice, as well as long walks in nature. I find equal inspiration in the sound of a brook, a Beethoven symphony and a DJ Shadow mixtape. D: I thought it was interesting that your biography read “punk, rock, hiphop…” Did you move from one to the next? did you listen to them exclusively individually? MG: I grew up around a mix of music, but Rock would be the first genre that
really stands out. My parents love classic rock. I grew up listening to Steppenwolf and Pink Floyd. My first record was Kiss - Love Gun. I was a metalhead through my early teens. I wore tour shirts every day. Hip-hop hit my streets a little later, just before punk exploded on the scene. I listened to all three genres simultaneously, amongst other things too. If I like it, I’ll buy it. I don’t care what other people think about it. D: It’s not like i’ve been google stalking you or anything, but i’ve seen you wearing a Black Flag T-shirt a few times. So you were definitely into postpunk. which other scenes have really gripped you? MG: I’ve never been into scenes, just individual bands. You might have just as easily caught me in a Bauhaus or Iron Maiden T-shirt. Most punk bands don’t appeal to me to be honest. I always liked Black Flag though.
D: What is your record store history? Where did you grow up with and do you remember your first purchase? (What release and what format?) MG: The K-Mart near my house in Albuquerque was my first record store. It’s where I got that first Kiss record. I shopped at a big local record store near my house through my early teens. When I was in high school, a small record shop opened in the mall nearby. I got my first punk rock stuff there. I remember asking the guy at the shop about punk rock and he handed me The Dead Kennedys - Frankenchrist. He told me that the PMRC was trying to ban it because the record packaging included a print called “Penis Landscape” by H.R. Giger. I bought it on the spot thinking, “This has to be gnarly!” I’ve loved The Dead Kennedys and Giger (RIP) ever since. D: Which Record stores have had a prominent impact on you? Why?
MG: Over my lifetime, I’ve bought most of my music from Amoeba Records in SF. They have the best selection I’ve ever seen, and I’ve bought lots of music there based on employee recommendations. They really know their shit. Their stores in Berkeley and LA are just as good.
both Reckless locations. I found some gems at Jazz Record Mart too. The dude working there was stoked that I smelled like weed. I also bought an old Gene Krupa 10” at Shuga Records but when I got home the record was missing. I asked them about it and never heard back. I won’t shop there again.
D: There was a little bit on your D: What, for you, makes for a good blog about crate digging in Chicago record store? recently, do you always try to cop at a record store on your travels? Where has MG: A well-curated selection and impressed you? a courteous, knowledgeable staff. Reasonable prices are a must too. I MG: Anytime I travel I hunt for good don’t mind pay $50 for a record as long record stores and bookstores. In as it’s worth it, but it better not skip! Chicago I found lots of great records (house, soundtracks, jazz and metal) at
Above and previous, Mike Giant Photogrpahed by Chip Kalback
Chastity Belt
These days based in the iconic rock city of Seattle, Chastity Belt is a rock band consisting of four friends. Thier second long player, Time to Go Home, takes the nights out and bad parties of their past to their stretching point. Guitarists Julia Shapiro and Lydia Lund, bassist Annie Truscott, and drummer Gretchen Grimm are a force of nature, a gang and a four woman party. We spoke to Gretchen about having fun. Deluxe: Your press photos for this new LP were mind blowing. I read a blog that was talking about the subtext of them… but I just got that you guys were goofing around? Gretchen Grimm : Yeah, we thought up the idea in the van while we were on tour. We thought it would be fun to take a bunch of family/school photos together. We were gonna go to Sears for the real deal, but it ended up being too expensive. D. Do you think you got the balance right on ‘Time to go Home’ between having fun and talking about things? GG: We wrote songs that felt good to us. We never plan it out that explicitly... I guess having a mix of songs comes naturally to us. D: The chorus line in Drone is “He was just another man, tryn’a teach me something” - it’s an incredibly powerful lyric. Did it feel powerful at the time of recording it? - Is it a reference to Sheila Heti? GG: Yea it’s from How Should A Person Be by Sheila Heti. We all read that book and related to that line. D: I think a lot of people are going to hear that and feel empowered or at least like they’re not alone… Is it important for you that Chastity Belt can be that band for people?
GG: I mean, yeah that is a sentiment that I think most people can identify with. D. Which bands and artists have been an impact and influence on you?
GG: Seattle has been really supportive! It’s full of awesome bands to play with. D. What are your (individual) earliest record shopping experiences? What store, where, what did you buy?
GG: I remember getting a Backstreet GG: We all love Fleetwood Mac. Lately we’ve also been listening to a lot Boys CD.... that was also my first concert. I also had an Eve CD and of Girlpool, Alex G, and Sia. some of the early editions of Now That’s What I Call Music. D. You guys seem like a gang… is it nice to be a gang? D: What makes a good record shop for you? Which stores have impressed you GG: It’s great to do something you on your travels? love with close friends! D: Can I ask who was dressed as a ghost GG: Nice staff, interesting and rare releases, support local bands, and have for the album cover? - Oh, and is that free in stores!!!!!!! the same sofa in the ‘Cool Slut’ video? GG: It is the same couch... It also appeared in our video for Seattle Party. The spirit under the sheet is a secret ;) D: Did Walla Walla have a good live scene? Did it have a record shop? It is, after all, a brilliant name for a place right? GG: One of my favorite things in Walla Walla was a billboard for a chiropractor that said, “Get your back back in Walla Walla.” D: You are now Seattle based. Which record stores do you regularly frequent? Does it feel like a supportive scene for a band?
Photograph by Angel Ceballos