HEALTH
WHY SHIT LOOKS WEIRD
Esoteric LA rockers Health examine the bizarre frequencies of Vegenaise and vampire squids from hell. by Daiana Feuer photography by Lionel Deluy
On Venice Beach, the real and bizarre shape a quadratic landscape. Trivia and nature blend harmoniously as far as the eye can see. Beyond a pavement strip where aliens sell magnets, tree men dance on stilts, poodles pull their owners on rollerblades and tan muscle men wear spandex, there’s a long, flat beach stretching out into blue sky like an unrolled carpet. Occasionally, a plane flies overhead pulling a banner for Diddy’s bougie vodka. Otherwise, the beach is empty and sterile. The chatter strips down to sea and sand, consciousness’ symbolic skivvies. What remains to contend with is Health. The band crawled out of The Smell, a stinking crevice leaking out of a Downtown LA alley, a music venue straddled by a Mexican polka dance club and a soccer-themed bar where no matter what you order, they hand you a Corona. The Smell is where the band recorded last year’s “Glitter Pills” shortly after their split 7-inch with Crystal Castles (and CC’s “Crimewave” remix), which instigated the Health/ Disco CD with remixes by Acid Girls, Toxic Avenger, Curses! and others—as opposed to their healthnoise.com website (the album is just called Health). All this activity charted them on every blogger’s drool-o-meter from LA to Ireland. And now has them opening for Nine Inch Nails and Of Montreal. Health made it all the way to the Venice shore, (not) to talk about music. But where does Health come from? Literal Origin: BJ Miller, John Famiglietti and Jupiter Keyes are natives to SoCal, and Jake Duzsik is from Seattle. Jake met Jupiter at Claremont College, at the far ends of LA, nearing desolate obscurity along San Bernardino County’s border. They suggest BJ came from Craigslist’s casual encounter section, or that John met BJ working at a strip club. Perhaps John and BJ met in a restroom. Tucking his own silky locks behind his ears, John noticed BJ’s long flowing hair in the mirror and asked, “Do you happen to play
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drums?” BJ had some jazz fills, some paradiddles. So the boys said, “You’re in.” United by a fondness for burritos, smoothies and having J’s in their name, each band member carries a unique set of cards. BJ (Benjamin Jared) knows constellations and makes political jokes. He got naked at Burning Man. John has played Dungeons and Dragons. . .a lot. He’s into sorcery. Jupiter likes the ocean and studies the Zodiac to please his astrologist mom. Jake doesn’t believe in that stuff. “It is what it is,” he says, crumbling sand in the air. Jake’s haunted by Black Sabbath riffs at night and never saw The Lion King in English—though Jupiter has. He says, “Oh, that’s a great movie.” Conceptual Origin: They sought a simplistic word seen all the time. Medicine. It kind of rolls off the tongue, but there was a ’90s LA shoegaze band called Medicine. Health. Not a great band name to say aloud, but (written down) it looks cool. Jake: “Our music’s kind of sterile and weird sounding. Also, taken out of the context, if you used really minimal art, or the music was really intense, [the name] could seem sort of oppressive: always in caps, ‘HEALTH.’” John: “We thought it was a little deep, but it’s technically not the best band name in the world.” Jake: “It’s book-ended by two soft sounds, so if you’re in a loud place and someone’s like, ‘Oh, what’s your band called?’ and you’re like, ‘Health!’ Invariably they hear ‘Elf.’” Jupiter: “For me, that scene in Planet Earth when they go way down deep into the caves and reach the Chandelier Ballroom? That’s our music, right there.” John: “It’s Yavin 4, the jungle planet, at night. Star Wars: A New Hope. It’s a jungle planet with shitty ’70s futuristic technology.” Jake: “Like Blade Runner. It looks all futuristic and technological, but it’s the imagined future from URB.com
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11/5/08 10:01:41 AM