1.21 Gigawatts Issue Ten by 1.21 Gigawatts Magazine

ISSUE 10

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EDITOR S LETTER NEW LOOK, SAME GREAT TASTE. Issue 10 brings us into a new era of Gigawatts, the era where our logo looks different than it did in the past nine issues. Nothing else has really changed here. We still like good things, hate the haters, drink shitty beer and make questionable decisions on weeknights. Over the course of our ten issues, a lot has changed in Brooklyn. Venues opened, venues closed, Williamsburg generally got more and more lame, bands broke up and new bands formed, we got a new Doctor Who, things of this nature. On the surface it seems as if Brooklyn is becoming less and less accessible to new bands and artists. Many of the venues and spaces that allowed the current scene to grow and thrive are no longer with us, but for every venue or opportunity that closes another seems to pop up in its place. When we lose places like 285 Kent or Big Snow, we get places like Emet. Are they the same? Of course not, but they rejuvinate the creative landscape. New places have the power to provide people with fresh perspectives on artists they already like and can also help a new crop to rise up and get noticed.

All of this comes as a factor of the people who live and work in Brooklyn having the desire and devoting the time to create and foster the artistic community around them. A lot of the people featured in this issue are the people I’m talking about. If you look at a band like Leapling you’ll see that 3/4 of them are the people that ran Big Snow Buffalo Lodge, or look at Isaac from Due Diligence and his All Yesterday’s Parties blog where he posts high quality single camera video of bands playing around town and of course there’s Julian and Carlos from Ava Luna that run one of Brooklyn’s most accessible recording studios, allowing bands to create good sounding recordings without breaking the bank. That being said, let’s get on with this issue. We have Ava Luna as the Chewbacca to our Han Solo this time around. As pretty much everyone who reads music media knows, they put out an amazing album earlier this year. They then toured with Krill around the country and now they’re off in Europe. Somehow, even with all the touring, they found time to help us out with our little magazine and choose some totally awesome bands and artists to be featured. --Danny.

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TEAM ISSUE 10

EDITOR IN CHIEF

DANNY KRUG

GUEST EDITORS

AVA LUNA

ASSOCIATE EDITOR/ILLUSTRATOR

ELIZABETH FARRELL

PHOTOGRAPHY/LAYOUT DESIGN

DANNY KRUG

LOGO DESIGN

NICOLE CODY

WRITERS

JORDYN BLAKELY ASHLEY CANINO WINSTON SCARLETT ILEANA LITTLE LEAH MARCHESANO PRESTON OSSMAN ETHAN BASSFORD

CONTACT gigawattsmag@gmail.com facebook.com/gigawattsmag instagram @gigwattsmag 2

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CONTENTS contents ART MADELINE BABUKA BLACK

comics by

MARIE DEMPLE

FELICIA DOUGLASS

MUSIC 10

JERRY PAPER

LEAPLING

BUENO

CLOUD BECOMES YOUR HAND

THE DUE DILIGENCE

PAINTED ZEROS

PORCHES

KRILL

AVA LUNA

EXTRAS 28

MINDFULNESS AND THE DELI, OR YOUR SANDWICH AS A KEY TO AN ABUNDANT LIFE

by ethan bassford

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COMICS

Madeline Babuka Black

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marie

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demple

Marie Demple is a a visual artist based in Brooklyn and Queens. She began making art on her childhood living room floor in the Boston suburbs: she drew brochures, maps, and a constitution for an invented planet on scrap paper from her fatherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s science lab and created her own board games made of trash. Today she continues to invent her own worlds and give discarded materials a second life through her collages, assemblages, and choice of unorthodox painting surfaces. The use of humor, whimsy, and bright colors is often a foil for the darker politics beneath the surface: overconsumption, institutionalized violence, the meat industry, and End Time, themes that she investigates with an unsettling exuberance. Last summer she built a functioning replica of a 24 hour deli, a monument to convenience and highly advanced civilization, which was featured in a group show at the Lounge Underground Artist Collective in Greenpoint. Currently, she is working on another installation, this time an "alternate universe nail salon", exploring issues related to immigration, feminism, beauty standards, and human trafficking, while also celebrating nail art as a fast, cheap, and fluid mode of self-expression. Along with her studio practice, she also creates designs and illustrations for a handful of Brooklyn bands and their related side projects; her work can be seen on album covers, tapes, and show posters around town. ISSU E 1 0

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felicia

douglass

Felicia Douglass is a musician and artist based in Brooklyn, NY. Her work is a mix of hand drawn linear patterns and geometric floating forms. She likes to experiment with a balance of familiar and unrecognizable abstract shapes existing in a threedimensional weightless environment. Many pieces are intricate drawings of tiny, imaginary worlds, inspired by a feeling of claustrophobia in a crowded city. Her work has been featured on Ava Luna albums, on a mural in the Silent Barn and recently in a Talib Kweli album. check out more artwork at feliciadouglass.com

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Jerry Paper is the musical manifestation of the 21st centuries most pressing question: will computers ever love? Unlike Her, Spike Jones’ 2013 cyber dramedy, the Jerry Paper narrative isn’t questioning a human capacity for feeling towards Artificial Intelligence, but instead discusses how AI will react to emotions once they have gained sentience. To this extent, however, Jerry Paper is less like Jones’ software woman, but more like the Android Lt. Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation coming to grips with the death of Natasha Yar. The relationship between Yar and Data started out by them engaging in intoxicated coitus, but after her death, Data struggles to understand that this is what losing a loved one feels like. Jerry Paper’s music carries with it a similar confused sense of loss, but also a begrudging romanticism, as if he inadvertently downloaded an update which included "love" along with a more streamlined OS and must learn what to do with it. In speaking to Lucas W. Nathan, the human living in New York behind Jerry Paper’s music, there is no question that Jerry Paper "feels emotions," but one cannot say for certain if he likes them. Although one might identify the music as melancholy, there is value in the contradiction

between love and dejection which is embodied by his sad, synth-laden crooning. "The best way I’ve found to be a human is to live with comfort in contradiction," Nathan says of the sadness within the context of the love songs he writes. "Making sense is a human idea and has very little to do with the world, let alone with humans and our constantly changing inside worlds." Although his recorded music, five albums full of jams both smooth and weird, are oriented towards an internet generation, it is important to remember that the world wide web is alienating, not completely dehumanizing. Embodying the virtual vs. IRL dualism is Jerry Paper’s live set-up. In this setting, Nathan is generally equipped with a Juno 106 and an array of pedals which approximate the recorded material, but the output sounds like something closer to the schmaltzy pop of Hall and Oates than it does Kraftwerk. The "simulated human experience," as mentioned in passing on Jerry Paper’s most recent album, is not just ones and zeros, it has a heart and a brain Nathan’s music is more than just how it sounds, what it says, and who plays it. Jerry Paper is an existential crisis, caught between OkCupid and Jimmy Buffet, sonically appealing, nonabrasive, but also challenging to one’s romantic connections to machinery, hard and software, and the relationships built and maintained using said machinery.

words by preston ossman photograph by danny krug

The four-piece Leapling named their band after member Dan Arnes’s unique birth date of February 29th, a date that occurs only every four years. Despite Arnes aging at one-fourth the speed of most human beings, Leapling has matured quickly into one of the most influential bands in Brooklyn. Both through their music and their now closed DIY venue, the band has given us back our taste for pop and let it sit right alongside the experimental, grunge, and shoegaze patches on our proverbial musical palettes. Yoni David (drums) and Arnes (vox) began developing Arnes’ solo material after other projects fizzled. Along the way David and Arnes recruited R.J Gordon (bass), and Joey Postiglione (guitar) to build out their sound as Leapling. Their efforts produced the EP Losing Face, a well-received, five-track collection. Now it’s time for new music, based on more of a collective effort. "We did it in a couple of off days," shared David. "And then once Big Snow closed down, we spent a lot of time molding it into what will be our debut LP. I’m really excited about it. We did it differently from the EP and I think it paid off." David is referring to Big Snow Buffalo Lodge, the DIY venue once managed by three of the band members, which grew into a hub of discovery. It was a place you could go and be sure to hear someone new and someone different do their thing. The space closed its doors when a random act of violence, unrelated to the venue, left David hospitalized with a gunshot wound. The commu-

nity felt the band’s pain and the loss of the space. Fans rallied and supported the band in continuing on, especially once David regained use of his arm and could return to a drum set: "Some of our closest friends even played a couple of shows in our honor and we all got to celebrate together. We received a lot of love for Big Snow but it was particularly cool for us because people were excited to see what our next move was going to be and so we got to play those shows and show everyone." The band doesn’t appear to have any specific plans for acquiring a new space in the future. As Leapling closes in on their second anniversary of bandhood (six months for Arnes?), they can reflect on two years of having a palpable impact on the Brooklyn music scene, more than many other bands can claim. As they prepare to release material--songs that were produced during a period of strangeness and uncertainty-- David is confident that the band could overcome anything: "Regardless of where we are or what we have to deal with, if you put us in a room together, we’ll be doing the same thing." words by ashley canino photograph by danny krug

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"I have a half pound salami in my fridge right now...We’re gonna sell food at our merch table. We had pizza once...we’re waiting til the right moment...if you haven’t put this together, we’re all Italian" Bueno is made up of five Italian guys from Staten Island. Bueno likes wrestling (specifically Bray Wyatt and his red tuxedo pants from Wrestlemania). Bueno is not your run of the mill band that you would see at Silent Barn or Shea on any random night. Play any of their tracks on the world wide web and you’ll be greeted by lush saxophone tracks intertwined with minimalist, punky-garagey sounding rock and lackadaisical sounding, Lou Reed-esque vocals from front man Luke Chiaruttini. "We’re trying to be an experimental band, but you see so many experimental bands doing the same thing and that’s not experimental if you’re doing the same thing everytime," explains Bueno on their ever-changing arsenal of instruments and shifting arrangements. A lot of what Bueno does is improvised, at least in a live setting. If they feel like adding some sax into a song, they’ll start playing the sax, if they want to stick to just guitars, they’ll do it. "We just recorded a record that has actual songs on it," explains the band, "the songs were improvised." But now the songs, as improvised as they might have been in the studio at the time, are set in stone now as recordings. "We just show up and go for it." Bueno doesn’t rehearse the same songs over and over like a traditional band. They’ve been playing together long enough that they can feel it out and decide where the song should go in the moment, as they’re play-

ing it. Compare that to a lot of the bands around currently that stick to short two-minute punk songs or music that relies on backing tracks and it wouldn’t be possible. There is only so much a traditional bass, drums, guitar rock band can do in terms of improvising. Add in keys and saxophone like Bueno and the options expand greatly. The idea that one song could last the entirely of their set time on any given night while maintaining the crowd’s interest suddenly becomes an option. "The songs have checkpoints," explains the band on how they all keep it together. They continue, "For a while nobody knew we were improvising. People would be like ‘oh, that’s a cool song, I’ve never heard that one before,’ and neither had we." The band relies on the Shea Stadium archives to remember cool things they’ve played during shows or new bits of songs that they might have stumbled upon. "There’s really more songs on the Shea archive than our bandcamp in terms of new material." With the new record, the band finds themselves in a different spot than they have before, "We wrote songs for the record, but now we have to figure out how to do them live. Do we just play them exactly the way they are? We tried that and it sounded weird. We’ve got the parts and now we mix them up however we feel like it...like a jambalaya." In a live setting Bueno constantly walks the line between total improvised success and total collapse. They truly enjoy the feeling of improvising something and pulling it off to the degree that the crowd is fully feeling what they’re trying to get across. However, as is the case with a lot of largely improvised projects, it’ll be interesting to hear how the full length record flows and how the band maintains their balance between the blueprint of the song with their tendency for spontaneity.

words by danny krug + ileana little photography by danny krug

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Frontman Stephe Cooper has anything but an average background of performing music and playing in bands. Having scored music for the Shua Group dance company, a short film by Diana Quinones Rivera (later to become the song "Waste Park"), and a childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s puppet show "In A Roundabout Way", Cloud Becomes Your Hand was started so Stephe could perform his music, previously a solo project, as a live band. "The band was formed in order to play the music from the first tape, Canada Goose Tapes. The people were assembled more because of their interest in both experimental/avant garde and weirdo rock music. Four of us studied music at Purchase College at different times and three of us with the composer Joel Thome". With Stephe on guitar and vocals, Weston Minissali on synthesizer, Sam Sowyrda on malletkat and mallets, Booker Stardrum on drums and percussion, and Hunt14

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er Jack on violin, their sound is unique, ranging from beautifully delicate melodies to destructive sounding textures, as though each instrument is venturing off the path to explore its darker side. Most songs on their first full length, "Rocks Or Cakes" last about four minutes, each song sounding as though it could be the soundtrack to one of your dreams. In "Bay Shamps", a cheerful melody on the violin is responded with a handful of melancholy notes on the synthesizer, like a conversation, before dissonant strings swallow up the song into a pool of abstract noises. "Three songs were tracked with the whole band playing live and then I mixed it at home. The rest was recorded one song at a time, mostly in my room," Stephe explains of the recording process. As far as not becoming overwhelmed and focusing on tiny details, "it can be easy to completely lose sight of the bigger picture. But then maybe itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s good for the bigger picture to evolve. I like having the option of radically

changing the sounds in the middle of the song live; the Malletkat and synthesizer are crucial for this. One day I should really challenge myself to go analog, where I can’t automate everything." When deciding which melodies should be played by what instrumentation, CBYH uses a mixed method of trial and error and strategic planning. "Certain songs were conceived strictly as melodic and rhythmic chunks in MIDI and the instrumentation and sounds were figured out later, but written with our instrumentation in mind." Stephe demonstrates, "It’s great to write something in a stiff medium [like] sequenced MIDI and then have it played by instruments with wobbly pitch (violin, slide guitar, synth) or other X factors (humanity)." Drummer Booker Stardrum adds, "Usually the music evolves a lot through playing it live. For ‘Bees’, Stephe sketched out this complex, weaving rhythmic texture with MIDI. When it came to learning the song, I had a broken arm and [Stephe] introduced electronic drums so that I could play it with a cast. I messed around developing a part that worked." Stephe concludes, "Moral of the story is: see your ideas through!" CBYH is thrilled with the finished product that is "Rocks Or Cakes". The album plays fluidly, each

song just as satisfying as the last. As for instruments they wish they could include into their roster of sounds, if they dare to dream? "Bass tubular chimes (which is not acoustically possible), a simple trumpet, the voice of David Diamante, bassoon chamber orchestra, children’s choir, and a chainsaw ensemble. We have preliminary plans to tour with a mechanical bull and we regret not recording one for this record," says Stephe. They just finished up an adventurous tour "with our beloved tour mates Guerrilla Toss, one of the greatest bands to ever exist. In mountains near Yuma, CA we stopped to check out the landscape and met a fellow named Coyote Jim who repairs UFOs. We literally rode around the block in flyers saucers." Stephe remembers. To boost morale before another show on the road, "we often huddle together before a set and whisper well-wishes and say how pretty we smell, etc. before jumping in."

words by jordyn blakely photography by danny krug

"Are You Down?" That’s the question that The Due Diligence asks on many different levels, and also the name of their upcoming LP. The Due Diligence is essentially Isaac Gillespie who describes their current sound as "James Velvet UnderBrown." It’s a soul base with smatterings of Lou Reed/Velvet Underground inspired vocal and rock ’n’ roll vibes. In a live setting, The Due Diligence takes the form of Isaac plus friends ranging from members of Bear in Heaven to Zula to Celestial Shore that make up the rest of the band with the lineup varying from show to show. Isaac got his start in New York through the anti-folk scene. "A year or two into it, I did this tour with a friend. We played a lot of punk house shows with no PA, just you an an acoustic guitar," says Isaac. This tour allowed him to pick up some tips 16

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and tricks of performing that have since transferred to his song writing and performing with The Due Diligence. "If you’re just really loud, people will just talk louder. If you’re really loud and then you’re really quiet and then you’re really loud, the contrast catches people off guard." After doing that for a while Isaac decided that he needed a band. "The name Due Diligence was kind of a joke. In New York everyone is so busy that no one has time to rehearse. The joke is that you’re doing just enough due diligence to get a band together for any one show and then you move on," he explains. The original version of the band, in 2009, included members of the Shivers and Phosphorescent and included a total of two guitars, piano, drums and three singers. It was a much larger band than the rotating four piece that The Due Diligence has

transformed into. Their first album "I Will Wreck Your Heart" which was described by a fan as The Band doing Pavement covers was more of the folk background that Isaac came from as opposed to what The Due Diligence sounds like now. After that album, Isaac started seeing and listening to more and more rock bands. After a night at the old Silent Barn where Space Ghost Cowboys and Quilty had played that night, Isaac became more inspired to divert The Due Diligence from it’s folk path and it eventually turned into a power trio. The power trio resulted in an EP titled "Let it Be Already." "I feel like this new album was written as I was making my peace with New York music. It took me a really long time to warm to the Velvet Underground and from there I went to the Talking Heads and then into Television and the other New York bands of the 70s." The Due Diligence is a fusion of genres, but it’s strength is that it doesn’t feel disjointed or put on. The blend between genres is very natural and always a ton of fun. Whether it’s a recording or a live show, The Due Diligence aims to get you dancing and partying. At the live shows however, Isaac takes it upon himself to make sure you’re down to have a good time. If you’re not there to have a good time, you can leave. Isaac’s intentions with the new album differ quite a bit from what other Brooklyn bands’ intentions might be on the day to day. "My goal right now is to recontextualize the question, ‘Am I going to make it?’ to be more literal. SO that I’m not thinking, ‘Am I going to make it in the music industry?’ but rather ‘Am I going to make this thing?’ I feel like that’s the new goal for me. This album is an expression of finding that recontextualization." The Due Diligence is forever changing and it doesn’t look like they’re gonna chill out anytime soon. Their new record sounds like it will be the soundtrack to the summer and will be out soon.

words and photography by danny krug

words by ellie fallon photography by danny krug words by ashley canino photography by danny krug

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words by ellie fallon photography by danny krug

Painted Zeros and I disagree on a lot of things. Sure, we share a love of Pavement, as demonstrated by lead singer/guitarist’s Katie Lau’s slack live performance. Her asides between songs about how drunk she is – her passionate hair thrashing rock-out – it all exudes a nonchalant flair a la Malkmus. Let’s call it post-Pavement, something you’d get a fix from if you’re a Speedy Ortiz addict. But our high school upbringing in folk-punk traditions is where our rupture begins. Although we’re both nostalgic of bands like Defiance: Ohio!, and Johnny Hobo and The Freight Trains; and the DIY show houses they spawned, I would shed less than a tear if the genre died. But not Lau, "I loved the community. I’m an anarchist. The idea of songs that directly communicate political issues and didn’t require much work is fascinating." The politics behind Painted Zeros lyrics aren’t as overtly accessible as Jeffrey Lewis, but they are there. Underneath the layers of lush guitar tracks, and wet cymbal crashes, there’s a lamenting of ennui caused by late capitalism in their "dreampunx" song, This American Life. Lyrics like "so tired of life, so scared to die. i’m working every day now, $laving to a wage now. it drives me insane how hopeless i feel" speak to the spirit of the times. She nods to the disappearing middle class in this country, and the lack of spiritual center in today’s youth culture. Katie disparages consumerism in a lyrical delivery that shows a maturation from her high school two piece Screamo band, We Are Murderers. "I was a brat in high school. I only listened to punk and classical music. I didn’t want to be a part of things I perceived as being shoved in my face. I never got into culture that I thought was vapid." The rest of the band more or less agree on the problematics of the commodification of music and lifestyles. Nolan, the newest member and bassist of the group thinks, "Folk punk feels a little more personal connecting with people. It’s a cultural thing, rather than just wearing studs on a leather jacket. Punk is fashion oriented. It never was just a genre of music." While Jared, long time friend of Katie, and drummer continues the thought, "Punk and fashion have always been connected. You dressed the part of being punk. It was a lifestyle." It’s hard to discern the difference between genres and life-

styles with so many zines, lifestyle blogs, and the pervasive bands as brand mentality. But Katie wisely concludes, "That’s one of the things I love about folk punk. It isn’t a masquerade. It will never be sellable. There’s a purity to it." There’s definitely an element to folk punk that can’t be sold. The core values are togetherness and intimacy and it’s at such a small scale. It’s not about selling out stadium shows, but rather, communing around potlucks or playing in a living room. Katie loves this about playing in Brooklyn DIY spaces like Emet, "It’s basically playing a show in someone’s living room." Don’t get the wrong idea. Painted Zeros aren’t a folk punk band. Their songs occupy the vast milieu of Indie Rock. Elements of dream- pop and dreampunk are at the top of the funnel, trickling down to what they self-identify as flowercore. There are moments of punk that drive their live set forward, but like most of their Brooklyn contemporaries, Indie Rock is the first word that comes to mind. We all agree that the genre is a funny contraption. Katie muses "Indie as a genre title never really made sense to me. It’s undeniable. It does exist, but it never made sense to me because it doesn’t say anything about the music. It just means independent. There’s some DIY ethos to it and there’s an indie rock scene. It’s a world onto it’s own. When you’re in that world DIIV feels like a really big band, but they couldn’t sell out a place like Barclay’s Center. It’s totally a smaller world than the way you feel it." These smaller worlds create the sonic topography of what American music is today. Despite differences in opinions, communities, and lifestyles, there is an essential material that brings us together. We love music. It’s brought out the best and worst of our experiences, and keeps us going. It’s a defining portion of our lives. This American Life.

words by winston scarlett photograph by danny krug

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As I listen to Porches in my If you don’t live here, you’ll wish bedroom, I can picture The Vir- you did and if you already do, gin Suicides. For some reason, you’ll want to stay forever. Slow

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their dark and dreamy sound has made me envision people in their bedrooms, looking out for music that makes them feel larger than their full size beds. Those beautiful blonde girls that laid trapped in their poster filled little world, listening to music like this to help make them dream beyond their four walls. The bands principle song-writer, Aaron Maine, has opened up a different side of New York based music. A side thats a bit sad but mainly beautiful.

Dance in the Cosmos is an album released by Porches in 2013 and it’s every bit as big as you can imagine. The vocals that fill up the minutes and seconds are slightly imperfect which make Porches seem more real, raw, experienced. Their is something utterly mysterious about the band, something distant that you just can’t grab hold of. Perhaps its the lack of "bio" or information on their social media pages but whatever it is, you keep wanting more. More of nothing and more of everything.

Kevin Farrant, Cameron Wisch, Seiya Jewell, Greta Kline and Aaron Maine are the minds behind Porches. This has been the lineup since 2011 and there is obviously no need for change. "When Porches started, it was just a name for a new batch of songs I recorded that sounded different than the previous band I was in" says Maine, "Once I released the first EP I started putting a band together. Seiya and Kevin were childhood friends of mine. I have played music with Kevin since middle school. Seiya and Kevin have been on board since the beginning of Porches and I met Cameron at SUNY Purchase when I was studying painting. He joined the band at the same time Greta joined the band. I met Greta through a mutual friend, 7 months after we started dating I asked her to join the band." It’s always nice to see a band with a bit of history. Whenever I listen to a band made up of old friends, something always sounds clearer and more connected. Pulling their influences from David Bowie, Chopin and Blood Orange its easy to hear the tapestry of sounds the group has carefully weaved together. Slow Dance in the Cosmos is Porches most recent album release and since I’ve really come to know and love it, I wanted ever so much to pick Aaron’s brain about the writing and recording process. He obliged, "I went up to start recording Slow Dance in the Cosmos with around 15 songs I had written on acoustic guitar. At that point I didn’t have any way of making demos, it was exciting to start making a record almost entirely from scratch, there was nothing to get hung up on. Hunter Davidsohn was a huge

guide throughout the making of the record. We started it off together and then brought up the band later in the game once the groundwork was laid out. It was all extremely additive, especially because it was recorded to tape. We recorded every idea we had for each song, all the way through, just so we had it to work with. All of the arranging happened during the mixing process, we had these big lush tracks to carve away at. I feel like you can really tell that we spent a lot of time with this record. I imagine it looks like a charcoal drawing where you can see or feel like all of the steps it took to get it to the final stage. It took us almost two years to finish it. We had to take about 5 months off in the middle of working on it, which in the end worked to our advantage, as i was able to sit with the record a bit longer, write some more tracks

and listen to it without being in the thick of recording it. It helps to take a step back sometimes but it takes patience to do that." So now the big question is, what does Porches have in store for the future? Cosmos is such an awe-inspiring work of art and you can only stand on the tips of your toes, trying to peak over at whats coming. Thankfully, Aaron Maine has an answer, "I’ve been writing constantly since Slow Dance in the Cosmos came out. We’ve been working on some of my new songs with the band and this will be the first time we will have worked out new songs before recording them. It’s exciting, I’m not sure when the next record will come out, but I think when it does, it will be sick."

words by leah marchesano photography by danny krug

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Everything Krill does is kind of weird. Krill is a band from Boston that wrote and released an EP about another band from Boston. "Two characters in a Pile song - Pile’s a band in Boston - become real life people and try to form a band which is thinly veiled Krill - not really though - and they can’t quite make it work because of interpersonal issues. Also, thematically involved is Dostoyevsky and Boston," says Jonah. "Steve Hears Pile in Malden and Bursts Into Tears" is a concept EP that doesn’t really stick to it’s concept. Jonah explains further, "If we had worked on it for two more years, it might have been a full concept album/rock opera, but I wasn’t really interested in doing that." Krill hadn’t met Pile before starting work on the new EP. Now they’re friends, but when it began they were just another band playing in Boston that were fans of Pile. "Rick from Pile, played a solo set once and we had already written the songs. I pulled him aside and was like ‘listen I gotta tell you, we don’t know each other, but I wrote this album about your band and we’re gonna release it and I hope that’s okay.’ and he was like ‘yeah man, thats cool!’ They don’t seem to feel weird about it, although they should feel weird about it," says Jonah. An up and coming band writing an EP or even just a single song, for that matter, about another up and coming band is an extreme rarity, but should be expected from a band like Krill who open their first full length LP with a theme song they wrote about their own band.

ed almost as an honorary Brooklyn band. They’ve gone through the circuit of Brooklyn venues and play more often down here than some of the bands who live here. If they’re not on a huge tour, like the one they just wrapped up with Ava Luna, it’s not uncommon to see Krill pop up on a bill in Brooklyn at least once or twice a month. They cite Jordan Michael as the catalyst for them playing in Brooklyn so often, "Jordan was really weird and awesome and was like ‘I really like your band.’ We played some terrible shows but he kept booking us." When talking about differences between the New York and Boston scenes, Jonah says, "The New York scene, to some extent, is THE national scene. In Boston, there’s not an element of ‘oh maybe an industry person will be at the show.’ There’s no hype. If you get big you go to New York." Krill’s first LP, "Lucky Leaves," has been repressed on vinyl by Exploding in Sound, so if you missed out on getting one of the DIY, puke colored ones that Krill originally pressed, you’re in luck. The album is also being re-released on cassette by Bufu Records. On the horizon for Krill is a short tour in May and a new album to be recorded and hopefully released later this year.

words and photography by danny krug

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Ava Luna recorded "Electric Balloon" at Max Kagan’s barn in upstate NY and then went down to Miami to mix and also eat food. Food is an important part of Ava Luna, it seems. Ethan, Carlos and Julian go into detail during the interview about a Haitian food place they came across while in Miami. And then the food talk continues and branches out to favorite places to eat on tour before finally getting to the root of the conversation, "Food is a good way to get a little bit of a place’s culture when you don’t have a lot of time to explore such as when you’re on tour." they say. They continue about how food is attached to specific memories of a place and also gives a touring band something new to look forward to in each city as they continually tour the same places again and again over time. Earlier this spring, Ava Luna dropped "Electric Balloon", the follow up to "Ice Level." And with it they’ve evolved quite a bit. Ava Luna is a band that has been so consistenly original and change so often from track to track that most comparisons to another singular band or genre do not apply. The classic formula of "They’re like (Band #1) meets (Band #2)" doesn’t apply in the case of Aval Luna. The spectrum of sounds and influences is so vast that they can’t be pinned into any singular genre. The trio of vocalists in the band, Carlos, Becca and Felicia all have voices that can work together to elevate a song to another level but are also capa-

ble of knocking it out of the park while carrying a track on their own. Ethan and Julian hold it down on bass and drums respectively and prove track after track to be one of Brooklyn’s most intriguing rhythm sections. It could be said that Ava Luna’s new record is for fans of Dirty Projectors, D’Angelo, lush guitars, smooth vocals, loud vocals and many other things. The point is, this record has a lot going on and likely there is something for everyone on it. Ava Luna are as much cultural icons in Brooklyn as they are a band. That’s not to say they’re placed on some sort of pedestal above all of us regulars, but rather they’re people who are deeply invested in the community. Julian and Carlos run the studio at the Silent Barn and operate their Gravesend Recordings outfit within it’s walls. They record a lot of the bands that play both at the Silent Barn and other places around town including Krill, Bueno and Grass is Green, to name a few. The studio also doubles as a hangout spot and Ava Luna’s rehearsal spot. To record "Electric Balloon" Ava Luna took all of the gear from Julian and Carlos’ studio and took it up to Max Kagan’s barn where they recorded the album over two separate two week sessions while living up there. Things that are different up there than down here include a wood burning stove being the only source of heat, vast amounts of forests to explore and hunters in the forests that probably won’t but might accidentally shoot you,

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especially if you’re walking around pretending to be a deer. The band cites their surroundings while recording as an inspiration for the record. After living day after day in Brooklyn, it’s easy to see how a shift to a wood stove heated, heavily wooded area could change and mold the sounds that you’re making. It’s much different than banging out some songs in a practice space in a basement off the Dekalb stop with no windows or natural light and then going to your buddy’s studio down the street to record them. The openness of the atmosphere in which the songs were recorded comes across in the sound of the tracks on "Electric Balloon" and almost feels necessary for a band like Ava Luna. They’re not a loud, sloppy punk/garage band like many bands around here. Not to say bands like that are a bad thing, because they’re most definitely not, but Ava Luna is unlike any other band playing in Brooklyn

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right now. It manages to be more complex than most music being released currently while still maintaining a familiarity that draws the audience in. Ava Luna will continue to capture the attention of audiences all over due to their unique and ever evolving sound. The band most recently toured with Krill on a journey that took them around the country and through SXSW. At the time of this article’s release, they’re on tour in Europe, mostly the UK, France and Germany. When asked if they’re excited about their European tour, they responded, "They treat you well in Europe...they give you a hotel...they feed you." words and photography by danny krug

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Mindfulness and the Deli, or Your Sandwich as Key to an Abundant Life By Ethan Bassford

Before I started going on tour and seeing the rest of America, I didn’t know how special the New York deli was. It is simply a phenomenon that does not exist in most places: a store you can walk to, open late, with basic grocery items and usually beer, and someone behind the counter whose specific job it is to make a sandwich. A sandwich, for you, just the way you want it. Food options elsewhere tend to be less flexible. You have your grocery stores for raw materials, which maybe have a deli counter but are sure as hell not open late, and you have your restaurants which might offer takeout, and you have your fast food. Maybe you have a gas station or convenience store with sandwiches, but if you eat a sandwich from such a place you have no one to blame but yourself, and if you want any type of dressing on it you’d better hope there’s a little foil packet next to the napkins and forks. The New York deli is in a class of its own. Here’s the thing about the deli: it allows for infinitely many variations on a sandwich, and most people don’t even notice or care. How many times have they strolled up to the counter, dead eyes staring straight ahead into the middle distance, and ordered "ham and cheese" or "turkey on a roll" without even looking at the spectacular wealth of fixins before them? "Cheese", unless otherwise specified, means American cheese. The guy might ask if they want lettuce and tomato and mayo, and they’ll probably say yes without thinking. They pay for their sandwich and walk out, eating mechanically and without relish. I used to be like them until one day I had a revelation: I was going to take responsibility for the composition of my sandwich. Have you ever stopped to look at what’s really going on behind that counter? They have all kinds of amazing ingredients that could

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go on your sandwich right now, and if you ask there might even be some more just slightly out of view. All manner of peppers and pickles and relishes and different cheeses and exciting twists on the standard deli meats. Did you know there was such a thing as jerk turkey? It’s probably waiting for you at the deli near your house right now, and it is delicious. Have you ever ordered a bacon, egg and cheese on warm coco bread instead of a roll? Amazing! Even a totally run-of-the-mill sandwich in which the bread is toasted, or one or more ingredients has been heated on the grill, can achieve transcendence. Maybe get some grilled onions next time. Hot damn. The last time I got home from tour, I was debating what to eat. My first meal back at home has great symbolic importance for me; it is when home starts to feel real. Usually what I miss is some form of Asian food, ramen or sesame pancake or Korean fried chicken, but that wasn’t what I was craving. And then it hit me: I just wanted a sandwich, a special sandwich worthy of the occasion. I walked down to my deli and ordered: honey turkey, bacon, Colby Jack cheese, sweet peppers, banana peppers, lettuce, tomato, and spicy mustard on a toasted hero with oil and vinegar. The ingredients were almost too much for the fragile bread, and I could see the guy was doing his damnedest to fit them all in there. I couldn’t even wait to get it home; I tore open the wrapper and ate as I walked. It was a drippy, briny mess, and it was fucking spectacular. As I ate this amazing sandwich, I asked myself: where are the delis in my life? What are the fixins I have neglected to add to the sandwich given me? A sandwich is a little world you can eat, and as Nas tells us, "the world is yours."

STUFF WE’RE LISTENING TO AND THINK YOU’LL DIG

Dances - Whiter Sands

Tony Molina - Dissed and Dismissed

Thee Oh Sees - Drop

OFF! - Wasted Years

Future Islands - Singles

TEEN - The Way and Color

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