Vol. 2 Issue 3
SHOW ME THE BODY
Shark? The Yin Yangs BAMBARA
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VOL. 2 ISSUE 3
CONTENTS
TEAM EDITOR IN CHIEF
ASSISTANT EDITOR
DANNY KRUG
MUSIC
JAKE SAUNDERS
2 BAMBARA PHOTOGRAPHY
DANNY KRUG
4 THE YIN YANGS
LOGO DESIGN
NICOLE CODY
6 SHARK? 8 PC WORSHIP 10 HORSE LORDS
WRITERS
ISAAC GILLESPIE
12 SHOW ME THE BODY
JAKE SAUNDERS
EXTRAS
EDDIE HUDDLESTON DANNY KRUG
16 SOME PICTURES
SAM STOELTJE
17 SOME ALBUMS
CONTACT info@gigawattsmedia.com facebook.com/gigawattsmag instagram @gigwattsmedia
EDITOR S LETTER CONNECTING... with the people, bands, promoters that you want to be involved with can be tough for a lot of new bands and other creatives in Brooklyn or anywhere else. All too often I receive a form style email from a band that I’ve never heard of who is trying to tell me why I should listen to their music, book their band, review their album or cover their show. You might think you’re tricking people into thinking the email is personal by adding an exciting greeting or swapping a few words out, but you’re definitely not. In a landscape like Brooklyn where there are so many bands and even more new ones popping up all the time, it can be tough to gain a foothold and find a group of people that you can hang with and play shows with on the regular. Dozens of emails go unanswered but not ignored everyday in my inbox. Not because I don’t care, but because they’e worded wrong (e.g. "Promote Our Band!"), seem too impersonal or ask for something we don’t do (we don’t do reviews or show coverage, fyi). I read every email that ends up in the Gigwatts inbox wether I respond or not. The best way to connect with me or any other person that you want to connect with? Go talk to them IRL. A band that you want to play with is having a show at The Silent Barn? They’ll
be hanging out there ALL NIGHT. Go say what’s up. Be chill. Don’t pitch them like a salesman. Some of the most successful relationships are born out of friendships, even sometimes just meeting someone once in the right circumstance. Speaking personally, if you’re genuinely interested in talking about something non-work related and having a drink or two, I’m more than willing to hang out with you. Wanna talk about Prince? Great. Wanna talk about Pop Punk? Even better. Video Games? Yes. Your new demo that you wanna play me through your iPhone speakers in a loud and crowded bar at 3am? FUCK OFF FOREVER. Personal connections are EVERYTHING. They will get you more than a well worded email or facebook message ever could. Anyone that’s interested in anything Gigawatts does, or getting involved, can find me at any one of the shows we book or most any night at Alphaville. Come hang out, party, have a good time, say what’s up. Here’s our third issue this year. It’s our first print one of the year. Enjoy it. --Danny
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Under the Harsh Light with
BAMBARA
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They took their name from the cult MTV animated series Aeon Flux, and the reference suits them - like that dystopian cartoon, BAMBARA’s noise rock relies on an unsettling blend of surrealism and physicality, as well as opposing impulses toward concealment and exposure. became clear that a more substantial change was necessary. In 2010, they moved to NYC, trading Southern hospitality for the fierce competition (and some would argue, over-saturation) of If you’ve seen them live, you’ll re- Brooklyn. They’ve recorded and member the punishing glare of released two full-lengths on Aththe fluorescent work light bass- ens-based Arrowhawk Records, ist William Brookshire cues with and put in tremendous labor his foot. By way of explanation, honing an increasingly unique guitarist Reid Bateh offers, "I felt and savage aesthetic. like I wanted everything to be hard to deal with, like I wanted With an appreciation of the iromy tone to suck, I wanted every- ny, Blaze admits, "The second one to hate it...these tones are we moved from Georgia, I feel brutal, everything’s loud, we’re like we started sounding more just pummeling shit, and the Southern." In BAMBARA’s structured songs, as opposed to the light is harsh." vocal loop-based improvisations Two thirds of BAMBARA are twin interspersed throughout their brothers Blaze and Reid Bateh, records, they have developed a and they’ve known William since sound that relies on the tension first grade. As a group, they’ve between blues-based grooves been making music since the and harsh, chaotic - yet also, ocseventh grade, although they casionally, beautiful and hauntonly became BAMBARA in 2008: ing - textures. This can result in "We needed something to de- a live dynamic that borders on antagonistic, with a methodical scribe us better," William says. rhythm section attempting to In their hometown of Athens, restrain the delirious frenzy of Georgia, BAMBARA took advan- Reid’s guitar and voice maniputage of the famously support- lations. ive music scene, but soon it Their apparent musical inheritance ranges from HEALTH, The Jesus Lizard and Nick Cave to the work of modern composers like Stockhausen and Ligeti.
The fitful, pugilistic aspect of their work seems to have resonated with Ben Greenberg (The Men, Hubble), who is engineering their latest, as-yet-untitled recording. "Ben was great...one time, we were singing this kind of like, more upbeat noisy punk song that we have, and...I had been drinking all fucking day, and I guess he thought I was sounding exhausted or something, it was near the end, and he was like, ‘Why don’t we just send some dudes in there to beat you up while you sing,’ and I was like, ‘Alright,’ so Blaze and Willy and the engineer just beat the shit out of me, and it ended up sounding great." The decision to work with Greenberg seems to have been motivated by the desire to achieve a more spacious and articulate soundscape. "We had a full record and then scrapped everything and re-recorded it...because we wanted it to be clearer.” Like their earlier releases, it will "still be pretty texturally dense, but each thing will have more of its own place." The album is projected for release in the coming Fall. words by sam stoeltje photost by petr hlavacek
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Who Needs Reverb When You Have Fuzz?
words by eddie huddleston photost by danny krug
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THE YIN YANGS An untamed sludge evaporates in a haze, tearing through my eardrums, injecting adrenaline through my open cuts. Different sounds
have been chased for years for their mystical properties to alter the mind. The Yin Yangs tap into this magical property, combining Rockabilly twang with fuzzed out noise; it sends their listeners into a psychedelic mosh. Guitarist Max Braun, bassist Brendan Winick and Alex Fippinger on vocals and drums began their psych-rock endeavors in 2012, locking themselves in a practice space for hours, often jamming into the early morning. It allowed The Yin Yangs a chance to dive into the chaotic sensation they’ve accommodated over the years. Three years after their founding, the trio has settled into a well-rehearsed and heavily charged live act. They’re a Giga-
watts regular for this reason.
was Fuzz and a heavy dose of Delay. As I watched them play, I The key to The Yin Yangs unique began to understand what they tone was an enigma to me until had tried to explain to me earlier. I interviewed them at everyone’s Fuzz is like a crazed animal and favorite hot spot, The Silent Barn. reverb is its leash; without reverb I was shocked to discover that you’re left with an explosion of the band had no Reverb pedals, noise. and it came as a feather shock when Alex Fippinger said, "Fuck The Yin Yangs have gone through Reverb, it washes away all the many songs during their short tones." music career, picking and choosing only their most finely crafted In Brooklyn, where Shitgaze is a songs for the live set, and slowly genre of music and the Holy Grail shedding weaker songs. The Yin reverb pedal reins king, it’s cra- Yangs have become a noise to zy to hear a band as loud and be heard in New York and hopenoisy as The Yin Yangs disown fully by this summer, their first an effect that has become such a Studio EP will be a release for the staple. The band explained to me world to hear. Back in 2013 The that for them, reverb just wasn’t Yin Yangs released a self-titled going to be a thing. compilation composed of live demos that captures the unique After the interview the band be- untamed fuzz that can only be gan to set up and I wonder if I’d created through the lack of Rebeen fooled, but, to my amaze- verb. ment, the only effect I found the band using throughout the set
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An Afternoon with That Band From Grand Theft Auto Five...
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"Rock music is silly and stupid, but there’s a certain nobility to being in this particular band with these particular people. There’s no plan, there’s no fuzz. When it comes down to it, it’s these songs and it’s playing these songs with these people. After that, I can honestly say, nothing really matters." Shark? has reached an interesting point in the evolution of a band. They’re more concerned with playing music with each other than they are with climbing the ladder of success that so many bands are constantly trying to get up. I meet up with Shark? on a snowy afternoon in Bushwick outside of the Danbro rehearsal spaces. We walk into the Well to hang out, do a quick interview, etc. After passing by the table of people dressed in Victorian era garb and playing Monopoly, we sit down, grab some beers and get to talking about the band They have a new EP coming out soon, the first to feature new guitarist, Jared Hiller. Recorded at Gravesend Studios in the Silent Barn in just one day. "This EP is my favorite thing we’ve ever done. I’m so happy with it that at this point, I don’t really care if the reception is good or if people like it because I am so happy with what we did," says bassist, Andy Kinsey. "I finally got what I wanted. Awesome recording. Good songs. I had fun doing it," he adds.
we’ve ever made...I think that’s why it still sounds fresh because we didn’t waste so much time trying to make it sound good. It just did," says drummer, Andy Swerdlow. "Our style has changed a little bit since Jared joined so the EP is a really good encapsulation of what we sound like with him on guitar," adds frontman Kevin Diamond. The project started with a completely different lineup than what you see on the opposite page. Initially, Kevin would write the songs and bring them to the band to work in all the other parts. Now, for the first time, the band is creating songs fully collaboratively in their rehearsal space. "We just get together and practice and screw around for a bit. Lately we’ve been really good about recording what’s going on to an iPhone," says Kinsey.
pid and I never should have done it, but at this point it’s too late to change. It also doesn’t even matter. I just thought it was funny." Shark? is headed out on a west coast tour soon. If you live out there, go see them. The shows are loud and fun, always a good time. When not touring the west coast, you can often find them playing on the regular in Brooklyn. Their current live sound differs a bit from the music that’s online. Jared’s guitar combined with the pedals he makes for his company Lo/Rez bring more noise into the mix than previously. Shark? manages to maintain a balance of being noisy and still being catchy with melodies and lyrics that will stick in your head for hours after a show. The new EP will also be out soon on Old Flame records.
Oh, and they have a song in Grand When the question about the Theft Auto V. "I beat it a long time band’s name inevitably came up, ago," says Kevin, "I chose to push Kevin came back with possibly him over the edge if you’re wonthe best band name answer ever dering." given, "I don’t even have an answer anymore. Any answer I have "It’s definitely the fastest album doesn’t matter because it’s stuwords and photography by danny krug
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Radical Unrestraint PC WORSHIP Short Circuits the Classification Trap words by isaac gillespie
Anxiety of Influence runs deep in contemporary music-making. It’s not just that everything has been done already, it’s also been codified and cemented into it’s own language.
aligning themselves to any tradition. Says Justin Frye, the group’s progenitor: "For centuries people have been recording all kinds of art with whatever means exist in their grasp and every possible format/method is important and So if you want to use sludge gui- unique." The sound of PC Worship tars, you have to be saying some- is generated by musicians followthing to Metal and you can’t use ing their ears alone; something loops and drones without being they demand from critics and lis"Experimental." teners as well. "I wish more muPC Worship calls bullshit. They sic writers would take time to exmake music that avails itself plore more in-depth journalism of the world’s sounds without 8
and obscure revelations about the music they are listening to instead of seeking the closest tree that also has piss on it." PC Worship may borrow techniques from La Monte Young and Greg Ginn, but the underlying impulse feels somehow spiritually closer to Moondog or Captain Beefheart. Frye is doing his own thing. Adamantly. "After years of dedicating time to collaborative bands and music written by oth-
er people, I felt the need to focus on a project that could be anything and everything that represented my own individual range of influence and personality, unaffected by the confines of an established genre or direction." The objective of PC Worship is not to fit something into the canon of ideas, but just to grasp ideas as they come and then fit them into documentation through sound. It’s the dream of capturing what’s sublime in every moment: "PC Worship’s relationship to freedom and constraint is ideally a manifestation of human psychosis and the idea that both are capable of existing simultaneously at all times... There’s no formula, shit happens." In one sense PC Worship could be the result of an alternate history of rock and roll. What could rock have sounded like if it had been freed from it’s great existential crises through the years? No more back-and-forth tussling between punk authenticity and instrumental virtuosity; PC Worship encompasses both. Remember debating whether live musicians and samples should exist in one song? PC Worship doesn’t. Instead they take it all in -- analog, digital, composition, happenstance. "I think you should use whatever colors help you paint the image that exists in your head. Music is this vast medium that encompasses thousands of tools and approaches and it’s extremely limiting to reduce
yourself to the confines of cultural derivation, ease or ethics, but sometimes you have to make do with what you have." In fact, the sound of their latest release, Social Rust (on Northern Spy Records & Dull Tools), is driven by the two instruments most historically over -used instruments: saxophone and electric guitar. These musicians can obviously play, but Frye is characteristically flippant about what that might mean in regards to the identity of the band. "When I try and think about ‘the guitar in pop culture in 2015’ all I can picture is the 1-877-Kars-4-Kids commercial." PC Worship is also a shape-shifting entity; there are no permanent members outside of Frye. "I have an extremely lush collective of friends who are all amazing musicians, improvisors and performers, all of whom offer a unique perspective on the way they interpret the material." That said, the current record is the document of a somewhat-stable lineup, "On Social Rust I wanted to record more things live to try to mirror the energy and flow that this specific material garnered after months of being played by the same group of musicians."Social Rust also has a cleaner, more radio-ready sound (though Frye takes pains to point out that this is not by design) "The situation allowed us to record at the venue where I work called Roulette Intermedium, which has an amazing assortment of microphones
and recording gear. I also wanted to distance myself from the finalization process, which has previously engulfed me into extended solitude, so I had a very talented engineer, John Schenke mix the album after we finished all the parts and approximated our sound. As a result it definitely sounds cleaner and more sonically enriched than most of the previous spontaneous, haphazard recordings." The first time I heard PC Worship was at the long-shuttered Williamsburg space Bruar Falls. It was louder and more abrasive sonically than what I was prepared for but I could feel that it had an honest and genuine energy. The next time I happened to see a PC Worship show it was Justin playing solo. The sound was totally different but the feeling was the same. Frye hopes for PC Worship to continue to grow and expand, "I personally love the instability and assortment of changes in the sound and texture that come from different musicians or phases of the group. It keeps things fresh and creates a breeding ground for new ideas and allows the membership a certain flexibility to focus on their own creative endeavors as well." Recently, Frye has been playing shows under the name PCPC with some members of Dull-Tools label-mates Parquet Courts. "One of my goals is to play a PC Worship show that I’m unable to attend."
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HORSE LORDS 12
*You’ll get the best experience out of this if you listen to Hidden Cities while you read* Finding solace in the gaps between the Worlds. Words. Worlds. Words. I’m ready to live between the Lines. But you have to Find the Lines first. Take me to the Winds. Because when we riff, we riff for days. When we riff, we spit for plays. Riff for days. Spit for plays. In that order Let’s not going down, I’m taking names. There’s the target; found it found it found it found it . . Don’t worry we’re still here Beat by beat, marching through, They lined the doors with facts about the fishnets, Facts about the dish heads, Facts about the hill meds. Upstairs/Downstairs/Upstairs/Downstairs/Upstairs, definitely upstairs. going in in sick si si si sick si si si sick si si si si is si is si is si is si is si is si is si is si is si is isi isi is ji is i isisi isisss isisss isisss not a virtuoso, still we try so so so so still we try. Some of us like to dig a lot of holes. Holes everywhere. Not too deep. Some of us like to dig one very very very very very very very very very veryv ery very very very very deep deep deep deep deep deep deep depe deep dep deep hole. And we dig . . . . . .
words by jake saunders
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Making Movies with Show Me The Body If you’ve seen Show Me The Body in the last six months you’ll know that their shows are a force to be reckoned with. Julian Cashwan Pratt, the band’s fearless front man, singer and banjo player is provocateur of the stage. Staring his audience down, he dares them to indulge, an invitation to participate in and reciprocate their energy in whichever way one sees fit. Show Me The Body’s fan base delivers this energy with a force that borders on violent reaction, as those who know what Show Me The Body preaches take extreme pleasure in throwing themselves into a frenzy of frustration. It is a sight to behold, and it’s a place for the New York City youth. With grins on their faces they lunge into a moshing frenzy, rejecting the soft, plastic New York that they know ignores the true underbelly of their city.
tories. At the end of their music video for "Gross Loans" you’ll see Julian and Harlan wandering the abandoned Long Island Railroad tracks that feed into Long Island City from Hunters Point; it is a perfect visual representation of the old Long Island City and the environment Show Me The Body was ultimately born out of. We all grew up watching our neighborhood turn plastic, bought and sold to a yuppie generation who fell in love with a neighborhood close enough to the city and removed enough to raise their families in a "safe" environment. Long Island City was a unique place to grow up, and for years Show Me The Body has considered it a home base, keeping themselves removed and yet very much a part of New York culture.
It’s where we first started jamming to TV On The Radio, where my friends introduced me to MF Doom and Madlib and the genius that is Madvillainy, where we discussed our life plans and our girl problems. It was and still is our ultimate chill zone, where we remove ourselves from the city’s quicksand-like ability to drag one down.
We were lucky enough to avoid being affected too hard by gentrification, but simply growing up in New York City makes it impossible to avoid seeing the city swallow up it’s people and communities. "I feel like more than anything we act like photographers. We’re trying to capture what the [underbelly of the city] is. I saw the underbelly, I don’t think I grew up in it exactly," HarThe loft apartment Harlan grew lan tells me in his bedroom of up in is where we would spend that very same apartment. "We Show Me The Body began in most of our time. Hours were had the privilege of growing up Long Island City, Queens, where spent playing Super Smash in beautiful parts of the city," he bassist Harlan Steed and myself Bros., smoking copious amounts continues, "but when we’re gogrew up and spent time wan- of weed, eating sandwiches from ing to school every day we had to dering what were, at the time, The Korean Deli down the block see the ugliest parts of the city empty streets lined mostly with (the deli has a name, but to us it too." On the inside of the insert debunked warehouses and fac- is just The Korean Deli or K-dels). on Show Me The Body’s EP, Yellow
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Kidney, you’ll find a picture of a burning building in Long Island City, another subtle yet apt descriptor of the perspective Show Me The Body is attempting to shed light on. There are parts of the city that you don’t get to ignore as you grow up, and comparing the darker sides of the city to our own privileged upbringing was something that connected hard at a very early age. The frustration coming from Show Me The Body’s music is in some ways directed at those who can’t recognize that part of it, or have placed themselves in a situation where it’s easy to ignore. New York has become a product, bought and sold to the wealthy who place themselves in environments where it is disgustingly easy to forget that there are parts of the city where people live in extreme poverty. "When I write poetry I think of what I write as making movies, I think of myself as a movie maker. I think when we make music we create atmospheres for our movies in a lot of ways... People can participate in those movies because they’re real and we don’t make music or create atmospheres that we don’t feel ourselves or haven’t experienced ourselves." Julian is very particular when he talks about his music and his process. He becomes sullen, very keen to explain the greater message behind the sounds. "[It’s about] telling the right stories, about knowing that and telling the stories that are invisible, telling the stories that are not always told. ‘Cus there are a lot of stories that are told 14
over and over and over again that nobody needs to hear." So what’s that story? It’s an account of city life through the eyes of an urbanite, a city youth traveling the city and learning through it. Julian’s lyrics often come from a personal perspective, becoming the lense of the lyrical camera he uses to document his world. "Cut lip, no love/New york, my home/ Us mutts, ain’t done/ Time goes, Time grows, Julian sings over a climbing groove on the opening verse to "One Train," one of the band’s standout tracks from Yellow Kidney. Often floating on these waves of paranoia and fear, at times the songs invoke emotions too large to pin down explicitly: "There’s too much in me anyway/I checked the screws, it’s leaking out my left side, fuck your facts and mine/It says it in my black book/All these nights, stained on my brain/I remember all the time that I spent on the 1 train." He’s often rapping instead of singing on these verses; the hip hop element is just another way that Show Me The Body has set themselves apart from most current New York punk bands. The songs are dynamically driven, shifting between these collected yet tense melodic verses, to harsh climaxes of chaotic frustration. Julian’s banjo shifts from melodic lines to screeching ambience on a whim, much like his body language, which ranges from entrapped and insular to flailing and outward. Best of all they are moving, and they are encouraging movement. When I asked about their live shows, Harlan told me "...it has to do with expressing or releas-
ing pain or joy. It’s an opportunity when we play a show, especially when we get to play with our friends; it’s the best time to cut loose, to dance, to enjoy one another, to think about all the issues in your life and also not [think about them] at the same time...It has a lot to do with body language, something Julian and I have talked about a lot...It’s about being present and active and wanting to be..." And what a bodily experience it is. I remember the first day I saw people really go in for a SMTB set. It was at an ATL Twins art show featuring Show Me The Body and Ratking as musical guests. I couldn’t believe it. I watched in amazement as these young, underage kids mercilessly crushed each other on the second floor of some high-end Soho apartment, literally throwing themselves at the sound with pure disabbandon. Frankly, it was fuckin’ beautiful. After that night I finally understood why Show Me The Body is called what it is. It’s a chance to reveal the parts of the city that aren’t in focus, but simultaneously a space for one to go absolutely wild in an environment that is becoming increasingly trapped and claustrophobic. You can see it on the faces of their ever increasing amount of fans; there’s a smile on their faces despite the darkness evoked from the band. It’s a joy because they’re being given a gift, and they’re also giving it back; it’s a beautifully reciprocal relationship. It’s an invitation to wake up. words by jake saunders photography by danny krug
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some photos shows, parties, and other weird experiences
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STUFF WE’RE LISTENING TO AND THINK YOU’LL DIG
Jeff Rosenstock - We Cool?
Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
LIKE NOTHING YOU始VE HEARD.
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