Inkwell Press Fall Issue by Elise Granata

NOVEMBER 2009 ISSUE #5

ISSUE #5 TABLE OF CONTENTS

interviews with local record vendors

cold snap 7â&#x20AC;? release

24 swear jar interview

baby grand review

DONT SAY I WONT/ DEADLIGHTS SPLIT

‘Upsetting Pinch’ Derrick Shanholtzer

BRAVA SPECTRE

OPINED BY MATTHEW LOBO Be prepared to have your eardrums pummeled by Connecticutâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s loudest band, Brava Spectre. Their latest effort is their first fulllength, entitled The Hands, The Water, The Hands That Occupy The Water, is bound to confuse and bewilder the masses with its sheer volume and overall chaotic nature. The formerly instrumental two-piece (drums and guitar) has gone and pulled a Hella, adding a second guitar, bass and vocals into the mix as well as substantially fortifying their ruthlesswall-of-sound aesthetic. This addition is certainly an interesting progression but it has also taken away from the musicality and impact they once had as a solidified two-man unit. Factoring in the low-end rumble of bass and the extra layers created by a second guitar, this has allowed them to develop more grievous soundscapes than ever before, demonstrating a keen sense of creating tension and a sick pleasure derived from exploding listenersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; heads. The added instrumentation does allow the band to achieve a new level of heaviness and brutality but, unfortunately, this

5 comes at the cost of inciting clutter and disorganization throughout the compositions. The new addition of vocals are shoddy at best and certainly seem a tad bombastic most of the time but also are used effectivelyand vehemently at certain points throughout the album. For instance, the gang vocals during the tail end of ‘Noosery! I Hung My Neck, My Cursed Jowls!’ and the screaming in the middle of ‘My Skeleton Is The Bone-Glow Of The Harbor’ are very powerful demonstrations of this newfound element. However, most of the time, the vocals just seem to overshadow and detract from an interesting guitar riff or otherwise intense movement. One thing that is consistently impressive on this album, as well as any other Brava Spectre recordings, is the spastic and vicious drumming. It does nothing but keep your attention as well as keep you wondering how the rest of the instruments are even keeping up with the octopus-like dexterity of percussionist extraordinaire, Steven Buttery. If anything, this is the facet of the album that makes it worthy of a listen or five. Overall, the album has a unique sound, yet presents the ideas in a fashion that just don’t seem to ever come to fruition. The muddiness and lack of cohesion make the concepts unclear. This would make sense for a straightforward ‘noise rock’ album, but they are obviously trying to do more than just that and it certainly is admirable and worth delving into. My main qualms with this album lie in the fact that this is truly a band that needs to be experienced live. As their current incarnation, the ferocity and mayhem of Brava Spectre’s sound cannot be properly captured by microphones and cannot be contained on a disc. And that disc’s release show will be with Melt-Banana on November 25th.

PHOTO: ALAN HUCK

regarding the format At the Back to School Record Convention back in September, a handful of vendors stood before their sections layered with vinyl. Malcolm Tent (Trash American Style), Josh Carlson (Redscroll Records) and Chris Razz (Secret Sounds) all responded to some questions on their life and the format. TENT, TRASH AMERICAN STYLE MALCOLM

IP: What’s the name your vinyl outlet goes by? M: Trash American Style IP: What type of outlet is it? M: For 21 years it was a store, brick and mortar-- which they’ve been predicting the death of forever and ever. It would still be the brick and mortar, except for this treacherous landlord of mine.

IP: What happened? M: I was going to land to renew my lease for another 10 years, and

all of a sudden they said, ‘you don’t have to do that’ after 18 years of being in the same spot and having what I thought was a very friendly relationship with the landlord, who told me my tenancy was no longer required. And by mysterious coincidence, the print shop that had been angling for our spot doubled in size. As the CIA says, thank god for coincidence.

IP: When did you get started within music? Did you immediately begin selling records, or did you have more of a background? M: Well, I’ve been playing in bands since 1983 and worked part time in a record shop in south Florida in the summer of ‘85 and opened in October of 1986 to begin selling from Brookfield and Danbury. I

ART: TODD ROGERS

[also] got my solo acoustic thing, do Ultrabunny and got a project which doesn’t release music called BB Guns. Plenty of stuff going around.

IP: Do you spend time with anything else besides record sales? M: Haha, not all that much! I do photography. Every now and then I like to remove myself from music and go tree climbing or rock hopping. Doing the music allows me to do a lot of traveling, and during then I get to do the cool things like tree climbing or rock hopping

IP: Did you encounter any challenges along the way in setting up shop? .M: You’re probably not going to beilieve this, but no, not at all. The

closest I came to a challenge was in ‘97 when I was having some hard financial times. Bounced rent checks and mortgage checks and the challenge was overcoming that and keeping the business going. But as far as setting up business, it was ridiculously easy. I think I have a natural attitude for selling. I get along with people and have a very clear idea for what I want my store and merchandise to represent and the people I want to cater to and I’ve never varied from that. In my mind, I know what’s good and how to get it to people and when you’ve got that and half an idea of why to run a business there’s no reason why you shouldn’t succeed.

IP: What types of response have you gotten while selling records? Do you find there are any trends of feedback from certain demographics or environments you sell in? M: About 99.9 percent positive. Well, there’s the occasional nut job or ridiculous drug addict or complete nay’er-do-well that you can’t make happy. But I’ve been so happy and so fortunate coming up on 23 years now where people are so into what I do. I’ve always been positive to people, and then they respond positively. I’ve never made someone buy someone specific… people know when they’re getting snowed.

IP: How do you go about buying stock? Where do you buy from? What determines the content of the haul? M: That gets into the whole traveling aspect of things again. I’ll drive

anywhere I have to if there’s a promising collection at the end of the road. I just drove out to central Jersey to look at a nice new wave and junk blues collection. That Jersey trip was pretty good…the farthest I’ve ever gone was to Arizona and back on a total buying trip. It was the best road trip I’ve ever had in my life. Took no highways, hit every thrift shop, flea market, garage sale, record store I saw. I was shipping stuff

back and the car was full and it was so much fun. As I sit here talking to you on the phone on my back porch there’s boxes from Matador Records stacked up. I order from Dischord Records, get new stock from various distributors and scour the globe looking for stuff that falls between the cracks.

IP: What determines the content of the haul? M: I have to like it. I only buy what’s good. If someone really wanted

something I didn’t like-like Bruce Springsteen for example—I can’t stand Bruce Springsteen—but if someone wants a specific item I’ll pick it up for them. If there’s someone I really really couldn’t stand—like even though musically Bruce drives me nuts, philosophically he’s okay—I¬¬ get a lot of requests for contemporary R&B. I hate that stuff, absolutely despise it. Lyrically, musically, philosophically: there’s nothing I can hang my head on, I won’t buy it. If somebody wants to, I’ll just tell them I won’t buy it. I do it tactfully and with humor. I find that people appreciate the directness, and are used to people saying ‘You know…well…sorry’ and try to put kid gloves on and handle the issue. I’m like, ‘hate to tell you this, but Beyonce makes me vomit.’ Gotta tell them like it is.

IP: Are you connected with similar outlets and music locally? M: Yeah, as much as possible. I’m friends with pretty much everybody in

Connecticut and beyond. We all know each other and work with each other to a friendly degree. In fact, a friendly competitor of mine at Gerosa, I was there last night seeing what’s new/how business was. Like my customers in the past there have been a couple of dingdongs and think that record stores have to be rivals or enemies, but the thing is that they’re not around and those of us who are still are.

IP: Do you think events like the record convention are important? M: I think that they’re crucial especially nowadays when record stores

are vanishing more quickly than they’re reappearing, and people are taking music very seriously. Record fairs are becoming more prevalentin Connecticut you used to have events every 3-4 months or so, now I’m looking back on my calendar and seeing events I did in Danbury, New Haven, Cromwell, Bridgeport, Waterbury… right off the bat there’s six events and the year’s not even over yet. The independent record swap is filling the void of brick and mortar retail.

IP: Do you find that you infuse any of your personal musical preferences in your interaction with buyers or in the way you present the product? M: Absolutely. It’s all about personal preference. The way I look at it, I’m

the conduit. My role is to be there when someone comes along that needs something that I have.

IP: What are your long-term perspectives for your sales and for the greater vinyl sales globally? M: You keep hearing about how vinyl’s making a big comeback—it survived

the vinyl purge of the 80’s where labels were actively trying to kill vinyl and make vinyl a dead format. Even with the great power of companies like Warner Brothers, RCA, BMG, PolyGram…all those companies with all their billions of dollars and might and public power shaping ability couldn’t kill vinyl. And now, in a typical and short-sighted fashion they’re bringing it back. They know vinyl is good, digital is shit, they know that vinyl is permanent, sounds the best, and that it’s here to stay. CDs aren’t cool, records are cool. That’s why my business has been built on vinyl for 23 years.

JOSH CARLSOn, REDSCroll records IP: What’s the name your vinyl outlet goes by? J: Redscroll Records. IP: What type of outlet is it? J: We sell a bit of everything but, our main focus is underground music. IP: When did you get started within music? J: I started going to shows and getting into underground music around ‘96-’97.

IP: Did you immediately begin selling records, or did you have more of a background? J: No, I started selling records around ‘99-’00. IP: Do you spend time with anything else besides record sales? J: Sure, my girlfriend Jenn, our dog Bean, friends, family, etc... IP: What types of response have you gotten while selling records? J: Mostly positive, we’re filling a hole that major retailers couldn’t find with a map and compass.

IP: Do you find there are any trends of feedback from certain demographics or environments you sell in? J: Our clientele is mostly (though not limited to) young men in their early 20’s. They all seem to like what we’re doing.

IP: How do you go about buying stock? Where do you buy from? What determines the content of the haul? J: We buy from a long list of distributors for our new items. For used

stuff, we hunt craigslist, flea markets, tag sales, record fairs, etc. but the majority of new used titles just march through the front door.

IP: Are you connected with similar outlets and music locally? J: We try to keep all other area shops informed as to what we’re doing,

what’s working for us etc... If there is a chance that a different store may have items of interest for a particular customer, I always let them know. It tends to go both ways. As far as local music goes, we’ve tried to stay very involved. We put on the occasional show, sell tickets for all Manic Productions events, and release local artists’ music on our label of the same name.

IP: Do you find that you infuse any of your personal musical preferences in your interaction with buyers or in the way you present the product? J: Sure, people ask for recommendations all the time. I’ll gladly tell

them what I’ve been into lately. To an extent our taste is reflected in our purchasing as well.

CHRIs RAZZ, SECRET SOUNDS IP:What’s the name your vinyl outlet goes by? C: Secret Sounds IP: What type of outlet is it? C: Formerly brick and mortar retail outlet – now internet sales. IP: When did you get started within music? Did you immediately begin selling records, or did you have more of a background? C: I started collecting records in the late 60’s/early 70’s – when I was in

college at University of Georgia I started working for an Athens, Georgia based chain called School Kids Records. Basically we opened stores in college towns, found like-minded souls coming out of the UGA business school to buy these stores thereby increasing our buying power. We maxed out at 27 stores in east coast college towns in the late 70’s. I worked at stores in Durham and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Gainesville, Florida,

Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Morgantown, West Virginia, Columbus and Toledo, Ohio and of course Athens, Georgia. My sister and I had a shop in Athens in the late 70’s Called Chapter III records (named after a Manfred Man album). We had the Cramps and Pylon play upstairs in the shop. The B-52’s and REM were just starting out and the Athens scene was emerging. I recorded some demos for Pylon and two early REM shows at Tyrones that they used to book early shows around the SE.

IP: Do you spend time with anything else besides record sales? C: I printed T-shirts for a shop called Cheap Thrills in Atlanta when I

was in high school. At that time there were very few t-shirts available for bands. Mostly you could only buy iron-ons at mall shops of disco artists or some mega rock bands, like Bee Gees, Floyd, Zeppelin, Stones. I later became friends with the B-52’s and when they went on their first tour with the Talking Heads I asked about doing tour shirts for them. Their manager at the time said there was no money to be made in t-shirt sales and that they could do whatever they wanted about t-shirt merchandising with me. So I went on tour with them selling thousands of shirts and the manager quickly changed his tune about the profitability of merchandising! I moved to NYC after the tour and started working for Warner Brothers/ Elektra/Atlantic Records – a new super label conglomerate. I did sales and merchandising for them throughout Connecticut and upstate New York. Over the years I worked for various distributors and record labels, managed bands, toured with bands, printed t-shirts for hundreds of different artists, and finally decided to open another record shop. This one was located in the Black Rock section of Bridgeport, Connecticut. I named it Secret Sounds after Todd Rundgren’s Secret Sound Studio where he recorded many classic albums by himself and other bands like XTC, Steve Hillage, Grand Funk Railroad, etc. The brick and mortar location lasted from 1990 – 2000. We had a great run and many bands played in the shop including Ivy, Stereolab, The High Llamas, April March, Spin Doctors and the Chamber Strings. The emergence of the internet initially boosted our mail order sales, but we started seeing a huge erosion of sales in the shop due to the college market that we catered to being the first with access to high speed internet connections coupled with CD burners in their new off-to-school computers. I read the writing on the wall and closed the shop in 2000. Today I am still selling records and music memorabilia through ebay (seller ID secretsounds), Amazon, and my site chrisrazz.com. I have just relocated back to Athens, Georgia and am currently scouting a location for a new physical store.

IP: Did you encounter any challenges along the way in setting up shop?

C: There are always challenges in setting up record shops. Most important is the location. In today’s marketplace this is more important than ever. With music downloading being the prevalent form of access to music, shops need to diversify more and more and be in a location that is demographically suited to their inventory. Typically this means a large concentration of college aged people who are interested in music, and willing to buy it… not just steal it. So key locations now are naturally situated around college towns and large urban centers with colleges.

IP: What types of response have you gotten while selling records? Do you find there are any trends of feedback from certain demographics or environments you sell in? C: The people who buy records today are split into two groups. The first

is the type who always bought vinyl and never gave up on it in favor of the compact disc. They know that the warm analogue sound of a vinyl record is far superior to that of a CD. The second group is mostly made up of younger people who are just finding out about the better quality of records and the more attractive packaging is also a plus. With most new releases on vinyl including a free mp3 download of the album it is a win-win for everyone. You get the warmth of analogue at home and the convenience and portability of the digital files as an added bonus!

IP: Do you find that you infuse any of your personal musical preferences in your interaction with buyers or in the way you present the product? C: Part of the joy for me in selling records has always been discovering

new bands and turning my customers onto them. A record shop is the best environment for this and -also a great place for meeting like-minded individuals. I basically buy what I like and sell to a like-minded clientele. My customers likewise have asked me to order things for them which I have enjoyed so it is ideally a symbiotic relationship.

IP: What are your long-term perspectives for your sales and for the greater vinyl sales globally? C: I think that vinyl sales will remain strong until such time that digital

file quality, bandwidth, and storage capacities surpass the quality of vinyl. It is really only a matter of time before we become a completely access, no demand society which will inevitably mean no CD’s, DVD’s and vinyl records. I believe the great loss here is the social networking and camaraderie that the local record shops have provided for so many years.

DRIN CHE KIN AP for IN FA LL A narrative on fermenting hard cider as told by Michael Ditrio

Okay, so I feel fucking terrible for spreading this recipe around, ‘cause it’s something that should only exist on the internet. If you’re broke and you want to get drunk it’s easy. It’s a very simple process. Basically, I left a Snapple container in the basement for weeks, and it began to ferment in this fruity wineish beer sort of way, a very subtle way, and this fermented Snapple tastes like a small dose of what this can be. This can be terrible or okay, or it’s going to be between okay and terrible. Don’t put in natural sugar—there’s natural sugar in the apple cider. There are ways to make alcohol out of sugar and your favorite juice product, you don’t have to use apple cider. But if you don’t, you just feel like an asshole ‘cause you’re just using fruit punch or something. So, if you can’t acknowledge that this is a stupid idea by this point, stop reading. I don’t want to help you make this stupid idea into a stupid occurrence. So, it’s really simple.

ALL YOU N E E D :

• Juice (apple cider or juice with no preservatives—or else it won’t ferment) • Sugar (plain sugar/honey [that adds a different taste—more of a •

taste, while sugar gives you more alcohol content]) Yeast of some sort (if you can go to local brew shop, do…Fleischmann’s has two kinds you can usually find: rapid rise and dry active. One of those tastes like shit when it ferments, but I can’t remember which one that is. I hear bread machine yeast is good.) So ya got your juice, your sugar, and your yeast. Then, your materials:

• A good gallon jug or two liter bottle (glass is better because it • •

won’t melt into liquid, not that it would, but shit gets steamy) Rubber band Plastic wrap So, take the gallon jug or two liter bottle and fill it up with your cider or juice. Take your sugar and add in somewhere between ¾ or a cup and ½ depending on how much alcoholic content you want, which can get pretty high. Add between half and a full packet of yeast, swish it around a little bit and wait for the ingredients to dissipate.

Put plastic wrap at the top, but don’t add holes, since that creates pressure holes. Wrap the rubber band semi-tightly around thereput it in a secure area for two weeks or a month depending on your combinations. It’ll start bubbling usually the day after. Keep it there until the bubbles don’t happen very often anymore. There’s going to be a bunch of shit at the bottom, might look like mold, but it’s not. It might be, but that’s not my fault. So siphon that yeast off, let it chill for a bit, and drink! It could be good, could be terrible, could make you sick, but I’m not liable for that. I forget what that chemical from grain alcohol that causes blindness, like when brewing moonshine…but I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to brew something in this manner. The yeast will die before this. Drink this, you might get drunk. It didn’t get me drunk, but that’s just because I didn’t drink it because it tasted bad. I’d say about 80% of people that I’ve given this to have gotten drunk. But overall, it’s a fall time treat and a good way to awkwardly jump into the art of brewing.

NOVEMBER 12TH TOUCHE TOUCHE TOUCHE TOUCHE

THURSDAY

WALLINGFORD AMERICAN LEGION 190 Ward St, Wallingford, CT -- 6PM $7 AMORE TOUCHE AMORE AMORE TOUCHE AMORE AMORE TOUCHE AMORE AMORE TOUCHE AMORE

TOUCHE AMORE

MY HEART TO JOY MY HEART TO JOY MY HEART TO JOY

MY HEART TO JOY

COLD COLD COLD COLD

MY HEART TO JOY

COLD SNAP SNAP COLD SNAP COLD SNAP 7” releaseCOLD show COLD SNAP

SNAP SNAP SNAP SNAP

BRAVA SPECTRE

BRAVA BRAVA BRAVA BRAVA

SPECTRE SPECTRE SPECTRE SPECTRE

BRAVA BRAVA BRAVA BRAVA

SPECTRE SPECTRE SPECTRE SPECTRE

On a national fall/winter tour after starting off from Los Angeles.

TOUCHE AMORE’s first LP release, “…to the Beat of a Dead Horse,”

came out in July with a relentless and frantic motif of dark hardcore.

While maintaining dynamism and melody, MY HEART TO JOY still brings the musical roughage. The northern Connecticut band is still cycling material off of April’s Seasons in Verse, and are demoing new tracks. They have an upcoming winter tour with Hostage Calm

on the coast of the east. This is COLD SNAP’s release show for their new 7” Godspeed, with ‘Can You Even Hear me Scream?’ and ‘Trials,’ two samplings of their to-the-face-severity. A tangle of mathy segments and blunt interludes. With a force of distorted and mangled vocals,

BRAVA SPECTRE matches the rest of the bill with what they lack in hardcore compensated with helter skelter dissonance. Their full length will be released at the end of November.

COLD SNAPGODSPEED 7” 17

REPRINTED FROM SUMMER ISSUE

“We’re all weird ass dudes making music,” said guitarist Mario Nascimento, balancing on a stool as I was talking to him one night outside of a show. He was referring to COLD SNAP, a callous brand of hardcore saluting from the ranks of northern Connecticut. On a single-sided, double track 7” titled Godspeed, Cold Snap released‘Can You Even Hear me Scream? and ‘Trials’ on November 12th. Like on their untitled demo and EP, the band shies away from the technical ying of hardcore and sticks with the brutal, faceup yang. A single play-through of the record falls five seconds short of a five minute clock-in. If there’s any aftertaste, it’s one of blood. The run is short, tense and violent. Godspeed’s trumping style straddles recent hardcore- one foot planted in late 90’s material and the other with a toe in progressively post-hardcore elements. ‘Can You Even Hear me Scream?’ is a tight interface of blunt dissonance, more sure-footed in pace than their ‘Skeleton in NYC’ while tolerating no more relief. Most of the song’s relentlessness varies with that of the bass drum. It’s almost bruising, and swallows both of the tracks on the recording. Instruments on the record were recorded in “a basement in Seymour,” said vocalist Jack Vibert. The production process, also homegrown, was done by Nascimento. Vibert tracked at the humble abode of Kilian Appleby, also “king of the road.” Godspeed is available through Hot Air Press. (www.hotairpress.org) The writhing duration of ‘Can You’ oscillates between spiraling electric staircases and the song’s grounding chords. Those give you the only minor inch of footing you’ll be spared on the record. On ‘Trials,’ Vibert nearly bleeds a vocal aneurysm- a fate he borders on the rest of his Cold Snap track record. But here, while the song’s title rips through his esophagus in the chorus, he unhinges completely. That strain is something Cold Snap latches onto with a chilled vice and exhausting solidarity. What’s interesting is that complete release in ‘Trials’ gives something like an antirelief. The tension has finally ‘snapped,’ and the record ends in UFO-like static.

As fall rolls around we start looking for warm comforting foods to help combat the oncoming cold. Here are two of my favorite fall-centric recipes. Of course they are cruelty free (no meat, dairy, eggs or honey) so that the holiday season can be celebrated by everyone.

Coconut Curry Red Lentil Soup (adapted from La Dolce Vegan)

The deep spices of Indian curry dishes always seem so fitting for the fall, the coconut and pineapple add a touch of tropical flavor that lets us know that it will be summer again before we know it. *dried lentils can be found at most supermarkets near the dried beans, for extra savings head to your local natural food store and look in the bulk section. Lentils are a great cheap source of protein.

1 small onion, diced 1 tbsp olive oil 1 garlic clove, minced 2 celery stalks, chopped 1 small sweet potato, cubed 1 medium potato, cubed 3 cups vegetable stock 1/2 cup dried red lentils 2 tbsp curry paste (can be found at any supermarket in the ethnic food section) 2 tsp salt 1 tsp black pepper 1 can pineapple chunks in juice, drained (aka drink the juice) 1 14 oz can coconut milk In a medium soup pot on medium heat sautĂŠ the onion in olive oil until translucent. Add the garlic and celery and sautĂŠ for another 4-5 minutes. Add the vegetable stock, potatoes, lentils, curry paste, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and let simmer for 15-20 minutes, add pineapple halfway through. Stir in coconut milk and heat until warm. If desired to make soup thicker, blend half of it in a food processor. This soup is also delicious with tofu in it. Simply preheat oven to 375 degrees, drain, press and cube 1 package of tofu and place on baking pan. Toss with a dash of soy sauce and canola oil. Place in oven before you start making the soup. Remove and add to soup at the same time you add the coconut milk.

andyyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;sfree t cruel

fall fodder Pumpkin Pecan Oatmeal Cookies (adapted from Vegan with a Vengeance) These cookies are quite easy to make and are always a hit. 2 C. flour 1 1/3 C. rolled oats 1 tsp baking soda 3/4 tsp salt 1 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp nutmeg 1 2/3 C sugar 2/3 C canola oil 2 TBSP Molasses 1 C canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix) 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 Cup pecans (or pecans) roughly chopped

PHOTOS: EMILY BYRAM

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together flour, oats, baking soda, salt and spices. In separate bowl mix together sugar oil, molasses, pumpkin and vanilla until very well combined. Add the dry ingredients to the wet in a few batches. Fold in nuts. Drop onto lightly greased cookie sheet, bake for 16 minutes (or a bit longer if you made them big like I do). Let cool for 2-3 minutes on cookie sheet then transfer to cooling racks.

dark dark dark

In the last week of September, DARK DARK DARK performed at SUNY Purchase College on the 24th and at Daniel Street in Milford, Connecticut on the 30th. The performances were within a week of each other, but the content of each were fundamentally different. We addressed this and other things when talking with Marshall LaCount and Todd Chandler during the Manic Productions show presenting Dark Dark Dark, AU and Why? on September 30th.

IP: What has your performing schedule been like prior to the tour with Why? Any environments you found yourselves frequently playing?

M: We tour and work on projects constantly. This year we lived in New Orleans for January and February, and have been on the road since, playing shows around the 48 states (almost all of them this year), soundtracking our movie Flood (floodmovie.com), and going to Italy to play music for The Swimming Cities of Serenissima, a NY-based project by the artist Swoon. We play in a huge variety of places, because we like doing fun things with our friends, and we like playing in venues as well. We prefer to play in either a theater setting where you can drop a pin and hear it and play quieter songs and bigger arrangements, or warm spaces that are about community and experience, but we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t do that exclusively. Last night in Cambridge, Massachusetts, we had a great time and did well with the Why? crowd at a sold out Middle East show.

IP: What other types of bands have you been paired with? M: At theater shows, or house shows?

IP: Both.

M: The bands that we love the most are our friends’ bands, that we change and grow alongside. Nona has been a fan of Why? For a long time. [The tour] is something that we never foresaw being possible. We’re along for the ride. We’re not interested in playing only with other banjo/accordion/ piano bands. We’re doing weird things with piano/cello/accordion/ bass, and pushing folk music for ourselves. Why? pushes what pop is for themselves. We just released a 7” with remixes by other Anticon artists, so there are enough parallels for me.

IP: How did the opportunity for this tour come about?

M: We are acquainted with some Anticon people, and Yoni Wolf came to our show in Oakland and enjoyed it enough for us to open for him and Why? on some tour dates.

IP: What are your set lists going to look like?

M: I’m currently using paper recycled from the Philadelphia Arts Alliance’s current grants projects, with a pink or black Sharpie.

IP: How do you expect your performance will be received by the new audiences?

M: We’re excited to try different sets. When we’re in towns where people are more familiar with us, we have more freedom to slow things down and ask for attention.. When we’re in new places and everyone wants to dance to Why?, we’ll throw down a little more. It’s a challenge playing music for Why?’s fans. It was clearer that it was a challenge in Worcester.

IP: Why’s that?

M: The people were waiting to see Why? We have to face rooms full of people who have never heard of us. On [prior] tours, we’ve booked ourselves in rooms with people who know us, and know what to expect.

IP: Where are those familiar places?

M: Providence, New York, Seattle, Portland. We’ve gotten pretty familiar there.

IP: Tell me about Flood Tide. Where is it based?

T: Most of it is filmed on the Hudson River and also in other certain towns, but it’s based in “a sleepy, post-industrial river town.”

IP: How does the offshoot of doing a film come about despite being involved in your music?

T: My background is as a filmmaker. I’ve always wanted to do something in film, and this was just a perfect mix of circumstance.

IP: So, what’s the plot like?

T: *Laughs* Plot? It’s a document of what we’re doing musically and also what we’re working on the boats. It’s about a group of friends who go to build a boat and start down river in search of new life. It’s a story of journey. They meet friends, one friend stays behind, there are parallel journeys…everyone faces different expectations and challenges.

IP: When is it being released? I know it’s in postproduction now…

T: In January. I’ll do some film festivals around then, we’re considering doing a live soundtrack.

IP: Isn’t that the same time you’re releasing the next full-length?

M: We’re releasing the next EP in March, and recording in January. We record an EP in Duluth, MN in November 2009, and an LP in January for 2010 releases. They’ll be much more piano and “chamber-folk” driven, and include a full-time drummer.

IP: How do you feel about performing new material on tour and not having that new material available for sale?

M: When a band is all set up business-wise, they’ll release a CD and tour with it. We’re not set up like that right now. We do it all ourselves, we don’t have a booking agent. [The other way] is a very conventional way of touring. It’s mainly to sell records. Three out of the eight songs we played tonight are on that CD [The Snow Magic] and that’s fine with me. It’s not uncommon for a band to play songs then feel out how they sound or how they are in front of people.

IP: Well when you started as a band, did you have any particular intentions?

M: Initially, we were going to be a band for two weeks and play shows. Everything we’ve done since then has been amazing to us. This time that we’ve had since [The Snow Magic] has been really important.

IP: Do you think your style has changed since then? You said you’re taking it more in the direction of chamber music… M: I don’t appreciate when people say ‘gypsy’ or ‘bar romp.’ We’ve never done that, even when our whole set was songs from The Snow Magic.

IP: What would you call yourselves now? M: For now, I’d say chamber folk. There are arrangements that require an attention span of the audience and a greater attention span in general. It’s about voices and arrangements.

IP: Do you find there are any congruities between the feel of your recorded releases and the live performance?

M: Trick question! I do, and I think we’ve focused on our favorite parts and developed a lot in the last year. We tend to be honest and about the music and arrangements, not karate kicks or bar romps. We’ll follow this up with another recording. You know New Weird American Folk? What would happen to it once it goes international and then comes back?

IP: New Weird Globalized Folk? M: That’s what we are. *Tooth gleam*

IP: And do you feel like you draw at all from that Eastern European style?

M: Not as much anymore, probably because of how much we have all slowed down. We don’t have to play it fast just to get a dollar *mimics tossing*. I don’t know yet if that makes us an age 24-40 band instead of an age 14-24 band.

IP: Do you feel like you can take the instruments and pieces of your older style and manipulate them into your new sound?

M: It has to do with dynamics, with the whole landscape. You will appreciate something real loud because of the silence, and you’ll appreciate silence because of something very loud.

Finding honesty in the lyrics of a new band on their demo seems like a rare gift these days. In this way, one could argue that SWEAR JAR is a rare gift. Swear Jar is a group that that hails from both New Haven and the northern parts of Connecticut, and play a catchy yet somber brand of pop punk. So far, they have released a five song demo tape on cassette. There is a lo-fi sound and a raw feel to the songs that makes them feel more personal, and add a certain charm to the tape.

IP: What is your name and what do you do in the band? C:My name is

Christopher Zizzamia and I play guitar and shout words. M: My name is Mitchell Dubey, I do the same things as Chris, just at different varying frequencies and tones.

SWEAR JAR W/CHRIS

ZIZZAMIA AND MITCH DUBEY

BY ED GOODFRIEND

IP: What have you released so far, and what are your plans for the future? C: We have released

our demo tape entitled Almost Stabbed in Science Park, and are working on writing a new batch of songs that will be put out on 7” if all goes well. M: There is a hard copy available, and you can download the songs through the net somewhere!

IP: I heard that the original bass player is not in the band anymore, what happened there? M: Kyle was in the band when we first started. I had played him a few

recordings we had made at practice that he’d help us flesh out, and become our demo tape. Kyle didn’t want to be in the band anymore, so he’s not! Still one of my closest friends and a personal driving force to stay alive. PHOTO: DIANNA JENKINS

A must listen for all fans of early emo, pop punk that tends more to the punk side, and bands that rely more on raw talent than studio tricks; expression more than the safety of the conventions of any genre or scene. Inkwell caught up with Swear Jar the only way we could all get together at once, through e-mail.

C:Kyle is a great friend to have, and I’m glad we can still be buds even though he is gone. There is/was no bad blood spilled (nor good blood).

IP: What are some themes you write about in your songs? C: Well, on the demo there is one song (‘Charles Bronson [The Man Not

the Band]’) is about the U.S.A’s involvement in other countries, in a military fashion and how this seems to be a non-issue with people here but a matter of life and all too often death for those in those countries. It saddens me a great deal that our country never learned from Vietnam or just about every arms deal of the 80’s. ‘Parsley Sage, Rosemary and Time Travel’ was sort of split thematically between all our vocal parts, so I will tell you about the lyrics I wrote. There are a lot of people who complain about not having anything going in life, people who could really benefit from taking in the beauty of the outside world, even amongst all the shitty things. And yes, I have had days where all I want to do is sit down and do nothing and spend my time on the internet, but those days would probably have been made a lot better with a bike ride and reading a book while outdoors. M: ‘Freezer Plate’ is a delicious treat that Ryan from My Heart to Joy told me about. The song however deals with being poor and bummed out because there’s too much ice out. It’s a sad situation when no one is motivated to take care of themselves and blames it on the weather. Friendships and sun are a good way to stay ahead of this bullshit.

IP: There is a song on the demo about Mitch’s dad, can you tell us about his situation? M: ‘Synapses Fire’ is a song that talks about a lot of things. My dad broke his

neck riding his snowboard and is a quadriplegic now, and that really affects my life. I really wish that there was some magic cure that you could just go down to the drug store and buy to enable people to walk again, but it isn’t that easy, and stem cell therapy is costly and tests on animals, which are two conditions in which I can’t justify that idea. Good news is: stem cell therapy will soon begin clinical trials on humans in the United States (thanks Obama).

So, it has a lot to do with the hope that one day my dad can stand up, drive a car, feed/clothe himself again, but it is also a reminder that my dad is still alive and learning how to live with his injury. That gives me peace of mind for my family, and the fact that my dad didn’t sustain any major brain damage, so every day since his crash, we are still the same people.

IP: Do you think the physical distance between the members of the band effects the dynamics of your relationships with each other, or how the music sounds? C: There is the New Haven to northern Connecticut distance, and also the

distance while practicing and playing live, both of which are opposites; live we play super close where as we live a distance away. Mitch living where he does, and me further away may be a reason for some of the more dramatic shifts in style from song idea to song idea, take for instance the intro to ‘Synapses Fire,’ which goes from an odd chord to a catchy chord and vocal part. We write ideas, but can’t necessarily flesh them out together so then two things meet and we end up in a different but more ‘Swear Jar-ey’ direction. In terms of relationship-wise, a good friend is a good friend wherever they are. M: Often times Chris and I will write separately and go “Hey, I finished this!” and we can listen to it and after a few hours, the song is completely different. It’s pretty wild to witness a song come together like that, and I’ve never been involved in a situation like that. Most times the song writing has been incredibly one-sided by someone who was a far better musician than me, but I feel totally comfortable playing with Chris and Morgan. Practicing can sometimes be a pain in the ass, but I never loathe it. On another note, I love living in New Haven, everyone should move here.

IP: You released the demo on a cassette tape, do you think cassette tapes are a medium that will make as big of a comeback as vinyl did, or do you think that releasing cassette tapes is just beating a dead horse? C: No. The people most blown away by the cassette/vinyl thing are people

outside of punk/hardcore etc. Mainstream bands had to stop making those things because it was harder to profit, but almost all my favorite albums have come out on vinyl/cassette. Cassettes will always be cheap to make, and fun to have, so a lot of bands have done that. I think it was actually Mitch’s idea to do a tape.

M: Putting a release out on vinyl or cassette just means that the hard

copy won’t end up in a landfill somewhere. Putting together a release on an ‘out-dated’ audio format means that there’s so much more that can go into the presentation of the product, which makes vinyl superior to CD’s. Larger artwork, better audio quality…more special. I think tapes in the punk community are also pretty sensible due to the facts that used/ recycled working cassette players are easy to come by, and it’s a good way to get your music out with a little less overhead cost. I think the total cost for packaging and materials for the cassette was about $120, and there are 100 cassettes available for roughly three dollars, which means that if we sell the remainder of our cassettes for that much money, we will make probably $20. Awesome!

IP: The band collectively has a whole ton of beard, do you think that changes the way the band sounds? C: Yes, we sound warmer. M: Ed, can you bring back your beard into full effect? (Interviewer’s note: way ahead of you, that’s why I asked)

IP: What influences your song writing the most? C: Hating and loving the things hate and love, respectively. M: On that note, what gets me thinking about those issues of hate and love, are fighting to eradicate and preserve them.

IP: If you could recommend one book to everyone who reads this zine, what would it be? C: One Hundred Years of Solitude By Gabriel Garcia Marquez has the most beautiful word choices of any book I’ve read. For politics, perhaps Living My Life by Emma Goldman or Zinn etc. M: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer is a very awesome book if you want to get your nostalgic pre-teen adventure on. It can be sad at times. Female Chauvinist Pigs is another great read for men and women interested in feminism. It’s a good book to get started with, but has a lot of practical applications and situations for today’s society.

IP:Any final thoughts? C: Thank you Ed/Elise. I think zines are a great idea, and I am glad to have

more and more popping up from friends. You can only learn so much shit from the internet before it all becomes mush. M: Final thoughts are for when you die. Stay alive.

‘The Gathering’ Robert Ingellis

THE

BABY GRAND CASSETTE

SCRAWLED BY DANNY RAVIZZA

C o n n e c t i c u t ’s underground melodic hardcore scene has produced a multitude of local talent. Baby Grand consists of Tim Casey of Hostage Calm, Greg Moran and John Clarke of Jettison, James Carroll of Make Do and Mend. Normally the combined effort of these individuals would conjure up images of distorted, soaring octave leads, wailing vocals, and fast tempos. However, the bright pink tape cassette harbors more than hi-gain amplifiers and bittersweet fugues. Don’t expect crystal clean production. Lo-fi aesthetics define the tape both inside and out, as it was recorded in a bedroom. The tape itself is translucent pink, with the bands name, side, and serial written in sharpie. Packaged in brown packing paper, the insert includes highcontrast photography, with the calligraphy “God drives a diesel engine and his dreams are the black inside me” imposed over a photograph of a street lamp. Included is a mediafire address for those who aren’t fond of this particular analog medium. The first track, “Wasted”, continues those lo-fi aesthetics.

Tim and Greg’s vocals rise up out of the aural mist along with their guitar’s fundamental frequencies. Hiss and noise contribute to the melancholy lyrics, which detail the loneliness of stagnation. It’s unclear as to which members’ voices are present; however this strengthens the amorphous qualities of the opening track. Heavy reverb and vocal harmonies fortify the solitary declaration of ‘As long as I’m still here, everything stays fucking wasted.’ ‘Be My Baby’ is sung and played exclusively by Tim Casey. Though typical do-whop ballad chord progressions and lyrics are employed, the lo-fi tonal characteristics blend the soul of the 1950’s with postmodern aplomb. Deconstructing the track is a garbled and saturated electric guitar solo during the bridge. While taking the elements of yesteryear and combining them with a modern tonal base and context, ‘Baby Grand’ offers as much enjoyment in its simplicity as well as its sophistication. ‘Empty’ commiserates on the pains of growing up in Connecticut. Boredom, apathy, and severance dominate the commiserating lyrics. Dynamic group vocals accompany this track, along with the barren, solitary guitars.

31and halcyon If you’re a fan of overcast days, crinkling leaves, days, pick up this tape off of Hot Air Press. Do-it-yourself ethos combine with somber aesthetics not typically found in the indie context that the band members’ original bands produce. A full release is scheduled soon, and most likely on a more palatable format.

AVAILABLE AT

www.

AIR

HOT

PRESS .org

PRESS

TRACK REVIEW

Jettison’s Wail Sampler

PONTIFICATED BY MATTHEW LOBO Jettison’s newest tracks off full of intriguing hints to the the Wail sampler revamp the future along with the completely old Jettison you know while new song ‘Driving Under Bridges preparing you for the Jettison When Ice Falls’ that will be on of the future. If you thought the the possible upcoming EP or original version of ‘Daedalus’ 7”, depending on the contents on the Drag EP was impactful, of the band’s pockets. A new just wait until you hear the sense of songwriting maturity upgraded version, ‘Daedalus 2.0.’ shines through with effective Nothing says serious business vocal harmonies, more dynamic like dropping the key of a song a awareness and an ending that is half step. It’s only a slight tonal worth waiting for. If this kind of change but the subtle differences style is prominent throughout it makes, along with making the the rest of the new record, it will song just slightly slower, give the certainly be something to look song a new life. This sampler is out for. PHOTO: SEAN BLACKALL

ALL-A

WOOD SPIDER

MERI

CAN

The American Cassette was recorded in an American basement in a single take. Four songs exude all the blown out, clippy glory they were doomed for when recorded straight to tape. According to Mike Ditrio (guitar), it’s a shoddy manifestation of what collaboration sounds like with little effort in a one-take session. It represents the lower end of the spectrum on the scale of their creative quality, Ditrio asserted. It isn’t any great stride from their 2008 EP Tree Flesh. If anything, their material has gained a denser consistency with time. This comes with the slightly biased territory of the EP’s textural sound, which renders every recorded inch into over-amplified meat with little to no dynamic and strikingly rough production. It’s also due to the content which has matured since the 2008-era evenings spent violently gesticulating and wailing on parts of trash with a mallet gripped in firm, anticipatory fingers. If you see Wood Spider today, you’ll find that this is still the case, but on a tamer level—Alex Krokus plays the ukulele now. With Krokus and Ditrio flanking the forefront on ‘Hell Bound Train’ with a double ukulele-acoustic guitar force and Dan Florio occasionally settling behind the junk artillery which suffices for a rhythm section at some performances, Wood Spider is just downright more composed. Now that the ukulele wears the melodic pants in songs like ‘Reaper’s Waltz,’ Ditrio’s accompaniment which used to carry the jazzy riffs in the days of Tree Flesh yore now cultivate body. Overall, the material is more substantial, empty of much of the signatory theatrics. Where Tree Flesh’s ‘Our Monster Song’ recalled the 10 minute tale of the Grackle’s imperialistic seizure on a village, ‘Cobblestones’ makes mention that ‘there are many tales that the stones have to tell/like relationships that broke when the Grackle fell.’ What they’ve lost in cinematics has been made up for in composition which faces more human venture. ‘Cobblestones’ remembers nights in harsh ¾ time, walking the streets ‘with the crows, so he’s not alone.’ Culminating in rousing callbacks of ‘Drunk on the cobblestones!’ it’s made apparent that the new songs are of a grimmer weave than their circus romps. The songs are available for free download as MP3s off of the myspace.

ART: ALEX KROKUS

‘Pizza’ Derrick Shanholtzer

AN HISTORIC MY CZERNY

When Adam Matlock’s hands dipped under the heft of the accordion which belonged to the leader of a klezmer ensemble, shifting back towards the center where all his musical background intersected was inevitable. Arduous lessons at four years old on a piano, distending his diaphragm for his mother’s Afro-American singing choir, floundering in the cluster of ambiguity while at university performing in noise conglomerates and Motown cover bands. Taking the instrument, he was told that it would be more authentic than even the melodica he’d known well. “And that was the start of a beautiful love affair,” Matlock remembered. “I spent a steady week with that thing glued to my chest, trying to figure it out.” Adapting entirely to the instrument only with the piano lessons of the yesteryear in tow, Matlock synthesized a rich sweep of his chemistry into fresh projects. A Matlock performance—or as he calls his songwriting venture, AN HISTORIC—is like having a briefcase opened after years. These years have seen intimate music theory, self-learning and the

passage of traditional relics on from virtuosos. As if these have all been caked within Matlock’s guts, he nearly exhales his history while performing. Thermal summer evenings framed Matlock’s comingof-busking. He was accompanied on the streets by a flautist, trumpet player and singer named Missa who eased him out of his angst of playing into the exposure of street performance. My Czerny is his debut release and opens with ‘If,’ where a crest of waltzy accordion reaches in with Matlock’s resonant and harmonious ‘oh’s.’ While performing under An Historic, it’s just him and his accordion, although he crafts imaginary supportive instrumentation and arrangements when listening to it on his own. ‘Briefest Eye’ rests on jazzy drumming which fills out the audile space left when Matlock is solo. Fuller isn’t necessarily better, in this case. When just on accordion, Matlock embodies a one-man-band aesthetic which is both lonely and charming. ‘Nigun’ is the most dissonant arrangement I’ve ever heard on an accordion, with dark and anxious tones interwoven with a conversely chipper melody. Throughout the song, these do a bit of a step dance, continuously returning to the colorless core until the end sees to them merging into one. As he performs his work— whether on the street, with the Yale Tango Orchestra or in a damp New Haven basement—the deftness with which he plays seems inherent within his nerve lattice. The release was, after all, titled with a nod to composer Carl Czerny who wrote most of the songs which are old-hat for beginner piano students. For Matlock, this is his Czerny.

THE BOOK SLAVE has been a familiar bookend in every house, hall,

or open-air show featuring locals like Dead Uncles, One Hundred Year Ocean and Bombs Away!—any music that’s derivative from the influences Book Slave cultivates without a full band. Maybe for Book Slave, it isn’t so much about what they do as it is how they do it. They have instrument interaction. The textural composition is all there, as gritty as it might be in another predominately instrumental ensemble. Dan and Joe Katz still remain, instigating all the energy found in a full band, no sprawling rhythm or bass line to match the brothers’ two guitars.

THE BOOK SLAVE ALL BAD THINGS EP

As for the cassette released in October, All Bad Things, it’s the goods of camaraderie. Derrick Shanholtzer from One Hundred Year Ocean and Media (page 3 and 33) created the cassette’s yellowy artwork, and Krystina from We Rise released the end creation.“Cassette is, to me at least, a way more personal and interesting format than CD/CD-R,” said Dan. The opaque yellow tape contains four tracks, all recorded up in Amherst, Massachusetts with Will Killingsworth of Orchid, Ampere and Failures. The content of the tape is finely honed, a nice marriage for the comparatively small scope of content a cassette can belly. Book Slave’s untraditional structure can make the music hard to swallow. And without much curtailment, some of their material is just abrasive. They’re now beginning to probe into conciseness. The belt on five minute tracks like Shapes Bend and Contort EP’s ‘Tough Guy Blues’ has tightened into ‘Roy Orbison,’ less than two minutes. Contending for a smaller window of time, the spine of the newer songs has begun to erect itself. The hooks in ‘Roy Orbison’ sound more intentional while the bunch of lyrics scrawled in the liner notes take up most of the track. ‘I Missed It’ is perhaps the most forgiving track on the tape, one that is still studded with inaccessible melodies and insurmountably painful composition. Sleepy, transitional pieces earmuff the song that indicate real foresight embedded in the composure. Dynamics

are hard to come by with their instrumental set-up. And on the tape, more consistent than previous releases, the overhanging haunting overtones are more deliberately crafted. For the cassette and Book Slave, this thematic aspect is one of the strongest features. The opening song ‘Of Leaves Falling’ traces the cyclic ascent and descent of seasonal elements, and closes with the bleak line, ‘I watched it come down/ but I couldn’t watch the sun as it rose. I guess all bad things happen without reason.’

WERISE.wordpress.com

www.

DON’T SAY I WON’T and DEADLIGHTS, though both relatively new, are friends. And nothing says friendship like releasing a split 7” together. In all seriousness, Matt Banta (guitar, vocals) of Don’t Say I Won’t asserted that the band cares as much about Deadlights’ devotion as they do about their own. Both bands recorded new material for each side of the record at Dexter’s Lab in Milford. For Deadlights, recording the split gave them an opportunity for experimentation. Without the pressure of an LP or even an EP length release, the band had more creative breathing room, according to Vin Costanzo. Here, they played more with dynamics rather than stick to relentless impact. Costanzo hopes to extend this modification out to their next full length release, where “adding the new style will make for a good contrast on the CD. Also as far as playing them live, it’s good to be able to thrash to a different beat and I think people will be excited to hear that contrast between songs.” The tracks have yet to be titled. “This entire community is built off of friendships as much as it is the music,” Banta said. Don’t Say I Won’t took a different kind of approach with the new material. After finishing ‘I Wish I Was’ and ‘After This Summer,’ they also mastered ‘Mary Lyon’ from their debut EP Heavy Hearts. These were released digitally towards the end of the summer, but now only one of the new tracks will be selected for the split sampler’s distribution. The December split will be the first release of AUDUBON RECORDS’ John Longyear, friend of Deadlights and cellist in New Year’s Revolution. Banta sees it transitively, as just “a continuation of the things we’ve been doing all along. You hear a lot of bands give speeches about how one band is the only reason they have accomplished what they have; Deadlights have helped us since day one and we haven’t even begun yet.”

MARTINEZ HASLAM, artist martinez144@hotmail.com

www.dave-estes.com

DERRICK SHANHOLTZER, artisT

osirisorion.deviantart.com osirisorion.deviantart.com OsirisOrion presents Domestic Disturbances Jan 22, 2010 @ David Apuzzo Photgraphy and Art Gallery 4153 Whitney Avenue hamden ct 06518 - 5-10PM

Robert ingellis, artist

spenceralexander.blogspot.com

SPENCER ALEXANDER cover artist (PURCHASE)

deviantart.com/whitebitch

Andrew mckinnon, cover artist (CT)

greenscare1@hotmail.com

ED GOODFRIEND, contributing writer

alkiviades.meimaris@purchase.edu

ALKIS MEIMARIS, contributing writer

neurath@hartford.edu

James neurath, contributing writer

instanthuma

contributing writer Matt lobo, njustaddcoffee.blogspot.com

elisegranata@yahoo.com

WROTE ALL ARTICLES UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

Elise granata, editor

(TO VIEW ONLINE)

www.

INKWELLPRESS.blogspot.com www.myspace.com// inkWELLPRESS

cOMPILATION cdS OF BANDS FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE AND PAST ISSUES WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR DONATIONS TO HELP IN THE FUNDING OF INKWELLâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S PRINTING. THE LARGER AMOUNT OF PAGES THIS ISSUE HAS INCREASED PRINTING COSTS TO SOMETHING I CANNOT AFFORD WITHOUT HELP. ISSUES IN COLOR WILL ALSO BE AVAILABLE FOR DONATION.

(TO GET INVOLVED) elisegranata@yahoo.com

40 REPRINTED AND EDITED FROM THE ELM CITY INFOSHOP NOVEMBER NEWSLETTER

elmcityinfoshop@gmail.com

WED NOV 4-16 -- Annual Trans Week at Yale

A week and then some of events about a range of transgender people’s experiences & history. We also can’t find a full listing online except on facebook & in an e-mail we got, so let us know if you need that e-mail forwarded to you.

THU NOV 12 -- Press conference about mistreatment of workers at Café Goodfellas 4PM Outside of Café Goodfellas, 758 State St.

SAT NOV 14 -- 2nd Open Space Community Think Tank: Hard Times: Community Self-Reliance 10AM-5PM Common Ground High School, 358 Springside Ave, New Haven Bring your ideas, inspirations, experiences and passion to this gathering in an Open Space format and help unlock the genius of this community. For more information and to register contact: Bernard Brennan (203) 288-0001 or BernardTransition@me.com or Maria Tupper mariatupper@gmail.com

SUN NOV 15 -- Shut down Holocaust denier David Irving!

WWII historian turned Nazi sympathizer, David Irving is trying to book a speaking gig in New Haven. As of printing, he has either not secured a venue or is keeping it secret. His events generally cater to white supremacist groups & similar creeps. He is not welcome in our town; let him know! If he books a space & we find out where, best believe we will pass that info on and encourage people to shut him & his followers down.

THU NOV 19 -- Elm City Infoshop meeting, 8pm at the Infoshop THU NOV 19-21 Play: Emma by Howard Zinn

7PM Charter Oak Cultural Center, 21 Charter Oak Ave, Hartford Production of Emma, written by historian Howard Zinn about Emma Goldman, an early 20th century anarcha-feminist essayist, activist, and bad-ass. Suggested donation of $15 with all proceeds going to social justice groups including Food Not Bombs groups facing legal troubles.

SAT NOV 21 + 22 -- 1st North American Anarchist Studies Network Conference

9AM-5PM Charter Oak Cultural Center, 21 Charter Oak Ave, Hartford Panels and workshops on Anarchist Studies, Anarchist(s) (in) Political Organizations, Anarchism and Philosophy, Challenging Anarchist Perspectives on Environmental Justice, Collective participatory action-research, “Unbridgeable Chasms,” Postanarchism, Queering Anarchism, Anarchist Economics, Anarchism and Religion. Will include among others Barry Pateman, Chris Spannos, Donna Berman, Cindy Milstein, CRAC (Collective de recherché sur l’autonomie collectif), The Worker’s Solidarity Alliance and the Boston Anarchist Black Chross. Get more info at naasn.wordpress.com

THU NOV 12 – Touche Amore / My Heart to Joy / Cold Snap / Brava Spectre @ Wallingford Am Leg FRI NOV 13 – Dead Uncles / Foreign Objects / Birth of Flower @ FDZ SAT NOV 14 – Bruhder / James Black / Boogdish / Derrick @ The Handsome Woman THU NOV 19 – The End Piece / What’s Left of the Trees / Ghost Dance @ The Space FRI NOV 20 – Play It Faster! @ Lil’ Tommy J’s Home for Lost Boys SAT NOV 21 – Fugue / Zona Mexicana / The Ghost Sonata / Chalk Talk @ Heirloom Arts Theatre WED NOV 25 – MANIC – Melt-Banana / The Chinese Stars / Brava Spectre @ The Space SAT NOV 28 – Suns /Sounds Like Spring/Almighty Godzuki/Lancaster / Perkins Cove @The Space MON NOV 30 – Russian Circles /Young Widows / Phantom Family Halo @ Daniel Street WED DEC 2 – Fake Problems / Play it Faster! @ Cousin Larry’s FRI DEC 4 – Starvation / Crapkicker / Stone Titan @ Wallingford [secret location] FRI DEC 18 – Wrench in the Works / Wake by Whispers / No Less Than Everything @ The Space SUN DEC 20 – A Great Big Pile of Leaves / The Ghost Sonata / Chalk Talk @ The Space WED DEC 23 –The Anti-Dentites / East India Company / Dr. Rocktopus and the Nunks @The Space SUN DEC 27 -- All Day Ska Fest -- KBF / Brunt of It / The Morning Paper @ The Space

42 REPRINTED AND EDITED FROM THE PUSH: IDEAS INTO ACTION NOVEMBER NEWSLETTER

PUSH.IDEASINTOACTION@gmail.com

WED NOV 11-- A representative from TIME INTERCHANGE NEW YORK (TINY) 5:30PM CCN 0014a Will be speaking about alternative economies in & around NYC. This is held during the P.E.A Meeting.

WED NOV 11 – WORKERS SOLIDARITY

1-3PM CCN Lobby Members of PUSH invite all to come sing The Interntionale in solidarity with facility & food workers here on campus.. The Internationale is one of the most widely recognized songs in the world, sung by socialists, communists, socialdemocrats, and anarchists during labor struggles through out history. We are doing this in conjunction with Binghamton Educational Union & Industrial Workers of the World.

SAT NOV 14 – PUSH FILM SCREENING 7PM Food Co-op, Purchase

Movie about School of the America’s Military training facilities -- www.soaw.org

MON NOV 16 – BEEHIVE COLLECTIVE SWARMS PURCHASE COLLEGE

4PM Student Center, Purchase The Bees will take you on an interactive visual tour of the connections between colonization, militarism, and resource extraction in the Americas. Brought to you by: PUSH: Ideas into Action, Purchase Environmental Activists, Latinos Unidos, General Programming, and paid for by your Mandatory Student Activity Fee. www.beehivecollective.org

WED NOV 18 – SPEAKERS: PALESTINIAN JOURNALIST KHALED ABU TOAMEH AND FELICE GELMAN

7PM Fr. Parlor Reid Castle, Manhattanville Describe recent visit to Gaza discussing “human rights in Israel and Palestine… special focus on Gaza and the UN’s Goldstone report.”

WED NOV 18 – FACES OF POVERTY

7:30—9:30PM Red Room Anti-poverty organization Community Voices Heard will be speaking about hunger and related issues. There will also be poetry. Co-sponsored by: NYPIRG, Latinos Unidos, OAPIA, Women’s Coalition.

THU DEC 2 – PRIMAL TOOLS WORKSHOP

6—9PM LOCATION TBA Friend of P.E.A Jeff will be sharing his knowledge about primal skills and Neolithic wisdom.

THU NOV 12 –ColdCave /YellowTears / Her DeadTwin /The Silences @Whitsons SAT NOV 14–Population1280/TwinStumps/CarsickCars/White/Landlords@Whitsons SAT NOV 14 –Weekend Stars / Scowles / Speedwalker of ’89 / Berdais @Co-op SUN NOV 15 –Adventure / DJ Dog Dick / Ed Schrader @Whitsons MON NOV 16 – Nuclear Power Pants /Witch Hat @Whitsons TUE NOV 17 – Excepter @Whitsons WED NOV 18 – Bike RepairWorkshop @4PM @Co-op THU NOV 19 – FermentationWorkshop @8PM @Co-op FRI NOV 20 –AlgernonCadwallader /Zona Mexicana /TheGhost Sonata @Whitsons SAT NOV 21 – Speaking inTongues @Co-op SUN NOV 22 –TimeVampire / Donner Party Picnic / Data Dog /Weird Korea @ Whitson’s FRI DEC 4 –Zs / Skeletons /Zona Mexicana / Elemeno @Whitsons SAT DEC 5 –Tsuneo @Co-op

Weekly events @ the Co-op: MON—Garden Club@6:30PM; Multimedia Monday’s@9-12PM TUE—PSR Coffeehouse@8-10PM (broadcast online at purchaseradio.org) WED—Co-op Meeting@1-2PM; Free School@7:30-9PM THU—Cheese Club@10-12PM SUN—Joke Night@9-11PM

SHACK ATTACK RECORDS SHACK ATTACK RECORDS Sam and Ben Schachter PURCHASE, NY

NICK CORBO, SPACE GHOST COWBOYS

IP: What was the need for a record label like Shack Attack on campus? S: I don’t think there is necessarily a ‘need’ for a label on campus. The

musicians on campus are driven and independent and don’t need to rely on anyone to push them. If they do, they’re in the wrong business. However, it does allow us to gather a community of musicians that we can start to develop into a reliable source of getting fresh music to the people who like our label.

IP: Describe the process of getting to where you are today. S: As easy as starting a record label seems, it’s been difficult. When

you see that Pete Wentz did it, you’re like ‘well if this guy can do it, so can we!!!’ Well, maybe we can, but Pete Wentz didn’t make a label just sitting around looking stupid. It takes a lot of dedication and persistence to create something like this. Ever since I booked my first show, I knew I wanted to do something associated with the music business. I remember when me and Ben were in a Taco Bell and we

decided we’d do this. That was almost five years ago. There has been a lot of ups and downs since then. It seems like there are only downs at times. But when we finally released Nick [Corbo’s] album last year, it allowed us to start believing that maybe we can do this, at least until we run out of money.

IP: Did you follow the direction of any certain model in creating the label, or did you just go by creative instinct? S: Because we’re still young and have little experience, we kind of

just do what we think is right. Whether that means economically or the way we construct our image.’ I’ve personally been influenced by labels like SST, Sub-Pop, Saddle Creek, even Def-Jam and Rockafella. I feel like those labels started because there were people who wanted to have their music or friends’ music heard, and what better way to do that then start a record label?

IP: Who are the bands are on your roster? Do you find that there is a shared core between the bands you release material for? S: As for now, it’s just Space Ghost Cowboys. We have a lot of artists that we’ve been speaking with and look forward to working with. Nick did his first album with us and is going to try another avenue with his music, which we totally support.

IP: Have you done anything through the label that you might not have expected to do initially? S:As for now, everything has been going according to plan. We started off with little money and now we still have little money.

IP: Who have you geared most of your promotion towards? What has the audience response been like? S: We have yet to expand outside the realm of the tri-state area [and]

our friends and family. Not because we don’t want to, but because we’ve been working on a lot of projects. We’ve definitely relied heavily on the Internet to promote and we’ll keep working on that. Once we develop our web-site which will be up and running shortly, I think it will be a lot easier for us to reach more people. We hope that our new compilation will help regain a sense of awareness about the label and what we have going on.

46 IP: Even though you’re doing this independently, it doesn’t come without its costs. What has been the riskiest venture you’ve made within the label? S: It would have to be our last album we put out, which was done

by Space Ghost [Cowboys]. We had it ‘professionally pressed and packaged.’ I put that in quotes because as compared to the Nick Corbo album where Spencer [Alexander] silkscreened on some cardboard packages, this was pressed in a factory in North Carolina. Although I love the way it came out, I think we’re going to stick with the hands-on approach, at least for now. It’s way cheaper and it gives the consumer something a little more personal…which has become our main goal.

IP: Do you ever find that there is a plateau bands reach in their progress when mainly on campus? S: I think it all depends on who the artist is. I’ve seen some bands that are being told they’re going to be the next best greatest thing and then flop four months out of school. I also know that there are bands on campus that receive little to no attention and that I know will be successful once they reach an outside market that fits them best. Joe Ferry (a professor at Purchase) once told me a story about how for Dan Deacon’s senior show 10 people showed up. We all know what happened after that.

IP: In context of you graduating soon, what do you plan to do with the label and the skills you’ve gained from it? S:I hope we release the next Nevermind and we can live off the earnings and put out our friends records for the rest of our lives.

‘All Eyes on You’ Martinez Haslam

ZONA MEXICANA AN INTERVIEW WITH HART SEELY GUITAR/VOX

IP: When Zona came to be as a band, did you have any initial vision for what it would become musically? H: Not really, it was just an outlet for all of us to play the music we

wanted to [and to play] music that was challenging to us, and it’s gone from there.

IP:Who were among your influences? H: Speaking for myself: Smash Mouth, Rusted Root, and the Cranberries IP:Is there anything that sticks out to you in the experience of cultivating a band mainly on a campus? H: Well, I like to think we’re not just a college band! We make a conscious effort to get off campus and tour, and we did that last winter and summer. We made the decision to not play so much at Purchase this year, and to focus on getting shows elsewhere, having played here so much last year. I think it was really helpful to start a band at school though - it’s a great community to be a part of and we never had a hard time getting shows or finding time to practice for the most part and we’re all in the same place. It can definitely be tougher than that.

IP:Do you not use effects still? Why is that, even though it’s common for a band like Zona? H: I don’t really use effects, I know it’s common for “mathy” bands to do

that, but honestly they scare me, there’s so much that can go wrong when you have 20 hinges in your connection between your guitar and your amp and people are flying around and stepping on stuff and knocking stuff. I really like focusing on my parts themselves rather than some noises from a pedal, but I really appreciate people that can do both well.

IP:Why did you make the choice to include any vocals at all, and not just let it be instrumental? H: For myself, I feel the strongest connection to music through the vocals.

Not to say I can’t get into instrumental music or other aspects of a band, but vocals make things personal, and I wanted to try and replicate that in our band.

IP:Have you found it to be more difficult creating more complex music with just a three member band, whereas other bands in the same vein as you may have five or six members? H: I don’t think so, I like that we’re a three piece. Having three people is a

constraint but adding another guitarist or something would be strange, I can’t imagine what they would play. I could see adding a tambourine player at some point though, and I’ve been picking up a little accordion...

IP:What was the process like in producing the EP? H: Well we recorded Cameron [Wisch] playing drums first and then I did

guitar, followed by Zephyr [Prusinski] who did the bass. then I attempted to mixta it and make it loud. Our friend Dena did some artwork for it and I went to Kinko’s with the lyrics and that was that.

IP: What are you looking forward to most in the near future? H: Writing some new songs! We got some good shows lined up and we’re

gonna be recording two of our older songs for a split 7” with our friends from school in a band called Elemeno, hopefully some kind of tour after that.... and that’s about all that’s in the works for now.

photo: alex moskowitz

SPACE GHOST COWBOYS the sad album Clustered around Aaron Maine at the Food Co-op, about a dozen people clench a hand on their neighbor’s shoulder and howl. The compulsive camaraderie still hums despite Maine lacking a supportive band. A guy in the corner motions out the ghost rhythm. Some girls to the side sway with that seemingly-intoxicated charm to the tides of lament SPACE GHOST COWBOYS bring swingin’. About a month prior, the Cowboys herded an audience into Whitson’s performing as a full band. Their performance—though drawing greater in number than the Co-op’s spectators—held the same charismatic mantra: rowdy but right. Space Ghost Cowboys has the body of a folk act and the wherewithal of a drunkard when it comes to vilifying their compositional aims. ‘Graveyard Bed’ is proof of this notion, where a crescendo of both pain and lackadaisical grief come to meet after the

verses stumble between the poles of dissonance. Though for the most part, the songs are hardly rousing at all. There are definite periods of drag, when the lazy strumming becomes a little too slack, the moseying rhythm of Jack Reilly extremely diluted. Though as evidenced by the audience response, the record still transmits something infectious enough to its listener. At their barebones, these songs are ballads. And ballads are raw. They can be soft, they can be brash. But they’ll cling to their bread-and-butter sentiment. In ‘Hole,’ Maine drones ‘I’m not a maniac, I just need ya back;’ In ‘Toothy:’ ‘So when we were alone, I could feel you in my bones;’ and in ‘Bloodsucker:’ ‘I might seem like a bloodsucker, a heartless motherfucker, but I’m still in love with you.’ These hooks are so simple, but highly accessible all the same. Laden over the plain folk the Cowboys cultivate, it’s no wonder that an audience could homogenize inside of these sentiments of futility and longing. It is called The Sad Album, anyway.

PHOTOS: STEPHAN FAUGHT

TRACK REVIEW

Sports : ‘We Are Bones’

SPORTS is a new force at Purchase consisting of Dave Benton, Alkis Meimaris, Kyle Seely and Jake Sachs-Mishalanie on a two guitar, bass/drum artillery. Taking their two-month lifespan into count, chances are they’ll settle into their own and shed some of the more derivative or slacker elements in their live performance. Though still fetal, the band is streaming their demo track ‘We Are Bones,’ a gaily melodic number with some frantic transitions into brief arrangements of signatures in time. Among other comparisons to Cap’n Jazz and others in that vein, Sports’ vocals maintain that Kinsella sort of happy yell, making the repeated line ‘We are bones!’ sound more celebratory than otherwise. This same sort of positive overtone infects their buoyant material as well as some of their performance gimmicks, with sweatbands as a staple and throwing a tub of Gatorade over an audience member as their pipe dream. And if they ask you what time it is— know that it’s game time.

TRANSCRIBED BY ALKIS MEIMARIS The Delay, the solo-project-turned-full-band and brainchild of

guitarist Nick Noto, has released five EPs over the last four years, each with their own unique character. Noto operates out of SUNY Purchase, but the band is originally from Staten Island, New York. Their latest release, The Loose Ends EP is intended to be the last EP in the series of five. Noto described it as “[his] teenage years catalogued on record,” which is a fastpaced flurry of frantic, yet fluffy pop rock interspersed with experimental soundbites, laced with heavily effected vocals and splash upon splash of layered guitars. There’s no dynamic change in between the songs, which sounds a bit awkward at times and takes away from them. The EP is solidly written poprock, often with intervals one usually doesn’t hear in pop. My favorite song on the EP, ‘Dancing on Your Throat,’ features a jazzy two-chord progression with chill but classy single-tracked, uneffected vocals; a refreshing break from the rest of the EP. The fuzzed-out vocals at the chorus counter this, however, and I feel the EP would have been better served with at least one song with decidedly less effectation than the rest of the EP. This EP was recorded on one-inch tape rather than by any digital means, and although this is more difficult and speaks to the recording skill of Noto (especially with all of those between-track fillers); it makes the guitar sound rubbery at times. The EP also has a recurring theme of fraternity. The between-song soundbites are almost all snippets of what I imagine is Nick’s band members and friends in jovial conversation. The second song on the EP, ‘Grow,’ documents the difficulties of writing a song without anything to write about, which I like the concept of. This theme adds sort of a sincere, homey touch to the EP. I imagine it would strike a chord with someone who has ever tried to write a pop song. “They all go hand in hand, and the end of the series signifies for us the end of an era and a rebirth,” said Noto of the five EPs. Having tied up the proverbial ‘loose ends,’ The Delay plan to release a full-length LP sometime in the near future. Nick said he’s been writing for this fulllength since the time of the third EP, The Keys, which was released in early 2008, and has amassed over thirty songs to pick and choose for it. “Real dreamy pop songs, real rock and roll. three guitars, a bass, and drums, no BS kinda thing.” Sounds promising.

DATA DOG is a duo of homogeneity. Dan Arnes and Robert Flato share the same pot of home (Long Island), university (SUNY Purchase) and musical style—a light dusting of sampling over some generally nonabrasive electronic swoon. Fetal though their newer tracks may be, they retain the subtle prettiness Data Dog clicked out on their Casios in their 2009 selftitled debut. Arnes’ voice shies away with the Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne kind of mousiness, aligning with his sugary instrumentation and Flato’s dissonant guitar to sound like an instrument occasionally breathed into all its own. ‘Best Bad Side’ sounds as if he’s afraid to overwhelm the loop of miscellany that carries the strongest track of the six. Plato’s plucky guitar line becomes a fixture to return to when the sampling of bird twitter and hollow spoon-on-spoon-like clicks lack sufficient mass. ‘Rio Ghosto’ winks out the EP, offering up layers of looped snaps and a tide of coos. They were billed at their most recent Purchase show with Broadcast and Asobi Seksu, acts which, similar to Data Dog, retain a more substantial core within a genre usually known for being highly diluted. Particularly in ‘Jigsaw Jitters,’ Arnes and Flato carefully separate instrumental loops into clearly defined guitar, keyboard and drum machine ticks. Towards the end of the track, they fuzz into one another creating a grittier contrast to the rest of the song. This EP is planned for release at the start of 2010, though until then they plan to be playing constantly. Woof woof.

AMERICAN BUFFALO RECORDINGS is a six band collective, founded

with R.J. Gordon and the rest of Trails as a record label releasing Trails’ records like Cold Calling and Christmastime Comes. Each member of the unit is part of a Purchase band, and lends a hand in cooperative efforts like tacking their Buffalo-brethren onto shows they peg or, in their new project’s case—release a bunch of split 7”s. Come early winter, three sets of 300 hand-numbered splits will be released at biweekly release shows slapped with the American Buffalo stamp.

SPLITS

TRAILS/WE ARE NOT BEARS Produced by: R.J. Gordon (Trails, Elemeno, Time Vampire)

ELEMENO/ZONA MEXICANA Produced by: Mike Amacio

TIME VAMPIRE/WEIRD KOREA

Produced by: Jeremy Aquilino (Time Vampire)

co-founder Keith McHenry came to speak at the Purchase food Coop in October. We spoke in an onphone interview a couple of days after.

PHOTO: JORDAN DAVIS

FOOD NOT BOMBS

IP: What’s important about speaking at universities? K: Well the main thing is that it inspires students to get involved in

Food Not Bombs (FNB) to see really how many possible things FNB can do and what I have seen is that people that participate and often come up to me after and say, ‘We didn’t know Food Not Bombs did all these things, we didn’t know it had such a long history, particularly in things like IndyMedia and so on.’ And then it seems like students are more dedicated to join chapters or start local chapters and assuming a place in the part of world effort.

IP: Have you always targeted universities? K: I actually just started in 2005 when I got really ill, and I realized the

best use of my time was to speak at universities and reach more people. It would be more effective use of my time.

IP: What is the purpose of your current tour? K: It’s the 30th anniversary FNB tour, although it’s not covering as many universities as it could be this year. Usually in the past, since 2005 or so, I usually speak at about 40 universities a semester.

IP: How do you think the change in conditions of the times have affected the tone of FNB today? Clearly, things have changed since its inception in 1988. K: It has, it’s meant that there’s a lot more people eager to get involved

with FNB. One part of it is the failing economy which has often at its core attracted a lot of people. They see that it’s really important to get involved and make a difference, so that’s been really positive. I think also that young people are more dedicated to doing FNB because they really feel that it’s things like climate change and all these different issues facing people which are so major and have such a huge effect on the future, that getting involved in their future and getting involved in FNB makes a lot of sense. It’s really growing more now than it has ever before. People

are seeing connections between direct action and doing things in the community. And they view FNB’s role in solving social problems as being really important.

IP: Do you think the attitude or method of members in FNB chapters needs to adapt to the current political/social environments? K: Well I think slowly what has happened, over the couple of 3 or 4 years

where we were starting to see that the government was approaching us and telling us we couldn’t do that sort of thing. That particularly picked up right after Obama got elected. This became a large trend. Another thing that happened were the infiltrators: these were FBI agents and homeland security personnel who would come in saying we should change the name and so on. It was a covert message to change FNB. There was a year or two where chapters were saying ‘Oh yeah, maybe we shouldn’t use the name because we were worried we’d be arrested if we used the literature and banner.’ What ended up happening was that some of the actions— particularly when Obama got elected—were so clearly about silencing political organization…people started getting wild. This has been really positive in a way and changed peoples’ attitudes and made it so people are willing to confront authorities and say, ‘No, we will not be silenced.’ There was a criminal case in Flagstaff, Arizona when a man was charged with having a banner in front of city hall. Another thing that happened was basically that chapters in Connecticut sued the state and actually won the right to serve food without being bothered.

IP: Why do you think this infiltration has been on the rise since Obama? K: My sense is that it started happening after Obama because the

authorities, people that run defense contractors started freaking out that basically they might lose their defense contractors and stuff and that this could be a big problem. I think that’s where it really came from. I think they had an idea that Obama might cut into the defense budget and therefore they would not be able to sell as much bombs and everything as they thought they could. I don’t think it’s Obama himself, but it’s this fear that Obama could do that stuff.

IP: Was there ever an emotional toll founding FNB took on you? K: Not really, I’m proud of it in a certain sense. I’m proud that a government

that makes billion of dollars, who makes cruise missiles is so worried about cooking free food and my influence that could alter their future and has a major influence. It’s unfortunate being so poor, and it’s quite

a struggle getting fired. I can’t pay my bills all the time and not worry all the time..that’s stressful. And I was picked up by police three times in San Francisco and taking to the station and had the clothes stripped off of me…they picked me up until all my ligaments and tendons were ripped and put in a chain-link box hung from the ceiling for three days and that’s why I’m so sick actually, Fibromyalgia. Stress from not having an income is so hard, the physical pain is so hard from that struggle. I’m homeless quite a bit.

IP: What do you think is important about strictly vegan fare? K: For several reasons. One of original reasons is that it promotes the

idea that if you’re working for peace, you don’t want to be violent against anybody—even animals. And for the environment—we understood that the amount of food we consume was harmful to the environment, harmful for us to graze cattle on private land. Since then we’ve learned that meat is actually the largest single contributer to climate change. But we were seeing the ozone being depleted, forests being cut down to graze cattle for McDonald’s. You can feed 50 times more people on one acre of land if it was on vegan land than an animal-based one. The other thing we learned is that if you wanted to do something safely—like if you’re recovering food, and don’t want to have to have refrigeration trucks—it made a lot of sense to not use meat or dairy because you can do it really, really cheaply. And it’d be safe to know you won’t be really, really ill or something. That’s three reasons to promote social justice to show that it’s really important to have a nonviolent diet to protect environment.

IP: Tell me how freeganism began. K: I’d always lived my life as [someone who was the type] to choose

discarded furniture as furniture for my apartment, I learned to become a graphic designer by finding art materials in the trash that was the original artwork for IBM’s annual report and by looking at that was able to become a professional graphic designer. I was in a dumpster in Edmonton, Canada and found an entire wheel of cheese and said ‘let’s not be vegan, let’s be freegan!’ I shared that story with people on the rest of the tour, that I had found a 250 dollar wheel of cheese, and everyone thought that was funny. Then a man in Gainesville, Florida made a flyer about freeganism and about it taking anti-consumerism to a whole other level. This has become a spinoff of FNB…not official, very little of FNB is official.

IP: Is FNB intended to be an alternative model for a society (like Bikes Not Bombs, Food Not Lawns etc) or a supplement to the way our society is currently run? K: The goal really is to transform society to be more like it is in FNB.

I think it is ultimately going to happen that way, it seems pretty clear that capitalism itself is not able to be sustained on all kinds of levels. The kind of model of FNB is kind of natural, that it would be a way for people to organize society and it’s not so different in some senses to traditional people in organized society in the past, thisi decentralized way of organizing, adapted from native people. Quakers used forms of making consensus which became the democratic process of the United States. The ideal part of it is that everybody has a say, Robert’s Rule of Order was the initial concept that came out of it. The sense that everyone should have an equal part in power forms from that. The concept now that people should have access to power and directly control its society, FNB is taking that to a more direct way and getting the money and corporate power and violence to get what you want out of the mix.

IP: Last night you mentioned that the original intention for the people in FNB chapters was for them to be aligned with the punk, D.I.Y. culture and ethic. What has it become? Have you ever come across a chapter that appeared as exclusive? K: Yeah and there are more cliquish chapters unfortunately. One that

I found that has been more cliquish on and off has been the Thompson Square chapter. Every once in a while you’ll hear about a chapter that’s feeding punk kids and not interested In feeding the hungry and the homeless, trying to be cool and everything. There are people all over the world that have heard of FNB and have done it, [who have] come to a city, volunteered into a chapter and it ends up being a really cool thing that transforms over time into an organization that isn’t that cliquish and dilutes. Orlando has three chapters, and in fact there were two other chapters which transformed some other chapters that were cliquish.

IP: Do you think cooking for FNB transcends gender roles? K: Say for instance in Nigeria when I was there: men in Nigeria never

cooked. That was almost like a taboo that you would cook as a man. They were seeing me cook and seeing men cooking in other societies in brochures, and men actually started getting involved in cooking in Nigeria which made a huge difference. You do see that in certain cultures where that’s not men’s work. FNB men are cooking just like the women. I don’t think it’s so strong in the U.S. s that women are cooks and men are not because we have famous chefs and men that have cooked, I think as

the world has changed in the subtle 30 years that everyone should have access to the kitchen.

IP: What have you found is the most effective way of promotion? To which demographic? Where? How? What about the alternatives to promotion provided by the internet? K: Flyers on bulletin boards. Of course [though] that has been true

before internet, it has remained certainly true. The more people put up flyers, the more people get involved. The use of the internet is also really important. People will see flyers, go to the internet, see FNB and share our e-mail and website information with their friends and build a community. Zines have been really important, especially when fanzines came out around the internet. Especially bands, when they have information about FNB on their liner notes. And then the fact that we’re out in the streets in public serving food, people see us and pick up flyers and see the banner has been really positive. It’s about word-of-mouth, people traveling and talking to each other and being part of FNB then moving to another city and talking about it. That can be really valuable.

IP: Has this become a positive or negative increase in information due to it not being so much about word of mouth anymore—is it more risky? K: You might get arrested, you could potentially get beaten and killed.

But overall I think it’s really positive. So we get in the media about being arrested, and instead of it being negative, people get really surprised and it ultimately backfires. The Chicago chapter called me the other day and told me about how Trivium called them to do an interview. They were worried their food sources might get discovered, or too many people might start eating with them. The trick is to keep the details down and not damage food sources. I don’t think that it’s actually a problem. They think they can actually trash us in the media, but people can see through this, which is very interesting. In San Francisco reams of news, art and [pieces on] TV about how horrible we were, and the whole time the public would say that’s not really true. Even if they believed the lies at first, they’d see we kept coming back, kept doing what we’re doing. In San Francisco in the 90’s the media would say we’re doing it to just get in the media! How ironic that our only goal is to get news…of course they stopped reporting on us, and we kept going.

VIEW UNABRIDGED VERSION ONLINE AT WWW.INKWELLPRESS.BLOGSPOT.COM

After hacking through the thick perimeters of feedback and distorted noise that cushion each of the five songs on WE ARE NOT BEARS’’ Contrary to Popular Belief EP, there’s a core that is gamey with fibers from 90’s emo, post-hardcore’s dynamism, and early math. These divergent buffers that seems to come attached to most of the songs on the EP released in August are transitional, but definitely carpenter a convoluted path. There’s never a linear avenue to its zenith though, leaving the impression of the song trudging around in its influences rather than wholly embodying them at any one point. Because of this, the EP’s one for the careful listener, not for the impatient or the carnivorous. The bass lines are at times bloated and drowsy, the drumming sometimes more narrative, not pioneering.

WE ARE NOT BEARS Kyle Pollard channels Bob Nanna in his vocal approach, sticking to a conservative range for the most part. Then there’re songs like ‘Auntie M.,’ where he wishes to ‘take back the part of me lodged in your spine,’ which he repeats until it ferments into a scream. ‘Thanksgiving’ eventually blows out into all-band participation instrumentally and vocally in a wash of cymbals and wailed harmonics. “I feel the CD gets good responses from those who listen, but our live shows are where we really thrive as a band,” said drummer Will Whatley. With songs with this type of dissonance—dipping a toe in some of the impact of early hardcore while remaining seated on the

edge of non-abrasive rock—the material is an elementary kind of easy for anyone to get into in person. This hinges on their hooks, like in ‘Died Blonde,’ which holds consciously infectious bass lines which loop in drowsy contrast to the picky short riff sounding like it’s out of a Modest Mouse conclave. ‘The Artist’ is the track after this, a fast-paced, cluttered run-around choked with layers of reverb. It sardonically addresses the different depths of faith, and closes in Pollard manically half-chanting ‘Kill the bastards/faster, faster.’Due to difference like this, the EP doesn’t feel like so much of a singular piece as it does a display of the band’s versatility. And it’s careful exploration, not an over-deliberate talent show. Whether they tighten this up or not, it’s the sort of rare thing that just works.

CONTRARY TO POPULAR BELIEF EP

Tsuneo

AUTHORED BY JAMES NEURATH

In the Japanese language there is a word that means ‘common man,’ and also functions as the name of Jeremy Smith’s solo project who attends SUNY Purchase. TSUNEO comes from teacher who lightly bestowed it upon him in high school and it stuck. Smith admits that after his last band broke up he dove right into instrumental music, particularly looping. ‘There is a Chaos in Orchestra’ is strongly structured on looping chords and repetitive finger-picking patterns. They create an efficient enough song structure and stay away from the unnecessarily repetitive line. The best example of his looping instrumentalism is a song entitled ‘The Public Never Reveals Their Secrets to Magicians, a comfortable conversation between two old friends, like two guitars standing together, one a kind of gentleman and the other a witty, unworried fella. Together they discuss various topics like the rain, power, and other trivial things, the sound of their voices coming together with proficient harmony and then appropriately apart when one has something more important to say. Their heads nod together in a dignified manner when a chord change happens like a practiced dance done often before. The intent to loop is overwhelming. They give the recordings an omnipresent translucence, leaving the print of neither being really here nor there.

ISSUE #5 TABLE OF CONTENTS

interview with food not bombs co-founder Keith McHenry

american buffalo recordings

space ghost cowboys

44 SHACK ATTACK RECORDS

PHOTO: JES WALSH

NOVEMBER 2009 ISSUE #5