VOLUME TWO // ISSUE TWO
IN CUE KICKIN’ OUT THE JAMS SINCE 1945
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What a hell of a ride, right?
STAFF Anthony Saia, Station Manager Kentaro Murai, Program Director Ethan Arave, Music Director Nick McGarvey, Production Director Dylan Brown, News Director
CONTRIBUTORS Nae Hakala Brian Hakala Ted Kelchner Andria Marcussen Ethan Arave Anthony Saia
PHOTOGRAPHER Kentaro Murai
DESIGNER Anthony Saia
It has been an honor and a pleasure to practically eat, sleep, breathe and live KUOI 89.3 FM for the past couple of years. As I head out the door and another station manager comes through those doors, I hope that all of those that have participated, volunteered and listened have enjoyed everything that KUOI has to offer. It has been our mission to provide the University community with a wide array of music that doesn’t typically get played on commercial radio. That being said, it has also been a pleasure to bring Vandal sports broadcasts back to KUOI, as we have covered Vandal football as well as men and women’s basketball. In addition, we’ve re-established a relationship with the student newspaper The Argonaut to bring you continuous news coverage every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, a feat some of us weren’t sure was possible, only to take it further, including a new bi-weekly sports show 4th & Downtown. For me it is over – to some of you, it’s just the beginning of your journey at UI. If I had to imbue any words of advice, it’d be this: Turn on, Tune in and stay in school kids. See you around.
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WHAT’S INSIDE PHOTO BY ANTHONY SAIA
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AND AND AND: AN INTERVIEW WITH NAE of COMMON PEOPLE
THROUGH THE LENS: KENTARO MURAI’S PHOTOS FROM TREEFORT FESTIVAL
DOUBLE THE ALBUMS, DOUBLE THE HEARTACHE: HOW THE HORSE THIEVES CAME TO BE
WITCH MOUNTAIN: PORTLAND’S ORIGINAL DOOM BAND An Interview With Confinement Loaf
IN REVIEW: ODD FUTURE WOLF GANG KILL THEM ALL OF Mixtape Vol. 2
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AND AND AND: AN INTERVIEW WITH NAE OF COMMON PEOPLE Formed in 2009, And And And have increasingly grown in popularity, especially in the Northwest indie music scene. Nae of KUOI’s Common People had the privilege of interviewing these hilarious musicians at around 3:00pm on Saturday at Treefort Music Festival in Boise, Idaho. So, obviously, some members were already a little tipsy. The guys often talked over one another with great energy and enthusiasm (the kind you find in crushed up No Doz). Berg Radin, called Baby, seemed to take the reigns of much of the interview and gave distinct, humorous interjections. The rest of the group spoke over and in-‐between one another, creating an unforgettable tapestry of what one would hope to experience being on tour with such fun guys. Nae: How did you get your band name and how did you guys meet? AAA: It was a stuttering competition. No, we got our band name because Nathan let his ex girlfriend name our band. But it’s from that movie The Commitments and we were having a hell of a time coming up
with a name… What’s the line? It’s like, “That’s the worst band name ever. And they were saying you’ll never go anywhere. It’s from a bad movie, that’s the answer. Nae: How would you describe your sound? AAA: Wild Basement Pop. or gangster pop… Gangster wild basement pop. Nae: For each of you, what would you say are your major influences? AAA: Honestly, mine is Nathan. Mine’s actually Nathan, too. Mine’s Raf from the Woolen Men in Portland…and a little ICP thrown in there too. My main influence over the last few years has definitely been Nick Delffs from Death Songs formerly from Shaky Hands.
Definitely more local, people that we know …Archers have been a really big influence on me. I like soft rock radio music, it’s good stuff. Nae: What do you like about the Northwest scene, it sounds like you have a lot to say about it especially in the Portland area. AAA: There’s a lot of family ties, in the music scene in the northwest, it’s really nice, everybody wants to help each other. Portland’s music scene is the only thing that’s good that you could also call incest. People from all different bands helping people from different bands helping other bands record or play stuff or whatever else It’s really like family, they’re really supportive, like they’re on the same team
mentality rather than other places where it’s more competitive. Everyone’s in a band and everyone goes and sees those bands. The whole music scene is bands, there’s no public people that go to shit. Everybody kinda talks about how Portland is this great music scene, and then you try to think about bands that have gotten really big and blown up out of Portland, and there’s not a lot. It’s almost saturated so much that nobody has great ambitions because it’s really fun to just be in. If you’re in a band in Portland for more than a year, it probably means that you are doing it because you want to make music, not because you want to be successful. Because you won’t be successful. It’s fine, it’s just a bunch of bands that love doing it,
and that’s great. Baby: I’m rich. Nae: So speaking of success, I noticed that you guys were voted best new band in Portland, do you want to talk a little bit about that? AAA: Yeah, that cost us about 20 grand. We bribed ‘em (laughs). That was a really awesome thing and there are so many bands in Portland that it’s almost ridiculous that there is that thing. Yeah, there’s a lot of opposition to that whole release every year. I think it should be made clear that it’s not the best new band in Portland, it’s their pick of their favorite new band in Portland because really there’s so many great bands in Portland that nobody’s ever even heard of because they’re not out there to get
APRIL TENTH, TWENTY-TWELVE press. People that pick are generally like bookers and promoters and people that work with the bands most of the time so it’s not necessarily the best new band it’s just happens to be the band that’s actually trying to do the most. It’s like the best, new, most ambitious. It’s not about how good the music is really as what the band really wants to get out there. We’re talking our music down right here. Hey, whoa whoa whoa No, we’re alight! We’re not horrible! Baby: I’m OK. I’m a little buzzed, I’m rich. Nae: So, I was curious, who you guys were looking forward to seeing this weekend, since you are so supportive of the scene, is there anybody so far that’s been awesome or who you’re looking forward to seeing this weekend at Treefort [Music Festival in Boise]? AAA: Aan is amazing. Aan, Deathsongs, Typhoon-‐ our good Portland buds, Built To Spill, ShivasYeah, Shivas are awesome. We haven’t been able to do a lot, we’ve been talking to people. Baby: I’ve been desperately looking for something to drink all day. Nae: So I was going to ask each of you what is
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your favorite adult beverage, what do you guys drink? Baby: He drinks AMF, I mostly drink this 4 Loco drink, its not 4 Loco, it’s like you make this original 4 Loco, it’s got a bunch of ingredients you put in it and it’s like the original 4 Loco You crush up Nodoz It sounds like you’re making crack cocaine. Baby: Yeah, you crush up NoDoz and OE. AAA: Lighthouse is 101 proof Rumplemintz, and then it has a float of Kahlua… In reality we all drink Pabst. Yeah, Rainer, Pabst. For me Rolling Rock is the jam. That’s the cheapest champagne. Nae: So, I have kind of a fun question for you guys, what would you tell 12 year old you about music today? AAA: Powerman 5000 was a huge mistake. I’m telling myself, that’s what I’m saying, it was a huge mistake and you shouldn’t get involved. I’d say keep listening to Rush. A lot. I listened to a lot of Rush when I was twelve. My real answer would totally be don’t listen to things farther than six
hours away from where you can drive. Like stay local because local music is the shit that’s really, really good. That’s not always the case though… In smaller towns… No, 6 hours away? You’re always 6 hours close to a good music scene unless you’re in middle America Nae: Incidentally, Moscow is 6 hours away from Boise.
“I’M OKAY. I’M A LITTLE BUZZED”
AAA: Yeah, you’re always six hours away, and you should find that scene. I would have said “Listen to Bruce Springsteen with a keener ear”. I would have said, “stop playing butt rock guitar solos,” because that’s all I did. You still do that! What I would have said is listen to Flaming Lips a bit more intently. You can’t do that, that’s all you listen to. More local bands when I was younger would have been better. Baby: When I was twelve, I’d have said, “Stop riding bulls, and start playing guitar.” It took until I was 18 or 19 to get out of fucking bull riding. Nae: So we’re with a college radio station, do you guys listen to college radio? AAA: The only reason I was really bummed about moving from Eugene to Portland was because
PAGE FIVE Eugene’s campus radio was so awesome. Everybody has an hour block, is that how you guys do it? There’s a block and you get to choose… there’s people that specialize different stuff, so you tune in to certain shows… I loved it. The PSU radio, there’s a few DJ’s on there that I love. Like when John Raul was doing it, there’s some good stuff in Portland. Of any radio stuff, that’s all I listen to. College radio is always the best, because it’s people who actually care. Nae: And we can play what we want, it’s freeform radio. Baby: Freeform radio! Nae: Absolutely. So do you guys have any fun tour stories or anything funny that’s happened recently? AAA: Berg rescued a kid! Oh yeah! Baby: Yeah, I rescued three children out of a burning SUV. AAA: It wasn’t burning. …it was totaled. We were stopped at a gas station, in California on some little two lane highway section on like 405 or something, and an SUV came out and a car was pulling out of the gas station and the SUV swerved and clipped it and flew literally ten, twelve feet in the air and rolled like three times, all the way over and was in a
ditch, and Berg and I… I thought it was a fight, not a flight, but we were just bookin’ it over there, berg rips the door off of this car, pulls these kids out of it, and one of the kids is like “who are you!?” and Berg for some reason responds: “I’m with your mom.” Baby: I was comforting them! AAA: He was trying to make them feel comfortable, like “I’m not a stranger”, but it came off more like “I’m your new dad.” But everybody walked away from it, everybody was standing up. Yeah, everybody was fine, The car had roll bars and stuff, but we though we were going to be pulling dead people out of these cars Baby: Afterwards, everybody calls me a hero and stuff, you know? Berg ripped his shirt off. [to Baby] You’re gonna get a call from a private investigator that those kids have hired in six years and they’re gonna find their real dad… they know that you’re the real one because you were there when they needed you. Nae: That is amazing! Well, I know you guys have to go but I want to thank you so much, college radio thanks you, Common People thanks you. Baby: C’mon, People!
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PAGE SIX THROUGH THE LENS KENTARO MURAI Program Director Kentaro went down to the inaugural Treefort Music Festival in Boise on March 23rd and 24th. The festival's lineup was heavily composed of emerging artists from the Northwest and beyond as well as toptier indie acts such as Of Montreal and Built to Spill.
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1) Built to Spill played on the Main Stage on Saturday, March 24. The performance was the band's first in Boise in nearly two years. 2) Boise straight edge punk band 1d played at The Crux on Friday, March 23. 3) In The Shadow Of The Mountain played the Main Stage Saturday, March 24. 4) Seattle dream pop band Lemolo played at the Red Room on Saturday, March 24. 5) Los Angeles experimental psych group Sun Araw played at the Linen Building on Friday, March 23. 6) Boise band TEENS played a raucous set at the Red Room on Saturday, March 24. Audience members were encouraged to dance on stage. 7) Moscow power pop punk band Tim Blood & the Gutpanthers played at The Crux on Friday, March 23.
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TEENS TYPHOON
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8) San Fransisco post-rock outfit Tartufi played the Main Stage Saturday, March 24. Go to the KUOI blog to read Captain Ron Blow's 2010 Tartufi interview. 9) Boise indie-rock group Le Fleur (featuring KUOI alums) played at the Neurolux on Saturday, March 24. 10) Portland post-pop group Typhoon played the Main Stage on Saturday, March 24. 11) Boise folk band Hollow Wood played at The Crux on Saturday, March 24. For more Treefort photos, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/kentaro_m_photography
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PHOTO COURTESY MARK CLUNEY
DOUBLE THE HEARTACHE: HOW THE HORSE THIEVES CAME TO BE Anthony Saia Station Manager For a lot of fledgling groups, it takes a lot of work, time and effort to put together a single song, let alone an entire album. Spokane, Wash., The Horse Thieves are the exception to the rule, releasing their first two albums the same day. Outlaw Ballads and Valley of Decision were released in the Fall of 2011 featuring Marshall McLean, Fawn Dasovich and brothers Adam & Jordan Miller. As the band came together, the lyrical stylings came from the band’s personal experiences, particularly Adam’s – who was rather candid with us. “My old lady kind of cheated on me and ran off with someone and I wrote most of my songs about that. Most of the songs that I sing are about that story.” McLean, one of the band’s vocalists said, “I think a lot of the songs took on the theme of searching for direction. A lot of us at this time were at a
crossroads with different things. I think a lot of bands form that way – in crisis – at least ours did.” The project has turned out to be a cathartic experience for all of them – to the point where keyboardist Dasovich said, “It’s really become kind of like a therapy project.” It was obvious that the band had a lot to say since they produced two albums over a long cold winter at their family’s guest home in Elk, Wash. Adam said, “My aunt and uncle have this cool cabin on my parent’s property out at the Miller family ranch. They are actually from California and they didn’t lock the house so we kind snuck up there, put all our stuff up and recorded the album in their house. I don’t actually know who was paying the electric bill.” Despite their rogue tactics for recording, both records were a long time coming – especially for the two brothers who have have musicianship bred into them. The Miller boys father Rand is a musician as well and the band performed one of his songs “Dirty City” that is featured on their “first” record Outlaw Ballads.” The band are continuing to gain a larger following and plan a music video shoot in the near future.
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PHOTO BY CONFINEMENT LOAF
WITCH MOUNTAIN PORTLAND’S ORIGINAL DOOM BAND Through the laughter and the tears, your humble DJs from Confinement Loaf interview Nate Carson and Rob Wrong on Portland, Ore., doom band Witch Mountain. Confinement Loaf: You said life has been good so far since we talked one year ago. Why don’t you tell us what you guys have been up to and what makes life so good. Nate Carson: Well, I feel like the last time we talked we had a lot of ideas and visions and things that we wanted to accomplish and I feel like we’ve really kind of accomplished all of them. We’re on to the next chapter and it’s really exciting especially after such a long
gap between records. So, as of September we had put out that song “Veil of the Forgotten” on the Adult Swim compilation which has gotten a lot more people to hear us and we put out our record in April. We toured with South X Southwest, we toured with Christian Mistress, and we’ve been writing new material and we’ve been gigging around the Northwest and now we’re on tour with Wino. CL: You guys made the short trip today from Portland what music were you listening to today and what keeps you going on the road while you are on tour? Rob Wrong: We listened to a variety. I put my phone on shuffle actually and just let it roll. Um, Prank Phone Calls, John Lennon, Candlemass, Weird Al was on there. Oh, we
listened to Prince, Purple Rain all the way through. It came up on shuffle and Nate’s like ’we just need to hear this whole album’. ‘Cause Purple Rain the song came on and it’s at the end of the album and you gotta kind of earn it. Oh yeah, “Hemisphere of Shadow”, Danava’s new record. I’ve listened to it ten times in the last week, definitely worth checking out. CL: So you just released South of Salem this April. I’ve seen great reviews of that and some write ups about you guys. That’s great! You guys mentioned Weird Al. We are fellow fans of Weird Al, of course. He just released a new album as well. NC: We had a band date to go see Weird Al and then I got to see him again in
IN REVIEW
ODD FUTURE WOLF GANG KILL THEM ALL THE GROUP, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND.
Ethan Arave Music Director
H
ere's the thing, you could read a lot of reviews concerning the new Odd Future Mixtape Vol.2 that have practically nothing to do with the music. This is because these boys (and a couple ladies, this time around) are polarizing: they say bitch a LOT and talk
about fucking your and my girlfriend and murdering some people along with rape and weed and, "fuck the police." They're purposefully transgressive in every sense and want to offend anyone and everyone as quickly as they can. For one reason or another, this approach, seemingly the simplest equation I can think of
in the rap world (young group of DIY rappers are youthful, offensive and loud) has made waves in the critical music world and everyone has weighed in. So every angle on this has been covered somewhere on the internet, from weird, high-art praising of their counter culture fervor (See: John Maus, The Wire, Tiny
APRIL TENTH, TWENTY-TWELVE Mixtapes) to simple acceptance, in so many words (See: Pitchfork, Urb, The A.V. Club ) to outrage and dismissal (See: Cokemachineglow, Dusted Magazine, The Guardian). I've pointed you to the voices I find representative on the subject and there are many, many more out there. The rest of this review is dedicated to the mix-tape, stripped of this context, placed in a vacuum from all that discussion, like I like it. OF Tape Vol.2 is most certainly a mix-tape. It has huge jumps in quality, genre and pacing throughout its hour runtime, partially because the entire (sizable) Odd Future crew is on display. So you have the RnB styling of Frank Ocean on tracks like "White" and "Analog 2" or the electrosoul mishmash of The Internet on "Ya Know", up against a wall of rappers and beat producers. The production on these tracks engaged in a different genre are jarring when you hit them on the tape, but they do break up what is otherwise a bit of a slog. The beat making acumen of the Odd Future crew has, for me, always belonged with their defacto frontman, Tyler the
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Creator, and he doesn't being the bottom of the really seem to be at the bottom. With nothing to rap reigns here. Instead it's about and a shitty, Hodgy Beats producing uninspired beat to rap over, most of the tracks and this there isn't much in these means a more austere, bass tracks to let the MC's shine. heavy, straight up variety of Along with "50" and "Lean" beats that are usually... and the insufferable fauxKind of boring. agro anthem "We Got the Tracks like Bitches", these "Bitches" and tracks BY THE 50TH "Snow White" highlight the aren't bad for worst of the TIME THEY their lame youthful, givePUNCTUATE A verses and no-fucks dumb names to SENTENCE WITH approach (though they rap: a dearth both have of ideas and BITCH AND those), they no quality REPEAT A WEAK control. just have beats that By the CHORUS OVER A sound 50th time they BORING ASS unfinished and punctuate a uninspired. with BEAT, THE ALBUM sentence By bitch and contrast, repeat a weak ISN’T FUN‌ tracks like the chorus over a epic, 10 boring ass minute album closer "Oldie" beat, the album isn't fun or (a great rap-group miccounter-culture or too much tradeoff in the best of the to handle, it's plain bad, by genre's tradition and way of being tiresome. definitely the best track on Compare these to songs like here) and "Doms" are the aforementioned "Oldie" served well by their austere and "Doms", as well as beats, and again, there's a "Sams" "Hcad" and "P"; all wild variety throughout this of which occur in the whole thing; including it's albums closing 27 minutes, heavily uneven pacing. and all of which show the In it's first 33 minutes, upswing of the give-noOF Tape Vol.2 runs through fucks business: they are the worst of its tracks and fun, slickly produced and they are pretty bad, showcases of undeniable "Bitches" and "Real Bitch" talent of the rhyme spitters
PAGE ELEVEN on the OF crew ("P" and "Oldie" make sure to tell you that the talent is undeniable, straight up). So OF Tape Vol.2 would all be much better if it were just a 30 minute tape of those tracks, cut with the weird RnB interludes and I guess that The Internet song too, but it isn't and instead it's a hard sell overall. As far as a showcase of OF, I think you'd be better served searching out a couple of the individual releases of the collective, if you're in the market for some intensely offensive, youthful rap and some weirdly great neo-RnB, that is. Namely: Tyler's Bastard and, to a lesser extent, Goblin; MellowHype's BlackandW hite and Frank Ocean's Nostaliga,Ultra. These are all much better albums than OF Tape Vol.2, which is not bad by any means, it just has too many songs that fall flat, are overlong, or simply have no reason to exist. Still, "Oldie"'s pretty slick, and Odd Future deserves to remain on the radar of anyone already on board. That being said, if you aren't on board already there is nothing here to sell you.
England in December and it was his first European appearance ever! I know, hard to believe. Actually he was really sick that night and he was apologizing to the crowd but he still gave a 200% performance, like you could see he could barely stand but he was going for it anyway. His voice was just going throughout the show like every time you could hear his voice crackle his backup band would just step up, the harmonies would get louder, there would be a few extra guitar parts here and there. There was just so much support, so much professionalism, I just love seeing that. A flawless performance to me is not as interesting as seeing an amazing band covering for each other, dealing with what ever is going on. Maybe I’m just jaded from seeing so many concerts, I see a lot of shows but that’s what gets me excited seeing the interaction and seeing people solving problems and working together. I’m a nerd.
CL: You mentioned also listening to some Candlemass on your way here today. When we talked last, Nate, you said you’d played with every band you ever wanted to except for Black Sabbath and Candlemass. Could that be an opportunity? NC: Anything could happen. I mean it’s not like the degrees of separation are very far away at this point. CL: Did you get to see them at Roadburn Festival? NC: No. Unfortunately they were scheduled to play Roadburn when I was there but the volcano in Iceland disrupted a lot of people’s tour plans and Candlemass was one of the bands that didn’t make it. So they did do the show the next year and performed what I wanted to see with their original singer doing “Epicus Doomicus” in its entirety and I wasn’t there for that which was a heartbreaker. But at the same time, I see so much I can live through missing almost anything at this point but I’m
trying to catch as many as I can, especially the older ones. Like last year I saw Styx and Heart, Rush and I want to see as many of those bands as I can before they’re not worth seeing. I feel like a lot of those bands know what people want to hear and do focus on the best moments of their catalog as opposed to tryin’ to just play their limp new album, Rush being the exception. Like, I’ve seen ‘em do their new single twice now. A and B sides and it’s fucking killer, sorry if I’m swearing on the radio, but anyway, it’s heavy music and it’s vital . Every time I play it for someone I say a new Rolling Stones or a new Bob Dylan album would not sound crushing and the new Rush song does. CL: Since you mentioned it, a lot of older bands are coming out of retirement. I’m not including Witch Mountain in that because I don’t consider you as having been in retirement or in the same
generation as Styx. But what do you think it is? RW: I think mainly it’s because these bands were influential on bands, on people like especially our age. Wino definitely is influential on people our age. Yeah, I’m not sure. I think these bands are just around. It was like me seeing The Rolling Stones a few years ago. I’d never seen them and I was like I need to go see them they’re getting old a lot of these bands are getting old and people know if they don’t see ‘em somebody in the band is gonna die. I made a point of seeing the Stones twice on their last tour because I was afraid of that and I don’t think they’ve toured since. I think a lot of these bands are taken for granted because they’ve been around so long but as you get older you realize that these bands are really important and you should pay homage to them and go see ‘em. For more of this interview, navigate to www.kuoi.org/music/interviews /witch-‐mountain