SECOND SCENE - ISSUE 11

SECOND SCENE

THE JAZZ BUTCHER THE LAISSEZ FAIRS SLIPSTREAM ELBOW MR. FAB - WFMU NATALIE SWEET

ISSUE 11

ROBIN GUTHRIE THE BLACK WATCH SUN ATOMS LEIGH GREGORY SIMON BROMIDE THE SPEED OF SOUND ADAM MILLER FREDRICK WIEBEL JR ANNIE PARKOWSKI MIKE ROGERS LINDA FAYE CARSON I AM A ROCKETSHIP JOHANNA’S HOUSE OF GLAMOUR

PHILIP PARFITT MARTIN BRAMAH KIRA ROESSLER THE TELESCOPES

Welcome to the eleventh issue of the

SECOND SCENE

Thank you: Bob McCutcheon, The Vault, Dave Pursh, Glenn Sebastian. Print Tech, Anthony ‘Rocky’ Lamonde, Rick Radvansky, Judy Rosenfeld, Eric Wisiewski, The Electric, Crush, Bolt Dreg, Shauna McLarnon, Shameless Promotions PR, Gregg & Barbara Kostelich, Get Hip, Jordan Diggle, Happy Daze, Steven Boone, and Nether Street Radio.

Writers. Pytr Baum, Dug Moore, Cindy Smith, Karla Doolittle, Tom Sobilo, Dave Franklin, Dave Pursh, and Mike Rogers.

Editor-in-Chief: Tim Thomas secondscenemagazine@gmail.com

Front cover photo: Violette Guthrie Distribution: The Netherland - Pytr Baum

Spain - Jennifer McCauley

Correction. All photos of Sonic Boom from issue 10 are credited to Ian Witchell.

WWLT PLAYLIST 1. Feedback Delicates Vinyl Williams 2. Petrichor Purple Hearts Parade 3. Nectarine Dreams Tibetan Miracle Seeds 4. Crystallized Melody’s Echo Chamber 5. 666 Sugar Candy Mountain 6. Nina Crumb 7. Onda Negra Boogarins 8. Voodoo On Gold Dumbo Gets Mad 9. Semper Fi Black Market Karma

Happy Daze is an independent, D.I.Y live music promotion based in Manchester. England.

10. Cocaine Cat Tess Parks & Anton Newcombe

Happy Daze has worked with The Telescopes, Black Market Karma, Dead Rabbits, The Kundalini Genie, Purple Heart Parade, Frankie Teardrop Dead, HARKS & more.

Happy Daze will be a regular contributor to the Second Scene. The first submissionis a top 10 playlist found on Spotify and Youtube.

facebook.com/happydazealways

REVIEW

F

or anyone who isn’t aware of the late Pat Fish’s back catalogue of work,

“The Highest In The Land” is an album that is a testament to his talent, charm, spirit, and wit. Collaborated with Dave Morgan (The Weather Prophets), the album is a cool breeze of neo-jazz, swing, post-punk, new-wave, neo-psych, neo-blues, and alt-rock meticulously crafted to create a distinctive, sophisticated and foottapping album. It’s an album that revisits the classic roots of jazz in an underground of smoky strings, beatnik brass, and breezy beats added with a cocktail of jangly reverberation.

Listening to the album is like taking a long road trip through the avenues of life, reflecting at the crossroads, and looking back with warm nostalgia. It’s a melancholic map of love, politics, and philosophical musings lit up by the sun-drenched spirituality. The album touches the heart and empathises with the soul, along with the earnest lyrics. Through the sheer quality of the songs presented, the album stands out as a timeless work of art that enjoys the

track. Sea Madness floats wistfully aside the Farfisa fog through the elongated vocals and poetic lyrics while heading towards a neopsych shore.

Never Give Up swirls and whirls in a repetition of lovelorn lyrics, aside the neo-psych vapor. It’s pensive poetry steeped in dark romanticism and whose ballad-esque reverberation resonates in the shadows of alt-country/blues.

A Coast May 1963 resides in the 60s lounge of bossa-nova jazz that surfs aside the choppy strums of Spanish shores. It’s an instrumental gem that Farfisa flows towards the baroque rocks of neopsychedelia. Along with the cascading sweeps of Orchestral pop, A Coast May 1963 remains in the time-capsule of a golden age.

Running on Fumes pulsates with upbeat drums on the mountain tops of alt-country, beneath the Farfisa fog of neo-psychedelia. It’s a fast-moving track whose thought-provoking lyrics and catchy chorus head-spins you into a contemplative corner of neo-blues.

The Highest In The Land side-saddles like a cosmic cowboy across an alt-blues highway. Along with the flicker riffs and dusky drones, The Highest In The Land peers from celestial heights, whilst taking a trip to the psychedelic rock era of yesteryear. It’s a captivating track whose intriguing lyrics transcend a spiritual awakening in the realms of spoken word and punk poetry.

Sebastian Medication is a breezy and combatant track that saunters and shouts from its political soapbox. It’s an inflamed catharsis, a champion of the underdog, a wilful stance in an age of uncertainty. Lyrically astute, Sebastian Medication flies the post-punk flag, whilst reflecting from its beacon of fuzzy, jangly light.

Goodnight Sweetheart is a poignant slow-burner that quivers and vibrates from every iota of emotion. It’s a track that is steeped in melancholy and whose crestfallen lyrics pull from its neo-blues/psych heartstrings and lingers in the shadows of time and space.

joviality, the low-fi leanings, with a few belly-laughs along the way.

Through the on-set chemistry of the band, the album effortlessly flows, creating a spontaneous stream of subtle musical mutations.

Melanie Hargreaves’ Father’s Jaguar swings into action in a breeze of Farfisa fog and tepid taps. It’s a cool-cat excursion to neo-jazz in a sprightly sing-along of warm nostalgia and soul yearnings. Along with the hazy horns and free-styling flickers, Melanie Hargreaves’ Father’s Jaguar ascends from the vaults of New Orleans while intermixed with a backdrop of urban post-punk. It’s a great opening track, which sets the tone for the rest of this splendid album.

Through the spacey-synths and drones, Time captures the existentialistic essence of the track while floating towards the fifth dimension of New-wave. Through the bobbing bass, sophisti-pop jangles, Time travels towards the funked-up realms of Post-punk while creating a backdrop of urban spoken word.

Listening to the Jazz Butcher’s album “ The Highest In The Land “ is a bittersweet experience. On the one hand, it’s a sensory pleasure, a real joy to listen to, and then, on the other hand, it’s so sad to know that this is a posthumous album. For anyone who knew Pat, they all said the same thing - that he was a lovely, intelligent, funny, charismatic, and talented person who was taken too soon. However, on a positive note, this album is a celebration of Pat’s life and the music that brought so many people happiness. May his legacy live on.

“The Highest In The Land” is dedicated to Patrick Guy Sibley Huntrods, AKA Pat Fish - The Jazz Butcher (20th December 1957 – 5th October 2021) Credits: Pat Fish- Vocals/Guitar Tim Harries on bass Dave Morgan on drums (Additional guitars by Joe Woolley, Peter Crouch, and Max Eider.

Album produced by Lee Russell.)

“The Highest In The Land’ is released on 5th February 2022 via Tapete Records

Indie Cindy

Through the upbeat drums and jangly riffs, Sea Madness dives into the pools of neo-folk while soaking up the sentiments of the

The Highest In The Land - The Jazz Butcher

T S I R U O T T S A L

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ST ST LO O M L N (A RAVE K C A BL

John Welby talks with the Second Scene about the lastest Last Tourist single Black Raven (Always Lost).

Tell us about the latest Last Tourist single Black Raven (Always Lost), and what the listening can expect.

Dirty bubble gum Shoegaze pop. We had the fabulous Simon Scott (Slowdive)drum on this track as well as master. We had the expertise of John Pennington to the final mix.

The Telescope’s Stephen Lawrie and their the recent UK tour.

How did it feel to have tour dates booked and NOT have them canceled?

The Irish and Scottish dates had to be postponed, but the English dates went ahead.

It was good to be doing what we are supposed to be doing again.

With Covid cases on the rise, was there any hesitation to going back out on the road?

I’ve had long Covid, and a close relative of mine died through implications with it. I know a lot of people who have had it. I’ve seen the damage it can do.

I had no hesitation going back out on the road. Nor did any of the band. It is our calling. We think the work we do is as important as any.

No one in the band caught anything, and there were no cases from the shows that we are aware of.

What was the feeling within the group to be on stage and performing in front of an audience again?

It’s the most consistently focused we’ve been in a long while. Songs Of Love And Revolution are great to play live. So many possibilities.

How did the audience respond?

This is the first tour we’ve done in a long while that leaves gaps between the songs for the audience to respond. It’s been pretty overwhelming at times. I’ve spoken to a few folks along the way, and it really has done them good to have this kind of experience again in their lives. We leave our instruments in their hands when we are done. They are very much a part of it.

What were some of the highlights of this tour?

The music and the people.

Any low points?

None.

Do you have any tour dates planned for 2021/2022?

Yes indeed. Keep a watchful smile.

Photo: Andrea Edwards and Tapete Records.

The track has driving bass with slight fuzz holding it all together with the punchy drums, thanks to Simon. Catch riffs from the synths and the snarling guitars.

Black Raven refers to dark times we are caught by the temptation to do things against the grain to prove we are still alive and don’t need to fit on life’s conveyor belt, pushing boundaries then suffering the consequences of losing desires and ability’s. Also, it is a spiritual quest to journey, enjoying one’s freedom, and getting lost in it. Unable to resist the urges.

Why Raven? Because of its black plumage, croaking call, and diet of carrion, the raven is often associated with loss and ill omen.

As a talking bird, the raven also represents prophecy and insight.

Ravens in stories often act as psychopomps, connecting the material world with the world of spirits.

Will there be a full-length album coming soon?

Regarding 2022 we will have a full album to be released, which will be available as a vinyl lp.

But also, an EP of the singles will be made to tape and CDs thanks to (Shored Dive Records) from Brighton, are doing a limited run of only 25 CDs and tapes limited special run with handmade cases with new artwork.

We have our dear friend Simon Scott (Slowdive) on the rest of the tracks on drums and all mastered by him and John Pennington on production and final mix.

The tracks will have ambient segways.

What does Last Tourist have planned for 2022?

We will be putting on some Shoegaze showcases in spring 2022 with other mates bands like 93 million miles from the sun and my Electric Love Affair more to be confined.

Morningface is Kate Hummel, and her music is about reaching a meditative state through drones and moans. This six-track mini-album, Outta Space, trips, and drones with songs soaked in reverb and tremolo. Prepare to lose yourself for the duration. You won’t be disappointed.

UNDER THE SUN Matt Catling formed the Suffolk, U.K. group Under The Sun in 2020. Under The Sun fit nicely in the Shoegaze genre with flashes of experimentation. With several E.P. releases to date, Bloomer, Gated, Whirlwind, while January 2020 sees the latest E.P. Floating set for release. gazeunderthesunmusic.bandcamp.com/

SMASH FASHION

THE OTHYRS

It’s me, my children (Alice and James), my brothers (Richard and Micheal), my niece (Billie Jones), and three friends, Paul, Steve and Dave. Paul Warwick plays violin in The Wolfhounds. Dave Oliver was a former Wolfhounds bass player (on harmonica here) Richard and I are still Wolfhounds, and Alice has sung backing vocals on all of The Wolfhounds albums since 2014.

These songs have been kicking around for a while, and we decided to get them recorded. We are scattered all over Europe and the UK, so it was a bit of an effort, but we got most of it finished just before Covid locked us down.

Andy Golding

fuzzynoise1.bandcamp.com/album/functional-family-unit

Purveyors of decadent psychedelia and atomic power pop, the Los Angeles based Smash Fashion features an allstar lineup led by the iconic Roger Deering with ex-members of London Quireboys (Nigel Mogg) on bass, Finnish glam rock legends, Smack (Repo) on drums, and Rock City Angels (Lloyd Stuart Casson), on guitars.

These self-styled rock & roll “dandies” operate in their own unique world, oblivious to current styles and trends. The sound is hard and heavy and full of shake and groove. Get it on.. smashfashionmusic.com

Photo: Rue Hackett

morningface.bandcamp.com

The Laissez Fairs release their latest album on Rum Bar Records, “Curiosty Killed The Laissez Fairs,” with live shows to follow. John Fallon explains.

It’s great to have you back in the latest issue. Before we talk about the new album, how are you doing? How is the Laissez Fairs holding up under another unpredictable year?

The Laissez Fairs are hanging tough. The new album is out November 5 on Rum Bar Records in Boston, our 3rd for that label and the 5th overall. We are even thinking about doing something with the self titled debut album from 2015. It is no longer available, and we want people to hear it since the band has become much more popular. The same idea for my second solo album, AFTERWORD, perhaps grab tracks from both albums and add some oddities and do a whole new package, remix some, remaster all.

We have two shows lined up already in Vegas for Oct and Nov with pretty good bands. We will travel to play good gigs. 2022 should be good for us. The new album is a statement piece....”Curiosity Killed The Laissez Fairs?” This is actually the most focused and realized work the band has done. Frankly, we are on a roll.

Take us through the process of writing, recording, and releasing the new album, “Curiosity Killed The Laissez Fairs?”

The recording process was a bit different this time around. This time on Joe’s tunes, we recorded the drums, Joe’s guide guitar, and my lead or 12 string, all at the same time getting the exact take we wanted. Joe had the structure he wanted but not yet the lyrics or vibe, so that came later. You just have to let the songs do their thing and see where it goes.

On my tracks, we also changed things a little bit. I still did the tunes live with Aaron on drums and me on the guitar. In the same way that Charlie Watts and Keith Richards always worked together.

Some of my tunes were nonfinished ideas that we banged into shape during the process. By this, I mean from the standpoint of actually writing them. I wrote most of the lyrics as the work went forward, though not always. Some songs were actually fairly together before any recording took place.

So it was a mixed approach for me. Which actually helped make the album an adventure. Nothing was formulaic.

Joe and I are a team in the studio when it comes to producing. We go after sounds, speeds, tones, and shades.

There ends up being a reason for everything you hear on the final product. As for releasing this album on Rum Bar Records in Boston with Lou Mansdorf. We dig him. In fact, Joe and I also just finished producing two additional albums for Rum Bar Records, “Cromm Fallon Presents The P200,” which came out September 10. Cromm is my son, and he plays bass in the Laissez Fairs, as well. We also produced Sanda and The Howlers 3rd album coming out in January.

What can the listener expect to hear on the new album?

Album is out FRI NOV 6th. It can be ordered on our bandcamp page and also ordered from Rum Bar’s Bandcamp page. It will be a fancy CD package, highquality pics, and vibe. It can also be downloaded.

Are there any plans for any live dates following the release?

Yes, we are back playing LIVE again in Oct and Nov and beyond. We are relentless. MORE is the word.

rumbarrecords.bandcamp.com/album/curiosity-killed-the-laissez-fairs?

Photo: Sandy Fleming

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A NORTHERN SOUL. SECOND SCENE TALKS WITH...

LINDA FAYE CARSON

Photo: Laura Ashley Beebe

Who has been the most significant influence on your music?

Probably Bob Dylan. I was a big fan early on--although I remember laughing out loud when my brother played Dylan’s first album for me. I thought his voice and style were odd….but something held my attention, and I listened. My brother played guitar and showed me a few chords and how to read a chord chart. I remember I had a big “Bob Dylan Songbook” and another of Joan Baez songs. I learned a bunch of those and played them with all my heart. The funny thing is, I rarely went to listen to folk singers. I went to see the Beatles at age 13. I saw Led Zepplin, Cream, Jimi, Janice, and most of the great 60s/70s SF bands…Bob Marley, Al Green. I saw the Allman Brothers playing as All Man Joy—I think it was the Summer of Love—1967. I saw Santana in the park, too—playing on the back of a flatbed truck. I remember a guy behind me said they might make it if they got rid of their conga player. My dad listened to country.

My step-dad liked classical and show-tunes—soft jazz. My brother had over 2000 rock n roll 45s. The most recent live music I’ve seen is Mdou Moctar, the Raconteurs, and Dirtwire. I feel like a little bit of all that stuff, and some TV commercials and radio jingles have gotten woven into my songs one way or another.

Is there a song that caught your ear that moved you from being a casual listener to becoming a musician/songwriter? That moment you knew you had to be part of this.

I am a late bloomer. Although at 23, I wrote one song, “Smuggler’s Moon,” for my under-the-radar pot smuggling husband. He went by the handle, Captain Midnight, and swept me off my feet into an outlaw’s life and then into hard drug use. He was older than me and had certain ideas about talent and who was qualified etc. I allowed my self-worth to be undermined by his off-handed comments that would begin with, “A real musician would do this or that…” or “A real artist wouldn’t waste their time….” It wasn’t until

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his death in 2008 that I began writing a song called “House of Pain.”

It was a little piece of a song. I shyly played it for a musician friend of mine, GoodShield Aguilar. He heard something in the song he liked and helped “flesh it out” and eventually arranged and recorded it at his home studio, Sovereign Records.

How do you approach your songwriting? Do you have a lyrical idea first that you put to music or vice versa?

I take songs any way I can get them. Lol. I get them all kinds of ways. The best is when I wake up in the night with melody and lyrics ready to put into my voice recorder memo. Sometimes I’ll want to get a particular idea into a song, and I will write the lyrics and then look for the melody. Sometimes I find an interesting chord progression and just doodle with it until some words start to take shape within the framework of the tune.

Tell us about your collaborations with other musicians/artists and how that has influenced you as a songwriter and as a person throughout your lifetime.

Once I dreamt that I was visiting Jack White in an old farmhouse.

The blue light of winter was coming through the window. We were sitting on the floor in front of a fireplace that had no fire, but it wasn’t cold. I became aware that Jack was telling me stuff that he liked about my songs. I could hardly believe that he had listened to them and had opinions about them! He told me to wait a minute, and he got up and went into another room and got a guitar. He sat back down and said, “I’m giving you this song,” and proceeded to play the best song in the universe ever. I told my dreaming self over and over, “Don’t forget this, don’t forget this, don’t forget this…” but when I awoke, it was gone….

Other than Jack, my main music buddy, collaborator, arranger, and self—described “Injuneer,” GoodShield Aguilar (7th Generation Rise)—the guy responsible for encouraging me to take myself

Photo: Hickison Petroglyphs

seriously---he and I have now worked and played together for over 12 years. We have a band, LodeStar, that plays what we call Cosmic FolkGrass. GoodShield and I have a mystical psychic connection that gives him an intimate and intuitive feel for my music, and he’s good at translating that into soundscapes. Multitalented, G does most of the instrumentation himself…doing it all sometimes but not my vocals.

Another “sound-scape master” I have collaborated with is Xeff Scolari (Red Hot Shame) and his Shameful Studios. Xeff’s musicianship and rich harmonies are inventive—bringing out new

things in my songs and adding greatly to our collaborations. We’ve got a few cool new songs cooking.

Katharina Meerle (Meerle Music) and I also collaborate on some fun and exciting projects. I’ll share more on those later in this interview.

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and Baez. I’ve been recording them unplugged style at Bongo Boy Studios here in Humboldt. Paying as I go, I’ll be finishing up and selfpublishing the songbook this year. Like everything else, I’ll be figuring out my own marketing and promo. I have a love/hate thing with social media and feel a little dirty after delving into their depths but realize the value of the various platforms and their potentials. I’m not quite there yet. I’ve yet to get my music online other than a few favorites by LodeStar on my website.

GoodShield has been working on some LodeStar music that meets our new recording standards. G’s time is tight as a new father, but we trust we can get the album wrapped up by year’s end at his Sovereign Studios. I’ve upgraded my mic and am ready to lay down vocals.

I love being able to say that I am currently working on a play called “Fortune Teller” based on one of my songs. It was the brainchild of Katharina Meerle, another one of my music collaborators (we have a duo called Cat & Carson—folksy fun). Xeff Scolari is interested in the project as music director. Kat insists it is to be a dramatic play with music, not a musical.

Beyond that is the “Elemental Lullabies” album project with Katharina Meerle and Xeff Scolari. I have written four themed lullabies for Earth Sign, Water Sign, Fire Sign & Air Sign. If I say so, the songs are precious, but they are rather short, altogether not more than 12 minutes together. Not long enough to put a baby to sleep!

I asked Kat to compose some piano music that could be woven in between the songs to flow into a thirty-minute suite. Xeff says he would like to arrange the transitions and record the album at Shameful Studios.

I had intended in my dreams to do a “2020 Vision Your World Tour” but was deterred by deterrents. It was to have been seven songwriters visiting seven continents in seven weeks—places of Power. I didn’t actually want to go to Antarctica, though, and planned to swap it out for Malta and hope no one noticed. I mention it now because I still have in mind a Places of Power tour asap. This utilizes the electromagnetic field to amplify and exchange interesting, energetic frequencies, the time is right. The age is new.

indafayecarson.com youtube.com/channel/UCqro39XPYdeqP30TJshdaJQ

As a songwriter, how do you wish to influence others through your music?

To give a feeling of connection, non-judgmental acceptance, good humor, love, and healing. Because of the breadth and depth of my life experience (early hippie days on Haight Ashbury, over 200 acid trips, then starting a family with financial struggles—Captain Midnight didn’t hold with 9-5 steady paycheck kind of work. Then the “Black Year” 1997 with the suicide death of my youngest son, cancer, bankruptcy, foreclosure, substance abuse, breaking free of addictions in 2000 only to succumb to cirrhosis—hep C (almost died of liver disease), husband died with no retirement plan. I made a few east Coast runs with some dank Humboldt bud but got stopped in Oklahoma on an interstate trafficking charge. I got off pretty light with a good attorney hired with all the money I had made on prior runs. Worked in the chapel in prison and got access to a guitar.

Wrote a couple of songs there. Sang them to a captive audience.

While there, I decided that I would put the intention of some sort of medicine into each song. That’s because a lot of folks can relate to them, it seems. So they listen and connect and then get a little shot of medicine. They might not realize that’s what it is, but they respond to it intuitively. For example, I say “Road Dog” has medicine in it for people who don’t want to get where they are going.

Photo: Cypress LeBlanc

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What are you currently working on?

I just smoked and wrote this: Finessing Quantum Activism, energy, vibration, and frequency into a G, C D framework that will withstand the test of time. Hahahaha. You can edit that out or not. Here is the serious answer: A “heart’s desire” project is my very own songbook, twenty songs.

Lyrics and chord charts and a recorded CD inside the cover-because most folks won’t already know the tunes, unlike Dylan

PHILIP PARFITT Philip Parfitt talks about his stunning collaboration with Motoko Tachikawa on the John Claire EP and what’s up for 2022.

liked the work I was doing during that time. It was Mental home recordings. I was nearly finished and had begun mixing some of the songs and finishing others like John Clare really connected with her. she’d previously and still is working with Texts/ poetry in her Artist books

How did you and Motoko Tachikawa meet?

We met at an exhibition of her work she was part of a really great exhibition. Her work was a collection called Mauvais Herbes. It was nice to see that someone was as fascinated by beautiful plants like Thistles, for example, as I was. The whole exhibition was beautifully curated, and the other two exhibitors were also fascinating in their own right. One other is a d’amadous botanist who is currently working on a project to create a primary forest in Europe. It will take 1000 years to properly establish. That’s quite ambitious. Anyway, I was very happy to see all these amazing artworks, and I introduced myself to Motoko Was there a defining moment between yourself and Motoko Tachikawa that you both decided to collaborate?

Well, over a period of a few weeks, we discovered that we had a certain complicity, and she really

Who was John Clare, and how does he relate to you in terms of inspiration and your songwriting?

John Clare 1793-1864 English Romantic poet.

One of my favorite English poets, his work was largely forgotten until mid to late 20th Century, although at one time he was considered to be equal to his contemporaries Keats and Shelley, to name but two ( neither of whom were considered to have been successful in their short lifetimes) and were certainly not widely read. All suffered at some point at the hands of critics, possibly none more so than Keats. Clare didn’t die young but did spend the last 25 years of his life in what was until fairly recently termed Asylums for the mentally ill or worse Lunatic Asylums. However, he did continue to write, and his creativity seems not to have diminished in this period, and certainly one of my most loved of his works is the poem ‘I am’ but by no means the only one. I particularly loved his way

of observing nature at close quarters. His writing on Love and amorous adventures is still up there with the best, in my opinion, which is, of course, both inadequate and biased. My own adventures working in an institution almost identical to that which Clare had endured gave me some insight into what it might have been like for him.

The buildings themselves and the treatment metered out to the ‘patients’ as they were then known, changed little in a hundred years and the ‘treatment’ was often harsh and crude, to say the least, primitive, experimental, and cruel.

I witnessed it myself on numerous occasions.

This and my own experience with Mental illness brought Clare’s plight into sharp focus. When I first came upon ‘I am,’ it was very moving but also disturbing.. ‘there but for grace’ was my mantra at work and remains so to this day What did Motoko Tachikawa bring to the project?

Interesting question. Obviously, she brought her expertise as an artist. In this respect, her work spoke to me in a language I could identify with and appreciate. I think we found in each other an access or portal into each other’s work that produced the idea that we could work together.

Photos: Willow Parfitt

What can you tell us about your plans for 2022?

Can we expect a new release?

I’m working on a new collection of songs for an album, I have recorded a lot already, but I will continue until I think I have enough. I’m pretty disorganized about these things, but when it’s time, I will route my energies where I think it’s most needed. I’m writing a lot at the moment musically; it usually flows and follows a natural path. Hopefully, I will get it done in 22 if I shift my arse into gear a bit.

There is at times a kind of telepathy that exists but also the moments that feel like a breakthrough or deeper sense of communication. However, as in all collaborations or relationships, there is tension.

Personally, I think this is healthy if one is aware of its energy and its potential both for positive and negative results. I think one of the positive elements she brought to the project was her determination. This I appreciated as it matched my own tenacity, but above all else, she brought talent, vision, and ideas, all of which, without, the project wouldn’t have been realized or interesting to either of us. Imagine the initial immediacy of me getting into her work was that as she got to know my work and me, she was able to find something that spoke to her on an artistic level but also a human one. It was Motoko who chose John Clare because the text was speaking to someone in her.

I was happy, but I’d have been happy if she’d chosen another. However, I think it was a good choice.

Which song would you have preferred over John Clare? And Why? Well, as I mentioned, I worked in a psychiatric hospital and witnessed some routinely abusive behavior and medical ‘treatment’ that was crude and, in some cases, disturbing. Heavy sedation, ECT, straight jackets, padded cells, maltreatment, etc., the list is long. I talked to the Patients (as they were then known), and I befriended some, of whom didn’t seem any more mad than me.

There were, of course, a lot of different types of

mental illness being treated under one roof, so to speak. When I worked there, it was treating 1100 people. Most were interned, many in secure wards for their and the public at large’s safety. I grew up in a village that the Hospital grounds were part of; it was like a small town in itself (the hospital). It employed a few thousand people and obviously was a fairly major employer in the area for years, built around 1850, if memory serves me well. I grew up talking to many hundreds of mentally ill people, the less dangerous ones, some very old, some youngsters like me, were often hanging around the village in shops or pubs going about their lives.

I drank with them, talked to them, and I’d love it when they recounted their stories.

You mention the poem ‘I Am’ as both moving and disturbing. Can you tell us why this particular poem resonates with you? I worked in therapy groups with them, and I observed their behavior.

It was fascinating to a child or young person.

With regards to Clare’s poem, ‘I am,’ I was struck by it as it seemed at once beautiful, desolate, lost, and introspective. I loved the way he continued to write all through this period of 25 years, encouraged by his doctor, who in certain aspects was probably enlightened as far as treatment was concerned at times. Clare was apparently incoherent but could always express himself through his work. He’d had a mostly impoverished life, had a deep love of nature which he expressed in most of his writing. He didn’t die young like many of his contemporaries, Byron, Keats, Shelley, etc., but he continued to be prolific in times of great hardship. His work, in my view, is up there with some of the very best in the English language and largely self-educated with a strong rebellious streak railed against authorities and injustices. What’s not to like?

I respectfully ask if you would share a few words about the loss of your good mate Pat Fish.

I met Pat around 1984. he was a close mate for a good many years. He was also a great ambassador of my music during the ’80s and ’90s, mine and many others, I might add. He was much more of a social creature than I’d ever be, that is for sure. I didn’t see much of him or anyone else from the late ’90s to around 2010. I had dropped out of the scene. I went off-grid, shall we say. I hooked up with him again around that time, and we picked up naturally where we left off pretty much, though I had been under the radar for a long time. In the old days, we had shared a lot of good times. I miss his humor and his wit, both sharp tools in his box. He wrote a song called ‘Girl go’ that mentions me in the first verse, and the guitar motif is quite similar to a song by my band ( The Perfect Disaster) called ‘All the stars’ .. but I think my favorite Pat song is Angels. It’s so well crafted and performed. I’m sure he’s turning people onto something wherever his soul is residing. On this plane, he’ll be missed for a very long time.

Photos: Jean-Charles Feunteun

SUN ATOMS Second Scene interviews Peter Holmström (The Dandy Warhols, Pete International Airport), who played on and produced the new album “Let There Be Light” and plays bass in the live band and Jsun Atoms (The Upsidedown, Daydream Machine) who wrote the songs and sings in Sun Atoms.

Tell us about the new Sun Atoms album and what went into writing and recording Let There Be Light.

Peter: It was super fun. Jsun would bring in a chord change and an idea for a beat. Once that was down, we started adding instruments and textures and just followed it on its journey. Every once and awhile, Jsun would have to bring it back on course. Once we had a good base, we would send it out to get vocal harmonies, strings, or horns.

Jsun: The songs began to grow layer by layer, and before you knew it, we were just really happy with some of the combinations of mistakes and began taking things away and then adding others. The process of sending out mixes to our collaborators opened up this whole other portal. We would get ideas back, and it would send us down rabbit holes that we had never even thought of.

Was this a collaborative effort? If so, who did you work with, and what did they bring to the project?

Peter: Definitely, in the best way. These songs would not have ended up the way they are if it had been just one person.

Jsun: We were really lucky to get to work with so many great artists on this. The ability to send tracks anywhere in the world and have them come back with something fresh and unique kept the exquisite corpse train rolling. Alex Maas (The Black Angels, Mien) added mellotron and an amazing chorus vocally on the opening track, The Cats Eye in Austin, Texas. Jasno Swarez (The Vandelles) added these amazing vocal melodies and guitar in Brooklyn, New York. California punk band, Pets added vocals in Sacramento, California.

A lot of talented Portland friends added vocals and strings and flute, and our horn player extraordinaire, Mars de Ponte, plays every size sax, trumpet, clarinet on the album and live.

Our drummer, Bob Mild, was recorded at what I believe to be the best drum studio on Earth, right here in North Portland

by Oregon Music Hall of Fame drummer Gregg Williams (Sheryl Crow, Quarterflash) at his Trench Studio. The album was mixed in London by Stephen Street (Blur, The Smiths, Babyshambles).

For those who haven’t heard the music, how would you describe Let There Be Light?

Jsun: Tough question. I’d say it’s a mysterious cloud that lets the light shine through as it moves across the sky in the shape of something almost familiar, like a castle or a giraffe, but you can’t quite put your finger on it, and then it sort of

turns into cotton candy and melts into the sea, but I could be wrong.

My favorite description so far came from the journalist Ian D. Hall in Liverpool’s Sound and Vision. He said: “Sun Atoms and the surrounding cast of musicians and influences bring the music as if it were a cinematic treat; a marble statue unveiled, the sun seen for the first time after a month of downpour. It is that musical expression, of the dark noir and the light fantastic, that Sun Atoms not only prevails in the art form, but excels with amour, with fun, exuberance, and a kind of cosmic energy, one normally only found in such small quantities throughout the universe, and yet which seems to overflow throughout this impressive album.”

What has influenced you over the years? Whether is it being music, cinema, literature, etc.,?

Peter: Everything influences you in a positive or negative way, but I’ve been on a big ‘80s kick at the moment.

Listening to the same music I did when I was in high school, and a lot I should have been listening to. The whole postpunk approach - melodic bass, no guitar solos, and cool drum beats - is very interesting. Not your straight-ahead rock thing.

Jsun: One film that I’d like to mention as an influence in the

song “Don’t Take Me To Your Leader” is the 1986 film, True Stories. I love the idea of detaching and looking at Western Civilization as if we just landed and how bizarre the ideas of fashion and parades are for us to all agree on as normal when we are mammals on a blind rock hurling through space. Filmmaker, Casey Jarman, captures this in the animated video for the song.

What do you have planned next? New recordings? Live shows?

Peter: We have a couple of shows coming up, and I’m sure more will pop up. The band is really coming together. We have started writing and recording for the next record! I am very interested in what everyone will bring to the songs. First time out, it was mostly Jsun and I. Now it’s more of a band.

Jsun: Yes. We have been working on new songs as a band.

The first one I’m thinking of has a working title of “Stand Up Citizen” that our MPC & keyboard player June Kang brought in. When we get into it, it really goes somewhere undeniable that I am looking forward to capturing in the studio. Another song that our guitarist, Derek Spencer Longoria Gomez, brought in almost has a Pipers at the Gates of Dawn vibe going—at any rate, excited to work on this next album with the entire live band.

Photos: Heather Boyd

The former Black Flag, Dos bassist Kira Roessler talks with the Second Scene about writing, recording, and her dark minimalist self-titled solo release. In her own words.

I am always writing music. That’s just kind of, you know, how I express myself. I’m always got songs going. I have a list of probably 20 songs at any given time that are in some state of completion. So I just want to when there’s an emotion or when there’s a situation or whatever, that’s what I use my basis what I reach for, to, to deal with or process the emotion or situation. So this record, in particular, is basically a story. It’s somewhat of a chronological story, and the first song was written like 13 years ago. And the last song is much more current. So it was never really my intention to release a record. But my brother [Paul Roessler] works at the Kitten Robot Studios, who I work with a lot to create the final version, asked me.

So the process really starts in my room. I just record bits and pieces, and sort of polish here, usually a couple of bases and my voice, and then I have a couple of collaborators who are remote. It’s all virtual. I send to a guitar player in Ohio, Glenn Brown, who adds stuff, and then this guy here, Dave Bock, who plays some very delicate drumming, and then my brother Paul and I Generally finish the songs and put the final touches on it. He, you know, help you know pose do we need something more? Do we need not? And usually, as you point out, the answer is no, it doesn’t need anything else. I celebrate the spaces I think there’s a lot of emotion in, in the silences in the spaces and so so when I want to express a powerful emotion to me, it’s it kind of needs that ability as you suggested for the listener to kind of lean in a little and feel more a part of it.

Did you find it? Do you find it liberating working by yourself, as you said alone in your room, being by yourself? I don’t wanna say isolated but To me, the writing part is a very solitary exercise. And because, of course, like many of us, I work a straight job, the amount of time I have to sit down and ponder is limited.

So, sometimes I’ll work for half an hour, and I’ll put down some more ideas, and I’ll put it away, and I’ll come back to it. So, it’s really the only way for me. Also, the kind of work I do, I am not really in a good place at the end of the day.

So I’m usually working early in the morning, which, as you can imagine, is not the time anybody else wants to work. So I’m, you know, at 630 in the morning, some of my best work happens. And then they get to work at their convenience.

As you say, that sort of the intellectual part of me and the emotional part of me gets sort of balanced out. And I need that intellectual side. But and of course, any social interaction is fodder for my emotional response to people,

Interview: Tim Thomas

Photo: Rachel Roessler

KIRA ROESSLER

places, and things so so it’s a good source for emotional upsets at times. But yes, the music part is my safe space, if you will, and where I go when I have to process these situations or emotions. So some of the emotions are specifically related to work, and they’re not always positive.

I mean, for whatever reason, it’s like what punk rock, right?

Anger and rage was being expressed. We needed that. I’ve always felt that if music doesn’t make you feel anything, something’s wrong, right? So it doesn’t matter what the emotion is. It matters that you can capture it and translate it into something that hopefully somebody else can feel. So there is this balancing act with my work that allows me a little bit of balance. If I’m struggling with the music side, then work can sometimes be a haven for me.

Yeah. I mean, I’m a nonconformance to taste. Listen to the record, right. I don’t care what the people expect. I don’t write music to try to please the listeners necessarily. I want them to feel something, but it’s okay If it bothers them. I mean, I don’t think there’s rules. Punk Rock was about no rules. I think it’s very punk rock.

connection. I do miss it. There’s nothing quite like it.

Well, there will always be music being generated in my room. But there’s no actual, I guess. The soonest plan is that I hope to release this on vinyl, obviously, because a lot of people prefer that format. And actually, there’s just been a bit of a backlog pressing vinyl. I probably would have already done it. But I wanted to. I wanted to make a move.

So I think the vinyl will be the next step. But after that, I just don’t know. This has been such a surprise that everybody feels, you know, into it. So it’s definitely influencing an idea that I might do more. I’m not against it. There will always be more music.

My life has been very much about just jumping on board with what opportunities present themselves at the moment.

That’s how my career has been. That’s how my band life has been. And that’s how my music calculates. It just is much more organic. And you can’t really plan it as you say.

What’s the good of having a great plan because it ain’t gonna go that way.

When I want to feel the rage, you know that music is still there, and that is still very much a part of me. As I said, it’s cool to me that people are still expressing that thing. But as you said, Things do get complicated at times or other Yes, I mean, since Black Flag, I guess I’ll just go from there.

For the last 30 years, I’ve been collaborating with Mike watt and a band called Dos, which is just basic and it’s very stripped down. It’s probably been the biggest influence on me in terms of this space thing that we’re talking about and writing so that the basses intertwine and leave holes and then find holes. He and I did a lot of music, and we played a lot of shows. That moment when I’m singing, maybe we covered some Billie Holiday and stuff like that. I’m singing in a room, and the audience actually gets quiet, and I’m expressing this sort of tender love song, and you can feel all the emotion. I think It’s had a big influence on my writing, so that was a huge part of my musical life in the last few years.

Also, as I said, my brother works at a studio. He’s thrown songs at me to assist with or throw a bass line on top of. This virtual band I was describing to you that’s been going on the whole time to where this guitar player in Ohio sends me his songs which tend to be a little more straight rock songs, and I play on those. We built those songs, and actually, during the pandemic, since I needed a project, I mixed and mastered a set of his songs and put it out on Bandcamp because I love his music. I played bass on all his songs, so yeah, there’s been a lot of music going on. It hasn’t been that important to sort of jump into the limelight. It’s a little bit strange now, however, this time, but that being said, this seemed like the right time, and the story needed telling, and people have been really kind, and I’ve actually, you know, connected to it. So that’s really special.

Yes, yes, very much. The virtual band has been going on for many, many years. Since we connected via MySpace, we connected back with this guitar player who I played in bands with when I was a teenager. And he, he was remote.

So we started sending things back and forth that just became part of the process.

I will not be touring. I don’t miss touring. I miss playing for people. And it has been a few years. And there’s a part of me, of course, that wants to feel that connection again in person. So there’s definitely been talk of trying to make something happen. To have a little bit more of a live

Photo: Jack Grisham

LEIGH GREGORY As we all wait along with you for the release of your new record Sun Salt & Air, what can we expect from this new album in terms of songs and style?

Cheers for the questions here, Tim. “Sun Salt & Air” was recorded over the year of the pandemic (2020), so most of the songs are a couple of years old now, and a new batch of songs have been brewing up. “Sun Salt & Air” was a great experience to record as I had a year free, and I worked on everything but the drums in my little home studio in my apartment. It was great to be able to record without worrying about being on the clock, and so many of the ideas came out of improvisation where I’d be playing against myself and just letting things run to where the music wanted to go.

The record is a mix of tunes – a couple of more acoustic numbers, an instrumental, and some songs that were influenced by some of my fav songwriters.

Take us through your writing process. Did you collaborate with others, or was this strictly a solo effort as far as writing?

Having that year free and with the order in San Francisco to shelterin-place meant that I could think up ideas pretty much when I got out of bed and then be able to try them out right away and hone them in the home studio. Most of my lyrics start as fictional stories or free association poems or lines or words I like, and then I’ll cut up the lines to fit the melody of the song. I’ll re-write a lyric as many times as it takes until I like the way it flows in the song.

What has influenced your songwriting over the years, particularly on the new album?

I’ve just been getting on with writing songs and finishing them at home, so I have a stockpile of completed demos. After listening to the demo for a bit, if the song is good enough, then I’ll go on and polish it up and share it with friends. If I don’t think the song is worthy, I don’t pursue it, so I wind up cutting at least half of what I write.

Lots of times, I’ll “write back” to other songs or songwriters. I love writing tunes that are responding to other tunes that I’ve loved over the years! On “Sun Salt & Air,” the main aim was not to be afraid to explore. One of the things I enjoyed while doing the record was slipping in lyrical references to other songs or adding a guitar part because it referenced another part by a guitarist whom I liked.

That’s mainly a ’57 reissue Strat though a little Fender Blues Jr. at apartment volume on the record.

What can we expect from you in 2022 and beyond?

Well, lots are still on hold for me in 2022. I had hoped to have the new record out early this year, but with the delays in vinyl production, I don’t think the LP of “Sun Salt & Air” will be out at the earliest until May or June (Tip Top Recordings), and without a release, it’s kind of hard to plan a lot. I’ve been working since the fall on a large collection of new demos for another record, but that’s still in the early stages. Also working on getting Mellow Drunk’s second record, “Never Sleep at Night” (originally on Ochre Records), re-released with all the B-sides and cuts from the EPs the band released, which would be extremely cool!!!!!!

Photo: David Agasi

Second Scene talks with singer/ songwriter Leigh Gregory about his latest release, Sun Salt & Air, and what he has planned next.

RICKY MAYMI ON LEIGH GREGORY In 2001, I went to see Marty Willson-Piper play an intimate acoustic show at a church in Noe Valley, San Francisco.

Steven Roback was the support.

Steven’s show was great, and he had Leigh Gregory on guitar with him. I’d never seen him, but he really impressed me, and he had the presence of a true force of nature, and effortlessly so. When Marty played, Steven got up and played with him, then Leigh joined in. Who is this guy?? I went and saw Dave Davies a couple of nights later.

Leigh was there, with his unmistakable appearance. It was impossible not to notice him there, so I went, and I introduced myself. He actually knew the band I was in at the time, Smallstone, which kind of surprised me. We ended up chatting all night long about The Church, Flying Nun bands, T.Rex and David Bowie, Television, Paisley Underground, and The Kinks.

I was impressed with his knowledge of all this stuff. He gave me a CD that had his lady on the cover, and it said Mellow Drunk on it, titled Always Be Drunk. I took it home and checked it out. I fell in love INSTANTLY! It was T.Rex and The Church via David J, The Only Ones, and the Paisley Underground. Steven Roback on vocal harmonies. Killer CD. I asked when he was playing with his band, and he said he didn’t have one.

I instantly suggested we make one and play these songs live. And that is exactly what we did. He was doing the kind of stuff I wanted to be doing, so I left Smallstone and played with Leigh full-time, but first I had a North American tour to do with Spectrum, but I came back, and we played with Luna at the Fillmore, and then we made an album for Ochre Records in the UK. Then Leigh released this solo album right after.

He is super prolific. He will go away for the weekend with a guitar and a tape deck, and a stack of cassettes. Come back later with at least an album worth fantastic tunes. Unstoppable! He’s the man.

As one of the founding members of The Fall, Martin Bramah co-wrote most of their debut album, “Live at the Witch Trials,” released in 1979. It’s an album that catapulted The Fall into the post-punk consciousness and defined the band’s individualistic sound. Bramah left The Fall in 1979 along with Una Baines, who went on to form Blue Orchids in 1980, and whose debut album “The Greatest Hit (Money Mountain)” was released in 1982 by Rough Trade Records, reaching number 5 in the UK Indie Chart, receiving rave reviews and critical acclaim. After briefly returning to The Fall in 1990 to make the album “Extricate,” Bramah continued making music with Blue Orchids, which has evolved, progressed, and remained true to their post-punk roots.

Approximately 40 people saw the Sex Pistols at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester on 4 June 1976, which we all know was a catalyst for music, and instrumental in so many influential bands forming. Rumour has it you were there, along with Mark E Smith, Peter Hook, Morrissey, Pete Shelly, Mick Hucknall, etc., and some reprobates who sneaked in through the back door. Is this true? Where you and Mark at that gig, or is it just an urban myth?

Yes, we were there. I’d seen an article in the NME about a London band that covered Stooges and Modern Lovers songs, and they looked like a right bunch of scruffy upstarts.

So, when we saw a poster for their first Manchester show, we went along to give them a hard time for daring to play music by the bands we loved.

However, as soon as they hit the stage, we knew we were witnessing something special.

It was funny because we were having a pint over the road from the gig when Malcolm Mclaren walked in, trying to get people to come and see the band. He actually came to our table, as we looked like likely punters, saying with a big grin, “Come on lads, you’ll love it!” to which we replied, “Don’t worry mate, we’ll be over as soon as we finish our pints!” lol.

Little did we know it would be a lifechanging moment.

I will be honest with you, Live at the Witch Trials is in my top 3 Fall albums. I just love the raw chaos, the lyrics, the cacophony of sounds, the direct approach, the meandering magic, and unhinged mayhem. To me, it seems very much an album of youth that goes beyond the punk ethos and incorporates a tribal collective of Manchester that was rudimentary and raw. Did the punk movement radically influence Live at the Witch Trials, or did the social economics, cultural collectivism, the attitudes and feelings of youth play a more significant part in the formation of the album?

All of those things played their part in the manifestation of Witch Trials, but the punk movement was the instigator.

We were very intense kids, and we listened to a lot of music, so we were pretty savvy by the time Punk Rock exploded onto the scene.

You can hear in that album that we were

listening to a lot more than just UK punk bands of the time, although it does capture the visceral energy of that movement, as well as any other outfit, did. Plus, a large dose of wtf weirdness thrown in for free.

How do you think your music has evolved from Nuclear Angel to The Fall, Thirst, Factory Star and to where you are now with Blue Orchids?

Nuclear Angel was proto-punk. The Fall: a quantum leap forward. Blue Orchids: a crystallization. Thirst was two steps back, a return to roots. Factory Star: a regrouping and a fresh assault.

Blue Orchids has become the maturation of this musical journey.

We make music for ‘the eternal now.’

The Blue Orchids famously played as Nico’s backing band for her UK and European Tour in 1982. What was she like to work with?

Working with Nico was a great privilege and totally unexpected.

Who could have guessed she would rock up in Manchester?

I got a phone call one day from my manager, Alan Wise, asking if I’d heard of a German singer called ‘Nico’... I had all her records, of course.

He told me she was looking for a band to back her on some live dates, so I was round there in a flash!

It was a wonderful experience for me. I learned so much about musical composition from her, a more feminine approach. There is so much subtlety and depth in her sound.

Then the heroin became a bit of a problem because it was freely available amongst her entourage and various members of our band were becoming addicted to the stuff.

I decided to end the arrangement after a year or so and focus on Blue Orchids music again. The rhythm section chose to stay on with her, so there was a parting of the ways at that point.

John Peel famously listed The Fall as one of his favourite bands and was an avid supporter. As well as playing 24 Peel Sessions, The Fall played a gig for John’s 50th birthday in 1989. What do you think it was about The Fall that made John such a massive fan? What do you think he valued

and appreciated that perhaps other DJs didn’t see or embrace?

Peel was always at the cutting edge of music. To be fair, his niche job at the BBC was to champion new artists, a job he did brilliantly.

Why he took to The Fall so strongly is hard for me to say; was it his natural good taste and vast experience in the business? I think we were a breath of fresh air to him at the start. Maybe he developed a crush on Mark E Smith?

I guess he recognized a great group when he heard one.

When you rejoined The Fall in 1989 for the Extricate album, it seemed to be a completely different band. Obviously, by then, The Fall had experienced different line-ups, were more established, and Brix’s departure had defined the new sound.

Extricate was comparatively more polished, embracing a more garage, Beefheart blues-rock, neo-folk, rockabilly, with singes of synth-pop. It’s a great album, but do you believe by then The Fall had lost some of its raw appeal, authenticity and moved away from the ethos, trailblazing ideology, and the collective consciousness of the band. Or do you think, like any band, they change, evolve, and embrace the zeitgeist spirit of the time?

With Extricate, The Fall captured the new zeitgeist of the 1990s. A lot of work went into that album and a lot of thought. It was more about the collective subconscious than any ideology as such.

The Greeks believed the bold blue orchids were a rare, unique, beautiful flower linked to spirituality and rebirth. So the name “Blue Orchids” seems fitting since, through the course of your musical career, you have gone through many incarnations and incorporated esoteric and arcane aesthetics in your music. Coincidentally, Japanese warriors were rewarded with orchids for their bravery and strength, which leads me to your love of the Japanese martial arts Aikido. Rumour has it that you have a black belt in Aikido, which really must help you form a healthy mindset and keep you in good physical health. For anyone thinking of taking Aikido up, what would they expect apart from bruises and joint locking? Is it an art that practices harmony and meditative disciplines, or does it go beyond that, and if so, has it helped you focus when creating your music?

Yes, it’s true. I’ve been training and studying Aikido since 1983, with various clubs and organizations, practicing different styles within the discipline from hard to soft.

Bruises and sore bones are about all you can expect from Aikido in the early years of training. It’s a good discipline for the mind and body and is useful in one’s approach to problems in daily life, including making music, rehearsing, and running a band. It helps the student to maintain a positive mindset and stay focused on an issue. Some people say it’s a kind of moving meditation as one has to empty the mind and be in the

moment so as to be aware of the intent of ‘the other.’

“The body is a shadow of the mind” is how I would put it… I hope that’s useful, haha.

The Blue Orchids initially formed from 19792007 and reformed in 2012. I imagine you have seen a lot of changes in the industry since you first started making music back in the late 70s. I mean, the technological age has revolutionized the way we interact with music, which is arguably a double-edged sword. In particular, since downloading music has created a cherry-picking culture, and somehow the correlation between music and art has got lost in transit. Do you agree, or do you think the likes of Spotify and social media have done wonders for artists trying to get their music out there?

I try not to think about the music industry too much. I’ve lived through a revolution in how music is perceived and how it is delivered, but my focus is on making interesting music and not getting distracted by the business and its demands. There have always been many pitfalls in making music; the creative process is a minefield in itself. The great cacophony of sound on social media now

Interview: Indie Cindy

is an amazing phenomenon – much noise signifying what? More people than ever seem to be making music, and I wish them all well, whichever avenue they go down.

But remember: music is a noise that mad people make; it is of no practical value.

As a purveyor of post-punk for over four decades, you have lived through many musical movements and no doubt seen many bands live yourself. Which current artists impress you most, and who would you like to work with?

Who would I like to work with, you ask? I trust the Universe to bring me the people I work with. I have no wish to work with anyone else. Whenever Blue Orchids has needed a new member, I’ve always accepted the first person that shows up at rehearsal. We never hold auditions as such. I just put the word out and see who turns up. Everyone has something to contribute if you give them the opportunity. This is what I mean by trusting the Universe to bring like-minded souls to the group. It works for me.

Which current artists impress me? Bob Dylan for his indefatigability.

Photo: Jim Donnelly

The Blue Orchids are currently working on their eighth studio album, with the added bonus of having new member Tansy McNally on board. This will be Tansy’s second album with The Blue Orchids, who evidently has added a new fresh, arty, and younger dynamic to the band. As a band, you seem to be in a really good place, with lots of creativity flowing. Do you have a particular method in writing an album, or is it very much a lateral, intuitive, and improvised process?

Every album has a different flavour and a different approach to writing as we learn and experiment with ideas.

This new record was written in one long burst, during the winter lockdown of 2020/21. I found myself isolated in a remote bwthyn on the west coast of Wales. For this song cycle, the words came first, followed by the music. The last album, Speed The Day, was more of a group effort, written over a longer period of time. However, once the band began working on these new ideas, they soon brought their skills into play and have helped make these songs what they are now. This is a denser collection of songs. It may take the listener longer to get into the depths therein – but hopefully, the effort will be rewarded.

MARTIN BRAMAH

“I photograph vintage toys, mainly Barbies, that I’ve restored and modified. Props and clothing are a mixture of vintage and handmade.

The subject matter focuses on nostalgic pop culture and subculture with a sense of humor.”

“I started photographing dioramas (and eventually making stop motion shorts) as a way to get lost in pure ridiculousness. It’s been cool to make people laugh and offer up a little escapism during a confusing and shitty time. It’s also been an excuse to play around with cool old toys.”

ANNIE PARKOWSKI

MIKE ROGERS Second Scene speaks with legendary DJ Mike Rogers.

You said you grew up traveling around. Your dad was in the Marines, correct?

Yeah.

I’m guessing every school year was a new group of kids.

How did that affect you as far as discovering music?

So how that affected me, and I really do think it affected me as I never had any friends. I’ve always been an outsider.

So when I got a little bit older, and then we moved back to California, I went to high school, and I just did not relate to people because I come from Minnesota. You know, and Midwestern schools are way better than California schools.

So I went to a California School. And in Minnesota, I was a C student. But then, all of a sudden, in California, I’m the smartest kid in school. It really blew my mind. But even in the vernacular of how I spoke, kids would make fun of me.

But so anyway, when punk rock came out, I had a couple of geeky friends. So I just told them, hey, let’s make a punk band. And like I said, they were geeky, too. So that’s what we did.

I moved to Japan in the early 80s. And I’m an outsider here too. But, it doesn’t matter. I mean, this country is 98% Japanese. So it doesn’t matter what I do. People will always treat me as a foreigner. I kind of don’t care because I don’t have to follow the rules of society. And I can get away with all sorts of things that if the Japanese did, people would be like, “What the hell is wrong with you?” [Laughs] Yeah. So yeah, I don’t regret having a childhood where I moved everywhere. I hated it at the time. But now it doesn’t bother me.

Discovering music.

My mom and dad would tell me, “Get in the car, we’re gonna drive somewhere,” and I’d say, “I’ll go, but I get to sit in the front, and I get to control the radio.” They would say, “Okay!” So that was the British Invasion time. And I would just sit and zap the radio.

I remember one time… I was zapping the radio, and the Seeds came on. And I didn’t know what it was, and they were singing about ‘Aren’t you glad to have your brain wrapped up or something’ my dad was like, “This is sick music.” And I thought this is so cool. [Laughs] Yeah, so there were tons of AM stations, but yeah, that was a lot of fun and a good memory for me when I was a kid.

At that time, the British invasion and then bubblegum rock.

That’s how I really got into music. I really love that too. And then, as I got older, rock and roll got really shitty after the Vietnam War ended. And I really hated Eric Clapton’s song [Tales of Brave] Ulysses and White Room, you know, I used to think, “What are they singing about?” And then, from about 1973 to 1977, I was 16 or 17, and I had a car and in my car, and I only had 16 cassettes and 14 of them were David Bowie cassettes, and one was a T Rex, and one was Alice Cooper. That’s all I ever listened to. And then disco hit, and I really hated that. Yeah, and then punk rock hit. I thanked God for punk rock. It saved my life.

All right. So when you moved to Japan, did you go right into radio?

No, actually, I went into television.

Photos: Yuka Rogers

Okay. And this is a weird story. So I told my wife to watch TV one morning with me. I wanted to watch some shows. We flipped through the channels, and we found this kids’ show.

And I told her to tell me the name of the producer and the director of this show. So I just made a really short one sheet in Japanese, and I went to the TV studio. And I walked in there, and it’s just a miracle. They were having auditions for an English teacher for the show! I just so happened to show up on the day of that audition. And I walked in, and these girls at reception didn’t say anything, they just pointed me, go to the right. I went in, and there was an audition. And there were like seven or eight other foreign guys in there.

And they are all wearing suits and ties. And they were really stiff. So I sat and watched them; they took my name and stuff. And I got up there. And I thought, “Okay, how would Pee Wee Herman teach English?” And that’s what I did, and I got the job! So I’d been in Japan for one month, couldn’t speak a word of the language, and I was a regular on television! And I thought, “This is such a wonderful country. I love Japan!” [Laughs] From that, I started getting radio show jobs So you went from TV right into radio. You also ran your own indie label?

Oh, yeah, I ran an indie label in 1990, maybe 92 to 95. And it was the biggest selling indies label in Japan because I didn’t follow the rules. I didn’t care what the rules were. I just thought the rules were ridiculous. Japan has an organization called JASRAC, and it’s their music publishing company. But JASRAC has a lot of power. In America, you have BMI and ASCAP. But they’re nothing compared to JASRAC. JASRAC is like the mafia. And this is WHY in Japan, still, they sell CDs, DVDs and things like that, because JASRAC has control over everything. JASRAC made absurd rules for indies labels. But after that, after three years of doing that, Tower Records, Asia, headhunted me to run their label. I took the job, which was a mistake because they did not want an “indie label.”

They wanted a “Tower sales promotion.” And one day, after so much frustration with Tower Records, I said, “Fuck this, I quit.” And I never did it again.

So many things in life, I think, are not the jobs that you accept, that are important. But it’s the jobs that you reject.

That are just as important.

Let’s go back. So how did you get into DJing? Through television?

My band [The Rotters] was only around for like a year. And I had met Rodney Bingenheimer through the band, and I really liked Hollywood, and I wanted to stay in Hollywood.

I lived in a suburb, a place called Ventura. So I wanted to stay in Hollywood and have something to do and just stay in the scene or whatever. So I told Rodney, hey, “Rodney, I want to be your assistant. You don’t have to pay me. I’ll drive you around, carry your records, do whatever you need.” And he said, “Okay!” so I was his assistant from 1980 to 1981, and he introduced me to fucking everybody. I met all the punk bands. I met the Ramones and Suburban Lawns and people like that who came to the studio.

And I even met Phil Spector one time. Well, no, actually, I met Phil Spector three times. But I totally screwed that up.

There was a light above the studio that would blink red.

And Rodney would say, “Hey, Mike, go get the door, there’s

someone at the door, go answer.” And I would go. So I had been doing this job for probably about a year. I’m going to the door expecting someone who looks like the Ramones or the Germs or something like that. And I get to the door, I open the door, and there’s a guy standing there that looks just like my dad. And I was really snotty to him. Like, “Who are you? What do you want?” And he said, “Rodney invited me to come here,” and I was hesitant. “Alright, okay, come in.” And I let him in. I was in the room next to the studio cleaning up records, and they were on air talking.

And that Phil Spector guy started talking about the Beatles and Let It Be and stuff like that. And I was overhearing this, and I’m thinking to myself, “The Beatles? I definitely heard of them.” [laughs] And I thought, “Oh, man, I fucked up.”

I was because I was so rude and snotty to this guy. And then, after it was over, I was apologetic. But Phil was very nice to me. And then I met him again, twice at this place called Cantors. It’s a restaurant Rodney lives at and Rodney who would have lunch or dinner with Phil Spector, and I would just make sure they had private time. People would say, “I’m here for an autograph.” And I’d be like, “No! I’m sorry. They’re talking business now. So they don’t want to be disturbed.” And I would do that. So anyway, that was how I started out, and kind of got my foot into radio.

In Japan, there were no foreigners here when I came. So there was kind of an English boom. So I spoke English very well. I started as a DJ and only did my shows in English. And there weren’t very many people who I mean; there were no people who had a TV show. And then it’s easy. If you have a TV show. It’s easy to get a radio show. Yeah, so that’s why that’s how I started.

mikerogersshow.com

Second Scene talks with John Andrew Fredrick about the 20th The Black Watch album, Here & There.

How did you approach your songwriting for the 20th album?

How has it changed over the years?

Well, I don’t know that I think it or overthink it, that is, the songwriting process. I know that each album is sort of a reaction against the last one. As in Witches! was very acoustic-based and effed up on Nick Drake, and so the next one, Magic Johnson, was more jangly-spritely, somehow? I mess about with the guitar, and moving capos around, and nicking open tunings from the aforesaid Nick Drake and MBV and Sonic Youth, and see what happens.

I don’t think anybody in the history of songwriter interviews has ever been able to finger precisely what happens during the process. It’s both universal and completely individual, the approach to it. I do know that my only goal is to please an audience of one: myself. That sounds quite solipsistic and everything, but, gosh, I am the one who’s going to have to play this around ten hundred thirty and a half times, so I’d better enjoy the melody. I have always maintained that The Beatles and being forced to sing in church as a kid made me into the Jabberwacky-wocky I am now! I wrote so so so many songs over the pandemic that producer Scott Campbell had a bit of an eenie-meenie-miney-mo time of it picking ones he liked. He’s a bit less predictable than the other producer, Rob Campanella, and we often work with. And Andy Creighton, the lead guitarist who also produces some of our songs, is even more predictable. He hates anything that’s predictable! Sometimes the others try to arrange my songs, but I have played them at home so many times that it’s too strenuous a prospect for me to adapt. I tried to be both expansive and precise.

The early reviews of Here & There have noted that we do our best when we kinda jam out and let the songs breathe a bit. All my structure comes from Beatleworship, you know.

I like a terse melody. And I have come to think of bridges as cliche and indulgent and predictable. So we don’t do them. Or at least I don’t think we do. My aim has always been to evoke the mid-period Fabs without really evoking them if you know what I mean. I can’t tell which songs are best, I would never “rate” our music, and I am somehow not the person to ask! Which is pretty funny, actually. I’m just another listener, really. An author but not an authority! I try to keep the records uptempo these days, but mid-tempo songs simply come to me sometimes, and they’d sound cartoonish if sped up, somehow? I try to inspire people, and I think the way to do that is by getting them on the dance floor of their homes. Yet I like downer music. I am a huge fan of the most dour The Cure LPs and Red House Painters and Idaho. Huge fan. Give me the Gloom!

What motivates you and inspires you?

I’m motivated by the guitar, the instrument itself, the concept, the possibilities that come from being a limited musician, which I very much am. Actually, I’m quite proficient at strummy strumming, and some songs necessitate a more rustic/tossed-off approach, so I am perfect for that. A kind of simple, melodic lead I can do but not much beyond that. Doubtless, I have too many of them, electric guitars, always hollow bodies, and Jazzmasters and Jaguars. I gave three away last year--

to guys who produced our LPs. Yet I covet new ones.

Someone send me a Mosrite Celebrity, please! Haha. I think if you get a new one, it “tells” you a song. That sounds so trippy, doesn’t it? But I do think that. So do strange tunings, and capo’d songs. And yet, if you ask our old bass player Roger Butchers, he’d say, “Oh, John, it all turns out to be G C D with occasional Em anyway!” He might be right. Women, in all their complex and beautiful glory, inspire me most. And pseudo-psychedelic states or imaginings of such. There is a lot of flak about the notion of The Muse these days: women--some of them--speak up about how that objectifies them, but I don’t see it that way. Heck, I would like to be someone’s muse! To inspire someone to make something where there was nothing preceding it?!

Marvelous. A marvel.

How have you personally changed over the course of 20 albums?

I’ve not changed too much as an artist, I don’t think.

I’ve always tried to mask our influences and write the most poetic lyrics possible. The most meaningful and sometimes whimsical lyrics possible. And yet, I don’t particularly like lyrics, and I don’t like bands just based on them. I don’t think they’re important at all--unless they suck and are an embarrassment. What are the lyrics to two of my favs--MBV and Cocteau Twins? No one knows! It’s better that way. REM early on was amazing, but once you could hear what Stipe was singing... I dunno. Ruined it for me, that’s for sure.

This release will follow with a series of videos over the new few months for songs from the album. Can you give us a little more detail about these videos?

Oh, I loathe videos. I hate being in them, and the ones we’ve been in have been scrapped, and we’ve lost a lot of money that way. Thus, finding CK Sumner through Kristin Hersh and the Bevis Frond has been a dream.

Video indeed killed the radio star. Dua Lipa--now, she makes a video I can watch. I’m in love with her, so I hope she reads this interview, Tim. Hahaha. Sincerely, one should come up with one’s own pictures for songs-pictures in the head. They’re a necessary evil, I suppose, but my time is much better spent reading and writing.

What do you have planned for 2022?

We’re releasing a new LP called Future Strangers, recording an EP with our friends Par Avion (surf band led by ex-Medicine guy Bernard Yin).

the black watch

Interview: Tim Thomas

Photo: Brendan Holmes

Second Scene talks to Simon Bromide (aka Simon Berridge), who is best known as being the frontman of London alternative rock band Bromide, but has now branched out as a solo artist, releasing his debut solo album ‘Following The Moon, ‘ released on November 19th, 2021.

Hi Simon, thanks for your time answering a few questions today. You have been making music for quite a while now, since Bromide’s debut album ‘Iscariot Heart,’ released in 1997. What would you say was the most significant change in the music industry since then?

The most significant change by a zillion miles is the internet.

Suddenly everyone has a voice which is great. Now we just need to manufacture the extra ears to go with...

Apart from making music, you also run your own label Scratchy Records. Is it a label that adheres to the DIY ethos of punk, a sort of hub for independent music?

I guess so. I started the label in ‘97 cos someone who was kind of my mentor at the time one day said across the desk at ‘The Good Van Guide’ mag where we worked, ‘Patti Smith put out her debut single herself - so why don’t you do the same So I did. I had no idea what I was doing, but she seemed like a pretty good person’s example to follow. Then about four years later, I met a band called ‘The Rocks,’ and that’s when I really realized why I’d started a label, and that was to release music that I loved and wanted to share with people.

You recorded your debut solo album, “Following The Moon,” at Bark Studios in Walthamstow with Brian O’Shaughnessy, who has worked with Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine, and Beth Orton, which I imagine was a great experience. Is there any specific producer you would love to work with in the future?

John Leckie is someone who comes to mind cos of all the great stuff he’s done. Jimmy Page – just because, but I’ve enjoyed working with Brian a lot, especially on this album, so I really would just love to get back in there making another album as soon as the songs are written. (2 down so far) Obviously, music is subjective and is always open to interpretation, but one of the things that strikes me about your music is how you are full of philosophical musings, troubadour tales, and sprightly optimism. Is there an artist out there that you can relate to in terms of style, outlook, and demeanor?

Thank you! That’s nice to hear you get that from the music. I suppose more than anyone, Neil Young has been someone I’ve been inspired by the way they’ve done things – particularly his ability to go between electric and acoustic stuff, which is also something I find myself doing.

Your music with Bromide has often been described as “noise-pop,” “power-pop,” and “Indie-rock.” How would you say your solo album “Following The Moon” compares to the music created in Bromide?

Well, it’s definitely gone more to the acoustic side of things with this record. I wasn’t really planning on making a solo record at all, but my two bandmates in Bromide correctly realized that these songs were not gonna be band songs! I didn’t take this news too well at first but now realize it was a really good experience to go off and try new things – plus, it also helped define what the 3 of us do in the band and hopefully will do again in the future. Making this record also somehow freed me up in some ways – just seeing where a song

SIMON BROMIDE Interview: Indie Cindy

Photo: Alastair Indge

wanted to go without any preconception. That was exciting. As was getting lots of different people to contribute – especially on ‘The Skehans Song,’ where I was trying to capture some essence of this great weekly club night called ‘The Easycome.’ More than anything, it made me think aboutsinging. What that actually is! And I found a great singing partner in Dave Hale.

What direction do you see your music going? Do you have any plans to produce more solo material?

I’d love to do another solo record and more band stuff! In fact, we’ve got about half a new Bromide album already written – drummer Ed has several great new songs just waiting. Though the stuff I’ve been writing recently is more in the vein of ‘Following The Moon,’ so maybe plough that one first!

We all know that the pandemic has affected people in lots of different ways. Do you think the U.K government has done enough to support the arts, particularly musicians, through these dark days?

I heard something on the radio today, in fact, about the huge number of people in the music industry who’ve lost their jobs during the pandemic – mainly because they fell under the self-employed category. So in answer to your question, it looks like ‘No.’

Who were your musical influences as a teenager?

Teens... I’d just got out of my Beatles wormhole – although really that’s still going on and will forever – and after a brief foray into punk, I settled on a kind of archaeological dig back into Rock’s golden ‘67 – ‘73 period. Hendrix, Zep, Purple, Floyd, Yes, Genesis… the usual suspects. I think this pretty much lasted for my whole teenage years though occasionally, something actually current would creep in like Parallel Lines or Scary Monsters. Amazingly a 12 inch of ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ got through undetected.

James Dean Bradfield, from The Manic Street Preachers, recently said in an interview, “I will always be jealous of Nirvana’s Nevermind” (source NME). Is there an album out there you feel slightly envious of or wished that you had made?

So many!! Maybe Love’s ‘Forever Changes.’ Mark Eitzel’s ‘60 watt silver lining ’The Doors’ LA Woman’. Let’s go with Love.

So often, the terms “legend” and “genius” get so overused to describe artists out there. It’s become a bit of a cliche, but are there any artists still alive today you think have that special quality which qualifies them to be a “legend” or “genius” or even both?

Bob Dylan is both unquestionably. That recent album’ Rough and Rowdy Ways’ was a treat. He’s still blinding us with magic, especially the epic album closer ‘Murder Most Foul.’ That’s not a song. It’s a whole river!

Johanna’s House of Glamour

Photo shoot for Rough Trade 1991

Second Scene talks with Daniel Darrow about the upcoming reissues and Johanna’s House Of Glamour story.

What’s the story of Johanna’s House of Glamour.

Johanna’s House of Glamour started, I think, around 1989 or 1990. We were at a local club in Newport, Rhode Island, listening to a typical lame band going through the tired covers, e.t.c.

We said, let’s start a band. We started working on music at Bruce’s house in Newport. After a bit of time, we sent some demos out, hoping to go to 4AD like fellow Rhode Islanders but ended up getting a response from a small label out of Louisiana called Cest La Mort records. They had signed heavenly bodies, a band that we loved that had members of Dead Can Dance. Our first release was a double cassette sampler on Rough Trade that had The Breeders, Mazzy Star, and a bunch of other great bands. It was a giveaway at the World Trade Center. After that was a double cd doctor deaths vol .4 Tell us about the reissues coming soon. What can we expect?

Texas later emergency hearts re-released all the doctor deaths compilations 1-6 in 2020. They approached us late last year about reissuing all three albums. As far as what to expect, Farewell Street and Style Monsters have been re-mastered

by Mark Pistel, a great producer and member of Consolidated and Meat Beat Manifesto. The 3rd album was re-mastered by Johanna’s House member Bruce McLeod. He made the music come to life as production has taken a huge step forward since those earlier recordings. The 3rd album, Dark Flower, is also being released in a physical form as all. Both Bruce and I are thrilled to have these songs reach a new audience.

Why do you think Europe embraced you more than America?

Johanna’s House of Glamour came out around the same time as the USA grunge scene. At the time harder sounding music was getting a lot of the airplay in America. European audiences embraced us in a completely different way. When we toured in the UK, we found a far more excepting audience. Our music, at times, focused on ambient and acoustic music. The UK had a small underground post-rock scene at the time. Bands like Insides, Disco Inferno, Bark Psychosis, Hood all-embracing us as artists. Playing in London was one of the greatest moments of my life. I’ll never forget my late wife saying: were Johanna’s House of Glamour from Newport, Rhode Island.

Why did Johanna’s House of Glamour decide to call it a day?

Johanna’s House of Glamour slowed when my late wife Laura was expecting Matthew, now 25; Matthew plays on the Pull of Autumn albums. In 2018 I started a new project, the Pull of Autumn with Bruce McLeod, Luke skyscraper James. We’ve done three albums that have all been reviewed surprisingly well. Currently, we’re working on album no. 4 for the summer release.

Johanna’s House of Glamour was and is to me a special band for me as we grew together as artists. I feel I’m sure any musician can relate to.

ROBIN GUTHRIE Intervew: Tim Thomas

Photos: Violette Guthrie

With his past never far behind and a legacy that is one of legend. Robin Guthrie follows his muse by releasing a series of instrumental recordings but this time on his own terms.

This is your first release in a few years, am I correct?

It’s my first release, just as me and not me and somebody else. Well, first of all, to give you some context, Mockingbird Love is not what I’m really doing this interview to promote because I just sort of got a bit of a bottleneck. I’ve been making music for years. I mean, in the years, I don’t put records out. I still make music because that’s kind of what I do. I’ve been really less and less and less and less happy with the way that independent music works, now visa vee the distribution, and how much it costs people to buy CDs and vinyl because it’s quite horrific. I got thinking there’s got to be another way.

Last year, I got myself engaged with Bandcamp. And, you know, I had all this, isn’t this for the guys getting the demo, and they’re looking to get a deal, but that’s just my old-fashioned way of thinking. And I didn’t realize that I could start to release things on my terms and have direct contact with people that have been supporting me all these years. So that’s the context of, so it’s not Mockingbird love, per se, it’s just me and what I’m about.

I have put my fucking heart and soul into my music. I put everything that I’ve got into this stuff. I play every instrument on the records. I produce it myself do my artwork myself. Actually, the discipline of doing photography, doing the artwork, just creating something like that, you know, for years and years and years, it was done by other people. And, ideas get diluted when you don’t do it yourself. And I’m really enjoying these elements of it as well. Not so much the speaking to distributors, music business people, or they don’t care for us too much. But using Bandcamp as a sort of shield from all that, I can still get my music to people that want to hear, you know, that are not going to judge me and sort of say, “Oh, well, you know, wouldn’t it be great if Liz Fraser was singing on it” and things like that, which don’t really help. You know, in some ways, I agree with them. Yeah, it probably would be, but that’s as if to say my music’s not complete on its own right. Trying to be supportive, but they’re actually sort of saying something quite hurtful.

I’m reluctant to stick my head up and be judged, or just have the same usual comments on an instrumental record, and it says, you know, something like, oh, yeah, but it’s not as good as the Cocteau Twins or if it only had Liz singing on it. I get beaten down by that. And I just start to think fuck this then. I can turn it over, I can start to think in my head, what is wrong with you, people, you’re not listening to my music properly. For me, you know what, I get a huge amount of support from fans, whether it be on Facebook, Bandcamp, or wherever. And for every sort of 50 beautiful comments that I get that are positive, there’ll be one person who says something, and that’ll be the one that spoils my day.

My process of making music is, [pause] I’ve been doing this for quite some time now but making instrumental music, first of all, you know, I’m not a proper musician. So I know how to make music on an emotional level, but not on a skilled technical level, in terms of dexterity, musicianship, all that sort of stuff.

So Yeah, essentially, this bunch of music that I’ve got coming out, four releases, in quite a short amount of time, most of which have been done this year. Before the pandemic, I was really into traveling, taking and setting up a little studio somewhere, picking up the vibe, you know, doing some ideas, getting some songs.

For instance, about 15 years ago, I traveled across the United States on Amtrak and wrote an album. That was an album called Continental. And, I just had my little cabin in the train and spent five or six days just with the headphones on creating that record, and several of my other albums have had that sort of Genesis, and even with Cocteau Twins, I used to go off to other locations. And then, of course, I would bring them back to my studio to finish them and mix them, produce them, and put them together.

All this new stuff, right here right now.

When my good friend Harold Budd passed last year, which was really difficult, losing someone does make you look at your own life, and I kind of thought, I’ve been making all this music, but I’m not sharing it with anybody. If not now, when?

So this year, I sort of picked myself up early in the year, so I’m just gonna kill my studio here. I’m just gonna change, shake things up a bit, change my

Really, because when I started doing music, we didn’t have any access to digital anything.

That probably works for really talented people. [laughs] You know, when I was about 17 or 18, I remember making a demo. Myself, Elizabeth, and Will [Heggie] the first sort of Cocteau Twins demo thing, and we played three songs, and then we got another cassette and played the three songs again because we didn’t have two cassette players

environment and make some new music. And that’s exactly what I’ve done.

How does having access to your own personal studio influence how you work?

In some way or another. I’ve had my own studio for thirty-five years. So this is just another studio that I’ve got. No, I’m quite disciplined. I know that you meet them. Because, you know, in the olden days, we used to go to a studio for like, you know, three days and because no matter what you were doing with it whether it was a single an EP or an album, he has three days, you would fucking do it no matter what.

When I made an album with John Fox [Ultavox], I don’t know, 10, 15 years ago, we did that whole album in six days. He was kind of old school about his way about doing it as well. Do I really want to spend any more time in the studio that we have?

Because you start off when you’re younger thinking it’s going to be this great experience, but it turns just like anything else, it’s it can be very long and tedious sitting around waiting.

In what format do you record? Is it all digital or analog and tape machines, etc?

No, I don’t have any tape machines.

No, it’s not all digital either because it’s a mix-up of analog and digital, but technology and how to make music is always for me making music with the equipment you’ve got myself philosophy since the day I started.

A period of the Cocteau’s when getting a new piece of equipment in itself was always inspiring, a new delay [pedal] you start playing with it and make a song. Then maybe it goes to one side because a week later, there’s another new thing and a new pedal.

Now with computers, you can have absolutely anything, so I guess the skill at that point or the gift if you have it is just actually sitting down with your computer and knowing what you want to do before you start because the possibilities are endless.

How do you choose? It’s true. The palette is completely infinite now, and also, the way to actually assemble music and putting it together is, well, it’s pretty easy compared to the way it used to be, but there’s no way I would go back to trying to make records the way that I used to make them. I was very good at being an analog sound engineer, up until the time that we stopped having analog, and I had to transition like everybody else. You know, there was a lot to learn, and it was like an old-school discipline.

skip the first eight bars and skip, skip, [laughs] I just couldn’t get my head into the head of me as a teenager. I think that’s fair enough.

I’m not a big music fan. I like music, and I use music. I don’t run out and seek it. I’m not a music fan, as in, you know, to go to record stores and see what’s the new thing and who the new bands are because I stopped doing that in the 80s, very early, I ceased being a music fan. That’s not to say there’s not things that I like if they got to my attention. I don’t go and look for the next big thing. Nearly 40 years in the music industry has killed my appetite for the music industry.

I don’t live in that world anymore. So I think I can keep my feet on the ground and my children, they keep my feet in the ground as well.

There’s an awful lot of young people making music that think if they get some vintage equipment, that somehow it’s gonna make them better. Just because you have something that’s old does not mean it’s better. Use what you’ve got. If you’ve only got two Chinese guitar effects pedals, yes, that will be fine. That’s what making music is about.

Let me ask, what has influenced your music? Do you still find a creative spark from your earlier influences or younger self?

I don’t know. I mean, it’s just the process is an ongoing thing. So, you know, I tried, when everybody was starting to listen to mp3 on these these little iPod things and at that point, ten years ago, whatever, I made a playlist of things that I thought were really seminal when I was 19, I found it completely unlistenable, just like

robinguthrie.bandcamp.com

ADAM MILLER Interview: Dug Moore

Undercovers with Adam Miller Former Chromatics guitarist/ songwriter talks art, music, and his solo release Gateway

Second Scene You just had this great single release, and people are excited about it!

Adam, It’s flattering that people want to talk about it. I have been quite busy lately, but it’s good. I’d rather be busy than not have enough to do.

Second Scene I got to see you perform at The Wiltern in Los Angeles and was blown away. I had returned from living abroad for 15 years, and your show was one I had anticipated for years.

Adam That show was really fun. We hadn’t done a show in a long time, so it was exciting to be performing at a classic venue like the Wiltern.

Second Scene When living abroad, most bands are cover bands. But since I’ve been back in the US, I hear a wide range of opinions regarding cover bands. Do you think bands should focus on creating original material? And are bands that focus on Top 40 simply hiding under the covers, so to speak?

Adam (laughing) For me, doing cover songs is simply about loving to play music. I enjoy playing my music and other people’s music as well. I don’t see why they have to be in opposition. Why can’t they be complementary? It’s really difficult to write a good song. I appreciate that about records from the 60s; a lot of times, half the songs would be covers, and I always thought that was neat. I will say that if you’re not going to add something to it, then for myself, I wouldn’t do it. There are

a lot of songs that I love, but I wouldn’t want to release them as covers. There are plenty of covers that I’ve worked on that are not worth listening to.

Therefore, they are kept in the vaults!

Second Scene It seems like you’ve put an incredible amount of thought into the playlists you post on social media. What makes you put so much effort into this?

Adam Ever since I was a kid, I always enjoyed making mixtapes for my friends, and I like putting songs together and seeing what works in sequence. I wasn’t on social media much for a long time, but now I’ve realized that there’s a lot of really cool ways to share music with people instantly, so I just started sharing. I’m pretty evangelical about the music I like. I just want to share it because I’m excited when I find something excellent that few have probably heard before.

I like to have fun with it, not have it be a big statement. If you’re another music nerd like me, maybe you’ll appreciate it. And if you don’t, that’s fine, too. Music has always been the driving force of my life. Playlists are just another thing that I get to do to pay homage to the music I love. With the advent of streaming, I was not opposed to it, but I was reluctant to get into streaming services, as it was such a different listening experience. Now I’ve fully embraced it because when I was a kid, I would find out about a band, but I still couldn’t hear it, especially if it was an obscure band, then you might find the record a few years later, and it was like, “I’ve heard of this! I need to pick this up!”

Now everything is instantaneous. If we’re not into it, we’ll just move on to something else.

I remember when I was in ninth grade, I bought a Beat Happening CD. I remember I could never find their records around Minneapolis because it was the early 90s. It was just harder to find a lot of underground music. Because they had Kurt Cobain’s seal of approval, I listened to the CD and first thought, “this kind of sucks. I don’t get this at all.” But it was the only thing I had to listen to besides the three other CDs that I owned, so I stuck with it. Then it just finally clicked with me later, and I was just like, “Oh my God,” and Beat

Photos: Alexandra Cabral

Happening is still one of my favorite bands and biggest influences. I’m not trying to sound like a grandpa by lamenting the ways that things have changed. Now, if there’s something I like, I’ll look it up on Discogs and see that it was engineered by some German guy named Dieter or Klaus, and I’ll click through the links to their names and find a bunch of their own music from years ago that is not even on streaming, a lot of times it is not even on YouTube. I discover a lot of cool music that way now.

Second Scene I was exposed to all kinds of music at a record store I worked at. The employees had different tastes in music, so it was an incredible experience to work there.

Adam, I had a very similar experience. When I was 16, I started working at this independent record store, and there were no other kids my age working there; I was the indie kid fanatic.

You would get your turn to play your record during store hours, and then you’d hear what a few other people were into. I got exposed to so much stuff that didn’t necessarily resonate with me the first time or the second or the third time.

But eventually, a lot of it did. It gave me a greater appreciation for all types of music.

Second Scene I saw a show with Orbital where they remixed Halcyon with Bon Jovi and Belinda Carlisle, but you only could hear it live for a long time; and was a great interpretation that was incredibly creative. Do you feel like the DJ becomes an artist at a certain point?

Adam, I definitely think DJs are artists. Everybody’s just constantly repurposing things. Bob Dylan was repurposing the blues, and people call him an artist. I am referring more to him at the beginning of his career, and he repurposed a lot of things.

Obviously, Bob Dylan is great, but I feel like in the 90s, there was a lot of backlash over the idea of the DJ, and that backlash still carries on a little bit into the present. Some people felt threatened by these new ways of doing things; it was making certain genres a bit antiquated. There are great

DJs, and then there are not-so-great DJs. There are great rock bands, and there are not-so-great rock bands. It’s just with anything. And it’s all in the eye of the beholder. Whatever has the raw, honest energy, to me, regardless of somebody else’s classification, that’s what’s going to speak to me. That’s what I usually define as great. A great DJ knows how to read the room, cut things up in the right way and communicate that energy.

Around 2010 and 2011, before Kill For Love came out, we did a lot of shows in Europe that crossed over into the ecstasy & DJ party scene. We would play these weird parties with 500 Belgians high on E, and we were the only artists with live instrumentation, but we were able to blend in with the DJ/nightlife culture because Chromatics was also very electronic. It was so fun just seeing the DJs rework and reinvent and play songs that just fit the whole vibe perfectly. They were fantastic!

Those are some of the best memories I have from those tours, those crazy Euro parties.

Second Scene It seems like Carl Jung and meditation influence your songwriting.

Adam Jung has been an influence; meditation has been as well. I am a seeker. I’m always looking to take in new ways of seeing and new information. I’ve read a couple of Jung’s books, but it’s the kind of thing that you need to read again and revisit years later. Meditation is a big thing for me as well. I’ve been doing it for about five years. I feel like sometimes people have the wrong idea about it because of the way that it’s been portrayed in movies and TV, that it’s supposed to be some sort of crazy, mystical magic carpet ride. For me, it’s all about learning to train your brain to not go down these possible thought paths that are not a reality yet and may not ever be. It’s just about coming back into focusing on the present. It helps me focus creatively. It’s helped me learn to just “be” when something isn’t clicking. I used to force myself to do things, thinking, “Oh, I’m going to sit down with my guitar, and I’m going to write, and I’m not going to stop until I write the greatest thing I’ve ever written.”

And then that wouldn’t happen, of course, because I was forcing something. I would just end up getting depressed and disappointed. So now if I’m going to record music, I’m gonna say, “Okay, I think I’m ready to record now,” and then if it’s not clicking, I’ll just pull away and work on something else, or go for a walk. Especially in current times, where there is a barrage of constant distractions around every corner, it can be hard to resist those distractions, so I have to keep my phone away. I do not go on social media for long chunks of the day because all of a sudden, you go to check something, and then you’re on it, and 45 minutes go by. So meditation has really helped me learn how to manage and regulate my thoughts living in this era of perpetual psychic clatter.

Second Scene You’ve mentioned Michael Rother, Robert Smith, among others that influenced your guitar playing. What are the other driving forces influencing you?

Adam For sure, Nirvana, because when Nirvana came out, I was in sixth grade. All the hair metal and hard rock stuff had overstayed its welcome in the mainstream. Nirvana came onto the Scene and decimated everything and instantly made all that music seem corny to a 13-year-old like me. My cousin showed me how to play Smells Like Teen Spirit on the guitar, and I quickly learned how to play every Nirvana song. That carried over into Beat Happening because a lot of their songs just have two parts. I realized, “Okay, this guitar part works together with this part, and we can turn this into a song.” Beat Happening taught me that, as did a lot of music coming out of Olympia, Washington, and a lot of the Riot Grrl bands, Huggy Bear, Bikini Kill, and Bratmobile. They just went for it, they didn’t have the technical skill, and I don’t either, and that was so inspiring. I just loved

those bands and their energy. I still do. That’s the energy that I’m always looking for in any music, art, etc. That feeling of “I have to do this or else I’m going to explode.”

Second Scene DIY culture is awesome. I saw Kid Congo Powers the other night at a show in East LA. When I pulled up, there was a burned-up Winnebago, cops driving by scoping it out, all the normal stuff at a good DIY event!

Adam, I’m really happy to know that stuff like that can still happen in Los Angeles. It just seems so expensive now. I remember when Chromatics first came down to Los Angeles to play at the Smell in 2001 when it was just this small place with this former Motorhead roadie named Mel who did the sound and who lived behind the sound booth, hardly anyone came, maybe 30 people were at our show. Afterward, we went to a loft party a few blocks away on Main street, and somebody told me they paid $400 a month for their huge space. It is good things don’t stay the same, but as a race of humans, we’re seeing things change a lot faster than maybe we ever have. Time feels more compressed more than ever for me. And I’m sure the kids today are experiencing something else that we are not as aware of. Maybe they will be saying the same thing to the generations that follow them.

Second Scene In many ways, the music kids I’m around that are part of that DIY Scene are much more chill and seem nicer to each other than when I was their age.

Adam, I agree with that. They’re also a lot more open-minded. I remember you couldn’t like Notorious BIG and Nirvana or something. There was so much more identity wrapped up in it. And now it doesn’t feel that way to me at all. I think that’s really cool.

Second Scene Do films influence your music?

Adam, I am into film, but I’m very picky with how I manage my time. I read more books than I watch movies, I usually won’t allow myself to do both, but film is still a big influence. When I enjoy a movie, I want to just watch it over and over again. Roman Polanski’s The Tenant has always been one of my favorites. It’s about this guy who moves into an apartment of a woman who had just committed suicide, and then he starts cross-dressing and hallucinating and living out these scenes from her life. You can’t really tell exactly what is going on. It takes place in Paris in the 70s, and Isabelle Adjani is in it, and I love her. Everything about that movie is so awkward and weird. It’s just these weird interactions and pauses that just keep on leading to even weirder interactions, and I always loved that movie for that. I’ve probably watched the film 20-30 times in my life, and I still don’t understand a lot of what happens in it, but my takeaway from watching it has always been that we don’t need to understand everything. Also, the French fashion photographer Guy Bourdin made these little films in the late 70s. I just like how they’re just these strange little moments, just captured on the film, and then that’s it. It’s just an impression, a moody impression. He’s always been a really big influence on me.

Second Scene You just released the single Erosion from your new label Inner Magic. What can you tell us about the upcoming release of your solo LP entitled Gateway? It’s out on February 11.

Adam, It’s nearly all guitar. There’s a little bit of synth. Erosion doesn’t have any synth, even though it sounds like it’s a synth. It’s actually a guitar. I do these weird little experiments with drones and stuff and volume on the guitar. It’s really fun. You can get these unique textures that you can’t get from a synthesizer. There are no drums and no singing on Gateway; I just wanted

something I could listen to when I was meditating or chilling. That was the goal for the record, just keeping it very fluid, just to help your brain focus on whatever it is that you’re trying to focus on. So you could listen to the music and focus on that, or you could read Carl Jung (laughs).

Second Scene Who supported the recording of the album?

Adam My friend Chris Cody, he’s a great mixer.

If you look at his back catalog, it’s pretty sick. He did the last Slowdive album, some Beach House records. He’s worked on so many great records I can’t keep track. My friend Alexandra Cabral took the photos for the album. We have taken a lot of photos together, and I always love her photos.

The record cover was just kind of an accident.

We took some Polaroids in my apartment one day, the cover of Gateway is from a very tiny Polaroid she took, so I had it drum scanned so it wouldn’t look pixelated when we enlarged it for the cover. My friend Dave Gardner mastered the album. He mastered the first Chromatics seven inch, and I’ve known him ever since I was 15. He used to be in a garage-punk band that would play shows in Minneapolis. He was one of the only other Jewish guys in that scene, and he’s gone on to do a bunch of stuff. He used to be the main engineer at Amphetamine Reptile; now, he just masters stuff. He recently mastered some John Coltrane reissues, Bad Brains reissues, so much cool music. It’s great to work with friends whom you’ve known since you were 15, seeing their band in the basement with eight other people. But I also have a bunch of other things that I’m working on with other people that, unfortunately, I can’t talk about beyond that yet.

There’s going to be a couple more videos released, one which I’m excited about because it’s not at all what I think anybody will be expecting. I’m going to roll out a few more tracks and videos, and it’ll be available on February 11. It’s available to pre-order on Bandcamp as a CD, vinyl, or digital download. I just wanted to make a record that was a lot of guitars, minimal, instrumental, like synth music. There’s not a lot of guitar-centric music that really speaks to me, so I wanted to make something that spoke to me. And hopefully, I won’t hate it (laughs).

to consolidate all elements of the arts, including literature, to produce a fullyfledged piece of music?

I work in different media – visual art, prose and poetry, occasionally theatre and film, and of course music. I’ve taken to describing what I do as deconstructed theatre – in that, I work in every aspect of the theatre, just rarely all at once.

Ideally, I’ll move into a more unified practice ongoing.

The Academy of Sun, to me, is very multi-faceted music and a stream of consciousness that unravels an array of musical layers and burns from the deepest depths of its soul. In what ways does your solo music differ from The Academy of Sun? The Academy Of Sun tends to factor a more full-rock-band sound - that is, led by a rhythm section, whereas in the solo work, there’s a more hushed intimacy, often piano-led. Also, within the band, I try to keep the lyrical content away from more directly personal matters and narrate cinematic scenarios or content that lends itself easily to the - dare I say it – anthemic.

NICK HUDSON

Nick Hudson is a singer-songwriter, painter, composer, writer, and producer from Brighton, whose band The Academy of Sun has gained him a solid fan base. He’s a prolific artist in the UK underground scene and whose solo debut EP “K69996ROMA: EP,” released on 15 th September 2021, has been making waves locally and further afield. Today he talks to Second Scene about his music, influences, and his overall creativity.

Hi Nick, thanks for your time today and for answering the following questions. Firstly, I want to say how distinctive and immense your music is. It’s like a Pandora’s box of intense emotions, subtle nuances, and intellectually driven themes.

Would you say that you are both an artist of emotion and intellect in equal measures, or is there a particular element to your character that overrides the other?

Thank you. Haha, I think “equal measures” may be too precise a demarcation but thank you. Each song or composition contains different essences of either – obviously more directly “confessional” work such a Voyeurs Who Offer Nothing is intensely emotionally, and yet the arrangements even on that are fairly cerebral. Whereas some of the more

abstract material on the EP comes from a desire to elicit a visceral response.

Listening to your music, I get the impression that your creativity is driven by a meticulous, visceral, and all-consuming process, where you throw your heart and soul completely into your work. Do you go through various stages of lateral thinking and incubation periods, or does your creativity come together as soon as you hit the studio?

I’ve often been accused of being prolific, to which my general answer is that actually, I’m quite slow. I’m just tenacious and relentless. The incubation period for each composition is pivotal. The basic form might come together quickly, but then I’ll spend a long time finessing the nuances, redrafting lyrics, and shaping the arrangement and instrumentation.

That said, in terms of performance, I prefer not to do endless takes and risk derailing any spontaneity.

Your band, The Academy of Sun, is described as a “Dystopian gothic post-punk band,” which evokes a sense of melodrama and an endless scope for exploration, introspection, and intellectual evaluation. Do you think it is a necessity

Interview: Indie Cindy

Having listened to your solo EP “K69996ROMA: EP”, it strikes me as music that crosses over a range of genres and subgenres from post-punk, dark-wave, industrial, electronica, rock-rap, and baroque-rock. It’s a mesmerizing EP that really pushes boundaries in alternative rock. Was the EP influenced by any specific artists, books, films, and themes, or was it solely based on your own personal experiences?

Thank you so much. Yes, K69996ROMA: EP draws from a lifelong love of European cinema. My two academic degrees are in film, and I adore and study cinema at least as much as I do music. So within the EP, there are references to Chris Marker’s La Jetee, the works and murder of Pier Paolo Pasolini, and indeed a glitchy electronic assemblage citing a quote from Alain Delon’s bodyguard in the 1960s, who subsequently was murdered.

Pasolini was beaten on an Ostia beach before being repeatedly run over by his own Alfa Romeo, the nature of the true perpetrators of which is still under scrutiny. My friend Adrian Goycoolea - a magnificent filmmaker – created a beautiful video wherein which elements of this were dramatized. The Florist lyric is an ode to self-immolation.

The EP’s lead track ‘The Ballad Of K69996 Roma’ was created by Brighton filmmaker Adrian Goycoolea, who is a master of social, historical, and political history. It’s an epic track with such stunning visuals, steeped in surrealism, neo-psychedelic aesthetics and haunting nostalgia. Is it a track thematically linked to a particular story, societal aspect, or creative premise? See above!

Photo: Ka Mountain

You have collaborated with Wayne Hussey from The Mission, and Massive Attack’s Shara Nelson, which I imagine were both rewarding experiences. Is there any other artist or producer you would love to work with in the future?

Randall Dunn produced the most recent 7” single by the band, and I’d very much love to make a full-length record with him. This will depend upon label interest.

There’s a Moscow-based artist whose work I find fascinating – Ilya Mazo – I’d love to do something with him at some point. And the throat singer Tanya Tagaq I think, is making some of the most exciting and forward-looking music of the moment. And the Dutch cellist Ernst Reijseger, who has created scores for many of Herzog’s latest films, is an astounding musician. It would be incredible to play with him. I’d also love to sing with Meredith Monk at some point and create a duet with my friend Christopher Nell, who performs in many Robert Wilson pieces and possesses a stunning voice.

You are a Brighton-based artist, which has always struck me as a cosmopolitan, vibrant, and creative hub for so many artists. How would you describe the current music scene there?

Honestly, I don’t know! In my view, Brighton is oversaturated, which can tend to dilute the quality of the music overall.

However, I would single out Oli Spleen, Stuart Warwick, Bee and Jackrabbit, and Wolfgang Dubieniec as exceptional writers and performers.

So what are your musical plans for the future? Have you got another solo EP’s, projects, or gigs in the pipeline?

I’m taking some time away from writing music – I’ve been doing this for nearly twenty years without a break, as my Bandcamp catalog will testify, haha. So I’m going to step back and focus on the huge backlog of short fiction and theatre, and film premises that I want to develop.

The pandemic has been devastating professionally in certain ways so I’m going to take a few months to step back and recalibrate, reassess, etc.

For anyone who isn’t familiar with your music, how would you describe it, and how can anyone get hold of your back catalog?

Hmmm. Cinematic and richly allusive, ambitious, and kaleidoscopic? Bandcamp is where the motherlode hangs out, and also where on can see and acquire some of my visual art and some idiosyncratic merch too.

Thank you for the awesome questions!

Firesign Theatre: the Magic Mushroom Plays Younger readers might never have heard of them, but your reporter is totally excited about a “new” release from the American comedy group The Firesign Theatre.

Back in 1993, while in Los Angeles, I picked up a record out of a vinyl bin in a thrift store and stared at the cover: there were two signs on them with the text “All hail Marx & Lennon” (in Russian looking letters) and pictures of Groucho Marx and John Lennon! The title of the album was “How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You’re Not Anywhere At All,” and the name of the “band” was The Firesign Theatre. An old hippie kinda guy that I had met told me, “O, you should buy that for a dollar, take it home to Amsterdam, smoke a joint, and then listen to it.” So I did. I enjoyed the Hell out of it, they made me laugh and think, and I learned a lot about American (counter)culture and history in the process. I played it over and over, and new jokes kept revealing themselves. I never heard from them again until 2007, when I googled them.

My FIRST download EVER was a more or less complete Firesign Theatre discography with all their albums, solo and duo projects, radio shows, and live performances interviews.

(Took me a couple of years to listen to it all – but I did!) Most of their output still sounds fresh and relevant today.

The Firesign Theatre consisted of four (or five?) krazee guys, Peter Bergman, Phil Proctor, Phil Austin, and David Ossman. Their humor is best described as “surreal, futuristic science fiction fantasy with a heavy dose of absurdist social commentary.” They have been goofing about contemporary concepts as channel surfing, cars with climate control, and interactive television screens. They had their “classic period” between 1969 and 1976, but even after that, they also released some fantastic albums (3 of them around the turn of the century). Their come-back performances have been well attended, and re-releases of old material become collector’s items fast. Sadly, today only half of the Firesign Theatre is still with us: Peter Bergman died in 2012, Phil Austin in 2015.

The Magic Mushroom Plays In 1967 the Firesign Theatre wrote a dozen original half-hour radio plays in full Goon Show mode, with puns on overdrive.

There were spoofs on Sherlock Holmes and Moby Dick, Shakespeare and 1930’s adventure movies and escape movies, drug culture, and TV shows. They performed them in front of a live audience at the Magic Mushroom club in Los Angeles while simulcasting on Peter Bergman’s Radio Free Oz on KRLA. Considered lost for half a century, these mythical broadcasts are finally being officially released as a 48-page paperback book with DVD-ROM, including all 11 surviving Magic Mushroom plays.

Plus a bunch of extras. This is quintessential Firesign Theatre, a great asset for Fireheads, and a fabulous introduction for the curious and uninitiated. Available at Firesigntheatre.com For more information about the Firesign Theatre, Frederick C. Wiebel jr. wrote a fantastic book about them, Backwards into the Future: the Recorded History of the Firesign Theatre. (Good luck finding that one. There should be a second printing!)

Pytr Baum

Second Scene talks with the American-Swedish indie-pop duo, “I am a Rocketship.” The duo is comprised of singer L E Kippner and guitarist Eric Weissinger. Their music is highly recommended, with their much anticipated new album “Lies and Legends” released on 11th November 2021.

So what are your musical backgrounds?

L.E.: Different from each other! I was never in a traditional rock band; I played the cello, and I was a singer for years, but musically my background is, well, more European. No garage bands or Americana!

E.W.: I’d always played around in music since I was a kid and started performing with bands when I was in high school. I wish I could say that there was one band all my life, but I just played with whoever needed someone, sometimes guitar, sometimes bass, sometimes singing.

The whole chemistry between you both works so well, had you known each other long before you decided to make music together?

E.W.: A mutual friend told us about each other’s music, and I think the day we met was at one of my gigs. So it was kind of music from, literally, day one.

I remember when I first heard your music, I became an instant fan.

I was really impressed that just two people could produce such an eclectic sound. Was working within a small unit something you originally set off to do or did you plan to have more musicians on board?

E.W.: Oh, we tried to do a traditional band, but I think we’re not easy to work with. We both have really specific ideas about what we want to do, and unless you’re being well-paid to just read the charts and do what you’re told, it’s no fun being a drummer or bassist with us. But it was scary to go it alone and realize we had to make every sound.

L.E.: It gave us a lot of freedom to try new things, and I think we are still discovering what we can do. Our latest album has a song where we had trouble finding the right drum sound, so in the end, it was recorded on things Eric found in the kitchen. He tried his way through the pots and spoons until we found the right sound.

I love the name “I am a Rocketship.” It sounds so otherworldly, with a sense of adventure and a child-like wonder. Is there a particular reason why you chose such an intriguing name for your band?

What inspired it?

E.W.: As a matter of fact, a child did name us. We overheard a little girl saying, “I am a rocketship!” and it was such a beautiful phrase.

L.E.: She was dreaming big like children do before they figured out the difference between fantasy and reality. Why settle for looking at the stars from down here when you can be a rocketship? We try to live up to the name.

You both seem so well accomplished musically and inspired by so many genres of music. Is there a particular genre of music that you gravitate more towards over others, or do you just take a freeflowing approach?

E.W.: More free-flowing. It’s weird that we are both fans of a few things but otherwise are all over the place. I listen mostly to classical, baroque, romantic era music. And heavier, more spacey stuff.

L.E.: I tend to listen to music that gives what I need at the time, so it varies a lot. Sometimes I want to be inspired, and sometimes I just need a musical hug, you know? Lately, the two of us have been listening to completely different genres, so our shared playlist is taking some interesting twists and turns.

The Manc Review recently selected your single, “Fever Dream,” as their “Single of the Week” and compared you to bands such as The Ravonettes. Is there a band or artist out there which has influenced or helped shape your sound?

E.W.: Probably not a single band. It’s funny; a few people told us we sounded like The Kills, and neither of us had heard of them.

Which is embarrassing, so we had to listen to them, and now we’re

huge fans. We both like melodic stuff and electronic stuff. Maybe Depeche Mode?

Your album “Lies and Legends” was released on 24th September 2021 and has received rave reviews. How would you say this album differs musically from your other albums? (NOTE: I.T.’S NOT ACTUALLY OUT YET, JUST THE SINGLE) E.W.: The lyrics are more focused, for one thing. It’s not really a rock opera, but it very much has one theme, and that helped define the music too. It’s more consistently uh… serious, I guess. The other albums kind of played in various styles, but this one is very focused.

L.E.: Our albums usually don’t use the same musical style all the way through. I think that’s definitely true for this one as well, but this time it is the same story the whole way through.

The Pandemic has impacted many musicians on both an emotional and creative level. It’s been a time of reflection which has provided inspiration for new material. Was this the case with yourselves, or did you write “Lies and Legends” from a different perspective?

L.E.: I think that a lot of music created now is a sort of musical time capsule. It’s been a very strange time to live through. We have used music to document things in real-time during the pandemic, which we haven’t really done before.

E.W.: The pandemic, I think, helped a lot of people prioritize things. It sure did for us. The music itself is about the danger of fanaticism, but the conditions of the last couple of years added some urgency and time to write and record.

I believe Eric once opened for The Wedding Present, which must have been exciting! Are there any musicians, artists, or producers out there you would love to work with?

E.W.: Ha, they were super nice. We actually have talked about it, an “If we could have any producer, who would we hire?” For me, it would be either M.I.A. or El-P. They both ignore genres and get straight to the emotional core of a song.

What are your next musical plans? Will you be going on tour, making another new album, or are you just planning on having a nice rest?

E.W.: It’s back to emailing and calling for gigs. It’s funny: when people see us perform live, they’re usually impressed, and I love performing, but it’s so much work to book original music. Maybe we need to just do coffee house acoustic covers and then sneak in some of our own music, just to get in front of audiences.

L.E.: I suggested that we do a whole bossa nova album next, but I haven’t been able to convince him. We’ll see.

I AM A ROCKETSHIP

Interview: Indie Cindy

Photo: Katja Bjorn

know if it was an influence in starting to play, but it was certainly been formative in my interest in music, along with the classical and jazz my mum listened to. Actually, playing it myself wasn’t really something I thought about until I was 15/16.

Like most bands, you have experienced lineup changes over the years, and now your son Henry is on keyboards. Does that bring a different musical dynamic to the band?

JA: It is nice to have him in there; he is a natural improviser, and it is the first time we’ve involved keys in the sound, so it adds a whole new layer, which with Museum Of Tomorrow and the way the tracks on the album all join together is a huge element of the overall package. So yes, it definitely has changed the dynamic and texture.

You formed in Manchester in 1989, just as the Madchester scene was taking off. Was this a scene you were engaged with, or was it a scene that just wasn’t part of your musical psyche?

THE SPEED OF SOUND Interview: Indie Cindy Photo: Shay Rowan

Today, we talk to John Armstrong from The Speed Of Sound about their music, influences, and the pandemic’s impact.

Your music has been described as postpunk, art-rock, new wave, garage, neopsychedelic, sci-fi-punk and has received comparisons with bands such as Television, Magazine, and The B-52’s. Would you say that these bands influenced your music, and are there any bands out there that have played a significant part in the formation of The Speed of Sound?

JA: Those three were all bands I was aware of and liked at the time, but I don’t think they directly influenced the sound. Back then, I was listening to a lot of 1960’s garage punk: 13th Floor Elevators, Chocolate Watchband, Pebbles/Nuggets compilations, but also ECM label jazz artists and generally looking backward to find the right building blocks to carry forward. The spark that made me first want to pick up a guitar came from the raw energy of Small

Faces (their incendiary R&B crunch does have the same partified drive as the B-52’s) and lyrically The Chords (Polydor 1979-81 NOT the ‘50s doo-wop group!). There was a lot of other music I was listening to, but those two made me want to do it, not so much to sound like them but just to play. The Byrds and Blondie are probably the most directly traceable sonic influences, and there is quite a bit of Who in my guitar style. Original drummer Denis and original bass player Paul were both very Joy Division influenced, but the thing is that throughout the various lineups, we’ve always maintained an assortment of influences between us, and that prevented the end result from sounding derivative.

What was the first-ever gig you went to, and did it influence your decision to form a band?

JA: My dad played in a traditional folk group, so my first gig will have been one of his, but I can’t remember when; I don’t

JA: In the rehearsal space we used in’ 89/’90, our regular ‘next-roomers’ were The Stone Roses and James. However, I never felt that what we were doing had much in common with the known ‘Manchester bands’ of that time. The whole Madchester (and later ‘Rave’) thing seemed hollow and lacking substance to me. I only went to the Hacienda once and was bored the whole time. Yes, we’re a Manchester-based band, but our spiritual home – as one of the recent reviews suggested – is probably closer to CBGBs than FAC51. Of the British bands of that time, we were probably most parallel to a socio/political Transvision Vamp; but one using the music as a weapon rather than just raw sex appeal. I think we both had a lot of shared influences despite producing different results from those ingredients anyway, hardly Madchester.

Do you think music outside the Madchester scene often gets overlooked?

JA: In a word: Yes. Corporate marketing is essentially lazy and the same way that Liverpool has The Beatles (and Bonn has Beethoven), Manchester has Joy Division, The Smiths, The Stone Roses, and the whole Madchester thing… and Oasis… Nostalgia is a security blanket and has the same effect on underground music as a gardeners anti-weed sheet. It is stifling. If people are offered a “Smiths Disco” or a live gig, they will go for the safe option of known experience. Laughable, really, given the popularity of Unknown Pleasures T-shirts. It is as easy for promoters to push as it is artless and predictable.

Virgin Trains used to run the mainline route between London and Manchester.

They had an advertising campaign citing Manchester’s “great grassroots musical heritage” and suggesting people go there (here) and go to a gig. Nice. Except the next three words were “at the Arena.”

That is 21,000 seats. They obviously had no

understanding of what grassroots music actually is, but we’re happy to use it to appear hip. So, if you are anywhere that is already known for music, you have to break through the anti-weed mat the Corporates put down. And, if you have the audacity to be from anywhere that isn’t already ‘known for music,’ it is seen as an unfashionable backwater, so obviously ‘uncool’ before a note has been played. Labels and genres are the curse of the internet. Every platform demands to know what genre the music is, and if you don’t neatly fit one of those, it is difficult; all the focus is on there being a ‘Manchester Sound’ whatever that is perceived as being, and it is really unhelpful. The internet and the corporates, in general, don’t like individuality.

The great thing about your music is that it feels raw and real, that it stays true to the DIY ethos of punk. Is it something you set off to achieve, or is your music a natural progression of the collective consciousness within the band?

JA: Thanks! “Flying in the face of fashion…” as Julian Cope might say… We’ve never been wholly part of a ‘scene’ as such, although there is quite a lot of overlap with the mod aesthetic, and they have been supportive, plus the individualism within punk. With both, it is more of a state of mind than direct sonic overlap. We’ve just kept doing what we wanted and what felt right for each song in an organic and natural way rather than trying to be fashionable. I stopped watching Top Of The Pops regularly in about ‘83, and the charts have been totally irrelevant for decades. We know we’re outsiders and are not doing it to ‘break big’ or ‘get to the next level.’ (There are no levels, it is all quicksand out there!). It is all about the music, experimentation, and being creative. We’re not deliberately anticommercial. It just isn’t the priority for us.

Your fifth album, “Museum of Tomorrow,” was released on 17th September 2021, which I must say is a great album. How would you say your music has evolved since you began making music?

JA: Thank you! If you look at the four songs on the original EP from September ‘89, I think the basic threads making up the sound were already in place then, there’s the female/male voices, a garage rock stomp, a slice of subversively bright-sounding pop, a 12-string Lewis Carrol inspired opium ride and a goth-tinged-psych dreamscape… evolution-wise 30+ years ago it was about exploration to find a way of playing; a separate voice. Long, long ago, you would hear a new song on the radio, and although you’d never heard it before, you would recognize who it was: The Kinks, The Who, The Stones (or The Damned, Stiff Little Fingers and Kate Bush) all had that instant recognition factor from their whole approach. Not because the new song was the same as their last one, but because you knew the DNA that made up their sound and could tell it was them instantly.

That’s what I was looking for. I basically

spent 40 years learning to play like me.

Now the exploration is to find new ways of expressing that. My approach to guitar and song structure is fairly idiosyncratic, and I understand what I’m doing far more now, not so much as ‘music theory’ but as an intuitive feel. That feel has branched out into different areas. There are elements of jazz and prog in there among the postpunk and Rickenbacker chime. The recent addition of keyboards has created more space for the guitars, and average beats per minute have definitely increased, but mostly it is ‘the truth that Rock And Roll wants to deny’ that musicians get better the more they play and the longer they play for. I know I can still pick up way more and still feel inspired when I pick up a guitar. The myth of the 27 Club and burn-out – both of which are actually caused by ‘The Music Industry’ itself – needs a good kicking.

Your music is infused with politically-driven lyrics. Has the pandemic influenced and shaped your music?

JA: In many ways, I think the pandemic has magnified a lot of problems with the 21st Century that was already present. Theme’s of isolation, fracturing, anxiety, alienation, phony-nostalgia, and a despoiled future all read differently now, but all of Museum Of Tomorrow was actually written between 2016 and 2018. Recording for the whole album (plus the accompanying non-album singles) was completed just before the pandemic shutter came down. The mixing and mastering took another year after that – which was slowed down by the general situation – and then the ridiculously long production times for vinyl. On top of all that meant the earliest realistically viable release date was September 2021. So the album is all pre-event. The political/personal-sociopolitical aspect has always been present in my writing, even going back to ‘89 and earlier: We put out a double-A-side single for Manchester Women’s Aid in 2018 to mark 100 years since the first women in the UK were able to vote and both sides of that were fresh new recordings of songs from our 1989 & 1990 setlist. One was about sexual harassment in the workplace, and the other was about relationships based on control, not affection. There are enough people out there already writing songs about cars, beer, and other basic rock-n-roll stuff. As a songwriter, I would rather write about things that spark my imagination and explore areas that don’t get written about so much in popular culture, which is why, for example, we have a song about a ship loaded with toxic waste. Once you get into a social context, I don’t think you can separate politics from that, and art is political whether people like it or not.

Are there any new bands or artists out there now that you really rate or would like to work with?

JA: I’m pretty sure we’d all have different answers to who we’d like to work with next.

We have done quite a few collaborations already: Last Orders – the final song on

Museum Of Tomorrow – features an international chorus of independent artists, Chris Jack (of The Routes), Courtney Visser, Dolph Chaney, Sam Fisher, Robby Allen (of The Kite Collectors) and Touanda. AnnMarie and I are both on tracks from The Kite Collectors album ‘Never Look Down,’ and along with Henry, the three of us are on the forthcoming 2nd album by Dusseldorf (Germany) band Stephen’s Ruin. Plus, during lockdown, I added some backwards guitar to a track by Nick Frater for his new project and some backing vocals for a track

by Andy Lewis (Paul Weller’s bass player for many years). Lucy Power recorded the flute for a track on our 2016 album ‘Everything Changes,’ and Independent music icon Lord Litter is on there too. I did a separate collaborative piece with him in 2012. We’ve also done some live-only collaborations with Little Sparrow, Nina Gerstenberger, (Louise) Turner, and also Jason Edge (of the Electric Stars). Independent music is about community, and it’ll be interesting to see what lies ahead collaboration-wise!

As far as other new bands and artists go in general, despite the state of the ‘pop charts,’ this is a prime time for independent music. People out there need to look for alternatives to the ten-or-so performers the big labels push, and the wall-to-wall nostalgia explosion. It is harder to find because there is no obvious one-stop shop for new music, but it is well worth the search.

I have a radio show myself (Tuning Up on Mad Wasp Radio) which has been going on for four and a half years so far. There is an archive of all the past shows on Mixcloud, and that would be a good place to start looking!

What are your plans for the future? Do you have a new album or a tour in the pipeline?

JA: As far as gigs are concerned, we’re just not looking at that until we’re well into 2022, and then we’ll see where we’re at with it.

Assess the situation as we go. Ann-Marie is a Senior Nurse, and to say she has been ‘a bit busy’ during the pandemic would be beyond mere ‘British Understatement.’

Putting an album out without being able to play live has been a bit of a challenge, and it’s not what we would have chosen, but there is no guarantee that ‘normal’ will ever be fully restored, and we need to keep moving, we can’t sit on the album indefinitely, the whole point of recording is so it can be heard. As far as future plans go, there will be a video for each song on Museum Of Tomorrow; we’ve issued four of them already, and the remaining nine will be dripped out over the course of 2022 as we make them, along with a pair of surprise items. When the first lockdown happened, we were already working on a lot of new pieces and had five already whipped into shape in a state where we could have taken them into the studio to record. It will be a while yet as we have some catching up to do, but there is plenty more to come from The Speed Of Sound.

Photo: Kaiser Matt

BOLT DREG

F

rederick C. Wiebel jr. is a Renaissance Man: a painter, sculptor, and writer. He has produced record covers, illustrations, collages, radio shows. His work has been shown in museums, galleries, and art festivals across the USA. He has lectured on Edison’s Frankenstein film from 1910 and written a book about it.

He even wrote a book about the “Beatles of Comedy,” The Firesign Theatre! He looks like Father Christmas, and having him as a grandfather must be like living in a magical kingdom.

This guy is an authority on so many topics (early movies, “20’s jazz music, blues, rock, comedy, the history of the phonograph and recording process), and he has a huge archive, too. We do not have the space to go into everything we would like to show off his work, but we hope this selection of drawings and

collages offered here will make people curious about him.

PB: Hi Fred, have you always been an artist?

FCW: I’ve always been drawing and can’t remember when I wasn’t. I suppose one of the big events in my life as a child in 3rd grade was seeing an IBM display of 3-D models of Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebook drawings. I was fascinated by Leonardo and started reading his notebooks in elementary school. So around 3rd grade, I started taking reading and drawing seriously. I remember doing a color pencil drawing of our house as a school project that floored the art teacher.

My parents gave me no encouragement what-so-ever, and that was a good thing.

They left me alone. There was a

Frederick C. Wiebel Jr

sense of freedom in those days for kids. I would run around the woods all day and be gone for hours, just coming home for dinner. I started painting in High School in the late 60s. My 1st oil painting was of Frank Zappa.

I was always involved with music. I took over my dad’s Spike Jones 78s and witnessed the rise of Elvis. I had older cousins, and they were into R&R and R&B. We would sit in their basement, play records and read Mad and EC Horror comics while our mothers smoked incessantly, drank gallons of Ice Tea, and played cards.

MAD was a major influence on me. I collected comics and monster magazines like a lot of kids in suburbia. It was the rise of Scientific toys, and we all had microscopes, chemistry sets, telescopes, butterfly nets, dissecting kits, etc.

We moved to Cincinnati in 1958

and onto Cleveland in 1963, and while there, I was exposed to Salvador Dali, who had a major patron and collector who lived there. So Dali was often in town, and I saw him on the Mike Douglas Show, broadcast from there. He was hilarious, and I started studying Dada and Surrealism. When the family moved back to MD in 1965, I was able to access all the National Museums in DC through my high school years...

There was also a Saturday Night horror film show on TV, and I, like so many American kids in the late 50s, got caught up in fads, one being the Monster craze. I built the Aurora models and entered one locally in the national contest. I won 2nd place in our area. I cut up one of my rabbit skin gloves and glued the hair on the Wolfman model. I made lots of models, as did so many of us. I only made

a few car models, which were the most popular, but preferred the figures, which I highly customized. It got me interested in sculpture and casting. My parents made me give them all away when we moved.

Same with the comics. I used to chide dad about throwing away $600,000 worth of comics. [laughs] probably worth a lot more now. I guess the earliest comic was Superman #8, of course, all the Marvel Silver Age comics. In high school, I used to clean out people’s garages for the comics. I started dealing and trading them and records.

Looking back, I can say this: “I would never have failed at all those thousands of wonderful things I’ve done in my life nor ever interacted with so many interesting people if I had sold out young and pursued a career in gathering wealth for some faceless corporation.”

PB: Can you tell something about your involvement in the re-discovery of the Edison Frankenstein movie from 1910?

FCW: In about 1964, Famous Monsters Magazine and Castle Of Frankenstein mag both published the famous photo of the monster, and I was fascinated with it. I still have that copy without the cover.

Years later, probably in the late 1980s, I saw a severalminute clip of the film in a horror documentary. I tracked down the producer and found out that there was a man in Wisconsin who a had the only known copy of the Edison production. I eventually got his name, Alois Dettlaff, and found out he was showing a protected copy of the film at various locations in Wisconsin theaters. I got in touch with him and became determined to get him to a clean release

of the film. He was extremely difficult to work with. I had been in contact with the people at the Library of Congress, The Museum Of Modern Art, and the Edison National Historic site and obtained copies of the copyright materials. Dettlaff’s film was missing the opening title card, and I found it among the submitted materials. I also found all the original music cues, tinting and assembly instructions, the studio logbook, etc. I eventually made a deal with Dettlaff to produce a suitable soundtrack and background information for a DVD release. I collected together all the original Edison cylinders of the music mentioned in the cue sheets and strung them together as a pattern for a new recording synced to the film. I got a local composer and musician, the head of the music department

of the Washington Co., MD school board, to put it together.

He did an incredible job on his Synclavier. I also fully produced the Edison cylinder soundtrack synced to the film. Anyway, I was very glad to have been a major player in getting Edison’s Frankenstein released on DVD and eventually preserved at the LOC. Fred is still producing art and having exhibitions, keeping his archive in order, and constantly adding to his ongoing Disenchanted Forest. He is a full time grandfather and lives in Hagerstown, Maryland.

among the first music blogs.

And I was just covering all the odd stuff no one else was reviewing. And after a while, people started sending me their own music. The WFMU DJs would always go on Music for Maniacs and download stuff. And then they would offer me to guest D.J. on WFMU! S.S: So, you’ve been involved with WFMU a long time?

Mr. Fab: Well, I go back with WFMU for years. Station manager Ken Friedman has always been supportive.

The station had a national reputation in the 90s because Rolling Stone magazine kept calling it the “Best Station in America.”

So in the late 80s, WFMU put up their own website, and they would post audio there, which no one was doing in radio at the time. And then they started archiving

Mr. Fab: That would be great.

S.S: So, I hear you don’t get paid any money. Is this a labor of love?

Mr. Fab: What is your labor of obsessed madness? None of the WFMU DJs get paid.

Even some of the staffers back in the office don’t get paid. But we get to be on the coolest station in the world. So we’re thrilled to contribute to the culture. I mean, a lot of us have been listening ever since WFMU went online over 20 years ago. It’s so cool.

We just can’t believe we’re on our favorite station.

S.S: Okay. What can I expect if I tune into WMFU Sheena’s Jungle Room?

Mr. Fab: Well, it’s free form. That is, we don’t have a program director who tells D.J.’s what to play. Even commercial and public stations might have rules like College stations. WFMU has no such rules regarding what D.J.s can play. And there might be one D.J. who plays Bootlegs. There might be another D.J. who’s got a reggae show, another one who’s got an avant-garde show. You will hear stuff that you probably never heard before.

Mr. Fab of WFMU’s Sheena’s Jungle Room!

What is the most famous radio station in the world? WFMU! Today, we have an interview with a guy who has his finger on the future of radio communications. He is the program director of the worldwide broadcasted “Sheena’s Jungle Room” at WFMU in New Jersey.

According to Rolling Stone magazine, Sheena’s Jungle Room is a part of WFMU the World’s Most Famous radio station.

S.S: Welcome, Mr. Fab! Please introduce yourself.

Mr. Fab: My name is Mr. Fab. I am a D.J. musician, record collector. I came to the attention of WFMU at the dawn of the Internet era.

I started DJing in L.A. during the lounge revival of the 90s, and I was playing old surf records and exotica records. I would guest D.J. on College stations around L.A. Then I got inspired by early hip hop like turntableism. Then with the dawn of home computers, I would make CDRs and send them out, and WFMU was actually playing them. I was also an early adopter of music blogs. I started one called Music for Maniacs.

S.S: I read that blog before!

Mr. Fab: It got popular because it was

their shows. It was a smart commercial strategy because then they started getting donations from people everywhere. Of course, we don’t run commercials. And WFMU doesn’t accept any corporate money.

So you can listen to the shows, and you can chat with the D.J.s and other fans, which is a way of building the audience. So it’s not just about the station. It’s about seeing all your friends and getting to personally know the D.J.s. WFMU has been doing this for 20 years.

Most radio stations are just about radio. And the whole technology aspect is kind of an afterthought. But WFMU is in there the whole way. It is integrated into everything the station does.

S.S: WFMU is free. No charge to listen? D.J.s select what they want to play?

Mr. Fab: That’s what’s great about the alt streams. No FCC regulations, so we can play any naughty words we want. We don’t have to read the station I.D.s at the top of the hour. So there’s more freedom.

Sheena’s Jungle Room is now the third alt stream with live D.J.s.

S.S: I think that WFMU will soon become the most listened to radio station in the world.

Interview: Mike Rogers

S.S: I heard a show where the D.J. was cooking and playing cool tunes.

Mr. Fab: We have this kind of obsession with food and drink on Sheena’s Jungle Room.

I’m not sure why. Maybe it just all kind of goes with the idea of the good life. One is a guy who is a bartender mixologist who wants to integrate cocktail recipes into his show, and another one another show a D.J. wants to focus on particular regions. So kind of a combination food and music show.

WFMU is a lifestyle.

SS: What do I have to do to listen?

Mr. Fab: All you got to do is go on to wfmu.org/sheena. You can even go on to just WFMU. Org and you’ll see a dropdown menu and the three all channels underneath it. And you can just click on any of the four - boom. There you go.

SS: Wow, that’s simple. Thank you so much.

Mr. Fab: No, my pleasure.

N A T A L I E

(like Rodney freaking Bigneheimer!) choose to play my music all over the world. Never in my wildest dreams did I think this would happen. I’m definitely enjoying the moment!

S W E E T

The past two years have been difficult for everyone. How did it affect your writing and overall wellness?

Yes, they certainly have been! I had a rough time for a while, to be honest. Covid forced me to close my business for over a year and temporarily move out of LA. My world was completely upside down for quite a while. I often found it tough to be creative through the uncertainty and pain. Eventually, though, I reached out to other musicians to see if anyone wanted to write some songs together (I love collaborative writing!). I was amazed at the responses! I ended up meeting, writing, and demoing with a slew of incredible musicians such as Brad Marino, Kurt Baker, Morten Henriksen, Hayley Crusher, Jamie Radu, Geoff Palmer, Patrick Clos, and of course, AA Wallace, to name a few. We did this almost completely over the internet! I made some incredible connections and friendships and got some really cool songs out of it! I also think I grew as a songwriter. It was a truly wonderful experience and helped me feel connected to other musicians.

The bright side is I was able to write and even record a few new tunes, and my business is up and running and thriving. Whew, that was close!

Tell us about your latest and fantastic single Video

Phone.

Video Phone was written and recorded by me and my pal AA Wallace in Toronto during the dark days of winter 2021. We got together one night to riff on some song ideas for a new album, and this tune just sort of fully materialized. I had written the words “video phone” at the top of a piece of notebook paper weeks earlier, thinking it could be a neat idea, and when I showed it to AA, he laughed, and we got right down to work.

I wanted it to feel kind of vintage futuristic, if that makes any sense. A little bit in outer space, you know? AA totally delivered with slick production.

I think people have been connecting to it since we had all been isolated and glued to our phones for companionship during the quarantine days. I guess the world was just ready for a Natalie Sweet glam jam- ha!

Video Phone is making a splash on Indie Radio.

How does it feel to receive recognition after years of hard work?

Honestly, it’s blowing my mind, and I am very grateful. Making music is rewarding in its own right, but it feels really incredible to have DJs I admire

What do you have planned for 2022 and beyond?

I have a few things I’m cooking up for 2022 and beyond (because let’s face it, it now takes 36 years to get a record pressed, so timelines are meaningless)...

A double A-side single “Second Time / Over My Head” that I wrote and recorded with Brad Marino is currently at the pressing plant and will eventually be co-released by Reta Records & Rum Bar Records, “Video Phone” will eventually make its way onto wax for Reta Records. I’m super excited to be included among the stars on Sympathy For

A hit single Video Phone and surviving lockdowns and the pandemic. Natalie Sweet talks with the Second Scene.

Photo: Mat Dunlap

the Record Industry’s double LP tribute to the GoGo’s “If You Wanna Go-Go, Go-Go Now,” which is due out any day now. AA Wallace produced my version of “He’s So Strange” for the tribute and did a kick-ass job! I’m really proud of it and can’t wait to share it. And, of course, I hope to finish writing and recording a second LP. I really can’t wait to see what the future might bring. I hope there is more collaboration and connection and also some live shows!

Percewood’s Onagram Percewood’s Onagram: The main thing is you ain’t alone

By Tom Sobilo A prophet has no honor in his own country.

This biblical saying applies to a certain extent to Percewood’s Onagram’s Wolfgang Michels. A singer, songwriter, guitarist, lyricist, and producer whose band was appreciated abroad, mainly in the USA, U.K., and France, but received little accolades in their native country, West Germany, during their tenure from 1969 until 1975.

Born and raised in Delmenhorst near Bremen in 1951, Wolfgang Michels was raised in a conservative family. He opted to follow the Pied Pipers from Liverpool, the Beatles, in 1964 like many others around the world when they became a worldwide musical phenomenon, thus giving the Swinging Sixties their technicolor musical soundtrack.

Michels learned to play guitar and played cover versions of well-known AngloAmerican hits in various bands until he sought his own musical creative outlet under the moniker One Plus None and started performing solo in 1966 in West

Berlin (first gig: Star Club) while attending a boarding school.

He recorded a demo tape with a Kinksinfluenced song he had written called “Desert Walker” and sent it to BBC London Radio DJ Peter Sahla in 1968.

Duly impressed, Sahla played the song on his radio show, and listeners voted for it, peaking at # 2 after the Rolling Stones’ “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” Alexis Korner, who knew a thing or two about good music, heard the radio show and was impressed (“That was a strange sound – I like it.”) and invited Michels to come to London. So he did and met all kinds of renowned English Rock musicians.

In Germany, Michels officially founded Percewood’s Onagram with the classically trained Klaus Kaufmann on piano, Ludi Ludwig on drums, and Eddy Muschketat on backing vocals/percussion not fitting in with the standard musical lineups of the time.

The band released their debut album in 1969 on their own label called Virgin Records, long before Richard Branson founded his Virgin label, as German record companies deemed their music “uncommercial” and saw no potential in signing them. Quite fitting there was a membrane on the hole, so one had to “deflower” the album to play it.

Alexis Korner wrote the liner notes for this album: “Wolfgang, This is for you; it is also about you.

Like playing a man his own song.

There is little that I can say about your music

because our friendship tends to cloud the issue. In any event, you must say such things yourself. Happily, you have done so with this record, a self-revelation which stands as your first public testament. With this, you have won our first argument. About two years ago Peter Sahla, a good mutual friend with a good ear, asked me to hear some tapes which you had sent to him. That was a strange sound - fiercely nostalgic - and I remember thinking that the lyrics should have been in German. It had the feel of the late ‘20s. It had the feel of Isherwood’s “Goodbye to Berlin.” But what made it strange for me was that it also had a bit of Dylan, a bit of Jagger, a bit of The Band, and a lot of you.

I remembered all this when we first met in Bremen about 18 months ago. Thinking back on that meeting, I now remember the determination with which you brought up your tape deck to my hotel room since I did not have one with me. As it happens, you were right; the songs were worth hearing.

There and then, I got a special feeling for “Sing this song together.” That special feeling remains today. And I remember how earnestly you explained to me why you could not write your songs in German (I’m still not sure about that, though I understand your argument).

So, you have made a good first album in English, and I like it. How do you feel, Wolfgang, about this ‘frozen moment’? You will probably make several more. You will need all your fanaticism to see you through the next few years, for you have just done

All photos courtesy Wolfgang Michels, credit Wolfgang Behnken

the first of those things which cannot be undone. You have made a gramophone record, and I wish you all the luck. Baby, will you need it!

This music is by you; it is also about you.

Like a man playing his own song.”

In true hippie style, the band stated that the basic aim of their album was “not to produce a record, but to give our friends the chance to hear our music, and thereby to increase the number of our friends.

“The album was a notable success and contained a number of excellent songs, e.g., “Sing this song together,” “I’ve got my woman,” and “Freedom.”

Unlike other German bands, they did not try to ape British or American bands, nor did they deny Blues and Westcoast influences such as many Krautrock bands, but Percewood’s Onagram pursued their own musical, mainly acoustic, path merging Psychedelia, Blues, Rock and Folk in their own unique style, showcasing Michels’ lead vocals and excellent guitar playing as well as Kaufmann’s classical piano playing.

The second album, “Lessons for Virgins,” was recorded in a 6 hours recording session in one day and released in 1971. “Mike, Are You Comin’...” refers to the band’s spiritual advisor Mike Percewood and was a 21-minute long freak-out song that proved that the band was going to extreme unknown musical territories if they fancied doing so.

“Tropical Brainforest” from 1972 was an even more ambitious and polished album and well recorded at Hamburg’s Alster Studios and included the outstanding songs “Creature Called Man” and “Who Is The Sailor.” Mystical and sometimes shocking music with an album cover showing a cliché tapestry and a picture of bombed-out Berlin on the back cover.

Adding two American musicians stranded in Germany, lead guitarist Peter Conant Schaffer and Geary Priest on drums, plus Gerald Heinemann on backing vocals and percussion, the band gained momentum, and Michels found the perfect match for his guitar playing in Conant Schaffer. With a killer lineup installed and firing on all cylinders creatively, Michels’ songwriting excelled on their fourth and final album “Ameurope,” and he came up with the best songs written for the band: “I’ve got my woman,” “Leaders” and “Cause me pain” became underground dance floor hits. “Mind is political pollution” suffers from heavy phasing en vogue at the time but is a genius song. “Jew Blues” is Michels all by himself plus a little piano by Klaus Kaufmann. “If you did” shows Michels the Blues Man playing fine Chicago style acoustic guitar and indicated the musical way his solo career would take him.

With engineer Richard Borowski at the helm, “Ameurope” is still an amazing masterpiece 48 years on and a must for any 70s Rock fan. Showing a reversed swastika, an Indian symbol of divinity and spirituality, on the cover caused instant controversy and was re-released with another cover on the Govi label.

Thus, the band was ready to do the next logical step by signing to a major label,

but record companies were still not interested.

Michels soldiered on, but the band was exhausted financially, so they called it a day in 1975. After having enjoyed success abroad (especially in France, where the band toured), the band recorded a bunch of songs in a last effort, including the dreamy/ psychedelic “Waiting for the spring,” where Michels contributed an outstanding guitar solo.

“I sing so many songs to people I don’t know. One thing you can be sure of, it’s not just for the show.

Maybe I depress you as your face has often shown, and music turns you on. I will sing another song to keep you a little company ‘cause I know we’re all alone. And we’re waiting – patiently, yes, we’re waiting for the spring. And we wonder what it will bring.

Yes, I’m waiting for the spring.”

After having gone solo officially in 1975, Michels went to London to perform at the famous Marquee club before he went to the Westcoast to record his solo debut album, “Full Moon California Sunset,” at the Pacific Recording Studios in San Mateo, California, featuring Peter Conant Schaffer on lead guitar, in October 1976. The song was released on Michels’ solo album “New Wave Dropouts,” issued in 1978, which consisted of the best P.O. tracks and some unreleased tracks. Engineered by John Nowland (Neil Young, Merrell Fankhauser, Jewel, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young a.o.), the album was issued in 1977. It became a critical and commercial success that earned him the Grammy award’s German equivalent.

One year later, he recorded another critically acclaimed album, “Crazy Enough,” at the Music Annex Recording Studios, Menlo Park, California, once again with his old P.O. buddy Peter Conant Schaffer, before he pursued a career singing in German.

1984 saw the release of a double album, “1979-1974”, combining the best songs of

Percewood’s Onagram, which became another big seller. All albums have been remastered and released in 2003 with plenty of bonus unreleased/alternative tracks, liner notes, unseen photos and are highly recommended. “Ameurope” is a good entry point.

Thus ends the Percewood’s Onagram saga.

Unfortunately, Wolfgang Michels passed away in 2017, Gerald Heinemann in 2021, but their music will live on. RIP. Further information: http://www. percewoods-onagram.de/

MURDER FOR GIRLS

ROYAL HONEY

PHAT MAN DEE

TODD CHEAT & ROYAL HONEY

Cancer Benefit Show Held for Legendary Music Promoter Mary Jo Coll By: Karla Doolittle Mary Jo Coll, aka Mama Jo, has been booking bands in Pittsburgh since 2004, when she left her career as a paralegal.

She booked performers at two (now closed) well-known establishments in the city; Howlers in Bloomfield and Hambones in Lawrenceville.

Mary Jo, also affectionately known as Mama Jo, has played a pivotal role in giving musicians a chance when most others wouldn’t. She’s cited as a primary figure who has kept the Pittsburgh music scene alive and rockin’! Whether they be local, regional, national or even international, many bands have said that if not for Jo, their music may have never been heard. She single-handily gave many their start.

She is held in such high regard and loved so vastly that local bands The Harlan Twins wrote a song about her in 2012 titled, ‘Mama Jo.’ When she was recently diagnosed with stage four stomach cancer with a prognosis of 1-6 months, the music community jumped at the chance to give back. On December 12th, 2021, a sold-out concert like none other came together at Mr. Smalls Funhouse. Out of the 30 plus bands that wanted to participate, it had to be narrowed down to just ten.

The musicians ranged from county to folk, rockabilly, jazz, and punk, all genres sharing one stage for Pittsburgh’s beloved Mama Jo. The lineup included Shelf Life String Band, Braddock Brothers, Chet Vincent & Molly Alphabet Duo, Dumplings, Fuck Yeah Dinosaurs, Murder for Girls, Royal Honey (with a special guest appearance by Todd Cheat of The Cheats), Phat Mandee, Tommy Amoeba & Liz Berlin, The Shadow Event, and Chip & The Charge Ups. Thanks for everything, Mama Jo. Pittsburgh loves you!

THE SHADOW EVENT

CHIP & THE CHARGE UPS

REVIEW Ever since Elbow first emerged in 2001 with their debut album, “Asleep in the Back,” they have maintained a low-key brilliance that has seduced the senses, with an omnipresent sense of warmth that ebbs and flows in an oceanic depth of emotion.

They are not your typical alternative rock band but a shimmery spectacle of earthy opulence that leaves heavy footprints in the sand-dunes of your soul.

As a band, Elbow is like a stately home, open to the public, sat comfortably around a grandeur of quality, with a few fairy lights scattered about, having a few beers with their mates. They are a band of great magnitude, crossing over an array of genres while taking a pensive prog-rock leap into an otherworldly existence.

With their latest album, “Flying Dream 1”, Elbow levitate from the same lineage of their previous incarnations while laying their hopelessly romantic soul completely bare. An intimate affair, “Flying Dream 1”, is an empirical trip in a cool- jazz club while floating across the ethereal skies amidst the dream-pop bubbles and Farfisa fog.

It’s a sensory delight that sends a personal invite to its private celebration of love, unity, togetherness, and sonic solidarity.

It’s an album that is a great reminder of the comfortable, cozy sensuality of Elbow. The gentle, tender, sentimental, and nostalgic core of Elbow, whose intermix of earthy grit and romantic musings keep the band’s feet firmly on the ground while staring at the stars.

Paradoxically, Elbow makes raw and visionary music without wearing its influences in full view. Instead, Elbow orchestrates a show of magnificent melancholy reflecting on love, loss, political and global events without jumping on their soapboxes. For any nihilism or existentialistic crisis that may sneak in, Elbow is a band that has always greeted them with a therapeutic dose of humor that has been encapsulated in their anecdotal lyrics.

Through the soothing vocals of Garvey, “Flying Dream 1” reaffirms his gift of conveying emotions with a heightened sensitivity that percolates with passion and is governed by love. Garvey’s charisma, sensuality, and authenticity shine throughout the album as a frontman. Like a rugged renaissance man from modern times, Garvey is a master of head over heels romanticism and spiritual awakenings that filter through like a dreamy, warm embrace.

Projecting light from the shadow puppets of their soul, Elbow are a band steeped in sunny optimism, whilst sheltering from the rainclouds above. They are band who are very much in tune with the harsh realities of life and humanity, whilst throwing a warm blanket over the aftermath of destruction.

Along with their intervals of stripped-down acoustics and windswept instrumentals, Elbow are masters of building tension and suspense that simultaneously uplifts and reflects.

An exemplary album, through the witty, poetic and quirky lyrics, Elbow continues to captivate and intrigue. Lyrics such as “Only Falling Gives you Wings” (Six Words),

They are a band who have followed their own path, marched to their own beat, and oozed a savvy sophistication that has been ahead of its time. Extravagant and sedentary in equal measures, Elbow are slow-burners of singed-scraping sentiments, whose showmanship is ignited from the dependable embers of molten rock. Like an epicenter of emotion, it’s through the ballad-esque tracks, wistful lullabies, and elongated suspense that Elbow seep and smolder in the smoke-rooms of symphonic rock.

Elbow has made a meteoric rise to the stellar skies of alternative rock, orbiting around the constellations of neo-jazz, neopsychedelic, dream-pop through their back catalog prog-rock, post-punk, and art-rock while colliding with the baroque rocks of neo-classicism.

To describe Elbow as “post-Brit-pop,” wears a bit thin as their cosmic cloth cuts much deeper and covers a multitude of diaphanous layers. They are a band that delves deep into the DNA pool of classical music, a more polished production, an orchestral alliance of piano ripples and vortex of violins, spinning between time and space.

“Your eyes are diabolical blue” (What Am I Without You), and “Sue Johnstone in corduroy and marigolds” (Calm and Happy) reveal Garvey’s skill at writing songs that are romantically inflamed and earthbound with Northern kitchen sink charm.

“Flying Dream 1” is an album that is a testament to Elbow’s longevity, endurance, and evolution as a band. It’s a musical masterpiece, whose intermix of genres, sonic shimmers, tender lyrics, heavenly harmonies and velvet vocals completely sweeps you off your feet. An album “Flying Dream 1” crystallises Elbow’s high calibre of music, reinforcing them as accessible purveyors of class, quality, and finesse.

ELBOW FLYING DREAM 1

By Indie Cindy

Everyone needs their neighborhood bar, their own real-life “Cheers” hangout. A place where at least someone, if not everyone, knows your name. A place free from hassles where you can have a drink, chill out, listen to great music, be free to meet other music freaks, or just be left alone after a draining day at work. Seeking out a sanctuary bar is imperative for sanity. In Manila, it was the Bowery. In Phnom Penh, it was the Garage or Zepplin Bar. And in evil downtown Los Angeles, 2022, it is the Redwood Bar and Grill. It’s everything you could ask for in a rock and roll bar. My friend Emil bought a switchblade from some guy while dining outside the Redwood one morning. How the hell can a civilized person not appreciate that?

I was rolling pretty hard one night and stopped by the Redwood to see my friend Eddie Lopez perform with Electric Children. Local writer Jeff Cooper and I settled into sharing some food (trust the huge order of nachos that could feed a small army), and someone got me a glass of “redneck red” wine. Low and behold, Bill Bateman, drummer for Electric Children, walks in. Bateman is around a lot and is a LA legend (formerly Cramps, Blasters), but I haven’t had much opportunity to see him play in the last two years with the pandemic devouring the music scene. He is low-key and blends into the Redwood until he takes the drum throne; all ears shift to the stage. With his command of the drums and respect from everyone around him, Bateman is the rare combination of coolness, talent, and humility.

Eddie has a hand in running the Redwood; this might be the magic ingredient to the fine balance of one of my favorite music establishments, as well as his band. He admits that working at the Redwood inspired him to move Electric Children forward organically.

The Redwood closed during the early months of the pandemic, and Eddie cranked out over 150 songs, then focused on the best ones to record. Bateman has worked with Eddie for some time with various musicians, but no one stayed for long. The pieces fell into place through the other musicians that had passed through the Redwood: Guitarist Michelle Balderrama of Death Machine (Nick Oliveri, formerly Queens of the Stoneage) joined the band, with Oliveri also playing and singing on some Electric Children recordings. Gitane Demone (Christian Death) makes a guest vocal appearance with her daughter, as does Poppy Jean Crawford and Jesika von Rabbit, supporting the lovely lead vocals of Chanell O’Farrill. Some of the music was recorded at Robot Kitten Studios with local legend Paul Roessler; other tracks were laid down at Big Bad Sound and Haven Recording. And these are only a few of the cast members of the all-star lineup: ZouZou Mansour of Soraia, John Carlucci of the Fuzztones, and Melanie Vammen from the Pandoras sent in tracks recorded remotely. This smörgåsbord of talent is too extensive to list. All of these great people are connected to the Redwood in some way, making it a go-to place when they want to perform or have a drink and see a great show.

BILL BATEMAN - ELECTRIC CHILDREN

THE STREETZ

Eddie is inspired by the usual suspects in LA that came out of clubs like the Masque: Red Kross, Germs, the normal Southern California rock and roll in that era. But Eddie has an open mind. At the Redwood, I have seen Americana, punk, post-punk, dark synth, and metal. I saw KristinaX, one of my favorite songwriters, reminiscent of Chromatics meets Wax Trax with songs like Addicted and Electric Slaves. Why she isn’t signed and creating cyberpunk or sciencefiction film soundtracks? Bite MarX is another great electronic and punk-inspired band I have seen at Redwood, along with Pat Todd and the Rank Outsiders, Otniel Y Los Condors, Juvenille Wrecks, Double E, and Bad Business, TruckerBomb, and the Streetz.

So when you are visiting LA and need a great rock and roll bar to visit to soak up LA sounds, or need a sanctuary from the madness of life, hit the Redwood for a night of slamming music and great food.

And if you are as lucky as my friend Emil, you might be able to buy a switchblade souvenir and become the envy of all your friends and foes.

Rock and Roll Sanctuary in Downtown Los Angeles Words and Pictures by Dug Moore

THE CORNER TABLE BRAZEN HUSSIES The session IPA. It’s an odd description but accurate. Call it what you will… lawnmower beer, shower beer, light IPA. Whatever the situation, it’s a beer meant to be drunk in succesSESSION for any occasion where the idea is to have a couple while maintaining your composure. With the Spring season vast approaching, I figured it was a good opportunity to talk about some readily available, low ABV IPA’s that are perfect for those exact moments. First up is Founders All Day IPA. As advertised, it’s a very low ABV IPA with a splash of citrus hop character that is meant to be enjoyed “all day.” Next up is Fat Head’s Sunshine Daydream. It’s a drinkable obsession with notes of citrus and peach while maintaining a low ABV for enjoying multiple cans on multiple passes through the yard on the lawn tractor. Any time you see the words “session IPA,” be sure to choose a beer that will get you through the day. Cheers!

Currently drinking Founders All Day IPA, Fat Heads Sunshine Daydream, Dancing Gnome Lustra.

Dave Pursh

The reissue of the Brazen Hussies back catalog has finally been compiled onto one disc. Second Scene talks with Jezus Factory founder Andrew Bennett about this collection.

How did you get involved with this reissue?

I formed Jezus Factory Records about 17 years ago now. Even before I started the label, I’d always wanted to get the history of this group properly represented as not much was properly released and even what was is scattered about on EP’s and compilation appearances. Covid happened and finally gave me enough headspace to think about it and delve down into it. To be honest, it was a bit of a nightmare as some people were unable or unwilling to speak; or their memories were completely shattered… The more difficult it became, the further down the rabbit hole I went, eventually tracking down producers, live sound engineers, defunct labels, photographers, etc. Sadly their manager Lawrence Graham-Leigh passed away a few years ago, so there is a lot of information that is simply lost in the sands of time.

Having said that, all the band members were very gracious and generous to me with uncovering things; Russell Curtis, the drummer found the excellent promo picture that adorns the front cover; the stains and tears completely suited the aesthetic of the band, Lou Psyche found a whole load of archive recordings; the real diamond being an excellent cover of Jonathan Richman’s ‘I’m Straight’; Dave Queen takes great liberty with the lyrics. Dave is living back in his native Canada and is a very private guy, but he was always happy to help, especially when it comes to providing chords in literal seconds for the additional project of covers of semi-famous musicians that I’m instigating. Lunch was extremely helpful with pulling it together in terms of actually being able to remember stuff and writing some great anecdotes.

It’s no underestimation in my mind that the lack of success of this band when it was active is a travesty comparable to Nick Drake’s career not being reappraised. The music never left my mind, and presenting it nearly 20 years after they stopped has given me immense satisfaction. Dave Queen is certainly one of the finest song and lyric writers of his or any other generation.

Brazen Hussies had quite a reputation. Tell us about the group.

Yes, I have to be a bit careful what I say to protect people’s privacy, but here goes. The band was based in London and led by Dave Queen and Lou Psyche, who both played guitar and shared vocals and songwriting duties. They were also at one point a couple, and it’s pretty fair to say that a dysfunctional love story ran through this band. Lunch was the bassist, and Russell Curtis played drums. The band existed on and off between 1996 and finally spluttered to a complete halt in 2004. Brazen Hussies were a very dangerous band sonically and live. Dave told me, ‘think Domino type music with Drag City type singing – or vice versa. Stylistically it’s pretty diverse; I think I’m too close to the coal face to describe it, but the reviews have referenced Richard Hell, Minutemen, Suede, Leonard Cohen, Television, Pixies, Sham 69, Fugazi, New York Dolls, Stooges, Billy Joel, The Fall, X, Elastica, Kiss, and Blondie.

The first commercially released track was ‘Touch It,’ which appeared in 1997 on Snakebite City Six, but in 1998 the three-track ‘Living In Fear Of Reprisals’ was released and caused quite the stir but polarised the mainstream press.

NME made is Single Of The Week, while Melody Maker made them Wankers Of The Week, while Pete Steele of Type O Negative guest reviewing at Kerrang! thought it was brilliant if they intended it to sound like that. With all the attention, increasingly chaotic performances involving onstage violence eventually led to a lifetime ban of Mean Fiddler venues. Eventually, Lou left the band, leaving Dave to record the masterful Todd Rundgren on crack genius of an EP called ‘Ya Ba’ with one time Paul Di’anno collaborator Wan Hewitt engineering.

Without Lou, if not creatively, practically the band were in freefall with Lunch steadying the ship and keeping the band performing occasional shows. The final kiss-off was the 26-minute soul meets guitar freak out of ‘Bridesville,’ of which the 19 minute ‘sell out’ version has finally been immortalized to vinyl.

Tom Alford

S

lipstream is an Indie rock band from Northampton, formed in 1994 from the remnants of Spiritualized, creating an eclectic sound of electro-guitar-infused music. Until 2004, Slipstream was a four/five-piece but, since 2004, comprises former Spacemen 3/Spiritualized members Mark Refoy on vocals and guitars/synths, and Jonny Mattock on drums. Slipstream has continued with their musical journey as a two-piece while being renewed and reborn in the process. They are ever-evolving musical masters who open up the doors of Indiepop alternative rock and intermix it with a stream of alternative dance. They are a band that floats between the realms of dream-pop and shoegaze while traveling beyond the aesthetics of pastel palettes, translucent tangles, and shimmery synths.

They are a band that shines from their celestial constellation, dazzling from their kaleidoscopic kingdom, but with their feet placed firmly on terra firma.

With such an impressive back catalog of music, their latest album, Liberty, maintains the high caliber of sounds that freestyles the senses and emancipates the soul. Produced, mixed, and mastered by Pete Gleadall, Liberty is an album highly recommended and has been selected as my “Album of The Month.” A sublime album, Liberty is an intersection of angular riffs that glide obliquely aside the sonic shudders and perpendicular pulses. It’s an album that time travels through the seasons of spacerock and orbits in a universe of hypnagogic haze and electro elation. It’s an album that liberates your spirit on the tribal dancefloor while creating enough spacey interludes to encourage autonomy and deep reflection.

As an album, Liberty is a musical mosaic

that welds all the poignant pieces of post-punk and fuses them together, sculptured with raw materials, to create a spectacular work of art. Listening to Liberty feels like a sunrise of a new dawn that is soporifically sensuous, ubiquitously uplifting, and beaming with a newfound optimism that regenerates from its harmonious haven.

A superb album, Liberty is perfectly polished, flying free with an uber-cool composure that doesn’t ruffle its peaceloving feathers. Through the pristine vocals of Refoy, Liberty alternates between a breezy cool of daydream dissipation and deadpan delivery that conveys a depth of emotions in one take. As a frontman, Refoy writes from the heart and sings with a sentimental sensibility that taps into its pensive psyche and reaches out to its cosmic collective. Along with the wizardly wonder of Mattock, Liberty is an album that turbo drives, backtracks and propels Slipstream forward as artists.

With its opening track Hold On Tight, the album fastens its seatbelts and gets you set for the reverie ride of dream-pop while sliding down the rabbit holes of neopsychedelia. It’s a jolt of delirious drones, tambourine taps, jangly riffs, throbbing bass, and spiked strums that ascend from the ashes of shoegaze, intermixed with a wondrous wave of dark-synth-pop. Along with the piano-esque flutters, industrial shudders, and shore-synths, Hold On Tight creates an eclectic transcendence of alternative rock while resurrecting the abstract ambiance of ethereal pop.

Again with The Big Idea, Slipstream revisits the heavenly harmonies and bendy reverberation of dream-pop while indulging in an injection of feel-good endorphins. It’s a captivating track whose singalong chorus and oscillating riffs swing with solidarity, providing a euphoric sense of spiritual awakening. Along with the fractured fuzz, electro- elongation, and underlay of brooding basslines, The Big Idea spins and rotates in a vortex of neo-psychedelia.

Girl From The Black Country resides in the melancholic chambers of alt-rock and jangly-pop. It’s a heart-warming track whose tender lyrics resonate and linger aside the curving riffs and pulsating beats.

Along with the stellar synths, Girl From The Black Country is air-lifted towards an ethereal horizon while evoking a sense of haunting beauty.

Covering Daniel Johnston’s True Love Will

Find You In The End, Slipstream leaps into a neo-Motown-esque melting pot of stomping beats, jangly staccato, bouncy bass, Farfisa wiggles, and trumpet smudges. Along with the harmonious vocals and zig-zag riffs, True Love Will Find You, In The End, is a 60s trip down memory lane while caught in the headlights of Indie-pop.

Bradlaugh Fields Forever takes you into a lucid labyrinth of speckled strums, nomadic bass, and flicker synths that saunter across a synth-pop soundscape. Along with the stepping-stone synths and deadpan vocals, Bradlaugh Fields Forever wanders down a melancholic maze of dream-pop and neopsychedelia. It’s a hypnotic track whose jagged synths and sonic spears pierce into the heart of experimental rock, reminiscent of the early 90s while spinning in a perplexity of power-pop.

Cascade is an other-worldly wave of shoegaze showers that swirls and sonic steps in a dream-pop downpour of euphoric synths and curving riffs. It’s a captivating track that surrenders the senses and spins in a whirlpool of wonder.

Some Dreams judders, shudders, and pulsates at a formidable force. It’s an adrenaline-infused release that thuds, crashes, and burns with a heavy heart across a flatlined track. It’s an uncompromising catharsis whose menacing drones, sonic-screeches and jagged riffs prowl in the murky marshes of melodic rock.

You Knew All Along- plods and collides in a duality of synth-pop and janglyrock. Through the meditative lyrics and harmonious vocals, You Knew All Along evokes a sense of wistful nostalgia, that drifts into the realms of indie-pop. It’s a melodic breeze of pensive poetry that delves deep into its sentimental soul.

Love Is The Only Way is a tribal gathering of industrial clatter and a bobbing bassline that drags its feet into the drum circles of ambient pop. It’s a soul sanctuary that filters, streams, and rises like an ethereal entity while levitating above the dream-pop clouds. Through the mantra of lyrics, Love Is The Only Way unifies with a cosmic love that uplifts, shines, and nourishes the soul.

Teardrops dances in a wave of whirls, throbbing synths, and space tremors. It’s a vocal-free track whose roaming riffs drift towards an alt-blues horizon while tripping on the psychedelic pathway. It’s a hypnotic track that invigorates the senses and goes beyond the shades of synth-pop while revisiting the dream-trance scene of yesteryear.

Indie Cindy

SLIPSTREAM - LIBERTY

Shock Therapy – Back From Hell (I am surprised Records / Distribution by Soul Food + Believe) Available on CD, Vinyl, MP3 The Detroit cult band Shock Therapy has lain dormant since 2008 and the unexpected death of Gregory John McCormick, aka Itchy, at the age of 44. Founded in 1983 by Iggy Pop fan Itchy and Eric Keith Jackson, Shock Therapy took no prisoners musically. Their debut album was released in 1985 on Fundamental Records, and they became popular with the electronic music scene crowd. They garnered a cult following, especially in Europe/West Germany, where they were welcomed with open arms. Hailing from Detroit, they were no lame Electro outfit but knew how to kick butt big time with their high energy Motor City Electropunk / Electric Body Music à la Front 242 respectively moody New Wave and scored a big underground dance hit with “Hate is a 4-letter word” which is still a dancefloor staple in any Indie Disco. In their existence, they released 14 albums since 1985, with Itchy being the only constant member.

Recorded between 1996 and 2008 in Detroit, Berlin, and Stuttgart, the album features Itchy on lead vocals, synthesizers, programming, guitar, bass, and ethnic drums, plus Onyx Lustro on assorted additional instruments. Thanks to Itchy’s wife I am surprised Records CEO and longtime friend Peter Ehrenfeld had access to a vast archive full of unreleased studio and live material recorded prior to his death assembling this fine compilation in honor of one of America’s great sons.

Back from hell Includes the singles “I hate people,” “Can you feel my purity?”, “The beginning and the end” and “God, sex” and are highly recommended to all friends of 80s indie dance / electronic music.

Perfect listening music while riding the subway.

Thanks & all the best to Maren @ Music Matters

Tom Sobilo

https://www.iamsurprised.com

MYRRS next album, “The Creation Of Atanami,” available Spring 2022 for streaming on all major platforms

DAVE FRANKLIN - DANCING ABOUT ARCHITCETURE REVIEWS Half In, Half Out – The Kundalini Genie Five albums in? Where has The Kundalini Genie been all my life? I mean, any band that manages to wrap such an acid-tripping, psychedelic haze around those raw and raucous guitars, that can blend a heavy shoegaze vibe with dreamy alt-rock sound, that can provide the perfect sonic collision point between orient and occident, then and now, what was and what if… well, they should be adorning my walls in the form of gig posters and framed album covers. They are not. I checked.

Then again, I shouldn’t be too hard on myself; there is so much music to be listened to and so little time to do so, but I have them on my radar now, and that is all that matters.

Half In, Half Out, from the forthcoming album of the same name, is a song about those people who are so sure of themselves that they set themselves up for a fall from grace, and when they do so, the word “karma” is heard on everyone’s lips. Or put another way, arseholes. It’s a song about arseholes.

It’s the sound of revenge being a dish served warm and fuzzy and freaked out, droney and druggy, hazy and happy. It’s the sound of the ’60s happening in the ’90s and then being relocated to the here and now, if that makes any sense.

Swamp Street Soul – Inca Babies Right from the opening salvo and title track, it is obvious that listening to this new album from Inca Babies will be a wonderful and unique experience. The slow, sultry swagger, the attitude that drips from each bluesy twang, each sonic shard, and guitar cascade, each melancholic trumpet blast, each spacious beat. It is dark, demonic, and delicious, and this is just the first track of many. To be honest, Inca Babies could have stopped there, and I would still feel that value for money had been achieved. Thankfully they don’t.

And suppose the familiar sounds of the singles, the scuzzy and raw-edged Crawling Garage Gasoline and the Lou Reed-esque Walk In The Park are here to help ease us in. In that case, they also underline the fact that this is an album of pure killer, no filler. as I believe the kids say, the band could have picked any song at random and sent it out with equally rewarding results.

Bigger Than All of Us is a thumping, incendiary blues maelstrom of the kind rarely seen since The Jim Jones Revue delivered their last hurrah. Windshield Gnat is slow, sensual, strange, and all great qualities in a song. Dear English Journalists struts along with the utmost confidence and contempt for its subject, and Swamp Soul Dub reimagines the opener by taking a dive into deep, dark, dub sonic waters.

The line-up may have changed over the years. If the singles hinted at a great album to come, even they didn’t suggest just how brilliant it was going to be. However, Harry Stafford still knows how to captain his unique musical ship, one that he steers deftly through all manner of bluesy blends, punk panache, gothic grooves and a few other genres that don’t have an obvious alliterative handle. https://incababies1.bandcamp.com/album/swamp-street-soul

Falun Gong Dancer - Telefis Falun Gong Dancer is one of those songs built of the rarest of commodities to be found in the rock and pop world. Restraint. All too often are artists in a rush to hit the listener with the latest clever hook or sassy piece of songwriting. Sadly, even more often, they seem in a rush to deliver something average and below par but which sees the conformist music scene snaffle it up due to its newness and perceived faddishness or fashion.

Well, nothing is further from the truth here. The delivery of the latest song from Telefís, which sees the coming together of Cathal Coughlan and Jacknife Lee, is spacious, episodal, and languidly drawn out. It seems almost like a series of false endings, so final do the pauses between the vocal washes seem. And that is what makes it work so well. Not only does it cause the listener to lean into the music, listening closely and anticipating perhaps a dynamic lift that never comes, but it makes you aware of the beauty of musical nothingness, or near-nothingness at least, as apart from the occasional piano note, the song is built only on these sparse and spaced vocal deliveries.

And yet it is still one of the most beguiling tracks you will have heard in a long time. Rather than sign off with a flourish or a big finish, the song just fades away, the vocals seeming to just forget to come back rather than wrapping things up in a logical fashion. And the real high spot? The end.

It’s amazing how gorgeous and effective near-nothing can be, at least when in the hands of two real masters of the songwriting trade.

Homesick For Our Future Destinations – It’s Karma It’s Cool

Drone Etiquette – The Persian Leaps

Always behind the curve me. But then, if my review pile of CDs gets any bigger, I might use them to build an extension on the house!

Still, I got here in the end, and, as expected, the new one from It’s Karma It’s Cool is a belter. It’s an album built on many contrasting sonic threads, from ambient understatements to shimmering power-pop, rock urges to ornate indie. They all come together in a wonderful collision: the It’s Karma It’s Cool sound.

After the gentle soundscaping of opener, Homesick, All Branches Break in Time kicks things up, a slow-burning build that results in a hazy and harmonious chorus, some slinky guitar moves, and Absent Transient blends coiling yet concise riffs with more drifting backgrounds. This juxtaposition is part of what makes their music so great.

Big Dream, Little Giant is a driving, grooving pop-rock piece, all swing and swagger, infectious, boogiesome beat, and cool sixstring licks. The recent single She Slept With The Radio On is gentle and reflective, and the album signs off as it started, with Future Destinations, a track forged of gorgeously ambient, cinematic moves which, this time, resolve in triumphant, sky-searing, lifeaffirming, fist-pumping crescendoes.

It’s Karma It’s Cool in general, and Homesick For Our Future Destinations, in particular, is a triumph of originality over fad and fashion. If proof were needed, proof that the problem with following zeitgeists and pandering to what the audience thinks they want is a creative cul-de-sac at best. It is by taking, often, those same musical building blocks and rearranging them into new interesting sonic architecture that long-lasting and rewarding music is made.

After all, you can’t go out of fashion if you were never in fashion, and I mean that in the kindest and most supportive sense of the words.

Also, if She Slept With The Radio On isn’t the most chart-worthy song never to grace the charts, then I don’t know what is.

Some music, the derivative stuff, is nothing more than a signal to the listener that they have the same favorite band as you.

But enough about Interpol and their alter-egos Editors. Listen to them, and you might as well go back and listen to those old Joy Divison records? Cut out the middlemen, eh? Other music, the best music, is like a book of short sonic stories. It tells us a lot about the artist behind them and their path through musical life. And this music is at its best when those sonic stories have been ripped into pieces, reassembled in new ways, glued back together, and then expanded on, edited, and added to.

And that is what is going on with Drone Etiquette. If you were a sonic archaeologist or an acoustic forensic expert, you would be able to piece those stories back together. The rest of us get to bask in these fresh yet familiar sounds. New songs shot through with glimpses of old musical friends from our past comfort zones. And that is how it should be. That is how music moves on. It’s all about evolution rather than revolution.

Drone Etiquette is an album whose arrival got ever-more tempting with every advanced teaser, tester, and taster, and to say that it is worth the wait is the understatement of the year. It is chock full of robust pop, college rock otherness, alternative cool, underground, future classics (trust me, I have a crystal ball) 80’s British indie label goodness, power-pop shimmer, and more melody than you can shake a stick at—all woven together into a gorgeous set of songs.

When Word Get’s Out is the perfect blend of raw-edged pop and swaggering yet deftly delivered rock, it plays with dynamic in that classic loud/quiet, on/off, staccato way that American bands seemed to do so much better than everyone else and Sweeps is both poised and punchy, reminding me of that hugely underrated band Diesel Park West, an obscure reference perhaps but about as good as it gets in my book.

The Company She Keeps is a spiraling, clean-limbed, spacious and stunning slice of charm, and chime and Keep Smiling is a song that early REM might have written, although, with a lyrical clarity, not to mention diction, they could only have prayed for.

It may only be a 6-track album (we can argue about just where an EP ends and a mini-album starts in the bar later), but Drew Forsberg, the creative hub of the ever-fluid Leaps line-up, has covered more musical ground, written more single-worthy songs (6 to be precise) than most indie bands and alternative crews usually manage in three full-length albums. Those more obvious bands might be sporting the right brand of t-shirt, the celebrity-endorsed sneakers, the complicated hair cuts, and be up with the latest tastes in skinny jeans, but Drew has the songs, and that is all that ever matters in this game. That is all that has ever mattered. https://thepersianleaps.bandcamp.com/album/droneetiquette