WIDE-EYED NO.6

J GZAK The Dandy WarholsK Scars on BroadwayK Alex GreyKMursL

Sep ‘08 No. 6

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myspace.com/wideeyednation

Volume 01/Number 06

On Stands:

7 on the cover: G’dub.

3 Color Serigraph on Paper 18” X 24”

Benjamin Hunter Editor-in-Chief

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13

Essay

My Seventy Cents Worth

Art

Alex Grey

Essay

Election Day Changes

Sep 1st - Oct 1st

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Interview

12

Interview

Adriano Cintra of CSS

Courtney Taylor-Taylor of The Dandy Warhols

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Interview

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Interview

Murs

David Dodde

Creative Director

Shaun Saylor Publisher

Assistant Music Editor: Juliet Bennett-Rylah Contributors: William Case • Brian Hoekstra • Benjamin Klebba

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Essay

The Commodification of Expression

Scars on Broadway

Eric Mitts • Emilee Petersmark • Mike Saunders • Nick Stephenson Damien Thompson • Mike Tuinstra • Andrew Watson

Essays: Corey Anton • Wes Eaton • Nikos Monoyios • Valerie V. Peterson Copy Editors: Wes Eaton • Jennifer Elmer • Scott Pierzchala Contributing Art Director: Andy Cruz Contributing Artists: Jevon Dismuke Photography: Dan Boujoulian • David Dodde • Damien Thompson Website: Sara Lockwood • Shawn Melton

Advertising Sales:

ads@wideeyednation.com

Headquarters:

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Interview

GZA

Interview

Tamir Muskat of Balkan Beat Box

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Interview

Clark Vogeler of Toadies

Interview

Real Big Fish

Wide-Eyed LLC 1158 26th Street Suite #724 Santa Monica, CA 90403

Comments:

feedback@wideeyednation.com

General Offices: Wide-Eyed, 1158 26th Street Suite #724 Santa Monica, CA 90403. Wide-Eyed assumes no responsibility to return unsolicited editorial or graphic or other material. All rights in letters and unsolicited editorial and graphic material will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication and copyright purposes and material will be subject to WideEyed’s unrestricted right to edit and to comment editorially. Wide-Eyed, date of production January 2008. Custodian of records is Shaun Saylor.

All records required by law to be maintained by publisher are located at 11740 Wilshire Blvd. Building A2203 Los Angeles, CA 90025. Contents copyright ©2008 by Wide-Eyed Publishing LLC. All right reserved. WideEyed, the “Eyecon” and the Torn Edge masthead are marks of Wide-Eyed, registered U.S. Trademark office. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any electronic, mechanical, photocopying or recording means or otherwise without prior written permission of the publisher.

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Local Interest

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Department

Store Front

Music Review

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Department

Flavor Savior H 2Oh!

Letters

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FROM THE EDITOR: In 1972 Andy Warhol created a piece of art illustrating the frustration of the era . The Vietnam war was raging into its second decade and thousands of America boys had been taken from their homes to a vacation in hell; many retuning in body bags. In March of 1972 the cover story of Time Magazine read “Is America Going Broke?” It was the worst of times economically and psychologically. The richest country on earth couldn’t take care of its people. The misappropriation of taxes toward the losing fight in Vietnam, and the fracturing of the middle class created an environment of uncertainty. Warhol’s “ Vote McGovern” piece illustrated his contempt for the goblin president.

Early in the primary season my partners and I had discussed how we at Wide-Eyed could do our part to make an impact on this year’s election.

When we launched the magazine back in April we contacted Shepard Fairey over at Obey Giant and asked him for permission to run the “Obama Progress” poster that has appeared on the back of Wide-Eyed each month. Music, art, and progress are the pillars of the relationship between David Dodde, Shaun Saylor and myself as partners. At the time it was uncertain as to whom would be the Democratic candidate, but we were and still are convinced that Obama is our nation’s best chance for a paradigm shift toward progress. So this month David suggested that we make our own contribution to the political landscape.

In last month’s issue David created a serigraph of McCain; the tired, boring, palsied old man. So white his complexion bore a pink hue. Under McCain’s profile the phrase “ Vote Obama” reflected David’s homage to Warhol’s 1972 “ Vote McGovern” piece.

We contemplated running it on this month’s cover as a follow up to the Democratic National Convention, however, when circulating 20,000 copies of that tired boring face, we didn’t want the message to get lost in translation. Quite frankly, McCain deserves no airplay, his lyrics are boring and his beat isn’t correct. Instead we decided to expand the endorsement to good old yellow belly G’dub. That vile little monkey boy needed one more spoof.

Yes, we realize every artist from A-Z has toyed with the portrait of the Idiot-in- Chief, but we wanted to make his endorsement of Obama official.

It’s a colorful goodbye to eight years of insanity and a certain hello to the era of the perpetual dance party. We at Wide-Eyed are sick of being pissed off about G’dub, team pseudo-Jesus, and the mind police. They are fear mongering, intolerant and ignorant toward the environment and science.

They’ve raped and pillaged civil liberties — it’s exhausting. Let’s just say BORING. What’s the best thing you can do when you get bored? Change up the playlist and have a dance party. In November the boring old playlist will expire and if we remember to come together for the dance party, we might be on to something.

So now that I have clarified our intentions for this months cover, I’d like to get you all to actively participate. Next time you are in your car with your pals, park it arbitrarily in a public location, smack the back cover of this magazine on the hood and open the doors, turn up the tunes and dance for Obama and dance for freedom from boredom. Send us videos of your dance party (feedback@wideeyednation.com) and we’ll throw them up on the website. Obama is going to make that change, and we can have a killer boogie time getting him there.

All the Best,

Editor in Chief,

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My Seventy Cents Worth

By Valerie V. Peterson Why do women make only 70 cents for every dollar a man makes? And why has the proportion of women’s pay to men’s pay changed so little in the last few years? Feminists and others have been concerned with the fact that women, as a group, are not paid the same as men for the same quality and amount of work, and that women are not, as a group, being promoted as often as men, even when their resumes show similar qualifications. Why is this? Can women, as a class, ever achieve equal pay for equal work? If we take into consideration the current political system in the U.S., and our desire to have well cared-for kids, we’d have to say “No.” Discrimination is a complex practice inspired by a variety of motives, not all of them bad (we discriminate against milk that is past its expiration date and against convicted child predators who apply to work at day-care centers). But discrimination can also be unfair. Instead of trying to explain the complexities of discrimination, I’ll go straight to the ways people try to fight what they see as unfair discrimination, and specifically unfair discrimination in the workplace.

In an attempt to overcome unfair workplace discrimination, “minority” groups must usually tackle a stereotype. Most often, they take one of two approaches: either the group will try to argue against the stereotype of their group (if they feel the stereotype is wrong), or the group will try to shift the definition of what is desirable in the culture (if the stereotype is correct and offers a better model of how people should be).

Most minority groups have pursued the first option. They may form “separate but equal” social realms less subject to the social forces of the majority and there they may transcend their group’s stereotype. Or, one or more individuals may “make progress” for “their people” by becoming “successful” within the majority culture. By these means, racial and ethnic minorities have sometimes gained the attention and acceptance of the majority (we call this “assimilation”). Over time, instances of contradictions between stereotype and reality pile up, and a group’s stereotype may be undermined. But this approach to discrimination does little to shift existing virtues or redefine what counts as “reason” or “leadership” or “success.” These minorities adapt to the dominant culture, but do little or nothing to change it.

The option described above works better for groups fighting against racial and ethnic discrimination than it does against sexism. This is because social realms are not as easily limited to one sex as they are to one race. The “separate but equal” approach to discrimination would require a separation of women and men into women’s and men’s cultures. This would mean single-sex families (mothers and daughters only, fathers and sons

only), as well as separate all-male and all-female communities.

And while individual women might be able to make individual “progress” for themselves within the majority culture, these individual “successes” do not eradicate the real and different biological potentialities of men’s and women’s bodies.

Even though not all women reproduce, women are that class of humans that can get pregnant, carry a child, and nurse a child. This is not a stereotype; it’s a significant physiological difference. It leads to (but does not mandate) certain other social roles, specifically “primary caregiver.”

Because the U.S. government does not contribute substantially to child care, and because we might not trust it to provide good child care even if it did, we, as citizens, have a choice. We can lean on mothers or parents to raise children, or we can increasingly leave childrearing to the State. If we stick to leaning on mothers or parents to raise children, we can demand equal pay for equal work for women if we are willing to accept, in theory and in practice, the logical extensions of these demands: equal child-care responsibilities for men and women, and equal breadwinning responsibilities for parents. Let’s be honest here.

I’ve heard many a man say he’d love it if his woman made more money than he did, but I haven’t seen the reality of this play out so well in relationships. The breadwinner role actually may help balance out women’s larger physiological contribution to childrearing, and without it men some men may feel left out and less needed. I’ve also seen men say they’ll participate equally in child-care, yet their partners who work as much and make as much as they do often are still left with the lion’s share of duties, particularly the uglier and less enjoyable ones. This doesn’t mean change is impossible, but we should be honest about what this change would require.

We also can demand equal pay for equal work for women if we are willing to accept the likely consequences: a situation in which parenting will look comparatively less attractive than work outside the home for those with good jobs and good pay, a decrease in men’s salaries in proportion to the increase in women’s salaries (why pay a man to support an entire family when you can expect both parents – together – to make enough money to do so?), an increase in the number of families where one single parent or both married or divorced parents work (beyond what already exists), and a corresponding decrease in the amount of focus, time, and energy spent on parenting. These consequences can already be seen all around us, to some degree. Would we want them to go further?

Or, we can suggest that women should financially “take one for the team.” We can recognize that women in the U.S. are the ones who take leave for pregnancy and the ones who are largely (and often also legally) responsible for child-care, even if not all women have children or take care of them.

So what, exactly, does it mean for a woman to “take one for the team”?

2 It means she would accept 70 cents of pay to a man’s dollar, not because she thinks her work is unworthy of the full dollar, but because she’s a member of the group of people most implicated in child-rearing (luck of the draw – and you got “female!,” but then there are some advantages, like being able to bring a new life into the world, and multiple orgasms, and free drinks at bars from sleazy men).

2 It means she’s investing in child-rearing in a country that does not seriously invest in child-rearing – with a government that could do no better, at present, than a mother could.

2 It means she would support spending on quality child-care and quality public education even if she doesn’t have a child and never plans to have one - because it would make life better for both women and men.

2 If she is single, it means living a frugal life so that she needn’t resort to a man for financial survival or to baby-making as a trade (her security for his ego/immortality). If she also hopes to have children and work outside the home, financial

independence enables the choosing of partners with good potential for sharing childrearing duties.

2 If she is married, a primary caregiver, and not working outside the home it means appreciating the sacrifice of working women who are underpaid compared to men, and how that underpayment contributes to child-rearing (both her own and others).

2 If she is a primary caregiver and employed, it means recognizing that her role as a mother probably takes a toll on her performance as a worker or professional, and that she should not try to paper over that fact. It means acknowledging that women who are primary caregivers are often compromised by their roles and duties as mothers and are not as able to excel in their jobs or careers as their colleagues. It means recognizing that things like morning sickness, breastfeeding, picking up kids on snow days, taking care of sick children, being sure there are meals for children to eat and clean clothes to wear, etc., often mitigate against the kind of excellence at work or in a career that gets a person big pay raises and promotions.

2 It means being careful when assessing comparative gender statistics (e.g., why aren’t there as many female District Managers as there are male District Managers? Why are there more male tenured professors at this school than female tenured professors?) so as to distinguish between real instances of sexism and other legitimate factors of discrimination. This seems especially appropriate if she enjoys additional income from a male partner and so does not suffer as much from her 30 cent deflation as a single working mother.

2 And finally, if she’s good at her work, and if she’s dedicated to her work, and if it can be made clear she’s a no-kidder for life, then maybe she should be paid a “full dollar” for her work and be considered for promotions and recognition, not in an effort to bring about “equity” with men, but because the quality of her work commands it.

Ok, that last one was just a suggestion – even she can probably do fine on 70 cents.

OR… is this argument all wrong? Is it the result of years of being brainwashed into believing that social transformation and visionary leadership are impossible and that weak domestic policymaking will always be the norm? Let’s see: 2 At the end of the first paragraph, did I all too easily assume that “the current political system in the U.S. will remain unchanged”?

2 In the fifth paragraph, did I too easily accept that there is no other way to fight sexism and assert the value of what women bring to the human “table” except to have women break off into separate cultures?

2 In the sixth paragraph, did I too easily turn female biology into maternal and parental and primary caregiver destiny?

2 In the seventh paragraph, did I too easily assume that there would be no way to create high-quality government supported child-care?

2 In the ninth paragraph, was I too eager to make women pay the “cost” of childcare without considering how we might all better share in this responsibility.

Maybe the argument is flawed. But the argument won’t change unless the system and the culture changes, and some of those systemic and cultural changes must be inspired and instigated by leaders. Consider the positions of presidential candidates, corporate CEOs, businesses, employers, public opinion leaders, regional officials, and local officials take on the issues discussed here – child care funding, universal health care, domestic spending vs. the war machine, etc., and support those people whose vision of the future is most in line with your own?

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Wide-Eyed: You played in a number of other bands around Sao Paulo before starting up CSS, what’s the music scene like down there?

Adriano Cintra: The interesting music scene in Sao Paulo is the independent one. The major one is terrible; it’s all bands copying what’s successful abroad but singing in Portuguese. The independent scene lacks of money and structure.

WE: Having had the chance to tour all over the world now, how is your new album, Donkey, inspired by or influenced by seeing the world?

AC: I wrote most of the songs while we were touring. “Move” was written on Ibiza; “I Fly” in Cannes, “Left Behind” (was) inspired by a party we deejayed at in Helsinki. “Rat is Dead” (was) inspired by an incident that took place in London and was written during a bus trip to Stockholm. I can’t tell how much these songs were influenced by the traveling; it’s not that we do world music, but the lyrics can tell a bit.

Adriano Cintra of CSS interview By Eric Mitts

In the digital age, everything is instantaneous and everything is international. In the world of music, few bands fit the form of what this age allows us as finely, or have more fun doing it, than Sao Paulo, Brazil’s Cansei de Ser Sexy, aka CSS. Best known, so far, for their song “Music Is My Hot, Hot Sex,” appropriately featured in commercials for both Apple’s iPod and Microsoft’s Zune, CSS has an immediately infectious quality to its guitar-driven, keyboard-enhanced electro-rock suited to the attention spans of the mp3 addicted. And that’s no ironic coincidence. The Internet helped break the band as its singer, fashion-focused femme-fatale Lovefoxxx found her Flickr and Fotolog pages filling up with fans from around the globe while downloads of their music went viral via the Brazilian music networking site Trama Virtual. Worldwide word of mouth then took the band beyond Brazil to the Seattle offices of iconic indie Sub Pop who signed the band in 2006 for the release of their self-titled international debut album. Soon they followed the path their music took down the digital superhighway with real-life world tours. Those tours ultimately inspired their next installment, this summer’s Donkey. Taking advantage of the modern convenience of email to invade CSS songwriter/producer/bassist Adriano Cintra’s crazy-hectic schedule, and avoid any language confusion in the process, Wide-Eyed wrote up a few questions about the global destinations that make Donkey so kick ass.

WE: In other articles you’ve described your first album as being more of a producer album and your new album as sounding more like a whole band album, how so?

AC: In the first album there’s very little of the band playing in it. Most of the drums are electronic; most of the basses are synths. We had to rearrange the songs to play them live.

Donkey is the band playing everything.

WE: What were some of the things you were listening to a lot while writing and working on the new album?

AC: Bikini Kill, Make Up, Sebadoh, Superchunk, Stereolab, Tegan and Sara, Tilly and the Wall, David Bowie, Hole. Sonic Youth. I believe that the last two years were the years my iPod worked the hardest.

WE: How much did you want Donkey to have a more well-rounded overall sound than your first album? Did you work really hard on having a good variety of songs and sounds on the album?

AC: I wanted Donkey to sound simpler and closer to what we sound live. We all wanted it to sound more realistic. We went through really hard times since we put out the first album, we were ripped off pretty bad by our ex-manager, there was a time that we were working so hard that we could only sleep for two hours a day. But still we were having the time of our lives. We were partying our asses off around the world. It was like living in war.

I was very concerned about writing new songs and being a workaholic, this was no issue. I was constantly making new stuff. When we stopped to record the album we just had to choose amongst the new songs I’ve done. We started choosing the songs that weren’t 100 percent solely mine, that had some sort of collaboration with the girls. Then we went to the studio, each one found their own sound and we recorded it.

WE: Do you find it challenging to write lyrics in English since it’s not your native language?

AC: Not really, for me it’s much more difficult to write in Portuguese. It’s been a while. I read mostly books in English. I started to study English when I was six years old. It’s kinda natural.

Pop music sounds much better in English.

WE: Lots of people have talked about how seeing CSS live is really the way to experience your band’s music. Do you agree?

AC: Playing shows is what we like the most.

We formed the band because we wanted to play shows.

WE: How much did you work at trying to capture what the band is like live on the new album, Donkey?

AC: I decided to let each girl decide what was their sound. Carol, how does your guitar sound like? Ana? Luiza? Then we worked from that.

On the other album I decided pretty much everything and now after playing so much live I let them show me how they sound.

WE: What’s your favorite song off Donkey and why?

AC: “Air Painter.” I wrote half of this song on the New Years Eve of 2007 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I made the song and wrote the chorus: “tell me your stories, write down your secrets.” Then I sent it to Lovefoxxx and the day I listened to the lyrics she wrote and the melody she imagined, I was so amazed. I had written the rest of the lyrics myself, but hers were so much better.

WE: Out of all your songs, what’s your favorite CSS song to play live?

AC: I like the loud ones like “Off the Hook” and “Rat is Dead.”

WE: Earlier this year your old bass player, Iracema Trevisan, left the band and you moved over to play bass instead of drums.

What was that move like for you, going from the drums to the bass onstage?

AC: I feel like I was promoted. I really hate playing the drums. I’m not a drummer, I’ll never be a drummer and I swear I will never sit on a drum stool again in my life.

WE: You missed playing Lollapalooza last year because you were stuck at the airport in New York. How excited were you about playing there this year? How much fun did you have at that show?

AC: It was an amazing show, I really loved it. We had our friend Renata dancing onstage with us. It was very crowded and I was really happy.

WE: Overall, have you had much trouble traveling for all your shows? What have been some of your best memories from traveling all over the world?

AC: Traveling is never a problem, it’s the best thing of all. Especially when we have time to check out the cities we’re at. The Japanese fans are amazing. We were there a couple of weeks ago and a lot of fans stopped us on the street and showed us their iPods playing our songs. Going back to Brazil and playing a festival there was so special. Istanbul was amazing as well. And Finland… I could never imagine I’d go to so many places in my life.

WE: How much does it surprise you that so many different cultures have embraced CSS’s music?

AC: A lot.

WE: Why do you think your music reaches so many different types of people all over the world?

AC: Because we’re very truthful to ourselves.

We don’t want to be something we’re not.

CSS plays the Mayan Theatre Sept. 22. Donkey is in stores and online now. For more on the band, check out: csshurts.com.

Alex Grey interview By Mike Tuinstra

Alex Grey’s work now spans over three decades and ranges from performance art to bold depictions of higher states of reality. He is a visionary artist as well as a modern day mystic. His paintings transmit a message of the universal oneness of life and his Sacred Mirror series is devoted to this principal. Alex has an amazing gift for replicating the psychedelic experience on canvas. These paintings work as a reference point for those who have been there and serve to help educate those who have not. He is the author of several books including Transfigurations and The Mission of Art. We here at Wide-Eyed were excited to catch up with Alex and hear about his current projects.

Thanks for taking some time today to do this interview. We here at Wide-Eyed are all big fans.

Alex: Thanks for your interest in the work. I love the artists that Wide-Eyed has featured in the past.

Wide-Eyed: You’ve been working on the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors for quite a while. Can you take a minute and fill us in on how that’s going?

Alex Grey: Sure. The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, CoSM opened about four years ago in

Chelsea, an art gallery and nightclub district of New York City. Thousands of people have visited the Chapel gallery during the day and attended nighttime Full Moon, New Moon, or Entheocentric events. Our speaker series features conversations with artists, authors, and wisdom masters. All-night parties feature live painting, D.J’s and V.J’s. It’s revolutionized Allyson’s and my life to run a cultural center and balance that with our painting career. Allyson and I have lived and worked together for 33 years, and this is the fullest incarnation of our aesthetic so far. Building the Chapel was based on a vision that we had years ago on an mdma trip where we saw the paintings exhibited in a new kind of church-like environment. We shared the vision with artist-friends and have worked to create something beautiful together, building the space, painting on walls and ceilings, sculpting architectural elements for this installation. Hundreds of artists have exhibited at MicroCoSM Gallery. Creating sacred space is the work of a community.

We are proposing that art can be religion, a spiritual practice. Art expresses the soul of the artist and the soul of the collective. Many artists reach for a new evolutionary edge in their work by continually seeking original approaches. Religions often run counter to that with fixed notions about the truth, demanding dogmatic adherence to a faith, and fear of other faiths. The experience of wider unity with humanity can be lost. One of the hallmarks of the mystical experience is a sense of interconnectedness with everything. Artwork and ceremonies at CoSM emphasize the core values of love and creativity shared in all wisdom traditions. We’re building a bridge between art and religion.

Cross-fertilizing the fields of art and spirituality in a pop culture like America, is a challenge.

The art that most Americans encounter daily is corporate-controlled advertising. This leads our culture toward cynicism, skepticism and mistrust of iconography and art in general. We see an image and our first question is, “ What are they selling?” So we put up mental barriers.

Sacred art is based on the trust the artist and viewer have with the creative force.

Individual artists, musicians and painters are the whisper of conscience within the shrill spectacle of corporate culture. Artists at CoSM are making a new kind of sacred art environment not just an imitation of previous sacred art traditions. Each religion has its own wonderful iconography and approach to art. Learning from them all, we seek a personal and transpersonal approach to portraying the divine, integrating truths and imagery of science into a unique spiritual offering. Treating X-ray bodies, and evolutionary diagrams, cosmic star clusters and galaxies as sacred symbols expands our consciousness. Perhaps the greatest icon of the 20th century is the Apollo photograph of the earth: that blue mandala hovering in space. Reflecting on that image affects our perception of planet earth and catalyzes a sense of unity with the web of life beyond national boundaries. Expanding our identity to include a planetary perspective through art is part of CoSM’s mission.

WE: I’ve had the pleasure of attending one of the two live painting events that you and your wife, Allyson have hosted here in Los Angeles. Is that the motivation behind doing these live paintings - to form a creative, communal sacred space?

AG: Absolutely. The celebrations are an outreach to a wider community where CoSM can honor the individuality and unique creative contributions of artists outside of New York City.

Looking at art is the easiest way to expand our consciousness and experience the inner world of artists from other places and influences.

WE: I’ve seen photos of you painting at Entheon Village at Burning Man. Do you regularly attend Burning Man?

AG: We’ve been a few times and will be at Entheon again this year. We love the Burning Man community and feel very connected there.

Burning Man is an art festival operating outside the ‘legitimate art world,’ of museum and galleries, a maverick, renegade aesthetic that runs through both the tattoo world and the graffiti world. Many people in the Chapel community are buzzing with that view as well.

WE: I’ve heard through the grapevine that you’re currently working on a new book. Is there anything you can tell us about that?

AG: The book is called Art Psalms. It’s a fusion of creativity and spirituality, poems and mystic rants, combined with drawings and paintings. Most of the artwork and poetry has never been published before. The book is about the power of art as a transformative path, a path in which both art’s creation and observation can be a practice of love and communion with the divine. Included are three drawing portfolios – “Meditations on the Divine Feminine,” “Meditations on the Masters,” and “Meditations on Mortality.” An angel woke me up at 5 a.m. and dictated “The Plan,” and “Guidance For Servants of God.” WE: I remember in your book The Mission of Art, you mention that “art can be a form of worship or service.” Is this book an expansion on that thought.

AG: That’s right. Art can be a spiritual path.

WE: Do you find a parallel between visionary artists and indigenous shamans, in the sense that both will go far beyond the 3-dimensional space most people are living within and document imagery and experience for the people to absorb?

AG: Visionary artists have a kinship with shamans making artwork directly from visionary realms. Most sacred art traditions are founded in the visionary world. Through spiritual practice, an experience of the visionary world can inspire an aesthetic product, evidence of that realm. Contemporary visionary artists have greater means to transmit these inner worlds, a wider range of mediums and powerful tools like the computer, film and video are available.

WE: You have had a significant influence on many artists. What or who has had a strong influence on you?

AG: My wife is the most influential artist in my life. I admire her painting and her system of making art. We contribute to each others’ aesthetic view. I met Allyson the first night I took LSD and it turned my life around. In one night, I found God and divine love in the flesh. I went from a desperate existentialist to a mystic. All of my artwork from that day on has been influenced by Allyson. I realized that happiness was possible.

Michelangelo has always been my master.

Allyson and I have pilgrimaged twice to Italy to see all of his works and draw them. There’s a lot you can learn by drawing from masterworks.

In Art Psalms I share some of the drawings I’ve made from masterpieces by the art saints Goya, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Picasso, and Van Gogh. In the Tibetan Buddhist practice, guru yoga, transmissions by the guru give the practitioner a zap of wisdom energy passed down from the source. Masterpieces of art are like batteries of consciousness. If you open yourself up to them they can empower you.

These artists have been very influential to me.

I also admire the symbolist and mystic painter, Pavel Tchelitchew from the mid 20th century, a Russian artist who dealt with anatomy and occult energies. Transfiguration is what I call figuration in relation to spiritual light, a tradition in both Western and Eastern art.

(concluded on page 31)

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Theologue; The Union of Human Consciousness Weaving the Fabric of Space and Time in which the self and its Surroundings are Embeded / 1984 / Acrylic on Linen / 180 x 60 inches

Dying / 1998 / Oil on Canvas / 44 x 60 inches

Transfiguration / 1993 / Oil on Linen / 60 x 90 inches

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Oversoul / 1997 / Oil on Linen / 30 x 40 inches

12 Courtney Taylor-Taylor interview By Brian Hoekstra

August of ‘08 welcomed into the world the release of Earth to the Dandy Warhols, by, um, the Dandy Warhols. These Portlanders are alright, and this would be their 6th proper album. They trip it out, speed it up, slow it down, and cover all the rock and roll bases. They really have had a pretty chameleon-like career thanks in major part to front man Courtney Taylor-Taylor’s shape-shifting singing style, while best-known for his signature lazy hushed vocals. Traces of the Velvet Underground, David Bowie, and everything else rock-friendly fuel the Dandy catalog. Since 1995’s Dandies Rule…Ok? The Dandy Warhols have never taken themselves too seriously, as rock music should always insist, but have earned the right to play live, and put out records for as long as they wish. They sing of drugs and excess, but have always managed to maintain and deliver – See the classic 13 Tales from Urban Bohemia for evidence. Earth to the Dandy Warhols is a first for the band – they now own their own label (Beat the World). As the mucho-talked about/brilliantly entertaining documentary Dig! showcased, the band had touches of success while on major label EMI (better overseas really), but ultimately, that relationship went to hell. Kaboom! Now they control their own spaceship. Here be the new and improved Dandy Warhols, whether you are ready or not.

Wide-Eyed: The Beat The World label… your own label… You must be pretty confident in your abilities as responsible business people to pull off your own label, no?

Courtney Taylor: We have some really good people. Also we are quite naïve about a lot of it so I think that’ll help us to only do things that feel right.

WE: The Odditorium… the house that Dandy’s rock built… how does this space influence your recording process? Inspire?

CT: Seems to make it easier to stay “on” as well as stay in there and keep working on whatever.

WE: Earth To The Dandy Warhols is another exercise in showing of your chameleon abilities from song-to-song (different styles, personality sounds, singing styles). Isn’t this just like acting up on the big screen?

CT: For great actors I’m sure it must be except way better. Music is primal. Acting is not.

WE: Earth to The Dandy Warhols is heavy on space exploration themes in terms of artwork, websites etc - this is all from your love of science fiction? Partially David Bowie Stardust fantasy?

CT: We got some serious sci-fi geeks. Most good bands do.

WE: How has the band developed in terms of recording an album since the

Dandy’s Rule? Is it more of a meticulous process? More anything goes?

CT: We have a lot more toys. I think that besides that it hasn’t changed that much at all.

We recorded our first record mainly in my bedroom so that we’d have unlimited time.

Time, genius, money… pick any two.

WE: What are proving to be the best new songs to rock out while on your current tour?

CT: They change from night to night. My two favorites most often were “ Wasp in the Lotus” and “ Welcome to the Third World.”

“Now You Love Me” probably got me higher a couple of times though.

WE: Do your new songs evolve into something new entirely on the road? Do you ever think… “Man we should have recorded this a lot faster or slower!”

CT: Oh hells yes. This is a good reason to keep re-recording them and documenting each of their little lives. Also a good reason to remix the living shit out of the little bastards that got away.

WE: Are the three hour plus Dandy’s show over?

CT: Pretty sure, but who knows. Bitch hard work, but man…

WE: There is this song “ Valerie Yum” curious about how that song was written, and how an idea or song like that gets tossed around in your group.

CT: Can’t really remember the path. They’re so long and all.

WE: How often would an excited member of the Dandy Warhols describe the new album?

CT: Often.

The Dandy Warhols play the Wiltern in Los Angeles on Friday October 3rd.

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Election Day Changes

By Corey Anton With election time coming up, we’ve all heard lots of people saying, “Don’t forget to get out there and vote.” They say, “ You have a right to vote: exercise your rights.” I don’t disagree at all. Legislation and governance are crucial for a well functioning democracy. But still, we don’t seem to hear enough regarding the need for informed voting. And seriously, if certain individuals need others to tell them when election day has arrived and then further need special prodding to get off the couch and go cast a ballot, can we really believe that such hoi polloi are likely to be informed citizens? The point here is that we hear a good number of people clamoring about citizens’ rights and yet rarely do we hear people speak of citizens’ obligations and responsibilities. Moreover, election time frenzy may, unfortunately, lead some people to underestimate and neglect other forms of social change.

Admittedly, some people, largely those who organize political rallies and who organize outreaches on election day, are probably pretty informed and active, but I’m not sure how many people have any idea how congress really works, or what a day in the life of the average politician consists of, or even what/who is on the ballot of many of the local and regional and state elections. Now, given what was just said, consider all the money and time and energy and effort in what amounts to a huge dog and pony show, a televised, advertised, publicized, and all too commonly criticized competition between two largely similar parties. People spend tons of dollars, make huge investments in rally materials, banners, pamphlets and the like, and we have to ask, “Is all of this stuff worth it?”

Getting people excited about the election is fun stuff and can be empowering, especially when those elections bear so heavily upon social change and progress. But, on the other hand, we need to be sure that the kind of change that we really want and need does not become confused with the social bonding and communion we feel in smelling the warm huddle of fellow campaign groupies. We need to be sure that we do not fall victim to simple partisan thought or succumb to participating in politics as a beauty pageant and popularity contest.

Alfred Korzybski, the founder of the Institute of General Semantics, once observed that democracy presupposes the intelligence of the masses. He further suggested that a misinformed democracy under modern conditions can create a worse human mess than any dictatorship in previous centuries. Do you want to get educated? A good place to start is to read Ben Bagdikian’s The Media Monopoly, where you’ll learn the names: Richard Parsons, Sumner Redstone, Michael Eisner, Reinhard Mohn, and, of course, Rupert Murdock. These five guys, and their respective corporations, own almost all the dominant mass media systems in the U.S. That’s right, these five guys are as influential, perhaps even more influential, than most politicians.

Seriously, we need to think carefully about the possibilities of change, and we should not let other strategies and possibilities get eclipsed during the parade of political antics and campaign frenzies. We need to be wary of spending too much money, energy, and time where little good can be done. We also need to be cautious of election-time emotions, which can be defeatist on either end: people whose candidate did not win think, “Oh no, now we’re doomed.” And for those poor souls whose candidate does win, they have to suffer through the humiliating fact that the win does not necessarily bring about the great changes once anticipated. Again: “Oh no, now we’re doomed.”

Please don’t misunderstand me. Your vote counts, and this country needs your well-informed vote. But for all that, don’t believe that it will make much of a difference in transforming your everyday life or how you go about your business at your

workplace. Don’t be unrealistic about the kinds of changes that are possible through the current governmental ar rangements. And, on the other hand, never underestimate your power to change the world by tiny acts of local kindness and beauty.

Get informed, help educate others, and vote. But at no point spend so much energy and time and effort on the dog and pony show that you forget how the world becomes a glorious place to live. Individuals have to actively bring about the kind of world they’ve always dreamed of. Einstein once suggested that “Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.” Likewise, many of the kinds of changes that people most want to see cannot be brought about by elections or governmental administration and oversight. Such changes cannot be voted upon. They are brought about by thoughtful and courageous individuals who are committed to ongoing acts of local engagement, to random acts of goodwill, to artistic passions, and to changing the world one conversation at a time.

People should not pretend that they are mere bystanders in the world. They should be asking themselves and responding to the question: how is the world made better because we are here and because we are doing what we are doing?

Murs interview by Mike Saunders

Murs has been a workhorse of the underground, making waves with Living Legends in the late 90’s and collaborating with DJ’s and Emcees all over the country ever since. Murs has a type of honesty and integrity that has been lost in the mainstream of hip-hop and perspective that is grounded in reality. He’s finishing up the Rock the Bells tour and this September 30th his major label debut Murs for President drops. We had a chance to chat with Murs about the record, his message and his home city.

Wide-Eyed: So Murs for President, what kind of statement are you making?

Murs: It’s not so much a political statement, it’s more supposed to be the president of hiphop, it wasn’t supposed to come out in an election year, it was supposed to come out two years ago. It just so happened that this was how it happened. The record, it deals with some social issues and reintroduces the topics of peace and love and unity into rap. Well, I guess reintroducing them into mainstream rap because they never really left the scene that I’m from. I’m just trying to get a little more positive and thought provoking and uplifting music out to the public.

WE: You’ve been working all through the underground of hip-hop and doing collaborations with artists on the underground all through out the country, do you feel that this record is more of an introduction to the mainstream?

Murs: I guess it’s going to be marketed mainstream and I guess so. The recording process was more how the mainstream artists do it and if I’m able to sell enough records it’s going to be my introduction to a mainstream audience, you know? I was able to mix the album better; thanks to the budget I had I was able to hire DJ Quick to mix the record so sonically it surpasses anything I’ve ever recorded as far as the quality.

WE: Speaking of sonically what can we expect from this album? The singles have had a Motown feel.

Murs: There’s a wide variety of things; the album is really all over. There’s not a lot of sample-based stuff, there is some sample-based stuff from 9th Wonder. It’s defiantly not too sample heavy, we used the one Motown record on “Can It Be?” The album is defiantly eclectic, it’s defiantly representative of the person I am.

I’m into all different kinds of music and different kinds of things, so there’s live instrumentation, a rock record, there’s a gospel choir and then there’s the sample stuff and live flutes and then there’s scratching and there’s an element of everything that makes me who I am and all types of hip-hop.

WE: You seem to be conscious of a lack of diversity in hip-hop, when I was young I could turn on MTV and BET and see a De La Soul video and Ice Cube video and a Tribe Called Quest video. Are you trying to bring that type of diversity back?

Murs: The whole statement with Murs for President is the people that are in this country, we do have our rednecks, we do have our thugs, we have our alcoholics, our derelicts, our ultimate fighters but none of these people do we put as the leader of our county or at the forefront representing our country. I think in hip-hop the derelicts and the alcoholics and drug abusers and the womanizers have come to the forefront and that has become what represents our beautiful culture and I think that is a problem. I would rather it be someone like me. I’m by no means perfect but I’m far more articulate and far more intelligent and far more balanced spiritually, musically, health wise than most of these rappers, so I definitely feel like I should be at the forefront.

I think there is room for Ice Cube and there’s room for gangster rap and there’s room for TI and there’s room for Soulja Boy but just not at

the forefront. They shouldn’t be as dominant as they are. The lack of people willing to speak the truth and take a stand against some of the negativity, it doesn’t provide us with very many leaders. There’s Common and there’s Kanye but they’ll never say a bad word about any of the gangster rap because they want to sell records and they want to appeal to these people but I have no desire to appeal to ignorant people, I have no desire to be accepted by ignorant people and I have no desire to be grouped with other ignorant individuals.

WE: How has your experience been with Paid Dues and Rock the Bells?

Murs: It’s been a great experience Paid Dues and Rock the Bell’s is great. Paid Dues will be held annually in March in San Bernardino or somewhere in the Southern California area.

People continue to come out and continue to support and I’d like to thank everyone who’s come out and supported us for three successful sold out years. On Rock the Bells everyone’s been really nice, Q -tip, Mos Def, De La Soul, they’ve really embraced me, it’s been great people and a pleasure to see everything.

WE: Cool, anything that you are listening to right now on the underground or otherwise that you are feeling?

Murs: As far as right now some west coast stuff I’ve been listening to is my friend Terrace Martin, he’s a kid who produced on my record and he’s got a mixtape out called Lock High that he’s been driving around the city just giving out to people, literally when he sees a group of kids just giving it out. He’s my friend, he’s really talented, he’s really arrogant and I didn’t want to listen at first but it’s been great.

I’ve been traveling with Rock the Bells and it really reminds me of home and it’s just good Los Angels music. If any one can figure out how to go download it they should because that’s what I’ve been playing nonstop. It makes me feel at home.

WE: Anything to say to the people of Los Angeles?

Murs: I would love your support and I don’t know what I’d have to say besides go Dodgers and be ready hopefully to embrace someone who finally finally represents what LA is really like and not just drive by shootings and bandanas. Someone who embraces the whole Los Angeles experience and someone you can be thoroughly proud of, whether you are white, black, whether you live in Semi Valley or South Central. Someone who represents for all of us.

September 30th, you won’t be disappointed, I hope you won’t be disappointed, music is all a matter of opinion. I’ve worked really hard for the last two years of my life to hopefully make a contribution to the legacy of hip hop. Also definitely to the legacy of Southern California music. From the Central Avenue jazz scene to current day, from Guns and Roses to every great Los Angeles group. Free Style Fellowship, Pharcyde and I hope to contribute to that legacy. And something that means something to everyone but hopefully means a lot to the people at home. I truly love my city and cherish the opportunity to represent it on a worldwide platform.

Photos by Damien Thompson

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15

The Commodification of Expression

By Nikos Monoyios

I’m different just like you.

The precedence of this statement is clearly paramount to new waves of counterculture. Though the desire to flaunt individuality continually grows, recent pangs are unique and distinctive to what we’ve seen before. Generations have always organically morphed into some sort of over-arching social cohesion. From the beatniks, greasers, and mods, to the punks, goths, and rockers, expression of current counterculture is merely being sold to us by the prophets of profits.

that fashion gurus have some sort of mystical oracle they consult. All of this is simply derivative of strategic marketing. Alas, we’re smack-dab in the middle of a level of existence where the media is dictating culture. Both subversive and subliminal, these professional suits know what and how to sell images and expression to the masses. A mass

As I was preparing to write this article vacationing in the Canadian wilderness, I came across the most recent Adbusters magazine and Toronto Star newspaper. Interestingly, both had articles commenting on the culture of the exploding “hipster” scene.

Surrounded by the antithesis of counterculture, I sat in my boat realizing that the “hipster” has graduated into the mainstream. Although I didn’t read these two articles for fear of corrupting my thoughts on this piece, the coincidence on the subject matter was rather thought provoking.

Have we forgotten to truly express ourselves individualistically through substance and not style? We flirt with faux-political ramblings and subscribe to blogs trying to convince ourselves that we have substance. Listening to NPR reminds us that we’re mature and educated. Vintage clothing and fixedgear bikes make us feel young and somewhat nostalgic. Yet when it comes right down to it, stuff is what we’ve been conditioned to take refuge in.

Stuff has become our identity’s security blanket.

We are subjects of a commodified culture, one that is specifically defined by style, not substance. Our consumable habits have caused our culture to regress into commodities being bought and sold, like beans or cotton. Since being socialized into this world from infancy, people assimilate to desirable tastes and styles of their choice. Though we hate to admit it, we are a people who subconsciously adhere to and absorb influences through the vast array of media. It helps define our forms of expression. Of course, each of us has unique and distinct taste and style… or do we? Media’s unrelenting bombardment has reduced our individuality to become largely defined by style and not substance.

Stronger than ever, our individuality is being advertised and marketed to us under the guise of expressing individuality.

We’re a people proud of our individuality and scoff at the mainstream. We want to be different. We want to express our own uniqueness. Yet as this bombardment continues through the media, we find it more difficult to identify anything unique. So much has been done before. Marketing and media has a stronger influence on culture than ever before and its grasp will continue to tighten over the years. We examine advertisements in magazines to see what people are wearing. We know of hairstyles we’ve seen on television, and we do really believe

plaid shirts of the early 90s. It’s safe to assume that the pioneers of grunge did not purposefully and conscientiously don the checkered garment to project a certain image. It’s simply a result of their already happenstance wardrobe. Simply put, they don’t care about style. The “marketeers” get a hold of what is going on and sell it to the consumer as a form of expression. Consequently, these once unique and unintended items are being bought by the masses to express their countercultural ideals.

Inevitably, the never-ending social phenomenon of countercultural individualistic expression becomes mainstream and rather ordinary. And as years go by, the only thing that changes is the style, and what continues to lack is substance.

When a social movement isn’t challenging, it’s just lost and pissed. The current credo seems to be random stuff to define our own weirdness because we’ve simply run out of ideas. Like periods of painting styles, current individual expression is in the abstract for the sake of abstract stage. There is stuff in stores everywhere whispering to us with promises of strong and poignant individuality. Our culture is in an adolescent phase going through phases of question and uncertainty. Like all adolescents, substance and maturity eventually unveils itself, and the emphasis on style takes a back seat.

of similarly styled people convinced they are all individuals. Again… I’m different, just like you. It’s rather amusing.

Style used to be discovered through unintended or unrelated findings. A prime example is the

No longer can we let the brokers of culture define what it means to be individual. Promisingly, we’re seen a new world dawning. Media also has a bright side. Access to information is easier than ever. Independent broadcasts continuously grow, redefining the boundaries of the media spectrum.

The buffet of substance reaches all time highs every day, and these hunger pangs of individuality will be satiated. Soon, substance will define our social cohesion and renew the breath of culture, relieving the stifling gasps of the individual.

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you listen to it, does it have the kind of energy that you think it should have? JD: Well wait until you see us live. The album doesn’t compare to the live show and it shouldn’t. There shouldn’t be a single band that sounds better on album than they do live. You should be able to kill it live way more than you do on the album.

Definitely we’re a live band; we’ve got a power to us. You’ll see it {laughs}.

WE: Getting so much out of playing live, what was it like for you to just go into the studio for a day with Serj?

JD: I mean that’s what he needed help with. I made the offer to all three guys when we took our hiatus, I said, ‘Look, if you guys need any help, either with my drumming, or if you need advice, whatever it is, my time is always there for you,’ and that’s what he wanted. He wanted me to come in and play three or four songs, and to be honest with you, it doesn’t take me a week to record three or four songs. A good drummer should be able to do that in a day. I mean, I recorded forty songs for Toxicity in six days or eight days, whatever it was. If you’re not prepared before you go into the studio, don’t go into the studio.

Scars on Broadway interview By Eric Mitts When System of a Down went on indefinite hiatus in 2006, vocalist/guitarist/ songwriter Daron Malakian and drummer John Dolmayan surrounded themselves with what they each love most. For Malakian that meant relentlessly writing songs, continuing the ponderously prolific streak he started on SOAD’s double-disc finale Mesmerize/Hypnotize. For Dolmayan it meant creating his own online comic book superstore, Torpedo Comics, so his collection could swell into the millions. Soon their separate stories crossed again, as the songs Malakian wrote for his long-rumored, less-metal, more-rock-oriented new band Scars on Broadway soon reached a critical mass. After trying out various versions of Scars, he eventually re-recruited his old friend and bandmate to bang out Scars’ far-reaching rhythms. Together again the duo recorded Scars on Broadway’s selftitled debut last fall, releasing the Malakian-produced set this summer after playing their first two gigs with their live lineup at Whiskey A Go Go and Coachella this spring. Right around the record’s release, Wide-Eyed got to look deeper into each of Scars’ stars separately, first talking with Dolmayan about the dominance of “The Dark Knight” and other comic book movies at the box office and how the drums will always remain a part of his life before later discussing with Malakian what makes Scars different from anything they’ve done before, why songwriting means so much to him and the possible future of SOAD. Wide-Eyed: Having worked so much with Scars on Broadway now and before that working on (SOAD vocalist) Serj Tankian’s album (last year’s Elect The Dead), does it feel like you’ve had the kind of break that you wanted to be able to do things with Torpedo Comics or just for yourself that you wanted when System went on hiatus?

John Dolmayan: You know what, I had six months off with the exception of playing on Serj’s album, which only took me a day, and that was a pretty good amount of time off. After we’re done touring this album I’ll probably get another three or four months off, and that’s all you need. You don’t need a year or two years off, in my opinion, unless you have a family. It would be different if I had kids and a wife, but see I don’t have those things. To me, my kids and my wife are my music.

WE: I know you’ve done a handful of shows already, and that your second show was Coachella. How does it feel to be re-entering music with a new band but at that high level already?

JD: It’s nice to start over, but of course we’re not really a new band. Scars on Broadway is new, but we’ve been around the block for a little

while now. You can’t discount the effect that System had on our careers and our lives, and we definitely benefit from that, but we’re doing the best we can not to use System to propel Scars.

We really want it to be based on the music and we want it to be based on our live show and let people make the determination on whether they like it because it’s good or bad for them, not because of what we’ve done in the past.

WE: What’s it been like working on the live show with the three other new members of the band? Have they helped make this feel more like a new experience for you and Daron? JD: They’re great, man. They’re good guys, great musicians, and they’ve got a fire also because they haven’t been there before. They haven’t accomplished the things that Daron and I have accomplished, so they’ve got that fire in them and we’re feeding off some of those flames. It’s kind of like being on a football team and you’re the veteran and the rookies come in and they’ve got all this fucking fire and it just gives you that energy also.

WE: Having listened to the album I definitely hear how Scars has just as much energy as anything you’ve ever done. When

WE: Since you are such a big comic book fan, what super hero duo or comic book could you compare you and Daron to?

JD: Fuck, I don’t know {laughs}. I’m thinking of duos and there aren’t a lot of duos. Umm, I guess Hawk and Dove would represent us OK, because I’m more of like the brute force kind of guy and Daron is more artistic and eloquent. I guess that would describe us pretty well.

WE: I was thinking something old school like maybe Power Man and Iron Fist.

JD: Well, Hawk and Dove is from the ‘60s.

They’re older than Power Man and Iron Fist (which is from the ‘70s). C’mon, man, do your research! {Laughs} WE: I don’t think I can quite match your comic book expertise.

JD: Well, you don’t want to; I’m a power nerd. {Laughs} I have my power nerd official insignia.

WE: Daron, you first talked about having another project like Scars on Broadway as far back as 2005. Has this been something that you wanted to do personally for a long time?

Daron Malakian: I think it was more based on knowing that, like for example I knew Serj wanted to do a solo project and go off and do stuff on his own, so I kind of knew I needed to find a new home for my songs and find a new path. I knew that was going to happen at that time and that’s how I came up with doing Scars at that time, just based on knowing that System was not going to be, for the time being, I guess. I had to have a place to take my songs.

WE: I was hooked by the first two songs on the album, “Serious” and “Funny,” just in their titles alone they show the kind of contrast you have in your songwriting. How important is having humor or levity in your songwriting, even when things are getting really heavy?

DM: It’s very important. I’ve always felt that, even with System sometimes when things would get too heavily political I’d try to come in and spice it up with something like say ‘Sugar,’ [Laughs] or something a little bit lighter, and I think it’s important to have that medium and to balance it and not to always be serious, because that annoys me. When it’s always serious, that’s not how I feel. There are moments when I’m on the light side and I’m not so serious. There are moments where I like writing about personal things. There are moments where I like writing about social commentary and sometimes politics get involved, but I don’t want to put a limit or a wall in front of what I can write about.

I think it’s important to balance it out with some humor sometimes.

WE: You’ve described Scars on Broadway’s songs as more song-driven than SOAD and more rock than metal. Do you think you got burnt out on playing metal?

DM: I just want to grow. I don’t want to keep doing the same thing and I never will keep doing the same thing. Whether this was a Scars record or a System record, I think I was going to take things in the direction that’s the direction that you hear. So that’s just me evolving as a writer. If it felt right for me to write more metal right now, then Scars would be more metal. Where I’m at right now as a writer is that I want to let some of my early punk rock stuff bleed out, I want some of my ‘60s psychedelic stuff to bleed out, those sort of harmonies, and a lot of the music that I’m into that is not metal, and I want to let some of that shine.

WE: Does it help having somebody as strong behind the drums as John is to help you be so diverse in your songwriting? DM: Well John plays for the song and he doesn’t play any busier than he has to. You find that sometimes with drummers; they’ll overplay the songs. One thing that’s great about John’s playing is that he plays for the song and is not trying to flash his fills or anything, although he’s capable of it, but he knows how to hold back, and that’s kind of what I was looking for in a drummer with Scars because I think these songs are a little bit more straightforward and call for more simplicity. I tried a few drummers before John and it just didn’t work out the same way. So I called up John and we played the songs together and we both really liked how it was sounding. That’s kind of how it all started.

WE: In a lot of your songs you sing about just how hard it is to remain sane with the way the world is going today, (“Insane,” “World Long Gone”). Has songwriting helped you stay sane?

DM: Well, yeah. Not just now, but through my whole life. If I didn’t have that outlet, I don’t know what I would do. I think there is a world out there and there’s a lot of tension within that world and I like to touch on that with my lyrics, but at the same time, I like to bring it down to how does that tension affect the simple one person guy who probably is not even that involved with what’s going on. When it comes to his everyday life, he gets up and goes to work and he doesn’t really know what’s going on on the other side of the world, he doesn’t really know what’s going on anywhere except in his life, but it’s still a part of him. That’s what the song ‘ World Long Gone’ is about. Maybe I don’t know how many people are starving in this world, maybe I’m not that involved in going out protesting or marching or reading up on politics, but I’m still involved in it because I’m still a person here and it still affects me one way or the other.

WE: How much do you think all the different forms of communication and media that we have permeating our lives right now are to blame for so many people feeling crazy or frustrated and depressed?

DM: Maybe I seem frustrated because of the way I sing it, but I don’t see it as frustrating. I just see it as what it is and I just commentate on it. I make commentaries. I’m not for or against any of these things. I own a lot of these things, trinkets, computers and Blackberries and iPods. But everything I’m singing about, it’s not like I’m telling someone don’t do this, because I’m doing it. It’s what life has become, and I’m just making a commentary on life.

WE: So since you are making commentaries with you songs, particularly ending the album with a song like “They Say,” do you have hope on the horizon for anything you’d like to see change?

(concluded on page 31)

Photos by David Dodde

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GZA: No, I don’t think so… because at one point I felt some of Raekwon’s beats I wanted.

So I don’t think it was a conscious effort for him. I just think it was a time when he had a lot goodies in a basket and Rae may have came through and took a handful, and then I came through and grabbed a handful, then Ghost came through. I don’t think RZA actually went in the basket and said, “Don’t take this. This is GZA’s” or “leave this alone. This is Raekwon’s”.

I don’t think it went like that. He had a LOT of goodies back then.

People Gotta Listen To The GZA GZA interview by Ben Klebba

You want me to interview the GZA? The GZA? For real? Wow. What do I say? What do I ask him? The GZA! Do you understand? As Method Man once so eloquently put on 36 Chambers – “We form like Voltron, and the GZA happen to be the head.”

Never have I sounded like such a white nerdy Wu Tang fan than when I listened back to our phone conversation… He talked about a lot – the genesis of Wu, his new album, his “Liquid Swords” tour, why he lyrically murdered a certain whack rapper, respect, creativity, and why money doesn’t really matter. “When the MCs came, to live out the name, and to perform…”

Aerosol Painting by Jevon Dismuke

Wide-Eyed: I’m gonna go back to the beginning… What got you rhyming in the first place? What was your inspiration? Where’d you start at?

GZA: Quite a few things. (pause) Just the flow of words. Just hearing one talk slick. I used to listen to the Last Poets when I was younger and that was a part of it. I also used to read a lot of nursery rhymes when I was younger and I knew a lot of ‘em word for word. By the time I was startin’ to get into hip hop, I kinda already had that cadence and delivery. It goes way back.

WE: I know you started in a group with the RZA and Ol Dirty way way way back called All In Together Now, and then you were on Cold Chillin for a minute, RZA had a thing on Tommy Boy – was Wu Tang a reaction against that stuff ? How did Wu begin?

GZA: Wu began around the time of Cold Chillin and Tommy Boy – actually Wu Tang was supposed to come out on Tommy Boy – but it was just the RZA – I don’t know who he was gonna have with him. We were just coming off the Cold Chillin thing/Tommy Boy thing, and things weren’t goin’ well with myself and Cold Chillin – I wasn’t feelin’ ‘em at the time, I thought they didn’t promote my album well. I was ready to leave after the first album, I didn’t want to record anything, it was kinda a messed up moment. And RZA was on Tommy Boy, he was going to do something and they didn’t support him and I think they may have been ready to drop him at the time or I don’t know if he just left also. But I had left Cold Chillin and I was tryin’ to do demos and get songs and RZA had this idea about Wu Tang. And Method Man, and Raekwon and them – a lot of us were childhood friends from way back. And they were in Staten Island comin’ up – at the time they had just started

rhyming – and they were good – and I guess at some point RZA decided to put Wu Tang Clan together. And we got myself and Dirty – we’re in Brooklyn, Masta Killah is in Brooklyn – and the rest of the Clan was in Staten Island. We booked studio time, and we all went in there and we did “Protect Ya Neck”. That’s how it came about. And then, he said he had a 5-year plan after that and we all started getting deals and stuff… The rest is history.

WE: 36 Chambers really changed everything.

It’s 15 years old now and it still sounds incredibly fresh and relevant. I grew up in a tiny town in Michigan and it hit kids out there – How did it feel for you guys to have such a huge impact on hip hop as we know it at that time?

GZA: It felt great. We still have that.

WE: Definitely.

GZA: Then and now. Nothing’s changed. See, what it is with a lot of people. You know you’re not seen on TV and you’re not on radio, then people just don’t know. We just got back from Europe. Saw 20 to 30,000 people pullin’ out W ’s when we walked on stage. So it’s a great feelin’.

WE: Your new tour is called “Liquid Swords” -- and that album is one of the best Wu albums ever, if not the best in some heads, mine included.

GZA: Thank you.

WE: Yeah, seriously. It’s surreal how good that album is. So, I’m wonderin’ how that all came together. Not that I discount the amazing power of your lyrical skills, but I sometimes wonder if the RZA reserved certain beats for you.

WE: What was going through your mind when Liquid Swords came out?

GZA: Everything. Everything was happening so fast. It was just so quick. Because we did “Protect Ya Neck” in ‘92. This is just following Cold Chillin – that time period was a long time of stressing and depression and a lot of downs, but it really didn’t last that long — cuz I put out the Cold Chillin album was in ‘91, but that whole year seemed like 3 years of downs – Downville.

Then in ‘92 we did “Protect Ya Neck”, then in ‘93 we were doin’ shows as Wu Tang and on the road and then ‘94 we were all getting solo deals and ‘95 I put out Liquid Swords, and ‘95/‘96 five of us had albums on the charts – all gold or platinum.

So, it was all happening. It was just – {pause} — I don’t know what I was thinking at the time, but it was good. It was a blessing. Good things were happenin’. I was grateful and I still am. I look at it like this – I’m goin’ on a Liquid Swords tour.

That album is 13 years old. AND, I’m performin’ to young’ns — 15 or 16 year olds in the audience singin’ the lyrics! The young’ns. Ya understand?

Who has 2 generations of fans like that? How many groups? How many solo artists? I mean, I run into people that say “My moms raised me on Wu Tang.”

WE: {laughter} You guys got the stamina. It’s a timeless sound.

GZA: It’s a good thing.

WE: How’d the “Grandmasters” thing happen with Muggs?

GZA: Muggs always wanted to do an album together ever since we worked on the “Soul Assassins” project. We talked about it every time we hooked up, and one time he was in the city, and I went by his hotel, he played some beats, I picked about 12 or 13 beats, wrote to half of ‘em, linked up with him a year later, and then recorded the album in 7 days.

WE: That’s quick.

GZA: This “Pro Tools” album we did in 3 days.

WE: 3!?

GZA: It took me 3 years to give them the album {laughter}. I was doin’ songs over the years, but then I was getting rid of ‘em, because originally contractually it was supposed to be a mix tape (compilation) album. So in the long run, they ended up getting a GZA album and they promoted it as that. So when it got down to crunch time and I was doin songs and I was supposed to put a whole bunch of people on the album – cuz boom – that’s all they were payin’ for – then I started thinking about it as the years went by and you know what, my name’s still on it – I just can’t put together anything because they just threw me mix tape money. So in the long run, we started changing structures, started changing beats, and then I got a handful of stuff, I went in and I recorded 8 or 9 songs in one day and then – a couple of songs I had to do them over and restructure them – but yeah, I knocked it out – that soon.

WE: The new album’s called Pro Tools – that’s the name of the recording industry audio software standard – what made you name it that?

GZA: Baby Grande wanted a title and normally how it works, I don’t have titles for songs until way after they’re finished – they just come naturally. He wanted a title for an album and I didn’t have one. I was thinking of titles and I had a few names and I wasn’t really feelin’ it. And at one point I don’t know, I was at the house lookin’ at

the computer or something and I just said Pro Tools. {laughter} I’m callin’ it Pro Tools. Why not?

The software’s the program we use to record and why not? Cool title.

WE: I know RZA’s on there – but who else handled production?

GZA: RZA , Tru Master, Black Milk, Arabian Knight, Preservation, Bronze Nazareth, Mathematics.

WE: Any lyrical guests?

GZA: It’s very limited. I like to work like that.

RZA , Masta Killa’s on there, Justice my son, Roc Marcy laid a verse with me and I have another brother named Ka on there and that’s basically it as far as MCs. Tru Master’s on a hook.

WE: So we gotta talk about this “Paper Plates” track. People are gonna find this out real quick when the album drops or they already heard it on the internet, but it’s an amazing 50 Cent diss done with surgery scalpel precision. Dissect the beef for me.

GZA: There wasn’t really a beef. I don’t look at it as a beef. I don’t even look at it as a diss song. {Chuckle} I didn’t really go in on him. {Pause} It was a debt that needed to be paid. Let me see… how did this come about? I made a statement at a show one day in London. This is all on the internet already. It started in London at a place called Koko’s – I was doin’ a Liquid Swords show.

So… At one point, I gave the mic to someone in the crowd. People are yellin’ out stuff, sometimes they yell out songs they wanna hear, or “ODB!” or whatever. So one guy was yellin’ out and I didn’t really hear what he said at first, so I went to give him the mic and he said “Fuck 50 Cent.” That’s what he said – you can see it, it’s on the (YouTube) clip (side note – google “GZA disses 50 cent” for a whole lot of info on this).

I could’ve just left it alone, I was feelin’ nice, I was drinkin’, I’m not gonna front. I still don’t regret what I said and it’s not that liquor made me say that. I coulda said “naw, we ain’t gonna go there”, but instead I said “ Yeah – you heard that 50?” I said “Did you hear that Curtis?” and whatever else I said after that. He made a lot of money, he made a lot of dough, but lyrically he really don’t got shit. And I even said in the clip at a certain point “Look nigga, we on You Tube.” What is that sayin’? That I know there’s a thousand cell phones filmin’. What was I tryin’ to hide? Less than 24 hours, it had 8000 hits. (the YouTube clip) I was reading comments that said “He wouldn’t say that in New York.” But I’m sayin’ look – we on You Tube, so did it make a difference where I said it? I coulda been on the moon, right?

WE: Now and forever – it’s out there.

GZA: You got it. So, I gave the mic to someone else and he said “Fuck Soulja Boy.” Now, I didn’t disrespect Soulja Boy. 50 tried to flip it around. I just said “ You hear that Soulja Boy?” I said “ You got a hot ringtone” or whatever. When I think of young MCs – Special Ed, when he was 16 he was sayin’ something. So compared to Special Ed, you ain’t shit, cuz he was lyrical. Or LL at 16 – he was a terror. G Rap at 17 was a terror – lyrically – there wasn’t even 20 year olds that could fuck with him. 3 days later, I’m in New York now at the Knitting Factory and I said “Let me clear something up.” People are screamin’ “Fuck 50 Cent.” I was in London, ya’ll saw some shit, whatever, I’m not gonna bite my tongue, and I’m not drinkin’ tonight – I said 50 don’t got lyrics. Point blank. I’m in New York now. The next day it was on MTV.com on the main page. They blew that up. Then a few weeks later 50 made a statement. He said he was disappointed in Wu Tang and he Googled me and he said the year I was born in like it was a big secret. My age has never been a secret. He said “Oh I got a Chevy Impala from 66.” Then he starts sayin’ I was at war with Soulja Boy. He flipped it all around.

It was never like that. That was the type of shit 50 was sayin’. Another corny little thing he said when he was talking about me he said “ What is he a scientist?” or something like that – he was clownin’ me {laughter} he said “I bomb

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atomically”, right? Well, I DO bomb atomically ‘cuz everything is composed of atoms – that’s something we all know though. From one atom came the whole universe. We DO bomb atomically. BUT, the funny thing is, that’s not even my verse! That’s (Inspectah) Deck’s verse. So, what is he talking about?! But that’s all he said. He didn’t really come at me. I wrote this verse after I heard that. I wrote it and I was like, you know I don’t need this, if he say something, I’m gonna blast at ‘im. Cuz he really didn’t say anything to get under my skin – he didn’t really say anything. So I knew already he didn’t really want to go there. I just had it and I was holdin’ it. I let people in my camp hear it and they was like “Hell no, man, you gotta let that off.” And then when I recorded it I was just playin’ around – I was just reading… I was in my slippers and my boxers. Laid back and relaxed – you can hear it on the song.

WE: You sound very calm. {laughter} GZA: Reading off a paper. I normally don’t read anything. I recorded it, it sounded good, and boom, we used it, the people at Baby Grande heard it and they wanted to leak it. That’s how that came about. No big deal.

WE: Not that I’d worry, but do you expect any attempt at a rebuttal?

GZA: He may. It wouldn’t surprise me, but I just know – lyrically… artistically… creatively…

What can he say or do?

WE: Nothing.

GZA: What can he do, but talk about money? I don’t rhyme about money. I never did. A lot of MCs as soon as they get a car they put it in their rhymes. And I’ve never done that. I’m pretty sure I had rims before he did. But I’m not a material person. So, you’re not winning by doing that. You speaking about your money is not hurting me. There’s nothing wrong with being rich – that’s a beautiful thing. You can’t knock that. The more the merrier – so be it. But you can’t go at me, really. What’s really gonna hold weight? My flow is incredible. My wordplay run the 400 meter relay. It’s on, watch me grab the baton from my DJ. You know? {Laughter} What? What can you do?

It’s pathetic. Just imagine him tryin’ to sit down and write. That’s why I said “ You can get your best ghostwriters. Get them all to testify.” And I’m just one out the Clan. How you gonna come at me? So, I expect him to talk money. That’s it.

It don’t hold any weight here. Privately I fly commercial. A good act, with enough rehearsals. It doesn’t matter. We still both use pilots.

WE: {Laughter} GZA: It doesn’t matter. If I’m in a king size bed

and your bed is ten times what a king size bed is with a thousand pillows –

front of her in a book, she’d say “This is beautiful writing.”

like that – “I got a thousand on my wrist”, “20, 000 on my wrist”, “100,000 on my wrist.”

WE: You’re still sleepin’.

GZA: That’s it! You still rest how I rest. I’m still comfortable. It doesn’t faze me. It never did.

That’s my only point and I wanted to let that off.

‘Cuz we got fans that struggle, and I always look at myself as a person like my fans. Not above, not below. Eye to eye. I respect them ‘cuz they respect me to help me be who I am by spreadin’ the word and sharing my music. I read something years ago and I forget where, but it goes “ We make a living, but we make a life by what we give.” So of course you’re makin’ a livin’, but what are you givin’ back? So if you’re runnin’ around, at first you got music on this level, then once you getting paid a lot of money, it starts makin’ stars callin’ people window shoppers – “ You’re a window shopper – you’re lookin’ at me. I got stuff you can’t buy.” – What kinda shit is that?! Is that right? You know what I’m sayin’?

My children was raised havin’ good things, ‘cuz I was fortunate enough to make a livin’ doin’ hip hop. A good livin’. But I’ve never taught them to look down on kids cuz they got $300 sneakers and other kids got on $40. Never. For what?

So what? They’re both shoes. So that’s my point.

How many artists get money and that’s all they can rhyme about? Money isn’t everything. Of course some of ‘em do good things with their money and good causes. But when you start lookin’ down on people when you’re goin’ up – c’mon – it’s not a good thing. I’d never be disrespectin’ people talking about they can’t buy what I got – whatever – I don’t think that’s cool.

WE: The GZA in Oprah’s Book Club.

GZA: {laughter} If all the writers in the hip hop world had to move to a different department and “C’mon this company’s closing, all ya’ll rappers are getting transferred over to the Hollywood film department.” Shit. People be getting fired left and right. Everyday. Hardly no one would have a job, ‘cuz it would not be interesting at all.

WE: Lazy.

GZA: I think Jay-Z was the first one who said it, and then it never stopped. Then 80 songs later – Like that makes you? I’m not knockin’ Jay Z – he’s the first person I heard say it in a slick, unique way, but that was ten years ago. And people still sayin’ it – who cares? “I got 100,000 on my pinky”, “I got 500, 000 on my neck” – what you got on your brain?! How much you got on that? As far as inspiration, I can be inspired by anything. If you really wanna compare rappers – ‘cuz it’s all a matter of opinion – “I’m better than you, you’re better than me.” You wanna compare MCs, put them on the same track, give them the same subject, then see who can deliver. If you take most MCs – you take the average rap album that talks all this material shit — if you give ‘em a subject and said “I want you to write a rhyme, a story, and I want the setting to be… in the 1700s.”

WE: Do you feel the pendulum swings both ways? People get all obsessed about their money and rims or whatever bullshit they wanna rap about and then there’s conscious cats like you – you never aspired for the commercial excess, but you have made a good career out of it — do you think hip hop is sliding back that way again?

GZA: Yeah, what goes-around-comes-around.

It’s always been that way – it’s just that the mainstream part of it now is not about that. And I can’t knock that. That’s an OK thing for those that like that. I’m not knockin’ that. If someone comes out and sells that many records and people like it, but the thing about a lot of mainstream stuff is that it doesn’t last long. It has the lifespan of a fly.

WE: The shelf life is shit.

GZA: The shelf life is not even long enough to collect dust. So there’s no longevity in there. I don’t care if you sold 10 million records on your first album, and 2 years later you only sold 4 million, and now you can’t even go platinum.

That shows that a lot of these fans that like mainstream stuff, they don’t have the loyalty or even the patience to stick around with the stuff – “He’s good today, tomorrow — I don’t even like this shit. I ain’t feelin’ that. I’m into this right now.” Over and over they change it up. So much that they don’t even know what they like. You have all these things that give certain impressions — if you watch TV a lot you become consumed by a lot of TV and what’s on it.

WE: For sure.

GZA: So if you’re listening to the radio – you hear something every day – you may not even like it – “Oh it ain’t nothing lyrically, it’s not hot, but I’m hearin’ it every day” And all these people become so programmed that they don’t really know what they like. Or what’s authentic.

It’s forever changing and it’s gonna be what it is ‘cuz it’s whatever’s playing and people who listen to radio are gonna like it. The majority of the world is ignorant anyway – so what do we expect will sell more records? Ignorant shit the majority of the time. Because it’s easy. It’s simple. Lyrically though, how many MCs can get on Oprah?

WE: {Laughter} I don’t know, man.

GZA: How many do you really respect? I mean, she probably don’t really know GZA lyrics, but I guarantee you if they were put on paper in

WE: It’d be the same fucking movie over and over again.

GZA: It’s the same movie. But on radio it’s different. Radio’s playin’ the same stuff. There’s no shelf life. When I did Liquid Swords I wasn’t lookin’ at it like – and I still don’t look at it as my best work or the best that’s to come. You don’t even know what I’m writin’ now.

WE: Do you get sick of people talking about Liquid Swords?

GZA: Naw. Never.

WE: Good. You shouldn’t. It’s a certified classic.

GZA: Thank you. I appreciate it. When we talk about the shelf life thing – I’m still getting a lot of press on it and I’m going out on a Liquid Swords tour – 13 years later. They still come out to see me perform that album. They love it. It’s just a blessin’ to be able to have an album like that. I just appreciate the response and respect and everything else that comes along with it. I love it. It’s an album that’s respected by a lot of people even in the industry – intellects at that.

WE: You want quality fans.

GZA: Exactly. That’s a big difference. And that means a lot to me.

WE: So what’s next?

GZA: I’m just writin’, man. The next album’s gonna be my strongest ever. It’s just me. I’m excited to do it. You’ll love it. You’ll see – I can’t really explain.

WE: When do you think this will come out?

GZA: I’ll say next year. ‘09. It’s very much needed.

WE: What’s it about? What’s the concept?

GZA: Heaven and earth. I’ll leave it like that.

WE: Alright. Well, I got one more question – and it’s a big one – then I’ll let you go. What inspires you these days?

GZA: Everything. There’s so many things to be inspired from that it’s a downright shame that we talk about the same shit all the time. There’s so many things to be inspired from. Not only does the mind reproduce a lot of stuff that’s impressed on it, but what people seem to forget is that the mind also creates. And a lot of artists don’t really create. It’s like their imaginations are sterile. Most people write about what they see, when I write about a lot of stuff I think, and see, and feel, and hear – not just about what I see. A rapper sees a jet, he’ll write about it. He’ll see a diamond chain and he’ll write about it.

But he won’t know exactly what the diamond is.

Most of them don’t know how to go there. Inspiration comes from everything. It can come from water. Water’s not just wet. It’s a living thing. We wash with it, we drink it — it’s a living thing. It’s hydrogen, it’s oxygen, it has a molecular structure. It’s deeper than just water.

So there’s always something that can go on and on. And in a skillful way, you can do it without bein’ boring and it can come off as gangster and hard. See – that’s what makes a great writer or a great lyricist – when you can take something and write something that has no profanity, no vulgar language, but it still sounds explicit, it still sounds hard, it still sounds like you beat ‘em on the back with a bat. It puts chills on ‘em – that’s what great writing is about. There’s so many things to get inspired from it makes no sense to talk about the same shit over and over.

I’ve heard 50 or 60 songs, with artists talking about how much money is on their wrist – just

WE: {Laughter} GZA: He will be fucked up! ‘Cuz he can’t talk about cars, he can’t talk about dollar bills, he can’t talk about Benjamins, paybacks, headrests, plasma screen TVs, big stereos, he can’t talk about buyin out the bar in the club. He’ll be fucked up. “I can’t talk about my rims or my phone? I can’t talk about my fly ass mansion?” (pause) It wouldn’t hurt me one bit. I can do that. Out of 100 MCs, only 1 speaks in his own voice. The other 99 imitate and they don’t even know they imitatin’ because of what’s been impressed on their minds. A lot of musicians, a lot of producers, they do shit other musicians and producers do because they be hearin’ what’s out there so much and then they don’t have time to really get in their own world. Mozart’s deaf, right?

WE: Yeah.

GZA: He made music like nobody. He couldn’t hear other shit after he went deaf. So all he heard was what he made. So it doesn’t make sense to bite and imitate, ‘cuz there’s so much out there. People need to stop being fascinated by the machine. They need to be fascinated by the mind that made the machine. We look at a Stealth Bomber and say, “ Wow, look at the way it hovers.” We don’t say, “ Who designed that?

Where was their mind at? Who thought of that?”

We don’t do that. That’s where artistry starts.

When you put ‘em in a world, take everything from ‘em – it’s just like putting someone in the woods. How many of us know how to survive in the woods? Not many at all. Because we’re used to turning on the stove, turning on the light. So if you put us in a world where we get fire from rubbin’ sticks together, the only way we can eat is if we hunt it or pick it – it’s a whole different world that we need to learn to adapt to.

That’s how MCs would be if you put ‘em in that world. And producers don’t do that anymore – they don’t take ‘em in and say, “This is the subject – write it. This is what it is. I don’t wanna hear anything about cars on this one.” Even R&B now – so much of it is like “buyin’ out the bar,” “shorty wanna be swingin’ on me” — It’s the same stuff. (pause) I grew up on music from the ‘70s – soul, Motown, real pop music, classic rock – songs that were really songs. That’s what I listen to now. When I’m in the car the radio is either on 1010 (New York’s 1010 WINS) traffic and weather or Light FM. That’s how I get down. It’s soothing. You get to reminisce, ‘cuz music is the soundtrack to your life. You hear something and it gives you a certain memory. It takes you back to a certain time.

WE: I love that about music.

GZA: It’s a beautiful thing.

ving to play with us and formed a live band.

We called up our buddy from Sea Wolf, then setup a live show. That was in January.

WE: So now that you guys have gotten a taste of performing it live...

SS: It is really fun - ridiculously fun.

WE: We hear that the energy and the density of the live sound is moving.

SS: Hopefully. We’re reaching for it in that way. Irving is cool, too – we love that also. But Afternoons has become like the dirty little girl that you are going to cheat on your wife with.

And she is slowly becoming the perfect ‘Alabama whirly’, you know. She is out in the open – the mistress on the open arm.

A

WE: Accept her for who she is…

SS: … or we’ll have to get a divorce from Irving. We’ll cross that bridge if it comes.

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R E S N O Afternoons interview with Steven Scott & Brian Canning By William Case

Making it BIG is a common goal for artists in the world of indie music. For the Los Angeles based folk rock band Afternoons, BIG is just the beginning. Lead guitarists/vocalists Steven Scott and Brian Canning met with Wide-Eyed at the El Rey Theater in August to discuss their vision for their robust musical collaboration, and the goal of bringing their BIG sound to open ears.

Wide-Eyed: What are Afternoons about?

Where are you from? How did you guys put this band together?

Steven Scott: Brian and I went to high school together, then college together, and moved to LA . We started a band called Irving, found Brent Turner and Alex Church, now of Sea Wolf. We did Irving for quite a while and we had this plethora of songs that were new, old, different, whatever the case may be… but they were these songs that were not quite Irving songs, but they were definitely good. They were potentially big, sonically, but we didn’t know exactly how we were going to translate that. The project started off with Brian and I thinking that these songs would be really cool with just guitars, but we pictured them really big sonically – some extra beats and rhythm sections – trying to do something really different. As we were recording them, we decided to

add another layer of real drums, then a bass, then a third beat, and then another bass line.

Suddenly it got really big, but with quite normal instruments.

WE: Right. Extra rhythm, and horns…

SS: And as we got four, or five and six songs put together, and like 12 or 14 players on a single song, it was like, ‘How are we going to play these live, if we ever want to?’ We did Irving through America a few times, and then Europe. When we got back we had some songs for Irving and a few songs for Afternoons that were like ¾ finished. We said, ‘Do we want to go do another Irving record, or do we want to do this other thing?’ And the idea of doing this other thing was really appealing to us. We jumped in head first and told some of the guys that we were willing to do this full-time. We actually grabbed a couple of the guys from Ir-

WE: You guys are an unsigned indie band.

I saw you guys come in with the U-Haul, unloading yourselves, making it happen…

SS: That only happened because Tom Biller is moving. Typically, we would have arrived unloading from seven different cars, in typical LA fashion.

WE: What inspires the unity?

Brian Canning: We are all friends. Sometimes it can be tough being in a band that is really big and has a lot of members. But if band members are passionate about it, it becomes easier. Fortunately for us, we have created a band around us that is excited to practice - everyone looks forward to it. We are really hard working, but at the same time we have fun.

SS: There were 13 or more people involved at the start. We had 4-5 girls singing parts.

We didn’t have any shows or anything, but at some point we heard the recordings and said, “This is good.”

BC: It all started out as a recording project.

We had heard that all these friends from other bands had started a choir. At first the idea was to put together this folk band with electronic beats, and then we heard about the choir and decided to bring them in. The recordings turned out great and started making their way around town. We weren’t even thinking about playing shows, and then a few bookers heard the stuff and made offers for us to play gigs.

WE: And now it is something that you feel you want to commodify in a way? Or share, at least?

SS: We decided to take it super-seriously. We chose to pare the band down and started practicing a lot, and we started working towards residency. We got lucky after our 4th or 5th show we got residency and we got the ball rolling.

Now we just keep it all together. It’s fun…

WE: Do you seek to keep your indie status?

Or are you looking to ink the big one?

SS: Well, I don’t know if anybody “inks the big one” anymore. The ideal with us is that I feel like our music is good, and I think it has an appeal that can reach more that just your stubborn indie rocker that wants to be cool. It is cool, I think. But we are not afraid for people to hear it and judge for themselves. I’m not worried about staying underground. I would rather be…

BC: … over ground.

WE: There are a bunch of means for an indie band to share their music.

BC: And I think this band is what it is. We’re

not trying to be anything. We just want as many people to enjoy it as possible.

SS: That’s a good point – we aren’t really trying to be anything. A lot of times bands want to be a certain thing, and that can be important to set your scene. We have been in bands and have done a little bit of that - we have chased that little dragon. If Afternoons catches on and we’re going to work very hard to put it out there – then great. I would have no problem with somebody paying us to do this, but we’re going to do it regardless. The goal is to do it for a living - to do it full time.

WE: It’s all about what your goals are, and what you value...

BC: I think bands are lying if they say that they only want a small following and only play the small venues. They’re liars. You get into music or art so that as many people as possible can share it.

WE: You want people to identify with you.

SS: We don’t want to get people to identify with us. We want to throw it out there and if people want to identify with it, then cool. You know what I mean?

WE: Right. And it feels good when people do identify.

SS: It feels great. I’d rather have {mimics raucous applause}, than {mimics golf clap}. Andy Warhol, for example, wanted everyone to see his work. Shephard Fairey is another one – he puts his stuff everywhere. If you dig it, cool. If not, ‘oh, well.’ With the internet too, musicians can put their stuff out there for everyone. And hopefully it is better than someone’s mom singing in the bathroom.

WE: So you guys are recording an album now? We have heard your music through MySpace and Indie 103.1 FM in Los Angeles.

SS: We’re putting a record together right now.

We have a few songs that we have finished as a demo, as something that people can purchase at shows.

WE: Who are some of your musical and artistic influences?

SS: The obvious ones: The Beatles, Velvet Underground, Beach Boys…

BC: Pavement, Simon & Garfunkel… folk music.

SS: Syd Barrett, Neutral Milk Hotel, John Sebastian… all the good stuff..

BC: … E.E. Cummings, Alan Watts, John Steinbeck…

SS: …I don’t like to read.

ALL: {laughs} SS: I try to absorb whatever is good to us. We didn’t set out to make a record that sounds just this way, or just that way. We just take it all in, translate it, and at the end we try to put it together so that it fits in a realm with the rest of the music. We really like the Beach Boys, but we aren’t trying to be the ‘down’ band. We aren’t trying to be the ‘it’ band right now.

BC: It just happens.

For something to march to in the mornings or afternoons, visit Afternoons at Myspace. com, or tune in to Indie 103.1 FM Los Angeles. Afternoons are currently playing gigs in the Los Angeles area.

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would come up and say, ‘ When’s the new album coming out?’ And we’d be like, ‘That album’s been out for two months!’ Because basically the whole situation with (Toadies former label) Interscope had gotten so bad and they did so little to promote us that people were just unaware that we even had a new album.

But now we play these shows, and we have lots of sold-out shows, and Todd has been asking from the stage, ‘How many first-time Toadies fans do we have here? How many people is this the first time you’ve seen the Toadies?’

And every time it’s more than half, so we’re seeing this whole generation of younger Toadies fans who never saw us back in the day, that maybe got Rubberneck, or maybe Rubberneck and Hell Below, or maybe they got into it too late, or we’re just too young, but I mean these fans are just so excited about seeing the band and hearing new music that somehow we’re just in a better spot to put out a record than we were in 2001. As far as Lisa being gone…

Lisa quit the band and it really disappointed the rest of us when she quit. I understand why she quit. Her life had just changed. You know, I miss Lisa, but she had to do what she had to do at the time and she just couldn’t fit the band in with everything else. But she’s back in music again. She’s got a new band called Tile.

I haven’t really seen her or talked to her in a while, but I hope she’s good.

Clark Vogeler of Toadies interview By Eric Mitts

Apparently, the murky lore of Toadies’ songs lasts a long, long time. Perhaps that’s why the veteran alt-rockers from Texas could resurface this past summer, after disappearing from the rock pond for the last seven years, to reunite for a full-fledged tour in support of their just-released, and very loud, new album No Deliverance. When Wide-Eyed spoke with guitarist and L. A. transplant Clark Vogeler to catch up on where the band has been he had nearly returned to the Lonestar State for a long-since sold-out show in Tyler, Texas, the town that inspired the eerily epic song and much-beloved fan-favorite off the band’s first album, 1994’s Rubberneck. Of course that disc also spawned Toadies’ biggest hit, the unforgettable “Possum Kingdom,” and at the end of last month the band played its first show ever at Possum Kingdom Lake in Graham, Texas, deeming the small festival-like event the first-annual Dia De Los Toadies. “ Whenever we play in Texas the fans are always really excitable,” Vogeler said. “It’s generally a different vibe as soon as we cross the state line because the fans here are just so intense.” That Texas intensity came out at the band’s much larger summer festival event, last month’s Lollapalooza, where they didn’t let their age lessen their ability to rock.

Wide-Eyed: How did the whole idea to reunite come about?

Clark Vogeler: Well it started about two years ago when we got an invite to do a show for the Dallas Observer’s St. Patrick’s Day parade and it kind of fit into everybody’s schedule, so we were like, ‘ What the hell, let’s do it.’ And the response was kind of overwhelming to us. We sold-out of a whole lot of tickets and all the people there were going crazy while we were playing. So after that we were like, ‘Maybe we should do another one?’ We ended up doing another one a few weeks after that and it just kind of snowballed. And then (vocalist/guitarist) Todd (Lewis) found himself with some extra time on his hands because (Lewis’ other band) The Burden Brothers were temporarily defunct and he started writing songs and those sounded like Toadies songs to him. So it kind of all happened organically, just little by little.

It was never like a planned thing. And it’s been fun all along the way. Even if the fun stops today; it’s all been worth it. But I don’t expect the fun to stop today. I think the fun’s just getting going now that the album’s out and people are aware that we’re back around.

WE: Both Todd and (drummer) Mark (Reznick) have stayed in Texas and kept their hands in music over the years. Was it more of a trick for you to get back on board?

CV: Yeah, it definitely was kind of a mind fuck for me to go from just being quiet editor guy in L . A ., you know like editing TV shows and documentaries, where I just work and hang out with a few people to getting on the tour bus and playing shows and signing autographs and getting drunk and being rowdy and all that stuff. It took a little getting used to for me, but I like to think I’m right back in the pocket again.

WE: When you guys broke up in 2001 the biggest reason for calling it quits at that time was that the band didn’t want to go on without (longtime bassist) Lisa (Umbarger). What’s been different this time around, reuniting without her?

CV: I’ll tell you the main reason why it’s different this time. It’s weird, but it actually feels like we’re in a better spot now than we were in 2001 when our second album (Hell Below/Stars Above( came out. We were touring and people

WE: When did your new bass player Doni Blair get into the band then?

CV: We held some auditions and we put out the word on MySpace and everything. And he’s a guy that I had known for ten, fifteen years, and our drummer’s known him for maybe ten years from his work in Hagfish. He’s a super nice guy, an amazing bass player, so when he came to audition he just nailed everything. So it was kind of just on the spot, ‘He’s the right guy.’ And he’s been working out great.

WE: Going back to how many people are seeing Toadies for the first time now, how much do you think Guitar Hero II (which includes “Possum Kingdom”) is responsible for bringing some those kids out to shows?

CV: I’ve seen a lot of messages on our MyS pace and posts on YouTube comments and elsewhere that there are a lot of people that never heard the band before Guitar Hero. I don’t know if that constitutes a large amount of the new fans, but I think probably part of that is that it is on Guitar Hero and I think the other half of it is that that song has just become a staple at a lot of radio stations and it still gets played as much as it ever did. It’s bizarre, but it just comes down to the fact that people are still hearing ‘Possum Kingdom’ for the first time and liking it and getting turned onto the band.

WE: What do you think it is about a song like “Possum Kingdom” that makes it so timeless regardless of what context it’s in?

CV: Man, I don’t know. I think people connect with the lyrics for sure, because fans are always interested to find out what the story is behind that song. They’re always disappointed to find out that Todd didn’t necessarily mean all the things that they thought it meant. I think it’s a catchy riff and it’s got such a weird time signature, so that sets it apart. It’s got good dynamics. I wasn’t in the band when Todd wrote that song, so I think I can comment and say that it’s just a shit-hot good rock song! [Laughs] And even saying that, I had no idea that that song would have the legs or the life that it has. That song is just out there in the consciousness now and if anybody hears three seconds of it, they know that song. It usually takes people back to high school, like them driving around, drinking beers, smoking joints and listening to that song or that album. I was that kid listening to

Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, and whenever I hear any of those bands it takes me back, so it’s cool to be a part of a band that people connect with certain parts of their lives in a good way. That’s awesome.

WE: When I first listened to No Deliverance it sounded like you guys were trying to knock it out of the park. Since you guys are a bit older, did you want to set out to prove that you could still rock it every bit as much as you ever did? CV: Oh yeah, definitely. We realized that were up against it being a band that’s reuniting because we’ve all gone to see our favorite bands we like, and it’s usually like waiting to hear the songs off the albums you like and just tolerating the new stuff, and we certainly expect a large portion of the fans to have to be patient at the shows and wait through the new stuff. But a lot of the fans are listening to the new album with an open mind, and the people are just considering it as an album and not something from this reunited band or somebody trying to give it a second or third shot. We definitely weren’t trying to write like ‘Possum Kingdom II.’ We weren’t even trying to write a hit or put a hit on the album. Our main concern was just to make a good Toadies album in a way that if anybody has Rubberneck or has Hell Below and you like those albums, we want to make sure that they like this album, and we feel like we did pull that off. But since we didn’t want ‘Possum Kingdom II,’ we wanted to make sure that we did take steps in certain directions easily and not just do the same thing over again. Even though it’s been so long, we still want to evolve as a band and try new things and push into new areas. So we were definitely conscious of that when we were making the album.

WE: Despite the challenges of playing new songs on a reunion tour, how excited were you to take those songs you had created in the studio live? CV: {Laughs} We were excited and nervous. The way we recorded, it actually wasn’t all four guys playing at once.

We did the drums and then we did the bass and then the guitars, so we decided all the details, the fine details, were considered on the spot as they were recorded, so when we had to get these songs ready to take on the road, we basically had to learn how to play them live.

And that was a new experience for us because for Hell Below/Stars Above, we practiced those songs for five years before we recorded them.

So there’s only about five or six songs on the new record that we can play well and the rest we need to learn how to play. {Laughs} We’ve got some homework to do, basically.

WE: Having already had that experience where you were forced to sit on songs for such a long time before an album came out, is it fun to have the opposite of that now, having those be so fresh for the band? CV: It is an interesting experience. It’s kind of nerve wracking, especially because I really didn’t work out the guitar solos. We just decided that we’d go in and on the day of the solo for this song or that song, we’d just kind of figure it out on the spot, kind of just go for it. And that’s real nerve wracking for a guitar player to think that in the space of a half hour you’re going to put something on tape that’s going to be on record forever. Especially if that’s not the way you’re used to doing it. But it’s also kind of freeing in a way because you’re able to just like feel it and go for it and get behind or try something different and I think if we were going to make another record, I would probably prefer to do it this way where you work more spontaneously. It’s much more interesting than rehearsing for five years. I mean who’s got the time? We’re all old as fuck now, so I think we’d have to do it that way.

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Photos by Damien Thompson

Clark Vogeler’s partner in crime; Todd Lewis of Toadies WE: Speaking of how freeing the who experience was with the new album, was maintaining a sense of freedom this time around a big part of why you went with an independent label for the release of No Deliverance rather than even attempting to go back into the major label world?

CV: I don’t think we would even if we were given the opportunity to for a couple of reasons.

Of course the business climate has changed completely, and going back to Hell Below/Stars Above, it took them not just five years, but seven years to put out that record and Interscope bungled that all the way down the line. We had a record ready to go in ’96 and it didn’t come out until 2001. But this time, last August Todd decided to call us and we all decided to do a new record and we talked to Kirtland Records and here we are a year later and that record’s out, and that is something you just can’t do on a major label. So for myriad reasons we’re happy to be on an independent label and especially Kirtland Records, because from start

to finish they’ve all been about the music. Just helping us try to get what we want on record.

Whereas Interscope was like, ‘ We don’t hear a single, go write more songs.’ So we couldn’t be happier than where we are to be label-wise.

WE: With what happened to you guys while you were working on Hell Below/Stars Above, how glad are you that that major label machine is starting to crumble?

CV: Oh man, I’m real happy. They’ve been fucking artists for so long and it’s just been getting worse and worse and now they’re just reaping what they sow. I mean the best part of it all is it really seems like the power is shifting back towards the artist in all these little ways and that’s something that’s needed to happen for a long time. And the way indie labels are now, bands are allowed to kind of develop and get better over a few records, whereas with major labels, like you’ve got two weeks with one single at radio and if that single doesn’t pop immediately you’re dead in the water and

there goes your chances. So I think that over the next few years all we’re going to see is just better music available to us because artists are given more opportunities to do what they do creatively. I think it’s a really exciting time. I don’t know where it’s all going to land. I think it’s going to take some time for the new business model to evolve because it’s definitely in the process now and it’s cool to see.

WE: Especially with a band like you guys who did struggle with your label situation so much quite a while ago, being able to come back and be who you really wanted to be now, that really shows a lot to other bands coming up what’s possible now.

CV: Yeah, that’s a great way of looking at it. I hadn’t thought about it that way. It’s kind of like in a break-up, what do they say, the best revenge is just a happy life. We’re getting our revenge on Interscope by making music our way and being happy about it. But, dude, I’ve got to say that was five years of our lives! So

collectively twenty years of our lives just spent sitting in a rehearsal space because of the fucking men who didn’t like the songs they heard. {Sighs} Still bitter, still bitter. But that does add to how happy I am with how things are going now. Now it feels like all the suffering that we went through in the late ‘90s into 2001 is paying off and so it just feels great to be able to come back seven years later and still have a career or an opportunity to play music on this scale. It’s a big shock to me that we’re able to, I think it was a shock to everybody to realize that we still have fans out there, but we’re just fucking stoked to go play songs and have people be excited about it.

Toadies will rock The Roxy Sept. 11.

No Deliverance is in stores and online now.

To hear songs off the album now, click over to thetoadies.com.

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Locals Only Neighborhood Favorites

The Circle, Indie LA Designer Outlet

Nine Star

2395 Glendale Blvd, Silverlake

1103 Olympic Blvd, LA

Phone: (323) 665-5336 Wed-Sat: 12 p.m. - 7 p.m. / Sun: 12 p.m. - 6 p.m.

Phone: (310) 477-3999 • Web: 9star.com

The Circle is a unique cross between a chic designer boutique and an outlet store. We carry samples and backstock from celebrated Los Angeles designer collections regularly featured in exclusive fashion retail stores and magazines such as Lucky, Elle, Vogue, and US weekly. With prices reduced 40%-85% below original retail prices, it’s like a sample sale everyday!

Surfing Cowboys

On the corner of Olympic & Sepulveda in Los Angeles lies the one stop shop for any Surf Skate Snow or BMX junkie on the west side. Nine Star stocks everything for or about action sports.

Including a stellar selection of clothing from the likes of RVCA, LRG, Quiksilver and Obey. Come to shop, get your snowboard tuned or just hang out.

They have a full service shop, video game lounge and a full on half pipe in the parking lot!

Hama Restaurant

1624 Abbot Kinney Blvd, Venice

213 Windward Ave, Venice

Phone: (310) 450-4891 • Web: surfingcowboys.com

Phone: (310) 396-8783 • Web: hamasushi.com

Need an antidote to the prefab sterility of the Ikea Age? California Modern meets surfing culture in a match made in Venice (Beach, that is). For 10 years Surfing Cowboys has supplied its global clientele with vintage mid-century furnishings, 60’s surfboards, original artwork, contemporary jewelry, and anything else that catches the eyes of owners Donna and Wayne Gunther.

Hama Restaurant has more than just the rogue gallery of mainstream sushis. They feature a vast and innovative menu, including eyebrow raising combinations and sakes, putting them above the rest. An informal atmosphere appeals to a diverse clientele, from celebrities to regulars, from sushi experimentalists to connoisseurs.

Franky’s

KG Owner/Artist 264 Customs

3323 W. Sunset Blvd., Silverlake

7303 Melrose Ave, Hollywood

Phone: (323) 668-2088

Phone: (323) 935-2494 Web: kiksnink.com

Web: myspace.com/franksbarberandboutique

Web: myspace.com/264customs

Barber Shop & Vintage Boutique • Fades • Crew Cuts • Flat Tops • Shaves • Hats

• Rock T’s • Western Shirts • Vintage T’s • Sunglasses

Fresh Pressed Screen Shops 4646 Hollywood Blvd., Los Feliz Phone: (323) 66FRESH Web: fresh-pressed.com FreshPressed™ allows users of all ages to make oneof-a-kind screenprinted wearables, gifts & goods for themselves, loved ones, clients & customers.

Deliver a graphic or photo file to them or just go into the shop and doodle your masterpiece on one of their worksheets and within minutes, they can have you ready to pull your first squeegee!

C&O Trattoria

31 Washington Blvd, Marina Del Rey

What is 264? What does it mean? Yeah we’re a tattoo shop but 264 gives us that edge, that little bit extra, that different experience you’re looking for if you’re tired of the same dull atmospheres you’ll find on hollywood blvd. come check us out, get tat’d or just come to find out what 264 means.

Bay Cities Italian Deli & Bakery 1517 Lincoln Blvd, Santa Monica

Phone: (310) 395-8279 • Web: baycitiesitaliandeli.com

Bay Cities Italian Deli & Bakery operates as both fully-stocked grocer specializing in all the Italian delights one could ever desire, as well as a deli with a healthy bounty of thick sandwiches, hoagies, baked goods and treats. With emphasis on quality, variety and freshness, Bay Cities’ become extremely popular.

Father’s Office

1018 Montana Ave, Santa Monica

Phone: (310) 823-9491 • Web: cotrattoria.com

Phone: (310) 393-2337 • Web: fathersoffice.com

C&O Trattoria prides itself on generous portions and rich Italian dishes, stating that “people generally don’t leave here hungry.”An optional garden patio, nightly sing-a-longs and signature cultural cuisine like Killer Garlic Rolls, Calamari Fritti and pastas of all mixes and blends combine for a true experience.

This sleek bar offers over 30 beers on tap and a healthy selection of wine, which easily distracts from their lack of hard liquor. The menu offers a variety of specialty appetizers with a Spanish flair, but most are impressed by their signature bleu cheeseburger, often hailed the best around.

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this has affected everything in our lives and in our music. This ability to communicate in a musical dialog with people from countries we couldn’t even go to… still cannot go to. Finally, really on a basic and simple level, people in general, Amercians too, people are part of a world where we do not really know what is going on.

Tamir Muskat of Balkan Beat Box interview by Nikos Monoyois

WE: Do you think music can persuade the politics of the listeners, in terms of tolerance? There was one time where BBB brought a Palestinian rapper on stage in Israel, and the crowd loved it.

TM: Yes. Well, first of all, people that don’t really agree with nor have criticism with our band don’t really show up. I think the hard work is to catch those outside of our fan base with these issues. A festival in France, for example, there were 15,000 people out there and some of them don’t know the band and they’ll be there, and something really changes people’s minds. I’ve seen it so many times. A kid could come up to you after a show saying, “This is amazing that Israel has such a positive message of Americans that people don’t even know about it.”

So, music definitely is power. First we’re musicians, but everything that comes with it is a blast. We can change people’s minds with this kind of stuff… showing the possibility of a dialog instead of his cousin being blown up in Palestine.

Balkan Beat Box (BBB) isn’t your typical “world music.” Try mixing yesteryear’s folk musical influences from the eastern rim of the Mediterranean with energized electro globally present today. Then add eight multi-ethnic musicians when on a stage produce vibes reminiscent of a traveling circus. Top it off with their desire to erase political boundaries asking the question, “Our ears don’t have them, why should we?” In cities all over the planet, the people of this world are listening and dancing to the new BBB sound. Wide-Eyed spoke with co-founder Tamir Muskat, born and raised in Tel Aviv, Israel as the son of a Romanian immigrant. As an accomplished drummer, Tamir moved to New York in 1995 where a variety of successful musical projects led him toward launching BBB with co-founder Ori Kaplan.

WE: Do you think the youth in the Middle East is being influenced this way? Some estimates claim that almost half the population in the Middle East is under the age of twenty-five. So, as these youths are listening to music like BBB, do you believe that music can act as a positive force that has the power to bring people from nations with political confrontations together?

TM: Yes, it does. It does. It’s happening

Wide-Eyed: Briefly, talk to me about the philosophy behind Balkan Beat Box (BBB), behind the music?

Tamir Muskat: I would say from a thousand angles over the years it’s about connecting cultures through this power we have with music. It’s a beautiful tool for us to just deliver our ideas and opinions. We put all of our energy, with growing up in the Middle East, in Israel, with the political situation and growing up, music was our best weapon. First of all, with all the sadness of things, we want to deliver music fanatically with positive energy. Over the years, all of us made different music always connected to Mediterranean and Eastern European sound, but some of the projects we were involved in were very mellow and dark sometimes. Then it just came time and we decided to direct it all into positive energy with crazy amounts of positive sounds, melodies, and beats. We do that in various ways, to talk and deal with subjects we cared about, worried about, or have something to say about… wrong presidents in the certain countries, etc., etc.

WE: When you were younger, you protested traditional and native music, which many youths do. Presently, what can you say you’ve learned regarding

the importance of that cultural and native music you grew up with?

TM: I’m not sure… probably a never-ending process. I can say there was definitely a rejection from the fact of being curious of other cultures and what’s going on in the West, what the radio is playing, and what famous bands are playing. Between growing up with the most beautiful thing near you, sometimes you’ve got to go look at somebody else’s stuff just to know how beautiful it is. I think looking back, summing up the process over the years in New York and being completely open to anything that comes in while keeping these roots in the sounds and experimenting and stretching it as much as we can.

WE: What have you benefitted from with your exposure to New York? Is it easier to produce your kind of sound?

TM: Being in New York is kind of a heaven for multicultural experience. It’s got no wars happening… on ground. It’s an open minded environment for people to meet without having this baggage of countries and problems and wars. You can see a Pakistani talking to a Mid-Westerner with no problems. I think because of the world we grew up in, it was very important for us to get to an environment like this. Obviously,

and it’s giving us so much will continue our expressions. It’s a blessing how you make music and not always have this chance to experience the influx of this really directly.

Touring and the shows we play, being on the road has ups and downs of energy with how much you can do every night. This is really like vodka red bull, u’know.

WE: Is BBB working on any new projects?

TM: Yes. Constantly. BBB as a band will release a remix album that will come out in America soon I think. It just came out in Europe. It’s a work of remixes from all around the world, some for competition, some for other reasons, we just gave away tracks and multi-track tracks and people just remixed them from all around the world. We choose our favorite ones and ones we’ve made. We’ve put it out on a nice DVD with video. We’re constantly working on our third album if you don’t count the remix one. It’s quite an amazing experience. We’ve been in Belgrade (Serbia) and recorded some local people there, and a lot of working here with people in Tel Aviv.

So, it’s been really nice.

WE: In September you’ll be playing in Los Angeles, right?

TM: Yes, September 9th at El Rey, then San Francisco and all the way to New York.

WE: Hopefully we’ll be able to make that show. Thank you very much for taking the time to speak with me today and good luck on your upcoming shows.

TM: My pleasure, I enjoyed it. Thank you very much and hope to see you at the show.

Stop and say hi if you are there…

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H Oh! 2

By Wes Eaton Gene Simmons walked jubilantly into the classroom. Not Gene Simmons the rock star, but my new Sociology professor at the local community college. This late middle-aged man with frazzled grey hair and a hidden, but tested vigor shook his head and laughed cynically. “If water is free,” he questioned, “why are we all buying it?” This was 1998. The American consumer, now readily paying money for something that was generally abundant and free, flummoxed Sociologists and delighted corporate bottling companies. This was a cultural crux perfect for analyzing late capitalist America; convincing evidence of our exponentially mindless consuming. A new need had been created – plastic bottles of untraceable water filled somewhere by someone else – and we were ready to pay for it.

Today’s trendy bottled waters did not, however, start out in plastic, but glass. Green, light blue and clear glass imported from the French Alps or Italian glacial springs filled with mineral laden naturally sparkling water preceded the present craze. These opulent products helped evolve a relationship between exclusive status and rare imports, one that is even more widely exploited today. (The best example being Bling H20.) Born out of locales where the public drinking water really was in question, they slowly became more common and profitable in the US market. At your grocery store, what was four feet of low traffic shelf space five years ago is now its own isle.

Sales have doubled since 1998 and as far as individually packaged beverages go, only soft drinks are more popular; so why the boom? We didn’t drink water from 16.9 oz. PET bottles growing up, so why do we now need cases stacked in the garage, pantry and refrigerator?

Obviously, we all need water to live. Only now it seems we need a specific brand of water. Here’s the message the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) exudes: Tap water is for the common, unscrupulous person.

Its integrity has been questioned and faults have been found. The daily Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) tests are evidence of its inferiority. Bottled water is clean, healthy, natural, and tastes the best. You buy a case at Costco for three dollars!

In actuality, tap water, being regulated by the EPA , is much more closely monitored than bottled water; which is not to say that all US municipal tap water is perfectly safe. Alternately, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) looks after the bottled water industry, and it’s a wonder more of us aren’t dead. Bottled water is not subject to anywhere near the same regiment of mandatory tests and evaluations as municipal water. Much of the testing is in fact voluntary and even that little bit of oversight is deemed unnecessary as long as the product is not moved across state lines.

Coca- Cola Corporation and Pepsi, producers of Dasani and Aquafina, respectively, dominate the current bottled water market. But before all the filtering, reverse osmosis and chemical flavor posturing, these products actually started out in a public water supply, not a pristine spring somewhere in the mountains. Coke and Pepsi are actually selling public water. So despite the minimum bottled water testing requirements, I’m sure they understand what a contaminated bottle of water would do to their profit margins. Drinking these particular products will of

course not make you sick. They will, however, end up in your landfill and outlast every living thing on this planet. Also, it takes more water to make a bottle of Dasani than is actually in the bottle, which is absurd.

Unfortunately, convenience and the resulting profits neutralize irrationality.

Some would also call bottled water healthy, which in a sense it is, considering the corrosive and fattening high fructose corn syrup alternative. Yet ultimately it’s the water which is healthy, not the use of 17 million barrels of oil annually to make the packages.

The commodity is wrapped up nicely with what the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) tagged “a perception of purity.” Most of us do not really know what’s in our water. With all the world’s diseases, food pathogens and other health concerns, we’d like to at least believe that the cold plastic bottles of water now found in each and every convenience store are safe for us and our loved ones. Just like the health propaganda of margarine and the real butter scare, we wanted it to be guilt free and eagerly swallowed everything we were fed. It takes a long time to expose such authoritative chicanery.

A survey of the various bottled and municipal water watchdog groups turns up problems with both old and new ways of hydrating. Pharmaceuticals and poisons are commonly found in major public drinking water sources, and who knows what’s in many of the various brands of bottled water. With water now off the list of assumed health products, it seems there’s nothing left that we can take for granted. As far as food goes, our innocence has been lost and our trust broken by corporate food industries.

So what should we drink? Bottled water, a product of the loosely regulated free market, or municipal source tap water, a continually contaminated and cleansed natural resource? If we follow each option to its logical conclusion, it seems that the choice is ultimately one between private corporations and public governments, a curious position which has inspired me to tap my own personal artesian well. The bottled water industry, regulated by the FDA as a food item as opposed to a public need, seeks only to make a profit. Public water sources attempt to supply potable drinking water within a nonprofit based framework. Both systems, along with irrigation and many other major public and private uses of water, rely on much of the same natural resources and will therefore always be at ends.

Becoming aware seems the first step towards healthy water consumption. Let’s stop assuming everything for sale is safe. And for the cynically critical, not everything is deadly, so participative decisions do make an impact on your and other’s health. If your local tap water is convincingly safe, try to choose it over the stuff sold in plastic. Currently only 1 in 5 plastic water bottles are recycled, so pay attention to your personal waste. Let’s question this bizarre system of single serving throw away packaging while simultaneously demanding clean water from our public sources.

30

looking to make it big in the ska world?

AB: Well, I guess don’t worry about making it big and don’t worry about trying to get a record deal to validate yourself as a band. Just keep making the music that you love and just keep playing.

Get out there and play in front of people as much as you can. Always have music available.

SK: Yeah. Always try to push the art form forward. Learn more-- as much as you can-- about ska music and where it’s been and where it could possibly go. See what other people have done with it.

AB: But also, don’t just copy the bands that came before you.

SK: Venture out of the ska world to see where you can draw influence from other things as well.

AB: Yeah, I think that’s what has helped us out the most. We listen to all kinds of music and we don’t only listen to ska. A lot of bands do that. They start up, like, “we love Reel Big Fish so we want to be Reel Big Fish, and we’ll only listen to Reel Big Fish.” And you can’t do that.

SK: You know, think about it… The Police were a punk rock band that was heavily influenced by ska and reggae. So we need to be ska and reggae bands that are heavily influenced by other things.

WE: Are there any particular bands that aren’t ska that really influence you guys?

SK: {Laughs} Yeah, like a bajillion.

AK: Bajillions. I don’t even know where to start.

SK: You name it… it has probably been an influence in one way or another.

Real Big Fish interview By Emilee Petersmark

No one is safe from the powerhouse of Third Wave Ska, Reel Big Fish. Even after over a decade of tours, six studio albums, numerous member changes and label switching, Reel Big Fish remains an unstoppable force and maintains their place as one of the biggest names in the genre of ska. Founded in 1992 by frontman Aaron Barrett, the Los Angeles-based ska/punk band has been going strong ever since, pioneering the Third Wave and combating the modern stigma surrounding contemporary mainstream music with a conglomeration of fantastic musicianship, a brass section powerful enough to destroy entire cities, tongue-in-cheek lyrics, and all-around face-melting awesomeness.

The six piece symphony of ska had been an underground hit in the early 90’s, eventually experiencing a taste of mainstream fame with the songs “Sellout” and “Where Have You Been?” At the height of the Third Wave, they’d also been featured in the movie BASEketball playing “Beer” and a cover of A-ha’s “Take On Me.” The band now continues its legacy by producing music on their own label and playing shows with other giants of the genre, such as Less Than Jake, Streetlight Manifesto, and Catch-22, proving that Ska is most certainly not dead.

Coming off of Warped Tour, R eel Big Fish has announced dates for a Western Hemisphere tour, with many shows in Canada and South America to promote their newest album, Monkeys for Nothin’ and the Chimps for Free.

Amid the manic insanity backstage and behind the scenes of Warped Tour ’08, Wide-Eyed’s Emilee Petersmark caught a few words with Aaron Barrett and second-in-command, Scott Klopfenstein, before their set to discuss the deeper workings of the band, the development of their genre, and Gwen Stefani’s harajuku girls.

Wide-Eyed: You guys have been around for about fifteen years — what was it that made you want to get involved in music?

Scott Klopfenstein: Oh, that’s easy.

Aaron Barrett: I just love music. I love music so much that it wasn’t enough to just to listen to it and to watch bands play. I wanted to do it, too, and make more music. I don’t know, I just needed to play it, I needed to make music. I couldn’t just listen.

SK: Ditto!

WE: Where and when did you first hear ska music and what was it about it that made you want to play that music specifically?

AB: Well, for me, growing up in the 80’s I heard a lot of ska music on the radio. You’d hear Madness and you’d hear The English Beat and stuff, and I didn’t really realize that there was a thing called “ska” until much later. And then I went back and I was like, “oh man, I’ve been listening to ska this whole time!” And also, just being in the Orange County scene — I just started going

to shows and they just happened to all be ska shows. And any weekend you’d go see No Doubt or Sublime and all these rad bands so it was kind of unavoidable for me.

SK: Yeah, pretty much. Ditto!

AB: (points to Scott) And this little kid, in school he played the horn, so the ska bands grabbed him up.

SK: You’ve got to play ska.

AB: Yeah. It’s the best.

SK: I had started listening, but once again, I had no idea that it was called anything, but, you know, you hear it on the radio. And then a friend of mine in seventh grade gave me the very first Fishbone album and I was like, “This is AMAZING! This is, like, the greatest thing I’ve ever heard of.”

AB: Best four songs I’ve ever heard.

SK: Yeah. Six. Six songs.

AB: Oh, I don’t listen to those other ones. I skip “Modern Industry” and, uh… what’s that other one?

SK: (shrugs exaggeratedly).

WE: So is it hard writing music for a band with six players, including an entire brass section? How do you guys do it?

AB: Ever since I’ve been writing songs it’s been for a lot of people. It’s kind of what I’ve always done, so it doesn’t seem hard to me. It just seems like if it was only a guitar, bass, and drums it wouldn’t be enough. Like, “ We need more stuff on top of this,” you know?

SK: It’s like painting… you get more colors, and you get to make it a little more interesting. You can add movement and texture in different ways.

WE: Then do brass players write their own parts?

AB: It depends on the song, who writes what and how it unfolds. It’s different every time.

SK: We all kind of partake on the arrangement, though, of like harmonies and counter-melodies. Stuff like that.

WE: Where does your inspiration come from? Are there any particularly weird, tragic, or funny stories that have become Reel Big Fish songs?

AB: Yeah, I mean, we just kind of write about life sometimes, write about funny stuff sometimes.

It just depends on what’s going on, and whether we feel like talking about what’s going on or just making up some funny story or some random thing or just doing complete nonsense.

WE: Well, you guys have a fantastic fan-base…

AB: Yeah, we do, absolutely!

WE: What’s the weirdest thing a fan has ever said to you or done at a show?

SK: There was a guy a couple of days ago, and I don’t know, this struck me as probably one of the funniest things I’ve personally ever heard. He was standing there at the signing and he’s like, “ Wow! I can’t believe I’m here! It’s like seeing Bigfoot!” {Laughs} I thought that was awesome.

Comparing us to Bigfoot.

WE: Well, do you believe in Bigfoot?

SK: You know, I don’t know. Could be out there.

AB: I don’t not believe in Bigfoot.

WE: So, do you guys have any advice of the legions of ska bands and unsigned hopefuls

WE: Are there any bands that you haven’t toured with that you’d like to?

AB: I’d like to be on that No Doubt comeback tour.

SK: That’d be awesome.

AB: I’d like to go on tour with Rancid… we played one show with them, but I’d like to tour with them, too.

SK: Yeah, that’d be fun too.

WE: No Doubt, huh? How do you feel about Gwen Stefani’s harajuku girls?

AB: That’s kind of weird, don’t you think?

SK: They’re cute, though.

AB: It’s an interesting gimmick, I guess.

SK: I hope she’s nice to them.

WE: Seems a little shady to me. Like fancy slavery.

AB: {laughs} SK: I bet they’re treated pretty well though.

They get to tour around, probably get paid for it, and they get to wear wacky clothes.

AB: Are they really from Japan?

SK: I don’t know. I don’t know much about it.

AB: Are they really harajuku girls? I mean, are they authentic?

SK: I don’t know. I don’t know much about it.

WE: So, what’s your favorite thing about being on tour?

AB: Well, the Warped Tour is different from all the other tours.

SK: Yes, yes… it’s outside, it’s hot, you only play a half hour…

AB: It’s all day. But, I think that’s what makes it fun. There’s always something to do.

SK: Keeps you busy.

AB: On a normal tour you just sort of wait around until 10 o’clock at night.

SK: The best part about any tour, though, is definitely playing music every day, or as many times as you can.

AB: That’s the best part of my life. I get to play music. All. The. Time.

WE: What do you miss from home when you’re touring?

AB: My dog.

SK: My wife.

AB: My dog’s wife.

Coda...

Alex Grey

(continued from page 9)

Holy people glow with halos, radiances and auras.

Symbolist painters of the late 19th century, such as William Blake and Jean Delville were visionaries that incorporated subtle energetic or transfigurative elements in their work. I think my work follows in that tradition. I’ve even imagined that I may be a reincarnation of Jean Delville, a Belgian symbolist painter. He died in 1953, less than forty-nine days before my own conception, falling within the Tibetan Buddhist period of The Bardo – the period between lifetimes. When I look at Delville’s paintings I feel as if I painted them, a reaction I’ve never had to another artists’ work.

WE: Absolutely. And that would certainly be a strong influence in your life. You’ve created some amazing work for the band Tool. How did that relationship come to be?

AG: In 1999 I met Adam Jones. He came to my art exhibit in L. A. and expressed interest in my work.

He introduced the idea of working on the Lateralus album art. I love the music of Tool and it was an honor to meet Adam. A long friendship began which continues. Adam had the idea of creating a booklet of acetate overlays of anatomical systems. I had made an anatomical booklet like this in art school and was always interested in doing overlays of body and soul so the idea resonated with me. The imagery created for that album became like an icon for Tool. Soon after the album came out, I started receiving emails of flaming eye tattoos. I’ve seen the symbol tattooed on every part of the human body over the years. It’s been quite amazing.

WE: What can you say about the role of the unconscious mind and how it plays in your work.

AG: Would the super-conscious be part of the unconscious?

WE: I would personally think; yes.

AG: I agree. The unconscious is whatever is out of range of the conscious mind -- the subconscious, the super-conscious, or other realms of multidimensional awareness. When we take LSD, the doors of perception open and we are flooded with information from many realms of consciousness.

Rather than relate my work to the unconscious or dream world, like the surrealists, my work points to realms of the divine imagination visited in the mystical experience, often leading to a sense of the infinite. There is a cosmos of equally vast scale within our minds as without, a revelation confirmed by thousands of years of mystic reporting that the kingdom of heaven is within. So, rather than point to the unconscious, which is the happy land of the surrealists, I’m more interested in the expansive, unitive and transcendental aspects of our identity. Planetary, galactic or cosmic consciousness are expanded states of identity that can be very healing. This expanded awareness can take us beyond suffering and contracted ego. The mission of sacred art has always been to suggest the existence of a realm beyond the physical, a place of higher peace and love.

WE: Would you be willing to share your thoughts on the upcoming election?

AG: The 2000 elections were rigged. Bush is a criminal, part of a corporate cabal that was responsible for 9/11 and took over America in an illegally controlled election. It has lead to no end of trouble for America,. The Bush Cheney crime syndicate has justified with lies the invasion of Iraq, and should be criminally investigated by the World Court at The Hague, their assets seized. Halliburton, Blackwater, all of these criminal organizations should be put on trial for mass murder.

Even with the hardcore cynicism of the last eight years, I think it’s important to vote for the choice that is best for the world and the environment. There’s a ground swell of hope behind Obama because he appears to be such an inspiring leader. The country has been living in such despair. Obama may restore integrity to the office and to America’s image throughout the world. He’s a world citizen who can think on his feet, and his presidency is an historic possibility and a hope for America. I would love to see the country unite behind this extraordinary man.

31

WE: Well, we here at Wide-Eyed agree with you 100%. We all are pushing for change and really hoping that the American public hasn’t been beaten down too far in the last eight years, and that we all get out there and vote for change and really, really fight along the way.

AG: Absolutely. Thank you for being a free press, an inalienable right that has suffered in the last eight years.

WE: Is there anything we didn’t cover that you would like to cover?

AG: We invite you to visit the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors while we’re still in New York City. Please come this fall and see this beautiful installation before we move to our new location 65 miles upstate. It has always been our intention to build sacred architecture. We found a beautiful site, about 40 acres near the Hudson River, easily accessible by train and car.

Art and spirit retreats will be held there. One of the existing structures will temporarily house the permanent collection while we raising money to build a temple of art. All that are inspired are welcome to participate. The Chapel can be a legacy that we leave to the future, an enduring sanctuary of creative spirit representing our highest possibilities.

http://www.cosm.org

Scars on Broadway (continued from page 16) DM: Things are going to change whether I like it or not, or whether you like it or not. I don’t know how they’re going to change everyday. Something spontaneous could happen next week and it could change our whole world, like 9/11. We were going about, living our lives, everything was cool, everyone was traveling, and everyone was fine. One day you woke up in the morning and those planes hit those buildings. The whole world changed from that time. And it’s gonna change whether we like it or not; it’s changing as we speak. I have nothing against the change. I’m actually curious to see where the change leads us, but sometimes I feel like some people are blind and they aren’t really paying attention to the change and that’s when it can possibly get frustrating or possibly get to a point where people won’t know how to handle change because it comes at you like a surprise. So if you’re expecting change, you’re kind of ready for it. I don’t know. When it comes to hope or anything like that, I don’t really have that. It’s not that I don’t have it; it’s just not what I’m focused on.

WE: Do you see yourself as a musician, serving as a reflection of that coming or constant change?

DM: For me it’s all reflection. It has nothing to do with personal beliefs or anything like that or I’m against this one organization. It’s just all reflection.

WE: You’ve said publicly before how you will probably put out another Scars on Broadway album before another SOAD album. Do you want to give Scars more time to grow into what it’s going to become?

DM: Yes. Nobody in System talks about getting together and doing a System album. It’s not just me. It’s not like I’m the guy that has that in his hands to control. It’s not like, ‘ Well Daron said he doesn’t want to do another System album yet, so…’ It doesn’t work that way. System consists of three other people aside from me, so when the time is right to do that, whenever that is, I think it will be later in the future than sooner. It’s just we’re putting so much effort into Scars and we have a new label and we have new band members, we’ve put so much work into this it would feel like the wrong move to turn back now and just leave this be. {Laughs} We don’t sit there and talk about a timeline for this band, because it could be for the next ten years; we don’t know. We’re taking it as it comes.

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WideEyed.indd 1

6/20/08 1:31:35 PM

32

Toadies

The Shakey Hands

Juana Molina

TV on the Radio

Kirtland Records

holocene/KRS

Domino

DGC/Interscope

To say Toadies’ triumphant third album return is loud is an understatement as big as the band’s sound. Texas-sized riffs fill the disc front to back, living up to the legacy the Austin-based band established early before getting leapfrogged by the entire post-grunge movement in the seven years since their last album, and 14 years since their debut splash, Rubberneck, fit the flannel crowd. The powerful playing of founding members Todd Lewis (vocals/guitar) and Mark Reznicek (drums), along with longtime guitarist Clark Vogeler, should make listeners forget these guys’ ages. The immovably massive “Man of Stone” and opener “So Long Lovely Eyes,” among others, chug it under a scorching sun, leaving no doubt that just because they don’t hop up very often, these rockers haven’t gotten lost in the moss.

–Eric Mitts

Lunglight is a fine record. These cats can polish a turd quite effectively. The quirky rhythms paired with the stoned out howls of singer Nick Delffs make for a delicious freak tossed salad. They drink like a Sparks, you can’t tell if you are supposed to be drunk or real awake. Lunglight pull off the somber through an upbeat toe-tappin’ boogie. The album opens up with “A New Parade” a lo-fi Brainiac-esk number gone sing along.

The arrangements feel Fugazi (at the front of the record) meets Neil Young (towards the end of the record), with hints of Lee Renoldo whiplash, and they sound like they record in a BIG room.

“Air Better Come” is a gnarly little dance party, with the appropriate amount of cowbell. They explore dub-esque rhythms on “Love of All.” Look for this band to blow the fuck up, they will be at Spaceland on October 22nd.

–Benjamin Hunter

Argentinean singer/songwriter Juana Molina offers a strange album with Un Dia. It’s only eight tracks, but each track is a long and bizarre journey through layers of haunting instrumentation and wispy vocals. At times the music is as simple and beautiful as Iron & Wine, and as others as delightfully WTF as Animal Collective. Frequently classified as folk/electronica fusion, Molina’s latest recording certainly contains repetitive beats and a moody ambiance, but her voice lingers in the outer limits of folk. Good for car rides through the desert or sleepy-time music if you’re hoping for dreams worth writing down.

No longer howling at the moon, TV on the Radio comes charging down from the summit following the late-night lycanthropy of their last album, 2006’s sophomore smash Return To Cookie Mountain. Right from the start on “Halfway Home,” frontman Tunde Adebimpe and guitarist/vocalist Kyp Malone lead a charge of driving rock riffs and vocal harmonies. The latter spill over into subsequent stand-out tracks “Crying,” a number with an older, funkier, yet still spaced-out soul than anything the band has done before and “Family Tree,” a pristine piano ballad. Predictably unpredictable, TVOTR twists at every turn, with each song sounding completely different from the last – or anything else out there – as strings join the saxophones, synths and signature loops of producer/multi-instrumentalist David Sitek in accompanying Adebimpe’s always amazing voice.

–Eric Mitts

No Deliverance

Lunglight

The Dead Science

Deerhunter

Constellation

Kranky

Do you fancy yourself eccentric, sport? Do you like rock operas, captain? Do you fantasize living in a pulp-noir steampunk dystopia where charming characters such as Klaus Nomi, Scott Walker, Edgar Allen Poe and David Bowie linger in alleyways selling pocket watches? Well, then, governor, I’d suggest you tap into The Dead Science’s Villainaire posthaste. This operatic series of dismal ballads, delivered in frontman Sam Micken’s trembling falsetto, pairs nicely with a crisp rock sensibility for a palate-cleansing good time. Plus, they’ve summed up most of our relationships with the brilliant line: “I heard I was terrible to you last night/but I must confess I can’t remember anything.” Be still my beating heart.

–Juliet Bennet-Rylah

Georgia-based Deerhunter pulls out Microcastle for release in October, even though most of the bit-torrent snatchers probably got their greedy, little claws on it when it leaked in May. Microcastle is an album that could be described as “pretty” but remains laden with ambient distortion. Bradford Cox’s lilting vocals meander through each track atop saccharine guitar, heavy on the reverb, played back through a field of static or building to grunge-era melee.

Microcastle seems in some way an album lost in time – ‘80s-into-’90s alt. rock bands My Bloody Valentine, The Jesus and Mary Chain and Sonic Youth are certainly channeled here in a lot of ways, with admitted influences, according to Cox, stemming from ‘50s-era doo-wop. Timeless, well-produced, diverse enough to hold interest, and thoughtful enough to provide a soundscape to good scenery. You should take it to the beach.

–Juliet Bennet-Rylah

Villainaire

Un Dia

–Juliet Bennet-Rylah

Microcastle

The Verve Forth Red/On Your Own

This album will be scrutinized and overanalyzed to the hilt, and why shouldn’t it be?! 11 Years?! This much talent and you stay away from the studio for 11 years?!

Ok, enough badgering – The Verve are back, and psych and wander their way through 10 songs quite nicely, like it’s everybody’s bidness. Lead single “Love Is Noise” may seem strange up front given the squawking sample, but the

Dear Science

song is a huge, catchy, pulsing triumph, that should reach towards “Bittersweet” status. Try not to love the hook. That, and Richard Ascroft is beautiful when he woops along with the loop… dude’s still got soul and snarl. Songs like “Valium Skies,” “I See Houses,” and “Rather Be” all soar like songs your mom likes on ‘98s Urban Hymns. More adventurous are the tracks no doubt scaled back from late night jam sessions. “Noise Epic” is a sexy, moody-groover that erupts with some violence and fuzz nearing the end of its 8+ minutes – Ashcroft delivering with some pomp not unlike Liam Gallagher.

“Columbo” is another solid groove filled with apparitions of the Stone Roses and tons of satisfying atmospheric echo. The iTunes version of this album will feature what would have been one of the album’s best tracks, so look out for that you fine customers… I mean… music-lovers.

— Brian Hoekstra

Alex Grey/ Christ / 1982-85 / Oil on Linen / 84 x 46 inches

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