IT’S GETTING BETTER

It’s fair to say that the Futureheads are the buzz band of the moment in the UK. Which is both strange and silly, really, considering they’ve been around for nearly eight years and already got tagged a ‘Next Big Thing’ band a few short years ago, as they headlined major festivals and everyday gigs above such contemporaries as Bloc Party and the Kaiser Chiefs. Why the sudden resurgence in interest, then? While bands like the aforementioned BP and Chiefs soared to relative superstardom, the Futureheads never quite made it. Floundering somewhere between their peers and the legions of young bands who would inevitably cop their styles, the grossly-talented foursome undersold all expectations on their sophomore effort and ended up dropped by their label, 679, in 2006.

So here they are two years later: self-releasing their third record, This is Not the World, and finding its lead single, “The Beginning of the Twist,” A-listed on BBC Radio 1. Meanwhile, the British press is championing them as poster boys for a new business model in which bands control their own destinies. self-titled caught up with Dave Hyde (drums/vocals) and Jaff (bass/vocals) in a Brixton Academy dressing room hours before they were to headline a celebratory gig for the popular UK radio station, XFM.

NO MORE HEROES

Photos by Mark Slutsky

Efrim Menuck will be heard. As the guitarist and vocalist of his group, Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band (originally formed in 1999 as a side project to the legendary Godspeed You! Black Emperor), Menuck will release his fifth LP, 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons, which contains four lengthy, sweeping songs that showcase the Canadian troupe at its most jarring and abrasive. In the face of desperate times, 13 Blues is a sprawling, in-your-face rock record bubbling with vital commentary that refuses to be ignored. Even the seemingly inoffensive twelve seconds-long tracks of noise that begin the album are somewhat of a clever “fuck you” to iPod-toting casual listeners, according to Menuck.

Here the musician speaks with self-titled about 13 Blues’ social, personal and political themes, losing his record collection and why he thinks the members of Radiohead are just a bunch of “con men.”

[CW from top: Josiah Wolf, Doug McDiarmid, Yoni Wolf]

[Photos by Jacob Hand]

By Arye Dworken

self-titled: Yoni, what’s shaking?
Nothing much. Just got back from a jog. About to have some coffee and relax.

Are you still out in California?
Sure am. No plans to leave just yet. There’s been talk, some talk about moving to New York. I don’t know. The girl that I’m seeing right now is moving out there. My brother is talking about moving out there. We’ll see. Are you in the city or Brooklyn?

I’m in the city. I got married recently.
Wow, you’re all settled down and shit.

KNIVES OUT

Photos by Aaron Pederson

Cadence Weapon approached his second album, Afterparty Babies (Anti-), with one of the purest goals an artist could have: the desire to meet Tina Fey. Of course, the rapper/producer also finds time to gripe about girls and dis ridiculous hipster fashion. But that’s besides the point, really.

self-titled caught up with Cadence, known to his parents as Rollie Pemberton, to talk about Canada, songwriting and his former life as a music critic.

SLAUGHTERHOUSE FOUR

[L to R: Dave Lombardo, Jeff Hanneman, Tom Araya, Kerry King]

Here’s something we would have never guessed about Tom Araya: the Slayer vocalist/bassist, one of the most important extreme music icons ever, still gets nervous before shows despite the fact that his cantankerous crew of thrash-metal pioneers formed 25 years ago.

“If I didn’t get nervous,” explains Araya, “it wouldn’t mean anything. Music would just be something that I’m ‘doing.’ Seriously; it wouldn’t have that same excitement.”

Fair enough, especially since Slayer’s last LP, 2006’s Christ Illusion, was hailed as their strongest in years, suggesting the band’s as tight now as they were the last time they played with founding drummer Dave Lombardo. (That’d be the double live album Decade of Aggression in 1991.) self-titled had a lot more questions for Araya, though, including the one question that was on the lips of many metal purists last summer: who’s idea was it to co-headline a tour with Marilyn Manson? So we got him on the phone and found out the most devil-horns-in-the-air fact about the Slayer frontman—he has a farm and his own beef cattle.

JUST TRYING TO NAIL IT

Perhaps the only thing more shocking than the quality of Dan Bejar’s melodically nimble songwriting is how many of his songs there are to be shocked by. Not only does his main project, Destroyer, dependably release an album every two years, but he also keeps himself busy with side projects including Swan Lake (which features members of Frog Eyes and Wolf Parade) and Hello, Blue Roses (a collaboration with his girlfriend, Sydney Vermont). And then there’s that New Pornographers band. At this rate, even fellow Merge artist Bob Pollard is starting to look like a slacker. Bejar, who splits his time living in Spain and Vancouver, spoke with self-titled about his new album, Trouble In Dreams, and why he’s done with the harmonica.