A barely post-pubescent Liquid Liquid

Secret DFA sessions, a DVD of unlocked live footage, and more collaborations than we could possibly keep up with—these are the details that Tussle’s main knob twiddler, Nathan Burazer, managed to get out of Liquid Liquid in an exclusive self-titled interview with vocalist Salvatore Principato and his co-percussionist Dennis Young. While they’re best known for one of the most important basslines in hip-hop history (Melle Mel’s “White Lines,” which swiped its low-end from Liquid Liquid’s “Cavern” single), the pair recently reunited for their first London show ever in hopes of reminding people how much the Rapture, !!! and, well, Tussle, owe to their percussive workouts and disco-punk blueprints. Scroll down to see how you New York City folk can experience the same thing tonight at Santos Party House.

As for what Tussle’s been up to lately, the quartet continues to support its “Burn It”-approved Cream Cuts LP with stellar singles, including a “Night of the Hunter” 12-inch that sports a Prins Thomas edit …

Read more

Wayne Coyne ponders life, liberty and a big fucking gas tank

[Photos courtesy of Cinema Purgatorio]

Interview by Andrew Parks

While self-titled already told you what we thought of Christmas on Mars—Wayne Coyne’s mind-fuck version of It’s a Wonderful Life—the thing didn’t quite hit us until a few days after we experienced its mix of marching vaginas and spot-on Adam Goldberg appearances. That’s why we got a hold of the Flaming Lips frontman soon after the film’s initial screenings—to ask him, “Why, Wayne, why?”

What we didn’t expect was for the poor guy to say he’s been dealing with house renovators at 6:30 a.m. for the past week due to the fact that he filmed most of Mars in his backyard and goddamn living room.

“I have this weird little art compound here,” says Coyne, “where my Flaming Lips roadies are always working on some project. It just never ends here.”

Indeed …

Read more

J. Matthew Gerken, Christian Kiefer & Jefferson Pitcher strike a pose for their ‘Mortal Men’ project

Whether you pulled a lever or pressed a screen at your local polling place this afternoon, one simple question may have crossed your mind in the months leading up to today’s historical election: What if I was president? Not Obama, the Mac Attack or Nader—me, the guy or gal that can’t figure out what to wear in the morning, let alone solutions to our mounting financial meltdown.

That’s what we asked J. Matthew Gerken, Christian Kiefer and Jefferson Pitcher, the songwriting team behind Of Great and Mortal Men: 43 Songs for 43 U.S. Presidencies. Originally conceived as an entry in “February Album Writing Month“—a call for people to write 14 cuts in 28 days—the three-disc set tackles every administration in song form with the help of such esteemed guests as Califone, Rosie Thomas, Bill Callahan (Smog), Alan Sparhawk (Low), Mark Kozelek (Red House Painters, Sun Kil Moon), Marla Hansen (Sufjan Stevens), Vince DiFiore (Cake), James Jackson Toth (Wooden Wand), and Tom Carter (Charalambides).

Given the trio’s answers, and the additional two-cents of their many collaborators, the following provides more pointed policies than all of the presidential debates combined …

Read more

[Photos by Shawn Brackbill]

Marnie Stern is the kind of person who can get away with saying straight-faced phrases like, “Who are the Killers? Are they like the Kills? Or Franz Ferdinand?” Much like that seemingly naive statement suggests, the singer/guitarist lives in a self-contained, and stylized, world—a rent-controlled Upper East Side apartment that allows Stern to shred and shout with nothing but old Who records on her mind.

“Classic rock is very primal, in the pull it can have on you,” explains Stern, adding that her listening habits don’t necessarily inform her actual songwriting. “I can’t believe that 99.9-percent of people are happy copying everything. I mean, I get it, but it’s shocking to me.”

True to its Philosophy 101 title, This Is It And I Am It And You Are It And So Is That And He Is It And She Is It And It Is It And That Is That is a breakup record that’s too arty and angular to actually sound like one (see the labyrinth-like progressions of “The Crippled Jazzer,” “Ruler” and, well, the rest of the record, really).

“There’s a similar dichotomy in the Who,” says Stern, “Where a lot of their music’s somber and uplifting at the same time.”

Indeed. We’re in need of a second opinion, though, so we asked drummer Zach Hill—Stern’s only creative constant outside of her longtime friend, cover artist Bella Foster—what life in the studio’s been like on Stern’s last two LPs.

Read more

Kyp Malone, vocalist/guitarist

[Photos courtesy of TVOTR]

> It was like an open mic/karaoke night gone awry. I could hear songs through it all but it was really loose and not really my thing.
> This new record is intentionally clearer with less broad brush strokes.
> Hearing about how gloomy we are gets tired.
> We’re trained by the media to give people their emotional conditioning, so they know how to react to certain stimuli. That’s kind of unfortunate, you know?
> The whole experience is a continuum. Things are always changing.
> The potentials were clearer in the beginning because the structure wasn’t there. The process of putting ideas through everyone’s filter hasn’t changed though.
> The contributions that people bring are more intangible than what I could say in a couple words.
> The constraints of economics are the final editor.
> It didn’t make me depressed to listen to that music. I simply identified with something in it. It made me feel less alone, you know? If I could be that for someone else, that would make me happy. It’d be a real form of success for me.

Read more

[Photos by Alicia J. Rose]

By Arye Dworken

The following Danny Seim interview was conducted two months ago. We decided to hold it until now, however, because the Menomena drummer’s latest LP as Lackthereof, Your Anchor (Barsuk), is a fitting fall listen—at once melancholic and moody, hard-hitting and heartfelt.

Or as Seim puts it, it’s his version of a pop record. If you’re wondering what that could possibly mean, be sure to check out the following MP3 before cueing up our extensive Q&A.

“Choir Practice”

Read more

[Photos by Sahar Ghahari + Sarah Schmidhoff]

“Dreamy” is one way of describing Dungen’s new disc, 4, which comes out next Tuesday through Kemado Records. That and, well, “jazzy,” as if Gustav Ejstes’ band was performing at a bar rich with the scent of spilled whiskey and stale cigarette smoke. (Sure enough, Dungen performed a lot of new material as a piano and drums-led duo earlier this summer.)

“It’s not easy to make something sound good on the telephone, but [Gustav] played me this one piano melody [during the songwriting process] and it just sounded beautiful,” explains drummer Johan Holmegard, as we ease into an interview with him and Ejstes at Kemado’s Chelsea office. “Since I’m really into jazz, I was glad that a lot of this [new] music had a jazz feel to it.”

As he’s done in the past, Ejstes worked on 4’s skeletal tracks while decamped in the countryside home of his mother, a place with a negligible population and storage for the singer/multi-instrumentalist’s throwback equipment and prized vinyl collection. Writing and recording sessions in Stockholm were sporadic throughout the past year, a time that allowed Ejstes to become a more open-minded band leader.

“I’m a control freak, but I have a lot of confidence in these guys now,” says Ejstes, “Where I can present a song and ask what they would contribute to it. I might still say, ‘You should play a little more like this,’ but I am open [to ideas].”

That much is clear in our conversation, as Ejstes and Holmegard give us a complete breakdown of 4’s back story and an EXCLUSIVE stream of the entire record. Enjoy …

Read more

By Arye Dworken

Contrary to popular belief, being a rock star isn’t always glamorous. Especially when you lose an integral band member and part ways with a major label all in the same year. In the Secret Machines‘ case, that integral member also happened to be a blood relative (guitarist/backup vocalist Benjamin Curtis, who’s now crafting crystalline psych-pop in School of Seven Bells).

According to Brandon Curtis (the Secret Machines’ primary songwriter and frontman), the flashy prog-rock trio had an unsure future until recently, when they recruited guitarist Phil Karnats and tracked an (inter)stellar third record. While the self-titled LP’s slightly uncommercial sound isn’t a huge departure from previous releases—drummer Josh Garza still pounds the skins with purpose—it still strikes completely new territory for the Secret Machines by feeling spacious and unhurried.

Brandon talked to us a month before the October 14 release about reinventing the band, starting a new, DIY label, and what it’s like to not be his brother’s keeper.

Read more

THE KILLS point and shoot

By Andrew Parks

With picks from self-titled’s two supporting editors now out of the way (see Part One and Two of this fidgety year-end list feature), I spent this past weekend poring over what I’ve dug and disliked about 2008. While more time needs to be spent with some of the fall’s more anticipated albums (TV on the Radio’s Dear Science, Deerhunter’s Microcastle) before they can truly be considered potential Top 10 material, the following set of LPs are must-listens that touch upon everything from dubstep to cosmic disco to thinking (wo)man’s metal …

Read more

WHY?: Yoni Wolf (in the middle) shows off his Robert Van Winkle fade

[Photo by Sarah Cass]

self-titled’s staff has decided to over-analyze 2008 a little early—sifting through our stacks before fall or winter’s big releases really hit. Presenting the premature Top 10 of managing editor Arye Dworken, with our final installment of LP picks hitting tomorrow …

Read more