Category: Interviews

A QUICK TALK WITH … Taylor Deupree

April 1st, 2011 | File Under: Interviews | One comment

As part of our ongoing Unsound Festival coverage, we recently tracked down Taylor Deupree, a photographer/graphic designer/sound sculptor best known for such landmark LPs as Stil. and his influential ambient/electro-acoustic imprint, 12k. Deupree will appear at Issue Project Room tomorrow night, facing off against the live improv pieces of Günter Müller in the second installment of the Unsound Labs: Collaborations series. Gang Gang Dance’s Lizzi Bougatsos is also performing alongside a Swiss artist (Norbert Möslang) at the one-night-only event, which is broken down in full here.

And if you’re not sure what any of this music really sounds like, we’ve included an exclusive live Deupree MP3 below, along with his thoughts on why computerized compositions just don’t do it for him anymore…

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Daedelus & The Gaslamp Killer On the State Of … DJ Culture

April 1st, 2011 | File Under: Interviews | Leave A Comment

Photos by Turkishomework

Words by Andrew Parks

Daedelus and the Gaslamp Killer can’t seem to sit still. In the case of the latter, that’s simply par for the course. A consummate crate digger with a mind that’s as scattered as his record collection, Gaslamp’s synapses are stuck in rapid fire mode at all times. Daedelus, on the other hand, is usually as calm and collected as anyone who regularly wears dandy-ish suits should be.

And yet, he’s a ball of nervous energy tonight, probably because he’s a half hour away from playing a spastic headlining set for a packed (Le) Poisson Rouge. Gaslamp is also on hand to perform one of his crowd-pleasing displays of scratching, mixing and all-around madness, along with two close friends from L.A., Free the Robots and Samiyam. They’re all here to remind us New Yorkers how people do things on the West Coast—weird and wild, with an innate sense of the once standard DJ skills that stopped being the norm somewhere between the first iPod and the control vinyl dawn of Serato.

In the following exclusive interview, Daedelus and Gaslamp discuss all of the above and much more. Be sure to catch them both on tour in the coming month, including Daedelus’ headlining run—we’re giving away tickets to tomorrow’s Brooklyn show on our Twitter—and Gaslamp’s stint supporting A-Trak and Kid Sister…

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A QUICK TALK WITH … Wild Beasts

February 26th, 2010 | File Under: Interviews | Leave A Comment

By Arye Dworken

Some bands are inherently masculine. Some bands are inherently feminine. Britain’s Wild Beasts are claiming the distinctive androgynous zone found somewhere between the two. This is mostly due in part to singer Hayden Thorpe’s voice which alternates between wildly flamboyant or lecherously creepy. He’s undoubtedly the most distinctive vocalist singing rock music since his influence Jeff Buckley.

And while the band has garnered almost nearly critical acclaim (Two Dancers was one of our favorite albums of 2009), it’s the band’s growing and obsessive fan base that warrants Wild Beasts our attention. What is it about this band that inspires such a feverish response (as we’ve discovered through many conversations, you either LOVE this band or…it’s just not for you)? Thorpe explains to us that perhaps it’s the art rock quartet’s ability to not condescend to the listener, or as he tell us in our chat, “high art [can be] down to earth, and personal, and transfixing.”

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A QUICK TALK WITH … Toro Y Moi

February 9th, 2010 | File Under: Interviews | 2 comments

[Photos by Turkishomework]

Interview by Ilirjana Alushaj

If we had to pick a favorite in the Great Chillwave Race of 2010 (don’t blame us for that word; blame Pitchfork and Hipster Runoff), it’d have to be Toro Y Moi. The reason is simple: as much as we dig the tranquilizer gun tracks of Washed Out and other bleary-eyed blog stars, Chaz Bundick is a bit more indebted to classic pop songs. The guy also knows how to put on a show, laptop and all, as he dances with himself and delivers a series of sun-scorched samples and deftly-spliced harmonies.

We spoke to Bundick at Cake Shop, right before one of his New York gigs with Neon Indian.

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A QUICK TALK WITH BEAR IN HEAVEN ABOUT … Stealing Sarah Palin Fans, Confusing Charlie Gibson, and Being a Proud Southerner Without Resorting To Lynyrd Skynyrd References

December 22nd, 2009 | File Under: Interviews | 2 comments

By Arye Dworken

While just about every critic’s best-of list fawns over local indie rock heroes like Dirty Projectors and Grizzly Bear, self-titled took pleasure in discovering yet another Brooklyn-band-that-could, Bear In Heaven. The Southern transplants released their debut record (Red Bloom of the Boom, Hometapes) in 2007, but didn’t get any much-deserved attention until this year’s Beast Rest Fourth Mouth. (The blogosphere likes to attribute this delayed reaction to Grizzly Bear frontman Ed Droste, who championed the quartet on his now-defunct Twitter account.) The sophomore effort sounds like nothing else released this year, mostly because of Bear’s blatant prog-rock tendencies. In fact, throughout our conversation, names like Rush and Genesis are thrown about with genuine admiration.

But don’t let visions of Neal Peart’s drum kit deter you just yet—Bear In Heaven is more than capable of crafting four-minute anthems. Maybe that’s why Charlie Gibson name-checked them this fall…

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A QUICK TALK WITH RAMONA FALLS ABOUT … Kanye West, Marty McFly, and the Uncertain Future of Menomena

December 2nd, 2009 | File Under: Interviews | Leave A Comment

By Arye Dworken

As 2009 comes to a close and critics compile their year-end lists, one record seems destined for the sorely-overlooked pile: Ramona Falls‘ Intuit LP. The stellar solo debut of Menomena’s Brent Knopf hit stores a few months back and hasn’t left our side since, proving that this particular side project is anything but.

Hey, at least Kanye noticed…

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A QUICK TALK WITH LOU BARLOW ABOUT … Bromances, Angry White People, and Ghostbusting

October 8th, 2009 | File Under: Interviews | Leave A Comment

[Photos by Eric Fermin Perez]

By Arye Dworken

Lou Barlow’s latest solo LP, Goodnight Unknown, was released this week. It’s a grown-up blend of tempered frustration and ghostly introspection; or as Barlow maintains in the following interview, an opportunity to channel his sensitive side on a global scale. It’s a politically fraught time and the indie vet (see also: Sebadoh, Dinosaur Jr., The Folk Implosion) is preoccupied not by his personal relationships—many of which inspired songs in the past—but about what the hell is going on with health care.

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A QUICK TALK WITH … Kid Koala

September 30th, 2009 | File Under: A Quick Talk, Interviews | Leave A Comment

[Photo by SekondHandProjects]

By Max Willens

Remember when hip hop was heavy—when DJ Shadow built neck-snapping beats for Solesides; when the Dust Brothers made a B-boy out of Beck; and when Led Zeppelin, the Clash and Black Sabbath walked that-a-way in the span of one Beastie Boys song (“Rhymin’ and Stealin’”)?

We barely do, either; probably because rap metal ruined the whole turntables-and-guitars thing for a good five years. Enough to make 100%, the Slew’s debut album (available digitally here)—a scratch-heavy collaboration between Dynomite D and Kid Koala—seem like a left-field listen, what with all its booming basslines and devastating drum breaks. A very heavy affair indeed, especially the duo’s tower of power tour, a one-time-only trek featuring six turntables (with Koala’s longtime touring partner DJ P-Love stepping in for Dynomite D) and Wolfmother’s former rhythm section, bassist/keyboardist Chris Ross and drummer Myles Hesketh.

Kid Koala spoke to self-titled the night before the Slew’s first proper show in Vancouver.

Posted in: A Quick Talk, Interviews

A QUICK TALK WITH YACHT ABOUT … Life, Death and Their Rejected DFA Record, a ‘Playable Copper Album of Mantras’

July 28th, 2009 | File Under: Interviews | Leave A Comment

[Photo by Sarah Meadows]

Like most ignorant people, we assumed the newly-minted duo incarnation of YACHT would basically be the Blow with a different female singer. What we didn’t expect was an entire ‘YACHT philosophy’ presented alongside drastically-improved songs, three of which—”Summer Song,” “Psychic City (Voodoo City),” and the dancefloor-bound two-part epic “It’s Boring/You Can Live Anyway You Want”—are tailor made for DFA’s 12″-centric release schedule.

So yeah; the addition of former noise rock musician Claire L. Evans has been a match made in heaven. Somewhat literally. See what we mean in a minute…

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