THE S/T INTERVIEW: Hot Chip
Posted on February 18, 2010
Filed Under The S/T Interview | 1 Comment
[Photo by Travis Huggett]
By Arye Dworken
Hot Chip is ostensibly the electronic equivalent of The Revenge of the Nerds. Frontman Alexis Taylor, gawky and slight, sits across from us wearing over-sized spectacles, while his partner in harmony, Joe Goddard is zaftig and unkempt and shows off to us a newly purchased John Coltrane T-shirt. Along with Al Doyle, Owen Clarke, and Felix Martin, Hot Chip will never be confused for, let’s say, Kings of Leon or the Strokes in their partying heyday. These gents are married and having children. They are “settled down” (Taylor even admits later that he finds going out to be jarring in contrast to his domestic routine).
Nevertheless, Hot Chip has made the best album of their career. And that record is also impossibly cool. One Life Stand is the London quartet’s revenge: the perfect and uncompromising amalgamation of winking humor and unabashed sincerity. The band has finally found the confidence to include references to X-Box and Wheel of Fortune, and a nearly seven-minute doo-wop inspired track which actually includes the refrain “humunnah-humunnah” (critical Wire Magazine reviews, be damned!).
Hot Chip was in New York City to promote their fourth release and while in town, they also performed at Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg. The crowd was full of very attractive people dancing carefreely to synth hit after steel drum-infused synth hit. The intimate show’s attendees were at their coolest in their tight skinny jeans, and flannel/ gingham shirts, pogoing throughout the whole night’s set. It was the perfect revenge. Read more
THE SELF-TITLED INTERVIEW: Mayer Hawthorne
Posted on December 7, 2009
Filed Under Features, The S/T Interview | 1 Comment
[Portrait by Schiko; Live Photo by Sarah Meyfroi]
By J. Bennett
To the casual listener, it might seem like Mayer Hawthorne sprang fully formed from the afro of some ancient R&B god, dropping sweet, sweet falsetto and playing almost all the instruments on his debut LP, A Strange Arrangement. That’s the impression we got after listening to the album on psychotic repeat when it came out back in September, and we’ve been listening to it that way ever since. A deliriously infectious platter of seemingly vintage soul that drips Motown and Courvoisier at every turn, it’s made enthusiastic converts of everyone from Justin Timberlake and John Mayer to Snoop Dogg and Ghostface Killah.
As it turns out, Hawthorne isn’t black or old. He’s a nice young Jewish boy from Ann Arbor, Michigan—a white boy who used to spin hip-hop at parties and cut records with local hip-hop crew the Athletic Mic League under the name DJ Haircut before moving to Los Angeles, where his secret soul persona was ‘discovered’ by Stones Throw’s main man Peanut Butter Wolf.
self-titled caught up with Hawthorne on the New Orleans stop of his first-ever US tour. Read more
THE S/T INTERVIEW: David Bazan Discusses Booze, Branding, and Losing His Religion Like R.E.M.
Posted on November 3, 2009
Filed Under Features, The S/T Interview | Leave a Comment
[Photos by Adrian Bischoff]
Words by Madeleine DiGangi
David Bazan is known for throwing fairly intense themes into his music—addiction, despair, and of course, religion. His first solo record, Curse Your Branches (Barsuk), continues the trend, but this time, Bazan’s losing his religion. Pretty heavy stuff, but his smart, wistful songwriting keeps everything lighter than you’d think.
We caught up with Bazan at the start of his fall tour. Read more
THE S/T INTERVIEW: Kings of Convenience
Posted on September 14, 2009
Filed Under Features, The S/T Interview | 2 Comments
[Photos by Travis Huggett]
Words by Arye Dworken
When Erlend Øye and Eirik Glambeck Bøe released their debut record, 2001’s Quiet is the New Loud, they essentially set Kings of Convenience’s mission statement in stone. While many musicians invest piles of money in manipulative guitar pedals and muscular amps, the Norwegian duo seeks a form of stark nakedness. This is why they’ve barely deviated from an acoustic malaise approach after three albums and nearly nine years. This is also why the pair’s latest LP, Declaration of Dependence, is perfect music for a miserable rainy day like today—a day that also happens to mark Øye and Bøe’s first U.S. show in four years.
We spoke to KoC the afternoon before their Bowery Ballroom gig, addressing their interest in samples, Stereolab and urban planning. Not to mention why it helps to be on a major label sometimes. Read more
THE S/T INTERVIEW: Tiga
Posted on June 4, 2009
Filed Under Features, The S/T Interview | Leave a Comment
[Lead photo by Qarim Brown]
By Arye Dworken
“I realize that dance [music] isn’t so big in the states,” says DJ/producer Tiga James Sontag (no relation to Susan). “It’s not a lack of trying; I just don’t think the [U.S.] audience is receptive to what I’m doing overall.”
That may have been true in the past, but Tiga’s second proper full-length, Ciao!, was co-produced by Soulwax—the patron saints of electro-shocked dance-rock. It also features ace guest appearances from James Murphy, Gonzales (a close friend/creative partner of Jamie Lidell, Peaches and Feist), and Scissor Sisters singer Jake Shears, a recurring collaborator best known for his high notes on Tiga’s pricless “Hot In Herre” cover.
In other words, Ciao! is tailor-made for tastemakers and cool kids. In our mind at least… Read more
THE S/T INTERVIEW: DJ Hell
Posted on April 12, 2009
Filed Under Features, The S/T Interview | 2 Comments
Interview and Photos by Aaron Richter
DJ Hell has been here before. “Welcome back,” says the concierge. “It’s been years,” replies the 46-year-old German DJ/producer with a chuckle. Unsure whether the concierge honestly remembers Hell or if he’s just being polite, we walk downstairs at Manhattan’s Tribeca Grand for a basement-level photo shoot, and the artist fondly remembers the six months he called this hotel home while recording his previous LP, 2003’s NY Muscle.
Hell is back in the city to promote his latest offering, Teufelswerk. The record is a sprawling and ambitious double-disc effort, one disc of scorching, minimal techno bangers (aptly called Night), the other of kosmische ambient experiments (Day). Featuring vocals by Brian Ferry and Sean “Diddy” Combs (a longtime friend), the album is also the finest work of Hell’s three-decade career, a sentiment the superstar DJ is enthusiastic to agree with. As Hell relaxes in his former abode, self-titled speaks with the International DJ Gigolo about the Peter Kruder-assisted concepts behind Teufelswerk, the nonstop party scene in Berlin and the clarity of getting older.
THE S/T INTERVIEW: School of Seven Bells
Posted on March 11, 2009
Filed Under Features, ST003, The S/T Interview | 4 Comments
[Photos by Winona Barton-Ballatine; live photo by Aaron Richter]
Interview by Andrew Parks
The first thing that struck us about School of Seven Bells was how undeniably alien their sound is. Familiar elements are everywhere—beats that are about to boil over; guitars that grind drums to dust; synths that glisten like the noontime sun—but they coalesce in a manner few, if any, could have predicted given the trio’s Secret Machines/On!Air!Library! pedigee.
We won’t bother trying to give such a gray, genre-less area of psychedelic-something-or-other a name. However, we did have a lengthy conversation with 2/3 of our cover co-stars at d.b.a. (Claudia Deheza was m.i.a.), one that touches upon everything from the undisputed brilliance of Robert Wyatt to the hyper-sensitivity that comes from reing the reviews of clueless critics.
School of Seven Bells, “Connjur”
THE S/T INTERVIEW: Jolie Holland
Posted on February 2, 2009
Filed Under Features, The S/T Interview | Leave a Comment
[Photos by Scott Irvine]
Interview by Micah Kelber
Before you assume Jolie Holland’s just another singer-songwriter, know this: Tom Waits is her “fairy godfather” and she’d love to tackle a collection of phonetic Vietnamese cuts sometime soon. Her new Anti- album, The Living and the Dead, also speaks for itself alongside the following MP3s …
“Old Fashion Morphine”
Read more
THE S/T INTERVIEW: Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls
Posted on January 8, 2009
Filed Under Features, The S/T Interview | 1 Comment
[Photo by Tina Korhonen]
By Michael Tedder
Amanda Palmer had a big year in 2008: constant shows, a contract-fulfilling Dresden Dolls compilation (No, Virginia), and the unveiling of her intricately-arranged, bitingly-black solo debut, the Ben Folds-produced Who Killed Amanda Palmer? The next 12 months look pretty busy as well, from more touring (featuring The Danger Ensemble, an Australian improv troupe) to the imminent release of a Killed companion book featuring artful post-mortem pictures (courtesy of photographer Kyle Cassidy) and text by Sandman-writer/goth icon Neil Gaiman.
self-titled caught up with Palmer shortly after the release of Killed to discuss working with Ben Folds, the fine art of cover songs and why she hates Carousel.
THE S/T INTERVIEW: M. Ward
Posted on December 18, 2008
Filed Under Features, The S/T Interview | 4 Comments
“I never adopt a conscious persona. The whole process is wrapped in mystery.”
By Aimee Rawlins
Although he’s been a staple on the indie scene for much of the last decade, some would say M. Ward is just beginning to hit his stride. If you ask him, however, it’s the same stride he’s been working toward since his 1999 debut, Duet For Guitars #2, albeit with a bit more fanfare these days.
With Ward serving as one-third of the self-proclaimed “Monsters of Folk” (with My Morning Jacket’s Jim James and Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst) and one-half of 2008’s breakout duo She & Him (with Zooey Deschanel), it would be easy to excuse him for not releasing music under his own moniker. But the Portland-based singer will release his fifth full-length, Hold Time, on February 17. To Ward, the record is just another piece of the puzzle, a continuation of all he’s been working on—and listening to—for years.
