Interview with Matt Bishop of Hey Marseilles

I really like Hey Marseilles' lyrically dense, sonically rich folk pop. I was super excited to see them at Sixth and I Synagogue last year, since they don't often tour too far from their Seattle base. Lead singer Matt Bishop was kind enough to answer a few questions for the shake

The Shimmy Shake: How did you all start? And the name, just an affinity for French Mediterrean sea towns?

Matt Bishop: We started as a lot of bands do: college pals realizing we had a shared affinity for the same instruments and bands that played them. We would mess around with song ideas in Nick and Philip’s basement studio, keep finding others folks to play on those recordings, and eventually we booked a gig with everyone. The name is primarily a product of our appreciation for Euro-ness and rhyme.

SS: The SHow would you describe your sound? I've heard it described as orchestral folk to indie pop chamber rock.

MB: Those are fair descriptions. We like pop tunes, acoustic instruments, strong melodies, and compelling arrangements. We like songs to move and turn corners quickly. We like taking as many layers from our recordings as we can and playing that out live. Just orchestral folk pop works too.

SS: One of my favorite things about the album are the lyrics. They're all such descriptive stories, I feel like I'm reading letters between you and friends. Where do you get the ideas? Any backstory to certain songs? What are some of your favorite songs from the To Trunks and Travels?

MB: In writing lyrics, I like to create a visual scene for the listener, a portrait more so than a story. On the record there are references to the ocean and mountains and plains and highways and all sorts of things I experience when I travel around the Western U.S. Which is probably why the record ended up having a consistent travel theme. “Cannonballs” was written driving through the endless flatlands of Montana; “Cigarettes” I wrote on a bright afternoon at Seattle’s Olympic Sculpture Park; “Calabasas” manifested itself after a California road trip. Certainly there are stories in those songs, but by and large they follow pretty common formulas related to relationships and philosophical meanderings.


SS: There was a really slow burn with this album, from it's release in 2008 to it catching fire in 2009 and 2010. How'd that happen? Is it hard to promote an album for that long?

MB: I think it took a bit of time for it to garner a larger audience just because we spent a while trying to figure out how to get it to people. For most of us, Hey Marseilles has been our first real venture into navigating the music business and what it means to be a band. There are a lot of things to do outside of making a record that translate to people actually hearing it, and we took some time figuring that out.

In terms of promoting the record for that long, the biggest challenge was just having to play the same songs for so long. Inspiration and creativity were hard to come by in those circumstances. But in working on our new record for the last few months, I think we’ve found our groove again.

SS: Another band that we really enjoy (Telekinesis) is from Seattle, but a lot of bands from the upper northwest are writing this great music, with incredible melodies and lyrics. Like I don't think you could have this sound come from Brooklyn. What is it about the area that breeds such good music?

MB: Lots of clouds + needing to stay inside + drugs necessary to deal with gray (primarily coffee) = good music.

Also, once sun comes out = inspiration to make more good music.

SS: I have this image of touring being a nightmare with so many people. How does it work?

MB Having seven dudes means we always needs a trailer hitched to the van and if we stay in a hotel we’ll need a couple of rooms. That’s about it. And sometimes figuring out how to fit on stage, but that always works itself out. Like any band, you have to learn how to acclimate to each others’ strengths and weaknesses or you won’t be a band for very long.


SS: I saw you posted that the band is working on new songs. What do they sound like? When are you looking to release your next album?

MB We have high aspirations that the record will come out at the end of 2011. My general assessment so far is that the songs won’t stray too much from To Travels & Trunks musically, but they’ll reflect a growth and maturity we’ve developed as musicians in the three years since finishing that record.

SS: What are you listening to now (besides what I imagine are your recording tracks)? What are some of you favorite bands that readers should check out?

MB: Agesandages. Campfire OK. Loch Lomond just released a fantastic new record. Our friends The Head &a\ the Heart are releasing their debut nationally; if you haven’t heard of them yet, you will soon

Buy Hey Marseilles' To Travels and Trunks from Amazon's mp3 Store

Download the track Rio from Hey Marseille's website for the price of your email address

Interview with Telekinesis's Michael Lerner

There's probably not an album I've gushed over more this year than the self-titled debut from Telekinesis. Every song on this album is a power pop masterpiece. And despite these simple lyrics about love, you can tell a lot of time and thought went into making this a perfect album.

Michael Lerner, the one man force behind Telekinesis, is on tour in Europe with Shimmy Shake favorites and label mates The Rosebuds and fellow Pacific Northwesterners The Thermals. He took a little time out to do Five Questions with us.

Shimmy Shake: First off, how's the Europe trip going? The Rosebuds and The
Thermals, that sounds like a blast.

Michael Lerner: It's amazing! I absolutely love Europe. It's so different from touring in America. The scenery changes so dramatically in a very short amount of time, you are dealing with constant language changes, and the food is incredible (even for a vegetarian!). I am having a wonderful time, and pinch myself everyday that rock and roll music is the reason I get to travel around in Europe for a month. It's pretty much the best. And The Rosebuds and The Thermals are the real deal. SO good, and so excited to play shows with them.

SS: Your album was an instant like on my part, and almost everyone I know loves it. What are some of your favorite songs from the album?

ML: Thanks very much! I appreciate that. For me, my favorite song is Foreign Room. It was the last one I wrote before we made the record, and I like how I didn't over think it. I also really like the fact that lots of people are grabbing onto Coast Of Carolina (download from Merge Records). That song started out as a way to kill time before meeting a friend in my practice space. Sometimes interesting things can happen when you are least expecting it to.

SS: I saw you at XX Merge. Introduced by Ben Gibbard, playing with Ivan
and Matt Caws. How'd that whole thing come together? Any highlights from that weekend?

ML: It was so fun, XX Merge. The story is insane, actually. The band that I usually play with in Seattle was unable to come to the show for a number of reasons, one of which was our guitar player fell off of his bicycle and broke his hip, and the other was David and Jonie (who are married) had some health issues to take care of. All of this happened within about a week to three days before we were due to fly to North Carolina for this show. So, I scrambled, and called my friend Matthew from Nada Surf (who was on tour in Japan at the time!), and he agreed to fly from Japan to North Carolina the day before the show, and learn all the tunes, and play guitar. Ivan came about because of the Merge connection. I just got his number off some people, called him, and he was totally up for it. Matthew and Ivan did such an incredible job. We rehearsed for one hour before we played, and totally nailed it, considering all that was against us. I had a really incredible time there!

SS: What are you listening to now? What has been some of your favorite music so far this year? What are some essential 'listen-to's" while on tour?

ML: Currently, there is this band from England called Wild Beasts. They put out a new record that I really really love. The Clientele (who are also on Merge) have a new record coming out called "Bonfires On The Heath" and it is pretty much my soundtrack to this tour in Europe. It's almost like they wrote that record just for me, it fits so perfectly into my life currently. Also, I recently got into The Vaselines, and I love that quite a lot. Warsaw (pre Joy Division) is incredible. And I'm way way way into late 60's French pop right now, specifically things like France Gall and Jacques Dutronc.

SS: How are you going to top 2009? What's on tap for 2010?

ML: Eek! I don't know. It's been so amazing so far, and surpassed every expectation I ever had. Hopefully Telekinesis will have a new record out in 2010!

Thanks to Michael for taking some time out for this interview. And extra thanks to Lindsey and Christina from Merge Records for setting this up!

Get Telekinesis's eponymous debut album

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Interview with Tim Kyle of Wild Light

So, I've been listening to the new Wild Light album (review to come soon) pretty much consistently since they're amazing PR people sent it to me a few days ago. Tim Kyle, the lead singer for the band, was kind enough to answer a small slew of questions for the blog before he and the guys went out on tour with Tapes n Tapes.

These guys are going to be huge in 2009.


Shimmy ShakeFirst, how did Wild Light come to be? I read in a press release
that you guys all grew up together. How long have you been playing?
What's the backstory on Wild Light?

Tim Kyle, lead singer for Wild LightWell, we all knew each other when we were younger, Jordan and I (timothy) were in 4th grade together after I moved to New Hampshire and was the new kid in class, then we started writing songs together when we were like 13 or so. Then in high school we recruited Seth Pitman (with whom i went to high school) to start a band, and later Seth Kasper became our 2nd drummer. This was the final line-up of our band in high school. Then that band split up and we all went our separate ways with no expectation of ever having a band together again, but then in summer 2005 fate intervened decreed that we start Wild Light. We moved into a shit-hole cold house in Quincy just south of boston where we wrote, rehearsed, and suffered for a couple years before things started to happen.

SSHow would you describe your sound? Who are some of your influences?

TKGiven the choice, I would not descirbe our sound at all. But we usually don't get that choice, so I try to say something evasive and ultimately not very helpful. I would call us, "Classic Rock." or "Metaphysical Pop" or "Major Label Indie" or something else that doesn't really mean anything. But to be sort of serious, I think we just make pop music. We care about melody and lyrics, and stuff that likewise cares about those things are what we tend to be influenced by. Rock N Roll peaked early, the Beatles and Dylan did it the best and we're all just trying get a piece of that action.

SSYou all have a pretty extensive tour pedigree, opening for some of
the biggest names in indie rock (Arcade Fire, LCD Soundsystem, MGMT,
Tapes N Tapes). How'd that come about?

TKAll our shows have come via friends and booking agents.


SSIt's been almost two years since you put out the red-covered "EP."
What are we going to find different between that and "Adult Nights"?
What have you all gained in that interim?

TKThe production on the album is more 'produced' than on the EP fer sure. Maybe not quite so dense. You could say it is a little more 'slick.' The songs are also more concise, and shorter than they used to be. Rob Shnapf pushed us to cut out a bunch of stuff that didn't really need to be there out of the arrangements. As for what we have gained since the EP, Rob also pushed us to learn how to tune, which is something we'll probably need this year.


SS"California On My Mind," the first single from "Adult Nights," is
just a great song (if not altogether radio friendly). First, I can't
imagine you disliking The Golden State (or just the Bay Area) that
much, but it's fun singing it. And the new version of "New Hampshire"
is more upbeat. Does the rest of the album carry over that energy?
What are some of your favorite songs from the new album?


TKYeah, everybody in our band loves California. That song is more about a bad day than hating the state of California. It could be anything, it's just about feeling pissed and frustrated and so you say, "fuck -----," -whatever happens to be in front of you. I think yes, the album is more upbeat than our EP and demos.


SSYou're putting the album out with StarTime and Almost Gold records,
who distributes through Universal. That's pretty big time. Talk about
the move from unsigned indie band to working with the majors.

TKActually we're mainly on Startime right now, which goes through Columbia not Universal, but your question still stands. So far our label situation is a good mix of working with a major and an indie, in that we mostly only deal directly with Startime who is a tiny 3 person office of people who know and like good music and aren't going from working on our record to working on the new System Of A Down album within the same hour, or something like that. Not too much dealing with suits so far. But then, when and if we should require, Columbia's muscles are there if things start to take off, they will be there to push it. My understanding is that they like the record as well, so that's good. In general, I really can't complain so far. I think it feels kind of cool being on a major. All the bands we loved growing up were on majors. It's not really as fashionable anymore for the coolest indie bands to be on a major, seems to make people pretty suspicious, and not totally without reason. But hey, The Clash was on a major, the Cure was on a major. There might not have been many other options at the time, but those bands wouldn't have been the "larger-than-life" kind of bands they were without being on a major. Then of course the flipside is stuff like the fact that Joe Strummer had to pretty much sit out the 80's while his terrible contract ran its course. But that kind of stuff is less common now, and we definitely were careful not to sign a stupid contract after hearing those kinds of stories, and being unsure about majors to begin with, but no one was trying to pull anything over on us anyway. So far, so good, no complaints. For people like us who aren't very good at dealing with all the day to day logisitcal and pragmatic details of making a band run, having somebody organized and competent getting shit done is comforting.


SSThe Boston Area loves you. And that's not an easy feat, considering
there is a ton of great music coming out of there. How important was
it to play locally and develop that fan base, and what do you take
from it when playing in across the States or in Europe?


TKIt's funny, suddenly Boston supposedly loves us, but nobody ever came to see us when we lived and played there, except for our friends. We never really got any press or attention there until we started making a more national splash. We headlined a show at TT the Bear's the night before we flew to LA to start making our record and there were 4 or 5 people there. But we just got that award from the BMA's, which was kind of cool. Hopefully now we can start to make friends with Boston.


SSThis winter/spring tour with Tapes N Tapes is pretty much going to
take you all across country. What are you looking most forward to on
the tour?


TKWhat I'm looking forward to about the tour the most is just getting in a groove, shaking the rust off, and getting tight with our playing and performance. Rehearsal can only take you so far, for us, we've got to tour to really get into a good zone playing-wise. I'm looking forward to just playing everyday.

SSWhat are you currently listening to on your iPod/CD
player/8-track/gramophone? What can't you get enough of?

TKMy ipod is broken and I have no money, so I've just been listening to the radio when I drive, mostly stupid classic rock stations, pop stations. Stuff that rots your brain. Sports radio. If I could listen to some music, it would probably be Morrissey, Bob Dylan's last Bootleg thing - Tell Tale Signs, I like the last Wolf Parade record. Maybe some classical stuff, Bach and Ravel.

Interview with Kristin Andreassen

After hearing Kristin Andreassen on A Prarie Home Companion a few weeks, I dropped her an email, and hoped she would write me back. Well she did, and threw in the curveball of a phone interview. This sent me in a bit a whirlspin, since I've never done a phone interview before for this blog, and I wasn't quite sure about taping it and what not. And when I do live interviews, I tend to let the interviewee take over, because it gives you better quotes.

So I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do.

But I called her last Wednesday, only to be kicked to voicemail. Now I'm thinking she stood me up. But she called back in a few minutes and told me she was driving in a tunnel on her way to Brooklyn, and once she parked and found a coffee shop she'd call me back.

I'm of the belief that most people are nice, but she was really really nice. 30 minutes later she called and we chatted for a very quick hour about everything. I had questions, written down, but they kind of went right out the window.

So this is less an interview, but more of a long recap of our conversation, sprinkled with quotes.

Although she is based out of Boston right now, Kristin still has a Maryland area code for her cell, attributable to her time with Annapolis's Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble.

Kristin says that the song "Crayola" was kind of a bridge from Footworks to her solo album "Kiss Me Hello."

"Most of the first songs I wrote didn't have any muscal accompianent. Crayola was one of the first songs I ever wrote, playing patty cake on the steering wheel. I had rhythms and kid shows on the brain."

One of the most amazing things about the album is that Kristin plays virtually all the instruments. But she wouldn't categorize herself as a multi-instrumentalist.

"As a kid, I played piano and sang in choirs. I still wouldn't consider myself an instrumentalist.

"The journey started as a dancer in annapolis, and wiritng my own songs, I figured that I should learn how to play the guitar in from an audience.

"I've always been sort of a band person."

And a band person she is. She plays with two other bands, Sometymes Why and Uncle Earl. For the record, I'm all for attractive women getting together and singing beautiful music. But Kristin keeps the whole thing rather breezy and low key, even when she's name dropping. On talking about Uncle Earl's last album

"It was a very unfanfareish release. We did this record with John Paul Jones."

Oh, just John Paul Jones. Of Led Zepplin fame.

And so our conversation goes. She still seems geniunely incredulous that she got on to A Prarie Home Companion after mailing them a copy of her fantastic debut album ("I was like , that's a waste of a $1.11").

I've already gushed over "Kiss Me Hello" but I'm going to continue. It's a really pleasant and refreshing album. Slightly genre mixing, it still is very traditional American music. Kristin says she had many sources of inspiration.

"I feel like in a weird way, I wrote these songs in sort of genre categories, and recording them kind of taught me what they were. Our friends would come and stay with us [in Annapolis] all the time. And I feel that what I learned about music, came from those times when friends would come by and stay."

Lyrically, the album stands out for great writing. Each song has a very nice hand-crafted feel to it, with no thrown away lines or overemoted filler.

"I'm not a fan of music that makes you work too hard to understand it, that it's not an exercise.

"I think it's the influence of listening to other songwriters. One of the thigns that Dylan said is that he listened to so much traditional music. So much of his stuff is stolen melodies. And I think that's okay. And you can't always come up with something completely orginal. There's something archtypal."

Kristin's next big adventure is her two song a month club. For $15, you get two brand new songs a month from her for 2009. This is why I love independent artists. That's an incredible connection to make with an audience.

Again, Kristin seems very unassuming about the task.

"It's a lot of music. It's not that I'm going to have low standards for myself. I'm seeing the two song a month club as a committment to myself to write. Of the fans I have, I feel like thay enjoy the process. Your early demos, you feel like they are completely flawed, and those are the ones people like.

"I've learned that other people are more forgiving than I am of my first attempt."

If you'd like to see Kristin play in your hometown, she says just write her, which I'm sure your local music hall will appreciate.

Interview with Electric Owl's Andy Herod

Andy Herod of The Electric Owls

So a little over a month ago I went to the Bishop Allen show and was really impressed with opening one-man band The Electric Owls. Helmed by The Comas' former frontman Andy Herod, he detours from that late 90s fuzz rock to a more melodic, lyrically focused psychedelic folk pop sound.

The crowd was a little wary at first, but really got into his set.He released his four song EP, The Magic SHow, back in November. it has two track from his upcoming 2009 release and two other tracks.

Andy was kind enough to submit to a few questions, so here they are.

The Shimmy Shake: Talk a little bit about how you got from The Comas to > here. How did Electric Owls start?

Andy Herod: Electric Owls was born during the year after I left Brooklyn. I fled suddenly and without much of a plan. I couch surfed in North Carolina for a couple months and wrote these songs in friends bathrooms and kitchens when they were at work. Then I drove to California to work construction at a nuclear power plant on the Central Coast for 2 months. I finished up writing a few more songs there and formed a plan to go back to Asheville NC where a friend manages an amazing studio called Echo Mountain and could get me a good deal. So I asked Jason Caperton who had played bass in The Comas but that I knew to be a particularly gifted guitarist, to join me in California and help spice the songs up during a road trip back to the south.

None of this was done with any end in mind other than to have the best time possible. Which we did. But, at some point we involved a record company to get more money to finish and now it looks like I have a new project. Pretty excited though. The theme is really to approach things very differently than I did in The Comas. To let it go where it wants, to have fun, not to stress, concerned only with beauty and fun.

SS: This is definitely a different sound than what you were doing with The Comas. Kind of like psychedelic folk-pop (but maybe that's just me). But it's enjoyable. How did you get there?

AH: As far as the style of the music goes, it was a conscious effort to make it unique sounding and use as many acoustic instruments as possible. There is very little electric guitar on the record. But to make it full and wild we threw on a whole hell of a lot of synths and super effected string patches. This is what will have people using the psychedelic folk pop adjectives which i am totally happy with.

SS: The lyrics though, remain very personal, and very rich. Is the entire album going to sound like this?

Lyrics where very important to me this time around. I had gotten away from that and I put a lot more effort into making sure that SOMETHING was being said whether it was something personal or a story about someone else.

SS: When can we expect the new album to drop?

New album comes out on Vagrant Records first week of April.

Magic Show EP is out now on itunes now.

Interview with No Kids' Nick Krgovich

Things have been ridiculously hectic (and painful) here on my end. I twisted my knee, my kid had a low grade asthma attack (which prevented me from going to see No Kids.. Sorry Jeff!!!), and I've been handling some extracurricular activities at work.

So I've had a rather full plate lately. It kinda sucks.

But we've had this interview sitting in the hopper for awhile. and I wanted to get it up.

So without further adieu, here's The Shimmy Shake interview with No Kids' Nick Krgovich.

I think you'll find the interview to shed a lot of light on how he and the band went on developing the incredible sound that is 'Come Into My House.'

The Shimmy Shake: I'm going to be honest, this is without a doubt one of my most favorite albums of the year. I love it, my friends love it, my sister loves it, and these people come from all various points on the musical spectrum. And the music is sonically different from what you were making with P:ano (though I can see the relation). How'd you all go about making Come Into My House?

Nick Krgovich: I like the idea of tying records together with some sort of theme, like "no reverb" or "songs about stuffy, dissatisfied people living in New England" or "awkwardly funky dance pop". Come Into My House is really just an attempt at putting a whole bunch of disparate elements in the same setting, and trying to make it work. I was really interested in trying to marry my infatuation with late 80's/early 90's dance pop, with the melodrama of Douglas Sirk films, and the stillness of Alex Katz paintings and "This Side Of Paradise" by F. Scott Fitzgerald. You know, super "collar up" vibes. I thought attempting to make an autumnal R'N'B record was a good idea for some reason.

SS: I've read in other interviews about your influences, and of course listened to the album, and you can tell that r&b and hip hop had some role in the sound. What were you listening to when writing the songs and recording? How did it become such a defining sound of the album?

NK: It really boils down to Amerie in a lot of ways. I heard "1 Thing" back in 2005 and I just thought it was the most thrilling thing to listen to. I still feel that it is the pop achievement of the decade. Ever since then I've just been taking certain aspects of R'N'B and top-40 music really seriously and it started to inform the way the songs for Come Into My House were being written. I also, got really interested in singing, and writing fairly melismatic melodies, where the notes and the lyrics just become this blur. Like "We Belong Together" by Mariah Carey. I started to get really fascinated by how there are these super weird top ten singles, where the lyrics are almost indistinguishable, yet you totally feel everything about them. It seems to antagonize the idea of what a pop song is considered to be. No more, "Yummy yummy yummy, I've got love in my tummy", now it's these long rambling lines about crying, throwing plates and Bobby Womack on the radio. I find it all really exciting and weird.

SS: I caught you on the first one at the Black Cat Backstage opening up for Dirty Projectors, and now you're opening up for Mirah. That's been pretty much touring non-stop. How's that affecting the band, and your energy in shows?

NK: Well, I wouldn't say we've been touring non-stop but we are certainly playing more often than we did as P:ANO. I think there's much to be learned from playing music in front of people, especially night after night. On our tours we generally play the same set, because I feel that each show can be wildly different even though we are playing the same material. I was just reading "Catching The Big Fish" by David Lynch, and he was going on about the "circle" between an audience watching a film and the film itself. Just how different it can be from screening to screening depending on the energy in the theatre. With P:ANO I used to be really hung up on always trying something, then moving on. The songs didn't seem to have long lives at all. I don't really feel that way now.

SS: One thing I was amazed with at the show was the ability to not so much recreate the sound on the record, but to sort of fill it out with just the three of you. What have you found to be successful in your shows in getting that really complex layered sound from the album?

NK: Luckily the arrangements of the songs on Come Into My House were constructed with a pronounced emphasis on interlocking rhythmic and melodic ideas. So, we basically decided to just focus on those as way to represent the songs live. We've ended up relying heavily on this kids keyboard from the early 90's called the Yamaha PSR-75. It's like "well, a brass section plays that on the record, but I guess we could use #57 BRASS ENSEMBLE on the keyboard instead." I think it all comes down to representing the melodic ideas, rather than worry about the instrument that will be playing it.

SS: What are you listening to now? What can't you get enough of?

NK: I really love this record called "Mountain Rock" by Dear Nora and Katy Davidson's other group Lloyd & Michael. I listen to those albums constantly. I really love Bernard Herrmann's score for "Psycho", I think that is pretty much perfect music. I love Judy at Carnegie Hall. "A Walk Across The Rooftops" by the Blue Nile. I think the new Erykah Badu is really weird and great. I could go on and on. There was a time recently when I was listening to "Stronger Than Pride" by Sade every day.

SS: One of the many cool things about the album is the feeling of the American Upper Northeast you recreate. Now that you've seen New England, what do you think?

NK: I'd been through New England before, but only briefly. I was on tour with my friend Rose in the fall of 2006 and we were listening to these R'N'B mixes I made in the van, while we were driving from NYC to Boston. We stopped for lunch in Mystic, CT and I was just like "I want to make an R'N'B album that is the aural equivalent of this feeling right now." Like porch swings, and tall ships and the movie Mystic Pizza. I also think it's important when you fall in love with an idea just to go with it no matter how arbitrary it seems. I really do love New England in the fall though, I love the idea of romanticizing something that does not need to be romanticized because it is so inherently wonderful and dreamy.

SS: You are also signed with Tomlab, a fairly prominent indie label, but a foreign one nonetheless. Do you find that having a foreign label limits your exposure here in the States?

NK: Well, Tomlab do have a North American office. I don't know, I don't really think about it. I think Tomlab are great and they put out really terrific records. We really can't say enough good things about them.

SS: I haven't bought a physical CD in forever, though I do purchase all my music legally online. But I remember going to record stores and meeting bands and how that was an incredible part of the music experience for me. What's your take on the state of digital music?

NK: I think the best thing about CDs becoming an outmoded format is that there has been a renewed interest in vinyl. I think having an album on your iPod and an LP on your shelf is pretty ideal. At the same time I find how overwhelmingly accessible music is these days to be kind of troubling. It's giving people this endless knowledge of all sorts of music that kind of adds up to nothing. I feel that having 90 billion songs on your iPod does nothing to foster thoughtful listening because there is always something to move on to. I sort of liked it when I had to listen to "Laughing Stock" by Talk Talk all the time, 'cause it was the only Talk Talk album I had. Now it's like at the click of a button you can have their whole discography, and then what?

SS: You've kind of caught the best and worst of our politics during your spring and fall tour. What are your thoughts on the election?

NK: That is probably a question for my bandmate Justin.

SS: For me, it's always interesting to see who other bands associate with, who they like playing with. Vancouver has a pretty solid music scene, but are there bands or artists you would call "friends", people you enjoy playing with?

NK: Strangely enough, even though we've been playing shows since last March, we just played our first Vancouver show on Labour Day. It was odd knowing that we've played a place like Oslo twice but not our hometown. There is certainly a scene happening in Vancouver, I think they call it the New Weird Noise Punk or something. They have shows in former meat packing plants and things like that. No Kids really don't have anything to do with it. We certainly have a kinship with all of the groups we've toured with this year: Dirty Projectors, Mount Eerie and now Mirah and Casiotone for the Painfully Alone. We've also played with other Tomlab groups like Why? and Thee Oh Sees and Skeletons. We're really thankful that we've been able to meet such supportive, wonderful people over the last while.

Get "Come Into My House"

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Interview with Mathieu Santos of Ra Ra Riot

Here it is, the apex of our week featuring Ra Ra Riot.

I had the opportunity to send them a few questions, and bassist Mathieu Santos was kind of enough to answer them for me.

Here they are, totally unedited.

Shimmy Shake: The album, The Rhumb Line, is truly fantastic. Tell me a little bit
about the process of getting all that together and what it was like recording it.

Mathieu Santos: Thank you! The album is basically a recorded history of our first couple of years as a band – some of the songs were conceived at our first ever practice, and some of them came together while we were in the studio. Recording was an absolutely amazing process. We worked with Ryan Hadlock at his beautiful studio in rural Washington state, just north of Seattle, where we also lived during the sessions. The studio is actually an old, refurbished horse barn, so there are a lot of high, vaulted ceilings and loft spaces and things like that. We did a lot of cooking and relaxing – it was just an incredibly positive and relaxed vibe, and we’re all really happy with how the album came out.


SS: The buzz surrounding your shows is intense. Every review I've read says a Ra Ra Riot show is just incredible. What do you do to ensure you have a great show every night? What's key?

MS: The key to having a good show is to have insufferably large amounts of down-time throughout the day, so by the time you get to the stage, you can hardly control how happy and excited you are to finally get to do what you want to be doing.

SS: This tour is going all over the place, and again, gotten great reviews at every stop. What have been some of the highlights? Low points? How do you keep it going everyday?

MS: There have been a ton of highlights on this tour! Most recently, we stopped by one of the white-sanded beaches in Pensacola on a day off, which was really exciting for us lot of Nor’easterners who are more accustomed to rocks and boring old TAN sand. We always try to get out and explore a little bit of wherever we are, which helps to diffuse the boredom that can set in at times. Lowlights, as usual, revolve around having our van broken into/damaged/ticketed/towed, but we’re slowly getting used to that kind of stuff.


SS: A friend pointed me to the 'Oh La' remix that you all donated to BarackRock.org. How'd you get involved in that? Any other events planned for Obama before the election?

MS: We’ve known Jack [Dolgen of Maricopa], the site’s creator, for a while – we opened for his band, Sam Champion, at our first ever show, which took place in our manager’s basement! (Our manager was arrested later this night for disturbing the peace.) I think Jack contacted us about getting involved, and we had just recorded some new arrangements for Daytrotter.com. We were particularly happy with how Oh, La came out, and were even more excited to share it with him. As far as other pre-election events go, we plan on continuing to boo loudly at the television whenever we see images of John McCain, and, conversely, high-fiving and doing Arsenio Hall-style arm pumps whenever we see Obama.

SS: Even though you have been getting good solid press, you're still an independent band (albeit an independent band on a major independent label). How do you go about getting your music heard? What's worked and what hasn't?

MS: We’ve toured pretty relentlessly during the past two and a half years, and we’ve always found that to be the most effective and direct way to build a solid, dedicated fan base. It’s really nice to see the size of crowds in each city build over time.

SS: One of my favorite songs on the album is Can You Tell. The character in the song is apologetic at first, but still plays rather coy in the song. I'd like to know what went into that song.

MS: Wes is asleep right now, and so this will have to remain a mystery for the time being.

SS: Another favorite is the Kate Bush cover of 'Suspended in Gaffa." Is she an influence? What other bands are influences for you?

MS: We are all huge Kate Bush fans, thanks to Wes, who first got us to cover Hounds Of Love when we first formed. There was a week last summer during which we were obsessed with Suspended In Gaffa, and during a lull in a practice one day, we started playing it for fun. At first we never intended to perform it live or to share it with anyone, and lo and behold, it eventually made its way onto the album. Other common influences among the six of us include The Beatles, The Police, Talking Heads, U2 – things like that.


SS: What are you currently listening to? What can't you get enough of?

MS: Personally, as far as new music goes, I’m really excited about the new White Denim and Walkmen albums, and I’ve been listening to a lot of The Virgins since touring with them earlier this year. Also, I just completed my U2 collection on this tour! I got the re-mastered 1977-1984 box set, with all the bonus b-side discs, and it is absolutely incredible.

SS: I haven't bought a physical CD in forever, though I do purchase all my music legally online. But I remember going to record stores and meeting bands and how that was an incredible part of the music experience for me. What's your take on the state of digital music?

MS: Digital music is definitely more convenient in a lot of ways, and that’s far and away its greatest strength. However, I can’t imagine not owning physical copies of my favorite albums, and I can’t help thinking that digital music has, in a lot of ways, de-mystified the idea of owning music. Lately we’ve been trying to fit in a lot of in-store performances at independent record retailers*, and it’s great to see the large, enthusiastic turnouts at these stores.

*The stores we’ve played at on this tour are: Soundgarden in Baltimore, Maryland; The Record Exchange in Boise, Idaho; Waterloo Records in Austin, Texas; and Cactus Music in Houston, Texas. If you’re ever near any of these areas, please visit them!

SS: Where do you put the cello when on tour? Do you strap it to the top of the van?

MS: Unfortunately we’ve never had to do this – though sometimes it gets its own seat when we fly to places (and, since the seat is paid for, it actually DOES get served snacks and a meal).

SS: I have no more questions. Anything you want to add?

OBAMA ’08!

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Teaser

We've got the interview questions back from Ra Ra Riot, and they're good. I'm very pleased they took a little time out from what must be an insane touring schedule to answer them.

I'll post them later on tonight after I run them through my patented media filter, but I wanted to tease it up a bit first.

A few days ago I linked to an amazing version of the song 'Oh La' that the band had contributed to the BarackRock.org project. I asked them about it and this is what I got back

We’ve known Jack [Dolgen of Maricopa], the site’s creator, for a while – we opened for his band, Sam Champion, at our first ever show, which took place in our manager’s basement! (Our manager was arrested later this night for disturbing the peace.) I think Jack contacted us about getting involved, and we had just recorded some new arrangements for Daytrotter.com. We were particularly happy with how Oh, La came out, and were even more excited to share it with him.

There's more to come from the interview, but just wanted to drop a little bit from it, CBS Katie Couric style!