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By Rudy Klapper, August 30, 2010 8:00 am

Got the chance to talk on the phone with three-time #1 DJ in the world, Armin van Buuren last Saturday before his epic set at UK dance festival Creamfields. Thanks to Sputnikmusic.com, Plexi PR, and Armin himself, who was extremely gracious and accommodating. Quite envious of anyone in the NYC area who is going to see him at Electric Zoo.

Rudy Klapper: Being the number one DJ in the world is a pretty demanding job, particularly when you’ve been voted the best multiple years as you have. How has 2010 been turning out so far as you gear up for your album release?

Armin van Buuren: Well, it’s been really, really phenomenal. I thought last year was sort of the peak for myself but this year I’m releasing my new album, I’ve been doing a little less DJing in general because I want to focus on that.  But I still toured South America and North America, some stuff in Asia. But yeah, in the summer though I’ve just been full on doing a gig almost every day and it’s been really fantastic. Now I have 21 new tracks finished and I’m very proud.

RK: I caught your headlining act at the Electric Daisy Carnival in Los Angeles this past June (well over a hundred thousand people) and you’ll be playing at the Electric Zoo in NYC this upcoming weekend. How do you like playing at these massive festivals as compared to more intimate gigs?

AVB: I think everyone would like to have a fancy dinner sometimes at a posh restaurant, and then somebody likes to have a greasy burger the other day or eat with friends another day or a home cooked meal another day. That’s how I see it; you have a different meal every day. And it’s just really, really great. I love the smaller gigs, the intimate gigs. Last week for example I played at a really small club, like 400 people, in Greece, and you can talk right to your fans, communicate with them directly. While at a big festival it’s sort of, you know, the big energy, all the big tunes in a really short time, very quick mixing, just a big party atmosphere, which is unbelievable fun I think.

RK: How are festivals in the U.S. different from festivals in Europe? Dance music hasn’t been as mainstream for that long here, a lot of people see it as “new” and “fresher;” does the crowd reflect this?

AVB: Yeah, I guess that is true, in Europe we do have a longer history of electronic dance music and it’s more in the daytime radio. I think the U.S. is definitely catching up with house music right now, especially with all the big festivals that are going on, Electric Daisy, ULTRA Music Festival, and now Electric Zoo, slowly but surely the U.S. is definitely catching up. And of course you can tell by the crowds that are starting to come out.

RK: A lot of electronic artists who will be playing at Electric Zoo utilize software and MIDI controllers during their performances to allow for more “on the fly” changes and more live remixing. Do you see yourself ever incorporating different technology into your DJ setup?

AVB: Oh for sure, I mean the gap between being a DJ and being a producer has sort of vanished anyways the last couple of years. For my type of music, trance music, people like to hear tunes unedited as much as possible. That’s my experience; there was a time in 2004 when I used to drop all types of a capellas and tunes and mixed-key and whatever not, but a lot of people that come to my gigs just want to hear the tunes and the full tunes, mixed in and mixed out, that’s it, not too many technical tricks. It depends on what kind of artist you are and what kind of music you want to represent. Of course, I have some special edits that I do and on the fly I make sure that a lot of my sets, for example when I play a big festival, that I do have live edits just to make a tune shorter and give it more energy. At the moment, though, I don’t see myself fully producing because I don’t really see the point from my kind of music. With trance, it’s basically all about the tunes themselves rather than being on the stage full on producing with a MIDI controller and all that.

RK: Has there been any particular festival this year that has stood out to you?

AVB: Yes, I played in Bulgaria this summer, which was really, really special, and one of my favorite crowds. I played until 7, until the sun came up, and that was one of my favorite gigs. I also thought Dance Valley [an annual dance festival held in Spaarnwoude, Netherlands] was really, really special. It was raining all day and then in the evening when I started to play it finally cleared up, and it was a very magical atmosphere.

RK: Speaking of huge concerts, I know you occasionally play 9-12 hour sets – I even saw one at TAO 2009. How do you prepare for something like that, and more importantly, how do you stay awake?

AVB: *laughs* Well the crowd keeps me up, all that energy! I think I’m preparing every day because I’m selecting tunes for longer sets constantly and seeing in which part of the night they could work out perfectly. For example, when I play a festival I have to play all my big hits and my latest productions because that’s what people expect me to play, that’s what they want me to play. But when I get to play a longer set I can really build, play some more progressive stuff, some more house stuff, some more techno stuff, some classics, some vocal trance, and everything in between.

RK: Your fourth album, Mirage, comes out September 10^th, of which I’ve already had the pleasure of listening to a few tracks. What would you say your goal was with this album and do you think it turned out as you originally perceived it?

AVB: Well, mainly, the quote for this album that really works is “life is what’s happening to you when you were busy making other plans.” I had a big plan for this album and it turned out in a completely different way *laughs*. And I really didn’t mind, I was just making music in the studio and I really found the fun again in the studio. I really felt pressure a couple of years back after the success of Imagine, I was like “Okay how am I ever going to top this?” I had a really big hit, “In and Out of Love” was #1 in three countries, and I really had a lot of pressure for a follow-up. And I found that I just went into the studio and had fun, that’s what music is all about, and without actually noticing it I’d produced twenty-one tracks, brand new tracks, and that’s the most I’ve ever done in one year. So it’s the biggest project I’ve ever done, working with classical orchestras, working with a real rock band, working with loads and loads of live acoustic stuff, working with excellent writers like Guy Chambers, working with the Nervo sisters, you know, just having fun. I didn’t really think about – I mean, of course I had an idea for Mirage when I set out, but for me, it didn’t happen, the album just came about in such a great way in its own way, and I just had so much fun in creating the album.

RK: Mirage has a number of guest spots, including [English singer-songwriter] Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Owl City’s Adam Young. Is there any artist in particular you would love to collaborate with that you haven’t had the chance to?

AVB: Oh yeah, they’re loads of artists that I admire and I’d love to work with. I’m a big fan of Seal, his voice is amazing, or Enya, or Bjork. But I think what I want to stress for me is not so much the collaborations that inspire me, for me it’s the songs at the end of the day. When I talk about my new album I notice that a lot of people talk about the collaborations, but I want to stress that half of it is still an instrumental trance album, and I know there’s not really much you can say about something if it’s not a collaboration or something, but at the end of the day, for me music is always number one. No matter who you work with the song should always be involved; let’s say if I could ever have the honor to work with, say, Madonna for example, I would still want the track to be good, I don’t want the track to be finished just because it’s Madonna, just because it’s somebody really famous who would look good on the album. I want the music to be the best.

RK: Nowadays blogs are a very convenient way for people to discover new music, particularly in the dance and techno genres. Although the artist may be losing money in record sales, it’s often outweighed by the promotion and publicity. How do you feel about people using blogs to find new music, even if it is sometimes illegal?

AVB: I don’t know, I think it’s hard because you have to make a living one way or another. If you go to a restaurant and you leave without paying, that’s just something you don’t do, and I think that is really important to stress. This last album is the most expensive album I’ve ever made, paid out of my own pocket, and people downloading it and putting it online, they just don’t realize the damage that’s being done, not just for me but for everyone who works on it. Now on the other hand, I do love the fact that music is so easy and accessible for people right now. I think what should happen is we should find a solution for people to be able to access music very easy, very quickly, because I think the Internet is a wonderful thing and it’s so great to find new music. On the other hand, artists do need to be paid. I don’t want to be really rich on my music, I want to be able to make music and be able to make more music, that’s all I want. I don’t want to be involved in just selling new music to sell it. I think what we should do, with YouTube now and all the commercials, the way YouTube is selling money for each commercial click, I think new advertising streams like that online are going to be happening more, like when an artist posts a new track there will be advertising with it. I think, not only for myself but also for other artists, what you really notice is that people do really need money, to pay rent, and to make a living and keep on making music.

RK: Lastly, I was searching around YouTube the other day and came across a clip of you DJing a celebration for the men’s World Cup team, in honor of their second place finish this past summer. What was that experience like, being able to celebrate such a huge moment in Dutch history with all your countrymen?

AVB: It was amazing, I mean unfortunately we did lose in the finals, but it was still an extraordinary achievement for such a small country, I mean Holland is only 16 million people! *laughs* But it was amazing, and I gotta be honest with you, the whole show was basically unplanned. I was supposed to play from 4-6, and I wasn’t supposed to be on stage, and then all of a sudden I had to play they pushed me on stage, and there I was, live on national TV! Just a fantastic experience.

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By Rudy Klapper, November 3, 2009 7:33 pm

Boston band can’t stop, won’t stop

Hitting the big time in the music business is rather akin to winning the lottery – regardless of whether you struggle for years against the odds or hit it big after a one-off chance, it’s essentially a crapshoot of epic proportions. Boston band Passion Pit, then, can be considered one of the luckiest entrants in the industry, nailing a record deal and some big-name tours less than a year after their first proper recording, 2008’s EP Chunk of Change. Shot out onto the tour circuit as soon as they put the finishing touches on their debut LP, Passion Pit have had more than enough opportunities to put in the kind of work most bands take years to achieve.

“It’s been an absolutely crazy time,” bassist Jeff Apruzzese says while the band travels via bus through the cellular wasteland of Kansas. “We’ve been so lucky. Back when Chunk of Change was first released, no one thought we’d be granted these kind of opportunities.”

Indeed, few could have foreseen the rapid explosion in popularity in what started as a creative make-up letter. Singer and keyboardist Michael Angelakos wrote what would become Chunk of Change and most of Manners as a gift to his then-girlfriend as a sort of peacemaker back in April of 2007. It didn’t take him long to figure out that these weren’t just your regular love odes.

“Most of the material we play nowadays was originally just Michael and his laptop singing these Valentine’s Day tunes, performing in a very folklore sort of way,” Apruzzese explains. “Eventually he talked to Ian [Hultquist, guitarist] and that led to the rest of us signing on and soon [around May 2008] it was a full-blown group show.”

Soon after Chunk of Change was released, the hype machine really began to pick up steam. Massive buzz from the Boston music press, “up-and-coming” articles from the likes of MTV and the BBC, and the requisite thumbs-up from Pitchfork all contributed to a record deal and one of the most anticipated debuts of the year in Manners. Unlike so many blogosphere sensations that came before them, however, Passion Pit didn’t disappoint. Manners was well received by the critics, from Paste magazine to Rolling Stone, and charted reasonably well for an independent release, especially overseas. It’s dreamy electro-pop, heavily buttressed by an array of synthesizers and highlighted by Angelako’s falsetto tones, was the perfect summer album for many. Mixing a well-disguised appreciation for mainstream pop melodies with a vibrant electronica flavor and a heavy debt to the ‘80s, Manners comes off sort of like an MGMT on steroids, a sparkling indie pop factory. Of course, Passion Pit was already well on the way to cementing their remarkable live show literally moments after finishing with Manners. “The day after we laid down the final vocal tracks in the studio, we were out on the road starting the tour,” Apruzzese says. “It was more difficult than I think most bands experience, because while we were recording Manners and before we went out on the road we had to spend a few months turning what was pretty much a solo effort into a five-part band show. And it took an additional five weeks to incorporate it into the live show.”

“When we first went out on the road, we were playing 35, 40 minute sets, because we only had about seven or so songs all down,” Apruzzese says. “We were still learning to play everything, and we were headlining shows! It was definitely rough for a little while,” Apruzzese says, laughing.

Something clicked, however, and Passion Pit was soon receiving rave reviews from across the country for their lively concerts. They have already toured with such indie stalwarts as Death Cab for Cutie, Girl Talk, and Franz Ferdinand, as well as prominent festival appearances at Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza this summer. Their own headlining tour that is set to end in Tokyo next February has already sold out a number of dates, including the Henry Fonda in Los Angeles. The abrupt rush of fame and media exposure has not been lost on the band, however.

“Just a couple weeks ago I was eating ice cream outside a café in Northampton [Massachusetts], and Thurston Moore [of noise-rock pioneers Sonic Youth] sat down next to me. I almost shat myself,” Apruzzese says. “Just to have these huge influences talk to us and tell us how they like our music, it’s crazy. I mean, Bruce Springsteen watched our show at Glastonbury [Festival, in England], and enjoyed it! That’s ridiculous.”

Now on the West Coast leg of their tour, Passion Pit have a long way to go before they can finally reap the benefits of their rigorous touring schedule, but the band remains committed to continuing to build up their group rapport and continue spreading their accessible brand of oddball pop. A thoroughly modern band, Passion Pit has repeatedly used iTunes and other online retailers to promote their music and release bonus tracks. After all, it’s the blogosphere that is largely responsible for their success.

“Internet has taken a hold of music,” Apruzzese says. “It’s had a huge impact on the response of our band – on the Internet you can develop an instant connection. It’s so easy for people to put music out there, and with Chunk of Change and before Manners it was all Internet buzz. I miss going to a record store and blowing all my money and just spending the day listening to a new record, but at the same time, we’re now playing clubs in the Midwest that we’ve never been to before and selling them out.”

And for good reason. Passion Pit has already proven they’re not just another blogger flavor of the month, showing a verve for relentless touring and an irresistible urge to entertain. Of course, it helps that the material on Manners has already made it a strong candidate for debut of the year. Combine that with a band that seems to have an infinite reserve of energy, and you have a force to be reckoned with. “It’s been pretty exhausting,” Apruzzese says, “but we are all loving it. It’s been a great year, and we’re definitely not slowing down anytime soon.”

Passion Pit – “Moth’s Wings”

See larger image Manners (Audio CD) List Price: $12.98 USD New From: $5.76 In Stock Used from: $5.68 In Stock Release date June 9, 2009.

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By Rudy Klapper, December 21, 2008 12:00 pm

The 2009 Grammy Awards: Who Cares?

Only a mere twelve years ago, when Alanis Morrissette’s Jagged Little Pill won Album of the Year, there was hardly any argument made against the Canadian popster-turned-seriously-pissed-off-songwriter claiming she didn’t deserve it. After all, songs like “Ironic” and “You Oughta Know” were mid-90s’ capsules of savage wit, biting sarcasm, and supremely well-written pop songs, and Jagged Little Pill is the kind of record that defined a place for women in the male-dominated scene of turn-of-the-century rock. This was a time, not so long ago, when true music was celebrated. When little-known artists were commended. When quantity of sales sold was not the sole factor of recognition. That was then. Today, however, is a different world.

The nominees for the 2009 Grammy awards were announced at a live concert/presentation at the Nokia Theatre the first Wednesday of December, the first time the venerable organization has aired the nominations rather than revealing them in a traditional (read: boring) news conference. The one-hour televised segment featured a fairly predictable set list showcasing the who’s-who of the pop world today, something that would certainly still be bland but perhaps not as crushingly out-of-touch if the Grammy organization had decided to have these stars sing what is currently hot now. Instead, viewers were treated contemporary pop stars belting out the “classics” our parents know and love.

Yes, the Grammy “Nomination Special” featured artists such as Celine Dion and Mariah Carey singing such hits as “At Seventeen” and “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” respectively. And there was perhaps no more ill-advised decision than the Foo Fighters disastrous rendition of Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain,” a performance that stretched the definition of the very word “cover.” While Dave Grohl and his band are never going to be accused of lacking energy, Grohl’s typical howling and the bludgeoning sonic assault of the band turned the song into a boring, vanilla alt-rock rant. Even better, the marketing geniuses behind the Grammys decided that the only serviceable part of the whole ceremony, John Mayer’s one-hour concert after the nominations, wouldn’t be televised.

Could you hum any of the above songs off the top of your head? I didn’t think so. All in all, it’s hard to determine whether a dry, sleep-inducing reading of the nominees would have been preferable to this oversized commercial for the newly opened Grammy Museum, and surely would’ve saved everybody’s time.

Then again, the show blessedly lasted only for an hour. Unfortunately, however, we must live with the results of the Grammy’s choices for at least another three months, choices that again and again prove the irrelevancy of one of the most overrated award ceremonies around.

Every year, the Grammys have a chance to redeem their reputation as an out-of-touch industry where businessmen are more interested in marketing and profits than critical acclaim by choosing albums and artists that actually deserve the awards. Instead, the Grammys continue to make choices that boggle the artistic mind, not to mention common sense.

Here are the nominees for just one category, the all-important “Record of the Year:” “Chasing Pavements” by Adele, “Viva La Vida” by Coldplay, “Bleeding Love” by Leona Lewis, “Paper Planes” by M.I.A., and “Please Read The Letter” by Robert Plant & Alison Krauss. Due to the Grammy’s inexplicable way of defining the calendar year, both “Paper Planes” and “Please Read The Letter” are given nods, despite being physically released in 2007. And really, is “Paper Planes” Record of the Year worthy? Not to mention “Bleeding Love,” just the kind of sugary, shallow pop song that regularly enters record of the year contention?

A simple glance at the year’s numbers explain the Grammy’s reasoning for this and many other categories: “Bleeding Love” is the top-selling single of the year, having gone triple platinum, while both “Viva La Vida” and “Chasing Pavement” have hit number one in various charts.

The “Album of the Year” category is almost more of a sham, featuring Coldplay, Lil Wayne, Ne-Yo, Robert Plant & Alison Kraus, and Radiohead’s latest albums. While it’s a relief to finally see Radiohead getting some love (only about ten years late! Way to be on top of pop culture, Grammys), In Rainbows was, again, technically released in 2007. Plant & Krauss practically scream “respect” nomination, the kind that everyone agrees with on principle but will never win. But check out the sales figures for the first three: 2.4 million for Lil Wayne, Coldplay sold 720,000 copies in their first week, and Ne-Yo’s Year of the Gentleman has currently sold over 650,000 copies. Sure, all have received varying degrees of critical acclaim, but only Coldplay has come close to receiving that sort of “Album of the Year”-worthy praise from the most reputable critics.

The Grammys have always been criticized for setting itself up as more of a gigantic promotional machine rather than any kind of meaningful award ceremony. Again, records that have sold an exorbitant amount and receive at least a modicum of positive critical acclaim are those most likely to be nominated. A glance at the currently highest-rated albums of the year are proof that the Grammys are hopelessly out-of-touch with reality: a sample of Metacritic.com’s (a compilation of music critic’s ratings averaged out) Top 30 List of the Year include: Fleet Foxes, TV On The Radio, Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, Portishead, and B.B. King. Lil Wayne? Too many divided opinions. Coldplay? Close, but no cigar. Ne-Yo? As if. In fact, not a single record or album of the year nominee is up, unless, of course, you count Radiohead and Plant & Krauss in 2007.

There are a few encouraging signs of progress, such as Death Cab for Cutie’s nomination for “Best Rock Song” and Hot Chip for “Best Dance Recording.” When was the last time the Eagles were relevant? Does everything John Mayer record automatically get a Grammy bid? Is Kid Rock really a nominee for “Best Rock Album?”

Honestly, nearly every category under the Grammys could be considered suspect decisions of taste and integrity, but it would be redundant to go any further. The Grammys remain, at best, a mere fashion show and name-dropper, a chance for old and outdated music executives to congratulate each other on last year’s financial performance (or lack thereof in this economy) while the rest of the music world continues to grow and evolve without them. Be sure to tune in February 9^th next year to watch the music industry engage in a masturbatory orgy of disgusting proportions, but don’t count on anything remotely exciting.

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By Rudy Klapper, October 28, 2008 12:30 pm

Veteran L.A. musicians blaze their own proudly old-fashioned musical path, tour with Neil Young

“This whole thing has been really fun,” said singer-guitarist Russell Pollard of L.A.-based folk-rock band Everest while at a pit stop just outside Portland, OR. “Just being able to play for our fans and be on the road with some really great guys, it’s just the kind of experience we were hoping for.”

“Fun” is quite the understatement to describe the recent run of success Everest has encountered since releasing their debut album Ghost Notes on Vapor Records back in May. An amalgam of musical creativity and instrumental talent from a number of SoCal bands, such as Sebadoh, Earlimart, the Folk Implosion, and the Watson Twins, Everest got together as most bands do; a group of friends just trying to make music that appealed to them.

“We all knew each from the touring scene in L.A. and along the west coast,” Pollard explains. “I had played drums in Sebadoh and I had talked with some of the other guys [guitarists Jason Soda and Joel Graves] on tour and jammed with them at some point or another, and we kept in touch. And when it felt like the bands we were in wanted to go in a different direction or didn’t work out for whatever reason, it just felt right to go out and try our own thing.”

Everest certainly had no preconceptions of what they were trying to do when it came to figuring out their new sound. “The recording process was really a blank canvas,” Pollard said. “We came in there with some material that I had been working on and other songs we just kind of bounced off each other. We all played different roles in our previous bands so it was cool to branch out.”

While Pollard professes a love for ‘60s psychedelia and groovy kraut-rock, Ghost Notes calls to mind more of one of Pollard’s favorite contemporary bands, My Morning Jacket. From the Southern-rock tinge of the haunting opener “Rebels in the Roses” to the rollicking drive of “Trees” to the almost hymn-like qualities of “The Future,” Ghost Notes’s blend of Americana-roots rock, soul, and simple burning guitar rock is the kind of record that only comes out once in a while, and the band knew it.

“There was a really good vibe during recording, and the studio [the late Elliott Smith’s personal New Monkey Studio] was just the perfect atmosphere,” Pollard said. Plenty of Ghost Notes’ vintage guitar-rock feel can be attributed to Everest’s proclivity towards more old-fashioned recording methods.

“Nothing digital,” Pollard swore. “It wasn’t really a conscious choice, but analog, tape machines, etc. is just what we’ve grown up using. I wouldn’t know how to even use Pro Tools,” Pollard laughed. “But we think it really helped let the personality of the band come through. Instead of working everything out a million times and making sure every drum hit was just on or whatever, we just captured the essence of a band playing live.”

Everest’s big break came, however, when Neil Young’s manager caught a listen to one of their demos, visited at recording, and decided to take the record within only a few days. “It was surreal,” Pollard said. “He [Young] invited us to come on his European tour, and from there the whole process was just very organic, very natural. But at the beginning it was pretty crazy, because I think I speak for the whole band when I say Young was such a hero to us.”

 All veterans of the music business, they’re not letting their run of good luck interfere with what they set out to do: play for themselves and for their fans. “I think the heart of what we are is when we play live,” Pollard said. “So just the chance of being able to play in front of some major audiences music that really shines live, it’s awesome. We’re a live band first.” Everest should have no trouble getting in front of people anytime soon; they are currently again on the western leg of a U.S. tour that started September 14th with Young and Death Cab for Cutie.

“Honestly, I feel like we’ve been blessed,” Pollard said. “This has just been everything we could ask for and more, and we’re just excited to be playing.” For a band with as much musical savvy, creative chemistry, and such determination as Everest, it looks as if they’re not going to need much else anytime soon. 

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By Rudy Klapper, September 17, 2008 12:00 pm

San Diego indie rockers trip out to the desert, come back with gold

It’s nothing new for an up-and-coming band to look back on their musical predecessors for inspiration; some of indie rock’s most recent and brightest stars have staked their burgeoning careers and built some impressive reputations on stylizing themselves on their elders. The Arcade Fire had Springsteen, Franz Ferdinand had Orange Juice, Interpol had Joy Division, and now out of southern California comes Delta Spirit, a band that showcases a sound that has certainly been done before, but in this newest incarnation sounds fresher than it has in years.

Founded by bassist Jon Jameson and drummer Brandon Young of the now-defunct Noise Ratchet, a much more abrasive, punk-influenced group, the lineup was completed when friend and novice guitarist Sean Walker joined up and future vocalist Matthew Vasquez was discovered, according to Jameson, “singing and playing guitar by the train tracks.” Multi-instrumentalist Kelly Winrich started as the band’s producer but later joined up within their first year; the official band bio states his duties as “plays piano, hits a drum, sings, hits a trashcan, plays guitar and a high strung guitar.” A diverse group, but one, bassist Jameson says, that has one goal: “to be found in the lineage of honest and true music that has found its way through every current of music history.”

A bold claim, to be sure, and one that isn’t exactly the easiest thing to accomplish for a band that has yet garner any major label attention. Their sound is a little difficult than most current bands to pin down, although Delta Spirit themselves officially label themselves as “Other/Thrash/Visual” with tongues firmly in cheek on their MySpace, the band draws from a number of widespread influences.

“We were born in the ‘80s, grew up in the ‘90s and have parents from the ‘60s, [and] we are proud of the bands that are making great music now,” Jameson says. “Maybe it’s like the Waterboys [a Celtic folk-rock band] covering Harry Nilsson.”

A few listens to the band’s lead single, “Trashcan,” shows a clear affinity for the Waterboys as well as similarities to perennial ‘80s folk-punks the Violent Femmes, with singer Vasquez’s ragged, whiskey-soaked vocals painting a soulful picture of American life while a barroom piano playing a jangly tune and the powerful thump of the drums conjures up an image of Delta Spirit getting down and dirty in a seedy dive somewhere in the Southwest.

Ode To Sunshine, the band’s debut album that Spin declared “impresses mightily,” is a diverse collection of sounds that alternately rock with indie rock fervor and connect with the heartfelt intimacy of ‘60s folk. Recorded in a cabin in the deserts of eastern California, Jameson says it reminds him of everything from “sun, saunas, and dogs” to “Old Crow and Coke and Eli Thompson.”

“I think that before when we were looking at the album it felt kinda heavy to us and serious,” Jameson explains. “About the big things in life . . . but I think we realized that the true feeling of the album also included what we were feeling while making it and recording it and that those bits of summer and excitement and wonder break through every once in a while . . . the light and the dark.”

For a band just starting out in a music industry that looks anything but certain nowadays, it takes quite an impressive sound to leave a mark, but Delta Spirit and Ode To Sunshine seem to have all the right ingredients for success. And from a group as talented as they clearly are from an area that eats young, promising musicians for breakfast, they also seem to have just the right attitude.

“There is a feeling of possibility in our age,” Jameson says. “We feel that same possibility with our band. We don’t want to forget about the most important thing for us, which is simply making good music, but that does include being aware of what’s going on in the world as well as what’s going on in our own heads and souls. We just want to be honest about ourselves.”

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By Rudy Klapper, April 14, 2008 12:00 pm

One-man show goes on tour in support of new record

The do-it-yourself (DIY) ethic has been around for decades in the music industry, exemplified by such diverse bands as hardcore rockers Fugazi to Welsh weirdos Super Furry Animals, but native Angeleno and Say Hi frontman Eric Elbogen has taken the DIY ideal to a whole new level.

“I’ve always just worked better on my own,” Elbogen said over the phone while driving somewhere in central Oklahoma. “All the bands I had been in earlier always ended in some argument or another.”

“Working on my own” is an understatement in Elbogen’s case. Having started what was originally called Say Hi To Your Mom in Brooklyn in 2002 as a one-man band, Elbogen chose to forgo the traditional route of studio recording and played straight onto a computer he built himself, performing the majority of the instruments and vocals.

“It takes me about eight months to a year to make a whole record,” Elbogen said. “Lately I’ve been drawing in some other people [like drummer Chris Egan and keyboardist Jeff Sheinkopf] to tour and sometimes record with, but for the most part it’s just me and the computer.”

You wouldn’t know it from listening to the music, however. A mainstay of the indie lo-fi movement, Say Hi plays a lush brand of quirky synth-pop that sounds like the product of a dozen musicians, much less one. It’s Elbogen’s introspective and often eccentric lyrics that make him stand out, however, with their last album, Impeccable Blahs being entirely about vampires.

“I don’t really know how I come up with my lyrics,” Elbogen explained. “I write everyday and when it’s time to start the record, I pick the ones that stand out to me and throw away the shitty ones.” Their latest album, The Wishes and the Glitch, turns more to the personal side of things, with songs like “Zero to Love” speaking more about relationship problems than ever before.

The shift seems to have resonated with fans, which has made The Wishes and the Glitch the “best received record so far,” according to Elbogen. “So far on the tour the new songs have been gone over pretty well.”

Elbogen’s one-man show doesn’t stop with just making the music, though.

“I made the first record [2002’s Discosadness] and shopped it around for a while, but no one wanted to release it,” Elbogen said. “So I decided to do it myself.” Elbogen started up Euphobia Records to self-release his work, and received a crash course in the business of setting up a label and distribution.

“For the first couple of albums I was still figuring out how everything works, the business aspect, and around the third record I started feeling comfortable about it,” Elbogen said. “Now I know what I need to do when I release a record and so on.”

So being in the unique position of being both a working, touring musician, producer, and the head of a record label, Elbogen has been quick to catch on to the trends that are currently turning the music industry upside down. 

“We released The Wishes and the Glitch online six months before it hit stores,” Elbogen said. “It was a pretty successful sales technique and definitely helped with cutting costs.”

Elbogen cites Radiohead as one of his biggest influences, along with perennial alternative rockers Pavement, and believes that the record industry is inevitably headed to an online-only retail stage that Radiohead’s In Rainbows already pioneered. Elbogen agrees, however, that it will take a long time for the industry to change.

“Mp3s have helped us gain fans, of course, but they mostly hurt in the long run,” Elbogen said. “I think everyone is still trying to find out what works best, and the music companies take a long time to figure out anything.”

Elbogen, however, has never concerned himself with what the rest of the music industry is doing, and it doesn’t seem likely that Say Hi will let the cumbersome bureaucracy of the record business slow them down from doing what they love. Say Hi is what music is at its heart: simple, unrestrained creativity.

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By Rudy Klapper, February 22, 2008 12:00 pm

New York post-punk band dumps RCA, begins work on 3rd album

By the dawn of the new millennium, the fabled music scene of New York City had fallen into decay. Clubs were closing, fan attendance was down, and cash-strapped bands were disappearing into 9-to-5 office hell. Things looked pretty bleak.

That’s when a few upstart graduates from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn decided to try something different from their normal routine, and start a band. “It was pretty much a chance gathering,” stellastarr* bassist and back-up vocalist Amanda Tannen said. “I saw Shawn [Christensen, stellastarr*’s vocalist] on the street one day and he invited me over to jam. And it just went from there.”

For those not familiar with stellastarr*, the band found fame in the alternative/garage-rock revival that arose in New York City in the early 2000s. But whereas the Strokes were the scene’s ultra-hip rockers, Interpol catered to a slightly more gothic, much more depressed clientele, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ gave hope to women rockers everywhere, stellastarr* from the very beginning just seemed like a band that was there for the pure fun of playing music.

“Only our guitarist [Michael Jurin] wanted to be a musician when he was younger,” Tannen said. “I had played cello in high school but I had never played ‘rock music.’ I was pretty much forced into it,” she said, laughing. “But everything just clicked when we played, so we decided to keep on doing it.”

Picked up by major label RCA in the music industry’s scramble to capitalize on the “New York” sound’s success epitomized by the Strokes, stellastarr*’s self-titled debut album radiates the members’ newfound excitement for playing music. Firmly rooted in the post-punk, indie-rock tradition of bands like the Rapture, the album also shows a fixation on the new wave scene of the 80s, most apparent in Christensen’s yelping, emotional vocals and the often bright, poppy guitar lines exemplified in popular single “My Coco.”

Although boosted by their scene’s burgeoning popularity and the backing of a major label, Tannen insists that their jump from relative club obscurity to headlining concerts across the country was a long and hard-fought one.

“We played constantly, at least once every two weeks but usually more,” Tannen said. Word-of-mouth also played an important role in building their fan support: “We would put up our stickers in the back of every cab we took around the city, and then people would meet us and be like, ‘hey, I’ve heard of you guys from somewhere,” Tannen said. “We put our hearts into all of it.”

Their work paid off, as stellastarr* received generally favorable reviews from the indie press and their tours garnered enough attention to convince RCA to support them for a second album, which eventually became Harmonies for the Haunted.

It was around this time, however, that tensions between the band and their label arose, a familiar story to many bands that have been catapulted into the big leagues of the music industry.

“The label was breathing down our neck looking for ‘the single,’ and by the end of recording Harmonies and the accompanying tour, we were just done with the whole process,” Tannen said. Declining sales for their second album and a general lack of support from RCA all contributed to the band’s decision to drop their label and strike out on their own.

“It was good and bad at the same time,” Tannen said. “It was awesome how we got to write what we wanted and how we got to work with no guidebook, no system in place, but that whole fear of being on our own was pretty strong. Also, we all had to get day jobs again.”

Nevertheless, the band’s energy remains high as they record their third album in Brooklyn, demos of which can be heard on their Myspace page.

“The third record is a little more aggressive, very poppy,” Tannen said. “It’s got a bit of an ‘in-your-face,’ sarcastic vibe to it. Oh, and there’s definitely going to be party music in on this,” Tannen added. “We’re putting an emphasis on party music.”

With no label-supported distribution system in place for their upcoming album, will the band try something akin to Radiohead’s revolutionary “downloadable album, pay whatever you want” approach?

“I think it’s great that Radiohead did that,” Tannen said, “but only a band like Radiohead could do it. They’re huge, but for up-and-coming bands or bands that don’t have that kind of support like us, the traditional way of selling CDs is what you gotta do.”

While the future may look bleak for indie bands and the music industry in general, Tannen insists that it is still possible for future rock bands to succeed.

“If you are doing what you really want to be doing, and you really love what you’re doing, then you’ll be good,” Tannen said. “There’s not much payback for creating, but if you keep at it and you keep loving it, things will work out.”

For a band that built their reputation on hard work and persistency, stellastarr* is proof of what your mom always said: dream big, work hard, craft ridiculously catchy songs, and you’ll succeed.

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By Rudy Klapper, January 1, 2008 12:00 pm

Indie-pop band mixes equal parts Kierkegaard, Numan

(Originally published: 10/26/07)

Cloaked grim reapers. Banging gunshots resounding across the stage. Psychedelic neon spandex costumes. Death by mime.

While many people may picture the above scene and think of a particularly bizarre Cirque du Soleil production, they might be surprised to learn that these are just a few of the set pieces in your average Of Montreal concert, and some of the tamer at that.

“We design 100% of our own sets,” guitarist Bryan Poole said. “Right now, the pieces are very Gary Numan-inspired. And they take hours to set up.”

Rolling Stone magazine describes Athens, GA-based Of Montreal’s latest album, Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? as “funked-up indie pop that mashes together David Bowie’s space theatrics and Prince’s sexual hedonism.” Even such a ridiculously disparate definition does not even come close to conveying the full stereophonic experience of an Of Montreal album, and it is perhaps this musical richness that has steered the band toward even greater popularity.

Arising from the Elephant-6 recording collective of such influential power-pop bands like Neutral Milk Hotel, the Apples in Stereo, and the Olivia Tremor Control, Of Montreal languished in obscurity for almost ten years in what singer and multi-instrumentalist Kevin Barnes called the “indie ghetto,” unable to break through to any greater fame than cult status.

The band, which has been recording since 1997’s Cherry Peel, owes much of its resurgence to Barnes, who writes all of the material and comes up with most of the set designs.

“Of Montreal is Kevin’s baby,” Poole said. “He usually writes all of the songs as well as the music, especially on the last couple of albums.”

Moving away from the Kinks-inspired ‘60s psychedelia of their earlier years, Of Montreal’s latest albums show a trend towards electronica and dance music awash in synths and drum beats while still retaining the absurdist lyrics and whacky vocal stylings that are Barnes’ signature.

 “The first six years or so were tough,” Poole said. “Satanic Panic in the Attic [Of Montreal’s 10^th album, released in 2004] was when people really started coming out to our shows,” Poole said. “We gained a lot of high school fans and it basically spread through word-of-mouth.”

With Panic and their second-to-last album, The Sunlandic Twins, selling over 70,000 copies combined, an impressive feat for any indie band, and a recently-aired Outback Steakhouse commercial featuring their music, Of Montreal is definitely a band on the rise. But it’s their live shows that have propelled them to live legends and indie must-sees.

“We’re influenced by all sorts of things,” Poole said. “Sly Stone, the Beach Boys, Funkadelic. Kevin’s brother Dave really helps with the theatrics as well. Expect a party.”

Of Montreal’s work is not over, however. “We’re going to go into the studio after Thanksgiving,” Poole said. “The new album [tentatively titled Skeletal Lamping] is probably going to continue the trend of our last three.”

“Kevin’s already written about forty to fifty songs,” Poole continued. “You’ll probably hear a few of them at the show.”

When asked when the album might drop, Poole said, “We’re hoping for a release date next fall. We’re already a good ways through the album artwork.”

A band that, according to Poole, was “on the verge of calling it quits” a few years ago now has one of the fastest-growing fan bases in alternative rock and is swiftly building up a reputation as one of the most progressive and entertaining bands playing today. Not to mention they put on a live show that is probably the most extravagant outside of Las Vegas.

“I’m very happy with where the band is right now, and the crowds at our shows are only getting bigger,” Poole said. “I think we’re going in the right direction.”