—David Cotner

Download: BLK JKS “Molalatladi”

(from After Robots out now on Secretly Canadian)

If one more person compares BLK JKS to Vampire Weekend, we might explode. This South African band writes pop songs, rock songs, slow tunes and fast tracks; they get proggy and they jam. There’s a great amount of variety on BLK JKS’ latest album After Robots, but the only thing the band imitates is the sound that reality transmits through their nimble fingers. Guitarist Mpumelelo Mcata breaks it down for Daiana Feuer.

Mpumelelo Mcata (guitar): I forgot my sunglasses on top of the guitar amp there in Los Angeles. It was sucky—they were a gift.
Do you lose many possessions in your travels?
Mpumelelo Mcata: Yes, it happens all the time! Sometimes your mind, sometimes your heart, sometimes your sunglasses.
When was the last time you lost your mind?
Mpumelelo Mcata: I think it was Philly. I am not sure how long ago that was. Maybe I haven’t found my mind yet. The concept of time has been warped. Meeting people, various people, and life on the road, always on the road—you lose your heart and your head. It feels pretty schizophrenic. The days go by like day after day with hardly any rest.
Is that a dream come true? Would you rather be in a studio or a stage?
Mpumelelo Mcata: I like being around sounds and making music and just around art in general outside of music. It’s cool to have these kinds of problems. I don’t have a particular preference—as long as I’m doing it, it’s alright. But in the van for so long, driving for so many hours is what it is. Being in the studio, pressed for time, is what it is. We always have these things to keep us grounded. A little bit of cramped, a little of this and that. Broken amps need fixing. We never really step back to look at what’s going on from outside and say, ‘Well, this is all well!’ The situation, though—how can I say it? I am happy to be in it.
As a musician, do you find sounds or create sounds?
Mpumelelo Mcata: Finding or creating? Receiving. Which is different from those two in some ways. It’s all out there and finding requires one to be looking and looking may be a bit difficult to do in a sincere way. Not saying it’s impossible. But it’s hard to be looking and still do honorable work. I think receiving is key and hopefully one can communicate what comes to them truthfully and be an honest voice. There’s a lot of information trapped or stored in phonics, you know? Besides what musicians put in the lyrics and also what is said in interviews. A lot of stuff is just said in between the sounds—as in between the waves. I am sure music is a form of communication.
How do four different minds or receivers create one sound together?
Mpumelelo Mcata: I think one of the first points that we’d have to—I don’t want to say understand because that’s also a conscious in the mind thing—something that we have to feel is that all is one already. Once the American comedian Bill Hicks said all matter is energy condensed to slow vibrations. There is no such thing as death. We are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. So! That is the basic idea. We are one already. So the individual is allowed to exist completely. We find that conflict to be interesting—experiencing ourselves subjectively. That is the point. If everybody felt this way in the world maybe the world would stop breaking up. Maybe not. Maybe this is just part of the human condition. But we need to accept all parts of ourselves. I think that’s what we do in the music, as schizophrenic as it may seem.
There sure are a lot of sounds going on in your album. A lot of directions. I was intrigued by the emotion and the musical shifts in your song ‘Lakeside.’ What’s the story behind it?
Mpumelelo Mcata: ‘Lakeside’ is basically—OK, all the songs have a bit of a backstory, but ‘Lakeside’ is basically about the taxi industry. ‘Lakeside’ and ‘Taxidermy’ follow each other on the album but ‘Lakeside’ is about this young boy-man-kid who is caught up in a taxi accident. The taxi rolls off the freeway and lands up next to a lake. In his head, he has been trying to escape the city—Johannesburg and the mundane situation that he lives in. And he is very imaginative and kind of in some ways it’s autobiographical on our part. Living in the confusion of Johannesburg. And so he imagines his taxi as a UFO and he imagines himself as having been caught up in a crash-landing situation. It’s a terrible thing that has happened. People are bleeding. He is lying outside on the grass. People are suffering. But at the same time it is a beautiful thing that his mind is doing in the song. That’s basically ‘Lakeside.’
That’s a heck of a story. Does a song that comes out of a story lyrically influence the music as well or is that worked upon separately?
Mpumelelo Mcata: With ‘Lakeside’ it was definitely the music first. We didn’t know what that song was trying to do. We were jamming and somehow it kept coming up in those different directions. So what you hear on the record in the beginning—in the rehearsal room, ‘Lakeside’ was really that Molefi, Lindani, Tshepang, and myself fighting against each other and pulling the song in different directions. Like, ‘We can’t stay here—Molefi’s gone over there so we have to follow him.’ Or, ‘We’re going to follow Tshepang and see what happens.’ That was the nature of most of our rehearsal room sessions. Coming to the center, running to and from all four corners and meeting at the end. So—sound first. Then we listen back to the take and everybody thinks about what it means to them and then we discuss it and feel it out and it comes out lyrically if it’s going to be really elaborate—if that happens. Sometimes it’s just we’ll breathe over it and that’ll be it. Like ‘Molalatladi.’ For that song, the lyrics happened immediately as the music. It’s a different purpose.
What would you like to get out of this experience that will nourish you as artists? Aside from getting to play and seeing the world?
Mpumelelo Mcata: I mean, we’re getting in touch with our faith, more in touch with our faith, which is this miracle. Us being alive, you being alive as Daiana and floating in outer space. To us it is really a miracle. People like to intellectualize or coffee table talk about bands but for us, it’s like—we’re here, we’re together. You can either like a band—you can walk into the room or walk out. People like to say this band sucks, that band sucks. I wouldn’t even say that even when I wasn’t in a band because at the end of the day, who knows what? We’re all just here. To get into different cultures and to see how people react to the sound which is created out of a South African context, us receiving signals and those signals going through our filters. Out of Johannesburg, we’re presenting them to the world, we’re going to Japan—it’s going to be super interesting. And it’s always excellent to see people’s reactions, whatever that is. To us, the fact that the conversation is even occurring in the first place is the point. I think we’ll get a lot from that. Who knows, maybe one day we’ll be like the Brazilian Girls—writing songs in many languages about different places. Our context right now is what it is. This is our introduction to the world.
What’s the last thing that made you smile?
Mpumelelo Mcata: The last thing that made me smile? I know the answer to that but let me mine my thoughts for a second. Let’s see! You know what always makes me smile? At every show the people coming up saying, ‘We like what you do.’ That’s always a pleasurable thing. That makes me smile that it touches them. It makes me smile when the media makes negative comments about our songs. It’s funny because we have the same conversation before we make the song but we go for it anyway. Or when we see something someone says and this guy has no clue whatsoever. That makes me laugh. The whole journey, enjoying the journey makes me smile. Not pining for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow but enjoying the rainbow—that’s what makes a brotha smile.

AQUARIUM DRUNKARD PRESENTS BLK JKS WITH THE GROWLERS AND MACK WINSTON AND THE REFLECTIONS ON THUR., OCT. 15, AT SPACELAND, 1717 SILVERLAKE BLVD., SILVERLAKE. 8:30 PM / $10-$12 / 21+/ CLUBSPACELAND.COM. BLK JKS’ AFTER ROBOTS IS OUT NOW ON SECRETLY CANADIAN. VISIT BLK JKS AT BLKJKS.COM OR MYSPACE.COM/BLKJKS.

paul rodriguez | styling by ton y van van

Stream: Fool’s Gold “Surprise Hotel”

(from the self-released “Surprise Hotel” 45)

Fool’s Gold transcend the smog of Los Angeles with their big-band tropical-orchestral call-it-what-you-will multi-cultural dance music. If the crowd isn’t sweating by the end of their set, they warrant medical attention.

What instruments are in the band?
Lewis Nicolas Pesacov (guitar): Three guitars. We have bass, we have drums, and then we have percussion. Two saxes and three percussionists, sometimes four.
Garret Ray (drum kit): And whatever Erica does.
Luke Top (vocals/bass): She pats my aura. She does this crazy dance behind me sometimes and behind people in general.

Does she tell you what color your auras are?
Amir Kenan (back-up/keys/percussion): We wouldn’t be able to understand it anyway.

Do you ever get mail for the record label Fool’s Gold?
Lewis: No but we’ve definitely been confused with them. Our Myspace page has an earlier date that theirs, if that’s a modern copyright. There’s also Fool’s Gold the movie, which I saw recently. It was on TV. It was pretty dreadful. I was surprised that Donald Sutherland was in it. I can’t believe he was in such a bad movie. It’s bad.
Garret: It’s like a date movie, right?
Big Search (rhythm guitar): A shitty date.
Lewis: It was tropical though. Treasure hunting. Gold doubloons.

When was your Myspace page started?
Big Search: I think it was two years ago—our first show at Silverlake Lounge.
Lewis: It was a free-for-all at the beginning. If you showed up with percussion, you could play.
Big Search: A lot of those people weren’t doing stuff. They were just clapping and banging shit. Drunk.
Lewis: Now we have a core of musicians. I actually think people are insulted that we try to keep it smaller.

What’s the most people you’ve had on stage?
Lewis: I think fifteen. It’s kind of like a marching band. Or a chamber orchestra.

I saw you wearing towels on your heads at the Echo.
Lewis: I got that from Wu-Tang. Ghostface. Like boxers. That’s the thing. Get into it before you get on stage.

Do you construct your sets out of songs or let them go?
Luke: It depends on the show. Sometimes we’re allowed to stretch out a little more.
Lewis: That’s what we like to do. It’s all about the small venues. The larger venues we always have to pare it down. We played the House of Blues of Anaheim and we were supposed to play a 35 minute set. I think we played three or four songs. And we played a 50-minute set and no one told us to stop. That was interesting. We don’t have the courage yet but if we get a half-hour set we should play just two songs.
Garret: We’ll have to pass out drugs at the door.
Lewis: No, but the whole thing is just, like—dance. This music is dance music. I was looking at this review from 1994—this one song was the number one hit in the Congo and it was a 15-minute song. There’s going to be a guitar solo then there’s going to be singing then there’s going to be more guitar playing. It’s all about the trance.
Luke: They go out for lunch, they come back, it’s still going.
Lewis: Maybe we should play really long at SXSW. Oh, last year when we went to Texas, we got pulled over and the cop brought out the German Shepherd and he took all our IDs, and one girl had her passport and the cop was like, ‘What country you from, girl?’ And she was like, ‘America?’ He had never seen a passport before. He was confused. And he couldn’t understand why she didn’t have a driver’s license and was over 16.
Garret: How we got out of there was we told him we were in a country band. And he changed his tune.

How did you bring the Hebrew singing to the band, Luke?
Luke: To these white people? Lewis and I were into world music and it happened organically. Started off playful. There’s no direct reason for it.
Amir: We both moved here when we were three and a half. So between the two of us we’ve got a 7-year-old Hebrew going on. We’re like one good 7-year-old Jew on stage. It’s really fun though. I feel lucky to be able to understand Hebrew on stage because Luke sings stuff that sometimes is kind of amazing and sometimes really funny and sometimes subversive, sometimes just commenting on what’s happening in the crowd at the time.
Luke: There’s always one Israeli in the crowd that knows what I’m saying.
Garrett: I like sitting in rehearsals when you guys are teaching everybody else the lyrics. Like phonetically.

Do you have an album ready yet?
Luke: We’re working on the full length but we have a 7-inch out. It’s two songs. We might add a third. We’re just stalling until we get the record out. I want to call it Notes From The Rat Race in Hebrew but I don’t know how to say it.

You’re associated with museums and animals—why?
Luke: I think it’s because public spaces that are more cultural centers—general public, instead of niche audiences—are really fun. In fact, the shows where there are adults and really young kids and also people our age are most fun because they all get into it.
Big Search: I totally agree. At the Getty show, older Israeli people would come up and get really into it and my little niece that’s a couple months old seemed really into it. So anyone from 2 months old to 70-year-old Jewish ladies seem really into it and a few non-Jews in the middle. I don’t want it to seem exclusive.
Lewis: The Eagle Rock music fest was like that also. People who take their kids to the street fair are good with us, and then we can do Cat Power shows. We’re all-ages.

If you could play anywhere in the world, where would you play?
Lewis: I want to play this music festival in Mali, in the Sahara desert. It’s four hours by 4×4 out in the desert from Timbuktu. It’s the most remote music festival in the world. I think we could probably do it. They have Innuits performing, then French bands. I saw Navajo Indians. It’s in January every year­—it’s called the Festival in the Desert.
Big Search: I want to play on a space station. Why do we have to be world music? Let’s be universal.
Luke: We should play on the border between Israel and Palestine. Bring the two-state solution through sound. One foot on each side of the border. ‘Dear governments of the world, we are Fool’s Gold. Shalom.’

Where would they put your music at Amoeba?
Big Search: Staff Picks, of course.

What do you like most about playing music?
Amir: Just the sheer fun of it. It’s a party every time there’s a show. Even sound check is cool. There’s so many people, it’s great.
Luke: This kind of music allows you to take the time with your music instead of having to package it in a certain way. We do have a lot of song structure but within that there’s a lot of room to dig into that.
Lewis: We have structure but within that structure, it’s really free. You never know when that structure’s going to happen but everybody knows it’s coming up. We’ve honed in on that.

It seems weird to share consciousness with that many people at once.
Big Search: And there are so many people that have really simple parts, me being one of them. I’m basically playing one riff for eight minutes. It’s like a piece of a machine. And Lewis freestyles guitar over that and Luke with his singing freestyles over that. But me and the percussionists and the drums all play very repetitive parts that you lose yourself. You give yourself up to what’s happening, in a cognitive way.
Lewis: It’s a communal trance in a weird way. You can feel when everyone’s locked in. And it’s fleeting! You can feel when everyone comes in and goes like a wave. And everybody knows when it happens.
Luke: It’s not just going through the motions. I’ve been in bands where it’s like, ok, there’s that part. And there’s that part! But here I can’t believe it works.

FOOL’S GOLD WITH BLK JKS ON FRI., MAR. 6, AT THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM, 900 EXPOSITION BLVD., LOS ANGELES. 7 PM / $6.50-$9 / ALL AGES. NHM.ORG. VISIT FOOL’S GOLD AT MYSPACE.COM/FOOLSGOLDLA.