Stream: The Happy Hollows “Silver”

(from Spells available now from thehappyhollows.bandcamp.com)

The Happy Hollows self-released their first album Spells in October—satisfying months of local anticipation—and today they begin their month-long residency at Spaceland. Bassist Charles Mahoney speaks now about the new album, his new book on Latin America insurgencies and making friends with French people at CMJ. This interview by Britt Witt.

What is the luckiest thing that ever happened to Happy Hollows?
Charles Mahoney (bass): I think we’re lucky that we have Sarah—she’s the unique person in our band. She’s kooky, quirky, really artistic—the songs come from her and she can write so many different types of songs. She writes folk songs, artsy songs, pop songs—so I think coming from her we just have a lot of music. We can go from the simplest pop music to very artistic and sort of outlawed stuff, and we do both of those at the same time. Its not the style but the structure of ours that’s at polar ends.
Is Sarah the one who’s making the Happy Hollows video skits?
Charles Mahoney: Yeah, Sarah likes comedy a lot—our friend was just going to videotape us on our tour so it just started out as a typical tour documentary but while we were doing it, Sarah turned it into this fake documentary where she was just going crazy. She acted out the part with people while the video is going on—she’s sort of twisted in a way. The other one was just another comedy video where she is a woman from Long Island and one day she was just like ‘Check out this video that I did!’ And I was like ‘Alright—you spent your day doing that?’ So yeah—she has the comedy bones in the band.
So while Sarah is at home making videos, you’re at home studying politics?
Charles Mahoney: I’m basically writing a book about guerrilla organizations in Latin America over the past 50 years—looking at those organizations and comparing how basically different groups came to different ends. So like, how Fidel Castro and the Sandinistas took over the countries they were in whereas the other groups crashed and burned. Also comparing it to the stuff on terrorism that’s really hot now. Not that the groups use terrorism, but they’re all sort of terrorists in that they try to take over countries.
Your focus is Latin America?
Charles Mahoney: It’s more like insurgency, terrorism, guerrilla war—all the theory on that. And then I take that and because I know something about Latin America, I just apply to all the cases there. I wouldn’t say that I’m some Latin America guru or anything! But I speak Spanish and Portuguese so that’s where I try to apply it. I’m working on my Ph.D dissertation. I should be done in the spring. I’m writing chapters now. It’s like a 300 page book, so I go through highs and lows. I’m about a third and a half done. Hopefully I can finish!
What are you most concerned about in the world now?
Charles Mahoney: Latin America doesn’t have much going on right now. Obviously Afghanistan and Pakistan is the major security thing I’m worried about. The question is, ‘Should the U.S send more troops?’ It’s an interesting problem. Really, I think the U.S either has to send 200,000 troops or take everybody out of there. If the U.S took the army out, what are the odds that something would happen? If you just left the aid there and took the troops out, the odds of something happening is like 1 or 2%. You’re think, ‘We’re spending so much money and troops there just to change the probability of an attack on us by like 1%. We should probably just take the troops out and boost the aid where you can.’ Its hard for us politically because that’s where Al Qaeda and the Taliban are, so for a president to try and do that would not be popular domestically. It’s troubling because we could use this money to fund a health care program in the U.S. The money we spend on wars in the Middle East could give us total health care coverage in the U.S.—it’s tricky.
How do your personalities fit together in the music? Your songs seem to have a sort of whimsical pop aspect and then a heavier kind of art thrash aspect.
Charles Mahoney: The whimsical side is sort of our escapist tendencies. We’re just sort of trying to escape the every day sort of hustle-and-bustle grind. Rather than write about our problems, like sappy emo-type stuff or relationships—instead of wallowing in whatever is going on in our lives, we just create these other imaginary places or characters or settings or ideas. That’s sort of our way of escaping reality. Creating an alternate reality is a big theme or purpose of our music. The heavy or thrash part is just like sometimes we like to get loud and move around a little bit, you know? If you see us live, it’s sort of natural. If you’re feelin’ it, move around—if you wanna dance, dance!
How is Spells doing?
Charles Mahoney: I think it’s doing well. We initially had to self-release it. We got signed in the spring and this big label was going to release it but they backed out because of financial issues, so we either had to go around and look for another label—which takes a while—or self-release. It’s gotten a lot of good reviews and college radio play so we’re pretty happy with that. This medium-sized L.A. label called Autumn Tone is going to re-release it again in January. They’re going to give it proper distribution and get it into stores—do a more proper campaign in terms of media. We do the iTunes and all that stuff—Amazon, Emusic. We do a little media campaign like email listeners and then we sell at shows, but its not at any independent record stores or properly distributed.
Are you going to be releasing it as mostly a digital release? But maybe with vinyl?
Charles Mahoney: No, no. We still have CDs—I know a lot of people come to our shows and want physical CDs. We have a 7-inch vinyl of two songs on the album and the digital, of course. But people definitely still request physical compact discs—people do still exist in the physical world so we made CDs and we’re selling those at shows. We did all the artwork ourselves. It was our singer and guitarist Sarah. She got some watercolors together and started splattering them around her room. She came up with 100 or 150 different sheets of watercolor and then she started painting different animals and lines and clouds. She did this theme of clouds that looked like palm trees—you cant tell if it’s a palm tree or a cloud or a mushroom cloud. She took the best three or four drawings or patterns of colors and put them all together into just four different slides and that became the artwork. It took her a while—hard work! But I think we’re really happy with it. It’s our artwork and we didn’t pay someone to do something that didn’t really represent us. It’s like colorful and bright but also the dark—nuclear bombs. So I think we’re all really happy with it.
What’s changed most since the Imaginary EP last year?
Its hard to say—a lot of the songs we put on the album, we had written at the time of the EP. I think the EP and the album together are sort of the same musical theme. But the recordings are better and the mastering is a lot better, so it’s just sort of louder and bigger. In terms of writing and style of the music there’s not that much difference, although we left a lot of the stronger songs for the album and not the EP. The EP—we just stuck in a couple good songs that would not have made the album. When we’re through with this album and touring, we’ll have to regroup and see where we’re at artistically and figure out if we want to record in a different way or write in a different way.
How was CMJ this year?
Charles Mahoney: It’s really fun to go to. South By Southwest has become really corporate—there’s a lot of money in it now and everything is sponsored by Pepsi. It seems like CMJ wants to be that way but its not. Big bands don’t really go to it and it’s still a little bit under the radar. But it’s fun going around New York seeing other bands play and playing in these bizarre venues or venues you would never really go to. The networking is more for the music business people, you know—like managers and publicists, labels, all those good people. I think it’s really good for bands that are getting really huge right at that moment. For us, we just look at it as having a good time and we do interviews and whatever. New people see us for sure. It’s not so much about meeting other bands I guess. It’s kind of like hit and miss. This time we played with a cool French band from Paris called Jordan and they were straight from France. That was pretty neat—we hung out with them a little bit so we met a band and maybe made connections that we otherwise may not have made. I don’t think bands should look at it as like ‘we’re gonna go here and we’re gonna make connections that will further our career.’ I think that they should go there and have a good time and that’s it. It’s just an excuse to party. Some bands are forced to go by their labels or managers. Usually the little ones think they’re going to go and become huge—the rest just go to have a good time.
What’s the next big goal for Happy Hollows?
Charles Mahoney: Our only goal is to make better music than we did before. That’s it. The album is a representation of what the band has done for the past 2 or 3 years. We’re always just excited to write songs and experiment and make new and interesting music. If that goal is achieved than we’re happy!

THE HAPPY HOLLOWS IN RESIDENCY EVERY MONDAY IN NOVEMBER AT SPACELAND, 1717 SILVERLAKE BLVD., SILVER LAKE. 9 PM / FREE / 21+. TONIGHT THE HAPPY HOLLOWS PERFORM WITH PEPPER RABBIT, DIRT DRESS AND A SPECIAL GUEST. CLUBSPACELAND.COM. THE HAPPY HOLLOWS’ SPELLS IS AVAILABLE NOW FROM THE BAND. VISIT THE HAPPY HOLLOWS AT MYSPACE.COM/THEHAPPYHOLLOWS.

Download: Gangi “Commonplace Feathers”

(from A coming out in May on vinyl from White Noise)

Gangi is the eclectic musical duo of Matt Gangi and Lyle Nesse. Originally from Brooklyn, where Matt wrote and recorded the first album A, they moved to L.A. to get some sun and space and accidentially encounter Mandy Moore. They will be playing a Monday night residency at Spaceland for the month of May. This interview by Steven Martinez.

You guys have a pretty complicated set up for playing your music live which involves a lot of multitasking by both of you. Do you think this adds something to your performances or do you just have something against adding more band members?
Matt Gangi (vocals, guitar): We’re into the spontaneity that our looping stations bring and the time collage that samplers add, but I have also been thinking about experimenting by adding a bass player after the Spaceland residency.
Lyle Nesse (drums, loops): People often ask how we’re able to make so much sound as just a duo. I think the fact that there’s just two of us making the sounds of several people is one of the things that sets us apart from other bands.
Much has been made of the eclectic mix of sounds in your music and it seems to be a large part of your band identity, but could you ever write a simple song? Is that something that interests you?
MG: That is a large part of our band identity—if you say so—but most of the songs start out much more minimally, with a melody.
LN: Both minimal and complex arrangements interest me. We’ve been experimenting with all kinds of different arrangements for the new songs.
Many journalists have tried to define your particular musical stylings. What would you call it?
MG: ‘Musical styling’ sounds pretty good.
LN: Maybe it’s best to let other people try.
Lyle, you said in an interview that Gangi’s first album was all Matt’s work and you downplayed your own contribution to it. Will you have a stronger presence or influence on the next record?
LN: Matt recorded A alone in his apartment in Brooklyn, so it’s strange that some writers have credited me as the producer of that record! We were friends during the time that Matt was writing and recording those songs and he came over to my place often to play me sketches. Over the course of a few months in Brooklyn, I listened as the recordings progressed from sounding like underwater field recordings to the songs you hear on that record. The live interpretation of those songs has been a collaboration and it continues to evolve. On our new recordings, I am programming electronics and playing drums. Matt is writing the songs, singing and playing the melodic instruments. We are arranging and producing the music together and I have learned a lot in the studio from Matt, as he produced the first record alone.
The move from New York to LA is one that is usually met with strong prejudices from both sides—is it really that much of a culture shock relocating from coast to coast? Aren’t the two at least a little similar?
MG: I grew up in Glendale, so it was an easy move back home. Brooklyn definitely has an energy that I miss, but the taco trucks in L.A. more than make up for that.
LN: I can’t believe how people drive their cars here in L.A. It gets scary out there but the constant sunshine helps.
How has the move to L.A. influenced your sound, if at all?
MG: As there is more space in L.A. than in New York, Lyle is able to play live drums here when we rehearse. One of the many reasons I got into programming and electronics was because it was hard to find a comfortable place to play electric instruments or live drums in New York. L.A. has made the sound more rock and roll. We’ve been working for the past week at Pasadena recording studio, recording a demo of the first track on the second album—’Gun Show.’ The space is beautiful and we have been running sounds through warm analogue gear, which is far from the tiny Brooklyn apartment where I recorded A on a computer. Also Mandy Moore has been practicing in the next room.
LN: Just having a safe place where we can be creative during the late night hours has been really huge for us. Our friend Alan who owns that studio in Pasadena has helped make that possible. And yeah, Mandy Moore’s band is super hip.
If you ever get tired of living in L.A. where would you like to move next and why?
MG: I really love Atlanta. Every time we’ve toured through that town, all the sidewalks and streets were stained from the red clay in the city and the food is really good there.
LN: Matt has a thing for the South. Every time we tour through those southern parts he wants to stay in Georgia and the Carolinas for a few extra days just to hang out, take some banjo lessons and eat some soul food. I am from Maryland and sometimes miss my home state.
I read that you two met while in Prague when a mutual interest in absinthe brought you together. What were you doing in Prague and at what point did the subject of music come up?
MG: I was going to film school in Prague, making a short and digging on Jan Svankmajer’s films.
LN: I was bumming around with a backpack when I met Matt, but it wasn’t until we later reconnected in Brooklyn that we talked about music.
Appearing on Spin’s Best of CMJ 2008 list must have increased the visibility of your band. How has this affected you most directly?
MG: It is amazing how many people read Spin. We sold out Spaceland when we got back from CMJ, which awarded us our residency there.
LN: My old man was pretty happy to see that. At the beginning it was always more underground blogs and ‘zines that wrote us up, so he called me up when he saw that and said, ‘Even I know Spin magazine.’
You guys seem to enjoy a variety of choice in your musical tastes both on and off stage but if you were forced to choose one album to listen to for the rest of your life, what would it be?
MG: A collected album library of zipped up albums.
LN: John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme. On vinyl.
You said that making art that makes people think is important to you. What do you want people to think when they hear your music?
MG: It’s up to you. What do you think?

GANGI WITH HEAD LIKE A KITE, DADDY KEV AND BLANK BLUE ON MON., MAY 4, AT SPACELAND, 1717 SILVERLAKE BLVD., SILVERLAKE. 8:30PM / FREE / 21+. CLUBSPACELAND.COM. GANGI’S A RELEASES ON VINYL THIS MONTH ON WHITE NOISE. VISIT GANGI AT MYSPACE.COM/GANGIMUSIC.

Download: Crystal Antlers “Parting Song For The Torn Sky”

Late night party tonight at the Cake Shop

NinjaSonik
Crystal Antlers—[PHOTOS]
Best Fwends

@ the Cake Shop
12:30pm starts. Goes till 4am
Gonna be banging

LA Show
10/17 9M

The Mountain Bar
475 Gin Ling Way LA, CA 90012

Night Horse w/ Lords & The Fucking Wrath

Price TBA

NY Show
10/21 8PM

The Charleston
Brooklyn, NY

Night Horse w/ Titan & Pollution
174 Bedford Ave at N. 7th St.
Brooklyn, NY 11121

PRICE TBA

1 HEALTH “Perfect Skin” [7-inch] Suicide Squeeze
2 M.I.A. Paper Planes: Homeland Security Remixes [EP] Interscope
3 COMBAT!* Movimientos
4 MAE SHI HLLLYH Team Shi
5 PHARMACY Choose Yr Own Adventure Don’t Stop Believin’
6 DRAGGED BY HORSES Deep In The Woods Highwheel
7 FACTUMS Spells And Charms Kill Shaman
8 POWER PILL FIST Kongmanivong Graveface
9 AY Kong Doom Self-Released
10 KEIJO Whose Dream We Live In Fire Museum
11 ROBERT INHUMAN Identity Realicide
12 EVANGELISTA Hello, Voyager Constellation
13 A FAULTY CHROMOSOME As An Ex-Anorexic’s Six Sicks Exit Self-Released
14 VARIOUS ARTISTS Bippp: French Synth Wave 1979-1985 Everloving-BORN BAD
15 KARL BLAU AM Whistler
16 MEDICINE AND DUTY Flags And Cannons Foolproof
17 VARIOUS ARTISTS Trash Sabbatical SS
18 REYKJAVIK! Six Or Seven Songs That We Are Trying To Promote To US Radio Golden Circle
19 PANTHER 14kt God Kill Rock Stars
20 VARIOUS ARTISTS Antipodean Screams Vol. 2 Off The Hip
21 TEAM ROBESPIERRE Everything’s Perfect Impose
22 VARIOUS ARTISTS Post-Asiatic: Lost War Dream Music
23 65DAYSOFSTATIC The Fall Of Math Monotreme
24 THEE SILVER MT. ZION MEMORIAL ORCHESTRA AND TRA-LA-LA BAND 13 Blues For Thirteen Moons Constellation
25 GRAVITY PROPULSION SYSTEM Days Like Razors Ascetic
26 NIGHTWOUNDS Allergic To Heat Woodsist
27 ALIEN SOUNDTRACKS Residue Self-Released
28 VARIOUS ARTISTS Fabric 38: M.A.N.D.Y. Fabric
29 CRYPTACIZE Dig That Treasure Asthmatic Kitty
30 SEJAYNO Laity Megaphone

Courtesy KXLU 88.9 FM in Los Angeles.