Fitz and the Tantrums make soul music that actually sounds like soul music and deploy the same kind of flamethrower personality on stage that Sharon Jones uses on the front row every night. Singers Fitz and Noelle Scaggs met us at KPCC, just one studio down from Carly Fiorina, to discuss sweat, blisters and the underpowered applause of America’s middle class. This interview by Chris Ziegler.

Sharon Jones says that if you ever see her come off stage and she isn’t completely sweaty, you know that she didn’t feel it. Do Fitz and the Tantrums have a similar physical barometer?
Michael Fitzpatrick (vocals): I wish there was a day that I didn’t leave the stage drenched but Noelle and I … we get down on stage.
Noelle Scaggs (vocals): If I don’t leave with bruises or blisters from playing tambourine you definitely know I didn’t have a good time.
You’re the first person I’ve ever heard of who hurt themselves playing tambourine.
MF: You actually have to see this girl play tambourine because she might be one of the best tambourine players I’ve ever seen. It’s a real skill. She’s got crazy feel.
NS: I have to start working out the left arm because my forearm’s getting big on one side. It’s interesting.
When is the last time one of your bandmates did something so spectacular, you actually broke character and turned around to watch in awe?
MF: We did a show at the Casbah in San Diego a month or so ago. The ends of songs are the solo sections where Jeremy [Ruzumna] might be doing a Farfisa solo or something and he was just on fire that night. John [Wicks] just laid into the drums even harder and we were already at 100 percent and then Jeremy just started shredding. The energy was so electric that I started to uncontrollably laugh and I looked around and everybody in the audience was equally having the same experience. I’m actually getting chills talking about it! We were all simultaneously losing our minds at what he was doing in that moment. And the reason is—the way that the stage is set up at the Casbah, somebody can stand just next to the keyboardist on the side. I remember him telling me after—he was like, ‘We did “Rich Girls” and I’m playing the solo and I look over at this guy who just sort of looks back at me like, “Nahhhhh.”’ He was so angered by that moment that he was like, ‘I’m gonna show this guy!’ So the next song he just laid it all out.
After the show, did that guy come tearfully apologize?
MF: No. In fact, I thought we should hire him to always stand right next to Jeremy to intimidate him and make sure he brings his A game every time.
What do you do to start an audience cold? And why is waking them up important to you?
NS: We want them to dance and just have a good time because everyone who goes to a concert initially wants that. They want to be free and have a good time and scream and not care what other people are thinking about them and be silly. It’s really important for our fans to know that they can do that at our shows and have a good time.
MF: There’s not a lot of bands that give you that permission to go crazy or to have fun. We’re not trying to be the coolest band. We’re just trying to give you a great experience with great musicians—good songwriting but also a real show. I think that’s one of the reasons we’ve had a fair amount of success. People come to our concert and they leave having had a real experience from the songs to just getting down. We ask people to dance their asses off and I tell them pretty straight out that if they don’t I’m going to come find them after the show.
Do you ever use reverse psychology? ‘You wouldn’t even be able to handle this. Just stand still, close your eyes …’
MF: No, but you know what? That’s a good idea. We’ll try that the next couple shows and we’ll let you know how it works.
Your parents are very musical. I know Noelle’s dad was a DJ, too. What one album do you think both your sets of parents would have loved?
MF: I’m not sure because my dad’s an opera Nazi. He only listens to opera and classical music. His modern taste in music stopped at Simon and Garfunkel. I hated that stuff growing up but I’ve actually really, truly grown to love especially classical music. I find it to be one of the few genres of music I can use to calm me down and work and read to and stuff like that. Noelle’s dad has the best and most eclectic taste in music.
NS: He likes to put on his vinyl records or have somebody do mix tapes for him and it’s really funny—normally with our family gatherings, it’s like all of the in-laws are there hanging out. It always has your standard Spinners cuts or your Temptations or some Barry White on there—all different kinds of soul stuff. Because I grew up with that stuff being played at the family gatherings, it’s just kind of like, ‘Is that the mix-tape from the ’90s?’ ‘No, it’s new! I just had it made for the barbecue!’
How does this family history in music show up in Fitz and the Tantrums? What’s the biggest opera influence on the new record?
MF: I’m terrible with names. I couldn’t even tell you an opera. I’m more into the classical stuff of Ravel or Mozart. Obviously this band and these songs are rooted in a time period and a genre but it’s not a pastiche. We didn’t want to make something that was so authentically true to the form that we always had to adhere to certain rules. I think everybody nowadays is a very eclectic music listener.
Everybody in the world or everybody in the band?
MF: Especially in the band but yes—everybody now has been given the permission to be able to put two completely diametrically opposed songs on a mix tape together. We play music that’s definitely rooted in soul— Motown, Stax, ’67 AM radio—but my older brother was really into ’80s music so I have a lot of that in my subconscious. Noelle is a huge Thom Yorke and Radiohead fan. I loved that first MGMT record. Everybody in the band is really into Major Lazer right now. I think it’s not a conscious thing—it’s a thing that just comes through your subconscious.
NS: I think it allows you to be who you are as well and not feel like you have to be the singer who you grew up with. You kind of create your own personality. That’s what music is about—just really being creative from the aspect of how you absorb the world.
So absorb the world and reinterpret it based on your own personality? The artist as prism?
NS: Yeah—it’s all through your eyes. Every single individual sees something differently. You connect on a lot of levels but I may take a situation in a way that he wouldn’t. I could be offended by something that he would never be offended by or vice versa. It’s just seeing the world through your eyes, and you just hope that people can connect with it some way.
MF: One of the cool things about music is that you can sort of escape conscious thought in the creation moment. You’re not so premeditated. You’re feeling it and doing it and a lot of times those other influences are just coming through without being so aware that you’re in that moment of like, ‘Oh, well now I’m drawing from this.’
You also said, ‘What I like about all those old soul records is there tend to be a lot of songs sung by women that are demanding respect or saying, you know, “I don’t need you anymore!”’ But it’s not from a male point of view and so you wanted to give men their mantra. What made you want to do that and what is the mantra?
MF: I was going through a long drawn-out breakup and I was kind of losing my mind. Music has always been that place of solace—a place to put all my energy into. Rather than fester in the pain, I’ve just put all my energy on a near obsessive level just to get over the breakup hump. The first EP was called Songs for a Break Up, Volume One.
Sort of a pessimistic title?
MF: I just thought it was a pragmatic, realistic title for the course of me and relationships. I don’t know what the exact mantra is. I thought that having a male perspective was kind of a more interesting thing that you hadn’t maybe heard too much of—but also I wanted to really create this crazy juxtaposition between these songs that sound very happy and up-tempo but when you actually listen to the lyrics … I don’t think there’s a single happy lyric in the entire EP or LP. It started off as healing from one breakup but it just became an amalgamation of all these different experiences. ‘MoneyGrabber’ is obviously about a money grabber and somebody who at the end of the day, I was just like, ‘Really? Is that what you’re really interested in?’ That was a real shock to me that that was the agenda for somebody. I was reading somebody’s post about it and they were like, ‘I woke up this morning and wanted to feel happy so I played this song six times before work.’ And I was like, ‘Really? That’s the song that makes you feel happy?’ But on a musical level, it’s fun. That bridge is one of my favorite moments, especially on a production level. When we started making this record we had no money, no deal, no nothing. The only way that we could get this done was by doing it in my living room. Once we actually finished doing South by Southwest and Dangerbird stepped up and offered us a deal, we said, ‘Why change anything? Let’s just keep doing what we’ve been doing.’ There’s no pressure. People can go sit in the living room and chill out, eat a sandwich, come back, laugh—and the room itself has really inserted itself as a real character in the sound of the record because we don’t have more than one or two inputs at a time and one old, old crappy mic. Something I learned from Motown was that perfection on a technical level doesn’t mean vibe or a great energy or personality. Part of the magic of those older records is that they were all tracking in the same room so there was bleed on every single mic. I think necessity dictated a certain course of action.
How does the production on this record reflect your personality?
MF: Dirty. Sloppy. Any poor mixer that has to deal with my tracks—there are no crossfades. I just really haven’t labeled a single track. It’s all done by Braille.
NS: It’s a mess. It just drives me crazy with him. I get on his Pro Tools and I don’t even know where anything is.
MF: But I know. It’s a secret control language.
NS: It’s insane. It drives me crazy.
Since the album has so many breakup songs, did you have a day when you woke up and felt great and happy and thought, ‘Well, that’s that. I’m better. There goes the record.’
MF: No, no.
So a bottomless well of sorrow?
MF: I’m a bit of a pessimist when it comes to that.
There’s a certain danger in writing breakup songs about people who may live within easy driving distance of where your band performs.
MF: Well, my ex who kind of spawned the whole thing—in the end I think she loved it, you know? She loved the compliment—she was all too happy to have people know that some of those songs were written about her even if they weren’t always in the most complimentary light.
‘Look how hard I broke this guy’s heart! He wrote a whole album about me!’
MF: Exactly—exactly.
Noelle, you said once that if you hadn’t gotten into music you might have been a lawyer. Fitz, how well would Noelle be suited for the courtroom experience?
MF: Oh, don’t get me started. This girl’s fierce. When she believes in something, she’s going to fight for it and she’s going to let you know. She is not a shy girl. I think actually being a lawyer would have been a very good alternate career for her.
NS: It was something that was always in the foreground for me. I always wanted to be involved in music somehow so whether it was entertainment law or something with contracting, that was always something of interest to me and it still is.
What was the last argument in the band that you can confidently say you won?
NS: The title was something I fought adamantly for. I thought Pickin’ Up the Pieces and ‘Breakin’ the Chains’ were very well-connected and you have to have a light at the end of the tunnel. Otherwise, what’s the point?
One review said the music you play ‘will always have its place.’ What place is that?
MF: Obviously, if you’ve been listening to music you know that there is a real resurgence of music that’s influenced by this era. Soul, I think, is back and back with a force. When Sharon Jones’ last record came out, it was like number 50 on the Billboard charts. It sold like 50,000 copies in no time flat, which I think really made people stand up. I think in this day of super-processed music … we’re on the backside cycle of so much electronic music, which I love, too—don’t get me wrong. But we’ve had so much of it and so many sub-genres of even that one category called ‘electronic music’ that I think people are really responding to the authenticity and the emotion and the musicianship. Like I was saying, when you come to one of our shows, it is the craft of music-making onstage with incredible musicians and there is a synergy and an electricity that happens when the six of us are together onstage.
NS: I think the topic of every song is based upon love and relationships and I think that transcends anything. If you listen to a lot of the songs, they’re all love songs.
But song number two—‘Dear Mr. President’…
MF: It’s actually a love letter to the president.
A tough-love letter?
MF: Yes. Obviously we’ve all been experiencing this economic meltdown and the insanity of that and the neglect and irresponsibility of the institutions that we have in place. We all know what they are. We’ve all felt personally the real ramifications of what that economic downturn has been. It’s been incredibly stressful for everybody. I’ve watched my parents go through it, I’m going through it, everyone in the band is feeling it—everyone I know in varying degrees. I voted for Obama and I’m a huge fan of Obama. But I think he’s sometimes a little bit too much of a politician. To his credit, he gets some stuff done and I think we hear a lot about his middle-of-the-road decisions, but he’s also been able to right a lot of the wrongs of the past eight years. I just wanted to say, ‘Do better. Do more. Think about regular people and their needs and not just how to navigate lobbyists and legislation.’ I’m just trying to hold his feet to the fire. Even though the New York Times or the Huffington Post five days ago said the recession is over, it sure doesn’t feel over to me or anybody I know.
Is this connected to ‘Rich Girls’? ‘Rich girls break your heart/poor girls take your money.’ Is that the erosion of the middle class?
MF: Every time I talk about that onstage, I always ask—‘Are there rich girls in the house? Poor girls in the house?’
Who cheers louder?
MF: It’s always, always the poor girls because the rich girls don’t want to let you know they’re a little bourgie. Noelle gets mad because I never give a shout out to the middle class girls—all three of them.

FITZ AND THE TANTRUMS ON WED., NOV. 17, AT THE EL REY, 5515 WILSHIRE BLVD., LOS ANGELES. 9 PM. $17-$19. ALL AGES. GOLDENVOICE.COM. FITZ AND THE TANTRUMS’ PICKIN’ UP THE PIECES IS OUT NOW ON DANGERBIRD. VISIT FITZ AND THE TANTRUMS AT FITZANDTHETANTRUMS.COM.

Download: One AM Radio “Credible Threats”

(from the “Credible Threats” 7″ out now on Dangerbird)

THE ONE AM RADIO AT DUBLAB’S LABRAT MATINEE ON SAT., MAY 1, AT CINEFAMILY, 611 N. FAIRFAX AVE., LOS ANGELES. 8 PM / $8-$12 / ALL AGES. CINEFAMILY.ORG OR DUBLAB.COM. ONE AM RADIO’S “CREDIBLE THREATS” 7″ IS AVAILABLE NOW FROM DANGERBIRD. VISIT THE ONE AM RADIO AT THEONEAMRADIO.COM.

Silver Lake’s Dangerbird Records continues to expand its portfolio beyond the local rock scene. After rising to national prominence on the strength of the Grammy-nominated success of the Silversun Pickups, the indie label has been steadily beefing up its roster. Monday, the imprint added our city’s chic, soul-drenched outfit Fitz & the Tantrums to its ranks, securing the act to a label and publishing deal, according to Dangerbird head Jeff Castelaz.

The timing certainly couldn’t be better. The act was welcomed to the Dangerbird family just as it is about to tour with Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings. The latter are riding high on the recently released and critically adored “I Learned the Hard Way,” which has sold 38,000 copies in its two weeks of release, according to Nielsen SoundScan. [Read More]

Congratulations to L.A. RECORD art director Dan Monick in his fourth place finish in the Ultimate Staring Contest today! His penetrating gaze and fearsome beard served him well. We also salute L.A. Philharmonic, the ultimate victors, and wish a speedy recovery to all those defeated and dry-eyed.

Dangerbird Records co-founder Jeff Castelaz’s five-year-old son Pablo has a rare form of cancer, which led him to create the very personal Pablove Foundation to raise awareness and money to fight the disease. What better way to get the word out than a benefit show involving one of L.A.’s hottest bands with an album that just dropped on his own label? Silversun Pickups is an embodiment of the can-do spirit of Dangerbird, and their success is proof that this team’s perserverance will overcome the insurmountable. Opening the night were the Eulogies, fronted by Dangerbird’s other co-founder Peter Walker. The Eulogies have a bigger-rock sound than Walker’s eponymous work. His somber-rock vocals remain strong and his lyric writing is as catchy as it is insightful. “Eyes on the Prize,” from their new album Here Anonymous, was a standout with its floor-stomping beat. Introducing SSPU for their homecoming/send-off show was Shirley Manson, who called attention to the evening’s main objective of finding a cure for this cancer. Swoon, SSPU’s second full-length, just hit the Billboard 200 at number 7, so it is safe to say that they are well on their way to building on the success of Carnavas. They’ve expanded their sound (and song-length) on this sophomore outing and critics and fans alike will have plenty to dig into. They are a great live band and seemed especially excited to be playing the Echoplex for the home-crowd and Pablo. They played the majority of Swoon with new radio hit “Panic Switch” and yes, “Lazy Eye” and “Well Thought Out Twinkles” also made the list. These songs from Carnavas display an extra seasoning and “Kissing Families” (from their EP) has also taken on new bite. SSPU has the quietloudquietloud formula down: Nikki Monninger’s melodious bass line churning through the distortion, the rapid-fire drumming of Christopher Guanlao, sonic structure from keyboardist Joe Lester and effects-laden guitar work and ragged vocals from frontman/guitarist Brian Aubert. SSPU has found their voice and on this night they put it out there for the Pablove Foundation. Please go to pablove.org to find more information on how you can help fight childhood cancer with love.

—Erik Ehlert

[View with PicLens]

Darker My Love “Two Ways Out”

Darker My Love played the very first L.A. RECORD X-Mas party in a parking lot full of abandoned couches. They have just released their second album 2.

Why were you sleeping in an animal crematorium when you first came to L.A.?
Jared Everett (guitar/vocals): There was nowhere else to go. Literally. We were forced to walk out to Sun Valley and sleep in a crematorium.
Is that the most corpses you’ve ever woken up next to?
JE: No.
Rob Barbato (bass/vocals): When I first lived here I lived in a room we called the Mexican prison.
Was there a handcuffed college kid and a pound of weed?
RB: Cinderblock walls and a bathroom that was no more than a drain.
Andy Granelli (drums): A lightbulb hanging from a cord.
Tim Presley (guitar/vocals): And constant water dripping.
What song did you write there?
TP: Ironically—‘I Feel Fine,’ maybe.
RB: Which is a sarcastic statement.
Which is the most sarcastic song on the new album?
RB: ‘Blue Day.’ ‘It’s so nice, it’s so beautiful.’
Was Gorefest ’07 the ultimate Darker My Love performance?
RB: That was our shining moment. We locked down Texas.
What did we miss by not being there?
AG: Crystal meth.
Did you play faster?
TP: Slower.
AG: You’re suspended in time. You aren’t faster or slower—you’re just there.
What is the biggest difference between this record and the last?
TP: We took time on this one.
What effect did that have?
RB: The record is a little longer.
Why did you tell MTV you almost purchased a space alien in Philadelphia?
RB: Oh, where we almost got Blix? That was the biggest bad move on our part. We found a baby alien—a half-human half-alien.
AG: Picture this—we’re in Philly with nothing to do because we’re getting the van serviced for hours, and we run across this—a human baby-doll body but a baby alien head, and its name is Blix. Twenty bucks. Also simultaneously without each of us knowing it we got boners off a mannequin in the same aisle. We were all kind of staring at the mannequin, and as it turned out—Blix was cool but the mannequin really got me rock hard.
TP: Maybe it’s a good thing we didn’t get Blix after that.
What was Dave Cooley most excited about during the making of your album?
TP: Probably when we were done.
Did he cry, hug you, or run away?
TP: He ran fast.
AG: We’re still not done.
Can people bring each album purchased back to the studio for one final mix?
AG: Yes—every album sold.
Jared, why did you say this album is a hitchhiker’s guide to L.A.?
JE: Everyone keeps bringing that up. No one will let it go. For me—I didn’t like living in L.A. It was a struggle. That was my way through it. Making that record.
Have you reconciled with your environment?
JE: Yeah, it’s cool. It’s hot.
That will be our headline.
JE: ‘It’s cool. It’s hot.’ That’s a slow-burner on that one.
RB: Tell him the story when you chased down that car in the van and then gave them a ride home.
JE: I was driving the van and had a real bad day—long story—but some girl ran into the van and hit it really hard and dented the fender. And she faked pulling over but peeled out, and I chased her down. A 1993 conversion van—sliding around turns, ramming her from behind—she had like a Honda or something. Finally she stopped and all these kids ran out—‘Holy shit, mister! Your car’s really fast!’ I ended up giving one of them a ride somewhere.
How did you go from rage to kindness so fast?
JE: I wasn’t even mad. I just wanted her to pull over.
TP: It’s like how the Joker and Batman are—you need that chase.
Is that the best way you ever met a girl?
RB: Next question.
What happened to the Lee Hazlewood cover you recorded?
Will Canzoneri (keys): Yeah, what happened to it?
AG: Some lady ran into it and then took off.
Is that the most intense combat situation the band has been in?
RB: Andy had a fireworks fight with Agnostic Front.
TP: Vinnie Stigma almost shot one in my face. Or was it Roger Miret?
What’s it like to see the killing gleam in Vinnie Stigma’s eye?
AG: All you gotta do is look any of those guys in the face. It never leaves.
TP: If they shot us, it’d be for laughs. If we hit them, we’d get our ass kicked.
AG: They’d smile because we gave them some pain, and then they’d give some pain back to us.
What did you have to leave off this record that you wish you put in?
RB: ‘Pharoah Sanders’ Tomb’ song.
TP: My vote is ‘Fresh Cream.’
Do you have a bunch of songs about things people should be listening to?
TP: Yeah—one called ‘Appetite for Destruction.’ Really killer.
AG: Another one called ‘The White Album.’
What interviewer is most fun to fuck with so far?
TP: You never know who’s fucking with who, really.
What is the tenderest moment you ever shared with Mark E. Smith?
TP: Probably the laugh after me and him jumped a promoter.
RB: We were in a hotel room and the promoter had given Mark’s wife a copy of a Nico CD, and Mark got all pissed. And he was kind of joking around—‘Let’s go get him!’ So Tim and Mark—the evil twins—they ran down and Tim knocked on the door, and he came to the door naked and they punched him in the face. And came back laughing like little girls.
But don’t you worry that the next day Mark E. Smith might be punching you?
TP: Nah, I don’t think he’d ever punch me.
Famous last words.
TP: I know.
What’s it like when you first walk into Monoman’s apartment?
JE: Cluttered. Nothing makes its way out of there. Not even trash.
RB: When you walk up, he’d move stuff from behind the door. You’d enter one at a time.
JE: And slide back for the next person. You had to shimmy sideways down the hallway. I noticed he had these parrots that would sit on his back—like a pirate—and shit all over his back, and against the back wall were like racing stripes. Greenish brown. I finally put it together.
Are you worried the video is a bit Rob-centric?
RB: It was all editing.
What’s it like to see a band made up of all Rob Barbatos?
TP: A dream come true.
RB: Weird. A hairy situation.
What is your band’s most hidden charm?
AG: I don’t know if we can hide it!
Where did you get your case of genre paranoia?
AG: It’s normal reasonable thinking. How many times can you hear the term ‘fuzzed-out guitars’?
How many times can I write it?
RB: That should be the whole interview—‘FUZZED-OUT GUITARS, FUZZED-OUT GUITARS!’
TP: I also have a problem with the whole ‘psychedelic’ movement. Everyone is psychedelic now. It’s like the new punk. It’s literally turning into that Frank Zappa song—‘Who Needs The Peace Corps?’ There’s nothing wrong with that type of music but—it’s an easy tag. As easy as punk.
You already burned punk in a different article.
AG: Yeah, but they like that shit.
TP: Isn’t that punk to do that?
Are you on a first-name basis with the Southwest flight attendants from flying Andy back and forth from San Francisco so much?
RB: The other day when we were flying to Seattle for the Capitol Hill block party, the security lady was like—‘Oh my God, aren’t you in the Distillers?’ At six in the morning. And Andy was like, ‘Yeah, nice to meet you!’
AG: ‘So is it cool if I take this pound of weed on the plane or what?’
What’s the worst thing that ever happened to your equipment?
AG: All of it got stolen. Stealing a band’s gear is like stealing a one-legged man’s peg-leg. Stealing a toothless old lady’s dentures.
Got one more?
AG: Stealing a sex addict’s boner.
Are there more boners in this interview than anyone else got?
AG: Boing.

—Chris Ziegler

DARKER MY LOVE WITH TWEAK BIRD, AMNION AND EULOGIES ON THUR., AUG. 7, AT THE TROUBADOUR, 9081 SANTA MONICA BLVD., WEST HOLLYWOOD. 8 PM / $10 / ALL AGES. TROUBADOUR.COM. DARKER MY LOVE’S 2 RELEASES TUE., AUG. 5, ON DANGERBIRD. VISIT DARKER MY LOVE AT DARKERMYDUDES.BLOGSPOT.COM OR MYSPACE.COM/DARKERMYLOVE.