If you saunter around the entirety of the Spider House complex, through all the stages, you’ll find a door in a wall that leads to a pitch-black room—kind of like The Masque of the Red Death. It’s an old barroom that got annexed and converted into the more “conventional” stage in the complex, and it’s where we caught Cosmonauts. They were in top form today, especially drummer Jenn Agnew, who laid down the slow swampy beats of, say, Nick Knox from the Cramps, and has the added charm of looking a lot like this:

I had neglected to take mushrooms at this festival, and it’s a shame, because Cosmonauts would have made a great launching pad for mental space exploration. Near the end of their set, they started chugging along with an amazingly hard-edged Velvets groover, a perfect brute-psych segueway for Prince Rama, who may not have had quite the sense of monotony that the Velvet Underground espoused, but certainly loved rhythm and repetitions.

Based in an eastern mysticism that doesn’t sound exploitative, the two gals who make up the entirety of Prince Rama managed to be psychedelic without guitars, electronic without a prevalent drum machine, vocal without clearly intoned words. This duo is set to take over the world, but if they did, they’d probably make us give up all worldly possessions and roam barefoot in a procession of Perfect All-One Consciousness.

One thing’s for sure: sisters Taraka & Nimai Larson love being Prince Rama. Nimai had what a lesser man would call a “shit eating grin” the entire time she was drumming, as she danced and swayed with the beat. Taraka broke the spell of their mystic Indian vibe to say hi to all the friendly faces she knew—no doubt I would have lots of friends too, if I looked like a mixture of Ari Up of the Slits and one of Fellini’s femme-fatales. The crowd was throbbing as if in a religious fervor, and just when we thought things couldn’t get more regal, the gals made us free up some floor space, where they proceeded to jump out and do a synchronized DANCE.

And we did a skedaddle across the way to Tom’s Tabooley, where local garage rock kings the Ugly Beats were layin’ it out (and yes, the venue was a Middle Eastern restaurant! That’s just how hip Austin is). You might have seen them come out to L.A. for clubs like Satisfaction, but here at home there was a little less pressure to mod it up, and so the Ugly Beats tempered their cover of Les Fleurs De Lys with covers of seventies tunes by Roky Erickson and the Paul Collins Beat, who they’ll be playing with tomorrow at the Get Hip showcase. They kept the garage fuzz sound right through it all, which I noticed bandleader Joe Emery was laying out with a custom-made guitar which he later told me is called a “Janglemaster.”

We returned to the Spider House just in time to catch Foxtails Brigade, on the little stage right next to where the Coffee Shop keeps its muffins. They’re a folk quartet that has the energy of a Pentangle or Steeleye Span—maybe not the amazing pipes of those bands, but that kind of quibbling on my part just proves how much of a dick I am. Singer Laura Weinbach, with beautiful raven hair and a serious-looking classical guitar, actually did have a little dryness about the falsetto, something I can hardly blame her for considering my own parched countenance (it’s a tough town even to wake up in–there are living things in the air!). Their seven inch is one of my favorite folk tunes to put on in the cool of the afternoon, and rough voice or no, these kids were a cool breeze on this hot March afternoon after a stroll down the street. Their violin, bass, and cowbell-heavy percussion sounds made it feel like night had fallen, even though with Daylight Savings Time over, we still had some hours to go.

The Growlers were just starting to play outside—and yes, I know that your friends have told you that the Growlers are boring, but your friends aren’t paying attention! The Growlers have found a wonderful niche not found since the Doors, or maybe Morrissey (for the sake of this argument, let’s discount the entire genre of hip hop) where the band more or less puts down a groove for the singer to spin lots and lots and lots of poetic words around, prophetic and brash.

Of course, nobody seems to have embraced the Growlers with the kind of enthusiasm they deserve, and the Growlers haven’t exactly taken those lessons and tried to stretch their thing in the direction of what the people want. It seems like aside from the occasional big festival, where they play an early afternoon set, a semi-full house at the Spider House may be the biggest average crowd the Growlers will ever get. Not sure if they care—they seemed to have fun busting out their reggae and country-infused bass lines (slid into effortlessly by Anthony Perry), and to hell with the critics. Who knows, maybe their upcoming album produced by Dan Auerbach from the Black Keys will see their gypsy circus vibe transformed into something quaint and marketable, like Gogol Bordello! God, I hope not…

They kind of spoiled things for Ooh La La, who came on next. They played a style I like, sorta-psych jangle rock, like the Allah Las but slower. Actually, it was almost exactly like the Strange Boys but without Ryan Sambol’s childlike baby bluesman vocals. So, compared to the Strange Boys, it was a let down, and compared to the Growlers, it was a cool down, and so I wasn’t particularly enamored of the boys on this fair afternoon as the sun began to set…

But of course, then I realized that being Day 3 of South by Southwest, I am getting more than a little jaded, and a lot fatigued. If you haven’t been here before, let me warn you, this is part of the game. With so many bands flying in front of your eyes, like a thousand meringue pies, you start to only taste the most sour and most sweet and miss the subtle nuances that made you love fucking pie in the first place. That’s probably how I managed to watch an entire Sun Araw show and barely remember any of it—I wasn’t as samply or weird as their album, nor anything like a “garage” vibe, but psychedelic in a simple way that normally I might have just loved. As it was today, I found myself tracing the walls, exploring curtains of the Spider House Ballroom, where I eventually discovered an entire secret room behind the curtain much like the Black Lodge in Twin Peaks (no lie!).

I emerged from the curtained room in time for Christian Bland and the Relevators: once again, a band that interprets “psych” as being more mid-early-late 60s rather than late-mid-late 60s. Descending chord progressions, sinister and evil bad-trip kind of songs, echo on the vocals, narratives about losers and failures and mistake-makers. Lots of wah and echo and diatonic scale menace, with a solid Brian Jonestown Massacre chug… hey, a lot like the Cosmonauts did earlier! Something is in the air that says two chord rock with bleeding distorted guitar fuzz on top is going to enter my earholes as much as possible. And you know what? That is kind of groovy. I like living in the SXSW world, where my biggest problem is that too many bands are playing my favorite kind of music.

But fuuuuuuuck was it refreshing when Coxcombs started playing. You may know them by their former name of “Indian Jewelry,” or as I like to call them, “the most blistering Kraut-inspired shimmering, pulsating peal of noise and energy that has emanated from a small group of people in my lifetime.” Gone were the 3 minor chord rock jangles and songs about girls. Hello, the deepest recess of my mind, which became all brainstem, as I literally started shaking with a St. Vitus’ Dance fervor, my eyes rolling back into my head, my arms flailing at my sides, and my 5th chakra (or perhaps a genetic parasite lodged in all human DNA but long thought to be dormant) started to leap up and down inside my chest, as though my intellect had stashes away a mistress in my heart and was fucking her. Coxcombs is the Barry White of lizard brain chakra fucking.

But YACHT is the first, the last, my everything when it comes to peppy dance bands with brains and a sense of humor, and it seemed it was high time to abandon the backyard of the Spider House and hit the meat and potatoes of downtown Austin, where they were playing a weird venue called “Lustre Pearl” on Rainey.

Unfortunately, we weren’t the only fellows to have this idea, and the line was around the block. AND they’d already started playing by the time we got there. We were at a moral crossroads…

And then along came the members of Habits, walking down the street and looking for trouble!

They recognized us, twirled some of our party into the air in a gross approximation of a mosh pit, encouraged us to forget our failed dreams of YACHT and come on a quixotic quest for Of Montreal at Emo’s East. Why the hell not?

We were now a crew of 6, too many to fit into a cab, and too stupid to find a shuttle or somebody’s car, and so we walked! We walked by the highway, across the river, and down through the streets, finally arriving at Emo’s East. I had never been here before—from the street, it looked like a Sears.

But inside, the opening band was Deerhoof! I have only seen them in their original art-rock punk capacity, the way bands used to play a decade ago—drums on the floor, impossible to hear, crunchy bent pedals, and no breathing room at all for either music or people.

Tonight they proved to have grown into their maturity, not sticking to their roots but improving upon them, something like the Clash—and in fact, many of their songs had the cadence of “London Calling,” or even the blistering bagpipe-guitars of Big Country. Deerhoof have long ago annexed brutality to the punctuations of their songs rather than being the context of their songs. But what punctuation! Semicolons that pull apart ribs! Apostrophes of open-chord sailboats that they send crashing into craggy exclamation points, with all hands on deck! And there was no final period, just an ellipse carrying songs like “I Did Crimes for You” into an uncertain but bright future.

As good as Deerhoof was, most of the crowd seemed to be there from of Montreal. And despite the fact that Emo’s East isn’t the largest of venues (a silo, but not quite a warehouse), of Montreal pulled out a lot of stops to make sure their visual organ was overblown. Kevin Barnes in his “Georgie Fruit” persona is looking rather dapper himself nowadays, and his completely asymmetrical haircut with long raven locks on one side and short sheared hair on the other recalls the glory days of the Human League.

Musically they’ve become more of an ELO type outfit, with disco beats, glam/Prince guitar flair, and even a Jeff Lynne looking guy in the form of B.P. Helium on lead guitar, whose personal fuzziness is lending him a Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem vibe nowadays.

But visually they were in a league of their own, which we got hip to from about the second song, when dancers dressed as the Danger: Diabolik guy struck poses on stage and had psychedelic art projected onto the white cloth of their costumes. New songs like “Authentic Pyrrhic Remission” with their lyrics about self-destructive yet ultimately enriching relationships (“you’re the only one who ever put money on me!”) veered towards the personal, but these dancers reminded me of the outlandishness of David Bowie’s 1980 Floor Show, and seemed to take a page from the Flaming Lips’ stage production concept of “whatever’s fun!” By the end, there were inflatable costumes, and dummy dancers on wires, and then the brave ninja dancers actually crowd surfed with projections still covering their all-white outfits! Even a deaf man would laud the show’s praises.

After the show, we jumped into the Emo’s shuttle and headed home. Wished we had caught it on the way to the venue… my ankles feel like cashew bits wrapped around a balloon filled with sausage.

-D. M. Collins

MP3: Deerhoof vs Kasai Allstars “Travel Broadens the Mind”

(from Tradi-Mods vs Rockers: Alternative Takes On Congotronics)

Check out the tracklist:
1. Deerhoof vs Kasai Allstars – Travels Broaden The Mind
2. Animal Collective vs Kasai Allstars – Quick As White
3. Andrew Bird vs Konono N°1 & Sobanza Mimanisa – Ohnono/Kiwembo
4. Tussle vs Konono N°1 – Soft Crush
5. Glenn Kotche vs Konono N°1 – Traducteur de Transmission
6. Lonely Drifter Karen vs Kasai Allstars – Hunting On The Moon
7. Jherek Bischoff vs Konono N°1 – Kule Kule (orchestral version)
8. Woom vs Kasai Allstars – Enter The Chief
9. Juana Molina vs Kasai Allstars – Hoy supe que viajas
10. Mark Ernestus vs Konono N°1 – Masikulu Dub
11. Skeletons vs Sobansa Mimanisa – Kiwembo/Unstuck
12. Jolie Holland & Joel Hamilton vs Kasai Allstars – Nyeka Nyeka
13. Aksak Maboul vs Kasai Allstars – Land Dispute
14. Shackleton vs Kasai Allstars – Mukuba Special
15. Hoquets vs Konono N°1 – Likembes
16. Micachu & The Shapes vs Konono N°1 – NO.K
17. Megafaun vs Kisanzi Kongo – Conjugal Mirage
18. AU vs Masanka Sankayi – Two Labors
19. Allá vs Basokin – Mulu(me)
20. Bear Bones, Lay Low vs Konono N°1 – Kuletronics
21. Burnt Friedman vs Konono N°1 – Rubaczech
22. Oneida vs Konono N°1 – Nombre 1!
23. Optimo vs Konono N°1 – Wumbanzanga
24. Bass Clef vs Kasai Allstars – The Incident At Mbuji-Mayi
25. Eye vs Konono N°1 – Konono Wa Wa Wa
26. Sylvain Chauveau vs Konono N°1 – Makembe

Download: Deerhoof “Hitchhike” (LiLiPUT cover)

(from the soundtrack to Rules To Rock By)

Animal Collective – Sung Tongs

Joanna Newsom – Milk-eyed Mender

Deerhoof – Milkman

Ex Models – Zoo Psychology

Mice Parade - Mokoondi

Radiohead - Kid A

Black Dice - Creature Comforts

Gang Gang Dance - God’s Money

Need New Body – UFO

Comets on Fire - Blue Cathedral

-Kevin Litrow

mi-gu – From space

Nels Cline – Coward

John Coltrane – 40 year anniversary of A Love Supreme

Tobacco – Fucked up Friends

Deerhoof – Milk Man

Melt-Banana – Teeny Shiny

Boris – Smile

Cat Power – You Are Free

Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

Sleater-Kinney – One Beat

-Mike Watt

Check out live photos of the show

Back in 1994, the “good ‘ol days” of alternative music if you will, a little-known duo dubbed Deerhoof managed to rock the socks off the folks at Kill Rock Stars.  Fifteen years and ten studio albums later, this indie rock band has managed not only to keep music fans interested, but to keep them on their toes. When one thinks of seeing a live Deerhoof performance, a playful and twisted musical rollercoaster might come to mind. People trying to dig a little deeper to find a decent description of Deerhoof’s sound have come up with adjectives like “melodically skewed” and “bombastically schizophrenic.” Impervious to the limitations of monikers, their DIY sonic aura has set them apart from most current bands. And that is exactly what Deerhoof fans witnessed Friday, July 31st, at the Echoplex in Los Angeles.

From Satomi Matsuzaki’s perfectly subtle vocals and Greg Saunier’s mesmerizing beats to the dynamic presence of guitarists John Dieterich and Ed Rodriguez, the elements weaved un-relentlessly through songs from their most recent release, Offend Maggie, as well as from their seemingly endless catalog of material. Something about seeing Deerhoof live intensifies the complexities of their music. The combined energy of the musicians and fans experiencing the music together creates an entirely new way to enjoy the band’s impressive and unique arrangement of sounds.

—Taylor Loftin

Deerhoof performing at The Echoplex on July 31, 2009.

[View with PicLens]

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Download: Busdriver “Me-Time (With The Pulmonary Palimpsets)”

(from Jhelli Beam out now on Anti-)

We met up with Busdriver at a coffee shop in Silverlake to discuss the future, the present, and the bits of past that stick around like gum on the bottom of your shoes. His newest Jhelli Beam is out now on Anti-. This interview by Daiana Feuer.

I can’t really kick it in this neighborhood anymore.
In this airport?
In this airport. In this neighborhood. I don’t know. I can’t.
Why can’t you? You get so sensitive.
I’m sensitive?
A little bit.
Probably am. Strike that up as my primary weakness.
What’s new?
I’m weathering the storm. The electrical storm. Meaning, the live form in which music happens. Trying to reform my little show for a tour in the Fall around the U.S.A. Wisconsin. Seattle. Omaha. All the hot spots.
How are you changing the live show?
Just a couple of things. Nothing dramatic.
You’re the dramatic one?
I’m not the dramatic one. What’s dramatic are the songs and the…actually there’s nothing dra-matic about it. It’s all quite tame at the end of the day. Hopefully the live presentation makes it seem other than that. When you’re removed from the receiving end of the music and you add the place where the genesis of the music comes from, it’s a bunch of very practical elements. This has to go here because this means there, and then, ok! When we’re building the show and sound banks and cutting things, we’re pretty conservative.
We is you and Anti MC?
Me and Anti MC and God knows who else. Aside from that, I’m executive producing a rap record for my friends Thirsty Fish. They’re from my open mic—Project Blowed. Three guys, three rapping machines. They will be on Mush. I’m the spewer of cosmic advice. I’m with them every step of the way. I really want to do more stuff like this. To corral and harness other people’s output is strangely satisfying.
How do you feel about Jhelli Beam?
Here’s my purpose of the record. I wanted to reinforce the interest of a base of people who enjoyed my earlier records. That’s probably the last record I am going to make like that. I believe that maybe a lot of my records are anachronistic in that they reference techniques and a time and set of values that are long gone. They had their place in the ‘90s. I don’t think it’s bad, but sometimes I’m really indulgent. There’s a different emphasis that the next records are going to have. The way that I rap and write, it can be interpreted as clusterfuck of wacky ideas and maddening technique and pseudo song writing and that’s fine. But I want to pare it down.
Less syllables?
Rapping less? A variety of things may play into it. I have a whole collection of songs I record that don’t play into the Busdriver records that come out. I want to meet some middle ground. It’s really stressful to make records like Jhelli Beam. I don’t want something easier. I want something genuine in other facets of myself. I don’t want these beat to death ideas I had when I was 14. That’s what Jhelli Beam is. It’s me being 14 and saying, ‘What if I could rap this way?’ And then rapping this way. I need to press the refresh button.
Are you going to make a pop song?
No, that’s the default mode for rap and indie acts. ‘Fuck this shit, I’m making pop records!’ And people are blowing up and making money. I’m already knee deep in the next shit and I haven’t really made pop songs, but I’ve made some kind of songs. I’m having fun. I’m fortunate enough that no one ever pressures me to go a certain way. Not my label. Not my grandmother. I don’t regard my posse’s input as much as I used to. I’ve gotten to the point where I can trust my instincts. I want to indulge that. That’s all that I have. I’m trying to come to terms with being a professional, an auteur, a man of the arts. I have to do things that I think make sense. Too much advice gets factored into rap music. When I read a lot of interviews with rappers, there’s so much emphasis on their careerist aspirations. ‘Hey, man, you feel like you being shorted by the industry?’—‘Yeah! I’m not blowing up! Yada, yada…’ Is that all people think about? Is that all people who ascribe to black culture think about? I don’t think so. This will land where it may, but we’ll keep going. L.A. has changed. There’s other kinds of things to do. The next Michael Jackson could be an architect or a neurosurgeon. The king of pop popularizing neurosurgery. I think I read somewhere that our president is the king of pop. Which he is.
Is that a positive?
Is it? It has sway over millions of people. I’m sure it is positive.
Is there a parallel between the sway of politics and the sway of music over people’s existence?
You can’t deny a cult of personality. You can’t deny a populist slant on good ideas or revisited ideas and I think if you’re a rapper or a politician, there are similar regions you have to thrive in and personal traits you have to exaggerate. Everyone in politics has to have some kind of—aside from good ideas on policy—some personal investment in things. It’s kind of the same with rap music. There aren’t too many rappers out there devoid of personality. Which makes it seem a bit like a minstrel show.
Menstrual?
Minstrel. I actually did say menstrual because of my lisp. But people kind of dance around…
Bleeding all over themselves? Babies coming out of a woman! A sea of red and a killer dance beat.
[He flips through newspaper on the table]
You like that Cirque De Soleil stuff?
Actually I just performed with a circus dance company. They booked me and were dancing all freaky behind us. Contortionists and stripper clowns gyrating. I saw a stripper construct a portable stripper pole right there during sound check.
What do you make of the cross between strippers and clowns and burlesque? It seems somewhat popular.
Burlesque is one thing, but stripper clowns—that’s strippers as clowns, wearing things with the boobies out—that’s kind of different from burlesque. It’s a seedy underbelly of depraved yet very entertaining individuals.
What kind of entertainment do you like?
I like puppies and gumdrops.
How can you have a new puppy and go on tour?
That’s why I have gumdrops.
The puppy eats the gumdrop while you’re away?
The gumdrop eats the puppy. Then when I want the puppy again, the gumdrop regurgitates the puppy.
You like games?
I played Scrabble the other day for the first time. It was fun. I recommend. I don’t like cards.
You ever gamble?
With my life, but that’s about all.
What’s the most daring thing you’ve ever done?
Driving through Montana at 3 in the morning on a snowy night. That was daring. Daedelus was there. I was driving and it was getting slippery. He was playing a game—he’s got various ways of entertaining himself while the down time is being lived through—and he was looking at me and I was looking at him like really intense. He was like [concerned], ‘Are you ok?’ And I said [tense], ‘It’s fine! Just…a little slippery!’ That’s how I get down. That’s a good fun evening to me.
How about the guys you work with—Daedelus, Deerhoof. How does that fit into the Busdriver schema? Is this part of your evolution?
I don’t know if I am evolving. I think I should devolve a bit and set a different trajectory. I like these people. I’m always hungry to spend time and work with Deerhoof. I thought we were plotting a course at some point but we got sidetracked. I want to incorporate more people. I don’t want to get bored or complacent. I want to do things in real time rather than rehashing my old ideas.
There’s not too many other people doing your idea.
I think there’s a reason for that!
What age would you like to go back to?
There’s so many problems at every step. Which set of problems would I prefer over my current bevy of problems? When I was 21, I liked my problems. I didn’t like being 21 but I liked my problems. Hustling, that was problem. Hustling CDs on the street and writing rap songs and raising a newborn baby. Ooh, boy. It was a tough period. My daughter’s about to be 11 next week. She’s a big Jonas Brothers fan and I make fun of her at every twist and turn. I like now, though. I don’t think back, like, ‘I’m old, I need things!’
What is necessary? How do you deal with that?
I perpetuate disorganization. I throw it out into the world and it comes back 10-fold. I haven’t filed my taxes properly. I don’t know what I’m doing. I’ve got parking tickets from god knows when and where. I have no plan. By the seat of my pants. It works out somehow. I mainly do things out of fear. I make records out of fear.
Fear of what?
Exactly. Fear of what? What the fuck am I afraid of? Myself? Expectations? Lack of expectations? The ability to tour. What people think. Anything. I’m afraid of everything. Try to keep things on an even keel.
Is there fear in performing?
Riddled with fear. Not stage fright but I’m like, ‘I got to blow up! It’s not going well! Do something! Hit a button!’
Have you ever tripped over a mic cord?
Once I fell through a hole in a stage. It was years ago in San Jose. I’m walking off like, yeah, I’m badass, and then hoooo! But no one even saw it or acknowledged and I crawled out and I wasn’t even sure that it really happened. It was a complete hole. I disappeared.
What’s something to laugh at that’s humiliating when it happens to others? Like when they walk into a sliding glass door?
That’s a good one. I like when really confident or attractive looking people fall or trip or get knocked down. That never gets old. That’s what you get! But, what do I do for fun? That’s a good question. I used to go to museums. My daughter doesn’t like museums anymore. I took her to a David Hockney exhibit and she was like, ‘Why is that guy naked? What’s that man’s butt doing?’ I was like, ‘It’s expression. It’s something good? There’s something important in this painting…’
She’s not an L.A. kid that likes art galleries?
Some of her friends are. She’s definitely a child of now. She makes web pages and edits film and writes scripts. So she is kind of an L.A. kid but she’s more goofy. She does impressions and accents. We’ll be talking and she does this Indian accent. I don’t know where she gets it from. But she’s got a prolific mind on top of her for a child.
What’s she think of your albums?
She makes fun of me. ‘Sun showers, beebadeedee, bee ba dee dee…’ I’m like [weak], ‘Shut up?’ It’s all good. She my homie. I’ve been acting very fatherly the last year. Like, ‘Don’t do that thing!’ A lot of finger wagging. I need to ease up on that. More tail wagging. Like, ‘Good job!’ She loves clowning me. That’s her thing.
Has being a dad made you better? Is it a playground in which you can learn about yourself?
Having a child has almost nothing to do with self. It’s not self-fulfilling. It’s fulfilling but it’s not a place where you reassess yourself so much. It’s not like, ‘Oh man, this is so good for my insides! My soul is re-energized via this little exchange.’
Where do you get your clothes? I appreciate your colors.
The Salvation Army. Really? My daughter gets the new clothes. I get the recycled shit. I do like bright colors. I don’t like dark colors. That’s from the ‘90s when Grand Puba came out and he dressed a certain way. We all used to wear Eddie Bauer stuff. All colored shirts and stripes. I don’t necessarily dress like that now but it’s similar to that. But the child. The immediate reward of having a kid is that you become more compassionate, more patient, more sensitive to people’s needs, more cognizant of the underpinnings of people’s personalities, and what kind of upbringing gives way to how people become. How a country’s regional culture melds into people, how it becomes people or how people reject it. Children in France and Norway have different priorities and different levels of xenophobia, different footwear. It’s good to know what that is. Then you understand people more. Or you can act like you understand people more. Kids are fascinating. Kids in the U.S. have so many advantages. It’s bizarre. On one side the educational system in L.A. is kinda bad. My daughter’s about to go into a magnet middle school. It’s good but what’s happening there? I’m wary of teachers when they make too many sweeping hand gestures. ‘Kids have to le-e-e-e-ea-rn to be freeee!’ And I’m like, what are the requirements for mathematics? How are you introducing algebra? ‘Freeeeee!’
My math teacher blew bubbles out of her eyes.
See, I don’t want bubbles—out of her eyes?! That’s exactly what I’m talking about, Daiana. I want regimented education. Not bubble-blowing math teachers. Actually that’s fantastic. That’s crazy.
What subject were you bad at?
Everything.
But you’re good at memorization.
Not really. I don’t memorize lyrics at the time. But if you spend hours with them.
How many times do you do a song before you perform it?
I don’t rehearse.
Then you’re good at memorization.
Ok, fine. But all those details get obscured. You become a creature of habit. I do something a couple of times, I guess I can pull it off live.
Do you think the apocalypse will happen in your lifetime?
If I lived in Iran then I would understand that the apocalypse is happening right now. If some kind of cataclysmic doomsday scenario comes out, the blow will be softened for the USA. No one will know it happened. The rest of the world will be in fucking ashes or a smoldering pile. We’ll be here drinking lattes with HD-TV channels beaming straight to our heads. I don’t know. That’s some conscious rapper disillusionment. Like, ‘Man, they’re going to control our MINDS! We’re never going to be free!’ With Britney Spears break-the-chains hand gestures. I don’t think the world is going to blow up yet. But there are worse things than the world blowing up. Such as not being able to go to school. Did you know they’re going to cut that out? So poor people can’t go to school. This is Schwarzeneger attempting to save a few bucks. If you’re poor and you’re exceptionally talented, you are staying home.
Not that I agree with that, but there are some ideas about civilization not being sustainable, which will require the dying off of a large part of the population.
‘Poor people are going to have to die for the world to keep going.’ Are you predicting a mass-scale holocaust?
Maybe little ones spread about the world.
There aren’t too many people. There’s mismanagement in how these people live. No one has gotten the clue that the paradigm shift doesn’t have to be in 10 years, it has to be now. That takes a lot to do. That’s why Obama can’t do it in his term, or two terms. He’ll probably set it in motion, kind of…there are too many groups he has to appease. He’s not going to do that shit. I don’t know if people are going to die. In the ‘60s they said it—the world’s going to end! But it didn’t. The quality of life is going to become different. Who knows? Americans spend a lot of money they don’t have.
If only the world were different. You can’t make life the way you want it to be entirely. You have to have insurance.
You don’t have to have those things.
They send you letters that say so.
I don’t have healthcare.
What do you do when you’re sick?
I hope that I don’t get sick—that’s what I do.

BUSDRIVER WITH DEERHOOF AND AVOCET ON FRI., JULY 31, AT THE ECHOPLEX, 1154 GLENDALE BLVD., ECHO PARK. 8 PM / $14 / ALL AGES. ATTHEECHO.COM. BUSDRIVER’S JHELLI BEAM IS OUT NOW ON ANTI-. VISIT BUSDRIVER AT BUSDRIVERSITE.COM OR MYSPACE.COM/BUSDRIVER.

Download: Sunset Rubdown “Idiot Heart”

(from Dragonslayer out Tue., June 23, on Jagjaguwar)

Sunset Rubdown began as a solo project for Wolf Parade‘s Spencer Krug but quickly evolved into a full band . The music veers from carnival-esque grandeur to pin-drop-quiet beauty, centered around Krug’s recurring lyrical themes of myth, legend and fantasy. They are currently touring in support of their newest album, Dragonslayer. Tom Child interviews multi-instrumentalist Michael Doerksen.

When you go into the studio to record with Spencer, are the songs pretty fully worked out at that point? Do you all have a pretty good idea of how it’s going to sound or do you improvise in the studio at all?
Michael Doerksen (guitar/drums): Well, with Dragonslayer, we knew most of the songs. We were playing them live. That was the idea for this record. We’ve worked other ways before and on Dragonslayer there are a few songs that were put together in the studio. The ones we were playing live, they weren’t working without us toying with them a little bit. So it really depends on what we plan to do. We’ve done a little bit of everything. I don’t think we cut anything. There are certain songs we do live that are different from the recording, like “For the Pier” or “Three Colours.” But no, we didn’t cut anything from this. We basically went in with what we had.
How much of a collaboration is it when you all work together? Does Spencer provide a basic framework and you all bring in your own ideas to structure around that?
Yeah, he has the basic framework in mind and we throw ideas on top of that and explore different avenues of where we can take the song. Everyone is working at their limits, musically. Everyone’s really challenged in this band to work and push themselves to grow and to have it be collaborative. I mean, Spencer has a few things in mind like a key melody or a hook, but the rest of it is kind of filled up by the rest of us, and I think what makes it fun for the band is that it’s sometimes hard for the listener to discern how it’s been made. We all switch instruments sometimes so you’re not sure who’s playing what on each song.
How do you view the progression of Sunset Rubdown from album to album? Is Dragonslayer a completely new direction or are you basically building on what has come before?
It’s a little bit of both, in a way. Sometimes I feel like it’s our first record as a band. There was always sort of a discontinuity between how our records sounded and how we sounded as a band, live. We started doing both of those things at the same time. We made a record very early into our playing together. So people come to see us play live and find that it sounds a little bit different from the record because it’s a live band. I think that’s how we all envisioned this project. That’s how bands should work. We’ve gotten closer on this record to presenting what we’re really like as something to come and watch, as a band. Most of the songs are live off the floor, cut a few days after our last show in Chicago. So they’re really fresh and honest and we didn’t really have time to think about the logistics of adding other things. Like on Random Spirit Lover, there are certain songs that we find difficult to play live because we maybe put a little too much into it and we can’t pull it off live. We just can’t get into it because it was cut in the studio. We’re open to all kinds of different ways of working, but this one definitely feels like a more honest representation of how we sound live.
Everyone always talks about how abstract the lyrics are and how hard it is to grasp onto a literal meaning, which is part of what makes the band so fascinating to listen to. But as someone who knows Spencer personally, do you feel like you know what kinds of real-life circumstances his lyrics actually reference, or is it as much a mystery to you as it is for the average listener?
There are certain things in songs where I might know what he’s talking about, or it might reference something that I know, but other times, like you say, he does use a lot of props, with mythology or… That’s one reason why I was really keen to work with him, because his lyrics are so interesting and strong. That’s kind of the best kind of poetry; that kind of work that puts more in your hands to struggle with and wrestle with the meaning, as opposed to it being flat out. But his lyrics are changing too. The lyrics… that’s his domain, for sure.
Spencer has talked about how, despite the fantastic sweep of the lyrics, the band doesn’t care to employ a lot of theatricality onstage. He likes that you all kind of come onstage wearing whatever you’d wear in your daily lives and just play the music. Is that something you enjoy too or is there a part of you that would like to give in to the excesses of bombastic stagecraft?
That’s an interesting question. We had a discussion when we first started the band about that kind of thing. We’d see other bands out there doing very elaborate, uniform kinds of performances, which were cool and some of it has been really interesting, even if it’s just a prop like Deerhoof using that spinning light wheel… the magic rainbow wheel or whatever it is. So there are certain things that are cool about that. We like to put lamps onstage. But as far as dressing up… maybe we’re old fashioned, but that’s not a big concern. The surface level appearance of the band doesn’t really enter into our equation. But there are certain things… like I’ve worn a cape during a show once… for fun. We were in Sweden or something and I just wore a cape onstage. We’re not really strict about it. It could be interesting to wear a certain t-shirt or put a sign up. We’ve toyed with these kinds of ideas, but when it comes down to it, when you’re on the road, you don’t really want to think about that stuff. Just getting through a song is complicated enough and is a challenge, so to think about how you’re coming across on another level visually is a whole other thing. Like Bowie pulled it off brilliantly and he had one of the best guitar players in the world who could don a crazy costume and play to that theatrical model, but we’re not really like that.
What’s it like touring with Sunset Rubdown? 24-hour party or do you keep it pretty serious?
Serious. No, we don’t really fancy ourselves partiers or anything like that. We’re pretty mellow—we like to get a good night’s sleep usually. We have the usual entertainment in the van or we like to sleep during the day. Pretty humdrum, when it comes down to it. Read a book or listen to music or talk. Play a game. No video games though. Actually, we did have a video game in Europe. We had a machine in the van that they rented for us. It was like you were Hercules or someone, fighting Zeus? It was pretty epic.
That seems pretty appropriate.
Actually—you’re right.
If you can think of your favorite Sunset Rubdown show that you’ve played—where was the show and what made it so great for you?
We’ve had some pretty good times in a lot of places, but one time in particular…I think it was our first tour out by ourselves…we had gone out with Frog Eyes and then we were out again just by ourselves which was new to us. It was a memorable tour in that way. But we played in Atlanta at a place called Lenny’s, and the crowd was so incredible. It was a small kind of old man’s bar. They had just got a brand new PA and it sounded amazing and the crowd was incredible. It was the kind of crowd where they’re right in your face and you’re clinking your beers together with them. There’s no stage. It was incredible and we played an incredible show. It was one of our tightest sets. Just because of the energy in that room, I couldn’t forget it.
As a guitar player, who has most influenced your style?
There are a number of players that I’ve been listening to. Neil Young, even John Fahey. Thurston Moore—as a younger guitar player growing up—was a big influence on me. That kind of dirty playing. But I also really like Queen. Brian May’s playing was incredible. Jimmy Page, for how many styles he touched and for how risky his playing was. I think between Jordan and I, we can get a little flashy sometimes. It’s fun. You don’t get a chance to write that kind of solo everyday. And Spencer’s music can really lend itself to complicated playing and really complicated musicianship. It’s a challenge. That’s precisely what I liked about his songwriting. When I saw him play with Wolf Parade when they first started, I thought, ‘I’d really like to play with this guy.’ It’s certainly a challenge. I’d been playing with other bands where the themes were good, the lyrics were strong and the music had a lot of emotion to it, but the music was kind of a Nick Cave orchestra kind of thing. Or I’ve played in completely improvised noise bands. But I came from a blues background—kind of a classic rock background in terms of my guitar playing. So finding someone to write these great pop tunes—it’s definitely fun.
How did you and Spencer meet each other?
Through a friend of a friend; that friend being Arlen from Wolf Parade. I’d been playing in bands with him since I was about 18 in Victoria. We came out here together the same year. We were playing in bands before Wolf Parade formed. I was in a rock band where he was the drummer and Dan and Spencer came to town and formed a band and wanted Arlen. Arlen was quite a sought-after drummer in Victoria. He played in many, many bands, so I didn’t hold it against him. It was a great opportunity. The band I was in folded, but before that we shared the same jam space—this rock band and the newly formed Wolf Parade—and at one point we were switching up and this kind of a jam session—which might arise when musicians get together in the same room and the instruments are on—happened between Spencer and I. We started jamming out on something and he always remembered that. We saw each other around and eventually, when Sunset Rubdown’s first record got some attention and he planned on touring with it, he asked me since we were familiar with each other and he liked my playing. It was kind of a perfect match.
If you had to pick a favorite Sunset Rubdown song, what would it be?
Woah. Um… geez, it’s such a hard question. I’ve never been asked that before. Haven’t even thought about it because they’re all like children. They’ve all got certain characteristics that you enjoy while you’re playing it. And I’ve never gone through a set feeling bored. Some things get me more excited on certain nights, like “The Taming of the Hands.” That’s a really fun one to play. Ferocious. But I like getting on the drum kit and playing “Stadiums and Shrines.” The drums on “The Men Are Called Horsemen…” We haven’t played that in a while. We’ve talked about really redoing it. But yeah, I can’t really… What’s your favorite?
“The Men Are Called Horsemen…” Where do you think you’ll be headed after this, creatively?
Well, I suppose we will put out another record. I don’t know, I can’t say. We definitely haven’t spoken about too much. Actually just today, Spencer told me he wanted to start putting out singles and EPs only strictly. No more records. It seems that putting together an album is quite a task and you can fail and people will still maybe see something that you didn’t see in how it works perfectly as this record in some way that you didn’t even intend or think about. But getting back to the idea of singles and just pumping out songs… it’s an interesting model. I don’t know.
What do you think has inspired him to think about doing that?
I think it’s kind of a practical thing. Like when the song’s finished, you can just get it out there right away instead of having to perform it and sit on it for two years and then put it on a record. Like “Idiot Heart,” for example—we’ve been playing that since we recorded Random Spirit Lover but we decided not to put it on that record. And it’s actually based on one of our very first songs which became “Q-Chord” on the first record. We stripped everything else that we had done on that song and just left Camilla’s playing on the QChord and we came back to it again a year and a half later. So it’s kind of like if a song is ready, you can just get it out. That’s why we recorded that for Daytrotter—just to get it out there so people know it and can enjoy it at the show when they come hear it. It’s nice to be familiar with it.
Wasn’t there a plan to put out a 7″ that had some kind of photography component?
That’s come out already. And I think it came out and sold out. It was a very small pressing…the “Moonface” thing.
So is that the direction you’re heading? That kind of limited-run thing?
I don’t know about limited-run. That was an opportunity that came to us to do that sort of thing. But we’d probably like to see a little more than… what did they print? Like 1500? 500? I forget the number. Or even digitally release things, just pump them out online. We’ve been talking about getting a little more active on the internet on our own terms. None of us are on Facebook or anything. We’re not really that savvy. We don’t have a MySpace for Sunset Rubdown. But we’ve talked about having a little more control over our website, which has been pretty dull. We just post things occasionally. But you know, like Bradford Cox from Deerhunter, he pumps singles out for his Atlas Sound project and that’s a really interesting model. I think it’s really effective and practical for your audience, that kind of interaction. And 7″s and vinyl especially are becoming more and more important, ironically or unexpectedly, and I think that’s going to become a real driving force in the economy of the music industry, as far as making some kind of return for your music. Vinyl is a really good way to go.

SUNSET RUBDOWN WITH ELFIN SADDLE AND WITCHIES ON TUES., JUNE 23, AT THE ECHOPLEX, 1154 GLENDALE BLVD., ECHO PARK. 8 PM / $13-$15 / ALL AGES. ATTHEECHO.COM. SUNSET RUBDOWN’S DRAGONSLAYER RELEASES TUES., JUNE 23, ON JAGJAGUWAR. VISIT SUNSET RUBDOWN AT SUNSETRUBDOWN.NET.