Download: Leslie and the Badgers “Los Angeles”

(from Roomful Of Smoke available now from Leslie and the Badgers)

See also: Leslie and the Badgers Mixtape here!

Leslie and the Badgers recorded their album while Los Angeles was on fire and began their residency at the Echo as the ash finally started to dissipate. Producer David Bianco let them use Bob Dylan’s microphone and they meet now for beers at Cole’s, where they would have fit perfectly opening for I See Hawks In L.A. not too long ago. This interview by Chris Ziegler.

How did your great-grandmother hide money from the Indians when she was traveling across Oklahoma in a covered wagon?
Leslie Stevens (vocals/guitar): I sang at her funeral—she died quite a few years ago, but she lived to the age of 103. She still had some black hair in her coffin! My other grandmother was like, ‘Lookit that!’ They’re all from Oklahoma—my great-grandmother had gone from southern Arkansas to Oklahoma in a covered wagon as a little girl and they’d get raided by Native Americans, so they’d sew the money into the hems of her skirts. Certain tribes were known for not harming the children. They’d take them and make them be part of the tribe, like Dances With Wolves. I’m part Native American on the other side of the same family—my great-grandmother’s daughter married into a family with Native blood. But I thought it was the same side and asked my great-grandmother, ‘So who exactly is Native American in our family?’ ‘That’s not my side!’ she said. ‘My side’s FRENCH!’
She sounds kind of bloodthirsty.
Leslie Stevens: She is the coolest woman. A pilot—she had boats and an airplane. This is all on my mom’s side. When my mother married my dad, my grandfather was like, ‘You’ll never make it working for the man!’
What’s the most work you’ve ever done for the man?
Glenn Oyabe (guitar): I can tell you about working in a crematory.
What was your favorite part?
Glenn Oyabe: It was great inspiration for writing really depressing songs. And I didn’t have the man in my face! Even though I worked for the man—in my mind, I AM the man.
Charlene Huang (violin): I was always taught to resist the man. My parents owned their own business, so they were the man! They were also immigrants and they definitely overcame a lot of adversity. So it’s really hard for me to work for the man now.
Leslie Stevens: Charlene and I met working for a German composer—Hans Zimmer.
Charlene Huang: I’ve always been fascinated with film music. Most of my favorite soundtracks today, they’re old Hans Zimmer films: Rain Man, Regarding Henry, even Point Of No Return. I feel kind of sheepish because a lot of artists I like today—even Nina Simone—I only know of them because of movies. In music school, I wanted to merge classical with film music and I was able to get an internship with Hans, and then I met Leslie. But we didn’t start playing music until a mutual friend died of lung cancer.
Leslie Stevens: We played her funeral. A wedding and a funeral—our first two gigs.
Charlene Huang: I went to see them play at Highland Grounds and I was completely blown away. And I had an instant connection with Glenn over there, who I consider my big brother.
Glenn Oyabe: That’s my little sister. We can’t stand on the same side of the stage; it’s an Asian imbalance.
Charlene Huang: In every picture we’re the Asian bookends.
Glenn Oyabe: I call it a ‘balance of power.’
Charlene Huang: I feel like there are three Asian people in the L.A. country scene and two are in Leslie and the Badgers.
What’s the oldest story that’s been passed down in your families? Like Leslie’s grandmother and the covered wagon?
Charlene Huang: A lot of my stories, they’re really supernatural. I think the closest word in English is ‘possession’ or ‘exorcism.’ My maternal grandmother had eight children, but one was a son who died—who was actually never born. My grandmother was tortured for years after that because she kept having a recurring dream where she saw the baby in a former life. She walked in the room and saw a Grim Reaper-type figure—a very dark figure—killing the baby by using it as a mop. And that’s why the baby didn’t ever live—it was dead before it was born! And I have an older brother, but the middle child between us was stillborn, and what my dad never told my mom was that after the baby was supposedly discarded, he donated it to science. It was in formaldehyde in a jar for years. During that entire time, she claimed to have a lot of hauntings by this child—she’d almost feel like she was suffocating. She ended up having to go to temple—they’re Buddhist—and the monks basically told her the same story: ‘He was trying to tell you something—he felt trapped, but once you knew and forgave yourself, he would be released.’ So it’s all these weird past life spirits haunting you. My mother became Christian in the last few years and started wearing a crucifix and claimed all these hauntings stopped.
Glenn Oyabe: My parents were interned during World War II. My grandfather ended up being camp police chief. My dad was I think 13 at the time, and he and his buddies snuck out of camp and were walking along the dirt road and saw a car coming. They hid in the bushes and the ranger drove past, then stopped and backed up because they were smoking cigarettes and the smoke was coming up from behind the bush. So they got rounded up. My dad would tell me stories: ‘If we’re here for our protection, why are the machine guns pointing in and not out?’ There was a great sense of community there. They lost everything and came back to nothing. All you could bring was what you could carry and that was it.
What was it like when you toured with Kristy Kruger—the tour through all 50 states to honor her brother who’d been killed in combat in Iraq?
Leslie Stevens: That was just me. I don’t know how deep into this I wanna get.
Ben Reddell (bass): During this period I actually played bass for Kristy on a few occasions, and I think the whole thing about the Iraq War is Americans do not want to hear about it. It’s shitty and we know things are fucked up—let’s not talk about it.
Leslie Stevens: I felt it was allowing people to be in touch with what was actually going on, but it was dark. I went to the house of the widow; I was with his children. This guy was a lieutenant colonel on the first day of his second term in Iraq. He was in a Hummer on his way to base and they hit an IED. Two lieutenant colonels—the highest ranking officials killed at that point in the war. Right after that, they passed that law about encrypting emails. They were almost certain it was planned.
What was it like performing music at those shows?
Leslie Stevens: Everybody assumed you were for the opposite side. Everyone who was anti-war thought you were pro-war, and every pro- thought you were anti-. It was the weirdest thing. I don’t wanna say too much that’s personal. I don’t know how what I’m about to say can be cloaked in a right way. I thought it was just so sad the way the widow would watch YouTube video of Baghdad. This was like two years ago and YouTube had just started and the Internet was a tool she was using to put herself in the place of a soldier. She’d put herself in Baghdad, looking at the fighting. I’m saying too much. I wanna respect her privacy.
Charlene Huang: I had a comment from a person at work—he’d never seen us before, and he’s very conservative. He was like, ‘Maybe Leslie shouldn’t assert her political views in the chit-chat between songs.’ But our progenitors are people like Bob Dylan—it’s our job to report things in music.
Ben Reddell: Woody Guthrie sure as shit wasn’t no shield-beating conservative.
Leslie Stevens: ‘This Land Is Your Land’ is exactly like ‘Born In The U.S.A.’ But there is an ignorance associated with a lot of this music. Right after 9/11, I was driving around and listening to this song: ‘I’m just a singer of simple songs / I ain’t a real political man / I watch CNN but I’m not sure I can tell you / the difference between Iraq and Iran.’ I found that enraging! How can you sing about killing people in a country when you don’t even know where it is?
Travis Popichak (drums): You get a lot of misguided left-wing folk who become anti-patriotic too—the exact thing Toby Keith is, but the opposite side of the spectrum. Bullshit with a different edge—anti-America, ultra-PC.
Leslie Stevens: When you play music, people expect you to have—to a certain extent—a political thing.
Ben, what did you mean when you described the band as ‘bourgeois country’?
Ben Reddell: I don’t know.
Charlene Huang: I’ve heard you say it’s the difference between ‘bar country’ and ‘art country.’
Ben Reddell: We have a little bit more top-shelf viewpoint of the artists we wanna represent. I don’t think people in Nashville are influenced by Mike Nesmith. I don’t think they’re influenced by Heads Hands & Feet. I feel this band is very well-versed in a lot of different kinds of music.
Who’s your favorite reggae singer?
Travis Popichak: Symarip—revivalist British skinhead music, anybody?
What’s the most beautiful thing that happens when old punk rockers go country?
Glenn Oyabe: It’s a translation of the true spirit of punk rock. It’s almost hand-in-hand with the true spirit of country.
Ben Reddell: Three chords, based in simplicity.
Travis Popichak: And they both have a long history of drug-related deaths.
Glenn Oyabe: It’s like raw spirit. It’s not pop music.
Leslie Stevens: There’s a simplicity to punk and this type of country. It’s the kind of shit you can write in a couple hours.
Ben Reddell: The first song I ever wrote was country: ‘I Quiver for Your Shiver and I’m Hoping for Your Touch.’ I was 13 and there was a girl I really liked and I was friends with her math teacher. It was Valentine’s Day and he let me into second period and I sang it! And of course she covers her face and barely says thank you and I was totally deflated. But to her credit—she was a good lady.
What was it like recording with the microphone Bob Dylan used?
Leslie Stevens: No big deal, you know—just another day! On the way in I did get nervous. I had this big hat I’d wear and one day I came in and they were like, ‘You look like a plantation owner!’
What’d you say to that?
Travis Popichak: She shouted at us to get back to work!
Ben Reddell: Dave would tell us amazing stories—the guy’s been immersed in the rock ‘n’ roll scene since the ’70s.
Leslie Stevens: He played with Fleetwood Mac when he was 19 or 20.
Charlene Huang: He also played in pick-up softball games with them!
What’s your most morbid song right now?
Leslie Stevens: ‘Old Timers’—it’s kind of insidious. It sounds really happy—a really happy melancholy melody—and it’s about someone getting struck by lightning and going brain-dead.
Charlene Huang: We’re always asked to play it at weddings. People aren’t clear on the lyrics. And it’s one of our most licensed songs!
What’s the funniest joke you’ve successfully told on stage?
Leslie Stevens: We once came to the intersection of Leslie Road and Badger Road in the middle of Oregon. So that night on stage I said, ‘We came to the intersection of Leslie Road and Badger Road today, and a few miles down we saw a dead badger on the road.’ And Ben goes, ‘And a few miles after that we saw a dead Leslie.’
Charlene Huang: We’d tell people not to mess with us because we have a band machete! Our friend did give us one, but basically because it came with a box of fresh coconuts.
Ben Reddell: And rum.
Is that the best weapon you’ve received as a gift?
Glenn Oyabe: Yeah, but I still have visions of owning a band gun.
How well-armed are you compared to the rest of the Echo Park and Silver Lake bands?
Ben Reddell: We’re armed to the teeth compared to most of these pantywaists!
One of the things real badgers hate most is being pried from their hole. Are you the same way?
Ben Reddell: Tell him about the terrier.
Travis Popichak: Not the terrier, the dachshund. It’s a badger hound—made especially for that. It grabs on to a badger’s ass! It became a whole sport before dogfighting. This is a tangent, but they’d drop the dogs in a hole and bite on the badger and pull it out, then let the badger go back in and see how many times they could pull it out in a minute. Quite the sport—the British came up with it.
Is that your favorite bloodsport?
Travis Popichak: Does dwarf-tossing count?
Depends how hard you toss them.
Ben Reddell: In Gummo there’s a really great scene—the guy starts wrestling a chair. I threw a party and it was blatantly awkward and no one was really talking, so I was like, ‘Well, hey—who wants to see me wrestle a chair?’
Leslie Stevens: It was the funniest thing—they had a real fight! He gets on top of the chair and the chair gets on top of him and finally . . . His roommate had a perfect set of perfect chairs from the ’60s, a matching set of four.
And now a matching set of three?
Leslie Stevens: He bent the legs of the chair and everyone cheered!
Glenn Oyabe: But the other three chairs still claim that he cheated.

L.A. RECORD PRESENTS LESLIE AND THE BADGERS WITH PAPERPLANES, BEST COAST AND SIAN ALICE GROUP ON MON., SEPT. 28, AT THE ECHO AT THE ECHO, 1822 SUNSET BLVD., LOS ANGELES. 8:30 PM / FREE / 21+. ATTHEECHO.COM. LESLIE AND THE BADGERS’ ROOMFUL OF SMOKE IS AVAILABLE NOW FROM LESLIE AND THE BADGERS. VISIT LESLIE AND THE BADGERS AT MYSPACE.COM/LESLIEANDTHEBADGERS.

Download: Sian Alice Group Mixtape for L.A. RECORD

The glamourous hobos of England’s Sian Alice Group—interviewed about Latvian strippers here—will be playing our co-presented Leslie and the Badgers show tonight at the Echo with Best Coast and Paperplanes and managed to squeeze out this selection of MP3s between tumultuous tour dates. Download above and tracklist below!

Dr. John “Familiar Reality (Opening)”
Ella Brown “Love Don’t Love Nobody”
Dennis Wilson “Friday Night”
John Tchicai “Lied”
Low + Spring Heel Jack “Bombscare”
Rhythm and Sound “We Been Troddin” (f. Shalom)
Group Doueh “Cheyla ya Haiuune”
Dion “Born To Be With You”
Yoko Ono “What A Bastard The World Is”
Mulatu Astatke “Kulunmanqueleshi”
Duke Ellington “Acht O’Clock Rock”
William Siwale and Friends “Castle Beer”
Everything Is Everything “Witchi Tai To”
John Cale “You Know More Than I Know”

Download: Sian Alice Group “Close To The Ground”

(off Troubled, Shaken, Etc… out Aug 4th on The Social Registry)

(from 59:59 out now on Social Registry)

Our buddies Sian Alice Group are bulldozing their way through North America with A Place To Bury Strangers. Check out their recent interview we did herererererere!

Oct 7 2008 8:00P
Urban Lounge –[with A Place To Bury Strangers]– Salt Lake City, UT
Oct 8 2008 8:00P
Larimer Lounge –[with A Place To Bury Strangers]– Denver, CO
Oct 9 2008 8:00P
Waiting Room –[with A Place To Bury Strangers]– Omaha, NE
Oct 10 2008 8:00P
Record Bar –[with A Place To Bury Strangers]– Kansas City, MO
Oct 11 2008 8:00P
Bluebird –[with A Place To Bury Strangers]– St.Louis, MO
Oct 13 2008 8:00P
The Loft –[with A Place To Bury Strangers]– Dallas, TX
Oct 14 2008 8:00P
Emo’s Jnr –[with A Place To Bury Strangers]– Austin, TX
Oct 15 2008 8:00P
Walter’s –[with A Place To Bury Strangers]– Houston, TX
Oct 16 2008 8:00P
Spanish Moon –[with A Place To Bury Strangers]– Baton Rouge, LA
Oct 17 2008 8:00P
Club Down Under –[with A Place To Bury Strangers]– Tallahassee, FL
Oct 18 2008 8:00P
Drunken Unicorn –[with A Place To Bury Strangers]– Atlanta, GA
Oct 19 2008 8:00P
Grey Eagle –[with A Place To Bury Strangers]– Asheville, NC
Oct 21 2008 8:00P
Local 506 –[with A Place To Bury Strangers]– Chapel Hill, NC
Oct 22 2008 8:00P
9:30 Club –[with A Place To Bury Strangers]– Washington, DC

This interview by Vanessa Gonzalez.

I can’t tell you how excited and surprised I was to see the Crystals listed as the first influence on your Myspace page.
Oliver Ackerman (guitar/vocals): The Crystals are AMAZING!
Who do you think would win in a fight between the Crystals and the Shangri-Las?
Oh, are you kidding? The Shangri-Las would kick the Crystals’ ass so easy. They were like the bad girls of all that stuff. They would take their motorbikes and run-over the Crystals—back and forth over their head most definitely! Drive them all up and down the street!
But musically you prefer the Crystals?
Do I PREFER the Crystals? Ahhhhh…I dunno know? I really like the Shangri-Las as well. That’s kind of a hard call. I guess it depends on your mood, ya know? Sometimes the Shangri-Las are what you want to hear. But ya know, the Crystals—some of the songs are just sung so well, and they’re such good songs. It’s hard to beat that, too.
Sometimes you get hit, and it feels like a kiss?
Yeah, totally. Especially if you’re kinda drunk. That’s so bad.
Has Phil Spector’s ‘wall of sound’ influenced your production values?
Definitely. That stuff is amazing, and that is stuff I grew up on. And as an aesthetic, and even I think song structure and writing style, I like that kind of stuff—the old pop classic sort of thing. I don’t have all these orchestras and instruments but we definitely try and make as many different sounds and have things come together and make it interesting. I definitely make a lot of pedals to achieve a certain sound, or some specific idea, as well as sometimes you’ll discover some cool idea within some sound that you’ve created. There are songs that have nothing to do with the pedals, but that definitely helps us get the sound that we want—to manipulate that anytime. It just works from what’s appropriate.
I heard you guys record in your RV?
Sometimes we get to places where we can do a little bit of work, but not really that much. There’s sorta some room to do some things, but not really as much as you would like.
How was the first album recorded?
Most of that album was just demo songs that I recorded myself with all sorts of different mediums—drum machines and stuff. All sorts of stuff thrown together—experimenting with 8 tracks, and the computer. It’s like almost everything was just kind of an idea for a song—songs that I wanted to listen to and hear myself, whether anyone else was going to or not.
So they were not intended for release?
Exactly. We were just kinda demoing things out, and then we released these EP CD-Rs that we would sell at shows or give away so that people would hear the music. And then we played a show in Austin, and the guy that runs the label that released our record wrote on a napkin that he’d like to release a bunch of the EPs as a CD and that he’d give us all the profits or something like that, and we were really reluctant to do it actually. It sounded kinda good, but it also sounded like not a good idea—I don’t know why. But I’m glad that we did it because it seems to have worked out pretty good.
Why the reluctance?
I guess I felt like everything wasn’t ready, or that it wasn’t really quite like a whole album or anything like that. Definitely all the songs were recorded to sound the way that I like to hear things. But I guess I had heard some things from different people—‘Your music’s got to be really slick…’ and all this bull crap that I don’t really believe ‘…to be listened to and appreciated by people.’ But I know that kind of stuff is just shit. And I’m really glad that people like the album the way it is because it means that we can kind of continue to work and create things that we think sound good, whether it’s commercially viable or not. I think that we can focus on just kind of making everything sound really good rather than sound commercial.
Like Times New Viking? They’re ultra lo-fi, but it sounds amazing and they write good songs and…
Times New Viking is an excellent example.
What was it like going on tour with Nine Inch Nails?
It was RIDICULOUSLY high tech! MY GOODNESS. It was AMAZING! It was really fun. It was also like, completely silly—you just feel like ‘What are you doing there?’ They had this huge crew of 85 people or something like that with all these really cool nicknames like ‘RADAR’ and ‘LAZER’ and ‘FOXTROT’ or something. It was so amazing. I guess they sorta look the part. It’s just a bunch of dudes all dressed in black with headsets and walkie-talkies. They weren’t menacing or anything like that. But they all had really cool names. I don’t know where they got em’ from. They put on just a ridiculously good show. They had these walls of light that were moving around and going in front of them and behind them and all this—just so intensely planned. But they were playing all the instruments live, and it was really cool. It wasn’t cheap, like you could easily imagine a lot of people would do. There were video cameras across stage and then maybe some sensors on their hands and they would wave their hands across the lights and stuff and the lights would shoot out of their hand—really crazy ridiculous things.
Is that a level that you are trying to attain?
Not quite. I thought what they were doing was cool. It wasn’t exactly something I would have done per se. But what would you do with millions and millions of dollars to put on some show? It was kind of ridiculous. I don’t think I would do that. I think maybe just keep things simple and just give the money to someone less fortunate—hand out cars to all the audience members.
Was being the opening act for a band with such an intense fan base uncomfortable?
Everyone was really cool actually. People were cheering and going nuts and it was really good. We were definitely well received. But talking to a bunch of these kids when you go out into the crowds—some of the fans, it’s almost like their lives revolve around Nine Inch Nails. Nine Inch Nails patches and hats and they have screen names for the fan club and stickers all over their car. I definitely had a lot of people ask me, ‘What’s Trent like? Gee, I wish I had a demo tape of my band with me so that you could give it to him.’ Almost all the shows were at these basketball stadiums, so we’d be in a locker rooms for a whole basketball team—rows and rows of showers, and all these closets and huge screens TVs, and the catering was unbelievable. Baked salmon with lemon-pepper and wine sauce drizzled over it—crazy, amazingly good food. Everyone was really nice. It was super cool.
How did you get into making pedals?
Just trying to create sounds that I couldn’t get in other places. I failed miserably for years and then kindda figured out how to make things work. And then I started the company because I wanted to go to Europe for a month as a vacation, but I didn’t really have any money, and I had this idea for a pedal that no one else had ever come out with before, and I just kind of marketed that real quick and I made enough money to go. Total Sonic Annihilation. The flagship of Death by Audio. At that time I was pretty much on my own. I was living in Fredericksberg, Virginia, with about two to three people at most that you’d want around you at any given time, and we had this really huge warehouse that we rented for nothing. A couple bands practiced there. They all paid the rent, so I was living for free in this huge warehouse. And I was the only one who lived there because everyone else was afraid. I don’t know—some people like home life or something! So I was just in there, doing that stuff, and you could be up all night experimenting. I was playing in that band Skywave at the time, and our last album Synthstatic, we recorded—it took maybe two and a half years to record and mix. I was doing that every single day—recording and mixing that album. I left Virginia because it felt like Skywave wasn’t going anywhere. Like the last Skywaves tour—one of the guys didn’t even want to go on the tour, so we had someone else come as a replacement. And then the other guy in the band was married and had two kids and couldn’t really do too much. So I was just kind of like, ‘Well, I guess I’m going to move to New York.’ Then shortly after I was there I met two guys who were interested in doing something.
Can we do the rest of the interview as Two Truths and a Lie? I’ll give you a category, and then you tell me two truths and a lie about it. Lets begin with A Place to Bury Strangers: The Early Days. And I’ll start us off as an example. 1. I was so excited the first time I heard Oceans on the radio, that I pulled over to write your band name down. 2. The first time I visited your Myspace, I listened to your 4 songs for 3 hours straight. 3. I wrote you guys a fan letter after I bought your album, but I was too embarrassed to ever mail it. Which is the lie?
Number 2.
No, the last one. I haven’t written a fan letter since New Kids on the Block in Elementary school. But I really did listen to your songs for 3 hours straight.
That’s amazing. Someone must have drugged you.
Your songs did. Okay, your turn.
Alright. 1. Our drummer got hit by a car, and then plays a show…right after getting hit by a car. Alright…what’s another truth?
Oh no, don’t tell me which are true—I have to guess!
I know, I know! I’m just messing with you. Alright, this is the lie right here. These are just all going to be about drummers. 2. Our drummer threw a stick into the crowd, it hit someone in the face, and then BAM—they fell to the ground. 3. One time our drummer dropped his sticks and then played the rest of the set with his hands.
Playing the drums like the congas is the lie.
Nope, that’s true. Couldn’t even tell!
Closed fist or open handed? How did he do that?
I don’t know; he was an animal!
So the lie must be the second one.
How’d you know?
The way you called him an animal I figured he must have played a show immediately after getting hit by a car!
Yeah, that’s true.
How badly was he hit by the car?
Not that bad. He was okay.
Alright, next category. Geography. Tell me two truths and a lie about cities you’ve been to.
1.There is a place in Canada named Regina, and the sign, when you drive in, says ‘The Place that Rhymes with Fun.’ 2. There is a place in Portland where you can get drinks for 50 cents. It’s called the Lionshead. Next time you’re in Portland you have to go.
50 cent drinks! For like, a full pint of beer? Any drink?
Yeah, totally! I mean, it all comes in plastic glasses, but it’s totally worth it! TOOOOTTTALLLY bottom shelf booze. But still worth it!
Tell me something about Seattle.
Of all the places I’ve been in Seattle, at least fifty percent have something to do with space, like the Space Needle, or the Cosomonaut or the Apollo. I even ate a sandwich that was called the Space Blaster or something.
Which is the lie? What was the first one? I don’t even remember. Oh yeah. The town in Canada. I hope that one’s true. I’m going to say the last one is false.
No, it was the place with the fifty cent drinks. Doesn’t that suck? Didn’t you want that to be true?
So what was Regina like?
It was like New Jersey or something like that. It was kind of industrial and really desolate. But the place really did rhyme with fun. Those wacky Canadians.
Next category: guilty pleasures.
Alright, let’s see… 1. Jameson Whiskey. 2. I really love to shoot guns. 3. I love scrambled eggs and Cool Ranch Doritos.
That’s like trailer park chilaquiles. I’m going to go with the last one. I can see you wondering around your empty warehouse shooting guns off all night while you’re playing with your Sonic Annihilator pedal.
Actually, I don’t like shooting guns. I’ve done it a few times, but I don’t think it’s that cool.
Too bad. But that was a good lie. And the fact that you eat scrambled eggs with Cool Ranch Doritos is an awesome truth.
Shooting guns isn’t even that bad. It can be fun now that I think about it. But alright, what else you got?
Childhood.
Alright. 1. Me and some friends were trying to figure out what drugs were, so we rolled up herbal tea and cigarettes, and smoked it together. 2. When I was young, I used to drive like a maniac, and I’ve taken a car to 160 mph—a Chevy Caprice. 3. I am a—well I’m not so much anymore, but I used to be a juggling MASTER. I used to be able to juggle knives and swords and stuff.
Knives AND swords?
Oh no, just knives. I didn’t say swords.
I’m going to have to say the last is false.
How’d you know?
What kind of tea were you mixing into your cigarettes?
We tried all sorts of stuff—all different flavors, and none of it worked. We must’ve smoked like a pound. We used to do all sorts of stupid things.
Last category. Touring.
1. We had an RV and I’m the only person’ s who ever got it slightly wrecked by scraping the whole side of the RV on some cement, and then we tried to lie to the rental place about it. 2. One time, at the end of a tour, and this is a tour with a car, and you couldn’t start it except push start it because it was about to die, and the last date was a 24-hour drive back home and we push started the car and drove the entire 24-hours without stopping it once, and filling up gas while it was running. 3. One time while playing a show I was jumping around and got totally knocked out, and when I came to I didn’t know what the hell was going on. It was so insane, like the earth was ending, but the show never ended.
Taking after your warrior drummer, the show must go on.
Most people I don’t think even noticed it because there was all this feedback, and they just thought it was part of the show. Things were kind of crazy anyways.
The lie is the last one.
Dang it. Yeah, it is.

A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS WITH THE SIAN ALICE GROUP AND IN WAVES ON SAT., OCT. 4, AT THE TROUBADOUR, 9081 SANTA MONICA BLVD., WEST HOLLYWOOD. 8 PM / $12 / ALL AGES. TROUBADOUR.COM. VISIT A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS AT APLACETOBURYSTRANGERS.COM.

(from 59:59 out now on Social Registry)

Sian Alice Group come from England where they listen to Big Star’s Third in an assortment of borrowed mansions. Their excellent 59:59 is out now on Social Registry and they play tomorrow night at the Troubadour. This expensive transatlantic interview by Chris Ziegler.

What is the most Russian quality of your music?
Ben Crook (guitar): Vodka. I’ve been to Russia before perestroika. A school trip in 1990. I went wearing a Stone Roses t-shirt and it was really weird. I got drunk as a fifteen-year-old in Russia watching tanks on the street. Sixty-year-old men come up to you like, ‘Can I be your pen-pal? Take me back to London!’
Sian Ahern (vocals): I went to Moscow in maybe the year 2000. A car blew up in the middle of the road. Like a car bomb? No one really explained what was going on, and I couldn’t figure out why the car had just blown up.
What was the most insistent request you received abroad?
BC: To get laid?
Are they that insistent?
SA: Yes, where was that, Ben?
Rupert Clervaux (drums/piano): In Latvia, a Russian guy pointed a gun at me and my friend’s faces when we said we didn’t wanna come back to his house and drink vodka, and the guy who owned the bar had to call the police. We went there days after they’d been accepted into the EU so there were a lot of Russian-Latvian aggressions—sort of crackling aggression from every Russian you met. We went into this bar—pretty drunk, like four or five in the morning, and my friend sat down and started making friends with these people who looked pretty tough.
Did he specially pick them out?
RC: Yes, he’s stupid like that. On the third or fourth round of vodka shots—it’s like dawn—my friend says, ‘Oh, no, we can’t have any more.’ And the guy starts getting really aggressive: ‘You turned down a shot! We are all leaving!’ And he pulls up his shirt—the handle of a pistol—and the bar owner is straight on the phone, and within five minutes these two policemen come in and just sit in the corner. And when the Russian people leave, the policemen start shouting at us.
Could you understand any of it?
RC: I could see two of everything but I couldn’t hear anything. And my first night in Latvia is a really good story. We were in this place called the Hotel Victoria, and we went out the first night and took a cab ride that was forty lats—maybe forty or fifty dollars?
Did it come with a foot massage?
RC: And we went up at a Latvian strip club. It wasn’t a particularly nice experience. But they serve alcohol, and I in my drunken state demanded to be left there. My last memory is stroking a cat on the opposite side of the street from the club. The next thing I know, I’m woken up on the pavement from a girl from the club. ‘You can’t sleep here! It’s dangerous! What hotel? I’ll take you there!’ And I’m like, ‘Oh my God, you’re so nice—but it cost fifty lats to get here!’ And she walks me… literally around the corner.
Was that the best way you’d ever been ripped off?
RC: It was awesome. I was like, ‘Wanna come upstairs?’ And she’s like, ‘…no.’
Is ‘Dusk Line’ a reference to a Ballard short story?
RC: You’ve been talking to Kelsey Aloise! It’s from a short story—‘The Day Of Forever.’ I remember reading it when I was really really young. It’s about how the world has stopped turning and every city is named after the time of day when the world has stopped turning. It’s set in Columbine Center in French Africa on the dusk line. I remember really being attracted to that idea. But it’s not a song about that. It’s about something else. It treats the dusk line as a powerful thing if you’re on it—it’s a source which you don’t understand. There’s another book in that song—The Fountainhead.
That’s a strange combination.
RC: It’s not pre-planned.
Rupert, you said you felt the band is at a point where you can incorporate all the good music you’ve ever listened to—what did you mean?
RC: It means you get old enough to realize you can give up all the crap that sometimes goes with making music or being in a band and enjoy making music for what it us. There’s a really good quote from Ben, if you want to get into quotes—‘1% of everything is good.’
BC: Should we go lower?
RC: Into decimals like Pitchfork. They have that pinpoint view on things.
It’s an unfeeling machine.
RC: We should have been 7.8 instead of 7.7.
BC: I’m still angry about that point-one.
RC: One thing we all agree we really dislike—this idea that there’s some black art of making music. Bullshit! Do what you do—make an album a year to at least document what you do. Someone said to me, ‘Rupert, you do everything yourselves—produce yourselves—but if you got someone else, maybe you could unlock something?’ No—fuck you! There’s nothing to unlock! We wake up in the morning and make music and that’s what we do. Our age ranges, but I’m 32 and I’ve been listening to music for so long—there’s so many things I love and so many things I know why I don’t love, and I wanna take all those things in.
BC: As soon as you say you’re something, you’re out of date—you’re history! Create, don’t destroy—don’t define, just enjoy!
Did you prepare that especially so it rhymed?
BC: Always. That’s the #14 answer. I’ve got 22 answers. I hope you’ve got 22 questions.
Rupert, do you still live in the studio?
RC: Kind of but right now—
BC: —we’re all in a riverside mansion.
RC: I haven’t lived anywhere for so long. I develop great habits like not cleaning my teeth! General lack of hygiene—stuff like that! But if you have a studio, you spend most of your time in it anyway…
SA: Rupert always lands on his feet—he’s the world’s most glamorous hobo!
RC: Thanks, Sian—that’s great! But right now we’re in a house you wouldn’t believe.
BC: A Jacobean mansion on the Thames.
There’s not like a dead man in a tuxedo cooling on the driveway, is there?
BC: A dead butler just inches away.
RC: More like an old guy in a tuxedo sitting next to me—and I’m just taking one for the team.
BC: But we appreciate it!
RC: It actually is tied into our musical career. The amazing people at Social Registry—a wonderful label—this guy Jimmy C.—the first time I met Jim I was six months old, and I was taken to visit him in the maternity unit. And I was like, ‘Look, this 2008 release date—‘
‘Too soon?’
RC: ‘I need to learn how to play a few instruments here!’ But his parents have this really beautiful house, and I’ve known his parents as long as I’ve known him, and so I look after their house when they’re away, and it’s a big house, so I need Ben and Sian’s help. So we have a lovely place to hang out in.
I hope you aren’t having wild parties.
RC: Never. You have to dot the I’s and cross the T’s. Plus I’m a lonely kind of person.
How far into the new record are you?
BC: We’ve actually got songs we’re holding back for the one after. The plan is to get quite far ahead—get to the stage where we can track away and concentrate on melodies and final touches on tour. That’s one of the benefits of being self-sufficient.
RC: If you have two hours spare in the day, you can record for two hours. Two weeks spare, record for two weeks. You’re not watching the clock. We really mean it. We see our role as musicians—not a pompous thing—but we think we’re good at what we do and we want to get better, so we exercise it!
BC: This is a blessing—we’re pretty thankful we can wake up and make a racket—that’s pretty good! And slip a beer on the way, and see friends, and travel to other countries—that’s pretty fucking good! So we’re well advanced.
Have you named the record or the songs?
SA: None as such.
RC: Working title—‘Album Two.’
I think that’s taken.
RC: We might call it Third, but that would be stupid.
BC: Songs in E&A.
Oh yes—the British press said you’re protégés of Jason Pierce.
BC: I think friends.
What is the Jason Pierce Music Academy like?
RC: Not much music happening!
BC: Lots of people getting fired! There are the people that got the honor roll for it and their tuition fees are paid, and then there are those who are paying.
Where is Sian Alice in this?
BC: Lecturing, hopefully.
What is your current land-speed record on tour?
SA: That’s my question.
RC: The flurry of policemen who collared Sian—ask them.
SA: In Pennsylvania, we got pulled over for 84 in a 65. Not bad.
Were the cops impressed?
BC: That state trooper got confused because it was an English girl driving a huge van with a bunch of dudes in sunglasses in the background. He said, ‘If I book you are you gonna turn up to get a ticket?’ We were like, ‘We don’t know—we’re English.’ But our bass player was American and the cop said, ‘Yankees or Mets?’ ‘Actually, I’m from Massachusetts so I’m going to say Red Sox.’ And the guy gets a Red Sox pen out of his pocket and says, ‘This is what I used to sign tickets for Yankees fans.’ So as he lets us go he pounds on the top of the car and says, ‘You guys are English? Go to church. English people don’t go to church enough.’
RC: And we jumped out of the car and signed on the ticket—‘You and your people are responsible for the largest number of deaths since the world began!’
BC: That’s a little hard on Pennsylvania state!
You’ve said there’s no rock drums on 59:59—is that like how the Monks threw away all their cymbals?
BC: The Monks for me are a huge influence. I heard them for the first time when I was 15—over half my life ago!—and I started writing a movie about Vietnam through like the music of the Monks.
What was the first scene?
BC: Them shaving their heads in the jungle. It was pretty flawed. But ‘Higgledy Piggledy’ been a huge car song.
You named your song ‘Way Down To Heaven’ after that.
RC: It was a sudden choice to call that song that—it used to be called ‘I’m On My Way,’ and that was the most boring song title ever. We were just listening in the car and were like ‘Just call the song this—it’s way better!’
Why weren’t the Germans the first to land on the moon? They had the Monks on their side.
BC: Things happen faster in Germany.
The birthplace of amphetamines.
BC: ‘This banjo—let’s plug it into this amplifier—what’s next?’
What’s the next big thing you can’t wait to work on?
BC: There’s lots! This album is underway, and I think it’s gonna be big. But the third album I got some thoughts.
RC: Actually, me and Sian were talking and sadly we’ve decided to fire you before the third album.
BC: But we’ll reform—the third album in 2028! Like Futurama—with our heads in glass bottles. Can I tell you a really secret thing? I heard from a friend of Liam Gallagher’s old drug dealer—when he was going out with Patsy Kensit, they were doing a ouija board trying to talk to John Lennon. ‘Can you hear me? Can you hear me John? Would you like a line, John?’ And they tap out a line on the ouija—then he goes to the bathroom, and he comes back and it’s gone. ‘No way! John Lennon did a line off our ouija board!’ Meanwhile Patsy is like wiping her nose. But to this day, he still believes.

THE SIAN ALICE GROUP WITH A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS AND IN WAVES ON SAT., OCT. 4, AT THE TROUBADOUR, 9081 SANTA MONICA BLVD., WEST HOLLYWOOD. 8 PM / $12 / ALL AGES. TROUBADOUR.COM. SIAN ALICE GROUP’S THE DUSK LINE IS OUT NOW ON SOCIAL REGISTRY. VISIT SIAN ALICE GROUP AT SIANALICEGROUP.COM OR MYSPACE.COM/SIANALICEGROUP.

Download: Mike Bones “Pope John Paul”

(from The Sky Behind The Sea on Social Registry)

Thanks to Nate for the set-up: New York guitarist extraordinaire Mike Bones (Vice calls him New York City’s best guitarist) will be performing a free last-minute solo show at Family on Fairfax at 2 PM tomorrow—that’s Saturday, Oct. 4—which leaves you plenty of time to come stop by the Eagle Rock Music Fest later (also free) and maybe even go see Sian Alice Group and A Place To Bury Strangers at the Troubadour that night! All info: 2 PM, free, all ages, 436 N. Fairfax Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90036!

Via the Family blog:

Yes there is the Sunday instore with Joseph Mattson & Six Organs Of Admittance but before that Please if you can come by family this saturday, october fourth, at 2pm for a very special instore with NY musician Mike Bones. Bones is currently touring as part of the very awesome Sian Alice Group but in addition to that he also writes his own beautiful songs. I am horrible at descriptions but Mike is an amazing guitarist and lyricist and all around sweetheart. Here’s the VBS tv practice space on him from a while back.

(from 59:59 out now on Social Registry)

We are happy to report that Rupert and Ben from Sian Alice Group (who are opening for A Place To Bury Strangers this weekend at Troubadour) will be stopping by Pretty Sh!t at the Cha Cha in Silverlake tonight to help dish out extra beauty! It’s free and starts at 9 PM, and we will of course be providing the usual visuals/atmosphere.

We are DJing at Cha Cha Wednesday night for the next installment of our acclaimed “Something Sh!t” series and we are following up last month’s Heavy Sh!t with the logical next step: Pretty Sh!t. (Let’s also call this an Eagle Rock Music Fest pre-party!) It’s free to everyone to come see us and guests from Gangi and hopefully Sian Alice Group (if they’re in town) DJ the most purtiest lovelies we can pry out of our library. A little sniff above.

Tracklist:

01. Os Mutantes “Panis Et Circenses”
02. Stone Poneys “Different Drum”
03. Sid Selvidge “Miss Eleana”
04. Nirvana “Rainbow Chaser”
05. The Bee Gees “Red Chair, Fade Away”
06. Daughters of Albion “Hey, You, Wait, Stay”
07. JK & Co. “Fly”
08. The Millennium “The Island”
09. Rogerio Duprat “Honey / Summer Rain”
10. Bonnie Dobson “I Got Stung”
11. Soft Boys “Positive Vibrations”
12. Os Mutantes “Panis Et Circenses” (Reprise)

Quick list of all last week’s previews, reviews, interviews and MP3s!

2MEX @ URBAN UNDERGROUND: PREVIEW

2MEX “Shades Of Orange”

A-BONES AND ROY LONEY @ REAL BOSS HOSS: REVIEW

AFRIKA BAMBAATAA @ DETROIT: PREVIEW

Afrika Bambaata “Metal” (f. Gary Numan and MC Chat)

ARI UP @ PUNKY REGGAE PARTY: PREVIEW

ARI UP @ PUNKY REGGAE PARTY: VIDEO

Click here to watch

BLACK LIPS @ THE EL REY: REVIEW

Black Lips “O Katrina”

DAEDELUS: TRAINSPOTTING Q & A AND PODCAST

Daedelus’ L.A. RECORD Podcast

DAN’S EUROPE TOUR PHOTOS : FEATURE PART 2, PART 3

The Sads “Miniature Moons”

DARKER MY LOVE + MORE @ THE ECHO: PREVIEW

Darker My Love “Summer Is Here”

DEL THA FUNKEE HOMOSAPIEN @ VAULT 350: PREVIEW

Del Tha Funkee Homosapien “Bubble Pop”

DJ VADIM @ LOW END THEORY: PREVIEW

DJ Vadim “Got To Rock” (f. Zion)

EVEREST @ BOARDNER’S: PREVIEW

Everest “Into Your Soft Heart”

HENRY CLAY PEOPLE @ THE ECHO: PREVIEW

The Henry Clay People “Andy Sings!”

L.A. RECORD ANNIVERSARY @ 6TH ST.: REVIEW

Crystal Antlers “Parting Song For The Torn Sky”

LIARS + NO AGE @ THE EL REY: PREVIEW

Liars “Plaster Casts of Everything”

MAGIC LANTERN @ ECHO CURIO: PREVIEW

Magic Lantern “At the Mountains of Madness”

THEE MAKEOUT PARTY @ EL CID: PREVIEW

Thee Makeout Party “2 EZ 2 LUV U”

MANNY NIETO AND THE MATT CRONK BENEFIT: INTERVIEW

Qui “Freeze”

MIKE BONES: LIVE FROM NEW YORK

Mike Bones “Love’s Not Yours”

MIKE STINSON + MORE @ CHARLIE O’S: PREVIEW

Mike Stinson “Take Out The Trash” (clip)

NIKKI CORVETTE + MORE @ REAL BOSS HOSS: REVIEW

Nikki Corvette and the Stingrays “Back To Detroit”

NUDITY @ MOUNTAIN BAR: PREVIEW

Nudity “Nightfeeders” (Concentricks) (clip)

PEANUT BUTTER WOLF: TRAINSPOTTING Q & A AND PODCAST

L.A. RECORD Stones Throw Podcast

PINBACK AND MC CHRIS @ AVALON: REVIEW

Pinback “From Nothing to Nowhere”

SIAN ALICE GROUP: LIVE FROM NEW YORK

Sian Alice Group “Motionless”

ST. VINCENT @ THE ECHOPLEX: REVIEW

St. Vincent “Marry Me”

VAMPIRE WEEKEND: HERU REVIEWS

Vampire Weekend “Walcott”

WAIT THINK FAST + MORE @ SPACELAND: PREVIEW

Wait Think Fast “Lightning”

WEST INDIAN GIRL @ TROUBADOUR: REVIEW

West Indian Girl “All My Friends”

WOODEN SHJIPS @ McCABE’S: REVIEW

Wooden Shjips “We Ask You To Ride”