Sound & Silence Magazine Presents...

Sound And Silence spotlights the newest sounds from scenes all over the world, but the online music magazine's first showcase will take place right here, n Detroit, next Saturday, featuring local talents James Linck, Eddie Logix & Doc Waffles, Groove 8, Nigel & The Dropout and Ancient Language. 

April 18th at 7 PM  -  Northern Lights Lounge; info: http://on.fb.me/1xbxcZg 


S&S curated this line up specifically because it renders a wide range of genres. With finger-on-the-pulse Music News and regular features via interviews and album reviews, along with exclusive items like their flowpoetry section Mysteries Of Sound, and Staff Picks lists, S&S has spent the last year and a half solidifying its presence in the music industry and a distinctively down to Earth yet hip as hell digital publication that brings it all back to the music, dissuading against trends of overtly-provocative, hyperbolic headlines to hook you into reading some vapid new quibble about a band you stopped caring about long ago...

S&S set out to define music journalism on their own terms, in a way that paid respect to the craft of music while keeping an eye (and especially an ear) toward the more progressive developments and approaches that would be necessary in a 21st century of streamers. They've done a damn fine job of it, t'boot... This blogger's been keeping up with their daily updates and reviews throughout the last year and they've been a reliable source both for new releases as well as new insights into my favorite artists.

It's impossible to keep up with everything happening every day in the music industry...But S&S, with its passionately devoted staff spread between Chicago, Detroit, New York and Atlanta, is manifestly motivated to keep up with as much as they human possible - and cover it/digest it/present it...for you...

info: 
http://www.sound-andsilence.com/

I caught up with S&S Assistant Editor Ryan Solecki to talk about their inception, their development, and their Detroit showcase...

Milo:   So, how did this blog come together... What made you want to join and contribute? Who started it?  

Ryan:  It came together due to the lack of freedom in working for other publications. Music news had become simply news and no longer about the music, but about the musicians. S&S founders just wanted a space to do music journalism their way. Chris Robie is a co-founder of S&S, with Kevin (Tshiamala). They've been friends for three years; Chris gave Kevin one of his first music journalism gigs and that was the start...Chris and Kevin typically make all of the decisions, but everyone's opinion is warranted; someone always steps up when necessary, so everyone gets a chance to be ringleader. 

Milo:   What sets Sound & Silence apart from the rest...what's your MO, your distinct style?
Ryan:   We've found a way to create efficient articles by trimming the fat and deleting PC verbiage. We're strictly reporting on the music. We also pride ourselves on covering a wide variety of music in terms of genre as well as tier level, national or local. We're working on combining the world of the creative writer with that of music through our Mysteries of Sound Page, while also working on a new series that will bring the public closer to the artist via video confessions....We're just in it for the music and are trying to carve out our space. We are never content at S and S. It's a daily mission to strive for the next biggest and best thing in the industry. 

Milo:   How did this show at Northern Lights come together, how'd you curate the specific talent on the lineup and what are you anticipating?
Ryan:  It came up as an idea to spread our name by hosting a show with a wide variety of talent to back it up with. All the acts in the lineup are people that we have worked with before  We'll have different electronic acts, hip hop, alt rock, funk and R & B. It is a night for any kind of music lover to enjoy. We anticipate a great crowd because why wouldn't there be. Detroit is a mecca of talent as well as people who are enthusiastic about seeing that talent. We feel that we put together a talented and diverse line up that will bring people flocking to Northern Lights 

Milo:   We're through the first third of 2015: what's the future hold for the rest of the year and beyond at S&S?
Ryan:   We'll be gearing up to cover some festivals throughout the summer and finally taking out the drone. We'll be launching a new Community Fan Video series, too. We're hoping to run some giveaway contests for fans and eventually start throwing bigger showcases starting in the fall. Locally, we'll be filming Riverside Groove by Dirty 313ctronic Presents later in August. Above all, as we go, we hope to continue expanding, refining and bringing people the music news they desire. 

https://www.facebook.com/events/1592857487622703/

pril 18. 

Interview: The Ultrasounds (forthcoming EP - Blind Pig show 3/25)

The Ultrasounds (Christopher Smith-bass/vocals, Patrick Conway-guitars, Sara Griffin-drums) started with Smith and Conway fresh out of high school in 03, with this line-up solidified in 06. Since then, they self-recorded/self-released “The Way Things Were,” and recently finished the “Give Up The Fight” EP with Brandon Wiard (Pretty Suite) and then later with Tim Patalan (of Sponge, at The Loft). “2009 was a very emotionally intense year for all of us,” Griffin said, noting that the EP push came from different California-based labels who wanted more, “and the new tunes definitely reflect that.”

Current magazines readers awarded/praised them as “most underrated” band in 08 – and they’ve since grown considerably from earlier perceptions of a Kinks-ian 60’s psyche pop-negotiating-a-Strokes-ian-art-punk revival. “This record is a bit darker,” noted Conway, “the songs are denser and more intricate than before. Chris’ piano has a more prominent role, Sara has stepped forward to sing on almost half the tracks and her harmonies are present throughout.” Griffin said their friendships’ duration and closeness shines through in writing/recording/performing, they’ve gotten more meticulous at sound-sculpting/perfecting and used live performance as a means for a song’s evolution. Conway said he’s gained adaptability through playing in numerous nuanced line ups – and that together they’ve learned to be wary of how to measure their respective intensities for optimum sonic results. Sensibilities are shining through on the new writing: be it an electronic vibe from Griffin, or a jazz influence from Smith or more echoing/fuzzed-out guitars from Conway. “Recently,” Smith said, “these things have been melding to form a unified sound.”

Deep Cutz Interview: The Ultrasounds

DC: So what can you say about the latest EP? How have you changed since the last album, songwriting-wise or other…? How would you say your sensibilities, overall style/vibe has changed?

Pat: This record is a bit darker than previous release, and deals with more mature themes. The songs are dense and more intricate than before. Chris' piano has had a more prominent role both in the songwriting and the recording. Sara has also stepped forward to sing on almost half of the tracks, and her harmonies are present throughout.

Chris: One of the things we've tried to do is shift our sound to something that more appropriately accommodates the addition of Sara's vocals. I think adding the keyboards helped give us the musical 'tools' so to speak to accomplish that...it helped bring a more unified sound to our music. Also, personally I feel like we've done a better job of stretching out thematically, in terms of the colors in the music and the lyrics as well. For me songwriting hasn't changed much, we have this process where everyone writes and sometimes you come to rehearsal with a complete tune, other times you bring some ideas and we all collaboratively flesh out the details. The whole thing varies from person to person, but typically I do the former.

Sara: We have all been close friends outside of music for a while. In the past year we have been concentrating a lot more on bringing that togetherness to our music and our live performance. We have calmed down a lot and spent significantly more time perfecting songs. Rather than quickly writing a tune and moving onto the next song, we revisit our music over and over until it feels right. Even some of the songs on our new album have evolved in our concerts. Personally, I like that. It brings a new element to the live show that makes you want to come back for more, rather than being content lying in your bed listening to the album. We are working to make both experiences equally satisfying in their own way. Each of us are more committed to our music than we have ever been and I don't see any end in sight.

Pat: Over the course of The Ultrasounds, our line up has changed several times. As a guitar player I've gone from being one of two guitar players, to the only guitar player, to a guitar player accompanied by piano. Each one of these set ups affect the way I fit into the band and what the band can do as a whole. I write collaboratively with both Chris and Sara, and if you know us well you can hear which songs are which. A lot of the ones with a more prominent guitar hook are written with me, and the more piano driven songs are written by Chris, obviously. We spend a lot of effort trying to take up as much space in the music as we can. We've played with bands that have 5 or 6 people and they don't sound nearly as big as we do. I think that comes from learning to be economical in how you play music. With only three people we constantly have to make decisions about which part is more important to play, because when I play a lead on the guitar, we lose all the rhythmic things the guitar can do, and when I'm playing a rhythmic part, Chris has to do more melodically on either the bass or the keyboard. Limitations like those make us work harder when we're writing songs, and I think benefits us greatly.


DC: Can you talk about expanding beyond the more indie-rock/pop thing of the past, and into the more textural…atmospheric, what-have-you…

Pat: Our sound has changed a bit from the previous record. Expect more vocal harmonies, more echo and fuzzed out guitars, more intricate songs and more polished production. The music is more dramatic and the message is more genuine. There are songs that are densely produced and there are songs that are stripped down. After working on and struggling with it for almost a year, I can finally say with confidence that people are going to like it.

Chris: One thing I've been noticing lately is this clash of influences in our music that's been finally culminating in the creation of this new sound. The breakdown you're referring to with the 'speaker-boxed' vocals and all the delay and effects is kind of indicative of this electronic vibe that Sara has been heavily influenced by, so naturally it's a sort of theme that dominates her tunes. In my tunes, you can hear more clearly the jazz influence in the way I voice the changes, the tine piano parts, that sort of thing. Then, at the same time Pat has these sort of blues/riff-y/guitar rock influences, that identify the parts he writes. Now, in the past this sort of thing resulted in us just having different tunes that were each different styles, but recently these things have kind of been melding to form a more unified sound, and that shows through in the new recordings I think.

Sara: One other thing that has changed with our new music is our focus on not only what is, but what isn't. In the past we might have been reluctant to have silence or minimal parts in our songs. It is a bit more scary. It makes you feel a little bit more vulnerable during those parts. When there are a bunch of things going on at once, it is harder to notice mess-ups. But since we have grown as musicians, we have been getting more confident with ourselves. That has opened up a whole new side to our music. We're trying things we've never dared to try before. In the new record there is much more sound outside of driving melodies and rhythm parts. And as you describe it, much more texture. It's not something you always notice right away, but I feel like it brings the music to a new level. You can experience it in different ways based on how you are feeling when you listen to it.
~


The band will shop around the new recordings when it’s closer to officially coming out – find more info at their site – or just go see em at their shows and ask them afterwards.

“Give Up The Fight” EP is on the way…

1. After You Close Your Eyes
2. When I Saw Her
3. 1974
4. World Perks
5. Life On The Wire
6. For Elliott
7. I'm Always Right

Local Music Love: Chris Bathgate / Sound and Silence

The delicate and devastating Chris Bathgate has emerged; the fog is clearing, we can hear alert commotions peeling from the lighthouse bell, heads from the shore turn, arch back, we peer out toward the tide to see which boat is pulling into the bay: It's Bathgate.

His voice as ephemeral as dust yet as heavy as a hammer, his careful balance of baroque instrumentation, Americana twang and rustic folk, sutured with embattled sentiments, of hope and of disenchantment. That guttural, throat-clearing sigh you emote... It's natural. It's Bathgate.

You can hear the full, finished version of his new single "Calvary" (off of the forthcoming Old Factory, via Quite Scientific) over here at NPR. 

To somewhat bring you up to date (almost...), you can read an interview I conducted with Chris back in mid-April of 2015 HERE

____________________________________________________________

While you're here, though... Why not check out some more local music. The exceptional music blog Sound and Silence (who, we should note, has a considerable soft spot for Michigan Music,) went and curated a fine playlist via Spotify, featuring Protomartyr, Turn To Crime, Jamaican Queens, Valley Hush and MORE. CHECK IT OUT

Catch up on the most recent interview I conducted with Sound and Silence HERE.

Akron/Family: Flourish Flourish Flourish! Find intimacy in Noise! Find inspiration between Detriot and Japan

Boisterous albums can be intimate. Every so often, you hear an album that effectively translates the brimming excitement and inexorable motivation of the band. Not quite like the cliché of “being in the room with them,” and not merely the dynamism of the tracks that have been recorded (or, “captured”) but particularly intimate in that you, uncannily, become in tune with the people, the people behind the instruments, the people in the studio, the person at the sound board.

Really, said Akron/Family singer/multi-instrumentalist Miles Seaton, “There’s no real way to describe ‘inspiration’ on this basic, mechanical level…(for it) to be realistically digested by people who are, already, overloaded with information and don’t have time. The reality is, the generous thing to do, as an artist, is…”

He pauses. What does it really, simply, merely, come down to…?

“…is to make art.” And he chuckles.

But still, “I feel inspired!”

Listen: - Akron/Family - "Silly Bears"

Anyhow – this weird and invigorating “connection” can be found and felt on the Portland(/New York) based trio’s fifth proper full length, the curiously titled S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT (Dead Oceans). Equally surreal, sublime and smorgasbord, Akron/Family churn out a wooly folk/rock flushed with a transcendental wanderlust; equally electrified and psychedelified. After more than eight years together, the trio (with Seth Olinsky and Dana Janssen,) have assuredly bonded, with a camaraderie qualifying a “familial” bond, but also to the point of remarkable synchronicity –to the point of an almost telepathic tri-way of reading each other to facilitate an almost second-nature comfort level for the controlled chaos of improvisation.

“We’re not really a big rehearsal band,” Seaton quipped. “We figure out what to emphasize and how to frame it and just go for it. It has to do with us getting to a place where we’re communicating with one another, clearly, what we want to accomplish, and then reaching a decision. Then it’s just a matter of quick execution.”

So It Goes by Akron/Family from Secretly Jag on Vimeo.

Indeed. They took some time to hunker down with Chris Koltay at High Bias , on the fringe of Corktown, near the slopes of the emaciated Grand Central Train Station, in SW Detroit. Koltay recorded Akron/Family’s 2009 affair, Set Em Wild, Set Em Free.

But, actually, the album, (S/T II) was “born in (Japan),” Seaton said. “…An incredible, wild inspiration to us. Going there, we had been going in a million different directions, trying all these different things. And we were shook with surprise with how amazing it was; it shocked us back into place, it grounded us and there was an explosion of creativity that occurred around us there.”

The band seemed to find a muse in the land of the rising sun, spurred by their touring of Japan with Deerhunter through summer 2009, combined with what Seaton remarked as a particularly inspiring performance that Akron/Family attended, by Japanese noise-legends the Boredoms at last years’ All Tomorrows Parties festival.

“It was inside of us,” Seaton said, of this ‘explosion of creativity.’ “So, when we got to Detroit, there was a level of the rugged, feral nature taking over, being in the skeletal-ness of that city. Detroit’s kinda been vacated. We were hanging out at that train station, literally and metaphorically. There’s some poetic aspects to that.”

“I do feel like there’s a level of intimacy achieved in (S/T II). Our first record was almost entirely recorded with one crappy SM57 microphone in a shitty sequencing program. We embellished it in the studio. But, we were creating in a vacuum; we weren’t out in the world, in the scene, listening to a bunch of bands and approximating it, none of that. I feel like it was just this intimate, very direct sharing that was happening. That intimacy was very important.”

“When you improvise and when you are free and are making really loud, like—literally loud statements, there’s a level of everyone in the room being together, because they’re all being sucked up in the loud sound; everyone’s hearing it, they’re all having their own experience but everyone’s hearing it, so there’s this intimacy that can occur, or this sort of presence that can happen. I feel like there’s a capability in loud, really extreme musical circumstances, that can really happen but I feel like we hadn’t realy thought about it htat much or paid attention to that quality.

"Where, before, when we were first playing and Michael Gira (of Young God Records, their first label/collaborator) first heard us (at Pete’s Candy Store, Brooklyn), we used to get so quiet! It would be total silence. We’d sit in silence for a whole minute with an audience and everyone would be together in this silence. It wasn’t about us being interesting or about people being interested in us, it was just about the moment that was there. We tried to suffuse that more radical energetic expression, on a sonic level, with that intimacy and that intention.”

“Intimacy, that drawing people in, was the real intention behind the record.”

Akron/Family returned to work with their previous sound molder/collaborator, Chris Koltay, for S/T II. The band have made a personal, professional, and in some ways, cosmic, connection to the consummate, Detroit-based engineer (whose resume includes Liars, Deerhunter, No Age). “We’ve gotten close enough to him, at this point, where we kind of use him as a spirit animal. He really puts his heart and soul into what he’s doing; I feel like he really understands the musicality of sound. I can’t say enough about how awesome he is…On a sonic level, he just gets it.”

Akron/Family albums up to now have spanned from stripped down, obscuro-acoustic based folk experimentations, to saturations of eclecticism with banjos, sitars, and synthesizers under tribal/spiritual chant-churning drum circle-esque trance tumblers, to keyed-up, guitar-surged, raucous whirls. S/T II, with its cool; its confidence, its grace, balancing dreamy/hazy acoustic sways with the more cacophonous, rock-leaning exuberance, they blend funk and blues, to sun-soaked Americana.

What’s been steady throughout is, first, of course, their striking, honeyed harmonies and their penchant for found sounds spackling the edges of their songs. Set Em Wild Set Em Free and its predecessor, Love is Simple (2007) seemed rapt with the earthy/woodsy vibe, furled by cricket chirps, whereas their first album opened with the melodic elements of a cellphone. S/T II balances the elucidation of the outdoors with the tangled, humming wires inside a computer.

Listen: Akron/Family - "So It Goes"

“There’s definitely a weird nature aspect to technological stuff; technology sort of apes natural processes in a lot of ways; that’s just something we’re interested in. When I first started listening to John Cage or just more abstract music, there was this potential expansion; I’d always kind of enjoyed sound, like, I enjoyed the hum of an air conditioner or an engine or something, so I started to get into those sounds and it became musical to me in this way, to where I felt like I could walk around and be surrounded by music. So, for us, there’s this level of wanting to encourage and bolster that experience in listeners.”

He regaled Akron/Family performing at an abstract space, outside, at a festival on the East River in New York, when a boat went by and its horn blew seemingly in key with what another performer was doing. “There was this electricity. This real presence can happen when you’re really present in that sound. I feel like you can carry that presence into life and I feel like it’s lead me to feel happy. On a basic level, I walk around and I feel like I’m in a different world.”

“I feel inspired!”

~

Akron/Family returns to Detroit, to the Lager House (not far from Koltay’s studio); and to a town that the band felt “very cared for, there…it’s a really amazing town.”

And, this date, 2/22 at the Lager, it being a week and a half into their 2011 tour, Seaton said, “I feel like we’ll be there just around the time when we’re starting to get crazy…”

More info

Zoos of Berlin - Taxis LP (playing 7/31 for Phono-Phest at the Crofoot in Pontiac)

“Just madness…” Dan Clark says, shaking his head.

Zoos of Berlin recorded their forthcoming full-length in what may has well have been an elevated mountainside base-camp. Or, maybe that’s a stretch for describing their six week residency on the 4th floor of the Russell Industrial Center. But bassist Dan Clark, rolling eyes and sighing, recalls the tiniest errands becoming arduous expeditions, involving lengthy bike rides through dark, cluttered street-like factory halls, boarding freight elevators, biking over freeways and lugging the loot back up to his band mate’s station, where they often recorded until sunrise.

Collin Dupuis, drummer and sound engineer, ribs Clark over never bringing a back pack while biking down from the mount, to which Clark sensitively shouts back that his car was dead. Indeed, his trusty steed of a minivan “truly gave everything” to this band, acting as custodian for amps and human musicians for years before expiring.

When I meet Zoos, they’re in the process of enhancing their new rehearsal space to accommodate recording, led by Dupuis’ knowledge of positioning sound-traps, testing with frequency sweeps and setting up sound-proof walls with oriented strand board. It’s not anything new for the band – as they had to build their own makeshift studio inside their dauntingly dusty and cavernous, 5000-square-foot space inside the Russell.

“A massive cavern,” says Clark, with keyboardist Will Yates to his left and singer/guitarist Trevor Naud just entering with this new space with a light clatter. “Within that cavern there was a caged-off area, a rectangular area, that we built floor-to-ceiling walls of wood pallets.” The moveable walls (made from scavenged wood) sound-proofed the cyclone fenced rectangle. Their own private shop inside the former auto parts factory was also equipped with a sink, a table/kitchen area, and another room, which former member Kevin Bayson designated as sleeping quarters. Food consisted of various organic treats from Trader Joes, salsa, sandwiches, pickled garlic and hummus.

“So, clearly this mountain has a nice delicatessen,” Clark submits, “and a gas station where I can buy ice, and,” his tone begrudgingly bristles, “…a Coney Island that will not let me bring my bike inside.”

Dupuis said the trick was gaining control over “the decay of the room” leading to sound bleeding through. Dupuis also notes the red, thick velour curtains hung around their recording space, (acting as sound barriers). I imagine their own personal Twin Peaks-ian red room.

Plus, with all those bike rides in the wee hours of the morning through a hallowed out factory, Yates said “it was like The Shining, basically.” Indeed, as Naud put it, “very Kubrick-ian.”

Perhaps it’s fitting that it would take considerable time and elbow grease (dusting, mopping, moving) before even pressing the record button. The Detroit quartet is the first to admit that they have a formidable and sweeping scrupulousness – particularly when it comes to the sculptor-esque diligence in approach to their recording. (After several years as a full band, they have only released an EP – Taxis is their first proper full length).

“We definitely got to make the album that we wanted to make,” said Yates, “by doing it ourselves it allowed us to make it a little more idiosyncratic.”

“That’s really what came out of it,” Dupuis says after rehashing all the Russell prep work, “would the album be as interesting…” if the band had gone a more traditional route? “In our minds,” said Dupuis, referencing the inspirational atmosphere of a spooky, crumbling cement factory, “it’s a whole psychological aspect.”

Dupuis used the space to capture all natural reverb, to add swooning warmth to the sound’s fuzzy accoutrements. Dupuis “re-amped” the vocals through a guitar amp, then recorded the sound of Naud’s wispy vocals wobbling through the halls of this unsung monument, or lachrymose reminder of former automotive prominence.

“The silence of that space,” says Naud, pausing, “this all sounds…poetic. That entire building is so expansive, you can site Kubrick, it just had this really strange quality, the building itself is an entity or character.”

For Zoos, it’s understandable that their anecdotal regaling of Taxis production would become consumed by the quirk of its setting – for one, some of the songs collected here have been written for six years – giving them an almost Gene Kelly like muscle-memory discipline in mastery of their chugging guitar riffs, bouncing keyboard buzzes and tightly locked rhythms.

Naud and Clark began collaborating in 2002, with Dupuis soon joining to provide the drums. This eventually turned into what would be finalized as the current make up of Zoos of Berlin (with Yates). Guitarist/trumpeter Bayson played with the band for few years, up until last fall, and contributed to both recordings.

The sound is a swirl of gossamer baroque-pop and cinematic poignancy, pulsing with reverb and a waltzy punk-shred – a delicious blend of weird and pleasing pop, with a reverence for tone and precision, but healthily balanced by a jazz-like spontaneity; stately splendor with burning guttural coarseness.

“I will say that I am very difficult to please when it comes to the music that I make,” said Clark. “(That’s) one reason that the projects I’ve been involved with over the years have taken so long to finish anything. And, I can say unequivocally, that I am completely satisfied with this record.”
“To me,” said Naud, “it’s an album full of periods. It’s not like, a span of time. To me, it encapsulates a lot of the last few years of life, which is a great feeling and you can listen to something that’s completed and you go through each one of those (songs) and remember feelings of when that track was being worked on…”


“Recording the way that we did, we captured something that would have been impossible in any other way,” said Clark. “It’s always going to be…” he trails off after his plastic cup of microbrew spills onto the floor.

“I feel really satisfied,” Naud picks up. “Maybe (Taxis) has a sentimental quality to it…that sounds so fucking cheesy though.”

“It’s been preserved,” Clark offers.

“…Documented,” surmises Dupuis.

“This space that we’re sitting in,” Naud glances around us, “it’s a result of, maybe, the mania leading up to the completion of (Taxis). We kinda went the long away around everything,” (here, Naud’s speaking literally, but I can’t help picturing Clark on his expeditious bike rides as metaphor), “we operate as a band very differently than a lot of our peers, because we…and I’m making claims here…the route (of recording at Russell) is certainly not on the pie chart of things to do ‘the easy way.’”

“But it’s our way,” Clark says.

“It’s our way,” Naud echoes.

Yates laughs, warmly, “We are, like, the most preposterous band, in some ways, that I’ve encountered.”

But Dupuis notes that the days of painstaking preparation, whittling, rehearsing, and taking “the long way around” will come to an end thanks to the space they’re currently setting up, thus that recording is “less of a process.”

“Post Taxis (recording) has been the sort where we’ve been asking questions later, and just getting them down,” says Clark.

Indeed. Fans of Zoos, myself included, as well as their friends in other bands, often prod them beside bars on random weekend nights, or catch them off stage from a local performance and ask, almost nagging, when that next record is going to come out!? This definitely “fuels the fire,” Yates says. “We haven’t even put out the first one and we’ve already started writing and recording the next one.”

“It’s never been a lack of confidence,” says Clark, “or lack of ideas. We have a very particular goal in mind and are willing to set aside other considerations to satisfy this one requirement…which is, that it be…just so!”

“Well, it’s about to change though,” Dupuis assures, then quips, “it’s about to become like Motown (in the 60’s). Zoo of Berlin’s about to become Motown.”

“We are putting it out ourselves,” said Naud, who does much of the band’s artwork in-house. “Which follows the Zoos template, DIY for now…”

“…very different from what DIY usually connotes,” says Yates. Indeed, the quartet’s adroitness and chemistry aside, you also have Dupuis’s skill at the boards and their ceaseless dedication (and/or obsessive crafting).

“There’s a pride when someone comes up and says, ‘When’s that record coming out?’” says Naud. “That’s a generous comment, like, ‘Hey-here’s a kick in the ass, I wanna hear what you’re doing!’”

“Nobody else could have made this record,” says Clark. “Nobody else would have chosen to make it the way that we did…”

“…with dirt and grime rubbed in our skins,” Dupuis exclaims and their eyes all twinkle with a reminiscence of breaking their backs in that cage. Dupuis and Clark both agree though, that with this new space, with the new songs being written and recorded with comparative quickness, that they haven’t given much thought to Taxis.

“But we haven’t forgotten,” Yates says mock-ominously.

“We're relieved that it's complete--and especially excited to move beyond the walls,” Naud said. “We intend to move quickly and release a second LP in the near future. And we're self-releasing everything at this point... which is very en vogue, right?

Oh, and by the way…, Taxis can mean:
1.arrangement or order, as in one of the physical sciences.
2.Biology. oriented movement of a motile organism in response to an external stimulus, as toward or away from light.
3.Surgery. the replacing of a displaced part, or the reducing of a hernia or the like, by manipulation without cutting.
4.Architecture. the adaptation to the purposes of a building of its various parts.

Medicine The moving of a body part by manipulation into normal position, as after a dislocation, fracture, or hernia.

Or... just the plural of taxi.

www.myspace.com/zoosofberlin

Milo Campaign Platform

This is one of the most, if not the most, self-promotional things I've ever contributed to the Internet.

But it dawns on me that I am host of a talk show and yet people might not know why... I certainly will never carry myself as someone who knows a thing or two, and I'm not going to be dropping names when you find me bar-side for a chat. You may read this blog and not know (or care) that it's been chugging along for more than eight years. That said, this blog makes no reference of the fact that I contribute weekly to the Entertainment section of the Detroit Free Press, covering almost-exclusively local Detroit/Michigan music.

But I've been doing this... and I mean writing about local music... for a while, now.... That's why I have a talk show about local music. But I'm also no hot shot. Never will be. Won't ever feel entitled, nor shall I carry myself hence in that 'm-kinda-a-big-deal manner.  Cuz there are so many of you out there, dear musicians and artists, that I have yet to meet and that I assure you I"m looking forward to interviewing... But I'm not Lester Bangs and I'm not John Peel and I'm not Pitchfork. I'm just Milo and I'm going to listen to your music intensively and write-my-head-off about it... that I promise.

Not that I intended on turning this into a campaign platform, or anything... But if we haven't met over the various arenas of social media, yet, I'd at least want you to know I'm not just some guy... Ask Travis Wright, he'll tell you. The co-host of CultureShift and I go back nine-ish years, to when I turned in a weekly music column to him in his capacity of managing editor at Real Detroit Weekly. You'll recognize that as the magazine that recently merged with Metro Times.

I go back even further, really, to when singer/songwriter Ryan Allen was running the Real Detroit show for a second. The three-albums-deep solo artist and guitarist for Destroy This Place got me my start in album reviews. I'm almost halfway into my 32nd year which means I'm nearing lucky # 13, in terms of my years of writing about local music. I've written, in the past, for Metro Times, for a number of years. But for the last three years, I've been contributing to the Free Press.

But, 13 years...13 years: Week in. Week out. CD after CD, show after show, interview after interview after interview. I have not kept count, but I'm nearing (if not, have already passed) my 500th interview. And that's all Michigan musicians, artists or bands: 500... Again, not bragging...! Just elucidating why I suddenly have a talk show, now!

To tell you the truth, I've never been so motivated in my life. AND THAT...is because I am impressed on a weekly basis by the consistent output, coverage filed, posted and shared by a plethora of outlets and independent blogs that have developed over the course of these 13 years...

Assemble Sound 

Audiofemme

Detroit Music Magazine

Detroit Proud Playlist

DeroitRap

Hip In Detroit 

Mark Maynard's Saturday Six-Packs

Metro Times Music Blog

Michigan Happenings

Mostly Midwest

Serpahine Collective 

Sound & Silence 


And then there's CultureShift over at WDET, along with Modern Music with Jon Moshier and Ann Delisi's Essential Music. And there's Melody Malosh's column in the Detroit News, and Tree Town Sound over in Ann Arbor.... And at least 10 more that I'm regrettably forgetting. Oh, DETOURS on the Free Press site.

I've never gotten tired of doing what I do. I've never gotten jaded. Not burned out yet. And that has as much to do with the constant abundance of eclectic, inventive, eccentric and enthusiastic music (of all genres) being produced and performed (on a weekly basis) by local artists, as it is to do with my fellow documentarians: writers, reporters, on-air hosts, and DJs..., promoters, provocateurs, proponents and consistent producers of insight. Further insight. Reviews, interviews, observations.

Everyone I've linked to above is continuing to tell the story, in real time, of Detroit music. And I want to applaud them for their all that they do, all that they have done, and all the posts' to come in the autumn, winter and later future. I'm in the mix, just as everyone is...

I'm still essentially a nobody, but I'm not just anybody... That's why I have a talk show. And this blog. And some other stuff.

Now that you've gotten this far, let me say: Thanks for reading. Thanks for always reading..., everything! You are wonderful, and I hope we have a mindblowing conversation, particularly about music, in the very near future.

Until next time...

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Fallout Fest IV: Interview with ARC PELT

Let’s break it down. The trajectory curves, its velocity’s unpredictable, arcing… then it hits you harder than you’d anticipated… pelted. 

Arc Pelt

With headphones on, hearing Liz Wittman belt out these haunting incantations with this icy reverb coating her inflection, I feel pulled between dimensions, it’s something mesmeric about the ornate menace of these swelling tones, the caustic casio, the apocalyptic bass, the stratospheric voice. Not noise. Not metal. Hypnotic but not “catchy…” I’ll say artfully abrasive, a balletic cacophony.

And, in fact, something of a left-field curve… “I hope it is left-field!” Wittzman said. “I like that it is different, that was the idea. I’m a bass player, so I’m obviously partial to that instrument…and have always wanted it louder, gnarly-er, or even just audible! (With Arc Pelt), I feel like I get to step into that a lot more. Pairing it with vocals has been challenging…. finding the right vibe and stuff. It’s been an awakening for me, sort of a primal scream.”

The bass conquers. It’s bellicose and eruptive. It agitates, while Wittman’s voice gales and growls like a storm. Zach Shipps (who many know from engineering myriad music recordings for a variety of local bands), is on drums and casio, while Wittman (from past groups like Lettercamp, Friendly Foes, and Kiddo), leads on vocals and bass. George Morris (of the Gypsy Chorus) is on second bass, and the project is currently left open to welcome in any other collaborators when circumstances necessitate.

This weekend, Arc Pelt joins the 4^th Fallout Fest at the Loving Touch.
Oct 1
with Queen Kwong / Zoos of Berlin / Earth Engine / ISLÀ / The Erers / Honeybabe / and the Boy Wonders
Visual Artists featured include: Joe Mazzola, Katie Foreman, Kimberly Tomlin, Brent Szczygielski and Calvin VanKeersbilck.
The Loving Touch
More info

“Arc Pelt has been sort of a ghost floating around for a while between Zach and I,” Wittman said. “Then it came together pretty quickly and spontaneously, throwing ideas around.” The group made their live debut in early June, releasing the three songs EP soon after. “We just wanted to do something different, and heavy and trippy…”

Arc Pelt, to some degree, is a reaction against the pop-inclined projects that both Wittman and Shipps had been involved in or lead in the past. Lettercamp, from the late 00’s, showed some initial signs of embracing a bit more of an ambient-experimentalism, that used rhythm and vocal intonation in interesting ways. It was still electro-pop, for the most part.

Arc Pelt, meanwhile, follows into the melee-and-murk aesthetic, heavy on drone and finespun feedback, that artists such as Jenny Hval, Chelsea Wolfe and Cross Record have dug into… But STILL… Arc Pelt is STILL heavier. That bass is straight up tremulous.

“It’s nice having a blank slate,” Wittman said. “But, also intimidating. Cuz this was a big blank slate!”

Wittman stepped away from the music scene for nearly five years, following Lettercamp. She was dedicating her time to raising her two children, with Shipps continuing to work out of their home studio in Ferndale. “I had reached a full-stop and reluctantly came to terms with it. Which…was liberating! And it allowed me to start fresh without expectations and just do it for purely selfish reasons. I loved it and I let it go…and it came back. That’s basically what happened.”

The band’s energy, it’s character, it’s vibe—if you will, came into vitalizing and sharpened relief when Morris joined to fill out the sound.

“The biggest change, as far as my influences,” Wittman said, “has been that I appreciate silence a lot more, now. I used to fill my ears constantly with music…but, for whatever reason, I’m cool, now, with silence. I think that stillness allowed me to appreciate slowing down the tempo (for Arc Pelt) and digging into this deeper sound. Arc Pelt is actually soothing music, to me…”

Listen close. Let it hit you.

Fallout Fest IV at the Loving Touch.
Oct 1
with Arc Pelt, Queen Kwong / Zoos of Berlin / Earth Engine / ISLÀ / The Erers / Honeybabe / and the Boy Wonders
Visual Artists featured include: Joe Mazzola, Katie Foreman, Kimberly Tomlin, Brent Szczygielski and Calvin VanKeersbilck.
The Loving Touch
More info

River Street Anthology Partnering with Archives of Michigan

All the excellent-looking photos are by Misty Lyn Bergeron
The ones in color are from my phone... 

After reading about the River Street Anthology in the Detroit Free Press, State Archivist Mark Harvey called up its facilitator, singer/songwriter Matt Jones, to see how he could help. Now, the staff at the Archives of Michigan has partnered with Jones to help him preserve local music history with its Preservica digital archives, and assist him in future recording sessions. And you can read an interview with Harvey on the Detroit Free Press' website, here.

Harvey said, future recorded songs and project information will be soon be available at the Archives website: seekingmichigan.org. This partnership between RSA and the Archives of Michigan not only means secure cataloging of Jones songs (he recently surpassed 200), but that the Archives could soon apply for a grant that could further support the RSA’s operational needs.

To catch up on the story of this blogger's journey out to a Kalamazoo-hosted session of the RSA back in February, click here.

Meanwhile, I caught back up with Jones to talk about the renewed vigor he's feeling after this new partnership was secured, but particularly to pick his brain on how the most recent session went, hosted at Assemble Sound back in June. 

If you aren't already familiar with the River Street Anthology, you can check out this Free Press article. Or you can scroll through their recent updates on Facebook.

Matt and I are gonna rap for a bit, here. You can read the condensed version via the FREEP.  

Matt, we thought Kalamazoo was a special day. Warm, fuzzy vibes prevailed... An interesting array of folks and eclectic talents. Lots of enthusiasm in the air. But that was five months ago.... What's your life been like since then? What's the status of the project been like since Kalamzoo & leading-up-to Assemble.....
 After Kalamazoo, I gotta admit- I was beat. I had been pressing the gas on the RSA steadily for a year straight by that point. We had been to every corner of the state, and while we hadn’t gone into the kind of depth that I would like to, and still will, I felt like the sort of introductory process (of RSA) had come to a close. I had had a chance over the first year to get an actual grip on just what the RSA is, what it means to people.  I realized that those two things- what it is and what it means to others- are completely entwined.

Other people’s belief in the project has come to define it, and that is as it should be: something historically, artistically, culturally/contextually important…

But even while coming closer to a full realization of just what this monster was, I was burnt out...from going to Kzoo, and Hamtramck, and Ypsi and Ypsi and Ypsi, and Houghton and Marquette and Mancelona and everywhere else, each places had their own incredible experiences, and man- I found out how exhausting it is to get your mind blown that much.

The real problem with that though, is that its gets harder to do each artist justice. I invest a lot in each band and musician. I treasure every single recording session, appreciate and take to heart the fact that each person took the time to be part of this.....

And you keep us updated with journal-y posts on the RSA Facebook page...
Yeah, and some friends tell me not to make it so personal- to employ a more disciplined eye, keep it simple and straight to the point and strictly observational.

But....
But that isn’t who I am at all. Things eat at me, good and bad, and I respond. I know it sounds ridiculous, but when someone takes the time to practice, and travel, and sit down in unfamiliar circumstances and do what they love most in the world, and they do that for this unorganized, open-ended project that I probably didn’t explain very well…how the fuck am I supposed to just “keep it cool?” If I could pay them all, I would. If I was making any money from this, it would go to them. But I’m not.

Artist solidarity...
Yeah. And my father instilled in me a pretty firm aversion to debt, which plays a part in the amount that I feel I have to "pay" these people back- all of them, somehow.

"The soundtrack for an entire state isn’t just one speed, one style, one location, one age, one color, one gender... ...The River Street Anthology wants to do more than play music for you..."

So you burned yourself out...
Yeah and I was pretty embarrassed about it too. I kept thinking- “A project like this one, I have to floor it every day to keep momentum, to reach the end faster, and to give all these people, musicians and listeners, something to hear- something besides all these write-ups. I am TOTALLY FUCKING IT UP.” That exhaustion combined with final exams put the whole thing out of mind for about 3 months.

Yikes... But, yeah, that's right. We shouldn't forget that you've also been pushing yourself back through school at Eastern during this whole time..... But, after Kalamazoo, though, Mark Harvey (from Archives of Michigan) reaches out to you......
 Yeah, and this changed the direction of the project pretty substantially, and all of a sudden I was having meetings, and having to thinking about the project in a different, more efficient and scheduled way.

And last month, you wound up in Assemble... 
I had talked to Garrett months before about doing something, and knowing he was interested, I reached out again. OH, I just remembered.... one of the major factors was this one night, I was perusing a lot MC’s from Detroit, knowing that I was about to start scheduling for a possible Assemble date. I had talked to Bryan Lackner and Brent Smith, asking them who I should get a hold of, and they gave me a list. I also started combing through the Assemble website, reading reviews, listening to samples, and getting a feel for what was out there in a general sense. I wasn’t ready for it at all, turns out.

But eventually you....
 ....WAIT! Wait...

What? 
I remember now, that one of the other major reasons I burned out was that I felt there was a glaring lack of diversity on the collection.

You needed more emcees!
Every artist I'd recorded up to that point had been absolutely stellar, but I hadn’t ventured nearly enough away from folk musicians and bands- the two things that I have grown up doing in my own musical endeavors. I got down on it. Questioned what it was worth. The soundtrack for an entire state isn’t just one speed, one style, one location, one age, one color, one gender. In order to begin again fresh on the RSA, there had to be a wiping down, and a true starting over- meaning that I had to do some shit that I wasn’t at all used to. So I started emailing people who would turn out to be some of the most unforgettable artists of the project to date.

Mic Phelps

Sleepless Inn

How did Assemble's session effect the project or re-energize you?
 The Assemble session changed the RSA before we even set foot in the church that day. I’ve always said that this project is so amazing because I get to sit two feet from people, watching them do what they love. I understand singer-songwriter workings. I know how to love it, and how to make it, and how to talk about it, how to compliment it, and how to record it. I know how to write about it later....

Which you often do, via Facebook or Mostly Midwest...
Right, but with these artists, based predominantly in hip hop like Nolan the Ninja and Mic Phelps, or a more electronic-rooted pop like Sleepless Inn, I can’t say any of those above things are true. I mean- sure, how hard is it to love music?

Right? 
It’s instinctual, comes natural. But the RSA is doing more than simply listening. It’s trying to do justice and doing justice to these artists is the hardest part of this whole fucking project because no matter what- my nature is to think that “it" could always have been done better. I could have said more, I could have hugged longer, I could have explained better, I could have gotten more people to listen, etc. Combine that with the need to preserve not only their sounds, but their significance- and they all have gargantuan significance, and you’ve got a pretty stressed out person.

So, at this point, what's your refurbished mission-statement, as it were? 
The RSA wants to do more than play music for you. It wants to put you into a place- it wants to show you the incredible and diverse sounds coming from these incredible and diverse people, and then to make sure you know that all of us are bound up together here by art, and by our love of it, no matter what the creator looks like, talks like, no matter where they live or what they do for a living, no matter how popular their band is or isn’t.

So this whole project underlines the camaraderie that we should be feeling, that we should be celebrating...
We’re all hanging onto one another whether we like it or not, and the artists who came into Assemble (back in June), while each bringing something different to the collection- new faces, new beats, new song structures, new rhymes, new experiences- they gave me, the RSA team, and everyone else a new hand to hang onto…a new reason to love being bound up here in this place, and in this particular soundtrack. Phelps was the culmination of that.



Microphone Phelps : River Street Anthology from Mostly Midwest on Vimeo.

Tell us what you dug the most about that day...
It was a moving, exciting day, like all the session days that we have when you insert yourself into a scene for a minute and soak it up all at once. We had seen Steve McCauley play my favorite song I’ve ever heard him play (and I’ve seen quite a few), and then The Erers came in and pummeled us harder than we’re used to at 11:30 am. We saw Eddie Logix and Laura Finlay perform as Sleepless Inn,, and that's like atmospheric, electronic pop.  James Linck came in and recorded a song he had written the night before,  and blew us away. Nolan the Ninja literally attacked the mic, making me totally change the way I recorded vocals. Nolan…that guy is special. A veritable tornado of a rapper, he was the most excited to be part of the RSA. The same energy he wrests out of himself in his raps was evident just talking via messenger. But if every song and performance that day were all gasp inducing in their greatness, Phelps’ was the exhalation. Sometimes I try to convince myself that the relationships and camaraderie existing inside RSA recording sessions is true of the greater, outside world. Phelps reminded me that it isn’t the case, but I didn’t mind. His gentle reminder, as I said above, gave me another reason to hang on- to him, to all the people from Assemble that day, and all the people, artists and listeners alike that have supported the RSA.

What happened in the room, for you..., the moment Mic Phelps was done singing
Mic Phelps floored us. the first thing that happened was silence. I always let the instrument/vocals fade completely before I press ‘stop,’ and during that fade-out, and the one or two seconds that come after before recording stops- those are always some tense moments. Everyone is wondering if it came out good, if that one mistake they made is going to be noticeable, etc…But Mic Phelps stopped and I think I was wondering how I was going to give him my usual “Nicely done,” without him seeing that my eyes were full of tears. Misty was perched up above me on a platform, taking photos of his performance, and I believe there were some tears in her eyes too. We were grateful to have gotten to be present for that performance.

Tell me about the plan you worked out with Mark. Tell me about Mark, too! There was a matter of getting a grant for this, but we needed the Archive to "own" or sort of "steward" the recordings in order for that? What's the story there?
By the time Mark had reached out to me and met with me, I think the RSA team had honed its game down to something as close as we’re going to get to an art-form. I had figured out how to get great sound with this tiny setup, and Steve Holmes and Charlie Steen, the videographers, were cranking out gold with pretty much every video they shot together or separate. I think it was the Breathe Owl Breathe film, shot entirely by Charlie, and the Passalacqua film, shot by both and edited all at once in a night by Steve, that sold Mark.

I don’t think he was prepared for all the workings of the RSA, as seemingly scattered as they are. It has become so much more than simply audio tracks; our shared appreciation for context in history was apparent as soon as the different branches of the project were explained to him.

State Archivist Mark Harvey

I didn’t think there was any way this guy was the chief archivist of Michigan, though.  He’s got this beard that Williamsburg hipsters could only dream of (pictured left), and it didn’t hurt my cause that he is already a huge fan of Michigan music, being familiar with many of the acts from the RSA already.  Mark was also real patient about the fact that I am suspicious of just about anyone who wants to help me with anything.  He drafted this agreement between the Archives and myself, one that definitely caters to every interest I expressed, and I STILL wouldn’t sign it. After him sending me drafts, and me sending them back with suggestions, him making the adjustments, sending it back…I still couldn’t make myself sign. Finally, there just wasn’t any other option. He had made every concession I asked for, and I had watched him make a similarly catering agreement with Charlie and Steve. Realizing there was just nothing left to be suspicious of, I signed. There is the possibility of grant money, yes, but that would be expressly for RSA operations- gas, lodging, setting up and promoting listening parties, etc. Making a living is a long way off, if its even an option at all.

I think "what we appreciate most about the River Street Anthology" changes from year 1 to year 2... I think there are half a dozen things that I personally "appreciate" about it... But can you talk about how it shows musicians that they, themselves, are appreciated! In a streaming world, in a low-turn-out-at-bars world, in a free download world... Here's you and Mark saying: 'Hey, you matter!'  
 While the RSA started off and remains a piece of preservation, the “you matter” effect is an unavoidable bonus. I just want to get artists feeling significant, because they all are. The ridiculously short attention span of the average music listener today turned out not to be a hill I particularly wanted to die on. I want something permanent for everyone, and with the help of the Archives, I think I found it.

Future plans? Gas money from the DNR? Kewenawe? Petoskey? This will go on for the foreseeable future, right? Or at least for a good 2-3 years more, right? Maybe 4-5? 
  It could very well go on for the rest of my life. The deal I have with the Archives includes the provision that I can continue adding to the collection at will, and I am never done with anything. As far as what the DNR is paying for, gas and whatnot- there isn’t any plan in sight just yet for thing like that. I’m still flying pretty much set of the pants for just about everything, meaning I’ve got a hell of a lot of assless pants in my possession. I did however get $1000 from the Ann Arbor Awesome Foundaiton, which, while it might not sound like a ton of money to some people, I can basically replace my entire setup with $1000. That’s the beauty of keeping things simple.

Can history lovers get a chance to hear these songs sometime in 2017, maybe? Via Preservica?
 I think its pretty safe to say that much of the material from the RSA will be available in the coming year, yes. It does, however, always depend on the degree to which I have my shit together. As long as I can keep everything in relative good order, and delegate authority with the Archives, there shouldn’t be a problem, besides the fact that I am usually horribly disorganized and delegating authority is the hardest thing in the world for me.

I love how our conversations often end on awkward, purposefully self-deprecating notes like that...

Of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping...

Links: http://www.polyvinylrecords.com/artists/index.php?id=294

http://ofmontreal.net/blog/

Of Montreal - "Id Engager"



I think Kevin Barnes is losing his mind. Or, at least, one of us is… locking yourself deep into the headphones for this nerve-jolting freakified dance-blitz, as psychopathic as it is psychedelic, can start making you feel a bit wound up. Long-time fans of the Athens, GA band (led indomitably by Barnes) will only find fragments of the characteristic 60’s harmony-heavy Brit-invasion conceptual rock-n’-psyche-folk as the shooting-star-flamboyancy of Barnes delves deep into the raunchy, dirty, frilly, animalistic gnaw-n-grab and strip-n-strut depths of dance floor infinities.

…weird and winding and sometimes blushing and erotic.

Just out there.

Yeah, at times I feel lunacy creeping in…not so much palpably in the mind of Barnes, (though at some junctures – "Had the mind to call your name, internally
Through my seventh sense that's hallucinating / Anyway we're artifacts of demigodly zero logic denizens…" one starts to wonder how much of the mentally-splintered iceberg we've chipped away at…) but no, that's all well and good, It is, as I said, a creeping lunacy, more in a haunting, possessive sort of way—into my own mind, and, hopefully, yours.

The lyrics lead you into labyrinths, the singer – who is, let us not forget, often speaking through the mouth and mannerisms of a newly invented (or born?...certainly not manufactured, but maybe conjured?) character, known as Georgie Fruit, who peaked his late-40's black, bisexual sex-change-ridden self out from the swirling hurricane of the 12-minute odyssey "The Past is a Grotesque Animal," in the middle of 2007's Hissing Fauna Are You The Destroyer—yes, the singer, be it Barnes or Fruit, often shakes its bony ass, cock-o-the-walk-ing over the frame and turns to face you, strutting backwards and leading you further and further down winding halls, coaxing you with a sticky solitary finger waving on and on toward the glossy lips of this fowl-mouthed f-bomb dropping narrator.

You're shouting to yourself, WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE—but are somewhat arrested by the techno beats, as lights flash and strange warbles roar from invisible corners of melting rooms that have no windows—man, where am I getting all this junk, wait, what the fuck IS going on here?…beats, dance, electronica, wafts of the fun-n-fancy-free bizarre celebration born in Sunalndic Twins and further pulsated with Hissing Fauna, but used here only as a pretext for Barnes to really (and I mean really) open up the shiny golden gates of his purple-wavy-waterbed odyssey of a mind – a spinning circular room that he retreated into…a cerebral cage populated by a talented piano/acoustic guitar-playing singer/songwriter (the shy Barnes we saw develop through the late 90's and early 00's) – sitting on some brain sofa, looking noticeably upset with varying synapses of sweet sugary ballads of inverted reflections of love and community now clouded in an alluring manner by Prince-like peacock spewing sultry dirty-talk of making you come 200 times a day – simultaneously naïve (perhaps out of irony?) and well-worn (that raunchy sort of back-alley transsexual prostitute rabble) in sexual drive and prowess.

Yes, and this is still an Of Montreal album – per se. It's more like an elaborate (sometimes overly so) self-exploration…where Barnes is singing to himself in the voice of Fruit, then singing back to Fruit as Barnes – but Fruit seems to win – or at least, Barnes wants him too…where we've gone from singing about living out in the country and beetle bugs and sleeping in the poppies and going on gay parades – now we want you to be our pleasure puss, how your ass is pumping, how Barnes (or Fruit?) is a mother-fucking headliner, bitch, you don't even know it…disco and glam and bisexual wandering and slip-sliding all through this orgiastic basement romp of sometimes-frightening psychological dissections and character revelations. Man…at some point here I need to wind down and talk about these songs…if that's possible…

You see, they flow, quite seamlessly at times, into each other, the back-end just ramming right into the next synth crescendo of the next track and spiraling up and back down in some weird graceful triple-Lutz – you feel a slight change in the air, like someone down the hall opened a window or the white noise buzz of a tv in the other room suddenly snaps off, but there isn't any two-second-span of silence out of the whole 58-minute burn of back-alley smokes and loft-party prancing or vicious gossip-galling flamboyancy or straight up huff-n-puff confessionals of gang bangs and having your ass up against the kitchen sink. The ultimate critic-wedgie – where I cannot get a rhythm, cannot get comfortable, cannot dissect each separate song because they are not separate 4-minute parts but one overwhelming body.

















I'm not sure if it's precisely a matter of it being Barnes at one moment and Georgie Fruit taking over the next…but the album opens with an ornate, jangly bouncer serenaded in Barnes' more-recently-characteristic sunny poetics and Prince-like squeaked-n-horny enthusiasm as he places a new-found happiness, understanding and rejuvenation on the shoulders of a lover – after he thanks her (or him), perhaps Fruit takes over as the language gets more blunt, your not 'my lover' anymore, but now he's 'calling your ass up' to 'go get compromised…' and eventually leads to a visceral and violent drawn out end of cracking his sweet love (perhaps ending the relationship) and burning away any regret in an extended guitar trounce…

Fruit's definitely strutting through the place on "Wicked Wisdom," spilling drinks and stealing kisses and throwing winks and hip thrusts this way and that, shaking his finger over strange and new synth buzzes drowning out a still familiar luminous Of Montreal-esque guitar tone…"I'm a mother fuckin headliner…" he taunts, in a falsetto (with Barnes peaking his head out for just a moment to warn us, "…process it…" yeah, it's now or never, get used to the new raunchy Barnes/Fruit hybrid asap – cuz we've got a lot of album yet to go…) "Why is it white girls don't have any ideas?" he says, and soon identifies himself as a black shemale. And we get white-nerdy-rap-Hot Chip/with grandiose and winding-lyrics ala Dan Bejar hybrids, with hit-the-floor raps like: "When we get together / We're gonna hit / What you work with" into we-must-be-missing-something-here ramblings like: "I hear the toy ball bouncing on Jihad would do their elegant conceit…"

There is no turning back from the dance floor after For Our Elegant Caste – it's a pounding pogo of hot 1:30 a.m. dizziness…and it is where we learn more of this transformation from the sweet boy who sang of bumblebees and trips through England into the sex-erific philosopher: Our bodies became what has been him so really turned off
Became a freaky permutation
Something like Voltron
Then I was wrapped in discourse with the magazine reader
The mutual conclusion was I'm not worth knowing because I'm probably dead…"

So, who knows…Barnes may be dead at this point…conceptually and ethereally… He admits later in a short-solemn buzzing sonnet that he's not sure how long he can hold on…but also not sure if it's going to "be likes this forever…"……you mean the battling personalities? Or referencing more in-the-past type stuff like pre-Satanic Panic in the Attic? What will not be like what….forever?

Who needs a drink?

If you've heard the record, it will be no news to you, but at this point I think it's important to mention that songs often go through multiple time-signature-changes, with shifting instrumentations, shifting vibes, shifting melodies…sometimes carrying on only for a minute within a track…I mean, here on Skeletal Lamping—fuck tracks, basically…there will be no boundaries.

To speak shallowly and in terms more down to earth away from this mind-bending dissection – "Gallery Piece," with its building lyrics and communal rousing and wavy siren-balladry and ever-pounding techno beat, is probably the closest thing you'll get to the gorgeous essence of (side-1) Hissing Fauna. Comparatively only to Id Engager, (another tellingly psychoanalysis reference), it's one of the more straight-forward and steady moments on the album.

Then, things get spooky – the opening bars of Women's Studies Victims quite literally sound like the soundtrack to some knife-wielding wolf-like monster looming large down shadowy hallways in haunted houses – but, as described above, it's not long before it flows into a friendlier guitar-buzzing low-key groove, with Barnes channeling this detached monotone voice, almost taunting and disgusted in its recounting of a sexual encounter. This song grows sweet and, well, cherubic towards the end – but Barnes seems to step off-stage and find his friend Georgie to say in an affected and concerned tone, "They want to destroy us…" to which a deep voice booms back, "I know!" So, Barnes suggests "It's time to penetrate their fantasy…"

But, whose fantasy? Ours, I would guess. Are those 60's-pop-loving fans of Cocquelicot or Cherry Peel living a fantasy to keep you in one particular sound, one particular style…are the new 19-year-old all-ages-crowd fans that jumped on after Sunlandic that come to these crazy costumed vaudeville Of Montreal shows to dance to a veritably innocent and sweet indie-pop paradise soundtrack living a fantasy in their (mis)perceptions?

Maybe that's why the very next song and lyric has Barnes/Fruit rolling around on a piano in some smoky after-hours cabaret lounge where he bemoans in a beautiful falsetto, "I'm so sick of sucking the dick of this cruel, cruel city…"

So here we are around track-9…the vocals are getting more splintered and the actual source of singing is starting to become indiscernible between the two – as the chorus-like march of Triphallus, To Punctuate! (though it's rambling when you read it out, the brilliant writer that Barnes is can form a melody so catchy that it works so well): "guess I should be happy for you, for your success and all that, your fame ain't got nothing for us, I supported you kid back when no one else did…I waved your flag back when no one else did…"
"I just want things to be the way they used to be when you only set a place for me…"

And, I…really have no idea how to read this…when I hear it, it makes me think of the band, of former members, of longtime members…who have watched this strange and fascinating mutation of Barnes the writer, the performer, the human being, watched the transformation right alongside the pleased-yet-bewildered fan base…

But, damn it, things won't be the way they used to be…not after this record. Even if they go back to slightly more Of Montreal-ish sweet pop ditties – they will ever-be-effected by this…, this ominous dark night that is Skeletal Lamping, some kind of weird piano-pounding, synth-string-sawing danceable deflowering.

Musically, structurally, melodically – and considering all the new strange and beautiful instrumentations implemented in its construction – Skeletal Lamping is a triumph – oh yes, way beyond the stars, past fucking Pluto. Just staggering. But there is a lot to delve through here…and it becomes quite the journey for the listener. For example – my initial reactions to these new lascivious musings was that a.) it sounded like it wasn't really Barnes, or that it was some kind of put-on by him…and b.) it sounded like he, at times, was acting as his own therapist…as Hissing Fauna and it's devastated clenching and clawing and grotesque revelations must have blown the doors wide open…

It was only after I had these initial feelings that I learned that this was very much the truth!!! – that it Skeletal was planned to be the documentation of his melding with Georgie Fruit, and, as Barnes said in a recent interview, that it would act very much like a way for him to enter his own "skull" and lamp out any and all possible creatures to trap/study/capture or kill….



As I used the word triumph above – the 7-minute "Plastis Wafers" is a disco-groove into a tribal space trance into an experimental smoky obfuscation of echoing verse and shouts as a guitar riff simply rides up and down over tinny percussion. It is a musical triumph, indeed…but maddening to try and unpack all those lyrics.

Second-to-last track Mingusings holds more deep and intriguing confessions: "I feel like an accidental species
Some mutant love child, never meant to be…" (the dual-personality-hybrid?)

"No motion dancing
Feel like we're an impossibility…" (the want to move into more darker, experimental territory like Skeletal but still keep the electronica/dance vibe of Sunlandic…hmm…)

Tried to keep the heart in the head
But I was so down on the closing night…." (the depression that inspired Hissing Fauna?)
Couldn't even fake a smile
Wanted to fire all my friends…" (like when you reverted to just solo-creation for Satanic Panic in the Attic?)


Who knows, you could spin this six ways to Sunday and come up with whatever interpretation you like—but the point is, it is going to engage you and it is going to make you uncomfortable (mostly in a good way) and it is also going to make you dance…
It's going to make you wonder…It may not be straight up mindless dance fun – but it doesn't have to be…

Alright, maybe he's not losing his mind…maybe he's gone through this and wound up with a stronger hold on sanity. But, trying to chop my way through it certainly left me feeling a bit… "cracked." What is most striking in terms of feeding my this-sounds-like-sanity-melting-music, is when one remembers that Barnes has turned Of Montreal (as a project) into very much a solo-effort when it comes to recording – so, there's no dialogue or back and forth between other collaborating musicians. It's him in a room. Singing to—and-with—himself…

Just himself…drawing apart, exploding, bringing together and putting onto song—just himself.

"I can't help it if it's true, don't wanna be your man, just wanna play with you…" is the repeated chorus that leads to the slightly abrupt ending of album closer Id Engager: …a blurry ride of a synthy melody as a distant ringing phone grows slightly louder (with Barnes answering softly in the background…hello?)…and then a churning buzz-wave that grows only to crash suddenly…then……..
….

Thank you
Thank you
Thank you….

(words: jeff milo)
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