Art News NonstarvingArtists.com - Kris Hull

Musicfest NW 2008: It added up to what?

2008-09-16T17:36:04+00:00

September saw Portland host the 8th Musicfest NW of logistical mathematics: An exponential event of (n+1)/2 bands in xyz-yz venues over 4 nights = ? (you can only see so many anyway). Eschewing the press pass to experience the punter's experience, here are my highs and lows:

Fall 2008 Tour Poster -- design by Santiago Uceda

Most memorable performance: Finn Riggins. The peak. They shocked and stunned: Truly amazing, like a locomotive storming into a barn. The Idaho band has one limited CD pressed, I recommend you snap it up quick, in years to come this could be the band you wish you were on the front wave of.

Underexposed Talent: Super XX Man - the listener's musician, hard to believe this formally Austin based act (Silver Scooter) continues to go under the radar after a decade of quality - silly name problem?

Best party: Rupa & The April Fishes...

photo: Judith Burrows

but partying at Jimmy Mac's to Rupa's insane gipsy jazz is a pain because JM's is set up as a restaurant with a stage: In Colombia it doesn't matter - it's up on the tables dancing, but here we're squeezed in the narrowing profit aisles.

Shockingly good live vocal: Chelsea, of Dirty Mittens. Unaffected, refreshingly so, she has a voice that with training and imagination could score a major career, the first time I've ever been reminded of early Bjork. OK, Bjork had those great John Peel sessions, but a lot of the early music was pop pap. Dirty Mitten's music is already better than that early Sugar Cubes stuff.

Best performer comment: Thao (with Get Down Stay Down), amused by the packed closing house at Holocene, final night, said "There are so many of you here, we played here a few weeks ago, to... a few less... It's good to see you are all doing so much better".

Sound Mixing: Working sound with rotating bands is a challenge: The big boards were out and the classy sound systems were on show, but while Someday Lounge's soundman Ryan Oleson was superb as usual, I'm applauding Slabtown's Lela: At other venues musician's requests for more of this, or that, went without real response, on and on, irritatingly, throughout the sets. At Slabtown, with much less, Lela responded, fixed problems rapidly and the bands got on with their performances.

Low points:
Low points normally fall off good expectations...

1. The Shaky Hands have talent, but if they really "want to change the way people think about music" they shouldn't be doing covers of old bands to get the crowd going. I can hear bad CCR Karaoke anytime.
2. The false security - see below (yes it can be organized in other ways), & the ridiculous sight of performers with white wrist-bands on...

Stark Comparison: 'No Age' & 'Oxford Collapse' both deliver robust, punk-influenced rock: No Age are genuine, but were lost in the Wonder Ballroom, the two piece relying heavily on a floor of PC effects; Oxford Collapse bassist delivered it old-style, not one floor effects pedal. Simplicity and more force.Imagine what ?76 punk bands would have done with computer complex of floor pedals... have a smashing time, I reckon.

Failing The Complexity Test: Perhaps it was the ripping performance of Oxford Collapse who proceeded them , but 'Bodies of Water' failed where bands like Loch Lomond succeed: LL Successfully weave multi-instrumental and multi-disciplinary music to great effect. Bodies of Water have only promise in a leaking paddle pond.

Value For Money: Unless you had privileges or paid triple, it was nearly impossible to get into the bigger billed shows unless you were there early (ie for the act before, or the act before that). Bottom line. At $50 it's a bargain, but only if you plan to get into the shows you want and stay there (no re-entry without re-queueing).

Venues: Most - not all - smaller venues, like Towne Lounge - Slabtown & admirably the larger Holocene, were welcoming and casual, some of the overblown venues were ridiculously self-important, setting up security and pre-show vetting experiences that were enough to negate the experience. And, with the best music spread around, why bother?

The Answer:
1/8th MFNW ( (n+1)/2 bands in xyz-yz venues over 4 nights) = > enough & < it could be.

Blind Pilot: Interview - You take a flute, I'll take another person.

2008-08-08T18:58:51+00:00

Blind Pilot have just entered the Billboard charts, had a #1 day on Itunes sales and got picked up by a major act, to open. Rebellious noise teens, indie fans and mid-life Mothers alike, unite in appreciation. Their CD is classy, their first video oozes authority, even I give a grudging nod. Yet they are back on their bikes, a 1000 mile+ cycling tour, playing for tips. I decided to dig a little deeper into the core of the band - the duo that expands whenever possible to six or more - and found personalities to match the charm of the music:

I tackled the Blind Pilot duo - Israel Nebeker (vocals, guitar) and Ryan Dobrowski (drums) as they tackled large pub sandwiches and I choked down a typically poor Aussie beer that the bar-con-man proffered upon me, then charged me for later...

Z: Ryan, you're nicely showcased on the new video, but live, outside in the wind at PDX Pop Now, your 'light touch' drumming was blown away a little. The 'Ringo Starr' approach to drumming is much despised by some, what's your response to any criticisms?

Ryan: It doesn't bother me, how I play depends on the songs: What do they need? Some drummers may feel pressure to show off what they can do... - if I need to I can mic up my drums, but the songs are the point of reference.

[The PDX Pop Now thing is a great event, the sound is as best it can be with quick changing sets, and Ryan doesn't do the padded drum thing...]

Z: You're both painting right? Pictures for you Ryan and Houses for you Israel.

R: Yes. It's my primary source of income at the moment.

Z: So you're successful then?

R: [Sandwich devouring delay...] I have a gallery I run, called the PIP Gallery, downtown [Portland].

I: I'm making money for the tour, and even in the winter I do inside, detail work.

Z: OK. Let's get tangental: What's your solution to the energy crisis?

R: That's a big one.

I: [Eating, agrees]

R: It's complex, there are so many variables. How much energy does it cost to make a Prius? But BIkes! Human powered stuff. People forget how easy it is to do things with their own energy.

Z: Yeah... people blowing leaves around on windy days...

R: Right! Use a broom!

I: It's all speculative, everyone's looking for the one answer, but creative solutions in day-to-day lives have as much worth.

Z: Here's a 'Desert Island' question - your physical survival needs are taken care of - you pick two from this list and you can add one new thing.

[List: Dictionary, pencil & paper, hat, dog.]

I: Am I by myself? [yes] For sure the dog... and the hat... and the dictionary and the pencil &...

R: Wait that's all four!

I: Oh yes,... The dog... and the hat, no, yes the hat. No, the dictionary. [smiles]

Z: And you get to add one.

I: An instrument on which the strings wouldn't break... a flute or something.

[Ryan's turn]

R: Is it one sheet of paper? [no a whole pad] Is there a pencil sharpener?

Z: Blimey, what a lot of questions!

R: OK. I can write in the sand. I'd take the dog and the dictionary, and for my add - another person.

I: Oh great! I chose a flute and you take a whole other person!

This seemed like a good point to ask: Which of you has the greater corporate management potential?

Israel, eating, points at Ryan, who nods and agrees.

Z: What do you always forget to take on tour?

I: We don't. Packing for a bicycle tour is a very exact process.

R: There's no wasted space, we have to get it right.

Z: Tell me about the bike tours: How to you lug all the drums and equipment around??

R: we each have a trailer and the load is evened out.

Z: And this coming tour you'll be joined by more band members...

R: Right Luke (Double bass), and Katie Claybourne (banjo, back-up vocals) and maybe the two violinists, Luke's done a cycle tour across the continent and Katie's enthusiastic.

Z: But this upcoming trip is scheduled to take 2 months - how do you deal with issues that come up? Health - family news - logistics etc?

R: It's less flexible, we can't just drive through the night for a schedule change for instance, but we believe in just letting things happen, not trying to control everything.

I: And to date we've been fortunate: Not a single day of rain last time out.

Z: What's your first memory of anyone hanging washing on a clothesline?

R: I was 3, at my house in Eugene. It was my Mom, hanging off-white sheets with flower prints, I might have been 4.

Z: How did that feel?

R: Good. They were nice times.

I: Mine was my next door neighbors growing up in Gearhart. The fence had a little gap which I would peer through... Katie's Mom was hanging washing, I had a crush on Katie, I was 4-5. Yeah - and their yard was off limits but they had an abundance of crickets and we'd sneak over sometimes and catch them.

Z: You described yourselves as ecstatic regarding the itunes success.

R: Who did?

I: Oh that must have been me.

Z: Do you have any reservations about growing popularity?

I: Not reservations, we're just trying to be a little bit cautious - Ultimately [the appreciation] is great.

Z: But how do you explain the level of response? You have sudden attention from all sides, and despite myself, I really enjoy your music - explain that to me.

[Modest shrugs and diminishing sandwiches]

Z: How about opening for Aimee Mann? Is her audience your audience?

R: We feel that any audience is capable of liking what we do. The thing is, we're not trying to be anything - to imitate any particular style, or take on any particular look.

Z: so you're not into being totally hip, even though you own a gallery.

R: No. That bugs me a lot.

R: I've also got to say, to compliment Israel, he just writes good songs. [Israel does the bulk of the writing and all lyrics, but they collaborate on the music].

The new Blind Pilot video was shot by Wyatt Garfield on location in Astoria where they lived in 'Big Red'. But in Dec '07 the wind tore the roof off. There's a huge benefit concert happening to re-roof Big Red: https://concertforbigred.org/

How many swans do you recommend, per bathtub?

Z: How many swans do you recommend, per bathtub?

I: [jumping in confidently] Three.

R: [puzzled...] Where?

I: In the bathtub of course...

When did you last run, and why?

R: I ran... I ran...

Z: Iran, Iran - you sound like George Bush!

I: You ran back to the gallery the other night racing us [9 blocks - they took the car]

R: Yeah and I won.

R: And you ran walking back to the house with Luke & Christine after the show

I: That's right - Christine took her shoes off, then everyone did.

R: We played shoe-ball.

Z: Shoe-ball?

R: Yeah - it's great.

Z: Best Gig you ever were at?

I: I was in Gijon, northern Spain in 2004 and David Byrne played. It was an incredible steep-sided baroque theatre and Byrne was so different and uplifting, until then I'd been so into Radiohead... Byrne changed how I wanted to write songs, he was so honest, and uplifting.

R: I have a couple of stand-outs: Beck at Champoeg Park, Odeley period and I won the tickets on the radio! Also my very first concert when I was about six: Zazzou Pits at Albany Fair, they had 3 drummers and I knew right hen that was what I wanted to be.

The food baskets left, Ryan's sandwich long gone, Israel's only half-eaten despite triple the chew-time. "He's like that," explained Ryan, "eats very slowly; always has." They've known each other since high school, and I was left wondering if that extra person Ryan would take for his desert island might just be someone familiar, someone who chose a flute.

Blind Pilot's recently released debut full-length is "3 Rounds and a Sound" (Expunged Records).

Ursula: Living the Dream (A Hard Life on the Road).

2008-07-25T23:11:52+00:00

Ursula are a band out on the fringes of music; they've little money, no significant connections, are not especially talented musicians or singers. Why write about them? Because despite their shortcomings, they have something a little different about them, they have no pretense and they write disarmingly good songs.

The likening of poor musicians to brilliant early experimentalists like Captain Beefheart or Gong, by slack reviewers (or the bands themselves) is an irritating trend; and sure enough, Ursula have been described as ?Capitan (sic) Beefheart meets Billie Holiday?... neither comparison is at all relevant. In fact Lara, of Ursula, has a wonderfully blunt voice not unlike Penny Seeger's working with Ewan MacColl, take that political folk style, and a bit of 'Sea of Cheese' era Primus swash-buckle, and there's a plausible comparison. Of course, Nathan, the other half of the core of Ursula, can't come close MacColl's sonorous vocal, but at least he sounds honest and unaffected.

The CD Dancing On The Ruins, recorded Nathan told me, in one evening, on a 4-track amid increasing frivolity, captures Ursula's charm and honesty perfectly. Since it was recorded the duo have written more songs in the same vein. It would be fascinating to hear them recorded well while keeping minimal production, just as it would be marvelous to have Nick Cave cover a few of Ursula's songs; Eat Your Lover, for instance - a song about love's culmination reaching the stage where one has to eat the other.

Their music (Lara plays accordion, Nathan Banjo) is patchy and occasionally mistimed, yet remains charming, sincere and bolstered by several really good songs (Lara also said it's 'better' & 'more fun' when the other band members - who hadn't caught up yet - played, adding drums and violin).

Lara, from the USA, is a runaway, she met Nathan, a Canadian, in Edmonton, they put Ursula together and travelled, often hitchhiking across the continent in 2007, playing wherever they could. This tour they've moved up a notch, with a dog called Stella plus a roadie in the back seat and instruments in a container atop the station wagon. Their songs either reflect their traveling life or their view that society is off course. Common themes, overworked themes... but this is their strength - they deliver witty, cutting and even lilting reflective songs, with simple sincerity.

Q&Eh?: How many swans do you recommend per bathtub?
Lara: Twelve at least, any less and it would be an empty tub, well... if you ask me ridiculous questions, I'll give you ridiculous answers.

Q&Eh?: What do you always forget when you go on tour.
Lara: My Toothbrush! I forget it, get another, lose that, and have to get another.

Q&Eh?: What's the best gig you've ever been to?
Lara: Oh but there are so many... ... ...
Q&Eh?: Pick one.
Lara: OK - it was in Minneapolis - The Danger Boys, who are an inspiration to me, pretty much the biggest influence on my life.

Q&Eh?: your band's name is Ursula - why is that?
Lara: There really is no answer to your question. The name came to me in a dream. We are a band of dreamers i guess.

Q&Eh?: Surprise or anticipation?
Lara: Anticipation. I like something to look forward to. Yes, It's important in life.

Q&Eh?: And what are you aspiring to? What's the dream?
Lara: Exactly what I'm doing now. Touring meeting people, people are nice and kind.
Stella loves it too.
And we're getting married next May, then we're intending to go to Europe and tour, we get a lot of interest from Europe. (Nathan is Canadian, from Vancouver, the island, and the Canadian govt. actually sponsors band's travel for touring, paying rental cars, accommodation etc.)
Q&Eh?: So you have plenty to anticipate

Take 'When the Yuppie's Grass Grows Tall', which seems to have presaged the housing market crisis, on which they sing about happier times where everyone will grow their own food and live real lives... they are usually optimistic, often whimsical and sometimes vengeful. And Ursula have another, deeper dimension - the aptly named 'Runaway' travels much like the view from a train window; Lara sings of leaving behind a bad situation while being comforted by companionship: "Come on, let's run away again, I've got some people to hide from, it seems no matter where I am now they're always right there beside me, but so are you my faithful loving friend, how grateful I am for you."

The whole song is worth printing, but I leave you to discover it one day as Ursula pass you by, living the dream on the road.

Colin Lake: Interview & in concert: Too Young For The Blues?

2008-06-24T20:21:45+00:00

As long ago as 1956 Ella Fitzgerald, sang 'Too Young For The Blues', and being too young is something that's leveled at all new Blues artists coming through. But does it apply to Blues in the Rock framework? People forget that when Jack Bruce fronted Cream he was in his early 20's. Colin Lake is rapidly making a name for himself, for his writing, his sound (the ambitiously mixed music) and, yes, for his voice...

Coilin Lake & Wellbottom have taken me aback, I hadn't seen myself ever endorsing a new blues-rock band of this type, let alone wholly enjoying it. Somehow, they've made this sound new again, and with his skills and voice improving I look forward to much more to come.

In concert, Lake was a revelation; sitting, almost budda-like, centering a caldron of sound, casually signaling the band with a simple glance, beaming as he played his laptop slide and easing into vocals that would have Lowell George's ghost nodding approval. Lake's voice, as promised in the interview (below), was better still than on the latest album; the suspicious inclusion of a live DJ mixer worked a treat and the chemistry between Appel (lead) and Lake on slide was special.

I explained to Lake that my references are more rock based than blues based, more Cream or Tony McPhee than Buddy Guy; and asked him where he'd put himself on the dial between rock and blues?
Colin Lake: That's hard to say, I call our music 'Progressive Blues', it's blues up front but the music behind it is funk-rock. Blues is really feeling... [then slapping his R.L. Burnside t-shirt]... as for inspiration and respect, I take it from this guy and his like.

Z: You mention the music behind your sound - there are touches of modernism which make this very 21st century, like the occasional backbeats - do you get any flak for this?
CL: [Smiles] ...not per-se, some on the Blues scene were cool at first, not accepting the use of turntables and samples, but that's gone away, now we're welcomed and we'll feature heavily in the upcoming Blues Festival. (Waterfront Blues Festival, Portland, Oregon - July 3-6)
Z: So these are samples?
CL: They're mixed in by DJ Redi Jedi, who features on two songs on the album and plays live with the band.
Z: It's more than that though, Station Blues, for instance, a stand-out track on your new album, sounded like Lowell George backed by Jazz percussion.
CL: These guys are amazing musicians, these sounds sometimes sound like jazz, sometimes hip-hop.
Z: You play slide with the guitar laid flat on your lap, is that a 'steel' guitar?
CL: Not really, I'm playing lap-slide. 'Steel lap guitar' normally means 'pedal-steel'; I play two instruments, a National and a Weissenborn, it was created by some Austrian immigrant from LA, and it has a hollow neck that creates a distinctive tone.

The Weissenborn is an old, much sought-after guitar which extends the body cavity behind the neck all the way to the head.

Z: I often enjoy blues and jazz music live, but can be disappointed listening to it on album - one feature of "Bullet" is the spot-on production, it feels live but absolutely tight...
CL: Thanks, it's produced by Bryan Appel, our lead guitarist, we decided to load all the instruments' sound up front, to give it a live feel.

One thing that comes through well, but not quite as well as it does live on 'Bullet', is Lake's voice, good but not as comfortably outstanding as it was live. Based only on the album I asked him about the paucity of great vocalists in the rock side of The Blues, Hendrix for instance was limited, Jack Bruce was an exception - is it all about guitars?

CL: I feel my voice is progressing, I want the room, sound and instrumentation all coming at you live. I mean, I know I don't sound like Howlin' Wolf, but I sing the way I do, this is how I sing, I didn't go out there and try lots of voices.

Q&EH
Q&Eh?: Surprise or Anticipation?
CL: Ah Man... I've never thought about it that way... I'm anxious, I have to control things so anticipation can be hard, so I'd go with surprise.
Q & Eh? You OK? A lot of people who're anxious take anti-depressants, for anxiety?
CL: No, I'm that way naturally, and I deal with it really well. Socially, I'm fine, and on stage I'm on fore, it's just in my head.

Q&Eh?: Alright, so how many swans do you recommend, per bathtub?
CL: I haven't been able to fit in a bathtub since middle school. [He's 6' 2", 225lbs]... but I'd say two Swans in the shower, wandering around...
Q&Eh?: [Wandering around?]

Q&Eh?: Given free unrestricted travel, where would you go?
CL: New Orleans, first, and then into deep mountains, Nepal or somewhere.
Q&Eh?: Hymalayas?
CL: Yes. I mean I want to play europe, but that's a different question.

Q&Eh?: When did you last run, and why?
CL: 2 days ago, playing Lacrosse in a pick up game, I love it, mostly coach though, I'm still sore.

Q&Eh?: OK, Tell me about Mexico & you.
CL: ... [splutters...] I've only been there once...
Q&Eh?: And...
CL: And when I was a kid, Cancun
Q&Eh?: So you deny anything happened?
CY: [Laughs]

Q&Eh?: Did you ever think the moon really was made of Cheese?
CL: No. I was never under that delusion.
Q&Eh?: No Xmas myths, etc...
CL: No, not really.
Q&Eh?: So your parents were realists?
CL: Yes.
Q&Eh?: And that's a good thing?
CL: Yes, I think so.

Z: OK, you write the songs, it seems to me that blues perhaps should be confined to the human condition, just as novels ought to be, how do you feel about what you write?

CL: I agree. on Wax Wane, my first CD, I quote Chris Whitley, a friend who passed away, "love and death... that's what all art is, or should be about". But you, know, girls are good fodder too...

Z: What about politics/economics/energy issues?

CL: I think the political message conveyed by bands in the '60s was effective, artists can be on the cutting edge, be important, but it's not my main thing.

[On Wax Wane, Lake broke this rule in spades, cutting an amazingly well sampled anti-Bush song with Redi-Jedi that showcases the potential styles he's left behind.]

Z: And comedy? Irony? BB King?

CL: I love that tongue in cheek; wink and nod stuff, there's some of that in there in my songs. ... [The CD 'Bullet' includes printed lyrics].

Z: Any thought to leave us with, a saying, something you adheare to?

CL: Yes, I wrote a song about a the recognition I had a few years back - that things will always get better, yet things will always get worse, don't fight to keep it a particular way. It goes back to the lyrics, resolving some issue, some resolution.

Costello: Super Furry Animals: Neil Young: The Greatest Form Of Flattery

2008-06-13T15:17:08+00:00

Heard the new CD 'Sweet Songs of Decay' by Elvis Costello? No? How about 'Nothing Says Rich Like Golf Clubs' by Super Furry Animals? Not yet? Well then what about 'La Lamentor' by Neil Young? No. It's not surprising you haven't, because those albums are by other bands that just happen to sound like the name acts. We often dismiss them, yet reviewers continually use known bands as reference points in reviews. And when, as here, the similar act can make a claim to be even BETTER, in one way or another, than the big act, what to say? How do the new releases by Frank Bango, The Swedes and Weinland measure up?

I sometimes manage to write whole reviews and conduct interviews without referencing acts that sound similar. Many bands appreciate it, some readers miss the comparisons. Some reviews are scattergun: How much use is it when a band gets compared to 4 or 5 dissimilar bands... or when references seem deliberately obscure? Not much. When the link is obvious the mention is unavoidable, and it's easy to dismiss the new as pointless imitation. Here though, are three new albums which cause me to question my prejudice, for each are in some way superior to the latest albums by the name acts they sound like.

First up, Frank Bango's 'Sweet Songs of Decay': Elvis Costello fans might object, after all Frank's voice can't match Elvis's, but tell them that this is a CD of new songs written by Elvis Costello sung by Frank Bango and you bet they'd say - "more great writing, typical Costello, all those twists of lyric and rhythm, the time shifts, the spacing... and that one, wow! One of the best Costello has written for a while"... The fans might even wax about that typical Costello rhyming wit: "I never noticed the moon in the ocean - the curious notion - of how she might feel." Except, remember, these are Frank Bango's words. On 'International Sign For Sorry' Bongo writes several spiraling verses with rhymes that Costello should admire; "there's a ring around Venus, there's a redness on Mars - Big Oil in Arabia and little bulbs in cars."

Left: A Super Furry Animal & Frank Bango

Costello's latest album "Momofuku", isn't bad, and he remains a great performer, but his song-writing seems to lack the verve of his earlier days. Frank Bango closes his CD with a line "I will return soon, not as myself, but as a better idea." Maybe the 'better idea' is for Elvis to cover Frank? Or perhaps Costello should just hire the Bango man as his new songwriter.

'Nothing Says Rich Like Golf Clubs' is by The Swedes and the comparison with the Super Furry Animals (SFA) is a little less apparent - The Swedes have more rock edge and don't fluff the album with SFA's fondness for short tricky instrumental links between tracks. But here there are similar keyboards, timing, intonations, tra-la-la-la-la-la-la-las and occasional thumpy beats. And here too is the fine vocal tone.

Of course it could be that bands are merely referencing the same rock derivatives; after all many good rock bands begin to sound like Ray Davies (of The Kinks), as The Swedes do on 'She Turns On'.

Davies had Welsh blood and SFA are unabashedly Welsh (sometimes singing in that lllanwguidge) but there's no apparent Welsh connection with the US based Swedes.
Or is there? On track 8 'Briton' Jon Gray, sings "shouldn't have sounded so British...fake English accents are the thing" in the middle of a song that's typically SFA like - struggling over meaning, hidden behind pop: "What's the point of having brain cells, I come in peace my friend". The Swedes, like SFA, also occasionally drop into corny pop territory too, on the closer 'Roses' it's in their Pock-ee-ye-ee-et, and all that, but this album never descends into pap.
On their very neat website The Swedes list bands that they've been compared to, but only those they admire. It's a talented list, but a poor list of comparisons, Thin Lizzy? Come on - who wrote that? 'Nothing Says Rich Like Golf Does' isn't up there with the very best of the SFA's albums, but it is much better than that awful recent single by SFA and well worth a listen.

Compariing Weinland to Neil Young is unavoidable. So much so that John Adam Weinland Shearer deals with it directly in all the marketing and publicity for 'La Lamentor'. On hearing some tracks you'd swear it is Neil Young - albeit the early acoustic emanation. Weinland sounds so much like that fresh faced 20-something Neil in every way, the voice, the lyrics, the spacing, it's all in all like a new young Neil Young,

John Adam Weinland Shearer says in interviews that he 'can't help' how his pipes sound, and on a few tracks he does drift outside Neil Young's range, and it begins to all sounds like his own, very Weinland and very wonderful land.

And not only is 'La Lamentor' better than anything Neil does these days, there are also several 'classic' type songs. By track 4 we've stuck 'Gold', an undeniably brilliant song, with Shearer's voice fluttering just like Young's used to: "Get up early in the middle of the snow - You thought February weather'd let go - But weather, never lets go."
On that same track 'Gold', Shearer surely inadvertently wrote "You're young, but tired and old", that Y is lower case, so no insult, but an accidental comment?

I recommend to go buy it. If you liked Neil Young early on, then Weinland is the best thing that ever happened since.

Should we then embrace all the sound-alikes? Not always, while it's almost impossible to have no influences, to have no derivative sound, there is still a big difference between artists driven only by imitative goals and those with real talent who happen to sound like other greats. Tellingly all three of these CDs close with stronger songs, all three improve with listening. Next? Last week I heard a pub band live that sounded like 60's rock, a-la Cream, they manhandled a huge old giant B3 Hammond organ into the pub, then belted out their own songs to a small appreciative crowd. They were fine, it's not the late 60's, it's 40 years on, but it's the same vibe, they are "Royal Houser" and they haven't even recorded an CD yet, but when they do those comparisons are sure to be made again.

Siberian: Interview - Intelligent Evolution

2008-05-13T19:34:53+00:00

Siberian are full of it. Not bulls' it. Nor the it Lou Reed was sick of. Siberian are full of the it Peter Gabriel famously wrote of on the closer of The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. Few bands emerge from the swamp of indie-rock without an annoying copycat stench about them, so when something original pops up, it is worth tracking.

Three of Siberian's 5-piece (Finn, Colin & Zach) joined me backstage.

Someday Lounge, Portland, May '08

ZM: Surprise or Anticipation?

Zach: Surprise.

Finn: Why?

Zach: The things you anticipate are more expected, muted.

Colin: [Colin said something here that was my first exposure to his multiple mindset, postulating about six sides to every viewpoint. Naturally my notes were as surprised as I was]
Zach: Yeah, I agree [with Colin], it made me think of going into work that day with a hangover.
Colin: It's a perspective shift.
ZM: Your going into work with a hangover was a surprise or anticipation?
Zach: I anticipated the hangover, I was surprised how pleased I was that day.
ZM: OK, what do you find ironic about the Alanis Morissette song "Isn't It Ironic"?
Zach: [in a flash] There's absolutely nothing ironic about it, not a lick.
Colin: It should be called "Isn't it unfortunate".
ZM: What do you always forget to take on tour?
Zach: Your passport [to Finn]
Finn: Yes, going into Canada...
Zach: Our dignity and self-respect
Colin: Not for me, I'd rather it [touring] be an extension of my regular life, not something else that I'd have to crash back out of.
Zach: I actually had the idea that I would transform myself on the tour [just finished], of course I didn't.
Finn: We had an insane response, there were small crowds but people were so amazing, like in Phoenix, I'm surprised how supportive and nice people are.

Finn, despite being the front man and writing all the songs, is quiet and unassuming (at least in the company of the band's keen-witted guitarists). His relaxed nature seems to stem from being born and brought up in Hawaii, which he still misses.

Although Finn writes the lyrics and base melodies they all emphasize the collaboration on song structure and sound:
Building songs to crescendos was conscious, as Zach put it: "We like loud and emotional music as much as anybody, but now we're as interested in space, in dropping things out."

ZM: So Finn, where do these words come from? (Islands Forever opens with "On the coastline, under moonlight, we'll drive our cars into the lake and drown")
Finn: I don't know, I listened to Leonard Cohen a lot and somehow it comes through, but not directly, I don't... perhaps in the melody or feeling...
ZM: I think it's in the timing, the delivery of words.
Colin: His words are moody, bordering on the dark, we add the atmosphere.
Finn: I write around moods, I prefer something that explains... but not too literally, so people can interpret it, imagining some kind of image, but not from nonsense.

The band is critical of their 2007 CD 'With Me' but many critics, including myself, rate it as one of last year's best. They're looking forward though, to the next recordings, still evolving, into potential.Finn: Islands Forever was the last song we recorded and is more the way we're evolving. I put it down to communication inside the band.

Colin: Being together for 4 years is working. We trust each other.
Zach: Yeah, you can't just take a sonic idea in your head and tell everyone do this, do that. It doesn't work.

ZM: Given free unrestricted travel, where would you go?
Finn: Africa.
Zach: Prehistoric Africa. I want to go to another galaxy. Back in Time, or forward. I don't know, maybe I'd just like to go to yesterday and know what's going to happen and fuck with Colin's head all day.
Colin: That would suck.
ZM: So what would you do?
Colin: I don't know, for the band? Is it one choice? Can you change your choice every day? It always changes, how long does this last?

ZM: Colin, What do you remember from when you were nine years old?
Colin: What grade was that?
Finn: Twelve is six.
Colin: On that prompting, my teacher, my classroom, but nothing really - something I realised when I was 18-19 was that I hardly remembered anything about my childhood...
Zach: It gets blurred, like that Oliver Sachs documentary where he's going month to month documenting everything he remembers from '82 onwards...
Colin: Yeah - and that character Sachs studied - who can conduct a whole orchestra but doesn't remember 7 seconds later... and there's some woman, she remembers everything, they're studying her...
ZM: It sounds like your tours are spent listening to the BBC & NPR [National Public Radio]
Colin: Yes, yes! We're very boring.

ZM: What are a few of your favourite things?
Finn: Sunshine....then a list of...music, experience, headaches(?), beautiful women ,

A Siberian Woman

scotch (meaning Scottish Whiskey), change, Taco Bell... religion...
Z Religion?
C Yes, no. We have fun, no we ridicule it but we discuss it too.
ZM: Are any of you influenced?
Colin: Ah, yeah, I was raised Jehovah's Witness
Zach: [Emphatically] It's a blight on society and we all know it.
Colin: It's a ridiculously easy way out.
Finn: Freud said it was a way to console yourself with fate.
ZM: I don't think we'll bother to try and make that scan...

ZM: What's the best use for WD 40?
Colin: Spraying in UB40's eyes.

ZM: Colin, tell me about Mexico & you
Colin: [Momentarily lost for words]... I had a friend who went there.
Zach: That's great: "I had a friend who went there"!

Finn's voice: Was the thing that most impressed Zach, even in a garage. Colin too, until the CD recording when Finn swayed a little towards that Tom Yorke slur... that's never happened before or after said Colin. I asked Finn if he imitated? Was he good at Karaoke? "No, I'm terrible at Karaoke, I'm self-conscious and get a little subdued."

ZM: Do you know how to dig a pony?
Colin: Dude, no. There's no way to dig a pony, it wasn't meant to mean anything.
Zach: I dig ponies, little horses.
Colin: There's that thing about the tramp in Lennon's garden who thought it was all written for him, and Lennon saying it was nonsense. It's a language problem - look how frustrated Gertrude Stein became, she wrote books with the intention of not making sense and still people found meaning in them.

ZM: Best Gig you ever were at?
Colin: What pops into my head is Andrew Andrew Bird at the Showbox in Seattle.
Finn: I was going to say the same thing, but otherwise Fugazi, in Hawaii.
Zach: I saw Robert Pollard recently and it was certainly memorable - he drank at least ten beers and 3/4 a bottle of tequilla and was staggeringly incoherent, except when he sang then it was perfect pitch.
Colin: It's like another Oliver Sachs thing; about the man with no memory (7 seconds in fact) who can still conduct orchestras.
Zach: Yeah, that could be what's going on, an automatic musical memory.

ZM: Finn, did you ever think the moon really was made of Cheese?
Finn: No, but I thought there was a man on the moon.
ZM: You mean the face or an actual man?
Finn: A man, an astronaut.
Zach: What do you mean, you think they just left one behind?
Finn: Well, I was 12.

ZM: So how are you feeling about tonight's show?
Colin: I have no expectations, not low expectations - no expectations, I don't want to be disappointed. It comes back to that anticipation/surprise thing... anticipation limits your potential experience.

As it tuned out the show was even better than expected, Someday Lounge soundman Ryan Oleson balanced things expertly, matching the punchy rhythm against the searing harmonics, all the musicians and vocals stood out. I didn't hear any copycat Yorke drawl the band is wary of, maybe an occasional Lloyd Cole-like inflection, and I'm still unsure what it is about Siberian that differentiates, maybe it is just the underlying intelligence. Go see Siberian live, I say... but then I shouldn't be building up any expectations should I, in case that anticipation factor spoils everything...

Siberian are: Finn Parnell (Vocals, Rhythm), Zach Tillman (Bass, Vocals), Colin Wolberg (Lead), Aaron Benson (Drums), Adam Galbraith (keyboards)

Loch Lomond: Interview - A Depth Charge

2008-05-06T00:12:14+00:00

A Scot named Ian Anderson once wrote "Closing my dream inside its paper-bag. Thought I saw angels... waving me through to cry you a song. That came before the pomp of rock stardom took its "Tull". Anderson could have been portending the music of a new phenomenon with a Scottish name. - In Depth Interview with Richie Young as his band Loch Lomond go on tour in support of their new release.

Loch Lomond's music is not typical of contemporary music, it's not typical of anything really, it's hardly reference-able - classical musicians, folk melodies, a chamber orchestra backing a singer songwriter... And, importantly, it's not a mess, not at all - the music's coherent and the musicians are strikingly good. Then, once you dare to check the lyrics, comes the devastation - the gorgeous vocal harmonies, tripping melodies and sweeping orchestrations are woven with a text of tears. Not since Kurt Cobain have I heard such wrenching and yet unaffected lyrics: "I had a thought, that I was a vein, running up your leg, infecting your heart". I asked Richie Young where these words came from:

RY: That's from Stripe II, a remake from the first release. I had a year of vivid dreams and I used to document them immediately when I woke up. This dream came after a good friend's Father died of a heart attack, he was an arsehole - a Dick Cheney type, but I had feelings for her. I dreamt I was the actual clot in his body, traveling to his heart and killing him, I was part of him and together we disintegrated into the floorboards. It was like a circle of life and it was my job as the clot, to kill him. The first record was all written from dreams.

Z: What made you stop using dreams for material?
RY: I had this amazing 'Epic' type dream where everyone in the streets was singing with me and I woke up with the tune still in my head. But because I had to go to study [at 28 then, he's 33 now] I had to wait until I got home to work on it. Then I sat down and realised the tune was Meatloaf's "I would do anything for love"... [grimaces] so I figured it was time to abandon the dream experiment.

Z: Are you comfortable as the front man? How do you feel about performing?
RY: It's like some kind of aesthetic (or authentic) purging - I shut off in an intensity [necessary to communicate the songs], I used to stay zoned out from the beginning to the end of the concert. Now I'm more aware, becoming more comfortable, I try to 'pop out' between songs - I know stage presence is not my strength but I'm slowly getting comfortable with it.
Z: And you're OK with the new publicity shots that present you clearly up front, with the band in background?
RY: I really didn't comprehend what people wanted, the band is egalitarian, I'm not a dictator or control freak but I've learnt that there's a need for presentation, a desire for personalization.
Z: What's behind the name - Loch Lomond, any Scottish connection?
RY: In the original project we were going to be called 'The Mountains' - I was working with Rob Oberdorfer (who I credit with improving my singing, he played back tapes over and over showing me my mistakes) and Rob had bought up old 1" reel-to-reel tapes because of a supply scare. The old tape we used for master had the brand "Loch Lomond" on it and the master became known as Loch Lomond, then at some point I realized it was a better name.

Loch Lomond is a beautiful but somewhat desolate loch in the southern Highlands of Scotland, somewhat fitting the bleak yet beautiful music of the band

Loch Lomond's final performance at the acclaimed Mississippi Studios (before it gets rebuilt) was as powerful as their recordings, bringing several of the audience to occasional tears, sweeping them away with wands of musical majesty, all the while presenting themselves as they are: simply and ordinarily down to earth.

Z: Back to the song-writing, what would you say your songs are about - the personal? Political? Existential?
RY: Probably existential - I don't write love songs and I don't write social/political songs as they date so much. The second release, the EP, came when I was depressed, although I didn't really realise it at the time: My dips went deeper than my peaks rose and I even prepared my life as if there were only 3 months left. I'm normal now, usual ups and downs.
Z: But the words remain bleak. I find some devastating. Without the dream influence, where does the imagery come from? For example "he's sleeping with bark chips on his tongue, and he's dreaming".
RY: I don't know where it comes from, it just does. If I sit and try to write, I can't, then I'm the world's worst...
We're been joined by the delightful Laurel Simmons [piano, celeste + vocals and percussion.], she comments to Ritche: "But you talk that way - in those strange ways - your take on things is different to others - in linguistic detail, like your movie idea.
RY: Oh yeah - 'Swim Kit' - I want to waste all the money I make on making that someday.

Q & Eh?
Q&E: Given free unrestricted travel, where would you go?
RY: Take the whole band to Spain on tour & then across to Mexico.
Q&E: Why Spain?
RY: It's a vision I had, now it's a goal - goal set - not yet done.

Q&E: What do you remember from when you were 8 years old?
L: Losing teeth - it's difficult to remember - oh! we got our dog Winston, a Springer Spaniel; English... he just died.

Q&E: What's your solution to the energy crisis?
L: That's funny [coincidentally] on our last tour it was a big issue, how could we do anything about it?
RY: Look to Brazil: They will be free of external energy needs by 2018, keep it close, sustainable...
Q&E: What about here?
RY: Shut down the military-industrial complex [Eisenhower], then an elected leader would be free to make rational decisions.

When did you last run, and why?
L: (laughs) Across the street today, why - because that car would have hit me.
RY: Five days ago, I needed some exercise, and that pretty girl in the clothing store, I ran because I needed it but also because of her, I wanted to see her and instead of running indirectly I ran straight to her store.

Q&E: What are a few of your favourite things? + Can you make it scan...?
L: MY guitar, my photos, my sewing machine, my Grandmother's ring.
RY: I only own two things - my guitar, my clothes. Oh and the paint-by-numbers pony which Pia & I fought over at a garage sale - it's in storage.

Q&E:How many swans do you recommend, per bathtub?
L: Just One
R: Just One also
Q&E: Why one?
L: More can get messy
Q&E: You have experience with this?
L: Yes, well not... it was a chicken... (laughs and declines to say more)

Q&E: What do you always forget to take on tour?
L: Enough money, I don't worry about forgetting things, I get by with whatever I have.
R: ... I know - phone chargers!
L: Yes!
R: It seems like all our tools are on cell phones.

Q&E: Anticipation or Surprise?
R: Anticipation - oh man, I like it, it's the best part, even if whatever it is doesn't turn out to be good.
L: I was going to say surprise, because it's easier to deal with but after hearing that...
R: Like waiting to kiss someone... or to jump out of a plane

Z: How do the songs evolve?
RY: Once I have a lyric and a basic tune, I usually work with Amanda [A. Lawrence: viola, vocals] I play her melodies or hum them, and she develops them adding more ideas, as do the rest of the group.
Z: They show great restraint within the songs, no egos demanding solo spots. On the song Carl Sagan for instance, it's typically simple to begin with, then instruments fill in more and more in layered textures - it reminded me of a rain that started off spotting, stirred up, then rose to storm.
LS: All of us agree that it's about building the song, not rocking out. It's become easy now; the interactions - this approach seems so much more powerful.
Z: And not only instrumentally, there are lovely harmonies, choral progressions, even rounds...
LS: Yes, everybody can sing well and it sounds beautiful whether we're rising to multi-part harmonies or in unison. It's a wall of sound.
RY: We do love to do that, but try to vary the music... though nothing punches through as much as a wall of vocals.

Above photos by the 'magnificient' Alicia Rose

Z: Laurel, what does the band think of all these dark lyrics Richie writes?
LS: It's only through interviews like this that I learn what's behind the songs. There have only been a few times I've known exactly.
RY: It's more important that people interpret the lyrics for themselves, finding their own meanings. Songs can be ruined by finding out...
Z: Maybe, but I still want to ask you about another song on your new album - A Field Report, on it you sing "A field report to you oh my god", this is America so I need to ask, is that "Oh my God!" the expression or is it directed to an actual God?
RY: It's directed to a God idea, I'm somewhat agnostic.
Z: And you sing phrases like "sounds of children laughing make my eyes bleed" & "teeter-toters and daughters are things I'll never have in my back yard"
RY: Well, I was struck by this Mother as I was rummaging in some charity bins - her child was screaming, squirming, she was exhausted, but somehow it seemed to be what she wanted. I found a toy trumpet, a dirty diaper and a $5 note (which paid for the trumpet). And a few of the band intend to have children, but not me. Although I sort of know what it's like, because when I was growing up my Father was always working and my Mother was very depressed, staying in bed. I'm the oldest of four sons and with my next brother we sort of raised the others. [Note - I also asked brother Dillan, (the three younger brothers form the band 'Brothers Young') about his oldest brother's lyrics. He said yes, he could understand where they came from].
LS: Well this [Loch Lomond], is our baby.
RY: Yes, but I'm kind of sad. Maybe I do have it in me: Once I nearly drowned, & as I was taken out to sea I bargained that if only I survived I would go back, get a girlfriend, get married, have a family. As the current turned and I got swept back to land I gradually unwound the bargains... OK I'll get married, but no family - then it became, I'll have a relationship, but no marriage... by the time I was ashore, everything was as it was.
The other thing Young's brother Dillan told me was that it's trendy to be dark and bleak, but most of that was phony but his brother was real. I agree, Richie Young is the genuine article, and the exceptional talent behind him are the perfect foil. I found 16 year olds that latch onto it because of what it says, and 70 year olds who love the beauty of the music. Loch Lomond really is a deep, isolated but ultimately unforgettable and serene place, and so is the loch that shares the name.

Loch Lomond are: RITCHIE YOUNG: vocals, guitar, percussion; SCOTT MAGEE: bass clarinet, drums, vocals; LAUREL SIMMONS: piano, celeste, vocals; HEATHER BRODERICK: cello, piano, celeste, vocals; JADE ECKLER: vocals; AMANDA LAWRENCE: viola, vocals; DAVE DEPPER: bass, vocals; PIA DA SILVA: vocals
With much assisitance from: NICK JAINA: accordian, trumpet, vocals; DOUG JENKINS: inspiration, cello. Their recordings are highly recommended.

The Eels: Three little words towards a slippery slope?

2008-04-28T23:29:16+00:00

As the Eels tour "An Evening With Eels" winds on through Australia, the question of whether the great Mark Everett could sustain his brilliance raised it's ugly head. Read how The Eels came through the test:

Once you've been watching live rock acts for a number of years you learn to be wary of any performer who announces not a show, but "An Evening With...". This usually signals that the artist has reached such a peak of acclaim that they feel they can indulge their loyal fans with all manner of personal trivia instead of actually playing music. It can also mean that they don't have any new material, or that they are bereft of new ideas and are bored with the stuff that made them big in the first place...

Yet another worrisome indicator ahead of this performance was that Eels official web site still seems to weigh heavily on the 2000-2001 albums (both brilliant btw), the last new stuff coming in 2005 - newer releases being either live or old out-takes.

So it was with some trepidation that I caught the 2008 Eels tour, not wanting to be witness to a possible fall. Surely Everett couldn't be as bad as Elvis Costello was in London that time: Costello cosied up in smaller theatres with no band, talking, showing pointless holiday snaps, using a silly 'wheel-of-fortune' for some game he thought up while only playing occasional medleys of songs and completing none.

Making your 'An Evening With' tour work could be a bigger challenge than making it in the first place.

If you don't know it by now, Everett is the son of a famous quantum physicist who proposed the possibility of parallel universes & exchanged letters with Einstein. In true 'An Evening With' otherworldliness, the show opened with a one-and-a-half hour documentary... Yes at least that long, and of course it was our hero going about rehashing his famous Dad's theories with numerous scientists... it was pretty interesting, gave me time to pop out for a beer and at least he didn't break into song, no Informational Science Musical.

Next came the set and SUCH relief - he didn't screw it up like others have. His chat was concise, the wit was sharp, the altercations with one loudmouth never disintegrated in the way Costello's had (Elvis was so affronted he spent 10 minutes publicly humiliating a man who was justifiably asking for his money back) AND The Eels played music.

Like the website, the playlist relied heavily on the DAISIES OF THE GALAXY and SOULJACKER albums for highlights. On stage was a full array of instruments but the only support came from 'The Chet', a hyper-talented multi-instrumentalist, playing in his home town to great acclaim. They were so competent and confident in their work it almost seemed distant, like another dimension... no. No complaints they played and played well. It should be noticed that despite a few meatier Beck-like tunes, and the hard image of Souljacker, Everett is mostly a quiet, thoughtful songwriter, more akin to Randy Newman. His touch and insight have produced many - more than a dozen, truly magnificent songs. Lately he's been doing other stuff, resolving his Father's legacy, experimenting musically and writing a bio - oh yes that was a banana skin, the Chet reading from Everett's autobiography was naff, but my abiding memory will be of them pulling off one of the slickest stage tricks I've seen; seamlessly switching from drums to piano 3 times within the song Flyswatter - literally replacing each other that is, in a truly multi-dimensional doff to his Dad - a very special moment.

Georgie James: Interview - The sound of chalk with cheese

2008-04-20T17:27:16+00:00

Georgie James - intriguing, pop yet not, fresh act but proven class, soft rock with a hard edge? I caught up with the contrary duo, Laura Burhenn & John Davis, on their West coast radio and TV promotional tour, and for a minimal set - live at the Artistery, Portland.

Photos by Shervin Lainez

OK, you're melodic, you have great harmonies, and pop influences going back to the 60's - but why do I like your music? Where does that edge come from?

John: I have a background in punk, and love all that freak-beat energy, The Jam, The Who etc. I think I've maintained what I wanted of the energy and edge that was there with my previous band Q And Not U.
Laura: And I wanted 'louder', I was fine with what I was doing, but we have more to offer together.

But there are also many neat twists of tempo and switches of attack in your music, sort of like XTC...

J: Drums and Wires, English Settlement and Black Sea, especially, are among my all time favourites, yes they're an influence too.
L: I dislike talking about influences, of course they exist but for me they're absorbed - processed not catalogued. Songs emerge from everything that's in there... I feel music is the core way to communicate.

Both Washington D.C based Laura Burhenn & John Davis are no novices - Davis has almost a decade of touring and recordings, particularly with former band Q And Not U. Burhenn was an established singer-songwriter who released 'Wanderlust' on her own label before joining up with Davis.

Q & Eh?

How many swans do you recommend, per bathtub?
J: Zero, I need my space.
L: Two, because they travel in pairs don't they? Don't they mate for life like crabs?
Maybe, but you don't want crabs in your bathtub...

Which of you has the greater corporate management potential?
J: (points at L: ) Her, definitely.

Tell me about Mexico & you
L: I don't know what you're talking about.
J: I've never really been there, but I'd sure like to go...

Best Gig you ever were at?
J: Fugazi - either April '92 at the Sanctuary Theatre in DC, it was my first experience of a real punk show, it was scary or again at the Washington monument Aug '93, seeing Fugazi was a life changer, it was scary.
L: P.J.Harvey - I'd seen her in a festival performance, she was experimenting and it was terrible - I was really disappointed, but later at a small venue I saw her again.
Just the three piece and her with the red Gibson?
L: Yes, and she's so small yet her voice was so great, I loved it. Oh and Lou Reed, that has to be up there.

Do you know how to dig a pony?
J: No. But I like the song.
L: I don't even know what that phrase means.

Did you ever think the moon really was made of Cheese?
L: No
J: No

What's your favourite Myth?
L: I never got into the whole Greek/Roman myth thing... even though I have degree in Lit. There was a trivia question, about Icarus, & I love that myth, it was 'What sea did he fall into?' and I couldn't remember.
J: The Aegean.
L: Yes, I worked that out of course. It's more that I didn't know right away. I was raised in a religious home, so our myths were more biblical.
Does the American propensity towards religion show up in your music?
J: No, I'm not religious... but I like the themes of devotion, passion. betrayal... especially in older religious music.
L: I could talk for days about this, my Grandfather was a Methodist minister, but I gave up church at 13 because of an incident [of hypocrisy].

Have you collected, or do you collect, anything?
L: I have never collected anything, ever. And now I seem to want less & less.
J: Yes: as a kid, the usual stuff - baseball cards, comics. Now records and BOMP magazine.
L: But sometimes I think I should have, I see people with these amazing collections of things...
But you wouldn't do it, would you?
L No, it's just not in me.

Many Cd's have just a couple of good songs, 'Places' by Georgie James (Saddle Creek Records) - offers much more: The interchange between the duo's vocals, the strength of the melodies and the tasty harmonies mean that even the weaker songs grow on you. Not too experimental, but constantly shifting to keep interest, this is a well recommended buy.

Your lyrics seem important - some serious subjects dealt with indirectly?

L: Yes, that's right, for instance on songs like Cake Parade -, serious but with uplifting music.

Stunning track - one of the best concerning war. Up there with "Melt The Guns' - even 'Universal soldier'. And John, I noticed you like Ricky Gervais

J: Yes, it's like sarcastic fuel, and I like inside jokes, personal embarrassments.

Your 'Need Your Needs' video features a book, do you take any inspiration from novels?

L: I'm definitely inspired by literature and art; and John reads millions of books, so it has to have an effect.

J: Yes, but I can't think of any specific song that directly relates to a book. I'm more inspired by albums, I remember discovering a Bread LP in a [charity shop]. My Father hated it, but I was hooked.

You know they use Bread for Muzak these days?

J: Yes, but there's something about David Gate's writing, all the hits were his.

No writing conflicts then, between you?

L: No, we're fine.

How about More Lights, which I particularly like, who did the writing on that track?
L: We both wrote parts of it, it's John's song and I wrote the part where I sing... that's typical of how we work

J: That's one of the songs I like least. It doesn't express enough of what I wanted to say.

L: I'm surprised that John doesn't like it, for me it works perfectly, the juxtaposition of light and dark - and co-incidentallly, just after we recorded that I went out to find my car had been broken into in a dark alley and cursed the lack of a streetlight, then realised, that's the song.

But as you both write within each song there's less division of credit, sort of like Lennon & McCartney?

J: I liked that about how their songs were credited, we just took it a step further with our name.

Despite their experience of big venues and media exposure, the band enjoyed playing at the community based, all ages venue The Artistery, Portland: "These places are great', said Davis, 'they listen, they really care, and I started out in places like this, so I appreciate what they do.

What about the name being a kind of androgynous merger?

J: We have a few stories about the name. Yes we wanted something neutral, first we came up with Georgie, then we wanted a great pop second name (you know like Idol, Star etc.) but Fame was already taken of course.

So the name was actually inspired by Georgie Fame?!

J: Yes, absolutely.

Le Loup & Ruby Suns: Less is more.... more or less.

2008-04-06T23:05:36+00:00

Two emergent bands opt for decidedly different approaches to delivering their swirling polyphonies of sound.

Holocene, Portland 4/08: Ruby Suns and Le Loup

Sam Simkoff leads 8-person Le Loup on vocals, he writes the songs, fiddles around on banjo and delivers an odd pants-down coiled-snake energy. And, you can't get away from it, Simkoff embraces the stare over rim of an emaciated Elvis Costello, Sam can't stand up for falling down.

Remarkably, considering the evident familial affability of the band, he pulled it all together from Craig'slist just last year. But are there too many parts for a coherent whole? In these very cool, but 'honest' venues like Holocene, no fancy lighting hides inactive players, and the stage crams large bands at close quarters, hard-lit. There's visual distraction and interest everywhere: During the all-in crescendos they're all involved, but is it tight enough for complex polyphonies? And how do you become inconspicuous during quiet interludes wafting like incidental plants at the fence-line?

Q & Eh? Le Loup

Would it be fair to compare you to the band Boston?

May: Flattering
Nicole: I like Boston, I listen to them every morning and dance...

How many swans do you recommend, per bathtub?

Nicole: Fifty, I have fifty.
So you have a big place?
Nicole: Yes, back in Washington DC...
A house?
Nicole: yes, a big white...

Do you use an alarm clock?
May: My cell phone
Nicole: Me too. All of us.
So you all wake up with cell phones?
Nicole: Yes we all sleep together, in one room.
And all your phones go off in unison?
Nicole: I'm not kidding, touring's hard.

What's the first logo that springs into your mind, and do you like it?
May: Shell... is that alright?
It's what it is.
Nicole: Pepco - that's a gas station too isn't it?

When did you last run, and why?
May: Green Lake - to keep in shape.
Nicole: Lake Austin
Bit of a coincidence that, both lakes, and why?
Nicole: I was running from our hordes of fans
Ah yes...

What are a few of your favourite things? + Can you make it scan...?

May & Nicole joined by Dan:
Hot chocolate, yoga, and a lay-down seat in the van;
Quaaludes, coffee and micro-brew and sleeping in my own bed.
Add that verse next time you sing it, thanks.

May Tabol (guitar and violin) says that Le Loup aim to keep their multiple parts in order by orchestrating simple contributions, and it's evident that there aren't many competing egos in the band, no dueling soloists. The delightful Nicole Keenan on keys also played the French horn skillfully, but all too elusively.
More horn, less banjo then Sam?

Well no, because on the CD Simkoff's banjo flits like whimsical dancer and a sound approaching Mercury Rev's emerges.

Despite the title, Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millenium General Assembly, the songs are well-penned, but oddly themed with endings and gods and worlds, a bit like an inverse of early Hawkwind albums. That the printed credits don't list the band members, inferring a near solo effort by Simkoff, but it is well worth buying, and includes a great hope and hook closer that would befit A-House. On it Simkoff sings "This is the end... and restless potential"; that's what they have, that's what's there to be resolved.

In contrast, The Ruby Suns have trimmed down to a 3-piece, yet they are anything but sparse. If it is sometimes a luxury to see each part played live, that's not something that Ryan McPhun sees as necessary. This night he played the drum-kit, standing up, in occasional explosive bursts, but is happy to use pre-recorded beats in other shows. McPhun and the two New Zealanders Amee Robinson and Imogen Taylor, all sing and layer synthesized sounds expertly. But as guitars switched hands and bodies nudged around all the other bands' gear onstage, reaching to hit loop feeds and grab this and that there was an inevitably a phrase or two chopped short.

Not that it mattered much, even though McPhun was unwell, he forced a nice pent-up performance out of himself and as the band moved between songs they huddled in pairs like laboratory technicians discussing progress or test results, while the layered sounds swelled, sometimes indeed, rather like Stereolab.

Q & Eh? Ruby Suns
What do you find ironic about the Alanis Morissette song "Isn't It Ironic"?

Amee: It's not fucking ironic. She doesn't know how to use the word.
You're the first person I've asked who realises that.
Amee: Yeah, all those things are just coincidences.

Have you ever thought of having a pet pig?
Yeah! I'm a big animal fan, and in New Zealand you can get minature ones, and they behave like pet dogs.

Potatoes or rice?
Brown rice.

What do you always forget to take on tour?
... [lots of blank space...]... more blank space]...
OK let it go...
No. MARMITE! Oh! I have a hangover and I want marmite - marmite on toast.

The rest of this Q& EH was snatched by an avid fan (let us know what it said luv....

McPhun led on most vocals, but all three have excellent vocal control and fine sense of harmony as well as rhythm - Robinson's voice, in particular was delightful when more prominent. On the latest CD, Sea Lion, there are strands of the Go Betweens strewn like fallen sheets, also, from the first stumble on stage McPhun reminded me of David Byrne, and on songs like Oh Mojave there it is, what you wish Byrne was doing now.

The Ruby Suns joined Le Loup's on stage for their closer, a big acoustic party and a big happy troop. The Ruby Suns, with a couple more years behind them, have trimmed and emerged with a fine sound. Lets hope Le Loup can advance without breaking up the family.

Le Loup contact INFO {at} LELOUPMUSIC {dot} NET
Simkoff photo: ronan thenadey - photographe

Ruby Suns appear on Lil Chief records http://www.lilchiefrecords.com/FUN website at http://lilchiefrecords.com/therubysuns/ drawn by Amee!

Brainwave: Common Senses

2008-04-04T16:09:51+00:00

Brainwave: Common Senses Exhibit at Exit Art Center, New York

Brainwave, exercising your common senses.

Upon visiting the Brainwave: Common Senses exhibition at Exit Art in NYC there is quite a diverse collection of pieces ranging everywhere from paintings to artificial environments and much more managing to somehow touch on different areas of the brain. Some actually reaching in and tugging at memories using stimuli within the piece, others using interactive technology to present hallways to recollections, and more, some which even incorporated the use of actual brainwave activity to convey an idea. Brainwave's exhibits explore sense perception, memory, emotion, and logic through art, music, and other ideas. In selecting artists and pieces for the exhibit, Co Founders Jeanette Ingberman and Papo Colo sent out open calls to artists and also included a few whom they had been researching.

The artists whose works are on display include:

Suzanne Anker, David Bowen, Steve Budington, Phil Buehler, Andrew Carnie, George Jenne, Daniel Marguiles and Chris Sharp, Fernando Orellana and Brendan Burns, Jamie O'Shea, SERU, Devorah Sperber, Naho Taruishi, Dustin Wenzel.

Among the pieces leaving a lasting impression on the brain is Brooklyn, New York Artist George Jenne?s Mechanism for Innocent Obscenities (2008). The piece which is constructed using a system of rotating gears and objects referred to by the artist as ?tokens? are cast in a neon green plastic and set against a black background,

catching the eye at first because of the color contrast. Taking a deeper look, it triggers pieces of memories from different moments in ones life. The memories at times being both exact moments and others being memories of feelings unable to be pinpointed visually or directly. A few random objects in the piece set off individual bells, as did the combination and juxtaposition of the objects as well. This piece was able to exercise the use of the three steps of the memory process, which include encoding the chosen material, storing the information either in long term or short term memory, and the third stage being retrieval of the memory.

Sleep Waking (2008) by Fernando Orellana and Brendan Burns is a 15?tall bipedal robot which determines its movements by using recorded brainwave activity during rapid eye movement (R.E.M.) sleep. The robot performs a series of different movements varying from sedentary positions to what looks like theatrical dances and even some that resemble karate moves. Watching the robot in action leaves one wondering about the connection between dreams and sleep, dreams, sleep and the waking self, and what really goes on in our mind when low voltage brainwaves and irregular heartbeats take over during R.E.M. What also is of interest in this piece is the relationship between humans and robots. As we find robots and robotic technology more present in our everyday life, it brings up the question of just how human, or humanly capable are robots, and even what role they will take as the evolution of ?their kind? progresses.

Approaching Phil Buehler's installation entitled Windows of the Soul (2008) Without first reading the information surrounding the piece, is a bit disquieting. A huge video projected on the floor of various peoples faces whose eyes are blacked out with a narrow line, the eyes being redirected to a narrow horizontal video screen which is suspended above the video of the faces. The video lasts about five minutes projecting images of numerous psychiatric patients who were committed to a psychiatric hospital in the 1950?s. The images came from the original photos taken upon admittance into the hospital. The video projection of the photo montage bestows an uneasy feeling, somehow viewing the images prior to knowing what was being conveyed is still eerie, the black and white photos grainy at times leaves a sort of haunting in the atmosphere. Reading the details of the piece confirms the uneasiness but also somehow forces the reexamination of the human being lost at times when people become labeled, categorized, and generalized to one specific aspect of who they are. Viewing the images both from the front view and the back view is the same except for the elongation and slight distortion of the floor projections showing the actual faces, the eyes remain the same suspended above, but the contrast of the slightly distorted image as opposed to the front normal view brought out another aspect of the exhibit, conveying the idea that this is in a sense how society views the ?insane?. Phil Buehler has definitely mastered the art of capturing a feeling in ruins. It almost feels as if he is able to transport you for a moment to another time and place, weather it be on Ellis Island or to an Airplane Graveyard, or in this case through this photo collection Windows of the Soul arranging them so as to ask, are you able to read madness in the eyes.

For a truly personal take on the brainwave exhibition Naho Taruishi?s Close your Eyes (2007) comes closest. Utilizing the eyelids as an internal projection screen. Questioning the idea of actually ?seeing?. In this piece to see one must close their eyes. Therefore in a sense we are viewing blindly. By incorporating the studies of color theory and consciousness Taruishi?s work plays on the association between darkness and light flickering at different speeds to explore the way one perceives internal and external phenomena, simultaneously. As reflecting light is projected upon the retina, using it as a video screen so begins the process of seeing. The retina being comprised of the photo receptor, bipolar, and ganglion layers of neurons sends signals that generate electrical impulses which in turn are sent to the brain via the optic nerve where they are decoded into comprehensible images creating an individual vision. Viewing this piece at first is quite different, where the individual viewing is actually the conductor of their own movie of memories and visions of sorts, originated by Taruishi?s single channel video. You can almost feel the movie, one without words or sounds, without perfected images or a defined plot. A movie that is none the less intensely powerful.

Exit Art?s Brainwave exhibition is an interesting and personal test of the senses. It is a vast array of different feelings and emotions using the senses to channel them out. The artists works are amazing to view up close and again at times to interact with. Papo Colo and Jeanette Ingberman?s Art Center is definitely worth visiting.

Special Thanks to Lauren Rosati Assistant Curator at Exit Art.

http://www.exitart.org/site/pub/main/index.html

Pig Whipped Punk Blues

2008-03-27T15:31:22+00:00

Hillstomp - On Tour, McMenamins Grand Lodge, Forest Grove The hype around Hillstomp is all about fun - "Cans & buckets drum-kit & rambunctious slide guitar" - But this is no noisy mess; it's the blues with a whip, hill-punk with melody; Hillstomp burst out of the garage like wild horses, whinnying new songs that you'd swear were great old ones.

Think Bron-Y-Aur Stomp from Led Zeppelin III and you're inside the blues-inspired dimension of Hillstomp; throw in anything percussive that gets thrown out, plus an old kitchen sink... but then notice it's not only loose, it's all hanging together like a master puppetry, it's a cacophony of quality.

I used to live in the same London flats as The Pogues, a band Hillstomp have two things in common with. Both got hold of a music genre and whipped it up into a more energetic, sometimes frenzied, form. And just as most Pogues songs weren't old classics vamped up, but originals out of Shane MacGowan's
head; so too, Hillstomp do a few covers (especially of R.L. Burnside), but most are originals. Their songs just sound like time-worn classics. Time worn, yet timeless.

Q & Eh? - Hillstomp

Would it be fair to compare you to the band Boston?

John: God I hope not! Henry: I really hope so, I have a deep love for Boston, why, it was my dream when I started this band that we'd become the new Boston... etc..
Have you ever thought of having a pet pig?
Henry: No. John: Yes, we've discussed it, but only if it stayed small.
Potatoes or rice?

John: Potatoes, definitely. Henry: Rice, I'm watching my waistline for the ladies, brown of course.

Brown what, brown ladies, brown rice, brown hippies?

Henry: Hah, ladies, both I mean & brown hippies.
How many swans do you recommend, per bathtub?
Henry: No fewer than six... (grins)... it's a very large bathtub

In your mansion?

Henry: Yes, it's MC Hammer's old place... we had a chance to acquire it, and... you know...
Do you use an alarm clock?
Henry: No, I don't need to get up, I'm a nightworker John: Always, every day, but I never get up.
Beer/Wine/Whiskey or?
John: Any and all, but not anymore... that was then Henry: IPA. Favorite is Bridgeport, some are too hoppy
Given free unrestricted travel, where would you go?
Henry: Australia! I don't know why, it just feels like a last frontier

You mean the outback then?

Henry: All of it: I'd go all around the outside and then into the outback. John: Ireland, I'm drawn to it, the music, the people.
What's the first logo that springs into your mind?
Henry: Pet pig! Pig in a cage...

Whose logo is that?

Henry: Ours, it could be...
What's the best use for WD 40?
Henry: Gears on a bycycle, that's what I use it for

You still ride a bike?

Henry: Yep, all the time. John: (Hesitates) Henry: Remember this is a family show. John: (self censored ).... flamethrowing

Really?

John: don't try it.

When did you last run, and why?
John: Four years ago - in an attempt to make last call at a bar down the road.

Kammerer sings "NE Portland 3am; running from the ghosts again, I cannot tell the ghosts from men." But uncannily, this still sounds like an ancient lament, with other lines like "nothing sweeter in this world, than a blue eyed Carolina girl; the men in Carolina know, you love them well before they go." only the Portland reference gives it away. Although blues phrasing doesn't readily accommodate rambling storytelling, Hillstomp's conjured up street scenes and imagined journeys are worthy of comparison with Tom Waits's, a pared-down Waits perhaps.
Photo left and above: Desiree Fredenburg

Most of the lyrics and song ideas are Kammerer's, heavily filtered and adorned by the deceptively musical Johnson - you can't make bashing on found objects sound that good unless you are steeped in a music background as he is. By contrast, Kammerer is a self-taught, bedroom, 'I needed an art credit' guitarist; quirkily using his index finger for slide rather than his pinky. They create a surprisingly big textured sound using no pre-records. But It's that songwriting that set Hillstomp apart from other lo-fi blues derivative forerunners like Doo Rag who got snared in a limited sound.

The CDs:

I recommend buying each of their first 3 CD's; 'One Word', 'The Woman that Ended the World' and 'After Two but Before Five'(live), they're fairly lo-fi recordings, but are sure to become collectibles. When the current tour ends in summer they band are going back into the studio with more money to spend on quality sound, it should be good. As far as future plans, they'll stay a duo for now, convinced they have 2-3 more full length albums in them yet .

The band use harmonica mics for their vocals, Kammerer insists that modern vocal mics have too many rich tones and that old broadcast, or harmonica mics, are actually better for picking up lyrics. It seems he's right, it sounded great live - however, I wish they'd use a normal mic for the between song chatter, so they don't sound like Steven Hawkins all show.

Nothing lasts for ever though, so catch Hillstomp soon, enjoy their contraptions, the energy, the trance-blues mixed up with hillbilly punk, so you can say you were there; because this band is something. As Kammerer replied when I remarked that the ramshackle image was a little misleading, "No, this, I'm taking really seriously" and Johnson... well he just stinks of rhythm and magic buckets.

Support Footnote:

Opening for Hillstomp was the solo incarnation of Rollie Tussing, a brilliant guitarist and dazzlingly knowledgeable regular on the local Portland scene. For this performance he was a one-man band playing up-tempo blues, and he warmed things up perfectly. Tussing struggles a little with vocal range, and occasionally uses a kazoo - which isn't my favourite instrument - yet occasionally finds a perfect voice. On his myspace he cites the aforementioned Tom Waits as an influence, and he almost settles on a Waits type vocal at points. But it's the mastery of the guitar that grips the audience - you get the impression that he could play anything well, and that he's as one with his instrument (careful how you quote that one...). Tussing told me he has several other musical threads, too many, but whatever he's doing next time around it should be worth a night out.

Death For No Reason

2008-03-06T17:43:59+00:00

Are sophistic arguments sufficient defence for artists who gain notoriety by ?documenting? animals? deaths? Can the capture and starvation of an animal in exhibit be justified by its oblique commentary on society? What, if anything, is being said under the cover of art? As another show with dubious animal death content opens in San Francisco there?s a different question to ask, one that the artists should ask of themselves.

A dog is tied up in a gallery, deprived of any food or water and left to die. A photographer cuts and pastes animal heads on other objects digitally, but bizarrely, only after she has killed them. Another artist records video clips of six animals being clubbed to death by sledgehammer.

This is irritating moral territory, one doesn?t want to provide artists and their sponsors publicity for work that?s of no artistic value, but if the exhibitions are ignored there is a tacit acceptance of them. Therefore it?s necessary to identify that the dog was captured, tied up and exhibited to die by Guillermo Habacuc Vargas; that the woman who finds it necessary to kill various animals before photoshopping them is Nathalia Edenmont; and that it?s Adel Abdessemed, as announced in this publication?s news last week, whose exhibit includes videos of animals being clubbed to death.

Adel Abdessemed, Don�t Trust Me,
2008. Video still. Courtesy of the
artist and David Zwirner Gallery.

The argument has been made that these kinds of exhibit are justified if they challenge our sensibilities or confront our social, political and cultural norms. This is undoubtedly true and is sometimes valid. There is a case for shocking people so that an artist can intercede a new slant on some situation, directly or obliquely. But this can be done, and has been done, very effectively and many times, without having to kill anything anew. There is plenty of death out there to work with.

Nathalia Edenmont

What is Edenmont?s point? Her promoters have even extended the usual justifications, speciously claiming that her work advances animal rights (a nonsense calmly and thoroughly debunked by Ellie Maldonado here). It?s seems that Edenmont?s work is ultimately so weak without the sensationalized fact of her slaughtering her subjects that it otherwise doesn?t merit much attention.

Vargas, who is one of six chosen artists for the Central American Biennial in Honduras, defends himself by stating that the dog was unwanted; a nuisance around the makeshift corrugated homes in a shantytown, and that he paid some children to help capture it. So what? Is he saying that because nobody cares about the dog he should be able to prove how little that matters? Whether or not he meant to, Vargas does almost make a point about indifference ? the photograph of the emaciated dog in it?s last throes being ignored by gallery goers chatting, sipping and posing around, is disturbing. Point made, but justifiable? Where can you take this line of reasoning? There are plenty of people who no one seems to care about, some people don?t care at all about Sr. Vargas. And again, the art, the rest of the exhibit, the tomatoes and fruits, are of little artistic merit.

"Natividad"
The dog starved to death by Guillermo "Habacuc" Vargas. Securing
Vargas a space representing Costa Rica in the upcoming Central
American Biennial in Honduras.

Only Abdessemed backs off the killings by saying that they ?were to happen anyway? and that he could not have prevented them. Hmmm, are we supposed to swallow the story that some farmer routinely slaughters an peculiarly odd mix of animals by sledgehammer? (Abdessemed ?chose? the six - a sheep, a horse, an ox, a pig, a goat, and a doe ? from a wider number of animals ? is this some sadistic ark?). This is guff.

Think how many blows would it take to kill a horse or an Ox? Even a goat would need several direct smashes on the skull to kill it. Abdessemed doesn?t claim to be exposing any cruelty that might be worthy of art, instead the press release from the San Francisco Art Institute in sickly prose declares that ?the multiplicity of stimuli imbue the work with an instantaneous efficiency that circumvents categorization, making typical moral and cultural constraints seem beside the point.?

Beside what point? Not ?social, cultural, moral, [or] political implications? the blurb states, no? because ?such questions [are] now verging on irrelevance?; oh really?

Better then to quote Morrissey of The Smiths, ?It?s death for no reason and death for no reason is murder?.

Looking at this critically and realising what?s wrong here doesn?t require extreme animal rights activism or vegan sensibility. It?s the selfishness.

It?s been called psychotic narcissism but that gives it too grand a gloss for these sorry exhibits by artists who may be nothing more than sadistic fools. It?s selfishness through arrogance and self-glorification. The artists should ask themselves a simple question. Why not put myself in there, in place of the animal? Too shocking? Yes, and just as stupid, but without the shock these artists wouldn?t matter, and that? is their real fear.

"The Dark Lord of Photoshop"

2008-03-07T20:02:39+00:00

Mexican photographer, Javier S. Sanudo (Frodo 47 on Flickr), balances a trained eye in the classic beauty of portraiture, with his own dark imaginings through the creative use of photo-manipulation.

The best way to describe Frodo 47's photography is simply, 'finding the beauty in darkness'. Sa�udo's personal photo series "Creacion de Imagenes" was inspired by "images of madness and indifference you see on the streets." He then twists the images until they take the form of his sometimes nightmarish imaginings.
"I have always preferred to be alone, creating my own 'bubble' in my mind."

Frodo 47, a.k.a. Javier S. Sa�udo, was born in 1981and has lived all his life in Mexico City. Like many artists, music was the artist's introduction into personal creativity. "Since I was very young, music has been my curse, I've been playing guitar and listening to music all day and night. For more than eight years, I used to play in Death Metal bands," says Sa�udo. He says he has always been interested in images like photography, paintings, video clips, movies. But, it was not until he saw Joel-Peter Witkin?s photos that he got became interested in taking photographs as a main means of expression. "The way he shows human ways of being made me try to do the same, but in my own way."
Sa�udo is also influenced by H.R. Giger, John Santerineross, Herr Buchta , Jeffrey Scott, Floria Sigismondi, Misha Gordin among others.

Sa�udo studied photography at Escuela Activa de Fotograf�a (EAF), taking courses about digital photo, developing personal projects and image analysis. He says he learned from the technical matters there, but has learned much more by by constantly viewing photographs, and practicing on his own. Sa�udo says, "I'm always trying to get the best the shot, factoring the lighting, interesting perspectives and meaningful symbols."

Now days, he pays the bills as a free-lance commercial photographer, doing fashion shoots and band promotion. But don't let his day-job fool you. Although, the images are stunning in composition, it's his personal work that is his art. Sa�udo states, "I take some photographs to make money. The more commercial stuff, I enjoy doing for the technical matters. But, I don't enjoy it as much as I do with my personal work because of the meaning in it.

Sa�udo is still very influenced by music, I'm always listening to music while I?m shooting or working on the computer. I also enjoy working with bands, taking live concert photos, band photos and artwork for their album booklets. "I combine what I feel with the music I listen to when I'm working - sometimes taking the lyrics from some of my favorite songs and make my own representation of them."

Nudes are essential in Sa�udo's work because, "nudity is the most pure and vulnerable way of existence. I've tried to get some actors, professional models, friends and even myself as model. I?m also starting to work on some portrait projects with real people who have suffered - had difficulties in their lives that make them do really strong and painful acts."

When asked why so many of his works are untitled, the artist responds "Normally, I prefer to not put titles to my work. it?s very interesting for me to know what people think and feel while watching my work unless they?ve misunderstood totally what I?m expressing. That?s my game when I leave my works untitled, and I?m ready to play it."

Sa�udo explains the benefit of photo manipulation. "Sometimes having money is not enough to get a lot of production, locations, etc. Sometimes I want my photos to look surreal and match the ideas I have, so that's why photo-manipulation has been a great tool for me. I use photo-manipulation as a creative weapon, not a corrective one. I'm trying to be able to express what I'm interested - fear, pain, suffering, death, mental diseases, human behavior, anti-religion and psychology."

While his images are now represented on the Saatchi Gallery website and are gaining popularity, Sa�udo remains humble. "I'm not bringing any important messages from outer space or anything, it's just my way to express myself through my main passion. I prefer to leave my work to the open interpretation of the viewer. I'm just working on representing surreality as realistically as I can. I'm glad that people are interested in what I do."

See more of Frodo's work at

www.flickr.com/photos/ciphoto

www.ciphotodesign.com

or on the Saatchi gallery website http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/photographers