I'm going AWOL for a week —off to San Francisco to attend a family reunion (pray it's drama-free!) and visit friends. I'll be checking e-mail, so keep those HNIA contest entries coming.

See you in a bit.

Posted by Andrea at 01:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The new His Name Is Alive album, XMMER (Silver Mountain Media), came out this week. This is cause for rejoicing ‘round these parts, because we here at WR HQ quite like HNIA. We’ve said as much here, here, here, and here.

HNIA mastermind Warn Defever works in a purely American idiom: writing deceptively throwaway pop songs with an unvarnished center of elegiac heartbreak. He gets bright, bubbly American voices to sing them. He’s a deeply idiosyncratic folklorist and preservationist who’s also a canny, witty producer. (For instance, it takes singular cojones to turn Rainbow’s “Man on the Silver Mountain” into a beatific lament.)

While Warn’s never been one to stick with any one genre for long (he’s restless and omnivorous with his obsessions), the new HNIA album XMMER (Silver Mountain) continues in Detrola’s stylistic vein of lush 70s MOR à la the Carpenters, a move that’s only cemented by singer Andrea Francesca Morici’s lovely, Edenic vocals.

To celebrate, we’re having a contest.

• First prize is two tickets to see HNIA on any of their headlining dates in the US. The tour starts October 19th in NYC (CMJ show!) and concludes in Minneapolis on the 26th.

• Second prize is one copy of XMMER.

All you have to do is answer the following question:

Who is the King of Sweet? Artist, revolutionary, cereal-box mascot (or all of the above)?

Answers may come in the form of haiku, line drawing, collage, comic strip, quatrain, sonnet, limerick, prose-poem or any Dadaist nonsense you please. If that's too freaking complicated, haiku is preferred —don't forget the five-seven-five syllable (three lines, 17 syllables total) format.

Then either email me [ warpedrealitymagazine (at) gmail.com ] your entry with the subject line "CONTEST ENTRY", or post it here as a comment. Make sure you leave your e-mail address or other contact information.

Two winners will be drawn on OCTOBER 15, 2007.

TOUR DATES:

• October 18: Knitting Factory, 11 PM
New York, NY | CMJ (with ST. VINCENT)

• October 23: Shank Hall
Milwaukee, WI

• October 25: Schubas
Chicago, IL

• October 26: 400 Bar
Minneaplois, MN

Official Site | Myspace Page | Silver Mountain Media [download the back catalog here] | Firefly Dragonfly [upcoming EP on Acuerela Records, Spain]

His Name Is Alive, “No More The Moon” (from the Silver Makeup EP, 2007 | download the rest of the EP here)

His Name Is Alive, “Go To Hell Mountain” (from XMMER, 2007)

Posted by Andrea at 03:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Ambivalence is a difficult emotion to deal with in pop music. Yet, there it is in the title of D.C.-based songwriter Carol Bui’s second album, Everyone Wore White [54 40 Or Fight! Records].

To a Western eye, white is, traditionally, the color of purity, and of celebration, new beginnings (brides wear white, for instance). From an Eastern standpoint, white is the color of mourning, of loss. But, to Bui —who is of Vietnamese descent— “white” is culturally fraught, speaking as it does —sociologically, culturally, and racially— of the aspirational desire to assimilate, to “pass” into the dominant culture, and in doing so, to mourn one’s own cultural identification.

The resulting album touches on such complex socio-political themes with a marked lack of earnestness —Bui’s elegiac songs are candid, yes, but play out with the complicated, ambiguous shading of narrative. The album draws a great deal of power from Bui’s poetic yet plainspoken lyrics, expressive vocals, and her unerring ability as a guitarist to pit delicacy against dissonance. The resulting album is a watercolor wash done in bright, saturated hues; multi-faceted, it is as much bluesy lament as it is pure pissed-off fury, as much catharsis as elegy.

Bui was kind enough to answer some questions for me last week, and her answers were thoughtful, candid, and funny. She’s in the middle of an extensive tour for the album —check the tour dates at the end of the interview to see if she might be playing your town. She’ll be in Providence tonight at AS220 —she’s on first. (I think. Whatever you do, arrive early!)

A fair number of your songs deal, either directly or obliquely, with your Asian heritage, either slyly ("Hyphen-American" from This Is How I Recover), or poetically (drawing on traditional songs and arrangements, for instance). You also deal quite frankly with sexual politics, utilizing narrative to give voice to differing perspectives. I imagine that was also your intent with the cover art. The juxtaposition of the elegaic title (Everyone Wore White) with the woman's pose and inscrutable expression hold a great deal of tension. It's a frozen, morally charged moment, all but asking viewers to supply a narrative to go along with it. Why did you pick this image, and, in doing so, what was your intent?

Carol: Honestly, I saw this painting on the artist's website and just thought it was so beautiful and provocative, I had to have it on my album. It wasn't until later, when I had to actually stop and think about how to name the album, when I saw how it all fit so well with the music. The title came from a lyric in "Rockville.”You're quick to see that it's about both celebration and loss. Most people I presented the title to were like 'um, explain, please?"

White is the color of mourning over in most parts of the east... but I also meant for it to be about race, too. I wanted to be white as a kid. And whether my family knew it or not, they did, too. When I was younger, we used to go to Vietnam every summer to visit family. And I remember it being so weird that people loved how light my skin was. Everyone wanted lighter skin over there. My aunts even wore some kind of face cream in this little green tub that supposedly lightened the skin. Fair skin was important. So was the number of creases you have on each eyelid, which kind of translates to how western you look. I remember watching Hong Kong epic movies with my mom and she'd comment on the actresses, how one was ugly because she had only 'mot mi', or one crease on the eyelid...how another was beautiful because her eyes were bigger, skin more fair, and so on.

The title of your new album, Everyone Wore White, evokes both celebration and loss. The music bears this out too, playing out with a kind-of defiant, scorched-earth delicacy. Were these songs conceived as a song-cycle? What was the process of like?

Another question I don't know how to answer! I didn't really have one idea or theme for the album as I wrote the songs. Some of them took months to piece together. Others took maybe a day. My songwriting process has always been kind of instinctive —not so objective, which I think really frustrated some past band mates. I typically start off with a chord progression or 'riff' and then build on top of it. I'll play those parts over and over again for months sometimes before I know what to do with them next. Vocal melodies tend to come easily. I like to sing stuff that kind of bounces off the guitar a little. And I almost always hear drums as I go along and my guitar playing usually reflects that. It's a very physical thing...how it feels to sing and play the songs pretty much dictate how they ultimately come out, I guess.

When did you first start writing your own songs? How has your process changed over time?

I started writing songs when I was 15 or 16. I think it was when I first started listening to Hole and Sonic Youth, because I loved their music, but they also made it seem very doable...that the rules aren't quite so rigid. My process has changed over time somewhat as I'm starting to write less out of ego and more out of …I don't know!

Songwriting is an incredibly personal form of expression, but one's personal style is inevitably shaped by formative influences. What songwriters or bands would you count as your inspirations? Then and now? Do you remember the first sounds that obsessed you, or that shifted your perspective?

My mother used to play these Khanh Ly tapes to help me sleep. I slept in the same room as my parents for a long time growing up, more than most people I know. I remember feeling so sad because some of Mom's favorite songs were about death as a result of war and being displaced, and I kept thinking to myself "I want to die before my parents die. I wouldn't know what to do without them!" I obsessed over that thought all the time. I was always afraid of losing them for some reason. And Khanh Ly —she's a very convincing singer. I think my favorite singers have always been those with voices that are more expressive, dynamic, and "chesty"...not as in breasts, heh —but the push seems to come from their chest or heart rather than the sinuses or nasal passages. Like Stevie Nicks. Jeff Buckley. PJ Harvey. Kathleen Hanna. Kat Bjelland. Robert Plant. Maura Davis. Billie Holiday. Ella Fitzgerald.

You make music in Washington , D.C. There's this clichéd idea of the great big extended Dischord family, but obviously it's a lot more complicated than that! How would you describe the scene there?

I don't know, I don't feel like there's one singular 'scene' or community that stands out to me as the fingerprint of DC right now. Musically speaking, there's TONS going on, especially since those new venues (Rock and Roll Hotel, The Red and Black) opened up on H street. We've got a country, swamp-americana thing going on with bands like Revival, These United States, Shortstack, and Mikal Evans. They're all terrific. We also have this new wave of traditional pop-rock and roll thing with Georgie James, Middle Distance Runner, Greenland... They're all getting a lot of attention.

Dischord is still very active and thriving —with the new Evens record, the Farraquet reunion… Beauty Pill resuming their touring and whatnot. That new Aquarium album that came out last fall is really effing catchy. And there will always be a diy/punk/hardcore/noise scene among the younger bands, mostly supported by Exotic Fever and the local universities. I was just asking Katy Otto of Exotic Fever what she thought because I had absolutely no idea how to answer your question at first, and she said a few things that I think hit the nail on the head. She describes it as "self-started", "risk-taking, and "ever-shifting." I guess throughout the city, those are the constants that we've all inherited from the Dischord legacy. More people are booking their own tours, self-releasing and producing their own records —and so on.

Favorite guilty pleasure (musical or otherwise)?

I don't feel guilty about any of it!! Just kidding, that's a total lie...I haven't learned to be THAT self-assured just yet. Heh. I LOVE Beyonce's "B'day". There's this song called "Suga Mama" that's just amazing —so many hooks on that album! I used to be apologetic about liking the Riverdance soundtracks. Some of that stuff is just gorgeous. There's this song called “Macedonian Morning” that's on the second one...I think? I dunno, I love it. The strings are so curvy and beautiful.

Something that inspired you today. It could be an overheard conversation, a piece of music or a passage from a book…

I read "This Band Could Be Your Life" several months ago, and there was one Kim Gordon quote from the Sonic Youth chapter that really sticks to me...it was something like, "people pay money to see musicians believe in themselves."

What do you do when you're not making music? And, if you didn't have music as an outlet, what do you think you'd do instead?

I'm a web programmer by trade. If it weren't for music, I don’t know what I'd do. I'm really obsessed with cinnamon raisin peanut butter from the Peanut Butter Company. I'd probably just eat that all day!

TOUR DATES:

9/24/2007: AS220, 115 Empire Street, Providence, Rhode Island 02903 - $6, 8 PM
9/25/2007: Night Owl Records, 72 Cottage Street, East Hampton, MA, 8 PM
9/26/07: The Skinny Pancake, 60 Lake St., Burlington, VT
9/27/2007: Valentine’s,17 New Scotland Ave, Albany, New York
9/28/2007: Geno’s Rock Club, 625 Congress St., Portland, Maine
9/29/07: Philadelphia, PA
09/30/2007: 449 Room, 449 South Broad St., Trenton, New Jersey
10/1/2007: Washington, DC | 10.2 Chapel Hill, NC | 10.3 Greensboro, NC | 10.4 Knoxville, TN | 10.6 Murfreesboro, TN | 10.9 Austin, TX | 10.10 OKC | 10.11 Tulsa, OK | 10.12 St. Louis, MO | 10.13 Lawrence, KS | 10.15 Madison, WI | 10.16 Bloomington, IN | 10.17 Indianapolis, IN | 10.18 Chicago, IL | 10.19 Traverse City, MI | 10.20 Canton, OH | 10.25 Wilmington, DE | 10.26 Harrisonburg, VA | 10.27 New York, NY | 11.2 Durham, NC | 11.3 Williamsburg, VA

Carol Bui [Myspace]| Carol Bui [Web Site]] | 54 40 or Fight! [Record Label]

Carol Bui, “The Year After” (from Everyone Wore White, 2007)

Carol Bui, “This Is How I Recover” (from This Is How I Recover, 2004)

PHOTO BY SHERVIN LAINEZ

Posted by Andrea at 01:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In a perfect world, Jacqui Ham’s work would need no introduction. She’d be deservedly renowned for her unconventional, yet cathartic, style of guitar playing. And not just for her guitar, but for her singing, a profoundly post-rock glossolalia that draws as much on jazz and blues influences as on the punk notion of throwing out the rule book and starting from scratch. Jacqui, a guiding force in primal No Wavers Ut , assembled Dial Dial in the early 90s with Rob Smith (ex-God, guitars, drum machine), Dom Weeks (Furious Pig, Het) on bass & synthesizer, and Lou Ciccotelli (Eardrum) on drums.

Dial’s music is characterized by a rawness, both emotional and musical, that lends it a furious immediacy. This tendency towards assaultive guitar din can give way at the most unexpected moments to surprising delicacy, as on the transfixing “Psychotrance,” a lustrous, cracked-mirror mantra in which Jacqui’s world-weary, jolie-laide coo fights against the fractured tide, her vocals spectral and brutal in equal measure. Exploiting tape hiss and the pitted, low-end patina of electrical interference, what is initially apocalyptically skuzzy-sounding becomes, via droning repetition and haunted keening, nearly sepulchral by song’s end. It’s a perfect entry point into Dial’s new album, 168k [Cede], a blurred-out, ghost-in-the-machine howl that never once lets up.

168k is their third album, but it has a clarity and spaciousness that mark it as a move forward. While the group’s previous album, 2000’s Distance Runner, was at times far too rubbed raw and abstracted, 168k is a more incisive listen. Limning the fertile territory between abrasive noise and oddly meditative controlled chaos, the album even flirts—in its own fractured way— with pop song-form, be it on the aforementioned “Psychotrance,” the surging, incantatory “Soda Wars,” or the hardscrabble, coiled “Hey Condition.” Jacqui’s densely imagistic lyrics are sung with fitful, rhythmic tartness; her tempest-tossed wail rides the waves of contorted noise with assurance.

168k’s songs have an immensity of scale and space; they’re constructed with precision and move with monumental, glacial force. At times heavily claustrophobic —all looming intensity and livid emotion—the bruised landscape gradually gives way to something softer, less scorched-earth. But that’s no admission of complacency —simply a reminder that, if you listen carefully enough, there is beauty to be found here.

Currently, 168k is available at Other Music, Ear Wax in Williamsburg (Brooklyn), Revolver Carrot Top , and CDBaby.com. If you have any trouble getting a hold of it, let me know ASAP.

For previous albums, try Crucial Blast.

Dial, “Little Eye” (from Infraction, 1997)

Dial, “Psychotrance” (from 168k, 2007)

Posted by Andrea at 04:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So many shows, so little time.

• Neptune is playing this Friday, September 14 with Numbers and Parts and Labor at the Milky Way Lounge in JP. Presumably they’ll play some new stuff off of their upcoming record for Table of the Elements.

• Saturday 9/15, 3-7PM, we have the Somerville Rock & Roll Yard Sale in Union Sq., Somerville, MA. Vendors include: Teenbeat, Vicky Wheeler (Autotonic), What Cheer? Antiques, Elisa Archer (Samba Goods), and much, much more. Visit their blog for more info. (Rain date is Sunday, 9/16.)

• Back in Providence, local art space Firehouse 13 has an amazing lineup of Temple of Bon Matin, Gutterhelmet, a self-described “power trio of two” consisting of Alec Redfearn and Matt McLaren from the Eyesores, Xerxes, and Crude Hill, a new duo comprised of visual artist extraordinaire Leif Goldberg and former Urdog songstress Erin Rosenthal. Chris Moon from Last Visible Dog will round out the craziness with some visual accompaniment. Firehouse 13 is near the Broad and Elmwood split at 41 Central St., Providence.

Looking ahead to next week:

• In anticipaton of the impending Plastic People of the Universe show on Sept. 26th, AS220 will offer a FREE screening of a 2001 Czech documentary about the group on Sept. 19th at 9:30 PM. This is one band who know —far better than most— the subversive, revitalizing power of music. Targeted by the Communist regime for their free-thinking, anarchic spirit, the group nevertheless continued to make music, even at great personal cost to themselves. That they made it through to the other side is a testament to their creative spark.

• Mission of Burma will be playing on Saturday, September 22nd at Babyhead Decibel in downtown Providence.

Sunday 9/23 they play two shows at Boston’s amazing ICA, one at 4 PM and an evening show at 8PM. Jonathan Kane's February opens. (And I recommend them quite highly too: Kane was a founding member of the Swans. His own musical output is markedly different: lighter in tone and subject matter (but by no means ethereal), his group specializes in really atmospheric, spacious, percussion-led instrumentals. They’ll pair well with MoB.)

Sunday night, there’s another great show at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts: Gruff Rhys from Super Furry Animals and Ulrich Schnauss [Domino].

I’ll be seeing MoB at 4 and zipping over to the MFA, hopefully just in time for Ulrich’s set!

Mission of Burma Home | Neptune on Myspace

Neptune, “The Lighthouse” (from the LP Patterns)

Mission of Burma, “Youth of America” (Live)

AMAZING STREET ART, BROOKLYN, 2007. PHOTO BY ANDREA.

Posted by Andrea at 11:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I still remember the first time I ever heard Sonic Youth. The year was 1988 —a few years before punk officially “broke.” As improbable as this seems, it was all thanks to a late-night channel trawl past PBS. I happened to stop short on this weird little documentary called Put More Blood Into the Music. This oddball, scrappy little film marked my first exposure to the likes of SY, Lydia Lunch, DNA, John Zorn, and Glenn Branca.

For years, I thought I’d imagined the film —PBS and No Wave don’t exactly go hand-in-hand. I didn’t quite know what I’d just seen, but I knew without a doubt that my tiny little mind had been blown. (And my music taste had been irrevocably pushed in adventurous new directions.)

Since then, my interest in Sonic Youth has waxed and waned. Mostly waned. I respect and admire them far more than I actually LISTEN to them. (And, while I confess to being tempted, I didn’t make it to any of the recent Daydream Nation performances.)

It was fun, then, to discover this super-early set from 1981’s Noisefest at White Columns. These were early early days, before Lee joined (and, obviously, well before Steve Shelley became THE drummer). Vocal duties here are shared by Kim (bass) and friend Ann DeMarinis (who also plays keys); Thurston’s on guitar and Richard Edson on drums. While Sonic Youth Mach 2007 can be way too serious (that alt-rock mantle weighs heavily, I guess), these tracks have a playful, off-the-cuff gleefulness that I just love. Obviously there’s not much here one would recognize as “Sonic Youth” per se —but it’s interesting to see their point of departure.

***

Sometimes I think of SY guitarist/singer Thurston Moore as the world’s oldest teenager. While he can seem, on the surface, puppyish and a bit goofy, he’s got laser-focus when it comes to music he loves and supports. He’s used his very high profile to lend support to so many musicians —not only by bringing them on tour with him but by mentioning them in print, wearing their t-shirts, or putting out their records.

He’ll be bringing his seemingly boundless enthusiasm to a slew of solo dates in the fall in support of his upcoming LP, Trees Outside The Academy (his first since the haphazard but worthwhile Psychic Hearts, more than a decade ago). September/early October finds him crossing the country with band mates Steve Shelley, Samara Lubelski (ex- of Tower Recordings) on violin (and vocals?); Christina Carter (Charalambides) will be opening. (I guess this summer’s punishing rondelay of Daydream Nation anniversary shows wasn’t exhausting enough?)

Thurston’s also working on a image-heavy No Wave book of his own with Forced Exposure’s Byron Coley, to be published sometime next year by Abrams. As a torch-bearer, historian, and genuine fan all rolled into one, Thurston can certainly do the subject justice. (And I’d bet he’s got an A-Z record collection to go along with.) His genuine enthusiasm and encyclopedic knowledge —combined with the fact that his opinion commands a great deal of respect— means that the book could potentially influence readers who may not have heard of these bands before. Just like his appearance in Put More Blood Into the Music way back when brought about a paradigm shift in my own listening patterns.

(Speaking of Thurston commentaries on No Wave: if any of you had the misfortune to see that pile of crapola Kill Yr. Idols, a mystifyingly excised scene in which Thurston breathlessly recounts his first ever Suicide show is worth the price of admission alone. But barely, since the rest of the film stinks so resolutely.)

As a corollary: Two independent overviews of the New York noise scene are due out this fall: the companion volume to Soul Jazz’s New York Noise series, and Marc Masters’ eponymous history for Black Dog Publishing, the same folks who brought you the Warp and Rough Trade histories.

THURSTON MOORE :: FALL 2007 TOUR DATES

Sep 24: Hoboken, NJ @ Maxwell’s
Sep 26: Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
Sep 27: Boston, MA @ Remis Auditorium at Museum of Fine Arts
(NO Presale, Free for College Students Only with Valid Photo ID)
Sep 28: Princeton, NJ @ Terrace Club/Princeton University
(NO Presale, Free for Princeton Students only)
Sep 29: Washington, DC @ Rock and Roll Hotel
Sep 30: Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
Oct 24: Seattle, WA @ Neumo’s
Oct 25: Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
Oct 26: Arcata, CA @ Humboldt State University
Oct 29: San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall (Presale through www.gamhtickets.com)
Oct 30: Los Angeles, CA @ Echoplex

Sonic Youth (official) | Thurston's Ecstatic Peace page | Christina Carter/Wholly Other | Samara Lubelski

Sonic Youth, “Track 1” (Live at White Columns | Noise Fest, 6.18.81)

Sonic Youth, “Track 2” (Live at White Columns | Noise Fest, 6.18.81)

Sonic Youth, “Track 3” (Live at White Columns | Noise Fest, 6.18.81)

Sonic Youth, “Track 4” (Live at White Columns | Noise Fest, 6.18.81)

Sonic Youth, “Track 5” (Live at White Columns | Noise Fest, 6.18.81)

Posted by Andrea at 09:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)