THE SELF TITLED INTERVIEW: LAETITIA SADIER

http://www.self-titledmag.com/home/2010/11/24/the-self-titled-interview-laetitia-sadier-of-stereolab-monade/

I guess I just love Laetitia Sadier for her music.

JNCT

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Throwback! 3 - The Emperor Strikes Back... I know, that's episode 2. Qu'est-ce qu'il se passe quand on lance de l'ail contre un mur?

My dad doesn't have a vinyl collection. His CD shelf is basically a mix of classical music him and my mother got when I was born (Mozart makes kids smarter, anyone?) and a collection of what's been in the top 40 of whatever country he was in pretty much since CDs became available commercially.

After numerous siftings through this nevertheless exhaustive collection, the only two albums I've taken to the relative safety of my room are Eric Clapton's Unplugged and Soundgarden's Superunknown. The first he got because it has a song that mentions my sister's name a number of times (I'll let you guess what that is), the latter he described as "a mistake I only got because it was number 1 somehow. I've never listened to it entirely". For a long time, he described my music with the expression that my great-uncle uses to talk about old-style rock'n'roll: de la musique de peaux-rouge. Which happens to be mildly offensive, so I'm not translating that.

So no vivid vinyl memories for me. No passing on of buried treasure, no shared tastes. Sure, I had a vague backstreet boys moment around 9, as well as other momentary radio crushes, but they always felt tasteless - going with the easy option, what was readily available.

So what changed that? Well, I didn't write this lenghty useless introduction for nothing. If you're still reading this, it means you have some nerve, and must be really interested. I'll skip the Linkin' Park and Good Charlotte episodes and the Blink 182 covers (although I have to say Travis Barker is still a sick drummer), and finally get to my point:

DIGIMON

That's right. I would probably be a very different person if it wasn't for that fairly catastrophic child's pokemon ripoff cartoon. More specifically, the movie that spawned from its success, and very precisely, the sequence with Smashmouth's song All Star. To this day, I still haven't thought too much as too what the song is exactly about, nor do the lyrics make any sense in my head (I was still learning English back then). It's been about 10 years since I first listened to this song, and I finally got around to actually reading the lyrics. 

Verdict: song's pretty bad. But it made me get Smashmouth's 2001 self titled album: 

Beneath the horrible cover was the first CD I had really asked for. As mentioned before, and like for Flavio, I was learning English at that time, which made me able to consider the lyrics more as sounds then anything with a message (let's be honest, the words to most of these songs are fairly horrendous).

However this record shaped my tastes: I liked the coolness of the first track, the relative "violence" of the second track (qualified by my dad as sounding like a drum carnage), the violin synths of the 3rd track pretty much made me want to vomit... 

So why would I ever talk about an album that is important to me only it was a random starting point? 

First of all, this was Flavio's idea, and I just went with it. Read his own blog too, it's awesome.

Second, it's obvious that this record has little musical interest. Sister Psychic still sounds like an ok song to me, and memories of Shrek and Digimon are woken up by listening to All Star. The Monkees' I'm a Believer is also covered on this record, and that reminds me of The Spy Who Shagged Me, which is probably the movie that turned me on dumb absurd comedies. The harmonica solo in that one song is kinda cool, that gnarly synth in Force Field makes me understand why I like Tobacco today, Shoes'n'hats is a bro version of AC/DC (which remains one of my favorite bands). You could even say that Smashmouth's only feat is that they take a number of influences/characteristic sounds (ranging from hip hop to metal and going by 60's pop and lounge) and making it sound like a cohesive blend pop record. 

In short, it was a pretty awesome introduction to modern music for a 9 year old kid. Your young cousing/familly member is coming over for Christmas and you don't know what to get him? This blog just provided the longest most inconvenient and specific gift advice of all times. Enjoy.

Quand on lance une gousse d'ail contre le mur, elle rebondit. C'est le retour du jet d'ail.

This one's for you, Arthur.

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"THOUGHTS ON... " - EP. PRIMERO: HALLOWEEN

The best thing I like about Halloween is that I have an excuse to listen to the Misfits' Monster Mash without shame (apparently they started sucking when Danzig left? Nice of the music press to inform me of that after years of listening to Famous Monsters... meh. You know what, AV club? Go cook yourself an egg).

The second best thing is getting a mix from Flavio. It kicks ass. GET IT HERE!

Other than that, I'm the grouchy old man that doesn't give you candy when you ring at his door. I've half-assed my costumes for the past two years (I wasn't even doing halloween any year before that), and I don't like getting scared.

What really makes me excited is dumb ridiculous senseless laidback things and beers. Which is why, next Halloween, I'll be staying home, trying to lure my trickortreater friends into watching Plan 9 with me and drink weird allegedly pumpkin flavored beer.

Ok I'm done. If you've made it through this rant, here's a r e w a r d. kind of.

Should You Fear Satan?

Kingpins of a kind of rock that came after rock (What was that? Oh you mean that makes no sense? no, it doesn't. Whatever, I'm over it), Mogwai cultivate an image of being mildly unfriendly Scottishmen who have been studying the balance between power and melody in music, and the very special place where both meet.

Rest assured, this isn't the intro (yet) to a book I'm writing that would be titled "Mogwai: a decade-long study of dynamics in popular music", just to an article about their latest record, which also happens to be a live recording. Their first, I believe:

Mogwai, Special Moves

Rock Action, 2010 

You'll find many reviews for this album. Most of them will describe the intensity of the songs, how Mogwai has been constantly innovating in their own fairly specific subgenre, and managed to maintain cohesiveness. They should then move on to describe the setlist choices, how each song is live rather than in studio, etc... They might mention some lack of direction, but will reassure right away with something like "most bands who sound like that do that" so if you like Post Rock, you should like this, hipster (offended? email me, hipster!)

It would be worthless to repeat this here. I understand lazy people, so I'll even put the link to two such reviews so you can get your usual info there:

Allmusic

Pitchyforky (that's right, I just called it that)

So what's left to say? Well, here's a few thoughts for you to munch on: 

• Mogwai is one of the very few bands who knows how to use a vocoder. Well done guys.
• THIS IS A GREAT RECORD. GIVE IT A SHOT.
• How much time will the cheap trick of playing softly then bashing power chords for an entire show will go on? Long, I hope.
• Buy the record. You get a dvd (which is supposed to be awesome, but that I never got around to see) and 6 bonus tracks. It's all good. Really good.
• The packaging is gloriously minimalist. Black and white pixelated security cam with all caps text inside and one horizontal line of lightning blue as the only colored element. Should make the graphic designer inside of you (if any) shiver.
• This is a comprehensive guide to Mogwai so far.
• Recorded in Williamsburg. Keep it local, hippie.

That's all I got for now. Go enjoy it rather than read my nonsense. You better come back here though. I'll be watching you.

JNCT

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The Valvewizard

It's been way too long since I last posted something up here. No one complained, which is kind of sad in its own way, but I wasn't expecting to have more than 7 readers anyways.

So for you 7(+/-5) faithful friends, here's your latest dose of Elephant Space Snowstorm. It's a triple feature, because that's how much I love you and all that internet shit.

PART I:

The Elephant Space Snowstorm's Been Busy As Fuck Mix - Volume I: 

1. Boxcar by Jawbreaker 
2. Transcendental Evisceration by Capricorns
3. Queen For A Day by The Jesus Lizard
4. Winder by Hum
5. Forest Of Fountains by Solar Bears
6. Melee by Russian Circles
7. Fuck Addict by Torche
8. Catastrophe And The Cure by Explosions In The Sky, Remixed by Four Tet
9. You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You're Told) by The White Stripes
10. We Stood Transfixed in Blank Devotion as Our Leader Spoke to Us, Looking Down on Our Mute Faces with a Great, Raging, and Unseeing Eye by Red Sparrows
11. St. James Infirmary by The Gutter Twins
12. Rise / Set by Tjutjuna
13. Nice One by Jackie-O-Motherfucker

PART II: 

REVIEWS (FUCK YEAH)

Ok, I admit it, I was on Altered Zones a bit too much this summer. "Pitchfork ruling over indie blogs, blabla, boohoohoo, rabble rabble rabble"? Maybe, but I'm not going to complain, because they found some awesome shit on the internet and are sharing it with me. So thanks. 

First up on this list of Awesome Shit, Tjutjuna's self titled LP:

With seven songs and 35 minutes of synthesized space-inyourface-punk, these Colorado dudes have a debut album that sounds like Lemmy took over Hawkwind and made everyone take speed while dressing up as pirate-bikers. It's not just your usual synthyhawkyspacerocky ripoff (coughLitmuscoughcough), here Robert/James/Adam/Brian not only have mostly British names but also find the sought after balance between synth lines/drones, echofuzzed guitars and rhythms that could bring you to Mars and back. Effortlessly moving from keyboard riffing to full on guitars to noise section to laidback progressions, back into noise and the pleasures of analog delays, Tjutjuna has managed to make an album that's about as insanely awesome as the cover they came up for it. 

Second is Solar Bears' She Was Coloured In double LP: 

If Tjutjuna is the crazy aspect of Hawkwind, Solar Bears is its laid back, cool as hell equivalent. Warm sounds building immense soundscapes, always changing and evolving yet cohesive and driving from start to end, Solar Bears inscribes itself in a tradition of Irish electronic musicians who decided that U2 shouldn't be their country's main musical export (saying just export doesn't work because Guiness trumps all).

Building songs like some people make cakes (as in layer by layer, not from a pre-made mix), Solar Bears not only sport 2010's coolest band name but manage to evocate decades of electronic music history without sounding blatantly ambient or nostalgic - just epic. Sinoia Caves' The Enchanter Persuaded, although wonderful, had a "tribute" aspect that made it not quite as good as it could've been, especially if you're into a Tangerine Dream/Klaus Schulze/Cluster phase at the same time. That's not the case here - Solar Bears do a wonderful job of being evocative, but their references are numerous enough that you'll be thinking of a Guy Ritchie movie one second and of Boards of Canada the next. Of course, Berlin school electronic music inspirations come back more often than Age Of Empires soundtrack references, but ultimately all of it is relaxed/interesting enough that She Was Coloured In is an incredibly smooth, driving record (think of the gliding feeling you have when you listen to Kraftwerk's Autobahn. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you're in for a treat). 

Not afraid to mix different techniques (tape editing techniques/loops, samples, acoustic instruments, synthesizers, or a combination of those), this Dublin duo makes songs that will make rest you, make you want to headbang and be more efficient at working, simultaneously.

I know, that sounds confusing. Just listen to the goddamn record, it's awesome and you'll get what I mean. 

Until next time (and god knows when that'll be), enjoy. And again, call your mom. She deserves it (probably).

JNCT

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Real Estate @ Hampshire College, Monday Sept 6th 2010

    Let's be honest, this wasn't a My Bloody Valentine or Sleep reformation epic - you just can't pull that kind of event at a place like the Hampshire library lawn, for better or worse. It wasn't going to be about embracing an extreme of any kind, either.  Was just about one guy in uncomfortably tight jeans and a shortsleeve shirt with his buddies, returning to his college's lawn for the sake of good times.

And good times were had.

After the less than memorable DJ set preceding Real Estate's show, a flock of people ran from every direction towards the tent to the sound of Beach Comber, a song that doesn't seem to get old. Population under said tent went from 30, half sitting, to at least 200, all standing and wiggling to the band's joyful harmonics. Sound was surprisingly pristine, the reverberating guitars echoing at will throughout the bands show. The performance was only occasionally bothered by some feedback: considering how many people here think feedback is music, it probably didn't bother that much.

Running through their first album as well as a bunch of new numbers, some untitled, some almost leaning towards heavy surf riffing, the 4 lads impressed not by their professionalism or skills (which they did have in respectable amounts anyways) but by their Beach Boys-like good vibrations. From the guitar player talking about his own days at Hampshire to everyone else being generally friendly to each other, this felt like a nice way to start the semester. It wasn't really about individual songs or lyrics, but more about the "enjoy yourselves" atmosphere. Newcomer or returning student, everyone present at the show seemed to appreciate and bond over how well this music fit the lush Massachusetts landscape on that pleasant summer night.

The audience loved Real Estate so much in fact, that about 30 of them decided it would be fun to jump on the unoccupied part of the stage for the last 2 songs, letting loose a frenzy of fifti-er than thou dance moves between the amps that almost transformed into a hug orgy. It also meant that Martin Courtney's guitar would get unplugged, letting him barely enough time to plug back for the last verse of the show. But when the band went back to full power on those last 15 seconds, they hit the audience with all the power of the frenzied psych surf band they are - approximately equal to that of a giant stuffed Kirby being parachuted on your head from a low-orbit satellite.

"Where are the parties? If anyone wants to hang out after the show… well… we'll be around."

- Real Estate drummer

He would be seen the next day at nearby all-girl Smith College, wearing the clothes he had at the show, checking his Facebook. Congrats to him.

photos by Kevin Schwenkler

JNCT

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