quite apt.
Enjoy
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Interpol - C'mere
partly because I'll be seeing the lovely boys in less than a week, partly just because of the song itself.
quite apt.
quite apt.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Grand Archives
Given my love of all things 'Band of Horses' and of Sub-Pop releases in general, the recent news that ex-BoH member Matt Brooke's band Grand Archives were releasing a new album on that very label had me quite excited.
And what do you know - it's lovely! Check our their myspace to hear the tunes.
Also, if you pre-order the new release online from Sub-Pop before the 19th of February (like me) you get a free, limited edition 7" on white-vinyl featuring alternate versions of “Sleepdriving” and “George Kaminski”. Bonus.
listen : Grand Archives - Louis Riel.mp3
Monday, February 4, 2008
Okkervil River Interview
Okkervil River's The Stage Names was truly one of my standout albums of 2007, so when the chance came up to interview frontman Will Sheff I threw away my hatred of speaking on the telephone and attempted to find some level of composure. I needed have worried too much as Will is one of the easiest people I've ever had to speak to and is such a damn nice guy that I managed to conduct something of an conversation, despite my intense nervousness. For first interviews this was a dream.
Below follows some of what we discussed in amongst the distractions of new puppies and tangential musings about the wierdness of the internet. (slightly edited version at www.fasterlouder.com.au)
I caught up with Sheff in Austin where the band were doing some recording ahead of their third visit to Australia.
This tour will see them as one of the highlights of the Laneway festival as well as doing their own shows around the country. So are Will and the band looking forward to the long trip Down Under again and playing such a unique festival?
“Well I’ve never been to that festival so I don’t really know what to expect. Meredith (in 2005) was wonderful, it was one of my favourite shows we’ve ever played, but I don’t know much about Laneway so, I’m just waiting to see what it’s like.“We’ve played festivals in the streets before. One of the things I really like about playing in the middle of the city is people looking out their windows watching; I really enjoy that.”
Is there anyone in particular they are looking forward to seeing amongst the lineups?
“I love Broken Social Scene; we’ve played festivals with them before and they’re really great. Also the Brunettes are friends of ours. We’re looking forward to hanging out with them and checking out some other local acts.”
You’ve had such critical success along the way, and The Stage Names has been described as your most confident work to date, but how worried do you get about the reaction to your albums, coming from a music critic background as you do?
“I just hold at the centre of my desire what I think and what I want. I’ve gotta believe that if I’m very hard on myself about delivering what I want in the way that I think is good then hopefully other people will appreciate that and it’s going to hopefully strike a chord in them too.”
But you do still make time to make music just for yourself right?
“Well, it’s important to remember that music is about having fun. Sometimes that gets lost in the public arena because you’re just making everything for other people. You gotta think about ways that you can keep it around, and for me one of the ways is to ‘enforce’ music just for me sometimes and you know that’s ok.”
Would it be too much to hope for another Australian tour EP or another appendix?
“There will be a Stage Names appendix, we’re working on it now and it’s going really well. I can’t stop having that problem – I just write more than I need and then I have these songs and I come to really love them, but I can’t really put them out anywhere else because they have such a specificity genetically to the Stage Names stuff or to the Black Sheep Boy stuff, so yeah we are going to do that again….I don’t know if I’ll always do that. Maybe you can only do that so many times but right now we’re really enjoying it.
Along with Stage Names, Golden Opportunities, a series of mainly covers and one original song was released by Okkervil River in 2007 – it came out free on their website to relatively little fuss, was this an attempt to circumvent what Sheff has previously described as the betrayal of music download sites?
“Yeah that was part of why. I liked the idea that if a record came out then it was going to be us that put it out and if somebody’s gonna give our music away for free then it would be us giving it away as opposed to someone cynically, facelessly ripping it on their work computer”
But is this kind of action – dealing directly with the consumer and making music more accessible – the natural and positive progression of the music industry?
“Well I think that it’s a positive progression in a sense, one of the things that was really special about the Radiohead experiment is that it’s a larger scale version of something we already knew about the internet which is that it has the power to bring fans and the band closer together in a really special and interesting way.”
This is not to suggest however that these experiments are the answer though.
“People will play technological pundit and say ‘music will be free’ but why is that? I mean it costs money to make music, it’s not free to make, so obviously giving everything away before other people steal it and give it away anyway is not a permanent solution for people who are trying to put food in their mouths; but I think that there’s a whiff of the future in that. I do think that the important thing is to be optimistic and look forward. It’s important to believe in people and in Art and believe that it’s always going to be precious to people”
Believe in the art of Okkervil River by checking them out at any of the shows below:
23rd Feb 2008 - Laneway Festival, Adelaide Buy Tickets
24th Feb 2008 - Laneway Festival, Melbourne Buy Tickets
26th Feb 2008 - Corner, Melbourne www.cornerhotel.com Buy Tickets
27th Feb 2008 - Manning Bar, Sydney www.manningbar.com Buy Tickets
29th Feb 2008 - Perth International Arts Festival, Perth www.perthfestival.com.au Buy Tickets
1st Mar 2008 - Laneway Festival, Brisbane www.lanewayfestival.com.au Buy Tickets
2nd Mar2008 - Laneway Festival, Sydney www.lanewayfestival.com.au Buy Tickets
Below follows some of what we discussed in amongst the distractions of new puppies and tangential musings about the wierdness of the internet. (slightly edited version at www.fasterlouder.com.au)
I caught up with Sheff in Austin where the band were doing some recording ahead of their third visit to Australia.
This tour will see them as one of the highlights of the Laneway festival as well as doing their own shows around the country. So are Will and the band looking forward to the long trip Down Under again and playing such a unique festival?
“Well I’ve never been to that festival so I don’t really know what to expect. Meredith (in 2005) was wonderful, it was one of my favourite shows we’ve ever played, but I don’t know much about Laneway so, I’m just waiting to see what it’s like.“We’ve played festivals in the streets before. One of the things I really like about playing in the middle of the city is people looking out their windows watching; I really enjoy that.”
Is there anyone in particular they are looking forward to seeing amongst the lineups?
“I love Broken Social Scene; we’ve played festivals with them before and they’re really great. Also the Brunettes are friends of ours. We’re looking forward to hanging out with them and checking out some other local acts.”
You’ve had such critical success along the way, and The Stage Names has been described as your most confident work to date, but how worried do you get about the reaction to your albums, coming from a music critic background as you do?
“I just hold at the centre of my desire what I think and what I want. I’ve gotta believe that if I’m very hard on myself about delivering what I want in the way that I think is good then hopefully other people will appreciate that and it’s going to hopefully strike a chord in them too.”
But you do still make time to make music just for yourself right?
“Well, it’s important to remember that music is about having fun. Sometimes that gets lost in the public arena because you’re just making everything for other people. You gotta think about ways that you can keep it around, and for me one of the ways is to ‘enforce’ music just for me sometimes and you know that’s ok.”
Would it be too much to hope for another Australian tour EP or another appendix?
“There will be a Stage Names appendix, we’re working on it now and it’s going really well. I can’t stop having that problem – I just write more than I need and then I have these songs and I come to really love them, but I can’t really put them out anywhere else because they have such a specificity genetically to the Stage Names stuff or to the Black Sheep Boy stuff, so yeah we are going to do that again….I don’t know if I’ll always do that. Maybe you can only do that so many times but right now we’re really enjoying it.
Along with Stage Names, Golden Opportunities, a series of mainly covers and one original song was released by Okkervil River in 2007 – it came out free on their website to relatively little fuss, was this an attempt to circumvent what Sheff has previously described as the betrayal of music download sites?
“Yeah that was part of why. I liked the idea that if a record came out then it was going to be us that put it out and if somebody’s gonna give our music away for free then it would be us giving it away as opposed to someone cynically, facelessly ripping it on their work computer”
But is this kind of action – dealing directly with the consumer and making music more accessible – the natural and positive progression of the music industry?
“Well I think that it’s a positive progression in a sense, one of the things that was really special about the Radiohead experiment is that it’s a larger scale version of something we already knew about the internet which is that it has the power to bring fans and the band closer together in a really special and interesting way.”
This is not to suggest however that these experiments are the answer though.
“People will play technological pundit and say ‘music will be free’ but why is that? I mean it costs money to make music, it’s not free to make, so obviously giving everything away before other people steal it and give it away anyway is not a permanent solution for people who are trying to put food in their mouths; but I think that there’s a whiff of the future in that. I do think that the important thing is to be optimistic and look forward. It’s important to believe in people and in Art and believe that it’s always going to be precious to people”
Believe in the art of Okkervil River by checking them out at any of the shows below:
23rd Feb 2008 - Laneway Festival, Adelaide Buy Tickets
24th Feb 2008 - Laneway Festival, Melbourne Buy Tickets
26th Feb 2008 - Corner, Melbourne www.cornerhotel.com Buy Tickets
27th Feb 2008 - Manning Bar, Sydney www.manningbar.com Buy Tickets
29th Feb 2008 - Perth International Arts Festival, Perth www.perthfestival.com.au Buy Tickets
1st Mar 2008 - Laneway Festival, Brisbane www.lanewayfestival.com.au Buy Tickets
2nd Mar2008 - Laneway Festival, Sydney www.lanewayfestival.com.au Buy Tickets
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