Cake #10

Melodious MeikoInterview with The Red Lions

Reviews of 30 Seconds To Mars, Real Estate, Norah Jones and Them Crooked Vultures

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Editorial

Housekeeping And SuchCover Photo : Tyler Shields

Back Cover Photo: The Red Lions

Financier : Derek Rogers

Layout: Brad Collins

Title Design : Brad Collins

Copy Editor: Alex Palombo

Photo Editor: Taylor McIntyre

Assistant Editor : Danielle Hendrickson

Editor In Chief: Ryan Bryant

Advisor: Louise Mygatt

Special Thanks : Louise, Felicia Alston

The opinions expressed within express those of the individual writers or interview subjects and not necessarily those of the publishers of the magazine as a whole.

How did we get here? Issue ten? It seems crazy. I feel like just yesterday we were coloring the first issue of Cake. I was so happy to get Meiko for the cover. She was one of the first artists I saw in Ithaca.It feels right to have her on such a important issue. Thank you so much to the readers who continually support our zine. It means so much to us. This is our last issue of the semester and what a wonderful semester it was. 2009 has been a crazy and exciting year for music and we thank you for being there with us. We all look forward to seeing you in the new year with new ideas and new music. Enjoy!

-Ryan Bryant Cake Editor In Chief

Must Download 1. “More Of This” – Vetiver

2. “Castaways” – Shearwater

3. “So Far Away” – Kaskade Feat. Haley

4. “Coastal Brake” – Tycho

5. “Graphics” - Memory Tapes

Delicious Music Video “We Want War” –These New Puritans

Artist to Watch:Where To BeFriday December 18th: The Green Deeps @ Castways9PM$7

Tekiela @ The Nines10PM $5

Fans of both folk and electronic, rejoice, for Toro y Moi has answered your prayers. The South Carolina project is the stage name for Cazwick Bundick, a graphic designer turned musician. He was previously part of band The Heist and the Accomplice, which he founded with three friends at

Ridgeview High School. Bundick debuted with his album “Blessa,” featuring a beautiful mix of DJ scratching, his whiny but appealing tenor voice, and otherworldly synths to boot. His new LP, “Causers of This,” will drop in February 2010. Until then, check out his Myspace for songs like “Talamak” and “Blessa” to get a feel for his sound.

-Alex Palombo

Courtesy of Domino

Toro y Moi

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By Ryan Bryant Photographs by Leigha Hodnet and Megan BakerMeiko

With her self-released debut reaching the tops of the Billboard Heatseekers and iTunes charts, Meiko has made quite a splash. Her smooth voice and guitar compositions stick in your head and pick up your day. The immensely talented songwriter shared her thoughts on touring, 2009 and auto-tuning.

Cake: You’re playing a show tonight at the Hotel Café. What is it like playing in such a familiar venue after so much touring?

Meiko: It’s like home. I actually wasn’t planning on playing any shows before the beginning of the year because I’ve been writing a lot. I thought it would be a good idea to test some new songs out. I’ve been kind of itching to try some new stuff out during shows. Marko, the owner of the Hotel Café sent out a mass text saying, “Somebody canceled on me. Does anybody want to help me fill a spot”? I’m like “I’ll do it”. It just kind of makes sense. I’ll try out my stuff before I leave.

Cake: How was the tour with Jewel?

Meiko: It was really cool. I had the best time ever. It was actually one of the most fun tours I’ve ever been on. I didn’t know her at all before. I’ve never met her. I heard she was cool but I wasn’t sure until I actually met her. As soon as I met her, she was so sweet and so inviting. She was like “Here’s all my food. Take what you want. Come on my bus whenever you want”. She was just very cool and down to earth. I was really happy because I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into. She did her set solo, so she wanted me to be solo. That was cool too. It’s a whole different show when you’re playing by yourself. You don’t have any musicians to joke around with or if you mess up it’s not as easy to laugh it off. It was really fun. I felt like I got a little stronger in my solo performance on that tour.

Cake: Is any of this material you’re working on going to be released any time in the next year?

Meiko: I’m going to the studio to start recording my next record at the beginning of the year. Hopefully, if everything works out as planned, I’ll have something by May or June.

Cake: You performed “Falling Hard” on the new The Crystal Method album. How did that collaboration come about?

Meiko: Random. I was playing a Christmas show at The Viper Room and the guys from The Crystal Method just happened to be there. I have no idea why they were there. They weren’t there to see me. I got off stage and they came right up to me and introduced themselves. I guess they were thinking about making a new record and using different singers. They said that I had the voice that they were looking for. I went to the studio and they played me a few songs. They asked me if I wanted to write [the vocals] to any of them and I instantly fell in love with the music of “Falling Hard”. I took it home and listened to it over and over again in my car. I kind of woke up one morning and had it all there. My manager called me one morning and asked me if I had the song written because it was due in an hour…I listened to the song and kind of wrote it on the spot.

Cake: What was one of your favorite things about music in 2009?

Meiko: I guess getting introduced to La Roux. I really like La Roux. I was in London and they were playing this girl everywhere and I was like “What is this”? I ended up getting the record and really loved it. That was my discovery of 2009. I hope to go see her live at some point.

Cake: Are you sick of the auto-tune apocalypse?

Meiko: I am sick of it but there are some songs that suck me in like “Love Lockdown”. I really liked that song when it first came out. The first time I noticed that it started becoming a trend was after that song came out and then everything was auto-tuned. But I do love me some Lil Wayne.

Cake: You have to get your crunk on sometimes.

Meiko: Yes, absolutely. I’m from a real small town in Georgia so I know all there is to know about getting crunk.

Cake: If you could have a famous band cover one of your songs, which band would it be?

Meiko: Dead or Alive. [Laughs] Maybe Wilco or The Postal Service.

Cake: If you could only taste one food the rest of your life, what would it be?

Meiko: Easy. Sushi.

Cake: If you had any advice for any up and coming performers, what would it be?

Meiko: Keep on truckin’. Write as much as you can. Perform anywhere and everywhere at anytime. You never know how much it’s going to help you be a better musician, and who might be in the audience that might be the key to getting you where you want to go.

Cake: Any last words?

Meiko: Ithaca is awesome. Ithaca is gorges. [Laughs]

Cake: [Laughs]

Meiko: That was really lame. [Laughs]

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The Red LionsBy Cat NuwerPhotographs Provided By The Red Lions

The Red Lions, a collaborative rock-and-folk fusion band, released masterpiece album “Midnight Book” earlier this year. The band consists of Eric Margan, Scott Kellerhouse, James Bertini, and Rick Spataro, all multi-instrumentalists. Cake chatted with Eric and Scott about “Midnight Book”, opening for St. Vincent, and the chemistry of the band.

Cake: When and how did you guys form?

Scott: [My old band] played with Aficionado, [Eric’s band], back in 2004.

Eric: Back in the golden days.

Cake: How was the process of recording “Midnight Book”?

Eric: It was very arduous. We worked for almost two years on that record. It was really enjoyable and that’s kind of how this band formed and evolved into what it is now – [through] recording and gathering musicians that were willing to contribute.

Scott: That’s when we first met Jim.

Eric: He was an intern at the studio where we recorded.

Scott: He’s our drummer now, and he was the engineer for our record.

Cake: Did he mix the album? It sounds amazing.

Eric: I mixed it with Tom – he’s a musical father-guru dude.

Cake: What genre of music would you say you fit into? I see you guys as a mix of rock, folk and jazz.

Eric: A lot of modern music transcends genre. Especially from song to song.

Scott: I always hear people say jazz but I don’t think...

Eric: Well we use some upper extension in the chords. That and the swing of the third track [“You Are A Ghost”].

Scott: That one is definitely jazzy.

Cake: Eric, what’s your writing process like for creating lyrics?

Eric: I spend a lot of time thinking. That’s probably why I sleep so much. [Laughs]. But my writing process is different for each song. I have to know what I’m going to write about before I can start making my way through the lyrics.

I have to have a concept for each song and then I gather ideas that are specific and help communicate the broader concept. People can zoom in on the images and the different ideas and make their own interpretation.

Cake: How has the separation of the band over the eastern hemisphere affected your work?

Eric: We don’t practice as much as we would like to – but, we have a mutual respect, and I think our abilities carry us far when we do get to play together… I think that’s a concept that I’m going to explore lyrically – the fact that the four of us are in different realms: Jim is a real estate agent / business man, I’m out in the country, Scott’s in school, and Rick is working. There’s a lot of ideas we could explore with just what we do everyday.

Cake: What’s your favorite track from the album?

Eric: That’s kind of like asking who your favorite child is.

Cake: Who’s your favorite child?

Eric: I’ll say “Bay of Naples”. I think it’s a good representation of my songwriting.

Scott: I think “Without the Sun” is my favorite on that album. Favorite one to play, though, is “Old Man River”.

Cake: There’s a certain amount of flexibility to your music which allows you to bring in guest musicans. Like when you opened for St. Vincent, you invited Rosie, from Pearly Snaps, and Zgress on stage. Do you often invite other musicians to play with you on stage?

Eric: The instrumentation for a lot of the songs is diverse so it helps to have people come in for a few songs – string players or woodwinds or brass – depending on the song.

Cake: What was it like to open for St. Vincent?

Eric: That was a great show. We played at nine and [Castaways] was completely full.

Scott: Whenever you play with someone referred to as a “Pitchfork darling” I feel like that’s a step up.

Cake: Now I have some serious questions. If you could bitch out anyone, this includes dead people and political figures , who would you choose?

Eric: Oh, I don’t do that.

Scott: There’s a lot of people…

Cake: If you could play any music festival, which one would you play?

Eric: Ozzfest or Warped Tour. No, probably South By Southwest.

Cake: If you could have any band cover one of your songs, who would you choose?

Scott: The Flaming Lips.

Eric: Or Tom Waits.

Cake: If you could play laser tag with anyone, who would you choose?

Eric: Gollum from Lord of the Rings. He would be a formidable opponent.

Scott: I would play with Lee Putney, dead or alive.

Cake: Any closing words?

Scott: Don’t forget that you have to practice.

Eric: Big ups to my main man Lee

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REVIEWSThe Fall - Norah Jones

Jazz-pop juggernaut Norah Jones returned this month with her new album, “The Fall”. If you pick up this album, don’t expect to hear Jones’ staple languid piano ballads. Though her sultry voice is as soothing and romantic as ever, the sounds behind her vocals will take any fan by surprise. The album’s single, “Chasing Pirates,” is driven by a tuneful electric guitar and an uncharacteristic upbeat rhythm. “It’s Gonna Be,” an equally surprising track, is dark and threatening. On the regretful song, “Back to Manhattan,” Jones sings about leaving a love behind “as if nothing ever happened,” and you can almost visualize her slowly driving home alone or kicking stones on the sidewalk, while in “Waiting,” she paints a picture of a futile and slowly diminishing hope, singing, “if I wait, it

doesn’t mean you will return.” The songs don’t stray too far away from Norah’s comfort zone, but there is a definite change in her. While in the past many of her songs have been romantic and uplifting, this album showcases a whole new side to Norah Jones; a side that’s had her heart broken. Jones enlisted the help of various friends for this album, including Ryan Adams, Okkervil River’s frontman Will Sheff, and producer Jacquire King, who has previously worked with Modest Mouse and Kings of Leon. With these collaborators, her music is no longer smoothed over to Grammy-winning perfection is instead a little more experimental and a little more frayed at the edges. She is making a very clear attempt to reinvent her style and create a more rock-influenced sound, and, although she isn’t risky enough to amaze, I would say that she succeeded. -Raquel Dalarossa

The first single, “Kings And Queens”, has a welcoming, ’30 Seconds to Mars’ sound, however, it introduces a faint glimmer of pop rock with the guitar progression and is a bit disappointing. “Hurricane” a collaboration with Brandon Flowers, lead singer of The Killers, is a standout track on the album. A downside to the album comes with Leto’s apparent love for a background chorus

of people. He chose to overuse echoes in a bid to create an epic song, but it gets repetitive after the 3rd time. Overall, “This Is War”, reminds one of “A Beautiful Lie”, but made in a better direction. -Danielle Hendrickson

This Is War - 30 Seconds To Mars

30 Seconds to Mars have finally come out with “This Is War”, their highly anticipated follow-up to 2005’s “A Beautiful Lie”. They’ve returned from their 4-year waiting period with a more cohesive and balanced piece of work. The band begins with “Escape”, which is an airy composition that sets up the album’s theme of preparing for war. They’ve stepped up their game with more intense percussion and epic synthesizers. The slow buildup of woodwinds and synths is an effort to engage the listener into the world they’re creating where music is a battlefield. 6/10

6/10

Courtesy of Blue Note

Courtesy of Virgin

Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures

You may not have heard of Them Crooked Vultures, but you know the three core members: drummer Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana, Queens of the Stone Age),

vocalist/guitarist Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal), and bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin). Although this superstar band certainly rocks out, the material on their self-titled debut album is certainly not new. The band returns to their roots, creating a fusion of Zeppelin, Foo Fighters, and Queens of the Stone Age. While it’s a clever concept that has produced catchy songs, the band hasn’t outshone their previous work and has instead fallen under their own previously made category of rock. “New Fang”, the album’s hit song, pleasantly surprised me with the thirty-second intro of 70’s-esque board work and crunching guitars. Then the vocals start and we’re thrown back into Queens of the Stone Age – an unpleasant transition. I found myself searching through the songs to find these short but excellent bits of guitar, drum work, or keyboard. Check out “Scumbag Blues” for the best clips. The opening of “Caligulove” holds a similar “New Fang” experience, but then lends itself to over-repetition. I found the exact same situation in “Bandoliers” and “Elephants”, which sounds like a poor mimic of a Muse song. Overall, the album doesn’t fit together– there are songs that stick out jaggedly, like the trippy “Interlude with Ludes” and the loopy, spastic “Spinning in Daffodils.” On the other hand, “Dead End Friends” is addictively intriguing – with a Jet-like intro, its tambourine-tinge lessens the boring factor of repetition. The album, a remix of past styles, is both yawn inducing and rock-out-able. It takes patience to find the great riffs, but they’re worth the effort. -Cat Nuwer

Real Estate - Real Estate

The self-titled debut album should be where bands stand out. They should make a name for themselves. Unfortunately, Real Estate fails to do that on their debut. Their music drones together into one

long, dull record. It’s not completely their fault, and the record does have moments, such as opener “Beach comber” or the later half of “Suburban Beverage,” where the music picks up the pace as it travels into oblivion. The songs feature fuzzy lead guitar licks alongside mostly mellow rhythms and quiet vocals that sometimes make you want to sleep instead of actively listen. It’s not an original sound, and there’s not much here that moves it forward. The chilled-out tone of the entire record holds the pieces together. There is a cohesive style behind each song, but it drags after just a few tracks. The constant push and pull of each section building and then subsiding gets old, and the listener soon wants to skip tracks to find the standout single. This is the largest weakness of the album. Although the overall feel of the record becomes dull (specifically later on in the album, which features no vocals at all until the final song), it never comes off as bad. There’s a potential behind Real Estate that keeps you listening, waiting for that breakout track. The problem is, it never comes. The album feels like a collection of almost great songs that never achieve. If the record contained at least one track that stood out head and shoulders above the rest, the entire album would be something different, a true coming-out party for a new band. As is, however, Real Estate leaves the listener waiting for their next release to push themselves above mediocre tracks. -TJ Gunther

5/10 5/10

Courtesy of WoodsistCourtesy of DGC Records

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