manual dexterity summer 2007

FREE

The Narratortwo tears in a bucket. Fuck it. Let's take it to the stage.

Baby TeethPearly Sweets is Dead

On the Cover: The Narrator, www.thenarrator.net Photo: Chris Strong, www.chrisstrong.comAbove Photo: Nurses, www.nursesmusic.com Photo: David McHank, www.myspace.com/mchank

Correspond: [email protected] P.O. Box 2076 • Maple Grove, MN 55311

30Nurses

08Sixes- editors

40Reviews

The Narrator24Schedule two06

Baby Teeth36Summer07

Schedule Two started out as a record label andthen switched to filming live shows? Why theswitch and do you have any plans to release anyalbums in the future?

Oh, man. That's a long story. Let's see if it can beshortened up. Luke and Steve decided to put out aCD EP by Trent's band, Monarques. It was a great EPand we're proud of the 400 copies (out of 1000) wesold. After Trent and Monarques split ways, he wasthrowing around the idea of starting up an all digitallabel. Being great friends, suggestions were madein joining forces under a new multi-format sched-uletwo.com where we could give away videos andmp3s for FREE. This was agreed upon and we

started filming shows shortly there-after. The mainprinciple was: it is easier to give things away for freethan to sell them for money. This is especially truewith the distribution power of the almighty Internet."What the fuck is the internet?" you ask. [See:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet] We originallyintended to do a lot of live/session style mp3 releas-es (much like daytrotter.com is doing now), but withthe videos getting such an overwhelming reaction,and taking so much of our time, we got a little side-tracked. We hope to have more mp3 releases in thenear future and to release more albums [physicalmedia] in the more distant future.

How has the response been from bands and visi-tors to the site?

Overwhelmingly positive. Bands are excited to have

great sounding/multi-angled live videos of their per-formances. Fans are happy that the videos aren'tuploaded from the cellphone of that staggeringdrunk guy at the show, not to mention that they lastlonger than 30 seconds.

What kind of equipment do you use? Do you recordsound from the soundboard or is it all done fromthe camera?

We use Canon GL2s to shoot most of the video withthe help of an occasional Canon XL1 or Sony TRV-17. Eric Drommerhausen, our soundman, gets amix from the board which he incorporates withsome high quality room mics. This is all key in

achieving the live sounds we look for. Straightboard mixes typically are way too vocal heavy, sohaving a good set of room mics really makes all thedifference in the world. On a few occasions in theearly days of filming, camera audio has saved ournecks, but typically camcorder microphones soundflat, and pick up a lot of machine noise from thecamcorder itself. We try to avoid using camcorderaudio at all costs, but some times it's all you got.

How do you choose which bands to film and dobands ever contact you to film there live shows?

Pretty much it's just our combined tastes versusscheduling. We try to shoot 2-4 sets per month. Butsome months have 6 shoots and some have none.We also trust a lot of people who listen to a lot ofgood music.

06

Do you get permission from bands before you filmtheir show, or do you just show up with cameras?

We always get permission beforehand.Understandably, bands and venues don't appreciatepeople waltzing in with cameras and audio equip-ment at the last minute all guerrilla style. Though inone case [The Hold Steady videos are a good exam-ple of this] we went to First Avenue to film the open-ing band, The Evening Rig, and while we were therewe got the OK to shoot Sean Na Na as well as TheHold Steady. The moral of the story is; always bringextra batteries and tapes. Also, always be polite toyour venue staff. The Twin Cities have some incred-ible clubs with some even more incredible peoplewho run their day-to-day operations. We love em alland think that more people should buy themdrinks...after they get off work of course.

Have any bands denied you from filming theirshow?

When we ask permission, either bands respond andsay, "yes please!" or they just ignore us. A fewbands have asked us not to post the footage giventhat they were not pleased with their performances.We have, of course, always complied. We won'tname names. Though one in particular is aCanadian band who's name has something to dowith a standard of measurement, and we're not talk-ing Imperial (or English) units of measurementshere. Yeah, that other kind.

Who films all the shows?

Our main crew consists of Steven Candy, LukeHeiken, Trenton Raygor and Eric Drommerhausen.The sound guys at the clubs deserve a lot of thecredit. They are why it sounds good in the firstplace. [Here's to you Matt Lindquist] We have agroup of go-to camera people including Julie Wager(who is also responsible for the beautiful stylings ofthe scheduletwo.com website), David Hill, SethMabbott, a trusty old tripod, and any one else who ishanging around and willing to sling a camera for 45minutes to an hour.

What are some problems that have arisen whenfilming live shows?

The most attention needs to be paid to audio. It isthe single most crucial part of any shoot. That'swhere Eric comes in. He delivers every time. If hedidn't dial in the audio, we wouldn't be posting thevideos. Otherwise it's just little stuff like peopleturning off cameras mid-set and ruining the sync,audience members deciding to fuck with the assholeholding a camera by holding their drink in front ofthe lens, band members looking directly into thecamera all the time [can be creepy], filming thefloor/ceiling for 30 seconds while you drink beer, etcetc...

If you could shoot video of one band from any timein history, which band would you choose?

Steven: Dirty Three Luke: Sonic Youth circa 1987Trenton: Bad Brains circa 1982Eric: The Anniversary

What bands can we look forward seeing on the sitein the near future?

We have some new sets from Portastatic, HaleyBonar and Akron/Family that are almost ready to beposted. We're filming some great upcoming showsincluding Low's CD release show on April 14th atFirst Avenue, Vietnam, and The Black Angels as well.Other than that we don't have a lot planned.Any suggestions? Email them to us at [email protected]

07

Gus Peña (Chord) Stuart Anderson (The New Scheme)

Amy Schroeder (Venus) Steve Brydges (Copper Press) Justin Luczejko (WonkaVision)

Todd Taylor (Razorcake)Jack Rabid (The Big Takeover)

6x7

6questions7Editors

1Chord2The New Scheme3Big Takeover4Razorcake5Venus6Copper Press7Wonka Vision6x7

6questions7Editors

1Chord2The New Scheme3Big Takeover4Razorcake5Venus6Copper Press7Wonka Vision

08

What is the purpose of your magazine?

Our purpose is to give music fans an avenueto discover music.

As editor of your magazine, what does yourjob involve?

It is not as glamorous as it sounds. 'Soup tonuts' basically.

What's the key to longevity in independentpublishing?

Staying independent.

What do you think is the biggest problemfacing independent magazines like yourstoday?

Probably the misconception that internet adbuys equate to CD sales. Internet 'plays' onsites like MySpace or Pure Volume do notequal sales. I saw a press release where theartist had 17+ million plays but only sold 15,000CDs. Numbers can be deceiving. Plays in themillions sound good but in truth they do nothingfor your bottom line. I have yet to meet a per-son that clicks on a banner ad on purpose.

I think that when we get online we tend toknow almost exactly where we want to go; Iwant to sell this on eBay, or check the Lakersscore from last night or who posted a commenton my MySpace page. With print the approachis different. We want to flip through a magazineand see what it may have to offer. We want tohave the ability to scope out and ad and flip thepage if we are not interested.

Is the internet killing independent papermagazines or making them more popular?

I think the internet is offering another avenueof distribution. Independent print will only die ifwe as independent publishers do not move for-ward with the times and develop new andimproved methods of reaching people andadvertisers. Companies want PR in print other-wise our inboxes would not be as full as theyare. Clearly there will have to be a new magazine online business model.

09

How would you describe your publication?

In short: a small-run magazine, mostly focusedon independent music. In reality: a fanzine(read as: dinosaur).


To spread the word on new, interesting music,most of which will be only peripherally covered, or completely ignored by larger publications. Lately it seems like the purposehas mostly been survival, both financially, andpersonally. It has been difficult to find time todevote to it, and keep print runs at a reasonable level while finally getting awayfrom newsprint.


It involves a lot of different things, mostly coordinating coverage with a number of writers, writing too many reviews myself, andselling ads. Then, I usually end up editing andlaying out the whole issue in a three-day span,weeks after the deadline. The current issue willhopefully be the last one that falls into this pattern, as I'm finally finishing school. I wouldreally like to spend more time working with thetalented, but equally over-worked and unpaidwriters and focusing more on each issue's production. Hopefully that will be possiblestarting next month.


Persistence, and not over-reaching. I havebeen tempted a number of times over theyears to leap at the full color cover, free sampler CD, UPC and cover price. It sucks tofeel so stuck with OK black and white printingand inconsistent at best, free distribution. Buttaking that leap would likely have killed thisproject years ago. Instead, I’m always trying togrow slowly and organically. Right now thegoal is to fill in gaps in circulation for the paperversion, keep growing with the digital versionand make enough money to pay writers. I thinkall of them are finally possible now. I’ve beenable to consistently break even at this, in some

capacity, for more than ten years. It’s frustrat-ing sometimes, but I’d rather stay afloat thango broke on a few issues and end up workingat Alternative Press.


The biggest problem is really the same that it’salways been: money. It seems like advertisingis way down, since more and more labels arecutting their budgets as conventional CD salesdisappear. But there also seems to always bea stream of new labels, despite the slim oddsof making money. I know that distribution ismore difficult all the time for newsstand magazines. I avoid that by making it free inprint and online. Again, it’s frustrating toscramble for years and consistently get rough-ly the same amount of ad money each issue.But with so many people involved in sellingmusic going out of business, I’d rather betreading water than sinking.


Usually: killing them. In an effort not to beanother casualty, or go fully online I’ve found ahappy medium. I’m still printing the issues asalways, but I’m also putting out a PDF version,which is free to download. I have no interest indoing a fully online magazine, since I reallydon’t like reading a bunch of text at onceonline. It works great for more news-basedsites like Punknews and Pitchfork, but it isn’tfor me. So far, the PDF version has been doingreally well. There have been at least four timesas many unique downloads for each issue asprinted copies. I see the internet hurting a lot ofmid-sized magazines with cover prices, but ithas only helped to spread The New Scheme.

11


Venus Zine (and venuszine.com) covers theladies (and men) in music, film, fashion, andDIY culture. We’re lucky: We’re the only publication that covers what we cover how wecover it.


There are so many cool women, and there isso little time. We do our best to feature asmany creative, inspiring women as we can.We’ve featured Björk, Yoko Ono, Miranda July,Sleater-Kinney, and so many others.


A lot of my job involves talent search and management. I recruit talented writers and creative types and figure out how and wherethey’re best suited at Venus Zine. I also editstories, decide the cover story, oversee a teamof freelance editors and writers, train interns,and conceptualize and flush out businessdevelopment ideas. Outside of the office, I alsodo public speaking on how to successfully startan indie publication.


A solid and original concept, hard work anddedication, the ability to stay ahead of trends,and being able to adapt to the changing timeswith the Internet.


Funding (i.e. advertising) and channels fornewsstand distribution — especially whenrecord stores are going under — are alwaysmain concerns. We’ve been able to stay competitive by putting an emphasis on ourWeb site, venuszine.com. In the summer of2007, we are launching a redesign of our site.


Both. Depends on the publication. I believethat in today’s world, it's less about print vs.web. In order to succeed, publications need togrow their overall brands and multiple mediachannels.

13


Adrift in a sea of debt. Oh, and a perfect-bound, 8"x8", quarterly publication that focuses on music, art, photography, literature,snow/skate creative types and other endeavors of interest to us.


To communicate and share with others in artful fashion things we're passionate about.We've been publishing since 1993. The firstwas Pok (pronounced "poke") Magazine,which was equal parts snow/skate/sound. In1999, two of us broke off to found CopperPress. It's 5.01.07, and we're about to releaseour 29th issue.


It would take less time and space to list thethings it does not involve. We're a two-manoperation that's fortunate to have a solidunpaid staff of writers (one of whom is now ourcopy editor) and graphic designers who contribute articles and layouts, but I'm personally responsible for ad sales, distribution, retail sales, mail-order, writing,interviewing bands/artists/etc., assigning articles, corresponding with publicists andlabels, paying bills, arranging the layout, track-ing down missing ads, photos, articles, etc.


Passion and ad sales. With a magazine asexpensive to produce as ours (over $2.00 percopy), we have to be able to sell ads to stayafloat. And without the desire to publish issueafter issue, year after year, there would be nopoint in pursuing those dollars in order to putout an issue devoid of heart. Readers willknow when you're faking it.


Lack of available ad funds. Labels are spend-ing their money on web ads and publicistswithout considering the viability of the printedword.


Financially, we'd like to be doing a lot better,but we hustle for every ad dollar we can earn,so we're hanging in there. Plus, I think our content and format is unique and I'll put thequality of our paper and layouts/presentationup against any magazine in any genre, sowhile the cookie-cutter magazines scramble tointerview the same cover subjects and tumbleinto the death spiral that is going all-color, wehave actually see our circulation increase.Huzzah!

15


Created by an extremely passionate staffthat’ve seen the magazine mature over thecourse of ten years, Wonka Vision is a glossypublication with worldwide distribution yet hasthe personality and attitude of a cut and pastefanzine. In the ever-growing corporately funded music industry, WVM remains an independently published magazine with theguts and moxy to stand up and take good careof the little guys of the world. Whether it’s punkrock & hardcore, politics & photography, toys &comics; Wonka Vision’s eclectic approach toup and coming artists and musicians is as gritty and raw since the day of it’s inception.With an ever-growing sense of humor, there issomething in the magazine for every kid thatrefuses to become an adult.


Give readers who still believe in real music amagazine then can feel good reading. Givesmaller bands an outlet for exposure when bigger magazines won’t pay attention to them.Help young artists with visibility for their artwork.


I oversee everything that goes on at the magazine; however, we have more department heads than ever before so I’m incharge of the people who are in charge of thepeople. Did that make sense? I’m doing some-thing different every day and that keeps thingshere fresh. Some weeks I’m selling advertis-ing, others I’m getting all of the stories andphotos ready for design and every day I’mhelping our staff with their tasks and answeringhundreds of e-mails. The e-mails tend to getarduous and the job has become more administrative than ever before but I’m happywhere I am outside of the creative processbecause every day my main duty and detail isstrictly helping the magazine grow.


The first and more obvious things are faithfuladvertisers and exclusive worldwide distribution. We just got an exclusive deal so

the previous ten years were always tough. Webasically used street teams and tons offriends, writers, etc. to give out our magazinefree everywhere we could. Shipping is soexpensive and to make matters A LOT worse,the USPS is about to implement a fee hikethat’s going to affect print media in a very neg-ative way. The rates are going up 30% and Ican guarantee it’s going to knock more andmore magazines off the block. In this day inage where so many mags are flopping andonline sites like Pure Volume and Myspace areraking in the profits, the only thing a print pub-lisher can do to stay afloat is compromise.We’ve been looking at intricate things that sellmagazines more nowadays and we NEVERdid things like that in the past. In the past, wedid what we wanted to, we spoke from the gutand ONLY featured the bands we loved. Ourpassions haven’t changed but to stay alive I’vehad to think of this as a business every day Igo to work. It’s not exactly something I like todo but hey, I’m surviving off of what I love to doand I’m taking my friends on the path with me.We have goals and to reach them, you have toconstantly give and take, push and pull. We’vebeen forced to become more critical and intro-spective that when I started this magazine Iwould have referred to as silly things: the col-ors we use, the text we run, the paper we printon, the cover stock we use, our page counts,recycled paper… lots and lots of utterly boringthings.


The internet.


Both. Without the internet, we wouldn’t havesurvived as long as we have. It’s made everything from advertising to file transfer andcontacts easier. However, it’s a double-edgesword because Status, Clamor, HeartattaCk,Under the Volcano, Big Wheel, Rockpile,Hanging Like a Hex and Law of Inertia have allclosed in the past couple years. I think thecons outweigh the pros. Then again I’m a totaland complete hypocrite and anyone who saysthey aren’t in 2007, is a liar.

17


We’re technically the only official non-profitmusic magazine in America at the time. Thereare shit-tons of great zines that don’t turn aprofit, but we’re the first to go through the grueling non-profit gauntlet. It took two andhalf years, were denied our first two attempts,and it cost about as much as it does to releasetwo 7”s, but a lot less fun. Megan Pants tookthe charge on it.


To cover DIY, grassroots music, mostly punk,stuff that we truly like and that doesn’t traditionally get a lot of coverage. We go out ofour way to celebrate the littler folks in favor ofbigger bands with bigger budgets. Here’swhere the official non-profit comes in to play.Since we can’t make money off of it and ourfinances are public domain, I hope it puts people at ease that we’re doing all we can—doing our part. That we’re in it for the right rea-sons. That we give a shit about this culture andare willing to give it more than just lip service.We’re working on setting up activities in ourneighborhood: East Los Angeles, HighlandPark specifically. I love it here.


Almost everything. I consider myself a greycollar worker: partially white collar, partiallyblue collar. I spend a lot of mental time gettingour 100 contributors in synch with our schedule, I answer a ton of emails, get all theadvertising aligned, do some graphic design,help balance the books, do all the prepress forthe printing, write reviews, interview bands,take pictures. I also do a lot of the lug work.Every two months, we pull a little over one tonof magazines up a flight of stairs, processthem, haul them back down, and make surethe right postal markings are on them. Peoplethink I’m joking when I say that the zine’s aworkout, but swear my arms are longer fromconstantly lifting 50 lb boxes the last six years.I also fix all the computers, keep the mail bikeand pickup truck working. Shit, you name itwith Razorcake, and I’m either helping steer or

am intimately involved in the process.

I’m totally fortunate to have awesome helpers,in addition to our contributors. Daryl, Jenny,and Megan all come in once or twice a weekand we have two interns, Adrian and Hannah.There’s a tremendous amount of shitwork weall have to go through. For instance, we uploadabout 200-300 new reviews onto our websitealone, every two months. That’s a lot of dataentry.


Semi-serious answer: Make friends with yourpostal employees. They’re your gateway. Ifyou piss them off, you’re doomed. I know all ofthe desk workers at the four closest branches,am sensitive when it’s best to go in with a bigload, and always help with the lifting and hampering.

More broad answer: Pay attention to the boring details. You’ll totally get killed if youdon’t pay attention. It’s not fun to balance yourcheckbook. It’s not fun to harass distributors topay. It’s not fun to learn about dot gain. It’s notfun to become a skilled amateur at things liketaking care of computer viruses and wonderinghow the fuck some asshole in Turkey justbreached your site’s security and erasedeverything just for kicks, but, unless you havedeep pockets (I made $5,500 last year) I’vefound out that if you learn it yourself, or havepeople that you get along with and you treatthem well, you don’t have to outsource much(this keeps it in our “community”), and it’scheaper. If you’re honest and forward, you’ll beokay. I’ve always been very conservative withRazorcake, financially. Everything we do, wehave the money on hand before starting it. If itbombs, we break even. I know too many folkswho got carried away, got slapped with a hugereturn, or rely too much on a distributor to paythem, then go kaput.

Continued on page 23

19


For music lovers tired of hearing about thesame bands over and over. We will talk aboutsome of them if they are really good, we're notsnobs, but it's always been the case that thereis so much more out there that needs a voiceand will enrich your life even more if you canhear them. We're 220 pages of all music, allthe time, all by people who buy copiousamounts of CDs, and we get the artists to real-ly open up about their music and what reallyturns them on as musicians.


I'd say it's the above, but it's also really aboutgetting people more involved, and to thinkdeeper about the things and the art they love.We try to foster a small community of peoplewho really do more than just buy the t-shirt orhave music on in the background; we wantpeople to get more out of their lives and givethem a small assist to really harvesting the fullpotential of the underground music that's outthere.


Ha, just about everything! I assign the storiesand reviews, many of them to myself. I editthem before they go to copyediting. I talk todistributors and get orders. I book all the ads.I talk to all the writers. I deal with the publicistsfor the most part, when I have time. I getinvolved a little with the orders for the mag,and I talk to our readers a lot as well. And Ideal with the art director a lot, and then theprinter once it is all done. I'm also in charge ofall accounts payable and accounts receivable.And bookkeeping too for the IRS folks. I knowbigger mags have a person that does all thesethings, but we only sell 22,000 and don't getany really expensive lifestyle ads, so I'mrequired to work this much, but I like it! I havean assistant and two or three interns that helpas well, which is key. And all our contributorsare really in on it as well, they're all volunteersand they all love the music as much as I!


In our case, since we're working on our 60thissue in our 27th year of publishing, I wouldsay it is just stubborn persistence born of thegenuine love of what we cover. It's a pain inthe tail to do a print mag, that's for sure. (But Ivastly prefer them--I read the New Yorker, TheEconomist, and Time Out New York and printnewspapers like The New York Times, andother ones quite religiously, and don't do thatwith any web based magazine. I think you cantake your time and consider more with a printmag. It fosters more substantial thoughtprocesses and information, I think.) I hopepeople understand the extra love and care andeffort that goes into one as opposed to throwing together some web zine. There iswork involved there too, but nowhere near asmuch. Printing and shipping and distributionand its attendant accounts receivable woesare a huge chuck of time, as are subscriptionsand the like. But I think it is all worth it as wereally do love what we have been doing for solong, and it means a lot to me when people sayit means a lot to them, and they say it to us allthe time. We're really inspired by that to keepit going if we know it is appreciated like that,and we've been lucky that people have beenunsparing with that sort of important feedback.It makes me feel like we make a difference,however modest, in the culture, howeversmall, and in people's lives, however few!That's a good feeling when I walk around thesidewalks humming a tune to myself on anygiven day. We hope to keep it going another 27years! And there really is no substitute for thatkind of zeal. Ego alone will never get you veryfar when the workload starts to eat you alive,and the funding issues start to strip you naked.It's really quite quixotic otherwise!


It's always funding. Any mag is dependent onadvertising, and many of the traditionalsources of that have been slowly eroding(especially in the music business as the indus-try's sales have been down so bad the last few

21

years, killing a lot of their more generous marketing budgets, but not limited to that!), asmarketing departments of products are confronted with a much wider range of optionsand ideas and solicitations for their budgets.And print mag or newspaper is running the riskof seeming like old media. But what's keepingus afloat is that our advertisers consider ourreadership a unique set of eyeballs. I hope thatcontinues. Because you just can't count ongetting a lot of money for the mags you sell,the whole independent distribution channel isthe most patently one-sided business arrangement I have ever seen. Since every-thing is consignment, the poor publisher isalways left holding the bag in unsolds, plusboth the distributor and the store both get a cutout of every sale of the ones that do sell, thenthe distributors charge you for everything theyseem to do and should do as a matter ofcourse (the most bitter are "marketing fees"that you can't opt out of, but there's more!),and that gets deducted, plus you had to pay toship the buggers to them in the first place, soall in all, you end up breaking even more thanmaking a profit even if your sell through isgood. (In which case, you only do it becauseit's essential to your ad rates.) If your sellthrough is bad, you actually end up losingmoney on store sales, because the costs ofprinting and shipping the mags to these distrib-utors are not made back. Since this putrid andoffensive relationship has no end in sight, it'sall down to subscriptions and advertising tofund the massive upfront costs of doing a magbefore you've sold a single issue (for us it'saround $45000 to $50000 an issue!). So ifeither of those things lesson, you will probablybe forced to stop. It's a big problem, and I'mnot surprised some of my favorite print magsare now web only zines. You cut out 80-90% ofthe costs right there. Although I also think youcut out 80-90% of the joy for me as a reader. Iget sick of staring at a computer screen anddon't read much of anything on it other thanthe occasional informational blurb or headline.


Oddly both. I'm old enough in this game toremember what it was like before the internet.There was no competition from it true, but itwas 50 times harder for readers who werepotentially interested in your coverage to findout you even existed! So it's a double edgedsword. Our circulation doubled in a few shortyears after the internet started, and rose slow-ly the next several years, then it plateaued. It'san old story, some people just don't under-stand that you get what you pay for, and a lotof the coverage on the internet is cheap fastand easy (not all of it, obviously) and you justdon't digest it properly the way you do sittingdown with your favorite print mag. Now I thinkit is starting to kill paper magazines a little,because there is an unreasonable rush to getall your info and opinion now, instead of thegreater satisfaction of waiting a little and hav-ing it covered more thoroughly. The lesseningattention spans of our society is directly relat-ed to the barrage of media thrown at peopleevery day, and I think it is actually curtailingreal brain activity a little. But if you walk intoany newsstand in any airport, you see a sea ofprint mags, so we must still be fulfilling a basichuman need, for deeper, more thoughtfulreads, despite the internet's competition. Ifnewspapers survive it will only be because ofthis as well. I can't get the depth of the NewYork Times' coverage anywhere online in myview, and if I could, I wouldn't want to read thatmuch on a computer screen! The thoughtmakes me laugh. In the end, I think the realproblem will be how much of the marketingdollars the internet siphons. To the extent thatmarketers have or will put more money thereand less into traditional print mags, they will killus all. And they ought to think long and hardabout that. Because it is my view that an ad ina paper mag is far less annoying and far morewelcome than the ads I get bombarded with onthe internet. And they're 10 times more eyecatching too. And you can't Tivo past the ads ina mag. They're always there with their mes-sages, and good art directors know how tomake you look at their ad.

22

Continued


Here’s the elephant in the middle of the room:traditional magazine distribution (on a national level) is abhorrent. It was horrible when I started in 1996 helping out with Flipside, andit’s worse now. I’ve seen four of the largestindependent distros go belly up right in front ofme: Fine Print, Desert Moon, now Tower (whowere great) and Big Top (a branch or sub-sidiary of the IPA, Independent PressAssociation). Big Top’s the shame because atone time they had the money in their hands toset up the national system for magazine distribution (which is complicated and incredibly expensive), but they totally fuckedup, spent the money on the wrong things, andtook down some great magazines with them. Ithink they’re getting sued by both the ChickenSoup for the Soul people and Mother Jones.Drives me nuts. A lot of these folks will be “rah,rah, revolution, rah rah, everyone equal, PC-PC-PC, antidote to media monopoly,” (which isfine if it were really true) and then treat youworse than you’ve ever been treated. Suckin’.


I don’t know if the internet’s doing the killing(see answer above), or if it’s because postageis getting higher and higher, but it seems thatzines are getting harder and harder —not tomake—but to get into people’s hands andhave them pay a modest sum for all of thathard work and shipping.

Really, I have no idea. Razorcake covers both.My heart’s in paper, full-page spreads, ink, andreading something that’s not glowing at youlike a computer monitor. Plus, you can neverunderestimate that the biggest room for reading in most folks’ house is the bathroom.But, I understand the internet’s utility. We usethem together and they’re interwoven. We usethe website to help provide a direct link (thustaking out some of the distributors’ chokeholds) between us and our subscribers.Except reviews and some other small things,we keep the webzine and fanzine contentsseparate. Two different experiences. A Venndiagram with a little overlap between the two.We’re working on posting way-sold-out issuesup on the website as PDFs.

Stuff’s always changing and I hope we stay ontop of it while it still remains fun. Otherwise,what’s the point?

23

Interview with Jesse Woghin // Above photo: Ryan Russell // Live photos: Oly

26

How did losing your drummer affect writing and recording All That to the Wall?Well, there was a pretty extensive search that went on for months until we finally realized he wasjust gone -- real gone -- and that we had to move on. You know that old saying, "If you lovesomething..." Yeah. Essentially, though, it sort of streamlined the whole process. The drums onthis album definitely feel a lot different than on Such Triumph. There's a lot more "holdin' it down"and a lot less "riffin'" rhythmically. Probably some of that comes from the fact that the feel of atleast two of the songs comes from beats written by a Casio CT-250 drummer.

Dave Turncrantz from Russian Circles and Dan Fetherston from Oxford Collapse filled inon drums for the recording of All That to the Wall. Did they come up with the drummingparts for the album, or were those already written before recording?There were some parts written by our old drummer that didn't change all that much and somethat changed a lot. We had demos and live recordings that Nate had played on. Some ideascame from the Casio. Some ideas came from Sam or James or I. Honestly, it was still prettycollaborative, but in a pretty different way. We really only worked with Dave for about a weekand Dan for a few days, but they both really developed and fleshed out the ideas that werealready in place. Dan definitely came to Chicago to record with his game face on. He had a lotof great ideas, not just for his own parts, and we love him for it. He's kinda like the Jimmy Jamon Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation of All That to the Wall.

With Bob Dylan's extensive catalog, what made you decide to cover "All the Tired Horses"?Divine intervention.

Since you've been playing these new songs live, how have the fans reacted to them, especially "All the Tired Horses"?Ahh, the fans. The reaction has really been pretty great. I think we're making a lot of new fansfrom the new jams and I will continue to believe so until proven wrong. Honestly, though, I thinkpeople either really love or really hate "... Tired Horses." One side of the fence or the other. A lotof times people who know it will sing along while it's going down and then a lot of nerdy Dylanchat will ensue post-set. A lot of times people will groan and walk away. It's like what GeorgeClinton tells Kid 'n Play in the cinema classic, House Party: "Cry two tears in a bucket. Fuck it.Let's take it to the stage."

Did you accomplish everything you wanted to with writing and recording All That to the Wall?Yeah, we did actually. We got to hang out with Mike Lust (engineer) for like a week straight.We've always really wanted to do that. Honestly, though, we're really happy with it for the mostpart. Right now, for me, the album feels like it'll stick with me. I guess I finally feel like I've beena part of something that in ten or fifteen years I'll come back to and still be happy about. Fathertime will tell.

27

How was writing and recording All That to the Wall compared to writing and recordingSuch Triumph?With Such Triumph we had a bunch of songs that had been written for quite some time and weknew what we wanted the album as a whole to feel like. We wrote some songs specifically to fitin spots that we thought needed to be filled in the greater idea of the album -- like, "here's wherethe rocker will go" and "then we'll drop the interlude here." ATttW transpired a lot more organi-cally in that we knew we wanted to make another album and were writing for it all along, butthere was no real greater idea to making the album than to try to write a bunch of songs we werereally happy with and really wanted to play the hell out of live. We put the pieces together a lotlater in the game. Also I'd say that a lot more attention was paid to vocal melodies and lyricsthan before. We did our best to not just haphazardly throw things together. As far as recording,the vibe was a lot different. We also recorded over a longer period of time, which definitelychanged things a little, gave us some time to rework ideas and get them right. We fought lessI think, which was nice. We tried to stay away from excessive overdubs and noise, which we didn't quite accomplish, but there's definitely less. Lust rubbed his madness all over thatrecording. It's great. He was in a lot of ways hands-on and had a lot of valuable advice. Hereally knew how to walk this dog.

29

Some of the reviews I've read about All That to the Wall say that there is a big differencein sound between your previous albums (faster tempos) and this new one (slower tem-pos). After listening to All That to the Wall quite a number of times, I found that a lot of thesame elements and tempos exist on both full lengths, but they are played differently. Doyou think there is a dramatic change between your previous albums and All That to theWall?With age comes grace. Kevin, our new drummer, thinks it sounds a lot different, but agrees withyour sentiment that it's make-up is not as different as some might lead you to believe. Lessaggression, more energy. Less hangin' by the bar, more boogie. I don't really think the changeis all that dramatic. I just think it's better, which makes sense. The more songs you write, thelonger you stay a band and make albums, the better they get (unless you're Metallica - ed. Samdisagrees based only on his "Saint Anger" tattoo). We trimmed the fat.

I find myself liking bands from the Chicago area than any other area in the U.S. Why doyou think there are so many talented and diverse bands from Chicago?I feel like Chicago is the musical hub of the midwest in a lot of ways. We're a Chicago band andnone of us are from here originally. A lot of the Chicago bands you really like are probably madeup at least in part of folks from St. Louis, Detroit, Louisville, Iowa City, New York, etc. It's great,though. It brings a lot of these different styles and ideas together. I think life for a band inChicago is also generally more accepting and low-key. There's less politicking and "biz" in ourworld than if we were in NY or LA or something, but we get to have the diversity of the sceneand general midwestern friendliness and a little bit cheaper lifestyle surrounding us to supportour dream. We probably would've broken up a long time ago if we lived somewhere more dog-eat-dog. Snoop dog-eat-dog.

You recently played the Flameshovel Showcase at SXSW. How did it go? How did it compare from when you played SXSW in 2004?It went a lot better than last time. The room was pretty much full when we played, which wasreally nice, but it was filled with a lot of friends and a few fans raging hard up in the front andthen a bunch of industry geezers in the back. I was hoping for a rumble, but it didn't go down.The room was better than last time, the attendance was better, we're a better live band than wewere then, all better, better, better.

Where there any bands that you actively sought out to see while there?Oxford Collapse. I saw The Mae Shi and Bill Callahan, who were both amazing, but that's aboutit. We took the cash instead of the wristbands because our van, The Puppy, is a real sinkholeand we needed to feed its urges. We thought we might see some bands at the late-night parties, but they almost all got shut down before we could get there and let loose.

What do you think of SXSW as a whole?It's a pretty enormous cluster-fuck and it gets more and more business-y as every year goes by.We know it's important to play it, but we're not really sure why, and I feel like most bands don'teven really enjoy it anymore just because it is so overwhelming. I'm also pretty certain that noone really discovers anything down there anymore other than just how many Shiner Bocks youcan consume before total black-out. We still had a good time, though, although I'm not surehow.

Are you planning to tour this summer in support of All That to the Wall? Do you plan toplay both coasts?Yep. Can't wait. Full US tour begins May 31st in Omaha. We'll head west first, then east. We'recoming to your town. To quote Willie D of the Geto Boys, "DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YA."

31

interview with aaron Chapman

Live Photos: David McHank // Portraits: Sean Desmond

Nurses

How did the deal with you and Sargent House come about?Some friends of ours played our record for Cathy at Sargent House andreportedly upon first listen her head made a cash register sound andbig gold dollar signs flashed in her eyes. She called us up and we hada real live business meeting. We really liked her vision for bothSargent House and our group so we spat in our hands and made itofficial. We're now 'going steady'.

From the vocals to the instrumentation on Hangin' Nothin' ButOur Hands Down, the sound is very original. Was there anythingthat helped influence that sound? Most importantly, I think our sound is a result of not identifying with any sort of geographical music scene or movement. We don't real-ly have any roots or belong to any group of bands, so we sort of willy-nilly wrote a bunch of the best songs we could muster. As far asmusical influences - we were transitioning out of noisy, wacky rock into melodically centered songs and pop songs. I think our recordsort of falls somewhere between the two. We also really got into "Negro Spirituals" for a while there. Is there a better name for that?I've always felt uncomfortable saying Negro Spirituals, but that's what they're called on the introweb.

Since your sound is so unique, have most people been receptive of it or turned off by it? Sometimes people seem a little confused by us. Trying to figure out what we're all about. People tend to fold their arms and cock theirheads a little upon first listen. But once they hear that slide whistle.... I tell ya what, they're like putty in our hands. Nobody can denythe power of a slide whistle. I'll tell you who's pretty receptive - old sound guys at dives always get real excited and compare us toZappa. They love us.

Is the song writing a group effort, or does one member write most of the music?Well, our leader Aaron usually brings the basic structure 'n' melodies to the table and then we all figure out the best way to translatethe ideas into a group number.

How does the album translate into a live show?A lot of times we play the record front to back live. I think we really hum-ding it live, it definitely has more energy and a certain some-thing the record doesn't have. Although we go the extra mile to recreate the record live, it’s definitely a different idea. We have a lot ofgizmos on stage and there's a certain spectacle the show achieves that I think compliments the manic nature of the record pretty well.The amount of stuff on stage alone is a pretty big character in the show.

32

Performing live is something the band is passionate about. Do you think albums should be written with the live show inmind? In our case it works out a lot better to just write whatever we think is best and worry about how to pull it off live later. We ended upwith a show and record we couldn't have dreamed of otherwise. We literally spent five months alone in our garage learning how to playthe songs and performing them to a collage of fifty celebrity faces cut out from magazines. We didn't even own a piano or Rhodes whenwe wrote the record; we just borrowed instruments and figured we'd learn later. John had never played piano before we wrote the recordand by necessity had to learn to play half the piano parts on the record. We definitely ended up challenging ourselves to no end andreally improved drastically as musicians by forcing ourselves to perform something we weren't capable of playing well before we record-ed the songs.

The lyric sheet that comes with the CD has very small text on it, but it comes with a magnifying glass to read it with. What'sthe explanation behind this? Are the magnifying glasses powerful enough to burn things with the by refracting the sun'slight onto an object? Is there anything that you would suggest burning? The magnifying glass was a novel idea to make the packaging more interesting. When I was younger and still bought albums and CDs,the best part was the first day where you just listen to the record over and over and stare at the packaging. It’s such an awesome feel-ing to enjoy the packaging and let it become a sort of visual accompaniment to the record. I haven't seen very many interesting recordcovers or packaging ideas that get me juiced lately and that's a bummer. It was really important for us to have something that wethought represented the record and was fun and interesting. We did the artwork and came up with the packaging ideas which was muchmore rewarding to us than sending the music off to a guy we don't know and having an impersonal visual for our record. And yes themagnifying glasses are powerful enough to burn things so use them to burn a copy of our CD and give it to your friend!

Is Nurses a full time job for you? What do you do to make ends meet? Our group is a full time albeit non-paying job. We spend all of our time doing it- but to put food in our cupboards and roofs on ourheads we serve people soups, salads, coffees, and breads!

If you type "Nurses" into Google, you get over 54 million results. Was the intention of naming the band "Nurses" to makeyour band hard to find on the internet?....that was just tragic lack of foresight....

33

You've got over 80,000 page views and over9,000 plays of "Wait for a Safe Sign" on yourMySpace page. Do you think that those num-bers have any impact on what record salesHangin' Nothin' But Our Hands Down will be?It’s hard to say how many people care aboutowning records. At the same time MySpace is agreat vehicle for selling records - I think it'swhere some people go to listen to music and aresatisfied with streaming four songs. I don't meanto be pessimistic, but I'm not sure plays or viewson MySpace equal sales, I think people need tosee a live show or something to persuade themto fork over cash. There's almost no incentive to purchase a record any-mo.

What do you think are the positives and negatives for a band like yours on MySpace?Myspace for the most part is a positive thing for most bands. It's a really effortless introduction to people for groups like ours who aresmall and can't afford to tour all the time. However, I think MySpace is just that - an introduction. Our record is definitely intended asa whole, so people who only listen to the four songs on our MySpace aren't really getting the gist. Also we haven't yet mastered theultra flattering angled camera shots, so we're sort of underdogs for now.

What are your plans for touring in support of Hangin' Nothin' But Our Hands Down? Are there any particular bands thatyou want to tour with? Ahhhh man, I thought you'd never ask. We're really hoping to just plain tour our nuzz off. We have a wish list on our fridge of bandswe want to tour with. We're sort of aiming high. I'm going to list them here, in no particular order: The Flaming lips, Animal Collective,Gary Wilson, Beck, The Arcade fire, Modest Moose, White Stripes, Liars, Pinback, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Spoon, Radiohead (of course), DavidByrne, Blonde Redhead, Tv on the (college) Radio, Bloc Party, Grizzly Bear etc. You get the idea. *If you're reading this and you're inone of these bands, take us on tour! Call this number 208-680-4844. That's our band’s mobile phone number*

34

nobody can deny the power

of a slide whistle

35

Pearly Sweets is DeadPearly Sweets is DeadThe Baby Teeth InterviewThe Baby Teeth Interview

Interview with Peter AndreadisLive Photo: Kirstie Shanley

36

37

Pearly Sweets is DeadPearly Sweets is DeadThe Baby Teeth InterviewThe Baby Teeth Interview

Interview with Peter AndreadisLive Photo: Kirstie Shanley

Pearly Sweets abandoned his monikerfor The Simp and recorded this albumunder his given name, Abraham Levitan.Was there any reason behind this? Willthe Pearly Sweets name be making acomeback in future recordings?The Pearly Sweets moniker was created incollege and used initially for a band calledPearly Sweets and the Platonics. It continuedinto Baby Teeth, but we all thought thatAbraham's lyrics were becoming morepersonal and the song writing stronger, so wedecided that it should be dropped. I don't thinkPearly Sweets will be coming back later. He isdead.

Each member of Baby Teeth also playswith another band; Bobby Conn,Detholz!, and All City Affairs. Where doyou find time to play in all these otherbands and still do Baby Teeth?Well, for me All City Affairs is something that Ido almost entirely on my own, so I can do it inbetween a lot of other things. Sometimes Iwork really late at night or early in the morning. I freelance, so I have control over alot of my work schedule. Jim (bass) has themost difficult schedule to juggle probably,because of Detholz! and playing bass withBobby Conn. Abraham is not really playingwith Bobby anymore.

Were the brass and stringed instrumentson The Simp samples or actual livemusicians? Do you use samples of thebrass and stringed instruments on tour ordo live musicians play those parts?

The brass and strings are definitely live musicians. We've got a lot of friends in theChicago music community and just reached out topeople that we liked and who were interested inbeing a part of the recording. Andra Kulans is theviolin/viola player that tracked on a number ofthe tunes and she plays in The 1900's. AlsoTomeka Reid recorded cello on the title track. Thehorns were played by Nick Broste, who also playsin Cursive from time to time and DaveMcDonnell, aka The Diminisher played thesaxophone/clarinet.

How was it recording with Blue Hawaii?He's an old, good friend of mine. We went torecording school together and I've trusted him toengineer just about anything I've done. We lovedthe first record from his band Icy Demons that herecorded and we wanted him to put his creativespin on our album. He's got a lot of patience whenit comes to spending time and creating soundsthat fill out the sonic space. He helped out with allof the texturing.

As heard on the For the Heathers EP, eachmember of the band has pretty diversemusical tastes. What bands or songwritershelp influence Baby Teeth's sound? What bands did you listen to growing up?The song writing is definitely influenced by a lotof 60's and 70's rhythm and blues artists, girlgroups from the Motown era of soul, and seven-ties icons like Elvis Costello, Fleetwood Mac,Bowie, etc. Jim has a lot of eclectic tastes and is acomposition and conducting major, so he brings alot of music theory and arranging strategy to theband. I like a lot of hip-hop and grew up listeningto De La Soul and Public Enemy as much as theBeatles and other pop/rock music. So thecombination of all those things is a realcornucopia of different interests.

How does song writing work in BabyTeeth? Are the violins and horns part ofthe initial song writing process or are theyadded in at the end after the guitars anddrums parts are written?Abraham makes demos of most of the songs andgives Jim and I burned CDs to listen to and wechoose our favorites. From that point it's prettymuch fair game. We often mutate those original

demos into something completely different, butusually the melody and lyrics remain intact. Thebass/drum parts and the background vocals allget added in the collaboration stage. Violins andhorns are usually arranged later by Jim orAbraham.

How did each member of the band becomesuch a multi-instrumentalist?Everyone in the band is a bit of a control freak, soI think we want to be in the driver's seat all thetime. I think it comes from that. None of us wantto be left on the sidelines holding the water jug.

I've noticed that such a wide variety of genres come out of Chicago, why do youthink that is? What are some Chicagobands that you enjoy and think everyoneshould check out?Chicago is a huge musical community. Blues andJazz have a real strong history here. And there aresome obvious rock stars that have come out ofhere too, like Cheap Trick, Smashing Pumpkins,Kanye West, Common. The city is huge and isreally the major city of the midwest, so I thinkmany different kinds of people end up here andthat's reflected in the music. We are fans ofChicago bands, such as Icy Demons, The 1900's,Devin Davis, The Changes, The M's, Mucca Pazza.

I can see some people saying that you don'ttake your selves seriously as Baby Teethbecause it looks like your having too muchfun with this band. Is Baby Teeth a seriousoutlet for you?It's a serious band and we don't take the musiclightly. I think that you can hear how much timewe put into it. We as people don't take ourselvestoo seriously and we have a blast together. Whenwe play shows, we expect people to walk out saying they had an amazing time. We hope peopledance and cheer when they see us. I think somejournalists are just lazy and they hear about whatsome of our influences are and they think, "theseguys can’t be serious." So they start there insteadof listening closer, reading the lyrics, coming tothe shows, etc.

Are you planning to tour this summer orfall in support of The Simp.We are going to the east coast in the summer andcontinuing to do shows throughout the midwest.In the fall we hope to continue touring collegesand hopefully going out with bands we like.

39

40

The Ants IdeabreakerI was excited when the first song poppedon. The vocalist had a Davey Von Bohlen /Bob Nanna feel along with the music and Ithought I had this album pegged. But fromthere the album gets more classic rock,bluegrass, country and vaudevillian. It’s agood release but tends to be all over theplace, which can be distracting. (Sickroom Records)

Barr SummaryBrendan Fowler’s second full length offering as Barr has Fowler teamed up witha full band and a bit more upbeat sound onat least on one song. The “Song is theSingle” track is just that. It is the first single off Summary and it doesn’t seem tohave any chorus and few repeated words.The bassline and drums have a fun andcharming feel and will keep your feet tapping. The rest of the songs are slowermostly piano driven diary submissions orconfrontations that keeps the art/abstract-ness of Beyond Reinforced Jewel Case.(Kill Rock Stars)

BattlesMirroredFeaturing ex-members of Don Caballeroand Helmet, Battles is an aptly titled bandname because your brain will be battlingitself trying to figure out what is going on.It is mathy as hell, and features an influence of a wide variety of odd genresand odder vocal deliveries. (Warp Records)

Big D and The Kids Table Strictly RudeI was somewhat disappointed with “StrictlyRude” because Big D is starting to droptheir ska/punk sound for a more grown updub/two tone sound. I’m not saying thatthis is a bad album; it’s just not what I wasexpecting. Most of the songs are reallygood and should keep the rudies happy. (Side One Dummy)

The Brokedowns New Brains For EveryoneLoud, fast, and gruff throaty vocals makefor a well-done punk album. All of thesongs are under 3 minutes with the excep-tion of the closing track “Coke Mule Blues”which comes in at just over 7 minutes. (Thick Records)

Chase PaganOh Musica!Chase Pagan has a voice like the lead singerfrom Saves the Day or Kiss Kiss, vocalambitions like Thom Yorke and channels alittle Freddie Mercury on a few tracks.There are a few gems on Oh Musica! suchas “Waltzing in the Sky” and “Push MyButtons”.(The Militia Group)

The ComasSpellsIt’s hard to outdo your previous album thatwas loved and lauded by critics and fansalike, but The Comas sure do make one hellof attempt with Spells. Spells starts off withfuzzy guitars and splashing drums on “RedMicrophones” and each song following isup to par with the ones on Conductor.(Vagrant)

The ConformistsThree HundredRecorded by Steve Albini, The Conformistsreturn with Three Hundred which is hardto peg to a certain genre or influence. Onething is for certain though, each song willintrigue you, and you will be a better musicfan for listening to it.(54º40' or Fight!)

Dr. Dog We All BelongI never really liked modern bands who play60’s influenced pop reminiscent of theBeatles. I’m on the fence about Dr. Dog,because We All Belong has a few goodsongs, but it’s all been done before by otherbands for years and will continue to bedone for years to come. (Park the Van)

Dr. Dog

41

Everybody ElseS/TEverybody Else plays catchy innocent poprock that sounds made for radio. Sure it’sinfectious and your tougher friends mypunch you for making them listen to it. Itwould make a good soundtrack to one of theteen high school movies starring Hilary Duff. (The Militia Group)

Fall of Troy ManipulatorFall of Troy has good intentions. They wentand wrote all this really good metal musicand went and ruined it with the vocals. Thegrowling vocals are actually okay; it’s thehigh pitched vocals that ruin the album.(Equal Vision)

Field Music Tones of TownField Music is similar to the Shins, exceptthe guys in Field Music are from Englandand their lyrics are more direct. Tones ofTown is a great follow-up to their last self-titled album. Each song has its own element that makes it stand out from therest of the songs, while still remainingcatchy and infectious. (Memphis Industries)

Gena Rowlands Band Flesh and SpiritsGena Rowlands Band sounds sort of likeThe Dismemberment Plan but more mel-low. The opener “Fuckups of the WorldUnite” is probably the stand out track and“Hope, For Want Of A Greater Word” is aclose second. (Lujo Records)

Glos HarmoniumFeaturing brother and sister Maura Davis(Denali, Ambulette) and Keeley Davis(Engine Down, Sparta) and CornbreadCompton (Engine Down) Harmonium is

an impressive debut that got their startmuch like The Postal Service and Heavens.What started out as file transfers betweenKeeley Davis and Compton during anEngine Down tour, Glos turned into a fulllength with the vocals of Maura Davis.(Lovitt)

Guff Symphony of VoicesYou’ll find that Athens, GA Guff has simi-larities in sound with Bad Religion, Nofxand Blink 182 on they’re latest albumSymphony of Voices. With 10 years ofexperience behind this album and a coverof an unreleased Journey song “I Can See itin Your Eyes”, complete with Journey’slead singer Steve Perry on vocals, Guffmight start getting the recognition thatthey deserve. (Go Kart Records)

Holy Roman Empire The Longue DureeHoly Roman Empire’s long awaited fulllength, The Longue Duree picks up wheretheir previous EP left off. Each song is leadby Emily Schambra’s strong beautiful voiceand the guitars and drums don’t disappoint.It seems though that the album rests onSchambra’s vocals alone and some of thealbum comes off as “Sparta with femalevocals”. With their Lost in Landscapes EP, itfelt like they were experimenting a little withtheir sound to work with the vocals, but onThe Longue Duree it feels like they didn’texplore enough with the instrumentation.It’s worth picking up, because this band ison everyone’s radar this year, and you wantto get in before everyone else does. Let’s justhope that this band doesn't go through theNo Doubt syndrome, where everyone focus-es on the lead female singer and forgetsabout the talent behind the sound.(HeWhoCorrupts)

Hot Rod Circuit The Underground is a Dying BreedHot Rod Circuit’s latest since their 2004Reality’s Coming Through shows the bandmaturing and experimenting with newinstruments. The most immediate changeyou will hear is the prominence of the steelguitar in the album’s opener “Stateside”and in “U.S. Royalty”. They use it well onboth tracks, but restrain themselves fromusing it too much throughout the songs.HRC goes a little country western withtheir bonus track, “Camo” at the end of the

Glos

42

disc. “Camo” has the steel guitar anddrums played with brushes instead ofsticks. It’s a nice song and may be the predecessor of what a lot of punk singersare doing today, releasing country albums. (Immortal Records)

The John FrancisOn the Moments We ShareThe John Francis is the solo project of SanFrancisco singer/songwriter Jack Francisand this is the first release from RerumNovarum Records. The John Francis has asimilar sound to The Jim Yoshii Pile Up andThe End of the World mixed with the vocalsand lyrical wordsmanship of Cat Stevens. (Rerum Novarum)

LovedrugEverything Starts Where It EndsThis album starts off with a similar guitarpart from the latest Lola Ray album, ifyou’ve heard it you’ll know. EverythingStarts Where It Ends takes musical cuesfrom bands like Coldplay, Radiohead, andMuse but maintain some originality. Mostof the songs are kind of quiet and slow thenexplode in the chorus into a rock anthem orare slow piano ballads. (The Militia Group)

MXPXSecret WeaponBefore listening to Secret Weapon I washoping that, with their triumphant returnto Tooth and Nail, Secret Weapon wouldbe their comeback album in which theywould show all the naysayers who hadwritten them off as has-beens, that they

can still write good songs. I was hoping foran album that was in the same league asTeenage Politics and Life in General, butsadly Secret Weapon joins its brothers TheEver Passing Moment and Before andEverything After in the “losing more fans”bin. In fact, their previous full length Panicis better than this. Secret Weapon is not atotal waste. There a couple good songs hearand there, but for the most part, theymissed a chance to regain fans of theirearly releases with a snoozer of an album. (Tooth and Nail)

The NarratorAll That To The WallThe Narrator’s stunning debut full lengthSuch Triumph was enough to make me afan for life. Everything that made SuchTriumph great is on All That To The Wall,though it might take a couple of listens tofully appreciate this album. Don’t let theBob Dylan cover of “All the Tired Horses”fool you into thinking that they haveslowed down their sound, it’s still prettyquick and angular but it’s played differently and better. (Flameshovel)

The National BoxerI’ve had The National’s Sad Songs for DirtyLovers and the Cherry Tree EP for yearsnow and I never listen to them. I wroteabout the Cherry Tree EP a few years ago,and I said that I’d probably like this albumin a few years, but at the time I didn’t. I stilldon’t know if I would like it because Ihaven’t listened to it. I’ve listened to“Boxer” 3 or 4 times now, which is morethan I listened to their previous albumscombined, so that says something about theband. One, they can continue writing goodmusic with each release. Two, they can trynew things, “Boxer” is a lot more upbeatthan anything I’ve heard of their’s before.Three, it takes a while for one’s musicaltastes to catch up to a bands sound. (Beggers Group)

The Narrator

Hot Rod Circuit

43

New Atlantic The Streets, The Sounds and The LoveThe Streets, The Sounds and The Love is analbum for all those emo kids that havegrown up a bit and gotten laid. It’s a highlypolished album and it has a nice sound sim-ilar to Copeland and other bands on TheMilitia Group label. It sort of reminds me ofPush to Talk without the new wave feel.(Eyeball Records)

NursesHangin' Nothin' But Our HandsDownOnce in a while a band comes along that isso far out in left field that it leaves youeither floored or in disgust upon listeningto it. Nurses is one of those bands. It maybe hard for some people to get into itbecause none of it is expected, it’s all a sur-prise and it’s different. They blend so manygenres together, with different vocal deliv-eries. Hangin' Nothin' But Our HandsDown is a rousing, rocking, weirdly awesome debut. (Sargent House)

Page France ...and the Family TelephoneWith a voice similar to Daniel Johnston and song writing skills like Ben Gibbard,Michael Nau and his band, Page France, areback with their second release on SuicideSqueeze Records . They get an “A” for effortbut can’t quite pull of the charm and good-ness of their previous album Hello, DearWind. ...and the Family Telephone has itsmoments, but it falls short when it comes tomatching Hello, Dear Wind’s simple songsand instrumentation.(Suicide Squeeze)

Pagoda S/TI was surprised as you were when I listenedto this and found out that Nirvana got backtogether with Kurt being dead and all. But

then I found out that this wasn’t Nirvana,but it was actually actor Michael Pitt’s(Dawson’s Creek, Murder by Numbers)band. This eponymous full length is a mix-ture of Cobain like vocals and Sonic Youthlike jams. It was even released on ThurstonMoore’s Ecstatic Peace record label. (Ecstatic Peace)

Rob CrowLiving WellPinback’s Rob Crow’s solo album is essen-tially a Pinback album. Both have relative-ly the same song structure and sound.When I first listened to this album, Inoticed that the songs were kind of shortand it felt like the songs were never com-pleted. It’s like Rob wrote 3/4s of a songand then fades it out. It’s a pretty goodalbum though. It’s no Pinback album, butit’s close enough. (Temporary Residence)

Seven Storey MountainAt The PolesIf you’re a fan of early Foo Fighters orJawbox then Phoenix, Arizona’s SevenStorey Mountain is for you. It sounds near-ly identical to Foo Fighters just faster, moreangular and more punk. It took me a whileto listen to this album, and now I’m kickingmyself for not discovering it sooner.(Thick Records)

Six Parts SevenCasually Smashed to PiecesKent, Ohio’s Six Parts Seven are back withtheir 5th release and most focused. Goneare the days of albums with epic 8 minuteplus songs in exchange for 5, 6, and 7minute ones, and a few songs under 3 min-utes. One thing you’ll notice is the trumpetsand clarinets, which are played beautifullythroughout the album. Casually Smashedto Pieces is another excellent album to addto your instrumental collection.(Suicide Squeeze)

Smoke or Fire This Sinking ShipI got into this band after hearing one oftheir songs on a Fat Wreck compilation. Imust have listened to that song 10 times ina row. This Sinking Ship is an album full ofthose kinds of songs. The ones were youcan listen to over and over and still feelgood about them. (Fat Wreck)

Page France

44

SpoonGa Ga Ga Ga GaI really enjoyed Spoon’s Kill the Moonlight,and was bummed on Gimme Fiction, so Iwas a little weary going in to Ga Ga Ga GaGa. After first listen I was pleasantlypleased that Britt is done singing like a girland each song is way better than the oneson Gimme Fiction. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is sureto win the band more fans, which is good,because the deserve it. (Merge Records)

Stemage StratiStemage is Grant Henry’s solo project inwhich he releases songs derived from theclassic Nintendo game Metroid Metal. Heapparently recorded all the instruments onStrati with just one microphone. I couldn’tfigure out why that was a selling pointwhen the album isn’t that good to beginwith. It’s just him, so why would he needany more mics. It would be more impres-sive if he recorded it through a soup canwith a string attached to it. As for themusic, it sounds like a bad impersonationof Cave In.(Silent Uproar Records)

Sundowner Four One Five TwoSundowner is the solo project of TheLawrence Arms’ Chris McCaughan and it iseverything as good as The Lawrence Arms,just acoustic. 10 of the songs are originaland 2 are reworked acoustic versions ofTLA’s “My Boatless Booze Cruise” and“One Hundred Resolutions”. Each song isgood and Jenny Choi’s backing vocals on acouple of the songs are beautiful. Four OneFive Two is the perfect album for the agingpunker and fans of The Lawrence Armswho are looking for something a bit moremellow. (Red Scare)

Tim Kinsella Field Recordings of DreamsTim Kinsella is in a place in his careerwhere he can record anything he wants, nomatter how abstract or obtuse. Everyonehas gotten accustomed to Tim’s creativityand eagerly wait to see what he does next.It’s always a surprise when it comes toTim’s recordings. Field Recordings ofDreams is no different. Thirteen of thesongs are instrumental, while 3 of thesongs, including the 36 minute closer, aresimply a narrative story revolving around aboy’s baseball game with only Tim’s voice.You may think that listening to Tim speakfor 36 minutes would be boring, but hisvoice is earnest and compelling whiletelling the story. The narrative acts as a per-fect compliment to the instrumental music.I can only wonder what he will do next.(I Had an Accident Records)

The Toasters One More BulletThe Toasters have been playing ska for wellover 20 years and haven’t missed a beatyet. One More Bullet falls into some ofthose ska cliches like; undefineable made-up words (what the hell is a “Gwan”), over-ly repeated lines and a cover songs (“Bitsand Pieces” by the Dave Clark Five and“When Will I Be Loved” by The Everlys).The album is quite good though despitethose factors. The Toasters know how tomake a good ska album and they’ve done itagain with One More Bullet.(Stomp Records)

Tyler ReadOnly Rock And Roll Can Save Us NowThere is no one in the band named TylerRead, strange I know. Only Rock and RollCan Save Us Now reminds me of whenrock was kind of sleazy and had big hair,but the album maintains a modern feelwith Queen influences a plenty. (Immortal Records)

VoxtrotS/TThis band is on the verge of getting hugeand with their new full length, you’ll soonbe hearing this band on radio stations andas background music for shows on the WB.This self-titled album is good start to finishand will mostly likely be on many criticstop albums of 2007 list. (Beggers Group/Play Louder)

Spoon

45

Ads: Modern-Radio // www.modern-radio.comLujo Records // www.lujorecords.comLovitt Records // www.lovitt.comFlameshovel Records // www.flameshovel.comSargent House // www.refused.tv/Sickroom Records // www.sickroomrecords.comCopper Press // www.copperpress.com54°40’ or Fight! //www.fiftyfourfortyorfight.comSaddleCreek Records // www.saddle-creek.com

Labels: Sickroom Records // www.sickroomrecords.comKill Rock Stars // www.killrockstars.comWarp Records // www.warprecords.comSide One Dummy // www.sideonedummy.comThick Records // www.thickrecords.comThe Militia Group // www.themilitiagroup.comVagrant // www.vagrant.com54°40’ or Fight! //www.fiftyfourfortyorfight.comPark the Van // www.parkthevan.comEqual Vision // www.equalvision.comMemphis Industries //www.memphis-industries.com Lujo Records // www.lujorecords.comLovitt Records // www.lovitt.comHeWhoCorrupts // www.hewhocorruptsinc.comImmortal Records // www.immortalrecords.comRerum Novarum // www.rnrecords.comFlameshovel Records // www.flameshovel.comGo Kart Records // www.gokartrecords.comTooth and Nail // www.toothandnail.comBeggers Group // www.beggars.comEyeball Records // www.eyeballrecords.comSargent House // www.refused.tvSuicide Squeeze // www.suicidesqueeze.netEcstatic Peace // www.ecstaticpeace.comTemporary Residence // www.temporaryresidence.comFat Wreck Chords // www.fatwreck.comMerge Records // www.mergerecords.comSilent Uproar Records // www.silentuproarrecords.comRed Scare // www.redscare.netI had An Accident // www.ihadanaccidentrecords.comStomp Records // www.stomprecords.com

Cover: Chris Strongwww.chrisstrong.com

Pg 4-5: David McHank www.myspace.com/mchank

Pg 24-25: Ryan Russellwww.ryanrussell.net

Pg 27-28: Oly // www.oly.ccPg 30-31: Sean Desmond

www.loveyourtelevision.comPg 32-33: Live photo: David McHank

Portraits: Sean DesmondPg 34-35: Live photos: David McHank

Portraits: Sean DesmondPg 36-37: Miriam Doan

www.miriamdoan.comPg 38: Kirstie Shanley

www.flickr.com/photos/kirstiecat/Pg 40: Ryan Collerd (Dr. Dog)

www.ryancollerd.comPg 41: Unknown/Promo Photo (Glos) Pg 42: Unknown/Promo Photo (HRC)

Ryan Russell (The Narrator)Pg 43: Unknown/Promo Photo

(Page France)Pg 44: Autumn De Wilde (Spoon)

www.autumndewilde.com

Bands: The Narrator // www.thenarrator.netNurses // www.nursesmusic.comBaby Teeth // www.babyteethmusic.com

Web:Schedule Two // www.scheduletwo.com

Zines: Chord Magazine // www.chordmagazine.comThe Big Takeover // www.bigtakeover.comThe New Scheme // www.thenewscheme.comVenus // www.venuszine.comCopper Press // www.copperpress.comWonka Vision // www.wonkavisionmagazine.comRazorcake // www.razorcake.org