unplugged magazine may 2014 (#17)

M a g a z i n eUnplugged

M ay 2 0 1 4

INside: - Of Us Giants talks about their highly praised debut- Foxy shazam talks about their lastest release “Gonzo”- photo sets from La dispute and silver spoons- Warren Franklin talks about a new way to share his music

Living with

giants

three

Four

Five

One

two

Letter from the staff:

No Sleep Till Completion

Not too long ago, I asked a local producer how he could tell if a band put in a lot of time and effort into record-ing opposed to just spending major bills and getting it done professionally, and he simply answered, “You can’t.” He then continued to explain that someone who

mixes and produces his or her own recordings (with passion) would most likely yield something similar, if not identical to, a professional.

Although I knew what he meant I still didn’t quite under-stand, so I went on this weird thing called the “Internet” and looked up a bunch of things that make a recording great, really above par (this is the part of the story where I would normally list off a bunch of things that make no difference to you, the reader, so I’ll spare you the details). Everywhere I looked people talked about how producing and mixing a song took anywhere from a day to a couple of weeks – multiple weeks on one song. It blew my mind reading about the dedication and passion some of these people had for the art they were proficient in.

After all of that was over I realized that I surround myself with the same kind of people. Take the Unplugged Magazine staff for example. Everyone puts in a lot of time and effort into this project. It’s not for pay, and not just to have our names on it, but because we love what we do. We have the drive and passion for this stuff – writing, editing, designing – and not only that, but we all have a passion for music, just like those producers and sound engineers that spend weeks on one song.

We want to deliver the best publication that we can so you guys can enjoy it; just like musicians want to give us the best song that they can come up with. And just like them (musi-cians, engineers and producers alike), we don’t sleep until the job is done.

In the end, looking back at this weird chain of thoughts, I realized that it doesn’t really matter whether a recording sounds like Pharrell produced it or like your dad recorded it in the garage and closet of your home. What matters is that you put in 100 percent into it and you don’t sleep until you’re happy with it. Truly good music will still sound good through a half-decent recording.

- Steven Condemarin

Top 5 Albums On Repeat

“The Heist”Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

“We Can Make The World Stop”

Glitch Mob

“Louder Now”Taking Back

Sunday

“Paramore”Paramore

“Even If It Kills Me”Motion City Soundtrack

Editors in chiefSteven Condemarin

alisha kirby

WritersJorden Hales

Ashli jade Josh Jurss

daniel Romandia

Copy editorsRobert AguilarMegan Houchin

PhotographersCarlos AlmanzaAllen DubnikovJesika GatdulaJoseph Garcia

Elmer Martinez

ContributorsKendra beltranAndrea Caccese

Eric Delgado

Contact usFeel free to head

over to our website (sacunplugged.com) for

more information on advertising, contributing

and submissions.

Upma

gPG12

pg 11 staff picks

pg 18 Album reviews

pg 17 I Knew Josh Before He Got Famous

PG 16 Mansions

PG 15 Of Us Giants

PG 05 Drop the needle again

PG08 la dispute, mansions & pianos become the teeth

PG 09 Warren Franklin &

The Founding Fathers

PG 10 My Scene, My Music

Foxy Shazam07PG

UnpluggedM a g a z i n e

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May.2014.unplugged.05

Spring is a mixed bag of allergies kicking in and kicking your ass, the oppor-tunity to roll your windows down again while driving and a garage of happier releases that make you want to start up a full-fledged air-instrument band.

You take the good with the bad and you dust off all the records that remained untouched during the gray and gloomy winter months. Here are just a couple of my favorite springtime records that I’ll be getting reacquainted with:

Drop The Needle Again

Gold Motel - "Summer House": Black 180g

&The Reveling -"Tributaries": Blue/ 250

To say I was devastated when The Hush Sound announced they weren’t planning on making more music would be an understatement. The projects that spawn from a band breakup are rarely as good, but I’ll be damned if Greta Morgan didn’t excel with Gold Motel. Their debut is perfect beach pop – think Best Coast but way better – and I couldn’t be happier with the pressing. The band went all out with this album and you can hear it in every note.

by Alisha Kirby

I’m pretty sure I reviewed this album when it first came out but, to be entirely honest, I can’t remember. If nothing else I know I vaguely enjoyed it. So when I recognized the cover with a discount sticker on it I didn’t even question it. Five dollars was well worth the gamble as I’ve fallen in love with this record more with each listen; especially with those guitars coming in loud and clear. Check these guys out if you haven’t already.

06.unplugged.May.2014

ORDER ONLINE

NOW


Secrecy, intuition & freedom

Head over to Foxy Shazam’s website and

download “Gonzo” for free

April 2 was a big deal for fans of Foxy Shazam. Their new album “Gonzo” was released by surprise and was free to download through their web-

site. Traffic was so intense on the site that the servers crashed and new links had to be posted. Fans were also surprised by how different it was from what they’d expected. Not much was known about “Gonzo” before its release, as it was done largely in secret.

“It’s hard enough to get the six of us who are in the band on the same page about something; adding in the full staff of a re-cord label often made things impossible,” said Daisy, the band’s bassist, mentioning that from a business standpoint the feeling was “exhilarating and a little scary,” but felt much more natural emotionally. “At the end of the day we always ended up going with our gut, and it made sense this time to cut out any middlemen that sought to deter our intuition.”

Chicago-based producer Steve Albini

recorded the band live in his studio. “A se-cret weapon side effect of his ‘hands-off’ recording ethos is that it Jedi-mind-tricks you into just trusting your own intuition,” Daisy said. Because of this approach, the band found themselves making quicker decisions and self-editing their music more.

The idea of recording songs live spawned from a demo session in Pitts-burgh. After recording the demo, the band agreed that the energy they felt in the stu-dio was being drained from the recordings upon playback. “We felt like these songs work best as performance pieces,” Daisy said. “We all had iPhone recordings that we thought sounded awesome, so we started exploring the ideas of recording the entire record as live as possible.”

The actual release of the record followed the recent trend of surprise album releases while also offering a free digital download. “That’s so much more fun than pretending it’s still the ‘90s and people are going to buy

CDs and then you have boxes of them sit-ting around while everyone burns copies,” said Daisy.

Essentially, the band cut out the theo-retical expectation that fans will still pay for music rather than downloading the record off some website. That being said, “Gonzo” did see a physical release, just not in the compact disc format.

“If people really want to pay for it they can buy an LP, which are always cooler be-cause they’re so much more of an object than a CD or cassette,” he said. “They’re heavy and big, they feel serious. CDs never felt serious to me. They break too easily and they’re tiny.”

“Gonzo” is the fifth full-length from Foxy Shazam and it stands to reason that it’s quite a bit different sonically than their pre-vious releases. As Daisy put it, “We are six adventurous dudes, so we’re always ex-ploring new sounds and new ideas. I feel like it would be a lot weirder if we made the same record over and over.”

Cincinnati’s Foxy Shazam utilizes Steve Albini’s methods and their phones while recording “Gonzo”

Story by Josh Jurss


Check out the whole photo set online @sacunplugged.com

Venue: Slim’s San Francisco, CAPhotos by: Alisha Kirby

La dispute

Pianos Become The Teeth

Mansions


True connection

show your support by like Warren Franklin & The Founding

Fathers on facebook and stay updated on new releases

Many musicians nowadays are giv-ing away their music for free, but not many are doing it the same way War-

ren Franklin does. “It felt like a good way to engage people and it’s good to have the tabs and lyrics right there on my blog for whoever wants them,” Franklin says. This past April, Franklin began posting lyrics and tabs to his songs from his solo project, War-ren Franklin and The Founding Fathers, along with explanations of the meaning be-hind the lyrics.

“It’s fun for me to try and think back to exactly what the songs meant to me at the time I wrote them,” he said. “Even though the lyrics are very straightforward they still have managed to shift meanings for me over the years.”

Some of the songs are off the group’s latest EP, “Now That I’m Here, I Can’t Imagine Being Anywhere Else,” which was released back in February on Count Your Lucky Stars. The record was released for “name your price” (otherwise known as

free) on Franklin’s Bandcamp. “I wanted it to be something people could have right away. The record was online just a week after we recorded it.”

That’s a very quick turnaround consid-ering the album was recorded live in stu-dio in the span of just two days. The EP itself is more of a compilation of B-sides reworked and released together. Franklin tells the story of how these songs came to be.

For example, “‘State Capitals’ was the first song I wrote after ‘Your Heart Belongs to the Midwest’ but some of the lyrics were not working for me and it was twice as long, so I trimmed it down and changed maybe half the words.”

The short opener, “A Definite Imbal-ance,” was a song Franklin had for years, always thinking it should be added to, be-fore realizing it was the perfect opener for the EP in the state it was written.

All the songs are written by Frank-lin acoustically first, then taken to The

Founding Fathers to be fleshed out as full-band pieces. “The songs don’t change very much as far as the structure goes but they always tend to change dramatically as far as the mood and tone of the songs,” Franklin said.

With this EP, he is adding another re-lease to the Count Your Lucky Stars family; a label Franklin often speaks quite highly of. “I think since the label’s first few bands were all such close friends, every band that has signed to the label since understood that they are entering a close-knit com-munity and that they will soon be a part of that too,” said Franklin of CYLS. The label is also home to Franklin’s other band: Joie De Vivre.

You can expect a full-length Warren Franklin and The Founding Fathers record relatively soon as the band will be going into the studio to record it this summer. Until then, enjoy some great free tunes from an artist who is truly connecting with his fans in every way he can.

Warren Franklin & The Founding Fathers find a different way of giving their music away to fans

Story by Josh Jurss


My Scene, My Music What qualities do you look for when checking out new bands?

Josh JurssChicago, IL

Unplugged Mag. Staff Writer

@JoshJurss

The most crucial part of looking into a new band for me is this: Does the band have any easily available recordings and are they decent quality? If there are no read-ily available recordings I have nothing to gauge the band off of other than the word of others, which isn’t always the best ad-vice.It doesn’t immediately turn me off to the band if they only have poor quality record-ings, but it definitely puts a seed of doubt into my mind. If a band doesn’t put the time, money or effort into their own music, then why, in turn, should I put time, money and effort into theirs? There are a lot of different factors that can make or break a new band for me after that

initial listen. Most importantly, do I see po-tential in the band? Whether it be from su-perb songwriting, lyricism or the actual per-formances, this is the factor that will truly make or break my decision to continue to follow the band. The actual personality of the band goes a long way toward me be-coming a future fan as well. I will be much less likely to support your musical endeav-ors if you’re a terrible person.Really, I will give any band a listen. I was forced as a child to eat at least one fork or spoonful of every food put in front of me. This led to me disliking most every food from specific categories but some, it turned out, I rather enjoyed. That’s kind of how music goes for me as well.

I feel like I’m filling out an online dating pro-file right now -- Except I’m definitely more successful finding a band than a mate. When it comes to finding a new band for me to adore it’s simple; hooks, lines and activity. Having grown up on TRL, bands have to have at least one song that’ll grab my attention. At that point I don’t care about the lyrics at all; that comes later. I just care that you’re able to create a song that’s able to stand out from the pack of the countless others that I hear on an everyday basis.After that I take the relationship further and look for some depth. This is for bands only. These rules don’t apply to my pop obses-sions at all because, come on, those lyrics

are as deep as Gary Busey is insane. Any-way, the lyrics are what will hold me a little longer. Usually this means lyrics that have the following topics because I’m forever 14 years old: not fitting in, leaving your home-town and growing up.Lastly, bands have to be active. I don’t want to fall in love with a band that has absolute-ly nothing going on. You put out a record three years ago, posted once on Facebook in the past year and expect me to fall head over heels? Oh honey, no. So hook me with a catchy track, make me stay for the heart of your music and above all else showcase that you’re working and doing something with your life.

Kendra BeltranLos Angeles, CA

Founder of Golden Mixtape

goldenmixtape.com

Eric DelgadoAbbeville, SC

blessyerheart.com

I visited a record store in a beaten down part of Greenville, South Carolina today in search of a specific vinyl release (they didn’t have it). Upon walking in, I noticed that the proprietor was passionately en-gaged in conversation with who was obvi-ously a repeat customer. These dudes liter-ally talked about vintage and rare records like they were comparable to the 100-year-old fine wines occasionally auctioned off at Sotheby’s in London.This customer sought purchase input and approval from the proprietor. In response, the proprietor talked about his latest obses-sion: a certain no-name musician who col-lected synths and pressed his own record in the ‘70s. Now, the proprietor did not have any of this mystery musician’s records “for

sale” in store but he did have his own “per-sonal” copy that he was generously willing to let go for $40. The customer jumped at the chance to own something rare, cracked a big smile, made the purchase and left.The moral of the story is we are all intro-duced into new music for different reasons: cover art, pretentious record store owners, our friends, radio or other media. I listen to but don’t collect music. Therefore, I person-ally seek new music that has the following qualities: solid performance, lyrical content that I can relate to and musical moments that inspire me. Only in 2014 can I live in a time where someone will pay $40 for a shitty record they will never listen to while they probably illegally download the music they do listen to.

Contributing Writer

What did YOU say?This is where we grab our favorite answers from Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr!

What do you consider a good show?

NEXT MONTH:

Hit us up on Facebook or Twitter with the hashtag #myscenemymusic and we’ll publish our favorite answers in next month’s issue!

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@sacunplugged

Staff picksTop 5:Whether it’s sitting in the car with your best friend making complete fools of yourselves or in the shower singing into a bottle or bar of soap, a lot of us do it. Here are the top five songs that will for sure leave you voiceless and satisfied.

by Steven Condemarin

If Mike Myers and Dana Carvey didn’t convince you in the 1992 classic “Wayne’s World” that this is one of the best songs to sing along to, I don’t know what will. This addicting opera-rock single was/is one of the most elaborate and exciting

songs of its time.

1. “Bohemian Rhapsody” - Queen

If you honestly have never lip-synced or rapped along to this, these are the only words I can utter:

“Oh my gawd, Becky.”

2. “Baby Got Back” - Sir Mix A Lot

Not only have many hip-hop and pop artists covered and sampled this song, but it’s also been used for a handful of popular movies in the late 2000s. If you say you and your

friends haven’t tried singing and pantomim-ing the chorus, I don’t believe you.

3. “Paper Planes” - M.I.A.

I know, I know: so far this list is just a list of high school nostalgic crap but, I mean, come on. Don’t tell me you wouldn’t belt this out loud if it randomly

popped up on a shuffled list.

4. “Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down” - Fall Out Boy

Back when Spears was a little less crazy and a little more catchy, you could find this song

blaring through radios across America. Every-one made fools of themselves. Everyone.

5. “...Baby One More Time” - Britney Spears

Upma

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Stay up-to-date on releases, shows and more on our website!

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Songs to sing/syncWhat we said:

Steven CondematinSacramento, CA@scondemarin

After deciding what I’m in the mood to listen to, the most imortant thing for a band (or artist) to have is some sort of platform where I can sample their music. I’m not going to blindly buy a $5 dollar EP that I may or may not like. Also, if there is a platform for your music chances are the band took the time to actually record something not on an iPhone (hopefully).

The masses typically enjoy having lyrics in music, but there are a lot of us who often enjoy listening to talented people just play sounds. These sounds can come from the scratch of a vinyl or from the keys of a grand piano. Living With Giants falls under that category of talented people but instead of scratches and C minors they bring music in the form of beautifully placed guitar tones and precise orchestral drum patterns.

Not only are these talented individuals working on a new album, they plan to record and produce it themselves. Felix Charlton (bass) has recently partnered with Connor Rodenbaugh (Sound Heart Collective) to share a recording space (that’s a story for another issue). With a little more construction and preparation in the works, we can expect to be enjoying the musical prowess that is Living With Giants and their new album in the late fall or early winter.

Living with

giantsStory by Steven Condemarin // Photos by Carlos Almanza

Living With Giants is an awesome band name, how did it come about? Is there a message you’re trying to relay to your fans/listeners with the name?Ryan Mannie (guitar): I came up with the name when it was just a solo project. It kind of represents having kind of a different sound in comparison to other bands in the local scene. I wanted to be able to play with those bands but still stand out and compete sound-wise with that larger sound while still being a smaller band. Also I’ve had about three roommates who were over 6 feet 5 inches, so there’s also that. If anything I want it to kind of reflect a larger-than-life sound.

You guys have a very interesting sound, how do you write the music?Mannie: It depends on the project that we are working on. Most of the time I‘ll start by coming up with a basic idea and then Carver (Simmons, drums) will come in and add the drums and we map out the basis for the song. After that Felix (Charlton, bass) and Will (Devine, guitar) come in and add their parts and sometimes the parts will change a bit when their parts are introduced but the structure stays the same. Other times it‘s just a big jam session and we just take the parts that stand out and write a new song based around those.

How do you guys come up with the sounds that you use?Mannie: For me it‘s a lot of sitting at my pedalboard for hours in the middle of the night and just messing around with ideas till something just feels right for me. I also like to add wine glasses on every recording project we do.Simmons: After being in the band for a while now I think I’ve figured out how my personal style of playing fits in with our sound and just generally what works and what doesn’t. We draw a lot of inspiration from orchestral percussion sounds so that influences the way I play some parts. We have a lot of songs where I play orchestral snare-influenced patterns or use mallets and rods on the kit.Charlton: Well, my bass rig is a work in progress but so far it‘s been pretty simple: my bass guitar into a half stack. Eventually, for the upcoming album and live, I‘m going to get some effects units that will complement the guitars in certain songs and sections as we go for big dynamic textures.Devine: For me, it all comes down to experimentation and watching studio videos. Even if it’s from a band that isn’t sonically in the same vein as us, I still find it to be useful for my bag of sonic tricks.


How many different pedals do you guys use per album? Do you guys take all of those to shows?Mannie: For the last album I only used about four pedals, but this current one that we are working on I‘ve expanded my board to about 16 different pedals. And yes, I do lug all of them with me to shows.Devine: In the past we have mainly used a big muff, my Nu-Wa Fuzz and lots of delays and plugin reverbs. My pedal board hasn’t grown too much. It’s actually the most solid it’s been in years. It’s an inside joke because my rig used to change every show, haha. For my amp I am using a Crate Blue Voodoo (blue doo doo) on the clean channel into an older Electro Voice 1x15 bass cab. My pedal board consists of a POD X3 Live for my verbs and delays through the effects loop of the head and I have my Nu-Wa Fuzz, a Boss DD3, and an Ibanez mod delay. The order of those last few change and I also have a DigiTech Whammy that I put in line from time to time.

How long as LWG been together? Have there been any lineup changes?Mannie: It started as my solo project in about 2008 but evolved into a full band in 2010. We‘ve had a few lineup changes. Our first drummer, McKay, left due to distance and just difficulty practicing. We also had a third guitarist for about half a year in 2011 but he left to work on his new band The Brotherhood of Ellipsis. And we recently added our friend Felix on bass who is working on the new album with us.Devine: Long enough to have done a two-man version of “Free Bird“ at our first show.

What genre would you guys say

LWG falls into?Charlton: Post-rock. And Feels.Simmons: Most of our music probably falls under post-rock.The newer stuff we’ve been working on has a darker sound to it and takes influence from prog and post-metal.

What are some of your biggest influences? Any local ones?Mannie: I would probably have to say Mono, Caspian, Russian Circles, If These Trees Could Talk and *shels. As for locals, probably our friends Wander. They release a lot of great music.Simmons: Karnivool, Animals as Leaders, Scale the Summit, CHON, Cloudkicker, Corelia, and Minus the Bear.Charlton: Cloudkicker, Zefs Chasing Cara, TTNG, Tera Melos (local), Invalids, The American Dollar, Wander. We don’t sound like most of them, but this next album will have some new sounds inspired by various artists while keeping the same post-rock feel.Devine: Elliott Smith, Brand New, Joyce Manor, Dream Theater and Yes.

How would you describe your sound to people?Mannie: Dark with a lot of dynamics.Simmons: I think the keyword for us is definitely dynamics. Pretty much all of our songs have a great deal of dynamic range in them as far as the playing style and songwriting goes.Charlton: Big. Feels.Devine: Atmospheric music, long reverb trails. Something you would find in a ‘90s Lexus commercial.

How often do you guys play shows?Devine: Not often enough, because we all work and go to school.

Mannie: We used to play about three to four shows a month but when everyone started school and work, we kind of took a bit of a break. But I think with the new release we will be playing much more frequently, possibly even a tour.

How often do you guys rehearse?Charlton: Not as often as we’d like, haha. We need to stop being too busy and maybe live in a house together with no other priorities than music. That is a dream, at least.

When you guys play at shows or even rehearse, do you try to play exactly as the recorded songs or do you try to change it up?Mannie: I try to play as close as I can to what the recordings are, but over time some things to change.Simmons: Some of my drum parts for our older songs have evolved a bit from the way they were originally recorded because we had to track our first album on very short notice and the songs were still very new at the time. We’ve been playing those songs for a few years now so some of the drum parts have grown a bit from how they sound on the album.Charlton: When I joined the band, I learned the gist of what was on the first record and tried to make it more fitting to both me and the band’s current state. I feel like I won’t change the music I’ll play live too much compared to the new record, but we take the performance aspect and we add accents to certain moments, like pauses or extended build ups and such.Devine: I try to be as true to the recordings as possible. Though I do have moments where I think additional volume swells or feedback may sound good.

Like living with giants’ facebook page

to stay updated on releases and news

Artist spotlight


Story by Alisha Kirby

Of Us Giants has been steadily getting their name out to anyone who will pay attention. They’ve been a part of the “Something To Forget” compilation alongside Fireworks,

La Dispute, Bayside and Crosses, they have regular contests where they give out free downloads as prizes and their debut full-length “Nova Scotia” has been receiving high praise uni-versally – something almost unheard of in this age of internet cynicism.

The band recorded the album at Mayhemeness studios in Sacramento over a four-month span. “We originally entered the studio in April and recorded the drums, scratch guitars and vocals,” said the band’s bassist, “manager” and occasional vocalist Jonathan Jennings. “The additional time allowed our songs to reach their full potential and convey the exact sound that we were going for. We are quite fond with how the album turned out in the end.”

Featured on the record is Lindsey Pavao from the second season of “The Voice,” who the band met while playing an indie music fest in early 2013. “(We) were excited to meet her be-cause we loved her sound,” said Jennings. “We found that she was literally the sweetest person ever and we passed a copy of our EP, ‘Stitch,’ … a few weeks later, she sent us a message on Facebook stating that she had enjoyed the EP and the rest is history.”

STAY POSTED WITH OF US GIANTS VIA FACEBOOK!

Turlock, California isn’t necessarily a hot bed for music, but you guys seem to be making the best of it. How was it building the band up from a place that’s not at the forefront (or even the mid-front) of music?

Turlock is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, which is quite fitting for us. Dustin Andrews (vocals/guitar) and I are both from small towns (Los Banos, California and Hollister, California) so it seems natural for us. From a music scene perspective, we always try to look for the positives and have become friends with many of the bands in the area. We have found the area to be very supportive, but it is difficult to receive recognition on a national level when you are from such a small town.

Jonathan Jennings on: Turlock, California

Of UsG iants

Of UsG iants

for the fun of it

Head over to Mansions’ facebook

and stay tuned for updates and releases

When you end one of the more popular tracks on your latest album with the refrain asking “How do you sleep at night?/ It’s 80 fuckin’ dollars,” people are going to want to know what exactly cost 80 fuckin’ dollars. “Probably every show, but that’s cool,” said Mansions’ vocalist/guitarist Chris Browder regarding how often he’s asked that ques-tion. “I like a lot of TV shows and movies that have a certain amount of mystery, where you get to come up with all these cra-zy theories. And you make this whole thing where what’s in your head is way better and the actual thing is always a disappointment. So why ruin it?”

Mansions were just on a month-long tour with La Dispute and Pianos Become The Teeth and, while it doesn’t seem to make sense on paper, Browder insists that the bill has worked in practice. “It makes a lot of sense in a not real obvious way,” he said. “Musically it’s different but … it’s going for more of a similar ideal I guess. We’re all

pretty honest, heartfelt bands, and you can tell we all grew up playing the same kind of shows, playing basements and stuff.”

The band has been in the process of figuring out what all bands who have more recorded layers than band members need to live: How to make sure their songs trans-late. “It’s almost like we’re a cover band of Mansions and are figuring out how to play the songs and represent them where it gets the same thing across,” Browder said. “Some work better than others and there are some we need to play around with and find different versions. But it’s a lot of fun.”

That’s the main reason why he’s doing any of this, recording and releasing music; because it’s fun. Browder has said in the past that had “Dig Up The Dead,” the album he released in 2011, not received a fraction of the attention it did, he probably would have stopped writing under the Mansions moniker. “I will always be writing songs and recording them because I like doing that,”

he said, “but if no one is interested I’m not going to try and force it. The point of all that is to share it with people.”

“But even this tour, you know, we don’t have another tour booked right now so there’s always that thing with the last show on the tour where it’s like, ‘Well, this could be the last one.’ You never know what’s go-ing to happen,” he said, quickly reassuring with a laugh that he doesn’t think “that’ll happen at the end of this tour.”

From the sound of it, expect to hear more from Mansions in the future, but don’t expect an album’s worth of demos and B-sides like their record “New Best Friends,” or an acoustic version of “Doom Loop” like what was released for “Dig Up The Dead.”

“We thought about doing an acoustic thing again but we really want the focus to be this record,” Browder said. Keep an eye out for some acoustic videos for some of the songs, though.

Mansions finds unity on diverse tour

Story by Alisha Kirby


We’ve all been there. Your favorite band is releasing a new album for the first time in years. Their last release was the crown-ing achievement of their discography. They’ve finally hit a note that resonates with their fans and created a defining re-cord of the genre. There’s no possible way their next record could possibly be terrible.

Unfortunately, once you finally illegally download it, you find it’s different. This isn’t the same band you fell in love with. They’ve changed their sound, alienating themselves from their loyal fans, and it’s awful. “What lousy sellouts,” you say to yourself, wallowing in the disappointment streaming through your computer speak-ers. But before you hang the band out to dry there are a couple of things to take into account.

1. People’s tastes change. This includes musicians. They are writing music they like, at least for the time being. It’s not the band’s obligation to create music the fans want or expect. At the moment the record was released, the band either thought they were doing something new or cool and they enjoyed that. Years down the road, or maybe even months, the band could look back at what they’ve released, realize they despise it, track down all the copies and destroy them in the same way George Lucas wishes he could destroy every copy

of that Star Wars Christmas special (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xn5gsj_the-star-wars-holiday-special_shortfilms) he made. The other possibility is that the band knows they are putting out putrid music and they’ve just stopped caring about the world. I’d prefer if it isn’t the latter.

2. Perhaps the band is in a better men-tal state. I know several great records that were written when the key songwriter was in a defining moment of their life. Many of those moments turned out to be extremely tough times for the artists, but the songs they wrote became their solace and/or turned out to be some of the best work in their career. A prime example of this would be Say Anything and Max Bemis during the recording and release of “Is A Real Boy…”

3. There’s always the rare case of health issues stopping a band from keeping the sound they’re known for. This is most commonly seen with singers who have to stop screaming because it’s literally tearing their vocal chords apart or just causing overall vocal problems. Other health-related issues can be from things like drug use, alcoholism, smoking, etc. Sometimes when musicians change their lifestyle, everything changes -- including their music.

4. Did the band’s previous release gar-ner new attention and popularity? Could it be that the band is now more popular than they’ve ever been? Have finally signed to a label and are playing venues instead of your friend’s house? If that is the case, you should be happy for them instead of slinging those insults. They are able to reach more people with their music and maybe actually make a living doing something they love. This popularity and record deal do come with some potential setbacks, though. The label might have some say in what the band releases on their label or the band could be mellowing out in order to please the majority of their fans.

5. Maybe they just sold out. Tough luck.

Either way, give it a shot. If you like the band, they must have some similar interests as you. Maybe you just don’t realize you like this new direction just yet. Maybe they’ve moved on to a new direction and you just can’t go along for the ride. In that case, no worries. Another future classic album is being made by some local band someplace. You just have to find them.

I Knew Josh Before He

Got Famous


5 Reasons Why You’re Actually

Glad Your Favorite Band Changed

Their Sound

Manchester Orchestra

“Cope”

The Menzingers“Rented world”

Neon trees“Pop Psychology”

I often find myself at the forefront of unpopular opinions. For example, the first time I listened all the way through Manchester Orchestra’s latest album, “Cope,” I thought to myself, “This is clicking more than ‘Simple Math’ ever did,” and truly believed everyone would think the same. Enter the inter-net; always out to prove me wrong.Here’s why nobody will be able to sway my opinion: “Cope” is huge in every sense of the word. Yes, it keeps the mid-tempo course almost all the way through and yes, I understand how the songs can start to sound the same. Except “Top Notch” will continue to blow your hair back from the first note through the last and the drums at the forefront of “Girl Harbor” will keep build-ing anticipation even after you memo-rize how the song ends and how it slides into “The Mansion.”Every track has a moment or two, or some aspect to it, that makes it worth a listen every time you listen to this re-cord. There’s nothing worth skipping but there’s also nothing on the album quite like the title track that wraps it up. It’s 3 minutes and 48 seconds of raw power held together by the deli-cate yet sure and deliberate voice of Andy Hull. If you’re going to give just one song on the album a listen, start here before heading to the first track. If it doesn’t win you over then I’ll hap-pily take my unpopular opinion and go home.

It should be noted that 2012’s “On The Impossible Past” was one of the best records of the past decade. Therefore, it must also be stated that “Rented World” is not “On The Impossible Past.” It’s a more polished, mid-tempo record that hits the spot just about as often as it misses the mark.“I Don’t Wanna Be An Asshole Anymore” hits the spot. It’s the first song on the re-cord and feels like a transition from their last, inviting the listener in. The entire song form and vocal melody are ex-tremely welcoming and easy to enjoy for fans of previous Menzingers releases.“Bad Things” completes the trilogy of the band’s songs that include “Things” in the title and displays the extreme catchi-ness to come in the record, but not in exactly the way that you’d expect from the band. Songs like “My Friend Kyle” and “The Talk” are more straightforward punk songs. “Nothing Feels Good Any-more” and “When You Died” are slower tunes that really focus on meaningful and powerful lyrics; the latter of which I feel is more important to this record than your average acoustic track.My first inclination was to hate this record. It contains few of the things I loved from “On The Impossible Past” and it wasn’t everything I wanted it to be. In fact, it took a lot of listens and really looking deeper into this record for me to understand the truth behind it and see it for what it actually is. It’s still revealing new things to me every listen.

Seeing a new side to a band can either be scary or exciting (or both). Although fans might love a band’s current sound and never want them to change, there are always a handful of people who are anxious and excited to hear the new material. Since they burst into the top 40 pop scene in 2010 – where they hit all the late-night shows, including “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” three times – Neon Trees has had great success with their sound and risqué themes. If you’re a fan of their music, you can relax; their sound hasn’t changed much. If you’re not, think of the catchi-est riffs you can and mash them all into one album, then add in some of the most addicting tunes you can fathom and that is Neon Trees in a nutshell. The formula for their music hasn’t changed since their 2010 hit “Animals.” This being said, the music is still very fun to listen to in moderation. The verse-chorus-verse repetitions might lead you elsewhere with extended ex-posure. While some songs might seem a little childish at first, a little research about lead vocalist Tyler Glenn and a sec-ond listen will only give a new per-spective and respect for a few songs. The Mormon-raised singer came out as a gay man in March’s issue of Roll-ing Stone. While the album may have been very therapeutic for Glenn, incoming fans might get bored and returning fans are likely to adore “Pop Psychology.”

By Alisha Kirby By Steven CondemarinBy Josh Jurss


Album Reviews Visit SacUnplugged.com for frequent reviews throughout the month!


Open Mike Eagle - “Dark Comedy”

Weatherbox - “Flies In All Directions”

Hip hop is constantly diversi-fying itself as new sub-genres are still coming into their own every couple of years. Last year was the precursor to art rap becoming a legitimate genre instead of a scene down in L.A. This year is when we will see the sub-genre slowly start to take over the under-ground and make its sound known. It all starts with the release of Open Mike Eagle’s “Dark Comedy.”If one thing is certain about Eagle’s new album, it’s that the title describes the album very well. There are lines throughout that will cause ac-tual laughs instead of the usual smirk that comes with clever quips; the funniest song be-ing “Doug Stamper (Advice Raps).” It’s Eagle and comedi-an Hannibal Burress giving us the best advice possible.

As for being dark, be sure to check out the track “Idaho.” A soft, simple piano melody moves the song along as Ea-gle whispers his flow. As the track goes on, an electronic sound comes in and builds to create this feeling of malfunc-tion. It gives the perfect back-drop to Eagle’s personal story and what sounds like confes-sions of fear.“Dark Comedy” is great. Eagle takes his world view and his own interests and melds them together into this medley of personal worries and observa-tions of the world. This album plays like a comedian’s stand-up routine. It’s funny, a little dark and self-deprecating at times. Eagle is intelligent and a master of wordplay, and it’s about time he gets the recogni-tion he deserves.

Few things are as frustrating to me as an inaccurate RIYL in a press release (I know, my life is so easy). If you claim your band sounds like a mix of Say Anything, The Front Bottoms and Modest Mouse, then dam-mit, I expect a mix of those three at least to a degree. For once in my adult life, I haven’t been utterly disappointed by a band with those bands listed. In fact, Weatherbox has blown me away with “Flies In All Di-rections” and has been one of the few albums this year to keep my attention for weeks at a time.After hearing that lead singer/songwriter Brian Warren had spent the last few years grap-pling with psychosis and hal-lucinations I was intrigued, which is probably a little fucked up, but I was intrigued by his perspective. I wasn’t

disappointed. Lyrically, this album is complex at times, straightforward at others and always full of spectacular im-agery. Yet all the songs are still so easy to sing along to, which is good because at times it’s impossible not to sing along (i.e. “Radio Hive” and “Pagan Baby”).The only track this album could do without is “The Drones,” which gets repetitive and an-noying almost immediately after the first listen. Luckily, songs including “The Devil and Whom?” and “Bathin’ In The Fuss” more than make up for it and are easily some of the better songs here, though they couldn’t be more differ-ent from one another. Buy this album when it’s released May 13.

By Daniel Romandia

By Alisha Kirby

Album ReviewsVisit SacUnplugged.com for frequent reviews throughout the month!

Check out all the photo sets online @sacunplugged.com

Band: Silver Spoons Venue: The Crocker Art Museum Sacramento, CA Photos by: Jesika Gatdula

unplugged magazine may 2014 (#17)

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