Revolt of the Apes

FUNGI GIRLS

“Let’s Talk About (Fungi) Girls”

Leave it to Austin Psych Fest to introduce us to a world where girls – Fungi Girls, at least – are boys and age doesn’t mean a thing (at least as long as you have Internet access and some hip aunts and uncles).

Such is the world of the Fungi Girls, three Texas youth whose forward progress is approaching light speed, even while they keep their collective third eye peeled and focused on the past. As a result, many more eyes have been pointed in their direction – ours included. Perhaps more important, those eyes are all part of human heads with ears, a key component to taking in the band’s raw, blissed-out psychedelic sound-stew. Skin-smasher Skyler Salinas peels back the fungi layers below.

You can settle this once and for all: I’ve got five dollars that says the Fungi Girls are actually guys. Where did your name come from? How many people have come to your shows looking for girls, with or without a fungus?

It’s true, we’re not girls. I’m sure people who hadn’t heard or saw us prior to a show thought we were girls, but none have actually come up to us telling us that. We got our name from Deryck’s (who plays bass) mother jokingly calling us girls as we were growing up. It just kind of stuck.

How long have you known the other members of the band? What are the musical differences between the three of you that you think contribute most significantly to your sound?

I’ve known Deryck since practically birth. Our families go far back, with our grandparents being best friends while living in south and west Texas, then eventually moving to our current location in north Texas, Cleburne. Deryck and I both met Jacob (who sings and plays guitar) in middle school.

As far as musical differences, Deryck is, in my opinion, an incredible bassist and has a really unique style that I think he owes to first learning Motown and metal on bass. Jacob is all things poppy in our band. He’s the melody. I am the psych head/”let’s put a shitload of delay and reverb on your guitar” guy/drummer here.

Speaking of your sound, do you think you formed the band with a certain sound in mind, or did it develop only after you started playing together? What has surprised you most about the Fungi Girls’ sound thus far? How do you see your sound evolving as you most forward as a band?

Initially we had a more shoegaze sound in mind, a la Jesus and Mary Chain, but just after the album we started to grow into something very different. The garage and psychedelic influence set in and it shifted quite a bit, but still not enough to sound like an entirely different band. As of semi-recently, we’ve been getting into more Krautrock and heavy psych sounds. Things will be changing up even more.

What are your earliest musical memories? Has then been one person (an older brother, a parent, etc.) in particular that you can credit with fueling your interest in music?

I personally always go back to my grandfather and I driving the Nevada and California deserts and mountains while listening to old country like Merle Haggard and rockabilly like Jerry Lee Lewis. Jacob has told me before that he remembers when he was little his father listened to things like Nirvana, Kiss, and somehow, The Velvet Underground. Deryck was a grunge kid.

Our introduction to independent music came from my aunt and uncle. They got me into bands like Adorable and the Boo Radleys as well as 60’s psych. I started showing my friends, especially Deryck and Jacob, stuff like that in middle school and we all kind of had a mutual love for it and a lot of other stuff.

What music have you been listening to lately? If you had to choose, what is your favorite Beach Boys song of all time?

Jacob has been really into Spectrals across the pond in Leeds. I’ve been listening to a lot of Krautrock and Flying Burrito Brothers, as usual. Deryck has been listening to The Mantles quite a bit. Beach Boys songs – anything off of “Smiley Smile,” “All I Wanna Do” off of Sunflower, and “You’re So Good to Me”.

Would you like to comment on the rumor (the rumor that I am attempting to start right now) that the Fungi Girls will soon start a supergroup with the Dum Dum Girls and the Strange Boys, called The Dum Dum Strange Fungi Girls & Boys?

We wish! Maybe they’ll read this and want to do it?

Your album from last year, “Seafaring Pyramids,” explored a galaxy of sounds, not the least of which being “Into the Cosmos.” What can you tell us about the origin of this song? What are you thoughts about this album now that more than a year has passed since your recorded those songs?

“Into the Cosmos” was about eating mushrooms. We still like the songs alright, but we never play any of them live outside of “Pacifica Nostalgia” and I think we have kind of a shared opinion that they’re boring and don’t sound as “mature” as our newer stuff.

How do you think “Seafaring Pyramids” differs from your upcoming album for Horzac Records? Do you feel that your live performances have improved or changed in any meaningful way since you first started as a band? What bands are you most inspired by, from a live performance perspective?

There’s a difference in style and maturity, for sure. Most people tell us we have improved live and we personally like to think we have as well. Live we are most inspired by Thee Oh Sees. They are intense but incredibly fun, something we strive for.

How did you first hear about Austin Psych Fest? What bands are you most excited to share the stage with?

We first heard about it last year via the internet and were wanting to go, but were unable to. There’s a lot of bands on Friday we want to see but will unfortunately have to skip out. As for Saturday and Sunday, we are most excited to see/share the stage with Roky Erickson, Cold Sun, The Fresh & Onlys, Cloudland Canyon, Bass Drum of Death, Dirty Beaches, Beaches, Indian Jewelry, Spectrum, Vacant Lots, and Black Moth Super Rainbow.

What’s next for the Fungi Girls?

There’s a new album on HoZac coming sometime early summer, east coast and west coast tours throughout July and August, and a 7″ coming out on a friend’s label out of San Francisco. Get psyched.

Fungi Girls

THE FRESH AND ONLYS

“(Fresh and) Only a Northern Song”

If there exists a chance to see individual songs slightly obscured by the flotsam and jetsam of Austin Psych Fest 4 – buried beneath the bands, the beer, the BBQ, the friends, the fans, the fun – it’s through no fault of The Fresh and Onlys.

When guitarist Wymond Miles declared the band to have taken a fresh step forward with the “Secret Walls” EP on Sacred Bones Records, we were prepared to take his remarks as understandable enthusiasm about the band’s upcoming release. Now that “Secret Walls” is in our possession and our minds have been possessed by the five unforgettable songs, we take that enthusiasm to be pure understatement. The “Secret Walls” EP is stunning, fresh, and only the next chapter in a (hopefully) long continuing story.

What impact – if any – does being from San Francisco bring to the sound of The Fresh and Onlys? Do you think there was ever one unifying theme that could be expressed as a “San Francisco sound”?

Absolutely SF is the canvas which we begin from. I don’t think you’d get The Onlys coming from Ohio (Scott Walker is a wonderful byproduct of Ohio). There is an innate romance and mystery in our city, but it also has an inexcusable class divide. There isn’t really much of a normal middle class there, but it’s an artisan’s bohemian utopia of struggle and discovery. No, as tempting as it may be to package, there is no unifying SF sound. It does a disservice to the culture to pitch it that way.

Can you tell us a little bit about the origin of the song “Summer of Love”? It’s a spectacular song – as if someone gave a Vicodin to the Hollies’ “Bus Stop” – especially when paired with the more propulsive “Waterfall” as a follow-up. Was there much thought behind which songs become #1 and #2 in the album order?

Yeah, it’s funny to me you ask. We knew before we recorded them that they were going to be a pair sequenced in that order. To me, “Summer” is a great way to invite someone into your world for a minute. It helps you relax and feel welcome. I also loved the tongue placed very deeply in our cheek with that song. I think people missed that aspect. I love how Tim’s lyrics play with that fake tourist nostalgia against the placement of the SF we know which I spoke to previously.

Can you think of any first and second song combinations from albums that particularly move you? What is it about the combination of those two songs that persists in your memory?

Song sequencing is big in my book, I like two songs that have distinctly different vibes but are completely harmonious in the vision of the work. A few come to mind that do that for me: “Come Together/Something” on “Abbey Road”; “The Kiss/Catch” from The Cure’s “Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me”; “Hope There’s Someone/My Lady’s Story” from Antony’s “I Am A Bird Now”; “Who Loves The Sun/Sweet Jane” from VU’s “Loaded.”

What were your previous musical experiences that led you toward The Fresh and Onlys? Are you able to pinpoint a single moment of clarity or inspiration that assisted you in making The Fresh and Onlys sound what you wanted? How has that inspiration changed over time?

Each record has got a tune that I feel evolves us as a band. A few weeks before I joined the band, Tim and Shayde recorded a dozen or more songs and the standout tune for me was one called “The Mind Is Happy.” It framed our early steps as a band. “Peacock and Wing” and “ARM’s Advice” did it for me on record one. “Grey Eyed Girls” and “Invisible Forces” on the next. I feel like I found more of my guitar voice on “Diamond in the Dark” and “August in My Mind” on the EP. “Waterfall” and “I’m A Thief” were biggies on this last record. “Secret Walls” on the new EP that’s about to come out changes the game entirely, and there’s a couple brand new ones that are shedding skins all over again.

Is the phrase “Play It Strange” one that has particular meaning to you outside of an album title? In my mind, The Fresh and Onlys Sound is partially about taking particular pieces of genre sound and then playing it a little bit stranger than most might choose (like the Vicodin-blur of “Summer of Love,” mentioned above). Is that an approach that bands takes, or is it a far more organic development?

Yeah, the title just resonated. But, no, we don’t try and weird anything up. In fact, we try and make our melodies and songs as opaque as possible, but it needs the right elusive mood to get it across. We all used to play in strange bands – now we’re in a pop band.

What music have you been listening to lately? Push comes to shove, what is your favorite Country Joe and The Fish song?

The first Country Joe record is it for me, “Electric Music for the Body and Mind.” I just love the farfisa organ all over it. Personally, the “Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die” song is so close to my heart. An uncle who passed used to listen to that in his pickup when we’d go pick up lumber together and he’d go bat-shit crazy like a Muppet character, putting me in utter hysterics. That tune gets me misty-eyed nowadays.

How did you first hear of Austin Psych Fest? Are there any particular bands that you are most excited to see?

Friends went last year and had a blast. I’m just feeling stoked to be playing alongside so many killer bands.

Can you think of a band or an artist who you have seen perform live with little or no context – a band that you came into “fresh” – that left a strong impression on you, but that you probably will never see perform again? A “fresh” and “only” performance, so to speak.

VSS, an old goth-core-punk hybrid.

Francis Bacon said the following: “There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.” Would you agree? Are there strange aspects to your life that you would prefer were less so? Would you be willing to temper the beauty of your life in exchange for more stability?

I suppose strangeness is a requisite entry point. A thing of beauty is fine on its own terms but in order to engage deeper with something there has to be an aspect of intrigue or mystery. Strange also has a connotation of being something unsettling which I think is also inherent in the fabric of life. Life is supported by death just below the surface. By the way: Ever hear the argument for Shakespeare being the cover name for Francis Bacon? Really intriguing argument when you compare their educational backgrounds and if you look for the Rosicrucian/Gnostic symbolism that runs through Shakespeare”s work.

What’s next for The Fresh and Onlys?

Our EP, “Secret Walls,” is out April 26th. We’re super proud of it. We tour the EU in May which ends at Primavera, tour with Woods in July with stops at the p4k festival and Woodsist fest in Big Sur. We have a large body of work we’re building for the next full length. Full speed ahead, really.

The Fresh and Onlys

Original Fresh and Onlys photo by Kristin Klein

CROCODILES

“I’m Only Sleeping (Forever)”

“Sleep Forever” – the second album from Crocodiles, and the aural antithesis of the term “sophomore slump” – could be a lot of things. It could be the catchiest album you’ve heard all year. It could be a hook-heavy meditation on love and death. It could be California Krautrock built for failing faith and formerly condemned concerns.

Crocodile rocker Brandon Welchez helps us out with what we’re hearing below.

Salvador Dali once said the following: “Don’t bother about being modern. Unfortunately, it is the one thing that, whatever you do, you cannot avoid.” I find the Crocodiles sound is quite modern, or at least “Sleep Forever” feels very of the moment, for lack of a better term. Yet it seems most writers want to shackle your music to sounds made 30 and 40 years ago. Your thoughts? Do you think it’s just a matter of the lazy wish for easy categorization?

I agree with Dali’s quote. We just aim to make songs that are instantly gratifying to ourselves. It would be silly to sit around analyzing them or worrying that the echoes of our tastes are too loud. For example, when we were driven to school as children our parents listened to oldies radio. I’m not going to pretend that that didn’t have a huge bearing on the artist I became. I would never try to run away from the things I love. It’s impossible to recreate the music of your heroes, so we don’t even worry about it. Music writers tend to be hypocrites the majority of the time anyway. In the most worn out terms and cliche modes of writing, they attack others for their supposed lack of originality. Take that charlatan Joe Colly for instance. He is writing in the exact same language as everyone else. Maybe when he creates a whole new literary dynamic, as Rimbaud or Burroughs did, he can criticize bands for their originality. For the moment he should shut up and just realize he’s as influenced and unoriginal as anyone else.

Despite (or perhaps in concert with) the cover image of “Sleep Forever” (and the Manson girls-referencing image of its full-length predecessor, “Summer of Hate”) and some of the content of the songs contained therein, we can’t help but pick up an underlying sense of optimism in Crocodiles music. Would you agree? Does it matter? Do you ever set out to write a sad song, as opposed to a happy song? Was Elton John correct when he said that “sad songs say so much”?

It’s definitely easier to write sad or angry songs. Those are such strong emotions that they feel like explosions in your mind. But love, as an emotion, is as strong. Both albums have their love songs and I would think that we do have an underlying sense of optimism. As an artist, you have to! You have to think: “I won’t always be poor. I won’t always be brushed aside. My art is going to continue to get better.” The artists that can’t retain that end up OD’ing or killing themselves. Optimism as self-preservation – our new mantra!

There are two songs in particular contained on “Sleep Forever” that we find stunning, even among the stunning nature of the album as a whole. First up is “Mirrors,” with its modern (there’s that word again!) update on the “Hallogallo” groove and echoing voices that seem to be saying, “They’re awesome!” What can you tell us about the origin of this song? What made you decide to make it the lead track on “Sleep Forever”?

The lyric is quite the opposite. It’s “they’re all scum.” The song was originally just written on acoustic guitar and we knew the words and melodies felt special to us, but we weren’t sure what to do with it. You should hear the demo – it sounds like psychedelic Misfits, haha. We made it the lead track because the Kraut influence on the build up just felt like an appropriate way to start an album (much like “Hallogallo” does!) and also because it’s quite good to start an album with a catchier song to reign the listener in.

The second song we’d like to know more about is “All My Hate and My Hexes Are for You”? I love the title – its instantly gripping – and I love the gentle, almost slow-burn approach to the anger held within the song. Was there one person in particular who inspired the song title?

There were a few people who inspired that song, and they know who they are. We enjoy putting our more spiteful lyrics to pretty music and our prettier lyrics to spiteful music.

Would you care to comment on the rumor (the rumor I am attempting to start right now) that you will release a limited edition 10-inch, one-sided, pink-swirled vinyl record featuring a mash-up of “All My Hate and My Hexes Are for You” and the George Strait classic, “All My Ex’s Live in Texas,” available only at Austin Psych Fest 4?

This is actually an incredible idea. If someone wants to attempt this, be our guest. If its good, me and Dee Dee will put it out.

How did you first hear about Austin Psych Fest? Are there any bands in particular that you are excited about seeing?

I can’t remember the line up offhand (I am in a van), but off the top of my head, I’m very excited for Spectrum and Atlas Sound.

What bands have you been listening to lately? Push comes to shove, which song would you rather listen to for a full hour, if you had to: “Crocodile Rock” by Elton John or “Fightin’ At Da Club” by C-Roc?

I’ve been mainly listening to crooners – Walker Brothers, Chet Baker, Elvis’ love songs, stuff like that. Also, being in Europe has inspired me to revisit a lot of old Euro punk bands: the Naughty Kids, Ivy Green, Rude Kids, etc. And of course on some of the more brutal drives a soundtrack of Neu! “1” or Big Youth “Screaming Target” is the only thing that can calm the nerves.

What do you attempt to bring to a live performance, different than that which you’re able to communicate through recorded work? What is the biggest obstacle/annoyance in regard to live performance in your view? What was the most moving or exciting band performance you saw in 2010?

So many bands are just a total bore to watch. We just like to get drunk/high before we play and unleash on stage. After all, this is supposed to be cathartic and I don’t get my kicks staring at my toes. We were both teenage punks and so that element always inadvertently comes out. The most moving performance I’ve seen of late would definitely be Dirty Beaches. Alex is a true artist and plays with an intensity and purpose most bands can’t.

If you added another member to the band, would it still be Crocodiles? Or would it automatically by something else?

At the moment we’re still writing all the music but we do have 3 auxiliary players who feel like family. To be honest, if one of them left, it wouldn’t feel right.

What’s next for Crocodiles?

We have a very busy touring schedule and we’re writing and demoing in between. We’ll be recording our 3rd album in September. We’ll also have a collection of poems for our next tour. Great questions, by the way, much more enjoyable than most interviews!

Crocodiles

Original Crocodiles photo by Alexander Kacha

THE MEEK

“Awwww, White Light – It’s Gonna Drive MEEK Insane”

It’s been just over a year since we became infatuated with the dark, driving, dramatic daggers of detached rock and roll delivered by the L.A. band known as The Meek. Born out of the curiosity of seeing the band listed as performers at Austin Psych Fest 3, our infatuation grew when we had the good fortune to conduct an interview with The Meek prior to the festivities – and that growth rapidly turned to resolute fanaticism upon witnessing the dark-of-night performance of The Meek at said festivities.

If The Meek don’t inherit the earth, at least we can say they’ve invaded our eardrums. One year later, we’re pleased to present this follow-up interview with Amy Lee.

When we last spoke to you for this site, you were preparing for The Meek’s trip to and performance at Austin Psych Fest 3. Nearly twelve months later, what are your strongest memories about the trip? How did you feel about your performance that weekend? Were there any performances in particular that made an impression on you?

Seeing the bats under the bridge at sun down was a neat southern Gothic thing to do. We loved the oil rig projections on us. Von Haze made an impression. Hearing The Black Angels play “Phosphene Dream” in its entirety was a highlight.

How – if at all – did your experience at Austin Psych Fest 3 color the other performances engaged in by The Meek over the past year? Outside of your trip to Austin, are there any other shows that really stick out in your mind where The Meek performed?

Last year we played the Saturday late night spot (same as this year) and people are rolling by that time so the energy all around is good. It’s interesting to hear the diversity in psychedelic modern music. The Filmore with Cat Power. That was a wonderful experience. I love the history. I felt an energy on that stage that I had never experienced before. And, her and her fans are very gracious. We just played at the Ace Gallery in LA for Fashion week. We collaborated with Designer Henry Duarte and had visuals curated by Paul Young who put together the “Art Cinema” book for Taschen. The Black Ryder played. It was a real cool time.

The Meek this and The Meek that! What about the rest of the world?!? What bands did you see perform over the past year that strike you as notable?

Searing/hearing Peter Hook perform Joy Division’s “Unknown Pleasures” album was the best concert of the year for me. He is doing the “Closer” album in England now. We performed with Spectrum – that was a sonic education.

Related, what music have you been listening to most over the past year? What has been your most surprising or unexpected musical revelation or obsession in that time?

La Dusseldorf, Spiritualized, Suicide, Link Wray, Singapore Sling, Psychic TV … Recent records from Wire and A Certain Ratio. I have an unexpected obsession with the beats coming out of the Los Angeles jerkin street movement.

And in an effort to make this interview as reminiscent of “Tiger Beat” magazine as possible, we asked during our last interview what books or magazines you have read recently that made an impact on you. What have been your literary discoveries over the past year? What are you reading now? How are things going at The Daily Planet? Has Amy Lee succumbed to the seductiveness of e-Book readers (Kindle, Nook, etc.)?

There is nothing seductive to me about reading a book on a hand held device. Owning a bookshop implies I love the real thing. I adore Father and Daughter Poets Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Christina Rossetti. Nick Cave’s second novel, “The Death of Bunny Munro” was a fun read – it is his “On the Road.” “Mr. Manchester and the Factory Girl,” by the late Tony Wilson’s wife. The new Velvet Underground book, “New York Art,” is a must have. Black Flash Magazine, Flux, Paris/LA.

Twelve months isn’t necessarily a long time over which we might chart a band’s evolution, but what has changed notably within the band in the past year? Can you pick up on alterations or revisions to the sound of The Meek in just the past year?

We have Gregg Foreman (Delta 72, Cat Power) joining us on guitar and keys. He adds color to our sound. We slow old tracks down a bit. We add instrumental endings and beginnings. We loop and drone more than we used to. Deep bass and haunted piano are my soul’s delight at the moment.

Certainly, being asked to play at Austin Psych Fest 4 speaks to some degree to strength of The Meek’s performance last year. Is there a particular mindset change that comes along with playing a show of such size, or do you find your mental preparation stay relatively consistent from show to show? Is it even something you think about, or does it occur more organically?

I suffer from a certain amount of performance anxiety. Any degree of mental preparation never seems to change that. With that said, the bigger the crowd the more excited, exponentially, I am.

How would you describe the – for lack of a better word – vibe in California amongst your contemporaries in bands, or with other artists as well? Do you feel a kinship that is unique to California? Or do you perhaps feel slightly out-of-step with the approaches and ambitions of others, and is this feeling of not quite fitting in something that drives the music of The Meek?

We are fortunate to live in a vast, sprawling city so if we want to engage, we can, or we can be reclusive. There are many vibes or waves to ride on the West Coast. We have a pretty insular existence, kind of on the fringe of things I suppose. Love and life drive the music, other contemporary music has little part in it. I enjoy the kinship with other artists who are confidently off center.

In her book “Storming the Gates of Paradise: Landscapes for Politics,” Rebecca Solnit says the following:

Your thoughts?

He went on to say, “The foundational grounding from the inner and outer connectedness with nature is weak or missing in many people today, especially those who live most of their lives distances from nature’s power and nurturance in industrialized, high-tech, polluted mega-cites.” It is important to have a meaningful mature connection to the earth. There is nothing dead and frozen about this glorious planet … yet!

What’s next for The Meek?

Videos and Vinyl.

The Meek
Original photo of The Meek by Wilson Lee

GHOST BOX ORCHESTRA

“Not A Ghost-Bloodied Country”

If you’re still looking for a reason to attend Austin Psych Fest 4, the opportunity to see Ghost Box Orchestra should be enough to get your RSVP. Last year, the Boston-based band of multi-instrumental gypsies released a stunning debut album, “The Only Light On.” Immediately appealing in its mixture of half-cracked, haunted drones and surgically-sharp hooks and howls, the largely instrumental “The Only Light On” sees a band setting up camp in a less-than-settled sonic terrain, negotiating aural knife-fights between Morricone and Mudhoney, poised for a future where the lack of law is the law of the land.

If that’s not enough for you, bear in mind that by attending Austin Psych Fest 4, you are putting yourself in the position of becoming introduced to a band that will play Austin Psych Fest 5. At last year’s festival, we found ourselves in friendly conversation with a long-haired fellow who had come down from Boston for the three days. Soon after, he handed us a sampler CD for his band, Ghost Box Orchestra. Just shy of twelve months later, we’re excited to be approaching an Austin Psych Fest 4 with Ghost Box Orchestra on the bill and pleased to present this interview with guitarist, vocalist and long-haired fellow, Jeremy Lassetter.

When it comes to orchestras, how does the Ghost Box compare with, say, the London Philharmonic? How about the Electric Light? Which one would you prefer to collaborate with in the future?

My brain would explode at the chance to work with a full orchestra. Having that many different instruments at my fingertips would be a dream. As someone who loves drone, that moment right before an orchestra goes live: when they are tuning up, hitting the same note, and everyone chimes in on the drone … that long pulse … gets my heart pumping every time.

If one were to describe Ghost Box Orchestra’s sound on the excellent album, “The Only Light On,” as being a mix between Ghost from Tokyo, Japan, and The Box Tops from Memphis, Tennessee, what would your reaction be? Elation, confusion or perhaps consternation?

Hell yes! Ghost is amazing. And I can vividly remember my dad singing “Loooonely days are gone, IIII’mma goin’ home” when the Box Tops came on during cars trips as a kid. “The Letter” really is such an intense, dark, dramatic song. That’s great! I’ll take it!

When it comes to location, what does the band being from Boston lend to your sound? What does it lend to your personal musical interactions – shows to see, records to hear, people to meet, etc.? The film “This Is Spinal Tap” reminds us, of course, that Boston isn’t a college town.

I’m not sure. I think me being from Texas certainly informs a good amount of the sound. In a way it’s a sound that keeps me from feeling homesick. I think as a music fan, Boston is a great city to be in. The college radio stations here are fantastic and have been very supportive of us. I’ve met some of my heroes here: Thurston Moore, Frank Black, Josh Homme … guys whose records I have absolutely worn out from playing all the time. And as a band we’ve been able to play with and meet some really great bands when they’ve come through. Wooden Shjips, Asteroid #4, Moon Duo, Prince Rama, Spectrum, MV & EE. Hell, our record release show was an after party for the Dead Weather show. It was incredible.

How long will we have to wait before Ghost Box Orchestra covers The Standells’ “Dirty Water”?

Strange things can happen when you’re on tour …

How did Ghost Box Orchestra come to be? Was there an original concept for your music to be largely instrumental, or did it evolve over time?

It started from a handful of home demos of mine. Creaky, front porch stomping, acoustic tunes to try and break a creative block I was having. Very mellow, lazy blues stomp songs that sounded like imagined seances made for the illustrated monsters in children’s books. (specifically, “Where the Wild Things Are”). I wasn’t interested in trying to control the narrative of a song with lyrics, rather let the parts and frequencies just pass through me and plateau out on a vibe.

As a band though, there’s never really been a hard and fast rule about songs being instrumental. We try to treat vocals like any other instrument … if it works and adds to the song then we’ll do it. Mainly, I try to know when to shut the fuck up and not get in the way of a good song.

What are the characteristics of the other members that you feel contribute most to Ghost Box Orchestra’s unique sound?

Chris (guitar) has a great sense and talent for taking a part from ambiance to a wash of shoegaze to sounding dense and huge. He’s a tone surfer. The guy can make anything sound brilliant. Marty is a great drummer and has a natural inclination for arrangements. He innately knows when it’s time to get big and how to bring the song back down, which is amazing during jams. Nazli has the widest range of tones, I think. Mellotron sounds, she can play guitar, percussion, anything you put in front of her, really. Dennis is a scientist when it comes to bass. He can take a simple idea and carve it into an airtight lock between him and the drums. Marty and Dennis definitely have some kind of telepathy going – watching them work out parts is pretty incredible.

How has your own musical experience contributed to the sound of Ghost Box Orchestra? What other bands – if any – have the members written or performed with, coloring the sound of Ghost Box Orchestra?

Well, Marty played in Lockgroove which had a great following. And more recently, both Marty and Dennis played in Broken River Prophet. I think all the guys have played in different projects before.

This is really my first go at a proper band. Previously, I had stuck to home recording and playing with weird tape loops. I’m very accustomed to writing alone and really only ever shared bits of it with close friends. So the experience of interacting with four other people and hearing the songs sound as huge as they do now with the whole band has been very energizing. We are very much writing as a band now, shaping up jams and other drones into new songs … I’m really looking forward to the next record.

At the risk of offense, we’re going to go ahead and assume that you – and the other members of Ghost Box Orchestra – are in fact what are commonly referred to as “record geeks” or “music nerds.” Guilty as charged? Or guilt by association?

Guilty as charged. All of us. You should see the library of records and CDs at each of our houses.

Part of what leads to this conclusion is the knowledge that you traveled from Beantown to the city that keeps it weird for the third Austin Psych Fest. What made you decide to take the trip? What are your memories ?

Well, I’m from Texas and having lived in Austin for awhile, any opportunity to go back is a good one in my book. I love that city dearly. I thought Daughters of the Sun were the standout last year. Great fellas – they put on a mind-blowing show and their records are some of my recent favorites. The Raveonettes performance of “Aly Walk with Me” sounded huge, especially with some of The Black Angels fellas playing tom/snare backups. Hearing the new Black Angels material was a cool surprise. And I remember there was a guy walking around from one of the bands that looked exactly like a young Leon Russell … right off an old album cover … it was jaw dropping how much he actually looked like Leon. I’ll never forget that.

What is the most epic journey you have ever taken for the love of music, either performing or attending, or both?

When I was 19, I couldn’t afford a badge, but I slipped into the conference part of SXSW and talked my way into a session where a panel of “record industry people” would listen to your demos. Tapes, CDs, whatever you had – you threw it in a crate and they’d randomly pick one, listen to a song and give you feedback. It was exhilarating … for one, being a teenager and finagling your way into something like that and two, the feeling of possibility in the air. Thank God they didn’t find my tape!

And now – Ghost Box Orchestra will be a part of Austin Psych Fest 4! What bands are you most excited to see, among the bands that you have not seen before? Who are the “can’t miss” repeat viewing for you?

Tobacco and Black Moth Super Rainbow, Weird Owl, Cloudland Canyon and Daughters of the Sun are all top on my list. And I’ve actually not seen A Place to Bury Strangers yet, so I’m looking forward to catching them.

What’s next for Ghost Box Orchestra?

We have a busy couple months ahead of us. We are playing a few dates with the Curious Mystery (K Records) from Seattle. And then we are headlining night one of the Deep Heaven Now 3 Psych Fest in Boston on April 15th. A week later, we hit the road for a two week tour down to my home state of Texas to play the Austin Psych Fest 4. After that, we’ll tour back home and finish working on some new material to start work on the second record this summer.

Ghost Box Orchestra

We seek today not to unravel the curious mystery that is The Curious Mystery, but simply to acknowledge that the mystery exists. At least, we believe it to exist. It may not. That’s what makes it curious.

The facts of the case are this: The Curious Mystery first caught our ear late last year, when we stumbled upon their excellent 2009 album, “Rotting Slowly.” Despite similarities in title, it sounded absolutely nothing like the debut album from Obituary – and more than that, it seemed nothing like a notice of death, nor did it sound like a band in decline, slowly decaying. Rather, it sounded like a band putting the pieces together – pieces of dusty old folk songs that were never written, pieces of rock bands that fell apart before they got out of the garage, pieces of the universe yearning for solace in a time when cosmic comfort is in short supply. Plus, there were song titles like “Dragon’s Crotch” – and we’re not made of stone.

Only recently did we hear that the case of The Curious Mystery had been re-opened, with the release of a new album called “We Creeling.”

Download “Up In the Morning” by The Curious Mystery

Listen: Curiosity killed the cat, Cat Stevens killed Christ (we may have that wrong) and fer’ chrissakes we have no idea how to describe the sound of “We Creeling,” except to tell you that it is utterly compelling, strange, sad and beautiful, the broken pieces mentioned above now reassembled to be stronger than before. It’s an album that recently accompanied a six-and-one-half hour drive through the central parts of our home state and into the wilds of North Carolina, each song opening a new chapter of sound, sounding equally appropriate at dawn, dusk, and under the cold cover of the night. And when we returned home, the sounds of “We Creeling” were still there, to remind us that we never really left.

And we realized that while we were gone, The Curious Mystery was here (well, Harrisonburg, Virginia, anyway), further from their home than we had been from ours. Curious, indeed.

“Your heart’s desire is to be told some mystery. The mystery is that there is no mystery.”
— Cormac McCarthy

LUMERIANS

“So Long, Lumerians – It’s Time That We Began”

“They are free to indulge in electrifying oscillations to the fullest extent of their vibrations.” Those words were originally used in a press release for the debut album from the Silver Apples in 1968, but it seems appropriate to revive them in a discussion of Lumerians in 2011.

Vibrations – both good-good-good and bad-bad-bad – are central to the otherworldly language of Lumerians music, vibrations that shake the body and the mind. Describe the sound of Lumerians? We’d rather take on a less daunting task, like achieving total Zen consciousness. Suffice it to say Lumerians are a band for whom “music is a continuum and should interweave freely between past, present and future” – and the odds are your listening experience with the band’s recently released album, “Transmalinnia” on Knitting Factory Records, will have you wondering where this band has been all your life and how you will resist falling under their complete control moving forward. Resistance is futile – we submit to the spirit of Lumerians, but not before Jason Miller submitted to our questions and concerns.

Wikipedia tells us that the concept of Lumeria – a hypothetical “land of the lost” located somewhere among the Indian and/or Pacific oceans – has been rendered obsolete by an advanced understanding of plate tectonics. How does applying the name of the residents of a largely-dismissed, probably non-existent land to the band relate to your music? What are some elements in music that you feel have fallen by the wayside? Would you seek to resurrect any of these ideas or ideals?

There is a lot of unheard music being unearthed now. Whether Lumeria existed or not is of little importance, really. It is the idea that it could have existed and the mythos of it that is particularly interesting. What we are finding now is that there is a lot of fantastic music from all over the world that never entered the Western canon. That music never existed here until now.

Further, the Lumerian concept has been adopted – and perhaps kept alive – through various relationships with magick and the occult. How, if at all, do these relationships relate to the music of Lumerians? Do you think of music as an avenue to connect to deeper spiritual or cosmic concerns?

Exploratory music seems to have always served that purpose. The occult has only ever been hidden as long as there has been a dominant resistance to a prior or competing idea. We all love to connect together and create something bigger than the sum of its parts. Spontaneous creation is the moment is magick. If a band can share that space with their audience and that audience reciprocates the energetic exchange, that ecstatic moment is really what it’s all about.

What can you tell us about your own personal musical evolution? What were the bands that made the greatest impact on you as a youth or in your adolescence? How has your view of this music changed over the years?

From adolescence to early adulthood, chaotic visceral music was really attractive. Things that are abrasive and heavy for the sake of being abrasive and heavy. Freakouts that were completely untethered and launched without plotting coordinates first. I think that what changed is that there is still a love of visceral music, but not there is a greater appreciation for intent. We all kind of come from different places as far as what music we were into in our youth, so its difficult to cite specific bands, but we were are are all attracted to the same basic elements of music.

Following through with the previous questions, what are the bands or artists that brought the members of Lumerians together as a collaborative musical entity? How has the music you make as Lumerians changed since you first began? Do you anticipate any additional changes in the immediate future? The long-term future?

We came together with a unanimous appreciation for Krautrock, shoegaze, the more fringe psych acts of the 60s and 70s, and the melody/noise collisions of bands that got labelled punk, post-punk or industrial for lack of better descriptors. The most influential thing that those all have in common is the free-form probing and experimentation. Everyone playing more or less simple things that create a complex and evolving whole, taking an influence full on and then adding to it or modifying it as opposed to mimicry or imitation. Terms like “retro” and “neo” seem like the crude tools of club-handed historians. Music is a continuum and should interweave freely between past, present and future.

What music have you been listening to lately?

More recently, in the last couple of years, we’ve been taking in a lot of African, Latin and Middle Eastern rock music, mostly from the 60s and 70s, as well as some contemporary stuff. A lot of the releases on Sublime Frequencies, Analogue Africa and Finders Keepers, as well as staples like Broadcast, Wire, Chrome, Swellmaps and soundtrack composers like Morricone, Goblin, Roy Budd, and the Gainesbourg/Vannier stuff.

Given your interest in the realm of lost worlds, would you care to react to the rumor (the rumor that we are attempting to start right here) that Lumerians will soon be recording a version of the Donovan underwater classic, “Atlantis”?

Well, somewhere in the tangled threads of lost civilization mythology is a notion that Lumeria and Atlantis were at war at some point, possibly leading to the demise of one or both civilizations. We’re still weighing the details of these hypothetical trespasses against our spurious motherland, but don’t hold your breath – Lumerians will not be “hailing Atlantis” any time soon.

How does your home-base of Oakland, California, contribute to the sound of Lumerians? To the outside observer, at least, Oakland seems to never get the recognition of its Bay Area sister city, either in matters social or musical. What are the advantages and disadvantages to being based in Oakland?

It is a lot cheaper. You get more space for less money, even if you have to defend it. Extra space and extra money are both very important when you’re trying to make things. I’ve noticed that creative people are often not the most creatively savvy, so you get a lot of very interesting and resourceful artists San Francisco’s unrefined little sister. The disadvantages are mostly that San Franciscans are generally terrified of crossing the the bay for some reason, as if it’s a huge time commitment on the Orient Express as opposed to a 15 minute BART ride. Getting robbed isn’t very much fun either.

How did you first hear about Austin Psych Fest? Are there any bands in particular with whom you are excited to have the opportunity to share the stage?

Spectrum, Roky Erickson, Cold Sun, Black Moth Super Rainbow and Indian Jewelry for certain. It will be an honor to share the stage with everyone there.

In his book, “This Is Your Brain On Music: The Science of Human Obsession,” author Daniel Levitin says the following regarding the history and culture of music in South Africa:

“Singing and dancing were a natural activity in everybody’s lives, seamlessly integrated and involving everyone. The Sesotho verb for singing (ho bina), as in many of the world’s languages, also means to dance; there is no distinction, since it is assumed that singing involves movement.”

Your thoughts? What is the Lumerians approach to diffusing the energy created by performing live?

That sounds about right.

What’s next for Lumerians?

Our new LP came out on March 1. This one took quite some time to realize and we are excited to have it out there. We are planning on a national tour and recording another album. Touring the UK and Europe is something we would like to do this year as well.

Lumerians