Behind Us Now by Skylight - An Interview with Perry Pelonero & Brent Martino

A era clássca do shoegazer trouxe-nos inumeros clássicos MBV, Slowdive, Chapterhouse, Ride, Swervedriver, enfim os top of the tops daquela epoca, porém o submundo dos bons sons também esta completamente recheado de pequenas obscuridades tão maravilhosas como as principais, é o caso do Skylight, pequeno combo noise shoegazer, imerso sob microfonias, loops, eletronices caoticos, dream pop, ou seja todos os elementos fundamentais para se criar obras primas do genero. 1991 foi o ano que Perry Peloreno colocou suas excentricidades em forma musical, inumeras formações e singles, eps, passaram-se na tumultuada trajetoria do Skylight, que contou ate seus ultimos devaneios com o proprio Perry em companhia de Brent Martino e ja em seu final com Kim Wesh, após o Skylight a junção de Perry e Kim transformou-se em bliss.city.eat grandiosa banda dream/shoegazer/electro/noise nos moldes de SVI e mais ainda Morpheme e a junção com Dean Garcia ex Curve e atual SPC Eco junto com Perry e Kim, sem perder o folego, vamos a entrevista historica de Perry e Brent para o TBTCI explicando definitivamente o porque o Skylight tem uma cultuada gama de seguidores no qual eu me incluo, além de causos de Perry com Swervedriver, MBV, Mercury Rev e outros masters da epoca, desde já entrevista que virara cult aqui TBTCI.

***** Interview with Perry Pelonero (Skylight/bliss.city.eat/Morpheme & Brent Martino (Skylight/ The Scarlet Mouning *****

Q. About the early years of Skylight, tell us about the beginning, when did the band starts?
Perry: Some mixed up memories.

The band started around 1991 when i met Mike Bunnell through some friends. I had just moved to the Boston area after leaving New York City. In NYC i was heavily involved in the punk rock hardcore scene and by the late 80s, i was sick of it.. At first me and Mike started making noise tracks with a sampler and whatever else we had laying around. We eventually shared an apartment together and we used to record via a radio shack mixer into a cassette player. It was fucking weird, but it worked well. Mike was one of the first peoplei knew to make loops with a guitar i think... Using an Alesis sampler. We started listening to music coming out of the UK that i guess was called shoegaze? We had already been heavily influenced by bands from the UK .. Echo and the bunnymen, the cure etc... But this stuff was different. We put a band together and brought some different people in and got a manager who in the end fucked us pretty hard after moving to NYC and vanishing. He even stole our original recordings. His name was Howard... And i would love to kick his fucking ass inside out to this day. We recorded a demo with him not long after meeting him. Mike had this great idea of running his guitar through this old yamaha noise keyboard synth after i found we could input the guitar with it... It gave us that string effect for the original As you leave recording. Amazing stuff it was for us. After recording the first demo, we added two new members to the band. A friend of ours Marie played guitar along with Mike, and a drummer. We practiced in the basement of this house we were all living in. We had no money at all, and had to fill our oil furnace with diesel fuel because we could not afford oil. We had a house full of cats as well, because they kept having kittens... We had one cat that used to jump off the roof of the house into a flower pot. People would come over just to see it.

Really it was kind of fucked up. Everybody was fucking everybody, strange people showing up to our house, people getting piercings in fucked up places on their bodies... Everybody in the house got crabs at one point because somebody had dropped some in our house. Me and Mike made up strange games to play during the day to keep us busy. Like tossing super balls in cans. We had a car that would not start unless one of us pushed it down a hill. So every place we went we had to park on a hill. We lived next door to this asshole with a ham radio and giant fucking antenna. He use to come through on all of our recordings the signal was so strong. We asked him to stop but he never did. Instead he would talk about us on his radio and we would hear him. We tried calling the FCC but that failed. So one day we cut and spliced a bunch of his words that we had recorded on a tape. We arranged the words so he would call himself an asshole. Making him say he ate his own shit and stuff. Really funny things... But some drums and keys behind it... We then made a tape and put it on his front door and rain his doorbell. He was so so mad. He even called our landlord... But to us it was funny. We laughed for days about it. He never turned his fucking radio down though.

Before our first show we really wanted video playing behind us so we came up with some cool ideas. We went to the library and rented a film about nature. Flowers, birds etc... We then took a camera and took all sorts of weird photos. Like close ups of wonder bread bags and windows etc. We turned those photos into slides. And ran the slides over the nature film which gave this really cool effect. It really went well with our live show actually. Trippy. Our friend had made a video of it at one point, but it’s long gone now. Kind of sad, because i would give anything to see it again.

After going through rehearsals for our first live show we were ready. Our friend Eric booked us at a club that had just opened. The day of the show came, and the place was packed with people. I think we were a bit shocked. It was time to hit the stage and when we did it all started. First off, our drummer straight off played everything the wrong way. We had been practicing with him for weeks. Complete fuck up. I still say he was nervous and had never played a live show. After suffering through a few songs with him, i got really pissed off and threw my bass on the ground... I came back a minute later and we just started making NON stop noise. For at least 15 minutes. Mind you, this was before MBV had ever made it to the USA . Although i cannot confirm that. I think we had heard stories of them doing the noise bliss though. At this point the crowd we brought in started clearing out. Funny to look back on actually. By the end of the show, our drummer took off. According to Brent a friend who joined Skylight later on, i had been threatening to kill the drummer and he was scared shitless. We fired him after that show and went back to using two different drum machines. We continued to record and play various shows in our living room and other places.Then one day our manager called and said he was leaving and moving to NYC. At this point we thought what do we have to lose by doing the same?? I contacted my sister who was living just over the bridge from NYC in NJ and asked her if we could come down and stay with her for a short time. So we had a huge yard sale and made money. Packed up all our shit. Rented a U haul and drove to NJ. We arrived at my sister’s house in NJ. Not long before we arrived, her neighbor had just blown his heart up by swallowing a couple of 8 balls of cocaine because the cops had pulled him over in the driveway. My sister was visibly upset but also acting really weird about it. I thought to myself holy shit what are we doing here!! Come to find out she was moving because she had lost her house due to a serious drug issue she had so she helped us all find a new place to live which ended up being on top of a strip club in the worst neighborhood in Paterson NJ. It was horrible. Every night the song I LIKE BIG BUTTS would blast through the floors of our apartment. The club was disgusting. Hookers all over the neighborhood tons of crack being sold. My sister had all sorts of weird people coming in and out of the apartment. One of them was this dude who told us a story about his mother making somebody float out from underneath her bed one night. And when we tried to walk away from him, he pulled out a gun and told us to stay. Yeah, it was that fucked up. During this time our manager had vanished into thin air. We tried calling him and he never returned calls. We rented rehearsal time in Hoboken and rehearsed whenever we could. We had no money what so ever, and had to take jobs for a towing service that my sister’s boyfriend at the time owned. We stayed in the area as long as we could. Shows, hanging out at a friend’s record store and making music whenever we could. We saw a lot of cool shows in New York City around that time. And really that time period was just as electric for music as it was in the 80s. Timeless.Eventually after some of us going through some serious drug problems, we packed the band up and moved back to the Boston area. Looking back on this though, we really had a ton of fun as well. I mean we were all about the music, and played whenever we could. The noise man.. the noise man..

Once we got back, we had no idea what to do honestly. We spent a short time doing whatever we could. Until one day Mike just up and left for college. This was around the same time the Brent joined the band actually. I have always been on the same page with Brent musically. All of these years went by and when we started writing together again, it was magic. I would bet it will always be like that... Aside from Brent writing his side of things here, i emailed him the other day and asked him to share some memories of that time period and this is what he sent me. Hilarious to read this because i forgot about most of it! In 1993 Brent said this.

Brent: I came to be in skylght in the spring of 1993 when the band was basically Mike and Perry, I had known Perry for a couple of years through a friend I was in another band with. Shortly after joining Mike left and we became Bloome, we added another guitar player (Sean) and a drummer (Rick), I think mostly because I love to use live drums. Perry typically had bad luck with drummers so we had been using a drum machine but their is just something about a live drummer that pulls it all together for me. We recorded an unfinished 4 song demo and played live once, then things fell apart and we went our separate ways. Perry continued on with other versions of Skylight over the years. Perry and I reconnected through myspace in 2007 after close to 12 years and within a couple of weeks we were trading tracks online and Skylight was once again reborn, soon after we added Pete Kontos on Guitar and Kim Welsh on Vocals


Q. What are the bands influences?
Perry: It is impossible for me to sum up influences. Even in the early 90s i was listening to tons of classic rock. I believe we did a sabbath cover once during rehearsals. All music is an influence to me really... I suppose everything!

Brent: All the usual suspects MBV, Slowdive, Boo Radleys, Swervdriver, all of those late 80's early 90's bands. I think the thing that has always made skylight special is that in addition to our shared shoegaze influences we also all had a very diverse set of other influences and though we were a "Shoegaze" band we weren't afraid to draw on bands outside that genre. For me that is bands like Jane's Addiction, The Sisters of Mercy, Prince, Fields of the Nephilim, and especially The Cure.

Q. Tell us about the Skylight gigs, how is it?
Perry: When we did play it was awesome really. Besides out first show with the idiotic drummer. Once we got the drum machines settled it was cool... We used a boss DR Rhythm and slaved an Alesis via midi.. We tried a cassette once but that failed. We were all about the noise though. Whenever we had a chance we would just make tons of noise. Mike and I would always add extra people when we could but that never really worked out so well. To be honest, Marie was the best we ever had. We taught her all the guitar parts she needed to know. And she would just come out and play. She was into the noise man. She was very talented. Nobody has a clue what ever happened to her actually. I was in touch with her years ago, but her fuck nut boyfriend intercepted emails and said nobody was allowed to email her anymore. Live she was always good... It was about fun for us though. Making noise was all we wanted to do. And that is exactly what we did every time we played. Some loved it, most hated it. Which is exactly what we wanted.

Brent: Because Perry and Kim are in Chicago and Pete and I are in Boston we have essentially been a virtual band for the last few years. We had talked about going out there or them coming here to do a show but life gets in the way and so far it hasn't happened. Back in the day whether writing or recording Perry and I have always been on the same page musically, we have some kind of musical telepathy.


Q. What´s your favourite Skylight song, why?
Perry: As You Leave and Winter Lights. As you leave because it was one of the first that me and Mike ever wrote together. And Winter Lights because it was the first Kim wrote after joining Skylight. Those words have special meaning.

Brent: It's a tie between Winter Lights and Tigerlily. Winter lights because it was the first thing Perry and I wrote together after not talking in over 12 years and tigerlily because I love the atmosphere it creates.

Q. Made a list of your top five albums from all time
Perry: No fucking way. You and i both now that is totally impossible J As much as i would love to do that.. How about anything Led Zeppelin did? Or Killing Joke?? Or T Rex. Or The Cars.

Brent: As I said I have a wide range of influences but I will narrow it down to 5. If you asked me again tomorrow it would probably change. These are 5 that I love and had the most influence on my playing over the years.

The Cure, Disintegration
The Sisters of Mercy, First and Last And Always
Slowdive, Souvlaki
Jane's Addiction, Nothings Shocking
Asobi Seksu, Citrus



Q. Skylight emerge during the classic era of Shoegazer, do you have some histories with bands like MBV, Slowdive, etc…
Brent: Perry has a lot more other band stories he was always more outgoing then me and always knew everyone. The one story I have was spending an evening drinking with Swervedriver at the Rat Skellar in Boston. Perry is friends with them and we had gone down to see their show with the Smashing pumpkins but due to a series of crazy mishaps the show was cancelled. So instead we drank, talked about our mutual love of Alice Cooper and their bass player gave me some great relationship advice, LOL.

Perry: We were lucky in that sense. Wet met Swervedriver early on and i became friends with Adam.... What a wonderful person he is really. I actually love his solo records so much maybe more so than the swervedriver records. Although they both are different to me. I was going to play with him a couple of years ago when his bass player broke his ankle or something. In the end the Churchs keyboard player filled in which was good because i had two days to learn the songs and one of those days we had a power failure at our house.

I spent a lot of time with swervies in the 90s. For various reasons and have some funny stories about being on tour with them. One of them was the great stolen camera incidentJ.. A good friend Claire was with us on tour in 94 and we were in Rhode Island. Swerves had a merch dude Matt. He was incredibly funny this guy. So one night Claire went off some place and Matt grabbed me with a sharpie in hand, and Claires camera. She had left it with Matt to watch. So Matt takes me outside and said this. You take this sharpie, i will pull down my pants and you write HELLO CLAIRE on my ass. Take a picture of it. So Matt rips down his pants, i write HELLO CLAIRE as big as i could, and i took a picture. After the tour back in England, she got the photos developed and we were in Swervies managers office and Claire comes in and said MY PARENTS almost saw this!! Or maybe they did. I cannot remember. It was a classic moment though.

The great thing about the folks in Swervedriver is they were just cool people to hang out with. Never any bullshit with them. The music they made was just always there man. Mezcal Head being one of the best rock records done in the 90s in my opinion. An album that still stands up and can be listened to over and over.

We spent a lot of time with MBV and Mercury Rev as well. Rev were really cool and MBV smoked a shit ton of weed man. One joint would go out and another would just be passed around. Debbie is/was the best person in that band really. She was incredibly sweet and spent a lot of time talking with us in Canada one time. I remember bringing Skylight demos to them as well.

It was funny seeing MBV with DINO JR when we did, because Dino Jr just blew them off the stage. I was always convinced that Kevin Shields made all that noise knowing full well they did not even compare to DINO JR live. When MBV did the reunion i had NO interest in seeing them. I actually agree with what Alan McGee said about loveless which was basically that he cannot stand to even listen to it. And truthfully i feel the same way. One note from loveless and i am ready to vomit. I can listen to the early Eps though. Without the vomit . Some records from back then stand the test of time. That is not one of them in my opinion. Not much different from how i feel about slowdive actually. GAK.. I think its cool Kevin went on to do things with Primal Scream though. I love Primal Scream. We met Bobby and the rest once when they played with Depeche Mode i think it was. He could hardly stand up. He was wobbling back and forth but incredibly nice. And they were almost always good live when we saw them. We have a number stories from back then. Maybe we should write a book or something.

Oh, i almost forgot about Brad and the Medicine folks! Awesome people and fun to watch live!!! As i said i should write a book!!!!!!

Q. Why Skylight RIP?
Brent: Though at the moment Perry would likely disagree I would never call it dead, maybe in a state of suspended animation. Skylight has a way of popping back up when we least expect it. At the moment though perry is busy with his other bands, Bliss City East and Morpheme and Pete and I have a new band called This Scarlet Mourning (along with Don Barry on Bass and Katie Bunting on vocals). We are planning to hit the studio in July for a new single called Stupid World. As for Skylight you never know it's only ever one Facebook message from Perry away from waking up, we may be in an old age home when it happens but who knows "elderly gaze" might catch on!

Perry: Skylight has been following me on and off for a long time. I appreciate people remembering the band, asking us to do shows as well. But i kind of felt with Brent doing his own band out east now, and me and Kim doing bliss.city.east and morpheme with Dean i just cannot see time doing anything else. I am not saying its over completely. I mean, we were asked to do a show in Chicago as a reunion kind of thing, but really it would only be me as an original member. I am not saying NO but i am also not saying YES. Depends on my mood.

Q. About bliss.city.east, when the band starts?
Perry: Bliss started a couple of years ago with Kim Welsh my girlfriend and baby Mama We did it so we could play live shows mainly. But as it turns out, we just love making music together. We spend an incredible amount of time together. We have a studio in our house, so we record whenever we feel the need. Its awesome actually. I could not ask for anything more with Kim. She is perfect. We went through some other members during this time. None of them really worked out until Eric D’Asto joined the band, who has also been PERFECT. He just adds to everything we do and makes it perfect always.

We had another dude who was in the band for a short time but was a horrible musician. When we listen back to his tracks on our recordings now, its just awful. He has also been stalking us via the net for a couple of years now. Non stop. Put our music up on his site as well and its blatantly obvious its me playing guitar. He is a real sick fucker actually. He even sent threatening emails about shooting us and stuff. It’s been taken care of, but you really need to watch out who you invite in the band these days!! bliss started off with Gail and Reuben in the band. Two people that helped out so much and did a ton. We see Reuben all the time but Gail just kind of vanished a year or so ago.

I love bliss though. Our live shows are always shitty, but we have fun doing what we do and that is all that matters to us. It’s perfect.

Q. How you define bliss.city.east sounds?
Perry: I have NO idea. Its just whatever comes out of us at the time. Black and Blue was our tribute to The Cars. If that helps at all. I suppose maybe Dream pop??? I hate genres even though i know they are needed in some way. So yeah, Dream pop.

Q. Tell us about the process of recording the songs...
Perry: It’s been tough with no drummer i can tell you that much. If we had a drummer things would be different. But i have BAD drummer luck. I cannot stand most of them. They either cannot keep up with us, or are just flat out fucking weird. So i gave up on finding one. I do most of the programming of drums myself here at our studio. Most of the time it would be writing the base of the song and then have Kim and Eric come in behind me and add parts. This year though, we have been running drum tracks and all writing together. This is something i truly love and plan to continue. We have a ton of songs, none of them are ready. We are in no hurry to release anything.

Q. The split with Vigulgi OoyoO is a masterpiece to me, do you agree?
Perry: A masterpiece? I don’t know about that!! But thank you!!! We appreciate it! Vidulgi had some great tracks on that album. So did we actually .Nothing ever came of that record. We had a label in England who supposed to release it on vinyl and CD but they ended up just fucking us over completely. Honestly, i am kind of disgusted the way the whole thing was done in the end. Music was great on it though...

Q. What do you think about the classic Shoegaze era?
Perry: It was electric. The shows, the people most of the bands. We were lucky to be front and center when it all went down. I miss that time and i miss a lot of the bands as well.

Q. Which bands would you like to do a cover version of?
Perry: The only cover song we would ever do would be something from The Cars J. we are working on our version of moving in stereo. Although, i would love to cover Higher than the sun by Primal Scream.

Q. Which new bands would you recommend?
Perry: Screen Vinyl Image for sure. Jake and Kim rule and put on one of the greatest live shows. Love Culture from Ohio. Great people and a good band. Tom Lugo and Stellarscope! Plus his label Patetico!!! Music for headphones as well!!! Man the list goes on, and i am sure i am missing some.BLOODY KNIVES. !! Great people and fun to play a show with... Presents for Sally as well. Matt Etherton is a really great person. I heard this band SPC ECO was good. Try them out. So many awesome people involved in this scene these days though. The folks from when the sun hits, Paul Lopez who runs the shoegaze collective. Ambient Airwaves, all of these people working hard to support the bands. My apologies to bands i missed. If you know me well, then you will understand I have a hard enough time remembering my name!!!

Q. About Morpheme, what´s the concept of the band and how´s working with Dean Garcia?
Perry: AS long i do not have to hear THE C WORD ( Curve ).. Don’t get me wrong, Curve did some great things no doubt!! Seriously though...Working with Dean is awesome. We are good friends besides. We have a really cool chemistry between us in music and friendship.. It’s like we read each other’s minds when it comes to music as well.So much has changed in the music business. So its much different than either one of us are used to dealing with. Honestly, we should have been doing this in the 90s!! But its just perfect writing with him. We never really had a concept. Although Kim has been getting a bit political with her lyrics. We all just write what we feel. I pop it off to Dean, he sends it back. Kim adds her lovely voice to it and Bobs Yer Uncle Kim has been doing our videos as well. The video for stratosphere was banned from facebook! Rock on...

Q. What the plans for the future?
Perry: Finish the Morpheme record with Dean and Kim. Finish the bliss album with Kim and Eric. Raise my beautiful daughter. And that is about it.

Q. Any parting words?
Perry: Yeah. I want to take a moment to thank all the people out there supporting all of our bands. Buying our music. Stealing our music whatever. You guys are all awesome. In Chicago i wanted to take a moment to thank Arunas from Darkroom and DJ Scarylady Sarah, William Faith and Philly Peroxide for putting on a great two day festival of bands last month. It was awesome. They have a once a month shoegaze thing here in Chicago at Late bar called Shimmer. So if you are in Chicago, you should go to this.!!! Joey Levenson from SPC ECO for always adding his bits to bliss music. Again i am sure that i am missing people i should be thanking. I am a scatter brain!!!

And finally thank YOU for doing this interview and waiting for me to finish it!!!

Pardon all my jumbled words and stories as well!!

Peace
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Thanks Perry and Brent

http://skylight91.bandcamp.com/album/behind-us-now

Gone Beyond by PeRPLeXa

Uma daquelas preciosidades que permanecerão obscuras e poucos mortais terão acesso ao sublime mundo de visões enigmaticas, viagens oniricas, anjos, demônios, tudo de forma mezzo post rock, mezzo experimental, mezzo post punk, mezzo psychedelic, assim é o mundo de Jonathan Wald e seu PeRPLeXa, uma celebração movida a ritmos tribais, layers e mais layers de guitarras epicas e cristalinas celebrando tragedias, amores, musica para entrar na alma e não sair nunca mais. Quer conhecer mais a fundo, então faça um grande favor a você mesmo, leia a entrevista que gentilmente foi concebida pelo proprio Jonathan sobre o mundo particular de seu PeRPLeXa, entre nos links, compre o album, baixe, procure, enfim infiltre-se rapidamente e boa viagem.

Detalhe, alguns convidados do album Gone Beyond, artwork by Natty Brooker, Ex Spacemen 3, baixo, Will Carruthers, ex Spacemen 3, precisa de mais alguma coisa!?!?

***** Intervew with Jonathan Wald - PeRPLeXa *****

Q. When did you start to play music? Tell us the beginning...

A. I tried playing clarinet in school when I was 10. On my own, I attempted to play a snare drum at 13. I acquired my first drum set at age 15, sold it at 16, found another at 18, sold it at 20, tried again at 22 and haven't given up since. I never took a lesson, as I found drumming too much fun to complicate with rules.

I create from feel and then visualize a pattern of shape and sound. I begin with a cyclical root pattern, then develop a theme with subtle variations by way of nuance and detail. If I can't feel it or visualize it, I can't play it and don't want to.

Q. When did Perplexa start?

A. PeRPLeXa began in 1994 in Ann Arbor, Michigan

Q. What´s your personal influences?

A. Authenticity, creativity, intuition, truth, heart, rhythm, breath(dth), mystery, and small things.

Q. How do you describe your sounds?

A. Epic, hypnotic, intense, passionate, cinematic, sensual, psychedelic, soothing, tribal, spiritual, and beyond.

Q. What was the process to recording gone beyond?

A. The simple answer...

Gone Beyond started a long time ago the "old fashioned" way... like all of our recordings, we played our instruments while surrounded by microphones and perform our songs to analog tape. I know... sounds strange because it wasn't recorded into a computer, and endlessly looped and edited. Some songs were written and some were improv'd. We tend to avoid most common song writing methods and approach ideas with more of a fine art sensibility. We engineer our music, in our own space, with our own equipment. I took on a much greater role in all aspects of production than I ever had in the past.

Q. What's the differences between the ST debut and gone beyond?

A. Spanning the first two releases, represents a time when we were a three piece band. Essentially guitar, bass, and drums. We just performed and recorded our live set to tape. We were more overt in our way of bringing about sonic intensity. By the time we wrote and recorded our third record, The Sun and The Moon Getting it On, the core of PeRPLeXa was a two piece. At this time, cello accompanied us and together we explored a more crafted experience than our previous recordings.

For our fourth recording, we hope that we've become better at creating the journey we're trying to help the listener experience. Gone Beyond is an infinitely more expansive endeavor, a greater scope, and of course, much more life informed. Gone Beyond still retains the core two piece and cello, as well, many talented friends helped bring about this crazy dream.

Q. About gig´s, what´s your feeling of playing live...

A. Playing live is a wonderfully amazing and inexplicable ride that I love, while at the same time, being so afraid. A very humbling experience that I'm always compelled to engage in again and again. PeRPLeXa has always been a live spectacle and we hope to be so always.

Q. Make a list of your top 5 albums of all time...

A. Absolutely impossible to pick five! Here are some of the records that I have enjoyed for years...

Alice Coltrane - Journey in Satchidananda

Durutti Column - LC

Talk Talk - Laughing Stock

This Heat - Deceit

The Raincoats - Odyshape

Pop Group - Y

Chet Baker - Jazz at Ann Arbor

Crash Worship - Triple Mania II

Can - Ege Bamyasi

Dead Can Dance - Within the Realm of a Dying Sun

African Head Charge - Songs of Praise

...and so many more.

Q. Which new bands do you recommend?

A. I wouldn't know what others might like, but some of the music that I've currently been listening to is all over the place...

Django Reinhardt

Joanna Newsom

Dirty Projectors

Die Antwoord

Name of the Moon

Q. About the future, what are your plans?

A. Well, I live in the moment but if I could imagine tomorrow... I hope to learn more, feel more, love more, and create more.

Q. Any parting words..

A. For your entrancing pleasure, now and always... Gone Beyond

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Thanks Jonathan!!

http://perplexa.bandcamp.com
http://www.perplexamusic.com
http://soundcloud.com/perplexa

Anticipating Nowhere with Lorelle Meets The Obsolete - An Interview

Leia atentamente, o negócio é serissimo, sugiro prestar extrema atenção no que escreverei daqui por diante simplesmente pelo fato de que o que vem a seguir é algo que não se encontra em qualquer esquina, fui claro?!? Bom, não me lembro como e porque cheguei até o Lorelle Meets The Obsolete, estou sendo sincero não me lembro e olha que isso faz menos de dois meses, também isso pouco importa para o tamanho do estrago que aconteceu no dia que acessei o bandcamp deles e me deparei com o debut intitulado On Welfare, preste atenção, tudo ao acaso, apenas cheguei até o site não sei bem o porque entretanto quando fiquei curioso e comecei a ouvir a primeira faixa do álbum, chamada Traveler o baque foi instantâneo, o que me veio a mente naquele momento durante um mero dia de trabalho foi a mesmíssima sensação de quando ouvi o absurdamente essencial Taste dos Telescopes ou quando ouvi o Playing With Fire do Spacemen 3, um parênteses aqui, para quem me conhece sabe muito bem que o Taste e o Playing With Fire para mim são obras primas irretocáveis, fecha parênteses, retomando então, eu poderia muito bem escrever mais algumas máximas para o estupendo debut do Lorelle Meets The Obsolete mas realmente não dá, o resultado obtido após a audição do álbum é devastadora, veja bem, devastadora no sentido de insanidade, inconformismo e isso meus caros é algo que foi criado e concebido em 2011, é sabido que estamos em um estagio do qual temos a internet, por conseqüência as redes sociais e tudo fica mais simples logicamente concordam?!?Porém o Lorelle Meets The Obsolete não é inglês, americano, dinamarquês, sueco, canadense, etc, etc...a banda vem diretamente de Guadalajara isso mesmo Guadalajara Mexico, e digo a vocês impressiona mais ainda, afinal qual o histórico de bandas de Guadalajara??? Sinceramente sou leigo nesse quesito todavia isso também pouco importa porque On Welfare grita e grita altíssimo e atinge o objetivo a cada acorde, psicodelismo noise selvagem, inconformismo social em letras dolorosas e diretas This Plain City, Waiting for The Orange Sunshine, Traveler são peculiares exemplos de que ainda existe questionamento e inconformismo, desculpem a repetição da palavra, mas é a mais pura realidade, não há como ficar indiferente as canções deste espetacular On Welfare, ainda mais quando no seu intimo, digo na sua essência ainda há uma chama de contestação da situação na qual nos subtemo-nos neste capitalismo fodido das grandes metrópoles que vivemos, e digo mais, nos amamos as ditas metropoles, amigos, francamente uma obra prima como esta certamente passara despercebida pela grande maioria mesmo porque as possibilidades das bandas divulgarem seus trabalhos são inúmeras e claramente vivemos em uma época extremamente exuberante de grandes e desconhecidos trabalhos, ficando quase que inviável tomarmos conhecimento de 100% do que esta sendo lançado no mercado, veja, o álbum On Welfare tem o selo da Captcha Records de Chicago, ou seja, resumidamente a globalização colabora neste sentido entretanto de que forma, você tomaria conhecimento do que estou apresentando neste momento?!? Admiro pessoas como os comparsas Miguel e Tadeu da BARSA ALTERNATIVA Amor Louco, cito ainda o grande Pedro e seu incansável Shoegazer Alive já na versão 5, tem mais, Al Schenkel com o barulhento Sussurros e Escarros, isto somente citando uma pequena parcela das revistas alternativas que hoje intitulam-se BLOGS, mas que ofertam conhecimento, fora os gringos When The Sun Hits e tantos outros, o fato é que, a musica alternativa atual esta recheada de grandes, mais muito grandes bandas e a divulgação é online, quase que simultânea, o que precisa ser considerado é, deixar o amadorismo de lado e todos os meios se falarem e unirem-se para criar algo realmente perturbador, ponto final. Bom, finalizando, On Welfare debut do Lorelle Meets The Obselete certamente, será, a não ser que algo aconteça de forma inusitada, o álbum do ano para o TBTCI, sem mais, Renato Malizia.

Ah, finalizando a historia, logicamente que este que vos escreve não contente em comprar o debut, leia-se VINIL, detalhe somente disponível em Vinil ou MP3, no mesmo dia em que conheci a banda, realizei um contato imediato com Lorelle e The Obsolete, onde para minha surpresa eles conheciam e freqüentavam o TBTCI, e o resultado não poderia ser melhor, esta devidamente estampado nas entrelinhas da entrevista abaixo.

PS – mais um detalhe absurdamente relevante, quando recebi o vinil ai que fudeu mais ainda, vejam pelo capricho do vinil branco em detalhes esverdeados, um verdadeiro item de colecionador, fácil fácil o vinil mais bonito que já vi em toda minha vida!!!!!Simplesmente essencial!!!!

***** An Interview with Lorelle and The Obsolete *****

Q. When did Lorelle Meets The Obsolete starts tell us about the history...
A. The Obsolete: It started last year in Guadalajara when Lorena had a batch of songs that didn't fit much into our former band Soho Riots. She wanted to record them so she invited me to do the tweaking. And that's pretty much it. It all started as a recording project not as a band.

Lorelle: Those songs didn't fit with the Riots because they all came up as a unity. I couldn't separate them from each other. It was almost as if each song was part of a story. If you cut one song out the whole story won't make sense anymore. It also was the best opportunity to start something we were meaning a long time to do: a duo between Alberto and me. Even though we love the idea of having a band, we needed a space in which we didn't depend on other people whether to rehearse, record or play.

Q: Who are your influences?

A. The Obsolete: There's a certain comfort zone of which you can't get out easily but during the recording of On Welfare I was heavily listening to Kurt Vile, Christian Bland's solo stuff, Thee Oh Sees and The War on Drugs.

Lorelle: The Cramps, Spectrum, Black Mountain, Dead Meadow, Spacemen 3... I keep returning to those bands, again and again.

Q. Made a list of 5 albuns of all time…

A. Lorelle: The Cure - Disintegration, The Cramps - Bad Music For Bad People, Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton - Knives Don't Have Your Back, Spacemen 3 - Playing With Fire, Deerhunter - Cryptograms.

The Obsolete: That's a tough one. I'd say The Velvet Underground - White Light / White Heat, Spacemen 3 - The Sound of Confusion, Galaxie 500 - On Fire, 13th Floor Elevators - The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators, The War on Drugs - Wagonwheel Blues (this is a new addition and it is truly a great record).

Q. How do you fell playing alive?

A. Lorelle: Playing live is a vital part of all the process. For me is like being in a complete honest state of mind. It is a way of projecting yourself as real as possible without obstacles. At a gig you can be certain about the realm of any connection achieved with the audience. There can't be any masks up there. I guess you could say that the live act is purely emotional for us.

Q. How do you describe Lorelle Meets The Obsolete sounds?

A. Lorelle: It definitely sounds as the social malaise.

The Obsolete: I do think there's a lot of intimacy in our sound. I mean, when you listen to the record you can imagine there's a band in your room you know. Like a bedroom-psych rock sort of thing.

Q: Tell us about the process of recording the debut album?

A. The Obsolete: It all happened quite quickly. As I said, Lorena had these songs she wanted to record. Most of them were all stripped down, vocals and guitar only. So we started by adding some drums and bass, then some extra guitars, organs, etc. The fun part started when we mixed it 'cause we messed a lot with all the tracks. This particular song, "The Means of Production", got really interesting during the mixing because it ended up as a really twisted version of the original song. "Perverted by its Time" it's also a good example of all the mess we did. That song was intended to be some kind of division between the two major parts of "Taken". We couldn't figure out how to fit it in so then we realized it actually worked as an interlude for the whole album.

Soon after the record was almost done we invited a friend of ours (who happens to be in a mind-blowing band called Robota) to add some Omnichord and other layers to certain songs.

Q. What´s represents the shoegazer classic era to the band?

A. For us it's really all about My Bloody Valentine. They've been a HUGE influence to us. Especially in the "live experience" approach on music. They've showed us how music can become extremely physical to the point of making people's skin literary vibrate. The "holocaust" moment during "You Made Me Realize" is a perfect example of how they took music into a physical state as a means to an end.

Q. Which new bands do you recommended?

A. Lorelle: The Soft Province, you've probably heard of them. It's a project by, former Besnard Lake member, Michael Gardiner. Its first record is really sweet. It has become a regular listen on my day-to-day activities. I'd also recommend Mentira Mentira. It's a one-man band actually and everything is arranged by our spoiled friend Gaby. He's like a human dynamo and he's about to put three records out at the same time. He's definitely one of the most prolific, charismatic and honest musicians we've met. Now beware 'cause he's 22 and he has threaten us with ending his music career at 26 so if I were you I would listen to his stuff right away.

The Obsolete: I've been into some of the great music that Woodsist has been putting out. The Spectre Folk and Purling Hiss stuff especially. There's also this awesome band of our friends Bruno and Giovanni called Tony Danza. They're finishing the recording of their first album and it's going to be really big! I'm really stoked about the anger in their songs. Plus, they have a bit of Velvet Underground going on there.

Q: Which bands you love to made a cover version?

A. Lorelle: I would love to do “So Hot” by Spacemen 3. The Obsolete: I would cover any Galaxie 500 song hehe.

Q: What´s the plans for future....

A. Lorelle: We're going to start the recording of our second album, which we hope to have ready by the autumn. There are also plans of putting out a 7" before the second album comes out. And there are rumors that say we will be playing outside of Mexico for the first time, so stay tuned :)

The Obsolete: We're planning to do a big collaboration with Tony Danza and our friends Richie and Leila (the sweetest couple). The thing is to setup lots of instruments in a room so everybody can play something, improvise and finally tape it. This one might take a while but when it happens it will sure be amazing.

Q: Any parting words?
The Obsolete: Let us know if you enjoyed our record and do share it. And thanks for having us in your place Renato.
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Thanks!!!!

http://obsoletelorelle.bandcamp.com/album/on-welfare

http://www.myspace.com/obsoletelorelle

http://nodata.tv/21818

For All the Fucked-Up Children of This World We Give You Starfire Connective Sound - An Interview

Dando sequência a primeira aparição do Starfire Connective Sound aqui no TBTCI, Al Schenkel a mente por detrás da perturbação sonora a qual se propõe o SCS coloca o definitivo 1º EP do Starfire com direções bem explicitas, caos sendo o mais caótico possível, reverberações, delírios distribuídos dentre as 7 canções, I Sweep The Streets Without Finding, They Call Her One Eye, This Modern Cave (assombrossa), Electric Whore, Love Is a Lonely Ghost Floating, Wall Whitman´s Brain, Starfire Connective Sound que simplesmente impressiona os mais desavisados, saca assim, os grandes genios perturbados do naipe de Nick Cave, Tom Waits, Blixa Bargeld, os Irmãos Reid, Kevin Shields, Lou Reed e acresça Al Schenkel no meio, acha pouco, foda-se, o negocio aqui é serissimo.

Para deixar claro que o SCS tem planos que se tornar a maior revelação do ano, pegue em primeira mão a entrevista concedida por ele ao TBTCI, sem muito bla bla bla, Al Schenkel e seu Starfire Connective Sound.

***** Interview with Al Schenkel - Starfire Connective Sound *****

Q. Quando o Starfire Connective Sound começou?
O projeto começou a ganhar vida em maio deste ano, mas a ideia de voltar a tocar e compor já rondava meus pensamentos há uns bons 3 anos, data mais ou menos em que tive minhas últimas experiências com bandas de garagem. O Nome, Starfire Connective Sound foi a sugestão de um amigo de Novo Hamburgo chamado Johnny, e é uma ligação meio louca entre uma caixa elétrica que ele projeta na Springer chamada Starfire e um episódio de Dungeons and Dragons (Caverna do dragão), envolvendo um avião da segunda guerra mundial.

Q. Quais as influencias do SCS?

Além das vertentes noise-pop, shoegaze, experimentais, no-wave, post-punk, space-rock, electro-rock, industriais de bandas como The Birthday Party, The Velvet Underground, My Bloody Valentine, Spaceman 3, Six Finger Satellite, JAMC, Slowdive, The Sound, Joy Division, Bardo Pond, Medicine, Love And Rockets, Sonic Youth e Suicide as influências literárias também são bem gritantes, passando por nomes como Walt Whitman, Antonin Artaud, Gregory Corso, Carl Solomon, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouak, William Burroughs, Rimbaud, Garcia Lorca e Bukowski e é claro, de cinema alternativo e experimental também.

Q. Quais os 5 essenciais albuns de todos os tempos?
Eu enquadraria uns 30 ou mais álbuns tranquilamente nesta lista...rsrsrs...Mas vamos lá. Vou Citar 5 discos que mudaram minha concepção dentro da música: The Velvet underground And Nico (1967), The Velvet Underground; Prayers On Fire (1981), The Birthday Party; Siter (1987), Sonic Youth; Crocodiles (1980), Echo And The Bunnymen; Isn't Anything (1988), My Bloody Valentine;

Q. Como voce define o som do SCS?
Uma fusão de soundscapes, colagens e ambientações que oscila entre alucinações, perturbações, sonhos, violência, amor, raiva e caos mental, reverberados em muita distorção e repetições psíquicas. Uma bad trip com raros ou quase nenhum momento de lucidez.

Q. Como é o produção de criação das musicas, quais as influencias?
Devido a falta de gente que divida as mesmas influências e paixões por este tipo de sonoridade aqui em Criciúma, SC me vi na obrigação de criar tudo sozinho. As canções geralmente são criadas a a partir de algum loop de bateria criados com a ajuda de softwares de produção e criação de áudio, tendo as guitarras e sintetizadores sendo jogados aos poucos em cima, junto a camadas e mais camadas de distorções e efeitos de pedal, até chegar ao ponto que pretendo deixá-las.

Q. Como foi o processo de gravação do EP?
O processo de gravação seguiu os mesmos passos da criação dos sons, totalmente caseiro e baseado nos mesmos softwares que uso para criação. Conforme sentia que as canções estavam prontas eu ia arquivando-as para uma seleção futura, o que acabou rendendo o primeiro EP.

Q. Quais os planos para o futuro?ALbum cheio?Shows?...
A ideia principal é arrancar este projeto de dentro da minha casa e executá-lo ao lado de outros músicos, tornando-o ainda mais barulhento e visceral. Já estou trabalhando em outras canções, duas delas podem ser conferidas no soundcloud do SCS. Uma das que ficaram de fora da seleção do EP ganharão vocais e mais guitarras e provavelmente integrarão o novo EP, assim como também ocorrerá em outras faixas, que terão vocais de amigos de outras bandas que toparam parceria adicionados. Por enquanto em relação a shows fica meio complicado, mas apartir do momento em que o projeto tome estatus de banda completa, certamente este será o principal objetivo do Starfire Connective Sound.

Q. Alguma coisa a mais a acrescentar?

Aproveitando para agradecer ao The Blog That Celebrates Itself pela iniciativa, queria pedir encarecidamente para os amantes do rock independente e underound brasileiro que vehnam a frequentar shows das bandas nacionais deste ramo, comprem os CDS, vistam a camiseta e de um modo geral apoiem e deem seu parecer sobre esta cena maravilhosa e super barulhenta que está se erguendo no Brasil, pois eu tenho certeza que este país jamais produziu tanto e em tamanha qualidade com se tem visto nos dias de hoje, mas para isto continuar se alastrando é necessário o ativismo e a colaboração de cada um.
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Valeu Al

http://starfireconnectivesound.bandcamp.com/

Pygmalion with Foreign Cinema - An Interview

Lembram-se do Astral?!?Obvio que sim, prediletissimo aqui do TBTCI, varios reviews e uma interview daquelas memoraveis, leia novamente aqui, e não é que através de contatos imediatos contactei a Natty Dagger, brasileira de Goiania, foi direto para os Estados Unidos e capitanea uma projeto daqueles mais do que essenciais ao lado do proprio Dave do Astral , dai a conexão, o Foreign Cinema já citado na entrevista com o mentor do Astral passeia por caminhos diferentes, batidas eletronicas quase tribais mesclados com uma ambientação meio trip hop meio post punk e caindo por um lado shoegazer climatico tudo isso junto coloca-os como uma das grandes promessas para este ano ouça Lovers an Killers e veja do que se trata todo esse vislumbre da minha parte.

E logico, como de praxe o TBTCI descolou via Natty mais uma das já classicas interviews do blog, sem mais Foreign Cinema.

***** Interview with Natty Dagger - Foreign Cinema *****

Q. When did Foreign Cinema form, tell us about the beginning…

The band formed in 2008. We (Dave & Natalia) both were into the same kind of music and have previous band experience so naturally we joined forces and pursued the musical venture with the goal of bringing something new to the indie music scene.

Q. What are the band’s influences?

A lot of contemporary electronic music as well as some classic shoegaze & post-punk have really been big drivers in our musical influence. Massive Attack, Thievery Corporation, Air, Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, Echo & the Bunnymen & Siouxsie and The Banshees are among the most notable.

Q. Tell us about the recording process for the debut EP?

The original master recordings of the EP was done completely analog (aside from the final format being released on CD), and recorded on a 1/2" tape, 8-track tape machine at our home studio. Retaining a fat organic low end in our sound is really important. The 4 songs were recorded, mixed and mastered in less than a month, which was very quickly compared with how long we're taking to put out our new album... about 2 years! hahaha

Q. When is the album due?

The album will be out in a couple months but we do not have a release date set yet. We are currently finalizing the mixes and it will be mastered in a week or so. After that, it will be off to the pressing plant. This album will be released on vinyl in very limited quantities.

Q, Tell us about playing live.

Playing live is always a pleasure. connecting with listeners is one of the most rewarding experiences about being a recording/ performing artist. We are about to do our first show with live drums and also a cello player and we're hoping to incorporate more diverse instruments into our live shows for the future including sitar and other world instruments.

Q. What do you think about the classic shoegaze era?

Let's just say without it, a huge part of our influences would never have existed.

Q. Which new bands you recommended?

We like bands that are a little bit different from the rest. Here in the Bay Area our favorites are Return to Mono, Stripmall Architecture, Silver Swans & Slowness. It's hard to find new bands that are totally original but it's always refreshing when a band takes a new twist on an old sound and not just copy some style of music that's already been done.

Q. Which songs by other bands would you like to do cover versions of?

Dead Can Dance - The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove and also In Power we Entrust the Love Advocated (we're BIG Dead Can Dance fans :)

Echo & the Bunnymen - Porcupine

Q. What are the plans for the future?

We are on the verge of releasing our first vinyl 7" single. The songs will be exclusive to this release (Palace of Fine Junk b/w Velvet Sky) and not available on anything else. We are very proud of these songs and we've already gotten a lot of positive feedback on them. In the near term, we'll continue to perform and promote the new album and single, as well as do more regional touring.

Q. Any important news to tell us…

Only that we have a couple of shows coming up in San Francisco and that people should come out! :) One is at the legendary Cafe Du Nord, on June 23rd and the other at the Rickshaw Stop on July 16. Our website is www.foreigncinema.com.br and people can keep up with us by visiting our Facebook page (facebook.com/foreigncinemamusic) and Twitter (@foreigncinema)

Thank you so much Renato!

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Thanks Natty & Dave!!!Cheers Renato

http://www.myspace.com/foreigncinemamusic

Foreign Cinema - Lovers and Killers

Sonic, Flower and Groove with The Tamborines - An Interview

Com maior prazer e orgulho escuto incansavelmente meu Camera & Tremor, debut dos paranaenses de Maringa, o grande mais muito grande Tamborines, de meu camarada Henrique Laurindo que simplesmente pegou tudo e foi para Londres e ai a historia do Tamborines é exatamente essa Sonic, Flower and Groove, shows e shows, eps sensacionais e agora o album, simplesmente espetacular, Henrique e Lulu Grave são especialistas em criar pequenas gemas a base de distorção, fuzz romantismo e profundo conhecimento de causa, 31st Floor, Come Together, What Took You So Long e a emblematica Sanny O´Gannon explicam o porque os Tamborines são comparados a Dandy Warhols, Teenage Fanclub primeira fase, Ride, alias MArk Gardener faz backing vocals em Come Together, e junto ai Velvet Underground fase Loaded e a festa esta completa, outro grande momento deste Camera & Tremor é o cover Let me Down dos herois do guitar sound nacional os Pin Ups, diante de tantos motivos é recomendavel urgentemente que voce vá até sua loja predileta e pegue logo seu Camera & Tremor e seja mais feliz.

Aproveitando o ensejo todo, o comparsa Henrique concedeu ao TBTCI uma especialissima entrevista abordando toda a trajetoria dos Tamborines, então recomendo leia e releia e delicie-se

***** Interview with Henrique Laurindo - The Tamborines *****

Q. Quando o Tamborines começou? Conte-nos a historia da banda...
A. Comecei a escrever as musicas que seriam a base dos Tamborines em 1999/2000 na epoca eu tinha acabado de sair de uma banda bem noise/shoegaze, e eu estava afim de fazer algo mais calmo, folk ate. Assim surgiram as musicas do "Dressed up to better feel the sun", inclusive chegamos a gravar 8 musicas com a intencao de lancar 2 eps. No final acabamos perdendo as masters e ficou so o "Dressed Up .." mesmo.

Q. Quais as influencias da banda?
A. Dificil dizer, nos tres temos gostos bem variados...

Q. Quais os discos de cabeceira do Tamborines...
A. Os meus mudam sempre, no momento os que vem a tona sao: Velvet Underground - Velvet Underground; Isn't Anything - MBV; Cowboy in Sweden - Lee Hazlewood; Scrabby? - Pin Ups; Daydream Nation - Sonic Youth; In the Airplane over the sea - Neutral Milk Hotel; Bringing it all back home - Bob Dylan...

Q. Depois do primeiro EP pela Midsummer, como surgiu a ideia de se radicar em Londres?
A. Na verdade eu tinha essa ideia desde que peguei na guitarra pela primeira vez!

Coisa de adolecente que acabou por se tornar realidade...

Q. Porque o fim prematuro ?
A. Quando chegamos em Londres a primeira coisa que sacamos foi que teriamos que nos adaptar a uma outra realidade. Esse Tamborines que saiu do Brasil nao teria a minima chance de fazer algo aqui, entao resolvemos colocar a coisa on hold e curtir o que estava acontecendo com a gente: ver shows, exposicoes, eventos. Devoramos tudo.

Q. No retorno em 2005, qual foi a grande mudança em relação a primeira formação?
A. Bem, ai ja estavamos ouvindo outras coisas, em uma total outra realidade, mais "dentro" de Londres. Comecamos a gravar demos e passa-las pros amigos, porem nao tinhamos banda: era so a Lulu nos teclados, eu na guitarra e uma drum machine.

No Brasil a coisa era um pouco mais maleavel e incerta: gravamos o ep em tres (com o Renato na bateria) porem ao vivo era basicamente amigos nos dando uma mao. O que era super bacana, ninguem (nem mesmo a banda) sabia quem iria tocar o que. Caos total.

Q. Como são os shows do Tamborines?
A. Caos total.

Q. Tocar ao lado de grandes bandas como Charlatans, Chapterhouse, Crystal Stilts significa o que para o Tamborines?
A. Espero que signifique que somos grandes em algum aspecto tambem hahahahaha. Claro que eh otimo dividir o palco com bandas que admiramos, mas outras coisas bem mais emocionantes ja aconteceram pra gente. Por exemplo: ter o Mark Gardener cantando uma musica nossa (3 alias!!) foi mind-blowing!!

Q. Como foi o processo de gravação do debut Camera & Tremor?
A. Desnecessariamente longo e extremamente complicado.

Adoro o disco e as musicas e acho que apesar de tudo representa bem o que o Tamborines era naquele momento. Mas foram 3 bateristas diferentes, em varios estudios. Ouve muita confusao, muitas opinioes divergentes etc..

Quando o disco saiu eu fiquem sem ouvi-lo durante meses e ja mergulhei de cara em musicas novas.

Dai a Luciana passou dos teclados pra bateria - o que provou ser a decisao mais correta que fizemos - o Chokis (ex-Wry) assumiu o baixo e ja comecamos a tocar musicas novas. So quando fomos em turne na Alemanha e Italia que voltamos a tocar as musicas do "Camera & Tremor", e dai voltou aquele feeling bom e hoje eu aprecio essas confusoes e divergencias.

Q. O que representa a cena shoegazer classica para o Tamborines?
A. Eu cresci ouvindo Ride, MBV, Jesus & Mary Chain etc... e acho que esse som abriu possibilidades pra curtir outras coisas como velvets, byrds, phil spector, love ou mesmo beatles, folk e motown.

Mas confesso que nao ouco muito bandas shoegaze ultimamente. Alias nem acho que o Tamborines seja shoegaze, embora seja inevitavel a associacao visto que lancamos um single pela Sonic Cathedral.

Q. Quais bandas da atualidade vocês recomendam?
A. Gosto bastante do Crystal Stilts, o primeiro album eh fantastico, mas ainda nao ouvi o novo. Gosto bastante do Yuck tambem, otimas cancoes. Soft Moon me pegou de surpresa e tornou-se uma das prediletas da casa. Tem o Moon Duo tambem. Crocodiles, Veronica Falls, Minks, Warpaint, Frankie Rose and the Outs etc..

Q. Quais os planos para o futuro?Turnes?Talvez algum show no Brasil...
A. Estamos indo pra Italia em Julho gravar o segundo disco e depois disso iremos ao Brasil. Esse ano promete!

Q. Alguma mensagem há mais...
A. Estamos com saudades dos amigos e nao vemos a hora de estar ai. Baladas como as do Brasil nao existem iguais!
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Valeu Henrique....abs Renato

http://www.thetamborines.com/

The Tamborines - 31st Floor, Come Together

Purple Shoe(gaze) with R.M. Hendrix

Diretamente do contato imediato feito pelo mentor Michael Hendrix, um ep (Super Moo) e um album que tiraram o folego do TBTCI, shoegazer em formato atual misturando com glam e muito wall of sound pegue o album This Dreadful Mess e vá direto para a soberba Yr Queen is Dead e veja do que estou falando, riffs pegajosos, muito Swervedriver e Serena Maneesh em formato atualizado, Global Affair/Crack the Code é um Flying Saucer Attack light, um deleite, The Nóir é outro exemplo crucial de que o novissimo R.M. Hendrix vem como um raio brilhante e barulhento rechear o universo do shoegazer atual, absolutamente necessario.

Para elucidar mais ainda o post, como tem sido praxe aqui no TBTCI, convidamos Mr. Michael Hendrix para tecer comentarios sobre processo de gravação e peculiaridades das canções, com vocÊs R.M. Hendrix:

The Dreadfull Mess & Super Moo by Michael Hendrix :


I recorded the basic tracks of the songs with either Jazzmaster or Jaguar running through a Vox AC15. This gave me a consistent sound bed to experiment upon. Once I had that recorded then I could start letting all my influences play out for both tones and vocals. This was really liberating because I could let the lyrics and mood guide how each song evolved without worrying if it would get so different that it didn't sound like it belonged on the record.


Here are the influences track by track on This Dreadful Mess:
1. My Bloody Valentine
2. Fennesz
3. Swervedriver, Serenah Maneesh, Neu
4. Bowie, Catherine Wheel, Radiohead, Starflyer 59
5. The Cure, Seefeel
6. MBV, Radiohead
7. Primal Scream, Stooges, Jesus & Mary Chain, Chapterhouse

Super Mo are really thematic outtakes from Mess. They were all love songs and didn't really fit with the spy theme. Same gear set up, but you can see how they are more optimistic than the other tunes.
1. Radiohead
2. Bowie
3. New Order
4. Burial, Sparklehorse
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Thanks Michael

www.rmhendrix.com

I Saw The Ghost That Follows You with Bloody Knives

Preston Maddox do espetacular Bloody Knives já é socio de carterinha do TBTCI, e logicamente o Bloody Knives um dos prediletissimos da nova geração de excelentes bandas surgidas, depois do estrago realizado com o debut Burn it All Down, Preston e seu Bloody Knives atacam com o devastador Disappear, a destruição em forma de canção começa com You Know You Want To e só termina nos ultimos acordes da catarse final com Disappear, simplesmente um ep que eleva ainda mais o status do Bloody Knives com uma das mais destruidoras bandas da atualidade com seu mix insano de electro, shoegazer, noise, pos punk chega para ensurdecer ainda mais os timpanos dos menos despreparados.

Ilustrando ainda mais este post especial do TBTCI, convidei Mr. Maddox para disecar o ep, vejam o que acontece por detras da mente do nosso amigo Preston:


The Process:

July 2010: We had the idea of making a record out of improvisations. The idea of having a forced time frame, and to create something from something else were the main themes behind creating the music.

We were on tour and had a day off so we decided to go to Brooklyn and record with our friend Ryan Steele (Makeshift Studios). Ryan recorded our old bands’ last record at his old place. We could not record at his new place, so we packed up all the recording equipment in our van and went to a practice spot in Brooklyn called Sweatshop. I’m pretty sure we were in room four. We had a six hours to record.

We setup all the equipment in the practice space, miked the drums, DI’ed the bass, got some beer and shitty Mexican food, and started to record. There was some terrible cover band in the room next to us banging out the worst songs of the past 30 years at full volume, in the other room beside us was a metal drummer banging out blast beats. We were sure the noise was gonna make it into the ambient mics but it didn’t happen, the bleed was minimal.

“ill never leave you alone” was written in the first hour of the session. The Mexican food started to give me a stomach ache. Around that time we wrote “my blood is in your veins”. We took a short drinking and eating break and started up again. During this time we recorded the last three songs. "i want to be the one to blame" and " you know you want to" were recorded back to back. "disappear" was the last song we did.

We packed up and left Sweatshop. Ryan gave us the audio files and we took the disc back to Austin with us. I loaded the files up and recorded the keyboard parts at our studio in Austin. I went to Brooklyn to record some more, but after the sessions the blizzard killed off the hard drive. Some files were recovered, the others we re-recorded at my studio in Austin. Jim added effects and interludes. We sent the record back to Ryan to mix and master. Jake did the artwork.

Song Explanations:

1. "you know you want to"
you think too much, be impulsive, you know you want to, so c'mon.

2 "i want to be the one to blame
the joy of corruption, stealing innocence, and the inabilty to resist what you want.

3 "ill never leave you alone
you caught the infection, the virus spread, you will carry the infection until your death.

4 "my blood is in your veins"
your destiny is waiting for you to give you what you deserve. there is nothing worse than too late.

5. "disappear"
there is a hole inside you that you will never fill, the more you try the bigger the vacany gets......disappear.

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Thanks Preston my friend...

http://bloodyknives.bandcamp.com/album/disappear

Satansville Revisited with Swervedriver - An Interview with Adam Franklin

Depois de um tornado que literalmente consumiu este que vos escreve fazendo com que eu ficasse um pouco distante do TBTCI, eis que a volta eminente estaria prestes a ser executada e finalmente o TBTCI esta novamente a ativa e para comemorar em grande, digo grande mais muito grande estilo o TBTCI tem a honra de apresentar e conceder a todos uma historica entrevista com o grandioso Adam Franklin do seminal, espetacular, poderoso e prediletissimo de todos os tempos Swervedriver, sim isso mesmo, uma entrevista que perdurou para ser concebida em 1 ano de conversação, troca de emails, e finalmente Mr Adam Franklin nos concedeu esta que facilmente é uma das mais importantes entrevistas já realizadas pelo TBTCI.

Quanto ao Swervedriver o que dizer, o que acrescentar ao que já foi escrito, discutido e tudo mais, simplesmente a mais barulhenta das bandas da primeira fase da Scene, albuns absolutamente indispensaveis como Raise, Mezcal Head, Ejector Seat Reservation e 99th Dream, sem contar nos eps e b-sides tão abrassivos e poderosos quanto os albuns cheios, por essas e outras que hoje é um dia de comemoração no TBTCI, um marco absoluto na historia do blog e principalmente para este que vos escreve, afinal a idolatria minha em torno do Swervedriver é incondicional, amigos deliciem com Mr. Adam Franklin.


***** Interview with Adam Franklin (Swervedriver, Magnetic Morning, Toshack Highway and Bolts of Melody *****

Q. About the early years, when did Swervedriver starts?
Swervedriver formed in the winter of 1988-89 after the break-up of our previous band Shake Appeal. That band had been well known locally in Oxford and was once voted Best Band in Oxford in 1987 or something by readers of a local music paper but we had become bored with it. We were doing this Stooges/MC5 thing and felt like we were in a bit of a vacuum but by 1988 there was actually something else bubbling up that was a lot more interesting. There is some Shake Appeal footage in this new Oxford documentary film Anyone Can Play Guitar which also features Swervedriver as well as Radiohead, Supergrass and Ride: http://www.indiegogo.com/anyone-can-play-guitar

Q. Who are your influences/heroes?
Myself and Jimmy Hartridge were both really into the Glam Rock guitar bands of the early 70s like T.Rex and Slade. When the band formed we were big fans of Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, Husker Du - the more interesting guitar music that had been bubbling up - as well as old favourites The Stooges, MC5 and Jimi Hendrix. There was also some great music emerging from the UK at that time - it was an exciting time for underground guitar music.

Q. Tell us about the gigs, what´s the feeling to playing live?
We love playing live - this is where the songs literally come to life afterall. They sort of move around when played live - the recordings can be like photographs, they're just a record of how the band played the song that day but when played live, the songs are constantly evolving. There are parts or sounds that we don't ever play the same twice but generally we're pretty true to the recordings of course.

Q. In your opinion, what´s the best Swervedriver album, and the most emblematic song?
I don't know, they all have great moments but I don't ever listen to them - sometimes the odd song. For that reason the compilation album Juggernaut Rides 89-98 has the most high points in my opinion, for obvious reasons. Most emblematic song? Duel maybe? Son of Mustang Ford is killer isn't it? Although we were never crazy about that recording. Some of my favourite songs are probably the b-sides and obscurities like Maelstrom, 93 Million Miles From The Sun, Why Say Yeah, Scrawl & Scream - the songs that never that make the set! What else? These Times, The Other Jesus, The Birds, MM Abduction. I like most of them.


Q. How do you describe Swerve´s sounds?
It's all about power and melody I suppose. The songs might reach points of almost white noise in some parts but it's always layered over a strong tune.

Q. What´s your opinion about early shoegazing era? Do you feel Swerve´s are part of it?
Not really 'shoegazing', no but the whole era, of course. At the time there wasn't such a thing as a shoegazing era of course, because nobody had come up with a name for anything at that point - there was just a bunch of bands and everyone was doing their own thing whether it was Teenage Fanclub or Slowdive. There were a lot of great guitar bands coming out of the UK and the US - the more well known stuff like Sonic Youth or Spacemen 3 and then a lot of bands that made one record and then broke up and are now somewhat lost in the mists of time such as The Lavender Faction or The Loveblobs. I just think that in the late 80s/early 90s there were a lot of bands wanting to turn up the guitars and create something noisy and melodic.

Q. After break up, tell us about your projects: Toshack Highway and your solo albums?
In 1999 I recorded the Toshack Highway album which was me plugging keyboards into amps instead of guitars. I bought a Yamaha electric piano and an Italian Crumar synthesiser and started plugging them into my Vox AC30 and Marshall guitar amps and putting them through effects pedals just to see what would happen. The resulting album was half-instrumental and had a kind of 'soundtrack' vibe although Charlie Francis who recorded it with me immediately heard a late 70s Eno vibe which I hadn't picked up on. I'm really proud of that record! You should check out Harlem and Board The Bullet Train - someone said they thought the Lost In Translation soundtrack would have been even better if those songs had been on there.

I then moved to New York and there were some more releases under the name Toshack Highway which probably should have been released as 'Adam Franklin' records as they were more solo and lo-fi and sort of folky guitar affairs. Eventually people suggested I should release records under my own name and so in 2007 we finally released the first Adam Franklin album 'Bolts of Melody' but although my name was on the front it was very much a band record. This was followed in 2009 and 2010 by two more 'solo' albums Spent Bullets and I Could Sleep For A Thousand Years - the latest one is credited to Adam Franklin & Bolts of Melody because Bolts of Melody has become the name for the band. I have some great guys in New York and London that I play with on this stuff. Check out Ramonesland, Two Dollar Dress and I Want You Right Now.

Q. Whats the concept behind Magnetic Morning?
Magnetic Morning is a collaboration between myself and Sam Fogarino, the drummer in Interpol. We met in New York and just decided to record some music together, with no concept as such but simply to see where it would end up. Sam had some strong ideas that he'd written on keyboards or guitar, some of which was quite abstract and I helped turn them into songs. An overall sound emerged and I then wrote some songs specifically for that also. We released an EP in 2007 and an album 'AM' in 2008 and we were really pleased with how it turned out - the live band was great too. I'd recommend Cold War Kids, Don't Go To Dreamstate and Indian Summer.

Q. About Swerve´s return, what´s the feeling to play with the guys again?
Well it's been great! Swervedriver is still as fast and loud and heavy as it ever was and the band has been very warmly received after being away for a long time which is truly amazing.

Q. About the future, what´s your plans? New solo records, maybe a Swerve´s new album, play in Brazil one day....
Been working on the next Adam Franklin & Bolts of Melody album and it's gonna be pretty interesting I think as some of it actually started out with the intention of being a new Toshack Highway album, so there's more of that film soundtrack kind of sound mixed with rock'n'roll, I think. A new Swervedriver album? Maybe. But as far as Brazil is concerned - we'd love to! Where do we sign?

Q. Any parting words...
Thank you Renato - you have a great night!
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Thanks Adam!!!!

Swervedriver - Son of a Mustang For / Sandblasted

Ghost Riders with Moon Duo

Mazes é o nome do já clássico album lançado este ano pelo espetacular Moon Duo, Ripley Johnson do grande Wooden Shjips e Sanae Yamada formam esse cataclisma de psicodelia, experimentalismo e drone fincando suas matrizes em Suicide, Spacemen 3, Silver Apples e tudo que tem a ver com alucinações sensoriais em formato de canções, pegue a faixa de abertura Seer um transe a´la Spacemen 3 arrastado, climaticamente flutuando entre as parades de wall of sound a sequencia com a faixa titulo Mazes é um dos pontos altos do album, um bubblegum psicodelico, mas essa goma de mascar é puro vicio a linha de teclados e o vocal dão o apelo pop que o Moon Duo condensa sabiamente com sua excentricidade psicodelica, um deleite, mas é em When You Cut que o album atinge o status de masterpiece, Suicide fundido com 13th Floor Elevators e as palminhas evocam as girl groups, a guitarra incansavelmente grudenta é algo fora do padrão, When You Cut é isso e muito mais, Run Around é, como posso explicar, ah deixa para lá, é por essas e outras e cravo este Mazes como um dos grandes albuns do ano.

Moon Duo - Mazes

Sonic, Flower and Groove with Thunder Bunny

Christopher Padula é a mente que cria a desorientação plena e completa deste esquizofrenico Thunder Bunny, dissonancias, reverberações, psicodelismo, lo-fi, noise, muito Spacemen 3 e Spiritualized, jogue no caldeirão as excentricidades de Flaming Lips e Mercury Rev e esta feita a esbornia sonora do Thunder Bunny, tudo em clima altamente lo-fi, Christopher literalmente compõe uma massa sonora arrastada e propositalmente deleixada, o e que excita mais ainda a audição deste The Other Children of This Quickly Passing Winter só disponivel em versão digital. O Thunder Bunny, tem uma discografia dificilima cheia de 7" em varios labels, musicas aqui e ali, que se acontecer com você o que aconteceu com o TBTCI, ou seja eu mesmo, fodeu, você vai vascular a internet de cabo a rabo até saciar sua sede por Thunder Bunny, e digo novamente isso aqui vicia sem dó nem piedade.

Thunder Bunny - The Other Children of This Quickly Passing Winter