Last month, The Cars released the first video from of their upcoming reunion album to the song, Blue Tip, which gave fans a modernized twist on the band’s quintessentially ’80s
Think back to your early days of high school around the time you first got your drivers license. You and your friends probably had this mix tape. It was omnipotent.
Fang Island @ Bowery Ballroom, March 11
There’s a strange bifurcation when it comes to Fang Island. The Brooklyn-by-way-of-RISD band either immediately strikes a chord (more like a symphony) with its newcomers, or it simply doesn’t click.
Most likely, the former category contains some prerequisites like being a punk/prog rock fan; appreciating the flawless execution of an arpeggio; having played Dungeons & Dragons; and presumably, being male. There’s definitely a Revenge of the Nerds catharsis involved with loving Fang Island. They make people want to band together, let their guards down, and cut loose.
For those who don’t get into it, it’s simply, “eh, it’s not really my thing.” And it’s true, they are an acquired taste and if people don’t like them within the first 10 seconds, they probably aren’t going to.
On the other hand, for the converted, it’s not the least bit uncommon to hear instant declarations that Fang Island is the greatest band of all time. The band emotes such a level of visceral energy that makes people feel wired and good…and exaggerate. It doesn’t require a science degree to know that the music is so anthemic and climactic that it releases the juice that makes people happy. Simply put, the band is fucking fun.
READ ON for more from Ryan on Fang Island…
This oldie-but-goodie from Aziz Ansari is one of the funniest comedy bits in recent memory. Aziz loves to harass his Cinnabon-eating Will Smith-loving teenage cousin, Harris. In this segment –
It’s about time San Francisco disco party duo Sugar & Gold put together a proper video for their addictive hit from last year’s Get Wet! album. The group – which loans
To celebrate last night’s kickoff of a cross-county Mike Gordon Band tour that consists of a herculean 18 shows in 22 nights, we caught up with our favorite bass player on the planet to chat about the tour, his approach to all things techie and some amazing insights on Phish. You might want to brew a pot of coffee, because I think we caught Mike in a particularly good mood this time around. He really dives deep into some pretty interesting topics and philosophies.
[Photo by Joe Ringus]
Hidden Track: Why don’t we start off with the current tour. It seems as though a lot of thought goes into how you route the Mike Gordon Band’s tours. How involved are you in terms of determining where the band plays and the venues?
Mike Gordon: That’s funny, somebody on my hotline actually asked the same question: somewhat involved and somewhat not involved, mediumly involved.
Usually, the manager and the booking agent come with kind of a scheme, which is based on not going back too often to the same place if we had just been there, but also not forgetting it for too long before we go back. For example, last tour, we felt really good about the West Coast and we had some really good crowds, so we decided to hit it again, but not the same exact cities. We decided to hit some that are near the other ones, but different. The secondary markets as they say, but that makes it sound like we’re routing sugar cane. I never really liked that term, but that’s what the managers call them.
The problem is that there just isn’t enough time to play everywhere that we’d like to play and that people would like us to play. I end up going to a lot of places where I haven’t played in a while, because Phish played there in the early ’90s. On my last tour, I did that over and over again, and the places would say, “Why don’t you tell the Phish guys to play here,” and the answer usually is, “Well Phish is not going to play here, that’s why I am.” [laughs] Phish is looking for places that can fit as many people as would like to come, and that’s often certain ones in certain places. In the meantime, it’s really fun for me to get to visit some of these places I wouldn’t normally see.
- Previously on HT: Mike Gordon Extends Mound in Eugene, Interview – Mike Gordon’s Balancing Act
READ ON for more of Ryan’s chat with bassist Mike Gordon…
As Brooklyn’s The Ramblers gear up for a trek out to Austin for SXSW, they passed along an exclusive high quality recording of Don’t Hold Your Fire from a recent
After grinding away at it since forming over eight years ago with incessant touring and a steadily growing fan base, Baltimore’s The Bridge is poised to take it to the next level. And while it’s perhaps a bit ironic for a jamband, it’s an old-fashioned album release that has them elevating to the next tier of improvisational bands.
The band put all its chips in the middle of the table with its latest release, National Bohemian, by hiring former Los Lobos sax-man Steve Berlin to produce; orchestrating a well-coordinated tour of both headlining and support roles (Tea Leaf Green and Galactic); and promoting the music with a professional video and proper publicity push. It’s exciting to see an up-and-coming jamband put so much energy into a record release, so we caught up with guitarist/vocal Cris Jacobs to hear more about the recent developments.
Hidden Track: To get started, I think it’s interesting to hear how bands characterize each others personalities. How would you describe the dynamic of the friendships in the band? Who are the goofballs?
Cris Jacobs: It’s a very brotherly type of relationship. We all thrive on being able to bust each others balls whenever possible. There’s literally no mercy. It’s like “Oh really! Nice shirt there Liberace!” Basically everything that anyone says, does, or wears is under constant scrutiny and is fair game for everyone to jump on and make fun of until the person has their soul beaten to a pulp and they have no self-esteem left. All in good fun of course. But seriously, we really do love each other and get along pretty damn well for six guys in such close conditions day in and day out. Even if the mere sound of someones voice is like nails on a chalkboard first thing in the morning and we bicker over stupid shit out of frustration or just plain road-irritability, I’d say we’d all jump in front of a bus for each other. We’re a very close group, we have a lot of fun, no one is an outsider or a loner really.
We all have our different personalities for sure. As far as who the goofballs are, what time is it? Who decided to have a drunk night? Any given minute it can be any of us and we all have our goofy tendencies, but I’d have to say all around, Patrick. He’s the wide-eyed wonder. And Kenny, one of the most unique personalities I’ve ever come across. And for the first and last 15 minutes of a van ride Dave has the hyperactivity of a 5 year old after too much sugar. We don’t quite know why it only happens during those times, but its quite a consistent and amazing phenomena.
READ ON for more of Ryan’s chat with Cris of The Bridge…
J Mascis is a character. Despite being known as a blisteringly loud guitarist on stage, he’s remarkably soft-spoken in conversation and is notoriously curt. In fact, he once commented that he doesn’t like interviews, because “most of them are boring.” Having been a part of the music industry for almost 30 years and enduring an infamously tumultuous ride since starting Dinosaur Jr. in 1983, it’s no surprise he might be a little jaded, but he’s awesomely jaded. It’s hard to decipher if it’s a persona or a mask, but he’s a true anti-hero, almost like a rock star version of Ignatius J. Reilly from Confederacy of Dunces: an antisocial cult hero genius, disdainful toward popular culture.
Ironically, in March, J. will release his most accessible release since Dinosaur Jr.’s Without a Sound in 1994 with his solo album, Several Shades of Why. While a number of his different projects over the years have essentially been J. Mascis solo efforts – like Dinosaur’s major label albums of the 1990’s and two J. Mascis and the Fog albums – this is his first true solo project in name. Stripped down of drums and electric guitars, and based almost entirely on acoustic singer-songwriter fare, Several Shades of Why is an entirely listenable and moving album. He does receive some support from big hired guns like Ben Bridwell of Band of Horses and Kevin Drew from Broken Social Scene, but this is J. at his most intimate.
Hidden Track: I saw it mentioned that the idea for the new album came about around ten years ago with Megan from Sub Pop. I was curious, what did you play her back then that planted the seed?
J Mascis: Oh, I just played some solo shows in Seattle. I probably played three or four times, and she was really into those shows.
HT: And the idea for going all acoustic, that’s a little different for you. Could you talk a bit about how you came to decide on doing an almost purely acoustic, mellow project for Several Shades of Why?
JM: Yeah, I just wanted to make it sound different than everything else. I like having some limitations to work with. I decided not to have any drums or play any electric guitar. So, that really moves everything in a certain direction. By putting that stuff in, I’d tend to do the same thing and everything would sound similar to everything else I’ve done.
READ ON for more of Ryan’s chat with J. Mascis…
Maybe it’s the easy story that Could Nothings is the project of a 19 year-old college drop out, or maybe it’s just catchy music, but the band has quickly become
