To Hell and Back.

Hello loyal friends and followers. We know how much you have missed us and longed for our return. Well, wipe away those tears cause we are working our way back and will soon be there to guide you through every thing that is cool again.

Life has kicked our asses a bunch this past year, but Nataly and I are hopping back on the vegan saddle to bring you what you so desire. We can’t be held down!

Bear with us as we get our shit together, and we will be bringing you plenty of content shortly.

Love and grease,

Andrea

The Dead Weather’s Sea of Cowards Out Tomorrow

Sea of Cowards is not a neat little package of an album. In fact it seems to be pulling at the threads left by The Dead Weather’s debut album Horehound, but this only makes it that much more appealing. Jack White and his second super group manage to take their mad scientist approach to blues-rock a step further in this album. Sea of Cowards doesn’t house radio hits or sentimental sing-a-longs, but it manages to contain a shit ton of attitude, frustration and unedited in your face rock’n’roll.

Alison Mosshart (VV of The Kills) sounds more at home in this album. “The Difference Between Us” fits her like a black leather fingerless glove. She then pushes the boundaries with no apologies in “Gasoline.” Mosshart and White share the floor each respectfully out for blood.

Not to be over looked is Queens of the Stone Age’s own, Dean Fertita (also toured with The Raconteurs) who’s guitar and keyboards set the tone for the albums ménage-a-trois of pop, blues and psycadellic rock.

This is definitely the darkest and most raw of White’s recent projects. For some it may feel unfinished and self-indulgent. To others it will feel honest, dirty and daring. It all depends on if  you like your music shaken or stirred.

Sea of Cowards will be released tomorrow (May 11, 2010).

Dance Dance Dance…Delorean’s Subiza

Upon first listen of Delorean’s album Subiza, which is available on Itunes for digital download due to popular request, I was having a tough time figuring out what I was listening to. After listening to a few tracks, I decided to not worry about how I was going to label it and just to pay attention to the sound of it, and what made it so hypnotically catchy and yet still unique. Was it the steady beat that seemed to pound in every song, inviting even the most timid head to bob despite whom may be watching? At no point during the album’s 42 minutes was I overpowered by the choruses or disappointed by the bridges, which can be misplaced or out of place entirely in electronic music. The album had a constant, deliberate pace, but broke out of formation every now and then with playful grooves like “Simple Graces” and “Come Wander”. It managed to stay cohesive though, with the deep thump of the bass and kick running like a backbone through each song. I particularly enjoyed the finisher track, “Its All Ours”. It opens with a hypnotic jungle beat, which breaks into a bright verse. I don’t mean to sound cheesy, but I’m going to anyway- it sounds like a sunrise. Although I was overall impressed and intrigued by the album, I felt the vocals were a bit over-compressed and too heavy on the reverb during some songs. How many electronic songs can you listen to before the drums start to sound the same and each song just kind of runs into the next? For me, it doesn’t take that many, so keeping me interested is commendable. Each song had a distinct sound and feel though. More importantly, each song sounded like a Delorean song, not like 4 minutes of mindless drum and synth loops.

This record is not a far cry sonically from Aryton Senna. The 2009 E.P. sounds like the prologue to a fantastic daydream, but the band wasn’t entirely happy with it musically according to a recent XLR8R interview. The band wanted to expand from their roots in disco-punk or whatever-you-want-to-call-it and focus on the electronic aspect of their music, since the club music scene is also a large influence. Hence, Subiza is the result not of a band changing direction , but rather exploring and uncovering the hidden paths and altering and personalizing the obvious ones.

-Tehuti

Creeps, Perverts and Weirdos: Creepoid!

Although I had not heard of them until hours before I went to interview them, Creepoid was worth the time and gas. I went to their Manayunk home/rehearsal space to catch up with the creeps and hear them play some tunes. I was impressed by their professional sound and the amount of weed consumed in one hour. Creepoid will be playing a show this Sat 4/17 with Kurt Vile at Beautiful World Syndicate. Should be an awesome show!

HEFF: So tell me a little bit about the band. To be honest I had’nt really heard of

you guys until very recently.

P: Well, Anna and I are married and we are in another band called The G. Pete used to play in it too and he ended up leaving the band. There was a really bad snowstorm this year where we were stuck inside for a couple days and Sean slept over and got real drunk and we had this 1956 reel to reel tape machine and we recorded some songs as like a two-piece and then Anna joined in and Pete after that. We recorded this 7” EP that we just released at our first show last week.

HEFF: Brand spankin’ new! The name, Creepoid?

P: Um… well I mean he’s a pervert (points to Petejoe) and he’s a weirdo (points to Sean) so, like we just figured Creepoid.

HEFF: It works. Very literal.

P: Everybody used to call Petejoe, like all the girls in Austin, called him Creepjoe

HEFF: So, what do you do that is particularly creepy or pervy?

S: You’ll find out (laughs).

P: In high school he used to ask girls out and then drive to an industrial park and be like, “so what’s up?” and just park. And even if they just hung out and talked he is still that creepy guy who took them to the industrial park.

HEFF: Do you have anything to say in your defense?

PJ: I am not denying… I’m just saying the details may have been altered.

A: Slightly.

PJ: I am really not that creepy!

P: It was a long time ago. That’s why we can joke about it.

HEFF: Directed to Sean: So they said you’re creepy too?

P: No No No just a weirdo!

HEFF: My bad. A weirdo.

S: See you don’t have to be worried about me. I am just weird.

A: Well you have to be a little worried.

S: Nah. I don’t know how I am weird. Of course I don’t. If I did I wouldn’t do it.

P: He has a weird collection of photos… animal books. You know he is like in his mid-twenties.

HEFF: Like children’s books?

**They all begin disputing whether or not they are children’s books.

P: He is just a weird dude. Like he was always in those advanced classes in high school.

HEFF: So he is smart?

P: Uh yeah.

A: Sean is weird because everyday at dinner time we go “Sean do you want some dinner?” And he goes, “Nah….well ALRIGHT!” Then we’ll all be eating and he’ll come up and take a little plate and be like, “Is this cool, is this cool?”

HEFF: So, so far you are smart and polite and like animals (laughs)?

PJ: (Laughs) It’s the worst!

S: Oh and I wear glasses!

P: And he plays bass with his fingers… weird!

All: (Laugh)

HEFF: Creepy! What do you label your sound as?

P: We think of a really cool part of a song and then try to play it as slooooow as we can. Slower than as slow as we can and it still comes out…

A: It’s pretty fast.

PJ: Plus it’s easy to grasp the idea of something if it’s slowed down anyway… No matter what we did with computers we always started with these reel to reels that he said.

P: So, I don’t know what those kids in California… like the garage, bedroom pop or whatever the fuck they are calling it now but like we do it with old ass tape machines in dirty basements in the east coast.

PJ: The tapes themselves are old tapes that had been previously recorded on.

P: Like old Christmas music.

PJ: The more you record on a tape… it lessens the quality of it.

A: Everything is supposed to be dirtier.

PJ: We were really careful about how we used the tape that was available first.

P: I wouldn’t say we go out of our way to sound dirty it’s just been shown to us in a way that works well.

HEFF: Cheap and efficient. But it worked out and sounds cool.

P/PJ: Right… yeah.

HEFF: So, say you got signed by a label and they wanted you to make a real recording that didn’t sound so lo-fi, would you do it?

P: We would be so happy because we wouldn’t be paying for it!

PJ: I would like just not have to pay for such an expensive hobby.

P: I would love to mass-produce our music. You know, this has only been our first 7” and we sold out of the test presses, all thirty of them. We just got 300 in the mail and those are already starting to go. It’s all moving so fast. I’d really like to have a label pick it up so they could be like “yo, lets do a whole record of all the singles you have.” They are all home recorded and then from there I would look into going into the studio. I’ll take what I can get.

PJ: Even if we just continued ourselves, and then they paid for the tour.

P: Well touring is kind of a problem because Anna is a college professor at two different schools in the city and Sean has a good job… a real job (graphic designer) and I am a private contractor.

HEFF: How do you guys write the songs?

P: It is collaborative. We do everything together since the band has been a band but the original couple songs on the EP… when Sean was in his louder, more aggressive, guitar rock, noise rock band he would eat mushrooms and lock himself in his bedroom and record songs by himself…

HEFF: Maybe this is why you’re weird?

P: (Laughs) Yeah! But those actually became the really good like hooks and changes on the EP. I am excited to see how the new stuff will turn out. So it’s cool when you have even more people doing mushrooms!

HEFF: What do you guys think if the Philly music scene?

P: It’s so all over the place right now and everyone is in their own little world and especially still being in our other band The G. We play so many different shows. We’ll play at The Ox or something like that and then Kung Fu Necktie. Two weeks ago we played a show at the Barbary with Best Coast and it was sold out but a couple days before that The G played a sold out show with Love Is All and Japandroids. So, it’s like we are still playing the same shows but a little different.

HEFF: Is The G similar sounding?

P: It’s like a complete Sonic Youth worship band.

PJ: It is not to be confused with like a side project though.

P: But the Philly scene is awesome. I know I like that band Far-Out Fangtooth.

HEFF: What are you guys listening to now?

S: Reigning Sound.

PJ: I’ve been listening to Heavy Hands LP.

P: The Strange Boys. They’re friends of ours from Austin but I just picked up their LP. They are a really great band. I’m psyched they are touring with Spoon and shit… Dinosaur Jr. is always on the turntable. I just got a Nintendo…two Nintendo top loaders at a thrift store. It was twenty-five bucks, came with the power glove and 38 games. It’s the shit. Lately, before I go to work and climb on scary roofs and shit I’ll take a bong rip and play Nintendo and listen to Dinosaur Jr. Mario three… I still can’t beat that fucking thing.

HEFF: You could upgrade to a Wii.

S: Oh no, too many buttons.

P: No, we play horseshoes outside.

HEFF: Outdoor kids. What do you guys think of the term Hipster?

PJ: My grandmother told me I was (0ne) a couple years ago. But this was the same lady that wouldn’t let me inside of her house on my sixteenth birthday because I had a Dead Kennedys shirt on and she was like, “that’s a disgrace to our Irish heritage.” She freaked the fuck out and kicked me out.

A: That is such a hipster thing to say. You are such a hipster (laughs).

HEFF: Generally negative feelings toward the term then?

A: (Totally joking) Well I lived in Brooklyn so like yeah. I think everyone doesn’t want to say they’re a hipster but then at the same time doesn’t want other people to NOT think of them as a hipster.

PJ: My drug dealer from Austin, used to call me a hipster. He was like well you’re always downtown and you’re always doing shit. What the fuck does that mean, man? I work downtown!

Friend of Band: Do you like how they never actually answer your questions?

HEFF: It’s true but it’s okay.

Another Friend: I always think about how on Seinfeld, Elaine called Kramer a hipster doofus and I don’t want to be that guy!

P: It is a problem if you are perpetually a hipster.

S: You can only be a hipster for a certain amount of time.

A: We are leaving that time. On our way out.

P: You know how I know I am getting old? I no longer own any His Hero Is Gone records…

A: And you don’t drink 40s anymore.

P: Yeah I don’t drink those anymore. I drink New Castle. It’s my jam! And since I’ve gotten older I don’t collect noise tapes any more.

A: Yes you do! What are you talking about?

P: (Laughs) Eh whatever.

HEFF: So then you’re not that old yet.

A: He just turned 27.

P: Yeah my birthday was yesterday.

HEFF: Happy Birthday!

All: No! It was Monday.

P: I don’t remember!

A: Getting old.

HEFF: Then I retract my Happy Birthday.

PJ: Ohhh retracted.

HEFF: Any last words?

S: Well I am curious. Is it safe to say you haven’t really heard us?

HEFF: Oh no I have… But like a few hours before I came here. I liked what I heard though!

P: Tell everyone to come to our show! Tell them to check out Phonographic Arts, shop at Beautiful World Syndicate and try to get the new Creepoid record, Yellow Life Giver and we’ll have a new tape and or 7” out soon! We will be heading out on tour at the end of May, East Coast tour with Sore Eros from Boston.

HEFF: Anything else?

P: Smoke weed everyday.

Hockey Brings Me Sunshine

Hockey, the four piece band hailing from Portland, Oregon, is nothing short of being the quintessential hipster band of 2010. The hype surrounding them is thick and rightfully so. Hipsters Eat For Free has been trying to get a hold of Hockey since they were last in Philadelphia and when we finally did it brought sunshine to my rainy day, unfortunately only metaphorically.

Although singer Ben Grubin and I were worlds away from each other (he was in London) we each were feeling the bitter chill, relentless winds and icy rain; him more so than me. I spoke with the front man of Hockey while he wandered around London in the rain. “How’s the weather there?” “It’s freezing rain and stuff. I’m walking with literally my entire family. My sister just got married and moved here. I am walking to the tube, but I should have a few minutes before I have to go down into it.” While I was comfortable at my desk, I could hear the drops of rain and the distant conversations of the people around him as Ben and I chatted about his music.

Hockey is a prime example of an indie band. They produced Mind Chaos on their own and walked away from a deal with Columbia records. “We were just a two piece then…It was way too tense trying to write singles with producers. It just wasn’t cool.” Ben reveals that rejecting Columbia was mostly due to the fact that they lacked the confidence as a band and simply were “not ready for anything.” While most bands in the same place as Hockey would have jumped at the chance to belong to Columbia, Ben realized they just weren’t good enough yet… yet.

That’s when Ben and Jeremy (Jerm) Reynolds decided they needed some additions to the band in order to make the music they were striving to make. Drummer, Anthony Stassi, and guitarist, Brian White, were the missing ingredients for success. The new members added to their sound and provided the lacking confidence. But Columbia was still out of the picture.

Instead, the colorful quartet wrote and self-produced Mind Chaos. No big shots telling them what’s what and all the control in their hands. “It was a cool and simple process. It was good for us at that time. We could do what we wanted, control the board.” From the short ten minutes I spoke with Ben Grubin I got the vague impression that he is a perfectionist, which is a great thing to be when making music and an even better thing when you have all the say.

Grubin did most of the writing for Mind Chaos. “Others added, we arranged it together, added solos etc” Hockey is in the very beginning stages of creating a new album, Grubin tells me. They only have two new songs so far but that is enough to get the storm going. This is one storm I can’t wait to weather. With the added members of Hockey the writing process has become more collaborative; hopefully we can expect a new and exciting sound from their album in the distant future.

Hockey, although it has its own unique sound, has been compared to bands like MGMT and The Strokes. In the music world it is nearly impossible to break free from being compared to someone else. “It doesn’t bother me. It’s inevitable and there is some truth in it. It puts music on the map…Where music is right now everyone is a combination of past and present. I’d like to escape it but I don’t think we’ve done that yet.” I see the likeness in musicality between Hockey and other indie dance bands out there today, but their intellectual take on dance/pop music is what will distinguish them from the others.

Most of the tracks on Mind Chaos have the killer combination of infectious dance beats and witty, thoughtful lyrics. These are songs you can listen to while dancing at The Barbary or at home while writing a blog post. I asked Ben one final question as his family urged him to get a move on, “What do you want listeners to take away from Mind Chaos?” “A dynamic ride and lyrics… Whatever I can do I’ll do it.” And I like what he is doing. As Gruibin descended to the tube, I turned up the volume to “Curse This City” and danced the storm away.

Constantly On the Verge: Philly Rock ‘N’ Roll (Part 1)

Since the invention of rock-n-roll, certain regions of the country have added their own unique flavor to the mix. Cities within these regions have fostered their own rock culture and acts that reveled in it. Philadelphia is no exception, but seems to stand like a volcano looming in the distance; it could erupt at any time and should be feared and respected, but has mostly lain dormant. This is a city that is almost there, seemingly permanently.

You can’t talk about rock without mentioning its heritage. Macon, Georgia gave us Little Richard and Memphis gave us Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis. St. Louis was the home of Chuck Berry. The fusing of southern blues, country, and gospel created the foundations of what all rock music is based on.

Over a short period of time, the acts and regions started to influence one another. Picturesque southern California created pleasant surf/car/girl-loving music like, The Beach Boys and also the reverb work of Dick Dale. During the 50s and 60s, Michigan’s booming industry was fertile ground for music as well, with early pioneers like Hank Ballard and The Midnighters along with Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels. Later in the 60s, a revolutionary band called The Stooges emerged from Ann Arbor, taking rock in a new direction. In the 1970s, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s southern rock made its mark, particularly in the modern karaoke scene. Then, of course, there is the omnipresent New York City, which needs no introduction.

Sometime between the late 70s and the early 80s is when things really started to change. Rock acts were evolving and diverging, some staying in the time-tested mainstream while others embraced the obscure. Cities like Nashville hung on while others, like Detroit, seemed to crumble in the industry. New York remained omnipresent. Glam and hair rockers like Guns-N-Roses dominated airwaves from Los Angeles and rose to super stardom. At the same time, Boston was nursing a burgeoning underground with The Pixies and Mission of Burma. The Dead Kennedys came out of San Francisco in 1979 in response to the hippie fervor of the previous decades and bands like Jefferson Starship and The Grateful Dead. In the late 80s and into the early 90s, music turned upside down. The underground became the popular and the stage was set in Washington State. Nirvana, Soundgarden, and even Sunny Day Real Estate blossomed in Seattle, the home of Jimi Hendrix.

Yes, the art of rock-n-roll has a long tradition of evolution created from the spliced genes of the cities that adopted it. Chicago, Austin, Portland, and D.C. were all there. New York, still, remains omnipresent. But what about Philly?

To Be Continued…

Post By: Patrick Neiderriter

Kill Me In My Face!

When Kill You in the Face contacted us here at Hipsters Eat For Free to see if we could help promote their huge upcoming show, I jumped at the chance to sit down and chat with these fine fellows. With a name like Kill You in the Face, I was awaiting some sick ass stories about fights, rage and drugs but those things were not in their agenda. Instead Mike Romeo (guitar), Alejandro Torres (drums) and James Saul (keyboard) let me see what normal, down to earth guys they really are. I was amazed at how connected they all seemed to each other, finishing each others sentences, laughing simultaneously or even saying the exact same thing at the exact same time! Like, Siamese twins.

Of course we talked about their show this Sunday night at Kung Fu Necktie with Twin Thousands and what a huge deal it is that Gretta Cohn formally from Cursive, is in Twin Thousands but we also talked about my favorite three things; music, hipsters and Philly. I met up with them at their practice/living space in South Philly. Nelson, their feline friend made himself comfortable on my lap and we got started.

HEFF: Can you guys tell me a little bit about your creative process?

MR: It’s mostly really pretty collaborative. Like someone will start playing a riff and someone else will embellish upon it and someone else will be like oh that’s pretty cool.

HEFF: And where do they lyrics come from?

MR: Lyrics always come last. We kind of work the lyrics around the music. I know a lot a lot a lot of other people do it the other way… cause we have parts of a story that we are telling and we sort of fit chunks in where we can.

HEFF: What are you guys in the process of now?

MR: Now we are starting to plan spring and summer. We’ve got a big show in a couple of weeks. In March we’ll be in Danger Danger (Gallery). We are going to try to do some regional shows.

AT: A lot of new songs too.

MR: We just recorded a song for the label we are on Punk Rock Payroll. They are putting out a comp and we recoded a new song for that and then we are going to have like some B sides and one of the songs from Mighty Atlas on there.

HEFF: Any possibility for a full length coming out sometime soon?

MR: That’s what we’re working on.

AT: We have about six or seven new songs so far. We are constantly working on new stuff. We have a lot of ideas for some new songs. But we are all really pushing for a release regardless. I feel like most likely it will happen no matter what.

HEFF: Is there a time frame?

JS: No, not really. Plus, we also want to work on the stuff a little more and make sure it’s really good.

MR: And figure out the packaging (laughs)!

HEFF: I am excited for the next great packaging idea. (They give me The Mighty Atlas ray gun.) Did you make these yourself?

MR: Yeah. We make them here.

HEFF: How did you decided to make the ray guns?

MR: Um how did we? Oh! Alright. Pretty much we were thinking a lot about how we wanted to do the release because we did the split and that was the board game and The Extraodinaires area always doing their books. So we thought okay how are we going to do this? And with this story that we are telling we started kicking around the idea that it would be cool to start like vinyl toys and try to sell them at the merch table and just do something collectible like that. And that started to morph into well what if the toys were the album and then it just rollercoastered from there.

HEFF: I assume this is coasting you a lot of money to make?

MR: Yeah (laughs). I mean we don’t have as good of a profit margin as most other bands but I mean it becomes worth it.

JS: I feel like it’s really unique and awesome. I can’t believe it happened.

AT: To see the faces of the happy people.

MR: Like when we go to a town we have never really been to before and we set up merch and we play and people wonder over and they’re like “ Well what the fuck is that?”

HEFF: I know that The Mighty Atlas has a story that it portrays. Will the new album follow suit?

MR: It’s going to be the same. Everything we do is just sort of pieces of a bigger story. Should we go into the story?

HEFF: Yeah!

MR: Well the title The Mighty Atlas is about our main character, Atlas. This is set in the semi-near future. Basically it’s a unified earth, but we’re invaded by alien forces and Atlas is a turncoat and his son is basically the leader of the earth rebellion. They come down and blind sight us and they win. Humans are in camps and there’s a revolution and stuff like that. You know there are some of those themes on the EP here but I think the full length and a lot f the songs we are doing are really focusing on Atlas’ past, his failures, his victories, his woman, Helena.

AT: Pretty epic.

JS: We haven’t written any lyrics for the songs yet we just know what the story is going to be about even though we just have the music now. It totally feels right.

AT: The first song will be the song from the compilation.

HEFF: I like the way you guys seem so in tune with each other.

MR: We do. We work really well, for the most part. You know there are rough days. Like we’ll start working and I’ll be crabby and short with Adam or we’ll start practicing and Ale will come out of the room be like “let’s get this shit over with.” You know but it is what it is. For the most part we have a good dynamic and a good balance.

HEFF: Where did you get the name for your main character?

MR: The Greek mythology. I read somewhere that a common misconception is that Atlas is holding up the earth, which is what I thought but it turns out he’s actually holding up the sky. That’s his punishment from Zeus for rebelling. Then when we started really hashing out this idea, that came up. And that it would be kind of cool if Atlas was our character because now he is that separation between the aliens (the sky) and the people of earth (the earth).

HEFF: Do you guys ever write about life experiences?

AT: I think it definitely reflects on our stories. We try to be as emotional as we can you know to sort of evoke the emotion of whoever we are talking about in the story.

HEFF: You guys are fairly new in the grand scheme of things. How are you planning on defining your sound?

JS: I feel like it’s coming out a lot in these new songs, just the way we are playing.

MR: And I think that’ll be the definition of our sound, that we don’t always necessarily fall into a sound. If we start writing a song and it’s a little bit heavier and has breakdowns, we’ll do that. Or like the song we just recorded is super poppy, like very Reggie and the Full Effects. But it doesn’t matter. We would never stop ourselves and be like “no that’s too this or it’s not that enough.

AT: And it’s funny because I wish that people could hear the other stuff we’re working on. It’s so different, so much heavier…

JS: It’s still cohesive. Like we are starting to think of some order of like what’s happening on the full length. It’s good the way that the songs, they do have all these different kind of feels to them in some way but they are also together. Like it sounds like we’re writing an album and it’s really cool.

HEFF: So, you mentioned that you all have different musical backgrounds. What are they?

MR: I grew up on a lot of punk and hardcore.

HEFF: There is a lot of clear hardcore influence.

MR: Yeah, like when I grew up there was a lot of bands with breakdowns and a lot of heavier stuff and then I leaned a little more on the punk side of things where I feel like you (AT) were more metal minded.

AT: (laughs) I love heavy metal. Death metal.

JS: I like heavy metal too. Like, Iron Maiden. I love Iron Maiden. We all kind of like brutal music and break down kind of stuff. We definitely all have a love for breakdowns.

HEFF: It is definitely evident in your music

MR: And even beyond that when we started to get a little older we started falling more into Cursive …

AT: The early Emo.

MR: Built to Spill.

JS: D.C. hardcore.

MR: Q and Not U

JS: Rites of Spring

Simultaneously: Fugazi!

JS: Oh and I’m obsessed with the new Beach House Album

AT: I love dance music. Pop Dance

JS: Michael Jackson

HEFF: In every interview and article I read about you guys they mention your somewhat misleading name.

MR: We actually got a really shitty review one time because our name was misleading.

JS: The late Steve Wells. He said that our name should be Mouse Cock (laughs).

MR: Or Fussy Eaters. That was another one.

JS: Or Three of Us Wear Glasses.

MR: If you look on Philly Weekly.com, it’s on there.  We got like a really good article in the Weekly and then a week later we got this other one. Same publication. The dude was so pissed off.

HEFF: How do you guys take bad reviews?

MR: That one was a little rough. We remember it really well. But that was the first really bad one. But afterwards it was more funny than anything. And I would like to start a side project called Mouse Cock.

HEFF: I would support that.

MR: But Steven Wells, goddamn him (laughs).

HEFF: What do you guys think of the Hipster lifestyle that has kind of taken over the world right now?

AT: Some would say we are hipsters.

MR: I Don’t know. I don’t feel particularly hip (laughs).

JS: Why can’t I just like records and record shopping?

MR: Well, you know as far as like the term hipster, I think it’s, I don’t know I think it’s a little funnier than it is actually serious.

AT: It sort of alienates you a little bit. You know? I feel like I can get down in all different sorts of situations.

JS: Yeah you don’t want to be pretentious.

MR: I mean I am pretty snarky but…

AT: People are judgmental by nature. It’s just the way it goes.

MR: If you are okay with that then you are a hipster.

HEFF: And if you wear tight jeans.

MR: My jeans are moderately fitted… and I am wearing this hoodie sweatshirt (laughs) But I don’t wear neckerchiefs!

HEFF: Then maybe you’re not a hipster.

MR: well, to old people I am.

AT: I eat meat!

HEFF: That’s a big no-no if you want to be a hipster.

JS: I am vegan.

MIKE: Me too.

HEFF: Me too.

MR: Hipsters unite (laughs)!

HEFF: So are you guys super excited to play with… (Twin Thousands)

AT: YES!

MR: Oh my god yeah!

JS: Dude!

MR: It’s really crazy. I feel like whenever I talk about it I am on the verge of gushing and I don’t want to be. I want to be cool and collected about it but I am really excited about it.

AT: I’m mainly concerned with hammering out the songs and just being very tight. I can’t wait to practice tonight.

JS: It’s going to be great!

AT: It’s going to be a great show.

HEFF: How did you come in contact with Twin Thousands?

MR: Frede at the label had been in touch with Steven from Kung Fu Necktie and he was like “yo, we need another band.” And Frede said, “We got one.” And then I got a text message at work: “What are you doing the 28^th?” And I was like “uh I don’t know, something I guess” and then he told us. I am just really excited because you know Greta from Cursive. She played on the Ugly Organ and that album was such a big deal when it came out.

AT: And Twin Thousands are really good.

MR: I was almost expecting like person was in big band and now they are in mediocre band but they’re really good and that makes me nervous… There are always a certain amount of nerves I feel like when we play; the ride to shows, in the van are always a little quite (laughs).

HEFF: Is there anything you guys do before a show to calm yourselves down?

MR: Nah. We pretty much just get there and inquire about drink tickets.

AT: Right before you play it’s pretty intense. People are looking at you, everyone is waiting for you.

MR: Everyone is waiting for you with their arms crossed.

AT: but it doesn’t out weight the feeling that you get. It’s such a great feeling to play.

HEFF: You are the first band I’ve interviewed to admit that you get nervous when you play.

MR: I think anyone who says they don’t is either full of shit or they don’t really care about what they’re doing. I feel like what makes me nervous is just the fact that we are going up there and doing something that we put so much work into and so much of ourselves into.

HEFF: What do you guys think of the Philly music scene and the fans? Is there a special connection?

AT: I feel like you have to make a full connection with the fans in Philly.

MR: It’s a rollercoaster… I feel like Philly is a tough town. The people who come out to shows I feel are a little harder to impress and even if you do impress them I feel like it’s a little harder for them to…

AT: Get used to you.

MR: And be like good show or like uncross their arms. The best part of Philly music is the smaller shows. Like, JR’s Bar and Danger Danger and basements. Even at the R5 level it’s harder for people to warm up to you. But as far as all the other bands in Philly, everyone is so cool… There was a pretty big pop in the Philly music scene and then it sort of fizzled out really quickly. But I realty really think as a city, as a scene we’ve got a fighting chance we just have to be less compartmentalized…

Adam Plante, the bassist enters.

MR: Boy did we slander you (laughs)!

Hometown Hero Kurt Vile.

So Nataly and I are a little sadistic (as you know) and we sent out our brand spankin new writer, Dan Newman to a show at The Barbary. A show of two bands he had never heard of in his entire life. A hardcore show none the less. We told him to cover the show, get an interview and take some photos. What better way to get the young ones started? He did it all. Yay Dan!

When I showed up to see Kurt Vile and Fucked Up at The Barbary, I didn’t know what to expect. I was approached by HEFF and jumped at the opportunity. This was my first assignment and I was a bit nervous. I slowly filtered into the club along with the crowd from the sidewalk. I made nervous chatter with a random person in front of me, trying desperately not to look as if I just heard the names “Kurt Vile” and “Fucked Up” yesterday. I sat shyly in the back, doodling in my notebook, waiting for the show to start or for the oddly uncomfortable bench I was sitting on to swallow me whole. However, before that could happen, Kurt began tuning his guitars and I pushed my way front and center to get a better look.

You know how some people seem to have an aura around them? Kurt Vile is one of those people. Although not much taller than me, he seemed to loom like a giant over the crowd, his face rarely peeking out from a thick, messy mane of hair. A gruff, throaty voice checked the mic a few times, not quite content with the echo and reverb. Suddenly satisfied, Kurt began finger-picking his twelve string guitar, and his raspy voice cut through the notes like a ray of sun through fog; in this case audible but lingering. Sadly, I never got a chance to obtain a set list, so I can’t share with you what song he opened with, or closed with, but I can tell you that for about an hour, Kurt Vile wore his heart on his sleeve and shared it with a lackadaisical but interested crowd. His songs were drenched in a bucket of blues, poured into our ears and hung out to dry before our eyes. Everyone seemed to be enjoying it, but there wasn’t much movement, which was to be expected based on the mellow, almost melancholy, mood. The untrained eye would wonder if the audience was bored, but it was quite the contrary. I was lucky enough at the end of his performance to steal a quick picture of that ever-elusive face, which seems always to be hidden behind that lion mane of brown hair.

After Kurt left the audience mellowed and happily sedated, Fucked Up dosed us with some musical-cocaine. I had prepared myself to be dodging fists and reckless moshers, and was wondering how I was going to constantly be on my guard while absorbing the show at the same time. All of that prepping was in vain, though. I didn’t have to dodge a single fist or reckless mosher. Actually, I can sum up the entire Fucked Up set in one word… Unity. The crowd and the band were united, and it was beautiful. Damian Abraham, the lead singer, interacted with the crowd, cracked jokes and barreled through the crowd during one song. He was eager to share a story before each song, which gave me the nostalgic tingling of hairs standing up on my arms. This was music with purpose, these were audio samples of their every day struggles, not just songs thrown together in a few days for a label contract or some cliché emotional bandwagon. There were so many sing-alongs (they just never get old,) that I lost count, at least one per song. Damian was kind enough to tell the crowd the lyrics beforehand so they could participate if they didn’t know them (like me.) He even ended up on the bar for part of the set. A highlight of the performance was the crowd participation during “Crusades”. My camera phone sucks in the dark, but Damian was a great sport and took a picture with me. One lyric kept returning to me during the show, from “Pit of Equality” by Ten Yard Fight: “WE’RE ALL FRIENDS IN THE PIT TONIGHT”.

I was also fortunate enough to get five minutes with Kurt, despite the fact that the bar opened and I didn’t have an ID. I figured my baby face was going to be a problem, but the door guy was real cool about letting me stick around for a few minutes even though he clearly wanted me to go for fear of his job. Thanks, Kurt, and thank you random-door-guy.

Philadelphia sounds excited to have you back in town. How do you feel to be back?

I feel good…I’ve been on tour this time around with just my buddy Rob, who’s keeping me company. We were born on the same day, and we’re both kind of…wild people…so we’re a little tired. It’s good to be back, even just for a day.But yeah its nice to come home in the middle of the tour as opposed to coming home at the end. Today I slept until about 4, we played Baltimore last night and I just drove straight home, man. Woke up in my own bed.

Nice, that must have felt good.

Yup, felt real good.

I read that you were recently signed to Matador records, which was your first choice anyway. What are your new goals?

My goals I guess are relatively the same. I got all the business out of the way, at least for now, so it’s just keep moving forward and putting stuff out. You know we’re about to start on a new record, just keep doing it you know?

What direction do you see your new music going? Psyche stuff like “Blackberry Song”, or more rocking like “Monkey”?

Yeah, I mean there’s always pyschedelic undertones. I don’t see it going too far-out. Yeah, if you like “Blackberry Song”, going in that acoustic direction for the next record, sort of. You know, flesh it out a little, bring in the band. For the next record I don’t really have any like “Freak Trains” or “Hunchbacks”. Just kind of the prettier stuff, I’m going to see how far we can take that for the next record, you know? Just flesh out the pretty shit. Start with the acoustic shit and just take it out there.

Did you ever find that Neil Young album you’ve been coveting?

Yeah I did! I got three copies of that thanks to that interview, but nobody ever got me The Seeds record though. I’m waiting for somebody to find me the Seeds’ “Web of Sound”.

Maybe someone will read this and hook you up with it.

Yeah hopefully, but so far, no dice.

Can you describe the process of writing on the road as opposed to home?

Well, you’d imagine, and I’d imagine, that before I got so busy, that you write as you go…but maybe in Europe, or in a real nice place, and your feeling inspired, you’ll write a little bit. But usually the writing happens once you get home, and you let the set grow as you go on tour. But you know, they are both essential to inspiration. What I’ve found as that, especially lately, on tour you’re busy with a lot of things, and then when you get home, time is still…you start strumming out new tunes and stuff like that.

Which came first, the guitar or the lyric?

Uh that varies. I get that a lot, it varies. I guess a lot of times with guitar your just strumming, and some weird shit will just come out, one line and you just work around it. But other times, at least when I used to work a day job, I’d think up these weird lyrics. So really it depends. Or you’ll listen to a song on the radio and think of certain lyrics that are kinda far out, and you put it in a song you’ve been working on. But really, it varies.

Well I appreciate you taking the time out to talk with me…is there anyone you’d like to give a shout out to?

Sure, its no problem. Uh yeah, I’d like to give a shout out to Fucked Up, who’s standing right next to me.

BY DANIEL NEWMAN

The Drums: It’s Never Too Late For Summertime!

This might not be new news to you but The Brooklyn/ Florida based band, The Drums are great. I realize I am almost an entire year late but it is never too late to enjoy the simple, frank, sunny sounds of The Drums.

The summer of 2009 was one filled with great music. But most of the sunny beach sounds were coming from lo-fi, chill wave, hazy bands. The Drums are far from falling into that category. Yes, they are indie like all the other summery bands of 2009 but they are successful not for their cryptic lyrics, or overly synthesized tracks but for their minimalistic nature.

Whistling, clapping, drums, guitar, and yes, some synth are the genetic make up for the infectiously catchy tunes. It is impossible to dislike these songs. You don’t have to think about the deeper meaning of the lyrics, they are what they say they are. You don’t have to decipher the melody, it’s right in front of your face, and you don’t have to wonder what the foreign sounds are, basic instruments are their tools, no spoons here. Even the most cynical, philosophical of us need a sugary, sunny break and The Drums provides us with a super fun one.

The Drums’ members are Jonathan Pierce, Jacob Graham, Adam Kessler and Connor Hanwick. Together these dudes make songs that bring the sun, speak to the beach, and remind you of young love. “Saddest Summer” despite the unhappy lyrics disperses a cheerful and poppy melody. I can’t help but jump and bop my head from side to side while listening. With the exception of “Down By the Water” all seven songs on the EP Summertime! have prime head bop-ability. “Down By the Water” offers a softer, sweeter sandy, sunscreen-lathered ballad.

Summertime! was released last year but the sound it brings is timeless. The beach, sun and kissing will always be around and so will the pleasure I get from listening to this album. Although the songs are best when set to warm temps and water, they can be enjoyed in blizzards as well. So, even if it’s old news to you dig up your The Drums EP and give it a listen.

Happy Hollows Haunt The Rock Scene

I am a major sucker for bad-ass chicks with guitars. Happy Hollows, a three piece LA band, just happens to have one. Sarah Negahdari has an airy, haunting voice. It reminds me of being cozy in an oversized flannel, listening to Belly in the 1990’s. Similarly to Tanya Donelly, Negahdari’s voice transforms from an angel one minute to a melodic banshee the next. While Negahdari sings her heart out in their full-length album Spells, she rips you from track to track with some pro guitar sounds.

At times the tracks on Spells are noisy. You have to brace for a choppy voyage with Happy Hollows. The song “Tambourine” turns form Deerhoof to 7 Year Bitch, in a matter of minutes. But if you’re up for the ride it’s a trip worth taking.

Their catchiest tune “High Wire” has already made it to your TV selling you Samsung cell phones. If you have read me before you know how much that gives me a stomachache, but I’m willing to forgive because “High Wire” is the star of the album. “We Will Find You” adds a girly touch, cute and creepy, it fits Negahdari’s voice perfectly. Another standout track “Death to Vivek Kemp” could just as well be a completely stripped down Karen O hidden track. Spells as a whole has a very naked quality to it. There is no glam or pretensions.

Tracks like “Delorean” and “A Man, A Plan, A Canal” cut the album up, adding a different feel with bassist Charlie Mahoney taking led vocals. It makes for an interesting bump in the road, but the album could live with out it.

Currently, Happy Hollows are the talk of the town in L.A. As painful as it can be for West coast rockers to test the East coast waters, I think we can make room for some California sounds that don’t evoke sunsets, surfboards and hallucinogens.

What you really take away from this album is that their live performance could make or break them. Rumors have it that seeing Happy Hollows live is the real payoff. It’s said that Negahdari, Mahoney and drummer Chris Hernandez refuse to take it down a notch while on stage. I’m dying to see for myself. A tough,wispy, rocker chick with guitar in hand, shoving her songs around the stage with two talented men behind her is the stuff dreams are made of (my dreams at least.)

Happy Hollows takes the stage at North Star Bar March 4.

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