Whales and Cops – Great Bouncing Icebergs EP

Reigning from West Philadelphia’s late “Soft Batch” scene, Whales and Cops is comprised of ex-Man Man members and half-brothers Mr. Nathaniel Cops (keys, bees, bells, percussion) and Finger Julius Mountain (drums, marimba, keys, percussion) accompanied by the multi-talented instrumentalist Otzi Bogman (trumpet, bass, Flugelhorn, keys, percussion) . Shortly after the high velocity exit from Man Man, the Great Bouncing Icebergs EP was recorded due to an energetic schedule of immediate rehearsals.

A little over 21 minutes long, the EP includes five tracks, not including the untitled track number three, which consists of a sixteen second soundtrack to what seems like a carnival ride. The first track “Futuro Futuro” starts off with an in your face polyphonic texture and a mixture of instruments that I just can not put my finger on. It reminds me of a Man Man sound mixed with a less creepy electronic version of The Beatles “Revolution #9”, and if you think that’s weird, you should check out the music video.

After the first track, the EP rounds out with songs like “Bosuns o’ the Yard” and “Fifty Black Marines” that are slightly mellower. Whales and Cops definitely saved the best for last. Bringing up the rear, “Bent Cop,” ends the EP on a somber tone with tribal sounding percussion, chilling vocals and a slow tempo.

After listening to the EP, I’m not sure if I’ll be looking forward to a full length album in the future. This “Soft Batch” genre seems to be a little too much for my liking, but if you are into the genre, Whales and Cops is your man!…man?

Tracklisting:
01. Futuro Futuro
02. Bosuns o’ the Yard
03. (untitled)
04. Fifty Black Marines
05. Suave Homeless Asshole
06. Bent Cop

Whales and Cops: myspace

Written by: Joe Gotschall

Interview with: Pierre de Reeder

Pierre de Reeder is best known for his role as a multi-instrumentalist in the band Rilo Kiley, but like the other members of the band, de Reeder occupies his down time with his own songwriting and recording.

Technical Editor Nick caught up with Pierre on the phone to discuss his new album, The Way That it Was. They talked about the album, songwriting, influences, and Pierre’s support for Barack Obama.

Nick, PopWreckoning: How are you doing?
Pierre de Reeder: Doing good, I’m good. How are you?
PW: Great, it’s starting to be fall here in Kansas City so it’s a good time here.
PdR: Oh yeah, what’s the weather like?
PW: It’s cloudy today and maybe about 70, but the leaves are starting to fall and change colors and there’s a lot of energy this time of year.
PdR: Great, great.
PW: So, do you live in Southern California?
PdR: Yeah, I live in LA.
PW: In LA, so you get to travel a lot so do you enjoy the seasons or do you enjoy keeping it the same all year?
PdR: Well yeah, I like the seasons. We do get some semblance of the seasons here. It’s not like anywhere else but, it gets cold and it gets fuggin’ hot. But, yeah we don’t get any good snow but it’s awesome when we get rain which is so infrequent.
PW: But, you get the best of both worlds because you’re only a couple hours from good snow.
PdR: True, true. I’ve been guilty of skiing during the day and going to the beach in the evening.
PW: Yeah that’s not fair. We can do neither.

PW: I’m really interested in knowing what your song writing process is. Do you start with lyrics or melody or chords or does it just vary with the song?
PdR: It’s very song dependent. It does vary, but I don’t know if its any one strategy I have. The songs come to me in different ways. Sometimes they come as just a melody popping into my head and I’ll start there and I’ll write some music around it. But I think more often it will start either with me practicing on the guitar or piano and something musical first happens, and then a melody comes along. But sometimes it all comes at once, you know? I’ll just pick up a guitar and something pops out twenty minutes later. It just depends on the song, but that’s more rare. But yeah, it’s everything. It’s all of the above. There is no one formula for me.

PW: How many times do you come up with something great and then someone else tells you it’s something else you’ve already heard?
PdR: I think I’m more guilty of saying that to other people. It’s always described to me as my job in Rilo Kiley to point out how similar some riff or something was from some other song. I try to avoid that. I’m pretty keenly aware of that. Though I’m guilty of it, I’m sure. There’s nothing new under the sun, as they say. So, yeah. I don’t know. It doesn’t really happen to me that often though maybe I’m littered with it. I don’t know.

PW: This album, your first solo release, is very polished and mature and has some great song writing in there without being overly layered and overly complex. Who has been your greatest song writing mentor?
PdR: Certainly some of the greats for me are the some of the greats for so many people. Like the Beatles, Neil Young and definitely my peers are mentors to me, just the people I’m surrounded with. Great musicians and song writers I’m associated with. So yeah, it’s a lot of outward kind of associated things and the things that I love through out my life and people I’m surrounded with, I guess.
That wasn’t a really specific answer, very broad I know but I think it’s true because everything I think we all are influenced by all of those things. I mean there is no way to pick. I guess you could say you’re totally into one band and you love the sound and you really try to emulate them, but we’re so influenced by so many things over such a long time span, you know, that it all kind of filters into the music you make.

PW: If those are your kind of long term influences, who do you like right now? Who are you listening to now that you think is great?
PdR: Right now, I’m actually back on a lot of the classics. I’ve been spinning a lot of vinyl around the house. I found this old Wings record. There’s certainly some contemporary things that are awesome like Benji Hughes who just went out with us- he’s awesome.
I get flustered being on point with these questions, about what record I’m buying or what I’m listening to. But again, peers. I’m a sucker for my friends’ bands. I’m a sucker for the stuff my friend Michael Runion does, or Whisper Town, or Jonathan Rice. Nik Freitas, another rad dude who we were touring with and he has a lot of records out.

PW: It’s nice to hear PopWreckoning favorite Morgan Nagler (of Whispertown2000) on your album as well.
PdR: Yeah, I got her and some friends together and sang up a chorus or two.
PW: How does that work, you just put out a phone call and tell a bunch of people to show up and they lay down some tracks?
PdR: I guess so, that just had happened to be one day where I had this vision for a whole bunch of people singing and different parts of a few different songs and so I asked my good friends and people that happened to be around.
Jake Bellows [of Neva Dinova] was in town so it was like, “That’s awesome!” So just some friends and I was like “Hey! What about Saturday?” and he was like “Yeah, alright!” So everyone came by. Not that I know it was a Saturday.

PW: It looks like you were able to bring your daughter into that process. Was that the first time she’s taken part in your music officially?
PdR: Yeah, yeah.
PW: Did she enjoy that process?
PdR: (laughing) Yeah, she really does.
PW: Are you trying to get her down the road? I have two girls so I have one about the same age as your daughter and I find it fun to get her involved. We did a little Garage Band project a few months ago. Do you try to encourage that with your daughter?
PdR: I definitely encourage it. She’s self-encouraged, though. She just loves “it,” whatever “it” is. She’s just like a little performer, you know?
PW: Yeah, I have one of those too.
PdR: She just loves doing that kind of stuff. I definitely don’t want to be a stage mom or dad pushing her to do anything but she does finds it on her own and things come up like this for her, like people ask her to be in a video or some song. She did a record for a kid’s band and all of this stuff just keeps coming to her and she just loves it.
PW: Well that’s great, my daughter, we did a Garage Band project and ended up shooting a video and she realized quickly that it’s not as fun as it all looks. There’s a lot of work involved.
PdR: A lot of it is just waiting, just waiting around.

PW: So I’ve read an essay you wrote about Obama and I see you’re a big Obama supporter. What are you doing over the next month to help out?
PdR: Well, coincidentally enough I get to participate in this really awesome commercial tomorrow that Shepard Fairy, the guy who did the Obama posters and also did obey Jock the Giant, is doing. It’s an official Obama campaign commercial that’s shooting tomorrow and I get to go in and do a sixty second speech on what I think and why, and blah blah blah. Tons of people are going to show up and do this tomorrow and just getting to be a part of that and who knows if a snippet of me will be in there or not, but just being able to get on the pulpit a little bit tomorrow for that experience is exciting.
PW: It seems like these days that artists are completely past the worry that they are going to offend any of the fans and they are wearing everything pretty blatantly on their sleeves.
PdR: Yeah, thankfully.
PW: I think maybe the Dixie Chicks led the way and took a little heat on it with their crowd but it seems like now it’s pretty acceptable. We were at ACL last week and it seemed pretty much every show made a mention of change and Obama.
PdR: The more the better, you know? It’s a crazy time everyone’s got to wear it on their sleeve. It’s the most patriotic thing they can do. It’s cliché to say but it is.

PW: Any back up plans if it doesn’t go our way?
PdR: I truly was one of those people when Bush got elected the very first time – before he got elected I didn’t know what I’d do. I thought there was something crazy about this dude and I didn’t know what was going to happen to us if he got elected. I heard some people like Alec Baldwin were going to leave the country, and I was the same way and this was all before Bush’s first term, so I had those similar pangs. But I’m not going to leave the country, I’m not going to do anything. What am I going to do? Just hang in there like everyone else and hope for the best.

PW: Yeah, I know. I read that you designed the Rilo Kiley t-shirt for the Yellow Bird Project. Is that true?
PdR: Yeah.
PW: So you paint or do other visual arts as well?
PdR: Yeah, I paint to some extent. A kind of amateur, for-love-of-painting kind of way. I have always dabbled in the arts. But, yeah I do a lot of design.
I have done most of the Rilo Kiley album covers, and I painted my record cover and all of the artwork, and Jenny Lewis’ record cover and yeah I do that. I do everyone’s record covers and photo retouching and all of that kind of junk. And artwork and advertising so yeah, I definitely do that.
It’s kind of been a sideline of mine forever. I used to teach graphic design. I just dabble in painting. I don’t really do it, but I did get to do it on my record cover which was fun.
PW: My wife has that Yellow Bird shirt, by the way, and just loves it. It’s a beautiful shirt.
PdR: It was great doing the Yellow Bird Project.
PW: And the Elliot Smith Memorial Fund is another cool thing to see on the back of that shirt.
PdR: Yeah, for sure.

PW: Let’s go to the new album. What is your favorite track now that you have had some time to let it sit and roll around, what do you go back to as your favorite?
PdR: I don’t know, that’s such a hard thing to answer. I’m so close and personal to each one of them. Its really hard to pick a favorite. There are different ones that are with me for different reasons.
There’s a slower one on the record called “A Long Conversation”. I don’t know why, it just has a mood about it that I really enjoy playing live and how it came across on the record. “The Way That It Was”, the title track, is another favorite. They are all obviously incredibly personal and I have a different relationship with each one, it’s like different children. I don’t which one I love best.

PW: How many songs do you write that don’t make an album? Are you prolific and just take the best ones, or do you take one and work on it for a long time?
PdR: I mean it’s kind of a mixed bag there, too. There are certainly a number of songs that didn’t make it on this record so there are a lot of finished or unfinished or whatever songs floating around out there. So I don’t know how prolific I am. More than some, much less than others.
I definitely can whittle away at a song for a long time or I could finish it quickly. I guess I’m more of a whittler with songs, especially with recording so much of this record myself. It lent itself to whittling where I’d have to do the drums and the bass and the guitar, and then experiment, and do whatever. It’s a long whittling process, and through that sometimes a song comes out much different than I started or sort of intended.

PW: I really like “Not How I Believe” at the end of the album and I really like the message of it: have a little bit of modesty and honesty. Does that hurt in trying to do a lot of self promotion around your album? Is it difficult for you to go out and sell this thing?
PdR: It is. I’m terrible about wanting to do that stuff but I am pragmatic about having to do it. I started a record company to release this record and so at least I can hide behind that and kind of use any promotion through the record company doing it (even though it’s me). I have to do tons of other stuff: be kind of business savvy, and getting all the ducks in a row and that kind of stuff, but yeah I try to remain modest with it all, too. It’s a hard thing to do, but, yeah those are tenets of me in general, like being honest and modest, and humble and sincere and confident, all at the same time.
PW: I think it definitely comes through in your work and I see a lot of, even with these troubled times, some optimism in here, quite a bit of it actually.
PdR: Yeah, I am optimistic. I always have been optimistic. Realistic, but optimistic.
PW: Yeah I think that’s great, it does come through. I really enjoyed the album.
PdR: Thanks.

PW: It’s definitely grown on me. I have listened to it quite a bit in the last few weeks. Is there anyone you really want to collaborate with or maybe even, since you have a label now, get a project going with someone else in the future?
PdR: I guess there would be so many people I would love to, I don’t know. Again I mean I love working with all of my friends and I love doing that and I would love to continue to do that with just about every one but I’ve encountered musically and I would love to have them all play with me in some sense on some recording or whatever.
From [Michael] Runion to Benji [Hughes], to Conor [Oberst], and everyone who is associated with everyone, I would love to play with them all. With everyone I have played music with and I’d love to have them involved with my stuff. And then it expands out to the greater big world of I don’t know. Yeah, I would love to play with anybody and everybody.
PW: Those tracks that have the chorus on them, it just seems like your having a lot of fun in there, and that does come through. I think that’s all I have for you.
PdR: Cool, that’s awesome.
PW: Thank you very much! It was great talking to you I wish you the best of luck.

Tour Dates:
Oct 24 – Rio Theatre / Santa Cruz, CA (w/ Jenny Lewis)
Oct 28 – Herbst Theatre / San Francisco, CA (w/ Jenny Lewis)
Oct 29 – Herbst Theatre / San Francisco, CA (w/ Jenny Lewis)
Oct 30 – Orpheum Theatre / Los Angeles, CA (w/ Jenny Lewis)
Nov 01 – UCSD Price Center Ballroom / San Diego, CA (w/ Jenny Lewis)

Pierre de Reeder: website | myspace

Interview with: Pete Shauger of The Bye Byes

Once upon a time, way back in July (well it feels like forever ago, anyway), I caught a rare live show performed by Philadelphia’s The Bye Byes. Since that night, front man Pete Shauger and I have been playing interview tag. Over the course of a three month long conversation, we talked about our respective histories with the saxophone, the MySpace/Facebook revolution, and the band’s vacancy for an agent. Enjoy!

Jessica, PopWreckoning: I haven’t been able to find much in the way of a biography on The Bye Byes. Would you please explain how you four joined together to create the band?
Pete Shauger: Well, Steven [Binnig, bass] and Erik [Schmidt, drums] have played in bands together since their teens, most recently and notably in The Alkali Flats. Steven also knew Joel from a short-lived band they played in together. I didn’t know anybody…
But they (Steven and Erik) found me, and basically decided to form a band around me – well, around my songs. I’ve been writing for years, but with no grand plan. I always wanted to put a band together and thought, well, if it’s meant to happen, then one of these days, the right band will come along… and it did!

Pete Shauger, Photo: Jessica McGinley

PW: You certainly lucked out with Steven and Erik finding you! So many people search for band mates for ages, but it basically just fell right in your lap — how does it feel to be so lucky? [laughs]
PS: It feels great. They’re great musicians AND swell fellas to boot. I really feel like I lucked out in every possible way with them. Technically I did wait for ages, though…I just didn’t search for ages.

PW: Fair enough. When did you beginning playing music and what/who are/were the influences and motivational forces behind it?
PS: Let’s see, earliest influences… AM radio of the early, mid, and late 1970s is one. You know, the Little River Band, Paul McCartney, Dionne Warwick, Pilot (oh oh oh it’s magic!) … There was also a Beatles cassette (the Red album, 1962-1966) that we nearly wore out (but didn’t! I still have it, actually) playing on one of those old portable tape recorders. There was a Beach Boys compilation album (“High Tide” – part live, part not live) that we used to wear the grooves out of too. And then over the years I would soak in whatever my elder siblings were listening to.
Then there’s my family. My dad played the accordion, my mom and all my siblings took piano lessons. My brother played saxophone, and later guitar. My grandpa was a mean whistler and harmonica player…and my grandma (who also knew how to carry a tune) had this awesome double-decker organ we always loved to play when we visited. When she died I inherited it, and still have it. I took piano and saxophone lessons in grade school. Near the end of high school I discovered the acoustic guitar.

Erik Schmidt, Photo: Jessica McGinley

PW: I played the saxophone in grade school, too!
PS: No WAY! Did you also attempt to play “The Andy Griffith” theme song, and Men At Work’s “Who Can It Be Now” on it? I never had a problem with the instrument itself, I just hated the lessons. Same with piano. Um, same with swimming too.
PW: Totally feel you on the lessons and practicing thing. I was always last chair because I preferred playing soccer outside or something than sitting at home practicing my sax. The band director did not like that, but then in middle school I dropped band all together in favor of art classes.
PS: Good for you, way to stick it to the MAN. I usually preferred anything else over practicing. Which is funny to me because I love sitting down at the piano now, and I wish I still had a saxophone (and saxophone skills!). I think it was the structure of the lessons, the regiment of the practice, and just the pressure of it that turned me off. I’ve always been an “at-my-own-pace” kind of person. Some people really excel in that environment, but it just makes me want to shut down. Same reason I quit the bowling team at work! Stopped being fun, you know? Did you stick with art? Do you still wish you played saxomaphone?
PW: I did stick with art. Took a ton of art classes in high school and loved every second of it while my friends in band hated their lives. Or band class anyway. I’m no longer as active with art, but I’ve come full circle back to music, obviously, though not on the performing side.
I’m not too sad about not playing the sax anymore. I actually still have the one I played in elementary school. From memory, the only thing I would probably be able to play is “Mary Had A Little Lamb,” haha. I have no problem reading music, though. Let’s start a two man sax band! I bet we can find you a sweet little alto in a random pawn or vintage shop in this city of ours. [laughs] But back to your influences…

PS: It wasn’t until college in the early 90s that I discovered the late 70s early 80s new wave scene. In particular: Squeeze, Nick Lowe, Split Enz, and Elvis Costello. That was the last awakening for me. Like, oh…THIS is what I like. So when Nirvana and Pearl Jam were in every other dorm room, I was learning “Cruel To Be Kind” and “Pulling Mussels from the Shells.”
PW: You didn’t really miss much in the early 90s — I was at the age where New Kids On The Block and Paula Abdul were just the greatest musical acts of our time (I’ve since seriously reconsidered that position) but aside from Nirvana, nothing spectacular happened. Except for Radiohead, but they started in the late 80s and first found some fame in the early 90s. But anyway, the new wave-y, retro pop sounds totally works for you guys. It’s refreshing in a scene where most stuff sounds the same because a lot of bands now all have the same influences from the 90s.

Steven Binnig, Photo: Jessica McGinley

PW: How did you become involved with Home Tone Records?
PS: Well, one day while traipsing around on myspace.com, I found this band called Stingrays from Columbia, Missouri, and we began trading the occasional message. But I didn’t realize that the head Stingray, Wes Wingate, also co-ran a small label called Home Tone Records. One day, out of the blue, Wes sent me a message to say, “Hey, if there’s anything I can do to help you get your album out, let me know.” That’s it really. He offered and I accepted.
PW: For as much flack as MySpace gets, it really is servicey! I hear from so many musicians these days that all these incredible things have happened to them because of MySpace.
PS: I agree. And with Facebook now, it’s like a one-two punch. I really love what the online revolution has done, at least for artists like me. I finish a song, post it to MySpace, then almost instantaneously, fans all the way out in Australia can hear it. I think that’s awesome. Still don’t know how that translates to making a living out of it, but I can’t worry about that right now. Right now I’m just trying to make the best songs I know how.

PW: When we talked at the show, you mentioned that you’re 4 songs away from completing your debut album. What’s the process of creating the record been like? When do you expect/hope to have it completed and released by?
PS: The process is slow but thoroughly enjoyable. I hope to have all the recording done by the close of 2008, and maybe a release in the spring of 2009? We all have day jobs, three of us are married and one of us, I won’t mention names, might as well be…, and I have kiddies, so finding the time to squeeze in a recording session, let alone rehearsals and gigs, is tough.
We record a track here and there. Usually in my basement or Erik’s. I would like to record in a “real” studio someday but I also like the home-spun feel of doing it ourselves, in our homes, on our equipment. Can’t beat the price either…
PW: I can 100% sympathize with the busy lives of day jobs and, well, not so much wives or kids, but yeah, life is busy. I’m glad to process has been enjoyable, though. Taking your time is better anyway — stretch it out and make sure you’re happy with the final product. Whenever it’s completed, I look forward to hearing it.

PW: Hailing from the City of Brotherly Love, how have you found the Philadelphia music scene in terms of both other musicians and audiences?
PS: Well the bands / musicians I’ve met so far (at the shows we’ve played) seem nice. I know that sounds generic but it’s true. And the audiences have been sweet. Which is to say, they seem to like us. The scene is hard for me to gauge since I live outside the city walls. I don’t really feel part of it…which has its pros and cons. At times I like being an outsider, but other times I feel like we’d get more shows if we were insiders. Whatever that means.
Or maybe we just need an agent. Wanna be our agent?
PW: Well I do live inside the city, so I’ve got that going for me. And I’m fairly entrenched in the local musician scene. We did just talk about how both of us don’t have time for anything, but yeah. I’m in. I can be agent-y, no problem. Done.

Joel Rose, Photo: Jessica McGinley

PW: You guys have played a handful of shows in the area with some great acts, but if you could put together your dream tour, who would you want to share the stage with? Just totally run with it, it can be any band/musician ever, living, dead, broken up, whatever!
PS: Well there was a tour in 1980 that had Squeeze / Elvis Costello on the bill. That would have been an amazing tour to open for. I also would have loved to share a stage with Beulah before they split up.
PW: Oh, Beulah! I can’t even remember the last time I heard that name. Well, actually, I just read a book in which a woman gave the fake name of Beulah to someone, but it was in no way related to the band. They were great.
Costello has his own television show now. It films at the Apollo Theater in New York. As your agent, I will book you on the show and demand that Elvis jam with you guys. I just went from being completely inexperienced to being the best agent in the business. Stick with me, kid, you’ll go far. [laughs]

PW: So back to reality, what are you currently listening to? Anything you’d like to recommend?
PS: Why I’d love to. I hereby recommend the new CD by a band called Fugu. It’s been out for a while but just recently became available stateside. Just some great 70s-style sunny-day pop.
Oh and I also really like this band from Columbus Ohio called Paper Airplane. And a band from Baltimore called Gary B and the Notions. Again, more great stuff I’ve found,or they found me!, on MySpace.
PW: Awesome, thanks so much! It’s been a pleasure, Pete!

Philly loves, you can catch The Bye Byes at The M Room on Thursday, November 6th with Arizona and The Shackletons. Since no one should wait that long to check out their delightful pop sound, head over to the Bye Byes’ MySpace page to download a bunch of free songs!

The Bye Byes: myspace | live review

Monolith Music Festival @ Red Rocks, Denver – Sunday, Sept. 14

Monolith Music Festival was just as busy and just as good on the second day, Sunday, Sept. 14. People started to come out a lot earlier for these acts. I had a long drive ahead of me, so I didn’t make it as late as the headliner Justice, but I still managed to catch a lot. Check out my pictures and reviews below. If you missed it, here is what I had to say about Saturday’s line-up: pt. I and pt. II.

2:00 P.M. to 2:30 P.M. Rosewood Thieves – Esurance Main Stage

I got to the venue in time to catch some of the Rosewood Thieves as they were finishing up their Dylan-esque folk rock set. I enjoyed the laid back jams I heard and wouldn’t mind giving trying to check them out another time.

2:45 P.M. to 3:15 P.M. Snowden – New Belgium Stage

After making the long trek up the stairs from the Esurance Main Stage to the New Belgium, I had the chance to catch my breath during Snowden‘s chill rock set. I really enjoyed grooving to their experimental rock, but what really caught my interest were the amazing bass lines and soulful harmonies of Corinne Lee.

3:00 P.M. to 3:45 P.M. Tokyo Police Club – Esurance Main Stage

Of all the bands at the festival, I must admit that Tokyo Police Club was the band I was most excited to see. This was partly because I really like their music, but also partly because they’ve canceled three shows that I’ve tried to see them at and I was finally getting to see them play live. The boys did not disappoint and put on an energetic set that had the audience clapping along. They all seemed genuinely pleased to be playing for the crowd and their enthusiasm was well-expressed in their music.

3:45 P.M. to 4:30 P.M. The Handsome Furs – New Belgium Stage

The Handsome Furs were one of those bands that I thought was really good, but maybe not as great as people are making them out to be. Denver was excited for this band because they’re not getting a visit from Wolf Parade on their upcoming tour, so I suppose this spin-off group sufficed. However, while they rocked musically, their stage show was a little dry.

4:30 P.M. to 5:10 P.M. Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson – Woxy.com Stage

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson has been well-supported on this site by the other editors and writers and now I finally saw what the party was all about. MBAR and his supporting crew excellently swelled from mellow acoustic melodies to exploding indie rock anthems supported with big bass drums and guitar solos. MBAR treated the audience to a few new songs, which indicate the upcoming album should be amazing.

5:00 P.M. to 5:45 P.M. Tilly and The Wall – New Belgium Stage

Omaha represent! Tilly and the Wall are one of the best live groups you could possibly see. They play a series of songs that has everybody dancing whether they tap or not. One Omaha guy loves them so much he follows them around in fun outfits and Tilly even let him join them on stage. This was the first time I got to hear songs from O live and they sounded much better when accompanied by their live stage show than the recording was able to capture. My only regret about Tilly and the Wall was that I didn’t plan ahead and try to carpool to Monolith with them.

5:50 P.M. to 6:30 P.M. The Whigs – Woxy.com Stage

When I heard the Whigs on the radio, I wasn’t blown away. For the first song of their set, I still had yet to be blown away, but once the guys loosened up their Nirvana meets The Beatles music finally caught my attention. I especially loved when lead singer Parker Gispert kicked along with every clash of the cymbal.

5:45 P.M. to 6:45 P.M. Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings – Esurance Main Stage

I just caught a few songs of soulful singer Sharon Jones‘ set, but she definitely has a powerful voice that will get people grooving along. The highlight of her show was when she spotted Tilly and the Wall’s number one fan in the crowd and had security bring him on stage to dance with her.

6:30 P.M. to 7:15 P.M. The Kills – New Belgium Stage

There are just two members in the Kills, but they produce a sound as full as any band. This UK group is getting a lot of deserved buzz, but I suggest you catch them now before Alison Mosshart destroys her voice with her chain smoking.

7:15 P.M. to 8:15 P.M. Band of Horses – Esurance Main Stage

Band of Horses took to the main stage to play their easy rock tunes to a packed crowd that I was glad to see actually knew the words to more of their songs than what was in commercials like “Is There a Ghost.” I saw these guys a few years and loved the vocals, but was kind of bored by the stage show, which offered little more than what you could hear on a CD. However, these guys have come into their own and feel a lot more comfortable being on stage and it shows on their songs. This was a much improved set.

7:10 P.M. to 7:50 P.M. Does It Offend You, Yeah? – Woxy.com Stage

I wish I had gotten to this party sooner because I was forced to listen to the electronica songs of Does It Offend You, Yeah? from the hall as the played to an overflowing room of dancing bodies. Even from the hallway, they were a fun show to listen in on.

7:50 P.M. to 8:30 P.M. The Airborne Toxic Event – Gigbot Stage

So, you might have noticed that The Airborne Toxic Event‘s album’s reviews are slightly mixed, though we love it. However, one thing is for sure and that is that their stage show is phenomenal. While all the musicians are quite skilled, keyboardist and violinist Anna Bulbrook especially shined on stage as she climbed on amps and rocks, while playing the violin.

8:15 P.M. to 8:45 P.M. Paper Bird – Madeloud.com Acoustic Stage

Up in the rocky mountains, Colorado has been keeping a little secret, but I doubt they’ll be able to keep septet Paper Bird secret much longer. With bass, banjo, trombone and some of the prettiest harmonies of the weekend, it was hard to not to become endeared with this sweet group.

8:45 P.M. to 10:00 P.M. TV on the Radio – Esurance Main Stage

They almost didn’t make it. Van troubles in Utah threatened to keep the boys in TV on the Radio away. Rumors the entire day were that they were not going to make it, but TV on the Radio insisted they wouldn’t miss it for the world and the rented cars to speed through the mountains in. You have to admire a band that determined to not let their fans down. They barely got to the venue in time, but the drama of their drive and the lack of a warm-up did not seem to phase these boys as the ripped through a set of old and new material. The new album held up quite well next to the older songs.

Monolith Music Festival put together a great line-up of the finest indie acts. With five stages hosting one fine group after another, it is very hard to criticize any aspect of the festival. Although I wish more people had come for the entire weekend. In the future, a weekend with this solid of a line-up should be a sell out.

Monolith Music Festival: website | Sunday line-up | Saturday review pt. I | Saturday review pt. II

Photos and writing by: Bethany

The Airborne Toxic Event @ the TLA, Philadelphia

Thursday night, I walked into a sold out TLA to the sounds of Austin’s Electric Touch playing an amped up and hard rocking rendition of The Beatles‘ “Come Together.” I was immediately taken as the four covered the Fab Four in such a manner that had the entire crowded belting along and thrashing about wildly. The band continued to play dance rock numbers from their debut album which dropped the previous week.

Electric Touch

The Electric Touch will be opening with The Airborne Toxic Event for the duration of the The Fratellis headlining tour, with festival stops along the way including their hometown’s City Limits festival.

The main event (I didn’t stick around for The Fratellis) came in the dynamic form of Los Feliz dark rock outfit The Airborne Toxic Event. As the stage techs set up, I peeped the set list which included the entirety of their self-titled debut album released last month and the non-album track “This Losing.” Only a few songs into the set, it was apparent that the five decided to disregard the list, but that in no way impacted the quality of the show.

After catching their set at Download: Philadelphia, which was without a doubt one of the best performances that day, I was more than excited to catch them playing to a sold out audience in the beautiful TLA. Despite the venue’s failure to set up the photo pit, I managed to snag a few good shots (below) by sneaking my way to flush against stage right in between a father and young son on my left and two teenage girls on my right. Like myself, bassist Noah Harmon thought it equally adorable and awesome that such a young kid was in the crowd and hopped up on a speaker throwing metal horns in the kid’s direction, much to the little guy’s delight.

The attention that The Airborne Toxic Event has received in its short time as a band is absolutely deserved. The crowd, myself included, roared with applause and sang along with most of the fivesome’s set. While the album is fantastic, nothing can quite compare to the energy of a live show, watching keyboardist/violinst Anna Bulbrook stomp around stage as she bows her violin or shakes a tambourine.

Drummer Daren Taylor worked up quite a sweat pounding away at his kit in time with Steven Chen‘s ferocious guitar riffs. Front man Mike Jollett exhibited a great deal of energy as he sang and playing guitar with fervor while wearing his heart on his sleeve. The energy and intensity is well worth catching. Don’t miss The Airborne Toxic Event as they tour the nation through the beginning of October.

Set List:*
Wishing Well
Papilion
Gasoline
Happiness Is Overrated
Does This Mean You’re Moving On?
This Losing
Something New
This Is Nowhere
Somewhere Around Midnight
Innocence
Missy

(*paper set list was played out of order)

Electric Touch: website | myspace
The Airborne Toxic Event: website | myspace | stream “Somewhere Around Midnight” | s/t album review | download: philadelphia

Interview with: Justin Kennedy of Army Navy

Earlier in the week I got a phone call from Army Navy front man Justin Kennedy. If for some reason you don’t recognize the name, you may recognize the name of former Pinwheel bandmate Ben Gibbard. Gibbard’s had some wonderful success following Pinwheel and Kennedy and company is no doubt set for the same.

During the call, Kennedy and I discussed the band’s debut album, set for release October 14th, other projects including their inclusion on the Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist soundtrack, and plans to dominate 2009. Read on for more:

Jessica, PopWreckoning: How are things working out in New York?
Justin Kennedy, Army Navy: They’re great! We had an awesome show last night. It was really fun. Have a five hour press day today. Breeze. [laughs]

PW: What question are you tired of answering because I promise not to ask it.
JK: It hasn’t been that many interviews. I guess “Where did the name Army Navy come from?” because it’s not really an interesting story.
PW: Avoided, for sure. I’m glad to hear things are going well in New York, though. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make it up last night and can’t tomorrow night, either, but good luck tomorrow night!
JK: I think it’s supposed to be pretty big actually. It should be fun.

PW: Have you been to the east coast before?
JK: Yeah, we played at CMJ a few years ago. I’ve been to New York a bunch of times. I have a lot of friends out here. I come as much as possible.
PW: I know what you mean, I love New York. I’m glad you guys got to come out here for press stuff, then.
JK: Yeah, it’s been pretty fun. I think we’re going to be back for CMJ this year. We’re just trying to figure out all the details right now.

PW: Any other plans to tour the rest of the east coast? I’m just down in Philly, so if you guys wanted to come hang out, that’s cool. [laughs]
JK: Absolutely! Actually, we were thinking that if we can get our plans together for CMJ, we’re going to try to hit Boston and Philly and a lot around the area. We just need to get on top of that. There’s been so much other work with press and reviews and stuff. It’s not a nightmare or anything, it just takes a lot of time.
A tour is the next thing we’re gonna be working on. But definitely, we’d love to come to Philadelphia. I’ve actually never been to Philadelphia before. Everybody says it’s amazing.

PW: It’s no New York. It’s smaller, but great. I love it. I’ll give you guys a tour when you come.
JK: Our producer Adam Lasus lived there for years. I think he grew up there. He’s always talking about it.
PW: I had no idea. But enough about Philly. Let’s talk about you, we don’t need to talk about Philly.
JK: OK. [laughs]

PW: It seems as if October is Army Navy month. You guys have your new self-titled album coming out on The Fever Zone label and then you’re also on the Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist soundtrack and you’ve got a song on a Cure tribute album coming out.
JK: Yeah, it’s pretty nuts. We have two songs in Nick and Norah’s: one song’s on the soundtrack and we just found out that they’re actually using the song [pause] we released an exclusive track just for the soundtrack, and the other track is off our record.
We just found out two days ago that they’re using the song on our record for the TV commercial for Nick and Norah, which is pretty insane.
PW: Yeah, that’s awesome!
JK: We’ll be like everywhere! That’s fuckin’ nuts!

PW: It’s crazy. Congratulations, that’s huge! You’ll be rockin’ out at Madison Square Garden next time you’re in New York, I bet. [laughs]
JK: [laughs] Yeeeeah…that’s a lot. Hopefully some of this will help us take off a little bit, definitely. We’ve been talking about putting out a record ourselves and we’ve been talking to labels. Big Hassle came around and we felt like we got it. We had some checks come in and we thought, ‘We can do a better job than some of these indie labels that seem to have no idea what they’re doing.’
We created our own timeline for things to come out and then Nick and Norah’s was coming out, which, you know, they’re putting millions into marketing this movie. So we thought we’d just ride the coattails of their marketing a little bit because they’ll have a lot more opportunities to get our name out there than we would. We decided to just put our record out right after the movie came out since people might know who we are at that point.
The Cure thing came along, which comes out two weeks after our record, which is nuts. It all just kind of came together all at once.
PW: That’s amazing. You can’t even buy that kind of publicity.
JK: Absolutely. It’s like we have Atlantic Records putting out the record. There’s gonna be an iTunes exclusive and, basically, it’s way more than we’d ever be able to do ourselves.

PW: With the Nick and Norah thing, today it’s far more common, but back in the 90s, if a band was in a movie or commercial, that was considered selling out. What do you think…
JK: It was totally uncool. That was what my viewpoint was, as well. It was something I would never do, unless it was something really specific or whatever. I still am. I wouldn’t sell my song to an Exxon commercial or something.
For Nick and Norah, we’re sharing the soundtrack with a lot of great bands and the whole movie is about music. Nowadays, with the record industry so screwed up and no one buying records, you have to find these other angles to make money so we can go out and tour.
One thing about being in L.A., we all have professional relationships with music supervisors and people in and around the industry, so we have a lot of contacts. For us, we have some songs that would be good for that stuff and it’s paid for part of the record and for Adam’s fees to produce the record. All those little things that come and go that people don’t really think about. It’s been a way to make music our only income at this point, which is really great.

PW: Absolutely. I was going to ask what you think changed the negative stigma that used to come along with this, but you’re right. The record industry is completely messed up and people aren’t buying as many records as they used to. It’s unfortunate because there are a lot of great records out there.
The internet has screwed a lot of stuff up. It’s done a great deal to help a lot of artists just get their stuff heard, but it’s also had a negative affect on the monetary side of the business.
JK: I think us not having much overhead putting out this record, we actually could make some money on the record, because we don’t have a giant label paying for all of this extra stuff. Everything that we make goes to the band fund and we pay for it ourself. It’s just more of a chance for us to make a little money if the record sells copies. We eat and everything on it these days.
Besides, the movie looks hilarious. I saw a little bit of it on a screener. I saw the opening scene and I saw the scene that we were in, it’s pretty funny.
PW: Yeah and it’s got a lot of great kids in it, too. Michael Cera who was in Superbad and “Arrested Development.” He’s so funny.
JK: He’s hilarious.
PW: It’ll be a big movie and it’ll definitely get you guys out there. Especially being in the trailer, now.
JK: Omigod, that’s everywhere – it’s gonna be nuts. I haven’t seen it, but I hear he sells it. It’s just cool that some random people are gonna hear it that wouldn’t have before. Some people are going to hear our song on TV. People find music in really weird places these days. Those iPod commercials, they blow up.
PW: Oh yeah. Every single band that’s had one has just gotten ridiculously huge.
JK: Yeah, huge! They also run up the iTunes charts. Something like this is only going to be helpful for us.

PW: For the Cure tribute album, what song did you cover for it?
JK: “Jumping Someone Else’s Train.”

PW: Did you choose that one or had you been playing it before and someone got in touch with you about it? I honestly have no idea how tribute albums or most compilations work.
JK: My friend Paul was putting the soundtrack together. He says, “Hey, you’re a Cure fan. I’m putting this soundtrack together.” He asked us to be in it. We talked to Adam and Adam was stoked at the idea. We were actually going to do another song for it. We were gonna do a doo wop version [laughs] — that would’ve been really amazing — off the Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me record. I can’t remember which song it was.
We we kind of worked it out and then Paul said the person he’d offered it to wasn’t going to do it and then they changed their mind. He gave us a list of what wasn’t already taken. It was hard because, for us, most of these songs are kind of jammy. We had to try to find a song that sort of lent itself as close to an Army Navy song as possible. We didn’t want to make it a total Army Navy song but that one has some parts that we felt had a poppiness to it.
Our version is really fucked up. I say it’s like Talk Talk meets Nirvana.

PW: That is definitely a way to sell this tribute album: “It is really fucked up.” [laughs]
JK: [laughs] Yeah. I love it! I mean, I’m so psyched at how it turned out. We definitely took it as a recording experience. It gave us the opportunity for a song that we don’t ever really need to play live.
We tried it in probably 15 different styles. We just went in and hashed out every different way of playing it to figure it out. We love how the track turned out. We went in with Adam for a couple days and banged it out and fixed it. It will be interesting to see what people think of it.
PW: Yeah, I can’t wait to hear it after hearing that explanation.
JK: I don’t know if that’s a good explanation of it, but that’s totally what it reminds me of. It would be like later Talk Talk with the weird keyboards and really fucked up guitar. I dunno, but I’m really happy with it.
It’s a different outlet. The other bands on there aren’t bands we’ve played with before and wouldn’t necessarily be associated with. Like Bat For Lashes is on there. That’s going to be a really interesting track.

PW: What are you listening to now yourself?
JK: Ben [Gaffin, bass] gave me a copy of that Last Shadow Puppets record. I really dug that one. That kid’s from Arctic Monkeys and I’m not really a huge Arctic Monkeys fan. Mainly because we played their first show in L.A. and they were assholes to us, but they’re nice now. That record is pretty awesome.
I can’t say I’ve listened to a lot of new records, I tend to listen to a lot of old stuff. I’ve been on a really big bubblegum kick lately. Early 70s or 60s bubblegum, like The Archies. One of my buddies is into making me a bunch of CDs of a lot of really great singer-songwriters of the early 70s. Like all the soft rock-y stuff like Ricky Nelson and Neil Diamond. I’m just a big songwriter fan no matter what style it’s in, that era in the 70s had a lot of great artists and albums. The Carpenters, the Beach Boys all fall into that. A lot of old stuff.
Then my favorite classic 90s stuff: Teenage Fanclub, The Pixies. Wilco was always a favorite of mine, too. I did go to a Radiohead show, although I did kind of stop loving them a while ago. Not for any reason, but I loved the first couple records. I did go to see them last week and it totally changed my mind. I think I really like a lot of the stuff on the new record. Seeing them live really sold it to me more. It was an amazing show, a really amazing show.
PW: I’ve never gotten to catch them live.
JK: The mix is pretty phenomenal. We saw them at the Hollywood Bowl. The light show, the whole thing is pretty incredible. They know how to put on a show for sure.
PW: I should think so. They’re pretty big. [jokingly] People have heard of them, I think.
JK: [laughs] Yeah, maybe. Fuckin’ Jonny Greenwood was playing lead guitar and also playing a lead keyboard line with the head of the guitar. I’ve never seen that before. I was like, “Wow.”
PW: Now I have to go see them! Are they still on tour? I don’t even know.
JK: I think they’re tour is done. I had seen The Bends tour, which is so funny. So many years ago. You can tell they’re still up there having fun and it’s just so incredible.

PW: Do you plan on touring that big?
JK: I would love to! We’re definitely trying to spend ’09 touring as much as possible. We’ve gotta get out there and we love playing shows. When people see the live show, I think they’ll get into it. It’s more of a stripped down version of the record.
We have a lot of crazy lead guitar parts, which is amazing to see live. Louie [Schultz, guitar/keys/vocals] is a really incredible guitarist and he’s been able to transfer a lot of the stuff he does on the record to the live show. Definitely more of a hyped up version of the record.

PW: For these tour plans, if you could tour with anybody — living, dead, anybody — who would you want to play with on the same bill?
JK: I’d love to play with The Pixies. I think that would be amazing. It’s obvious to pick The Beatles [laughs]. Teenage Fanclub is one of my all time favorite bands and they would just mean more to me than any band. I would be totally stoked to tour with them and hang out with those dudes. It would be pretty amazing.
Oasis would be amazing just because it would just be so hilarious. Be able to hang out with them everyday, go to the bar with Liam [Gallagher] and try to keep up with him [laughs].
Mudhoney, I’m a massive Mudhoney fan growing up in Seattle.

PW: Yeah! I was at Sub Pop‘s 20th anniversary show so I got to see them recently.
JK: So was I!
PW: Oh, you were?! Did you enjoy it? It was the greatest weekend!
JK: Oh my god! It was good! I just wish Mudhoney had closed the show. How can Flight of the Conchords close a Sub Pop show? That’s TERRIBLE! It should have been The Vaselines, although Mudhoney were so phenomenal. They are still as good as when I saw them when I was a teenager.
PW: Yeah, I was pretty shocked at the arrangement of the line up. I guess Flight of the Conchords are pretty big now, but how are you not going to close with your legends?
JK: That’s what I’m saying! I didn’t understand that. The whole order of bands was a little weird to me. It kind of got lighter and lighter as it went. I thought that Mudhoney would’ve closed it and killed it. On the main stage, too. They played the small stage but they were still amazing. They were so good.
I didn’t go to the second day, though. I really wanted to. I was back home visiting the family so I didn’t want to spend my whole time watching a concert. They’d've gotten mad at me. [laughs]
PW: I was there for the second and it wasn’t as good. I got there on time, the morning was strong I thought, but I left pretty early. I did that with the Conchords, too, I left about halfway through their set.
JK: I wanted to do that, too, but my friends wanted to stay till the end. It was a complete nightmare trying to get out. It look an hour just to leave the parking lot.
PW: I didn’t drive, but I had no idea that the last bus from Redmond straight to downtown Seattle left at like 10:30, so I missed that bus by minutes. I ended up taking about 5 different buses and it took 3 hours just to get back.
JK: What a nightmare. It was a beautiful day in Seattle, though.
PW: Oh yeah! That was my first time ever in Seattle and I fell in love with it. It’s beautiful out there.
JK: If you can go to Seattle when the weather is like that, it’s the best thing on Earth. It’s when it’s rainy and gloomy all the rest of the year…
PW: That puts a damper on my plans to move there.
JK: [laughs]

PW: Thanks so much for giving me call, it’s been great talking to you.
JK: Me, too. Thanks for talking to me.
PW: Absolutely! Enjoy the rest of your time in New York and I look forward to seeing you in Philadelphia soon.
JK: Awesome, I’ll talk to you soon.

Army Navy: myspace

Sara Bareilles, Counting Crows, Maroon 5 @ Susquehanna Bank Center, Camden NJ

Consider the lineup: Sara Bareilles, Counting Crows, and Maroon 5. Naturally, my expectations were high, and these three acts certainly delivered. The show at the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, NJ was energetic and exciting.

Sara Bareilles started her set promptly at seven from the piano bench with “Bottle It Up,” followed by “Morningside,” a song for anyone with an “ex-boyfriend or girlfriend you can’t stand.” She introduced the band and wished her drummer a happy birthday during “Many the Miles” and then played her radio hit “Love Song,” which of course the crowd crooned along with, earning the praise, “you sound like angels out there!” from Sara.

Sara Bareilles

Before playing “Gravity” as her last song in a surprisingly short set of about half an hour, she played The Beatles’ “Oh, Darlin’” with impressive accuracy to the original, and then thanked the crowd for arriving in time for her, commenting that it’s an honor to play as the opener for the Counting Crows and Maroon 5, but that it’s the crowd showing up early enough that makes that opportunity happen.

Before the Counting Crows even came out to play, accordion player Charles Gillingham came onto the stage to tell the audience about the Greybird Foundation, a charity the Counting Crows started to raise money for local causes; money raised in Philadelphia, for example, goes to Philadelphia causes such as Women Against Abuse, Philly Fight, and voter registration. (Information about the Greybird Foundation can be found here:
http://greybirdfoundation.org/
.)

Counting Crows: Adam Duritz

Shortly after the Greybird plug, the band came out onto the stage to red lighting and a screaming crowd, Adam Duritz not so subtly sporting a Greybird Foundation t-shirt. They began with “Omaha” from their first album August and Everything After, then went into “Daylight Fading” off of their 1996 album Recovering the Satellites, then “Rain King,” “Colorblind,” and “If I could Give All My Love –Or—Richard Manuel Is Dead” from August and Everything After, This Desert Life, and Hard Candy respectively.

Counting Crows

Despite the excitement and singing along in the crowd up to this point, most people remained seated until the beginning of “Mr. Jones,” when nearly every person in the audience (including myself) stood and tried to sing along as Adam Duritz changed or omitted words and occasional lines throughout the song. He did the same through several others of their hits during the rest of the show; no one seemed to care, and doing so eventually (thankfully) kept people from singing along too loudly.

Counting Crows

Winning as the most touchy-feely moment of the night was Adam Duritz’s speech about touring with Maroon 5 and about musicians in general. He stated that despite radio stations and Internet message boards telling people “who is good and who sucks,” musicians “just want to see each other make it,” and he and his band mates were happy for the success of their friends in Maroon 5. Then, finally, they played some new stuff from Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings, including “Washington Square” and “Sundays” before playing “Murder of One” from August, as well as the title track from Hard Candy.

Counting Crows

Although fewer people knew the words to their new songs, the crowd remained attentive and excited; the songs have the same Counting Crows timelessness, energy, and wrenching honesty that their fans are drawn to and appreciate. Duritz ended the set by slamming the microphone stand into the stage for perhaps the fourth time and saying, “See ya,” before the lights went out. Appropriately, he began their encore with “Hi.” After mentioning having been an insomniac at times in his life, he commented, “It’s still a beautiful night right before the dawn,” and then played “Goodnight LA” while playing the piano himself for the first time during the show. After “Long December,” Adam plugged Greybird one more time saying “America is not just a big giant country; it’s individuals with a right and a responsibility to help each other.” They ended with “Walkaways,” leaving the crowed sufficiently pumped for Maroon 5.

Maroon 5 played three songs before bringing up the perhaps age old questions of whether the Susquehanna Bank Center counts as Philly or Jersey and, regardless of which one, which place are most of the audience members from. After starting with “Never See Your Face Again” and “Makes Me Wonder” off of It Won’t Be Soon Before Long and “Tangled” off of Songs About Jane, Adam Levine seemed to use his own judgment as something of an applause-o-meter, akin to the one Max used on episodes of “Saved by the Bell” only without the silly hat, and ultimately deemed the Susquehanna Bank Center “PhilaJersey” and referred to it as such from then on.

Maroon 5: Adam Levine

Guitarist James Valentine played an intense guitar solo at the end of “The Sun,” which got the crowd standing for “Won’t Go Home Without You,” during which Levine requested we all get out our cell phones and hold them up before shouting at us, “sing it, crowd!” Having drawn my attention to lights with the cell phone bit, I noticed the green lights during “Kiwi” were the first of several potentially clever lighting tricks, but Levine’s consistently sexual interaction with the microphone stand, especially during “Kiwi” and then “Shiver,” proved too distracting for many of us, at least all of the people around me anyhow, to take notice of the lights for long. Until, of course, the lyrics to “Wake Up Call” appeared behind the band, reminding us all that it truly is a song about wanting to murder people.

Maroon 5

As Levine continued moving around the stage in his white pants, he led us in clapping for “Little of Your Time,” before pausing to introduce the band members during the introduction of “Sunday Morning,” their last song of the set. Their first encore consisted mostly of Levine molesting the microphone stand while covering Chris Isaac’s “Wicked Game” and then segueing into “She Will Be Loved” before disappearing from stage again. After some cheering and chanting from the crowd, they predictably yet deliciously reappeared to tell the crowd how “tasty” we were and finish the night with “Harder to Breathe” and “Sweetest Goodbye” before Levine threw his guitar into the air, let it hit the stage, and gave it to a girl in the front row.

Crowd appreciation, charities and foundations, sexuality and generally failed relationships, and smashing stuff were perhaps the themes of the evening, but the focus was still, incredibly, on the talent of the musicians.

Sara Bareilles: website | myspace
Counting Crows: website | myspace
Maroon 5: website | myspace

Written/Photos by: Rebecca Brown

Interview with: Andrew McMahon of Jack’s Mannequin, Pt. 1

I recently had the opportunity to talk to Andrew McMahon, singer/keyboardist of Jack’s Mannequin and previously of Something Corporate, when he stopped through the KC area as part of the July 2 Warped Tour show. Due to the length of the interview, I am splitting it in half. In this first part, we focus on his upcoming Jack’s Mannequin album, The Glass Passenger. We also discuss how his battle with cancer affected his writing process. In the second part, we discuss touring and his days with Something Corporate.

Andrew McMahon, Jack’s Mannequin/Something Corporate: How are you doing? I’m Andrew.
PopWreckoning, Bethany: I’m Bethany.
AM: Bethany, pleasure to meet you. Is this us here?
PW: Yeah, I think so. I saw your set today. Sounding good.
AM: Oh, thank you, you know it’s the first couple of days–working out the kinks, but we’re having a good time.
PW: You guys have a new album coming out pretty soon?
AM: September; the middle of September.
PW: The Glass Passenger?
AM: That’s correct.
PW: How does it differ from Everything in Transit?
AM: God, you know, there’s a million different things. That would probably be a better question to ask somebody other than myself because I’m probably the least objective.
We did Everything in Transit as sort of a jam. It was us playing all the instruments and it was us programming drums–kind of building tracks from the inside out. But with this I had all the musicians there when I would work on a track. I would have my guitar player, my drum player, so you know we really developed the parts. The parts and the music were just a little bit more evolved.
Then as years go on you listen to different music and I think Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were a huge inspiration to me. I got a huge drive off of listening to their catalog.
PW: You covered “American Girl.”
AM: Yeah, I covered “American Girl.” A lot of people know that. So I like bands like that and I started listening to different styles of music as well. So, I don’t know, we’ll see what people think.
PW: What were some of the artists you listened to while making this one?
AM: God, I mean, I think my last record was like a big Beach Boys record and this record was a lot more varied–I think a lot more Beatles, more Heartbreakers, Rolling Stones and a lot of pop stuff. I was listening to old 80s pop–Madonna stuff. I really dug into the Madonna catalog, of all things. Even her newer stuff.
I’m trying to think of some other big influences that I could give credit to throughout this record. I mean there’s tons of stuff, and I think back, I used to listen to Billy Joel a lot. There’s some Pink Floyd influences and stuff. You definitely dug into a couple different areas with the band in mind when trying to make a great band record.
PW: Now this is Jack’s Mannequin’s second album, but with Something Corporate you had several albums. Is sophomore slump something you’d be worried about or not since you’ve done it before and made it through the second album?
AM:It is one of those things I sort of consider. Some people would consider this my sophomore album or second with Jack’s Mannequin, but I kind of consider it my fifth album. You know what I mean?
I think I’ve been making records for awhile that I think everything along the way has been part of the process. Of course, there’s always the idea that you bring something new to people and they haven’t heard it and they’re hearing it for the first time. There’s something that’s really going to excite people about that and attach them to it, you know? So sometimes, the second time you have to really win them over again.
The truth is, this is a really different sounding record. I try to evolve almost to the point where it sounds like a different band every time I put out a record, even with Something Corporate with Audioboxer to Leaving Through Window to North. It was a different band, really. So this is no different.
We’re kind of teeing up a real different sound. All I can say is I hope people give it a shot. I think there will be songs on the record that everyone can relate to, though.
PW: Was it hard to transition from Something Corporate to Jack’s Mannequin?
AM: It was easier than I thought it would be. I mean it happened, it definitely happened at a very turbulent time in my life. There’s no question that it was sort of blissfully turbulent, you know what I mean? It was just like, ‘I’m doing this.’ I just had this confidence and this thing where I was ready to move on. And I felt justified in moving on and everybody I think felt that was what was best for everybody. And I went for it.
I sort of never looked back. So by the time I got sick and the train had already been rolling, luckily all that confidence carried me through a tougher time.
PW: Yeah, I’m really glad that you’re doing well.
AM: Thank you. Me, too.
PW: With the first Jack’s Mannequin, you had to deal with your sickness a lot at the beginning when you were getting ready to release that and go on the road, and it kind of messed up your touring. But you didn’t really have to deal with that for this new album. How did that affect the process?
AM:Yeah, right. You know this process…and that’s a really good question… Everything is sort of really attached, I feel like, too. Every one of these experiences is linked to itself, you know?
From Something Corporate to now to my getting sick to the way these records have come out, I think everything is so attached. So like in the making of this record, I sort of had to dig back. I had to dig back a few years and put those things together. So this process was in a lot of ways harder. With the first Jack’s record, I was living it and writing it and recording it and just moving. You know what I mean? I was living in that moment and always writing in that moment.
With this record, because I think I was sick when we started working the last record, I wasn’t really well enough to write about a lot of these experience that were so impactful on my life and took such a huge impact on me. Those are the moments that I’m usually sitting at a piano and I didn’t have that because I just couldn’t do it physically. I just wasn’t well enough and so I had this commitment in a lot of ways and sort of this block when I was doing this record that I had to keep trying to dive back to reconcile the past with the present. Does that make sense?
PW: Yeah, that makes sense to me.
AM: I think for a guy who wants to be in the moment and living in the moment, that’s sort of my philosophy to try to stay right here in the present moment. It was almost unnecessary for me to try to dig back into this past that I haven’t totally resolved and that was really the challenge of the record from start to finish. The first song I recorded for this record, I recorded two summers ago. I’ve been working on this on and off for two years. It was a harder process, but now that I’m well and we’re out there and we’re playing, it feels great. It feels amazing.
PW: The new songs that you guys played today are sounding really good.
AM: Thank you.
PW: On Everything in Transit, like in the title, you talk a lot about moving, you’re kind of in a tumultuous time, your real life is kind of in turmoil. Now The Glass Passenger is the title of the new album, where do you get that from?
AM: You know, almost pretty much the exact same thing. Just a different year. I think I have this confidence about me at the point that I was starting this project that it was just go, go, go, go, go and don’t look back. And I think the way I got sidelined and all that stuff, I think, is pretty much the theme for this record and the thing I kept on touching back on.
The idea that really we don’t have that control, you know what I mean? And the moments when you think you have the most control and you’re the most empowered, to push your own destiny forward, tend to be the moments where all of a sudden it’s like, “No, sorry, I don’t think so.”
I think The Glass Passenger is sort of the way to describe it. That some things can sort of be fragile and you might not have control, but it isn’t necessarily meant to conjure up a negative image as much as it’s just I was really conscious of my place while I made the record.
PW: Stacy Clark recently sang backing vocals on the new album.
AM: Yeah, Stacy. I love her to death. She’s amazing. She’s brilliant.
PopWreckoning, Josh: Yeah, I’m really good friends with her. (Whoa, sneaky. Josh just appeared out of nowhere. Actually, he kept wandering in and out of this interview as he ran off to take more Warped tour photos. He talks a little bit more in the second part.)
AM: Yeah, one of my closest musical friends I have out there.
PW: How did you guys meet up?
AM:Actually, through a charity that we both were doing work for. She works for Music Saves Lives with Russel Hornbeek, who was managing her at the time, and they came to me. They host blood drives and connect it to music, alternative music and kind of the younger music because that’s where the blood supply really comes from in America: the youth during blood drives.
So, he created this great charity, she was working for it and I got her CD. And I was just like, “Whoa. This is like done. These are hits. These songs sound amazing. I love this music.” I just played it for everybody and I still do. Now that she is getting closer to having a deal coming and everything, it seemed like the right time to put her on some tracks and start introducing the rest of the world to her. She’s really special, really talented.
PW: That’s awesome.

*Read Part II of my interview with McMahon here. It’s a “goldmine” of information, he says so himself.

Jack’s Mannequin: website | myspace
Something Corporate: website | myspace

Cee-Lo to Perform "Hey Jude" as part of 500 Songs For Kids

It’s just been announced by Atlanta Music Blog.com that Cee-Lo of Gnarls Barkley will be performing the #1 song, “Hey Jude,” at the this year’s 500 Songs for Kids event, which is in the middle of it’s 10-day residency at Smith’s Olde Bar right now.

In addition to Cee-Lo, confirmed performers for the final night include Shawn Mullins, Angie Aparo, Corey Smith, James Hall, and Arrested Development.

The event features 500 different performers counting down the 500 Greatest Sing-Along Songs, include “It’s My Party,” “Genie in a Bottle,” and “Georgia on my Mind.”

The event was born last year off of the work of Songs For Kids founder and president Josh Rifkind and featured Rolling Stone‘s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Tickets are available at the door each night. If you are not able to attend, click here to donate.

Songs For Kids: website | myspace

*Molly

Your Vegas covers The Beatles

PopWreck(oning) favorites Your Vegas cover The Beatles‘ “Blackbird.”
Check it out:

Check out the videos here:

http://video.umrg.com/yourvegas/blackbird/


http://video.umrg.com/yourvegas/blackbird/quicktime.asp

Your Vegas: website | myspace