Spinner

Youth Lagoon's 'Wondrous Bughouse' Inspired by OCD-Like 'Fear of Death'

Hilary Hughes — 2013-04-02T14:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Concerts and Tours, News, New Music, Exclusive

Josh Darr

Trevor Powers didn't have the faintest idea where he was when he woke up from a nap in the band van when Spinner called him between recent shows. Powers -- who performs under the stage moniker Youth Lagoon -- went from the frigid plains of Montana to Salt Lake City to Colorado then Brooklyn over the course of nine days, all for the sake of celebrating Wondrous Bughouse, Youth Lagoon's second album. A brief stop in Austin for SXSW was on the agenda as well, as is a detour to southern California for Coachella and an opening set for the National at Brooklyn's Barclays Center, which will wrap up the tour officially in June. After taking the geographically sprawling string of dates that makes up this massive touring effort for Youth Lagoon into consideration, it's easy to see how the destinations can blur together -- and it's also amazing to find Powers thriving on the road, despite his grueling schedule.

"When things are so fresh, it's so exciting," he says, after laughingly confirming he's on in Colorado. "The whole writing process with this record was similar [to 2010's The Year of Hibernation] in some ways, and in others it was way different because it was almost like I was trying to expand a certain area of my consciousness or something. I was really trying to just let things come out that want to come out, to try not to overthink things in any sort of sense. I was just trying to explore new areas. It makes it way more interesting live because it's that similar atmosphere of exploration. With stuff in my subconscious, I'm just trying to write in a way that would try to express things that I guess were built up inside of me that I didn't really know how else to express and just trying to do that through music."

Lady Lamb the Beekeeper: From a Video Store Basement to a Venue Near You

Hilary Hughes — 2013-02-20T16:00:00 00:00

Filed under: News, New Music, Exclusive

Shervin Lainez

When it comes to pinpointing the spot where lightning first struck the fretboard of Aly Spaltro's guitar, it's difficult to determine whether Spaltro -- aka Lady Lamb the Beekeeper -- found her voice as we know it in Brooklyn, Boston or Portland, Maine. Ripely Pine, Lady Lamb the Beekeeper's debut out on Ba Da Bing Records, was arranged, recorded and mixed over many a late night in Brooklyn, where she presently resides.

Before moving to New York two years ago, Spaltro was a regular fixture at a handful of rock clubs in Boston, where the primal screams of "Crane Your Neck" rang out over an enraptured, steadily growing fanbase. It was the basement of Bart's & Greg's DVD Explosion, the video store she worked at up in Maine, that Spaltro credits as the place that left the greatest impact on her writing, as it was there that she was able to "get loud" while working on her songs. (Later, she'd give away demos from the store's counter, adopting the Lady Lamb moniker so people wouldn't realize they were hers.)

Snapline Interview: SXSW 2010

Hilary Hughes — 2010-03-15T10:14:00 00:00

The story behind bigger-than-Beijing industrial rock outfit Snapline is one that undiscovered bands everywhere dream about: They were playing one night when a world-class musician and producer caught their set. Next thing they knew, songs of theirs were being mixed in the United States and huge festivals throughout Asia were booking them. Now these lo-fi electronic gurus are prepping for a showcase at SXSW and their undeniably bright future as the next big thing out of China.

Describe the sound of Snapline in your own words.

Low and honest.

Take me through your creative process. Does one member of the band do the majority of the songwriting, or is the effort completely collaborative?

We all write the music together and Chen Xi writes the lyrics.

TarantisT Interview: SXSW 2010

Hilary Hughes — 2010-03-15T09:11:00 00:00

Filed under: Concerts and Tours

The guys of TarantisT have come a long way from days spent jamming out to Megadeath songs in the basement of a Tehran apartment. Since forming a decade ago in Iran with passing their homemade CDs out to friends, Arash and his band of metal-loving musicians have toured Europe, opened for Metallica and played sets at SXSW in previous years. TarantisT are thrilled to be returning to Austin as an official showcasing band, playing tracks off their latest release, Distorted Brain.

Tell me about TarantisT, how did you come to make music together?

Ten years ago, I started TarantisT with my brother and one of my friends in Tehran. We started practicing together, and after awhile we just started writing songs and doing demos and passing them around to our friends. In turn, they'd pass our music around to their friends, and that's how we got fans some publicity. We started getting emails from different media outlets outside of Iran, from all around the world, and it was very weird for us. I mean, it was great - we were shocked that all of these foreign media outlets had found out about us, where meanwhile we were just playing in a basement in Iran! People would actually come to watch us in our rehearsal space. The media started coming to hear us play. We wanted to tour Europe and the United States, and we were accepted at SXSW in 2007, but due to visa problems we couldn't make it to the festival until 2009. Because of more visa problems, other band members were forced to return to Iran. I asked some other friends to play in TarantisT for SXSW in 2009. We had a great show, and that brings us to where we are today.

The transition between living in Tehran and Los Angeles must've been challenging. How has that affected you as a band, with members having to remain in Iran?

That was very hard, moving here. It's a completely new environment. The main problems for us were financial, because we could only do small jobs. Not having established sources of income made it really hard. It was difficult for us to move around because we only had bikes and we didn't have a car, and the temperature in Los Angeles and the rain in the winter all just made it hard.

Marshall Ford Swing Band Interview: SXSW 2010

Hilary Hughes — 2010-02-22T14:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Concerts and Tours

Roots run deep with the Marshall Ford Swing Band: The name of the group is for an old Texas spot that's home to guitarists Greg Harkins and Jeremy Wheeless, who met singer and pianist Emily Gimble while attending a swing band camp named for her grandfather, country music icon and fiddle player Johnny Gimble. After adding bassist Kris Wade and drummer James Gwen, the quintet set out to make their mark on traditional Texas swing with a jazz and blues kick to it. Houses, bars and barns throughout the southern states have rung out with their earnest guitar-pickin' and buttery vocals, but their proudest accomplishment lies in their forthcoming studio release, 'It's About Dam Time.' Spinner recently had the opportunity to catch up with Greg, Emily and Jeremy to talk about 'It's About Dam Time,' their upcoming set at SXSW and their odd truck-stop encounters on tour.

What's the back story of the Marshall Ford Swing Band?

Greg Harkins: Jeremy and I have known each other since high school, and we've been playing guitars together for a long time. We ended up going to Johnny Gimble Swing Camp, which is where we met Emily, and we started playing with her a lot. We got her to move to Austin from Waco, Texas. Eventually, we met Chris, another buddy and musician friend, so he plays bass with us. That's happened over the course of four or five years.

How would you put the sound of the band into words?

GH: I'd say we try to sound like old-school swing in our own new way. We don't follow the rules that older people have laid out there. We try to have an authentic yet original sound.

Who would you say are your musical influences?

Emily Gimble: Collectively, I know that my grandfather, Johnny Gimble, and Willie Nelson have influenced everybody in the band as far as country goes, as has Nat King Cole. As far as singers go, I love Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday a lot.

Are there any songs of yours that you all feel particularly connected to?

GH: Emily's favorite song is 'Pickle and Tomatoes.' Chris's is 'Marie.' We haven't played this song much, but it's my favorite on the album -- it's called 'You're Why,' and it's a song Emily's grandfather wrote. I guess we all have different songs that are our favorites. They're all fun to play, and we try not to judge!

What's your musical guilty pleasure?

EG: I would definitely say Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston. They're good singers and stuff, but some of their music can be a little bit out of control!

GH: I like a lot of '80s music, especially Michael Jackson and Duran Duran.

Jeremy Wheeless: I love Steely Dan and Santana. I will turn on one of their records and rock out.

EG: Yeah, no one's listening to Lady Gaga over here. I've never listened to any of her songs. I've seen pictures of her on TV. I've heard she's actually a good singer.

What's the craziest thing you've seen or experienced while on tour?

GH: We've seen a lot of vomit. And then there was Gloves-On Man.

Gloves-On Man?

EG: Some guy was staring Jeremy down ...

JW: I was driving, and we pulled up to a convenience store around 4:30 or 5 o'clock in the morning. There was this old man in the store, and he was just staring at me. I got out, walked in and said, "Hey, how's it goin'?" And he looks at me and goes, "I don't know, man. I don't know. You've got gloves on, though." We were just like, where the hell did that come from? It was pretty weird.

GH: Yeah, the guys like to go clothes shopping in gas stations. Somebody in the band picked up a reversible vest at a truck stop in Arkansas. I like to buy hats. I found a cowboy hat with an embroidered scorpion on it. You find some amazing stuff at truck stops in small towns.

So, basically, you go treasure hunting at truck stops?

EG: Yup! It's like they think it's a Target or something.

Hilary Hughes is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.