Interview: Peter Silberman of the Antlers

I've written about the Antlers before. The band, the creation of singer/songwriter Peter Silberman, has released one of this year's best and most complete albums in Hospice. In the midst of preparing for his summer tour, Silberman found the time to speak with Everybody Taste about finding success in music, transferring Hospice to the stage, and my favorite, if his band were an animal, what kind it would be.

ET: What was the first song that made you want to play music?
PS: "Within You Without You" by The Beatles

ET: Your first concert?
PS: I'm thinking it was Raffi, and I'm hoping it was Raffi, because if it wasn't, it was probably Warped Tour many years ago.

ET: Every musician starts out as a fan. Was there a moment writing or recording when you realized you could really follow through with and make a career out of music?
PS: The first album I recorded by myself (when I was 17, I think) was really electronic, but sort of like a harsher, druggier, weirder & lamer Hospice. Making that album was some of the most fun I've had in my life. I worked on it for months, staying up til 5 drinking coffee and learning how to record on a glitchy pirated copy of Acid Pro. I always wanted to be able to make a career out of music, but never, ever thought it was likely.

ET: Did you ever hit the wall and think about pursuing something else?
PS: All the time. Music has "good days" and "quit days", and usually more of the latter of the former. But any time I try to seriously pursue something else, I realize I'm terrible at it, or that I don't care about it nearly as much as making music.

ET: Using only five words, describe the difference between In The Attic of the Universe and Hospice?
PS: It - is - a - longer - album - !

ET: Was making a concept album something that was planned in advance or did it develop more organically?
PS: It happened right away. The idea for Hospice came before any songs were written, so the songs were written alongside a story, built to follow it and fit into it.

ET: Hospice feels very much like a headphone record--it's incredibly intimate. What's it like transferring those songs to the stage in front of a room full of people?
PS: Well, we work on creating a big sound. We try and fill the room up with a huge amount of sonic space. There's more keyboards, and more building up to explosive things. It's all a bit looser, too, not necessarily confined to follow the record exactly.

ET: How did you find your bandmates Darby Cicci and Michael Lerner?
PS: Michael and I found one another when I was looking to stop playing solo and get a band started. Darby joined the band playing only accessory parts, but in the past year has become the booming, massive sound of the band. He was a friend of someone who used to play bass in the band.

ET: I really enjoy your version of the Magnetic Fields' "Nothing Matters When We're Dancing." It seems like a natural song for you to play. Whether you're at home, recording, or in concert, what's the criteria for picking a cover and do you have a favorite to play?
PS: I think the most important thing about a cover, whether in recording or performing, is changing it. Simple songs are the best for this because you've got the most legroom to drastically change it while still making it recognizable.

ET: Hospice is by far one of my favorite records of the year so far. What's been buzzing in your ears?
PS: Thanks! I think I over-listened the new Dirty Projectors. I loved it too much and needed to take some space from it. I've found myself listening to Knock Knock by Smog everyday for about 2 months as well.

Quick fire round:

ET: What's in the plastic cup while your perform: whiskey, beer, or water?
PS: Usually beer in one cup, water in another. If there's a third cup, it'd be whiskey, but probably not on stage.

ET: Pick one: a sober, drunk, or high audience?
PS: High audience

ET: First album cover art that pops in your head?
PS: The cover of the new Bowerbirds album. It's beautiful and I've listened to it probably ten times today. It completely surprised me.

ET: Finish this sentence: "When not making music, you can find me..."
PS: On my new roof, or building Ikea furniture (I just moved). Or walking around Greenpoint.

ET: If the Antlers were an animal, what would it be?
PS: A dog with bees in his mouth, so that when he barks, he shoots bees at you.

The Antlers - "Bear" (from Hospice)

Buy: Amazon, eMusic, Insound, iTunes

Catfish tries to be a "good man"

Been super busy as I prepare to enter unemployment. Here's a happy sing-along from Catfish Haven's 1970s-inspired catalogue. The painting is by Kristina Collantes. It sort of looks like Catfish Haven's lead singer George Hunter. 

Catfish Haven - "Tell Me" (from Tell Me)

Passion Pit: Bright Colors and High Falsettos

On the Chunk of Change EP, Michael Angelakos mastered lo-fi recordings in his bedroom with an amalgamation of singer/songwriter appeal, synth-pop tones and beats, and a cute back story. On Manners, Passion Pit is now a five-person band and everything is bigger. From the dark, bright and massive synthesizers to the children's chorus, the scale is larger and so are the stakes. After a earning a massive following and subsequent hype via the blogosphere, it's amazing Angelakos delivered an album so fully realized and well-crafted. This is clearly the record the songwriter hinted at in the EP. As a fan, we might miss some of the more intimate moments on Chunk of Change like "Smile Upon Me," but Angelakos's aspirations are high and he's upped the ante. Who knows whether the band will continue its shot up to the stars, but one thing is for sure: Angelakos's burning falsetto can cut through anything that comes his way. And we'll follow him, dancing along the way. 

Passion Pit - "Little Secrets" (from Manners) 

Faith No More: "We Care A Lot"

I first heard Faith No More's "We Care A Lot" on the well-crafted and underrated Grosse Pointe Blank soundtrack put together by none other than the Clash's Joe Strummer. Say what you want about John Cusack's films, but he knows how to deliver good music (High Fidelity: Beta Band, 13th Floor Elevators). Billboard reports that Faith No More's Mike Patton is now working on a soundtrack and audiobook with Alan Moore, the comic book author behind The Watchmen and V For Vendetta. What a trip.

Faith No More - "We Care A Lot" (from We Care A Lot)

Conor Oberst hangs loose with bigger sound

Conor Oberst, the Dylanesque poetry-spewing mind behind Bright Eyes, has gotten some flack for loosening his belt and handing over some vocal and writing duties on his recent Mystic Valley Band collection, Outer South. That talk is bollocks. The band is a rollicking mess of youth, charm, and frustration unleashed by a swell of riffing guitars and flourishes of organ. It's the same recipe paved by the Band when they backed Dylan. Oberst and his merry band of pranksters certainly have not peaked anywhere close to those near-untouchable legends, but their growing catalogue of songs and comfort with experimentation may one day take them somewhere close. Like a poor man's Traveling Wilbury's, Oberst and his band trade vocals along with styles that make the record much more dynamic than the last Bright Eyes outing Cassadaga and much bigger than the Mystic Valley Band debut. Of the non-Oberst songs, my favorite is the simplistic and fun power-pop offering of "Air Mattress." You can hear Oberst singing background vocals. And it sounds like he's having a riot.

Conor Oberst & The Mystic Valley Band - "Air Mattress" (from Outer South)

Fiery Furnaces shake hips at Benton Harbor

After the release of 2006's Bitter Tea from Brooklyn brother-sister duo The Fiery Furnaces, Eleanor Friedberger stated the album was "definitely the poppiest thing we've done." But it's not until the album's last track, "Benton Harbor Blues (Again)," that the statement comes to fruition. From a band that prizes itself on esoteric rambling and dissonant charm, the song's syncopated bass line and clean upstroke of the guitar form an uncharacteristically clear vision of soulful pop. Friedberg's lyrics may tell the story of a convict pondering past regrets on the streets of Benton Harbor, Michigan, but the lightly picked acoustic guitar and gigantic and soaring organ suggest otherwise.

Fiery Furnaces - "Benton Harbor Blues (Again)" (from Bitter Tea)

The Endless Delight of Two Weeks

Chicago designer J Tyler Helms edited footage from French filmmaker Albert Lamorisse's classic short La Ballon Rouge (The Red Balloon) for an unofficial but delightful companion video for Grizzly Bear's "Two Weeks." Lamorisse's use of special effects are pretty amazing for 1956.

Grizzly Bear - "Two Weeks" (Fred Falke remix)

Interview: Here We Go Magic

Celebrated music critic Lester Bangs said, "The first mistake of art is to assume that it's serious." While Brooklyn, New York singer/songwriter Luke Temple may imbue his craft with serious emotions and tone, he doesn't make that mistake: his most recent project Here We Go Magic is colored with doses of psychedelic folk, bubblegum pop, and fistfuls of fairy dust. Recorded in just two months on a four-track, Here We Go Magic is a collection of ambient and experimental soundscapes that Temple has molded into beautifully arranged but barely recognizable song structures. 

Here We Go Magic, both the album title and band name, is Temple's playful alternative reality. The songwriter recently described his song "Fangela" for a DC blog: "It tells a story of a little vampire. He gets away with everything because no one is scared of him. He’s very small and black and hops around." Temple provides glimpses of what songs are about in his lyrics, but nothing as clear as this description. Most often, lyrics are undecipherable amidst layers of looped vocals, echoed and reverberated handclaps, and Temple's own delicate and high falsetto which cuts like a knife through the buttery swells of sound. Instead, the record takes equal amount of imagination from the listener to understand as it did from Temple to create. But then again, art doesn't always need to be understood. Sometimes songs just work.

Temple spoke with Everybody Taste about his early reading habits, playing larger venues opening for Grizzly Bear, and whether or not we're in a musical golden age. 

ET: What was the first song you learned to play and on what instrument? 

Temple: "Smoke on the Water," guitar

ET: What's the name of the first song you ever wrote? 

Temple: "Bionica"

ET: Your music has a lot of fantastical elements to it. Did you read any particular inspiring or influential children's books, fantasy novels or comic books growing up? 

Temple: In high school I was obsessed with the Carlos Castaneda books. They are supposed non fictional accounts of his apprenticeship with a Yaqui Indian sorcerer named Don Juan. They are very hallucinogenic stories dealing with altered states of consciousness.

ET: Do you make Here We Go Magic's art work? I love the painting where you're holding a few little monsters in your arms while a larger horned version of the creature looks on in the distance. Is that a metaphor for anything, or do you just like stealing baby monsters? 

Temple: I did make the Here We Go Magic art work but I think you are mistaking it for the Daytrotter session painting. The Here We Go Magic art is of a crystalline space ship.

ET: What made you want to release something under the name Here We Go Magic in place of Luke Temple? Was that a conscious decision or was it more something the music dictated? 

Temple: The music dictated it more or less, it was such a departure from my previously released stuff that it seemed a fitting vehicle for wearing a new name.

ET: How did you go about finding the right musicians to bring your project to a live setting? Is that a difficult process? 

Temple: Friends and friends of friends. It has been a lot of work but incredibly rewarding.

ET: In terms of music, 2008 and 2009 have been rich full of talent and originality. Do you think we're due for some sort of golden age in music? People say hard times inspire great art. Or maybe the internet gives ears to great art. What do you think? 

Temple: I think that it's a golden age in terms of a accessibility due to the internet, however there is not as much quality control as there once was. I do like how the music being made now is coming from influences that were not as accessible in the past. It seems that there is a hunger for exploring different kinds of forms. Form is a great place to start but emotional transference comes through maturity. I am eager to see what happens as my generation matures within the next 10-15 years.

ET: Best album you picked up recently? 

Temple: Cass McCombs' Dropping the Writ

ET: Opening for Grizzly Bear, I imagine you'll be playing bigger venues than you're used to. Will that change anything about the way you and the band perform? 

Temple: We shall see. I think we are equipped to deal with it quite nicely. It's gonna be a trial and error thing at first, but I think we have the potential to sound large so a larger venue could be beneficial to making that happen. Then again, we like playing basements.

Quick fire round:
ET: What goes in the plastic cup during a show: whiskey, beer, or water? 

Temple: Any of the above at any given moment.

ET: Use one word to describe each of the following: Animal Collective, Bram Stroker, Barack Obama.

Temple: bright, hair, ears. 

ET: The first song you play when introducing someone to your music? 

Temple: It's always changing, right now maybe "Fangela." I'm very proud of that song.

ET: Favorite artist that sounds nothing like you?

Temple: Ol' Dirty Bastard

ET: If Here We Go Magic were an animal, what would it be? 

Temple: Peacock

Here We Go Magic - "Tunnelvision" (from Here We Go Magic)

Introducing Toro Y Moi

From the opening bright and fuzzy chords to the self-harmonizing vocals and layers of distorted and quickly plucked guitar riffs, the song "109" quickly becomes a mesmerizing pop diamond from the low fidelity rough. The song was recorded by South Carolina's Chaz Bundick, lead singer of the rock band The Heist and The Accomplice. "109" though is part of a collection of songs Bundick records under the name Toro Y Moi, a solo project he first started when he was 16 years old. Now a 22-year-old college graduate with time on his hands, Bundick says its time to take the project further. Keep an ear out.  

Toro Y Moi - "109"

Fanfarlo make classic pop with Reservoir

I don't know what Fanfarlo means semantically, but I do know what it sounds like: orchestrated pop music with lush swells of horns, frenzied mandolin, battered drums, splashes of guitar, and a voice in the same slurred-vein as Alec Ounsworth of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. But while CYHSY drove into a brick wall after the release of its successful eponymously-titled debut, this London-based troupe seems to have its heals dug firmly into the earth. Formed in 2006 by Swedish musician Simon Balthazar, the band released its debut LP Reservoir in February. If I had a star rating system I'd give it five big fat ones. Buy it.

Fanfarlo - "Luna" (from Reservoir)

Iran: "Buddy, what's wrong?"

I first heard TV on the Radio through actress Juliette Lewis's iTunes celebrity playlist in 2005. One of the five songs was "Staring At The Sun." "Epic chorus," she said. "Makes me think of water and glaciers." I hit the preview button and the deals been sealed ever since.

My love for the band's walls of guitars, unpredictable and experimental vocals, and aggressively original style of pop music first led me through the normal fan route of live shows and record collecting. Eventually, I youtubed MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch claymation show which singer Tunde Adebimpe animated; I watched the film Rachel Getting Married which Tunde costars in and sings an a cappella version of Neil Young's "Unknown Legend"; I listened to the bare-bones rock of Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson which singer/guitarist Kyp Malone produced. But most recently, I found myself listening to the low fidelity Iran, the band Malone played in before joining TV on the Radio.

In February, the group released its third LP, Dissolver. While Malone contributes on guitar and background vocals, the band is primarily the work of Aaron Aites (above right). Aites started Iran in 1998 in his San Francisco bedroom with a four-track. Now with Dissolver, the group's first release since 2003's The Moon Boys, Aites is leaving behind some of his well-worn grit and fuzz for a cleaner and more accessible sound. The album's standout track "Buddy" is the best place to start: a melancholy and doo-wop-tinged layering of sonic goods, complete with the light pattering of a piano, crashing symbols, splattered guitar chords and the frenzied pluck of its strings, and the deep-throated tone and quivering cadence of Aites.

Iran - "Buddy" (from Dissolver)

Wafts of light from the Suckers

Howling background chants, large landscapes filled with the quiet pattering of a piano, soaring trumpet melodies, and a distant and large swelling guitar. On "It Gets Your Body Movin"—somewhere amidst the mess of their own pop-infused chaos—the strained voices of Brooklyn's Suckers unleash fistfuls of sunshine. The band's debt four-song EP, released in April off I Am Sound Records, is experimental pop music at its best. Look past the terrible name and the goofy get-up: this a band worth keeping an eye on. 

Suckers - "It Get's You Body Movin'" (from Suckers EP)

Sour Whiskey: Port O'Brien's "Whiskey Song"

The Bay Area's Port O'Brien sound as if they're from a different era: where the melodies are still longwinded and sweet, hair grows and stays long, and people drunkenly dance and sing old folk songs into the early morning light. The band--comprised of a commercial fisherman, baker, and two cannery workers--tell earnest stories ("Fisherman's Son") that paint the songwriters' well-worn landscapes ("Stuck on a Boat"). While the group-sung and high-energy "I Woke Up Today" is easily the band's best song, it's the quietly addictive melody of "Whiskey Song" off the band's two-song Winter release that always seeps into my brain, lingering for days at a time. [note: the picture above is an ink and watercolor work by artist Matt Leines] 

Port O'Brien - "Whiskey Song" (from Winter)

Digging for Covers: Feist - "Lover's Spit"

The song "Lover's Spit" first appeared in 2002 on Broken Social Scene's second album, You Forgot It In People. Written and sung by founding-member Kevin Drew, the song's about the passing of meaningless affairs and relationships for something more, like love. In the 2004 b-sides compilation, Bee Hives, the song reappears with Leslie Feist on vocals. That same year, Feist stopped by the Black Sessions broadcast by Radio France and recorded this sparse take. While it doesn't have the emotional grandiosity of the original, Feist's blunt and tender voice and electrified clean guitar give the song a quiet and determined weight. 

All these people drinking lover's spit
They sit around and clean their face with it
And they listen to teeth to learn how to quit
Tied to a night they never met

You know it's time
That we grow old and do some shit
I like it all that way

All these people drinking lover's spit
Swallowing words while giving head
They listen to teeth to learn how to quit
Better take some hand and get used to it

You know it's time
That we grow old and do some shit
I like it all that way

Feist - "Lover's Spit" (BSS cover)

Show review: Vetiver at Iota, May 2nd

“Oh what a good day to go fishing,” quietly crooned Vetiver’s Andy Cabic with his eyes closed and lips quietly working around and accentuating every syllable. "I Must Be In a Good Place Now," originally recorded by Bobby Charles in 1972, was the perfect opener to a night of inspiredly lazy and breezy 60's- and 70's-era folk.

As the band’s founder and scraggly bearded songwriter, Cabic's stamp is of a timeless and oft-forgotten brand of music. In last year's covers record Thing Of The Past, Cabic dusted off a collection of buried classics like Loudoun Wainwright's "Swimming Song" and Towns Van Zant's "Standin'." What started out as a fun way to shed light on under-appreciated songwriters became something even more important for Vetiver: practice. The band, named after a grass native to India, honed their musical chops on the record and transferred those skills to this year's wonderfully crafted Tight Knit.

From "Rolling Sea"—a quiet ballad about sailing—to "Everyday"—a work of pure summer bliss—the band picked generously from Tight Knight to rock the crowd into a dreamy and tuneful haze. Even the chord-changing frenzy and swinging bass of "More Of This" and the funky psychedelia of "Another Reason To Go" couldn't shake the quiet crowd from its concentrated slumber. But that was the point: Vetiver doesn't require nor attract any hollering or drunken conversation, just an enjoyment of great songs—both old and new. The only thing missing was a couple of benches to comfortably park down on and a peace pipe to pass around.

Vetiver - "I Must Be In a Good Place Now" (from Thing Of The Past)

Checking in with Taylor Rice of Local Natives

Silverlake, California's Local Natives haven't released a single record and yet the unsigned band has already built a devoted following through word of mouth and social media (Twitter, blog, Myspace), packed venues at SXSW, recorded a session at Daytrotter, and scored countless favorable reviews. The reason: the vocal-driven quintet produces layers of lush harmony over sharp arrangements and tribal-influenced percussion that brings to mind a controlled and highly soothing chaos. Also, it sounds good.

Vocalist/guitarist Taylor Rice recently checked in with Everybody Taste and was kind enough to shed some light on his listening habits, touring experience in Canada, and what an Okapi is.

First song you learned to play and on what instrument?
"Iron Man" by Black Sabbath on guitar.

You're stuck on a deserted island and you only have one album. What is it?
Damn this question! Ok I choose a 4.7 GB dvd with The Beatles catalogue.

Favorite new album?
Veckatimest by Grizzly Bear
Noble Beast by Andrew Bird
Actor by St Vincent

Favorite place to write music?
In the practice space with the band. It's also the most frustrating place to write music because everyone is quite opinionated, but that's how we produce the best material.

Best show so far this tour?
The absurdly named Funky Winkerbeans in Vancouver, Canada hands down. A blog from up there called Winnie Cooper not only hosted the show, they provided shelter for us and our tour mates the Union Line for two nights. We even got to play street hockey with a bunch of Canadians. The show was really fun and followed by an exuberant dance party.

When can we get our hands on the record and will it be self-released?
We'll likely release the album in the fall. No exact plans yet as to how or who will release it.

If the Local Natives were an animal, what would it be?
A Okapi, which resembles a cross between a zebra, a giraffe, and an antelope. Gotta stay true to our eclecticism.

Local Natives - World News (from Gorilla Manor)

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