Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Album Review: MiM0SA - Silver Lining

Originally published in The Deli, Issue #7 (Fall 2010).
Download the PDF version of the magazine here.

MiM0SA
Silver Lining

There is something very fluid about the latest release from MiM0SA called “Silver Lining.” While the first track “The Higher Consciousness,” opens with the sound of sirens, giving an impression of mayhem, the album is very much meticulously organized. The talented producer, also known as, Tigran Mkhitaryan, crafts thoughtfully layered electronic music and is good at introducing new ideas at the right time and place. The layered beats never sound cluttered, overwhelming or forced and there are always interesting lines to follow on each track. Although there is a lot of movement, the overall affect is tranquil. One of the few tracks that features vocals is the standout “Drippin.” Laser beam and space battle sounds build a galactic vibe while crisp drum beats, synth and hip female vocals build imagery of urban nightlife. “Pushing Little Daisies” also features vocals, but short male phrases are more characteristic of dub style. Whether staying in on a rainy night or going out with friends, “Silver Lining” is a pleasant listen.

Album Review: Taylor Locke & The Roughs - Marathon

Originally published in The Deli, Issue #7 (Fall 2010).
Download the PDF version of the magazine here.

Taylor Locke & The Roughs
Marathon

Los Angeles is full of show-off musicians and now Taylor Locke & The Roughs can be added to the list, but in this case, it’s in the most humbling way. Releasing two full-length albums this year, which serve as history lessons for rock ‘n’ roll, the band is proving that it can churn out fun, relatable rock songs with competence and ease. Taylor Locke & the Roughs is comprised of four well-known LA musicians, Locke also plays in Rooney, guitarist Chris Price in the band Price, bassist Charlotte Froom previously played in The Like, and drummer Mikey McCormack is a member of Everybody Else. The sophomore release, “Marathon,” opens with a 6-minute medley of mini-songs where the band showcases all of its influences, from '60s pop harmonies to fast garage rock and gritty Southern twang. Locke and his crew have nothing to hide. They like music that is raw and vintage, sing about girls and write fun sing-along choruses that reflect it.

Album Review: The Sweet Repose - Lay Your Axe to Rest

Originally published in The Deli, Issue #7 (Fall 2010).
Download the PDF version of the magazine here.

The Sweet Repose
Lay Your Axe to Rest

If Drive Thru Records was still releasing music, the Sweet Repose would have most likely been the newest addition to the roster. Wearing their hearts on their sleeves, the three members of the Sweet Repose play music that is somewhere between Saves the Day and the Early November. Vocalist and songwriter Tommy Miller is a vulnerable poet who writes honest lyrics. Like all bands influenced by proper emo, the music on “Lay Your Axe to Rest” projects anguish and signs of internal conflicts. With Sunny Day Real Estate as a main influence, the Sweet Repose layer heartfelt vocals over cascading drums and interject subtle tempo changes within songs. The vocals can comfort a broken heart, but include sporadic wails that can shake you up a bit. Lay Your Axe to Rest makes up in heart where it lacks in polish.

Artist Q&A: Pepper Rabbit

Originally published in The Deli, Issue #7 (Fall 2010).
Download the PDF version of the magazine here.

Between releasing a debut album on Kanine Records, showcasing at CMJ and touring with the Rural Alberta Advantage and Cotton Jones across Canada and the U.S., respectively, 2010 has treated Pepper Rabbit well. With the album “Beauregard,” the duo, consisting of Xander Singh and Luc Laurent, has created a heartfelt and expansive journey of wistful indie rock.

What were some things you saw or people you met that might have inspired songs while recording the album in New Orleans?

Xander Singh: We had a lot of fun recording in New Orleans. The city is so vibrant and full of life that it’s hard not to be inspired by your surroundings. The only story that really made it into a song is “In the Spirit of Beauregard”. I brought my piano to New Orleans all the way from my living room in Silver Lake, and after the journey, we of course had to get it tuned. So the piano tuner showed up and saw my friends dog, Willie. He was so convinced that Willie was the reincarnation of his own dog, Beauregard, that he started talking to Willie as if he was Beauregard. So I started thinking about Beauregard’s story and how he might have died, and the song came to life.

Eight out of the 10 songs on the new album come from previously released EPs. Did you make any changes to the songs? Why should people who have your EPs buy the new album?

Xander: Well the reason we first separated the songs into EPs is that they were mixed and mastered by a few different people. So they sounded sonically very different from each other. With this release, they have been remastered so that they flow more cohesively. And with the track listing, they work a lot better as an ‘album’. There are also 2 extra tracks on the release and there are 2 additional tracks with the iTunes release.

Compared to when this was your solo project, how has the music evolved since Luc has become a band member?

Xander: Having Luc in the process has allowed me to step outside my head a bit. I always come up with a ton, sometimes too many, ideas and Luc really helps me shape them into something that in the end really works well. It’s great to have someone by your side that’s not afraid to tell you when something works and when something doesn’t. And when something doesn’t work it’s nice have the other set of ears to help you make it work.

How did the relationship spark between Pepper Rabbit and Kanine Records and what things about the label made you want to work with them?

Xander: They saw us perform at SXSW in 2010 and we started talking to them fairly immediately after we met. They are great because they really let us do whatever we want. They provide a great support system to the music we want to make. Also their history of finding great artists before most other people do was a huge incentive. A lot of our favorite bands have put
out their first recording with them.

The album’s instrumentation includes, piano, drums, bass, guitar, trumpet, accordion, clarinet, banjo, and ukulele. How are you able to translate that to the live setting?

Xander: It wasn’t easy. After we finished the recordings, we had about a year before we could start touring and playing shows. This gave me the time to map out and gather the equipment for the live show. And it took about a year to do so. We like to keep the personnel small, and only take one other person on the road. We also are not fond of playing to backing tracks. So we use a lot of live looping and employ a trigger pad where Luc triggers samples from. A few songs we have had to rework for the live setting, as the recorded versions wouldn’t translate well in a live setting without a 10 piece band. With three people and all the equipment we have on stage, we have been able to produce and incredibly full and lush sound live, which is something that took a ton of work but I’m really proud of.

How was your tour with Cotton Jones? What shows from that tour stick out in your mind and why?

Xander: It was amazing. Those guys are like family to us now, some of the most amazing people I’ve met in my life. We learned a lot from them. Every night they were so great and so consistent, and they pushed us into being a better live band. It’s great to see a band every day for three weeks and not tire of singing along. One show that sticks out was in Birmingham, AL. It was the fourth show of the tour, and the venue let us stay in the green room, and the Airstream Trailers in the parking lot. We all stayed up until five in the morning skateboarding through the venue, running around and just getting to know each other. It was like touring camp. One of the best nights of my life for sure.

Artist Q&A: Standing Shadows

Originally published in The Deli, Issue #7 (Fall 2010).
Direct link to article
Download the PDF version of the magazine here.

The alternative-rock 4-piece Standing Shadows has been keeping busy with the release of an EP, full-length album and 7". With plans to release a remix EP in late November and another album next year, the band has also had the joy of hearing their music on TV shows like the new "90210" and "The Shield," in addition to a few video games.

How was your experience of writing, engineering and producing the new album yourself?

David Miltenberger: "Five Years of Darkness" was a record that took us about five years to complete, hence the name of the record. We initially started writing and recording the demos in Missouri, where I was currently living, and Los Angeles, where Dan was living. I was working in the oil industry with my family and I would drive a lot to see my customers. This allowed me to listen to our demos in the car, work on lyrics, vocal melodies and whatever else we could possibly add to make the song better. I was listening to a lot of Arcade Fire, Muse, Flaming Lips, and of course, Pink Floyd and Radiohead at that time and would try to make sure our album was as creative and interesting as theirs. Dan was doing the same thing out here in LA. Since he works in the music business, he has a great ear and a sense of how to make sure the song is creative, unique and something people can hold on to.

Dan Silver: We recorded, engineered and produced the record between my studio in Los Angeles and, at the time, Dave’s studio in Missouri. Our process quickly became a ‘postal service’ style record and we had an amazing time putting the pieces together. I spent a lot of time pre-producing the demos with Dave, trying to get all the best ideas in place to eventually re-record the instruments properly. The first few years was all about flying back and forth every few months to create the songs.

David: Once I moved back to Los Angeles in 2009, we re-recorded almost all of the vocals, lots of the guitar parts, added two female background singers, who are in the band SONOS and cello player Ken Oak. Dan found our drummer, got him to record all our drum parts and email them back to us. It's kind of crazy, but I still have not yet met that drummer in person! We sent him the songs, told him what to play and he rocked it within a week or so!

Dan: A friend of mine turned me on to a great drummer, Blair Sinta, who was absolutely incredible to work with in the process. We did the whole thing online through the power of the Internet, sending sessions back and forth until everything was solid.

David: Overall, this recording process was a great experience for us. Sure, it took a lot longer than we wanted, but we are really happy with the results. We focused in on how we wanted this record to sound, what instrumentations to use and how to keep the entire record creative and interesting. Everything on this record has a purpose. With that said, we are definitely not planning on taking another five years to release the next record! We plan on releasing an EP sometime in early 2011.

Dan: This is one of my favorite albums to produce, especially considering all the elements and the way we put this together. It was an unbelievable yet rewarding haul. Regardless if anyone realizes what went into this, we hope people fall in love with the final picture.

In celebration of your 7" release, you did a special set at Origami Vinyl with an expanded line-up of violin and cello. How did that go and is that something you'd like to experiment with more in the future for shows?

David: That show was amazing! We had an awesome cello player, Jeness Johnson, who had just come back from playing in Italy for a few years to join us. She was amazing, such a beautiful tone on that cello. I remember she came in to rehearse with us and we of course asked her to play a song. I think she played some Bach piece and our jaws just dropped. We could sit there for hours listening to that great instrument. We will be adding cello and violin to more of our shows. We hope the fans are as excited as we are to keep our shows unique and as different as possible. With so many great bands out here, we really have to keep our shows exciting and different, so our fans get a new show every time they come and see us. With over 50 shows this past year, we are constantly working to make the shows bigger and better, and this means adding in more -- more synths, live cello and violin, beautiful and melodic female background singers, and more.

What parts of LA did you shoot the video for "Get it Together" and what was the inspiration behind the video?

Dan: We had several locations for the video shoot around Los Angeles. We shot the entire video in one day. We started in Hollywood and then went downtown to the Fashion District. We were hoping to find a place where there was a built in crowd and so we dove right into the massive crowd at Santee Alley. We had a small film crew with us. For a while, the entire crowd surrounding us got really into what we were doing. I was actually playing live guitar while Dave was singing out loud, so the people thought they were part of some live event being filmed. With in minutes, we were stopped by security and got kicked out. Luckily the surrounding areas are ‘public’ streets and we finished several more takes in the area. The inspiration comes from the lyrics of the song. The hook of the song is “we gotta get together," which is what we were trying to get the people on the streets to do.

Dave: The inspiration was to do a video that we're walking down the streets, hanging out, with crazy things going on around us. Lots of different cultures and by the end of the video, everyone is singing along with us when we sing "we gotta get together." It's a positive song about LA and hoping that people can 'get together,' be friends and hang out. We didn't get people to sing with us, but I do think that the result still works. We are walking through all these people, with their lives going on, and we're singing how we want to 'get together' and hang out.

Can you describe the remix contest that you recently held?

Dave
: Ever since we started the song "One Way Ride," we had always felt that this song could work well in a DJ/rave type environment. We don't go to rave parties that often, but between Dan and I, we've hit some cool raves across the globe. Punta del Este in Uruguay, Ibiza, London, LA, and more. Once the record was done, we could finally put the word out, and get some great DJ's to do some remixes. Our PR company recommended the online site Indabamusic.com. We put the song up there and offered some prizes to the winners. That site worked great for us. We got some great remixes and worked with people from all over the world. Dan is endorsed by FXpansion and got the winner an awesome software package.

Dan: We spent a lot of time this summer letting the remixes sink in and deciding how to release them. In the meantime, we also worked with some of our amazing producer friends to also come up with a few remixes that would complete the EP. It’s interesting to see how many ways you can produce the same song. We’re just now finishing the final touches and excited to share with the world soon.

Dave: The ‘One Way Ride Remix EP’ will be released digitally on iTunes on November 30th and includes an amazing variety of remixes. Everything from a DJ house party, to an epic orchestra, to UK techno and more.

What is it about your music that makes it fit for TV and video game synchs?

Dan: Every scene on TV has a specific musical need. With the amount of music being released every day, it’s tough to stand out. The right song gets picked because the hook is saying something about what is going on, the tempo works with the rhythm of the action happening, the tone of the instruments play into the mood of the scenario and so on. The music we write has great energy, whether it’s slow or fast, there’s an emotional quality that drives the music and works well in a cinematic use. Most importantly, we’re writing about messages that everyone can relate to and the sound has something unique that audiences can gravitate to.