Chapstick Weekly-ish
For the prudent gentleman or gentlelady
NEWS!
July 19th 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.! Savvy Salon on Broad Ripple Avenue is hosting the First Chapstick Weekly Launch Party! There will be Chapsticklips Models, giveaways, unveilings, revelings, and the greatest music you've ever heard, duh!
Check Your Backseat Mix
Light My Fire – The Doors
Rollerdisco – Black Moth Super Rainbow
Mercy – Duffy
Sexx Laws – Beck
Hold On – Hot Chip
Lights & Music (Boys Noize Remix) – Cut Copy
I Created Disco – Calvin Harris
This Boy’s in Love – The Presets
Live Fast! Die Old! (Headman Remix) – Munk
God Kveld – Bjorn Torske
Minuit Jacuzzi (DaTA Remix) – TEPR
Smile Around The Face – Four Tet
The Birds and the Beats – Booka Shade
How Many – Tender Forever
Hey Ya – Obadiah Parker
Albums in my Car
The Doors, Greatest Hits
Beck, Midnight Vultures
Slow Runner, Mermaids
AIR, Moon Safari
Sean Lennon, Friendly Fire
The Little Ones, Sing Song
Interview with Owen from The Elms
I had the privilege of getting to interview Owen from The Elms, and his thoughtful, compelling responses merited a rendering in full. Here it goes!
Oddly, I don't listen to much music these days, so it's probably not that! We're just much more confident than ever before, and it certainly creates a type of fearlessness. I think all the boys in the band are inspired by each other. Everyone in the band plays so well, they're all very capable and in control. For me, I'm just thrilled to do this with these guys, my closest brothers. That's the most inspiring part for me, and all the most precious parts of it are rooted in the time we spend together.
Is this just a continuation of the inspiration that you felt fueled the changes seen in Chess Hotel from your earlier work?
We're notorious for taking too long to make records, so when we made The Chess Hotel, we resolved to have it finished in a matter of weeks. We recorded for 12 days, then mixed in four, and it was done. We're very proud of that record. Now, we're digging a little deeper, searching for the finest songs we can possible write. The record will take some time to make, we're back to our old ways. It's a totally different process from TCH. We'll record a bit, then write a bit. We do it in waves, in cycles. We've got 80 tunes written. I'd love to make a double album, or sell half and give half away free. I think it will wind up being very uplifting lyrically.
It seems like you are still doing a lot of your own promotion, if not the majority of it. What are your thoughts about the music distribution technology out there, i.e. the interweb, MySpace, iLike, HypeMachine, and Muxtape?
We're very hands-on online. We embrace the bulk of what's going on with social sites, but ultimately want our official site to be the hub for our online operation. It's hard for MySpace to not be seen as the priority when bands are so obsessed with how many plays they're getting. It just seems to breed such silly, frivolous competition. Our official site gets far more activity than our MySpace, which is how we like it. It does my ego good when our MySpace is getting thousands of hits versus hundreds, but who cares? Online, we're most dedicated to offering as much interaction and information as possible to people who want it. We can do that on our official site and offer many more amenities to fans of the band. MySpace is just sort of clunky. iLike is more far-reaching, and offers better downloads. But we do what we can to push people back to our official site in order to create our own community.
Does your band benefit from this ease of listener access? Or do you think you lose in potential sales?
We're more interested in people hearing the music than anything. The accessibility online is far more an asset to new bands than a hindrance. We've always released CD's with record labels. People don't realize that in order to see mechanical royalties from your label, or actual dollars from records sold, you have to recoup all costs of making, marketing, and releasing your record. Most bands never enjoy that type of success, you really have to be a superstar act for that to happen. Then, once you do recoup, you're only contractually entitled to a very small percentage of the profit. Most bands live off touring income and publishing royalties, we certainly do. So our priority will always be to get people to shows, get the music used in film and television, or to let people support us in tangible ways, like our online store. Things are sustainable that way.
How important is establishing and maintaining a sort of music community?
Very important. Nowadays, it's probably THE most important thing. The internet has nearly destroyed the idea of the aloof, untouchable rock star. Bands who succeed for more than five minutes are very in touch with their supporters. By in touch, I don't simply mean that they know their fans' desires. I mean they legitimately communicate with them whenever possible. At shows, online, wherever.
How often do you play music with people outside your band?
I don't. I'm not interested in it and have no need for it. The idea of moonlighting doesn't do anything for me. And if I'm being honest, the idea of playing music with guys other than Thom, Chris, and Nathan sounds miserable. This is only a matter of perspective, though. I guess it would just seem to compromise my efforts, and I love the old Pat Riley quote, "You're either in or you're out. There's no such thing as a life in-between."
How important is keeping up with the available technology that is available for musicians to use, i.e. electronic drums, sequencers, synths, loopers, etc.?
We use very little digital equipment as it pertains to our personal gear onstage, maybe just 5%, for things like a guitar pedal or click-track. We do record digitally, though, and it's made the process of recording music very efficient. At one time, we only recorded to analog tape, but found that the sacrifices in sanity and functionality outweighed the sonics, so we go digital in the studio now. It's cheaper too. Most of the guitars and amps we use are older than we are.
Do you ever picture incorporating more electronic instrumentation into your music, even something as common as synth keys or something like that?
Some great records of the last few years have strong electronic elements, like M.I.A. or MuteMath. But again, our band gravitates to simpler, raw stuff. We've had small electronic bits on records before, but it will probably never become a prominent part of our band's sound, unless Chris really starts getting into Kraftwerk, which is unlikely.
From reading about you, it seems that your initial rise in the music ranks was thanks, in part, to the ballooning world of the Christian Rock genre. What other things do you think allowed you to separate The Elms from the pack?
Maybe the gospel genre is thriving, but I don't know about "Christian rock." I don't really have my finger on that pulse. It was funny, though, because we signed a record deal with a gospel label called Sparrow in 2000, right when we were getting started. I mean, when you're 19 and someone offers you a deal, you don't think much about it. Immediately after our first record came out, people were saying things like, "You'll never make it in this market," or, "These people aren't going to understand you." At first, I didn't get what that meant. I thought that if we were good, they'd like it. But it's a very different scene, with much more complicated criteria than just being a good band. We're much happier in front of rock audiences, even though there's a spiritual bent to our music. As far as being separated from the pack goes, we just ended up where we were most likely to thrive, and that wasn't in gospel music.
In a single line, describe what you think your music sounds like. Be as creative as you like (eg. like two trees grown together on the horizon, like the breath you take before jumping into icy cold water, like a German tourist masquerading as a Belgian philanthropist).
That's tough. I guess we just sound like we're trying to do our best Kinks impersonation.
What’s New to Me and Maybe New to You
Duffy
As if you could get enough of the early 70’s soul, reformed, remastered, retried, and reanimated! It’s been more than 30 years, and as a collective, we are all still in the grips of our imaginations, dancing on smoky dancefloors, and Duffy does well to lead us into another funky album where we can dance in tight, short cords, with our arms waving in front of us while watching those that know how to get down in Motown really do it. (Speaking of imagination, I always imagine myself dancing just like them.)
Slow Runner
Although much of their most recent release houses a benign, gentle feeling in thoughtful musical overtones, a shining gem sticks out on this album: “Trying to Put Your Heart Back Together.” This single begins slowly and picks up steam as each next track is added, tracks including a duet female vocalist, dancey percussion, and a heartfelt fill of keyboard and bass. By the end of this song, you’ll be moving your shoulders and singing along to its catchy hook.
The Little Ones
Catchy, straight-forward rock with a good beat, talented musicians, and a great frontman leading the way. This band will catch your attention with their talent, then get you smiling with their angled approach to songwriting, incorporating just the right amount of synth, drum fills, and vocal crescendos to life the proverbial spirits. Their compositions are masterfully put together, with a charm that could only be found, attracted to the Astralwerks label.
In Case You’re a Dummy
Buy the Hot Chip, Made in the Dark album! Hot Chip doesn’t disappoint, building you up to speed within two minutes of the album until you are jerking about, dancing like a cat’s toy on a string. There are even a few lovers’ songs for you softies out there! A little shiny tidbit: Todd Rundgren is sampled on “Shake a Fist” describing a game called Sounds of the Studio (In the words of Willy Wonka, “You’re going to love this, just love it.”). As if you needed a bonus, this album comes with a DVD that gives you a glimpse into the genius that is the Hot Chip live performance. It is indescribable, and you have to see it to believe it.
The Alamo: Beck, Midnight Vultures
Remember Beck, Midnight Vultures? That album that snuck into the mix under the radar, but by the time it left, you were singing in a falsetto you didn’t know you had?
By the end of the first track, you’ll be confused as to what year it is, and, in your disorientation, you’ll be swept away by the sheer momentum of this album. The rolling bass lines, the solid simple beats, and all the sounds that can be managed to be squeezed in between!
Released in 1999 (before the Y2k panic), it shows shades of banjo, slide guitar and other remnants of the former Beck efforts, but it is fully injected with an overdose of 70s disco zeal and an abandonment that gives even the most conservative man freedom to dance, sing, and do all the silly things they usually see everyone else doing. It was the fate of this album to be the one to which all future beck albums would be compared, in terms of diversity, experimentation, and danceability.
Oh yeah, and Debra is on this disk. That’s enough reason to go rooting through the boxes you’ve never unpacked from your last move to get this disk out.
Technology for Sounds: MixWit.com
Mixwit.com. Make a mix online, that you can post on your own page! (I did!) This is going to be very important to you amateur mixologists out there. Get comfortable with this one, because in the near future I’m going to be using it to broadcast your very own, very first, very great Mix EP Competition Extravaganza! Select from a vast catalogue of songs, or upload your own .mp3’s, and put them all on a really cool, strange mix tape electronic creature!
Some Things Are Funny
Like jumping up and down at concerts. I write this at the risk of sounding old. In the sense of old beyond my young years.
Floorboards creaking underneath, the Double Door’s long-awaiting appearance of Crystal Castles was greeted with urgency only the most eager Chicagoan (rhymes with Obiwan) could dish out. Everyone, at the cue of some unseen beehive-pheromone signal, immediately negotiated for a prime position near the stage: this is where jumping up and down is the most enjoyable and effective.
Jumping also allows you to really impress the ladies. The higher you jump, the more vigor and emotion you put into it, really shows the duality of athleticism and sensitivity that the modern young woman can really appreciate.
This poses both a moral and philosophical conundrum: was House of Pain right?
Next Week:
Zero 7, LMNOP, Midnight Juggernauts, and more gloss for those puckering kissers.
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