The first record by Washington D.C. post-punks Priests, Bodies and Control and Money and Power, was a great kick in the junk in 2014 and is still hits hard now.
The opener, “Design with Reach,” has blaring guitar by G.L. Jaguar while vocalist / firebrand Katie Alice Greerreminds us all of our mortality and Taylor Multiz‘s bass is the rumble of a hearse and Daniele Daniele‘s drums are the footsteps of the Grim Reaper. “I’m not sure I should be talking to you,” Greer sings on “Doctor” – a witty tune about how words can quickly trip up a relationship (“You put your fingers in other people’s mouths all day. Don’t you, Doctor?”).
“New” is blaring punk rock that has some of Greer’s most dangerous vocals and riffs from Jaguar that almost clang like a skillet hitting you in the head. “Powertrip” is even faster. Mulitz’s bass runs all over the room and Daniele’s drums are pure punk bliss.
“Modern Love / No Weapon” dares you to tame it. It just comes at you like a four-headed hydra while you’re armed with a toothbrush. “I think about you all the time,” Greer sings / yells in a tone that’s more menacing than seductive. The groove on “Right Wing” (on which Jaguar and Multiz swap instruments) is great while Greer tells us to “Worship me, politely.” and that she’s “not trying to be anything.”
The album ends with the bonkers “And Breeding,” with Greer chastising all of us for spending most of our time “fucking and breeding” and “trying to understand” why we’re so attached to our cubicle mazes. “I know what we gotta do,” she says before she proceeds to verbally trash Elvis Presley, Madonna, and other icons to which we compare ourselves for no good reason whatsoever.
It’s seven songs of rage, riffs, and rock. What more could you want? Priests have, for the time being, amicably called it quits, but at least we have this and other fine records from them to appreciate.
It was a chilly Monday night, but not unbearable. It was downright balmy for a Chicago winter. Despite the cold and the early night of the week, Schuba’s had a good-sized crowd for the art-punk / no wave night of music featuring Chicago’s own Jungle Green and Brooklyn bands The Wantsand BODEGA.
Jungle Green took the stage first with a dizzying set of no wave bedroom rock that instantly reminded me of Gary Wilson tunes with their themes of love and romance and performance art strewn throughout the show. The lead singer spent the whole set in the crowd and the rest of the band swapped instruments so many times that I lost count of how many times who played what. In other words, it was a lot of fun.
One configuration of Jungle Green
The Wants played a stunning set of dark shoegaze that reminded me of a mix of Joy Division and The Fixx. Heather (bass and vocals), Madison (guitar and vocals), and Jason (drums) made jaws drop for their whole set and had everyone eager to hear their full-length album due next month.
The Wants
BODEGA (which includes The Wants’ Heather and Madison in its ranks) wrapped up the night with a wild, fun, fiery set peppered with brief, amusing discussions on Oscar Wilde, advertising, and film. I think the audience was secretly thankful for these funny chats lead singer Ben Hozie had with the audience because the talks gave us all time to breathe. BODEGA let up during these breaks from a pedal-to-the-metal set of post / art-punk and no wave bangers like “Name Escape” – which featured their friend / fellow Brooklynite / rapper Kaheim Rivera (who played Chicago’s Empty Bottle two nights later) doing two freestyle riffs during the song – and the always wall-flattening “Truth Is Not Punishment.”
BODEGA
It was a great way to spend a Monday night and worth the drive in the cold. Catch BODEGA if you can, and look for The Wants to tour the UK later this year.
Keep your mind open.
[Thanks to Patrick Tilley for setting me up with press credentials for the show.]
For a small place, Ft. Wayne, Indiana’s Brass Rail can pack in a lot of sound. This show of indie shoegaze and psychedelic acts was no exception.
First up was local band Leones, who played a good set of bass-forward shoegaze with thick Latinx psychedelic touches.
Leones
Second on the bill were Chicago’s Diagonal. I’ve been a fan of the band for a while now and was happy to finally catch them live. They played a sold psychedelia set of mostly new material from their upcoming album. One of the funniest parts of their set was how they kept referring to Gary Numan and playing parts of “Are Friends ‘Electric’?” after I played it on the Brass Rail’s juke box while they were doing their sound check.
Diagonal
Closing out the night was Ft. Wayne’s Necromoon, who are not a Dead Moon cover band. They play a mellower version of psychedelia than Dead Moon (and to be fair, few bands can match Dead Moon’s raw power) but still put out a lot of sound as they played songs about love and death and other subjects with a bright hope to them.
Necromoon
All in all, it was a fun night of live music in a small venue and a nice oasis in the dead of winter.
Rage Against the Machine have announced their first full tour in almost ten years, starting with three shows in the American southwest that will benefit immigrant charities. Most of the tour includes opening support from Run the Jewels, and there’s also a headlining spot for RATM at Coachella this year. Tickets are on sale now, and I’m sure many dates (if not all of them) will sell out. Here’s the list:
03-26 El Paso, TX – Don Haskins Center 03-28 Las Cruces, NM – Pan American Center 03-30 Glendale, AZ – Gila River Arena 04-10 Indio, CA – Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 04-17 Indio, CA – Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 04-21 Oakland, CA – Oakland Arena 04-25 Portland, OR – Moda Center 04-28 Tacoma, WA – Tacoma Dome 05-01 Vancouver, BC – Pacific Coliseum at the PNE 05-03 Edmonton, Alberta – Rogers Place 05-05 Calgary, Alberta – Scotiabank Saddledome 05-07 Winnipeg, Manitoba – Bell MTS Place 05-09 Sioux Falls, SD – Denny Sanford Premier Center 05-11 Minneapolis, MN – Target Center 05-14 Kansas City, MO – Sprint Center 05-16 St. Louis, MO – Enterprise Center 05-19 Chicago, IL – United Center 05-23 Boston, MA – Boston Calling 06-19 Dover, DE – Firefly 07-10 East Troy, WI – Alpine Valley Music Theatre 07-13 Detroit, MI – Little Caesars Arena 07-17 Ottawa, Ontario – Ottawa Bluesfest 07-18 Québec City, Québec – Festival d’Été de Québec 07-21 Hamilton, Ontario – FirstOntario Centre 07-23 Toronto, Ontario – Scotiabank Arena 07-27 Buffalo, NY – KeyBank Center 07-29 Cleveland, OH – Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse 07-31 Pittsburgh, PA – PPG Paints Arena 08-02 Raleigh, NC – PNC Arena 08-04 Washington, DC – Capital One Arena 08-07 Camden, NJ – BB&T Pavilion 08-10 New York, NY – Madison Square Garden 08-11 New York, NY – Madison Square Garden 08-28 Leeds, England – Leeds Festival 08-30 Reading, England – Reading Festival 09-01 Paris, France – Rock En Seine Festival 09-04 Stradbally Laois, Ireland – Electric Picnic Festival 09-06 Berlin, Germany – Lollapalooza Berlin Festival 09-08 Prague, Czech Republic – O2 Arena 09-10 Krakow, Poland – Tauron Arena
Girl Talk, aka Pittsburgh’s Gregg Gillis, is excited to announce his first North American tour in eight years. Throughout the past two decades, Girl Talk has been known for his wholly energetic, sweat soaked, confetti-covered live shows and festival performances. Once again, he will bring this exuberance across the states, playing Chicago’s Metro, Los Angeles’ Echoplex, the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C., and more. A full list of dates can be found below and tickets go on sale later this week at girltalkmusic.com.
Gillis built his reputation from his meticulous construction of sample-based music and specific style of genre-smashing, breakneck-paced party jams. With each Girl Talk album, from his breakout Night Ripper (2006) to Feed The Animals (2008) and his last, All Day(2010), his work has become increasingly detailed and complex. The last several years have seen Gillis focusing on collaborative work producing hip hop for some of his favorite rap artists. In 2014, he and Philadelphia’s Freeway released the “Broken Ankles” EP, and since then, Gillis has steadily earned an impressive list of production credits and collaborations with his artistic contemporaries, including Wiz Khalifa, T-Pain, Tory Lanez, Young Nudy, Bas, Cozz, Erick The Architect (from Flatbush Zombies), Smoke DZA, and Don Q.
As Noisey so aptly describes him, “The tracks he’s released over the last year show, more than anything, that Gillis is adaptable as a producer. The people he’s worked with are about as different as you can get in the wider rap world, but no matter the circumstance, he’s been able to find palettes that work for each of their voices. . . Given the encyclopedic knowledge of music from across styles and eras, it’s not all that surprising that he’s good at this.“
Girl Talk Tour Dates: Wed. April 29 – Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues Fri. May 1 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE Sat. May 2 – Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Theatre Sun. May 3 – Chicago, IL @ Metro Tue. May 5 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue Thu. May 7 – Kansas City, MO @ The Truman Fri. May 8 – Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre Sat. May 9 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot Mon. May 11 – Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom Tue. May 12 – Seattle, WA @ The Showbox Wed. May 13 – Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom Fri. May 15 – Los Angeles, CA @ Echoplex Sat. May 16 – San Diego, CA @ House of Blues Mon. May 18 – Austin, TX @ Emo’s Austin Tue. May 19 – Dallas, TX @ Granada Theater Thu. May 21 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel Fri. May 22 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club Sat. May 23 – Boston, MA @ Royale Sun. June 7 – New York, NY @ Governors Ball
“Lahey may be stuck in the thick of it now, but her ability to see as though she’s already beyond, to address life’s essential contradictions with thoughtfulness and humor, makes her an insightful storyteller.” — Pitchfork
“There’s an immediacy to Alex Lahey’s music so urgent that it’ll hook you before you even notice it’s happening.” — GQ
“Alex Lahey is quickly becoming the queen of big, catchy pop-rock hooks” — MTV News
Today, Melbourne-based songwriter Alex Lahey releases a new track, “Sucker For Punishment.” “Sucker For Punishment” follows her sophomore album, The Best of Luck Club, “a witty and confessional pop-punk gem” (Uproxx), out now on DeadOceans. The song, about self-delusion, is written from the perspective of the deluded. Throughout, Lahey’s exasperated vocals are backed by buzzing guitar and a jaunty bass line.
“We’re living in an era we’re the micro has become the macro,” says Lahey. “I don’t think there has ever been a time where our actions and attitudes as individuals have had such an impact on broader humanity and the planet. Whether it’s a ‘think about it later’ attitude towards climate change, the undemocratic consequences of sharing personal data to big business online, a lethargicness in the face of political engagement or the need to be validated as a worthwhile individual through obtaining arbitrary units of engagement on social media – we need to catch ourselves out before we suffer greater consequences.”
In conjunction with the new single, Lahey is pleased to announce she’ll return stateside for a for a slew of tour dates along the west coast, kicking off the run in San Diego on Sat. May 30 at Casbah. All new dates go on-sale Fri. Feb. 14 at 10am local time. A full list of tour dates are below.
Alex Lahey Tour Dates (new dates in bold): Fri. March 13 – Nottingham, UK @ Rescue Rooms ^ Mon. March 16 – Glasgow, UK @ The Garage ^ Tue. March 17 – Manchester, UK @ Gorilla ^ Wed. March 18 – Birmingham, UK @ O2 Academy2 Birmingham ^ Thu. March 19 – London, UK @ Electric Ballroom ^ Sat. March 21 – Amsterdam, NE @ Paradiso Noord ^ Sun. March 22 – Antwerp, BE @ Kavka ^ Mon. March 23 – Hamburg, DE @ Molotow ^ Tue. March 24 – Düsseldorf, DE @ Zaak ^ Thu. March 26 – Mainz, DE @ Kulturklub schon schön ^ Fri. March 27 – Paris, FR @ Nouveau Casino ^ Wed. April 15 – Adelaide, AU @ Thebarton Theatre * Fri. April 17 – Fremantle, AU @ Fremantle Arts Center * Mon. April 20 – Sydney, AU @ Enmore Theatre * Wed. April 22 – Brisbane, AU @ The Fortitude Music Hall * Fri. April 24 – Melbourne, AU @ Forum Theatre * Sat. April 25 – Melbourne, AU @ Forum Theatre * Tue. April 28 – Hobart, AU @ Odeon Theatre * Sat. May 30 – San Diego, CA @ Casbah Sun. May 31 – Costa Mesa, CA @ The Wayfarer Mon. June 1 – Los Angeles, CA @ Moroccan Lounge Tue. June 3 – San Jose, CA @ The Ritz Fri. June 5 – Oakland, CA @ Starline Social Club Crystal Cavern Sat. June 6 – Sacramento, CA @ The Starlet Room at Harlow’s Mon. June 8 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios Tue. June 9 – Seattle, WA @ Barboza
Hull-based indie rockers Girl Afraid released their rocking new track, “Dutch Courage” on February 7th.
First we had Hull-based LIFE, who took the U.K by storm and now we have Girl Afraid who are storming onto the British indie scene. Their sound draws influences from the likes of Queens of the Stone Age to fellow indie newcomers Fontaines D.C. Nevertheless, they have crafted a remarkably inimitable sound of their very own.
As its title indicates, “Dutch Courage” oozes confidence from the very start. It’s a hard hitting track with huge drums which would make even the sternest of listeners tap their foot. Also slick guitar riffs which take a new dimension of early indie as well an awe-inspiring vocal from front man Sam Mellors.
Girl Afraid are taking no hostages with this release. Therefore, if you are seeking the finest catchy indie rock then look no further than “Dutch Courage.”
Detroit’s Shadow Show(Kate Derringer – bass, Ava East – guitar, and Kerrigan Pearce – drums) mix 1960’s garage rock with psychedelia and post / art-punk to create their debut album Silhouettes.
The album’s songs deal a lot with perception and illusion. The band’s and album’s names represent things that are real yet unreal. The first track on the record, “Charades,” begins with Pearce’s rapid-fire drumming and then dives into lyrics like “I could be you, you could be me. I could be anything I see.” The fiery “Contessa” is a tribute to a fiery ex-lover who deals in deception (and hot love that sometimes makes it worth it, to be honest). Derringer’s bass on “Green Stone” is as funky as Donald Dunn‘s on “Green Onions.”
An alchemist is someone who, among other things, seeks ways to transform one element to another. It’s another reference to altering perception and reality. The song “The Alchemist” has a cool underlying fuzz to it and lyrics about seeing “the center of your mind.” “Shadow Box” refers to something preserved for all to see, but yet still entrapped. The lyrics refer to a lover who couldn’t see and think outside the box and thus screwed up the good thing they had.
The deft “Trapeze Act” moves and glides like its namesake as a relationship is compared to death-defying stunts. East knows when to let her guitar take the lead and when to swing it back, and the reverbed vocals near the end are a great touch. Her guitar takes on a bit of bluesy swagger on “Glass Eye” (another title alluding to false images and altered perception). “Dreamhead” opens with dreamy acoustic guitar (and, I suspect, acoustic bass) for a groovy trip that discusses how some secrets are best left that way.
The opening riffs of “The Machine” remind me of old Love and Rockets tracks and even seem to have a bit of Middle Eastern flair in them. The words “There are times you keep me hanging on…” start the closer, “Silhouette.” It’s a song about finally seeing truth and reality in a relationship and realizing that going along the path that’s been set will only result in becoming a shadow of what you once were.
Silhouettes is a lovely, groovy, sexy, and somewhat dark record that I suspect has many layers that will reveal themselves over multiple listens. Don’t miss the Shadow Show.
Rebsie Fairholm and Marvin B. Naylor have released the charismatic new single ‘Ark’ taken from their forthcoming album.
Rebsie is an artist who delves into a dark realm of psych-folk while Marvin comes from a background of early indie and pop. Combined together and they have created a hybrid sound which cannot be sniffed at.
The track kicks off with a guitar hook which grabs you and does not let go. Vocally, the pair complement each other both mirroring their words with confidence. It’s a catchy number, one which does not leave you for some time and for the right reasons. It’s a very British sounding 70s influenced track but yet it stays current to the modern scene providing just about something for everybody.
A song which delivers a story about finding something amazing unexpectedly ‘finding rainbows in the dark’. Well, this collaboration comes as a surprise but yet it works very well.
If you are seeking the finest indie folk then look no further than this release from Rebsie Fairholm & Marvin B Naylor. You can buy the single here https://rebsiefairholm.bandcamp.com/album/ark.
I recently chatted with Ben Hozie, guitarist, lead singer, and co-songwriter of Brooklyn art-punks BODEGA (who play at Schuba’s in Chicago tomorrow night) while he strolled along Park Avenue in New York City after having left a classical guitar lesson. Our conversation covered everything from the band’s attitude toward performance to the Zen of airports.
7th Level Music: I’m really looking forward to the Schuba’s show.
Ben Hozie: Yeah, that should be good.
7LM: I’m also really looking forward to seeing (guitarist) Madison [Velding-Vandam] and (bassist) Heather [Elle] with The Wants (who, along with Chicago’s Jungle Green, will open the Schuba’s show).
BH: Their band is super cool, super fun.
7LM: The first couple tracks I’ve heard are really good.
BH: They’re a really fun live band, too. It almost becomes a techno show. They have these super hard edge grooves.
7LM: I’ve been listening to the [BODEGA] albums again and again building up to the show, and I keep thinking that Heather might be your band’s secret weapon.
BH (laughing): Yeah.
7LM: Her bass grooves, every time I hear them I think, “Damn, she is laying that down!” Everybody in the band is just killer. I know that you and Madison and (original drummer) Montana [Simone] and (co-lead singer, percussionist, keyboardist, art director) Nikki [Belfiglio] and Heather all met through the art and music scene there in New York City, isn’t that right?
BH: Yeah, we all had a bunch of different bands at the time who all knew each other. We were also doing different kinds of things, making films together. Like any creative world, everybody is doing a little bit of something.
7LM: Is that how you also met (new drummer) Tai [Lee]?
BH: No. I actually met Tai because Tai came to one of our shows. She was kind of into the band, and Tai’s a super smart person so we were talking about philosophy and hanging out. I asked, “What do you do?” and she said, “I’m in this show STOMP.” She was a drummer and dancer. I think she came to another BODEGA show and we realized she was wanting to do something away from STOMP and it just so happened that was when Montana was wanting to focus more on her fine art. She does sculpture and paintings. So that was a very easy transition. It was like, “Why don’t you just quit STOMP and be in our band?”
7LM: Speaking of philosophy, that’s one of the things I love about your music – your approach to radical honesty and impermanence and presence. I’ve been writing a book about impermanence and presence and I reference “Truth Is Not Punishment” in the book. That’s such a powerful tune.
BH: Thank you.
7LM: On the new album, Shiny New Model, one of the first lines is, “Ben, what’s the deal with all these ATM’s?” I couldn’t help but think that came out of a real conversation.
BH: Of course. For whatever reasons, I’ve been obsessed with ATM’s. In our band before BODEGA, Bodega Bay, we even had two songs called “ATM.” I make films, too (Pretorius Pictures), and in almost all my films I make sure to have shots of ATM’s, not only because I like the way they look but I think they’re a potent metaphor. Somebody eventually got around to asking and I thought, “Well, I gotta answer them.”
7LM: By the way, I watched Little Labyrinth. Nicely done.
BH: Oh wow! That’s great. Madison and Nikki are in that one.
7LM: It was really nice. Another thing that song reminded me of is that I’ve been reading all this stuff and kind of obsessed lately with this idea of “non-places” like airports and hotels where people don’t really reside in them, and I’ve been seeing all this information on how everything’s becoming the same. How every coffee shop has to look like a Brooklyn coffee shop now and how our phones make every place into the same place, and I love this love-hate relationship with technology that you approach in your songs.
BH: I kind of romanticize those places. It’s one of my favorite things about tours, hanging out in airports and motels. There’s something really dreamy about all the glass. It’s kind of awful in some sense, but I kind of enjoy it. There’s something very Zen about being in those places. It’s like, “Nothing is happening here except for a bunch of transitory moments.”
7LM: I also love the way that you and Nikki and everybody else incorporate so much art and sexuality into the songs and the performances. I think a lot of that’s missing from a lot of live bands right now.
BH: Yeah, especially in the indie rock world. We’re still too much into that 90’s thing where you just wear your work clothes onstage and it’s not cool to try hard. Not only is it not fun, but that’s a privileged position. If somebody’s paid money to see you, you’d better entertain them.
7LM: Yes. I read a quote from Benny Goodman not long ago that pretty much says the same thing. If you’re gonna get up there, you gotta bring it.
BH: The sexuality of it, that can mean a lot of different things. One of the things that’s gotten so boring about rock and roll is that it’s not sexy. Obviously, it became sexy in a really gross way. We all know what that means, but sex is an essential part of what rock and roll is. The idea of a liberated sexuality. That was one of Nikki’s main ideas when we started the group, “We have to be sexy, but in a new way.” Whatever that means. We’re always experimenting. That’s always a loaded word, but I think you can smell what I mean.
7LM: Speaking of your music and art, I saw the clip of the [Paris] fashion show with “Name Escape.” That was perfect. Seeing all these dudes who look exactly the same coming out during that song, I thought, “This is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.”
BH (laughing): I gotta tell ya, that was one of the most surreal moments of my life. Sitting with all these high-fashion people and to hear a song we recorded in our practice space being blasted in front of all these people and to feel like, “How are we here? What ripple in the Matrix did we accidentally blip into?”
7LM: Speaking of Paris and Europe and that part of the world, I listen to BBC 6 Radio a lot and “Jack in Titanic” was all over that station. They loved that track.
BH: Yeah, thank God for BBC 6. They made it so we can tour Europe now.
7LM: I can’t remember, have you toured Europe already?
BH: Yeah, five or six times now. We tour there more than we do America because, for whatever reason, we have way more fans over there now.
7LM: Have you discovered countries where you’re popular and you wonder, “How did you hear of us?”
BH: Yeah, France is like that and to a certain extent the Netherlands is like that. It all started with the BBC 6 thing. I also think that maybe since Europe’s smaller, information travels faster. We have a lot of support in pockets of America, but for however long it takes us to get to Minneapolis or Nashville, everywhere in-between has not a fucking clue.
7LM: Getting back to your film work, I loved “I Am Not a Cinephile,” and when I found out you were a film maker, I loved it even more.
BH: That song came from me hanging out with academic film people. That’s kind of my background. I studied film history and film theory and film philosophy in college, and I do genuinely love that stuff but I remember having a dinner with a couple older guys who were so obnoxious in their cinephilia in a way that was not even aware of the joys of cinema. I just left that dinner thinking, “If that’s what cinephila is, I don’t like it.” There’s a good documentary called Cinemania, have you heard of it?
7LM: I’ve heard of it somewhere.
BH: It came out ten or fifteen years ago. It’s about this group of people in New York who go to every single repertory screening every day in New York City and they’re still doing it right now. If you go into a lot of art houses of New York, you’ll still see these characters. They have such an OCD regarding cinema, they’ll be like, “Okay, there’s a [Jean-Luc] Godard playing at eleven at MOMA, but if I take a cab I can make it to the one-thirty [Stanley] Kubrick over in the Bronx, and okay, there’s a thirty-five millimeter John Ford print showing…” and I don’t know how these people can afford it because they clearly don’t work. They just sit in the movies all day. The movie really shows you how these people are just addicted to the screen in a weird way. They have incredible taste in movies, obviously, but it’s like, “Haven’t you seen them already?” It’s really bizarre. Godard is kind of a hero of mine, and there was a month where they were showing every single Godard film at Lincoln Center in New York, even the TV stuff and the stuff that’s not available online. I did what those people do. I was there for every screening, five a day. It was amazing, but I kept seeing all these people and I would be like, “What’s wrong with these people? Are they such losers that they have nothing else to do with their lives?” But then I realized, “Oh my God! I’m one of them!” It’s a complicated song.
7LM: Do you have any favorite misheard versions of your lyrics?
BH: Yeah, I do. There are some pretty funny ones, but the best one is our song “Name Escape,” and some guy thought it was “Name a State.” He thought I was saying, “Name a state,” and he was like, “Delaware! New Jersey!” “Name a state!” “Alaska! Hawaii!” I was like, “That is an insane interpretation.” It was pretty stupid, but it was amazing. That’s what he heard. He even bought the record. He kept hearing it that way. I was like, “Are you not listening to the rest of the song?”
7LM: I know the name of Bodega Bay came from The Birds, do you have any other favorite [Alfred] Hitchcock films?
BH: Yeah, my favorite Hitchcock is The 39 Steps. I like British Hitchcock, like peak British Hitchcock. It’s really witty and it has all the charm. That movie feels miraculous to me in a way because it still feels super modern and abstract like his stuff got, but it feels a little more like it was off the cuff in a way. It feels somehow more beautiful to me because it feels like he was in the act of self-discovery when making that one, whereas at the end when he was in masterpiece mode through the Fifties and early Sixties, he knew what he was doing at that point.
7LM: Have you seen 1917?
BH: No. Nikki saw that last night. She said, “Do you want to go?” and I was like, “You know what, I don’t wanna go see that.” I really don’t like war movies. I haven’t seen it yet, but to me it looks like a theme park ride. Maybe I should because I’m sure it will win movie awards.
7LM: I haven’t seen it either, but the big thing about it is that it’s one long continuous shot.
BH: Like [Hitchcock’s] Rope.
7LM: Yeah, as a result of that, Rope‘s been getting a lot more attention lately.
BH: It’s (1917) not actually, just like Rope isn’t actually [one long shot]. There are several movies that are actual long shots with no stitches together, like [Aleksandr Sokurov’s] Russian Ark had no splicing or no dolly into darkness and then pull out again. Have you seen the Bi Gan films like Kaili Blues or Long Day’s Journey into Night?
7LM: No, not yet.
BH: They also have this Hail Mary long take. It’s way cooler in Kaili, because it’s kind of like what I was saying about The 39 Steps, “How did you pull this off with this cheap technology?” He’ll get on the back of a car and he’ll ride a mile or two, and then the camera will get off the car and follow the character into a house, and then it’ll strap onto a motorcycle and this camera literally has travelled probably ten kilometers. It crosses a river even, and there are no cuts. It’s kind of a dumb movie in some ways, and it’s clearly a young person’s movie. No one would think to do that if they were a tasteful film maker, which is why it’s awesome.
7LM: Yeah, you’ve got to push the envelope. On the new EP (Shiny New Model), I noticed how some of the grooves were tighter. I don’t know if that was a conscious decision to experiment with different grooves or song structures or not.
BH: Yeah, we wanted to change it up a bit. Make stuff that was maybe a little bit more melodic, the production’s a little lush. One funny difference is there’s a kick drum on the record, whereas there isn’t on [BODEGA’s first record] Endless Scroll. I think having the sub-frequency adds to the feeling of grooviness. It’s still a kick drum on its side, but even just hitting a kick drum with a mallet on its side gives it that oomph. That was the first time we actually recorded in a studio with a classic console. The first record was just on a tape deck in a practice space.
7LM: I read that. I thought that was pretty damn cool.
BH: No matter what’s going to happen with technology, there’s nothing like a live group playing to tape. It’s still always going to sound good.
7LM: I absolutely agree with you. There’s some stuff that’s so overproduced that I sometimes think, “Why not just come to the studio and rock out?”
BH: Well, if the toys are there they’re going to get used. That’s the thing about technology. That’s why you can’t make something like an atom bomb and not use it.
7LM: Outside of music and film, what else are you fascinated with or interested in?
BH: I’m interested in all kinds of things. Philosophy’s my biggest passion, not as big as film and music, but maybe on the same level. Me and Tai have a little philosophy group that gets together once a week and talk about any kind of theory. I love history. I love gambling. I’m very into cards.
7LM: Who are some of your favorite philosophers?
BH: Right now in the group we’re reading [Gilles] Deleuze, who’s probably not one of my favorites actually, but it’s fun to read. I’ve really been into [Martin] Heidegger recently. In terms of classical philosophers, I love [Immanuel] Kant. That was my big guy when I was younger. So almost anytime I read something, I’m like, “Oh, what would Kant say about this?” That’s just where my brain goes. It’s not like I would necessarily recommend Kant to anybody. He’s a little bit of a bore if you don’t take him in his historical context properly. I’m a big fan of [Søren] Kierkegaard, even though I’m not a Christian. I think of veganism, that’s something I’m really passionate about, as being a thing like Kierkegaard’s faith in an irrational god. Even rock and roll is like this, you choose this mode of being, this principle that you have, and then you just will yourself toward it, even if you can’t really justify it to anybody else. All you have to do is justify it to yourself. I’ve always thought that was really beautiful.
7LM: That’s a perfect way to wrap this up. That’s beautiful.
Keep your mind open.
[Don’t forget to subscribe before you split.]
[Thanks to Patrick Tilley for arranging my chat with Ben.]
