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Last Saturday I was able to experience my first ever Windy City Soul Club. I planned ahead and got there early enough to forego any sort of line in the god-forsaken cold and planted myself firmly at the bar. I watched quietly as more and more people rolled in beaming from ear to ear. “Haven’t they been outside” I thought to myself, “What the hell’s wrong with these people?” I sat at the bar a while longer before finally venturing out onto the dance floor. Don’t get me wrong, usually I’m first in line to get down, but somehow being at Windy City alone felt like the most depressing situation on the planet. “Why is everyone so happy?” I grumpily wondered until, that is, I finally made it to the dance floor.It was like I stepped through some invisible wall and transcended into a new room just bursting with good vibes. Everyone around me was pulling out all the best moves with no intention of stopping insight. I couldn’t help but start to smile and get down, even if I was alone. “Windy City Soul, where have you been my whole life?” was the new thought racing through my head.Aside from all the joyous dancing and people watching, I had the pleasure of sitting down with the men behind the turntables. You know, the ones beaming down at you as they watch you experience some of their most loved hits for the first time. Read on and discover the birth of Windy City Soul, where to find the best hits (yeah, right), and the most important part of Windy City Soul (*spoiler alert*: it’s all of you).ASHLEIGH DYE: Can you tell me about the first ever Windy City Soul Club?NICK SOULE: We did it at a loft space in Lincoln Park, it wasn’t really supposed to be having shows, but they did it under the table. The first time we ever did it, it was just our buddies – 80 people, something like that. The next time it was 350 people, they had to kick a bunch of people out.AD: What inspired you guys to start Windy City Soul Club? What was, and still is, the goal?NS: We all collected soul records from various points in our lives. We all came out of some sort of mod scene I guess you could say; it just translated into soul 45’s.  Then we all met somehow, I met Aret and Ben, who was one of the founders, in Milwaukee for the first time at a mutual friend’s birthday party.ARET SAKALIAN: Ben and I had a DJ duo, and then we formed with the rest of the guys it turned into Windy City…XAVIER VELEZ: We all had our own DJ crews or DJ acts that we did. As you’ll see tonight, we tend to have a revolving door of guests, and it got to the point where we were all hosting each other [in our own DJ nights] and it was like, why don’t we just get together.AD: Where is your favorite place to dig up new records and albums?NS: It’s a secret![laughter]XV: All I can say is the dirtiest and dangerous place you can find.AS: I used to go to the south side every Saturday and look for records.XV: When we mean south side we mean really far south, like almost Indiana. For the most part I would say, collectively, the places where we’ve had the most luck weren’t necessarily record shops. They were mom and pop shops. It’s like finding that perfect shirt at the thrift store.AS: The diamond in the rough!AD: I’m all about thrift hunting, so I can totally relate. What are some of your favorite artists to play, ones that really ignite a response from the crowd?AS. I don’t know, I guess anything that I listen to and excites me, I’m hoping it’ll excite the crowd and the other DJSXV: Most of what we play are, not necessarily one-hit-wonders but would be the ‘indie’ of the sixties, you know before indie became this genre of music and just meant independently released. Local one-hit-wonders.AD: What are your favorite records to listen to when you’re not spinning for hundreds of people?NS: Jazz, or punk rock. Reggae.AS: Yeah reggae, dub, jazz, funky stuff. I like house music even.XP: I’m a huge, huge 70’s & 80’s power pop collector.AD: What’s your best Windy City Soul Club moment to date?NS: New Years Eve, I would say. This past New Years Eve we got to go back to the loft space we started at, and that was pretty fun. But New Years Eve, when it turned from 2011-2012, we were at Logan Square Auditorium, which we are doing again this year, and it was like 1,500 people just having a great time.AS: Biggest crowd we’ve ever had.XV: Let me correct this- I say 1,200!AS: It was like 900.XV: Regardless, it was the most people we’ve ever had come out for just us. We’ve played bigger crowds in Seattle, but it wasn’t just us.AD: What’s your favorite part about doing Windy City Soul Club?NS: Just putting on a record and seeing everyone’s reaction to it, exposing people to music they wouldn’t hear otherwise.XV: Yeah, the crowd is what does it for me. I mean us, Windy City Soul Club, we’re really nothing. Without the crowd, we’re just four guys playing obscure recordsAS: Without the line up people waiting to come in, we’d be playing to an empty roomXV: I’ve said it before but, to me, Windy City Soul Club, it’s not the DJs, it’s the people who come out and make up the crowd. That’s Windy City Soul Club.

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Having freshly dropped out of college just as Crocodiles’ debut album was released, I listened to Summer of Hate on repeat for days. Their fuzzy, pop sound and macabre lyrics fueled my angsty soul. Now, three albums later, with Crimes of Passion out on French Kiss Records, Crocodiles are still going strong, honing in on their own individual take on rock & roll.  I got to sit and chat with Brandon Welchez, one of the men behind the Ray Ban’s, and discuss reflections of past lives, recording in the Mojave Desert, and the pros to living 3,500 miles away from your band mate.

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ASHLEIGH DYE: Can you tell me a bit about how you guys got started? You were both living in San Diego at the time, right?BRANDON WELCHEZ: Yea, he and I had been playing in bands for a couple years together and so in 2008 we were bandless, and wanted to start a new project. We couldn’t really find people to play with so we just started as a two piece and in about a year we got these guys, Marco & Robin. We’ve gone through a lot of drummers but we’ve finally settled on Robert.AD: Ah, the golden ticket of drummers. From over the years I have boxes and boxes of photographs I’ve taken over the years. I love going back through them and remembering what kind of place I was in when I took each photo. Now that you guys have been playing together for a while, are your recordings like that for you?BW: Yeah, I guess in a way. They definitely feel like slice of time out of our lives. I don’t think we’d be able to record most of our early stuff now because we’re in a different place.AD: You guys produced Endless Flowers yourselves, along with the B-Sides to Sleep Forever and all of Summer of Hate. So what made you decide to work with Sune Rose Wagner on Crimes of Passion?BW: We’ve actually wanted to work together for a long time. We toured together in 2009, and we talked about it then but it just didn’t work out time-wise. You know, we can produce things ourselves, but I think it’s good to have some other artistic influences involved.AD: For Sleep Forever you recorded with James Ford in the Mojave Desert. What was that like in comparison? I imagine some peyote and white robes.BW: We definitely smoked a lot of weed and drank a lot. It was just a house in the middle of the desert; there was nowhere to go. I think we went out once and we had to drive a couple miles. We were there for ten days.

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AD:

A lot of your songs, lyrically, have darker meanings and intentions then you would think at first listen. Was this juxtaposition intentional or was this just how your sound developed?

BW: No, nothing was really intentional. I think it’s probably easier to write about negative things. I think at the root of it we’re kind of just bitching and moaning, just like it’s easier to do that in real life.AD:

That’s what art is for, right? So you guys put this out on your own label,

ZOO Music

, in the UK. Do you have any plans of doing more self-releases, or collaborations?

BW: Yeah, I definitely want to start putting out more full-length albums as opposed to 7”s. It’s hard though because it’s a much bigger commitment financially, so it’s not as easy. But, yeah it’s a goal.AD:

So you and Charlie are living over 3,000 miles apart now, and everyone loves to talk about all the trials and hardships that come with it, but I’d like to know what some of that positives aspects of it are. You guys are both living in such distinguished and exciting cities, there’s got to be a silver lining.

BW: It’s cool that we have a base camp in two really cool cities. If we want to spend time working on something we have the choice between New York and London, and starting tours is easy in a way, too. If we start a European tour we have somewhere to start from and stay, same for New York in the States.

Polaroid Crocodiles

Photos & Interview by ASHLEIGH DYE

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This year I celebrated  Halloween the right way with three out-of-this-world sets from The Hussy, Outer Minds, and Seattles Night Beats, each of which sent chills down my spine. I got to spend some extra spooky (is there a better word than that?) time with The Hussy and the Night Beats and discuss pyro-technics, the best part of psych fest, and their favorite abnormal creatures...NIGHT BEATS INTERVIEWASHLEIGH DYE: SO YOU GUYS HAVE GOT A SONG ‘DIAL 666’ - WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IF SATAN ACTUALLY PICKED UP?TAREK WAGNER: Fuck you.DANNY LEE: Well, as the song goes I’d have him pull some shit for me. I consider him a hit man.AD: Oh yea, calling in a favor or two. You guys have played Psych Fest the last 4, maybe 5 years. What’s your favorite part of the festival and how it’s evolved over the years?DL: I’d say meeting up with a lot of friends, a lot of bands are coming through town, seeing how they’ve progressed and been up to, trade stories. All that shit.AD: I’m really into collaborations. With projects like The UFO Club, and your roots in the Psych Fest community you’ve gotten to play and work with some cool people. Is there anyone out there you’re dying to work with? What’s your dream collaboration?TW: Kyle MooneyDL: Kyle Mooney, yeah.AD: What would you do with Kyle Mooney?TW: I dunno. I wouldn’t want to put any limitations on it, just see where it goes.DL: King Khan would be sweet, Tim Presley, Ty [Segall], too. AD: If you could live like your favorite undead specimen what would it be?

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DL: Maybe like one of those deep-sea freaky guys with the light bulb.JAMES TRAEGER: I think an alien.TW: A reptilian humanoid sub-creature.AD: You guys are forced to pick a new band mate-Your only choices are Michael Meyers, Jason Voorehes, or Freddy Krueger.DL: Not Michael.JT: Michael Jordan?TW: I don’t wanna hang out with any of those assholes![laughter]DL: I guess I’m gonna have to go with Freddy, he’s got good style.

THE HUSSY INTERVIEW

The Hussy PORTRAIT

ASHLEIGH DYE: Tell me about the first time you lit your guitar on fire.

HEATHER HUSSY: I remember!BOBBY HUSSY: It was at Willy Street Fair in Madison, Wisconsin. Like, 2009? It was an outdoor show and we needed to burn up a lot of time.HH: We prepared for it and everything. Did a test run at home. Then some hippy tried to pee on it to put it out and we were like “no. We know its on fire”.

AD: If you guys had to write an entire album devoted to one spooky creature, what would it be?

BH: Obviously spiders. Just kidding, Heather hates spiders.HH: Maybe like the Chupacabra? Or Sasquatch. Sasquatch hands down.BH: Yeah, definitely Sasquatch! We had this guy in Seattle look over his shoulder at us when he was crossing the street and he looked just like Sasquatch.

AD: You had a Sasquatch sitting! You should have called it in. OK so lets pretend you’ve found an ancient Egyptian book of the dead and in it you find one spell to bring a band back from the grave for one final tour. Who do you bring back?

BH: Nirvana, right?HH: Yeah, totally Nirvana.

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AD: What’s your favorite thing to do during the witching hour?

HH: I think I’m usually sleeping then [laughs]BH: Play guitar, quietly.

AD: What are you most proud about your newest album,

Pagan Hiss

?

BH: It’s just the best record we’ve made.HH: Yea it was exciting, we got to tour in EuropeBH: Both coasts of the US, the label did a really good job with everything; they did a big solid for us. I’m happy about all of it.

AD: Look into the crystal ball…what does the future hold for The Hussy?

HH: Another trip to Europe.BH: Yeah. More touring, more records. We making a7” right now, a split with Digital Leather and our own LP all for release next year, then well do a US tour first, then go to Europe again.

Outer Minds

(photos only)

outer minds

Photos & Interviews by ASHLEIGH DYE

If I had to describe THE SPITS in one phrase it'd be "short, sweet, and to the point." A philosophy that transcends both their music, and  their daily lives, THE SPITS aren't ones to fuck around. Read on as I carve some jack-o-lanterns with the kings of all things gruesome and discuss what really happens when you crowd surf with a broken leg, the making of their not-so-wholesome merch, and what "Punk for the People" means to them...

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ASHLEIGH DYE: WHY THE MOVE FROM MICHIGAN TO SEATTLE? I KNOW THE BAND ROUGHLY ORIGINATED IN MICHIGAN AND IS NOW BASED IN SEATTLE-HOW DID THAT COME ABOUT?

ERIN WOOD: Well I moved out there in 1990 and Sean soon followed.WAYNE DRAVES: And then I soon followed after that.

AD: So it was a trickle affect?

EW: Yeah, and Josh was already there.

AD: So you guys have successfully mastered the DEVO synth-70s punk revival-hybrid. How did this combo come about? Was it as intentional as that or something that just sort of happened?

SW: Kind of intentional. We wanted to do something different than garage music, and fun, and it just came out the way it did. We’re just music masters.

AD: Seems like it came pretty naturally, you guys have talked before about various tough upbringings or childhoods etc, but what initially drew you to the punk scene, why was this the genre that you found the most release in?

SW: Because everyone else was doing it. [laughs] I think it was just a cross over from being heavy metal and rock and roll, no one was tough anymore. Punk was tough and the music was good, pretty much just kind of slid in there in the 80’s. A natural path, I guess.EW: All of our friends were listening to it, too.SW: Yeah we grew up in the country, it just seemed like an urban, cool thing to do.

AD: Having dropped out of school myself, 1 year and a half in because fuck our education system, I can really relate and vent through listening to your music, especially the song  ‘Dropout’ (obviously). Does writing songs based on your on lives and point of views inspire a lot of moments like this? Do you get a lot of stories like this?

SW: Yea, we’ve always got people coming up to us and saying you know ‘I was listening to your music when I was breaking up with my girl friend’ or when I killed my dad, or when I’m plowing the field. We relate to the people and the people relate to us.  We are music for the people.

AD: On the ‘Spits Punk Philosophy,’ that’s on your very informational website, it says “[The Spits] wanted to play exactly what they wanted to hear.” How does it feel knowing that thousands of people want to hear the same thing?

SW: It feels great. It feels awesome. I think its an honor, I take it as an honor and I’m really thankful. I think its cool.

AD: So guys have some Doomsday Dulls out in circulation. What was the process of making those like? How involved were you?

EW: We handmade them, we hand make all our toys; we are the little elves behind the packaging.

AD: That’s pretty rad – what other kinds of merch have you guys made, or want to make?

SW: Whatever I buy in downtown LA in the toy district, then we manipulate them in our factories. We’ve done wallets, watches, bracelets, urban defense gloves, sunglasses, lighters…EW: We did some toilet seats, 2 custom toilet seats. Sold em both in one night!

was probably Andrew W.K, Misfits, Marky Ramone, it was fun opening with him and filled in for a few songs.AD: Wow, that’s quite the roster.SW: We’ve done it all!EW: Nah, seriously I think TV Ghost was a fun group to tour with, a little off the hook, but they were fun. These kids we’re touring with right now, Useless Eaters, they’re really fun, too.AD: I just moved here from Athens, Ohio and I saw them there a few times, that’s where I saw Nobunny, too, The Useless Eaters have played Blackout Fest there a couple times, I really like them.EW: Yeah, most of the bands we’ve been out with have been pretty fun.AD: So your guys have a philosophy of ‘Punk for the People’, what does this mean to you?EW: A good hamburger?SW: Well it would take 20 minutes for me to give an answer, it’s a very in depth answer. Basically we don’t feel that we are higher than anybody else. If anything we’re lower. Everyone’s equal, lets just rock out and have a good time.

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ASHLEIGH DYE: So your newest album, Nature Noir, (out on Sacred Bones) just came out, where did the concept for this album originate?  Was there a specific writing process that you had?JB TOWNSEND: The songs came about the way they have for a while, it was just practices and jams, working them out. In terms of the concept of the album that was lyrically, the noir thing. Noir is anything man made so it’s just the idea that “nature noir” doesn’t really make that much sense. However, in a sense, we are affecting nature and that sort of back and forth dynamic is the concept of the record.AD: So that sort of juxtaposition really fueled the album. How does writing with five people go? Way back when it was just you two, then you grew to this five piece. Do you guys have a certain process you try and stick to?BRAD HARGETT: I don’t know, the thing is, back then, I would mainly play the guitar, and then the arrangement of the song after but, the drums and the bass were pretty simple. It was not generic but exactly the bass line you’d expect for the song. Now we have other people, and they get it, they get the band so they can just play whatever they want. We trust them to play what’s good and fits. It naturally works together.JBT: It’s both easier and harder. I feel like a lot of things come easier because everyone is in charge of writing a part so you don’t have to deal with that, but there’s also five opinions and when we used to play we’d just play for 15 minutes or whatever but now everyone’s like ‘wait’, ‘no, wait’ ‘wait’, so it’s both better and harder.AD: I really like the video for “Star Crawl”; I think it’s a great embodiment of the concept for the album. So how did the filming and planning for that go?[laughter]BH: Well we started out with a very simple idea that I kind of had, then our friend Dan got in touch with me and said he really, really wanted to do a video. So we met up and talked about it and then made a plan to do it. They went upstate, I didn’t go, I had to work, and it was a complete disaster.JBT: It went really bad. Dan, our friend, hired some people to help him with the gear and the cameras and stuff and what they did was they forgot to bring a second battery for this camera so it was almost out. And they were like, “Oh lets just hook it up to the car battery to recharge it.” Not a good idea. It immediately fried the car battery, which was a rental. So we were immediately stuck in that one location and the sky just let loose. There was a park ranger who walk by and pointed at the sky and said “its goin’ rain, ‘bout thirty minutes” and we looked up and within two minutes there were just sheets of rain.  Everything just got soaked.[laughter]AD: Well it looks great, you would have never known!JBT: Yea it’s amazing they got enough.

AD: My dad was in town this week so while I was preparing for the interview and re-listening to all the albums I played him some of your stuff and his reaction, to me, was very intriguing. He really liked it but was also pretty weirded out by it. I think he used the word ‘interesting’ like five times. It’s pretty far from his classic rock realm. What are your parent’s and family’s reactions to the music you write? Do they ever come to your shows?

JBT: It’s funny because I feel like he [Brad] and my dads have very opposite reactions. His dad is really supportive, not that my dad isn’t, his dad is just very enthusiastic. Kind of over the top enthusiastic, he calls [the band] the best new Beatles.[laughter]BH: It’s more of just him just trying to be a dad and be supportive. He wants to like it but he doesn’t know about music, at all.  So he doesn’t get the references. I feel like some people really get it, but my dads not into records at all.JBT: And my dad’s just really old. He was in his mid-thirties when the Beatles came out. So he doesn’t even like Led Zeppelin. He listened to Benny Goodman, he had like Gato Barbieri records, jazz stuff. So to him music is people that can sight-read, and play instruments. So his initial reaction from our first recording was “are you even saying words or are you just moaning into the microphone.”

AD: Geez, its artsy dad!

JBT: Yeah, he just doesn’t get it, but he’s gotten to appreciate it even if I don’t think he gets the music that much. He got to come to a show that we played in Denver and it was a Monday night in Denver and the place was filled, like 250 people. So I think he was like “huhuh woah, people like them”

AD: I think the generational gap, in that sense, is pretty fascinating to me.

BH: I kind of like it, too, because we can go to certain places, like we played at a festival in Kingston, New York, a small street fair festival, and there was all these ex-pat New Yorkers in their 70’s that probably saw the Ramones, and The Velvet Underground, and Television at CBGBs and they got it, so its cool that we can bridge that gap.JBT: Yea that was fun. There were a lot of people coming up afterwards and they wanted to talk about their time in the city.BH: And how they had been around that scene from the late 70’s and 80’s

AD: This is a great transition. So you guys are both from Florida originally, did you grow up in the same area?

BH: Yeah, well I was born in California. My parents move around a lot, they live in Paris now. So I grew up in Florida, that’s where I cut my teeth or whatever, but I don’t have any emotional ties there.

AD: Would you have any comparisons between what life there is like compared to living in Brooklyn?

JBT: I mean we met, when he was not quiet 20 and I was 22 or 23, I managed a record store called the

CD Connection

. In order to stay open the owner had to sell like pipes and stuff, so it was half a head shop and half a record store.

AD: I’m really into store hybrids

JBT: So, he worked at the coffee shop down the street and I was trying to find, I mean, where we lived there was probably only a group of 10 people that liked Suicide or The Velvet Underground, or any obvious sorts of bands.BH: Artistic people in places like that are really hard to come by. It was very Jersey Shore.JBT: Just nobody, the culture there was like techno, waxing your chest, going to the beach. So he would come over on his breaks and we would just talk about records.

AD: That’s cool that you guys had each other.

JBT: Yeah, and realized we had very similar taste, and we moved to New York around the same time.

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AD: Living in an artistic wasteland can be hard; the town I grew up in was the same way but a different aesthetic. It’s like all cow tipping and Kenny Chesney.  What do you think Crystal Stilts would have been like had it been born in Florida?

JBT: Oh geez, it would have been so weird.BH: It wouldn’t have even happened!JBT: I mean maybe we would have tried to do something, but for us, I feel like a lot of bands either have money or come from money, or have other means for support. We just had to scratch whatever we had to just play shows around Brooklyn. Like we couldn’t go on tour. If we were in Florida we wouldn’t have gotten noticed. At least not at that time, it’s a little different now. You can get found on MySpace or YouTube now. At the time [of the band starting] they told us “labels wont sign you if you haven’t toured, if you’re not a functioning, touring band labels wont even talk to you.” So we had to do that whole thing, then in a year a two it wasn’t even a thing anymore! Bands are getting signed based off their MySpace song.

AD: How do you think starting in Brooklyn when you did, in the early 2000s, right before if got super hip, and on the cultural map, affect your sound?

BH: I wasn’t really thinking about it, but then as we were doing it, when we first started recording in 2003/2004, I was pretty surprised there weren’t more bands doing what we were doing, because people really seemed to like it.JBT: I was really surprised that, at that time, there were no bands doing it.BH:I feel like if we had been like ‘lets do this, lets go crazy, lets get a manager, lets make a record, get a label’ – I don’t know if the climate was ready but, we probably could have tapped into something that hadn’t been totally mined. That kind of 60’s guitar pop was sort of passé then, it wasn’t popular.JBT: We’ve even talked about that. I think the first record, without a doubt, the lyrics were for sure, about the new place. If you go back, ‘Shattered Shine’ was our first single, and the lyrics on that are totally just this new feeling of being in a metropolis.

AD: Yea, I mean in that time of just having moved, being in a place where no one is really doing what you’re doing seems like a great inspiration

JBT: Yeah, it definitely affected the lyrics.BH: New York then was this sort of post-Strokes, Rapture, Fisher Spooner, that kind of stuff. There were a couple years that went by that we were like ‘what are we even doing?’JBT: We recorded that EP in 2005, and we recorded

Alight of Night

in 2006 but when they finally got put out it was in 2008. And then it was like part of this new wave we got grouped into. So it’s really interesting, it’s a question that will never be answered, but would we have been championed if those records actually came out when we made them, we might not have been. It’s a total mystery.

AD: So you guys intentionally had a slow roll to fame, it took a while for it to transform from a hobby to something you do year round. What inspired you to make the move to make it more serious? Was there a specific moment?

BH: No, there wasn’t a specific moment. I guess when you realize you can keep doing it, and make enough money to do it and pay yourself with it, its kind of like a part-time career.JBT: All that time was a learning process, too. We didn’t know what to do, like we just totally were making music, and besides that we had no idea. We didn’t have photographs or videos; we barely played shows.

AD: I really like the comparison of people like you who are honestly doing it because that’s what you like to do and if it gets popular then, hey that’s great compared to people who are very ‘one track mind about it’. I’ll do photos for bands sometimes that are so much more formulaic and business like about it and its structured and stuff.

JBT: Yeah, like “we’re going to do this kind of music, this way, and conquer this market.” It’s such a cynical way to make music.

AD: My last question is a ‘Would You Rather’. SO would you rather be able to talk fluently to any animal on the earth, in the sea, in the sky OR fluently converse with any human?

BH: Easily animals![lots of conversing]ANDY ADLER: I dunno. I’ve seen Dr. Dolittle and that seems like a curse.JBT: Yeah, I dunno, talking with animals would really take away all the mystery.AA: I often wish I could talk to my dog,BH: “I want food! I gotta poop!”AA: I’ve got a lot of options for what his voice would sound like.BH: I gotta go animals. If you made the effort, you could communicate with any human if you tried. Animals, though, that’s a line you can’t cross.JBT: Have you guys ever heard of that guy, Lilly? He tried to create a language to talk to dolphins and also had an

insane Percocet addiction

,

Valium addiction

,

Xanax addiction

, or even

Adderall addiction

. He would even take the ketamine and talk to these three beams of light.AD: I dunno, I think doing ketamine near the ocean is a bad idea.JBT: Well, he was doing it in those tanks, what do you call em…AD: A sensory deprivation chamber?! That’s a double dose of crazy, ketamine in a deprivation chamber. Wow. Well what did the dolphins have to say?JBT: Ha, well he never broke through.[laughter]

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So, there I am, standing around, drinking a Tecate, waiting for the tunes to start, when I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn around to see a blonde bob behind a pink sparkly mask. I know instantly who it is, the words she’s saying to me are lost as I excitedly think to myself “that’s Miss Pussycat. Its Miss Pussycat!” Without absorbing any of what she was saying I blurt out “You’re Miss Pussycat!” Before I know it I starting hearing words like “big fan”, “idol”, and “favorite role model” spewing out. I stand there cringing at my own ‘fan-girl’ outburst. Before I can do anymore damage I calmly stop myself and say “can’t wait to see ya play,” as I walk away.Considering I’ve had about a million solo dance parties while listening to some of Quintron and Miss P’s albums, I had pretty high expectations for the set ahead. I’d been pining to see them in the flesh for years and now it was happening, there was Quintron’s infamous Hammond-Fender Rhodes-car hybrid, there was the puppet theater Miss P would perform in and I had a spot front and center, I felt like a child on Christmas morning.After some dance-tastic sets by MAGAS and zZz, (Q and Miss P’s partners in touring crime) I could not have been more excited for their show. They were the perfect precursors to the set.  Following a puppet show, performed by Q and Miss P themselves, the set started off in full-force. Beaming up at the stage as Quintron played his quintessential swamp-tech beats and Miss P’s sang her shrilling vocals, I was on a dance train to the moon. The energy from both the duo, and the crowd, was superb, and I was saddened when it all came to an end.Although, I never got to ask Miss Pussycat which puppet she identified with most, and never got to hear how exactly Quintron choose the tracks from the Singing House for the cassette, I definitely got to cross a few things off my bucket list Saturday night. Quintron and Miss Pussycat will forever be my favorite duo. Between Quintron’s out of this world inventions and Miss P’s pure puppet magic, their imaginations, and talent are comparable to none.  I don’t like being the barer of bad news, but if you weren’t at the Bottle on Saturday, ya blew it.

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True free spirits are gems that are few and far between. You know who I’m talking about, those rare birds that are unabashedly themselves, who do what makes them happy, who don’t associate success with happiness. The Cosmic Psychos are those rare birds. Trade in those Tevas for some work boots and your Kombucha for a PBR: The Psychos are a new breed of free spirit - a group of men who aren't driven by profit and who represent a sense of songwriting as honest as Daniel Johnston. I had the pleasure of sitting with the Psychos to discuss that damn kangaroo problem, why the Psychos never made it rich, the price you play for playing in America, and what makes it all worth it...

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ASHEIGH DYE: WHAT WAS LIFE LIKE GROWING UP ON A FARM IN AUSTRALIA? WHAT INITIALLY INSPIRED YOU TO START WRITING MUSIC?ROSS KNIGHT: I guess it just might have been boredom. And being at the right age at the right time when the entire punk rock thing happened in the mid 70’s. I sort of caught on to that. Ya know, it couldn’t have been any worse in life being stuck miles away, in a town with a horrible a farm, where the sun’s shining and you can ride your motorbike all day, and you can go fishing and shooting. It’s terribly depressing. Your parents feed you three good meals a day. Life couldn’t have been any worse.AD: So you have a song called ‘Dead Roo’, how many kangaroos do you see, on average, dead or alive?RK: Thousands.DEAN MULLER: Some dead ones, heaps of live ones. In fact I saw a live one recently that was dead as soon as I saw it.AD: Oh wow, really?DM: Yeah, I hit it with my car.AD: [Laughs] so they’re kind of like the deer of Australia?RK: Even worse! They’re everywhere at the moment.DM: Well, they’re protected at the moment; they aren’t allowed to be killed anymore.AD: I’ve heard they’re kind of mean. I’ve seen a lot of internet clips of kangaroos kicking people.DM: They can be when they’re mating.RK: You’ve tried to mate with kangaroos?DM: No. They tried to mate with me. I had to run away really fast and climb a tree.RK: I knew a farmer whose dog chased some kangaroos into a dam and it tried to drown the dog. So he [the farmer] went to try and save the dog and they tried to drown him.AD: Wow. So that was a lot of kangaroo talk. You guys have been said to be a part of the Yobb lifestyle. Can you tell me what that’s all about?RK: Well I think people have tried to pigeonhole us for many years and I think just ‘cause we, I dunno…DM: Don’t comply to the kind of ‘dress em up’ kind of punk rocker thing.RK: We just look like your average punter that drinks in a pub and wanders around aimlessly.JOHN ONYA: I used to wear white boots. But not anymore, I got too old.  White boots are for the young.AD: Your band has gone through some significant line up changes over the years, how do you think it has affected the Psycho’s sound?RK: Probably not all, because it’s a dumb sound that you cant break out of, but it has affected a sound a bit. I reckon the line-up now is the best we’ve ever been.DM: Awe, shucks. You should have said “it’s the shittiest we’ve ever been lets go back to the old days”RK: The good thing about the change of line up is that it is the same basic formula but it sounds a lot different with another guitar player and another drummer. For me, I just play the same boring bass right from day one. I’m finding it really good. Really, really good.DM: The sound of the bass is the thing that makes it unique. It’s the first thing that hits you. It’s a very, very unique sound; its really one of the most important things about the band, the songwriting and that sound of the bass. The rest of us could be replaced tomorrow as long as he’s still there.RK: I don’t think so.AD: What was it like working with Butch Vig, for Blokes You Can Trust, compared to other producers you’ve worked with?RK: He was a great bloke to work with. The funny thing was, because I haven’t really got much to do with the music industry, I sort of know of some of the work he had done but I never realized he was such a big, respected producer. It didn’t even matter, because he was one of the nicest blokes in the world. It was really good. We all got along well. We could not have had a better time. It was fun.DM: We’ve had a pretty good run all the way though. There have been a couple rotten bastards along the way, but you run in them everywhere. I reckon they’re less than 5%.JO: Yea, that’s life.AD: What was it like having a film made about you guys, and the band as a whole? Was it weird hearing what people like Butch Vig, Eddie Vedder etc had to say about your influence?RK: Hilarious, weird, a bit confusing.DM: American’s love that though don’t they; it’s the American dream, the silver screen. To be immortalized that way.AD: That’s very true; everyone just wants their story to be important enough for people to pay attention.DM: Whereas I can’t even watch it anymore. I see it and cringe.AD: How many times have you guys watched it?RK: Maybe once or twice.AD: That seems like plenty. What are your favorite memories from the US tour, so far?DM: This is my first time in the states. It’s just been fantastic all the way. New York was great. Seattle was great. LA was fantastic. I got a shower in LA it felt really good.AD: Ross, John do you have any that stick out from before this tour?RK: It’s really hard. I had a really good tour a couple of times with the Cows, a tour with The Melvins stands out. What a great band to have the privilege to see every night for two weeks.JO: Twenty times in a row!RK: I felt really lucky to get to see them like that. I never got sick of them, how could you? If the Cosmic Psychos were serious about making money we’d probably play in Europe. We’d do one or two shows.DM: We’d all get face-lifts[laughter]RK: It costs us a lot of money to play in America, and we don’t have a lot of money. We were lucky enough to do really well in Australia in our last tour to invest $45,000 bucks to lose money to come here. I love playing in the states. Mac [John Onya] has played here before with his other band so it was hard to explain to Dean. It’s not like Europe. You don’t get plate loads of food, you don’t get shit loads of money, the crowds are smaller but you have a better time.DM: It’s hard to find a bathroom. In Europe they love their bathroomsJO: Especially in San Francisco at 4:30 in the morning.AD: What’s an ideal day for you guys back in Australia?RK: A day offJO: A whole week-end off.RK: For me an ideal day would be to have a lovely day with my two kids and speak to these two on the phone.  Between the three of us a perfect day would be to plan a band practice and not do anything. Just sit down and drink a beer. We’ve done that many times. Dean’s got a studio at his place, which is only an hour from mine, Mac will fly downJO: If there’s a gig or somethingRK: But then we haven’t seen each other in a month so we just sit around drinking and catching up.DM: Sometimes we bring out the Casio and get down on some synth music and record some rubbishAD: That all sounds pretty fun, like you are really living the dream. How did you guys meet if you’re all so spread out?JO:  I met Ross over 20 years ago but I met him properly about 17 years ago because my band The Onyas toured with the Cosmic Psychos in Europe. That would have been about ’96 and we’ve just know each other ever since.RK: When did I meet you? [Dean].DM: Well I lived in a house with your sister, Melissa, and her boyfriend, Kerian, asked me to come down to your place and jam with him. That was in the early 90’sAD: So you guys were saying that an ideal day for you would be a day off, a day with out work. It’s been said you’re a working man’s band, so is this something easy for you guys to indentify with?RK: Well, we’ve all got jobs and don’t rely on music for anything other than entertaining the three of us.DM: Rock stars have nothing to write songs about if there’s nothing going on in your life. If you’re just in hotel rooms or on airplanes, and all your sandwiches have the crusts cut off you’re not experiencing anything.RK: There are very intelligent and smart people in the rock business that can write songs because that’s what they are put on this earth to do. Unfortunately – or fortunately, for us – we weren’t put on this earth to write songs.[Laughter]AD: So if you could only drink one thing, other than water, for the rest of time, what would it be?RK: Beer! Let’s be greedy and say the best beers in the world!DM: PBR! A workingman’s beer.JO: Chartreuse.[Laughter]RK: Well, you guys can’t have any of mine when you get sick of those!AD: OK, for my closing question I have to ask, why shouldn’t you drink with the Cosmic Psychos?DM: Can I answer a question with a question?AD: Go for it.DM: Why should you?RK: I suppose we do have a reputation. It was on purpose, but a lot of people did end up very sick when drinking with us.

There are few things in this world that improve with time: a fine wine, scotch, Daniel Radcliff and now, No Age. Almost a decade into playing together and the LA based punk duo is still going strong.Now, sitting across from me, bathed in sunlight, and full of smiles, No Age fills us in on the making of ‘An Object’ (out this past August on Sub Pop), the importance of transitions, and meeting Prince... First, check out some pictures of their early show @ the Empty Bottle on Saturday, September 14th.

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ASHLEIGH DYE: I ’m really impressed at your guys’ commitment to hand package and create 5,000 LP sleeves and 5,000 CD sleeves. You decided to do this before the album was finished – how did this affect the writing for this album?DEAN SPUNT: It gave me a big motivation to write for the record. Before that we had tried and I think it felt like we were going down the same path as we’d been to before – get together, make a record, do a tour – and I think that wasn’t very inspiring to me and I think that this idea helped me work through it. It gave me a goal besides just making a record.AD: I’m sure it made it a lot more personal, since you’d physically be making what the record was put in.DS: Yeah, it kind of helped give the record some context instead of just making music for the sake of making music, which is not bad but for me it needed something to help it along.AD: So how many paper cuts did you guys get?RANDY RANDALL: I didn’t get any!DS: No paper cuts, more like lots of blisters.  I’m used to blisters from playing drums but these were like weird red marks on my fingers.AD: Ah yeah, from all the pressing and folding. Did you guys design the album art as well?DS: Yeah, with our friend Brian Roettinger.AD: What was the process for that like? Was there a certain message you were trying to send?RR: I think the original idea had started out, we had settled on the name ‘An Object’ and Dean had the idea of constructing a three-dimensional kind of figure, but everything we looked at – we had an industrial design guy come out and try and figure out were the cuts and scores would be --DS: It got goofy pretty quick…RR: Yea it felt like a pop-up book, ya know.AD: My grandma does a lot of 3D puzzles.RR: Yea! Like that.DS: It got too crafty feeling; we were making lots of trips to Michael’s. Which isn’t bad but it wasn’t the vibe we were going for. We over shot the vibe and it became too complicated and constructed.RR: We wouldn’t have known until we tried to do it. The idea sounded interesting. “OK, this thing, it’s a record and you can take it home or wherever and you can actually make it into a sculpture."

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AD: I’ve seen an album cover like that before, the band [Flipper] had something you cut out and folded into an old psychedelic van.

DS: There ya go.RR: That was part of the idea.  So we got away from that idea and we were still trying to work on it as a package. The album sleeve in its own right is an interesting sculpture, in the way of making it, folding it. So we got into that and when it came time for an actual image [for the album cover], we had one that was very stark and a very Swiss looking design with boxes and very esoteric and cold even though it had warm colors like red and white but it didn’t vibrate. And Brian came up with this very high contrast idea.DS: Something that would mess with your eyes a little bit, something you would see and not be able to look away from.  You had to notice it.RR: It also felt like having a picture of ourselves on the cover or anywhere in it was almost unheard of. My mother in-law had mentioned “Why don’t you put a picture of yourself in it?” and Shannon [my wife] said “Mom, bands don’t really do that” and I was like, “Funny enough, that is one of our ideas.” And we just kind of ran with that more because it felt like it gave a pull, putting yourselves on the cover.

AD: What was the meaning behind the album title? Was that has specific as the artwork and construction of the physical album?

DS: After making the idea of making it that felt pretty easy. I had accomplished that and I kind of left it, I didn’t have too many ideas after that.

AD: Right, when so much goes into making it and how it physically looks…

DS: Yeah, I just felt like that was the main focus, so once we figured that out. I was writing something for the press release and I’d written something that we released “an object,” and then Randy suggested that’s actually pretty perfect. And we thought about it, for not very long, and were like that’s what it is.

AD: It’s nice when something just clicks like that

.RR: It felt like a world play, too. You say No Age released

Nouns

in 2008. No Age released

An Object

in 2013. It was kind of calling it what it was. Also, the naming process has been that over-simplification. Like

Nouns

– person/places/things – stuff where we came from. And

Everything in Between

was the space we played with. It’s hard to label these things. Creating an individual song takes so much effort and to give that whole thing a name you start to get down to that critical mass of, “I don’t know how thin you can get to put a blanket over this whole thing.” It wasn’t like it was these concept albums like these are songs about flowers.DS: The title worked because making the records themselves the record ends up being about consumerism. How we’re making these things, why are we making these things, and why are people buying them. I think the titled really just nails it.RR: There was also an element to that it was ‘to object’ or in opposition. I think a lot of feelings like that went into it.DS: Yea it was an objection for us to make these records, it’s sort of against what we’re supposed to do.

AD: Right, it seemed like kind of a no brainer… So you guys took a three-year break in between putting out ‘Everything in Between’ and ‘An Object’. What was going on during those three years?

RR: We sat at home the whole time.DS: Yea I just stared at the television. Ha, no it wasn’t much of a break, we put out a cassette, worked on

Collage Culture

, and we toured a lot. We were busy, we just didn’t put out a record.

AD: Do you think what you did over that time went in to writing for An Object?

RR: Of course!DS: Yea, you can’t ignore what you’re experiencing.

AD: What was it like working on

Collage Culture

, writing music to go alongside spoken word

?DS: It was cool; we listened to the spoken word and figured out how long it needed to be then just riffed off of it. Randy would do a part, then I would do part. We kind of collaborated that way. I think we collaborated more on the sequencing of parts, right?RR: Yea we did a score for a film for a movie called

The Bear

. That was 90-minutes long so we had to develop this way of working in blocks of time. When you’re working for 90 minutes, 10 minutes is just a small fraction of that, so you just create these spaces and then there are the transitions. You work in big blocks, you write in city blocks vs. individual bricks. So we definitely used a similar process with

Collage Culture

. Just writing in pieces and transitioning them into each other.

AD: Things like that seem a lot different than just writing songs for albums, so are these things you do to help combat redundancy?

DS: I don’t know if it was that intentional. I think since we’ve started we’ve always wanted to be doing things other than just putting out records and we always have done little things here and there. It wasn’t to combat redundancy but it did lend its self to writing the new record. It split us in half of making songs and making these long form pieces. Before this album we were just making songs, structured rock songs, but at some of our earlier shows, that other scene show, we sat there and just played noise.  So, its not anything new, we’ve just gotten better at it I think.

AD: I think its probably a good thing that you guys aren’t just focused on putting out albums and making records, it allows you to grow more as musicians.

DS: And I think our structure of writing songs aren’t too off from those long form type pieces. We really consider that negative space in between songs, that’s really important. How it transitions how much space is there. That’s all taken into account.

AD: So you guys have been on a lot of tours together. How many would you say you’ve been on? Are there any special memories that stand out?

RR: This is our first one! I just met this dude.DS: Yea, 10 years. There’s so many, chatting here with you!

AD: [laughing] good answer.

DS: [laughing] We met Prince in Minneapolis! We played at his club and he showed up.

AD: Was he a cool guy?

DS: We barely met him, he came and sat down in the back and I went up to him and shook his hand and I gave him a CD of ours.RR: It was intercepted by the bouncer!DS: I went to take a photo and the bouncer just went like this [wags finger].RR: Yea we brought the camera out and saw that and were like uhh, never mind.

AD: Wow! I want enough power to just be able to wag my finger and make things happen. SO for my closing two questions I’m going to ask: Dean, what’s you’re favorite thing about Randy?

DS: That he’s such a sweet person. He’s the nicest guy, really. Very good-hearted human being, the best.

AD: Randy, what’s your favorite thing about Dean?

RR: He’s a big picture guy. He sees things in a bigger way than most people do and I enjoy seeing the scope and the dedication to these ideas. He’s a synthesizer, there’s a place that doesn’t exist and he kind of creates it and has enough charm and guile to bring everyone in to this space and suddenly it’s a real thing.Interview conducted and transcribed by ASHLEIGH DYEPhotos by ASHLEIGH DYE

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baremutantsJeredGummere

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After a long, slow drive from St. Louis, Bare Mutants finally arrive at the Bottle for their official album release show for The Affliction, out last month on In the Red. The album takes you deep into the smooth dreamland of leader Jered Gummere with the help of fellow Chicago scene staples, Jeanine O’Toole (vocals) of the 1900s and Seth Bohn (bass) from Mannequin Men, along with talented friends Leslie Deckard (keys) and Matt Holland (drums). The Affliction is perfect for those chilly, overcast days where you dedicate yourself to doing nothing but staring into space and pondering your life.Sitting across from me, clad in all white, chain smoking cigarettes and guzzling iced coffees, we discuss: how cool is white on white, life as a new father, and who they’d want to play dodge ball against.JERED GUMMERE: What do you think of these white outfits? I guess it’s too late to change…ASHLEIGH DYE: I’m into it. With the white backdrops; you guys are doing a white out. I'm into monochromatic things... So first of all - I have to say that band names and the naming of things fascinate me - so why Bare Mutants?[laughter]JG: [laughing] Well, because I went to a name generator on the Internet and that was the first one that came up that I was like, not too bad!AD: A name generator, eh? See that’s interesting, no less. That’s a pretty interesting thing for a name generator to spit out. Was it a band specific generator?LESLIE DECKARD:  Yeah and I think you typed in, like, BARE or something to finally get there.AD: The Velvet Underground has been mention/referenced for your guys’ new album The Affliction, but were there any other major influences that went into making this album?JG: Friendship.AD: Each other - that’s a good influence to have. You're on a small mid-west tour right now, is this your last stop?JG:  We play Milwaukee tomorrowAD: Where’s your favorite stop been so far?JG: My house [laughter]LD: No, Ed’s house![Everyone]: Yeah - Ed’s!JEANINE O’TOOLE: We stayed with Jered’s old friend in Galesburg, Illinois.AD: Galesburg?SETH BOHN: Yeah. It’s like a half hour south of Rock Island. We did a Day Trotter recording session and had the night off, so we just went there. It was a lot of fun.AD: sounds like a good time. Old friends, recording sessions, shows. How was the audience’s response?LD: Sold out, first of all. [laughs]JO: No, well St. Louis...SB: St. Louis was goodishJO: St. Louis was a great response; I’d say it was more quality than quantity. But, it was cool. Everyone was into it.AD: That’s good. I mean, as long as the people their are enjoying what you’re doing that’s what matters; you could have a crowd full of people and if they’re just talking to each other, what's the point? Do you have any more dates lined up or an affirmed future for Bare Mutants?SB: There some stuff in the works for December.AD: Where are you guys looking to go?SB: Out East.JG: Maybe Canada. AD: Out east is a good place to go in December, that’s some crafty planning.JG: We’re also playing Midpoint Festival in Cincinnati at the end of this month.AD: Jered, this question's more for you: How does writing now compare to projects past? How has your recent venture into fatherhood played a role in that? Do you think it’s been significant?JG: Well, most of this record was written way before that, but I’m a stay-at-home father now, so at night when my wife comes home I go to the basement and I’m pretty productive. I feel much more focused.AD: Sometimes it takes more things going on in your life to make you more focused creatively.JG: I think it was the other things that were the problem before. Now I have minimal focus.AD: If your daughter could only listen to one artist throughout her baby years of your choosing, whom would you pick?JG: Oh, man… I mean right now she’s a Willie Nelson girl, so I’ll probably stick with Willie.AD: If money and time were obsolete for you guys, where would you go on tour?JG: Uh, Japan.JO: I was just going to say Japan!AD: I’ve always wanted to go to Japan! They’re so weird over there... What’s a band you’d most like to have a dodge ball match against?LD: I really suck at dodge ball so this is a hard question.JO: Leslie you can’t be on the team!AD: I was always the girl hiding in the back, and then I’d end up being the only one left on my team. But I can’t throw very far so it sucked. JG: I don’t really like Mac DeMarco. We’ll take him out.[everyone laughs]LD: Five on one![laughter]JG [laughing] Nah, he’s got like 4 or 5 people in his band.SB: Or Outer Minds, they’d be fun to throw some balls at.AD: OK so these are my last couple questions, they’re from Mike G here at the Bottle... Jered, who do you think is more famous, you or Bruce Lamont?JG: Oh yeah.JO: That’s good, haha.JG: Uh probably Hesh, unfortunately.JO: He is Robert Plant in half of his time so…AD: And in closing: Who do you think will win this year, Packers or the Bears?JG: The fucking Bears! There are too many Green Bay fans in this city.SB: Even if the Packers win, the Bears still win because they’re the Bears.——————————————————————————————————Live @ Empty Bottle on Friday the 13th of September, 2013Interview conducted and transcribed by ASHLEIGH DYEPhotos taken by ASHLEIGH DYE

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I was running late to the first installment of this new interview series, mostly on account of the always-dangerous wine and porch combination.Rushing to the Bottle, I walked in to see a beaming, full-mouthed smile from one of the most well manicured man I've seen to date. It belonged to none other than Mr. TAV FALCO, this past Saturday’s headliner. His band seemed newly-assembled and a tad unfocused during their set – not to mention there were no guitars being chainsawed like back in the old days – but Tav & his Panther Burns still brought the heat, leaving us with some deliciously fried ears and brains. Though often credited as the man who "invented psycho-billy” to those who have never heard of HASIL ADKINS, there’s no denying Tav’s charm and hip-shaking moves are still damn contagious. After the set was finished and the fans had filtered out, I had the pleasure of chatting with Tav about the gems you can uncover while thrifting in Memphis and our shared love of leopard print details. A lovely gentleman, that Tav.The rising star of the night, however, was young Daniel Fromberg. “BOOK HIM AGAIN” was the note I read from Bottle staff after the show and he got a nice write-up in his hometown paper (Oak Park) following the show. Curious at the young star’s abilities I immediately went to hisBandcamp site. Daniel's tracks are dripping in shoegaze with some industrial undertones; this kid knows what’s up. I mean really, where was this kid when I was 13?  It’s like if Kevin Shields had Trent Reznor's bastard child and raised him alone – hopefully we’ll hear more from Daniel in the near future.Photos & Words by ASHLEIGH DYE