If you were just a regular, naive, TV-watching dude on the street, you’d think Detroit in 2012 had transformed into an urban metropolis where everyone wears #90 Suh jerseys and drives 300′s with Beats Audio. I’m not trying to detract from the progress the city has made, but the fact is it still has a long way to go. Do you feel like Detroit is turning a corner, or do you think it’s all marketing and illusion?

E-Fav: I feel like Detroit is turning corners towards being more positive every day. The people of Detroit are beginning to become more aware of the steps we will have to take in order to grow, but you know, it’s still Detroit.   

There’s always been something very street yet very romantic and sensual about Detroit rap. Why do you think that is? An influence of Motown?

E-Fav: Absolutely. As an artist from here you are definitely aware of and influenced by the rich heritage of Motown and the sound associated with it. Maybe it’s because we’re so close to it. I mean, we can actually go to the places where history was made and we all want to make a contribution to a great legacy and it comes through in the music.

Tell me about what made you want to be involved with Red Bull Soundstage. How has the program enhanced CSF’s outreach and helped you accomplish your goals as artists?

L.A.Z.: It seemed like a dope idea that could really help us without all the restrictions that labels have. We could do what we’ve been doing and still get some help to come up. It has definitely helped us accomplish our goals and connect us with more fans and people that want to help us get out on the road. Soundstage enhanced our outreach by getting us on websites that we just used to dream of being on and now we look online and see ourselves.

What does it mean to have a “clear soul?”

L.A.Z.: To be you.

How would each of you describe yourselves with only three words?

L.A.Z.: Humble, determined and optimistic.

E-Fav: Thinker, driven, dangler.

Noveliss: Deft, humble, hungry.

Ilajide: Silly, nerd, artist.

I’m always intrigued by producers who manage to create rhythms and songs for a crew of MCs, especially these days when a posse isn’t what it used to be in terms of size. How do you distill each member’s personality and flow into instrumentals that work for everyone?

Ilajide: Man that’s such a good question. For starters, it’s really hard getting all four of us to agree on a beat that we all love; love enough to write to. But by the time we all agree on some shit, they already know how they’re gonna hit the track and verses are finished not too long after that. My job is really to make each of their verses unique in their own way with adlibs, overdubs and me dropping the beat out or adding instruments, effects or samples. For instance, Noveliss doesn’t like to do adlibs or overs as much as we do, so I pretty much leave a blank canvas for him to ride it out. His style is so unorthodox that dropping out a beat sometimes will fuck everything up. So he’ll ask me to grab a skit that he likes or a video game sound effect and toss that shit in there. Wimp loves to experiment with adlibs, layers and overs, so when it’s time for me to mix his shit, we’re steadily adding voices or whatever we can to freak one little part. E-Fav tries to stay in the back the whole time. He likes to just get in where it sounds best, and because of that, shit’s always able to happen organically. He says so much in so few words and I gotta make sure it’s understood by everybody, so me and him perfected the punch/edit thing. He does everything he can to get shit to blend and sound the best. He’ll always suggest shit that’ll be completely out the water, but we’ll try it and it’ll be the missing piece we needed. So we’ll do all of that…and then he’ll want to take his verse off. (Laughs) It never fails.

What’s the most someone’s paid for Detroit Revolution(s) on your Bandcamp site?

Noveliss: $20. Somebody paid a penny for it too.

I think “15 Minutes” is my favorite track on the album, lyrically and musically. Can you guys tell me what that one deals with and how it came about?

Noveliss: “15 Minutes” is just about being fed up with people sleeping on us and really wanting a spot in the game. We push to make this music thing happen and we all wanna be able to make careers out of this, not just have “15 minutes of fame”. It was actually the last track we made for the album and it almost didn’t even make the cut. Ilajide made the beat, L.A.Z laid the hook and Noveliss and E-Fav just came through with verses and that was that.

Ilajide: That was the first beat I made after I found out how to mix and master, so the beat really happened organically. It was also after the album was recorded, mixed and mastered. (Laughs) We actually took a song off and replaced it with this one. Wimp came with the hook, just like he did on the last joint, and we all just did what we do best, as far as verses go. But everything else—the layers, the sample switch, the bridge—all of that shit happened like a dream. The beat just kept playin’ and we kept recording layer after layer of catchy shit. It’s crazy how it ended up turning out because right when I thought it was done, I was adding something else to it. Definitely a good choice for a favorite track.

Are you guys already onto the next album? If so, how would you describe what’s coming together in the studio?

Ilajide: We haven’t started the next album yet. We just got another place to set our studio up, so right now we just wanna start working on music, practicing rapping and finding a direction for the next album before we start working on it.

THE RED BULL SOUNDSTAGE DOSSIER – CLEAR SOUL FORCES
Click the thumbnails to check out special Q&A’s with Noveliss, Ilajide, E-Fav and L.A.Z.

We picked the brains of these space rockers to get their thoughts on Pluto being demoted from its rank as a planet and on channeling the message of their extraterrestrial leaders:

How did Fancy Space People form?

There were once these swirling balls of luminous gas careening aimlessly through the galaxies… Well, to cut to the chase, No-Ra and I were kind of between careers, as it were, not really doing much of anything, when we either lost our minds completely or were contacted by extra-dimensional, intelligent beings from some “place” called “Fancy Space;” we’re still not sure which. A proposal was made, we accepted, and now here we are. It’s been really fun, so far, even though the untold riches and international superstardom our leaders promised us still have yet to occur, as such. It’s not like digging ditches, or anything; it’s kind of empowering, even.

What is the story behind the band’s name?

Oddly enough, it’s sort of a coincidence, and has nothing really to do with us, or even our Leaders, being from Fancy Space (I think they just call it that because there’s not really any better way to describe this “place” to humans, most of whom have never been anywhere outside of Regular Space); it has more to do with how we had to describe the way the band looked to somebody who was thinking of booking us at an art gallery event. It’s how we see our leaders, when they let us “see” them – as the sort of “Leaders of the Intergalactic Parliament” look one would so often see in old Star Treks and 50s and 60s Sci Fi films. They were like wise, young hippie-Greeks, clad in glamorous flowing robes with metallic trim, matching multi-colored bowl cuts, Spock eyebrows and embodied an enlightened 60s youth culture “Peace, brother” feel. But our look is a bit more glamorous, we hope. We’ve really grown to like wearing those outfits. They are rather fancy, don’t you think?

What can people expect from a live Fancy Space People show?

A psychedelic maelstrom of heroic glitter, southern-fried Krautrock, Powerpop and Bubbleglam, with gorgeous trance-inducing visuals, coded subliminal messages from the Secret Space Leaders, and a lot of smoke, cute chick vocals, and strobe lights.

The shows are actually called “Fancy Space Rituals,” and often involve bizarre guest stars, such as The Goddess Bunny, Karen Centerfold, and an enormous, gold coin throwing Space-Leprechaun exhorting the throngs to even higher pitches of madness, as various stone idols, roman candles, and alien banners wend their way through the masses of pogoing Earth people, the very air an explosion of smoke, lights, and glitter confetti. Oops. Sorry – the memories of these heavenly events compel me to wax poetic.

You have collaborated with some noteworthy musicians. Can you tell us more about that? Who was your favorite collaboration and why?

Quite the pun. Noteworthy. Musicians. Very clever. Anyway, yes, we’ve been lucky enough to play with some of the best. Richard Polysorbate60, Geoff Brandin, Joe Barardi, Dave Arnson, Shazzula Nebula, John Dust, the sax player from the Psychedelic Furs, The Goddess Bunny, Karen Centerfold, Christian Ventriloquist puppet Little Marcy; one time I swear I saw Ernest Borgnine get up on stage with us once at the Echo and rock some Motown-style backing vocals. True, he’s not known for his musical skills, but he was amazing as Satan in “The Devil’s Rain.” Billy Corgan played on a few songs at a Boston show, looking quite cosmic in a long pink wig and Fuscia cape.

What inspires your songs?

Good question. While it’s true that our leaders are very adamant about the transmission of certain information in the lyrical, musical, and even mathematical structures of the songs and sounds, we were chosen for this work not only because we all happened to fit in the outfits, but because we actually enjoy many of the types of music that our leaders feel are the best suited to propagate their ideas among the people of Earth. They trust us to come up with the sonic settings and arrangements now almost completely, and rarely do we have to alter so much as a guitar tone. We really enjoy – and are most definitely inspired by – glitter rock, krautrock, surf music, film scores, psychedelic sounds of all sorts, power pop, southern rock, pop metal, snowpop, eurodisco — you know, the usual suspects, but it just so happens these things are the perfect musical vehicles for the ideas our Leaders wish to share with the people of Earth, so since we just like these things anyway they kind of let us go wild with the songwriting.

Do you feel that you are here to deliver an Earth saving message?

Potentially – I guess if our message ends up saving the Earth, then we probably are.

What do you hope to accomplish with the music that you make?

The thing is, our leaders want us to implant their “message,” as you call it, in the most permanent, yet humane, manner possible. The moments of the humans’ greatest sensitivity to these sorts of semi-subliminal missals are during times of horrific trauma, near death experiences, or good old ecstatic, chaotic fun, the kind associated with voodoo rituals, Southern Rock festivals, snake-handler gospel revivals, certain raves and punk rock shows, Islamic Mystical Trance dancing, etc. The bummer of horrific trauma and the danger of NDEs make this choice an easy one. So anything that makes the experience fun – and if the music isn’t fun, none of it is – is good for us, our leaders, their message, and the people. Everybody wins. Actually, as we get to know the songs, we’ve been really starting to like them a lot, so just the act of playing and singing them with people in attendance is way fun for us; hopefully this fun will radiate, and help lift the vibrations of all humans to the next plateau, the level above Human, and then the level above that, forever. Or at least for 40 minutes or so.

What is your affiliation with Billy Corgan?

Billy Corgan? The wrestler? Oh, we like him very much. He’s tough in the ring, but a real sweetheart when he’s not working. And such a shredder! Oy, vey! He’s on our EP – he invented and played a really cool guitar part on the Fancy Space People theme. Took him all of 5 minutes to write, play, and record it, and it sounds great. He has a band, as well, called the Smashing Pumpkins, and they were nice enough to take us on tour with them last year, which was a blast.

Are all the band’s actions dictated by a message you receive from aliens?

Of course! Aren’t everybody’s?

How do you feel about Pluto being demoted as a planet?

It’s not so apocalyptic as all that. We have a very good friend – Ygarr Ygarrist from Zolar X – who happens to be a Plutonian elf, and he’s fine with it. He has been here on Earth since the 70s, however, so maybe the ones left behind feel differently. But I can’t see how it would really affect anything here or in Fancy Space if even the expat Plutonians don’t care.

Are there any space aliens in the US that you know of? Are any of them celebrities?

Oh, yes – most definitely! Our Leaders used to use a New Age guy named David Icke to warn the Earthlings of the impending alien invasions and of the secret advance agents of the various extra-dimensional species already among us. Then Icke somehow was compromised, or so they say, and he was soon instructed to include a lot of disinformation in his screeds, which has made them a lot more entertaining, but also more confusing. Between you and me, what really happened is they figured out that their “messages” were far more effective when set to catchy Bubble Glam songs, and his music is kind of boring and New Age, plus his hair is lame, so they gave the job to us. The reptilians, however, are quite real, and there are many other sorts of ET shape-shifters among us, as well… But all will be revealed in its time.

What’s been your greatest accomplishment as a band thus far?

We got to play for the Yo Gabba Gabba “It’s Time To Dance! Live” at the NOKIA Theater for thousands of toddlers, who will soon take over the world and usher in a new golden age, the Utopia promised by Our Leaders.

Where do you get your stage outfits?

They were designed by our Leaders, and are made by these weird creatures that resemble large, glowing termite queens in a local sweatshop.

What else should we know about you guys?

No-Ra and I have a little nightclub/venue/salon, called Club Ding-a-Ling, in a top-secret location somewhere in Echo Park. Come on down. Oh, and we’re currently hard at work on our 1st LP, tentatively called “Xxenogenesis II,” soon to be available on 12” vinyl and cassette, wherever toys are sold. The debut 3-song 12″ 45RPM vinyl Fancy Space People EP (Including the FSP theme, Pleiadian Youth, and Pyramids Shoot Golden Rays) is available from Starry Records.

Words by Nicole Pajer (@NicolePajer). Photos by Catie Laffoon (@CatieLaffoon).

Bassnectar – Vava Voom (Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl)
Beach House – Bloom
Best Coast – The Only Place
Lungfish – A.C.R. 1999
Monophonics – In Your Brain
My Bloody Valentine – Isn’t Anything [Reissue/1989] CD
My Bloody Valentine – Loveless [Reissue/1991] 2xCD
My Bloody Valentine – EPs 1988-1991 2xCD
Bassnectar – Vava Voom (Recently released on CD – now available on vinyl)
Beach House – Bloom
Best Coast – The Only Place
Pantera – Vulgar Display Of Power [Deluxe Edition] CD+DVD (Rhino)
Philm – Harmonic CD (Ipecac)
Cherri Bomb – This Is The End Of Control
Birthmark – Antibodies
Godsmack – Live & Inspired 2xCD
Cornershop - Urban Turban
The Cribs – In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull
Adam Lambert – Trespassing
Tu Fawning – A Monument
Hot Water Music – Exister
Shadows Fall - Fire From The Sky (Razor & Tie)
Meiko – The Bright Side
Mewithoutyou – Ten Stories
Willie Nelson – Heroes
NRBQ – We Travel The Spaceways
John Pizzarelli – Double Exposure CD
Lisa Marie Presley – Storm And Grace
Rye Rye – Go! Pop! Bang!
Carlos Santana – Shapeshifter
Sugarman 3 – What The World Needs Now

Check out “Marina,” a song off Sleepy Sun’s last album, Fever. Released in 2010 on All Tomorrow’s Parties, it’s one of the most engaging, sensual psych-rock albums to come out in the last ten years. Its nine songs vary in length—from two to ten minutes—and stylistically can turn on a dime, moving from a slow, bayou dirge to bongolicious Afropop in the course of 30 seconds. Sleepy Sun also fall under one of my favorite musical categories: the male- and female-fronted rock group. Or at least they did until singer Rachel Fannan departed the band four months after Fever came out.

I think it’s safe to say everyone’s gonna be alright about the new one. Still, there’s something about the caustic dynamic between a man and a woman sharing the microphone against a bed of ferocious rock music. Listen to Earl Greyhound. Listen to Verbena. Hell, listen to the Pixies. It can be lightning in a bottle, and more often than not, it doesn’t last long.

Words by Rich Thomas (@TheLandfill). Photos by Joe Gall (@CameraJesus).

We caught up with the UK rockers to discuss making music that “captures a sense of celebration,” bleeding on stage, and being paint bombed while performing with Rihanna.

Let’s start with Kerry. Last time you played in LA you smashed your head on stage. Tell us more about that fiasco.

Kerry: Well, I recovered. It was only a tiny little gash.

Luke: It didn’t look so tiny!

Kerry: There was a hell of a lot of blood. It was ridiculous. I was being cocky basically – trying to stand on a sofa or something – and I smashed my head. I looked down and my guitar was covered in blood. It was during the second song and I had to keep playing.

Was that your biggest on stage blooper to date?

Kerry: Surprisingly, yes.

Luke: It’s normally quite rowdy and I think we’ve been lucky to get away with it.

Kerry: I had woken up the next day with a conehead. The bump was directly in the middle of my head!

How did you guys hook up with MUSE?

Luke: I think the connection there is the whole Adrian Bushby thing because Adrian produced and mixed some of the Muse albums and we basically sent our tracks to Adrian on a whim. He loved our stuff, which was amazing and he decided to do one track for us and then that track evolved into two, and then the whole album. Because we’re a DIY band – we do everything ourselves. We don’t have a record label, all the money that we pump into it is our own. He did us a great deal and it was just amazing to get that opportunity. We’re just four guys from London. The other thing is Dominick Howard from Muse heard about us and came down to our show in London. So we got to meet him and he’s a lovely guy and he seemed to be very impressed with what we’re doing. It’s great to have someone like that pat you on the back.

Were you big fans of Muse before that?

Luke: Absolutely! Fantastic band!

Your bio says you aim to make music that captures a sense of celebration…

Luke: Over adversity! Well where we live in London, and all across the world actually, there’s a recession going on. There’s no money. Everyone’s unemployed trying to figure out what they’re gonna do with their lives. A lot of our friends who have left university and things like that have come out of school and can’t get a job. They have a degree that they’ve spend thousands of pounds on and they are searching for what to do. The time is just really dark and it’s not really happy. We were like, “Fuck that. We’re gonna get up there and we’re gonna play music and have a party and enjoy ourselves. We’re gonna make the most of our youth and who we are and what we’re trying to do and encourage other people to do that.” To say, you know what, “You’ve got no money but OK let’s share a moment together” because that’s what you live for really.

Are most of your songs uplifting?

Luke: We try to be. We’re big fans of The Cure where they will have a pop song and then a melancholic track. It might be melancholic in sound but the lyrics are much more positive so that’s what we try and put forward in our music.

What would you say most of your musical influences are? I hear a lot of 90’s grunge…

Kerry: Yeah. For sure.

Luke: The band that got me into music was Nirvana. I was obsessed with them. It’s a mixed band though. For example, Simon loves Phil Collins. He learned the drums because his parents used to play Genesis and Phil in the car.

Jonny: On our album, you can definitely hear all our influences from the 90’s grudge to the more popular music.

Luke: Jonny loves things like Queen and older stuff like Led Zeppelin. One of my favorite bands is a band from Belgian called dEUS. They came around in the 90’s during the whole grunge scene. They are kind of a cult artsy band. A lot of musicians love that band. And then Kerry loves things like Aphex Twin and all your computer music as well.

Kerry: I love everything!

Luke: So it’s a big mixed pot of stuff.

You were recently on stage with Rihanna. What was that all about?

Simon: They were doing their British performance, which is like our version of the Grammy’s and they were looking for a young band to perform with them and we got put forward. She loved our track “Rapture” so she chose us to be her band. We went in there and ended up getting stuck in these massive boxes with paint going everywhere and it was incredible. The dancers were throwing paint bombs and there were paint mines on the floor. It was a crazy day. We played “We Fell in Love.” It’s a great track. I really enjoyed it.

Luke: It’s interesting to see that world. We got to meet Coldplay and Noel Gallagher and all these people that we adore and look up to as musicians and songwriters. You go there and it’s just a different world. We’re used to just playing what we call toilet shows, in tiny little venues that are hot and sweaty and then you’re thrown into that world of massive stars. It was a great experience and I’m glad we did it. It was great.

So you were all schoolmates? Is that how you met and started playing music together?

Jonny: Me and Simon went to school together. We jammed in bands. Luke and Kerry went to school together and found each other on the scene.

Luke: Me and Kerry started playing together when we were 14. We’ve been friends for years. We’re 26 now so it’s just been a great ride and then we met the other guys and it’s been going great.

Looking back at your previous bands, do you think they were good?

All: No.

Luke: I thought we were amazing at the time but let’s be honest, I don’t think that was the case at all.

Jonny: It was more about discovering and just playing other cool songs and learning how to play our instruments and playing it that way.

fiN has a reputation for being anti-iTunes. Will your new album be available there?

Luke: Well I wouldn’t say anti-iTunes but we wanted to do something a little bit different and I think it’s the whole point and click generation now where you sit in front of your computer and you press “buy.” When we were kids, you’d go into a record store and you’d hear something and you’d discover that album and you’d pick it up and take it home and it was yours. And then you make mixed tapes for your friends and it’s that vibe. We wanted to bring that back a little bit with the vinyl and buying into something and feeling that you’re a part of it and holding it in your hand so that’s what we set out to do.

Tell us about the writing process for the new album. I read something about you guys being holed up in a little box and it was damp and there were sleeping bags…

Simon: We moved into this old caretaker’s house on a school grounds and it was the most basic structure you could imagine. It was just a cube house and we called it “The box” and it was really run down. It was damp and there was mold everywhere. We pitched tents in the upstairs bedroom so we felt a bit safe and clean. And then just converted the pretty small living room – duvets on walls and ceilings to kind of soundproof it. We blacked out the windows and we were in there for like 2 ½ – 3 weeks or something just getting drunk and writing tunes.

Kerry: We’d get drunk at 3 in the morning and start jamming.

Luke: The best songs just developed really quickly and we didn’t really think about it.

Simon: We demoed and recorded in there on a little laptop that could barely run.

Luke: And that led on to doing our album, which we did ourselves. It’s always been us basically and it’s been great.

Jonny: Always learning new skills.

How has the US reception been so far?

Luke: It’s been incredible.

Jonny: America’s been incredible. We played SXSW where nobody knows who you are. We just turned up and plugged into any amp and played and the crowd really enjoyed it and I think we showed them what Brits can do. The crowds have been really cool in America.

Are you touring in a van or a bus?

Simon: In the UK last year we just scraped the last of our money together and bought a van that was ours and we’ve made it our home. We get in it and drive around Europe and we have a massive sheet of plywood that becomes our bed and we sleep in there and live there and it’s really cool. And we’re driving ourselves – the van tour, aka the proper rock ‘n’ roll way.

Words by Nicole Pajer (@NicolePajer). Photos by Catie Laffoon (@CatieLaffoon).

The music community has polarized itself in reaction to Sleigh Bells’ caustic blend of 60’s/90’s pop, 80’s hair-metal, dubstep, and drum and bass. Their sound is the acid-tongued love child of band members, Alexis Krauss (teen pop group, RubyBlue) and Derek Edward Miller (Poison The Well). Their offspring has grown into a pop version of Five Finger Death Punch or a hair-metal Matt & Kim.

The controversial buzz surrounds the fact that Sleigh Bells’ music appears to have little, if any, structure. Krauss’ voice, a velvety, pastel-blue, clashes with Miller’s unforgiving shred guitar. The incorporation of drum and bass further underscores the harshness. Even if the juxtaposition IS intentional, it’s not easy to digest. It can feel like you’re listening to three different songs simultaneously. Each genre is incorporated with little if any temperance, in turn creating a choir of belting soloists.

Pleasure, however, is not the exclusive domain of harmony. Sometimes, pleasure can be born of cacophony. Sleigh Bells’ fan base lauds the band for pairing sounds that have traditionally been deemed incongruous. They redefine harmony and challenge the status quo of the music industry: something invariably beneficial to the music community. It’s an ambitious pursuit to design a coherent musical structure that does not slack on its boldness and unconventionality.

There are a few tracks that display such a degree of thoughtful arrangement. In “You’ve Lost Me” (2012’s Reign of Terror) and “Rill Rill” (2010’s Treats) the whammy bar dive bombs finally find a place that makes sense. Here, the arrangements are not just lumped together, but rather play off each genre’s strengths. The songs are undeniably energetic. Crowd surfing, pit madness, and fist pumping are knee jerk reactions.

The band’s publicist said of Reign of Terror, “[The album features] songs that are as crushing and authoritative as their title suggests; they’re effortlessly robust and heavier than any of the band’s previous output … the sonic equivalent of a beautiful shotgun to the head.”

Sleigh Bells has sped up the indie music scene’s progression. Whether you end up digging their vibe or not, at least open up your ears and consider the sound they’ve put together. At that point, decide what you want and add to the dialogue surrounding the buzz.

Check out our photos of their recent concert in Detroit. They’ve got a gnarly stage presence, so the shots are worth it. Enjoy!

Words by Ariel Maccarone (@ArielMacc). Photos by Joe Gall (@CameraJesus).

We caught up with HoneyHoney’s Suzanne Santo and Ben Jaffe for a preshow dressing room chat. Ben told us tales of spores attacking ants, while Suzanne shared early touring memories of Everclear’s Art Alexakis forbidding them from using a dressing room out of fear of being poisoned.

Check out our interview after the jump:

Last time we saw you guys you were just about to release “Billy Jack” and you were jumping in a van to do your “Ten Buck Tour.” What has happened since then?

Suzanne: Well, we’ve released “Billy Jack.” It’s getting a nice slow steady take off.

Ben: Hovering slightly above ground.

Suzanne: We shot a music video recently for our song called “Angel of Death” that we’re really excited about.

Ben: We did Coachella and we did the “Ten Buck Tour.” We’ve grown so much since then.

Suzanne: It was a fun tour. Juxtaposed next to the James Morrison tour, it was a little more back roads-ish, if you will. But that tour was a real growing experience as a band and kind of one of those things you should always go through as a band. You go out to play a show and there’s only 20 people there, or a hundred.

Ben: It was our first headlining tour so it was interesting. It was like taking your temperature for the first time. We’ve done so many of these opening slots and theater tours and we finally got out there to see what the reality was because it was us and Joshua James. I thought it was really interesting though and fun to really get in touch with who our fans actually were.

What’s something you guys learned on that tour? Any life lessons?

Ben: Hygiene is important for all people in the band.

Suzanne: If one needs to relieve themselves of some gastric distress, call “windows.”

Ben: Out of respect!

Tell us about the “Angel of Death” video and the people that, according to your Facebook page, “were harmed in the making of it.”

Suzanne: We had such a crazy time because we actually produced it ourselves, and got the funding ourselves and we wrote it with the director

Temporary interview pause while Ben held out an apple for Suzanne, who was curling her hair, to take a bite.

Suzanne: Did you hold onions in your hand?

Ben: No but I was told that if you plug your nose and close your eyes, most people can’t tell the difference between biting into an apple and an onion.

Suzanne: I don’t think I’d like to do that. So anyway, I digressed. It was a really big deal for us to do the video because it was another area where we could create something other than music. We got these celebrities involved from our contacts in LA and it was a really cool development of our time and the people that we met and the people that contributed. At the end of it, we were so proud and then it turned out way better than we expected it to turn out. The IFC Channel did a premiere of it, which was crazy. We didn’t expect that to happen. We were like, “We’re gonna put it on YouTube and people will get all excited” but really it turned out so well and those things are really important these days – having a presence on YouTube and Twitter and Facebook because we’re not Lady Ga Ga… yet!

What is “Angel of Death” about? It sounds pretty intense.

Ben: You write and you write and you write and you kind of hack away at these songs and build them piece-by-piece. Every once in a while I think as a result of that, songs sort of come out in their entirety almost as a natural expression and that was one of those songs. It came from so many weird places of inspiration. This is gonna go way fucking up field – I’m sorry – but there’s this Planet Earth documentary and I was fascinated with this part where there are these spores that attack these ants. What they do is they attack the ants and they take over the ant’s mind. And then the ant slowly turns into this flower – basically the ant dies, the ant community expels it. I told you this was way off but after I saw this part where the ant community expels this ant and then it slowly grows into this flower from this killer spore, I wrote that down in my phone and I said, that’s kind of like the angel of death – this spore floating through the air. And that was the first line of the song. So that started the song which turned into I think kind of bummin’ about being in relationships and feeling like whoever the narrator is kind of ruins everything vibe.

Suzanne: To be honest with you, when people say, “Hey what’s the song about” it’s really most of the time that you speak in generalities and you don’t really know. Sometimes it’s personal. I always feel kind of squeamish talking about the song but Ben wrote “Angel of Death” and it had more of a subjective angle where he had this idea and he built a song around it. For the most part, I don’t want to be like, “Hey this song’s about my dad.” That’s just weird.

Ben: I feel like they’re always an aggregation of all these different things. It starts out a song about this and all these other influences and imagery just kind of get rolled into that.

Suzanne: “I hate you dad.”

Just like Everclear!

Ben: That dude does not like his dad.

Suzanne: We played a show next to him once and we were prohibited from the dressing room that we were supposed to share and it was pouring rain in Louisville, Kentucky. Apparently he has this deep-seated horrifying fear of being poisoned; I guess he was poisoned before so we weren’t allowed anywhere near the dressing room. They locked the doors. Any of the food we were munching on had to be separate. That was way back when we were freshmen. We’ve been through a lot since then.

When did you guys get signed to Fontana/Lost Highway? Was that since we saw you last?

Suzanne: Yes. That was probably right around that time. We are working with them for distribution. They are like our pimp daddy’s of the record. We love them. It’s exciting!

Is that exciting to have people with money behind you?

Suzanne: Well, it’s not as much as you might think. With all due respect to the label, they gave us enough funding to promote the record but we don’t really have enough to really make a living. We don’t have places that we live currently. It’s a weird lifestyle. People are like, “How are you?” I’m like, “I’m good. I’m here. That’s where I am. I’m right here and tomorrow I’ll be right there…”

It’s all part of the journey.

Ben: I had such a powerful sense of that last night when I woke up and really didn’t have any idea where I was for like ten minutes.

Suzanne: that happens to me every couple of weeks.

Is all your stuff in storage?

Ben: I got rid of all my stuff.

Suzanne: Mine’s in storage and every time I go to my storage unit, I kind of get really happy and sad at the same time. I’ve got my books in there and my records and just things that I love – my cat. I’m just kidding! That would be so unhealthy and cruel. He’s with my ex-boyfriend.

Have you guys developed any interesting hobbies to keep yourselves busy in the van?

Suzanne: Our drummer Gerry does fireside chats of reading Yelp reviews, which is highly entertaining.

Ben: Of places we’re about to stay in.

Suzanne: We have videos of it. Uncle Jiggity is his nickname these days. We also play basketball. I participate but Ben and Gerry are really good. I’m a bit of a handicap. I sprained my ankle. None of us can afford to get injured but we play. It’s something that’s really fun because we’re in the van so much and when you can sweat and run around for a half an hour, it’s like you get high from it. You’re in this van all day and your muscles are turning into Swiss cheese and it’s like, “I’m just fading away into nothing.”

Did you get injured on the road?

Suzanne: You know… It was so dumb. I was taking the trash out at my sister’s house and I fucking fell off a ledge and I sprained my ankle really bad. I was on crutches for like four days. I had to do a show sitting down; I felt like a damn singer/songwriter – not cool!

Were you sitting too Ben?

Ben: I was standing over her. I was like, “I’m the star!”

Words by Nicole Pajer (@NicolePajer). Photos by Catie Laffoon (@CatieLaffoon).

James Cameron – The Abyss: Some people may call Cameron a pompous ass — at least he’s a prophetic pompous ass. In the sense that he’s the one making his own prophecies come true.

His film The Abyss, about a voyage to the very bottom of the sea where aliens live, turned to reality 23 years later when he became the first to voyage to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the ocean. (He’ll also be releasing a film on exactly what kind of weird alien stuff he found there, next year.)

Orson Welles – Citizen Kane: Orson Welles magnum opus was prophetic, just not the way Orson Welles wanted it. This is largely because (in its own twisted way) it foresaw the downfall of Welles himself — at the hands of William Randolph Hearst (the very newspaper baron he satirized in the movie). But as for the entire 20th century, it was prophetic enough to see the increasing sensationalism of the tabloids, as well as the newer version of Kane/Hearst in the empire of Rupert Murdoch. Many media analysts are even comparing Murdoch’s recent attempts to ‘repent’ to the too-late mea culpas of Kane in the film as well. In a more immediate context, some might also compare Kane’s political platform to the hyped rhetoric still used by several modern-day politicians. There’s even more (unfair) irony knowing that Welles’ last role was as a giant evil Transformer known for its cosmic butt blasts.

Sidney Lumet – Network: Sidney Lumet’s masterpiece captivated the world,largely because of Peter Finch’s (the only other actor to win an Oscar posthumously besides Heath Ledger) insane performance as Howard Beale, a man whose ‘mad prophet of the airwaves’ was something akin to a very contemporary real-life oracle: Lumet’s vision foresaw the hysteria of reality television, the sensationalism of radio pundits and shock jocks, and afternoon carney TV like Jerry Springer. And you can thank Jay Leno/NBC for echoing the ratings-before-humanity ethos of Faye Dunaway a mere two years ago when they yanked The Tonight Show away from him.

David Cronenberg – Existenz: Existenz came out in 1999 and was prescient enough to see what nanotechnologists and scientists are already developing some 13 years later.  Especially nifty new gaming sex toy modules (mostly from Japan) — body devices, like this one, and various fetish devices, like this one. Several scientists are already predicting that within the next 20 years gaming will be downloaded via neural implant, and games will be forged from biological sources, not electronic hardware. Thus, the game will be in you. Cronenberg foresaw the gaming addiction growing stronger – and the possibility of some really nasty infections as a result. In another way, he saw virtual reality gaming for what it one day will be, as we emerge from the uncanny valley and gaming avatars become more and more indistinguishable from everyday humans. Also another great excuse to put up the best picture of Jennifer Jason Lee ever.

Stanley Kubrick – 2001: A Space Odyssey: ‘Science Fiction has a terrible record in predicting the future,’ Kubrick’s biographer John Baxter once said. And considering we hadn’t been to the moon yet when 2001 was released, he was only half-right– Kubrick’s masterpiece foresaw not only a successful landing on the moon, but also where we’re (eventually) headed: colonization and terraforming of the lunar surface. Not to mention more technological stuff we developed over the past quarter-century on Earth, like phone cards, the very first hints of artificial intelligence, and corporations like Virgin (only in this case it was Pan Am) chartering space flights. Unfortunately, with the recent near-dismantling of the shuttle program and other NASA staples, things aren’t looking so optimistic.

Okay, that was all way too serious — now watch Christopher Hitchens play HAL 9000 and berate Dave.

Words by Jeff Nau (@JeffNau)

Stanley Kubrick photo courtesy of Phaidon.com
2001 clip courtesy of MGM/Warner Bros.
Kane clip courtesy of Paramount/Warner
Network clip courtesy of MGM
Existenz clip courtesy of Dimension Films
The Abyss clip courtesy of 20th Century Fox
Kane/Murdoch photo courtesy of urbaneyez

ChinaShop caught up Brian and Chris following their set to discuss how they overly celebrated the night before (and were currently nursing hangovers), as well as the magic behind recording where Brian grew up in Topanga Canyon. We also chatted about the days of home stereo systems, typewriters, and whether or not people still use wite-out.

Happy album release day.

Brian: Thank you!

Are you guys excited?

Chris: Yeah! it’s kind of whirlwindy right now.

Brian: Yeah we’re excited. When you’re making the album you think, “Wow. I can’t wait till it comes out.” You’re wondering what it’s gonna be like because you haven’t really developed the whole thing yet and you get romantic – “I can’t wait till this comes out” because you’re so in it. And by the time it actually comes out, you’re already in a different place. You’re rehearsing and there’s all this other stuff happening and so you forget that it hasn’t come out yet. You have to wait like six months.

Chris: I’m not sure if it’s better or worse to be really busy on the release day.

Brian: I think it’s better because if you released it and everyone’s like, “No it’s fine. Stay home.” Then that’s probably trouble.

So you guys celebrated properly last night?

Brian: There was this dance party. The whole time I was aware that we were doing this morning show and I was in my head the whole time constantly going, “I’m going to be on the radio tomorrow Brian. I gotta keep it cool. Keep it cool. Don’t talk much.” And I told this guy, “Oh I gotta relax. I’m gonna be on the radio tomorrow” and the guy’s like, “Aww you gonna be on the radio tomorrow? Poor little guy.” And that was it. I thought, “Well, I guess I sound like a douche.”

And then you turned into “Frank The Tank” from Old School?

Chris: Running naked.

Brian: “Can we stop at a KFC?” What does he say? Yeah that’s so awesome.

Are you celebrating today as well? You’re playing Kimmel later right?

Chris: We are. We’ll celebrate after Kimmel because Kimmel you know is stressful. We’ll have fun though once we do Kimmel and then we’re gonna hang out with our friends Snow Patrol. We’re going to their show.

Brian: They’re playing The Palladium across the street so we’re gonna go over there.

Brian, you’ve said that the album was quite serendipitous and that it happened by chance. Tell us more about that.

Brian: I think just because the themes of the album. It was just accidental that I recorded it where I grew up in Topanga Canyon. We didn’t plan that. Even the album title – it all just ended up working together just dumb luck. I wish we could have planned it. I wish we could take credit for anything on the album but we can’t. Our producer “Jacknife” Lee lives in Topanga Canyon and we recorded it in his garage so I was in my neighborhood where I haven’t been in years and it just really lent to the album – more than I was expecting. I’ll tell you that.

A lot of memories rushing back?

Brian: Yeah. It was exciting at first. I feel like I went through my whole really young life. At first it was really fun to be there and pretty. It was like I was a little kid and then somewhere during the recording process, I turned into an angry teenager and by the end I was like, “Get me the fuck out of here.”

It’s been three years since the last album. How long did you guys spend writing and recording and getting ready for this?

Brian: So far we’ve been on a two year on, one year off sort of thing. A record comes out, we tour for about two years and then it’s been a year when we take a little bit of time off and start writing and recording. That’s sort of how it works. I think we spend less time on this one actually than prior. We took a little bit more time off this time because we learned from last time. We only took a month off last time and we felt it. At the end of the Swoon tour it all just blended together and really you have nothing to write about. Are you going to write about the road? Boring! Everybody can really relate to that, right? [Singing]: “I’m in another town.” It’s really just not inspiring.

Chris: The road ain’t no place to start a family.

Brian: Am I right people? We’re not ready to write that Eagles record. We ended our Swoon tour Christmas 2010, took a few months off and probably started writing around April or May and recorded in October – 10 weeks in October.

Chris: And then the recording process was faster than we’ve ever done.

Brian: It was like being on a rocket ship. It was so intense.

Chris: Our last couple records took 6 months in the studio.

Brian: Yeah. Not our fault. So I was like, “That’s all I have to do today?” I’d do a guitar track and he’s like, “Yeah that’s cool.”

And relieve your childhood.

Brian: I did walk around my neighborhood at midnight and I’ll tell you, neighborhood watch is bullshit. I was like a creepy dude with a hoodie up and headphones staring at my house. It was like, “What the hell?” I had a whole routine ready if the cops came. “No man. I’m in a band. I swear to God. I used to live here.”

You haven’t toured for a while. Do you feel rusty getting back up there?

Brian: No. Weirdly not. We rehearse ourselves to death. We spend a long time getting it all ready so by the time we actually play shows, some muscle memory is happening.

Chris: The last month we kind of freaked out a little and were like, “We should really rehearse” and we ended up rehearsing a lot. So by the time we played our first show it kind of felt like, “OK. We know how to do this.”

Brian: Yeah. Because they start planning things and you start looking at your schedule and you’re like, “Whoa. Wait a minute guys. We need to release these songs.” And they’re like, “Just get up there and do it.” We played in LA for years before we signed anything and made an album so live is where we’re supposed to be. It’s most natural. Records we’re figuring out. I think we’re getting better at it. It’s an almost unnatural environment but live feels right.

At what point did you all sit down together and just listen to the album?

Brian: Never. We wrote it. We know what it sounds like.

Chris: We were getting them in pieces a lot of the time and emailing songs back and forth. That was a first. Usually we would get the CD or we’d go to the producer or the mixer’s place and listen to it but all of a sudden we were getting emails of “This is the new mix for Bloody Mary.”

Brian: Very strange! But you have to listen to it right. I think because it’s the first time we had to commute in a long time. We live in Silver Lake and we were going to Topanga everyday so there was a lot of time in our car that we haven’t had and I forgot that the car is really the greatest place to listen to music.

There’s no living room stereo anymore and I only have a computer. We don’t sit there in our living room bumping it anymore like the old days when people had those big crazy stereos… so the car was an exciting place to listen and with “Jacknife,” the way he works, is it’s all happening so quick. You almost have a good idea of what the song’s gonna be pretty early. He’s basically mixing it while we’re doing it so we heard those songs in many stages pretty quickly.

Chris: Computers what the fuck?

I know.

Brian: You’re like, I know weirdo. Yeah computers!

Remember typewriters?

Brian: I do remember typewriters. Sometimes hipsters will go crazy, right? I remember I was at one of my friend’s houses in Silver Lake he had a typewriter and was like, “I only write my notes on a typewriter.” And it would suck and the things would get stuck and I was like, “Who do you write these notes to?”

And then you have your assistant that transcribes it to your iPad.

Brian: Yeah. Dictated but not read. It goes on the iPad.

Chris: Wite-out. Whatever happened to wite-out. Is that no more?

Brian: The wite-out family is no more.

Chris: I wonder what happened to that.

Brian: Sales must have dropped drastically.

What else is on the agenda for the rest of the year?

Brian: This. Nothing really… hanging out. Hopefully there’s a mimosa headed to me soon. I don’t know – touring, traveling, you know. Band stuff!

Words by Nicole Pajer (@NicolePajer). Photos by Catie Laffoon (@CatieLaffoon).

After party headliners, Skrillex, DJ Pauly D and the Barstool Blackout will close each night’s after party line-up in the Convention Hall, the legendary Stone Pony and the Wonder Bar. The after parties scheduled to begin at 11:00 PM will feature performances by Skrillex and Friends, DJ Pauly D, the Barstool Blackout FOAM party, Fishbone, Big Freedia, White Panda, Datsik, T. Mills, Dramarama, Tragedy: A Tribute To The Bee Gees, Outasight, and more, plus The Bamboozle special guest. For a complete schedule, please visit www.thebamboozle.com.

In addition to after parties, hours will be extended for all of the attractions along the boardwalk including restaurants, miniature golf, other family-friendly activities, a “silent rave” on Friday and Saturday night on the Beach Party stage, nightly fireworks, and other late-night attractions. Single day, three-day and after party passes are currently available for purchase.

The Bamboozle, presented by Live Nation, will return to the beach at historic Asbury Park for the first time since 2005 following extensive renovations to the area. Over 100 acts will be featured in a beach party setting complete with the biggest beach stage ever built in the country and additional stages and attractions spread throughout and along the boardwalk featuring headliners including Bon Jovi, Foo Fighters, Skrillex, Incubus, Brand New, and The Gaslight Anthem.

Additional performers include Jimmy Eat World, Mac Miller, All American Rejects, DJ Pauly D, Andrew Dice Clay, Boys Like Girls, ASAP Rocky, Volbeat, Bayside, Bouncing Souls, The Promise Ring, Motion City Soundtrack, Alesana, Never Shout Never, Buckcherry, Less Than Jake, Emmure, Datsik, T. Mills, and Dramarama, and more.

More performers will be announced for The Bamboozle including a very special guest. Single day, three-day and after party passes are currently available for purchase. For more information about passes, after parties, a complete list of current scheduled performers, the daily festival line-up and transit information, please visit: www.thebamboozle.com.