interview | ChinaShop

Featured Gallery Music Group Therapy with Dragonette

April 23, 2012 - 11:45 am

One of our top shows of Coachella, and hands down our favorite interview, was with Dragonette. We danced harder than we did all weekend during their set and we laughed more than we’ve laughed in a while during our sit down with the trio. Among the conversation topics were, tour coordination equating to foreplay, freaking out about having to pee on stage, and their love/hate relationship with Deadmau5.

While we did get a few good questions in there, the majority of the interview involved us sitting back and observing Martina Sorbara, Dan Kurtz, and Joel Stouffer in their natural environment. The back and forth banter was cracking us up and at one point, we considered calling in a psychologist to help us mediate through the dialogue, all in the name of fun of course.

Check out our chat with Dragonette after the jump:

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Art Featured Gallery Lydia Emily is a Rebel with a Cause

by Ariel Maccarone and Jennifer Popperl

April 17, 2012 - 10:49 am

The highly anticipated show by Los Angeles artist and activist, Lydia Emily, opened in early March at Los Angeles’ LAB ART, the largest art gallery in the nation dedicated exclusively to street art. Although she has received no formal training, Emily has done fine art and street art for twenty years. Coming from a highly academic family that followed the progression of human rights, she has consistently used art as a medium for social commentary. Her current exhibit revolves around the Chinese government’s treatment of political prisoners, especially Tibetans.

Although her work has always polarized audiences, private collectors have ranged from Bob Dole to the Winston Churchill Family. Additionally, her work has been featured nationally and worldwide with shows in Milan Italy, Berlin Germany, Los Angeles, New York, Washington DC, and San Francisco. Emily currently resides with her two children in Glendale, California.

We were recently able to steal her away to gain some insight into how she sees her most recent show and the future of her career.

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Featured Gallery Music Cursive Tells the Tale of “The Twins”

by Nicole Pajer and Dustin Downing

April 9, 2012 - 1:22 pm

Cursive’s latest album, I Am Gemini is a 12-song journey through the trials and tribulations of two conjoined twins, Cassius and Pollock. The brothers, separated at birth, meet for the first time, and struggle through accepting their past as reality. Vocalist Tim Kasher explains that the vision for the band’s seventh studio album stemmed from an interest he’s had in exploring the idea of multiple personalities. The story then took on a life of it’s own and morphed into an album long musical centered upon the conflicted siblings.

Fresh into a headlining spring tour, Cursive recently performed at L.A.’s Troubadour, treating fans to a mixture of hits and tracks off of their latest studio masterpiece. Following the show, Kasher gave us the behind-the-scenes scoop on recording I Am Gemini. We also discussed his seduction techniques, appreciation for Top 40 radio, and what he’s currently writing on the side of Cursive.

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Featured Gallery Music Introducing the Refreshingly Original Wishes and Thieves

by Courtney Dudley

March 30, 2012 - 11:27 am

Jolanda Porter, the lead singer of Wishes and Thieves, has a classically soulful voice but is most comfortable singing over heavy drums and guitar riffs. No jazz piano and spare drums for this lady– she wants to belt it out with the best of the headbangers. And honestly, its not like the knockout with with the pipes needs a backup band. But after talking with them it’s obvious these guys are not just around to fluff the pretty lady’s feathers. The boys, Joe Higgins on bass, Mike MacAllister on guitar and Will clark on drums, are all technically trained musicians who’ve been making instrumental tracks for years without a voice to lead their sound. Meeting each other and forming Wishes and Thieves was a necessity for the crew if they were going to take it to a new level– allowing them each to showcase their passion without being confined to a certain genre that would limit their scope. This particular story required the hard work and collaboration of the entire crew to create something refreshingly original.

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Featured Gallery Music Living Life and Enjoying Friends with Greylag

by Courtney Dudley

March 20, 2012 - 10:59 am

There are just some bands who know how to do it right and Greylag is one of them. There was no line to get in to their show, no RSVP weeks in advance. Yet after talking with them I realized that this is (or should be) what the heart of SXSW is all about. Not stroking the already famous egos, getting free stuff or hanging at the place with the biggest light installation, but discovering new talent. Getting into music. This was Greylags first SXSW appearance. Drawing from bluegrass, rock n roll and soul as inspiration, Daniel Dixon and Andrew Stonestreet are just beginning on their endeavor together as Greylag.

We had a chance to talk with the duo under the heat of the SX sun and the following is what they had to say. Read the Interview after the jump.

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Featured Gallery Music Firehorse Is For The Dogs

by Courtney Dudley

March 19, 2012 - 10:14 am

Leah Siegel lives in Brooklyn, was born in DC but comes from a long line of Brooklynites. I think this is special because nobody who lives in Brooklyn now is actually from there. We talked for a bit about music (see below) and then mostly compared pictures of our dogs.

One of the best things about SXSW is having real interactions with people you’ve never met before, even if they live in your own neighborhood. Most of this interview is omitted because it was about our dogs which is no subject to snub your nose at. Dogs show you whats real in life, man. The jobs and pressures of life all come and go and so do dogs (what with their short life span and all), but it’s the relationships that make an indelible mark on your life. It’s the simple pleasures.

Read the interview with Firehorse‘s Leah Siegel after the jump.

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Featured Music Never Mind The Faceless Techno Bollocks, Here’s Orbital

by Rich Thomas

March 12, 2012 - 9:18 am

Siblings know how difficult it can be to maintain an agreeable relationship with one another, whether they’re simply keeping up appearances at family functions or making excuses for the questionable behavior of small children, but when business is involved, all bets are off. Those whose business is making music together… good luck. The path to collaborative enlightenment is littered with sibling rivalries, from the brothers Langdon (Spacehog) and Robinson (Black Crowes) to the infamous Gallagher (Oasis) and Followill (Kings of Leon) clans.

Brothers Phil and Paul Hartnoll of Orbital never engaged in the laddish and headline-grabbing activities of their counterparts. They just hit a wall, and they hit it hard. After releasing some of electronic music’s most dancefloor friendly and critically lauded albums of the ’90s, they produced only three LPs between 2001 and 2010, one of which was a soundtrack. They were, by their own admittance, self-conscious creators, looking perhaps a bit too much toward the competition during a time when dance music was trying to make a different sort of emotional impact on its listener. Orbital told stories in run-on sentences. They made singles by accident. The clubs wanted something different, but Orbital, thankfully, can only “do” Orbital.

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Music The Duke Spirit Deliver A Knockout

by Lily Moayeri

March 9, 2012 - 10:47 am

The Duke Spirit’s Liela Moss is excitable. The bombshell frontwoman speaks in run-on sentences as her thoughts come fast and furious. Her clipped phrases in the poshest of British accents brim with enthusiasm rather than the default condescension that tends to go with that type of intonation. “Totally stoked” is Moss’ fallback phrase. The surfer lingo sounds incongruous coming from Moss, but her animation is so genuine, you soon find yourself caught up in it.

Right now, Moss is “totally stoked” about securing the opening slot for the Jane’s Addiction tour across America this spring. The Duke Spirit’s album, Bruiser, has just had its physical release, and Moss credits Jane’s Addiction as important to the person she has become—musically anyway.

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Gallery Music Weapons Grade Rock & Roll: We Are The Arsenal

by Nicole Pajer and Catie Laffoon

March 8, 2012 - 10:00 am

It’s tough to be an unsigned band but We Are The Arsenal seems to have it down pat. “We’ve been an unsigned band for going on six years and a lot of unsigned bands probably couldn’t have maintained for that long,” explains lead vocalist, Ryan Terringno. The Fullerton, California based band was the fan favorite for last weekend’s 2012 OC Music Award Best Live Band showcase. While they didn’t take home the title, they did earn themselves a slew of new fans, praise from the judges, and an Ernie Ball Tour Pack filled with strings and accessories.

Keep your eye on these developing OC rockers; all signs point to them going places. Check out our interview with We Are The Arsenal after the jump.

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Featured Music Tune Out and Tune In with Nosaj Thing

by Nicole Pajer and Catie Laffoon

March 7, 2012 - 12:58 pm

Jason Chung, aka “Nosaj Thing” has been DJing since he was twelve years old. In eighth grade, Chung would tell his mother that he was spending the night at a friend’s house and would sneak out to raves where he would stand in the audience, memorized by the drum and bass. Fast-forward to today and Chung is among the most talked about experimental beatmakers of his time.

West Hollywood’s Mondrian Hotel recently hosted a poolside performance by Nosaj Thing as part of their 2012 “Mondrian Sessions.” We caught up with Chung prior to the show to hear about his favorite remixes, new material, and how he came up with his alias.

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