My Dour Highlights

A bunch of my friends are going to the Dour Festival so I made them a list of good stuff.

Jam's Dour Highlights to print out, laminate and keep.

The below are my picks of the lineup. The things with one star are highly reccomended. Three star things you just have to trust me and go see. Even for like 10 minutes. Or you could just ignore this list, use it as toilet paper, get pissed, take a bunch of jills and dance to Andy C. That sounds like pretty good fun to me...

-1990s (Jerky Indie from Scotland, ex-Yummy Fur. Some of it sounds a bit like Roxy)

-A Hawk And A Hacksaw (This guy used to play the drums in Neutral Milk Hotel, now he is a one man band who covers the Israeli national anthem on his accordian. Totally nuts. I had the honor of supporting in him in one of my few appearances with 'Nottingham's most shambolic band' aka Jones Of Colorado)

-Adult (Glacial Detroit electro)

-Amon Tobin (Ninjatune guy.)

-An Albatross (Amazing Screamo with the added bonus of having a frontman who thinks he's Mick Jagger instead of your average annoerexic, aggraphobic self harming screamo frontguy who got molested by his dad with a cactus every night. Or something. I dunno, they are all pretty fu3ked up those Midwest screamo guys.)

-Anthony B (He smokes weed everyday)

***Autechre (Simply. The. Best)

-Bright Eyes (meh, I guess)

-Brujeria (Mexican Death Metal guys who went on to be in Fear Factory. They have now reformed, amazing. Jarv, one for you mate)

-Busy P (Ed Banger label boss so that will be straight up French Electro. He looks like a cross between a wolf and that cartoon guy Droopy)

-Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (I guess...)

*Converge (INCREDIBLE hc. Josh go to this. Seriously minbending, genre-breaking music. People that write about how the Blood Brothers "break the mold" just haven't heard of Converge. If they had they'd wet themselves and go back to listening to The Pigeon Detectives. What kind of a name is that for a band anyway? The Pigeon Detectives?)

-Digitalism (French Electro that isn't actually from France)

-DJ Mehdi (French Electro that is actually from France)

*Dr Octagon (aka Kool Keith, miss him at your peril, he was once convinced that he had 'cereal power' and could produce bowls of cereal on demand. No lie. He is nuts)

*Erase Errata (Angular Lesbian punk funk who have been realeasing angular Lesbian punk funk on Kill Rock Stars since Moving Units were in diapers.)

-Errol Alkan (You might know this guy. He plays records. According to Snaar he likes having candles stuck up his bum during sex)

*Guitar Wolf (Jap free guitar pioneers. Insanely good. Like Lynard Skynard in some far off Manga future)

-Hot Chip (They went to school in Putney and it is thanks to them that Skream is on this bill)

-Jah Shaka (The great Dub Pioneer of London who won 6 consecutive Notting Hill Carnival soundclashes in the mid 80's and heads the only soundsytem that legendry engineer Sir 'Coxsone' Dodds reckoned could truly challenge the classic Jamaican soundystems)

*Joe Lally (He played Bass in Fugazi, this is reason enough)

-Justice (“We are……French and everywhere as of yesterday”)

*Kid 606 (He will blow you away. But he is gay so might also want to blow you off. Breakcore/gabbacore schizo nutbag and propreitor of Tigerbeat6 who put out things like Knifehandchop and Drop The Lime. He once made a 2" CD. This is too small to actually be played on 99% of CD players as it just falls through the tray.)

*Luke Vibert (King of acid soaked techno, amazing)

*Merzbow (This guy is like the Dyaln of Noise)

***Michael Gira (He was the main guy in Swans, you HAVE to go see him. He is one of those 'important'/'cannonical' things like the Associates or Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica record that 'music buffs' like that pr1ck John Harris always name drop but never actually listen to. Gira is amazing, he will most likely just be playing solo with acoustic guitar. Whatever he does will be funny, brutal, honest, abrasive and perfect.)

-Midlake (Ok Americana)

*OM (The two guys from Sleep who aren't Josh Pike. Josh Pike went on to do High On Fire who Greenwood knows all about, OM is just like Sleep but on quallades. Sleep had a record called Jerusalem that is one 58 minute stoner/doom jam that opens with line: "take me away bong in hand off and up to the riff filled land so you get some of kind of idea of doomy Om is...)

-Para One (More f*cking French electro, he is on Institubes 'the new Ed Banger Records')

*Part Chimp (Incredible London fat c*nts, like Shellac with a death wish. I have NO idea what they are doing on this bill as compared to every other act they are 'tiny'. Great, great band though.)

-RJD2 (I can feel Pooly's boner from here)

-SebAstian (Yes it is meant to have a big A. These Ed Banger guys always come to everything together. Pay for one get them all. That is why there are literraly 8 of them on the bill)

-Shy Child (Ex-Guapo/Supersystem, great synth punkfunk)

***Sick Of It All (This will make Jarv happy. NYHC legends, expect a circle pit, "go fast/no go slow". If I was there I would probably break my ankle again doing 'Potential For A Fall')

-Simian Mobile Disco (French Electro from London. Make sure you go see enough guitar bands or else all this electro is going to drive you nuts)

-Sizzla (Maybe he will crucify some gay men on stage? Or burn them. He is not allowed in the UK so make the most of seeing Dancehall's cheeky homophobic king in action)

-Skream (The only Dubstep thing there. Wobblewobble.)

-Stones Throw Night (again with Pooly's hip hop stiffie, Peanut Butter Wolf is one of the best ‘party’ DJ’s I have ever seen. He sh1ts on Diplo and his baillieghettofunk)

***Sunn O))) (I talk about these guys a lot. Just go. Trust me on this one. Life changing and beyond the realms of music)

-The Cinematic Orchestra (good afternoon stoned music, might send you to sleep late on)

-The Horrors (Hey look it's the facking Horrors, right bunch of rotters they are, right cheeky cants they are, gosh they might do something not arf naughty like throw an egg at the farkin crowd. Farkin 'ell mate. They all went to Rugby you know. Don't know where they get this idea that they are Dickensian guttersnipes from. Good tunes though)

-The Notwist (Highly recomended, fragile post rock, like how if Explosions In The Sky were still good and used sillier instruments)

-The Skatalites (Made the arguably the best Dub record ever. 'The Guns Of Navarrone'.)

-The Thermals (G'wood knows about these ones)

-Two Gallants (I'm unconvinced but Slammer and Barn swear by them)

-Uffie and Feadz (Yup, MORE froggie electro. Edbanger again, she is hot and apparently "ready to f*ck". He is her boyfriend though. Imagine watching your hot, scantily clad girlfriend get wasted and jump into crowds of guys while singing: "I-I-I-I-I'M READY TO F*CK" every night. Must be a tough life for old Feadz, I definitely feel for the guy)

-Venetian Snares (Insane Breakcore from a guy who's name in actual real life is Aaron Funk. This is what Jungle should have become instead of that excuse for mediocrity that D&B has sadly wobbled into)

***Vitalic (Go. Go. Go. Literally F*CK all that Edbanger electro. Compared to this that is good for nothing but The Old Blue Last on a Friday Hoxton Hipster bullsh1t background muzak. This is the real deal. I have heard this guys next LP and it sh1ts on pretty much everything since his last one. Grin inducing, hug everyone dance like you don't care perfect.)

-Wilco (Go see Jeff grow old gracefully. Not blown away by ‘Sky Blue Sky’ apart from Nels Cline's guitar stuff. I am having a revisionist Wilco period. Summerteeth rules! If Bill Fay turns up onstage like he did in London that will be worth going to Belgium for alone)

*Wiley (If he turns up to this I will eat a pair of my Y Fronts)

***Wolf Eyes (Much like Sunn or Lightning Bolt these guys are a band I talk about a lot. They pretty much deconstructed how I approached 'music'. What could be quantified as music, how it can be approached as a medium yadda yadda yadda. Whatever. Going and seeing these guys live is one of the most visceral experiences life can offer. I have gone well out of my way to see them over the years and own more of their music than any other artist whose name does not include the words 'Bob' and 'Dylan'. If you ignore everything else on this list please, please, please find out when Wolf Eyes are playing. Get totally f*cked. Push right to the front. And stay there for at least 15 minutes. Or whenever it gets loud. When it gets loud if you still feel nothing just go. If you don't get it under those circumstances there is no point prolonging the agony)

***Wu Tang Clan (If they do 'Da Mystery Of Chess Boxin' I will be sad I wasn't there)

Wow! That really is a great list of bands. I am super jealous and hope that you all have a super wicked awesome time.

I hope at least one thing on here is something you might not have gone to and you see it and enjoy it.

Be sure to make me a list when you get back of all the great bands you saw that I did not mention and go: "ha ha you pretentious, cocky, big-headed pr1ck, they were amazing and you've never even heard of them, in your face! They weren't even on your sh1tty little list, hahahahah".

xjam

Second Life Feature

Here is a little thing on the Second Life webite that I wrote for Vice Magazine but never saw the light of day.

There are now over 5 million registered ‘residents’ on SecondLife.com who regularly use what is looking increasingly like Neal Stephenson’s Metaverse from that novel Snow Crash. The population increased by 951% between 2005-2006 and Linden Labs, the company behind this virtual land of opportunity, are seeing annual financial growth rates of 287% for the site they see becoming a ‘3D web-browser’, a concept that marries the social-networking of sites like Myspace with the cash-cow commercialism of Amazon.com.

We decided to sign up and see what the deal is. The site is free to join and has it’s own currency the ‘Linden Dollar’ ($I US get you about $250 LD) with which you can buy pretty much anything: land, property, weapons, drugs, sex. You name it, just point your avatar in the right direction and have at it. Linden’s laissez-faire approach to regulation has led to an almost frontier-like free for all which any enterprising young turk can grab a piece of like canny Japanese chick Anshe Chung, SL’s first ‘virtual Rockerfella’ who’s been bringing in over $150,000 a year in real estate investment.

The multinationals have been quick to catch on, SonyBMG launched with a virtual Ben Folds show, Toyota are selling virtual cars and Harvard have opened a distance learning school. Rudy Gulliani has even opened a campaign headquarters for his presidential campaign in SL.

The relative lawlessness of Second Life has made it ripe pickings for a thriving vice and drugs trade as well as several pretty weird political developments. The recent establishment of an HQ for the extremist French National Front saw the Second Life Liberation army buddying up with the Second Life Left Unity Party to have a good old fashioned riot and various vigilante hackers regularly set off maliciously encoded ‘bombs’ against companies such as our friends American Apparel whose scantily clad models they object to.

This is pretty ironic considering sex seems to be everywhere. We sent our avatar dude into the Initiation Island but weren’t all that sure what we were doing and had neglected to buy any clothes. As we were ‘playing’ as a chick some kindly fellow approached us, talked us through the clothing process and then attempted to lay us, hmm. Our first trip into a bar led to an encounter with some virtual hookers who offered “the works” for $1200 LD, about $5 US. We again came a cropper here as we’d forgotten to purchase any genitalia and the girls got kinda pissy when we revealed our pixelated nothingness.

Although you can purchase weapons the peaceful nature of SL means that the use of them will lead to a suspension or if you do anything really naughty, like try and kill someone, a ban so if you are into tearing shit up best stick to World Of Warcraft. The current SL drug of choice is called Seclimine, here is how one SL peddler touted his wares: “Seclimine is intended to get you and your avatar good and dopey, disoriented, and wondering why the walls are melting and the floor is made of meat”. Ohkay. To be honest in order to get anything out of this it seems you’d really have to put a lot of time and effort in and I’m not really that into ending up some 23 year old heart attack victim from excessive role playing and Red Bull consumption.

White Rabbits Interview

Interview with melodic New York indie-poppers White Rabbits for the Viceland.com Blog.

White Rabbits Interview - 26 / 06 / 07

Your music sounds like it should be from Montreal, but you are from New York. How did that happen!
That Hurts man! Yeah, we get the Arcade Fire comparison a lot. I’m guessing that is what you are getting at? They are a fine band, but I don’t think they came up once as an influence when we were making the record. They are one of those bands that sort of changed the field for bands like us.

You got an 8.1 on Pitchfork Media. How is the ‘pitchfork effect’ working out for you? Painful?
I guess in the states it helped out a lot, we were just about to go out on an unscheduled tour when the Mystery Jets had problems getting Visas. We were gonna go out on the road with them, but they couldn’t make it over to the States. That review helped us out a lot, we had a much bigger crowd and we sold a few records, well a lot of people stole our record! We don’t care about that so much.

Your name kinda sounds like you should be making incidental music for The Tweenies.
You know, choosing a name for a band is always such a painful and awkward thing…

Is it just a rip of that Jefferson Airplane song?
I think that was probably mentioned. We wanted to call ourselves ‘The Grateful Dead’ but it was already taken. I think we were after a non-intrusive name that doesn’t mean anything really. Although we just found out about the white rabbit superstition thing where you are supposed to say ‘White Rabbit’ three times on the first day of the month for good luck.

Really? I haven’t heard about that We usually do ‘Pinch, Punch, first of the month’ So how is the action on tour? Have you been fucking like….well y’know…
Action? Watching Wimbledon has been about as good as it gets for us. Saying that though, the television reception has been great!

So how have you found the UK so far?
Rainy, muddy and expensive

Is that how you would sum up the UK in three words?
Nah it would be ‘God bless America!’

Lets stay with three’s. What three things make White Rabbits the band they are today?
Steven King, Dr Dog and pints of beer.

Thanks

Battles Interview

An intervfiew with the proggy math-rock band Battles for the Playlouder.com website.

The Wrath Of The Math
(Battles defy you at every turn)

The name itself implies a sense of the unsettled, not a single conflict but an ongoing war. Although they claim they chose the moniker simply because “it just looked good on paper” Battles is a wonderfully fitting description of a band that constantly challenges, re-invents and re-interprets itself. Flashing bolts of mercurial sculpted sound vie with syncopated bursts of staccato repetition all of which hurtles along atop a propulsive beat that no digital source could replicate.

The early part of this interview took place almost two months ago when Battles were a band with two interesting EP’s and a single to their name and the thunder of an already fearsome live show building behind them. Although these early recorded excursions were generally well received a sense of expectancy hung around the bands debut long player that was only fitting considering the calibre of the involved artist’s previous work.

John Stanier had played drums in the hardcore band Jehovah’s Sickness before making his name with early 90’s riff-metallers Helmet, and went on to work with Mike Patton in Tomahawk. Ian Williams practically invented the term that continues to hang, albatross-like, around Battles neck with proto-mathrockers Don Caballero and later with Storm Stress, a similar path that David Kanopka had trodden with Lynx. Tyondai Braxton’s experiments with free noise were no doubt influenced by his father Anthony Braxton’s legendry improv work and he had collaborated with Prefuse 73 and Jon Zorn prior to the call of Battles.

An impressive roster of course means little if the music that it produces fails to match the weight of its Wikipedia entries. 8 weeks down the line, some glowing record reviews and triumphant live performances on the South Bank, ATP and across the country however have seen the weight of expectation cast aside as if it such a thing had never existed. In the minds of this band it almost certainly never did for the sense that the greatest expectation comes from within these four artists themselves was apparent both in March and when I caught up with Ian again this week.

You’ve all played in pretty influential bands prior to playing in Battles, has that affected your approach to Battles or have you come to it with a completely fresh approach?

John: With me, the only way that it has come to play in Battles is that I played for a really long time in Helmet, for ten years. But that’s it, playing in that band for ten years obviously caused me to develop a style but from day one of Battles the whole purpose was to do something that none of us had done before. I’d say for the most part our previous bands have little effect apart from maybe a technique.

Ian: Totally. Also, different ideas turn you on 10 years ago. Don Cab and Storm & Stress were fun at those points in time but it’s good to set yourself up in new situations musically. It keeps it fresh and it keeps it honest.

Tyondai: For me there was a real desire to get beyond my past, to create a new sound with new ideas. In a way reacting against what I’ve done before. In Battles, I’m way more interested with ideas of solidified, cohesive song structures. You can never escape yourself completely but you always want to evolve and all of us have come into it with that exploratory philosophy both as individuals and as a collective. My Dad obviously had an influence on me but mainly in terms of inspiring me just to be fearless in my approach and work like hell.

How did you guys all meet up?

Tyondai: I’m originally from Connecticut but I met Ian when we were both living in New York and we played around loosely at first for about a year getting used to each other then we met Dave and the idea of it formally becoming a band appeared on the horizon but it was really when John came along that it became clear that we really had something and that was at the end of 2003.

Was there any reason why your initial releases were singles and EP’s only?

John: The honest answer is that the band was beginning to gel and sound like a band so we wanted to tour but we had to have something to tour with so we did Tras the single and two EP’s but they were all actually recorded at the same session. They were released really early on and we had a period of two years of touring and playing together working stuff out as we went along.

Tyondai: All those early releases though were really documents of us struggling to find our sound. There has never been an end goal as in: at the end of the road we want to sound like this or that. The question mark has always been the journey and the EP’s kinda charted that, the new record is us playing around with the sounds established on the EP’s; a more refined version of that early sound.

Is there any reason why you went for Warp Records over here in the UK, which is more commonly associated with dance music?

John: Weirdly I think they parallel our growth, that attempt to diversify their sound is sort of the same path we’re on, it just made sense from the get go.

Dave: It was cool, they were looking not to be pigeonholed and that was exactly the same thing we were looking for, we’re both evolving in tandem.

How did you hook up with DJ Koze for the remix on the Atlas single?

John: My girlfriend lives in Cologne so I just bumped into him over there, we were mixing the album and it was actually all just done over the phone but it worked out really well I think.

Why the choice to incorporate far heavier use of vocals on the new record?

Tyondai: I know from the outset that this band has been viewed as an ‘instrumental’ outfit but internally we never saw it that way, it made sense on the EP’s to be more reserved in a way as we were still trying to sculpt our sound, there are vocals on there but on the new record I thought it would be cool to introduce that element more heavily and play with the stereotypical vocal structure. Take it on in a Battles mode.

The general consensus on the record has been very positive. Had it not been would that have had any effect?

Ian: Obviously we are very happy that people dig the record but we started out making the music independent of any kind of outside perception. The whole concept of breaking up the early material into EP’s was partly so that there wasn’t a chance for that stuff to be judged as a body of work. We are happy to be working below the radar, whatever radar that there is! There are two sides to it I guess, you are always gonna hurt a little if someone criticises your work but what makes this band fun is that the challenge comes as much from ourselves you know? I don’t think any of us would really care as long as we were pleased with the record.

How do you feel about the fact that the positive press you have been receiving will no doubt bring you very much onto the radar that you once successfully operated below?

Ian: We have a pretty strong sense of a system whereby we are just making music for ourselves, which I think that we will always maintain. It is a love of what we do that drives the ship as opposed to the crazy winds of the press or whatever. The audience reactions have been great though, you can see that people have listened to the new record and to see people reacting to the new material is great. As you tour those songs the reactions help the songs grow, as the crowd respond more the dynamic of the energy of a live show dictates that you play more so it gives a feeling that it is helping the songs grow.

How was the show at ATP?

Ian: It was really awesome. We played the Saturday night and the room was packed, I think there might have even been people queuing out the door! Seeing so many people at a Battles show was pretty insane but you know ATP is always awesome so that was good.

Are you looking forward to touring the record in the US?

Ian: Sure, it’s coming out on Warp over there too, they have an office in New York. It’s funny you know, in the ‘olden days’ like, in the 90’s (laughs quite a lot) you could get kind of well known on the East coast or the West coast or wherever but with the way things have gone with the internet and the whole spread of media it’s all just one big place to tour ha-ha!

June Drowned In Sound Reviews

Two reviews I did for the DrownedInSound.com website in June 2007.

Night Of The Brain
Wear This World Out
Station 55

8/10

Some records are impossible to judge objectively outside of the context that they come cloaked in. The critical vacuum that some argue should exist is an idealised impossibility. It is the framing power of context and the juxtopositional relationships that sprawl between records and their creators that allows for criticism to exist. With no common reference or point of comparison it become difficult to posit the album in a place of communal understanding.

This is my convoluted and arseholic way of saying hey! I am going to compare this record to lots of other records and that Wear This World Out cannot be considered independently of its creator: Cristian Vogel.

Vogel has ploughed a successful and diverse career as producer of techno, half of innovative electronica duo SuperCollider alongside Jamie Liddell and as a studio producer and remixer for Radiohead, Chicks On Speed and Maximo Park.

While this record fails to scale the dizzy heights of Liddell’s sublime Multiply there is such a variety of styles and nagging sense of possibility in this record that it demands being returned to. It hooks the listener with shorter opening tracks Ghosts, Golden Shower Song and Viki The Tall which all conform to template that falls somewhere between a slightly woozy, slowed version of Q and Not U’s energetic dance punk mixed with almost dream like post rock sensibilities before the pivotal Connecting Charges (the track that most closely resembles Vogel’s straight electronic work and in this full band context appears the albums weakest cut coming on like Tricky fronting a faceless track from a generic chill out compilation) that then segues into a series of tracks all around the 7 minute mark that have more in common with the gentle, exploratory avant-rock of Gastr Del Sol or The Sea and Cake or even perhaps the O’Rourke produced efforts of Wilco displaying a willingness to explore and nose around the limitations of the form while never quite straying into self indulgence. The intro and outro of Winter Wine for example toy with strange static noises more commonly found in records that appear on Harbinger Sound or No Fun than a techno imprint. The bass and drums are unsurprisingly fairly prominent throughout. For a man of Vogel’s background the rhythm acts as an anchor from which the more exploratory sounds can fly and all in all Wear This World Out offers and intriguing and enjoyable listen that benefits repeat visits.

Whighnomy Bros & Robag Wruhme
Remikks Potporri II
Freude Am Tanzen Recordings

8/10

We have reached a stage of flux in which ‘dance’ music (in the loosest of definitions) copulates so freely with ‘indie’ music (again in the loosest of terms) that practically no indie release is complete without a perfunctionary dancefloor edit from this months producer du jour. In 2005 unless you had a Paul Epworth rerub on the backside of your 7 you may as well wave goodbye disco success and in 2007 Phones has been discarded for the ubiquitous SMD while the Ed Banger and Institubes stables offer a kind of readymix package whereby you basically get the guitar song remixed without even asking for the edit in the first place. Some artists have even decided that they could actually do with other people remixing their whole albums (witness Bloc Party and Architecture in Helsinki).

The presumptuousness of these artists of the worth of the original work comes across as conceited and the workmanlike approach to remixing has demystified what can be one of the most noble of musical endeavours. Unlike the cover version, which by its nature dictates adherence to the original, the remix allows the remixer to take that which made the original song special and place it in a different context either to create contrast (on this record witness the remix of Matthias Tanzmen’s Bulldozer) or to complement and ameliorate the qualities of the original (here the stunningly glacial remix of Future Sound Of London’s Lifeforms).

“Stripped my heart and ripped it apart, all in the name of fun,” echoes Gahan over the Wruhme remix of Depeche Mode’s Lillian, if this album represents these three producers having fun then it is a masterly and well-applied sense of fun. The calibre of artist represented on this second selection of remixes from the Whignomy Bros and Robag Wruhme is indicative of the trios standing and it is a respect well earned. They offer a wonderful case-study of the remix applied correctly, the essence of each of the songs is snatched and framed in sounds and rhythms that give it new lease of life and renew the possibilities of what could be assumed the song could be.

Any of the collections 10 tracks could be chosen to demonstrate the point but two stand out in particular. The Wighnomy Bros remix of Gustav’s We Shall Overcome is given a glitchy microhouse beat while chiming, slightly off kilter sounds create an endearing backdrop for the vocal which is reminiscent of Karin Dreijer Andersson at her most simplistically piercing. Ellen Allien and Apparat’s Way Out meanwhile offers another enchanting vocal but this time the Whighnomys and Robag create peeling swathes of beats akin to vintage ambient Aphex efforts while a bed of techy melodic stabs carry the listener to whichever way it is that is out. The collection is topped by an exclusive Wruhme original, which departs from the melodic sense of space that runs through the remixes and attacks the listener with relentless strings and breaks. An unexpected nugget atop a collection that demonstrates that used correctly the remix is a tool of boundless possibility.

Mika Miko Interview

Here is an interview I did with the all-girl LA punk-rock band Mika Miko for the June 2007 issue of Vice Magazine. They ruled muchly.

Mika Miko

When I’m sitting all alone in my room and I’ve got bored of beating off I dream of this perfect band that mixes the rawness of The Germs and The Wipers, the couldn’t-give-a-shit anger of Black Flag and Reagan Youth but sort of with the dancey bits of Liquid Liquid or ESG. Like punk-funk if that wasn’t a disgusting word that no-one can ever use again. Oh, and all the band members are super-cool hot chicks that you want to hang out and party with all the time and maybe make out with sometimes but it wouldn’t be weird cos they are all just, y’know, into skating and stuff and don’t really care. And no-one else knows about them. Holy shit my dream has come true!

I’ve heard you guys play at a lot of house party’s. Is this because LA is really boring and everyone goes home from the bars early and doesn’t smoke and stuff?

Jessie: We used to play a bunch of all ages shows at The Smell cos when we started we were like 15, 16, 17. We do a few house parties but they keep getting shutdown by the police and stuff.
Katelyn: And we kept getting injured.

Injured?

Jenna: Yeah, we are the most injury prone band in the history of the universe, between us we have had cracked skulls from PA’s falling down, cracked knees from car crashes and broken ankles and wrists from skateboarding. That’s why we only ever get to practice for like 5 minutes and when we do we get idiots like you on the phone.

Sorry, I won’t be long. The LA Weekly mentioned you along with The Like as being responsible for making the LA live scene interesting again, you don’t seem anything like The Like to me.

Katelyn: I know nothing about them. But we did once do coke with them in the toilets at this club on Sunset though.

Really?

Michelle: No, but we were at a party in Hollywood once and Jennifer smacked Dave Navarro. I was right there, he was walking around topless and she just smacked him, all I can remember was that his fucking nipple rings jiggled, hahaha.

That really is a haunting image. You name sounds weird to say. Where did that come from?

Jennifer: We have never told anyone the truth behind our name so you should feel pretty special. Basically we were all at my aunts funeral and afterwards my babysitters mum was saying that she used to be in this punk band called Mico and Nico. For some reason under the circumstances we found that hilarious so we just decided to change it a bit and steal it in homage.

I prefer the Dave Navarro story. Do you ever get strange reactions from audiences for being an all-girl punk-rock band? Do they expect you to be Rrriot Girls or something?

Jenna: Only in New Mecico where we stopped for a gas and this girl was like: ‘wow you’re a chick band, I’ve never seen a chick band before’. That was weird.
Katelyn: Whenever we play north Carolina it is a pretty weird scene. Those kids have nothing to do so they have to party double-hard to make up for it. It’s not their fault though. They can’t help where they are from.

Mika Miko have a new EP entitled ‘666’ out now on Post Present Medium. Their previous LP entitled ‘C.Y.S.L.A.B.F.’ is also available now on Kill Rock Stars.

MIA Interview

This one was for the XL labels in-house magazine.

Reflecting Come What May {MIA}

Brave, fearless, always changing, always different, always challenging, always creating. Since exploding into the inert collective unconscious in 2005 MIA has not only done all of these things but lived all of these things. Her music is her, a mess of beats and a discordant hodge podge of sounds that only a life so hecticly lived and willingly embraced could shine out. She is not scared and she will she prevail. Her new record, Kaya, continues where Aurular left off, it’s mix skittish mix of styles, tempo’s and lyrical deliveries all ready to stun and seduce but are we ready yet for MIA?

So, the albums all done and the singles sounds great, are you excited about how this record will be received?

I don’t know! It’s weird; one thing just follows another to a certain extent. I am very excited about the video. It was my first time in Jamaica and it was amazing but it was really intense. We had to audition all the boys for the video and we only had five days to get the whole thing done. In that time I was also trying to have fun and go out and party and keep up with the dancers ‘cos they basically never sleep, they come to the shoot all day then they are straight out to the parties that don’t end till midday then they are back at the shoot again. It must be the rum, it keeps them going!

How would you compare the sound of Kala to the sound of Aurular?

Aurular was definitely my sketchbook, MIA was the first song that I ever wrote over in the Caribbean and Galang was the first song I wrote when I got back to the UK and both of those stuck. All the mistakes I made went on that record. This one is far more about the effect of environments. It’s my environmental record!

What happened with the recording sessions and the whole Visa situation?

Well apparently Bono has taken my case to Condoleeza so I should be alright now, ha-ha! Basically I had a month booked with Timbaland in Virginia and that was the only month he had booked away for me and that month was the only month I had booked away for him. That period was basically going to create whatever it was that this album was going to be. But… they denied my Visa into the USA. The whole time I had just wanted to be in a single place that was mine surrounded by my things: my records, my clothes, my photos, all the things that inspire me and allow me to be creative and all of those things were locked in barrels in customs. My life was in all these bits all over the place, so for ten months I just went to various countries and recorded here and there and just thought fuck it, it is what it is. I talked all this shit on this first record about art as a reflection of environment and suddenly I was living that out under a different set of codes that I just had to make work for me and that is what the album is about.

Is the angrier, harsher sound of Kala your reaction to this set of circumstances that you have been placed under?

Yeah for sure, I was pissed off a lot of the time. A lot of people were saying that the whole visa situation was being influenced by my Dad’s background. Whether or not that was the case I was just angry that there was no means of raising these points and having a discussion. You can’t have a conversation with these people; they do what they want to you. They were telling me that my identity matched someone on the wanted list and that they had to clear me from that list and it was that sense of guilty until proven innocent that amazed me because if they actually checked into my life they would see that I was just a Sri-Lankan refugee who came to England at 11 and went to St Martins and became a musician. I never had my Dad around in my life and even then if they checked his background they would see that he is not associated with the (Tamil) Tigers. He is associated with the revolution in Sri-Lanka but the Tigers also killed his movement so it is all a bit ridiculous. I originally wanted to go to every anti-American country in the world and record a pissed off angry song at America but it didn’t really work out like that, ha-ha.

The new record retains Aurular’s sense of genrelessness. You kind of hop between styles in a very carefree way. What music influenced you early on?

Well everyone always writes that I just met Peaches and Justine and decided that I wanted to do music but I had been hanging around people who make music for years, I had just never wanted to do it. I used to listen to a lot of dancehall so when I got to Jamaica that just sounded like water to me. I listened to a lot of Hip Hop because I went out to stay with my cousin when I was younger who lived in LA and she was a Sri-Lankan girl who thought she was black in a big way. She picked me up at the airport looking all thugged out and I had the best time just listening to all this gangsta
rap with her and hanging out with all these rappers and real-deal gangsters. It was crazy, there were all these guns and drugs around but compared to all the jungle raves I had been going to in the UK with all the Brick Lane Bengali kids there was just nice vibes, good people, loads of barbeques and hanging out and this was in South Central! Maybe it’s the sunshine.

What finally inspired you to make music yourself?

In England I constantly felt burdened; my brother was in and out of young offenders, my mum was getting evicted and I was on the dole. Although I had gone through St Martins and got a degree, which supposedly meant I could do anything, I was just making art and not really making any money from it. When I was doing the artwork for Elastica I’d go and take a photo, go the pawn shop and pawn my camera in for £50, go to Snappy Snaps, get the film processed, get paid £50 by Justine and the process would begin again. I’d never made money until I managed to sell a few paintings, Jude Law bought a couple and suddenly I had £1000. It was the most money I’d ever had at once and by chance one of my friends needed to get away ‘cos she needed to clean up so we went to the Caribbean in 2002. Every day I was waking up to soundsystems going off and by 6 everyone is getting drunk and there is a party here and a party there and I was working in the bar and dancing in the clubs and for the first time it felt like I had space and didn’t have to think about anyone or anything. I felt totally integrated into that culture and welcomed by the whole local scene. I just felt totally embraced by the people and the music and once I was there in that moment I couldn’t help but be in it. Before I left I’d had these ambitions to be a filmmaker and I’d been nominated for the alternative Turner Prize and all that stuff but once I’d come back I became obsessed with making music and exploring this new territory. Suddenly it was like I didn’t need to do anything else. It was the first time I had been able to minimize my life, I didn’t need to go out anymore or hang out with people. Music was all I did for 6 months; I’d wake up at 8 in the morning and not brush my teeth and just write and fall asleep at 5am on top of my 4 track. It was just so exciting, like wow! These two buttons do this and that button does that.

What came out of those early sessions definitely had a serious degree of originality, perhaps such originality that even now some people are still only just beginning to catch up with it.

Yeah, I remember when I was doing that stuff I only played it to about five other people. I just felt almost apologetic about how weird it sounded. I just accepted that that was what I sounded like and I thought that when I was good at it I was going to be better than Beyonce! But instead it went all over the place and everyone just said how different it was, no one said it was banging! I don’t even try and describe it any more, I just need to grow up into this music like a skin and live in it as well as I can. Luckily I’ve got to a stage now where I no longer need to justify it or package it or present as this or that, it is what it is, simple as that.

How will the new record work live?

It’s very difficult because my musicians are from this village in India, if I plucked them out of the environment they come from and take them off on tour I would ruin their lives for ever, they are just kids who have never left their village, I flew them out to Chennai and they couldn’t handle it. I’d just end up getting them in trouble on tour, they’d have to start drinking and doing drugs and coming to after parties, it just wouldn’t work! Even for Birdflu and Boyz though those songs have 25 drummers on them so replicating any of it live is going to be a difficult. But I’m playing Glastonbury so watch out!

Would you still like to go and just record somewhere cut off from the world for a month?

Oh for sure! That is the plan for the next record! A month in Beverly Hills…