ATJ presents CRYSTAL ANTLERS, Wed. October 22, 2008, for After the Jump’s CMJ Showcase at the Knitting Factory NYC, performing on the Main Stage with Starfucker, Unicycle Loves You, Bad Veins, Heloise and the Savoir Faire, and Juvelen.

Listen :: A Thousand Eyes

MIA: Musically, how did the band form, what past experiences do you carry with you?

JONNY: Kevin, our old guitar player Errol and I all have been playing in bands together and apart since high school, mostly punk bands. Victor’s father is a professional mariachi and Andrew and Damian had meet while playing with HR from bad brains. We knew both Andrew and Damian from them just being around in many bands.

MIA: Describe the feeling of living and making music in your city, feel free to share a memory or a certain place that makes you feel like home.

JONNY: We don’t really make music in our city, most of it comes out of Damian’s house in Anaheim. There is a family steakhouse called the prospector that has shows a couple nights a week in between football games and karaoke. It definitely feels like home when we play there.

MIA: Do you enjoy to perform live? How does the band like to get ready and is there a favorite song that you like to play for your audience?

JONNY: We usually listen to the Getto Boys before we play. We always play Parting Song for The Torn Sky, even though it’s the first song we wrote a few years ago.

MIA: What has been the most impacting compliment, or criticism, your band has ever received?

JONNY: Someone last night at our show in Denver told us they were inspired to play music after watching us, hearing things like that is always encouraging.

MIA: Within your songwriting, is there some type of element that has brought about a certain mood in yr writing, making you feel more/less different than when you started? How long has the recording process taken to complete your album and to finally believe that it’s ready?

JONNY: I would say that feelings often change and are reflected in our songs. We are going to record and mix our record in 9 days this November in San Francisco.

MIA: What qualities do you hope listeners may take from listening to your music?

JONNY: I want them to notice things that I don’t even notice, and for them to tell me about them.

MIA: Any recommended records so far of ‘08?

JONNY: We’ve been really busy working on our own stuff and haven’t had much time this year to check out any of the new bands records. We’ve played a couple shows with Abe Vigoda lately and I would like to check out their record.

MIA: Name a visual artist or piece of work that inspires you.

JONNY: I find the works of Christo inspiring because his work is seemingly impossible, free form and ethic.

MIA: Please share a mixtape with a theme of your choice.

JONNY: The theme is B-sides of Less-Successful R&B & Rap singles produced by Russel Simmons in the late 1980′s:

Your Song by Oran “Juice” Jones
Yes We Can Can (Dub Version) by Alyson Williams
Christmas in Hollis by Run DMC
Let’s Rock by Davy D
Super Fight by Hurricane

ATJ presents the MUGGABEARS, Wednesday October 22, 2008, for After the Jump’s CMJ Showcase at the Knitting Factory NYC, performing at 12:00AM inside the Old Office (Best of NYC), along with the Beets, the Lisps, Inlets, Motel Motel and Alina Simone.

Listen :: The Goth Tarts

MIA: Musically, how did the band form, what past experiences do you carry with you?

Gabi tripped on an accordion, fell into Emily, who braced herself by grabbing onto my arm, and we started playing music. Actually, it’s been an evolving thing for a long time now; it’s a band I started with a friend in high school in a way.. but the way it is now, is so distant and different from the way it was even two years ago.

MIA: Describe the feeling of living and making music in your city, feel free to share a memory or a certain place that makes you feel like home.

Both living and making music in New York are much better in fall and winter. Those seasons come with possibilities the other two seasons could only dream of. I feel mostly at home when I’m in bed, covered with covers. Also, sometimes at Death by Audio.

MIA: How does the band like to get ready for a live show? Is there a favorite song that you enjoy to perform live?

We love to play live, and prepare for such live playing in the traditional way of just playing things over and over again until it’s good enough to present. I like to play a new song of ours, “At the Pool” the most.

MIA: What has been the most impacting compliment, or criticism, your band has ever received?

Someone recently said something so hyperbolically positive about our music, that I’m almost embarrassed to repeat it. That doesn’t really answer the question. Criticism: someone said I played guitar like a trash bag once.

MIA: Within your songwriting, is there some type of element that has brought about a certain mood in yr writing, making you feel more/less different than when you started? How long has the recording process taken to complete your album and to finally believe that it’s ready?

Not any one element, no. A few concepts have informed it more now than at the beginning, things you learn from instrumental music mostly, jazz specifically. Even if you don’t know how to technically understand it. I suppose the peace/fear dialectic is the most driving element, if I had to pick one. Recording is ongoing still. Its actually kind of maddening to try and decide when a record is ready, so I couldn’t answer that one!

MIA: What qualities do you hope listeners may take from listening to your music?

I just hope they feel something strongly when they hear it. That’s more important than them coming away thinking of how cool it was.

MIA: Any recommended records so far of ‘08?

Portishead – Third: I think of this as a really really great psych/krautrock record. I love the drum sound.

Joan of Arc – Boo Human: This one brings out lots of feelings that you have to focus on to be able to give words to, and features the amazing line, “the only impossible thing has happened.”

Ponytail – Ice Cream Spiritual: being a kid. And really lovable lovely people make the music.

High Places: I like how, when I listen to their stuff, I have no idea how it’s made.

MIA: Name a visual artist or piece of work that inspires you.

Jackson Pollock’s “Autumn Rhythm” and “Number 1, 1950″ are like a language primer for seeing music when you hear it.

MIA: Please share a mix-tape within a theme of your choice.

Fall’s here, so the theme is fall.

1. Red Apples – Smog
2. Lonely Woman – Ornette Coleman
3. Dead Flag Blues – GYBE
4. Ghost Hardware – Burial
5. Subterraneans – David Bowie
6. Pet Politics – Silver Jews
7. Remember a Day – Pink Floyd
8. This Night Has Opened My Eyes – The Smiths
9. Mystery – Olivia Tremor Control
10. Brother – Beck

ATJ presents MOTEL MOTEL, Wednesday October 22, 2008, for After the Jump’s CMJ Showcase at the Knitting Factory NYC, performing at 10:30pm inside the Old Office (Best of NYC), along with the Beets, the Lisps, Inlets, Alina Simone, and the Muggabears.

Listen :: Coffee

MIA: Musically, how did the band form, what past experiences do you carry with you?

Musically we formed in Journal Square, NJ, so um, Bruce Springsteen and Thursday? Also the pipes in the house resonated at about the A above middle C, so Born to Run in the key of A I guess. My past brings a lot into it; I came from the cutest punk rock scene you’ve ever seen. It was in Hawaii, and had about 6 bands, and twenty people total, so incest ran rampant like the Mississippi delta. But it was great and loud and fast, and I’ve always wanted to keep that desperate energy of punk rock, stranded on a desert island wherever music takes me.

MIA: Describe the feeling of living and making music in your city, feel free to share a memory or a certain place that makes you feel like home.

Parking tickets. Incorrect license plate placement tickets. Incorrect Inspection card tickets, because the god damned mechanic we paid 100 bucks to forge us one, because lord knows we cannot afford a legal van, didn’t glue it on right and it melted off in the hot Brooklyn sun, moved an inch from where it should be and became a hundred dollar fine. Midnight street cleaning tickets, we’re talking 3 AM cleaning? I have never seen a street cleaner, have you? Oh, and we’ve gotten two flat tires thanks to nails, in the street, guess the midnight cleaner didn’t see them, maybe because it was nighttime, and dark, and hard to clean, in the dark. This all makes me feel like home.

MIA: How does the band like to get ready for a live show? Is there a favorite song that you enjoy to perform live?

We do enjoy playing live! I ration out Jeremy’s drink tickets to him, he gets one per 30 minute, usually give mine out to cute girls, Mickey’s uses his to buy Soda-Pop, and I have no idea what the hell the Eric(k)s do with theirs. That’s pretty much the closest thing we have to an opening ritual we have. Favorite song depends on the night, but usually favors something where we are all singing.

MIA: What has been the most impacting compliment, or criticism, your band has ever received?

Someone told me the music made them feel both happy and sad at the same time. It sounds ridiculously simple, but makes the most sense to me and what I get from great music. That’s what I want. A sadness deep enough to pull some joy out.

MIA: Within your songwriting, is there some type of element that has brought about a certain mood in yr writing, making you feel more/less different than when you started? How long has the recording process taken to complete your album and to finally believe that it’s ready?

I really like this first question. Well certainly the element of pressure, we’re not 3 kids in a basement anymore, and all those feelings of maturing as a band have been placed on the back of our songs, and thus songwriting to the point where we can spend hours debating little, seemingly meaningless chords, transitions, etc. That’s probably the most extreme change, the weight we are putting on our music now. The recording process took forever and then some, thanks to us being full time students. It ended up being almost a year, and we certainly felt it was ready then. Although, maybe only for the fact that we wanted to run far far way and never hear the songs again, haha.

MIA: What qualities do you hope listeners may take from listening to your music?

A sense of place. By that I mean, a setting, landscape, feeling — something that triggers a moment from their life.

MIA: Any recommended records so far of ‘08?

The New Walkmen album is fantastic. I think my favorite of theirs. I’m bad with dates, the new national album, I think that is from 07, but I don’t care because it is fucking amazing. Tom Wait’s Bawlers Brawlers and Bastards, that might be an 06, haha, but again I don’t care because it is amazing.

MIA: Name a visual artist or piece of work that inspires you.

Andrew Wyeth. Not the Christina’s world stuff, I’m talking boat, beach, and sometimes an old guy with a serious beard. I really want to write more about the sea. Furthermore and along those same lines, Casper David Frederick’s Monk by the Sea; same deal, sea, person, more sea.

MIA: Please share a mixtape with a theme of your choice.

Theme: (By the way I love this kind of thing) Railroads, at Night

1. Full on Night by the Rachel’s

2. Arizona by Sharks Keep Moving

3. Swansea by Joanna Newsom

4. Lonesome Whistle by Hank Williams

5. Goodbye Desolate Rail Yard by A Silver Mount Zion

photography by Julie Hagenbuch

ATJ presents ALINA SIMONE, Wednesday October 22, 2008, for After the Jump’s CMJ Showcase at the Knitting Factory NYC, performing at 11:15pm inside the Old Office (Best of NYC), the Beets, the Lisps, Inlets, Motel Motel, and the Muggabears.

Listen :: Half of My Kingdom

MIA: Musically, how did you form, what past experiences do you carry with you?

My band is pretty much just me, so forming it was the easy part! I had wanted to be a singer my whole life. Other people’s expectations of me, and overpowering stage fright, held me back. That’s something I never quite forget and that definitely informs my music.

MIA: Describe the feeling of living and making music in your city, feel free to share a memory or a certain place that makes you feel like home.

I love Brooklyn. It’s the only place on Earth that I have ever truly felt at home. For the past couple of years, I’ve been writing the lyrics to my songs while walking the streets of Brooklyn, Manhattan and Hoboken. If I think of something I like, I call my cell phone and sing it into my voicemail.

MIA: How do you like to get ready to perform for a live show?

I actually don’t enjoy performing live at all. I wish I did, but I don’t. I’m a really private person and have never liked being the center of attention. Getting ready for a show usually consists of drinking a vodka tonic and bracing myself. I like performing my straight-up rock songs. Then I can just close my eyes and holler.

MIA: What has been the most impacting compliment, or criticism, you have ever received?

Wow, good question! I think I’ve lost count of both. After so many people have told you that your music is terrible and you will fail or told you that you’re the best or whatever, it all starts to feel like it’s coming from somewhere very far away. The key to being able to keep going, for me at least, is not to give a fuck about what other people say. I was so paralyzed by stage-fright and other people’s opinions that I couldn’t even sing in public for the first 25 years of my life.

MIA: Within your songwriting, is there some type of element that has brought about a certain mood in yr writing, making you feel more/less different than when you started? How long has the recording process taken to complete your album and to finally believe that it’s ready?

I think the feeling I start with, when writing a song, is the same feeling that I end with. I generally record my albums pretty fast. I’m not a tinkerer. With my songs, capturing the intensity is the most important thing. I wish I was one of those studio people that had the patience to spend hundreds of hours making minute adjustments, but that’s just not me. I would be happy recording my songs live and solo on a handheld cassette recorder in one take.

MIA: What qualities do you hope listeners may take from listening to your music?

Rawness, honesty, immediacy. The feeling that this is something handmade and even somewhat primal.

MIA: Any recommended records so far of ‘08?

I am really, really bad at answering this kind of question because I rarely listen to new music. And I’m not much good at explaining why I like anything. I can say that I really love the new Gnarls Barkley record. I listened to it constantly on tour. Some songs off of Santogold’s record have really stuck with me. And I’ve been liking N.E.R.D.’s ‘Seeing Sounds’ too – it’s good and it’s fun.

MIA: Name a visual artist or piece of work that inspires you.

I love the large-scale color photographs of Katy Grannan and Jenny Gage. Their hyper real photographs portray what look like ‘documentary’ scenes that are actually staged and I am obsessed with.

MIA: Please share a mixtape with a theme of your choice.

(instead of listing specific songs with titles that are all in Russian, I will just list musicians and groups that folks interested in Russian rock/folk music should check out)

Amazing Russian and Soviet-era music:

1. Yanka Dyagileva (A perestroika-era cult icon. The most important woman in the history of Russian rock. Her music is a beautiful mix of rock and traditional Russian folk influences.)

2. Auktyon (Russia’s greatest living rock band. Their sound incorporates everything from Klezmer to jazz to Brazilian music)

3. Kino (Now defunct, due to the death of lead singer Victor Tsoi, this legendary lo-fi indie band is Russia’s answer to Nirvana)

4. Dina Vierny (Recorded one amazing record of her versions of songs written in the Soviet gulags during the 50’s. AMAZING!)

5. Alioha Dmitrievich (Russian gypsy whose versions of Soviet prison songs are so boisterous and intimate you feel that you are transported to a café table at some seaside club in 1920’s Odessa)

ATJ presents SUNNY DAY IN GLASGOW, Wed, Oct. 22, 2008, for After the Jump’s CMJ Showcase at the Knitting Factory NYC, performing at 10:30PM inside the Tap Room, along with Best Friends Forever, the Depreciation Guild, My Teenage Stride, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, & Ringo Deathstarr.

Listen :: Ghost In The Graveyard (Ulrich Schnauss Remix)

MIA: Describe the feeling of living and making music in your city, feel free to share a memory or a certain place that makes you feel like home.

Philly is really the only place I can make music, at least that’s what I’ve found. there’s nothing to do here, or i’ve already done everything there is to do here, so i’m left with making music. but i’ve lived in a couple of different cities and not been able to get anything done musically in those cities, which i think is due to a combination of loneliness and being somewhere new to explore. riding my bike around philly makes me feel at home. also going to kingdom of vegetarians or clark park, riding the R2.

MIA: Do you enjoy to perform live? How does the band like to get ready and is there a favorite song that you like to play for your audience?

I do like playing live. We practice a lot to get ready. I don’t know what my favorite song would be we play live. It probably changes from show to show, but generally I am most excited to play the songs we’ve played the least.

MIA: What has been the most impacting compliment, or criticism, your band has ever received?

Simon Raymonde from the Cocteau Twins wrote us a myspace message last year saying how much he liked our music. Thinking about that now still blows my mind. The Cocteau Twins are one of my all time favorite groups for sure.

MIA: Within your songwriting, is there some type of element that has brought about a certain mood in yr writing, making you feel more/less different than when you started? How long has the recording process taken to complete your album and to finally believe that it’s ready?

I don’t know, but I hope I’m different from when we started. A lot has happened to me personally and us as a band since our record came out last year. The last record took about 6 months of serious recording and maybe a few months of fooling around. We started recording the new record in September and it absolutely has to be done by mid December. I think when we record a song, I listen to it and usually want to make changes or the things that are missing kind of jump out at me. When this stops happening, the song is done. This time though, I am making a conscious effort to keep everything simpler, so I don’t really know how I will know when stuff is done. It will probably be dictated by deadlines.

MIA: Any recommended records so far of ‘08?

They haven’t put out a record yet, but Telepathe is probably the band I am most excited about in 2008. I saw them play back in May and it was probably the best show I’ve seen all year. We just got to play with them last week too and they had some serious sound problems but were still great. I am totally in love with their music though and I am basically just wanting 2008 to end so it’s January 2009 and their record comes out. Otherwise, I’ve really enjoyed the Crystal Stilts EP because it’s really moody and poppy; the Tickley Feather record because it’s really moody and poppy, and the Hercules & Love Affair record because it’s really fun but still has this sadness to it that I really like.

MIA: Name a visual artist or piece of work that inspires you.

Edvard Munch, Keith Haring, Marcel Duchamp, Jackson Pollock, Yoko Ono, Bruce Charlesworth, David Levinthal, the K Foundation. I can’t really say what inspires me, so I have no idea if these people ever have done so, but I like their work and their ethos. Keith Haring did this performance piece where he painted himself into a corner and I think art history has overlooked the importance of this work. Yoko Ono’s stuff is pretty amazing too, but most people tend to think of her as the person who ruined the Beatles. Edvard Munch’s woodcuts are some of my favorite pieces of art ever. Marcel Duchamp and the K Foundation thought so much bigger than almost everyone else.

MIA: Please share a mixtape with a theme of your choice.

My favorite songs from records I’ve bought this fall:

1. Devil’s Trident by Telepathe
2. Hear/Bleed Philharmonic by Serena Maneesh
3. Birdmen by Felt
4. Hybrid Moments by The Misfits
5. Sleepwalker by Faun Fables (I didn’t actually get this one, but Josh always puts it on in the car when we leave the recording space)

ATJ presents MY TEENAGE STRIDE, Wednesday, October 22, 2008, for After the Jump’s CMJ Showcase at the Knitting Factory NYC, performing at 9:30PM inside the Tap Room, along with Best Friends Forever, the Depreciation Guild, A Sunny Day in Glasgow, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, & Ringo Deathstarr.

Listen :: That Should Stand For Something

MIA: Musically, how did the band form, what past experiences do you carry with you?

Jed: The band started out as just me, and slowly has become a collective of sorts. The most constant member besides myself is Brett. What past experiences? I played drums and bass in a few bands in the past, but I’ve been a bedroom musician more or less, with occasional forays into actual bands. Brett was in a band called Garlands in NYC as the drummer for several years, and then he played guitar in The Consultants, in which I was the drummer. Now, he mostly frowns.

MIA: Describe the feeling of living and making music in your city, feel free to share a memory or a certain place that makes you feel like home.

Jed: I like pizza.

Brett: NYC is an anxiety machine, and Jed is an anxious person by nature. So it’s probably fair to say that Jed’s jitteriness is magnified by the city, and this is reflected in the songs. Probably.

MIA: Do you enjoy to perform live? How does the band like to get ready and is there a favorite song that you like to play for your audience?

Jed: We practice for an hour when we know we have a show, so every show is like some sort of nervous high school play. I personally like playing “Theme From Teenage Suicide” live, as well as “Heartless & Cruel”, because I get to shout AND croon.

Brett: I hate rehearsing for the most part, but I love to watch Tris rehearse, so there’s that. My favorite song to play at shows is Airport Lounge, because people love it, and their love makes us play better, which makes them love it even more.

MIA: What has been the most impacting compliment, or criticism, your band has ever received?

Jed: Hard to say. People say lots of nice things. I can think of one paper in Tuscon, though, the arts paper there, where the reviewer wrote this effusive, wordy tome about my uh…brain, more or less, and really seemed to get exactly what I was going for with scary accuracy, without even really mentioning who we did or didn’t sound like. That was a huge compliment, because not only did he love the album, but he understood it in this very personal way that was kind of eerie. It made me feel good that I managed to communicate something perfectly to at least one person. Most impacting criticism? Arguments about originality don’t bother me at all, and that’s really the only negative thing that’s ever brought up, so I don’t know. Sometimes it’d be nice to be more polarizing with what we do. But I do write pop songs- really really short ones at that.

MIA: Within your songwriting, is there some type of element that has brought about a certain mood in yr writing, making you feel more/less different than when you started? How long has the recording process taken to complete your album and to finally believe that it’s ready?

Jed: I have a mental condition that makes me chronically feel like I don’t actually exist, so I’m sure that has some effect on the making up of songs. I never really stop making up songs and recording them, and I could work forever on a particular piece, so really it’s a matter of clearing the table every now and then and making those bits into an album to make room in my head for more. This is absolutely a compulsive behavior of mine.

MIA: What qualities do you hope listeners may take from listening to your music?

Jed: There’s a sensation that certain recordings give you of looking into a distant little universe that I find incredibly pleasing. I think that late 50s and early 60s doo wop and girl group and Brill Building type stuff was particularly effective at that- records that sounded impossible and unreal but also very human and innocent at the same time. I’m being pretentious, I guess, but I can’t explain it any better. They were foggy glimpses into little universes. “Heart & Soul” by the Cleftones is a really good example. Anyway, I’d be very pleased if I accomplished that with my stuff.

MIA: Any recommended records so far of ‘08?

Jed: King Khan in his various incarnations has several classic tunes. Few people other than the Black Lips and Denise James are doing such authentically groovy 60s music. I don’t know why so many bands try and fail so badly at that, but they do. Those lot are exceptions, though. I’ve heard a little of the new Deerhunter and it sounds very promising, and that’s not coming from a huge fan per se. The Crystal Stilts record is fabulous. Takes a certain variety of VU/JAMC grooviness and does its own idiosyncratic thing with it, which is no mean feat at all. Ribbons is a terrific two-piece with a very distinctive, but still song-oriented, sound. Jenny is like a female Ian Curtis, vocally, only a really amazing guitar player to boot. I think they’re going to be on a lot of people’s lists at the end of the year. Pains of Being Pure At Heart’s recordings are always dynamite. Kip has a great, weird voice and the melodies are always terrific, to say nothing of the nice verby wash and heavy drums. Wonderful pop music. Don’t know what else to say. Others, that I won’t elaborate on for the sake of brevity who are all doing awesome things-, Cause Co-motion, The Autumn People, ZAZA, Pants Yell!, Specific Heats, Eat Skull, Abe Vigoda..

Brett: I haven’t stopped listening to Paul McCartney and Nitin Sawhney’s “My Soul” since it leaked on Youtube a couple of months ago. It’s the best thing McCartney’s done since “Maybe I’m Amazed”.

MIA: Name a visual artist or piece of work that inspires you.

Jed: I like Goya and Bosch. I don’t really understand the point of visual art that isn’t either beautiful or deeply unsettling. Other than that, I’m not really that into art per se. That’s the second time I’ve said “per se” in this interview.

Brett: I’m not much for standing around and looking at paintings, but I’ve recently been completely blown away by the surrealist visuals in Alejandro Jodorowsky’s films. Specifically, El Topo, and The Holy Mountain. That guy knows something that the rest of us don’t, if you know what I mean.

MIA: Please share a mixtape with a theme of your choice.

Jed: The theme is ghosts, or maybe people who aren’t really there, or maybe people who watch their life go by.

All My Hollowness by Tall Dwarfs
William, It Was Really Nothing by The Smiths
The Ballad Of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest by Bob Dylan
Scalding Creek by Guided By Voices
Bright Eyes by Art Garfunkel
Leaving It Up To You by John Cale
Cool/Cough by The Misfits
In Dreams by Roy Orbison
The Boy With Perpetual Nervousness by The Feelies
Wots Uh The Deal by Pink Floyd

ATJ presents INLETS, Wednesday October 22, 2008, for After the Jump’s CMJ Showcase at the Knitting Factory NYC, performing at 9:30PM inside the Old Office (Best of NYC), along with the Beets, the Lisps, Motel Motel, Alina Simone and the Muggabears. (Please note: Unfortunately, Sebastian will not be able to perform this evening due to illness.)

Listen :: Pictures of Trees (Vestibule EP, 2006)

MIA: Musically, how did the band form, what past experiences do you carry with you?

Inlets happened probably because of the weirder instrumental music I had been making, a growing interest in words, and the need to sing after possibly one too many nights thinking too hard about something or other. I remember playing musical bingo often with my piano teacher when I was five or six. I would spend most of the lessons shooting the breeze with her, sort of like what I imagine therapy is. Therapy for a six year old. I carry that with me.

MIA: Describe the feeling of living and making music in your city, feel free to share a memory or a certain place that makes you feel like home.

One of my first shows I played to a group of no more than four people at a bar where the bartender insisted on showing some video images behind me during my set, assuring me that they would add to the mood. I turned around and saw that he was playing the movie Toy Story. Sometimes making music here is like that.

MIA: Do you enjoy to perform live? How does the band like to get ready and is there a favorite song that you like to play for your audience?

I have no preparations, except maybe a good stomach ache. I don’t have a favorite song, so I’ll do what politicians do and answer my own different question- I sometimes open with a song called “Threads” which is very different from the recorded version. I like starting with that one as a way to ease into the show because it’s a slow-build and languid thing. By the end, any stomach ache is usually gone.

MIA: What has been the most impacting compliment, or criticism, your band has ever received?

Not to be too glib, but somehow the blog Said the Gramaphone once used the descriptor “post-castration” alongside a reference to Steve Reich in describing my song Pictures of Trees. I thought that was a pretty amazing offer- an ambiguous compliment and criticism. It was the first time I felt comfortable receiving either.

MIA: Within your songwriting, is there some type of element that has brought about a certain mood in yr writing, making you feel more/less different than when you started? How long has the recording process taken to complete your album and to finally believe that it’s ready?

I think I started my project wanting to keep things simple. I only realized after finishing the EP I put out, that it was more ornate than I’d planned. Now I’m ok with that, but it wasn’t my original goal. Whatever that tendency in me is, I think it’s added to the imagery of the songs. Writing that EP was much quicker than the album I’m working on now. That’s due to of a lot of things, but a big one is that I’d realized afterward what parts of the musical spectrum I’d ignored the last time around. So I’m spending probably too much time thinking about the range of what I’m currently attacking in this new record.

MIA: What qualities do you hope listeners may take from listening to your music?

I hate to duck an question, or seem like an obstinate jerk, but I really firmly believe I should avoid answering that. This stuff has its own meanings for me, and I wouldn’t ever argue those are anything but interprative. There’s no wrong answer to the question of what a song means to you.

MIA: Any recommended records so far of ‘08?

All I can say is Department of Eagles, In Ear Park. It destroys me/destroys all.

MIA: Name a visual artist or piece of work that inspires you.

The King of Comedy. Part of being a musician (or any artist I guess) seems to be a clamor for attention, which is gross but ok. We all want people to hear our music (or see our art). But sometimes I just wonder if we’re all Rupert Pupkin.

MIA: Please share a mixtape with a theme of your choice.

Songs of self pity that somehow sound happy/silly.

Mr. Pitiful by Otis Redding
Just Once In My Life by Righteous Brothers
I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times by Beach Boys
Stumble and Fall by Darlene Love
No One Does It Like You by Department of Eagles

ATJ presents UNICYCLE LOVES YOU, Wednesday, October 22, 2008, for After the Jump’s CMJ Showcase at the Knitting Factory NYC, performing at 8:45PM on the Main Stage, with Starfucker, Bad Veins, Crystal Antlers, Heloise & the Savoir Faire, and Juvelen.

Listen :: Highway Robbery

MIA: Musically, how did the band form, what past experiences do you carry with you?

I have been writing and recording songs as a hobby since I was in high school, but never thought of seriously pursuing music until moving to Chicago. I went to school for art, not music. Three other members of Unicycle Loves You studied different aspects of music in college. Two and a half of us are completely self taught. I think the mixture of school taught and self taught musicians in one band has a very interesting effect. It’s always challenging and surprising.

MIA: Describe the feeling of living and making music in your city, feel free to share a memory or a certain place that makes you feel like home.

Chicago is a very unique place but it can have it’s limits as far as how far you can take your music. We love playing here, but exposing new places to our music is where the real excitement lies.

MIA: Do you enjoy to perform live? How does the band like to get ready and is there a favorite song that you like to play for your audience?

We want nothing more than to be performing live all the time, other than writing and recording new material. But that would require a magical land where money grew on trees. Just having a few drinks and letting it fly is pretty much all the preparation we need. One night, we may love playing one song, and the next night it could be something else. A lot of it depends on the room and the crowd.

MIA: What has been the most impacting compliment, or criticism, your band has ever received?

We take compliments very well and brush off harsh criticisms. We love our music and want everybody else to as well. Some people are going to dislike our music. We generally say that those people need to give our album another listen before passing judgment.

MIA: Within your songwriting, is there some type of element that has brought about a certain mood in yr writing, making you feel more/less different than when you started? How long has the recording process taken to complete your album and to finally believe that it’s ready?

I am constantly keeping myself busy writing new songs and recording new demos to play for the band. Creatively, I want to record another album again and again and again. To me, music and art are very similar in that by the time a project is complete, I feel I can do better. Therefore, I am never 100% satisfied with the results. I am, however, proud of the bands accomplishments and want to promote the hell out of it.

MIA: What qualities do you hope listeners may take from listening to your music?

I would hope that they take our first album in as an introduction of what’s to come. The music on our debut album is a far cry from what we feel we are capable of. There is no grand concept to it. We just want people to have fun with it and hum along to it. Maybe sleep with it.

MIA: Any recommended records so far of ‘08?

I have been extremely disappointed in most of the music being released in ’08. I liked ’07 much better. Beach House, Black Moth Super Rainbow and Atlas Sound released great albums this year.

MIA: Name a visual artist or piece of work that inspires you.

I tend to like pop art from the 50′s and ’60s.

MIA: Please share a mixtape with a theme of your choice.

Not sure what the theme is here..

Don’t Bring Me Down by Electric Light Orchestra
Sound and Vision by David Bowie
Tractor Rape Chain by Guided By Voices
The Fox by Sleater Kinney
Sky Holds The Sun by A Band Of Bees

ATJ presents BEST FRIENDS FOREVER, Wed, Oct. 22, 2008, for After the Jump’s CMJ Showcase at the Knitting Factory NYC, performing at 8pm inside the Tap Room, along with the Depreciation Guild, My Teenage Stride,  A Sunny Day in Glasgow, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, & Ringo Deathstarr.

Listen :: Einsehower is the Father

MIA: Musically, how did the band form, what past experiences do you carry with you?

Jes and I have been in bands since we were 13 years old. Beginning with a smashing pumpkins cover band, followed by instrumental math rock, followed by our creation of the genre of raunch rock, and finally we became best friends forever in 2003. Jes had ‘retired’ from music, but I was able to yank her out of retirement to be in a band in which we would once again have total creative control and would be able to sing about such themes as our friendship!

MIA: Describe the feeling of living and making music in your city, feel free to share a memory or a certain place that makes you feel like home.

All of my memories from when we first started writing songs for best friends forever are of driving on cold snowy nights to pick up Jes and bring us to our practice space, working until late in the night and returning to the cold snowy night to bring Jes home. It was a lot of driving and far more ‘going out’ in the winter then would normally be attempted. We were just so excited about what we were doing that it didn’t matter. It is a good feeling to leave Minneapolis on tour and then come back and endure the winter with your friends and use the winter as a time to work hard on projects and then come out in the spring to share them with other people.

MIA: How does the band like to get ready for a live show? Is there a favorite song that you enjoy to perform live?

Yes. BFF exists to play live. Jes is a perfectionist so recording projects are very difficult. Playing live is just the funnest thing there is to do because we usually don’t have to make things perfect just as fun for people watching and for ourselves as possible. Our favorite songs to play live are the newest songs. We don’t write songs very fast so new ones are few and far between, and the rest of the songs have been played hundreds of times and are harder for us to get into. But if the crowd is really into it…even the most tired songs to us can be fun.

MIA: What has been the most impacting compliment, or criticism, your band has ever received?

“You guys would be even better if you were to carry a mattress on the stage and jump on it in your underwear” No. I wouldn’t consider that a compliment or criticism, just an instance of the ridiculous things people think of and actually just the opposite kind of thing we want people to be thinking about when they see us play. But. It just came to mind because it surely left an impact and got referenced in a song.

MIA: Within your songwriting, is there some type of element that has brought about a certain mood in yr writing, making you feel more/less different than when you started? How long has the recording process taken to complete your album and to finally believe that it’s ready?

Our songwriting and the mood of our songs has definitely changed, but as a result of us being 25 now and not 19 and as a result of songwriting not being a new thing but instead something we have been working hard on for nearly 6 years. Back then we were excited just to have songs and we didn’t know if they would be liked by anyone. Now we have to try to keep writing songs that people like and have to find ways to keep from writing songs that all sound the same and that are new and exciting for us to play. It is more challenging now than it was when we didn’t know what we were doing! Recording always has some arbitrary end. We never get to work on albums as long as we want. We are usually due to go on tour for a month and have to finish it in time to have it pressed and back in our hands before we leave. Maybe someday we’ll do it differently. But probably not. We are a band of procrastinators.

MIA: What qualities do you hope listeners may take from listening to your music?

Not taking ourselves too seriously but talking about serious things at the same time… Positivity. Honesty. No Pretention.

MIA: Please share a mixtape with a theme of your choice.

Tour songs..

let me take you to the beach by frank zappa
secondhand news by fleetwood mac
under pressure by freddy mercury/david bowie
not on top by herman dune
judy blue eyes by crosby stills nash and young