GLASSJAW by Mike Fox

First and foremost I would like to thank my buddy Danielle at musicisart for allowing me to give this guest review for one of my favorite bands. On Wednesday November 25th 2009 at The Chevrolet Theater in Wallingford, CT, GlassJaw took the stage with a very dim lighting set, a backdrop of green Puerto Rican flag, Mr. Daryl Palumbo lead singer/front man of GJ bearing a very dapper suit.

The intro started with (You Think You’re) John Fucking Lennon which has not been released on cd as of yet but will be released hopefully soon! which starts out with a very simple drum beat that builds to a chaotic heavy masterpiece a perfect way to start the evenings set. The set followed with glass jaw favorites like Tip Your Bartender, Mu Empire, Star Above My Bed, Ape Dos Mil a set that was very “Worship and Tribute” influenced for the most part with a few newer song‘s and one which front man Daryl claimed to call “Chicken Salad“, just an inside joke .

The stage performance of Glassjaw was a very intimate set, all band members very close to one another as if they were a garage band in a cramped basement setting. The vibe on stage was very calm and collected during moments and front man Daryl Palumbo’s energy and stage presence has never failed to amaze as usual, often comparative to Deftones Chino Moreno and Jacob Bannon of Converge, from his gut wrenching screaming in John Lennon to singing the catchy melodies of Ape Dos Mil.

The moment Glassjaw arrived on stage to the final song Siberian Kiss, It brought my to a very nostalgic point of remembering the first time I heard the cd “Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Silence”, and feeling eternally hooked. GlassJaw is a powerful band that has stayed true to themselves and their music throughout the many of lineup changes and obstacles that has hit them in their face‘s, I amongst many other Glassjaw fans look forward to their future plan’s and projects.

Words by Max Vernon

I personally love when music tells a great story, so I try to create portraits of the people I meet. I admit I’m not above writing songs to get back at people who suck (as in the case of “Around Your Finger” and “Your Girlfriend”), as long as there is some kind of disconnect between the emo-ness of the music and the lyrics to keep it interesting. To me there’s nothing worse than a whiny, pissed off break up song that sounds like a whiny, pissed off break up song. But, if you take those bitter, slightly immature lyrics and stick them with a jaunty honky tonk jazz piano riff, then it’s a whole different creature…

If there’s one song on the EP that isn’t like the others (SAT flashback time), it’s probably “Hunted.” I still have no idea why or how I ended up writing a song about Grendel. I didn’t even really like the book! Must have been some good weed…

All of the songs on Manic Impression were recorded in my bedroom with basically just a laptop, a microphone, and a keyboard/guitar. I hear fuller arrangements in my head for a lot of these tracks and hope to rerecord them with more ambitious orchestration someday soon.

Music Is Art

In honor of the nature of this blog, I thought it also might be cool to share some of my other art with you guys also. I think the visual art and the costumes I create for performances are more surreal and a bit darker than my music, but it’s all just two sides of the same coin. The new songs I’m recording for my second EP kind of bridge the gap thematically between my music and art.

This is the outfit I created for my recent CMJ show, using about 1000 googly eyes.

.Inspirations of Music.

There’s so much incredible music being made right now, I can’t get enough! I love Final Fantasy, Fever Ray, St. Vincent, Beach House, and Joanna Newsom in particular. However, I feel a really deep sense of connection with Laura Nyro’s music. She had a lot of success writing for other artists in the late sixties, but I could never understand why people weren’t as receptive to her as a solo artist. She’s by far her best interpreter. Her ability to conform the pop music idiom to her crazy song structures, tempo and key changes, as well as her courage to pursue a musical vision that was so distinct from her contemporaries…it’s very inspirational to me. I could write an essay, but it’d be much better if you just listened for yourself.

.Fashion of Alexander Mcqueen.

His new Atlantis themed collection blows my mind. Those shoes/torture devices should be in a museum. I love the fearless creativity of his work, it inspires me to think outside the box when I’m making my costumes for shows and can’t afford to spend $12,000 on a jacket. I think life would be more exciting if people had the courage to turn themselves into walking works of art. All you need is hot glue, glitter, and a salvation army… check it out here: http://www.style.com/fashionshows/review/S2010RTW-AMCQUEEN

.Art of Gottfried Helnwein.

Gottfried Helnwein is probably my favorite visual artist. I love this particular painting in which he reimagines the annunciation as an angel coming out of the TV screen. His work tends to be very provocative and macabre, but it definitely resonates with me. He basically does everything- film, photography, painting, drawing, set design, makeup, etc. Check out more of his stuff here: http://www.helnwein.com/

.Philosophy of  Michel Foucault.

I think it might be a central ambition of mine to be the first Foucauldian pop singer…

As a student of queer theory, Foucault is kind of the starting point before you begin your slow descent into having an anxiety disorder haha!  There is no centralized power to fight against! There is no such thing as sexual repression, because it is the repression that creates desire in the first place! We should all fist each other! You know, it’s all very enlightening…to anyone interested, be sure to check out History of Sexuality vol. 1, as well as Halperin’s Saint Foucault.

Recently Brooklyn, NY’s Cinema Cinema (Ev Gold and Paul Claro) kindly contributed to MIA. Please enjoy the following Q&A below.

Listen :: DryDive (Exile Baby)

1. Please share your earliest memory involving or creating music.

Ev Gold: Frank Zappa.  How lucky am I, that my 1st musical memory is Frank Zappa?  It really speaks volumes about the complexity of his music and how said complexity leads to almost instant appeal to the untrained, virgin ears of a 3 year old.  The perfection found within a symphony. Also, years later, I can see how deeply it affected me, that shit drenched my core.  My father is an artist and musician and always had impeccable taste.  He taught me how to play guitar at 14 and he taught me about Zappa at 3.  I have to say, when it comes to my early musical life, I really think specifically of those 2 men.  I was running around the house and bouncing to the “Apostrophe/Over-Nite Sensation” record in my youngest memories and getting my mind blown… and I still stay away from that yellow snow.

Paul Claro: I remember playing along with songs my dad would write when I was young, before I could even really play drums.  I remember feeling encouraged by the fact that even though I couldn’t really play, I could still create something stable enough to follow along with my father.  It made me believe that I really could be a musician.  Looking back on it, this was my first lesson in creation, that creation was not purely an individual experience… that even noise can be considered artistic.

2. May you share about your academic background concerning music? Did you study formally? Any special mentors?

Ev Gold: I kind of referenced this a second ago, my Pop – he taught me how to play.  I asked for a guitar when I was 12, then I reconnected with my father the next year and he was a shit-hot guitar player.  I always hoped I could be that good.  It took a while, but I got there.

I never took a formal lesson or anything like that.  My father taught me and I picked the rest up by ear, through the experience of being in and around bands since I was a kid.  When I was in my 1st band in the 90’s – I was just a singer and didn’t have the confidence in my playing to take it outside my room, wherein I would sit with candles lit and notebooks out and write obsessively.  I would like, challenge myself to write an album’s worth of material sometimes over a 1 or 2 night stretch.  I would sit down and chart out song titles, themes and try to explore them, usually winding up with about 2 really great songs out of 10 or 11.  Then I started to use those little sessions as blueprint and groundwork. I would fuse the best pieces of the songs together and make mini-epic’s. I was basically writing “American Idiot”-style mini-opera’s when i was 16 and 17 – as practice. Wow, i am glad I don’t do that anymore!! (Laughs) Some of those bits have even stood the test of time straight through to today, popping their heads out in new cinema riffs and sections. we have a new song called “1st Writings on Levitation”, that could very well wind up on the next cinema record – if not the one after that – and that one came about from that era.

Paul Claro: I had some lessons as a child but soon found myself learning by ear. When I first started playing around age 9 or 10 I found it hard to focus on the science and structure of music and wanted to create my own ideas. Once I realized creation was boundless, that’s when my musicianship was taken to the next level. Keith Moon is the only mentor any drummer really needs.

3. If you had to explain your music to a stranger, how would you do so?

Ev Gold: Fugazi and the Flaming Lips are hanging out in a dark basement that used to be the MC5’s practice room and Muhammed Ali is training in the corner while listening to Rage Against the Machine and then Black Flag walks in and challenges everyone to a fistfight, mayhem ensues and a new sonic landscape is uncovered.  After a lot of cuts, bruises and stitches – the whole lot of them recover in a big white room where Quadrophenia and OK Computer are mashed up by Danger Mouse and pumped through My Bloody Valentine’s amp stack – thats where Cinema, Cinema is born.

4. What are your favorite instruments to work with and what aspects do you like most about using them?

Paul Claro: Other than drums, I’m partial to wind instruments. I play a few and love their earthy quality. Also things that are percussive and tribal. Anything real, raw and unprocessed.

Ev Gold: My effects pedals are the extension of my instrument (guitar) that I take my most pride in and have my most fun with.  I do believe that my guitar skills are very tasty and by themselves, they can stand up – but in a 2 piece i feel the need to really use the pedals as a whole other instrument.  I play guitar as much with my feet as I do with my hands and ears. To string together different combinations of pedals and create new textures and sounds that no one else, or at least none of my current contemporaries are achieving, that’s what I strive for.

I am proud of the fact and I can say easily with clear conscience, that no one on earth can properly transcribe the guitar notations needed to duplicate my playing on Exile Baby. Only I can do that because I use combinations that aren’t duplicating or replicating my favorite sounds – I am working with all my might to invent new sounds.

5. What are your inspirations?

Paul Claro: Bands that take chances: Black Flag, The Who, Radiohead, TV on the Radio, The Flaming Lips.

6. When you’re working are you fully involved in what you’re doing or is your mind already planning ahead?

Ev Gold: It’s funny – what Paul and I do is so much in the moment – it lives so much in that origin of jazz, just breathing and moving of its own accord – yet, he and I are so focused and know each other so well – that its almost like a mental game of chess – because as we are enveloped in moment and putting our faces directly into the waves ahead – we always have a grip on the other ones shoulder with an eye on the direction of the currents.

In different bands and in different formats that Cinema, Cinema has existed in the past – i could never have said that we are like organized confusion – but that’s what Paul and i achieve – its in the realm where fate exists – undefinable. –we aren’t as much fully involved as we actually become the music and we let it tell us where to go – luckily it speaks the same language at the same time in to both of our ears and
guides us.

7. On average, how long does it take for you to create a song?

Ev Gold: Its a quick process.  I mean, everytime I pick up the guitar I generally start with an exercise, that’s basically a jazz thing where I just put the guitar on my lap or strap it on my back.  Then I immediately channel the energy around me in the room and start to play whatever comes to my mind and allow it to pump down through my fingertips to the neck, wherever it is supposed to go.  I don’t pick up the guitar and start to finger out someone else’s lick.  I just figured out or start strumming the same old chord pattern from one of my pre-existing songs – I just squeeze out new ideas with a lot of regularity.  Its like an ever-evolving state of songwriting.  I find myself coming across upwards of 2 or 3 really good riffs or chord progressions a week of ideas I would like to hear on a record by a band that I like – therefore, that band in my head gets to become my band.

Unfortunately, I do not presently have a good home recording/demoing capability at Cinema HQ (which is my apartment/crash space – that’s 100% dedicated to all things Cinema.  Put it this way, there are enough amps to power a solid backline for a Melvins tour but there isnt a bed – so i can’t just call it “my apartment” in good and regular conscience – its just Cinema HQ). I don’t have my old little crappy tape recorded even – that was lost in a flood – so I am constantly grabbing hold of these little ideas and the ones that resonate the most are the ones that my brain will decide to brand into the important category and hopefully Paul is either on his way over to pick me up for practice or a gig or we are about to meet up about the band and I can show him the idea while its fresh – because if it passes his test – a test i trust – an instinctual one – a “shit, that makes my booty move” or “damn, that makes me wanna break a window” kinda test – if it passes – then most likely Cinema is about to have a new song – as soon as the two of us can be behind our instruments together – the music always comes first and rather quickly. Generally then I usually come up with a name for the piece of music – just what it sounds and looks like in my mind – and that is where the lyrics have their first glimpse of life.

8. On the website Music Is Art, our mission is to show how music and art are simply connected. Which albums do you credit as having the biggest influences as far as your life and creativity are concerned?

Ev Gold: This is a fun question and I can easily go on for the rest of the time we have naming records.  So I am going to try to keep this to my 5 or 6 most important records based on the profound effect they had on my playing and approach because different records are important for different reasons.  Like Liquid Swords by GZA is one of my favorite records of all time – but I don’t know that it is one that has necessarily shaped my playing in a different way. Whereas when I first heard Damaged by Black Flag, I almost fell over because of the guitar sound and choices made by Greg Ginn on that record.  You see – so there is a big difference in my mind with “favorite albums” and then ones that are “integral to my playing albums”… so I will choose a few of the ladder. Ok Computer by Radiohead, Black Love by Afghan Whigs, Damaged by Black Flag, White Light/White Heat by The Velvet Underground, and In On The Kill Taker by Fugazi.

Paul Claro: Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen and the E street band was my introduction to music outside of what was being played on pop radio in the mid 90’s and it really began my fascination with music. Grace by Jeff Buckley, this record changed my outlook on music. After hearing Buckley’s beautiful voice I quickly grew out of my pop rock phase and never listened to the radio again. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel, this record opened my mind to a whole world of underground, avant & open indie music and I’ve never looked back…just amazing music with no boundaries, ah Jeff Mangum is the man! Finally, OK Computer by Radiohead was the first time I realized that it was OK to use computers in music. Before hearing this record I was strictly against bands who used electronics in their music. But Radiohead’s brilliant mastery of the art showed my the endless possibilities computers can attribute to music.

09. If you could have a drink with one musician, living or dead, who would it be and what would you like to ask them?

Paul Claro: Daniel Johnston. What is the song “Walking the Cow” actually about?

Ev Gold: Shannon Hoon. I miss him a lot. I don’t know – I feel a special kinship with him. I feel like he’s an older brother that I don’t have or wish I could have had. He just seemed fearless about everything and that inspires me. I have such a respect for him and his work and especially because I think it is mostly misunderstood and not represented correctly. Everyone thinks that Blind Melon was a “jam band” or “light rock” because of No Rain – meanwhile – those dudes where one of the most talented powerhouse bands of the 90s. They sounded like no one else and the growth that was exhibited between blind melon and soup, they’re first two records are just exponential.

10. What do you hope people take from seeing you perform live?

Paul Claro: I want them to see that a band can be more than a trained performing machine. That it can be a living and breathing entity that can grow and expand in front of your eyes.

Ev Gold: I hope that get the feeling like they were a part of it – like at a sporting event – when your team wins – you win – you feel it on the deep personal level, its a part of you. I know what we do can be a bit challenging and almost “too” intense or scary in an old school way that we are proud of. I mean, a typical cinema show isnt a love-in from the 6o’s, its usually like a bare knuckle brawl where your hero is taking a beating but giving one back even harder. I want for our live experience to be one that shakes our crowd to its core. Whether you are standing along the sides of the walls observing, in the pit freaking, or standing as close as possible to hear it all or as far away as possible to protect your ears.  We are loud.  I want people to feel like for a moment, like they were able to attach to those two guys up there and be in it.

11. What has been your favorite experience thus far in your career?

Ev Gold: That’s a tough one. I want it to be typical, like – when we pulled into Kentucky for the 1st time, this past January of 2009 – to play SouthGate House – our name was up on the marquee outside.  You know, miles away from home on tour in a tiny mazda in the freezing cold of January, that kinda shit goes a long way. We had another moment like that back in September, in our hometown as we headlined the Blender Theater at the Gramercy.  Our name was at the top of the big marquee outside, a marquee I had walked by numerous times in the past but really, its the heart of experiences that we are in it for.

Like the night that we got stuck in a horror show of rain and traffic heading to Boston.  A 3 and 1/2 hour drive became 6 and 1/2 hours – while Paul and I tried to stay as sane as we could in the car, I booked us 2 huge shows (opening for the Giraffes) on the phone.  Whilst hardcore traveling, that nite we had to sleep in the car with all the gear…and we needed a great and lucrative night the following night of the tour, if we were to survive, literally – and we got one in Northampton, MA at The Elevens. It was a real magical night, that was memorable by far more than your typical marquee moment.

Paul Claro: We drove up to a motel in the middle of a cold November night in Maine. It was our first attempt at touring, and we decided to go north. We got in the room and there was no heat. It was so cold that steam was literally coming off our bodies. Yet, this was one my fondest memories of being in this band. Earlier that night, we played a gig in a strange town in front of a strange crowd and we had one of the most successful shows of our young career there. It was this sense of victory that pushed us to work harder for the next year playing more and more out of state gigs all along the east coast and really learning how to tour, by jumping in and getting our hands dirty and taking chances.

12. What would your number one suggestion be for someone who wants to do what you do?

Ev Gold: Rent “Spinal Tap”.  Read “Get In The Van”.  Expect nothing.  Risk everything.

13. What exciting projects do you have coming up?

Ev Gold: Been waiting for that question! We are very very excited to have released a live EP last week, called the 57 EP.  We are releasing it ourselves on our own via the Lumiere Label. We are doing it all, controlling it all and we are very proud of the whole deal.  Its culled from our 57th show of the year, that we did back in July at Southpaw in Brooklyn.  By having released it on 11/24/09 – we made it by 1 day of releasing 2 records in 1 year! EXILE BABY was released on 11/25/08.

2 records in 1 year and over 100 shows, need we say more. Ok, we will.  Its funny, what happened was  the soundguy at Southpaw always asks during soundcheck if you would like your set recorded for a few bucks.  On that particular night, we said, “thanks, but no thanks -we are broke” and turned him down, being in the middle of a short 3 show tour, we really didn’t see the point in spending.  You want to make money on the road, its not a vacation, you don’t pick up souvenirs – its business.  We did the show and afterwards, a buddy of mine – who was seeing Cinema, Cinema for the 1st time live came up to me and exclaimed how much he loved us and what we do.  He had asked the sound guy if he was recording and he was, so he bought the disc from him. I was flattered and didn’t think much of hearing it – since we had just played and the thought of releasing a live record hadn’t even crossed our minds at all at that point. Then a few shows later – my buddy (Sammy is his name, he deserves to be named here as it was he who by fate, made this live ep a possibility) came out to another gig and gave me a copy of the Southpaw recording and it just jumped up outta the speakers and really sounded like a good representation of what we were doing at that point of the year. We had kicked around the idea with our publicist about putting out a new single to garner some press attention and we thought, lets put on a live b-side or 2 – so we went back to that recording from 7/16 and in combing over it numerous times – the idea grew out of a new single with an extra live cut to a live EP culled from the whole soundboard recording.

We include live takes on 3 of the songs off of Exile Baby (“DryDive”, “I Don’t Wanna Be Yr Boyfriend”, and “The Natural/RX”) and 2 new songs (“The Cycles & Territories of Winters Past” and “Phonecall”).

Paul Claro: With the surplus of new material we have and with our plan being to make a new record in the early half of 2010 – we thought this would make the most sense, to really put out a proper portrait of what the songs off Exile Baby have grown into and to include 2 new songs, being that we have so many new songs – we don’t know what we will include on the next record and what we won’t – so at least these 2 new ones will see the light of day on this EP.

14. May you have a particular inspired quote, statement or favorite words to live by?

Paul Claro: “Scar tissue is stronger than regular tissue. Realize the strength, move on.” Henry Rollins

15. Please share a mix tape within a theme of your choice.

Ev Gold: Songs that shaped me at 13 years old, (circa 1991).
1-”Like A Rolling Stone” – Bob Dylan
2-”Its So Easy” – Guns N Roses
3-”Breed” – Nirvana
4-”Break On Through” – The Doors
5-”Anarchy in the UK” – The Sex Pistols
6-”Jumping Jack Flash” – The Rolling Stones
7-”Alive” – Pearl Jam

Paul Claro: Songs I Like to play on Guitar.
1-Jeff Buckley-”Last Goodbye”
2-Daniel Johnston-”Walking the Cow”
3-Dave Matthews Band-#41
4-Pearl Jam-”Elderly Woman”
5-The Smiths-”There is a Light that Never goes Out”
6-Neutral Milk Hotel-”Holland, 1945″
7-Bob Dylan-”Times They are a-Changin”

Blips Don’t Lie
Music & Words by Microfilm

LISTEN

Water Drops On Burning Rocks (Nine Devices Remix)

Teenage Symphonies (Olivia Hussey’s Reprise)

Matt Mercer: Working on this EP took a bit longer than past endeavours. We aimed for something brighter, more pop, without compromising the things that get us excited.  I try to avoid repeating myself too much, although there are nuances and details and samples and sounds that are probably common in some of our other output. We definitely steered clear of the gravity of our last full-length and also the vague chip-tune flavor of the last EP.

Our initial starting point was acid house as a touchstone, but as with most influences the finished product obviously veers far off that course.  “His N Hers Hibernation” is straight up freestyle with some added quirk. We liked the idea of making 3 fairly pop tracks and then remixing them with people we know and respect.  Kid Whatever (one half of Peroxide Mocha, who we also recently remixed) turned out this full-on italo-disco-meets-Hi-NRG slammer that puts a smile on my face every time, and The Astrolabe from Chicago did a really great job of taking our slower original and punching it up a few notches, adding some great 90s throwback touches with some piano riffs and flourishes.  Nine Devices is sort of the odd man out with his more sparse treatment of “Water Drops on Burning Rocks,” all but discarding our original audio tracks but being quite clever with his use of Sarah Nixey’s vocal backwards… to be honest, I have no idea what he sampled from her, but backwards it says “So hold me now” which is sort of haunting.

Matt Keppel: From a thematic/concept standpoint, I originally thought of this EP as a homage to house music in it’s various forms.  I think my original working title was even ‘The House Sound of Microfilm’, like one of those old late ‘80s house compilations! Just the idea of making a fluid, dancefloor EP whereas our last one was much more electro, kind of brittle, and chunky, if that makes sense.  I also had the idea of framing the EP like David Bowie’s ‘Station to Station’ or Pet Shop Boys ‘Introspective’ (both 6 track EPs), but where we wrote every one of the original tracks as a potential single.

Current Obsessions of Matt Keppel

Music of Billy MacKenzie

The lyrical ideas about the songs for this EP revolved around characters in relationship turmoil, except the first track ‘I’ll Sing Like Billy MacKenzie in Heaven’.  That was a homage to the great but neglected (by many) talents of Billy MacKenzie, the late singer from the ‘80s UK band The Associates. He had a few hits in the early ‘80s in England but now is a bit of a cult star here in the US.

I’m intrigued by artists like MacKenzie that come from nowhere, become really big for a short moment, and then disappear into obscurity, but not for lack of talent.  He had a beautiful, operatic voice and an insane lyrical mind. Like Morrissey, but weirder.  I love completely off the wall, smart and original lyricists and he was one of them.  I’m glad his music has been reissued/re-evaluated recently but he still seems to be one of those acquired tastes that will never become really huge and that’s kind of magical in itself.

Music of Wild Beasts

I just stumbled upon these guys this summer; don’t remember how exactly and now I listen to some of their new album ‘Two Dancers’ almost everyday.  I find their whole aura fantastic. Music journalists like to describe how bands create their own world within their music (and I never believe it because they’re usually wrong about the band they’re describing) but Wild Beasts really do that.  They remind me of early records by The Smiths or Suede, where it’s kind of loose, hazy, weirdly sexual and strange.  It sounds really epic but not in a plodding, like Coldplay-way, but in a crazy, theatrical ‘The Queen is Dead’ way.

Blogs of Cracker Finishing School
& The Sound and the Furry

These sites are run by the same guy.  Don’t know anything about him other than he has good taste!  ‘Cracker…’ is more of an art blog, a Tumblr page with a lot of really great images, either funny or sexy.  ‘…Furry’ is a blog of random cute, handsome bearded and/or hairy guys who are in indie rock bands.  They are labeled as “fake boyfriends” and I think everyone can agree that it’s fun to have fake boyfriends who are bearded and cute.  Well, some of us can.

Current Obsessions of Matthew Mercer

Music of The Caretaker

I once saw Jim Kirby perform in Cleveland as V/VM and it was one of the weirdest and loudest things I’ve ever seen. It’s a bit of a blur, but key takeaways were a man in a pig suit illuminated only by his laptop screen and a sort of chugging, rhythmic pitch-bending mangle of Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best.”  The Caretaker is sort of the ethereal ghost of that weirdness.  It’s The Shining after Jack Nicholson and co. have left the building — the aftermath of a party in the past.  There’s dust in the air and this is the sound of how light strikes it.  It’s haunting, but there’s something warm and inviting in balance; you don’t want it to go, you want it to stay….

Music of DJ Sprinkles

Terre Thaemlitz’s new album as DJ Sprinkles is a great deep house album, reductive but lush.  It’s a statement on how house music doesn’t really help us escape, but brings us closer to our pain as a shared emotional and perhaps subversive experience — in addition to his more typical politics about gender and sexuality, how it relates to this music historically.  (His monologue about a “Madonna-free zone” is effectively wry.)

Music of Warp20 Box Set

The new Warp20 box set is a marvel of packaging. While its contents musically are, for me, a little hit or miss, it’s so well-assembled, a triumph of surface. Uncoated, blind-embossed 10″ vinyl sleeves (5 plates), high-gloss hardcover 10″ CD book packaging, a dense book of all Warp artwork since its inception — it’s impressive and justifies its price. There’s a mixed bag of cover versions on one of the 2xCD sets inside, but it’s practically worth it for Tim Exile’s cover of Jamie Lidell’s “A Little Bit More.” (Tim Exile is one to watch, too — his last album Listening Tree was very exciting to my ears)

Genre of Dubstep

I think some of the stranger hybrid dubstep stuff out there like Brackles, Apple Pips, Rustie is all worth a gander. The straight-ahead wowowowowow-snarrrrrl dubstep stuff wears on me, but the more spry, lively, jerky stuff I’ve been hearing more recently has me paying attention.

A few sites to check out ::

Apple Pips Recordings | Brackles |Zomby Productions

Application of DopplerPad

I’ve spent the better part of the year collaborating on the creation of DopplerPad which is an iPhone-based touch instrument. It’s been inspiring to be part of something using new technology and marrying that with music in a cool and interesting way.

Books of Hand Job: A Catalog of Type
& Over & Over

2 books recently that I found inspiring: Over & Over and Hand Job, both by Princeton Architectural Press. Over & Over is a nice collection of hand-drawn patterns, appealing to the minimalist in me but with a less mechanical, more human touch. Hand Job is the typographic equivalent, focusing exclusively on hand-drawn typography. It runs the gamut from tacky or ironic to beautiful, ornate and sincere. Maybe it’s because I spend so much time in front of a computer that I have an affinity to hand-drawn things recently.

(Toronto Film Festival 2009 Photographed by Ademar Dias for Lifeline Photography)

The Experience of Being a DJ
Written by Lindsay Luv

My background was originally in the music industry having worked in business development at the Orchard and as an agent with top artists like The Raveonettes, as a DJ booker with notable DJs like Eddie Baez, and then in brand event marketing with emerging DJs and artists including Justice, Chromeo, Ladytron, Crystal Castles, Dangerous Muse, Busy P, The Presets and so many others. For five years I worked the business side of the sphere yet my jobs always relied on my ability to seek out new artists and emerging talent. This was definitely an inevitable setup for me to one day pursue DJing although I never even thought it a possibility until my friend, Adam Goldstein aka the late DJ AM, pointed out I should give it a whirl.

I was sitting with him in his room at the Bryant Park Hotel catching up before his set at Deko Lounge in Jersey and shouting some of the latest tunes I had discovered from relatively unknown artists at the time, Canada’s Thurderheist and Dragonette, as well as LA’s own Shiny Toy Guns, as he downloaded them in a fury. Adam loved the tracks and gave me a sideways smile and asked me if I have ever considered DJing…. No, I hadn’t.

(Photo Credit : Coachella 2009- Palm Springs | Photographed by: Denise Mijares |
MakeUp & Hair: Courtney Wolfe | Styled by: Dalit Gwenna | Shirt by Wildfox Couture)

When the recession hit and music marketing started to hit a standstill, I remember sitting on my couch bored and restless thinking what the HELL am I going to do with my life! I remembered Adam’s words and I just picked up and jetted over to Guitar Center and bought everything I would need to teach myself to DJ (with some help from my DJ friends). Without a trust fund or a sugar daddy (ha!) the basic facts were I needed to make money to survive here and fast by switching my focus in the music industry. However instead of taking the easy way out-Ipod DJing etc-I wanted to learn from the ground-up no matter how challenging it seemed and eventually be respected for my craft. With my friends the Boyd brothers opening up their clubs to me, and DJ friends like Cindy Kim, I studied, practiced and learned what I needed to start spinning. I practiced at friends’ studio spaces and these venues during the day for hours –pretending the place was packed.

Landing great gigs was made possible by my industry contacts from my past work and thousands of followers on Myspace, Facebook, and Joonbug. Today, after a year of full-time DJing (and always practicing every day) I still feel like I have so much more to learn. To be a ‘DJ’ these days is a loose word, but to be a true ‘DJ’ is a whole different ballgame, and one that I continue to self teach myself every day and improve upon. My business motto is to start in the mail-room if you want to be a CEO, and I apply that to my own skill set and career. I know who I am and where I started and where I am going. I think if you want to be successful at any activity you need to put in the time but stay confident in your progress and be real.

What AM saw in me was my ability to discover new music and emerging artists–I think that is what makes me special in my craft– the same way mash-ups are what made him extra special in his.  I was so excited to one day maybe have an opportunity to DJ with him and am so incredibly sad he is gone.  He is and will forever remain a huge inspiration in my career.

(Photo Credit : Coachella 2009- Palm Springs | Photographed by: Denise Mijares |
MakeUp & Hair: Courtney Wolfe | Styled by: Dalit Gwenna)

Things that I’m Currently Obsessed With::

ART of Sebastian Picker

I dated his nephew, singer-songwriter Pablo, for a number of years in college and fell in love with his artwork. Pablo had a few of his paintings and when I left Boston to pursue a career in NYC he gave me an original piece from his early days to christen my new apartment. The canvas hangs above my bed and his use of a monochromatic color scheme is calming and stunning and sends a message of struggle, hope, peace and love. His work is highly regarded in the art world and I hope to buy more pieces in the near future.

MUSIC of The Raveonettes

I essentially never stop talking about my favorite band, The Raveonettes! I have grown up with this band throughout my NYC years. They were in many ways my first big ‘break” in working in the music industry. I came here by myself after college from Boston- not knowing anyone and knowing I had to “make it” here to survive.

I began working with the management team for this new band right when they were releasing their very first EP “Whip It On”, and have continued to support and work with them in varying capacities even today. The Raveonettes have released multiple full length albums and have toured with the likes of Depeche Mode and the Strokes, playing hundreds of sold out shows in the US and abroad.

The band is truly original and their sound is unlike any other artist I have heard today. I have seen them perform in major cities– Chicago, Austin, LA, NYC– and my parents will see them this week in Boston. They are both friends and an inspiration and continue to surprise and delight me with each CD released.

MOVIES of The 80s

I am pretty much obsessed with everything 80’s and am known to watch Pretty In Pink on rainy days. I have loved re-discovering my 80’s movie favorites and can’t get over how kooky and borderline creepy Jim Henson’s “Labyrinth” is! I love, love, love David Bowie and think this movie and the music and imagery is simply genius! Some other favorites include Weird Science, Lost Boys, Big, Say Anything, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and Can’t Buy Me Love. The 80’s rock!

Lindsay Luv MixTape
(For Streaming Purposes Only)

I love electro house and the 80’s, so here are some of my favorite tracks of today and yesterday, all with an electric edge! Rawk!

Heavy Cross- The Gossip (Fred Falke Remix)

Night By Night- Chromeo

Do Ya Think I’m Sexy- Rod Stewart (Discotech Remix)

Little Booty Girl- Thunderheist

Paris Is Burning- Ladyhawke (Cut Copy Remix)

I Remember- Deadmau5 (Caspa Remix)

What Is Love- Haddaway (Refreshmento Remix)

One Day- The Juan Maclean (Surkin Remix)

Fever- Madonna & EnVogue (Dance Floor Mix)

PLUS FREE DOWNLOAD

Remixed by Lindsay Luv, D-Major and Bobby Blaze

Fake Gold- Tigercity (Major BlazInLuv Remix)

BEAT RADIO by Brian Sendrowitz

Thanks for giving me this space to share my experience. It’s a dangerous proposition–I’ve got so much to say.  I’m like a roman candle.  This digital age is where I belong. I’m really excited to have the chance to share this new record with people.  It wasn’t an easy one for me to make. Some people approach music in a casual way. I enjoy records that don’t take themselves too seriously, but for me it’s not that way. I always feel like I’m fighting for my life.

Beat Radio has always been an evolving thing, with band members coming and going as our lives and music changed.  About a year ago the band sort of imploded and I found myself making music alone for the first time in a while.  My wife Liz and I were also going through lots of changes; finding ourselves with a young growing family and dreams we still needed to pursue.  Some of these songs are sort of like love letters to her. We’ve always supported each other in our creative endeavors, but in the last year we’ve learned how to do it a bit more completely– more fiercely and courageously.  Her favorite song on the record is “Follow You Around”.  It’s about getting lost and finding your way back home.

I hope you enjoy the album.  It was my first time recording and producing on my own.  I kind of learned as I went along.  I’d come down to the basement each night after Liz and our boys went to sleep and do weird tape experiments or download samples of strange old synthesizers and field recordings.  I brought some friends in to help out after i’d gotten the basic tracks together, which helped alot. More than anything, it’s an album about how music can be a form of escape, transcendence, and joy.  It’s about getting lost in the sound.

Safe Inside The Sound is available as a free digital download and limited edition cd at beatradio.org. It’s also available to stream/download at bandcamp.

I love how this website connects different art forms and embodies a unique vision and experience.  Here are some things I’m currently enamored with:

Robert Frank’s Photography

I’ve been interested in Robert Frank’s work for a while now–particularly from the mid 50’s although he did some amazing stuff later on, including the album cover of my favorite Rolling Stones record.  I first discovered him because Jack Kerouac wrote the intro to his most famous collection The Americans. Kerouac’s my favorite writer.  I’m fascinated by the whole time period really, and Frank captured it in such a beautiful and powerful way.  There’s an exhibit on his work going on now at the Met.  I’m hoping i can go check it out soon. You can view more of his pictures here.

Mad Men

Me and Liz, that’s our thing-stay in on Sunday nights, drink some wine and watch Mad Men. I probably would have finished the Beat Radio album sooner but we started getting caught up on season 1 and 2 last spring watching it on demand.  In some ways we relate to Don and Betty I think.  We live out in the suburbs. I take the train to the city every day while she’s home with the kids. I know everyone is already talking about this show, but I’ve never been so into a television show in my life. I talk about it with my friends the way I’d talk about great fiction. It’s brilliant.

Where the Wild Things Are

Another pop culture thing everyone is talking about, but we’ve got a really deep connection it.  My boys have always been really big Maurice Sendak fans.  We also really love “In the Night Kitchen” and “Brundibar.”  They’re strange books, but I’ve sort of got strange kids.  I always found the language in them really striking–it’s dreamy and emotional and also really musical and playful in a quirky sort of way.  It makes me feel like a kid.  My 4 year old son Elijah and I are particularly excited about the movie.  We’ve got this routine where we read the book before bedtime and then we watch the movie trailer on my blackberry.  He knows every word to that Arcade Fire song.  You should hear him sing it, it’s beautiful.

The Diggs

I’ll leave out talking about music this time around because I feel like all I ever do is ramble on and on about music.  I will mention my friends The Diggs though, because they’re probably my favorite band.

Here’s an amazing song from their first record:

The Diggs – Faith in Strangers (mp3)

Also, I have a blog and twitter account where I talk about music alot.  I did a blog post last spring on my top ten favorite records of all time here, if you’d like to subject yourself to a whole lot more of my rambling.

Illustration: ihappened

First let me introduce myself to Music Is Art. I will be on a weekly basis, featuring the best of British music. The vision I’ve got for this column is not just direct music review, more so I will be incorporating a column-esque style to it all. So, with my self-indulgent introduction over, let’s move on to the first feature in Thoughts for Tonight.

In September last year I moved to London. After a dull August, September was peaking up and I was about to make my first venture out to ‘Blue Flowers’. ‘Blue Flowers’ was a monthly event held in Chiswick, London. It was set alongside West London diners and higher-end supermarkets. The clientele, as a result, was often rather different from those usually frequenting the up-and-coming London music scene of the East. Yet when it came down to musical showcases there was no room for snobbishness amongst the East-London musical elite. It was here, I first saw the inspiring Mumford & Sons.

Mumford & Sons, started off life in West London; writing, rehearsing and performing in the pubs and streets of Chelsea. Last year they released the first in what has become a trilogy of releases; ‘Lend Me Your Ears’. The E.P. debuted the band’s signature sound; that of wonderfully quaint British, bluegrass-inspired folk. Their second E.P. released in Autumn last year followed suit; melting the hearts of teenage girls, while inspiring men everywhere with self-deprecating honesty, that seemed to win over the aforementioned hearts. Effortlessly stylish in both appearance and attitude, Mumford & Sons ended 2008 on a high that any performers should be proud of.

‘The Cave and the Open Sea’ is the final installment in the previously mentioned trilogy, and the first in 2009. The Mumford & Sons sound is undeniably still here; their wonderful interlacing of instrumentation, dynamic verse and chorus structures and memorable melodies feature prominently, but a subtle and charming progression has been made.
In the band’s progression comes refined yet still captivating lyricism, the warmth and glow of Marcus Mumford’s voice is more refined and confident. The band’s ability to bring-to-life a folk melody, that other bands could only attempt, is still prominent.

Everything has matured, and if that is misunderstood to be synonymous with ‘mellowed’, then ‘But My Heart Told My Head’ should dispel such skepticism instantly. The maturity comes from growth within their sound; showing further influences away from bluegrass and folk. Their confidence has grown as a band, which has continued from E.P. to E.P., and as a result the new recorded songs brim with endearing charm and warmth.

Last year, I was working in a summer job that played Radio 1 relentlessly. The pop mix was usually poor, but Noah and the Whale really provided a well-rounded summery alternative. This year, Mumford and Sons are capable of achieving something in a similar vein; a perfect, summer, folk-pop soundtrack, yet where differences lie, is the band’s ability to do that little bit more as well.

White Blank Page (from ‘Lend Me Your Ears’)
Little Lion Man (from ‘Love Your Ground’)
Mumford and Sons || Myspace

My father was a very talented sculptor. When I was a kid, he was buying art magazines from Europe and used to hide them in the attic, because there were nude paintings in them that he didn’t want us to see. I come from a very conservative little town. But as soon as my parents were out of the house, I would run to the attic and spend hours looking at the art. I discovered Toulouse Lautrec, Rembrandt, Renoir, mostly the Impressionists at that time. And that’s when it started for me. I discovered that I was in love with art, especially with painting.

May you share about your academic background concerning art? Did you study art formally? What were your art studies like in general — any influential instructors?

I actually have a baccalaureate in teaching arts and crafts, but I realized very early on that being a painter and teaching other people how to make art are two very distinct worlds. I tried teaching to high school students for two years, but I got fired. At the time, I was 22 years-old, tiny girl with platinum blonde hair, I looked like a punk. I would get in the class and get a round of applause. I was a joke! The kids never took me seriously. I would rather have lunch with them then play ping pong with my fellow teachers. I didn’t have the credibility or the background to guide my students, to properly teach them. I didn’t know what I was talking about.

If you had to explain your work to a stranger, how would you do so?

I like to define myself as an urban expressionist. That is actually the headline of my blog. I always find it hard to describe my work to strangers. You kind of have to see it. I do figurative paintings with bold color mixes. Movement, energy and light are at the core of every single one of my paintings. That’s how you recognize my style.

What are your favorite colors to work with and what aspects do you like most?

As much as I love vibrant, fluorescent colors, I also like to work with yellowish grey, earthy shades – I call them my potato shades. I love working on contrasts. I usually create color mixes with shades that have nothing to do with each other – one that’s completely off, another that’s excessively flashy. I think color is one of my trademarks in my work.

What are your inspirations?

My biggest inspiration is to live New York: the people, the billboards, the urban style of NYC, I can’t find this vibe anywhere else. You’re the first to see everything, it’s right in your face. It’s such a melting pot of culture, and there are so many brilliant people who live here: the best people in the world, the most extraordinary artists, too. That triggers my creativity.

When you’re working, are you fully involved or is your mind already planning ahead? On average, how long does it take you to finish one of your pieces?

One painting brings the next one, but it’s not a conscious process. When I’m painting, I’m really living the moment, and I can be concentrated for hours. That’s actually one of my biggest strengths. Some take two days, some take two months, but the answer is: it took me thirty years of work to get there.

Do you prefer long periods of time alone, or are you energized by interaction?

Long periods of time alone. You need to be alone to create, painting is a private thing. I have lots of friends, but not a lot of people come to my studio.

Do you have a favorite way to relax when back home?

Two words: Dirty Martini!!!

What part of your process is the most challenging and do you dislike the most?

To be an artist is a non stop challenge. You can never stop the fucking clock. Sometimes, I want to turn the switch off and say: I don’t want to be that person for 2 months. But when you’re an artist, you always want to create something new for the world to see. You’re born with a karma that is so strong. Sometimes you want to be married with two kids, a dog and a swimming pool. Usually, that wish does not last for more than 10 minutes. Soon enough I find myself back in the studio.

What has been your favorite experience thus far in your career?

Moving in New York… to be able to afford living in Soho. Being here enabled me to travel all around the world, also. I’m all wrapped up in my dream.

What turns you on? What turns you off?

Smart people turn me on; people who evolve, who learn and who can teach me things. Close-minded people turn me off. They are like living dead. People with no juice – no energy are unbearable.

What do you hope people take from seeing your art?

I want to give them energy, it’s like when you watch a movie or you listen to music, you get a strong emotion from it. There is a big range of feelings in my work and the perception is subjective: it can be anger, sadness, happiness, fear, grief, love.

If you could meet with one visual artist, living or dead, who would it be and what would you like to ask them?

Julian Schnabel. I’d like to know what he thinks about life after death. I’d share with him the spirituality of being a painter. It’s such an intense thing. I want to know if he perceives it the same way that I do. If he gets in that zone.

On Music Is Art, our mission is to show how music and art are truly connected. Which albums do you credit as having the biggest influences as far as your art and life are concerned?

I can’t paint without my headphones. What I listen to sure does influence the way that I work. I listen to so much music, and I am inspired every week by something different… it’s hard to put only one thing forward. If you want me to choose three I’ll give you five, in no particular order: Outrospective by Faithless, Ready to Die by Notorious BIG, Pornography by The Cure, Mezzanine by Massive Attack, and Cross by Justice.

What is the basis for your upcoming solo show in Dubai?

It just happens that this show is charged with blondes and has a lot of fluorescent colors. It’s extravagant in that sense. I don’t think I created these pieces specifically for the show for Dubai. They could have gone anywhere else. I don’t create a show for a city; I work where I’m at now. And I really can’t tell what’s coming up next.

Aside from your new exhibit, what other exciting projects do you have coming up?

I’m working on a book that documents my story – moving to New York, all the crazy shit that happened. I have a lot of young admirers in Canada and I feel that now, I have something to teach, I have a story to tell. That’s why I write the blog, I feel the need to broadcast more stuff where the people are at, i.e. online. It’s part of my artistic development.

What are your favorite words to live by?

Either you sink or you swim! (laughs)

Please create a mix tape within a theme of your choice.

In for the Kill – La Roux

Easy Love – MSTRKRFT

Paris (Aeroplane Remix) – Friendly Fires

Love Lockdown – Kanye West

She Wants to Move – N*E*R*D

Electric Feel (Justice Remix) – MGMT

Ooh Ooh Baby – Britney Spears

A few weeks back, I set my camera up over my drawing board, put on some headphones, played Mike Viola’s “Good Ideas Grow On Trees” on repeat and made a drawing.

If you’ve ever heard a Mike Viola album, you know that his ability to craft perfect pop is as good as it gets and his smartly economical production is the kind of thing that makes a person want to listen again and again. Viola is an artist, a pop scholar and a craftsman.  His albums and his performances look forward and back at the same time, displaying a root system of influences and a constant growth in new directions. His most recent album, Lurch, is full of tuneful and breezy songs tinged with the subtly submerged melancholy that is the essential ingredient to all classic pop.

A little over a year ago, in February of 2008, Viola had a one month residency at Joe’s Pub, playing a late show every Friday night at 11:30. Live and in person, augmented by his recent collaborator Kelly Jones (whose astonishing album,  SheBANG!, Mike co-wrote and co-produced) and their top-notch band, Viola delivers energetic versions of his songbook with the kind of amazing harmonies that rarely happen outside of a studio.

But what’s really special about a Mike Viola show is the sheer unpredictability of it. Viola likes to hijack his shows, take them over to the dangerous border between self-indulgent digression and sheer genius, and walk that line like a man balancing on a wire. At any moment, Viola and his band might change an arrangement or rip in to a cover of a song they don’t know if they can play until they’re playing it. At other times he’ll improvise a song from scratch, singing lyrics and calling out chord-changes as they occur to him. Sparked by a random comment from the band or a shout from someone in the crowd, Viola can deliver those perfect pop tunes out of thin air. His shows can sprawl, appear dangerously out of control, seem to have lost the thread and still send an audience home with the feeling that they had been part of the magic appearance of something singular and unique.

I’m the archival artist at Joe’s, which means that I draw a lot of the performers during their sets and soundchecks. I like to draw in ink, without any pencils and without any planning. I want my drawings to be live reactions to the moment; drawn improvisations, immediate responses. I don’t like to rip out pages and start again; I like to be surprised by where my mistakes and impulses lead me. I was introduced to Mike’s music last year, late to the party, but glad to have been invited, staying up and discovering a form of pop-perfection in a constant state of becoming that resonated with the way I like to draw.

All of which is to say that when Mike pulled out his acoustic guitar and I heard “Good Ideas Grow On Trees” for the first time at that first show, I knew I wanted to create a video for it. I am often asked how long it takes to do a drawing and my general response is that it is not about time. That said, it took me 45 minutes to make the drawing of this song, but it took me over a year before I actually sat down and did it. That is because, as Mike Viola–pop craftsman, under-appreciated genius, and legend in any other period of pop save the lifetime he landed in–sings, “Good ideas do not fall out of thin air: good ideas grow on trees.”

Mike Viola (with Kelly Jones) is appearing again at Joe’s Pub for a late night show, April 30.

From New Zealand, The Veils are washed inside many layers and textures of piano, string sections and guitars lingering.  The way lead singer Finn Andrews takes full control with his deep passionate screams and lyrics, creates their entire sound into romantic, lush, yearning intensity. Finn, the son of Barry Andrews (keyboardist of XTC),  became a musical prodigy as a young teen.  The Veils’ debut album “The Runaway Found” triggered an opening reflection of chaos and self discovery, and as the band matured another year, giving into their sophomore release “Nux Vomica”, their music became it’s own spiritual release, letting a sense of every single void fall away.  Now the Veils prepare to share their third studio masterpiece “Sun Gangs” this Tuesday April 7, as true anticipation awaits all over the world for the band to follow with a national tour.

L I S T E N The Letter [Sun Gangs, 2009]

Recently,  Finn Andrews kindly contributed to Music Is Art.
Please enjoy his music, words and personal mix below!

MIA: How old were you when you became drawn to the performing arts and music?

FINN ANDREWS: I’d say 13 or so. That’s when I started playing the guitar and listening to Van Morrison.

MIA: What did your parents listen to?

FINN ANDREWS: My mother has a massive record collection, everything from like, obscure Ethiopian Jazz to Sunn O))) to Townes Van Zandt. She was the one that made me understand, what it was I wanted to make.

MIA: Describe the feeling of living and making music in London opposed to New Zealand.

FINN ANDREWS: New Zealand musicians really club together in a way the English ones do not. London’s a very cut-throat place to be in a band, which is great in some ways, but everyone’s constantly stepping on each others toes. They have got that real scent for and only money.  I go back to New Zealand to write because I feel like I can get away from all that there, and just do what I need to without much concern for anything or anyone else.

MIA: Do you have a favorite way to relax when back home?

FINN ANDREWS: I’m starting an aquarium of rumble fish. I think it may be the beginning of a major obsession.

MIA: There is so much honest and intense emotion throughout your songwriting.  What is this musical process mentally like for you?

FINN ANDREWS: Well shucks, thanks very much. I don’t know how it affects me. Though if I couldn’t do it anymore, I really think there would be a serious risk of me embarking on some highly disorganized killing crazy rampage. I’m such a wanker and it’s an anchor,  I guess is my answer.

MIA: Regarding the upcoming release of the Veils’ album Sun Gangs, how long did the recording process take to complete and to finally believe that it was ready?

FINN ANDREWS: It took 3 years to write and 3 weeks to record. Sometimes it doesn’t feel entirely finished. It’s still kind of a stranger to me in a lot of ways. I’m incredibly proud of it though.

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

FINN ANDREWS: I’d like our music to punch people square in the guts, give them a big messy kiss, but then shake hands with them at the end of it.

MIA: Do you enjoy to perform live? What has been the most impacting compliment, or criticism, that you have ever received?

FINN ANDREWS: I’m starting to realize that playing live is the single greatest pleasure you can have in your life.  I want to do it all the time forever and ever. Somebody once said, “the stage is the only place in the world where you can be the perfect idea of yourself” and that really stuck with me. There’s nothing more fun than that.

MIA: The writer Sylvia Plath is one of your influences, how does her work resonate with you?

FINN ANDREWS: Plath was what initially got me into music in a strange way. Her words are so rhythmic and, I don’t know, her words fucking hurt. I think that’s why the punks all liked her so much. Though Ryan Adams does too. If we’re still alive and here, I think ‘Ariel’ will be regarded as a holy book in a thousand years time.

MIA: Name some albums you’re currently listening to.

FINN ANDREWS: I’m really into Jonny Greenwood’s score for ‘There Will Be Blood’ at the moment, and some of Beck’s new record ‘The Modern Guilt’ is great fun too. I’m really hanging out for a new Low record at the moment though.

MIA: Do you have a favorite visual artist that inspires you?

FINN ANDREWS: Simon Schama got me really into Rothko recently. He’d always been someone I never really understood before as there are too many reproductions in hotel lobbies.  However, I really like how he insisted on the lights being dimmed in galleries where his paintings are shown. You can just sit with them for hours, its like staring out into a big deathly sea.

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

FINN ANDREWS: My theme is ‘Songs For Getting Out Of Dodge’.

Open Spaces by Jonny Greenwood
Where I Lead Me by Townes Van Zandt
Ghost Rider by Suicide
Gun Street Girl by Tom Waits
North By North by The Bats

From Long Island, New York, Beat Radio is the beautiful and genuine work of singer/songwriter Brian Sendrowitz. Nostalgically written full of sweet guitar folk-pop arrangements, cathartic melodies and melancholy layers, the music represents emotional and visual connection in the best way. Taking live shows to the next level, Beat Radio collectively joins as a band of close collaborations, soaring with humbled confidence,  exposed vulnerability and heartfelt energy. Recently, Brian kindly contributed to Music Is Art. Please enjoy his music, answers and personal mix tape below!

L I S T E N

Teenage Anthem for the Drunken Boat
[Sunday Matinee, 2008]

Mexico
[Great Big Sea, 2006]

Treetops (Demo)
[Four Track Demos, 2005]

Everyone’s Starting Over (The Diggs Cover)

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

BRIAN SENDROWITZ: We played our first show in June of 2005. I’d made a bunch of 4 track demos of some songs I’d written really quickly in the month or so before, sort of in a flash of inspiration. it felt like a departure from the music I had made before, which was more acoustic based singer songwriter material. I got together the best musicians I knew to start playing live shows. Since then the lineup has changed a few times and it’s gone back in forth between being a band and a solo project in varying degrees. At the moment, I’m working on new material alone in my home studio.

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.

BRIAN SENDROWITZ: There’s a few places that come to mind in the sort of collective dream world of Beat Radio songs. I grew up and live in Bellmore, New York, on Long Island. There used to be this bar called the Juke Joint, it was my favorite bar ever. They had Tom Waits’ records on the jukebox, and Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde. I used to put “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” on and make the punk rock kids sit through all 11 minutes and 20 seconds. When I sing our song Treetops, I’m thinking about that place. It closed a few years ago, but we’ve played at a few places since then that have felt like home in the same kind of way. My favorites are Union Hall in Brooklyn and Asbury Lanes in Asbury Park, NJ.

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?

BRIAN SENDROWITZ: I absolutely love performing. We actually don’t have any shows set up at the moment as my wife and I just had a baby. I’m still working on recordings but I’m anxious though. I can’t wait to get the next thing together and get back out with some new songs. My favorite songs change, but at the moment I’m pretty fond of one of our newer songs, Sunday Matinee. to get ready for a live show I don’t do much. I like to be alone before hand to sort of go into my own world. i don’t like to rehearse too much.

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

BRIAN SENDROWITZ: Early on, I got criticism to work harder on melodies. Lyrics always came more naturally to me. I was a literature major at school and had started writing poetry when I was young. I really worked hard as a songwriter on melodies, and it makes me happy when people compliment that part of the craft. It feels like its something I earned.

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?

BRIAN SENDROWITZ: The Great Big Sea LP came together over the course of a year or so. With those songs, I had made a conscious effort to simplify the writing, and write songs that were really direct and hopefully universal. I’ve written about an albums’ worth of songs since then and think the songs are a bit more adventurous musically and lyrically. I’ve had a lot of fun with words on the newer material. I think no matter what I write, the way I sing the songs evokes that same sort of mood. I can’t really do it any other way it just sort of comes out that way naturally.

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

BRIAN SENDROWITZ: I like music because it makes me feel better. Even really sad songs make me feel better. I hope my songs make people feel a little bit more alive, than they did before they heard them.

MIA: Name some of your favorite albums of 2008.

BRIAN SENDROWITZ: Ctrl-Alt-Del by the Diggs is really brilliant. They’re great friends of mine, but this album of theirs is one of my favorites ever. it’s a powerful, emotional, dynamic record.

Wye Oak is a band we played with at Union Hall and they’re absolutely incredible. Their LP If Children has some really beautiful, wonderful songs on it. Reminds me of great 90’s indie rock when indie rock actually had a particular sound.

49:00 by Paul Westerberg was really great and i love how he was messing with the whole concept of how we listen to music by putting out the album as 1 45 minute mp3 file. He’s sort of my idol.

The Midnight Organ Fight by Frightened Rabbit is really great and just the sort of heart on your sleeve kind of songs that I love to listen to.

I liked the Conor Oberst record a lot. I’ve always had sort of mixed feeling about the Bright Eyes work, but there’s no doubt that the guy can write great, great songs. I’d recommend this one all the way through.

I also really love M83’s Saturdays=Youth and For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver. There’s a lot of albums from this year i haven’t been able to get my hands on yet, particularly the Sun Kil Moon record. I really love Mark Kozelek’s work. It’s on my Christmas list.

MIA: Name any favorite visual artists, pieces of artwork and how it may inspire you.

BRIAN SENDROWITZ: I love Robert Frank’s photography. That’s the most direct inspiration I could think of in any visual medium. Particularly his book, The Americans, it’s just about the great mythic American road. The “endless poem” as Kerouac said. I like Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol alot also. I’m fascinated by the lives of artists.

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

BRIAN SENDROWITZ: These songs all make sense together to me..

…And In the End Shoot Back
by The Diggs

Unsatisfied
by The Replacements

Bobby Malone Moves Home
by Casiotone for the Painfully Alone

The Temptation of Adam
by Josh Ritter

What Happens When the Heart Just Stops (Live)
by The Frames

Chancellor
by Gordon Downie

Kim and Jesse
by M83

It’s All Over Now Baby Blue
by Them

Who Are You
by Tom Waits

Left and Leaving
by The Weakerthans

Carry Me Ohio
by Sun Kil Moon

Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie
by Joanna Newsom

A R T W O RK
Beat Radio & Subinev

Fujiya and Miyagi are an English electronic band that create minimalistic beats under whispered lyrics and calming synthetic melodies. Known for their inspiration and love for “krautrock” in bands such as Kraftwerk and Neu!, F&M formed and joined together in Brighton, UK. Their name was easily pieced together using a character in The Karate Kid movie and the brand of a record player.

Currently signed to Full Time Hobby Records, Fujiya and Miyagi have created three albums and are currently on a US tour in support of their 2008 release, Lightbulbs. Recently F&M’s vocalist and guitarist, David Best kindly contributed to Music Is Art.  Please enjoy his answers and personal mix tape below!

L I S T E N

Knickerbocker [Lightbulbs, 2008]
Collarbones [Transparent Things, 2006]

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

DAVID: Steve and I met playing football, and later we were talking about music and discovered we had quite a few groups that we liked in common like Can, Carl Craig and Talking Heads. Steve was coming from more of a techno background and my background was playing guitar in a more than less electronic group.

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.

DAVID: The thing about Brighton, UK is that it’s quite laid-back. I don’t think it really effects how we write in as much as if you were writing dub-step in a high rise block of new flats in a big city. My favorite part of Brighton is Preston Park, as its one of the first things to see when we are coming back home.

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?

DAVID: I enjoy it once I get there but I don’t really enjoy the traveling that much. I try not to think too much before we go onstage as if I do I forget the words. You sort of go on autopilot. I like playing “Pterodactyls” at the moment, especially the noisy bit at the end.

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

DAVID: I try to ignore any compliments or criticisms we receive as I don’t want it to effect what we do. Sometimes I feel like I could drown in a sea of opinions but these are often from people who have never created anything in their lives. I get upset if people get the wrong end of the stick with my lyrics.

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?

DAVID: I think with this record we wanted to be more positive than negative, even if that was not how we were feeling. There’s a melancholy that sometimes breaks through but I think its overshadowed by the idea that you are striving for life to be better, not embracing the fact that sometimes its not. “Lightbulbs” took about 6 months, a lot of the other songs were written before that time but never recorded. I think at some point you really have to say it’s finished, otherwise we’d be constantly changing things.

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

DAVID: I hope people see that although we are obviously fans of certain genres or artists, we are trying to do something that is not swayed by what is currently fashionable or current trends.

MIA: Name some of your favorite albums of 2008.

DAVID: My two favorite records are Beck’s Modern Guilt and Gnarls Barkley’s The Odd Couple, both produced by Dangermouse. I’ve always liked Beck, the combination of his new songs and the production produced show this as his best record since Sea Change. The Gnarls Barkley record seems to me like they exist in their own world, which is something I always admire.

MIA: Name any favorite visual artists, pieces of artwork and how it may inspire you.

DAVID: I like a few artists like Sigmar Polke, Oskar Kokoschka and Jean Dubuffet. I like how Polke combined different unpainted aspects in his work and incorporated it into the pieces. There’s a Kokoschka painting called “Time Gentlemen Please” which has always stayed with me. It’s probably about death but I just like the image of being kicked out of the pub.

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

DAVID: The theme is Clowns…

The Clown by Chuck Wilder
Death of A Clown by Kinks
Everybody’s Clown by Johnny Dynamite
The Lady and The Clown by Silver Apples
Rockin Pneumonia by Huey Smith and the Clowns