Maritime • Air Arizona

The Promise Ring is easily one of our mutual favorite bands ever. They broke into the indie music scene in the mid-nineties and arguably provided the most visible face and swiftest legs to the burgeoning mid-west emo scene, of which we were admittedly huge fans. The band eventually broke up, as all eventually do (HEAR ME, MICK JAGGER?), but not before influencing the tastes and sounds of countless fans and musicians. In 2003 Promise Ring frontman Davey von Bohlen and drummer Dan Didier started the band Maritime, continuing the pop-centric trajectory of later Promise Ring and keeping hope alive for many of us fans. We were able to talk with Dan and Davey recently about their brand new (superb) record, ghost of emo past, and the future of the fine, fine band, Maritime. 

Kindness of Ravens: First off, have you guys ever done an interview that didn’t bring up The Promise Ring?

Dan Didier: I am sure there has been a few, but those are few and far between.

KoR: To be fair…to us interviewers, I guess…The Promise Ring was totally one of those bands that acted as a root to our personal collegiate musical interests and—I think—laid a groundwork for how we listened to and interpreted music. So. Thanks.

The closer that band got to its end days, though, the closer it got to an overall ‘poppy’ sound and the further it got from those Cap’n Jazz, early emo sounds. We’ve always wondered—was that intentional? Or even unanimous? Was anyone like, “But I want to get all screamy, man”?

DD: It was a pretty unanimous, conscious, and intentional decision to not make the same record twice. We wanted to grow as musicians and not rest on the laurels of whatever success we might of had.

KoR: Well, Maritime definitely feels well-grounded in indie pop, in a really nice way. We’ve been fans of you guys since the start—we actually have the Adios EP from, I think one of your first shows, in DC. Post-TPR, were you two just pulled into the whole band thing naturally? Did you ever consider giving the music thing up and, I don’t know, starting a nice mid-western cafe?

Davey von Bohlen: Dan and I just kept making music at the end of The Promise Ring. We really felt like there was gas in the tank, but wanted to make sure we were still challenging ourselves to make better music. Generally, we felt good, so continued on.

KoR: And very glad you did. So, is this a full-time gig for you all or is it more a jammin’ on the porch on the weekends kind of thing?

DvB: Somewhere in-between. We dont travel as much, but we still think of ourselves as musicians and try to challenge ourselves with that in mind.

KoR: Not to be all superficial, but we totally love the art for the new album. Did Jason Gnewikow work that up for you all again?

DD: No. Like I said before, that we never want to do the same record twice, I don’t want the same artist twice. All of the art on the Maritime records has been created by different designers.

KoR: Ah, yeah, I know he had done some Maritime/Vermont/Promise Ring album art in the past. You know, if you’re looking for anyone next record…. Anyway, how would you say the sound differs from We, the Vehicles or Heresy and the Hotel Choir?

DD: Kind of a mixture of the two, if I had to venture a guess.

KoR: And the new album’s out on a new label for you, Dangerbird Records, which is run by former Promise Ring Manager, Jeff Castelaz. Were you all just looking for a new start with the label shift? Or a re-connect with Jeff?

DvB:  Flameshovel sort of went on hiatus, so we were looking for a new home. We played a Pablove benefit—which is a non-profit Jeff is a part of that fights childhood cancer—and it just sort of happened. Jeff is a really passionate person, and the fit/reconnect was immediate.

KoR: Oh, very cool. So, I have to ask: Is it weird being on a label with bands like Minus the Bear, who seem to have grown from a sound that many people credit you with co-creating?

DD: No, not really. Haven’t thought of it that way. If I did, I’d have to ask of you to knock me off my high horse. Minus the Bear is a great band that has crafted a unique sound all of their own.

KoR: Totally true, and don’t get us wrong—“Hey! Is That a Ninja Up There?” is totally one of my favorite songs ever. And titles.

Speaking of re-connects, Davey, what was it like to play with all the Cap’n Jazz guys again? We got massive-stormed out of the Brooklyn reunion show, which still pains me, but we hear it was good stuff.

DvB: It was fun. those guys are wonderful people and musicians, so it was fun and challenging to pick that up after such a long time.

KoR: Are you totally ruling out any future Cap’n Jazz shows? You know, Braid‘s recording new material…. Maybe it’s a rising trend amongst the early emo scene?

DvB:  Though it was fun, I don’t see it going further considering all the music we all make individually. Plus it sometimes makes sense to leave the past in the past.

KoR: Whereas I’d tend to agree, I’m still bummed about missing you all. Okay, well, any plans for Maritime to play the NYC-area again soon?

DD: Yeah, we will get out there as soon as we can.

KoR: Can we request a live version of your Depeche Mode cover, “Enjoy the Silence,” when you do?

DD: Ha! That would be pretty unlikely, but it certainly was a fun challenge to do that song for AV Undercover.

KoR: Well, Dan, Davey, thank you both so much for taking the time to talk with us.

You can buy Maritime’s new album, Human Hearts, via Dangerbird in it’s various electronic and hardcopy formats and be sure to sign up for the band’s newslettter to keep up-to-date on shows and such. 

~Ed. Note—Since posting, we’ve followed up on the album art, which we love, and been told by Dan that it was done by Rory Wilson, who’s other superb work you can see here.~

Pearl and the Beard • Sweetness
A long time ago, a friend of mine who worked at a pre-school daycare center had the seemingly fun, pure-of-heart idea to have his band play a show for the kids. He asked the kids if they were into it, and, being kids, they were psyched. So he and his bandmates got the go-ahead from the higher-ups and, when the day came for the mini-gig for the minis…it was a complete disaster. Main problem: A pop-punk band of college kids used to playing house shows where they have to be audible over the drunken shouts of their audience come across a tad loud to tiny, tiny ears. Essentially all of the kids ran away, literally, from the band. “They make my ears hurt,” was overheard at one point. Most concise band review ever.

Somehow I think things will go better this Sunday, when the superb electro band Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. (goes over awesome in the south) and Brooklyn-based trio Pearl and the Beard (above, in the six-armed, three-headed, conjoined sweater) play KiDROCKERS at Park Slope’s Rock Shop. Comedians Seth Herzog and Craig Baldo host KiDROCKERS, which is not as lame as you’re thinking— “These All Ages shows are designed to bring families together to experience some of the most engaging and vital artists in indie music and comedy. Artists perform original (not specifically made for children) songs in a manner that is both authentic and kid-friendly. ” And I’m betting they turn down a little too. Evidently kid-run Q+A sessions and dancing on-stage are both common.

If you’re not into tiny humans or cute things, you can see both bands around the city this week at regular, smelly, drunken shows where there will likely be copious cursing. And, in the meantime, you should definitely check out this week’s Song of the Week, from Pearl and the Beard, “Sweetness.” It’s a charmingly beautiful and vigorous piece of pop music that has you humming and dancing along by the kick in the middle. Good, good stuff. Raucous original fauxlk with a sense of humor that stops short of cheeky. That’s right. I used ‘cheeky’ in a sentence as an American.

Below, a video medley of Will Smith tunes from Pearl and the Beard. You read right.

Pearl and the Beard – Will Smith Medley from Goddamn Cobras Collective on Vimeo.

The Dogs • Dance More
Heard about these guys via Oh My Rockness Radio, which is great in and of itself. And this song indeed amkes us want to dance more. Well-titled! Here is they.

Walk the Moon • The Liftaway
Band from Cincinnati (I know, right?) that has a penchant for super-likable songs and insanely designed MySpace pages from what we can tell.

Metronomy • Heartbreaker
Friend of mine posted a song from this band on my Facebook page with no explanation at all. After some investigation, I found that the band was Metronomy—and insanely British, quite addictive eletro-pop outfit that I can’t quite stop listening to.

Fences • Girls with Accents
This guys’ tragically great, as is this song and its story of ‘wanna do good but my self won’t let me.’ We wrote about him here. His site and debut album.

And our final song for the weekend—a brand new gem from our good friend Meredith Bragg (pictured above with a bird). The song—“Birds of North America”—is featured on a split with the talentedly awesome Donny-Hue and the Colors. Song’s below via Soundcloud, and you can purchase the hard copy—limited edition white vinyl—or digital via The Kora Records.

Peace out!
Birds of North America by thekorarecords

We’ve been pretty busy both blog-wise and actual-work-wise of late, so we haven’t had a chance to post about a band we’ve been really really diggin’ on the past couple months—Seattle’s The Head and The Heart.

We heard this week’s Song of the Week, “Down in the Valley,” back around SXSW, and it became one of those pieces of music that slowly creeps into your subconsciousness and wraps itself around your heart until you start to miss it when it’s not playing. It’s truly beautiful, rootsy music that’s sincere and touching in it’s nakedness. And it’s based on solid song-writing and really sweet melodies to boot.

Give “Down int he Valley” a listen and, if you like what you hear, head over to their site to download another really nice, slightly more rollicking number—”Lost in My Mind.” You can pick up their brand new self-titled full-length on CD, vinyl, or ones and zeroes over at Sub Pop or at a independent record store new you.

Happy Music Monday to you, reader. This week, we’re down right elated to bring you a song from the soon-to-be-released collaboration between Thao Nguyen, of Thao and the Get Down Stay Down, and Mirah, of awesomeness. Their self-titled album comes out tomorrow and we’re featuring one of the many stand-out tracks—”Eleven,” featuring indie-jangle-artist, tUnE-YarDs—as our Song of the Week. What’s more, Mirah, who we’ve both been a huge fan of since she released her beautiful debut, You Think It’s Like This But It’s Really Like This, took some time to talk with about the album, what it’s like to work with Thao, and the oh-so-dreamy Marc Summers, former host of Nickelodeon’s Double Dare. For reals.

Kindness of Ravens: Alright, first thing’s first—What brought on this magical musical collaboration? I’m assuming you two originally knew each other from the west coast music scene…but I don’t know, maybe this is like one of those things where some old rich dude puts together a band of well-groomed, fresh-faced strangers to woo the mall-stalking teens of America.

Mirah: Why thank you for the compliment.  I don’t usually get to claim membership in the well-groomed club. We were introduced over e-mail after I moved to the Bay Area by a mutual friend who also happens to be our licensing agent.  So it was sort of like a cross between a ride-share bulletin board, internet dating, and general cosmic alignment.

KoR: How would you say the resulting sound differs from, say, a Mirah record or a Thao with the Get Down Stay Down release?

M: Does it?  Love child, man.  The question is—’how does it sound the same, yet somehow magically better and even more beautiful’?  I think it must be the influence of all the drugs other people do so that we don’t have to do them.

KoR: Alright, but you’re both such strong song-writers and you both have such distinctive sounds. Does the collaboration break down along specific lines? Like, did you, say, write all the lyrics and maybe Thao wrote particular guitar lines? Or maybe you each had your own songs you sort of ‘owned’? Or did you just sit around and jam? …or maybe you did the whole thing and Thao, I don’t know, got you coffee and breakfast burritos?

M: First things first—I am not a coffee-drinker and Thao and I both shared duties on the quinoa and greens provisions. Thao happens to be the only person in the world who I’ve ever successfully jammed with and so, yes, there was some of that. But it was most like your option number 2—ownership, sharing, conferring, jamming, allowing space for each other; like each of us holding open a door for the other that neither of us could hold open just alone.

KoR: Ooh, I like that. And your sessions sound VERY well-catered. And tUnE-YaRds produced the album, correct? How’d ya’ll hook up Merrill (of tUnE-YaRds)?

M: She was one of the constellations who became cosmically aligned via mine and Thao’s yenta. Merrill and I also both happened to be moving to the Bay from elsewhere during the same month of at the end of 2009.

KoR: Nice. By the way, we really like the cover art (above). You both look really tough. Who did the design work for the album?
M: Thao had met Alejandro Chavetta at one of her shows, I believe. He’s the art director at San Francisco magazine and a photo-collage artist and had offered to take photos, should she ever need. He came and took a bunch of beautiful shots on the roof of our upper Haight apartment. My friend, Forrest Martin, who does graphic design work out of Portland, put together a lot of the design elements for the outside of the package, but then we ran into a time crunch and our people at Kill Rock Stars took over and finished up with the booklet.  And, yes we are tough.  You should see me flex my biceps.

KoR: I’m afraid I didn’t buy any tickets to the gun show. So, not to get all serious and junk, but I know a lot of women in music—or the arts in general—feel an obligation or pressure to represent the gender as a whole or provide a positive role-model to their female audience. Some people embrace that kind of thing and some people totally dismiss it as an unfair burden that’s not placed on your average white male (um, hello,  TRAIN!). Where do you all fall on that? …or are you just like, “Fuck it”?
M: I’m far too intentional of a person to just say ‘fuck it’ about anything.  I represent myself, and I identify as a feminist, as queer, as a powerful female person, and as a conveyor of love. I have my days where I feel small but I try to meet those days with patience. I don’t stand up in the world because of feelings of obligation but rather through a commitment to doing my humble part in carrying on the tradition of positive female role models who have inspired me in my life. I’ll paraphrase one of my favorite celebrity quotes from last year . . . ‘Some days I wake up feeling like any other insecure 24 year old, and then I say to myself- “Bitch, you’re Lady Gaga, you get up and walk that walk today.”‘

KoR: Hells yeah! A friend of ours was in the band Velocity Girl and I remember him telling us how crazy it was when Volkswagon bought the rights to “Sorry Again,” but that was like, 50 years ago. Do you think the songs-in-commercials scene and what it all means has changed a lot with the way the music industry has shifted in the past few years?

M: It is honestly harder to make a living as a musician ever since people stopped buying music. It took me a couple years to really face that reality. I kept thinking that since I was so incredibly independent, and that the scene of folks who listened to my music felt more like a big family I was a part of than some dualistic fan/rockstar model, that the consequences of the shift to digital and the advent of file sharing would never be felt. But I was wrong. I do know that people still love and listen to music,  but the whole social and financial structure of writing, recording, touring, selling, listening to and buying albums has inexorably shifted. Also, when I was coming up as a musical presence in Olympia and the Northwest in the mid to late 90’s, making money or charging much money for anything or being involved with main-stream anything was just simply not done. The identity was anti-globalization and anti-capitalist and pro small scale, grass-roots and d.i.y. And as a kid raised by  hippie macrobiotic parents who were self-employed, I just never really felt myself a part of most of the dominant structures of our society which champion making money and running with the herd. I still question any emphasis on financial gain over emphasis on pulling up the people, and at the same time I can see a certain pretension in some of the attitudes I used to have about ‘the main-stream’. I still feel myself to be an outsider in a lot of ways because of having been born and bred in alternative-land, and I’ve also come to a point in my life where I can appreciate things I used to disregard. The combination of all of these changes has led me to making certain choices about my music which I might not have made earlier in my career. I still use a healthy dose of discretion and there are offers which I decline but it’s true—a song of mine has been featured in a Kinder Chocolate ad in Europe and I’ve had a number of songs in TV shows and movies. I feel like positive messaging is present in much of my music and my aim is to share that with as many people as possible.

KoR: That seems like a healthy way to view things in this ever-changing scene. So, on a personal side-note, Katie (my wife and partner) and I have been HUGE fans of yours forevs. Actually, I fondly remember riding in a friends car and listening to You Think It’s Like This But It’s Really Like This and deciding to to propose to her. Whenever I hear a song from that album, I think of that. No real question there…just…thanks.

M: You are welcome.  You are why I love my job.

KoR: So…is it true that you were on Double Dare when you were a kid?
It is indeed. It was perhaps less fun than you might imagine, or maybe it was just less fun for me. There’s something really chaotic about being herded around by a bunch of grown-ups in nylon pants shouting instructions like ‘jump in the cereal and milk Mirah, grab the flag and stuff it down your shirt’ while cameras are rolling and you’re wearing ugly knee pads and a big bobbly white helmet and you’re scrawny and flat-chested and your glasses are covered in goo from the physical challenge you messed up on earlier in the show.  It was awkward and confusing, and yes, a little exciting. The best thing about it was using the money I won to join up with the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament later that month.  I think I had my priorities pretty well set up at 12.

KoR: Um, yeah. My twelve-year-old self is pretty embarrassed for himself. But MAN is he good and making Transformers transform! But, yeah, I totally always wanted to be on that show. That Marc Summers. So dreamy. So, do you think this is a long-term collaboration or do you think you’ll both go your separate ways after this album and tour?
M: We’re friends and loved working together and we’ll both be making music for a long time yet, so, all things considered, I’d be surprised if this was it.
KoR: Having loved the album, we’re very happy to hear that answer. So as to inform myself and others of proper show etiquette—kosher to request Thao wtGDSD

M: Absolutely, though i can’t promise being able to play every old song. I try to make the people happy, and I am very human, not a machine!

KoR: Apologies, apologies. Though I am going to go ahead and put in my request fro “La Familia” now. Favorite thing about San Fran? Other than calling it San Fran?

M: Calling it Frisco. But really, I think my favorite thing is riding my bike all around and through it. Riding riding riding.  Looking looking looking.  I spend a lot of time at the ocean. And I’ll go up a steep steep hill just so I can get a good view.

KoR: Those hills are nuts. Favorite thing to do while in NYC/Brooklyn?

M: Walking, anywhere, all over.  I could walk miles and miles just looking.  I was there for one of the blizzards last winter and loved walking around with almost no cars and all that quiet burying everything. Someday I want to run the NYC marathon—such a tangible way to feel somewhere, running my feet over it. When I was a kid I would go with my dad on knish deliveries (family business while growing up: natural brown rice and vegetable knishes that we made in a bakery in the basement of our house). I would sit in the car all day and look at people, buildings, taxi drivers, other delivery people, piles of garbage.  I love New York, the whole package deal.

KoR: And we love you right back! Finally, in closing, were you each to be a mystical creature, you’d be a—?

M: Fairy Godmother

KoR: I knew it!

You can now pre-order Thao + Mirah’s album—out everywhere tomorrow—and even listen to whole dang thing over at NPR right now. They’ll be playing Music Hall of Williamsburg June 8 and touring across the nation throughout the rest of May and June. Catch ’em if you can!

Another band we kept hearing about during last month’s South by Southwest festival was Chicago’s Gypsyblood. The bandformed in 2009 and just released their debut full-length, Cold in the Guestway, which spans a range of sounds—all raw, all rough, and all undeniably appealing. One of our favorite tracks from the album, “In Our Blood,” is this week’s Song of the Week. Gypsyblood’s Adam James took a few minutes recently to sit down and talk with us about their sound, why Chi-town’s awesome, and getting crapped on at shows.

Kindness of Ravens: So, alright, first thing’s first: Really awesome record. Original sound too—very raw and rough but still surprisingly melodic and catchy. Though there are seemingly some definite nods to a few bands I adored in my high school years, Jesus and Mary Chain prime among them. Were you two looking for a particular sound or is it just something that was born organically?

Adam James: It’s organic in terms of content for sure. We’ve never set out to sound like any particular kind of music. We just knew what we liked and went from there. We’ve played music together for so long that basically we don’t have any expectations anymore. Before we could drive, Kyle (Victor) would get dropped off at my house and we would write music together. Ever since we’ve learned each others strengths, weaknesses, and breaking points. We agree on whether something sounds good or whether it sounds like shit and then move on.
It’s funny to us because we had never really heard much of Jesus and Mary Chain until after we did the record and then those comparisons started coming up. But since being exposed to them, we’ve really embraced the comparisons. We were more influenced by bands like the Clean and the Fall going into it, where the catalogues were just all over the place with regards to the musical spectrum. We’ve personally always loved albums where all the songs uniquely lived together without sounding the same. So I guess you could say that that was the only thing we had hoped to accomplish.

KoR: A lofty enough goal. So is it just the two of you in the band?

AJ: It started out as the two of us recording, mixing, freezing, pissing each other off, and once the album was done we realized we needed more people to pull it off live. Luckily for us, Chris Alverez and Kyle’s Brother, Ryan, stepped up to be a part of everything as musicians, friends, and brothers. Initially we knew it would be easy to pre-record instruments and be confined to measure rather then impulse, but there is a spontaneity to live performance that we’ve always loved and identified with. We’ve grown up on punk rock and these are aspects that have always been important to us—not the look of music, which is what the media’s focused on most these days, but the aggression that comes with living in a society with one hand tied behind your back.

KoR: The recorded sound is really, really full for being pulled off by just two of you. I imagine the live show’s great. Being brand/designer types, we have to ask—the name. Does it have a story at all or is it just one of those things where two words sound cool together? Like REO and Speedwagon.

AJ: To us, Gypsyblood was a flag lying on the ground that time and circumstance had brought us to. It has always existed, being carried and dropped over and over again by those who are stimulated by something that can’t be bought or seen. It screams to wondering hearts throughout time in joy and celebration. We’ve all held it before, and after, as old souls, romantics, and vagabonds.

KoR: Damn. That’s deep. So bandnamemaker.com, right? What about Cold in the Guestway, the album title? That’s odd enough to warrant some inquiry.

AJ: I’ve always loved the idea of words that don’t exist in our current language and Guestway is something that certainly sounds welcoming. It’s an awkward contradiction of sorts. And I think that’s an essential part of what life has been about for our society—striving to exit our humanity when ultimately, that is all we are.

It’s the decision to get on an elevator when you know it’s going to plummet into the basement. You can see something isn’t right as the crowd stares and the beautiful woman donning pearls and bicycle red lipstick beckons you forward. So are you going to risk looking like a buffoon because of intuition or are you going to agree with social morays and step in? When reality has been proven to be the variable within society, we are here to tell you that your being is true and Cold in the Guestway.

KoR: That’s why I take the stairs, man. Okay, but, dudes, we have to say, your press shots—the mirror ones (above)—kinda spook us out. You look sort of appalachian-murder-spree-ish. But in a cool way, you know. Is that what you were going for?

AJ: Hahahaha! Now I understand why no one comes up to me after shows.

Like the music, we just throw ourselves into things. We hate photos and the cliché band pic thing, so we just go with the flow and alcohol in those situations. We know that the expectation for musicians these days is to be slick cute boy-toy types and we are just fine with looking like part of the cast from “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” Personally, I think beautiful people should stick to what they do best—fucking on the Internet. Not writing pop music.

KoR: Damn. What you got to say to THAT, pretty boys? Alright, enough etymology and porn talk—you guys just finished up some SXSW shows last month. How was that?

AJ: Overall it was a blast, as far as getting from point A to B to C to D to E to F and G for Gypsyblood. Next time around, a show a day to keep the doctor away.

KoR: Any crazy stories? Preferably ones that end in limb-loss, inter-dimensional travel, or panda bears?

AJ: Well we won’t say who in the band, but one of us got shit on…. Literally.

KoR: See, this is just the kind of thing that does NOT make me miss the touring lifestyle. My thanks. Had you been down there for the fest before?

AJ: No, This was our first time. Our guitar player, Chris Alverez, hit it up last year while working merch for good friends/tight musicians, Maps and Atlases. So he became our Indian Guide throughout our journey.

KoR: Those guys are great. Plus they’ve got a lovely site. Did you guys see any bands that you didn’t know before that got you jazzed, as they say?

AJ: Yes, I really dug the Mini Mansions set when they played with Queens of the Stone Age. We also played a few shows with Texas natives, Foe Destroyer and they put on a really great show as well.

KoR: Nice. You all are still based in Chicago, right? Are you both from there originally?

AJ: Yes, we are coming to you from our most beautiful, beloved Chic-a-go-go. For the most part, everyone is from here. Adam is a Catholic boy from Joliet though. We won’t hold it against him.

KoR: Favorite thing about the windy city?

AJ: It’s an old soul’s paradise! It is always welcoming with out being over- or underwhelming. Food. Drink. Music. Good times. Year-round.

KoR: Psssssh. We’ve got that stuff. Though we’re lacking in the Ferris Bueller parade realm. But okay, there’s something in your bio about how the band formed after Kyle stormed off stage and hitchhiked home from a show ANOTHER band you all were in together was playing. What’s that about? Should we expect similar on-stage antics at your Bowery show? I love a good on-stage band fight.

AJ: Anything worth a damn has been born out of that love/hate dynamic. It’s a contradiction where all great art and science has been born. For us, it all comes out in the music completely. When you wear your emotions on your sleeve, you don’t owe anyone anything. We weren’t doing ourselves any favors playing music together when it took us over a year to get in the same room and disregard the past. So it’s obvious that that comes out when we play. I suppose it’s more reminiscent of Alan Vega and Suicide. When you have to do something to feel whole as a person, it’s not always gonna be pretty.

KoR: I like that idea.
So that’s a definite ‘yes’ to on-stage fist-fight?

Find out when Gypsyblood opens for Delicate Steve and pals, Maps and Atlases tomorrow night at the Bowery Ballroom. Tickets are still available as of this post. And you can hear the rest of Gypsyblood’s record and order it on their site. 

The Spinanes • Hawaiian Baby

One of my hands-down, all-time favorite bands ever in the world is the Spinanes. I still remember staying up late one Sunday night in 1993, watching 120 Minutes and totally falling in love with this song—“Noel, Jonah and Me”—outta nowhere. Next day, after school, I high-tailed it to our local indie record store, the Record Exchange (RIP) and picked up a copy of the album, Manos. Years later, their songs—crafted by singer-songwriter, Rebecca Gates, and punctuated artfully by the hard-hitting drummer, Scott Plouf—remained some of my favorite, and the band took a significant role in my mind of sculpting what, to me, was artful, beautiful independent pop music.

Plouf and Gates eventually parted ways, each continuing to make music on their own, though we haven’t heard much from Rebecca in the past couple years. So, suffice it to say, I was overjoyed when I heard that she would be releasing new music and supporting it with live shows this year—one tomorrow in our area at Maxwell’s and then another Thursday at Brooklyn’s Rock Shop. More exciting still—she agreed to take some time to talk with us about her music, what she’s been doing over the years, and the best song ever.

Kindness of Ravens: First off, let me speak for the masses and say that it’s astoundingly awesomely exciting to see you playing live shows again. It’s been far too long. Last time I think we saw you play was in support of Ruby Series back in 2001. I think some of us were afraid you’d left the song-write-y/play-y scene altogether. What have you been up to for the past…er…ten years?

Rebecca Gates: Thank you for the encouragement. I’ve been involved in a lot of different endeavors over the years, most of them related to the contemporary arts world. I’ve curated art exhibitions, made art and been in shows, worked in the production side of art, worked as a photo stylist, wrote music for film and spent a lot of time thinking about sound and listening.

KoR: Right, and I know you’ve done a LOT of guest vocals on people’s albums over the years—the late, great Elliot Smith, the Decemberists, Willie Nelson(?!). Was there a desire to sort of step out of the spotlight, so to speak or is it just totally fun to do guest spots?

RG: I love singing. I love playing guitar, writing songs and performing, but singing is my top love. All of the guest appearances were at the invitation of the artists. It wasn’t anything I was actively pursuing, but would do at the drop of a hat. There’s something really relaxing about showing up, executing what someone needs to the best of your ability, maybe offering something they wouldn’t have thought of and then leaving, job done.

KoR: Like a choral gun for hire. Can you tell us about Sonoset Magazine?

RG: Sonoset is an audiomagazine—a serial release, a celebration of voice, whether it’s the voice of a single person, or the voice of a community. It features a variety of content and isn’t themed, though there will be a sub-issue called Sonoset Cycling.

KoR: And that’s launching this year, right?

RG: Indeed, Sonoset will finally make its appearance this year. Along with two albums. Hope the world can take it!

KoR: Bring it! So, with the work you’ve been doing in the fine arts world, are you focusing primarily on sound installations?

RG: Mostly sound, but also photography. I’ve a couple proposals I’m putting together that are more installations inclusive of sound. The list of possible projects is long!

KoR: Very cool. How are the albums of new material coming along? How does the new stuff compare to your other solo work or that of the Spinanes?

RG: I think the new work sounds like a nice mix of all my albums. I spent a long time after the last Spinanes record thinking about how little noise I could make while still working in a pop context. That stillness is on the new record, as is a song that, to me, is as rocking as anything on Manos, if not more so.

KoR: We do like the rock. Okay, so, I don’t know if this is poor form or not, but one of my favorite songs ever is “Hawaiian Baby” (above) and it has been ever since I played it on that ‘lil 7″ in 1990-whatever. Can I ask what led to writing that? Or what it’s about? Or why it speaks to my soul and says, “Hey man, everything’s gonna to be alright, and even if it isn’t, at least this song exists?…unless it’s about, like, ordering breadsticks at Little Caesar’s and not getting the dipping sauces you wanted…which would kind of ruin it for me.

RG: I’m not sure why that song has so much resonance for so many people, just thankful it does. I’ll not say what spurred the writing; there is no one right answer.

KoR: Fair enough. So you’re playing these coming shows as Rebecca Gates + the Consortium. Is that just out of a desire to have people to play off of on-stage? Is there any collaborative writing with the new songs as well?

RG: I like the tradition of sometimes solo, sometimes band. The Consortium is the umbrella term for all the folks I’m lucky enough to play with regardless of who’s able to join in at what time. Given how many bands people are in these days, it’s a way to play with a consistent group of people who know the songs already and play well together.

To find out more about what Rebecca’s up to and sign up for updates and such, check her out over at Parcematone.

Rebecca has yet to release any of her new material, but we were lucky enough to get in touch with Bird of Youth, the exceptional Brooklyn-based band opening for Rebecca on Thursday at Rock Shop, and they sent us a song for this week’s Song of the Week. “Bombs Away, She is Here to Stay”—is a specimen of excellent song-writing and is driven by catchy, driving guitar and strong, smooth vocals that pull you in. Check it out. The band’s debut full-length—Defender—is due out May 24. You can hear more on the MySpace page. And get last-minute tickets to Thursday’s show here!

Bird of Youth photo by Nick Bischoff.

One of the bands we kept hearing about during South by Southwest, which you’ll recall, we totally missed, was LA’s Foster the People.

Turns out, there’s good reason for that. They good. While they were described to us as “a little Disney,” we totally dig on their feel-good party sound, which taps into the ever-so-popular sing up high, party down low, MGMT-Passion Pit-Naked and Famous vein. It’s a well-mined vein, but the more the merrier, we say.

Check out one of our favorites, “Helena Beat”, this week’s Song of the Week and if you like it, head on over to their site to listen to a few more and purchase up an EP. I mean, it’s spring, right? We need some warm-weather party music already. Oh. And some warm weather, while we’re making demands.

Today marks the beginning of our blog’s very first themed week—India Week. Don’t ask how it came about, but, through the alignment of various random starts, all week we’ll be bringing you stories from the great subcontinent, food, and, today, music.

Our original intention was to scour the interweb in search of the various indie Indian bands for today’s post, likely choosing from a virtual plethora of awesome indie bands we would doubtless find. I mean, at the very least, how can you resist the moniker of indie Indian? But here’s the thing—that did not work out. I’m not saying there aren’t any good independent musicians in India, I’m just saying, they’re very hard to find. It seems like most of what we combed through were myriad variations on metal, bizarre but aurally flat electro-Bollywood smash-ups, and some kind of weak psych.

This is coming off as overly harsh though, I realize as I write it. We did happen across a pretty decent new-folk group called Swarathma and found a seemingly exciting site for independent musicians in India, called TempoStand, that allows them to post and distribute their music, so that’s cool (we kinda thought this guy had some promise, in an Indian K Records sort of way). But, most of it was simply not our cup of Darjeeling.

Then, on the recommendation of our friend, Anne, we checked out a Brooklyn-based band called Red Baraat, who is kind of awesome, it turns out. In their own words, they are “the first and only dhol ‘n’ brass band in North America, melding the infectious North Indian rhythm Bhangra with brass funk and expressing the human spirit through improvisation and a powerful live sound.” Now, usually we steer WELL clear of anyone or thing that mentions the word funk, in any capacity. But this band just sounds like one big awesome party. Kind of like an Indian Gogol Bordello. That’s hard to not like, funk or no funk.

We can only imagine Red Baraat’s live show is messed up fun, so you can catch the band on tour and at various outdoor music festivals once the warm weather hits. In the meantime, check out their song, “Punjabi Wedding Song (Balle Balle),” as this week’s Song of the Week, listen to and buy Red Baraat’s album here and take a look at an interview they did last year with the Village Voice.

And be sure to stay tuned for more India Week features!

A couple months ago, we got an email from a friend who had a friend whose other friend was in a band out in the LA called White Arrows. Got it?

We played it cool, holding off on giving their stuff a listen right away—not out of some boring LA-NYC rivalry or because we’re actually cool but more because we happened to be happily sifting through quite a deluge of new music at the time. Recently though, after adding their tracks to a playlist, I caught myself walking down the street and singing one of theirs songs out loud, which is one of the many Is This Band Good tests. Others include Number of Songs Featured in Grey’s Anatomy, Number of Times Frontman/woman Can Rephrase “How Are You All Doing Tonight”, and the all-powerful Hiwere Test—”Hi, we’re White Arrows,” good; “Hi, we’re We Need a Password It Could be Helicopter,” not so good.

So it seems fitting to feature White Arrows with today’s Music Monday. They’re song, “8050 (Too Fast, Too Slow),” has not, to my knowledge, been played under a steamy scene of doctors making out in a broom closet, but it has been stuck in my head lately and, I have to say, I like it a lot. You can hear the rest of the EP on the band’s Bandcamp page.