Deer Tick Interview at Bonnaroo

Here is the second and last of the Inforoo Press Corps’ interviews at Bonnaroo. This time my partner, Ryan Gallaher had the honors. There are a couple of videos of Deer Tick’s Deervana show that I took, at the end of the interview.

Are you guys having a good Bonnaroo thus far – any favorite moments or shows?

John: Last night ruled. A good friend of mine got really drunk and high on ****. I peed on him and put toothpaste on his hair. We shot some fireworks off. I shot a candle with a gun and wax went everywhere – got all over Dennis. Then, he was going into random people’s tents and stealing their booze and, like, breaking shit. It was, umm, one of the most depraved things, I think I’ve ever seen.

We’ve been lucky enough to see you guys a couple of times this weekend, both your own excellent set and your late night Deervana set, which was nuts in the best way possible, delivered in a big way. With your own set, do you guys plan set lists differently for festivals?

Ian: We didn’t make a set list! We were running late. So, we just went on stage and when you don’t make a set list and then you’re like ‘oh, shit, we have forty more minutes left, what do we do?!’ Yeah, so we just, I guess, did it the best way possible!

With the Deervana thing, how did you guys get going with that and do you think there will be any Nirvana influence, intentional or not, with your newer material?

John: I think Nirvana has kind of always been a pretty strong influence on us. We started doing Deervana, I guess as a joke, really, for a friend’s birthday party. And then, people started to really like it, so, now we have to break up the band.

Dennis: Pretty soon, it’ll be no more.

What’s up next for you guys, as far as the new release goes, or anything else that will be hitting soon?

Ian: We just finished recording our record.

Do you have a release date yet?

John: We were thinking October.

Going forward, is there another band whose trajectory you can see yourselves sort of following, as far as mile markers and success goes?

John: Dean Martin.
Dennis: Dean Martin.

I’ve got a couple questions, from over on Inforoo, some big fans of yours. Who are some of your favorite touring mates, headliners or openers?

Dennis: J Roddy Walston & The Business.
John: Dead Confederate.
Ian: Phosphorescent, some good friends of ours, and Dawes, as well.

We saw Phosphorescent on the Deervana stage – definitely making their presence known, which was awesome…

Ian: Yeah, the next morning they were like “We wonder if Deer Tick is actually pissed off at us?!” Us and them were kind of on a, I dunno, we’d been drinking all day…

Dennis: It was a long day.

John: Yeah, some people are like here (gestures low) we were like (gestures high) way up there.

Ian: I hardly remember that set…

Me, too, but it was a great set. How about some recent stuff that you guys have been listening to, when touring or on your down time?

Ian: Dennis is the mix master – give us a sample mix…

Dennis: Uhh, hmm. We’re listening to anything with James Gadson drumming on it, Bill Withers stuff, Dyke and The Blazers, and then a lot of Odd Future. What else do we like a lot? Ahh, Tad!

Ian: Tad.

John: Tad rules.

Dennis: We like Tad.

Another question we had – favorite hangover music?

Ian: No music. (laughs)

Quiet?

John: “Pleased to Meet Me” (Note: presumably the Replacements album)

Do you guys have any plans for a live release – DVD, live album, anything like that?

John: I dunno, we never really thought about that.

Ian: It’s a good idea!

I know a few folks who would agree with you. Someone on the board was also curious how you guys got hooked up with Rob?

Ian: Rob used to play keyboard in another band, Chris Denny and The Natives, and they went on tour with us. And then, he heard we were potentially looking for a keyboard player…he’s right there (points at Rob walking up) …film that guy…film him…this is a question for you!

There’s Rob – we were just asking how you got hooked up with the band?

Rob: Umm, it was a late night, there was a lot of alcohol involved – you know – Ian and I fell in love and, you know. Nah, I was playing with another band for a bit that was on the Partisan roster. We did the label tour together, so we met them through that. That band kind of dissolved, right around the same time they were looking for a keyboard player. I heard they were looking, so, I called John and I called Tim, from Partisan.

And it just came together?

Rob: Yeah, I went down and we were supposed to rehearse for three days and then head to South by Southwest. Instead, we did a lot of drinking, went into the studio, and headed to the first show.

Are you guys hanging around for the rest of the day today? Plan on seeing anything?

John: I guess the only thing I’d really like to see, is Dr. John with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

Dennis: We just heard the Strokes were playing…so maybe, we can go see the Strokes!

John: I have no idea. I think I’m gonna eat some ****.

Band of Skulls Interview at Bonnaroo

I was lucky enough to attend this year’s tenth anniversary of the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, TN with a press pass again. Thanks to http://www.inforoo.com  where I’ve been a moderator for 5 years now. My partner and I had some time to interview all three members of Band of Skulls. If you aren’t familiar with them you should check out their album, Baby Darling Doll Face Honey. It’s a couple years old, but as you’ll read in the interview, they are pretty well along with their new album, due sometime in the near future.

This is your first time at Bonnaroo, what’s your impression of the fest as a whole?

Russel: “Yeah, it’s our first time at this festival. It’s sort of a baptism by fire. It’s quite literally the hottest show we’ve ever done. I think the heat sort of adds to the atmosphere.”
How is Bonnaroo different from European festivals or festivals you guys have played in the past?
Matt: “This is more of a European type festival. We’ve played Coachella and Lollapalooza in the past, and yeah, Bonnaroo definitely has a more European vibe to it, with the atmosphere and everything. Yeah, it’s been great, really awesome.”

Have you seen anyone else? Who are you excited to see?

Emma: “I caught a bit of The Walkmen last night and Sleigh Bells were amazing. Looking forward to seeing My Morning Jacket. There’s loads, Bootsy Collins is playing, excited to see him. We’ve got the whole weekend to hang out and see people.”

At your show last night, you played a lot of new songs. What are your plans for the new album? When’s it coming out? What can we expect?

Russel: “We’re working on it. This is like a break for us from recording. We’re going to go back in the studio when we get home and finish it off. However long it takes to get it all worked out, but it’s coming together quite strongly now. Yeah, it was great last night to try out the new songs on a huge audience and check your work. It was a great feeling to know that the songs aren’t broken.”

A lot of the new songs we heard last night seemed to have a bit of a more straight forward Rock N’ Roll sound to them, whereas your last album was tinged with the blues. How would you describe your progression from your first album to this new one?

Russel: “I mean it’s always going to change a little bit because things change for us as a band. I definitely think playing in front of larger venues has opened up our minds to what’s possible. Things are written for our three-piece and it’s just exploring that. Yeah, it’s a little heavier in some places, but it has some softer moments. I think the balance will be sort of a bigger version of our last record. As for the blues, I think it’s just different ways of using that whole feel, that whole sound, it’s exciting for us to experiment with.”

I’ve been wondering how you guys decide who sings on what song. Is that something that gets decided in the writing process or does it get worked out when you’re recording?

Emma: “It’s just whatever works the best really. We all write lyrics and melodies, so it’s usually who’s voice sounds the best at whichever part. You know, if someone is straining to sing a chorus, the other one will take over. There’s a lot more unison, with us both singing on this new album. It’s been interesting to kind of fatten up the sound of it.”

You released your current album exclusively on iTunes, when it first came out. What made you decide to do that? Do you feel that was a good method to get your music out there, more so then putting out a physical album?

Russel: “It was an opportunity that we were sort of presented with. We realized that if we did that we’d have to hit the ground running and that there wasn’t going to be a slow, slow build up. We had to have some other songs ready and have the show ready. It was a bit of a risk, but we did it. Yeah, it wasn’t the defining moment, but it was a very positive start. We got the album to a lot of people very quickly. It went live one morning and that was it. It went from songs only being heard by us and our producer, to days later it was out. It was exciting.”

You’ve lent out many of your songs to various commercials, TV shows, soundtracks, and video games. Do you feel like that’s something that has helped you gain notoriety and get your songs recognized?

Russel: “I just think that, it’s really difficult to survive as a band. So if you get a chance to get your music out to people, there are lots of opportunities to. It’s not so much that people are buying records anymore, and sometimes it’s difficult to get alternative music onto the mainstream radio. So yeah, people discovering you, it can happen anywhere, and for our first album it was quite important.”

How do you feel about albums leaking before they’re released?

Emma: “There’s sort of an excitement before a record comes out. If it gets leaked, I mean, people are going to hear it anyway. Hopefully if people like it they’ll go out and buy it when it comes out.”

What have you guys grown up listening to? What have been your influences?

Russel: “There are some things that are all the same with us. The Stones and The Beatles and all that sort of classic rock stuff. It was basically our parents’ record collection. Mine went from punk to Pink Floyd, which I think, my taste probably sits somewhere between the two.”

Emma: “My mom had a lot of solo singer/songwriters like Carole King and James Taylor. My dad was more into bluesy kinds of music, so we had a lot of old blues records. We had a lot of BB King, Stones, and Beatles, so it was a good mix.”

You guys have toured with Muse, Dead Weather, and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Do you guys have more fun on a tour where you’re opening for a bigger band, or when you’re doing your own headlining tour?

Matt: “Yeah, it can be more fun to open for a larger band because you’re done by nine o’clock and you have the rest of the night to relax and enjoy the other band. Headlining you kind of have to sit around, wait, and get nervous. Yeah it definitely has its benefits. Plus, when you play with someone else, they’re not your crowd, so you sort of have a blank canvas to try and steal as many of their fans as possible and win them over.”

How do you guys keep your energy up playing gigs every night on a long tour?

Russel: “I don’t know really…..Beer.”

Emma: “Beer and sweets.”

Russel: “That’s in America. In Europe it’s more like cheese and meats. Yeah, it sort of depends really. Every day is sort of timed out. It’s like a science experiment. Eat at the right time. Drink at the right time. Get terrified at the right time. You just sort of have to get it all worked out every day.”

Where do you guys hope to be as a band in another five years?

Russel: “Well, you know, we’ve been a band for a while and I’d really love to still be doing this in five years’ time. Yeah, we’ve definitely not explored everything we want to, and we’re in no rush. We’re definitely looking forward to it…..here, here at Bonnaroo.”

Media Project Dump – Spring 2011

This past Spring Semester, I took a class called Editing For the Media. Basically I learned a good bit about Final Cut Pro, which I barely had used up until this point. We completed for different exercises, all of them on an individual basis. The first project we were to construct a rudimentary movie trailer out of a bunch of clips and a musical track that was given to us….

Rhythm Edit Trailer from Dan Worcester on Vimeo.

For our second project, we were given about an hour of raw footage from the television show, Monk. It was our job to edit the scene down to what it would look like in the show.

Raw Monk Footage Editing Project from Dan Worcester on Vimeo.

Our third project was a sports news piece we were to put together using the given footage and voice overs.

Non Fiction/News Exercise from Dan Worcester on Vimeo.

For our final project we were directed to create another movie trailer like clip out of the entire movie we chose. I chose Mr. and Mrs. Smith. We were to choose a song to use as the soundtrack. I used Explosions in the Sky’s song Postcard From 1952. It’s off of their latest album Take Care, Take Care, Take Care. I had to edit the song down quite a bit to make it fit within the time frame needed for the project. Unfortunately, due to some video conversion issues, I had to export the video with a watermark. Apparently the Temple computer labs don’t have the full complete Final Cut Pro on their computers, otherwise that wouldn’t have happened

MR & MRS Smith Trailer Exercise from Dan Worcester on Vimeo.

Kurt Vile at World Cafe Live

There are a lot of great local Philly musicians. Some make it out of Philly and tour the world. Others make it to NYC. Kurt Vile is a local guy, and I’d say he’s doing alright for himself so far. Trying to describe Kurt’s sound doesn’t ever do his sound any justice. Droning, shoegazer, stoner rock, alternative throwback. His sound seems to evolve from album to album, yet it keeps its base quality. His new album, Smoke Ring For My Halo has been growing on me after each subsequent listen. The new album is the reason I decided to attend this show. I saw Kurt Vile open for Pavement this past fall, but the echoing vastness of The Mann Music Center didn’t help his sound at all. I was looking forward to seeing him up close and personal this time around. I’d never seen J Mascis either. I looked forward to seeing his stripped down acoustic set as well. Here are some videos I took to mark the occasion…..

Hunchback

Jesus Fever

This is the poster I purchased while there too. Marq Spusta is the artist. It’s pretty much one of the coolest tour posters I’ve ever seen……

My Fall 2010 Media Project Dump

Here are the projects I did for two classes in the fall semester of 2010. My one class was an intro to audio production class, where we learned how to use soundboards, patching, and the Pro Tools editing software. The video project was for my Media in Everyday Life class. It was more of a theory oriented class, but we did have this one production project. It was a large class and my video project was deemed to be of a high enough quality to show in class. I was honored and humbled by this.

This first audio project was a group project for a radio commercial, that me and another Dan did together. This was my voice and his editing. If you like my voice over skills, feel free to contact me : )
Spaceman Dental

This next project was a radio commercial that we each had to do on our own.
Danbird’s Garlic and Butter Spray

The last audio project I did was a soundscape. It was the sounds of me coming home and getting on the internet and browsing around. It’s more entertaining than it sounds.
Soundscape

This is a video project I did for my Media in Everyday Life class. I wrote, directed, edited, and starred in it. I also shot half of it. It’s called True Life: I’m a Hippy

danbird’s Top 40 Albums of 2010

It’s that time of the year again. What a year it’s been. I normally do an end-of-the-year list with only 30 bands, but I’ve had to up it to 40 this year. There’s been so much good music that’s come out this time around. This year was particularly hard to choose a top album. Really any of my top 5 could have been my number one. Here they are, starting with the old man and his electric guitar……

40.

Neil Young
Le Noise

39.

Charlotte Gainsbourg
IRM

38.

Blitzen Trapper
Destroyer of the Void

37.

J. Tillman
Singing Ax

36.

Portugal. The Man
American Ghetto

35.

S. Carey
All We Grow

34.

Surfer Blood
Astro Coast

33.

Mumford and Sons
Sigh No More

32.

Deerhunter
Halcyon Digest

31.

Beach House
Teen Dream

30.

The Bees
Every Step’s a Yes

29.

The New Pornographers
Together

28.

Local Natives
Gorilla Manor

27.

Sufjan Stevens
The Age of Adz

26.

Deer Tick
The Black Dirt Sessions

25.

Broken Bells
Broken Bells

24.

Spoon
Transference

23.

Born Ruffians
Say It

22.

Menomena
Mines

21.

The Besnard Lakes
The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night

20.

The Dead Weather
Sea of Cowards

19.

The Roots
How I Got Over

18.

Wolf Parade
Expo 86

17.

Foals
Total Life Forever

16.

The Walkmen
Lisbon

15.

The Morning Benders
Big Echo

14.

Broken Social Scene
Forgiveness Rock Record

13.

Frightened Rabbit
The Winter of Mixed Drinks

12.

Vampire Weekend
Contra

11.

Good Old War
Good Old War

TOP 10

10.

Yeasayer
Odd Blood

09.

Arcade Fire
The Suburbs

08.

Jónsi
Go

07.

Dr. Dog
Shame Shame

06.

Warpaint
The Fool

05.

Phosphorescent
Here’s To Taking It Easy

04.

Junip
Fields

03.

The Black Keys
Brothers

02.

The National
High Violet

01.

The Tallest Man On Earth
Wild Hunt

The Story of the Phish

I think, that I just very well might have seen the best concert of my life, this past weekend. A Saturday night in Atlantic City, just before Halloween. I had just turned $5.00 into $6.85 at a slot machine. There was magic in the air. With my winnings firmly in grasp, my girlfriend Alli and I headed for the exits of the Trump Plaza. The Boardwalk Hall was right next door. I had received these tickets, to the best concert of my life, through the Phish lottery system. I’ve been sometimes blessed, but more often spurned, by these lottery ticket attempts in the past. This time I had won the golden tickets. We headed through the outside gates and onto the floor of Boardwalk Hall. I had never been there before, and the feeling was nothing short of awe inspiring as we walked closer and closer to the stage.

I have gotten close to the stage at a couple other Phish shows, but never like this. The anticipation for the show to begin, grew in our little hearts, like a blossoming lotus flower. We had just a hundred minutes to wait. Time crept by. The floor was sticky. The front of the crowd was growing more dense with every passing moment. There is no one sitting anymore. The crowd cheers and you know it’s gonna happen any second now. Finally! Here they come. Page, Mike, Fish, and of course Trey. There’s a indescribable connection that Trey has with the crowd that’s unlike any other frontman I’ve ever seen. And he’s grinning from ear to ear when he comes out on stage. I know this one’s gonna be special.

The first notes of Kill Devil Falls plays and it’s on. The crowd starts moving immediately. Trey’s solo ends the song, and I notice him wiping some drool from the side of his mouth. It’s to be expected.

Cavern is next which drifts into Foam. Then comes Guelah Papyrus. There’s a very quick and massive glow stick war that explodes forth, during a break in the song. With a huge smile on his face, Trey watches the glow sticks slowly move ever closer to the stage. They soon start hitting the stage and they were hitting me as well. Trey begins to try to catch one. He succeeds and throws it back into the crowd. The song continued on. As did the rest of that glorious night. But the fun, truly, was just beginning.

Here is a video of said glow stick war

Chalkdust Torture was next, and although I’m a fan of the song, I’ve heard it so many times, live, that I’m a little indifferent to the song at this point. Well, this one was different. This Chalkdust broke the Led out. Whole Lotta Love. They played it and teased it all night long. This was the first time though. The crowd went completely insane. In addition to Whole Lotta Love, we heard other Zeppelin classics such as Heartbreaker, Ramble on, Thank You, Stairway to Heaven, and of course, the often covered Good Times Bad Times. Whole Lotta Love was our only taste of Led in the first set though. At set break, Alli and I moved towards the back. We’d had enough of the blinding awesomeness that is Phish up close.

The second Set was when the rest of the Led came out. Alli and I admired the rest of it from behind the soundboard, where the sound was much better, and so was the light show. Good Times Bad Times signaled the end of the show. Of course, they’d have to end this epic set two with one last Led Zeppelin song.

Now let me explain this to those of you who aren’t familiar with the masterful musical wizards that are known as Phish. What happened this one Saturday night in late October, was not a commonplace event. This wasn’t something that you would think would happen. Sure, Phish plays alot of shows. And sure they pull alot of crazy shenanigans. And sure they’ve played alot of covers over their years. And sure, they cover a full album by a different band, every 31st of October. But this was the 30th of October. And this was Led Zeppelin. My 16th time seeing the Phish. A Saturday, unlike any other. From a band unlike any other. Thank you.

Set 1: Kill Devil Falls, Cavern > Foam, Guelah Papyrus, Chalk Dust Torture -> Whole Lotta Love > Chalk Dust Torture, Ha Ha Ha, Walk Away, Wolfman’s Brother -> Undermind > Bathtub Gin, The Squirming Coil

Set 2: Tube > Possum > Tweezer -> Heartbreaker -> Ramble On -> Thank You -> Tweezer -> Stairway to Heaven, Halley’s Comet > Also Sprach Zarathustra > David Bowie, Show of Life, Backwards Down the Number Line > Good Times Bad Times
Encore: Sleeping Monkey > Tweezer Reprise