We’re excited for the upcoming mini-LP from Megafaun. Heretofore will be released later this year on Hometapes. Last week, Pitchfork debuted “Volunteers,” a folk rooted song featuring some of the band’s best writing to date.

Yesterday, the always fresh lens of La Blogotheque posted their Take Away Shows with Megafaun including two songs and a sermon. Great stuff and it’s nice to see a guest appearance by Sharon Van Etten too.

Upcoming: Megafaun will play Club Garibaldi in Milwaukee on Tuesday, June 15th and the High Noon Saloon in Madison on Thursday, June 17th.

Buy: Megafaun

We’re excited to present White Hinterland and Dosh at the Cactus Club in Milwaukee on Wednesday night. Get tickets here. We talked to Casey Dienel about her new album, the books she loves, and albums she’s excited about this year.

Let’s talk about the recording process of KAIROS? Where and how was it recorded, and were there any lessons learned towards future recording sessions?

KAIROS was recorded over the course of three or four months at Liophant Studios in North Portland. It’s located in the basement of Alexis Gideon’s house. The process was very different from how we’ve worked in the past because we didn’t do it at a studio. It started because I wanted to learn how to record and become more self-sufficient. At that point, I could only afford 2 weeks at a “real studio” and I knew that was not enough time to make the kind of record I wanted to make.

Our set up was simple. We made like Nas and used one microphone for everything. We treated Shawn’s field recordings and samples as instrumentation, splicing them with delay or playing them backwards to create harmonic underpinning. On some tracks there are chopped n’ screwed samples of my voice running beneath the verses. Alexis and I built the beats from the ground up, basing some of them off of these demos I made where I was beat-boxing. The beats stemmed from the melodies–it sounded like they were begging for them. As long as I follow the melody and give it whatever it needs, things tend to work themselves out.

The challenge was in the mixing. We used LO-FI methods to make a HI-FI record. Both Alexis and I were adamant that DIY doesn’t have to mean static noise and shoddy construction–you can make something worth $40 sound like a million bucks if you’re patient and log the hours.

We kept personnel down to the three of us. We did this so I could have clarity when building arrangements. It made everything more direct. We didn’t farm out ideas to other players, and it sounds crazy to me now, but I used to think that’s what you had to do to make things sound good. It was refreshing to learn how much you can do on your own, how much you can do with very little. In the future, I plan to record and produce this way again. I feel like we just scratched the surface.

I love the album art for KAIROS. How did that come to be?

I knew I wanted it to be a photograph as opposed to a painting, and I think Shawn or Daniel (the art director at Dead Oceans) suggested we look into double exposure based on the descriptors I was giving: filmy, diaphanous, feminine. I went to the San Francisco Aquarium and took a bunch of photos of the jellyfish bloom they have there for inspiration. Visually it made sense because they are free-form and translucent, and the way they move looks graceful and balletic.

In the past I might have said “no” to being on the cover…but for this record it felt right. So much of making KAIROS was about finding confidence: in my voice, as a duo w/ Shawn. I think we all agreed a human silhouette was needed. Shawn took the photograph of me at the bluffs in Portland, as well as the underwater shots at the zoo. The tanks there have a lot of glittery green, blue, and turquoise-y colors, which is where the second layer of the image comes from.

The internet has dramatically altered the way artists can reach an audience. With things like blogs/twitter/etc, what are your thoughts on the power of the internet in terms of keeping you connected with your audience?

Personally, I love how direct new media is. WH doesn’t have a manager, it’s all Shawn & I hashing it out as we go. I don’t think we could do this without the internet, it really breaks down the lines of communication, makes it more concise. When we’re touring, esp. it’s good to hear how it’s going on the other end. Was the show good for the people who paid $14 to get in that night? We don’t take those people for granted. I think it’s good for promoters to get insight into why someone who paid $14 might not be psyched to hear a band that didn’t get a sound check before they played. I also like when someone gives us tips on what to seek out in any given city–amazing places to eat or grocery stores to stock up on snacks.

I think it gets contentious whenever the subject of artist’s mystique comes up, but honestly I’ve never understood the romanticism about art being created in a vacuum, off in a wooded glen separate from society. That’s not the world Shawn & I live in, and it’s not how we work. The internet is where the work is, where it all gets done, and Shawn & I both like to work. He has a Tumblr and I have a food blog, we have a website and a sometimes functioning Myspace page. I post about music I like or things I’m cooking on Twitter. It’s also a nice way of getting the word out on stuff that we’re excited about that perhaps hasn’t gotten the love it deserves just yet. (I’m looking at you, Sam Buck Rosen!)

What’s on your bookself at the moment? Anything you’d like to recommend to our readers?

I’m going through a crime-thriller jag. My mother loves these books and loaned me a few, including Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Tana French’s The Likeness. I liked both of these very much, read through them waaaaaaay too quickly. I’ve also been reading a lot of M.F.K. Fisher. If you have not read her before, I would say try Serve It Forth (Art of Eating) or The Gastronomical Me, two very nice treatises on the pleasures of eating in the vein of Brillat-Savarin.

I really loved that you and Shawn listed your favorite things from last year on your website. Besides the new Erykah Badu record, what other music are you enjoying or looking forward to in 2010?

I am so excited for the day Return Of The Ankh becomes a part of my record collection. So far this year I have been very entranced with records by Sade, Toro Y Moi, and Beach House. My friend Neal Morgan plays drums and sings on the new Joanna Newsom record, and I have only heard a few songs but they were really beautiful. Neal’s record was another favorite of mine last year. I’m really looking forward to hearing the new M.I.A. and Sleigh Bells records. I just met Derek & Alexis a few weeks ago and heard Sleigh Bells for the first time and got that tingly-hot feeling I get whenever something feels right. Right now I have 4 tracks of theirs and they’re my crack. I need more.

We’re excited to have you in Milwaukee in a couple months with Dosh. Any chance of a collaboration between the two of you?

Dosh is remixing “No Logic” and I think I am going to write a song based off a sample of one of his songs. We’re excited to come to Milwaukee (never been!).

Buy: White Hinterland – Kairos
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Myspace: White Hinterland
MP3: White Hinterland – “Icarus”

Here are the Wisconsin and Illinois shows we recommend you take in this week. Check them out below and let us know which ones you’ll be attending or ones you think should really make our list.

Upcoming Shows:

4/12 – The Morning Benders – Schubas (CHICAGO)
4/13 – White Hinterland – Project Lodge (MADISON)
4/14 – Dosh + White Hinterland – Cactus Club (MILWAUKEE)
4/15 – Old Earth + Jm Airis + Jay Flash – Mi-Key’s (MILWAUKEE)
4/15 – AC/DC – Bradley Center (MILWAUKEE)
4/15 – Cloud Cult – Lincoln Hall (CHICAGO)
4/16 – Cloud Cult – Majestic Theatre (MADISON)
4/16 – Dr. Dog – Metro (CHICAGO)
4/16 – Let’s Wrestle + Quasi – The Annex (MADISON)
4/16 – Rogue Wave – High Saloon (MADISON)
4/17 – Rogue Wave – Lincoln Hall (CHICAGO)
4/17 – Antlers + Phantogram – Canopy Club (URBANA)
4/17 – A Tribute To Alex Chilton & Big Star – Linneman’s (MILWAUKEE)
4/18 – The Antlers + Phantogram – High Noon Saloon (MADISON)

Just Announced:

5/13 – Nite Jewel w/ Rory Kane & tba – Project Lodge (MADISON)
6/18 – MGMT – Riviera (CHICAGO)
6/19 – Kings Go Forth – UW Union Terrace (MADISON)
6/20 – MGMT – Riverside Theater (MILWAUKEE)
7/2 – The Budos Band – UW Union Terrace (MADISON)
7/30 – Lucero – High Saloon (MADISON)
8/21 – Counting Crows – Ravinia Festival (Chicago)
9/24 – Jackson Browne – Riverside Theater (MILWAUKEE)

+Bookmark our upcoming shows page for all your concert announcements+

By Alex Schaaf

There are many ways for your senses to be hit by a good show. Obviously sound is a primary suspect – most people go to a show expecting a good-sounding performance. It is music, after all. The visual aspect is also usually important, as some bands can give you a feast for the eyes as much as one for the ears.

Last night’s Japandroids show, however, was the first time I’ve really felt a show – physically. The kick drum sound in Chicago’s Lincoln Hall was bigger than anything I’ve ever heard, as each hit shook my entire body. This may have been partly due to the fact that I was standing in front of a subwoofer, but even from the back of the room, Lincoln Hall was a loud place Friday night. And it was only fitting that Japandroids was the band to take advantage of this sound.

Out of all the bands that I have been listening to lately, Japandroids is the one that you “feel” more than you “hear.” Sure, the songs are catchy and the guitar playing is inventive, but you don’t listen to a Japandroids song and then have an intellectual discussion about the songwriting merits of Brian King and David Prowse, breaking down the way they implemented that major seventh chord in the bridge, or the slant rhymes being utilized in the lyrics.

This is not to say that the music of Japandroids is “simple” or “dumbed-down.” Rather, the band has struck upon the perfect combination of face-melting guitar sounds and huge sing-along choruses. Many songs consist of only a few lines of lyrics, or only two or three chords in the entire song. “Wet Hair,” for example, is made up of three lines that are repeated over and over. But rather than limiting their potential, this technique allows those lines to become so ingrained that it becomes physically impossible to restrain from shouting along to the words — “We run the gauntlet/Let’s get to France/So we can French kiss some French girls.” In “Young Hearts Spark Fire,” the chorus of “I don’t wanna worry about dying/I just wanna worry about those sunshine girls” is joyously declared over and over until all thoughts of worry and anxiety are long gone.

Friday night’s show saw the Japandroids playing every single song off of their debut album, 2009’s Post-Nothing, as well as both songs off of their recently released 7” and a Mclusky cover, which they closed with. The sold-out crowd was energetic and the band fed off of this energy all night, as King jumped all around the stage and Prowse pounded away like a madman, not even stopping for an encore break – “We’re not going to do that ‘go off the stage and come back on’ shit, we’re just going to play the last song for you right now.”

The first band on the bill was Chicago’s Lasers and Fast and Shit, who played a bizarre yet enjoyable set consisting of minute-long songs which stormed through tales of Arctic wolves and bombs, the songs ending almost as soon as they had begun. They had their own light show, which, combined with the massive amounts of fog on stage, led to an impressive visual presentation, but one that got a little annoying after a while. The second band was Avi Buffalo, a young band from California that presented a little more mellow sound, one that was pleasant and interesting, but ultimately forgettable.

The sound for Japandroids was plenty loud and bone-vibrating, but it was ultimately a bit muddy. This seemed to work for the band, however, as most of the vocal melodies weren’t really nailed anyways, with King and Prowse yelling most of the lines rather than trying to hit the exact notes. With most bands, this would annoy me, but with Japandroids, it was perfect. The show wasn’t about hitting the right notes, or making sure the crowd could understand the words, it was about getting us to feel it, and they certainly succeeded.

MP3: Japandroids – “Young Hearts Spark Fire”
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Buy: Japandroids – Post-Nothing

Thank you to everyone that came out to the Memorial Union last night for Peter Wolf Crier + Conrad Plymouth. I hope you enjoyed the show. It means a lot to have such support for the bands we love. Prior to the show, our new friend Spencer Wells hooked up with Brian and Peter for an impromptu video in the basement of the Memorial Union. The result is “Unititled 101” from their forthcoming Jagjaguwar release, Inter-Be.

MP3: Peter Wolf Crier – “Crutch & Cane”
MP3: Conrad Plymouth – “Fergus Falls” (Live at WMSE)

Welcome to the 42nd podcast/download I’m co-hosting with Ryan Schleicher at 91.7 WMSE.

Dosh – “Number 41″ / Megafaun – “Volunteers” / Old Earth – “Anthology, body (cinematic)” / Broken Bells – “The High Road” / Avi Buffalo – “What’s It In For” / Moostache – “Thrills” / Slaraffenland – “Open Your Eyes” / Titus Andronicus – “Four Score And Seven” / The Radio Dept. – “Heaven’s On Fire” / Hurray For The Riff Raff – “Young Blood Blues” / Lissie – “Wedding Bells” / Townes Van Zandt – “Racing In The Streets” / Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – “New Partner”

Download/Listen: Muzzle of Bees + 91.7 WMSE Podcast :: Volume 42
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Subscribe: Muzzle of Bees + 91.7 WMSE Podcast

[photo by Haley Jane Samuelson]