This weekend, Kentucky singer-songwriter Daniel Martin Moore will be performing twice in Wisconsin. On Friday night, July 29, Moore will be part of WMSE Radio Summer Camp at Linneman’s Riverwest Inn in Milwaukee, hitting the stage around 11pm. Tickets for Summer Camp (including Sunday’s Backyard BBQ) are availble here. The next night, Saturday, July 30, Moore will hit the stage at the North Mendota Supper Club in Madison for an intimate house show. Doors open at 8pm, with opening act Count This Penny starting around 830pm. Tickets are $10 each and 100% goes to the artists. To RSVP, please send an email to nmsc1402@gmail.com. In advance of these two shows, MoB sat down with Moore to discuss his new Sub Pop record, In the Cool of the Day, his relationship with My Morning Jacket, and one of his favorite causes, ending mountaintop removal coal mining.

1. talk a bit about your new record, in the cool of the day, and how it came to be. what has it been like promoting/releasing a record with spiritual undertones to a predominantly pop/indie audience? what has the response been as you play these new songs in a live setting?

Thankfully, the response has been welcoming.  I’ve never imagined this album as a religious record, and I don’t think many people have heard it that way.  It’s a collection of songs that I hope is presented in a way that transcends any specific interpretation.

2. on your records and in a live setting, your sound is at once sparse and including full sounding. how did you come to develop the unique dmm sound?

That spareness of production is something I gravitate toward, not sure how it developed, it’s just sorta always been there.  I love a big production, too, though, to be sure (George Harrison’s, “All Things Must Pass” is one of my very favorite albums, and it’s hard to imagine more going on in a recording!).  So it’s really up to each individual song, and up to each collection of musicians, to determine how it will all come together.  Some songs lend themselves to an epic treatment, and some are best left more spare.

3. we can’t very far into an interview without asking you about your relationship with jim james and my morning jacket. how did you get hooked up with jim, how do you both – as great songwriters – talk shop and make music, and what was it like to open for mmj earlier this year?

Ben Sollee introduced me & Jim when we were all thinking about the Dear Companion album.  What a wonderful musician he is – all the guys in MMJ are beyond words.  Sharing the stage with them is pure joy.

4. i became aware of you and your music through the dear companion record and the strong stand you take against mountaintop removal coal mining. what has the response to the record and your efforts been like in your home state? is there growing support for ending MTR or is it still an uphill battle?

The response has been tremendous, even thought he album is just a small part in a much larger movement.  Support for ending MTR has grown & grown over the last 4 decades.  Dear Companion is one more voice in a rising chorus against the thoughtless destruction & corruption.  Kentucky’s citizens are mobilizing & getting educated around the issue more and more all the time.  It’s an inspiring thing, and we’re happy to be a part of a shift toward sanity (because what comes next, after everything is destroyed?) & for basic human rights (shouldn’t folks have water that isn’t poison?).  I think that as we all learn the truth about what MTR is & what it does to our communities & health, we will come together to put a stop to it.  That day is growing closer all the time.

5. right now – july 19, 2011 – what are the five records you have been digging lately?

1.  Gramma’s Boyfriend, S/T
2.  Guitar Party, Birthday
3.  Maiden Radio, Lullabies
4.  Nic Jones, Penguin Eggs
5.  Neil Young, On the Beach

Buy: Daniel Martin Moore – In the Cool of the Day

Muzzle of Bees is presenting both of Backyard Tire Fire’s Wisconsin shows this week. It kicks off tonight at the Majestic Theatre in Madison where they’re joined by Rev. Payton’s Big Damn Band and Juniper Tar. Tomorrow night they’re at Club Garibaldi in Milwaukee with Mark Olson of The Jayhawks fame. We caught up with Ed Anderson of Backyard Tire Fire for a quick chat before they hit the state line.

You released Good To Be in February of this year. What can you tell me about the recording process and how you met up and worked with Steve Berlin of Los Lobos on the album. Were you guys fans/familiar with Los Lobos work prior to touring with the band?

We had a blast making this record out in Portland, OR. We stayed in a former-brothel above the oldest bar in town called the White Eagle. Each morning we’d wake and walk to the studio, work all day, and return to the White Eagle for a case of Rainer beer. By the end of the two weeks they knew us pretty well and would let us listen to mixes from the day after the bar cleared out.

We met Steve when we opened for Lobos a couple of years ago. He caught most of our set, dug it, and reached out to our manager about producing us. He’s has amazing ears. Hears things in places most people don’t. One of the easiest people to work with as well. Great guy. We were/are HUGE fans of Lobos so this whole experience has been unreal.

Backyard Tire Fire is on the road a lot. Let’s talk about when you’re not on the road. Where’s home for you and what are some of your favorite hangouts in your city?

Bloomington, IL. About 2 hours south of the great city of Chicago. Favorite hangouts? I play every Wednesday went we’re not touring at a place called Six Strings. The coolest dive bar in town has to be Diggers. Love walking down to Mugsy’s to watch baseball, eat wings, and drink lots of cold beer. A few investors are opening the old movie theater downtown as a nationally touring venue. Really hoping the Castle Theater turns into a favorite!

We do this feature on our website called “Sad Songs & Waltzes” where artists share some of the saddest songs they know by other artists. Got any favorite sad songs?

“Crossing Muddy Waters” by John Hiatt. We had to follow Mr. Hiatt at the WXRT Cubs home opener morning celebration that was broadcast live earlier this year. His voice at 7am was frighteningly strong. He’s one of the best writers going.

So, you guys are doing an acoustic set in Milwaukee. That’s a different thing for you guys. What’s your plan and what can we expect?

We did an entire acoustic set opening for Los Lobos before, as well as several other acoustic type shows. I play tons of solo acoustic stuff and in a county string band called the Lonesome Whippoorwills, so it won’t feel too unusual. I’m sure we’ll still play lots of stuff off of the new record. The band sounds great when we strip it town and scale it back. I can’t wait to hear Mark Olson!

Speaking of Milwaukee, it’s a city known for it’s beer with plenty of local and national breweries representing. What’s your go to beverage of choice?

Budweiser.

Giveaway: We have two (2) pairs of tickets for both the Madison and Milwaukee shows to giveaway. Drop a comment with an underrated album in your collection that people need to know about and we’ll select a couple of winners at random.

Video: Backyard Tire Fire – “Good To Be”
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Buy: Backyard Tire Fire – Good to Be

By Jon Stone

Elsinore, one of our favorite bands from Champaign-Urbana, is celebrating the release of Yes Yes Yes with Parasol Records today and we couldn’t be more excited for them. Lead man Ryan Groff was nice enough to sit down and answer some questions for us about the band, his history and influences as a musician, and the music scene here in CU. We wish them all the luck we can muster!

A few weeks after I moved to C-U in the summer of 2007, I heard Elsinore play at the Urbana Corn festival. I immediately went home and hit up the internet for more info. Your MySpace page at the time had you guys listed as an alt-country band. The Elsinore I hear on Yes Yes Yes is not really what I think of when I think alt-country or Americana. Can you talk a bit about the history of the band and its sonic evolution?

Our first two years (2004-2006) we were very acoustic and very Americana/Alt-Country. This was how we started and what felt right. But, as we played in cities outside our small college town and started shaping a real vision and direction, we realized we were all ready to move into something new sonically and musically. We don’t look back and scoff at our first record, Nothing for Design, because we had a lot of fun making it (thank you, Mark Rubel!) and really love how it turned out. But, since it has been our only full-length out in the world, we’ve been overly antsy to get Yes Yes Yes out so people don’t get confused about just exactly what it is we do. We’ve dreaded the “Bob Dylan in ’66″ response. (Ha!) We loved Ryan Adams and the early Shins records, and that seemed to saturate the songwriting and arrangement processes. But, I started realizing that my lifelong love of The Beatles and new-found love of Radiohead were carving me into a different kind of songwriter. I wasn’t feeling acoustic guitars and shuffle beats anymore. Instead my pedal board grew and grew, and we just turned everything up until it crackled a little. We’d electrified our sound and that naturally took us in the direction we are now, which gets called “pop”, “space-rock”, “art rock”, etc. And this music is what feels right. When comparisons to Death Cab for Cutie or Queen or Radiohead or Arcade Fire happen we smile and nod in agreement.

Being from the Midwest is a theme that creeps into Elsinore’s music from time to time. What are the benefits and draw-backs of being from a place like Champaign-Urbana?

Champaign-Urbana is an ideal community to live in for what we’re doing. It’s not so small that you feel like there’s not enough happening musically or just culturally, but it’s not the gigantor that Chicago, L.A., & New York are. When we’re in New York I feel like we’d be so unhappy if we lived there. Sure, EVERY band seems to be from Brooklyn right now and we love most of them, so something is right in that creative next right now. But, I’d rather stop in and play a few times a year, see our friends, sleep on their couches and floors, and then talk about how good it was once we’re home in Illinois sitting in my giant backyard while paying an affordable mortgage on a house I love… a house with a full basement where we don’t pay rent to rehearse and record. And I don’t mean that as a negative to city-dwellers. I just love being in the Midwest and having a lot of space when I’m home. CU gives us everything we need, and we’re in the middle of the Midwest triangle of St. Louis, Chicago, and Indianapolis. It’s PERFECT!

What is the music community here like?

I’ve loved the feeling of Champaign-Urbana since I was a kid and would come up here from Charleston with my family. Maybe the Super Computer has laced the infrastructure of these cities with something magnetic and supernatural, or maybe it’s just the perfect combination of cornfields, a clean water supply, and a mini-metropolis that keeps things spinning here. Whatever’s happening is so good, especially for the music scene. There are always the student bands that come and go as U of I waxes and wanes, but there’s a permanent slice of the population that makes great music. And the people who live here go see, hear, and support original music, and when you put those two things together you have a flourishing music scene. Besides all of the hard-working bands, we have entities like Exile on Main St., Parasol Records, Pygmalion Music Festival, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Indi Go Gallery, Polyvinyl Records, Undertow Music Collective, The Shadowboxer Collective, Seth Fein, Ward Gollings, and a music-supporting press made up of SmilePolitely.com, Buzz (The Daily Illini), and The News-Gazette. And something small and seemingly inconsequential, but something that I think is the sign of any good music community: when you hang posters in this town they STAY UP! So, you’re not just wasting paper and time by flyering for your shows.

One of the most striking elements of Elsinore, Ryan, is your voice. The new record has some really amazing vocal layering and harmonies. Do you remember the first time you sang for an audience? What’s the legacy there? Who are your influences?

I remember being in fifth grade and being asked to sing in front of a gym full students and their parents. I was freaked out and didn’t let my family come, but I remember it going well. But, it obviously took its toll because I didn’t sing again until I was 17 and a junior in high school. That’s when I started singing and playing the guitar, and shortly after started songwriting. And that’s when it overtook me. I knew right away that I was supposed to sing and play in front of people. I feel like I’m physically and mentally built to do this because I have a huge mouth and a huge lung capacity, and I’m pretty obsessive compulsive. So, all the elements are there! Ha. Like I said earlier, I’ve listened to The Beatles my entire life, so I’ve always had great voices and great harmonies in my ears. (I can’t wait to put my future son or daughter to sleep with The White Album every night.) The singers who inspire & influence me the most are, like I said, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, & George Harrison (sorry Ringo…you’re a hack), but also Thom Yorke, Andrew Bird, Annie Clark, Feist, Ben Gibbard, Freddie Mercury, and David Bowie. These are the voices that feel real and unique. These are the ones that do it.

Elsinore’s songs—especially those on Yes Yes Yes—often unfold as a kind of fractured narratives. Sometimes we get intimate details without a ton of back-story and sometimes it seems to be the opposite. Tell us a little about your songwriting process. What elements need to be there before you think, yeah, this might just work?

I’m always battling with myself to write good lyrics. I constantly sing parodies of my songs and other people’s songs with horrible lyrics both to flush out the bad ideas and to remind my wife why she married me. Usually, a single phrase will pop its head out and I’ll run with it into the chord creating process. So, I guess you can say I let that tiny bit of lyrics push me in a musical direction. Then, I’ll struggle and fight and push to write the words that fit with what the music is doing. Chord progressions, harmonies, and arranging always come pretty quickly. I’ve always been able to find good hooks. It’s putting the right words to those hooks that hold me up. I can never, never-ever write a poem or chunk of lyics and then put the music to it. I try all the time, but I just don’t work that way. I write a lot about our bodies and what makes us keep living and how it all works (and doesn’t work). I’ve always been comfortable with talking about my family and our function/dysfunction. Alcoholism, tons of divorce, mental illness, and unconditional love give you a lot to write about.

It’s easy to feel the love for Elsinore at a show in C-U, but being a working band mean being a touring band. What’s it like out on the road? Do you have any favorite venues or towns to play in? What do you guys do to stay sane?

Being on the road sometimes feels like that bad dream you have about being naked at the grocery store in the fruit section. Some nights in some cities can be the best shows you have all year…or the worst. We’ve been touring outside of Illinois for three years and I still haven’t seen a pattern. St. Louis, Chicago, Indianapolis, Memphis, Jamestown, NY, Hamden, CT, New York City/Brooklyn, & New Orleans have given us the kind of nights that remind us that this is what we’re supposed to be doing. Sometimes it’s a Tuesday in February and we’re in Charleston, South Carolina and everything is hitting just right. The seventeen people who are there are loving every second and all on their phones texting their friends about this band they’re watching…and then twenty more people show up halfway through the set and they all buy something when we’re done with our set. And then sometimes it will be a Friday in Philadelphia or Boston and the show just ISN’T working. Maybe the local band didn’t promote or doesn’t draw well, or maybe the show promoter dropped the ball and six people are there and couldn’t care less about what bands are playing…but still paid the $8 cover. It’s weird. But, touring overall is what we love doing and we know we have to do it if we expect to “do something” in this business. So, we puff up our chests and go to work. And we always have stacks of good books and DVDs in the van to help glue it all together.

I have to ask about your name. I’m a big fan of the movie Strange Brew where the brewery/company Bob and Doug go to work at is called Elsinore. I’m guessing, however, that the story that Strange Brew is loosely based on is also where your name comes from [Hamlet]. What’s in a name?

The history of the name is simple. There’s a farm outside of Charleston where I grew up called Elsinore Farm. When I was in college and just starting to seriously write songs I put “Elsinore” into a song called “Vampire in My Town”, which was my first real poetically political song(it was about George W’s ridiculous rise to power). Then, we formed the band and the name made sense the way Wilco makes sense. It’s a name instead of sounding like a sports team or an obscure reference to some Hemingway novel. It fit six years ago and somehow has stuck the whole time. Plus, “Kathleen Turner Overdrive” was already taken.

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Pick up your copy of Yes Yes Yes today and be sure to stop to check out Elsinore sometime in the next week or so:

August 14th – Urbana: Canopy Club (w/ Common Loon & Canasta) – 9:00 pm

August 20th – Chicago: Lincoln Hall (w/ Canasta) – 9:00 pm

By Jeff Kollath

In advance of their upcoming show at the North Mendota Supper Club in Madison, Nate Lacy of Mimicking Birds sat down with MoB to discuss their record deal, being from the Pacific Northwest, and what it will be like playing at Lollapalooza this year. Not only is the band gearing up for this big show, they are also breaking in a new guitarist, Ian Luxton, who replaces the recently departed Tim Skellenger. For a crash course on Mimicking Birds’ ethereal, atmospheric folk-rock hybrid, check out the above clip and be sure to watch the video – it is hypnotizing. If you like what you hear, join MoB in welcoming Mimicking Birds to the North Mendota Supper Club on Friday, August 6 at 8pm. Tickets are $10 – to reserve a spot send a note to nmsc1402@gmail.com.

“Mimicking Birds” came out in March to stellar reviews from the mainstream media, bloggers, and fans alike. Tell us about making the record and what it has been like working with Isaac Brock and Glacial Pace.

Thanks. Well, it was and has been great. Isaac is so encouraging and helpful along with Clay and everyone else at Glacial Pace.  We spent quite a bit of time on it comparatively.  And the act of recording itself was spread pretty thinly throughout most all of 2008.  Really looking forward to the next one and getting the rest of the band involved.

What goes into your songwriting process?

Not much out of the ordinary, I’d say. It kinds just comes and goes. Recording the song is the fun part for me – adding textures and assembling. Acoustic guitar has been the main medium because of its convenience, but with this I am not sessile and want to do more electric and piano-based stuff.

Going all the way back to the early 90s grunge scene that gave us Nirvana and Pearl Jam, and coming forward to bands like Fleet Foxes and Modest Mouse, what do you think makes the Pacific Northwest such a hotbed for music and songwriters? Were you especially influenced by the bands that came up in Washington and Oregon – is there something distinctly “Northwestern” about the music from this area?

Oh wow that’s a rather humbling group to be lumped with. I really haven’t tried to theorize much about it.  I think the scenery and weather definitely have something to do with it.  Although it is not so abstract compared to other places within the same latitude.  Its distinction is hard to say.. especially already knowing where the folks are from.  I think such greatness can and has come from anywhere.  Definitely odd though and I have been influenced by all of these.  Yet, I have gravitated towards substance of such nature since I was pretty young and unfamiliar with most of these so maybe yea its just something in the air.. or the water.  

On the 6th, Mimicking Birds is headed to Madison for a house show; the next night, you’ll be playing Lollapalooza for the first time.  Do you prepare differently for shows that are on such oppostite ends of the spectrum? Which do you enjoy more?

Something in between is likely ideal.. but that changes all the time.  Just depends on the experience itself really.  The best shows are usually the more intimate ones here at home where lots of friends and family are able to come.. like a big reunion.

Last question – who have you and the other guys in the band been listening to lately? Give us a few favorite bands/records/songs that we should be paying attention to.

Had a good Neutral Milk Hotel kick this past spring.  Really like a lot of The National’s new album as well.  As of now, I have been listening to Thom Yorke’s “Eraser” a lot this past week..  this one’s stuck with me strong for a couple years now though so not so new.  Bruce Cockburn has been making its way into the slot quite a bit too lately (a nostalgic fixation of mine maybe). If you’re not familiar with him, check out the songs “If a Tree Falls in a Forest,” “Lovers in a Dangerous Time,” and “Night Train.”  Califone is awesome and Ian just texted me some good ones too: Destroyer, Dirty Projectors, Grizzly Bear, and Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti.  

By Jeff Kollath

Claude Coleman is a busy, busy man. As the drummer for Ween and the front man for the underrated and underappreciated rock/soul outfit Amandla, Coleman is spead pretty thin, but found some time to sit down with MoB and answer a few questions about Amandla’s upcoming Midwest tour, their new record, and his role as a music teacher. Ever since suffering life threatening injuries in a 2002 car accident, Coleman has pushed himself musically, personally, and professionally, creating incredible music in numerous forums. Check out Amandla over the next three nights at the following venues:

June 30: Chicago IL – The Cobra Lounge
July 01: La Crosse WI – JB’s Speakeasy
July 02: Madison WI – The Frequency -10pm – with Charlene Kaye and Brown Derby- $7

It has been a while since you have been up our way. What’s new with the band and what can we expect to see during your mini-run of shows in IL and WI?  

Amandla has never been as tight live. I’ve got new players, cats like “Chocolate Chip” Moore who’ve I’ve played on and off with forever – I always wanted to play with him in Amandla. They’re hardcore musicians; like to play with charts! I’m slipping them mescaline-laced drinks at night playing Brian Eno through my room walls to loosen things.

You guys are working on a new record (“Laughing Hearts”). Tell us a little bit about it, when we might see it, and how, if at all, will it compare to “The Full Catastrophe?”

Well, it’s just me again building everything thus far, but I am inviting a lot of my friends a bit more on this one. I’m gifted with a lot of friends, and lot of ‘em are incredible. I’m really hoping to ramp up the keys side of things and would love to have Glen McClelland on just about everything, and also players like I’m hoping folks like John Medeski who agreed to contribute on catastrophe to contribute.

Musically, it feels like the best material I’ve ever, ever written for myself, which for me is always the way I approach songwriting. The tunes serve and heal and speak for me, all of the above.

Compared to  Catastrophe, I think it’ll be a bit more live, a bit more beat driven, but still pretty rich, and still pretty much song oriented. And it’s going to be exceedingly happy dammit. Catastrophe was for me to finish after a mishap, and this one is all fresh and it feels great. Plus I have amazing spaces to record. I’m not fighting anything with my sound and embracing the freedom of it. I’m aiming for a late summer/fall release.

You do most of your recording in a vintage, 1940s-era radio studio. Talk about how you came into using this space and how the restoration process is going.

I’m tracking between CoMA Studios in Trenton, NJ, and my project space amidst a extreme-renovation project my wife and I are living in, in East Amwell, NJ. C.O.M.A. is a restored 1940’s era radio station with this massive live room designed for the Trenton Symphony Orchestra, who performed live as the station transmitted W.T.O.A.on the public buses.

The studio is nestled in a large factory complex that’s being turned into a artist’s campus, with rehearsal rooms, studios, show rooms, and plans for a venue, that will track straight to the studio. The complex also has its own radio tower, so the possibilities are endless. Partners Benjamin Keating and John Drezner are bringing in talented local artists and studio owners to create a form of recording studio co-op.

The office/staff area is furnished with woodpanel wainscoting, all the corners and door molding features beautiful natural-finish moldings that are curved for acoustics. The place is a fantasy, back in time. I go from this intense, studio environment to my 10×15 room with wall framing and bubbles of insulation sticking out everywhere – with great small room sounds and wood floors.

Besides being the front man for Amandla, you are the drummer for Ween, and a session musician, among other things. What really jumps out from your bio is your role of a music teacher. Tell us about how you started doing this and how it helps in the myriad other projects you are involved with.

I first starting teaching in summer camp programs in 2002, with a NYC program called Music Ascension. In addition to group music games by the lake, I ran a recording studio program that enrolled a small group of kids that wrote and recorded music on a semi-mobile ProTools system.

I communed on bunk beds in the woods working late nights in a cabin, everyday making and recording music the kids were writing, finishing the course producing a mixed CD at the end their songs. I remember being on the ProTools forums online at 2:30am, in the Staff cabin office on their 486 PC, trying to get an answer to a system issue.

Did that a few years, becoming hooked to it, then I became Director of the Paul Green School of Rock in NYC, as a sort-of right hand to Mr. Green, helping him setup the Manhattan branch. Now I teach here and there with school, mostly with the Princeton, NJ branch. teaching is great studying and I think part of why I’m so into my current stuff is because I’ve been dissecting Johnny Greenwood parts and firkin Badfinger tunes for over a year – both horrible and great – but you really go back to school, period.

I get to study then teach it on drums, bass, guitar, voice, as well as direct kids every week through rehearsals for the shows, which is usually fun but pretty impossible shit – kids are literally scaling the PA on sugar rushes. In the end, every single time, the shows are pretty slamming, and to hear young talent is pretty great.

We’re always on the lookout for new artists — any new discoveries that you’d like to share?

You know, I’m not too up on what’s going down with a majority of newer music, and usually find things late. I have personal favorites that are pretty subjective because I’ve either worked with them or I know them. That being said, I hear a lot of actually beautiful stuff in a current sea of poop, and I feel hopeful about certain directions of music. I don’t get to follow through on most of it. I’m all about re-discoveries of the past; I’m a crate digger.

Myspace: Amandla

By Jeff Kollath

This Wednesday night (4/21), singer-songwriter Jill Andrews will be in Madison to play an intimate, acoustic show at a house on the north side of town. Tickets to the show are $10 – doors at 8pm, show at 830pm. Drop a line to nmsc1402@gmail.com if you are interested in attending – hurry, limited spots remain.

Jill was kind enough to take some time to answer a few questions about her busy 2009, her upcoming tour, and her future as a solo artist.

You had quite a 2009 – your old band broke up, you got married, you had a baby, opened for Willie Nelson in your adopted home of Knoxville, AND you released your first solo EP. That’s about two years crammed into one! Looking back, what kind of inspiration have you drawn or will you draw from 2009?

Well, I’ll be the first to say that last year was a whirlwind. For me it was about new life, great sacrifice, indescribable love, and hard work.  I wrote more songs in 2009 than in any other year before it.

You packed a lot of honesty, beauty, and emotion into the EP. Talk about your songwriting process for the EP – where did these six songs come from? Are you pleased with how it has been received?

Honesty is always my intention. It is what draws me to music in the first place .  The songs on the EP were written over a year’s worth of time. This year held moments of love, compassion and enlightenment, and heartache. As a songwriter, it’s a privilege to process the experience of emotion through your art. Sharing it with others is the most rewarding part.

What has it been like getting back out on the road for an actual tour instead of doing weekend jaunts here and there? Did you miss it? Please tell us a little about your current ‘duo’ setup with Josh Oliver.

I’m glad to be back on the road. Its a very challenging and rewarding way to spend your time.  I’ve been enjoying playing with Josh, I like playing my songs more stripped down as well as with a full band. He is an amazing musician with an incredible voice.

For the show in Madison, you and Josh are playing a stripped-down acoustic show to a small (but attentive) crowd in someone’s basement. As an artist, what is the benefit of playing an occasional show like this?

It’s nice to get to know the people your playing for.  House concert goers aren’t there for the pizza and beer.

After three great albums and five years together, the everybodyfields split up last year. What has it been like making the adjustment to being a solo artist?

I’ve had to work really hard at building name recognition.  There’s a little more pressure involved, but it’s  nice to have complete creative control.

It sounds like you have written a lot of new songs and have a full-length album coming out later this year. Tell us about the recording process and what we can expect from the new record.

I’m still writing for the full length album, and I’m getting really excited to head into the studio in the next couple of months.  There has been a real progression in my songwriting so you can expect to hear something a bit different for this upcoming album.

Myspace: Jill Andrews
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Buy: Jill Andrews EP

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”

By Jeff Kollath

Since 2007, ABX (Aaron Brant) and DJ STV SLV (Steve Reidell) have performed, mixed, and mashed as the Hood Internet. Based in Chicago, the duo began putting tracks on the web, but eventually began performing live at clubs around the city. 2009 saw ABX and STV SLV hit Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo, and has much bigger things on the horizon for 2010. In the coming months, they will hit the road with Tobacco (of Black Moth Super Rainbow), heading out West for a series of dates, before finishing back in the Midwest in April. This Saturday, True Endeavors will present the Hood Internet, with support from the New Loud and DJ Vinnie Toma at the High Noon Saloon in Madison. The show is 18+ and starts at 10pm.

1. Since you and ABX started the project and the website over two years ago, you have had millions of downloads. Why do you think there is such a demand for what you guys are doing? Is the Hood Internet exploiting a gaping hole in the music industry that labels and other artists are missing?

Music blogs are such a big part of how people get new music nowadays. The way we release new tracks functions like a blog, and people subscribe to stuff, look at it in their Bloglines or Google Reader or whatever — so every time we post up a new track, people grab it. And the way people even found out about us in the first place was from other music blogs writing about what we were doing. I don’t know that we’re filling any sort of void (especially since mashups are already considered fairly out of vogue), but we’ve definitely found that lots of people really like the tracks we make.

2. So far, the Hood Internet has done four mix tapes, plus a bevy of other tracks. You mix navel-gazing emo with house music, bubblegum pop with R&B slow jams, and classic rock with hardcore hip-hop, genres that, to the untrained ear, don’t really mix. How do you go about putting these tracks together? Are you looking for similarities or stark differences? Briefly describe the process and the method your madness.

We just draw from the bank of things we like and try to re-imagine them in various combinations/permutations. Some stuff works shockingly well, others should probably be put to bed instead of posted on the internet. But there’s no real guidelines behind it.

3. Was there a particular moment that you and ABX realized that was something much more than a hobby?

In the first few months of the Hood’s existence (once the word had gotten out), our site kept crashing from going over bandwidth. That encouraged us to do more tracks — at one point we were doing them every weekday — and we were getting crazy downloads from all over, geographically. I can’t remember a particular moment, but it was earlier on that we could see that people were responding to what we were doing.

4. What has been it like to take your show on the road and play in clubs and theaters? What kind of crowd response are you getting? What’s the difference between doing this live and playing live with your other bands?

DJing a club and getting the dance floor moving (and keeping it moving) is pretty fun, and gratifying, but in a different way than playing guitar in a band is gratifying. May Or May Not (the band that ABX and I were both in) is fairly dissolved at this point, but you should check out this new band SHAPERS.

5. In March/April you are hitting the road out West and in the Midwest with Tobacco. How did that tour come about? Will you guys do anything together?

We did a mixtape for Tobacco when he put out “Fucked Up Friends”  last year. But every time he/they would come to Chicago, we’d miss him — then finally met up this summer at Bonnaroo. I don’t know if we’ll necessarily collab it up, but you never know.

6. Recently, MoB has been featuring gig poster artists from around the Midwest. Many folks might not know that you are a damn fine graphic artist, too. Tell us a little about the poster work you do and where you draw inspiration from.

After I got laid off from my first job in Chicago, I learned how to screenprint at Steve Walters’ Screwball Academy. I did a couple of prints for friends’ bands, including one for the now-defunct New Black, who were opening for Secret Machines at Metro. Shortly after that, Metro was hiring a new graphic designer, so I threw my hat in the ring and got the job — so then I got to make lots of prints for bands I really liked. There are so many poster artists I get inspired by that it’s hard to list, but Aesthetic Apparatus and Delicious Design League are two that come to mind right away.

7. In a previous conversation, you described yourself as having “musical ADD tendencies,” always looking for the next thing. So, what is NEXT for the Hood Internet and for STV SLV?

We’re making a record. Not a mashup record, and that’s all we really know about it right now. We’re gonna try to get people we know to contribute parts to it, and do a bunch of our own production, aaaaand… we’ll see what happens.

Now, onto the lists:

Top 3 bands we should be listening to: Signals, tUne-YarDs, Felt (Slug and Murs)

Top 3 favorite places to play (town, tavern, or whatever): Chicago IL, Austin TX, Brooklyn NY

Top 3 artists you have not mixed but hope to soon: Pill, Nicki Minaj, Broken Bells

MP3: The Hood Internet – DJ STV SLV – “Band on the 16th Stage” (Wings vs Osborne)
MP3: The Hood Internet – DJ STV SLV – “Psycho Break” (Talking Heads vs Eileen Allien)
MP3: The Hood Internet – ABX – “Floating Paranoia” (Modest Mouse vs Kanye West)
MP3: The Hood Internet – ABX – “Two Weeks of Hip-Hop” (GrizzlyBear vs Dead Prez)

By Alex Schaaf

If you missed Sharon Van Etten’s 2009 release, Because I Was in Love, then you missed out on an album that got a lot of year-end nods. In addition to her own album, she contributed guest vocals to The Antlers’ Hospice, which landed at #9 on our list of favorite albums from last year.

Sharon Van Etten has two upcoming Wisconsin shows that we highly recommend. She’s supporting Bowerbirds at the High Noon Saloon in Madison on Sunday, January 17th before landing here in Milwaukee for a show we’re presenting at Cactus Club on Wednesday, January 20th.

You are clearly identified as a “solo” artist, recording all of the backup vocals yourself on your album, performing alone, etc. Do you always envision yourself as a solo artist? What are the advantages or disadvantages of always performing by yourself?

Well, right now I am a solo artist… although I have just started collaborating with other musicians/singers… so hopefully soon I will have a bit more of a “band”… but unorthodox. Pluses to being solo is that there is not much gear, I don’t have to check with the band to confirm a show or go on tour…BUT

Minuses are that it’s more fun to travel with people, write with other people (as I’m learning…), and the financial weight of releasing an album and touring is split up…

How did you get together with Peter Silberman (The Antlers) to be able to contribute vocals to Hospice?

I found a song of his posted on a blog

I read that you are going to be recording a new album in 2010, if I’m not mistaken? Will the new album contain all brand new songs, or will there be any reworkings/re-recordings of old songs, as you did on Because I Was in Love?

There will be all new songs on the new album.

You seem to be very active in the creation/upkeep of your official website. How do you see the Internet as a tool to reach fans and to spread your music around?

The internet is amazing. There are so many great blogs, and so many great bands that grant permission for usage of songs… you can find anything. I am a huge fan. More people have exposure on the internet to put out what they do and voice opinions on who they are and what they believe in. Whether or not we agree with them, we have minds to think for ourselves and decide what we like based on the endless information we come across.. I love it.

What is on your bookshelf at the moment?

Woody Allen’s ‘Without Feathers,” Ray Bradbury’s ‘Dandelion Wine’, and The Letters and Journals of Paula Modersohn-Becker.

We’re always on the lookout for new artists — any new discoveries that you’d like to share?

Movie Star Junkies, Hologram, Shilpa Ray, She Keeps Bees, Scary Mansion, Forest Fire, Glass Ghost, Here We Go Magic, The Wooden Birds, Telecopy, Skogar, and Natureboy… have been in my rotation for the last year.

Tickets for Sharon Van Etten’s Wednesday, January 20th show at the Cactus Club are $7 and are on sale now.

Buy: Sharon Van Etten – Because I Was in Love
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Myspace: Sharon Van Etten
MP3: Sharon Van Etten – “For You”

By Jodi Root

There’s no question that Ryan is the go-to-guy for all things repping the Wisco music scene, and I like to think I know a thing or two about the Chicago vicinity, but it seems our Midwest sister metropolis Minneapolis seems to get left in the waste side time and time again. Up and coming indie rockers We Became Actors hail from the land up north, and just because it might get a little colder up there around this time of year, it’s no reason to overlook their approaching heat in the music scene. Vocalist Jesse Stensby and Guitarist Christian Dahlager started the four-man outfit back in 2006, and joined forces with Bassist Paula Ward and Drummer Mike Hinton in late 2008. One year later with their current formation, WBA has made a lot of noise in the local MPLS scene and will be celebrating the official release of their debut recording, This is Where We Stand this Saturday evening at Sauce Spirits and Soundbar in Minneapolis. The party kicks off at 10:00 with additional local acts Koo Koo Kangaroo, The Invincible Kids and White Light Riot, with WBA taking the stage at 11:30. An exciting time for a deserving group, Jesse and Christian took time from preparing for their big day to participate in our latest round of 5 Questions.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE INTERVIEW —->

Could you lend some information on the recording process of This is Where We Stand? Where and how was it recorded, and were there any lessons learned towards future recording sessions?

(Christian) We recorded with Darren Jackson of Kid Dakota fame at Short Man Studio in Northeast Minneapolis. We spent many cold winter nights in Darren’s basement studio. In addition to recording the five tracks on our EP, I’m pretty sure we wrote three or four jingles for various chain restaurants. Sadly, I don’t remember any of them anymore. When we went into the studio to record This is Where We Stand, I think we had only the vaguest idea of what we wanted it to sound like. A lot of the songs really grew and changed as we shaped them with Darren. When we head back to the studio this winter, I hope to have a better idea of what I want out of the songs as finished products.

(Jesse) This EP was the first time we’d been in the studio with someone like Darren, who has a very clear idea of what he likes and doesn’t like and the skills to pull it all off. I look forward to many more awkward stares and butting of heads only to know that the project will come out the absolute best it can be in the end. I think the original process has given us more of an idea how to best prepare our songs as we write the LP.

Who would you like to hear cover a night’s worth of your material? On the flip side, if you were to play an entire set of someone else’s songs, whose would you choose and/or enjoy playing the most?

(Christian) Stars? Metric? Emily Haines solo? I’d like to hear a band with a female singer tackle our songs. Actually, scratch that. I’ll leave that to Jesse. Ryan Adams. Definitely Ryan Adams, especially if he reimagined them as country songs. We’ve talked about performing Weezer’s Pinkerton front to back at some point, so I’d definitely be down for that. And lately I’ve been on a massive Stones kick, so doing something like Beggars Banquet would be rad.

(Jesse) Christian’s right. I’d love to hear a female voice sing our songs and have her way with them. I try to be more like Emily Haines in everything I do and I obviously fail on many, many levels time and time again. I keep trying though. I think Phoenix would kick our asses at playing our stuff and I’d love every minute of it. Flipping it around, I think we’d have a lot of fun trying to figure out how to play the Con, by Tegan and Sara. As far as something more classic, My Aim is True would probably be high on my list to play. But I guess it’d have to be the US version, because there’s no way I’m not doing “Watching the Detectives.”

What is on your bookshelf at the moment? Any books you’ve read over the past year that you’d recommend?

(Christian) I’m reading a few things at the moment. I’m maybe a third of the way into Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips. It’s up for the National Book Award, and the language is thick and rich. I’m also in the midst of a collection of short stories by Denis Johnson called Jesus’ Son. It’s excellent. I also recently read The Magicians by Lev Grossman, which is both an homage to and subversion of the children’s fantasy genre featured in books like The Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter series.

(Jesse) Stuff that’s stuck out for me over the last year… No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July. It’s a really delightful read that has moments that absolutely cut me to the core. There are times she captured exactly what it’s like in my head and it scared me. On the plane back from NYC a few weeks ago, a couple offered me their copy of one of Micheal Chabon’s books and I almost took them up on it because I liked Yiddish Policeman’s Union, but I’m suspicious it was because I had just read all of Chelsea Handler’s My Vertical Life and took a nap on the two-hour trip. Stuff like that was made for killing time (and brain cells) when you’re hung over and thousands of feet in the air. A friend loaned me Devil in the White City, which is this book about how Daniel Burnham, the man behind the Chicago World’s Fair in the late 1800′s and how he inadvertently created a perfect setting for the works of one of America’s first serial killers. It takes all true events and presents them in novel form. I’m really looking forward to that one.

We’re always looking to uncover new favorite artists, are there any band(s)/record(s) that you could recommend to our readers?

(Christian) Definitely check out Lookbook, one of my favorites from Minneapolis. Dark, gorgeous music that will make you dance your face off.

(Jesse) Yes, Lookbook. I think their record should take them places. And we would be remiss if we did not take this opportunity to mention our bud-bands on the local scene, Idle Hands and Communist Daughter. We have this loose arrangement we’re all involved in called the Pretty Kids Collective. It’s kind of our indie rock rap crew. PKC, kid.

The internet has dramatically altered the way artists can reach an audience. With things like blogs/MySpace/etc, what are your thoughts on the power of the internet in terms of helping (or hurting) your music?

(Christian) Well, there’s such a glut of available music. You don’t need a label to distribute, which leads to lots of awful bands but also plenty of awesome music you might not have otherwise heard. I think the biggest effect of the Internet on music has been how we listen to music. I can remember the anticipation of release dates, listening parties, radio station single debuts, but that’s all gone now, because you probably already downloaded the album six months ago. I feel like I get burned out on bands far more quickly these days because of that lack of anticipation and overexposure. I might find a new song I really like on a blog, listen to it all day in my cube and be entirely sick of it by the time the album is actually out. I think there’s something to be said for delayed gratification, and the Internet has kind of ruined all that, because, God knows, I don’t have any self-control.

(Jesse) Like it or not (and I’m not taking a stand), it’s the reality of the situation. Once our EP started getting played on the radio, we knew it was only a matter of days before we saw it on a blog for download somewhere. We made peace with that and figured that it will at least bring us listeners that will have had no way of hearing about us otherwise. And that’s the point in the end. That being said, it certainly has done that. It’s entertaining to me to see that we have a bunch of fans in the Czech Republic and that area.

It’s great in that it’s opened the floodgates for all sorts of artists that might not have made it in to the public conscious under the old guard. There are far more bands making a decent living and far fewer making millions for no reason. But it’s also taken away that sort of unifying thing that happens when 10 million people own the same album. Part of me misses that every so often. Then I’d have more to talk about with my cousins at Thanksgiving. There’ll probably never be another Appetite for Destruction.

Photo: Louisa Podlich
Buy: We Became Actors – This is Where We Stand
MySpace: We Became Actors