Paperrad is what happens when your brain pukes inside your skull. The Pittsburgh and Providence-based collective specializes in video art, doom drone, and head lozenges. When on tour, they perform in three parts: two different groups including Extreme Animals and Fortress of Amplitude (both of which have that great Load Records style spazz psych free-for-all), and their collections of unequivocally, deliciously deranged music videos / cartoons / installation art. There’s no real way to describe a Paperrad video installation other than what it would be like to watch children’s shows while frozen in carbonite. Or how it would feel to have a fatwa issued on your peepers. Their excellent website gives some insight about where they’re comin’ from.
I mean, just look at their ballistic visual interp of Lightning Bolt’s “13 Monsters”!
Czech the video, and you will be converted. Hightail a hajj over to their nearest rockshow, longhair. You won’t regret it. Plus, most of the spot they’re playing are art galleries or small, non-profit co-op venues, so they should all be all ages and really cheap. Don’t sleep on this.
7.24: Carnegie Museum of Art — Pittsburgh, Pa
7.26: Silent Barn — New York, NY
7.27: Secret Project Robot — New York, NY
7.30: The Rendezvous — Turners Falls, MA
8.1: Pageant Gallery — Philadelphia, PA
8.2: The Bank — Baltimore, MD
8.4: Nightlife — Carborro, NC
8.6: Gypsy Hut Bar — Cincinnati, OH
8.7: The Herrot — Muncie, IN
8.8: Enemy — Chicago, IL
8.9: Borg Ward — Milwaukee, WI
8.10: The Eagle — Detroit, MI
The King of Amazing Drug and God Songs (and also the King of Pitchfork Music Festival, as you may have read earlier) has some serious Nina Totenberg hang time scheduled. In what I thought at first was spam was actually a rather exciting alert notifying me that Spiritualized’s performance this Friday at DC’s 930 Club will be broadcast live online, courtesy of NPR. When I think of NPR, I certainly don’t think of J Spaceman’s Martian redemption grooves, but I definitely applaud NPR trying to broaden their pallets, givin’ a nod to what us weird kids like.
I don’t think you can hear it on your local soft-spoken news affiliate, but it will be webcast in its entirety at 10 p.m. Eastern / 9 p.m. Central at NPR.org. Go forth!
For full disclosure, I’ve known these guys for years now. I first met (from left to right) Trevor Tremaine, Robert Beatty, and Mike Connelly my freshman year in college at our campus radio station. Though I thought they were totally rad dudes, I was fairly intimidated by them at first, in part due to the fact they were older, yet certainly exacerbated by the fact they were in an absolutely terrifying band called Hair Police.
At first, I didn’t like noise music too much because I didn’t “get” it, and wasn’t sure what I thought about Hair Police. I learned later that noise is, like many forms of art, performance based – you really have to see it live to let it take hold of you. And that’s all it took for me to convert. The live show usurps all paradigms of traditional rock music. Noise itself certainly isn’t as simple as the title suggests, as noise has structure and acts as an expressive, fringe genre, much like punk circa 25 years ago. It isn’t just a complete destruction of musical norms – it’s more akin to an altering of the listener’s aural perception. Harmony and melody is simply replaced with rhythm and intensity. The typical audience reaction of swaying in unison and applauding each song is replaced with fist pumping, erratic spazzing, and sarcastic jeering. The result is powerful. Noise inverts everything about rock, which is exactly what punk did in the ’70s. Robert Beatty even told me once that Lightning Bolt is as relevant today as the Sex Pistols were in the the heyday of punk, but the world is too different now to embrace LB like they did with Johnny and Sid. I think I can agree with this sentiment.
After seeing my first noise show, I also realized that there’s nothing to “get” with noise. You either find it interesting and fun, or you don’t. No matter your opinion, its influence is undeniable. Stereolab and Broadcast were simply noise-influenced bands with a penchant for vocal pop. Sonic Youth are simply a group of noise and punk dorks who also had enough pop structure sensibility to expand their audience. To further this point, Hair Police spent their summer a couple of years ago opening for Sonic Youth throughout North America, handpicked by Thurston. And of course, noise has been a crux influence for the psychedelic movement for decades – everyone from United States of America, Silver Apples, and the Red Krayola in the ’60s; to Can, Brian Eno, and Faust in the ’70s; to Ruins, Swans, This Heat, and My Bloody Valentine in the ’80s; to the excellent, genre-pushing work of Indian Jewelry, Boredoms, No Age, Animal Collective and more today. Shoegazing owes a lot to noise, as does this blog. And, ya know, lest we forget its affect on neo-classical works by Cage, Branca, Basinski, and Reich.
But enough about the tenets of noise and avant psych – this is what you need to know. Hair Police are three righteous dudes who like to hang tough and bring the funk live. They’ve been shattering sine waves and giving sound engineers something to scratch their chin about all over the globe since 2001. Hair Police’s live show is exhilarating and otherworldly. The band and crowd shout mantras between songs. Apologies for sounding dumbtarded with what I’m about to say, but ya know, this is real rock and fucking roll. While their live show often subscribes to a certain aesthetic (*ahem* controlled insanity), Hair Police’s recorded repertoire maintains a surprising diversity – from zone out dronescapes, to full on aural assaults, to foreboding caravan treks across the astral plane. This isn’t just Merzbow bangin’ on pots and pans, Hair Police have a vision (and I totally invite you to hypothesize what that might be).
As with many experimental groups, Hair Police often mechanically alter their instruments and utilize traditionally “functional” equipment as musical divining rods. One of Robert’s weapons of choice is the Qualiton Acoustic Appraise… it’s used to test hearing. The members of Hair Police are in a zillion other projects as well, including a orchestral chamber collective, pop-rock groups, and more. The influences of the band are a lot wider than one might think, as they cite everything from jazz, to psych, to the Beach Boys, and more as co-sculptors in their face grinding canticles. Last time I spoke with Mike, during their 2006 summer tour, that he was all up all on that Sean Paul “Temperature” joint. Trevor has drummed with the Coup. Dudes love jams.
Hair Police has collaborated on record with the likes of Viki, Kites, and Wolf Eyes (of which Mike Connelly is their newest member and the first guy I know personally to be signed to Sub Pop), and have performed with countless others. They do not ask for adoration, only acknowledgement. Their Facebook fan group is, aptly, titled “Hair Police Acknowledgement Club,” wherein one anonymous person started a group under the premise that “nobody likes Hair Police” but “Mike Connelly IS in Wolf Eyes, so let’s acknowledge this band exists.” The band has since taken over this chunk of cyber snuff and welcome you to, in the non-existential sense, acknowledge their mighty presence. Trevor Tremaine, who indeed exists and can be acknowledged, was nice enough to take some time out to discuss their forthcoming release Certainty of Swarms (out Aug. 11), the recording process, and cracking skulls.
::: ::: :::
KB: Beside slap bass and touches of Upper West Side Soweto, what can people expect with Certainty of Swarms that’s different from previous albums?
TT: It’s the only Hair Police album to start with a countoff.
It’s really varied, like ‘Obedience Cuts.’ ‘Constantly Terrified’ was more of an exercise in tedium. It was a record made out of necessity. Other than that, I think the mix on the new one makes it feel more “live.” The drums are really present and there weren’t really any overdubs or much in the way of post-production at all. Also, whenever the vocals come in, they overwhelm everything else on the track, which is a pretty hilarious effect. It’s a really garagey record.
KB: Hair Police and a few choice other acts in the genre have made the leap from playing in people’s basements to playing renowned music venues. Which do you like better?
TT: As long as it’s really loud and people are having a good time, I don’t care. Basements are good for intimacy, but a place like The Bottle can have much the same energy, with a killer PA and free beer to boot.
KB: Without bothering you with the obligatory biography, what was your entrance into both being interested in and performing such evil, scalp scalding scorchers?
TT: To be honest, Hair Police is just kinda what happens when you put the three of us together. We all have really broad tastes in music, with, of course, a lot of overlap. I personally discovered free jazz really early on, some punk rock, 60s counterculture stuff, Dada, etc. After high school I first heard noise, mainly Japanese stuff, which still slays me. Seeing the Incapacitants at No Fun Fest last year was revelatory. Mike is a noise/black metal guy, Robert’s a weird electronics guy, and I’m kind of a pop/rock guy. We all share each other’s taste, and all love psych, jazz, noise, punk, avant composition, I don’t even know. Everything rules. It all goes into the Hair Police cauldron.
KB: What’s the songwriting process like? Do songs evolve from sessions, Robert tinkering around with his toys; does one person record an idea for the group to expand on, or something else entirely?
TT: It all comes from jams, but we never say “let’s try and do that one again.” It’s more about conjuring a really specific atmosphere or emotion. Our arrangements are just sets of textures. We rarely play a song the same way twice. I take that back, “Strict” is pretty rigidly structured. It’s kind of like a folk song.
KB: What about your righteous song titles? Is it like a Joy Division thing where you keep a running list?
TT: I don’t really know how it comes about. Mike did all the song titles for the last few, going back to ‘Constantly.’ I did most of the ones on ‘Certainty.’ It’s kinda just up to whoever. If you have a good idea, throw it out there. We all know what Hair Police is about by now. Most bands operate by dictatorship or democracy, but we’re pretty anarchic. We trust each other enough to do it that way, I think.
KB: I sorta remember the origin of the “gnarly times” mantra, but pretty please recite that again for the highly literate readers of this blog dude.
TT: To be honest, I can’t remember. It stemmed from several conversations about the way civilization is headed, how things seem to be getting more and more precarious by the day. The mantra sorta summed up both the situation and how we had it in our heads. Actually, I don’t even know who came up with it. Mike, Robert, our friend Greh, who knows. Anyway, now the mantra is “Choke on your elders.” That should be pretty self-explanatory.
KB: I don’t know if people realize how many non-HP type projects you all are a part of. Let’s see, there’s the complex pop group Attempt, the chamber-oriented Eyes and Arms of Smoke… I’m probably leaving out a few… but regardless, with these projects, on top of Mike being an official member of Wolf Eyes and living hundreds of miles away, how do you all practice and stay tight?
TT: It’s not Rush. Our rehearsals aren’t very rigorous. We’re more likely to record new material than practice old shit, whenever we have a chance to play.
Other non-Hair Police projects you’re omitting are Three Legged Race, Failing Lights, Coptic Nausea, Sick Hour, S.M.E.L.L., ARA, Birth Refusal, Gate to Gate, and The Haunting. And actually I might be leaving some out. Note that if you include John Olson [of Wolf Eyes] as a member of Hair Police, which he was for much of 2006, this list would expand indefinitely like Pi.
KB: Saying noise shows are insane is both stupid and redundant. But with that said, what are the most insane show memories you have?
TT: Lots, but here’s a good one. One time at Club Seal, the hallowed, no defunct house venue in Lexington operated by Irene Moon, an audience member whose identity I shall conceal – let’s call him “Walter C” – took Mike’s guitar and commenced shredding. Mike just grabbed the mic and did his vocal thing, thrashing around. Well, at one point, Mike is bringing his head down really hard and the guy in the crowd is bringing the guitar up with the same force, and the two inevitably collide, with a tuning peg going into Mike’s nostril. In one quick yank, half of Mike’s nose is split. Mid-show, he’s rushed outta there, and I didn’t even realize what had happened, Robert and I finished the set while triage was going on in the next room. He had to go the the ER, but our van wouldn’t fit through the parking garage entrance.
Actually, there’s a good show memory from Chicago from this place called the Mutiny that involves Robert, but I’ll let him tell that one if he wants to. Gigs have been getting tamer lately. The whole crew is getting older. Now you go to noise shows and people are sitting down. Either way is cool.
Hair Police kick off their tour in Chicago this Friday night (July 25) at the Empty Bottle with Bloodyminded and more. The rest of the jaunt looks like this:
July 26th–Cincinatti, OH– Art Damage Lodge w/ Wretched Worst, Wasteland Jazz Unit
July 27th–Columbus, OH– Skylab w/ Mike Shiflet, Envenomist/Jason Zeh duo.
July 28th–Cleveland, OH– Tusco Embassy w/ Aaron Dilloway, Emeralds, Tusco Terror
July 29th–Pittsburgh, PA– Belvedere’s w/ Ryan Jewell, Cock Scene Investigator
July 30th–Rochester, NY–Bug Jar w/ Pengo
July 31st–Albany, NY– UAG Gallery w/ Rise Set Twilight, Century Plants
Aug 1st–Florence, MAFlorence American Legion Hall w/ Sunburned, Thurson Moore/Kate Village duo, Paul Flaherty/Jeff Hartford Duo
Aug 2nd–New York, NY– Rehab w/ Carlos Giffoni, Sixes, FFH.
Aug 3rd–New Haven, CT– BAR w/ Sickness
Aug 5th–Boston, MA– Middle East w/ Heathen Shame
Aug 6th–Montreal, QC– Zoobizarre w/ Yomul Yuk, Selfish Implosions, Antinferno
Aug 7th–Toronto, ON– Savage Garden w/ Disgues, Bottom Feeder, Flatline Construct
Aug 8th–Ypsilanti, MI– Pleasure Dome w/ Awkward Squad, Uneven Universe, Regression (Nate Young solo)
I’m currently revamping the site and tweaking a lot of the images, layout, functionality, etc. So if this thing keeps shapeshifting on you, it’s not bad acid. Promise. Some of the older posts will look a little funky, and I’ll be fixing that tonight. Apologies.
Click on the photos to see a larger, higher resolution version.
Despite that fact that the sun radiated full force on Union Park, baking the crowd in 95+ degree weather, Boris was too dark and mysterious to not wear black. Czech the gong.
Boris’ set was very tight and put the crusty dude contingent of Pitchfork into a frenzy. I thought the set was a tad disappointing since they focused more on their metal oriented material rather than their more drone and psych oriented trip-outs on Rainbow and Altar. Though I do understand why they didn’t play those songs, as both of those records were collaborations with Michio Kurihara (of Ghost) and Sunn O))), respectively. Nevertheless, it was nice to see Pitchfork add an evil aspect to the Sunday lineup.
Of course, for all sinister live shows, it helps to bring your best blankey for sitting down solutions.
The only thing at Pitchfork Music Festival 2008 that was more metal than Boris was the mascot for one of the fine BBQ vendors on the concourse. Meet Righteous Oinker.
It’s obligatory photo recap time! Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a press pass this year, so many of the following photos prominently feature the back of people’s domes. Click on the photos to see a larger, higher resolution version.
After two months of flawless weather in Chicago, the climate waited until the most excellent of weekends to unleash her fury, with downpours on Saturday and oppressive, Biblical heat on Sunday. Despite that, Pitchfork Music Festival, by and large, ruled. Though we were all very privileged to see some excellent performances (sans Vampire Weekend… the Decibel Tolls is the only blog with an official “VW sucks it” philosophy), this whole festival belongs to one man, in my opinion.
And that’s Mr. Jason Spaceman…
Remember when I said Boris would be the loudest band at PMF? Wrong! Spiritualized was loud enough to decimate the festival’s PA system in the middle of “Take Me to the Other Side.” Mr. Pierce was so distraught over the whole predicament that, well, he took it upon himself to knock over their mic stands with his guitar and send his vintage (I think it was a) Telecaster through his amp head. It’s good to see psych dudes go delightfully apeshit every now and again. He wasn’t too upset about the whole thing, as he came back on stage to wave bye to the crowd and take a humble bow.
I was hoping that Spiritualized would roll through with an extra ensemble or two, and they delivered. The crowd roared when the Spritiualized gospel singers took the stage for some very intense, wall of sound plus gospel renditions of “Come Together,” “Soul on Fire,” and more. Pierce even brought out the big guns and dusted off “Shine a Light” from 1991’s Laser Guided Melodies (my favorite Spiritualized album)! This is the closest I’ll ever get to taking drugs inside a church.
Animal Collective brought a whole slew of new material during Saturday night’s performance. Actually, they premiered one song in the middle of a 20-minute rendition of “Fireworks” come to think of it. AC also brought out one of their newest fan favorites, known as “House” and “Simple Things,” depending on what you read. Avey Tare sported an awesome bucket hat. Unfortunately, none of my photos turned out that well, so I won’t post them. I had amazing photos of their performance last May at The Dame in Lexington, but unfortunately, my camera went AWOL shortly after. Moral of the story, unload your shit early and often.
Caribou was the other sick performance that stood out from the weekend. The rain hit right when Caribou started at 2:15, but the music was too sunshine-saturated to make you take notice. As I discussed in the Pitchfork preview, Caribou is an exercise in percussive fortitude. Dan Snaith performs with a full band, and bangs the shit out of the drums for each song’s climax.
The highlight for me was hearing an old favorite, “Skunks” off of 2003’s Up in Flames. Just like the recorded version, Snaith and Company laid the booty bass on thick. Though the Left Banke never received their due credit in the ’60s, their body of work is alive and well in Caribou. One interesting side note – Caribou seems to get 86 love in Chicago. At their Metro show back in November, they were opening for Battles (though they were great, Caribou was better). Otherwise, for their headlining shows, they’re generally plunged back into smaller clubs like the Empty Bottle. Their Saturday afternoon super-stoked psych-pop explosion blew the crowd away. You heard it from everyone in attendance, so methinks their Pitchfork appearance will reverse that current, and Snaith will receive his due props in the Windy City (though I do enjoy seeing Caribou in smaller rooms, he deserves a wide audience). Though the music was still sweeping and gorgeous as well, it’s the two drummer assault that takes emphasis live.
Also during Caribou’s set, hometown drank heroes 312 Ale / Goose Island flung about a bazillion beach balls into the crowd.
Though not related to the focus of this blog, my girlfriend (much to her delight) and I got to see our lil’ friend Jarvis, too.
Straight from my view from the cheap seats, here’s the Decibel Tolls’ preview for some choice artists I’m anticipating seeing at this year’s festival. My prophecies for these shows have been gleaned from my experience with a couple of these artists in the past, general intuition, and my magic 8-ball. First, it should be noted that the clouds are currently graying here in Chicago, and it looks like the first day of rain we’ve had in, oh I dunno, two weeks or so will conveniently happen during the festival. Just our luck, right? Should be a delightfully apocalyptic time!
It’s somewhat unfortunate that Caribou was slotted for a 2 p.m. show. As with any psych group worth their salt, Caribou offers very enthralling visual aspects including background images that look like they were taken out of a Julian House book. No matter, Caribou has the chops to engage with or without seizure-inducing lights. They hang tough with two drummers, including Dan Snaith himself. When I saw Caribou with Battles at the Metro in November, it was an exercise in percussive fortitude. Since he’s not promoting a particular album at this point, it’s a safe bet that Caribou will dig deep throughout his catalog, which is generally the preferred position for me. Caribou is absolutely not to be missed. [Saturday : 2 p.m. : Connector Stage]
I had the privilege of being involved with two different Animal Collective shows, and if I was smart, would’ve started this blog back then. When you help run a concert through either a venue or your college radio station, it’s easier to score interviews and sound bites. But enough about my stupidity… The first show was in the last wake after Sung Tongs in the spring of ‘05, right at the time the group was moving away from more acoustic material. Jane (Panda Bear and friend Scott Mou) was getting ready to drop the excellent but zoned out Berserker, and you certainly heard a lot of that. It was very droney, and the crowd seemed somewhat polarized by the lack of Sung Tongs songs played. It was great nonetheless, but would’ve been better to see in a theater instead of a standing room recital hall. Animal Collective understands this to an extent, so I would be surprised if the outdoor Union Park setting didn’t encourage the more pop-oriented side of their repertoire (with a little Here Comes the Indian thrown in for good measure and to draw a line in the sand). The second time was at The Dame in Lexington in May of ‘07. AC toured sans Deakon, and considering the electronic structures on what was to be Strawberry Jam, it didn’t much matter. The performance was unrelenting. They played non-stop, with all three members in queue facing the side of the stage instead of the front, and swaying in unison like a cult. It was a sinister, but dare I say, upbeat and almost danceable performance. Every song morphed into the next, and most songs were unrecognizable until Avey Tare throated out the first lyrical yelp. Every Animal Collective show is different, and that’s part of what makes them one of the most exciting, relevant groups of today. Panda Bear is a super rad dude, by the wayz. [Saturday : 9 p.m. : Aluminum Stage]
Boris has a wealth of source material to choose from, with their prolific output of releases and collaborations. Though some of their best stuff to date has come from their work with Michio Kurihara of Ghost and Sunn O))), Boris, either out of respect or functionality, will probably not perform these songs. And I certainly would be surprised if we heard anything from their Merzbow split Rock Dream. No matter what the show shapes up to be, Boris will be the loudest band, and most immovable object, at Pitchfork. I’m not a bettin’ man, but I would put money on that (unless Spiritualized shows up with, like, 30 goddamn dudes). If “Blackout” from Pink starts rumbling from the PA at 10,000 watts of evil, all bets are off. Shut down the park, call the police. [Sunday : 2 p.m. : Connector Stage]
This might be wishful thinking, but I want, as mentioned, Spiritualized[Sunday : 7 p.m. : Aluminum Stage] to show up with 30 goddamn dudes. Like this:
If you didn’t get tickets yet, well, they’re gone except for tonight’s performances. But, you can catch some streaming live intarweb action at the festival’s website. Pitchfork Music Festival 2008
For full disclosure, I’ve known these guys for years now. I first met (from left to right) Trevor Tremaine, Robert Beatty, and Mike Connelly my freshman year in college at our campus radio station. Though I thought they were totally rad dudes, I was fairly intimidated by them at first, in part due to the fact they were older, yet certainly exacerbated by the fact they were in an absolutely terrifying band called 
It’s somewhat unfortunate that Caribou was slotted for a 2 p.m. show. As with any psych group worth their salt, Caribou offers very enthralling visual aspects including background images that look like they were taken out of a 
.jpg/800px-Boris_(band).jpg "Noise Consultations: Pitchfork Music Festival 08 Preview")
Boris has a wealth of source material to choose from, with their prolific output of releases and collaborations. Though some of their best stuff to date has come from their work with 
