Impressionist splatters of found sounds, bright porcelain reverb, and ecstatic song shifts color the work of Philly’s Golden Ages. Working under this project for a little under a year now, he’s just self-released his debut EP Sitting Softly in the Sea. “I had this silly DJ/dance project that I grew apart from,” he told us, explaining his transition from “unabashedly electronic music into something more organic.” Throughout the EP’s four tracks, you can see both sides of the fence. On “Black Swan” ambient post-rock full of Fripp-inspired fuzz and lo-fi textures take a sharp turn into male/female harmonies mingling above minimal electronica beats.

“I’ve been invited to play a few shows but I’m holding off on performing until I finish the first album,” he told us when asked about the project’s future, “once that’s finished I’m going to take things live, which I’m really excited about.” Golden Age’s debut full-length, called Tradition, is set to drop in the near future. “The upcoming album will in some ways have a different mood than the EP. The EP was a reflection on all of the difficult things going on at that time,” he explained, “the new album is equally as introspective, but it’s more positive.” You can keep up with Golden Ages updates via his myspace, where you can also download Sitting Softly in the Sea for free.

For Fans of:  M83, High Places, Wild Nothing

MP3 :::
Golden Ages – Black Swan

Black Moth Super Rainbow – Fields are Breathing
Magik Markers – Don’t Talk in Your Sleep
Silver Apples/Spectrum – Whirlwind
Wooden Shjips – Dos
Tiny Fights – What’s Mine

Tara Jane O Neil – Beast, Go Along
Flying Saucer Attack – In the Light of Time
Bibio – Carosello Ellitico
Friends – You Need Friends
Sybille Baier – Wim

Marmoset – Peach Cobbler
Shop Assistants – It’s Up to You
Status Quo – Pictures of Matchstick Men
Penny Arkade – Century of Distance
Simply Saucer – Here Come the Cyborgs, Pt. 2
[Meat Puppets interview segment]

PODCAST :::
Technicolor Underground – 5.13.09

Black Moth Super Rainbow’s tacit ringleader Tobacco took a few minutes by e-mail to talk about their new album Eating Us and his love for the album Happy in Galoshes. I love to hear imaginative artists like Tobacco discuss enjoying things that make the hipster dorks cringe.

KB: What’s the origin of your name Black Moth Super Rainbow and your moniker Tobacco?

T: It just kind of popped into my head one day, before I had the idea for the band.  Then I wanted a band that would sound like that name.  Tobacco comes from a character that freaked me out as a kid.

KB: Eating Us seems to have a much more mellow and classic pop-focused vibe compared with the earlier full-lengths. Part of that seems to come from the addition of more acoustic instrumentation. Was that change something intentional or something that sorta evolved in the studio?

T: It’s good that a lot of people are noticing that.  I didn’t want to make another synth album because I was getting worn out on the sounds I could make within this kind of music.  There’s always been just as many guitars, and maybe even more acoustic guitars in the past, but the focus in the mixing is less on the synthsizers and more on the other instruments this time around.

KB: How did you hook up with the legendary Dave Fridmann?

T: Our friend Andy knew Dave and his wife from SUNY Fredonia, so we met up once a little over a year before we ended up making the album.

KB: How did you get interested in the old analog equipment that you all employ, like the vocoder and mellotron?

T: I wanted stuff that was more colorful than the regular guitar and attention-seeking-singer kind of bands.  It took a while to figure out what worked best, and now maybe it’s time to move on again.

KB: What can folks who come out to the shows this spring expect at the Black Moth Super Rainbow show if they haven’t experienced you all live yet?

T: Expect a bunch of people who are still uncomfortable on a stage with hopefully some decent visual distractions.

KB: How does the songwriting process defer between your Tobacco solo project and Black Moth Super Rainbow, besides working with the other members?

T: It’s strange, because there isn’t a difference.  The Tobacco stuff came about more from deciding that certain songs didn’t fit with what Black Moth Super Rainbow had become.

KB: Are you considering doing any more collaborations like you all did with the Octopus Project?

T: No, I prefer working alone.  That’ll probably be my first and last, but I guess you never know.

KB: What music, new or discovered, influences or inspires you as of late?

T: I feel like I get inspired by things that aren’t music these days.  But I really love the Scott Weiland double album.  While everyone else i talk to has their Animal Collective now, I’ve got my Weiland, and it feels great.

Black Moth Super Rainbow kicks off their month-long excursion May 19th in Lexington. Eating Us drops on Graveface Records May 26th, and it’s a sick jam (expect a full review soon).

MP3 :::
Black Moth Super Rainbow – Eating Us Medley
Black Moth Super Rainbow – Born On a Day the Sun Didn’t Rise

Lockett Pundt is one of the guitarists and songwriters for the only hyped group fully deserving of said hype, Deerhunter. He’s also the band’s understated musical force. A lot is made of both Bradford Cox’s serious songwriting prowess and his on or off-stage antics. While Cox’s Atlas Sound extracts his signature sound from the Deerhunter burgoo, showcasing where the group gets their vivid lyrics and rigid pop structure, Pundt’s Lotus Plaza pinpoints where Deerhunter’s liquid, dreamy textures originate.

The Floodlight Collective is Lotus Plaza’s debut album, and it’s so fucking good.  The generally reserved Pundt was kind enough to take a few minutes out of the insanely productive Deerhunter schedule and discuss the origins of Lotus Plaza and the recording process.

KB: First, I want to congratulate you on getting this album out – it’s really incredible. I know many of the songs that ended up on The Floodlight Collective have been around for quite some time. What’s the origin story with Lotus Plaza and this album?

LP: Thank you! I guess the origin was when I started recording songs by myself during the last year of high school. I received a four-track for my birthday and tried to write songs. I have been doing it ever since. There wasn’t any real name to go with the songs I made until a few years ago. We all had kind of a pseudonym in Deerhunter and mine was lotus plaza. Around the same time, being Cryptograms era, I started to write a lot of the songs that would eventually go on the record. I had no real intention of making anything for an album really until my friends asked me what I was going to do with the songs. I hadn’t thought of releasing an album myself, but I was into the idea. I was kind of scared but I’m glad it worked out how it did.

KB: How does the songwriting and recording processes differ between Lotus Plaza and the full-band Deerhunter, save for the number of people of course?

LP: Most of the songs I write, I try to make them for Deerhunter. Songs that don’t really feel like they would fit are what end up being something that I might use. Like if the songs are too sample heavy or have more simultaneous instruments than there are members of Deerhunter, then I might end up using them. My songs are more of a recording project. I don’t really imagine the songs live as I’m recording them. Deerhunter songs have to have a live setting in mind during creation. You can’t add that sixth guitar track since it can’t be done in on stage with two guitars.

KB: The Floodlight Collective was an old band you were in, I understand. What made you decide on this name for your first solo effort?

LP: It was an experience that seemed to really initiate my desire to actually create and play music. I was a little unsure of my ability to do anything other than flub around on my Squire II Stratocaster and Crate GX-15 amp. It was the first time that I had really played music with a band full of people. I loved doing it on my own before but it seemed more of a fantasy to actually do it in a band setting. I don’t know to explain it properly other than it made music seemed that it was something I was capable of doing. I wasn’t so sure before I suppose.

KB: On the Deerhunter blog, it seems that “Dot/Gain” originated under the Lotus Plaza moniker but ended up, of course, on Weird Era Cont. Are there other songs in the catalog that started as you but ended up as Deerhunter?

LP:  No, not really. That was kind of a one time thing.

KB: Gotcha. So, I’m really fascinated by the tonality and lushness on a lot of the album, especially “Antoine.” I know that Panda Bear has said that Person Pitch was almost entirely created on the Boss SP-303 sampler and an 8-track. What does the Pundt gear arsenal look like?

LP: Well, I just got some new stuff actually. I used a computer to record the record almost entirely. The title track is actually all four track samples from drone tapes I made over the years, but even then it was turned into a MIDI sample and played on a keyboard into my computer. I have since stopped using it. I wanted to go back to tapes. I didn’t know that he recorded that album on an 8 track. I just bought one that records 8 tracks onto cassette, the Tascam 688. I love it! I hope to record my next album on it. You’re definitely limited as far as effects and processing options without the computer, but I think I’m ready for a change.

KB: Any chance of a Lotus Plaza tour?

LP: Who knows. I don’t think i would be a very entertaining show to watch. I think I’m going to play some shows here in Atlanta and take things from there.

KB:  Finally, what albums have blown your mind lately?

LP: I haven’t been blown away by anything too much recently. I bought this one Harmonia album, Musik Von Harmonia, that I hadn’t heard before and I love it. Another one that I have been getting back into recently after a long break from it is Ash Ra Tempel’s New Age of Earth. Completely amazing…

Lotus Plaza’s The Floodlight Collective is available now courtesy of the good folks at Kranky.

MP3 :::
Lotus Plaza – A Threaded Needle
Deerhunter – Circulation (Live @ Noise Pop)

I shot a message over to Fat Bobby shortly before Preteen Weaponry, part one of the Thank Your Parents long player series, dropped in August with a couple of fun questions.  He got back to me to January.  What he loses in punctuality, he makes up for in dedication.  My questions were goofy, and the responses were equally so.

Bobby felt bad about the delay, writing “no worries if it’s way too late to post, and I agree about me being a fucking unreliable bastard…but in my defense, I haven’t answered anyone else’s questions, at least not meaningfully, so I hope you can take my delay as just the odd gearings of a fucked up clock.”  Part two in the series, Rated O, has been pushed back to a summer release date, but in the meantime, enjoy picking the brain of 1/3 of Oneida… 

KB: Let’s talk about the three-album jam canon Thank Your Parents.  What can we expect with the next two releases, sonically or otherwise?  We know that it has Fat Bobby’s Personal Guarantee of Quality.

FB: Ha – my guarantee is so shopworn.  Every time I tell people about good music, guaranteed, they come back to me with that look on their face that can only be described as quizzical.  It’s like that, but a little more hatin’.  I don’t know, I came to grips over the past couple years with the fact that I’m probably damaged or enlightened or “special” or a combo – what I like doesn’t track with what you like, although we probably both like mostly the same things and everyone seems to have excellent taste.  At least you, I, and most people like Fleetwood Mac, so we can chill together when it all comes down. Anyway, Rated O (next one) is divided into different things. It’s three discs – but each one is just juice, in a different flavor.  No ice, no bones – just juice. Different flavors. Lots of bass, treble, midrange – allllllllll the frequencies represent. Sorry, this sounds like a drunk man’s email, or maybe that of a man on drugs, but I’m actually just riffing in my brain.  Anyway again, the third component of thanking our parents will be one deep thing. There are discussions now about which thing, but it will be deep.

KB: “Preteen Weaponry (Part1)” has some serious jazz hands about the percussion.  I’ve always admired the many, and often disparate, influences you all seem to have.  What’s been rocking your world lately?

FB: Despite your use of the word jazz, I’ll answer your question. Kid [Millions] is going to be really pissed when he sees that, though.  By the way, I don’t think our influences are anything different from anyone else’s influences – sometimes we’re “influenced” by just one thing, sometimes by a combination, and sometimes just by a tv episode or a Family Circus comic, and every band is pretty much the same as that, give or take.  So it’s not about our profound influences or excellent taste, it’s just that we’re a really good fucking band.  Anyway (again, that word), I’m going over to my stereo and I’ll list the first 15 records I have out next to the turntable, no faking:

Genius of Charile Parker vol 1 (ohhh, so busted)
War: first album
Upsetters: Clint Eastwood
Felt: Crumbling the Antiseptic Beauty (this is REALLY GOOD!!!!!)
The Band- self titled
Neil Diamond: Shilo
Nina Simone: Nina’s Choice
Nina Simone Sings the Blues
Modern Lovers: Modern Lovers
Arlene Smith and the Chantels – box set
Flamingos: Serenade
Paper Lace: self titled
Dr. West’s medicine show: the Eggplant that ate Chicago
Trio: Trio and Error (my favorite album since 7th grade, by the way, and
if anything’s an infuence it’s that.)
Ohio Express: yummy yummy/down at lulu’s (and that.)

KB: One of my favorite Oneida moments was when you all and Liars duked it out proper on Atheists, Reconsider.  Would you consider doing something like that again, either with another band or Liars again (which would sorta be like a different band considering the state of things in ‘03)?

FB: Yes.  I think Liars, like us, Prince, and the original Funkadelic lineup, gets a free pass on anyone judging us.  It would be fun to do this with any band I like. The Band would be awesome, or maybe someone from Texas, or Liars again.

KB: I always find it fun to guess what kind of pedals, equipment, and samplers you all use to create those ultra thick tones.  What’s some of your go-to gear?

FB: Personally, I use an Ace Tone organ live and on a lot of recordings – extremely percussive and solidly constructed Japanese organ action. Music Man and Traynor amps are heavily used in our band.  But really, what gear a band uses is irrelevant.  Samplers, though – please, we’re an
anachronistic white blues band, we don’t do that kind of thing (because of fear and incompetence, not ideology – except we have a really, really good drummer and some other skills).  Wait, did I just qualify what I meant to say straight?  Good bands just fucking shred, on sitars or hurlothrumbos or samplers or software, whatever their jam is.  Yeah, I said jam.  Email
your fucking complaints: [mailto:mayor@cityofboston.gov]

KB: Your label, Brah, which has a decidedly excellent name I might add, has a pretty choice discography.  Will that continue as a vehicle for Oneida, its side projects, friends, et al. or do you plan on expanding it further?

FB: Brah is just here to rock out and dance up a storm and party in general.  We like to follow a policy of not making bold claims, except when we feel like it, and I can’t say I’m feeling it – except that Brah is here for general awesome purposes, and the things that are on Brah are pretty awesome.  Other than that, it’s just a thing that you can check out and make up your own mind about, or compile blog mentions on, or even send a postcard to:

Oneida
112 Ardale St
Roslindale MA 02131

Also, I listen to every demo you send, and we won’t release it on Brah, but it still rules to get random music that’s usually actually pretty good (and better than whatever the dipshits are into).  Much love.  By the way, last comment:  MS word is all putting red lines under blog and dipshits and brah.  That’s pretty.

I’m a total asshole for popping the “influences” question.  My journalism degree taught me nothing except how to master MS Word myself.

MP3 :::
Oneida – The Adversary