If anything, the members of St. Helena, Jessie and I can agree on one thing: Allston bars, you’ve gotta knock it off with the Top 40 radio bonanza.  Patrick, Shawn, Chaeten, Magen and Keith all mirrored our distaste for the onslaught of Britney and Katy and Rihanna our ears were met with over the course of our conversation at a Harvard Ave pool hall one sunny Saturday afternoon.  Though the nauseating musical selection in the background  served as a running joke throughout the duration of the interview, St. Helena’s lady and gentlemen were champs when it came to scarfing some pizza and spilling their guts on any and all things concerning St. Helena.

Though the band was created in 2003 by Patrick Teahan, the current lineup of St. Helena includes some longstanding talents who have been playing to sold-out Boston venues for years and new kids known for their wise-beyond-their-years guitar skills alike.  Their latest release, Slow Jack, will be celebrated this Saturday night at the Cantab Lounge with what’s sure to be an evening that’ll have elaborate keys dueling crashing cymbals and catchy choruses.  Though Chaeten’s been known to start some onstage antics with bass player Keith [the two play on opposite sides of the stage from each other for a reason], you may be lucky enough to see these goofballs play hard and work hard onstage at the respectable Cambridge music spot that night.

-Hilary Hughes

OPENING ACT: ST. HELENA AND THE TEAPARTY TEN

What’s your favorite breakfast cereal?

Chaeten: CTC, aka Cinnamon Toast Crunch.  Or something cooked by a beautiful woman who I just met the night before.

Patrick:  That is the most decadent statement I’ve ever heard.  Anyways, I’ll go with Greek yogurt with walnuts and blueberries.

Magen: Kashi!

Shawn: Cocoa Puffs.

Keith: I like Life Cereal but it makes me fart really bad.

Who would you rather punch in the face: Long Duk Dong from “Sixteen Candles”, or Mouth from “The Goonies”?

P: I’d hit Mouth.  Long Duk Dong is a good person.

C: I’d hit Mouth, no qualms.  Long Duk Dong is great!  I could never hit Long Duk Dong.

S: I’m staying out of this.

M: I’ll go with Mouth, too.

K: Yup, Mouth.

If you were a kitchen appliance, what would you be?

S: Blender.  I’m mixed up! (Laughs)

P: I’d be a waffle iron.

C: Yeah!  Get the party started.  I think I’ll be the refrigerator so that I can get all the attention.

K: Bottle opener.

M: Microwave!

You go to bed, wake up, walk into the bathroom to brush your teeth, and you look in the mirror and you realize that you’ve turned into one of Jim Henson’s Muppets overnight.  Which Muppet are you?

P: Kermit.

K: One of those old guys in the balcony.  I’ll be Waldorf, the one with the mustache.

C: If I’m gonna be honest with myself I’m gonna have to say Animal.

M: I’m Janice.

S: I like Animal.

Say you have a crazy night, you black out, and you wake up feeling like crap the next morning and you realize… you got a tattoo.  What’d you get inked?

C: I’d get a portrait of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.  My roommate tries to get me blackout drunk so that I’ll go tattoo Will Smith’s face on my bicep or something.

P: If I was wasted the only tattoo I’d think to get would be something I hate but it would probably be the fighting Irish guy or some God-awful shamrock.

K: I’d get something really douche-y, like the Tasmanian devil doing a keg stand with a lightning bolt in the background.  I’d want something I could laugh at.

S: If I woke up the next morning after blacking out the night before and I saw a tear drop tattooed on my face or something… Yeah, I wouldn’t want to know what happened anyway.  I’d be pretty scared.

M: It would be some really, really awful Celtic armband.  I wanted it in high school.  I know that’s where my brain would go.

Would you rather be a rodeo clown or a sumo wrestler?

M: Rodeo clown!  That’d be so much fun.

C: Rodeo clown.  Hey, sumo wrestler can only have women on top, man!  You want to be able to mix it up! (Laughs)  You have more options if you’re a rodeo clown.

K: Rodeo clown.

P: Rodeo clown, yeah.

S: Rodeo clown.

If you were a particular style of facial hair, what would you be?

C: Sideburns.  Yeah.

P: General scruff.  I secretly admire a very, very thin chinstrap.

K: I’d take a lot of work if I were facial hair.

M: I’d be a nice five o’clock shadow.  I had a drag party one year and I got it painted on me and it looked pretty good, actually.

S: Pass.

If you were a type of cheese, which cheese would you be

S: I’d be American cheese!

C: I was thinking Muenster cheese because I can’t correctly pronounce it.  It feels very comfortable to my palate.

M: Gorgonzola!

P: Goat cheese.

K: My wife is from Switzerland, so I’ll be Swiss cheese.

P: He calls her Swissy.  It’s cute.

K: I’m in love, okay?!

What’s your quintessential “I’M GONNA DANCE AROUND MY APARTMENT IN MY SKIVVIES AND LOVE LIFE!” song?

M: Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation.”

K: “Dancing Queen.”  I fucking love that song.  I can’t believe I’m admitting this, but I love. That. Song.

S: “Hot in Here” by Nelly.

C: Every song off of Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall.

P: Anything by Otis Redding.

What’s your favorite word?

C: I’m going to say Chaeten. Chaeten is a nice word. (Laughs)

K: Foosball.

M: Pejorative. I’ll go with pejorative.  And decadent!  I like decadent.

S: Sex!  I’m gonna go with sex.

P: I’m going to go with royal.

THE MAIN EVENT: THE ST. HELENA TPB INTERVIEW

Let’s get some names for the record.  Where are you guys from, and how did you come to make music together as St. Helena?

Patrick: Hi!  I’m Patrick.  I’m from the South Shore of Massachusetts.  I played in a bunch of bands, and then I started St. Helena in 2003.

Keith:  I’m Keith!  I’m from a small town called Endicott, New York.  I started playing in bands when I was about 15 with guys in their mid-twenties and thirties playing a bunch of hair metal, and I’m still very much into that stuff.

Chaeten: I’m Chaeten.  I’m 22 years old and kind of an outlier, here.  I grew up all around North Carolina and I came up here to go to school.  I had already been listening to St. Helena for a while and I heard that they were looking for a bassist, and I didn’t have a bass amp at the time.  It’s funny that Keith wound up fillin’ that slot.  Then I saw they were after a guitarist, and I was like, “What’s up?  Let’s play some music.”  I realized a few months into it that I had grown up listening to the bands that other members of St. Helena have played with, so it’s an honor to be here.  We’re a motley crew.

Shawn: I’m Shawn.  I’ve been around here for a while and I grew up in Rhode Island.  Patrick, we met how many years ago?

P: I’d say a good four years ago.  We just knew each other from Cambridge.

S: We met, and then he needed a drummer and I hadn’t played in awhile, so I said I’ll help out.  I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to join the band, but it was kind of unofficial; I never really became a part of the band (laughs).

P: Yeah, Shawn’s still unofficially in the band. (Laughs)

S: I’ve been in a bunch of bands from Boston that you may know.  That’s about it.  I used to play in a band called Early Arms.  When I first moved here, I lived with this girl on Newbury Street, so I hadn’t really played and I started getting bored.  She looked in the paper and found this band called Dump Truck that was looking for a drummer, and I auditioned for them and I stayed with them for seven years, roughly.  After that, I was in a band called Helium for a bit, and then I stopped playing for a while.  I was very fortunate growing up around Boston and being able to listen to all these bands, because there was an extremely vibrant musical scene at the time.

M: I’m Magen!  I’ve been in Boston for about eight years and I moved here after college.  I’ve been with St. Helena for about two and a half years.  Before that, I was kind of doing the singer/songwriter thing on my own.  I’m a pianist, originally, and I found these guys – one of the things I was really excited about with St. Helena was that Patrick plays guitar and keys, so he writes songs that incorporate both really well.  I was looking for a band that played rock and I wanted to sing, and I really liked Patrick’s piano-based songs.

K: That’s how I felt, too.  When St. Helena came about for me I was singing in Bang! Camaro and I really wanted to play an instrument again, and I came across the St. Helena mySpace and I was like, “This is the band I’ve been looking to play with for ten years.”

Is everyone and their mother in Bang! Camaro at some point?

K: Yes. (Laughs)

P: Also, Shawn and I are in a bad boyfriend-girlfriend type relationship.  It’s a co-dependent thing.  Like, he could’ve left a long time ago.

You don’t know how to quit Shawn, basically?

P: I DON’T KNOW HOW TO QUIT YOU, SHAWN.

S: (Laughs) Well, let’s put it this way: We can be in a rehearsal and I get chills sometimes because the music sounds so fuckin’ good.  Back in the other bands, it was kind of party time for me and it’s all kind of blurry and I took it all for granted.  I don’t want to do that anymore, but I did do that, and part of the job description back then was getting fucked up out of your mind and going to play for people.  I don’t know how the fuck I did it, but I did.  Now, it’s different.  Everybody in this band actually wants to practice and wants to be professional and they want to make the music good.

P: We’re not a band with a huge following yet.  St. Helena has been around for a long time, and it would be great if we had that, but part of me doesn’t care because it’s like, we spend so much time that there’s drama in the band and our lives outside the band, and essentially we go and we write the songs and we play them live and we really try to make an art out of making those songs better.  There’s a lot of camaraderie in St. Helena, and there’s a lot of integrity when it comes to improving our music.  We’re not a band that’s gonna jump in a van and go, like, around the country right now, you know what I mean?  We’re not really at that level and I don’t know if that’s possible, but we have a really, really good time with each other being ambitious and making harmonies and talking songs to death.  There’s a lot of integrity in this band.

C: I feel like most of the people who have heard of our band are usually musicians because I guess we put a lot of thought into our music, and it takes to people who really get the work behind our stuff.  I feel like nowadays people want to make instantly gratifying music and they just want to blow their musical load in thirty seconds, so to speak.

P: I’d feel better if it took someone three times to listen to the song in order for them to like it.

S: It means a lot when someone who’s never heard of you comes to see you because you’re opening for someone else, and they come up to you afterwards and tell you that you kicked some ass.   That’s happened with us a lot. My thing is that I think that I may have more experience playing on some stages, but I think that if you were to put St. Helena onstage, that audience ain’t gonna fuckin’ boo us, that’s for sure.  Once we get the basic song down, we start breaking it apart and everyone is open-minded and it’s awesome.  All of us are willing to say, “Fuck it, I’ll play this part a different way” if one of us think that the song can improve.  A full room makes us play better, and we want to win them over.

C: There are no egos in St. Helena, which is great.

M: To speak to the Boston music scene right now, when you’re talking about just more intellectual rock, I think that actually both things are true.  The Boston music scene is kind of struggling right now, but there’s a lot of that kind of rock happening, which I like.  A lot of musicians are going out and listening to each other’s stuff, and that’s pretty exciting.  It may seem like a kind of insular thing where you’re going to hear someone else’s band and in turn they come to see your band, but you’re really actually into each other’s music and I find it to be very energizing.

S: I’m kind of older and out of the loop so I don’t know a lot of new stuff, but I want to see that happening, too.

That’s what we’re most interested in when it comes to the Boston music scene, this idea about a thriving community that’s built amongst friends.

M: Yeah!

S: I would play other cities with Dump Truck and people would follow us back to Boston.  Now, I see the whole scene as being on the down low right now.  I think people are honing their skills and that the scene is going to explode again, but I’m not seeing the kind of scene that I saw back in the day.  Anytime you went by the Middle East or TT’s or any club, every show would be sold out on any given night.  You could go any place and just see something really good every night of the fuckin’ week.

Do you think that the difference in the Boston music scene now has more to do with the bands or that the fans aren’t as present anymore?

S: I think a lot of it has to do with the Internet, to be honest.  No one even buys whole records anymore!  You can put out a single song and put your video on YouTube and you could be huge after that.  I think that keeps a lot of people in their houses.  They don’t have to; they’re watching your videos on YouTube, you know?  I know that good show still exist here, but for me, I used to play for a fair amount of people and one of my first gigs with Patrick was at PA’s Lounge and four people showed up and those four people were our friggin’ girlfriends.  I’m starting from scratch again, you know?  I didn’t want to use my clout to get into another band.  It just worked out that way.  I’ve seen St. Helena grow, and I think that we have a lot of talent here and that our sound is actually unique.

When it comes to the songs of St. Helena, you guys had mentioned that Patrick does the majority of the writing.  Can you take us through St. Helena’s creative process?

P: It’s been changing recently, but it’s pretty much that I come in with the bones of a song and then we see what we can do with it.  We have a really great chemistry where songs get laid down fast with us, and the songs I’ve written the fastest have turned out to be some of our best songs.  Recently, members have started to bring in their own songs, and the tone of the songwriting has changed in that each individual is open to bring in stuff they’re working on.  It’s great to take a little bit of a backseat and for me to take a side approach with someone else’s song and build it up from there.

S: As far as people that I’ve worked with and liked in Boston, I guess I’m thankful that Patrick is not this stuck-up asshole who demands we play songs a certain way.

P: Yeah, I’m just a regular asshole.

S: (Laughs) You’re extremely open-minded, though!  He’ll sit there and he’ll be willing to give anything a try.

M: Patrick’s very open to whatever people feel like adding to the songs he brings in, too.

P: For songwriting, it wasn’t always that way, but if you come in and you’re so fundamental about your songs being a certain way, you may as well be playing by yourself in a room.  St. Helena was kind of a leap from the start.  I was a drummer in a band, and then I got kicked out, and I started writing songs because I wanted to give it a try.  St. Helena isn’t just about my songs; it’s a collection of five people with chemistry, and I just bring in the bare bones of a song.

C: I think that’s what’s good about us.  At first, I felt like I was joining this pre-established band and that I’d just help with some guitar parts.  We use all this genius floating around in the room between these five people and we utilize all of it as opposed to just using portions of it.

P: People are more inclined to pay space rent when they have the opportunity to do what they want to do.  (Laughs)

M: St. Helena’s been around for quite awhile, but this incarnation of the band is still on the newer side and right now we’re hitting this stride where we’re making new stuff and it’s exciting.  All this new stuff that we just can’t stop playing, it’s because we’ve all written our own parts on it.

P: We’ve been together, all of us, for about a year now.  Chaeten joined last October and is the most recent member; Shawn’s my second drummer; Keith’s like, my fourth bassist.

K: I thought that Patrick was gonna be like, the indie version of Axl! (Laughs)

P: A lot of that is about chemistry and it gives us free reign, musically.  It’s not fun to be the bassist in the band and have to play what someone else wants and put on a demo.

C: We’re definitely not afraid to tear songs totally down to the foundation in order to start over with it, either.  I feel like most bands aren’t willing to do that.  This is an involved band, which is nice.  It’s really nice to be with a band that cares so much and to be with musicians who want to get to practice on time because it means that we get to spend every minute together making music and every discussion about it makes a difference in this efficient unit.

P: Take practice, for example: We rehearsed on Wednesday night and I had an awful day at work on Wednesday.  When we started playing, my bad day was forgotten.  It’s like yoga or something.  It’s not so much work.  We just have a really good time playing together.

M: We practice a lot, too.  We steadily do practice about two times a week.  I think for all five of us, once we get to the space we leave much more energized.

P: I mean, we all have shitty jobs, we all have health insurance problems and money problems and relationship problems, but if you have something creative going on, it gives you juice.  Yeah, there are days that you want to quit if some drama comes up or something like that, but what am I gonna do, go fucking hiking or something?  I’d rather still be in a band than go on a hike! (Laughs)

Are there any songs in the St. Helena catalog that you feel especially connected to?

C: I feel like it ebbs and flows, really: We’ll be really into this new song and if you fast-forward to a couple of months down the line, we’re ready to give that same song a rest because we’ve played it so much.

M: There’s a new song called “Vertigo” that we started a month or two ago.  I’m really excited about that one.  Every time we play it live I get really happy about it.  I’m excited to play “California”, which is a new one that we’ll be doing live at the Cantab Lounge CD Release show.

K: Yeah!  I like “Vertigo.”

C: I feel like our sound has definitely evolved.  We’re more serious and less safe.

P: We’re never really poor on songs; we always have songs going on.  “California”, “Vertigo”, we have a new one coming up that they’re all, they basically happen spontaneously.  I’ll come in with just an idea and collectively it’ll come together in one rehearsal.  The new songs, to me, are the best ones because they’re pretty much written on the spot by all five of us.

S: I love “Vertigo” because I just recently found out what the definition of vertigo is!  I thought it was the opposite of what it actually means!  I like that song a lot.

C: One cool thing about that song is that the ending is quite ambitious.  It just has this giant swell to it that builds and builds and it just abruptly stops.  It would’ve been easy to just give up on it, as it was hard for us to get, but after we got it, it was like, “Oh, so that’s what ‘Vertigo’ sounds like.”

K: In that new song in “California” there’s a part towards the end where Shawn and I lock in on his crashes.  I’ve always played in hard rock bands, so I tend to do ridiculous stuff like throw my bass in the air and pound on shit and jump around, and for me, that part of that song, I love playing it.  I love the awesome rock elements in a lot of our songs.

P: When Shawn was playing in Helium, I was a huge Helium fan.  I was playing drums then, and I would play along to Shawn’s drumming.  I would listen to his music and try to play catch up.  That band heavily influences a lot of the songs that I’ve written for St. Helena.

M: That’s one of the challenges of a five-piece, too; I think it’s fun that we spend so much time these days on the arrangement of a song.  We’ll all be playing at the same time, and it’s like, “Okay, Shawn, what if you drop out now, and then Chaeten, you play a little less now?”  That’s what we spend most of our time on now.

What about other Boston bands?  In terms of people who are currently here right now, what bands are you following from here, currently?

C: I just played a show with Mellow Bravo.  They’re one of the greatest bands of all time, I must say!  It’s a super group, really.  A bunch of great musicians came together and there’s a lot of no bullshit rock and roll coming from them, you know?  I just think they’re really nice people who make great, great music.  Every person in that band is a strong player in their own right.

K: There are a lot of great bands around here!  Taxpayer, Hooray for Earth, Township, The Motion Sick… there are so many solid Boston bands.

P: The Motion Sick are an exceptionally helpful band to a lot of other bands, as well.

M: I love a lot of the girl-fronted rock happening right now, like Apple Betty and Sarah RabDAU.

P: I feel like in Boston we’re all trying to collectively tread water rather than compete with each other.

How do you feel about Boston bands paying their dues here?  We hear the expression “cutting teeth” thrown around a lot.  How has that gone for St. Helena?

P: I’ve been playing in bands in Boston since ’97 and you have to be smart about paying your dues.  You have to have a lot of resources to keep paying your dues, too.  You can play a great show on a Thursday, but if you do it once and then don’t play another show for three months, it’s not gonna work.  You have to be consistent with paying them I guess.

In terms of favorite Boston venues, where do you like to play the best?

P: Great Scott.

C: Great Scott has the best sound, too!  I love The Middle East, Upstairs, too.

K: I actually miss the Abbey Lounge.  I LOVED playing there.  I used to have so much fun there with Saturday shows.

C: I like the Cantab Lounge, too; it’s a lot of fun to play, but I don’t get a big vibe from there.  I’d like to see more people come out to Cantab shows.

M: I like the Paradise Rock Club quite a bit, but I really miss the Paradise Lounge a lot.  It kind of breaks my heart that the Paradise Lounge is no longer around.  The sound in both those rooms were great!

P: With St. Helena, it’s always felt like we’re kind of biding our time: I think that if you stay around Boston long enough you do get to play for bigger audiences, so we’re kind of in our basement getting our shit together in the next year or so.

S: I think that it’s key for us to keep our morale up too.  You can easily burn out.  As long as we’ve got new material coming and we’ve got songs that have us keep wanting to go to practice, I think we’ll be okay.

So, what’s next for St. Helena?  After the upcoming show at the Cantab Lounge, what do you have planned for the next couple of months?

P: We put out an EP in 2006 and it got a lot of airplay and we put the whole thing on mySpace and all that, and it was a good stepping-stone for us and established us.  We’ll probably start recording again in the late fall.  We might do some pre-production on a full length.  We have enough material for it, and we haven’t done one yet, so that’s the next step for us I think.  We want to record it differently than how we recorded the last EP because that was a shit show.

M: It just took us forever!  We were trying to save money.  Next time, we want to do it all at once.

C: I’m excited because I joined the band after the last stitch was sewn on the last record, so I’m looking forward to the next one too.

When I think about the Boston music scene, I think of a big, boisterous group of people who support local music by going to each other’s shows, who promote the releases and events being put on by friends of theirs who also happen to be in local bands, and who can play the “Oh, you know ___? I know ____!” game better than anyone else. There are a few characters that stick out amongst the brooding lyricists, groomed hipsters and big melody-hungry musicians in this crowd, and one such character is John Powhida. Having come here in hot pursuit of his favorite bands after making the rounds in Albany’s independent music community, John has set up shop in Boston while making a name for himself as one of the least predictable and most entertaining performers on stages found on both sides of the river. With a penchant for epic, octave jumping solos, some of the most ridiculous lyrics you’ve ever heard and a wardrobe boasting numerous hats, shades and sparkly shirts that elicits a head-scratch or two, John is known just as well for his eccentricities as he is for his soaring voice and incomparable stage presence.

Gab, Jessie and I found ourselves in the basement of Toad on Sunday evening sitting across from Mr. Powhida, who was comfortably nestled in an arm chair that went along with the green room’s mismatched décor. I had plopped down on a well-worn leather sofa, and Jessie and Gab were dangling their legs over the edge of a gigantic trunk pushed up against the pistachio-hued wall.  This was the third week of John’s August residency at Toad, and his Sunday night slot was more of a musical variety show than a showcase for the Boston musician as he happily shared the stage with some of his talented friends.  We’ve had the pleasure of catching John onstage with John Powhida International Airport at Greenfest, and we were up front and center for his blink-and-you’ll-miss-it performance in Boston Band Crush’s epic One Night Band event.  August and John’s residency at Toad may be over, but after hanging out with Mr. Powhida and checking out his stellar show in town we’re sure that this won’t be the last time we’ll be seeing him.  Read on for a word-by-word retelling of the hilarious conversation that ensued in Toad’s basement, complete with musings on the MFA, his love for Mike Gent and his cat, Martin.

-Hilary Hughes

OPENING ACT: JOHN POWHIDA AND THE TEAPARTY TEN

What’s your favorite breakfast cereal?

It’s been a long time! Cap’N Crunch, though it tears the roof of your mouth a lot.

Who would you rather punch in the face: Long Duk Dong from “Sixteen Candles”, or Mouth from “The Goonies”?

I’d punch ‘em both. At the SAME TIME.

If you were a kitchen appliance, what would you be?

I would be a bottle opener.

You go to bed, wake up, walk into the bathroom to brush your teeth, and you look in the mirror and you realize that you’ve turned into one of Jim Henson’s Muppets overnight.  Which Muppet are you?

I’ve always related to Ernie.  I really have. You know, the glass is always half full with Ernie.

Say you have a crazy night, you black out, and you wake up feeling like crap the next morning and you realize… you got a tattoo.  What’d you get inked?

A blue and white checkerboard on my face.  That just came to me. I always thought I would get a tattoo of Tatu from “Fantasy Island.”  Isn’t that funny?

Would you rather be a rodeo clown or a sumo wrestler?

Sumo wrestler.  You know, there’s a whole correlation between sumo wrestling and rock and roll.  It’s the ritual, and the fans, and rock and roll, c’mon!  Then, I wouldn’t have to worry about eating too many BLTs.  I could eat as many as I like!

If you were a particular style of facial hair, what would you be?

I like to trim my eyebrows because they tend to get a little unruly, so I would like to be just a nicely trimmed eyebrow.  Just one.

If you were a type of cheese, which cheese would you be?

I would be that nasty, awful vegan cheese.  What’s that cheese that smells like jizz? It’s HORRIBLE!  I don’t know what cheese I’d be, but I wouldn’t be the cheese that smells like jizz.

What’s your quintessential “I’M GONNA DANCE AROUND MY APARTMENT IN MY SKIVVIES AND LOVE LIFE!” song?

“Inner Revolution” by Adrien Balou.

What’s your favorite word?

Powhida.  No, I can’t say that.  I’ll say Martin.  That’s my cat’s name.

THE MAIN EVENT: THE JOHN POWHIDA TPB INTERVIEW

So! John!  We go through three phases in our interview, pretty much-

John:  Do you need  a urine sample?

…Not yet.

J:  Okay.  I’m going to put my sunglasses on.

Okay.  What’s a short bio look like for John Powhida?

J:  I’m from Albany, New York, originally.  I moved here in 2000.  I got on the cover of the Albany version of The Phoenix, and I thought, “What the hell do I do now?  I gotta get out of town.”  I moved here, because Boston bands used to pass through Albany, like the Gravel Pit and the Gentlemen, and my band would open for them when they’d come through town.  I thought, “well, I can move to New York City, or I could move to Boston…” Boston always seemed to have a good communal bands building up each other, really supportive scene, and that’s proven itself time and time again.  I also moved to Boston because some of my favorite bands are from Boston, and I wanted to be able to see them more often.  They are Mike Gent and the Gentlemen, the Neighborhoods and the Upper Crust.  Do you know the Upper Crust?  Oh my God!  They dress as 18^th century aristocracy with the powdered wigs and the pantaloons and all they do is sings about being rich and they sound like ACDC and they’re AMAZING.  They opened for Aerosmith at the garden a few years ago.  They’ve been on Conan.  They’re so funny and so rocking.  Genius!  Those are great.  Get hip to the Crust.  You’ll love them.  I’m glad I moved out here.  Sure enough, I moved here in 2000, the first year was rough and I couldn’t get much happening, but after about a year, Mike Gent from the Gentlemen basically showcased my band and me in front of all his fans, and my band at the time was called the Rudds, and from there it’s just been one cool thing after another.  Just when I think it’s getting to the point where it feels like Albany and that I’ve settled into every little thing, something else cool happens that sorta keeps me here.  I guess the coolest thing that’s happened with me now is that I’m recording with Paul Kolderie who did Radiohead’s The Bends and Dinosaur Jr and Warren Zevon.  He’s been recording me and putting the music on his website at Campstreetstudio.com releasing these digital EPs, and that’s been fun.  I’ve just been super busy.  I keep writing and finding people to play with, and when the Rudds broke up I was like, “Oh God! What happens now?” but you find people to play with and you keep moving and growing and changing and it’s just all a wonderful dream.

Where did “John Powhida International Airport” come from?

J: I think I had heard that Ronald Reagan and John Lennon had airports named after them, and I thought, “I want an airport!”  I don’t have a driver’s license, but I do have an airport named after me.  And, you know, the Rudds? That was such a terrible name!  We were named after ACDC’s drummer, Phil Rudd, but then like, Paul Rudd became a famous actor, and there was this guy Roswell Rudd, and I just think it’s a way cooler name.  Anything I do from now on will fall under John Powhida International Airport.

Let’s talk influences.  Who does John Powhida look to for inspiration, creatively?

J:  This ties into the residency thing, because my main influences are people from the 70s and 80s, like Prince and Ty Rundgren and Cheap Trick and Daryl Hall and John Oates and Joni Mitchell and all kinds of people.  My 90s, I was like, relying on those influences for a long time.  When grunge hit, I didn’t really know how to relate to any of those bands because they weren’t melodic enough and stuff, but there were two bands that I absolutely loved that really changed the way I look at music, and life and everything, and it was the Figgs, another band of Mike Gent’s, and Urge Overkill from Chicago.  Nash Kato from Urge Overkill actually played the first night of my residency.  You may know Urge Overkill from “Pulp Fiction”, in that scene where Uma Thurman’s about to overdose and she puts in that CD and “Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon” comes on? That was Urge’s version of a Neil Diamond song, but their own music is just phenomenal.  Years and years later, I’m in Boston and I’m playing with both of those people, with Nash and with Mike.  Now, I’m always finding new people who blow my mind.  There’s a woman named Nelly Makai who I absolutely love.  She’s like a 27 year-old piano player that’s terrific. I love all kinds of music: I love soul music and R&B music and Stevie Wonder and stuff, oh my God, I have a huge record collection!

Can you take us through the songwriting process of John Powhida? Do you collaborate with anyone, or do you write alone?

J:  I’ve never been particularly comfortable writing and working with other people.  I usually get the ideas myself, and then flesh ‘em out, and then I bring them to the band.  I don’t know why that is, but I’m more comfortable being a lone wolf creatively that way.  I just can’t seem to get free enough or let go enough when I’m working with another person.  I get kind of stifled and I can’t really let go and be me.  I always like music that’s not just one thing: I don’t like just country or just rock or just soul.  I think rock and roll is that great hybrid of lots of different influences, so I like music that’s a synthesis of different styles.  I think that’s way more interesting than just the purest…

You can definitely hear that in your music.

J: Thank you!  There’s soul in so many different types of music.  To just get joy or limit your expression to rock is just, to me, is just kind of boring.  I love to rock and I think at heart I’m a rocker, but I love R&B music too and rap and I just like mixing it all together.  I’m just a channel with my creative process, man!  (Laughs) I’m just kidding.  I don’t know.  I don’t really understand it fully.  I’m always glad when another song comes, and they keep coming.  At my job, I’m a security guard at the Museum of Fine Arts, a gallery guard, and basically you’re just left alone with your thoughts all day.  I’m able to think about music and work on music and work on stage banter and most people work at their job and they have to work for a boss that’s bearing down on them, and they maybe don’t have time and the creative thing gets sublimated.  At my job, I’m able to think about it all the time.

Does it help being surrounded by beautiful things all day?

J:  I think it does.  It does influence you, even if it’s subconsciously.  How could it not?

Just out of curiosity, which gallery do you work in?  Does your assignment change?

J:  It changes every day.  Sometimes I’m at the door, and I’m taking tickets and all that sort of thing, but that’s the most exciting part of the day to just see where you are.  It’s all downhill from there.

Do you have a favorite part of the museum?

J:  That’s a good question.  Every gallery has its own little vibe and some galleries have amazing art in them but the days just drag and drag and drag.  Like the Dutch gallery, where the Rembrandt stuff is?  That stuff’s amazing, but man, that makes for the longest day, whereas say, the days pass quickly in the Asian sculpture gallery!  I don’t know why.

In terms of what we have to look forward to from you in the coming months, are there any projects we should look out for?

J:  I’m excited because I have a new version of the Airport.  I lost two members, a married couple, and they moved away and I was really bummed out because I love those guys.  They played with me last week in a kind of Airport vs. Airport thing, where we had the old Airport versus the new Airport.  What do we have over the next couple of months? Let’s see. Well, you know what’s fun is the Rudds are reuniting at the end of this month, and the Rudds are awesome.  I really don’t know what the hell will be going on in the next couple of months.  Things keep happening.  The phone will ring and I’m like, “Okay, I’ll do that.  No, I’m not gonna do that.”  That’s my whole thing: People never know what to expect, so they’re like, “Oh, there he is, always surprising us with these wacky antics!”

Why did you choose to do a residency at Toad?

Billy Beard asked, and he thought it would be a good idea so he offered me Sundays continually, like, I’ll be the Sunday guy, but I’ve found that I don’t need to play that often and that we’ve got a great groovy thing going on here in August.  At the end of August, I told him I don’t want to be playing; I feel like I’m taking my eye off the International Airport ball.  We’re not rehearsing enough.  I’m always thinking, “What am I gonna be doing next year?” and I make every week different here, which is cool, because residencies can get pretty stale.  I’m flattered that he asked me to take over Sundays, but I said no.  It’s absolutely impossible to have a bad gig at the Lizard Lounge, too.  The Lizard Lounge is a magic venue.  I absolutely love it.

What do you especially love about the Lizard Lounge that makes it the space that it is?

I don’t know if it’s dark, and the three or four single occupancy bathrooms… I don’t know what combines that makes it the magic it is, but I’ve just never had a bad gig there.  It seems like it hosts this communal consciousness where people want to listen to music and have a good time and they’re rooting for you, and it just seems like every time you play there, everyone gets drunk, and there’s that sharing of energy that sometimes happens and sometimes doesn’t at other venues, but it seems to always happen at the Lizard Lounge, where even here at Toad there can be a hit or miss.  If they were to ask me to do a residency at Lizard, I’d do it.

What do you like about playing Toad?

I like the wait staff here a lot, actually: Greg, Jeremy and Josh are all awesome guys.  I like the BLT, that’s yummy.  You know what’s cool about Toad?  Musicians hang out here.  If you’re playing, Sarah Borges will get up and sing with you, the guys from The Click Five are in the audience and you can get them to come up and play… it’s just like a musician hang, you know?  Peter Wolf will come in, Paul Ahlstrand will play sax.  I mean, you can really take that for granted, but when it happens it’s like, “Oh shit! What a special thing!” I like that about this place.

Are there any other venues that have that similar quality of Toad’s, that act as unofficial haunts for musicians in Boston?

I like Johnny D’s because they pay the best.  I like the sound… where do I like the sound? TT’s, the sound is always questionable.  Atwood’s has a similar vibe to Toad, but what needs to happen more is the Atwood’s community- see, this is me tooting my own horn- I somehow bridge the gap between a lot of different scenes and normally the Peter Wolf/Session Americana scene doesn’t always interact with the original music scene that plays the Middle East and TT’s.  Because of all the synthesizing of different styles, it’s like, “Well, John does this, but he also does a bit of this and that.” It would be nice if the Atwood’s people could move over this way and we could intermingle a little bit more.

Yeah!  It’s cool when you can somehow fall under the same umbrella but retain your originality in your own right.

The Session Americana guys are good with that.  They’ve had the Everyday Visuals play with them, and they’re getting friendly with people they wouldn’t associate with normally and making fans and what not.  Since there isn’t one overriding sound or scene right now, I like it when everybody gets to know everybody else.

We talked about why you came to Boston, but we haven’t touched on why you want to stay here.  Do you see yourself settling here permanently, or do you think you’ll be moving on to another city soon with John Powhida International Airport?

I would move onto another city if there were a musical opportunity that I couldn’t say no to.  I don’t really have a lot of roots that I couldn’t up and split.  I moved here for the music scene, not because I was in love with Boston, per se, but I’ve definitely fallen in love with Boston and I have no intentions of leaving.  I moved here completely for the musical opportunities because there were more clubs and more musicians and more opportunities to record with people like Paul Kolgary.  I’ll stay here, but when things start to get too comfortable I do get antsy.  Even being asked to do the residency, I was like, “Am I turning into this local, staple guy?” That always makes me a little nervous, because I like to keep moving like a shark.

Absolutely.  We can understand how you’d want to keep it fresh in order to keep the element of surprise going.

And that’s what this residency has been all about!  It hasn’t just been me playing the same set for five weeks.  The first week, we had Nash Kater from Urge Overkill and that, although it was kind of a train wreck, was really fun because we all got our jam heated.  There was a beautiful, wonderful vibe that night.  The second week was Airport vs. Airport, so there were two completely different sets with two different bands, all original music.  Then, we have Mike Gent playing, who’s a fantastic, great songwriter and one of my heroes.  After that, it’ll just be trio a trio and me kind of playing all kinds of different things, and then the last week is The Rudds.  Every week is completely different.  It keeps people from becoming very familiar with everything.  They have it listed as the John Powhida Project, but it’s supposed to be the John Powhida Show: It’s just like a TV show, and every week there’s a different story.

Are there any particular songs in your catalog that you feel particularly connected to?

Right now I feel connected to “Bridgefield Punk”.  It’s my “Strawberry Fields”.

Before watching them belt, shimmy and kick their skinny jean-clad legs on stage at TT’s, Jessie and I got the dirt on who Bo and Jen are listening to, what we can expect from MEandJOANCOLLINS in the coming months, and why the hell all of their catchiest songs have such dirty, dirty names.  They’ll be headlining Upstairs at the Middle East on Saturday, September 12, and the bill boasts several other notable Boston bands so be sure to clear your schedule.

–Hilary Hughes

Can we get names, ages and where you guys are from for the record?

Bo: Oh my God, really?

Jen: We don’t do ages. (Laughs)

B: I’m Bo Barringer and I’m from Cambridge.

J: Jen, and I live in Somerville now but I’m from upstate New York.

B: Me too, actually.  Originally, anyway.

What brought you to Boston?

J: It’s a cool town.  Bo was a Berklee guy.

B: No I wasn’t.  I got in but I didn’t go.

Did you guys know each other before you came to Boston, or did you meet here?

B: No, we did not, actually.

How did you meet and how did MEandJOANCOLLINS come about?

B: This little thing called “Craiglist.org.”  It’s kind of amazing.

J: He had some Brit/Glam pop ad up or something, and I was looking for a project, and we met up at Charlie’s Kitchen for a drink.

B: We had both kind of broken up with our previous bands.  She was in the Steel Ponies; I was in The Collisions.  Jen was like “Oh, whatever, at least if [the band] doesn’t work out I have a new drinking buddy.”  And that worked out, too, that part of the partnership.

Drinking buddies, huh?  What’s your poison?

B: I tend to drink a lot of Miller Lite.

J: My girlfriend. (Laughs)

Take us through the creative process behind the music of MEandJOANCOLLINS.  Do you collaborate when it comes to writing, or do you work independently of each other and then bring your songs to the band?

B: We kind of write independently.  I mean, God, I’ve written so many fuckin’ songs that’ll never see the light of day. I write at home and I’ll write to whatever idea comes in my head.  I’ll work out the rough skeleton of a song and then I’ll bring it to these guys and it becomes something a lot more.  We try to keep it from a stiff, rigid structure because so many good things come when you start playing with each other and the song evolves and becomes more.

Same thing with you, Jen?

J: I haven’t been writing lately, but usually it’s major, life-changing moments when I write.

B: See, I write about going to the bathroom.  (Laughs) Yeah.  One of our new songs which is also one of our more sensitive ballads is called “My Aim Is Terrible” and it came from… (laughs) I don’t know.  I was in the bathroom at home, and I was just like, thinking about something else, and then I realized that my aim is terrible.  I actually ended up writing a pretty tender, heartfelt song from that.  That was the genesis of the idea.  It happened that way.

How does your creative process change once you hit the studio?

B: The first album we kind of played it by our own book in that we just fleshed it out the best we could.

J: We took advantage of the chance to make it perfect [in the studio].

Do you guys tend to record live or do you track it?

B: It’s pretty live.  The next album is going to be full of some ridiculous stuff, just to give you fair warning.

Did you guys record the last MEandJOANCOLLINS record in Massachusetts?

B: We did! We recorded it at Woolly Mammoth in Waltham.

Do you plan on recording your forthcoming material in Massachusetts?

B: Yeah!  There are so many good studios around here.  Why leave?

J: Unless somebody else wants to pay for it.  In that case, we’ll go anywhere (laughs).

Are there any other songs that you feel particularly connected to in the MEandJOANCOLLINS catalog?

J: “A Little Too Much” is getting a lot of radio play.

B: Yeah, that one’s really fun.  That one’s fun to play, too.  We don’t really play it live anymore.  We’re really trying to push “Crime Of The Century” but that doesn’t have anything dirty in the title…

Do you find that your more popular songs tend to have slightly more, uh, “profane” titles?

B: I just wrote a song called “Cock Tease”, actually.  I tend to write whatever and anything can spark a song, but this song was a sort of assignment. My drummer said, “These other songs are getting all this attention!  You gotta write something new.”  And I said, “Alright, I will.”  He goes, “What are you gonna call it?” and I said, “Ah, I’ll call it ‘Cock Tease’.” (Laughs) I wrote it about this girl named Tracey, and there’s another song written about her called “Maybe You Can Breathe Underwater”.  I sat down and wrote that song based on something she said, and that song was done in ten minutes.  The same with “Cock Tease”, actually.

J: We’re debuting a song called “Central Square” tonight.”

B: It’s our favorite place.

When it comes to touring, do you guys have any crazy stories for us from the MEandJOANCOLLINS tour bus?

J: Yeah, totally. (Laughs)

B: We’re not sharing them!  We’re married to each other.  Did you know that?

No…?

B: Yes.  But we’re both allowed to see other women.  (Jen’s girlfriend, Kathleen, winks.) We got married onstage at The Abbey Lounge, actually.  She wore the tux, I wore the dress.

J: RIP, Abbey Lounge.  What a great place.

Well, this is a great point to start talking about your favorite Boston venues, then.  You mentioned that you like the [former] Abbey Lounge, but what other Boston venues do you enjoy seeing a show at or playing a show at?

J: TT the Bear’s Place, of course.

B: The Middle East, Great Scott, too…  They’re all pretty good.

Did TT’s or the Middle East factor into your Central Square song?

B: Yeah, I mean, it’s part of the whole ambience of Central Square.  Central Square has a nice vibe to it.  I don’t do a lot of name-checking.  I’m not gonna start talking about the Cantab Lounge.

J: Even though we love the Cantab Lounge… (laughs)

In terms of people you’re listening to from here, are there any Boston bands or artists that you particularly enjoy?

B: Yeah, definitely.  I’ve really come to love Magic Magic.  Ketman is one of our favorite bands here and we recently played with them.  They’re really great.  Hoag, too, we really love them.

In terms of your connection with your Boston fans, how has your experience been playing for the crowds in Boston?

J: Boston’s pretty loyal.  I feel like they’re really good fans.  They’re really supportive and they actually go out and listen to other local bands, and it’s an all-around good time.

B: I feel like Boston music fans tend to have good taste in music, too.

What defines “good taste” for you?

B: … Stuff that I like… (laughs).  It’s a very hip city when it comes to music and everybody’s kind of educated here.  People are smart in Boston. I got to other cities, and I’m like, “Man, they’re not as sharp here as they are in Boston.”

What about your experience with fans in other cities?  Are there other cities that you love playing, besides Boston?

J: London!

B: … We haven’t actually been to Europe.  We’re planning on it.  One place that I thought was amazing was Morgantown, West Virginia.  Yeah!  It’s the college town of UWV, and it’s kind of, like, this Cambridge set in the sticks.  It’s this redneck yet educated sort of constituency.  People there really know how to have fun.  I love West Virginia.

What are you guys listening to?  If we were to steal the iPods of MEandJOANCOLLINS and look up your “Recently Added” or “Recently Played” Playlists, what would we find?

B: For the last two years my favorite band has been Deerhunter.  That guy, Bradford Cox, is pretty ridiculous.  He’s put out EPs and albums every six months.  He’s got this side project, Atlas Sound, which I’m also pretty into.  He’s great.  He kind of runs the gamut from dreamy, atmospheric stuff to just aggressive… he touches on everything.

J: I use my iPod as a jump drive.  I don’t have any music on it.  I don’t even have EARBUDS for it.

B: She doesn’t listen to music until she gets to practice.   She listens to music there. (Laughs)

Who are some of your favorite artists, then, Jen?

J: I like our music. (Laughs)

B: I told you! (Laughs) We’re the only band she likes.

Who would you say has influenced you as artists?  Give us the laundry list.

B: Oh, shit…

J: I’ve got some college professors.   I hate talking about bands.

B: I LOVE talking about bands.  My first love was Hall and Oates.  The more I play and the older I get, it’s like, shit.  I went through ten years of not listening to Hall and Oates and then I come back and I’m like, “All these fuckin’ hooks come from Hall and Oates!  Or Prince…” I used to be into hair metal, too, especially Motley Crüe.

What about Poison?

B: Meh, Poison is okay.

You’re not a “Rock of Love” fan, then?

B: FUCK no.

It’s not about the connection for you?

B: If Tommy Lee had been on “Rock of Love”, I would’ve watched it.  But, yeah, I’d say Hall and Oates, Prince and then some hair metal bands.

So, what’s next for MEandJOANCOLLINS?  What are you working on now?

B: We’re going to be recording, actually.  We’ll be playing a lot of new songs in our set, and it’s been that way since we released the last record…

J: I know!  We kind of move backwards from a release party: We play new songs instead of playing songs from the album.

B: So, yeah, that’s kind of next.  We’re hoping to get something out by the spring.

That’s great.  My next question for you was actually going to be where you see yourself in the coming months-

B: Mexico.  I see myself in Mexico in a couple of months. (Laughs) Really, though, we want to get back on the road.

As the fog rolled in off of Narragansett Bay and onto the main stage of the Newport Folk Festival, Jessie and I found ourselves scurrying up one of the hills contained within the walls of Fort Adams in hot pursuit of Deer Tick and the Ice Cream Man. We met Matt Allen, the big -haired smiley guy responsible for doling out free treats across the country as the host of Bablegum’s Road Trippin’ with the Ice Cream Man video series, when he parked his truck next to the media tent for the duration of the Newport Folk Festival.  Seeing as Jessie and I can’t resist frozen deliciousness, let alone free frozen deliciousness, we knew that we’d become fast friends with the man with the sugar, and the dude’s likability factor only increased when he invited Jessie and I to tag along with the Ice Cream Man crew as they explored Fort Adams with Deer Tick to shoot an exclusive one-song performance on the festival’s second day.

I won’t go into details here as Deer Tick’s impromptu jam is definitely Matt’s story to tell [which he does, here], but the whole point of sharing this little anecdote is just to say this: Jessie and I were thrilled to witness the work of the raw, uninhibited talent on display at George Wein’s 50^th Newport Folk Festival.  Our experience, both as music lovers and aspiring arts & entertainment journalists, was one made up of remarkable little moments, onstage and off, that really drove home the fact that the Newport Folk Festival is a time-honored tradition where some of the most respectable musicians and folk artists in the country come to this gorgeous stretch of seaside to make the most of their time together onstage.

Whether we were chatting up Matt about what kind of ice cream Neko Case opted to snack on or tearing up in the photo pit of the main stage as nearly every act on the bill joined Pete Seeger for the best sing-along ever, we encountered a slew of passionate, pleasant professionals who were as elated to be there for this fiftieth year of celebrating American singers and songwriters as we were.  We’ve compiled a list of our favorite moments at Folk Festival 50, divided up between events which occurred on Saturday, August 1, and Sunday, August 2: They include our jaunt with the Ice Cream Man and Deer Tick in fuller detail, as well as conversations with the timelessly gorgeous Judy Collins, the giddy Josh Ritter and even a heartfelt hug from Seth Avett of the Avett Brothers.  Folk Festival 50 had one of the most exciting indie/folk lineups in the festival’s 50-years-and-counting run, so even though we’re only giving you our favorite few, trust us when we say that each and every minute of our two days spent in Newport was filled with throaty yells, haunting refrains, hearty hooks, melodies chock full o’ raw emotion and a chance to catch generations of this country’s most promising talent in action.

-Hilary Hughes

(and hey! after your done reading up on our Folk Festival 50: Day 1, check out our writeup of Day 2.)

Day 1 of the Newport Folk Festival – August 1, 2009

The Low Anthem Play to High Numbers,  12:40pm

Jessie had her first unpleasant interaction as a concert photographer during The Low Anthem’s set: Shortly after they took the Waterside stage on Saturday afternoon, Jessie tried [politely, I may add] to make her way to the front so that she could score some sick shots… and an uppity fan was essentially really snippy with her.  Pro:  Ben, Jeff and Jocie of The Low Anthem are just as talented as they were the night we saw them play selections from their album, Oh My God Charlie Darwin,  at the Brattle, and clearly they’ve got some die-hard fans who were really looking forward to their performance at Newport.  Con: This woman was just mean for no reason.  She’s gotta take some pictures, lady.  Chill out and she’ll get out of your way in two seconds, geez.  On a more positive note, we were able to catch up with Jeff and pick his brains about becoming one of the newest members of the Newport Folk Festival legacy.

So, how did it feel, playing on the waterfront for hundreds of people?

J: We didn’t know what to expect because there are three stages here and we were booked on the smallest one, so we thought, “Oh, no one’s gonna see us, especially because we’re playing at the same time slot as Gillian Welch!  Man, WE want to go to Gillian Welch, and we’d choose Gillian over us!”  (Laughs) We thought that we wouldn’t see anybody, but we were happy that so many of our friends and people we knew from Providence could come out, and I think that the music was well received, so I can say on record, don’t worry if you get booked on the small stage, it’s still great!

Being a Rhode Island band, how does it feel to be reppin’ the state at such a significant festival with such a fantastic history?

J: We’ve been living in Providence for eight years and we love Providence, but our connection is more to that city.  Since we didn’t grow up here and spend our time traveling around outside the city, we do a lot of playing and working within the city, and not so much on the state level.  To play this festival, from our perspective, what’s great is that so many of our friends from Providence could come and see us here, whereas usually if we’re playing a major festival in Chicago or New York, they can’t make the trip.  I think it’s great.  And hey, maybe one of these days Boston can have a major festival!

How does it feel to be a part of the Newport Folk Festival’s legacy?  You guys seem pretty thrilled to be here, especially during Pete Seeger’s sing-along when everyone was up onstage.

J: I’d like to believe that this means that we’re accepted into the community.  It probably does in some way, but really, the relationships build from artists knowing each other and telling each other that so-and-so is a good musician.  Like, the old times, it’s by word of mouth and recommendations.  It’s a little weird; I was standing next to, say, Gillian Welch, and I don’t know Gillian Welch, and I wish I did, and maybe in the coming years I’ll get to meet her and we’ll become friends, but it was kind of forced because it was kind of like, “Hey! Everyone come up here.”  I’ve never met Pete Seeger, so it was like, I can’t say, “Yes!  The initiation is complete!”-

You don’t feel like you’re varsity folk yet, basically.

J: (Laughs) Yeah!  But it was an amazing experience, and I think that in the years to come I’ll look back on it fondly and I’ll be like, “Remember that time I was standing next to these great musicians and I was so nervous?”  It was a big deal for my father because he grew up listening to Pete Seeger, and when he saw me up there standing next to him it was a very emotional experience for him.

On the topic of initiation and meeting new artists within your musical community that you respect, do you think that your performance at the Newport Folk Festival is a kind of a new beginning for The Low Anthem?

J:  When we were booked it was definitely a significant event.  It was the same day we were booked at Bonnaroo, too, so can you imagine that day? (Laughs)  When that happened and we knew that some people were enjoying our music and gonna take a chance on us, it was great.  It was like a minor league baseball player getting a chance to play in the big leagues: Maybe he gets an at-bat in the big leagues and he’s sitting on the bench next to Manny Ramirez and Big Papi, and he’s still a rookie, but he gets his chance and he gets his cuts, that’s kind of how we feel right now.  We’re finally getting the chance to take a few cuts, and it feels good.

An Intimate Harborstage Serenade with Iron & Wine, 4:55pm

An enraptured audience swayed from side to side and sang along and half the bands on Day 1’s roster, including Ben Kweller and Tom Morello, looked to the stage as the voice of Samuel Beam, aka Iron & Wine, soared over the chorus of his cover of the Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights”.  Though each and every one of the performances seen at the Newport Folk Festival this year had their intimate, heartfelt instances of beauty in song, it was Sam who delivered a sincerely touching set that had many a festival-goer wiping tears from their eyes before its conclusion.

[Editor’s note: Naturally, I couldn’t just sit in awe like the rest of the crowd at the Harbor Stage and enjoy the music of Iron & Wine, no way.  I was standing backstage and away from the tent’s protection and I had the distinct pleasure of having one of the dudes from Fleet Foxes tell me that a seagull had chosen a most inopportune moment to relieve itself on my arm.  And leather purse.  And sunglasses.  So much for sentimentality, Mr. Seagull.]

A Spinning Bass and Stomping Feet from the Avett Brothers,  1:20pm:

Between their heel-hammering/banjo-strumming/bass-thumping/octave-soaring/tight harmonizing/chord-picking skills and the resonating melancholy of their poetic lyrics, the Avett Brothers were a tough act to follow on the first day of the Newport Folk Festival.  They played a few fan favorites from their 2007 hit, Emotionalism, as well as material from their highly anticipated I And Love And You, which is scheduled for a September 29^th release.  [Editor’s note: Of all the acts on the bill for Folk Festival 50, the Avett Brothers were the band to beat for me: Emotionalism and Four Thieves Gone are two of my favorite albums of all time and “The Ballad of Love and Hate” is the only song that can move me to tears.] The Avett Brothers will be hitting Boston on October 18^th touring in support of I And Love And You, and if the roar of the crowd in Newport that day was any indication of the  imminent success of the Avett Brothers, you’ll want to suck it up and pay the LiveNation service fee now to secure your spot at the House of Blues.

The Decemberists and their Reenactment of Bob Dylan Going Electric, approx. 6pm

The Decemberists have been good to New England this summer in that they’ve shown up in and around Boston multiple times since Memorial Day.  With that said, they blew Newport out of the water on August 1, and it surely was due in part to the fact that they were thrilled to be performing with a little help from their friends (like Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond).  Starting off the set with “The Crane Wife III” [which also happens to be my favorite song of theirs, original, I know], The Decemberists plowed through some favorites in addition to entertaining the crowd with a hilarious theatrical interpretation of a moment at the Newport Folk Festival fifty years ago when Bob Dylan plugged in his guitar and shocked the crowd.  The audience ate it up, and it’s no wonder why as the Decemberists offered up one of the most enthusiastic sets of the day.

The Most Epic of Folk/Rock/American Music Sing-Alongs led by the One and Only PETE SEEGER!, 7pm

The sun was sinking into the bay in the background, the crowd was on their feet, and the stage was chock full of the most influential folk artists along with some indie, folk and rock acts who were directly influenced by their work, and TeaParty Boston was there to see it all.  Pete Seeger, who recently celebrated his ninetieth birthday, led the festival-wide sing-along with his grandson, Tao Seeger, and had thousands of people belting out the chorus of “This Land Is Your Land”, “If I Had a Hammer” and “This Little Light Of Mine.”   What more could any music lover ask for, honestly?  We were standing in the photo pit gazing up at Ben Kweller, the Fleet Foxes, Elvis Perkins in Dearland, the Low Anthem, Gillian Welch, and nearly every other artist on the bill for Newport’s Folk Festival 50, and George Wein, the man who’s responsible for creating such a monumental musical tradition, was in the wings and singing along as well.  You can’t blame us for getting a little misty-eyed during this one.  With guitar-wielding artists across the country raising their voices today because men like Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie and women like Judy Collins and Joan Baez took  a stand through the use of their lyrics and steel strings, it was nothing short of amazing to see some of the most influential and innovative musicians on the scene sharing the stage with the artists who are partially responsible for the cultivation of their creativity.  The fiftieth incarnation of George Wein’s Newport Folk Festival was an event that celebrated the excitement of new talent while honoring the timeless, classic music of American singers and songwriters, and there wasn’t one person, onstage or off, in Newport that day who didn’t leave Fort Adams feeling as though they were the part of something much, much bigger than themselves.

We first heard of Annie and the Beekeepers from the list of local favorites given to us by Rhode Island-based experimental folk upstarts The Low Anthem during an interview and after their subsequent awe-inspiring Brattle Theater performance, we absolutely trusted their opinion when it came to quality musicianship. So, when Annie Lynch, Ken Woodward and Alexandra Spalding came through Boston in support of their latest EP, The Squid Hell Sessions, recorded locally in Jamaica Plain, we jumped at the chance to check them out.

We chatted with Annie and Ken in the tiny band room in the basement of a local acoustic hotspot that shall remain nameless (for legal reasons we don’t quite understand) about the trio’s genesis at Berklee, recording their latest release and their impending move to Brooklyn.

–Jessie Rogers

Annie and the Beekeepers, tells us about yourselves.

K: My name is Ken Woodward. I play bass. And sing. Sometimes stomp on the floor. I’m from Charlottesville, Virginia.

A: I’m Annie Lynch and I’m from Cape Cod. I sing play guitar and banjo and write songs. Alex is from northern California and she plays cello and viola.

So what’s the back-story on Annie and the Beekeepers?

A: Ken and I met first and I was kind of trying to learn how to play bluegrass music and just wanted to play with people. Ken was like, “I’ll play with you…but this is not bluegrass.” [laughs] One of the first times were played together was in Harvard Square. We were busking and we were really unsuccessful.

Busking?

A: Playing on the street for money…but we were sort of just, like, playing on the street for whoever would listen.

K: For experience.

A: And then we randomly played together for a bit and when I wanted to make and EP I asked Ken if he would play and he introduced me to Alex.

K: Because you were always talking about loving cello. Like, “I looooooove cello.”

A: It was great—wanting a cello and Ken knowing somebody. So then Alex came on and we did the EP and it went well. We didn’t end up releasing anything but we decided at that point to plan recording a full album at a studio in Rhode Island called Lakewest Studio. We just kept playing in preparation for that, started getting gigs and it just felt like there was constant momentum, which gave us enough motivation to keep plugging away. And the music felt really good.

K: We didn’t really plan to do the record, we just started getting gigs and one thing lead to another. It was really natural. It just kind of happened.

Where were this gigs that you were doing?

K: They were all over Boston.

A: We played at All Asia to start with and Revolution Rock Club—which was really funny because it was all these people in their business suits in the Financial District getting out of work and wanting to get dooown.

K: Some guy asked Alex if we covered any Red Hot Chili Peppers tunes. She was sitting with her cello. She didn’t even know what to say. She was like “Ah….no?”

So…have you covered any Red Hot Chili Peppers since?

[Laughs]

A: We’ve covered Aretha Franklin.

K: We’ve covered the Beatles. Gillian Welch.

A: Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings, they’re big inspirations to us. We covered a Tom Waits song, which is always risky business because he’s, you know, Tom Waits.

You’ve covered a lot of people…but can you take us through your own songwriting process?

A: I think what the final product ends up being is a total collaborative effort, but what happens is, typically, I’ll write the skeleton of the song—the lyrics and chord progression—and then I’ll bring it to Ken and Alex and they’ll help me smooth out the rough edges and then we gradually just put the meat on the bones with arrangements. As a group we just sit and play through the song. We just did this one song… we just sat in my apartment for five hours and played this one song and that was the ideal situation for us to be able to arrange a song. To sit there with an unlimited amount of time as a group and really create the emotion of the song. So that ends up being what the audience hears in the live show or the recording—just each person putting their heart and soul into the song. We make it satisfying for each individual as well as to the band as a whole.

What do you like about recording together? How was the experience recording your last album?

K: It’s so many different things because we recorded it at Squid Hell in Jamaica Plain and it was sort of a last minute thing that was kind of, you know, a friend who was kind of doing a project for school and at the same time we wanted to do a new EP and we just went out there with no expectations and just busted it out. It was such a great experience. There is a certain magic that happens when you’re recording and you really nail a song, you really find the spirit of the song…it’s just so hard to duplicated. It’s sometimes the best time for that song, ever.

A: It’s like, “Like A Dog” on that EP.  We seriously went into the studio and, like Ken said, we had no expectations. We just thought, “Oh maybe we can use some of this stuff and put out an EP.” But really like whatever happens, happens. We did one sing that we didn’t even end up putting on the EP and then we sat down to do “Like A Dog” which is the first track on the EP and one of our favorite songs. The tape we ended up using for the recording was the first take, totally live. Everything single thing that you hear is live. And then there’s other songs that we worked on for an entire day and couldn’t even use anything. There’s so many factors to what makes the recording amazing and it’s just kind of really magical that we were all in the perfect space to be putting ourselves into that moment.

K: Recording is really kind of dangerous when you think about it. It’s risky, and that’s what’s exciting about it.

A: Yeah. There’s something permanent about it.

K: That’s what gives it it’s juice. It’s like… this podcast we were doing today. I had this adrenaline rushing because there we were being videotaped and recorded and we were just…doing it.

A: Very vulnerable.

K: It’s different when you play live. You have…people feel you and that goes a long way. They see you and that goes a long way. And it’s not recorded and you can’t rewind, and that goes a long way too.  It’s just a lot more intense when you’re recording.

A: I think it can be kind of the same as a live show. If you’re there in the moment– It’s all about being there in the moment. Which is the beauty of what we’re doing. I think artists in general tend to be sensitive people, but I think we in particular are really sensitive people and when we sit down to play together, anything that’s going on in our lives, any minute fragment of energy that’s going on between Ken and I or Alex and I or Alex and Ken, it’s so feeds into that moment. So whether it’s recording or in a live setting it matters. That’s what makes the difference. I think that we’re more likely to take risks in a live show because it’s not permanent. It’s something in the moment and you’re feeding off of people in the audience which a whole other ballpark. It’s not just about the musicians and then engineers it’s about everybody in the audience and when you have a group of your friends in the audience singing your songs, you’re more likely to just rock out.

When you sit down and write a song, do you think about the live performance or the recording or how those things will be different?

A: I think that when I’m sitting down and writing a song I’m not thinking about anything except what I want to express and it’s really hard even to sit down and say, “I’m going to write this kind of song.” Which is hard because everyone is like “You need more up-tempo songs!” And I sit down and I think, “I don’t really feel up-tempo…” I think that the process of arranging the song as a group is where we determine how we want it to impact the people who are listening to it. This goes back to saying that it’s truly a collaborative effort. We all decide what we want the emotional path to be for the audience and for us.

How is Squid Hell Sessions a departure from previous stuff you guys have done?

K: It feels more mature to me.

A: Totally.

K: It feels like your voice has come much more into its own. It feels… I think we did less over-dubs on the EP.

A: Way less. It feels more live. More eclectic and what a live show feels like. In terms of the songs as a whole, the album has a lot of ebb and flow and variety…

K: It’s dynamic.

A: …Whereas the EP, I feel like the variety and ebb and flow is concentrated in each song. Each song is very intense and sort of like a high concentration of what we do as opposed to a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Like, “These are ourselves. We are emotional.” [Laughs]

Do you guys have any songs that you are particularly connected to?

A: I’d say off of the old album, “Sad Boy” is a song that we’ve constantly been evolving and we always like to play live… well, I always like to play live…

K: Yeah speak for yourself…

A: … And my favorite song of ours, and I think has a lot to do with the recording experience, is “Like A Dog.”

K: Definitely.

A: I don’t think I’d be able to say that we have that experience with anything. Also, we’re doing these songs where I’m playing banjo and Alex is playing viola and Ken is starting to sing more and those newer ones are starting to feel like the baby, you know?

K: The newest ones, the favorite ones.  And I really like “Again And Again.” Something about that one always kind of hits me. “The Wine Song” is always fun, always a crowd-pleaser.

So you’re going to be promoting this album for a bit…what’s next for you guys after that?

A: For the next two months we’re going to be touring, until the end of September. And then Ken’s going to be moving to New York from Boston and we’re going to spend some time re-rooting ourselves. We all started playing in Boston and now Alex and I live in New York and Ken’s moving to New York, we just want to find a sense of community there and further develop what we have going on in the northeast and create and write more as a trio because this is really the first time in our lives that we can really put a lot of energy into this as a band because we’ve all been students and lived in different cities for a year. We’re all really looking forward to just having that creative time. We also just had a transition because we played with another bandmate for two and a half years and he was a really important part of our band and our sound and we valued him so much and so now is sort of a time when we’re starting to find ourselves again. It’s a transitional time, but there is so much positivity surrounding that transition.

How does it feel differently playing in Boston than playing in New York?

K: Well it’s venue-specific. We have our favorite venues and the atmosphere makes a tremendous difference in terms of how I feel onstage which has an impact on how we sound. I feel more relaxed in Boston, this is where the band was formed. But at the same time we have a lot of friend who have moved to New York and they come out to all our shows. Honestly, though, it’s just more comfortable playing at home.

A: We want to start to dig into New York and find a similar comfort there but nothing compares to your own backyard. Boston’s been very good to us. We just started discovering the whole Cambridge scene, like the Lizard Lounge and Passim. I just discovered it a year ago right before I moved to New York so we’ve been really loving it here and the whole community surrounding this neighborhood. I think that we will feel something similar in New York but nothing will ever really compare to where you have your roots.

So you’ll be back?

A+K: Oh yeah.

What is it about the Boston crowd that makes it special?

A: There’s something a little rough around the edges about Boston. People are more apt to just roll out to your show in Boston in whatever they’ve been wearing all day and sit down to have a beer with their buddies and just hang out. There’s a little bit more of that homey sort of vibe. There is that sort of vibe in a lot of places in New York but it’s definitely… it’s NEW YORRRRRK [jazz hands]. You just get a little bit more of that…

K: Snazz Fest.

A: There’s a little bit more snazz in New York. You feel a little bit more like…”Alright, I’m in New York.” That’s the best way I can explain it.

What are some of your other favorite venues?

A: We really like doing sort of barn shows, house shows. We’ve been seeking out more places like that to play. We you really feel…it’s not just being in a bar, you’re being brought into a part of a community.

K: The places we like to play are the places where you can hear the silence in the music. That’s where it’s the most powerful.

A: When you’re playing in a house or barn, people who come out are often people around our parents’ age, younger people who have that appreciation for going out and just sitting and listening to a live show. That’s the best.When you play in a place that’s all different ages…people are giving you baked goods [laughs]…it gives you that sense of really being in a community as opposed to being…

K: At your job?

A: Yeah. I think that our goal as a band is to sort of penetrate into each community we come across.

So New York is the next frontier of that?

A: I think that’s begun but there’s still a lot of work to do. Mainly because it’s a huge diverse city and people are doing everything there… you can’t conquer New York City.

K: New York City conquers you, or you just sort of make do with it.

A: So we’ll see what ends up happening.

Okay, so maybe we didn’t break the bank. But, golly it would have been an easy thing to do at the swanky BOND restaurant and lounge, located in the Langham Hotel in Post Office Square– that’s in the Financial District for those of you who are unfamiliar. The grassy square itself serves as a midday oasis for many a lunching office drone desperate for an escape from over-amped AC and fluorescent lighting but, you know, sometimes a patch of grass and some sunshine just doesn’t get the job done after a hard day at the office.

So here we have BOND. Think high ceilings, massive chandeliers, wood paneling, low lighting and the kind of loungey atmosphere that enables the kicking up of your feet and the tossing back of a few drinks. The finance-themed decor (Yeah, BOND like money. Not like James) adds an extra touch of stateliness, and the currency-themed drinks are at once clever and delicious. I met Ryan and BOND’s Julie Shamrock after the 9-to-5er to check out the space, try out a cocktail or two and check out the menu.

Though the website lists the dress code as “Dress to Impress” there were definitely a few pairs of khaki shorts and about half a dozen Red Sox caps among the weekday evening crowd. Still, with cocktails at $14 a pop, this isn’t your typical downtown happy hour. But sometimes a $3 pitcher of Coors Lite and a sea of blue button-up shirts isn’t really what you’re looking for, amiright?

Stop by BOND after work to lounge on the low couches, take in the sweet sounds of DJ Mario and sip on something fancy. We recommend the Naira, which is made of sparkling shiraz, pear nectar, citrus fruits and framboise, and boasts a crisp bubbliness and some crazy foam on top that will defy all your expectations of delicious. And, oh yeah, get the potato chips. We may have plowed through two whole baskets over the course of our evening. Maybe.

–Jessie

All photos: Jessie Rogers

Hallelujah the Hills. Photo: Jessie Rogers

On May 22^nd, Hallelujah the Hills took the stage Downstairs at the Middle East in front of a rowdy crowd… at 12:30 in the morning.  Though the five bands on the bill that night were collectively responsible for filling the floor of the basement venue, the fact that the fans of You Can Be A Wesley, the Bon Savants, Cymbals Eat Guitars and Magic Magic all stuck around to see the set of the reputable headlining act speaks volumes about the appeal of Hallelujah the Hills and the nature of their city’s independent music scene in which they’ve maintained a popular status over the course of the past year.  Jessie, Gab and I were all present for that fantastic night of music, and we knew that we were witnessing something special when we saw five bands, four of them local, fit together seamlessly on a bill that had had every Boston indie music nut falling all over themselves in anticipation.

After that crazy night in May, Jessie and I had the distinct pleasure of meeting up with Ryan, Brian and Joe of Hallelujah the Hills for a comfortable chat on a spot of well-manicured grass belonging to Harvard, and the following is the conversation that ensued.  Hallelujah the Hills will be releasing their second album, Colonial Drones, on September 22^nd and will be playing select shows in the Greater Boston Area through the fall, so be sure to give them a listen and keep a heads-up to their goings-on by checking back here every once in awhile as we’re addicted to their sound and will most definitely be keeping tabs on them.

-Hilary Hughes

OPENING ACT:  THE TEAPARTY 10

What’s your favorite breakfast cereal?

Joe: Instant oatmeal with honey.  No, no, fuck that – my new favorite cereal is whatever’s in the pantry, but with orange juice instead of milk.

That sounds like an accident.

J: No!  It’s really good!  It’s all freshness and crunch.

Ryan: I like Life cereal.

Brian: I’ve been kind of lame and on the oatmeal kick for a while.

Who would you rather punch in the face: Long Duk Dong from “Sixteen Candles” or Mouth from “The Goonies”?

R: Mouth is hilarious.  I just want to hug him.

J: I want to be friends with them both!

B: I’m just not a violent person!  I can’t imagine punching someone!

If you were a kitchen appliance, what would you be?

R: BLENDER.  Hallelujah the Hills would be a blender.

You go to bed, wake up the next morning, go to brush your teeth… and you realize that you’ve morphed into one of Jim Henson’s Muppets overnight.  Which Muppet are you?

J: DOCTOR TEETH.

R: I’d be Waldorf, the old heckler.  I’d be the guy with the jowls.

B: I’ve always liked Fozzie.  He’s chill.

After a raucous night out, you wake up at some point the next day and you realize that in your fit of crazy you got inked.  What tattoo did you wake up with?

B: A handlebar mustache on my finger so I can do THIS. (Brian then holds up his index finger underneath nose to simulate mustache.)

R: I had an uncle who had hinges tattooed on his inner arm so he looked part machine.  I’d do that.

J: I think I’d get LIVE EVIL on my knuckles for Miles Davis’ live 70s fusion album.

Would you rather be a rodeo clown or a sumo wrestler?

J: Rodeo clown.

R: Rodeo clown.

B: Rodeo clown.  Don’t they get the shit kicked out of them, though?

J: Yeah, but you also get to have a ton of fun.

R: I think it fits.  I have a theory that all rock n’ roll is embarrassing: When we go into a show, whether we’re seeing or playing it, we kind of make this agreement with ourselves that “THIS IS SO RIDICULOUS! But this is so wonderful!” So, I think rodeo clown fits for us.

J: Yeah, I think the ceremony behind the sumo match and the pedestal you’re put on in sumo culture, it’s great and I’m happy for them.  But I think I’d be very uncomfortable.

If you had to be a kind of cheese, which cheese would you be?

R: I’d like to defer to Erik, our guitar player, for this one.  He works at Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge.  He’s a professional.

If you were a style of facial hair, what style facial hair would you be?

J: Forgetful scruff.  Accidental beard.  I had a dream where I had a dream where I was old enough to have hair growing out of my ears.  It’s an aspiration.

R: A little bit of nasal hair.

B: I’d do the Amish style heavy beard with no mustache.

What’s your quintessential “I’M GONNA DANCE AROUND MY APARTMENT IN MY UNDERWEAR AND LOVE LIFE!” song?

R: “Hair of the Dog” by Nazareth.

J: “Pants off” by Evergreen.

B: Some ska song I’m sure from the Slackers, or something.  I think that’s probably my pick.

What’s your favorite word?

B: ASSHAT!

R: Preemptive.

J: I think my favorite word would be whatever word Elio DeLuca’s using the most.  I like Elio DeLuca’s jive.  Wait, Jive! That’s my favorite word.

Hallelujah the Hills. Photo: Jessie Rogers

THE MAIN EVENT: THE HALLELUJAH THE HILLS TEAPARTY BOSTON INTERVIEW

Give us the mini-bio for Hallelujah the Hills.  How did you guys come to make music together?

R: Well, I got started in recording music in a weird way.  The Stairs were a community outreach program.  No one really knew that we existed in Boston, for several years, until the summer we announced we were packing up and playing a few final shows.  A week later Eric and I drafted musician friends into something new called Hallelujah The Hills.  We rehearsed late 2005 and really started playing shows in 2006.  We just finished our second full-length album.  It’s called Colonial Drones and is out in September.  Then…more music!

So, where’d the name come from?

R: The name is from a movie called “Hallelujah the Hills”.  It came out in 1963, and I saw it while I was at film school at BU.  I liked the movie; the name kind of stuck with me.  It was on a list when we were creating the band.  It sounded good, so we just picked it.

Can you take us through the creative process for Hallelujah the Hills?

R: I write songs on an acoustic guitar or piano.  Get the words in place, chords, the vocal melody.  Record a demo.  Send it to the band.  Then we all work on it together and create an arrangement.  Everyone brings something to the table.  It’s fun.

Influences:  Can we talk about which bands or artists you’re listening to?  What band T-shirts do you have hanging in your closets?

B: I don’t have any more band t-shirts; this is actually one of my few remaining Neptune shirts.

R: I think another beautiful thing is that I think we’re sort of impervious to ever sounding like something else.  I don’t think you could ever say, “Well, that’s this.”

R: Eric’s bringing jazz, Joe’s bringing Iggy Pop and Rocky Erickson, so I think we cover a lot of ground.

J: Our favorite records that’d be like, “That’s the record that made me want to play music!” would all be in different sections of the record store.

What are some of those favorite records?

J: I CAN’T TELL YOU.

(Ryan and Brian crack up.)

J: I don’t know.  Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation.

If your house was burning and you could only save three records, which records would you save?

J: I have a 7” of this band from Northern Kentucky called Evergreen.  I remember I thought it was so cool because my older sister was friends with the guys in the band.  I was like, “Wow, this blows my fucking mind!  This sounds like how music should always sounds like!”  I listened to that record a couple of times a week until I was 15.  If you ever find a 7” inch by Evergreen, “Queen Song” and “Pants Off” are – I could act it out in an interpretive dance and probably paint a picture of it.  I would save that record, that Evergreen 7”, three times: I’d bring it out and then go back to the wreckage to double check to make sure I didn’t leave it behind.

We haven’t really talked about the Hallelujah the Hills songs that you guys love playing live or the songs you feel especially connected to.  What’re your favorites that are by you?

R: Starting out we felt a real obligation to play the song that says the band name, because it is sort of a, “We’re here! This is our song!” kind of thing.

J: “We exist!  We really exist!”

R: “We do! And I don’t have to say the band name after this song because I just sang it!”  In the last year, I think we’ve avoided that song-

B: We did, we did a little bit, yeah-

R: -Because I think it’s the one we played the most.  Now, when we come back to it like we did the other night, it’s fun to play.

J: Yeah, it’s in a new light.

B: There’s a bit of that that happens, that songs you play a fair amount. “What can we do to change it up a little bit?”

R: Playing live is a big part of making the record.

B: Yeah.  There are songs on the new album that we haven’t really played live, so the next step is to figure out how to play them. I think that when I first started recording with other bands, I got this idea in my head that you shouldn’t record something that you can’t play.

J: Yeah, I used to think that too!

B: That all the instruments and notes that are played live need to be the same on the record and vice versa-

R: And in a sense, we make an effort because that’s why we have a sampler –

B: Right.  One of the things I really love about this band and playing live is just how much energy there is that just happens as part of a live show:  There’s the energy the band is giving, and there’s the energy from the audience, and there’s just the visual component of it that’s lacking or not there on a recording.  On a recording, that energy needs to come from somewhere else, with other layers, whether it’s other instruments or harmonies.  You just can’t play your instrument twice.  A bigger sound happens because you’re playing live.

R: There’s the spooky path of trying to figure out which songs people like to hear of ours live.  Once in a blue moon someone will shout a title, but we don’t get a ton of feedback in that category.  All you have to judge that is the applause, so we end up playing the songs we like anyway!

B: I don’t know.  There are songs that I’ve been skeptical of that I’ve eventually come around to.  It changes I think, what songs you have an affection for.

J: To add to what Brian was saying about what fun you can have in a studio versus what kind of fun you can have live, I used to have the same feeling.  You should be able to record on a shitty jam box and make it great.  Recording, you have so much fun with cooking up these things and these whole little worlds.  Some of my favorite songs I hear myself as a human being the least in, you know?  The whole of it sounds like this whole universe.  Live, it’s like, six people bangin’ away at their instruments and that’s what’s awesome about that, but recording I think is this kind of other thing that exists outside of it.

R: There’s also that old idea of, well, if you can’t play it one person alone on a guitar, then it’s not really a song, or it’s not really a good song.  I go back and forth on believing that; I’m not sure if it’s true.

J: Yeah.  I don’t think that’s true.

B: A lot of Ryan’s songs do pass that test.

R: I thought of an example, that Radiohead song “Kid A”?  That’s not a song!  But I saw last year that John Mayer had covered it acoustically.

We’ve been talking to a lot of bands from here and it’s come across that there’s not an expectation for Boston bands to express loyalty to our city, but that there’s definitely an interesting connection between bands here and Boston that you don’t see in other cities with thriving music scenes.

J: As far as bands we’re friends with and enjoy and like, yeah, enjoy their music and stuff, you know, I feel like people here are a little more – I don’t know, maybe this is a little idealistic, but they’re a little more natural, a little more down to earth, you know?  I’m sure there are bands here that aren’t like this, but we’re not really friends with bands who are going to like… you know, a band may be like, “We’re gonna make it!  We’re gonna go to New York City, and we’re gonna look the look, and we’re gonna go to all this kind of band’s shows” – not because they’re excited and making friends, but to “make it” with big stars in their eyes.  I don’t feel like Boston’s that kind of town.

B: I like how a lot of the music I listen to and a lot of the shows I go see here are local shows with local bands.  I don’t really go out to see bigger national bands as a personal preference.  There are a lot of great bands here, and a show can just be good local bands and it’ll fill up, and there are a lot of great venues for it.  It doesn’t necessarily have to be some ringer national band to really make a show, and the way shows are put together, too, some band wants to play a show somewhere so they talk to other bands and to clubs and a bill just emerges.  Chances are, the headlining band put it together, like when we had our CD release, we were like, “Oh, hey, let’s ask these bands we like [to play] and hopefully they’ll say yes, and if we don’t here are these other bands we like!” Then, it ends up being a cohesive bill.  In other cities I’m sure the same thing happens as it does in Boston, but when we’ve played other cities, we’ve seen that it’s less cohesive and that there’s less camaraderie amongst the bands.  You show up, you play your set, people come to see you and they go their way, whereas in Boston it feels more like a whole night and there’s more of a reason to see the whole thing.

R: It’s a real treat to be able see a band you really like twelve times in one year for no more than $5 each time.  It’s an exciting thing.

B: Because I think that there are great local bands that can put shows on, it makes it great for bands from out of town to come in and have a good show.  It’s like the first time they play in Boston they’re playing on a pretty strong local bill so they get some exposure.  I feel like that’s one of the best ways to try to get a foothold in new cities: Find out who are the popular local bands, who makes sense to play with, what kind of bill can you put together that you fit onto that way.  It seems to work to build camaraderie.

What about the crowd in Boston?  Being from here, it’s probably inherently different for you, but we’ve heard that Boston is a lot more laid back and kind of – not laid back in the sense of “blah”, but laid back in the sense of there’s not so much people for the scene, people are here to enjoy music.

B: Yeah.  I think there’s a really good core of people who are just music fans.  I feel like the lines between musicians and fans of music are so nebulous and porous here.  We go to each other’s shows.  Even people who aren’t in bands, most of their friends are in bands, so it’s just this community of friends and people who sort of support each other in different ways.

R: I can’t be certain, I don’t know if that’s special to Boston.

B: I’m just talking about what I like and what I consistently see here.  There’s a lot of great stuff that happens here. We only get one night in another city to see shows when we’re touring, maybe it’s a great show, maybe it’s not, who knows if it’s any sort of representation of what things are actually like in that city.  It’s hard to compare cities that way because we only really know Boston.

R: If we were live music anthropologists- (laughs)

B: I don’t know.  I think it’s easier to focus on what’s great about how things happen here because there’s a lot of great stuff.

Are there any other bands that you’ve seen or really enjoy watching that exemplify what we’re talking about?

J: Yeah!

B: Yeah, all of our friends – Hoag Kepman, Keys and Streets of Fear, we’re just mentioning bands that all of us are in at this point, but I mean, Bon Savants, Neptune-

R: The sadly defunct Night Rally.

J: The sadly defunct Tunnel of Love.

R: You know what Boston does have that we can be sure of?  The CD release show is the band’s final show. (Laughs) That’s a legitimate curse that’s been happening in Boston for the last five years, where the band holds it together to get that CD out, and then they’re like, “Well, you can buy it!  But this is the last show.”

B: Yup, Harris; Clickers was like that…

Do you have any favorite venues in Boston?  Do you love them for different reasons, in that you love playing one but you love seeing shows at another?

R: We’re lucky: There’s a lot to pick and choose from, and whether it’s your first show or you’re starting to do well there’s a lot of choices.  In my experience, the booking agents are just like, they’re using their power for the people.

B: I get the sense of the way Ryan talks about this process in that a band and a promoter or a booking agent at a club will work together to put a bill together.  The Downstairs show, not the past one with the Fiery Furnaces, the one with Magic Magic, I think that’s such a great example of a band putting the night together with a bill of bands that just worked together really well, and everyone had a whole lot of fun.  It’s one of those situations where there wasn’t one band that everyone had come to see: Everybody was there to see all the bands and a ton of people stayed through the whole night until 1:30 when we finished up, and it was just really great to see.

R: One of the guys from Magic Magic said afterwards that he was just blown away, that there were five bands on the bill and he didn’t meet one asshole.  You know, when we booked that show, I said to Kevin at the Middle East, “I have no idea if we have any business booking Downstairs at the Middle East on a Friday night, but hey, wanna have fun?”

B: It was probably one of the most rewarding shows I’ve ever been a part of.  We had a good time as a band playing, but just being a part of that whole show was pretty amazing.

There’s a new album coming out, but besides that, what else do you have to look forward to in the coming months?  What are you most looking forward to regarding future projects and the indefinite future for Hallelujah the Hills?

R: Right now it’s all about sitting on this album we’ve made.

B: The album comes out September 22^nd and then we’ll be touring after that.

That’ll bring you to Christmas pretty much, right?

B: Yeah!  Right now it’s sort of hard to see into 2010 and think of what we might be doing.  I hope we’re touring a lot and getting to do all sorts of amazing things together, but right now, we’re focused on what’s next immediately.

R: Corey at our label has said it a few times: “You can’t re-release an album.”  He wants to get it right, and he really believes in us.  It’s a humbling thing because he’s such a great guy and he’s put out so many great records.  He wants as many people as possible to hear our album, and we want to be proud of it.  Someday, if we could play music and make that our living that would be amazing.  I think that many bands would say that.  You just gotta keep it one step at a time and keep it fun and it’s all rewarding.

Hallelujah the Hills. Photo: Jessie Rogers

Antlers frontman Peter Silberman (photo: Jessie Rogers)

There’s no denying it: The Antlers are indie darlings and have been since the release of their first album, Hospice, this past March.  The band may be based in Brooklyn, but Pete, Mike and Darby have hardly spent any time recently in New York’s hipster haven: When we caught up with them before their Sunday set Upstairs at the Middle East a couple of weeks ago, Jessie and I were faced with three content, though slightly bewildered, guys who were making the last stop on a memorable jaunt about the country.  The Antlers covered the United States of America pretty extensively before hitting Boston on their way back to Brooklyn, and the shows they played everywhere from North Carolina to the Northern California coast were met with happy audiences who propel the high praise Hospice has been receiving.

Before the close of this summer, the Antlers will be playing the Pitchfork Festival alongside many of the other indie acts to watch whose records can also be found on several “Albums of the Year” lists.  Pete, Mike and Darby are honored to share the bill with some of their favorite bands, and they’re just as stoked to see the rest acts on deck at Pitchfork as they are to play for thousands of people in Chicago’s Millenium Park.  Grounded, inspired and ready to rock out a new record, the Brooklyn trio are eager to get back in the studio, and if Hospice is any indication of their longevity and success then it’s sure to be the second of many good things to come for the Antlers.

-Hilary Hughes

OPENING ACT: THE TEAPARTY 10

What’s your favorite breakfast cereal?

Peter: Rice Krispie Treats cereal.  Keep in mind my favorite is from when I was about nine years old.

Mike: I like Grape Nuts.  Darby’s not usually awake for breakfast.

Darby: I like a lot of cereal, especially cornflakes, though.  That’s gotta be the most boring, lame cereal ever.

Who would you rather punch in the face: Long Duk Dong from “Sixteen Candles” or Mouth from “The Goonies”?

M: I don’t remember the dude from “The Goonies” so I’d punch him.

P: I’m kind of a wise-ass like Mouth, so I’ll go with the other guy.  Long Duk Dong.

D: I’d punch ‘em both and then whoever’s not angry I’ll be happy to punch again.

If you were a kitchen appliance, what would you be?

M: An electric cake mixer.

P: George Foreman grill.

D: I’d be a can opener.  It’s totally the coolest to watch.

M: I thought you’d be a bottle opener?

D: Nah, I’d just use my teeth.

You go to bed, wake up the next morning, go to brush your teeth… and you realize that you’ve morphed into one of Jim Henson’s Muppets overnight.  Which Muppet are you?

P: FOZZIE.  Absolutely. 100%.

M: Animal’s too obvious for me, so I’ll go with Grover.

D: The Swedish Chef.

After a raucous night out, you wake up at some point the next day and you realize that in your fit of crazy you got inked.  What tattoo did you wake up with?

P: Fozzie Bear tattoo, on my chest.  Or I’d tattoo his face on my face.

M: I’d get huge angel wings on my back.

D: I’d get the dancing Mexican girl from Pete and Pete, Petunia.

Would you rather be a rodeo clown or a sumo wrestler?

D: Totally a rodeo clown.

M: Yup.

P: Yeah, rodeo clown all around.

If you had to be a kind of cheese, which cheese would you be?

P: Cheese that’s not your own, like NACHO CHEESE.

Haaaaa.

M: I’d be baby Swiss.  It’s kind of like Jarlsberg.  Actually, I’ll go with Jarlsberg.

P: Actually, I’ll be American cheese.

D: I’ll go with smoked Gouda.

If you were a style of facial hair, what style facial hair would you be?

M: Soul patch.

P: No!

D: Fu Manchu.

P: I’ll take “beard without mustache.”

M: Oh, an Amish beard.  Nice.

What’s your quintessential “I’M GONNA DANCE AROUND MY APARTMENT IN MY UNDERWEAR AND LOVE LIFE!” song?

D: Au Revoir Simone’s “Horse Racing Song/Night Majestic.”  I did that yesterday.

M: I’ll say “Since You Been Gone”, Kelly Clarkson.

P: “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough”, Michael Jackson.

What’s your favorite word?

M: Incorrigible.

D: Bulbous.

P: Occidental.  Wait, is that a word or a college?  I’ve always liked that word but I’m not sure… yeah.  Occidental.

THE MAIN EVENT: THE ANTLERS TPB INTERVIEW

Hey guys!

Peter, Mike and Darby: Hi!

Tell me what you’ve been up to, in terms of touring, recording and what-not.

Peter: We’ve been working on playing a lot of shows and not getting tired of playing every night.  I think we’re doing an okay job.

Mike: This has been a really awesome tour.  This is actually the last day of the tour, so we’re kind of sad.  It’s been a really fun tour: We got to head out west and play our first shows in L.A. and San Francisco, so it’s been totally awesome.

So you made it from LA all the way to here, huh?

P: It’s and interesting route: I won’t go through the whole route because it’ll remind me of the lots of driving we did, but we went from New York down to the Midwest, down to Texas, and then we were in Texas playing for a little while, then along the border basically, on to Arizona, then up the California coast and then way the fuck across the country to the Southeast, and then up the East coast.

Darby: We had to do the drive from San Francisco to North Carolina in two days, so-

P: It was two tours meeting up and all shows had to be played, so it was me flying, playing a show by myself, then all of us meeting in Chapel Hill, so there’s like this weird lost weekend of two days where everyone was in different places in the country and not sleeping. (Laughs.)

M: Yeah.  I was driving.

D: Yeah, we won’t do that again.

Well, Hospice came out in March, right?

P: Yeah, we self-produced it in March and it’s going to come out again in August.

How has the whirlwind been surrounding this tour and your new album?  It all sounds very exciting.  And fast.

M: Yes.  It seems like every time we get used to what’s happening a whole bunch of new input makes us all chaotic and scrambled at one time while we’re trying to traverse the waters, but it’s all exciting.  We’ve been lucky with a lot of good shows and a lot of good response from the people at the shows.

Yeah, you guys are already on a lot of “Album of the Year” lists.

M: Honestly, I have to say, there’s a lot of records that we really like that are on that list, and we’re like, “Gee, really?!”

P: We don’t really feel like we deserve to be there because-

D: I mean, those are some of our favorite bands! (Laughs)

M: It’s very flattering and kind of daunting.

What are some of these bands that you love that you’re also seeing on these “Album of the Year” lists?

D: Animal Collective, the Dirty Projectors, Grizzly Bear…

P: On this tour, a lot of the towns we were going through – You’re always aware of competing shows, even though it’s not a competition, but sometimes some people come up to you like, “Oh! More people would’ve been here, if Grizzly Bear wasn’t in town.”  There was always Grizzly Bear or Animal Collective that was in the same town as us (laughs).

You guys are based in Brooklyn, right?  What part?

D: I live in Fort Greene.  Our studio’s there and we rehearse there.

M: Peter and I live in Greenpoint.  Not together, though.

A really good friend of mine just moved to Greenpoint.  He was living in Astoria for the past few years.

M: Yeah, Greenpoint is very popular right now.  It’s like Williamsburg expanded.

P: Yeah, but it’s not as hectic and crazy.

M: Well, the North Side is a little much.

Did you guys see the Hipster piece that recently came out in the New York Times?

M: Yeah, if it had come out like, 10 years ago, maybe it would’ve been relevant.

Can we get some basic back-story?  Where do you come from, and how did you guys come to make music together?

P: It’s a pretty small biography; there’s not a whole lot to report on, I guess.  The name is kind of mysterious as far as where it came from goes, it just kind of happened.  The way we came together sort of just happened as a result of friends of friends and things, and we just started playing together, and different, you know, me playing solo, then expanding it into a band, then getting it into a big band with four or five people, and shrinking down just as a matter of a couple of people not being able to commit to things.  Then the three of us just clicked, and it felt right, and we’ve been doing that since August.  That’s about the time we started touring, and playing a lot more, and getting the record finished, so, the band as the three of us is only since August.  Our record started longer ago than that; that probably started getting made in the summer of 2007.

Did you write the majority of the record, Peter, or is the creative process for The Antlers more collaborative in nature?

P: It’s definitely a collaborative process, with everybody writing his own part.

Is it the same way in the studio, too?  Does someone make the majority of the artistic decisions or do you all play a part in putting the record together?

D: Back when we were recording the album it was a totally different thing because there were five people in the band.  Peter will usually bring us instrumental songs and the lyrics won’t be done; I just sort of add stuff to instrumental tracks and I just try to sculpt it that way.

M: Since we’ve been on the road, we’ve spent a lot more time together as a band and everything is going to change when we sit down and start recording new material just for that reason alone, that we’re that much more comfortable bouncing ideas around and off of each other.  Before, it was a little more on paper, and now it’s a little more real.

P: This record was sort of transitioning away from being a solo project, so it’s partly a solo thing, partly a band thing.  The way it was written was a little backwards and the way it was recorded was a little backwards.  The next record, we’re all going to be working on it together, and in our heads we’re already working on it together and doing our research.

What are you really looking forward to about the new record, in terms of differences between your previous recordings and this one?

P: I’m looking forward to spending a lot of time getting it ready in our studio, recording in apartments and stuff.

D: We have a big studio, and back then we were in a rehearsal space we’d rent by the hour, so we didn’t really have the time to play as much as we do now.  While touring we got really close and tight, so recording the new stuff as a band gives us so many more options and opens up so many possibilities.

P: The collaboration is probably what I’m most excited about, just 100% everybody working together.

Are there any songs in the Antlers catalogue that you feel really connected to, or that you really especially love to play live for people?

P: Playing live? Um…

I know it’s kind of like choosing between children.

D: Well, we don’t have any children (laughs.)

M: I really enjoy “Bear.”

P: Yeah, me too.  We just started playing it recently.  It’s been how we’ve been closing the show, and it’s a fun way to do it.

In terms of Boston: You guys had mentioned that [Peter] had played here solo before.  How long have you guys been here, a couple of hours?

M: Yeah, we rolled in around 6:00 p.m. and did sound check.  I have to say the food here is amazing which is a nice benefit.

Yeah, Shalimar around the corner is a big favorite with people who roll through here to play, usually…

M: Oh no, I eat here [at the Middle East]!  I won’t eat anywhere but here.  It’s good.

We’re big fans of the falafel sandwich.

P: We had the couscous.

D: The couscous was delicious.

M: Every time we roll in town it’s the same thing: We come to the venue, we do the sound check, do the show, leave… There’s not a whole lot of sightseeing.

Do you guys have any crazy stories from the road? Did anything bonkers happen throughout your national gallivanting?

M: I don’t know.  It’s been pretty PG-13.

D: Nobody got arrested.

M: We had some… you know, a couple of parties, yeah.

P: It’s not crazy, but we had a couple of days off in Austin and we went to Barton Springs, which is this natural swimming pool I guess, and that was really great.  I had a lot of fun staying up all night in San Francisco before my flight.  We just kind of stayed up all night and wandered around on the beach until I had to get my flight at seven in the morning.

Where are you guys from originally?

M: Peter and I are from two separate towns outside of the city that aren’t too far from each other.

D: I’m from Alabama.

Nice.  What brought you to New York, Darby?

D: Actually, it was theatre.  I was an actor for a long time, and it was either New York or L.A., so I chose New York and got into the music, and now I’m in the band.

So, what are your deep dark secrets that you’d like to share with your Boston fans?

P: We’re very transparent!  Darby’s hair isn’t real.

D: … It’s real.  What are you talking about?

In terms of the next couple of months and what you have on your official agenda, what do fans of the Antlers really have to look forward to in the near future? What’s next?

P: We’re doing some more touring in the next couple of weeks.  We’re going to be heading out to the Midwest to do the Pitchfork festival.  I don’t think that’s sunk in yet.  We’re playing Saturday and then we have Sunday off from our tour, so we’re going to watch all our favorite bands.  And then after Pitchfork, we’re going to go to Canada and then come back around.  Then we’re off for a couple of weeks, and then we’re gonna keep touring and touring and touring.  I think we’re gonna go to Europe soon, and in whatever off time we have, we’re going to try to work on a new album.

Who really inspires you musically?  Who’s on your “Favorites” list on your iPod?

P: It’s been changing a lot recently.  I listen to a lot of post-rock ambient stuff.

D: I listen to a lot of dub and reggae.  Most of the tour, our satellite radio was on a station called “Soultown”.

P: Yeah, the Temptations especially.

M: The person who’s influenced me the most isn’t an artist on my iPod; He’s a teacher I used to have called Yusef Latif, a jazz saxophone player.  You should check him out.

The past year has been a good one for the Luxury.  Between playing for a packed house at the BankNorth Garden last August while opening for Coldplay, snagging the spotlight and the coveted title at WBCN’S reputable Rock N’ Roll Rumble and putting the finishing touches on In the Wake of What Won’t Change, their highly anticipated sophomore album, this Boston-based Brit pop quintet is in a prime position for musical prowess of epic proportions.  The Luxury will be celebrating the release of In the Wake of What Won’t Change this Saturday, July 11^th, at the Paradise Rock Club.  A gig at the Paradise is, in itself, a dream come true for Jason Dunn, the band’s frontman. “We’ve always wanted to play the Paradise Rock Club and all of my favorite shows I’ve seen have been there,” says Dunn.  “I just wanted to make it as big as possible.”  Big, to the Luxury, means blasting through a high energy set of their latest material complete with films created expressly for each song being shown on screens behind the stage to achieve “that whole Pink Floyd thing” level of showmanship.

Before taking the stage at the Paradise Rock Club this coming Saturday, Jessie and I were fortunate enough to sit down and scarf some deep fried pickles with Jason, bassist Justin Day and keyboardist Steven Borek at Cambridge Common on a rainy evening.  After downing a Chocolate Kiss martini or two (I won’t reveal which band member had a sweet tooth), the guys of the Luxury opened up about their songwriting, their influences and what it is that makes them think of Boston as the most “excitable” city in the country.  It’s clear to see that these Boston boys are on the up-and-up, but the most refreshing thing about the Luxury is that this is a group of good dudes who are eternally grateful and thoroughly excited for the adventures they have in store together as a band.

-Hilary Hughes

OPENING ACT: THE TEAPARTY 10

What’s your favorite breakfast cereal?

Jason: Cinnamon Life! I LOVE it.  The thing I love about it is that when you first put milk on it it’s too crunchy, but if you leave it for a minute and make some tea or something by the time you get back it’s PERFECT.

Justin: I like plain Life.  I’m not into the Cinnamon.  My real favorite is Peanut Butter Crunch.  Actually, my favorite breakfast cereal is to go down to the diner and get a breakfast sandwich.

Steve: I find these cereals both boring.  I’d go with Cocoa Pebbles, actually.  You wanna talk about getting the cereal in the beginning?  You need to start biting into that stuff right away because it gets soggy real quick.  If you leave it too long it just turns into this hardened resin of like, rice.

Who would you rather punch in the face: Long Duk Dong from “Sixteen Candles” or Mouth from “The Goonies”?

Jas: Neither of them.  I can’t answer this question, although there are definitely some people I’d like to punch in the face.

Jus: I love Mouth!  I don’t want to punch him.  I love him, but he’s no Chunk.  Chunk’s my man.  I guess I have to go with Long Duk Dong.

S: I’ve only seen “The Goonies” once… I guess Mouth?  I’m ambivalent.

If you were a kitchen appliance, what would you be?

Jas: You know what, the first thing that came to mind is one of those hand-held eggbeaters….

Jus: That was the first thing that came to my mind too!!!

Jas: Really?!

S: I was actually thinking of a Kitchenaid Mixer, the big mother electric bowl in the different colors.

Jas: WE’RE ALL MIXERS!

You go to bed, wake up the next morning, go to brush your teeth… and you realize that you’ve morphed into one of Jim Henson’s Muppets overnight.  Which Muppet are you?

Jas: Oh, Jesus Christ.  Gonzo.  I’m Gonzo.

S: I’m gonna go with Sam the Eagle.  “You WEIRDOS!”  I actually have a Sam the Eagle figure on top of one of my speakers at home.

Jus: I was gonna say Zoot, but… I would instantly morph into Zoot or Floyd, one or the other.

After a raucous night out, you wake up at some point the next day and you realize that in your fit of crazy you got inked.  What tattoo did you wake up with?

Jas: Oh God.

S: I’d get a Megaman tattoo of him, like, jumping in a tree.

Jus: I’d get something similar: GAIKING, on my back.  If you’ve ever seen Gaiking, this is a cartoon that was on in the early Eighties as part of the Force Five series that played at 6pm on weekday afternoons.  Every day out of the week there was a different cartoon, and there was the Star Avengers and the Spacekateers and there was Grandizer and then there was GAIKING.  Gaiking was the most bad ass of all of them.  He was this giant ROBOT DRAGON that the HEAD shot off of!  And then the MOUTH of the DRAGON would open up and the bottom half of the robot shot out!  And it would come up and JOIN up the other part of the ROBOT you know?! So, like, his WHOLE CHEST was this SKULL from the DRAGON!  And his head had the giant dragon on it because his head POPPED OUT of the SKULL that became his CHEST!  And I want that on my back.

[Justin’s emphatic gesturing was very, very enthused throughout the previous explanation and Jessie nearly hyperventilated from giggling so hard.]

S: … That sounds like Voltron on LSD.

Jus: He’s like a thousand times more badass than Voltron.

Jas: I’m not gonna answer this question after that.  I’m sorry, but no.  I can’t follow that.

Would you rather be a rodeo clown or a sumo wrestler?

All, simultaneously: SUMO.

Jus: Yeah, there are no bulls coming after you.

S: You could fall from the third story of a building and still be fine if you were a sumo wrestler.

Jas: Plus, you’re rewarded for being immensely fat and WOMEN LOVE YOU.

If you had to be a kind of cheese, which cheese would you be?

Jas: Smoked Gouda.

S: Brie.

Jus: Brie’s not bad…  But I’d be Velveeta.

If you were a style of facial hair, what style facial hair would you be?

Jas: A moustache on a woman’s upper lip (Laughs).

S: Yowza.  I’d do the ZZ Top full on beard.

Jus: Stubble.

What’s your quintessential “I’M GONNA DANCE AROUND MY APARTMENT IN MY UNDERWEAR AND LOVE LIFE!” song?

Jas: Kasabian, “Shoot the Runner.”

Jus: “Red Hot Mama” by Funkadelic.

S: “Chameleon” by Herbie Hancock.  I don’t know!  I don’t really do that!

What’s your favorite word?

S: DEGENERATE.

Jus: Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.  It’s the real name for Black Lung.  It’s the disease coal miners get.

Jas: Phonetically I have a favorite word but it isn’t coming to mind right now… I’m drawing a complete blank.  Let’s go with “fellatio”.  I’M JUST KIDDING!  I say “Awesome” a lot.

THE MAIN EVENT: THE LUXURY TPB INTERVIEW

Hey guys!  For the record, can we get names and where you guys are from and what you play in the band?

Jason: I’m Jason, and I’m the lead singer, and I play guitar.  I write most of the songs.  I grew up in Vermont in Burlington but I was born in Boston.  I’ve been playing music since I was 11 and I play eight instruments, I just kind of picked them up, like, every couple of years I would grab a new one.  Guitar was the third; singing and piano were the first two.  I’ve been in a million billion bands.

Justin: I’m Justin, I’m the bass player and I’m out of beer. (Laughs)  I started playing music at about eight or nine I guess, and I picked up the bass at 15 and I’ve been playing in bands around Boston since probably around ’95 or ’96.

Steve: I’m Steve.  I play keyboards in the band, and I’m from Worcester.  I’ve been with the band for a couple of years now.  I’ve been playing since I was eight, self-taught; I primarily played keyboards and a little bit of guitar on the side just for fun.  I played saxophone for a year once.  Jason has an immense hatred for the saxophone that he has yet to provide a logical reason for.

Jas: Yeeeeah, it’s the Eighties, man. The Eighties just killed the saxophone dead.

So, let’s talk about the [WBCN Rock N’ Roll] Rumble.  First off, congrats on taking it this year!  I feel like playing the Rumble is a right of passage for a lot of local acts.

Jus: It is more or less, yeah.

Jas: I mean, there are 3,000 bands in town and WBCN picks the 24 that they think are ready to gain the most out of it and who they think will play the most interesting shows against each other.  It’s an honor to be selected, really.  We didn’t think we were gonna win, I’m just gonna throw that out there.  We were out in the second round, then we were the wildcard in the semi finals, and then we won.

How did you guys come to make music together?

Jas: I came [to Boston] with the Halogens, and around 2005 it just wasn’t any fun anymore.  My friend Moose had been forming a band and needed a name, and I picked up a Marillion CD and saw one of the top tracks on it was “Alone Again in the Lap of Luxury”, so I suggested that, and he took it.  In the back of my mind I was like, “Aw, man.  I wish THAT was the band I’m in, I’m getting sick of the Halogens.”  I wound up playing with a bunch of dudes from Baby Strange in a one-off cover band, but it was more fun playing with them, so I ditched the Halogens, asked Moose if I could use the name, he said yes, and the first lineup of the Luxury was formed and lasted about a year because none of them wanted to tour.  So, the drummer and I essentially let everybody go, so then we found Justin, our original keyboardist Brooks and Daanen, our drummer.  Brooks is way too talented to be backing up a bunch of jack-offs like us and left to pursue other goals, and we met Steve through Craigslist of all things, and he turned out to be exactly what we needed with less piano and more kooky sound effects.

[The martinis and fried pickles arrive at the table in the crowded dining room of Cambridge Common.  Jason takes a bite.]

Jas: JESUS CHRIST THESE ARE AMAZING.

Yeah, they’re pretty delicious.

Jas: Anyways, Steve was the last addition to the band, and we’ve been in this lineup for about two years now.  Two years is enough time to really craft a record and I think the new record shows everybody off in nearly every song, which is great.  The voices in the band are very different musically and we all come from different musical backgrounds.  Well, except for Justin.  He listens to everything, apparently.

What are those musical backgrounds?

Jas: I’m a big, big pop fan.  Always have been.  Some of my earliest favorite bands were Queen, Elton John, Debbie Gibson, Fleetwood Mac… We’re talking, like, when I’m a kid, you know?  Mister Mister.  My favorite song when I was ten was “Broken Wings.”

Jus: I have that album!

Jas: That’s a good album.  So, that’s where I come from: Big hooks and big melodies.  It works for me.  Daanen is kind of like, a guitar player’s guitar player.  He delves deeply into the hard rock Guitar Hero world, a world that I do not understand (laughs.)

S: I’m into a lot of classic rock myself, and some progressive rock and jazz as well.

Jus: Classic rock, modern and indie rock, Golden Age hip hop, Sixties and Seventies soul, you know, traditional country… I grew up on like, thrash metal and British heavy metal.  I like a little bit of everything.  My girlfriend won’t let me listen to Guided By Voices anymore in the house because she just hears to goddamn much of them (laughs).

Can you take us through your creative process?

Jas: I would say that about eight out of ten songs start with a demo that I’ll just give to everybody.  I have my own recording studio, so if I have a musical idea I’ll pick up a guitar and throw down a fake drum beat and play it and see how far I can get with anyone else’s help so I get as much of my vision together as possible.  Then when I hit a wall I’m just like, “All right! Send it to the guys!” and I’ll get their input and have them check it out to see what they think.  Then, they’ll either shoot it down or we’ll start playing it in practice.  Steven and Daanen bring in ideas every once and again and Daanen will mostly bring in riffs, and then Steve comes in sometimes with little ideas and sometimes with complete pieces.  I write almost all of the lyrics, and there’s one song on the album that Steve Foster, our drummer, wrote.  Other than that, the lyrics have been all me.  The lyrical process is interesting because I either take from a personal experience and exaggerate and extrapolate it to make it dramatic and to make it flow like a song, or I’ll have absolutely no idea what I’ll write about and it’s kind of an abstract thing, and then I’ll just hone it.  It’ s either building something up with clay or chiseling away at something.  That being said, it can take me half an hour or three or four months to write a set of lyrics.

Are there any songs that you feel particularly connected to?

Jas: All of them.

S: Everything is a joy to play.  There isn’t a song that I don’t love playing.  I try to make the songs as fun as possible for myself and for the audience.

Jus: There is a couple that I could take or leave in a given set now, but that’s just because we’ve played them so many times.

Jas: Because of the two different ways I approach it as a lyricist, there will definitely be some songs that are deeply connected to my life, but in terms of what songs I like the most they’re very seldom the same things.  Some of my favorite tunes that I feel the most attached to have nothing to do with my own life, they just sound awesome and I love what everyone’s doing on it.  If we were looking for examples, I’d say that “Rockets and Wrecking Balls” off our first album, it’s sort of a page of my life and I feel like the melodies really came together nicely.  I think the new record is still too new for me to comment on which songs I feel more attached to; that’s going to come to me in about a year.

I feel like a huge part of the songwriting process also has to do with playing your songs for people live and gauging their reaction and your reaction to how it feels, too.

Jas: Yeah! Another thing about playing live is it’s not just about whether the audience responds to it or not, because frankly, I think we’re a little past that point.  We’ve found, to our thankful delight, that there are a lot of people out there that like what we do, but we do it for ourselves and then just put it out there and see what people think.  Playing a new song isn’t testing how an audience like it, it’s more about how it feels and clicks with us.

Jus: I always fight tooth and nail against putting the new songs in the set because I feel like Jason always wants to throw them in the set way before they’re ready to be played.

Jas: Oh, absolutely!

S: It’s often excitement versus whether or not we feel comfortable putting the song out there.

Jus: It’s turned into a disaster on one or two occasions, but not much beyond that (laughs.)

Jas: The reason why I do that is because playing live in front of people is part of my writing process.  Like, that’s why I do that; I don’t do that because I’m like, “THIS SONG IS FRIGGIN’ AWESOME! I WROTE IT FIVE MINUTES AGO! LET’S GO!”  I do it because it’s gotta happen before I’m done with it.  I don’t think there’s been a song that we’ve played out live for the first time that I haven’t taken and changed afterwards.

What’s the craziest thing that’s happened to you guys onstage?

Jas: I’d say that crazy things have happened multiple times, especially at the end of “Next in Line” Justin will climb up on top of Steve’s drum set and then jump off during the drum fill, and I’d say ten times out of ten he lands on me while I’m trying to sing (laughs).  That’s not that crazy anymore, though, because I know it’s coming.  I now know to brace myself towards the end of the song to feel the full force of Justin or his bass.

Jus: There are a lot of near misses with me almost clocking Daanen in the head (laughs).

In terms of influences, we’ve talked about what genres you guys love.  Are there any standout artists or bands whose music has helped cultivate your creativity, as a band or individually?

Jas: I always just jump up and credit the Beatles for everything.  I think that if there’s one band that we could all agree on that has influenced all of us, it would probably be the Beatles even if that statement was met with resistance from other members of the band.

Jus: Well, certainly in your songwriting.

Jas: You don’t feel that the Beatles have influenced you musically?

Jus: No.

Jas: Really?  Because I hear it in your bass lines.

Jus: No, I don’t listen to his bass lines at all.

S: (Sigh) Poor Paul.

Jus: I’m not really terribly interested in him as a bass player and never have been…

Jas: Well, well, well!

(Laughs)

What are you guys listening to right now?  What would we find on your “Recently Added” playlist on your iPod?

Jas: The new Kasabian record.  It’s on heavy rotation at my house.  I love what they’re doing and they started out doing something I already love, which is like, a Brit Pop/Trip Hop combination where it’s really danceable and hypnotic with big melodies and stuff.  Then, they went glam on their second record, and their third record is just BIZARRE. Just really fucked up in a great way.  It’s got great beats on it and a lot of hooks with a lot of strange things, like broken instrument noises and random stuff like that.

S: Recently?  David Bowie’s Low is in the CD player at home.  I’m definitely a Bowie fan.  Everything from Steely Dan, to Thelonious Monk, to Pink Floyd, to Neil Young… my influences are all over the place.

Jas: All over the place, but it’s still all Seventies classic rock (laughs).

Jus: I’ve got the [Rolling] Stones and Guided By Voices in heavy rotation.  I mean, in the car it’s been the Kinks, and when I go out running it’s Judas Priest.

So, on to the new record: How is In The Wake of What Won’t Change a departure from previous material undertaken by the Luxury?

Jas: It’s a huge departure.  Basically, I had four or five years to write the first record, and all these ideas, it’s a great collection of songs but it doesn’t really sound, to me, as cohesive as this new record does.  The material is stronger than the first record, in terms of the song writing, but the music is exponentially stronger because it’s actually five musicians, not just people backing me up.

What are your favorite venues in Boston?  Do you prefer certain ones for playing and seeing shows?

Jus: My favorite room to play is Upstairs at the Middle East.  That’s always felt like home to me for ten years.  As far as going to see those I probably like going to see bands at TT the Bear’s Place, depending on who it is.  If it’s a local band that we’re friends with, I feel the most comfortable standing around and watching a band at TT’s.  It’s nice, it’s dark, the bar’s close and it’s packed in tight in front of the stage where you and all your friends can hang out and watch your other friends play.

Jas: My favorite venue to play at is TT’s because they’ve been soooo good to us.  My favorite place to see a band is the Paradise Rock Club by a long shot, just because there’s not a bad seat in the house.  It feels big but it’s small enough that you never feel too far away from the action.

S: Favorite place to play?  I like Church a lot actually, and I like the Middle East Up[stairs] as well so I’m kind of torn on that.  Church has been surprisingly fun, we’ve had a couple of great shows there and it’s been really enjoyable, whereas at the Middle East you feel like you’re maybe a little more engaged with the crowd, whether it’s the proximity factor or there’s just not that much to do in the background.

When you’re building a lineup for a show in Boston, do you prefer to stick with local bands?

Jas: Yeah, generally speaking!  In general I feel that the local bands fill the clubs the best.  I would say that when we put together a show, we put it together with local bands and maybe we’ll bring in one out of town band.  I’m very much about building Boston’s awareness of how much music in this town is worth going out and listening to, and there’s a lot of it.  When we did the Rumble, we saw 23 other bands play and they were all great.

Any standout acts?   What bands do you really, really love that are coming out of Boston today?

Jas: I mean, how much time do you have?  Grave Haven, Thick as Thieves, Everyday Visuals, Me and Joan Collins, MidAtlantic, the Motion Sick, Lights Out, Reverse…

Jus: Motorcade Five!

Jas: Yup, and Gene Dante and the Future Starlets, there’s a brand new band called Silent Century and they’re AMAZING.  When people hear them they’re gonna be blown away.   You do realize that I can just keep listing great Boston bands, right?  We’ve played a zillion shows and we’ve met a lot of great bands.  Seriously.  I’m hesitant to answer this question because I know that as soon as I get home I’m going to realize that I left out a really great band.

I feel like there’s a very distinct track in Boston where you have the indie circle in Boston, which you’re a part of, that sticks to the Middle East and TT’s and the like, and then you have the blues/jazz/folk/bluegrass/singer-songwriter circuit playing Atwoods and Precinct and the Cantab Lounge.  I think it’s interesting that there are two comfortable niches in Boston’s music scene that are supportive of each other.  Are there any artists from that track that you listen to?

Jas: Yeah, there’s another band I recorded called Broken Blossoms, they’re a folk band that I got to record in a church and they’re amazing.  Other than that, Three Day Threshold, but they kind of crossed the rock/folk line a little bit.  Girls, Guns and Glory is a really good band, too.

Jus: I haven’t been to Toad in a couple of years, but I know a bunch of my friends play there on a regular basis.

What about your relationship with Boston’s clubs and their owners?  What do you like and dislike about the business side of things in Boston?

Jus: We get treated really well in Boston.  We don’t get treated especially well anywhere else, but we don’t necessarily get treated badly.

Let’s gush about your Boston fans for a little bit.  Do you guys have regulars that you see at your shows?

Jus: Oh, yeah!

Jas: It’s funny; a lot of them have become our friends now.

Jus: I don’t really call them fans, per se.  They’re people that we know.

S: Friends of the band are friends of ours, you know?

Jas: I don’t think it’s necessary at the level that we’re at to keep up a wall at all.  If we got huge or something I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to answer Facebook wall posts and IMs from fans and stuff, but at this stage it’s really nice.  Our fans are great.  We had a ton of people singing along with us at the Rumble, and that’s just the best feeling in the world.  If you wrote a song and out of a crowd of 500 people there are 50 people singing your words back at you?  That’s fantastic.  I mean, our fans seriously mobilized and got all of their friends and family members and everyone they’d ever met to vote for us to open up for Coldplay last fall.  That’s the kind of fans we have.

Do you think that kind of fierce loyalty is a Boston-specific thing?

S: It’s probably not a unique thing, but Boston is definitely a passionate city.  People here are pretty passionate about the things they like AND dislike (laughs).  You can go to other cities and they’re more like, “meh”, about the things they’re indifferent about.  Not here.

Jas: Boston’s pretty excitable and ready to have a good time.

Jus: I think Boston’s ready to have a good time, but I think you’ve really gotta fuckin’ impress before you bust out of your shell.

Well, let’s talk about playing your dues.  It’s no secret that certain venues won’t give you the time of day if you haven’t built up a bit of street cred first.

Jas: Well, playing a place like TT’s for example, that’s easy: Get 80 people to come to your show, get them to swear on it, call the club and say “Hey!  We’re bringing in 50 people.”  If I were to tell a band starting out how to make your mark as a Boston band, it would be to put together your own shows.  Don’t ever call a club and be like, “Hey, do you have anything coming up we can get in on?” If they don’t know who you are that’s just stupid.

Jus: All you’re gonna get is Tuesday night after Tuesday night.

Jas: And also, you’re gonna get on their nerves, frankly.  What you need to do is go out to other band’s shows, find other bands whose styles you think fit with yours, give them a CD, tell them you’d really love to play a show with them some time if you really WOULD love to play a show with them sometime, don’t fuckin’ schmooze for the sake of schmoozing.  When the show actually comes together, promote the living hell of it through all the bands on the bill and make sure everyone’s working and the show will be a success.  That’s how you play TT’s; that’s how you play anywhere.  There are definitely some band cliques in Boston and I think that that’s sad, but, you know, there are also a lot of bands that refuse to be part of a clique, and I think this kind of anti-cliquery is on the rise.  The Rumble Class of ’09 is a really good example of that: We were all good friends with each other by the end of it and it just transcended any social boundaries.

Jus: You’re gonna catch all of us out at each other’s show from now until whenever, from the metal bands to the pop bands, and whatever, just a total crossbreeding of fanship.  Everybody became big fans of everybody else.

Jas: We’ve had a pretty damn good year.  If you think about what we were doing at this time last year, I think we were just trying to hammer out votes for Coldplay, so then August, we opened up for Coldplay and played for 10,000 people at Boston Garden, which was amazing.  Then, we took the money that they gave us and it paid for our plane tickets to California, where we played eight shows in ten days.  Awesome.  Then we hunkered down, played some smaller shows, worked on recording the album, and then we got in the Rumble and friggin’ won it, which is still kind of shocking.

Jus: We’re in much better shape for having all this free swag thrown at us (laughs).

Jared Marsh of Taxpayer. Photo: Gabrielle Petraglia.

The men of Taxpayer are popular fellas.  In the hour and a half we spent with them sitting at a back table by the side door of the Middle East, a handful of moms clad in Taxpayer t-shirts and other excitable friends came over to say hi to the West Newbury natives before their headlining gig at one of Cambridge’s most popular venues.  Jared, Rob, Mike and Maclaine were stoked about the Saturday evening performance ahead of them, and it’s no wonder why: As an established Boston indie act, they’ve bonded with several bands in the area including the Good North, and the guys were especially excited to see their friends reuniting for the first time in four years on stage at the Middle East just before their own set.

With two members of this band of buddies getting hitched in the coming months and no concrete plans to tour in the immediate future, it’s a good thing that Taxpayer’s latest album, Don’t Steal My Night Vision, has substance to spare so that fans can stay happy well into winter.  Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for gigs the fivesome will play in the Greater Boston area through the end of the summer, as their hit “We Have Arrived” has fans flocking to the city’s favorite live joints in droves.

-Hilary Hughes

OPENING ACT: THE TEAPARTY 10

What’s your favorite breakfast cereal?

Jay: I’m gonna go with the choice I had when I was a kid, Fruity Pebbles.

Mike: I don’t know man, the fruity milk…

Rob: Honey Nut Cheerios!

Maclaine: I don’t know if I have a specific favorite, but I like anything with clusters in it.

R: Like… Clusters?

Mc: … Yeah.

M: I’m taking that one, too.

Who would you rather punch in the face: Long Duk Dong from “Sixteen Candles” or Mouth from “The Goonies”?

J: I like both of them! If I had to, I’d punch Mouth.

R: I like both of them too, but I’d definitely punch Mouth.

M: Mouth.

Mc: Mouth.

If you were a kitchen appliance, what would you be?

Mc: As a kid I used to love digging around in the utensils in my grandmother’s kitchen and she had this amazing thing that was a meatball maker.  It was basically a pair of scissors, but at the end it had two cups.
R: I like that!  I’ve never even heard of such an instrument.  We are a meatball press/meatball maker.  We like well-formed meaty balls.

You go to bed, wake up the next morning, go to brush your teeth… and you realize that you’ve morphed into one of Jim Henson’s Muppets overnight.  Which Muppet are you?

R: ANIMAL!  What other Muppets are there?

Mc: Aw, man, that’s cliché.  Little known fact: The first season of Saturday Night Live, Lorne Michaels asked Jim Henson to do Muppet sketches.  This is before the Muppet Show and back when Henson was only doing Sesame Street.  Michaels asked Henson to do some more adult humor with these Muppets, so he did this series of shorts called The Land of Gorge.  Every once in awhile you can catch them on TV, they’re really awesome and depressing because all the Muppets look like My Pet Monsters, and they talk about how they drink and beat their wives and shit and they’re living in this weird volcanic landscape, so that’s what I’d want to be.

J: I’d be Beaker.  Meep.

Mc: When you get on a roll that’s actually what you sound like…

M: I’m Rolf.  That’s me.

R: I see it.

After a raucous night out, you wake up at some point the next day and you realize that in your fit of crazy you got inked.  What tattoo did you wake up with?

J: I would probably get Michael J. Fox tattooed on my ass or something like that.  I love that guy.

M: Jay idolized Marty McFly.

J: I AM SHAPED BY MICHAEL J. FOX AND BRUCE WILLIS.

R: I’d get Maclaine’s name tattooed on my wrist.

Mc: I’d probably get “JAY” and then get a big “X” tattooed over his name.

Would you rather be a rodeo clown or a sumo wrestler?

Mc: I feel like being a really fat sumo wrestler is a lot more prestigious than dressing up as a clown and getting kicked in the face by a bull.

J, M, R: Yeah!

If you had to be a kind of cheese, which cheese would you be?

M: Gorgonzola, with walnuts and strawberries.

J: Pepperjack!

Mc: I was gonna say that, but since YOU said it… I don’t want to say it now.  I’d either be provolone or Gouda.

R: I’m gonna go with cheddar.

If you were a style of facial hair, what style facial hair would you be?

J: Magnum P.I. mustache!  My dad used to have that.

Mc: I’ve had every style of facial hair except for the sideburns that connect to the mustache, so I don’t know.  I think the mustache, the kind that just kind of hangs down like Sam Elliot’s.

R: I’d probably say sideburns.

M: Probably sideburns or a mustache, I guess.

What’s your quintessential “I’M GONNA DANCE AROUND MY APARTMENT IN MY UNDERWEAR AND LOVE LIFE!” song?

J: I know exactly what that song is for me: “P.Y.T.”  RIP, Michael.  It’s always been “P.Y.T”, that song makes me go fucking crazy.

R: A song by Mary J. Blige that I don’t know the title to, it was in a commercial, I don’t know, I never dance to it but I like it.  I dance funny just when I’m with my fiancé.  We’re gonna play it at my wedding.

Mc: “American Girl”, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.  It’s a great rock song but it’s also really danceable.

M: I have no idea.

Mc: “Beautiful People” by Marilyn Manson?

M: …. No, any song on Beck’s “Midnight Vultures”, but especially “Mixed Bizness.”

What’s your favorite word?

Mc: This is a really good question, I’ve actually thought about this.

J: Oh, Jesus.

R: You can answer for the band, then, because I have no idea.

Mc: Okay!  So, there’s this really good show on Saturdays on BBC radio called “My Word”, and it’s this really great crazy word game show with all this urbane English people, and they know a lot more words than anybody has a right to know, and I learned a great word from them, and I’ve heard it a lot since then: Picaresque.

J: Not “picturesque”?

Mc: No.  Picaresque means “of or pertaining to the adventures of rogues or scoundrels”, and I think that’s a great word.  It’s like, “Is there a word to describe a swashbuckling, sexual Casanova?” Turns out there’s a word for it!

R: Fuck!  Shit!  Fuckshit!

J: Whatever, I like the word “J.MARCH.”

M: That’s one word and it’s copy written.

From left: Maclaine Diemer, Jared Marsh, Mike Jones. Photo: Gabrielle Petraglia.

THE MAIN EVENT:  THE TPB TAXPAYER INTERVIEW

Hi, guys!

Everyone: Hi!

So, how do you guys meet and how did you come to make music together?

J: Let’s get beers first!

[Chaos ensues as we table hop at the Middle East.  We sat down and then the waitress got mad because we were only ordering drinks, regardless of the fact that we were sitting with the headlining band and had asked permission from the hostess… Weird.]

J: So, I was born, Rob was born, and we don’t remember meeting each other because we met then.  Our parents were friends and we met Mikey very soon afterwards in first grade-

M: -Second grade.

J: -Oh, that’s right, you stayed back.  He was looking outside too much at trucks while he was at school, so they kept him back.

M: It’s true.

J: So, we were always friends growing up and we were always into the same kinds of bands.  Eventually, we decided to form a band for ourselves and we’ve been doing that since we were 14 or 15.  We met Tim Peters, the bassist, at UMass, because he was listening to a Sunny Day Real Estate record, and I was like, “Hey, I like Sunny Day Real Estate!”  And then he became friends with us, and then joined the band after that.  Fairly recently, about a year and a half ago Maclaine joined us, so now we’re a five piece.

Mc: We’d started before that, because we knew each other- So, I used to be in Bang! Camaro.  Jay used to sing for them very early on and I played guitar so we knew each other, and then the two of us had talked about doing something outside of our respective bands as a duo but that never happened.  Summer of 2007 you guys did the EP and asked me to play the trumpet on it, which is my first instrument, actually, but it had been a long time before I played one.  That session was like, “Play keyboards!  Play this!  Play that!”

(Laughs)

So you’re a jack-of-all-trades, basically.

Mc: I guess, yeah.  So then eventually what happened was I left Bang! Camaro, and then it was like, “So!”

R: We were like, “Oh!  You played in a band!  You can play with us for awhile!” (Laughs)

Let’s talk creative process: In terms of how you write and how you are in the studio, does someone take on the bulk of the writing or is it entirely a collaborative effort that you all contribute to?

R: Jay writes all the lyrics.

J: Usually, I might start with a skeleton of an idea, and then I’ll like a melody or something like that, but it ends there in terms of my part of the collaboration.  Everyone then takes it and writes it up to where they’re comfortable with it, and nothing really makes it up to the stage of the lyrics until it actually works as a band.  There’s also times where Mikey will come to the table with an idea and I’ll really like it, or before Rob or Maclaine or Tim come into the space, and I’ll say “Keep playing that!” and it’ll inspire me to write a melody, but it’s still very democratic.

In terms of in the studio, do you guys record in Massachusetts as well?

J: Yeah, at Camp Street Studios with Paul Q Kolderie, he produced Radiohead, Pixies, Courtney Love, and Hole… Anyways, it’s a huge dream come true to get in touch with him.  Radiohead is my favorite band of all time.  He’s super cool and we’ve recorded the last three sessions with him.  We did Modes and lungs back in 2005 with him and then a split EP in 2007, and then the latest record, “Don’t Steal My Night Vision.”

How was that experience, recording Don’t Steal My Night Vision?

R: The thing that was different about this record was that before we had Maclaine we rented a house in Maine or New Hampshire to demo all the songs we had written with a little crappy 16-track thing that we have.  We got to sit on the songs for a while and got to listen to them before we went into the studio and paid for time.  Once we were in the studio I felt like we were more prepared, so it felt like everything we were doing we meant to do instead of being like, “Oh, it’s fine.  We gotta be out of here in 10 hours.”

J: There were parts that changed quite a bit from that first chord until we actually went into the studio.  It was just fun to mix down our own songs first, to fall in love with them that way and to figure out how you wanted them to sound, which parts needed to be cut and half, which parts needed to be extended, that sort of thing. A lot of that still happened in the studio, but we got something out of it right away.  So we did that, and then we went in to record four songs, and then Maclaine joined; it was after the first session that he joined because we sort of had to write him into those four songs and then we put the rest all together.

Mc: So, the whole record was done in three weekend sessions, right?  And it was like, three or four songs for a weekend.  The thing that’s amazing about the guys at Camp Street is that you’ll sort of sit around for two hours and be like, “What’s going on?” Being in the studio is like, so much sitting around.  That’s the dirty secret about being in a band: It’s a lot of sitting around without doing anything.  Once these guys would get ready and set up, another two or three hours would go by, and then you’ve got three songs completely tracked.  The way [the songs] are on the record is pretty much how we got them after a handful of takes.  Most of the drums and bass are first or second takes; the vocals are first or second takes.  The only thing that took a lot of work after the fact was the guitar stuff because we like to hear ourselves play. (Laughs)

J: We didn’t spend a lot of time on something and then not use it, so that was kind of cool.

Mc: Yeah, it was really efficient.  You know, perfection, you can’t rush it.  The tracking went from January of last year up until May or something like that.  It was pretty slow, and then we’d go back and mix the record a couple of times.  It wasn’t really done until October.  We were playing the songs live and rehearsing them a lot.  You don’t settle into a song until you’ve been playing a song six months to the year.  Even though we’re still playing some of the stuff on the album differently, it’s closer to what it sounds like live, I think.

How is this a departure from other recordings and material you’ve worked on before this album?  Is there anything on or about “Don’t Steal My Night Vision” that you’re particularly excited to share with your fans?

J: First of all, having three guitars was much different than having two, just because to compose the song is so much different when you have to throw another instrument in there-

R: Not HAVE to; GET to!

J: GET to throw another instrument in there, that’s right.  You want it to be so that they’re not all playing the same thing and you don’t want it to sound cluttered.  So, that was one thing that was pretty cool about it.  As we played as a four piece we always wanted another part of it: Whether Mikey came up with two guitar parts or I would think of two guitar parts or something to throw in, like keys…

R: Well, you would go into the studio and record that guitar part and then when we were playing live we wouldn’t be able to pull off everything.  Everything we wanted to be able to do in the studio [for this record] we did it, and we now can do it live.  With that, I feel like we’re coming into our own as a live band.  This record did more for us playing live and getting better sounding live, whereas before I think there were certain songs we’d write that sounded awesome on the record and then we couldn’t really pull them off onstage.

Are there any songs in your catalogue that you feel particularly connected to or that you really enjoy playing live?

Mc: I have a really unique position where I feel objective about this new record only because, even though I was there for the recording of it, all the songs were written before I joined.  I was a huge Taxpayer fan for years before I ever joined the band, so for me, being in the band is more like, I’m the #1 fan and I get to play stuff with Taxpayer.

R: You don’t treat us like that! (Laughs)

Mc: You don’t deserve it!  That’s what I learned after the fact!  Talk about shattering the illusion, Jesus.  (Laughs)  I still love the music.

R: We’d see Maclaine drunk at parties and at the end of the night we’d be like “DUDE, you gotta join!” and he’d be like “JUST ASK ME.”  (Laughs)

Mc: For me, I love the whole record; I don’t think there’s a bad song on it, but I especially love “We Have Arrived”.  It was one of those things where I was like “Jay wrote a hit!”  Part of it was that the melody was so unique and something I had never heard from Taxpayer before.  Then, I love “Settle Down Ghost” – that was one of the songs on the split EP, but I don’t think you guys liked it the first time around?

J: I was the one who didn’t like it.

Mc: I remember recording it and being like, “Dude, that’s the shit, that song is awesome.”

J: There was something about it that rubbed me the wrong way.  It grew on me, and now I love the song.  When we first started playing it… Now I look back and “Settle Down…” is probably my favorite one of those.

R: I think those two are my favorite to play, too.  And “good silent king” because we usually play it at the end of the set when I’m normally really tired, and that one is really easy for me to play, at least the beginning of it, so it gives me a chance to wake up a little bit.

Mc: That’s also the first and only Taxpayer song that we’ve written together as a band.

R: That’s right!

Is that why it’s the best?

R: (Laughs) Yeah.

J: I like the more obscure ones.   I like “The Less We’re Impressed”-

M: -Yeah, that’s my favorite song on the CD-

J: Just because that song is NOTHING like us whatsoever and that song began because Tim was just playing that bass line.  Going into practice is when we get to hang out anyway and a lot of the time it turns into us playing jokes on each other.  So, that song started off with Tim doing that bass line at the very beginning and the whole song evolved out of that.  It was just weird how something that seems so simple can make your mind go so crazy.  It was the most anti-Taxpayer song we’ve ever done, and the way it got recorded made me love it even more.

Do you see yourselves going in that kind of direction now, towards a more collaborative process?

J: I feel like I pounce on things more when somebody else comes up with an idea, because I just endlessly try to come up with chords and put a melody over it. It’s so nice to have somebody else come up with the chord progression and then I can think of a million different things to sing over it.

Mike Jones and Tim Peters of Taxpayer. Photo: Gabrielle Petraglia.

In terms of touring, what’s it looking like in the next couple of months with Taxpayer for shows?  Do you have any crazy stories from past adventures in the tour bus so to speak?

J: Ever since Maclaine joined the band our tour bus disintegrated. (Laughs)

M: We lost our van.

What?  How did this happen?

R: Tim, our bassist, used to live in Quincy in this apartment complex with a parking lot.

M: It was a GMC Rally Wagon.

J: Nobody wanted to keep the van in his driveway.  It was this old, gigantic beast.

R: So, Tim moved to Foxborough, but he would keep the van parked in the parking lot in Quincy, and it was really sketchy.  Tim would have to wear a suit at work, and he’d pull up to this parking lot in Quincy where he doesn’t live, in a suit, in a nice car, and he’d get in the super sketchy van, drive away, come back at two o’clock in the morning with different clothes on… So, it eventually got towed.

M: It went on for about a year.

J: We used to joke that the van was the loudest vehicle out there, so it must have woken up all the neighbors whenever Tim got back, and we would just picture all these wives running to the windows being like “THERE’S THAT SON OF A BITCH IN THE CREEPY ASS VAN!  HONEY, CALL THE COPS!”

So, the Rally Wagon got towed?

M: It got impounded for a month and we owed a bunch of money, so we just told them to keep it.

When it comes to promoting this album and hitting the road, take me through the next month and where you’ll be six months from now.

J: I guess we’re kind of old men.  We have a really busy summer.  Rob and Mike are getting married… not to each other.  There’s so much crap going on for the summer that we haven’t really planned anything to go balls to the wall and make this big record where we’re all going to retire early and that sort of thing.  It’s more like, we take shows where we know we can play for a lot of people and make an impact.  We have this show, which is special because we’re playing with a lot of friends.  The Good North is reuniting so we HAD to play this show. So, we’re doing this show because it’s awesome.  We just did Harpoon Fest, we just played for like, two thousand people and it was ridiculous.   We’re doing the Provincetown fest at the end of next month, but beyond that we don’t have anything planned.  When fall comes around we’ll try to plan some kind of road trip on a weekend.   We make it work with the lives that we have.

Mc: The thing about this record is we’re not like, 20 or 21, but at the same time I feel like none of us have any illusions about what being in a band holds for us.  We’re doing this because we love it.  This, for me is the best thing I’ve done, and for me that’s enough.  When we get together to rehearse it’s partly a chance to play music and practice but it’s also partly just to hang out.  We do nothing but laugh for two to three hours straight and sometimes at the detriment of getting anything done.  You get to a certain point where “making it” becomes so sour to you because you’ve had your heart broken so many times.  We just don’t give a shit.  We just wanna make music for our friends because we love music and we love hanging out with our friends.  So few people ever get to experience that.  Why ruin it with money?

J: I feel that unless you have some kind of a push behind it that touring and leaving your jobs and girlfriends and families behind is a formula that’s totally dead unless you’re between the ages of 18 and 21.

Mc: We have our lives, which we like, and other jobs and other stuff, and then we get to be in this band that we love with our friends and we get to play really cool shows. The Middle East Downstairs?  Bands would kill to play this show, and we’re lucky enough to just be able to do it and be with our friends and play.  I would never want to sacrifice this to get that.  I don’t give a shit about being a rock star.  I just want to rock.

R: That was like a speech from a MOVIE.

Mc: But it’s true!  I’ve seen every angle of it, and I know people who are really successful and people who are really talented who want to be really successful and aren’t and are really bummed about it.  I would hate to have everything fall apart at 35 and have to start over.

In cases like that, too, I feel like people wind up resenting the project or the band or the music and it’s just really unfortunate.

J: FRIENDS FOREVER!!!

R: Whether you like it or not, J-Dawg.

You mentioned that you’re playing with friends tonight.  Who are some of the bands that you really love that happen to be from Boston? How would you explain your identity as a “Boston band”?  It’s kind of interesting, the loyalties and expectations that come with what city you’re from.  How has that affected your music?

J: Yeah, I think of that question too.  I think about it as if I were to rewind back the clock to 2002 or 2003 where we were just playing any show we could and begging to play shows, and thinking of the progression of why things got good is because of the connections we made in Boston, so that, in a sense, is very much indicative of the Boston band community.  When I think back to just weird circumstances, like, if you didn’t meet that person where would we be?  Paul Kordelie, for instance: If Paul hadn’t known one of our girlfriends and come to see us play, we wouldn’t have got on the 4×4 and we wouldn’t be where we are.

R: But do you feel that that couldn’t have happened if there was a community in Portland?  Does that feel “Boston” to you?

J: Yes.  New York is just, there’s so many clubs, but as far as Boston I feel like …

Mc: I’ve been in more than one band in this town, and in multiple genres.  The thing that makes a Boston band a “Boston band” has nothing to do with the music; it has to do with the camaraderie of the community.  The bands that I like, the ones I play shows with, I like them and I like their music and they’re fun people to hang out with, and THAT aspect is what makes Boston bands stick together.  The fact that you would call your friends and play a Saturday night show at Great Scott, you know, we’d call the Everyday Visuals and we’d call the Bon Savants because we want to play with our friends, you know?  The music between our bands kind of fits in some sense, but if you get nitpicky it doesn’t really, because it doesn’t really matter and that’s not the way we do it.  Whether the music ever leaves Boston or it doesn’t, it doesn’t matter; it’s about helping out your friends.

So, the Boston scene is more so made up of people who dig music but it’s more about familial connections between friends who happen to be in bands as opposed to bands who happen to be friends?

R: Yeah! Because, well, when we go to New York, it always ends up being fun, but we’ll play a place in New York and they’ll have 10 bands play from 8pm to 4am, and bands play, and they leave.  I feel like in Boston you play a show and it’s a show: There are four or five bands and everybody’s there the whole time, and you know all the people in the bands, or you’re gonna meet all the people in the bands.  It’s a totally different vibe.

How do you feel about the crowd in Boston?  Do you feel like you’re received better in Boston?  How’s the vibe with your fans?

J: Only because we have a history here, yeah, but as long as we play in front of a crowd I feel like we get a pretty decent response.  We’re kind of likeable (laughs)

R: Yeah, I’ve never felt a cold shoulder.

Mc: A lot of people in Boston kind of stand there with their arms folded looking really solemn and pretending that they don’t enjoy the music because they think people are watching them, I’ve even been that guy in the crowd, and I feel like that’s really a Boston thing.

Ha, not us.  We dance around like idiots ALL THE TIME.

Mc: I mean, people go to see live music because it’s fun and they want to dance or jump around, but it’s a Boston and New York thing, so I don’t think any one is innocent of that kind of attitude.

Which venues do you really love playing at as opposed to seeing shows at?

R: The Middle East is always great and they’ve always treated us fairly.

M: Great Scott’s great!

R: The Paradise, they’re very fair.

J: We tend to be respectful at these places, too.

Mc: Yeah, we don’t trash the green room or throw up on stage or get in fights with bouncers.

Not yet…

Mc: (Laughs) Right.  We’re just now entering into our belligerent rock star phase.

Oh, goodie!  We’ll document your downfall. (Laughs)

Jared Marsh and Mike Jones of Taxpayer. Photo: Gabrielle Petraglia