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MUSIC BLOG

DON'T MISS: Street Eaters at 924 Gilman tomorrow night

Author: Mike G
Published: Thursday, December 01, 2011
Remember when you first discovered punk rock? Well, if it's a dim memory for you at this point, or even if you just want to relive the thrill, check out Street Eaters. And then, I dare you to tell me they didn't make you feel like you did when you were a young teenage punk ready to take on the whole fucking world.

Street Eaters consists of drums, super sludgy bass riffs, and both members — Megan March and John No — splitting vocal duties. There's an energy to their riffs and vocal delivery that automatically recalls the best of what punk was always meant to be. There's a youthful exuberance to their music, that snarling punk attitude, but it's still catchy as hell. Above all, though, it's true punkness is in its authenticity — listening to Street Eaters, I feel like I'm listening to March and No lay it all out there without any frills, just raw intensity and emotion. ...

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Remember when you first discovered punk rock? Well, if it's a dim memory for you at this point, or even if you just want to relive the thrill, check out Street Eaters. And then, I dare you to tell me they didn't make you feel like you did when you were a young teenage punk ready to take on the whole fucking world.

Street Eaters consists of drums, super sludgy bass riffs, and both members — Megan March and John No — splitting vocal duties. There's an energy to their riffs and vocal delivery that automatically recalls the best of what punk was always meant to be. There's a youthful exuberance to their music, that snarling punk attitude, but it's still catchy as hell. Above all, though, it's true punkness is in its authenticity — listening to Street Eaters, I feel like I'm listening to March and No lay it all out there without any frills, just raw intensity and emotion.

Fittingly enough, they're playing tomorrow night at 924 Gilman — the birthplace of Bay Area punk, the noble tradition that Street Eaters is very much carrying forward. You can probably even grab a copy of their new album Rusty Eyes And Hydrocarbons. After seeing them live, I imagine you'll definitely want to. There's a reason why my pal Jen Choch (of Schande) says, "Street Eaters are one of the most important bands in SF past, present, and future. I can't tell you why this is so much as I can only say that when you see them live you feel it, understand it, and know it."

Check out my interview with Megan March and John No below.

WTM: I hear Street Eaters has a pretty rad backstory. When did y'all first meet? When did you form the band?

Megan: We're not exactly sure when we first met, which is kind of bizarre in a way. We both grew up around the Gilman St. / Mission Records scene, going to a lot of the same shows, hanging with the same gang of friends. John's band Fleshies used to play shows with my old band Before The Fall. I remember a particular show in which we bonded over being totally gnarly — I had sliced my knuckles on my ride cymbal, smearing the blood all over my face like war paint, and he twisted his ankle hurling himself into a pile of people. Afterwards, we laughed about how broken and bad ass we were. Fleshies were doing a ton of touring then, and I was doing my own thing with bands and school, and in passing John always said we should play together. Fast forward a couple years when we started hanging out in a closer sense, we started jamming with me on the drums and singing, and Johnny playing bass and singing. That was about 3 years ago.

John: I always wanted to play in a band with Megan, ever since I saw her drumming. I'm highly attracted to crazy hard-hitting drummers, though this is the first time that attraction has gone beyond the musical realm. She was also the best sound engineer at Gilman when my bands were playing there, and would even volunteer to help do sound when me and my friends would book these crazy all-ages, all-day free shows called Geekfests there.

WTM: Tell me about the new album: Where was it recorded? What was the sound you were trying to capture? Is that different from any of your past work, and did you accomplish it? Any surprises?

Megan: Our friend Matt Waters is a recording wizard, and has done most of our recordings. He has a gift for mind reading, which is totally necessary. We aimed to have the drums sound big, the bass dirty, and the vocals clear. We also did a few tracks at the Woman's Audio Mission in San Francisco. They are a rad lady-run non-profit that promotes women in the recording arts, which is right up our alley. Recording in a fancy studio was a lot of fun and we had a chance to experiment with some new sounds. One thing we are always dead set on is keeping the energy of our recordings true to our live shows.

John: I feel like we have kept the sound of our recordings consistent, but have built on it quite a bit over the last couple of years — we aim to get it to sound as big and powerful as possible while still sounding raw, and kind of pretty at the same time.

WTM: You just got back from a tour. Where'd you go? And what were the top two items on your tour rider?

John: Everywhere in the US and a little beyond, filling in the blanks from our summer tours and playing places we [hadn't] been to before. If we had a tour rider, the only thing we'd have on it would be iced coffee on tap. Really, we should just get a cooler and fill it up.

Megan: We are currently in a coffee shop in Tucson AZ, at the beginning of our five week tour. [This interview took place a few weeks ago.] We will head out through to the south, where we will rock it through Florida with our buddies from the band Tubers at the Fest X, and then head north to do some dates with our friends Screaming Females. We're also planing to make it up to Canada, but you never know if they'll let you in at the border. On our last tour we went to Vancouver, and we were stuck at the border for a few hours while they confiscated our cell phones and searched our truck, but we made it through.

We don't have a rider because most of the places we're playing on this tour are all ages DIY spaces, which we think is RAD. However, if we did I would like iced coffee on tap, as John mentioned, and falafel. I'm always hungry.

WTM: What are your top non-musical influences?

Megan: We write songs about things we care about that affect our community on the macro level, and then on the personal micro level. Sometimes it's hard to put to words my frustrations with things that we have no control over, like that horrific BP oil spill that happened a while back. That is why we sometimes take the fantastical tact; in the case of the song "Livid Lizard", we imagined the struggles of a creature monster born in the depths of the oil spill, and how lost it feels in the ugliness and corruption of our human world. So, does life count as a non-musical influence? Coffee?

John: The weird brutality and beauty of the natural world. Human civilization's fascinating ability to constantly destroy and re-create itself. Really wild historical theories that sometimes-inappropriately draw parallels between entirely different times and places. The worst and the best in people. Night and day. Black and white. Bitter and sweet. Chocolate and peanut butter.
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Help OneMama empower women and children around the world on Dec. 3

Author: Mike G
Published: Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Wiretap Music is proud to be helping OneMama throw its annual party and fundraiser this year. It's going down on December 3 at The Painted Gentleman Mansion — a gorgeous Victorian right next to the famous Painted Ladies of Alamo Square.

Here's the deets on the party, which will include live music and DJs, as well as a little more info on who OneMama is and the amazing work they do:

Help us empower women and families of rural, impoverished communities around the world to be healthy, educated, and financially successful. Our current goal is to raise $20,000 to bring our on-site solar panels to the health clinic in Uganda, continue HIV and Malaria prevention programs, provide midwives with critical medical supplies, and to expand to surrounding countries. ...

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Wiretap Music is proud to be helping OneMama throw its annual party and fundraiser this year. It's going down on December 3 at The Painted Gentleman Mansion — a gorgeous Victorian right next to the famous Painted Ladies of Alamo Square.

Here's the deets on the party, which will include live music and DJs, as well as a little more info on who OneMama is and the amazing work they do:

Help us empower women and families of rural, impoverished communities around the world to be healthy, educated, and financially successful. Our current goal is to raise $20,000 to bring our on-site solar panels to the health clinic in Uganda, continue HIV and Malaria prevention programs, provide midwives with critical medical supplies, and to expand to surrounding countries.

THE ONEMAMA EVENT Dec 3rd, 2011 - Saturday Night, 7:30pm-12:30am
The Painted Gentlemen Mansion at Alamo Square
940 Grove Street, San Francisco

Full Night of local and world renown live music by:
SILA - “Funk Master” - Live Music
The Yacine Kouyate African Collective - Live Music
Devyn Rush - from American Idol
Bay Area's Best DJs: The Tourist, Polo Moxquuz
and many more...

See you there!
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Don't hate: Check out Al Lover

Author: Mike G
Published: Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Al Lover is a busy man. He's remixed everyone from rappers like Das Racist to garage rock bands like Ty Segall to 60s psych hero Captain Beefheart, and is also the DJ behind the beats for the Bay Area-via-North Carolina rap crew Fist Fam. Along the way, Al has been relentless in the pursuit of perfecting his "garage rap" sound. His newest release still samples plenty of what his label, Impose, calls "icky guitar loops," but it's one of the first times I've heard him stepping out completely on his own, and I dare say Al is pretty damn close to realizing his vision, no doubt.
...

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Al Lover is a busy man. He's remixed everyone from rappers like Das Racist to garage rock bands like Ty Segall to 60s psych hero Captain Beefheart, and is also the DJ behind the beats for the Bay Area-via-North Carolina rap crew Fist Fam. Along the way, Al has been relentless in the pursuit of perfecting his "garage rap" sound. His newest release still samples plenty of what his label, Impose, calls "icky guitar loops," but it's one of the first times I've heard him stepping out completely on his own, and I dare say Al is pretty damn close to realizing his vision, no doubt.

If you came up to me in a bar and asked me to tell you why I like Al's music, there's a particular story I'd tell. I tried to get Al to tell it himself, but as you'll see in the interview below, he's far too diplomatic about it all and kinda ducks the question. So again, I'll turn to the words of Impose:

"Our love for Al Lover was one of those instantaneous things that people claim happens. His Woodsist Remixed mix made us believers, even though Jeremy Earl of Woodsist was not down with his scuzzy breakbeat treaments and politely requested he desist. Al's refusal to give a flying F gained him further points in the cool department and we've been casually stalking his releases ever since. We even befriended the Bay Area producer and enlisted him to join our tape series."

Al's contribution to the tape series is called Satanic Tambourines and while it's more Al's original sonic creation than a remix album is, it actually does sample all the other releases in the Impose tape series to date. Which is pretty cool in a meta-way.

There's a release party tomorrow night at Milk Bar featuring Al Lover, Burnt Ones (psychic sleaze fuzz), Fist Fam (psychedelic country rap tunes), and POW (disco punk). You can check out the first single from Satanic Tambourines, "Black Magick Starter Jacket," here.

Peep my interview with Al Lover below.

WTM: You've done some pretty badass concept remixes in the past. What's this new album all about? What inspired it?

The new project is a few beats I had sitting in the vaults for a while that I really liked, but never put on any projects. Impose approached me about doin' the tape and I figured that was a good excuse to utilize them. They sent me a bunch of tapes they had released prior (mostly experimental noise and lo fi rock stuff, really cool). We had discussed possibly sampling the tapes to make beats out of, but when I heard them they inspired me to try and create a real muddy noise vibe to sit under the beats. I sampled all the tapes and ended up looping them into the erie soundscapes that sit under the beats and really create a cool tone to the project. It's pretty spacey.

WTM: Where did the inspiration come from for your "garage rap"? Have you always listened to both rock and rap equally or what?

I think it came from just getting board of digging through the same stuff as everyone else for samples. Old jazz, soul, r&b, psych rock, just old stuff. I love that stuff, but I just wanted to try something else out, plus there's so much good Rock 'n Roll being made right now. I don't know when the moment of inspiration struck, I guess around the time of the "Woodsist" project (most of which isn't garage). A lot of the stuff I've been digging on lately has heavy r&b and blues vibes, which is my favorite shit anyhow. I've always listed to both rap and rock n roll though, the first tapes I remember having as a kid were Guns 'n Roses, and NWA. The rap rock combo can be pretty bad if done wrong though, I try and tread these waters very carefully.

WTM: How'd you hook up with Impose?

They just showed me a lot of love from the gate with the Woodsist thing. Then I met Derek and Blake at the last SXSW and they were super cool, good dudes. They asked me if I wanted to do the tape and I of course said yes.

WTM: I think more people should hear about the Woodsist remix debacle. Care to share?

Old news, basically after I made the project I gave a copy to Jeremy Earl, I hollered at him via email to see if he had peep'ed it out and he and his publicist gave me the old cease and desist. I'm not trippin', I understand why they did it, but it was still kinda funny. I actually ran into him at a bar a few months back and apologized for causing them any distress, he said it was all good. I don't want any bad blood with other artists, it was a good learning experience for sure.

WTM: When and where can people hear you spin live?

I play 45s at random shows every once in a while, but also every 1st and 3rd Saturday at the 540 Club on Clement St. in SF. It's a little dive, but it's fun. I'm more concerned with perfecting a live show for the music than spinning records right now. I'll be playing my first live beat set at Milk Bar for the Tape's release on Nov. 23rd. We'll see how it goes, should be pretty trippy.

WTM: You're also a part of the Fist Fam crew. How do you decide which songs to use for Fist Fam and which to use for your solo stuff?

Yeah, shouts out to the Fist Fam. Some beats just sound like they need rapping on them, some don't. Engineering them for rap is a whole other ball game though. I don't engineer my shit for rap most of the time, I don't really engineer it at all. Most of the time I just want it to be instrumental. I don't want it to sound too polished, but I have been cleaning up the sound a bit lately just because it seems like a natural progression. I still favor the grimy shit any day. We have another project coming up that I'm producing. I trying to get my EQ game a little tighter first. I don't care for over compressed sounding stuff though, so it'll still be a little ugly and hollow.
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Don't miss Future Twin's "locals only" release party this Saturday!

Author: Mike G
Published: Wednesday, November 09, 2011
I wish I could look forward to being identical twins with Future Twin some day. Then maybe we'd work out one of those secret languages twins have and I'd understand where their brilliantly catchy punk-noise-pop is coming from.

Until then, I'll just have to stand there and watch them in awe like everyone else. Awed, mainly, by Jean Yaste's impossibly loud, throaty, howling voice. She's all sweet and nice when you talk to her offstage, then she gets up there and just belts it out with a fierceness that is something to behold. And the music underpinning it all is just the right mix of garage punk riffs, psychedelic noise, and pop dynamics to complement her otherworldly vocal stylings. ...

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I wish I could look forward to being identical twins with Future Twin some day. Then maybe we'd work out one of those secret languages twins have and I'd understand where their brilliantly catchy punk-noise-pop is coming from.

Until then, I'll just have to stand there and watch them in awe like everyone else. Awed, mainly, by Jean Yaste's impossibly loud, throaty, howling voice. She's all sweet and nice when you talk to her offstage, then she gets up there and just belts it out with a fierceness that is something to behold. And the music underpinning it all is just the right mix of garage punk riffs, psychedelic noise, and pop dynamics to complement her otherworldly vocal stylings.

The couple times I've seen Future Twin live I've really dug the rest of the band, too. Amanda Hallquist on vocals and keys, primarily, bringing that Murder City Devils-style organ flavor, and William Cotton playing booming drum tracks on a Roland Octapad, which I dug because you don't often hear a garagey psych band playing all-electronic drums. But the lineup has changed, now consisting of Antonio "Tones" Roman-Alcala, who is responsible for "Skins, In Search of Good Food;" Rodney Treat Gyannoulis, who is in charge of "making shred tents;" Joseph Bleak Reiter, who holds down the "bass afrobeats;" and Stephanie Rose on "synth swirls and baby blues." So as you can see, this Saturday's release party for Future Twin's new Situation EP is sure to be full of surprises.

I had a chat with Jean about the new EP, the Octapad, and the future of Future Twin. Check it out, homeys.

WTM: Where was the new album recorded? Who with?

JY: Our debut EP, Future Twin "Situation," was recorded at Ghost Cat Studios, located in SOMA, and engineered by Ryan Kleeman and Jay Marston; and also at "Place is the Place" and "1924 Franklin is a Car" by Jon Bernson of Exray's, in Oakland. We also did some vocals at the Sunset Neighborhood Beacon Center, thanks to the Urban Music Program. Jon Bernson helped us mix and produce both the EP that's coming out now, and a 7" that's due out early next year.

WTM: How'd the recording process go? What was "the sound" y'all were trying to capture? Were there any surprises in how it turned out?

JY: Recording process was hella slick. Ghost Cat is super rad, Jay's super rad. We went in once before and kinda didn't have our shit together. Then we rallied, planned and came back full force and SLAMMED IT OUT in 2 days. That was the foundation tracking, live band style, all of us banded together. Then Jon and I did a lot of extra super psych parts later, worked on some stony ideas, talked about the revolution, transient architecture, how to make aleatoric music, and jelly donuts.

Sound-wise? We consider ourselves a psych farmageddon witchcraft rock and roll band... So yeah, the dirge, the harmony, chaos never died. I was surprised to find some secret cell phone communiques via Yuka Ezoe's pocket call to me during a moped ride out to Thrasher Magazine's warehouse in Bayview. She recorded, inadvertently, herself screaming when she almost got in a wreck, tons of tiny engine sounds, and the two of us laughing later at the gas station when I sprayed gasoline all over my engine.... That was a surprise, so of course we had to add pocket call samples to the record. But that's on the "Lockits" song, about the all-girl moped gang we started here in SF, and "Lockits" is the A side of the 7", so you'll have to wait to hear it. Jon had some really cool vocal ideas with "Situation" too, and our drummer, Tones, finally pointed out to me that I was saying "Yuka" all the time in the song "Yuka" (subconscious DUH!)... So we finally made that one official.

WTM: I really dig the Octapad drums you guys have going on. But one of y'all once told me you were aiming to get a full drum set into the lineup at some point. Is that still the plan, or is the Octapad there to stay? Is the Octapad used on the EP?

JY: The octapad was played by our good friend William Cotton, who's also a brilliant tech/media artist. He's currently cutting a solo record as Red Blue Yellow (he writes amazing pop gems!!) and he's a kiwi, so really what's not to love? He will be doing some beat-timed projections with Future Twin for the locals only release show at Engine Works, Nov. 12, complete with arduinos and colors. The octapad may or may not make an appearance. But regardless, Future Twin loves scientists. Our epic drummer Tones held down the beats for the debut EP, as well as the 7", and he's here to stay. Future Twin loves Tones too.

WTM: What's the significance of the name of the EP, Situation? It's not named after that douchebag from Jersey Shore, is it? Can we all agree that guy is the absolute pinnacle of douchebaggery?

JY: The name of the EP, which is also the title track, "Situation," is about cause and effect. I wrote it about a close friend of mine who's been struggling with substance problems for a long time, who I dearly love. I never told her the song was about her, but I'd play it for her all the time, and it was my way of trying to tell her that's she's alright, it's the last line of the song, and to hold on for better things to come, but that it's also hurting me to be so close to her. The lines "all these solid things are just apparitions, all these non-realities, concepts, situations" is kind of about how these things exist in one's mind, "living in your head," but that you can be aware of them, work on it and get better. Often times having strong friends who love and support you can be the last vanguard between people and the void they are constantly trying not to fall into. The words of someone smarter than me once said something I feel sums it up pretty well: "Giving a shit is the new not giving a shit." It's also a little shout out to the Situationists, coz yeah, they are RAD. It's a Future Twin "Situation." Definitely NOT named after jersey shore characters. Those tacky bastards.

WTM: Tell us about the release show.

JY: We're throwing a "locals only" release show for our friends in the Bay, Saturday Nov. 12. We wanna make sure all the lil buddies get a copy of the tape first, especially since there's a first-pressing prize inside, a la cereal box style, yeah BIG KID FUN, thanks to Bahama Kangaroo. DJ Placentina will be selecting, Our Brother the Native // the Mallard // Dead Eyes will be supporting. Cotton will be projecting psyched-out timed visuals, we will transport you. It's at a warehouse in the Mission district, Engine Works, on 17th n Capp. [RSVP here.]

WTM: Any plans to tour in support?

JY: Touring? I'm heading from Joshua Tree to Texas this December to work on a photo book project with my collaborator Taj Robinson. I promised FT's producer Jon that I wouldn't run off to India for a most epic sounding ratbike trip right after the local release, and also FT's maglada manager Austin from Deep Teens that I wouldn't keep leaving willy nilly... Then i think i invited him to Joshua Tree.... haha. So yeah I'm sure I'll be making music somewhere out there, but Future Twin is keepin it real and playin another local show in January, TBA. We are talking about the usual West Coast spring jaunt down into Texas for that one thing tho... this March or April. We would love some tour help a la booking agent I am terrible at the time space continuum.

WTM: What else is next for Future Twin?

JY: Next up? 7" frisbee, candy-colored mushroom chocolates dispersed by happy Irishmen, month-long noise shows at the Tenderloin national forest, more TAZ hunting with Taj (she's also FT's OG photographer), hopefully finally an FT video from my friends Adam at Sound Arts and HeidiYo at Yours Truly, building a sound machine with Kal Spelletich, Dark Materials, Okay Colour Pop Up Band, oh yeah and more records always more records. IN THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE -->GENERATOR SHOWS ON THE STEPS OF CITY HALL --> WE'RE COMING FOR YOUUU.

Next up, we are playing a local SF show in January fo sho.
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Swanifant is bringing the psych rock to the dance party

Author: Mike G
Published: Wednesday, October 19, 2011
If you're anything like me, maybe you were a big fan of Santa Cruz psych legends Comets On Fire. If you're like me but not too much like me, maybe you some times listened to Comets on Fire and just wished you could move your ass to their music, instead of staring wide-eyed with wonder into the great beyond. Well, boy do I have the band for you.

Swanifant also hails from Santa Cruz, but they now call Oakland home. Swanifant also bring the unbridled, completely cracked psych rock, but they add a groove to it that almost recalls R&B. It's music for your head and your hips. Imagine if In A Priest-Driven Ambulance-era Flaming Lips were playing songs written for them by MGMT at a house party, and you'll get the idea. I'm not one for the booty-shaking, typically, but I definitely dig Swanifant's sound. ...

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If you're anything like me, maybe you were a big fan of Santa Cruz psych legends Comets On Fire. If you're like me but not too much like me, maybe you some times listened to Comets on Fire and just wished you could move your ass to their music, instead of staring wide-eyed with wonder into the great beyond. Well, boy do I have the band for you.

Swanifant also hails from Santa Cruz, but they now call Oakland home. Swanifant also bring the unbridled, completely cracked psych rock, but they add a groove to it that almost recalls R&B. It's music for your head and your hips. Imagine if In A Priest-Driven Ambulance-era Flaming Lips were playing songs written for them by MGMT at a house party, and you'll get the idea. I'm not one for the booty-shaking, typically, but I definitely dig Swanifant's sound.

Of course, to really get the idea, you should just check them out. You can do that via their Moving Still EP, which is available for download at that link. Or you can come see them live at Cafe Du Nord this Sunday, October 23rd, along with two bands who will actually be driving up from Santa Cruz: Swanifant "life-buddies" Mammatus and "woozy psych troubadours" San Francisco Water Cooler.

Swanifant member Danny Echevarria submitted to the following interrogation so you readers of Wiretap could make a more informed decision about which route you want to go with the Swanifant check-outs.

WTM: How long has Swanifant been around? How'd y'all get together?

Swanifant has technically been around since 2005, when it began as a recording project that our singer, Dylan, did in his garage that summer. Over the next year, Swanifant grew into a semi-solid live lineup that included five people: Dylan (vocals and guitar), Ryan (drums), Jon G (synths/noise), Jon H (guitar loops), and Danny (that's me. At the time I played mostly violin and sometimes guitar). We were all living in Santa Cruz and in school at UCSC, and we had all been in different bands together before (and for a while after) forming Swanifant.

We were a pretty different band then, and the recordings were always pretty different from what we ended up sounding like live. We'd do an acoustic show of country songs one night and totally free-form noise a week later. The recordings were mostly performed and engineered by Dylan, and the instrumentation tended to vary pretty widely from what we'd use live. I think it was really confusing for people. Since moving to the bay area, the band has morphed into a mostly-three-and-sometimes-four-piece (Dylan, Danny, JaMile on synths and drumbots, and sometimes Ryan), and we've focused our sound on this kind of psych rock/dance music hybrid.

WTM: What were the influences — musical or not — that Swanifant coalesced around?

The driving concept behind the band has always been the synthesis of technology and nature, organic sounds and electronic ones. That split has, at other points in our history as a band, been evident maybe as a conflict between competing tangles of sound. I think it's probably more harmonious now than it has ever been in our time together.

As far as musical influences go, this incarnation of the band has drawn pretty heavily from German bands from the 1970's, Krautrock stuff like Can and Neu and Kraftwerk and la Dusseldorff, but there's an element of looseness in our music that doesn't quite fit with the Krautrock thing. We all like Neil Young a lot, so maybe that's why. Hearing his album,Trans, I think was a big revelation for us, because he totally did what we're going for as kind of a one-off thing. Like, he was just having fun playing with vocoders and synths but doing his usual rambling guitar jam thing and writing songs that are basically still country songs. So maybe that's the best blueprint for our sound. The Flaming Lips' records from the early 90s are definitely a big influence on, in particular, the sort of guitar sounds we use. Prince is probably our biggest influence as far as how we want the drums to sound.

WTM: Where are y'all recording/did y'all record your EP?

The demo EP Moving Still was recorded by us at Dylan's house and our practice space with a jumble of digital and analog gear. We're all constantly listening to recordings for their production values and have a lot of fun working on getting the right sound together.

We've recently finished tracking for our next set of recordings, and are at different stages in the mixing process of two of the songs from that: "Bricklayer" and "Secret." Those songs were recorded a few different places. Most of the tracking took place in our studio. We recorded the drum machine, synths, and guitars directly into Ableton Live at our practice space in Oakland. We took those tracks to Expression, where our friend Henry Larsen is a student, and recorded vocals, acoustic drums and a little piano. We ran the guitar tracks back into amplifiers, which we miked and recorded. The whole idea behind recording in stages like this is that it gives us the most control over the sound possible; we had a day to spend just on the playing, on getting the notes right, and an entirely separate day to make it sound good coming out of an amplifier. It was kind of liberating, but also kind of a pain in the ass. We're nearly finished with a mix of "Bricklayer;" we took it to our friend Justin Labrecque in Half Moon Bay for mixing. We'll be working with him on "Secret," too.

WTM: What was "the sound" you were trying to capture? Were you successful? Any surprises with how it came out?

The overall sound we were after is propulsive and tight, with soupy elements that weave in and out of each other's way. We're aiming to walk that fine line between something that maintains a distinct analog feel with ample grit and something that sounds like a polished finished product. We definitely wanted huge drums. We ended up recording the drum kit as separate pieces in different rooms, so that they'd end up accentuating the base layer of drum machine beats. I was particularly interested in having the guitars sound spatially dynamic, meaning that I wanted the guitars not to sound like a single, continuous performance, but like separate instruments that enter and exit and weave together, each with its own unique tonal quality. The idea with tracking was, I think, that we'd just go totally wild and record everything over and over again, using different amps, in different rooms, different mics, etc., and then start whittling it down in the mixing process. We ended up having to be pretty efficient at Expression due to time constraints, so we didn't get to do everything we wanted to, but the whole process felt kind of indulgent anyway. It was awesome.

WTM: Tell us about the Du Nord show. Who you playing with?

We're playing at Cafe Du Nord on Oct 23, with Mammatus and San Francisco Water Cooler. All three bands either have lived or currently live in Santa Cruz (or thereabouts), so it will be sort of a Santa Cruz brodown (don't worry, it'll be a hoot even if yr not from SC). Apart from Santa Cruz, the throughline of the night is wailing guitar psychedelia.

Mammatus is one of our favorite bands to play with or see live. They play a sort of magical, stoney, astroprogmetal. We've been on bills with them a handful of times, and their drummer Aaron engineered and mixed a couple albums for us a few years ago and played saw with our acoustic lineup a couple times. Its always fun to play with them. San Francisco Water Cooler put out an album, II, last year that was maybe my favorite records of 2010. The songwriting is really elusive and unusual; foggy, woozy psyche, highly recommended.

WTM: What's next for Swanifant? Release part? Tour?

Swanifant is going to keep working on recordings a song or two at a time. We're planning on releasing them as singles, ultimately culminating in a full length. We're hoping to go to SXSW next year, so if all goes according to plan there should be an accompanying tour, too.

WTM: Anything else you think we should know?

The Du Nord show is probably going to be our only show until next year, or at the earliest sometime in December. Mammatus doesn't play too often in general, and in particular not outside of Santa Cruz, and SF Water Cooler does shows on and off. This might be your only chance to see any of these bands for a while, so come check it out!
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Cannons and Clouds release new album, play Rock Make this Saturday

Author: Mike G
Published: Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Cannons & Clouds started as a folky duo, but is now a six-piece making music that has grown in many ways, both figurative and literal. Three- to six-part harmonies and a full-time harpist take the balladeering of singer-guitarist Zachary Blizzard into musical terrain far more lush and symphonic than your average indie folk band.

Cannons & Clouds has just released June, its second album. Come on out to the Rock Make Street Festival this Saturday for your chance to catch some of the new tunes live. ...

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Cannons & Clouds started as a folky duo, but is now a six-piece making music that has grown in many ways, both figurative and literal. Three- to six-part harmonies and a full-time harpist take the balladeering of singer-guitarist Zachary Blizzard into musical terrain far more lush and symphonic than your average indie folk band.

Cannons & Clouds has just released June, its second album. Come on out to the Rock Make Street Festival this Saturday for your chance to catch some of the new tunes live.

I had a chat with Zachary Blizzard about the new album and its plans for the future. Check it out:
WTM: What's the significance of the name of the new album, June?

ZB: The album name June is a reference to the correlation between the sixth month in the Gregorian calendar and the six members in our group. It is also loosely referencing the shared birth month for some of us.

WTM: Self-released? Label?

ZB: We released it on new local label 2 Channel Records.

WTM: Where was it recorded?

ZB: The instrumentation was recorded at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, and Brittany's apartment by her husband Davey Gale.

The vocals, additional, guitar, mixing, and mastering, were achieved at Studio SQ near the Alemany Produce District of San Francisco.

WTM: What were you trying to capture with this record? Are there any departures from past work? Did you accomplish everything you'd hoped to?

ZB: June is a mixture of older songs we felt were necessary to record before they evaporated into the cosmos, and never saw the audial light of day... Along with newer songs that we were eager to record.

Our goal was accomplished. All at lightning speed. Having been conceptualized, recorded and released in the span of a couple weeks.

WTM: Does San Francisco have any influence on your sound? What I mean is, would you be making the same music in another city? Has SF helped shape y'all's music?

ZB: I would say our city is extremely influential to our sound, songs, and mood. It's a major part of my lyrical writings having family roots and experiences here since early childhood. Along with other members being Bay Area natives, we naturally create a sound that paints a picture of our home. Along with historically and regionally significant musical artists that most of us grew up listening to.

Surviving here can certainly be a struggle. Many of Cannons & Clouds have taken turns being "homeless" in San Francisco. And have manged to prevail with the help of friends and family. The struggle helps the creative process...As long as the pain doesn't get the best of you. I also feel we would be playing the same genre of music even if we lived in Manhattan or Brooklyn.

WTM: Any tour plans in support of the release?

ZB: We are tentatively planning on nationally touring in 2012

WTM: Anything else you want folks to know?

ZB: We will be playing the San Francisco Rock Make Street Festival in The Mission District September 17th 2011.
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rc helicopter September 19, 2011
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