I can attribute this discovery to Lesley Rottsolk, whose articulate recommendation of Stars of the Lid’s And the Refinement of the Decline led me to the aforementioned record, through a few degrees of separation for good measure. I finally turned that recommendation into a transaction before a recent trip to California. Mid-flight, bathed in the mercurial glow of early morning daylight, the “personal cinema” (located between your eye and eyelid which alludes to the band’s namesake) truly came to life. Amorphous shapes of different colors arose out of B ambient wave of sound, ebbing and flowing from song to another. Following their own internal logic that is not bound by pop songwriting convention, Adam Wiltzie and Brian McBride completely obliterated the line between improvisation and composition in the most satisfying way; I took in the record from a new, detached place in which I wasn’t checking my current position track-wise on my iPod every 10 minutes. I came to understand that these moments of tonal pleasure had an existence before this record; the composers just tasked themselves with the responsibility of pulling them out of the ether, and composing them for our consumption. All of their work share this cognitive quality that Wiltzie also drew out of his collaboration with Dustin O’ Halloran on A Winged Victory, and it’s even more accessible to those who need to avoid words like “ambient” and “drone” at all costs.

Noted for his compositional work on piano (which will be featured in the much anticipated film Like  Crazy), O’ Halloran brings a tangible weight that’s inherently cinematic – You feel like an observer following a thread between each note and chord tying the individual songs together. Using repetition as a narrative point of reference, they create an inherent memory that culminates into one cohesive work of art. Certain individuals may refer to works like this as “wallpaper music”, but I believe that misses the point entirely. Whether considering A Winged Victory as a whole, or in individual portions, each moment is absolutely heartbreaking and gorgeous. There’s a consistent tone that’s thoroughly met out and satisfied, emotionally and compositionally. You may not be familiar with O’ Halloran’s or Wiltzie’s work previous to this, but I honestly believe its best experienced with the advantage of the absence of expectation. I’m certain that you’ll be as immersed in it as I am… I’m still baffled every time the record ends; as I’m constantly fooled into thinking the current movement is just riding a pregnant pause to the next ascent.

How does an album like this translate to a live setting? I’m just as curious as you are, and we’ll find out Saturday, November 5^th at 7:30, when A Winged Victory for the Sullen performs with the ACME String Ensemble at Off Broadway in 8 p.m. Benoit Pioulard (an artist who I’m very familiar with after seeking it out based on the raves he constantly received at my favorite neighborhood record store in Brooklyn, Soundfix), and Ken Camden are set perform also. See www.offbroadwaystl.com, or our Facebook page, for more details.

Matt Pond has written songs that would be perfect selections for your life’s soundtrack since the late 90′s. With the completion of their latest EP Spring Fools, a fall tour is in full swing, and St. Louis has been fortunate enough to earn a stop. This Monday October  24, 2011, Matt Pond PA will be at Cicero’s in the Loop. We had a chance to speak with him about music, movies, this tour, and the joys of getting lost.

Welcome back! Have you had the chance to explore Saint Louis when you’ve come through on past tours?

Unfortunately, so far we’ve only had time to visit the insides of club and the closets of hotel rooms. This upcoming trip will be different. We have a day off and would love some down home suggestions.

When you’re playing a show, your energy is no doubt affected by what songs you choose to play. On this particular tour you allowed your fans to choose your set list. How do you feel that has affected your performance?

No matter what, we have to stack the songs in a way that works. Or in a way that at least I believe works. My beliefs may not match up with the rest of the world. But I try my best to eliminate as much awkward as I can for all of us. With this broken leg, I have to put more thought and more of myself into all of this. I’d like to believe it’s working.

You moved to Brooklyn around 2003. How do you feel it influenced your music, and what changes have you noticed about city then v.s. now?

There’s an energy to New York unlike anything else. There’s also a loneliness. In a strange way, moving to Brooklyn brought back all the new-ness, excitement and apprehension I experienced as a kid. It’s a huge forest of a city. It’s learned to calm down of late. And so have I.

You’ve recently spent some time in Texas recording new material, and also performing with The Wooden Birds. How does the atmosphere of Austin differ from that of New York?

Austin’s slower. Everything takes more time. But you learn to enjoy that time in between the notes.

You’ve had a unique opportunity to collaborate with a variety of different musicians throughout your career. What impact does this continued collaborative spirit have on the way you approach songwriting?

Basically, it makes me a better player. Beyond that, it takes me out of my spiraling thoughts. I try to think like the person playing guitar next to me… writing songs in someone else’s voice is nearly out-of-body.

Being a huge film fan, I’m curious about your experience composing the score for Lebanon, PA. What evolution did you notice in your songwriting process following that experience? Was there a particular score you used as a point of reference?

I love taking a step back and playing into someone else’s vision. It’s almost easier than writing my own music. Chris Hansen and I did it together, and we learned how to talk less in order to get to the heart of song. I hope we take it into our next album. We used Shampoo as the guidepost. Paul Simon killed it on that there film.
 What are some of your favorite film scores, and would you like to continue scoring films?

I love the score to Ravenous by Damon Albarn and Michael Nyman. Badlands  has a great score (One of my favorites! Ed.), Suspiria, Chinatown, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly… Too many to think of. Ravenous… It’s one of those Donner Party/vampire movies that most people choose to avoid, but I’m crazy for it

And of course. For the right film, we’d most definitely be down.

A lot of your album and song titles, etc. share a common theme of seasons or nature. Is there a reason that you gravitate towards this theme?

I grew up in New Hampshire, so most of my younger years were spent running through the woods. I can’t shake it out of myself, and I don’t think I’d ever want to. The good type of loneliness I spoke about earlier. That was one them.

Last question: what have you been listening to? Do you have any specific recommendations for our readers?

Villagers, Cut off Your Hands, and Beach Fossils all have had albums out in the past year or two,  and I cannot stop putting them to my ears.

See Matt Pond PA live in person tonight at Cicero’s @ 8 p.m. Tickets available at the door! 

It blows my mind that CAKE have been around for 20 years. What was your introduction to the band?

My introduction was the radio. 105.7 the Point probably. It was also my good friend (and now BATL bass player) Andy and his older brother. We would listen to CAKE on the way home from school when Andy and I were in middle school… that was ’96/’97 right when Fashion Nugget came out, which is pretty much when everyone was introduced to them, as far as I know. But our interest in the band went a little further than most I suppose. I remember my mom taking Andy and I to see them at the American Theater for their Prolonging the Magic tour in ’98. That’s when I realized that A LOT of people knew their songs just as well as I did… kind of a revelation to learn it wasn’t just me and my friend.

Truthfully, I can remember exactly where I was the first time I heard “Frank Sinatra”. Do you have a specific memory tied to one of their songs?

That’s awesome. Where were you?

I was at a stoplight at  Harvester Road and 94. My friend’s older sister had the record, it was actually raining that day, and I heard “Frank Sinatra” for the first time… It was absolutely fantastic.

I don’t know if I have a memory tied to a single song. It’s mostly just memories tied to when their albums came out. I do remember working out the harmonies to “Alpha Beta Parking Lot” in my room when I was like 13 though…

How do you feel your perception of their work has changed alongside, not only your progression into adulthood, but development as a songwriter?

I listened to a lot of Cake when I was a kid. As I got older I kind of grew out of them, even when I started writing songs at around 17 or 18 I didn’t return to them as an influence. It took me a while to appreciate them for their actual songwriting. They are always perceived as a schticky band, but so many of their songs are totally unique and very well-written. It gets overlooked because of this absurd quality to McCrea’s voice and subject matter. But I think their longevity can only be attributed to great songwriting. As of late, I have been rediscovering their catalog, learning all the parts (for AUCW) and now, more than ever, I listen to their music as a songwriter, and I’m just impressed. I can’t say that I am going to or want to start writing songs that sound like them, but I definitely want to write songs that are as good as theirs.

One parallel that I found between both bands is a mutual love for concise detail. There aren’t a million moving parts at play, but the individual elements in the songs are pronounced and undeniably memorable. It feels like you both take your time in writing, arranging, and snipping loose ends until the songs are at peak presentation quality. Was their a conscious decision on your part to build time into your songwriting process?

I’m not sure. Some of the songs from On My Way were written years ago and I’ve been playing them live for years and changing them slightly and perfecting them over time. But some of them were written in an afternoon, or an hour. Some of the simpler songs on the album, like “My Only Concern,” are the songs I have been toying with for years, structurally and lyrically. But then the songs people seem to like the most from the album are the ones I spat out in a single songwriting session. I can say that I am very conscious of not over-complicating songs, though. My favorite songs are simple and powerful… the songs that you love. Everyone has songs like that, and usually they’re the ones that get right to the point – not attempting to blow you away with a spectacle, they just grab you and hold on.

My apologies to all the good people at AUCW, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask a question about On My Way. I found it to be a staggeringly gorgeous, relaxed, and expansive work of striking depth. Since the record goes down easier than a 1811 Chateau d’Yquem, what did you find inherently difficult about the creation of the record, and how did you reconcile it?

Wow, thank you. Creating the record was really fun. I had all the songs done, and visions for how I wanted them to sound. My biggest difficulty was getting them to sound in the monitors the way they did in my head. In some cases I succeeded, and in others I failed. I recorded it myself at home using lots of borrowed recording equipment, which attributed to the relaxed feel of the recording process. I was able to wake up whenever, get out of bed, and go about my business at home. I could work all hours, on my own time, and take breaks whenever I wanted. That being said, I also treated it as if I was in a studio at the same time, and I worked as if I was trying to make a client happy. In the end there are always things you wish you’d done differently, but overall, I feel good about how it turned out.

After recording and releasing an LP, and investing so much time in creating original material, how does it feel to wrap your collective creative energy around this set for AUCW?

It’s quite different. I’ve only played like 3 covers in front of people in the whole time I’ve been playing shows. It’s good for us, though. It gets boring and monotonous to play the same songs and practice the same songs over and over for any band, no matter what the songs are. So it’s nice for us to be able to play, practice, and learn some new songs without the added pressure of them being originals. We haven’t had much time to work on new material for BATL lately, but I think when we start doing that again, after having dissected these Cake songs, will prove to be beneficial for the new material. It forces you to play outside your boundaries, [which is] always a good thing.

“A Beginner’s Guide to Cake”

“Frank Sinatra” Cake put it first on their album for a reason, it’s instantly weird and catchy and beautiful.

“Stickshifts and Safetybelts” Classic Cake. Signature twangy guitar sound at the forefront. They are good a switching genres without you noticing.

“Mexico” Premium songwriting… and that trumpet. Let’s not forget to mention how crucial the trumpet parts are in the entire Cake catalog. [AGREED. JP]

“The Distance”/”Never There”/”I Will Survive” These are all grouped together because they’re the ones that everyone knows, and for a good reason. They’re timeless, and Cake conquers covers better than anyone out there.

“Pentagram” One of those songs that no one knows the meaning of, but it doesn’t matter. Super weird lyrics, shit-kicking guitar, off-kilter trumpet, organ, everything.

“Mr. Mastadon Farm” Strangely catchy. But a song actually worth thinking about and listening hard to.

“Sheep Go To Heaven “ Another classic Cake song, one of their shtickier songs, but you can’t help liking it.

“Rock ‘n Roll Lifestyle” Simple and creative. Cake’s first radio hit. It’s an instant classic.

“Nugget”  McCrea lets the rage out a little bit. He even sounds pissed off  in the recording of this song, and it’s awesome.

“Haze of Love” Cake writes great love songs. This is one of my favorites.

ROOM ON FIRE

There’s a fairly negative/pessimistic attitude throughout this album, which really doesn’t speak to me personally, but the lyrics are so smart and witty that I can almost hear it playing off sarcastically, which I love.  The real reason I love this album though is just the overall sound and mix of it. It’s still garagey and dirty like the first, but everyone’s tone is slightly expanded into a really nice, full sound. I’m a total “mix snob”. Everyone is loosened up quite a bit too, playing more complicated rhythms and melodies atop each other… all the while keeping one or more parts fairly simple and grounded, making it totally accessible to just about anybody.

“What Ever Happened?”

-A sweet, but not raging, kick to the teeth to get you started, and it kind of lets you know that it’s not just gonna be the all same old stuff with a different packaging. It seems to be part breakup song/part “insecure about living up to first album” song, which just seems hilarious to present as your first song with next to no confidence for the whole album.

“Reptilia”

-Love this one too. The energy from this one just takes the entire band to a level that they hadn’t been to yet. I’m also really surprised that this song had the ability to be so popular; the overlapping melodies & rhythms on the chorus are so bizarre for a “pop” song. I’m not sure I can compare this chorus to anything I’ve ever heard before. I’ve never been a huge fan of the guitar solo though. Oh yeah, I’m a “guitar solo snob” too.

“Automatic Stop”

-I really like odd rhythms for the verses, but for me, the part that really rules about this song is the lead guitar melody for the chorus; totally simple, but it compliments the vocals perfectly. Hotness.

“12:51″

-This song always felt like a love letter to The Cars for me. I really love that the lyrics, literally, could make this a fairly simple love song, but by the end of the song, his vocal tone makes him sound so bored with this girl that he’s almost ashamed of himself. Sung a different way (happier), and this song is pretty lame. That super-chorused guitar sounds great too; it might as well be a synth keyboard. Definitely a stand out song for their entire catalog for me.

“You Talk Way Too Much”

-My favorite Strokes song. Yep. It just sounds so gorgeous and bright, yet the message is totally disappointing and broken-hearted. Having such contrasted music composition to lyrics, it’s just so sarcastic and hilarious to me. Whether it be intentional or not, I love it. Maybe the music is supposed to be the hopeful feeling when his vocals are what’s realistic or his conscience…who knows…who gives a crud, the song sounds fantastic.

“Between Love & Hate” 

-This song is pretty angry…kinda slow too, and that might be one of the reasons I’m not a huge fan of it. Seems like he’s not only being a jerk to this gal, but he’s calling out his listeners, and telling them to eff off….but of course there’s another happy, bouncy chorus for him to chant about how he never needed anyone, and he never will (which the music might be his false pride trying to make himself feel better about being totally heartbroken, too). I do really like the matching lead guitar/vocals in the chorus, though.

“Meet Me in the Bathroom”

-”You trained me not to love/after you taught me what it was”… RAD line. Unsurprisingly, it sounds like another song about a failed relationship. I really like how this one builds, drops down, and then kicks into the chorus with an awesome,driving bass line. I’ve always really loved the way that the lead guitar meets up or harmonizes with the vocal melody during the chorus, without forcing it too much.

“Under Control” 

-This is really the only song that comes to mind when I think “The Strokes’ Slow Jam.” A young love song. Ugh, I loooooove this guitar solo. Jazzy, melodic, simple; it’s probably my favorite guitar solo on the album, and my favorite part of this song. I always rewind and listen to it 5 or 6 times each time I listen to this song.

“The Way It Is” 

-A really awesome way to pick up the end of the album right after the slow jam. Sounds like Julian is finally over this relationship he’s been talking about for the whole album, but still depressed and annoyed. This song is solid, but the only thing that really stands out musically for me is the drums during the verse. It’s a pretty odd, technical breakbeat for a pop-rock song, and the mix makes it sound like it’s coming out of a shitty 90′s CasioTone.

“The End Has No End”

-This one seems to be about life in general, and how it’s really up to you to make yourself happy… and how it’s really frustrating to watch other people make no effort to make their lives better and blame everyone else for it being shitty; however, being that nearly every other song is fairly negative and pessimistic, I could be reading into it wrong. But whatever, that’s what the song is to me. I really like the 80s feel of this one, too; again, kinda of “Cars-y” motivated.

“I Can’t Win”

-Great closer. I think he’s reiterating that he doesn’t think that this album will live up to the first one while he squeezes in one last bit about failed romance; he wants something easier, but doesn’t want an easy lover. This is definitely one of my favorites. Each section is dynamic, but transitions into the next extremely well.

Was this a flashback to your adolescence in the sorrowful Midwest? If you are as guilty of that scenario as I am, then I’m sure the words Suicide Squeeze, Barsuk, and Up graced your lips far more times in conversation than your uninitiated friends probably thought it should. There’s something enternally welcome about an effects-drenched guitar spinning out dizzying arpeggios, splashing grey-hued color onto grey-hued color, painting a portrait of life in suspended animation. You know the feeling: Trying to make it past that certain someone with your heart intact, and tears docked deep in your gut. Carissa’s Wierd, 764-Hero, Pedro the Lion, Kind of Like Spitting… They’ve all agreed, at one time or another, that it’s going to end badly. The emotional kinship that Union Tree Review shares with those aforementioned bands helped me to gravitate toward them so quickly, and so assuredly. I understood every turn of phrase, note, and emotional beat, not because of predictability, but because the same blood flows through our veins. Death & Other Forms of Relaxation will likely find itself in rotation for a similar afternoon as described in the outset.

Their excellence in songwriting (and dynamic live performances) have built Union Tree Review a steady fan base in the Midwest, and that reach is about to grow exponentially with the release of their debut LP. It’s a record that reveals itself gradually, with little nuances blooming every so slightly with each listen: The slow-motion photography that concludes “Excavate”, the perfectly mannered kazoo-and-whistle accompaniment on “At The Risk” (not to mention those ghostly harmonies), the deceptively addictive amalgam that is “44”, the heartbreaking choir on “Misery”… and the list keeps growing every day. It’s no dour listening experience, either; Despite the emotionally-heavy thematic material, it’s informed by tragedy, but not defined by it. The guitars interweave attractively, the viola and horn arrangements lilt perfectly, and the rhythm section drives home the point with varied punctuation, not just the constant ellipsis that seems to plague similarly-minded artists. In my opinion, Union Tree Review are  Saint Louis’ very own patron saints of the wounded at heart.

We’re happy to present our readers with the opportunity to hear it before it’s released (for a very limited time only). Be sure to get your tickets for their joint CD release show with Bo and the Locomotive at the Firebird Saturday, July 30th. We talked to Tawaine Noah of Union Tree Review about the creation of Death & Other Forms of Relaxation.

One thing (of many) I’ve love about Union Tree Review’s work is the emotional clarity of the songwriting, and how the band somehow finds a way to perfectly mirror the feel of the writing in the arrangements. How did you go about choosing what material to use for Death? Was their a unifying concept to the project, or culling together the strongest bits from a period of time chronologically?

Thanks very much. A few of the songs (“Unravel”, “Excavate”, and “Interstate”) were written before the band formed over the course of 2008-09. So, it’s interesting to hear how the songs have redeveloped and what new textures they’ve taken on, even for me. I wanted those songs to have a home. That home was originally going to be on an album that became the Unravel and Run EP we put out last year, but the recordings never came together the way we wanted them to. That EP was composed of songs that we felt content enough to give to our show-goers. Some songs, like “Parties” and “44″, were among the first songs [we] wrote together. When we started getting down to the core of writing the album, I was in the middle of a crumbling relationship, trying to exercise my personal demons while a relative I grew up with was dying in the hospital. That’s basically what the song “Death” is about. I wrote a lot of that song at the foot of his deathbed while I watched him die. That entire experience was life-changing to me, and it’s written in these songs. Not to mention Jenn, Jordan and I live together, and I’m sure they noticed those changes. I think these songs are a positive culmination of where we’ve been creatively as a band, where we are now, and where the next record could go.

Albums can go through various incarnations during the time spent . In what ways did Death evolve throughout the creative process?

It was very interesting, because we were writing while recording. Or vice-versa. Sometimes we had writing sessions, Sometimes you came in, someone hit record, and you wrote your part. It was a foreign, and interesting, way to write. A lot of the evolution came with writing in the particular frame of mind at the moment. But there’s still a deadline. Having our living room be our studio (or vice versa) gave us a little extra time with the songs, but not much. I don’t know that I would prefer to write that way, but it was a very good experience. Also,as we became more familiar with the recording equipment we borrowed from Mike Tomko, engineering became easier and gave us more time to focus on writing.

How do you feel the chemistry between the various members of Union Tree Review changed after going through the process of writing, arranging, and recording a full-length?

I think in Patrick’s (Trumpet/Keys/Vocals) case, specifically. I’ve known Pat for several years, and we’ve played in bands together, but he was the newest member of Union Tree Review, joining about halfway through the writing process of the newer songs. He caught up, and even wrote in to the old songs. It was a great way for everyone, especially Jenn (Viola) — who has been in the band practically since day 1 — to get to know Pat as a musician. It’s like we all understand how each other writes and then we can reinterpret it. Or, we completely misunderstand, and create something refreshingly different. It’s a beautiful mystery. That’s what I like most about writing Union Tree Review songs.

Artists sometimes use records as a point of reference for desired result that they want to achieve sonically. It might even influence in what format they choose to record, who they work with, etc. (If I’m not mistaken this album was largely self-produced). Are their certain records that you used in that way?

We recorded 99% of the album in our living room, kitchen, bedrooms, hallway, or bathroom, though none of us had any substantial experience with professional recording. That limited what we were able to produce. In the beginning, we had intended to ask a few engineering/producing friends we know about town to come in, and lend us some help in finding what sound we wanted. In the end, every note was recorded/engineered by one or more members of the band, and I think that helped us to achieve a sound that was not what we expected, but are very happy with. One of our points of reference sonically was Death Cab for Cutie’s The Photo Album. We all agree on that as one of our favorite-sounding albums.

Beyond what influences someone might find musically, what other literary, cinematic, or less obvious references are embedded in the songwriting, or record as a whole?

Sometimes I wonder if the people that these songs reference will recognize it when they here it. Some of those people will never hear these songs, some will, and some have. Most of the references could only be understood by a few, and some by none. But I really like to think that when people say that they enjoy Union Tree Review, it’s because they have been able to create their own references and relationships within the songs. I don’t know that I’ve intentionally include anything specific, other than what comes out of the particular situation of a song.

What did you find to be the most difficult part of the recording process? 

For me personally, I had never written specifically to release an album. I’ve always just written songs as they come to me, and then, when I have a collection large enough (or small enough), they get collected into batches. With this album I felt like writer’s block occurred a lot for me, in that I was forced a bit out of my comfort zone of time to write. That made me afraid a lot of the time, that i wasn’t writing what i really wanted to write. But, now that the album is finished, it’s sort of a new experience for me to listen to what I’ve written, and make sense of it.

Another difficulty was recording on the busy, St. Louis city street of Cherokee. We had to fight with buses, trucks, car alarms, horns and you name it. It was frustrating when you would get a take that you’re really happy with, and then hearing an 18-wheeler plow down the street in playback. If this were a different type of recording – maybe something more lo-fi – I would have been all down for that, but that sort of interruption was unwelcome this time around.

[Show as slideshow]

Setlist:

1. The Black Rider
2. Six-Sixty-Six
3. Los Angeles
4. Song of the Shrimp
5. Nimrod’s Son
6. Two Reelers
7. All Around the World
8. Robert Onion
9. I Heard Ramona Sing
10. Ten Percenter
11. That Burnt Out Rock and Roll
12. She Took All the Money
13. Calistan
14. Horrible Day
15. Where is my Mind?
16. Bullet
17. I Burn Today
18. Brackish Boy
19. Dead Man’s Curve
20. Cactus
21. Planet of Sound
22. I’ll Be Blue

“Sure.”

“Can you just play one wrong note when you perform? Just one?”

This was overheard after one of Dots Not Feather’s short, finely manicured sets at Picasso’s Coffee House on Main Street Saint Charles, MO. It’s a telling observation: In the shambolic forest of beards and flannel that pervades non-traditional folk music, DNF is the young suitor who comes to the Harvest Festival in a dapper tailored suit, shorn locks, and straight-razored with a carnation pinned to its lapel. This is handsome music, and they’re not afraid to show it.

I tend to gravitate toward bands who drench their Americana in a dense wash of sadness, alcohol, and experimentation. There are no punk roots betraying the dye here- this is hair of a different color. A  meticulous sense of craft illuminates the EP which brings to mind, of all bands, Sugar-era Aloha. They also share the aforementioned band’s love for jazz and unorthodox instrumentation, utilizing a synthesizer for the low-end when most bands of this certain milieu would’ve gone for an upright bass. Ravi Raghuram’s buoyant chops contrast brightly with the raw acoustics, adding a veneer to the sound that helps make it more accessible and thoroughly modern. There’s no sense of staunch of old-timey sensibility to these recordings.The songwriting evokes a romantic quality that Nickel Creek radiated in their pop detours so vibrantly early in their career. No time is wasted in setting the mood, as Ryan Meyers comes at you all coy and charming on the opening title track; A golden thread runs through his voice as he intones pensively about writing of Paris and waiting for you to come back to bed. The band passionately swings along to some entirely welcome trumpet contributions, and sets a nice precedent for the proceedings:  No track on here bears any ugliness or cynicism, musically or thematically. Even when a melancholic streak pops up occasionally (as it does on “Bug Bites” and “Foreign Shores”) it’s accompanied by the most gorgeous music I’ve heard in a long time.

The record’s finest moment, “Shoes On Powerlines”, is not a meditative piece on urban violence as it’s evocative title suggests. Rather, it’s a perfect metaphor for a heart bursting with desire, hanging by a thread desperately to stay in a potential suitor’s longing gaze. That melancholic underbelly reveals itself  in the way it twists your stomach in knots, as Katy Durrwachter wraps her scarlet voice around a Christian name in the most satisfying way possible.

A Thousand Novels (their debut, which is also available on their Bandcamp site) was a nice first impression of the band, but the few changes that differentiate this record from their last elevate them considerably. First, they’ve struck a truly wonderful balance between each member’s distinctive voice (working separately on lead vocals and in accompaniment). The joy they receive from bending their voices in unison is startlingly tangible. The most significant change, however, is the addition of Johnathan Goldstein on percussion. The fluidity and precision in which he drives the pulse of the songs perfectly accents Stephen Baier’s skillful (ahem, masterful) guitar & banjo contributions. It’s so effective you’ll no doubt find it truly merits the repeated listens you bestow upon it (i.e. “Come Back to Bed”, Foreign Shores”).

Being that bile, white noise, and amateurship have evolved, in many cases, from incidental qualities to aesthetic choices, it’s refreshing to hear a band that revels in hitting the right notes at the right time. Come Back to Bed is a warm, pleasurable soundtrack to orange-hued sunset. And who wouldn’t want to bask in that as long as possible?

Scarlet Tanager is one of St. Louis’ most well-kept secrets and most precious gems, as Susan Logsdon sings in her wistful, dreamy aural arena and her five band mates (including her husband, brother and sister-in-law) create the perfect mix of warm 60′s charm and the best elements of all that is right in indie pop. Scarlet Tanager explores themes relevant to nearly anyone but no one captures their light as well as Susan and the gang. If Susan’s brutally honest lyrics sung in her outstanding vocal gamut ranging from soft lulls to full bodied croons doesn’t nab your attention the musical palette of the musicians assisting her certainly will. To paint a better picture of what you’ve been missing out on, I took it upon myself to introduce you to St. Louis’ ‘most-satisfying-to-listen-to’ up and coming band.

Describe your sound in your own words. What kind of music does Scarlet Tanager play?

Michael Logsdon: Indie Pop is probably the best description. We’re just trying to play the type of music we enjoy. We have a lot of influences but trying to balance out influences with our own personal sound and six band members can be difficult. Susan comes from a singer/songwriter background but we’re eclectic, we try to bring a lot of 50′s type of pop in to the mix, too.

Every band has influences beyond what the audience may hear; what are influences of yours that may or may not be obvious to audience ears? How do any of those influences affect your sound and how do you mix those to fit that eclectic and unique style?

Susan Logsdon: My influences definitely include Patsy Cline and her 50′s pop sound. I also really like Feist and Regina Spektor. Bright Eyes and Deathcab for Cutie are influences, too, for the both of us [Michael and I], I think.

ML: Yeah, I definitely include Bright Eyes but I also really like Los Campesinos and like to include them as an influence that you can hear in Scarlet Tanager, like with the group vocals and just lots of energy. There’s something primal about just singing your guts out on stage like that and I also really like to include vocal harmonies. It’s funny because when Susan starts to come up with a song she’ll come to me and tell me she’s got a new one. I’ll listen to it and then I’ll hear something in it that she maybe didn’t consciously mean to do, but it still sounds like her or like Scarlet Tanager, very unique and then I’ll add my influences. It’s neat because having six people from different backgrounds keeps it interesting. Jordan (keys/vocals) comes from a theatre background and is really good with harmonies, Josh is kind of a rocker, you know. We just have to keep each other balanced, we make sure that the sound or our style doesn’t get out of hand and that nothing just comes out of left field.

Photo by Susan Logsdon

SL: No, we all get along, we’re a very democratic band. Everyone has such good insight and it keeps us all contained. It’s really cool and a lot more fun to get everyone’s opinions on things before we move on and complete projects.

How did you get your start? And how or where did you meet the whole crew of band members?

ML: I think I like my side of this story better [laughs]. In college I played in a band called Roses at Your Feet. A Greenville buddy of mine led me to Susan when he was talking about “girls who do awesome music” and Susan went to Greenville. I thought she was great and it was intimidating! She came to see my band’s show and my friend Jason introduced me to her and all I could really say was “I heard your music! That’s you!” After the show we all went out to Denny’s and I just laid it on thick – I figured I had no chance of bombing because I wasn’t sure I’d see her again but I kept telling her that I was a fan of her and her music. Like, I was a fan of hers before I’d even met her. We started Myspace messaging each other and she came back and we started dating. She even wrote a song about me and that was in 2006.

SL: [laughing at Michael] Yeah, I thought he was…hot stuff. That’s the first time I’ve ever said that [continues laughing]! There was a lot of shameless flirting between the two of us. I made fun of him a lot but it must have worked because we messaged one another all summer and then started dating. But this is the first band that I’ve ever been in and he’s [Michael] has always been there for me and Josh, my brother. And Josh and Jordan are married to each other, too, so that’s really nice to have as a support system as a band and family.

ML: As a band, though, Scarlet Tanager has been together for about a year. We started assembling all the parts a year and a half ago out in West County. There was always a lot of music around us, like when we were in college at Greenville [Susan and some of my friends] and Carbondale [where I was] music and good musicians weren’t hard to find.

SL: We found Matt through church and Dustin from Greenville, but he was also in Michael’s band. Josh was getting serious with Jordan and we wanted to ask her to come join us. So, that was great how it worked out.

ML: It came together so quick that deciding on what we wanted our sound to be was hard. We kept asking ourselves what we wanted this to be. Every song sounded so different and we were trying to find some cohesion. After a few practices and meetings with one another, we came closer to our sound.

SL: Micahel played keys on a few songs, then he’d go play the guitar and Josh would play acoustic. It got hard to picture Scarlet Tanager without an acoustic. Our first show was filmed and after watching it felt that Josh’s talent on acoustic was being wasted. The guitar (electric) sound came to fit our sound, that 60′s pop tone just fit naturally.

Can you tell us about the forthcoming album? This will be your first record and you seem to be doing all of the work on your own, very DIY.

ML: The new album has definitely been a long time coming. Since we started we’ve wanted to record. For the past almost year we’ve done our own recordings. We won some studio time with Jupiter Studios and Josh and I have recording experience but this was a bit out of our zone [at Jupiter]. We took to doing home recordings in the garage and we fix it up and it sounds great. We decided to do the recordings and try to set a date for songs and production and recordings done. Fingers crossed we’ll be all ready and done by the show! The album is very representative of Susan and who she is. Susan is homemade; she’s just great at everything and is a natural at everything she does. Susan is working on the artwork and is screen printing all of the albums, she’s done the planning for it.

The mixing for the album was done by Josh and I. He and I split the duties and each took a few songs to get the whole album done. The mixes were coming out a little different but it was great because we’d bounce ideas off of each other and come up with some really good stuff. But then one night I was driving home listening to a song I was going to mix and I came up with this great idea for a music video. I sat on the idea for a week because I was a little embarrassed but I threw the idea out there and then we all talked about it, made a storyboard and got scenes and the video completely forumulated.

Photo by Susan Logsdon

Wow, a music video, especially DIY, is a huge undertaking! What can you say about the video and where/when will it be available for viewing?

SL: The video was a crazy project, lots of fun! It started as a simple idea but the whole thing just took on a life of its own. Our garage was taken over by the puppets and the sets for the puppets, outfits – we made over 30 outfits for the puppets.

ML: It’s for what’s probably the quirkiest song on the album and came up with the idea for the video with puppets and having a puppet for each member of the band. We set a deadline of 2 weeks for the video to be shot and produced, made – the whole thing, we wanted to do it in two weeks. We worked on it every night for about a month and a half until it was done but it was great because it brought everyone in the band together, all working on something for the group. The video will be premiered at the CD release show on Friday (June 24^th) and will also go up on YouTube, Vimeo our Facebook, everywhere.

What’s next for the band?

SL: We don’t have a manager but we’ve definitely talked about it. We’ve done all the work, obviously all the work for the album but also booking and scheduling all of our own shows. We’ll do the work for booking like emailing venue managers and bookers but this is our dream.

ML: Yeah, this is it for us – what we’ve always wanted to do. It’s one of those things where if this doesn’t work then we’ll have kids, but this is what we want to do now. This is something we’ve worked so hard for and something we love doing and we’re looking to do whatever it takes for us to get to that next level.

Join Scarlet Tanager on Friday, June 24^th at The Heavy Anchor on Gravois for their free CD release show starting at 9p.

The Joy Formidable is a band seemingly tailor-made for such a stretch of road: Swift, loud, excitable, and irresistible. Not one ounce of their collective blood, sweat, or tears are spared  in their method of coaxing  The Big Roar, their debut album. One moment they’re building intricate layers of beautiful melody, ethereal vocal harmonies, and interlocking instrumental contributions, and the next… they’re picking, slashing, bashing, ripping, shredding, slamming, and destroying their instruments, which are now a heaping mass that serves as the base of the mushroom cloud of hiss choking your lungs of all oxygen. There’s nothing left but an everlasting buzz where your brain, now splattered on the pavement, used to be. Roar is a deceptive album, though. About 35 minutes deep, just when you think you’re coming up for air on the track “Marayuma”, “Cradle” emerges from the depths to wrap it’s tentacles around your throat, dragging you back down miles into the black. You’re not going to survive this one, friend. You’re going to be pummeled black and bruised from the sweet, voracious bliss, which all culminates with the brilliant closing track (which, just a few years ago,was an equally brilliant opening track on A Balloon Called Moaning) “The Greatest Light is the Greatest Shade”. There’s no doubt in my mind that some preteen, who is just learning to play guitar, is going to buy The Big Roar and say, ‘How do I get this thing to sound like that?!‘. It’s bands like The Joy Formidable, with their unbelievably addictive songwriting and fearless sense of exploration, that lay the groundwork for popular music to go further, louder, and bigger.

As far as our peers are concerned, the real marrow of pleasure of The Joy Formidable is in live performance. Their reputation in this field is staggering, so it would be costly to miss their show at such a venerable venue as The Luminary. If you’re still on the fence on whether or not you can attend: Pick up the record at your nearest record store, and head out to Saint Peters for a mid-day drive. I’m sure that once the sonic blast from the tattered Stratocasters hits the wind, you’ll be on your the way to join us April 22nd. I’ll see you there.

Let them know you’re coming: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=213108168715328

Can you talk about the inception, and artistic process, of the material on Human Gun?

I’d been writing the songs on the album for a couple years, not really for any purpose other than that I was in a band and music was something I was always scheming about in one way or another. I would record songs and ideas in demo form all the time, first on my four-track and then, after that bit the dust, on a portable minidisc recorder. When I finally bought a laptop in 2004 I started using Garageband for the same purpose. That was pretty revolutionary for me – suddenly I had all these tools for sound creation and manipulation that I’d never been able to get my hands on before. Almost instinctively I started playing with arrangements and textures, still working on “demos” but trying to make them interesting to listen to. Pretty much everything on the album was recorded in Garageband using my laptop’s built-in microphone. Some of the material (the recording of “Earth, You Swallow Everyone” and some of the weather samples, I think) came from my collection of mini-disc recordings. I didn’t care about sound fidelity, obviously, and unless a mistake really bugged me I would leave it alone and move on. At this time I was utterly obsessed with Phil Elvrum’s work as The Microphones, which seemed to allow some technical sloppiness for the sake of atmosphere and drama. Now that my ears are a little sharper, of course, I realize the level of craft going on in those Microphones records. But back then I was trying to borrow Elvrum’s lo-fi vision for my own songs.

With your excellent work in The Floating City corresponding to this time period, how would you say the lack of multiple expectations from fellow band members effect your solo work?

I decided to start the solo thing in 2004 out of frustration, partly, because I couldn’t get certain songs played and I wanted to do something with them anyway. The Floating City was a very collaborative effort, even though I tended to be the most forceful member when it came to writing songs and presenting ideas to the band; and if we couldn’t come to a consensus on a song, like if somebody really hated it or none of our arrangements were any good, we would drop it and move on. Looking back, we were never the kind of group that could have convincingly played songs like “It All Comes Down To This” or “Final Moment” – stylistically we were heading somewhere else. With a solo outlet I could stop getting hung up on how songs would be played by the band, indulge all my weird genre exercises and musique concrete impulses, and let the band be its own thing. It definitely freed me up to start thinking of music and sound as a limitless, endlessly manipulable world, which is both terrifying and exciting to contemplate.

Did any of this material ever get played live in front of an audience in a live setting?

Yes, I played some of the songs pretty regularly from maybe late 2003 to mid-2006, at little solo shows that I was almost afraid to let anyone know about. A good part of the album I’ve either forgotten how to play or never learned in the first place, but other tunes (“Final Moment,” “It All Comes Down to This,” “Earth…” and some others) I’ve played a lot, and are pretty solid parts of my repertoire.

What contributed to the record not getting released back in 2004?

Technically I did “release” Human Gun, but it was definitely not a proper event: I just showed up for a solo gig with fifteen or so hand-labeled CD-R copies on hand. A couple of my friends might have known beforehand that I was planning to release an album but for the most part I kept it top secret (the existence of the album as well as my plans to release it). I guess I was a little insecure about it. I sold the CDs for five dollars until they were gone, and after that if someone asked me for a copy I would try to get it to them somehow. But I didn’t pay much attention to it, and The Floating City was getting ready to record our album so I moved on to that right away.

You recently did some work on the album again. Between what you had recorded initially, and the work that you did on Human Gun recently, how much of the album’s material changed shape?

There were some significant changes in the new revision. Mostly I wanted to make it easier to listen to, so I smoothed out a few of the more speaker-shredding noise moments, tightened the transitions and adjusted the levels to be more consistent. All very basic things that should have been done in the first place. I also made a few creative calls in cases where I felt it needed it. There are new effects in places, and I cut out some material in the name of pacing and concision. This kind of self-editing is a tricky issue, and I’m still ambivalent about whether I should have just left it alone, but the bottom line is that it probably sounds a lot better than it did originally, which was my intention.

Photo by Melissa Boshans

How do you feel your matured artistic perspective influenced how you approached the material?

Over the last several years I’ve been improving incrementally as an engineer, so when I listened to the recordings recently it was easier for me to identify problems and know how to fix them. In its original form the album is really a very difficult listen with all the sudden shifts in volume, poor editing, digital clipping, etc. And as far as cutting material, it may be artistically fraught, but I honestly doubt those tracks will be missed. Back then I was trying to fill time, and I’ve since learned that a record doesn’t need to be 35 to 40 minutes long in order to say what it needs to say.

What stood out upon my first listen of the album was the balance between traditional songwriting and experimental, instrumental work. It reminded me of the sequencing of David Bowie’s Low, and you mentioned the influence of Phil Elvrum. What led to that sense of exploration in your work?

In 2004 I hadn’t yet opened my mind to Bowie, but Elvrum was profoundly influential. Up until I heard The Microphones I don’t think I had ever thought about putting straightforward songs alongside more far out stuff and calling it an album. Around that time I was listening to a lot of Deerhoof too, mostly the album Reveille. I admired their willingness to keep the songs short (or long), their free use of interludes, and how they constructed a sound environment that was totally unique and far removed from typical band production. Sometimes I wonder how things might have been different if I’d had a drum kit and a compressor.

Is there a chance that this material will see some sort of formal release?

There’s always a chance! I kinda shy away from doing physical self-releases these days because of the cost; it’s a lot easier to make things available digitally, because it’s so much easier to share. So far I’ve been satisfied that some people know about the record and enjoy it, and that somehow my “passive distribution” methods have been enough to spread it around.