Carson Ellis Interview

Carson Ellis is one of my absolute favorite artists and creates the album artwork for one of my favorite bands, the Decemberists. I love all of the artwork she creates because she really does tell a story through her artwork. It goes perfectly along with the Decemberists' music and she illustrates the songs and album concepts perfectly. Not only is she the mastermind behind the Decemberists' album artwork, but she also has done the artwork for children's books and other albums. Her artwork shows she has true patience and talent and is absolutely meticulous. I got the chance to ask her a few questions about her artwork, future projects, and what she likes doing in her spare time.

Also, please pick up a copy of the Decemberists latest album, The Hazards of Love. The album is absolutely amazing and worth every penny.

How did you and Colin meet and how did you start doing all of the artwork for the Decemberists?

We met in college at the University of Montana. We were roommates. Back then I made some flyers for his old band, Tarkio. Later I moved to Portland about the time he was starting the Decemberists and he promptly put me to work making flyers, album art, t-shirts, website illustrations, etc.

What inspires you?

Right now I'm inspired by all kinds of folk art, poster art from the 60s, vintage labels, medieval art and typography, lots of book illustrators (Alice and Martin Provensen, Garth Williams, Ivan Bilibin, Maurice Sendak, Tomi Ungerer, Pauline Baynes among many others), Russian literature. I'm always inspired by the natural world, especially the woods around my house.

What is your favorite medium?

If I had to choose one, I'd say pencil, though I love ink and watercolor too.

Who is your favorite artist?

It's so hard to choose just one. Maybe Ben Shahn.

What projects do you have lined up for the future?

Right now I'm working on album art for a new Laura Veirs record. I'm also illustrating a book called Dillweed's Revenge by Florence Parry Heide. Once I'm done with that I'll be illustrating a version of the Illiad by Cynthia Rylant.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

I like to knit. I'm also an amateur quilter and gardener. I love to spend time in the woods and with my family. I love yoga. And I travel a lot.

Do you have any hidden talents?

Mmmmm. Nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any guilty pleasures?

Yes, lots!

Please check out Carson's site:

http://www.carsonellis.com/

And make sure to buy the Decemberists' albums so you can see Carson's excellent artwork in person: http://www.decemberists.com/

The Morning Benders Interview

The Morning Benders are a really great band whose album, "Talking Through Tin Cans", was one of my absolute favorites of 2008. They have been touring in support of the album with a ton of great bands like Ra Ra Riot, White Rabbits, Port O'Brien, etc. The band, made up of Chris, Joseph, Julian, and Timothy, make some really great music. I highly recommend you buy a copy of either "Talking Through Tin Cans" or their eps and 7 inches they have for sale. Or, if Itunes is your thing, then download the album, which Itunes called, "The best of 2008", also! And, for no money at all, download their great "Bedroom Covers" which features the band covering the Smiths, the Cardigans, and Paul Simon. I got the chance to interview the band, and they discussed their success on Itunes and musical influences. Make sure to catch these guys on their February-March tour.

So, "Talking Through Tin Cans" was really well received, especially on Itunes. How do you feel about Itunes and music downloading?

Although I'm definitely the kind of guy who buys albums and likes to hold things in my hands, I'm all for it. iTunes is an amazing thing for people to be able to get music instantly. And if you can't afford it, just download it. We don't mind. Come to a show if you can.

How did the Morning Benders get started?

Well I was born on Feb 25th 1985...

You guys have toured with so many great bands, who have been some of your favorites to tour with?

Ra Ra Riot were a lot of fun to tour with, and a great band. Love the White Rabbits. Can't wait to play with them again.

Who are your musical influences?

Right now I've been listening to a lot of Flying Lotus, Deerhunter, Chief, Animal Collective, and Department of Eagles.

Where has been your favorite place to tour?

I love New York, that's probably my favorite place to play.

Where did you get the idea to do the "Bedroom Covers"?

We just love to play our favorite songs. It was a pretty natural thing.

What was the last album you bought?

Merriweather Post Pavillion

Do you have any guilty pleasures?

No way!!

Any hidden talents?

I cook a mean stew.

http://www.myspace.com/themorningbenders

Princeton Interview

Princeton is a really great, LA based band. I got the chance to see them with Ra Ra Riot in December and they really blew me away. I bought their Bloomsbury EP and fell in love. Even though it is just four songs, it has rarely left my cd player. The band is made up of twin brothers, Jesse and Matt Kivel and Ben Usen. They have toured with a ton of great bands and received a ton of positive praise from multiple music blogs. I got the chance to ask Jesse, who sings and plays guitar, some questions about their Bloomsbury EP and touring.

What was the recording/writing process like for the Bloomsbury EP?

It was tedious and painful. But seriously, it was a very difficult record to record. We had little experience recording the orchestral instruments that appear on the record and did it all ourselves in our house so we just didnt have the space to stretch all of our gear out. We would spend hours in matts bedroom writing flute and string arrangements and only getting maybe one part done in a day. The song writing process on the record was easy though. Two of the 4 songs on the EP were already written before the concept (Leonard Woolf and Ms. Bentwich) and because we were excited about the concept the other tracks came quickly.

Who are your musical influences?

I think we each have our own key influences. To name a few I would have to say The Kinks, John Cale, Jonathan Richman, Sam Cooke, Scott Walker, Arthur Russell

Why did you decide to base the EP on the Bloomsbury collective?

Matt and I were studying various members of the group and decided it would be a better and more attainable idea then recording our full length. We were simply too unorganized at the time to record a full album so an EP was much more manageable.

How would you describe the Los Angeles music scene?

I would say it is fractured. There are so many different types of bands and "scenes" that there is nothing really unifying it. One thing I believe is that LA has some of the friendliest and supportive musicians I have known. Its a great city to meet other musicians who enjoy what they are doing.

Where has been your favorite place to tour?

For me my favorites would be probably portland and San Francisco. Two great cities.

What has been your most memorable show?

My most memorable show would have to be the last show of the Ra Ra Riot tour at the Ottobar in Baltimore. We had three different songs where members of the band came on stage to play with us and it was just a great night.

What was the last album you bought?

I just bought the After Dark compilation on vinyl.

Do you have any guilty pleasures?

Too many to list. At this point I don't even consider them guilty pleasures, I just think of them as me fully enjoying all aspects of my life. It just so happens that these aspects of my life include Dan In Real LIfe, and most of Hugh Grants body of work. That guy is charming.

What are Princeton's future plans?

We plan on releasing a full length sometime this year and enjoying our lives.

Jukebox the Ghost Interview

Jukebox the Ghost created one of my favorite albums of 2008 when they released Let Live and Let Ghosts on April 22nd. It's fun, really well made, and so insanely catchy. The band, that met in Washington, DC and now resides in Philadelphia, is made up of Ben, Jesse, and Tommy. They have toured with a ton of great bands including Via Audio, Say Hi, and Ra Ra Riot. Tommy, who provides guitar and vocals, was nice enough to answer some questions for me.

What was the recording process like for Let Live and Let Ghosts?

We were still in college, so there wasn't a lot of wiggle room for time and money. As a result, we had to track the whole album in 8 days, which was pretty stressful -- We slept on the floor of a friend's abandoned apartment that whole time. Jesse had really bad tendonitis when he was recording drums. My fondest memories are from playing hours and hours of Mario Kart on the producer's gamecube.

How would you describe your sound?

We usually let other people do that and just worry about making the sound itself. But, if you put a gun to my head, I guess I'd say vaudevillian-indie-pop-rock? But who knows what the next album will sound like....

Who have been your biggest influences?

Musically, we've all had very different upbringings. Jesse is a punk drummer at heart, Ben is a classical pianist at heart, and I'm a reformed Phish/noodly-guitar fan. In more recent years, we've had a lot of listening common ground with indie bands, we still have pretty divergent tastes. Jukebox the Ghost is one of the only musical things we can agree on, really.

You have toured with so many fantastic people, who has been your favorite so far?

Too many favorites to pick. We love the Winter Sounds, the XYZ Affair, Via Audio, Say Hi, Nightmare of You, Exit Clov, Pretty and Nice...The list goes on and on. We're very lucky that we've been able to tour with bands we love that contain people we love.

Favorite place to tour?

The west coast, which we only toured for the first time this fall, was pretty novel and exciting. We were all struck by how the scenery changes so quickly and drastically in the Southwest/West/Mountain region. Utah has unbelievable scenery in particular -- I wasn't sure we were on the planet earth.

Favorite song to play live?

Right now, my favorite is probably a new one called "Nobody", but it's always changing. Usually whatever is newest.

What do you like to do when you are not touring?

We live near a bowling alley in Philly, so a lot of bowling by default. Jesse watches a lot of 'Forensic Files' on truTV. Ben plays a lot of piano. I like history books a lot right now. In writing, that sounds pretty boring. In reality, it's also pretty boring.

What was the last album you purchased?

The Medications -- Your Favorite People All in One Place.

What has been the funniest thing to happen on tour?

Not necessarily the funniest, but our van broke down on the Utah/Nevada border, so we were forced to spend two-and-half days at the 'Wendover Nugget', a casino on the Nevada state border. We played a lot of shuffleboard. Hours upon hours. We're all embarassingly good at shuffleboard now. Once the van got fixed, we had to drive 35 hours (no sleep, only stopping for gas) straight to New York City for a show. We pulled up to the venue an hour before the show and somehow managed to get through the whole set without falling over. We'd like to thank vitamin B12 for getting us through that experience. Way to go, B12.

What are your plans for the future?

To record our next album!! To tour more! Overall soldiering onward!

Please visit their website http://www.jukeboxtheghost.com/ and buy Let Live and Let Ghost.

Ra Ra Riot Live Review/Interview

Ra Ra Riot has created, in my opinion, one of the best albums of 2008. The Rhumb Line is full of wonderfully written lyrics and songs that can evoke every type of emotion yet still make you want to dance in your automobile while you are stuck in traffic. The past few years for Ra Ra Riot have been a rollercoaster and they have received much attention for the tragic passing of their drummer and songwriter, John Pike. But they decided to keep going and seemed to go even stronger with their signing to amazing Seattle based record label, Barsuk and the release of The Rhumb Line. The album includes new versions of songs that had been released on their self-titled EP, new favorites such as “Too Too Too Fast”, and even a Kate Bush cover of “Suspended in Gaffa”. The band, made up of Wes Miles, Alexandra Lawn, Rebecca Zeller, Milo Bonacci, Mathieu Santos, and current drummer Gabriel Duquette, have been touring in support of the new album for the last few months and even appeared for late night talk show hosts like David Letterman and Conan O’ Brien.
On an extremely chilly Friday night in Nashville, I got the chance to see Ra Ra Riot perform and see if the live reviews I had been reading about their show had been true. In support of the band was Princeton and So Many Dynamos, who both put on a good show and were fantastic openers for the band. There was a good turn out of people at Exit/In when Ra Ra Riot took the stage. They started the show with “Each Year” and everything sounded immaculate. Wes Miles’ vocals sound perfect next to Alexandra Lawn’s cello and Rebecca Zeller’s violin. The band played all of the Rhumb Line and EP favorite, “A Manner to Act”. They had amazing stage presence and they all looked like they were having a great time. One aspect that adds so much to their show is how they commingle on the stage and are constantly moving around. After leaving the stage, the crowd cheered for an encore, and the band definitely delivered with an epic cover of Kate Bush’s “Hounds of Love”. Ra Ra Riot’s live show is phenomenal, and if they come to your town, I highly suggest you go see them for yourself.
Before the show I had the chance to interview the lovely Alexandra Lawn who plays cello for the band. When asked about how they got involved with Barsuk, she said their manager contacted them and they came out when the band was recording in Seattle. “Ever since then we’ve been one happy family with them,” said Alexandra. I asked why they did new recordings of the songs that had already appeared on the EP, and Alexandra said they “wanted a cohesive album” and, “I think some of those songs had matured during the live shows”. Alexandra has been playing the cello since she was three years old and lists classical musicians as her main musical influences. When asked to describe Ra Ra Riot’s sound, she chose the word, “rich”, and said, “It plays back to the really good pop music, and what pop music used to be about, like the Beatles, The Police, and U2”. She has loved getting to travel and see the United States while on tour, and says “Oh, La” is one of her favorite songs to play live. She lists current tour mates, Princeton and So Many Dynamos, as some of her favorite bands to tour with, along with The Virgins, Tokyo Police Club, and Vampire Weekend, saying, “They are all just really fun, great people, and great bands”. As for Ra Ra Riot’s future plans, she said, “Keep on doing what we’re doing, I think, as long as we’re still having fun, then we’re going to keep doing this as hard as we can.” Also, Alexandra lists Britney Spears, hot fries, and rain boots as guilty pleasures and loves to spend time with her dogs when she is not touring.

New Coconut Records album?!

New Coconut Records album called "Davy" will be out in January 2009. Nighttiming, Jason Schwartzman's music project's first album, is fantastic and if Davy is even half as good as Nighttiming is, I will be ecstatic.

Interview with the Spinto Band

The Spinto band is a wonderful 6 piece from Wilmington, Delaware. They just released their second album, Moonwink, on Park the Van Records. The band is made up of Thomas and Sam Hughes, Jon Eaton, Nick Krill, and Joey and Jeff Hobson. The new album is a follow up to their 2005 major label debut Nice and Nicely Done, although they had previously self released many albums. I had been waiting for Moonwink for a while, and it definitely lives up to all of my expectations. All of the songs are so refreshing and really great, that I can’t pick a favorite, although I am addicted to “Summer Grof”.

I just got the chance to see the Spinto guys for the first time at a Grimey’s in store. They were really nice and their live show was very energetic and fun to watch. They mainly played songs from Moonwink, but also threw in some old favorites, like “Brown Boxes” and “Direct to Helmet”. It was also a great to see the legendary kazoos in action. Jon Eaton, guitarist, was nice enough to answer some questions for me. He talks about the story behind Roy Spinto, touring habits, and recording Moonwink.





What was the recording process like for Moonwink?

Well, it’s a funny coincidence that the album was recorded in a converted sweatshop as we all worked pretty long hours putting the album together. We set deadlines, knew what we wanted and wore sweatpants every now and again. We also gained a fine appreciation for Ms. Pac Man and LA truck burritos. Dave Trumfio (producer) told us many a late night tale of past record industry fiascos to help inspire the process and once or twice we joked about whether veggie burritos were real burritos.

Can you explain the story behind Roy Spinto?

Roy is the inspiration of the band. He blessed us with some song inspiration early in the formation of the band. His face graces many a logo of the band nowadays and sometimes I wonder if he were alive today if he wouldn't anchor a band of his own and we could have a trademark battle for the rights to The Spinto Band name.

What have you guys been listening to lately?

Well.... excellent question. I have been enjoying a few albums of late. Dr. Dog's new album, Fate, is great. I enjoyed the Thao Nguyen album that came out this summer. The new Silver Jews is pretty cool, but I have to admit, I don't really get the new TV on The Radio. We had a discussion the other day that most people say that record is awesome because they are scared to admit that they don't get it. I am not scared, here me now, I don't get that new TV on the Radio album. I think it sounds like an unwound wool scarf.

Where is your favorite place to tour?

Aww shux... I'm no good at picking favorites. Here is a list of cities I've been building that, if I were offered a well paying job there, I would move there... you know, if I were in a career path that created exciting life changing options like that: Madison, Austin, Norfolk VA, New Orleans (despite the potential for disaster), Glasgow, Paris, San Francisco, Portland Maine. Sometimes I want to live in Phoenix, but other times I think otherwise.

What is your favorite song to play live?

See above... Although some of our favorite shows have been in Glasgow Scotland. People are always game for a conga line and once everyone gets drunk you can't understand a single word anyone is saying- and people love to get drunk there, so you pretty much listen to people speak in a foreign tongue, but that tongue is really just drunken Scot.

Any funny stories from tour?
Oh are you kidding me? We are straight business in the Spinto band, the only funny thing ever to happen on tour for us was we misorganized our tax documents and had to refile, but we accidentally refiled using forenames instead of surnames and the files were all screwed up. Crazy story, I'd elaborate, but you kind of had to be there.

Who are your musical influences?

My influences are constantly changing. Today I was listening to a bunch of Ween songs and realized they shaped a large part of my musical upbringing. They helped explain an important point in music and all around existence: anything goes, try new things, do your own thing.

Do you have any guilty pleasures?

Seal and meerkats

Do you have any hidden talents?

Hustling suite upgrades at hotels

How would you describe the Spinto Band's sound?

What can I write that doesn't sound self-obsessed? The Spinto band sound can be described as the final words you write on a postcard before you run out of space. Jam-packed, poignant, and usually overshadowed by the flip-side.

Check out their website:

www.spintoband.com/

And make sure to go out and buy a copy of Moonwink!