Tuesday, October 14, 2008

AFS v. 196 ~ Knife Hits!


The FM Knives were one of the best bands live and on record from Sacramento in the early part of this decade…or ever! I remember when they were briefly called The Clap, and then The Knifes. We all cried when they broke up, but if we know then three excellent bands would hatch from the Knives, it might’ve been easier to take. Here’s the Knives continuum….Guitarist Chris Woodhouse (formerly of Karate Party) is now the guitarist and sound architect of The Mayyors here in Sacto; bassist Zack Olson--now in Oakland--still plays these wonderfully bouncy, yet driving basslines in The Pets; and singer Jason Patrone--when he’s not writing some of the funniest reviews on Yelp--sings and plays in Photobooth, also in Oakland. The Pets and Photobooth are coming to Sacto for a special KDVS Presents event at the 300 Room, the bar/lounge inside the 50’s/googie/neon-era timewarp bowling alley, West Capitol Bowl in West Sac. Some people say West Sac is the best Sac! The Pizzas are also playing!

Twin Crystals are also swinging through Sacto this week at Luigi’s Fungarden with The Dead Science and San Kazakgascar on Thursday. See below this playlist for an instant-messager-trade interview with Jesse…

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THE NIXE | Love Song | The Nixe | Polly Maggoo *new (orig 1981)
PETROLEUM BY-PRODUCTS | Grossest Thing | v/a: Emergency Room vol 1 | Grotesque Modern/Nominal *new
WHITE LUNG | Amy White Out | Local Garbage 7" | Hockey Dad *new
THE DEFEKTORS | Doomsday Girl | Secret Trials 7" | Nominal *new
GOLDEN TRIANGLE | Night Brigade | Prize Fighter 7" | Rob's House *new
CATATONIC YOUTH | Freedom Vanilla | Piss Scene 7" | HoZac *new *request
NOBUNNY | Tina Goes to Work | Love Visions | Bubble Dumb 2008
HUNX & HIS PUNX | You Don't Like Rock n Roll | You Don't... 7" | Rob's House *new
SONIC CHICKEN 4 | Toe Man | Midnight Girl 7" | Rob's House *new
DEAD GHOSTS | I Don't Understand | Holy Ghost 7" | Boom Chick *new
FM KNIVES | The Man from O.S.I. | Useless and Modern | Moo-La-La 2002
FM KNIVES | She's Terminal *request
THE PETS | Heart Attack | Misdirection | Static Impulse 2008
PHOTOBOOTH | Kill the Weekend | MySpace mp3 *new
CHRISTMAS ISLAND | Morning Sunshine | split 7" w/ Le Jonathan Reilly | FDH/Shit in Can *new
THE GOODNIGHT LOVING | Blank Day Parade | The Goodnight Loving | Dusty Medical *new
EDDY CURRENT SUPPRESSION RING | We'll Be Turned On | Primary Colours | Goner *request *new
EDDY CURRENT SUPPRESSION RING | I Don't Wanna Play No More *request
DAY CREEPER | Secrets | 2nd CDR | no label *new
EL JESUS DE MAGICO | Pirate Utopia | Singles Club 7" | Columbus Discount *new
NIGHT OF PLEASURE | Spasm Chasm | split 7" w/ Day Creeper | no label *new
EGO SUMMIT | Small Piece of Germany | The Room Isn't Big Enough | Old 3C 1997
PLACENTA POPEYE | untitled | split 7" w/ Reverse Mouth | Absurd/Phase/Tanz Procesz *new
TWIN CRYSTALS | Two Girls | Two Girls 7" | Summer Lovers Unlimited 2008
FNU RONNIES | Herb Owlpert | Limited Edition Poop CDR | no label *new
RADIO SHOCK | Sick City Water | Rage 158 | Roger *new
DEAD LUKE | trk 10 | Dead Luke Box bonus CDR | Sacred Bones *new
ZOLA JESUS | Soeur Sewer | Soeur Sewer 7" | Sacred Bones *new
THE DEAD SCIENCE | Holliston | Villainaire | Constellation *new
INCA ORE | Valley of Sherbert Cathedrals | split LP w/ Grouper | IOG *new
SWEET KELLY | Not to Go This Far | Tape Fed Into a Garbage Disposal by Spaceman and Jake | Zedikiah 1997
SWEET KELLY | When We've Gone Blind
SWEET KELLY | Running Free
SWEET KELLY | Territory
ORANGE | Golden Falcons | In The Midst of Chaos | De Stijl *new (orig 1978)

INTERVIEW W/ JESSE OF TWIN CRYSTALS

11:57 AM me: So, what about this new LP?
How's it gonna carry?
11:58 AM Twin: the new lp is a party / its like a new madonna lp from 84, no joke!!
me: Well, some of those songs are indeed moments of pop brilliance. What kinda things am I gonna hear that I haven't heard before on your CDRs and 7"?
12:00 PM Twin: well for once it should be all new songs , no demos no scrappy live traxx, its all guitar based now , jeremiah is playing more bass type stuff on the moog, theres a soft cell cover on there that kinda holds the lp together. we recorded it ourselves.
12:01 PM whereas the last record we did "two girls 7" was recorded in a fancy studio with the engineer taking control and adding in his own sounds. it worked but we wanted something different.
12:02 PM me: How many songs and minutes is it?
Twin: 8 songs 26 minutes
12:03 PM me: So, less atmospheric then?
Twin: no, not necessarily. side b is more dreamtime, and side a is pop madness.
12:04 PM me: Is this still gonna play well at a dance party?
12:06 PM Twin: it will play very well, we got sick of people calling us a dance band cause we were on Summer Lovers, and cause we had two moogs, so we wanted to make more of a early nineties party record, kinda like the story i heard of charles peterson playing out his copy of nirvana's mollys lips live single at his house parties.
12:07 PM me: You realize that your split cassette w/ N.213 that was limited to 47 shoulda been on vinyl, right? Your side of that is pretty great!
12:08 PM Twin: i know i know / me and nic are trying to get a label to release it. it was meant to be on vinyl from the start.
12:09 PM me: It has a few mastering issues, but that's easy enough.
Twin: i know nothing about mastering, all i know how to is stay up till 6 am mixxing and mixxing songs over and over.
12:10 PM i spent weeks mixxing the new lp.
12:11 PM me: There's a dark despair and desperation in a lotta music coming from Vancouver, and yet it seems like people are all excited about the music from there, whether it's kids here in Sacto and Davis or folks like Exclaim doing feature articles on it.
12:12 PM Why is Vancouver music so glum-sounding, yet also sparking a lotta interest these days? Twin Crystals included!
12:15 PM Twin: well for one thing all our bands - Shearing Pinx / Mutators / Twin C / Defektors....... all practice on Hastings Street for the low rent, but that street is home to some 20000 addicts. i'm talking the cops have no idea what to do, all day everyday people are smoking crack freely on the street, shooting up in front of cops. the Emergencry Room just got robbeed, and we hall had our guitars stolen. this city is fucked...im not really sure why people are taking notice now, though. all of us have been doing this for years, and we have had zero interest up until now. in Channels 3 and 4, we all worked so hard but we got nowhere with it. it seemed no one cared or anything. we never even got local press.
12:16 PM me: I hear that a lot about the Vancouver press....even D.O.A. complained about it back in 1981-82, I read.
12:17 PM Twin: yeah and look where they are now. hahahha...maybe thats what we have to look forward to.
me: No wonder you guys are so downcast, eh!
12:18 PM So, who's putting the LP out?
12:19 PM Twin: our friend david from NMR records here in Vancouver is releasing it. Summer Lovers wanted to do it, but they are too slow, and project us towards a different audeience...not a bad thing necesarily, but just not really what we want. dave is letting us have complete control. so i have sorted out our distro and cover art and everything. we are really really excited for it.
12:20 PM me: What's it like for Twin Crystals to share Jeremiah with a million other bands?
12:22 PM Twin: well, we all play in different bands, so it's not really a problem ever. it might be a struggle for him, but for us it's really quite exciting to see our best firend have success with other people he plays with. the thing about jeremiah though is he is a player not necessarily a songwriter, so he can just jump into a situation and play along perfectly to someone else's songs.
12:23 PM me: Jordan also strikes me as the sound/engineering kinda guy, so is that also kinda like a part that plugs into a system pretty well?
12:25 PM Twin: yes indeed...jordan is a full time sound engineer. he records most of the vancouver scene and does it perfectly. he is really easy to work with, but he never records twin crystals cause i think he finds it a bit frustrating trying to balance the sound and the playing. so i usually just record us. but yeah...it's a really good thing that we all have going...jordan records all the bands...all the bands are our friends, all our friends go on tour, all our friends make rad music, and that's kinda why i think everything is coming together nicely.
12:27 PM me: It's always so cliched to ask the same old question of "Who are your influences?" But tell us one influence that we wouldn't expect based on your sound.
12:29 PM Twin: well, when me and jordan first put the band together i was (still am) heavily into Fela Anikulapo Kuti, and i was showing jordan all this great afro disco beat, and we kinda imagined these rhythms over pop songs. i think a perfekkt example of that is our song "Trinity".
12:30 PM me: Hmmmm, I never realized that....
I always thought it was like a jungle/DnB-type song minus the drum machine and sequencers.
12:31 PM Twin: hahaha
me: That's your signature song as it's appeared on a lot of different releases. So why is its meaning still so mysterious?
12:34 PM Twin: i think all our songs are surrounded by mystery, but that one in particular is a bit dfferent. it's a really positive song if you can listen though the edges. it's kinda about the three of us sticking together through anything, 'cause we have all been through a lot in our lives...through friends suicides and overdoses, and it's just about the three of us being a family...not just ones that say they are; [we] really mean it.
12:35 PM me: Ah, we must all be imagining that it's more metaphoric than it really is!
12:36 PM Twin: haha probably
12:37 PM it might have a little bit to do with the break up of Channels 3 and 4 where i say "can you tell where my arm got torn"
12:38 PM "don't come and tear it apart"...that means i couldn't believe we didnt make it through 'cause we were supposed to be family. but now that family is back, and it feels good.
12:39 PM me: That coulda been a great record cover photo concept.
Twin: haha yeah probably
me: Put a little baby bonnet on Jeremiah.
12:40 PM Twin: we wouldn't even have to force him.
12:43 PM man that san kazakgascar band rules; they sound incredible.
me: Yeah...Jed, the guitarist of San Kaz is really great! They have a clarinetist, too, which just takes it over the top into magic carpet land.
12:44 PM Twin: awesome...i cant wait!





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