Hockey

Hat Trick: Portland’s Hockey scores points beyond face value.

Whether it’s delving into soul music, bubblegum-pop or modern folk, Portland, Ore.-based Hockey is as diverse as their choice of sweets at Voodoo Doughnuts, and their first album, Mind Chaos, is as delicious and hearty as a bacon maple bar. It’s characteristic for Hockey singer Ben Grubin and bassist Jerm Reynolds to head to multiple directions at once, and that’s where they’re comfortable.

Grubin and Reynolds met at Southern California-based University of Redlands Johnston Center—an interdisciplinary, neo-hippie enclave where students create their own major. Back in 2002, performing as a two-piece, Grubin and Reynolds were experimental but limited to mainly electronic dance because of their size. “We just wanted people to dance. We’d do all kinds of insane things [musically], and it’s allowed us to dabble in different genres, whether we want to be that [exclusively] or not,” says Reynolds, by phone from the road.

After graduation, Grubin and Reynolds’ efforts as recording artists in Los Angeles never panned out much, so they moved to the Northwest looking for bandmates and found two additional members—guitarist Brian White and drummer Anthony Stassi. “We called it Custard’s Next Stand when we moved to Portland. If that didn’t work, we’d just go somewhere else,” Reynolds says. While they aren’t necessarily a “Portland” band—sounding far from beard-folk—he says the contagious Northwest crustiness and weirdness is creatively stimulating.

Once the foursome started playing together, they opened up a can of soul and funk by grooving to Curtis Mayfield and Al Green (while Earth, Wind & Fire is always a guilty pleasure). As they recorded Mind Chaos (Capitol, 2009) in the basement of their Portland house, they wanted to create a distinct sonic palette reminiscent of Mayfield’s Superfly—to be able to bite into the music. Listening to the intro to “3 AM Spanish” suggests similar musical strutting—the kind of groove you’d want to enter a room to. As is their fashion, they weren’t content with that strict style, and intermittently they added pop flares or recorded overt, in-your-face bubblegum pop (if bubblegum pop is ever in your face).

Hockey dips into the hipster-chic well and pulls out cupfuls of catchy hooks, lavish synth lines and inescapable retro electro-glam. Comparisons to bands like The Strokes and LCD Soundsystem are largely based on sound, not lyrical content, says Reynolds. Sure, Grubin’s voice is faintly reminiscent of Julian Casablancas of The Strokes—albeit, Grubin’s is more scratchy and scrappy—and they have similar dance production to that of LCD Soundsystem.

However, they differ in lyrical experimentation—hitting on thematic elements of religion, history and culture. “That’s what music is for: expressing things in another way, what’s at the very edge of everyday life,” Reynolds says. Grubin’s lyrical depth is derived from studies at Redlands as well as unconventional literature, from William Blake’s poems to James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake—fitting for an album called Mind Chaos.

In “Too Fake,” he muses the pitfalls of church and religion, while on “Curse This City,” he gets brainy about the psychological process and experience of religion—other pop acts like Lady GaGa don’t go there, for sure. Essentially, it’s just stripped-down honesty, not necessarily tongue-incheek, though Grubin’s voice can hint at confident, vergingon-overt swagger. In “I Want to be Black,” he relives the trials and tribulations of growing up white in New York City, wearing Fubu and listening to D’Angelo’s “Brown Sugar.” Some things don’t change; Grubin said in a Vlog that he’s still doing that.

These lyrics interestingly juxtapose against the music’s layers and grooves. However, the lyrical content doesn’t overpower, and it’s not too heady to dance to. After all, that’s where they started, and they haven’t lost that. Watching their European concert Vlogs, teenage girls line the front rows and eat up Grubin’s every word and every hip thrust—perhaps only understanding his hips.

Hockey just got back from Europe, where they’re more popular than they are in the States. BBC Radio 1’s Zane Lowe started spinning “Song Away” and “Too Fake” last year, and they quickly became Euro sensations—unexpectedly, from the band’s perspective. “I’m glad that we’ve had that time. It’s like you’re the buzz band, and it’s crazy and hectic, and then you end up on the other side and you can go on.” After this tour, they will begin recording another LP, which will be slower, richer and even more experimental, making pure pop that’s as dark as possible.
Luckily, Hockey’s still romping around the country, because when the energy’s right, this tour’s intimate venues have all the electricity of a new-wave disco house party in full tilt. 

Lou Barlow

Dinosaur Jr. and Sebadoh vet aims for ambivalence.

  When asked about the mix of familiar elements on his new solo album, Goodnight Unknown, Lou Barlow shrugs: “I just really like those elements: it’s a little on the lo-fi side.”

The once and present bassist in the reunited Dinosaur Jr. and mastermind behind lo-fi pioneers Sebadoh as well as experimental project Sentridoh, Barlow has had a hand in some of the great indie-label noise of the ’90s and beyond, as well as a heart-rending way with a melodic arc, like the plot of the most compellingly personal short story.

Barlow just makes the kind of music he’d like to hear, and as a musician, he’s a great listener of music. “I like a lot of different kinds of music: metal, ’50s, folk, ethnic music,” he explains. “A lot of people give me stuff: Doug Martsch (of Built to Spill) recently gave me a bunch and I heard the band Fucked Up for the first time. They were pretty good.” He listens to obscure stuff like ’60s band The Lollipop Shop, which turned into Pierced Arrow. “And J Mascis got me into the Faces, Rod Stewart’s old band.”

But Goodnight Unknown has the unmistakable stamp of Barlow’s songwriting: the tuneful, melancholy melodies and insightful lyrics that mark a sure-handed venturer into the great unknown of emotions. It’s a temperament that helped cause Dinosaur Jr.’s breakup amid the youthful exuberance of their early years. That the reunited band has been back touring for several years shows that time can heal many, if not all, wounds.

“I think I gave the wrong impression,” Barlow says regarding the album’s sequencing, starting with the rocking number “Sharing.” “The way I structured it is a little forbidding. I wish I’d made it more welcoming.” The album veers sharply after that raucous opener into the title song and a folk groove that carries through to the end.

You wonder if a song can be titled “Sharing” without some irony in this age, but he vows it’s earnest. “I meant it to be lyrically confusing,” he admits. “It’s a ‘sticky’ song about sexual issues; it’s definitely got an edge to it.” As opposed to the emotionally direct songs that make up most of his body of work, he says this album “isn’t clear at all. I’ve been making songs more ambivalent about things, not like classic love songs. There is a lot of ambivalence that I see in real life, and also in the political climate.”

The songs will catch a little extra oomph live, with Mike Watt’s band the Missingmen backing him up. “I met them touring with Dinosaur Jr., when Watt opened for us,” he explains. “We all live in L.A., and they tried to play my record and it worked right away. They are both sensitive and aggressive players.” They play electric versions of some of his songs in concert, and then mix it up with his solo acoustic renditions.

The mix of tunes on the new release doesn‘t provide much to advance his work significantly, but it is a solid set of songs by someone whose bar is set pretty damned high. It’s not like brilliant rock albums can be scripted. “I don’t have a specific goal with an album,” Barlow relates. “It just kind of comes together and I try to surprise myself.” Like the song “I’m Thinking,” which he didn’t think was the strongest, at first, but “when it came together, an atmosphere lifted it into another realm.”

Recently becoming a father means Barlow doesn‘t have the time to listen to music quite as much as he used to, but he‘s still trying. ”I’m still passionate about it. You have to believe in your work and let the chips fall,” he says. “Trying to figure out what my next thing will be, that’s my passion.”?

Flying Lotus

Enigmatic electronica wanderer goes higher

Posted // October 18,2012 - Steven Ellison hates Superman. “He has too many powers,” Ellison reasons, and it’s “fucked up” that the only thing that can actually kill the hero is a rock found on a foreign planet.
Though these criticisms are valid, hearing Ellison’s strong negative opinion of Supes is surprising, since Ellison has a deep attachment to the character’s most fundamental ability: flight. The most obvious sign of this affection is the moniker of  Flying Lotus—his 7-year-old electronica project—but that name traces its origins to his subconscious. For a long while, Ellison would experience lucid dreams, with them often beginning the same way. “The first thing I do is I just start flying,” says the mostly taciturn, occasionally effusive musician.
True to that spirit, Flying Lotus’ work is always aiming upward. It wants to take creator and listener alike to a higher mental state (metaphorically and literally; Ellison is an unabashed pot lover) and a platform where music is food for both mind and body without feeling like a compromise. The Los Angeles-based 28-year-old has wooed critics and devout fans through his taste for experimental jazz flourishes (a fitting move, as he’s the great-nephew of avant-garde jazz musician Alice Coltrane), synthesized harmonies as placid and sweet as wind chimes, and beats that have a subtle, amber-colored translucence to them.
Flying Lotus is signed to intellectually ambitious label Warp, has remixed Frank Ocean and RJD2, and has collaborated with Beck, Thom Yorke and Erykah Badu. But by the same token, this pivotal name in post-2010 up-from-the-underground electronica has tinkered with rugged, grinding dubstep; remixed songs by pointedly nonbrainy rappers Lil Wayne and Gucci Mane; and implemented the rowdy club banger Waka Flocka Flame’s “Hard in Da Paint” into his live set. Ellison is into the idea of bridging ambient music and hip-hop, and the key tool he uses to do this in his own music is texture.
“You find a texture [in ambient music] that feels really warm—warm enough to carry the whole song on its own—and then you find some drums and you’re just like, ‘I’m good, I think.’ ”
While he can play around in multiple arenas, Ellison’s freshly released fourth record—the 18-track-long Until the Quiet Comes—is more concerned with the esoteric than the earthly. It searches for understanding in meticulously picked guitars, twinkling melodies, female vocals that sound like an ocean’s tide, and other elements that are similarly subdued and comforting. “[With] saying ‘until the quiet comes,’ I was saying that a lot is on my mind,” he says. “When I was working on the album and putting stuff together, getting stressed out about life and shit, all of the things that artists worry about, I would just think about until the quiet comes—a peaceful state of mind where I felt OK again.” As for whether “quiet” refers to rest or death, the answer is both. “That’s why I like it,” he says. “I think about all those things so often. It felt fitting with the mystical side of the album.”
“Mystical” is an excellent word to bring in for Flying Lotus because a magical je ne sais quoi is sprinkled over both this record’s spirit and Ellison’s focus on detail. While answering a question about how his perspective as a music maker has evolved over the years, he talks about the change with the awestruck quality of someone who has had an epiphany.
“When I was starting out, I was just like, ‘Fuck it, we’ll make everything loud. It’s all good,’ ” Ellison says. “But now, I’m really paying attention to dynamics and building moments. Just finding peaks and valleys in the music is really fun for me at this point. Now, it’s like, ‘OK, we can have those [loud] moments, too, but also let’s try this where it’s not so crazy.’ ”

The Numbs

Hip-hop crew to release new CD

  It’s hard to believe that one of the pioneering groups in Utah hip-hop hasn’t had an album out in nearly four years, but if you look at the careers of each member of The Numbs, it isn’t hard to figure out why.

Each member has kept busy with his own side projects, collaborations and solo releases since the release of The Numbs’ 2007 album Nfinity. Gunnar McKell mainly focused on his family, while Rooster worked as a graphic artist and started up River Apparel. Mark Dago released a 2010 solo effort, Self High Five, and he and DJ Shanty reunited with Rotten Musicians for their 2011 EP, aptly titled EPee.

But as any musician will tell you, sometimes it’s hard to shake that first love, and clearly love of the music is what brought The Numbs back to the studio for their latest LP, Soulburn. Even with all the other projects happening in the background, the group never officially broke up.

“I don’t see it as ‘reforming,’” Rooster says about the status of the band through the years. “Just a slow, constant process that has spanned about three years. We have never broken up or quit the hip-hop game.”

One of the biggest influences in bringing the group back to the studio was Ogden’s Linus Stubbs, who put together tracks with the group and added his own style to the production.

“Stubbs is one of Utah’s brightest and defining beatsmiths,” says Dago. “He captures that early ’90s aura—lush, varied beats that all manage to sound cohesive enough to fit together on the same album.”

The five started collaborating in mid-2010 and eventually booked time to record the album with producer extraordinaire Andy Patterson.

“AP is the best recording engineer in Utah, hands down,” Dago says. “He has such an ear for all kinds of music. The cool thing is that he can make your LP on a shoestring budget sound amazing!”

While it may be cliché to slap this phrase onto the album, it needs to be said that Soulburn isn’t your average hip-hop release. It feels like a tutorial on all things hip-hop and soul, kicking off with “The Return,” declaring The Numbs’ return to the game. “DNA,” with its fast-paced ’80s beat and quick rhymes, begs for a b-boy performance the moment it kicks in. “Won’t Soon Forget” taps into a ’70s vibe with cool horns and a simple jazz beat, which leads to “Way Of The Gun,” with its ’60s piano melody straight from the underground New York clubs of the era.

This album is a lesson in old-school music, beat and lyric structure, with each member of The Numbs holding class. 

Eyes Lips Eyes

Ex-Provo band headlines Cowboys & Indies

Eyes Lips Eyes' Tony Hello felt like a “naughty student” when he turned in his answers to City Weekly’s questions weeks late. But as he learned while attending BYU, if you’re going to turn it in tardy, you’d best make it awesome. The Los Angeles-by-way-of-Provo dance-punk four-piece are, to the lead vocalist’s defense, busy hustling around the country and shaking asses, touring in support of their recent funky, fresh EP, What You Want (If You Want), and a forthcoming LP in 2013.
City Weekly: It’s been said that you’re the most exciting thing to come out of Utah since John Stockton’s short shorts.
Tony Hello: Hmm ... John Stockton’s short shorts. So that would suggest that our music is conducive to movement and soaked with sweat? Yeah, that sounds about right.
CW: Why is your Facebook slogan “Putting the Provo in Provocative”?
T.H.: Provo is often the recipient of scorn and ridicule by both insiders and outsiders. Whether this is deserved or not, it’s in the eye of the beholder. To me, Provo is just one of those small, unassuming places that has the ability to provoke the provocateurs without even trying.
CW: Tell us about those good ol’ Provo dance-party days and how they influenced your sound.
T.H.: We thrived on the energy, and it really helped to shape our sound. [We’d ask ourselves:] “How can we make them lose their minds on the floor and not just stand there?” Provo is a two-college town, so there are a lot of students looking for any sort of excuse to blow off steam. We wanted to provide that escape and an atmosphere to help them feel comfortable to go crazy—you know, like at a Celine Dion concert.
CW: You make it a point to return to Utah every tour, right?
T.H.: As much as we can. It’s always nice to refuel on the fond memories of our first home.
CW: What do you miss the most?
T.H.: The smallness of it. The friendliness of the neighborhoods. The long walks on the beach.
CW: Around 2010, the band relocated to Los Angeles, also changing names from the Elizabethan Report to Eyes Lips Eyes. Why the big changes?
T.H.: We had a lot of hope, so it required a lot of change. The old name had run its course, and we wanted to go a different direction.
CW: How has the move to Los Angeles furthered the band’s career and influenced your songwriting?
T.H.: It’s gotten us in closer proximity of Dodger Dogs, which, as an FDA-approved dietary supplement, have served to help spur and develop our creativity as a band.
CW: The band moved into an old warehouse called The Cube, where you all live, record and do who knows what else. What’s up with The Cube? Does it get like a reality TV show?
T.H.: I love The Cube. It’s grown into a nice little artistic community, where everyone is helping each other out on projects. But like a reality TV show, The Cube doesn’t allow its participants/residents much privacy—a commodity best purchased elsewhere. I have since gotten married and moved out, but the rest of the band is still there. We still convene there as a band for recording, writing and practice. They still keep their beds lined up on the upper floor like Snow White’s dwarves.
CW: What music influenced the What You Want (If You Want) EP?
T.H.: I don’t recall what I was listening to—probably Rod Stewart’s greatest hits. Spencer [Petersen (guitar, vox)] was probably listening to Gang of Four. Thomas [Carroll (drums, vox)] was probably listening to John Frusciante. Aaron [Hatch (bass, vox)] was listening to Suite for Ma Dukes by Carlos Niño and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson.

Interview with Cindy Hui

Cindy Hui won 2nd place in Spring Photo Model contest in Jurgita.com!

Cindy Hui is an amateur model from Dublin, Ireland. Recently, she did advertising work for Giordano Records. Our congratulations!

Which of your photos do you like most of all?

"I liked round 1 photo the most because I had to come up with make up and design a costume for it."

We can see a very nice forest behind you, what was that place?

"The photo was taking up in the Wicklow mountains in a forest. (from author: Wicklow Mountains National Park covers part of a mountain range that extends over most of County Wicklow on the east coast of Ireland.)"

How did you feel yourself as warrior? :)

"A warrior I had to slightly change my frame of mind to be. Thinking of the photographer as the target and focusing on him, the thought of being on top to survive."

About photo for Round 2: I think you like photos made outdoor?

"I like it better though because it's easier to change the location to suit the shoot."

I've heard the water was extremely cold, can you tell about it again?

"Yes it were extremely cold for me, Irish weather sometimes isn't good. The temperature being about 10 degrees Celsius made the water a lot colder specially being up in the mountains. I was shaking and unable to move a lot of joints upon getting out. My body was starting to go blue, which thankfully didn't show up in the photos."

Cindy knows how to choose places for photo shoots to impress, first, mountains, second, waterfall, and third place was near the ocean.

Tell us where you were that time? On the lake?

"I was down in Dun Laoirghe in Dublin near the harbor at that time. Near the ocean. The angle stopped the city and the docks from being seen, to make it less cluttered."

Photo for Round 3 supposed to be sexy, the task was "Sexy back", and how do you feel yourself posing sexy?

"I do not mind having to pose like that, as that was what was needed to be done for that round. I am confident with my body too."

What kind of style in photo modeling do you like?

"I do not have a preferable style of modeling; I like all of what I have done so far, and on my hopes to pursue glamour and nude too, leave my ranges wide."

I know recently you have a job for CD cover?

"I had tried getting with an agency but after not getting with any I realized that I should try looking for jobs and try increase my exposure. I started making adverts and other online portfolios to try get some, eventually I had a hit and they liked my style. They asked me would I do a cd cover, which eventually developed into a bit of other work, they asked for maybe behind the cd, or a cd insert for the next one also. Or maybe the next one might feature me on cover. The producer and group were in America, which meant I had to get a photographer and send the images over. They said that I would have to pose near or beside the group logo. They sent across the t shirts and the photo release form. The images were going to be used by a GFX artist too cut me out of the background and onto a black one with the logo."

W Lounge, Epic Brewing, The Hotel, The Jackalope

Friday nights have been somewhat interesting lately with the shifting weather, but the yearly staple of bon vivant Tom Bennett’s birthday bash at W Lounge (358 S. West Temple) should set everything right this Friday. MSTRSHREDDR, Alastair and Mr. Bennett himself will be throwing some ’80s, ’90s, and possibly the best birthday party music ever—French electro—onto the sound system for your weekend dance warm-up.

Announcement of Epic Proportions
The building on State Street with all the shiny cryo-vac containers—actually brewing tanks—is now closer to opening and brewing its own beer after a year-and-a-half of regulatory hassling. Epic Brewing joins other local breweries in the effort to brew great, local, craft beer in the increasingly popular “heavy” beer category of 4.0 percent ABV (alcohol by volume) and above with its two new guv’ment licenses. Look for this venue (825 S. State) to open mid-May. You may also see these locally crafted beers being sold soon in other venues and bars, as well.

Elevation on Upper Levels
The Hotel (155 W. 200 South) is known for its many levels, all of which are typically packed, and lately the upper tiers have had increased attendance—and class. The Mercury Room now draws an interesting crowd to compete with the downstairs dance madness on Fridays. Local bands The Velvetones and The Plastic Furs played to a rowdy bar crowd on the third level as Cirkus Trapeze performer Krista Cobb glided overhead the last week of March. And local fine artists took over the top level, painting live and selling their wares.

Birthday Wishes
Happy fourth birthday to the crew at The Jackalope! Fuck The Informer and The Fucktards played the April Fools’ Day celebration with dead-serious attention—no kidding. Here’s to another four years, Mrs. Jackalope (372 S. State).
We want to keep Utah up to speed on local nightlife. Submit tips about club openings, closures, remodels, special events, drink recipes and noteworthy changes to comments@cityweekly.net