Brian and John (Shores)
What are your top five albums that were released in 2010? (In order 1-5)
Brian
- shipping news - one less heartless to fear
- tre orsi - devices & emblems
- wooden wand - death set
- liam the younger - revel hidden worlds
- lower dens - twin hand movement
if reissues count, i might have to reconsider my list for carissa's wierd - songs about leaving.
John
- black tambourine - black tambourine (reissue)
- christie front drive - christie front drive (reissue)
- surfer blood - astro coast
- no age - everything in between
- young livers - of misery and toil
What band did you discover in 2010 (can be a brand new band or an older band) that had an impact on your life? What made them significant?
Brian
tre orsi, whirl, and morrow are all new bands that largely caught my attention, sort of injecting new thoughts into the same ideas that bands of the '90s had that got me wanting to play music in the first place. the martha's vineyard ferries--bob weston and chris brokaw? an obvious choice. some older bands discovered that i couldn't believe i missed the boat on: bluetile lounge, should, and i got way into chokebore again. also, john's thousands of attempts to get me into the jesus lizard finally paid off for him. that happened, in a big way.
John
i'm glad all of my attempts at trying to get brian into the jesus lizard finally paid off i'll tell you that. as far as new bands go i'm really bad at this, i;m really stuck in the '90's. i try to pick up on new bands that brian tells me about and that usually helps. this year i got into a band from minneapolis called, buildings. they are right up my alley. early '90's style touch and go records type thing, ala jesus lizard, tar, and even a bit of the amrep band hammerhead in their sound. great band. as far as other bands i dug up alot of my early '90's hardcore music like universal order of armageddon, navio forge, john henery west, indian summer, and drive like jehu. i also came to realize that after years of denying the band i actually like the first three pearl jam records. i know, awful. whatever, the drums on those records are fantastic.
Brian
we aren't allowed to talk about pearl jam, ever. shudder. eww.
How will you remember 2010? (In terms of music)
Brian
playing a twelve hour turn cover behind the no idea house, while ending up borrowing rich diem's amp, hearing later that twelve hour turn was standing there watching, straight from john of twelve hour turn, telling us how glad he was to see no idea put out our record--that's how it's been personally, one gigantic "wow." generally, i thought it was yet another great year, full of great things, much more than i could ever keep track of, though i still try.
John
playing the fest this year with a new band is something that was really exciting for me. for the 7 years i played the fest with my old band which people knew so it was always fun but i always knew what people expected. this year with Shores no one really knew who we were so it was like a clean slate or something. it just felt really good and also to have all the cats at No Idea really into the record and really behind the band just made it probably the greatest 4 days of the year. also seeing twelve hour turn after many years was nice so now once that Palatka reunion happens ill be all set.
With more and more bands switching to digital methods of releasing music and communicating with audiences in 2010, do you think there's still a place for physical CDs and word-of-mouth shows in the future?
Brian
i'm not sure it's quite as bad as people think it is, just yet anyway. if anything, being that our "studio project" has only just turned "live" [or "real band" as we call it] in the last half of the year, we've found pretty amazing success in being able to level with like-minded people in bands we love, and audiences that are into the same ideas and music that we are. we chose not to go with a physical cd for 'coup de grace,' mostly because personally there's nothing better than an lp with a download code for us. bandcamp seems like a great tool that i wish all of my previous bands would have had, and i've actually heard of/found out about a ton of new music through that site this year. people do still seem to care enough to seek things out, to see things live. here in grand rapids, there seems to be quite a bit of competition for attention between bands, which is unfortunate at most times, with egos and perceptions, but then again, i can't deny that it does consistently present audiences for us and everyone else to play for. a lot of it is just buzz, whether you want to see that as a good thing or a bad thing.
this also steers my brain off into something much larger, about the apparent need for immediate gratification, immediate response, availability, info at your fingertips all the time, everywhere--that seems to be taking over a vast majority of the population. i can't say i'm not a part of that at times, but i can see it getting kind of out of hand. we've had a lot of fun, been fortunate enough to work with and meet great people thus far, but as a band, we're still quite young. we'll see what 2011 brings, as we get out and into the shit a little bit more.
John
cd's could disappear for all i care. as long as vinyl is still around i'll be good. but what brian said is pretty accurate and i agree with it totally.
What can we look forward to from you in 2011?
Brian
our second lp, "to volstead," will be coming out on No Idea. a partially collaborative split 10"/lp with our grand rapids besties Charles The Osprey will be out in the spring sometime, on which label, we can't yet say. we're prepping to record for a split with Senders, from gainesville, and also our third lp, which we'll be tracking in the summer of '11. we'll be sneaking around live whenever and wherever we can while all of that goes on!
What three records are you looking forward to most in 2011?
Brian
wow, still trying to fully absorb this year! how about:
- witches lp, on bakery outlet.
- grooms - prom lp.
- anything kurt vile does is usually warmly welcomed and immediately overplayed, and if the kadane brothers sneak anything out, i'll find it and play it to death.
John
- new dear landlord stuff, anything.
- the new ampere record
- anything new by super (awesome) group OFF!
- really interested to see if the fleet foxes can escape the shadow of their first record with their new one
- really excited about new stuff from them crooked vultures and queens of the stone age
