INTERVIEW WITH FIGHT BITE Having just tried out Fight Bite’s excellent debut LP Emerald Eyes, we here at Cannibal Cheerleader wondered what the duo of Jeff and Leanne, the wunderkinds behind the band, thought of their creation. So we recently conducted an interview with the group, part of which is printed below:
CC: What is Fight Bite all about? Why this type of music? How did FightBite come to be and what other bands have you each been in?
Fight Bite came to be when I (Leanne) had some songs together that were a bit soft and that didn’t fit in my more raw projects (Snowflakes, C!TR, Rival Gang). I saw Jeff’s band Teenage Symphony and asked him to collaborate. Jeff: Once we started talking about influences, it made perfect sense to work together and I was already a fan of her music in Christian! Teenage Runaway. CC: Describe your artistic process. How do you go about layering allthe sounds on your songs? Where do the lyrics come from? What feelingsare you trying to convey?
Generally either Jeff has chords and a song structure and i add lyrics and melodic pieces or i have a “finished” song that he embellishes and arranges. Unfortunately Jeff sticks me with all of the lyric writing duties. The content is usually based in reality but dramatized for fun.
This is of course, just a sample of the entire interview, more of which can be read at the bottom of this post and the entirety of which can be viewed in our September edition of the Cannibal Cheerleader punk zine. Stay tuned!
Fight Bite – “Strings” ******************************************************************** CRUISERWEIGHT ALBUM OUT OCT. 7th Our favorite Austin pop-punkers Cruiserweight have announced the release-date for their much anticipated followup to the seminal Sweet Weaponry. Big Bold Letters comes out Oct. 7th and the special CD release party will be performed at Emo’s on Oct. 31st, so prepare for a ghoulish celebration that will no doubt feature at least one member of CW8 dressing up as Rocky Balboa. Check out this Cannibal Cheerleader-produced video below and see what I mean!
Cruiserweight – “Vermont” ******************************************************************** PREY FOR SLEEP RETURN TO AUSTIN According to the newest post in the Prey For Sleep Myspace blog, frontman Hunter Townsend and crew have returned from Ohio with brutality accomplished. Check it:
“I’m taking a break from tracking vocals right now to let my voice rest a little before we get back in and double everything and add some tones… this is our last day in the studio, and our last day in Cleveland… I’ll be sad to leave here, that’s for god damn sure. We’ve had an awesome experience hanging out at the HM office and we’ve gotten some solid advice and been pushed a little harder than anyone’s pushed us in the past. I can already see us growing as a band because of this. They probably didn’t know what to make of us for the most part… there’s a vending machine here that they sell Natty Lights from for a dollar a can, and we fucking bought the thing out on the second night of recording. At least we didn’t have to tip! They don’t know how us Texas boys get down. I can’t even begin to describe how happy we are with the recording… everything sounds so fucking solid, so fucking brutal, it’s beyond words. We start driving back at 5 AM tomorrow… Monday night we’re back in Austin! Everybody make sure and check us out on September 4th at Red 7 with The Destro and Bleed The Sky… it’s going to be a fucking great night and we can’t wait to see everybody again and jam in our hometown. We’re playing early, no excuses. Just come out and have some fun with us! Everybody be safe, stay metal, and take care of each other. We’ll see you soon!“
The band’s playing Sept. 7th at Red 7 here in Austin so do not by any means forget to attend this show, or you’ll look like the background for the Cannibal Cheerleader website. You’ve been warned.
******************************************************************** INTERVIEW WITH FIGHT BITE (CONT’D) Here’s more of that Fight Bite interview for you interested blog-readers. Enjoy!
CC: You seem to be getting a lot of press lately from influential blogs like Gorilla vs. Bear and Stereogum. How do you feel about all the new attention? Has it affected the size of your fanbase? When can a band say “they’ve made it”?
It has been unexpected and strange. we never thought the recordings would go farther than our friend’s stereos. we certainly haven’t “made it.” We’re still spending time and money that will never pay off but that’s what musician’s do. Jeff: The attention is definitely nice and has given us more confidence about what we do. It’s been cool to see new faces at our shows and meet new fans.
CC: To expand on the idea of ‘making it’, what’s it like for an independent band in America today? What are you days jobs? How do you reconcile your day-to-day with the need for artistic expression? Is it worth it even when the money’s not rolling in? I (Leanne) work as a freelance photographer. We’re pretty boring people. Music is pretty much what we do outside of work. I wouldn’t be a photographer or a musician if i was looking for a good payday. Jeff: Right now the only job I have is grading SAT essays every now and then. Having a creative oulet like Fight Bite will always be more important to me than finding a a good day job or steady income. When I’ve had full-time jobs, I found that my creative projects suffer because of lack of time or motivation. CC: What bands do you enjoy? What bands influence your music? Do you have any other interests like film or literature?
We have some mutual influences like ABBA, the Carpenters, Wire, and New Order. I (Leanne) am into pretty much everything good from Ruth Etting to Madonna. I (Leanne) am interested in photography, film and stop motion animation. I’m making a music video for Swissex Lover. Jeff: Besides the bands Leanne mentioned, i think we are both influenced by film and music in films.
CC: Describe what making your debut LP was like. Does it include the majority of your song catalogue or do you have other tracks floating around? Describe the time, energy, and expenses that went into it.
We have some stray ones lurking about. The process was pretty slow and painstaking. Some songs have more than 30 layers. we recorded in Jeff’s room onto his 8 track tape recorder. He did all of the mixing. The only expenses were the mastering and printing and the 75 cents it cost Jeff to buy the cassettes we recorded on. Jeff: We spent almost six months recording everything for the album, including several songs we thought didn’t fit Emerald Eyes. Even though it was a lot of intense work, it still ended being up the most fun I’ve had recording.
CC: What message are you trying to convey? Is there a mythos or theme to your music? Your music has been describe as the ‘theme to an unmade Sofia Coppola film’ – how accurate do you feel this description is?
I (Leanne) am into the implicit. Sure, these are all songs describing specific events in my life or feelings that I’ve had, but I’d rather employ some cliches to create a classic universal than speak in tongues and bore everyone with my internal mythology. As for Coppola I take it as a compliment. I’ve never had to buy any of her sound tracks because I already had 90%of the music Jeff: Yes, I think that’s a nice compliment too. I’m drawn to directors like her, david lynch, noah baumbach, and terrence malick because the sound of their films is often just as important as what’s on screen.
CC: What musical genres do you most identify with? Pop’s enthusiasm? Punk’s fierce independence? Shoegaze’s dreamlike quality? Or does your music really have no genre?
I think we identify with pop from the 60’s and 80’s as a model and general influence. Our approach is more or less informed by anything from punk to dance music but those aren’t obvious in this project. Shoegaze is the sort of genre that i can’t quite pin down. I guess that might describe the sissy, emotional, dreamlike qualities in our music. We enjoy a postgenre identity. Anything goes.
Remember, bonus questions will be in the September issue of the CC zine! Order yours by emailing me today! Comments?
To celebrate the release of Cruiserweight’s newest release Cruiserweight Rocks the Moon (available now on iTunes) here’s a live video of their single “Balboa” from the EP. Check it out below people, shot and edited by yours truly, and be sure and purchase this Cruiserweight EP (only 2.99? you know I got mine!).
TRYOUTS – GIRL TALK’ FEED THE ANIMALS The new Girl Talk album Feed the Animals has officially crash landed onto the Internet and the same level of mashup-badassery we’ve come to expect from the Pittsburgh native. On a first run-through I heard samples from Kanye, Nirvana, M.I.A., Salt ‘N Pepa, Twisted Sister, Sinead O’Connor, Kelly Clarkson, Daft Punk, the Cure, T.I. Soulja Boy, that annoying theme-song from Dawson’s Creek, and innumerable hooks and riffs that I had definitely heard before but just couldn’t place. Seems like that’s just the way Girl Talk operates, finding the nuanced, inspired moments in pop music and combining them into an entirely new and increasingly original musical template. The difference between this release and Night Ripper is the quality of the layering of the samples, no longer a simple mish-mash of cool songs but a definitive new creation, segueing seamlessly not only between songs but through movements in each track. On a precursory examination, Feed the Animals definitely makes the team. Keep a lookout for it, because word is it’ll be available on a pay-what-you-want platform soon.
Correction: Feed the Animals is available on on a pay-what-you-want platform now, so swing on over to the Illegal Art website and download a copy immediately people!
Hey Cannibal Cheerleader faithful, we’re halfway through the year so I figured it was about time to announce the albums, acts, songs, and shows that I feel are the best of the year SO FAR. Below are some tentative lists with the entries in no particular order and I’m not going to comment on these choices because frankly, they could change tomorrow! But I think what follows will be a good template of where we stand here in the middle of June and I believe a good deal of these may join us again in December. So, without further ado, the Halfway There Cannibal Cheerleader lists:
LADYTRON @ STUBB’S Our favorite electro-rockers Ladytron spun some tunes at Stubb’s this past Friday and our lovely correspondent Kat L. took some sweet photos. Word on the street is the show (predictably) ruled so here’s Ladytron’s new single to celebrate! Ladytron – “Ghosts” ******************************************************************** NEW BAND CHEER – THE GASLIGHT ANTHEMHeir to the throne of working-class punk rock by way of Against Me! with a splash of Springsteen comes The Gaslight Anthem, a New Jersey quartet with enough blue-collar sing-a-longs in their grimy back pockets to make a room of 9-to-5 stiffs pump their fists in time. Having recently garnered praise from Spin Magazine for their new EP Senor and the Queen the band is putting in some time on the Warped Tour and spinning around Europe before their sophomore LP The ‘59 Sound drops August 19th.
Seriously, this is a band with a devoted following for a real reason. I haven’t found a punk rock sound this year with this much heart and soul; lead singer Brian Fallon grizzled and heartbroken voice couldn’t sound more gut-wrenching if he tried. How many times have I said the word heart in this section? I dunno but this band’s got a lot of it. Check them out NOW if you like punk rock or hey, music in general. Also, be sure and buy their ‘59 Sound 7” when it drops July 22 via SideOneDummy. Heck buy their excellent debut LP Sink or Swim, just get into them soon people before they’re touring your nearby stadium.
The Gaslight Anthem – “I Coulda Been A Contender” ******************************************************************** NEW CRUISERWEIGHT VIDEO Cruiserweight have put out a killer new video for their cover of “American Girl” from their new EP Cruiserweight Rocks the Moon which is due out on iTunes on June 17th. Check out the video below.
NEW MY MORNING JACKET VIDEOS Hey all, sorry about the late update (computer troubles again!) but today will knock your socks off. We not only have the new official music video for My Morning Jacket’s first single off of Evil Urges “I’m Amazed”, but we have the premiere of the Evil Urges EPK video on which yours truly helped. That’s right, check out the concert footage in the first video – I’m behind the camera in front of the stage.
Here are the videos, enjoy! My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges
My Morning Jacket – “I’m Amazed”
My Morning Jacket – “West End Girls” ******************************************************************** NEW TILLY AND THE WALL VIDEO Awesome pop-rockers Tilly and the Wall have released a new video via Stereogum for their new single “Pot Kettle Black”. It features some serious shout-back chorus lines so it’s one of the more rocky tracks on their new LP O. Check it out here!
******************************************************************** NEW CRUISERWEIGHT VIDEO Cruiserweight have posted a new video on their Myspace via IheartMusic of their performance at SXSW. Check it out here.
Also the band has a new EP Cruiserweight Rocks the Moon coming out on Itunes on June 17th. Here’s the fun link to it.
Oh Crystal Castles, it’s been too long! How are you? How’s the new record? Why, you say you’ve got a new single? Why, it’s album-standout and one of my favorite tracks of the year “Courtship Dating”! Awesome! And you’ve just released your self-titled debut in the UK? Rad! And you have a new video?
That’s awesome as well and really captures some of what it’s like to see you guys live. Thanks for the obligatory update guys! ******************************************************************** SCARLETT JOHANSSON VIDEO
First there was the music, now Scarlett Johansson’s foray into the world of Tom Waits’ covers has a music video. Not on YouTube yet so check it out here. Little self-indulgent but frankly, this album is still getting an A+ from me! ******************************************************************** LONG BLONDES VIDEO
Clearly it’s video day here at Cannibal Cheerleader – so why break the streak? Here’s one from UK new-wavers the Long Blondes, whose new album Couples is out soon. Looks and sounds rad!
******************************************************************** CRUISERWEIGHT VIDEO
And just to prove today’s video day wasn’t an excuse to be lazy here’s a video I edited for Cruiserweight who played during Dynamite Boy’s reunion show last Saturday. Check it!
It’s true, today I am blogging to you faithful Cheerleader followers from under my covers. I’m feeling a little down in the dumps as well as under the weather (heck throw in ‘feelin low’ while you’re at it) so I figured I’d do a little update on my favorite “under-the-covers-feeling-blue-with-headphones-on” music. Of course Cat Power falls into that mix and here’s an update she posted to her Myspace today offering apologies for missing.
“THANK ALL OF YALL WHO DIDN’T HOLD A GRUDGE FOR ME HAVING TO CANCEL MY SHOWS CUZ OF THE CALLOUS.
I AM DOING A LOT BETTER AND CAN ACTUALLY TALK WITHOUT SOUNDING LIKE A TRUCKER. HEADING TO MEMPHIS IN A COUPLE DAYS FOR THE BEALE ST. FEST, THEN TO MEXICO CITY AND BOGOTA, REAL REAL HAPPY TO GET BACK TO WORK! I CAN’T TELL YOU HOW UPSETTING AND FRUSTRATING IT WAS TO NOT HAVE MY HEALTH/VOICE FOR YOU ALL.
I CAN NOT TELL YOU HOW UPSETTING.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT, I ALWAYS FEEL BLESSED BY YALL’S LOVE FOR ME, I CARRY YALL ALONGSIDE.
XX C”
As a bonus here’s a little b-side I found floating around the Internet a few years back of a Cat Power original. It’s definitely apt to the normal Chan Marshall state of mind. Obviously this track is from Chan’s “short hair days”, thus the old-school Cat Power pic!
NEW BAND CHEER – WHISPERTOWN2000 Continuing on our ’sad country music’ update is Whispertown2000, a smokey, country-tinged, female fronted act from LA. Helmed by Morgan Nagler and well-connected with groups like Blake Sennet’s the Elected, Rilo Kiley, and Jenny Lewis’ solo work, Whispertown recalls them all at young, tender, and impressionable age.
Bands like Whispertown remind me of how I feel about country music and how I perceive it. Not as the barn-storming “All My Rowdy Friends” crowd, not as the redneck-proud “Larry the Cable Guy” crowd, but as the empty bottle of whiskey lonely boy and girl crowd. Whispertown2000’s great for those lonely nights buried under the covers (like tonight!). Definitely check them out. ******************************************************************** MY MORNING JACKET ON THE COVER OF SPIN
No seriously, the band that once penned the alt-country sleep The Tennessee Fire, the one and only My Morning Jacket, is on the cover of Spin Magazine. Here’s the article from the magazine, complete with a video of the cover shoot. Go check it out now and be sure and get pumped for Evil Urges, which I have been spinning like mad lately. ******************************************************************** DYNAMITE BOY VIDEO – PHOTOGRAPH To end today on an up note, here’s a preview of the videos to come this week from the Dynamite Boy/Cruiserweight show this last Saturday. Check it out!
The phrase ‘this band could be your life’ is weighty to say the least. To have a band you could so devote yourself to as to become a permanent fan of all their work is almost impossible in this modern age, with consumers so inundated with a million bands, each sounding basically the same as the next. However, in the case of both Dynamite Boy and Cruiserweight, both of these bands could be your life. These bands make you remember what it was like to first fall in love with punk rock, to spin ‘Dookie’ sitting alone on your bed, wasting the hours away.
It’s lucky that the band’s have so much to do with each other, else one might find oneself having to choose between the two. Needless to say during their respective sets at Emo’s this past Saturday both bands traded off singing duties with the other band. Sean from DB and Stella from CW8 played in each other’s sets, both of which seriously ruled, with enough moshing, stage diving, and antics as could be had. If you missed this show you definitely missed out
What’s great however is your intrepid Cannibal Cheerleader crew recorded the show and we’ll be posting videos at the end of the week and throughout the month. The video looks great and the audio sounds beautiful so definitely get excited when we premier some videos this Friday on CC! ******************************************************************** HEARTSREVOLUTION VIDEO – C.Y.O.A.
Here’s a new video from Heartsrevolution showing just how strange this band really is. This song is from their Crystal Castles split EP and is probably my favorite by them, but don’t forget their awesome Switchblade EP is out now. Check it.
******************************************************************** NEW BAND CHEER – FOOD FOR ANIMALS
Here’s a band I’ve just heard about that really deserves some attention. Whether you’re into the underground hip-hop scene or not, one can appreciate Food For Animals, a band that changes the template and fuses different elements into one unique genre. Experimental music creator/DJ ‘Ricky Rabbit’ has hooked up with some DC emcees and created a group that combines classic hip-hop flows with distortion-heavy beats and wicked, bizarre loops to create a package of dissonances and danceability. Ultimately Food For Animals fits into what has become Cannibal Cheerleader’s favorite new musical genre, as created initially by our heroes Crystal Castles: Thrash. Thrash, as it refers to extremely chaotic electronic music (Crystal Castles, Heartsrevolution, etc), is the reformation of a basic computer model into a machine of boundless ferocity, chaos, and energy. FfA definitely fall into the Thrash category and their page is definitely worth checking out. ******************************************************************** COOL SHOWS THIS WEEK
And guess just who will be filming this Tacks show! That’s right! Stay tuned for Tacks footage as well! Readers of CC are getting the benefit of my portfolio-building without having to pay a cent – amazing!
Any comments guys on the goings on of CC over the weekend?
According to this Pitchfork article, that picture up there featuring a mustaschioed Rivers Cuomo might just be the official cover of Weezer’s Red Album. Seeing as all the press photos we’ve been seeing of our favorite antithetical rock frontman lately have had him sporting a strange hairdo (see this soccer photo), it’s only fitting that he be as strange on his latest album cover. The tracklist was also posted:
The Red Album Troublemaker’ ‘The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)’ ‘Pork and Beans’ ‘Heart Songs’ ‘Everybody Get Dangerous’ ‘Dreamin’’ ‘Thought I Knew’ ‘Cold Dark World’ ‘Automatic’ ‘The Angel and the One’
Bonus Disc for US Release
‘Miss Sweeney’, ‘Pig’, ‘The Spider’ and ‘King’
Ten songs, classic Weezer action. This album seems to be making the ‘return to rock’ a reality for the Weez machine, especially given the sound of their first single “Pork and Beans“. Also, it looks like fan favorite “Pig” was relegated to b-side status, which is fair enough as everyone has heard it more than enough since it leaked a few years ago. Of course if you haven’t heard it yet, here’s what it sounds like!
Can’t wait for this album! ******************************************************************** SALLY SHAPIRO – REMIX ROMANCE VOL. 2
If you’re like me you’ve been spinning Sally Shapiro’s Remix Vol. 1 constantly since it came out last week. The tracks maintain a dancey edge reminiscent of old-style disco tracks without ever becoming to campy or ridiculous, meaning normally hardcore rock and roll fans (cough cough) can hide in their rooms and listen to it on their headphones, bobbing their heads to the beat approvingly in private. The techno infiltration of the likes of Holy Fuck and Junior Boys on Vol. 1 makes the original tracks interesting in new ways and Vol. 2, with remixes by the likes of Dtnel, promises to be no different. Here’s the first track from this album which will be released in June, and go pick up Vol. 1 soon!
******************************************************************** SCARLETT JOHANSSON – NEW TOM WAITS COVER SONG
Last week I posted what I felt was a ‘bait and switch’ when I told everyone that a new Scarlett Johansson track from her upcoming Tom Waits’ covers album (entitled Anywhere I Lay My Head) had been posted online, though it had already been taken down by the time I wrote the post so no one got to hear it. Well, thanks to “>Falling Down” from Big Time, and like the last track, it’s shoegazey wonder and completely different from the source material. Still, as a big fan of female vocalists, shoegaze, and Tom Waits, I can’t help but to enjoy myself when I listen to it. Definitely will be picking up this record. ******************************************************************** CRYSTAL CASTLES’ PITCHFORK ARTICLE
While most people read Pitchfork probably for the overwrought album reviews, people should know they have articles down in the lower right hand corner. And while the weekly Puritan Blister isn’t as good a series as say Poptimist, it’s always good to read a piece like today’s PB article where the author explains in detail his absolute obsession with Crystal Castles. Read it to find out what I’ve been going through for over a year myself! I especially like the part about trying to figure out the lyrics, finding out they’re about suicide, violence, and death and thinking they’re all the cooler for it. Check it out if you don’t mind relatively pompous and way too self-referential music journalism. ******************************************************************** COOL SHOWS IN AUSTIN THIS WEEK
Converge tomorrow at Red 7! There will be blood@! There will be pictures! Dynamite Boy reunion this Saturday! Cruiserweight show this Saturday! Fun times to be had by all enjoyers of rock music this week.
That’s it for this update – comment away folks, it makes me uber happy!
Having just tried out Fight Bite’s excellent debut LP Emerald Eyes, we here at Cannibal Cheerleader wondered what the duo of Jeff and Leanne, the wunderkinds behind the band, thought of their creation. So we recently conducted an interview with the group, part of which is printed below:
Our favorite Austin pop-punkers Cruiserweight have announced the release-date for their much anticipated followup to the seminal Sweet Weaponry. Big Bold Letters comes out Oct. 7th and the special CD release party will be performed at Emo’s on Oct. 31st, so prepare for a ghoulish celebration that will no doubt feature at least one member of CW8 dressing up as Rocky Balboa. Check out this Cannibal Cheerleader-produced video below and see what I mean!
According to the newest post in the Prey For Sleep Myspace blog, frontman Hunter Townsend and crew have returned from Ohio with brutality accomplished. Check it:
Here’s more of that Fight Bite interview for you interested blog-readers. Enjoy!
