Cannibal Cheerleader

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 Fight Bite 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 all the sounds on your songs? Where do the lyrics come from? What feelings are 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”
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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”
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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.

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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?

RINGO DEATHSTARR UPDATE
It’s a weekend update of epic, lovelorn, shoe-gazing proportions, starting off with this post from Austin’s favorite swirly guitar masters Ringo Deathstarr. Here’s there most recent Myspace post:

“this just in…we have been working on new material lately….we are going to start playing it at shows starting now. we also just finished tracking a couple of new tunes that are now in the process of being mixed. thanks to the band JET, mixing has been delayed as computer boy has been kidnapped by them and is being held at the bubble(the recording studio) but i hear they are treating him well. we are trying to get these 2 songs that we have done to be released on 7” vinyl for your pleasure…but in the mean time, we will release them on cassette and CD-R and make them available at shows only until something is worked out. SVC records of course will make these tracks available digitally when the time is right. we have been getting lots of e-mails from our faithful fans that want us to play in their city,, and trust me we want to as well,but due to gas prices and not being on a record label that has lots of money to pay for a tour, we are doing our best to get the hell out of texas. thanks to a deal that southwest airlines had going, we are flying to the east coast for a few days and taking the china town bus to our shows. we are awaiting confirmation on a couple of shows but hopefully we will see yo there! we also finally just filmed a video for sweet girl which will be released sometime next week. we are soon going to film a video for one of the new songs “summertime” (featuring alex on lead vocals).we will egin recording a full length or something very soon as well.“

The band’s next show is August 30th at Emo’s, so you know we’ll be there with bells on. Check out this rad video for the band’s upcoming EP, sounds stellar!
Summer Mini Tour

Ringo Deathstarr – “Down On You”
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TRYOUTS: FIGHT BITE’S EMERALD EYES
Considering that there are only two members present in the Denton, Texas based fuzz-filled experimental band Fight Bite, it’s astounding just how much depth and layers the songs seem to incorporate. From the waves of passion and synthesizers in instant classic “Swissex Lover” to the melodic keyboard, starry-eyed drum twinkles, and soaring vocals of “Strings”, Emerald Eyes begins and ends as a masterpiece of headphone-heavy, lilting pop music, bringing a delicate touch to a genre recently mired in loud-quiet-loud dynamics. The subtleties of Fight Bite are wistful and unique, as the band refuses to play to either shoegaze tenants or chamber-pop standards, instead electing to combine elements of both into an intimate mix of lonely teenager background tunes and the epic sweep of a hot wind over a cloud-covered field. Reminiscent of the the latest work of M83 in parts, Fight Bite dives deep into the realm of the dreamiest of pop standards and comes across on the other side of the universe with one of the best releases of the year. Definitely makes the team, though it’ll probably just sit in a corner and write in its diary during practice.

Fight Bite – “Spring Rain”
Fight Bite – “Strings”
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TRYOUTS: HIGH PLACES’ HIGH PLACES
Of all the bands one reads about online, there remains only a select few that eschew standard melodies and pop rhythms so completely as Brooklyn’s High Places, who with their self-titled debut have crafted an intimate realm of whirls, clicks, sounds, and noises that magically combine into, what else, but awe-inspiring music. Beginning with the bang of “The Storm” it becomes clear that High Places is lifting us far away from Kansas and having left our comfort zone the band refuses to let us settle in comfortably. Truly, the ingenuity of the instrumentality of this record is nothing short of astounding, with waterdrops taking the place of drumbeats, rainmakers dipping in and out of the dynamic mix, and light keyboard tapping remaining the only familiar instrument in the bunch. The vocals drift in and out of each verse with the carefree abandon of a flitting hummingbird, though it compliments the drumwork so completely that it seems the perfect marriage of voice and form. The strength of the band’s earlier work 03/07-09/07 lied partly in its penchant for constructing tiny vignettes with song ideas and never overstaying its welcome, and High Places manages to capture the same essence, each track dancing in and swimming out like a bee shooting between sunflowers. Overall, the record stands as a testament to the ingenuity of modern indie-rock, which could stand a facelift every once in a while, and what better way to shake things up than throw out everything we’ve ever known. Definitely makes the team and probably will come up with some wild new cheers that are probably illegal in competition.

High Places – “The Storm”
High Places – “From Stardust to Sentience”

Comments?

SOUTHERN DRAMA INTERVIEW

Read the rest of the interview when it gets published over at Soundcheck Magazine. Here are some more awesome pics by Meg Seidel from their show at Beauty Bar – enjoy!

After hearing about these guys from both Gorilla vs. Bear and Stereogum, and noticing that they live just up the road in Denton, Texas, we here at Cannibal Cheerleader decided to check out Fight Bite, and we’re definitely glad we did. Like stumbling upon the latest shoegazey-wunderkind before they’ve reached their full potential, the duo of Leanne Macomber and Jeff Louis produce such star-filled, dreamy, escapist pop masterworks to suggest they’ve been around for decades rather than just for a few months. Check out “Swissex Lover” below, the anthem to every teenage late-night firework fight captured in slow motion on super-8 film ever. They don’t have any shows planned for south of the DFW area right now, but hopefully they’ll take the roadtrip down to Austin and delight us with their syrupy goodness before too long!