It’s finally here Cannibal Cheerleaders, the new SpinneretteGhetto Love EP has arrived and none too soon for our ears. It seems that ex-Distiller Brody Dalle has been reincarnated as a nightmarish punk burlesque dancer, wrapped in layers of electronic decadence while still maintaining the poignant and fierce lyricism on which she’s built a name. Dead romance, blood mixing with tears, makeup running down one’s face, all wrapped in pleather in a smoky, shady bar corner, that is Spinnerette (our kind of band!). Check the video for “Ghetto Love” below and head here to purchase the new EP (only five bucks people, quite the deal we’d say).
Today we begin our ‘end-of-year’ wrap-ups, mercifully soon so we can get back to the real business of music journalism! Seems like every blog does their “best of’s” around this time so we figured we’d hop onboard, with a few Cannibal Cheerleader touches of course. Our first category…
TOP FIVE LOCAL AUSTIN BANDS
SOUTHERN DRAMA
Whether you interpret this local all-female trio as a wildly imaginative Vaudevillian act or a indie-pop folk band wrapped in old-time mystique one thing’s for certain, Southern Drama is easily the most original and creative act currently playing in Austin and one of our favorites of the year.
With the release of their stellar sophormore LP Pardon Me, Are Those Your Claws in My Back, the Faceless Werewolves have cornered the Austin market on furious blues-rock and garage-punk, cementing themselves as one of the Capital City’s most treasured acts.
Soaring in on a wave of delicated strings and hushed arrangement, Balmorhea has made good use of one short year, finding themselves poised to be the next big thing in neo-classicist cum indie-rock and making it easily onto our 2008 best local band list.
With a fiery carnage matched only by the band’s steadfast determination, Prey For Sleep have brought the brutality back to the Austin metal scene, whipping the small but vengeful community into a fury behind their debut LP and carving a spot into our end of the year list.
Swirling down on a wave of guitar squalls, Ringo Deathstarr single-handedly have revitalized the flagging shoegaze scene in Austin with an MBV-referencing sound and a distinction for being lost in a vortex of white noise, though they managed to find their way onto our top local band list with ease.
With girl-group vocals and shoe-gaze guitars all combined into a surf-rock playing style, the Vivian Girls have proven themselves as a formidable new act through relentless touring, capturing a sound long thought dead and revitalizing a genre with the ease of a reverb pedal.
With a level of delicate instrumentation and unique percussion almost unheard in indie rock, High Places have taken lilting pop ballads into the realm of wild experimentalism and are on the crest of a wave of musicians combining creativity with indelible songwriting abilities.
With a torrent of positive press flying their way after the release of their sophomore LP, the Gaslight Anthem have gone from celebrated underground Jersey punks to acclaimed rock and roll stars all in the course of one short year, due to their combination of lovelorn Springsteen-referencing lyrics and Social Distortion riffs.
Blazing onto the scene on the backs of several fiery singles and EPs, Heartsrevolution took punk-electro to new heights, combining dance-rhythms and electronic whirlings with shrieking vocals and violent imagery, making them one of the most original and exciting acts of the year.
Equal blues rock and female fronted indie-pop, Grand Ole Party deliver fiery vocals and spidery guitar lines in a fierce package of minimalistic garage punk that heralds this trio as an act to watch for years to come.
NEW VIVIAN GIRLS VIDEO Over at Pitchfork today they premiered the first Vivian Girls video for their single “Tell the World” and its every bit as lo-fi and punk quality as the Gals’ sound itself. Featuring junior-level green screen effects and mock seriousness on the part of Cassie and the crew, the video skirts the line between ridiculous and genius oh so well. Watch it below.
INTERVIEW WITH HEARTSREVOLUTION Hey Cannibal Cheerleader faithful, sorry about not updating yesterday, I was busy putting the finishing touches on Issue #2 of the CC zine, the cover of which you can see below! However, on to today’s business, which is a double update to make up for yesterday beginning with an exclusive interview with Lo, Ben, and Kate of Cannibal Cheerleader favorite Heartsrevolution. Here’s a sample:
CC: Tell us about the Heartsrevolution universe. How did it come to be?What’s the Heartschallenger? Lo: heartschallenger is about taking on the things that challenge you. i hated my job..so, i decided to build an ice cream truck because i had dreamt of doing that since i was 15 but everyone told me it would never work.then i realized everyone i knew was stupid and decided to prove everyone wrong. it worked. so, fuck everyone if they are reading this!Ben: Lo made an ice cream truck and I made the music for the truck. We wanted to continue to work together and made music and called it Heartsrevolution. Heartschallenger is the name of our company. The company is a representation of a generation of kids who are creating their own path. There are ice cream trucks that are a part of this world, but they are not called “the heartschallenger”
The rest of the interview can be read below. Heartsrevolution will be playing this thursday at Beauty Bar so make sure you’re there – free copies of the new CC zine will be waiting for you!
Heartsrevolution – “Switchblade” ******************************************************************** M.I.A. SPEAKS ON TERRORIST ACCUSATIONS Having taken several courses on world terrorism in college (and being a music pirate myself, haha) I’m quite familiar with the LTTE, i.e., the Tamil Tigers, a terrorist organization calling for independence in Sri Lanka. While much could be argued to the validity of their claims, the group is most notorious for civilian kidnappings and burning down schools, etc. So what does this have to do with CC fave M.I.A.? Well the London-based Sri-Lankan raised rapper has roots in the LTTE movement, her father being a founder of an off-shoot student-led Tamil organization (his code name was Arular, thus the title of M.I.A.’s first album). Recently, our favorite rapper has come under harsh criticism for being a supporter of the Tamil Tiger a blog to her Myspace. Check it below:
I HAVE JUST ORERED IT SO I HAVENT SEEN IT YET , BUT WITH SO MANY ONE SIDED VIEWS IN THIS WORLD IT IS ONLY FAIR WE STAY EDUCATED AND EXPOSE OURSELVES TO ALL OPINIONS. I WANT TO SEE THIS MOVIE BECAUSE 1. NO ONE HAS EVER ACCESSED THE AREAS THIS FILM WAS MADE IN, AND I ACTUALLY DONT KNOW HOW THESE PEOPLE LIVE.
2. ANY EUROPEAN JOURNALISTS WHO HAVE ACCESSED THIS AREA , WHO INVESTIGATED THE TRUTH, HAVE BEEN SHOT DEAD BY THE GOVERNMENT, IN A BID TO KEEP THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE ONE SIDED .
3. I FOUND THIS STORY http://www.asiantribune.com/?q=node/12934…
READING THE COMMENTS MADE ME WANT TO SPEAK OUT. BUT I WAS DENIED ACESS TO MAKE COMMENTS, ONLY THE WELL CONNECTED INSIDERS ARE ALLOWED TO COMMENT AND THIS IS THE CASE WITH SO MANY OF THESE BLOGS TALKING SHIT ABOUT ME. NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO TELL THE TRUTH, AND SET THE FACTS STRAIGHT. SO HERE IS THE COMMENT I WANTED TO MAKE!
THE TRUTH TO WHY I LEFT TO SRILANKA WAS … A. I COULD , I WAS BORN IN LONDON.
B. EVERY TOWN AND VILLAGE MY MOTHER TOOK US TO WOULD GET BURNED DOWN BY THE ARMY. IN THE END EVEN THE TAMILS WOULDN’T LET US STAY THERE AND AFTER MY SCHOOL WAS SET ON FIRE BY THE ARMY, I HAD NOTHING TO DO THERE, AND WAS REALLY FUCKING BOARD.
C. FUCK YOU TO ALL THESE EVIL PEOPLE TWISTING THE TRUTH. YOU DONT SPEAK FOR ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I CAN SPEAK FOR MY SELF.
D.WHAT PEOPLE NEED TO UNDERSTAND IS THAT YOU DONT HAVE TO BE A TAMIL OR A LTTE SUPPORTER TO KNOW THAT BURNING DOWN A SCHOOL WITH 800 KIDS IN THE NAME OF FIGHTING TERRORISM IS NOT COOL. I AM NOT A LTTE SUPPORTER. I WAS JUST AN 8 YEAR OLD THAT DIDNT GET KILLED ON THAT DAY, THATS ALL. I’M A MUSICIAN WHO DOESNT WANT TO TALK ABOUT THIS AGAIN AND AGAIN, ESPECIALLY IN THE MUSIC PRESS.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR HEARING THIS
EVERYTHING IN ME WAS KILLED BUT MY ART IS NOT DEAD!
i love you xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx m.i.a”
Brush off them haters M.I.A.! Also, start making new material, please!
M.I.A. – “Paper Planes” ******************************************************************** TRYOUTS – TV ON THE RADIO’S DEAR SCIENCE If Brooklyn-based band TV on the Radio’s sophomore LP Return to Cookie Mountain was their experimental take on the modern rock album, Dear Science is their response to modern soul, which this album has in spades. Of course, being a TV on the Radio album one shouldn’t expect any straight-up funk jams or R&B hits, but beneath swirly whirlwinds of David Sitek’s studio trickery lies some of the most naked and heartfelt tunes of the band’s career. While RTCM was a firestorm of bombast and furty, DS is a delicate and hushed wind-swept evening, the perfect soundtrack to biking down a poorly-lit city street at night. Recalling the layered production work of Anywhere I Lay My Head, Sitek’s pet project released earlier this year with Scarlett Johansson, the album swims languidly through sensitive and careful tracks like “Crying” and album standout “Lovedog”. Still, TVOTR do occassionally bring the bounce, albeit with a tender touch, like on excellent opener “Halfway Home” and brilliant single “Golden Age”. The album flows seamlessly and despite early reviews that the record suffered from sameness compared to their older LPs Dear Science stands as a unique and rewarding experience. Definitely makes the team though it may be the nerdy kid who can’t execute a single move but does all the other cheerleaders homework for them.
TV on the Radio – “Halfway Home” TV on the Radio – “Love Dog” ******************************************************************** NEW BLOC PARTY TUNE – “TALONS” Straight off the release of their rushed-to-the-street third album , Bloc Party has released another one-off single from the Intimacy sessions, this one entitled “Talons” and it features all the makings of a great Bloc Party tune. Ingredients include, driving guitars, the requesite Kele Okereke whisper-verse, pummeling Matt Tong drums, and the new electronic soaked underworkings that have come to define the band as of late. Check the single out on their Myspace and buy Intimacy while you’re at it.
Bloc Party – “Halo” ******************************************************************** NEW VIVIAN GIRLS B-SIDE SURFACES
Over at Gorilla Vs. Bear we found a rare b-side for the Vivian Girls that needs to be checked out now. Download it below and make sure and buy these girls’ self-titled debut when it becomes available. More info at their website here.
The Vivian Girls – “My Baby Wants Me Dead” ******************************************************************** FREE RAVEONETTES EP Apparently if you head on over to the Vice Records site you can download a free three-song EP from the Raveonettes which remixes three songs (”Dead Sound”, “Aly, Walk With Me”, and “Lust”) and somehow manages to make these excellent tunes awesome in a different way. Head over there now!
From our office to your hands, from the computer screen to your subway car, the Cannibal Cheerleader zine Issue #2 is out, and it features complete interview with the Vivian Girls, Heartsrevolution, the Action Design, Ponytail, Treasure Mammal, Fight Bite, and more! Pick up yours today here in Austin at locations around town (Waterloo Records, Sound On Sound Records, MonkeyWrench Books to name a few) or just email me if you’d like a copy! We’ll of course have to do an exchange of some sort, so offer me something good, like a cool band recommendation or pictures from an upcoming show. You’ll get your hand on one of these bad boys if you do! Email me at cannibalcheerleader@gmail.com. ******************************************************************** HEARTSREVOLUTION INTERVIEW CONT’D Here’s the remainder of our exclusive Heartsrevolution interview. Bonus questions will only be available in the form of our Cannibal Cheerleader zine, so pick one up to get the whole interview!
CC:How would you describe your music? An amalgamation of electro and rock? Techno? Undefined?Ben:We have a bunch of songs that I think sound pretty different, but they are electronic, pop, punk.Lo: i hate the word electro..and i am pretty sure i don’t like electro music.i hate the word techno..it makes me think of kids who are sucking on pacifiers w/ those weird kanye west shadesCC: How important is the visual aspect to the Heartsrevolution world? Should fans consider their experience incomplete unless they see you live? Ben: It’s super important. The visual aspect of heartschallenger plays a big role here and this actually preceded the music. Sometimes it’s frustrating to not have the means to make the visual aspect known. We have so many specific ideas whether it’s videos, live show, etc. Like, we don’t know how to use photoshop. Luckily we have some close friends that are involved though and help us get things done. Lo: god is in the details.it is important to me to create things that are a reflection of the things that make me want to wake up in the morning.. CC: What’s your live show like for the uninitiated?Ben: A technicolor light up disco floor w/ mosh pit. Or at least it will be!Kate: The live show is where I come into the band, I joined after working with the band on the first record. It seemed right, I wanted to start working in moving image and to push the idea of a visual representation for the music to another level completely. I think a fully considered performance is what the viewers and listeners deserve. People don’t just come to hear the music, they want to see and absorb everything, and we strive to improve and make that the most exciting experience possible.CC: You recently had a split EP with Crystal Castles and it would seem that your two groups are at the forefront of a new musical movement. Do you feel your music is innovative in this way? Lo: cc make great music which is why i wanted to do something with them in the first place.. a friend that worked at vice magazine in the uk told me about them and suggested we do a split. but they are liars and i would love to have it out with them..i am sure that day isn’t far away. our paths will cross and it will come down to a blind folded knife fight…because i am an unforgiving scorpio. other than the fact that “alice” and i both have vaginas…and ben and “ethan” both have penises there isn’t really much else we have in common.CC: Do you identify with Crystal Castles and how has their success affected you?Lo: i love and believe in a lot of what “alice” says. she is a great writer. most people that ask me about them don’t even understand what she is saying..i think that is funny. and their most popular song bugs the fuck out of me…i don’t like crimewave at all. i can still remember 2 years ago “ethan” singing it at cmj /fort fader party…i guess it’s much better having her lip sing it.CC: What bands most influence you? Lo: sonic youth, nirvana…a bunch of the riot grrrl bands i listened to growing up..like bikini kill, comet gain, huggy bear.i used to work at an all age club called jabberjaw when i was 14 and would put on shows..that place was magical and i got to experience this tiny glitch in time that i probably wouldn’t have if i was still in school and going to bed by 9pm.Ben: Everything that I’ve listened to does. It could be bowie or the strokes or daft punk or the beatles or young mc or so many others.CC: What acts are you listening to right now? Lo: i don’t really like most music.one of our songs…called teenage teardrops, we are doing the vocals this week and i have had it on repeat.when i need a break i listen to the sads. they are brilliant and are a good place to go to clear my head.CC: Favorite songs (both ones you listen to and ones you’ve done)?Lo: smells like teen spirit.Ben: Stop in the name of love, the sound of silence, today was a good day, private eyes, she said she said, let the good times roll, young americans, liquid swordsCC: What does the future hold for Heartsrevolution?Lo: collaborations and touring the world in the ice cream trucks so that kids everywhere experience this thing we have built.CC: Can we expect a full-length soon? More EPs?Lo: Yes, both! Full length early 2009.. Switchblade Ep out on iheartcomix Oct 21st. Switchblade remix single on iheartcomix…release date: TBA but i think in Nov.http://www.myspace.com/iheartcomixWe have one of our tracks. “ultraviolence” out on the next Kitsune comp in Oct.http://www.myspace.com/maisonkitsune, split 7″ symbolonehttp://www.myspace.com/symbolonethe split w/ symbolone is going to be limited edition and self released but it is top secret!you will have to check our myspace for detailshttp://www.myspace.com/heartsrevolutionKate: Much more to come, total world domination!!!
INTERVIEW WITH VIVIAN GIRLS Recently here at Cannibal Cheerleader we had the opportunity to conduct an interview with one of our favorite new bands of the year Vivian Girls. Having not only created a firestorm of press with their sold-out debut and girl-group meets shoegaze sound, the Girls’ star seems to be shining brighter and shooting farther with each passing day as they plan on opening for Sonic Youth this weekend in New York. We caught up with the trio via email and here’s what they had to say:
CC: Describe to us the Vivian Girls story. How did you come together as a group and what spurred you on to create this type of music?
Cassie: Vivian Girls began when me and Frankie (our old drummer) were eating brunch at a Mexican restaurant and decided to start a band. We had a few practices and still needed a bass player, so I asked Katy (one of my best friends from high school) if she wanted to join. Our original goal was to be a fast yet melodic punk band. At one of our early shows someone said we sounded like Black Tambourine – so we checked ‘em out and thought they were sweet. That’s when we added the reverb.
More of the interview printed at the end of this post. Give a listen to a song off the Vivian Girls’ self-titled debut below.
Vivian Girls – “Where Do You Run To” ******************************************************************** VIVIAN GIRLS VIDEOS We’ve only recently come up the Vivian Girls’ blog but it’s the number one source for VG news and videos. Speaking of which, here are two fantastic videos from the blog, reposted here for your viewing pleasure. Check it!
Rad stuff girls! ******************************************************************** RINGO DEATHSTARR REVEAL NEW TUNES One of our favorite local acts Ringo Deathstarr have recently stuck two new tunes (”In Love” and “Summer Time”) up on their Myspace and if they’re any indication of the upcoming material that the shoegazing quartet has in store for us, than this might just be the Austin band of the millennium. Seriously, the riffs on “In Love” are phenomenal and the dream-like quality of “Summer Time” reminds of a fuzz-filled musical heyday. Definitely go over and check them out. They play this Saturday at Emo’s, so don’t miss it!
Ringo Deathstarr – “Down On You” ******************************************************************** VIVIAN GIRLS INTERVIEW CONT’D Here’s the rest of our interview with NYC’s Vivian Girls. Enjoy!
CC: How would you describe your sound? Lots of terms are thrown around, from ‘ramshackle punk’ to ’shoegaze’, from ‘lo-fi’ to ‘girl-group’ and everything in-between. Do people have a hard time pinning you down? How would you categorize your music?
Cassie: I think of our music as a big mashup of everything we’re into – which includes every genre you mentioned above. It seems like people can apply our music to whatever kinda stuff they’re into, cause we’ve been called everything from “street rock” to “singalong twee” (barf) to “short songs that tread into psych and drone.” We’ve also been compared to every band with a female singer ever. On our Myspace we list ourselves as Punk / Shoegaze / Surf and that’s how I’d like to describe our sound.
CC: What’s your artistic process? How do the songs come about and how do you collaborate with each other?
Cassie: Our songs are usually written in one of two ways. Either I’ll write a song by myself and then the rest of a band will fill it out, or someone else writes a bassline and then we all work together on making it a song.
CC: Your sound seems equal parts carefully-crafted and wild and free. How much thought goes into this dynamic? Does this come through live or is it a product of studio-recording? Describe to us a little bit about your live show.
Cassie: It’s definitely a little bit of both. We try to pay a lot of attention to the levels of our reverb and amps and stuff, but none of us are pro musicians. Our live show is sometimes really chaotic because reverb and PA’s don’t get along, but whatever, we always have fun! Katy: We are still working on our live sound. Due to the reverb, sometimes the vocals are too soft.
CC: Your rise to indie-rock fame (whatever that might be) has been pretty meteoric. Your self-titled LP is notorious for selling out its first printing and being sold for hundreds on ebay. At the end of the month you’re opening for Sonic Youth. How do you respond to all the press you’re receiving? What do you attribute the increased attention to?
Katy: I think our success was pretty random. I can’t attribute it to any one thing that we did. We are just really into what we’re doing, and I think other people can pick up on that. Cassie: I think it’s mostly just being at the right place at the right time kinda thing. We never really wanted all this attention but we’re stoked. I don’t think my life has ever been any better. Whenever we read a positive review of ourselves we high five and then go sit in the park and watch dogs. It rules.
CC: What are some of your favorite bands of the moment? What are your influences? What are some of your favorite songs (both songs you listen to and songs you’ve made)?
Cassie: Our favorite current bands are Yellow Fever, Cause Co-Motion, Titus Andronicus, Woods, and Abe Vigoda, to name a few. Our biggest influences are definitely Burt Bacharach and the Wipers and Nirvana and like every good pop song from the 60’s and 70’s. ELO’s “Turn to Stone” and Stevie Wonder’s “My Cherie Amour” are two songs I’ve been listening to a lot lately. “Tell The World” and “Never See Me Again” are probably my favorite Vivian Girls songs. Katy: I also love all of those bands. My current favorite songs are “Saturday Night” by the Bay City Rollers and “Make it easy on yourself” by Burt Bacharach. My favorite VG songs are “Surfin’ Away” and “Going Insane”. We only wrote “Surfin’ Away” a month ago.
CC: Is it harder for an all-girl band to make it in today’s indie-rock community? Have you had any difficulties or come into any problems because your group is all female? How do you identify with other all girl groups, like riot grrrls?
Cassie: Riot grrrl, I think was a really important movement at the time and something that needed to happen. At the time the scene was a lot more aggro and male dominated. But from my personal experience of being in an all-female band today, we’ve actually found it surprisingly easy. Even though most of the bands we play with are mostly guys, we’ve encountered little to no sexism at our shows and dealing with people. The only instances in which people like to hate on the fact that we’re women is on certain blogs and message boards, but whatever, we don’t care. That’s why we have an appreciation for the original riot grrrl movement but new riot grrrl bands starting today just seem kinda dated.
CC: Have you as a band ‘made it’? What is it to ‘make it’ as a band? How can one aspire to achieve the sort of fame your band has?
Cassie: I have no idea if we’ve made it or not. I guess by now I’ve achieved a lot of my dreams, which were pretty small to begin with: just stuff like going on tour and putting out a record and having people be into a band I’m in. Things like having our record go on eBay for $100 and openning for Sonic Youth are just cool bonuses. So yeah, I guess I feel like we’ve “made it” but there are a lot of people who view “making it” as having a million dollars and a tour bus and the best gear. I also think that the “fame” we have is a really crazy combination of hard work and luck. Like me and Katy both almost failed our last semester of college cause we were so busy doing Vivian Girls stuff all the time. And we’re really lucky to have so many awesome friends who wanted to put out our records and book sweet shows for us. Katy: “Making it” is definitely a relative term. In my eyes, “making it” as a band is having the ability to do things you want to do. For example, we are starting up a project of recording and releasing our own 7″. This is something that I’ve always wanted to do, and I feel like because there are a number of people out there who are interested in our music, we can finally go ahead and do it without losing tons of money.
CC: The Vivian Girls tour seems near endless – what’s your favorite part about playing on the road? Your least favorite part?
Cassie: Best part about touring, is obviously getting to go everywhere – but not only do you get to travel, you also have automatic friends in every city who know where all the cool stuff is, and you’re at a fun show every night. We are like touring machines. We love it. My least favorite part is sometimes you end up staying at houses with less than desirable sleeping situations, like houses with fleas or houses with only one couch and everyone else has to sleep on a hardwood floor. Katy: I really like that point on tour when you don’t know what day of the week it is anymore, because every night is saturday night.
CC: What’s your fanbase like? How have the crowds at your shows changed as you’ve garnered more press and notoreity? Do you have any plans about what you’re going to play/do when you open for Sonic Youth?
Cassie: Our fanbase is made up primarily of record collectors and hot dudes. Seriously, it rules. It’s hard to say about the crowds at shows because we play so many different kinds of shows. Generally, the shows are the same as always, our friends are always there and it’s awesome. When we open for Sonic Youth we’re just gonna try to slay on our axes as hard as possible. Ya know? Katy: We just played a show this past week, and I noticed that the crowd there was more diverse than usual. It wasn’t just the one group of friends that we are used to, it was a lot of people who didn’t seem to know each other very well. I like bringing people together who might have never met otherwise. Also, I refuse to sleep until I know of at least one couple who met at one of our shows.
BE YOUR OWN PET BREAK UP Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! According to varioussources and the band’s own website, Cannibal Cheerleader favorite Be Your Own Pet are calling it quits! This comes after some admittedly rocky times in the band’s existence, what with the cancellation of the group’s Warped Tour dates to the censoring of three tracks off their sophomore LP Get Awkward (which of course were only released in the US later on the EPGet Damaged). This shocking announcement from the band reads:
“To all of our fans,
We are sad to bring you the news that our upcoming shows in the UK (dates below) are going to be our last as a band. We thank you for all your love and support these past few years – its been a blast but the time has come for the 4 of us to go our separate ways.”
Incredible stuff it seems and unbelievably disappointing. However, we here at Cannibal Cheerleader count ourselves as lucky because we were able to experience and celebrate the band live multiple times. In celebration of this fantastic band we bring you our top five favorite BYOP tracks of all time (read below) and a special essay at the bottom of this update chronicling the meteoric rise of this unbelievable punk act. Godspeed you kids, we know you’ll pop up soon in some other form.
5. Be Your Own Pet – “Becky” 4. Be Your Own Pet – “October, First Account” 3. Be Your Own Pet – “Black Hole” 2. Be Your Own Pet – “Hillmont Avenue” 1. Be Your Own Pet – “Girls on TV” ******************************************************************** THE VIVIAN GIRLS PREP NEW SINGLE With a tear in our eye we nonetheless forge ahead with other music news, as one of our favorite new acts the Vivian Girls have announced their first single from their self-titled debut, “Where Do You Run To”, which combines all the things we love about these ladies – their girl-group vocal trade-offs, their ramshackle and layered guitarwork, and their surfer-chic groovy vibe. Check it out below and tell us what you think!
The Vivian Girls – “Where Do You Run To” ******************************************************************** NEW BAND CHEER: THE GRATES We’ve known about the Grates for a few years now, ever since they popped onto the radar with their first LP Gravity Won’t Get You High. However, they’ve recently exploded to the forefront with their newest release Teeth Lost, Hearts Won, and it takes the patented Grates sound and pushes it into swirly new territory. The group, a trio from Australia, essentially fills the void left empty by no new Yeah Yeah Yeahs releases, what with their female lead singer, and combo guitarist and drummer rounding out the band. However, lead singer Patience Hodgson brings a unique vocal bratiness to the table and the instrumentation tends to lean towards a pop sensibility with handclaps and shout-answer choruses in place of arty guitar breakdowns. If the YYYs are rip-snarl, the Grates are kiss-backstab: just a little bit of popster-sweetness with a bloody rock tip. Here are some tracks to feed your hunger.
The Grates – “Burn Bridges” The Grates – “Storms and Fevers” ******************************************************************** TERROR THURSDAY: PRISON Oh ViggoMortensen, you steal our hearts everytime. For lack of a better description, this week’s Terror Thursday feature of Prison was horribly satisfying. Featuring several solid barbed-wire kills, enough gore to make the theater floor sticky, and our favorite hobbit-helper in his first ever starring role, Prison delivers on its simple premise and easily grabs four out of five bloody pon-poms from us. Go rent it! ******************************************************************** BE YOUR OWN PET ESSAY Here’s our special Be Your Own Pet essay written specifically for our Cannibal Cheerleader zine (out next week all around Austin!). We were gonna make it zine exclusive but given today’s sad BYOP developments we’re releasing it now. Comment people and enjoy!
While doubtless may be punk’s indelible spirit of cavalier attitudes and ramshackle musicality, pinning down the exactitudes and definitions of the genre in an admittedly gray area like rock music can at best be described as difficult given the myriad of styles present in the modern scene. Punk, for better or for worse, has been mixed, misshapen, turned, torn, revitalized, revived, and reborn innumerable times under an infinite number of monikers, effectively declaring the word, in its original use, null and void. However, let it be known Nashville’s Be your Own Pet are punk rock. Not pop-punk, not emo, not post-punk, or punk-retro, or what have you. Be Your Own Pet are Buzzcocks punk rock, Sex Pistols punk rock, phoenix from the ashes of punk rock, so punk rock as to remind us what we were missing that whole time punk was trying to change it up, not realizing it had a good thing the whole time. Fronted by spazztasticJemina Pearl and populated by a ragtag band of high-school-aged losers and vagrants, Be Your Own Pet and their library of fuzzy, fury-filled tracks fit just as well into the aesthetic of ’77 as any of the best bands from that era, and their penchant for artistic reference and an intelligently formed sound draw strong correlations to the Situationist movement that inspired the likes of Malcolm McClarren in punk’s heyday. The poem “Kubla Khan” speaks to the unfettered beauty of the written word, with it alliterative prose and inspiring language, and so it seems fitting that Be Your Own Pet would title the first song on their first album, “Thresher’s Flail”, after a line in the masterwork, given the foursome’s adherence to punk inspiration and naked rock ambition. Perhaps most refreshing about the group is its talent for making an admittedly basic set of riffs and hooks sound so unbelievably original and creative, speaking to both the watered-down weakness of modern punk and the firm musical foundation that the punk genre is built upon. Be Your Own Pet have seemingly managed to recapture the essence of what made punk great in the first place, and they’ve done so without sounding derivative or unoriginal but instead blazing forth with a newfound sound that utilizes rudimentary instrumentation, begets virtuosity, and replaces it with energy and a powerful delivery. The earliest of punk groups were populated by artists and poets, art school dropouts and UK record store owners. This Nashville foursome, heirs to families well-entrenched in their local independent music scene and blessed with more smarts than guitar-licks, began the Be Your Own Pet odyssey with some limited 7’’s, such as the excellent Damn Damn Leash before they landed in the lap of one Thurston Moore, who was quick to identify their youthful exhuberance as a sign of artistic integrity. With the release of Be Your Own Pet, the group’s self-title debut, press began to take notice, most notably with the age of the performers, all under 21 and most still in high-school, and the quality of music they’d amassed in their short lives. Strangely it might seem that to be young is a detriment when it comes to creativity, that somehow the more information taken in the more creative the output. However, there still remains much to be said about he influence of less influence, how a band might come to be in a bubble, how the youthful naiveté of a band like Be Your Own Pet might translate into a wildly creative force, given their unspoiled psyches. America’s culture seems obsessed with disenfranchising one of their most important and intelligent assets, that of men and women under the age of 18 or 21, believing that arbitrary numbers determine level of maturity or capability in today’s modern world. Kids fight the wars, make the changes, clean up the shit, so it would only make sense that the most outspoken and unhinged art forms come from the youth as well, and Be Your Own Pet is a prime example of this, culminating in their sophomore album Get Awkward, a seeming concept album about the reality of high school life and the mixture of maturity and madness in which adolescents live. With tracks bouncing between the subjects of knifing your best friend to blowing your brains out in a rage, Get Awkward remains a spectacular testament to the violence of youth, all the while celebrating the silliness of the mundane and the humdrum, obsessing over a breakup in “Creepy Crawl” and cheating on a lover in “Twisted Nerve”. However the crowning achievement of Get Awkward might just be the track “Food Fight” which summates the BYOP world perfectly, a combination of innocent youthful expression, violent outburst, and Situationist-referencing social commentary. The boredom and resulting expression of a nation’s young is reflective of a world of convenience become a world of sameness, and the signal of the food fight, a much storied and even cliche action, becomes a tirade against the norm in the hands of Be Your Own Pet. BYOP break convention at every turn, whether it be with rhyming structure, song length, lyrical content, or even stage presence. The simplicity in which the Nashville foursome approach their music comes across as a furious whirlwind of rawness in live form, with guitars crunching out wall-of-sound, atonal chunks of power over the heads of an astonished and often confused audience. Indeed, this often marks BYOP shows, a level of nervousness and tepidness in an otherwise engaged audience, many of whom seem shocked at the level of intensity presented before them. The approved ‘metal-head’ signals, the ‘now would be okay to mosh’ signs are not present but the music feels fast and hard. The crowd seems pretty evenly mixed in terms of sex and race and the jock machismo of modern punk bands seems mysteriously absent, replaced by hipster hesitation. Therefore, at a Be your Own pt show one can expect to be filled with an unquenchable thirst to spaz about as peers all around refuse to move for fear of being the only one to have read the signals of the moment wrong. Clearly though Jemina Pearl and co. delight in their audiences’ surprise, playing to their shocked sentiments with vomiting on stage and guitar juggling antics. The level of disconnect between audience and band reflects the forward-thinking musicality of BYOP as well as the regressive state of modern punk music. This isn’t packaged punk, punk rock made by the companies buying and selling rebellion, this is out and out revolution in simple form. Not revolution with guns and knives and blood and anarchy, but loud guitars and frenetic shrieks. BYOP stand atop a precipice of punk and are at the helm of a zeitgeist in the musical movement, championing a real return to form long since promised but rarely delivered upon, and they’ve done so by returning to the ethos of original punk while refusing to cheaply mimic their sound. In the battle against corporate rock, waging war on Warped, Be Your Own Pet lead the charge and we here at Cannibal Cheerleader are throwing all of weight behind them.
Our old pal Annie Hardy of our favorite shoegazey solo-act Giant Drag has been staying busy, what with recording her new Swan Song EP and all (by the way check out the new version of “Swan Song” up on the band’s Myspace, it’s absolutely haunting and gorgeous). Recently Annie
hooked up with Joe from the Icarus Line to perform a DJ set under the moniker Mister and Misses Howl, which will hopefully speak to more collaborations between the two bands soon.
Additionally Giant Drag have added their new song “Stuff to Live For” to a short film by photographer Bella Howard which you can check out at this website. We’re waiting with bated
breath for Annie’s new EP, so remember to buy stuff from her Ebay Store so she has the money to put it out already!
Local chamber-poppers Southern Drama are playing the Beauty Bar here in the ATX Monday July 21st with fellow awesome Austinites Death Is Not A Joyride. Definitely go and check these ladies out, their music is killer! Check out this music video for a taste of their tracks.
Speaking of killer, last night’s Terror Thursday featured one of the most gruesome and satisfying flicks to date: Return of the Aliens: The Deadly Spawn is an old fashioned monster movie gorefest, complete with slimy, non-CGI creatures, decapitations, face-ripping,
explosions, and chewed-up grandmothers. Near perfection in my book, definitely deserving of four and a half out of five bloody pon-poms. Check out this unbelievably cool trailer if you don’t believe the hype about this movie – go rent it NOW. ******************************************************************** VIVIAN GIRLS REVEAL NEW 7″
We can’t seem to get enough of the infectious Vivian Girls here at Cannibal Cheerleader, and with good reason as their jangly, whispery rock is as unique as it is listenable. The Girls have put up a new track entitled “I Can’t Stay” up on their Myspace, and it’s not on the streets until September on vinyl so this is the last bone we’re being thrown for a while. Also their sold out self-titled debut is getting a re-release in the fall, good news for those of us who didn’t hear about these ladies until too late! Here’s a jam to spin this weekend.
MARNIE STERN REVEALS NEW ALBUM DETAILS Just when it seems that’s the world’s indie-rock guitarists, content with swirly rhythms and rudimentary string-plucking, Marnie Stern is back to teach these kids how to shred. That’s right, the greatest guitarist of modern indie rock is back with her second album called (bear with me now) This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That and it’s out Oct. 7th on Kill Rock Stars. If this album’s anything like her last effort, In Advance of the Broken Arm, listeners are in for a real tour-de-force of intricate guitarwork, but according to this Pitchfork article Stern’s prodigious instrumental mastery will be worked more fluidly into her song structures, creating perhaps a more pop-oriented album. Fine with us, can’t wait to hear some tracks! Here’s the tracklist:
01 Prime 02 Transformer 03 Shea Stadium 04 Ruler 05 The Crippled Jazzer 06 Steely 07 The Package Is Wrapped 08 Simon Says 09 Vault 10 Clone Cycle 11 Roads? Where We’re Going We Don’t Need Roads 12 The Devil’s in the Details
Marnie Stern – “Precious Metal” ******************************************************************** NEW MODEST MOUSE SONG – “SATELLITE SKIN” Apparently the Modest Mouse crew have been shopping this song called “Satellite Skin” around for a while. Heck, supposedly it’s even going to be on their upcoming as of yet untitled EP. Still, sounds like a real crowd-pleaser and rocks with the same inspired poetry MM is famous for. Check it below.
******************************************************************** NEW BAND CHEER: VIVIAN GIRLS We’ve been hearing about these girls for a while, from Brooklyn Vegan to Gorilla Vs. Bear and back again, but at Cannibal Cheerleader we usually reserve judgment until we’ve heard a full-length from a band and give them the opportunity to expand a unique sound into a whole album. Well color us impressed because the Vivian Girls more than deliver on their self-titled debut, ripping through ten lo-fi classics that scream equal parts indie rock sing-a-long, wall-of-sound guitarwork, and spacey, surfy atmospherics all around. Clocking in at just over 20 minutes the Girls have a knack for succinctness and directness, never overstaying their welcome but bringing the goods to each and every track. We’ll be watching these ladies closely and hope to have them swing back through the ATX soon!
Vivian Girls – “All The Time” ******************************************************************** WHY? TOUR SWINGS THROUGH AUSTIN An act that’s receiving as much acclaim in my close circle of friends as it is on the blogosphere, WHY? will be swinging back down through Austin on their latest tour. Watch for them on Sept. 8th at Mohawk playing in support of their excellent new LP Alopecia. This is one band that’s definitely going places.
WHY? – “The Hollows” ******************************************************************** BODIES OF WATER HAPPENINGS Bodies of Water just posted a massive Myspace bulletin that explains all the current goings-on of the band. I’ll post the full text below but to summarize: original drummer Jessie Conklin is quitting and will be replaced by two Texans, the band is selling their new LP A Certain Feeling on CD and vinyl, they’re about to begin a continent-covering tour, they’re making a music video, and hey look, free posters! Yikes! That’s a lot to digest, so read the following at your leisure. Let the good times roll you BoW workaholics!
“Hey guys – We recently sent this update out to our email list, but many of you may not be on it. If you’d like to be, send an email to mail@bodiesofwater.net and say that you’d like to be and then you will be.
This is what has been happening to us, and what is about to happen.
There are six things:
1. We have made a record called ‘A Certain Feeling’ that will be available to the public on July 22nd. The Secretly Canadian company is putting it out, and they are offering to sell it to you in advance of the release. They have CDs and vinyl records, and if you buy the vinyl you get a download code so that you can put it on your computer or some other little music playing machine. ALSO, they send you a poster if you buy something. Here is where you go to do it: http://www. scdistribution. com/cat/scd_catalog. php?usersearch=Bodies%20Of%20Water&pagerequest=
2. We are celebrating the release of this record by playing a show at the Echo on Thursday July 17th. Seasons and the Henry Clay People will be joining us that night. It costs 8 dollars, but if you want to only pay 5 dollars, tell us in an email and you will be added to a cheap list.
3. This show on the 17th will, sadly, be the last one that our beloved Jessie will play with us. Why? Because she decided a little while ago that the rock and roll lifestyle was not the kind she wanted to devote herself to. It can be an arduous one, and is certainly not for everyone! We’re, naturally, very sad about this. Her singing, drumming, and personal charms will be sorely missed. Her too-large shoes will be filled for now by two pairs of our friends’ feet; Jamie Pitts will drum to our songs, and Julie Carpenter will sing and play the guitar and violin. They are both from Texas.
4. In a month we are leaving to travel around the nation (and Canada) playing music in certain cities. There is a little map attached to this that shows you where and when we’ll be in those certain cities. We will try to put on a good show in all of them – it is important to us that people feel that they get their money’s worth. I am serious about this.
5. If you live in Los Angeles, it will be fun for you to look at the current issue of the L.A. Record magazine. There is a large poster in it depicting us pretending to be the Talking Heads. Have you seen the record ‘More Songs About Building & Food?’ We imitated it. I attached a picture of the poster to this bulletin so that you can look at how it is. The real poster is more monumental – it is 2 ft x 3 ft. The guy from L.A. Record took photos of us, and David collaged them together. There is an interview and some other pictures of us in there, too. It is free, so you WILL get your money’s worth if you seek this thing out.
6. We are in the midst of making a music video. I don’t know why I’m even telling you about this. It won’t be done for a while – You’ll see it when you see it. Anyhow, we will be cramming it through that tiny “pipeline” into your home or place of business via youtube and stuff. The themes of this video are: violence, dogs, nature, supernature, architecture, and lye. I know you are thinking “Great, another lye-themed video. Why do they even bother?” And I know what you mean; sometimes I ask myself the same thing.
EXTRA – We’re probably going to play in England, Germany, and France in October. We will pass along more details as we learn them.
