ALEATORY #23: Japancakes

Though he's said it here before, Davecat feels it's worth repeating: a band's name can make all the difference. If you've got a stupid name, people are going to be less likely to seek out and listen to your music, however great it is. However, if your name is as awesome as Athens, Georgia group Japancakes, your music practically sells itself. Knowing nothing about their 2001 album The Sleepy Strange, Davecat picked it up at the record store based on name alone and has been hooked ever since. Their most recent album, 2007's Loveless, is an full-length, song-for-song cover of My Bloody Valentine's classic shoegaze album, interpreted in their beautiful instrumental style with shimmery guitar, pedal steel, and cello. Brant Rackley, Japancakes' drummer, took the time to speak with us last month, and we are honored to have one of our favorite bands as our 23rd Aleatory.

+++

7. Favorite composer?

I'm assuming for classical? If so, I'd say Bach. I remember the first time I heard Cantata No. 140 (Sleepers Wake). It's still stuck in my head. Something about the way the strings float around is amazing. It would be a good song to cover and make our own. Heather and Neff could work some magic on that one. As far as modern composers, I'd have to say Brian Eno. He just makes interesting music. I think I listened to Music for Airports for a year straight. Sometimes it's best to hear the music that's not there.

8. Favorite author?/Favorite book?

I can't sit still long enough to read much, classic ADHD stuff. I do like reading David Sedaris books. His stories are hilarious. Being able to be that honest about family and yourself is quite a feat. I need the number of his therapist. Favorite book(s), All the President's Men, any Dr. Suess, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. I have two kids, so most of my reading these days consists of children's books. I'm a big fan of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

9. Favorite song to start (or end) a mixtape with?

Starting song is a toss up between R.E.M. "Harborcoat" and Stevie Wonder "Living for the City". Ending song is toss up between Aretha Franklin "Ain't No Way" and Superchunk "Hyper Enough", the first one makes you long for more, and the second gets you all jacked up and ready to go do something.

15. Favorite exhibit or subject at the museum?

Andy Goldsworthy exhibit. He makes some of the coolest art I've ever seen. The patience that guy has is insane. If you've never seen his work I would highly recommend checking it out. Also, watch "Rivers and Tides", it's a documentary about him and his work. I can't really explain it without sounding like a babbling idiot, but to me it's simple and familiar in an awesome and completely foreign way?

18. Favorite pick-up line?

Do you know of anything that will get blood out of a clownsuit?
I'm married...it worked once.

21. Favorite album(s) from the past year?

I liked:

• Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago. Very stripped down simple record, totally full though.
• TV on the Radio - Dear Science. These dudes simply do some cool stuff with music.
• David Byrne and Brian Eno - Everything that Happens will Happen Today. This record feels good. Picking out all the little loops, blips, and blurbs in this is amusing to me.
• Girl Talk - Feed The Animals. Listening to this is like playing Musical Jeopardy. Very creative. Although I can't listen to it too much.

26. Favorite badass?

Inspector Jacques Clouseau. Every since I was a kid I wanted to be this guy. I got a thing for the bumbling detective.

27. Favorite chord/chord progression?

I got nothing for you on this one. I deal in simplicity, you know, pick up drumstick-hit drum.

28. What instrument would you most like to learn to play?

Piano, or anything other than drums really, but mostly piano.

29. Who do you wish more people were listening to?

Globally? Each other. Musically? Japancakes, every little bit helps.

32. Best thing you learned this week/month?

That the kind of UFO's that exist in my daughter's world, are fart-powered and they are only interested in collecting human underpants. She's a genius.

35. What's the best place you've randomly discovered while on tour?

We played some shows in France for the Sleepy Strange album. We were in Paris for a few days of the tour and there was a chocolate shop down the street from our hotel that was fucking great. I think it was a mother and daughter who owned/ran it. Every time we would go in there they would let us try all the new chocolates for the day. If you could marry a chocolate shop, I would. It just so happens that we also randomly discovered that Paris is the best place to; have your bass player step in dog shit (aprrox. 3-4 times in one day), chocolate bars filled with liquor, and one of the most hilarious clown paintings of all time.

41. If you could go anywhere in the universe, where would it be?

Where ever those UFO's my daughter draws are from. That place has got to be hilarious.

47. Biggest fear?

Although it's not very likely, being trapped under ice. That would be fucking terrifying, especially if you could see someone trying to help you. Realistically, something happening to my kids. I tend to freak out a little bit whenever I have to back out of my driveway. I have this horrible feeling that I'm going to back over one of my kids.

51. What are you currently obsessed with?

Gummy Coke Bottles. Fucking delicious.

52. At what point did you realize that music was going to be your full-time occupation?

This question doesn't apply to me. I only pretend it's my full-time job. Over-thinking and under-doing is my full-time occupation.

66. Worst song you've heard recently?

Anything by Kid Rock or Katy Perry. I appreciate "what" they do and they're obviously hard workers. I just don't get it. However, Jimmy Buffet is my least favorite ever, of all time, ever.

68. Favorite interview you've ever been a part of (aside from this one, obviously)?

We were interviewed in a van, in a parking lot on the Seine in Paris. It was cold, crowded, and hilarious.

69. There's got to be one: who has been your craziest fan?

Two come to mind. There was a guy in France who heckled the shit out of us. It was insanely funny though because he just spouted out the only bad words he knew in English. He'd yell stuff like "monkey shit" "I shit on your piss" "I suck your piss" Really funny, then he stumbled outside while we were loading up and knocked over a mirror I bought over there and broke it. Douchebag.

The other dude was in Athens. He hopped up on stage in a green monkey costume and just started playing the harmonica into the mic. Everyone in the band thought he knew one of us and it was just a friend having some fun. Turned out to be some random fan who thought his terrible harmonica playing would be a nice addition to our music. Again, total douchebag.

88. What's your deepest source for musical inspiration?

People trying. Hard to explain. I like to see people trying. Just anything. Something new, kids learning to walk, problem solving and determination type stuff.

+++

Visit Japancakes' website.

ALEATORY #21: dj BC

Mashup King? America's favorite DJ? A man who is just grateful to do what he loves on a regular basis?

It's hard to come up with a good title for Bob Cronin (although he's more affectionately known as DJ BC). Yet Mashup King isn't a bad start. As the post-millenial craze of musical MP3 mashups was gradually turning into a ceritifed phenomenon, it was DJ BC who quietly began leading the pack with some innovative, controversy-stirring releases, starting with "The Beastles" (a famed Beatles/Beastie Boys mashup album) and -- shortly thereafter -- the innovative Glassbreaks release, wherein rap artists found their words mixed in with beats created solely from Philip Glass samples. Though both projects have long been unavailable, this hasn't stopped Bob from becoming one of the most notable mashup DJs this side of Girl Talk, and his latest release -- a fully-legit remix collaboration with Big D & the Kids Table -- has even given him some rock cred as well. Now of course, comes his greatest challenge: mixing and matching up some answers with the latest Globecat Aleatory, here talking about his desire to play the piano, being disappointed by Freddie Hubbard, and, of course, the sexiest thing about him.

+++

5. Favorite piece of equipment?

Pioneer CDJ 1000's (X 2) . These babies allow scratching and turntable-type manipulation of CDs (and hence any digital sound I can burn to Cd) which means the world to someone who works with CDs rather than vinyl. I also find them much easier to work with than vinyl on many levels. And they do more. Speed up with no pitch change ftw! (this is where I get endorsed by Pioneer and get free gear).

12. Favorite band when you were in high school?

The Replacements! I loved 'em. I was trying to be a punk rock type, generally. I liked gothy, punky, skater-y bands. The Cure, The Sex Pistols, Ramones, Bowie, The Smiths, The Clash, that sort of thing. But the 'mats were probably the top. I also was WAY into 60's music, like Led Zep, The Doors, The Beatles, CSNY, The Byrds, and so forth.

13. Favorite Shakespearean play?

Probably Hamlet? That's the one I remember the best. And it has ghosts. This is a strange question to ask a DJ.

19. Favorite foreign film?

Withnail and I. It's British, so perhaps not as foreign as some other choices. But it is truly wonderful and a cult classic in Britain. All Americans should watch it. Use the subtitles or turn it up, those muttering Brits are brutal to understand.

28. What instrument would you most like to learn to play?

Piano.

29. Who do you wish more people were listening to?

Me, and Big D and The Kids Table. We deserve massive success, free steaks and Abita beer.

38. What is your family like?

Loud, funny, large and kinda goofy. With a new layer of babies sprouting.

46. Where do you keep things hidden? What do you keep hidden there?

If I told you, they would no longer be hidden. Duh!

48. Biggest moment of triumph?

Opening for Coolio's Boston date, and the release of "Strictly Mixed and Mashed" - a 100% legit album.

55. You're curating a festival. If you could choose any two acts to open for you, who would they be?

Sheesh... ANY 2? and they are opening for ME? This is a difficult question. I am tempted to pick sucky acts, and then I would look better. But then everyone would leave. I would have to say...here's four that I would love to even see perform live. Being on the same stage with them would be mind blowing.
-Stevie Wonder
-David Byrne with the Talking Heads
-P-Funk
-Reform the 1990's Brand New Heavies with all the guest rappers, ie Black Sheep, Pharcyde, Edo G, Kool G Rap, etc.

56. Have you ever considered writing or producing for other artists?

Yes, and I have done so - www.remixrevolution.com features two records I worked on with Big D and The Kids Table. Strictly Mixed and Mashed is a remix/mashup album I did with their music. Rude Remix Revolution is a collection of others remixes and fan mixes and the like, which I compiled with the help of Dave McWane. I've also done officically sanctioned remixes for Heaven 17 (formerly Human League), The AKAs (feat Gym Class Heroes), Uncle Shaker, VBMN and Sonic Boom Six.

Basically I want to do whatever I think will be fun, and hopefully win some listeners. And I hope that at some point, I will get a little interest and I can make my own record a la Mark Ronson.

66. Worst song you've heard recently?

The Free Credit Report bullshits. I want to kill them.

70. What is a personal belief you hold that you would fight for to the death?

Free Credit Report.com commercials suck massive donkey balls. I will defend that with my life. Please do not provide any links to their horribleness. They should not in any way benefit from my hatred.

76. Dream collaboration?

Collaboration with any of the rappers I admire would be a dream come true. Public Enemy, De La Soul, Q-Tip and/or Fife Dog, KRS One, Kanye... or any of my "opening acts" above. And being able to pull a sample or two from a classic rock song (or a funk classic) without fear of being sued into the stone age would be quite gratifying!

80. Worst run-in with the law (to date)?

Sort of getting busted with weed. The campus cops snagged me late one night. Brought me to like a trailer/substation on campus. Pushed me to narc for hours. I told them nada. They finally released me at like dawn. No charges. Still proud to have not narced.

84. Most disappointing concert you ever attended?

This is a tough one. I am tempted to say Freddie Hubbard in Manhattan, 1992-3 ish. You may know him as the player of the horn riff (from Herbie Hancock's "Cantaloupe Island") the 1990s rap group US3 used in their one hit song "Cantaloop." He was terrible. He could barely play. But his band was great- basically, they were respectful replicas of Hubbard's former contemporaries. There was a Coltrane-looking guy in a grey suit who dressed and played exactly like Coltrane. A Miles-looking guy, dressed in a red suit like Miles, with Miles' old trumpet, playing like Miles Davis. A piano player in a dashiki playing like Herbie Hancock. The only one who couldnt keep up was Freddie Hubbard, even though the young guys were carefully structuring everything around his pitiful, barely-able-to-make-a-note solos. And Hubbard was pretty angry about it. And the trainwreck was something to see. His band made him look worse, if anything.

90. Sexiest thing about you?

My penis.

91. Which single album should be in everybody's home?

The White Album (Beatles, natch). This record was formative for me. The range of styles, the dark patches (Helter Skelter, Piggies, Revolution 9), the Manson 'connection,' the sheer beauty of the more mellow tunes like "Blackbird" and "Mother Nature's Son"... there is so much here to love, scratch your head over, or both.

95. Do you ever read your own reviews?

Yes! If someone cares enough about me to review something, I care enough to read it!

96. The one thing that no one knows about you (yet)?

I am wonderful, yet I totally suck. I derserve large platters of cash to be brought to me by naked ladies. I like cats. My back hurts.

+++

Visit DJ BC's website here.

ALEATORY #20: Casiotone for the Painfully Alone

Owen Ashworth feels your pain.

This is probably why he records so many damn good songs as Casiotone for the Painfully Alone -- as perfect and descriptive a band name as there's ever been. Maybe you've heard his songs, or seen Los Campesinos! lead singer Gareth wear a CFTPA T-shirt in the documentary that came with the group's We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed album, or maybe you'll just see Owen at SXSW this year, or pick up his new rarities album Advance Base Battery Life on March 10th, or maybe even pick up his new new album Vs. Children in April. No matter what though, Owen's aesthetic -- after all these years -- remains almost exactly the same: plug in a keyboard, turn on the mic, and just play it baby. We feel for you.

Congratulations to both him and us: this Globecat's 20th Aleatory -- thanks guys.

+++

4. Favorite person to have worked with?

I used to work in a bakery with a woman named Kara who was really funny and great. we ate a lot of damaged baked goods together.

10. Favorite lyric?

I ain't no goddamn son of a bitch you better think about it baby

13. Favorite Shakespearean play?

Cats

14. Favorite sound?

Flute samples played in chords

15. Favorite exhibit or subject at the museum?

Wild animal taxidermy dioramas in natural history museums

17. Favorite plant?

I think it's a tie between kudzu and basil

39. What's something you could probably beat anyone you know at?

I don't mean to brag but I am very good at cribbage

40. What was your best/worst subject in school?

I took some anthropology classes in college that I did pretty well in. I never skipped my anthropology classes. I have never done very well with math. I skipped lots of math.

42. What's an image that haunts you to this day?

There was a picture of a dude who had done a mess of PCP and then cut off his face and fed it to his dogs. I saw it on the internet. I still think about it every once in a while and go "ugh" or "ack." Once you put something in your brain you can never take it out again, kids. Think twice before clicking those warning disturbing image links on www.snopes.com.

43. What's the road ahead look like?

It is covered with snow and hazardous

44. Something you've heard, know is false, but wish were true with all your heart?

I heard that polar bears hide their black noses with a front paw or leg when they hunt. This helps them blend in with the snow so they can sneak up on school children or seals or whatever. Sort of like a reverse negative Dracula. Polar Drac. I'm pretty sure this is not true but the image is too endearing and chilling to not want to believe in.

49. Now that you know a much larger audience will get to hear the music you've made, has your writing changed at all? How? What's changed and what's stayed the same?

Oh man I don't know. I think the biggest factor that has changed my writing has been my age. I get older and I think about different things so I want to sing about different things. Also, once you've written a song, you can't go around rewriting it forever so you actually have to come up with some different ideas every once in a while. I am averaging about thirty songs per idea these days.

54. So far in your career, what's been your proudest accomplishment?

Playing in Russia felt pretty nuts. I feel weird listing any names but there have been some people who I have been very proud to have met and shared mutual admiration with. Okay fine Tom Hanks.

57. Most rock star thing you've ever done?

I accidentally knocked all of my equipment off of a stage and the people in the front caught it and pushed it back upright. And everybody thought it was on purpose and some kind of cool trick. IT WAS NOT A COOL TRICK

63. Band/artist you're secretly envious of?

My friend Nick from No Kids because he lives in Canada and gets all kinds of amazing government grants to record expensive andfabulous sounding records. Also, because I would like to be able to play piano like him. I am pretty lousy musician and I am envious of lots of people's musical abilities.

67. Do you reach any kind of personal catharsis when it comes to songwriting/performing?

Yeah, I guess so

78. Your life has been reduced to a bumper sticker: what does it say?

NPR

92. Which venue are you dying to play but have not yet had the chance to?

I would like to play at the Warfield in San Francisco, CA. I saw Kraftwerk play there once and I hear it's haunted.

94. What's your hardest song to replicate live?

There are a few songs on my new record that were arranged for many more hands than I have. I haven't tried to play them live yet and I really don't know what to do with them. There are also plenty of old songs of mine that I just don't like to play because I just don't really like them anymore. I would find it hard to replicate those songs with any sort of sincerity, even though they aren't particularly difficult to play.

99. Licensing your music out to companies for TV ads: good or bad?

Shit I don't know. I haven't done it yet but maybe if I have a kid who needs braces some day I'll feel differently. You pick your battles, you know?

+++

Visit Casiotone for the Painfully Alone's website.

ALEATORY #19: Jason Robert Brown

Tony-winning composer Jason Robert Brown is bored.

After all, the man has released quite a few albums, has created one of the single greatest pocket musicals of all time (The Last Five Years), and even picked up the theatre-world's highest honor when he penned the score for Parade, still a theatrical staple all these years later. Nowadays, it seems that the last thing that JRB wants to do is what's expected of him -- he's now taking risks both big and small to keep things interesting.. He contributed songs to the big-budget, Tony-nominated production of Urban Cowboy and most recently can be seen writing tunes for 13, the kid-oriented/acted/performed musical that premiered at the prestigious Mark Taper Forum and has since made its away to Broadway. Yet now, Jason takes on his greatest challenge: responding to the latest Globecat Aleatory!

(Jason enters Stage Left and recites the following ...)

+++

2. Favorite board game?

I am a mediocre but avid Scrabblist, and my wife and I used to have epic hostile Scrabble matches, but I travel so much these days that board games are impractical on any consistent basis. I do a lot of Scrabbling and Scrambling on Facebook, but while it is infinitely more addicting, it's ultimately less gratifying.

4. Favorite person to have worked with?

In 2001, I got to work with Jon Hendricks, the legendary vocalese writer and singer; Jon sang the vocal parts on the incidental music I wrote for David Lindsay-Abaire's play "Kimberly Akimbo," which included the song "Grow Old With Me." I grew up listening to Lambert, Hendricks & Ross (as well as the version of that group that included Yolande Bavan) and, in fact, most of my knowledge of bebop repertoire comes from having known the vocalized versions first. (I may be the only musician who hears Miles Davis's "Freddie Freeloader" and thinks of the lyrics, thanks to Hendricks's monumental recording of it with Bobby McFerrin, Al Jarreau and George Benson.) Unlike working with movie stars or rock stars, working with jazz legends turns out to be fairly easy: you pick up the phone and call them. Someone I knew had Jon's manager's number, somehow that led me to Jon's home phone, I called him, offered him a thousand bucks to come sing for three hours, and voilà, I had a recording of one of my heroes singing one of my songs. And Jon was a lot of fun to hang out with that day as well, smart and fast and game for anything (at one point, he was making bird and monkey noises).

5. Favorite piece of equipment?

I'm unapologetically analog in most of my habits, though I readily the concede the convenience and fluidity of the digital world. Nonetheless, in order to do my work, I need a piano, a bunch of 2B pencils, a pencil sharpener, staff paper, and a drafting ruler, all of which (except the piano) I travel with at all times. Of those, the piano is the most important, and my favorite piece of equipment therefore is the Yamaha C5 that sits in our backyard studio.

9. Favorite song to start (or end) a mixtape with?

Mixtape? I haven't made one since I was 22. I remember making one for my Dad right after I left college that started with Fred Astaire's recording of Irving Berlin's "I'd Rather Lead A Band." And ended with Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong doing Gershwin's "A Foggy Day," which is a song my Dad always sang with me when I was a kid.

11. Favorite music video?

I wouldn't even know where to see a music video these days, outside of YouTube, I guess. I was growing up when MTV first came on the air, so I tend to have a very proprietary sense of music videos – I was an early adopter! In that vein, whatever I offer will be sort of hopelessly unhip, as though I stopped paying attention twenty years ago, which in fact is the case. But coolness be damned: "Sledgehammer" by Peter Gabriel, still the winner by a mile.

15. Favorite exhibit or subject at the museum?

I've seen two separate exhibits on the work of Henry Darger, which I find endlessly fascinating. It's not just the no-formal-training thing (which, to be honest, annoys me no end when people claim that as a virtue), it's more the unfiltered imagination, and the willingness to improvise new tools when his own technique isn't sufficient. And the whole self-contained mythology of the work is inspiring in its own way.

18. Favorite pick-up line?

That I've used myself or that someone's used on me? I don't think I ever had a repertoire of pick-up lines for my own personal use, I'm horrifically shy when it comes to women. Nor have I really been picked up, though I did have one girl ask me to sign her boobs after a concert once. That was killer. (I didn't do it. Maybe her boobs weren't big enough for my whole name?)

27. Favorite chord/chord progression?

Neil Finn does this thing all the time where he's been sitting in a minor key and then just pops in to the relative major, and it's always the most delightful moment. You can hear it in Crowded House's "When You Come," right at the top of the chorus: "And that is why" (there's the minor) "I stumble to my knee-ees!" (there's the major). So satisfying. I steal it whenever I remember to; certainly in "Over," I do it right in the verse.

29. Who do you wish more people were listening to?

Kate McGarry, incredible jazz singer, though "jazz" is too confining a label to put on the work she does; she and her husband, guitarist Keith Ganz, are brilliant interpreters and very deep souls. And Kate's songwriting is very strong and very fresh.

31. Other than musician, what career would you most enjoy?

Ultimately, I think music is just the outlet I generally choose for my creativity, but I live to create, and if it weren't music, it would be something else. As mercurial as I am, whatever I would most enjoy today would make me crazy by the middle of next year.

34. What's the best joke you heard recently?

I've been telling this one for a while now, but it's a winner, courtesy of David Evans (who is the world's foremost joke-teller):

Mr. Lipkin hasn't been to the doctor in a long time, finally he decides it's time for a checkup. He goes in to the doctor's office, the doctors says to him, "All right, Mr. Lipkin, it's been quite a while, we're gonna need some things. We're gonna need a blood sample, a urine sample, a semen sample, and a stool sample." Mr. Lipkin looks at the doctor and says, "Should I just give you my shorts?"

36. Lyrics first or music first?

I get asked this question so often I should probably come up with an interesting answer. Really, what comes first is generally the title. That may not be the title I finally end up with, but I need someplace to start, and usually a good phrase is the best medicine. If I can encapsulate what I want the song to say in a couple of words, then I always know where I'm heading. From there, I'll start determining a musical energy, a particular style; that's decided as much by the character and the situation and the moment in the plot as by my own whimsy. And once I have that "groove" (which may or may not be very groovy), I'll start singing a melody to it, appending the title whenever it feels appropriate. I've been describing that process that way for so long that it's really no longer accurate, at least not always, but it still sounds like a good answer.

46. Where do you keep things hidden? What do you keep hidden there?

Well, now, if I told you...

48. Biggest moment of triumph?

Honestly this: when the woman who was to be my wife and the mother of my child first kissed me, in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2000.

61. What's the best advice you could give to a young, upstart composer?

Write SONGS. Too many theater composers feel the need to write huge sequences without any sense of the underlying structure. Songs, songs, songs. If you can master AABA, you can stretch it any way you want.

63. Band/artist you're secretly envious of?

Secretly? I'm the most openly envious person I know. What good is envy if you're gonna keep it all inside? And furthermore, why just direct it at one band or artist? I'm envious of everyone, all the time. Keeps the creative juices flowing.

64. Weirdest promotion you've been a part of?

Honestly, nothing comes to mind.

75. Very first song that you ever wrote?

I think when I was eight years old, I wrote a song called "Come Back To Me," which told the story of a lovelorn young man desperate for the return of his girl, Jenny. (I did not know a girl named Jenny at the time, at least not well enough for me to immortalize her in song.) The chords, moving every two beats, were C, Bdim, Am, G, F, G, C. I thought I was the first person to come up with those changes.

79. Best concert you've ever been to?

In the same week in (I think) 1997, I saw Michel Petrucciani play Birdland with Anthony Jackson and Steve Gadd AND I saw Aretha Franklin do a gospel concert at Avery Fisher Hall. To see musicianship at that high a level up close, twice in one week, really raised the bar for me. Aretha only did a half-hour long set, but it was still clear that she wasn't coasting or faking – she was feeling it, she was reaching for it, and whatever she needed to express, she had the tools to do it; and Petrucciani played with such inventiveness, such tastefulness, and such unbelievable groove that I redefined my sense of what jazz piano was supposed to be just from that one concert. So: not a bad week.

87. Ultimately, you will want to be remembered as …

At the moment, I'll say I want to be remembered as a musician. When people write about the theater, so much of the focus is on the words, the acting, the singing; I write for the theater by going from the music out. If you don't understand the music I'm writing, then you won't understand the levels of theater I'm creating, and I feel that, all too often, the music just gets lost in the discussion. So I'd like to be remembered as a guy who put a lot of serious thought into how to make the music part of the theater, and how to make all the parts breathe together with the music leading the way.

+++

Visit Jason Robert Brown's website.

ALEATORY #12: Grails

It's been a busy year for Grails, and it's not over yet. Back in May, the Portland four piece dropped their fifth full-length in as many years, Take Refuge in Clean Living, pushing their grungy instrumental psych into new and groovy places. In October, their sixth album, Doomsdayer's Holiday, comes out on Temporary Residence. And their 2005 EP, Interpretations of Three Psychedelic Rock Songs from Around the World, was just pressed re-released and pressed vinyl. They also toured with Nadja in June, are hitting up Athens, GA and NY in November, and in the meantime are probably working triple shifts at their day jobs, just because they can. Three of the Grails guys—guitarist Alex Hall, drummer Emil Amos, and keys-man William Slater—took a breather from their hectic schedule and were kind enough to be our twelfth Aleatory.

+++

12. Favorite band when you were in high school?

AH: Split decision between Metallica and (old) Van Halen.
EA: Dinosaur.
WS: Drive Like Jehu, Public Enemy.

13. Favorite Shakespearean play?

AH: Porky's 3.
EA: Zardoz.
WS: Henry IV.

15. Favorite exhibit or subject at the museum?
WS: Very old books and forgotten manuscripts. Sea monsters of the late cretaceous.

16. Favorite campfire story?
AH: Hamlet.
EA: "Eight O'Clock in the Morning" - Ray Nelson.

17. Favorite plant?
AH: Robert.
EA: Francis.
WS: Treebeard.

19. Favorite foreign film?
AH: Irreversible.
EA: The Bird with the Crystal Plumage.
WS: The Lady Vanishes, Throne of Blood.

28. What instrument would you most like to learn to play?

WS: Flute, maybe cello.
AH: It'd be nice to actually learn guitar at some point.
EA: Either a ham-radio or some Harry Partch shit maybe.

60. What's the worst show you've ever played? What would you have done different?
AH: Eureka, California, 2004, I think. It was in some Italian restaurant. An hour before the show, our violinist ate a handful of mixed scrip drugs he had scored off some dude on the sidewalk. By the time we started to play he was still in the van, writhing in the backseat and clawing at the air. He kept losing consciousness during the set with his violin shrieking a wall of feedback. After the show he passed out in the car and we couldn't wake him up. Eventually he came to at 4 AM, and was furious because it was freezing outside, he didn't know where he was and he filled my voicemail with about 20 hateful, threatening messages.

EA: The time I remember feeling the worst was in around 2001 when someone put the loop for a song called "Canyon Hymn" on a cassette. Since all tape player motors play at slightly different speeds the sound man hit play and we slogged thru 8 minutes completely out of tune with it. I remember experiencing an intense/unparalleled degree of shame while I was putting my cymbals away.

WS: The aforementioned two were the first two that came to mind… Honorable mentions to the show where the very heavy Rhodes organ collapsed on top of me mid-song, trapping me beneath, and the show where i played despite having a 102 degree fever, during which our violinist flipped me off repeatedly from the other side of the stage because he didn't like the set list I'd written. I remember that one as somewhat of a Robitussin-induced waking nightmare.

63. Band/artist you're secretly envious of?

EA: I'll speak for Alex on this one and say it's a tie between Rita Coolidge and Clay Aiken.

71. How well do you feel your music lends itself to remixing or being covered?
AH: I hope that someone might actually cover a Grails tune one day, since it might confirm that we'd succeeded in making an actual song. Most instrumental music these days is either just riffs or drones, rarely ever real songs....

81. If you could sync an album of yours to a movie (like Dark Side of the Moon and The Wizard of Oz), what movie would it be?
EA: Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals
WS: Dirty Dancing

93. Longest show you ever played? What was different?
AH: We've played probably a dozen shows in Europe where the promoter hadn't bothered to add any support bands, leaving us as the sole 'entertainers' for the evening. So we were obligated to go total GBV and play really long sets....which is fun for us but bad for the Italian people who are waiting for the techno DJ that's going on after the rock show.

95. Do you ever read your own reviews?
AH: Yeah, always. I've never understood the idea that a lot of people have about separating oneself from one's criticism. It's just part of the process.

EA: With the amount of dispassionate publicity you generally receive, we mostly just end up reading our own press releases that've been copied and pasted 4000 times. Between that, deleting spam and shredding junk mail modern life has become a refreshing break from reading Kafka. When there's not much tangible community left in the underground it makes us sentimental to watch old videos of the crowd spitting upon the faces of the members of Fear.

98. Would you say that there's somewhat of a political undertone to your music? If so, what motivates it?
AH: You mean in a topical sense? No, we don't have any 'Bush is bad' songs. Music like ours is more about focusing inward than outward. It's head music that benefits from a generous amount of dissociation.

100. Even with the gradual decay of the B-side, most artists still have vaults of unreleased songs. What's in yours?
AH: A lot of stuff that will stay unreleased for good reason. But the rest is being compiled into a DVD project that should be out some time next year.

+++

Visit Grails' website.
Visit Grails' MySpace.

ALEATORY #3: Masaki Batoh of Ghost

Since 1984, Ghost has been a staple of Japan's incredible psych-rock scene. Led by Masaki Batoh, and featuring legendary guitarist Michio Kurihara (who played with Boris on 2007's incredible Rainbow, as well as with Damon & Naomi), Ghost's sound is ever-changing, and as such, impossible to pin down. From blistering hard rock to acid folk to sparse, spacey instrumentals to banjo-centric jams, Ghost does it all. Last year, they released their eighth full-length, In Stormy Nights, as well as Overture: Live in Nippon Yusen Soko 2006, a CD/DVD set chronicling a completely improvised show held in a warehouse, with the band separated from each other and the audience locked in for the duration.

Just back from a visit to the states, where he was touring with Helena Espvall of Espers and Damon & Naomi, Batoh gratefully agreed to take part in our third Aleatory questionnaire, in which he shares his love for the classics and displays a humble charm throughout.

+++

1. Favorite word?

"Monarch takes no heed of this miracle
But his hands are only used to persecute us on this ground"

— Agrippa d'Aubigné ["God"]

2. Favorite board game?

I don't do it. But a little Igo or Shogi.

5. Favorite piece of equipment?

Acoustic guitar, banjo.

10. Favorite lyric?

Seneca, Dante, Saisei Muroo, Rohan Koda, etc.

11. Favorite music video?

I don't have TV or DVD system.

15. Favorite exhibit or subject at the museum?

Hokusai at British museum. Buddhist statue at Japan national museum. Goya, Bruegel and Bosch in Madrid.

27. Favorite chord/chord progression?

I don't have any correct musical name on chords. Actually I don't play in standard tuning. Sorry, I'm very bad at musical knowledge.

31. Other than musician, what career would you most enjoy?

My occupation, acupuncture and moxhibation to cure people in sickness.

32. Best thing you learned this week/month?

How I love American people very much. But how I hate their government. "Honk to impeach!"

38. What is your family like?

Very ordinary, peaceful one outside of Tokyo.

46. Where do you keep things hidden? What do you keep hidden there?

Hide nothing. Drainage only.

60. What's the worst show you've ever played? What would you have done different?

In 1984 we were arrested because we played in front of [a] police building.

64. Weirdest promotion you've been a part of?

Oh Buddha, in-store show[s are] always very weird to me......

65. Ever see yourself penning the score/soundtrack to a TV show or film?

Soul is desertful*, directed by daughter of movie director who [did] Suspiria.

71. How well do you feel your music lends itself to remixing or being covered?

None did it, maybe.

74. Better to burn out or to fade away?

Better to cure everybody, hopefully by music, too.

79. Best concert you've ever been to?

In 1988, Live Temple show at Seiryu temple.

90. Sexiest thing about you?

No idea.

93. What was the longest show you ever played? What was different?

We always play very long in Japan. In foreign countries it used to be very short, at least 2 hours, because we usually play improvisation.

98. Would you say that there's somewhat of a political undertone to your music? If so, what motivates it?

Maybe yes. Because politics is ours, not for politicians who let slip the dogs of the WAR. If we say [we] agree to WAR, there's no insist[ence] for music.

+++

Visit Ghost's website.
Visit Ghost's page at Drag City Records.

Photo by Hiroyuki Ishii.

* DAVECAT: I'm not sure what film Batoh is referring to; I can find no reference to it online. I suspect the title he mentions is the result of translation from something (Italian? English?), to Japanese, then back to English, or (as is frequently the case) that one of her films was given a different name for its foreign release.

ALEATORY #1: Phil Elvrum

Few discographies are as intimidating as Phil Elvrum's. As The Microphones (and later as Mount Eerie), Elvrum crafts nothing but powerful, complex indie-rock epics that transcend their bare-bones recording environments to become something far more orchestral in nature. As a producer, he's helped create soundscapes for artists like Mirah, Little Wings, and Beat Happening. As an interviewee, he becomes the first subject of the Globecat Aleatory -- that famed list of 20 randomized questions -- and his responses are as wickedly funny as they are surprisingly insightful. Ladies and gentlemen: Phil Elvrum.

+++

1. Favorite word?

The word "favorite" is terrifying for me. I can not choose favorites. I can't say "best" except in ironic hyperbole. So all these answers are not favorite or best or worst or anything. They are just one answer of many. I hope I make sense.

4. Favorite person to have worked with?

Julie Doiron, recently.

5. Favorite piece of equipment?

Printing press.

7. Favorite composer?

G.I. Gurdjieff & Thomas deHartmann.

12. Favorite band when you were in high school?

Eric's Trip.

13. Favorite Shakespearean play?

Macbeth.

15. Favorite exhibit or subject at the museum?

The entire Museum of Jurassic Technology in LA.

29. Who do you wish more people were listening to?

Gary Snyder.

32. Best thing you learned this week/month?

French.

52. At what point did you realize that music was going to be your full-time occupation?

Still haven't.

60. What's the worst show you've ever played? What would you have done different?

So many horrible ones I can't choose. In many cases nothing could have been done.

63. Band/artist you're secretly envious of?

secret

66. Worst song you've heard recently?

"Lisa, It's Your Birthday" by "Michael Jackson" in that one Simpsons episode.

71. How well do you feel your music lends itself to remixing or being covered?

Poorly. My songs are too much about my own weird shit. It would seem weird coming from someone else. Remixes would be fine though I think.

73. Are there any songs that you're working on right now?

Yes.

82. Current pop song that you would file under "guilty pleasure"?

I feel no guilt. I love so much weird normal people stuff. It's just music.

89. You just died. I'm sorry. Fortunately, your will states that you want very specific music to be played at your funeral. What did you choose?

Sunn O)))

92. Which venue are you dying to play but have not yet had the chance to?

I would like to play on the Earth's moon.

96. The one thing that no one knows about you (yet)?

I just ate a burrito.

98. Would you say that there's somewhat of a political undertone to your music? If so, what motivates it?

Maybe, yes. I feel like we humans could do better. I am motivated to say what I think because people are paying attention to me.

99. Licensing your music out to companies for TV ads: good or bad?

In most cases bad. But what if it was a TV ad for something I really felt ethically obliged to help promote? Like a tall frosty Heineken?

+++

Visit Phil Elvrum's website.