ALEATORY #25: Lands & Peoples

Lands & Peoples are downright scary.

No, they're not going to scare away children during Halloween, but in listening to the debut release by this trio -- consisting of multi-instrumentalists Caleb Moore, Amanda Willis, and Beau Cole -- it is damn-near frightening how fully formed the band sounds on just their first EP. Though it's easy to spot the group's influences, it proves rather difficult to pin down the Lands & Peoples "sound". Emotional without being self-indulgent, this is lo-fi indie rock with a distinct modern twist, beautifully textured but never once coming across as overlabored (check out their MySpace to hear what makes them so unique). With their eponymous EP just out and a full-length album due shortly, there is no better time than to hit up the band with one of Globecat's trademark Aleatories (and if that isn't enough, Lands & Peoples have the distinction of being our 25th). Without further ado, Lands & Peoples ...

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1. Favorite word?

January.

2. Favorite board game?

Monopoly (Amanda=Car, Beau=Boot, Caleb=Thimble)

3. Favorite key to write in?

Probably A minor, or G.

4. Favorite person to have worked with?

The Secret Mountains, we just finished the first leg of our tour with them ... sooooooo much fun!

5. Favorite piece of equipment?

Fender Prosonic coupled with an Electro-Harmonix Reverb Pedal, woohoo!

6. Favorite visual artist?/Favorite work of visual art?

Tie between Gustav Klimt and Nicholas Gurewitch (of PBF comics).

18. Favorite pick-up line?

"Is your father a lumberjack? No? Oh ... OK ... um ... well ... 'wood' you go out with me?"

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

Upright Bass, we all agree.

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

Caleb: Record company scout or producer.
Amanda: Chef.
Beau: Actor, wait is that stupid, uh, Chef, that was a good answer.

32. Best thing you learned this week/month?

Tours are fun and hard and bathing in a lake, while fun, isn't ACTUALLY that clean. Also iPhones are REAL helpful.

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

That scene in The Shining where the hot woman turns into the old lady, OH MY GOD that scene is creepy.

45. What's the best lie you've ever told?

We've never been good at lying.

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

Yes. Baltimore's a place that allows all types of artists to collaborate in the craziest of ways ... and there are so many artists, not just musicians, that we LOVE in Baltimore, so I think if the opportunity ever came up, we [would] jump on it.

58. Least rock star thing you've ever done?

Watching Twilight with Caleb's mom.

72. A few years ago, Beck gave an interview for SPIN in which he lamented the glut of reality TV shows and blogs about musicians, wanting to know less details about their life because he felt they were more mysterious that way (he liked to envision Devo as living in a crazed art-deco pyramid when he was young, instead of just some guys in a tour bus). Do you feel that there's a lack of mystique out there for musicians in today's YouTube age? Do you feel your band carries any mystique?

These days, it is possible to be in complete, honest, and direct communication with people who listen to your music and pay attention to that sort of thing. But, at the same time, you don't have to, you don't have to answer every interview, you don't have to have a blog, or be on Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, etc. I think that a band can use those things as tools to communicate whatever, even outright lie if they want, manifest their own "mystique." But I don't think anyone can deny that "the Internet" with all it's sites and blogs and viral explosions has given SO many artists exposure that they otherwise would never have gotten, that's the important thing ... and it's a good thing, for the most part.

74. Better to burn out or to fade away?

Burn Out.

76. Dream collaboration?

Working with Beach House, co-produced by Chris Taylor and Jon Brion.

77. What was the hardest part about recording your current release?

Well, we recorded and mixed everything by ourselves in our homes. Knowing you're not a professional yet wanting it to be perfect ... letting stuff go was really hard.

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?

1) Will Smith--Gettin' Jiggy With It
2) Men Without Hats--Safety Dance
3) Weird Al--Fat
4) Biggy--Big Poppa

90. Sexiest thing about you?

Amanda: "My big heart."
Beau & Caleb about Amanda: "Her legs."
Caleb: "My large nostrils."
Beau: "My unibrow."

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Visit Lands & People's official 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.

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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?

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Visit Casiotone for the Painfully Alone's website.

ALEATORY #13: Pale Young Gentlemen

This is a first.

Here at Globecat, we receive e-mails all the time -- be it publicists, readers like you, or even band members themsleves: we happily sift through all of these, but something was quite different when Pale Young Gentlemen drummer Matt Reisenauer contacted us, eagerly discussing the second disc from his band's album Black Forest (Tra La La). We followed up on the lead, and soon found Black Forest to be a tragically beautiful album of indie-folk done right: dramatic without being theatrical, touching without being self-serving. Ripe with cellos, acoustic guitars, and singer Mike Reisenauer's pointed vocals, this is the kind of disc that will sound just as good five years from now as it will when you pick it up later this month. Yes, this is the first time we've featured an artist who has contacted us instead of the other way around, but, really, this is the first band to contact us who genuinely deserves to be on our Aleatory wall. Mike R. takes this opportunity to gladly discuss re-recording radio interviews, the big spoiler he knows about wolf packs, and how Rufus Wainwright gave one of the worst concerts he ever saw ...

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20. Favorite new band?

Our old bass player (Andy Brawner) left the band to work on his own stuff. He released an album called "A Sun Goes Down" as Time Since Western that is amazing.

27. Favorite chord/chord progression?

Any half-diminished chord. Most chords/chord progression have a lot of baggage- they're hard to make your own- but these things add a lot of nuance, I think, so ended up using them a lot on the new record.

30. How many languages do you speak?

One and a half. For some reason, I remember a lot of the Spanish I learned in middle and high school. Or at least I think I remember it. Or at least nobody I knows more than I do and feels alright correcting me.

32. Best thing you learned this week/month?

I saw a thing on PBS about the origin of dogs and how they split from wolves. I won't ruin it for you, but a nicely done show.

36. Lyrics first or music first?

Same time. Back and forth. Like two young boys trying to outrun each other.

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

I'm really good at trying to be funny.

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

Who cares?

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

Once I saw a dog get hit by a car as I was pumping gas, a springer- spaniel, I think. It was very dramatic from start to finish.

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

That people still listen to entire albums. I wish we were limited to 8-track players sometimes. Make everyone listen to the whole side at least.

45. What's the best lie you've ever told?

My brother and I used to be clowns with my dad. We'd perform skits and tricks on the street. This is totally true. Anyway, fooling another person with a magic trick has to be the most pleasant, guilt-free lie possible.

48. Biggest moment of triumph?

I think I'm still waiting for this one...

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

When I was six, my mother told me to take my little garbage can up to my room. I paused and said "No you". My mom reacted in such a way that has prevented any more rock star moments.

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

Once we played a show as a three-piece that was all-the-way embarrassing. Christ, we really should have rehearsed. I still regret it.

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

Anybody that's actually making a living at this.

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

We did an interview once for a local radio station that was being taped for a later airing, but the interviewer forgot to press record for the first 40 mins. of it. It's not a terrible thing to lose 40 minutes, but it is weird to re-answer the same questions and try to seem genuine. We ended up with a big inside joke we couldn't share with the audience.

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

We had a fan in Chicago once that wanted to pay us a hundred bucks to play "Clap Your Hands" again. We didn't do it, but maybe we should have.

84. Most disappointing concert you ever attended?

I once saw Rufus Wainwright at the Barrymore Theater. I think I remember wanting him to shut up and play the songs. The whole thing seemed kinda cheesy or something.

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

Somebody's dad who wrote some nice songs.

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

I am a fantastic cook and I'm really great at driving cars.

97. Your label wants to do a music video for a song off your album, and have inexplicably procured $1,000,000 as a budget, then decide that you'd best direct the visual accompaniment to your own music. What song do you choose, and what will your video look like?

I'd keep the money, split it with my band, and have my dad shoot it for free. I'd probably want to do "Kettle Drum" or "She's All Mine, I Think" because I've always pictured those songs taking place on my dad's property in rural Wisconsin.

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Visit the Pale Young Gentlemen's website.

ALEATORY #7: Mark Romanek

You may have heard of Mark Romanek.

Mark spends his time directing music videos. Some of the videos he has directed include Nine Inch Nails' "Closer" and "The Perfect Drug", Fiona Apple's "Criminal", Lenny Kravitz's "Are You Gonna Go My Way", Janet/Michael Jackson's "Scream", Johnny Cash's "Hurt", and Jay-Z's "99 Problems", just to name a few. He also directed the incredible paranoia-thriller One Hour Photo starring Robin Williams, along with some of the revolutionary iPod TV spots. He's won everything from Grammy Awards to VMA's, and now sits down to partake in the seventh Globecat Aleatory. Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado: the inimitiable Mark Romanek.

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1. Favorite word?

I've always liked the word: nuance. I also like the words: perhaps, affinity, translucence, tangential, hierophant, and taupe. I also love to say the name "Miroslav Ondricek."

4. Favorite person to have worked with?

I found it thrilling to work with Johnny Cash, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, and David Bowie. My experience with Robin Williams on One Hour Photo was really great too.

6. Favorite visual artist?/Favorite work of visual art?

Pablo Picasso/Various paintings from his "Rose Period."

7. Favorite composer?

Bob Dylan. Tom Waits. Paul Simon. Stevie Wonder. Erik Satie. Ludwig Van Beethoven. J.S. Bach.

11. Favorite music video?

Wax "Southern California" by Spike Jonze. Also: Iggy Pop "Home" by David Fincher, Björk "All is Full of Love" by Chris Cunningham, [and] Björk "Isobel" by Michel Gondry.

19. Favorite foreign film?

Fellini's 8 ½, Truffaut's 400 Blows, Polanski's The Tenant, Tarkovsky's The Sacrifice, Bergman's Persona, Dreyer's Passion of Joan of Arc.

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

Bon Iver -- For Emma, Forever Ago, Coconut Records -- Nighttiming, Radiohead -- In Rainbows

23. Favorite natural oddity?

The human orgasm, bio-luminesence, Aurora Borealis, rainbows, fireflies, hummingbirds, transparent fish (In that order.)

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

Acoustic guitar. To my great shame, I never learned. (I took a lesson when I was nine and was discouraged by a teacher who said I had no aptitude. I later found out I was a lefty. That guy was a dumb asshole.)

32. Best thing you learned this week/month?

I learned to get the fuck out of the way.

33. What's something you could teach anyone in an hour or less?

I suppose I could teach someone how to use a 35mm still film camera.

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

When I was five years old, I was very eager for the next day to come, because it was my birthday or Christmas or something. The idea of having to wait all night long for the next day to come was unbearable to me. So, that evening, sitting in my bed, I closed my eyes and wished with all my might that when I opened them, it would be morning. And it worked! (I swear to God.) It was morning in the blink of an eye! I thought the world was magic and that I had magical powers. (I guess, I must''ve closed my eyes and fallen asleep without realizing, and I actually opened my eyes about ten hours later.)

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

I have an opposite example. I heard something that's probably true and wish with all my heart that it wasn't. Someone who actually knows J.D. Salinger said that he's stipulated in his will that when he dies all his unpublished manuscripts are to be destroyed. I think this would be a cultural tragedy of unimaginable proportions.

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

I guess, One Hour Photo. That, and a handful of my music-videos.

I would say that I'm proud to be involved with all the Apple iPod silhouette TV spots, because I do think it's a really great product, and the ads are sort of iconic . They are defining an aspect of the era. (I should note that the silhouette idea itself is not mine, of course. I just help execute them.)

66. Worst song you've heard recently?

If it was "worst" I almost certainly would've changed the station before I could discover the title. I have a low tolerance for insincere, synthetic crap.

76. Dream collaboration?

I'd love to work with: Tom Waits, Thom Yorke, Leonard Cohen, Björk.

85. What's the biggest mistake you've made that you inadvertently learned a great lesson from?

Isn't any "biggest" mistake inevitably an enormous learning experience? I think any mistakes that big would be too humiliating for me to discuss in this forum.

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?

Erik Satie's "Gnossienes #5." (No question about it.)

90. Sexiest thing about you?

My talent for gracefully deflecting embarrassing questions.

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

I can be pretty funny, once you get to know me. (Just not so much in this questionnaire.)

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Visit Mark's official website.