Saturday, August 29, 2009

Bloggy Interviews Bad Veins



Last night I had the chance to catch up with Bad Veins at Emo's before their set. Don't worry if you missed it, Ben and Sebastian will be back next month with label mates Division Day.

I kept the interview pretty brief, but we chatted about touring, analog v. digital and all that fun stuff. You can find the transcription below the break.

How is touring?

It’s fun, touring is fun, I mean it’s kind of exhausting it seems like playing a show is such a small part of touring because there’s so much traveling and just the logistics, the logistics of traveling is what you spend all your time on.

So, how are you traveling? Are you driving a van? You ride? Fly?

I wish we flew

Yeah, we’ve got a van pull our gear in a wagon like every other band out there.

Do you both drive? You switch drivers? How many people tour with you?

Well, our friend Aaron’s with us on this tour he’s helping us drive, helping us do merch and move in gear.

But it’s just the three of you?

Yeah, yeah.

Sometimes we tour just the two of us. We did a whole east coast tour last month it was just us two.

It’ll never happen again.

Was it difficult to take the songs from the record and re-interpret them live? Had you already planned that?

Yeah, we kind of worked backwards, like, I mean, yeah we made the record knowing how we were going to do it live. That was with Irene, the tape deck. Opening that possibility up, that allowed us to do anything for the record knowing we’d just do it on the tape.

So, you’re a fan of the old analog sound huh?

Well yeah, it’s fun. It’s fun and easy except for it’s heavy.

Have you thought about replacing it with a digital…?

It doesn’t seem interested. It’s probably less interesting for the audience.

Do you take a lot of time laboring over the artwork?

Well I mean the CD artwork is what we did first, that’s what the label wanted us to focus on. Yeah, we spent a lot of time on the CD artwork, we had a lot of ideas, it took us awhile to get it right, I think.

How has it been going from doing everything by yourself to all of a sudden having all these other hands in the stew?

In some ways it’s been really good cause we don’t have to worry about a lot of things. But, the creative thing you know might be a little uh too many hands in the stew. Everybody want to design this or that we have our ideas, they have their ideas.

You had to wait awhile between the point the album was done and now when it’s actually out.

A long time

We finished it, right before CMJ last year, so last October, the end of October. And, you know it just came out a month ago.

It must have been pretty frustrating at point…

Yeah, well once we knew it was coming out we could sigh. But we finished it right before the holiday season and you can’t really go shopping stuff around during that. And we got the deal with Dangerbird Records in February. So, once that happened it took till July to get the artwork, the distribution, get everything in place.

So really it was 3.5-4 months from the point the record was done until we knew how it was going to be released.

Have you had any Spinal Tap-esque moments on the tour so far?

Wait, what’s a Spinal Tap-esque moment?

You know a tragic-comic, like I’m too cool to deal with this shit kind of moment.

Yes, we had one in Cincinnatti actually.

At a hometown show?

It was a benefit we were doing for people who weren’t necessarily in the music scene. So, those always go weird. Cause they want you to play, “we want this cool band everyone is talking about” come play. Then you go to play and as soon as you start playing, “aww, you’re too loud” and all that kind of stuff. We had one of those.

The funniest part about it for me, I was actually wearing this shirt (Point to red button up shirt he’s wearing), which kind of fits in with Bad Veins aesthetic cause we have the roses, and like the military thing cause we usually have military shirts on . We were on stage there’s a curtain that closed in front of us and I was getting ready to rip [this shirt] off and change into another one and as soon as I started to unbutton the curtain started to open. So, I’m like ok I’m going to wear this shirt, that’s fine. So, the curtain goes by and hits my mic stand and knocks it over. We’re on stage and we weren’t ready for the curtain to be open but they were ready for us to start. So, the mic falls over and we were just sort of standing there. We just sort of brushed it off like, uh if we’re cool with it the crowd will be cool with it.

So, I have to ask...Bad Veins/Bad Brains...

It wasn’t intentional. I had never heard of Bad Brains when I came up with the name.

So, why Bad Veins, is there a reason or is it just one of those things?

One of those things.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Great Local Shows Friday

Well you may, or may not, remember a few weeks back I was musing over Bad Veins well tomorrow is our chance to see them live Austin. They'll be playing Emo's outside stage with a lot of really good local artists as well. I'm not really sure the set order but I know that Built By Snow, The White White Lights, and the Black & White Years will all be performing. I'm guessing White White Lights on first, followed by Built By Snow, then Black & White Years with Bad Veins headlining. This being an Emo's show, the first set will probably be at 10pm. If you're interested, you can check this show out for $5 at the door unless you're a tween, in which case it will be $8 of your parent's money. ;-)


Bad Veins - Gold and Warm video via YouTube

The other big local show I have to mention is the first of two nights with The Sword at the Mohawk. I probably don't have to really explain why this is a big deal to most of you, but trust me it's a pretty big deal. These guys have been playing stadiums, opening for Metallica, drinking with Lars and shhh.


the Sword - Iron Swan video via YouTube

Sorry about the shite audio in the above video. I just wanted to emphasize that the Sword don't really play venues as small as the Mohawk too much these days.


the Sword - Maiden, Mother & Crone video via YouTube

Opening for the Sword Friday will be Ratking and Pack of Wolves. For the Saturday night show at the Mohawk you'll see Fingaar Bangaar and Woodgrain


David DiDonato of Ratking - How To Play the Solo from BYOIED video via YouTube

I'm not, necessarily, into "Metal" or "Angry Music" in general but I'm always a fan of melody and passion, so I'm certainly a fan of The Sword. Although, it's partly just "Hometown-Pride" that makes me a fan. Obviously, the Sword isn't the only face-melting metal band to come from Austin. Which, is pretty much the point of these shows at the 'Hawk. A celebration of melting faces! Melting faces in celebration? Celebratory Face-Melting.


Pack of Wolves - Concession video via YouTube

See, not everything I blog about is wussy and jangly, just most of it.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Blogs Go Crazy for FunFunFunFest

Wow, the blogosphere pretty much shut down with the announcement of the FunFunFunFest line-up, today. I'm not gonna really get into it since it was even covered on the big-name national blogs like BrooklynVegan, so chances are you already know who's gonna be there. I just wanted to give props to one of Austin's most over-looked/kick-ass bands, Bankrupt and the Borrowers.

Bankrupt is one of those bands that all the other bands in town go to see, but they haven't really received as much attention/press as some of their audience. I'm thinking FunFunFunFest is really starting to get some national attention this year and hopefully that will mean good things for Bankrupt and the Borrowers


Bankrupt and the Borrowers - I Love You Baby video via YouTube

If you live here in Texas, you'll have plenty of chances to catch Bankrupt and the Borrowers before they hit the Yellow stage for FFFFest. In fact, they're playing Red 7 tomorrow night. How do ya' like that?


Bankrupt and the Borrowers - Holden Caulfield at Age 35 video via another great Austin blog, 'Nites ATX

I hate linking to MySpace, since even Tom won't use it anymore, but that's the best place for you to see all the places where you can catch Bankrupt and the Borrowers in person.

Y'all should really check out that 'Nite ATX blog. Their YouTube channel alone should tell you why.


Bankrupt and the Borrowers - Goddamn Right video via YouTube

Monday, August 24, 2009

Beastie's Out Yeah Yeah Yeah's In

I must say, I'm not entirely surprised to find out that the Yeah Yeah Yeah's have taken over the headlining spot left open by the Beastie Boys for ACL Fest. The Yeah's latest album, It's Blitz! inspires much joy from large masses. Also, they've been playing the festival circuit pretty hard this summer both in the states and abroad. Some of the photos I saw from one of those festivals had Yeah's singer Karen O decked out in some psychedelic, Native-American-type shhh that would have made Bjork jealous. So, obviously the days of the Yeah's pumping out dirty punk in tiny bars has long since passed. Now they can afford much better drugs, which have shown them a shiny, glowing world of pulsing dance riddims. I, for one, think they'll put on a great spectacle of an ACL performance and I look forward to it. I hope they pull off a random Beastie Boys cover song out of respect. I'm thinking anything from Check Your Head could be pretty mind blowing. Stay away from Paul's Boutique though Yeah Yeah Yeah's, that shhh is untouchable!


Yeah Yeah Yeah's - Heads Will Roll video via YouTube


In other ACL Festival line-up news, Lily Allen recently bowed out of the fest as well. Leaving a new, smaller hole in the line-up. I say they fill her in with someone who is sort of doing the same thing as Lily just to remind her how quickly she can and will be replaced. Ouch!


Lily Allen - LDN video via YouTube

Don't get it twisted, I love Lily Allen but seriously there have to be like a million bratty English girls who are ready, willing and able to sing about their ex-boyfriend's penises. I'm thinking Kate Nash would be a suitable replacement perhaps?


Kate Nash - Foundations video via YouTube

Did you think I was just gonna say, "Paul's Boutique is untouchable" without including some evidence?


Beastie Boys - Shadrach video via YouTube