Links: http://www.myspace.com/ortolansong

When you listen to Stephanie Cottingham’s striking voice, you get the sense of something distinct and involved within the paradigm of her own vocal prowess. But as you explore Time On A String, you listen to the expressionistic songs, and you cannot help but get a feeling that the journey is more the story than the output.

Stack Cottingham next to Lucinda Chua of Felix and you have some striking similarities in its context (which go no farther than the two’s unique vocal vision). And that’s a good thing. Conttingham’s way to spin a tale and express fascination is exquisite. Balance that between indie pop constructions and ‘50s/’60s girl pop memoirs and you have the same fascination that drew up to bands like The Ronettes. And the powerful pop metaphorisms this band churns out is what sets the band apart.

The only downfall to Time On A String, and a significant one in my book, is the limitation the group has to create a diversified sense between songs. Spinning the album over and over, you get lost in the presence of the album as tempos remain stagnant and style does not meander much beyond what they are proven good at.

And that journey? It begins with a love affair for a slightly static radio station spinning out Oldies music and then moves to a church coffeehouse where Cottingham was found performing and learning her craft.

Depsite its linear stance, this is an album for dreamers, for those with a social vision beyond the realities of the world, as well as exploring the true essence of life. This is where Cottingham shines best and puts the sparkle in this album’s life. Some songs you cannot help but smile big, while others fall in line behind the ones that stand out.

Link: http://www.aurora-b.com/band_pages/ABX038.php

Climb up in the attic and dig around for a while. I’m sure there is that VHS player stashed somewhere in the back. Got it? Good. Now go get you a dirty copy of Faces Of Death and make sure the slow motion option is on when you watch it.

That is what it feels like when listening to The Hunt. At first you get this cinematic ambient brooding going on. But when you least expect it, a death metal onslaught clocks you upside the head and doesn’t stop beating you in the face for what feels like hours. It’s sheer horror to bear, but let’s attribute that horror more towards the car accident syndrome when driving by, you just cannot seem to look away.

The Hunt is this combination of death doom and gloom covered by spurts of ambient electronic soundscapes that sometimes prowl around your eardrums while other times taunting you to see how long it will take for you to crack.

It’s like Type O Negative covered Burzum but would much rather listen to something like Labradford. Quite confusing, but that’s the essential reason that makes you want to listen to Fauna. After a few listens, I still don’t know what lurks around the corner.

Open the door that leads into the dark depths of the unknown and expect some strobe lights to beat you down along the way. They didn’t say it was easy, but nor did bands like Whitehouse or Zoviet France.

Recently releasing their debut EP The Beating Of The Wings, their conglomeration of deeply-rooted synth and rock decadence and romantic feelings of intrigue dig in to make up an album of five swaying hip shakers.

Solidifying their dreams., this is proof of a band who believes in themselves to make the music that they want to make while joining together and uniting in a movement that is keeping the city that never sleeps wide-eyed.

Featuring vocalist and pianist Johnny Quinlan, guitarist Robert Tahija, Frank Deserto on bass, synth and theremin, and drummer Barrett Hiatt, this is Revel Hotel.

Link: http://revelhotel.net/

Coming from different aspects of the New York City scene, tell me where you came from, how you all met, and what caused the formation of Revel Hotel? What were you looking for as a band?

Frank: The idea for this band essentially stemmed from our singer, Johnny.  As an accomplished singer/songwriter/solo performer, he decided it was best to gather a few like minded individuals to give some songs an extra boost.  At the time, I was still moonlighting in the Funeral Crashers, a NYC deathrock band who split soon after RH’s first show.  Johnny sort of collected us, if you will, but I’ll let him expand on that.

Johnny: Revel Hotel essentially began before it even started-I was a solo artist unsatisfied with the singular dimensions of my music-not to say I don’t love solo piano and voice-however I knew that I wanted to gather a power team and bring back the deeper and more intense energy that only a band can provide. I was also looking for the camaraderie that comes with playing in a group. I knew Frankie from the Funeral Crashers and one night I was at a show and he blew me away with his passion and raw balls-to-the-walls playing so after the gig I approached him.  I had met Barrett through friends and really liked his style so I asked him if he wanted to check out a new project I was putting together. We then played our first gig within 2 weeks at the weekly Wierd party.  We were called Alter Boys, but not for long. Revel Hotel was then born along with the much anticipated arrival of super-talent, guitarist Robert Tahija who I met at his place of work and later over a few beers- he was in.

Barrett: I can tell you that I personally wasn’t even looking to be in a band at the time. I had only been on hiatus from my previous band for less than a year, and to be honest was enjoying the time off. I was working on my remixes under my Halo33 moniker and expanding my skills at making music with the computer. I found that once I started playing with Frank and Johnny, that it was a very natural fit and was too good to pass on. I did not realize how much I missed being on a stage till I found myself sharing one with these guys.

Robert: After fronting numerous bands and years of solo work slumped and tangled in headphones, I realized I missed the collaborative dynamic of being in a band. Johnny and his mischievous ways lulled me into rehearsal and upon meeting Barrett and Frankie it became apparent that their particular chemistry would be right for me.

With music today, and especially the synth/electronic scene, there are many bands out there with clear-cut finger pointing to their influences and style. Yet when I listen to your music, I have a hard time pointing fingers. I get subtle nudges to various bands and styles but nothing concrete making the sound feel unique in a good way. What are your thoughts on that and how do you feel about your compositions?

Frank: My tastes in music run rather deep.  Though I tend to steer more towards the darkwave scene of the 1980s (consisting, of course, of the notorious post-punk and new wave bands as well as more obscure minimal synth and coldwave artists), I tend to also enjoy dusty choral music, 1940’s torch singers, and the melancholy, yet catchy edge of the sixties girl group greats.  Throw in a little knack for noise and experimentation, and that’s where I’m coming from as a musician.  I try to take all of the above influences and meld them into something more palatable, which is a rather refreshing challenge.  If anything, I’m pleased to be in a band where any style is fair game. 
 
As a collective, we’re all pulling from a vast array of influences, and each song we write tends to sound completely different than the last, unified primarily by Johnny’s vocals.

Johnny: I am very proud of two things about us; one being that we are quite unique in a market overrun with copycats of one another, and two, that we as a group have different musical pasts and influences, yet we all are unified in our likes and dislikes. That being said,  I believe we are a new genre band-one that really is trying to write and perform truly original music without losing sight of our sound, subtly evolving as we go.  My taste runs the gamut from classical to 20-30’s jazz, psychedelic surf punk, classic metal and 60’s-70’s rock and early goth/synth 80’s punk and new wave. All in all, I tend to favor older music but at the end of the day I appreciate great music, regardless the genre. Too many to list!

Barrett: Agreed. We all have such a diverse appreciation for all kinds of music, that its only natural for our influences to seep into the music we make. I listen to everything from metal and industrial, to new wave and alternative, to classical and hip-hop. I’ll throw in a few good Country songs just for the hell of it. There really isn’t anything musically that I would be opposed to at least trying out in this band. No limits here. 

Robert: Yeah, I like music and our compositions.

Much like a lead vocal, the piano interestingly takes dominance in most of your songs. Why did you decide to bring that to the forefront of the 
band? How do you treat the other instruments in respect to that?

Frank: This essentially dates back to the roots of the project.  Johnny’s songs were primarily written for piano and vocals, and our earliest compositions were already finished upon joining, leaving the piano as the centerpiece of the track.  The material we’ve been writing as a full-fledged four piece has moved in a different direction.  There’s still piano at times, but there’s more of a collective thought process and an array of instrumentation involved.

Johnny: Being that piano and synth are–beside my vocals—my main tool for writing, the first songs are piano-dominated.  However, we are evolving with less emphasis on the piano and more on guitar and synth. I have always loved the hauntingly beautiful piano when used in a dark glam sensibility, and I think we own that. I have been exploring dynamics and spatial intent within the songs and I am liking where that is taking us. Also I am freeing myself up to front the band and connect even more onstage.

Robert: Being last in the band didn’t leave me much choice. I try to squeeze a note in where I can. But seriously, I adore Johnny’s compositions and both Frankie and Barrett’s contributions. I really enjoy adding to the mix.

Tell me about the new EP, from the creation to the output, what did you encounter?

Frank: There are five songs on the EP, entitled The Beating of the Wings. Four of the five are among our earliest numbers, written by Johnny originally and fleshed out into a full band arrangement just after Robert’s arrival and the recording process.  The fifth, “1,000 Dreams,” stems from a simple keyboard melody I created while jamming.  Everyone else jumped in immediately, and the song was basically finished in one practice session.  We were due in the studio soon after, and we were so pleased with that track, we couldn’t pass it up. We have several other songs, many written as a full band, but they’ll have to wait until the next release. 
 
As for the process, the EP was recorded in pieces, over a long, laborious stretch of time, starting in February/March of ’09.

Johnny: This EP, our first of many albums to come we hope, has been quite labor intensive but has shaped us as a band and as friends along the way. Something interesting happened as we began, and I believe we learned who we really were musically. The Beating of the Wings, in a sense is our calling card and we have so much more to offer in the near future. Personally, I am very proud of this album and I think it is deeply profound and speaks volumes about our intentions. I really hope people love it as we do.

Barrett: We really had no issues deciding which songs would be on the EP. We ran through a few different track orders, but generally speaking we agreed on most things pretty easily. I took upon the task of creating the artwork, which proved to be a little more difficult as the four of us have different artistic aesthetics, but took the time to create something we are all happy with. I generally like cover art to be abstract, or at least make you think a little bit. I doubt you will ever find a Revel Hotel release with just a picture of us on the front. Art is very important to this band but the music should speak louder than the image.

Robert: After we finalized our parts, we recorded at my studio in Brooklyn and brought in my old friend and technical wiz, Kelley Kelley, to help steer the ship. It  proved to be overwhelming at times with four artistically focused individuals and an expansive array of concepts but we’re all proud of the end result.

Do you feel like this is the album you always wanted to make? Is so, what led to that feeling of accomplishment and what was your focus. If not, then tell me what the band hopes to achieve.  Where does this release put you in respects to the future of the band, and how do you foresee that?

Frank: Despite the process, I’m rather pleased with the EP as it stands.  The idea was to cut these five songs, and cut them properly, with no plans to go back and re-record them in the future.  It certainly took a lot longer than we’d have liked, but patience prevails.

Johnny: I believe this is the album we DID want to make-pitfalls, successes and all. As a fairly new group, I think we all had a sense of what we wanted the album to feel like, and the sound kept building as we went, four minds pushing forth. Some of theses songs I had recorded as demos so I had a vision but within the structure there was room for so much more that occurred, like ambience and special surprises you never see coming until they hit you over the head!

Barrett: I am more proud of this EP than anything I have made in any previous endeavor. This is music that I enjoy listening to. I believe it’s timeless. The process may have been a little unorthodox, but the output was well worth it.  I am eager to begin work on new material. Considering what our EP turned out to be, I expect nothing less than epic for our first full length.

Robert: All of the above.

One very pleasing aspect about your music is the live show, its passion and its versatility. Tell me about the live show and things that you have 
done to enhance and liven up your music?

Frank: Naturally, the live show is a little less polished, a little more raw and intense, and that’s how I’d prefer it to be.  So many bands use laptops to perfectly recreate their studio record, and I don’t care much for that.  A record and a live show should be two distinct experiences, as far as I’m concerned.

Johnny: Playing live is one of my guilty and favorite pleasures. We are not at all just a studio band and like Frank said-we don’t try to sound exactly like our record. We bring something new, heavier and more visual to the stage, and we have plans to up that ante in a big way. Fans are everything, especially these days and we give them our all. What I feel we have improved upon is the emotion of the shows. We take people on a journey with the sets, and I love to see cheering and sometimes tears!

Barrett: I prefer a live show to sound different. Why would you want to attend a show and hear songs exactly as played on a record? Live shows are supposed to be about the moment. Living in that moment. It is where you just let the music breathe and use instinct when playing. No overdubs, no retakes. I would say live we are a little more stripped down but much more aggressive. As Frank said. Two distinct experiences. The way it should be.

Robert: Turn up the guitar. Ha!

There seems to be a burgeoning scene blooming in Brooklyn with Wierd at the vortex of that. Having involvement in that scene, how does Revel Hotel fit into that conglomerate because even in the array of artists involved, Revel Hotel’s music feels like the outsiders: nonconformists in a nonconformist environment. Is that the case? How do you see yourself in this?

Frank: Pieter Schoolwerth, who runs Wierd, has always been most supportive of the band, even though we don’t necessarily fit the mold of the label’s mission statement.  We’ve played the weekly party three times over, generally reinventing ourselves with each performance.  While I’m heavily involved and invested in Wierd’s dogma and very much interested in the sounds the label is cultivating on a personal basis, Revel Hotel probably oscillates a bit too much to settle into one particular groove, for better or for worse.

However, that’s not to say we’re without peers, or several artists we find kinship with.  Some names that come to mind: Weep, Automelodi, White Light Lametta, and Cruel Back Dove.  We’ve collaborated with Shirley, the bassist of Cruel Black Dove, who lent vocals to a few live and radio performances.

Johnny: What can I say-we love WIERD and WIERD loves us! Though we are not a prototypical darkwave synth based act, we resonate with those fans and we all love that music as well. Pieter has been very supportive of us and we appreciate the scene that is Wierd. Beyond that, I do believe Brooklyn is the place to watch in this country, and we hope to represent greatly, as many others have.

Barrett: We all love Wierd, that it without question. It brings together great people and great music that you wouldn’t hear elsewhere. But our music doesn’t fit into a textbook genre or even in the confines of Wierd. But that is EXACTLY what makes us fit. It’s not what you expect. It’s something different. It’s the community of music that we subscribe to.

Beyond the music is the lyricism, which it feels that the band pays close attention to. Somewhat reflective while being part Surrealist, and 
being a little Activist at the same time, I get the feeling like I do when reading someone like Philippe Soupault. Can you comment about the writing 
style, what it was you were looking for within the songs and what you are trying to capture?

Johnny: Well thank you for the comparison and compliment–Phillipe Soupault is a breathtaking poet and author. Without delving into all the lyrics from each song on the EP, I feel that the lyrical content comes from non-fictional experiences as well as a vivid, over-active imagination cultivated over my very interesting life. I appreciate poetry, sentiment and mindfulness and try to tell a story not so purposefully subversive but hauntingly beautiful and filled with lush images. That’s not to say I am not political, but I do deliver a message, for certain. Sometimes the words come before the music, sometimes during or after—I have no rules , I just try and remain open to what comes.

In what ways has urbanization affected this band? Is it important to the existence this band has even beyond the practicality a city like New 
York has? How do you see the trends of the city shaping you?

Frank: In the past, I’ve found New York City to be a pretty thankless place to be in a band, as the sheer amount of oversaturation does not lend well to a band’s success.  Far too many of our friends and peers have folded under the intense pressure of a New York lifestyle.  However, over the past year and change, I’ve noticed a bit more camaraderie among bands, something scarcely missing given NYC’s cutthroat nature.  
 
Otherwise, nothing bothers me more than a piecemeal bill, where none of the bands know each other or sound a thing alike.  My personal mission with Revel Hotel has been to play with bands with similar sounds, ethics, or even with familiar faces.  With a recession at hand, it’s certainly a drag to drop $10 on one act, only to be driven away by the band that follows.  I think it’s in everyone’s best interest to put together a bill that makes sense, and I’ve been striving to do that with every gig we play.  For the most part, this has been rather successful.

Johnny: I agree with Frankie on this-too many cooks in a humongous kitchen! However, basing ourselves in Brooklyn and giving ourselves a strong identity has helped. Success shouldn’t be just for rich kids in bands who can afford the best PR,  the best of everything really. Unfortunately, that has happened and is so evident in the NY scene which is why there is not much community or support for good bands who struggle to pay for all it takes to be out there with a serious presence. We have had to make many sacrifices, but we do what we have to and know it will pay off to be strong musicians. If anything, today’s trends have pissed us off and made us work harder and put even more effort in!

Barrett: Frank brings up a great point. The community is a big deal. Its how a movement gets started. We have seen this again and again throughout music history. The Beatles, The Sex Pistols, Nirvana. It only takes one band to break down a barrier and there will always be a small army behind them. Whether we are the band to break through or one of the satellites that happens to be in the right vicinity at the right time, the important thing is to get the music heard. That is our primary goal.

Robert: I only drink where my friends work.

Much of your shows revolve in and around New York City. Any plans on reaching out beyond the East Coast? What plans do you have here on out?

Frank: Here’s hoping.  We don’t have any concrete plans to tour just yet, but anything’s possible.

Johnny: We had to get the ball rolling before we could reach out further but now…Hell Yeah! I feel that we are ready to hit some other cities here in the US and abroad. I hope to do the European outdoor festival circuit soon-there is nothing like playing for a crowd outside! Onwards and Upwards we go!!!

Barrett: Anyone wanna put us up in Europe?

Robert: I’d like to visit my aunt in LA.

Link: http://www.sotones.co.uk/order.php?release_id=54

Jackie Paper (not the character from Puff The Magic Dragon or the urban slang term for the paper used to roll marijuana, but the folk singer from Southampton) has teamed up with Lonely Joe Parker to create this split EP.

Jackie Paper is up first with his toy piano and an acoustic guitar. “All The Wine” rolls down the hill with all the ingredients for a great fairy tale and a wonderful folk song. It could be the banjo that makes this song float like a Bad Religion song set to the tone of Blind Pilot streaming from the Ozarks.

Okay, that’s just one song out of the six. Paper beams with confidence for his half of the bargain. Both Paper and Parker collaborate for “Down Among The Dead Men” which sounds like something you would find inside The Haunted Mansion ride only if there was a dirty pub for the ghosts to revel in.

Parker puts on a Billy Bragg snear with the poetic tinge of a mellow Franz Ferdinand song. More of a realist than an urban romantic, Parker’s views of the street is at face value. Dirt is just dirt, but can you blame him as these songs were written while being stranded in the U.S. after all of his possessions were stolen. It may be a stale impression, but Parker presents a degree of charm to the rust that covers his tales of woe.

Both musicians compliment each other in a way that, only through this EP, they can solely do it together.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Desert_Sessions

Remember that part in the movie Vanishing Point where Kowalski (Barry Newman) is in the desert, and he stumbles upon a hippy commune with desert hippies playing music and religiously performing some crazy free-form dance? It felt like an existential mirage generated from the heat of the desert.

If you substitute ‘60s psychedelia with a roving dust storm of gypsy revivalism, then you get the gist of the first song “Don’t Drink Poison” from Desert Sessions.

I always thought that scene in Vanishing Point was a weakness of the movie, as is Volumes 7 and 8 of this collective.

Despite the first number, a watered down original version of “Hanging Tree” that later was re-recorded for Queens Of The Stone Age’s Songs For The Deaf, and “Poly Wants A Crack Rock” — being the finest examples in the stoner rock style — this compilation keeps a low profile that doesn’t really do its part to push the envelope like it should.

The Desert Sessions collective has always included the best in alternative performers and these two volumes are no different. Mark Lanegan, Alain Johannes, Joshua Homme and others make up Volumes 7 (Gypsy Marches) and 8 (Can You See Under My Thumb? There You Are).

Trailing towards the end of the collection (the final imprint on this collective was Volumes 9 and 10), and serving as an historical document for Queens of the Stone Age,   unless you are a deep fan of Screaming Trees or a Queens junkie looking for earlier versions of a few songs that make the lifeblood of the band, then you are not going to really want to bother with the rest. Sure Johannes’ Eleven imprint is embedded in here somewhere, but you will have this picked over if you keep that philosophy.

It’s enough to make anyone exhausted, but they continue, going back out on the road and back into the studio to record an album that’s slated for release later this year. All of this remains on the Earthology label, and the band (singer/songwriter Minowa, Sarah Young on cello, violinist Shannon Frid, Shawn Neary on bass, Arlen Peiffer on drums, and visual artists Connie Minowa and Scott West) stays true to their beliefs by continuing their crusade of environmentally conscious products and practices.

Minowa talks about current affairs about the band, as well as the move from Minnesota to the wooded landscape of Wisconsin.

Link: http://www.cloudcult.com/

(Photo by Cody York)

It’s exciting news to know that Cloud Cult is coming out with a new album this fall. Is there a title for the album? Can you tell me thus far how the band is further evolving and what kind of experiences everyone has comparatively put into this album? What does this album mean to you?

This album is another focused exploration into chasing the God/meaning/truth/purpose of life.  We just had a new baby, so there have been a lot of lyrical insights.  We also uprooted our organic farm and moved to the woods of Wisconsin, where the new recording studio is. So the wildlife out here is inspiring a pretty cinematic feel to the album.

It has also brought the band back out on tour? How has that been going? Cloud Cult’s live shows are always an experience. What have fans been experiencing this year and what plans do you have once the new album is finished.

We’re adding another musician to the live shows, Sarah Elhardt. She’s a multi-instrumentalist who plays French horn, trumpet, accordion and keyboard. When the album is released, we’ll be doing a full supporting national tour covering our usual cities across the U.S. We had an offer some European touring, but we have a new baby, so we’re going to hold off on that for a while.

Last year led to a documentary and the recent re-issue of the double disc “They Live On The Sun” and “Aurora Borealis.” As both albums are incredibly special, what do these albums mean to you today compared to what they did when you made them.

When I first made them, I had no idea Cloud Cult would actually catch on, so they were music strictly for the sake of making music. I had a lot of pain in my life at that time, having just lost our two year old son, so I had a lot of issues to work through, and the music helped me do that while giving me a vent. Music literally saved my life at that time, and the songs on those albums are essentially the snapshots of that insane period. So that’s how I treat them… If I’m looking to dig through an old cardboard box of memories of that time period, I can put one of those on and grieve. But I don’t listen to them for casual listening. It was very hard to put the double disc together because I had to really focus on those tracks again, because it brings back that intense grief for me.

You are a band who was one of the first outspoken “green” bands. How did that initially interest you and why did you want to get involved? Can you tell us how what you have done  that has positively made a change, something that has made all of this work worth it? Also does that consciousness interfere or persuade how people perceive the band or how you create music or does the two go hand in hand. Without that perception, what would Cloud Cult be like?

I’ve had strong environmentally tendencies as far back as I can remember. I used to skip school to avoid the beatings, and I’d hang out in the woods. I really got in touch with my spirituality there, so it became natural to want
to protect and respect that.  I just feel like it’s the logical way to run any business, and I wouldn’t want to be a part of any business that doesn’t take steps to respect this living biome.  It was initially an uphill PR battle for Cloud Cult, because we did all these green things way before it was the trendy thing to do, so a lot of reviewers got caught up in that and assumed that if we were a green band, we must be a hippie jam band, because they were about the only other bands out there trying to be green.  Now it is very trendy to be green, and the concept has become watered down, but I love running into those people who do it because it’s the right thing to do, and not because it’s something that people will think is cool.  For the most part, at this point, I don’t think our green pursuits have had a part in our fan-base building.  Most people we meet at shows don’t even know we’re a green band. The lyrics are  really not directly indicative of those ecological pursuits. But I also think that if I wasn’t in love with nature, I wouldn’t have the same sort of reverence and connection with this living universe, and it’s precisely that connection where I try to tap most of the lyrics from.

How did the idea of creating artwork during the live shows come into being, and for you, how does that accentuate the music when you are on stage surrounded by it all?

My wife and my best friend were both career painters, so it was common for them to be painting around me while I created music, back in the days of small apartment living.  I’m also a fan of shows where there are really great visuals, because even as a musician, it can get boring for me to go watch a band stand there on stage for 90 minutes without anything else for my eyes to feast on.  So the early Cloud Cult shows were these multi-faceted creative explosions where we invited as many people to bring their art as were interested.  We also had performance artists on stage with us, and live video in the background. The crowd would literally be surrounded in art unfolding. It was really great, but as the crowds and venues got bigger, it became a logistical nightmare to plan shows like that for touring, and we needed to simplify to stay sane.  So for the past five years, Connie Minowa and Scott West have been the visual art show of the Cloud Cult performance, and Adrian Young did the live video.

During that break in 2008-2009, what did you do in the downtime, and how did that help you? After “Feel Good Ghosts” what was you mindset and what were you thinking at the time. Did that time off refresh you?

We were planning on taking a break in 2008, but we actually decided to keep touring, so the break didn’t actually occur until September of 2009 when we had a baby. The break has been refreshing, and it has allowed space for
doing a lot of writing on the new album.

Why team up with Esurance on this tour? How is that helping to educate the fans about being environmentally conscious? Has it become easier, with the term “green” becoming a more common word amongst society?

Esurance sponsored our tour in spring of 2009.  They helped pay the costs of greening the tour, like planting enough  trees to absorb our CO2 and buying enough wind energy to power our shows. These are costs that we’ve always had, but we have usually just had to do them out of pocket. Esurance offered to pay them for us.

Multi-instrumental talents of the band have been an approach to help turn your music into art, and it has developed and expanded through the years. How is that helping you continue to achieve vision in a band like this?

Having multi-instrumentalists on board is essential, because the albums pay little heed to how a song is going to be performed live. That is to say, if a recorded song calls for bagpipes, it gets bagpipes, even if we don’t know
how we’re going to do that live on stage.  So, once the songs are recorded, we see how we can piece them together in a live setting.

You have seen much success from this band. What has surprised you the most about this? What has impressed you the most?

I’m most surprised by our success, because we’ve always been an independent band. In my younger years, I was bitter enough to believe that the music industry was so messed up that the only way you could make it was by getting signed to some golden record label.  But we’ve just worked hard for many years and it gradually gets better and better. There’s no instant success recipe when you look at the history of Cloud Cult. Most people have never heard of us, so when they see us on Carson Daily or hear us on National Public Radio, they assume we exploded from out of nowhere. But, in actuality, we’ve been here for over a decade, and with each year, our organic roots dig a little deeper, and our branches grow a little taller.

What are your plans for 2010?

I want this to be the best album we’ve ever done, so A LOT of work is going into this. We’ll do a sprinkling of shows until it comes out in August and then tour nationally.  Thanks!

Links:
Sam Weiser: http://www.myspace.com/samweisermusic
Disappear Records: http://www.disappearrecords.com/

In an attempt at not sounding cliche because I am not alone when saying this, but “Wow! This kid is 15 years old, and he plays like that?” At this age, he already looks like a veteran when you read that he picked up the instrument at the age of three.

There is not a genre that Weiser cannot play. From classical to bluegrass to Spanish to Gypsy, it’s all here on his debut Sam I Am.

I am charmed by “Gypsy Fantastic,” a song that mixes Biederbecke-style jangle with gypsy Old World swoon. Producer SONia chimes in with a few moderate vocal numbers, starting with “By My Silence,” but only ends up being distracting when the real purpose of this album is to hear Weiser play. He sways with a gorgeous adaptation of Santana’s “Europa,” and a deep love for Bill Monroe’s “Jerusalem Ridge,” that stays true to Monroe’s vision.

Although a little less intimate feeling with the power behind the song, but still a favorite of mine is Jobim’s “Desafinado.” But the power may be still be emitting off the latin stronghold “Azucar.” Weiser’s rendition of Palmieri’s creation sounds as good as any Latin Brothers jam.

Weiser stretches out his chops and tries to show off every facet of his talent. He does so with a refined taste and sincerity who can sound flawless in the traditional as he can when he loosens his collar and lets his hair down. And for someone with this much talent, he has every right to show off.

Links:

A Weather: http://www.aweathermusic.com
Team Love: http://team-love.com/

Maybe it’s a result of me getting older, but I enjoy the times when I can sit peacefully in the back room, setting the creak of the rocking chair in a rhythmic pace while enjoying the sun peering in or looking out into the woods while capturing the beauty from an occasional redbird that flies by. A book sits on my lap if one of my cats does not get there first. And it’s that moment of life’s satisfaction that you get, like the moments where you catch yourself breathing and you feel completely aware of that breath. It’s the essence of being alive.

It’s that quiet solitude and pleasurable realization that I get out of A Weather’s Everyday Balloons. Aaron Gerber and Sarah Winchester move slow, about as slow as watching the flowers slowly come up in the spring. But it’s that slowness that reminds you to just sit back and soak it all in.

The way Gerber and Winchester (Aaron Krenkel and Lou Thomas complete the lineup) work together to bounce off breathy vocals. It’s the confidence they feel that get you, but the apparent subtleties are enough not to step on each other’s toes.

They kick around the dirt with “Ducks” while stepping up close to the mic on “Happiness.” And would I be happy to discover a song like “Newfallen” while sipping some coffee in a city shop? Damn right I would. I would want it nestled right there between a Karate song and Ida.

What a beautiful album this is.

The traditionalist viewpoint of society trains us that if you follow a particular path, you will succeed in life. Most people grow up, they go to school and graduate, and then lay out a career path that leads to wealth and happiness. It’s what we have come to expect from others. It’s a formula that has worked for most of us. It’s how we achieve the American Dream.

Foti has achieved the American Dream, only he followed a different path that set him outside the norm. Nonetheless, this is his story, his version of achieving that dream.

Being a tattoo artist is a path that Foti risked to take. It’s a career that fell into place, and once the wheels were turning, he only pushed forward.

“If tattooing was not in my life, I would not feel normal,” he said. “Growing up on the music that I did and the scene I was in, in some weird way tattooing has always been a part of my life.”

A proud fixture of Metamorphosis in Broad Ripple, Foti has been inking people on the strip for 12 years; as many years as the place has been opened. The shop took over Missing Link’s space, and on March 28, 1998, they opened their doors.

But the first time he became interested in tattooing, he knew nothing of the art.

“In early high school, instead of doing the work I was supposed to be doing, I sat around drawing skulls and playing music. I didn’t know drawing skulls would lead to this. Like the music I played, I did not learn by a textbook or was properly trained. Same went for me learning how to tattoo.”

And then something happened. Something that completely changed his perspective on life. During his junior year in high school, he was in a bad car accident that put him in the hospital, sustaining mostly cosmetic injuries and experienced the loss of his girlfriend at the time. She died at the scene of the accident.

“I saw how quickly a person’s life could vanish. It made me think of my own life and the feeling that I was wasting away in school.”

After recovering, Foti quit school and with a $50,000 settlement, he took off to Hollywood as a means of cleansing himself from the trauma of what he experienced and to live in the moment. Even though Foti admits that it is not a good idea to freely give a 17 year old 50 grand, he also admits that his experience was better than any high school education could give him.

When he returned from Hollywood with his bank account drained he sought a job at Karma up near the College Park area. He spent six-to-seven years hanging out, listening to all the latest music, and getting to know the people who regularly frequented the place.
After tiring out from that, he ended up at a computer place running a scanner and what he calls “other nerdy things.”

“This was many years before Office Space came out, but it was really like that. I was doing the same thing every day and tasks that meant nothing to me. It really got to me.”

Before we continue, let’s back up to Foti’s first tattoo. He got it done by Dana Brunson in Cincinnati when he was 18. It’s a lotus flower that is now buried on his arm by one layer of tattoos after another. It took that one for him to want more.

“Once I got the tattoo, I was hooked,” He said. “I was attracted to the mystery of it back then. You went in and you did not ask questions or contemplate the health risks of it. You just walk out with a cool tattoo.”

Working at Karma, he would put back money to take the drive to visit Brunson. If you ask him now how many tattoos he has, he will just point to his arms and legs and say four. The truth is that he has so many he does not remember them as much as he remembers each individual experience.

It got him talking to Brunson and expressing interest in becoming an inker. He picked Brunson’s brain about how he could make it work and how to get a hold of supplies. According to Foti, Brunson took him in and agreed to help under the condition that he does not move to Cincinnati and take people away from his business, half jokingly. Brunson understood the potential in Foti, and knew he would succeed in becoming a great tattoo artist.

Foti sold his Gibson Les Paul and ordered some equipment. He set up a makeshift shop out of his den and began tattooing himself, his friends and whoever else that was interested.

“I had no clue how to do anything. I did a couple myself. I had a friend let me do random shit. It was all trial and error. I know it sounds like a horrible thing to say for something that is permanent, but for 20 bucks and a box of gloves, you have a certain expectation when you walk in.”

There was that initial uncertainty to tattooing but Foti realized from the beginning that you eventually build up confidence and reach your comfort level, so he kept trying, learning not just from his influences but being aware of his own technique as it developed. Now inking is more mechanical and natural where he can focus more on what he is doing and the technique involved.

“You should understand your limitations, but you can’t push yourself and progress unless you take risks,” he said. “Skin does every fucked up thing. It breathes, it moves, it jumps. A mother was here today with her family and a kid bumped the chair. I’ve had every type of person and every situation come before me.”

Doing it himself, he entered the business cold without any guidance to help him along. He ended up getting an apprentice role at Skin Quake, working as their “shop slave.” While the artists spent the day inking, he made the appointments, kept the administrative chores in check, and observed and talked about the art.

Then the Metamorphosis opportunity came along and he took it, never looking back. Now, he tattoos three days a week, averaging three larger pieces in two-to-three hour sessions.

For Foti, it’s the experience that really taps into his soul and enjoying the satisfaction that people get when they see the finished product. Since the MTV generation exposed everyone to the popularity of the tattoo, and modern day programs like L.A. Ink talk about the deep meaning behind it all, Foti is nostalgic for the days that more people would come in to get a tattoo simply for the tattoo.

“Can’t you get something because it simply looks cool? It doesn’t have to have a deep meaning or a reminder of your life. Tattooing is supposed to be cool. Enjoy the experience for yourself.”

Foti deserves the reputation that he has earned. With no misspellings credited to his name and the variety of tattoos he has accomplished, he is very considerate and aware of the permanence of what is going on people’s skin.

“I try to help the customer and tell them what will look good 20 years from now. I think about the future of that tattoo and do as much as I can to make it a lasting piece.”

And every day is a new experience for him. With new ideas and new potential, he is always learning in his environment.

“Even 13 years of doing this, I’m nowhere near my potential.”

Link: http://www.myspace.com/holyfiction

Holy Fiction’s debut smells like new grass. You know that smell that is so familiar but once the winter months hide it away, it always returns to feel like a refreshing new experience every time that earthy scent brings life back to the senses.

Delicate and colorful rhythms dance around as Hours From It takes special care into how each note is placed and how each vocal is spread out through the song. A result from the band’s expansion from three to six members, it shows to the best possible effects and really contributes to the way this album shines.

“Exit” fits in a lasting violin as Evan Lecker puts on his best Nick Drake, while “More Than Ever” relies on a fleeting hand clap to remind us the importance of the subtle things this album provides so wonderfully.

The personal love of “Iron Eyes” runs deep with me. It’s a song that takes a rustic vision (no pun intended) to the panoramic pop vision this band lays down – from the lush violin solo to the percussive interlude to the rolling rhythms that will have you swaying in the breeze created from this open-aired rock sonata. It’s a clear demonstration of how easy this band makes it seem.

“Song Ten” is the difference from “Iron Eyes” like Big Country’s “In A Big Country” was to  “Fragile Thing.” The coolness factor dissipates to exploratory songwriting that ends up sounding more ‘90s singer/songwriter alternative with a country tinge. But even then they can crescendo a somewhat fizzle of a song to an explosive ending.

It isn’t until last call hits and “Yes They Were Here” ends the album on a high note. And what a series bang this song makes. It has me pulling out my A House albums and giving them a spin, unless Peter Gabriel’s So does not beat it to the plate thanks to the first half of the album.

Hours From It is the remnants of the ‘80s rock albums we grew to love while maintaining a predominately fresh outlook through it all.