READ THE COMIC!!

READ THE COMIC!!

John Porcellino makes his own comics.

That might not seem like much but consider this: those DC and Marvel comics that you’ve seen at some point in your life are a lot like a mainstream movie in that a squad of people are assembled to bring it all together – each with their own area of responsibility.  Similar to a Producer, Director, Writers, Actors, etc. that come together to make a film, a single issue of a mainstream comic might have a writer, penciller, inker, letterer, colorist, and an editor.  This is necessary in order to crank out the product on a monthly basis.  Now, consider John Porcellino.  John’s comics are not in color, and don’t come out monthly, but each issue is written, drawn, inked, lettered, and edited all by one person.  Not unlike indie films where one person can handle most aspects of the film’s creation, John is solely responsible for executing his vision issue after issue.  In an age where most of us can barely manage to give anything our sole attention for longer than a few minutes, a man having published 70 issues of his own comic (King-Cat Comics and Stories), alone, is a feat on any level.  But don’t take my word for it, John won an Ignatz award in 2005, and was even the lead interview for an issue of The Comics Journal – arguably the most valuable resource of comic commentary and criticism on the planet.

I first became aware of John Porcellino during the summer of 1995.  While visiting a friend in Colorado we hit a local record shop where I saw my first issue of King-Cat Comics.  Having started drawing my own comics in 4^th grade (Rock Man #1, to be exact), I always had a fascination with self-made comics.  Up to this point my exposure was limited to the Tim Corrigan pantheon of mini-comics, and Jerry Ordway’s “Okay Comics”.  Both of those were fairly straight genre books, which is what sets John’s epic run even more unique.  King-Cat comics primarily document John’s own life, both real and imaginary (Dreams of dating Madonna versus his life as a Mosquito abatement man, for example), as well as illustrated lessons from Zen masters.  A more honest comic you won’t find.

Both John and his artistic style have grown and evolved together over the years.  His style on earlier issues of King-Cat seemed to attack the page with scribbled lines, jagged edges, beer, blood, sweat, and tears.  Over the years, however, John’s style has achieved the perfection of simplicity and essentiality.  Oh, and John is as humble as they come and would likely never cop to having achieved that “perfection”, but that’s his take.  Mine is that he’s accomplished a steady and effective line that most illustrators spend a lifetime trying to achieve.

Ever since that first issue in 1995, I’ve written a few pieces of fan mail to John and he’s always been gracious enough to take the time to respond.  This time John does me the great favor of answering a few questions for Zaptown:

ZT: Apologies for generalizing both your life and your prolific creative output, but one could track the evolution of the King-Cat stories in parallel with your growth as a person. For example, the early days of the book were somewhat “angrier”, rebellious and a bit self-depreciating, the Mosquito Abatement Man period arguably dealt with the transition from teenager to young adult and all of the introspection and disappointment that comes with it, with the third act being your meditations on Zen teachings and meditations on the world around and within you. Now that we’re staring into the abyss of our mid-life, what do you see as the next step in your evolution as a person and how do you see that translating into your comics?

John P: The next or most recent step in my “evolution” might be finally accepting myself, and what I do. I spent decades fighting my impulse towards art…  struggling with it in fundamental ways.  When I turned forty, I thought, “This is it for me.  It’s too late for me to do anything else.  It’s time to accept that and move forward as best I can.”  So that’s what I’ve been trying to do for the last couple years.

ZT: With your work now being translated into at least 6 different languages, how has the international community responded to such personal stories? Do you find a somewhat universal response to your comics?

JP: I have readers all over the world, and one of the biggest thrills I have is connecting with people very far away.  It becomes clear that we all have the same struggles, hopes, and joys.  It’s a human thing.  We’re all connected in this way.  It’s inspiring.

ZT: Early in your life as an artist, the freedom of Punk Rock was a huge influence in establishing the DIY nature of King-Cat. In 2010 which comic book format is “more” punk rock – Paper or digital? Is the personal touch that is so palpable with the mini comic experience lost in the digital format?

JP: Well paper at this point is against the grain, so…  but I understand the appeal of digital.  It’s free (basically), and offers an enormous opportunity for reaching an audience.  I myself prefer paper to digital.  The internet is a great way to find out about what’s going on, and to communicate with people, but ultimately I like holding the thing in my hands.  Of course other people have differing opinions.

ZT: Recognizing the humble roots of King-Cat, how does it feel to be such an influence and inspiration to a younger generation of artists?

JP: Well it’s something I appreciate.  It’s humbling. It makes me want to work harder and do better.

ZT: Now that you’re older (aren’t we all), what motivates or inspires you to create King-Cat comics on a regular basis?

JP: Mostly, it’s that I’ve spent half my life doing this thing.  It’s just my nature now, it’s in my blood.  Also, I’m stubborn.  I like to see things through to their conclusion.  So I want to keep going.

ZT: Over the last 10 years or so, your work appears to be executed so fearlessly. How does one master the art of simplicity and subtlety and resist the urge to cross hatch the shit out of every panel?

JP: I certainly wouldn’t call it “fearless.”  If you only knew!  As far as my style, I’ve just always striven to let the drawings be what they want to be.  Over the years they’ve become more sparse and simplified.  I try not to judge that, but to just go with it wherever it leads me.  On the other hand there are some comics even nowadays where I feel like I need to throw some crosshatching or tones in there, and when that comes up I try to follow that too.

ZT: The endeavor to build a body of work, as well as a career, as a comic book artist is daunting.  When you set out to create King-Cat comics, surely there was no business plan in place or long term goals of graphic novel production, award winning, etc.  What words of wisdom could you pass along to artists and musicians who also seek to produce honest and meaningful work with no guarantee of commercial success?

JP: I always tell people, 1. Do this because you LOVE it.  Because you can’t NOT do it.  You have to have that love and commitment to survive.  2.  Don’t compare yourself to others too much.  That is always a losing game.  Find your own voice and pursue that. And 3. Be patient.

ZT: How is the scene in Colorado these days?  If I remember correctly, you were in CO for a long while before moving back to the Midwest.  Now that you are back in CO, how does the indie scene, both in terms or “art” and music, compare from now to then?

JP: Denver is a funny place.  When I was here in the 90′s there was very little of what you’d call a DIY scene.  There were a few bands and artists with that mentality.  But it was kind of nice too because it was insanely cheap to live here, and the like-minded DIY people stuck together.  Nowadays there’s a thriving indie music scene, but I don’t know too much about it.  There are a bunch of cartoonists too, and things along those lines are getting better and better.  Kilgore Books and Comics opened up a year and a half ago, and they’ve been super supportive of the local comics scene.  But…  I mean, I love Denver, but it’s kind of a cowtown.  Which has its plusses and minuses.  Unfortunately, the powers that be are trying to turn it into a “world class city” and in the process they’re destroying a lot of the things that made it great for artists (i.e. cheap space and a lack of pretension).  Ask me on two different days and you’ll get two different answers.  I love Denver, obviously, but sometimes it drives me nuts.

ZT: Since this is primarily an indie music site, what are your current favorite bands you are listening to?  And, what do you listen to while you work?

JP: Um, I’m pretty out of the loop as far as current music goes.  I listen to mostly older music nowadays.  I used to always listen to music when I was working;  then I stopped listening to music with lyrics–  it screwed me up when I was making comics; finally, I gave up listening to music while working altogether.  My comics are so deeply about rhythm, pacing, the sound of the words, that outside music throws me off.  I usually seek out quiet times to draw.  Even a TV in the other room can mess with me.

ZT: With over 70 issues under your belt, do you think about how much longer you’d like to keep King-Cat running? Are you ever tempted to start something new or does King-Cat satisfy your creative needs?

JP: I plan on going forward with King-Cat till I can’t physically do it anymore.  Which hopefully is a long time from now.  Lately, I have been juggling some ideas for different types of work, that maybe would be published outside the King-Cat format.  But those would be clearly stand-alone little projects to me, King-Cat would remain my focus.  We’ll see.  I have a gag cartoon zine coming up, and a monster comic too.  Those will probably be stand-alone titles.

ZT: I notice that you like to participate in Monster and Alien Invasion type books, so the monster book sounds pretty great!

JP: Regarding the Gag Cartoons: I’m going to be participating in an exhibit of Gag Cartoons in LA in the fall.  One night I stayed up for hours thinking of ideas for it, and I had so many I figured I’d make a zine of them.

JP: Regarding the Monster comics:  Those old pre-superhero Marvel monster comics are my favorite comics of all time.  The new book will just be an homage to them.

———————-

Note – John has since moved to Gainesville, Florida where he’ll be experiencing new adventures to share with us all.  He will also be joining the faculty at The Sequential Artists Workshop: http://www.sequentialartistsworkshop.org

John’s catalog and ridiculously affordable subscriptions to King-Cat comics can be found on his website: http://www.king-cat.net

Click on the label to play the song.

These days you can almost bet money on the name-checks a band will cite when asked about their musical influences.  There’s no need to even ask the TV Buddhas – these guys have to have been baptized in the
drug-fueled sweat of the early Stooges recordings.

The good news? They took all the best parts.  Raw energy minimalist rock riffs and let-it-all-hang-out vocals come together to remind us that rock won’t die, punk never did, and great fucking music is international.  Ladies
and gentlemen, straight from Berlin via Tel Aviv, put your hands together for the TV Buddhas!

TV Buddhas release their Self-Titled EP on We Are Busy Bodies, August 31. They will be hitting Bloomington, playing The Bishop on September 8.

A few years later at Micah’s wedding, I had the pleasure of meeting the geniuses behind Maron Studios and the L.a.P.E and Know Your Enemy films: Aaron Arendt and Mary McIlwain.  They told me about their next project, The Diamonds of Metro Valley.  After years of anticipation, their latest film is ready to be unleashed upon the world at large.  The movie combines elements of noir and science-fiction with heaping piles of action as well and ends with one hell of a chase scene.

Link: http://www.diamondsofmetrovalley.com/

Welcome to Metro Valley

In anticipation of its August 3rd release, Aaron and Mary took the time to entertain the questions of a Maron fanboy:

Who is Maron Studio?

Aaron: Maron Studio is pretty much a two person operation, though we do bring in other people to work on specific parts of our films. We met in grad school at the University of Minnesota Graduate program for Fine Arts, and toward the end of our time there we began to collaborate on a film project called L.a.P.E. We began the film in Minneapolis, shot parts of it during a cross country move, and finished it when we arrived in Los Angeles. After the intensity of the academic art world, we both decided that we wanted to work in an entirely different direction, video art and film, and our collaborative efforts became known as Maron Studio.

What are your backgrounds as filmmakers?  How do you see the progression of your body of work from Mexico 1976, to L.a.P.E. to Know Your Enemy, to Diamonds of Metro Valley?

Mary: Prior to L.a.P.E., we both worked in a variety of media, including sculpture, painting, drawing and film (Aaron) and photography, performance, costume design and film (Mary). For the most part, both of our backgrounds in filmmaking are entirely self-taught in the traditional sense, but we individually already had years of visual art creation and education, backgrounds in narrative storytelling, and sensibilities for creating through the process of trial and error.

Aaron: “Mexico 1976” was the first movie that I made. I obtained a reel of “family vacation” footage at Goodwill, and basically shot myself into that stock film. Nothing specifically came out of that project other than it steered me in a new direction; it got me interested in working in video.

Mary: For me, the progression from traditional visual art to video has felt like a natural and gradual transition. When I worked primarily in still photography, I staged moments or set up scenes that were recreations of events that never actually happened. It got to the point where the still image wasn’t enough anymore, and letting go of the idea of working in that manner was very liberating to me.

How long did it take to make DMV?  Assuming you both have “actual” jobs to help fund your movies, can you explain how someone works a full time job and manages to make their own movie?  I’m curious about who handles what at Maron, or is it all a joint effort on all levels?  How much of it did you have to farm out, such as the RONALD animation?

Aaron: From start to finish, DMV took us nearly five years to complete. We both have had full time jobs, in fact several, over the course of this period of time. Working full time and then attempting to make a film in your “spare time” is extremely difficult, and takes a lot of sacrifice and motivation. How we have done it is by working full time on it almost every weekend (12-18 hour days), every single night after work, using most of any vacation time and holidays to power through difficult scenes together and spending almost every spare dollar on it..

The credits on the film are actually quite long, and can be seen on the packaged DVD. On this film our main credits breakdown with Aaron as the editor and director, Mary as the writer, producer and costume designer, and a general credit of Maron Studio for most of the post-production effects. While Maron Studio is the two of us, we have collaborated with many talented filmmakers and artists on this film, both in production and post, all of who worked really hard to help us bring our vision to completion.

None of this project was farmed out. The small scale Ron was design and sculpted by a concept artist named Jon Neill. We used it as a guide to build the full scale Ron.

Our head makeup guy, Corbin, sculpted the organic parts of Ron, the head, tail, and he even made a full body “muscle” suit.  Then me and another guy (the actor who actually plays Ron) sculpted Ron’s armor and boots.

Don't mess with the RONALD

Seeing as you’ve made this film without the backing of a major production company, what drives you to make your own film?  Is it the hope that it serves as a great demo reel for future filmmaking jobs, or is it the pure love of making movies, or something else altogether?

Aaron: To get the film rolling we had a fundraiser amongst friends and supporters of our previous films, and we were able to raise most of our actual production budget. Not being beholden to an outside production company, major or otherwise, of course allows a lot more freedom to complete your work as you want it. The two of us have put in a lot of our own funds, and we do have an investor who has joined the project to help us since we began post-production. He really believed in the initial scenes that he saw, the story, the look and the feel of the project, and has been instrumental in getting us to this distribution phase. Additionally, being a creative person himself, he has been an awesome, trustworthy and honest set of eyes as we’ve made our final picture and sound edits.

Mary: In answer to the second part of your question, I think we both have always just been driven to make stuff. I know I feel lazy if I am not working on a project of some kind. For the most part, I think we make what we want to see. We make what we think is entertaining, fun and what we think other people may also enjoy.

While watching the chase scene at the end of the film, I’m imagining the screen play for this movie must’ve been a total trip.  Was the entire movie scripted out in advance, or did it come together more in a Frankenstein kind of way with ideas coming together and scenes being added in later?

Aaron: The car chase itself was actually the mechanism that kicked this whole project off – the desire to make a spectacular car chase entirely with hand-made model cars. The majority of the movie was scripted, but the car chase was actually only story boarded before the models were shot. We brought the actors in after we had a rough edit of the model car chase, and many of the spoken lines in the chase scene were written as we filmed, and some were improvised. We did shoot more than we thought we would need so that we had a lot of material to work with for the chase to evolve. The original chase sequence, if we included everything we actually shot, would have been almost twice as long.

I love the scene where the Doc snorts the lines of coke and the montage of science stuff that follows, and then how it bleeds into the sleezy bar scene.  The imagery and music was perfect.

Mary: This moment came together really effectively. Originally Price was meant to be explaining his process to Sudsy while Sudsy cut out lines of coke for him, but it was just too slow. I had written this whole formula and process for Dr. Price on how to make a “Ron” that we didn’t want to lose entirely. Aaron cut the druggie/science montage together using a lot of stock footage from the Prelinger Library, I laid in some lab sound effects and our friend David Roze wrote the song for us – a sort of Twin Peaks inspired, sleazy-junk riff. It turned out even better than we originally planned.

Aaron: The Prelinger Library ended up being a great resource for us. It’s a library of public domain books and films based in San Francisco. We went there over a weekend and scanned images until we filled up a hard drive. Essentially we created a library of assets to draw from, compiling our background plates from multiple individual pieces.

What’s the backstory for the Ape Puppet Mayor?  He’s clearly an animatronic being in the film, but he’s also a white haired ape.  Any connection to L.a.P.E?

Mary: There are many themes that repeat throughout our collaborative work, one of which is a talking or human-like animal. I worked at Chuck E. Cheese when I was in high school, an experience that has forever endeared me to the idea of situations where it is fully acceptable that animals in suits are running the show, and it is never questioned. Mayor Cole is the gangster’s literal puppet in the story, representative of the corruption at every level in Metro Valley, and we never even considered making him a “real” man. And he is in fact made out of a Frankenstein’d Teddy Ruxpin that we bought on eBay. As far as a connection to L.a.P.E., yes. Wizard of L.a.P.E. was and has been an inspiration since the moment he first rubbed the genie lamp.

Mayor Cole

RONALD is awesome.  Loved the scene where he chucks the cop into the wall.

Aaron: We created Ron at first just a device for the story, but we ended up loving him as a character. He became one of the most endearing parts of the story. He is at first presented as terrifying and out of control, but in the end he is really a hero. He’s Chewbacca. He’s Price’s right-hand, co-pilot and wingman. He’s also everything that Price wishes he was, and Price would never have been able to pull off the heist without him. Ron is completely loyal, like a powerful pet that can drive a car, shoot a gun, blow up a chopper and fix your Winnebago. He’s a bit scary, sort of a loose cannon, but he’s got a heart of gold. One other funny anecdote about Ron is the actor who played him, John Knuth. John also played “Officer Knudson” the cop at the beginning of the story who had his head ripped off. So John had the rare opportunity to murder himself on screen.

Metro Valley is a crazy place.  On one hand everyone is either driving old cars, or hyper-jet powered future machines.  You also have people using old school televisions (with knobs!).  And, AND, there’s a giant fucking volcano in the background!

Aaron: We have always thought of Metro Valley as “retro-futuristic” in that it was designed to look like a futuristic movie that was made in the early 1970’s. As one of our friends coined it, “The Near-Analog Future.” In this sense we were really inspired by the movie “The Apple,” which was this hilarious musical from 1980. The tag line was “The power of rock in 1994” and it was just a totally crappy future.

So in Metro Valley, the cars are souped-up, and there is a “cordless” telephone, but the innovation is still grounded in the reality of the technology of the time. Metro Valley is a big, dirty city with corrupt politics and dangerous gangsters. The crookedness and overall illness of the city manifests itself visually through the dark streets, pollution, violence, and self-serving citizens, and yes, even a violent natural disaster about to erupt at any moment to destroy the place once and for all!

The Blood Stained Decks movie-within-a-movie was a great touch.

Mary: This was another one of those things that started off as something else, and became better due to editing. This scene was originally meant to be the opener of the movie – “back-story” of where the diamonds came from, but again, it was too slow, and set the film up in too weird of a way. The day we shot this scene though was one of our longest days, and we had so many talented people working on the production, we hated to lose it all together. About halfway through the post production process we had to take a serious hard look at the film overall, and ending up making a lot of changes and even wrote new scenes.

Aaron: When we looked at this scene in a new light, we realized it could serve as a really funny and multi-layered transition between the set-up of the film and the climax/action of the ending. In essence, it serves as parallel between what is going on between Caine and Dr. Price, going from a literal story of where the diamonds came from to a metaphorical representation of Price’s ultimate betrayal of Caine.

“Come on Pete, lay the science on me” is a great line and should be a soundbite in a techno song.

Mary: THANKS! The two detectives were conceived as a kind of modern-day, two person Greek Chorus. They needed to help move the story along and tie up loose ends for the viewer, but we wanted them to be reminiscent of tough-guy film noir dicks. Their language was actually some of the most researched dialog in the script, in that we wanted it to have a very period flavor and sound authentic without just being regurgitated standard cop lingo. And we had 2 great actors to pull it off!

The Greek Chorus - Noir style

ZT: What are your plans for DMV now that it is finished?

Mary: There are so many ways to reach an audience outside of traditional distribution and the festival circuit; we think we can find an audience that this type of project will resonate with.

People are becoming more used to the idea of portable media, and are becoming more adventurous in their tastes thanks to viral media, social networking and the landscape changes of digital distribution. We also think that people are very open to watching independent films, films that clearly were not produced with an enormous budget. Audiences have respect for the process of making something that isn’t completely artificial, and don’t want just recycled stories spoon-fed to them all the time. There is always time and place to enjoy big budget Hollywood movies, but we think there are a lot people out there who would also like to see effects on the scale that we are creating them. It’s a total and complete DIY effort – and I think almost everyone can relate to that sensibility – whether you repair your own car, do your own taxes, make your own art or make your own action movies.

Currently we are self-distributing the film, and it is available on DVD on our website:

http://www.diamondsofmetrovalley.com/

The Diamonds of Metro Valley hits the streets on August 3rd.

Click Cover to Read!

Links:
The Depreciation Guild: http://www.thedepreciationguild.com/
Kanine Records: http://kaninerecords.com/

If King Diamond’s 1987 release “Abigail” is the quintessential heavy metal gothic-horror concept album, The Depreciation Guild’s Spirit Youth would represent the other side of the coin as the greatest gothic romance album to date.  These songs call out images of running through dark houses and snow, oaths of love, pining, bittersweet memories, and lots of dreaming.  Simply pigeon-holing this album as easy as a Pains of Being Pure at Heart side-project runs the risk of dismissing one of the best releases of 2010.

The Guild’s first full-length release, “In Her Gentle Jaws”, was unique in that it seamlessly melded 8-bit Nintendo tracks with guitars in such a way that it caused the attentive listener to appreciate how deftly the two styles were fused.  With “Spirit Youth” the synthesis of style advances far enough along that casual listeners may never detect the chiptunes 8-bit foundations, the addition of shoegaze influences, or the string-theory like connection between the songs via their lyrics.  However, what everyone will immediately notice are the incredible chord changes that set each song apart from one another.  The song structures are enough to grab anyone’s attention as they hook you throughout and, like paging through a good book, compel you to listen to the next song.

The threads connecting each song are subtle:  “Dream About Me” mentions snow flakes which connects to “Through The Snow” which speaks of a conscious dream.  This sort of lyrical string theory permeates the album through images of spirit houses and spirit youth, snow and running through it, dreams, and ultimately – love.

Spirit Youth takes time to fall in love with.  To further the gothic romance analogy, when you first meet the material you might find it ugly or slight (my own initial experience with the album was disappointment).  The slight vocals of Kurt Feldman isn’t something to try after listening to Pontiak, and the lack of a bass guitar makes it challenging to rock out to.  However, like the arc of Jane Eyre’s relationship with Edward Rochester, the more time you spend with the material and get to know it, the more you will find it difficult to live without.  I hated Jane Eyre in high school, but in the final analysis there’s some heavy shit going down in that novel.  Multiple listens of “A Key Turns” and further exploration of the other tracks should reveal the same conclusion about Spirit Youth.

Links:

Sweet Apple: http://www.myspace.com/sweetapplesongs
Tee Pee Records: http://www.teepeerecords.com/

Radio stations come and go, and when you grow up in Indianapolis there’s one ever-present constant: WFBQ Q-95.  They dabble with new songs every ten program directors or so, but for the most part they’ve delivered a non-stop stream of what we now refer to as “classic rock.”  The “Classic” really only goes back as far as the ’60s and is probably most dominated by music recorded in the ’70s. Having grown up in the ’70s, the steady stream of Boston, AC/DC, Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Bob Seger, etc. cranked out by The “Q” served as the soundtrack to countless drives to work and back.   Over the years I’ve grown to hate the radio station, yet love it all the same.  The older I get, there’s comfort in knowing that in a sea of shitty Indianapolis radio stations, at least Q-95 will be there to play “Lunatic Fringe”, or “Ah! Leah” (we aint learned our lesson yet!), only  when you’re lucky enough to knuckle-dust your way across the station at just the right time.  Of course, for every “Turning Japanese” you’ll earn fifty fucking Poison songs, a steaming pile of Guns & Roses, and hot stream of Tom Petty to greet you the next time you’re looking for something good on the radio.  You eventually gain the ability to identify a song by the first 3 notes played (or any 3 section of the song for that matter) and this survival technique adds hours of precious life by skipping the bad ones (see: anything by Jeff Lynne).

A band that would earn the fourth second of my time and fit right in alongside the better songs featured on any classic rock station is Sweet Apple.

Let’s face it – “supergroups” suck.  I hate to even mention that Sweet Apple falls in this category but it’s unavoidable.  The band includes J. Mascis (look him up), Tim Parnin and John Petkovic from Cobra Verde, and Witch’s Dave Sweetapple.  The story of the band’s formation is compelling:  After his mom’s death from a “long, horrible illness,” Petkovic’s hopped in his car and headed eastward.  Four hundred miles later, he eventually connected with Sweetapple.  Sweetapple called the rest of the guys and they promptly recorded 25 songs, 12 of which landed on their debut album.

Despite the band’s forming from personal tragedy, the album doesn’t bleed despair or darkness.  If anything, it plays out with a renewed sense of spirit and attitude.  If Mascis isn’t your thing, don’t let that stop you from giving the album a try.  Mascis primarily appears as a backing vocal, and is featured a bit more prominently on “I’ve Got a Feeling (That Won’t Change),” and it really works!  The production is just slick enough to appeal to the mainstream, the performance is tight enough to earn respect, and the hooks are abundant.  Although some of the lyrics become repetitive in some cases (“Flying Up A Mountain”), this doesn’t take away from the total air-guitarability of each track.  Revisiting the “classic rock” theme of this review, these songs aren’t necessarily timeless but could easily, certainly, been hits in the 70s and in that alternate reality would still be played on Q-95 today.  The vibe on many tracks evoke Phil Lynott and the Thin Lizzy groove, which is a great counterpoint to the boot-stomp whiskey-soaked cigarette dive bar sound that would otherwise dominate the listening experience; the album rocks and grooves all at once.  The inner turmoil that sent Petkovic on his eastward odyssey bleeds through in the chorus of “Can’t See You”, yet manages to never become a downer on any level, and that’s pretty much the way the album plays out.  The only misstep in the sequence of songs is “hold Me, I’m Dying”.  Any listener aware of the back story of this band would assume that’s the tune that manifests the tragedy of loss and they’d be wrong.  In fact, this one is mostly innocuous and really sort of sucks.  The chorus is marred with some sort of synthesized pseudo-horn effect that reminds me of when many ’70s rock bands started goofing around with lousy keyboard effects (Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden – I’m looking at you).  However, the album quickly shakes off the bad track and hits you with big balls and heavy riffs via “Blindfold.”  A few tracks later is the lovely “Dead Moon,” which could be the best song Beck never recorded and Brian Wilson forgot to write.

Love & Desperation is a really, really good album chock full of great rock & roll songs.  The hooks are there, as are the power chords and twists of a phrase that grab your attention.  You’ll hear bits that remind you of many bands both classic and current and while it might not make anyone’s “best of the year” list, it would certainly bring a much-needed shot of energy that “classic rock” radio needs.  Indianapolis radio listeners deserve that much at least, and Sweet Apple deserves a listen.

From his secret headquarters in Oslo,  Emil Nikolaisen – the mastermind behind the SM magic, spared some time to answer some questions about SM, the Norway scene, the new album, and more.

Link: http://www.serena-maneesh.com/

Photo by Alex John Beck.

As Emil points out in the following interview, English is not his first language and as a result I found his answers to be as supersonically poetic as his music.

Having followed the band’s website for the last couple of years, I get the impression that Norway has its own thriving indie music scene.  What can you tell those of us who have never been to Norway about the music/art scene found there?  Other than SM, are there any bands coming out of the Norway scene that listeners need to know about?

It’s crazy, ‘cause the so called “indie” bands around that I like here are so not “indie”.  I don’t know but so all over the place of pretty basic influences like the blackmetal-Stooges-ey Lydia Laska, grumpy noise-rockers Årabrot, disco- yuppy Lindstrøm, surf- horror- punkers Pirate Love, primal fire and brimstone overdriven simplicity with Happy Dagger, Øystein’s band Le Corbeau, Je Suis Animal, I was a King, some great metal like Obliteration and the new Aura Noir record is really great too.

Your Self-Titled debut CD was a tapestry of sonic bliss (and possibly a model for the entropic nature of the universe) with each song steadily building into a big bang before ultimately climaxing into itself.  How does SM achieve this feat, song after song?

Ha ha, you mean eventually swallowing our own tail?  Choking on it?

I guess it is temperament… a haunting desire to push the song, or yourself, off a cliff I guess.  Pop music can be such an intriguing phenomenon.  I’ve chosen this territory as framework to see how I get challenged by pop music with a slight avant undertone of craziness.

What is the songwriting process for SM (are these landscapes achieved via extended jam sessions, post-demo studio magic, or are they precisely calculated song-craft)?

My discipline in songwriting is pretty strict.   It’s important for me that I feel a strong sense of foundation and direction before starting dressing up the “song” somehow.

You can go anywhere from there, twist it, turn it, throw it through the washing machine,  the grinder, put it in the oven, flush it down the toilet, have your dog eat it and vomit it back at you…put it through your distillery.  I mean, experimentation in sound is obviously a big part, but without the song crafted as its own little creature it gets a little foggy when it comes to SM.

We clearly did lots of jamming with, and on, ourselves this time more than ever but even here there are clear features that tell the story of symphony or progression all the way.

What inspires SM to make such unique music?  God? Love? Sex? All of the above or none of the above?

ALL OF CREATION!

Much has been written about the rich SM sound, but little can be said about the lyrics.  SM use vocals similarly to bands such as My Bloody Valentine in that they serve more as an additional instrument layered into the mix as opposed to being the focal point.  What can you tell us about the meaning, if any, behind your lyrics?  Is there a unifying theme that you’d like your fans to understand while listening?

Lots of the words are written on a “notion”, starting with some small sparks of life and after a while it takes form…self- confrontational, often from the relationship perspective between the living, the divine, and such.

Words can and should be incredibly important.

But I see freedom in such, not a pressure to always lame it down in serious tone all the time.   It can be extremely sour, extremely elegant, just the sight of it sometimes, as well.   The sound of it, you know.   So many ways, and the fact that English is not our mother tongue makes us stupid enough to free one’s self to twist and turn things upside down too at times.

I do think a healthy portion of sarcasm frees me to portray myself in this sour light to express some kind of gratitude to the living, to my surroundings and people who know me and love me despite of my sometimes ridiculous ways.

The title of the new album, SM2: Abyss in B Minor, suggests we may be in for a darker experience this time around (hence “the abyss”).  What do you want fans to know about the new album that can’t be understood through listening with our own ears?

Here again some truth and some pure sour self-sarcasm, if I dare to admit, both in one little contradiction of a title.

It is way too much, yet still speaks of the album in many ways.  I always had a reverence for classical music and the profiles behind it so, I take my own little liberty in inheritance of statement, if I can humbly suggest.

It relates to the opening track too, which bands (especially in the 80s) used to either refer to a song title as title for the album or even some had a straight reference to the group’s name in some titles.  That’s how I grew up as a kid and always thought it was exciting.  But this is as close as SM could get to that 80s thing.  It refers to the abyss, and it suggests something more specific too, of a theme, if you know what I mean.   There is so much in there.  Also, on a 10th pure musical note if you read a little into the key of b minor historical thread…check what key… I have gone way too specific already…

How has the band evolved between the first album and the new release, SM2: Abyss in B Minor?

You know the band is one thing live and another in the studio.  The recording process has a bumpy, sometimes improvised road as we go, and who contributes always is directed by the idea and the script itself.   However, during the process of making this second one, some people got heavily involved and one of them became a permanent part of the band – Adne Meisfjord (also known as singer of 120 Days) to complete, in my opinion, the strongest lineup SM has ever had.

So, according to this current live lineup (Øystein, Adne, Tommy, Hilma,me), the band sounds both different live than on the record and as well very much developed from previous live lineups.

Speaking solely about the record, it is a natural but quite noticeable push further deeper into the substance of what we started initially… further out on dangerous limbs (hee-hee).  We tried to follow up ideas longer, refine them more and generally go more crazy with it.  We try to hold the excitement of a thought and follow it through further.  The pallet is much wider, combinations of contradictions still even new!  Epic cinematic black metal elements and my old love of bossanova.

We live in a free world of speech, I would still hope to believe…

S-M 2: Abyss In B Minor is set to hit our ears on March 23, 2010.

Link:
Clipd Beaks – http://www.myspace.com/clipdbeaks

I’d like to think that it is no coincidence that the very day I started listening to a long-sought after copy of Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music just happened to be the same day I started listening to Clipd Beaks’ To Realize. Not that the two releases have much in common on the surface, but it isn’t a stretch to imagine “To Realize” as the not-too-distant cousin of Metal Machine Music. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that an adventurous listener could play MMM behind the first three tracks of “To Realize” without diminishing the listening experience one bit.

The tracks mentioned above — “Strangler,” “Blood,” and “Broke Life” —  invoke images of darkness, lost puppies, abducted loved ones, and other nightmares.  Although three distinct songs, they also share a singular trajectory, slowly building to an incredibly dense and satisfying conclusion.  “Strangler” starts off sparse and ends with the secret of its many layers of drone exposed. And what beautiful layers they are!  In a time where drone machines are all the rage, Clipd Beaks manage to piece together found sounds into a wonderful tapestry that simply can’t be matched on any Black Angels release.  “Blood” picks things up a bit in terms of energy (just a bit) before punching you in the ear with “Broke Life.”  With guitars not unlike an air-raid siren announcing its beginning, layered vocals invoking an LSD-induced version of “Row Your Boat,” and a heavy bass line, “Broke Life” is an odyssey.  Just when you’ve got it figured out, a drum machine marks the 4:05 time signature and the song falls apart while coming together at the same time.  God, what a beautiful mess.  I could listen to the last 2 minutes of “Broke Life” forever.

“Visions” change the tempo and mood quite a bit, almost a bit too much.  Just as the groove starts to take hold, “Home” comes along and takes over.  Lots of horns, lots of guitars, a relentless bass line, and more horns, this is Lester Bangs back from the dead, bleating out chaos on his sax and annoying his neighbors while the drone reminds you that it’s best not to get too comfortable.  Comfort is dangerous on this album because “Atoms” is right around the corner.  Those spooky horns from “Home” are back, but not unlike the microscopic building blocks in which it is named, “Atoms” is a complex suite of layered (yes, that word again) bleeps, pangs, tinks, and a Star Destroyer plowing into your apartment.

“Atoms” enlarges to “Dust,” and track 7 expands on track 6.  A bit more psychedelic in nature than those songs that came before, the groove slows down at almost the 4 minute mark before the song ends as almost every other tune on the album does – with the master drone track revealed.  “Dust” evolves from “Atoms,” and matures into “Desert Highway Music.”  Haunting you with that reverb and ever-expanding textures, this might sound like every other “desert song” you’ve heard, but the Clipd Beaks manage to weave space sounds and other weirdness into the mix.  Imagine a time-lapse film of a cactus sprouting, flowering, withering, and ultimately dying with superimposed images of exploding stars…this is your soundtrack.

“Jamn” does just that – jam.  Maybe I’m just exhausted from the experience of the first 8 tracks, but this one left me a little underwhelmed.  There’s not a damn thing wrong with the track, but it lacks the focus of the first 8.  Yet again, it is called “Jamn,” and most jams lack focus and may have been the thematic intent all along.

“On One” clocks in at over 7 minutes and devolves into the sparsest track on the album.  That’s not to say the song is simple by any means, because it isn’t.  There’s just a lot more space in the song and not nearly as much chaos.  Feedback is the tendon that holds the vocals and drums together, with the bass line doing what its done so well throughout the album – pumping that blood that keeps the listener alive throughout the listening experience.  It ends with beautiful waves of noise and continues through to the final track “Shot on a Horse.”  The mix from “On One” to “Shot on a Horse” sounds to be virtually the same, until around the 2 minute mark.  That’s when the bass returns and introduces its new friend, the weeping violin.  Both are gone almost as soon as they arrived and the song fades away into the ether.

This is certainly the kind of music your parents will never understand, and that many of you won’t like.  For some, however, this is brilliant fucking music.