Interview: Wild Light's Seth Pitman hits Pittsburgh with Tapes 'n Tapes

It takes some guts for a band to start the first song on its first record with “Fuck today/ fuck San Francisco/ fuck California,” but when the music is as good as Wild Light’s, the lyrics could damn Pittsburgh and I’d still listen up.

New Hampshire natives Wild Light’s debut record Adult Nights mixes plaintive vocals with jangling guitars and more solid hooks than a boxing match for a classic rock-leaning indie-pop sound. The band hits Brillobox this Sunday with blog darlings (Jesus Christ. Let’s use a less mind-numbingly overused phrase. How about ‘rock band’?) Tapes ‘n Tapes and local blues blasters Br’er Fox (Don’t ever doubt there is serious talent in this city).

I spoke to bassist Seth Pitman while he was busy working the front desk in a New Hampshire hospital (that his mom, the hospital president set him up with - recession be damned) between legs of the tour. Clearly building up some cash before hitting the second leg of the tour while staying at home and eating well-deserved home cooking.

Gravity Rides Everything: Adult Nights starts with some harsh words against California. Where’d the song “California on my Mind” come from?

Seth Pitman: Our lyricist Jordan (Alexander) wrote that song living in the Bay Area trying to start a band, and he was just frustrated. It’s nothing against California, it’s just a venting song. But it has somehow attracted people way more than ever expected.

GRE: Was there much of a scene growing up in New Hampshire?

SP: Well…no. In terms of a real music scene there was not and there is not. But there was
Well…no. In terms of a real music scene there was not and there is not. But there was a do-it-yourself scene and a few clubs that we used to play in — a bunch of basements were turned into clubs.

GRE: The band formed in 2005, but you were friends before then. How does that affect the band’s dynamic?

SP: Knowing each other as long as we have, there’s nothing that doesn’t get touched on. There’s no way for us to keep anything from each other. Having had this long history has made it a learning process in how not to invade each other’s spaces or lives. So when we make decisions, there’s baggage — it’s a complicated dynamic that has to be maneuvered to find a place where we can all work together productively.

GRE: The record sounds truly timeless. What were you listening to when recording?

SP: We have a lot of standbys. We’re always returning to the classics — Dylan, the Beatles, The Clash, Fleetwood Mac. The kind of stuff that never gets old. When you first hear it, it’s the best thing you’ve ever heard. And the most recent time you heard it you feel the same way. That’s what we aspire to.

GRE: You’ve toured with some big name bands (including Arcade Fire, The Stills and LCD Soundsystem). What would be your dream show lineup?

SP: Let’s see. The Clash circa 1980, Bob Dylan and Rolling Thunder Review circa 1976. (Pauses to think. Ponders Elvis and Johnny Cash). And Nirvana. Definitely Nirvana.

Say it with me now: "Fuck California." Here's "California on my Mind."

Black Moth Super Rainbow/School of Seven Bells announce super tour

Summer's way off, but it's not too soon to start planning which nights to take a psychedelic magic carpet ride. And if you live near any of the cities listed below, that decision's already been made for you.

Pittsburgh champion freaks Black Moth Super Rainbow just announced a co-headlining tour with fellow space cadets School of Seven Bells, making one of the longest marquees I can ever remember, but also one of the better-matched tours of late.

Black Moth's bubbling, trip-hop organ workouts couldn't go better than with Seven Bell's, um, bubbling, trip-hop organ workouts. The difference is in the important details, though — the former is certainly a good bit further out of the box than the latter's mix of lovely melodies and shape-shifting beats.

Nonetheless, the duo seems made for each other. Someone should've thought this up months ago.

Here are those dates:
Wed. May 20 - Chicago, IL @ Bottom Lounge
Thu. May 21 - Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon
Fri. May 22 - Minneapolis, MN @ Triple Rock Social Club
Mon. May 25 - Quincy, WA @ Sasquatch Festival
Tue. May 26 - Portland, OR @ Holocene
Thu. May 28 - San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill
Fri. May 29 - Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour
Sat. May 30 - Costa Mesa, CA @ Detroit Bar
Sun. May 31 - Phoenix, AZ @ Rhythm Room
Tue. Jun. 2 - Austin, TX @ The Mohawk
Wed. Jun. 3 - Denton, TX @ Hailey's
Thu. Jun. 4 - Little Rock, AR @ Sticky Fingerz
Fri. Jun. 5 - Nashville, TN @ Exit/In
Sat. Jun. 6 - Columbus, OH @ Circus

See anything missing? I do. That city Black Moth Super Rainbow is from isn't on the map here. Ouch, Tobacco, ouch.

Check BMSR's "Sun Lips"


Photo courtesy Sarah Cass/Pitch Perfect PR

Review: Delta Spirit, Other Lives raise the dead

Photo: Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes joins Delta Spirit onstage.

Tuesday is easily the worst day of the week.

With no weekend afterglow (Monday), no light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel (Wednesday) and certainly not the weekend (Thursday-Sunday), Tuesday is left alone in the week, sad and pathetic.

Thanks to tonight’s Brillobox triple bill of Delta Spirit, Other Lives and Dawes, though, Tuesday got a huge boost this week.

Dawes’ harmonized and rolling heartbreak folk got the quiet, stiff crowd at least a little warmer, but the haunted classic rock meditations of Other Lives (think a prettier Shearwater) actually got some feet moving, even if ever so slightly.

What separates Other Lives from the near-countless other mope-Americana bands touring in plaid shirts and serious faces (see: Lucero, Evangelicals) is the radiant Jenny Hsu, who, sitting unassumingly at the corner of the stage, grounded each song with her slow rumbling cello. Though the instrument never took center stage (see: Cursive’s The Ugly Organ) it provided a beautiful, lush backdrop for singer Jesse Tabish’s light, hollow voice to waltz through the band’s subtly disarming melodies.


Photo: Other Lives' Jesse Tabish

Other Lives proved a perfect match for the other side of the mope-Americana coin — headliners Delta Spirit took the stage after a 20 minutes respite to the welcoming applause of all 50 or so people who, like me, decided that it was time for a more lively Tuesday.

Like a less swamp rock, more soulful Creedence Clearwater Revival, Delta Spirit chugged through its hour-plus set with bottled energy always on the edge of bursting.

Singer Matt Vasquez, his jeans rolled into black workman boots, stayed closer to the edge than anyone — the short, baby-faced front man with lost eyes has such a strong conviction to dragging his voice through gravel on long notes and wading through each song’s slow melody that it’s hard not to believe his pained-heart songwriter aesthetic.

Particularly convincing was the bitter slow dance “House Built for Two,” with it’s chorus, “Well it’s true, I built this for you. This house built for two, it’s too small for you,” paired with Vasquez’s slight signs of self-assurance — after lines well-sung, he’ll often nod to himself, to the audience, to the music, his eyes closed and fingers tightened — made the torture and piano-sprinkled ballad sound like it could’ve been about murder.


Photo: Matt Vasquez of Delta Spirit

Vasquez’ inner monologue has a two-fold effect. First, it lets the audience know that he’s real — not one note over-rehearsed and no reaction fully expected, I got the impression that Vasquez was as effected by the sounds created by his band as the audience. Maybe more.

Second, or rather an extension of the first point, Vasquez’ impassioned performance through the entire set gave a truth to the show that few bands achieve. The guy could’ve been singing about a penchant for mail order brides and I would’ve thought his was a noble cause.

Delta Spirit’s dual guitar and often three drum (along with drummer Brandon Young, guitarist Sean Walker and pianist Kelly Winrich took turns pounding — the heavier tunes saw all three attack at once) thunder paired gorgeously with Vasquez’ post-punk-with-some-pain vocals.

The music of a track like “Children,” with a churning percussion section and an almost-playful melody (note: almost), molded beautifully into one heavy wall of twanging rock and reverb.

The stuttering stomp of “People C’Mon” swung with the drunken energy of a bar fight and the piano-shuffling “Trashcan” could’ve been the best song Dr. Dog never recorded.

But the selling point of Delta Spirit, at least in a live setting, will always be Vasquez. By the end of the 15-song set, with the gang chorus of “Crippler King” pushing the band to yell at the audience and the audience to yell back, Vasquez might as well have been an old man drained of prayer in church — who was just touched by the spirit.

Photos courtesy Mahsa Borhani. Check her out here.

All Good Festival announces initial line-up

For a seriously organic, music-focused, no-bullshit festival this summer, you're not going to find one better than West Virginia's All Good.

Last year's three day extravaganza kept me awake for damn near, well, three days and featured some truly incredible sets from Widespread Panic, Bassnectar, Gov't Mule, Dark Star Orchestra and tons of other jammy favorites.

Here's the initial line-up of the 2009 romp, July 10-12 at Marvin's Mountaintop in Masontown West Virginia. Per usual, in bold are the acts that I'll be holding my breath for:


Ben Harper and Relentless7
Bob Weir & RatDog
moe.
STS9 (Sound Tribe Sector 9)
Les Claypool
Yonder Mountain String Band
Tea Leaf Green
Buckethead
SOJA
Bassnectar
Steve Kimock Crazy Engine
The New Mastersounds
Donna the Buffalo
Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk
Todd Snider
Cornmeal
Trombone Shorty & Orleans Ave
Fear Nuttin' Band

There's sure to be a ton more wonderful bands announced, so keep posted.

Also, tickets went onsale TODAY — if you pick 'em up now, they're only $109. No joke. That'd pay for, like, five hours at Bonnaroo, right?

GRE's Interview with Brooklyn's Finest, The Dig

The Dig are exactly the band you could expect to stumble upon after a long, dark night in New York City — pulsing, low-end bass, screaming, angular guitars and catchy, thrashing choruses.

The whole thing sings ‘dimly-lit basement show,’ that is if the sound wasn’t so damn big. A more apt description might be ‘darker, less hokey Muse’ or even ‘less faux-arty Tapes ‘n Tapes.’

Still a bit confused? Fair enough — The Dig’s Brooklyn stomp is hard to pin down, except for one descriptor. And that, of course, is ‘good.’ The swagger’s there, the style’s unique and the sound is propulsive. With one 6-song EP and one 3-song under the band’s belt, as well as a yet-to-be-financed but already-written debut album in the works, it’s safe to say The Dig are going to be big.

Check out the band's best song so far, "She's Gonna Kill That Boy."


Here are cuts from my talk with singer/guitarist David Baldwin and drummer Nick Brown. The band’ll be in Pittsburgh February 28 at the Thunderbird Café in Lawrenceville – a sure bet for a solid evening.

Gravity Rides Everything: How can being a ‘Brooklyn band’ be both a benefit and a hindrance?

Nick Brown: It’s a hindrance within the city more than anything. There’s so much bullshit to weed through. But if you have a sound that stands out and you work hard, the best opportunities are here.

David Baldwin: There are thousands of bands in the city, but it doesn’t seem that there are too many bands that are constantly promoting themselves without a label — flyering and talking to people on the street.

GRE: Is it weird to hit the road and not find the following you’ve built in New York?

Nick: We just started playing out of town a year ago. It’s crazy playing a show here to 200 people, then going out of town and play to 10 people. I’d think ‘What’s the point?’ But after awhile, you accept that and you see a difference when you go back to those places. There’ll be 20 people, then 30 people. Play a kick ass show, and you’ll see the payoff.

GRE: But does online promoting devalue playing a show for 10 people when they can just as easily hear you on MySpace?

Nick: I don’t think so. In our case, I feel our live show has more of an impact. Before we come to Pittsburgh, we will hit up people on Myspace. And some of those people will come out, but all of those hardcore fans we’ve made are those that have seen us live. The more we play live, the better a band we get.

GRE: The band’s been friends for a long time. Does that help you work together or cause a lot of bickering?

David: Definitely both. We’ve become so similar musically – we’re always on the same page. But because we spend so much time together there’s always bickering. Little differences get magnified. But still, I think it’d be hard to find songwriters that are more in the same boat as us.

GRE: Is it hard to find ample practice space in the city?

Nick: I guess you could call ours ample in that we can all fit in the room. It’s called The Music Building, a 12-story building in midtown Manhattan that’s all rehearsal space. Our room is about the size of a bedroom and we share it with four other bands. We also have some cool neighbors – The Strokes were rehearsing last night two doors down. The Teenage Prayers share the space and The French Kicks used to play the room.

GRE: You’re hitting the Midwest and East coast this month. What do traveling arrangements look like?

Nick: We try, whenever possible, to crash with friends. The last tour we only stayed in a motel 3 nights, the rest we stayed with friends. If we don’t have any friends in that town, we’d make friends. I’m planning on buying an inflatable mattress, so we can eliminate the arguing of who gets the couch, the floor, the bed.

Be sure to check out The Dig February 28 at Thunderbird Cafe