As recently announced by Dromedary Records, iconic underground rock band Das Damen is reissuing their eponymous debut EP, retitled 1986: KEEPS ME WILD, alongside a new issue of drummer Lyle Hysen’s fanzine, Damaged Goods(also the name of Hysen’s record label) featuring a comprehensive timeline of the band, show flyers, oral history, and words from Thurston Moore, Tom Sharpling, and more.
The reissue includes a few new demos and reworked tracks featuring a few other rock legends: Dez Cadena of Black Flag, Thalia Zedek of Come, Gary Lee Conner of Screaming Trees, The Fluid’s John Robinson, and A Girl Called Eddy. After being out of print for decades, these tracks will be back in action on September the 8th, 2023.
The first single off the project, “Trick Question" is available for streaming now, along with an official music video (see above). Listening to this song is about all you need, while walking around the city—especially if pumped through the ‘phones of a portable CD player—to feel like it’s 1986 again and to pretend the East Village hasn’t become a bit of a frat house. It was in this legendary, filthy scene, that Das Damen got their start as little punk NYU students, back when NYU students could be punk. Listening to this record smells like the streets of the 1980’s downtown scene.
“Trick Question” is among the six songs found on the original EP, expanded to a whopping 17 tracks for 1986: Keeps Me Wild. To this day, the original EP represents a vital piece of the downtown NYC underground music scene—a sound that got built upon and built upon until today, when the indie scene has evolved greatly, but is very much still alive and kickin’. Basically, they walked so later bands like the Strokes could run.
In other words, this collection of songs is truly a time capsule into the history of New York’s downtown music scene, a scene with which I personally am involved, and a scene, I presume if you’re reading this, that you care a bit about! Let the history lesson begin…
“The six anthemic songs contained therein remain as fist-pumpingly huge and evocative as ever, dripping with the grit, grime, chaos, and sludge of the 1980s downtown scene where the band members first converged as fledgling teenage punks attending New York University. But while Das Damen certainly shared an affinity for jacked-to-11 amps and ear-busting volume akin to peers like Sonic Youth andDinosaur Jr., songs like “Trick Question,” “Slave Bird” and “How Do You Measure” stand-alone with otherworldly singalong harmonies, tasty hooks, monster riffs, and miles and miles of paisley-draped, hair-exploding style.” – publicist, Ken Weinstein
Das Damenwas conceived of in 1984 when singer/guitarist Jim Walters, guitarist Alex Totino, EIGHT-STRING BassistPhil Leopold Von Trapp (what a name!), and drummerLyle Hysenjoined forces, playing clubs in the East Village and absolutely crushing crowds with their hardcore mixture of punk, metal, and alternative rock.
“When we got the tapes baked several years ago, upon listening to them we discovered we had a few unfinished alternative takes from the original EP sessions,” says drummer Lyle Hysen. “We didn’t feel we could bring the same ‘1986 enthusiasm’ to finishing the tapes but by bringing in a few people who we respect or are pals from back then, the re-imaginings would have a new energy of their own.” –quote grabbed from BigHassle Press Release
This band, and in particular, this body of work, represents a moment in time, a pillar of NYC music, having been originally recorded with noted noise-rock producer Wharton Tiers (Sonic Youth, Glenn Branca, Pussy Galore), in his famed Fun City Studios.
“The EP’s ecstatic maelstrom expertly mirrored the tension, frenzy, and white noise…earned Das Damen a reputation as a mind-blowingly epic live band, as heard on tours alongside Nirvana, Soundgarden, Black Flag, Green River, Screaming Trees, and DC3, amongst other like-minded luminaries.” The upcoming remastered EP, augmented from the original Ecstatic Peace! Tapes will add a little bit of glimmer and shine to their trademarked grit. Sean Glonek at SRG Studios made sure of that when he took a stab at the tapes, overseen by Walters, Hysen, and best-selling author/producer Tom Beaujour.
And as if that’s not enough, the East Village Punk OG’s have announced theirfirst live date in over three decadesat the Drom30 Festival on September 16th, 2023, which will take place in the picturesque, magical place that isthe Hudson Valley. The EP arrives digitally through Dromedary Records the week prior, onSeptember 8th, followed by a Vinyl release in October.
In conclusion: A little nostalgia never hurt nobody, and I, for one, enjoy a little mood curation courtesy of some mid 1980’s punk rock music. And if you do too, be sure to check out Das Damen in 2023…
Here at the Deli we’re admittedly big fans of Venn diagrams and one of our fave VD’s is the one where you have one concentric circle representing rough-hewn indie folk with string-band instrumentation complete with acoustic guitar and viola/violin and banjo, and another circle representing formal jazz-based, conservatory-trained musicianship that balances virtuosic proficiency with tasteful restraint…
…and another circle representing confessional singer-songwriter alt.pop featuring misty-eyed, world-weary romantic yearning á la Sharon Van Etten/Angel Olsen/Weyes Blood/Phoebe Bridgers, and another circle representing confrontational punk singer-shouters known for sharp-tongued, full-throating takedowns of the patriarchy shot through with "nasty woman" wit, including a fair helping of self-lacerating wit as well, á la Lydia Lunch/Lunachicks/Kathleen Hanna/Kat Bjelland…
…cuz any artist who can fit within the not-very-sizable sliver of intersectional space between the above-listed concentric circles is something akin to finding a pearl in a random restaurant oyster and so it’s appropriate that conservatory-trained, no-punches-pulled, singer-songwriter Reggie Pearl fits this bill…
…given her ability to put across lines like "are you going to tie me up / but you won’t even spit in my mouth / in my mouth / spit in my mouth / spit in my mouth / you won’t spit in my mouth" declaimed over homespun banjo ‘n’ viola ‘n’ violin (or "fiddle" if you prefer) in a manner that’s at once humorous and disturbing and wistful and yearning as R. Pearl does on “Paint My Nails,” a single they released earlier today…
…a song self-describedly described as being “about physical dominance in a relationship without any emotional depth…being intimate but only for a performance of gender roles…about how accepting your queerness can liberate you from the imposed roles within your relationships and how you relate to the world” or for another example check out their preceding single "Get Low" released just a month ago (almost to the day and both will subsequently be included on Twilight Zone (Ugly Cave Records), a 7-track EP set for a September release)…
…featuring some of The Deli’s fave lyrics of late which again address toxic masculinity but this time as manifested in an episode of erectile dysfunction (“was it the beer, or the Lord, or the lesbian porn?”) with a catchy-as-hell vocal melody/guitar progression enhanced by pinprick pizzicato strings culminating in eerie microtonal glissandi trills over a creeping bassline, mirroring an emotional tenor that’s unsparing one moment and empathetic the next (“was it guilt, was it shame / maybe you took blame / first be honest with yourself / then honest with me”) that in either case could save the addressee months (if not years!) worth of therapy bills…
…so naturally we wanted to know more–especially with Reggie Pearl set to perform live here in NYC a couple days hence (on 7/20/23) at The Windjammer in Ridgewood as presented by Footlight Presents–and fortunately she was willing to oblige in the form of sharing some insightful insights over the course of an in-depth phone convo spanning a range of topics, excerpts of which can be found below. (Jason Lee)
***************************** REGGIE PEARL — "PAINT MY NAILS"
I moved to Boston a few years ago to attend the Berklee College of Music. Since then I’ve moved back to St. Louis, though I’m currently back in Boston for an East Coast tour. It’s been nice to be back in the Midwest to give some love to my family and friends. When I left for school my grandma said, ‘You’ll get famous and never come back” which was sweet for her to be worried about.
I didn’t graduate from Berklee. I knew I wouldn’t. It’s too expensive. My goal was to find the best musicians I could possibly play with, and collaborate with, and that’s what happened.
Later this year I’ll be going to the Philippines for a couple of months with a side trip to Japan. My partner is from there and their family is there. One of my goals has always been to be able to travel and play music. It’s nice to have some people willing to help me out. I’ve also got a show lined up in Japan…could call it a tour if I wanted to be all fancy.
On early musical development:
My mom always said I started singing before I could talk. I’d be humming melodies and my older sister would say “tell this kid to shut up!” It never felt like I chose to sing. Now it’s a choice. But when I was a kid it’s just what I did.
I started playing in a band at 10 years old at a music center. Early on I was into soul music, Motown…lmusic people around me weren’t listening to. Holy shit, there’s so much good music out there! I’ve dedicated myself to finding music that I “shouldn’t” have access to. Not to mention music from other countries, music from around the world.
For me making music is in a way of trying to honor this legacy of musical creativity, and those who have come before me. And to add to it. It’s a never ending thing. You can study music your whole life and never come anywhere close to being an expert.
On evolving musically:
I went to regular high school, and then performing arts high school to study jazz. It felt like a sport in a way…the only sport I’ll ever play. There’s complexity, vocal gymnastics, always something new to try and master. Singing jazz is how I practice and get better. I have a lot of appreciation for it now.
I’ve always written songs, but somewhere along the way realized I can say whatever I want to say in them. On the Twilight Zone EP I’m addressing things I never thought I’d want to put in my music. It feels like singing about some of these things frees me from their reins–using music as a means to release pain and stress, negative emotions but positive emotions too.
I’ve given myself the freedom to try new things…don’t think I could do this before. Before I was “I’m an indie singer, My songs have to sound a certain way.” It used to worry me, sounding ugly and not pretty, sounding “bad.” When I released [2020 EP] Regicide I realized “oh, I can sing however and whatever I want.”
It’s been so much fun to release myself from that. But uncomfortable at times too…letting my voice free to exist in these new spaces. I’ve realized I can make screams beautiful, heart-wrenching, an outlet for the stress and some of the BS we all deal with.
The only concern is to do it in a healthy way. I can drink some tea, take a throat lozenge when I need to. Being formally trained there’s this attitude you need to sound like"this." Use your head voice, etc. But I’m going to do what feels good and make each performance different, its own unique in-the-moment thing. It feels good to put all that stuff somewhere.
Collaborating is a big part of it too. Like I said, I found my musical soulmates at Berklee. I can go to them and say, "here’s the bones of the songs. You know how to play your instruments. It’s up to you what to do." They’ve really brought the songs to life. String instruments can express more feelings, more emotion, than a voice and words can. Or at least in a different way.
On the creative process:
I have to write what I want to write. "Here’s this thing I need to understand things better." It’s a little strange being asked to explain my songs, because I write a song about something so I don’t have to talk about it. My favorite thing about music is where a song explains just how I’m feeling on its own terms. And I love that it may be able to help someone who needs help, helps them to know they’re not alone.
When I wrote “Get Low” it came from getting into a perfect flow state. I didn’t really *write* that song. It just came to me. Some spiritual being came to me and said, "here’s this song, just write it down." I think it was reacting to things that have just been thrown in my face so much. It just came out.
On music as a therapeutic form of expression:
I grew up a closeted queer person in Missouri, around a lot of "Republican" guys for lack of a better term, many of whom were homophobic and sexist. The song deals with feeling "Catholic guilt" in that setting. It all circles back on myself.
The opening lines ("said the preacher, to the priest, to the firearms / One hell of a man, but you can’t get hard") confront this. The fear and insecurity. There’s a tendency for preachers and other male authority figures to pass this shit around. And then someone will take up arms based on what they’ve said about some group of people.
On “Paint My Nails”:
I’ve always been obsessed with hands. There’s so many things you can do with hands. You can cause so much harm. You can literally punch a baby. Or you can do so much good.
The opening line “Sleep is recommended” is like when you’re thinking about a difficult situation so much… just go to bed, go to sleep. Think about it later.
The song is about a relationship that was super dominating, but not in a way I was into, not in the fun way. And thinking I need to get out of this, but I’m stuck. Paralyzed by pain and fear and asking “are you going to tie me up.”
It’s also about queerbaiting. About men who will paint their nails but they’re not queer. About people wanting to be a part of queerness. I can’t speak for them, but some people want to come across in a certain way when they’re not really that way behind closed doors.
We all know a person who had their nails painted but they’re a piece of shit. Using these surface signs to be involved in a certain space where you can actually cause a lot of harm. The one consolation is that maybe, because the straight dudes are wearing nail polish, it makes it safer to be queer in Missouri.
Final thoughts:
I’m excited for people to hear this music. I’ve been holding on to some of it for 4 years. “Floor Dweller” was written about a year ago. The entire record’s been done for about a year, just waiting to get everything in order. I’m ready for it to be out so I can move on to the next thing.
Me and my friend, Frances Baker, we were like "we don’t wanna deal with a label." So we started one ourselves. It might turn into a full on production company doing photos, set design, videos and other concepts. It’s great having ADHD, and being creative, and having time on your hands.
Dr. Monika Demmler (photo above by Franz Bauer) is an honest-to-goodness, doctorate-wielding singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist who integrates her research interests directly into her music. And btw for anyone who’d prefer to skip this critic’s further musings and get straight to the interview with Dr. M.D. (which includes song-by-song liner notes, generous provided to accompany her latest LP, Princess!) you’re invited to scroll down past the jump. Without or without the additional context, Princess is a fulfilling listen if you enjoy down ’n’ dirty rock ’n’ roll incorporating elements of Krautrock, shoegaze, psych pop, protopunk, and overall organ-riffing-garage-rock groovitude into the mix accompanied by Patti Smith-meets-Marianne Faithfull style vocalizing. All in the name of re-aligning your chakras and satisfying your soul. And if you wanna get re-aligned in person, simply head to the The Mint this Saturday night (7/15) and you’ll be well taken care of…
About a month ago your loyal musical correspondent was lucky enough to catch German-bred, LA-based Dr. Monika Demmler playing a live set at Brooklyn’s Our Wicked Lady and while the whole set was killer there was a point late in the set that stood out where Monika locked eyes and locked into sync with co-guitarist Jonny Polonsky as they both dropped to their knees in a shared state of rapturous supplication as smiles spread across their faces as they rocked out in tandem…
…improvising a series of escalating riffs that built to an ascending chordal climax anchored by the rock-steady groove of their rhythm section and at the risk of sounding a bit new-agey (hey, this is the LA blog after all!) it felt as if waves of perfectly-tuned-to-the-universe love energy were pouring forth from their instruments…
…which maybe that’s exactly what was happening seeing as Dr. Demmler a.k.a. Stony Sugarskull (explained below!) is an honest-to-goodness doctor and not must tho’ to be clear not a medical doctor but rather a PhD “who channels her research in metaphysics, philosophy, and ecological sound frequencies into her musical artworks” according to her homepage…
…alongside an interest in biophilic healing effects and acoustically transmitted love frequencies and if theoretical physicists like Michio Kaku are right and the universe really is one big symphony of vibrating strings, and if one likewise subscribes to the findings of cymatics…
where geometry, and architecture, are viewed as essentially music frozen in time, to paraphrase Goethe, and where both music and architecture “solidify the intangible emotions and memories of people through time”…
…and whatever skepticism one may or may have about Solfeggio frequencies—a set of 9 electromagnetic tones reputed to have the power to heal and raise consciousness; including the 528 Hz frequency which is said to resonate with the solar plexus chakra and thus to promote love, balance, and harmony—it’s practically inarguable that, for the vast majority of humanity, music is capable of strongly impacting one’s psycho-biochemical state of being (i.e., how you feel) as if attuned to certain aspects of our humanity not to mention the surrounding world…
…which makes sense given how it’s an empirically proven fact that the vibrational frequencies of the human body—brain waves in particular—constantly respond to, and impact upon, the various overlapping frequencies found in the world around us including, of course, sound waves, and what’s more, there’s a natural tendency for the frequencies of these multiple vibrational oscillations to move towards a state of synchronization with one another, all the way from the micro/molecular/cellular level to the macro/cosmic/interstellar level…
…and when it comes to macro level synchronization there’s the well-known Pythagorean concept of “the music of the spheres” that analogizes musical harmony with the ordered, harmonic movements of celestial bodies and also the regular rhythms of biological processes (the perfectly balanced interplays between emission/absorption of oxygen and CO2, respiration and photosynthesis, for instance) whereas climate change and global environmental crisis are the dissonant outcomes of the Anthropocene having reached a point where we’re out-of-sync and unmoored from the natural rhythms of Nature…
…and if only humankind had heededNikola Tesla back when he proposed that “If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration” then we’d probably be better off currently but at least we can always turn to music to get us back in tune with the universe, not to mention with each other, or as Dr. Monika Demmler puts it in her dissertation: “restorative life-energies are perceived when a musical text resembles the structures of an ecosystem”…
…a conviction that’s led Monika Demmler to take her theories from the page to the stage, where kickass rock ‘n’ roll is also an exercise in applied ecomusicology seeking to summon “restorative life energies” and if Monika and her band’s Our Wicked Lady performance is anything to go by there must be something to the notion…
…cuz despite only having rehearsed for the first time earlier the day of the show, the band of pick-up musicians seemed to instantly fall into sync with one another, locking into one mesmerizing groove after another, clearly on the same or similar frequencies, sending out healing vibrations to those in attendance… (Jason Lee)
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Princess personnel:
Monika Demmler: vocals, guitar, zither
Kristian Bell: bass, drums
Franz Bargmann: guitar
Alex Tower: synths/keys
Colin Dyer: keys on tracks 1/2/5
Dr. Monika Demmler on her early musical journey up to the near-present:
I always played music from when I was a kid. I wanted to study music, but I couldn’t because my main instrument wasn’t a piano. l played zither. But it’s like piano in that you can see everything you’re doing clearly and understand the theory. At the time I didn’t realize quite how important music was to me.
I became a bank clerk. I wouldn’t say I liked it but it was interesting at times. Then I decided to go to back school, got a Masters in teaching for English and History. I taught high school for years and then received a scholarship to study in US, met a professor who specialized in blues and hip hop philosophy. It fascinated me so much that I ended up writing a master’s thesis on blues and jazz.
After receiving a scholarship to write a PhD I began working with a professor whose specialty was ecology and literature. I combined music philosophy with ecology and African-American music. First I moved to London for a period of time and started playing music again since the music scene there was so greet, and then moved to Berlin which is such an artistic and free place and started writing my own songs. That’s when I released my first album, Lioness, in 2020.
Sometimes I think it would’ve been great if I’d stuck to music when I was younger and not done all these other things. But now I’m glad it all happened like it did. I want to keep bringing together my scientific pursuits with my music.
On moving to Los Angeles…
I moved to LA last year in May, after I finally received my artist visa following the pandemic. Immigration was shut down almost entirely during that time even though I was here before it started. When Covid first hit no one knew what was going to happen so I thought I’d better go back to Germany. But the long-term plan was always to move here to LA because it’s always fascinated me in musical terms. Plus I love being near the ocean, the mountains, and nature in general.
I went to the Cruel World Festival in late May at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. It was amazing, so fascinating. All the artists were so powerful. Saturday night was supposed to feature Siouxsie and the Banshees and Iggy Pop. Iggy Pop got through a few songs and then suddenly the power was cut. Iggy didn’t know what was happening at first. The entire night was cancelled out of fear of lightning. A storm system was moving through but it didn’t end up being that bad.
Suddenly we were in a sea of thousands of people all trying to call an Uber at the same time. We hadn’t to walk a long distance before even trying to find a way home. The next morning I got a message that the guitarist in my band, Sammy Warren, had died. It was devastating. He’d suffered a massive hemorrhagic stroke a few days earlier on his way into to see The Cure in San Diego.
On experiencing loss and playing New York City…
I couldn’t bear to go to the festival anymore and missed Siouxsie and Iggy playing their rescheduled sets. He was also part of the Gary Wilson and the Blind Dates, backing up the famous experimental musician. Sam helped to save three lives. His heart and both kidneys were donated to ailing recipients.
But still I was very sad. We had a memorial last Sunday and played a gig with the band he put together. He was known and loved in the scene for being so supportive of everyone and was a true believer in the power of music.
I was scheduled to play in New York City and didn’t want to cancel the show. He wouldn’t have wanted me to. I hadn’t been to New York in years and had never played there. I was very nervous but somehow we got some musicians together and, wow, when we were playing it was like it all just happened on its own. As if all the right spirits had been brought together. It was amazing.
I’m still full of positive energy from New York. The people at Our Wicked Lady are amazing. And all the other bands. Everyone was so nice and were so amazing on stage. I’ll never forget it.
On the power of music…
My goal is to music that helps relieve pain, anxiety, and depression. When I came across research on sound frequencies I wanted to apply those theories to my own music. Both Lioness and Princess are based around the idea that every song utilizes one healing technique or another.
It’s all an outgrowth of my dissertation [Biophilia and the Aesthetics of Blues, Jazz, and Hip-Hop Music in African-American Prose Fiction] where the goal was to look for ways to heal society following the breakdown of of capitalistic systems. Building a new way for humanity to survive.
I plan to call the next album Love Bomb and to base each song around universal love frequencies. It’s like Albert Einstein wrote in a letter to his daughter: “If we want our species to survive, if we are to find meaning in life, if we want to save the world and every sentient being that inhabits it, love is the one and only answer. Perhaps we are not yet ready to make a bomb of love, a device powerful enough to entirely destroy the hate, selfishness and greed that devastate the planet.”
The antidote to the atom bomb is the love bomb—recovering the rituals the once linked human beings to nature. It’s necessity if humans every want to be healthy again, as a species, in mind, body, and soul, in the midst of technological advances. Thanks to my research I’ve discovered how Greek used ULF’s to heal people.
During the Dark Ages much of this knowledge was lost but in the past 50 years or so it’s been rediscovered. And it’s been preserved by Buddhists all along. I’m still working on capturing these frequencies on the guitar that are in that certain frequency. You can see the hidden power of music in how it helps people who have Alzheimers for instance—how they can temporarily recover their mental and physical faculties through music. We should make use of all that power.
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Song-by-song liner notes to Monika Demmler’s Princess LP, released in late 2022…
“PRINCESS” I don’t believe in dirt Dirt under the carpet Unless it’s a flying carpet
I am a Princess
Video directed by Jean de Oliveira. The title track was originally released under the name “Stony Sugarskull.”
Stony Sugarskull came into existence in a bar about 10 years ago—an alter-ego that was tongue-in-cheek at first. Later I realized it was also about being aware of your own potential and sharing that mindset, having the courage to reinvent yourself. But I’ve outgrown it now and decided to go back to my given name.
“Princess” for me expresses the idea that human beings can become their own princesses–their own idealized beings–if they heed, and respect, their own emotions and experiences. The Robin Hood imagery is about fighting for social equity.
I collected lyrics for “Too Good” over the course of years. It turned out to be my favorite song because it wasn’t planned out ahead of time. “Too Good’ was recorded in the UK, in the countryside, and we didn’t have time for many takes. Kristian set up his drums in a great big hall. It sounds really big and powerful. Then Franz gets this perfect Krautrock groove going, but balances out the repetition by going crazy on the guitar.
We’d played together a lot as a two-piece and then moved over here. Having that familiarity, unexpected things happen in all the right places.
This was written the night a really good friend of mine died, who used to always say “cutiful” to things. He was from LA, a real true artist. We had a special connection. And then I got a phone call telling me he passed away. It was at the height of the first Fentanyl crisis, a whole wave where a lot of people died. I hurt so bad I just started playing guitar and came up with this song. “Cutiful” is dedicated to him.
“LOVECRAFT” I’m flying high I’m looking for the flowers in the garbage can surrounded by a coat of magic fabric
This song is about fighting for love, fighting for what’s good in the world. It’s not about H.P. Lovecraft, but about love power and “love craft.” Love is like a craft that you work towards. And in Germany, it also means power.
You’ve got to learn that when someone does wrong to you, you don’t do wrong back. You send love back. That’s love craft.
My favorite animals are turtles. This was the last song I wrote for the album, days after my friend passed away. His last words to me were “punky turtle.” I have an old turtle that I had posted a photo of on an Instagram story. He left a comment: “punky turtle.”
There’s also some lines in Sanskrit. Taken from a prayer to save the world.
I love the drums on this one. They’re really heavy, inspired by Led Zeppelin’s “When the Levee Breaks.” Kristian, who produced the album, also plays drums. It’s so magical when things fit perfectly together. Lock into sync. You don’t have to talk about it or explain it. We spent 14 days together recording the album. The songs weren’t even finished going in, not all of them. You have to be open to change. New ideas constantly came up when we recorded.
Franz Bargmann is on guitar here. He came over from Berlin. Alex Tower plays synths, and Colin Dyer is also from Berlin. He did the piano parts on three songs.
This one is tied into how I ended up in Los Angeles. I was in a serious car accident in 2015 on my way from Berlin to Munich for my doctoral defence. We were on the Autobahn and got hit by a truck with my in the front right seat. I was laid up for months, close to a year. After that, I really started to become a musician. It made me realize that life is so short.
I received money from the insurance and decided I wanted to use it to go to the States. The first place I visited was Austin, and the Levitation festival. It was there I met a band from Los Angeles who said you’ve got to come here. I had no idea what to expect. I’d been to New York City but never to LA. They invited me and I accepted. It was first time I’d been in a car again since the accident. The drive took 24 hours.
I felt free with some money in my bank account and no job waiting on me back in Berlin. When we got to LA it was night. We walked into my new friends’ house which was dark. The lyrics “walked into the house of darkness / seeking for something special” are based on this. I entered with my friend Domino. The house was dark and just about empty. We lit a candle, that’s all awe had for light. I walked from the darkness into a room and the first thing I saw was his brother’s ashes in an urn.
This is all what the song’s about. The line “she couldn’t find it” is based on how we’re all constantly searching for something, instead of valuing what we already have. In other words, focusing on what’s missing instead of appreciating the good things we already have in life.
Compared to past eras we live in a luxurious time. Any place where I’ve lived, most people have food and a roof over their head. But even for those who are so lucky, there’s a kind of madness happening now. Humanity has become so “advanced” yet we’re still dealing with wars, pandemics.
We’re living in a time of extremes. At the same time there’s lots of great things happening, there’s more awareness than ever of all the bad things. We need to make this planet a better place for humankind. “There’s a mock in my democracy” was a lyric that just fell into my head. But it gets at how there’s always bad lurking in the good, and vice-versa.
“The future of separation / the past of alienation / distraction without reflection / distraction without resurrection / unblock the future” refers to all the craziness around the pandemic. “I want to send you to paradise / but I’m currently out of order.” This is a fun one to play live with all the back and forth in the vocals.
A song about time itself, about time always moving forward with no means of reversal or return. Time becomes my currency ‘cause time is short on earth. I wrote all the guitar parts first. But this was one where a lot of new parts were added in the studio.
This is a song about living in a transitional period. We still don’t know what the next 10 years are going to look like at all. In a way, I’m excited to be part of it. This moment in human history.
My parents’ time, growing up in postwar Europe, was relatively stable. This era is the total opposite. Human beings are traumatized from the pandemic. There’s a lot of anxiety in the air. It hit everybody. We have to tackle the root problem and look at our role in it. It produces this sense of “Can I trust myself, my actions?” You become insecure, but it’s not all negative.
The isolation made people focus inward, bringing up feelings we’d push down otherwise. A lot of us were trapped at home, alone. It opens you up to a new dimension. Spirituality becomes more important. You realize your deep connection to nature, even when it’s traumatic–becoming more aware of ourselves, our intuition, and how people used to survive in the distant past. It’s a form of bodily learning.
This one sounds like a love song at first. It’s based on a story involving Franz Kafka, where he helps a girl who’s sad because she lost her favorite doll. He ends up teaching her a lesson about letting go when it’s time to let go. Life is giving and receiving. As human beings, we’re a part of nature too. And nothing can last forever. Everything is in motion. In relationships, sometimes you have to let go.
I learned to play the zither before the piano. Took loads of lessons when I was a little kid, playing jazz and classical music. That’s what you learn in Europe. The latter mostly. Bach and Mozart. My mom loved the zither. She wanted to learn herself but didn’t have time. So her dream was for me to learn it.
I walked into Baby’s All Right in Williamsburg on a dewy Saturday night in July, late on account of the trains. It was hot as hell outside but they really keep the AC pumping in there! Upon entering the back room, the first thing I heard was some muy tasty 70’s funk, a kind of Al Green soul vibe mixed with rock n’ roll. I saw three guys on stage, all wearing ties and collared shirts, each styled differently.
I realized it was Smith Taylor and band. The second song they played after I arrived was introduced as "If I See Satan, It’s Hands on Sight." It had a stanky groove with a long buildup to its climax, but the next song was sweet and soulful. Falsetto, yes, I thought to myself. “I almost told you I loved you,” Taylor sang, pausing on his guitar. I thought of Raphael Sadiq. They finished their set with “If it’s not Vegan, it’s Murder.” This one had crashy, thrashy drums, and an almost rap rhythm to the words, but in, like, a punk way, like classic Funkadelic.
Next was Emmett Kai. Six guys got on stage and set up their various instruments with focus. Keys, two guitars, drums, bass, and last, but certainly not least, tambourine! The first song, “Monsters at the Roxy,” started them off funky and tight. There was a British punk sound there, like the Clash, but with oozing guitar licks, poppy breakdowns (Emmett also does some pretty cool remixes on the side), crisp drums, and great harmonies from the keyboardist.
It was their first show in over a year and a half! They killed. Emmett’s songs have the sweetest melodies, very summery, and very California (in a Bay kinda way). Sometimes nothing beats when there are 6+ people on stage. Everyone was smiling and dancing and I really mean everyone! Three songs into the set was “Nature’s Voice Is A Cry.” This song just really gets me! “Walk down lover’s lane / Nothing but this gravel road / Nice night for an escapade / Promise me you’ll take it slow…”
Finally, Pink Skies took the stage. Arieh Berl, the frontman, was so present. Yet his presence was almost soft and gentle. The sound of their band swarms and swirls. It was synthy too, full of reverb and echo. They played a new song called “Reality/Nostalgia” that reminded me of BeachHouse, but they still really got their own thing going. Pink Skies kind of encircles you and fills you up, maybe like a sunset would. There are elements of Frank Ocean and Tame Impala in their psychedelic-pop music as well.
As their set drew to a close, I realized the bill that evening was exactly what the doctor had prescribed. Each band put such a big smile on my face. The through line throughout was ethereum ("etherial" plus "delirium"!) and funk, swelling instrumentation with boundary-pushing experimentation. Each set was genre-bending and enveloped us like the humid summer air. (Willa Rudolph)
The following piece was written by the Deli’s newest staff member and first new addition to the Deli NYC blog in over 3 years (!) Willa Rudolph. Willa is also known, to those in the know, as November Girl and fronts a band of the same name in addition to producing some pretty damn cool live events. And speaking of damn cool live events, be sure to peep the interview with MTAMB festival co-producer Minty Boi that closes out the report below not to mention the exclusive "Indie Sleaze Nation" Deli Delivers playlist that closes out the closing out…
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As I walked through a large opening in a massive chain link fence in Brooklyn, and into the parking lot that is the front of the Knockdown Center, I truly didn’t know what to expect from the MTA Music Festival & Minty Boi-presented MTAMB Festival– I’d never been to this particular venue. Obviously, I’d heard of Knockdown Center, but what drew me to the massive warehouse was the lineup of this festival that seemed to pop out of nowhere.
The overall theme I got from the lineup, which also included EvilGiane, Elita (another tumblr-famous gem), Current Joys, Damon R., and Nicole Dollanganger was a kind of indie-sleaze-era-inspired group of artists, though only some of them actually hail from that time period (approx. 2006-2012).
The lineup was also somehow so New York, with the iconic American-French Uffie having a distinctly NYC idgiaf attitude, ABRA being so from Queens (she dropped out of the lineup last minute, fml), EvilGiane (BK-born head producer of NY rap collective Surf Gang), Clams Casino being from NJ but, again, having such a New York sensibility, and Snow Strippers being the current epitome of what’s cool in the city, at least downtown (n.b. Clams Casino and EvilGiane produced the Earl Sweatshirt track below).
Before watching Elita (a.k.a. Yungelita) twist and croon in a bedazzled jumpsuit on the outdoor stage of the venue, surrounded by palm fronds, tropical foliage, and flanked by a blond guitarist and a bassist with a particularly neon orange mo-hawk, I was inside watching EvilGiane.
EvilGiane’s crowd pulsed in beat with his mix, standing below him in a cloud of fog. His set was on the chiller side (it never went crazy) but he steadily played banger after banger, remixing and cutting up R&B, alternative rock, drill, and rap. Attendees wore leather, fur, neutrals, hats, sunglasses inside (and at night), skin exposed between the straps of their outfits, baggy pants, thick-ass shoes… The attire wasn’t particularly summery, despite the July 2nd date of the festival, but that’s New York for you. Looking good comes way, way, wayyy before comfort.
After Elita came Detroit-based Snow Strippers on the outdoor stage. They’re pretty new, but have really claimed a spot on the scene and in everyone’s minds, and encapsulate a growing harkening-back to the indie-sleaze times in which Crystal Castles and Purity Ring ruled the dark-electronic/electro-pop space. The duo known as Snow Strippers is EDM–they’re trashy, they’re ravey, they’re poppy, and they’re witchy. They remind me of LCD Soundsystem, Bjork, Grimes, Crystal Castles, Justice, and Purity Ring all at once.
Coming on the heels of the Club Eat craze that has taken over New York (the downtown nightlife music scene, in particular), Snow Strippers seems to be born out of the move away from hyper-pop, with a dark and ethereal vibe rather than the bubble-gum moods we’ve been receiving from a lot of electronic music for the past couple of years. The duo is made up of Tatiana Schwaninger and Graham Perez (a.k.a. deliverthecrush, a member of Surf Gang).
Their set was by far the littest of the entire festival. The crowd was going truly insane. By this time it was totally dark outside. Tatiana looked like a little forest fairy with her very long straight hair, jean shorts, and oddly cumbersome fur shoulder pads. She jumped around the stage so intensely and so fervently, I was actually thinking how she could have enough energy.
When my favorite song by them played, “Under Your Spell,” which references the song “Under Your Spell” by Desire, she had ditched the fur shoulder pads to reveal a plain white tee. Perez was wearing a t-shirt of Bob Marley’s face morphed with the face of a lion, a DYAD snap back, and jumped around doing soulja boy-esque dance moves. The energy they were able to get from the crowd was truly wild.
I had a spiritual experience during Clams Casino. I was second row, so close. I didn’t even know what he looked like, but when a normie looking guy with a backpack came up to the table in the middle of the stage and started setting up computers, mixers, and other DJ accessories, I realized it had to be him! So many of his songs were the soundtrack to my middle school and early high school years. He’s literally a genius. He produced Lil B in 2009, when Based God was everything. A$AP Rocky’s “Palace” and “Wassup”, Mac Miller, The Weeknd, A$AP Rocky’s “LVL” and “Hell” (feat. Santigold) in 2013, “4 Gold Chains” feat. Clams Casino by Lil Peep, my four favorite serpentwithfeet songs, and soooooooo much more.
For this one, the crowd was lulled into a body roll, nodding heads. The sound was unbelievable, and the muggy, hot summer day that brought on not one but two rain storms had turned into a peaceful, cool night. Vince Staples’ "Norf Norf" had everyone up n’ jumping, screaming, “BITCH YOU THIRSTY, PLEASE GRAB A SPRITE,” but when Clams played the Lil Peep song, we all wanted to cry. It started drizzling, but not hard enough for it to be anything more than a cleansing sprinkle, the kind where you look up into the rain and smile. He was so calm, but effortlessly controlled the crowd. He finished with “I’m God” feat. Imogen Heap, and 15-year-old-me was so insanely happy. But 15-year-old-me wasn’t finished freaking out.
After we waited thirty minutes past the original set time, finally, Sky Ferreira walked onstage, while everyone in the venue SCREAMED for her. She hadn’t played New York in eight years, she told the crowd, giggling. She seemed nervous, and I think the crowd was a little nervous, as well, not quite sure what to expect. But she absolutely killed. Her voice sounded incredible, and was so loud and resonant throughout the cavernous warehouse space. She walked back and forth across the stage, occasionally completely consumed by the “paid-actor” that was the fog machine. She kept her sunglasses on for most of the songs, but took them off for “Lost in My Bedroom.”
The energy was so contagious, it really felt like everyone in the crowd was equally a huge fan and equally wanted her to do well. Everyone seemed so happy to be hearing her play her music, but also so happy for her. She really, really did that. Her set featured all the faves, “Boys,” “Don’t Forget” (released in 2022 from her long awaited upcoming album Masochism), “You’re Not the One,” “I Blame Myself,” and she finished with the ~iconic~ “Everything is Embarrassing!” as the light rain outside began to POUR.
Sky’s cult following isn’t even that cult, but there are many of us who have been there since her 2010 EP One. Does anyone even remember her song “Obsession,” who’s video features actor Michael Madsen?! She was 18 when she made that video, and I was 14. It changed my GD life!
Overall, MTAMB Fest was super f*$king fun, and would be fun if it happened annually! The resurgence of this era of music makes me super happy, and I love the emphasis and veneration of being dirty, not caring too much, not trying too hard, having fun-yes, the term “Indie Sleaze” references a messy, yet glam fashion aesthetic, but the sensibility is kind of a larger cultural phenomenon that includes music, art, and attitude. I like the way New York is taking this renaissance and subverting it in a very special and very New York way, per usual.
Finally, I spoke with the mind behind Minty Boi Presents, a.k.a. Yiwei Meng, or Y, who created and planned the festival:
Where are you from?
Y: I’m from China / lived in Los Angeles for 7 yrs. LA is like a second home to me. I hope we brought the LA to NYC and represented it.
How did you end up conceiving of this lineup, and what inspired it?
Y: I didn’t speak English when I came. I was in high school. Didn’t have many friends. The Internet was my friend. I found myself gravitating toward music and art at the time, Tumblr was the special place I discovered all these amazing things. And soundcloud, obviously.
Discovered music from ABRA, Nicole Dollangagnger, Current Joys (Surf Curse) on Soundcloud. Discovered music from Clams Casino, Elita, obviously Sky on Tumblr. Their fashion, music, art, and just everything these people do shaped my adolescence.
I started going to Surf Curse shows at The Smell in Los Angeles. Then I started making friends by going to these DIY shows. It changed my life, Smell and Surf Curse saved my life.
Jacob from Surf Curse played my 2nd ever show, Surf Curse’s other half, Nick (Current Joys) played a lot of our really early shows as well. They have been supporting, teaching, and inspiring me like an old brother since day 1. They are my favorite band and they are the most special band.
Our buddy Alex GK, who is now the bass player for Sky’s live band, played our 1st ever show. Even played in my backyard before. I am really proud of him. It’s a full circle moment for us.
The special guest was our close friend Cormac Roth. Cormac was a brilliant musician and one of the most charming people I ever met. Played in my backyard, played in my college, slept on the floor of my dorm… He unfortunately passed away last year. He believed in us like very few others did, and supported us all the way. Cormac Roth is his music page name on Spotify, and you can find them on bandcamp. Everytime I do a bigger event, I think about him… Rest in peace.
It’s our 5 yrs anniversary officially, since I decided to do this as a career.
The 2010s was an era. I am grateful for Soundcloud, Tumblr, the internet, and those dazed and confused teenage years we lived through. I wouldn’t be who I am without it. This lineup is a report I want to present for myself and for my people.
Did it take a lot of work getting Sky Ferreira to play NY?
Y: It takes a lot of work to do any concerts. Sky’s team was great. I am beyond grateful that Sky said yes to this. Thank you, Sky!
What goals did you have for the event?
Yr: Present something that means something to people like us. Be true to ourselves.
Did you feel it was a success?
Y: Haha. There are things I think we could have done better. But overall, I am happy with how it went down. I hope people are happy. We are gonna keep coming.
Upcoming MintyBoi Events:
07.06.23 Sky Ferreira @ The Vermont Hollywood [sold out]
07.07.23 Tommy Midnight @ El Cid
07.07.23 Sky Ferreira @ The Observatory North Park
07.08.23 Sky Ferreira @ The Regency Ballroom
07.09.23 Sky Ferreira @ The Vermont Hollywood [2nd date added]
07.12.23 Glare @ Moroccan Lounge
07.26.23 They Are Gutting A Body of Water, Waveform, Teethe @ Lodge Room
07.28.23 Wanna Dance? w/ Seb Wildblood & Hidden Spheres
08.16.23 Computerwife @ Baby’s All Right
08.24.23 BOYO @ El Cid
08.24.23 Have A Nice Life @ HOB, Chicago
08.07.23 House of Harm @ El Cid
08.25.23 Short Paris @ Lodge Room
09.13.23 Roar @ The Echo
09.15.23 Omar Souleyman @ The Vermont
09.19.23 Tangerine Dream @ The Vermont Hollywood
09.22.23 Sorry Girls @ Moroccan Lounge
10.06.23 This Paranormal Life @ The Vermont
10.08.23 Teenage Wrist @ Lodge Room
10.19.23 Born Without Bones @ El Cid
12.07.23 Sen Morimoto @ El Cid
Oh P.S., if you want some more fun music from this time period, here’s some of my faves:
Pop The Glock – Uffie
The Fear – Lily Allen
Foundations – Kate Nash
Love Letter to Japan – the bird and the bee
Hotel Song – Regina Spektor
I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked – Ida Maria
Back in Your Head – Tegan and Sara
White Nights – Oh Land
Be the One – The Ting Tings
Armour Love – La Roux
Painted By Numbers – The Sounds
My Girls – Animal Collective
When I’m Small – Phantogram
Crave You – Adventure Club Remix – Flight Facilities
Midnight City – M83
Daylight – Matt & Kim
Stillness is the Move – Dirty Projectors
Go Outside – Cults
Sour Cherry – The Kills
Courtship Dating – Crystal Castles
A Better Son/Daughter – Rilo Kiley
Losing My Edge – LCD Soundsystem
The Girl – City and Color
Tears for Affairs – Camera Obscura
Comfy in Nautica – Panda Bear
Consoler of the Lonely – The Raconteurs
Bhang, Bhang, I’m a Burnout – Dum Dum Girls
Kahiem Rivera’s brand new two-sided single “Grown Man Hours”/”Slow Moves” opens with a sandpaper-smooth beat and yeah ok ok sandpaper’s not actually smooth that’s true but it has a way of smoothing out whatever it comes in contact with which is a perfect analogy for Kahiem’s latest music I’d say…
…which is all about “shaking the walls like it’s our form of healing,” a line from “Grown Man Hours,” or in other words, making things rough for a minute (or millennium?) as a way of smoothing things out in the long term which also very much applies to the cinematically-inclined production work on the track by Roarke Menzies—the "Atticus Ross" to Kahiem’s "Trent Reznor" in their collaborative work and yes the Deli got a sneak preview of some upcoming tracks!—a master of hazy/lazy beats and ethereal textures that’re at the same time shot through with a sense of tension bubbling under and occasionally bursting through to the surface…
…like check out for instance how “Grown Man Hours” starts off with a full couple minutes of languid, mellowed-out feels lulling the listener into a blissed-out sense of security but then subtly building up layer-by-layer with orchestrated drones and skittering syncopations, the track morphing in parallel with how Kahiem moves from one passing mental state to the next like shapeshifting clouds drifting overhead something like if cloud rap took into account all different types of clouds from the big puffy cumulous ones to turbulent storm clouds…
…which likewise works perfectly in tandem with how K.R. is prone to constantly changing up his flow but in a way that flows seamlessly, almost imperceptibly, from one state to the next moving from laid-back, behind-the-beat inner monologues to rapid-fire, double-time eruptive fulminations with the latter referenced directly in “Grown Man Hours” with lines like “I been on some bullshit / treat a rooftop hang like a bully pulpit / treat an old friend like a free therapist / talk with my hands like damn I’m playing theremin”…
…and we just gotta pause here for a second to point out how unlikely it is that anyone’s ever though to rhyme “therapist” with “theremin” before and what’s more we’re not talking simple “Moon/June” type rhyme schemas either cuz it’s the first two syllables of the two words that not only rhyme (rhyming more than one syllable in a row is known as a “multi” in MC lingo) but also act as straight up homophones (the exact same sounds but spelled differently) wheres the last syllable is a slant rhyme at best, which applies even more to “bullshit” and “pulpit” from the preceding two lines and nevermind the internal slant rhyme of “hands” and “damn”…
…so in other words this cat is a serious lyricist which is not to be taken lightly in these mumble-rap prevailing times and I could easily spent about 20 more paragraphs unpacking line after line but I’ll spare you the overkill suffice to say if you ever happen to wonder to yourself “why do Kahiem’s lines hit the way they do?” it’s got at least something to do with their meticulous construction not to mention how all that playful wordplay and complex rhythmic interplay helps some of the heavier sentiments go down smoothly (or “smooth-lay," getting in the spirit here…) just remember what we said about sandpaper above…
…and speaking of “pulpits” by the time “Grown Man Hours” moves across it’s chilled out opening section and its more orchestrated middle section it culminates in the final section with a burst of signifying ’n’ testifying more akin to a gospel song (with a second mention of a “pulpit” in the lyrics, no less!) if your church’s preacher was a skilled speed rapper that is and that’s one cool thing among others about the tracks that Rivera and Menzies have been working on together…
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…combining the fast-paced chopper-style flows most associated with hardcore hip-hop lyricists like Twista and Tech N9ne with much-less-hardcore associated musical styles like Eno-meets-Clams-Casino ambient vaporware beats or Dilla-esque angular R&B woozily chopped-up beats and hey I bet you thought us music crits only ever used the word “angular” in association with post-punk but hey just like Kahiem I’m trying to mix it up here…
…but back to that gospelesque outro you may wanna have a hankie handy to dab away the sweat formed on your brow from all the hand-waving gesticulating and moved-by-the-spirit dancing you’re likely to do even if it’s only a minute or less with Kaheim’s sermon ending on a typically nuanced note where the on-the-surface-of-things aspirational final aphorism—we all wanna be heard / we all wanna be seen and lastly just we all wanna be / we all wanna be—should maybe be taken with a grain of sacramental salt seeing as the lines leading up the refrain mention being on a “high horse [with] low self esteem” not to mention “mirrors and smoke” and “quotes for captions on your post” so in other words it’s complicated…
…which after all is exactly what Signifyin’ is all about, or at least it is in the Henry Louis Gates, Jr. sense of the word as discussed in this space before with Signifyin’ being an African-American created oral art form based around virtuosic verbal dexterity with a preference for double-edged utterances that deliberately and strategically play with the inherent ambiguity of language and speaking of literary forms it’s also notable that both “Grown Man Hours” and “Slow Moves” have a tripartite structure and while I don’t have space to get too far into “Slow Moves” here (see the interview below for more!) suffice to say the track comes off something like if Barry White and Lil B had a baby…
…with “Slow Moves” having actually started off as three separate ideas/fragments only later fused together and is it any wonder that K.R. is in fact a trained thespian so he knows plenty about three-act structure having just recently returned to his roots in the theater—as Kahiem puts it on his Insta profile he’s a “Rapper + Newly Non-Retired Actor”—and not taking any half measures either in taking on the title role in Being Chaka(written by Tara Amber, Chuk Obasi, and Nalini Sharma) a play that just had a sold-out three-week run at the New Ohio Theater in the heart of the West Village described as “a genre-bending ensemble piece where worlds collide at an elite private school in NYC”…
…or as described by Kahiem himself “one of the most fulfilling things I have done in my adult life” and guess what K.R. had some other things to tell us about too seeing as we were fortunate enough to have a sit down with the man himself outside the highly stylish yet still chill The Ten Bells Bushwick drinking organic wine—or as he puts it at the end of the super-vibey middle section of “Slow Moves” (prod. Vesa Beats) “we drinking natural wine and we faded plenty”—having a lovely, wide-ranging conversation as the clouds thickened overhead from a mostly sunny sky to a smear of grey clouds threatening rain, excerpts of which are appended below for your interest and edification, and for background music (after you listen to the single!) you may wanna put on Kahiem’s recent EP Rap Music To Take A Bath To which is even more vibey and settle in for the ride… (Jason Lee)
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OFFICIAL BIO: Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Kahiem Rivera manages to weave a bluesy, world-weary perspective into rap songs about love, sex, race and disappointment. In a constant effort to unpack dealings with mental health and past trauma, he points to a lyric from his song “Woo!” as the mission statement: “I make ‘em dance and depressed at the same time.” Mission accomplished.
Kahiem treats songs as time stamps, with stream of consciousness storytelling that manages to capture his current state of being without sounding like a journal entry. Peppering in clever wordplay over a quilt-like stitch of sonic influences, the music is both highly collaborative and disarmingly intimate. In these tracks, Kahiem gets indie rock vocalists to play footsie with boom bap producers and jazz saxophonists, enforcing his philosophy that community is key and collaboration is everything. His ever expanding live band consists of players from various local NYC projects who share that same vision.
Ever the multi-hyphenate, Kahiem is also an actor, writer, and Operating Manager at The Sultan Room — a music venue with some of the most diverse programming in New York City. The thread that ties this all together is an ethos that makes sure no interaction feels purely transactional, and that artists feel their work is valuable and important.
“Grown Man Hours” marks a new chapter for Kahiem. A new single, a music video and a b-side that has no business being a b-side, it’s a strong release from an artist showing no signs of stopping. Coming out of a pandemic induced hibernation, Kahiem hinted at things to come with a surprise release of unreleased oldies over the winter. It was an attempt at shedding skin. Sitting on a trove of new material, Kahiem will spend the second half of 2023 dumping out a steady stream of new songs and videos that push the boundaries of what he’s made prior, with all the trademark lyrical honesty and unusual beats he has become known for.
Perhaps Kahiem’s second mission statement can be found in the closing lyric: “We all wanna be heard. We all wanna be seen.” Mission in progress.
Even though Onesie began as a name songwriter Ben Haberland used for the desktop file folder holding a clutch of new solo song demos he’d recorded well before teaming up with drummer Josh Inman and bassist Rob Lanterman, the name has stuck since the band’s initial formation one decade ago (happy tensies!) and it’s actually a quite fitting one too seeing as, much like adult onesies, their songs are warm and comfortable if not a bit odd too…
…cuz what’s more warm and comfortable than a shapeless, terrycloth garment complete with handy buttflap in case of emergency and likewise what’s more comfortable than “timeless, obtuse guitar pop in the tradition of Rundgren, Malkmus and Pollard” in Ben’s own words, especially for a certain contingent of indie-rock heads who venerate bands like Guided By Voices and Pavement…
…with Todd Rundgren serving as a sort of fairy godfather to all those making sonically dense and adventurous avant-rock leavened with the machine-tooled songwriting and sticky sweet hooks of AM pop, in other words “peak U.S. indie” from a certain sensibility and hey your writer here was kicking around the LES and BK too back when storied venues like CakeShop and Trash Bar were regular destinations and how better to analogize this sound than a dense musical pound cake where you can’t tell if those crunchy bits in the frosting are funfetti or toxic chemical filaments which, either way, "trash"…
…but there’s more to onesies/Onesie than mere comfort seeing as both onesies the garment and Onesie the band are totally in-your-face in a way cuz let’s face it, a grown-ass wo/man wearing a garment designed for mewling, drooling infants in public is a fairly bold statement to make that can lead to some discomforting stares not to mention how terrycloth is about the worst fabric imaginable for walking around a hot, dirty city…
…and likewise Onesie the band strike this writer as much more than a mere nostalgia trip of musical comfort food, doing instead what all good stylists do in pushing familiar forms into unexpected new domains which Haberland & Co. do on their new single “Anemone in Lemonade” (released just today!) featuring sweet-and-sour riffage that’s gritty as a cheap packet of lemonade mix…
…leavened with aurally-rendered intrusive thoughts where the music suddenly drifts off into a state of uneasy reverie like a pleasantly languid state of suspended animation that’s also a little unnerving kinda like actual sea anemone (check out 1:09 and 1:57) and as much as I enjoy this song’s gnarly guitars, churning rhythms, and catchy hooks it’s these two slanted/enchanted bits that make the song pop for me while also making the other parts stand out vividly in relief…
…then add in some lyrics about how “when there’s a will there’s a wait” which only reinforces the musical dynamic halfway between momentum and status and a music video that finds hilarity in the singularity with lo-fi, AI-generated graphics and you’ve got a hit on your hands…
…with this the second advance single from Onesie’s third full-length Liminal Hiss which comes out on August 18th on Totally Real Records/Pillow Sail Records/Kool Kat Music, an occasion that’ll be celebrated that evening at The Sultan Room in Bushwick alongside Irrevery and Strange Neighbors so come out and say hello and in the meantime be sure to check out the interesting ‘n’ informative commentary below kindly provided to us by frontman Ben Haberland hisself… (Jason Lee)
On the stylistic qualities and musical influences of “Anemone In Lemonade”:
The song may conjure familiarity—classic ‘90s indie like Pavement and Built To Spill, Midwest emo, or the janglier side of classic rock and Brit Pop, but the band’s stylistic mashing makes them stubbornly hard to pin down, especially when they’re dishing out hooks at this speedy of a clip.
On the title and lyrical themes of “Anemone In Lemonade”:
The title came from playing with language, “anemone” and “lemonade” being phonetic cousins. That created an accidental metaphor of an ocean creature being scooped up and placed in a cramped, tiny space, immersed in unbreathable sweetness. Sort of like you’re moving ahead with your life plan, but still feeling out of place with the clock ticking.
The tone was set for touching on those big middle age moments—marriage, having a kid, starting my own business, wondering if it’s time to leave the city. The opening line “thrilled inaction, some say namaste“ says it all. By the time the band pauses for “orchestration or castration”, you’re not sure if it’s a punchline or a desperate plea.
On the surround socio-cultural context of “Anemone In Lemonade”:
Musically this one is peppy and forward moving, maybe because NYC was [neither of these things] when I was chiseling out these songs. I could at least keep my imagination moving. I recall strumming in an open tuning and stumbling upon a progression that sounded hopeful but sort of…resigned to failure as well. The quiet breakdown came from sliding the same weird shape up and down the neck. It has nothing to do with the rest of the song but I like that it creates a sudden, eerie tension. Then we go into a stadium rock zone with a spacious, crunchy riff.
On recording“Anemone In Lemonade”:
The song is a good example of something I really wanted to improve this time around—getting the vocals bright, upfront, and punchy in the mix. Producer Gary Atturio and I really tried to match the mood of the song with the vocal takes. We’ve been opening with “Anemone” lately since it’s pretty dynamic and really covers the range of different modes we play in a set.
On the music video for“Anemone In Lemonade”:
The [self-made] video finds the pixelated band members (including Josh Inman on drums and Rob Lanterman on bass) boxed into separate spaces and miming against dozens of nightmarish two second AI-generated videos created from the song’s lyrics or other Onesie-related phrases. As incoherent visual gibberish encroaches from all sides, you might notice a few celeb guest spots—former mayor NYC Mayor Ed Koch battling leprechauns in a mosh pit, Tom Cruise kissing his organ donor clone, a dancing Ted Cruz puppet during the lyrics “A ponzi scheme to be believed”.
The chaos ceases for the quiet parts, but reality is now tinted a dark green. It’s only moments before the beat kicks in and our senses are saturated once again. If AI is soon to be ubiquitous in our lives, you might as well put it to work on a rock video.
Photo by Michelle LoBianco a/k/a @brooklynelitist, and as always, if you wanna skip the commentating and get straight to the exclusive interview with the band just scroll down past the jump…
A knee-jerk reaction to first hearing the name “Pop Music Fever Dream” could be to think oh must be another bunch of pop-culture fixated arch-ironist Situationists who self identify as “the sound of scatter-brained chaos" and "what anti-capitalism feels like" and "like Mission of Burma, but gay”…
…prone to releasing EPs with titles like Songs For Promoters and songs with titles like “The Internet (And Other Modern Observations), Vol. 1” and “It’s Not That Serious” full of nervy circuitous monologues delivered in a Laurie Anderson meets Louie Anderson adjacent voice alternating with straight-up punk rock hootin’ and hollerin’…
…with twisty elliptical phraseology like “most of the words I sing-talk don’t actually mean a thing it’s just anthropomorphized pathological methodical dictation of a didactic dualism between nothing and everything and nothing at all” but here’s the thing we’re come to realize about Pop Music Fever Dream and that’s that they’re TOTALLY IF NOT DEADLY SERIOUS with what we’re going to call their "intelligent party jams" a/k/a IPJ’s (new genre alert!)…
…as made abundantly clear at PMFD’s highly visceral live shows where lead singer/shouter/fabulist Tim Seeberger is prone to literally crawling up the walls as they and their bandmates attack their instruments with the pent-up mania of a sect of ascetic mystics let loose and it’ll all make you wanna dance like Crispin Glover in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (if you need proof check out a couple of the live video clips below)…
…in support of songs that elevate the everyday absurdism of daily life into a state of spiritual enlightenment while not forgetting to attend to our baser desires, i.e., moving to/being moved by mutant nü-wave disco-punk thus making Pop Music Fever Dream a combo who fully live up to their chosen moniker with the off-kilter, nervy nervous, head-in-the-clouds energy of a manic street preacher proselytizing in purgatory that heaven can only reached by breaking the bonds of hegemonic musical genres & heteronormative gender identities…
…and religion analogies aside this all sounds a lot like the psychological concept of "self-actualization" which you surely learned about if you ever took a PSYC 101 class and studied Maslow’s Pyramid representing human needs ‘n’ desires in the form of a five-tiered pyramid with base physiological needs occupying the pyramid’s base level which if fulfilled leaves time to pursue higher-level desires like safety and security, belonging and love, self-esteem, and finally, if you’re lucky enough to get to this point, “self actualization…
…aka “living according to one’s full potential” aka “becoming who you really are” and I’ve got a feeling PMFD would agree the best pop music ticks off all these levels of need as well from the baseline physiological/emotional fulfillment derived from catchy tunes, driving rhythms, and appealing sonics all the way up to music being used to will a better self and a better society into existence…
…so no wonder PMFD’s new single “Abraham Maslow” is named for the pyramid’s creator, opening with the primal sound of a pulsing drum pattern that starts at a resting rate before ramping up gradually to a panic-attack gallop overlaid with an overdriven, driving bassline and pounded-out power chords and highwire-walking fretwork and if you’re not pogoing around your room by this point we dunno how to help ya…
…over which numerous needs ‘n’ desires are enumerated from baseline fundamental needs like good health and repose (“I don’t know if we can hang out / I’m kind of always sick / And I don’t know how to get some rest / I wanna crawl out of my skin”) to more elevated longing for attaining one’s true potential and gaining insight into the significance of our existence (“I don’t know all the answers / ‘Cause I don’t know what to ask / And I don’t know how death works / And it’ll be the death of me”) and when it comes to the song’s genesis Tim tells us:
"I wrote this song in Sept. 2022 when I felt like my life was falling apart. I was sick for basically the whole summer and hadn’t written a song since April. I just needed to do something with my life and write music again because everything was stripped away from me. I had the chorus in my notes app and thought it would be funny to write all these one-liners for the verses, so I just wrote a song that’s pure fun…
…the bridge is about the many experiences I’ve had where I go to talk to someone about my problems in earnest and then they diminish my issues by saying they’re not as bad as theirs. Those conversations are beyond annoying, so I had to immortalize that feeling in a song. I thought it was a throwaway track but people really seem to like it, and the way we play it live has quickly turned into one of the band’s favorites."
…but despite the song’s refrain which goes “what I do know / is that I don’t know / what I need” it turns out that when I sat down to talk to Tim, Carmen, Domenico, and Nicole for the aforementioned interview-cum-free-flowing-convo they were actually quite articulate re: their needs and desires and about PMFD’s ongoing quest to create a space for shared self-actualization in the form of primitive slam-dancing rituals and transcendental musical release… (Jason Lee)
"Abraham Maslow"
Writer, vox, rhythm guitar:Tim Seeberger
Lead guitar, vox: Nicole Harwayne (Uncle Pizza, Survey Monkey)
Bass guitar, vox: Carmen Castillo (Spare Feelings, Eevie Echoes & The Locations)
Drums, vox: Domenico Bancroft
Production, mix: Nicole & Tim
Engineer and master: Nicole
Tim: So I would comfortably say the scene is popping off.
The Deli: It feels like it’s the next musical golden age for New York, like we’re moving into the new Meet Me In The Bathroom era or whatever, or already there, as someone who’s been around since then.
Nicole: It’s cool to hear that. I’ve only been in New York for 2 years and I was feeling that too. It’s cool to have it confirmed by someone who’s been here longer.
Carmen: I read Please Kill Me a while back and like, just like got so charged by it because it feels like that now. And also it feels like that across disciplines too. There’s a lot of bills now where there’s comedy, drag, music, theater…
Tim: Yeah, it’s not just music that’s popping off right now.
Nicole: Comedy is going really well, drag performance.
The Deli: Like the Wednesday night shows they have at Purgatory [Whoopsie Wednesdays]. I’ve only been once but it was mind-blowingly good.
Carmen: It feels sort of parallel to, like, when Velvet Underground was rising up and it was in conjunction with [John] Vaccaro and Andy Warhol, all of that visual art, at the same time.
Editor’s note: Quoting fromwarholstars.com, “Vaccaro’s gender-bending absurdist stage productions during the 60s and early 70s were a cornerstone of the gay movement and instrumental in the development of off-off-Broadway. He brought drag out of the closet and on to the stage. Many of the actors he used were also used by Warhol in his films.”
Nicole: I think it always goes together. Creative people hang out with creative people. It’s not a discipline thing. It’s just like if all your friends are doing cool shit, you want to do cool shit too.
PMFD on being “queer as fuck” which really should be the title of a new Showtime series:
Tim:It’s cool because, this movement specifically, is queer as fuck. It’s progressed so far from where it started in the late ‘90s and early 2000s to a place where so many people are represented across the board—or maybe represented is not the right word—but this movement is centered directly around queer and trans artists. It’s so cool that it’s happening in this very organic fashion. It’s just, like, this is who’s at the forefront. And it’s amazing. I’m really glad to be a part of it and glad that PMFD is in that sphere. I didn’t know if that was ever going to happen.
PMFD on transitioning from a solo act to a full band:
Tim: I think once the band, once I found everybody to play with, it felt like, “Oh, this can really be something, you know?” I wasn’t plugged in while I was playing solo. I’m actually kind of happy because if things had gone really well, or even more well, playing solo, personally, I don’t know how I would have handled things. But I’m so glad I found Domenico, Nicole, and Carmen. It’s been perfect timing. I knew at some point I wanted this to be a band project, but they came along at just the right time.
Nicole: Even when you were solo, the influences you always talked about were band projects. It feels so much about—even when you were working on your own—about the connections between the different parts, and the live feel of it.
Tim: From day one a lot of my influences have been like Sonic Youth, Mission of Burma, Hüsker Dü, Beat Happening, a lot of the Our Band Could Be Your Lifebands. Reading that book was crazy to me. That opened me up to a whole new world, just listening to a lot of those bands and growing up listening to bands like mewithoutYou. Just very noisy, diverse, sonically diverse bands.
PMFD on shaming Deadhead shamers and appreciating the art of improvisation:
Nicole: You know, not to expose you in an interview, but one thing that made it click a little bit for me was when you were like “I’m a Deadhead.” I love the Grateful Dead too. People like to talk shit about jam bands, but the thing jam bands do that’s cool is that it’s so much about listening and so much about the moment. And I feel like our live shows are really fun because we do pretty much the same thing.
Carmen: What we do is such in the moment music. I think it keeps getting better, the better we get at playing together and communicating and stuff.
Tim: Yeah, you can put this on the record. I don’t care, like, people can shut the fuck up, The Dead are cool! I will say that with my full chest.
Nicole: I was just being kind of silly!
Tim: I’ve always had the thought in the back of my head that I kinda want to be like the Dead—where you never know what’s going to happen, everything’s going to be different. I’ve talked to a lot of people and they’re kinda like, “Yeah I don’t really know what, like, what your whole deal is. I only know that it goes on the whole time.” And I’m like, “Yeah, that’s kinda the vibe.” I don’t really want you to know.
Nicole: That last Purgatory show was a great example of this, honestly. We played a bunch of songs and we know how to play them. But there was a lot of sort of looking at each other and, like, “How do we play this right now? How do we play to this audience? What do we do?” And I feel it was really explosive and improvisatory.
PMFD on the value of theatricality and stage blocking:
Carmen: To that same point, I’ve been geeking out lately over Nicole and that performance in particular. It gave me an epiphany about you as a performer. I went to acting school, that’s the world I come from, but Nicole has a better sense of space and audience relationships, and knowing just what a moment needs in performance, than a lot of people I know with four year degrees in that kind of thing.
It’s so fun to improvise and just sort of play off her. She’ll talk about having a sense of the space: “Oh, if you’re here, I think it would be most visually appealing if I was over here.” And it is what is really visually interesting. And there are all these highbrow concepts about stage performance being like architecture, the role of tempo. It’s what we’re already doing essentially, to elevate things and I really dig that. Tim’s performances have always been super super theatrical as well.
The Deli: That was true even when I saw you solo.
Tim: Yeah, that’s where I cut my teeth. I’ve been comfortable with performing on a stage for a long time. I grew up playing in school bands. I grew up in a religious setting, so I was playing on the worship team every week. So I was on stage a lot. But to go into the solo setting, I didn’t even really think about that all so much. But there were definitely tweaks along the way. Like that whole thing of me running out of the room during “The Internet,” during the solo, didn’t happen for a few shows. And then when I came up with it, it was like “Oh, that’s it.”
PMFD on odd musical pranks involving Debussy and Tom Jobim:
Tim: But the most fun part about the whole conversation around what happens on stage is that, when Nicole and Carmen talk about that, I’m not really involved in the conversation. And I just trust them. There’s a great example from when we played Rockwood Music Hall. It was booked as a solo gig originally and we got moved to a different space. They had an upright piano in the room where we were playing and so Domenico was like, “I’m gonna play “Clair de Lune.” Tell them we need to use the piano.
The Deli: Really?! You’re the drummer for the band and you have Debussy’s “Clair De Lune” just ready to go?
Domenico: I have enough of it down for people to recognize oh, that’s “Clair De Lune.” That’s all you need!
Tim: During this one part, when we play the song "Content" [an upcoming single and/or album track] the ending is this whole freak out part where we let loose and get very No Wavey, maybe go into “Maps,” and when we lose it, we’re gonna stop playing and Domenico’s gonna go play this. And fully behind my back, Carmen is like, “hey, we’re all gonna play "Girl from Ipanema" instead.
Domenco: We didn’t tell Tim. And then Tim announced that I was going to play “Clair De Lune.” But we didn’t!
Tim: I had no idea. So I walked off the stage and they all just started playing “Girl from Ipanema.”
Carmen: Yeah, Nicole was playing. I was singing.
Tim: It was so funny and it worked perfectly. Switching over from being solo I was a little unsure at first. I don’t know how this is gonna go, just the whole presence of it, with these other people on stage. But then at Rockwood it became immediately known to me, “Oh, yeah, I don’t have to worry about what anybody does on stage.”
Now I make this joke sometimes, when we get on stage, that we all form into one collective brain cell. We all have two brain cells left and one of them goes into this! There’s this one collective brain cell on stage, and whatever happens, happens. There’s been moments when me, Carmen and Domenico have had this fully blanked out look on our faces, staring really intensely, and Nicole will look at us and be like “I don’t know what’s going on…but okay!” The live performances are so special at this point.
Nicole: It reminds me of one of the most formative performances I saw growing up which was Wayne Shorter, the legendary jazz sax player, with his quartet. And it was crazy to watch. This dude who’s a legend, one of the best musicians of all time, where the rest of the band was clearly, like, How do we make this dude look like an asshole? How do we play our instruments such that he looks dumb and doesn’t know what to do?”
And it never worked the whole time! He would shoot them looks like they were rowdy little kids. It was so incredible for me to see. You could see the conversation happening. And it feels that way sometimes with us too because, even though we’re not playing super improvisatory music, we’re doing improvisatory stuff. And so it’s all a question of, number one, how do I make Tim look cool? And, two, how do I make Tim look like an idiot? And, three, how do I make the show and us look good. And it all kinda ties together.
PMFD on having things go wrong in the right way:
Tim: I love that. I mean, famously, my ethos on many things that happen in the band is that I love things that are “bad,” so if things go wrong I’m totally cool with it.
Nicole: But weirdly enough, stuff rarely goes really wrong. It’s kind of crazy.
Tim: It’ll go wrong in a good way. With that ethos in mind, I think things usually go wrong in a good way. I’ve definitely tried out stuff without telling everybody.
Nicole: I didn’t even realize you were climbing on the risers at Purgatory at first!
Tim: I tried doing that at an earlier show and it didn’t work. So, when I got there, I was like, I am making sure that bar stool over there is free. I am leaning over and know how to do this, I know what to grab on to that will not break the fucking banister. I made it happen and it was so much fun. I’ve always had a dream of doing that. I have more shenanigans I want to pull off with climbing things.
Nicole: Was it Rockwood where you ran in the middle of the street?
Tim: Rockwood was crazy because I had a megaphone on me. I was running in the middle of what was not even stalled traffic, but active traffic in the street. I was just like, “Come into my show. I’m psychotic!” Right there on the sidewalk I actually got someone to come it.
Carmen: We got so many people coming in later, during the end of our set at Rockwood, that we played “Abraham Maslow” again as an encore.
Tim: It was like paying homage to the time that Vampire Weekend played “A-Punk” three times in a row. I was like, we’re playing this again!” They did that on their Father of the Bride tour. And I was, like, I’m logging that one in my head, guys.
And, look, I’ll be the first to say it. I can be a bit of a control freak. I have a clear vision for how things should go. But then at the same time, it ends up somewhere else. But that’s why it works. The three of us do a lot of our own shit in different ways, and are really creative people in our own ways. So I think it’s good that we’re always like, “Can we try this? Can we try that?” or we just try something on the spot at a live show.
Domenico on drunken meetups and being a drummer-as-third-instrument in demand:
The Deli: Since this started as a solo project, can we go around and tell how each of you came on board with Pop Music Fever Dream?
Domenico: I worked in a bar in Manhattan called Milano’s Bar. And my coworker Diana knew Tim. Love Diana, shout out to Diana! And I saw something she posted on Instagram that was, like, my friend’s looking for musicians to play with them. And I asked her if I should reach out to Tim, and I did, and then I went to one of Tim’s shows at Heaven Can Wait and we met. And I was very drunk. I was very drunk before I came. I had friends in town, and I went and saw them, and then I…yeah, uh, and so I don’t really play drums, that’s something. I play guitar, and I can play bass.
The Deli: Amazing! So this is the first band, the first time you played drums in a band?
Domenico: This is the third band I’ve played drums in. The other two were very short stints. Out of necessity. Kind of like this was too, really. And I was fully drunk enough that I thought that they weren’t going to contact me again.
Multiple bandmates: I had no idea.
Domenico: That’s a testament to something! Like being a bartender for 10 years. And then Tim reached out and said, “So I think I have a bass player, and a guitar player. You want to play drums?” And I was like, “Sure.”
Tim: It ended up falling into place perfectly.
Editor’s note: Domenico is a sick drummer and an unusually modest one to boot.
Nicole on making cool stuff with cool people:
Nicole: My other band, which like Tim and PMFD started as my own solo project, is called Uncle Pizza. I met Tim at an Uncle Pizza show, I think, because you wanted to chat with Sam [Sumpter] for Bands Do BK, right?
Tim: Yeah, I emailed Sam around that time. I was like, “Hey, what’s up? I really want to get involved in the scene.” And she was like, “Come to this show!” And it was an Uncle Pizza show at The Nest, R.I.P.
Nicole: We played there so much. So we met there and Tim was like, “I’m in like a post-punk band.” And I was like, “Cool. I like post-punk.” I hadn’t been in New York that long. I’m from California. I was in Portland, Oregon before moving here. That’s where I went to college. Domenico was also out there too, but we didn’t know each other back then.
So I didn’t think much of it. And then, I don’t know if I followed you immediately or not until later. But somehow I ended up seeing some video edit to a song where it looked really cool and I was like, “Oh shit, nevermind. Maybe this band owns ‘cause they look sick as fuck!”
Tim: It was probably a TikTok I made. When I was committed to it my TikTok game was on point.
Nicole: But then I saw they were posting, like, “I need a band…for my band.” And I was like, “Cool. I just wanna play music with cool people and make cool stuff.” So I’ll see what’s up.
And it went really quickly. I was maybe, originally, going to play bass. But Carmen’s a way better bassist than I am. And I think I’m pretty good at guitar so it works out. And I feel like it’s been, you know, good chemistry and all the great stuff you need for a band.
Carmen: It’s not a crazy thing to say that Nicole is probably the best guitar player in the scene. I’d wager to say it.
Tim: Oh, thanks! [laughs] But yeah, there’s a reason Nicole is playing guitar.
The Deli: It’s amazing to see a new band click like y’all do, so soon after coming together.
Nicole: It’s so random. I think we have a similar really good chemistry in Uncle Pizza. But it’s a band with one of my best friends from college. And we went through a whole bunch of different people before we landed on our rhythm section—who we love, and the chemistry’s perfect—but it didn’t just happen. One of the craziest things about PMFD is that we did just simply get lucky. We talked only to one other bassist, who is also lovely, but the fact that it barely took any effort at all, of a certain kind, to find four people who really get it is crazy.
Tim: We were practicing for our first gig as a band. We didn’t have Carmen yet so Nicole was playing bass for it. And I remember just sitting at the bar after soundcheck, just the three of us, chatting, and we had so many similar shared experiences–with our music, the scene, everything. And I was like, “Oh my God, this is going to work.” And then once we brought Carmen in, we knew we had it. I remember the quote-unquote audition we had with Carmen that was basically just a rehearsal.
Carmen on making an outré entrée into the NYC queer punk scene:
Carmen: I think it makes sense to start back at this Crush Fund show I went to in November. I’d just gotten back from San Francisco. And it was one of the first drag-punk show hybrid things that Hazel had booked [at Purgatory] that included a few drag artists I knew from either the theater scene or whatever, who were performing. So I was really jazzed to go. And I’d heard about Crush Fund from afar.
In San Francisco I’d been doing this new rock musical written by a bunch of folks who had backgrounds in the DIY punk scene there. So while I was there doing that show, I had the perfect opportunity to go to see a lot of drag shows and punk rock shows. So it sort of put a battery in my back to try and start something of my own back in New York.
Because up ‘til then I’d been pretty successful as an actor, doing off-Broadway stuff and whatnot, but nothing creatively that was mine. So I was looking to meet people at the show. I met Nicole, plus made friends with everybody in Crush Fund too, and told her I was looking for a project. And that was when she mentioned she was starting to make some stuff with Tim. We started messaging. It took about a month and a half before I made it over to play with them.
Tim: I got sick during that time to my credit.
Carmen: By the time I played with them I didn’t realize they were talking to another bass player as well. I knew all the tunes already, so it was basically just like a rehearsal. And not to toot my own horn but I’m a really good bass player.
Domenico: This is now an open secret!
Carmen: And then I realized later that it was kind of an audition and I was like, “Oh!” And me and Nicole were already friends at that point. So we took the subway home together and I was like, “This is really awkward if they don’t let me in!” And then a couple weeks before the Arlenes show Tim messaged me that I was in.
The Deli: This wasn’t too long ago?
Tim: It really came together in the last six months. The long and short of it was I put out a call on Instagram that I needed people. And then Nicole and Domenico responded, we made it happen. And then Nicole, not long after, was like “Oh yeah, how about Carmen!”
Nicole: Well you [Carmen] seemed cool and sure of yourself, which is how you know someone’s probably good at their instrument, right? Plus it’s very important to me to be a kind force in the scene. I think it really matters that there are people who are, like, “Oh, you don’t know anyone. Come join us!” I think if I can be that person for folks, that’s all that matters. Carmen was cool. Carmen seemed on her shit, so like, come play in this fucking band.
Carmen: I also should mention that early on, when I’d first moved here, some of the first people to embrace me were part of the Brooklyn trans punk scene. Especially Saoirse from The Dilators. We became really fast friends, and she was one of the first people to encouraged me to make music and all that stuff. So that’s a big, big reason why I had the confidence to start pursuing being in bands again.
I grew up in DC. And my sister, Flora, fronts MAAFA, the Afro-progressive hardcore band that’s in the city now. I grew up going to her psychobilly bands shows in DC, like at the Black Hat and Rock ’n’ Roll Hotel and stuff like that. I was like 11 years old in the pit with a six inch mohawk. And then I pivoted in adolescence to more of a theater thing.
But I was still keeping my chops up, playing, and when I got out of college there was a niche that opened up for actor-musicians—a lot of plays and musicals where the actors play instruments—so that was my thing for a few years. But there was still that void of, like, I wanted to be playing music music, right? So during that time, after going to college in New Jersey, I was just nomad-ing at different places, finding acting houses that would hire me, before finally landing in New York when I started transitioning. That was about two years ago.
On the trajectory from pre-PMFD to PMFD 1.0 to PMFD 2.0:
Tim: I’m originally from Long Island. Suffolk County, South Shore. Amityville. I was going to shows when I was like 15. There’s a venue out there, the Music Hall, that we played at once. We got paid zero dollars, but it’s a famous hardcore venue.
I also went to a lot of gigs in the city when I was a kid, seeing indie bands at Terminal Five, at Summerstage, wherever. Then went to college in California for two years. That happened. Then I came home and went to school in the city, went to Baruch for two years. That was really cool. Moved away to Massachusetts during the pandemic to be a reporter. Whatever. That stunk. Broke my wrist, moved home to my parents. Got surgery.
The Deli: That’s a trajectory!
Tim: Yeah, yeah, it’s a wild one. And then, like, this brings us to like August or September 2021. My best friend Seth was living in Sunset Park. He’s a New York native. And then he was like, “Yeah, I’m making more money working at a restaurant than you are right now as a part-time reporter. And I was like, “Cool, maybe time for a change.”
I moved in with him around Halloween weekend 2021. For years, since around 2017, I’d pretty much thought to myself, “I’m not really cut out for anything but music.” Not in a negative, demeaning way but more a “this is what I wanna do” thing. I was already starting to write songs when I was in California. Once I came back home my genres hopped around a little bit. I was like, let me write indie pop, you know, let me write C86 jangly twee pop, and so on.
And then 2019 was basically the pivotal year for PMFD becoming a project. I got Logic on my laptop, started diddling around. I put a speaker mic straight into Logic with a little shitty Behringer interface, and just typed on my little keyboard drums and then that was it. I had the name and the logo before anything else. And then basically within three months I wrote “Control” fully formed—which is the craziest thing, because for the longest time I was also, like, “this song is cringe, I’m not putting it out.” And then I wrote what became “Good Feelings Forever” and then what became this yet-to-be-released song “Content” and then the pandemic happens.
But when I moved to city in late 2021, I was like, “Fuck it, this is it. This is the time. I’m in the perfect space. Let’s just do this, I don’t fucking care that I don’t know anybody. I’m just going for it.” And that’s how I started the solo era, which started in February of 2022. I played 12 shows that year which was nuts. Learned a lot and got super sick in the meantime. And then around the end of 2022 I thought, “It’s time for a full band. I want to do it.” And that’s how this all came to be.
On A Queer Friend-Making Battle of the Bands Royale:
Tim: The first catalyst for everything was the Uncle Pizza show, and then next the Queer Battle of the Bands at Dave’s Lesbian Bar on April 22nd. We were in that and came out on top. It was a really wild, crazy day. We played to 200 or 300 people. It started thundering and lightning right as our set started and it was at a beer garden. I watched everybody come in the side door as we started playing, it was like, “Oh, okay.” That was the best show we’ve ever put on.
Nicole: I think all of us being pretty fried may have helped in a way. It was a long day.
Domenico: I had to go to work after!
Carmen: We could only make a practice work the day of the show, for rehearsing the cover we had to do for the final round.
Domenico: So everyone was pretty out of it, totally manic maybe.
Tim: And we absolutely ripped that day. It was a really fun atmosphere, alongside so many amazing queer bands. And everybody planning shows with each other after.
Nicole: We’re going to be playing with Talon. We’re playing with AVATAREDEN. [editor’s note: these shows have happened; the clips included here are from the single release party at Wonderville a couple nights ago this past Sunday. Besides PMFD the show also featured AVATAREDEN and Cohort B and it was a real barnburner. Check out the clips above and below.
Carmen: Yeah they were the first and second runners up.
Tim: So it was like a really cool moment of queer joy. And again, it was just part of further opening up people to the music. Because my goal has always been—I mean, yeah, it’s cool making money off of music and I think everybody wants to have a sustainable career—but I want to expand the palette, the musical palette of the general public.
And to have that opportunity in front of that many people, and to keep getting that opportunity, is really amazing. ‘Cause I just want people to listen to crazier, weirder shit and they may as well start with us.
Carmen: It restored a lot of my faith too. Because I feel like at Battle of the Bands you sort of expect something that’s verynot “fever dream poppy” to win. Nothing too out of the ordinary. And also, I think it deserves to be said that all of us share intersections and identities that wouldn’t always necessarily be accepted in a lesbian space. So that meant a lot to me in particular.
Nicole: It’s a real credit to the Dave’s community.
Carmen: It is a credit to the community! Shout out to Dave’s, and shout out to the judges.
Tim on achieving self-actualization…?
Tim: It was a beautiful day. And to be able to be up there–me as an AMAB non-binary person playing with two trans women and a cis straight guy in a fucking band together–with a bunch of queer people in the audience–it really dawned on me, oh this is really what it’s going to be. It’s going to be queer people playing on stages. It’s going to be a lot of queer crowds and straight people who are down for the cause. It’s felt really good that if this is what the next however many years of my life is going to be like. I am so fucking down with it.
I like that we’re one part in something that’s bigger than us–something that a lot of people have worked to make happen before me, and a lot of people are going to help with in the future. So I’m excited to see where it goes. You know, like, we have no idea where the treachery will be! (laughs) But we’re hoping it goes well. Optimistically.
What to say about a music fest so festooned with fantastic local artists that’ll have you bump bump bumping your ass off for three days ‘n’ nights straight this coming weekend to quote the recording that used to play on loop outside the bumper car attraction at Coney Island back in the day…
…spread across three venues (Baby’s on Friday, Sultan on Saturday, 3DB on Sunday) in an orgy of forty musical entertainments minus the actual orgy and like the patter of Coney Island sideshow barkers of yore there’s nothing more authentically Gothamite than (literal) gig economy workin’ independent musicians just tryin’ to make a living, or at least a little extra spending money, which was the impetus for the three Rogue co-organizers to put this whole thing together with their stated aim to “promote equity and collaboration between musicians and venues…”
…and this looks to be possibly the most righteous festival of the summer (bonus points: who remembers the most righteous festival of the spring?!?) cuz this whole rogue’s gallery of greaet musicians will make you wanna say “riiiighteous” with the same enthusiasm and hand gestures of Raphael from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise a.k.a. the one from Brooklyn…
…but even more to the point it’ll make you wanna say “riiiighteous” cuz not only is the Rogue Music Fest being brought to you for a mere 20 buckaroos a day but it’ll be guaranteeing that 70% of those buckaroos are passed directly to the performing artists themselves which, it may shock you to hear, are sometimes not paid commensurate to their time and labor and talent despite enriching our lives to such a great degree which is the reason why your musician friends are always asking you to buy band logo ornamented anal beads and doilies and tube socks…
…but in all seriousness The Deli would like to congratulate Amy Klein (AK & the Hallucinations), Natalie Field (Hot Tea), and Roni Corcos (RONI) alongside Allison Becker (Wetsuit) who contributed to the early stages of planning, for conceiving, assembling, and for soon pulling off such a major undertaking alongside the venues, staff, artists and attendees (you!) all in support of sustaining local, independent music making and working to make it more fair and equitable for the musicians in the process and what could be more righteous than that… (Jason Lee)
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…and finally, if you attend, be sure to come and visit The Deli we’ll be sitting in our limo outside…
“A control group [is] a comparison group in a study whose members receive either no intervention at all or some established intervention. The responses of those in the control group are compared with the responses of participants in one or more experimental groups that are given the new treatment being evaluated.” — APA Dictionary of Psychology
In 1961 psychologist Albert Bandura conducted the first of his famous “Bobo Doll” experiments with kids in experimental Group 1 witnessing an adult beating the sh*t out of a punching-bag style inflatable clown doll without repercussion, whereas kids in Group 2 saw adults playing nice with the doll and a third “control group” not being predisposed in any way…
…and when kids from all 3 groups were set loose on a Bobo doll, the first group not only imitated the aggro behavior but ran with it—employing a toy gun for instance—whereas the other kids treated the doll more gently, thus proving that clown-beating isn’t genetically ingrained even when the clown is a creepy bowling-pin shaped doll that springs back up after being struck ready to be hit again…
…but it ain’t easy finding a nice neutral control group these days seeing as we’re all bombarded by digital streams of behavior-modifying reinforcement online already including constant monitoring of others’ likes and shares, laudatory comments and aggro-style flaming and trolling not to mention good ol’ fashioned passive-aggressive ignoring of the perceived dweebs, all projected into the giant echo chamber of the Internet…
…so no wonder The Down & Outs new single “Cntrl Group” sees vocalist/bassist Ray Young repeating “I wish you were my control group” in mantra-like fashion with steady building frenzy over a pounding, echo-chamber-laden dub-inflected, spaced-out, techno-on-guitars beat to the point where if “Cntrl Group” were played in an empty room with a clown doll nearby it’d probably start off as a nice fun groovy dance party but by the song’s end you’ll likely be slam dancing up against good ol’ Bobo…
…none of which is meant to say the song is “about” osocial learning theory—we honestly don’t know what the lyrics are supposedly to mean—but a recent convo with Ray the other day (see below!) did focus some on these topics, not to mention The D&O’s control-group like tendency to strip all unnecessary variables from their music…
…in order to make it as stripped down and streamlined as possible as ably assisted by the lean, mean, trancey-hard-techno-played-in-a-rock-band-format-machine-tooled playing of guitarist Benji Watson (Struck Me Like A Chord, Abstract Voicings) and drummer Tom O’Donnell (Corner Soul, Couch Prints)…
…with one major takeaway being how tough it is today to remain authentic in the face of a music industry reliant on automation and algorithms, streaming stats & social media impressions which in part inspired The D&O’s to scrap (for now) several tracks recorded with a name producer that depleted their finances more than igniting their passions even if they’ll later make for solid album tracks, eading to a renewed resolution to work organically within their means and to stay engaged by disengaging…
…so don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe! (Jason Lee)
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Edited excerpts from a conversation with RAY YOUNG on June 21, 2023:
The Down & Outs haven’t put out new music since late 2021. The band went into the studio last year. I thought if I just worked with a good, known producer they’d hear something I didn’t hear. But it ended up ruining us financially—me and my roommate are broke for the foreseeable future. The lesson learned was to work within your means and don’t bite off more than you can chew. Or it’ll lead to a lot of bad stuff.
We went back to the drawing board, working with some new people and learning how to get it done quickly. And on “Cntrl Group” it happened. It felt like the song we’ve been threatening to write for a while. We wanted to make this song painfully honest. It’s more of a techno song with guitar than a post-punk song with a dance beat. It’s the sound of us growing as a band, and me as a songwriter. We felt we needed to clear new ground, make it pay off and really be worth it.
To be clear, all those songs we left on the shelf are going to come out. They have their merits. The one we really like will probably be the next single, coming out next month. The other two songs will be released when we’re putting together a larger project later this year, or next year. They just weren’t singles, more album cuts. One of them is totally different than anything we’ve ever done before.
The ethos of the band—I wanna see how little I can do and still make a song work. Like writing what’s essentially a single-note, four-on-the-floor song. We tried other variations but this is the one that clicked. The song came out of a jam , playing together in real time and not out of the box. When you’re a band band you have to have that chemistry, the ability to communicate, that’s what a real band does.
This is the first recording our drummer Tom plays on. He’s been doing our mixing and our artistic production for a while. He mixes off headphones and a Bluetooth Bose speaker, and this shit definitely sound better than what a lot of people do with more typical studio gear.
Connor helped us with some of the production and cleaned it up. We kept the whole process “in house” as much as possible. I don’t need someone to tell me “this is how it should be.” And if we can keep it more insular and work with the right people, and do it with some of our friends, with the “scene” which is basically you and your friends who do some of the same artistic tasks, it means it’s all coming from the same ethos…
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We all known New York City is ripe as fuck right now for a new scene to break through. All eyes are on us as a musical community and we are 100% looking looking to exist at the epicenter as part of it. But not as one of the faux-rock bands ‘cause a lot of them aren’t even real bands. They just want to straight up play TikTok music that sounds like something you’d hear an orthodontic office—like a standard four-piece of white boys who get hyped and signed to a label but don’t know what they’re doing.
We’re into crossing Manhattan rock with the techno/electro scene in Brooklyn. I wanna make something that a journalist has to come up with a new name for. Indie sleaze is a good example. It’s kinda cool and gets people good press and helps legitimate artists, but it doesn’t have anything to do with anything. It’s not even really a musical style. But still that “Girls” song by The Dare fucking rocks and helps continue on a certain legacy. I only wish them all the best of success.
Today “indie rock” is more a state of mind than anything, more about fashion than a certain sound. But if “sleaze” is really part of the equation you shouldn’t be drinking White Claws at a party more like tallboys. Debauchery and hedonism are sleazy if we’re gonna use this word. I think a better, more descriptive label would be the NYC Lorem scene or Pollen scene, since it’s all intertwined with digital culture anyway. That to me is more descriptive, while indie sleaze is more harkening back to the past.
And speaking of digital culture I also like how some people now are making music that’s “unreferential” to the past, like hyperpop, totally divorced from precedence. But still I’d like to see The Down & Outs be part of a new “NYC sound” or scene that’s inspired by the past, but not derivative or limited by it.
Whatever style you’re part of, when it comes down to it, nothing is sicker than having under 1000 listeners on Spotify or whatever other social media. What could be a more legitimizing project than to continue making music in a vacuum? That to me is cool. You have 17 listeners but yet you persevere and keep going. Low stakes means that you can exist in complete freedom. You really can make whatever you want. And then if it goes viral, it’s better if it just happens out of nowhere.
Fcukers are a good example. They have two songs out [one being a Beck cover] no videos and no press. But they sold out Baby’s All Right. The music is enough, but a lot of artists don’t think that way. The question is whether you want to have a legacy, something you can stand by on your deathbed, or did you just follow the standard industry game.
Photo by Alexis Kleshik — click link for IG account to see uncropped version and more excellent photos plus Linktree…
The Deli is currently vacationing down in Dollywood Country (Miss Parton says “Happy Pride!”) where the other night we met a local resident who’d recently seen new wave icons Duran Duran at a Nashville concert which they described as being “Satanic” and sure we get how a strutting sexagenarian in white vinyl trousers singing “wild boys / never lose it” could be viewed as Luciferian but still we suspect this characterization had more to do with the current trend of maligning anything not designated as pablum for the masses as George Soros-sponsored, culture-war-provoking Satanic provocations designed to undermine the sanctity of God, Country, and Mud Wrestling In White Panties…
…and we’ll get back to mud wrestling here in a second but the salient point for now is how hearing the phrase "Duran Duran" made us long for a re-watch of 1968’s Roger Vadim-directed, sci-fi-romp Barbarellastarring a pre-Hanoi Jane Fonda especially the scene where the film’s villain Durand Durand—a moniker corrupted by our fave Old New Romantics—pleasures/tortures our titular hero with a musical instrument-cum-weapon to the tune of “Sonata for Executioner and Various Young Women” designed to induce deadly orgasmic pleasure except that Barbarella’s "big O" short circuits the machine so she’s able to escape…
…a movie fondly remembered to this day not only for Fonda’s allure but also for its acid-washed psychedelic visuals and Mod-style futuristic fashions along with its playfully transgressive comic book tone all of which derived from the actual comic book on which the film was based written and illustrated by French artist Jean-Claude Forest and if you’re looking for a cool new song that gives off some strong Barbarella vibes then look no further than “Metrocool” by fresh-faced Brooklyn pop-rockers Le Bang…
…cuz this bangin’ threesome have got the whole Mod-inflected-comic-book-inspired-pop-art-meets-proto-punk-garage-rock-meets-yé–yé-inspired-Gallic–cool thing down cold and they don’t even need guitars to pull it off cuz “guitars are lame”—just drums and vocals and dirty overdriven basslines, the latter acting as the group’s de facto orgasmatron—with French/Filipina front-heroine or is that front-villainess moonlighting as a fine artist and visual designer Lola Lancon cooing lyrical come-ons and bon motsen français with her guise partially disguised at all times by a black Zorro-style bandit mask…
…like Françoise Hardy in What’s New Pussycat meets Michelle Pfeiffer in Catwoman meets Maggie Cheung in Irma Vep meets Jane Fonda in Barbarella complete with a comic-book worthy backstory where “after swallowing a grenade during a Godzilla attack in New York City, Lola was transformed into an explosive maniac with a thirst for destruction and awesome music” which is at least as plausible as Catwoman’s origin story…
…backed by her dual sidekicks of Billy Hay and Stavros Lari of Gun who lock into one singularly slinky, sleekly danceable groove after another as if Julie Ruin/Le Tigre were being rendered in Ben-Day dots and of course any comic book protagonist needs at least one worthy antagonist and in this instance it’s another Lola (two sides of the same coin etc. etc.) in the form of fellow vocalist/writer/filmmaker Lola Daehler who fronts her own band of musical marauders known as Homade as covered previously in this space…
…with the two Lolas facing off Lady Gladiator-style in a kiddie pool full of wet ‘n’ gushy mud two weekends ago at the Great American Mud Wrestling Show held in the backyard of the most highly valuated real estate property in Bed-Stuy which is supposedly owned by a shadowy Bruce Wayne type Tbilisi tycoon who makes the space available to Georgian artists (the Georgia more known for grapes than for peaches) and to rising-up-from-the-underground singer-songwriter-rockers like November Girl and Sofia Zarzuela i.e. the duo who organized the event and who rocked out on stage and tussled in the mudpit alongside Le Bang and Homade and lemme tell ya none of ’em were messing around when it came to getting messy…
…with the critical difference in wet hot 2023 being that the (I think it’s safe to say) feminist femme-domme combatants—and to be fair there were at least a couple male-identifying combatants as well—did more than just sling mud and sling each other around the inflatable ring cuz they also ran the show and produced the show like if Duran Duran’s models for hire had tied up the band and hijacked the "Girls on Film" video shoot reclaiming their primordial roles as goddesses of rhythm in a ritualistic return to humanity’s earthy, earthen roots…
…and seeing as ’80s style Satanic panic is back in style then why not mud wrestling too and thanks to the GAMWS crew it’s not only about playfully fighting in the mud but also fighting against the moral-panic-driven misogynistic/anti-LGBT tendencies of today’s weirdly repressive yet dangerously aggressive times so bring on the mud-filled kiddie pool we say cuz for one thing this is what a real battle of the bands should look like plus there’s nothing much better than a fun-filled festival of outdoor indie sleaze music and sport in the name of saving what’s left to save of our humanity… (Jason Lee)
I came up with the name for the band when I first moved to New York about a decade ago. I’d see the thousand ways to die on every street corner; garbage truck, scaffolding collapsing, etc. and would think "Certain death" every time. Before the pandemic I decided to change the name of my band from my name (Henry Black) to Certain Death. They my dog died and the lockdown started a day later. I wrote the song "Certain Death" both about my dog Brook passing, and also the impending doom of it all in the face of a modern day plague. Fortuitous timing in a dark and horrible way.
It’s pretty perverse when you think about it. The only certainty in life is the certainty of death. Self-awareness comes only with the awareness that one day the self will no longer be aware…
…which is exactly why songs like “Certain Death” by Certain Death need to exist—the band’s debut single—and if it re-appears later as the opening track to their debut album also assumedly titled Certain Death the band will surely be a shoe in for the 2023 Black Sabbath Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Triple Identical Band/Song/Album Titles on a Doom Metal Debut Record award…
…a song which at 5 minutes and 51 seconds is only 26 second shorter than "Black Sabbath" by Black Sabbath and which likewise addresses death directly, not merely as an abstract idea/concept but rather as a manifested presence ever-present in daily existence as a matter of psychopomp and circumstance…
…and if you’re gonna look the Grim Reaper (an invention of plague-afflicted late Middle Ages Europe, a figure who reaps souls like a farmer harvesting souls with his scythe) directly in the eye under a musical guise, you’d better have some sick tritone-laden riffage at the ready—sick as the state of the world itself—and some blazing fretwork pyrotechnics with which to counter Death in the manifested rotting flesh…
…and “Certain Death” has got all of this to the n’th degree oscillating between passages of brooding wraith-like menace and outbursts of unbridled instrumental sound ‘n’ fury shredage—a death rattle more euphoric than morose like a Dia de los Muertos celebration—with vocalist/guitarist Henry Black leading the charge into the metal meltdown all guns blazing but "Certain Death" works equally well in it’s scaled-down, moody acoustic demo version as seen/heard above which should satisfy fans of Mark Kozelek’s covers of AC/DC tunes even if the demo version actually came first…
…and to experience more of Henry’s songwriting/arranging acumen just check out the playlist below which is more in the vein of Gordon Lightfoot or Harry Nilsson than Pagan Altar or Witchfinder General and we especially recommend "YGS" which flows fluidly from the intro’s pensive lyrics and strummed guitar into a rollicking rocker complete with barrelhouse piano and massed cumulous-cloud harmonies before passing over to another realm in a brief psychedelic/psychopompy outro… (Jason Lee)
