13ghosts Face the Music
Paying Tribute Through The Strangest Colored Lights
originally published April 9, 2008
13ghosts
In 2005, 13ghosts released Cicada, a beautifully flawed record that netted the band favorable press nationwide. Yet barely a year after the album’s release, the band received a cease-and-desist letter from the Bob Marley Estate. According to the Estate, songwriter Brad Armstrong’s cover of Marley’s “Three Little Birds” demonstrated willful copyright infringement due to the inclusion of original lyrics. Though a contrite Armstrong sought permission to continue selling Cicada, his request was denied, leaving 13ghosts without a saleable album.
“I think it’s hilarious that the Marley Estate troubled itself with fucking us up,” Armstrong says. “The party line on it was that we added lyrics to his tune, which compromises the integrity of his original vision. So they shut us down, and there was nothing we could do about it.”
Disenchanting experiences notwithstanding, a year later Armstrong and 13ghosts finally have reason to smile. Not only is Cicada available on iTunes sans the offending track, but the band also recently released The Strangest Colored Lights (TSCL), its most cohesive and perhaps most listenable record to date. The release and early success of TSCL marks the end of a long, strange journey for the Birmingham group. According to Armstrong, TSCL is the band’s attempt to address a tragic moment in its history: the 1998 suicide of one of its founding members.
Thomas Rhodes was the cousin of songwriter Buzz Russell, and along with Russell and Armstrong, formed the first incarnation of 13ghosts. In 1999, shortly after Rhodes’ suicide, Armstrong and Russell recorded an album of songs mourning the loss of their friend and bandmate. However, Armstrong deemed the songs “depressing, intensely personal and almost completely unlistenable,” and the record ultimately was shelved.
It would not be the last time Armstrong and Russell would tackle this deeply personal subject matter in their songs. In fact, the theme of death has regularly appeared in the band’s releases.
“[Rhodes’ death] has been something we’ve been trying to work through for the last decade,” says Armstrong. “I don’t know why we couldn’t move forward before now. The subject matter of the suicide would not be abandoned. I think, though, that everything in life, and thus everything in art, boils down to loss. I don’t think we’ll ever outgrow that. I don’t think anyone ever does.”
Armstrong characterized the sessions that became TSCL as another attempt to record the album about Rhodes’ suicide that 13ghosts previously had shelved in 1999. Now that almost 10 years have passed since their friend and bandmate took his own life, Armstrong feels that he and Russell finally have enough critical distance from the event to write about it suitably.
Indeed, TSCL is a crowning achievement and a true tribute to their fallen friend. Like a beacon in a blackened world, the songs - themselves strange yet inviting colored lights - burn bright against the fog that too often envelops the modern musical landscape. TSCL is a unique record, spanning a diverse cross-section of genres (electronica, country-sludge, psychedelic, spaghetti-western, hard-edged pop and dark acoustic) while remaining focused and driven throughout. The result is an album cinematic in its scope, full of dust and steel, depicting a gritty world straight out of a Cormac McCarthy novel, while somehow remaining listenable and even hopeful.
TSCL was recorded and mixed by 13ghosts and mastered by Doug Van Sloun (Bright Eyes, Magnolia Electric Co.). Sloun’s unobtrusive style, and commitment to purity, nicely complemented the album’s earthy feel. Besides maintaining the raw edge present on previous 13ghost releases, TSCL adds something that since 2002 has been absent: a consistent lineup of musicians. That continuity across songs helps TSCL stand together as a single work of art.
“We had, like, five drummers on Cicada,” says Armstrong. “I think having a solid lineup added some cohesion that we hadn’t yet found on Cicada. We still approach every song the same way we always have, which is to come at it headlong, with no idea whatsoever how it ought to live. That part hasn’t changed. We have no road map to the actual work. It’s all trial and error.”
With TSCL, Armstrong and Russell finally have quieted the chorus of ghosts (13 of them, in fact) that have rested like monkeys on their backs for a decade. 13ghosts’ final elegy to Rhodes is a study in musicianship and lyrical finesse worthy of inclusion in anyone’s record collection. Proof positive that despite what the Marley Estate may say, everything truly is going to be all right.
WHO: Paul McHugh, 13ghosts, Sleepy Horses
WHERE: Caledonia Lounge
WHEN: Thursday, April 10
HOW MUCH: $6 (21+), $7(18+)
Abandon the Earth Mission
Macha's Josh McKay finds his muse in Cara Beth Satalino
originally published April 9, 2008
Jason Thrasher
Winston Parker, Josh McKay and Cara Beth Satalino are Abandon The Earth Mission.
The band Macha drew a decent amount of attention from the independent music press in its brief life, releasing several albums a little less than a decade ago. The Athens-based band combined textural, ebb-and-flow indie rock with hypnotic Southeast Asian instrumentation. After a few years’ break, the band released the album Forget Tomorrow in 2004, played a handful of loose reunion gigs and then faded out.
Multi-instrumentalist Josh McKay, one of Macha’s founding members, has kept a low public profile since the dissolution of Macha, infrequently performing with his projects Seaworthy and Tenderness, or the ESG “tribute band” Tiny Sticks, and touring for much of 2007 with New York band Mice Parade. He says he’s hoping to change that course and set behind him what he, over drinks at the Manhattan last week, calls his hermitage. This weekend sees McKay bring his new band Abandon the Earth Mission to the Athens and Atlanta stages for the first time after years of writing songs on his own.
He says the impetus to launch Abandon the Earth Mission - a long-in-the-works recording project that dips into spacey sounds and ethereal electronic ambience - into the live arena came about now for two reasons: an invitation to play a well-paying gig at a film festival in Mississippi, and finally finding the vocalist he’d spent years looking for.
“I’ve been wanting to get the band rolling for a while because I’m nearing completion of the recordings, and I’d found Cara Beth Satalino,” he says. “That was a huge turning point. I’ve been looking for a woman singer for 10 years. More than 10 years! And I was holding off on my recordings until I could hear what it was like to get somebody, anybody! And it got to the point where last year the only conversations I’d have with people were like ‘Is your girlfriend good at karaoke? Does your roommate sing in the shower? Is she good? Is she passable?! Does somebody know somebody who sings who’s not already playing in like three other bands?’"
Satalino is a guitarist and vocalist who moved to Athens from New York a few years ago and has since only made tentative steps into performing in clubs, despite impressing many at house shows and on recordings. McKay says he was pointed in her direction by former Elf Power/ Paper Lions drummer Josh Lott, who hadn’t even heard her play himself, but had heard from some friends that she had a good voice, and passed along that secondhand advice to McKay. “I was thinking, okay, I’ve gotta get this ready to go,” says McKay. “This is a really auspicious moment that I’m being activated like this.”
Taking the invitation to the festival as motivation, McKay assembled his band, only to have half of the prospective members drop out recently. The current lineup will include McKay on guitar, hammer dulcimer, vibraphone and vocals; Satalino on keys and vocals, and eventually on guitar; and Winston Parker of Down with the Woo handling live remixing and beats, and eventually bringing bass and saxophone into the mix. “And I’m daring to believe that I may have one more person for the first show here,” adds McKay.
The two songs McKay had available for preview prior to this weekend’s show indicate two divergent possibilities for the band’s sound. “Cult of the Pearl Diver” is as out there as Abandon the Earth Mission plans to get, McKay says, and features Bradford Cox of Deerhunter and Atlas Sound providing falsetto “mermaid vocals.” It’s a looping, loping, skittery number, part aural painting, part mood manipulator, both rhythmic and fluid.
“Close your eyes and watch a movie of a coastal villager canoeing out to sea, diving in and encountering a mermaid who emerges from the depths with a basketball-sized glowing pearl,” wrote McKay, when he emailed me the song. “Diver returns to shore, and nighttime fireside rituals ensue, with mermaid reappearing as apparition from above, as dancers and drummers party.”
The track “Midnight Sun,” on the other hand, features a lush interplay between the vocals of Satalino and McKay. Spacey and dreamy for sure, but more song-ish than “Cult of the Pearl Diver,” with its heavily structured electronic soundscapes and ringing hammer dulcimer melodies. McKay says, however, that he hopes the songs themselves can remain organic entities when introduced to live performances. “The songs are so elaborately constructed when I’m writing and assembling, so for the live show I’m kind of interested in seeing what can happen and making it different, maybe stripping things back to find the beginnings of things,” he says. “I mean, we could just have a kick drum and Cara’s voice and I would dig that show completely. Her voice is just so luminous, and yet, really raw and human.”
Plans right now are for Abandon the Earth Mission to book some more shows here in town, though perhaps not for another couple of months; McKay has his hopes set upon an outdoor performance at this year’s AthFest. Touring, he hopes, will follow. “The live thing is maybe gonna have the most swift legs of all things I’m doing right now, so I want to keep it going,” he says. “I’m trying to not have a real drum kit and a whole bass rig. I’d rather rely on some standup percussion and keep the beats on the laptop and then go all over the world with this. Why not? We’re in a crash-and-burn phase right now as gas prices increase, air fares increase, whatever, so why not try for something now? Of course, it all has to do with what the other people in the band are doing and their schedules, but I’d like to be ‘a band’ as much as possible.”
WHO: Abandon the Earth Mission
WHERE: Caledonia Lounge
WHEN: Saturday, April 12
HOW MUCH: $6 (21+), $7 (18+)
A Place to Bury Strangers
Athens, Prepare for Sensory Overload
originally published April 9, 2008
A Place To Bury Strangers
A Place to Bury Strangers is known as the loudest band in New York, but the live show will overwhelm you with more than just sheer volume.
The band is usually backed by a pulsating screen of projected images, visible only intermittently between intense strobe lighting.
The music usually starts like this: a steady barrage of percussion punctuating the dizzying lights care of JSpace; heavy, pounding bass by Jono Mofo; and finally, a single strum across Oliver Ackermann's electric guitar. This is the point when hairs stand on end, socks are rocked off and minds are generally blown. The sounds that come out of this man's guitar are almost shocking. It's just one guitar, and yet there is reverb for miles, tingling echo and vicious distortion all at the same time. Did he just play every single Jesus and Mary Chain song at once? Close. A big part of the secret lies within the masterfully crafted custom pedals.
About seven years ago, Ackermann dreamed up the idea for an effects pedal that had never been created before. He also had dreams of visiting England, so he figured he could try to sell the idea and get enough cash to head across the pond. As a musician with no electrical or engineering background, he had only a sound in his head and a whole lot of trial and error to guide him.
"It took a couple years of tinkering and breaking a lot of stuff that I had," recalls Ackermann, "and sort of trying to build something and failing miserably - constantly. And then reading lots and lots of books and learning how to solder…"
Even though it started as a one-off project, once other musicians got ahold of his pedals the demand warranted a greater investment. Soon, Ackermann launched his pedal company Death by Audio. He believes that not having a technical background actually gave him an edge when starting his company. Instead of being constrained to technical procedures, he was directed by the art of the craft. It's the same unique perspective, he says, that a self-taught musician might have when picking up a guitar, or a self-taught artist might have learning how to paint without instruction. The results will always land just outside the box.
Whatever Ackermann's inspiration, the pedals have received a fair amount of accolades and recognition. Just recently, Ackermann shipped his custom pedals off to the likes of Trent Reznor, U2, Godspeed You Black Emperor!, and Wilco, among other high-profile artists. Still, it takes more than circuitry to make a band, and while Ackermann recognizes the role the pedals play in shaping his songs, his focus lies in creating a full experience for the listener.
"I think [the pedals] definitely define our sound to some degree, but it's also just creating a certain aesthetic. Having the knowledge to build my own effects pedals and modify effects definitely gives me an easier way to be able to control sound and make whatever sound I want. In the same way, you could take some crappy keyboard, and I don’t know, a cardboard box and make some sort of similar sound. It's all about using your aesthetic to make something that you like."
Part of that aesthetic for A Place to Bury Strangers is also the visual elements that accompany the music. "We're playing really loud, there's lots of noise, and I think [the lighting] serves to overwhelm you and take control, so you kind of lose your mind for a little bit… It also really makes it more exciting for us as well - when you can feel the music. When the lights go off it even gets us in the mood more to kind of forget where you are and just get completely immersed in the sounds and the place between the amplifier and your guitar."
The appeal of overwhelming audiences with intensity was inspired at a young age by bands like Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr. Ackermann feels like his band is sort of a realization of this vision, but at the same time being on stage himself can take a little of the magic away.
"It was a lot more mysterious to me then than it is now. When you start to play music, it starts to kills some of those mysteries. But those bands were definitely a really big influence, and it pushes you to take things even further and over the top."
You can get a taste of the intensity on A Place to Bury Strangers' self-titled release which is out now. There is also a series of releases planned in a variety of shapes and sizes, including several seven-inch records from Vacancy Records, a 10-inch out in England on Mealdeal Records, and a live album coming from Important Records. Ackermann also promises a more cohesive full-length out later this year. Of course, it's not easy to craft such a big sound without the neighbors complaining. Ackermann has had to take that into consideration when finding a practice space in Brooklyn.
"Any place that I ever live, I try to make sure you can make as much noise as you want, like, all the time," he says. "We live in a warehouse in Brooklyn. We took the whole second floor in a warehouse and built a studio, so that's where we practice. There's other people that live there - sculptors and stuff - but they are constantly creating stuff all the time." As of press time, no sculptures have been shattered by the blistering guitar. On a similar note, Ackermann insists that his hearing is doing just fine, despite the volume of the music.
"We usually don’t play shows that are longer than about half an hour or something, so you can handle volumes that loud for a little bit."
See if you can handle the loudest show in Athens as A Place to Bury Strangers is joined by locals Twin Tigers, Everybody Everybody and Atlanta's loudest band, All the Saints.
WHO: A Place to Bury Strangers, Twin Tigers, All the Saints
WHERE: Caledonia Lounge
WHEN: Monday, April 14
HOW MUCH: $7 (advance), $8-$9 (door)
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