Feeding People announces new LP with preview!

There are few more humble beginning than Feeding People. Headed by nineteen-year-old Jessie Jones, her project attracted Chris Alfaro of Free the Robots to produce some of their earliest recordings which were the borderline between humble and ghetto. Those recordings were done in one take in a 6'x10' walk-in closet with the mics taped to broom handles taped to fire extinguishers. Despite all that....authenticity...Feeding People managed to be the second band ever to be invited to play the ultra-hip Low End Theory club and shared the stage with none other than Thom Yorke. Not a bad start.

Their sophomore album, Island Universe, was recorded and produced by Jonny Bell of The Crystal Antlers and Hanni El Khatib and very likely not recorded with quite as much duct tape. Island Universe drops on Feb. 5, 2013, but you, friends, can get a listen here.

For more Feeding People goodness check http://feedingpeoplemusic.tumblr.com/

 

Beach House, Dustin Wong McDonald Theatre, Eugene, Oregon September 29, 2012

I admit it has been a long time since the McDonald and I have spent an evening together. But if anyone was going to reunite us, it would likely be the indie darlings Beach House. And while Beach House was headlining and I admittedly had a girl-boner over seeing them, it was Dustin Wong that I expected to steal the hearts of the youth painted in eyeliner and flip flops.

Dustin Wong might be someone you've never heard of, and when he walked on stage wearing a gigantic cardigan only a bingo-going grandma could love the crowd responded tepidly. But tucked between two frat gentleman in the front row (really?), I knew better. He gave us a sheepish wave, popped his Converse off, and sat on a folding chair. The first staccato sounds from his guitar were simple and deceiving; until he looped them and began to build. Armed with pedals and a vision most of us lack, Dustin continued compounding sounds to create songs of surprising depth and warmth. Tweaking a guitar here and there is no big feat-any bedroom rocker can get a pedal on eBay-but to have multiple going at once and piling on the sounds to make something better than a wall of noise is tricky.

The crowd fell quiet, trying to figure out what exactly was going on, and on the way, fell in love. Occasionally, Dustin would stand up and sing into the mic for an extra layer, reminding us of the single human responsible for the complex and lovely songs. Near the end, the crowd began to clap along, and Dustin looked up a few times as if in disbelief. “You really like it,” he seemed to be asking. “Oh hells yes,” the audience replied, keeping the beat through the song. After his set, as he was packing up to leave, a girl yelled “you were SO good!” and he blushed. Both gentleman next to me asked who had just played and upon being given the name, went about looking Dustin up on their phones. One must give credit to Beach House for supporting such an inspiring and gentle force.

When the lights dimmed for Beach House (an extended 45 minutes later), some of the stars had fallen out of the crowds' eyes. But what had been lost in momentum was gained in pleasure of seeing Victoria Legrand slink onto the stage and take her place behind the organ. Alex Scally and touring drummer Daniel Franz were steps behind her, and they took a moment before launching into “Wild,” off their recent release, Bloom.

There must be some special deal singers have with the universe; they can get the box set of a big voice, big hair, and big shoulder pads. This isn't the first time a paper-thin singer has been anchored by shoulderpads—nor will it be the last. Probably not the most chatty musical group, the anxious crowd made due with the bare minimum of contact from the band. Which, while a taciturn band helped the dreamy atmosphere, seemed to keep Beach House from really connecting with the crowd.

Interview: Dustin Wong

Dustin Wong just might have an indie rock resume to kill for: Born in Hawaii, raised in Japan, of Chinese and American Heritage, ex-member of Ponytail, solo artist with a million pedals. And to top it off, he was cool enough to talk to us. Makes it hard to hate him, don't you think?

Currently touring with Beach House for his album "Dreams Say View Create Shadow Leads" which dropped in February, he chats about the sounds of youth and making stripped down noise rock. Check more out about Dustin here.

love/hate: How has your creative process changed since going solo?

Dustin: It feels like working on a painting. The length of the loop determines the size of the canvas and my octave pedal and distortion determines the color and textures. The delay pedal kind of works as a straight edge and grid.  It feels a lot more intuitive to me then ever before.

love/hate: Growing up overseas, do you feel you had access to different sounds that most Americans don't get?

Dustin: The cicadas sound different in Japan and even the trains sound different too.  They sound almost like modular synthesizers. The inside of the train is fairly quiet, people are very quiet and keep to themselves, to the point that you could start feeling their thoughts... The pachinko parlors and arcades have extraordinary noises too.

love/hate: "Dreams Say..."was a different creation process for you. What inspired you to go with a different approach?

Dustin: I wanted to document the piece as close to the way my live performances are. So I went directly from my pedals into my laptop input. But now I'm realizing that there are more efficient ways of recording purely from a direct input. The way electricity is used the sound itself can change foe the better or for the worse. I'm still learning and refining this process.

love/hate: What, if anything, are you listening to and loving these days?

Dustin: I've been really enjoying music made by William Eaton. He made his own guitars with harps and zithers integrated into the instrument.  He gets these very beautiful harmonic overtones and undertones.

love/hate: What are you plan for 2013? More music? Touring?

Dustin: I'm working on the next record at the moment, the structure is about 95% done, I just need one more song! I'm going to try and record this at an actual space. Not much planned for 2013 but I'll be playing with Zs in January in Tokyo. Will be taking things step by step!

Artist: Standard Fare

Album: Out Of Sight, Out Of Town

Label: Melodic

Release Date: 12.12.2011

Rating: 7.5

Somewhere between The Sugarcubes, the fictional Sex Bob-ombs, and The strokes lies a band called Standard Fare. They are a quirky, upbeat, and highly catchy pop trio of indie rockers hailing from Sheffield, England, Formed in 2005 and made up of Emma Kupa, Danny How, and Andy Beswick, they adopted their rather banal name fram a sign Kupa saw on a bus in Newcastle. The group found themselves in high acclaim with the success of their 2010 debut, The Noyelle Beat.

The second installment in the band's legacy of bright, poppy, and dance-worthy tracks, Out Of Sight, Out Of Town, is full of the band's signature he-said/she-said, boy/girl vocals and a tight guitar/bass/drums sound that comes, almost exclusively, with rock trios.

However, Out Of Sight, Out Of Town does go a bit deeper than previous Standard Fare material with maturing lyrical content and the addition of a trumpet player and violinist on many tracks. "Darth Vader" and "Early That Night" stick out in particular as meter sticks for the bands maturity as they slow the action down and transmit soft, reflective moments of romantic frustrations and unfaithfulness.

Stand out tracks on the album are "Dead Future", "Call Me Up", "Older Women", and "Half Sister". Across the songs, guitars are bright and light-hearted without being gutless. The 'his and hers' vocal exchanges are reminiscent of John Doe and Exene Cervenka, yet uncannily similiar to Edie Brickell & The New Bohemians when Kupa sings solo.

Now, does Standard Fare bust down the walls of indie rock boundaries as we know it with this release? Heck, no! They do one thing few bands do, they know who they are and they maximize what they do well better than an In 'N' Out Burger. That quirky, jaded, lovelorn bebop that is so heighly contagious and enjoyable is Dtandard Fare's Double Double Cheeseburger and the album delivers it with both drive-thru windows, baby!

So, let melancholy go for an hour, drop the anarchism anthems and folktronica experimental projects for a moment and tune into this smile-worthy, indie bop. Take a road trip and crank phrases like "ba-ba-ba-ba-bite my tongue" as you leave gridlock, fax machines, and time clocks behind.

Album Review: Terry Malts

Artist: Terry Malts

Album: Killing Time

Label: Slumberland Records

Release Date: 2.21.12

Rating: 4.2

After listening to the album for the full 33 minutes and 30 seconds a few times, I wholly teleported into the stark studio (or garage?) in which the album was likely recorded. Between the recoding dropping the sonic highs and lows and Phil Benson's monotone singing, it frames the album perfectly: middling, not impressive, not terrible. It is what you expect from power pop: speed playing, catchy lyrics, distorted guitar, and simple drumming. But none of these elements combined to create stand out moments.

In some songs, their roots show through. "No Good For You" sounds like a beach song. Interestingly, it's "I'm Neurotic" that samples a transmogrified clip of the Beach Boys' "California Girls". "Where Is The Weekend" is the standard ode to hating your job and being a weekend warrior. This was the only song that resonated, making me want to jump up and down screaming that I like weekends too. But it also felt like preaching to the choir.

That's not to say it's the worst album of the year; far from it. But it didn't hold me any longer than its half an hour run time.