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INTERVIEW: Hey Marseilles (WA)

Hey Marseilles 2009.03.04

"folkestra" from Seattle

read the interview // visit their web site

This got edited out:

Colin you'd talked about reevaluating why you play music at all. Why did you come back to it? What is it that drives you?
Colin: It has to be necessary for me to want to play. I don't know. If it was somebody else, I probably wouldn't even be playing. I'd probably be just recording bands right now. It's different. The rock thing I've been doing forever, the whole Radiohead thing. And when I first heard this music it was way too campy for me. But this music is like a version of a guy wearing a pink shirt. First it's like, Whatever. And then it's like, Whoa, I totally would not fuck with that guy. Just how big are his balls that he's got his pink shirt on? It's not the stuff that everyone is playing.
Matt: I will have you know that our primary demographic up until a couple months ago were twenty-year-old men. Very straight men.

On musical backgrounds and drive
Nick: I think at least for me, I'm not into, like, the old Seattle thing, like, Nirvana, power chords, just rock. Playing something with acoustic instruments and strings and stuff is like my backlash to all of that.
Matt: Fifteen years later, Hey Marseilles responds to Pearl Jam and Nirvana.

After Patrick recalled his days in high school jazz band, practically the last time he had played trumpet before pursuing guitar and picking up trumpet again for Hey Marseilles:
Colin: Well when you're a junior in high school, it's not a useful skill to your friends if you play the trumpet.
Patrick: I don't know if it is now. I think there's a girl who likes me, but I don't know if it's really helped with anything like that.
Colin: I think it's valuable to them now that you play trumpet, but if they were in high school with you, they'd probably wish you played guitar.
Patrick: And I'd be like, "Shut up, you want me to come pop your zits?!"

More thoughts but writer's block

Revelations Entertainment, a production team co-founded by Morgan Freeman, aim to create movies that "enlighten, express heart, and glorify the human experience."


That in mind, I'm looking for another band to interview. Any suggestions?

REVIEW: Four Twenty Three by Monkey Jacket

Four Twenty Three by Monkey Jacket
warped punk-pop hit with heavy hands of progressive and ska
read the review // buy the album

I just listened to the evolutions of "Hello, Solo," from the mp3 I downloaded on PureVolume almost four years ago, to the much-improved version on The Don'ts of Motivational Speaking a year later, to track 4 on Four Twenty Three. Their voices literally deepen. I think that's the most hilarious. "I think this song's broken." "No, you just gotta hit it a few times. Like this." I also find that line kind of ironic, considering they've definitely hit this song a few times.

I also just read my last interview with Mick of Monkey Jacket, from three years ago, after their first album came out. To be clear, it wasn't my personal best interview. And to be fair, it was only my third, so I really had no idea what I was doing (as if I do now). Looking at all the questions and talk about tenor saxes and synth, it's a major blast from the past compared to Four Twenty Three--and music in general, seeing how these days it's almost a bigger deal to not have synth than it is to have it (see: review of The White City by Gunbunny).

I think there were a few things said in that interview that still remain relevant to their music (and the world at large) today:

"I like throwing a little bit of everything in when I write the songs, I don't want to just be one genre. One thing I've noticed is out of the people that I've talked to that like us, a lot of them like a lot of different music, not neccessarily just 'ska music.' I kind of like the idea of fitting in with ska bands (or bands of any genre), but not being ONLY that genre."

"I try to listen to a lot of stuff. It seems like there's so many different kinds of music, I can't really say I do or don't. A lot of people seem to think they listen to every type of music ever if they listen to rock, rap, and punk. I think a lot of people don't really realize there's so much out there. Recently, I've been trying to listen to different kinds of music, even if I don't really like it, just to see if there's something I can get out of it that might help me with my writing, or even just one little part in the song I might really enjoy. I used to just disregard a song if I didn't like it right away, but now I'm trying harder to see what they all have to offer."

"I don't like to straight-up explain things in the lyrics I write, so they're a little disguised."

It blows my mind that that interview was three whole years ago. I have trouble with time passing and things actually changing. Whatever. I love the fact that Monkey Jacket's music has changed so much in terms of sound and genre (and line-up) over the past few years, and yet the same principles and rough influences remain the same. Perhaps this is why I've always liked Monkey Jacket so much; they've established a foundation and direction but still push themselves to experiment. I hope I can or will be able to say the same about The Overcast--and myself.

REVIEW: The White City by Gunbunny

The White City by Gunbunny
rambunctious, rock with revival and Americana influences
read the review (temporarily on myspace) // buy the album on CDBaby

In this review, I get cornered in a dark alley and may or may not get murdered.

Thoughts on reviewing

We had some issues with our servers, so the site is down. We'll be moving and anticipate a glorious return within the week. For now, some musing...

~~//~~

"We kind of want to make music like people write novels." - Isom Innis

This has really stuck in my mind for the last six months. Not to be cocky, but one thing that I think sets The Overcast's reviews apart from others is that I listen to songs like I read books. I listen for a number of things: not just what other bands they sound like, but what kind of message they're trying to deliver, how they choose to deliver it, and what the context of each song is in the bigger picture of the album, the band, their lives as a whole. I try to choose the words I write poetically, in a way that makes you feel the album while you read about it.

Now if I could only keep up with my own deadlines.

ACTION: Critical Exposure

Critical Exposure
empowering students through documentary photography
read the action feature // visit their web site

Shoot shoot shoot. I'm sorry. I don't know how I failed to post about this here. It's on our MySpace, and I sent out a Facebook update, and everything. But I skipped the cirronimbus blog! My bad. Forgive me.

When I first heard about Critical Exposure, I knew instantly that it was something I had to tell people about. I knew instantly that this fit exactly what I had always wanted The Overcast's Action features to be. I mean, as much as I love every part of what I feature on The Overcast, there are a few exceptional features that really remind me why I do this, why this matters, how The Overcast is something deeper to me than just feeding the materialism of the scene.

On a personal level, Critical Exposure really hits home with a lot of the things I care about. Education issues, a frame of equality and justice in our country, have always been extremely important to me. Education is so foundational to the success of our nation's individuals and communities, and it essentially determines a person's credibility and ability to participate in society. Critical Exposure empowers youth (which, being one, I mean...), utilizes the photography (something I personally love), and introduces students to community organizing (I myself having been involved in community organizing in the past) and political participation. Critical Exposure essentially prepares students to be active, responsible members of society, to use their experiences to further the common good.

This is art as power. This is what these creative tools are meant to be. This is the kind of movement that shapes worlds. Shape worlds.

Please, I encourage, no, implore you to visit criticalexposure.org. Sign up for their Photo of the Month club and see firsthand what these students experience and what they have to say about it. Get involved. Take action. Picture equality.