The details are a little bit fuzzy, but at some point, someplace, for some reason, Shane Leonard of Kalispell talked to The Daredevil Christopher Wright’s Jason Sunde. It was somehow recorded and then put onto the world wide web via DCW’s Web site.

From the discussion –

J: What if we really were under a bridge right now? What would you do?

S: I’d feel pretty nervous, I think. It’s just that I’m supposed to get home right away after work…

Obviously riveting stuff. View the full question and answer session here.

The post comes a few days before Kalispell’s CD release show on May 17 at the House of Rock. We Are The Willows and DCW will open the show for Kalispell. The doors open at 8 p.m., and the show starts at 9. To get in, you need to be old (21+) and rich ($5).

Hold that note out, Jeremy!

Stereogum is streaming S. Carey’s new EP, Hoyas, right now. For you people who don’t know what that means — you can actually listen to the whole thing. It’s like a listening party, but you’re all alone in your bedroom.
Like always.

Listen to the song “Two Angels,” below, then head on over to the stream for three more songs!

Chromatics – Kill For Love

Chromatics started in Portland a long time ago and had a noisy lo-fi punk sound. Then it ended. Then it came back with a hipper new-wave blend of rock and pop. Now it’s better than it was before. Kill For Love, the album, is a bit of a roller coaster, running through loops of excited dance-pop bliss at times, and then diving into slow, plodding tracks of depression. Kill For Love, the song, is a highlight — one of the more exciting moments on the album.

As we march forward into the depths of the modern age, we leave behind experiences that defined our predecessors. Each new generation finds new ways to replace human with machine. Consequently, the evolution of sophisticated technology has shaped the evolution of music listening. We’ve seen the birth and antiquation of cassettes and CD-Rs in only a few decades, as more and more digital downloaders flock to the passive, hands-off method of attaining tunes. Quietly swelling in the background, however, is a group of listeners who prefer to chase the satisfaction of an analog experience.

On Saturday, April 21, Revival Records will be welcoming all listeners to celebrate Record Store Day, the 5th annual celebration that has grown into a massive international event. Billy Siegel opened Revival downtown over two years ago and it continues to blossom, earning its namesake and providing the community with a haven for do-it-yourself music listeners.

The store will be holding special hours for Record Store Day—8am to 8pm— and both Jim Pullman and Adelyn Rose will be playing stripped-down sets to help commemorate a day that’s all about giving back to the listener. The event is not exclusive for enthusiasts; rather, it is an opportunity for all community members to come share what digital listening lacks and what Billy aims to provide: an experience.

“In the digital age right now, everybody’s getting their music online, sometimes not knowing about the artist or about the song,” Billy explains. “I think people want more than that. With an analog listener, you get to know about the artist and what the artist is about. That opens a lot of new avenues for the listener.”

Billy wants each person who comes into the store to discover something new or something treasured. No matter what the customer craves, the vast and varied collection at Revival can please the pickiest listeners. The stock that Billy provides for customers is a testament to his effort to create opportunities for people to find their music, and more importantly for people to gain access to an exhilarating experience.

“I don’t want them just to come here to buy music; I want this to be a mindset—an everlasting mindset,” he says as the store bells welcome a pair of shoppers, one young and one old. Billy brightens. “I want the store to be a nostalgic experience for the customer. When a parent is shopping with a child and the child is picking out groups that the parent loved when they were younger, it creates a whole conversation and a bonding experience. Just to witness that has been a real pleasure.”

All ages can benefit from stopping into the store, not only to rifle through records but also to see what’s happening throughout the local music scene. After Jim Pullman and Adelyn Rose help ring in the Record Store Day celebration, Billy hopes to have small in-store gigs at Revival every few weeks, and to make Revival a place where people can go for information and suggestions.

Record Store Day is an opportunity for first-timers to acclimate themselves with everything the store offers, and for veteran listeners to take a moment to reflect on the memories they’ve made and the new ones in store. Billy wants people to find more than rare B-sides and stellar pressings—he wants everyone to share the experience.

“It’s all about the thrill of the hunt,” he says. “The store is my way of giving back to the community. I want to support local music and local music listeners in any way that I can, and Record Store Day is truly a day of celebration for the music lover. I want people to come and to remember the smell of the old vinyl. I want them to remember feeling their fingers going through the records and finding that one that they’ve been looking for. It’s so much more of an experience than downloading—it’s the thrill of the hunt.”

 -Matthew Mabis, April 2012

Revival Records is located at 418 Barstow St. in Eau Claire. Regular store hours are 11am-7pm, Monday-Saturday, and by appointment only on Sunday. Check Revival out at www.revival-records.com or find them on Facebook.

Baseball season is upon us as an early spring air blowing through the half-cracked door to our left has sparked us with the possibility of some kind of awakening tonight, but then someone decides to start singing rap songs from the corner booth. It’s only one of many contradictory events of the evening. I’m talking with duo Eric Christiansen and Thom Fountain of Wisconsin Built late at night just before the release show of their new album, Rest Less, this Thursday at the House of Rock. “Is that Fitty?” Eric Christensen asks about the tune hummed across the table, referring to rapper 50 Cent. “No,” someone responds, “It’s Rough Riders!” “Oh,” Eric replies, slyly adding, “that was, like, their one hit then?”

This comment sets the tone for the evening. Eric seems like the type of person who likes to get his witty two-cents in, but he often sits back to let Thom do the serious talking. On the surface, Thom and Eric look contradictory themselves. Eric is tall, has longer, curly hair, and rests wise-looking glasses on his nose. He looks more likely to be in an Indie-type band than Thom, whose hair is cut fairly short and who usually sports a fairly “put-together” look. We ease into the conversation: Herbie Hancock and the origin of bass clarinets in popular music (Wisconsin Built will have a clarinetist joining them on stage Thursday), the band 30 Seconds to Mars, and topping-less pizzas. It’s clear through these conversations that Eric and Thom have a unique relationship as band mates; even though they’ve only been playing together since 2010, it seems that they could talk about pretty much anything while keeping a rapport with their audience at the time, be it at the bar or on stage. I imagine them on stage the night of the show, and ask what I should expect.

“It’s going to be a little different,” Eric says of the release show on Thursday, referring to having extra instrumentation added for the occasion. Drummer Davy Sumner will also be joining Wisconsin Built for some songs, but Wisconsin Built is no stranger to a supporting cast. The band originally began with Brian Johnson, Matt Wagner, and Eric. Thom came an instant later (he claims he missed the first practice), adding bass or drums at times, but has since settled in at the kit. The band has had Sumner play with them before, but they seem content staying a duo. “I feel like Eric and I are on the same page for the most part. It’s really easy for us to knock out songs [together],” says Thom.

It’s somewhat ironic that Thom and Eric have such a seemingly tight-knit friendship with one another. It’s easy to see that they have a lot in common, but they both come from different backgrounds. Thom came from a military family that traveled a lot throughout his life; he was born in the Netherlands, and also lived in New York for a while before coming to Eau Claire (Thom would be angry if I didn’t mention his family is from Green Bay originally). Eric, on the other hand, is from near the Green Bay Area. Both Thom and Eric love the Packers, but that might be where their sports allegiances divide. Baseball season has just started, and Eric roots for the Milwaukee Brewers, while Thom sets his sights high for the Chicago Cubs. When I ask them if this causes any friction in the dynamic of the band, they laugh, but they also seem to get sufficiently riled up about the rivalry in a short burst of heated conversation. It’s clearly this dynamic of humor and a little bit of “fight” that makes the pair work well together as a band.

The next day, I meet the band at Culver’s for a quick meal and custard. It’s one of their favorite restaurants, enough to give it a thank you in the liner notes of the album. We choose a corner booth, where Thom and Eric claim many of the Wisconsin Built band meetings have been held (“99% of the time, we’re here, in this booth, eating,” jokes Thom). We talk about their new album, some of their local influences, and, prodding the sports rivalry once more, Cubs versus Brewers.

Thom and Eric both agree that one of the things they like about the album is its versatility between songs, and the importance of that in relation to a good live sound. “There’s a lot more movement in it. The bigger parts can be much bigger, and they can be these really full, rock song kinds of things, and that makes the much quieter, really simple organ stuff a lot more poignant,” Thom states. Eric concurs jumping in with, “We just didn’t want to do a thing that was always going to be the same.” The band speaks of the album as something much more than songs—it is an entity to them: something that has a future beyond just what has been recorded. They are also proud of the fact that the album is a cohesive unit, not just separate songs creating an album. “The goal behind the whole thing was to make it blend together so it’s one—it’s a whole package,” Eric notes. However, Thom says he has a favorite song on the album. “I really like ‘Home,’” says Thom. “That song really sets the tone for the album. It works well [with the rest of the songs].” Both Eric and Thom have strong ties to Wisconsin and Eau Claire, and this comes through during the course of the interview.

Brian Moen and Laarks are cited as being some of the band’s influences. Thom starts to gush about Brian as if Brian were a big brother. “He’s a really great drummer. He’s a really great designer. It’s like, just stop, man! Stop making us all look bad.” Eric agrees, saying that the band really seems to have it together sound-wise. They also say they’re influenced by The Daredevil Christopher Wright and, more directly, Moro. Thom used to live with Moro’s drummer and learned a great deal from him as a musician.

When I ask how Thom became a Cubs fan, Eric responds, while smiling, “It comes with being the worst person.” He’s half-joking, but Thom gets serious fast. He explains that his mom was a baseball fan, and, with the family moving “around every year or two,” WGN was the only network that was everywhere and broadcast all 162 Cubs games. He goes on to explain how he got to listen to famed announcer Harry Caray and has been a fan ever since. “The Cubs aren’t even a factor,” retorts Eric about the rivalry. “There’s not even anything to worry about.” Despite their differing standpoints on baseball, you can be assured that this won’t affect their music, their professionalism as musicians, or the release of their album.

Rest Less will be released for digital download and on vinyl record as well. When asked about why they chose to put the record out on vinyl and support this particular format, both Eric and Thom’s responses reveal that they are more than just musicians; they consider many aspects of being in a band beyond the music. Eric starts in after a short pause, “The only time someone wants to be tactile and put on something, it’s going to be a record.”

“There’s this whole aesthetic value that comes more with a vinyl than a cd,” agrees Thom. His face starts to get serious. “I can think of a lot of album art on cds that, as soon as I look at it, I’m kind of like, ‘Man, I wish this was on vinyl, because this [artwork] would look really cool blown up, twelve by twelve, and with the way the printing works; it’s usually this high gloss thing.’” “And, the packaging is more pleasing,” Eric adds. If anyone else said this, it would probably sound pretentious, but Eric pulls it off with his very laid-back tone. Thom continues on, explaining why the record is important to the band as well. “It’s this put together thing where you fill in the blanks and get it made. It’s up to you. We had the fold-overs printed at one place, we got the jackets from another place, and we’re doing the inserts ourselves. So, we’re putting it all together ourselves, and there’s just this nice feeling about it.”

After sitting down with these guys for a few hours, I am happy to say that I also have a nice feeling about putting the next Eau Claire album release in the hands of these two. Wisconsin Built certainly lives up to its name; the members of the band are both humble and unique, they’re funny and friendly, and they’re willing to share their well-crafted stories through the music they create and otherwise. They adore the Packers whole-heartedly, they love a good double cheddar burger, and they say “home” with a Midwestern accent and a smile on their faces. Ultimately, it’s a rare thing to be able to sit down with two people who seem so comfortable with one another and, at the same time, are able to push one another towards new creative avenues. This is evident in Eric and Thom’s musical stylings as well as their conversations with others, and it is why this particular writer is looking forward to a homespun Wisconsin Built Thursday night.

-Brendon Hertz, April 2012

Wisconsin Built’s release show for Rest Less is this Thursday, April 12th at House of Rock. 10pm + Free – Adelyn Rose and Dexter Wolfe to play in support.

“Unwanted Dogs,” was originally written years ago after a good friend came out to his family and friends. The occasion most importantly marked a joyous event in his life, but the greatest affect his announcement had on me came in recognizing that he had lived a very long time in hiding and possibly in fear. A part of his life was forced to a kind of confinement that I couldn’t quite relate to, but found myself thinking a lot about. A reason and inspiration to record the song was presented when music was needed for a one-act production of the Tennessee Williams play The Chalky White Substance.

A small synopsis of the play’s setting:

The Chalky White Substance takes place on a few desolate rocks stretched out over the Arroyo Secco of Southern California — once a river; now a bone dry. Most of the area’s water has evaporated and the trees have died, and what’s left is rock or dust. The chalky white substance that has covered the earth is constantly blowing around in the wind and finding new places to settle into. The barren wasteland and its deserted canyon walls serve as a meeting place for Mark and Luke. Both characters, especially Luke, live in fear of an oppressive government and aggressively violent society. Young men have to work to avoid being raped, killed, or kidnapped at all times.

The Chalky White Substance will be performed at UWEC’s Riverside Theatre on April 19 at 4pm, April 20 at 7:30, and April 21 at 4:00. Hear more music from Utah Salt and Dirt Deposit on its Bandcamp page, including the play’s introduction track.

Adelyn Rose released Mezzanine, their first full length earlier this month and their reverberations are still creating ripples in the state’s seismography, causing minor geologic disturbances, effecting most severely (for some reason) a rural area about 40 miles west of Green bay know as Clintonville.

“Never Get Tired” is a centerpiece of the album, and not just because it’s catchy and located snugly within the record’s midsection.  The song also bears within its lyrics the album’s name sake.  The title “Mezzanine” – if its meaning is to be taken as a kind of middle floor that is off the ground yet not high enough to constitute a new story – suggests that one of the records themes is uncertainty about our place in the grand scheme of things.   This uncertainty is reflected in the harmony in the first half of the verse, which wavers indecisively between the major and minor mode of a single chord, perturbing the mood while allowing no movement.  The half of the verse plays as opposite to these periods of stagnation, as the beat kicks in and the harmony becomes more mobile.  The song draws a lot of its energy by cycling through the two dynamics (mobility and stagnation.)

Addie Strei sings with pristine detachment throughout, her voice – that of a jazz singer stripped of ornamentations – reporting on these troubling landscapes from a place of calm.

This track is available for free on their bandcamp page.

There are many parallels between Perfume Genius’s Mike Hadreas and the eccentric alt. pop star Rufus Wainwright.  Both are singer songwriters possessing exquisite voices, well-honed songwriting chops, and a penchant for making music that often appears deeply, painfully, personal.

While Wainwright has clearly been steeping in more classical pop traditions, Hadreas has absorbed more from relatively recent movements in alternative/indie rock culture.  “All Waters” – which can be found on the recently released Put Your Back N 2 It – exemplifies this more modern tack with its minimalist arrangement and liberal use of synth.  The song consists of a single rising chord progression that repeats as Hadreas’s tone-rich voice gradually builds to a falsetto-colored climax.
As the title suggests “All Waters” uses elemental imagery to construct a hopeful, heartfelt vision of the future where love is accepted in all its genuine forms.  The vision is palpable despite appearing, for the moment at least, an unattainable reality.

Director James Cameron recently became the 3^rd human in history to explore firsthand the nebulous depths of the Mariana Trench.  Despite the hope that he might encounter creatures strange and terrifying, what he found instead was a mostly barren landscape populated only by tiny, harmless, shrimp-like beings.

It may be that we can’t actually will sea monsters and the like into existence, but Pop. 1280’s The Horror is a product of the same kind of twisted imagination that wishes that we could.  And like the alien forms that still may lurk undiscovered in some murky crevasse, the album is a lot for the senses to swallow.  Released early this year by the numinous sounding Sacred Bones Records, The Horror plays like a collage of scenes torn from the middle of 11 different stories, the genre of these stories ranging from violent and psychotic murder mystery to fascist-run post-apocalyptic depiction of a dystopian future.  These scenes are set to waves of unrelenting bone-dry industrial distortion, and primitive sounding beats that are short, simple and repetitive.  This is a group unafraid to see its blend of punk and metal to it’s brutal, heterophonic conclusion.

Mezzanine is the debut full-length release from Eau Claire’s rapidly maturing Adelyn Rose, and a significant milestone for a young group that has undergone dramatic personnel and sound changes over the past two years. What started as lo-fi “acoustic & vocals” folk, has now developed into lush, mature arrangements – even incorporating some synth laden pop-rock (see “Collisions”). The group definitely brought their A-Game on their big night, treating the crowd to a flawless performance, definitely winning some new fans. Watch for the group to continue to play more local shows and possibly tour this year.

Adelyn Rose was supported by Minneapolis’ Seymore Saves the World and Eau Claire’s Wisconsin Built. You can find Mezzanine locally in EC at Revival Records, or at their bandcamp, where they also have some great looking tees for sale.

  Click photos to view

 Click photos to view.

The Island of Dr. Lee preforming at the Mousetrap in February

Jaime Hansen has been active in the Eau Claire musical community for several years.  Often his contributions have occurred behind the scenes – he’s engineered and mixed for a number of prominent artists in the area, including work on the much beloved Amateur Love’s only official release It’s All Aquatic.  More recently we’ve seen him step out from behind the curtain and into the world of performance, playing bass for the trip-metal group The Ronald Raygun.  His new project is called The Island of Dr. Lee, for which he has done the majority of songwriting thus far.  Along with Jaime, who handles guitar and lead vocals, the band’s lineup consists of Adelyn Strei (Adelyn Rose) on guitar and vocals, Dave Power (Adelyn Rose, Meridene) on drums, and Matt Florence on bass.  We asked Jamie to answer a few questions about the band to serve as an introduction.

Caleb Price:  How did you guys start playing together?

Jaime Hansen:  The noble spirit of Dave Power came down and blessed me in my hour of need.

CP:  What is your songwriting process like?

JH:  It’s in transition. I sketched out the 9 songs we’ve been playing live, about a year-and-a-half ago.  Those are pretty much the way I wrote them but better.  Lately we’ve been writing together though and I’m loving it. Matt brought in a barn-burner the other day and Addie’s been able to stretch her legs a lot more. Some cool stuff is happening.

CP:  In describing your sound you make reference to all of the following:  Chillwave (the style), Sade (the band), and Big Black (the band.)  That’s quite a combination of elements.  Care to comment on this?  Any other descriptions you can give to help give us a handle on what you’re putting out?

JH:  Dave did the Facebook page and I’m not sure what “chillwave” is.  The Sade/Big Black reference is pretty close to what we’re shooting for though… Give or take some Bowie, Kenton or Unwound.

Basically if you trade the chalkboard guitars for horns and you’ll find “old-school” dance beats underneath.  The moment of truth will come when I get off my ass and write some solid vocals.

CP:  On your Facebook page you have a seemingly random link to a video of Max Roach playing a hi-hat solo.  Is there a story behind this?

JH:  You’d have to ask Dave for a solid answer. I’m all about Max Roach being anywhere in my life anytime in any capacity though.

CP:  Speaking of your Facebook page, are those pictures of all the band members as kids that I saw up there?  (If so how did that come about?)

JH:  Yeah, they are. Quite a showcase of stonewashed denim and the relative age differences within the group.

CP:  Your profile pic and your band name both throw off an eerie, mysterious vibe.  Can we expect this to be part of your overall style?

JH:  The profile pic is of my parents. It’s a christmas card they made way back when.  The second part of your question seems to assume there is an overall plan.

CP:  Fair enough.  I see you’ll be recording an album in April.  Will you be doing that yourself at your studio?

JH:  I’m thinking about pushing it back a bit ‘cause I’d like to give the new stuff we’re working on a chance to breathe. We’re tentatively scheduled at April Base though. I find it very difficult to record my own stuff. It’s way too easy to go down rabbit holes and get lost.  Leo Strei will be engineering while Matt, Ryan, and I make insane demands of him.

Addie and Dave will each be appearing in their respective roles of “Voice of Reason” and “Sound Judgement”.  It should be a lot of fun.

CP:  One of your band interests is Mario Kart, which I also enjoy.  Which console’s version do you prefer, and which character is your racer of choice?

JH:  N64.  We mostly battle. I’m a long time Yoshi user but I’ve been trying Donkey Kong lately, just for a change of pace.  Matt is a consummate Wario user. Because he’s a dick.