Monday, February 17, 2014

Review: Stuffs vol. 2


Hey, long time no see...

This record is still sorta new. (It's taken a while to get copies and no distros have them yet)
Finally there is a review of it out there by the nice people over at Boston Hassle:

"Based out of Oslo, Norway COMPOST MODERN ART RECORDINGS are a couple of volumes into their killer STUFFS comps that bring together a bunch of American punk bands and a bunch of European punk bands. Punk is defined very loosely here, from track to track encompassing garage rock, power pop, strange hardcore, garage pop, and even some other stuff that I guess is indie rock or something. Anyway, the point is this label is bringing together a lot of music that emanates from the underground and doing away with the strict aesthetic adherence that often separates them, but doesn’t really exist for the most part (as far as I’m concerned). Anyway, I really love these comps for this reason, and because they are full of amazing bands from all over the map. STUFFS VOL. 2 is the latest in the series. And though at least some of the tunes found on it are previously released (I haven’t done my research but I know that at least the DAN MELCHIOR track is one that I’ve heard before on one of his many releases), the comp taken as a whole is still incredibly fresh any way you slice it. Fresh still even though this vinyl comp was released back in early 2013.
Anyway, you probably know some of the bands, bands that we’ve loved over and over and still want to love some more: DAN MELCHIOR, NASA SPACE UNIVERSE, SOUPCANS, ACID BABY JESUS. Alongside them there were a bunch of discoveries on here for me. PIERRE & BASTIEN’s track “Stress & Paillettes” shows the Paris band crushing punk rock and garage rock into one blasting force with a great sci-fi guitar riff that keeps coming back into my head at quiet moments much like the tinnitus that listening to bands like this enough (too late for me) will cause. The pan-European OFFONOFF weigh in with a noise rock bastard of a track of improvised mayhem called “MIHA!”, courtesy of the trio that includes a member of THE EX, and players who have collaborated with the likes of PETER BROTZMANN and JOHN BUTCHER. France’s LES CHOEURS DE LA MER NOIRE (featuring members of CHEVEU) offer up “Dryer”, an odd and noisy synth punk approach that actually may be my favorite song on the whole comp. Creepy slightly psychedelic cheap synth-punk-pop with just that correct amount of noise.
In case it’s not clear to you, this comp is pretty amazing. You might know the American bands, maybe you even know most of the bands, but for most this will be a far reaching primer for underground sounds of the USofA and Europe right now. A primer that leans heavy on scuzzy sounds, but goes well beyond just that. COMPOST MODERN ART RECORDINGS is killing it with this series of comps. Hopefully there will be a third. The label has also released records by CRASH NORMAL (included on this comp as well). Give them a look." - Boston Hassle
If you want to buy it or want to distribute some of these get in touch.
You can purchase them for a good deal here:
www.cmarecordings.com
Thanks

Thursday, February 28, 2013




It's been a bit delayed,, but the STUFFS vol 2 14 band LP compilation is now available.
An internatioanl LP with artwork by all 14 bands. Mostly unreleased tracks (500ex)

The lineup is as follows:

PIERRE & BASTIEN (punk, France)
ACID BABY JESUS (Slovenly, Greece)
COSMONAUTS (Burger, USA)
CRASH NORMAL (Born Bad. France)
DE HØJE HÆLE (Denmark)
THE FUCKAROOS (SONNY & THE SUNSETS USA)
DAN MELCHIOR (UK/USA)
THE SOUPCANS (Telephone Explosion, Canada)
SHAKE SHAKE BOLINO (feat. member of Cheveu, France)
BAZOOKA (Slovenly, Greece)
PLASTO BETON (Feat. member of The Feeling of Love, France)
LES CHOEURS DE LA MER NOIRE (feat. member of Cheveu, France)
NASA SPACE UNIVERSE (California USA)
OFFONOFF (Holland/Italy/Norway feat. member of The Ex)

Have a few copies left of volume 1 (featuring exclusive tracks by Sic Alps, Ty Segall, Crash Normal, Cheveu etc.) Look for a special deal on both here while supplies last!


12 euros + shipping.
http://compostmodernartrecordings.bigcartel.com or http://crashnormal.bigcartel.com

contact compostmodernart@gmail.com or crashnormal@gmail.com for distro prices



Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Stuffs 2

Stuffs vol. 2 is out.  A release party (sort of) in Gothenburg, tomorrow.
Cosmonauts are playing. Check out the cool flyer:
Be there.

Monday, June 11, 2012



Finally the lineup for the STUFFS Vol. 2 LP Compilation is ready.

14 bands:

PIERRE & BASTIEN (France)
ACID BABY JESUS (Greece)
COSMONAUTS (USA)
KRÆSJ NØRMÅL (France)
DE HØJE HÆLE (Denmark)
SONNY & THE SUNSETS (USA)
DAN MELCHIOR (UK/USA)
THE SOUPCANS (Canada)
SHAKE SHAKE BOLINO (France)
BAZOOKA (Greece)
PLASTO BETON (France)
LES CHOEURS DE LA MER NOIRE (France)
NASA SPACE UNIVERSE (USA)
OFFONOFF (Holland/Italy/Norway)

Mostly unreleased tracks.
Art by all bands.

More details soon!

keep updated here, on facebook, or on my glorious webpage.

Friday, April 13, 2012


So, it's been quiet here I know....big things about to happen though. The Stuffs vol. 2 compilation LP should be ready in a few weeks. More info on that soon. In the meantime I will be playing records as part of Team Antiharrs at the Haraball 7 inch release party on the 19th of april at Internasjonalen in Oslo. Haraball is the new hardcore project from former members of Fairfuck and Tiebreak. Good ol' Kongsberg hardcore. Also, Vestindien from Bergen will play. Only 50 kroner. Cheap, fast, hardcore. Good times.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

CHEVEU! OSLO!

Yes, that's right! Cheveu are coming to Oslo for the first time.
They will be playing at Revolver on the 18th of November.

Cheveu have a track on the Stuffs vol. 1 LP compilation and atleast 1 member will be contributing a solo project track for Stuff vol. 2 which will be out sometime soon-ish.

If you don't know Cheveu; here is a short introduction.

The show is 120kr and in the basement at 9 PM. Faxmaskin opens the show!

Here is a track from Cheveu latest LP out on Born Bad (europe) and Killshaman (US):

This should not be missed.
Fantastic live band and all-around nice guys.
See you there!

Monday, May 16, 2011

Crash Normal & Le Corbeau at Revolver


Hello, long time no see! Currently working on the Stuffs vol. 2 LP.
Lots of great new bands in the works. More info sooner then later.

While we wait, Crash Normal are flying in for a short scandalnavian tour!

Be there or be square:

June 2 at Revolver with Le Corbeau + djs Team Antiharrs
June 3 possibly with Tundra Fucks in Gothenburg (house party)
and June 4th in Stockholm opening up for Abe Vigoda at Fritz's Corner/Strand

In Oslo I am happy to have Le Corbeau joining Jerome and Etienne for the big thursday party.
It will be a great night for only 100 kr. I'll be in terrible shape after a week of rum & cokes in Spain. You get a couple of cool dudes from Paris AND one of Oslo's best bands. Worth the money for sure ya'll! Then the trip continues to Sweden. Wish me luck.

Oh, and here is some great fottage from the PRICKLYpeaBOWLS festival "somewhere" on a beach in Italy last year. If you watch closely you will see yours truly drunk at 5pm...at a show...on the beach...in Italy......classy.


Thursday, May 12, 2011

Scummy!

Just a quick note. I will be djing this cool gig at Mir on saturday:

It's cheap. The bands are good. The club is nice. No reason not to show up. Word.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

STUFFS reviews

Here are a few nice reviews of the STUFFS LP.


V/A "Stuffs Vol. 1 " comp LP
Oslo's Compost Modern Art with an international extravaganza of a comp, featuring some pretty hip acts (and a couple unknowns) mainly from the US and France with a couple of random Euros as well. Mostly unreleased cuts, let's try and grade this thing out...Side One: Matt K. Shrugg with a Pizzas-esque speeder, Ty Segall and a bounding garage-siker, Agent Ribbons (Austin,TX) do a very very nice garagey girl-group number, Sic Alps mail it in for yet another comp with a sloppy noise cut, When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth sound a fuck of a lot like Mayyors (which isn't bad), Bipolar Bear prove they sound as bad as their name implies with a boring synth-gurgler, Sneakers do a falsetto-voxed New Wave indie-pop cut that's equal parts irritating and catchy. Side One Score: 4.5 out of 7. Side Two: Dictaphone serve a killer Cheveu/Teasers hybrid (that also appears on their LP), De La Cave do some video gamey synth that reminds me of a female voiced Digital Leather ("Black Flowers" in particular...there's quite a resemblance), Cheveu offer up a riveting synth/guitar spy theme instrumental, Crash Normal make a deathdrone synthstrumental, Feeling of Love's track is actually pretty poppy, Bungalow Ranchstyle (Oslo) play aggro-wave, and Don Vito do deconstructed noise rock. Side Two Score: 4 out of 7. Total Comp Score: 8.5 out of 14, which is somewhere around 65% choice cuts. Which isn't that shabby for the comp game these days. Best Cut: I'm going to say it's a tie between Cheveu and Dictaphone. France fares very well as a whole on this LP. Worst Cut: Bipolar Bear or Don Vito. Best "Unknown" Act: Agent Ribbons. I'll give bonus points for sleek gatefold packaging and exceptional art design, with a small bit of art from each band inside and a clever tracklisting concept. Scum stats: 750 copies.(RK)


From Still Single:

"I’ll take this over the Hozac dumpers any day; this sort of panic is much more my speed – a new import collection of a “state of scene” for bands with a little more ambition to go with their violence. Side A collects the mostly West Coast-based American contributions (When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, Sneakers, Matt K. Shrugg, Ty Segall, Bipolar Bear, Agent Ribbons and Sic Alps), almost all of which turn in quality material. Since it’s a comp, you half-expect throwaways, and since it’s Sic Alps, you know they’re the ones who send in two minutes of electrified/contact mic’d dick-helmet touch, but the manic Sneakers and Matt K. Shrugg tracks make up for any shortcomings, and the rest fall in place. Side B focuses its attention on France, with contributions by the Dictaphone, De La Cave, Cheveu, Crash Normal, the Feeling of Love, Don Vito and Bungalow Ranchstyle. Only Don Vito and De La Cave scrape the bottom of Sic Alps’ shoes and consider it something. Everyone else here performs at a moderate-to-high level, and we’re presented with a reasonable survey of a specific and exciting time for lo-fi/DIY or die music. Glad this exists! Gatefold sleeve, 750 copies. (http://www.myspace.com/compostmodernart) (Doug Mosurock)"

From Permanent Records in Chicago:

"About a year ago Compost Modern Art Recordings wrote us asking about putting a Sneakers track on a compilation LP. We were happy to oblige the label and we put them in touch with Sneakers. It's been a long time coming, but the LP is finally here, the jacket is a gatefold, and the line-up is incredible. Here's the list: Cheveu, Bipolar Bear, Agent Ribbons, Don Vito, Crash Normal, Sneakers, The Dictaphone, Bungalow Ranchstyle, Ty Segall, When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth, The Feeling of Love, Sic Alps, De La Cave, and Matt K. Shrugg. We've featured records by nearly all of the bands included here in previous updates and we can honestly say that there isn't a throwaway jam on this slab. One of the best comps of the year! It's recommended for newbs looking to get into some of this stuff and weird punk veterans alike!"


"Usually compilations fall flat because the person putting them together just throws some toss-off songs together, sticks a nice price on it and calls it a day. Then there are those comps that rise above the rest; we all know of incredible compilations that have helped shape a genre or, at the very least, have been thoughtfully curated. This one, featuring a slew of songs from lo-fi and noisy pop artists, does in fact rise above most others. Even if it’s not your favorite style of music. Stuffs does an excellent job of showcasing some standouts in a somewhat drowning style of music. On a small label from Oslo, Norway, Stuffs includes mostly French and American bands signing on with mostly unreleased songs. The artist list includes CRASH NORMAL, TY SEGALL, the FEELING OF LOVE, the DICTAPHONE, and SIC ALPS to name a few, and these aren’t a bunch of sloppy whatever tracks. It’s good, and put together with thought and care­—including the packaging, which is very nice with a gatefold sleeve. (AL)"

And one in french!
http://etrangeressac.wordpress.com/

Il y a des éclipses aussi en Norvège. En voilà une bien belle, scrutée par le label Compost Modern Art d’Oslo. Les groupes When dinosaurs ruled the earth et Sneakers ouvrent fort bien la scène, avec fracas et conviction. Bien vite on tombe sur un roulé boulé de Ty Segall puis sur la pop clair-obscur d’Agent Ribbons. Bipolar Bear fascine de minimalisme bruitiste avant de laisser place aux fulgurantes exactions anihilatrices d’un Sic Alps total. Le Dictaphone de Tours fait des merveilles en ouverture de face B suivi par De La Cave aux charmes électroniques et nordiques. Cheveu cultive le mystère d’une fête foraine dans le grand nulle part sur un instrumental. Et un grand huit lunaire de Crash Normal avant le nouveau tour-de-force de Feeling of Love, télépathie supersonique sur des rivières de feu.Fin de B tout en noise avec notamment la déstructuration post-hiver de Don Vito déchaînés.

See? I'm not lying when I said it was good.
Listen for it on WFMU, KEXP, KDVS, KXLU, Radio Nova and other good stations where it's been getting airplay:)

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Distros!

STUFFS is now available from the fine people at Killshaman Records, S-S Records and Permanent Records (Chicago) in the US, and X-mist in Europe. A few others will have copies soon.

On the 13th of September I will be live on the radio making an ass of myself playing several songs off the record on the Bra Trommis show on Radio Nova 99.3 FM in Oslo. Tune in to learn some Norwegian and hear me ramble on about good music. It can be streamed/downloaded on the Radio Nova website afterwards.

Some super 8 promo videos from the STUFFS LP can be seen here: www.youtube.com/user/stuffslp

Here is a clip of The Dictaphone track Mummmers:

This track (in another version) appears on the fabulous new The Dictaphone Self Titled LP on Killshaman. Buy it.

I will also be spinning STUFFS and a whole lot of other stuff(s) at Garage on the 10th of September with the Team Antiharrs dj crew. Siste Dagers Helvete play in the basement also.
Be there or be square.

Monday, July 5, 2010

It took forever, but here it is:

Compost Modern Art Recordings proudly presents: STUFFS


750 x gatefold LP with music and art by all 14 bands.
12 euros + shipping & fondling.

ORDER STUFFS COMPILATION FROM:

http://compostmodernartrecordings.bigcartel.com

or crashnormal.bigcartel.com/

I heard it's pretty good....

Saturday, February 6, 2010

STUFFS!

Right. It's finally time for STUFFS. The new Compost Modern Art LP compilation.

It's full of good stuff(s). The lineup is as follows:
Crash Normal (Fr), Cheveu (Fr), Sneakers (US), Bungalow Ranchstyle (No), Agent Ribbons (US), The Dictaphone (Fr), The Feeling of Love (Fr), De La Cave (Fr), Bipolar Bear (US), Don Vito (Ge), Ty Segall (US), When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth (US), Sic Alps (US), and Matt K. Shrugg (US)

That's 14 freaking bands. Some short bursts and some long tracks of varying styles...best of all, they are all good. Hand picked by yours truly.
A few other bands were in the running as well, but have dropped off and/or changed in the last few months. It's taken over 6 months to get it all together.

Almost all songs have never been released and some have been made especially for this compilation!

This means you should buy a copy. I know people will download this as they always do...but its worth getting for the artwork alone....atleast let me break even eh? All bands have contributed a piece of art that CMA team have put together.

I am amazed and honored that all these bands are a part of this.

So look for this record somewhere sometime soon. More info in a few weeks.


Oh, and I made a (soon-to-be) super-fancy website: http://www.cmarecordings.com/

Sunday, January 3, 2010

All Ears 2010

So, I'll be dj'ing one night at the amazing All Ears festival for improvised music this year with the Soft Bondage gang. Should be fun. The lineup is pretty incredible:I'll probably play a track or two from the upcoming LP comp, but you really want to come to see Zach Hill, Han Bennink, Johannes Bauer and the rest of the amazing musicians during the weekend long festival. See you there if you know what's good for ya.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Quick cma pre-release party recap

So here is some footage from the CMA pre-release party. Good times.

The Feeling of Love:


Hell Shovel:

Bungalow Ranchstyle:

....................................................

Info about the 12" compilation release soon!

Thursday, October 29, 2009

12" Compilation pre-release party!


Yes, cma#003 is on the way. 14 band compilation; mostly american and french. Bands include Crash Normal, Cheveu, Bipolar Bear, The Feeling of Love, The Dictaphone, Bungalow Ranchstyle, Sneakers, Don Vito and a bunch of others.

The list is not "official" yet.

To celebrate the eventual release; The Feeling of Love and Bungalow Ranchstyle will be playing at Funhouse on the 13th of November with Hell Shovel. Cost is only 50 kroner. Freakin cheap people!

Sunday, August 16, 2009

US Distribution.....

Sending records to the states turns out to be insanely slow and a bit expensive from Oslo...

SO, if you are in the states/canada you can now order the records from these fine people:
s-s, permanent, floridas dying, kill shaman, roccoco and possibly your local record stores and others establishements.
Europeans know what to do.

Get to it. The next release (12'' comp.) will be great too, I promise.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Not dead yet...

Yes it's very quiet here. Been busy partying at jazz festivals and what not.

The 7 inches are selling well. (and downloading well it seems) so I should be sold out in not too long. Looks like I will break even, so that's a plus.

New record in the works with alot of great bands. Its gonna be a 12'' compilation.
Who doesn't love a good comp? Well I do. Good way to check out new bands and to get some exclusive tracks by bands you might know. Hoping to announce an official release date by the end of summer.

Here are some videos from the last few weeks:

First up, OFFONOFF at Mono in may:


Here are The Intelligence and Crash Normal from the Compost Modern Art 7'' release party that I don't remember much from. Glad to have the video:




Oh, I'm spinning records at Garage on the 24th.
Should be noisy.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

CMA Interview: The Intelligence


So, I've become a full fledged juuornalisst.

Lars from The Intelligence was nice enough to let me "interview" him.
Basically, I sendt him some not so great, and some good questions by mail, and he answered. (Photo taken in Barcelona last week at the Primavera Sound festival..more on that later)

So here it is in all its Pulitzer price winning glory:

CMA: Tell us a little about your background. How and where did you get started playing music?

Lars: I started playing guitar in high school. I got grounded from my skateboard trying to impress these scumbags by trying to steal some poor kids skateboard, trying to look tough in the sheltered burbs. So I spent the summer playing the intro of Metallica's One and the intro to Purple Haze in a 100 degree garage in Bakersfield, California. 



CMA: You have done a lot of varied covers over the years. What kind of music did you grow up listening to?

Lars: I was listening to Red Red Wine by UB40, tell my friend when 'what the fuck are you doing buddy, and gave me a recorded tape of the Dead Kennedys. 
I heard most stuff from skate videos. That informed a lot of stuff I liked. Those old videos in the 80's had Black Flag, Sonic Youth, firehose, Bad Religion. I liked that kinda stuff. 
I got into that 2 tone ska stuff for one summer. Shit, I even dug this Lenny Kravitz tape! My last year in high school was when I really got into music more though because I started hanging around with the dopers you know. Black Sabbath, The Breeders and Abbey Road I remember listening to a lot. The grunge got really big and I liked most of that stuff.
 

CMA: How long have you been Intelligence?


Lars: Since the day I was born son! Just kidding. I think our first single came out in 2000, but I'd been doing solo 4-track stuff two or three years before that - which was more fun and satisfying than the real band I was doing with some friends. We liked The Jesus Lizard and stuff but stunk on our instruments. Then I heard The Country Teasers and realized we were doing it wrong.

 


CMA: You have played in a number of bands before (A Frames, Dipers, Unnatural Helpers etc.), why did you decide to focus on this "solo" project?

Lars: The Intelligence has always been what I cared about most but the other bands were easier live for quite a while. I was denying being 'the boss' for years so we were pretending to be a band for years and since I was always disappointed and hated giving direction, it was my excuse to party first and play some shit songs second. The long time drummer quit and I was finally free to record by myself. Also Matthew Ford from Factums and Love Tan was my best buddy and was really encouraging and played drums and I got the first band I really dug together. The other bands just kinda died as far as my involvement. A Frames gave me the boot, Unnatural Helpers reformed without telling me or the bass player. Dipers personalities clashed too much I guess.

CMA:
You seem to have done most, if not all the recordings yourself. Do the other band members have any influence on the writing?


Lars: The funniest part for me is recording. I don't' want to just sing and play guitar, I get to do that live. I like playing drums and the other stuff. I like recording alone. I went to recording school which taught me I hate recording. I like being a side man in a band but if I'm 'the boss' I like doing it alone. It's faster. 
 


CMA: You have also been known to change member a lot like The Fall's Mark E. Smith.
 What is the story behind that?


Lars: Some people don't like the set up, or they are great but they move to San Francisco or L.A. , or they aren't good enough, or they aren't fun to tour with, or the band would be better with someone else, or they bend all the guitar notes trying to show off. making them and us sound awful. If they want to write all the bass parts or write songs together in a rehearsal room democratically there are papers full of other bands for them to join with sympathetic parties. I am the first one to say this band is probably really boring to be in as a 'musician' because there isn't room for and individuals 'personality'. We are all four working towards ONE simplistic personality. 



CMA: How great are The Fall by the way? You have opened for them?

Lars: They are great. We played two shows in New York with them but we forgot to pay attention, I didn't know any of their new album and we were too excited to be flown to New York. I listen to them far more now than I did then though. 



CMA: Intelligence seems to be released on a ton of labels in both America and Europe (including one here in Oslo). Do you prefer these kind of limited vinyl 7 inch releases?

Lars: No not really, I really like to work on an LP. But we have friends ask us for stuff or stuff laying around that doesn't fit on records. I do like having 7" on the merch table for sure, but after the Oslo 7" we're going to chill out, I don't want to have too much stuff out there, it's a turn off to me. I don't think being 'prolific' is the greatest compliment. 


CMA: What is your writing and recording process like?

Lars: Pop in a cassette tape and start layering stuff usually. Start with drums and just stack stuff on. If it grabs me then I'll sing over it or toss it in the shoebox to be dug up six months from now when we're out of ideas. Lately since we get to go into a real studio, I've been using a lot of the home recordings as 'demo's' since I love the big drum sounds we get at the distillery. I'm tired of 'lo-fi' I like sounding good with the windows rolled down too.

Tell us about your studio setup. - 
Just a 7 track Tascam cassette that has the tape door punched in out of frustration. I use this piece of garbage peavy PA head I guess as a 'preamp' to boost the signal and put the fakest reverb since Van Halen on there. 
 


CMA: Some people might react to the extreme "lo-fi" sound and the mix of garage and electro of your records... is this sound a concious decisions?

Lars: I guess so, it was the necessity of our environment. Stuff recorded like garbage sounds really lousy quiet so we mixed it really loud. I like that our Icky Baby record literally destroyed the editor/owner of terminal-boredom.com's speakers. But the mix is not conscious at all, there's no plan it's just what's quick and close and fun or inspired. Some songs you don't want to get the drumset out of the garage so you use the drum machine inside a cheap keyboard and you have a song like Cheer Up Switch. Other times the whole band laughs at you when you try to get them to all play this one dumb riff so you find and old tape of a surf beat and slow it down and play the riff yourself and you get a song like The World Is Not a Drag. We do try to approach each song differently just to have a more varied pallet of sound - sorry that's the most pretentious sounding thing ever. 
 


CMA: How do you feel about the label garage punk or glue wave and how its becoming "hip" these days? Do you label your own music in some way?

Lars: They say it's hip but I see all of us playing to three people on plenty of stops on tour so I think just because it's on the internet and trickels into some magazines it doesn't. 
I like the term glue wave actually. I hope it get really hip and really big so we can all make some money and be on 'NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL GLUE WAVE VOL. 3" compilations by Time Life.

CMA:
You have a new record out on In the Red Records called Fake Surfers. How does this record differ from the earlier ones?


Lars: It's pretty similar to the last record but better and weirder. With Deuteronomy (In the Red) I wanted a good rock record with good sounds but pretty stripped down. I wanted to keep it simple since I was nervous about blowing it in the studio for the first time. But this one I wanted to mix good rock songs with some more weirder stuff. Like a hi-fi version of our first record (Bordeom and Terror, Omnibus/Draget Records) but weirder. There's more layers and lots of different sounds. On Deuteronomy we got a good drum sound and used it for all the songs, same with the bass/guitar/vocals, this one we had more time to make it all different. My favorite day was the guitar day where we set up a little station with four different amps and guitars and pedals and made different combinations so they weren't' ever the same. The Hunches new LP was somewhat of an influence on that, there's 1000 different guitar sounds on that usually within the same song. The singing was more fun this time too, I had some of my favorite singers come in, Brad from this great band from LA Wounded Lion sings some back ups and so does Brian from Christmas Island, another of our favorite new bands. Monty Buckles from the Lamps 'sings' on another and plays some guitar and synth. Susanna is on there again too. 
 
 


CMA: Tell us a little about the people who are playing with you now and where you found them.


Lars: Our guitarist Perve Bird was a fan and in a good band The Professional Man from Portland; he sent me this really nice email when we were playing as a three piece after the Icky Baby (In the Red) version of the band split up saying how he loved us but it's better with two guitars and asked for an audition; he drove up and learned all the songs fast to, we practiced and he was good enough so he played a show with us that night. He's been leaving his luggage in airports and outside of cars all over the world since. 
Our bassist Susanna is 'my old lady'. We were together for a while and she'd dated a touring musician before and it didn't work out with the time apart so I'd been thinking of having her play keys so we could tour together. We had this great guy Shannon McConnell from the Fall-Outs and The Pulses playing with him who I loved but he couldn't' really tour so he had to quit. Maybe the idea came from Volt, and a lot of our songs I recorded the basslines on keyboards so we gave it a shot with her playing them. Turns out she's one of the best musicians we've ever had, I guess all her piano lessons came back and she's great. - 
Our drummer Beren, this is a funny story: We were on tour in the US and our drummer quit, I loved him but we'd broken up the first band I was in 10 years ago in kind of the same way, we got on great but there was a kinda tension underneath sometimes. Anyways we blew up at this great show in NYC and he quit the next day. Meanwhile Beren was on tour with Eat Skull and had tried to give her notice, telling the band she'd finish the tour but when they got home she was done. I guess they booted her on the spot and left her stranded in NY. I'd already been a fan of her drumming (and she played in Perve Birds band) so we called and asked if she'd finish the tour with us. We picked her up the next day and she listened to our songs on an Ipod for the 9 hour drive to Toledo and we played this god awful show with her not having any practice, I'd beat box the beat of the song and we'd go for it. It was pretty messed up but she did great. The next day we got to practice in Detroit all day and she ruled. She's the best. 


CMA: Do you still like touring and sleeping on floors?

Lars: Mmm, I love sleeping on floors. Man whenever I see one I just get drowsy it looks so dirty and comfy.

CMA: Do you prefer touring in the states or in Europe?

Lars: I think everyone likes Europe better cause you can't eat 'get the fuck out of here' for dinner. Seems like we do the best in Paris which amazes me and my parents. I like Spain a lot. We had a blast in Eastern Europe last year in Croatia and Serbia. It was really cool to get go to Macedonia where 15 people ate and drank their nuts off at this great restaurant for 30 Euro. 

CMA: What other then the Karate Party Helicopter LP would you recommend everyone to have in their record collection?


Lars: We're really into Tones on Tail Pop right now for some reason. Coltrane's Lush Life I love.

CMA: Any new bands that excite you these days?


Lars: Oh yeah lots, its' a great time I think. The best since we've been playing for sure. Christmas Island, Wounded Lion, Thee Oh Sees, Sic Alps, Meth Teeth, Eat Skull, The Growlers, Hospitals, The Spits, Cheveu, Soft Pack, Ganglians, Crash Normal, I forget...


CMA: Are you tired of these lame questions?


Lars: No these are good and I can't wait to read my coffee wave brain from the start, confused- stoked- kinda stuck up- confused- rambling-shamed- lighthearted..


CMA: Wanna plug some more releases, projects, zines, blogs, books, films etc?


Lars: Oh Calvin Lee Reader our old bassist makes great films, Little Farm is great and Piledriver too. His new one Pina Colada something is great too. 
I do interviews of bands I like on www.terminalboredom.com

CMA: Are you a fan of any Scandinavian bands?

Lars: Maybe I am, I can't think of any right now though, isn't LLiamannaria Finnish? I love them.

CMA: Lars Finberg is a very Scandinavian sounding name. Where is your family originally from?

Lars: Finland and Sweden. It was changed to Finberg from Ooupoula or something. 


CMA: Dragnet Records, which I guess you helped run, seems to be defunct. Are you running any other labels?


Lars: We started Dragnet because back then there weren't little labels to send it to it didn't seem like. 'hey think Universal or E.M.I. wants to release this 7" recorded on a wet VHS tape?' So we just saved up and did it ourselves. Once someone else offered to put it out we jumped at the chance. If I had money I'd do it again, maybe in the future it'd be nice to have a little label but there's so many these days I don't see the point really.

CMA: Anything you want to say to people in Norway (other than buying the records and coming to the show June 6th at Gloria Flames)?

Lars: Just hello and we're really excited to be coming, we didn't' have time to make it that way last year so we chose you over Eastern Europe this time, you and your running water. And it's your birthday on the 5th and mine on the 8th so lets take it really easy and reflect. Just kidding. Last time our (Swedish) promoter jumped through a plate glass buss stop so we're kind of expecting a lot. Thanks for your time and/or interest!

Originally posted on groove.no May 2009. (Thanks Bjørn)
The Intelligence are on their european tour now. Saturday is the big CMA release party in Oslo with Intelligence, Crash Normal from Paris and local heros Bungalow Ranchstyle. AND its my birhtday...it's gonna be a good weekend.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Forest City Rockers Part 3

The Forest City Rockers Motorcycle Club part 3 is out. It features music by the mayyors (as always) and a live performance from Crash Normal.


The Forest City Rockers - Episode 3 from Eighty Four Films on Vimeo.

The story is reeeally deep, so you should watch episode 1 and 2 first. (Posted below or at http://www.forestcityrockers.com/)

The Crash Normal Unrealistic Tracks 4 song 7 inch is out now on my label. Feel free to hit me up on gmail and buy a copy. 5 euros + shipping. I'll try to make it a little less painfull for overseas shipping and multiple copies.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Primavera Sound

So I'm headed for a full week in Barcelona. The Primavera Sound lineup is disgusting. It might be the best line up ever....anywhere. Shellac, The Jesus Lizard, The Vaselines, Dan Deacon, The Intelligence, Liars, Lightning Bolt, Sonic Youth, Zu just to name a few of the 100+ artists. Lots of "up and comers" as well. There is even an ATP and Pitchfork stage. The indie kids all have hard-ons. The festival starts thursday, but there is a ton of bands playing in the days before as well. Also, Barcelona are playing the Champions League final on wednesday, so if they win we might be in the middle of the biggest party in years. God knows how I'm gonna survive this. The weekend after is my big releaseparty for Crash Normal and The Intelligence in Oslo. I don't know when I will be able to get a full nights sleep again...maybe by the end of june.

Anyone with Primavera tips? I'm drowning in bands and not sure what I'm gonna see. So much too choose from. I'm sticking with the small bands, although it would be cool to cross Neil Young off my list. He's like a legend or some shit.... anyway, which me luck.