Get your ears ready because it's a double-header listening party today. We've got tracks from Wheat and The XYZ Affair, who, along with The Black Fortys, will be playing @ DC9 this evening. The show starts at 9 PM and is definitely not one to be missed, but as LeVar Burton says, don't take my word for it:
Wheat is Scott Levesque (vocals), Brendan Harney (drums), Ricky Brennan (guitar), and Kenny Madaras (bass). The Boston-based band has made appearances late night shows like Conan, and has had tracks featured on movie soundtracks like Elizabethtown. Wheat just released a new album, titled White Ink, Black Ink, and they've shared three tracks with us for your listening pleasure.
H.O.T.T.
This one, in a way, summed up the entire concept of the album in a very simple way. The dichotomy of existence - the totality of it. Plus we wanted to set the tone with the groove, and kinda say, here we go again folks, this one is gonna be a different ride. We try really hard as a band to never repeat ourselves, and are always wanting to come at songs from a new way for us at least.
We wanted to set the tone of the positivity of tone/beat. This has three distinct grooves laid over each other. Two of them are machine made, and one is a live drummer. The way the title was written (H.O.T.T.) was kind of a bit of a joke by Ray Jeffrey, the guy who recorded the record. He'd put a hand - clap groove in one night, and thought it needed a title to match that "fresh outta the kitchen" vibe.
It was, and is an exercise in simplicity, totally. 4 lines. All chorus, only chorus (but for the bridge). It was a conscious departure from the rock dinosaur way of the indie rock band.
Changes Is
This one is about a couple of things at the same time. It's universal in that, we all have that moment in something or other, we're we basically saying, "o.k. - I decide, and I'm out." It's so empowering to know that you ultimately hold that card. And, even when we don't - we should say to ourselves that we do. This one was partly written in the studio. We had the chorus, we had the piano line, and the groove. We took it from there in the studio. Better for it. If you listen close, in the second verse you can hear some commentary coming from the drum room as the tracking was taking place : ) all fun, this song. Pretty easy flow.
Great smash up of writing ... it was a real celebration of who we are as a group, as people... inventing and creating in the studio. It was important for us to leave stuff unfinished going into the recording process, so that we'd be able to come at the stuff fresh while recording.
Living 2 Die vs. Dying 2 Live
I remember hanging out and getting my party on and friend and I thinking most people are living 2 die... look at 'em... not simply just dotting the i's and crossing the t's in life, but doing it with real intent and caring. Like time flies, make it count. Heaven is a place on earth... great and fulfilling lives are survived by other lives. So touch life, live it, don't just brace yourself for it's mysteries.
This song is another one that was essentially put together in the studio. The positive vibes were super high throughout the recording process, and this song just elevates and rides that vibe. It kinda just took care of itself. The juxtaposition of elements in this is really cool. Beautiful, soaring chorus vocals against strange, slightly jarring verse vocals (wheat being wheat) again, a human drum laid over a computer generated groove. But, ray was trying a new drum room out, and the sound was just huge and Zeppelin like, and it kinda then just spoke for itself.
Next up we have five tracks from The XYZ Affair. The band, based out of Brooklyn, includes Alex Feder (guitar, vocals), Chris Bonner (bass), and Russ Maschmeyer (guitar, keyboards), all of whom met at NYU. What you're about to listen to are a combination of songs off All My Friends and Ideals, and two tracks which were released a month ago in anticipation of a new album due out this fall. PS, you get bonus points if you can remember what the XYZ Affair signifies in American history.
Sock You In The Face With Love
This was basically our attempt to cram every guilty pleasure one could have into one smartly packaged song. We wanted to make a groove that was basically a cross between Notorious BIG's "Juicy," Snoop Dogg's "Beautiful," and Dizzee Rascal's "Fix Up, Look Sharp." I mean, we're a rock band, so it didn't quite work out like that, but that was the idea. The song is kinda about getting older and feeling rejected. My brother was very concerned that folks would think that the chorus was about domestic abuse, but it most certainly is not. It's about the narrator doing everything within his power to build up the courage to get noticed by the girl of his dreams.
No One That You Love Will Ever Die
We recorded this song down in Atlanta with Ben Allen (who most notably produced Animal Collective's "Merriweather Post Pavillion"). It marks the last recorded appearance of drummer Sam Rockwell on an XYZ record, as he decided to head back to grad school in January. This song was written about growing up with ideas that make you feel invincible. The crux of the song really occurs in the last verse, "We'll all get ret-conned if we die, we'll all get ret-conned by and by." Ret-conning is what they call it in comic books and sci fi when they re-write history in order to enable something in the storyline that would otherwise be impossible. So, for instance, when they killed off Superman in the early 90's, only to bring him back by somehow claiming that he was only MOSTLY dead and his body had been restored with the aid of the robots in the Fortress of Solitude, that would be a good example of ret-conning. So imagine if somebody grew up believing that to be the way the world works, what would the result be? "No One That You Love Will Ever Die."
Sarah
This song is off of our "Trials" EP. It was basically my attempt to write a modern day "Runaround Sue." I don't have a whole heap to say about it except that it's probably my favorite song off of that EP. For some reason at rehearsal we've developed an ongoing joke (which is probably only funny to us) about doing a Big Band reworking of it. It's hard to explain in writing, but it's made us cry with laughter everytime we've done it. I guess we're really easy to please. All we do is replace the word "Girl" with "Dame" and we're rolling on the floor in hysterics.
All My Friends
This was the song for which we filmed our most famous video, featuring a few early 90s Nickelodeon stars. The song itself was written about a group of friends I have from high school. My favorite line is about my friend Micha, the line is "bred since birth to be chief Primate." It's a triple reference. Primate is a word for a clergyman. His father is a Rabbi, and I always thought he'd end up being one as well. Right now he owns a Tee Shirt company called Crooked Monkey, which explains the second reference. The third relates to the fact that he and a couple of our friends are big on hitting up the DC bar scene, which, depending on the night, frequently sees them at bars with a fratty type crowd. Soooo yeah. A bunch of apes. Hiyooooo!
Ideals
This remains my favorite song off of our debut, "A Few More Published Studies." For a while we consistently closed shows with it, now we try to switch it up. Aside from "No One That You Love Will Ever Die," it's possibly our most earnest love song. Granted, that doesn't exactly put it up there with "There Will Never Be Another You" or "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life," but it's as close as we get. The intro section with the sleigh bells and the glochenspiel was actually written after we had arranged the song. The arrangement felt too repetetive, because the intro was the same as the first verse. So I went home and spent a day trying to figure out alternatives, and came up with that little line. I think it goes well with the first line of the song.
CRUCIAL DETAILS:
Check out Wheat, XYZ Affair and The Black Fortys tonight at the DC9
Doors @ 830pm Show @ 9pm
18+ w/ VALID ID
hey salvator!
we're coming back to dc the 22nd with goldspot at the black cat. we'd love to see you again. maybe get felt up by some strangers on the street together.
the black fortys