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Le Loup’s Debut album (The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly)comes out today (Kanye is not the only one with a Sept 11th release, kids).
We had a chance to listen and review it last week and promptly decided that to we needed to celebrate this monumental occasion so we
a. took them to the zoo.
b. made them break some rules there
c. sat down for a small sampler/listening party with them
and
d. threw some byt questions at them.
And they survived.
So, here we go.

LINER NOTES:

LE LOUP (FEAR NOT)- these lyrics make no sense, or very little sense. the grammar is very poor. and I’m okay with that. it was supposed to be more of a stream-of-consciousness thing- a series of vaguely menacing images, all associated with the night-time and forces of nature (generally the predatory types). i wanted it as sensory as possible – not necessarily linked to coherent thought – thus, the skittery half-sentences and wordless harmonies. i was hoping for it to represent, generally speaking, a wild crush of outside aggressors, and a vague sense of anxiety about the unknown. nevertheless, i think the end came out pretty triumphant, which was what i was hoping for.

WE ARE GODS! WE ARE WOLVES!- this summer, my girlfriend nannied for a family with a three-year-old boy. he loved this song; he called it the “silly song,” and he would request that it be played in the car, more than the sesame street CD he had. what a great kid! i didn’t tell him it’s about really destructive, old-world type gods, and the often dark nature of organized religion. it is a pretty damned silly song, though, i guess.

OUTSIDE OF THIS CAR, THE END OF THE WORLD!- i thought up this song when i was riding late at night through some old factory-town in Ohio. it was about 11:30, and the street was completely deserted. the streets were lit by these dull-orange streetlights, and the only buildings were abandoned storefronts and, inexplicably, these crumbling, concrete deals with rusted pipes sticking out every which way. it looked, needless to say, very apocalyptic to me. very alarming and beautiful.

BYT:And i figured we would do some of these “last 48 hours before the record comes out” questions. As I type
this, it is the day before the ALBUM gets released. Tomorrow your whole life could be different so we have some questions about your last day before the rest of your life as a fully recorded/nationally distributed artists. Ready, ok?
Sam Simkoff:Ok.

What did you have for breakfast?
a fifth of whiskey, ten raw eggs.

Did the coffee smell any different?
it smelled like whiskey.

Did you read anything? (and what?)
I read the book of revelations. It’s old hat, and exceedingly pretentious. That and the tabloid headlines while waiting in line at the grocery store.

Listen to anyone?
David Bowie.

Do a victory dance? (and what to?)
yes. my victory dance, by the way, is really embarrassing, with many awkwardly shaking hips and finger thrusts (up in the air). danced to David Bowie. I would have danced anyway, though- that man can put the rhythm in you.

Bite any nails?
all of them.

Make a ridiculous statement that says: I am soon to be rich and famous now?
I did, but it had nothing to do with the CD release. I will be rich because i just engaged in a lot of insider trading; I will be famous as the next big corporate scandal, once I am caught and brought to justice.

Talk to anyone on the phone?
no.

Good for you. And also:

In terms of what you were hoping for, is the album everything you hoped for it to be?
I couldn’t be happier with the way this album turned out. if i produce nothing else of value for the rest of my life, I’ll still be able to honestly tell myself that i did the best i could, and made something that i loved dearly.

What is your favorite song on it, and why?
It changes, but right now I’m very proud of “i had a dream i died.” i was pretty happy with the first draft of the song to begin with- it was really sparse and really full in all the right places- but then i sent it to christian to mess around with, and he ended up adding a bunch of neat digital sounds, or just digitally manipulating the banjo and acoustic guitar sounds. He’s also largely responsible for the way the vocal rounds at the end disintegrate into that great cataclysmic soup. i don’t know why, but i love listening to that part in particular.

Have the reviews (ours notwithstanding) been popping up? Do you read them? Anyone that got it particularly right?
Yep, there’ve been a fair number of reviews popping up on blogs, and of course we read them. far be it from me to say whether they got it “right” or not, but they’ve seemed to hit upon a number of the themes, and raise some good points/criticisms. oh, how i wish people would stop complaining about the long album title, though! why yes, it is long. you have permission to refer to it as just “the throne,” or “TTOTTHOTNMGA,” or, leaving out the smaller words, “TTHNMGA,” or any variation therein. on the other hand, i can only hope that the “long, pretentious title” complaint remains the principle criticism. that’d be pretty swell, actually.

How has your life changed since we interviewed you last in April? What a difference do 4 months make?
I actually don’t feel like much has changed. We’re just as shocked/excited that everything’s working out as it is, just as in love with the DC music scene, just as pumped to be playing shows. Things are just going so incredibly fast.

What is next for Le Loup?
We’ve got a theme park in the works. It’ll be built in an old abandoned industrial district, and main activities will include an “it’s a small world after all” type ride (to the tune of “canto i”… over and over and over again), dressing in sackcloth and ashes, crying, and the ferris wheel.

We would be the first ones there

all photography: joel didriksen kingpinphoto
styling and hand crafted masks: morgan hungerford pandahead
art direction: erik loften vaktiva.com and yours truly

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