popwreckoning

Growing up on the western side of the great state of Missouri, I developed a bit of Midwest snobbery in which I assumed it was a fact that Kansas City was the only good thing in Missouri and the rest of the state was irrelevant. So as my music passion mixed with this prejudice, I fell in love with up and coming artists from Kansas City and even Lawrence, while neglecting St. Louis’ music scene. I even assumed that St. Louis only produced rap and hip hop artists, thus fueling my neglect of the city’s music. What a mistake that was!

I learned my lesson when Bear Ceuse came across my inbox. Bear Ceuse is Cameron Matthews, a St. Louis kid that recently won MTVU’s Best Music on Campus, and two friends on guitar and drums. It is shoegazey, but not so overly fuzzed out that his lyrics are completely lost. Matthews has a bit of a twang, but not that overly vibrato twang of country artists, but the kind of twang that gives a guy like Jim James his air of mysteriousness. I’d start out with a song like “American Wit” to get a sense of his vocal stylings.

Though Bear Ceuse is a young artist group, the music shows a lyrical and constructional maturity. At times he seems as if this is the male answer to Camera Obscura, but chorus crescendos in tunes such as “Vodka Day Parade” prove them to be more bold than the carefully restrained Glasgow group. Instrumentally, the guitars waver from intensely loud riffs to slowly plucked accompaniment that lets each note resonate until it fades to silence.

The best part about Bear Ceuse is that you don’t have to take my word that the group is good. You can check them out risk-free by downloading their EP from their site for free. You just have to sign up for their mailing list.

Bear Ceuse: website | myspace

Last month, Metric took Philadelphia by storm on the eve of Thanksgiving. Attendance initially seemed sparse — it being the night before a holiday, no doubt a lot of people were out of town to celebrate the most delicious holiday of the year with family. I myself, regrettably, showed up just 3 mere songs before openers Band of Skulls left the stage. I blame an early start time, but I may have been a little late to the party. Luckily I didn’t miss the entire reverb heavy set. And it was hard not to compare Emma Richardson to a Ramone.

I’ve been a long time fan of Metric, in particular one Ms. bad ass Emily Haines. Their bouncy indie joints and high energy antics really made the show something special. Em totally owned the stage, running and jumping around in a fantastic sequined, backless LBD (little black dress) with an infectious energy. Touring on their latest, Fantasies, the band tore through a great deal of the record while keeping long time fans happy with key selections off previous albums including Live It Out‘s “Monster Hospital” and “Combat Baby” from Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?

This being my first foray into the pit, I was hard to contain my excitement when I got to shoot 107.7 The End’s annual Deck the Hall Ball at the WAMU theater this last Tuesday, featuring Vampire Weekend, Phoenix, Metric, 30 Seconds to Mars and the headliners, Muse.

Being a newbie to the rocktographer scene, I felt ridiculously intimidated by how big this show really was. Arriving late after finding parking, Vampire Weekend was the first band I saw. The charming foursome played through a disappointingly short 20-minute set, but made the most of the five-song slot they were given. It included the big hits from their critically acclaimed debut as well as a couple from Contra, out this January – “White Sky” and “Cousins,” both incredibly addictive. Possibly the only good thing about having that short of a set was that they only got time to play the really recognizable songs and there wasn’t any time to have any sort of up and down mood. However, with the lightness of Vampire Weekend’s music, I needed more to be satisfied.

Next up was Phoenix – the Grammy-nominated spunky indie pop quartet from Versailles, who came out with one of the best albums of the year, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. Again, another short set, but it didn’t feel nearly as short as it was because they were amazing. Dare I say they stole the show? Bringing crowd-pleaser after crowd-pleaser with “Lasso,” “Lisztomania,” “Rome” and “Girlfriend,” it seemed as if front man Thomas Mars loved the crowd just as much as they loved Phoenix. Their unique French brand of indie pop was the breakout of the year, and seeing Phoenix play live was the perfect way to end the year. After their final song, the hugely popular “1901,” the waif-like Mars crowd-surfed all the way to the back of the crowd of people standing on the floor and ran back up to the stage to thank all those who filled the WAMU Theater. Let me tell you, as sad as I was to see them leave the stage, it pumped me up even more at the fact that they’re coming back to Seattle to play a full set at a much more intimate venue right down the street at the Showbox SoDo.

By this point, I’d become pretty comfortable in the pit, filing in an out with all the other local photographers, even though I didn’t say a word to any of them. The third time back up the stage was for Metric, who I strongly underestimated. I didn’t catch them at Bumbershoot in September, but Emily Haines has got to be one of the most charismatic front women I’ve ever seen. She came out with dark lighting slightly glowing behind her sweaty, shaggy blonde hair, rocking back and forth playing her keyboard before walking up to the mic in her Sgt. Peppers-inspired jacket and blowing my mind. Metric played a half-hour set of songs from their 2009 disc, Fantasies and managed to fit so much sexy New Wavey heavy rock into that time frame. I strongly recommend seeing them live, as it makes you appreciate how good Metric is after 107.7 The End played “Help, I’m Alive” more than both Kings of Leon singles in 2008.

This was the end of the short sets, and onto the full-on Rock, yes, with a capital R.

I have to say, when I first heard the lineup, there was one band that didn’t fit. And that band was 30 Seconds to Mars. Honestly, you could tell which fans were there to see 30 Seconds to Mars because they were so out of sync with the rest of the lineup. But front man Jared Leto did make it seem that this was just a 30 Seconds to Mars show. And by the reaction of the crowd, their fans were satisfied. They opened their bombastic goth rock set with “A Beautiful Lie” and “The Kill” off their second album and played through the heavy hits from This Is War for the rest of the 45 minutes. Personally, I would have preferred cutting down their set to give more time to Vampire Weekend. As overdone as 30 Seconds to Mars was, with a spotlight for Leto, he surely has the voice and energy to hold a crowd that large, even if not everyone was there to see him. He jumped down off the stage, ran through the pit, dodged myself, the other photographers, and the sweaty teens being pulled from the crowd. But that could have been his fault – because at the beginning he shouted to the swooning girls, “Let’s see how many f-cking people we can get to crowd surf at the same time!” Great, thanks Jared. It made for a chaotic, almost dangerous pit. 30 Seconds to Mars surely does love the fans, almost in a needy way, as evidenced by the fact that they told the audience they’d sign every single copy of This Is War people brought to the meet and greet table after their show. I didn’t bother going to check, because Muse went on next.

After a way-too-long intermission, Matt Bellamy, Christopher Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard came up on stage to the loudest cheering I heard all night. The crowd surely belonged to Muse, an indication by the majority of the tee shirts being worn across WAMU Theater. I’m pretty sure Muse is the only band out there that can pull off the huge rock that hasn’t been popular since before I was born, because with such hits like “Hysteria,” “Uprising,” and “Unnatural Selection,” you’d think they’d be over-the-top, but it’s nostalgic and refreshing at the same time. Matt Bellamy strutted around the stage dry-humping his pink, glittery guitar at one point, and sporting a stylish patterned blazer. It’s almost unbelievable that that much sound can come from three guys. One guitar, one bass, one drummer – and Muse manages to sound like eight people are standing up on stage. I was just glad that now after seeing Muse live, I’ll stop thinking of that stupid scene in “Twilight” with “Supermassive Black Hole” playing in the background, and I’ll think about Matt, Chris and Dom rocking it in Seattle. Ending with “Plug in Baby” from Origin of Symmetry and a killer version of “Knights of Cydonia” from Black Holes and Revelations, complete with a spaghetti western intro, harmonica and all, Muse literally went out with a bang. They finished with giant jets of smoke shooting out from the stage, accompanied by tons of screaming fans.

If there’s one band that’s the current poster band for stadium rock, it’s Muse.

Band Info:
Vampire Weekend: website | myspace | @ treasure island | @ acl | @ monolith | @ popped | @ all points west | @ lollapalooza
Metric: website | myspace | @ midland
30 Seconds to Mars: website | myspace | This Is War review
Muse: website | myspace | Muse Reveal Tracklisting for New Album | Muse to Play Several U.S. Dates with U2 and MTV VMAs | Various Artists: New Moon Soundtrack | Muse – “Undisclosed Desires” Promo Video | Muse Announce Short Spring American Tour

I first became acquainted with Kevin James Devine when I happened upon a listing for a show of his at Philadelphia’s The Fire. I was wildly excited, but mostly confused because, “Why is Kevin Devine playing The Fire?” Well friends, therein laid the problem: I immediately assumed it was Brooklyn’s Kevin Devine, with whose music I’ve had a love affair since it was introduced to me back in 2003. Nay! It was Philadelphia’s very own Kevin James Devine. Upon this discovery, I was intrigued that Philadelphia, too, has a Kevin Devine. I was also slightly annoyed that I had been had.

After another KD-KJD mix up the following week, I tweeted “Philly singer/songwriter Kevin JAMES Devine is *really* fucking my shit up.” You can find this in the archives of this very website (though we no longer have a weekly Twitter recap). Mr. K. J. Devine happened upon this entry and he and I have been in talks since then. On the eve of his debut album’s release, he’s been kind enough to answer some questions that I’m happy to share with all of you.

Jessica, Popwreckoning: How long have you been making music and what got you started?
Kevin James Devine: I received an electric guitar in 9th grade, but my hands were too small to play.
Sometime during my senior year of high school I heard “Like a Rolling Stone” by Bob Dylan. I wondered who this guy was. So I picked up a greatest hits sort of thing and from there just became so obsessed with the man and his music that I had to play a guitar and harmonica–I just had to.
So I asked for an acoustic guitar and some harmonicas for Christmas and played them for like hours that day and taught myself the chords and stuff (laughs). That was almost two years ago.
So since that time, I began writing my own songs. I went off to Point Park University for acting; I found myself skipping class and staying home writing songs constantly. I knew that I had to let people hear my songs. I played my first show some time in January 2009 at Saxby’s in Lansdale and now I’ll be releasing an album there in December 2009. I guess you could say I’m bringing it all back home. And you could say that I’ve been an active musician for almost a year.

PW: As a local artist, just outside of Philadelphia in Lansdale, how do you find the flourishing Philly folk scene amongst the like of Langhorne Slim, Hezekiah Jones, Sisters3, etc?
KJD: Langhorne Slim?! Let’s talk about how beautiful “Diamonds and Gold” is (laughs). I’m a big fan of Hezekiah Jones. [Front man] Raphael Cutrufello and the band are extremely talented–they’re regulars at the Fire in Northern Liberties, which is facing some hard times. Everyone can donate money to this great venue at my Saxby’s release show and by attending the World Cafe Fire Benefit Show on December 13th. I’m telling you that place is like our CBGB.
I actually talked to Raphael about possibly setting up a show with him sometime, but right now he’s touring with one of PA’s great bands, Good Old War. Sisters 3 is a great group. They just have this beautiful sound going for them and I really dig it. It’s great. I feel extremely lucky to be a part of the flourishing Philly folk scene. I’m surrounded by a large group of talented musicians and to be included in that is just a dream come true.

PW: How did you get hooked up with ToFo Records, to which you are the first signed artist? Congrats for that, by the way!
KJD: Thank you so much! It was all started by a couple of college students: Carter Fox, Dan Toll, and Ryan Hall. I went to high school with Carter and he was pretty big on Lansdale’s jazz scene as the head of his own group (The Carter Fox Group). Once I quit college and came home, he was going to school for music stuff and he told me, “Hey, I’m starting this indie label and I really want to put out your music. And I knew he was a good guy and so we went with it and so far, I must say, things are really looking up.

PW: That’s good to hear! I love hearing about DIY labels that work so hard to get great music heard. You recently recorded your debut record, Through the Fields, which will be released on ToFo this week. Explain the process for recording the album.
KJD: This first album I recorded in my friend Matt Leece‘s basement. He heads his own production company: Leece Productions. ToFo offered to put me up in a studio and everything to finish out the songs, but I already had some of them recorded and didn’t remember how certain parts went. So there are some really lo-fi songs on the album that I recorded before I started working with Matt and then there are the songs that I recorded with Matt that were supposed to have a lo-fi sound, but actually came out sounding like they had that studio quality.
They’re also all mastered by Sean Comber who does a lot of odd jobs for ToFo Records like mastering, recording, graphic designing–he’s a brilliant guy. The process of recording was a lot of fun. We spent about nine hours on the single, “Long Way to Go” and we finished the album on December 11th just seven days before the release. It was a thirteen hour session and I went straight from Matt’s basement to work at 6:30 in the morning. After working with a guy like Matt, I really like how all of the songs sound and I’m really hoping that people will enjoy them, too.

PW: What have you learned from your first go at record making with Through the Fields that you’ll apply to future albums?
KJD: I will never again announce a release date until the album is finished. We did that and it almost killed us (laughs). Every time we record, I find myself using the Phil Spector “Wall of Sound” technique and I think I will always use that.

PW: I love that! It’s so lively. The CD Release show at Saxbys in Lansdale — what can the fans expect?
KJD: Me on an acoustic guitar and harmonica with Matt opening and playing some lead guitar on my songs. I just really want to show them the songs as they were before anyone heard them. When it was just me, a guitar and a few words on a page. I also wanted to do the first release in a coffee shop because a lot of my friends will be there and I want to be able to connect with everyone. It’s harder to do that at a larger music venue.

PW: Aside from a few shows in late January, what does 2010 have in store for Kevin James Devine?
KJD I’m not sure what 2010 has in store for me, but I know that I have another release in store for 2010. MAYBE 2011. I’ll be playing shows on and off and attempting to make an album that really captures the sound of summer nights in Philadelphia and that one week you always spend at the Jersey shore. And I’m not talking about the TV show.
PW: Ha! I’ve heard so much about that show and am so glad I’ve never seen it. I am, however, looking forward to the next album from the idea of it. Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions for Popwreckoning. Best of luck with the record and the CD release show.

Through the Fields CD Release Show
Friday, December 18 || 7 PM
Saxbys Coffee Shop
401 South Broad Street
Lansdale, PA 19446

Kevin James Devine: myspace

Photos: Erika Smith

PopWreckoning’s Dese’Rae Stage got the chance of a lifetime: an interview with the one and only Tori Amos, a longstanding hero. Tori is currently out doing press for her holiday album Midwinter Graces. Faced with a ten minute time limit and the daunting task of playing it cool, Dese’Rae dropped questions on topics ranging from fear, regret, pop music (then and now) and more. Check it, and some photos, out below.

Dese’Rae Stage, PopWreckoning: Hey, Tori.
Tori Amos: Hi there, Dese’Rae. How are you?
PW: Good, how are you?
TA: Very well.
PW: Awesome. Alright, we’ve got such a quick interview, I’ve just got a grab bag of questions here.
TA: Okay.

PW: Okay, so, you’ve got your new album, Midwinter Graces. I wanted to know what your favorite holiday tradition is or what one tradition you’ve created for your family is?
TA: Well, one of my favorites is Christmas dinner, and that’s my mother’s fried chicken: southern fried chicken.
PW: Mm, good stuff.
TA: Yeah, I’m not a turkey person. Once in a blue moon, y’know, but it’s not my thing usually. So, my mom makes that and my husband’s pretty wicked in the kitchen, so he helps my mother and we have Christmas at our beach house. My folks live about half an hour north, and we meet up with Tash’s cousins. My sister has five kids from 16-24, so we meet up with them usually every year. That’s a tradition we’ve created. Before Christmas, of course.

PW: Does Tash believe in Santa?
TA: Oh yeah.
PW: Really? That surprises me.
TA: Yeah, she does. She also believes in Kali.
[Laughter on both ends]
TA: She has all kinds of beliefs.

PW: I love it. So, I heard that this album doesn’t count toward your contract, and I was wondering what was next?
TA: Oh, um, well, I’m finishing writing this musical, The Light Princess, which is something that I’ve been developing with Samuel Adamson, the playwright, along with the producer Tim Levy, who’s out of New York now. He’s New York based, although he was with the British National Theatre for a long time. And so it’s a mixture of American and British, um, people together.
PW: Which will be nice. It’ll be opening in London, right?
TA: Well, we’ll see where it’s opening. It’ll be workshopped in the spring in London, and after the three week workshop, I think everybody will decide the best place for where it should open.

PW: Okay. I was wondering what your writing process looks like with regards to your music?
TA: Well, I like to write on the road, mainly because you have different sights and sounds and you don’t fall into the same routine that you can when you wake up in the same place day after day, night after night. And you can fall into a routine when you’re doing that, but as a writer, I don’t like to fall into a cliché pattern, so I push myself to travel. Touring is just part of my life, so it all works together that I travel while I’m touring.

PW: Here’s one—I think this is my favorite question—I wanted to know how you combat fear?
TA: Well, you have to confront the issue that’s causing you fear. You know that saying, “If it’s too loud, turn it up?” You have to go into that place of… if you’re being intimidated by an idea or thought, you have to hold your ground and look it right in the eye. And that’s tricky sometimes, because whatever you’re confronting might be more slippery than a—well, I don’t know—and that could just be information, crap your friends are telling you about something. You know, you don’t… sometimes. Fear comes because you don’t know what to believe.
PW: Right.
TA: What you’re facing, what fear you’re facing, it doesn’t mean you’re going to be getting the truth from it. And that’s scary, too.
PW: Definitely.
TA: So when you’re facing a fear, whether it’s in a relationship at work or personal, um, you know, you have to go back to instincts and making sure that they’re razor sharp and a place of neutrality is the most powerful place you can be to confront a fear. You have to be okay that things don’t work out the way you’re fantasizing.
PW: Right. Which is also hard.
TA: Which is also hard. But neutral is… when you’re facing a fear, I try and step into a place of neutrality, where everything doesn’t have to end okay. Everything doesn’t end with a hug.

PW: Okay. Um, here is kind of a—taking it back a little bit, but the last I heard, you never got a chance to meet Greg from “Pretty Good Year” and you never heard from him. Is that still the case?
TA: That’s still the case, yeah.
PW: That’s insane.
TA: Mmhmm.

PW: Do you have any quirks that are reserved solely for alone time?
TA: Yeah. Yeah. Yes. [Laughs] That’s okay. That’s why you marry who you marry and that’s why your kid is your kid and hopefully, they enjoy them.

PW: [laughs] Yes. Well, what are you listening to and/or reading right now?
TA: Listening to I keep pretty much to myself.
PW: Oh.
TA: Reading… we were just in Poland, and we got a lot of material on Auschwitz. We went there, and um, it was some pretty harrowing reading, as you can imagine. Just different accounts from all different viewpoints. Um, one thing that I found fascinating was… I went to Churchill’s war room, and I was reading a lot of—I had a few books on that whole time, that he was able to conduct the war, a lot of it, from underground in the war room when they were being bombed. And that his wife was there and she had a place. Underground. And they had a flat above where they were when the bombings weren’t occurring and they could go upstairs. I don’t think they enjoyed it down there, but just to see what they went through at that time. That was from both sides, so seeing how the people in the camps were, what their story was, and then seeing the story of the Allies who were fighting.

PW: That’s really interesting. Hm. I’m kind of interested in how you feel about this new guard of female pop stars who are kind of taking over lately, like Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift, and whether or not their fame is valid.
TA: Well, of course their fame is valid. I think Lady Gaga is very entertaining.
PW: Me too.
TA: She’s very entertaining, and we need some entertainment about now. Taylor Swift seems to… she writes her songs, and there’s something to be said for the fact that both of them are musicians as well as performers. And what you might—well, not just you, but what one might think about those songs, whether they think they’re in the league of Lennon or McCartney, that’s a different conversation. But not everybody can be in the league of Lennon and McCartney. That doesn’t mean they’re not entertaining.
PW: True.
TA: But for those that are in the league of Lennon or McCartney, then that’s for you all to highlight as well. That’s not my job. And those who are will be known in ten, fifteen, twenty years’ time. And history will support that. It’s hard sometimes when it’s happening to be able to christen that.

PW: Okay, so I guess my last question is a pretty broad one and I wanted to know if you had any regrets?
TA: I think you always have some regrets. Sometimes they’re little. It’s how you handle certain situations. I go back to that thing, “Be smart, not right.” I find that when I have to be right over being smart, which can achieve the win that you’re wanting to achieve, that you usually look back and wish you were smart instead of needing to be right.
PW: Sage advice. Thank you, Tori.
TA: Lovely to speak with you. Happy holidays to you.
PW: And to you. Thanks so much.

Photos by Dese'Rae Stage from the 12/7/09 recording of the etown radio show at the Grand Ballroom in NYC, which will air on NPR on Christmas Eve.

Tori Amos: website | myspace

Yeasayer is pleased to announce a full US tour beginning in April to support their fantastic upcoming full-length, Odd Blood. This follows three US dates in February – a performance at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles and two already sold old shows in New York City, at Bowery Ballroom and Music Hall of Williamsburg.

Odd Blood will be available on February 9, 2010 via Secretly Canadian (Mute elsewhere). First brewed in the frosty hills of Woodstock, NY at the Marotta lair, then transferred to the steely sweeps of NYC, Odd Blood took many layers to finalize, but with all things Yeasayer the outcome is spectacular. Filled with Yeasayer’s own take on pop pleasures and experimentation, the band has once again carved its own path through that ice cold glacier that is modern pop/rock.

Tour Dates:
Feb. 5 – Natural History Museum / Los Angeles, CA
Feb. 8 – Bowery Ballroom / New York, NY
Feb. 9 – Music Hall of Williamsburg / Brooklyn, NY
April 3 – 9:30 Club / Washington, DC
April 4 – Cat’s Cradle / Carrboro, NC
April 5 – Orange Peel / Asheville, NC
April 6 – Masquerade / Atlanta, GA
April 7 – Hi Tone Cafe / Memphis, TN
April 8 – Granada Theatre / Dallas, TX
April 9 – House of Blues / Houston, TX
April 10 – The Parish / Austin, TX
April 11 – The Parish / Austin, TX
April 14 – Club Congress / Tucson, AZ
April 15 – Rhythm Room / Phoenix, AZ
April 17 – The Fillmore / San Francisco, CA
April19 – Wonder Ballroom / Portland, OR
April 20 – Neumos / Seattle, WA
April 21 – Commodore Ballroom / Vancouer, BC
April 23 – In The Venue / Salt Lake City, UT
April 24 – In The Venue / Denver, CO – In The Venue
April 25 – Waiting Room / Omaha, NE
April 26 – Gargoyle Club / Saint Louis, MO
April 27 – Varsity Theatre / Minneapolis, MN
April 28 – Majestic Theatre / Madison, WI
April 29 – Metro / Chicago, IL
April 30 – Grog Shop / Cleveland, OH
May 1 – Lee’s Palace / Toronto, ON
May 2 – La Sala Rossa / Montreal, PQ
May 3 – Paradise / Boston, MA
May 4– Webster Hall / New York, NY
May 5 – The Trocadero /  Philadelphia, PA

Yeasayer: website | myspace | @ bonnaroo

If you were disappointed in the paltry list of six tour dates we announced here on PopWreckoning last week, we have good news for you. Devon, England rockers Muse have announced an additional 15 dates for their tour of North America in spring 2010. Get your tickets now, as the band easily sells out venues in the UK, and several 2010 Japanese and Australian dates are already sold out. General ticket sales for most shows begin on Saturday December 19. Visit their official website for further information including ticket presales.

Tour Dates:
Feb 27 – Gwinnett Center / Atlanta
Mar 01 – Patriot Center / Fairfax, VA
Mar 02 – Wachovia Center / Philadelphia
Mar 05 – Madison Square Garden / New York City
Mar 06 – Banknorth Garden / Boston
Mar 08 – Air Canada Center / Toronto
Mar 10 - Bell Centre / Montreal
Mar 12 – United Center / Chicago
Mar 13 – Palace Of Auburn Hills / Detroit
Mar 15 – Sommet Center / Nashville
Mar 17 – Fort Worth Convention Center / Dallas
Mar 18 – Toyota Center / Houston
Mar 29 – Rexall Place / Edmonton
Mar 30 – Pengrowth Saddledome / Calgary
Apr 01 – Pacific Coliseum / Vancouver
Apr 02 – Key Arena / Seattle
Apr 03 – Rose Garden Arena / Portland
Apr 06 – Odeum Colorado / Denver
Apr 09 – U.S. Airways Center / Phoenix
Apr 14 – Oracle Arena / San Francisco
Apr 15 – E Center / Salt Lake City

Muse: website | myspace | Muse Reveal Tracklisting for New Album | Muse to Play Several U.S. Dates with U2 and MTV VMAs | Various Artists: New Moon Soundtrack | Muse – “Undisclosed Desires” Promo Video | Muse Announce Short Spring American Tour

Pac Sun Tour has been well underway and has brought its diverse line up to many cities already. When the tour stopped by Kansas City, Beau Burchell, guitarist of the headlining act Saosin, took some time to talk about various subjects with me such as the Pac Sun Tour, having a song on a popular TV show and the band’s popularity in Indonesia of all places. Read the full interview below.

Bethany, PopWreckoning: Talk to me about this tour. How did you get hooked up with Pac Sun?
Beau Burchell, Saosin: We kind of got the offer to do the Pac Sun Tour and it just seemed like a cool a thing. The line up that they had chosen was a pretty diverse line up and we really liked that about the tour. It’s nice to tour with not all the same style of bands. It was kind of cool for us.

PW: It is a diverse line up. How have audiences reacted? Are they acting differently than your other tours?
BB: We haven’t really noticed much of a difference for us, you know? But I’m sure it is going to be different somehow. So far, I haven’t been able to tell if there is a positive or negative reaction towards it.

PW: At this show, and I’m not sure how many other dates have this, but there was a Battle of the Bands competition to open for you. Did you have any involvement with that? What do you think of having new people open every night?
BB: It was our idea to have the Battle of the Bands because we think it is a good idea to support. It seems like if you are in a band just starting out, there’s really no way to just be seen or to get out there, especially when the only really cool shows are from bands coming in from out of town. So otherwise, you’re stuck playing shows where you have to sell tickets or stuff like that, so we thought it was cool to be able to throw local bands on the tour.

PW: Awesome. Was it your idea, too, to do the in-stores or was that Pac Sun?
BB: We actually did a whole tour where we were doing in-stores and acoustic stuff, so, it was kind of a group effort.

PW: Now you just switched labels for this latest release, right? What’s changed for you with the switch?
BB: It’s actually the same record label now – with the way the record industry is going. Virgin and Capitol are owned by EMI, so now what they’re doing, Virgin is kind of the rock department and Capitol’s bands like Beatles, Coldplay and bands like that.

PW: On your new, well latest, I guess, it’s been out awhile, but on your latest release, you guys reworked three songs from an EP. Why did you decide to rework those songs?
BB: Normally, on the last record, we did the same thing. We put out these EPs before we put out the records. What we do, is on the EPs, it is just demo forms of those songs. So it is just songs as we see them at the very early stages of the song. What we’ll normally do is we’ll put out these EPs of the songs that are the demos and it is almost like little baby photos of the songs, so they can actually hear them. Then, when the record comes out, they can actually hear where they went, so it is kind of cool because then they kind of get two kind of versions of the song.

PW: I love that description of demos as baby photos. You also just had a song that came out on “NCIS” and its soundtrack. Are you fans of the show?
BB: Yeah. I watch it all the time. My uncle is actually, he, well it is funny, my uncle was just talking to my mom about it and we were talking about TV shows and I was saying that I watch “House,” “Law and Order” and stuff like that a lot. Then I said “NCIS” and he was like, “Oh I love ‘NCIS.’” So it was just funny because a week later I was like “Oh you got a watch. We have a song that’s going to be on it.” He was like, “Oh that’s awesome.”
PW: After watching that song in a scene on a show, is that kind of what you pictured for that song?
BB: Uh, no, but it was definitely cool. It was pretty rad. The guy in the show, basically, well he supposedly kills himself, while blasting that song in the car. Kind of funny. Haha. Yeah.

PW: Another song that you recently released, was an acoustic version of “Changing.” Is it hard to adapt your songs to be acoustic like that?
BB: Some of them are harder than others. Others are easier. We’ve actually reworked a lot of our songs acoustic. We try to make it so most of our songs will translate acoustically. A lot of the time, it won’t. So depending how riffy they are or what kind of song it is, it may or may not translate.
PW: I know that one of the things I hear you guys get praised for is the high energy live show and I know that can be hard to carry over to an acoustic performance.
BB: Yeah, we really can’t. We always make them super mellow versions of the song.
PW: Right, like “Changing.”
BB: I like that version better than the real version.
PW: You guys doing that song acoustic on this tour?
BB: No.

PW: Any special surprises for this tour?
BB: Normally, our light show is about twice as big as this. Tonight we drove from Denver, Colorado and it was icy, so what should have only taken us about 10 hours took us almost 20, you know? It was really tough. So we got here and got everything loaded in under two hours, so we only have half the light show. Normally, we have this big crazy light show. People leave the show deaf and blind. It’s awesome.

PW: For a final question, as this decade ends, the ‘naught’ decade, do you have a favorite musical memory of the last 10 years?
BB: Does it have to be anything at all? My favorite memory would be playing Jakarta. We played Jakarta, Indonesia and we had no idea that we were popular over there. We showed up and we had full-on armed escort through the airport. There were guys with machine guns bringing us in and we were like, “This is a little overboard, don’t you think?” And they were like, “No. You guys are huge here.” So we got there and it was like we were Korn. We played this huge tennis arena and there were billboards of us and our faces everywhere. We did this big press conference right before we played. It was crazy. It was really fun. I didn’t ask any questions and was just like this is great.
PW: That’s great. Thanks so much.
BB: Thanks a lot.

Saosin: website | myspace | @ pac sun tour, beaumont club

Kill Rock Stars is very excited to announce that on April 6, 2010 they will be adding Elliott Smith’s Roman Candle and From a Basement on the Hill records to their catalog.

Roman Candle is Elliott Smith’s first solo album and was originally released on Portland’s Cavity Search Records in 1994.

Roman Candle had quite an impact on Slim Moon, Kill Rock Stars’ founder: “In 1994, I had been asked to be on this five-person solo-act tour called Pop Chord with Tammy Watson, Carrie Akre, Sean Croghan and Elliott Smith. The first night at the Crocodile in Seattle, I didn’t pay too much attention and people talked all thru Elliott’s set. Sean Croghan got up next and said “all of you people who just talked through Elliott’s set are bummed because you just missed something very very special.” The next night of the tour, at The Bottom Of The Hill in San Francisco, I listened very closely to Elliott’s set, and it was basically one of those life-changing moments. Instead of watching the rest of the performers, I went out to the tour van and popped Roman Candle into the player, and listened to it on endless repeat for the rest of the evening and beyond. It completely blew my mind. I have never heard music as heartwrenchingly, gut-checkingly honest, intimate, and wise – before or since.”

Roman Candle has been remastered for the re-release by Larry Crane, editor of Tape Op Magazine and archivist for Elliott’s family.

Larry explains, “The intention that I had was to make the album more listenable. I felt that a lot of the guitar “squeaks” were jarring and very loud, and that many of the hard consonants and “S” sounds were jarring and scratchy sounding. I felt by reducing these noises that the music would become more inviting and the sound would serve the songs better. When I went to Roger Seibel‘s SAE Mastering, he proceeded to equalize the tracks a small amount and to make the volume slightly louder. We never tried to make this CD as loud as current, over-limited trends, but just to match the volume of the rest of Elliott’s KRS catalog in a graceful way. Please note that none of this album is “remixed” from the master tapes – it is still composed of the mixes Elliott created himself.”

Kill Rock Stars will also be releasing Roman Candle on vinyl for the first time in the U.S.

From a Basement on the Hill was released posthumously in 2004 on ANTI- records.

With the addition of these two records Kill Rock Stars is now the home for all of Elliott Smith’s independent releases: Roman Candle, Elliott Smith, Either/Or, From a Basement on the Hill, and New Moon.

To celebrate the addition of these amazing records KRS are giving away a free, previously unreleased song entitled “Cecilia/Amanda.” It was recorded at Jackpot! Recording Studio in 1997 by Larry Crane. An earlier version of this song was initially written and recorded by Elliott’s high school band, Stranger Than Fiction, and was known as “Time is Ours Now.” “Cecilia/Amanda” is a reworking of that song with almost completely different lyrics.

.“Cecila/Amanda”

Elliott Smith’s back catalog is also on sale until January 4 in KRS mail order and on iTunes.

On the first day of Christmas, my true loves Manchester Orchestra gave to me: one brand new song. On the second day of Christmas, my true loves Manchester Orchestra gave to me: another brand new song. You can guess where this goes from here…

That’s right. Manchester Orchestra is counting down the days until Christmas and their posting a new song every single day on their web site. That means fans will get to hear Mean Everything To Nothing in its entirety as recorded live at KBZT in San Diego. Then on Christmas day, they’ll post an extra special surprise.

So be sure to check in at ManchesterOrchestra.com each day to hear the new tunes! Merry Christmas!

Manchester Orchestra: website | myspace | Mean Everything to Nothing review | @ radio room | interview with Chris Freeman | @ lollapalooza | @ record bar | @ uptown