In Cue | Spring 2012

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IN CUE VOLUME TWO // ISSUE TWO APRIL TEN, TWENTY-TWELVE KICKIN’ OUT THE JAMS SINCE 1945

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KUOI 89.3 FM's music insert featuring interviews, reviews and general music information

Transcript of In Cue | Spring 2012

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IN CUE VOLUME TWO // ISSUE TWO APRIL TEN, TWENTY-TWELVE KICKIN’ OUT THE JAMS SINCE 1945

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STAFF

Anthony Saia, Station Manager Kentaro Murai, Program Director Ethan Arave, Music Director Nick McGarvey, Production Director Dylan Brown, News Director CONTRIBUTORS Nae Hakala Brian Hakala Ted Kelchner Andria Marcussen Ethan Arave Anthony Saia PHOTOGRAPHER Kentaro Murai DESIGNER Anthony Saia

What a hell of a ride, right? It has been an honor and a pleasure to practically eat, sleep, breathe and live KUOI 89.3 FM for the past couple of years. As I head out the door and another station manager comes through those doors, I hope that all of those that have participated, volunteered and listened have enjoyed everything that KUOI has to offer. It has been our mission to provide the University community with a wide array of music that doesn’t typically get played on commercial radio.

That being said, it has also been a pleasure to bring Vandal sports broadcasts back to KUOI, as we have covered Vandal football as well as men and women’s basketball. In addition, we’ve re-established a relationship with the student newspaper The Argonaut to bring you continuous news coverage every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, a feat some of us weren’t sure was possible, only to take it further, including a new bi-weekly sports show 4th & Downtown. For me it is over – to some of you, it’s just the beginning of your journey at UI. If I had to imbue any words of advice, it’d be this: Turn on, Tune in and stay in school kids. See you around.

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WHAT’S INSIDE PHOTO BY ANTHONY SAIA

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AND AND AND: AN INTERVIEW WITH NAE of COMMON PEOPLE

THROUGH THE LENS: KENTARO MURAI’S PHOTOS FROM TREEFORT FESTIVAL

08 DOUBLE THE ALBUMS, DOUBLE THE HEARTACHE: HOW THE HORSE THIEVES CAME TO BE

09 WITCH MOUNTAIN: PORTLAND’S ORIGINAL DOOM BAND An Interview With Confinement Loaf

10 IN REVIEW: ODD FUTURE WOLF GANG KILL THEM ALL OF Mixtape Vol. 2

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Formed in 2009, And And And have increasingly grown in popularity, especially in the Northwest indie

music scene. Nae of KUOI’s Common People had the privilege of interviewing these hilarious

musicians at around 3:00pm on Saturday at Treefort Music Festival

in Boise, Idaho. So, obviously, some members were already a litt le tipsy.

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The  guys  often  talked  over  one  another  with  great  energy  and  enthusiasm  (the  kind  you  find  in  crushed  up  No  Doz).    

Berg  Radin,  called  Baby,  seemed  to  take  the  reigns  of  much  of  the  interview  and  gave  distinct,  humorous  interjections.  The  rest  of  the  group  spoke  over  and  in-­‐between  one  another,  creating  an  unforgettable  tapestry  of  what  one  would  hope  to  experience  being  on  tour  with  such  fun  guys.    Nae:  How  did  you  get  your  band  name  and  how  did  you  guys  meet?    AAA:  It  was  a  stuttering  competition.    No,  we  got  our  band  name  because  Nathan  let  his  ex  girlfriend  name  our  band.  But  it’s  from  that  movie  The  Commitments  and  we  were  having  a  hell  of  a  time  coming  up  

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with  a  name…    What’s  the  line?  It’s  like,  “That’s the  worst  band  name  ever.  And  they  were  saying  you’ll  never  go  anywhere.    It’s  from  a  bad  movie,  that’s  the  answer.   Nae:  How  would  you  describe  your  sound?    AAA:  Wild  Basement  Pop.    or  gangster  pop…  Gangster  wild  basement  pop.    Nae:  For  each  of  you,  what  would  you  say  are  your  major  influences?    AAA:  Honestly,  mine  is  Nathan.  Mine’s  actually  Nathan,  too.  Mine’s  Raf  from  the  Woolen  Men  in  Portland…and  a  little  ICP  thrown  in  there  too.  My  main  influence  over  the  last  few  years  has  definitely  been  Nick  Delffs  from  Death  Songs  formerly  from  Shaky  Hands.  

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Definitely  more  local,  people  that  we  know  …Archers  have  been  a  really  big  influence  on me. I  like  soft  rock  radio  music,  it’s  good  stuff.    Nae:  What  do  you  like  about the  Northwest  scene,  it  sounds  like  you  have  a  lot  to  say  about  it  especially  in  the  Portland  area.    AAA:  There’s  a  lot  of  family  ties,  in  the  music  scene  in  the  northwest,  it’s  really  nice,  everybody  wants  to  help  each  other.  Portland’s  music  scene  is  the  only  thing  that’s  good  that  you  could  also  call  incest.  People  from  all  different  bands  helping  people  from  different  bands  helping  other  bands  record  or  play  stuff  or  whatever  else  It’s  really  like  family,  they’re  really  supportive,  like  they’re  on  the  same  team  

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mentality  rather  than  other  places  where  it’s  more  competitive.  Everyone’s  in  a  band  and  everyone  goes  and  sees  those  bands.  The  whole  music  scene  is  bands, there’s  no  public  people  that  go  to  shit.  Everybody  kinda  talks  about  how  Portland  is  this  great  music  scene,  and  then  you  try  to  think  about bands  that  have  gotten  really  big  and  blown  up  out  of  Portland,  and  there’s  not  a  lot.  It’s  almost  saturated  so  much  that  nobody  has  great  ambitions  because  it’s  really  fun  to  just  be  in.  If  you’re  in  a  band  in  Portland  for  more  than  a  year,  it  probably  means  that  you  are  doing  it  because  you  want  to  make  music,  not  because  you  want  to  be  successful.  Because  you  won’t  be  successful.  It’s  fine,  it’s  just  a  bunch  of  bands  that  love  doing  it,  

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and  that’s  great.      Baby:  I’m  rich.      Nae:  So  speaking  of  success,  I  noticed  that  you  guys  were  voted  best  new  band  in  Portland,  do  you  want  to  talk  a  little  bit  about  that?      AAA:  Yeah,  that  cost  us  about  20  grand.    We  bribed  ‘em  (laughs).    That  was  a  really  awesome  thing  and  there  are  so  many  bands  in  Portland  that  it’s  almost  ridiculous  that  there  is  that  thing.  Yeah,  there’s  a  lot  of  opposition  to  that  whole  release  every  year.  I  think  it  should  be  made  clear  that  it’s  not  the  best  new  band  in  Portland,  it’s  their  pick  of  their  favorite  new  band  in  Portland  because  really  there’s  so many  great  bands  in  Portland  that  nobody’s  ever  even  heard  of  because  they’re  not  out  there  to  get  

AND AND AND: AN INTERVIEW WITH NAE OF COMMON PEOPLE

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press.  People  that  pick  are  generally  like  bookers  and promoters  and  people  that  work  with  the  bands  most  of  the  time  so  it’s  not  necessarily  the  best  new  band  it’s  just  happens  to  be  the  band  that’s  actually  trying  to  do  the  most.  It’s  like  the  best,  new,  most  ambitious.  It’s  not  about  how  good  the  music  is  really  as  what  the  band  really  wants  to  get  out  there.  We’re  talking  our  music  down  right  here.  Hey,  whoa  whoa  whoa  No,  we’re  alight!  We’re  not  horrible!      Baby:  I’m  OK.  I’m  a  little  buzzed,  I’m  rich.      Nae:  So,  I  was  curious,  who  you  guys  were  looking  forward  to  seeing  this  weekend,  since  you  are  so  supportive  of  the  scene,  is  there  anybody  so  far  that’s  been  awesome  or  who  you’re  looking  forward  to  seeing  this  weekend  at  Treefort  [Music  Festival  in  Boise]?      AAA:  Aan  is  amazing.  Aan,  Deathsongs,  Typhoon-­‐  our  good  Portland  buds,  Built  To  Spill,  ShivasYeah,  Shivas  are  awesome.  We  haven’t  been  able  to  do  a  lot,  we’ve  been  talking  to  people.      Baby:  I’ve  been  desperately  looking  for  something  to  drink  all  day.      Nae:  So  I  was  going  to  ask  each  of  you  what  is  

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your  favorite  adult  beverage,  what  do  you  guys  drink?   Baby:  He  drinks  AMF,  I  mostly  drink  this  4  Loco  drink,  its  not  4  Loco,  it’s  like  you  make  this  original  4  Loco,  it’s  got  a  bunch  of  ingredients  you  put  in  it  and  it’s  like  the  original  4  Loco  You  crush  up  Nodoz  It  sounds  like  you’re  making  crack  cocaine.      Baby:  Yeah,  you  crush  up  NoDoz  and  OE.      AAA:  Lighthouse  is  101  proof  Rumplemintz,  and  then  it  has  a  float  of  Kahlua…  In  reality  we  all  drink  Pabst.  Yeah,  Rainer,  Pabst.  For  me  Rolling  Rock  is  the  jam.  That’s  the  cheapest  champagne.      Nae:  So,  I  have  kind  of  a  fun  question  for  you  guys,  what  would  you  tell  12  year  old  you  about  music  today?      AAA:  Powerman  5000  was  a  huge  mistake.  I’m  telling  myself,  that’s  what  I’m  saying,  it  was  a  huge  mistake  and  you  shouldn’t  get  involved.  I’d  say  keep  listening  to  Rush.  A  lot.  I  listened  to  a  lot  of  Rush  when  I  was  twelve.  My  real  answer  would  totally  be  don’t  listen  to  things  farther  than  six  

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hours  away  from  where  you  can  drive.  Like  stay  local  because  local  music  is  the  shit  that’s  really,  really  good.  That’s  not  always  the  case  though…  In  smaller  towns…  No,  6  hours  away?  You’re  always  6  hours  close  to  a  good  music  scene  unless  you’re  in  middle  America      

Nae:  Incidentally,  Moscow  is  6  hours  away  from  Boise.   AAA:  Yeah,  you’re  always  six  hours  

away,  and  you  should  find  that  scene.  I  would  have  said  “Listen  to  Bruce  Springsteen  with  a  keener  ear”.  I  would  have  said,  “stop  playing  butt  rock  guitar  solos,”  because  that’s  all  I  did.  You  still  do  that!  What  I  would  have  said  is  listen  to  Flaming  Lips  a  bit  more  intently.  You  can’t  do  that,  that’s  all  you  listen  to.  More  local  bands  when  I  was  younger  would  have  been  better.      Baby:  When  I  was  twelve,  I’d  have  said,  “Stop  riding  bulls,  and  start  playing  guitar.”  It  took  until  I  was  18  or  19  to  get  out  of  fucking  bull  riding.      Nae:  So  we’re  with  a  college  radio  station,  do  you  guys  listen  to  college  radio?      AAA:  The  only  reason  I  was  really  bummed  about  moving  from  Eugene  to  Portland  was  because  

“I’M OKAY. I’M A LITTLE

BUZZED”

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Eugene’s  campus  radio  was  so  awesome.  Everybody  has  an  hour  block,  is  that  how  you  guys  do  it?  There’s  a  block  and  you  get  to  choose…  there’s  people  that  specialize  different  stuff,  so  you  tune  in  to  certain  shows…  I  loved  it.  The  PSU  radio,  there’s  a  few  DJ’s  on  there  that  I  love.  Like  when  John  Raul  was  doing  it,  there’s  some  good  stuff  in  Portland.  Of  any  radio  stuff,  that’s  all  I  listen  to.  College  radio  is  always  the  best,  because  it’s  people  who  actually  care.   Nae:  And  we  can  play  what  we  want,  it’s  freeform  radio. Baby:  Freeform  radio!      Nae:  Absolutely.  So  do  you  guys  have  any  fun  tour  stories  or  anything  funny  that’s  happened  recently?    AAA:  Berg  rescued  a  kid!  Oh  yeah!      Baby:  Yeah,  I  rescued  three  children  out  of  a  burning  SUV.      AAA:  It  wasn’t  burning.  …it  was  totaled.      We  were  stopped  at  a  gas  station,  in  California  on  some  little  two  lane  highway  section  on  like  405  or  something,  and  an  SUV  came  out  and  a  car  was  pulling  out  of  the  gas  station  and  the  SUV  swerved  and  clipped  it  and  flew  literally  ten,  twelve  feet  in  the  air  and  rolled  like  three  times,  all  the  way  over  and  was  in  a  

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ditch,  and  Berg  and  I…  I  thought  it  was  a  fight,  not  a  flight,  but  we  were  just  bookin’  it  over  there,  berg  rips  the  door  off  of  this  car,  pulls  these  kids  out  of  it,  and  one  of  the  kids  is  like  “who  are  you!?”  and  Berg  for  some  reason  responds:  “I’m  with  your  mom.”      Baby:  I  was  comforting  them!      AAA:  He  was  trying  to  make  them  feel  comfortable,  like  “I’m  not  a  stranger”,  but  it  came  off  more  like  “I’m  your  new  dad.”  But  everybody  walked  away  from  it,  everybody  was  standing  up.  Yeah,  everybody  was  fine,  The  car  had  roll  bars  and  stuff,  but  we  though  we  were  going  to  be  pulling  dead  people  out  of  these  cars   Baby:  Afterwards,  everybody  calls  me  a  hero  and  stuff,  you  know?      Berg  ripped  his  shirt  off.      [to  Baby]  You’re  gonna  get  a  call  from  a  private  investigator  that  those  kids  have  hired  in  six  years  and  they’re  gonna  find  their  real  dad…  they  know  that  you’re  the  real  one  because  you  were  there  when  they  needed  you.      Nae:  That  is  amazing!  Well,  I  know  you  guys  have  to  go  but  I  want  to  thank  you  so  much,  college  radio  thanks  you,  Common  People  thanks  you.      Baby:  C’mon,  People!  

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THROUGH THE LENS KENTARO MURAI

Program Director Kentaro went down to the inaugural Treefort Music Festival in Boise on March 23rd and 24th. The festival's lineup was heavily composed of emerging artists from the Northwest and beyond as well as top-tier indie acts such as Of Montreal and Built to Spill.

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21) Built to Spill played on the Main Stage on Saturday, March 24. The performance was the band's first in Boise in nearly two years.

2) Boise straight edge punk band 1d played at The Crux on Friday, March 23. 3) In The Shadow Of The Mountain played the Main Stage Saturday, March 24. 4) Seattle dream pop band Lemolo played at the Red Room on Saturday, March 24. 5) Los Angeles experimental psych group Sun Araw played at the Linen Building on Friday, March 23. 6) Boise band TEENS played a raucous set at the Red Room on Saturday, March 24. Audience members were encouraged to dance on stage. 7) Moscow power pop punk band Tim Blood & the Gutpanthers played at The Crux on Friday, March 23.

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8) San Fransisco post-rock outfit Tartufi played the Main Stage Saturday, March 24. Go to the KUOI blog to read Captain Ron Blow's 2010 Tartufi interview. 9) Boise indie-rock group Le Fleur (featuring KUOI alums) played at the Neurolux on Saturday, March 24. 10) Portland post-pop group Typhoon played the Main Stage on Saturday, March 24. 11) Boise folk band Hollow Wood played at The Crux on Saturday, March 24. For more Treefort photos, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/kentaro_m_photography

TEENS

TYPHOON

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PHOTO COURTESY MARK CLUNEY

DOUBLE THE HEARTACHE: HOW THE HORSE THIEVES CAME TO BE

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Anthony Saia Station Manager

For a lot of fledgling groups, it takes a lot of work, time and effort to put together a single song, let alone an entire album. Spokane, Wash., The Horse Thieves are the exception to the rule, releasing their first two albums the same day.

Outlaw Ballads and Valley of Decision were released in the Fall of 2011 featuring Marshall McLean, Fawn Dasovich and brothers Adam & Jordan Miller.

As the band came together, the lyrical stylings came from the band’s personal experiences, particularly Adam’s – who was rather candid with us.

“My old lady kind of cheated on me and ran off with someone and I wrote most of my songs about that. Most of the songs that I sing are about that story.”

McLean, one of the band’s vocalists said, “I think a lot of the songs took on the theme of searching for direction. A lot of us at this time were at a

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crossroads with different things. I think a lot of bands form that way – in crisis – at least ours did.”

The project has turned out to be a cathartic experience for all of them – to the point where keyboardist Dasovich said, “It’s really become kind of like a therapy project.”

It was obvious that the band had a lot to say since they produced two albums over a long cold winter at their family’s guest home in Elk, Wash.

Adam said, “My aunt and uncle have this cool cabin on my parent’s property out at the Miller family ranch. They are actually from California and they didn’t lock the house so we kind snuck up there, put all our stuff up and recorded the album in their house. I don’t actually know who was paying the electric bill.”

Despite their rogue tactics for recording, both records were a long time coming – especially for the two brothers who have have musicianship bred into them. The Miller boys father Rand is a musician as well and the band performed one of his songs “Dirty City” that is featured on their “first” record Outlaw Ballads.”

The band are continuing to gain a larger following and plan a music video shoot in the near future.

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Through  the  laughter  and  the  tears,  your  humble  DJs  from  Confinement  Loaf  interview  Nate  Carson  and  Rob  Wrong  on  Portland,  Ore.,  doom  band  Witch  Mountain.    Confinement  Loaf:    You  said  life  has  been  good  so  far  since  we  talked  one  year  ago.    Why  don’t  you  tell  us  what  you  guys  have  been  up  to  and  what  makes  life  so  good.      Nate  Carson:    Well,  I  feel  like  the  last  time  we  talked  we  had  a  lot  of  ideas  and  visions  and  things  that  we  wanted  to  accomplish  and  I  feel  like  we’ve  really  kind  of  accomplished  all  of  them.    We’re  on  to  the  next  chapter  and  it’s  really  exciting  especially  after  such  a  long  

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gap  between  records.    So,  as  of  September  we  had  put  out  that  song  “Veil  of  the  Forgotten”  on  the  Adult  Swim  compilation  which  has  gotten  a  lot  more  people  to  hear  us  and  we  put  out  our  record  in  April.    We  toured  with  South  X  Southwest,  we  toured  with  Christian  Mistress,  and  we’ve  been  writing  new  material  and  we’ve  been  gigging  around  the  Northwest  and  now  we’re  on  tour  with  Wino.      CL:    You  guys  made  the  short  trip  today  from  Portland  what  music  were  you  listening  to  today  and  what  keeps  you  going  on  the  road  while  you  are  on  tour?      Rob  Wrong:  We  listened  to  a  variety.    I  put  my  phone  on  shuffle  actually  and  just  let  it  roll.    Um,  Prank  Phone  Calls,  John  Lennon,  Candlemass,  Weird  Al  was  on  there.    Oh,  we  

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listened  to  Prince,  Purple  Rain  all  the  way  through.    It  came  up  on  shuffle  and  Nate’s  like  ’we  just  need  to  hear  this  whole  album’.    ‘Cause  Purple  Rain  the  song  came  on  and  it’s  at  the  end  of  the  album  and  you  gotta  kind  of  earn  it.    Oh  yeah,  “Hemisphere  of  Shadow”,  Danava’s  new  record.    I’ve  listened  to  it  ten  times  in  the  last  week,  definitely  worth  checking  out.      CL:    So  you  just  released  South  of  Salem  this  April.    I’ve  seen  great  reviews  of  that  and  some  write  ups  about  you  guys.  That’s  great!    You  guys  mentioned  Weird  Al.    We  are  fellow  fans  of  Weird  Al,  of  course.    He  just  released  a  new  album  as  well.      NC:    We  had  a  band  date  to  go  see  Weird  Al  and  then  I  got  to  see  him  again  in  

PHOTO BY CONFINEMENT LOAF

WITCH MOUNTAIN PORTLAND’S ORIGINAL DOOM BAND

Page 10: In Cue | Spring 2012

IN REVIEW

ODD FUTURE WOLF GANG KILL THEM ALL

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Ethan Arave Music Director ere's the thing, you could read a lot of reviews concerning the new Odd Future Mixtape Vol.2 that have practically nothing to do with the music.

This is because these boys (and a couple ladies, this time around) are polarizing: they say bitch a LOT and talk

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about fucking your and my girlfriend and murdering some people along with rape and weed and, "fuck the police."

They're purposefully transgressive in every sense and want to offend anyone and everyone as quickly as they can.

For one reason or another, this approach, seemingly the simplest equation I can think of

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in the rap world (young group of DIY rappers are youthful, offensive and loud) has made waves in the critical music world and everyone has weighed in.

So every angle on this has been covered somewhere on the internet, from weird, high-art praising of their counter culture fervor (See: John Maus, The Wire, Tiny

THE GROUP, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND.

H

Page 11: In Cue | Spring 2012

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Mixtapes) to simple acceptance, in so many words (See: Pitchfork, Urb, The A.V. Club ) to outrage and dismissal (See: Cokemachineglow, Dusted Magazine, The Guardian). I've pointed you to the voices I find representative on the subject and there are many, many more out there. The rest of this review is dedicated to the mix-tape, stripped of this context, placed in a vacuum from all that discussion, like I like it.

OF Tape Vol.2 is most certainly a mix-tape. It has huge jumps in quality, genre and pacing throughout its hour runtime, partially because the entire (sizable) Odd Future crew is on display. So you have the RnB styling of Frank Ocean on tracks like "White" and "Analog 2" or the electro-soul mishmash of The Internet on "Ya Know", up against a wall of rappers and beat producers.

The production on these tracks engaged in a different genre are jarring when you hit them on the tape, but they do break up what is otherwise a bit of a slog. The beat making acumen of the Odd Future crew has, for me, always belonged with their de-facto frontman, Tyler the

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Creator, and he doesn't really seem to be at the reigns here. Instead it's Hodgy Beats producing most of the tracks and this means a more austere, bass heavy, straight up variety of beats that are usually... Kind of boring.

Tracks like "Bitches" and "Snow White" aren't bad for their lame verses and dumb names (though they both have those), they just have beats that sound unfinished and uninspired.

By contrast, tracks like the epic, 10 minute album closer "Oldie" (a great rap-group mic-tradeoff in the best of the genre's tradition and definitely the best track on here) and "Doms" are served well by their austere beats, and again, there's a wild variety throughout this whole thing; including it's heavily uneven pacing. In it's first 33 minutes, OF Tape Vol.2 runs through the worst of its tracks and they are pretty bad, "Bitches" and "Real Bitch"

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being the bottom of the bottom. With nothing to rap about and a shitty, uninspired beat to rap over, there isn't much in these tracks to let the MC's shine. Along with "50" and "Lean" and the insufferable faux-agro anthem "We Got the

Bitches", these tracks highlight the worst of the youthful, give-no-fucks approach to rap: a dearth of ideas and no quality control.

By the 50th time they punctuate a sentence with bitch and repeat a weak chorus over a boring ass

beat, the album isn't fun or counter-culture or too much to handle, it's plain bad, by way of being tiresome. Compare these to songs like the aforementioned "Oldie" and "Doms", as well as "Sams" "Hcad" and "P"; all of which occur in the albums closing 27 minutes, and all of which show the upswing of the give-no-fucks business: they are fun, slickly produced and showcases of undeniable talent of the rhyme spitters

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on the OF crew ("P" and "Oldie" make sure to tell you that the talent is undeniable, straight up). So OF Tape Vol.2 would all be much better if it were just a 30 minute tape of those tracks, cut with the weird RnB interludes and I guess that The Internet song too, but it isn't and instead it's a hard sell overall. As far as a showcase of OF, I think you'd be better served searching out a couple of the individual releases of the collective, if you're in the market for some intensely offensive, youthful rap and some weirdly great neo-RnB, that is. Namely: Tyler's Bastard and, to a lesser extent, Goblin; MellowHype's BlackandWhite and Frank Ocean's Nostaliga,Ultra. These are all much better albums than OF Tape Vol.2, which is not bad by any means, it just has too many songs that fall flat, are overlong, or simply have no reason to exist. Still, "Oldie"'s pretty slick, and Odd Future deserves to remain on the radar of anyone already on board. That being said, if you aren't on board already there is nothing here to sell you.

APRIL TENTH, TWENTY-TWELVE IN CUE PAGE ELEVEN

BY THE 50TH TIME THEY

PUNCTUATE A SENTENCE WITH

BITCH AND REPEAT A WEAK CHORUS OVER A

BORING ASS BEAT, THE ALBUM

ISN’T FUN…

Page 12: In Cue | Spring 2012

 

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England  in  December  and  it  was  his  first  European  appearance  ever!    I  know,  hard  to  believe.    Actually  he  was  really  sick  that  night  and  he  was  apologizing  to  the  crowd  but  he  still  gave  a  200%  performance,  like  you  could  see  he  could  barely  stand  but  he  was  going  for  it  anyway.    His  voice  was  just  going  throughout  the  show  like  every  time  you  could  hear  his  voice  crackle  his  backup  band  would  just  step  up,  the  harmonies  would  get  louder,  there  would  be  a  few  extra  guitar  parts  here  and  there.    There  was  just  so  much  support,  so  much  professionalism,  I  just  love  seeing  that.    A  flawless  performance  to  me  is  not  as  interesting  as  seeing  an  amazing  band  covering  for  each  other,  dealing  with  what  ever  is  going  on.    Maybe  I’m  just  jaded  from  seeing  so  many  concerts,  I  see  a  lot  of  shows  but  that’s  what  gets  me  excited  seeing  the  interaction  and  seeing  people  solving  problems  and  working  together.    I’m  a  nerd.      

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CL:    You  mentioned  also  listening  to  some  Candlemass  on  your  way  here  today.    When  we  talked  last,  Nate,  you  said  you’d  played  with  every  band  you  ever  wanted  to  except  for  Black  Sabbath  and  Candlemass.    Could  that  be  an  opportunity?      NC:    Anything  could  happen.    I  mean  it’s  not  like  the  degrees  of  separation  are  very  far  away  at  this  point.      CL:    Did  you  get  to  see  them  at  Roadburn  Festival?      NC:    No.    Unfortunately  they  were  scheduled  to  play  Roadburn  when  I  was  there  but  the  volcano  in  Iceland  disrupted  a  lot  of  people’s  tour  plans  and  Candlemass  was  one  of  the  bands  that  didn’t  make  it.    So  they  did  do  the  show  the  next  year  and  performed  what  I  wanted  to  see  with  their  original  singer  doing  “Epicus  Doomicus”  in  its  entirety  and  I  wasn’t  there  for  that  which  was  a  heartbreaker.    But  at  the  same  time,  I  see  so  much  I  can  live  through  missing  almost  anything  at  this  point  but  I’m  

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trying  to  catch  as  many  as  I  can,    especially  the  older  ones.    Like  last  year  I  saw  Styx  and  Heart,  Rush  and  I  want  to  see  as  many  of  those  bands  as  I  can  before  they’re  not  worth  seeing.    I  feel  like  a  lot  of  those  bands  know  what  people  want  to  hear  and  do  focus  on  the  best  moments  of  their  catalog  as  opposed  to  tryin’  to  just  play  their  limp  new  album,  Rush  being  the  exception.    Like,  I’ve  seen  ‘em  do  their  new  single  twice  now.  A  and  B  sides  and  it’s  fucking  killer,  sorry  if  I’m  swearing  on  the  radio,  but  anyway,  it’s  heavy  music  and  it’s  vital  .    Every  time  I  play  it  for  someone  I  say  a  new  Rolling  Stones  or  a  new  Bob  Dylan  album  would  not  sound  crushing  and  the  new  Rush  song  does.      CL:    Since  you  mentioned  it,  a  lot  of  older  bands  are  coming  out  of  retirement.    I’m  not  including  Witch  Mountain  in  that  because  I  don’t  consider  you  as  having  been  in  retirement  or  in  the  same  

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generation  as  Styx.    But  what  do  you  think  it  is?    RW:  I  think  mainly  it’s  because  these  bands  were  influential  on  bands,  on  people  like  especially  our  age.  Wino  definitely  is  influential  on  people  our  age.    Yeah,  I’m  not  sure.    I  think  these  bands  are  just  around.    It  was  like  me  seeing  The  Rolling  Stones  a  few  years  ago.    I’d  never  seen  them  and  I  was  like  I  need  to  go  see  them  they’re  getting  old  a  lot  of  these  bands  are  getting  old  and  people  know  if  they  don’t  see  ‘em  somebody  in  the  band  is  gonna  die.    I  made  a  point  of  seeing  the  Stones  twice  on  their  last  tour  because  I  was  afraid  of  that  and  I  don’t  think  they’ve  toured  since.    I  think  a  lot  of  these  bands  are  taken  for  granted  because  they’ve  been  around  so  long  but  as  you  get  older  you  realize  that  these  bands  are  really  important  and  you  should  pay  homage  to  them  and  go  see  ‘em.    For  more  of  this  interview,  navigate  to  www.kuoi.org/music/interviews/witch-­‐mountain