Cougar Microbes

We caught Steel Train performing live in Ventura, CA as part of their recent North American tour with Jack’s Mannequin. After the show we caught up with bassist Evan Winkler to discuss Baseball, historic venues and a lot of Girls… the band.

Cougar Microbes: What time did you wake up today? Was it out of choice or necessity?

Steel Train: 10 AM. Choice. I had a basketball game at 10:30.

CM: Describe Steel Train to the uninitiated? What have you been up to recently?

ST: I’d say we’re a rock band from New Jersey… but now we all live everywhere (Charlotte, Los Angeles, New York, New Jersey). We spent the past year touring heavily on the self titled record we put out last summer. It’s been a good 2010/2011 but I gotta say I’m happy to be home… for a lil bit.

CM:How have you been killing time on the road, hobbies?

ST: I recently took up the hobby of going to minor league ball parks. On the last tour I went to eight games (with a few MLB games sprinkled in).

CM:What have been your favourite venues to play? Any venues you hated?

ST: That’s a tough question-I love places with history like Radio City but I also love places that bring me back to the legion hall days (places like DC9 in DC or The Middle East in Boston).

CM: Is there a song you are simply sick of playing?

ST: Not really, we do a good job of switching up the setlist a lot.

CM: What is the songwriting process like for Steel Train. Are you able to write on the road or do you do this in your off time?

ST: Jack does most of the songwriting, I’d say he spends a fair amount of time writing on the road, but he does the bulk of it at home.

CM: Favourite Steel Train track and why?

ST: To listen to or play? Possibly ‘SOG‘ or ‘Turnpike Ghost‘. ‘SOG‘ has a lot of layers and I’m always hearing something new, and ‘Turnpike Ghost‘ because I can feel the intensity in the vocals, music and the lyrics.

CM: If you could record any cover what would it be?

ST: Girls ‘Hellhole Ratrace‘

CM: Do your songs go through many revisions via demo recordings?

ST: Yeah. Jack usually records a demo at his place, we listen to it, maybe tinker with it a little bit, then hit the studio and record it.

CM: What came first, the lyrics or the melody?

ST: Probably for Jack the melody.

CM: What are your views on auto tune?

ST: I’ve heard bands misuse it and I’ve heard bands use it properly, no one really wants to sound like T-Pain.

CM: Any other band/bands from your local scene we really should know about?

ST: I’m digging three bands right now. Yellow Ostrich, Girls and Ariel Pink.

CM: Most flattering thing you’ve read about yourselves?

ST: That we put on great live shows.

CM: What was the first record/tape/cd you ever bought?

ST: It was a birthday gift from my friend Malachi in the third grade. the ‘Coneheads Soundtrack‘, it had a Red Hot Chili Peppers song on it that got me into rock music.

CM: What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

ST: Girls ‘Lust For life‘.

CM: What was the last show you paid and queued up for?

ST: Lykki Li last week at the Greek.

CM: If you had to bring on artist back from the dead in exchange for sending a living artist down ,which artists would it be and why?

ST: Sam Cooke.

TRACKS:

Steel Train – Turnpike Ghost (RAC Mix ft. Tegan & Sara)

Steel Train – Bullet

Correatown is the musical project that Angela Correa has brought to life with her bandmates in the Eastside of LA. Over the years Angela and co have released several lo-fi albums and EPs.

For their newest release ‘Pleiades‘ have experimented with some different instrumentation and arrangements. Although these tracks may be using less organic sounds they still convey a wave of emotion reminding me of German act Lali Puna as well as some of PJ Harvey‘s dynamics.

‘Pleiades‘ is due out September 20th through the band’s own label Another Room Recordings. Head over to Paste Magazine for a free download of the track ‘Isomer‘.

TRACKS:

Following an impressive performance at Los Angeles‘ King King venue Cougar Microbes caught up with Little People for an improvised q&a. Over the past month or so we’ve been shooting emails back and forth to complete the interview.

Check back here tomorrow for a Little People remix exclusive available here for you.

Cougar Microbes: What time did you wake up today? Was it out of choice or necessity?

Little People: Got up round 6am this morning… Still being on east coast time + needed to finish up a remix I had been working on (Joey Fehrenbach - Underwander) … I know I should be telling you I was on a massive night out and slept in til 3pm… Sadly not so.

CM: Describe Little People to the uninitiated?

LP: The Little People sound probably originates from mid 90′s and has its basis in all the hip hop i used to listen to back then. i guess I fit somewhere between instrumental hip hop and downtempo electronica… My early material was heavily reliant on samples, nowadays i try and make it sound like it does . Beaty, bleepy, melodic, cinematic … Any of these tags work…

CM:How have you been killing time on the road, hobbies?

LP: Unless you call multiple visits to Radio Shack to get my UK kit working on US mains a hobby… When I travel I tend to want to taste of the local food delicacies each region/country has to offer. Unfortunately didn’t get much time for that… although i did come across my new favourite snack which is a mexican thing.., dried mango with chili… pure awesomeness.

CM: What have been your favourite venues to play? Any wenues you hated?

LP: LA was great… Regeneration Festival in Oregon was awesome (1000+ crowd and my first festival).. But everywhere I’ve been so far has been incredible in terms of the response from the crowd. I’m a little bit of an oddity in that I have little to no profile on blogs and press… But yet my 2006 debut album sells pretty well on iTunes in the us thanks to people discovering me the online radio Pandora. This has meant that a fair few people have turned up at my shows all over the country. I’m still too wet behind the ears as far as playing live shows to start bitching about venues…

CM: Is there a song you are simply sick of playing?

LP: I’m still baffled by the popularity of the opening track called Basique off my debut album (‘Mickey Mouse Operation‘)… It’s fairly simple and repetitive and i wasn’t sure i should include on the album at all. So i’m fairly ambivalent about playing the track live because people love it so much, whilst i’m so so about it… but hey, i’m here to please!

CM: What is the songwriting process like for Little People. Are you able to write on the road or do you do this in your off time?

LP: It used to be crate digging -> sample -> chop -> arrange -> done. But now the sampling part has been ditched, coming up with original material that’s half as as good as what’s out there to be sampled is a little more time consuming. It is of course ultimately more satisfying though.

My starting point tends to be a particular technical process or idea which offers a base around which i will flesh out a track. I’ve enjoyed using the principles self-generative music (a la Brian Eno) to help produce happy accidents and new ideas – which will in turn become fully fledged tracks.

The starting point for most my material is with the laptop – so i can make music on the go fairly easily. Further down the line i like to take things out of the box and re-record things with real actual musician and analogue outboard gear.

CM: Favourite Little People track and why?

LP: my favourite tracks tend not to be the ones my listeners prefer… ‘Behind Closed Doors‘ i really like from my debut album but rarely gets praised.

CM: If you could record any cover what would it be?

LP: ‘Bibo No Aozora‘ by Ryuichi Sakamoto I think. Or maybe if i’m bold ‘Music for 18 Musicians‘ by Steve Reich…

CM: Do your songs go through many revisions via demo recordings?

LP: There are endless iteration to the tracks i do – it’s actually a bit ridiculous. Some tracks have nearly 30 versions… I tend to take my time to get it right. I can only admire people (ok it’s more jealousy) who bang out tracks super quick. But maybe sometimes having too much material can sometimes dilute your work i feel. I like the idea of making each track count.

CM: What came first, the beat or the melody?

LP: Melody for me. Although i work in beat-based genre.

CM: What are your views on auto tune?

LP: It sounded shit when Cher first brought it to the public’s attention . What’s wrong with a vocoder?!

CM: Any other artists/bands from your local scene we really should know about?

LP: I recently met Collin Palmer (who records under the name Calmer on 1320 records) when playing Denver recently – big fan of his material. Love Star Slinger. Who doesn’t. Blank and Kytt are pretty ace…

CM: Most flattering thing you’ve read about yourselves?

LP: Comparisons to DJ Shadow. The rest of us can only ever aspire (but ultimately fail) to write our own ‘Endtroducing‘.

CM: What was the first record/tape/cd you ever bought?

LP: It was Eurythmics… yeah i know… not that cool huh?!

CM: What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

LP: Photek‘s ‘Hidden Camera‘ – which i only rediscovered recently. There’s not much of a melody but that drum break is sooo good!

CM: What was the last show you paid and queued up for?

LP: Star Slinger…

CM: If you had to bring a musician back from the dead in exchange for sending a living artist down ,which artists would it be and why?

LP: I’d bring back Curtis Mayfield – the man was just awesome. i went through a phase of listening to a lot of his stuff. He’s probably the one who got me obsessed with string arrangements. In exchange, let’s please send record exec – turned producer – turned (terrible) rapper – Puff Daddy to an early grave please. He probably did far more than most to totally ruin my enjoyment of hip hop in the late 90s.

Don’t forget to check back tomorrow for an exclusive download of the Joey Fehrenbach remix Little People mentions above!

TRACKS:

Les Savy Fav‘s last album ‘Root For Ruin‘ waltzed into my top albums of 2010 easily nestling itself into the top 3 spots. Several months down the lin those tracks are just as vital.

Having recently made the move to Los Angeles I find the  lyrics to ‘Sleepless in Silverlake‘ particularly fitting. I am enjoying dropping this into my DJ sets and watching people nod their heads appreciatively whilst frontman Tim Harrington rips into their city.

In fairness LA is not living up to the cliched picture and people are, mostly, proving to be in touch with reality. Still, this song serves as a reminder that that aspect of California living still exists out there.

TRACKS:

I have been meaning to write about Tyler, The Creator and the whole Odd Future phenomenon for a while. Originally I was planning to feature ‘Yonkers‘ as part of our Weekend Videos feature but by the time I got to see the video it had already racked 6 million hits.

Surely there weren’t that many more people still left I thought and I was wrong because the video now stands at over double that somewhere in the region of 13 million hits. Not bad for an LA skater kid with a questionable attitude.

You may be familiar with Amp Live for his reworking of some of the best moments from Radiohead‘s ‘In Rainbows‘ album. Personally I completely loved him for the work done on Cougar favourites WHY? and their catalogue.

In any case he has gone and joined forces with Jazz Mafia to recreate these interesting re-runs from ‘Goblin‘. I had been wondering how long it would take before some decent remixes from would pop out, I just didn’t expect something like this to be made.

TRACKS:

Last month we featured Coyol‘s retro aesthetic mentioning that the band were planning to release six individual EP’s for each track in time for the start of September.

Now the duo have unleashed the second installment in the shape of ‘Gone Gone‘. The track took failing relationships and the feeling of hopelessness as a way to inject some authentic emotions into this song. The result is bleak but moving

TRACKS:

It’s official! I am relocating to California for the next few months. The blog is still going to maintain a keen focus on the British scene – with most of the team remaining London based – but I definitely plan to explore the music on offer in LA and beyond.

TRACKS:

COYOL are yet another example of how in 2004 there was a turning point in the indie music with the release of Arcade Fire‘s ‘Funeral‘ album. That album skillfully combines traditional American folk music with the archetypical New York City indie rhythm section and the melodies of the big arena rock bands. Since then thousands of bands have tried to follow that blueprint to mixed results.

There are those who have taken the lead into some projects worth noting such as the excellent Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros who push the use of dual vocals in addition to adding a country and western twang and a greater use of wind instruments in the orchestration of their tracks.

COYOL in theory might be the natural evolution of this trend. The couples country ballad voices evoke those of Johnny Cash and June Carter and rhythm section arrangements more concise than the band above. The lyrics are personal and engaging such as the brilliant ‘Pharmacist‘; which deals with modern society’s troubles and the anxiety disorders suffered by singer John Isaac Watters. Together with Céleigh Champan they offer a passionate delivery that betrays both their old Southwest and new Los Angeles roots.

Having recorded their self-titled EP in late 2010 COYOL will unveil each of the EP’s six tracks individually, culminating in the full release on September 6, 2011. With unique art produced for each song this is a journey worth pursuing and hopefully they can continue finding their “voice” on their first full LP.

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Post written by Mario

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TRACKS: