Cougar Microbes

We caught up with Alcopop! Records all conquering Jumping Ships to discuss cakes, Bar wiring, late night jams on mobile phones and questionable music purchases. Here is what they had to say:

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

JS: 10 o’clock Glasgow time! Necessity – Had a 6 hour drive to the Northern coast of Scotland ahead of us playing in Thurso (look it up on the map.. its 10miles south of John O’Groats)

CM: Describe Jumping Ships to the uninitiated?

JS: Alt-Pop-Rock! Loud and in your face – Get your chops round this!

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

JS: Eating cakes, singing sing songs, watching films, lots of twitter banter and some sight seeing when we get chance – visiting local castles/folies/forts!

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

JS: Borderline in London is great, nice high stage, but still pretty intimate. Coalition in Brighton is great. The Milo in Leeds wasn’t really built for the Alcopop! breed of bands – too small, hot and loud. I think they need to rewire the electrics – sort your plugs out!

CM: Is there a song you are simply sick of playing? Do you think that will ever happen?

JS: We’ve toured the first EP around quite a lot, so there are some tunes that start to drag a bit. We’ve played “The Whole Truth” a lot, so it’s nice to give them a rest every now and again, that way you can kind of rekindle your passion for them. Fingers crossed we won’t hate all of our current set at the end of this tour!!! ha

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

JS: Mike generally takes the lead in the songwriting process, he brings initial ideas to the table and then him and Kai start working structures and parts together to get the bare bones of a track. Then it’s on to acoustic recordings, they’ll knock a rough recording up and send it to Rich and Al, who will give their input and write parts etc before we get into the rehearsal room.

Then it’s jam time and most of the rest of the work is done in a rehearsal room full band. Lyrics are mostly done over the course of the songs writing process. We try and record things at as many stages as possible, to see how it would translate live and on record. Lots of levels of quality control.

CM: Favourite Jumping Ships track and why?

JS: I’m going to go with ‘Talisman‘ on this one. It’s the one track on the EP that I can’t really put my finger on in terms of how we wrote it/structured it/where the parts actually came from. All of the other tunes I can remember having heard quite solid bases for the tracks before we got it in the rehearsal room, whereas with ‘Talisman‘ I think it was a bit more of an organic writing process – lots of jamming sections out and working with a bit more freedom structurally. Plus it’s lots of fun to play live! We have a winner!

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

JS: I think if we were going to record a cover it would have to be completely different to the original. Do our own spin on it and kind of pretty much rewrite the tune. So this might be interesting!

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

JS: As we mentioned before, we try and record songs at as many stages as possible. Initial ideas are usually late night jams on mobile phones – then on to more structured acoustic records – recordings from rehearsal rooms – then it’s always nice to hear the track back from a live show before you do a pre production demo recording, prior to the real deal. So yeah lotsss of recording!

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

JS: As a rule of thumb it’s melody, but sometimes there are lines or little lyrical excerpts that will be noted down as a basis for a song. But it’s all about the melody!

CM: What are your views on auto tune?

JS: Auto tune can be cool if it’s used right. There are loads of artists who use it to good effect and when you know what you’re doing it can sound great. What we don’t like though is when people try to use it to mask a shoddy voice, both live and in the studio. Cher’s been repping the auto tune far too hard haha

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

JS: There are some great bands that we’ve gigged around with recently – Spring Offensive from Oxford and Hold Your Horse Is from Camberly are both wicked bands and great lads. Also bands from our label – Lightguides and Delta Alaska are both going on to big things. You probably know about these guys already, but if you don’t – Shame on you!

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

JS: There was a note left on our mailing list after playing the main stage at Redfest. A girl had gone to put her email address down and had proceeded to write a full page love letter to the band, pleading for us to contact her. It’s nice when fans love what you’re doing.

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

JS: Kai – Tape – Prince, CD – Michael Jackson

Mike – Boyz II Men (Outhere Brothers – Party Album on cassette – too cool for school)

Al – Limp Bizkit (Significant Other) + Rage Against The Machine

Rich – Smurfs Go Pop

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

JS: Lightguides – the last song in their set – still don’t know it’s name, but it’s been rattling around my head every night of this tour. Cracking tune!

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

JS: Kai – Underoath @ Brixton Academy

Mike – Pulled apart by Horses @ Brighton Jam

Alex – Everything Everything @ Brighton Concorde 2

Rich – Jimmy Eat World @ HMV Forum

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?

JS: Amazing question!

Pete Doherty is going down, because he’s not going to be up for long anyway the way he’s going. Think Mick Hucknell can join him as well – We’d swap them for… Drum roll please… John Martyn and Steve Ray Vaughan.

Jumping Ships have just released the ‘Standard Bearer‘ EP on Alcopop! Reocrds

TRACKS:

Jumping Ships – Talisman

Jumping Ships – Heart and Hope

 ’Michael Jackson‘, the track,  is clearly Das Racist, yet with crushing fluency at a whole new level.

pulling in a Weezyish push and grind beat a la ‘6 foot 7‘ or  ’A Milli‘, yet injecting the lyrical curiosities we’ve all grown to love.

“Michael Jackson… hakuna matata… yeah I’m fucking great at rappppping”

“i’m dj Khaled, i’m a daikon radish, see me next to sushi sexually, i’ll sex your coochie”

Quoting their own lyrics I can pretty much sum up the feeling I get when listening, “watching parenthood on ketamine at the hotel“. Nauseatingly neurotic in a good way, and still managing to switch up and rearrange a stellarly sampled beat.

you feel me? holler!

—–
Post by Kyle
—–

TRACKS:

Thank fuck for The Hood Internet! Every time my music collection spits out one of their mashups it is guaranteed to get people listening.

Here is one they just published featuring Kanye and Ellie Goulding dueling over their respective “light” songs. I’ve also added the MJ vs. Ratatat mash from a while back because, well… because it is so damn cool.

TRACKS:

We caught up with the five members of Tigercats through the medium of email to discuss playing public toilets in Berlin, Rebecca Black as well as the best way to part your hair.

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

GILES: 9 out of necessity, 10.30 after I went back to bed through choice.

JONNY: About 11.45. And yes, out of necessity. I went back to bed about 6.30pm – it’s been a good day.

LAURA: About 9.30am.  Necessity. Had to go meet a friend, but I suppose it was also my choice to go meet said friend.

CM: Describe Tigercats to the uninitiated?

STEFAN: I always say poppy indie, rather than indie pop. Bit of Buzzcocks, bit of Tom Tom Club, bit of Violent Femmes. All pretty poppy. Not much shoegazing. Not much shoes, even.

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

JONNY: Horse!

DUNCAN: Allo Darlin taught us how to play Horse. If you see a horse you have to shout “horse”. Mike also taught me and Jonny how to play Suck Out, you get a plane full of celebrities and then the window breaks and the all get sucked out the last one is the winner.

STEFAN: The van wasn’t ever working long enough for boredom to be a real issue

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

JONNY: That toilet in Berlin was pretty awesome.

DUNCAN: We played in an old public toilet in Berlin with some German punks and a semi-naked Goth. I think that is why Jonny enjoyed it so much.

STEFAN: I liked playing the Betsey Trotwood a lot. Far too small and sweaty. Ideal. Plus it was the first show we put on ourselves and we got to pick the support (Omi Palone and Moustache of Insanity) and they were both aces.

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

STEFAN: Nah, we’re still full of wide-eyed wonder with the world – we love all our songs as if they were our children. We’re a bit new as a band to be refusing to play the hits.

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

DUNCAN: I have started talking to unfinished songs as though they were people. If they come to me when I am on a bus or such I ask them to come back later. This is something Tom Waits does, obviously to more success.

CM: Favourite Tigercats track and why?

JONNY: ‘Jonny‘, for obvious reasons.

DUNCAN: We have a song about being in love with a man called Jonny. Its not about Jonny. And its not my favourite.

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

GILES: ‘What Presence?!‘ by Orange Juice

JONNY: ‘I Don’t Want To Go To Chelsea‘ by Elvis Costello.

DUNCAN: I would like to cover something by Leonard Cohen maybe ‘In My Secret Life, or ‘Boogie Street‘ or ‘Don’t Go Home With Your Hard-On‘ or ‘Memories‘.

LAURA: I really want to cover something like ‘Don’t You Want Me‘ by the The Human League…or ‘Everywhere‘ by Fleetwood Mac.

STEFAN: ‘September‘ by Earth Wind and Fire

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

DUNCAN: I used to make demos of all the songs and bring them to the others but now we write them all together from the start.

GILES: Oh yes. We ain’t playing nothing till Jonny‘s happy with it. He’s a perfectionist and we secretly love him for it.

STEFAN: Yes, I secretly quite like Duncan‘s demos but he doesn’t do them any more – I thought we were going to sound like No Age when I heard them.

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

DUNCAN: Melody

CM: What are your views on auto tune?

LAURA: It’s funny when you autotune people talking and put it on the internet.

GILES: I love auto-tune when it’s used as an outlandish effect, like it is in a lot of middle-eastern pop music and by Lil Wayne and the like. Bands who use autotune to attempt to cover up what they perceive to be failings in their records aren’t fooling anyone but themselves. I once had a singer in my studio break down in tears when I told her I didn’t have auto-tune. She presumed it was industry standard, but I think we were talking about different industries.

JONNY: I love Rebecca Black. This doesn’t need to be included in the interview – I just wanted to let you know.

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

GILES: Owl and Mouse, and Moustache of Insanity. Heart-breaking ukulele pop and exhilarating casio madness.

DUNCAN: Omi Palone, Fever Dream, No Cars, Hexicon

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

LAURA: That I remind someone of Daria.

DUNCAN: this isn’t something I read about my self but I heard that you should change the way you part your hair so that it looks bad in the mirror because in actual life it will then look good, so i have gone from a life long left parting to a new right parting. So far my life hasn’t really changed.

This doesn’t need to be included in the interview either does it but I do want to talk more about this.

STEFAN: I often get worried about the side I part mine on too. I have a secret fear that I might have changed it at some point by accident and it’s been wrong ever since.

LAURA: I parted my hair on my left side for the longest time, but then last year I started parting on the opposite side.  Presently I have a front fringe, so don’t have to worry so much until my hair gets too long again.

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

GILES: ‘Bad‘ by Michael Jackson.

STEFAN: “Pump Up The Jam: The Album” by Technotronic — but that was a pirated copy from the Ford plant at Halewood on Merseyside, so not sure if it counts

DUNCAN: Shaggy‘s  ’Bombastic‘

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

GILES: Something by Standard Fare. You should definitely check them out too.

STEFAN: ‘Blue Skies‘ by Irving Berlin. It was written in 1926 and it feels like it’s been stuck in my head ever since

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

GILES: I think it was Wolf Eyes.

JONNY: Howe Gelb and a Band of Gypsies.

LAURA: Fleet Foxes.  Brilliant.

STEFAN: Houdini

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??

DUNCAN: i would not do this.

LAURA: John Lennon back in exchange for Justin Bieber.  I don’t think this needs explaining.

DUNCAN: I dont think Justin Bieber should have to die for us Laura what’d he do?

TRACKS:

Upcoming British DJ Lukas Hopwood has been messing around with his Michael Jackson vs Duck Sauce mix just for fun.  Last week I managed to twist his arm to let me post it on the blog.

What do you think?

TRACK:

Duck Sauce vs Michael Jackson – Beat Barbra (Lukas Hopwood Re-Edit) (hype machine)

A few of these homages where spot on however. Top of my list (from the same production team that brought us Turtlenex) comes LA Confident featuring Slick Flair with their ‘Missing Michael‘ track. It says it all. I’ve also fished out Ben Gibbard‘s awesome take on ‘Thriller’.

R.I.P MJ

MP3′s:

LA Confident – Missing Michael (Featuring Slick Flair)

Ben Gibbard – Thriller

The music world lost one of the greatest performers of the modern age last night. Whilst his well documented off stage controversies dominated the latter part of Jacko‘s career, we hope he will be remembered too for his amazing (early) recordings, mesmarising live performances, innovation in the art of the music video, and of course the world famous crotch-grabbing yelp. Mr Jackson, please join Elvis, Norma Jeane, Jimbo and Kurt in the green room.

MP3′s:

Michael Jackson – Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’