I am moving to Philadelphia come fall and I am moving on with musical projects as well.
I am starting a new project called Lantern and I feel its the best material I have ever written. I am not sure what direction this group will head but it plans to have lots of collaborations and explore the map of American musics from folk, blues, jazz, rock, experimental, and minimalist. I have a few tracks up on this here myspace and some more stashed away. I hope yall dig...
My good friend Dirty Beaches has just released a new 7" on San Diego label Zoo Music. It's the True Blue EP and the title track I guarantee will be your favorite track of the year! Weird Doo-whop, in the temple of Phil Spector worship.
Dirty Beaches rockin' the rooftop. Photo by Caley Jones
Alex Zhang Hungtai is the conduit for the one man band Dirty Beaches. The project, now in its 5th year, has taken Alex wide and far, literally and metaphorically. Alex has performed in China, and in the last year completed two US tours. His music has also traveled a long way; initially a more introverted, experimental project, Dirty Beaches has evolved into a full on violent-twist-jive-rockabilly-whiskey throw down, with a penchant for doo-woppy ballads. 2009 was a breakout year for Alex, with releases on Night People and Fixture. In 2010 Alex has been busy on the road and lining up a solid release schedule, including a full length LP on Night People, splits with fellow Obey Performers U.S. Girls and my group Omon Ra II (On Campaign for Infinity), and an archival release on Beijing label Rose Mansion Analog. I am over-the-top-excited to have Alex perform at this year's festival. Alex is a tremendous artist and I know his visceral and veracious performances will have a profound affect on the Halifax audiences. Below is a short interview I conducted with Alex last week:
Z - Since you moved from Montreal to Vancouver you've been incredibly busy. Why do you think 2009-2010 was/has been such a break-through year for you?
A - Being isolated from your friends always encourages productivity, albeit painful at times. My definition of friendship is much like the concept of family. I grew up without my family after age 14, so I spent a lot of time with friends growing up. There were older brother figures that I looked up to, and it has shaped me into the person I am at right now. Without them and those experiences, I am nothing. Those experiences morph into soundscapes in my music, or themes, even. They will always be there, like re-occurring characters.
Another reason for this year's intense schedule would be credited to my release on Night People, ever since my first tape release with them, I have been getting a lot of offers from labels, tour requests, etc, along with blog reviews. I hate letting people down, so I put the mileages into it. Been very lucky on those tours, making just enough money to get from one city to the next, with gas and what not into consideration as well. Met a lot of kind people on the road that gave us a little extra cash just so we could make it, and to the people that bought my merch, my thanks goes out to them.
Z - What's it like making music for you on the West Coast?
A - This year's winter in Vancouver has been so mild in comparison to Montreal that I almost secretly chuckle to myself whenever I look out the window. The area I live in (Hastings Sunrise) has a lot of trees, mountains, and old people. When I first arrived in October 09, I would listen to the twin peaks soundtrack my friend Conor got me for my birthday, and take little walks. However, there is one similar coincidence that my Montreal apartment shares with the Vancouver one: they are both very close to the train tracks. I love trains. oh boy. I like how they look, how they sound, I love walking on train tracks, I love riding trains, I love everything about them. Sometimes at night you can hear the train whistle, and it makes you want to be on that train, and just leave town. But that's just me. In China you can still smoke on trains, too. Although that's slowly changing now. I heard they banned indoor smoking in Shanghai this year. I hope it was only a rumor.
Z - One of things I really dig about Dirty Beaches is its exploration of minimalism. For the last five years you have used basically the same simple equipment and have created a world of sound, always light on resources but heavy in sound and spirit. Can you explain your approach and how you keep things fresh?
A - The approach to minimalism came out of necessity. My first release on Fixture was recorded with multiple tracks, with overdubs and layers. The problem was, I could never play it live. I had a hard time dealing with other people playing them, because they never got it right. I hate being the tyrant type too cuz I've been in bands with them when I was younger. So I never wanted to become that person where you write all the stuff and force, trick or manipulate other people to play the parts that you wrote. That shit is whack. And fucked up too. I think Bands should be formed out of friendship, and the idea of collaboration in mind.
Once I got over the idea that I was not going to be in a band, but a solo performing artist, things started to open up. I began recording my materials LIVE, almost identical to my live set up so I could translate my performances onto recording.
Whenever I'm out of ideas, I just watch a shit ton of films that have been on my watchlist. Lately I've been really into Tsai Ming-Liang, and Hou Hsiao Hsien (both based in Taiwan) and random forgotten gems from the 80's (like Willem Dafoe's first role in THE LOVELESS). Nick Cage and Val Kilmer flicks in the 80's are great too. I watch them when I'm sad and Val always cheers me up. He's the best.
Z - Given now that you are in your 5th year of the project, how do you hear the next 5 years of Dirty Beaches? How can we expect your sound to evolve or change?
A - I know I will always be making instrumental music. I've been doing that for the past 10 years. So I don't think that's gonna stop anytime soon. I've also started to make videos, and am currently working on my first short film, which is kind of a pilot for a digital download series part detective/film noir and other genres mixed in, starring my friend Bernadino Femminielli, who is a amazingly gifted musician based in Montreal. It will be fun to score it.
In terms of more ambitious ideas for dirty beaches, I'd like to try making sound installations for DIY spaces. I had an idea for the album HORROR that I put out on Fixture, but it was too costly financially to realize.
Z - Will Dirty Beaches always be a one man band and are you working on any collaborations?
A - I think dirty beaches will always be a one man project. Like films, that main character will always be longing for a place where he does not belong. An eternal damnation from home, misplaced, in exile, with nothing to hold onto.
However, I would love to throw it all away and start a new band that's not about any of that stuff I just mentioned.
Last summer my friend Erika Ellsworth hosted a show at the King's University theatre; a dark basement theatre without any windows. The show's aim was to match bands with visual artists. My friend's band The Ether teamed up with Heather Rappard to make a seriously twisted showfeaturing broken glass, blood, booze, crazy fat clowns with two foot drumsticks, and deep throated mics, all in front of a weird sparkly cloud blanket. Check out the videos below of the chaos.
The Ether have a new record coming out on Patente records called Folly and features yours truly on a track. I also hear that they might be packing up and switching HQs to Montreal.
Some groovy-ass African music. From Benin's capitol Cotonou. They appear on several comps such as A Real Thing and African Scream Contest. Check out some archival recordings of the group on the label Analog Africa.
I have recently been enrolled in French Classes which means I have been studying French for 30 hours a week for the last three weeks. My head has been spinning with a mélange of French and English, as well as the idea of a language. I am taking a class made up of mostly immigrants that speak multiple languages already, and my appreciation for the amount of effort and sacrifice that immigrants make to become Canadian has awakened. I had no idea of the difficulties, why do we have to give some many wonderful people a rough time? I guess humanism is dead in this part of the world and most. Especially with wars being replaced by homeland security, but this is for another time.
What I really want to talk about is the globalization of art and music, and in particular the use of music as a language. The phrase, music is the universal language, I doubt is anything of a surprise to the people reading this blog, but music itself is a blanket term for countless numbers of musical dialects, most of which are very hard to learn. However what makes music interesting is how over centuries musical dialects have mashed and mixed with one another, creating new languages and fashions for creation. The laws of the language of music are extremely flexible and adaptable. Like the English language I will argue, after years of colonization, has undergone a constant and rapid evolution. The English rose to global power with the great advancements in technology, distribution, capitalism, and of course the United States. New methods of distributing the mass amount of American Culture emerged in the 1900s, which of course backboned by capitalism. These technologies, which ultimately led to digital technologies, the Internet, and today’s musical landscape, have allowed the language to mash and bend faster than the technologies can keep. The spell check on the Microsoft program I am using to type this is a prime example.
I have an interest in world music, and in particular pop, rock, and psychedelic music of the 60s and 70s. I am amazed at just how well artists from around the world were able to synthesize the evolutions in rock and integrate them into their own cultural characteristics. Artists like Omar Khorshid, who did his version proto-eruption guitar heroics, melding fiery Egyptian modes with American surf music. He is perhaps, only rivaled by Dick Dale or Link Wray. Another example is Korean guitarist Shin Jung Hyun, who was doing his own heavy, fuzzed, out, wah-worship, proto-prog jams, around the same time as Hendrix. But unlike Hendrix, he music does not seemed to be rooted in blues, but in something way far out, or just foreign to my ears.
It is amazing how these cultures were able to understand the musical dialects, syntaxes, and accents. Just listen to groups of the above-mentioned artists. Someone learning a language will attest to how difficult it is to learn an accent. It takes years to learn a language if you are not born into it.
This idea of musical globalization should not be mistaken for western imperialism; it’s symbiotic. This is particularly obviously with late 60s American psych-rock or the experimental music of the minimalists. Both borrowed heavily from India and African musics. They took their ideas of musical architecture, rhythm, improvisation, and trance. Globalization in music is in fact way older. An early example is that of the chaconne, a popular dance of the baroque period. Bach composed a famous Chaconne. The rhythm itself however, actually comes from South America, imported by colonization. Mozart too, Rondo a la Turk, was largely inspired by Turkish music (hence the name). As well as Ravel who was deeply moved by the music of Indonesia.
With technology our world gets smaller, and global consciousness increases, but as we can see our world has always been small, and maybe music points to a future where we speak a melting pot language.
@ Friendship Cove (215a Murray - Metro Bonaventure)
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THE BLIND SHAKE are one of Minnesota's best bands in recent years. In 2007, they released a collaborative album with 60s Minneapolis psych / weirdo rock legend MICHAEL YONKERS called "Carbohydrates Hydrocarbons," which was amazing and one of the most critically acclaimed albums of that year. On their own, the band play a distinct style of psych influenced post-punk that has given them favorable comparisons to bands like The Urinals, Fugazi and The Intelligence. We are really excited to have them up here for the first time.
OMON RA II are a new band that have risen from the ashes of Halifax psych rockers (and Divorce and Fixture Records alumni) OMON RA. The band is lead by composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Zachary Devereux Fairbrother, who upon moving to Montreal, started up the band again and expanded the lineup to four members (including long time collaborator Chris D'Eon). A force to be reckoned with live, this is one of just a handful of shows the band has played since their re-birth in Montreal.
FUTENSIL are a three piece garage punk band from the St-Henri borough that bring to mind Thee Oh Sees jangly guitar parts and male / female vocal harmonies, but with the added warped experimental bent of weirdos like The Residents. They were one of three bands hand picked to perform live on CKUT's "If You Got Ears" program during the station's annual funding drive week last year, and their catchy songs and killer live shows make them one of the city's most exciting up and coming bands.
INTERRACIAL LOVE TRIANGLE are an awesome new two piece minimalist garage rock band who have been blowing audiences away with their incredible live shows recently. Their drum kit consists of two metal salad bowels turned upside down, and their riff heavy, raunchy guitar sound and super charismatic front man make them this city's long awaited answer to The Gories.
Zach lives in Philadelphia, with is wife Christina and their dog, Snowflake. He plays in a band called Ghösh.
He is originally from Nova Scotia.
Email me at zacharyfairbrother@gmail.com
