In between running Expansion Team (who are readying the release of the Men Without Pants collaboration between Dan the Automator and Russell Simins of John Spencer Blues Explosion fame) and working on a slew of projects, New York based DJ/producer/filmmaker Alex Moulton found time to produce Exodus, his awesome sci-fi/fantasy dance music concept album. The album features appearances by Groove Collective’s Jonathan Maron and Roger Joseph Manning, Jr. and album artwork painted by legendary fantasy artists Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell. Big Shot caught up with Moulton at his studio and interviewed him for Issue 23. In these two video snippets, Moulton describes Exodus and Expansion Team’s modus operandi.
While waiting an hour for Ratatat to take the stage, I overheard a foursome of dudes no older than 21 who drove 14 hours to catch a rare glimpse of the Brooklyn based outfit. As they talked about their plans on Wednesday (which included a visit to the Shake Shack in Manhattan), one of them kept reminding his buddies how fortunate they were to have obtained tickets to the show that sold out in mere hours. (Indeed, ticketless fans hoping for a miracle milled about all night on N. 6th Street.) But the band kept everyone waiting for some unknown reason (maybe bar sales were low?), and the dudes, probably thinking that this is what people do in New York, began chanting Ratat-suck!
Ratatat soon took the stage and the boys’ jeers morphed into cheers. Performing as a trio, the first thing you notice is their drummer-less setup. There’s also no need for vocals, because guitarist Mike Stroud’s axe is the band’s voice, fueled by electronic beats, samples and patches. And what a sound it is. While Ratatat’s notorious underground remash called “Party & Bullshit” relied on a crafty Notorious B.I.G. sample and riff as wide as the Great Wall of China, newer tracks from the newly released LP3 find Stroud in full on guitar hero mode, something he seems almost entirely comfortable with.
Stroud wailed with the soul of master players like Jeff Beck (he played with the same emotion heard on Beck’s “Cause We Ended As Lovers”) and the technical perfection of Yngwie Malmsteen (sans the blazing speed), often bending back like a limbo dancer and putting one foot on the monitor while shredding his digitally doubled guitar phrases. But tonight wasn’t all about the riff. On “Mi Viejo” Shroud offered delicate baroque style chord progressions that built into a percussive and drum solo accomplished with bassist Evan Mast.
Amid a backdrop of interesting movie clips and visuals (“Flynn” featured a rather bizarre video remix of Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al”), Stroud was in the zone throughout the show. Though he couldn’t get his amp loud enough early on, by mid-show he was at the point Eddie Van Halen refers to as “the brown sound,” a place where everything sounds perfect. Strangely enough, the crescendo of the night was the understated “Shiller,” a far more restrained song that builds on gorgeous synth washes and crafty samples.
When Ratatat took a second to catch its breath, Shroud picked up a bottle of what might’ve been whiskey and chugged it a la Keith Richards, much to the the Midwest boys’ delight. It was more like a celebratory metaphor because someone had finally succeeded in marrying rock with electronic music.
LA’s annual Electric Daisy Carnival kept true to its eccentric tradition and ensured that this year’s event was larger, louder, and less organized than ever before. If you were one of the 55,000 in attendance who had to stand in lines for three hours of security check as staff went to great lengths to fish out glow sticks and drug paraphernalia before giving up and letting people just walk in, and an hour delay in the set times at most, if not all of the stages, then you earned your right to be there.
Thousands of neon clad concert goers packed the historic Los Angeles Coliseum to catch a glimpse of some of electro music’s biggest. Despite the long lines – supposedly caused my an unexpectedly large turnout – and the absence of the highly anticipated Berlin-based Boys Noize, who missed the show due to an undisclosed illness, fans were still treated to a number of fantastic sets. After a strong start on the main stage on the Coliseum field, Italian DJ Benny Benassi seemed to fizzle towards the end of his set, but his less than stellar finale was quickly forgotten when Moby took the stage. It’s been long enough since everyone’s favorite bald vegan DJ’d a rave in California, some were skeptical about what his performance would bring. Thankfully, his high energy set, coupled with his typical audience interaction and a surprise fireworks show, proved to be the highlight of the night.
There wasn’t a dull moment, the best sets coming from Classixx, Z-Trip, and Shinichi Osawa, who shone at his first U.S. appearance that night.
Some side stage highlights came from the “Cosmic Meadow,” where everyone from Armand Van Helden to Harry Romero got everyone moving, and the “Circuit Field,” where Freestylers and DJ Dan spun the crowd into a frenzy. This year’s underdog was the Bass Pod stage, riddled with trouble (that’s where Boys Noize was to have played) and musical criticism for upstart locals Paparazzi and Le Castle Vania. Despite the negativity, there wasn’t a dull moment, the best sets coming from Classixx, Z-Trip, and Shinichi Osawa, who shone at his first U.S. appearance that night.
The best way to enjoy the event was to roam around. Since most sets overlapped anyway it was worth the walk to catch a glimpse of everyone, and prevented you from getting bored too quickly; most of the sets shared the same elements, so traveling around kept it stimulating. It also invited a chance to run into friends or make new ones, as throngs of teens clad in neon fur, skimpy underwear and craft store bracelets mingled and posed for photos. After all, being seen is what these events are for.
Peter Hook told Big Shot that New Order is officially kaput. Though Hook isn’t on the best of terms with his former bandmates, he was in New York City last weekend to attend a screening of Joy Division: The Documentary, an excellent biopic that uses interviews with Peter Hook, Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris (as well as an array of Manchester scenesters) to chronicle the rise and fall of Joy Division.
The documentary, which features rare audio and video, is an answer to Anton Corbijn’s rather excellent Control and provides even deeper insight into why singer Ian Curtis (who suffered from a bipolar disorder and epilepsy) committed suicide just before embarking on the band’s first American tour. Unlike many retrospectives that are afraid to ask its subjects tough questions, Joy Division doesn’t hold back and wonders why the rest of the band wasn’t alarmed over Curtis’ morose lyrics. Their contention: They never listened to his lyrics and blokes don’t ask each other how they’re feeling.
Below are highlights of the post-movie Q&A session with Peter Hook and producer Tom Atencio.
Peter Hook recalls how attending the Sex Pistols’ gig at Manchester’s Free Trade Hall inspired the formation of Joy Division.
