This month we have a set I caught at Bottom of the Hill by Canadians The Rural Alberta Advantage, plus killer sets from locals Future Twin and Spiro Agnew (now named What Model Citizens), both at the one and only Hemlock Tavern. Hope you dig on them tunes.

Listen on BreakThruRadio or right here: ...

This month we have a set I caught at Bottom of the Hill by Canadians The Rural Alberta Advantage, plus killer sets from locals Future Twin and Spiro Agnew (now named What Model Citizens), both at the one and only Hemlock Tavern. Hope you dig on them tunes.

Listen on BreakThruRadio or right here:

The Rural Alberta Advantage

Excuses for Skipping, Cafe du Nord, May 14, 2011

Excuses for Skipping, Cafe du Nord, May 14, 2011

After a series of near-misses here in SF, I finally got to see Spiro Agnew for the first time down at SXSW this year. As much as it was worth the wait, I was certainly kicking myself for taking so long to check this band out.

Spiro Agnew is really just one dude, Alex Musto. He always plays with a second person onstage, but his accompaniment is a revolving cast. When I saw Alex play in Austin, he was joined onstage by a friend of his who is from there and had learned the songs in a couple of days. You never would have known it. The friend was kinda spastic, dancing around the stage with tons of energy but absolutely nailing all the synth parts. It seems like there must be a lot of luck involved in having things gel so quickly, but it actually seems more a function of Alex's brilliant design than a product of dumb luck. ...

After a series of near-misses here in SF, I finally got to see Spiro Agnew for the first time down at SXSW this year. As much as it was worth the wait, I was certainly kicking myself for taking so long to check this band out.

Spiro Agnew is really just one dude, Alex Musto. He always plays with a second person onstage, but his accompaniment is a revolving cast. When I saw Alex play in Austin, he was joined onstage by a friend of his who is from there and had learned the songs in a couple of days. You never would have known it. The friend was kinda spastic, dancing around the stage with tons of energy but absolutely nailing all the synth parts. It seems like there must be a lot of luck involved in having things gel so quickly, but it actually seems more a function of Alex's brilliant design than a product of dumb luck.

Musto has perfected an electro-rock style that is actually quite hard to pin down. There's something of a Bowie swagger to his vocal delivery, though Musto's voice is raspier and more snarling. His guitar is generally a fuzzed out, squalling layer of noise underpinned by impossibly catchy drum loops and synth parts. There's a decent amount of noise rock in there, but most of the songs are still almost danceable. I don't know what you call it, but I know I like it.

Tomorrow night is the release party for Spiro Agnew's second album, You've Been Set Up. Typically the drums are played as a backing track at Spiro Agnew shows. But for tomorrow night's show you're going to get a full live band Spiro Agnew experience. Except, make that a full live band What Model Citizens experience, because after this show the Spiro Agnew moniker is being laid to rest (get the scoop in the interview below).

Spiro Agnew plays first, followed by Here Come the Saviours and Love Inks (Austin, TX). It's going down at the Hemlock, door as 8:00, show at 9:00. Champagne toast at the bar at midnight to send the Spiro Agnew name quietly into the good night.

I had the chance to ask Alex a few questions about the new album and his band's new name. Check out the interview:
 

WTM: What's the name of the new album?

AM: The new album is called You've Been Set Up, taken from a lyric in one of the songs. As for what it means, I think with this album that is a little less clear. The last album, I think, had a much more defined idea to it. As I was writing this set of songs I was thinking about what it means to be a part of modern youth culture and how ill-defined it is. I guess from there we get You've Been Set Up.

WTM: Where was it recorded?

AM: I do all my recording in my rehearsal studio in the Tenderloin. It was then produced, in the same place, by my good friend and miracle worker J. Salfen.

WTM: What was the sound you were trying to capture? How is it different from previous Spiro Agnew releases?

AM: Well I was trying to further realize the sound concept I began with the first album: fusing noise guitar with synth-rock. This particular release however is driven less by the guitar and more by a collage of synth sounds with the guitar interspersed in between.

WTM: Were there any significant challenges to recording this album?

AM: Well of course there are challenges recording every album, most always I think centered around trying to get what's in your brain out in the real world. I think my biggest challenge is working predominately as a solo artist I have no one to bounce ideas off of when constructing songs. Of course the flip side to that is the only person I fight with is also myself, so there are advantages and disadvantages.

WTM: What's the live lineup like currently? I saw you at SXSW with a buddy of yours from Austin, and that dude was pretty sick. I couldn't believe he just picked up those parts in a couple days. Do you always play with folks on such short notice, and does it always turn out that well?

I generally work live with "hired guns," so to speak. I have regulars who join me when their schedules and my shows align. Generally I usually have a few more practices than I had with my friend in Austin, to train people, and it usually goes over fine. Luke, the guy who joined me in Austin, is just such a talented musician I think he could have played without rehearsal. I think it helps that I write fairly simply structured songs too, so training people isn't usually that difficult. I should mention, for the album release show on the 21st of May, I've put together a full live band. Should be an interesting change from the drum machine we usually play with.

WTM: Any plans to write/record/play some more music with your Austin buddy?

AM: I would love to and maybe will sometime in the future, but as of now we have nothing planned.

WTM: Why'd you pick Spiro Agnew as the namesake of your band? Was Walter Mondale already taken?

AM:  I think it's kind of funny how this is almost always the first question I'm asked with this band name. I mean why not be called Spiro Agnew? Really his name just sounds like a band to me. It started though in college when I would get together with a few friends of mine for shrill atonal noise jams. One of the names that "band" went under was Spiro Agnew. I brought the name back for this project as it became clear how political the theme of the initial album was becoming. I realized I was writing about how divisive politics have become and Agnew is probably one of the most divisive figures in American political history. As I've come to say, he was the Sarah Palin of the 60s and 70s. It seemed to fit the theme. But really, his name just sounds like a band.

Of course all of this is about to become irrelevant as I'm changing the name of the band. There is a New Jersey metal band (apparently formed by members of that band Gaslight Anthem, I guess) that goes under the same name and I'm really tired of people confusing us. I'm no metal band, damn it. With the release of this new album I'm changing the name to What Model Citizens, a play on the name of Spiro Agnew's debut album OH What Model Citizens We Be.

WTM: What's the significance of releasing the album on May 21st?

AM:  There's nothing really to this date other than that's the date of our show at which we're celebrating. For the last album I chose a specific date, August 26th, to play more with the theme. August 26th was the anniversary of the start of the riots at the 68 Chicago Democratic national convention. The 21st of May is the anniversary of the White Riots in San Francisco, though I don't know if that has anything to do with the ideas explored with You've Been Set Up.

Also, had to get it on the historical record before the earth was destroyed. Or at least before half my potential audience is raptured away. Wait, does that mean we're beloved among Evangelicals? Maybe this record has the power to save my soul.

From the music itself to the more than four years it took to create, Excuses for Skipping's new album, Tonic for Hysteria, is epic in every sense of the word.

There's lots of other ways to describe it. Shoegaze, post-punk, and 90s "alternative" rock in general seem like the obvious touchstones to me. There's also more than a touch of riot grrrl influence mixed in. As Future Sounds pointed out, the Las Vegas Weekly wasn't far off the mark with "Imagine if Kevin Shields had produced the Go Gos." But honestly, the description I like best is one supplied by the band itself: "old school space age new wave." ...

From the music itself to the more than four years it took to create, Excuses for Skipping's new album, Tonic for Hysteria, is epic in every sense of the word.

There's lots of other ways to describe it. Shoegaze, post-punk, and 90s "alternative" rock in general seem like the obvious touchstones to me. There's also more than a touch of riot grrrl influence mixed in. As Future Sounds pointed out, the Las Vegas Weekly wasn't far off the mark with "Imagine if Kevin Shields had produced the Go Gos." But honestly, the description I like best is one supplied by the band itself: "old school space age new wave."

Tonic for Hysteria is a dope record. It took the band at least one false start, two studios, three drummers, and over four years to finally achieve the vision they had for this album. The effort and the wait were well worth it, from the sound of things. Tonic for Hysteria is the type of album that instantly feels like an old friend, but one you're always happy to see because they're just tons of fuckin fun. When I say it reminds me of 90s alternative rock, I mean that in the best way. Listening to it, I get the same thrill that I can still totally get from Siamese Dream like once a year or so, except Tonic for Hysteria is entirely fresh and new and doesn't remind me of being closeted away in my bedroom, reading fantasy novels, and hating high school.

The record release party for Tonic for Hysteria is going down at Cafe du Nord tomorrow night. Wiretap has been lucky enough to get Excuses for Skipping to play our Wiretap Music Presents events on multiple occasions, and I would definitely recommend their live show. Lead singer Linda Moody plays a bicycle frame on stage. No shit. She puts a strap on it and goes to town with a pair of drum sticks. I'm by no means guaranteeing that she'll be playing the bike frame tomorrow night, but if that doesn't still convince you that you have to check this show out, then you're probably reading the wrong blog.

Now, forthwith and without further delay, here are the answers to my questions about the new album that Linda Moody was kind enough to answer for me.

WTM: What's the name of the new album and what's the significance?

LM: The new album is called Tonic For Hysteria and its our 2nd full length release. The name reflects my own personal journey through a nervous breakdown and finding my way back to the surface.  The title track was inspired by the mythology of The Queen Of Swords, who uses the power of the feminine intuition to slash out her boundaries and reclaim herself.

WTM: Where was it recorded?

LM: Live tracking for the album was done at Digidesign and Expressions Studios with engineers Paul Skibitzke and producer Gregg Marks.  The vocals were done with Kyle Mcgraw at Faultline Studios.

WTM: I understand the album took several years to make and even went through multiple versions. What went down?

LM: It was a long process. We recorded this album almost in its entirety at another studio back in 2009 and because the engineer, who shall remain nameless, had no idea what he was doing, the tracks were virtually useless. We tried to repair them through drum samples and such, and even did guitar overdubs and vocals on about half the album before realizing that it was just unfixable and we'd have to start over from scratch. In the meantime we went through three drummers, and some really intense heartbreaks within the band, until luckily a friend who worked at Digidesign let us use the studio for basically nothing, so we didn't have to shell out another thousand dollars. But that's why it took so long, and we are really happy with how it sounds and don't regret for a minute our decision to re-record the whole album. 

WTM: What were you trying to capture with this album that's different from your past albums?

LM: With this album, we all set out to make a more stripped down record. Our first album was intentionally a wall of sound kind of a thing, and we all felt we wanted this material to come across more raw and naked.

WTM: You guys overcame a lot of challenges to make this record. Did these challenges end up indelibly shaping the way the album came out, or were they just things you had to overcome to achieve your vision?

LM: The songs are about finding your way through intense shattering of identity and heartbreak, and with these feelings there is a vulnerability we wanted reflected in the sound. So there's less reverb, less sweetening overall. I think it's a really honest record, it's an emotional record, and I think it's also a triumphant record. 

WTM: Any tour plans in support?

Our latest episode of "Wiretap Music on BTR" hit the internet-waves yesterday, and it features tons of new music from the likes of Grand Lake, Phantom Kicks, The Sandwitches, and Kissing Cousins. Plus some oldies but goodies in anticipation of new music from some of our favorite bands. It's a great time to be a Bay Area music fan!

Listen on BreakThruRadio or right here: ...