Q & A: a warm chat with Cold Specks

Posted on November 15, 2012 by Celeste in interviews | Leave a comment

cold specks

Al Spx, the centerpiece of the Canadian “doom soul” outfit Cold Specks, made waves in the music world this past summer when she released her debut album “I Predict a Graceful Expulsion.” The singer songwriter has a moody, achingly beautiful, sweeping sound that has garnered overwhelmingly positive reviews from music critics. Spx’s songs, while being intensely personal, also touch on ideas of universal scope – isolation, faith, sadness – themes to which her listeners everywhere can relate. Spx was nice enough to sit down and respond to some questions I emailed her way. She’s on tour right now through Canada, the US and Europe. Go see her if you have the chance and you’ll understand what all the fuss is about – and if you live in Copenhagen you’d better buy your ticket early.

You’ve spoken in previous interviews about how you take inspiration from musicians from the American South – which ones in particular? Do you think your music tends to be similar to theirs in style?

I think my music is inspired by a great deal of things. Musicians from the American South seems to be one of the bigger ones. I think it’s because I discovered music from that region around the same I started singing. I adore James Carr and when I was younger I studied him obsessively. I could have easily made a straight up soul record. But I wasn’t interested in that. I wanted a collection of songs that would reflect what I was feeling at the time. I think the result is probably something greatly influenced by music from the past. But I’d like to think I am doing something different.

Do you have a favorite track off your debut album? Or are they like your children in that you’re not allowed to play favorites?

At first, they were all my babies. Currently, I am more than willing to put some of them down. My favourite song on the record has always been ‘Hector’. Sonically, it is a wild one.

What has been your favorite place to perform live? Any cities that had particularly good crowds?

DENMARK! The Danes seem to have really attached themselves to Cold Specks. We recently played to over 1000 people in Copenhagen. That doesn’t happen very often for us. In fact, that was the first time we headlined a show with that many people in the audience. It was COOL.

What’s your creative process for writing your songs? Do you write the music at the same time you write the lyrics? Does it vary from song to song?

To be completely honest with you, it’s different every time. Sometimes the music comes first. Sometimes it’s the words. Sometimes there’s a melody and everything is based around it.

Your music is self-described as “doom soul,” which seems entirely fitting for the bleak but soaring music you create. You’ve spoken about how the songs on “I Predict a Graceful Expulsion” were written at a different point in your life and that they don’t necessarily reflect on your life now. Do you see yourself creating more music in the doom soul genre, or do you think you’ll move in a new direction?

I’ve been writing more. It seems the songs are driven more by rhythm. The nylon acoustic has been put to rest but the songs, and the voice are never overwhelmed. I am a firm believer that the human voice is the most beautiful instrument in the world. I think my songs will always focus on that aspect. I’m not sure what DOOM SOUL is. Maybe, we’ll fully realise it with the next record. Rob Ellis has been drumming with us on tour recently and my producer Jim Anderson has been on bass. We’ve been experimenting with combining operatic vocal drones with off-kilter rhythms. It’s been interesting. I never want to get stuck doing the same thing. I think it’s only natural to keep experimenting. Besides, new directions are always exciting.

Remaining Cold Specks tour dates
11/17 – Harold M. Williams Auditorium at the Getty Museum – Los Angeles, CA
11/18 – Bottom of The Hill – San Francisco, CA
11/20 – Doug Fir Lounge – Portland, OR
11/21 – St James Hall – Vancouver, BC
11/23 – Festival Hall – Calgary, AB
11/24 – Festival Hall – Calgary, AB
11/26 – Park Theatre – Winnipeg, MB
11/28 – Cedar Cultural Center – Minneapolis, MN
11/29 – Schubas – Chicago, IL

Concert Reviews: The Front Bottoms, November 10th, Beat Kitchen

Posted on November 14, 2012 by Celeste in Concerts | Leave a comment

“The last time we toured with Cheap Girls we got fined $500 for teasing a police animal. If a police dog barks at you, don’t bark back.”

The Please and Thank Yous started out the night on Saturday in Chicago, not only warming up the stage musically for Cheap Girls and The Front Bottoms, but also imparting words of wisdom to the all ages crowd at Beat Kitchen. Playing mostly from their newest album “At Your Merci” (they made sure to point out the word play to the audience. I’m guessing puns are not new territory for this band since their “about” page on facebook reads “taking the k out of punk since 2006” – love it), the foursome filled the stage with their DIY indie-punk sound, and were obviously appreciative of the packed house that had come in early to see them.

Cheap Girls took the stage next, and unlike the Please and Thank Yous, they got down to business right away – no banter – which is somewhat surprising for a band with the name Cheap Girls who has run ins with the police. I would say more about their set but I was mostly focused on not passing out at that point – it must’ve been 100 degrees in that place – and trying to justify to myself again why it was not okay to take all my clothing off. During the set one semi-conscious girl got carried off by security and another walked by with a face full of blood (not really sure what happened to her, but somewhat ironic that The Front Bottoms have a song called “I think your nose is bleeding”), so I got rather distracted and that’s all I can say about Cheap Girls’ set.

Happily later in the night security opened some doors (if only temporarily) and The Front Bottoms took the stage to the obvious joy of the sold out crowd. The Front Bottoms will stick with me for two reasons: they have very, very specific songs, and they obviously love their fans.

A lot of indie bands have hazy, vague songs that blend into each other, but not The Front Bottoms. The Front Bottoms have that song about taking pictures of a sleeping girlfriend and hearing her dog whistle from the other room. And they have that other one about wearing concrete boots and finding comfort in the bottom of a swimming pool. Then there’s that one about having a map on your wall and big, big dreams, with the chorus that is impossible to get out of your head about ending up washing yourself with handsoap in a public restroom. Every single one of their songs tells a story, and most have lyrics that make me laugh out loud.

Obviously the crowd was enjoying the show as much as I was, because by the time The Front Bottoms came to their last song of the night, 50% of the audience was up on the stage, singing along with the lead singer, dancing, stepping on his guitar chord, and ruffling his hair (all of which he took in stride, with considerable calm). A lot of artists yell out the obligatory “we love Chicago!” “you guys are awesome!” during their sets, but maintaining your smile while 50 copiously sweating teenagers take over your stage – that’s something else.

Song of the Day: Lisa Jaeggi – All The Good

Posted on November 13, 2012 by Celeste in Song of the Day | Leave a comment

The opening sentence of a story can make or break a book. It will either draw you in and absorb you entirely, or your eyes will glaze over, you’ll put it down and you’ll move onto the next one. The same holds true for song openings – even if they do only tend to be four minutes long, a good song will still catch your attention from the very opening lines and hold it.

Lisa Jaeggi has a great song opening. The staccato guitar pluck overlaid with the percussion instrument (vibraslap? shekere? I’m not really sure) that starts off “All the Good” perks up your ears and gets your attention right away. It’s clean. It’s refreshing. It reminds me of the sensation of getting a nose full of cold and crisp autumn air. The rest of the song isn’t too shabby either – give it a listen:

Concert Review: Machine Head, Dethklok, November 7 , Sound Academy

Posted on November 12, 2012 by Paul in Concerts | 1 Comment

It’s not unheard of for a cartoon band to become a real band. The precedent has been set by groups like The Archies, Josie and The Pussycats, and a little band you may have heard of called Gorillaz. Dethklok fits nicely into that tradition while maintaining the proper level of brutality. Unlike Gorillaz though. Dethklok has the advantage of being a cartoon band who actually have their own cartoon, the often hilarious Metalocalypse. Led by Metalocalypse creator Brendon Small (also the brains behind Home Movies) and featuring legendary drummer Gene Hoglan (“I don’t know how we got him,” said Small at one point), the band opened with the Metalocalypse theme song (all bands really should have their own theme song) before launching into new single, “I Ejaculate Fire.” There’s obviously a satirical edge to Dethklok’s music but the great thing about the satire is it’s sometimes only just slightly more ridiculous and exaggerated than what one might find in straightforward, meant-to-be-taken-seriously death metal. After all, this is a genre wherein one of it’s standard bearers, Cannibal Corpse, have an entire record which is essentially a concept album about necrophilia in all it’s myriad forms. I’ll bet you didn’t know there were myriad forms of necrophilia but apparently there are, especially when the living dead are taken into account. But I digress and (hopefully) no one really wants to hear too much about this subject, so let’s move on.

As I said, there’s a definite satirical edge to the lyrics, but the music is definitely taken seriously by the band. The music alone, however, would not have made for a show as entertaining as this was.  Much of the entertainment value came from the continuous projections of scenes from the series, animated music videos, and scenes which seemed to be custom made for the tour. One of the more amusing was a message for all the guys at the show on how not to be a douchebag around the girls at the show since metal shows do tend to be a little testosterone heavy. The advice included such sage gems as “don’t stare” and “don’t rub your boner on them.” Both solid pieces of advice.  All in all, Dethklok put on an entertaining show, despite the reservations I had going in.

That’s right, I had reservations. Not so much because I didn’t expect it to be good, but mostly because I didn’t know what to expect. Would we actually be doused with gallons of scalding hot coffee? Would this just be Gorillaz with heavy guitars and  more guttural vocals? Would it be kind of like just watching cartoons but with a mosh pit? Well, sort of, but it was still a fun time. I did have one other misgiving about the show though, and that was the question of why Oakland metal heroes Machine Head (or “Machine Fucking Head” to their fans) were mere openers on this tour. After all, Machine Head’s been going since 1991 and have deservedly amassed a large number of dedicated fans. That said, after seeing the kind of show Dethklok puts on, I understood why they were headlining and it even made sense, but certainly others in attendance had the same thought. Machine Head did still get roughly an hour to dazzle the crowd and they did impress with the lengthy, proggy numbers off their latest, Unto The Locust. As I said, Machine Head have some dedicated fans and they did show their appreciation. “That’s what I love about Canada, that all you motherfuckers come out and get hammered!” said frontman Rob Flynn at one point. He also praised the crowd for being really loud. As loud as the crowd could get though, they showed how quiet they could get when Flynn asked for a moment of silence in recognition of fallen comrade Mitch Lucker, vocalist for Suicide Silence who recently passed away in a motorcycle accident. It was a nice moment. 

Ultimately, while some may have quibbled over who exactly should have headlined, over the length of the set times, or over the early start of the show (I wonder how many got there for The Black Dahlia Murder’s 6:30 opening set?  I certainly couldn’t bring myself to spend that amount of time at the dreaded Sound Academy) , it seems a pretty safe bet that no one walked away from this show entirely unsatisfied.

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