Pretty & Nice, But Mostly Just Fun

Holden Lewis and Jeremy Mendicino may be pretty and nice, but most of all, this duo is fun.  Pretty & Nice, Lewis and Mendicino’s band, have been Boston’s best-kept secret for years now.  Formed in a basement somewhere on the outskirts of the city, the band records their own snappy pop with both grace and childlike abandon, making them the pop band to beat.  After completing the band as a foursome with Kevin Walsh and Roger Lussier, the band took to the streets, touring relentlessly.

Pretty & Nice’s latest release, Get Young, is nothing short of wonderful.  Warping pop hints around a solid static and noisy aggression, the latest release is modern in sound, but a throwback in emotion- embodying all that Pretty & Nice is.  The band’s been on tour essentially since the release (with more energy than most of the bands you could think of) and shows no signs of becoming “too old” or “too young.”

Lewis and Mendicino got me up to speed on line in the fast line, how they stay so fun and their plans to record.

KP: You guys record in your basement, so it’s safe to say you’re a pretty DIY band.  How much do you actually do yourselves?

JM: We rule the world!   We operate every machine of our collective existence.    And well!   And How!

HL:  Yeah, we have a studio – It’s called Esthudio.  It has pretty pictures and lists: esthudio.com.   We started out doing EVERYTHING that you can do on our own.  Now, we’re fortunate enough to have some help, but we like to think we’re more self-sufficient than yer average band.

Shout Out Louds: A Q&A

Shout Out Louds are back to work with their new album and a new sound.  Brought together as friends in Stockholm, the band has been rocking the Indie Pop Rock world for years now.  With two releases under their belts, Shout Out Louds took a six-month vacation of sorts before reuniting to create their new release, appropriately titled, Work.

A step away from their previous albums, Work is stripped, with an air of whimsicality.  The album, produced by Indie hit maker Phil Ek (Fleet Foxes, Band of Horses) signals Shout Out Louds acceptance of music as a living.  The overall feel of the album is cheery and reminiscent of summer.  All in all, with their new album, Shout Out Louds have found a way to make work fun again.

Singer and Guitarist Adam Olenius spoke with me about the release and the preparations for the album.

KP: Could you tell me a bit about how the band came to be?

AO: After school, Ted (bass) and I met at different parties and talked about music and starting a band.  He’d never played an instrument but just wanted something to do, so we called up our friends and started—from the very, very beginning.

KP: In addition to your music, you do a lot of work for the band yourselves (i.e. the art, the music videos). How would you describe the creative process?

AO: We often collect things and ideas during tours and breaks and talk about them when we get back to work. Carl and I, who do all the artwork, were inspired by Irving Penn on this album, so we wanted the album cover to have a photo book feel to it.

KP: I read that you all parted ways for six months before the creation of this album. What did you do during that time period before reuniting?

AO: I went down to Melbourne for three months and started writing the album. And I also did a lot of nothing—wining and dining, for the most part.

Getting Down With OK Go

Since their breakout success in 2005, OK GO has been one of America’s most creative and memorable bands.  Their DIY videos, most often done in one take, showcase unusual, yet energetic dance moves that make their songs even more irresistible than they already are.  With the release of their new album, Of the Blue Colour of the Sky, OK GO is back for more and ready to get down.  OurStage got the chance to catch up with Damian Kulash, frontman of the band, to chat about recording the album, their upcoming video and expansive world of OK GO.

Katie Price: It’s been almost half a decade since your last album.  What was it like to record again after all that time?  Did you have to dust off your dancing shoes?

Damian Kulash (singer): Wow, half a decade, that makes it sound really dramatic and long.  I can’t tell you how happy we were to get back into the studio and record.  This time around we recorded with Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, MGMT, Mercury Rev.) Dave gave us the keys to his wonderfully weird, psychedelic three-dimensional sonic universe.  We went hog wild as they say on The Dukes Of Hazzard and other TV programs that take place in the South.  More so than ever before, we really let the beats and the sounds define the emotions of the songs.  It was great fun, and I’m really happy with the end result.

KP: “Shoot The Moon” was included in the Twilight soundtrack.  A lot of tween girls freak out over the series.  What do you guys geek out over?

DK: I geek out over iPhone applications and gadgetry in general- mid century modern Danish furniture, Pee Wee’s Playhouse, playwriting, Flash Gordon, artwork by Claire Rojas and the band Mew.

Talkin’ Supervision with Dave Hnatiuk

With the growing amount of stock put into a TV, Film, or Advertising placement, music supervisors are in high demand.  The fast paced career takes more than just a love of music.  It requires serious networking skills, the ability to navigate licensing, and a lot of multi-tasking.  The guys at Music Supervision Central understand this and even authored a book detailing the tasks associated with being a Music Supervisor.  With their expansive backgrounds, they detail how to break into the industry that’s being called “”The New A&R.”

One of the authors, Dave Hnatiuk, has enough supervision experience to last him a lifetime.  Living by his motto, “Find what you love, and make it who you are,” Hnatiuk has made a living placing audio to video.  His clients include MTV, ABC, NBC, and an expansive list of well-known broadcasters.  I got the chance to chat with Hnatiuk about his role as a music supervisor.

Ways and Means: Oblio has a Revelation of Their Own

Though named after an outcast from an obscure children’s fable, Oblio seems to have no trouble fitting in.  Perfectly mixing everything gratifying about classic rock with current indie charm and a bit of alt-country twang, the members of Oblio have been making music long enough to find happiness and success in the industry.  The Nashville trio, consisting of frontman Terry Price, bassist Travis Vance and drummer Benjarvis Dumas, have had to go through several EPs and a lineup change in order to reach the level of clarity they’re at now.  With the release of their first full-length album, ‘Tonight, You’re Gonna Be A Revelation’, Oblio has had a revelation entirely their own.

TM: First off, where did you get your name?
Terry: The name Oblio is from a children’s record called ‘The Point’ by Gary Nilsson.  He’s the guy that did the lime in the coconut song.  So anyways, on the record, the main character is Oblio and he has a round head.  Everyone else in the story has a pointed head.  So, he gets kicked out of the Land of Point because he has a round head and no point.  So he goes on a journey of self-discovery, really.  It turned into a great cartoon narrated by The Beatle’s Ringo Starr.
Benjarvis: We identify ourselves as a little different.  And it sounds cool.
TM: Have you released full-length albums prior to ‘Tonight, You’re Going to Be a Revelation”, or is this your debut?
Terry: It’s actually kind of weird.  To make a long story short, our first album was a full-length called ‘Dichotomy’ and then we had an EP called ‘Seeds’.  But it was a short run pressing and it was on iTunes for a little, but we didn’t feel like it was representative of our overall sound so we took it off.  Then we put out another EP called ‘Create the Night: Part I’, which is on iTunes.  Then we recorded ‘Create the Night: Part II’, but that never came out because we had to let a member go and we decided to just focus our efforts as a three piece.  So then last year we came out with an EP called ‘Southern Trends’, but we didn’t feel like that captured our sound.  So we didn’t really push that or put it on iTunes.  Now, we have our full length and that’s our official follow-up and debut.
Benjarvis: We’re really proud of this one.
TM: How long have you been working on it?
Terry:  Since December?
Benjarvis: We rerecorded a lot of songs.
Terry:  The reason it took us so long is that we tracked all of the vocals in December and January and then I got really sick with something called Bell’s palsy.  Basically, the left side of my face is paralyzed.  It should be temporary, but it’s starting to get better.  It took me a month, a month and a half to start to feel better and well enough to record the rest of the vocals.
Benjarvis: Yea, he’s been a real champion about it.  He got to the point where it was like, ‘Well, fuck this.  I gotta get singing again.’ We had a good show in Nashville set up with this great band from N.Y., Chairlift, and Terry was like well we’re doing this show and we’ll see what happens.  I think it lit a fire under all of our asses.

 

TM:  So when I saw you open up for Camera Obscura, I was blown away by the drumming and I looked around to see jaws dropping.  Honestly, Camera Obscura isn’t the type of band you’d think to have an opener with a drummer as sick as you guys do.  How would you describe your style of drumming?
Benjarvis: This may not be the answer you’re looking for, but… you go through a lot of shit in a day and not everything always goes your way and some shit’s gotta come out somehow and I when I sit down and play, everything comes out.  I really want to do what’s best for the song… but sometimes that’s hard (laughs). I get into it too much and I want to make these other guys playing with me happy.  So, I just try and rein it in to be good.  I try to have as few drums as possible because the more stuff I have up there, the more stuff I’m going to dick around on basically.  I keep everything to the point, but then somehow, it gets away with me.  Actually, when we played the Camera Obscura show in Nashville, the local rag called me a ‘hard hitting drummer’, but said something about ‘obfuscating drum fills’ and I don’t know if that was in a good way or in a bad way.  But, I thought it was amazing to have drum fills that make things confusing, but I think they thought it was a bad thing.  So… I’d say I’m obfuscating and the opposite of obfuscating at the same time.