The reunited band, is currently on the road bringing the sweat, energy, rock, and glory it’s so well known for delivering on stage. Here’s a couple of videos from the Pitchfork Festival, in which the band performs “Nub” and is interviewed by Fucked Up’s Pink Eye. Enjoy.

Now, if only Transmission would manage a Jesus Lizard aftershow at Mohawk? That would rule.

Photo by: Briana Purser

We all love reading interviews with our favorite bands, and the interviews usually cover a lot of the same stuff, how the band got started, new album details, etc., etc., etc. Coming into contact with quite a few artists on a regular basis, I figured I could prepare a short set of short answer questions that I could deliver without having to go into a lengthy sit session of talking and editing. This is the third in what I hope to be a long series of “Get To Know In 7″ and any suggestions or recommendations on questions that you might want used in future editions, please, please, let me know.

The self proclaimed “loudest band in Brooklyn” (and I’m not one to argue), A Place to Bury Strangers are currently touring the country in support of NIN, while taking the occasional gig on off days supporting Reznor and company. The band made a stop in Austin, to bring it’s “total sonic anniliation” agenda to Emo’s. Once again, I cannot argue the claim of “total sonic annihilation”, as it was truly an aural onslaught of effect drenched guitars and vocals cutting through the smoky haze like a chainsaw thru jello. I’ve seen a few bands that push the envelope of loud, and until this night, Bob Mould’s band Sugar, held the top spot on this list. It’s taken a few years, but I believe that spot may now belong to APTBS.

Aside from leading the sonic charge for the band as guitarist and vocalist, Oliver Ackerman also designs and builds guitar pedals. Ackerman’s Death by Audio is not just a pedal company, it’s also the name of a compound that serves as a practice space, workshop, art collective, and live music venue to many, including the members of APTBS. Aside from being essential to APTBS’s sound, Death by Audio pedals have found their way to the stage and studio with members of Spoon, T.V. On the Radio, Wilco, and NIN.

Ackerman took a few minutes before the set on Sunday night, to answer 7 questions, for my continuing series Get to Know In 7.

1. What is your birth city? “Allentown, PA.”

2. What is your favorite season and why? “I guess I like Fall, cuz it’s cool, everything’s dying, and it turns all pretty colors. You know it’s kinda psychedelic, and I like some psychedelics”

3. What is your favorite physical attribute of women? “Shoot, I don’t know man, I like the whole thing. It’s hard to say, I like women..I like all sorts.

4. What’s your favorite part of being on the road? “All the different parts of women. No, I’m just joking. You know, just getting out, meeting different people, getting away from home.”

5. If you had to choose one pedal that you couldn’t live without, which one would it be? “I would choose the Octave Clang. Even though I don’t use it all the time, it still sounds f****** sweet.I’m always surprised by the great sounds, and love it.”

6. Last album/recording you selected to play. “Probably some band nobody’s ever heard of before, Heaven Piano Company.”

7. Vinyl, CD, or Mp3? “I like vinyl you know. I like records, but I love Mp3′s too. I like having records, I like holding mp3s though, I like the feel. Not the cheap ones though, extra bitrate, those are the best ones.”

Oliver Ackerman has a funny side. The band has a full shedule of shows in North America booked well into the later part of October. I recommend you check them out, but be sure to bring ear plugs. Seriously.

MP3> A Place to Bury Strangers ‘I Know I’ll See You’

photo : valerie@fremin.net

Plenty of positive entities that fulfill our lives come with one-worded brand names; Oreo’s, Lego’s, and now, local promoter Nardo. Established in 1997 and originating from Detroit, Michigan, Nardo finally came to Austin around 2007 to continue his positive message through live, music shows.

What started off as a passion for music, can now be heard on a weekly basis at The Parish with local bands like The Boxing Lesson, {{{Sunset}}} and more.
Nardo began his music passion through instruments, like many of us do. He learned the basics (guitar, programming and synthesizers mostly) and even put a few bands (Le Ren and The Chocolate Thunder Experience) together. Thus his musical journey led him to Los Angeles for about four or five years, where he began Navdo Records and started helping out talented friends with their musical ventures, as well as his. After the industry slowed, he knew he needed another angle to keep doing what he loved; being involved in music. Lucky for us, he came to Austin.

“I came to Austin just to make music and hang out, but then I started seeing a lot of shows in town and seeing how certain venues were treating the artists and I was bummed out about it, so I wanted to find a better way to do it,” he says. Los Angeles definitely contributed to his start as a promoter, but Austin has helped it thrive.

“In L.A. you have a million different people doing what you’re doing. And even though your game is different from the rest, it’s still hard to stand out because there are a million other companies with big names backing them up. So when you come to Austin, you see that it is the ‘Live Capital of Music,’ but no one is putting these great bands together.”

Fast forward to today and it’s no wonder he’s starting to put together one of the few, great monthlies in town.

“Well now that I’ve started, my goal is to change the game, here in Austin,” he says with utter deliverance. “Mainly it deals with hospitality and taking care of our artists and taking care of the supporters that come to the show. And what I’ve loved so far when people come is that the leave with smiles on their face. And that’s priceless right there.”

Nardo’s non-stop smile and passion is a contagious commodity, making me a believer in my cynical head about the status of the industry today. His message of love with a smile is what he sends to anyone he meets.

“We all like to feel good and smile, and love. Love is free; it’s something you’re not charged for, some places,” he says.

photo : valerie@fremin.net

With his positive message and incessant need to please the artists as well as the audience, it finally seems like someone is doing something right for the music-lovers in this town. Taking care of those who contribute is a major attribute to a great show.

“That’s what it’s about because if you didn’t have the artists, you wouldn’t have the shows. And the best thing is seeing an artist happy because when they’re happy, they’re putting on a killer show. What more can you ask?”

I couldn’t.

-Sonya Gonzales

Help spread his heartfelt sermon by heading to his myspace. You can also check out his bands Le Ren and The Chocolate Thunder Experience as well (Le Ren will contribute to a compilation that will be out in September). But definitely don’t miss out on his amazing shows at The Parish (which are greatly complimented with the help of The Roux, Jimmy John’s and Synaesthesiax Lighting).

April 10th: 9:00 pm: Navdo Presents: {{{Sunset}}} w/ Gulf of Mexico and The Boxing Lesson

April 11th: 9:00 pm: Navdo Presents: {{{Sunset}}} w/ Lomita and The Soldier Thread

April 17th: 8:30 pm: Navdo Presents: Psychedelic Shack w/ Ringo Death Starr; Soundpool; All in the Golden Afternoon; She, Sir

April 18th: 8:3o pm: Navdo Presents: Psychedelic Shack w/ The Boxing Lesson; Soundpool; My Education; Skyisfalling

photo credit: Nabil Elderkin

Lollapalooza August, 2007

I was more than excited to make it to Lollapalooza in Chicago last year. It was my second time to attend the festival and my first to attend it in its new home base of Chicago. A long line up of my favorite bands were playing that weekend; Pearl Jam, Kings of Leon, Ben Harper, Silversun Pickups, the list could go on and on. While Silverchair was on this list, they were admittedly on it for all of the wrong reasons. Visions of Tomorrow and I Miss You Love danced through my head, and I couldn’t wait to see what had become of one of the precious bands of my youth. (Now, none of my words should be taken as criticism, as I had been utterly ignorant of what had become of Silverchair since around 1999.) In my mind, Silverchair had retired, moved on to other projects, and were simply feeling a bit nostalgic, were in the right place at the right time, or maybe even couldn’t resist the paycheck, so decided to play a handful of reunion shows, mostly recycling their old content, to the delight of a crowd of washed up fans like myself chanting along. So after a long Friday night of alcohol consumption and otherwise sordid debauchery, I dragged myself to the two o’clock performance and weaseled my way front and center to prepare for a mid-afternoon blast of mid-90’s alternative/grunge at its finest.

At this point it is fairly obvious where this story is going and I assume every reader has gathered that I, in fact, was not met with what I expected, however this is my story and I will choose to move forward with my obvious plot line…

Absolutely not one of my expectations, other than that of a delighted crowd and exceptionally fine music, were met. Within the first five minutes I was won over. Silverchair, as a group, and as individuals, had grown into adults (obviously) and their music progressed and grew at an equal, if not greater pace. Their music was soulful, it was true rock; for me it was truly amazing. The show was truly brilliant and inspiring. I immediately became a fan, not of what Silverchair once were, but of what they had become.

La Zona Rosa November 2007

Obviously, after my newfound admiration for the boys in Silverchair, I was more than stoked to have them arrive in Austin a month and a half later. During their time here, I had the lucky opportunity to sit down and pick the brain of drummer Ben Gillies.

Gillies met up with me backstage at La Zona Rosa a couple hours before their set and told me his thoughts on footwear (he was ready to update his Puma’s), McDonald’s, Boxing Day, and most importantly, music.

As we settled into the interview, exchanging pleasantries and thank you’s, etc, Gillies was polite enough to feel the need to apologize for the absence of bassist, Chris Joannou. While of course we missed getting a chance to talk with him, Joannou had been the lucky nominee to take on the brunt of us journalists for the day and needed a well deserved break.

Quick to the point, as we were working with a limited amount of time, we got straight into talking about the new tour, the new music, and how the fans are responding to the notably new sounds of Silverchair.

Kristin: Let’s talk about how the tour has been going so far.

Ben: Yeah it’s been fantastic. It’s been nice to be back in America doing a tour. The reception over here has been pretty overwhelming as well. Particularly being away for so long and, I don’t know, I think being out of people’s kind of conscience. A lot of people are rediscovering the band and really excited about the band again and it feels like there is a real kind of buzz in this country about Silverchair again.

B: We came over and did a couple showcases earlier in the year. We just went to LA and New York and somewhere in Canada and that was basically just to show us off to record companies. And then we came back now. And before that, geez, I think we did a quick three weeks back in 2003 in support of Diorama.

As previously mentioned, Silverchair has been out of the scene for awhile. Although they never lost their loyal fan base in Australia, American fans are often as fickle as they come and have somehow grown to expect a new record from their favorite bands almost yearly. A yearly release is imaginably a difficult feat for any band, but Silverchair was dealt a series of hands that made it literally impossible to keep their momentum going.

B: In Australia you know, we have never really gone away. We have always kind of been doing something over there but I think the hardest thing in America is that we couldn’t come here because Daniel was sick. First he had anorexia and then he kind of had to deal with that and we couldn’t really tour and then at the end of recording Diorama he got reactive arthritis and so the timing was always when we had to go onto these big tours so um, yeah so it has been a bit of a challenge kind of turning people back onto the band. Particularly in this country bringing people back up to speed. You know, I think with our music because we have kind of evolved and moved so far forward from those early days, each album is you know, like a dot-to-dot and I think you really need every dot to kind of understand why we’ve ended up where we are. The hardest thing in this country is just kind of, you know, making people aware of that and if you miss one it’s kind of hard to catch up unless you go back and rediscover.

Before moving forward, I thought it relevant to delve into how the members of Silverchair spent their time apart, and more importantly for the fans, the events that brought the boys back together.

K: Going back to the break, can you give me a little information on what you guys all were doing during that time? Side projects and what not…

B: Well Dan did The Dissociatives with Paul; Paul Mac [an Australian electronica artist] who is playing keys. I did a side project called Tambalane and Chris did some production work with a band called The Mess Hall. So we all kept busy and kept doing music.

K: So you all kind of knew the whole time that Silverchair was on a hiatus and that it wasn’t broken up?

B: Yeah we hadn’t broken up but I guess in people’s eyes when a band starts doing all this other stuff they just kind of assume that the bands broken up. But yeah, we never broke up, we just kind of said lets go and do something and we’ll see what happens and if it eventually did become a break up that’s fine. We weren’t planning on doing a Silverchair tour, it was just, we did this concert in Australia called Wave Aid which was a benefit concert for tsunami victims. We hadn’t even spoken of Silverchair and it happened on Boxing Day, is that what it is called?

K: Is that a Canadian holiday?

B: It’s an Australian one too, must be a Commonwealth thing. Something to do with the UK, I don’t know. Yeah, so the tsunami, so we did that concert. We got a call and we hadn’t played together in like two years and we got a call from our manager and he was like, “do you guys want to do it?” We were all sooo nervous because we hadn’t really spoken, we weren’t fighting or anything, we were just off doing our things and hadn’t really spoken much in two years and hadn’t played together for two years. Then we literally did two rehearsals that were like an hour each, and considering the amount of time, the rehearsals actually sounded pretty tight considering we hadn’t played together for that long. We did a gig and it was just an amazing show and we came off stage and were like, “we are so stupid, what are we doing?” It just felt great so why would we let it go. So, I don’t quite know how I got to that bit, haha.

After the show sparked the flame to record again, Silverchair, older, wiser, and free from any ties to a record company, left their home of Australia to record their new record their way, with their own money, and on their own timeline.

B: It was quite a long process for the album. We started rehearsing in Christmas 2005, rented a house in South Wales. It was really fun; we had fires every night because we were totally in the styx, really really isolated. We just wanted to do it that way so if at two o’clock in the morning we felt inspired, or if we were out around the fire eating or drinking or talking, because we spoke about our music a lot and really kind of lived this album. You know, we all got away from home and got away from our comfort zones. It was just great, at three o’clock in the morning if you had a couple pints or a few wines and you were feeling good and you were talking about a particular song or something and felt like this would be good here or something, you can just be like, fuck it, lets go jam or whatever. And then in 2006 we did some more pre-production and then went to LA and recorded in LA.

K: Who produced the record?

B: Nick Launay. He um, who has he done since? Well he did two of our previous albums; he did Freakshow and Neon Ballroom. And um, he’s based in LA now, and I can’t think of who else he’s done, he’s done Midnight Oil from Australia, he does a lot of Nick Cave stuff, he’s really cool, he works really well with us because he comes in and we get really precious about songs and particular parts and he’ll come in and turn it all upside down. You get stuck in your little bubble and once you’re in your own little world you’re kind of stuck in that world and its nice to have someone come in with fresh ears and just go, “you know what, that sucks” or, “I like that but it needs changing,” or “that sounds really good.” We feel comfortable with it. Yeah so, it’s always nice to work with him.

K: Has it been a pretty different process doing this album as opposed to older albums now that you all are older and have a little bit more control or say?

B: Yeah, this album we probably made a lot different than any of the other ones we have done. We actually paid for this one ourselves, just so we could cut out any record company and musical influence. Just the theme of getting away from Australia and away from our homes just so we had no distractions and could really live and breathe the music. I guess that is something we really wanted to do this time around. So that’s why we did the rehearsal away from everyone. We always usually rehearse and record in Sydney for all the other albums so that’s why we went to South Wales to rehearse and went to LA to record it.

K: How long was that whole process?

B: I think the whole recording took maybe four months. It was a lot broken up, a little practice here and there. We had to do the strings in Prague so it was quite an international record; we went all over the place. But just all the logistics, and getting people where you want them and also getting the music how you want it to be, getting it right, it’s a pretty long process.

It’s no secret that the music industry here in America is in somewhat of a crisis these days. Everyone has their own opinions about the causes, symptoms, and cures to this problem and I was curious to uncover the thoughts of an outsider trying to play the music business game in both the American industry and the likely very different, Australian industry.

K: Speaking of record companies, I’m curious to hear the differences, or what you being from Australia perceive as differences in the American music industry and the Australian industry.

B: Yeah, I don’t know, I guess the hip hop or the whole urban kind of music scene over here is really popular at the moment. And I mean I like some of it. To me, the music industry in Australia is really healthy and there are so many really good acts in Australia really being adventurous and coming out with really good new stuff. I don’t know, the more time we spend here the more it feels like its turning into McDonald’s music. It’s not only too commercial, it is like fast food, you kind of here it twice and you’re over it. It’s catchy and it might sell a lot but it hasn’t really got any substance. It’s really shallow. That’s really vague, but that’s what it feels like. It doesn’t turn us on anyway.

B: I think considering kind of where we’re at at the moment, in America. I guess America is, it’s not the Holy Grail, but it’s one of the hardest markets to crack for the music industry in the whole world so we’ve always taken that as a bit of a challenge. It’s always been really frustrating for us because we feel like we’re on the cutting edge of really pushing ourselves musically, there’s not many bands doing that and it just frustrates us that we always seem to be like really battling you know.

K: Well we are McDonald’s…

B: Ha, yeah we’re not like a McDonald’s hamburger, we’re more like a mixed plate of sashimi. So America’s always been a bit of a challenge for us that we want to conquer, and considering the buzz and the vibe that we’ve had here at the moment and how people have seemed willing to rediscover the band and how excited a lot of people seem to be I don’t think we’ll wait as long to release anything new. Hopefully I think we’ll come back here next year to do a tour as well. I don’t think the life of this record is over just yet.

So there you have it, I couldn’t have said it any better myself. Consumers of main stream American music have likely heard Silverchair playing on their local radio stations. Maybe the opportunity to indulge in the finer things in life such as a nice mixed plate of sashimi will finally clear that deadened palate out and make room for something other than that artery clogging McDonald’s Big Mac they have been tricked into liking for far too long.

It looks as though Silverchair are currently wrapping up their tour in Australia. Let’s hope Ben’s predictions are correct and that we will be seeing the boys back in here later in the year.

MP3> Straight Lines