DECADES

Food//Fashion/Gore//Intellectualism

[decadesmagazine]

Profligate: An Interview

      WARM LEATHERETTE UTTERS ITS LAST BREATH. AND WITH IT, A COLD DEATH RATTLE. 

BEHOLD, PROFLIGATE. AN INTERVIEW.

Words by Sky Madden

Photos and Media by Sadie Mellerio

Profligate is: Noah Anthony

DECADES MAGAZINE [SKY MADDEN]: Test, test, test….

PROFLIGATE [NOAH ANTHONY]: I'm uhhh, a pretty low talker.

DECADES: Wow, so yeah, I can't believe you're here and it's the last Warm Leatherette. I'm here with Noah Anthony and some stray cats in the back of Sub Mission on 18th and Mission shit hole.

It's so nice. 

Uhhhhhhmmmm. Oh jeeze. I feel like get more nervous than the people I'm interviewing do. 

PROFLIGATE: I hate cats.

DECADES: (Laugh)

PROFLIGATE: I love cats. But like….. I saw this thing recently and decided. I'm so sick of cats. 

DECADES: Ah.

PROFLIGATE: I'm never getting another one.

DECADES: It's a personal thing.

PROFLIGATE: Well I have a cat and she has so many problems. Like, I have to give her two pills a day. It's just like, it's such an ordeal.

DECADES: Man, they like you. These cats here like Noah.

Cats swirl around Noah's waist and tip toe in between the La Taqueria El Buen Sabor chips and chicken burrito splayed out on the table along with the recording equipment as if to distract, to divert our attention from the conversation.

DECADES: Hmm there appears to be like, something very real going on here.

PROFLIGATE: Yeah.

DECADES: Wait so you spent a year living in Oakland but where are you originally from?

PROFLIGATE: I grew up in West Virginia. 

DECADES: West Virginia?

PROFLIGATE: Yeah. Up in the country.

DECADES: Oh wow.

PROFLIGATE: Yeah. Get away from the burrito. (Anthony to cats)

DECADES: Where do you live now though?

PROFLIGATE: Now I live in Chapel Hill. I moved there in July.

DECADES: I'm building some chronology for the kids at home here listening in on this interview. Where, what sandwiched your time before and after Oakland?

PROFLIGATE: Hmmm let's see, ha well, me and my ex-girlfriend. We used to have this band called SOCIAL JUNK. We moved out here to Oakland after a brutal tour around the country and we just kind of ended up here. That was in 2008 or '09. I moved there from Kentucky. After Oakland I moved to Philadelphia and that's where I started PROFLIGATE. The project before was called NIGHT BURGER and it kind of transformed in to PROFLIGATE. I felt like it was time to change the name because the music had changed so much. 

DECADES: That's exactly what I want to talk about. See, noise is very new to me. Techno and dance music or music rooted in dance rather, is more something, well dance music is my entry point into music. But since being exposed to noise music inadvertently by living in San Francisco and also by my girlfriend Sarah Bernat who I find to be the great connector of scenes and of people trying to breakout. 

To make a vast generalization I want to make the point that there is this world of noise and there are people who stuck with noise, stalwartedly and then there are these people who started to get curious about making noise music informed by dance and techno. There are these people who came from noise in a sense and they really embraced these techno sensibilities, these sounds. 

I'm wondering what you think about this.

PROFLIGATE: Yeah, I dunno, I mean it just seems like it's more of a natural progression of people trying to do new things. I'm not knowledgeable about techno music honestly at all. I also don't feel like I play techno music. 

DECADES: Yeah I guess I don't know how to really describe PROFLIGATE.

PROFLIGATE: I definitely grab on to things from industrial music and with PROFLIGATE I guess that's what I'm actually most interested in. I also listen to a lot of pop music. But, I also feel like back when noise music was the thing I didn't really feel like I was a noise guy either. I never felt like I was making noise music. Everything I ever did- and with SOCIAL JUNK as well… it was all composed. We were methodical about working on stuff and about writing songs. I feel like I've been in the same place I've always been. It's just like… things change and so you experiment. Everyone has to experiment with things. I mean I'm also, I don't know... I do hear a lot of different ideas and from my friends and other people and that definitely has an influence on me, I'm sure. 

         Pictured above: Noah Anothony live as PROFLIGATE October 12th 2013 at the final edition of Warm Leatherette. Watch excerpts of the performance and his audience here.

DECADES: In your last interview I read that you said, "I'm not a noise guy, I'm not a techno guy, no labels, no politics no bullshit." That's very strong.

It's hard from someone like me because I'm more of a collector and much less of an artist. The way I see things are that they're either this thing or their that thing. What I see are artists and their work and in my brian they fit into nice neat little blocks so it's very liberating to read about someone who feels like what they're making isn't necessarily tied to any conceptual intention. Necessarily. 

PROFLIGATE: I think it's natural to want to break things apart. 

DECADES: What did you mean just now about pop music?

PROFLIGATE: Depeche Mode. 

DECADES: Fuck yeah.

PROFLIGATE: I guess also like, pop music, really accessible music you know? It's really been a big influence. 

It's just constant you know. 

I'm just constantly bombarded by it. 

Everywhere you go, you know? I definitely think that is a big influence. 

DECADES: I feel like we're living in a strange, unique time where the perspective seems to be the converse of what's what's always been. Of what has always been… which is pop music influences that which is the underground. I feel very much now, that it's flipped and that which is underground informs pop music. Look at how weird all that shit is like Nikki Minaj and GaGa you know. There are pop things happening and there are dance things happening and maybe folk, country, bluegrass- all these things, ambient and dub, and then you have representation of each of these things as far as tradition can see. But now, it's not that way. Pop music is like you say. It is ubiquitous. It's nebulous and it is influenced by that which is yet to be unseen or unheard. It's neither here nor there. 

It's very blurry.

PROFLIGATE: Yeah. Maybe. 

DECADES: It's the way that we take music in. It is this way because of laptop and streaming and DJ's and record stores and all the instantaneous ways we ingest music. 

PROFLIGATE: Everything has changed.

DECADES: Yeah. Like how do you like to listen to music?

PROFLIGATE: I listen to music…. pretty much constantly. I bought a van recently and I wanted to make sure that it had a tape player in it. I feel like I just mostly listen to tapes in my car and just drive around all the time and I listen that way. Then there's my turntable but…. I just moved and I have so much stuff in storage. 

DECADES: You drive a lot while you're listening to music. 

PROFLIGATE: Yeah. In North Carolina you have to drive everywhere. I listen to a lot of tapes.

DECADES: What are some tapes that you can remember that are sitting in your van at home right now. 

PROFLIGATE: Ahhhh whhoooffff. Okay This guy Bernard Herman.

DECADES: Bernard Herman?

PROFLIGATE: Yeah. He's um, not the composer obviously. Um.

DECADES: I don't know either Ben Hermans. 

PROFLIGATE: It's this guy from New York. He had this album come out earlier this year called ONE THOUSAND MASKS. It's pretty much on repeat. It's been on repeat for quite a while. 

I don't know, I just go through so much. 

DECADES: You said that it's constant. 

PROFLIGATE: What?

DECADES: You said that you listen, that you listen to music constantly. Maybe you can't remember what you have in there because you listen to so much. 

PROFLIGATE: Yeah I mean if you opened my van probably 40 tapes would fall out. 

DECADES: I think that tape cassettes are having an interesting time. 

PROFLIGATE: Yeah.

DECADES: The band I'm in almost exists exclusively on tapes and we're really good. 

PROFLIGATE: Tapes are my favorite medium by far. I use tapes in almost every project that I do. 

DECADES: I saw during soundcheck that you had a Walkman sort of tape player up there with you. I've never fully understood what people do or what they can do with a tape player live necessarily.

PROFLIGATE: You can do loops and uh, well there are a lot of different uses. I play in this other band called FORM A LOG. It's a trio. All tapes. But we like, we work as a band. We have like, tight songs that we play with prerecorded music that we've played and then recorded on our own separately and then when we get together we write songs with our tapes. 

DECADES: You have to excuse me, I'm so grossly overeducated so to me it's like I want to make this comment that what you just described is just so sort of Post Modern you know? That you would do that. 

PROFLIGATE: Tapes and using tapes are just natural for me to use. I use tapes all the time.

DECADES: But the idea of recording something like a bass like and bringing a bass to practice you bring a tape and play it. 

PROFLIGATE: Yeah well, what we did actually first was try to form a real band with real instruments but it was terrible. It just like really bad so we got the idea to record on our own and then get together and just play it. It's probably my favorite project that I've ever been in as far as collaborating with other people. 

DECADES: What do you think of the current state of making and doing music, how do you feel about the whole scope of like… thinking about something and then doing it and playing shows and like what you're doing tonight for instance, playing this party. The state of it, now, right now. What do you think of what is happening right now.

PROFLIGATE: Well I think it's a lot easier to try things out and try your weird ideas. Now anybody can just like throw some insane shit together and get out there. 

DECADES: Do you think this idea of "anybody" or "anyone," can impact the universe of…. art and music?

PROFLIGATE: Yeahhhhhh hmmm I mean I think it's a really cool thing. A lot of it is. You hear a lot of things that maybe you wouldn't years ago and maybe you just get to hear different world of ideas and things. And now there are people making music who might not ever have made music or get to make music. It's easier to make your ideas come together. You do have to just kind of sift through a lot of shit out there but there are a lot of gems out there too. I love YouTube and all the access it's like watching someone doing weird home videos but music instead sometimes. 

I'm not opposed to it.

DECADES: Do you watch movies?

PROFLIGATE: I watch like, three movies a day or so. I'm like… crazy about movies. 

DECADES: Oh wow, tell me what you like. 

PROFLIGATE: Uhh I guess like, mostly horror movies and uhhh horror and weird shit hmmmm.

DECADES: What are the last few things you saw by yourself.

PROFLIGATE: I saw that movie THRILLER: A COOL PICTURE. It's kind of an original of a certain genre that I'm not exactly a total fan of. It's a part of that whole Rape-Revenge genre.

DECADES: Yeah that one, I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE.

PROFLIGATE: Yeah, Spit On Your Grave uh huh that one, that one is pretty brutal.

DECADES: IRREVERSIBLE is like my top top top top favorite. 

PROFLIGATE: Yeah.

This movie kind of started that whole thing. THRILLER: A COOL PICTURE. Had to watch that one twice in one day recently actually because my girlfriend hadn't seen it. 

DECADES: Tell me more of what you've seen. 

PROFLIGATE: I just saw CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD over at my friend's. I believe it's a Muccio Focci. Killer, killer movie. In Chapel Hill there's this guy who runs HOT RELEASES a label. He does a lot of Halloween movie screenings. 

DECADES: I think it's interesting how often horror movies are paired with music specifically. 

PROFLIGATE: Yeah. I mean. They're totally separate in my mind. 

DECADES: You're not the horror/techno guy.

PROFLIGATE: Yeah I don't do like, samples in songs and that kind of thing. 

DECADES: You know that band GATEKEEPER?

PROFLIGATE: Yeah, yeahh.

DECADES: I love that shit. 

PROFLIGATE: It's cool. I like it. 

DECADES: Yeah.

PROFLIGATE: Hmm I guess I am actually sampling from a horror movie. Tonight actually I'm going to do it I think. 

DECADES: Tonight!

PROFLIGATE: Yeah from this horror movie called COME AND SEE.

DECADES: You have a release called "COME AND SEE" no?

PROFLIGATE: No that's "COME FOLLOW ME".

DECADES: Ohhhhhh.

PROFLIGATE: Not related.

DECADES: Not related. 

PROFLIGATE: Yeah no. "COME FOLLOW ME"… I had this tape, from this friend growing up. He would just record himself onto these tapes of him talking and stuff and telling stories. So weird and so like, I don't know, real strange but like one of his tapes, that I somehow ended up with one which was called "COME FOLLOW ME" ...

DECADES: You mean it said that on the tape.

PROFLIGATE: Yeah that's all it said. 

DECADES: It's strange and it's good that you told me that because it's funny. So much of what I see, so much of your music I have like… I have a very erotic experience with it, PROFLIGATE is a sexual thing for me. Or the way I feel the content moves me is, in that way is an erotic idea for me sometimes. So like "COME FOLLOW ME" to me for me makes me think about how much I don't actually know about what your musical or lyrical intentions are. Like it makes me realize how much on to other peoples music because I'm like oh, PROFIGATE and "Vixen," 'everything here for me is about sex.' Or something. For instance.

PROFLIGATE: I mean I can see that. All that stuff is definitely there but it can be interpreted in other ways I suppose but yeah that's not intentional for me really. 

DECADES: How do you feel about drugs.

PROFLIGATE: Um I don't know I mean I do them every once and a while I'm not like, I don't smoke weed or anything. 

DECADES: I don't smoke weed either. 

PROFLIGATE: I can't handle weed. 

DECADES: It makes me want to jump out of a window. 

PROFLIGATE: Yeah I feel completely insane when I smoke weed. 

PROFLIGATE: Cat go away. (To cats)

PROFLIGATE LIVE SPECS / LIVE RIG AND RECORDING GEAR

-Cool Edit Pro

-Ensoniq (ST 1) (WL ESQ earlier ENSONIQ) bass lines and basic sequences

-tape player with pitch control / dual speed

-BOSS - 505 sampler

-beringer mixer

-reverb pedal issued by Radioshack

-Boss loop and delay pedal

[decadesmagazine]

Eva-Marie Hube In Conversation With Masha Pershay and Kevin Litrow

Masha Pershay Talks About The Current Scene In SF and Kevin Litrow Goes Into His New Project N.O.W. // Litrow To Be Featured In Next Week's Mashi Mashi + Decades Magazine Showcase At The Knockout

Text By Eva-Marie Hube // Art Courtesy Masha Pershay and Kevin Litrow // Edited by Sky Madden

        Masha Pershay of Mashi Mashi Presents behind the decks in San Francisco. 

Having a collaborative music event happen with Masha Pershay of Mashi Mashi in combination with Decades Magazine is like pairing Sriracha with ANYTHING. Decades could be anything depending on our mood and what we choose as our flavor for the month to showcase and Masha adds the complexity and spiked taste. You can put the rooster sauce on literally anything and it will make it so much better. We feel that way about what Masha does here in San Francisco. When we discussed the upcoming show on August 29th, Masha conveyed to me her enthusiasm for the dynamic, dance-centric showcase that takes place at the Knockout, usually a venue reserved for live punk, rock, psychedelic etc. shows, you know, what ones usually expects of the SF music scene. 

RSVP here for N.O.W. (LA) / Airport (Seattle) / Bankie Phones (Seattle) / Deastro (Detroit) with DJ's Mashi Mashi, SMAC (Haçeteria) and Shannon (Chasms) with Fog By Fag THURSDAY, AUG 29th at The Knockout in San Francisco \\\\\\\

I like Masha’s approach, switching it up, having unlikely shows at unlikely venues to introduce and expose people to genre’s they usually don’t explore. “People get stuck in a rut,” she says. Having just returned from Portland and Seattle where Masha secured Airport and Bankie Phones, both based out of Seattle, for August, 29th. Masha also wants people to dance, “People don’t get loose in Portland.” She also snagged Deastro from Detroit, who is temporarily based in Oakland until he continues his nomadic quest through the US. I feel like people don’t get loose in San Francisco either. Masha’s lineup and DJ set heavily based in synthpop and space disco, shall surely force people out of their self-awareness and get them to actually utilize the dance space which isn’t a lot at the Knockout but intimate. 

Masha also features visualist Alex Cruse, adding a dreamy texture to the night and transforms the venue into an acid laced, shoe scuffing, sweat-drenched party. “I’m all about variety. It is my keyword in life,” she says. Pershay wants to match-make, introduce and connect people through music. And she is indeed an extraordinary connector. She booked N.O.W. from Los Angeles and as it turns out, N.O.W. is Kevin Litrow’s solo project. Kevin happens to be a long time friend of mine and we connected last week and discussed the new project. We hadn’t talked in a bit, so thank you Masha!

I don’t remember the first time I saw Kevin perform. I must have been eighteen. It was either at Chain Reaction or the Booby Trap when Booby Trap was barely holding on to its bad reputation and right before it became a sober living home. I’m not sure if I met him or saw him play,  first. I do remember his silver sparkly dress shoes and his crestfallen expression one night when I told him that we were out of the lentil nut loaf whilst waiting on him at Mother’s Market in Costa Mesa. Its the only thing he ever ordered. 

My relationship with him has never been marked by premeditated moments, they are serendipitous and fleeting encounters that always end up constructing memorable experiences. I’ve known him for a long time and it always feels natural and informal when our paths meet again. What was always striking to me was the variance between Kevin’s off and onstage personas. In my natural world, Kevin is soft spoken in volume yet abstract in his choice of topic of conversation; an interview with him taken down by a mutual friend discussing the existence aliens for an LA Weekly article in a basement in Echo Park that had nothing to do with aliens and don’t think was ever printed, comes to mind.

In his natural world (the stage) he is manic, spastic, fun, intense in performance and execution and always sharply dressed; singing/talking/screaming about getting his shots or needing a job. “I Need a Job,” which was one of my favorite 60 Watt Kid songs, was my swan song when I first moved to San Francisco after applying for one million restaurant jobs and right after Kevin had moved back to LA. We were passing ships in the night, so to speak. I remember his advice about SF to me via Myspace, “Good luck, it’ll eat you alive. There’s a curse on this city,” or something to that effect. I didn’t take offense because he’s just that blunt. 

Predictable is never a word I would use to describe Kevin Litrow, so I kicked myself for not knowing better when I heard N.O.W., Kevin’s new solo project. It sounded nothing like Dance Disaster Movement or 60 Watt Kid, which were the previous projects I had come to know Kevin through. Since it sounded nothing like said projects, I assumed it couldn’t be him, but that was just Kevin keeping me on my toes.

I expressed my confusion and realization to him whilst on line chatting the other day about his upcoming performance for the DECADES/Mashi Mashi collaboration at the Knockout, which is sure to be yet another one of those serendipitous encounters that we have once or twice a year.

               Kevin Litrow of N.O.W. preforms as a part of the Decades Magazine + Mashi Mashi presents next week at The Knockout Thursday, August 29th.

Eva-Marie Hube for Decades Magazine: I listened to N.O.W. on Soundcloud. It’s like nothing of yours I’ve ever heard before.

Kevin Litrow of N.O.W.: Ha ha rad. Maybe cuz I'm solo and I don't anyone else messin’ up my sound...

EMH: So wait, this isn’t your first solo project though, right? I remember seeing you in LA at that really small show space near Normandie (I forget the name) doing a solo show. It involved a trash can

KL: I think that was 60 Watt Kid before it became a full band. But N.O.W. is truly me solo, with, of course, electronic beats and orchestrated layers.

EMH: “Ranging from Beach Boys to Suicide.” I like the spectrum. Do the live shows differ than from what I’ve seen in the past? They were always very animated. From what I’ve heard [of N.O.W], I would expect something more mellow. The vocals are upbeat but the music seems almost loungey... but, like, in a good way.

KL: Still are animated and intense but more possibly in a crooner way. It doesn't come off like a rock band but it's not mellow.  It sounds huge live compared to those recordings. Some of it very dancey and soulful. I call it electronic gospel. I try to infuse the spirit as much as I can to help translate through people's souls and thoughts. I've gotten called loungey before but a new lounge. Like new wave... new lounge. Hahaha

EMH: Yeah, I remember our last conversation about the music scene in LA compared to SF; trying to pinpoint their respective sounds, where each city was going. I was saying that minimal, goth, new wave, etc was all in LA. I think you were saying that had passed there, am I misquoting? Electronic gospel is a something we didn’t discuss. Was this on your mind back then? What was the influence? I think this conversation was last year some time. 

KL: The description “electronic gospel” wasn't on my mind until some dude at one of my shows called me that as a compliment and I was like wow... he gets it! And then I was thinking "that's a pretty good new classification". And it seems correct. Plus, I love the gospel and I love electronics. But mainly it's the translation of the goodness of "SOUL".... that's the influence. Very Simple. So when you come to the show, hopefully you feel what I feel. A lot of people these days really react to this kind of soul as if it was lost or like archive from past. You know, that feeling, where has it gone? Is it in your cell phone? Your IPAD, Your car? Your to do list? Your okcupid dating site schedule? Hahaha!!

EMH: Hahaha! Amazing. I always enjoyed your shows because I always thought of you as a very self composed person, in person and in contrast, almost anarchistic in performance....and when dancing. Like the first time you took Sarah Adams and I to 1964 when it was in that upstairs room.

KL: OMG... 1964 was the funnest dance party I've ever had in that little room.  I literally was drenched by the end of the night....RIP little room.

EMH: I know! It was never the same. That was the only good time I ever had there.

KL: No shit!!!

Kevin and I continued to reminisce about past events that I won’t bore you with but probably aren’t boring. I can certainly say I look forward to seeing what Kevin has prepared for the August 29th performance. He is playing Moco on August 23rd and Life Changing Ministries on August 30th, both in Oakland. He is also currently looking to play a house show in San Francisco on August 30th, but I informed him that house shows are hard to come by in the city these days.

[decadesmagazine]

7 Hard Questions For Nina Chase of Some Ember

       Nina Chase in conversation with Sky Madden for Decades Magazine Summer 2013

When I decided that I wanted to interview Nina, I thought about the way that I had first encountered her and how I stumbled upon Some Ember. It was at this time last year that Moonbell and Chasms wanted to play a show together and it was finally happening. I got Cool Angles on the bill too and then last minute Nick moved to New York and I was back on the search for another band to play with us. I had an email correspondence going on with Jason Hendardy (Permanent Collection / LogLady Records) who immediately suggested a band I had never heard of at the time. It was Some Ember. I looked them up and sure enough they were playing in Oakland that night. I had a bone to pick with Nick from Cool Angels who was in the East Bay but leaving for New York soon. In hopes of getting him to come out to this Black Jeans, Some Ember, Tollund Men, Transformations show at Lobot, I hoped that the least he would do was give me a demo tape of "Slow Chase Scenes" before he was off to the east coast and I wanted to see this Some Ember band so I went. 

This is still the best Lobot show I have ever been to and Some Ember blew me away that night. I walked in and four strange characters from a different anachronistic times and places took up the entire span of the back wall, opposite the entrance, with big bright, undulating projections pouring down on them in slow motion. Pinks and greens were shooting everywhere and the Lobot sounded damn good. At the time I didn't know it, but the song they were playing was "Era of Wind." They were totally emotional and unlike anything I had seen in the Bay up until that point. I walked up to Mick Goldwater, who was doing sound for Some Ember that night, sitting at the mixing board with a pencil. "They have no idea how good they are," he phonated with Dad breath through an impassioned whisper. 

       SKY: How was practice last night?

NINA: Practice was good, I got a new pedal and that was really fun so..

SKY: What kind of pedal?

NINA: TC Helecon

SKY: Oh cool! Is it the grey and blue multi-FX one?

NINA: No it's the red one.

SKY: Oh cool I have the orange one that's reverb specific. 

NINA: Cool!

SKY: The last time I saw you, Chasms and Grave Babies played with Some Ember at La Suite, a fantastic indoor/outdoor house spot in Oakland where you actually used to live. It was May 5th when I saw you. This is the last time that Some Ember played as a four-piece. 

NINA: Yeah totally, La Suite is also the place we had one of our very first shows and we weren't even fully a band yet at that point. But yeah the Chasms/Grave Babies show was the last show where we played as a four piece. 

SKY: How did you first come into Some Ember?

NINA: I was invited to a practice by Josh who was more recently our drummer and I've know him forever, I've known him for like ten, eleven years. Josh and Dylan had been working on other projects together and I lived across the street from them at the time and I went over there and we jammed. The rest is history.

SKY: When did Peter come on to play guitar for you guys?

NINA: Before Peter, we had another guitarist from San Luis Obispo named Jameson Swanson. He played a few shows with us like our very first First Friday in Oakland and then we had a show with Sleepy Sun at The Independent and Jameson couldn't make that show and we thought, "What about Peter?" Dylan and I have a lot of connections to Peter too and he's also from Santa Cruz. He and Dylan had been exchanging emails about Hotel of Lost Light coming out and Peter was into it so when we needed a guitarist for the Sleepy Sun show that's about when Peter came on. 

SKY: So there had been some sort of chemistry that was working for there awhile.

NINA: Yeah I mean we've all known each other for a really long time. I've seen Peter play before I even knew who he was back in Santa Cruz in some of his past projects and Dylan, Josh and Peter have known each other for a while from a history of all our friends and living in the same town for awhile.

SKY: So geography has been important and it's obviously played a part in the band and band dynamic as well.

NINA: Yeah. After our long tour… we went on this long tour and we were basically on the road for 2 months this year which was super brutal. Tour ended a little bit after SXSW and then we were all super broke and a lot of went to go live back with our parents and some of us were in San Luis Obispo and some of us were in other places, Josh with his parents and Peter with his girlfriend. At the time Dylan said, "I'm still going to do this, I'm going to continue and I need to stay here, I need to be here." I went with him to San Luis Obispo and Peter and Josh headed back to the Bay. We were still constantly booking shows and then it became really hard to schedule practices and coordinate everything between the four of us. There were four individuals and a four hour gap of distance between us. It put a lot of stress on practicing and on being a band. We're on different pages now, a lot of us, but I still text with Josh and talk to him every day.

SKY: Now that you're a two piece you have more responsibility on and off stage than you did before.

NINA: Yeah definitely. It's definitely different and we're still trying to figure that out. I feel like each show that we do and at each venue that we play, we figure something else out. We'll decide we should get rid of something or add something and now we've sequenced a lot of things and it sounds a lot more like our recordings up there and it's a lot more dancy-er which is what we're going for. It's the vibe that we want. We want people to dance.

SKY: That's awesome. 

NINA: I mean yeah it works. The live band was cool too and that had its thing. I feel like the songs were really interesting and different with a live band but now when it's paired down, it really resembles the recordings. We're able to be more dancey and we're able to try and take Some Ember in that direction more I feel. We're also able to take the music into more of a performative direction. It's like we have more control and less control at the same time. Like with the band, we all had to work within this web of each other and move with each other. Now it's different and looser. 

SKY: Yeah I mean before it was like all four of you were in your different stations doing specific things. I've only been in a duo and I'm always telling Jess how I can't imagine being in anything else.

NINA: Yeah being in a band with a bunch of people is a challenge. It's interesting. It's different but there are pros and cons to being both. 

n    

SKY: You mentioned the performative dimension of Some Ember just now and in March when I first found out you were going to do some sort of performance piece that wasn't necessarily based on something from Some Ember or the Some Ember recordings and that it was you, it reminded me of a lot of the new performance styles proliferating in San Francisco right now. And when I saw you perform a single piece before Wax Idols went on at Brick and Mortar it called to mind some of the things happening in avant drag and drag. Was that the first time you did that?

NINA: Yes. That was the first time and then I did it again the next day at Part Time Punks in Los Angeles. I've being doing performance art for a long time but this is the first time that I've ever done it like this in that context. 

SKY: It was really dark and almost kind of violent. I totally didn't expect you to do something like that. Are you going to do anything like that tomorrow for the Decades show?

NINA: I think that's what I love about performance art, that there can be this mysterious quality to it where you're kind of not sure of what's going on. And definitely tomorrow yes. 

SKY: The same piece?

NINA: No. I don't like to do the same piece more than once. I think that performance art can't be recreated in the same way each time you perform. That's the beauty of it and tomorrow will be very different. For that weekend with Wax Idols, I did do the same performance twice and at the second night at Part Time Punks it just did not come across as well as it did the first time. After that I realized I want to do something different every time.

NINA CHASE TOP FIVE LIVE PERFORMANCES

I definitely have to say Pod Blotz who is Suzy Poling who's actually playing with Bad News this Saturday in Oakland. Also, Uncanny Valley. Their just super weird, crazy and Kelsey is always dressing up super crazy and cool. I mean all of them are. Featureless Ghost, you would love them, they're so cool, they're so sick. They're music is amazing. On tour we played with this band called Linear Downfall and their music is kind of really insane and bizarre. They the craziest band live, the dresses are accented with neon pink and all the guys' beards are dyed pink and the girl's hair is like this beautiful crazy neon pink. They're from Tennessee. They're insane. Also definitely Majical Cloudz because it's so intense but it's so minimal and people have so many different reactions. Wax Idols always brings it.

FAVORITE LOCAL PROJECT SONGS (SF)

I really like that song "AD RE:IAN" by Wax Idols. I love that song. Red Red Red is sick, he's great. We played with him at SXSW. We did a showcase with him and he was amazing and it was the first time I met him. One song that he does "Enforcer" and I really like that song. Then there's Believe. Of course believe. I like "Encounter" by believe where Kim sings on that track. And obviously I love my Chasms. Ha ha ha ha and I love just… yeah "Bad Evolution" and "Darker Outside" is amazing too. Those are super good. 

SKY: Oh no way. Those are my least favorite Chasms songs. Ha ha ha ha ha ha.

NINA: WHAT! (laughing)

SKY: That's four local songs you're super into, one more?

NINA: Can I say Some Ember or is that horrible?

SKY: No no no of course not, you can say whatever you want. I listen to Chasms everyday. You know?

NINA: Okay. 

NINA: The Some Ember song that I love is called "Revelation" and yeah I don't know, we need to play it live. We've played it live a few times with the live band but it's something we really need to rework as a two piece and I'm kind of like, "We need to do that. This is an amazing song and I want to do that." It's my favorite Some Ember song. It makes me want to dance and it makes me want to move.

[decadesmagazine]

PETALUMA ISSUE RELEASE PARTY FRIDAY 7/19 @ THE LAB IN SF

            Text by Eva-Marie Sophie Hube

I never went to my prom. In between barely graduating and my penchant for teenage angstish suicidal tendencies, I wouldn’t have found the time. Unless it had been a goth themed prom. That would have been appropriate and more my taste. So when the four components of the DECADES square came together to brainstorm a concept for the christening of the publication’s second issue (over our own version of the Algonquin roundtable,also known as a Gmail chain), a proposal we all got behind was a collaboration with Galaxy Radio (a nightlife collective determined to making this night the best of our adulthood experience born of friends and the Haçeteria crew) to throw a full fledged Batcave style goth prom party. Would this be it? A second chance to go partake in the apex of high school torture pageantry at a juncture in my life when the urge to swallow a bottle of Vicodin has subsided to sporadic, yet manageable episodes and my post teenage angst, now alleviated more appropriately? I’m keeping it dark. 

This night will not only be about scowling while swaying seductively to the sounds of Sisters of Mercy, The Sound, or  Nine Circles in your favorite black ensemble. Our night will appease your tastes in ways your high school’s “Arabian Nights” themed prom never could fully execute. Stone Pony will be setting up shop for the evening so you don’t have to make the four block trek to the mothership in your best heels for last minute accessories. We will also be resurrecting the  triangle sculpture that is becoming the symbolic fixture of our release parties, and will have archival '80s prom footage from Oddball Film Archive projected on it for comparing and contrasting. Treats will be provided by Craftsmen and Wolves when the feelings of isolation and despair dissipate and your appetite resurfaces, but only for the time being, until it is time to dance the pain away, yet again. 

What we look forward to most is a performance by Dylan Travis’ and Nina Chase's project Some Ember. Some Ember encompasses elements of early '80s goth in vocal experimentation and choices in synthetic stylings, but with a more modern and evolved approach that dabbles in house beats and even ventures into psychedelic breakdowns. You can detect Gary Newman, Charlie, and Galaxie 500 all in one sitting of their Soundcloud selection. 

You can perhaps call this an '80s goth prom of the future in the future, celebrating the future of DECADES. So come out and get dark with us because the future is looking bright.

[decadesmagazine]

The Lab, SF's Last Bastion Kicks Off Division of Labor Festival, Thursday June 13th

        The Division of Labor Festival kicks off this Thursday evening at The Lab 2948 16th Street @ CAPP in San Francisco. Pictured above is "Gravity Always Wins" by artist Claire Jackel from her solo exhibit of the same name installed into the ceiling at The Lab in 2010.

Text by Eva Marie Hube for Decades Magazine

As we watch the Mission metamorphosize into a theme park for the tech savvy who spend their weekends brunching, bowling, and soon-to-be miniature golfing in the neighborhood, it’s hard to sift through and identify alternative spaces that are genuinely interested in more than extending the college rec center aesthetic.

The focus even more so now, (and is perhaps a backlash to the aforementioned community brain-drain) is on preserving whatever cultural capital the Mission has left to hold on to. The Lab serves consistently as a sanctuary, pushing back against the packaged monotony of the bar scene and retaining unalloyed talent, self-expression, and exploration of art and music. The Lab is a gallery as well as a performance space that has nestled on the fringes of a neighborhood that is time warping quickly into something unrecognizable (the 16th Street Corridor that spans from Church street to Bryant).

The Lab has historically showcased as many facets of the experimental experience and currently supports a community of artists that are finding it harder and harder to find a platform to perform on and be received in the midst of this city’s identity crisis, where finding one’s niche is proving equally as difficult.

The Lab will be setting the bar in its dedication to improvised music, experimental instrumentation and composition, electronic music performance, interdisciplinary performance, literary and media art by presenting The Division of Labor Festival curated by Sarah Lockhart, James Decker, Theresa Rebecca and DECADES editor Sky Madden. The festival marks the Lab’s 30th anniversary as a stronghold in the community spanning three weeks, from Thursday June 13th to Friday June 28th. The celebration includes performers like Malcolm Mooney (OG lyricist and vocalist for the band Can) with his new outfit The Tenth Planet and  BRAN(…)POS also known as Jake Rodriguez, an active contributor to the Bay Area noise scene for as long as any enthusiast can recall. Then there's Ava Mendoza’s Unnatural Ways performing too, who introduces acid jazz to mathy, heavy guitar noise and allows for the meeting of these sounds to breakdown conventions of structure with organic and capricious live performances. This is the second iteration of The Division of Labor Festival, specializing in showcasing local, national, and international artists that have varied backgrounds in art, math, science, literature, music, etc. and deconstruct the quintessential constructs of music to nourish an audience with more than just a conventional performance.

The Division of Labor Festival challenges what common culture now perceives as a “festival” and challenges the culture that follows it by reworking that orthodox perception and encouraging participation by shacking up with what is considered the passive performance. This surfeit of unpredictability is the undeniable appeal of this event and it kicks off with a party on Thursday, June 13th at The Lab at 6pm. Opening night is free of cover and the following nights will all be $7-10 sliding scale. The Thursdays night kickoff features an artist reception for Temporary Services: 15 Years of Printed Paper, which exhibits Temporary Service’s literary works.  Founders Brett Bloom, Salem Collo-Julin and Marc Fischer, based in Philadelphia, Copenhagen, and Chicago, have been blurring the lines between art practice and the human struggle since 1998. By collaborating with unestablished artists, they have cultured innovative and unaffected projects such as Prisoner’s Inventions and Group Work. Live musical highlights Bad News, the latest ensemble picked up by San Francisco upstart label extraordinaire, Sleep Genius and Los Angeles death-by industrial-design label Chondritic Sound. Bad News features Sarah Bernat of 16 Bitch Pile Up, Work, Limosine and Alex Lukas of Copy Lake, contributor to the Obstacle Corpse project. The duo invoke heavy industrial sound while swimming in the depths The Division of Labor’s crown jewel, NOISE. DJ sets by Nihar (Haçeteria), Chasms (Jess and Shannon), Noella Teele and Kiyomi Tanouye will provide a mood and atmosphere. Special guest Amoania will bring the unpredictable.

A comprehensive festival schedule is available here and other notable festival acts in the weeks to follow include Pharmakon, Nate Young (Wolf Eyes), Jeweled Snakes, Russian Tsarlag, Faxed Head, O.P.P., Gerritt Wittmer and DJ sets from Josh Kit Clayton, Rachel Aiello, and Kerri LeBon. At the stroke of midnight the magic will come to a close so come early and leave hazy and satisfied in the comfort of knowing that such unique and captivating events still exist.

[decadesmagazine]

Interview with Sola & Zero, Directors of i am also

  i am also is the documentary from Sola Blanc (DECADES contributor) and Zero, about the lonely, but lovable security guard who works at Thrift Town. In the movie we learn that the security guard has dreams of eventually being a police officer, spends his off-duty hours at goth clubs, and enjoys stir fry from Target. Sola and Zero had been filming him since last Summer, but the subject cut off ties in January due to feeling uncomfortable with how he may be represented in the movie.  I recently sat at a kitchen counter with Sola and Zero to discuss the film, while eating cherries and cheese.

  So you’ve come to this interview with your own questions.

Sola Blanc: These are questions for us, so we can talk about them. Who’s the perfect audience for this movie? What celebrity do you think could play our subject if it was adapted into fiction? That’s a hard one to answer. I’ve been trying to think of that. 

Steve Buscemi. 

SB: That’s what I said! I have it in my notes. I’ll show you.

From what I’ve seen. I don’t have as much insight on him as you guys. But that is crazy that we both thought that. Beautiful.

Zero: We were thinking of sending it to people.

Like sending it to James Franco?

SB: I don’t think he could relate.

Z: Harmony Korine.

SB: Miranda July. John Maus.

Z: Uma Thurman

SB: Really?

Z: No.

SB: If the filming process hadn’t been cut off early, what would have been in the film? We wanted to get more into fiction with him, and kind of make his dreams come true in the movie. Just so he would have an image of himself, like a glamour shot of himself.

Z: That’s when it got way too personal for him, I think. When we started doing that.

What other questions do you have for yourself? I have a really important question to start. How did you meet him? And why did you think he would be an interesting subject?

SB: I met him at Thrift Town while shopping. It was a place I use to go a lot. At the time I was taking a class [at SFAI] called Risk Taking in Documentary Film by Natalia Almada, who’s a really great filmmaker. I was really encouraged by the class and I just started filming and bringing in my footage everyday to the class. 

At first, my plan was to just stalk him and take footage of him without telling him and make a little thing. And my class was like, “no you should really do this and do it right.” I still went in there with a little camera taped to my chest under a see-through blouse and filmed him. I never told him about that.

Z: You never told me about that. 

SB: I was also attracted to him because he was so into his job and he’s a curious looking character and I’ve been following people like that my whole life, but never made anything with it or had anything to do with it. 

And when did Zero become involved in the movie?

Z: [Sola] already had a pretty long documentary made and she showed it to our performance class. I was late to class that day and I walked in and see this man [on screen] pretending to do martial arts really badly. And he was so neurotic and shaky and intent on this violence and power. I was like, whoa, who did this? And I look over in the dark and Sola is smugly smiling. I’m like, okay I need to talk to this girl. And I would keep complementing her on it and she was like, “do you want to help film” and I said yes.

So I know that Sola started to get hate mail from your subject. How did you deal with that and why did that occur? And did it put a stop to production?

Z: Well there was a weird balance that started coming through. Initially he was told that it was a documentary about power and that the focus would be about his job. That was clear to him. As I came to the project and we both got to know him a lot better, we were curious about his personal life and what his dreams were. We started to film him doing more personal and vulnerable things. And started to go to Goth clubs with him. 

Goth clubs, I never would have pegged him for the type.

Z: Yeah, when we found out it was really exciting. At that point, there was weird tension because he’s a very lonely person. We sort of had this power of being his only friends. Eventually he started questioning if we were his true friends, and what we were looking for. He hadn’t seen the footage yet because we felt it hadn’t been edited right. So he was really nervous and he got paranoid and kept asking, “Can I see the footage?” He saw Sola at Thrift Town and she was on the phone so she just waved and walked away and he took that very personally and it was very hurtful to him. And that was the point where he just became very angry and sending pages of hate mail to both of us.

And you cut ties with him at that point. 

Z: Yeah, we got scared. He threatened to sue us.

And he doesn’t know you’re screening the movie now? 

Z: No, which is a weird feeling.

SB: We both had this feeling that we were stealing, and have been really conflicted over it.. I never really was planning on deleting it completely, like he asked us to, but I did think about never showing it. At least not for 5 or 10 years. 

So when you say stealing, you feel like you are stealing his identify by showing it and sharing it without his permission?

Z: Yes, it’s a really tricky situation. 

SB: Because, at the same time, we’ve cut it in such a way that it’s become our story and has become something that we want to show. Something that relates to our work and who we feel as people.

Z: Also, it’s not a documentary that’s making fun of somebody. When the audience laughs it’s always when he’s in on the joke. 

SB: We’re purposely not making it so huge. We could have tried to put it in theaters, like the Roxie and posters up in public. We don’t even want to put up a flyer in that area because we don’t want him to feel uncomfortable or freak out. 

So you don’t go to Thrift Town anymore.

Z: [laughs] No. I can never go there. Which is bad because I want to be a drag queen and buy a lot of clothes there. But I don’t want to see him. It’s uncomfortable, more for him than me. 

SB: Exactly. 

What do you want to do with the movie, knowing you feel uncomfortable with showing it in a big way? What’s the plan for the future of this movie?

Z: We we’re thinking of showing it in LA, New York. Maybe Austin. Out of the city. Because we would like to do big showings, but not have them effect him.

SB: We plan on doing several small, intimate [screenings] here where we are present. We also plan on showing it to really select audiences and kind of making the screening in itself an art piece. Like, for the next screening we’re going to invite all goths, because we shot a big part of the film at Death Guild and around this idea of being goth and what is that. So fun stuff with goth kids.

What other questions do you have for yourself?

SB: What scenes didn’t make it into the film? Because we cut out a bunch of scenes. 

Z: Karaoke right? Sola took him around to do Karaoke.

Where did you take him?

SB: The Mint. 

What did he sing?

SB: Boys Don’t Cry by The Cure. 

Wow. What a song. 

Z: He loves that song.

SB: He wrote a lot of poetry about The Cure and how much he loves The Cure and a lot of that didn’t go into the film. 

So if this there were a movie about the two of you making this movie, who would you cast to play yourself?

Z: Who would I cast...

SB: Ellen Page.

Z: No! That’s what everyone says. I’m not Ellen Page. I’ve been told that, like five different times. Because I look like I could cut a man’s dick off, I don’t know. 

SB: [laughs] Exactly, that’s why. 

And Sola, I think you’d be played by... 

SB: Yeah, tell me.

Johnny Depp. 

SB: Yeah! I agree. Wow. 

Can you imagine Johnny Depp and Ellen page?

SB: And Steve Buscemi! This is a great film.

  --Chloe

[decadesmagazine]

i am also

If you shop at Thrift Town you have most likely seen the subject of the documentary i am also. The documentary, by Sola Blanc and Zero, is “the story of a lovable but lonely security guard and his quest for meaning.” (watch the trailer here). 

i am also screens tonight at Mission Comics [3520 20th Street] at 7:49 p.m.

  An interview with Sola [left] and Zero [right] will be on this blog shortly. Stay tuned. 

--Chloe

[decadesmagazine]

Brief Encounters with Coachella

Coachella, the desert music festival itself, is a disgusting death trap. A dust filled snowglobe with ten different wind up music cranks going at once. I knew this going into it. My previous experience with Coachella was in 2006, and as a high school senior I was enchanted by my first music festival experience. Depeche Mode, Madonna, Animal Collective, Dungen - it was an amazing year. But now I am an old woman who couldn’t care less about the meh lineup and potential Tupac Shakur holograms. But the tickets were free, so I decided to put my aging 25-year-old body to the agony of heat, sound, and drunk/high people.

--Chloe

[decadesmagazine]

Savages

I wanted to blow the lid off this band before anyone else in the blogosphere had had the opportunity to own that claim. A few have, but I don’t care about sending that lid farther across a the veritable football field of the interwebs.

I first heard about Savages about six months ago when a friend played with them in NY at their first show in the US. He immediately texted me explaining that I would be all over this. He has me pegged for a post punk junkie and sure enough, after YouTubing “Flying to Berlin,” off of their first double A side “Flying to Berlin”/“Husbands” released on Pop Noire, I was a believer. 

With only two songs as my reference, I still had the utmost confidence that watching them live was a necessary, if not imperative life experience. According to my friend they are good. But he said “good” with an earnest that I don’t hear from him very often. His subtlety said everything.

Last Thursday I had my opportunity. Savages was about to play their first San Francisco show. A quick background before I gush my face off. If you are too lazy to check their Wikipedia page, I will summarize. Savages are new, as in 2011 new, with their first full length album, “Silence Yourself” dropping this month. My copy is in the mail. They are an all female ensemble from the UK and are likened to Siouxsie, Joy Division, and Public Image. I hate to name these pivotal bands as reference, but it is accurate due to them embodying every notably good aspect of the genre. I even detected some Delta 5 in there.

Essentially, they are the Sparknotes of the Post Punk era and if you’ve actually read the synopses that follow chapter summarizations on SparkNotes, you know they are pretty damn insightful. No joke. SparkNotes gets a bad rap and so do “revival bands” but, fuck man, if you’re doing it right (and they do it right) then you are essentially reliving an era that you wish you had  been more a part of, or at least were of legal smoking age during its duration.

After smoking a generous joint with my date and his date outside of the Independent and missing the opening act which I heard involved bare breasts and poetry, I was whisked upstairs to the balcony because it rules to have friends who work for Ticketfly. Our timing is kindred and as the four piece takes a very minimal stage, I observe a packed house bellow.

From my observation, Jehnny Beth, the frontwoman of the band, has the Ian Curtis uniform and mannerisms down pat. A well trimmed HJ haircut, tailored slacks, a well pressed collared shirt, straight arms, and angular dance moves sans seizures. I can see where the Joy Division reference immediately gets thrown in there. Her voice, however, echoes of Siouxsie with high pitched animalistic screams. Her versatility from sounding like a tough bitch to female Ian McCulloch (kind of one in the same at times) on songs like “I am Here” holds your attention. But the focus is diverted to the low, prevalent and steady driven bass lines distributed by Ayse Hassan throughout the set and the steady, fast, meticulous beats of the drummer Fay Milton. 

The combination of these two is a power house. All of this contrasted with a methodical, reverb laden guitar progression that at times seems to follow little  structure, flows organically, yet is presented as premeditated. 

With Savages I could have taken even more. And that is my bias. They tap into a pulse that permeates my body because my pulse is post punk and I don’t believe they are trying to represent themselves as anything new and unique. I’ve read that the band concerns itself with violent subject matter as opposed to songs of longing and love. 

I’m interested to see what comes next from this band since devoting your sound solely to one era can often leave little room for growth and diverse expectation, but at this very moment I consider this band easily the best band of the year. After the Independent show, they played a set at Coachella, which was apparently well received. I have no doubt that the hype starts now. Luckily they have the chops to back it up.

--Eva-Marie Hube

[decadesmagazine]

Prepare for Coachella Weekend Two

  Coachella, weekend two, is approaching. For those embarking on the journey, Kat Nadler offers a helpful and ever practical pre-coachella prep list to help you make the most of your weekend. 

1.Browse dumpsters for the perfect headpiece.

2. Save trash bags so you don't have to use the porta-potties.

3. Bring all 2012 issues of J-14 magazine for autograph-ops.

4. Research the difference between Scott Peterson and Drew Peterson thanks to Lifetime Original movies. Unrelated to Coachella, but still occurred during my preparation.

5. Purchase extra callus scrubbers for late-night foot cleansing.

6. Spend hours on Instagram reviewing the images taken at last weekend's Coachella. Then realize that everyone used some sort of "hippie" filter. Or is this haze because you're wearing sunglasses while looking at Instagram?

7. Google "Fozzie Bear Propeller Hat" to see if you, too, could pull off the look

8. Practicar tu español en caso de que los mexicanos hacerse cargo mientras estoy en Coachella.

9 .בדיוק כמו שעבר, אבל הפעם בגרסת עברית

10. Contemplate hiring pet monkey and/or goat and/or capybara (world's largest rodent) to fan you during the weekend

11. Invest in Dasani (Coca Cola) stock to ensure water brand of choice will be present. Not for drinking, but for dousing fellow music listeners. You see, other brands leave a sticky feel where as I've found Dasani has a nice smooth, dried water feel.

12. Research each and every band that will perform to find out their favorite animal/snack/book/movie and create gift accordingly to throw on stage.

[decadesmagazine]

Iggy Pop Doesn't Wear A Lot of Makeup

Iggy Pop doesn't wear a lot of makeup.  He has a very working class, almost animal face.  In the right temperament his eyes become crystal balls, so huge that you want to rub your hands on them.  Usually they're contained in some mascara and eyeliner aura. 

I don't look anything like Iggy Pop.  I have some mid-western farm stock features that have been pissed upon by Irish elves.  When I become Iggy Pop, I wear a lot of make up.  When you put on make up and take the step onto a makeshift stage, you invariably say to the audience, I am not here to fake an ounce of funk.  Unless your Billy Joel Armstrong, or something like that.

They gave it all and I took notes.  From the calculated geometry of David Bowie, to the galloping glamour of Secos Molhados, an innovative Brazilian band, I saw the value of a painted face under warm lights. 

Despite all of my attraction to the glamorous life, I remain a shitty makeup artist to this day. On the night of our second show as in Iggy Pop tribute band in Istanbul, I walked into Mac hoping to get the free make up job, that I was given the first time.  The queen bitch running things told me I would need an appointment, and to pay 120 turkish lira.  I was feeling pretty screwed.  I had already purchased a pair of gold lame ribbed pants from Kiki Riki.  A store so ridiculous and sex inducing that I get hard looking at the mannequins.  

Perhaps it's me that is ridiculous and sex inducing. For all the labor that goes into the gender construction of a Turkish female, I had yet to meet one who was willing to do my makeup.

I began to think of myself going on the stage in less then two hours without makeup akin to being as naked as a dream persona in front of an exam room. My balls retracted slowly into themselves like a shipping crate on a crane in one of the less photographed parts of the Bosphorus.

 It hit me.  The trannies.  Go to the sisters. Very near the club where we were set to play is a street that sort of wishbones off to the left and right with a large building blocking the path. To the right is a series of small urban bowling alleys and metal bars, where it's not strange to see open torch flames mantling or dismantling fixtures.  To the left is a huge apartment block of working trannies.  Apparently the building has always, in one way or another, been deemed for such purposes.

The way it has been explained to me is that if you find yourself in the dangerous realm of being on gender reassignment in Turkey, then you hope that you end up in such a house, rather than trying to make a go of it alone on the streets, where most end up dead.  The ladies usually call down to passersby and stand in front of the tacky curtains in their painterly glow. Young men huddle across the street like some sort of unanimous shadow dressed in what is called apaçi fashion, all the while daring one another to go in.  

I went to this block and called to the lady in the window. I don't think she understood me, but I was buzzed in.  I walked up two flights of stairs. In some rooms there were doors open and ladies in waiting. Finally I met up with the woman who had called down to me.  Her English was bad, but she beckoned me into the room where another woman was reclining.  I showed her a Xerox copy of a picture of Iggy Pop and Deborah Harry.  Right away she understood what I wanted and was apprehensive about doing it because she didn't think she could do a good enough job.

She secured her robe and took out her make up kit.  As she perched above me, coloring my eyes, older Turkish men came into the room gesturing prices and procedures. Their arms were still fixed behind their backs, minus the prayer beads that they would be fiddling with outside of these walls.  She wouldn't take money and told me her name was Aisha.  I asked for a picture of us both, but she said her husband was jealous, however if I ever wanted to have my make up done again I should just come back.  You like makeup, she said, and smiled.

I was back on the street now, starting to walk away.  She called to me.  Our eyes, white and encased in black, met each other across two stories.  She held out a piece of paper and let it drop onto the floor like a handkerchief.  It was the Xerox copy I had left behind.  It landed with Iggy's crystal balls looking up at me.  I picked them up and headed for the bar.

--Archie Mckay

[decadesmagazine]

Winona Forever At Lost Weekend

Thanks to everyone who made it to our Winona Ryder tribute night at Lost Weekend.  We're one step closer to making printing dreams come true for Issue Two! For those who missed it, this is what is looked like. Photos by Chris Stevens. 

[decadesmagazine]

Poppin’ Bandz

Eagerly, my friends and I approached the large silver doors of a small blue, two story building nestled among the towering concrete giants of San Francisco’s SoMa district. With Juicy J’s* lyrics fresh in my head and a fist full of crisp dollar bills, we were on a quest to experience the free (repeat, free) buffet of a well known local adult establishment. We knew upon entry that our Friday afternoon would instantly turn into what would feel like a full nighttime extravaganza of cocktails, vanilla perfume, strobe lights, and carnal entertainment. I am referring to the Gold Club, or “The Sizzler” as my friends in the nine-to-five world call it in an effort to conceal their true destination when organizing day time field trips through work emails.

I will shamelessly admit that I am no stranger to visiting strip clubs. Let’s be honest, there is something deeply alluring about poppin’ bandz while watching attractive women work a twenty foot pole. The experience somehow becomes more irresistible when you include free fried chicken. The lunch buffet at Gold Club is just as fabulous as it sounds and for a minimal entry fee of $5, it is one of the best deals in San Francisco. It surely beats the $5 foot longs served at Subway (pun very much intended). Offerings include cheesy quesadillas and perfectly crisp, warm, and soft-on-the-inside churros; both are some of my favorites. The fried chicken is also considered to be equally delish. Keep low expectations in mind of the food and it will result in a more satisfactory dining experience.

While indulging on fried chicken and churros, and engaging in friendly banter on breasts, I realized that there was a particular kind of stripper that my hetero girlfriends and I found to be a “ten.” We unanimously agreed on which performers we enjoyed most. The more sensual and slower dancers caught our attention because of their softer less aggressive approach. We also gravitated toward women whose bodies appeared more natural, regardless of body shape and type. Stripping requires a level of athleticism foreign to most that have never had to work a pole. Reminiscent of a Cirque du Soleil show, I was impressed by the acrobatic skills of the dancers who within a matter of seconds went from ground zero to being suspended twenty feet in the air. The “gold star” for the afternoon goes to the dancer who did the Harlem Shake while on the pole. She put every YouTube video to shame and basically did it with no hands.

Enjoying the view at Gold Club is not the only form of entertainment available; do not forget to take notice of the patrons, as they too offer amusement of a different sort. The feminist critique might say women who choose to dance at strip clubs are degrading to the larger female population. I beg to differ. From my female perspective, it is not the women who choose to dance at strip clubs that are degrading, but instead the group of men who react inappropriately in this social environment. When I asked our scantily clad cocktail server the most recent peculiar thing to have happened, she quickly responded, “Fetishes. It’s never the girls. It’s the men who come in with strange requests. Like this guy who ordered a glass of pee. Sorry we only have Budweiser on tap.” While Budweiser and urine are fairly synonymous, let’s save the fetishes for Folsom Street Fair and respect the look but don’t touch policy of the GENTLEMAN’s club.

Slightly buzzed and fully entertained, our eyes squinted at the sunshine pouring through the doorways as we left. Our magical evening, I mean afternoon, had ended and my friends had to return to their isolation tanks. I mean office cubicles. Those who are adventurous enough to experience the free buffet at the Gold Club will discover that it certainly is a great way to spend an hour lunch break. I highly recommend it.

*I am a glutton for rappers who account their strip club experiences in their music. And with that disclaimer, I present to you the musical compositions of Juicy J, Lil Wayne, and 2 Chainz

--Roshni Shukla

[decadesmagazine]

Winona Forever

We're hosting a Winona Ryder Double Feature at Lost Weekend Video tomorrow! Come out and see Heathers and Reality Bites. Mobile food vendor Boris Portnoy of Satellite Republic will be there serving delicious food at 6 pm. Auction with Winona themed prizes starts a 7:30, and movie starts at 8. 

See you there. 

[decadesmagazine]

Kubrick

I dread my birthday every year. It placates to my insecurity and applies a pressure that makes me abort any attempt to plan a celebration. This year, however, I decided to go to Disneyland with some other people and make a couple of days of it in Southern California. Because when you turn 27, you deserve a day at the happiest place on earth, damn it.  As it turns out, it was a harrowing day of avoiding small children who apparently like to hang on everything in site, and trying to mediate through an overwhelming crowd, stoned while wearing mouse ears, and getting even more high off of the smell of funnel cake permeating every inch of the magic kingdom. 

After that I needed a day of decompression and maybe some  “high brow” cultural enrichment. So my best lady and I decided to drive to west LA to check out the Stanley Kubrick retrospective at the LACMA. When first entering the exhibit, we were immediately bombarded with clips of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Dr. Strangelove, and Lolita on two larger than prepared for projectors in a blacked out room.

If you have the courage to leave this room of sensory overload to the light of the next room, you are given a well rounded background on Kubrick’s influences and path to filmmaking in an open space that includes vintage promotional posters for said filmography and stills from his early ambitious, yet unappreciated documentary films. I was unaware, for example, that Kubrick started out as a photographer for Look magazine at the age of 17, after submitting to the publication a photograph of a devastated newspaper vendor selling the headline “F.D.R. DEAD”. Provided with this information, you really understand how Kubrick honed his talent for visual composition and exhaustive detailing in his frames, a consistent characteristic within his work. 

But what really draws you into the exhibit is each room’s dedication to a singular Kubrick film. It begins with his early documentary work and Lolita. You then proceed through Paths of Glory, Dr. Strangelove, Barry Lyndon, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, Eyes Wide Shut, and Full Metal Jacket. Each room provides a varying degree of annotated scripts, costumed mannequins, stills, and inspirations Kubrick drew from in his visions for characters and scenes.

In the room dedicated to The Shining, the matching dresses worn by the loneliest  twin girls are on display. Directly across from that is a book of Diane Arbus photography, purposefully opened to her photograph ‘Identical Twins’ that she shot in 1967. One naturally makes the connection for the inspiration. There is even a small scale model of the maze from the movie, which I think I was able to make my way out of while imagining myself as a terrified Shelly Duvall running from a crazed, ax toting Jack Nicholson.

The theme of photography as an influence is a constant throughout the retrospective. Kubrick’s visual aesthetic in cinematic medium at times overpowers the plot and characters of his movies, serving his audience eye candy that one can savor well after watching. This retrospective was as satisfying as re-living each of his films. Even though you aren’t allowed to touch the art, the exhibit exudes a more tangible quality. I felt like I had stepped into Disneyland all over again, except this one was a twisted kingdom with very few small children present.

--Eva-Marie Hube 

[decadesmagazine]

Jessica Pratt

I’ve known Jessica Pratt for about three years. We share a mutual love for Psychic TV, black cats, and five dollar Thrift Town finds. I’ve always distinguished her as an internal, observant woman with a dry sense of humor that is usually delivered in a comedic tone of voice; most likely telling a story about the disagreeable clientele that stand in line at the bakery she works at on weekend mornings, demanding loaves of artisan bread as if it were the French Revolution.  

I recently discovered that when she is not not adhering to the demands at said bakery, Pratt moonlights as a seraphic folk singer and songwriter. She has posted recordings infrequently on her Facebook over the past couple of years, which caught my attention and led me to realize that she is incredibly talented. Her self-titled album was released this year, but recorded over five years ago on Tim Presley’s label Birth Records. 

 Jessica is not the type to force her music upon you, proclaiming it unquestionable to ignore.  You pick up on her unpretentious vibe while watching her play. It is as if she is being dragged on stage by an imaginary hand and forced to play the most intimate of sets against her will. 

It’s almost voyeuristic. It feels special and rare. After having missed the opportunity to see her open for the likes of John C. Riley at The Chapel, I was privy to a vulnerable Jessica opening for Michael Hurley at the Great American Music Hall. She bewitched the audience and myself with what sounded like a perfectly tuned violin escaping from her vocal cords, convulsing over a subtle, sweet and steady guitar plucking that lasted throughout her set. 

While there were some variations in her set, in the end, her songs felt like one mysteriously somber and romantic story that unfolded with every song.  “Was that like a twenty minute song or what?” she asked with a laugh after one particular song.

“That’s the first time she’s made a joke on stage,” her boyfriend Colby pointed out after the performance. She’s getting more comfortable with performing, obviously. I’m glad I saw her in the beginning stages, where the live performance is still a new experience, less routine, and as foreign of a phenomenon to the performer as it is to the audience. Did I mention Jessica is also a member of the Brian Jones fan club? I’m pretty sure she gets the newsletter.

--Eva-Marie Hube 

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