diy4lyfe zine curation and critique of underground music and culture on the west coast. for submissions email: diy4lyfesubmissions@gmail want to write? email: [email protected]
New Music from Jaake Margo of Get Married + An Interview!
Jaake Margo stays busy with music inside and outside the punk world. In addition to touring heavily with his bandmates in Get Married, Jaake performs in musical theater and has helped out around the office at Asian Man Records. As Getting Married is gearing up to take over the world, he laid down some acoustic tracks with GM bassist Andrew Lawrence for Pacific Nature Record’s new compilation Start Thinking About Someone Else Vol 2. Check out the stream of their song “Over Again” and our interview with Jaake below:
Start Thinking About Someone Else Vol. 2 [PNR-050] by Jaake!
How did you get started with music? Not only are you in bands but you also perform in musicals.
Well I've always done theater, since the fourth grade. I remember watching the Guys and Dolls movie when I was in kindergarten and deciding I wanted to be the next Frank Sinatra, which lead me to my crooning style of singing and doing musical theater. I got into punk around the same time, fourth grade, and wanting to be in a band after watching videos of The Clash and Green Day. I saw Joe Strummer and Billie Joe with their guitars on stage singing their hearts and out and knew it was what I wanted to do.
You have a very distinctive vocal style derived from pop punk and rockabilly. What kind of music/bands influence your work in bands and on solo material?
I grew up listening to a lot of old music with my parents and grandparents. A lot of big band, swing, crooners and Elvis and The Beach Boys were what I listened to most growing up. Elvis led to Eddie Cochran and Johnny Cash etc. When I got into punk I fell into a lot of the more melodic bands which meant I started singing more like them. I probably try to rip off Alkaline Trio and the Lawrence Arms the most when singing, but my voice is so deep that it doesn't sound like that at all.
Your band, Get Married, has been touring the country a lot lately. What are some of your favorite places you've seen?
My favorite place in the world, regardless of being there on tour, or just being there at all, is New York City. On the US tour we just completed we were there for three days, playing two shows in Brooklyn and spending the third day wandering through Manhattan. It was amazing. Other than that, New Orleans was probably my favorite place. I had never been there before and it was so beautiful.
Get Married is currently promoting a 7 inch and working on a full length record with Wiretap Records. Can you tell us more about that? What other plans lie in the future for get married?
Well Wiretap had New Noise premiere our new single a few days back along with the preorder for our new EP coming out on Wiretap next month. It's a 7inch EP on two different colors and certain packages come with our own signature pomade! (we really love Elvis.) Rob over at Wiretap is the best dude and has been so supportive and helpful since we met him, we are really glad to be working with him and making this shit happen. We are writing songs for a full length right now and planning a tour for as soon as our lives settle down a bit, we've been so busy since we got back from the last tour we haven't had a chance to get back on the road. The plan is, write, record, tour, take over the world.
The Start Thinking About Someone Else Vol 2 compilation features 13 secret/side/solo projects by folks from across the west coast DIY music community including Walter Etc, Christian Oyen, Kiki Ruiz, Benny from Hemingway, Josue from Struckout and more! It was released on November 11th by Pacific Nature Records. Order the tape or download for free on bandcamp.
What’s On The Horizon, An Interview with Barry Sexton
Closing the Start Thinking About Someone Else Vol 2 compilation are two tracks contributed by Georgie’s Paper Boat (aka Barry Sexton). We sent Barry some questions and he quickly responded to our request. In addition to being an extremely talented guitar player, Barry is modest and genuine in conversation and on stage. Never one to brag, check out our interview below where he tells the secret to playing as good as him (“and better”) and listen to his new electric folk baroque piece “The Chandrian”:
You are a very adept guitar player, how did you get started and become such a shredder?
We'll I wanted to play guitar for years before I actually got one. I wanted to play guitar solos.(Weezer style). I got my first guitar in 2004 when I was in Jr High and loved it instantly. Although it took years for me to actually like how I sounded. I think that's why a lot of people think they "can't play guitar". They think it's too hard when they start out and think they have no "talent". Anyone can play like I play. (And better). It's all about being patient.
You currently play in Mounds of Earth in addition to working on solo material. How did that band form and were you in any bands prior to that?
When we formed Mounds of Earth me and Pedro were in a band called "us and reabuilding" that was slowly diminishing. I approached Pedro with some solo songs with the idea to make my solo project live. Little did I know Pedro also had a handful of songs. That lead to us starting Mounds of Earth. Before "us and reabuilding" their wasn't much work mentioning.
You are quite prolific, usually releasing multiple albums and EPs with different projects every year. How do you decide which riffs and ideas you bring to your band versus stuff you save for solo material?
Most of the time when I write songs they become solo songs. When I write a song I usually have a strong vision of how I want it to go and I don't want anyone to mess with it. (Unless I ask them too.) when I bring a song into a band it's usually because I don't know what to do with it or I think a certain person would work well on it. I usually don't feel like people are gonna like my songs so most of them I throw into "Georgie's Paper Boat".
Mounds of Earth has a new album in the works. What's going on with that and when can we expect the music?
We are in the mastering stage of the new "Mounds of Earth" I'm not sure where we are with the art work or a relies date but it should come out soon. (Their are rumors of us releasing it with the new "Human Machine" album but we will see.) I think it's our best album yet. I also have a new Paper Boat album coming out soon featuring 8 different singers (I have a few hidden vocals of my own in their too) and 2 drummers. And of course Pedro helped a lot with the mixing.
The Start Thinking About Someone Else Vol 2 compilation features 13 secret/side/solo projects by folks from across the west coast DIY music community including Walter Etc, Christian Oyen, Kiki Ruiz, Jaake from Get Married, Josue from Struckout and more! It will be released on November 11th by Pacific Nature Records. Pre-order the tape and digital download on bandcamp.
20 Bands and Counting: An Interview with Jon Modell
Drummer, multi-instrumentalist, recording engineer, and musical handiman Jon Modell is all over the Orange County music scene. Under the cover of darkness he’s been holed up in his studio making solo music under the name good nothing for over a year now. He’s contributing two tracks to the Start Thinking About Someone Else Vol 2 compilation, coming out this Friday on Pacific Nature Records, so we asked him some questions to go along with the premier of his new track “Raspberry Kisses”:
You grew up playing baseball. How did you end up being a drummer in a zillion bands and a recording engineer?
Haha honestly, the two aren't really related. I played ball competitively till I was 19, but i always felt like an outsider amongst those guys. I got my first drum kit at 14 and started looking for people to jam with right away. I just kept going and met more people. I love collaborating with new folks.
What's the current count of bands/projects you regularly participate in? Any guesstimate of how many bands you've been in and out of the last three years?
Let's see. There's The Human Machine, Panoramic, The Stereo Soul Movement, The Secret Smooth Band, Honey Syrup, Puppy Soul, The Paternal Jazz Ensemble, Good Nothing.. I hope I'm not missing any! I've also taken part in Talk Tired Thanatoid, Galactacat, Matt Sturgis's band, benno va, Yukon Territorial Expansion, gooop, Grand Air, The Ashing Velvets, El Montaña Negra, The Gloriosas, Purge Solenoid, The Blacksher Project.
You did all the recording and production on your tracks and Kiki's tracks in addition to playing on both. What do you like about self-recording and working on recording in yer own space?
I first tried crudely recording myself when I was 16 and I just keep getting deeper and deeper into it (I'm 23 now). I love having my own space because I have time to experiment and I'm always ready if I get inspired. Working with Kiki was ideal because I love her songs and she allowed me lots of creative freedom in the production.
Rumor has it that The Human Machine is working on two albums. What's coming up in the future for THM and for you personally with recording and other projects?
Ah yes, The Human Machine has two albums in the mix/master phase. I'm very excited for y'all to hear, definitely our most raw material yet. Omar A. (Rosehip Orchestra, Transporting Planets, Kittinger) contributed some guitar on both of them.. Besides that I'm occasionally making songs for good nothing. I hope to do some recordings with the m3owz. I also hope to do more improv recordings with Jake Ingalls for his new label Searching Records.
The Start Thinking About Someone Else Vol 2 compilation features 13 secret/side/solo projects by folks from across the west coast DIY music community including Walter Etc, Christian Oyen, Kiki Ruiz, Jaake from Get Married, Josue from Struckout and more! It will be released on November 11th by Pacific Nature Records. Pre-order the tape and digital download on bandcamp.
I also decided to add a quote from Alyx Poska (diy4lyfe) friend of mine and friend of the podcast:
“idk how i feel about this. things are much different on the east coast than the west coast and most diy venues are not featured in the New York times like Silent Barn was. not to mention the difference in laws between different states that limit selling alcohol/age limits around alcohol/zoning laws, relative cost of living and minimum wage. the thing also not discussed here is that when those bands get bigger and now HAVE management more people are dipping their fingers into the pot to book at DIY spots that dont really need an agent to book.
im glad raising the $5 show price is in the conversation cuz its really paltry in terms of how inflation and costs of living has changed. i feel like this specific conversation the writer is having doesnt apply to smaller DIY bands but its gonna be misconstrued as a DIY-scene-wide thing. larger bands from the DIY community are working with people in the “indie” music world (in terms of PR, labels, agent etc..) so financial stuff is much more complicated to talk about cuz most DIY bands dont understand how working with a booking agent or PR person works (financially and contractually). even i dont understand all those things.
its hard to be super nuanced in an advice column like this but this conversation has so much nuance to discuss cause of economics and the geographical differences in music communities. For instance people spend a lot more money getting to shows in SoCal cuz everyone drives and gas is more expensive in Kali. this conversation could go on forever *shruggie*”
Well you know theres a lot of groups now that are coming out of this kinda rock camp thing- you know once upon a time, a rock group was a degenerate activity. But now it’s being cultivated by parents who send kids to rock camp and learn how to do it like Stevie Ray Vaughn or something. Because of this the groups are of higher quality than ever- in a certain sense. But what’s missing the ideological underpinning of some of the old groups. Now everyone is learning how to stand on stage, and… now their learning when their nine or ten years old.
Whats missing, maybe, is some of the other things that make the art form and medium interesting.
Ian Svenonius (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3dSROfbG0U)
Let me just start off by being completely transparent with you- I’ve just spent the past two days with this band, and I’m still coming down from seeing them live and having the best possible time doing so. Now that I’ve given you some background information, let me tell you about how fantastic Just Friends (Also known as JF Crew) are. Coming at you from Dublin/Pleasanton, California this band will rock your socks off. Previously known as #TheSamKlessExperience, the band has grown and developed into a band unlike any other. Touting a solid hefty 8 member lineup their signature sound requires 3 guitars, 2 horns - a trumpet and trombone, a bass player/backing vocalist, drummer, and vocalist. At first they may look like a bunch of silly boys with bleached hair who wear short shorts and Raiders gear, but these boys are some of the most talented musicians out there (seriously- just listen to “Move 2 Miami” and you’ll get it). Just Friends aren’t just a band, they are an experience (though I would say more than just a Sam Kless one), their energy while performing is immeasurable. Every single member looks like they are having the time of their lives while performing, while captivating every single audience member and practically forcing them to do the same. That same energy seeps into their recordings. Their full band vibrant sound makes it impossible to not completely jam. Long awaited first full length release Rock 2 The Rythm came out in August of 2015 on Open Door Records, and basically melted faces off.
You’ll be jamming along, and soon you’re singing along, and then you realize- wait… these are “sad boy” lyrics that you relate to, over mad energetic music, what???? Then “Bad Weather II” comes on and it’s slow and sorrowful and you’re all kinds of confused. Never fear though, vocalist Sam Kless will have you back to jamming in just a little bit, but enjoy the downturn while you have it, Just Friends doesn’t do this often. They like to keep it short and sweet, with only one track out of all their releases ever reaching four whole minutes. That’s okay though, the sound will hit you like a bus and then it’s over. Horn players Avi Day and Chris Palowitch (Eric Butler for their current tour) bring the straight funk to every song, but don’t fret music elitists! Just Friends surely aren’t ska, they’re not pop punk either, or even emo (sorry to let you down), they’re something completely their own, and that’s what I love most of all. I have yet to find another band doing what they’re doing, the way they’re doing it. Just when you think you’ve articulated what it is exactly Just Friends is, they’ll throw you for a loop with tracks like “Normal Me” where bassist Kent Soliday takes over vocals and you get a break from the usual Sam Kless shout/singing (not that you won’t completely love that). The lyrics aren’t all about heartbreak and sadness either, lyrical themes also often include the subject of being away from home, not knowing what to do while friends are going in different directions, self reflection, and just growing up in general- which I think we can all relate to.
( PC: Tommy Calderon Photography)
All in all, Just Friends is one of my all time favorite bands and I couldn’t be more stoked to call them pals of mine. I’m going to end this week’s installment with a story about this band. The first time I saw them was in a small basement in early summer 2015, I was one of the few people at the show who even knew who they were and I had been into them for a while at that point, so I won’t even lie I was mega excited to see them. I stood in the very front and sang every word, like a dweeb. During “Welcome Mats” (still my favorite song) their trombonist Chris saw me shouting every single word and stopped trombone-ing mid song, got a huge grin across his face, and hugged me. This past weekend I wasn’t the only one shouting along to that song at their Portland show, but as Sam hugged me and the others I got the very same feeling of love. Just Friends is a band full of some the most loving, gracious, funny, and talented people I’ve ever met. So please, do yourself a favor and listen to this band, you won’t regret it. And when you inevitably get the chance one day to see them, don’t you dare pass it up.
for a while you’ve been working in a kind of para-jazz idiom focused around understanding different kinds of pitch relationships. at the same time you have done work, for example in your book Nonmusical Patterns, exploring how visual shapes on the guitar fretboard can be used to generate pitch collections. my sense is that the exercises in Nonmusical Patterns allow you to suspend pitch’s status as music’s main thing, only to rediscover pitch as a changed and recharged intelligibility. Thoreau: 1/23/1852: “the finest uses of things are the accidental.” is this all a way of tricking yourself into adopting a gracious attitude?
can you imagine if tumblr was around when the original star wars came out and in the two year gap between movies there were heated arguments between luke/leia shippers and han/leia shippers and all kind of vague posts and fandom wank and thousands of luke/leia fics on ao3 and people devotedly making gifsets of luke/leia with florence + the machine lyrics only for it be revealed that they were SIBLINGS like can you imagine the fallout
like i’m imagining something akin to the great ron/hermione vs harry/hermione ship war of 2011 and all the thousands of words of meta and hate blogging debates over the dancing scene in deathly hallows, like if all that had happened and people became so deeply entrenched in their points of view and then jk rowling was like “word of god is that harry and hermione are long lost twins” like IT WOULD BE INCREDIBLE
fandom shit WAS THERE since 1977 and onwards. Just because the technology was different doesn’t mean it wasn’t there.
BEHOLD YE OLD FAN ZINE!!!!
found this gem at celebration v………………………. !
@teenwitched
There were fan clubs like The Royal Order of the Rebel Forces, started in 1977 by “Paula Truelove”. There was an official newsletter Bantha Tracks that published fan art and meta.
There was a HATE WAR of Han fans vs Luke fans called “Church of Ford and Cathedral of Luke” I kid you not. It grew tenser with each film’s release.
There was adult het and slash (Han/Luke) themed fan fiction since the early 1980s, much of which (especially the latter), had to be circulated privately bc of the uproar it caused with some of the fandom and Lucasfilm.
“Before the internet, fans kept in contact via regular mail and letterzines, which were small, cheaply produced zines that printed letters from the subscribers, often including new zine announcements, meta discussions and essays, and flame wars as well as friendly chat and news about the movies and the fan community. Some fan club groups also produced their own letterzines, some including members’ fan fiction and fan art.” Check the vintage zines out, they’re still selling on ebay
Tumblr seems to think it invented fandom and shipping. It didn’t even refine it. Fan zines have been around for DECADES. We’re talking late fifties, easily.
Got some tite stuff coming up in the next few weeks! Yer not gonna wanna miss the show at @thefridacinema: bands playing in the theater with projections on the big screen!
I recently talked to Corey over at Bed Rest Press and I told him, “this label is not an end all be all of Orange County music or ‘objectively good’ music in general. I put out stuff for a number of reasons from ‘sell-a-bility’ to ‘nurturing a young artist’ to ‘wanting to be hip’ to ‘this is a culturally important document of contemporary life’.” Thank you to everyone that has supported this weird entity I call diy4lyfe over the past year. We did so much cool stuff in our community and helped friendship and creativity triumph over consumerism and conformism in 2015! Here is an End of the Year Report for all the (non-)stockholders in this (non-)company since we believe in being transparent. Don’t trust dirty capitalists y’all! Remember, never call the cops.
Shows:
22 shows this year. Almost every show had a touring band and we paid out over $2000 total to touring and local bands at shows this year.
States Represented at these shows: Oregon, California, Washington, Arizona, New Jersey, New York, Louisiana, and Texas
Two Friendship Trail shows
Hosted four Funk Me All Night Long’s!
Merry Halloween Covers show (video)
Releases:
14 releases; 12 cassettes, 2 CDs, and a digital compilation.
Sold out of 3 releases this year!
Sold over 150 physical copies of releases!
Finances:
You know what floats this label as an endeavor I can afford to do? Button sales. So please order more buttons so I can fund the label!
All releases from 2015 cost $5 or less.
All our shows in 2015 cost $5 or less.
Average pay out to touring bands: $110
My favorite label release of the year: Start Thinking About Someone Else Compilation
Thanks to Beatnik Bandito, Programme Skate & Sound, The Eclectic Room, and Tririlla Studios for helping us out this year! Rafa’s still owes us one more night of dank vegan food!
Forward the #SmoothMusicRevolution2k16
Employee of the Year Award goes to Michael Biedermann!
Be on the lookout for more tapes, CDs and hopefully vinyl in 2016! If you wanna come to one of our shows you can subscribe to them on Facebook!
To help support us and support our bands in the New Year, you can buy stuff on: Storenvy and Bandcamp!
-Alyx Poska
@ridgewayca started their west coast tour the other day so go check them out and also check out this live session I put together with the help of @diy4lyfe a month ago!
Live session from the @ridgewayca boize, filmed and edited by @joeytobinphotography !! The new Ridgeway release is coming out on tape thru diy4lyfe in less than two weeks! We will be having a tape release show at The Eclectic Room on January 15th!
In late '86, NME, under new editor in chief Ian Pye, rallied around "indie" and quickly recast it to suit it's purposes, dispensing with much of the political claptrap and focusing on the fashion and trappings
I feel very strongly that lo-fi music is subconsciously political in that it is a rejections of mainstream Western capitalist values that say brighter and newer is always better. Lo-fi says you don't need a bunch of money to make a song that can break someone's heart, and that's something I believe in..
Matthew Gray (Juniper Tree Songs)
http://slantedmanor.com/2015/10/22/juniper-tree-songs-an-interview-with-matthew-conrad-gray/
