#ben leaphart

[spilladabalia]

Purling Hiss - Don’t Even Try It - Johnny Brenda’s Philadelphia PA - 4-21-2023

[sinceileftyoublog]

Purling Hiss Interview: Piecemeal Worldbuilding

BY JORDAN MAINZER

“It’s finally here. I can’t believe it.”

That was Mike Polizze over the phone, speaking to me last month about Drag on Girard, the new Purling Hiss album out now via Drag City. It’s the catchiest, most power pop-forward PH record yet, Polizze’s lead-rhythm guitar arrangements and the singalong harmonized vocals leading the charge on sci-fi songs vaguely about Philadelphia, paranoia, and everything in between. 

Drag on Girard seems like a return to Polizze’s skyward scuzz, after the dialed back, languid jams of his solo debut Long Lost Solace Find. In actuality, though, it was supposed to come out long before this year, just like the valiant “return” from Polizze’s other band, Birds of Maya’s Valdez, recorded in 2014 but released 7 years later. Polizze and company started tracking Girard at the tail end of 2019 and finished it in early 2020. Before he was able to do vocals and overdubs, the pandemic and lockdown happened. He eventually got into the studio in 2021, but delays in vinyl manufacturing backups and therefore test pressings, in combination with Drag City’s regular release queue, meant that the record didn’t come out until this March. “It seems on paper like a long break between Purling Hiss records,” the prolific Polizze said. “But the chronology was messed up.”

2022 was the first year since Polizze started his music career that none of his projects released anything. Because 2020′s Long Lost Solace Find was technically his last record chronologically, the world feels weirdly open. At the start of the pandemic, he and his wife moved from Fishtown in Philly to the suburbs where he grew up, and they now have a two-year-old child. “Coming out on the other side of all that is kind of a weird feeling,” said Polizze. “Now, I’m at an interesting point where there’s no big plan.” Even if the looseness of Drag on Girard is coincidental, you can see Polizze’s unbound attitude in everything from the way he’s honest about the piecemeal worldbuilding of Drag on Girard’s themes to the fact that he’s not currently working with a booking agent, planning shows himself. That includes tonight and tomorrow night at Union Pool in Brooklyn, with Chris Forsyth and Garcia Peoples.

Read my conversation with Polizze below, edited for length and clarity.

Since I Left You: Do you think the loose sounding nature of Drag on Girard was a result of your attitude to just have fun with it?

Mike Polizze: Yes, absolutely. We recorded at Jeff [Zeigler’s] again. I really wanted that “live in the studio” feel. There were even a couple songs that weren’t totally structured. The ones on the B-side are “let’s just have fun with it,” which is the spirit of the live stuff. I still feel like I want to go in that direction more. I wanted it to be off-the-cuff, not super refined. 

SILY: It almost seems to me like the punkier, noisier, scuzzier version of the same spirit as Long Lost Solace Find. Same vibe, different aesthetic.

MP: The solo album is pretty much just me, and Kurt [Vile] on a couple things, and [Drag on Girard] is with the band. It’s weird, because the songs are new to people now, and they’re still fresh for us, but everything got put on hold for everybody.

SILY: Have you been playing the Drag on Girard songs live for a bit?

MP: The first song, “Yer In All My Dreams”, had been kicking around for a few years, in the live sets since 2017-2018, and we cut it in the studio in 2019. I still can’t believe how much time has passed. “Baby”’s been kicking around for a while. “Stay With Us”, [too].

SILY: I like how the record traverses the different eras of guitar music. There are some of your usual influences, and the closing track has a Crazy Horse thing going on, but songs like “When The End Is Over” and even “Out The Door” has that jangle pop feel to it. Are you a fan of Flying Nun Records?

MP: Yeah, I do like that stuff a lot. I don’t really know where influences come from. I consider it like fishing. You have the fishing rod out, and you’re waiting for something to come along. That’s how I write. I didn’t set out to write like this on purpose. The placeholder name for “When The End Is Over” was “Power Pop” because it felt like Cheap Trick or Shoes or even Teenage Fanclub. But yeah, I love The Clean and all that stuff.

SILY: How did you approach the lyrics on the record?

MP: Normally, I’ll sort of find a song or riff and work off that and come up with parts just by jamming on them and seeing where they fall. Lyrics are usually last. I’ll have syllables formed over parts, and maybe a word or two will pop into my mind as a placeholder that presents a theme. When it’s time to really figure it out and I have the pacing and tempo and syllables and inflection, I think, “What do I feel? What kind of words can I conjure up for this?” It fits like a puzzle, with the guitar, then structure, then we practice over it and I sing non-words, then I go to the notepad. It’s less of a story and more nonsensical poetry. I edit from there.

SILY: There’s definitely a bit of sci-fi in here.

MP: [laughs] Maybe in some parts. “Baby” has some funny lyrics. “Drag on Girard”, too.

SILY: What about “Something in my Basement”?!?

MP: Yeah. It’s kind of like my joke to myself, like Little Shop of Horrors. Kitschy and fun. I didn’t know it was going to end up being about that. Little quips or slogans or titles pop up in [my] memory that I build off of. “Something in my basement” popped up in my mind, and the idea of a story there, and the end of the song is, “There’s nothing in my basement,” so the question is whether it really happened or whether it was all in your mind. 

SILY: Is it similar to your approach to the instrumentation and aesthetic, where your inspirations are a bit more subconscious?

MP: Yeah, kind of. It’s all right there. We’re constantly taking in information, and I don’t really think of the full idea first at all. I start scribbling, on paper or on guitar, then get a Voice Memo going on my phone. I used to just use my memory when I was younger, and then tape machines. But that is the formula.

I have goals, sometimes, or a general direction I want to go in, but the best thing to do for me is to improvise it and let it guide me and go for it. If I ever hit a wall, which happens all the time, I have to figure out how to navigate, so I keep it wide and vague and then hone in on it as I go. It’s not all figured out before I start.

SILY: Do you feel like this record is a balm when you consider how out of sorts the world feels? 

MP: It feels celebratory, in a way. We had fun with it. Truthfully, it was all written before the pandemic happened. I’m happy with it, for sure. It’s kind of like an opposite record from [Long Lost Solace Find], which is refined-sounding in my opinion. It’s structured, pretty even. [Drag on Girard] is pretty off-the-rails. I don’t know if it sounds that way. Just because it took so long to come out doesn’t mean we were in the studio the whole time. It’s pretty shrill in some parts. I tried to balance between raw and unhinged with pop sensibilities. It’s all over the place.

SILY: What’s the album title mean?

MP: It’s an inside joke between my drummer Ben [Leaphart] and I. When I first moved to Philly in 2004, I met him and Jason [Killinger] from Birds of Maya. It was the first time I moved into a house with bandmates and roommates. Fishtown was starting to gentrify a bit, but it was still an affordable place. Part of me is talking about the glory days of that, but I’m not from that neighborhood, so what right do I have? [In any case,] it was affordable and became this artist utopia with a lot of music people. It was a good time right around then, the early 2000s, with Espers, Jack Rose, Birds of Maya, Kurt Vile, The War on Drugs. Johnny Brenda’s was one floor, no food, draught beer, a hole in the wall.

Girard Avenue is one of the main strips/arterial routes that goes through Fishtown, along with Frankford Avenue. Me and Ben had our used crappy old vehicles. In 2004, I’d meet up with him and there’d be nobody on Girard. It was pretty dead at night. There were no cars on the road after 8 P.M. We’d joke about drag racing on Girard Avenue. It was an edgier neighborhood. Since then, Fishtown has totally gentrified: There’s no parking, it’s overdeveloped, there are all these crappy buildings, and there’s nowhere to move. This isn’t anything political or social, just a personal inside joke. It’s actually kind of stupid, but I thought the title had a good ring to it. Philly can be “a drag,” and there’s other imagery invoked in that. I like it when things have or could have more than one meaning.

SILY: This record is also a windows-down, blast from the car stereo record.

MP: [laughs]

SILY: What’s the story behind the cover art?

MP: I had lots of sketches, and I drew and colored with different mediums a lot before I moved out of Fishtown in 2018-2019. I haven’t done it much the past few years. Jason is an artist and graphic designer. I brought a lot of stuff to him, but we actually went a different direction. It’s not what the cover is now. We had a couple other ideas, and the cover that’s now is one of them. It matched the back cover idea, which we did have. I think we hit a wall. We didn’t really know what we wanted. I pitched some of my sketch ideas, and my bandmates liked it, and Drag City [did, too]. I liked it because I made it, but I don’t know what the world likes. Every once in a while, I’ll draw things that don’t make sense. Kind of like the sci-fi thing, [the] guy [on the cover] is sort of my catatonic space traveler suspended in the multi-verse, or something. It’s half-baked, and tied into Drag on Girard. It’s funny how I stitched together this half-baked story and imagery, this theme of sci-fi imagery and living in Philadelphia. There are these songs, lyrics, album cover, and album title, and I almost put together the story in reverse that way. We’re people and take in all this information every day, and there are probably people who are way more organized than me. It’s fun for me, and it feels multi-dimensional, going from the sketches to Jason and me working on it to Drag City. It’s not the order I expected.

SILY: Have you been writing new material?

MP: Yeah. It honestly feels great, and sometimes, I don’t realize it until moments like this where I get to talk about it. There are irons in the fire. I feel grateful I always have something I feel like I can work on because I’ve compiled enough ideas on my own. I’m working on another solo record; slowly but surely, you’ll see something there at some point. I’m so lucky to have the bandmates I have in Purling Hiss, I’m sure we’ll keep working on stuff. Birds of Maya wants to do some more stuff. I almost miss editing music in my 4-track and computer at home. Any free time that’s rare, I miss messing around with things outside of what I just mentioned. There have been a couple ideas with collaborations, but nothing I can speak on because they might not happen. I’m trying to keep things moving.

SILY: Anything you’ve been listening to, watching, or reading you’ve dug?

MP: I’ve been struggling to find time to read but I have a pile of books. Fiction-wise, I got True Grit. I got the SST [Records] book, Corporate Rock Sucks. Because of my toddler, I’m squeezed for personal time.

Since Wayne Shorter died, I’ve been on a jazz kick. My dad died when I was a teenager, but he played saxophone and started music school young and didn’t end up doing it because he had a family. But he had a pretty cool record collection. He left behind a bunch of jazz records, lots of Blue Note stuff. Lots of [John] Coltrane lately. I keep going through kicks, days where I listen to my own band practices and demos, and then I’ll get to the point I need to listen to other people’s music. Gábor Szabó. My dad had Dreams in his collection. Pharoah Sanders’ Karma. I really wish he had Sun Ra stuff. I know Sun Ra was between Chicago and Philly--we can’t take full credit for him.

[spilladabalia]

Purling Hiss - Another Silvermoon

[bestreasonstowriterecordreviews]

Fuckin’ Record Reviews presents a fuckin’ record review of AYE AYE’s Aye Aye, a long playing record released by Richie Records/testostertunes in 2015.

@testostertunes

[bestreasonstowriterecordreviews]

“Three people, tired of shit, time to eat, time for dinner One table, four chairs, one wall and one door Before they order the appetizers, before the drinks Where to sit? Who sits where? Choose a seat

Now Mary, she sits in front, like Samara said: ‘A lady makes the effort to get freed up, she should be on display’ Now Richie, like Malcolm, wants to face the door Don’t want a bullet in the back Wants to look his killer in the eye

The third...is Max...defiant and moral* UNLIKE YOU FUCKING DICKHEADS, I WELCOME DEATH!

I...WELCOME...DEATH I welcome death

I welcome death I welcome death Death Death...”

WATERY LOVE “Face The Door” Decorative Feeding LP (2014)

(*not sure he actually sings “defiant and moral,” but it sounds like it)  

PART 6 of 6!  EXCERPTS FROM THE AS-YET-UNPUBLISHED-ON-PAPER JULY 2014 FRR INTERVIEW WITH WATERY LOVE ON THE OCCASION OF THEIR BEING PUT ON AN AIRPLANE AND BEING FLOWN TO CALIFORNIA TO PLAY THIS WEEK...

RC: RICHIE CHARLES (guitar)

MM: MAX MILGRAM (guitar)

BL: BEN LEAPHART (drums)

MP: MIKE POLIZZE (bass)

LYNN: LYNN D

ARIELLE: ARIELLE M

FRR: AGING BALDINI

MARY LATTIMORE (Thrill Jockey)

SAMARA LUBELSKI (De Stijl)

PART 1: “I’m definitely too old and disinterested in going out and playing like, real actual shows and sleeping on strangers’ floors and stuff. But I also don’t care for whatever the next step of that world would be. If someone wants to put me on an airplane and fly me somewhere to play I’ll do it very happily. But otherwise, I don’t need to be in a car for many, many hours with these guys.”  [MAX]

…so it came to pass in the summer of 2014 that Fuckin’ Record Reviews was invited to the castle of 45labelwhore to meet with the Knights of Love, who at the time included Richie (guitar), Max  (guitar) andBen (drums), and a late appearance from Mike (bass), along with various jesters and levity ballers. The excerpt above is from a 34 page (!) interview with this collective of Philadelphia based combustion.  

BESERKERTOWN 2! (8/14/15 - 8/16/15)

WATERY LOVE at In The Red

PART 2: “So I essentially traded a trash-picked piano for a stolen guitar…and gave it to Max to keep indefinitely.”[RICHIE]

Original WATERY LOVE drummer MEG BAIRD is full on in 2015! Not only does she have a stunning new Drag City LP Don’t Weigh Down the Light, she is drumming with psych sermonizers HERON OBLIVION, alongside COMET ON FIRE’S Ethan Miller, ASSEMBLE HEAD IN SUNBURST SOUND’S Charles Saufley and SIC ALPS’ Noel V. Harmonson.

HERON OBLIVION on FACEBOOK

HERON OBLIVION on SOUNDCLOUD: 22 minutes of “Funeral Funk 49″!

PART 3: “So I knew Richie then….I also knew Max and Meg. I can’t remember my impressions…I remember them sounding really bad, maybe?” [BEN]

BEN LEAPHART replaced original Watery Love drummer Meg Baird (who we wrote about here) in late 2012/early 2013. He also currently holds it down in PURLING HISS with Mike Polizze and Kiel Everett, as well as in BIRDS OF MAYA with Jason Killinger. Additionally, Ben plays in AYE AYE with BARDO POND’s John Gibbons, Michael Gibbons and Dan Balcer - aka Harmonica Dan! Furthermore, Jason is responsible for SPACIN’, also on Richie Records.

Another of 2015′s best: AYE AYE on Richie Records

The Richie Records/Testostertunes bigcartel

BIRDS OF MAYA Celebration from that great retail barn below the Mason-Dixon: Little Big Chief

BIRDS OF MAYA Ready To Howl at Richie Records

2010 interview with Richie Charles at Terminal Boredom re: CLOCKCLEANER and early Richie style

CLOCKCLEANER hang it up by Brian McManus (from 4/4/09 Philly Weekly). “Also, Hannah Montana.”

Hey, parched CALIFORNIA: WATERY LOVE/wooderylove ARE HURTLING THROUGH THE AIR IN AN ALUMINUM AND FIBERGLASS TUBE TO PLAY FOR YOU THIS WEEK!  Don’t ask them for water though.

PART 4: “Just let them do their thing. Me and Mike hold it down and let Max and Richie do…WATERY LOVE.” [BEN]

Live band photo from 7/12/14 [included in PART 4] set at WFMU’s Monty Hall(left to right: Richie, Ben, John Allen (not in band as far as we know), Mike, Max]Close up of Mike playing bass in Permanent Records t-shirt from same show

The multi-camera video of this set - which was great by the way - is over here at WFMU’s Vimeo feed for your home entertainment.

Mike and Ben moonlighting in PURLING HISS

PART 5: “…a friend of mine would say, ‘Watery Love’s great. They’ve got two of the greatest guitar players in the area…but it’s the rhythm section’.” [RICHIE]

Photo of Richie driving to the hoop past Max and Dan [included in PART 5] lifted from Richie’s 2010 interview with Rich K at Terminal Boredom

HOME BLITZ Foremost & Fair LP (Richie/TT - 2015): “The new Home Blitz does sound like he’s spent the last three years hanging out at renaissance fairs for inspiration. But everything about the album is out in the forefront and clear. Not that you couldn’t tell he was a gifted lyricist and musician before, but it’s exciting to hear him discard of everything that obscured his more striking peculiarities. He puts himself on the line in a really respectable way. Great album, truly singular voice. Bye.” - urbankill

WATERY LOVE (still) in California this weekend…

8/15/15 Los Angeles CA @Permanent Records w/ The Lamps! (early show)

8/15/15 Los Angeles CA @Beserktown 2 Fest w/ Royal Trux, Dead Moon and many others…Beserkertown II Fest schedule has Watery Love playing on Saturday 8/15/15

Upcoming 2015 Samara Lubelski shows: 

Aug. 17th - Don Dietrich + Camille Dietrich + Nate Wooley (trumpet) + Samara Lubelski (violin) + Brandon Lopez (contra-bass) - Jack, Brooklyn, NY

Aug. 18th - Solo Violin Set - (w/Tara Jane O'Neil and Sapropelic Pycninc) - Union Pool, Brooklyn, NY

Aug. 27th - Solo Song/Guitar Set (w/Meg Baird & Mary Lattimore) - Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia, PA

Aug. 30 - Solo Song/Guitar Set (w/ Meg Baird & Tom Carter & Mary Lattimore) - Union Pool, Brooklyn, NY

Sept. 13th - Duo w/Marcia Bassett (W/Spires That In The Sunset Rise) - Silent Barn, Brooklyn, NY

Upcoming 2015 Mary Lattimore shows:

August 16, 2015 - New York, NY - Whynot Jazz Room Mary Lattimore (harp), Mats Dimming (double bass), Hampus Ohman-Frolund (drums), Dan Iead (guitar)

August 17, 2015 - New York, NY - Troost Mary Lattimore (harp), Matts Dimming (double bass), Hampus Ohman-Frolund (drums)

August 27, 2015 - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda’s Mary Lattimore solo set, Samara Lubelski, Meg Baird 

August 30, 2015 - New York, NY - Union Pool Samara Lubelski, Tom Carter, Mary Lattimore solo set, Meg Baird 

September 6, 2015 - Philadelphia, PA - World Cafe Live Mary Lattimore solo set, Joan Shelley (No Quarter Records)

September 12, 2015 - Raleigh, NC - Hopscotch Festival Mary Lattimore and Jeff Zeigler

Upcoming 2015 Meg Baird shows:

8/27/15 Philadelphia, PA

8/30/15 Brooklyn, NY

9/10/15 Brighton, United Kingdom

9/11/15 London, United Kingdom

9/12/15 Bristol, United Kingdom

9/14/15 Manchester, United Kingdom

9/15/15 Dublin, Ireland

9/16/15 Leeds, United Kingdom

9/17/15 Glasgow, United Kingdom

9/19/15 Leffinge, Belgium

9/20/15 Tilburg, Netherlands

9/26/15 Big Sur, CA

Home Blitz play Rough Trade NYC 8/25/15 with Royal Headache and Sheer Mag

[bestreasonstowriterecordreviews]

“I’m definitely too old and disinterested in going out and playing like, real actual shows and sleeping on strangers’ floors and stuff. But I also don’t care for whatever the next step of that world would be. If someone wants to put me on an airplane and fly me somewhere to play I’ll do it very happily. But otherwise, I don’t need to be in a car for many, many hours with these guys.”  - MAX MILGRAM/WATERY LOVE 

EXCERPTS FROM THE AS-YET-UNPUBLISHED JULY 2014 FRR INTERVIEW WITH WATERY LOVE  ON THE OCCASION OF THEIR BEING PUT ON AN AIRPLANE AND BEING FLOWN TO CALIFORNIA TO PLAY THIS WEEK (PART 1)

RC: RICHIE CHARLES

MM: MAX MILGRAM

BL: BEN LEAPHART

MP: MIKE POLIZZE

LAUGHTER IS ITS OWN REWARD: LYNN D

ASSASSIN OF SILENCE: ARIELLE M

FRR: AGING BALDINI

…so it came to pass in the summer of 2014 that Fuckin’ Record Reviews was invited to the castle of 45labelwhore to meet with the Knights of Love, who at the time included Richie (guitar), Max  (guitar) and Ben (drums), and a late appearance from Mike (bass), along with various jesters and levity ballers. The excerpt above is from a 34 page (!) interview with this collective of Philadelphia based combustion.  

HOLD THE PRESSES: WATERY LOVE IS PLAYING IN CALIFORNIA THIS WEEK! SCHEDULE AS FOLLOWS:

8/12/15 San Francisco CA @Knockout w/a secret band and Mozart

8/13/15 San Francisco CA @Rickshaw Stop w/ Total Control and Royal Headache - ripsocietyrecords​

8/15/15 Los Angeles CA @Permanent Records w/ The Lamps (early show)

8/16/15 Los Angeles CA @Beserktown 2 Fest w/ Royal Trux, Dead Moon, and many others 

Former members of WATERY LOVE discussed with aplomb during the July 2014 interview and pictured above (in addition to Mike) include MEG BAIRD (drummer) and DAN DIMMAGIO…STAY TUNED…

 WATERY LOVE at In The Red

BESERKERTOWN 2! (8/14/15 - 8/16/15)