Interview

One of the biggest success stories of 2009 has been the glorious return of lo-fi indie rock. Like a fuzzy, sloppily recorded zombie returning from the 4-track grave, this scrappy subgenre came  back into the limelight this year. These dudes and ladies might sound like they recorded their albums in a basement  with a microphone wrapped in burlap (because maybe they did), but with music this catchy, who cares about polished production?

Dum Dum Girls
The brain trust over at Sub Pop records was smart to snatch up the Dum Dum Girls earlier this year. Described as a cross between the Ramones and the Ronettes, the DDG's share the same 50' pop fascination as many of their counterparts, but few other indie upstarts have as much panache as Dum Dum frontwoman Dee Dee. A full length album is on the way.

Best Coast
Perhaps the best and brightest in the new wave of lo-fi, Best Coast–the LA based duo of Bethany Cosentino and Bobb Bruno–sounds like classic 50s doo-wop delivered with the appropriate amount of angry-girl snarl. The band's finest offering thus far is a recent 4-song 7" single featuring standout tracks "Make you Mine" and "Over The Ocean," released via brand new NYC label Group Tightener.

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Having grabbed a sizable share of attention at last month's CMJ Marathon, barely legal South West London quartet the xx have embarked on a lengthy tour. They return to New York tonight before leaving for California, the midwest, and Europe. We caught up with vocalist and bassist Oliver Sim. (PHOTO: SEBASTIAN KIM)


JESSICA LOUDIS: So how did you first form as a band?

OLIVER SIM: We've all known each other for a very long time. I've known Romy since I was about three, and Jamie and Baria since was I about eleven. We all came up in school together. But it started with me and Romy when we were about fifteen or sixteen.

LOUDIS: I noticed that the school you went to [South West London's Elliott School] produced a number of now-successful bands–Burial, Hot Chip, and Four Tet. Was this something you were aware of when you started making music, or did you only find out later?

SIM: I was a bit unaware at the time, the only one that people talked about was Pierce Brosnan–  James Bond. I only found out Burial and Hot Chip later, but we weren't there at the same time as them.  I never know how much credit to give the school. It definitely helped us in that there was a lot of freedom–it was a massive school, there were about 2,000 students, and they let us play around and work stuff out ourselves, really. I don't know if that was them intentionally giving us time to be creative or them neglecting us a little bit, but it helped.

LOUDIS: Where did the band's name come from?

SIM: It came from the music. We liked how the double X looks, and I thought the xx had a lot of visual potential for artwork. On the other side, we liked the ambiguity to it, the visual mystery of it. Are we the twenty? Are we the x chromosome? Are we kiss kiss? So it was the mystery. The visual style and the mystery of it.

LOUDIS: Are you visual artists as well?

SIM: Well, we're very involved in everything, so we did the artwork ourselves, started working on visuals for our live shows, and we've been quite involved in the music videos that we've done so far. Romy went to art school, she did a foundation course, and I've studied graphic design. It's more of a hobby, though.

LOUDIS: What music have you guys been listening to recently that you really enjoy?

SIM: A lot, actually. For the first time in a long time there's a lot of music that I'm listening to that's a bit more current, whereas in past years I've listened to my parents' music, or music from the ‘80s. I think it's quite an exciting year. People like Big Pink, they're amazing, we had the chance to go on tour with them, as with Micachu And The Shapes. A band called Trailer Trash Tracies, there's a whole kind of scene that's the like aftermath of dubstep. It's beautiful electronica, people like Mount Kimbie and Pariah–there's quite a lot going on.

The xx play the Bowery Ballroom tonight at 8PM. The Bowery Ballroom is located at 6 Delancey Street in New York.

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Bears are making the news this week. An angry mama bear attacked and killed two Palestinian militants taking a snack break in her den in Kashmir. In Eastern Germany, three bears in captivity are losing their hair–one is almost completely bald. And, of course, this morning, bears of a different sort–the Stearns kind–were taken to task in a Brooklyn courtroom.

What do bears have to do with music? Unclear, but it would be impossible not to notice the glut of bands with the word "bear" in their name. It's not quite as rampant as the use of "black" or "crystal" or, even worse, "wolf," but it's a bona fide trend. Of course, if the bears are taking over, it seems a better bet to join them, rather than fight:

The Dance Art Bears

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The retro-minded, multilingual, virtuosic musicians of Pink Martini gleefully trip across boundaries with each new album. Splendor in the Grass, their latest, is no different. Jam-packed with unlikely excavations, inspired collaborations, obscure covers, and lyrics in languages ranging from Japanese to Neapolitan, it's a gift to music magpies the world over. We asked Portland, Oregon-based bandleader (and walking music encyclopedia) Thomas Lauderdale for an insider's tour of the track list.

Ninna Nanna
Written by Alba Clemente and Massimo Audiello

I was amazed that in the nineties, Alba had four children and stayed out really late at Jackie 60 on Tuesday nights.  We flew her out with at least six drag queens from there, and they sort of scandalized Portland. We wrote "Una Notta in Napoli," her first foray into songwriting, and I asked her if she'd ever consider writing a lullaby, so she and Massimo came up with "Ninna Nanna." In the middle of the song, I thought it made sense to sample Hugo Alfvén's "Swedish Rhapsody #1," which comes from a music box from my childhood.  It kind of just goes along with my whole idea that it's best to collaborate with people who are not songwriters, because what comes out is unbelievably beautiful.

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