Earlier this year, Eleven Magazine got a chance to speak to Woody of Montreal-based indie band, Plants and Animals, prior to the release of its 2nd studio release, “La La Land.” The band, which also includes Concordia University colleagues Nicolai and Lauren, had chosen to ring in the decade with months of impassioned recording sessions and American shows, including a tiring six performances in three days at this year’s SXSW.

Plants and Animals, “Faerie Dance”

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In this late-dawn phase before the band’s most extensive North American tour, Woody took this opportunity to reflect on the differences between “La La Land,” and its first release “Parc Avenue”: “The songs are shorter, poppier. There’s twists and turns that take it away from cookie cutter music. We try to make stuff that reveals itself to the listeners a little more slowly. You get a longer chew.” Having listened to both albums extensively, I can vouch for the enduring freshness of the band’s recordings, even in the face of triple-digit play-counts.

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Photo by Corey Woodruff. More on Flickr

The first thing I noticed at the Sleepy Sun show on Sunday night was that the band is rather large. I feared for the worst, assuming that the opener was using size to compensate for talent, as is often times the case. By the end of the first song, I had revised my opinion. The lead singer’s live vocals sounded more like they were being delivered through a set of Skullcandies than a crowd of Cardinals jerseys. I was more incredulous, though, at the voice of its female vocalist. Arriving a bit late, I mistook her for the band dancer/maraca player, and was quite surprised when she began a noteworthy impression of Florence of Florence + The Machine.

With every change of chorus and harmony, the band was able to forge an abstract universe on stage that welcomed members of the audience, without granting us the pretense that our presence was somehow necessary to its psychedelic existence. Yet in the midst of the chaotic performance, the band knew its order. When it was time to dance, everyone danced. When it was time to maraca, everyone fist-pumped intensely. By the end of the last harmonica riff, I took a head count of the band and was stunned. Sleepy Sun is not quite a large band (I counted 6), but rather an eclectic one capable of producing a large, beautiful sound — and not shy of enjoying its own concoction.

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Josiah Wolf, younger brother of Yoni Wolf and lead drummer in WHY?, proves in his premier solo effort, Jet Lag, that his musical versatility far exceeds bounds previously assumed.  Josiah plays every instrument on the effort, a feat especially remarkable when one considers that every track fits rather well the overall mood of the album.  This mood is rather sublime, but not entirely somber — a bit like the one month anniversary of a serious break-up.

Josiah Wolf – “The Trailer and the Truck”

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The album treads almost exclusively within the realm of faulty relationships, and engages the listener in a rather intimate lifetime of failed love.  While Wolf’s vocal range is quite small — lifetime percussionist small — his lyrics are well-crafted, true to life, and perhaps, more than enough to compensate.   The heavily percussion-based tracks hit the mark brilliantly, while those based on string instruments are largely hit or miss.  However, throughout the album, Wolf’s skillfully composed melodic beats ask that listeners hear each track, while his soft vocals and adept lyricism beg that they listen.

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Ever the wise-ass, Donald Glover, rap alias Childish Gambino, is much more than a rapper.  Having started his career as a start-up comedian, and now accelerating it on the cast of NBC’s Community, Gambino  exhibits a bit of his comical, theatrical, and musical talent on the mixtape.  His work as a writer (30 Rock, Comedy Central Presents) has rendered him a clever lyricist, capable of producing such Wayne-esque rhymes as “I f**k a girl named Kira, nightly.”  While the production quality and over-the-top delivery will prevent the listener from taking the tracks too seriously, Gambino’s rap ambition is admirable.  He is above all an actor/comedian who has finally made enough money to pursue rap as a hobby, but not an additional source of income.  The resulting work is eclectic (sampling Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear), lyrically satisfying, and at times reminiscent of FOTC’s Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenocerous.

Childish Gambino–My Girls (My Girls)

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Artists like Rockie have a soft spot in our hearts.  They are the rappers with small, but dedicated, fan-bases of young hipsters who would like nothing better than to burn you a copy to bump in your mom’s Camry.  In addition, Rockie is a bit of a hometown hero–if your hometown happens to be somewhere in the predominantly-black south suburbs of Chicago.  In his premier CD, the rapper is true to himself and his surroundings; he appeals to the lower middle class kid who doesn’t own a gun or sell drugs, but knows someone that does.  Lyrically sound and well-swaggered, Rockie is the type of artist that is probably well-founded in his belief that he could get signed if only his CD landed in the lap of the proper executive.

Rockie Fresh – I’m Fly

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While Alone in India may never be a household name, the stellar arrangement and impressive lyricism demonstrated on their premier demo raises the question:  Why not?  Its members, currently pursuing degrees at UMSL and STLCOP, show a love of music that transcends the need for money or fame – though I’m sure they wouldn’t mind, thank you very much.  ELEVEN recently got a chance to interview band leader Ben Venker.

Alone in India - Bullets

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Not really.  We spent a lot of time coming up with names and changing things around.  Our friend Kevin [Stephenson] actually came up with Alone in India iteration, and it just stuck.

Eric, Brett and I are brothers, and Kirt goes to pharmacy school with them.

Eric and I started messing around together a few years ago.  I moved to New York in 2005 and was there for two years, but we would collaborate informally online and whenever I was back in town.  I moved back to St. Louis in 2008, got a space at Utopia Studios, and just kept writing as much as I could.  ”Bullets and Innocence” were mostly written while I was in New York, but everything else on the demo was written since I’ve been back.  Eric’s been great about pushing to get songs out.  I’m a perfectionist when it comes to music, but we’re not audio engineers, so it can be hard to make things translate on the recordings.  At the same time it’s easy to lose perspective after working on a song or recording for ages. You can lose the immediacy and roughness that made the initial idea great. Eric came up with Halloween as a deadline for a demo, and that really pushed me to just kinda decide on versions that were good enough.  Once that was done, we started sending it to friends and got a lot of encouragement, which was really the impetus for getting a live set together.  Eric had sent Kirt some of our stuff before and he liked it, so we asked him to join up.  We still needed a bass player and didn’t really have any avenues for that besides Craigslist or something.  We talked to Brett about learning the bass, and he’s really stepped up to the plate on that for us.

Well, now that there’s a band, the roles are more defined.  Eric and I played everything on the demo ourselves, just because we didn’t have a group together, but Eric’s primary instrument is piano/keyboards and mine is guitar.  In the current lineup, I play guitar, Eric’s on keys, Kirt on drums and Brett on bass.

All of us are full time students, so that keeps us pretty busy.  I TA Intro to Microeconomics at UMSL and tutor in the Econ lab as well, Eric and Brett climb, and Kirt’s into biking.

I think we’re influenced by everything we listen to, but we take different things from different artists.  Bands like the Beatles or Dylan are probably what I’m looking toward personally.  Not in terms of sounding like them, but they consistently put out quality records and changed their sound throughout their careers.  That combination of accessibility and originality is rare, and it’s the reason why their work has stayed relevant.  Their knowledge of different musical styles was wide and deep, and as an artist I’m interested in the process that caliber of artist went through to get that power.

On a more sonic level, some bands that we like are Radiohead, Aesop Rock, Dirty Projectors, TV on the Radio, Andrew Bird…too many to name really.  Anything that hits you when hear it will end up influencing you, no matter who it is, and whether you want it to or not.

That’s tough.  Maybe The Band?  Watching those guys on the Last Waltz and seeing how tight they all are together…they started playing together when they were like fifteen years old and their chemistry was insane.

I think we have a pretty diverse range of songs on the demo, and there haven’t been a lot of comparisons as far as the sound of the band as a whole, but different people have said specific songs sound like anything from Bob Dylan to TV on the Radio.  As long as we don’t sound like we’re trying to rip someone else off, I think any comparison to a band we like is flattering.  People have said that if they had to describe our sound to someone, they wouldn’t know what to say.  When people ask me what kind of music we play, I usually say pop music, which to me is just means good music.

Well the next release will likely be an “official” album.  We called this one a “demo” mostly because it’s our first effort, and the group has doubled in size since then, so I’m not sure we’ve established much of anything yet.  The dynamics will definitely change and that’s really exciting.  There’s tons of sounds and styles that we want to explore and make our own so I hope the most consistent thing people can expect from us is exciting, quality work.

“Keep That to Yourself” and “Mercy.”  That’s two, but both those songs are very personal and one was written in about fifteen minutes, the other took about 2 months.  They’re kind of emotional opposites, and I think I wanted to prove to myself that I could write a more positive, major key song without it sounding forced.  It helped a lot to have something good to write about.

Probably 60s, 70s, 00s, 80s, 90s.

Favorite song of the new millennium, so far, for Eric and I, is “You and Whose Army” by Radiohead. I went through about a 2 year period where I had to hear that song at least once a day. I still freak out about it.

Favorite new artist of the new millennium…probably Arcade Fire. I know everyone loves them now – and they should, but Funeral blew me away when it came out. I couldn’t remember the last time I heard a record where I loved every song on it from start to finish, and the band sounded like they were having so much fun.  It got me excited about rock n’ roll again.  Also, I love the new Dirty Projectors record.

We’re playing at Felix’s in Dogtown on Feb. 4th. You can get details about the show (and download the whole demo for free!!) at http://www.aloneinindia.com if you want to check us out first.  The show is a benefit for ALIVEstl, a hotline and help center for domestic violence victims, so come hear some good music and support a great cause.

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Today, common hip-hop policy dictates that no genre or artist is free from crossover manipulation at the hands of subpar rappers–no, not even Radiohead.  While most half-hearted attempts at the gloriously high bar set by Jaydiohead fall far far short, Lupe’s verses over  The National Anthem nearly deserve the baseline and vocals they are set over.  Having heard very little from the Chitown local in 2009–let’s not count that single for the Twilight soundtrack–the Enemy of the State mixtape was just the reassurance his fans needed.  Lupe proves on this, the first track of the mixtape, that his mastery of metaphor, hyperbole, and personification are far and beyond the poetic ability of the current rap community at large.  Perhaps the simple “verb like noun” line structure (e.g. kick it like judo) won’t prevail in 2010 after all.

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Several months ago, I heard perhaps the best MGMT Kids Remix available and began to wonder if there was more to a group named Chiddy Bang than a millisecond of humor.  Since then, the group has released multiple tracks that have made me ashamed of my initial inclination.  Most recently, the band’s drop of “The Swelly Express” adds credulity to The Cool Kids Postulate: Suburban youths with a good education in rap history and a beat machine can flow with the best of them.  With the artful production of Xaphoon Jones, who may be best known for his breathtaking Kanye/Radiohead/Lupe, Passion Pit/Beyonce/Biggie, MGMT/Bob Marley mash-ups, and the lyrical mastery of Chidera “Proto” Anamege, the Philly group fills that niche of talented, well-swaggered, and youthful rap.

Get “The Swelly Express”

Hear “The Swelly Express”:

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Months ago, I was incredibly exhilarated when Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground released “Diggin’,” the debut single of its second self-titled album.  Whether indicative of the band’s truly remarkable sophomore effort or my own poor writing merit, I find “Diggin’” to be largely indescribable.  Like previous Kay Kay works, it aptly blends so many musical elements and themes that the listener is found questioning how many songs the track truly contains, and whether its play-time (3:55) is a crude under-estimation.

Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground – Diggin’

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Much like the band’s first single, “Hey Mama,” “Diggin’” carries the unique air of a song that was never meant to end, a quality this fan most closely associates with “Good Vibrations” and “Paranoid Android.”  Given the band’s previous efforts and this solid release, I dare say Kay Kay’s strong commitment to dynamic sound may earn it a permanent place amongst such esteemed company.

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