HUMDRUM To Record with Steve Albini

by Matthew Ström

It may come as no surprise to you that being successful in music takes hard work. What might surprise you, however, is just how many of your favorite local bands are putting in that hard work and just how successful they are poised to be. One such band is Humdrum, the weird-pop quintet with two records under their belt and much more to come. When I ran into Humdrum percussionist Mic Boshans — who also percusses for dance-fevered electro warriors Neé — behind the bar at his day job, he casually mentioned that his band was slated to spend a few days in the studio with none other than the ever-prolific Steve Albini. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, his rap sheet will: He was the engineer behind The Pixies’ Surfer Rosa, Nirvana’s In Utero, the entire discography of Big Black — a band he founded and fronted — and roughly 2,000 other records in the past 30 years. I was floored by Boshans’ modesty. While Albini is regarded highly for his willingness to work with any band that he deems “got the rock,” regardless of size, label, or monetary resources, spending time and money with the legendary engineer demonstrates a remarkable level of dedication. When I asked Boshans about Humdrum’s decision to seek Albini’s help, he explained:

Steve Albini is a big name for a reason: he’ll give us a really amazing-sounding recording that we can really do things with. It’ll make more people interested in seeing what we’re doing, because we’re taking our music seriously enough to take that step and record with Steve.

It is apparent in talking to Boshans that Humdrum’s goals are both ambitious and well-considered. Despite the limitations of operating independently from a label’s support (the drummer expressed his frustration at the band’s inability to “really do … justice [to] recordings because of time or money constraints”), Humdrum has successfully released two full-lengths flush with beautiful sounds, catchy hooks, and unpredictable twists. With their forthcoming release, though, the band aspires to push beyond their previous efforts with “a high-fidelity recording that’s hard-hitting, and an accurate representation of what we do live.” With Albini’s predilection for a no-frills, balls-out sound, Humdrum’s mission shouldn’t be hard to accomplish; how the band’s dense, experimentally-founded arrangements will match up with the producer’s straightforward and spare techniques, however, is considerably more uncertain.

This entry was written by Tara, posted on February 7, 2012 at 1:00 pm, filed under Interview, News and tagged HUMDRUM, Mic Boshans, steve albini. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

Q+A: Cartwheel

Cartwheel rolls like a group of recently grown up kids on a fresh summer day. It’s not that their sound is anything else less than mature – Cartwheel just has that exuberant pop rock vibe to which it’s hard not to reminiscence. Eleven writer Matt Stuttler caught up with Cartwheel’s Rachel Bowdon (RB, vocals/Wurlitzer), Jason Kozemczak (JK, guitar/vocals), John Hill (JH, bass), and Kyle Collman (KC, drums). Read the interview below!

Catch them on Saturday, with Adult Fur and Michael Franco at Off Broadway.

(more…)

This entry was written by Tara, posted on January 23, 2012 at 1:51 pm, filed under Interview, Local Profile, Q+A and tagged adult fur, Cartwheel, David Beeman, Kit Hamon, Matt Stuttler, Michael Franco, Native Sound, Off Broadway, pop. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

Preview: Tommy Hartung and Uri Aran at White Flag

In anticipation of the joint exhibit of Tommy Hartung and Uri Aran, Eleven decided to send some questions to the man in charge, White Flag Project’s, Matthew Strauss. Like he asked, these inquiries and replies are without omissions and without editing for content.

Eleven: How did you come to find Tommy Hartung and Uri Aran?

Matthew Strauss: I first encountered Tommy’s work at the Greater New York exhibition at PS1. His film “The Ascent of Man” was something I wanted to show at White Flag and I put it in a group show called Impossible Vacation (MoMA actually just bought that film…) We started talking about a show of his work at that point. I was aware of Uri Aran’s work, but really it was Tommy’s idea to bring in Uri for a more or less collaborative show. They’ve known each other since grad school and have a very close friendship.

11: What is the theme of the exhibit?

MS: The nature of these two really great young artists’ exchange with one another.

11: Where is it you find a median between the work of Tommy Hartung and Uri Aran? Hartung is a filmmaker and Uri Aran arbitrary utilizes a vast breadth of approaches and mediums for his found sculptures. It seems like this could lead to either a disjointed exibit or an exciting experiment in the cohesion of two different mediums.

MS: They both make films, they both make objects, they help one another with their separate work… it’s really not about finding a median as much as it is about letting these two great friends and great artists try something out. It’s just about their relationship and the relationship of their work, and then my faith in them as artists.

11: In Aran’s last work, there where over 80 artists participating who effectively collaborated to create a distinct vision. Where your choices influenced at all by Aran’s participation in Commercial Break?

MS: That’s actually not my understanding of how Commercial Break was conceived if we’re thinking of the same thing- I think that was just a really disjointed bunch of videos Neville Wakefield put together for Venice that was supposed to go around with a big screen on a boat or something, right? Anyway, I don’t think those films added up to much aside from a good party in Italy. In any case I didn’t even notice Uri was in it- everyone was talking about the video with Lindsay Lohan that Richard Phillips made.

11: In reference to Tommy Hartung’s latest film, Tommy Hartung’s Budget Guide to New York, how is it that St. Louis artists could learn from Hartung’s film?

MS: That’s actually not one of his films- that’s something PBS’s Art21 did about him. I think the only thing a St. Louis artist could learn from that is that living in New York is not impossible, it’s just difficult and requires a lot more hustle and sacrifice than it does in St. Louis- but they probably already knew that.

11: Is there any local artist that you feel could make a pertinent film on how to make it in St. Louis as an artist? What aspects do you think he or she could focus on?

MS: There’s no such thing as making it as an artist in St. Louis… I mean I guess it depends a little bit on what one means by making it- an artist can survive here, make a living I guess. You can show your work and get a teaching job. But no artist is going to get work into MoMA hanging out in St. Louis. No one’s going to have Art21 following them around- for better or worse that’s just not how it works. If someone could make that film it would be pretty fucking impressive.

Thanks Matthew for clarifying the nature of Tommy Hartung’s Budget Guide to New York!

We’ll let the reader decide on the nature of the Commercial Break work. What do you think? Disjointed, cohesive, containing Aran’s work, or just plain lacking in the LiLo?

Who: White Flag Projects

What: New exhibit featuring Tommy Hartung and Uri Aran

Where: 4568 Manchester Avenue St. Louis, MO 63110

When: January 19 – February 18, 2012

Why: ‘cuz White Flag is dope and we all need to question the legitimacy of contemporary art as a reflection of our world.

This entry was written by Blair Stiles, posted on January 12, 2012 at 10:00 am, filed under Interview, Q+A, Upcoming and tagged Matthew Strauss, preview, tommy hartung, uri aran, white flag, White Flag Projects. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.