Podcasts & Sundry For Discriminating Smart Asses
NPR’s First Listen will stream the sold out QOTSA show at the Wiltern in Los Angeles live online as a videocast. Gig starts 8pm PST/11pm EST.
The band will play the entirety of the upcoming release, Like Clockwork, and some older tunes as well.
The record can be pre-ordered on CD and vinyl now from Amazon and from iTunes.
NOTE: iTunes pre-orders will immediately receive “My God Is The Sun.”
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Welcome to this week’s podcast. Our guest is Brian Weaver, the bassist for Reptiel, a band based out of San Francisco Bay Area. I “discovered” REPTIEL through the magic of spam emails, or rather, Brian sent me an unsolicited email that included a download to their 2010 self-titled debut, a musical effort I compared to “Jefferson Airplane meets the The Yardbirds mixed strangely with Captain & Tennille.” That is to say, it was way out there, defying categorization and listener comprehension – it turns out several of the songs are sung on foreign languages, and apparently, not very well. At least according to Brian.
Now they have a sophomore effort, Violent Sagas of the Ancients. Of course, Brian sent me email to let me know. This latest effort can easily be described as “Prog Fantasy,” as the themes mimic tropes readily found in your Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones type sagas. Turns out these guys are a bunch of Sci Fi/Fantasy nerds!
So, if you’re interested in that sort of thing, and surely you’ve become a GOT addict via the HBO series, then you’ll love this bizarrely circuitous, religion as fantasy heavy conversation.
Brian Weaver on the Interwebs:
Reptiel on Bandcamp | Cubby Control Records
Reptiel Band Photo © Ryan Wilsie
The long running 90s Indie darlings, Yo La Tengo stopped through Sacramento on promotional tour for their latest effort, Fade on Matador Records. This is a band that seems to do no wrong, as far as critics are concerned, and judging by the loving gazes from the nearly packed audience, their fans feel the same.
Check out Yo La Tengo on tour & purchase their latest release, Fade on Amazon.
Photo © Maria Colòn for FLAB Magazine
I came across Jonathon Bafus, a local Sacramento Drummer, when he and Tera Melos’ Nick Reinhart opened for Melt Banana with a totally improvised free jazz/noise set. His obvious exuberance and interesting kit configuration put him on the radar for our drummer Q&A. Since the he’s been playing around Sacto with Gentleman Surfer. I caught up with him via email and he graciously offered his two cents on the following….
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This week’s guest is Multimedia & Performance Artist, Terrance Houle. Terrance is a prolific and successful artist from Calgary, Alberta, who also happens to be a First Nations Canadian. I’ve known Terrance for years, having interviewed him for another online magazine I was involved in, NAICA online, years back. Then I met him a year or so later at a film festival in Toronto, and have kept in touch over the years, but not as frequently as either or us would like.
In the years that we haven’t kept in touch he has created a series of performances and installations that are, perhaps more sophisticated than his earlier works, but still bear his signature sensibilities in that they are hilarious, and include community building performance sets, such as his latest project, The National Indian Leg Wrestling League of North America in which he, and a crew of First Nations artists, adopt old-time wrestling personae. and take to mats across Canada to work out post colonial stereotypes, and have a good time leg wrestling.
His work is imbued with humor and merriment, but is also densely packed with historical and cultural significance. However, Terrance doesn’t beat his audience over the head with critical theories that don’t get to the point quick enough for his liking, which makes his work accessible to a broader audience, and is partly responsible for his latest successes. I’m actually a little jealous of him because he has the balls to put his work out there and has seen some success, enough to make his living primarily from art production, and good art at that!
So, I hope you enjoy this conversation, there were a few technical difficulties, Skype doesn’t do well Internationally, but it’s good enough! I think you’ll enjoy what he has to say, and if you do, go look him up and buy some of his work!
Terrance Houle on the Interwebs:
Official | Facebook | Purchase Givn’r on Amazon
Photo © Will Wilson
Cindy Blackman Santana is probably known to most in pop culture as the drummer for Lenny Kravitz in the 90s, but she has had a long and storied career as a jazz drummer backing the likes of Cassandra Wilson, Angela Bofil, Bill Laswell, Joe Henderson, to name a few. She was mentored by Tony Williams, who is her main musical influence, and holds the firm belief that jazz is the highest form of music a drummer can performs because of the creativity it requires.
She is this week’s featured drummer, answering FLAB Magazine’s 20-Question Questionaire regarding her evolution and perspectives as a drummer.
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Sergio Vega is a tenured professor in the Creative Photography and Sculpture departments at the University of Florida in Gainesville. That is how I came to know him, I was a MFA candidate in the Photography program between the years 2002-2005, a time that would pretty much mark the end of analog photography on the scale and depth in which we engaged with it as an artistic medium.
I got to try everything there: Large Format Photography, learning to print Cibachromes, Color Photography in every chemical permutation, master my already considerable Black & White printing skills and I discovered a love of teaching there – all with Sergio’s blessings.
I was not familiar with Sergio’s professional, based on the little known theory that the Garden of Eden was located at a specific point in the Amazon Rain Forest, which lead me to seek him out for this conversation. For those of you who might be former or current students, you might be interested to hear are his thoughts on teaching, the role of critical theory in a studio art practice, and for the rest of you – the origins of his long running project, “Paradise in the New World.”
It was an enlightening conversation that left me feeling out of step with current theory, or any theory for that matter, it’s been so long, I don’t even know where to begin to pick it up again. If anyone has any suggestions on current theory, especially related to the changes in photography, leave a comment or contact me at flabmagazine at gmail dot com. I’d love to reengage with critical thinking.
Enjoy!
Sergio Vega on the Interwebs:
Paradise in the New World | Kabe Contemporary | University of Florida
Photo © Sergio Vega from the series “Telephones of Paradise”
This week Eric Gardner of Dot Hacker (he who graciously offered his grannies name as their band…and you thought it had some sort of techie significance!) answers our 20 most pressing questions for would-be drummers. Emerging themes people…emerging themes.
FLABmag: When and why did you start playing drums?
Eric Gardner: i never consciously made the decision to become a drummer. I started playing drums when i was 2 because there was a drumset in the house and my parents would put drumsticks in my hands to shut me up…oh, if they only knew what they were in for!
Read more…
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Welcome back! I assume you’re a repeat visitor, if you’re not, “Welcome to the Weekly Podcast!” We’re already at week six, so you’re a bit behind. Feel free to download all of the podcasts…you know, in the interest of getting up to speed.
Anyway, this week I speak with Southern California curator, Chloe Flores who is currently conducting an online arts experiment of sorts. She has set up a through the Facebook page using her name, but means it as a space for artists to engage an audience and/or use it as a literal (and figurative) art space. It’s heady stuff.
We discuss at length the objective of the project, current findings and how you (or I) can get involved. Actually I’ve been involved in ways I did not imagine I was involved, but you’ll hear about that and more.
Enjoy it!
Chloe Flores on the Interwebs:
Facebook Project | GuestHaus Residency
Photo Courtesy: Chloe Flores
Sebastian Thomson is best known as the drummer for Electro Rock/Post Rock/Rock band Trans Am, but he’s been making drum-driven club music under his alter-persona “Publicist” for quite some time. That gig seems to take him to Europe every other month, which is fitting, because they love them some club music over there, and Thomson lays it down nice and sweaty-like. Here he answers FLABmag’s most burning questions about life as a drummer.
FLABmag: When and why did you start playing drums?
Sebastian Thomson: I was 14. I was living in Argentina (my family and I are from there) after having lived in the US during my elementary school days. I therefore spoke the best English of all the kids in my high school in Argentina, which was a sought-after skill if you wanted to play in a band playing covers. So I was approached to be the singer in a covers band. The drummer left his kit at the garage where we rehearsed but he would never show up to rehearsal so I would sit at the kit and fill in. The keyboard player (this was the 80s!) showed me the basics and it all seemed pretty natural and easy to me. I eventually became the full-time drummer and we got my brother to sing.
Read more…
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