Counter Intuits : Interview

Counter Intuits is a new project by Ron House (PSandwich, Great Plains, Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments) and Jared Phillips (Times New Viking). Based in Ohio the duo utilizes House's distinct vocal musings, ramshackle beats and crooked guitars to create 13 songs that bring new blood to wrong-footed alternative music.  'Counter Intuits' is their self-titled debut which is fundamentally as DIY as it gets - and with a phrases like 'DIY' and 'Lo-Fi' that get thrown around often these days , it's bands like Counter Intuits that give real credence to the terms.  Converting basements, houses and living rooms into experimental music laboratories, House and Phillips deliver all the panache of 70's period The Fall with traces of indie and scrambled Lo-Fi.  'Counter Intuits' came out of left field by a band playing in left field - excellent debut, grab a copy now or experience buyers remorse later when they're all gone...enough of me though, here's the band in their own words...

So let’s start with how did you and Jared came to work together on Counter Intuits?

Ron :  Psandwich's guitarist's wife decided to move them to Austin. Our drummer Zach asked Jared to replace him and to my shock he said yeah. He gave me a demo cassette and I only listened to it for a few songs before thinking that all it needed was some whiney vocals to make it complete.

Jared :  I gave Ronald House a cassette of random music that I always liked and thought had potential but had never really had an outlet for, partly since I don’t do vocals.  Not yet at least.  Lo and behold he really liked it! (proof that you really CAN polish a turd) These were a crop of tracks I had recorded over a period of about 6 years, some of which I can’t even remember doing.  Diligently, Ronald drove the pyramid scheme records inc., LLC station wagon all around Ohio, day and night, scouring basements, barns and backrooms for medium-rare vinyl, etching out lyrics over top of the crude tape deck blaring from the even cruder speakers. 

Next thing I know, he’s coming round to my flat with a sixer of budweiser yelling into a microphone while I’m sat there in me socks operating a squeamish 4track.  That’s the backstory.  Glorified. 

Was there something you wanted to achieve with Counter Intuits – any sort of message you want to get out there that maybe you haven't a chance to say yet?

Ron : This is one of my least message filled records ever. Despite that I can elaborate on the songs :

"Time Was Update" - first song we did. Trying to justify lo-fi in the face of high tech. 
"Girl From Eaton" and "Lather and the Din" - I took Jared's viewpoint for two songs just to torture him. 
"Anarchy On Your Face" - Woke up singing the title. Looking for Van Vliet fronting nerdy hardcore.

"Sticking Pins"- Song for Al Green to sing to that woman who tossed hot grits on him.

"Sense Of Urgency" - About crazy bad weather while recording this record. Inverted punk.

"Oxycontin Martyrs" - I was driving through Portsmouth Ohio a while back and they had these huge blown up posters of all these O.D.ed teenagers in the windows of  abandoned downtown stores. Reminded me of Baghdad.

"No Computer Blues" - In Ohio there are many stale, forsaken indoor flea markets occupying former groceries and the like. And naturally I am drawn to them looking for old records. I heard a dude ask his buddy "Do you know anyone with a computer?" at one of those. I changed the narrative because I wanted to sing "Bike path on the ground" as the first line.  
"Stolen Souls"- Junkie Thieves and casual evil.

"Non-Essential Personnel" - About not being needed.

"Rarefied Air" - Kinda Psych like the Psandwich LP. A shout to my buds. 
"Study Hall Art" - We were gonna call the LP that until I wrote the song. What you see on the cover of 70's private presses.

"Neo-Confederate Cred" - I heard an analyst on Public Radio call our current Supreme Court not  "Neo-Conservative but Neo-Confederate" and I thought that hilariously acute about a few people.

What was the set up for the record?  

Jared : Like I said, I just did a bunch of tracks of music in the style that I would want to hear and thought would make a good song.  It’s rooted in lofi I guess because it was done on a tape deck.  So, I suppose it is lofi.  I dunno.  No studio or anything like that.  Did them in several houses, basements, living rooms.  I may or may not have used an iphone drum app at some point, but I’m not telling.  All I know is I do not own more than three microphones, but really only use one.  Lofi lofi lofi.  Lee harvey oswald.  John wilkes booth. blah blah blah.  Three dog night.  c c r. ted theodore logan. lofi lofi lofi. 

Then Ronald House polished them off with a pinch hit homer at the bottom of the 9th(baseball reference).  Oh, but I do remember both of us saying we really liked 'Dragnet' by the fall.  That was always a record I wanted to emulate in a way.  There’s some 'Dragnet' things on there I think...then again that’s impossible.

There are definitely some very repetitive tracks on the record that people may not be used to hearing paired up with Ronald C House's voice.  But that’s a big part of why I’m happy with it, its something familiar but a little different than what Ronn Howse has done in the past. 

Are you into the engineering side of things at all?  I saw Adam Smith did mixing and mastering – do you or Jared get involved at all with this part of the process?

Jared : Oh I did all the recording and mixing! mixing!!  Over - all I'm very happy with the record, to me, one of my best achievements thus far.

You got Kevin Failure for art production – how involved were you and Jared on in picking images and design? Was is a collaborative thing or did Kevin work solo on it?

Jared : I designed all the artwork.  I got Kevin Failure involved cause he’s a good guy, understands the aesthetic, and lives a few blocks away from Ronald Q House.  He printed them up, and was good to collaborate with. if there was ever guy to make covers for a private press record with, it’s him. 

Tell me a bit about your label – what made you start up Pyramid Scheme Records?

Ron : I didn't start Pyramid Scheme Records.  It was started by the late Donny Self in 1963.  He and his son lived on the farm next to me near Wooster, OH.  On a trip back to the farm in the late 90's Donny Jr expressed a desire to own the donkey I used to ride into Wooster on on high holidays.  He traded me the label name and catalogue for the donkey, whose name was America, or Sport. I can't remember which.  

What do you find the hardest thing about putting records out independently these days?

Ron : Shipping. 

Is there anything coming up on Pyramid Scheme we should watch out for?

Ron :  I would like to do a Tommy Jay LP, and I would like to do comp of the Columbus prog punk scene from 1981 or so, but I dont think Tommy needs me to put out a record and I may be too interested in my own stuff to do anybody else's. Sad but true.

Jared :  Look out for future pyramid scheme releases.  We're always finding lost treasures in Ronnie P Haus's station wagon.

You've had a few projects over the years PSandwich, Great Plains, Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments – self-titled stuff and now Counter Intuits, I was wondering do you write songs on your own and then decide which band they fit in best?  Or has songwriting been collaborative with the bands as you've progressed through different albums?

Ron : I have done shows over the years with old bands but I have never written anything (post- 1st breakup) with any of my old bands. That said I wish I could do another Psandwich lp. Jared is so prolific I would have no room to write music on another Counter Intuits lp, which will hopefully happen too. Songwriting has been collaborative with all bands to varying degrees. 

You’ve worked with a lot of other musicians in Ohio, how important to you is it to keep things local?

Ron : My identity is more American than Ohioan, but there is more love and pride and less bullshit in the Ohio part. I've never been famous enough that anybody out of state wanted to work with me, that I can remember at least, although I'm friends with a lot of people.

What do you do to sustain being in a band?

Jared : I just got promoted to bartender at my work! I get to wear a tie.  Sadly, I'm a little excited about that. 

 

Since you started writing and performing what do you think the biggest change in Ohio’s music scene has been?

Ron :  Well you know. Indy Rock is an industry now to varying degrees. Just being in a punk band in 1979 made you a part of a group of misfits, crazy people, gays (I never met people who said they were gay until punk), junkies, etc. There were more visual artists in bands than record geeks like myself. Now it seems kind of a rite of passage to be in a band. Nothing wrong with that.

For those who haven't been what can you tell us about Ohio's music scene now?  

Ron :  Jeez Jared should have answered this one. I'm usually in bed before the bands start playing. Roll call : Connections, Obnox, United Snakes, Cheater Slicks, Pink Reason, and Tommy Jay and Mike Rep.  Horseshit and TNV still around?

Record Store Day is today – I wanted to ask about where you first used to go to buy records?  What did you buy there?

Ron : There was place called the Wooster Music Store in my hometown. When I was 11 my Mom took me in there to rent a cornet and I ran out in tears, certain I could never be a musician. But they sold records in the basement. The first lp I bought there was Golden Grass by the Grassroots. The last was Loaded by the Velvet Underground.  

Do you have any other shows or records planned for the rest of 2013?

Ron :  Thomas Jefferson will play if something special pops up. A reissue of the Ego Summit is out now and hopefully TJSA's Straight To Video will come out on vinyl. New stuff who knows?

It's become a ritual to end interviews on this question, "I'm full of dust and guitars" - Syd Barrett, if you were sliced in half what would be inside?

Ron :  Obscure records, Budweiser, and a pic of me with my family that I will try to send to you...

(and here it is, Photograph by Angelo Signorino, our brewmeister.) 

Uzi Rash 'I Saw You'

Roughly 4 years ago or so New York regained its reputation for being a hotbed of activity for music. New bands continue to travel to and emerge from every nook and cranny of favoured Borough, Brooklyn. This area is now so rich with artists playing and recording that there's always an opportunity to discover your new favourite band there. However, having the luxury of choice with seeing bands in abundance can at times arguably make the scene feel bloated. This poisoned chalice is what fresh bands from the area seem to have to contend with today.

But, this doesn't seem to be an issue for DIY clusterfuckers Uzi Rash as they are proving a force to be reckoned with from their non-stop touring. Following debut full length 'High and Phree' released on Freedom School Records a forthcoming single on 1234 Go! Records is due in March. Uzi Rash bring noisy Australian bands like Kitchen's Floor and Naked on the Vague to mind in their nihilism. What separates Uzi Rash vastly from these two bands is the recordings sound bare and confined in comparison. Their loner stripped down bedroom pop is littered with deranged vocals, metronomic beats and angular, frenetic guitars. You can find the single when it's out here and songs to check out on their myspace here.

Black Mamba Beat VS Wake Up Dead

New cassette tape from London based South Africans Black Mamba Beat is a split featuring new project Wake Up Dead. Black Mamba Beat have so far released material on European labels Clan Destine and Jeet Kune and now have aptly found a new home across the pond at Kind Turkey Records to debut Wake Up Dead songs. The quartet's current line up features members of Black Time, Atari, Live Fast Die, Black Mamba Beat, Snakes and Music, The Splinters and The Jazz June, AKA: Koala, Lemmy Caution, Mr. Stix and Mouse.

Side A: Black Mamba Beat! Full of rubbery bass, bashing rhythms and one male torpid voice accompanied by barking yelps and shouts. Abrasiveness from some of the vocals is balanced out nicely from simple and heady guitar melodies, especially on track 'Don't Care Show Me'. 'Hibernating' and 'Note From the Moat' break up this side well by including some piano arrangements and take things to a slower darker place. Side A finishes on a high note and somewhat echos how it started with a Cramps-esque style guitar intro.

Side B: Wake Up Dead. Still in the Punk Rock vein but colder, darker, I can't help feel like opening track 'Zombie Love' wouldn't sound totally out of place on a Misfits album. The out of tune guitar parts in 'Hospital' are curiously pleasant making this track a high light. Like Side A the recording fittingly has that made in a basement, bedroom feel to it eschewing any glitz or 'studio magic'. The bands' blog Shabeen Scene teases that they have just gone into More or Less Mono Studios to record some more songs. I hope this tape is a taste of things to come.

This tape is limited to 100 copies - first 25 are hand-painted and includes an insert! Black Mamba Beat VS Wake Up Dead is Kind Turkey Records first release and their website says there are less than 15 copies of this left - exclusively available globally, as in everywhere, as in right now!

Puberty

Just before 6th album 'Males' hit the streets in August Intelligence launched a new project 'Puberty' and announced on Facebook that 'We Are Recording'! The Seattle based outfit are; Lars Finberg (ex A Frames, Intelligence), Susanna Welbourne (Intelligence), Drew Church, Curtis James, Dave Hernandez, Ryan Leyva and Mike Jawarski. So far, demos are available to hear on Facebook where they pledge their own genre of 'Sewer Pop'. There's an undeniable creepy underbelly to Puberty. Trance like, unaffected boy/girl vocals delivered in eerie two part harmonies are consistent through the 4 songs. 'Invitations' in all of it's slinky glory is a stand out track for sure, while 'Haunt My Trash' kinda reminds me of TV Ghost a little. Remembering, these are still demos of material it's going to be awesome to hear the finished product, as new band Puberty is hitting all the right spots - for this blogger anyway...

Black Mamba Beat

Ever since killer 'Work That Skirt/Black Mamba Beat' split tape made its way around stereos in 2008, it's the height of understatement to say I was excited for this debut full length. And here it is! Courtesy of Jeektune Records the self titled first album from Black Mamba Beat is here! Celebrating it's release recently at Ryans' Bar, the London based South African band boasts none other than Mr Stix of the mighty Black Time as one of its members. Sure, it's fair to say if you like Black Time you'll dig Black Mamba Beat, but don't be surprised to find differences between the two. Scratchy guitars and lofi recordings are consistent with Black Time stuff, but, Black Mamba Beat is dominated by male vocals and takes post-punk in a pop-py direction. Featuring 'Where Was I?' and 'Indigo Skatecamp' from the the cassette plus ten new head bashing songs, Chief Sosati (guitar, vocals), Space Rat (Bass, vocals) and Rosie Skinz (drums) are some of UK's DIY finest. It seems few and far between with the sheer volume of records that get put out every day now, that you get excited before something comes out, save up money and go get it right on the release date - like we used to right? Black Mamba Beat is one of those bands that created that for me, may be they will for you too, I don't know...

Jeektune;
"BLACK MAMBA(Dendroaspis polylepis) is an elapid snake and is one of Africa's most dangerous snakes. It has been known to arrive at parties and inject patrons with its venomous beer bite which causes people to headbang or shake a tail feather, the "fuck it, let's have fun" ingredient in the venom eradicates all pretense and pose. Ingredients of said venom include obsession with Minutemen econo ethics, Beat Happenin' beats, CCR and Mat's flannel. “We walk like the lion!! We got the BEAT!”"

Kitchen's Floor 'Loneliness Is a Dirty Mattress'

Because you'd hate to miss out on a great underground Australian record, Kitchen's Floor is the latest installment of the Gilded Gutter blog.

'Loneliness is a Dirty Mattress' is the first full length after a debut EP, from the three piece based in Brisbane on R.I.P Society. Right off the back of the success of his previous band Look!Pond Matthew Kennedy fronts Kitchen's Floor, with Julia Norris (Gutters) on drums and Glen Schenau (Carl Marx) on base. Choleric boy/girl vocals and repetitive musical arrangements recorded with a tin-y quality - in a The Fall meets Black Time meets Naked on the Vague way.

This was one of those records where you know, it was bought having never heard it or of the band. Now, it has been played nonstop in my house since it arrived at my door courtesy of Volcanic Tongue. It's a noisy record and your neighbors probably won't like you blasting it in your room - but you know you've got a good'en when some bangs on your wall to turn it off right?!!

Yussuf Jerusalem 'Heart Full of Sorrow'

By the sounds of things, from a recent interview on Terminal Boredom Florida's Dying could never have anticipated the demand/success of this LP. Now, it looks like it may go into it's third pressing soon.
http://terminal-boredom.com/floridasdying.html

A Heart Full of Sorrow is an impressive debut from French musician Yussuf Jerusalem. 500 copies were initially pressed (white cover with black ink) and unsurprisingly sold out. The second pressing (white with black ink), is now gone too.

The aptly moody, prophetic black and silver sleeve makes Heart Full of Sorrow look like a metal record. Gripping opening track "Gilles De Rais" is just that. Abrasive, ear-piercing guitar screeches, pummeling drums and evil howling vocals are immediately arresting, reminiscent of a black metal album.

To say the following song is a dramatic change of pace is an understatement. It's like being picked up by the scruff of the neck then being thrown across a room and liking where you end up. "A Heart Full of Sorrow" is a weird Lo-Fi Folk song that sets the tone for the rest of the record.

Melodies as catchy as hell are shrouded with fuzz, reverbs and echoes creating lonely cave-like dwellings. This record oozes eeriness from every pore.

Pigeon-holing Yussuf Jerusalem as Lo-Fi, Indie or Metal is too facile. There are influences of Folk and 60s Garage woven into A Heart Full of Sorrow that give it depth and magic. Standout tracks include "We Ain't Coming Back" and "With You in Mind."

Mirrors 'Something That Would Never Do'

Cleveland's Mirrors got the reissue treatment last year and one of their only 7"s has just been reissued! Something That Would Never Do is like a 'greatest hits' of songs recorded between '74 and '75. The elusive and solitary release (until now) 'Shirley' 45 on Hearthan (Pere Ubu's label) is also featured. Band members include Jim Jones (Easter Monkeys and Pere Ubu), Craig (Rocket from the Tombs and Styrenes), Paul Marotta (Styrenes) and founder Jamie Klimek. This essential collection of songs released on Velvet Times is packed with psychedelic-velvet-underground-pop-influenced-effortlessly-cool-jams...phew! With all the DIY/Lo-Fi/Thing-a-ma-jig bands popping up everywhere this reissue couldn't arrive at a more perfect time. There are only 800 available worldwide.

Just reissued 7" 'Shirley' can be found here:
http://terminal-boredom.com/forums/index.php?topic=26920.0

Nerve City

New 6 track EP is unmistakably the work of Brooklyn's Sacred Bones. While the label has established itself for exploring all things dark and mysterious, you've heard nothing yet.

Nerve City is one guy based in Richmond Virginia/Florida. What sets 'Sleepwalker' aside from other releases on Sacred Bones is the pop elements in the songs. Sure, you can find pop at it's fullest dramatic expression on a Zola Jesus record, there's even quirky elements of pop in the Carl Simmons reissue.

'Sleepwalker's' jangly lo-fi bedroom rock stands out because of the regal folk quality to it. The EP is a far cry from previous releases by Nerve City. Material on Severed Hand, Kill Shaman, HoZac, and Sweet Rot (all now pretty much gone) were a lot more abrasive sounding more like Daily Void.

True to form the packaging is immaculate with a gorgeous screen print, making it feel even more compulsory to add to the collection.

http://www.sacredbonesrecords.com/releases/sbr034/
http://www.myspace.com/nervecity

Hole Class

Part Times New Viking, part Eat Skull make fuzzy pop songs together. Don't overthink this; it's a fantastic record to listen to over and over again. Songs are really simple even down to the titles – "Socks and Shoes" and "Horsies." Hole Class has this dark underbelly to it that is balanced by sweet pop-style melodies and innocence in the simplicity in execution of the record. "True Temper" and "Place like All" even have sing-a-long qualities to them. This is definitely a record that keeps giving on every listen.

Check out songs here!
http://www.myspace.com/holeclass