Man Is Doomed - Escape to Europa (Kid Color Remix)

If you’ve been out in Wicker Park in the last year you’ve seen or heard the name Kid Color. A DJ with a mustache and rat tail, bouncing around happily in the DJ booth. Now Kid Color is gaining a lot more steam with the success of Metro’s One Night Stand, Rehab and now Tuesdays @ Buddha—he doesn’t seem to stop working. Hailing from Southern California, Kid Color’s “Daisy Age” disco vibe just wants to unite the dance floor. Having been taken under the wing of Dark Wave Disco and Curt from Flosstradamus, Kid Color is now coming into his own, with the formation of Yello Fever and now more solo projects than ever. I sat down with the newly legal drinker to talk about his upcoming original, his love for comic books, and of course house party hijinks.

BK: How’d you get into Djing?

Kid Color: I’ve always been into dance music of some kind, like my first cassette I bought was Ace of Bass. And I got the Jock James…I always loved to dance, and I’ve been collecting music forever. And then one time I went to a music festival and I saw this DJ Steve Aoki. And this was the first time I ever saw a DJ as an artist. He was having so much fun, and people were loving it. This was my junior year of high-school, and I just thought, “This is what I want to do.” And it just made sense because I had all this music already. I finally got turntables one summer and just locked myself in a room and taught myself. It was cool, it was a lonely summer.

I also did research on DJing and the history of DJing. It’s important to look at what’s behind in order for you to progress.

BK: Did you ever have any problems at gigs being underage?

Kid Color: Well, when I got my fake ID I was using it all over the place. I was stuck on my fake...I was so attached to it I even used it to get money out of the bank on several occasions. And at Double Door…I had never been there before, this was the first time I got booked. And being young, when I got booked somewhere people usually wouldn’t ID me, they’d be like “cool, come in.” But at this one I gave one guy ID and had another bouncer come over and they totally knew. They just said “this is fake.” And I was just tensing up saying “no it’s not! Not it’s not!” They took my ID and as soon as I finished playing they kicked me out. And it was raining that night.

"They took my ID and as soon as I finished playing they kicked me out."

BK: How’d you get hooked up with Yello Fever?

Kid Color: When I moved out here I just started DJing, and just doing house parties and clubs, and then I started thinking maybe I could throw a party. And I would always see Skyler’s name around, and I was thinking of other DJs to book, so I hit up Skyler. We never got that party settled, but then I guess he saw me at a show because he then hit me back and was like, “hey we should hang out,” [and then things led to another, wait that sounds like a date [laughs]. And then Skyler was talking to Jobot at the time, who’s also in Yello Fever. We’re trying to work on a system where all three of us can DJ at once. We’re working on original music, and JoJo [Jobot] is a genius when it comes to music. Her ideas are just awesome.

BK: You're going to school out here aren't you?

Kid Color: I was. I took this year off, actually. I went to Columbia, studied music business. Before I moved out here I was interning for this music magazine called Filter, and they were also a music marketing firm, and I was doing that for two years, and so I thought, okay, music business. But coming out here and I’ve been meeting a lot more people and learning a lot more just from DJing, rather than school. Not saying that the degree is worthless, but for me I work better out of the classroom. But I am going to go back to school and change my major to illustration, because I want to draw comics, or just write comics, I’m really into that.

BK: What comics have you been reading these days?

Kid Color: The one I got super into was “Fables,” have you heard of “Fables”? Basically it’s all of your favorite fantasy historical figures and anyone Disney made a movie about; all their kingdoms suddenly get attacked by this thing called the Adversary which is this evil power, so they’re forced out of their world and into our world, and they live in New York. And it’s them in human form…it’s hard without going into too much detail, but it’s…oh my God. I’ve also been reading “Y: The Last Man” In this one there was a freak accident and all the men and Y chromosomes die except one male and his pet monkey, who are trying to figure out why they survived…I’m really into “Lost” and all, so I geek out to all this kind of stuff. And just super hero comics—I love them.

BK: How did you integrate into the Chicago scene so fast?

Kid Color: When I first moved out here I lived in the Columbia dorms, in this apartment that I shared with my roommate. And one night we were like, “we should have a dance party.” So, at 10 o’clock at night we cut out pieces of paper that said “Dance party in 807.” By the end of the night we had about 30 kids dancing in the dorm, and it was really fun. The next week we did it again and it got up to 40 people. And then the week after that people started calling me the DJ kid, and we thought this one had to be big.

Moving to a new place, what do you have to do? You have to start your own party, or do your own thing. So for the last and final one we got up to 50 or 60 kids—and when it’s in a dorm room keep in mind people were dancing on the kitchen counter, they were going nuts. But I guess that night there was a fire on the floor below so all the sprinklers went off and they stopped our parties. But word about the parties got around, and it got back to the school and Columbia started booking me for different events. Columbia booked me with Floss and Chuck and Mickey from The Cool Kids, and then Curt [from Flosstradamus] texted me two months later and wanted to know if I wanted to DJ with them for the 18 and over party.

I think Chicago is a pretty accepting city, which is one of the main reasons I love it. When I saw the DJ scene out here I was like “that’s what I have to do.” I think it’s a combination of working hard, and I try to give off as much good energy as I can, and I think people really see that…I don’t know.

"That night there was a fire on the floor below so all the sprinklers went off and they stopped our parties."

BK: How did the name come to be?

Kid Color: Well, the first guy I ever saw that made me want to DJ become one was Steve Aoki. People don’t really know that his original DJ name was Kid Millionaire. So, I was like, “okay, Kid, I like that.” And my older brother always called me “Kid” growing up. And then “Color,” I imagined all the parties I wanted to play, and in my head it’s this party straight from Studio 54. I’m really inspired by the disco era, and I just imagined colorful. I like how one word can have so many different meanings behind people’s idea of it. 

BK: What live stuff are you working on?

Kid Color: I’m in the process of starting a live dance act, so people have something more to look at…But, then there’s the crowd that just wants to get drunk and dance, which I’m down with too.

Photo by: Matthias St. John

BK: How do you feel about Chicago now that you’ve been here?

Kid Color: Honestly, I love it. It’s my favorite city of all time. I used to go up to L.A. all the time, because like I said I’m from Orange County. And Chicago is so accepting and open-minded. And people say the weather here sucks, but whatever it only makes the summers amazing.

BK: What would you like to get into next?

Kid Color: I’m working on original music, which is hard because I’m trying to find a sound that I want to identify Kid Color with. But in the meantime I have a lot of my side projects. I’m doing some Disco House with Curt from Flosstradamus. In a year I would like to have at least an EP of original music that really sums me up and doesn’t have to be played in a club.

BK: What do you think partygoers are looking for these days.

Kid Color: I feel like people still love to dance, but also that the nightlife is looking for a little bit more. Personally, I missed Outdanced because it was DJs and live acts, and I loved that. I fear that it gets to the point where people are bored with someone standing behind a computer, but I do think people are searching for more. That’s why I’m trying to collab’ on music, and live performances. 

You can catch Kid Color playing this Friday (June 19th) at The Congress Theater lobby opening up for The Rapture and Hearts Revolution. 

Tigercity: Andrew Brady, Bill Gillim, Joel Ford, Aynsley Powell

Tigercity - "Other Girls" Live

Story by ILLson

Tigercity released their first album Pretend Not To Love and started getting attention all over the music community. Rolling Stone Magazine named Tigercity a band to watch; Andrew, Aynsley, Bill and Joel have been on the road ever since. Sharing their 80’s reminiscent synth-rock with vocals that have been compared to Justine Timberlake’s—but don’t you dare use the phrase “yacht rock” around them.

At this past Spandexxx DJ A-Cup of Moneypenny introduced me to the guys of Tigercity who were in town to play a show at The Double Door the next night. We chatted and ended up drinking whiskey until almost four in the morning, which Andrew and Aynsley later forgot. Inspired by 80’s legends Hall and Oats, Bryan Eno and lots of dark synth; Tigercity was originated by Joel Ford, who has long brown hair, perfectly straight and parted in the middle. He moved to Brooklyn and added Bill Gillim, Aynsley Powell and Andrew Bradley. Now on the road again we chatted and talked tour stories and the future album.

BK: Would you ever use the term “yacht rock”?

Bill: No.

Joel: Definitely not. [Andrew and Aynsley make sour faces shaking their heads]

BK: Why is that?

Bill: When we started doing what we were doing there was no yacht rock. Yacht rock was labeled by the guys who did the videos, which are fucking hilarious. But they were being made simultaneous to us…There was a resurgence of people’s interest, and suddenly everyone was into that kind of music from the 80s. So, for us it was ‘remember that sick Phil Collins song?’ Our music wasn’t ironic or funny to us, but the videos are fucking hilarious.

Aynsley: It wasn’t fallowing a trend, we were in our own bubble it just happened to coincide with this other thing.

Joel: But all the music labeled as that is awesome. We listen to Steely Dan in our van, but it’s not like “Hey,Andrew let’s put on some yacht rock.”

Aynsley: We do want yachts, though. If we could each have a yacht and continue to rock we would definitely do that.

BK: I was told to ask you if you had any good Andrew stories to tell.

All four start laughing.

Andrew: Are there any recent ones?

Bill: Well, you were the one who answered the phone when the prostitute called. 

Andrew: Oh. Oh yeah, yeah that was a good one.

Bill: We played in this grimy part of Pensacola, and we were staying in the Super Inn, not even the Super 8. We were telling the people who booked the show that we were about to go there. They asked us if we wanted to stay at their house, and we were like “Nah, we’re going to stay at the Super Inn.”

And they said, “Okay? That’s like hooker row.” So, we got there at 3:30 in the morning, and at 4 someone starts knocking on the door. Joel looked out the peephole, and it’s this chick smoking a cigarette, with not much clothes on. So we just ignored it and were kinda scared thinking, “Oh my God, hooker at the door.” She kept knocking for like 10, 15 minutes.

“Her pimp’s going to come break in our room and get mad at us for not having sex with the hooker.”

She finally went away, and then at seven in the morning we were woken up because she started knocking again, I guess she was desperate for work. I was the only one that woke up this time and was totally paranoid, thinking, “Her pimp’s going to come break in our room and get mad at us for not having sex with the hooker.” And then the phone rings and Andrew picked it up, and the hooker was like, “Hey who’s this? What’r y’all doing?” And Andrew just said  “LEAVE US ALONE.” And hangs up the phone.

Aynsley: In the past tours there’s been more absurd stories, but this one’s been relatively sober so it’s all of us being hounded by a hooker.

Andrew: I can say that I duct taped boxes of pizza shut last night.

BK: Wait, what happened?

Andrew: We got really drunk last night and ordered Chicago pizza, and it’s like 25 bucks per pizza. We (Andrew and Aynsley) paid for it, and we’re super broke. So, we just duct taped the boxes really intensely so no one could get in it.

Bill: I was sleeping, and from my bedroom all I hear is “Pizza’s here!” They went downstairs, and I hear, “How much is it...?Whaaaaat...?Well, what’s that...?How is it...?Okay, $60. Should we give him a tip?” They went upstairs and blasted Radiohead, and then I heard, “Fuck it, no one’s eating the pizza, someone else is gonna want the pizza. Joel comes here! Bill comes here! They’re going to want the pizza! We’re duct taping the pizza.” The next morning I woke up and in the refrigerator there are two pizza boxes duct taped together. 

Aynsley: Survival, man.

Bill: But tonight if I get drunk late night and want a piece of pizza I have to pay $10.

Andrew: You can have as much as you want for $10. You’re in. I’m going to be eating it for the next three days.

Aynsley: Food is the most important thing in the world.

BK: What was inspiring you going into the full length?

Joel: A lot of life on the road.

Aynsley: One of our most bad-ass moments was pulling up to a stop light and cranking Bryan Eno to compete with the dude next to us that was playing hip-hop. We won.

Bill: Yeah, we blasted “On Land” and were like, “Take on land, dude.”

Aynsley: And then proceeded to drive through the intersection and get lost, doing circles in around corn fields.

“…it’s those kind of situations that lay the foundation for a band to actually work outside of the music.”

Bill: It was ambient driving…For the last year and a half we’ve been driving around the country meeting random pockets of amazing people. We just stayed in Tampa with a woman who read an article with us where we said we were broke. And she said we could stay with her for three days. We thought there had to be strings attached. There wasn’t. She was the nicest person in the world.

Aynsley: I think it’s those kind of situations that lay the foundation for a band to actually work outside of the music. Those people are just as important as what we do in the studio or on stage.

BK: What was one of the places you thought you wouldn’t like but stood out the most?

Bill: Actually two days ago, Little Rock, Arkansas. (others nod in agreement) Our good friends from the band American Princes are from there, and they just put us up and showed us a great time for two nights.

BK: So, what’s next?

Joel: We’re working on the conceptual ideas for the new album now. We’d like to incorporate more ambient collage music.

Aynsley: If we could supply soundtracks for other people getting lost in cornfields.

Andrew: I got lost in a cornfield for about seven hours with no shoes…It…sucked. 

Bill: I had to pull rocks out of his feet with tweezers the next morning.

Andrew: I couldn’t walk until we had to do our next show. I came out of black out talking to corn stalks, and I was like “What the fuck?!?”

[everyone starts laughing and clapping]

Bill: I pick him up from in front of some lady’s house, leaning on her garbage cans.

Hey Champ - "Cold Dust Girl"

Story by ILLson

I first saw Hey Champ, made up of Saam Hagshenas, Jon Marks and Pete Dougherty, open up for Sebastian Tellier at Schuba’s; from just one show I could tell that their clean yet intelligent sound was going to become a staple of Chicago’s dance music scene. Since that December night, it feels like they’ve been beating on drums and bouncing on stages all over the city and beyond, recently getting off tour with Lupe Fiasco and about to start a Spring tour with The Sounds. I talked to the guys at their Chicago studio as they finished up recording their first full album set to release this summer. 

Boy Kings: Where does the name come from?

Hey Champ: Winning a lot of burgundy participation ribbons at field day. 

BK: What void in the music market did you guys feel you were filling when you started?

Hey Champ: We see ourselves as an indie-pop band that's not of afraid of electro-house production. Our goal is to maintain a live rock show that incorporates those electro elements without using them as a crutch.

BK: How would you describe your music?

Hey Champ: Dreamo.

BK: What music do you listen to for inspiration?

Hey Champ: Metallica, Ride the Lightning. Paul Johnson. Beatles, White Album. League Unlimited Orchestra,Love and Dancing.

BK: Seems like you guys have gained a lot of momentum fast. What have the last six months been like?

Hey Champ: Bling, cars, homes, bitches: how many ways can we spend these riches?...Not. We've made a ton a progress from first hearing “Cold Dust Girl" at Chicago clubs, to signing with Lupe [Fiasco], to finishing up our debut album, but on the other hand we aren't pampered rockstars yet (i.e. we broke as hell). 

BK: When are we going to see a full album?

Hey Champ: It's done, it's the best thing that all three of us have ever heard (laughter with abrupt cutoff punctuated with fingersnap), and it'll be out this summer.

BK: What’s the overall theme or sound of the full album?

Hey Champ: Expansive; the sounds of tomorrow, the music of yesterday.

BK: With baseball season coming are you guys Cubs or Sox fans?

Hey Champ: Cubs.

BK: When you’re not performing, what’s an average weekend night in Chicago like for you?

Hey Champ: Some of our favorite spots are The Burlington (coat factory and the bar), The Hideout, and Smartbar. A lot of weekends have also been spent nerding out in the studio, it's weird, the bigger we become, the less rockstar we get.

Photo via: Clayton Hauck 

Story by ILLson
Photo via: Will Phi

If you’ve been lucky enough to catch The Glamour live you know about their fun house party-vibe with influences of 90’s house and electro synth. The Glamour, which is made up of Richard Galling and Asher Gray, has not had as strong a presence in Chicago electro as they deserve. The two are reuniting this summer to reclaim the night scene, and drop a full album while they’re at it. 

They began DJing together in 1999 and that progressed into producing shortly after, and by 2007 they were a household name in Chicago and Wisconsin’s dance music scene. I caught up with Asher and Richard while they were DJing at MOTC in Milwaukee. Asher, with blondish short red hair that fans out to the sides, was wearing a black-t with a large graphic skull under a red cardigan. Richard had specks of paint on his shoes, and his long black hair,  parted in the middle, hung like an homage to Wayne’s World.

Even though they live far from each other at the moment and seem to be on different frequencies, they resonate when they come together. Richard finishing his MFA at Yale and Asher working on music in Milwaukee the last two years, The Glamour had to put together songs through email, and only doing shows over Richards art school breaks. But that is all about to change this summer when Richard moves back and the two are recording and playing live shows again.

Boy Kings: How did you guys meet?

Asher: Honestly, we met at a rave. I used to be a huge raver and Richard obviously…not necessarily a raver, but he was just into the music. 

Richard: I think there was a smaller community of people that were younger, not 18 yet.

Asher: I was 16 and Richard was 14.

Richard: There was just a tighter crew of younger people, and we saw each other around [Milwaukee] regularly. 

BK: What was the rave scene like in Wisconsin?

Asher: It was awesome back then. There were so many secret parties. 

Richard: It was the tail end of the scene in general. Before things got outlawed in Chicago and here. The party we met at…I don’t know if it was really a rave. It was in the basement of The Rave, which is a big venue here, but that got closed down because there was a lot of drug problems.

Asher: People OD’d.

Richard: Some people got shot. A lot of people died in a matter of two or three weeks. 

Asher: There was that going on in Milwaukee, and a lot of parties out in the woods. I would never go to the ones in the woods, but you would hear about them.

Photo via: Will Phi

BK: You have been tied to the resurgence of modern dance music in Milwaukee 5 years ago. How has it changed since then?

Asher: I don’t think we were pioneering. We were just doing what we wanted to do. We came from a house music background. We obviously like a bunch of other music…Like tonight, you give them some top-40s or some classic jams, and start layering in the shit you’re really into. Now it’s a little easier to get people going with the proper house and techno. But Milwaukee’s a really hard sell with that. There’s specific venues, but even then it’s kinda weird because you have all the older heads from back in the day that are all into micro-house. It’s easier now because people are more into dance music, but it’s not like Madison. Where you play a banger and girls are body surfing…it’s a little bit harder. Milwaukee is a working class town, people like their PBR, rock and rap.

Richard: Well, I think the thing is that when we were doing a lot of that stuff here, it was a time when Flosstradamus was doing their thing at the Town Hall Pub in Chicago. There was certainly a community of people that were mixing a lot of things together from different backgrounds. Some of them came from more of a rap background some came from house and some kids came from the rock scene. What was really great about that was how it got people into dance music, but “mash-up” is kind of a dirty word now. But now you can go and legitimately play electronic music, and people are into it. You needed that crossover period, and rightfully so it was interesting, it evolved into something else now.

BK: Where’s the Milwaukee/Madison scene going? 

Asher: I hope that it’s going in a more open-minded dance music oriented route. But it’s hard to say. I throw a monthly here at this little dive bar and it’s bananas. It’s spaced for 80 people, but they don’t even care. You can play Biggie or you can play Miles Dyson and they don’t even care, they’re just going nuts over the stuff. The music is getting more big club sound, but the venue for that in Milwaukee is the smaller places. 

Richard: But I think what’s happening too is because of the economy, there’s a pretty big lull right now. People will go out for the big names, but a lot of the smaller parties…I don’t know, just a weirder vibe, people just aren’t as hyped anymore. It has a lot to do with just the condition of the time. I think one way to cure that is to bring it back underground. And I could see that happening again.

Photo via Will Phi

Asher: I think it’s going more underground and disappearing from the big mainstream.

Richard: Well I think there’ll be the big room that’ll be the success events and there’ll be the much more kind of underground acts. It’s what happened to disco, that’s what happened to a lot of different types of dance music. It got really big, almost too big, and to rectify it these people kept going and other people took it somewhere else.

BK: What was the goal when you guys started?

Richard: I think we always wanted to make electronic music together. We have a lot of different interests, and we have a lot of similar interests. We’ve been making music together for almost 10 years. We were really young, and we made a lot of shit for a long time. I think that sincerity to music is important, there’s a lot of people now…I’m not going to say bad things…but there are people that don’t know the history and are just into it just to be into it. 

Asher: And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Everyones got to get into it in their own way.

Richard: It makes the scene bigger.

Asher: If a nuclear bomb goes off and Richard and I survive 10 years after that, we’re still going to be trying to play dance music somehow. It’s not going to matter if it’s super popular or if we’re making a lot of money or any of that. It’s just a passion for that type of music, that has really kept us going. The songs that we’re creating now I think we wanted to make when we first started, but we didn’t have the means to make that stuff. 

Richard: We’re pretty much self-taught producers. A lot of it is trial and error and figuring our stuff out. I think now we’re at a pretty good point where we can actualize what we want to do.

Photo via: Clayton Hauck

BK: Your lyrics have a lot of humor to them. Where do you get the inspiration for your vocals?

Richard: Well, I think there’s a break. I think a lot of our earlier stuff was about the time it was written in. (laughs) I’m not going to say anything about other issues. But “Kidz Night” and “Respect The Party” really represented the scene at the time and that’s what we wanted to talk about. 

Asher: Just reacting to the vibe. 

Richard: Now I think it’s hard to write songs that are like that. And now we’ve really returned to a lot to things that inspired us in the first place. A lot of the lyrics that we write now make reference to classic pop music or classic disco. A lot of that stuff is really quirky and humorous but also really tight and well thought out.

Asher: We’re more serious about it now, but still at the same time trying to maintain…we’re not trying to pretend that we’re from the streets. It’s dance music after all, so the main goal is to get people on the dance floor to dance. But at the same time I’m not going to write a pop song solely because I want it to be a hit. I don’t think we think about it that much. We’ll work on a track and come up with the lyrics as we go. I don’t have a notebook of poems that I’ve written from my heart. But right now it’s go with the vibe and go with what we’re feeling in the moment.

Photo via: Will Phi

BK : How do you think your sound has evolved over time?

Richard: I think in a weird way we’ve returned to what we’ve always wanted to make. I think what happened was when we started to get a lot of attention…like I said, it was about the time, it was really about the necessity to make a track to get out so we could play it at the party that weekend. I think all those sounds are still with us, we’ve just started to focus them in a different place. 

Asher: Yeah, nerding out a little more in the studio, taking our time and not rushing things. Not that we rushed things before, but really working on the craft of engineering. I think there’s so many people that would agree that everybody started making dance music because they wanted to, and progressively got better at it. Out of necessity started acquiring all this information about engineering and mixing.

Richard: You just become more refined with it. 

BK: You’ve been DJing most of your shows recently. Are we going to see you returning to the live band format anytime soon?

Richard: Eventually we really want to put out an album, hopefully this year, if not, early next year. I think with the live thing you have to have enough shows in a row, kinda tour it out to have it make sense. When we did it was a one-off thing. It was a lot of fun, it was just a lot of work, because we had to practice for a while. It’s a little bit easier if you’re doing it consistently for a period of time. It’ll definitely happen again, though. I think it’s a matter of time. We have a lot of new material as it is right now but wherever it coalesces. 

Asher: I feel that there is a push to do a live show, even if you’re not a live band. If we’re playing out of town, we’ll dedicate a part of our set to playing our own stuff, and I’ll go out and do lyrics or instrumental versions of our songs. But it’s not a truly live performance.

Richard: Back then we were, though.

Asher: We did one show in Chicago two summers ago, and it was totally live. We had our guitar player, my sister did backup vocals. It was awesome, but if we were to maintain the ability to do a live show anytime we wanted Richard would have to live in Milwaukee. He doesn’t right now so it’s just tough to get together and practice. You can approach The Glamour from a band perspective or you can approach it via a DJ perspective. We just figured instead of doing a half-ass live show, we might as well do our DJ set, which we’re really proud of and passionate about.

Richard: That’s what most people do anyways.

Asher: And do some vocals to give people a flavor for the live aspect. 

BK: And you said you were working on a full album. Tell me about that.

Asher: I think we’re pretty close to having enough tracks to do an album. That being said, two months from now we might not. 

Richard: I finish up school in like two months, and there’s a good chance I’m moving back, and between now and then we’ll work on a lot of stuff, we’ll work on a lot when I get back. We’re shopping a lot of material around right now, talking to a lot of people about it. I think it’s good to overshoot it. By the end of the summer if we have 18 or 15 tracks, and then we cut it down to 10 just so that we have a really good tight album. 

Asher: A cohesive story.

Richard: Yeah, because what makes sense for an album is different…

Asher: It’s different than making one track… 

Richard: You don’t do banger after banger. 

Asher: I feel like an album has to tell a story even tough we’re not writing narrative songs, the album has to move along in a certain way.

Photo via: Will Phi

The Golden Filter - Solid Gold

New York City’s The Golden Filter released their first single “Solid Gold” in February, and it already feels like an established classic. Their underground new wave sound is bringing back imagination and mystery to music. Golden Filter releases close to nothing about themselves or their music, forcing listeners to fill in the blanks and create their own story. Leading up to this interview all that was for certain was that they currently reside in New York City and not much else. I spoke to them after sound check at Chicago’s Sonotheque. Trying to avoid the booming bass, we had to conduct the interview through the coatroom window.

Penelope (vocals) pulled her blonde hair behind her face, which is not exposed during the shows, to reveal extremely large tortoise shell glasses and a tight smile. Stephen (keyboard/percussions) wore a long scarf wrapped many times around his neck and still hung to his hands at both ends, and Lisa (drummer/newest member) listened most of the interview in her ankle exposed jeans and t-shirt. Every once in a while someone would try to get me to check their coat, but that didn’t stop them from talking about the reason for the band’s mystery, coffee and even the unheard of upcoming album.

Boy Kings: How did you all meet?

Penelope: Well, I’m an Aussie. I moved to New York after traveling for a bit. It’s really not that exciting. I would love it to be more exciting, but we were neighbors.

Stephen: We’d chatted for a while about photography, films and whatnot. After a few months Penelope said, “Oh yeah, by the way, I can sing. And I was like “Oh…really cool.”

Penelope: And Lisa was our neighbor--drummer as well--like our own little posse.

BK: How long have you been making music together?

Stephen: In this project we’ve been making music since June.

BK: I have to ask, how come so much mystery?

Stephen: It’s just the way it happened. [laughs]

Penelope: But I don’t know. Society is spoon-feeding everyone, everything. It’s a bit clichéd and I just wanted, personally and collectively…

Stephen: You look on MySpace and there’s a band that played the night before and there’s a hundred photos uploaded to their gallery. And all these posh, super exciting photos…

Penelope: And that’s all cool and all, but I guess it’s a rebellion for us against everything being in your face. Let’s bring it back a little bit, and get people to use their imaginations.

Stephen: Plus we like taking photos and being creative about it.

Penelope: It’s very much about you have to create the story in your own mind. Maybe some people create too much of a story.

Stephen: There might be a little bit of when we started to release “Solid Gold” to blogs we weren’t actually sure if people would like it, which is completely insane to think about that now. But back then it was like I don’t know about this, should I do it.

Penelope: The mystery in relation to the name. The name was pertaining to photography essentially, like 1970’s hazy romantic. And it was mysterious in that romantic kind of way. So that’s where the name came from, to tie into the whole “Should we do this? Will it be liked?”

Stephen: Ever since then it’s evolved, and we decided let’s not release any photos and don’t say too much.

Penelope: Living in the moment.

BK: What’s your process like when you’re putting together songs?

Stephen: Each one’s different, but we have a general goal or a sound we like.

Penelope: And despite the fact it is electronic we try to tone it down to something organic.

BK: What was going through your mind when putting together “Solid Gold”?

Stephen: It was written in two days, there really wasn’t much to think about. It was just like let’s put together a song really fast. Because we had written songs before this project. But that was writing the music one day, writing the lyrics that night, and recording it the next day.

[Guys start standing around the coat check, making uncertain eye contact with me and slowly taking off his coat, waiting for a reaction from me.]

BK: I’m not actually running the coat check

BK: What’s normal life like for you guys in New York then?

Stephen: Drinking coffee.

Penelope: Searching out the best coffee beans you can buy.

Stephen: It’s not that we go out and party every night. I don’t.

Penelope: Well, it comes in phases. Depends on the season.

Stephen

BK: You said that you were brought together by film and photography. What film and photography inspires you the most?

Penelope: Movies…David Lynch, anything that’s a little crazy is good for me. And photography, David Hamilton, the 1970’s. He was a little controversial on one realm.

Stephen: A lot.

Penelope: He was very embraced by the French because he did this whole romantic, blurry semi nudity.

Stephen: But that’s the whole golden filter joke, “Oooh, the picture is through the golden filter.” The other thing about photography is that you [Penelope] and I were both photo minors in college.

Penelope: If I had another life, and had enough time in my life, I would do photography. I chose music, I had to make a choice.

BK: Your music reminds me of the 1982 film Liquid Sky.

Lisa: That goes back to what you were saying, how everyone has their own imagination. You attached this music to that movie, and someone else might attach it to another image.

BK: What do you want to accomplish with your music?

Penelope: I don’t want to come out with a cliché…I’m really good with clichés. It’s about reaching out to a bigger sphere of folk. To inspire others and the imagination thing.

Stephen: More of the imagination with me. Basically the goal was to make songs click and let people say what they want about it. Escapism.

Penelope: And not just through here [the live shows] but the mind concept and you can start going into the visuals. And go off on another tangent.

Stephen: We also set out to make the vocals more imagery-esque, which is why there are foxes and stuff.

Penelope: It was a very visual, deliberate choice of words.

Stephen: As opposed to a song about love.

BK: Are you excited about touring?

Stephen: We’re excited…our next show is in Paris.

Penelope: We get two hours of recreation in Paris. Search out a good coffee. [laughs]

Stephen: Three days in the UK and four shows which is crazy.

Penelope: We fly into London, drive straight to Paris, and that’ll be exciting too. Just crossing over the channel and getting on to the European mainland, and start spreading out the whole energy. And then Presets--oh my God--I get very patriotic. I was in Australia in December and saw them headline the Never Everland Festival in Brisbane. I was told by family members, “they’re really big here now,” and they’re fucking huge. Jesus, even my dad knows the Presets.

Lisa

BK: How did you get linked up with Dummy Records?

Stephen: It’s not like it was our only option, but we really liked the visual magazines.

Penelope: And the other artists. The other offers weren’t getting who we are, and what’s the point?

BK: So what is the point?

Stephen: The music, that’s it.

Penelope: It’s about let the music do its thing and you do the rest as the listener.

Stephen: Not prejudging by what we look like or what label we’re on.

Penelope: No box. You either like it and it moves you and that’s cool.

BK: Do you have anything in the works for an EP or an album?

Stephen: Single number two coming soon. We’ve actually finished 90% of a full length…Barring we decide to do more.

Penelope: There is a full album, which almost has a home and will come out.

BK: Are we going to see Chicago added to your song “Favorite Things” after tonight?

Lisa: It’s already one of my favorite things. I love Chicago, always have.

Penelope: I need to learn about Chicago.

Stephen: I’ve honestly not had good things here. I’m hoping that this time isn’t my best time here.

The coat-check line had built up by this point and Golden Filter flipped the roles and began asking me where to eat and thrift while in Chicago. But some mysteries should never be published.

The Golden Filter - "Solid Gold" Teaser 

DJ A-Cup (left) and DJ Mother Hubbard @ Empty Bottle Photo By Will Phi

Started by DJ A-Cup (Jessica) and DJ Mother Hubbard (Chess) less than a year ago, Rocktapussy is quickly becoming the act to see. Their all-encompassing dance style will get even the guys in blazers and V-necks dancing. These are not just some girls that decided to DJ for kicks. These women are musicians that (luckily) decided to share their music collection with the world, mixing together club bangers from all generations, with songs they hope you've never heard before. 

Boy Kings: So how did you guys meet in the first place?

Chess: Matt, her (Jessica's) boyfriend, is my business partner, and we started our business  (UR Chicago) right around the time they started dating. And he got into managing Office. I taught him how to DJ, and he taught Jessica, and she picked it up really fast. He told me, “Wow, Jessica is way better than me. She is just picking it up naturally.” We talked about it casually over a few months, it would be really cool to have a female DJ duo. There’s some stuff you can only do as a duo. I got the idea because the guy who taught me, Josh from Flosstradamus, who used to be in Life During Wartime with Chris (Bald Eagle) and me. Chris and I started going off in very different musical styles, so we never really played together-it was always separate sets. I really like how Josh and Kurt are able to do so much more because it’s an extra pair of hands. Then when we talked about it, we got together and did a couple practices and were like, wow, our musical tastes are very similar, and complimentary. Stuff none of my friends like, she likes. She likes Cocteau Twins, industrial music, some 80s, but also goth 80s. When we actually started DJing together it was very easy. I’ve DJed with some other people where it’s hard.

 Jessica: Remember when we played that Cocteau Twins with DJ Cam? I don’t think many people got it.

C: I think Josh got it, but everyone else was like, "what the hell’s that?"

J: But that’s what our mixtapes are for.

C: We put in a couple that people don’t know.

J: Just a couple and then we flush it out with dancier stuff.

C: But even the dancier stuff is not too obvious. When we first started hanging out we bonded over how we were the friend in middle school and high school that made all our friends mixtapes. Of course my mixtapes involved Mega Death and Guns and Roses and Nine Inch Nails.

J: Mine involved Riot Girl and lots of glitter.

BK: When did Rocktapussy become official?

C: Last March. Our first show was in April, opening for Robyn. It was totally a fluke, they didn’t have an opener the day before.

J: It was the day of.

C: They contacted Matt, “Sooo we need an opener,” and I guess he had told them about us. We hadn’t played a live show yet. And here we are playing at a sold out show at Park West. We didn’t have time to get too nervous about it.

J: Chess and I are opening, and we take turns putting on makeup really quick behind the decks.

C: And finally when we got our makeup on I’m like, “Ok, I’m getting us drinks.”

J: When we started Rocktapussy it was sort of an inside joke. If you’re familiar with the movie ha ha ha. If you just know us and you don’t know the movie it’s sort of....

C: It’s still funny.

J: But we’ve been thinking that we have this name that’s juvenile and joking to us. But I  don’t want to turn people off from listening to our music just because we have a ridiculous name. The problem is I can’t think of any others I like as much.

C: We already played a gig for Nike where we couldn’t be listed as Rocktapussy. We were just girls…I don’t even know how they listed us as.

Photo By Clayton Hauck

BK: Did you feel that there was something lacking in the DJ market that you had to offer?

Photo By Ben Baez

BK: Is it harder being girl DJs?

(Nate, Jeff, Ian, Mike and Ayad)

Passion Pit - Sleepy Head

Started by Michael Angelakos as a bedroom solo production, Passion Pit has grown into a five man band that’s gaining a lot of attention with their new EP Chunk Change (which I can’t stop listening to) from MTV to Spin Magazine. The EP started as a Valentines Day gift to Michael’s girlfriend but soon made it into the hands of most of his Emerson classmates. I caught up with drummer Nate Donmoyer while he finished up the full album (TBR May 13^th) in New York City. Talking about their indefinable sound, to the on the rise Boston Music scene. 

Boy Kings: So where are you guys right now?

Nate: Mike and I are still in the studio in New York. Last day in the studio for the new album.

BK: Are you guys going to celebrate?

N: We don’t really have time to. We have a day off after our New York show in February, that show will be the celebration.

Bk: I read your article in Spin and quickly downloaded the album and then saw you guys were playing at Schubas, this is perfect.

N: Yeah man I’m pretty psyched, that’s Tuesday? So you’re in Chicago?

BK: I know everything with Passion Pit was started with Mike [vocals keyboard], he slowly started putting pieces together, by bringing in the Ian Hultquist (synths, guitar) and Ayad Al adhamy (synths, samplers), when did you come into the equation?

N: I’m actually the newest member of the band. I joined in August. But to explain how the band started first. Mike did the first EP by himself on a laptop in his bedroom. And then a couple of my friends were at his first and only solo show, and just were like, “hey you should really start a band and work it out if you want, and call me up.” He was hesitant, but eventually did start a band with a couple other guys. And eventually the lineup changed to what it is now [Ian Hultquist (synths), Ayad al Adhamy (synths, samplers, guitar), Jeff Apruzzese (bass, synths), Nate Donmoyer (drums)]. In August, we started played a lot more serious shows. That’s how I got into the picture.

BK: So its just your buddies approached him and brought you in?

N: Yeah Ian was the one who said, “hey man you should really start a band, flush this stuff out,” and Mike was like “nah no thanks.” And eventually changed his mind and they started playing and it worked out really well. I actually booked the band for one of our Saturday nights at this club I DJed at in Boston. And everyone was just ready then and the fun started. It was funny, I interviewed them for my blog and then six months later I was in the band.

BK: How’s it been so far since you joined?

N: It’s been awesome and incredibly insane from the first Piano’s show we had in New York. When I joined in August, I practiced without Mike, with the rest of the band, because Mike was in Brooklyn recording this album for the first time. So after we started playing shows together our label situation changed. We had to redo the album, but how it was intended with full production and everything. That’s how we got hooked up with Chris Zane whose producing it now. So since then we’ve all been part of the recording process, its not just been Mike.

BK: Listening to the EP I’m not even going to try to categorize the sound because you have so many layers and elements playing off each other that it doesn’t fit into anything out there.

N: That’s actually a huge complement so thanks. I don’t know, to be really lazy about it; our publicist will pass on stuff and we’ll read it and the lazy comparisons are Hot Chip, and either Kate Bush or Kate Nash. I always get them confused because I’m an idiot (laughs).

BK: But what do you like to say?

N: It depends on if it’s a friend from high school or someone who doesn’t listen to a lot of music I listen to like Hot Chip. Or if I’m talking to my Mom I’ll say, “it’s like synthesizer pop.” But the new album is a lot different (from the EP) a lot more organic. Not so many synths, I mean it’s full of synths, probally even more so than the EP, but it’s balanced with guitars and there’s a lot of drums on the whole album. And there’s acoustic piano not electric piano. I think we’ve found our formula with our sound. It’s more reflective of what the live show is now, with live drums and the instrumentation of the live show is a lot closer to what this album is than what the EP is.

BK: Your often referred to as a Boston band, is that how you would describe it?

N: I would because that’s where we all met, that’s where when we say we’re going home, we’re going to Boston. That’s where we practice, that’s where we formed. Oddly enough we’ve probably played more shows in New York than in Massachusetts. That’s where we all came up. I have a feeling there’s going to be a big shift of how people are going to perceive Boston bands in the coming years.

BK: How do you see the Boston music scene right now and where do you see it going in 2009 and beyond?

N: I’m really really excited about it. For one, it’s a small city so most of the bands you either know or are friends with. It’s good to see everyone doing well. There’s a band that’s roommates with Ayad, two of the guys in the band are roommates with him, and Ayad produces the band, called Gaintess, that’s doing well. And there’s Pretty and Nice on Hardly Art that’s doing really well and the album is amazing. There’s just a lot of awesome young bands coming up and DJs and producers. There’s so many it’s hard to mention them all.

BK: It sounds like you’re a pretty tight knit community, this whole young scene that’s coming up.

N: We all know each other, we’re all friends, we play shows together. With some of them, yeah we hang out, get drunk together when we’re all home. But everyone’s doing well enough that it seems like we’re out of Boston as much as we’re there. I think there’s going to be a positive shift in what a Boston band is. Because its been such shit for the past 10 years. What was it, the Dropkick Murphys or something? But then back in the hardcore movement “this is Boston not LA,” the whole Boston punk thing was really awesome, but then it died off and hasn’t been much since.

BK: What’s been the most fun a rewarding about touring, I see you’re about to go over to Europe?

N: It’s just so exciting. I don’t know what to expect. I think we’re all a bit nervous as to how we’re going to be received. I don’t speak French. When we’re in Paris are we going to be seen as ignorant, dumb Americans or is it going to be ok. Maybe pick up some French CDs along the way. We toured with Yelle, who’s from Paris, and we picked up a little form the band. But the most exciting shit is seeing places we’ve never been and meeting people that are excited about music.

BK: What’s the average age of the group?

N: Mike and I are actually born two weeks apart and we’re both 21. The rest of the guys are 23.

BK: So tell me about the upcoming album. What can people expect?

N: Mike is still the songwriter and wrote all the songs. We just worked on it more collectively than before. And the way that turns out on the album is that it’s more organic. And Chris Zane as a producer is brilliant. He just did the latest Walkman album and the Harlem Shakes latest album, which is amazing by the way. All his work has been solid, so that’s been a huge help in taking Passion Pit from a bedroom project to fulltime ready for the radio. It’s been a huge learning and growing step for us.

BK: What was it like being listed in Spin?

N: It was kinda surreal. Like do they know they’re wasting paper on us, do they know about the rainforest situation? But we were all really surprised and flattered. But they always use the worst press picture. I don’t know if you noticed but in that photo Ayad is cross-eyed.

BK: Once the album is released where do you go from there?

N: The official release date is May 13^th, but it’ll be done January 27^th. So that’s going to feel like forever until that’s out. But until then just touring, touring, touring. Really excited to tour with Cale Parks and Ra Ra Riot. See a bunch of people, see a bunch of cities we’ve never seen before.

BK: is there anything you would like people to know?

N: Haha just don’t judge us ‘till you hear the full length. And hopefully we get to meet everyone.