Last Saturday, Tony (pictured above) from Cool Places radio and SKELETONS invited THE VERY BEST to make a surprise guest appearance at his party at Zebulon in Brooklyn. The show went off with a bang, and so did today's exclusive Mugshot Monday interview. Tony talks Tim Maia; the sounds of the city; his radio show, Cool Places; and the band he plays guitar for, SKELETONS.
What do you love about the radio?
It's
all about relinquishing to magic and chance. Recently in LA I was
having a minor existential crises and I heard "What A Fool Believes" by
the Michael McDonald-era Doobies three times on three different
stations in 48 hours. "Tryin hard to recreate/What had yet to be
created"... "What seems to be / Is always never nothing". Man. By
the end of the third time I was cured. As if fed a cosmic reward for
getting over myself they followed it with "Tears of a Clown" by Smokey
which is my all-time favorite Motown track. Or driving up to
Massachusetts the other day we heard real early Sabbath followed by
"Touch of Gray" by the Dead, it really set a tone. Shortwave radio is
the next level. Surfing static and finally pulling in an Indian
station at the time of day when the waves bounce off the stratosphere
just right way to reach you is a wild feeling that has nothing to do
with the internet.
What's your favorite sound effect?
Jah
Shaka's portentous, blue whale and elephant dread homemade electronics
on "I'm a Levi" by Ijahman Levi give me the chills, they're something
to aspire to.
What's the eeriest thing that's ever happened to you on stage?
This
July Skeletons performed at the MIDI festival in Hyeres, France, which
takes places in the ruins of a medieval castle that overlooks the
emerald waters of the Mediterranean. It made every blister and callous
that I ever got practicing, every aural exam in music school, all my
hearing loss, all of it was 100% worth it. It was so humbling and
beautiful. There were many trees within the stone walls, and they were
blasting with cicadas hypnotically phasing in the heat, it was a great
sound. Well we have this tune from "Money" called "Ripper" and
it has evolved to include this improvised breakdown that sometimes
really folds in on itself gloriously, and Joe from White Williams and I
were joking that I should get a cicada to play during that section. We
were there for 4 days, but we only saw their smaller beetle husks from
metamorphosis, still clutching the stumps - the winged big guys, like 4
inches long, were high and hidden. But then, literally seconds before
we went on stage, one fell into the backstage courtyard like it was
injured. There was a circle of people watching it skitter around and I
swooped in and grabbed it and continued on to the stage, whispered to
it in my cupped hands to chill, that everything would be fine, that we
were going to have a little magical jam, and he stopped batting his
wings. So I put him in an upside down glass, propped so he could
breathe, next to my pedals, and we played the best, craziest set we've
ever played. I noticed about halfway through that the glass had
obviously been toppled and he was gone. But, when we came back to
encore with "Ripper", I looked down and he was just sitting there next
to my delay pedal, blue shell shining under the lights, and I thought,
oh he's dead or he can't fly. But he was alive! So I held him up
gently, looking at him, and then I put him in the cup and place it over
the mic, and he starts going totally wild. His sounds just ripped over
the crowd. It was pretty intense. And then the cicada just stayed sitting on the mic after I took the cup
away, like he was in a trance, and almost like I watched myself do it,
I opened my mouth and sang a high loud melody with the feedback and he
hopped onto my tongue. He tasted sweet! The audience was louder than
I've ever heard. I think I was in a kind of trance too, breathing real
heavy breaths. So I start slowly stepping backwards in awe, and then
after a few moments, he flies out of my mouth and over the audience
back into the trees, right before we dropped back in to the final
chorus, out of the noise.
SKELETONS in "HOUSEGUESTS" aka "RIPPER aka the Pillows" from Skeletons, Inc. on Vimeo.
What makes you squirm?
Cicadas ha! Pulling cottonballs apart. That shot in "Inland Empire" where her face melts into that demon.
What track makes people come up to the DJ booth most often to ask about the song?
Stuff
by the Iranian 9 year old named Negar usually confuses people quite a
bit. But you can only drop Negar when the party itself is in a pretty
confusing place, so its understandable.
Dean (co-host of Cool Places) and I laugh a lot about how our standards have changed since we started Cool Places Radio. At the beginning it was all French-ethno-dude-setting-the-perfect-scene field recordings and primo folk psych, but now we're very appreciative of the best rural rave pop that the .29 cent Russian MP3 download sites and DailyMotion have to offer.
Do you have a favorite sound in the city? Buses? The wind in a certain place, etc?
When the ambulance drivers jam on their sirens like Jah Shaka.
Best show you've seen so far in 2009?
Man,
Forrest Gillespie's "Dome Theater" troupe consistently sizzles my
marrow, and about a month ago he put on a recent one - "Future
Rickshaw" - at Zebulon. You could feel the hair on everybody's neck
curl and unfurl in coordinated psychic chills
Can you take a picture of one of your favorite LP covers from your collection? Tell us about it.
Tough! "Racional Vol 1" by Tim Maia is one of the most extraordinary for so many reasons. There's nothing else like it. Maia is probably the most lovable character in a vast sea of charismatic smiling Brazilian musicians and he made this record when he was both at the peak of his power and briefly part of a cult called Universo em Desencanto, which is like Heaven's Gate (the nike suicide one) and Urantia and Scientology all together in one cyanide laced punchbowl. It's a spaceship rescue religion, and the Paul Laffoley style cover has detailed instructions for following "the way", including simple explanations of how a microbial body of rational energy can "bind itself in the firmament, appearing in varied forms, sizes, ways and colors to call the attention of humanity and become the propaganda of the rational animal phase". I treasure it.
What's the most musical non-music part of your day?
Riding
my bike as fast and as safely as I can through New York is very similar
to the kind of mental-physical unraveling that music so graciously
offers.
What's next?
So
much stuff man! Skeletons are entering the final laps of a race
against our brains to finish the new album, "People", asap. Cool Places
will have another dance party on Oct 17 at Zebulon, and my partner Lily
and I are recording tracks for a new dance band called SLANG!
For more music from Tony, check his guitar-work in Skeletons and his DJ skills on East Village Radio's COOL PLACES.
Posted by Wills Glasspiegel
wills@greenowl.com
