Tag Archives: Daniel Taylor

There’s No “I” in Internet

You probably didn’t notice, but Submerge is no longer capitalizing internet. This is in accordance with this year’s AP Stylebook. In April 2016, AP Standards Editor Thomas Kent told Poynter.org that the change was made to “reflect a growing trend toward lowercasing both words [referring to “web,” which also used to be a proper noun as it referred to the outdated term World Wide Web], which have become generic terms.” We found out about it because our amazing editor and professional knower-of-things Daniel Taylor pointed out to the rest of us. This sort of stuff is probably only interesting to grammar nerds and other editors, but I think it’s telling for how something that had the potential to be awesome, and still does, I guess, has turned into something pretty banal.

Language changes every day. Like, no one uses terms like “verily” anymore. Maybe one day it will come back (I hope it does). It’s a good thing it does changes and grows to meet the needs of the people who use it or it will die, like Latin.

My wife just asked me what I was writing my column about, and I told her that it’s about how internet is no longer being considered a proper noun. She said, “Oh, I didn’t realize that it used to be capitalized.”

I’m guessing that’s why AP decided it was finally time to make the change, like when they struck the hyphen out of email. It’s interesting, though, that “internet” was ever capitalized in the first place. I mean, it’s a thing, to be sure, but it’s not France, let’s say. When I think of France, I see a flag and the Eiffel Tower and beautiful women smoking cigarettes out of long onyx holders, eating bread slathered in butter and beguiling you with their wit and intelligence. (I’ve seen Before Sunrise like a billion times.) But France has been around a really long time, much longer than the internet. France has sort of become generic, I guess, in the same way anything that’s been around a really long time can, but I’d never imagine them not capitalizing it. It just wouldn’t seem right what with that tower and all, and all those beguiling, imaginary women I just mentioned.

When I think of the internet, I don’t really picture anything. Where is it? What is it? It can’t even eat a baguette and lecture me on the virtues of Marcel Proust, though I’d imagine there’s a site somewhere that has cobbled together a bunch of Proust stuff. (I just on a whim typed Marcelproust.com into my web browser, but all that came up was a 404 error, which I think is pretty sad.)

Kent told NPR in June 2016 that the internet “never was trademarked. It’s not based on any proper noun. And I think the best reason for capitalizing in the past may just have been the term was new. I read that at one point people, capitalized phonograph, so maybe it was something like that, but now it’s a routine part of daily life.”

I remember when the internet was new. I remember going into chat rooms and thinking that it would be great to meet people from all around the world. It was exciting to be online. Exciting with a capital E. Now being online kind of sucks.

Maybe it’s because it’s a lot easier now than it used to be. I don’t have to sit in front of the AOL welcome screen and wait to see if the modem would find a number that wasn’t busy and make that unmistakable sound that I’d just been granted access to the World Wide Web (capitalized here for nostalgia’s sake). Now you don’t even have to think about it, like taking a poop but not even half as satisfying.

It was a lot more of a personal place, too. People would make all these websites on like GeoCities or whatever that were fansites for various comic books or anime or whatever. It’s strange that back then, when there weren’t personal profile sites or social networking as we know it today, that everything felt almost handmade. Back then you might know someone only by their screen name, usually suffixed by a string of random numbers, but whatever content they produced was most likely their own. Now on the internet, even though everyone’s more upfront about sharing their “real lives,” most of what we see are hyperlinks to formulaic lists or retweets or articles with headlines that tell me how I’m supposed to feel about something. Rehashed this, generic that. Definitely lower case “i” material.

It occurs to me from reading over the previous paragraph that I’m becoming a grumpy old man who’s completely out of touch with the world around him. I apologize, but please understand that I’m only a couple months away from turning 40, and it’s scaring the shit out of me.

He Is Risen LOL

You may have noticed that James, the usual occupant of this prime editorial real estate, is somewhere else right now, enjoying a fulfilling human life. So instead of his well-informed, razor-sharp wit, you get whatever this is. And by “this,” I mean the vestigial remnants of my narrative voice, the written version of that part right above your ass that would have been a tail if you would have been born a few million years earlier.

Correction: the part right above your ass that would have been a tail according to the theory of evolution. It’s rude of me to assume that everyone is on board with the idea that somewhere down their family tree—past all the ignorant pieces of shit and endless generations of toiling peasants and cave dwellers and proto-human cross-breeders—there’s a bunch of weird man-faced monkeys swinging around in trees with tails and other fucked up primate features. To some people, that’s not just offensive, it’s downright sacrilege.

And I don’t blame them. No one wants to think of themselves as the result of millions of years on monkeydom distilled into … well, whatever this is. After all, I’m special. My feelings are unique. No one else knows what it’s like to be me, especially a dirty goddamn apeman. But what if, just for the sake of argument, you actually weren’t special? What if your deepest feelings were just the result of the most basic biological impulses filtered through a brain that evolved to best figure where to eat, who to fuck and how to stay out of the way of the animals that evolved big scary teeth or razor-sharp talons in the pursuit of those very same noble goals? What if whatever story you’ve convinced yourself of to make you feel special was just your brain’s way of keeping you on the path to the next meal, the next potential mate? Sure, that kind of takes away a bit of the mystique, but isn’t it also sort of liberating? No? Yeah, you’re right. It’s actually pretty depressing. Sorry.

Don’t fret, though. That’s just one theory of many. Of course, everyone knows the big ones, the mainstream ones. Dudes in the desert begatting each other and all that. But there’s some pretty solid up-and-comers making the rounds these days too.

Make fun of it all you want, but Ancient Aliens seems like some pretty plausible shit to me. Some self-aware species fucks up their planet to the point where it’s no longer inhabitable (sounds pretty familiar so far, right?) so they get on board their fancy spacecraft and set off to the literal New World, the planet Earth, where they become—according to whichever version of the story you believe—the breeding stock for mankind or the guiding hand of humanity’s ascent, the “man behind the curtain,” if you will. Excuse me, “humanoid alien behind the curtain.”

The best part about the ancient alien theory is that you can mold it to fit squarely into whatever other theory you’ve spent your life passionately advocating for or donating money, time or thought to. Believe in God? He/she was just an alien. Evolution? Obviously the result of superior alien technology. Believe that your entire reality is just a simulation? Ahhh, fam, you know who’s footing the power bill for that shit: ALIENS.

The best part about ancient alien theory is that we don’t just get to be the end result of our own ancient alien story, but we get to be the beginning of someone else’s. After all, where do you think all the rich people on Earth are gonna go when we finally wear out our own planet? No, really, where? Because I have no idea. Elon Musk won’t return my calls.

Like with anything else, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle of all these competing theories. And the best part is, you’ll probably live and die without ever really knowing for sure. Or even if you did know, no one would believe you. No one believes anyone anymore. The downside of realizing that anything is possible is feeling like nothing is impossible. I didn’t even write this column. You did. Maybe no one did.

Anyway, I got a spaceship to catch. See you next time, nerds.

SF Sludge Masters Black Cobra Return with New Album

Cobra Command

Over the course of almost 15 years playing their unique brand of sludgy thrash metal, Jason Landrian and Rafael “Rafa” Martinez—otherwise known as San Francisco two-piece Black Cobra—have toured the world with some of metal’s most legendary bands. The band has also released five full lengths, including their latest, the much-anticipated Imperium Simulacra, which came out Feb. 26, 2016 on French label Seasons of Mist.

But Black Cobra’s longevity and success in the international metal scene hasn’t really changed the band’s spartan approach to being on the road. Driving between Reno and Salt Lake City, Utah, two of the stops on the band’s string of headlining dates ahead of a nationwide tour with Bongzilla, vocalist/guitarist Landrian explains that beyond just covering all the bases musically, the two-man team also typically still cover all the logistics of being on tour themselves, from driving to loading gear to selling merch.

“It’s a little bit difficult sometimes,” says Landrian. “But we’ve kind of got it down, to be honest. Not to pat ourselves on the back but we’ve been doing it for a while. We know the drill, so we’re pretty good about being quick getting off stage and getting behind the merch booth.”

When it came to releasing a follow-up to 2011’s Invernal, however, Black Cobra definitely took their time. The result is Imperium Simulacra, an album that adheres strictly to the band’s stripped-down, two-piece approach, without sacrificing an ounce of heaviness. Though Imperium Simulacra certainly has its stony moments and a smattering of psych overtones, Black Cobra avoid over-thinking things, opting instead to keep their tempos brisk and their riffs diabolical.

With Black Cobra and Bongzilla set to swing through Sacramento’s Starlite Lounge March 7, 2016 we talked with Landrian about the band’s history, their current tour and the process behind creating Imperium Simulacra.

Submerge-Black Cobra-Raymond-Ahner olweb-b

You’ve toured with pretty much every band that a band playing your kind of music would want to tour with. Does it feel like you guys are sort of a band’s band in terms of groups wanting to take you on tour?
We’ve been very fortunate. It’s hard to give a concrete reason as to how or why certain things come down the pipe for us, but it’s awesome. Of course we want to tour with bands like Yob, Bongzilla and The Sword. All the bands we’ve toured with have been really great. We just feel really fortunate that we’ve not had too many, if any, bad tours. Actually, I don’t think we’ve ever had a bad tour. I mean, some tours are bigger than others. But we’re always in good company.

You’ve also run the full spectrum over the years, though, as far as playing huge festivals and tours to playing really small venues in the middle of nowhere. Is there some nuance between the two, in terms of the way you play?
I think inevitably there’s more energy there when the crowd is, like, more crazy or when there’s more people there, but we try to bring the same level of energy for any size crowd we play for, whether it’s at Hellfest, or a hometown show or somewhere in the middle of the country. We play intense music and that kind of makes the energy sort of inevitable; we’re gonna put on an intense show or do our best to do that.

Is it nice to have some fresh material to play with the new album?
For sure. That’s sort of the noticeable thing about these shows leading up to the Bongzilla leg of the tour is that we haven’t actually played a lot of these songs live before. We were playing one song, “The Messenger,” on our last tour with Yob and, I mean, we’ve been rehearsing them for a long time so we feel pretty comfortable.

But it’s nice to get a little work in before we get to the main leg of the tour. We’re playing almost all the songs from the new album, trying to vary it up a little bit each night. It’s nice to play some new songs, but also play some other ones that people are more familiar with too.

Was it part of the plan to take five years in between this record and the last or did it just sort of turn into that?
Yeah, it kind of happened. It wasn’t like we made a conscious effort like “Hey we need to take a really long time off.” There were some personal things at home that we felt like we needed to be around for. When you’re a musician that goes on tour a lot, you’re not at home a lot. So there are things there that sometimes you need to be around for, so that was part of it. Another part of it was we wanted to not burn ourselves out and put some space between tours. But that being said, we really stayed busy during the last four, I guess five years on paper. Imperium Simulacra was recorded last June, so that album’s been done for almost a year now. But with things like release schedules and finalizing artwork, those things take time. And we didn’t want to rush anything. Those things all sort of take time. And before you know it, it’s like, “Whoa, it’s been five years since our last record.”

Have you found it’s built a certain amount of suspense and anticipation around the album?
Yeah, it seems so. People are like, “Wow, the long awaited album.” I’ve seen that here and there. It’s nice that it seems like people are anxiously awaiting it. And we’ve gotten a lot of good feedback so far, from people that have heard it. We never wanted to rush anything, writing-wise. So we did take our time, more than usual. But it’s nice to hear that people are excited to see us play new songs. It’s been a really good, warm reception.

With that extra time, was there a temptation to add more layers to the record, or expand things a little instrument-wise? Or were you pretty tied to the two-man principle?
We’re always of the mindset that when we write something we’re gonna play it in front of people live. So we want to make sure that we can execute everything in the live setting as well as the studio setting. We never want to get too crazy with something that we couldn’t pull off live. But at the same time, we’re always thinking about expanding our sound. We like a lot of different types of music, so it’s nice to bring all of those influences in, but in a way that still maintains the core of our sound. We always want the sound to evolve, but we want it to evolve organically.

There seems to be a sci-fi theme on Imperium Simulacra. What was the inspiration behind the songwriting on this record?
Rafa was really into reading some Philip K. Dick stuff and reading some Ray Kurzweil stuff, about how we’re approaching the possibility of singularity happening, where technology could surpass human advancement. So that was kind of the catalyst for a lot of things we wrote about. But we’re also just really big fans of science fiction in general, so we took a lot ideas from that, but also worked in our own thoughts, and stories that we imagined. And there’s always kind of an undercurrent of chaos and destruction in most of our lyrical content on all of our records [laughs], so I think it fit really nicely with that as well.

Looking at the routing for this tour, it looks like a pretty long one.
I think it might be the longest one we’ve ever done. We’ve done a six-week tour before, but I don’t know that we’ve ever done a seven-week tour and I think this one’s right around seven weeks.

Can that get grueling at a certain point, especially being that there’s only two of you?
We both go into something like this knowing what’s expected and what we’re going to do. By the end, there’s definitely some “I can’t wait to get home” kind of thoughts. But it’s nice to be out of the road. We like touring, we like playing shows, we like playing music in front of people. There’s that aspect of wanting to sleep in your own bed, but it’s also nice to go from town to town, playing music. It can burn you out, where you want to take a little time away from it, maybe. But there’s always a point where we’re ready to go back and slug it out on the road again.

Check out Black Cobra, alongside stoner metal legends Bongzilla, Lo-Pan and Against the Grain March 7, 2016 at Starlite Lounge, located at 1517 21st St. in Sacramento. This show is 21-and-over, and starts at 8 p.m. For more info or to purchase advance tickets, go to Atlanteancollective.queueapp.com.

CHRCH | Submerge |Nicholas Wray

TAKE ME TO CHRCH

Sacramento Doom Band Readies Vinyl Debut

If 2015 was shaping up to be a big year for Sacramento psychedelic doom band Church, it’s turning out to be an even bigger year for Sacramento psychedelic doom band Chrch. The two bands are strikingly similar. They both have the same mononymous members—vocalist Eva, guitarist/vocalist Chris, drummer Matt, guitarist Shann and bassist Ben—and both play the same songs, with the same titles. In fact, the debut Church full-length released earlier this year on cassette by Transylvanian Tapes, Unanswered Hymns, is the same as the debut full-length Chrch record set to be released September 28, 2015, on vinyl by Battleground Records and celebrated by an album release show October 3, 2015, at Starlite Lounge. So what gives?

As it turns out, along with the parts of making a name for yourself in international music circles that rule—having labels put out your records, getting tons of rad press, getting to open for Pentagram, etc.—there are some downsides to having your band thrust into the broader musical zeitgeist. Namely, threats of litigation from bands who find your name a bit too close for comfort.

“It was a month or two ago,” remembers guitarist Chris. “I was asleep and Eva our singer came over, banging on the door. She got let in, came in and woke me up, like, ‘Dude, David from Battleground just called me, the lawyers from The Church just sent us a cease and desist!”

The Church is an Australian band who found limited international success in the ‘80s, but has mainly been relegated to cult status outside of Australia. This, however, didn’t stop The Church from threatening to apparently pursue legal action against Church if they continued to operate as a band under that name. So, Church became Chrch, and the forthcoming release of Unanswered Hymns on vinyl became something of a debut do-over.

Thankfully, the loss of a vowel, a website, and a couple of years worth of band-name recognition hasn’t put a stop to the band’s forward momentum. As Chrch prepares to release their album on vinyl and hit the road for some high-profile shows to close out the year—including the third installment of LA-based Midnight Collective’s annual Midnight Communion, Nov. 13, 2015 in Long Beach—2016 is looking to be an even bigger year for the band, under any name.

CHRCH | Submerge |Nicholas Wray

How did Chrch get started?
We’ve all known each other for years. I used to play in a band, in high school, that used to play shows with our other guitarist all the time. Our bassist was in a different circle of friends that I met through music; I went on tour with my friend’s band that he was also friends with and we were both on tour together. That was probably five years ago. Through him, I met the singer … We’ve all just been around in the scene for awhile. Sacramento’s pretty small; everyone sort of knows everyone.

Did you know, at the outset, what sound you were going for, or did you just sort of start playing and waited to see what would happen?
We all knew that we wanted to play in a heavy band, that we wanted to play doom, but we didn’t really know what direction it was going. There are so many different kinds of doom, so many different sounds in that one genre. Really, we just play what we want to play and it just kind of comes out all similar.

When did you start thinking that maybe this band was gonna be something special?
Kind of from the beginning. Our first show was with Bell Witch, which was just already crazy; we’ve all been fans of that band for awhile. From that point, we got really good shows right off the bat. Then we played with Dispirit right after that; a month later we played with Eyehategod. People started to see our names on flyers, like, “Who the fuck is this?” then checked us out, and we got a really good response, right from the start. Even this month, just as far as playing shows … I mean, we just opened for Pentagram, which is fucking crazy for all of us.

As far as the name, I’m sure it’s not that cool for you to be threatened with a lawsuit. But in a certain sense, it’s kind of badass, like “Whatever, we’ll just take out a letter and soldier on.”
I mean really, there’s a part of it that’s kind of flattering. This band from the ‘80s that is not even relevant any more, that I don’t think anybody gives a fuck about, feels threatened, or something by us. I don’t know why they would send us a cease and desist. They’re like a new-wave band. There’s no similarities at all. But they still think we’re encroaching on their business.

How has the response been to the record so far?
It’s been crazy. It’s been kind of overwhelming. We just kind of recorded it as a demo, but then labels picked it up.

Seems like the record has been getting really good press, like that review on the Roadburn festival website. Has that been just a matter of getting the record in the right hands?
Yeah it’s all been by chance basically. When we got the record deal, we got a press agent along with it, Cat from Southern Cross PR. So she’s helped a lot along the way. But a lot of it has just been somebody coming across our stuff online, on our Bandcamp or something, and liking it. That’s what happened with Roadburn. Walter, the curator of Roadburn, one of his friends, some guy in England reviewed it, and Walter saw the review and was like “Oh shit, I gotta check this out” and then liked it and put it on Roadburn. James from Transylvanian Tapes has been doing a lot too. We’ve been on Australian radio, which could have something to do with why The Church sent us a cease and desist. But he’s gotten us on a lot of blogs that we didn’t even know about. We find something new every day.

It has to be a good feeling, to get noticed worldwide.
Yeah, its cool. None of us had planned on doing this. We’ve gotten a couple of tour offers that we’ve had to turn down, because everything’s moved so fast. It’s definitely overwhelming, but it’s cool. Especially being from Sacramento, a city not necessarily known for its doom scene.

Have you noticed that changing at all, or is it still an uphill battle for your kind of music?
It’s definitely better now than I feel like it’s been in recent years, but it’s always kind of an uphill battle. Sacramento’s hard. But it’s definitely a lot better than it has been in a long time.

Celebrate the release of Chrch’s Unanswered Hymns on vinyl on Saturday, Oct. 3, 2015, at the Starlite Lounge with Acid King and Cura Cochino, as well as interludes provided by Noctooa. Show starts at 8 p.m. and is 21-and-over. For tickets, go to Atlanteancollective.queueapp.com.

CHRCH-M-Submerge-Mag-Cover

The Get Up Kids

The Get Up Kids buckle down for 20th Anniversary tour

Long Goodnight

2015 is a notable year for The Get Up Kids. It marks the 20th anniversary of the band’s 1995 formation in Kansas City, Missouri. It also marks the 10-year anniversary of the band’s 2005 breakup following their ascent to (and subsequent self-propelled descent from) the forefront of the early-’00s emo explosion.

It seems, however, that time has healed all wounds, not just between frontman Matt Pryor and the rest of the Kids—guitarist Jim Suptic, drummer Ryan Pope, bass player Rob Pope and keyboard player James Dewees—but also between the band and their role in shaping what became one of the decade’s most enduring musical styles. The band’s second album, 1999’s Something to Write Home About, is arguably the genre-defining album for what became known, for better or worse, as “emo,” a term borrowed from from the ‘90s hardcore underground and repurposed to describe the earnest, melodic, guitar-driven rock music that bubbled out of the turn-of-the-millennium indie rock scene.

But The Get Up Kids never seemed comfortable in the role of torchbearer. The band followed up Something to Write Home About with a markedly different sound on 2002’s On a Wire, trading in the upbeat, bombastic sound of the band’s first two full-lengths for a more subdued, introspective approach that, both literally and figuratively for many fans, wasn’t exactly something to write home about. The band continued to explore new territory on 2004’s Guilt Show, but were again unable to shake the expectations generated by their past success, going on hiatus shortly following the album’s release before calling it quits officially in early 2005.

In 2008, the band announced a reunion tour to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of Something to Write Home About the following year. That tour in turn spawned an EP and, eventually, a new full-length, 2011’s There Are Rules. The band is now preparing for a spate of both domestic and European tour dates to celebrate the band’s 20th anniversary, including a stop through Sacramento, Sept. 6, 2015, at Ace of Spades. Although The Get Up Kids have worked through their past difficulties, as frontman Matt Pryor explained during a recent interview, these upcoming shows could be the band’s last for awhile.

When you were first starting the band in 1995, did you ever imagine that you guys would make it 20 years?
Oh god no! [Laughs] I don’t think anybody thinks about that.

Was there a certain point, though, where you thought, “Maybe I will be doing this for a long time?”
Well I remember a point on our very first tour; we were originally just gonna go on tour then go back to school. Just take the summer off and go on tour. But we were like, “We can do this.” And then we kind of just kept going from there.

Twenty years later, do you ever wonder what would have happened if you had said screw it and went back to school instead, or do you still think it was the right choice?
Well it’s still my job and I still like it, so you can’t really ask for much more than that. I’m not really qualified to do anything else at this point.

Do you think that it would be possible to do what you’ve done if you were starting now, or have things in the music industry changed as far as what bands can and can’t do?
I think it’s changed, but I don’t think that that’s a bad thing necessarily. I think that there’s a lot more connectivity between bands and their audience now; it’s a lot more like the small scene that we came out of in the ‘90s where everybody knew everybody and there wasn’t a difference between the band and the crowd necessarily, we were all part of the same show. And I think that that’s kind of similar to how it is now, where you do have to have a personal connection with each of your fans and answer questions on Twitter and all that kind of stuff. I don’t know about starting a band now. It seems like, like anything, you have to learn how to adapt to the changing landscape.

Has that changed what you guys do with the band, as far as the format of putting out a record and touring to support that record? It seems like touring has sort of become more of the end itself rather than the means.
Well, I think that that’s evolving, but the players in the game, they don’t treat it like that. Like our booking agent, or promoters of different shows, want there to be some sort of angle. Whether it’s you put out a new record and you’re promoting that, or it’s a reunion tour or you’re doing a full-album show or something like that. We’ve always just kind of toured when we’re available because we have such busy schedules. But I think that that system is still in place, as far as promoters and agents go. I think don’t think people give a shit. People are just excited that you came to their town.

It’s a been a few years since you guys have put out anything new. Does that make it strange to tour? Do you have new stuff, or is it just “here’s our catalog?”
We’re treating this as more of a nostalgia show. We’re playing a lot of old songs; I mean, they’re all old songs. The last time we did a record was 2011, so even the new songs are old now.

Does that make the shows more fun, or less fun, or just the same, but in a different way?
It’s just a different way; it’s a lot less stressful. You don’t really have to make any creative decisions, you just have to pick which songs you want to play.

Was there a certain point where you, as a band, just sort of accepted that a lot of people want to hear the old stuff?
Ahhh … I guess that’s just kind of how it is. There really wasn’t any sort of “aha” moment.

Is that a bummer?
Well, you want to think that your best work is in front of you and not behind you. So in that sense, I wish that more people would give newer stuff a chance. But at the same time, I’m just stoked that they’re there at all. And if going out and playing our first records front to back will then make us enough money that we can then go do something else that’s more artistically rewarding, then I think that’s a fair trade.

You all have other projects going on, so has this become something that you do just for fun, or maybe just whenever the opportunity presents itself?
Well, and we’ve been talking about this for a couple years now, there happens to be break in people’s schedules that coincides with the 20-year thing. So it’s really more of just, it’s our 20th birthday, and we have sort of this window of opportunity before people turn back into a pumpkin, so it’s really more a matter of scheduling than anything else.

It’s also been almost exactly 10 years since the band split up. Did you think, at the time, that it was going to be something you were going to come back to?
Oh no, I quit. I never wanted to play with these shitheads again.

What changed?
We got away from each other for three years. I mean, bands don’t really ever break up. It’s always there somewhere, in the back of your mind. When you’ve been living in a van with four other dudes for 10 years, you should take a break, and I didn’t know how to do that. We didn’t know how to do that. The only thing we knew how to do is call it quits.

So has this sort of reset the dynamic of the band? Given you all a fresh start?
We still fight about the same shit. But now we’re mature enough to say, “OK, you’re pissing me off, I’m gonna go for a walk.” Where in the past, we’d just get drunk and fight, now we just get drunk and say we won’t talk about it any more.

What’s next for the band?
Our window of opportunity is through the end of next summer, and then Jim’s going back to school. We’re gonna go back to Europe again in the spring, and then we’re trying to figure out what we’re gonna do next summer. And then that’ll be it.

Is it sort of a “make hay while the sun’s shining” type thing, where this may be the last chance?
It’s probably one of the last times we’re gonna do a proper tour, I would guess.

Ride that nostalgia train and wish The Get Up Kids a happy 20th birthday at Ace of Spades on Sept. 6, 2015. The Hotelier and Josh Berwanger Band will also perform. Tickets are $19.99 and can be purchased through Aceofspadessac.com.

Torche

Torche’s Jonathan Nuñez on Recording, Touring, Repeating

The Gratifying Circle

Florida melodic metal band Torche are anything but upstarts. The band formed from the ashes of stoner doom band Floor in 2004, releasing their self-titled debut in 2005, followed by their critical and commercial breakthrough Meanderthal in 2008, a number of EPs, splits and singles, and two more full-lengths including their most recent, Restarter, released earlier this year on Relapse Records.

In each case, these releases have been followed by the requisite national and increasingly international touring, which brings them through Sacramento, Aug. 2, 2015, at Harlow’s. But according to bass player Jonathan Nuñez, this repetition isn’t necessarily a grind.

“Its a cycle, and luckily for me, I love recording, I love equipment, I love playing; it’s a gratifying circle as opposed to a vicious circle,” says Nuñez via cell phone from the Fargo, North Dakota stop of band’s current tour with Japanese noise legends Melt-Banana. “I wake up and I want to go do that drive and play that show, or wake up and work on a record. And those two things complement each other, so I’m not complaining. I’m super excited and I want to keep doing both things for as long as I can.”

Torche’s consistent roadwork, paired with the band’s uniquely accessible take on sludgy, riff-driven metal has put Nuñez and his bandmates—vocalist/guitarist Steve Brooks, drummer Rick Smith and guitarist Andrew Elstner—in the enviable position of being able to not just continue to record and tour, but to attract fresh legions of followers with each release cycle. Although Restarter marks, in a certain sense, a return to the band’s heavier roots following 2012’s more upbeat (not to mention suitably titled) Harmonicraft, Nuñez says that one thing the members of Torche have learned over the last decade-plus of playing obscenely loud music, is that there’s certainly more than one way to be “heavy.”

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{Photo by Janette Valentine}

How have the dates with Melt-Banana been so far? That’s a pretty far out pairing.
It’s been great. We’re big fans. We played with them in Tokyo years ago and it was awesome, so it’s been cool to follow up and do a proper tour.

Seems like you keep it pretty open, as far as the kinds of bands that you tour with.
For us, I feel like we have less limitations because we have a pretty broad sound. I mean, it’s all generally loud and heavy, but we try to do our own thing and have fun with it, and that allows us in the end to tour with different bands, sometimes bands like Melt-Banana, who are an influence.

It also seems like Torche has made a point to explore the different ways of being quote-unquote heavy with your music. Is that something that has been a goal?
Yeah. I mean, there were classic rock bands that were heavy, and they weren’t anywhere near using as much distortion or dropped tuning as modern heavy music. Shit, you have the right drummer, and you’re already 40 percent of the way there. And it’s cool when bands switch it up; to me, that’s what makes a record. You have slower songs, faster songs, meaner songs, happy songs, whatever. To me, I prefer records that have different moods, but are all cohesive within a certain sonic umbrella of the band and identity; the actual delivery of every song can vary, but it’s still the band’s sound. And I feel that we have that. We’re not doing 10 or more songs that all sound the same because that would be boring. So with us, I think we have a certain freedom. Even our upbeat happy jams, they’re gonna sound big, they’re gonna sound heavy. It’s all in the delivery, each instrument’s voice and role in the band. It’s what you make of it. Certain people think it has to do with sticking to one genre or one sound, but you can switch it up a bit, and then when we do certain things it becomes way more effective and harder hitting, actually.

Do you feel like your most recent record, Restarter, is the most successful that you have been at varying your sound and making your music more accessible?
I think its varied, like all of our records. But I definitely feel that this record is one of our heaviest releases, if not the heaviest. But there are still songs like “Loose Men” or “Blasted” and even the sci-fi one “Restarter” that are all heavy in their own right, and they’re definitely thick, no less thicker than any other song on the album. We weren’t predetermined, it’s just the way it happens; we write all sorts of stuff. And you know, within 17 songs we might only keep a certain amount because we feel it fits within this cohesive collection of songs for a record. But I feel like … accessible? Maybe? We like hooks. To me it feels like there’s catchy stuff in there and it’s memorable. If it’s not catchy and it doesn’t draw our attention and we don’t think it’s memorable, we tend to put it to the side. But I feel like if anything, Harmonicraft was probably the most accessible out of all of our records as far as what I would consider accessible.

How has the reaction been to Restarter? Has there been any pushback from people who maybe wanted to hear you guys go further with the sound of Harmonicraft on the new record?
With this record, I feel like, we’ve had good luck. We’re hard on ourselves when we’re putting together music that we actually like and want to play, so it feels good when it’s well received, and I feel like this album has had a really great response, not that any of other records didn’t, because I feel like they all have. With Harmonicraft, there was a whole new wave of fresh interest and people were stoked on the band with new people coming to our shows. It was an exciting record and exciting time. And this one is even more so, because it’s the complete opposite of that record. That record was a brighter, biting sounding record. Where this is darker, smoother, way thicker; to me, way heavier. There’s a certain moodier vibe, as opposed to Harmonicraft, which was more of an upbeat, party-time record, at least in my eyes. Where with this one, there’s still the party tracks and the happier songs and all that, but I think the heavier, sonic properties of the record hit way harder. People that like our band were just, “Holy shit, this is massive.” I feel like with any record we release, it’s very liberating to explore different aspects of the sound and keep the band interested and engaged and having fun and it seems to just mirror back with the response we’re getting from people who like our band and are buying records and coming to shows. It feels good. I feel like this record has reached even further and maybe even brought in new people who may have heard the name and never really got around to checking out the band.

Has being on Relapse helped as far as getting some new people to check out your music?
I feel like every label we’ve worked with has offered something new as far as visibility with the band and exposure. So Relapse was kind of a return to a heavier music based label, and they’re super into what they do and they’re genuine music fanatics. And they were telling us they’ve been into it since the first record, so they were really stoked to work with us. It seemed very much the right choice, early on. And now having released the record, I feel like it was the best move we could have made and it feels right. We feel at home, working with those guys.

Is the plan for now just to keep hitting the road super hard?
Yeah, once you release a record you have to go ahead and put in the time. In a way, it’s work, but it’s also fun to enjoy the fruit of your labor, if you will. You put in the time writing songs, recording them, waiting for the artwork to come together and pressing it on vinyl, and waiting for the release date. Then once it’s out, maybe you’ll do a music video, and then once that’s done, then you hit the road. But we have a good flow. It seems like it’s every other month: Hit the road, then go home and have a little break. Keeping that balance keeps it relatively fresh and keeps everybody into it.

Check out Torche live at Harlow’s on Aug. 2 with Wrong and House of Lightning. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets for this 21-and-over show are $13 in advance and can be purchased through Harlows.com.

Old Blood Brings New Beginnings

With a solid lineup in place, Cold Blue Mountain surges forward

In 2009, chief songwriter Will McGahan (guitar) and yours truly (bass) built the beginnings of Cold Blue Mountain in the unique college town of Chico, California with the simple goal to start a heavy band. Joined by friend, funnyman and drummer Daniel Taylor, and guitarist Sesar Sanchez shortly thereafter, the instrumental metal band was soon playing local shows with an expanded sound.

In 2012, Chico’s resident metal vocalist (and Amazing Race contestant) Brandon Squyres convinced the quartet that vocals were necessary and themes were needed for the music, thus rounding out what is today’s version of the group, along with a new savage bassist Adrian Hammons.

With McGahan’s signature core songwriting intact, the group remains a force to be reckoned with on the heavy music circuit. The beauty of Cold Blue Mountain is that they are much more than your typical metal band and evidence of this can be found on their brand new release, Old Blood. Opening track “Seed of Dissent” begins with an emotionally driven piano track by Taylor that leads into sedating guitar strums by McGahan and Sanchez, which abruptly ceases into a classic guitar harmony. The sonic explosion of heaviness quickly ensues and Squyres’ sickening screams plead: “How much of this tyranny can you handle without speaking out against the captors that took hold of our land through force and corruption?” It seems quite apparent that Squyres put significant time into researching atrocities of American history and penned well-thought-out themes that make the new record a cut above.

What you’ll find within is a group of individuals who are casual, but committed to the craft of writing, performing and presenting the best product they can. Just about every member plays in another prominent Chico group (Amarok, Surrogate, Teeph, Touch Fuzzy Get Dizzy), but with Old Blood, they might want to make Cold Blue Mountain a primary focus.

Drummer Daniel Taylor and vocalist Brandon Squyres took time out of their busy schedules to discuss the making of Old Blood, touring and other shenanigans.

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How has the dynamic of the group changed since its early days as a trio?
Daniel Taylor: In some senses it’s a totally different beast, but in a lot of ways the vibe is the same since the beginning. We don’t necessarily play progressive metal or post rock, but the music has stayed true to a hybrid of having melody, riffs and being catchy. Also, we’re no longer an instrumental band and there are three new people in the band that weren’t before. We’re somewhat defined now by having a strong vocalist with experience and presence. Brandon also acts as a coach of the band, conducting all of us to continue to practice songs, making them better or more epic.

What can listeners expect from Old Blood? Did you guys try anything new this time around in the studio?
DT: We spent the better half of a year working on the recording, bits at a time. Before we went into the studio to track anything with Chris Keene [producer], our friend Greg Hopkins recorded all five songs on the album at our practice space. We did pre-production on every song we planned on recording, which gave us a rough copy to analyze and dissect. With our own intuition, we slowed down tempos making them sludgy or heavier, and trimmed down or altered parts of the songs to make them more cohesive. Will went through the songs with a fine-toothed comb and dialed his parts in and layered a lot of guitar tracks. Keene also helped serve as a final judge to whether or not we should include or scrap certain parts in songs.

Can you explain where the themes on Old Blood originated from? When did you decide to do a concept album?
Brandon Squyres: When I first joined the band, song titles were already in place and [I] just made the lyrics work with the existing titles. When we were making the new record, Sesar wanted the theme to be about breaking the will of man. I liked the idea, but took it a little further and wrote a concept story about a group of people that had been broken down who would rise up, take action and get back to who they were. I found inspiration with researching Native Americans and my own genealogy. In order for my Native American relatives to get government benefits, they would have had to give up everything they fought for just to be labeled something else. A lot of my relatives weren’t willing to compromise because they were so proud of who they were, thus weren’t recognized by the U.S. Government as being Indian. I was inspired by their self-preservation and perseverance. The ideas for the album were written with some of these themes in mind, but not about a specific culture or time frame.
My goal was to make the lyrics go with the structures of the songs like the score of a movie. The tone of the music goes along with the stories; like on “New Alliances” there is a calm before the people make attacks towards outlying outposts of a big city.

How was the decision made to sign on with Halo of Flies Records?
BS: I’ve worked with Cory von Bohlen (owner) on releases with my other bands (The Makai, Amarok) and have toured with his band (Protestant). We all like the releases he’s put out and it’s much more enjoyable to work with a friend. We wanted to give Cory the first chance to put out the record because he is a great guy and always puts out a great product.

How has touring altered the perspective of the band? Do you have any upcoming tour plans?
BS: We have plans to do a small weekend tour in Eugene, Portland and Seattle in December, then a full U.S. tour in January and February.
It’s nice when you’ve worked so hard making the music to hit the road and see people’s reaction to your music. You can read or hear reviews of the music, but it’s much more fulfilling seeing people’s reactions to the live shows in person. Touring is also a great bonding experience and makes you a stronger unit. You start to realize how to better work with each other and this transfers directly to the live setting.
DT: When you play in your own town, it feels like more of a hobby, but when you leave town and all you have to do that day is play a show, I tend to have more focus and play better because I want to perform the best I can. We always seem to have great shows in Seattle and Portland, so we figure it’s best to go back to the well.

Prepare for even more face meltage when Cold Blue Mountain plays the Starlite Lounge on Nov. 22, 2014. Check Coldbluemountain.com for more details.

The Elephant, Man

Cage the Elephant’s Matthew Shultz Faces His Fears on Melophobia

Chances are, you’ve heard of Cage the Elephant. After all, that’s not the sort of band name you really forget. And in the five years since the their debut album, conveniently also titled Cage the Elephant, the band has certainly done their best to make their music equally hard to forget, hitting a palatable sweet spot between the trendy ‘70s revival blues of bands like The Black Keys and harder edged Janes Addiction-style psych rock. And it’s been a winning formula so far, forging a string of hits—“Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked,” and “Back Against the Wall,” from their first record; “Shake Me Down,” from 2011’s Thank You Happy Birthday and the latest, “Come a Little Closer,” the first single off their recently released third album Melophobia—and catapulting them from their sleepy college town roots in Bowling Green, Ky., to being bona fide rock ‘n’ roll titans. From Letterman to the MTV Video Music Awards, to arena tours with The Foo Fighters, to video game trailers, to pretty much any rock radio station on the dial: even if you haven’t heard of Cage the Elephant, if you’ve been alive the last five years, you’ve at least heard Cage the Elephant.

For his part, frontman Matthew Shultz seems to be both a reluctant, and an ideal, rock star, demure but confidently cool. In light of the band’s relatively successful first two records, the title of their third effort, Melophobia, the fear of music, would seem to suggest that the band was perhaps feeling the pressure of following success with more success. But speaking by phone from his home in Kentucky ahead of a string of radio shows (including headlining Radio 94.7’s Electric Christmas, Dec. 4 at Sacramento’s Sleep Train Arena), Shultz said the only thing that he and his Cage the Elephant band mates feared when writing and recording the songs on markedly more eclectic Melophobia, was fear itself.

It’s been about a month since Melophobia came out. How has it been, being on the record release cycle for the third time now?
I think that with each record that you release, there are new things that arise. Hopefully as your band evolves, the way you present your music and creative works also evolve. But it’s been really cool to see how we’re three records in and people are still responding. So I guess that’s a good thing, right?

You guys have worked with the same producer, Jay Joyce, for all three of your records now. Is that just a case of “if it’s not broke, why fix it?”
From the very first moment we met Jay, he was one of those kindred spirits and it felt right from the very beginning. He’s never been one to shy away from confrontation, but he’s not a confrontational person. He has an incredible ability to pull things out of you. You know going into the studio that the songs are probably gonna change quite a bit when you’re in there, because if he feels that something isn’t up to par, he’ll tell you, which is one of the beautiful things, one of the things that will drive you crazy. But it always produces good things. He pushes us real hard, but we get along. So we continue to work with him.

The title of the new record, Melophobia, translates to “fear of music.” Was that just a cool word, or is there a deeper meaning to that?
Well for us it’s not so much of a fear of music, as in an actual fear of music as it is a fear of creating music to fabricate, or to create some kind of image of self. Sometimes we build these images of how we like to be perceived and that takes over the creative process rather than just trying to communicate an honest thought or feeling. So it was more like a fear of fear-based writing, writing with all kinds of fears and safeguards to create an image rather than to communicate a thought, if that makes any sense at all.

Was there any pressure, writing these songs or in the studio to try to live up to the success of your first two records?
The pressure didn’t come so much externally as it did internally. With each record you get to learn some things along the way and hope to be able to apply them to the creative process. I think for us it was just that we wanted to become better communicators, definitely didn’t want to be so directly externally influenced as we had been in the past. So there was a little bit of pressure, externally, but most of it came from within ourselves. Just to make a record that we loved and that the people would love. But it wasn’t really dictated by the past success of the band or anything like that.

Was it a fear of sort of wearing your influences on your sleeve?
It wasn’t so much a fear of wearing our influences on our sleeve, as much as it was just being so directly influenced in general. And I think that all goes back to fear-based writing, too, because as we were talking about earlier, as human being we’re working tirelessly to create images of ourselves and project those images, and so that limits your creative works. As human beings we tend to lean towards things that we see have already become socially accepted as cool or artistic or poetic, and so we start writing poetry for poetry’s sake or making art for art’s sake or creating things to sound intellectual, rather than trying to communicate an honest thought or feeling. So it was really a battle against fear-based writing or fear-based creation; trying to get back to the root of songwriting or any creative work for that matter, which is communication, to communicate a thought or a feeling or a freedom or a moment of joy or happiness or whatever it is, but just to communicate freely and honestly. And in doing that, I think you do shed some of those influences, or they’re probably not as noticeable, because you’re just drawing from the things that have woven themselves into your heart rather than catering toward cool.

Do you think that your past successes sort of gave you more of an opportunity to do things the way you wanted this time around, maybe more so than on the first two records?
I think that if we were a band back in the ‘80s or the ‘90s when the music industry was thriving that probably would be the case, but the way things are going you can’t really say that anyone today is completely established, unshakable or unremovable. Because everything moves so fast. For us, it wasn’t a comfortable thing. It took a lot of convincing ourselves just to go for it and to chase after this theory. But I think you have to take chances. I think the greatest accomplishments are made by taking very huge risks.

So what’s next for you guys, what’s the next risk you’ll take?
I don’t know, I hope that we continue to push this forward. For me, it’s learning all along the way, and hopefully becoming better communicators, and understanding more of what that means. Music has always been a communal thing, to share thoughts and feelings. When you speak to people, you have to speak from your heart, but it’s best if you speak their language. If that makes any sense… It’s just trying to learn how to speak to people, to communicate, and to do it honestly.

Don’t be scared… Check out Cage the Elephant as part of Radio 94.7’s Electric Christmas at the Sleep Train Arena on Dec. 4, 2013. Also performing? Glad you asked: Alt-J, Grouplove, Capital Cities, The Features and MS MR. Check out Sleeptrainarena.com for more info and ticketing information.

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Happy, Heartfelt, Heavy

Sacramento’s Incredible Me Take It To the Next Level

Being that it’s still only 2013, calling your debut record Est. 2012 could be construed as hubris, especially from a band with a name like Incredible Me; especially if you’re a band named Incredible Me who signed a record deal before even playing your first show. But after a few listens to the equal parts hard-hitting and soulfully melodic tracks that make up the Sacramento sextet’s first full-length release, and after chatting with charismatic drummer/programmer Jaime Templeton, it becomes clear that Incredible Me don’t have a boastful bone in their bodies. Rather, the band are genuinely aw-shucks happy that their peculiar amalgam of happy, heartfelt and occasionally pretty damn heavy music—set to be unleashed worldwide with the release of Est. 2012 Sept. 17, 2013 through Razor and Tie/Artery Recordings and a pair of nation-crossing tours to go along with it—is allowing them to live the dream of being a full-time, touring rock band.

As one might surmise from the title of their record, Incredible Me was indeed officially formed in 2012. The band members’ collective ties, however, go back through years of friendship and experience in their own various and ill-fated earlier bands. By way of a spotty cell phone connection, Templeton traces Incredible Me’s origins to a casual text message between him and Incredible Me heavy vocalist David Jones. “We’d all been in different bands; my band had moved to Orange County and David, his band had just broken up a few months before. I had never really been in a hardcore band, and I texted David and asked him what he was doing for music,” says Templeton. “I asked him if he wanted to start a band, we thought of a name and started writing lyrics.”

Looking to avoid the pitfalls of their past groups, the members of the nascent Incredible Me were selective about filling out the rest of their lineup. “We wanted to be really serious about it, so we tried to find really good friends that we could have in the band but people who were also really trustworthy people,” says Templeton. After replacing an original guitar player with guitarist Lexie Olsen, the current lineup of Incredible Me—including bassist/vocalist Alex Strobaugh, keyvboardist/vocalist Dillon Jones and guitarist Christian Shroyer—was set, and the band wasted no time writing and demoing more songs. Right away, says Templeton, it was obvious that there was something special about Incredible Me.

“From the beginning, writing our first song and putting it out, it just felt crazy; it was exactly what I wanted. From the moment I started the band with David, things just felt right. It just felt like something would happen, you know?” And something did indeed happen. After demoing with producer Colby Wedgeworth (who also handled the production on Est. 2012), the band attracted the attention of several management companies, on the strength of just two songs, all without having played a live show. After one deal fell through, the band was swooped up by Sacramento-based The Artery Foundation.

“Artery picked us up as management, and we recorded the rest of the album. And then right when the album was done, we got picked up by the record label. And then we thought we’d be waiting for a while, but then we got booked on these two tours. It feels like every month something huge has happened.”

The aforementioned tours, the band’s first forays outside their home state, include a three-week trek in September with a Canadian band, We Butter the Bread with Butter, that stretches from the East Coast back to California, and joining up for the tail end of The Rise Up Tour in October with fellow Artery Foundation bands A Skylit Drive and For All Those Sleeping. “We’re definitely excited to leave. None of us have ever toured,” says Templeton. The tour schedule coincides with the release of Est. 2012 on Sept. 17, 2013 which according to Templeton was originally just supposed to be an EP. But fitting with the band’s accelerated pace, after recording several more songs with producer Wedgeworth for an EP, the band was greenlighted to keep pushing ahead and record a full-fledged album, a process that, in keeping with the band’s equally impressive positive outlook, Templeton describes as “super fun.”

This overwhelmingly upbeat attitude is somewhat belied by the brutal moments that appear on Est. 2012, which features no shortage of screamed vocals, metallic riffs and heavy moments peppered in between melodic passages that recall Panic! at the Disco and other melismatic, vocally driven emo pop bands. But where, exactly, this combination places Incredible Me on the genre spectrum is sort of a stumper, even for the band members themselves. “That’s a hard one for us,” laughs Templeton when asked to classify his band’s music. “If you had to put it together, the whole album, we say post-hardcore, but super pop-y. We do scream, and there’s a few breakdowns on the album, but we try to be pop-y. None of our music is really sad or depressing; we’re not a band who’s dark or eerie. We’re trying to be different, but really we’re just trying to be who we are. We’re bright, happy, fun people.

“We’re all a bunch of clowns,” he continues. “If you were to hang out with my band for a couple of days you would think you’re in the show Jackass. We’re probably the happiest kids around. We try to express that in our music and be super outgoing. We don’t want to be like most bands, where you’re down; all the bands who are like hardcore…” says Templeton in a way that makes it clear that both he, and his bandmates have heard their fair share of criticism for venturing down what is a somewhat well-worn path in the current music landscape. “…Any band who sings and screams is gonna get that. You’ll get haters on YouTube ‘Oh just another generic band.’” But he’s eager for those who may doubt the band’s sincerity—and there are definitely a few—to hear Est. 2012, and see for themselves the band’s sincerity live on one of their upcoming tours.

Also set to coincide with the release of Est. 2012, the band is currently at work on their first music video, the plotline of which Templeton was apparently not at liberty to discuss. “I can say the video is going to be amazing, and crazy,” was all he was willing to disclose. “It’s going to be basically my band in a nutshell. We’re all really crazy people, and we want to express it as much as we can. The video is gonna show us going all out, doing what we do.”

Doing what they do has already gained a loyal following in and around their hometown of Sacramento, but Templeton and the rest of the Incredible Me crew are looking forward to playing for some new faces on tour, road testing a live show that Templeton describes as “energetic. We want to interact with the crowd.” Templeton in particular is known for his own trademark brand of “interaction” with crowds at Incredible Me shows. “I play every show in my underwear,” he admits. “We just try to be ourselves.” And when you’re incredible, being yourself is really all it takes.

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ART SHOW & AESOP ROCK AT SAC STATE TONIGHT!

Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011 is a great day to be hanging out on the campus of Sacramento State, whether you’re a student or not. First, check out the closing reception for the art show CTRL/DELETE: Paintings by Digital Natives, featuring recent work by James Angello, David Mohr and Daniel Taylor at Witt Gallery (located in Kadema Hall) from 6 to 8 p.m. Mohr, who is in the local band FAVORS, recently told Submerge that he and Angello thought up the idea for the show. “We are both interested in what it means to paint and draw in a world dominated by computer technology, so we decided to put together a show that would discuss that concept,” he said. They were familiar with Taylor’s work (“We have all had art classes together,” Mohr said–the three are now seniors at Sacramento State), so they reached out to him and it became a three-person show. “All of our work is very different,” Mohr elaborated. “My work mostly focuses on abstract geometric forms, but I try to use familihttps://submergemag.com/wp-admin/media-upload.php?post_id=4726&type=image&TB_iframe=1ar shapes to reflect on the experiences and methods of interaction shared between humans and evolving electronic technologies.” If you miss the reception on Nov. 3 you’ll have to rush to see the work, as it is only viewable until Friday, Nov. 4, 2011.

After you check out the art show on campus, head over the Union Ballroom and check out one of the hottest hip-hop shows all year, featuring Aesop Rock, Rob Sonic and DJ Big Wiz. The concert also features special opening guests Jel and Who Cares. Show starts at 7:30 p.m., is $15 for students and $20 for general public.