Devoutly Dynamic
TBD Festival, West Sacramento, Oct. 4, 2014: Even though the sun went down hours ago, warm dust still erupts into the air like the billion microscopic remnants of an obliterated world. My mind is already reeling from the gauntlet of great acts I’ve been shuttling back and forth to glimpse from one patch of riverfront land to the next; brilliant, virtuosic performances seem to flare out on all sides from different vistas, pushing the inter-stage wanderer towards a kind of polyphonic high. The sound, the flashes of light, the smell of incredible food and the miasmatic, billowing dust after a full day of sun have started to take their toll.
Determined yet tired, I trek towards the far side of the concert area, into the volume and light, to secure bodyspace for the concluding main stage performance of the evening. But somewhere around the halfway point, I pause, struck by a bluish ethereal glow and the thrum of brooding synth and bass accompanied by emotive, full-bodied vocals. I am caught off guard; the sound beckons, the conflicted groove is perfectly in sync with my mental state; it zeroes in on me with an intensity that isolates instead of pummeling the senses. I gaze up at the stage, and enter the realm of Sister Crayon.
Shine Coffee, Sacramento, July 11 2015: I’m sitting across from Terra Lopez and Dani Fernandez, the creative force known collectively as Sister Crayon. The two are remarkably down-to-earth and open, a fact which their otherworldly, often mercurial music belies. Never before has their sound been honed so sharp as on their newest release, Devoted, released early last month. Pared down from a four-piece to their current duo, the project has plunged ahead with the carefully crafted sonic workings of Fernandez and the intensely personal lyrical performances of Lopez. Both are keen to show the specific sources from which their creative output arises, whether it be turbulent personal relationships or a diverse array of contemporary artists and budding music genres. The night before our meeting, the two even showcased some of their favorite material at Dive Bar as a DJ set, and are gearing up for a live show at Harlow’s in early August—their first locally since the release of Devoted.
Our caffeine-fueled discussion, recorded here, skirts topics ranging from spirituality, love and hate and the risks of creativity. Enjoy!
How did the DJ set last night go? What sort of material did you select?
Terra Lopez: Last night was a lot of fun. Good crowd, good energy. It’s always fun coming back to our hometown. We just like to play songs that we like really loud [laughs]. For our set we selected a lot of footwork, a lot of juke stuff from Chicago, deep house, a lot of drum/bass-heavy stuff that’s really influenced our sound and resonated with us. A lot of beat-driven songs, a lot of bassline.
How was the process in crafting the production on Devoted?
Dani Fernandez: We wanted to focus more on a beat-heavy sound and showcase the vocals, and we’ve never really done that on our last albums. There were so many other things going on before, and we wanted to strip that away.
TL: We wanted to make a sound that was undeniable, with how I was feeling lyrically, we wanted that to take precedence along with the beats, and not have anything crowd it—almost a minimalist approach the whole time.
What was the first creative step taken with that album?
TL: We demoed a lot in Sacramento and in Oakland, [Fernandez] lived here at the time. And we would just send each other ideas back and forth. For the first time, we got on a plane with 20 unfinished tracks—we had never gone into a studio with unfinished ideas, so it was really scary. We both didn’t know what to expect.
DF: This was the first time we had done a record on our own.
TL: Yeah, it was nerve-wracking. We got to Florida to work with our producer Wes Jones in St. Augustine and we spent two weeks there in this tiny little town. We didn’t know anyone except for Wes, and we slept and lived at the studio for two weeks—it was a very isolating experience. We were basically in our heads for two straight weeks, and it drove us a little crazy … But it was awesome. It was incredible to be so isolated, it felt like an alternate world that we were in.
DF: Almost all of it just spilled out in those two weeks, very easily. There was never really any arguing.
TL: It was pretty much a dream to be able to work that way. To have that freedom. And then literally on the last day, on our way to the airport, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez [of The Mars Volta] wrote me and asked if he could help produce the record.
I understand Omar had been a fan of your project before he stepped up to produce?
TL: We were lucky enough to go on tour with one of his projects in 2013, and we toured with them extensively and from that tour, we built a friendship with him and his band and so they really liked what we were doing, they would watch us every night, and hang out with us. You know, he’s a pretty reclusive guy, so the fact that he even wanted anything to do with us was a big deal.
DF: We knew that he liked us when he invited us to the movies one night on tour. He doesn’t do that regularly. He likes to stay to himself on tour, not really be on the scene with everybody, but he was totally talkative, wanted to get to know us, loved what we were doing, loved the sound. And you could tell that he was really curious as to what we were setting out to do. It was really cool.
So overall, it was a pretty tension-free recording process?
TL: Yeah, we were very grateful to have had the team that we had, because it was such an organic process. We would spend eight-nine hours working with Wes on the songs, and if we needed a break, we’d go jump in the ocean, and then come back and work until two, three or four in the morning, and then start over the next day—and it was like that for two weeks.
DF: Now I get why artists tend to record in secluded areas. They’re always holed up near a beach, or at a cabin in the woods somewhere. It makes you really focus and hone in on your music. It’s probably going to be the way we record from now on.
I understand you featured “Ride or Die” as a video to coincide with the recent SCOTUS decision?
TL: We did. We had actually shot it a week prior, and it wasn’t a planned thing. I had woken up that morning and seen the Supreme Court’s ruling and was so inspired. So I reached out to the director and was like, “If there is any way that we could release that video today, it would be so fitting.” The song is a celebration of love; the video definitely is. We really just wanted to celebrate the day. Dani and I had never really put ourselves out there with our orientation; it’s a known thing among people who ask us, we’re very open, but we had never really put it out there in a video. Everyone was on board, so we just released it. It was a beautiful day, just a gorgeous day, a really proud moment. To release something in correlation with it meant a lot to us. We were finally able to put the message of our music forward in our own subtle way.
Along with these feelings of a triumph of love over hate, there’s also been a good deal of ambivalence towards the concept of love in your work …
TL: It’s incredible that you picked up on that, because I’ve done a few interviews where that kind of goes over their heads. For me, I was in a place when I wrote that, when I was starting to write the lyrics for these songs, I was heartbroken. I’d been in a five-year relationship, had my heart broken, and I’d never experienced a loss like that before. A loss of love, but also a loss of self-motivation—it was the first time it had ever happened to me, and I really clung to this record with Dani, in order to get out of bed most days back then. So for me, I wasn’t singing about that love loss, necessarily, I just didn’t believe in love at all. During those months when we were writing, I really didn’t, and I was questioning it, dissecting it. I had always believed in love, and I’ve always wanted to, but I was definitely in a place where I was trying to figure out if I still did. And so the whole album was basically a way—we called it Devoted because it was our way of practicing devotion as a way to restore our faith in it. And so there’s definitely moments, it’s kind of like a roller coaster where I’m clinging to that belief that it’s still there, even though I don’t feel it.
It seems like many of your releases have been influenced by particular relationships?
TL: I think that with Bellow and Cynic I was very vague in my language. Especially on Bellow … we were so young and didn’t think anyone would even hear that album, so we made it for ourselves. As a songwriter, I was very, very vague. I would speak about people in metaphors—you would never know what the hell I was singing about. And Cynic was very much straightforwardly about my mother and my father and my childhood, but I still was a little vague about expressing myself. When the time came for Devoted, there was no way around it. I didn’t have the time or the energy to make metaphors, I had to express exactly what I felt.
Do you think it’s necessary to suffer for art?
TL: I’ve never been able to write when I’m happy, and I admire those who can, but I’ve never been able to. I don’t necessarily need to be in a dark place, but I do need to contemplate. I dwell a lot.
What’s next for Sister Crayon? What should we expect at Harlows on Aug. 1, 2015?
TL: We’re working on two videos and some remixes; a lot of content coming out in the summer and in the fall. As for Harlow’s, expect a brand new set of songs that we’ve never played here. Just an entirely new experience, new merchandise and new feelings We’re coming out with a completely different kind of performance.
Give Dani and Terra a warm welcome home to Sacramento! Sister Crayon will play Harlow’s on Aug. 1 with DLRN and Stevie Nader. Doors open at 9:30 p.m. Tickets for this 21-and-over show can be purchased in advance for $12 at Harlows.com.
Cedric Bixler-Zavala has more inspiration than ever for his new project, ZAVALAZ
Known for his eccentric on-stage behavior, vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala has spent the last two decades somersaulting across stages all over the world, swinging his microphone around like it was some sort a circus act before diving into crowds of fans willing to catch him.
In case you need a crash course: Bixler-Zavala first became known as part of influential post-hardcore band At the Drive-In and more recently with prog-rockers The Mars Volta. Quite simply put, he is post-rock royalty, though in Bixler-Zavala’s newest project, ZAVALAZ (which will tour through Sacramento and hit Ace of Spades on Saturday, June 22, 2013), you can expect a much mellower performer to take the stage. Maybe it’s the fact that he’ll have a guitar strapped on, which rarely happened even way back in his ATDI days, maybe it’s because he just had twin sons. Either way, Bixler-Zavala made it very apparent in his recent interview with Submerge that he is happy with where he’s at in life and with where this band’s new softer, more “sparse” material is heading.
“Whether it be married life or whether it be having twins, maybe a little bit of both, it just gave me more confidence,” he said of the new stripped down songs. “I started writing more acoustic material and my wife would just constantly say, ‘You need to do that, I love when you do that, it’s just you and your voice and a guitar.’ I hadn’t really picked up the guitar for 10, 15 years maybe, and I just kept getting these votes of confidence from my wife.”
Eventually Bixler-Zavala started adding drums, bass and more and more layers and with them, more permanent members into the band. The lineup currently consists of fellow Mars Volta bandmate Juan Alderete de la Peña on bass/vocals, Dan Elkan (of Nevada City’s indie band Them Hills) on guitar/vocals, Greg Rogove on drums/vocals with Bixler-Zavala on guitar/lead vocals. “Everyone sort of takes the hit together to start from scratch and make a band,” he said. “It’s been a really beautiful process. It’s a great and amazing growing pain.”
In the following interview, Bixler-Zavala discusses with Submerge putting together a new band with a new sound, how he asked the universe for twins and got them and how having those twins will affect his creative output for the rest of his life.
When it came time to take your solo work and form a band, was it easy to piece together the different individuals? Is this the group of guys you had in mind or did it just sort of fall into place this way?
Kind of half and half, you know? Some of the people that played on the record couldn’t really commit because some people had kids, some people had other bands. The core of the group ended up being Greg, Juan and then Dan, who I met when Hella opened up for this Mars Volta tour we did a long time ago.
Yeah I wanted to ask about Dan, because he is in a really great band from the greater Sacramento area called Them Hills. So you first met him back in the Hella days when Dan was playing with that group?
Yeah and I kept in touch sort of sporadically here and there. He was down to take the hit and be a member of the band. One of the main important things was that everyone that was playing on it was really chiming in artistically and had such amazing things to say songwriting-wise. I loved taking the criticism, and I loved taking the direction and it was just wonderful. It’s been this amazing experience to get to learn from these people, because in this band I play guitar predominantly.
Which is still kind of a new thing for you, right?
Yeah, I mean I always did it behind the scenes but never for more than a couple of songs, you know? I’m trying to understand what even tuning is [laughs]. My approach is so make-it-up-as-you-go-along, I think that’s what the guys like. I come in the other day and I’m just like, “I discovered a thing called a capo.”
Details are very sparse about ZAVALAZ and as of now the public hasn’t heard any songs. There’s this sort of shroud of mystery surrounding the band. What can you tell me about the new music? How would you describe the sound?
Well, there was this guy that always used to open up for Mars Volta shows who is a predominant fixture at Low End Theory, a popular electronic thing over here. He has this amazing taste in late ‘60s and ‘70s sort of AM and psychedelia stuff. Mellow, mellow stuff. I’ve always liked stuff like that. Like when I listen to Roky Erickson, I love his rock stuff, but I love more of the ballad stuff. Anytime I’ve played a show with any of the other bands I’ve played in, what I listen to afterwards is lots of super corny, fucking bittersweet ballads. I love that shit. So that’s just what I would start writing…
They are just love songs that I made for my wife. I’m at a point in my life where it’s probably the biggest revolution I could ever do. Especially because I’m just known for one thing. It’s acoustic-based stuff, some of it is rock, but it’s got a very soft touch. It’s just kind of me going back in time and taking cues from my parents’ music and remembering that I actually did love that stuff.
It sounds like this style of music has always been in you, but it’s just getting pulled out more now for one reason or another. That’s got to feel fresh, right?
Yeah, it does. It’s nice to sing songs that are really sparse, open and very direct in the message and to sort of exercise my personal taste in I guess what you’d call Americana. I’m sure a bunch of Americana snobs would be like, “This is not that” [laughs].
How have the songs that started as a solo project changed since bringing in the other guys? It sounds like you’re really open to their influence on the songs?
Yeah, I just started implementing a lot of what their input was. Just sort of getting it down to the core of the song and making an entire album that is really song-based. I’ve spent 10 years being known as the guy that’s part of a band that does 30-minute songs. After 10 years, that gets a little old.
Are the majority of the songs on the ZAVALAZ album on the shorter side?
Four minutes and under.
I’ve seen you perform live many times and one thing I always loved was your crazy stage antics. With this new project you’ll have a guitar strapped on. Can people expect a more mellow Cedric on stage?
I think there will be plenty of other frontmen that can do that and that have borrowed from me, because I borrowed from a lot of other frontmen. They can take it and run. I’ve done it for years. That’s not to say I’m not going to have moments when I put my guitar down and dance still. But right now I really want to embrace playing and get all my mistakes out.
Congratulations on your recent twin baby boys, by the way! Do you think having kids has changed your creative drive? How do you see it affecting your music from here on out?
I think I’ll have more to choose from song-wise. They were born premature. They came out C-section. The nurse in the intensive unit said one of the best things you can do, which is funny because I was naturally doing it already, is sing to your kids. I still sing to them to this day. I record everything because I just love to make stuff up on the spot. It’s made me really identify capturing the moment and writing it down. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t get really overcome with emotions just being around them. They just bring out this indescribable feeling inside me. They really respond to singing. One of them had to come home earlier than the other, and the other wasn’t doing really well in the hospital, so I went in the middle of the night and sang to him for a long time. The next day he came home. Then the next day, my Dad sent me an article from some medical magazine saying live music and singing to your kids is really good for their heart and their stress level. I was like, “Yeah, you don’t got to tell me.” Then Juan sent me the same article being like, “Keep singing to them!”
That’s an amazing story!
They just stare at me, you know? If they’re really fussy it calms them down a lot to sing. They are actually kind of Grateful Dead fans. Anytime I play “China Doll” or anything from American Beauty they get really calm. The most rambunctious they get is when I listen to any kind of Rolling Stones. That’s when they would kick the most before they were born. We just knew they’d love rock n’ roll. One of them just screamed the other day, this intense loud bald-eagle-type-scream, and I thought like, “Did I hurt him somehow?” I just looked at him, and he had this smile on his face, like, “Oh! I can do that?”
It sounds like you have a couple little lead singers on your hands?
They have their little attitude already. Anytime they cry or get fussy I just laugh and think about how wonderful it is. Our story goes really, really deep with wanting to have kids. Long story short, you put something in the universe, you ask for it and you get it back. I did that in a song and I played the song for my wife. She cried, and then the next day we conceived. We went on this really late honeymoon, and she was really sick and it was really hard for her. Then the next day we come back from the honeymoon, she goes to the doctor, I had to go to rehearsal. She calls me and is like, “The fucking song worked.” I realized that I had put in a phrase asking for twins in this metaphorical way and she was just like, “The fucking song worked!” I just laughed. I laughed because it’s what I asked for from the universe. Not one day goes by where I feel stressed by them because it’s such a beautiful, amazing thing.
Where do you see ZAVALAZ one year from now? What’s your overall vision for this project?
I just really want to be a fully functional band and get back in the saddle, to sort of show this other aspect. I’ve always had people ask me why this band broke up, or why that band broke up. It’s always been the simplest answer: that I would never want my tombstone to be just one color. So now I really have this whole new sort of gust of wind to show the other color that I think people have sparsely seen, but now it’s really going to be a full color. I see the band really going for it and sort of embracing how uncool pop music can be in a certain kind of acoustic and softer setting.
Don’t miss Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s new band, ZAVALAZ, when they hit Ace of Spades in downtown Sacramento on Saturday, June 22, 2013. Tickets are available for $15 at Aceofspadessac.com or at Dimple Records, The Beat and Armadillo Music. Doors open at 8 p.m. and all ages are welcome.
From local bands and beyond, here are Submerge’s favorite albums of 2012, in tweet-friendly format. These albums are certified #awesome!
20) Jessica Pratt
s/t
(Birth Records)
Pratt’s debut of home-recorded, time-capsule folk stood as a brilliant reminder of the beauty in lo-fi love letters.
19) Wife & Son
This That and the Other
(self-released)
A brilliant indie-pop record from one of our favorite new local bands. The suburbs of Sacramento have never sounded so good!
18) Marina and the Diamonds
Electra Heart
(679 Recordings)
Pop anthems with heart and humor for disenfranchised prom queens and introspective home-wreckers.
17) The Ross Hammond Quartet
Adored
(Big Weezus Music)
Jazz requires inspiration. The Ross Hammond Quartet’s Adored comes from a budding father’s lullabies fed through free jazz spontaneity.
16) Beach House
Bloom
(Sub Pop)
Called a “dream pop duo,” Beach House records a calming and eerie sound unique to much of the music today.
15) Metz
s/t
(Sub Pop)
Sporadic screaming bursts, fuzzy bass and plenty guitar chaos, this album has ears both assaulted and surrendering over and over.
14) Thee Oh Sees
Putrifiers II
(In the Red)
Veteran psych-punk loonies leapt out of the garage and into national consciousness with their liveliest cuts of fuzzy fun.
13) Action Bronson and Party Supplies
Blue Chips
(mix tape)
Skillful rapping mixed with humor and bravado over a range of stellar production, and it’s a wrap. It’s a fun album with rewards for mindful ears.
12) Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
Here
(Rough Trade)
The perfect band of misfits surpasses all expectations with their second studio album full of charismatic, folk-y love songs and smiles.
11) Fine Steps
Boy’s Co.
(self-released)
Fine Step’s Boy’s Co. should be on Slumberland. On Captured Tracks. Hell, even Burger. Two self-presses later, Fine Steps gets the glory.
10) Witchcraft
Legend
(Nuclear Blast)
Pure, heavy riff alchemy. Progressive, yet retro. Metal shouldn’t sound this groovy, but we’re glad it does.
9) Japandroids
Celebration Rock
(Polyvinyl Record Co.)
A fitting album title, indeed. Anthemic as all hell, this is a singalong, raise your glass type punk rock record.
8 ) St. Lucia
s/t
(Columbia)
Catchy, dreamy electro-pop fit for a night club or sweaty hipster venue. Leader Jean-Philip Grobler is a pop-music force to be reckoned with.
7) The Sword
Apocryphon
(Razor & Tie)
The lords of stoner rock reach new heights on a space-y trip down the heavy metal rabbit hole.
6) The Mars Volta
Noctourniquet
(Warner Bros.)
Nearly three years in the making, Noctourniquet was worth the wait. Sounds exactly like a Volta record should, and that’s why we love it.
5) C-Plus & Lee Bannon
Young Champions
(self-released)
Two of Sacramento’s finest team up for an epic release. No features, just Plus’ smooth flows over Bannon’s undeniably sick beats. Go cop it!
4) Kendrick Lamar
Good Kid M.A.A.D. City
(Aftermath/Interscope)
Believe the hype. A brave debut, from a bright mind who showed that you can create outside the box and succeed. Truly masterful in every respect.
3) Tame Impala
Lonerism
(Modular)
Lonerism is damn near perfect. It’s a psych album with pop melodies; heavy guitars, intricate drumming, humming keys and an irresistible sonic sheen.
2) Death Grips
The Money Store
(Epic)
Weird, angry, non-imitable experimental hip-hop from Sacramento. Is it rap? Is it punk? What the fuck is it? Don’t ask, turn it up!
1) Solos
Beast of Both Worlds
(Joyful Noise)
The sonic symbiosis of this Aaron Ross/Spencer Seim collaboration explored bold and bizarre realms. Sleeper LP of the year.
Thomas Pridgen Makes Honest Sounds for Anyone and Everyone With The Memorials
The most stereotypical complaint of any musicians attempting to form a band is that there just aren’t enough drummers in the world. Percussion is the heartbeat, that aggressive slap of stick to skin or steel, an intensity that can’t be mimicked by any other instrument. So why the lack of drummers when they add so much? There’s something so universally understood, yet confusing, about drums; but not for people like Thomas Pridgen, who started playing early on, not even as a conscious decision.
“My grandmother was a piano player in the church,” explained Pridgen. “Where I grew up, all the drummers used to switch off. It was kind of like playing basketball in the hood; everybody did it, so I had no choice but to.”
Pridgen quickly separated himself as a prodigious talent. Not only did he win The Guitar Center drum-off at age 9, and a year later become the youngest recipient of a Zildjian endorsement, but he also was given a full scholarship to the esteemed Berklee School of Music, at age 15.
“Yeah, I was a little badass,” said Pridgen with a laugh.
Now only 26, he’s played with musicians like Dennis Chambers and Walfredo Reyes, Jr., and enjoyed a stint with the highly regarded, extraordinarily progressive force known as The Mars Volta.
At one point while working as a musical director for a childhood friend, Pridgen received a somewhat out-of-the-blue invitation from prog-rock luminary Omar Rodriguez Lopez to hang out on Halloween. In the middle of a few drinks, Lopez casually mentioned he wanted Pridgen to join their set for the night, which happened to be opening for Red Hot Chili Peppers to an audience of roughly 20,000 people.
That was essentially the beginning of Pridgen’s time with The Mars Volta, during which he found a home for his somewhat aurally chaotic style that he thought was outside of most listeners’ realms of tolerance. In fact, they not only understood it, but liked it.
“Sometimes as musicians you kind of feel like stuff you’re doing is over people’s heads, and sometimes when the normal person can like what you’re doing, and actually gravitate toward it, it’s kind of big,” Pridgen said. “I learned I can play all my crazy shit and be as crazy as I want, and it wasn’t far from normal. It wasn’t too abstract that people didn’t get it.”
In December 2009, Pridgen decided to break from Volta and focus on his own creation, something to fill a certain void he felt existed in the current state of rock music. Something that’s purely about sound, regardless of style or ethnicity.
“It’s kind of like if you’re a gangster rapper and you’re from the suburbs then nobody respects you, so in this [rock music], nobody cares where you’re from; but for us, we’re from the hood, from the ghetto, especially when I’m living in Oakland, where it’s predominately black and they’re not playing rock. It’s predominately hip-hop and R&B,” Pridgen said. “I could walk anywhere in my type of black neighborhood and they would not recognize me, but then when I come to more eclectic neighborhoods, they’re like ‘you’re the guy from The Mars Volta!’”
It can be hard to maintain a balance of equally representing your individual style and self with music, especially if the two haven’t historically gone hand-in-hand, but it’s something that Pridgen strives for, and feels like people can get behind.
“For me it’s kind of like a fine line, of trying to have people that respect you and know you’re from a place that’s predominately urban or whatever, and to do a music that most people of your color aren’t doing,” Pridgen said. “That’s why I feel like that voice is missing; Fishbone and Bad Brains, they’re super older than us, there aren’t too many young bands that come from where we come from.”
Pridgen wanted to assemble a band that didn’t have to build an image around the sound, but more just played honestly what they felt regardless of suit or trends.
“We don’t go play rock music and dress up like we’re in the ‘80s. We go and look just like we look when I walk in the hood, so for people my color to see that, it’s inspiring,” Pridgen said. “It’s inspiring to me to see other people–even if they’re not black–just to see people doing their kind of music with 100 percent passion,” Pridgen said.
From all this came the birth of his newest project, The Memorials.
The drums are the meat of The Memorials, with Pridgen’s impressively clean and rapid percussive builds that make for a thick base for their songs, melted over by Nick Brewer’s hammered/licked and sustained electric-guitar noises, drizzled with a glaze of Viveca Hawkin’s smooth, mellow vocals. Stacked and peppered with cameo contributions from various talented instrumentalists (Uriah Duffy on bass, Michael Aaberg on keys), it makes for a unique plate that at one point Pridgen might have questioned if people could even stomach, but now realizes they may even crave. “I never thought it would fail, but I never thought it would be this big so fast,” Pridgen said.
In the history of Pridgen’s impressively long resume of collaborating with other talent, this is the first time he’s actually the appointed head of a group. While it might sound like more pressure, it’s around the same level of obligation, just more hands-on in the entire process of a band’s duties.
“The only difference is I’m there from ground one–all the mixing and mastering, all the headaches–I’m getting the brunt of it,” Pridgen said. “It’s just a lot more on my shoulders, but it’s actually more fun.”
Not even a year old, The Memorials will be releasing their first record on Nov. 23, 2010, according to Pridgen. Coincidentally, the date is also his birthday. However, they’re more excited to go test them out in front of crowds.
“We made all these songs so we could go play them live,” Pridgen said. The core focus of The Memorials is to be able to play as many live shows as possible, to offer their eclectic creation to whomever wants to listen, and to be reciprocated with the experience of fine-tuning that very sound. Even though the group is now a solid trio, they remain open to guests and new ideas.
“I’m totally open to experiment, because I don’t want to make the same kind of records over and over again,” Pridgen said.
No matter who comes or goes, there will of course, always be drums.
in 140 characters or less
20. The XX
XX (XL)
One of the best man and woman duets of all time. Their voices mesh together like delicious PB+J. Songs to groove or snooze to.
19. Consider the Thief
Signs and Wonders (Self-released)
Locally bred, brilliantly produced post-rock album that plays well in its entirety. Healthy dose of clever programming. Great vocal work.
18. Tides of Man
Empire Theory (Rise)
Soaring vocals, layers of swirling guitar riffs, solid rhythms. Almost enough to make Claudio Sanchez of Coheed and Cambria jealous.
17. Japandroids
Post-Nothing (Unfamiliar)
“Garage rock” is apparently what happens when production savvy meets a couple of punk kids intent on loosening up your bowels. A guitar tone dream date.
16. Liturgy
Renihilation (20 Buck Spin)
Black metal in its purest form, but spiritual ecstasy rises forth from its buzzing guitars, crashing cymbals and despondent growls.
15. A-trak
Infinity (Thrive)
A relentless hour of cheap thrills and kick/snare/hollas from one of Montreal’s most prodigious mashers.
14. Bright Light Fever
Meat Market EP (Self-released)
Five delicious tracks of foot tapping, head nodding, energetic rock brewed in Sacramento. Sing along, dance and have fun. RIP BLF.
13. Real Estate
Real Estate (Woodsist)
Clouds never quite break for this sunny-day guitar narrative; summer with a caveat, in a Jersey basement.
12. Dredg
The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion (Ohlone)
Follow Dredg as they take you on an exuberant journey through 18 tracks of melt your face bliss blended like your favorite film score.
11. Thrice
Beggars (Vagrant)
A raw, stripped down Thrice go back to the basics: guitars, bass, drums, keys, vocals. Groovy, almost bluesy at times. Refreshing offering.
10. Ganglians
Monster Head Room (Woodsist)
Grooving surf-rock riffs and supple vocal harmonies, it’s the record that encompassed Midtown life.
09. Passion Pit
Manners (Columbia/DMZ)
A happy indie electronic album with some of the most high pitch singing out there this year. Yet still makes you want to turn it up to 11.
08. Sunn O)))
Monoliths and Dimensions (Southern Lord)
Manages to segue from immense drone riffs to jazz-like passages without a stutter. 4 songs, almost 60 minutes, 4,000 tons of despair.
07. John Mayer
Battle Studies (Sony)
He took a step away from the blues-driven Continuum, but perfected the pop-rock song like it hasn’t been done since Fleetwood Mac in the ’70s.
06. Dan Deacon
Bromst (Carpark)
Deacon preaches the way forward with volcanic drums and fuzzy, twisted melodies—electronic music in its grandest, most sincere composition.
05. San Kazakgascar
Idle Ships (Lather)
A psych trip led by a snake charmer through a hipster bazaar in search of your hash dealer.
04. The Mars Volta
Octahedron (Warner Brothers)
RodrÃÂguez-López and Bixler-Zavala prove once again that they are the masters of creating weird, yet somehow easy listening albums.
03. Tegan and Sara
Sainthood (Sire)
The Canadian twins continue to bleed their romantic struggles into indie rock jams with substance, dueling vocals and sing-along melodies.
02. Baroness
Blue Record (Relapse)
Boulder-heavy but like an opera in its composition. A rare album that demands, through brute force, that it be listened to in its entirety.
01. Phoenix
Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (V2)
Sublimely perfect and addictive gooey indie pop goodness. 2009’s album most likely to make people at your party say, “That’s my song!”
