Into the Woods

Feels Like Home #42: Laura Gibson

Thu, 02 Feb 12 21:04:39 -0800

Dusk came on the heels of noon and the post-holiday glow of Laura Gibson’s living room is a warming counterpoint. A neat cage of instruments line the red walls: those keyboarded and gourded and stringed. Paper chains wrap the Christmas tree like a winding mountain road. Strings of lights twinkle. It’s a document of the quaint and gentle customs of the artist, her partner, and his teenage daughter; a gathering place for their Christmas of handmade paper chains.

We don’t spend much time in here– just long enough to make tea and get organized. We’re headed outside. On to the backyard, where Gibson’s sky blue Shasta trailer is parked.

The low sky arrives with an insignificant but persistent mist, and a tire swing hangs in the center of the yard. A tangle of bikes and plywood and barrels line the house. The little blue trailer sits lengthwise beside the fence.

Laura and two bandmates file inside, bringing with them guitar, floor tom, and tambourine. The trailer isn’t much shelter in weather like this, but they’ll warm their hands between takes with a plug-in heater.

“La Grande” is the song, from Gibson’s new album of the same name. It’s a tune for dirtfoots and campfire outlaws. For a hen in the oven and feathers in the yard; hounds under the porch, shotgun behind the door. Her voice is a rocking chair in a tin can, her lyrics, a bit of pioneer romanticism harkening to the song’s titular Eastern Oregon city of La Grande, an old gold rush-era travelers’ hub settled for its agricultural potential and proximity to natural resource, like many cities and towns of Western America. If you wanted to name it quickly, “La Grande” is music of place.

And where Laura’s musical places have in the past held mirrors to a rainy, Pacific Northwest environment, her newest crop of songs seem less of the air and more of the land– favoring a full-band experience over longer stretches of lonesome voice and guitar, or the unidentifiable atmospheric scrapes and clicks of her earlier sound experiments. No more does Laura perch like a lone bird with her orchestra of raindrops. The nest is filling, and inside the parting mists you can just barely see a paper chain running through it.

(Laura Gibson plays tomorrow, Friday, February 3, at Portland’s Mississippi Studios. The sold-out late show starts at 9:15 pm, featuring openers Breathe Owl Breathe and Mike Midlo. The just-announced early show starts at 6:30 pm, though you’ll have to go without the supporting acts. $10 adv. $12 door.)

Far From Home #20: Low Roar

Tue, 31 Jan 12 07:00:00 -0800

Video: Low Roar - Far From Home #20

When I arrived at local creative agency Instrument, Sunday morning was turning into afternoon and Low Roar had set up their equipment in front of a pair of teepees. The room was a mixture of concrete floors and exposed beams, cubicles and wide-open space. Under a barreled ceiling, we drank mimosas. A crown of windows ringing the building let in light from above.

Low Roar played a tune called “Just A Habit”; featuring an electric guitar fingerpicked melancholically against Casio garnish; Thom Yorke-flavored melisma draped over a lover’s apology for hitting the bottle: “If I slur a bit/It’s just because I’m confused/Don’t think much of it,” goes the verse, “My days belong to you/And if you’re kind/My nights can too,” lulling into the chorus, “It’s just a habit.”

I couldn’t make out the words at first, but lead singer and songwriter Ryan Karazija was happy to fill in the blanks. He says the intent behind the song and the self-entitled debut record is very personal– specifying a few biographical benchmarks that influenced its creation.

He recalls moving from San Francisco to Reykjavík, Iceland in September of 2010, after his previous project Audrye Sessions split up.

“A lot of different things came into the whole move,” explains Karazija. “There were people I was really close to… and I was leaving… and I felt like they might’ve felt betrayed by me or something.”

It was in Iceland– culturally isolated, financially strapped, and with fragments of Audrye Sessions on his shoulders– that, through the songs he was writing, Karazija tried to explain his actions to those he left behind. Meanwhile, he began developing the minimalism of Low Roar; experimenting past previous full-band arrangements.

He says the songs were written and recorded very quickly, at a track-per-day pace with little re-writing. Just laying things down in Garageband as they came. “It was really simple,” says Karazija, as if surprised by the ease of the project.

But it’s not all that surprising. Low Roar exudes simplicity and effortlessness– a combination that musicians can’t really set out to create, and therefore rarely pull off. It’s an attractive pair qualities that I could see carrying the band for albums to come.

10 Songs To My #10: Grapefruit

Mon, 30 Jan 12 00:00:59 -0800

Audio: 10 Songs to My Prog Shred Mind

These are songs I wish I had heard when I was in the peak of my skateboarding days!!

-Charlie/Grapefruit

Genesis - “Return of the Giant Hogweed”
Amon Duul II - “Archangel Thunderbird”
Ashra - “Ice Train”
Bo Hansen - “Leaving Shire”
Osanna - “Variazone 1”
Goblin - “Deep Shadows”
Jean Michel Jarre - “Equinoxe Part 7”
Aphrodite’s Child - “The System”
Phillip Glass - “Glassworks”
Black Flag - “Screw the Law”

Leave Your House #41: January 26th–29th

Tue, 24 Jan 12 17:41:45 -0800

Curated by High Scores and Records.

10 Songs To My #9: Tunnels

Mon, 23 Jan 12 00:19:00 -0800

Audio: 10 Songs to My Subdued Madness

“There is always some madness in love. But there is always some reason in madness.”

-Nick/Tunnels

Anika - “No One’s There”
John Frusciante - “As Can Be”
The Lollipop Shoppe - “Baby, Don’t Go”
Mark Fry - “The Witch”
The Electronic Hole - “The Golden Hour I”
The Doors - “The Crystal Ship”
Algebra Suicide - “Agitation”
R. Stevie Moore - “I Go Into Your Mind”
Captain Beefheart - “A Carrot Is as Close as a Rabbit Gets to a Diamond”
David Crosby - “Tamalpais High (At About 3)”

10 Songs To My #8: Support Force

Tue, 17 Jan 12 12:43:18 -0800

My uncle, my dad, his godfather and his dad in a picture I found between the pages of a book at my parent’s house.

Audio: 10 Songs to My Nostalgia for California

Songs I listened to while I visited California for the holidays. A soundtrack to getting lost in the smog. Some were heard frequently on the radio or rediscovered via high school mix CD’s. Also could be aptly titled “10 Songs to My Sunday Night Cooking” or “10 Songs to My Room.”

-Jonathan/Support Force

George Harrison - “My Sweet Lord”
The Slits - “So Tough”
Killer Mike - “Swimming”
David McCallum - “The Edge”
Twin Lion - “Heat Warped”
Zookeeper - “Two-Part Invention”
Cat Power - “Headlights”
The Appleseed Cast - “Forever Longing in the Golden Sunset”
Al Green - “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?”
The Lines - “Come Home”

Leave Your House #40: January 13th–16th

Thu, 12 Jan 12 16:54:11 -0800

Curated by High Scores and Records.

10 Songs To My #7: Pulse Emitter

Tue, 10 Jan 12 03:32:12 -0800

Audio: 10 Songs to My Need for Peace

Life can be stressful. Must find time to relax and reflect.

-Daryl/Pulse Emitter

Ashra - “Kazoo”
Telomere - “Timelapse”
J.D. Emmanuel - “Focusing Within”
Jonn Serrie - “Gentle The Night”
Vangelis - “Love Theme From Blade Runner”
The Future Sound Of London - “Max”
Popol Vuh - “Aguirre”
Steve Roach - “Merge”
Brian Eno - “Triennale”
Stars of the Lid - “The Evil That Never Arrived”

Leave Your House #39: January 8th–10th

Sun, 08 Jan 12 09:39:39 -0800

Curated by High Scores and Records.

Leave Your House #38: New Years Eve

Thu, 29 Dec 11 17:52:04 -0800

Curated by High Scores and Records.

"Subject: Leoncie interviews Con artist Chris Cantino"

Thu, 22 Dec 11 12:45:00 -0800

From: Leoncie
Date: Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 1:23 AM
Subject: Leoncie interviews Con artist Chris Cantino
To: Chris Cantino

Here are my questions chris

Why do you like lying to other artists and pretending to be a journalist?

I’ve got all your e-mails and can prove that you’re a Psychotic Liar, who has nothing better to do than sleep on the Internet and harass other artists.

Get a Life and pray to God to make you a better healthy human being. You are absolutely mentally sick.

Buy some candles with whatever money you have, to keep warm the rest of your patheic life.

Finally, you don’t have to right tp print any interview with Leoncie.
Who rented your miserable services to harass Leoncie in the first place. Is there nobody in Amercia you can write about?

Do all Americans hate you? Be careful what you do. It will always boomerang on you.

From: Chris Cantino
Date: Thursday, Dec 22, 2011 at 12:44 PM
Subject: Re: Leoncie interviews Con artist Chris Cantino
To: Leoncie

Leoncie, I know it’s frustrating that your story hasn’t gone up yet—there are times that articles get put on the backburner and delayed, but I agree that this one is overdue. Seriously though, I have no reason to hurt you. I’m telling you, again, that I would never print a single untruth about you or alter any content. After all, the real story here is ICY SPICY LEONCIE. How would it get any more interesting than that?? Don’t worry, the delay isn’t connected to any of the reasons for which you left Iceland, nor some other conspiracy to sabotage your success; it’s just an opportunity for people to get to know the real Leoncie, the mastermind behind the most fucking amazing videos they’ve ever seen. And they’re gonna love you.

At this point, I think it’s best to just let your words do the talking by publishing your questions for me along with an unaltered copy of our original interview. The whole thing is getting published TODAY on Intothewoods.tv. We’re sure it’ll help you make a million new fans in America. Thanks, Leoncie. And go easier on me next time. Not everyone’s out to get you.

Chris

So, Leoncie. Tell us about who you are and what you do.

I am Icy Spicy Leoncie, a Catholic raised with strict discipline by caring, loving parents. I am a professional, singer-songwriter, musician, producer and a great entertainer who started my musical career very young, playing the organ in the Catholic Church in India. I have trained classically through the Trinity College of Music London, but I love doing my own brand of music called “Leoncie Music.” I create and perform the best songs anyone has ever heard, people tell me so, and I never listen to mainstream radio to keep that corrupt poison out of my head. Yes! I am even better than Paul McCartney. With his type of promotion I would be richer than him any day. I’m also a very caring and good human being and fantastic cook. I never eat in restaurants, but enjoy cooking the best of dishes at home. I enjoy a healthy lifestyle and I don’t want to look or sound like anyone else and I don’t.

You’re often labeled as Icelandic but in truth, you’ve lived in several countries around the world. What has brought on your moving around so much? Where are you originally from?

Always traveled a lot as a musician, even with my family band. I am from India even though I don’t look like like an Indian to some people, and I don’t care what anybody thinks about me!

Why did you move from Iceland to Britain?

Moved out of Iceland because of deeply rooted racism and discrimination in Iceland. What I’m talking about is Constitutional Racism of the worst kind where the majority of people like to watch a single person drown if they feel that person’s talent or ambition intimidates them.

One story goes that you were the first stripper Iceland ever saw before you went on to make original music. Your music is still invigorated by a healthy dose of libido. How do sexuality and music connect for you?

Iceland was loaded with prostitutes and strippers long before I was even born. They were selling themselves to American NATO Base soldiers for a cigarette and chewing gum.

I’ve heard that Youtube has censored a video in which you appeared topless. What are your thoughts on this censorship of your art and body?

No! That’s just Icelandic negative propaganda on Youtube. There are no Topless videos of me anywhere, unless they have been doctored by the Icelandic music racists! The music video we are talking about is called “Radio Rapist”. It’s a great music video and you can see it on myspace.com/icyspicyleoncie, It had the truth about my experiences in Iceland, so the Icelandic bums decided to flag it on Youtube because the truth gave them nightmares and they did not want the world to see the terrible people they truly are.

The voyeuristic quality of your lyrics and videos is enhanced by the many costumes you’re known for wearing. Barbarian, nun, cop, cavewoman, Barbarella-style disco queen… Have you always been fond of dressing up? What is it about assuming these roles that you enjoy so much?

I just enjoy being fresh and different.

Your music has a playful energy and karaoke night vibe to it. What musicians/vocalists have inspired you to do what you do?

God and my prayers inspire me, not human beings. The sounds of the Earth do so as well.

Have you been a part of any other musical projects?

Had a title song in a Czech film called Story From Brooklyn . The co-writer was Czech and he is very talented! Musical projects in Iceland are only for white Icelanders. Being Asian/Eurasian, I was left out of every music related as always in Iceland.

Wild American Sheriff explores themes of mind and body health, including yoga, cholesterol, and the unfortunate side effects of doctor-prescribed medication. What triggered this concern in you?

Wild American Sheriff is a fantastic album. I just couldn’t sleep until this album became a reality for me. I love this Wild American Sheriff. I was watching some films made by Larry Levinson and Robert Halmi Jr. called Love Comes Softly etc, etc, that I was so inspired to compose and perform this song. “Vegetarian! No Cholesterol Ho!” is really about doctor-prescribed medication. Some of the doctors don’t really give a damn whether it is right or wrong for the person, as long as the pharmaceutical companies make billions out of it, including the doctors who get a big cut out of it. Can we really trust our doctors when profits are involved?

You’ve alluded to belief in the “Supreme Force beyond the superconscious mind.” Can you talk more about your spirituality?

Hey I believe in God who is Supreme! I trust in God, I always have. That’s where all my strength and inspiration comes from. I don’t care what anybody else thinks or for anyone else’s opinions.

What can we expect next from Leoncie? A new record? Will you ever tour in America?

Definitely! A new record. I want to tour in America, but I want the best concert organizer in America to do it for me.

Songs like “Killer in the Park” have a twisted sense of humor. Is there a dark side to you that you care to speak of?

“Killer in the Park” is about what happens in the UK when maniacs jump out of the trees and kill innocent people who are simply walking by. It’s about what happens in England.

Your music is imbued with a unique sense of humor. What makes you laugh in real life?

Every day above ground is a very successful day.

Your videos are fantastic, and impossible to look away from. What is your creative process like for these? Any stories from the set?

I create a great script for all of my music videos, and that’s because I created fantastic lyrics and short exciting films.

Any parting words?

Leoncie’s music is not just a fling. It’s a life long Love Affair. A great hello to all of my American fans, hope to see them soon. God bless the USA!

After reading Leoncie’s response to my interview, I was awestruck and a little confused, so I decided to e-mail her back and ask if she was concerned that Icelanders would interpret her statements as racist. Leoncie replied as follows:

Hello

I forgot to tell you one more very important thing. Those people whose names you know and mentioned in the first questions you sent me in youtube inbox are Icelandic Government supported windbags. That retard [referring to Bjork] cannot produce anything on her own without hundreds of people to support her Lame Act. Millions of Icelandic tax payers money

You wrote to me yesterday that I have even been compared to that Icelandic retard. No Please! STOP right there. No sensible real journalist or real reporters would print such fiction about me. Leoncie is a Genius. Fingers fly on any musical instrument. What have icelandic music retards proved? Just noise and Nepotism and racist conspiracys. YES! Awards being bought in USA ,UK, etc etc. Inspired of all the bribing and the Cheating there is no ABBA in Iceland yet. Fake Superstars is all that iceland has to boast about.

A: Not at all. They know they are racist because I have ample proof of what I suffered at the hands of the racist corrupt Icelandic government when I lived there, just because I was One Little Indian with high ambitions. All the Cd’s/Albums that I have released, have been at my own cost. All my music videos I have paid for myself. All my travels and clothes Expenses, I have looked after myself. The icelandic racist government has never supported me with a single kroner or dollar like they have supported their useless, talentless white windbags. i also have many fans in Iceland for that reason alone, because I am the ONLY Independant Musician Singer Songwriter in Iceland who has gone it alone without any help from the Ku Klux Klan and everyone knows it.

You know Mister, most of the crap that people read on google about me is also Icelandic Racist and Government promoted Propaganda. I was called to do some concerts in London last year. To my amazement, the places were house full and crowds outside the venues. This too, without any promotion except that fact that many people saw my music videos on the Internet and loved my lyrics. MAN LETS HAVE FUN and SEX CRAZY COP were the songs that drove people crazy. Everyone was singing the lyrics and I was happily shocked.

Finally the icelandic embassy in London is also busily involved in promoting more of their useless white windbags. They don’t want to know me, because they know that people will see those scumbags for what they truly are. Amateurs and even less than that. The world does not reject Indians because they are Talented, Qualified, Ambitious, Indians, but Iceland did that to me.

That’s My Story

Leave Your House #37: December 16th–18th

Thu, 15 Dec 11 19:11:57 -0800

Curated by High Scores and Records.

Leave Your House #36: December 9th–10th

Fri, 09 Dec 11 11:31:49 -0800

Curated by High Scores and Records.

Favorite Places #1: Hosannas

Sun, 27 Nov 11 20:04:05 -0800

Video: Hosannas - Favorite Places #1

Audio: Somewhere In Between
Audio: King Crow
Audio: The People I Know (Bonus)

Hosannas (formerly Church) had been wanting to shoot in the Ape Cave since forever. They’d been down in the lava tubes with friends a few times and always fantasized about playing a set within them. They originally propositioned us with the idea in 2009, right as we were starting this site, but we were only able to collect the gear and crew to do it a year later, in the fall of 2010. And now another year has passed, and finally we present the final edited piece along with a new series entitled “Favorite Places,” in which musicians take us to the spot they’ve always dreamed of playing.

At 8:30 pm on Tuesday September 14, 2010, I got a premonition that our shoot with Hosannas at the Ape Cave– located at the base of Mt. St. Helens– was a bad idea.

I hadn’t slept in two days and the thought of illegally sneaking into a lava tube at midnight seemed like a recipe for disaster. Yet, apart from the very real known risks we’d no doubt encounter in the 2000-year-old bowels of our volcanic lady– and the visual rewards waiting on the other side of the danger coin– there was a turbulence in my gut predicting something unknowably awful. It’s the kind of feeling that’s ultimately ignored before the cops show up or someone breaks their leg or some other act of God occurs, causing you to think, “Why the did I do that?”

A half hour later I walked into my sound guy’s living room where the whole crew was meeting. I announced that I didn’t want to do the shoot because of a premonition that something horrible was going to happen. I was promptly told I was a pussy and we continued on with the shoot.

To this day, I’m amazed that nothing catastrophic happened on our 8-hour journey to the Ape Cave with two generators, a handful of amps and lights and keyboards and guitars and wine jugs and recorders and cameras and lenses and kerosene soaked torches. We owe a lot to Quinton Gardner, who showed up at the base of Mt. St. Helens with some chick’s CRV to haul in the aforementioned equipment he somehow materialized, most likely from his employers and friends. That dude worked into the night like some kind of crazed canine, making sure we had lights and power.

Despite the cold and general bad attitude of the sound department, the camaraderie that was shared between musicians, audience, and documentarians was amazing. The boundaries melted away as we all toiled towards a common goal of bringing light and sound to a cave (but not so much to attract the rangers). And as strange as it may sound, I’m honestly convinced that the success of this shoot is more likely a direct result of the state’s budget cuts and poorly funded parks department than it is any craftiness on our end.

Luck or poverty, whatever it was, this shoot really changed the course of how I wanted to pursue future music documentaries. There’s something awesome about documenting real struggle and cold and hardship. And yeah, sneaking into a cave at night isn’t like welfare problems or other economic maladies, but it’s fucking tough, okay, so just back off. But above everything, there was something inspiring to setting out for another person’s crazy goal; navigating the cave with candles and torches and collectively talking each other into it, each step of the way.

I feel like as children of the 90s we were brainwashed by logos like No Fear and Big Dogs and Abercrombie & Fitch and Quicksilver into believing some perverted idea about how being an individual is the coolest and most important thing ever. So we as a generation have veered away from organizing ourselves in this way– it makes us feel uncomfortable, kinda like being in a sauna with your dude friends. It goes against these big group efforts; the deep down urge to resist being a sheep in the herd, to resist a common goal, rather than going by yourself to the mall and buying a chain wallet (which, don’t get me wrong, may or may not be the coolest activity in the world). In my recollection of the shoot, which is mostly fractured and forgotten, it was this sense of collective struggle towards a goal, however knotty or meaningless on a large scale, that struck me the most.

I’m realizing that by this point in the article I probably should have said something about the music, because I guess that’s what the words are here to do. There’s not much to say about the song except for the fact that everything about it was perfectly suited for the journey and the cave. They played three songs, all of which were specifically design to use the natural reverb of the cave. Sonically speaking, the bass line and textures of the keys and guitar expand and billow throughout the lava tube. Phrases like “awesome” and “really fucking tight” come to mind. The lyrics seem to be a celebration of the space between “dark fallen trees and newly sprouted things”– that stretch of time between our infancy and our demise where the fire is still within us; that time where we’ve mastered eating and shitting to the point that we can actually begin to try and make something of our life and relationships.

Fall Quarterly

Wed, 23 Nov 11 00:30:13 -0800

We’re throwing our second Quarterly party, this time highlighting the cavernous sounds of Hosannas, as well as Log Across the Washer’s frayed art pop, spastic psych merchants Sun Angle, and ultra-realist post-rock trailblazers Support Force. Plus Mercury columnist and Archers guitar savant Chris Cantino will DJ the night.

We’re also premiering the first episode of a new series called Favorite Places with Hosannas performing in the 2,000-year old Ape Cave at Mt. St. Helens.

Sunday, November 27th
Mississippi Studios
8:30 Doors
$5 Advance/$5 Day of Show