lindsay colip

Genius: The New Division

Photos by Douglas Heine | Words by Lindsay Colip

 

witness-this has already brilliantly covered the new division (read about their record and ep releases here) but we wanted to find out more about the four top that makes up one of our favorite bands of 2011. who are these guys? are they as dark and brooding as their music? what’s on tap next and when can we put on our festival gear and dance around to their live sound with the masses? we had the pleasure of hanging with these guys last weekend and got a better sense of it all. after you are done reading this article and soaking in the photos, hop on over to the central website and buy a ridiculously cheap ticket to their upcoming show on dec 9th. we will be there.

it says on their website, “shadows has only been out for a few months, but a new EP is already in the works. can’t stop the music from happening” and all i can say is thank god. but what does the process look like? how does an insanely complex song like memento happen? like other earth shattering things, it happens in a bedroom. it’s the most simple set up…a laptop and mic in john’s room, waldorf keys in janzie’s and a garage space where mark and brock come over to fill out the song. how they create music seems very comparable to how bob ross tackled painting. in steps. john starts out with the brush strokes, the main colors, the general landscape….and then the real magic happens when the happy little clouds start appearing out of nowhere from brock. or intricate trees from mark. or huge peaks from janzie. without fail, at the end of the half hour, mr ross would end up with a beautifully complex, detailed and impressive painting. the new division is no different. in fact, they are doing for the ear what mr ross did for the eye. not only entertain us, but blow us away with their skill.

it sounds like for their next EP, the process will be more collaborative. similar to how they wrote memento, which happens to be one of their (and my) favorite tracks to date. they constructed that song all together in one location over the span of one day. if that is the direction they are heading, i’m all for it. comparable to perhaps a fleet foxes song, memento is two distinct songs in one. you love the first half and think you’ve probably peaked and then wait, oh wait, something new is tickling my ears. if done correctly, this change up can be the most pleasurable experience. no surprise here but SXSW has asked them to play this year. i hope it happens because i’d absolutely love an excuse to go on a road trip to see them. not only that, i’m ready for them to explode into superstardom. the talent is there. the dedication to their craft is there. they just need a couple of festivals under their belt, another record perhaps, a few more sick remixes and boom…step aside depeche mode. your replacement has arrived.

the last thing i’ll divulge about these guys is that they’re actually beyond lovely. i was half expecting moody hipsters soaked in cantankerous cologne. well maybe not that extreme… but i wouldn’t expect to show up to an interpol photo-shoot or royksopp interview and find them finishing up a game of yahtzee while slurping ice cream sundaes. no, i wouldn’t. refreshingly, the guys aren’t moody or hipstery or cantakerous AT ALL. they’re funny and charming. genuine and modest. but i digress, back to the music. in sum, the new division makes you want to get into your car on a dark, rainy night and take a drive downtown. it also makes you long for the 80s where emotions were pinned to your jacket and one glance from the girl gutted you. it summons up your one eyed demons but let’s you roll down the window and blow them out with one long exhale. well done guys. you’ve made my top 5 albums of the year.

 

 

By Dersu In Genius, Sound

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washed out + cut copy at the hollywood palladium

by: Lindsay Colip

photos: Doug Heine

It’s 1986. i’m watching flight of the navigator. I’m wearing spandex, a head band, a fringe spin art kitty cat shirt. I’m fist pumping and chain smoking and tragically hip. All of a sudden, somebody dances into my space and I’m jolted back to reality. I’m at a Washed Out/Cut Copy show. It’s 2011. Fuck, how did I get here?

Washed Out released one of the best records of the year, Within and Without. If you haven’t heard it, I would say the album is a kaleidoscopically beautiful cotton candy beach cruising landscape fly over dream pop affair. It’s the backdrop to any nature heavy, bliss out moment. You feel like you’re disintegrating, melting, fuzzing out. I was curious to see how he would play this butter melt live. I would say the live show sounded familiar, as in I was able to recognize the tracks, nod my head….but the sound was very different. It was beat heavy, bass thumping. tambourine was front and center and loud. They amped it up for the live show. I’m not complaining exactly, in fact it was nice hearing the songs i’ve come to love live…but it was a pretty heavy version of everything and I like the lightness of this band. I guess i’ve just grown to love Washed Out more blurry than sharp over the years. But what did i expect? They are opening for Cut Copy for tits sake. They have to bring it. Let’s be clear, this particular crowd was there to dance their faces off. Washed Out was the perfect hors d’oeuvre to a gluttonous meal. Everyone felt good, tingly, happy. Knowing what’s on tap. and on tap, was a welcome Australian slap in the face.

These guys are killing the live show right now. Cut Copy knows how to throw a party. A big one. A dramatic one. I wasn’t sure if I was watching Cats, Les Misérables, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat or a concert at the Palladium (which by the way is a really sick venue and climbing quickly to the top of my music houses of LA list). I was half giddy with the performance and half stoked with the music. They played everything I wanted to hear with absolute vigor and pomp. Hands up, fists balled, sweat on brow. They danced us through their newest album Zonoscope (Corner of the Sky, Need You Now, Pyramids and Pharaohs, Take Me Over) and soaked us in the greats (Lights and Music, Hearts on Fire, So Haunted). Everyone was dancing and beyond keyed.

I don’t have to sell you on this show. If you like a party, if you like to dance, if you like a build, this is the band to see. Any venue, any city…they will impress you. More importantly, Washed Out is a great compliment to this show. The foreplay to the orgasm. In 1986 artists made you wallow in your angst, feel the rejection, breathe in your pain. The welcome difference here is that Cut Copy/Washed Out lets you release it all into a one solid fist pump.

 

//Lindsay has written for various music sites, including SPINearth and Jambase, traveled the world covering music festivals, was a SPINearth video correspondent for ‘i am with the fans’ music tour and alongside photographer steven ‘walt’ walter, produced, directed and edited ‘live and local’ acoustic performances for SPINearth.

 

 

By Dersu In Sound

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Gotye – Making Mirrors // By Lindsay Colip

Gotye, AKA Wally De Backer, is a musical genius you need to know. And now, he’s finally leaving Australia and coming to the states in October, playing one show in Los Angeles and one in Brooklyn and then leaving again for who knows how long. I suggest you buy tickets to this show immediately. It WILL sell out.

Here’s why:

Gotye’s music is unlike anyone else. Strike that, his voice sounds a little like Phil Collins, but I have no problem with that. Nor should you. He creates his songs reactively, by searching for “any sound that elicits an immediate response.” These sounds are usually found on old vinyl (he told me he’s an avid collector) and once he hears a hook or horn break or riff that inspires something in him, it becomes his starting point. From there he mixes a gajillion different instruments on top of one another, in a very experimental, trial and error sort of way, until he gets his song. The ultimate cut and paste artist. He sometimes invites his musician friends to join in, adding bass lines or steel guitar, but mainly creates these masterpieces solo. He’s been drumming for 15 yrs as well and what you hear on the current album is his live playing. Because of this method of sampling and layering and mixing, the songs are familiar and yet completely unique.  Weathered but contemporary.

 

Making Mirrors was born in a barn on his parents property on stunning Mornington Peninsula (specifically Victoria, Australia). Using a wide range of acoustic instruments, samples from antique vinyl and a macbook pro, he recorded one of the most enticing, complex and addicting albums of the year.  I took it as the ultimate break up album, but that could be only because i survived a painful one and that’s how I chose to hear it. Perhaps not so much a break up per se, but the cycle of a relationship and all of the emotions engulfing it. I completely understand that how one perceives any piece of music is subjective and i could be way off, but something tells me that he’s been scarred and sewn all in the same breath.

I have to start by saying ‘Somebody I Used to Know’ is one of the best songs i’ve ever heard and Witness This featured the video for this track a while back.  It’s amazingly haunting and piercing while being gentle and steady at the same time. The harmonies with ‘Kimbra’ are chill worthy and the beginning ditty will be stuck in your head for days. Lyrically, brilliant. Not since Kings of Convenience’s ‘golden cage’ have i so resonated with a song’s dialogue. His  lyrics “I told myself that you were right for me, but felt so lonely in your company” and her “now and then i think of all the times you screwed me over” epitomize the duality of lover’s hindsight. I have played this song for many people in various walks of life and every one of them is obsessed. Bravo.

Surrounding that gem are other scintillating tunes, including the uplifting motown inspired ‘I Feel Better’, the bumblegum pop ‘In Your Light’, the creepy as shit ‘Don’t Worry We’ll Be Watching You’ and the beautifully sobering ‘Bronte.’ I especially love tribal flavored ‘Save Me’ which brings a whiff of hope into the room and ‘Smoke and Mirrors,’ which is both super smooth and eerie. You just want him to scream “you’re a fraud and you know it!” but instead the words tip toe off his tongue with delicacy. Overall, this album is so fantastically mosaic that i feel like everyone should find something they like on it.

Witness-This encompasses various platforms of expression, not just music, so it’s only fitting to highlight another cool bit about this guy. De Backer comes from a very art oriented, creative family and loved to paint growing up. His mom kept all of his old art in a folder and after going through it again as an adult, he found great inspiration. When you buy his albums, take a look at the covers. They’re all his old paintings from childhood. This most recent album is actually a painting by his father that he recently unearthed. As he said in his documentary on making this album, he chose this painting because of the ‘beautiful balance of emotion and mathematics’ and because it ‘just seemed to match the diversity in the music’. Well put. This album is as diverse as a Benetton ad.

Gotye comes to The Satellite in LA on October 18th. Be there.

If you want earlier Gotye, check out his video for ‘Heart’s a Mess’ from his previous album, Like Drawing Blood.

by Lindsay Colip.

//Lindsay has written for various music sites, including SPINearth and Jambase, traveled the world covering music festivals, was a SPINearth video correspondent for ‘i am with the fans’ music tour and alongside photographer steven ‘walt’ walter, produced, directed and edited ‘live and local’ acoustic performances for SPINearth.

 

By Dersu In Sound

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Music Review: Pacific Fest by Lindsay Colip

photo: Doug Heine

outside lands or pacific festival?

that was my dilemma….for about 3 minutes. being a music worshipper, i hate missing out on
the big ear tickling parties of the year. and let’s be clear, outside lands is a great party. a 3
day frolic through golden gate park is delicious. why oh why, music gods? and then, as i was
pacing around my room, it dawned on me what i had just read as the line up for pacific fest. cut /
/ copy, the twelves, bag raiders, ghostland observatory, phantogram, the classixx, calvin harris,
steve aoki AND fred falke??? all in one night? having just been to coachella where cut // copy
liquefied my body, it made the choice pretty easy. i was going to oak canyon ranch for pacific
festival’s sophomore attempt, which meant i didn’t have a lot of information from years past or
expectations going in. i was just going in.

oak canyon ranch is a beautiful piece of california property and only about an hour from los
angeles, which made for an easy roadtrip and easy pull on the wallet. a 3 day festival can get
expensive with hotels, cabs, drinks, food, etc…but the beauty of this festival was that it was only
one day. i bought my ticket (early bird) for $50 and they only went up to $75. not bad for 50+
artists spread out over 5 stages. speaking of which, layout. surrounding the stages were the
rolling hills and sparkling waters of orange county’s frontier. huge oak trees provided welcome
shade while lake irvine blew a fresh breeze over us. the stages were spread out enough so that
the sounds didn’t overlap but also close enough that you could easily get to who you wanted to
see in no time at all.

much like other festivals in the states, they had cool art installations, swag on sale, gourmet
food trucks, beautifully adorned people walking around, and a feel good cause ($1 for every
ticket sold was donated to Surfrider Foundation to help preserve the ocean). much unlike other
festivals in the states, it felt very international. this was mainly because they brought in some
of the best djs and bands in the world: calvin harris (scotland), cut // copy (australia), fred
falke (france), zoot woman (uk), bag raiders (australia), and the twelves (brazil). it was also
because it had a vibe that felt free, easy and bursting with color. having been to several festivals
overseas, i can say that energy was right on par with some of the biggest, sickest and most well
known shows. the crowds weren’t as big (in fact i was shocked at how much room we all had to
get loose), but the collective high was.

now onto the music. i missed most of the day performers, but walked in as calvin harris was
playing ‘i’m not alone’. the crowd was going nuts (think beach balls and fist pumping) but after
a few songs, i was more interested in getting over to see fred falke at the lakeside stage. as the
sun was setting and the full moon was rising, falke came out with his bass and starting ripping
his remix of hot chip’s ‘colours’ into shreds. it was impressive and awesome seeing him funk
up all of his remixes with that bass. such a great way to start the night. everyone was feeling it.
highlights were robyn’s ‘dancing on my own’ and whitest boy alive’s ‘golden cage’.

now that the moon was above our heads, we were ready for bag raiders. they amassed a huge
dancing crowd and put on one helluva show. i didn’t know anything about these guys when i
walked up to join the crowd, but found myself immediately entranced. why had i not heard of

these guys? what rock have i been living under? they were incredible. i liked them for the same
reasons i like cut // copy. very dramatic, energizing, pulsing, building music. bravo guys. 1st
record i bought when i got home. i suggest listening to ‘shooting stars’ or ‘way back home’ as a
first listen.

coming off of the high of bag raiders would’ve been tough if i hadn’t walked into a ghostland
observatory laser light show right afterwards. but i did. and it was insane. even if you hate this
music, you are moved by the lights. you are mesmerized by lead singer, aaron behrens, and
his gyrating body. you feel the pulse in your body and you feel your arm raising up. you have no
choice. they have you under their spell.

photo: Doug Heine

i was so in trance i missed most of the classixx but arrived back at the lakeside stage in time to
hear the twelves set the night on fire. these guys were sick. from remixes of phoenix (we heard
lisztomania and fences) to radiohead (reckoner) to virgins (rich girl), they kept us moving. i will see these guys every time they come to the states from now on. where bag raiders were my
new record, they are my new live show. unreal.

i caught the end of snoop (he was playing his hits off doggystyle) and then settled in for cut /
/ copy. like coachella, they didn’t disappoint. in fact, they kicked ass. for having to play at 1am,
they still rocked out as dramatically and energetically as if it were 1pm. the crowd went nuts for
dance hall anthems ‘lights and music’, ‘hearts on fire’ and ‘out there on the ice’. if you haven’t
seen these guys live, i demand you treat yourself to a show. every single person in the crowd
is smiling, jumping, dancing, laughing. it’s one big party. thank you cut // copy for whipping up a
good time, every time.

from up north, as arcade fire was electrifying it’s audience and muse was dripping drama
from it’s fingertips, i received some texts inquiring about my decision to head to pacific
festival instead of outside lands. was it the right call? for the price, location, crowd, ease of
transportation, and wickedly talented djs and musicians that were there….100% yes. it was one
of the best nights of music i’ve ever experienced. this festival will no doubt blow up in the next
few years so until then, keep on dancing.

by lindsay colip.

 

//Lindsay has written for various music sites, including SPINearth and Jambase, traveled the world covering music festivals, was a SPINearth video correspondent for ‘i am with the fans’ music tour and alongside photographer steven ‘walt’ walter, produced, directed and edited ‘live and local’ acoustic performances for SPINearth

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