Long Way to the Top

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Long Way to the Top

interviews, conversations, and ideas with artists from around the spectrum.

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  • Part VII: New Romantix Chilled, Blissed, and Screwed

    We’re all well aware new-wave fell off the wagon generations ago but that doesn’t mean the new romantic in all of us isn’t alive and jiving like a sporadic baboon. Since it’s getting hot in here, who crrz if chill-wave is the most prevalent music form of the contemporary era? Who lives or dies if the runoff madness proclaimed genre ceases to exist because bliss-wave takes over its chartered vocation? Not I, Sir. Categories and tags are devastating the perception our ears should actualize through listening to the music itself. Which brings us to musician Zach Vouga, an affable intellectual (rare breed), a charismatic people-pleaser, and one of the most carefree boyo’s I’ve encountered in my 2.4 decades on planet earth. Vouga hides nothing from his interlocutor, and neither does his glitch-drenched ear-enticing music in which he and fellow band mate, Nick Donlin roll Black Dice over Ariel Pink’s fermented lipstick trails for the epic win only Glitter Bones can triumph to. Their stage show is a katamorphic experience; two long haired-freaky people with quaint suitcases break down complex beats into simpler ones leaving the heedless audience member’s as fragmented shreds of the elements they once composed. In other words, they fuck with science as they blow your speckled, spotted and varicolored mind. We google-chatted the Indiana extradite to catch up, discover a new apparition, and commit heinous internet crimes...
    Zach Vouga:
    You there?
    Top Interview Series:
    What it do! Sorry, I was super distracted by the Xiu Xiu’s ‘Under Pressure’ cover. It’s indeterminable yet better than the My Chemical Romance version.
    ZV:
    Not much duder, enjoying the beautiful minimalism that is Indiana. lol @ mcr.
    TIS:
    that's cool, I’m pretty laid back in Chicago myself. Digging the pace of the summer term. Teachers are sympathetic so they hardly assign work. It’s how school should be, we learn but don't especially have to do a lot of homework. Homework is what has me imprisoned in the institution. Don’t fret, I'll escape eventually!
    ZV:
    Yeah, that sounds great. how was LA?
    TIS:
    L.A. was amazing man, I touched down thursday night and was constantly active until I came back the 9 days later.
    ZV:
    Floating ten feet off the ground?
    TIS:
    There wasn't a dull moment, I saw a Maia Harari Dance Theatre event, went to the MOCA retrospective, reveled in Nick Cave’s ‘Meet Me at the Center of the Earth’ exhibit, hiked and camped in Joshua Tree for two days, saw Teen Inc, family, friends and was 100% sober.
    ZV:
    damn! sober!
    TIS:
    Love dude...the finest form of inebriation.
    ZV:
    very true. maybe keystone light... @_@
    TIS:
    haha. So wtf have you been doing in Indiana?
    ZV:
    Rehearsing, writing new material, smoking copious amounts of ☮☮☮, and integrating a third member into the Glitter Bones live set.
    TIS:
    Wait, woah! Who and what do they play?
    ZV:
    His name is Chris, he is playing guitar with us. I used to perform with him in an earlier project, called Dr. Breath. So it's kinda been cool working with him again.
    TIS:
    very cool. How does it change the dynamic of your sound?
    ZV:
    Well, we've been going through a pretty drastic sound change as it is, but this really fills it out. But the Glitter Bones vibe is certainly maintained. It's a much grittier /raw sound.
    TIS:
    grit down on it
    ZV:
    Think of a plate of grits.
    With techni-colored crystal sprinkles.
    TIS:
    i'm really looking forward to the show man, sounds like home down Midwestern corn and cooking. Anyway, artists always make their best music when they exile themselves from the public, and use alternative sources of inspiration. See The Jesus and Mary Chain who spent almost five years in a cave-like state before Pyschocandy shattered Scotland and beyond. The Horrors are apparently doing that right now somewhere in the world, recording their third LP.
    ZV:
    We're all really stoked also. I love the Empty Bottle, so I'm happy to be performing there again.
    TIS:
    it's one of the best venues in Chicago i've been to, especially for your sound.
    ZV:
    Easily. It's got the entire package. great sound, and a comfortable environment. They hook it up with the drink tickets too.
    TIS:
    It sure beats Reggie’s! Is your dad coming again?
    ZV:
    I hope so. I was talking to him about it today. He's our biggest fan.
    TIS:
    Nice! he's an amazing duder.
    ichat is a lot better than google chat, isnt it?
    ZV:
    FB chat all tha way doooood
    TIS:
    i got snow leopard..purr. Anyway, had any memorable dreams lately?
    ZV:
    No, but there is this really sweet band called Dreams who are working on the same label as we are.You should check them out.
    TIS:
    Good name. I fell in love with/in dreams.
    ZV:
    yeah yeah you and your romantics. See you Saturday man!
    TIS:
    Indizzle.
    In Chicago? Check out Glitter Bones this Saturday 6/5 opening for Toro Y Moi at the Empty Bottle. 21+

    Posted on June 3, 2010

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